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#Itaewon tragedy Yoon pays 3rd visit to mourning altar for Halloween crush victims President Yoon Suk-yeol paid his third visit to a mourning altar for victims of the Halloween crowd crush Wednesday. Yoon has kept his public schedule to a minimum since the tra...

#law Gov't proposes law lowering criminal age limit by 1 year to 13 The justice ministry on Wednesday put up a pre-legislation notice about a law revision on lowering the age of criminal responsibility by one year from the current 14, officials sai...
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Jeffrey Chiesa, a former state attorney general, U.S. senator and close ally of Gov. Chris Christie, will be the man in charge of an Atlantic City state takeover.

The state named Chiesa, 51, on Monday as the Local Govern-ment Service directors designee in Atlantic City, where he will have vast powers to fix the citys dire finances.

Chiesa will have the authority to sell city assets, hire or fire workers and break union contracts, among other powers, for up to five years.

I am committed to improving essential government and community services for the people of the Atlantic City, Chiesa said in a statement. I will listen to the people and work hand in hand with local stakeholders to create solutions that will prevent waste and relieve generations of taxpayers from the burden of long-term debt. We will put Atlantic City back on a path to fiscal stability.

A Department of Community Affairs statement said the states immediate steps include entering into agreements with casinos over payments in lieu of property taxes and ensuring debt, school and county tax payments are made on time. Chiesa also will explore right-sizing the citys work force and pursue financing to reduce the citys debt, the statement said.

The city has a roughly $100 million annual budget deficit and about $500 million in total debt. The citys ratable base plummeted from $20 billion in 2010 to $6 billion today as the casino town faced more competition in neighboring states. Five Atlantic City casinos have closed since 2014.

The city has fought the state since January to maintain local control.

Mayor Don Guardian said, Although we fought very hard to keep our sovereignty and we will continue to review all of our legal options, Sen. Chiesa has a reputation of being fair and a man of integrity. He has served the state of New Jersey honorably and we will continue to work with him and the state to resolve our fiscal challenges.

The DCA statement said the citys mayor and City Council will maintain day-to-day municipal functions, while Chiesa and state officials will implement fiscal-recovery efforts.

Earlier Monday, Guardian said the city would go to court if the state takes actions we see as unconstitutional.

Christie appointed Chiesa to the U.S. Senate in June 2013 after the death of U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg. Chiesa served four months in the Senate and declined to run for re-election.

Chiesa was New Jerseys attorney general from January 2012 to June 2013, and was Christies chief counsel prior to that appointment. Chiesa also oversaw Christies transition team when he was first elected governor.

Chiesa rejoined the firm Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi PC, formerly Wolff & Samson, in November 2013 after serving in the Senate.

A former partner at the firm is David Samson, a former chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey who pleaded guilty in July to bribery for having United Airlines run a special flight for him to vacation in South Carolina.

The statement did not say how much Chiesa would be paid for his efforts.

The state Local Finance Board voted to take major decision-making powers away from city officials last week and grant them to Local Government Services Director Timothy Cunningham.

The simple fact is Atlantic City cannot afford to function the way it has in the past, Chiesa said. I look forward to meeting with Mayor Guardian and members of the City Council and starting the process of bringing this great city back to financial stability. It is my hope to work together with firm conviction and not disrupt the democratic process.

The boards vote for the takeover came after Community Affairs Commissioner Charles Richman rejected the citys fiscal-recovery plan last week. The plan included cutting 100 workers, selling Bader Field to the Municipal Utilities Authority, settling with Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa over tax refunds and bonding to pay for tax-appeal debt.

But Richman said the plan failed to balance the citys 2017 budget, ran a five-year shortfall of $106 million and didnt accurately estimate cost and revenue projections. Richman also raised concerns over the Bader Field sale, calling the water authoritys plan to issue $126 million in low-interest, long-term bonds to pay for the land dubious at best.

The city sent the state supplemental information after the plans rejection, but the extra details didnt change Richmans mind. The plan still had an over-reliance on state aid, Richman said.
Vadells shooter killed, officer testifies

{child_byline}VINCENT JACKSON

Staff Writer

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MAYS LANDING  An Atlantic County Prosecutors Office investigator on Monday said the suspect who shot Atlantic City Police Officer Joshlee Vadell, 29, in the head was the same man killed when Vadells partner returned fire.

And the gun allegedly used to shoot Vadell was reported stolen out of another state, Lt. Thomas Finan testified at a probable-cause hearing in Superior Court for one of two alleged accomplices, Millville resident Martel D. Chisolm.

The testimony revealed some additional details from the Sept. 3 shooting near the Caesars Atlantic City parking garage that injured Vadell.

Prosecutors are pursuing attempted-murder charges against Chisolm and Demetris Cross, who will have a probable-cause hearing in December.

Finan testified Jerome Damon, 25, of Camden, had the gun when prosecutors allege he, Cross and Chisolm robbed three victims at about 2:30 a.m. as Vadell drove past.

One of the victims yelled, Hey, they are robbing us, Finan said.

Police have said Vadell was shot when he and his partner got out of their car to investigate the robbery.

Witnesses said they heard a pop, and Damon, the person shooting at Vadell, was running, Finan said. Vadells partner, who has not been identified, returned fire and killed Damon, police said.

Assistant Prosecutor Seth Levy argued Chisolms participation in the robbery also put him on the hook for attempted murder.

Superior Court Judge Bernard DeLury heard enough Monday to decide the attempted murder case against Chisolm should move forward.{span class=print_trim}(tncms-asset)104affe0-a90b-11e6-a4dd-00163ec2aa77(/tncms-asset)

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Chisolms lawyer, Robin Kay Lord, said after hearing testimony from Finan that she didnt hear any facts suggesting Chisolm was involved in an attempted murder and very little evidence as far as her client and a robbery.

Under cross examination from Lord, Finan said Chisolm never displayed a gun. Chisolms fingerprints were not found on anything, and the gun cannot be seen during the robbery on video footage, Finan said.

The gun that was recovered was reported stolen from another state and was found in the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino parking lot, Finan said.

Information from the victims along with upward of a dozen video surveillance recordings police looked at led to the identification of Chisolm, Finan said.

Chisolm was arrested 12 to 14 hours after the incident, Finan said.

Chisolm and co-defendant Cross, 28, of Bridgeton, are being held on $750,000 bail each at the Atlantic County jail.

The men also face robbery and weapons charges. Cross is scheduled for a probable-cause hearing Dec. 12, but that may change based on the availability of the attorneys.

Vadell was discharged Nov. 8 from the Drucker Brain Injury Unit at MossRehab in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.

The two suspects were arrested by State Police on Sept. 3.

In addition to attempted murder, Chisolm and Cross are each charged with three counts of robbery, two counts of conspiracy to commit robbery, two counts of possession of a weapon (firearm) for an unlawful purpose and two counts of conspiracy to commit possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose.

A GoFundMe account called This Blue Life Matters has been set up for Vadell and his family. The goal is currently $200,000. More than 1,259 people had donated $123,056 as of Monday.

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A bill that would prohibit colleges from requiring pregnant students to take a leave of absence or withdraw for the semester because of the pregnancy unanimously passed the state Senate and will head to Gov. Chris Christies desk to be signed.

In a joint statement, Assembly members Pamela Lampitt, D-Camden, Gabriela Mosquera, D-Camden, Gloucester, Benjie Wimberly, D-Bergen, Passaic, Joann Downey, D-Monmouth, and Angela McKnight, D-Hudson, said it was unfair to make the moms-to-be take a leave of absence while pursuing a degree.

Bill assisting students with concussions passes committee A bill that would help students who have suffered a concussion or other head injuries transi

Title IX prohibits discrimination against pregnant students on college campuses, but its important that New Jersey institutions of higher learning go beyond that baseline and create a culture of welcoming the hard-working mothers-to-be who are dedicated to their education, Wimberly said. Expectant mothers should not be made to believe that their pregnancy will prevent them from being able to succeed.

The law also would require colleges to provide pregnant students with reasonable accommodations, such as make-up tests because of pregnancy issues, so they can complete the class.

It also would allow a graduate student who is not the birth parent to take additional time to prepare for tests if he or she needs to take care of the mother or the child. A student who takes a leave of absence may return to the program if the student is in good academic standing.
ATLANTIC CITY  A glimpse of the citys future was visible for 70 seconds Tuesday before disappearing down a City Hall elevator.

Jeffrey Chiesa, the man New Jersey charged with turning this broke city around, met city officials in closed-door meetings, including 90 minutes with Mayor Don Guardian.

We are happy to have discussions with the citys leaders today, Chiesa said before squeezing into the elevator with Council President Marty Small and other city and state officials. I had a chance to listen to (Guardians) concerns, and we look forward to meeting with the council president now and other city leaders, and gathering information so we can make decisions in the citys best interest.

The state officials, including Community Affairs Commissioner Charles Richman and Local Government Services Director Tim Cunningham, came with an olive branch, Guardian said, and didnt say what specific actions they may take.

Christie insider Jeff Chiesa to head Atlantic City takeover Jeffrey Chiesa, a former state attorney general, U.S. senator and close ally of Gov. Chris C

However, one thing was certain to Guardian: The citys proposal to sell Bader Field to the Municipal Utilities Authority is dead, he said.

The state granted Chiesa vast powers Monday to fix the citys finances, including authority to sell city assets, hire or fire workers and break union contracts. Hes tasked with closing the citys $100 million annual budget deficit and paying down the resorts $500 million debt.

The former state attorney general and U.S. senator said he didnt know what his first decisions would be. He said the state will decide later how his decisions will be made public.

Thats all I have for right now, he said before the elevator doors closed.

Chiesas salary is still unknown. A state spokesman said his retention agreement hasnt been finalized.

Guardian, who warned of Gov. Chris Christies occupation force on Monday, described his discussion as an introductory meeting, since he only met Chiesa once before.

I think we leave all options open at this point, Guardian said of possible legal action to block the state. There was nothing to indicate that they were going to take actions that we found either unconstitutional or a civil rights infringement.

Meanwhile, the state paid the citys $8 million school property-tax payment and $5 million Atlantic County property-tax payment out of Transitional Aid the city is to receive, Guardian said.

Christie: Chiesa unafraid to make "difficult decisions" in Atlantic City takeover Gov. Chris Christie said Tuesday that his designee to run an Atlantic City state takeover wo

Chiesa and his team will use the seventh-floor City Hall office where State Monitor Rick Richardella works, Guardian said. It can fit six to eight people and has a Do Not Enter sign on the door.

After his meeting with Chiesa, Small said he was assured its business as usual in City Hall.

Obviously they have full veto power, Small said. But communication is the key, and well be reviewing the (City Council) agenda together.

Chiesa is a close Christie ally. Christie appointed him to the U.S. Senate in June 2013 after the death of U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg. Chiesa served four months in the Senate and declined to run for re-election. He was New Jerseys attorney general from January 2012 to June 2013 and was Christies chief counsel prior to that appointment. Chiesa also oversaw Christies transition team when Christie was first elected governor.

Christie called into radio host Harry Hurleys show on WPG-FM Tuesday morning to explain why he chose Chiesa to oversee Atlantic City.

Here's what's happening at the 101st League of Municipalities conference ATLANTIC CITY  Buses, tractors, ambulances and solar-powered streetlights lined the aisles of the Atlantic City Convention Center for the 101

Hes an outstanding lawyer, but more importantly than that he is an outstanding person who cares about getting the city of Atlantic City back on track in working with the people of Atlantic City and the leaders of Atlantic City to get the hard things done, Christie said. Because if we make the difficult decisions now and do the difficult things, there is no limit to Atlantic Citys future.

Christie said he wished the state didnt need to take over Atlantic City but said the citys fiscal recovery plan wasnt in balance and relied too much on state aid.

Nobody wanted this result, but unfortunately this is where we are, and its much more important to get these things done the right way than it is to worry about soothing peoples feelings, Christie said.

Christie said he didnt know how long a state takeover would last but said hed prefer it to be less than the five years authorized under the so-called takeover law.
HAMILTON TOWNSHIP  A car erupted into flames and two people were ejected from another vehicle in a four-car crash Monday afternoon, police said.

Emergency personnel responded at 2:45 p.m. to Weymouth Road, County Route 559, near Blueberry Road, after police said Harry Palmer Jr., 70, of Hammonton, who was traveling north, crossed into the southbound lane, striking another vehicle.

The crash took place about a half mile before Atlantic Blueberry Co. and in front of the blueberry fields.

The vehicle that was hit overturned, with Joseph Carfagno Jr., 58, of Egg Harbor Township, and Brian Pennese, 35, of Egg Harbor City inside. They were ejected from the vehicle.

Palmers vehicle continued north and struck another southbound vehicle, driven by Stephanie Ward, 31, of Philadelphia, police said.

Blanca Lopez-Ocampo, 46, of Egg Harbor Township, also was traveling south and struck Carfagnos overturned vehicle, police said.

Palmers vehicle became fully engulfed in flames. He was airlifted to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center, City Campus in Atlantic City, by Pennstar.

All those involved in the crash were transported to local hospitals.

The State Forest Fire Service, Richland Fire Department, Hammonton Fire Department, Mizpah Fire Department, Hamilton Township Rescue Squad and AtlantiCare paramedics assisted at the scene.

The crash is under investigation. Police said it is unknown why the car originally crossed over the lane.
Officials should mandate Veterans Day closings

Each November sees three important holidays; Thanksgiving, Election Day (especially presidential elections) and Veterans Day.

Thanksgiving is a time for families to be together, albeit for a short time. Election Day is for choosing representatives for all levels of government. To me, the most important one is Veterans Day, a day to honor those who served the country without reservation and with honor.

Americans wouldnt be able to continue to enjoy the freedoms they have without the brave men and women who have put their lives on the line and whom they owe big time. More effort is needed to help veterans when they return home from wherever they have served.

Veterans Day is celebrated sporadically  here and there, with some institutions closed. All should be closed: schools, government agencies, etc. State and federal legislators should act on this idea.

John Rose

Eldora

Plenty of ways to help less-fortunate children

In New Jersey, over 13,000 children live in foster care. In Atlantic and Cape May counties, over 1,000 children live within a child-welfare system that was designed as a temporary fix to a family crisis but has become, for many children, a way of life.

Children enter foster care not because of something they have done, but for the faults of the adults who are supposed to care for them. Parental drug abuse, domestic violence, neglect and mental illness all play a part in why children are removed from their homes. Access to resources and services often help parents correct issues, and thankfully, families are reunited. But in those instances where reunification is not an option, others must step in to care for the children. Grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends, distant relatives and adoptive families all help provide permanent homes for some children living in foster care.

The Thanksgiving season is a fitting time to celebrate National Adoption Month and give thanks to the people who through adoption provide love and stability for the children who need it most.

The month draws attention to the more than 100,000 foster children and youth across the country awaiting permanent families and recognizes families that have chosen to expand in this special way.

National Adoption Month is also a call to action to become a foster family, to adopt, to become a CASA volunteer, a youth mentor or to support an organization that helps children living in foster care.

Karen DeRosa

Somers Point Director of Community Development, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) For Children of Atlantic and Cape May Counties
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.




BARCELONA, Spain, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

65% of users will plan shopping online during Black Friday 2016.

Only 35% of the users assure that they will make online purchases.

Tiendeo.com, the leading website and app for geolocalised online catalogs and offers, has conducted a study in order to discover the habits of consumers during Black Friday 2016, which will take place on 25 November.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161115/439495-INFO )



The Tiendeo.com study predicts that 92% of consumers will make at least one purchase during Black Friday 2016. This represents 36% increase compared to those who bought in 2015.

Fashion and electronics, protagonists of Black Friday 2016

Among the preferences for the products that are the most purchased during the year and which will be purchased in even higher numbers over Black Friday 2016, fashion and electronic items rise as favorites among consumers.

As for the type of establishments where they prefer to make purchases, it is the big retailers and supermarkets that top the list, because during Black Friday 2015 they accumulated 51% of the search queries on Tiendeo.com . The leaflets and offers from these types of establishment grab the attention of users because of the wide variety of items they offer in one space, saving time on shopping.

Black Friday 2016: more online and more mobile

The present study also reveals that 45% of consumers will plan their purchases of Black Friday 2016 with the main objective of taking advantage of the discounts and offers available before going to physical stores. In this sense, there is an increase in the use of online tools for this purpose, since 65% of users intend to plan their purchases through this channel. Likewise, a 14% increase in visits to www.Tiendeo.com is expected this year, compared to 2015, of which 70% will be made through its mobile app. This increase in the use of smartphones when planning purchases is due in large part to new technologies, such as geolocation which lets consumers be informed about the best deals offered by businesses in their area.

The study shows that Black Friday is gaining importance year after year among consumers, who are devoting more and more spending to this shopping event. There is also a growing use of online platforms, especially mobile, to plan purchases in advance to be able to benefit from the best promotions that different establishments offer.

http://www.tiendeo.co.uk



Contact: Maria de Cardenas, +34-610493308

SOURCE Tiendeo
"This is great news, and we should all be very proud as we recognize that climate change poses one of the greatest challenges to the continued prosperity of society. We set an ambitious corporate responsibility goal, and we reached it nearly 15 months early. We not only achieved it; we surpassed it with outside-the-box thinking, hard work and the passion of Bacardi employees," says Mike Dolan, chief executive officer of family-owned Bacardi Limited.

Moving forward, Bacardi will set new targets in alignment with the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) adopted in Paris (COP21) late last year, and supporting the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

For Bacardi, this achievement comes as no surprise given the hundreds of energy reduction initiatives implemented globally at the company's distilleries, bottling lines, visitor centers and offices. Bacardi realized this astonishing goal through systematic objectives laid out within its Good Spirited: Building a Sustainable Future global environmental sustainability platform, which reinforces the company's years of leadership in corporate social responsibility. From operations to improved energy efficiencies, every area was addressed, including lighting, motors, HVAC and compressed air systems. Further, continuous audits ensured real gains, which helped refine methods and accelerate the GHG reductions achieved. The original target date to accomplish the 50% reduction was December 31, 2017.

"Through full-circle thinking, we were able to stay the course on this 10-year vision," adds Jean-Marc Lambert, senior vice president, Global Operations. "We're not stopping herewe're working toward a net-zero impact throughout the entire value chain in the production of our world-class brands. Our goal is to return to the environment as least as much as we take away."

Among the many energy-focused initiatives, the company focused on renewable electricity from wind turbines and heat recovery systems at operations sites. Additionally, new biomass boilers at the Tequila CAZADORES facility, and ABERFELDY and ROYAL BRACKLA Scotch whisky distilleries reduce the amount of fuel needed for reliable, cleaner energy. Instead of oil, renewable organic material, such as wood pellets and chips, and agave fibers leftover from the production of the company's premium brands is used as fuel for the biomass boilers. As a model of sustainability, the refurbished CAZADORES facility in Mexico is 100% biomass fueled, with 0% of its waste deposited in landfillsnothing goes to wastenot even the biomass boiler's ashes, which are used to enrich the soil in the agave fields.

In Puerto Rico, Bacardi harnesses wind power to produce BACARDI rum, and improvements to an existing cogeneration system considerably increased the rum factory's fossil-fuel independence. This system's boiler uses a mix of fuel and biogas (or methane) generated during the anaerobic treatment of the distillery's wastewater. In that process, micro-organisms naturally degrade waste materials, creating biogas in the process. The biogas is fed into the boilers which power the distillery. This saves about half the energy needed to run them and reduces the need for imported oil or gas.

Bacardi will continue its Good Spirited initiatives on the course to its net-zero vision. Rigorous evaluations to ensure every ounce of energy is well spent will continue as the Good Spirited momentum turns eco-conscious passion into real environmental returns.

This includes replenishing the environment, planting trees and finding ways to do more business with less impact. Without forgetting its legacy, or the heritage of any of its iconic brands, Bacardi will continue to tackle existing infrastructure with sustainability improvements and add state-of-the-art, "green" distilleries that help improve the environment, like the BOMBAY SAPPHIRE gin distillery at the historic Laverstoke Mill in England. Bacardi completely transformed the historic, dilapidated mill to a fully functioning, green-certified distillery that now makes use of clean biomass and hydro-electrical energy sources, using the natural currents from the River Test that flows through the center of the distillery.

A large portion of energy use and GHG emissions comes from production and general commerce as products are moved around the globe. To expedite production and reduce transportation redundancies, the company created an energy-efficient blending and shipping center in Scotland for DEWAR'S and WILLIAM LAWSON'S Scotch whiskies.

In Italy, the company switched from fossil fuel to hydropower to produce MARTINI vermouth and sparkling wines and transforms botanical discards into fertilizer and livestock bedding. On campus, employees use bicycles instead of cars to traverse the 40-acre site.

Similarly, the Bacardi partnership with Ryder since 2008 reduced GHG emissions by more than 20% in the U.S. Together, the two companies move goods in the cleanest, most efficient way possible through recommended SmartWay program strategies and technologies. This successful drop in GHGs did not go unrecognized as Bacardi earned the EPA's SmartWay Excellence Award as an industry leader in freight supply chain environmental performance and energy efficiency for two years in a row.

As a founding member of Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable (BIER), a coalition of leading global beverage companies working together to advance environmental sustainability, Bacardi signed the Joint Commitment on Climate Change. This commitment further helps develop energy saving and water reduction solutions that have a broader impact in the beverage sector.

Since 2006, when Bacardi began tracking its global impact on the environment, it has improved water use efficiency by 46% and reduced GHG intensity ratio by 50%. Building on current programs and efficiencies that reduce its environmental impacts, the Bacardi Limited "Good Spirited" sustainability program sets specific goals in three areas to help the Company reach its vision of a net zero impact:

Responsible Sourcing: Bacardi strives to obtain all raw materials and packaging from sustainably sourced, renewable or recycled materials while maintaining or enhancing the economic status of growers and suppliers. Global Packaging: Bacardi commits to use eco-design to craft sustainability into its brand packaging and point-of-sale materials. Operational Efficiencies: Bacardi continues to focus on reducing water use.

To learn more about Bacardi Limited and its "Good Spirited: Building a Sustainable Future" environmental initiative across the entire Bacardi family of premium spirits and wine brands, visit http://www.bacardilimited.com/good-spirited.

About Bacardi Limited

Bacardi Limited, the largest privately held spirits company in the world, produces and markets internationally recognized spirits and wines. The Bacardi brand portfolio comprises more than 200 brands and labels, including BACARDI rum, GREY GOOSE vodka, DEWAR'S Blended Scotch whisky, BOMBAY SAPPHIRE gin, MARTINI vermouth and sparkling wines, CAZADORES 100% blue agave tequila, and other leading and emerging brands.

Founded 154 years ago in Santiago de Cuba on February 4, 1862, family-owned Bacardi manufactures its brands at 29 facilities and sells in more than 160 countries. Bacardi Limited refers to the Bacardi group of companies, including Bacardi International Limited. www.BacardiLimited.com

Media Contact

Amy Federman, +1.441.294.1110, afederman@bacardi.com

ENJOY RESPONSIBLY.

2016 BACARDI

BACARDI, THE BAT DEVICE AND OTHER MARKS ARE TRADEMARKS OF BACARDI & COMPANY LIMITED OR OF OTHER SUBSIDIARIES OF BACARDI LIMITED.

Related Links

https://www.bacardilimited.com



SOURCE Bacardi Limited
CARLSBAD, California and COLOGNE, Germany, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Cologne, Germany was the center of drug development partnering last week where 3,700 high level executives from the life science/drug development industry attended BIO-Europe 2016 global life science partnering event, held November 7-9, 2016.

BIO-Europe 2016 broke records for number of delegates and number of one-to-one partnering meetings which reached 20,833, an all-time high and up 9% from 2015. CEOs and decision makers from 1,982 companies and 63 countries discussed asset deals and strategic collaborations. There were 4,734 licensing opportunities on offer, 153 company presentations and 97 exhibitors.

"The incredible success of BIO-Europe in Cologne is both a testament to the region's key central European location and its strong biopharma sector, as well as the increased need for partnering as a critical ingredient in successful strategic planning by companies spanning the drug development spectrum, " said Anna Chrisman, Group Managing Director, EBD Group. "This spectrum has grown to include early stage academia, startup biotech companies, innovators in cell and gene therapy and digital medicine, and many more, making BIO-Europe a fully integrated partnering event that has real relevance in the future of healthcare."

A Startup Slam pitching competition took place during the course of the event, offering emerging entrepreneurs a chance to pitch their company to business development executives, venture capitalists and industry experts. The event, sponsored by Johnson & Johnson Innovation with support from Innovation Forum and BIO.NRW, was won by Jeremy Chrisp of EpiAxis Therapeutics Pty Ltd, a new startup company spun out from the University of Canberra in Australia. They aim to commercialize their novel approach to prevent the recurrence of metastasis, with an initial focus on breast cancer.

Planning is already underway for BIO-Europe 2017 which will take place in Berlin, Germany, November 6-8, 2017 in partnership with Berlin Partner and Berlin-Brandenberg HealthCapital. As a leading hub for life sciences, the German capital region will welcome biotech experts from Europe and abroad. The region's biotech sector in particular has registered steady growth and high startup dynamism, with 90% of the 240 biotech cluster companies working in biomedicine. A strength of the region its unique research landscape, the close links between science and industry and the excellent infrastructure for clinical trials with more than 130 clinics, including Europe's largest university hospital, the Charite.

"As a leading location for innovation in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, we are delighted that BIO-Europe 2017 is returning to Berlin," said Dr. Kai Uwe Bindseil, Cluster Manager for Healthcare Industries in Berlin-Brandenburg - HealthCapital. "Every day, over 240 biotech companies in the capital region are working on the development of new active substances and diagnostics-at BIO-Europe, we place this excellence at the forefront and are creating the foundation for new international cooperations."

Early planning is now in place to bring BIO-Europe to Copenhagen, Denmark in 2018 in partnership with Invest in Skane and Copenhagen Capacity. Copenhagen is an important biotech and life science location for a global audience. The region's life science cluster, Medicon Valley, spanning Eastern Denmark and Southern Sweden, is world leader within cancer, metabolic diseases, inflammation and brain/central nervous system diseases, and it is highly recognized for its strong patents and product pipeline as well as for the unique and successful collaboration between industry, academia and government.

Watch video coverage from BIO-Europe and other key partnering events, including interviews with executives and thought leaders from the life science industry, on EBD Group's Insight, a premier news source for the biopharma industry, or by following the #BIOEurope event hashtag on Twitter.

Additional links and information:

Follow BIO-Europe on Twitter: @EBDGroup (hashtag: #BioEurope).

About EBD Group

EBD Group is the leading partnering firm for the global life science industry. Since 1993, biotech, pharma and medical device companies have leveraged EBD Group's partnering conferences, technology and services to identify business opportunities and develop strategic relationships essential to their success.

EBD Group's conferences are run with the support of leading corporations and international trade associations and include:

BIO-Europe and BIO-Europe Spring, Europe's largest life science partnering conferences, supported by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO)

largest life science partnering conferences, supported by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) BioPharm America, the fastest growing partnering event in North America

Biotech Showcase, a unique forum in San Francisco for presenting to investors and business development executives, co-produced with Demy-Colton Life Science Advisors

for presenting to investors and business development executives, co-produced with Demy-Colton Life Science Advisors BioEquity Europe, the investor conference co-organized with BioCentury Publications and BIO

ChinaBio Partnering Forum, the first dedicated biotech/pharma partnering conference in China , co-produced with ChinaBio Group

, co-produced with ChinaBio Group Biolatam, facilitating partnering among global life sciences executives in Latin America's vibrant life science hubs

vibrant life science hubs Cell & Gene Exchange, a partnering forum focused on the patient community in cell and gene therapy sectors, co-produced with Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM).

EBD Group's sophisticated web-based partnering service, partneringONE, is used as the partnering engine at numerous third-party events around the world, and partnering360 is the open online community of life science dealmakers that enhances partnering experiences throughout the year.

Tune into EBD Group's Insight for timely coverage of news that influences the business strategies of the life science industry.

EBD Group is an Informa company. Informa is the largest publicly-owned organizer of exhibitions, conferences and training in the world.

EBD Group has offices in the USA and Europe.

For more information please visit http://www.ebdgroup.com.

SOURCE EBD Group
DUBLIN, Nov 14 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "The Future of BRICS Gasoline Supply and Demand, 2005-2025: Trends, Drivers, Challenges and Forecasts of Gasoline Production and Consumption under Current Market Dynamics" report to their offering.

BRICS Countries Gasoline Outlook report provides detailed analysis and forecast of Gasoline consumption patterns and supply scenario in all key Gasoline markets in BRICS Countries. Forecasts of production and demand of each of the Gasoline markets in BRICS Countries are provided annually from 2005 to 2025.

Drivers and challenges of industry growth in each of the BRICS Countries countries are analyzed. Further, information on current refining capacity, refining complexity along with planned refining infrastructure details are also provided in the BRICS Countries Gasoline outlook report.

Historic data is taken largely from government ministries and companies involved, ensuring highest accuracy of the data. Further, forecasts are made through our sophisticated methodology considering current market conditions and future prospects. Gasoline Forecasts for each market are evaluated by in-house experts and also validated by industry professionals to ensure utmost accuracy and certainty.

The research work also provides information on leading refining companies in each country along with business profiles of three leading Gasoline suppliers in the region. All latest industry developments in BRICS Countries Gasoline are also provided in the report.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Tables & Figures

2 Executive Summary

3 Brazil LPG Production and Consumption Outlook to 2025

4 Russia LPG Production and Consumption Outlook to 2025

5 India LPG Production and Consumption Outlook to 2025

6 China LPG Production and Consumption Outlook to 2025

7 South Africa LPG Production and Consumption Outlook to 2025

8 Business Profiles of Leading Refiners

For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/8xqztk/the_future_of

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com



SOURCE Research and Markets
DUBLIN, Nov 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Dynamic Positioning Systems Market by Subsystem, Application, Equipment Type, and Region - Global Forecast to 2021" report to their offering.

The market is projected to grow from USD 1.62 Billion in 2016 to USD 1.82 Billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 2.36% during the forecast period. Various factors, such as increase in the number of offshore patrol vessels, technological advancements, and expansion in oil & gas refineries are expected to drive the growth of the dynamic positioning systems market.



The market is segmented on the basis of equipment type, application, subsystem, and region. The equipment type segment is further divided into Class 1, Class 2, and Class 3 dynamic positioning systems. Of these, the Class 3 segment is estimated to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Class 3 includes dynamic positioning systems that provide accuracy in a vessel's position as compared to other class types. Companies prefer Class 3 dynamic positioning systems as they are technologically advanced and this is expected to fuel the demand for Class 3 DP systems.



Based on region, the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, and the Rest of the World. Asia-Pacific is estimated to lead the market 2016. Emerging economies, such as China and India is estimated to drive the Asia-Pacific dynamic positioning systems market. Increase in the number of offshore patrol vessels and technological advancements are expected to fuel the demand for dynamic positioning systems in the region.



However, factors, such as lack of training given to operators for efficient use of dynamic positioning systems and fluctuations in the exchange rate of USD limit the growth of this market. Products offered by various companies in the market have been listed in the report. The recent developments section of the report includes recent and important developments by various companies between 2014 and 2016.



Companies Mentioned:



AB Volvo Penta

ABB Group

General Electric Company

Kongsberg Gruppen ASA

L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc.

Marine Technologies LLC

Moxa Inc.

NORR Systems Pte Ltd

Navis Engineering

Praxis Automation & Technology B.V.

Rolls-Royce PLC

Wartsila Oyj ABP



Key Topics Covered:



1 Introduction



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Premium Insights



5 Market Overview



6 Industry Trends



7 Dynamic Positioning Systems Market, By Sub-Systems



8 Dynamic Positioning Systems Market, By Equipment Type



9 Dynamic Positioning Systems Market, By Application



10 Regional Analysis



11 Competitive Landscape



12 Introduction



For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/dbz2kw/dynamic

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com



SOURCE Research and Markets
CEO Carlalberto Guglielminotti says, " The first nine months of the year confirmed the market's expected growth and enabled us to increase guidance on 2016 revenues announced in September. We continue to work to convert projects in the pipeline into orders backlog, with the aim of strengthening our partnership with the main international players and developing an effective commercial network. "

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

The Group's revenues in the first nine months of 2016 equalled 3,953,806, an increase of more than nine times over the 456,505[1] for the same period in 2015.

The Group's net financial position as of 30 September 2016 is 2,267,269[2].

In addition to credit lines totalling 9 million with Intesa Sanpaolo and Unicredit, a new medium-long term credit line of 1 million was approved by Banca Sella on 9 November, bringing aggregate debt financing raised by the Group in 2016 to 10 million, of which 6.5 is in medium-long term and 2 million already drawdown, with an average spread of 3.66%.

NEW GUIDANCE ON 2016 RESULTS AND 2017 GROWTH EXPECTATIONS

The Group's orders backlog[3] is at 5.8 million, the pipeline of potential projects and tenders on which EPS has been bidding exceeds 100 million and the average project size has gradually increased from 0.5 million in 2016 to 5 million in 20172018. To date, 50% of the pipeline consists of projects ranging from 4 million to 20 million, of which more than 60% are located in emerging economies, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Those achievements were made possible by the accreditation and qualification that the Group undertook immediately after its listing in April 2015 and through projects, installations, and partnerships undertaken with leading international players in the energy sector, including Enel, Terna, Toshiba, and General Electric.

Finally, solid operational strength and order growth have enabled the Group to update its guidance[4] on consolidated revenues for 2016, which now ranges from 6.5  6.9 million, up from 6.1  6.7 million announced during the H1 2016 results presentation.

NEW CREDENTIALS IN MICROGRIDS

In October 2016, the Group completed commissioning of the microgrid in the Maldives with a total installed power of 4 MW, enabling a reduction in diesel consumption of 275,000 litres and of CO 2 emissions of 165 tons per year. []

To read more click HERE



[1]  456,505 refers exclusively to revenues and excludes other income (subsidies), amounting to 266,495, which leads to the 723,000 reported in the financial results as of 30 September 2015.

[2] The Net Financial Position of 2,267,269 excludes 125,417 in own shares and cash equivalent as per the Liquidity Agreement.

[3] Backlog means (i) invoices already issued in 2016 but not yet recorded as revenues under IAS/IFRS; (ii) purchase orders already received as of the date of this press release, and (iii) revenues already contracted or expected to be generated in 2016 and following years based on the agreements currently in place.

[4] The year-end revenues guidance represents a forward looking statement, whose details are better described at the end of this press release.

CONTACT: Chiara Cartasegna chiara.cartasegna@eps-mail.com +39-3489265993

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160921/410465LOGO

Related Links

http://electropowersystems.com/



SOURCE Electro Power Systems (EPS)
LONDON, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The UK's premier events company for private investors has secured a major partner for its flagship show. Fidelity International, one of the world's leading investment solutions providers, will be the headline sponsor of Master Investor Show 2017, hosted at the Business Design Centre on Saturday 25th March. Offering access to over 2,800 funds, ETFs and Investment Trusts from 100+ fund providers on its Personal Investing platform, Fidelity has chosen Master Investor to provide retail investor delegates with access to its team of award winning investment professionals and fund managers.

Earlier this year, Master Investor Ltd. hosted the UK's largest show for private investors. The event connected investors with CEOs of publicly listed companies, fund managers, start-ups, and service providers that cater to the needs of anyone looking to maximise returns on their investment portfolio. April's show was attended by 4,500 delegates and featured 100 exhibitors and 50 speakers, among them investment celebrities such as Jim Mellon. Next year marks the 15th anniversary of the annual event and the involvement of Fidelity International will make this a double milestone for the company.

Swen Lorenz, CEO of Master Investor: "Fidelity will bring insightful, exciting content to the event and some of the world's best known fund managers. By having Fidelity on board, plus the other exciting plans we have in place, we will deliver the strongest line-up of any UK investor show in recent years. We are pulling out all the stops for our 15th anniversary!"

Fidelity will present on all three stages, including a 30-minute keynote speech on the main-stage. Jonathan Hewitt, Head of Personal Investing at Fidelity International, comments: "We're delighted to be sponsoring the 15th anniversary of the Master Investor Show. Delegates will have a fantastic opportunity to hear from and engage with some of the leading investment professionals and fund managers from across the industry, helping towards achieving their long-term investment goals."

Master Investor is also planning to reach out further to the investor market with multiple, UK-wide events. Further details will be announced in the next few months.

For information about Master Investor's event plans in 2017, visit: http://www.masterinvestor.co.uk/show

About Master Investor Ltd.

Master Investor Ltd. is an investment media and events company that delivers independent, financial commentary and analysis to UK private investors and traders. Master Investor Ltd. is backed by Jim Mellon, the well-known financier. It is privately held with offices in London and the Isle of Man.

About Fidelity International

Fidelity International offers world class investment solutions and retirement expertise. As a privately owned, independent company, investment is our only business. We are driven by the needs of our clients, not by shareholders. Our vision is to deliver innovative client solutions for a better future. We invest 223.4bn globally on behalf of clients in 24 countries across Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and South America. Our clients range from central banks, sovereign wealth funds, large corporates, financial institutions, insurers and wealth managers, to private individuals. In addition to asset management, we offer investment administration and guidance for employer benefit schemes, advisers and individuals in several countries. We are responsible for 65.4bn in assets under administration. Data as at 30 September 2016

Website: http://www.masterinvestor.co.uk

Social media:

http://www.facebook.com/masterinvestor

http://www.twitter.com/masterinvestor

Media enquiries:

James Hudson, james.hudson@masterinvestor.co.uk

SOURCE Master Investor Ltd.
VILLEPINTE, France, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

In 90 years the Group has built a success story fueled by innovation and international growth

Guerbet(FR0000032526 GBT), the global specialist in contrast agents and solutions for medical imaging, today celebrates its 90th year with all its 2,600 employees and stakeholders.



(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150917/267672LOGO )



A year after doubling in size, following a major acquisition in the United States, the Group continues to grow as one of the leading players in medical imaging worldwide. The Group offers a full range of medical solutions and services - in CT scan, MRI and Interventional Radiology - ongoing investment in innovation and its production capacities, in addition to a network of subsidiaries and partners that ensure a presence in all the principal global markets.

A pioneer and a player in imaging of the future

Although the history of Guerbet dates back to 1901, with the discovery by Marcel Guerbet of the world's first iodinated contrast agent, the official creation of the pharmaceutical company dates from 15 November 1926. In 1965 it became SA Laboratoires Andre Guerbet. From a headcount of 150 at that time, its staff grew to 1,000 in 1990, 1,500 in 2015 and 2,600 today, following the acquisition of Mallinckrodt's "Contrast Media and Delivery Systems" business, finalized a year ago. With this acquisition Guerbet has reached a critical size in each segment and geographical zone with the ambition of entering the world's top three.

From a business essentially focused on France in the early 1960s, Guerbet developed its international distribution network greatly from the 1970s onwards. Thirty years ago precisely, in 1986, Guerbet entered the stock market (on the Paris Stock Exchange second market) to bolster its development. Since 2005 Guerbet has undertaken a wide-ranging program of industrial site modernization:  215 million have been devoted to this to ensure the long-term security of its jobs and to bolster its global growth strategy.

Today, Guerbet is truly, an international group, with 83% of its sales generated outside France and with four growth drivers: contrast agents for MRI, contrast agents for X-ray imaging, Interventional Radiology and Theranostics and Imaging Solutions and Services, including medical devices such as injectors.

The video illustrating our 90 years of history can be seen at the following link: http://www.guerbet.com/90-years-of-passion.html

An exceptional industrial adventure

The company announced the celebration of Guerbet's 90th anniversary at the French Radiology Congress (Journees Francophones de Radiologie), held in Paris from 14 to 17 October, where a fresco featuring the outstanding dates in Guerbet's history was unveiled in the presence of the President of the French Radiology Society. The "90 years of passion" banner is a reflection of the Guerbet teams' strong commitment to serving diagnostic and interventional imaging to enhance patient prognosis and quality of life.

In line with this celebration Guerbet's sites worldwide will be organizing events associating their employees and their external audiences over the coming months.

Campaign to follow on Twitter: @GuerbetGroup, #Guerbet90

Yves L'Epine, Guerbet CEO: "Guerbet, which has already been through many turning points, is currently experiencing a key period in its history. It is both particularly exciting and demanding time for our teams. We are in the process of successfully integrating our major acquisition to build a new global leader in medical imaging which is innovative and respectful of all its partners.

More than ever, we are driven to offer indispensable solutions for diagnostic and interventional imaging all over the world. Faced with the challenges of aging, the development of chronic diseases and certain cancers that remain difficult to treat, medical imaging opens up an exceptional range of responses which augur well for great progress for patients."

About Guerbet

Guerbet is a pioneer in the contrast agent field, with 90 years' experience, and is the only pharmaceutical group dedicated to medical imaging worldwide. It offers a comprehensive range of X-Ray, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Interventional Radiology and Theranostics (IRT) products, along with a range of injectors and related medical devices to improve the diagnosis and treatment of patients. To discover new products and ensure future growth, Guerbet invests heavily in R&D, spending around 9% of its sales each year. Guerbet (GBT) is listed on Euronext Paris (Segment B - Mid Caps) and generated 789 million in pro forma revenue in 2015.

For more information about Guerbet, please visit http://www.guerbet.com

SOURCE Guerbet
New EonStor GS Family Mentioned for Its Powerful Cloud Gateway and Tiering Features

TAIPEI, Taiwan, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Infortrend Technology, Inc. (TWSE: 2495) today announced it has been named in the 2016 Gartner Magic Quadrant for General-Purpose Disk Arrays report. The new EonStor GS family launched this year is particularly recognized and mentioned for its superior native cloud gateway and tiering features.

Gartner recognizes Infortrend's recently launched EonStor GS family, a unified storage platform that offers direct integration with public cloud providers including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud platform as well as China's Alibaba Cloud, for its native cloud gateway features that can leverage cloud storage as a storage tier or for backup, enabling organizations to tap into the flexibility of cloud storage.

As for the tiering function, the EonStor GS family offers four different levels of implementations depending on disk type and flexible allocation of computing resources based on application criticality. That is, companies can have better performance for mission critical applications and save on resources for less critical tasks.

"We are glad to be named again in Gartner's Magic Quadrant report and to advance in the completeness of vision evaluation this year. This is mainly attributing to the introduction of the EonStor GS family, the cloud-integrated unified storage. It represents industry recognition on our continuing efforts to provide innovative storage products with feature sets that map to current and future requirements," commented Thomas Kao, Senior Director of Product Planning at Infortrend.

Also acknowledged by Gartner is Infortrend's industry-verifiable benchmarks that provide performance transparency to the extent practical without actually running customer benchmarks. For the full Gartner Magic Quadrant for General-Purpose Disk Arrays report, click here.

About Infortrend

Infortrend (TWSE: 2495) has been developing and manufacturing storage solutions since 1993. With a strong emphasis on in-house design, testing, and manufacturing, Infortrend storage delivers performance and scalability with the latest standards, user friendly data services, personal after-sales support, and unrivaled value. For more Information, please visit www.infortrend.com

Infortrend and EonStor are trademarks or registered trademarks of Infortrend Technology, Inc., other trademarks property of their respective owners.

Media Contact:

Infortrend Europe Ltd.

Agnieszka Wesolowska

Tel:+44-1256-305-220

E-mail: marketing.eu@infortrend.com

Related Links

http://www.infortrend.com



SOURCE Infortrend Technology, Inc.
BIELEFELD, Germany and BRUSSELS, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Everlam, the PVB film producer from Mechelen, Belgium is now among the first companies in the Benelux countries to be running on SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management. With this implementation by the SAP partner, itelligence, Everlam is taking an important step towards its further growth and development.

itelligence AG announced today that it has assisted Everlam in redesigning and simplifying the company's IT environment, made necessary by relocation of Everlam's headquarters from Germany to Belgium, along with its rapid growth. Several scenarios were developed, and selecting the SAP HANA platform and the SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management solution proved to be the best option.

Everlam produces high-quality polyvinyl butyral (PVB) film for the manufacture of laminated safety glass. The clear and coloured PVB films available are deployed by glass laminators throughout the world. The headquarters and technology centre are located in Mechelen, Belgium.

SAP S/4HANA is SAP's next-generation ERP suite designed for in-memory computing that allows companies to "Run Live" by gaining instant access to detailed, real-time information. SAP S/4HANA is natively built on the SAP HANA platform, designed with the award-winning SAP Fiori user experience. With SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management, companies can now digitise each activity and each function right from the start.

Harald Hammer, CEO of Everlam, said, "The decision to work with SAP S/4HANA totally corresponds with our vision: to support our customers through the constant improvement of our products and services."

All aspects of the Everlam digital value creation chain are now linked together in real time through the deployment of SAP S/4HANA. The focus here is on the logistical area of the business processes.

Marc Goyvaerts, Managing Director of Everlam, said, "The implementation of SAP S/4HANA is a milestone for Everlam in successfully realising our company growth strategy. The new functions of SAP S/4HANA help us to respond even more quickly and professionally to customer needs and enquiries. In the process, itelligence, our SAP service provider, has won us over with professional and service-oriented execution."

The implementation of SAP S/4HANA at Everlam was carried out by the SAP partner, itelligence. itelligence AG is a leading SAP partner - not just in the Benelux countries, but also across Europe and throughout the world. The itelligence advisors played an important strategic role in the planning, execution and optimisation of the company's implementation and digital transformation project.

Wim Jansen, Managing Director of itelligence Benelux said, "We succeeded in implementing SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management at Everlam in less than six months. We are particularly proud of this project, where Everlam has become one of the first companies to be able to use this fundamentally different software. For Everlam it presents genuine added value in today's digital business environment. Everlam is a great example of how companies can be supported in the transition to the most recent, innovative next-generation software suite from SAP."

SAP, SAP S/4HANA, SAP HANA, SAP Fiori and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE (or an SAP affiliate company) in Germany and other countries. See http://www.sap.com/corporate-en/legal/copyright/index.epx for additional trademark information and notices. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

itelligence is one of the leading international full-service providers of solutions in support of SAP solutions, employing about 5,600 highly qualified employees in 24 countries. As a frequently awarded SAP partner, among others global value-added reseller, SAP Certified in Cloud Services, SAP-Certified Provider of Hosting Services for SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud and SAP Platinum Partner, itelligence realizes complex projects in the SAP solution-based environment worldwide. The company's services in support of SAP solutions range from consulting and licensing to application management services and hosting services to proprietary industry-specific SAP. In 2015, itelligence generated total sales of EUR 696.2 million.

Public Relations



Silvia Dicke

Tel: +49(0)521-91448-107

Fax: +49(0)521-91445-201

silvia.dicke@itelligence.de



itelligence AG

Konigsbreede 1

33605 Bielefeld

http://www.itelligencegroup.com



SOURCE itelligence AG
"The importance of economic thinking cannot be underestimated," said Zilvinas Silenas, CEO of Lithuanian Free Market Institute. "Our individual and societal well-being depends on it. Unfortunately, economic education in schools is shallow at best, and incorrect at worst. Our aspiration is to win the battle for freedom of young minds. We are happy we have accomplished so much in pursuing this goal in an area where free-market ideas normally are not heard, in public schools and within the national school curriculum."

Economics in 31 Hours teaches how property rights, free exchange, profit, and competition shape decision-making in everyday life. Released in August 2015, the textbook is already used as part of the compulsory national curriculum by more than 60 percent of Lithuania's 9th and 10th graders, which amounts to more than 20,000 students. Instrumental in this success was official approval of Economics in 31 Hours by the Ministry of Education and Science and its registration as a recommended textbook for secondary schools.

Awarded since 2004, the Templeton Freedom Award is named for the late investor and philanthropist Sir John Templeton. The award annually honors his legacy by identifying and recognizing the most exceptional and innovative contributions to the understanding of free enterprise, and the public policies that encourage prosperity, innovation, and human fulfillment via free competition.

"Sir John was probably most famous for his foresight in making investments that bear fruit in the long run," said Brad Lips, CEO of Atlas Network. "LFMI's ability to immerse nearly an entire country's young people in sound economic ideas represents an investment that is sure to bear immeasurable fruit both now and long into the future."

LFMI set out to produce an alternative curriculum that would build a solid foundation for free enterprise education and elevate the profile, relevance, and quality of economics education in Lithuania's upper secondary schools. The textbook includes lessons that develop an understanding of free enterprise and free competition among the younger generation as keys to advancing prosperity, innovation, and human fulfillment; and shape the way both students and teachers understand economics as an integral and inherent part of a complex social reality.

In a country that only a short time ago was under communist control, Economics in 31 Hours is giving the next generation of Lithuanian youth a fighting chance to learn the economics of freedom.

LFMI received a $100,000 prize for winning the award and the five runners-up each received $25,000. LFMI also won the 2014 Templeton Freedom Award for its Municipal Performance Index for Freedom and Free Enterprise, which measures and ranks the performance of municipal governments in three overarching categories: municipalities for citizens, municipalities for investors, and municipal governance and administration.

About Atlas Network

Washington-based Atlas Network is a nonprofit organization that strengthens the worldwide freedom movement by connecting more than 450 independent partners in over 90 countries that share the vision of a free, prosperous, and peaceful world where limited governments defend the rule of law, private property, and free markets. AtlasNetwork.org

Related Links

https://www.atlasnetwork.org



SOURCE Atlas Network
LONDON, November 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) is extending its Asian reach with its first international office, in Singapore, led by Adam Cotter, OMFIF head of Asia. The office will be launched on 16 November 2016 with a reception at its premises in the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161110/437958LOGO )



The launch will be presided over by Prof. Lord (Meghnad) Desai, OMFIF advisory board chairman, Kishore Mahbubani, dean of LKY School of Public Policy, NUS, and Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

'The office is based in Singapore as it is one of Asia's leading financial centres,' said Desai. 'It is in close proximity to many of OMFIF's regional partners which have shown great support for the expansion.'

'A presence in Asia is the next step for the continued development of strong ties with both public and private sector institutions in the region,' said David Marsh , OMFIF managing director.

'In developing our coverage and understanding of Asia, we will also bring policy-makers from the US, Africa, Latin America and Europe to the region,' said Cotter.

In the past seven years, OMFIF has held monetary policy meetings in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea and Singapore.

About OMFIF (http://www.omfif.org)

The Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum is an independent platform for dialogue on world finance and economic policy. It serves as a non-lobbying network for worldwide public-private sector interaction in finance and economics. The aim is to promote exchanges of information and best practice in an atmosphere of mutual trust.

OMFIF focuses on global policy and investment themes - particularly in asset management, capital markets and financial supervision/regulation - relating to central banks, sovereign funds, pension funds, regulators and treasuries.

For more information about OMFIF Asia or to attend the launch event on 16 November, please contact:





Singapore

Adam Cotter - Head of Asia

+44(0)7-4508-24405

adam.cotter@omfif.org



London

Sarah Butler - Institutional Relations Manager

+44(0)207-965-4492

sarah.butler@omfif.org



SOURCE OMFIF
LONDON, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

PA Consulting Group, last week, hosted business leaders of companies participating in the United Nations Global Compact at PA's Cambridge Technology Centre. The attendees participated in a collection of workshops on emerging disruptive technologies and how these could impact sustainability, as part of the 2016 Lead Symposium taking place in Cambridge.

As part of a UN Global Compact project to explore ways in which breakthrough technologies could benefit or threaten the Sustainable Development Goals for governments, businesses and society, delegates visited PA to experience disruptive innovation in practise, including technologies associated with: the future of agriculture, the future of connectivity, reinventing manufacturing and PA's own technological developments.

PA delivered a keynote address and facilitated workshops looking at how organisations can deliver more sustainable outcomes through breakthroughs in technology and business models that are adapted to tomorrow's economy. Disruptive technologies considered in detail included: Artificial Intelligence, The Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, additive manufacturing, genomics and nutrient recovery from waste.

David Rakowski, technology expert, PA Consulting Group said: "This has been a fantastic opportunity for PA to discuss real technologies that will play an important role in the future and unlock new opportunities that previously weren't possible. We recognise that more and more organisations are rethinking how they approach sustainability to deliver maximum value. Technology is a key enabler for this, so we're incredibly pleased to have contributed to helping the delegates understand how to tap this potential."

The outcome of the work discussed at the conference will be presented as a report at the UN Global Compact event in Davos in January 2017.

Notes to editors

About PA Consulting Group

An independent firm of over 2,600 people, we operate globally from offices across the Americas, Europe, the Nordics, the Gulf and Asia Pacific.

We are experts in consumer and manufacturing, defence and security, energy and utilities, financial services, government, healthcare, life sciences, and transport, travel and logistics.

Our deep industry knowledge together with skills in management consulting, technology and innovation allows us to challenge conventional thinking and deliver exceptional results that have a lasting impact on businesses, governments and communities worldwide.

Our clients choose us because we don't just believe in making a difference. We believe in making the difference.

SOURCE PA Consulting Group
PORTLAND, Oregon, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Global Renal Denervation Market projects the renal denervation market was worth $197 million in 2015 and is expected to reach $3,153 million by 2022 with a CAGR of 48.5%, according to new research published by Allied Market Research. Symplicity Renal Denervation System is estimated to continue generating highest revenue throughout the forecast period, owing to growing number of product approvals across the globe. Europe held the leading position in the global market in 2015, and is expected to maintain its lead in the future.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140911/647229 )



Increasing prevalence and incidence of hypertension and blood pressure, changing lifestyle of the people, improvement of healthcare infrastructure in developing countries, and cost effectiveness of the renal denervation procedure as compared to other multidrug treatment therapies propel the market growth. However, stringent approval process for renal denervation devices, and patient discomfort and pain that arises during the procedure hamper the market growth.

Summary of the Renal Denervation Market Report can be accessed on the website at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/renal-denervation-devices-market

Vessix Renal Denervation System is projected to be the fastest growing segment, with a CAGR of 57.6% from 2016 to 2022, as this system can be used for arteries of variable diameter (has a balloon that can be expanded into variable sizes). In addition, it uses a full-color graphic user interface that increases the accuracy and operation of the device. Boston Scientific, manufacturer of Vessix Renal Denervation System, considers this market to be a potential growth opportunity for expanding its business. Symplicity is the major and most frequently used product of the renal denervation market. "According to the CIRSE Member Survey (2013), Symplicity is used by approximately 78% of the European hospitals. This system is generally preferred as it delivers low level of RF energy and thus reduces the potential risks associated with high levels of RF radiation on body tissues". Says Deepa Tatkare, Senior Analyst, Healthcare Research at AMR

Radiofrequency was the most frequently used technology in the renal denervation market. In addition, it was the major segment in 2015 and is expected to lead throughout the forecast period. Ultrasound is projected to grow at the highest CAGR of 56.4%, as it overcomes the limitations of radiofrequency devices.

Key findings of Renal Denervation Market:

On the basis of product type, the Symplicity Renal Denervation System segment accounted for the largest share, while Vessix Renal Denervation System is projected to grow at the fastest rate.

Radiofrequency segment dominated the overall renal denervation market.

Utrasound is poised to grow at the highest CAGR of 56.4% during the analysis period.

Europe was the leading geographic market in 2015, and it is projected to lead for the next few years.

was the leading geographic market in 2015, and it is projected to lead for the next few years. Asia-Pacific is projected to grow at the highest CAGR of 50.6%.

Europes high share is attributed to the early start of this technology in European countries. In addition, most of the devices in this market have received a CE mark approval and are available for sales in the European region. On the other hand, North America accounts for a small proportion as renal denervation systems have not been approved by the FDA and are available only for investigational purpose in the North American market. Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at the fastest rate during the analysis period, owing to presence of ample growth opportunities in terms of unmet medical needs for the treatment of hypertension, increase in awareness about the use of advanced technologies such as renal denervation systems, and high prevalence rate of resistant hypertension.

Key players have adopted product development as their key strategy to cater to the changing needs of the industry. Major players operating in this market include Ablative Solutions, Inc., Boston Scientific Corporation, Cardiosonic Ltd, Kona Medical, Inc., Medtronic plc, Mercator MedSystems, Inc., ReCor Medical, Inc., Renal Dynamics Limited, St. Jude Medical, Inc., and Terumo Medical Corporation. As of 2015, Medtronic dominated the overall renal denervation market, followed by St. Jude Medical.

Summary of Similar Reports can be viewed at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/life-sciences/medical-devices-market-report

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We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.

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SOURCE Allied Market Research
LE HAVRE, France, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The initial jet engine exhaust system component for Boeing's new 777X airplane has been delivered by Safran Nacelles, achieving another on-time milestone in this Safran group company's first major role as a supplier to the U.S. aircraft manufacturer.

Provided to Boeing was the exhaust system's center body - a complex-shaped unit that contributes to the proper aerodynamic flow of exhaust from the 777X's General Electric GE9X turbofan engines.

"On-time deliveries and meeting Boeing's high expectations are Safran Nacelles' priorities for this program, and we are fully committed to meeting our commitments on the 777X exhaust system," said Jean-Paul Alary, the President of Safran Nacelles. "We're building a strong and valued relationship with Boeing based on our experience in nacelle integration, and we look forward to additional opportunities to grow our association in the future."

The two-piece exhaust system center body was delivered from Safran Nacelles' Le Havre, France, production facility. It is composed primarily of titanium and incorporates an acoustically treated area for reduced engine noise levels.

A second development unit is in production at Safran Nacelles for delivery to Boeing before year-end, involving the center body, the nozzle and the center vent tube - representing a complete exhaust system.

The 777X's exhaust systems are among the largest of their type ever manufactured for civil aircraft, and fully benefit from titanium's lower mass and increased resistance to heat in jet engine applications.

Safran is a leading international high-technology group with three core businesses: Aerospace (propulsion and equipment), Defence and Security. Operating worldwide, the Group has 70,000 employees and generated sales of 17.4 billion euros in 2015. Safran is listed on Euronext Paris and is part of the CAC40 index, as well as the Euro Stoxx 50 European index.

Safran Nacelles is the world's second leading supplier of aircraft engine nacelles, with more than 17,000 in service, logging over 100,000 flight-hours per day. It supplies nacelles and components for all segments of the aviation market, from business and regional jets to mainline commercial jets.

For more information : http://www.safran-group.com and http://www.safran-nacelles.com / Follow @Safran and @SafranNacelles on Twitter

SOURCE Safran Nacelles
DUBLIN, Nov 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Saudi Arabia Diesel Gensets Market - Forecast & Opportunities, 2021" report to their offering.

The market for diesel gensets in Saudi Arabia is projected to forecast to exhibit a CAGR of 2.9% during 2016-2021, on account of rising demand for electricity from various end user sectors such as, telecommunications, residential, manufacturing, petrochemical, ICT, commercial and industrial.

Moreover, Saudi Arabia diesel gensets market was dominated by northern and central region, as both the region cumulatively accounted for highest volume shares in 2015, and the regions are anticipated to continue to dominate the market through 2021, owing to favourable government support that are fueling infrastructural development activities in these region, particularly in cities like Riyadh and Jeddah.

According to Ministry of Water and Electricity, Saudi Arabia's peak electricity is projected to reach 90,000MW by 2022. Thus, increasing demand for electricity is further expected to fuel demand for diesel gensets in the country in the coming years. Saudi Arabia is one of the fastest growing nations that utilizes diesel gensets to power infrastructure of various sectors, especially in oil & gas sector.

Companies Mentioned:

Aggreko Saudi Arabia

Atlas Industrial Equipment Company

Caterpillar Inc.

Cummins Olayan Energy, Ltd.

Himoinsa Middle East, FZE

Kirloskar Middle East FZE (KMEF)

Kohler Power Systems

Perkins Engine Company Limited

Saudi Diesel Equipment Company

Wartsila Power Contracting Company Limited

Key Topics Covered:

1. Product Overview

2. Research Methodology

3. Analyst View

4. Saudi Arabia Diesel Gensets Market Outlook

5. Saudi Arabia Low Voltage (5kVA-75kVA) Diesel Gensets Market Outlook

6. Saudi Arabia Medium Voltage (75.1kVA-350kVA) Diesel Gensets Market Outlook

7. Saudi Arabia High Voltage (350.1kVA-750kVA) Diesel Gensets Market Outlook

8. Saudi Arabia Very High Voltage (750.1kVA-3000kVA) Diesel Gensets Market Outlook

9. Saudi Arabia Diesel Gensets Rental Market Outlook

10. Market Dynamics

11. Trends & Developments

12. Policy & Regulatory Landscape

13. Saudi Arabia Economic Profile

14. Competitive Landscape

15. Strategic Recommendations

For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/sxpc65/saudi_arabia

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Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

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SOURCE Research and Markets
PUNE, India, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The report "Smart Connected Assets and Operations Market by Module (Hardware-Sensors, Processors, Network Connectivity- Wired & Wireless; APM Software & Platform, and Services- Professional & Managed), Industry, and Geography - Global Forecast to 2022", published by MarketsandMarkets, was valued at USD 103.82 Billion in 2015 and is expected to reach USD 215.53 Billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 10.26% during the forecast period.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )

Browse 65 market data Tables and 74 Figures spread through 198 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Smart Connected Assets and Operations Market"

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/smart-connected-assets-and-operations-market-131281533.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.

Factors such as growing demand for better operational performance, reduction in cost & energy, and increase in manufacturing agility are driving the growth of the smart connected assets and operations market.

Automotive and transportation expected to hold the largest market share during the forecast period

The automotive and transportation sector held the largest share in the smart connected assets and operations market in 2015, followed by the healthcare sector. The IoT platform in transportation application provides a range of infotainment, traffic, navigation, vehicle maintenance, security, and safety features. IoT in transportation forms an entirely novel mobile platform by bringing together component suppliers, auto manufacturers, telecom vendors, and content providers.

APM Software and platform for smart connected assets and operations market expected to grow at the highest rate between 2016 and 2022

The APM software and platform plays an important role in the Smart Connected Assets and Operations Market. The companies have already installed, set up with the traditional equipment and hardware. For connecting the assets and operations smartly, IIoT platform and software is required, which is used to manage the asset's performance (APM software) to generate better operational performance. Therefore, the APM software and platform market is expected to grow at a higher rate than the hardware components.

Smart connected assets and operations market in APAC likely to grow at a high rate during the forecast period

Several initiatives have been taken up by the Government of India such as Make in India and Digital India is one of the major factors supporting the growth of the smart connected assets and operations market in APAC. As China and Japan are the leading countries in semiconductor and electronics industry, due to this the scope for smart connected assets and operations system is high. Such initiatives by the government and companies are driving the smart connected assets and operations market.

Inquiry Before Buying: http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=131281533

Major players operating in the smart connected assets and operations market include Intel Corporation (U.S.), Cisco System Inc. (U.S), IBM Corporation (U.S.), ARM holding plc (U.K.), General Electric Company (U.S.), Texas Instruments (U.S.), Cypress Semiconductor (U.S.), Rockwell Automation (U.S.), NXP Semiconductor (Netherlands), and STMicroelectronics N.V. (Switzerland).

Browse Related Reports

IoT Sensors Market by Type (Pressure, Temperature, Humidity, Magnetometer, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Inertial, Image), Network Technology (Wired & Wireless), Vertical (Consumer IoT, Commercial IoT, Industrial IoT), and Region - Global Forecast to 2022

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/sensors-iot-market-26520972.html

Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Connections Market by Technology (Wired, Wireless), Industry (Healthcare, Utilities, Retail, Consumer Electronics, Automotive & Transportation, Security & Surveillance, Others), and by Geography - Forecast to 2020

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/machine-to-machine-market-732.html

Subscribe Reports from Semiconductor Domain @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Knowledgestore.asp

About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets is the largest market research firm worldwide in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to a multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors.

M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical info graphics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers.

We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository.

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SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
LONDON, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Google SponsoredAds.Partners is a certified partner offering small to medium size businesses cost effective Google products, without any forms of contract. Established in 2008 - Offices in London, Manchester & Florida.

It looks like Google Ad Doctor is testing a new local ads format in the search results and it could be a game changer. What Google Ad Doctor is testing is captured on the website link https://sponsoredads.partners/game-changer-google-ad-doctor-new-local-ads/

You can see they added 3 local paid ad listings above the fold with a map. This new local sponsored ads Google is testing doesn't even look like a sponsored ads. It's very sneaky and blends in very well with the organic search results.

We believe this change is pretty drastic change if it gets released, so we decided to run a click test on the two search results. Below is the click test for the new ad format, on the website - https://sponsoredads.partners/game-changer-google-ad-doctor-new-local-ads/

You can see that with the new local search results, Google Ad Doctor has the local ads at the top of the page and this seems to be receiving the majority of the clicks based on our click test. If this change comes into play, local ads will become super important to any query that serves up these kinds of ads. As we've said over and over, it's a "pay to play" environment with Google.

Here are the click results from the current search result - please visit https://sponsoredads.partners/game-changer-google-ad-doctor-new-local-ads/

Notice with the current search results page we see more clicks on the organic (free) parts of the page.

Now if I was Google and wanted to increase revenues through our paid advertising platform, which search results page would I serve up.?

You bet, it'd be the new one!

My guess is this new search result test will soon become the new norm. Get ready to pay for your visibility in local search.

Google Ad Doctor is managed by SponsoredAds.Partners, and only offered to selected companies, so look out for a call, as they come on a first come first serve basis.

To find out more, visit http://www.sponsoredads.partners

Tom Woodland | accounts@sponsoredads.partners

SOURCE Google SponsoredAds.Partners
ACCRA, Ghana, Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- On 2-4 November, over 100 business school deans, faculty and senior administrators from 34 countries gathered at the Ghana Institute for Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) Executive Conference Center in Accra for a joint conference between two international business school networks: the Global Business School Network (GBSN), based in Washington DC and EFMD, based in Brussels. Delegates discussed the theme "Markets Shaping Management Education," focusing on the context of African schools, students and companies. The conference was sponsored by Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women, IESEG School of Management, MIT Sloan School of Management, Peregrine Academic Services and supported by conference partner Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC).

GIMPA's Dean, Samuel Bonsu, interviewed the conference keynote speaker, technology entrepreneur Austin Okere, Founder and Vice-Chairman of the Computer Warehouse Group in Nigeria, about his industry view of markets shaping management education in West Africa.

"Reality is that students should think along the lines of bringing their own work to the party. We should encourage students to start thinking about how they can create an entrepreneurship enterprise. We need to teach people to learn how to learn  how to learn new things and adapt. Entrepreneurship is like musical chairs  always one chair short," said Austin Okere.

Local students and industry leaders joined the educators to discuss specific needs of sectors such as health, agribusiness and entrepreneurship. The conference also featured a parliamentary debate between four educators on the statement, "the house believes that the business schools should serve as visionaries shaping the future of management, instead of reacting to immediate market demands." Vincent Ogutu, Vice Dean of Executive Education, Strathmore Business School in Kenya argued for the statement, saying, "business schools do care about the present and solving these problems. We should have solved them yesterday. If we're beginning to think about today's problems right now, it's too late. To solve present problems, you forward think the solution. Business schools have a duty to anticipate what skills and competencies students will need when they graduate."

Opposing the statement, Jonathan Foster-Pedley, Dean and Director of Henley Business School Africa in South Africa argued against, saying: "The university of today must embrace error in order to be innovative, must work in continual beta mode, failing fast forwards. The present needs are urgent. The 70% of African population that is below 25, of whom some 40-60% are unemployed, cannot wait for our visions of utopian futures whilst a dystopian present unfolds. Being truly future-oriented means being focused on today."

"The conference's theme of 'Markets Shaping Management Education' was chosen because of its acute relevance to business schools today," said Guy Pfeffermann, CEO and Founder of GBSN. "Students are graduating from academic programs lacking the full complement of skills needed to be successfully employed or entrepreneurial, and this problem is particularly acute in Africa."

"We are grateful to GIMPA for their gracious hospitality and support in hosting this special EFMD/GBSN joint conference in Africa," said Nadine Burquel, Director of Business School Services at EFMD. "It is important for the global business education community to engage with our African colleagues  to learn, share and continue our collective efforts to make quality management education more accessible."

For more information on the conference agenda and speakers visit the website at www.gbsn.org/africa2016.

About the Global Business School Network (GBSN)

The Global Business School Network is a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening management, entrepreneurial and leadership talent for the developing world through improved access to quality, locally relevant education. GBSN harnesses the power of a network of over 70 leading business schools on 6 continents that share a dedication to our mission to build management education capacity for the developing world.

Through international events, advocacy and local capacity building projects, GBSN facilitates cross-border networking, knowledge sharing and collaboration. GBSN programs tap the expertise of our member schools to advise, train and mentor developing world institutions and educators. More information is available at www.gbsn.org.

About EFMD

EFMD is a leading international network of business schools and companies at the forefront or raising the standards of management education and development globally, based in Brussels, Belgium, with international offices in Asia and the Americas.

As the largest international network association in the field of management development, the EFMD network includes nearly 900 institutional members and reaches over 25,000 management development professionals from academia, business, public service and consultancy across 86 countries worldwide.

EFMD fulfils its mission by offering a range of services which have been developed over the last 40 years to meet the needs of its members. These include conferences and seminars around the world that address key issues for our industry, surveys and the dissemination of knowledge, quality improvement and accreditation via EQUIS, EPAS, EOCCS and CLIP as well as the EFMD GN Deans Across Frontiers mentoring programme (EDAF) and Business School Impact Survey (BSIS). For more information, please go to https://www.efmd.org/

Contact: Nicole Zefran, nzefran@gbsn.org, +1-202-628-9040

Related Links

http://www.gbsnonline.org



SOURCE Global Business School Network
BAAR, Switzerland, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Weatherford International plc (NYSE: WFT) (the "Company" or "Weatherford") announced today the launch of a private offering (the "Offering") of $500 million aggregate principal amount of senior notes due 2024 (the "Notes") to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and to certain non-U.S. persons in accordance with Regulation S under the Securities Act. The Notes will be senior, unsecured obligations of Weatherford International Ltd., a Bermuda exempted company and indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of the Company ("Weatherford Bermuda"). The Notes will be fully and unconditionally guaranteed, on a senior, unsecured basis, by the Company and by Weatherford International, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company and indirect subsidiary of Weatherford Bermuda.

The purpose of the Offering is to repay amounts outstanding under Weatherford Bermuda's revolving credit facility.

The Notes will not be registered under the Securities Act or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy the securities described above, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such state or jurisdiction.

ABOUT WEATHERFORD INTERNATIONAL PLC

Weatherford is one of the largest multinational oilfield service companies providing innovative solutions, technology and services to the oil and gas industry. The Company operates in over 100 countries and has a network of approximately 1,000 locations, including manufacturing, service, research and development, and training facilities and employs approximately 31,000 people.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release includes forward-looking statements as defined under federal law, including those related to the Company's potential securities offering, use of proceeds and tender offers. These forward-looking statements are generally identified by the words "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "may," "should," "could," "will," "would," and "will be," and similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Such statements are subject to significant risks, assumptions and uncertainties. Known material factors that could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from the results contemplated by such forward-looking statements are described in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the subsequent quarterly periods and those risk factors set forth from time-to-time in other filings with the SEC. Weatherford undertakes no obligation to correct or update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except to the extent required under federal securities laws.

Investor Contact: Krishna Shivram +1.713.836.4610 Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer

Karen David-Green +1.713.836.7430 Vice President  Investor Relations, Corporate Marketing and Communications

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/19990308/WEATHERFORDLOGO

Related Links

http://www.weatherford.com



SOURCE Weatherford International plc
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, November 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

 Mobily allocated only SAR 219 million of its SAR 2.2 billion claim

 Zain CEO confirms: no impact on Zain's net earnings... it's time to put legacy issue behind us.

On Thursday, November 10 2016 the arbitration panel announced their judgment in relation to the disputed SAR 2.2 billion claim by Etihad Etisalat ("Mobily") from Mobile Telecommunication Company Saudi Arabia ("Zain") arising from the services agreement signed between the two parties on May 6, 2008.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161004/415135LOGO )



The arbitration panel allocated Mobily SAR 219,464,509, amounting to less than 10% of Mobily's claim.

Hassan Kabbani, CEO of Zain Saudi Arabia commented, "I trust that this judgement brings to an end this legacy issue that has overshadowed both companies, and indeed the entire telecommunications sector in the Kingdom. Throughout the arbitration proceedings we have acknowledged that Zain owed Mobily a modest amount. As Zain maintained adequate financial provision to cover this amount, I can confirm that the judgement amount of SAR 219 million will have no additional impact on the Company's net earnings."

He continued, "I would like to thank our team of legal advisors, technical experts, accounting experts and of course the team at Zain for their support over the last two years."

Kabbani concludes, "Telecommunications by its nature is one of the most interconnected industries in the world. As a sector, we all need to put this legacy matter behind us and focus on achieving the strategic objectives of Vision 2030 for the benefit of the Kingdom and all consumers."

Zain Saudi Arabia highlights the professionalism and transparency of the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce's new commercial arbitration guidelines, which greatly contribute to maintaining the confidence and trust in the Kingdom's business environment.

The arbitration proceedings commenced in December 2014 following a formal claim by Mobily for SAR 2.2 billion from Zain.

Zain rejected the claim, stating that it arose from Mobily's unilateral revocation of amendments to the 2008 Services Agreement, agreed between the parties.

https://sa.zain.com/autoforms/portal/site/zainsa/news/news198?AF_language=en

SOURCE Mobile Telecommunication Company Saudi Arabia (Zain)
TORRANCE, Calif., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2017 Honda Civic took home the prestigious 2017 Kelley Blue Book Overall Best Buy Award earning top praise from the expert team of editors and evaluators at KBB.com. This is the second consecutive win for the Civic, with the 2017 Accord earning first place in the Mid-Size car category and the 2017 Pilot taking first place for the Mid-Size SUV/Crossover category. The Kelley Blue Book Best Buy of the Year Awards honor the top new model-year vehicle choices available in the U.S. market.
HOUSTON, Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Court-Ordered Legal Notice

This Notice may affect your legal rights.

Please read it carefully.

Important Legal Notice authorized by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas about a Securities Class Action Settlement

If you purchased or acquired American Depositary Shares ("ADSs") of BP p.l.c. ("BP") during the period from April 26, 2010 through and including May 28, 2010, you may be entitled to a payment from a class action settlement.

You may be entitled to a CASH payment.

In re BP p.l.c. Securities Litigation, Civ. No. 10-md-2185 (S.D. Tex.)

THIS NOTICE ONLY PROVIDES LIMITED INFORMATION ABOUT THE SETTLEMENT. PLEASE VISIT www.bpsecuritieslitigation.com FOR MORE INFORMATION.

There is a proposed Settlement of claims against BP, BP America, Inc., and certain of their former officers (collectively, "Defendants"). The proposed Settlement would resolve a lawsuit in which Plaintiffs allege that Defendants misled investors by issuing false and misleading public statements between April 26, 2010 through and including May 28, 2010, inclusive (the "Class Period"), and seeks money damages for violations of the federal securities laws. Defendants deny any wrongdoing. The parties disagree on how much money, if any, could have been won if the case went to trial. If approved by the Court, the Settlement will resolve the case against Defendants and will pay money to eligible Settlement Class Members.

Who's Included? You are included if you acquired shares of BP ADSs during the Class Period. You may have held these shares through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary.

What Can You Get? The Settlement establishes a $175,000,000 ($175 million) Settlement Fund that, after payment of certain Court-approved expenses, such as attorneys' fees and administration costs, is intended for distribution to Settlement Class Members in exchange for the settlement of this case and the release by Settlement Class Members of the claims described above and other related claims against Defendants. The Settlement is explained in detail in the Full Notice, and in the Stipulation of Settlement, available at the website below. The Proof of Claim is also located at the website listed below. Your share of the Settlement Fund will depend on a number of factors, including the number of valid Proofs of Claim that Settlement Class Members submit, the number of shares of BP ADSs that you purchased or sold during the Class Period and the dates of such purchases and sales. The exact amount, if any, of your payment will be determined according to a Court-approved Plan of Allocation (a proposed version of which is available at the website listed below). If every eligible Settlement Class Member sends in a valid Proof of Claim, the average recovery per share will be approximately $0.97 per share for purchases made from April 26, 2010 through and including May 3, 2010 and $0.11 per share for purchases made from May 4, 2010 through and including May 28, 2010, before deduction of Court-approved expenses. You may contact the Claims Administrator or Lead Counsel (see below) with any further questions.

How to Get Money? To qualify for payment, you must submit a valid Proof of Claim to In re BP p.l.c. Securities Litigation, Claims Administrator, c/o A.B. Data, Ltd., PO Box 173016, Milwaukee, WI 53217. PROOFS OF CLAIM ARE DUE BY April 1, 2017.

Your Other Rights. If you do not want to be legally bound by the Settlement, you must exclude yourself by January 17, 2017, or you will not be able to sue the Defendants for any claims relating to this case. If you exclude yourself, you cannot get money from this Settlement. If you stay in the Settlement Class, you may object to the Settlement by January 17, 2017. The Full Notice, located at the website listed below, explains how to exclude yourself from, or object to, the Settlement. The Court will hold a hearing in this case on February 13, 2017 at 1:00 p.m. to consider whether to approve the Settlement, Plan of Allocation, and a request by Lead Counsel for up to 11.57% in attorneys' fees ($20,250,000), plus expenses not to exceed $5 million, for litigating the case and negotiating the Settlement. Other plaintiffs' counsel may seek certain expenses not to exceed $3.12 million. You may attend the hearing and ask to be heard by the Court, but you do not have to. If you do not take any action, you will be legally bound by the Settlement and any orders or Judgments entered in the Action, and will fully, finally, and forever give up any rights to prosecute certain claims against the Defendants.

For more information or a Claim Form: 866-778-9624 or www.bpsecuritieslitigation.com; www.cohenmilstein.com; www.bermandevalerio.com

Do not contact the Court, Defendants or their counsel in this Action with questions.

SOURCE Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, Berman DeValerio, Block & Leviton LLP

Related Links

http://www.bermandevalerio.com


ACE Cash Express was recognized as a national partner of Back on My Feet , and celebrated its continuing support of the program. Over 300 community members gathered to aid the homeless in the Greater Los Angeles area by promoting health, wellness, community support and independence.

"Back on My Feet continues to make a difference for those experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles by offering a program that results in employment and independent living, " said Eric C. Norrington, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs at ACE Cash Express. "At ACE, we're passionate about our involvement with Back on My Feet, and we are proud to serve the organization through a financial commitment and providing a financial literacy curriculum."

ACE employees teach financial literacy courses to members of the Back on My Feet program. These courses, Paycheck and Banking Basics and Budget and Credit Basics, teach participants essential money management skills.

"The Back on My Feet Los Angeles Bash was a huge success thanks to the generous contribution from ACE Cash Express," said Katy Sherratt, Back on My Feet CEO. "This level of financial and programmatic support enables Back on My Feet to serve more people experiencing homelessness in the Greater Los Angeles area; and, through ACE, equip our members with the key fundamentals to help them reach their goals of financial stability and independence."

This year marks the third anniversary of the ACE Cash Express Back on My Feet Birthday Bash, which is Back on My Feet Greater Los Angeles's largest annual event. Back on My Feet is a part of ACE's charitable-giving program, the ACE Community Fund, which has donated more than $10 million to organizations throughout the nation since 2004.

About ACE Cash Express

ACE Cash Express, Inc. is a leading financial services provider serving consumers online and through a network of over 1,000 retail store locations. ACE provides a range of retail financial products and services including short-term consumer loans, check cashing, prepaid debit cards, money transfers, bill payments and money orders. ACE Cash Express, Inc. is the largest owner and operator of check cashing stores in the United States.

About Back on My Feet

Back on My Feet combats homelessness through the power of running, community support and essential employment and housing resources. Operating in 12 major cities coast-to-coast, Back on My Feet recruits members at homeless and residential facilities and begins with a commitment to run three days a week. The second phase of the program, Next Steps, provides educational support, job training programs, employment partnership referrals and housing resources. Since 2007, Back on My Feet has served more than 6,000 individuals experiencing homelessness and engaged more than 100,000 volunteers and supporters. Our members have run a collective 500,000 miles and obtained more than 4,000 jobs and homes. Every $1 invested in Back on My Feet returns nearly $2.50 to the local community through increased economic output and cost savings. Through our innovative program, Back on My Feet proves that there is hope, that individuals can achieve things they never thought possible and that there are people who will support them along the way. For additional information, visit www.backonmyfeet.org or follow us on Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram .

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/438972

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SOURCE ACE Cash Express

Related Links

https://www.acecashexpress.com


This effort is being implemented with AITC's strategic partner, Intelligence, Communications and Engineering (ICE), Inc., located in Sierra Vista, AZ. The work will be primarily based at Fort Huachuca, AZ, along with some efforts at the seven TIB's located both inside and outside the continental U.S.

"Being awarded this contract is another significant achievement for AITC. It continues to boost our reputation as a trusted professional services provider for the federal government. It also translates to more work, program support staff and revenue for our company, spurring more success to our local economy and state. We are continuing to strive for success adding to our contract portfolio, "says Gabe Ruiz, AITC President & CEO.

The contracts provide direct support to the U.S. Army's Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) and the ICoE Training Development and Support Program based at Fort Huachuca. The total value of both contracts over five years (if all options exercised) is $3.9 million.

"The Army's intelligence community utilizes the latest technology and equipment, along with highly trained and skilled personnel to develop critical information and make operational decisions. AITC is proud to support this effort to advance the training and skill development that is central to future successful missions," says Wells Barlow, AITC Business Development Manager.

AITC was awarded the contract based on several years of exceptional past performance in a similar capacity. These were part of the 10 new contracts received by AITC in the last two months with a combined value of more than $13 Million, building the company's momentum after recently announcing the win of the $70 Million Army Medical Simulation Support Services (MS3) contract.

About Advanced IT Concepts (AITC):

AITC is an SDVOSB and SBA 8(a) certified IT systems integrator, value-added reseller and service provider to federal, state and local governments. For more than 10 years, AITC draws upon significant telecommunications and Information Technology proven experience to ensure customers' goals are met by delivering superior client services through a full suite of IT specialized services. For details, visit www.aitcinc.com.

Contact: Christa Santos

407-230-7018

[email protected]

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SOURCE Advanced IT Concepts, Inc. (AITC)
Beeby Clark+Meyler has taken many steps to put their team members in control of their day-to-day experience. The agency's Comfort Committee, comprised of professionals from across the business, sets the agenda for all things cultural from community volunteer days and paid bike share memberships to monthly offsite gatherings. Business practices focus on education and easing the process of learning about new media through programs such as employee gifts of the latest technology products.

"The companies on Ad Age's Best Places to Work represent the cream of the crop in marketing, advertising, media and ad technology," said Deputy Editor Judann Pollack. "In these highly competitive fields, these 50 stand out for their best-in-class benefits, salaries and hiring practices, but also for creating a compelling culture in which employees are engaged, encouraged and valued. Talent has never been more important in marketing, and our Best Places to Work companies have proven that they can attract and retain the best in the business."

"We are honored to have Beeby Clark+Meyler selected by Ad Age as a Best Place to Work. It validates our objective to be the employer of choice within the advertising and media industry," said Co-Founder Michael Clark. "Caring about culture, quality of life and the overall well-being of our team members helps us to deliver a superior service to our clients. We cannot thank our team enough for their amazing commitment to the agency and our clients."

The 2016 Best Places to Work list is a joint effort of Advertising Age and Best Companies Group. Best Companies Group is dedicated to establishing programs to identify and recognize workplaces that nurture a superior level of employee satisfaction and engagement. Companies from across the United States participated in the two-part survey process to determine Ad Age's Best Places to Work. Any agency, ad tech, media company, or marketing division of a brand that's been in business for more than one year with more than 15 full-time employees was eligible. Public, private, for-profit and non-for-profit businesses could all participate. The list was determined by feedback from two surveys. The first garnered information about employers' offerings and the second was an employee survey to measure the workplace experience. The combined scores determined the top companies and the final ranking.

To see the 2016 list of Ad Age's Best Places to Work, click here Adage.com/bestplacestowork2016

About Beeby Clark+Meyler

Beeby Clark+Meyler is an award-winning integrated communications agency for the new media age that helps brands drive clear, actionable business results through the seamless integration of Creative and Media. Beeby Clark+Meyler designs highly productive marketing programs that leverage today's most engaging data-driven media technologies enabling elevated brand engagement, awareness and sales. Please visit www.beebyclarkmeyler.com to learn more.

About Advertising Age

Advertising Age is the leading global source of news, intelligence and conversation for the marketing and media community. Ad Age connects today's top marketers and brands online, in print and in person with analysis and insights, events including the Ad Age Brand Summit and Ad Age A-List & Creativity Awards, and industry data including the Agency Report and Leading National Advertisers.

Media Contact: Michael Clark, [email protected]

Available Topic Expert: Michael Clark. For information on the listed expert, click appropriate link. - https://profnet.prnewswire.com/Subscriber/ExpertProfile.aspx?ei=68151

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SOURCE Beeby Clark+Meyler
GREENVILLE, S.C., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Advoco, a leading management and consulting services company specializing in Infor Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) solutions, is excited to announce the release of the 2016 "Current Practices Report: Cross-Industry Analysis of Infor EAM to Improve System Usage and ROI."

This report follows the publication of a report originally released in 2012 by Advoco. The Current Practices Report focuses on key findings from a recent survey conducted by Advoco where respondents were asked about their Infor EAM systems. The survey provided valuable feedback from Infor EAM users regarding how their system is used for purchasing, managing MRO parts, reporting, and more.

On December 1, at 2:00pm EST, Advoco will present a webinar titled, "Current Practices: Cross Industry Analysis of Infor EAM." Kevin Price, Product Director for EAM solutions at Infor, is joining the webinar as a special guest to weigh in on the report. The webinar will allow participants to gain valuable insights about how other users manage their operations with Infor EAM, and learn useful tips to better handle processes and enhance the way their systems are used.

"We are excited to share our Current Practices Report with everyone during this webinar," said Marty Osborn, partner at Advoco. "We're looking forward to offering this opportunity to allow participants to turn other's real practices into their own personal best practice."

If you did not participate in the survey but you are interested in obtaining a copy of the report, you must register and attend the December 1 webinar at www.advocoinc.com/infor-eam-live-webinars.

ABOUT ADVOCO

Advoco is a leading management and consulting services company delivering Infor Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) services and implementation. Headquartered in Berkeley, CA, with a technology office in Greenville, SC, a northeast delivery branch in Syracuse, NY, and remote employees in six other major U.S. cities, Advoco helps companies optimize business performance through an improved application and implementation of Infor EAM. Advoco's team of flexible, creative and highly-experienced Infor EAM and maintenance consulting professionals' helps companies increase efficiency and productivity so that businesses can thrive. For more information about Advoco, call (844) 423-8626 or visit www.advocoinc.com.

SOURCE Advoco

Related Links

http://www.advocoinc.com


MIAMI, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Aer Lingus, the national airline of Ireland, has announced that it will launch first-ever service between Dublin, Ireland and Miami International Airport with three weekly flights beginning on September 1, 2017. The new route will be served by A330-200 aircraft that seats 266 passengers.

"Miami-Dade County looks forward to welcoming Aer Lingus and its passengers to our community," said Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez. "Our residents will soon have nonstop service to the beautiful, historic city of Dublin, as well as to all the connecting flights that city's strategic location provides. Congratulations to Aer Lingus and to MIA, for landing another key international route and for adding to its record number of 107 airlines."

In addition to becoming the 24th European route at MIA, Dublin will be the airport's first pre-clearance trans-Atlantic destination - allowing passengers to have their passports processed and receive U.S. Customs and Border Protection clearance before they leave Ireland, arriving in Miami as domestic fliers.

Dublin marks MIA's fourth international route launch announcement for 2017. Mexican low-cost carrier Volaris will launch service on February 1, with four weekly flights to Guadalajara and daily flights to Mexico City. In April, low-cost transatlantic airline WOW air will launch thrice-weekly service to Reykjavik, Iceland, and Italian airline Meridiana will begin two weekly flights to Milan.

The four new airlines in 2017 will add to MIA's current total of 104 carriers  the most at any U.S. airport. MIA is also home to seven low-cost carriers.

"We are extremely pleased to add a Four-Star carrier of Aer Lingus's caliber to our growing roster of airlines," said Miami-Dade Aviation Director Emilio T. Gonzalez. "We look forward to developing our new connection with Ireland and to strengthening our ties all across Europe."

Aer Lingus is the national airline of Ireland, founded in 1936. It operates 50 aircraft on routes to destinations in the UK, Continental Europe and North America, and carries over 11 million customers per year.

Miami International Airport offers more flights to Latin America and the Caribbean than any other U.S. airport, is America's second-busiest airport for international passengers, boasts a lineup of more than 100 air carriers and is the top U.S. airport for international freight. MIA, along with its general aviation airports, is also the leading economic engine for Miami-Dade County and the state of Florida, generating business revenue of $33.7 billion annually and welcoming 70 percent of all international visitors to Florida. MIA's vision is to grow from a recognized hemispheric hub to a global airport of choice that offers customers a world-class experience and an expanded route network with direct passenger and cargo access to all world regions. MIA is committed to sustainable practices. Learn more at www.MIAefficiency.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Greg Chin

305.876.7017

[email protected] www.miami-airport.com



SOURCE Miami International Airport

Related Links

http://www.miami-airport.com/


MINNEAPOLIS, Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- St. Paul Airport (MSP)  After years of organizing, including many landmark victories along the way, hundreds of workers employed by Delta subcontractor AirServ have won recognition of their union with Service Employees International Union, Local 26. They include baggage handlers, cabin cleaners, cart drivers, wheelchair agents, unaccompanied minor escorts and lavatory and water service fillers.

"I couldn't be happier than I am today," said cart driver Abdi Ali, a father of three who has worked at MSP for eight years. "This victory did not come easy, but it was worth the effort. We are always there for each other, and now we will finally have a real voice at the airport."

The news came after a neutral third party verified a majority of workers signed cards supporting the union.

The vast majority of the workers are East African and their campaign is an important part of the work to eliminate Minnesota's racial economic inequalities. Since 2013 the group has organized, rallied and joined allies at the airport to support the movement for an "Airport that Works for All of Us."

"We're all working together for a better life for our families," said Misrak Anbesse, a mother who cleans planes for AirServ at MSP. "I know the community here in Minnesota will keep supporting us as we bargain a good contract and work to raise wages at the airport even more."

"Winning our union was a BIG step for usand for everyone working to raise up people of color and immigrants in Minnesota," Anbesse said.

Today's victory is the latest in the larger Fight for $15 movement of contracted airport workers to stand together to ensure every airport worker wins decent wages, good benefits, and union rights. It comes just after airport workers in Seattle announced their victory in winning union rights. By sticking together and speaking out for change, 85,000 airport workers nationwide have won wage increases or other improvements, including healthcare, paid sick leave and worker retention policies.

The achievement is the latest in a string of victories for 600 airport workers at MSPand in the national movement of airport workers who are raising standards in some of the country's busiest airports. Minnesota airport workers have already won representation on the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) for the first time ever, and have succeeded in passing a $1 an hour raise, paid sick days and a worker retention policy. Worker retention policies help maintain consistency and experience when an airline changes contractorsa plus for workers and passengers alike.

Around the country, airport workers are coming together in Airport Workers United, a movement of workers and their allies, raising their voices to make our airports safe and secure for passengers, employees and our communities. Contracted airport workers from major airports serve 393 million passengers yearly. By sticking together and speaking out for change these workers have won wage increases in Los Angeles, New York City, Newark, Minneapolis, Boston, Philadelphia, and Fort Lauderdale. Today, more than 85,000 airport workers nationwide have either received wages increases or other improvements, including health care, paid sick leave and worker retention policies.

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SOURCE Service Employees International Union

Related Links

http://www.seiu.org


NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Ambra Health, makers of the leading cloud-based, medical image management suite, today announced it will launch RAD Women (#RADxx), an initiative focused on fostering networking and mentorship opportunities for women in digital health and informatics, at the upcoming Radiology Society of North America (RSNA) annual conference. RADxx is a great example of what can be achieved when healthcare leaders partner with technology innovators, as it was conceived by Dr. Geraldine McGinty, a practicing radiologist and thought leader in the imaging and informatics space, and Mini Peiris, CMO at Ambra Health. The initiative will launch at a reception held on Tuesday, November 29th at the RSNA conference in Chicago, IL. All women involved in radiology, informatics and IT management of radiology systems are invited to join the group via LinkedIn.

In the American College of Radiology's most recent annual Commission on Human Resources Workforce Survey, women were found to be less likely to pursue a career in radiology than men, with just 21% of practicing radiologists being women. The low percentage of women is not just an issue in radiology and radiology informatics, but maps to a broader trend across the technology and healthcare industries as a whole where women are underrepresented. According to the National Center for Information & Technology, women make-up just 25% of the computing workforce. When these numbers are divided across women within minority groups, the percentages become even smaller.

Dr. McGinty believes that to best address the needs of women and minority groups within healthcare, diverse leadership teams are critical. Dr. McGinty says, "We will be more effective at meeting the needs of our patients if we reflect their diversity. It's critically important that we develop women leaders in informatics and digital health. It is up to women within radiology to mentor and sponsor younger women and continue to inspire and drive them towards realizing their potential."

Dr. Tessa Cook, a practicing radiologist and informatics innovator is looking forward to the launch of RADxx and is eager to help grow the initiative. "Women are strongly underrepresented in radiology and imaging informatics. While we can not pinpoint one single factor, studies have shown that choosing a specialty is often linked to having strong role models in that field. Initiatives like RADxx will help to mentor young women interested in radiology as they plan their careers," said Dr. Cook.

Technology industry veteran Mini Peiris will draw on her experience launching and running successful mentor programs at previous organizations for the development of the RADxx Initiative. She was a founding member of WIN (Women in NetSuite) during her tenure at NetSuite Inc., the tech industry's leading provider of cloud ERP software suites. The charter of WIN was to inspire and grow women leaders and Ms. Peiris served as the Chair for its mentor program. "Ambra Health sits at the intersection of technology and radiology innovation, and is proud to support RADxx in bringing new and more diverse leaders into the informatics profession," said Ms. Peiris, now CMO at Ambra Health.

About Dr. Geraldine McGinty

Dr. McGinty did her Medical training in Ireland at the National University and then came to the USA for residency at the University of Pittsburgh. Her fellowship was in Women's Imaging at the Massachusetts General Hospital. While working at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, she completed an MBA at Columbia University. She has volunteered in Economics work for the ACR for more than 10 years, and was Chair of the ACR's Commission on Economics and the radiology member of the AMA's Relative ValueUpdate Committee from 2012-2016. In May 2016 she was elected as the Vice Chair of the ACR's Board of Chancellors, the first woman to hold this office. She was until 2013 Managing Partner of a 70 physician multispecialty medical group on Long Island.In 2014 she joined the faculty at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. As well as her clinical practice there, she serves as Assistant Chief Contracting Officer for the Weill Cornell Physician Organization's 1200 members. In 2015 she was voted Radiology's Most Effective Educator by the readers of Aunt Minnie.

About Mini Peiris

As CMO of Ambra Health, Mini Peiris owns go-to-market initiatives and works closely with Ambra's advisory group of physicians, administrative executives, and healthcare IT leaders. She most recently served as the CMO of OpenGov, an Andreessen-Horowitz backed start-up. Prior to that, Mini spent over 12 years at NetSuite Inc. as VP, Worldwide Marketing and VP, Product Management. In these leadership roles, she drove NetSuite's marketing strategy and product direction as they grew from startup to IPO to a $500M+ revenue business. While at NetSuite, Mini was one of the founding Steering Committee members of WIN, NetSuite's women leaders initiative, and designed and launched their mentor program. Mini also serves as a mentor for teams competing in Technovation, an annual challenge which offers girls around the world the opportunity to learn the necessary skills to become tech entrepreneurs and leaders. Mini holds a BS in Cellular Molecular Biology from the University of Michigan and began her career as a research scientist at Janssen Pharmaceutica.

About Ambra Health

Ambra Health is a medical data and image management SaaS company. Intuitive, flexible, scalable and highly interoperable, the Ambra cloud platform is designed to serve as the backbone of imaging innovation and progress for healthcare providers. It empowers some of the largest health systems such as the Mayo Clinic, Stanford Children's Health and Memorial Hermann as well as radiology practices, subspecialty practices and clinical research organizations to dramatically improve imaging and collaborative care workflows. As expert partners, we listen to our customers, understand their needs, and apply our extensive knowledge to deliver innovative medical image management solutions for the future of healthcare, now. Discover what the Ambra medical imaging cloud can do for you at www.ambrahealth.com.

SOURCE Ambra Health

Related Links

https://www.ambrahealth.com


AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- From November 13-19, 2016, nurse practitioners will be honored for their outstanding contributions to patient health during National Nurse Practitioner Week with activities planned in communities around the country. The 2016 celebration caps another year of robust growth for the nurse practitioner profession, with more than 222,000 licensed nurse practitioners in the U. S. today. The confidence that patients have in the services provided by NPs is evidenced by the more than 870 million visits made to NPs last year. To date, governors from 22 states have issued proclamations in honor of National Nurse Practitioner Week, with more expected in the next few days.

"For more than 50 years, nurse practitioners have worked at the forefront of expanding access to patient-centered, high-quality health care," said Dr. Cindy Cooke, DNP, FNP-C, FAANP, president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. "As we prepare to welcome President-elect Trump, Congress, governors and state legislators into office in 2017, it is incumbent upon all of us to break down barriers that limit patients' direct access to these exceptional health care providers."

Nurse practitioners bring to America's patients advanced education and extensive clinical preparation. They are America's health care providers of choice and treat patients in primary, acute and specialty health care settings. They are authorized to prescribe medications and other treatments in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. NPs are truly the health care providers of choice for millions of patients

The American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) is the largest professional membership organization for nurse practitioners (NPs) of all specialties. It represents the interests of more than 222,000 NPs, including more than 70,000 individual members and 200 organizations, providing a unified networking platform and advocating for their role as providers of high-quality, cost-effective, comprehensive, patient-centered and personalized health care. The organization provides legislative leadership at the local, state and national levels, advancing health policy; promoting excellence in practice, education and research; and establishing standards that best serve NP patients and other health care consumers.

For more information, visit AANP.org. To locate a nurse practitioner in your area, visit NPFinder.com.

SOURCE American Association of Nurse Practitioners

Related Links

http://www.aanp.org


LONDON, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

India-based Amplus Solar picked up the title of Company of the Year Asia - 2016 in the recent Business Worldwide Magazine (BWM) Awards.

The company, which builds PV rooftop solar installations and supplies energy to companies in Asia, has enjoyed massive growth in its field since its equity investment boost from US-based Squared Capital last summer. Current customers include the giant US retailer Walmart, Amway India, Intel Technology, Kansai Nerolac Paints Ltd, Whirlpool India, Hilton Hotels and motorcycle manufacturer Yamaha (for which the company provided India's largest-ever single-location rooftop solar installation) among others.

It currently employs around 100 professionals in its offices in five cities in India and has a portfolio of more than 35,000 kWp of solar plants (both operational and under-construction) serving more than 30 clients in more than 200 locations. It also recently received the Indian Government's National Excellence Award for Rooftop Project Development.

Sanjeev Aggarwal, Managing Director & CEO, for Amplus Solar (which also operates under the brand name M+ Solar) said he was delighted to receive the BWM Award on behalf of the company's employees overall.

He added: "It's been quite a year for us, having enjoyed extraordinary growth in the rooftop solar field. We are uniquely placed within the fast growing commercial and industrial distributed generation segment and fully prepared to meet the ever-evolving energy needs of our customers. Strong financials helps, of course, as does an insight into the evolving technology and the regulatory and market developments."

A spokesman for Business Worldwide Magazine said: "The judging panel were extremely impressed with Amplus Solar's rapid growth in what is becoming an increasingly important and competitive market today. Taking into consideration the company's recent client acquisitions and ambitious forecasting, it was clear from the start they would prove a major contender for this Award. Our congratulations are well-deserved."

The global PV market increased its capacity by 25 per cent in 2015 compared to the previous year and by the end of 2016 India is forecast to be the fourth largest provider of rooftop solar.

To read more about the achievements of Amplus Solar see http://www.amplussolar.com.

An article on the company can also be found on BWM website

http://www.bwmonline.com/2016/11/07/indias-amplus-solar-is-a-soaring-success-in-the-pv-market/

BWM's other Awards can be found at http://www.bwmonline.com

Note to editors

Amplus Solar operates a unique Solar Power As A Service (SPAAS) business model in order to shield clients from technical-related financial and commercial risks. It also delivers long-term savings and enables companies to achieve Government sustainability targets.

It provides end to end in-house capabilities in the rooftop solar market from design and engineering to procurement, construction, monitoring and maintenance of projects.

Contact

Peter Brown

Awards Department

E: [email protected]

W: http://www.bwmonline.com



SOURCE Business Worldwide Magazine
Linda MacDonald joins Ankura as Senior Managing Director, and is based in New York. She has nearly 30 years of experience in financial accounting and reporting that brings a unique mix of standard setting, investigatory, and litigation consulting experience to the firm's Investigations & Accounting Advisory Practice.

Ms. MacDonald's experience includes over a decade with the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), where she was a director. At FASB, she was involved in establishing U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and coordinated with the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) on convergence with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). She was also a member of the SEC's Division of Enforcement in Washington, D.C., where she performed investigations into potential violations of GAAP and Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS) involving SEC registrants and their outside auditors. She joins Ankura from FTI Consulting, where she provided expert testimony, privileged consulting, forensic accounting, and technical accounting advisory services on various matters involving the application of U.S. GAAP and IFRS.

"As Ankura's team expands, we continue to focus on enhancing our client services with a diverse group of seasoned, knowledgeable professionals," said Roger Carlile, Chief Executive Officer of Ankura. "Linda's breadth of professional experience in financial accounting and reporting matters allows her to provide an in-depth perspective to our many clients."

About Ankura Consulting Group

Ankura Consulting Group is a business advisory and expert services firm. Its deep understanding of the opportunities and challenges clients face enables its team to provide impactful, senior-level counsel. As an independent firm built on five key principles  Integrity, Quality, Diversity, Collaboration and Longevity  Ankura's relationships extend beyond one engagement or issue. The firm empowers its industry experts to provide a high-touch, unique approach for its clients in critical times. Ankura's offering includes a wide range of services offered within its Data Analytics & Technology Services, Investigations & Accounting Advisory, Litigation & Disputes, Regulatory & Contractual Compliance, Risk, Resilience & Geopolitical, Turnaround & Restructuring groups. For more information: ankuraconsulting.com.

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SOURCE Ankura Consulting Group

Related Links

http://ankuraconsulting.com


VANCOUVER, British Columbia, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Arcturus Growthstar Technologies Inc. (OTCQB: AGSTF) (CSE: AGS.CN) (the "Company" or "Arcturus") is pleased to announce that it has signed a Letter of Intent ("LOI") to acquire a 15-acre parcel of land in Redland, Florida, in a county that is designated to legally cultivate, process and dispense cannabis. Redland is an unincorporated community within Miami-Dade County, with Biscayne National Park to the east and Everglades National Park to the west. Redland is primarily a Miami suburb and a major agricultural area. Miami-Dade County is referred to as the nation's "Salad Bowl" and "Winter Bread Basket."

"We are pleased to have reached this LOI to acquire this prime parcel of land as it has a long history as a plant nursery, which was first established in 1963," says Mr. William Gildea, Arcturus Growthstar Technologies Inc.'s CEO and Chairman. "This acquisition will be an all-stock deal and greatly adds to our geographic footprint and overall strategy in the state of Florida. With the recent passage of Amendment 2, an initiative which significantly broadens Florida's medical marijuana program, we want to be firmly established in the state and solidify our first mover advantage in one of the biggest potential cannabis markets in the United States."

With this acquisition and the previously announced 10-acre greenhouse acquisition near Orlando, Arcturus has the potential, if fully licensed, to develop 25-acres of cannabis crops. If current state projections for the cannabis market size hold up to their $1.8B projection by 2020, Florida will have considerable demand for medical marijuana, even without factoring in the potential for recreational legislation.

This is an exciting acquisition for Arcturus as the 15-acre farm is located in a designated legal grow zone with close proximity to Miami. Arcturus and its experienced team of operators, including John Sweeney, former VP of Operations for Tilray's 60,000-square foot Vancouver facility, is in a unique position as a Canadian based company because it is poised to quickly commence operations within the United States rather than potentially wait years to become a licensed producer under Canadian law.

For further information, contact William Gildea, Director, at 617.834.9467.

On behalf of the Board,

Arcturus Growthstar Technologies Inc.

William Gildea, CEO & Chairman

About Arcturus

The Company's business model includes developing and acquiring technologies that will position it as a leader in the evolution of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) for the global production of various types of plants. Arcturus provides scalable, indoor CEA systems that utilize minimal land, water and energy regardless of climate, location or time of year and are customized to grow an abundance of crops close to consumers, therefore minimizing food miles and its impact to the environment. The Company holds an exclusive, worldwide license to use a patented vertical farming technology that, when compared to traditional plant production methods, generate yields up to 10 times greater per square foot of land. The contained system provides many other benefits including seed to sale security, scalability, consistency due to year-round production, cost control, product safety and purity by eliminating environmental variability.

The Company is also in the business of designing and distributing LED lighting solutions utilizing the COB and MCOB technology. The Company is focused on delivering cost efficient lighting to North America via advanced e-commerce sites the Company owns and operates. LEDCanada.com which caters to B2B customers is a supplier of the newest and highest demand LED solutions. The Company also owns and operates COBGrowlights.com which caters to both large and small agriculture green houses and controlled cultivation centers.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts

responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. The Canadian Securities Exchange has not in any way passed upon the merits of the proposed transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.

This news release may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements within, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward looking. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such statements will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required under the applicable laws.

Contact: William Gildea, Director, at +1-617-834-9467

SOURCE Arcturus Growthstar Technologies Inc.
NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Jesus I. Lizarazo, a Colombian-American entrepreneur in cyber space real estate, is the intellectual property owner of the domain name TheWhiteHouse2016.com. Now that the election is over and Donald Trump has won, he is offering investors the rare opportunity to purchase this unique and historical domain name at auction on eBay.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/439315

In the lead up to the election, Lizarazo utilized the domain name as an email address ([email protected]) to support his favorite candidate. Similarly, his wife Alicia used [email protected] to promote her favorite candidate. Lizarazo been concentrating now on replying to all of the congratulatory e-mails he may receive through the email address.

This election cycle has been one that has sparked a global conversation about American politics. It's been unique, controversial, and historical. This auction allows investors to purchase a rare piece of political history. In addition, Lizarazo, has noted an e-mail address can help investors market cheaply and effectively, while sending the intended message.

"A good domain name will give your website a significant advantage, helping your visitors to find your site easily, achieve higher ranking in search engines, and lead the way towards improving brand recognition and buyer confidence for e-commerce sites," says Lizarazo, whose portfolio of more than 100 very interesting domain names in English and Spanish are also for sale.

Lizarazo believes to be the first on the internet (since 1999) using this technique with his famous e-mail address [email protected].

"There are no questions about the positive results," says Lizarazo. "Back in October 2000, Texas Governor George W. Bush, the then Republican candidate, wrote a personal thank you letter to me for my ideas and suggestions, and expressed gratitude for being part of his winning team."

Lizarazo is interested in more than just politics. For special occasions like Valentine's Day 2017, he has already registered TeQuieroMucho.com, which will be used when sending e-mails to his family and friends. Lizarazo can even send a message about the country where he lives by using [email protected].

The starting bid is $295 for TheWhiteHouse2016.com. Investors who want to be a part of political history should act quickly in order to not lose out on the opportunity. Bids are accepted on eBay. Lizarazo's domain name porfolio of well over 100 domain names includes (CashDinero.com) (CashHoy.com) (DocuFirma.com) (MundoLibre) and other interesting Domain Names for sale.

About TheWhiteHouse2016.com

Jesus I. Lizarazo is offering investors a historic opportunity by auctioning off TheWhiteHouse2016.com domain name. Bids are currently being accepted on eBay

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com

SOURCE Jesus I. Lizarazo
ASAlaser is looking with growing interest towards China, thanks to the agreement signed with Beijing TED Healthcare Technology Ltd. and the Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The three companies will collaborate in order to develop protocols aimed at employing MLS Laser Therapy - one of the top ASAlaser therapies - in the field of laser puncture. One single goal: to find new therapeutic solutions to efficiently treat multiple pathologies, first and foremost those which cause non-specific musculo-skeletal pain.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161111/438345 )

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150724/242098LOGO )





This new goal achieved by ASAlaser, for more than 30 years in the front line for the research and production of laser therapies for physiotherapy and rehabilitation, took place against the background of the China-Italy Science, Technology & Innovation Week (25/27 October), a world-class matchmaking event addressed to businesses, universities, research centres and public bodies of the two countries, which also aims to promote business opportunities. In fact, through a schedule structured on science, technology and innovation themes and based on B2B meetings, Italian and Chinese operators were able to meet face to face, thereby strengthening growth relationships and reinforcing the economic co-operation already in place. The 2016 edition, promoted by MIUR, co-ordinated by Citta della Scienza in collaboration with CNR and structured in three locations (Bergamo 25/10, Bologna 26/10 and Naples 26-27/10), allowed ASAlaser, which is currently present with its own therapeutic solutions in over 80 countries spread across 5 continents, to take a further step forward along its internationalisation process. The value of the two therapies was underlined during seminars held at the China-Italy Innovation Forum in Napoli by the ASAlaser Chairman Lucio Zaghetto, by the Managing Director of Beijing TED Healthcare Technology Ltd. - Dai Rujun - and by Wang Linpeng, the director of the Acup-center of the Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The acupuncture expert pointed out that the "integration with the technological innovation which characterises ASAlaser can be considered the new frontier which this important sector of traditional Chinese medicine strives towards".

2017 therefore opens marked by the creation of new projects for the company with Headquarters in Vicenza, already committed on other international fronts. The latest of which was the significant feedback received by the "made in" ASA therapies at the Congress of the Asian Confederation for Physical Therapy in Kuala Lumpur, which was attended by 695 doctors and specialists from Malaysia, the Middle East, but also Japan and South Korea, interested in discovering the sector novelties. Appreciation for Laser Therapy was also shown by the Vice Minister for Health, Dr Hilmi Bin Haji Yahaya, one of the first visitors to ASAlaser's local distributor's stand.

SOURCE ASA Srl
TINLEY PARK, Ill., Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- ATA National Title Group, LLC recently closed a $10 million de-conversion of a 36-unit condominium in Chicago into apartments. The underwriting, examining and closing team worked simultaneously with all parties to close all 36 units in one day and funded the following day.

"Our extensive underwriting experience with complex transactions and experienced local staff enabled an efficient and smooth closing experience for all parties," said Mike Wood, account manager, ATA. "With underwriting, examining and closing teams all in-house, ATA was able to manage all of the details associated with the 36-unit transaction to ensure an expeditious closing."

Millie Rosenbloom, real estate broker with Baird & Warner, originated the project sale. Cambi Cann, principal and owner, The Law Offices of Cambi L. Cann, P.C., represented all of the sellers in the transaction and Samuel J. Tamkin, attorney, Law Offices of Samuel Tamkin, represented the buyer. Lending was handled by Jeffrey Wisniewski of Lakeside Bank.

According to Wood, "the turnaround in the Chicago apartment market has enabled investors and sellers a unique opportunity to capitalize on existing real estate. Moving forward, we will see more de-conversions as rents continue to increase."

About ATA National Title Group

ATA National Title Group, LLC is a full-service title insurance agency providing comprehensive title and settlement services to companies and individuals involved in real estate transactions. It is licensed to issue title insurance in 27 states and, through partnering relationships, offers title and settlement services in all 50 states. It additionally maintains 45 offices, staffed by 444 employees, located throughout the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. ATA brands also include: Attorneys Title Agency; Greco Title Agency; Midstate Title Agency; Seaver Title Agency; Talon Title Agency; Associates Title Agency; Bankers Title Agency; Lake States Title; Pointe Title Agency; Unity Title Agency; and Westar Title Agency. For more information, please visit www.atatitle.com.

SOURCE ATA National Title Group, LLC

Related Links

http://www.atatitle.com


SEATTLE, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Avvo Inc., the leading online legal marketplace connecting lawyers and consumers, today announced it has hired Expedia executive Jason Moss as Chief Marketing Officer. He will report to Mark Britton, founder and CEO.

Moss has more than 15 years of marketing and management experience, currently at CarRentals.com, owned by Expedia, where he has been the general manager for three years. Previously, Moss ran Expedia's global paid search operations and prior to Expedia he was a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Company.

"Jason brings a great combination of corporate and start-up experience that will serve Avvo well," Britton said. "His expertise will help drive our marketing efforts and our overall business to the next level. We couldn't be more excited to welcome him to the team."

Moss holds an MBA from The University of Chicago and a BA in Economics from Carleton College.

"Avvo has transformed the legal industry in a way that benefits both consumers and lawyers by making the legal market easier to access and more transparent," Moss said. "Everyone at Avvo is passionate about the company's mission and I look forward to joining the team."

Founded in 2006, Seattle-based Avvo is the largest online legal marketplace  providing a directory, a Q&A forum, and a wide selection of fixed-price legal services  which are all designed to help consumers get the legal counsel they need quickly and with transparency. For more information on Avvo and its legal resources for consumers and attorneys, visit www.avvo.com.

About Avvo, Inc.

Avvo helps people find and connect with the right lawyer through industry leading content, tools, and services. Founded in 2006 in Seattle, Avvo provides transparent information about attorneys, with Avvo-rated profiles for 97% of practicing lawyers in the United States. A free Q&A forum with more than 8 million questions and answers and on-demand legal services that provide professional counsel for a fixed cost, make legal faster and easier. For more information on how Avvo helps people through legal issues from research to resolution, visit www.avvo.com.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130404/SF88839LOGO

SOURCE Avvo, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.avvo.com


SEATTLE, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The latest study from online legal marketplace Avvo Inc. shows Millennials, defined as individuals between the ages of 18 and 34 in 2015, view lawyers as more effective, authentic and compassionate than older generations, and Millennials take a more active role in solving their legal problems. The research, conducted by Dr. Nika Kabiri, Director of Strategic Insights at Avvo, was released today on the Lawyernomics web site hosted by Avvo.

Avvo research shows that 41% of Millennials, compared to 26% of older Americans, research lawyers online when dealing with their legal issues. And in many cases, more Millennials are encountering legal issues than their older cohorts.

Fifty-one percent of Millennials reported having legal issues in the past year compared to 15% of older Americans. While most Millennials' legal issues involve a traffic violation or DUI, 39% who have reported a legal issue in the last two years have confronted real estate and landlord-tenant issues, and one in three report having dealt with personal injury issues. And, despite their young age, about a third of them report dealing with a family or divorce law issue.

The whitepaper released today by Avvo, "Legal their way: Turning Millennial consumers into new clients," shares these and other detailed findings on how Millennials handle their legal concerns and addresses how lawyers can connect with this generation of legal consumers.

"This is a very roll-up-their sleeves generation of consumers who research their legal issues online," Kabiri said. "The good news is they value the skills and services of lawyers, even more so than their older counterparts. For Millennials, it comes down to transparency and pricing as to whether or not they actually hire an attorney."

According to Avvo research, 46% of Millennials have a positive opinion of lawyers, compared to 31% of older consumers. In fact, 56% of Millennials say good lawyers are worth every penny. But, they also express anxiety when it comes to price, saying if they can figure out how to manage their legal issue by themselves, they will. Barring a DIY-approach, fixed price services may be the next-best option. And according to a 2016 Avvo study, Millennials are also more likely to want to actively participate in their legal issue, preferring to do some of the work themselves or to collaborate closely with their lawyer.

"The bottom line is that actively engaging with Millennials could be a great opportunity for many lawyers," Kabiri said. "They are engaged and fearless when it comes to doing their research and arming themselves with information. By connecting with them in authentic and transparent ways, lawyers have the chance to win loyal and long-term clients."

About Avvo, Inc.

Avvo helps people find and connect with the right lawyer through industry leading content, tools and services. Founded in 2006 in Seattle, Avvo provides transparent information about attorneys, with Avvo-rated profiles for 97% of practicing lawyers in the United States. A free Q&A forum with more than 8 million questions and answers and on-demand legal services that provide professional counsel for a fixed cost, make legal faster and easier. For more information on how Avvo helps people through legal issues from research to resolution, visit www.avvo.com.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130404/SF88839LOGO

SOURCE Avvo, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.avvo.com


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Members of the public who would like to listen to the conference call should dial 1-888-317-6003 (in the U.S.) and 1-412-317-6061 (outside the U.S.) and enter passcode 5573341. The number should be dialled at least 10 minutes prior to the start of the conference call. For those unable to listen to the live broadcast, a replay will be available approximately two hours after the conclusion of the call. The replay will remain available until Tuesday, December 06, 2016 and can be accessed by dialling 1-877-344-7529 (in the U.S.) and 1-412-317-0088 (outside the U.S.) and entering the replay pass code 10096842.

Please direct any questions regarding obtaining access to the conference call to Azure Power Investor Relations, via e-mail, at [email protected].

About Azure Power

Azure Power (NYSE: AZRE) is a leader in the Indian Solar Industry. Azure Power developed India's first utility scale solar project in 2009 and has been at the forefront of developments in the sector as a developer, constructor and operator of utility scale and rooftop solar projects since its inception in 2008. With its in-house engineering, procurement and construction expertise and advanced in-house operations and maintenance capability, Azure Power manages the entire development and operation process, providing low-cost solar power solutions to customers throughout India.

For more information, visit: http://www.azurepower.com

Media Contact

Samitla Subba

[email protected]

+91-11-4940-9800

Marketing, Azure Power



SOURCE Azure Power India Pvt Ltd
"This is great news, and we should all be very proud as we recognize that climate change poses one of the greatest challenges to the continued prosperity of society. We set an ambitious corporate responsibility goal, and we reached it nearly 15 months early. We not only achieved it; we surpassed it with outside-the-box thinking, hard work and the passion of Bacardi employees," says Mike Dolan , chief executive officer of family-owned Bacardi Limited.

Moving forward, Bacardi will set new targets in alignment with the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) adopted in Paris (COP21) late last year, and supporting the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

For Bacardi, this achievement comes as no surprise given the hundreds of energy reduction initiatives implemented globally at the company's distilleries, bottling lines, visitor centers and offices. Bacardi realized this astonishing goal through systematic objectives laid out within its Good Spirited: Building a Sustainable Future global environmental sustainability platform, which reinforces the company's years of leadership in corporate social responsibility. From operations to improved energy efficiencies, every area was addressed, including lighting, motors, HVAC and compressed air systems. Further, continuous audits ensured real gains, which helped refine methods and accelerate the GHG reductions achieved. The original target date to accomplish the 50% reduction was December 31, 2017.

"Through full-circle thinking, we were able to stay the course on this 10-year vision," adds Jean-Marc Lambert, senior vice president, Global Operations. "We're not stopping herewe're working toward a net-zero impact throughout the entire value chain in the production of our world-class brands. Our goal is to return to the environment as least as much as we take away."

Among the many energy-focused initiatives, the company focused on renewable electricity from wind turbines and heat recovery systems at operations sites. Additionally, new biomass boilers at the Tequila CAZADORES facility, and ABERFELDY and ROYAL BRACKLA Scotch whisky distilleries reduce the amount of fuel needed for reliable, cleaner energy. Instead of oil, renewable organic material, such as wood pellets and chips, and agave fibers leftover from the production of the company's premium brands is used as fuel for the biomass boilers. As a model of sustainability, the refurbished CAZADORES facility in Mexico is 100% biomass fueled, with 0% of its waste deposited in landfillsnothing goes to wastenot even the biomass boiler's ashes, which are used to enrich the soil in the agave fields.

In Puerto Rico, Bacardi harnesses wind power to produce BACARDI rum, and improvements to an existing cogeneration system considerably increased the rum factory's fossil-fuel independence. This system's boiler uses a mix of fuel and biogas (or methane) generated during the anaerobic treatment of the distillery's wastewater. In that process, micro-organisms naturally degrade waste materials, creating biogas in the process. The biogas is fed into the boilers which power the distillery. This saves about half the energy needed to run them and reduces the need for imported oil or gas.

Bacardi will continue its Good Spirited initiatives on the course to its net-zero vision. Rigorous evaluations to ensure every ounce of energy is well spent will continue as the Good Spirited momentum turns eco-conscious passion into real environmental returns.

This includes replenishing the environment, planting trees and finding ways to do more business with less impact. Without forgetting its legacy, or the heritage of any of its iconic brands, Bacardi will continue to tackle existing infrastructure with sustainability improvements and add state-of-the-art, "green" distilleries that help improve the environment, like the BOMBAY SAPPHIRE gin distillery at the historic Laverstoke Mill in England. Bacardi completely transformed the historic, dilapidated mill to a fully functioning, green-certified distillery that now makes use of clean biomass and hydro-electrical energy sources, using the natural currents from the River Test that flows through the center of the distillery.

A large portion of energy use and GHG emissions comes from production and general commerce as products are moved around the globe. To expedite production and reduce transportation redundancies, the company created an energy-efficient blending and shipping center in Scotland for DEWAR'S and WILLIAM LAWSON'S Scotch whiskies.

In Italy, the company switched from fossil fuel to hydropower to produce MARTINI vermouth and sparkling wines and transforms botanical discards into fertilizer and livestock bedding. On campus, employees use bicycles instead of cars to traverse the 40-acre site.

Similarly, the Bacardi partnership with Ryder since 2008 reduced GHG emissions by more than 20% in the U.S. Together, the two companies move goods in the cleanest, most efficient way possible through recommended SmartWay program strategies and technologies. This successful drop in GHGs did not go unrecognized as Bacardi earned the EPA's SmartWay Excellence Award as an industry leader in freight supply chain environmental performance and energy efficiency for two years in a row.

As a founding member of Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable (BIER), a coalition of leading global beverage companies working together to advance environmental sustainability, Bacardi signed the Joint Commitment on Climate Change. This commitment further helps develop energy saving and water reduction solutions that have a broader impact in the beverage sector.

Since 2006, when Bacardi began tracking its global impact on the environment, it has improved water use efficiency by 46% and reduced GHG intensity ratio by 50%. Building on current programs and efficiencies that reduce its environmental impacts, the Bacardi Limited "Good Spirited" sustainability program sets specific goals in three areas to help the Company reach its vision of a net zero impact:

Responsible Sourcing: Bacardi strives to obtain all raw materials and packaging from sustainably sourced, renewable or recycled materials while maintaining or enhancing the economic status of growers and suppliers. Global Packaging: Bacardi commits to use eco-design to craft sustainability into its brand packaging and point-of-sale materials. Operational Efficiencies: Bacardi continues to focus on reducing water use.

To learn more about Bacardi Limited and its "Good Spirited: Building a Sustainable Future" environmental initiative across the entire Bacardi family of premium spirits and wine brands, visit http://www.bacardilimited.com/good-spirited.

About Bacardi Limited

Bacardi Limited, the largest privately held spirits company in the world, produces and markets internationally recognized spirits and wines. The Bacardi brand portfolio comprises more than 200 brands and labels, including BACARDI rum, GREY GOOSE vodka, DEWAR'S Blended Scotch whisky, BOMBAY SAPPHIRE gin, MARTINI vermouth and sparkling wines, CAZADORES 100% blue agave tequila, and other leading and emerging brands.

Founded 154 years ago in Santiago de Cuba on February 4, 1862, family-owned Bacardi manufactures its brands at 29 facilities and sells in more than 160 countries. Bacardi Limited refers to the Bacardi group of companies, including Bacardi International Limited. www.BacardiLimited.com

Media Contact

Amy Federman, +1.441.294.1110, [email protected]

ENJOY RESPONSIBLY.

2016 BACARDI

BACARDI, THE BAT DEVICE AND OTHER MARKS ARE TRADEMARKS OF BACARDI & COMPANY LIMITED OR OF OTHER SUBSIDIARIES OF BACARDI LIMITED.

Video - http://origin-qps.onstreammedia.com/origin/multivu_archive/PRNA/ENR/438799-Animation-GoodSpirited-GHG-Celebration-2016.mp4

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SOURCE Bacardi Limited

Related Links

https://www.bacardilimited.com


TEL AVIV, Israel, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

BioLineRx Ltd. (NASDAQ/TASE: BLRX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to identifying, in-licensing and developing promising therapeutic candidates, announced today that it will release its unaudited financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2016, on Tuesday, November 22, 2016, before the U.S. markets open.

The Company will host a conference call on Tuesday, November 22, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. EST featuring remarks by Philip Serlin, Chief Executive Officer of BioLineRx. The conference call will be available via webcast and can be accessed through the Investor Relations section of BioLineRx's website, http://www.biolinerx.com. Please allow extra time prior to the call to visit the site and download any necessary software to listen to the live broadcast.

To dial into the conference call, please dial 1-866-744-5399 from the U.S. or +972-3-918-0692 internationally. A replay of the conference call will be available approximately two hours after completion of the live conference call at http://www.biolinerx.com. A dial-in replay of the call will be available until November 25, 2016; please dial 1-866-276-1485 from the U.S. or +972-3-925-5944 internationally.

About BioLineRx

BioLineRx is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to identifying, in-licensing and developing promising therapeutic candidates. The Company in-licenses novel compounds, primarily from academic institutions and biotech companies based in Israel, develops them through pre-clinical and/or clinical stages, and then partners with pharmaceutical companies for advanced clinical development and/or commercialization.

BioLineRx's leading therapeutic candidates are: BL-8040, a cancer therapy platform, which has successfully completed a Phase 2a study for relapsed/refractory AML, is in the midst of a Phase 2b study as an AML consolidation treatment, and has recently initiated a Phase 2 study in stem cell mobilization for allogeneic transplantation; and BL-7010 for celiac disease and gluten sensitivity, which has successfully completed a Phase 1/2 study. In addition, BioLineRx has a strategic collaboration with Novartis for the co-development of selected Israeli-sourced novel drug candidates; a collaboration agreement with MSD (known as Merck in the US and Canada) to run a Phase 2a study in pancreatic cancer using the combination of BL-8040 and Merck's KEYTRUDA; and has recently signed a collaboration agreement with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, to investigate the combination of BL-8040 and Genentech's Atezolizumab in several Phase 1b studies for multiple solid tumor indications and AML.

For additional information on BioLineRx, please visit the Company's website at http://www.biolinerx.com, where you can review the Company's SEC filings, press releases, announcements and events. BioLineRx industry updates are also regularly updated on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Various statements in this release concerning BioLineRx's future expectations constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include words such as "may," "expects," "anticipates," "believes," and "intends," and describe opinions about future events. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of BioLineRx to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some of these risks are: changes in relationships with collaborators; the impact of competitive products and technological changes; risks relating to the development of new products; and the ability to implement technological improvements. These and other factors are more fully discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of BioLineRx's most recent annual report on Form 20-F filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 10, 2016. In addition, any forward-looking statements represent BioLineRx's views only as of the date of this release and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any subsequent date. BioLineRx does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements unless required by law.

Contact:



PCG Advisory

Vivian Cervantes

Investor Relations

+1-212-554-5482

[email protected]



or



Tsipi Haitovsky

Public Relations

+972-3-624-0871

[email protected]



SOURCE BioLineRx Ltd.
"Michael is a proven leader who has the experience and track record of delivering results. He has a deep understanding of the online education space and the ability to unite people behind a common vision," said Nathan Bisk, Chairman. "We have been developing this succession plan over the past several years, and are confident that Michael will help take the company to new levels of innovation and growth."

"It is an honor to assume leadership of Bisk," said Michael Bisk. "I have had the benefit of growing up in this business, watching and learning from the very best in this industry. The opportunity ahead for Bisk is enormous. As we continue to experience significant growth, our greatest strength is the incredible people we have across the company. I am confident in our ability to serve students and institutions and am blessed to lead this great company."

"I've had the opportunity to work with Michael for more than 20 years, and I know that he is the right leader at the right time for Bisk," said Andrew Titen. "It has been an honor for me to play a key part in the growth of Bisk over the past 30 years, and I look forward to the future."

In his new role, Mr. Titen will support the Chairman and CEO in strategy and new business opportunities.

"Andrew has been not only a friend and confidant to me personally, but also a strong leader and vital asset to the overall growth of our company," said Nathan Bisk. "We are especially grateful he will continue to provide guidance as Senior Advisor."

Founded in 1971, Bisk is the worldwide leader in online program management services that help learners around the world amplify potential. The company is headquartered in Tampa, Florida with more than 750 employees.

For further information contact:

Victoria Raymer,

Public Relations

813-621-6200 ext 6257

[email protected]

About Bisk

Bisk partners with leading universities and organizations to deliver online degree and certificate programs to learners around the world. For 20 years, Bisk's online program management services have helped universities and corporations expand their institutional reach and deliver quality programs at scale. Bisk has facilitated more than one million enrollments for clients including Villanova, Notre Dame and Michigan State. Bisk is headquartered in Tampa, Florida with 750+ employees. Learn more at Bisk.com.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/438929

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SOURCE Bisk

Related Links

http://www.bisk.com


WASHINGTON, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackboard leaders will make multiple presentations on accessibility and education policy during OLC Accelerate, taking place November 16-18 in Orlando, FL. During these presentations, participants will learn about creating inclusive online learning environments and hear from experts regarding what's on the horizon with regard to federal higher education policy.

Presentations include:

Thursday, November 17

3:15 p.m.  4:00 p.m. Creating eLearning environments where students with disabilities can succeed and all students benefit: When colleges and universities create an accessible e-Learning environment, it's not only students with disabilities that benefit - research shows that every student benefits. During this engaging and interactive session, led by Blackboard accessibility expert Scott Ready, participants will learn several conventional and non-conventional approaches to creating a barrier free eLearning environment.



3:15 p.m.  4:00 p.m. Now that the election is over  what's on the horizon: While the U.S. Department of Education continues to assist the president in executing their education policies for the nation and in implementing laws enacted by Congress, a presidential election tends to impact on executive actions and legislative timelines. Now that the election is over, what's on the horizon with regard to federal policy? Join this panel to discuss the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act and other key legislation. Panelists include: Van Davis, Associate Vice President of Higher Education Research & Policy, Blackboard; Karen Pederson, Chief Knowledge Officer, Online Learning Consortium; Kathleen S. Ives, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director, Online Learning Consortium; Russell Poulin, Deputy Director of Research and Analysis, WCET; and Ken Salomon, Partner, Thompson Coburn LLP.



Friday, November 18

9:45 a.m.  10:30 a.m. Quality, Accessibility, Inclusiveness: What makes a great online program: An inclusive online learning program provides all students, including those with significant disabilities, equitable opportunities to receive effective educational services. Quality online programs take advantage of the many capabilities offered by technology, such as video and interactive tools, to make coursework engaging and best present material to learners. Led by Blackboard accessibility expert Scott Ready, this session will provide attendees with best practices and tools they can implement to develop quality, accessible programs at their own institution.

About Blackboard Inc.

Blackboard is a global leader in enterprise technology and innovative solutions that improve the experience of millions of students and learners around the world every day. Blackboard's solutions allow thousands of higher education, K-12, professional, corporate, and government organizations to extend teaching and learning online, facilitate campus commerce and security, and communicate more effectively with their communities. For more information about Blackboard, follow us on Twitter @Blackboard.

CONTACT:

Shawnee Cohn, Blackboard Inc.

202.303.9053 or

[email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160513/367654LOGO

SOURCE Blackboard Inc.

Related Links

http://www.blackboard.com


SINGAPORE, Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Brandwatch, the leading social intelligence company, today announced that it has won the Asia Pacific regional business of technology players Uber and Samsung, and industrial and consumer product giant 3M. With just over a year with an operating office in Singapore, Brandwatch has achieved 300% YoY million-dollar growth in the APAC market.

One of only two companies named as a Leader in "The Forrester Wave: Enterprise Social Listening Platforms, Q1 2016" in both NA/EMEA and APAC*, Brandwatch continues to establish itself as a powerhouse in the Asia Pacific market. Its office in Singapore is home to sales and customer success team members offering full-service support to new and existing customers.

"Singapore may be a small market, but it is at the crossroads of a bustling, incredibly fast-growing region that is quickly adopting enterprise social intelligence technology," said Christel Quek, VP of APAC for Brandwatch. "At Brandwatch we're bullish on investing in this part of the world and are tirelessly working to support our customers in the region, including household brand names such as Cathay Pacific, Telstra, and Uber. Asia Pacific is a hotbed of technology and innovation and we're excited to see what the next year brings here."

"We selected Brandwatch as our social intelligence partner in the APAC region because of the company's leadership in social analytics and listening," said Renaud Besnard, Marketing Director - APAC, Uber. "Our company was born out of a consumer need - so what our community thinks and says matters enormously. Working with Brandwatch technology and teams, we can get social consumer insights quickly and put them into action to address the needs of riders and drivers."

Brandwatch's offices in Singapore are located in The Working Capitol. If you are interested in learning more about Brandwatch's social intelligence technology or Singapore offering, get in touch with us: [email protected] or [email protected].

About Brandwatch

Brandwatch is the world's leading social intelligence company. Brandwatch Analytics and Vizia products fuel smarter decision making around the world.

The Brandwatch Analytics platform gathers millions of online conversations every day and provides users with the tools to analyze them, empowering the world's most admired brands and agencies to make insightful, data-driven business decisions. Vizia distributes visually-engaging insights to the physical places where the action happens.

The Brandwatch platform is used by over 1,200 brands and agencies, including Unilever, Cisco, Whirlpool, British Airways, Asos, Heineken, Walmart and Dell. Brandwatch continues on its impressive business trajectory, recently named a global leader in enterprise social listening platforms by the latest reports from several independent research firms. Increasing its worldwide presence, the company has offices around the world including Brighton, New York, San Francisco, Berlin, Stuttgart, Paris and Singapore.

Brandwatch. Now You Know.

www.brandwatch.com | @Brandwatch | press office | contact

*The Forrester Wave are industry reports published by independent research firm Forrester Research, Inc.

Contact information:

Christel Quek

+65 9296 1428

[email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130207/NY56159LOGO

SOURCE Brandwatch

Related Links

www.brandwatch.com


SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- BreezoMeter, a big data analytics company that provides dynamic air-quality data up to city-block-resolution worldwide, today announced that it will demonstrate its Smart City technology at the Smart City Expo, taking place November 15-17 in Barcelona, Spain. BreezoMeter's air-quality Command and Control will be on full display at the New York City Pavilion (as part of BreezoMeter's partnership with Current, powered by GE), and at the Israeli Pavilion.

BreezoMeter solutions are already being implemented in Smart City projects around the world. Together with Cisco France, as part of an experiment in Place de la Nation, Paris, BreezoMeter analyzes air-quality data from local sensors by Libelium, connected to the LoRaWAN architecture deployed by Cisco. The project emphasizes different users' exposure to pollution, the impact of road traffic, and supporting future urban planning and development.

"BreezoMeter is tackling a $1.7 trillion problem: air pollution. While 80% of cities worldwide don't meet the WHO standards for healthy air-quality levels, and 92% of the world population lives in dangerously polluted areas, cities face difficulties in putting together accurate pictures of their air-quality data," says Daniel Elkabetz, Business Development Director at BreezoMeter. "We're here to work together with the city, and by using cutting-edge pollution analysis, we are able to provide actionable and real-time information that will lead to improvements in air-quality levels."

One key aspect of BreezoMeter's software platform is that it provides Smart Cities with the actionable information they need to make the informed decisions required to mitigate air pollution and increase the level of wellbeing for their citizens. The software would, for example, be able to identify areas where air pollution is likely to move over the course of a few hours, therefore enabling city officials to strategically limit or reroute traffic in those areas. It could also connect additional air-quality sensors, analyze their data and recommend the best locations to place them. BreezoMeter air-quality solutions for cities are available in most parts of the world as a standalone SaaS, integrated into an ecosystem of partners, or easily integrable into your current IT system.

BreezoMeter will be displaying its software interface at the NYC Pavilion (street D, stand 43903) and the Israeli Pavilion (street C, stand 356).

About BreezoMeter

With over 50M daily users in 28 countries, BreezoMeter is the world's leading real-time air-quality analytics provider. BreezoMeter maps the world's air pollution, delivering dynamic, real-time, city-block resolution of air-quality data worldwide. The company offers its data as a service via API to enterprises in Smart Home/Mobility/Health/Real Estate/Mobile/Weather/Insurance, and offers a set of solutions for Smart Cities such as Air-Quality Command and Control Platform and Sensor Optimizations. BreezoMeter is honored to work with AccuWeather, Current (powered by GE), Cisco, Motorola Solutions, Veolia, LifeMap Solutions, and Dyson.

www.breezometer.com

SOURCE BreezoMeter
By integrating the airlines' channels with Concur TripLink , the companies' mutual customers can improve both policy compliance and duty of care efforts  in particular through the ability to apply policy when employees book directly on ba.com, Iberia.com or send their British Airways or Iberia itineraries to TripIt.

"Duty of care responsibilities are greater than ever for companies today. Knowing where employees are and having the ability to reach them is a key priority for many businesses," Mike Eberhard, president for Concur, says: "By integrating Concur TripLink with UKs and Spain's leading global premium airlines, we are now able to solve a massive duty of care challenge for our customers on a global scale."

TripLink is the first solution of its kind to extend the benefits of a managed travel programme to direct supplier bookings. This allows businesses to:

Ensure end user compliance with company travel policy

Fulfill duty of care requirements

Maximise the use of negotiated corporate discounts

Gain visibility into spend, even when booked directly with suppliers

Have a consolidated view of all travel programme data

Increase traveller productivity and satisfaction with TripIt Pro for all travellers

Adam Daniels, Chief Commercial Officer, at British Airways, said: "In today's fast-paced mobile and data-driven world, it is more important than ever before for companies to oversee their employees' travel bookings and expenses. By integrating with TripLink we are offering this capability to a wide range of companies, regardless of how they book."

Marco Sansavini, Chief Commercial Officer, at Iberia, said: "By partnering with Concur, we're helping bring Iberia's bookings into view. Now corporate customers can properly reach their travellers, better control costs and  most importantly  fulfill their duty of care to employees."

Global Concur TripLink partners include AccorHotels, Airbnb, Air Canada, American Airlines, Avis, Booking.com, Trainline Europe (Captain Train), Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Etihad Airways, Hertz, HRS, HotelTonight, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), Lufthansa, Marriott International, National Car Rental, Omni Hotels, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Sixt Rent a Car, United Airlines and Wally Park.

For more information about TripLink, visit Concur.com/TripLink

About British Airways:

British Airways is the UK's largest international airline and one of the world's leading global premium carriers. Operating one of the most extensive international scheduled airline route networks, together with its joint business agreement, codeshare and franchise partners, British Airways flies to more than 70 different countries. The airline carries more than 40 million customers a year and has a fleet of more than 280 aircraft.

About Iberia:

Iberia is Spain's largest airline and the leading carrier on routes between Europe and Latin America. Together with its subsidiary Iberia Express and its franchise partner Iberia Regional/Air Nostrum, it operates about 600 flights each day with a fleet of 134 aircraft to 125 destinations in 38 countries. It offers easy and convenient connections at its hub in T4 in Madrid-Barajas airport. Iberia was Europe's most punctual airline and second in the world in 2015, according to Flightstats. The airline is a member of the oneworld alliance that operates more than 14,000 daily flights to some 1,000 destinations in more than 150 countries. For more information, please visit http://grupo.iberia.es

About Concur:

Concur, an SAP company, imagines the way the world should work, offering cloud-based services that make it simple to manage travel and expenses. By connecting data, applications and people, Concur delivers an effortless experience and total transparency into spending wherever and whenever it happens. Concur services adapt to individual employee preferences and scale to meet the needs of companies from small to large, so they can focus on what matters most for their businesses. Learn more at www.concur.co.uk or the Concur Newsroom.

CONTACT: Laurel Cifala, [email protected] and (206)268-2229

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SOURCE Concur

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"With Facebook turning off Parse on January 28 th , developers around the world are quickly running out of time to migrate their apps to an alternate platform," said David McLauchlan, CEO at Buddy Platform. "Buddy Platform has a rich heritage in building mobile backend services, including understanding what developers need to be successful. With Parse on Buddy we have built and released a full featured, scalable and robust mobile backend for the world's largest and most trafficked apps."

"The open source Parse Server product released by Facebook was not designed to support high volume, commercial grade apps from brands and organizations seeking the breadth of the original platform, said Habib Heydarian, VP of Product and Engineering at Buddy. "We've worked hard to offer a product that addresses all these issues; one that can provide some of the biggest companies in the world confidence in the continuity of their mobile applications."

When Facebook announced plans to shut down Parse on January 28, 2017, Buddy saw an opportunity to provide a simple way to migrate existing Parse apps to a familiar, fully hosted and scalable, mobile backend. Given Buddy's heritage as a backend technology provider for mobile devices, and Buddy's core Internet of Things (IoT) platform, it made sense to build a comprehensive Things and Apps platform that can handle the full IoT solution set. With the launch of Parse on Buddy, the company now offers a backend platform extending from silicon to cloud, from analytics to apps. Few companies have the capability to provide such robust and stable managed backend solutions for the largest organizations and applications in the world.

Developers, marketing departments and organizations with mobile applications on Facebook's Parse should take time to create a free account, and see for themselves how easy Buddy has made the migration from Parse. Create an account at https://parse.buddy.com or learn more about Parse on Buddy at www.buddy.com/parse.

About Buddy

Buddy Platform Limited (ASX:BUD) provides one of the world's first data aggregation and management platforms for the IoT and connected devices. Buddy advances The Quantified Economy by providing the critical infrastructure by which businesses and organizations can, in real-time, access and analyze the data generated by connected devices, and unlock the economic opportunities delivered by this data. Buddy Platform users represent a wide variety of industries, including airlines, agriculture, automotive, consumer electronics, robotics, software development, telecommunications, and transportation. Buddy is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, with offices in Adelaide, Australia. For more information, visit http://www.buddy.com.

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SOURCE Buddy Platform

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COSTA MESA, Calif., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- As the busiest shopping season quickly approaches, small businesses everywhere are decking their halls and preparing to ring in the holidays. In honor of Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, Experian, the leading global information services company, today announced a new Love My Small Biz program, offering small-business owners a free business credit report when they post a selfie with the hashtags #LoveMySmallBiz and #ShopSmall.

"Business owners are passionate about their businesses. We want to give them the opportunity to share that pride, as well as help position them for future success," said Hiq Lee, president of Experian's Business Information Services. "By proactively reviewing their business credit report, owners can gain a better understanding of the factors that influence the decisions affecting their enterprise. Having this insight empowers business owners to make smarter and more strategic choices, which will ultimately help to drive their business  and the economy  forward."

To participate in this new program, business owners must tweet a selfie featuring their small business and include the hashtag #LoveMySmallBiz and #ShopSmall. Small-business owners who tweet selfies with these hashtags will be eligible to receive their free business credit report, which is valued at up to $49. The program will run through the end of the year, and the offer does not apply to existing SmartBusinessReportsTM subscribers.

For more information on the #LoveMySmallBiz program, please visit bit.ly/love-my-smallbiz or follow us on Twitter @ExperianSMB and Instagram @Experian_b2b.

About Experian's Business Information Services

Experian's Business Information Services is a leader in providing data and predictive insights to organizations, helping them mitigate risk and improve profitability. The company's business database provides comprehensive, third-party-verified information on virtually all U.S. companies, with the industry's most extensive data on the broad spectrum of small and midsize businesses.

By leveraging state-of-the-art technology and superior data-compilation techniques, Experian provides market-leading tools that proactively support the entire credit life cycle, enabling our clients to find new customers, process new applications, manage customer relationships and collect on delinquent accounts.



About Experian

We are the leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to our clients around the world. We help businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision-making. We also help people to check their credit report and credit score and protect against identity theft. In 2016, for the third year running, we were named one of the "World's Most Innovative Companies" by Forbes magazine.

We employ approximately 17,000 people in 37 countries and our corporate headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; California, US; and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year ended March 31, 2016, was US$4.6 billion.

To find out more about our company, please visit http://www.experianplc.com or watch our documentary, "Inside Experian."

Experian and the Experian marks used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Experian Information Solutions, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

Contact:

Roslyn Whitehurst

Experian Public Relations

1 714 830 5578

[email protected]

Twitter: @RozWhitehurst

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SOURCE Experian

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NASHVILLE, Tenn., Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- November is National Family Caregivers Month, and caregiver advocate Peter Rosenberger is reminding Americans to consider the importance of healthcare policies. "The challenges of soaring premiums and deductibles of ObamaCare (ACA) create additional obstacles to caregivers who themselves are often in need of significant medical care," said Rosenberger in a statement made today. "It is vitally important that the Trump administration and Congress repeal and replace this program. Better competition among insurance providers will drive down health insurance costs to customersand lower costs will help incentivize caregivers to seek care for their health needs."

Rosenberger an author and radio hostdraws upon his own thirty-year journey as a caregiver through his wife's disastrous medical journey following a horrific car accident that led to 78 operations, multiple amputations and more than $10 million in medical bills. His latest book, 7 Caregiver Landmines and How You Can Avoid Them, stresses the importance of caregivers seeking medical treatment for themselves. According to Rosenberger, "There are more than 65 million Americans serving as a family caregiver, and 72 percent of those caregivers fail to see their own doctor regularly." He continues, "Nearly half of those serving as caregivers are employedand the workplace, as well as the national economy, will be detrimentally affected as this vast population continues to grow in response to the needs of the massive and aging baby-boomer population."

Topics for the caregiver in his new book include ignoring personal health needs, isolation, loss of identity, and feelings of guilt and fear. Rosenberger has simultaneously released a new album through iTunes entitled Songs for the Caregiver, on which his wife, Gracie, sings. It is a record of comfort and strength for caregivers on their ongoing, daily journey.

Peter Rosenberger is a radio host, author and speakerand serves as an advocate for caregivers. He hosts his own weekly radio show on the topic, broadcasting on WLAC and iHeartRadio. Peter's first book, Hope for the Caregiver, is now in its third printing, and his second book, 7 Caregiver Landmines and How You Can Avoid Them, released November 1st, 2016. To learn more about the service of caregiving, visit http://caregiverswithhope.com/.

CONTACT: Morgan Canclini, [email protected], 1-817-944-1071

SOURCE Peter Rosenberger

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MUNICH, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Once again a MESSRING facility receives the renowned award

CARISSMA, the Center of Automotive Research on Integrated Safety Systems at the Ingolstadt University of Applied Sciences receives the renowned "Crashtest Facility of the Year" award from the English publishing company UKIP. The facility, which was built and designed by the German crash test manufacturer MESSRING, is one of the core elements in Europe's unique test and research center.

In receiving this award, MESSRING continues to build on its success in previous years. For the fifth time a MESSRING facility succeeded in beating out the competition. "Wee are really happy, that CARISSMA won the award. Even for us a system of this size at a university was a challenge. The award demonstrates that we aced it and positioned ourselves as a forward-looking partner", says Dierk Arp, CEO at MESSRING.

The renowned English publishing company UKIP has presented the coveted award since 2006 to honor outstanding projects and innovations in the automotive industry. The independent jury is comprised of automotive experts and experienced industry journalists from different media outlets in the automotive and safety testing industry.

For CARISSMA MESSRING delivered a MicroTrack system, an electric propulsion system especially designed for crash-test facilities, a mobile impact block, a film pit with transparent cover panels, and a variety of barriers and structures for a number of different impact scenarios to Ingolstadt.

The 77-meter crash test facility at CARISSMA was equipped with the proven MESSRING MicroTrack system. The system offers a major benefit: the guide channel is much narrower than in conventional systems, allowing for many more details to be captured in high speed video footage from below in the film pit - a key factor in evaluating vehicle crashing behavior. The special barriers supplied by MESSRING allow the university's engineers to conduct offset tests and small overlap tests, as well as pole tests. These are all mandatory crash-test variations required by individual public testing authorities (such as the well-known NCAP program with the star rating) from North America, Europe, and Asia.

The sled-test facility is powered by an electric power train developed by MESSRING especially for use in crash tests. The electric motor for the center will have a power rating of 400 kilowatts. This allows vehicles weighing a total of up to 3.0 tons to be accelerated to a speed of 65 km/h before they collide with the impact block. The special feature of this block is that it can be completely removed to clear the entire space. This allows active-safety tests, e.g. tests with braking assistance systems of vehicles, which require more space.

In June 2016 the research facility officially opened its doors at the Ingolstadt University of Applied Sciences. Beside the crash test facility the center, with total floor space of 4,000 square meters, houses a drop-tower lab, a simulation lab, a HiL (hardware-in-the-loop) laboratory as well as a multitude of networked special laboratories and institutions. For the first time, passive, active and cooperative safety systems can be tested in cooperation with each other. CARISSMA is open for joint research projects with scientists, automobile manufacturers and suppliers from all over the world.

About MESSRING

MESSRING in Krailling, close to Munich is the world's leading manufacturer of crash test systems and components. The mid-size company designs and builds turnkey test systems for customers in all relevant markets and on nearly all continents. To date, MESSRING has implemented more than 100 large crash test systems for automotive OEMs, automotive suppliers, governmental authorities and insurance companies - more than any other company. In the process, the global market leader continues to astonish the industry time and again with innovative advances and revolutionary new solutions, whether in system design, the actual measurement equipment, or in documentation and recording of individual tests.

For more information, go to http://www.messring.de

Press Contact:

Petra Schlingensiepen

Talk of Town. Wachter & Wachter

Lindwurmstrasse. 88, 80337 Munich

Phone: +49-89-747242 - 96, Fax: 60

[email protected]

http://www.talkoftown.de

http://www.twitter.com/talkoftown.de

http://www.facebook.com/talkoftownpr



SOURCE MESSRING
HOUSTON, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Carriage Services, Inc. (NYSE: CSV) is pleased to announce that we have partnered with Rich & Thompson Funeral Services in the Strategic Market of Raleigh/Durham/Greensboro in North Carolina. Dating back to 1913, the Rich & Thompson name has been a prominent name in funeral service in both Burlington, NC and Graham, NC. At their current locations of Burlington, NC since 1935 and Graham, NC since 1957, the two businesses serve over 550 client families annually and have been under the leadership of S. Lloyd Carter and James "Jim" Guthrie since 1973.

Mel Payne, Chairman and CEO of Carriage, stated, "The partnership with Rich & Thompson Funeral Services expands our presence in the Strategic Market of Raleigh/Durham/Greensboro as we continue to add Being The Best funeral service brand names in the state of North Carolina to our Carriage family of elite businesses. We are honored to provide a succession planning solution for Lloyd and Jim that will combine their unparalleled service and reputation with our support functions for continued growth of the business. We look forward to supporting Herbert "Chip" Rhodes, Scott Rhodes, and Roy Glasgow as they assume daily leadership responsibilities and jointly we are committed to continuing the culture instilled by Jim and Lloyd of consistently providing high value personal services to their client families and communities."

Jim Guthrie and Lloyd Carter said, "In searching for a partner, we had two requirements. First, the business had to continue to operate in the 'Rich and Thompson' way. Second, the 'family' atmosphere must be maintained while serving our families with the utmost integrity and pride. With Carriage we have found the ideal partner. We can continue to serve our community with the same quality and compassion that has been upheld since our founding."

Carriage Services is a leading provider of funeral and cemetery services and merchandise in the United States. Carriage currently operates 170 funeral homes in 28 states and 32 cemeteries in 11 states.

SOURCE Carriage Services, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.carriageservices.com


ST. LOUIS, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Centene Corporation (NYSE: CNC) today announced that it plans to release its 2017 financial guidance at approximately 6:00 a.m. EST (Eastern Standard Time) on Friday, December 16, 2016, and host an investor meeting, including a question-and-answer session, to discuss the details of its guidance. The meeting will begin promptly at 8:30 a.m. EST (Eastern Standard Time) and end approximately at noon, with breakfast and registration starting at 7:30 a.m. Michael F. Neidorff, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Jeffrey A. Schwaneke, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, of Centene Corporation will host the meeting, which will also be webcast live before an audience of institutional investors and analysts at the Pierre Hotel, 2 East 61st Street at Fifth Avenue, in New York City.

Institutional investors and analysts interested in attending the investor meeting can respond to Libby Abelt in Centene's Investor Relations department either via telephone at 1-212-759-5665 or e-mail at: [email protected].

Investors and other interested parties who are unable to attend in person are invited to listen to the investor meeting via a live, audio webcast on the Company's website at www.centene.com, under the Investors section.

About Centene Corporation

Centene Corporation, a Fortune 500 company, is a diversified, multi-national healthcare enterprise that provides a portfolio of services to government sponsored healthcare programs, focusing on under-insured and uninsured individuals. Many receive benefits provided under Medicaid, including the State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), as well as Aged, Blind or Disabled (ABD), Foster Care and Long Term Care (LTC), in addition to other state-sponsored programs, Medicare (including the Medicare prescription drug benefit commonly known as "Part D"), as well as programs with the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Centene operates local health plans and offers a range of health insurance solutions. It also contracts with other healthcare and commercial organizations to provide specialty services including behavioral health management, care management software, correctional healthcare services, dental benefits management, in-home health services, life and health management, managed vision, pharmacy benefits management, specialty pharmacy and telehealth services.



Centene uses its investor relations website to publish important information about the Company, including information that may be deemed material to investors. Financial and other information about Centene is routinely posted and is accessible on Centene's investor relations website, http://www.centene.com/investors.

SOURCE Centene Corporation

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NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Hedge fund managers are feeling the pressure from changing investor demands and the managers that adapt accordingly and timely will be the most successful in achieving growth, according to the EY 2016 Global Hedge Fund and Investor Survey: Will adapting to today's evolving demands help you stand out tomorrow?

The 10th annual survey found that hedge fund growth has slowed for a variety of reasons  the abundance of low fee passive investment options, lackluster hedge fund performance and cost concerns. In 2016, the proportion of North American investors that said they were reducing allocations to hedge funds exceeded the proportion that were increasing for the first time since the financial crisis of 2008.

Investors have more options than ever within the alternatives marketplace and are allocating funds to those managers that have a unique offering that is satisfying a specific need. Therefore, hedge fund managers must be at the forefront of actively listening to their investors to keep pace, or else be left behind, the report finds.

Michael Serota, EY Global Leader, Hedge Fund Services, says:

"Growth is the industry's top priority, but managers are changing the strategies employed to achieve it. While we find the largest managers pursuing several growth strategies, the smaller managers are more narrowly focused, seeking to expand investor bases within their home markets. Amidst today's challenging environment, it is imperative for managers of all sizes to identify the needs of their clients and align product offerings to their demands."

Hedge fund managers focus on asset growth to counter reduced inflows

More than half (56%) of managers say asset growth is their first priority, but they are also facing an unprecedented change in investor appetite that can affect growth strategies. Almost half (48%) of investors expect their hedge fund investments to shift from traditional hedge funds to other alternatives over the next three to five years, while 42% expect to shift from co-mingled hedge funds to customized vehicles and segregated accounts.

However, some managers are falling behind on investor demand for products. Although investors have a broad appetite for real assets (63% invested), private equity (59% invested), long only funds (56% invested) and best ideas funds (51% invested), only a small percentage of hedge funds currently or plan to offer these products.

The largest managers have the momentum to attract capital, as one in three of the largest managers offer private equity, real asset strategies and best idea vehicles, compared to single- digit percentages for smaller managers. Mid-size and smaller managers do anticipate catching up as 33% of mid-sized managers and 48% of small hedge managers see their firms offering some non-traditional hedge fund products in three to five years.

Managers of all sizes are viewing next generational technology and data as a means to enhance their investment program and attract investors. More than half (52%) of managers use non-traditional or next-generation data and big data analytics to support their investment process, or plan to do so in the next two to three years. The smallest managers are the most active, with 59% indicating that they use this technology.

Natalie Deak Jaros, EY Americas Co-Leader, Hedge Fund Services, says: "We are seeing assets flowing to the managers that offer a wide array of non-traditional hedge fund products. Managers that do not respond to changing preferences must ensure they offer something unique to potential investors."

As fee pressures increase, managers need to innovate and optimize processes to cut costs

Hedge fund managers' average operating expense ratio is down from last year, but investors feel there is still room for improvement. Lack of performance, the plethora of lower cost alternatives and investors' increased comfort in trading on their own behalf is causing them to challenge fee terms with their managers.

Including management fee, the expense ratio is down from 1.95% in 2015 to 1.84% in 2016 as investors continue to apply pressure. The declines in management fees are driving this trend as average reported fees for 2016 were 1.35%, down from 1.45% in 2015. Despite this downward trend, only 20% of investors are currently satisfied with the expense ratios of their funds.

Managers have achieved significant operational cost reductions, but agree opportunities for further efficiencies exist. Nearly half of managers (44%) reported actual or expected cost reductions in the middle and back office. Investors are comfortable with outsourcing to further reduce costs, but managers aren't giving up control of certain functions. Almost 80% of investors approve of outsourcing middle office functions, but only 18% of managers currently outsource middle office or plan to do so. Additionally, in the back and middle office, robotics and other automation are creating efficiencies and driving savings necessary to counteract margin compression.

Prime brokerages are putting pressure on hedge funds to evolve their relationships

Regulations enacted post-financial crisis continue to filter through the banking industry and impact how prime brokers service the hedge fund industry. Prime brokers are requiring managers to alter their relationships, which impacts how funds conduct their core trading and financing processes. Almost 60% of managers say their prime brokers have requested fundamental alterations to their relationship to keep it economically viable.

Prime brokers continually re-evaluate the types of managers they are willing to do business with, and managers have responded by engaging with an increased number of prime brokers, as managers reported to use an average of 3.9 prime brokers.

Graeme McKenzie, EY Asia-Pacific Leader, Wealth & Asset Management, says: "Managers and their counterparties continue the dialogue as to how to best partner together in light of funding, balance sheet and liquidity considerations. The landscape has become significantly more challenging as managers increase the number of financing relationships while each individual relationship is becoming more complex to manage."

Managers are focused on developing their talent management programs, which investors see as increasingly important

Investors increasingly request details on hedge funds' talent management programs, as 75% of investors indicated they make this request and use it as a key consideration in their due diligence.

Although 52% of managers are confident that client loyalty is rooted in strong relationships between the firm's founding principals, 55% of investors state their primary allegiance is to their portfolio managers. To bridge this disconnect between perception and reality, talent management programs are evolving as managers focus on attracting and retaining talent.

Zeynep Meric-Smith, EY EMEIA Leader, Hedge Fund Services, says: "Managers should ensure their talent program is appropriate to grow and retain talented investment professionals and succession plans for their portfolio managers. Investors should be confident in the institution's ability to generate returns if a 'star' leaves. Secure talent that will drive the business forward in the future and achieve maximum growth."

Notes to Editors

About EY

EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all of our stakeholders. In so doing, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for our clients and for our communities.

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.

This news release has been issued by EYGM Limited, a member of the global EY organization that also does not provide any services to clients.

About the EY Global Hedge Fund and Investor Survey

The purpose of this survey is to record the views and opinions of hedge fund managers and institutional investors globally on topics including managers' strategic priorities and product demand; cost management; evolving prime brokerage relationships; talent management; data management; and the future landscape of the hedge fund industry. From June to September 2016, Greenwich Associates conducted 100 telephone interviews with hedge funds representing nearly US$1.1t in assets under management. Research also conducted 63 telephone interviews with institutional investors (funds of funds, pension funds, endowments and foundations) representing more than US$1.5t in assets under management, with roughly US$280b allocated to hedge funds. The compete survey is available at ey.com/hedgefundsurvey.

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SOURCE EY

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HAIKOU, China, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- China Pharma Holdings, Inc. (NYSE MKT: CPHI) ("China Pharma," the "Company" or "We"), an NYSE MKT listed corporation with its fully-integrated specialty pharmaceuticals subsidiary based in China, today announced financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2016.

Third Quarter Highlights

Revenue was $3.1 million in the third quarter of 2016, which represented a decrease of 30.2% compared to $4.5 million in the same period of 2015;

in the third quarter of 2016, which represented a decrease of 30.2% compared to in the same period of 2015; Gross margin was 11.2% in the third quarter of 2016, compared to 7.2% in the same period of 2015;

Loss from operations was $1.5 million in the third quarter of 2016 compared to income from operations of $3.2 million in the same period of 2015, a decrease of $4.7 million ;

in the third quarter of 2016 compared to income from operations of in the same period of 2015, a decrease of ; Net loss was $1.7 million in the third quarter of 2016 compared to net income of $2.9 million in the same period of 2015. Loss per common share was $0.04 per basic and diluted share in the third quarter of 2016 compared with income per common share of $0.07 per basic and diluted share in the same period of 2015.

"The China Food and Drug Administration ('CFDA') issued 'Notice on Rectification Against Illegal Operation on Drug Logistic & Distribution' on May 3, 2016. As it had become the top priority for all pharmaceutical distributors to take measures to comply with this government policy, their time and efforts had been arranged around the inspection from CFDA, which delayed their ordinary promoting practices, purchase and distribution activities. Those significant negative impact upon distributors had continued in the three months ended September 30, 2016. which also impacted the sales performance in the third quarter of upstream suppliers like us." said Ms. Zhilin Li, China Pharma's Chairman and CEO. Ms. Li continued, "With the implementation of Consistency Evaluation on Quality and Efficacy of Generic Drugs, as well as the CFDA rectification, we continued to feel the pressure from macro-environment on our industry. In addition, the government's healthcare-price-controls also maintained continuous pressure upon our sales. Although we believe that the pharmaceutical industry is still facing a lot of challenges, with the continuous improvement of the national pharmaceutical management system and pharmaceutical companies to enhance their own strength, as well as China's huge pharmaceutical consumer market, the pharmaceutical industry still has bright prospects for development."

Third Quarter 2016 Results

Revenue decreased by 30.2% to $3.1 million for the three months ended September 30, 2016, as compared to $4.5 million for the three months ended September 30, 2015. This decrease was primarily due to the rectification and standardization upon drug distributors by CFDA as discussed above, whose significant negative impact upon distributors had continued in the three months ended September 30, 2016, which also impacted the sales performance in the third quarter of upstream suppliers like us. In addition, the government's healthcare-price-controls also maintained continuous pressure upon our sales.

For the three months ended September 30, 2016, our cost of revenue was $2.7 million, or 86.3% of total revenue, which represented a decrease of $1.0 million from $3.7 million, or 83.1% of total revenue, in the same period of 2015. The decrease in cost of revenue during the third quarter of 2016 was due to the revenue decrease.

We have had decreases in the sales estimates between the time when raw materials were purchased and the time when the sales performance is realized for certain products. We assess the inventory obsolescence levels on a quarterly basis. As a result, we determined that certain inventory was slow moving or obsolete. Based on the developed estimates, we recognized an inventory obsolescence expense of $0.1 million and $0.4 million for the three months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively.

Gross profit was $0.3 million for each of the three months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015. Our gross profit margin in the third quarter of 2016 was 11.2% compared to 7.2% in the same period 2015. Without the effect of inventory obsolescence, management estimates that our gross profit margin would have been approximately 13.8% in the third quarter of 2016 and 17.0% in the third quarter of 2015. The decrease in gross profit margin was mainly because the Company sold more products with lower gross margin in this period.

Our selling expenses for the three months ended September 30, 2016 was $0.9 million, which accounted for 29.7% of the total revenue in the third quarter of 2016, as compared to $1.0 million for the same period 2015, which accounted for 25.8% of the total revenue in the third quarter of 2015. Despite the decrease in sales, we still need to maintain personnel and continue our sales activities to support the sales and collection of accounts receivable, therefore our selling expenses did not decrease proportionally to our sales.

Our general and administrative expenses for the three months ended September 30, 2016 were $0.3 million as compared to $0.4 million in the three months ended September 30, 2015. General and administrative expenses accounted for 9.4% and 8.6% of our total revenues in the third quarter of 2016 and 2015, respectively.

Our bad debt benefit for the three months ended September 30, 2016 was $0.1 million, compared to bad debt benefit of $3.2 million in the three months ended September 30, 2015. The change was due to our revision of estimate of allowance for doubtful accounts, which resulted in the decrease in aged accounts receivable balance that had not been allowed prior to the third quarter 2015, and therefore incurred the bad debt benefit in that period.

During the third quarter of 2016, the Company reviewed the contracts relating to advances made for purchases of intangible assets with independent laboratories and determined that the advances made by the Company for one formula to one of the independent laboratories were impaired. As a result, the Company recognized an impairment loss for the advances made to this laboratory in the amount of $644,696.

Net Loss for the three months ended September 30, 2016 was $1.7 million, or loss per basic and diluted common share of $0.04, compared to net income of $2.9 million for the three months ended September 30, 2015, or net income per basic and diluted share of $0.07. The change in the net result was mainly due to the decrease in revenues, impairment loss and lower subsidy income in the third quarter of 2016 as compared to the same period of 2015.

Nine Months Results

For the nine months ended September 30, 2016, our sales revenue was $10.3 million, which represented a decrease of $5.5 million, or 35%, from the $15.8 million in the corresponding period of 2015. This decrease was primarily due to several missed provincial tenders back in 2014 due to the fact that our new GMP certificates were not received until November 2014. As a result, we lost related market shares and negatively impacted sales afterwards. To be specific, the original tender practice actually lasted until April 2015 given the necessary process and timing of tender. The sales decrease in the nine months ended September 30, 2016 compared to its corresponding period in 2015 reflected the outcome of that event. In addition, the government's healthcare-price-controls also maintained continuous pressure upon our sales.

Gross profit for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 was $1.5 million, compared to $1.3 million in the same period of 2015. Gross profit margin for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015 were 14% and 8%, respectively. Without considering the effect of inventory obsolescence, management estimates that our gross profit margin would have been approximately 16% for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 20% for the nine months ended September 30, 2015.

Our operating loss for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 was approximately $5.1 million, compared to $8.3 million for the same period of 2015, which represented an improvement of $3.2 million. The decrease in operating loss was primarily due to lower inventory obsolescence and lower bad debt expense in the current period as compared to the corresponding period in the prior year.

Net loss was $5.8 million, or $0.13 per basic and diluted share for the nine months ended September 30, 2016, compared to $9.2 million, or $0.21 per basic and diluted share, for the same period a year ago.

Financial Condition

As of September 30, 2016, the Company had cash and cash equivalents of $3.7 million compared to $6.2 million as of December 31, 2015. Additionally, working capital decreased to $8.0 million in September 30, 2016 from $12.2 million as of December 31, 2015; and the current ratio was 1.6 times as of September 30, 2016, decreased from 2.0 times as of December 31, 2015.

Our accounts receivable balance decreased to $4.0 million as of September 30, 2016 from $5.9 million as of December 31, 2015.

Net cash provided by operating activities was $1.4 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2016 compared to $0.7 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2015.

Conference Call

The Company will hold a conference call at 8:30 am ET on November 15, 2016 to discuss the results of its third quarter of 2016. Listeners may access the call by dialing 1-866-519-4004 or 65-671-350-90 for international callers, Conference ID # 14850461. A replay of the call will be accessible through November 22, 2016 by dialing 1-855-452-5696 or 61-281-990-299 for international callers, Conference ID # 14850461.

About China Pharma Holdings, Inc.

China Pharma Holdings, Inc. is a specialty pharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures and markets a diversified portfolio of products focused on conditions with a high incidence and high mortality rates in China, including cardiovascular, CNS, infectious, and digestive diseases. The Company's cost-effective business model is driven by market demand and supported by new GMP-certified product lines covering the major dosage forms. In addition, the Company has a broad and expanding nationwide distribution network across all major cities and provinces in China. The Company's wholly-owned subsidiary, Hainan Helpson Medical & Biotechnology Co., Ltd., is located in Haikou City, Hainan Province. For more information about China Pharma Holdings, Inc., please visit http://www.chinapharmaholdings.com. The Company routinely posts important information on its website.

Safe Harbor Statement

Certain statements in this press release constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements set forth above that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, which may include, but are not limited to, such factors as the achievability of financial guidance, success of new product development, unanticipated changes in product demand, increased competition, downturns in the Chinese economy, uncompetitive levels of research and development, and other information detailed from time to time in the Company's filings and future filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements made herein speak only as of the date of this press release and the Company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in the Company's expectations except as required by applicable law or regulation.

- FINANCIAL TABLES FOLLOW -

CHINA PHARMA HOLDINGS, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (Unaudited)













September 30,

December 31,



2016

2015 ASSETS







Current Assets:







Cash and cash equivalents

$ 3,650,039

$ 6,248,760 Restricted cash

1,470,014

- Banker's acceptances

21,546

- Trade accounts receivable, less allowance for doubtful







accounts of $29,380,197 and $28,644,398, respectively

4,014,862

5,882,509 Other receivables, less allowance for doubtful







accounts of $78,618 and $74,400, respectively

390,450

290,739 Advances to suppliers

2,614,053

2,533,354 Inventory, less allowance for obsolescence







of $6,682,357 and $8,417,095, respectively

8,569,479

9,662,750 Prepaid expenses

259,234

339,140 Total Current Assets

20,989,677

24,957,252









Advances for purchases of intangible assets

39,457,197

42,030,649 Property and equipment, net of accumulated depreciation of







$11,521,705 and $9,422,912, respectively

26,339,719

29,393,257 Intangible assets, net of accumulated amortization of







$4,440,106 and $4,360,004, respectively

621,631

841,075 TOTAL ASSETS

$ 87,408,224

$ 97,222,233









LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY







Current Liabilities:







Trade accounts payable

$ 3,478,404

$ 2,824,521 Accrued expenses

91,701

143,409 Other payables

1,801,087

1,710,283 Advances from customers

1,006,776

595,681 Other payables - related parties

1,354,567

1,354,567 Current portion of construction loan facility

1,499,390

1,540,666 Short-term notes payable

2,249,085

4,621,998 Banker's acceptance notes payable

1,470,014

- Total Current Liabilities

12,951,024

12,791,125 Non-current Liabilities:







Construction loan facility

8,996,338

10,784,661 Deferred revenue

172,357

708,408 Long-term deferred tax liability

353,100

296,890 Total Liabilities

22,472,819

24,581,084 Stockholders' Equity:







Preferred stock, $0.001 par value; 5,000,000 shares authorized;







no shares issued or outstanding

-

- Common stock, $0.001 par value; 95,000,000 shares authorized;







43,579,557 shares and 43,579,557 shares outstanding, respectively

43,580

43,580 Additional paid-in capital

23,590,204

23,590,204 Retained earnings

28,183,391

33,939,998 Accumulated other comprehensive income

13,118,230

15,067,367 Total Stockholders' Equity

64,935,405

72,641,149 TOTAL LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY

$ 87,408,224

$ 97,222,233

CHINA PHARMA HOLDINGS, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS AND COMPREHENSIVE LOSS (Unaudited)





















For the Three Months

For the Nine Months



Ended September 30,

Ended September 30,



2016

2015

2016

2015 Revenue

$ 3,125,596

$ 4,479,113

$ 10,308,320

$ 15,848,218 Cost of revenue

2,695,900

3,720,447

8,635,392

12,667,104 Inventory obsolescence

79,728

436,666

200,044

1,855,814

















Gross (loss) profit

349,968

322,000

1,472,884

1,325,300

















Operating expenses:















Selling expenses

927,187

1,155,137

2,753,388

3,156,553 General and administrative expenses

294,367

384,412

1,394,250

1,315,867 Research and development expenses

99,095

405,438

289,189

741,116 Bad debt expense (benefit)

(69,899)

(3,160,862)

1,005,949

6,045,352 Impairment of long term assets

644,696

-

1,467,235

- Total operating expenses

1,895,446

(1,215,875)

6,910,011

11,258,888

















Subsidy income

(2,325)

1,655,683

346,347

1,655,683

















Income (loss) from operations

(1,547,803)

3,193,558

(5,090,780)

(8,277,905)

















Other income (expense):















Interest income

32,434

36,185

99,149

93,262 Interest expense

(213,740)

(279,113)

(699,932)

(915,310) Net other expense

(181,306)

(242,928)

(600,783)

(822,048)

















Income (loss) before income taxes

(1,729,109)

2,950,630

(5,691,563)

(9,099,953) Income tax expense

(20,800)

(18,906)

(65,044)

(57,618) Net income (loss)

(1,749,909)

2,931,724

(5,756,607)

(9,157,571) Other comprehensive income (loss) - foreign currency















translation adjustment

(275,928)

(3,794,761)

(1,949,137)

(2,959,348) Comprehensive income (loss)

$ (2,025,837)

$ (863,037)

$ (7,705,744)

$ (12,116,919) Income (loss) per share:















Basic

$ (0.04)

$ 0.07

$ (0.13)

$ (0.21) Diluted

$ (0.04)

$ 0.07

$ (0.13)

$ (0.21)

CHINA PHARMA HOLDINGS, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (Unaudited)



For the Nine Months



Ended September 30,



2016

2015 Cash Flows from Operating Activities:







Net loss

$ (5,756,607)

$ (9,157,571) Depreciation and amortization

2,583,066

2,769,761 Bad debt expense

1,005,949

6,045,352 Deferred income taxes

65,044

677,209 Inventory obsolescence reserve

(1,529,912)

460,537 Impairment of long-term assets

1,467,235

- Changes in assets and liabilities:







Trade accounts and other receivables

(709,257)

(2,642,445) Advances to suppliers

(150,606)

(1,746,117) Inventory

3,157,553

3,314,458 Trade accounts payable

739,551

2,061,895 Accrued taxes payable

(74,080)

16,307 Other payables and accrued expenses

119,085

(18,951) Advances from customers

432,904

(1,128,459) Prepaid expenses

71,790

- Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities

1,421,715

651,976









Cash Flows from Investing Activities:







Purchases of property and equipment

(86,350)

(310,247) Bankers acceptances redeemed for cash

-

306,904 Net Cash Used in Investing Activities

(86,350)

(3,343)









Cash Flows from Financing Activities:







Payments of construction term loan

(1,519,932)

- Payments of short term debt

(2,279,899)

- Net Cash Used by Financing Activity

(3,799,831)

-









Effect of Exchange Rate Changes on Cash

(134,255)

(226,914) Net (Decrease) Increase in Cash and Cash Equivalents

(2,598,721)

421,719 Cash and Cash Equivalents at Beginning of Period

6,248,760

5,319,990 Cash and Cash Equivalents at End of Period

$ 3,650,039

$ 5,741,709









Supplemental Cash Flow Information:







Cash paid for interest

$ 689,773

$ 905,151









Supplemental Noncash Investing and Financing Activities:







Accounts payable for purchases of property and equipment

-

137,854 Accounts receivable collected with banker's acceptances

803,655

1,968,818 Inventory purchased with banker's acceptances

781,814

1,400,447 Restricted cash related to letter of credit

1,490,154

- Advances for intangible assets purchased with banker's acceptances

-

395,445

Contact:

China Pharma Holdings, Inc.

Phone: +86-898-6681-1730 (China)

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE China Pharma Holdings, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.chinapharmaholdings.com


SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Cloudwords announced today it has doubled its employee roster in 2016 and hired top talent with deep experience in the global marketing and localization industries with the addition of Sam Pederson and Scott Schwalbach. Cloudwords also announced it has been named for the third consecutive year on the EContent 100 list of companies that matter most in the digital content industry. The company continues to gain traction as a solution for enterprise organizations to deliver marketing campaigns and localized content to international regions with increased speed, efficiency and scale.

Having recently won several new enterprise accounts and contract renewals, Cloudwords has grown its sales, marketing, and product development teams. Its newest key hires include Sam Pederson, Vice President of Growth Strategy and Partnerships, and Scott Schwalbach, Senior Customer Advocate.

As part of Cloudwords' growing sales, marketing and partnership team, Sam Pederson will work with existing and new customers on their path to digital transformation in global marketing, as well as in the marketing partner ecosystem. Sam is an experienced leader in demand generation and marketing operations in the global technology industry, and has led teams and initiatives in global marketing and sales at Marketo, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, and Kaspersky Lab, among others.

In his new role, Scott Schwalbach will manage customer and partner relationships at Cloudwords. Scott has more than 40 years of experience as an operations, localization and globalization leader, working for and with some of the largest companies in the world, including 17 years at Microsoft as an International Program Manager. A recognized localization industry expert, Scott is a co-leader for the Localization Unconference, frequently speaks at industry events, and teaches courses in global communications and customer expectations.

"This past year, Cloudwords is increasingly gaining industry recognition as the solution of choice for global marketers, and we're honored to be included on lists like the EContent 100 and Inc. 5000," said Richard Harpham, CEO of Cloudwords. "The addition of Sam and Scott brings extensive global business experience to the team and further supports our efforts to help enterprise organizations transform their marketing clouds to effectively increase brand awareness and drive global demand."

The EContent 100 list of companies that matter most in the digital content industry, now in its 16th year, represents the most important companies in the digital content industry and also reflects the trends in the industry that will be integral to success in the coming year. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and IBM are just some of the companies that were included in this year's list.

About Cloudwords

Cloudwords software speeds time to market for global campaigns and localized content. By connecting marketing systems and automating project workflow, Cloudwords eliminates time-consuming tasks and delivers unprecedented visibility into the localization process. With Cloudwords, marketers realize the global value of their marketing technology stack, enabling the delivery of more personalized content, in more languages, to more customers at a speed, quality and scale impossible to achieve with manual processes. Visit www.cloudwords.com to learn how global brands like Amazon Web Services, CA Technologies, McDonald's, Marketo, Oracle, Hubspot and Iron Mountain use Cloudwords. Headquartered in San Francisco, Cloudwords is backed by Storm Ventures, UMC Capital and Marc Benioff, founder of salesforce.com.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151209/294863LOGO

SOURCE Cloudwords

Related Links

http://www.cloudwords.com


SALT LAKE CITY, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

ColorChip Ltd. , a leader in hyper-scale pluggable optical transceivers for datacenters and HPCs, participates in a collaborative demonstration of a massive computing grid based on intelligent Software Defined Network exchanges supporting the global research institution community. ColorChip's 100G QSFP28 2km CWDM4/CLR4 and 10km 4WDM transceivers will be demonstrated in Caltech's booth #2537 on November 15th-17th during SuperComputing 2016 Exhibition in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.

ColorChip's 100G 2km and 10Km pluggable transceivers are characterized by a high density QSFP28 package, low power consumption (~2.5W) and robust performance. ColorChip's transceivers are based on an innovative hybrid optical engine named SystemOnGlass, featuring nested multiplexing, low optical losses, and high coupling efficiencies. The 100G 2km/10Km transceiver family leverages ColorChip's core strengths of optical head to PCB integration, as well as volume manufacturing efficiencies achieved by the company's unique industrialized optics production approach.

The 100Gbps 2km CWDM4/CLR4 and 10km 4WDM transceivers are in full production and available in volume.

Demonstration at SuperComputing 2016

Azher Mughal of CalTech stated that "The Caltech group and its partners believe that optimization of large scientific data flows can be successfully achieved by using intelligent software defined networks and high speed connectivity. ColorChip has always remained at the forefront of innovative optical solutions. Using their CWDM4/4WDM optics in various 100GE SDN switches at Caltech and at the SC16 conference, the group believes to handle ExaScale performance across the showfloor and WAN."

The demonstration will take place in Caltech's booth (#2537) at the Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, Utah.

About ColorChip

ColorChip (http://www.color-chip.com) is a pioneer and a world leading innovator in the fields of integrated optical components and sub-systems, enabling reliable, scalable and robust high speed networking and communications solutions. Founded in 2001, ColorChip is dedicated to the development of advanced Application Specific Photonic Integrated Circuits (ASPIC).

ColorChip delivers industry leading optical high-speed transceivers to the Datacom/Telecom markets and passive optical splitters to the FTTx markets. ColorChip's robust PLC, waveguide-in-glass technology and the revolutionary SystemOnGlass platform have enabled the company to address critical technological obstacles to deliver groundbreaking solutions for the Datacom/Telecom customers worldwide.

Media Coverage

Noa Kotok

Manager, Sales & Marketing

+972-50-337-7716

[email protected]

SOURCE ColorChip Ltd.
But to truly keep winter winds at bay, try pairing your tasty meal with a vibrant, fruit-forward wine, such as Kenwood Vineyards Sonoma County Pinot Noir 2014. The wine works well for nearly any occasion, but it's the perfect complement to bring out the flavors of the roasted chicken thanks to its aromas of raspberry and red currant combining with spice notes of nutmeg and vanilla, which lead to a smooth, elegant finish.

Pairing hearty plates with a classic drink is a palate-pleasing way to warm up  and fill up. For more wine pairing tips and recipes, visit KenwoodVineyards.com.

Roasted Sonoma Chicken with Wild Rice and Carrot Butter Recipe courtesy of chef Ari Weiswasser Serves: 4



4 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts 3/4 cup kosher salt, plus additional for seasoning 1/3 cup sugar 1 gallon water 1 cup carrot juice 4 tablespoons butter, diced 1 1/2 cups wild rice 3 1/3 cups chicken stock 2 large onions, diced 3-4 tablespoons olive oil 2 teaspoons curry spice 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar 4 tablespoons sun-dried tomato, chopped finely

canola oil or olive oil 1/4 cup parsley, chopped

Brine chicken in 3/4 cup salt, sugar and water. Refrigerate 1 hour; pat dry and store overnight, uncovered, in fridge.

Add carrot juice to saucepan and reduce to thick consistency on high heat, 10-15 minutes. Whisk vigorously if juice separates. Whisk in butter. Set aside to cool.

In pot, cover wild rice with chicken stock. Bring to simmer and cook 45 minutes to 1 hour. Season with salt.

Heat oven to 400 F.

In frying pan on medium-high heat, sweat onions in olive oil until soft. Add curry spice and toast until aromatic, 1-2 minutes. Add vinegar and salt; stir well. Fold through sun-dried tomatoes.

Place chicken skin-side up on roasting pan fitted with rack. Brush chicken with canola or olive oil and season with salt. Roast about 25-35 minutes until golden brown; internal temperature should be 165 F. Drizzle with roasting juices; add salt and chopped parsley before plating.

To plate, add carrot butter to wild rice; scoop 1/2 cup onto each dish. Place chicken skin-side up on top of rice. Dollop with onion, curry and tomato mixture.

Pair each serving with a glass of Kenwood Vineyards Sonoma County Pinot Noir 2014.

Michael French

[email protected]

1-888-824-3337

editors.familyfeatures.com

About Family Features Editorial Syndicate

Established in 1974, Family Features is a leading provider of free food and lifestyle content for print and online publications. Our articles, photos, videos and web content solutions save you time, money and help create advertising opportunities. Registration is fast and free  with absolutely no obligation. Visit editors.familyfeatures.com for more information.

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SOURCE Family Features Editorial Syndicate

Related Links

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The ITC currently has approximately 400 employees and plans to hire an additional 400 information technology professionals who will provide infrastructure and application development, cybersecurity and cloud computing support for mission-critical programs for several government agencies. Through the development of the ITC, CSRA is investing in the local community, broadening the technology corridor in Northwest Louisiana and stimulating job growth in the region. CSRA's partnership with local universities to enhance information technology-related college courses ensures students are job-ready upon graduation, allowing Louisiana to retain its best and brightest in the information technology sector.

CSRA (through its former parent, CSC) broke ground for the ITC in September 2014 and is now an anchor tenant at the National Cyber Research Park in Bossier City. The 96,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art building features interactive technology, collaborative workspaces, a large town hall with food service offerings from local partners Rhino Coffee and Jason Brady Restaurant Group. The architecture features binary code on some of the windows and red LED lighting on the building's exterior. The building's unique design was conceived in partnership with area architect Mike McSwain, owner of Mike McSwain Architect, LLC.

The facility was built in partnership with several state and local government organizations including the Louisiana Department of Economic Development, the State of Louisiana, the City of Bossier, the Cyber Innovation Center and the Bossier Parish Police Jury.

CSRA's economic growth efforts in Northwest Louisiana extend beyond the ITC to a Customer Engagement Center which recently opened in Bossier City as well. The Customer Engagement Center will create an additional 300 new jobs focusing on providing information technology support to the federal government.

Founded in November 2015, CSRA is a leading next-generation IT professional services and solutions provider for the federal government. The company has approximately 18,000 employees who support federal customers in the defense, intelligence, homeland security, health IT and civil markets.

Quotes about the ITC:

"I'm excited to celebrate the grand opening of our new facility in Bossier City. This marks a true milestone for our company, as the ITC was built as a next-generation IT center of excellence to further enable us to deliver a variety of cost-effective, leading-edge offerings and capabilities to solve our customers' most challenging and complex issues. This facility is a key differentiator for CSRA and helps position us as forward-thinkers and trendsetters in the federal IT industry."  Larry Prior, CSRA President and CEO

"This expansive development project is a great example of industry, government and academia working together to bring enriching, high paying job and educational learning opportunities to this community. As a Louisiana native, I'm proud to be part of an effort that gives locals who might have moved away to find a high-profile IT job a reason to come back to Bossier City, build a career and reconnect with family."  Ashley Rockett, CSRA ITC Director of Operations

"When I first came to Bossier City several years ago to break ground for this unique facility, I immediately saw the incredible growth potential and abundance of opportunity this community has to offer. I am proud of the progress we've made so far and look forward to continuing to leverage our pool of local and industry partners to drive innovation and economic growth in Bossier City."  John Dancy, CSRA Chief Information Officer

"CSRA's professional workforce will now be moving into this next-generation facility that will securely and intelligently support so many vital operations of major federal customers, and we couldn't be happier to have them in Louisiana. Our approach in Louisiana has been to build meaningful partnerships that attract the leading employers of the future in a way that grows our economy and provides our people with outstanding career opportunities. This project is a great example of that winning approach. It builds on our heritage with Barksdale Air Force Base and propels us into the future with great partnerships among state government, local government and Louisiana's higher education campuses."  The Honorable John Bel Edwards, Governor of the State of Louisiana

"I am proud to have CSRA as the newest tenant at Bossier City's National Cyber Research Park. I applaud them for making such a significant investment in our city that will result in hundreds of new jobs and generate further economic growth that will subsequently enhance the wonderful quality of life Bossier City has to offer."  Mayor Lorenz Walker, Mayor of Bossier City

"Our work with CSRA is monumental for Northwest Louisiana. This is a company at the forefront of cybersecurity, cloud computing and big data, and a company that's applying the best of these technologies to improve the supply chains, IT systems, logistics, and application-based services of many major federal customers. Louisiana competed for this project against more than 130 other sites in many states, and it's a testament to our government, higher education and economic development partners that we not only won, but also are succeeding in implementing a great project for our state and for Northwest Louisiana."  Don Pierson, Louisiana Economic Development Secretary

"Our partnership with CSRA is already having positive and sizable impacts across the region, producing a highly skilled workforce that is helping to meet the needs of CSRA while providing excellent career opportunities for our graduates here in North Louisiana. The breadth and variety of learning and career options that have emerged through this partnership have had significant impacts not just on our students and graduates, but also on the people and communities of our region."  Les Guice, Louisiana Tech University President

"CSRA is a prize you get when leaders with the ability to think outside the box come together for the good of the community and the good of our residents. A decade ago, we started looking at ways to develop the research park, and CSRA is a truly important part of this research park. The main thing here is that we are expanding and diversifying what we have for our families to take part in for years to come. We look forward to our next step, and there will be a next step for public and private opportunities to come together."  Wanda Bennett, Bossier Parish Police Jury President

About CSRA Inc.

Every day CSRA (NYSE: CSRA) makes a difference in how the government serves our country and our citizens. We deliver a broad range of innovative, cloud-enabled, next-generation IT solutions and professional services to help our customers modernize their legacy systems, protect their applications, infrastructure, and assets and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of mission-critical functions for our warfighters and our citizens. Our 18,000 employees understand that success is a matter of perseverance, courage, adaptability and experience. CSRA is headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia. To learn more about CSRA, visit www.csra.com.

Forward-looking Statements

All statements in this press release and in all future press releases that do not directly and exclusively relate to historical facts constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements represent CSRA's intentions, plans, expectations and beliefs, including statements about network and asset protection and improving mission-critical functions. The forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside the control of CSRA. These factors could cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements. For a written description of these factors, see the sections titled "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in CSRA's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and any updating information in subsequent SEC filings. CSRA disclaims any intention or obligation to update these forward-looking statements whether as a result of subsequent event or otherwise, except as required by law.

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WILMINGTON, Mass., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- CutisPharma today announced the opening of a Research and Development center to house the company's expanding R&D team. The new center will provide office and laboratory space to facilitate the company's aggressive plans for developing products for FDA approval under its wholly owned subsidiary, RM Therapeutics.

"We are in the midst of a significant expansion of our research and development capabilities," said Steven Dinh, Sc.D, Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of CutisPharma. "Our new state-of-the-art R&D center provides us sufficient space to accommodate our growing team as well as significantly enhanced capacity to do in-house research with our additional laboratory."

CutisPharma celebrated the opening of the R&D facility today during a special ceremony featuring Massachusetts Senator Bruce Tarr and other state and local officials. The new space is located in Woburn, less than mile from the company's headquarters in Wilmington.

"Our state has quickly and definitively become the epicenter for life sciences because of substantial capital investments in research and development," said Tarr, the Senate Minority Leader. "I applaud CutisPharma's initiatives to expand here because they directly impact gains in local employment, enhancements of the region's economy and ultimately the development of pharmaceuticals that can promote health."

CutisPharma has recently undertaken several significant initiatives to transition the business from its historical base in the pharmacy compounding market and toward development and commercialization of FDA-approved drugs.

In March of this year, CutisPharma announced the opening of a manufacturing center at its Wilmington facility and the completion of supporting activities to prepare the first NDA filing of the company's lead pipeline drug, RM-01, next year. In April, the company announced the initiation of a partnership with Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, which will allow for the acceleration of three additional drugs, RM-02, RM-03 and RM-06, toward FDA approval.

The creation of a dedicated R&D center will provide new office and laboratory capacity to house the expanding team of CutisPharma's RM Therapeutics subsidiary and will further enhance the company's ability to bring its promising new drugs to the marketplace in an efficient and timely manner.

About CutisPharma

CutisPharma, Inc., based in Wilmington, Mass., is a privately held, specialty pharmaceutical company that has historically developed and distributed kits used by pharmacists to safely create compounded medications for nearly 20 years. The Company's products include oral solutions and suspensions, such as antimicrobials, mouthwashes, and PPIs; topicals, including hydrocortisone and testosterone; and suppositories, including progesterone VGS. The Company's FIRST Unit-of-Use Kits have benefited millions of patients who are unable to swallow conventional oral dosage forms such as tablets and capsules and whose needs were not served by commercially available therapies. For more information, visit www.cutispharma.com.

About RM Therapeutics

RM Therapeutics, a wholly owned subsidiary of CutisPharma, is focused on developing and commercializing FDA-approved drugs to meet the needs of patients, such as children and the elderly, who are unable to take tablets and capsules and need a high quality, palatable alternative formulation of their therapy to address their needs.

SOURCE CutisPharma, Inc.

Related Links

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Impractical security solutions create burdensome costs for organizations. Time and money are lost training employees and forcing the implementation of software that is not user-friendly. Dashlane Business delivers a practical and secure password solution that also provides an outstanding end-user experience.

People use the same passwords at home and work, and these passwords are breached all of the time. The new Dashlane Business features ensure that employees are not reusing passwords and endangering their organization's infrastructure. Additionally, Dashlane is the only password manager that makes a distinction between an employee's personal and professional passwords. This powerful combination safeguards the privacy of the employee's personal accounts and dramatically reduces the likelihood an employee can exit an organization with access to accounts they are no longer authorized to use.

"Security isn't one-size fits all, and solutions should adapt to the needs of an organization, as well as the rapidly changing threats they can face at any given time," said Emmanuel Schalit, CEO, Dashlane. "We've reached a point with password reuse and system permissions where it's not enough to just secure your most critical accounts - all logins for users need to be accounted for without crippling your IT staff."

The following Dashlane Business updates will allow for rapid deployment and adoption at scale. Regardless of an organization's size, they simplify password management at the administrative level.

SAML Support and Enterprise Deployment : Dashlane Business customers can automate user provisioning with the latest SAML and MSI-based technologies. The removal of manual invitations by administrators saves time deploying, provisioning, and on-boarding employees.



: Dashlane Business customers can automate user provisioning with the latest SAML and MSI-based technologies. The removal of manual invitations by administrators saves time deploying, provisioning, and on-boarding employees. Exclusive Smart Space Management : Streamlines organization for users and maintains visibility of their password security for work credentials. Every login that has either email or URLs with a company's domain will automatically be saved in Business space, either by default, or by requirement.



: Streamlines organization for users and maintains visibility of their password security for work credentials. Every login that has either email or URLs with a company's domain will automatically be saved in Business space, either by default, or by requirement. Remote Deprovisioning: Ensures company logins remain secure if an employee leaves an organization. Credentials are removed from the company space when a user is revoked, but are recoverable for a 30-day backup period before being permanently deleted.



Ensures company logins remain secure if an employee leaves an organization. Credentials are removed from the company space when a user is revoked, but are recoverable for a 30-day backup period before being permanently deleted. Custom Policy Settings: Lets administrators set company security and sharing policies at the team level for all users.

For more information, please visit: dashlane.com/business

About Dashlane

Dashlane Business is trusted by 6,000+ companies to create, enforce, and track effective access management, and features the only patented security architecture in the industry.

Dashlane Business begins at $2/user per month and scales by volume, with custom setup options available for enterprising licensing. The company's consumer product is used by 6 million people worldwide.

Dashlane was founded by Bernard Liautaud and co-founders Alexis Fogel, Guillaume Maron, and Jean Guillou. The company has offices in New York City and Paris and has received $52.5 million in funding from TransUnion, Rho Ventures, FirstMark Capital, and Bessemer Venture Partners. Learn more at dashlane.com

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SOURCE Dashlane

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ATLANTA, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- DataPath, Inc., a leading provider of remote field communications and information technology solutions to the aerospace, broadcast, government, and infrastructure markets, announced today that the company has appointed Kevin Benedict as its new Senior Vice President of U.S. Government Sales. In this role, Benedict will be responsible for leading the growing DataPath sales team that is dedicated to serving U.S. defense, intelligence, and civilian agencies as it expands and diversifies its customer base.

Benedict brings extensive satellite communications expertise in the civilian and military sectors to DataPath, meaning he has experience on both the customer and supplier sides of the industry. In addition to his most previous role as Vice President of Business Development at SES Government Solutions, Benedict has held numerous senior-level business development, strategic planning and program management positions at several defense contractors including Raytheon, Ball Aerospace, and SAIC. Prior to joining the defense industry, Benedict served as a career U.S. Air Force officer with positions spanning Satellite Acquisition, Space Launch Operations, and High Performance Computing. These positions included serving as the Chief of the Satellite Acquisition Branch for the DoD Space Test Program, Senior Launch Crew for the 30th Space Wing, and Director of the Maui High Performance Computing Center.

Benedict's educational background is also deep. He holds an Executive MBA with an emphasis on international business from the University of Colorado, a Master of Science in Space Operations and Space Systems Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology, a Master of Arts in Human Resources Development from Webster University, and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Colorado Technical University. Benedict has earned numerous professional accreditations including certification as a Project Management Professional.

His appointment is part of a strategic initiative to increase DataPath's presence in the Washington D.C. area. In order to strengthen long-term relationships with customers and industry partners, Benedict will be based in the region at an office set to open in Northern Virginia in early 2017. DataPath has also already hired additional local business development and engineering personnel.

"For 25 years, DataPath has provided dedicated service to the U.S. military. While we expand into new commercial and international markets, the addition of Kevin Benedict to DataPath's leadership team demonstrates that we also remain firmly committed to carrying on our proud heritage as a trusted provider to the U.S. government," said David Myers, President and CEO of DataPath. "Kevin's 20 years of military service paired with his broad knowledge of satellite networks means he brings a true understanding of the unique communications requirements of government customers."

About DataPath Inc.

In remote and high-risk operating environments, dependable real-time communications are critical to situational awareness and mission success. DataPath specializes in advanced communications solutions tailored to the unique requirements of aerospace, broadcast, government, and infrastructure clients. Our solutions include a range of both custom and commercial off-the-shelf field communications and information technology products, including satellite communication systems, network management software, and cyber security services. All of our offerings are backed by 24x7 customer care and global field support. At DataPath we are passionate about helping our clients achieve mission success. For more information, visit www.datapath.com.

Contact:

DataPath, Inc.

Anna Fry

[email protected]

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BOSTON, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Machine learning automation leader DataRobot today announced the integration of its enterprise machine learning platform with the Alteryx , Inc. self-service data analytics platform. The Alteryx connector for DataRobot allows users of both platforms to simplify and automate the end-to-end workflow for predictive analytics, from data preparation to modeling to deployment. The connector is now available to download from the Alteryx Analytics Gallery.

Predictive analytics can be challenging and complex, often requiring disconnected tools and a variety of programming environments to blend data from disparate sources, build predictive models and then seamlessly deploy them so they can drive real business value. The integration of Alteryx and DataRobot brings together self-service data preparation, blending and advanced analytics from Alteryx with intuitive, automated machine learning from DataRobot.

"When I incorporate DataRobot into my analytics curricula, 66 percent of the how-to content goes away, freeing me to focus on conceptual matters, validation measures, and business logic," said Kai R. Larsen, associate professor of information management at the University of Colorado's Leeds School of Business. "But there is still a critical need to do data preparation to get it into the format required for analytics. This is a sweet spot for Alteryx. Combined, DataRobot and Alteryx make possible the long-awaited promise of turning companies into 'analytic competitors': companies driven by accurate analytics at all levels."

The Alteryx connector for DataRobot offers:

Democratization: Empowering business users to rapidly deliver predictive models with self-service data prep, blending and analytics;

Empowering business users to rapidly deliver predictive models with self-service data prep, blending and analytics; Speed: Delivering advanced machine learning in hours, not months, and expediting the time to value from predictive analytics initiatives;

Delivering advanced machine learning in hours, not months, and expediting the time to value from predictive analytics initiatives; Accuracy: Providing the right analytic data set and model to maximize value from data assets.

"Alteryx empowers business analysts with the ability to easily grow in their use of analytics," said Bob Laurent, vice president of Product Marketing, Alteryx, Inc. "As more Alteryx users add predictive modeling to their analyses, they can now also include machine learning technology from DataRobot to bring more insight and increase overall business value."

"The combination of automated machine learning and self-service data preparation simplifies the entire predictive analytics workflow and democratizes data science for business users. Working with leaders like Alteryx allows us to provide even greater value to our customers, and allows DataRobot to focus on delivering the only true enterprise-grade machine learning platform," said Razi Raziuddin, vice president of business development at DataRobot.

To learn more, visit www.datarobot.com/alteryx or attend the upcoming webinar: Optimizing the Predictive Analytics Workflow.

About DataRobot

DataRobot offers an enterprise machine learning platform that empowers users of all skill levels to make better predictions faster. Incorporating a library of hundreds of the most powerful open source machine learning algorithms, the DataRobot platform automates, trains and evaluates predictive models in parallel, delivering more accurate predictions at scale. DataRobot provides the fastest path to data science success for organizations of all sizes. For more information, visit www.datarobot.com.



Alteryx is a registered trademark of Alteryx, Inc. All other product and brand names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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SOURCE DataRobot

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BURLINGTON, Vt., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Dealer.com, a Cox Automotive brand, has been recognized by Microsoft with Elite status as part of the company's expansion of its Bing Partner Program. The status signifies Dealer.com as one of a select group of top performing partners to act as trusted advisors to its growing customer base for search advertising opportunities within the Bing Network.

As an Elite Partner to Bing Adsthe second largest search engine in the U.S.Dealer.com will receive exclusive access to training, marketing and technology development, to enhance the expertise and service provided to dealer groups, OEMS, retailers and agencies.

"Being recognized by Bing as an Elite member in its Partner Program represents the increased investment Dealer.com continues to put into our paid search offering, and the success our clients have had through the Bing platform," said Chris Smith, VP Advertising Sales, Dealer.com. "At Dealer.com, our top priority is to ensure customers are always maximizing their digital marketing campaign return-on-investment. Our trusted partnership with Bing will continue to add immense benefit to our ultimate goal of attracting and engaging car buyers to improve sales for our clients every day."

"Dealer.com has demonstrated its place as a key partner to Bing Ads, and earned their participation as an Elite Partner. By bringing together Dealer.com's service, training and expertise with Bing's extensive search engine and advertising products, our mutual customers will be set up to achieve better results," said Kelly Thomas Nojaim, VP of Partner Development, Microsoft.

Dealer.com Paid Search is one of the most awarded and trusted paid search technologies in automotive retail. As a part of Dealer.com Advertising, Paid Search provides automated delivery of vehicle-specific content to differentiate dealers and capture demand for their specific inventory. Dealer.com's Seamless Website platform and Managed Services solutions round out the Dealer.com digital marketing product offering, which are built to powerfully connect with other integral automotive solutions including Inventory, CRM, and Sales and F&I.

For more details about Dealer.com's recognition and the Bing Partner Program, please visit here.

About Dealer.com

Dealer.com provides an integrated platform of Advertising, Website and Managed Services products which allow OEMs, dealer groups, retailers and agencies to leverage advanced digital technology and data to better engage and connect with their customers. The company practices a deep commitment to its culture of innovation, with a focus on health and wellness, making it one of the most desirable places to work, and a valuable partner for automotive retailers. Based in Burlington, Vermont, Dealer.com is a Cox Automotive brand. For more information, visit www.dealer.com.

About Bing

Bing is the intelligence behind nearly 1 in 3 PC searches in the U.S. It's inside the apps, sites and devices people rely on every day, powering search experiences from Yahoo to AOL, Apple to Amazon, and Windows 10 to Xbox. And with the Bing Network, you can connect your brand with Bing's unique audience to drive more reach and more results. Bing Network. Be there.

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SOURCE Dealer.com

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Based in Commerce, Calif., Deco Lighting marks a paradigm shift in the LED lighting industry through optimization in design and manufacturing. With the deployment of Sawyer robots at the start of the assembly line, Deco plans to significantly cut down assembly time in the factory, drastically reduce the risk of human injury and shorten the lead time for customers.

Deco is also exploring using Sawyer to improve its flexible manufacturing processes by using the robot in a "lights out" scenario overnight, to keep production running during off hours. A believer in the next-generation of smart manufacturing, the Deco Lighting team is always looking to optimize the design and manufacturing process at its facility and has found significant opportunity for Sawyer.

"Sawyer is the next step in our tradition of continuous innovation," said Ben Pouladian, co-founder and president at Deco Lighting. "The robot works much like a smartphone, enabling our employees to intuitively and simply train and position the robot as needed. Our goal has always been to serve the growing need for energy-efficient, sustainable lighting and smart control solutions and we see Sawyer drastically improving our production time and positively impacting our bottom line."

A division of DECO Enterprises, Deco Lighting specializes in the manufacturing of innovative, next-generation LED lighting solutions that improve lighting quality and efficiency, and enhance the environment through reduced energy consumption. DECO Enterprises has over 50 years combined experience in lighting manufacturing and has produced many innovative products, which have shaped today's industry.

"Deco Lighting is a prime example of a company that will leverage smart, collaborative robots to significantly improve its manufacturing process," said Jim Lawton, chief product and marketing officer at Rethink Robotics. "Forward-thinking companies like Deco Lighting will have a significant competitive advantage as they are able to manufacture products faster and longer by using Sawyer."

For more information, please visit www.rethinkrobotics.com.

About Rethink Robotics

Rethink Robotics is transforming the way manufacturing gets done, with smart, collaborative robots able to automate the 90 percent of tasks that until now, have been beyond the reach of traditional automation. Its Baxter and Sawyer robots, powered by the Intera software platform, adapt to real-world variability, can change applications quickly and perform tasks like people do. The result: manufacturers of all shapes, sizes and industries get the fast-to-deploy, easy-to-use and versatile automation solution they need to increase flexibility, lower cost and accelerate innovation.

Based in Boston, the Rethink product suite is available in Asia, Europe and North America. The company is funded by Bezos Expeditions, CRV, Highland Capital Partners, Sigma Partners, DFJ, Two Sigma Ventures, GE Ventures and Goldman Sachs. For more information about Rethink Robotics, please visit www.rethinkrobotics.com and follow us on Twitter at @RethinkRobotics.

CONTACT: Gil Haylon, 617-969-9192, [email protected]

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Not every dad would take you on a grand tour of their criminal past when on holiday, but not every dad is Dwayne Johnson.

Things started off cute, with Johnson talking about his kids and it's all quite lovey dovey and all the Hawaiian madness that comes with filming the 'Jumanji' sequel there before the conversation turned to the Rock's litany of criminal offences that took place on the island in his youth.

Turns out Johnson was a petty everyday thief in his younger days, and robbed a Snickers bar from the same shop on the way to the gym every day because he was poor and hungry.

Every. Day.

That's a lot of Snickers bars, so we guess we know who their next ad campaign is going to feature.
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Deloitte today announced it is the recipient of the SAP 2016 Retail Partner of the Year Award. The award was presented by SAP (NYSE: SAP) based on Deloitte's demonstrated excellence in collaborating with retailers to extend the value of SAP solutions and services. SAP presented the award at the SAP Retail Forum 2016, held this month in Miami Beach, Florida.

"This award demonstrates our commitment to helping the retail industry leverage SAP solutions to transform business, take customer engagement to a new level, and deliver new value in an evolving marketplace," said Jerry Hoberman, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP. "Our winning strategy blends industry-specific business experience with targeted technology know-how and our proficiency with SAP solutions to deliver results today  while helping position our retail clients to get ahead of tomorrow's business challenges."

The new award joins several other high-profile SAP awards Deloitte added to the shelf in 2016. In addition to receiving the SAP Retail Partner of the Year Award 2016, Deloitte also has received the 2016 SAP Pinnacle Award as the SAP S/4HANA Adoption Partner of the Year, the 2016 SAP Pinnacle Award as Workforce Partner of the Year, and the SAP Hybris North America Partner of the Year award.

"Deloitte continues to demonstrate its commitment to success with SAP by collaborating on innovative solutions for the retail industry," said Matt Laukaitis senior vice president and general manager, SAP Retail Inc. "As recipient of the SAP Retail Partner of the Year Award 2016, Deloitte has shown that it can provide deep domain experience and bring strategic value for an industry focused on results."

Deloitte is an SAP global services partner whose clients include many of the world's leading retailers. With more than 16,400 practitioners dedicated to SAP solutions in its global network, Deloitte has served more than 3,000 clients, assisting them in their efforts not only to efficiently implement SAP solutions, but also to realize business value from those investments.

"In working with our clients to align business processes and deploy SAP offerings such as the SAP Fashion Management, SAP Hybris, SAP S/4HANA and SAP Ariba solutions, we consistently help retailers across the globe achieve the goals that are most important to them," Hoberman said. "We help them manage the supply chain, improve merchandising processes, engage customers more effectively, and enhance their ability to attract and retain top talent. Going forward, SAP solutions will remain a critical part of our strategy for helping retailers excel."

For more information about Deloitte's SAP practice, please visit www.deloitte.com/SAP, or contact [email protected].

SAP Forward-looking Statement

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

SAP, SAP S/4HANA, Hybris, Ariba and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE (or an SAP affiliate company) in Germany and other countries. See http://www.sap.com/corporate-en/legal/copyright/index.epx for additional trademark information and notices.

All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

About Deloitte

Deloitte provides audit, consulting, financial advisory, risk management, tax, and related services to public and private clients spanning multiple industries. With a globally connected network of member firms in more than 150 countries and territories, Deloitte brings world-class capabilities and high-quality service to clients, delivering the insights they need to address their most complex business challenges. Deloitte's more than 225,000 professionals are committed to making an impact that matters.

As used in this document, "Deloitte" means Deloitte Consulting LLP, a subsidiary of Deloitte LLP. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting.

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WASHINGTON, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Deltek, the leading global provider of enterprise software and information solutions for project-based businesses, announced that Tideway  an organization privately financed by the Bazalgette Tunnel Limited consortium, in conjunction with delivery partner CH2M  are leveraging Deltek's PPM solutions to support its work on the Thames Tideway Tunnel Project (Tideway). CH2M is a global engineering and program management company that provides consulting, design, construction and operations services. CH2M are providing design, engineering, planning and delivery assurance for the project. Once completed the Thames Tideway Tunnel will be one of Europe's longest and deepest continuous tunnel, travelling 25km through central London to intercept untreated sewage discharges that spill into the tidal Thames and pollute the city's iconic river. The Thames Tideway Tunnel will create a cleaner, healthier River Thames and improve the quality of life for all Londoners.

Tweet this: Hear how #DeltekPPM solutions empower @TidewayLondon @ch2m to complete the Thames Tideway Proj at #DeltekInsight! Session PPM-20 on 11/16

The Tideway Project, like many large infrastructure projects, has complex supply chains and demanding governance requirements. The project's complexity requires that the Tideway Project Team have confidence that the schedules it receives from contractors, and the corresponding schedules that Tideway then constructs, are as realistic and accurate as possible. To overcome this key challenge, the Tideway team engaged with Deltek for assistance.

Deltek Acumen has been used in the tender phase to support Tideway's negotiations with potential contractors. Tideway has written into its supplier contracts that submitted schedules must meet a minimum Deltek Acumen Fuse Schedule Quality Index score as part of the periodic program submission cycle. Tideway is also leveraging the forensic capability of Deltek project scheduling capabilities to assess the changes made when contractors submit their updated plans.

"Tideway is committed to delivering quality schedule information and ensuring that progress discussions are focused on core project issues rather than poor information. Deltek Acumen is enabling us to understand the program health, highlighting progress, flagging early warnings and driving collaboration with schedule based incentive payments," said Niall Faris, Project Controls Lead.

"Deltek plays a critical role in the Tideway Project, from helping in the assessment of complex programs in the procurement phase, to assessing and analyzing the monthly programs during the construction phase. In addition, Tideway is also reviewing the use of the Deltek Acumen 360 module to uncover every opportunity to drive efficiencies through the schedule," said Namita Dhallan, EVP of Product Strategy and Engineering at Deltek. "We are thrilled with the success of this project and look forward to hearing more about this amazing initiative and how it will improve the quality of life for so many people in London."

About Tideway

Tideway are upgrading London's sewerage system to cope with the demands of the city well into the 22nd century.

After years of study, construction work for the new 25 kilometre interception, storage and transfer tunnel running up to 65 metres below the river, known as the Thames Tideway Tunnel, will start in 2016.

Starting in west London, the main tunnel generally follows the route of the River Thames to Limehouse, where it then continues north-east to Abbey Mills Pumping Station near Stratford. There it will be connected to the Lee Tunnel, which will transfer the sewage to Beckton Sewage Treatment Works.

Overflows of untreated sewage into the tidal River Thames add up to tens of millions of tonnes every year. This is unacceptable and the Thames Tideway Tunnel will clean up one of the world's iconic rivers.

About Deltek

Deltek is the leading global provider of enterprise software and information solutions for government contractors, professional services firms and other project-based businesses. For decades, we have delivered actionable insight that empowers our customers to unlock their business potential. 22,000 organizations and millions of users in over 80 countries around the world rely on Deltek to research and identify opportunities, win new business, recruit and develop talent, optimize resources, streamline operations and deliver more profitable projects. Deltek  Know more. Do more. www.deltek.com

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SOURCE Deltek

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DENVER, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- DCG (www.denverconsultinggroup.com), the nation's leading cannabis industry consultancy, announced that it has opened a new division focused exclusively on the California marijuana sector. The division will be led by Greg Gamet, company Co-Founder and Lead Consultant.

California recently passed Proposition 64, which made cannabis legal for adults age 21 and over. "California's cannabis laws changed dramatically overnight, and new regulations will significantly impact both existing marijuana businesses as well as those looking to enter the state," Gamet said. "We are uniquely capable of providing guidance to assure that any cannabis business is operating correctly, successfully and profitably."

The Denver Consulting Group's team consists of leading dispensary owners, growers, lawyers, real estate experts, compliance professionals, and authorities on packaging, child-safety, and regulations. It is the most experienced, well-rounded and robust team of marijuana consultants in the industry.

Gamet, who won the Cannabis Industry Entrepreneur of the Year Award, said that operating a successful cannabis business in California is highly complicated.

"We not only have to contend with federal and state laws, but many cities in California are developing their own set of regulations for cannabis-related businesses," he said. "It has become highly challenging for people to even obtain access to the myriad of laws that will impact cannabis businesses, let alone foresee the operational issues that will ensue."

Accordingly, Denver Consulting Group (DCG) has developed a new division devoted to helping people within the California cannabis market move into the new, highly regulated system. The company also provides complete turnkey solutions for entrepreneurs or businesses looking to start a cannabis company or relocate to California.

Gamet will speak about the California cannabis market at the Marijuana Business Conference, November 16-18, booth #242.

For information on Denver Consulting Group's California Cannabis Consulting, call 720-890-7344, or visit: www.denverconsultinggroup.com.

About Denver Consulting Group (DCG)

Denver Consulting Group (DCG) is the nation's premier cannabis consulting service, helping marijuana businesses get established, stay compliant, and thrive. Services include license applications, location permitting, build-outs, grow optimization, training, SOPs, packaging, and compliance auditing.

DCG has offices in Denver and Portland, and serve clients nationwide.

Connect:

Facebook: Facebook.com/dankconsulting

Twitter: @dankconsulting

Blog: http://denverconsultinggroup.com/category/cannabis-consulting-blog-marijuana-industry/

Media:

Innovation Agency

310-571-5592

www.inov8.us

hello(@)inov8.us

SOURCE Denver Consulting Group

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LOS ANGELES, Nov 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- With the continued success of Kyle Schuneman's brands, Kyle Schuneman for Apt2B and Studio 3B by Kyle Schuneman, the wunderkind interior designer is coming out with a passion project  PLAID.

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In time for the Fall and Winter seasons, PLAID is a signature line that will cross over both brands. Here at Apt2B, we will be offering The Scott as a limited edition in three of Schuneman's sophisticated plaid color patterns starting today. And Bed Bath and Beyond will offer The Grant  Schuneman's iconic plaid bedding  landing in stores and online in late November.

"Plaid has been associated with highlanders and hipsters. But, I think everyone is able to own and design with plaid, which is what makes it such a staple," says Schuneman. "I love the pattern and just returned from my own pilgrimage to Scotland and Ireland to understand it more. And I want to share my passion with the world."

The Scott from Kyle Schuneman for Apt2B immediately gives a custom look to the classic lines of the sofa's silhouette. It is a limited edition line that Schuneman has called "his most personal yet."

The Grant from Studio 3B by Kyle Schuneman is a play in contrast with a black and white plaid that is not only striking but reversible giving twice the look for the price. An iconic buffalo plaid for the euro shams and textural throw pillows finish off the classic look.

The new styles for both brands continue Kyle's philosophy that small spaces don't mean they can't have big design. These new pieces add to the just released Taylor modular sofa system Schuneman and Apt2B have offered starting in October. The Taylor comes in 3 pieces and 4 fabrics combining for 100's of outcomes tailored to the customer.

Kyle Schuneman is one of the most talked about interior designers around. With multiple product lines, his popular design book, and frequent television appearances it's no surprise why. Kyle is spreading his mantra that beautiful living doesn't have to be expensive or expansive. And he's igniting a movement.

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SOURCE Apt2B

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NEWPORT NEWS, Va., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- DILON Diagnostics and GE Healthcare are pleased to announce that they have signed an agreement for DILON to be the exclusive distributor of GE's Discovery NM750b Molecular Breast Imaging system in North America. The signing of this exclusive agreement brings closer together two significant players in Molecular Breast Imaging. Last year, GE Healthcare and DILON Diagnostics signed a global distribution agreement in select world markets.

The Discovery NM750b breast imaging system offers clinicians an important tool for imaging of a broad range of patients, including those with dense breasts who may be at higher risk for breast cancer. The power of functional imaging to see early changes is a key factor in early detection in breast cancer.

"We are very pleased to continue collaborating with GE Healthcare, a world leader in innovation, in the fight against breast cancer. The relationship with GE Healthcare will enable us to offer a complete spectrum of BSGI/MBI solutions through our established sales channels in breast cancer diagnostics and surgery," says Robert G. Moussa, DILON Diagnostics Chairman and CEO. Nathan Hermony, Nuclear Imaging global business manager for GE Healthcare, added that "GE believes strongly in this advanced technology and the potential for this type of imaging to improve breast cancer diagnosis. DILON Diagnostics will further the education and acceptance of Molecular Breast Imaging."

About DILON Diagnostics

DILON Diagnostics, a brand of DILON Technologies, Inc., located in Newport News, Virginia, designs, manufactures and commercializes innovative medical imaging solutions worldwide. DILON's cornerstone product, the DILON Molecular Imaging System, is a high-resolution, compact camera for imaging small body parts, such as the breast, thyroid, parathyroid and bone. The DILON Molecular Imaging System has been optimized to perform Molecular Breast Imaging (MBI/BSGI) procedure that aids in the effective management of suspicious and difficult-to-interpret breast cases. For more information on DILON Diagnostics please visit www.dilon.com

About GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services to meet the demand for increased access, enhanced quality and more affordable healthcare around the world. GE (NYSE: GE) works on things that matter - great people and technologies taking on tough challenges. From medical imaging, software & IT, patient monitoring and diagnostics to drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies and performance improvement solutions, GE Healthcare helps medical professionals deliver great healthcare to their patients. For more information visit our website www.gehealthcare.com

Media contact: Pjerin Luli

P: 757-269-4910

E: [email protected]

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SOURCE Dilon Technologies, Inc.

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DUBLIN, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- DMS Governance Ltd. (DMS), the world's leading fund governance firm, together with ABR Dynamic Funds, LLC (ABR) have announced the launch of the ABR Dynamic Blend Equity and Volatility Fund hosted on the DMS UCITS Corrib ICAV platform. The ABR UCITS seeks to provide investors with participation in an equity bull market while also potentially providing positive absolute returns in an extended period of market crisis.

"DMS is very pleased to have partnered with a manager of the caliber of ABR to facilitate their European fund and distribution strategy. This demonstrates their commitment and confidence in DMS's product and people and we look forward to a successful and long standing relationship," stated Derek Delaney, Managing Director of DMS Europe.

"We are delighted to partner with DMS in meeting the increasing demand for innovative liquid alternatives among a growing audience of sophisticated European investors," commented Taylor Lukof, ABR's Chief Executive Officer. "We are confident that DMS will help us deliver a level of service consistent what our U.S. investors have come to expect from our firm."

UCITS V has created a regulatory passport for investment managers to access European investors and strengthens investor protection through Depositary strict liability regime and remuneration rules and sanctions regime broadly in line with AIFMD and its delegated acts.

DMS has developed a proprietary UCITS V compliant ICAV platform fully supported by top tier service providers to provide investment managers with solutions for their UCITS requirements to support the regulatory and fund governance challenges that UCITS presents for U.S. and international investment managers doing business in Europe.

For further information please contact Michael Buckley at [email protected] or Taylor Lukof, CEO of ABR Dynamic Funds, LLC at [email protected]

About ABR Dynamic Funds, LLC

ABR is an innovative, global R&D firm with a focus on liquid alternative index creation and product development. The firm develops systematic strategies across all asset classes which can deliver favorable performance throughout various market conditions and in a wide range of market cycles. These models are licensed by ABR for the creation of proprietary indexes with its partners and the delivery of investable solutions to its clients. For more information, please visit www.abrfunds.com.

About DMS

DMS Governance Ltd. (DMS) is the worldwide leader in fund governance with more than 225 professionals representing leading investment funds with assets under management exceeding $330 billion. DMS excels in delivering high quality Fund Governance, International Tax Compliance, AIFMD, UCITS, Banking, Custody, Trust, Corporate and Outsourcing solutions across a diverse range of investment fund structures and strategies.

Media Contact

Alison Sims

Marketing Manager

DMS Governance Ltd.

(p) +1.345.749.2514 (c) +1.345.325.1776

E:[email protected]

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SOURCE DMS Governance Ltd.
"Canadian payrolls are complex with over 200 federal, provincial and territorial regulatory requirements, so The Canadian Payroll Association [CPA] is the first place I go to clarify government requirements," says Geoff Smith, Compliance Advisor at Ultimate Software in Atlanta, Georgia. "The bottom line? The CPA is the authoritative source of Canadian payroll compliance knowledge and membership provides huge benefits to employers with cross-border payrolls."

Setting Up a New Payroll in Canada

Business owners who hire employees in Canada, acquire a Canadian business, or are consolidating Canadian and U.S. payroll operations are often required to set up a new payroll. Employers are required to register their businesses with the appropriate government agencies. Next, they must make some important choices: what type of payroll system will you choose? How will you determine pay frequency and methods of compensation? How do you establish payroll policies and procedures?

The CPA's Setting Up a New Payroll in Canada Payroll Best Practices Guideline, helps members address these considerations and more. This Guideline is part of a larger library of Best Practice topics, offered at no cost for Association members, which cover a wide range of Canadian payroll practices. To access this Guideline, email [email protected].

Protecting Against Non-Compliance

Ensuring that your payroll processes have been established in a manner that is compliant with Canadian legislation reduces the risk of fines and penalties for failure to withhold, remit and report statutory deductions and employer payroll taxes. CPA membership offers unlimited access to Canadian payroll compliance resources, including the valuable Payroll InfoLine, a complimentary toll-free telephone and email hotline staffed by payroll experts with more than 200 years of combined payroll experience. Members also benefit from special rates to the CPA's Professional Development Seminars, including the in-depth Payroll Administration in Canada workshop, the Year-end and New Year Requirements seminar, and webinars on popular payroll topics.

"The CPA is an essential resource for U.S. organizations with Canadian payrolls," says Smith. "Membership with the Association provides ongoing support for employers establishing and administering Canadian payrolls and ensuring compliance with Canadian legislation."

For more information about the CPA, visit payroll.ca / paie.ca.

About the Canadian Payroll Association:

Canada's 1.5 million employers rely on payroll practitioners to ensure the timely and accurate annual payment of $901 billion in wages and taxable benefits, $305 billion in statutory remittances to the federal and provincial governments, and $169 billion in health and retirement benefits, while complying with more than 200 federal and provincial regulatory requirements. Since 1978, the Canadian Payroll Association has annually influenced the payroll compliance practices and processes of over 500,000 organizational payrolls. As the authoritative source of Canadian payroll compliance knowledge, the Canadian Payroll Association promotes payroll compliance through education and advocacy.

SOURCE Canadian Payroll Association

Related Links

http://www.payroll.ca


AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Drillinginfo, the leading oil and gas analytics company, announced today it acquired the assets, product lines and related services associated with Ponderosa Energy, a division of Ponderosa Advisors LLC. Ponderosa Energy leverages state-of-the-art, proprietary databases and analytical tools to provide customers with detailed market intelligence for investment in crude oil, natural gas and NGL markets.

The acquisition includes Ponderosa Energy's production forecast tools such as The Fundamental Edge, a subscription-based market outlook service, and PRODcast, an online tool that allows users to run forecast scenarios specific to their needs in real time. The one-of-a-kind production forecast model allows users to better understand 500+ break evens across the U.S. and assess relative economic advantages of specific producers based upon acreage, productivity, and cost.

"As Drillinginfo and Ponderosa technologies are integrated, industry analysts and market traders alike will gain a unique competitive edge with significantly enhanced access to the industry's most complete oil and gas intelligence, including many datasets available from no other provider," said Allen Gilmer, CEO of Drillinginfo.

"Whether you are investing in exploration, producing, buying, selling or trading energy assets, you can now rely on a single partner for real-time, actionable intelligence and analytics and predictive support for investments in the industry," Gilmer continued.

"Because our proprietary models and applications are built from Drillinginfo's extensive data, teaming up simply made a lot of sense," said Porter Bennett, President & CEO of Ponderosa Advisors. "The customers who use this kind of data are going to be the real winners here. Armed with our combined datasets and analytic tools, customers from across a range of industry segments  E&P and midstream companies, refiners, utilities, hedge funds, private equity firms, investment banks, traders, think tanks and government agencies  are going to be better equipped to formulate asset allocation strategies and make informed, strategic investment decisions," said Bennett. "I'm thrilled we could bring these teams together."

Ponderosa Advisors President and CEO, Porter Bennett, will also join Drillinginfo's board of directors, bringing his extensive knowledge of energy market research and analysis to bear.

The addition of Ponderosa's products and services follows closely behind Drillinginfo's recent acquisition of GlobalView and its flagship product, MarketView, which allows companies across the energy supply chain, risk marketers, and other commodities investors to monitor price movements to better manage and assess risk through their trading operations. Combining these businesses is a strategic move which will give all Drillinginfo customers the best tools to compete in this lower-for-longer commodity price environment.

"The acquisition of Ponderosa Energy Assets exemplifies Drillinginfo's commitment to bringing our customers not only deep industry intelligence, but also a broad financial market analysis to allow for more precise investment decisions, analyst predictions, and forecasting models," said Allen Gilmer, CEO of Drillinginfo. "Ponderosa Energy bridges Drillinginfo and MarketView to deliver value that is unmatched in the oil and gas industry."

Ponderosa Energy employees will join the Drillinginfo office in Littleton, CO.

About Drillinginfo

Drillinginfo is the leading SaaS and data analytics company for energy exploration decision support, helping the oil and gas industry achieve better, faster results. The company's predictive/prescriptive decision platform combines intelligence, analytics, tools, and services in one seamless system to deliver value at every stage of the E&P process. Drillinginfo services more than 2,500 companies globally from its Austin, Texas headquarters, and has more than 400 employees on five continents. For more information, visit drillinginfo.com.

SOURCE Drillinginfo

Related Links

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LAKEWOOD, Ohio and BELPRE, Ohio, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- First Mutual Holding Company (FMHC), the largest depositor-owned mutual holding company of its kind in the Midwest, today announced that it has affiliated Belpre Savings Bank.

Belpre Savings, with $51 million in assets, joins First Federal Lakewood, the largest independent depositor-owned bank headquartered in Ohio, as an affiliate of FMHC. Belpre Savings will continue to operate under its own name and charter, serving customers and the community as Belpre's only hometown bank. The management team and all employees will continue in their current roles. Belpre's board of directors will also remain in place, with Larry Arnold serving as board chair.

"First Mutual Holding Co. was formed because of our unwavering commitment to helping community banks to remain independent and continue to serve the vital role they play in the community," said Thomas J. Fraser, president and chief executive officer of First Federal Lakewood and FMHC. "We understood the challenges of affiliating a community bank and we were not deterred  it's just too important. Today, we're beyond pleased that we have received the full support of our regulatory agencies and Belpre's customers to move forward, and we officially welcome Belpre Savings Bank as an affiliate of First Mutual Holding Co."

The affiliation with FMHC will enable Belpre Savings to offer customers a wider range of financial products including mortgage and business lending products, as well as banking services, including mobile banking. Belpre Savings also will be able to more cost-effectively enhance its information security, compliance and risk management systems as a result of its integration into FMHC.

"Our affiliation with First Mutual Holding Co. allows us to be even more effective in serving the best interests of our customers and our hometown community," said Randy Shingleton, president of Belpre Savings Bank. "In addition to an enhanced product suite, we will soon add employees with expertise in business banking and mortgage lending to help further meet the needs of consumers and businesses in Belpre and Parkersburg."

The affiliation was legally completed on November 15, 2016.

First Mutual Holding Company

First Mutual Holding Company (FMHC) is the largest depositor-owned mutual holding company of its kind in the Midwest. FMHC provides a structure that allows independent community banks and other affiliates to continue to operate and grow in their local communities. firstmutualholding.com

First Federal Lakewood

First Federal Lakewood is the largest independent depositor-owned bank headquartered in Ohio with assets of $1.6 billion. With 18 full-service branch locations and 14 mortgage lending offices throughout Ohio, First Federal Lakewood provides deposit, lending, residential mortgage lending, cash management and investment services to individuals and businesses. Since 1935, First Federal Lakewood has been a stable community owned bank committed to deploying funds that foster local economic growth. FFL.net

Belpre Savings Bank

Since 1902, Belpre Savings Bank has served as Belpre, Ohio's only hometown bank. With $51 million in assets and two banking offices in downtown Belpre, Belpre Savings provides a full range of banking services to customers throughout southeast Ohio and the Parkersburg, West Virginia areas. belpresavingsbank.com

SOURCE First Mutual Holding Co.
AKRON, Ohio, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Across the country, con artists continue using scare tactics in an effort to steal money and personal information from utility customers. As part of FirstEnergy Corp.'s (NYSE: FE) ongoing efforts to raise awareness about this continuing problem, the company is joining more than two dozen electric and gas utilities across the United States and Canada to recognize November 16 as "Utilities United Against Scams Day."

"We take our customers' safety and security very seriously," said Gary W. Grant, vice president of customer service for FirstEnergy Utilities. "Through our website, social media outreach, newsletters and participation in industry efforts such as Utilities United Against Scams Day, we continue working to educate customers about scam activity and help them avoid falling victim to con artists who are posing as representatives of our company."

Scam artists impersonating utility company employees have targeted victims through door-to-door visits, phone calls, and electronic communications. The criminals often try to instill fear that power will be disconnected if the victim does not comply with the demands. Customers have reported the theft of money, personal data and valuables.

FirstEnergy's award-winning Scam and Fraud Information website describes some of the most widespread schemes targeting utility customers, and offers facts and safety reminders that can help customers avoid becoming a victim of these crimes.

Scams listed on the site include:

Power shut-off scam: In this nationwide scam, customers have reported receiving phone calls from someone who claims to be associated with their utility. The caller threatens to shut off the customer's power unless an immediate payment is made, and the customer is often instructed to use a pre-paid debit card or a money transfer service.

Door-to-door solicitation: In this scam, individuals go door-to-door, claiming to be affiliated with the utility company. The scam artists often work in pairs, and have been characterized as very persistent. These individuals may inquire about the resident's electric service or rate, and ask to review a copy of the current electric bill or other documents. Police and media reports indicate that in some cases, after distracting the resident, these individuals have stolen property and personal information.

Bogus fees for equipment: Customers have reported receiving phone calls demanding a separate payment to replace an electric meter or other equipment. In many cases, the caller threatens customers with disconnection unless an immediate payment is made.

"Customers who have questions about their account status or the identity of someone who claims to be one of our employees should immediately call our customer contact centers," Grant said. "We also urge customers to report any suspicious activity to the police, and to let us know if they believe they have been targeted by a scam."

Customers are encouraged to share this information with friends and family to continue raising awareness of these crimes, and to revisit the Scam and Fraud Information page on FirstEnergy's website periodically to check for updates on emerging scam activity.

In addition to understanding how criminals target their victims, the website offers reminders to help ensure customer safety and security, including:

FirstEnergy employees will not contact customers to request sensitive information such as social security numbers or bank account information, and they will not demand immediate payment over the phone. Customers who are behind on their accounts receive written notice of their account status, along with instructions on how to avoid a disconnection of service.

Do not allow anyone claiming to be a utility employee into your home unless an appointment has been scheduled and the employee has provided proper identification.

FirstEnergy's utilities offer a wide array of billing and payment options, and will never insist on a particular method of payment. Only send your payments to your FirstEnergy utility company.

If you have any doubts about the status of your electric account or the identity of a company representative, call your utility company using the numbers below, which are also listed on FirstEnergy's website.

Utility Company Customer Service Numbers: Ohio Edison 1-800-633-4766 The Illuminating Company 1-800-589-3101 Toledo Edison 1-800-447-3333 Met-Ed 1-800-545-7741 Penelec 1-800-545-7741 Penn Power 1-800-720-3600 West Penn Power 1-800-686-0021 Jersey Central Power & Light 1-800-662-3115 Mon Power 1-800-686-0022 Potomac Edison 1-800-686-0011

FirstEnergy is dedicated to safety, reliability and operational excellence. Its 10 electric distribution companies form one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems, serving customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland and New York. Follow FirstEnergy on Twitter @FirstEnergyCorp.

www.firstenergycorp.com

SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.

Related Links

http://www.firstenergycorp.com


BEAVERCREEK, Ohio, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- myCUmortgage today announced that it has partnered with five credit unions to provide them and their members with mortgage loan services. myCUmortgage is a leading Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO), wholly-owned by Wright-Patt Credit Union.

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The partnership with myCUmortgage not only provides these credit unions with the tools they need to become successful mortgage lenders, but also with a true credit union philosophy where people come before profits. The new myCUmortgage partners include:

Advantage Credit Union  Ohio

Ascension Credit Union  Louisiana

Call Federal Credit Union  Virginia

Falls Catholic Credit Union  Ohio

Mountain Empire Federal Credit Union  Virginia

"At myCUmortgage, our goal is to make our partners better mortgage lenders and helping their members become home owners," said Tim Mislansky, President of myCUmortgage. "We welcome the partnerships with these five credit unions and look forward to assisting them and their members with all of their mortgage loan needs."

By partnering with myCUmortgage, credit unions are able to provide members with a wide variety of mortgage loan programs to fit their needs as well as truly member-centric service and support. Backed by nearly 15 years of mortgage industry experience, myCUmortgage is dedicated strictly to the credit union mortgage industry and helping partner credit unions help their members enjoy the benefits and pride that come with owning their own homes.

About myCUmortgage

myCUmortgage is a wholly-owned Credit Union Service Organization of Wright-Patt Credit Union, based in Beavercreek, Ohio. myCUmortgage helps hundreds of credit unions nationwide to assist their members with homeownership through quality, cost-efficient, service-driven mortgage solutions. Visit www.myCUmortgage.com for more information.

For more information, contact:

Bob Sadowski, APR

937.912.7276

[email protected]

SOURCE myCUmortgage
NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - The philanthropic spirit is exhibited by Foresters Financial Services, Inc. each year through its work with local communities, but it believes so much more could be accomplished if more people would pitch in to help. So this year, Foresters Financial is challenging others to give back during National Philanthropy Day on November 15 and offers five tips to help them get started.

"There are multitudes of ways to give back," said Paul Prete, Vice President for Retirement Programs at Foresters Financial Services, Inc. "Whether you make a monetary contribution, volunteer your time to help others, or use your talents to make a lasting impression on people or the planet, everyone can have a direct impact on our society," he explained.

"At Foresters Financial, we've made a firm-wide commitment to serving our communities through a diverse assortment of sponsorships, events and employee volunteer opportunities. While we are dedicated to providing innovative financial solutions to help investors reach their goals, we are also a staunch advocate of enhancing the well-being of the families and communities where we do business," added Mr. Prete.

Foresters Financial is involved in many local initiatives, including helping young people understand the basics of investing through the Junior Achievement Program, helping to build a new playground in Staten Island, New York to bring a community closer together, and assisting teachers and schools across the country. Additionally, Foresters Financial has partnered with the LGBT community through sponsorship of the Trevor Project (the only nationally accredited suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ youth under age 25) and the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles (GMCLA) Voice Awards, among many others.

People often feel they want to help, but they don't know how or where to begin, so they don't do anything. That's why National Philanthropy Day is the perfect opportunity to make a commitment to help. But, don't wait until the last minute. Spend some time before November 15 thinking about how you can make a difference in your community or the world.

To help you get started, Foresters Financial created these five giving tips:

1. Giving can take many forms, including money, time, resources, ideas, labor, counseling, support, fundraising, donations, etc.



2. You can lend your support to large institutions, such as the American Red Cross, international groups, such as Habitat for Humanity, or countless local organizations that focus on education, the homeless, health, the hungry, animals, and many other causes.



3. You can choose a cause based on your interest, one that has directly impacted you or your family, one that you feel has the greatest need, or one close to where you live.



4. Everyone is busy, but you can serve others, regardless of how much time you have. Many organizations have ongoing needs, but others can use help intermittently, or for a one day event or special project.



5. If you decide on a monetary contribution, check the organization's financial statements to determine how much of the money they collect goes directly toward its programs, so your dollars do the most good.

National Philanthropy Day was proclaimed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 to celebrate the accomplishments that giving brings to our world. If you need further inspiration about giving this Philanthropy Day, consider this quote by Martin Luther King, Jr."Life's persistent and most urgent question is 'what are you doing for others?'"

About Foresters Financial Holding Company, Inc. (formerly First Investors)

Foresters Financial Holding Company, Inc.consists of a group of diversified financial services companies that include a registered broker-dealer, two investment advisers, a life insurance company and a transfer agent. Foresters Financial Services, Inc., a broker-dealer, helps everyday families reach their financial goals by offering solutions and guidance through its network of financial representatives working in 44 branch offices across the United States. Foresters Investment Management Company, Inc. is the investment adviser to the First Investors family of funds, which had more than $11 billion in total assets under management as of June 30, 2016. Foresters Life Insurance and Annuity Company, Inc., a New York domiciled insurance company, offers a range of insurance and annuity products and maintains an "A" (Excellent) rating by A.M. Best1. For more information, visit foresters.com .

About Foresters Financial

Foresters Financial is an international financial services provider with more than three million clients and members in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, and total funds under management of $34 billion. With a history of more than 140 years, we provide life insurance, savings, retirement and investment solutions that help families achieve their financial goals, protect their families and improve their communities. For more information, visit foresters.com.

Foresters Financial and Foresters are trade names and trademarks of The Independent Order of Foresters (a fraternal benefit society, 789 Don Mills Road, Toronto, Canada M3C 1T9) and its subsidiaries.

 An "A" (Excellent) rating is assigned to companies that have a strong ability to meet their ongoing obligations to policyholders and have, on balance, excellent balance sheet strength, operating performance and business profile when compared to the standards established by A.M. Best Company. A.M. Best assigns ratings from A++ to F, A++ and A+ being superior ratings and A and A- being excellent ratings. In assigning the Foresters Life Insurance and Annuity Company (FLIAC) rating on August 18, 2016, A.M. Best stated that the rating outlook is "stable", which means it is unlikely to change in the near future. See ambest.com for our latest rating.

 In Canadian dollars as of December 31, 2015.

 Products offered vary by country. Not all products are available for distribution in all jurisdictions. In the United States, products are offered by The Independent Order of Foresters and its subsidiaries, including Foresters Financial Services, Inc. a registered broker-dealer. Securities, life insurance and annuity products are offered through Foresters Financial Services, Inc. or independent producers. Insurance products are issued by Foresters Life Insurance and Annuity Company, New York, or The Independent Order of Foresters. Investment advisory products and services are offered through Foresters Advisory Services, LLC, a registered investment adviser.

SOURCE Foresters

Related Links

www.foresters.com


Registration Now Open for World's Largest Supply Management Conference Focused on Critical Insights that Will Deliver Powerful Results

PHOENIX, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Institute for Supply Management (ISM) today announced David Cameron, former prime minister of the United Kingdom, will headline the supply management profession's largest global event: ISM2017. Registration is now open for the Conference, which will be held May 21-24, 2017, at the Disney Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, Florida.

Focused on "Critical Insights, Powerful Results," the event expects to draw more than 3,000 attendees from around the world. More than 75 interactive sessions will be part of six learning tracks at ISM2017, and executives from firms such as Google, Toyota, Pfizer, Direct Energy, Zimmer Biomet and others will present. All sessions are mapped to the ISM Mastery Model, so attendees can enhance their Conference experience by selecting sessions specifically designed to improve their personal supply management acumen.

Keynote speaker Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron will provide his unique perspective on distinct challenges relevant to the key issues the supply management profession faces today.

"ISM members and other purchasing and supply chain professionals who are expected to demonstrate the ability to respond more quickly and accurately to a wide range of demands, while at the same time focus on economic challenges in our global economy, will benefit greatly from the keynote speaker selected for ISM2017," said Tom Derry, ISM president and CEO. "Former Prime Minister David Cameron's focus on geopolitical trends and experiences with globally impactful issues, including Brexit, will help those in supply management face an increasingly globalized economy."

Cameron is best known for being a revolutionary leader of Britain's Conservative Party and was elected prime minister in 2010. His keynote will provide insights into which current events will impact global businesses and supply chains.

Based on positive feedback from ISM2016, ISM will again feature a number of programs tailored to specific audiences within the supply management profession:

Invitation-only ExecIn : A select gathering of top supply management leaders to participate in special executive-level sessions, including exclusive ones with our keynote speaker.

: A select gathering of top supply management leaders to participate in special executive-level sessions, including exclusive ones with our keynote speaker. Emerging Professionals Experience : Designed for those with 1-8 years of experience who are working toward their CPSM  (Certified Professional in Supply Management  ) designation, this experience features a personal ambassador, specialized classes, on-site CPSM certification testing and invitations to exclusive social events.

: Designed for those with 1-8 years of experience who are working toward their CPSM (Certified Professional in Supply Management ) designation, this experience features a personal ambassador, specialized classes, on-site CPSM certification testing and invitations to exclusive social events. Team Experience: Participants in this program will enjoy specialized counsel from ISM executive leadership, and preferred "team seating" near the front of all ISM2017 keynote sessions. It's limited to only 100 people, so interested attendees should act quickly.

For groups of five or more, special pricing is available: If groups register by January 15, they can receive up to 50 percent savings compared to on-site registration. For individuals registering, they can save 40 percent by registering by January 15 compared to on-site registration.

A number of scholarship and award recipients will also be named during ISM2017, including the 2017 R. Gene Richter Scholars and the J. Shipman Gold Medal Award winner. The Richter Scholarship is awarded annually to top supply chain management students from across the U.S., and the Shipman Award is given annually to an individual who has performed distinguished service for the cause and advancement of the supply management profession.

In addition, the third annual 30 Under 30 Rising Supply Chain Stars award recipients, who will be revealed in January 2017, will be celebrated during various ISM2017 events. The 2017 awards are now open to global recipients. Selected by ISM and ThomasNet.com, the award honors top young professionals who are already making their mark on the supply management profession.

For more information about ISM2017 and to register, visit www.ism2017.org.

About Institute for Supply Management

Institute for Supply Management (ISM) serves supply management professionals in more than 90 countries. Its 50,000 members around the world manage about US$1 trillion in corporate and government supply chain procurement annually. Founded in 1915 as the first supply management institute in the world, ISM is committed to advancing the practice of supply management to drive value and competitive advantage for its members, contributing to a prosperous and sustainable world. ISM leads the profession through the ISM Report On Business, its highly regarded certification programs and the ISM Mastery Model. For more information, please visit: www.instituteforsupplymanagement.org.

Media contacts

Mike Scott

248.766.9482

[email protected]

Riley Conover

480.752.6276 ext. 3121

r[email protected]

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SOURCE Institute for Supply Management

Related Links

http://www.instituteforsupplymanagement.org


SUNNYVALE, California, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Utility company EDP (Energias de Portugal, S.A.) has awarded a major IT services contract to Fujitsu to drive digital transformation throughout EDP's IT operations. The Lisbon-headquartered company considers the continuous improvement of IT services as key to its success as a digital utility and selected Fujitsu due to its capability to satisfy current and future Service Desk needs.

As a vertically integrated utility, EDP is the largest generator, distributor and supplier of electricity in Portugal and the third largest electricity generator on the Iberian Peninsula. By the end of 2015, EDP had an installed capacity of 24.4GW of power, generating 63.7TWh, of which 72 percent came from wind and hydro plants.

Digitalization is a key part of the company's 2020 vision, since EDP has identified that more effective use of IT is an enabler to achieve its ambition of becoming a digital utility. In a major step toward this goal, EDP choose Fujitsu to provide its 12,000-strong global workforce - spread across business operations in 12 countries[1] - with Global Service Desk support, focused on an approach of centralizing and standardizing processes, backed by constant innovation.

EDP was particularly impressed by Fujitsu's Sense and Respond approach to Service Desk operations. Fujitsu follows continual service improvement methodologies (CSIP) to enhance the quality of front-line support, helping eliminate cost and inefficiencies. Consequently, EDP anticipates that it will be able to reduce operational Service Desk costs while also making strides in delivering the best possible end user experience by providing a more proactive support experience focused on workforce needs.

This is underpinned by Fujitsu's global delivery capabilities, with Fujitsu delivering Portuguese, Spanish and English-language Service Desk support to more than 12,000 EDP employees in 12 countries. Furthermore, EDP has entrusted Fujitsu with second-level Central Device Management services in Portuguese and Spanish languages for some 12,000-plus of its workforce.

Vergilio Rocha, IT Department Corporate Director at EDP, comments: "We began our Digital Transformation in 2010 and we are fully on course to completion in 2018. We have already created an array of centralized processes such as electronic invoicing, smart metering, mobility management for field teams, an app for manual readings and a cloud-based mobile app for our employees. We chose Fujitsu because of its compelling combination of innovation and continuous improvement, plus its dedication to lowering Service Desk costs through driving first-time fixes to around 80 percent. We feel that Fujitsu understands our business and is able to fully support us in providing our global workforce with continuous improvement in Quality of Service for IT support, as well as ensuring greater user satisfaction."

Angeles Delgado, VP and Head of Iberia and Latin America at Fujitsu, says: "With a strategic intent to become a global and digital utility, embracing innovation is a key part of EDP's process of continuous improvement and helps to increase operational efficiencies. EDP and Fujitsu are taking a co-creation approach to break new ground in Service Desk with proactive, predictive end-user support that is driving digital transformation in the workplace. This is a great example of how Fujitsu is giving our customers the competitive edge in their IT operations. We're able to provide customers like EDP with true value by partnering with them to understand and address the challenges they face. Based on this we develop and deliver innovative, effective digital solutions that are both in context and in tune with our customer's unique needs."

This contract opens a new chapter in the collaboration between EDP and Fujitsu, which began in 2014 when Fujitsu supported EDP in a successful project to simplify and streamline SAP HANA systems.

Read the full release at: http://www.fujitsu.com/fts/about/resources/news/press-releases/index.html

Media contacts

Bryan Hollar

Fujitsu America, Inc

Tel: 408-746-6412

E-mail: [email protected]



About Fujitsu: http://www.fujitsu.com/us/about/

SOURCE Fujitsu
AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- GDU, the leading consumer drone manufacturer focusing on power and portability, today announced the company is shipping the much-anticipated Premium Byrd model featuring a 2.8 4K camera and 3-axis gimbal.

Video - http://youtu.be/-lnJiOMNqkY

GDU Launches Premium Byrd - World's Most Capable Consumer Drone The Premium model offers users the most capable consumer drone on the market with the ability to quickly and easily switch out gimbals for different camera configurations - and will soon include the ability to add DLSRs and mirrorless cameras to the unit via Universal Gimbals.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161115/439654

The Premium model offers users the most capable consumer drone on the market with the ability to quickly and easily switch out gimbals for different camera configurations  and will soon include the ability to add DLSRs and mirrorless cameras to the unit via Universal Gimbals. Check out the latest video here. With the latest GoPro Karma drone recall, the Byrd is the only GoPro compatible drone this season.

While several companies have recently released their versions of the Byrd's foldable design, none have addressed the additional problems users have with drones today  power and modularity. GDU created the Byrd from the ground up to solve all the problems users have with drones  first was the folding capability, then they gave the Byrd super strong rotors to lift up to a 5lb payload for bigger cameras (DSLRs and mirrorless types) and finally the modular design that lets users quickly and easily switch out gimbal/camera packages. Currently that consists of combinations between HD cameras, GoPro and 4K cameras  this will soon also offer gimbals for infrared cameras and Universal Gimbals for DLSRs and mirrorless cameras.

"All consumer-level drones are developed for only one camera, but not the Byrd. GDU will continue to create new gimbal packages to keep the Byrd "future proofed"  they simply don't want people to have to buy a new drone to use a new camera you might buy  that's the philosophy behind the "flying platform" approach," stated Nicolia Wiles, GDU Director of Digital. "You shouldn't have to keep buying $1K drones you don't need just to use a different camera. When you buy a GDU Byrd, you only invest in a drone once, and can save your money for buying cameras you want to try. No other consumer drone manufacturer offers this."

The Premium Byrd provides for 29 minutes of flight time, with a guaranteed 1000-meter video downlink system included in the shipped model (no additional downlink technology needed) and also offers a more advanced OFDM system, compared to WiFi transmission in the Standard model. Price of the Premium Byrd model is $999.00. Dealer information can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N2GCOSP.

Premium Byrd Stats:

Only drone with interchangeable gimbal/camera configurations (purchaser is not stuck with only one camera)

Future-proofed for use with DSLR cameras

'Follow Me' technology

Smart 'return-to-home' feature

OFDM HD 1000m video downlink system

Optical and ultrasonic flight assistance (for inside flights)

29-minute flight time

Included 3-axis gimbal with 2.8 4K camera

Route planning

Intelligent orientation control

Tested in the world's harshest climates to ensure quality

Military-grade materials for ultimate durability and quality

14.2V 6700mAh 4S Li-battery

For more information on where to purchase and product details, visit www.gdu-tech.com.

About GDU

GDU, formerly known as ProDrone, created the first consumer UAV that folded up easily into the size of a backpack, without sacrificing any performance. We also created the first interchangeable camera gimbals. GDU is transforming the industry through truly innovative ideas that consumers want. What makes us different is aside from our focus on comprehensive research, development, design and production of unmanned aerial vehicles, we offer concierge-style customer service, which addresses the number one complaint from consumers regarding consumer UAVs of all brands. All Byrd models are ruthlessly tested in the world's harshest climates to guarantee unconditional quality.

Media Contacts:

Nicolia Wiles

O: 512.477.7373

M: 512.698.7373

[email protected]

Related Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lnJiOMNqkY

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com

SOURCE GDU

Related Links

http://www.gdu-tech.com


NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The results of two EY surveys announced today about the "Gig Economy" find employers and workers both moving toward a temporary, independent workforce.

Among large organizations (100,000 employees or more) surveyed, 49% said they increased their use of gig workers in the last five years. Looking ahead, 40% of organizations expect to increase their use of contingent workers in the next five years. One quarter expect 30% or more of their workforce to be contingent workers by 2020.

At the same time, the research shows more people are choosing to do contingent work; 73% of the 1,008 short-term contingent workers surveyed had positive reasons for their independent work arrangement, with only 20% saying they were short-term workers due to a lack of suitable full-time positions. Sixty-six percent believe the benefits of contingent working outweigh the downsides always or most of the time compared to just 6% who believe the opposite.

"It is well known that the Gig Economy is growing, but ever since the recession, many people assumed that employers just wanted to cut costs by reducing the number of full-time, permanent jobs," said Tony Steadman, Principal, People Advisory Services, Ernst & Young LLP. "However, the survey responses suggest that organizations are welcoming gig workers as a part of their growth and change management strategies. This Gig Economy looks very different than the traditional picture of seasonal workers or workers who provide common services to consumers."

By polling both short-term contingent workers and major global employers, EY identified talent strategies and preferences that serve both sides effectively.

Employers' Perspective

Aside from cost control and filling temporary gaps, today's employers report using short-term contingent workers for strategic business reasons, particularly to leverage skills and capabilities that were not a part of the core workforce.

BENEFIT OF GIG WORKERS TO EMPLOYERS

Expertise is beyond the capability of the existing workforce 56% Help to control labor costs 55% Help to overcome resistance to change within the organization 50% Respond to seasonal work needs 42%

"Cost management will always be a part of business management, but the dynamic use of contingent workers can help drive and accelerate change in this constantly transforming business environment," said Steadman. "It can also support fast paced scale-ups in business models where dramatic growth can occur overnight. But many organizations still need to address the best management techniques for this non-traditional workforce."

Drawbacks and Challenges

Organizations admit to managing the contingent workforce with less alacrity than full-time employees. Among employers:

37% have fragmented governance models for managing their contingent workforce.

31% are using multiple vendor management systems to manage their gig workers.

29% are using basic cost and production metrics to measure contingent workforce performance.

55% of contingent workers report not having gone through an onboarding process.

31% of organizations are using manual off-boarding processes with their contingent workforce.

The questions examined attitudes among contingent workers as well as the management functions of businesses that use contingent workers, and found a potentially causal relationship to an apparent disconnect between talent and employers.

Workers' Perspective

Among workers, 73% choose gig work for their own reasons based on the perceived benefits, led by flexibility, working from home and control.

"Though only 15% of worker respondents disagreed that contingent workers get a fair deal, some common complaints could be handled by a new approach to talent management," said Steadman.

Among gig workers:

58% believe that full-time permanent employees are treated better;

65% of contingent workers say they would work differently if they were permanent employees; among them, 25% would go the extra mile;

26% of contingent workers are ambivalent or disconnected from their employers' business objectives;

40% of contingent workers feel like an outsider compared to the permanent workers of the organization (56% of the 2534 year age group are more likely to feel this way).

"When talent feels unengaged or like they are treated poorly, that's a management issue more than an intrinsic element of contingent work," said Steadman. "A haphazard process toward people management may affect attitudes and impact the organization's ability to structure its workforce effectively. It's critical for employers to develop better methods of managing their increasingly contingent workforce and to consider some of the key HR processes and analytics that can have a negative effect on what could ideally be a mutually beneficial relationship."

Other concerns are inherent in the structure of their work arrangement. The lack of benefits is a key concern, with 68% of contingent workers indicating that they would like more options on health care and pensions. Most gig workers worry about the lack of paid vacation, or sick or personal leave (noted by 63%). They are also concerned about job uncertainty and the lack of job security (48%).

For more information and analysis on the contingent workforce, EY developed an analytical report called The Gig Economy: An Evolving Workforce based on its surveys and other sources to provide a vision for the future of the workforce and steps for organizations to make the most of their contingent worker relationships: ey.com/gigeconomy.

About EY

EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all of our stakeholders. In so doing, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for or clients and for our communities.

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.

This news release has been issued by Ernst & Young LLP, a member firm of EY serving clients in the US.

About EY's People Advisory Services

As the world continues to be impacted by globalization, demographics, technology, innovation and regulation, organizations are under pressure to adapt quickly and build agile people cultures that respond to these disruptive forces. EY People Advisory Services believes a better working world is helping our clients harness their people agenda  the right people, with the right capabilities, in the right place, for the right cost, doing the right things.

We work globally and collaborate to bring you professional teams to address complex issues relating to organization transformation, end-to- end employee life cycles, effective talent deployment and mobility, gaining value from evolving and virtual workforces, and the changing role of HR in support of business strategy. Our EY professionals ask better questions and work with clients to create holistic, innovative answers that deliver quality results.

About the research

EY's study was developed using online surveys, discussion panels and analysis of secondary research of other studies and economic data. The online survey of organization responses was derived from 202 supervisors or above in companies with over 1,000 employees, all sourced from a panel provider in addition to 12 respondents sourced from EY's contact database. The worker survey was made up of 1,008 workers who are not part of an outsourced third-party, but who are currently employed on a non-permanent, contingent basis, including independent professionals, consultants and freelancers.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130701/NY40565LOGO-b

SOURCE EY

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NEW YORK, Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Servo system, a key integral of industrial automation, can be divided into stepper servo system, DC motor servo system, and AC motor servo system. More than 70% of servo systems used now are AC motor servo systems.

Global servo system market size was USD10.46 billion in 2015, a year-on-year growth rate of 5.0%, and is expected to expand to USD11.13 billion in 2016. Europe, the world's major servo system market, boasts a market size of roughly USD3.03 billion, but will see a drop in market share due to rapidly-growing Chinese/Japanese markets.



The Chinese servo system market was valued at RMB7.36 billion in 2015, accounting for about 11.1% of the world's total and up 9.1% from a year ago. As CNC machine tool, electronic equipment, wind power equipment, and robotics, the downstream applications of servo system, are sectors under state policy support, the market is projected to grow steadily at a pace of around 10% during 2016-2020.

China started late on servo system with technology lagging far behind that in foreign countries like low machining precision and relatively short service life of bearings in servo motor. As a result, China now produces mainly mid-and low-end servo systems and virtually relies on imports for high-end products.



The Chinese servo system market is dominated by foreign brands. In 2015, seven out of top10 brands in the Chinese market were foreign ones and the remaining three were Taiwan-based TECO Electric & Machinery and Delta and Chinese mainland Shenzhen Inovance Technology. The top three were occupied by Japanese companies with each seizing a market share of over 10%.



Panasonic: the largest servo system brand in terms of market share in China (14.4% in 2015). In Nov 2015, it launched new A6 servo motor which can be used in industry sectors and consumer market.



Yaskawa: servo system production bases in Shanghai and Shenyang. It developed a servo motor with GaN power component and built-in amplifier in Nov 2015 and will start producing the product before 2017; rolled out a new product- New AC drive "Zero series" in Apr 2016.



Siemens: traditional advantages in high-end servo system market; products chiefly used in CNC machine tool field. It launched new 200-volt converters and motors with lower shaft heights and lower moments of inertia in Nov 2015, further improving its basic servo drive system lineup.



Shenzhen Inovance Technology: the largest servo system manufacturer on the Chinese mainland and the only domestic servo system manufacturer mastering servo encoder technology; products mainly used in mobile phone product line, lithium battery, LED, and manipulator fields. The company made revenue of RMB420 million from servo system business.



Shenzhen INVT Electric: revenue of RMB86.70 million from servo system business in 2015, a year-on-year rise of 24.6%; The company officially launched DA200 high-precision general AC servo system primarily for high-speed and high-precision industries, such as warp knitting machine, die cutting machine, CNC engraving and milling machine, robotics, high-speed chamfering machine, and LED beam-splitting machine.



Global and China Servo System Industry Report, 2016-2020 highlights the followings:

Global servo system industry (development history/trends, market size/structure, competitive landscape, etc.);

China's servo system industry (status quo, market size/structure, competitive landscape, distribution, etc.);

Servo drive, servo motor, servo encoder, and motion controller markets (development, market size, major manufacturers);

Main downstream sectors (machine tool, electronic equipment, robotics, wind power equipment, packaging equipment, textile machinery, etc.) of servo system (application, market status, etc.);

22 global servo system manufacturers (operation, servo system business, development in China, etc.)

Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p04057029-summary/view-report.html



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.

http://www.reportlinker.com





__________________________

Contact Clare: [email protected]

US: (339)-368-6001

Intl: +1 339-368-6001

SOURCE Reportlinker

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BOSTON, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Great Hill Dental in Peabody today presented a charitable contribution check for $3,000.00 to the Haven from Hunger. The donation money was generated through Great Hill Dental Partners participation in the 18th annual Smiles for Life Campaign, which ran from March to June 30th this year.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/439056

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/439055LOGO

Local Charitable Connection

While Smiles for Life is a national charitable organization, Great Hill Dental Partners also partnered with local charities. The Peabody office partnered with Haven from Hunger, a non-profit that helps families and individuals in need make ends meet by providing emergency food, community meals, and more.

"We're proud of our Peabody office team that donated their time and expertise for this cause," said Michael Scialabba, CEO at Great Hill Dental Partners.

"We feel it's important to be active and involved with both national charities, and local charities in the communities we serve. Haven from Hunger provides a variety of much needed services for those in need in the Peabody community, as well as Lynnfield and Salem. It's been an honor to help them continue their good work," he said.

"We are very grateful to Great Hill Dental Peabody for their charitable contribution," said Ann Strong, Executive Director at Haven from Hunger. "We rely on the support of our residents and companies like Great Hill Dental Partners, so that we can continue to provide services to those in need in the Peabody area."

About the Haven from Hunger

Food Pantry - Our food pantry provides over 1,800 households with fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, diary, and canned goods. Last year, we distributed enough food for close to 600,000 meals.

Community-Meals Program - Our community-meals program offers guests a filling, nutritious supper in a friendly atmosphere four nights a week. Last year, we served over 9,000 suppers.

Summer Meals for Kids - In addition, we provide free summer meals to low-income children. This year, we served close to 4,000 lunches to children in need.

About Great Hill Dental Partners, LLC

Great Hill Dental Partners, LLC provides restorative dentistry, implant therapy, oral surgery, root canal therapy, periodontics, orthodontics, Invisalign, pediatric dentistry, and prosthodontics, all within a multi-specialty, multi-site practice.

Among the first to offer "Whole Health Dentistry" in the Boston area, Great Hill Dental focuses on the medically proven connection between a patient's oral health and their overall health.

Great Hill Dental Partners Contact:

For all Great Hill Dental Partners media or general inquiries:

Michael Scialabba

[email protected], or call (617) 969-0196 x2.

www.greathilldental.com

SOURCE Great Hill Dental Partners, LLC
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Greenspoon Marder is pleased to announce that Amy T. Margolis will be joining the firm as a shareholder in the firm's new Portland, Oregon office set to open in January 2017. The addition of Ms. Margolis, along with attorneys Sara Bateman and Kristin Stanckiewicz, will expand the firm's Cannabis Law practice group and the firm's footprint across the United States.

Ms. Margolis' primary practice areas include licensing, compliance and administrative law work in the cannabis industry, as well as representation of clients charged with crimes in both state and federal court. Ms. Margolis is the founder of the Oregon Cannabis PAC and the Oregon Cannabis Association, which is the largest professional cannabis association in the state of Oregon. In addition, she is deeply engaged in policy work, frequently testifies at the Oregon legislature and before local governments on issues surrounding cannabis. She has also led two lobbying trips to Washington D.C.

"I am thrilled to be joining Greenspoon Marder as they grow their national cannabis practice" said Ms. Margolis. "Having represented clients in the cannabis movement and industry for more than fifteen years, I am excited to partner with a firm that has deep bench of experience with heavily regulated industries coupled with a commitment to cannabis reform."

Greenspoon Marder is one of the first firms of its size with a dedicated team of attorneys servicing the $5.4 billion adult use and medicinal cannabis market. As of November 8th, twenty-nine states and Washington, D.C. have currently legalized cannabis and medical marijuana in some form.

"Our firm is committed to meeting the evolving needs of the cannabis industry and is poised to service clients on a national level," commented Gerald Greenspoon, Co-Managing Director of Greenspoon Marder. "Our firm plans to continue to extend our presence and open additional offices in states that play a key role in the cannabis business community."

The firm also welcomes senior counsel, Sara Bateman. Ms. Bateman counsels clients on a broad range of business issues including commercial transactions, licensing agreements, mergers and acquisitions as well as general corporate matters. Her previous experience includes working in-house for two technology and manufacturing companies.

Kristin Stanckiewicz will be joining the firm as an associate. Her primary practice area is land use and real estate. Ms. Stanckiewicz previously worked with Office of Metro Attorney for the City of Portland where she assisted with real estate acquisitions, complex permitting problems and a diverse range of municipal law issues.

About Greenspoon Marder

Greenspoon Marder is committed to providing excellent client service through our cross-disciplinary, client-team approach. Our goal is to understand the challenges that our clients face, build collaborative relationships, and craft creative solutions designed and executed with long-term strategic goals in mind. Since our inception in 1981, Greenspoon Marder has become a full-service, Am Law 200 and NLJ 350 law firm with more than 200 attorneys. We serve Fortune 500, middle-market public and private companies, start-ups, emerging businesses, individuals and entrepreneurs across Florida and the United States. For more information, visit www.gmlaw.com.

SOURCE Greenspoon Marder

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NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Former Attorney General of Louisiana Charles C. Foti, Jr., Esq. and the law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") are investigating the proposed sale of Harman International Industries, Inc. ("Harman" or the "Company") (NYSE: HAR) to Samsung Electronics (KRX: 005930). Under the terms of the proposed transaction, shareholders of Harman will receive only $112.00 in cash for each share of Harman that they own. KSF is seeking to determine whether this consideration and the process that led to it are adequate, or whether the consideration undervalues the Company.

If you believe that this transaction undervalues the Company and/or if you would like to discuss your legal rights regarding the proposed sale, you may, without obligation or cost to you, e-mail or call KSF Managing Partner Lewis S. Kahn ([email protected]) toll free at any time at 855-768-1857.

To learn more about KSF, whose partners include the Former Louisiana Attorney General, visit www.ksfcounsel.com.

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

206 Covington St.

Madisonville, LA 70447

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160819/399590LOGO

SOURCE Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

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Marietta has been with HCA Gulf Coast Division since 2001, most recently as chief operating officer at Kingwood Medical Center. During her tenure at Kingwood Medical Center, the hospital achieved Comprehensive Stroke Designation by the State of Texas, was recognized as a Stroke Gold Plus Honor Roll Elite by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, received the HCA President's Award for Surgical Growth Initiatives, achieved an Accredited Chest Pain Center, and was twice named a Joint Commission Top Performer on Key Quality Measures. Kingwood Medical Center added 211 inpatient beds for a total of 373 inpatient beds under Megan's leadership.

"Megan has demonstrated her ability to lead a hospital to significant service line growth and achievements in patient satisfaction," said Villarreal. "This promotion to CEO is indicative of the faith we have in her and her abilities, and I know she will be an extremely valuable asset to West Houston Medical Center."

Before her tenure at Kingwood Medical Center, Marietta worked at HCA Gulf Coast-affiliated Clear Lake Regional Medical Center and The Woman's Hospital of Texas. She earned a bachelor of arts in psychology from the University of Texas at Austin and a master of business administration and master of health care administration from the University of Houston. She has served on the Greater East Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce Board, the Greater Lake Houston YMCA Board, and the Montgomery County United Way Board. In October 2016, Megan was named one of the Lake Houston Area Chamber of Commerce's Top 4 under 40 and more recently recognized by FamilyTime as the Woman of Achievement in the medical category.

About HCA Gulf Coast Division

HCA Gulf Coast Division is a comprehensive network of hospitals, outpatient surgery centers, emergency centers, and diagnostic imaging facilities. It offers a complete continuum of specialized health programs and services that meet the needs of Greater Houston and South Texas' residents and businesses. HCA affiliated facilities in the Gulf Coast Division include: 13 hospitals, 8 ambulatory centers, 7 off-campus emergency centers, and a regional transfer center that provides one-phone-call access and support for patient transfers into and out of the HCA Gulf Coast Division Affiliated Hospitals, as well as access to ground and air transportation within a 150-mile radius. For more information, visit our website at www.HCAGulfCoast.com.

About West Houston Medical Center

West Houston Medical Center is a full-service hospital serving the West Houston community for over 30 years. This Joint Commission accredited facility provides a range of care including: emergency services; neurosurgery services; inpatient and outpatient surgery, rehabilitation and diagnostic services; bariatric/weight loss surgery; senior care; wound care; sleep disorder services; cardiovascular care, women's services, and more. WHMC is a Certified Primary Stroke Center by The Joint Commission, and a recipient of the TMF Quality Improvement Award. Under an affiliation agreement with The Woman's Hospital of Texas, WHMC brings to its community The Woman's Hospital of Texas at West Houston. The facility is also home to The Heart Hospital at West Houston, a three-story cardiac and critical care tower. In Sugar Land, the Sugar Land Cancer Center and the Sugar Land Diagnostic Center are located on the Southwest Freeway at the Williams Trace and Sugar Lakes exit. In Richmond/Katy, West Houston Medical Center 24 Hour Emergency Center located at Westpark Tollway and the Grand Parkway provides 24 hour emergency and outpatient imaging services. The diagnostic center, cancer center, and off-site emergency center facilities are departments of West Houston Medical Center. Visit our website at www.westhoustonmedical.com.

Debra Burbridge

Vice President of Marketing

713-852-1506 office

281-851-6275 cell

[email protected]

Kim Mathes

Director of Community and Public Relations

713-852-1528 office

832-294-164 cell

[email protected]

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/439157

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150119/169931LOGO

SOURCE HCA Gulf Coast Division

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NEW YORK, Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- High performance plastics are used in applications demanding higher requirements than standard and engineering plastics because of their high strength, good chemical resistance, low coefficient of friction, performance at high temperatures, high quality electrical resistance. Major demand driver for the consumption of high performance plastics is the metal and other low performance materials replacement in demanding applications such as automotive, aerospace, electronics and medical, where high temperature resistance and strength is required. In the automotive & transportation industry including aerospace, growth is supported by metal replacement to reduce weight, while thinner and smaller components in electrical & electronics.

This global report analyzes the high performance plastics comprising Fluoropolymers (PTFE, PVDF, FEP, PCTFE, PFA, PVF, ECTFE and ETFE), High Performance Polyamides (PA 11, PA12, PA 46, PA 9T, PPA and PARA), Sulfone Polymers (PESU, PSU and PPSU), Polyphenylene Sulphide (PPS), Liquid Crystal Polymers (LCP), Polyetherimide (PEI) and Polyetheretherketone (PEEK). The study also analyzes the key end-use sectors of high performance plastics including Automotive & Transportation, Building & Construction, Consumer Goods, Electrical & Electronics, Mechanical/Industrial and Others (such as Medical etc.).



The global markets for the above-mentioned plastic types and end-use sectors are analyzed in terms of volume in metric tons and value in USD for 2012-2022 analysis period. The global market for High Performance Plastics is segmented into four major regions namely, the United States, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World. The regional markets further analyzed for 8 more independent countries across Europe  France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom; Asia-Pacific  China, India, Japan and South Korea. The market is analyzed in all of these major regions by key countries and by major end-use sectors in terms of both volume and value. This report also provides the comprehensive market analysis of each High Performance Plastics type by end-use sector. The global market for High Performance Plastics is likely to maintain a moderately faster, compared to volume consumption, CAGR of 6.1% during the same period and reach a projected US$15.9 billion by 2022 from a forecast US$11.15 billion in 2016.

Fluoropolymers are the most widely consumed High Performance Plastics on a global basis, forecast to be 281.6 thousand metric tons (38% share) in 2016, which are anticipated to post the above average growth of CAGR of 6.1% between 2016 and 2022 and reach a projected 402 thousand metric tons by 2022. High Performance Polyamides are the second largest high Performance Plastics with an estimated share of 29.3% (217.4 thousand MTs) in 2016 followed by Polyphenylene Sulphide (PPS) with a share of 16.4% (121.3 thousand MTs) in the same year. The report also examines the major global players for their production capacities by product type and location.



This 560 page global high performance plastics market report includes 642 charts (includes a data table and graphical representation for each chart), supported with meaningful and easy to understand graphical presentation, of market numbers. This report profiles 33 key global players and 21 major players across Japan  4; China  16; and India  1. The research also provides the listing of the companies engaged in manufacturing, compounding and processing of high performance plastics. The global list of companies covers the address, contact numbers and the website addresses of 414 companies.

Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p04316857-summary/view-report.html



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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__________________________

Contact Clare: [email protected]

US: (339)-368-6001

Intl: +1 339-368-6001

SOURCE Reportlinker

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The Devitt Award is the American judiciary's longest running and its highest honor that is bestowed upon an Article III federal judge. It was created 34 years ago by the late Dwight D. Opperman , when he served as president and chairman of the West Publishing Company. Mr. Opperman joined forces with then Chief Justice Warren Burger and chose to name the award after his esteemed friend Judge Edward J. Devitt, whom he believed epitomized the highest standard of the federal bench.

Supreme Court Associate Justice, Elena Kagan was appointed by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., to chair this year's committee. She was joined by Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and by Judge Gary Feinerman of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Justice Kagan has followed in the footsteps of every sitting justice since the Devitt Award's inception.

Judge Newman said, "It is an overwhelming honor to have been selected to receive the Devitt Award. I am grateful to Justice Kagan, the selection committee, and to the late Dwight Opperman, an iconic figure in the American legal community who, through his foundation, continues to honor excellence in the federal judiciary."

This year, Justice Kagan and her committee could not make the call among two exceptional nominees who found themselves up for the award. Thus, all joined forces and made the unprecedented decision to next year award the 2017 Devitt Award to Senior Judge Ralph K. Winter, also of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Justice Kagan said that, "We recognize two richly and equally deserving judges who, for nearly 35 years, have served together as twin pillars of the Second Circuit. Judge Newman and Judge Winter are both widely recognized as brilliant jurists and thoughtful scholars."

Justice Kagan added, "During their service together, they have each made extraordinary contributions to the administration of justice and the training of younger judges. In senior status, they remain deeply engaged in the work of the courts. Their sequential selection reflects their many accomplishments and the deep respect and admiration of their colleagues and all who know them. I congratulate them both on receiving this prestigious award."

Julie C. Opperman, chairman of the Dwight D. Opperman Foundation, said, "I remain dedicated to continuing Dwight's legacy in his judicial passions and other philanthropic endeavors." She added, "I am grateful indeed and deeply appreciative to Chief Justice Roberts and to so many on the Supreme Court who have encouraged and supported me with the Devitt Award and numerous other privileges."

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161113/438946

SOURCE Dwight D. Opperman Foundation

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http://www.oppermanfoundation.org


"Thanksgiving is a time where families gather, celebrate tradition and find inspiration during the holiday season," said Jan Hood, head of marketing for Honeysuckle White and Shady Brook Farms. "We're inspired every day by our 700 independent family farmers who raise honest, simple turkey without growth-promoting antibiotics, added hormones or steroids. They work diligently throughout the year so that families can sit down together around their Thanksgiving tables and enjoy a wonderful turkey dinner."

Underscoring its commitment to honest, simple turkey, both Honeysuckle White and Shady Brook Farms eliminated the use of antibiotics for growth promotion purposes in early 2015, then eliminated the use of the antibiotic gentamicin (a shared-class drug used in both human and animal health) in hatcheries earlier in 2016.

The 30-second Honeysuckle White and Shady Brook Farms commercials will air on broadcast, cable and/or connected/digital TV during morning, early news and prime time periods.

Based on recently gathered consumer research insights, Cargill created its holiday season TV advertising campaign to celebrate the many unique family traditions that take place at Thanksgiving in the U.S. The goal is to provide turkeys that make these Thanksgiving traditions memorable.

The holiday campaign also includes video vignettes of "An Honest Meal," where Honeysuckle White and Shady Brook Farms independent family farmers were paired with food bloggers. The bloggers visited the farms to get to know the farmers and draw inspiration to create unique recipes. With full plates and new friendships, farmers and bloggers shared a Thanksgiving meal and learned that for every dish, there's always a meaningful story behind it.

Videos featuring Honeysuckle White and Shady Brooks Farms turkey farmers and bloggers can be found at: www.honeysucklewhite.com/honest-meal and www.shadybrookfarms.com/honest-meal.

About Cargill

Cargill provides food, agriculture, financial and industrial products and services to the world. Together with farmers, customers, governments and communities, we help people thrive by applying our insights and 150 years of experience. We have 150,000 employees in 70 countries who are committed to feeding the world in a responsible way, reducing environmental impact and improving the communities where we live and work. For more information, visit Cargill.com and our News Center.

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SOURCE Cargill Public Affairs

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http://www.cargill.com


PLANO, Texas, Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Hospice Source, LLC is pleased to announce that it has acquired the hospice equipment business of Travis Medical Sales Corporation ("Travis Medical").

Hospice Source is one of the nation's largest providers of medical equipment services focused exclusively on the hospice industry. The hospice equipment division of Travis Medical, based in Austin, is a leading provider of medical equipment to hospices in a number of key markets in Texas. The acquisition further enhances Hospice Source's customer base and market position in Texas.

"The addition of Travis Medical's locations and customer relationships allow our company to expand our geographical coverage, and continue to serve a greater number of patients in our home state. We are honored to serve Travis's partners and patients, and welcome them to the Hospice Source family," said Jeff West, Hospice Source CEO.

About Hospice Source

Based in Plano, TX, Hospice Source is a full service, national provider of respiratory therapy, medical equipment ("DME"), and Hospice DME IT solutions focused exclusively on the hospice market. Hospice Source currently provides service to patients and hospice providers in 7 states from 42 locations. Hospice Source, LLC is a portfolio company of Transition Capital Partners ("TCP").

To learn more: www.hospicesource.net

About TCP

Transition Capital Partners ("TCP") is a Dallas, TX based, family office funded, private investment firm. Founded in 1993, TCP has successfully invested in over 40 lower middle market companies spanning a diverse array of industries. TCP is affiliated with the Patterson Thoma Family Office.

TCP partners with management teams to build sustainable value in businesses over the long-term, without the artificial constraints fundraising cycles create for traditional private equity funds. With more than twenty years of proven success, we have a long track record of collaborating with our partners to accelerate the growth of lower middle market companies.

To learn more: www.tcplp.com

Contacts

Jason Faucett, Managing Director, 214-978-3812, [email protected]

Darren Tewes, V-P of Sales and Marketing, 480-406-3400, [email protected]

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com

SOURCE Hospice Source, LLC

Related Links

http://www.hospicesource.net


"Our customers increasingly want more ways to interact with their vehicles, especially when they are hustling to get out the door," said Barry Ratzlaff, executive director, digital business planning and connected operations, Hyundai Motor America. "Linking smart devices like the Amazon Echo and Apple Watch to vehicles via Blue Link continues to fill that desire. Allowing consumers to send commands to their car is just the beginning."

Adding even more convenience to the ownership experience, owners of the all-new Hyundai IONIQ Electric and Plug-in Electric vehicles are able to start and stop the charge of their cars with the ease of simple voice commands with the Blue Link skill. Hyundai owners can request various functions of their car including:

Remote start and stop charging of the Hyundai IONIQ Electric, IONIQ Plug-in and Sonata Plug-in

Remote engine start with climate control across all supported Hyundai models

Remote door lock/unlock across all Hyundai models

Remote horn/lights across all Hyundai models equipped

At home, a Hyundai owner can experience interactions like these:

Owner: "Alexa, ask Blue Link to start charging my IONIQ." Alexa: "Request for remote charging your IONIQ has been sent." Owner: "Alexa, tell Blue Link to start my car at 80 degrees." Alexa: "Request for remote starting your car with climate control has been sent." Owner: "Alexa, ask Blue Link to lock my Santa Fe." Alexa: "Request for remote locking your Santa Fe has been sent."

Blue Link brings seamless connectivity directly into the car with technology like Remote Start with Climate Control, Destination Search powered by Google, Remote Door Lock/Unlock, Car Finder, Enhanced Roadside Assistance, and Stolen Vehicle Recovery. Blue Link can be easily accessed from the buttons on the rearview mirror, the web or via smartphone app. In addition to the new Blue Link skill, some of these features can be controlled via the latest Android Wear and Apple Watch smartwatch offerings.

"We're excited to work with Hyundai to expand their Blue Link skill for Amazon Alexa to more cars with Blue Link," said Rob Pulciani, director, Amazon Alexa. "Being able to complete simple tasks like locking your car doors, set your car temperature, and moreall with just using your voice from inside the comfort of your homeis a magical experience. We can't wait for Alexa and Blue Link customers to try out this new skill."

The Blue Link skill for Amazon Alexa is compatible with second generation Blue Link equipped vehicles. These vehicles include:

All 2017 model Blue Link equipped vehicles

The following 2016 model vehicles: Genesis, Azera, Tucson , Sonata (SE, Sport Limited, Sport 2.0T, Limited 2.0T, Eco 1.6T), Sonata Hybrid (Limited Ultimate package), Veloster (Tech package), Elantra GT (Tech package)

, Sonata (SE, Sport Limited, Sport 2.0T, Limited 2.0T, Eco 1.6T), Sonata Hybrid (Limited Ultimate package), Veloster (Tech package), Elantra GT (Tech package) The following 2015MY vehicles: Genesis, Sonata, Azera.

How It Works

To send commands to Hyundai vehicles via Alexa, users must enable the Blue Link skill in their Alexa app available on iOS, Android and Fire tablets, and then link their existing Blue Link account within the Alexa app. Voice commands will only be sent to Hyundai vehicles after Alexa prompts owners for their Blue Link Personal Identification Number (PIN).

HYUNDAI MOTOR AMERICA

Hyundai Motor America, headquartered in Fountain Valley, Calif., is a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Co. of Korea. Hyundai vehicles are distributed throughout the United States by Hyundai Motor America and are sold and serviced through more than 830 dealerships nationwide. All Hyundai vehicles sold in the U.S. are covered by the Hyundai Assurance program, which includes the 5-year/60,000-mile fully transferable new vehicle limited warranty, Hyundai's 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain limited warranty and five years of complimentary Roadside Assistance. Hyundai Blue Link Connected Care provides owners of Hyundai models equipped with the Blue Link telematics system with proactive safety and car care services complimentary for one year with enrollment. These services include Automatic Collision Notification, Enhanced Roadside Assistance, Vehicle Diagnostic Alert, Monthly Vehicle Health Report and In-Vehicle Service Scheduling.

For more details on Hyundai Assurance, please visit www.HyundaiAssurance.com.

Please visit our media website at www.hyundainews.com and our blog at www.hyundailikesunday.com.

Hyundai Motor America on Twitter | YouTube | Facebook

Video - http://origin-qps.onstreammedia.com/origin/multivu_archive/PRNA/ENR/HyundaiAlexaSkillVideo30sec.mp4

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SOURCE Hyundai Motor America

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SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Instructure (NYSE:INST), a leading software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology company that makes software that makes people smarter, today announced plans to open a Utah County office in January 2017. With offices around the world and more than 900 employees, Instructure has rapidly grown its talent base over the last few years. The new office location will help the company continue rapid expansion of its talent pool beyond the Salt Lake Valley.

"The Instructure team is continually growing and shows no signs of slowing down," said Jeff Weber, senior vice president of people and places at Instructure. "With dozens of talented tech hires joining the team, it was clear we had to expand in Utah, and beyond just our Salt Lake City office. We're excited to branch out into Utah County and look forward to offering a space that not only accommodates our growing team but creates an environment conducive to happy and productive employees."

Located in Pleasant Grove, Utah, the new office will eventually accommodate up to 300 of Instructure's Engineering, Product and Customer Success teams. The Utah County location will embody the same award-winning culture and experience as other Instructure offices around the world, including an open and collaborative floorplan, all-wireless internet access, ergonomic workstations, a fully-stocked kitchen, game room, weekly catered lunches, and more. Recognized for its strong work culture, Instructure was ranked #2 in the 2016 Glassdoor list of the "25 Highest Rated Public Cloud Computing Companies to Work For."

In addition to the Utah County office, Instructure plans to expand its 139,000-square-foot headquarters in Salt Lake City to encompass an additional 27,000 square feet. The renovation is expected to be complete in early 2017. The company also plans to continue growth of its other office locations, including Chicago, Seattle, London, Sydney, Sao Paulo and Hong Kong.

For more information about Instructure, or to join our awesome team, visit www.Instructure.com.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains "forward-looking" statements which are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding Instructure's plans to expand its workforce, office space and geographic footprint. These statements are not guarantees of future performance or achievements, but are based on management's expectations as of the date of this press release and assumptions that are inherently subject to uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict, such as Instructure's need to expand geographically, its need for additional employees, and other risks and uncertainties detailed in Instructure's filings with the SEC, including, without limitation, its Form 10-K and other reports on Forms 8-K and 10-Q, all of which can be obtained on the SEC website at www.sec.gov. Instructure assumes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward looking statements contained in this release, except as required by law.

ABOUT INSTRUCTURE

Instructure, Inc. is a leading software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology company that makes software that makes people smarter. With a vision to help maximize the potential of people through technology, Instructure created Canvas and Bridge to enable educational institutions and organizations everywhere to easily develop, deliver and manage engaging face-to-face and online learning experiences. To date, Instructure has connected millions of instructors and learners at more than 2,000 educational institutions and corporations throughout the world. Learn more about Canvas for higher ed and K12, and Bridge for the corporate market, at www.Instructure.com.

CONTACTS:

Heather Erickson

Instructure

(801) 658-7524

[email protected]

Jessica Hutchison

Method Communications

(801) 461-9779

[email protected]

Copyright  2016, Instructure, Inc. All rights reserved. Instructure, Canvas, Arc and Bridge logos are registered trademarks or trademarks of Instructure, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other brands and names may be claimed as the property of others.

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SOURCE Instructure

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For years, Dr. Oetker has been committed to delivering pizza that brings home the simple and joyful pleasures of time well spent with family and friends. Now, with the conversion from Ristorante to Virtuoso, the company adds a new look to the freezer aisle and a fresh perspective to routine dinners.

"We are incredibly proud to introduce Dr. Oetker Virtuoso in the US, which comes as the result of extensive consumer research and careful consideration," said William Whalen, Executive Vice President at Dr. Oetker USA. "Virtuoso is a high quality pizza with the same fresh-tasting ingredients and distinctive flavor combinations many consumers already know and love from Ristorante."

The name Virtuoso epitomizes Dr. Oetker's celebrated qualities of artistic excellence and skill, and the Virtuoso is someone who excels above and beyond in the performance of their chosen art form. In this case, it's crafting best-in-class, premium pizza by applying very deliberate techniques, imagination and creativity to give rise to masterfully delicious pizza from the crust up.

Virtuoso is made with the same exact recipe and ingredients as Ristorante and is available in the same nine delicious, uniquely-flavored varietieswith more to come in the near future. The current varieties include:

Mozzarella & Pesto: 100% real mozzarella and Edam cheeses, sun-ripened tomatoes, crushed pesto and our signature sauce.

100% real mozzarella and Edam cheeses, sun-ripened tomatoes, crushed pesto and our signature sauce. Signature Spinach: Farm-grown leafy spinach, 100% real mozzarella, our signature sauce and swirls of hearty garlic sauce.

Farm-grown leafy spinach, 100% real mozzarella, our signature sauce and swirls of hearty garlic sauce. Pepperoni Pesto: Thinly sliced flavor-rich pepperoni, 100% real mozzarella cheese, basil, crushed pesto and our signature sauce, drizzled with olive oil.

Thinly sliced flavor-rich pepperoni, 100% real mozzarella cheese, basil, crushed pesto and our signature sauce, drizzled with olive oil. Vegetable Medley: Fresh-picked sun-ripened cherry tomatoes, colorful bell peppers, red onions, pickled pepperoncini peppers, basil, 100% real mozzarella and Edam cheeses and our signature sauce.

Fresh-picked sun-ripened cherry tomatoes, colorful bell peppers, red onions, pickled pepperoncini peppers, basil, 100% real mozzarella and Edam cheeses and our signature sauce. Mushroom: Overflowing with mushrooms, 100% real mozzarella and Edam cheeses along with our signature sauce.

Overflowing with mushrooms, 100% real mozzarella and Edam cheeses along with our signature sauce. Seasoned Chicken: Tender, seasoned chicken, farm-grown spinach, sun-ripened tomatoes, basil, 100% real mozzarella and Edam cheeses, and our signature sauce.

Tender, seasoned chicken, farm-grown spinach, sun-ripened tomatoes, basil, 100% real mozzarella and Edam cheeses, and our signature sauce. Pepperoni & Ham: Savory slices of pepperoni, cooked ham, 100% real mozzarella and Edam cheeses, our signature sauce and an herb blend for that extra kick.

Savory slices of pepperoni, cooked ham, 100% real mozzarella and Edam cheeses, our signature sauce and an herb blend for that extra kick. Four Cheese: An enticing blend of 100% real cheeses, including mozzarella, Edam, Emmentaler, blue cheese, basil seasoning and our signature sauce.

An enticing blend of 100% real cheeses, including mozzarella, Edam, Emmentaler, blue cheese, basil seasoning and our signature sauce. Tomato & Goat Cheese: 100% real mozzarella, Edam and goat cheeses, fresh-picked sweet cherry and sun-dried tomatoes, crushed pesto and our signature sauce.

Virtuoso is available in all grocery stores that previously carried Ristorante. Check the Virtuoso store locator to see where you can find Virtuoso near you. For the latest updates, follow Virtuoso on Facebook.

About Dr. Oetker

The Dr. Oetker Company was started in Bielefeld, Germany in 1891 with the development of baking powder, Backin, which guaranteed perfect baking results for home cooks. More than 30 years ago, the first frozen pizza was launched in Germany and, today, operates in various countries around the world. After launching in the US in 2009, Dr. Oetker USA rebranded Ristorante Pizza to Virtuoso in October 2016. Dr. Oetker also produces Ellio's Pizza, a family favorite brand with more than 50 years of in the history in the United States. For more information please visit www.oetker.us.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161108/437056

SOURCE Dr. Oetker

Related Links

http://www.oetker.us


SHANGHAI, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. ("JinkoSolar" or the "Company"), a global leader in the photovoltaic industry, today announced the completion of the sale of all of the 55% equity interest it indirectly held in Jiangxi JinkoSolar Engineering Co., Ltd., a developer and operator of solar power projects in the People's Republic of China, to Shangrao Kangsheng Technology Co., Ltd. (the "Buyer"), a company formed by a buyer consortium led by Mr. Xiande Li, chairman of the board of directors of the Company, pursuant to the previously announced Share Purchase Agreement entered into by Wide Wealth Group Holding Limited, a 55%-owned indirect subsidiary of the Company, and the Buyer. As a result of the sale, JinkoSolar spun off its downstream business of Jinko Power and received US$250 million in cash.

About JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd.

JinkoSolar (NYSE: JKS) is a global leader in the solar industry. JinkoSolar distributes its solar products and sells its solutions and services to a diversified international utility, commercial and residential customer base in China, the United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, Chile, South Africa, India, Mexico, Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, and other countries and regions. JinkoSolar has built a vertically integrated solar product value chain, with an integrated annual capacity of 3.5 GW for silicon ingots and wafers, 3.5 GW for solar cells, and 6.5 GW for solar modules, as of June 30, 2016. JinkoSolar also sells electricity in China, and had connected approximately 1,130 MW of solar power projects to the grid, as of June 30, 2016.

JinkoSolar has over 15,000 employees across its 6 productions facilities in Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Xinjiang Provinces, China, Malaysia, Portugal and South Africa, 16 oversea subsidiaries in Japan (2), Singapore, India, Turkey, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Australia and South Africa. 18 global sales offices in China (2) ,United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Morocco, Ghana, Kenya, Costa Rica, Colombia, Brazil and Mexico.

To find out more, please see: www.jinkosolar.com

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements constitute "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends, "plans," "believes," "estimates" and similar statements. Among other things, the quotations from management in this press release and the Company's operations and business outlook, contain forward-looking statements. Such statements involve certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in JinkoSolar's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual report on Form 20-F. Except as required by law, the Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

For investor and media inquiries, please contact:

In China:

Mr. Sebastian Liu

JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd.

Tel: +86 21-5183-3056

Email: [email protected]

Mr. Christian Arnell

Christensen, Beijing

Tel: +86 10 5900 2940

Email: [email protected]

In the U.S.:

Ms. Linda Bergkamp

Christensen, Scottsdale, Arizona

Tel: +1-480-614-3004

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd.

Related Links

http://www.jinkosolar.com


BOSTON, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- John Hancock today announced the launch of its new Vitality Active Rewards with Apple Watch program, which gives John Hancock Vitality life insurance policyholders the opportunity to earn a new Apple Watch Series 2 for just $25, simply by being more active. John Hancock is the first life insurer in the U.S. to motivate policyholders to get more active by offering them the opportunity to participate in this innovative program and earn their Apple Watch Series 2.

John Hancock redefined life insurance in 2015 by introducing its Vitality program, which allows policyholders to save significantly on their premiums and earn valuable rewards by taking small steps to live healthy, like walking, exercising or getting regular check-ups. The program expanded earlier this year with the addition of the Vitality HealthyFood benefit, through which customers can earn points and save up to $600 a year on their grocery bills for choosing healthy foods at participating grocery stores.

"We are proud to continually evolve our John Hancock Vitality life insurance program and bring new benefits and rewards to our policyholders," said Michael Doughty, president, John Hancock Insurance. "We're excited to offer Apple Watch Series 2 for our customers to help them be active and live healthier today, while protecting their financial future."

Get Apple Watch. Get Active. Get Rewarded.

Through the Vitality Active Rewards with Apple Watch program, policyholders who want to participate simply sign up, choose their Apple Watch Series 2, pay the $25 initial fee (plus tax), and then receive an Apple Watch Series 2 to get started. Whether they like to walk, run, bike or swim, it's easy for participants to track their activities and earn Vitality Points that go towards monthly payments for their watch over two years. John Hancock Vitality members will be able to fully fund their Apple Watch by meeting monthly Vitality Active Rewards targets that are achievable over 24 months.

"Our research of the thousands of participants using Apple Watch on our Vitality program in South Africa shows that these members are more physically active than those using other fitness devices, and we've also seen an average increase of 46% in weekly physical activities for those using the watch," said Alan Pollard, CEO of The Vitality Group. "These incentives are effective in helping to drive healthy behaviors and program participation."

The Vitality Active Rewards with Apple Watch program is available to both new and existing John Hancock Vitality policyholders.1

About John Hancock Financial and Manulife

John Hancock Financial is a division of Manulife, a leading Canada-based financial services group with principal operations in Asia, Canada and the United States. Operating as Manulife in Canada and Asia, and primarily as John Hancock in the United States, the group of companies offers clients a diverse range of financial protection products and wealth management services through its extensive network of employees, agents and distribution partners. Assets under management and administration by Manulife and its subsidiaries were $966 billion (US $736 billion) as at September 30, 2016. Manulife Financial Corporation trades as 'MFC' on the TSX, NYSE and PSE, and under '945' on the SEHK. Manulife can be found on the Internet at manulife.com.

The John Hancock unit, through its insurance companies, comprises one of the largest life insurers in the United States. John Hancock offers and administers a broad range of financial products, including life insurance, annuities, investments, 401(k) plans, long-term care insurance, college savings, and other forms of business insurance. Additional information about John Hancock may be found at johnhancock.com.

About Vitality

The Vitality Group is a member of Discovery Ltd., a global financial services organization offering an incentive-based wellness program to employers as part of their benefits program. With a foundation based on actuarial science and behavioral economic theory, Vitality encourages changes in lifestyle that reduce health care costs, both in the short run and long term, by rewarding members for addressing their specific health issues. Vitality wellness programs serve companies in a wide range of sizes and industries, improving individuals' health and well-being as well as employers' bottom lines.

Vitality brings a global perspective through successful partnerships with large employers and best-in- class insurers around the world, in countries including the United States, United Kingdom, South Africa, China, Singapore and Australia. Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/VitalityUSA.

SmartProtect Term with Vitality and John Hancock Term with Vitality policies less than $2,000,000 are not eligible for Vitality Active Rewards with Apple Watch



Insurance products are issued by: John Hancock Life Insurance Company ( U.S.A. ), Boston, MA 02210 (not licensed in New York ) and John Hancock Life Insurance Company of New York , Valhalla, NY 10595.



Vitality is the provider of the John Hancock Vitality Program in connection with policies issued by John Hancock.

John Hancock Vitality Program rewards and discounts are only available to the person insured under the eligible life insurance policy. Rewards and discounts are subject to change and are not guaranteed to remain the same for the life of the policy.

Rewards may vary based on the type of insurance policy purchased for the insured (Vitality Program Member).

HealthyFood savings are based on qualifying purchases and may vary based on the terms of the John Hancock Vitality program.

MLINY100416021

SOURCE John Hancock Financial

Related Links

http://www.johnhancock.com


Detroit-area facility will operate as ADESA Flint

CARMEL, Ind., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- KAR Auction Services (NYSE: KAR) today announced it has acquired Flint Auto Auction, a whole car auction facility in Flint, Mich. The facility will operate as ADESA Flint, strengthening the national footprint of KAR's ADESA business unit and extending the reach of KAR's integrated operating model.

"Fortifying KAR's presence in the epicenter of the U.S. automotive industry has been a long-term strategic priority," said Jim Hallett, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors, KAR Auction Services. "ADESA Flint enhances KAR's end-to-end remarketing platform in Detroit and positions us to accelerate growth in the very dynamic Midwest marketplace."

ADESA Flint joins the presence of KAR's other primary business units, Insurance Auto Auctions and Automotive Finance Corporation, in the Detroit market and is KAR's 6th location in Michigan. Together, these companies provide a full range of whole car, salvage and financing solutions and a differentiated suite of innovative products and technology solutions.

"Flint Auto Auction has a successful 63-year history serving customers in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and beyond," said ADESA CEO and President Stephane St-Hilaire. "By integrating ADESA's technology solutions and complementary online, digital and mobile capabilities, we will empower those buyers and sellers and simplify their auction experience."

Located just northwest of the Detroit metropolitan area, Flint Auto Auction is a fully automated, eight-lane auction on 60 acres of land. The site also includes full-service reconditioning facilities, including a body shop and mechanical shop.

"ADESA is a leading brand in the industry, and Flint Auto Auction is very pleased to join their international network of auctions," said Bill Williams, Jr., president, Flint Auto Auction. "Both companies share a culture of innovation and a strong commitment to customer service. Joining the KAR platform will help us meet the demands of our increasingly sophisticated buyers and sellers, many of whom have been with us for generations."

Lawrence Cubitt will remain as general manager and additional members of the auction team will maintain key leadership roles. The auction hosts factory, fleet and dealer sales each Wednesday and has received multiple industry recognitions based on service and performance. It earned the SmartAuction Mid-Stream Auction of the Year award for Ally Financial multiple times in recent years. U.S. Bank honored the auction with its Director's Award for 2013, and it was named auction of the year for General Motors in 2007 and 2008.

About KAR Auction Services

KAR Auction Services, Inc. (NYSE: KAR), a FORTUNE 1000 company, operates worldwide vehicle auction services and provides related services. Based in Carmel, Indiana, the KAR group of companies is comprised of ADESA, Inc. (ADESA), Insurance Auto Auctions, Inc. (IAA), Automotive Finance Corporation (AFC), and additional business units, with over 17,000 employees and 300 locations. Together, KAR's complementary businesses provide support, technology and logistics for the used vehicle industry. For more information, visit karauctionservices.com.

Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this release include "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and which are subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties. In particular, statements made that are not historical facts may be forward-looking statements. Words such as "should," "may," "will," "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Such statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results projected, expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include those matters disclosed in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

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SOURCE KAR Auction Services

Related Links

http://karauctionservices.com


DALLAS, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The board of directors of Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NYSE: KMB) has declared a regular quarterly dividend of $.92 per share. The dividend is payable on January 4, 2017, to stockholders of record on December 9, 2016.

2016 marks the 44th consecutive year that Kimberly-Clark has increased its dividend and the 82nd straight year it has paid a dividend to shareholders.

The company also announced that it will hold its next annual shareholder meeting on April 20, 2017.

About Kimberly-Clark

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB) and its well-known global brands are an indispensable part of life for people in more than 175 countries. Every day, nearly a quarter of the world's population trust K-C's brands and the solutions they provide to enhance their health, hygiene and well-being. With brands such as Kleenex, Scott, Huggies, Pull-Ups, Kotex and Depend, Kimberly-Clark holds No. 1 or No. 2 share positions in more than 80 countries. To keep up with the latest K-C news and to learn more about the Company's 144-year history of innovation, visit www.kimberly-clark.com or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

[KMB-F]

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SOURCE Kimberly-Clark Corporation

Related Links

http://www.kimberly-clark.com


WASHINGTON, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Kryptowire has identified several models of Android mobile devices that contained firmware that collected sensitive personal data about their users and transmitted this sensitive data to third-party servers without disclosure or the users' consent. These devices were available through major US-based online retailers (Amazon, BestBuy, for example) and included popular smartphones such as the BLU R1 HD. The core of the monitoring activities took place using a commercial Firmware Over The Air (FOTA) update software system that was shipped with the Android devices we tested and were managed by a company named Shanghai Adups Technology Co. Ltd.

These devices actively transmitted user and device information including the full-body of text messages, contact lists, call history with full telephone numbers, unique device identifiers including the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) and the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI). The firmware that shipped with the mobile devices and subsequent updates allowed for the remote installation of applications without the users' consent and, in some versions of the software, the transmission of fine-grained device location information. The firmware could identify specific users and text messages matching remotely defined keywords. The firmware also collected and transmitted information about the use of applications installed on the monitored device, bypassed the Android permission model, executed remote commands with escalated (system) privileges, and was able to remotely reprogram the devices.

Our findings are based on both code and network analysis of the firmware. The user and device information was collected automatically and transmitted periodically without the users' consent or knowledge. The collected information was encrypted with multiple layers of encryption and then transmitted over secure web protocols to a server located in Shanghai. This software and behavior bypasses the detection of mobile anti-virus tools because they assume that software that ships with the device is not malware and thus, it is white-listed.

In September 2016, Adups claimed on its web site to have a world-wide presence with over 700 million active users, and a market share exceeding 70% across over 150 countries and regions with offices in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing, Tokyo, New Delhi, and Miami. The Adups web site also stated that it produces firmware that is integrated in more than 400 leading mobile operators, semiconductor vendors, and device manufacturers spanning from wearable and mobile devices to cars and televisions.

We analyzed the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) collected and transmitted in an encrypted format to servers in Shanghai including one of the bestselling unlocked smartphones sold by major online retailers.

Moreover, some transmitted the body of the user's text messages and call logs to a server in located in Shanghai. All of the data collection and transmission capabilities we identified were supported by two system applications that cannot be disabled by the end user. These system applications have the following package names:

com.adups.fota.sysoper

com.adups.fota

The data collection and transmission capability is spread across different applications and files. The data transmission occurred every 72 hours for text messages and call log information, and every 24 hours for other PII data. The information was transmitted to the following back-end server domains:

bigdata.adups.com (primary) bigdata.adsunflower.com bigdata.adfuture.cn bigdata.advmob.cn

All of the above domains resolved to a common IP address: 221.228.214.101 that belongs to the Adups company. During our analysis, bigdata.adups.com was the domain that received the majority of the information whereas rebootv5.adsunflower.com with IP address: 61.160.47.15 was the domain that can issue remote commands with elevated privileges to the mobile devices.

We have identified two important elements in the server's response: the "given" and "keyword" elements. Our analysis leads to the understanding that the "given" keyword could be used to identify messages from a specific phone number, while "keyword" could be used to retrieve messages containing a specific keyword. In the example above this server's response is set to transmit all the text messages on the device. The data transmission occurs using encrypted web protocol over a REST API. Table 1. below is lists the files that were uploaded to bigdata.adups.com during our analysis:

Files Description DcApp.json App's that the user has installed on the device. DcAppOp.json Android App Ops data DcMobileStatus.json Diagnostic data DcRootInfo.json A listing of files in the /system/bin and /system/xbin directories DcTellMessage.json The user's call log (and numbers people the user has texted) dc_app_flow.json The order in which a user uses apps dc_msg_key.json The content of the user's text messages

Table 1. List of files uploaded to bigdata.adups.com during our analysis.

It is worth noting that user's text messages are encrypted using DES. Below is an example entry of the dc_msg_key.json file:

{

"dc_date": "2016-09-13 17:01:07",

"dc_type": "1",

"keyword": "HUnrP/GTiH/aEPM8bVXmaw\u003d\u003d",

"md5": "B865B089A298D529B4602A3D359FE4C8",

"msg_date": "1473798497903",

"msg_type": "1",

"tell": "+1540XXXXXXX"

}

During our analysis we identified the necessary key to encrypt and decrypt these messages. The aforementioned entry in plaintext is: "Be there in 5"

As smartphones are ubiquitous and, in many cases, a business necessity, our findings underscore the need for more transparency at every stage of the supply chain. Kryptowire has developed tools aimed at detecting software that can violate privacy and security policies that are not necessarily classified as malware. In many cases, these applications are benign, but exhibit behavior that is non-compliant with organizational, industry, and government policies.

Kryptowire has communicated its findings with respect to the affected devices with Google, Amazon, Adups, and BLU Products, Inc.

Manufacturers that believe their devices may be affected can contact [email protected] for additional information.

Consumers that believe their devices may be affected can refer to the manufacturer warranty or retailer terms of purchase for more information.

About Kryptowire

Kryptowire was jumpstarted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Kryptowire provides mobile application security analysis tools, anti-piracy technologies, mobile app marketplace security analytics, and Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) solutions. Kryptowire was founded in 2011, is based in Fairfax, Virginia, and has a customer base ranging from government agencies to national cable TV companies. For more information, visit www.kryptowire.com.

SOURCE Kryptowire

Related Links

http://www.kryptowire.com


MOUNT LAUREL, N.J., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- ARI, a leading global fleet services provider specializing in complex car and truck fleets, recently hosted a multi-day conference highlighting the innovative technology trends that are transforming the fleet industry and which will be game-changing influences in the coming years.

More than 100 senior leaders and executives with fleet and procurement responsibilities from across North America joined ARI leadership and individuals from the tech and consulting communities to participate in a substantive discussion about employing technology to maximize fleet operations. Held at the Margaritaville Beach Resort in Hollywood Beach, Florida, Nov. 2 to 4, the event also featured a keynote discussion from notable political commentators Karl Rove and Gov. Howard Dean, who discussed the U.S. election and what the results may mean for businesses and the nation.

"We were eager to create an opportunity where leaders within the industry could come together to learn about and discuss how technology is transforming both how we do business now and how we will in the years to come," said ARI President Chris Conroy. "Technology, innovation and Big Data is fundamentally changing our industry and how we think about fleet management. Smart companies are not just embracing how new technologies can help them right now, but also looking to understand what it means for them five or ten years from now."

The event included a presentation titled "Execution vs. Talk: Big Data in Action," from Patrick Maroney, vice president of global innovation for SAP, that detailed how Big Data is driving business results in today's world and how it will help businesses more accurately predict future trends and serve as the foundation for critical business decisions. In his role with SAP, Maroney helps customers understand the impact of business trends on their processes and how technology can lead to improvements and cost savings.

The event also featured Inga Maurer, a partner with McKinsey & Company, discussing the disruptive trends that are transforming the automotive industry, which include diverse mobility, autonomous driving, electrification and connectivity. She emphasized that industries in the automotive segment will need to shift to a continuous process of anticipating new market trends while also exploring alternatives and complements to the traditional business model.

A case study featuring an ARI client who experienced a 50 percent reduction in collisions and a savings of $1 million after working with ARI on a comprehensive safety solution was also highlighted. The fleet, a nationwide provider of security and safety services, implemented a two-pronged approach to tackle their driver safety challenge: they proactively implemented mandatory training for their drivers and used data from their telematics program to identify and correct poor driving behavior before an accident could ever occur.

Tony Candeloro, vice president of product development and client information systems for ARI, offered an overview into ARI's approach to the continually evolving marketplace in his presentation "Fleet Technology Roadmap: ARI's Vision for the Future." Candeloro emphasized the importance of moving beyond simple data integration, so the data can have a genuine impact on your business and your budget.

"We now have the capacity to go beyond simply describing what is happening with a fleet  although that is important to know and we still start there," said Candeloro. "That isn't where we end, however. We also look to understand why something is happening, predict what will happen next and  most important  what should a fleet do about it. We're looking to do more than just inform  we're looking to be predictive and prescriptive. We want to move data from being merely interesting to being impactful."

Candeloro highlighted how the newest improvements to ARI's award-winning web-based fleet management portal. ARI insights, as well as new tools like the mobile driver app and ARI VehicleDowntimeView, are empowering fleets to make faster, smarter decisions based on real-time data, not intuition or guessing.

ARI's Vice President for North American Fleet Management Charlie Guthro presented on the ARI Fleet Health Card, which captures data from a fleet in real-time to measure spend, utilization/reliability, preventive maintenance and fuel economy to track a vehicle's relative and comparative performance. Designed to help users quickly focus on the right data and the areas of their fleet that need attention at that moment, the tool allows fleet managers drill into the root cause of problems to discover what is driving increased spend in specific areas and allows them to balance that against reliability and downtime, fuel efficiency, preventive maintenance and inspection compliance. Having this kind of insight with regard to the specific cause of problems allows our customers to take immediate and meaningful action quickly, which in turn provides the best benefits.

About ARI

ARI, a Holman Automotive Group company, has revolutionized fleet management with technology that enables organizations around the world to realize new levels of efficiency and value by leveraging the power of data through the ARI insights portal. Founded in 1948, ARI, now the largest family owned company in the industry, has continuously uncovered new ways for fleet managers to translate their fleets' data into decreased costs and improved driver safety. ARI manages more than 1 million vehicles in North America, the UK and Europe and, together with its strategic partners, more than 2 million vehicles worldwide. Headquartered in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, ARI has been recognized as one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" by Fortune magazine for four years in a row. Learn more at www.arifleet.com and on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161025/432376LOGO

SOURCE ARI

Related Links

http://www.arifleet.com


CHICAGO, Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Legal & General Investment Management America, Inc. ("LGIMA"), a registered investment advisor with over $137 billion in assets under management, specializing in fixed income, liability driven investment (LDI), and index strategies for the US market, today announced that Jordan Bond has joined as a Senior Portfolio Manager for the US Active Fixed Income team. Bond will be responsible for trading the banking and financial sectors for the US Active Fixed Income team, which currently manages over $57 billion in fixed income strategies.

Bond joins LGIMA with 16 years of financial services experience. Most recently he served as Vice President, Portfolio Manager at PIMCO, where he was a member of a team responsible for managing investment grade assets across the firm. Prior to PIMCO, Bond worked for eight years as a Senior Consultant at Morgan Stanley.

"Jordan brings substantial experience to LGIMA and we are thrilled to welcome him to our team," said John Bender, CIO of US Fixed Income. "We are excited about the significant impact Jordan will make in helping to drive meaningful investment results for our clients."

For more information, please visit http://www.lgima.com/.

Media Contact:

Name: Audrey Bellof

Company: RF Binder

Email: [email protected]

Tel: 212 994 7547

ABOUT LGIMA: Legal & General Investment Management America, Inc. (LGIMA) is a Chicago-based registered investment advisor specializing in active fixed income, liability driven investment (LDI) and index strategies for the US institutional market. LGIMA was founded in 2006 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Legal & General Investment Management (Holdings) Ltd. (LGIM(H)), which also owns its affiliates Legal & General Investment Management Ltd. and LGIM International Ltd. Legal & General's worldwide assets under management are approximately $765 billion. In May 2014, LGIMA became a wholly owned subsidiary of Legal & General Investment Management US (Holdings), Inc. (LGIMUS(H)) which is wholly owned by LGIM(H).

SOURCE Legal & General Investment Management America, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.lgima.com


LEIPZIG, Germany, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Leipzig, the largest city in the Luther heartland of Central Germany, is celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017 with a wide-ranging programme of events. The Saxon centre of book printing and publishing played a key role in the distribution of Martin Luther's writings, and the Leipzig Disputation in 1519 proved to be the final break with the Roman Catholic Church. The special website http://www.luther-in-leipzig.de does not only provide information about the most important Leipzig sites related to Luther and Bach, but also a preview of events and a dozen special exhibitions in Leipzig's museums throughout 2017.

From 24 to 28 May 2017, Leipzig will be hosting a so-called "Kirchentag on the Way" under the banner "Sound of Leipzig: Music. Debate. Life". Kicking off with an open-air ecumenical Ascension Day service, each day will feature a range of cultural, musical and diaconal events. These will include unique formats such as the "Pub Discussions", a spiritual exploration of Leipzig's waterways and a recreation of the Leipzig Disputation. Protestant music will be heard all across the city with performances from university orchestras, the St. Thomas Boys Choir and thousands of wind instrument players.

Leipzig's largest music festival, Leipzig Bachfest from 9 to 18 June 2017, will also focus on Bach's religious works in the spirit of the Reformation with the slogan "A beautiful new song - Reformation and music", while the Leipzig Bach Museum will host two themed gallery exhibitions in 2017. Visitors to the German Museum of Books and Writing will be able to explore Luther's linguistic genius and the history of the pamphlet. Key milestones of the Reformation are highlighted at the exhibition "Luther in Dispute. Leipzig and the Consequences" at the Leipzig Museum of City History (12/04/2017 to 28/01/2018). The wealth of special exhibitions in Leipzig alone shows the far-reaching influences of Luther's theses, right up to the present day.

The Luther Trail in Saxony is a spiritual walking trail covering 550 kilometres of beautiful scenery and 27 sites in cities such as Torgau, Grimma, Borna and Leipzig, which all have a connection to Martin Luther and his companions. http://www.lutherweg-sachsen.de

More information: http://www.luther-in-leipzig.de

Travel offers, room reservations: [email protected], http://www.leipzig.travel

Press Contact: Steffi Gretschel, Phone +49-341-7104-300, [email protected]

SOURCE Leipzig Region
BOSTON, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Positive lifestyle brand Life is Good announced a partnership with Build-A-Bear Workshop to spread the power of optimism and support kids in need with a new collection, including a Life is Good branded bear, bear T-shirts, a matching kids T-shirt, and accessories. Ten percent of net profits from sales of the Life is Good bear T-shirts at Build-A-Bear Workshop will benefit Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada through the Life is Good Kids Foundation.

Starting today, the new line will be available at Build-A-Bear Workshop stores, buildabear.com and lifeisgood.com, and includes:

Life is Good Build-A-Bear furry friend - classic 16" Build-A-Bear Workshop teddy bear with soft, brown fur and an embroidered applique Life is Good paw ($25)

- classic 16" Build-A-Bear Workshop teddy bear with soft, brown fur and an embroidered applique Life is Good paw Life is Good Build-A-Bear T-shirts - tiny personalized soft knit jersey Life is Good T-shirts with six unique graphics. Build-A-Bear Workshop will donate 10 percent of net profits of the Life is Good bear T-shirts to the Life is Good Kids Foundation in support of their work with Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada 1 ($7)

- tiny personalized soft knit jersey Life is Good T-shirts with six unique graphics. Build-A-Bear Workshop will donate 10 percent of net profits of the Life is Good bear T-shirts to the Life is Good Kids Foundation in support of their work with Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Boys and Girls Clubs of Life is Good Build-A-Bear cap - embroidered baseball cap ($6)

- embroidered baseball cap Life is Good Build-A-Bear wristie - accessory to spread good vibes ($3)

- accessory to spread good vibes Life is Good Kids T-shirt - kids and their Build-A-Bear furry friends can match with a unique "Life is Good" T-shirt in kids and toddler sizes ($18)

"Helping to make life good for more kids is central to our brand and the work of the Life is Good Kids Foundation," said John Jacobs, Life is Good co-founder and Chief Creative Optimist. "Partnering with Build-A-Bear Workshop allows us to spread the power of optimism to more families while also helping kids overcome violence, poverty and illness."

"Life is Good shares our mission to inspire kids and help them have a bright future, and this partnership gives the gift of optimism while helping kids across the United States and Canada," said Gina Collins, chief marketing officer, Build-A-Bear Workshop. "Our efforts with Life is Good are a great complement to our existing Merry Mission holiday fundraising campaign for Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada this holiday season."

The new collection builds on Life is Good's commitment to donate at least 10 percent of annual net profits to support kids in need. The funds raised through this partnership will allow the Life is Good Kids Foundation to continue their work with their Boys and Girls Clubs' partners while also expanding the positive impact to new clubs.

For more information or to purchase items in the Life is Good Build-A-Bear Workshop collection, visit lifeisgood.com/buildabear.

ABOUT THE LIFE IS GOOD COMPANY

The Life is Good Company is a $100 million lifestyle brand dedicated to spreading the power of optimism. The company donates 10 percent of its net profits to help kids in need. To date, the company has donated over $11 million, principally through Life is Good products, events and community fundraising efforts. Life is Good is a registered trademark of The Life is Good Company. Please visit LifeisGood.com for more details and follow Life is Good on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

ABOUT LIFE IS GOOD KIDS FOUNDATION

The Life is Good Kids Foundation is an accredited 501(c)(3) that partners with organizations serving the most vulnerable children to improve the quality of their care. The Foundation's Playmaker program connects with schools, hospitals, camps, and a variety of social service agencies to give childcare professionals the resources they need to make a positive, life-changing impact at a pivotal time in a child's development. For more information please visit LifeisGood.com.

ABOUT BUILD-A-BEAR WORKSHOP

About Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc.: Founded in St. Louis in 1997, Build-A-Bear, a global brand kids love and parents trust, seeks to add a little more heart to life. Build-A-Bear Workshop has approximately 400 stores worldwide where guests can create customizable furry friends, including company-owned stores in the United States, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom and mainland China, and franchise stores in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, Mexico and the Middle East. The company was named to the FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For list for the eighth year in a row in 2016. Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc. (BBW) posted a total revenue of $377.7 million in fiscal 2015. For more information, visit the Investor Relations section of buildabear.com.

Media Contact:

Kelsey Cycan

[email protected]

1 Maximum donation of $20,000

SOURCE Life is Good Company

Related Links

http://www.lifeisgood.com


Designed by LMN Architects in partnership with executive architects Marmon Mok Architecture, the $150 million expansion and renovation project embraces the multi-faceted cultural identity of the city with a distinctive tapestry of form, materiality, light, and landscape. The project was one of eleven real estate development projects from around the globe to have been selected as winners in the ULI 2016 Global Awards for Excellence program, widely recognized as one of the industry's most prestigious awards programs. This year's winnersrepresenting projects in Asia Pacific, Europe, and North Americawere honored recently at the ULI Fall Meeting in Dallas.

The jury noted that, "The Tobin Center for the Performing Arts brings a world-class, dynamic performance venue and gathering place to San Antonio, while creating a vibrant connection between the city's main cultural venue and the famed River Walk."

The program, established in 1979, recognizes real estate projects that achieve a high standard of excellence in design, construction, economics, planning, and management. Open to the entire industry (not just ULI members), the awards program is viewed as the centerpiece of ULI's efforts to identify and promote best practices in all types of real estate development. "Cities are about peoplethe way people interact, get around, and go about their daily routines. Great cities are made of great places that make the urban experience easy and enjoyable," said awards jury chairman Steve Navarro, executive vice president, CBRE l the Furman Co. in Greenville, South Carolina. "These projects reflect the highest standards of design, construction, economics, planning, and management. But most important: they are improving people's quality of life."

"The Global Awards for Excellence showcase efforts that have both succeeded in pushing ingenuity and exemplifying best practices in land use across the globe," said Patrick L. Phillips, ULI global chief executive officer. "This year's winners have demonstrated a committed contribution to responsible real estate development and a dedication to building thriving, livable communities."

Completed in 2014, the facility offers a rich diversity of architectural experience, capable of continuous transformation in response to programmatic and environmental influences. While retaining the Municipal Auditorium's treasured historic facade, the Tobin Center weaves a new 183,000-square-foot facility into its framework of public spaceincluding a 1,768-seat main performance hall and 231-seat flat floor studio theater. The complexity of the facility reconfiguration called for a grand, unifying design gesture to integrate new and old architectural components. The solutiona porous, shimmering metallic veilcreates a sculptural, environmentally responsive expression that celebrates the cultural life of contemporary San Antonio. The veil begins low at the River Walk, and rises through irregular sheer planes to form an unmistakable new architectural presence in the San Antonio skyline.

"We drew inspiration for the architectural form and detailing from the Spanish Colonial style of the original 1926 Municipal Auditorium, as well as San Antonio's rich vernacular of color, pattern, and public celebrations," said Mark Reddington, FAIA, lead designer and partner at LMN Architects.

Goals for the expansion and renovation were threefold: to create a large, flexible, multi-use performance space with acoustics comparable to the world's finest concert halls; to restore the iconic historic building for future generations; and to create a vibrant connection between the city's main cultural venue and the River Walk. The completed project combines the historic preservation of one of San Antonio's most beloved architectural icons with the most flexible multi-purpose performance hall in the United States.

In a statement, George Shaw, FAIA, partner in charge for the project said, "LMN is humbled and honored by this important recognition for the Tobin Center. To have played a role in helping to positively shape the urban culture and civic vitality of San Antonio is incredibly rewarding. We share this honor with our passionately dedicated client group and design team."

The project is also the recipient of a 2016 Honor Award and a Mayor's Choice Award from the San Antonio Chapter of the AIA, a 2016 AIA Washington Council Civic Design Awards, Award of Merit, and a 2012 Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Award.

Project Team

Tobin Center for the Performing Arts (client)

The Projects Group (project management/owners representation)

LMN Architects (design architect)

Marmon Mok Architecture (associate architect)

Sussman Prejza & Co. (interior design/environmental graphics)

Fisher Dachs Associates (theatre consultant)

Akustiks, LLC (acoustical consultant of record)

Walter P. Moore, Dallas, TX with Alpha Consulting Engineers (structural engineer)

Timmons Design Engineers (mechanical/plumbing engineer)

TTG (electrical engineer)

Horton Lees Brogden Lighting Design (architectural/specialty lighting design)

Stantec (technology and electronic security consulting)

Rialto Studio (landscape architect)

Linbeck Zachry Joint Venture (construction manager)

About LMN

Seattle-based LMN Architects specializes in the planning and design of significant public and private projects, including convention centers, cultural arts venues, education facilities, office buildings, multi-family housing, hotels, transit stations, mixed-use developments and other urban environments that celebrate and enrich communities. The firm is the recipient of the 2016 American Institute of Architects Architecture Firm Award.

www.LMNArchitects.com

For further information contact:

Matt Anderson for LMN Architects

e: [email protected]

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/439221

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/439220

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160331/350048LOGO

SOURCE LMN Architects

Related Links

http://www.lmnarchitects.com


NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Natural French beauty retailer L'OCCITANE announced today that it has opened doors to a new spa at The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco, combining a luxurious hotel experience with the Provencal art de vivre.

Coined Spa L'OCCITANE by the Bay, the new 6,200 square foot retreat will offer exceptional spa services that combine the brand's authentic ingredients from the South of France with traditional massage therapies. With over 3,000 boutiques and 85 spas worldwide, L'OCCITANE brings a wealth of beauty and spa development expertise to The Ritz-Carlton, and is excited to call San Francisco its newest home.

"We are very pleased to be opening our newest spa at The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco," said Maddie Smith, Regional Managing Director of North America. "The luxurious San Francisco property is the perfect place for L'OCCITANE to deliver premium spa services with a touch of Provence."

Created in partnership with Sanghvi Group, which operates L'OCCITANE spas across five hotels in India and now one in the US, Spa L'OCCITANE by the Bay is the first of its kind on the West Coast. Located on the first floor of The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco, the new spa welcomes guests into a setting that personifies the brand's spirit and core values: authenticity, sensoriality and respect. Coupling modern elegance and Provencal warmth, the design features a clean, crisp waiting area complemented by scenic portraits, giving guests a glimpse into the natural beauty of the French countryside.

Inside the treatment area, guests will encounter cozy havens equipped to deliver a holistic menu of rituals highlighting L'OCCITANE's most beloved products and natural ingredients -- Lavender, Verbena and Immortelle for a true moment of pampering and delight. Staffed by a team of 12 professional therapists, the spa is open daily from 8:00 am through 8:00 pm and offers over 30 unique services to choose from, ranging from aromatherapy massages to anti-aging treatments like the signature Immortelle Divine Secret Facial which combines lifting and contouring massage techniques to help boost youthfulness and rejuvenate skin.

"I am so pleased to lead this project on behalf of L'OCCITANE," said Spa Director Jill Carlen. "Both L'OCCITANE and The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco have an award-winning history of delivering one-of-a-kind experiences with the ultimate in service."

Situated in the scenic neighborhood of Nob Hill, the new spa is not only the perfect sanctuary to rejuvenate after exploring the hilly "City by the Bay," but also one that locals can benefit from. With three world-exclusive treatments, including a jet-lag reviver, micro climate treatment and importantly, tech tension relief, the spa will cater to tourists and local clientele alike.

"We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Spa L'Occitane by the Bay to The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco, " says Bruce Gorelick, General Manager. "L'OCCITANE's award-winning history of luxury and service dovetail so well with The Ritz-Carlton brand by creating unrivaled, authentic spa experiences using the highest quality ingredients. This makes them an exciting addition to our Nob Hill landmark hotel which will inspire new memories for our guests."

Coinciding with the launch of the spa, select suites at The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco will begin to feature L'OCCITANE's popular Verbena amenities that many frequent travelers have come to know and love.

About L'OCCITANE:

Founded by Olivier Baussan over 40 years ago, L'OCCITANE captures the true art de vivre of Provence, offering a sensorial immersion in the natural beauty, fragrance and lifestyle of the South of France. From the texture of L'OCCITANE products to their scent, each skincare, body care and fragrance formula promises pleasure through beauty and well-beinga moment rich in enjoyment and discovery that goes beyond tangible benefits to create a unique experience of Provence. L'OCCITANE products are available at usa.loccitane.com and in 200+ boutiques throughout the U.S. For more information, please contact: Nicole Parker, Senior Communications Manager at L'OCCITANE, [email protected].

About The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco

Completely transformed and reimagined, The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco sets a new standard of excellence in the City by the Bay, drawing inspiration from the alluring designs of couture and the city's iconic architecture. Set within a 1909 Neoclassical landmark building in the prestigious Nob Hill neighborhood, The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco is the city's only AAA Five Diamond hotel and was recently named the #1 hotel in San Francisco by the readers of Travel + Leisure for their 2016 'World's Best Awards'. Conveniently located in the heart of the city, the iconic hotel is nearby San Francisco's most visited attractions and the historic cable car is accessible right outside its doors. Offering globally-inspired California cuisine and seasonal cocktails at the award-winning Parallel 37, the largest luxury Club Level experience in San Francisco, and more than 24,000 sq. ft. of grand event spaces, the 336-room Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco provides the ultimate in personalized Ritz-Carlton service, comfort and luxury. For more information, please contact: Shelly Auyeung, Communications Specialist at The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco, [email protected].

SOURCE LOCCITANE
OTTAWA, Ontario, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Marillyn Hewson, Chairman, President and CEO of Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and Chairman of the Aerospace Industries Association addressed approximately 800 executives and decision-makers from the aerospace industry as well as government and industry leaders at the Canadian Aerospace Summit here today.

In her remarks, Hewson reaffirmed Lockheed Martin's commitment to Canada's success, and discussed the importance of government and industry working together to ensure Canada remains an innovation leader. She highlighted three actions that government and industry leaders should take to ensure a future filled with innovation:

Foster an environment of innovative entrepreneurship across the nation;

Pursue opportunities in emerging markets to promote economic growth; and

Ensure a pipeline of talent goes into science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to advance innovation.

Read the full text of Hewson's remarks

Hewson was in Ottawa from Nov 14-15, during which time she visited with over 200 Canadian employees at the facility in Kanata; she participated in a STEM activity with Lockheed Martin Canada's STEM partner Actua and ten members of its newly established youth leadership council; and she enjoyed a unique tour inside Parliament Hill. She also met United States Ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman as well as over a dozen Canadian industry leaders and innovators, and she completed her visit by delivering a keynote address at the Canadian Aerospace Summit, organized by the Aerospace Industry Association of Canada.

About Lockheed Martin Canada:

Lockheed Martin Canada, headquartered in Ottawa, is the Canadian-based arm of Lockheed Martin Corporation, a global security and aerospace company employing 98,000 people worldwide. Lockheed Martin Canada has been Canada's trusted defence partner for over 75 years specializing in the development, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The company employs more than 900 employees at major facilities in Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax, Calgary, and Victoria, working on a wide range of major programs spanning the aerospace, defence and civil sectors.

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SOURCE Lockheed Martin

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Signatures include chili squid, tossed with seven spice shichimi, chicken katsu in a fragrant curry sauce over sticky rice, and wagamama ramen, a house specialty since wagamama's beginning. The noodles, a proprietary wagamama recipe perfected over 24 years, are imported from the UK. A list of fresh juices, are also pressed, pulped and poured to order and include choices such as super green with apple mint celery and lime and raw juice with carrot, cucumber, tomato, orange and apple.

The Manhattan opening marks several firsts for wagamama, including the debut of an Asian-inspired weekend brunch and a full bar and cocktail list created with New Yorkers in mind. Drinks are wagamama takes on classic cocktails such as the whisky sawa with Iwai Japanese whisky and lapsang souchong liqueur and the yuzu mojito made with Tanduay rum and yuzu liqueur, in addition to an extensive Asian craft beer range.

The expansive, bi-level restaurant, with entrances on both Fifth Avenue and Broadway, is sleek and modern with exposed brick walls, pendant lamps and rich wood accents. Minimalist wood and metal stools offer seating at individual tables throughout, while communal tablesanother founding principle of wagamamaseat up to 18 on long benches and establish a sense of equality among diners. Additional seating is available at a long, marble bar and on a large mezzanine overlooking the main dining room.

"Our Fifth Avenue location is really special, overlooking Madison Square Park. The whole NoMad/Flatiron area it is so vibrant and evolving fast into a key New York food hub. New York has always been on our wish list, and in my mind, alongside London, is one of the world's two top cities," said wagamama CEO David Campbell. "We are very grateful for the warm welcome New Yorkers have given us already, and are quietly confident wagamama will become a local favorite."

wagamama was founded in London's Bloomsbury district in 1992 with a clear purpose: to create a place for positive eating where the food satisfies the senses and the soul. The company is seen as a pioneer of the communal table, open kitchen and customizable, made-to-order menu, which is overseen by executive chef Steve Mangleshot.

This ethos has remained for more than two decades, focusing on positivity, freshness and continuous improvement. Kaizen, a Japanese word meaning "good change," is a guiding philosophy of wagamama. It's about never resting in the pursuit to be better, and wagamama has practiced kaizen since the beginning. The wagamama of today is the result of constant evolution in the food and brand, keeping the experience exciting and anything but traditional.

With its strong founding values intact, wagamama has become an iconic part of British dining culture and expanded to more than 160 locations worldwide. wagamama looks forward to serving expats, New Yorkers and visitors alike in its first Manhattan restaurant and to bringing its beloved menu to additional New York neighborhoods in the future.

For more, visit www.wagamama.us or follow along on social media @wagamama_usa.

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Los Angeles, New York, Houston, Chicago and Dallas top the charts as having the country's savviest travelers and Las Vegas topped the list as the most traveled to destination for free night redemptions.

With a free hotel night up for grabs, more than one in eight booked their hotel stay the very same day and usually opted for a 4-star property. Additionally, a third booked their beds on their smartphone - a growing trend for today's on-the-go travelers.

Top 25 savviest travelers who have booked a free night come from:



LOS ANGELES NEW YORK HOUSTON CHICAGO DALLAS ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO MIAMI DENVER PHOENIX LAS VEGAS SAN DIEGO SAN JOSE ORLANDO WASHINGTON BROOKLYN SEATTLE AUSTIN TORONTO PORTLAND PHILADELPHIA FT LAUDERDALE SAN ANTONIO SALT LAKE CITY CHARLOTTE

Top destinations and hotel hotspots

The top five destinations where U.S. travelers redeemed their free nights were the tourist hubs of Las Vegas, New York, San Francisco, Orlando and San Diego.

When it came to the hotels themselves, the draw of spending a free night in a five star abode on the Las Vegas strip was impossible to resist. Of all the hotels worldwide, the top five hotels where free nights have been taken were in Sin City:

1. The Venetian Resort Hotel & Casino

2. ARIA Resort & Casino

3. MGM Grand Hotel & Casino

4. Bellagio Las Vegas

5. Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino

Treehouses, ranches and palaces

It wasn't just hotels where free nights were spent, as hundreds of travelers opted for something a little quirkier and chose to stay in a castle, in a palace, on a house boat or on a ranch - with one lucky adventurer even staying in a treehouse in Swedish Lapland!

"To hit 25 million Rewards members in our 25th year is a great achievement and since the program launched, over nine million free nights have been redeemed," said Katie Junod, Loyalty Director for the Hotels.com brand. "With thousands of properties to choose from, we've also seen members venturing far and wide, to enjoy their free night away, none more so than the savvy travelers from Los Angeles. If you're looking for inspiration on where to spend your free night, follow our customers' lead and try 24 hours in a riad in Morocco or a night in a picturesque castle in Prague!"

Introducing Hotelsville  Celebrated international artist Jeremyville captures the top 25 cities that are home to the world's savviest travelers, who have booked the most free Hotels.com Rewards nights.

Hotels.com One Night Wonders Study



Hotels.com also conducted a One Night Wonders global study to find out if travelers could jump on a plane tomorrow for just one day, where they'd go and what they'd do.

Paris came out as the top dream destination, according to 29 percent of travelers.

came out as the top dream destination, according to 29 percent of travelers. 50 percent would choose a super luxurious 5-star hotel.

Travelers would splash the cash and pay on average $651 to spend 24 hours in their desired destination.

to spend 24 hours in their desired destination. The ultimate stay would be in a beach house (47 percent), a castle (46 percent), a house boat (40 percent) or an underwater hotel (37 percent).

The dream 24-hour hotel adventure would be to eat at the chef's table of a Michelin star restaurant (33 percent), party with a celebrity (32 percent), or automatically be able to speak the local lingo (31 percent).

Notes to Editors

Data used is correct as of October 23, 2016 and analysis looks back at the last five years of the Hotels.com Rewards program, across all countries the program is run in globally.

Survey data used was conducted by One Poll in October 2016 on behalf of Hotels.com and is based on 2,596 respondents globally.

* Free night does not include taxes and fees. See full terms and conditions

About Hotels.com:

Hotels.com L.P. operates Hotels.com, a leading online accommodation booking website with hundreds of thousands of properties ranging from international chains and all-inclusive resorts to local favorites and bed & breakfasts, together with all the information needed to book the perfect stay. Special apps for mobile phones and tablets can also be downloaded enabling customers to book on the go with access to 20,000 last minute deals.

 2016 Hotels.com, LP. Hotels.com, The Obvious Choice, Hotels.com Rewards and the Hotels.com logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Hotels.com, LP in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. CST # 2083949-50

Press Contacts:

Dominique Dorais  Hill+Knowlton Strategies

Phone: (347) 405-0270

Email:[email protected]

@hkstrategies

Taylor L. Cole, APR

Hotels.com North America

Phone: (469) 335-8442

Email: [email protected]

@TravelwithTLC

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SOURCE Hotels.com

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DALLAS, Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Louisiana voters rejected a recommendation of the state's HCR 11 Task Force on Structural Changes in Budget and Tax Policy that would have created a single flat corporate tax rate of 6.5% and eliminated the federal income tax deduction for corporations. The vote was required because the income tax deduction is in the Louisiana State Constitution.

On Election Day, November 8, 2016, Proposed Constitutional Amendment No. 3 failed with a vote of 56% ("no" to the elimination of the deduction). Consequently, Louisiana's corporate income tax brackets and rate structures will remain the same.



We previously issued a comprehensive special report on all the Louisiana tax developments on November 3, 2016. In addition, we announced our plans once the election was over to have a webinar to review all the developments that have occurred. Please watch for a "Save the Date" announcement for further information on the webinar.

About Ryan

Ryan is an award-winning global tax services firm, with the largest indirect and property tax practices in North America and the seventh largest corporate tax practice in the United States. With global headquarters in Dallas, Texas, the Firm provides a comprehensive range of state, local, federal, and international tax advisory and consulting services on a multi-jurisdictional basis, including audit defense, tax recovery, credits and incentives, tax process improvement and automation, tax appeals, tax compliance, and strategic planning. Ryan is a five-time recipient of the International Service Excellence Award from the Customer Service Institute of America (CSIA) for its commitment to world-class client service. Empowered by the dynamic myRyan work environment, which is widely recognized as the most innovative in the tax services industry, Ryan's multi-disciplinary team of more than 2,100 professionals and associates serves over 12,000 clients in more than 40 countries, including many of the world's most prominent Global 5000 companies. More information about Ryan can be found at ryan.com.

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TECHNICAL INFORMATION CONTACT:

Jason DeCuir

Principal

Ryan

225.334.0040

[email protected]

SOURCE Ryan

Related Links

http://www.ryan.com


YAHUD, Israel, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Magal S3 (NASDAQ GMS: MAGS, TASE: MAGS) today announced that it intends to publish its third quarter 2016 results on Tuesday, November 29, 2016.

The Company will hold an investors' conference call on the same day, at 10am Eastern Time.

Investors ' Conference Call Information:

To participate, please call one of the following teleconferencing numbers. Please begin placing your calls a few minutes before the conference call commences. If you are unable to connect using the toll-free numbers, please try the international dial-in number.

US Dial-in Number: 1 -888- 668-9141

Israel Dial-in Number: 03- 918-0609

UK Dial-in Number: 0- 800- 917-5108

International Dial-in Number: +972-3- 918-0609

at:

10am Eastern Time; 7am Pacific Time; 3pm UK Time; 5pm Israel Time



A replay link of the call will be available from the day after the call on http://www.magal-s3.com.

About Magal S3

Magal S3 is a leading international provider of solutions and products for physical and cyber security, as well as safety and site management. Over the past 45 years, Magal S3 has delivered tailor-made security solutions and turnkey projects to hundreds of satisfied customers in over 80 countries - under some of the most challenging conditions.

Magal S3 offers comprehensive integrated solutions for critical sites, managed by Fortis4G - our 4th generation, cutting-edge PSIM+SIEM platform. The solutions leverage our broad portfolio of homegrown Perimeter Intrusion Detection Systems (PIDS), advanced outdoors CCTV / IVA technology and Cyber Security solutions.

For more information:



Magal Security Systems Ltd.

Saar Koursh, CEO

Tel: +972-3-539-1421

Assistant: Ms. Elisheva Almog

E-mail: [email protected]

Web: http://www.magal-s3.com



GK Investor Relations

Ehud Helft

Tel: (US) +1-646-201-9246

Int'l dial: +972-3-607-4717

E-mail: [email protected]



SOURCE Magal Security Systems, Ltd.
MADRID, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- MAPFRE USA returned to a $54 million net profit in the first nine months of 2016, compared with a $56 million loss the year earlier, related to the heavy snowstorms that hit the North East of the United States in the previous winter. At the same time, the company generated insurance revenue of $2,157 million in the U.S. market through September, driven by its strong competitive position in States such as Massachusetts and Connecticut. MAPFRE's insurance business increased premiums by 7.4 percent in the period.

MAPFRE North America (which also includes Puerto Rico and Canada) recorded premiums of $2.5 billion in the first nine months of the year. Puerto Rico grew 1.1%, to $319 million, on profits of $19 million (+33.9%). The region accounts for 12 percent of the company's global premiums and 9 percent of profits.

1.- Global figures

MAPFRE recorded revenue for the first nine months of the year of $23.4 billion, an increase of 1.8 percent with respect to the same period of the previous year, while premiums totaled $19.1 billion, 1.3 percent less. Earnings before taxes and non-controlling interests grew by 15.5 percent to $1,498 million, and net profits were $639 million, 3.3 percent lower than the equivalent figure for the first nine months of 2015.

Two events in 2015 impacted that year's results in an extraordinary manner: the sale of the insurance business that was jointly-owned with CatalunyaCaixa and the extraordinary cost of snowstorm-related claims in the United States. Excluding the effects of both of these events, the like-for-like growth in Group attributable earnings would have been 5.5 percent.

These results come on the back of the Group's strategy to concentrate its business on profitable activities. MAPFRE's combined ratio improved by 1.5 percentage points to 97.2 percent, with excellent combined ratios in Spain (93.4 percent), Brazil (94.7 percent) and the northeastern region of the US, which accounts for 74 percent of the country's premiums, (95.2 percent).

For further information, please contact MAPFRE's Corporate Communication Division (telephone +34 91 581 83 66; +34 91 581 91 68; +34 91 581 87 14), email: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected].

SOURCE MAPFRE
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Marken announced today the opening of a new operational hub in Chicago, Illinois. The new hub expands Marken's capabilities in the US Northeast region by joining the existing New York, Boston and Philadelphia locations.

With convenient access to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, Marken's Chicago team will strengthen relationships with its pharmaceutical clients and provide more operational flexibility within the Marken network. The new location will work in concert with its clients and investigator sites to collect and ship drug products, clinical trial materials and biological samples. The Chicago station will also facilitate the growing demand for direct to patient services and reliable handling of cell and gene therapy materials.

The opening of Marken's sixth facility in the US is consistent with the company's strategy to grow with the demand for more complex clinical services. Julia Tarasenko, Regional Director, US North East & Canada Operations, said this about the new location, "We are very pleased to be able to expand our footprint and open a new Marken facility in Chicago. By adding Chicago to our New York, Boston and Philadelphia operational centers, we are building a stronger and more nimble network in the United States. We will now be closer to our clients in the Chicago area and offer them the same high-touch, personalised services they have come to expect from us."

The Chicago branch brings the total number of Marken logistics locations to 45, including 10 wholly-owned and dedicated GMP depots built specifically for the clinical trial industry.

About Marken

Marken is the only patient-centric supply chain organization 100% dedicated to the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries. Marken maintains the leading position for Direct to Patient services and biological sample shipments and offers a state-of-the-art GMP-compliant depot network and logistic hubs in 45 locations worldwide for clinical trial material storage and distribution. Marken's more than 650 staff members manage 50,000 drug and biological shipments every month at all temperature ranges in more than 150 countries. Additional services such as biological kit production, ancillary material sourcing, storage and distribution, shipment lane verification and qualifications, as well as GDP, regulatory and compliance consultancy add to Marken's unique position in the pharma and logistics industry.

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SOURCE Marken

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DENVER, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- P2Binvestor (P2Bi), a marketplace lender that provides growing businesses with debt capital through a crowdfunding model, announced today that it has raised $7.7 Million in Series A1 funding led by Rockies Venture Club (RVC), the largest angel investor network in Colorado and Future Venture Capital Co., Ltd. (FVC), a Japanese venture capital firm with its US subsidiary, FVC Americas.

"This round of funds will be used to expand operations and invest in sales, marketing, and technology as we scale to meet market demand and push toward our goal of truly disrupting the factoring industry," said Krista Morgan, the chief executive officer and cofounder of P2Binvestor. "We're seeing more interest in our model as venture funding hits a two-year low and more entrepreneurs are looking for ways to grow their business while preserving their equity using good-quality, flexible debt."

P2Bi has funded over $350 million in revolving credit to its more than 80 borrowers since May 2014 and its average line of credit size is $1 million. Approximately 150 accredited retail and institutional investors make up P2Bi's crowd and help fund every line of credit the company provides to its borrowers. P2Bi is projecting $8.2 million in revenue this year and will be cash-flow positive in 2017. P2Bi aims to fund 112 new borrowers by the end of March 2017 when the company's fiscal year ends.

Investment in P2Bi was the first direct investment by FVC outside of Japan. "Finding a high quality investment opportunity like P2Bi in Colorado and working with a partner like RVC to co-invest confirmed our decision to open our first subsidiary office outside Japan, FVC Americas in Colorado," said Yuji Fujinaga, the chief strategy officer of FVC.

In September 2016, P2Bi announced that it provided a new borrower with the largest crowdfunded line of credit to date at $10 million. In April 2016, P2Bi announced a new relationship with MW Eaglewood Americas LLC, an SEC-registered investment advisor and leading fund in the marketplace lending space, that includes a significant funding amount earmarked to support debt facilities to P2Bi's borrowers. In August 2013, P2Bi raised a $1.2 million round led by RVC and lead investor John Spiers, who founded venture-backed Colorado-based companies LeftHand Networks and NexGen Storage.

P2Bi is similar to a debt-based alternative lender or factoring company, but its model is rooted in efficiency and risk syndication to benefit both borrowers and investors with a focus on helping companies scale. Like a traditional factoring company, P2Bi provides a line of credit secured by assets such as accounts receivable or inventory to a borrower company after conducting an underwriting review of the applicant and approving the credit. The P2Bi difference is in the cost of capital, terms offered, and the online platform borrowers use to draw funds and manage their line of credit leading borrowers to better manage overall growth and improve profitability. P2Bi's borrowers grow more than 50% year on year.

About P2Binvestor

P2Binvestor (P2Bi) is a marketplace lender that provides revolving lines of credit of up to $10 million per B2B borrower. Borrowers must be U.S.-based and typically operate in technology manufacturing, natural foods and other consumer packaged goods, general manufacturing, media agencies and other kinds of B2B services, personnel firms, and more. Accredited investors participate in funding each line of credit and earn a return through P2Bi's proprietary investment platform. Learn more at P2Bi.com and follow on Twitter @P2Binvestor.

About Future Venture Capital Co., Ltd.

Future Venture Capital Co., Ltd. is a publicly traded venture capital investment company in Japan. The company has invested in more than 350 small businesses since its inception in 1998 and currently manages more than 20 funds totaling more than $200 million in assets. In 2016, it opened its first office outside Japan, FVC Americas in Fort Collins, Colorado.

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SOURCE P2Binvestor

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In his new role, Moore will help Mary Kay Inc. guide strategically and confidently into the future while working to create growth in the United States and Canadian markets. He began his career at Mary Kay Inc. as a staff attorney in 1995. Over two decades, Moore has held several leadership positions within the company's legal department and was a founding member of the Mary Kay Culture Committee, which is dedicated to preserving the culture and values of company founder, Mary Kay Ash. For the past 13 years, Moore served as Mary Kay Inc.'s Chief Legal Officer and Secretary where he managed all aspects of the company's Legal, Public Affairs, Risk Management, Corporate Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility efforts.

Moore replaces Darrell Overcash who has served as President of Mary Kay North America for the past 10 years. After more than 20 years with the company, Overcash will retire in January 2017, allowing time to transition responsibilities to Moore. Overcash has held various leadership positions at Mary Kay Inc. including Executive Vice President of Human Resources and Operations and Vice President and General Manager of the Mary Kay North Central Distribution Center in Hoffman Estates, Ill. Prior to joining Mary Kay, Overcash, a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, served in the United States Army.

"We salute Darrell on his upcoming retirement after two decades of success with the company and also congratulate Nathan as he transitions into his new role as President of Mary Kay North America," said David Holl, President and Chief Executive Officer for Mary Kay Inc. "Early in his career, Nathan looked for every opportunity to be involved with Mary Kay's Independent Sales Force and has been active in industry matters. He brings a deep and unique understanding of our business to his new position along with an unrivaled passion for celebrating the success of the Mary Kay Independent Sales Force. His guidance, knowledge and leadership will be invaluable as we build on our efforts of enriching women's lives in the U.S. and Canada alongside our countries around the world."

Moore earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance from Texas A&M University with honors and his law degree from St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas. He has served as Chairman of the Direct Selling Association and the Direct Selling Educational Foundation and a member of the Legal Executive Committee of the Personal Care Products Council.

Moore and his wife, Joy, reside in Dallas and are the parents of two adult sons.

About Mary Kay

Irresistible products. Positive community impact. Rewarding opportunity. For more than 50 years, Mary Kay has offered it all. With 3.5 million Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultants and $4 billion in global annual sales, Mary Kay is a top beauty brand and direct seller in more than 35 markets around the world. Discover what there is to love about Mary Kay by connecting with a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant at marykay.com.

Mary Kay Inc. Corporate Communications

marykay.com/newsroom

972.687.5332 or [email protected]

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SOURCE Mary Kay Inc.

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IRVINE, Calif., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Mavenlink, the leading software platform for the modern services organization and a Gartner Cool Vendor*, announced today a $39 million Series D financing led by Goldman Sachs Growth Equity .

Mavenlink's award-winning technology solution unifies all essential functions of services organizations, allowing them to plan and deliver work, manage project financials and resources, and collaborate with distributed teams and clients. By centralizing all critical business data on a single platform, Mavenlink offers these organizations unrivaled control and the ability to significantly up-level performance.

"This is an exciting time for our company, and the services industry," said Ray Grainger, Mavenlink CEO and co-founder. "There is tremendous disruption and transformation happening across the $3 trillion global services market. Practices and approaches that used to work just fine have become inadequate, and that's where we come in. Mavenlink is a digital infrastructure that enables firms competing in today's Service Level Economy to operate, scale, and thrive like never before. This funding will accelerate plans to help our clients navigate this change all around the world."

Following consecutive years of triple digit growth, Mavenlink recently announced a major expansion plan that includes the addition of two new U.S. locations, while growing its current San Francisco engineering and product headquarters, and rapidly adding jobs at its Irvine, CA corporate headquarters. In the coming months, the company has plans for additional expansion in Europe and other global locations.

"We aim to invest in companies that are market leaders and rethink the traditional approach," said Mark Midle of Goldman Sachs Growth Equity, who has joined Mavenlink's board of directors. "With over 4,000 clients, Mavenlink has transformed the way service providers manage and operate their businesses by leveraging deep expertise and sophisticated technology. We are excited to help Mavenlink capitalize on this global opportunity."

The company's growing client base includes progressive companies like Genpact, Salesforce.com, Cornerstone OnDemand, and Buzzfeed, as well as thousands of other consulting firms, IT services organizations, creative agencies, and professional services teams around the globe.

"There are many reasons we decided to collaborate with Mavenlink to power our global services organization," stated Nick Anderson, VP Global Business Operations at Cornerstone OnDemand, a Mavenlink client since 2014. "The Mavenlink team understands the complexities of our business and are focused on supporting our continued growth. They help us take advantage of opportunities, and address tough challenges. Mavenlink's solution has improved our ability to execute and has had a positive impact on our business."

This investment brings the total capital Mavenlink has raised to date to $84 million.

Pacific Crest Securities, a division of KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc., acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Mavenlink in connection with this transaction.

Visit www.mavenlink.com for more information.

About Mavenlink

Mavenlink delivers enterprise-class Software as a Service (SaaS) that transforms how businesses work with distributed teams, contractors and clients around the globe. Mavenlink's innovative technology suite enables organizations of any size to successfully manage and scale their people, projects, and profits. Consulting firms, IT services organizations, creative agencies, and professional services teams in more than 100 countries are running their businesses more effectively and predictably with Mavenlink. Mavenlink was recently named to the Red Herring 100, and a 2015 Cool Vendor by Gartner, the world's leading technology research and advisory firm. Learn more at www.mavenlink.com.

About Goldman Sachs Growth Equity

Founded in 1869, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., is a leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm. Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division (MBD) is the primary center for Goldman Sachs' long term principal investing activity. With nine offices across seven countries, MBD is one of the leading private equity investors in the world. Since 1986, the group has invested approximately $180 billion of levered capital across a number of geographies, industries and transaction types. Within MBD, Goldman Sachs Growth Equity (GS Growth) is a dedicated platform for venture capital and growth equity investments in leading companies that have built innovative technology or processes to transform their industries. Since 1994, GS Growth has partnered with more than 200 companies and invested more than $5 billion of capital across sectors including technology, software, media, healthcare IT, and business and information services. GS Growth seeks to partner with strong management teams to help companies achieve product, customer and geographic expansion. For more information about GS Growth, please visit:www.gs.com/gsgrowth.

* Gartner, Cool Vendors in Program and Portfolio Management, 2015, Robert A. Handler, Matt Light, Donna Fitzgerald, Teresa Jones, 24 April 2015.

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SOURCE Mavenlink

Related Links

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CLEVELAND, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- McDonald Hopkins, a business advisory and advocacy law firm, issued an alert on the December 1, 2016 effective date for the new Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulations. If your organization has not already assessed the impact of these changes and developed a plan for implementing them, employers have only weeks left.

The alert, which was authored by Miriam Rosen, Chair, of McDonald Hopkins' labor and employment practice, discusses the new regulations that will raise the minimum weekly salary level for the FLSA's white-collar exempt positions to $913, which is the equivalent of $47,476 annually. Employers should use this regulatory change as an opportunity to review the classification of all exempt positions, regardless of salary level. Positions that meet the exempt status duties test are not always clear cut and changes in responsibilities and technology can muddy the waters even further. This is an opportunity to review and fix misclassification errors.

If your organization has not already assessed the impact of these changes and developed a plan for implementing them, there is no time to waste. Click here to read the full Alert, "The Final Countdown: The new FLSA regulations take effect on December 1."

About the Labor and Employment practice at McDonald Hopkins

Attorneys in our Labor and Employment practice have practical experience assisting clients with all aspects of employment and labor law matters  from providing advice and counsel regarding individual employee issues to assistance in significant business restructuring, and practicing before state and federal agencies and courts. With multiple offices across several states, we have attorneys available to assist with day-to-day issues as they arise, as well as your most challenging labor and employment problems.

About McDonald Hopkins

Founded in 1930, McDonald Hopkins' mission is to provide insightful legal solutions and business counseling that help our clients strategically plan for an increasingly competitive future. McDonald Hopkins is a business advisory and advocacy law firm with locations in Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Miami, and West Palm Beach. For more information about McDonald Hopkins, visit mcdonaldhopkins.com.

CONTACT:

Deborah W. Kelm

McDonald Hopkins LLC

600 Superior Avenue, East, Suite 2100

Cleveland, Ohio 44114

Phone: 216.348.5733

Email: [email protected]

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SOURCE McDonald Hopkins

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HAMILTON, N.J., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- MedAvante, Inc., the leader in technology-based clinical trial services for central nervous system (CNS) diseases, announced significant advances in the deployment of the groundbreaking Virgil Investigative Study Platform for global clinical trials as the source (eSource) data platform begins its third year in worldwide use.

"MedAvante pioneered eSource data capture in 2009 for use by our own clinicians, developed by our own technology experts," said MedAvante CEO Paul Gilbert. "We have more eSource experience than anyone else  630,000 assessments of 50,000 clinical trial subjects across 220,000 study visits  and our eSource data has been accepted by both the FDA and the EMA in successful regulatory submissions."

With this experience, and continuous improvements based on input from rating scale experts as well as MedAvante clinicians using the platform, just over two years ago the company began offering the Virgil platform for use by site-based clinicians.

"The Virgil platform, which hosts all forms of electronic outcome assessments (eCOA) including clinician-reported and patient-reported (PRO) instruments, is leading the way for clinical trials crossing the digital divide," said Gilbert.

To date, the Virgil platform has been deployed at more than 900 clinical trial sites in 30 countries and is currently collecting eSource data for more than 20 major clinical studies. The tablet device-based Virgil site application has been used to administer more than 45,000 site-based assessments to nearly 12,000 subjects at more than 19,400 clinical trial visits.

"Being ready at so many sites in so many countries around the world means faster startup time for the sponsors who've come to rely on us," said Gilbert. "Sponsors know that Principal Investigators, study coordinators and site raters are already familiar with the platform. This makes a huge difference in the time needed to get a trial up and running."

The Virgil platform has also achieved rapid growth by being user-friendly. "One formerly skeptical clinician told us that when he used Virgil for the first time to administer a particularly complex rating scale, he felt it was the best assessment he'd ever conducted," said MedAvante president and co-founder Amy Ellis.

"He told us Virgil was simpler to use than paper, and more importantly it allowed him to concentrate on the subject more fully than he had ever been able to before," said Ellis.

Compared with paper and pen, the Virgil platform reduces administration and scoring errors. Analysis of error rates across four widely used rating scales in actual Alzheimer's disease clinical trials found that errors were reduced by approximately 50 percent to over 80 percent versus paper and pen.

In addition to ease-of-use and improved data quality, Virgil seamlessly integrates all scale-related activities to alleviate the burden on site staff, and delivers data analytics for monitoring rater and site performance, all on a single platform.

"The increasing use of eSource in clinical trials today can be accurately compared to the growth of digital technology that started two decades ago in financial services," said Ellis. "Can you imagine suggesting to people today that they should do their trading or banking on paper? We believe the same level of universal trust is coming to clinical research with regard to everyday capture of essential information  and the robust security and reliability of our Virgil platform is hastening the trend."

MedAvante marked the Virgil platform's second anniversary with one more milestone: accumulation of eSource data equivalent to 3.65 million sheets of paper  which if stacked would tower over the Empire State Building  without losing a single data point.

About MedAvante

MedAvante is the global clinical data services company dedicated to maximizing signal detection in clinical trials. Founded in 2002, MedAvante pioneered Central Ratings, a groundbreaking clinical trial methodology. This heritage of clinical expertise, coupled with technical innovation and operational skills, enabled MedAvante to develop the electronic source (eSource) platform, Virgil, the first such technology to replace costly and error-prone paper rating scales with real-time digital collection and cloud management of source data. Designed by clinicians for clinicians, Virgil offers built-in clinical guidance to ensure accurate, standardized assessments. MedAvante helps brings better drug therapies to market through smarter, faster clinical trials. Based in Hamilton, NJ with operations teams in the US, Germany, Russia and Japan, MedAvante delivers services for clinical trials in more than 40 countries worldwide. For more information, please visit www.medavante.com.

SOURCE MedAvante, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.medavante.net


LOS ANGELES, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Pioneering advertising technology firm MediaAlpha launched the first programmatic bidding platform for travel comparison search media. The travel expansion, a part of MediaAlpha's transparent exchange technology platform, empowers travel advertisers and publishers to more efficiently buy and sell comparison search media using technology previously unavailable in the industry.

A growing number of high intent travel consumers have moved beyond Google and now shop across a broad network of vertical search and comparison search sites. Yet travel advertisers have no programmatic buying tools that enable them to access these consumers in one place with a sophisticated, data-driven bidding approach. Many still buy this media through an outdated, blind aggregation business model, while a greater number simply miss out on this valuable segment of travel consumers altogether. Similarly, travel publishers have no existing ad serving or demand management technology solutions for comparison search inventory, forcing them to rely solely on third party networks or to build their own internal solutions. MediaAlpha's platform helps modernize the industry with the same programmatic technology already used for other online media channels (e.g. display, video, mobile)

"Similar to other industries where we have had success, advertising platforms in the travel and tourism industry are still very much in the stone age," said Steve Yi, CEO of MediaAlpha. "Our goal is to introduce the same technology-driven innovations we have brought to insurance and other industries to democratize comparison search advertising and put control directly into the hands of buyers and sellers. The industry has never seen anything like this before, and it will fundamentally change how companies target, acquire, and monetize travel consumers."

MediaAlpha's programmatic technology platform innovates the sales funnel by allowing advertisers to target and acquire high intent, bottom of the funnel travel consumers with greater efficiency and scale than previously available. Advanced targeting and bidding strategies, coupled with automated scheduling and optimization, yields more efficient spending and better conversions for advertisers. Publishers, in turn, gain full control over their comparison search inventory, a critical source of revenue, and optimize demand management across all potential buying sources to maximize overall yield.

More information can be found at mediaalpha.com

About MediaAlpha

MediaAlpha innovates at the intersection of programmatic media and vertical search, bringing transparency and efficiency to both buyers and sellers. Its platform empowers advertisers to more effectively engage high-intent consumers through a variety of touchpoints to increase campaign ROI. Publishers gain granular control over their inventory to optimize yield and maximize revenue. The company's proprietary technology powers over 25 million annual transactions totaling more than $200 million in annual transaction volume across insurance, travel, personal finance, education, and the home services sectors. For more information, visit www.mediaalpha.com

Media contact: Mike Bush, 310-728-8138, [email protected]

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SOURCE MediaAlpha

Related Links

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NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF) announces that Susan Bressman, MD, chair of the Department of Neurology at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, and Laurie Ozelius, PhD, associate neuroscientist and associate professor of neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, are recipients of the second annual Bachmann-Strauss Prize for Excellence in Dystonia Research. The researchers, who have collaborated for 30 years, were chosen for their work in dystonia genetics.

"Drs. Bressman and Ozelius have made invaluable contributions to the field of dystonia research, an under-funded movement disorder and an under-recognized symptom of Parkinson's disease," said Bonnie Strauss, who founded The Bachmann-Strauss Dystonia & Parkinson Foundation, which launched a collaborative research alliance with MJFF in 2015.

Michael J. Fox and MJFF senior vice president of research programs Brian Fiske, PhD, presented the prizes to Drs. Bressman and Ozelius at a ceremony in New York City on November 12, 2016. Learn more about the contributions of these researchers in a video on our website.

The Bachmann-Strauss Prize for Excellence in Dystonia Research acknowledges dystonia researchers for key scientific discoveries and incentivizes the next generation of investigators to continue making inroads toward cures.

Drs. Bressman and Ozelius's research has led to the identification of three primary or isolated dystonia genes, and they have built a repository of thousands of genes associated with dystonia. Their work also has yielded innovative imaging studies in families with these genetic associations.

"Dystonia is the third most common movement disorder and has significant impact on the lives of those diagnosed and their families," said Dr. Bressman. "Dr. Ozelius and I are honored to be recognized with the Bachmann-Strauss Prize and even more so to be able to add to our understanding of this condition and, hopefully, its treatment."

Dr. Ozelius said, "We look forward to continuing our research serving this patient population with the support of the Prize. The complexities of neurological conditions require much unraveling but also present many opportunities to intervene and stop the process."

The award is accompanied by an unrestricted research grant of $100,000 to support a joint research effort. Drs. Bressman and Ozelius plan to build upon their genetic findings to understand dystonia pathophysiology and inform the development of new therapeutics.

The Prize committee was chaired by Mitchell Brin, MD, senior vice president of global drug development and chief scientific officer for BOTOX at Allergan, and included Bonnie Strauss and experts in neuroscience research.

Learn more about the Bachmann-Strauss Prize for Excellence in Dystonia Research and the contributions of its recipients on the MJFF website.

About the Bachmann-Strauss Prize for Excellence in Dystonia Research

The Bachmann-Strauss Prize for Excellence in Dystonia Research was established in September 2014 with a leadership commitment from the Bachmann-Strauss Dystonia and Parkinson Foundation (BSDPF). The alliance between MJFF and BSDPF builds on a 10-year working relationship between the foundations. This major dystonia research prize broadens public awareness and recognizes key scientific discoveries in dystonia. The Prize is awarded annually to a researcher who has made profound contributions to dystonia research and is accompanied by an unrestricted research grant of $100,000 to support further research in the awardee's laboratory.

About The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research

As the world's largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson's research, The Michael J. Fox Foundation is dedicated to accelerating a cure for Parkinson's disease and improved therapies for those living with the condition today. The Foundation pursues its goals through an aggressively funded, highly targeted research program coupled with active global engagement of scientists, Parkinson's patients, business leaders, clinical trial participants, donors and volunteers. In addition to funding more than $650 million in research to date, the Foundation has fundamentally altered the trajectory of progress toward a cure. Operating at the hub of worldwide Parkinson's research, the Foundation forges groundbreaking collaborations with industry leaders, academic scientists and government research funders; increases the flow of participants into Parkinson's disease clinical trials with its online tool, Fox Trial Finder; promotes Parkinson's awareness through high-profile advocacy, events and outreach; and coordinates the grassroots involvement of thousands of Team Fox members around the world.

For more information, visit us at michaeljfox.org, on Facebook or Twitter.

SOURCE The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research

Related Links

http://www.michaeljfox.org/


NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF) has conferred the 2016 Robert A. Pritzker Prize for Leadership in Parkinson's Research to Ira Shoulson, MD, professor of neurology, pharmacology and human science and director of the Program for Regulatory Science and Medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center. The Prize recognizes researchers who make exceptional contributions to Parkinson's research and exhibit a commitment to mentoring the next generation of Parkinson's scientists.

"Dr. Shoulson has played an integral role in establishing standards for multicenter clinical trials in movement disorders that advance new treatments and aim to improve quality of life for the millions living with Parkinson's disease," said MJFF CEO Todd Sherer, PhD. "In addition, his attention to regulatory science builds a foundation for patient-first evaluation and swift approval of new therapies."

Michael J. Fox and MJFF senior vice president of research programs Brian Fiske, PhD, presented the Prize to Dr. Shoulson at a ceremony in New York City on November 12, 2016.

A leader in the fields of Huntington's and Parkinson's disease research, he co-founded the Parkinson Study Group in 1985 and the Huntington Study Group in 1994, two international academic consortia devoted to research and development of treatments, including seven new approved treatments for Parkinson's disease. In addition to his extensive work overseeing major clinical trials, Dr. Shoulson has made key contributions to regulatory science and medicine and was formerly a Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation health policy fellow in the U.S. Senate. He has trained several scientists who also have gone on to become prominent leaders in Parkinson's research. Learn more about his contributions in a video on our website.

The Robert A. Pritzker Prize for Leadership in Parkinson's Research has been awarded annually by MJFF since 2011 and is made possible by Karen Pritzker, daughter of Robert A. Pritzker, and her husband, investor Michael Vlock. Their gift provides a $100,000 grant to the Pritzker Prize recipient each year, and Pritzker and Vlock have been generous donors to MJFF.

Dr. Shoulson will direct his grant to advance research on Parkinson's patient-reported outcomes and patient preferences. With the aim of strengthening the patient voice in the Food and Drug Administration therapeutics approval process and utilizing MJFF's online observational study, Fox Insight, he will systematically assess the experience of patients and families with Parkinson's disease using natural language processing and other digital techniques.

"I am honored to receive the Robert A. Pritzker Prize and glad it will serve this important work to integrate patient feedback into therapeutic trials and approval processes," said Dr. Shoulson. "As researchers, we strive to bring clinical meaningfulness to the development of new treatments that make a difference for our patients and enable them to live healthier and more robust lives."

About the Robert A. Pritzker Prize for Leadership in Parkinson's Research

The Robert A. Pritzker Prize for Leadership in Parkinson's Research is named in honor of the late Robert A. Pritzker, a renowned industrialist, entrepreneur and philanthropist. Pritzker was founder of The Marmon Group and president of Colson Associates, Inc., holding companies for a variety of manufacturing and medical businesses. Additionally, he was an early promoter of the field of medical engineering at his alma mater, the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago, where he also played a key role in expanding the biomedical research community through his support of The Pritzker Institute for Biomedical Science and Engineering at IIT.

The MJFF Executive Scientific Advisory Board serves as the jury panel. Selection criteria include the nominee's complete body of work in the PD field with an emphasis on its impact on accelerating drug development; field-wide impact of the nominee's work; dedication to patient-relevant science; and influence on and encouragement of the next generation of PD investigators.

The award itself is designed by renowned artist and Parkinson's patient Tom Shannon.

About The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research

As the world's largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson's research, The Michael J. Fox Foundation is dedicated to accelerating a cure for Parkinson's disease and improved therapies for those living with the condition today. The Foundation pursues its goals through an aggressively funded, highly targeted research program coupled with active global engagement of scientists, Parkinson's patients, business leaders, clinical trial participants, donors and volunteers. In addition to funding more than $650 million in research to date, the Foundation has fundamentally altered the trajectory of progress toward a cure. Operating at the hub of worldwide Parkinson's research, the Foundation forges groundbreaking collaborations with industry leaders, academic scientists and government research funders; increases the flow of participants into Parkinson's disease clinical trials with its online tool, Fox Trial Finder; promotes Parkinson's awareness through high-profile advocacy, events and outreach; and coordinates the grassroots involvement of thousands of Team Fox members around the world.

For more information, visit us at michaeljfox.org, on Facebook or Twitter.

SOURCE The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research

Related Links

http://www.michaeljfox.org/


This year's selections include a new two star , Aska , which is located in Brooklyn in the shadows of the historic Williamsburg Bridge. As one of 12 Brooklyn starred restaurants on this year's list, Aska had previously attained a one star in the 2015 edition of the red guide. After renovating and relocating to a more spacious and larger kitchen that seems to further unleash the talents of Chef Frederik Berselius and his skilled team, Aska continues to deliver a contemporary cuisine with Scandinavian influences.

Proving in dramatic fashion that retaining Michelin star status is often a feat of high praise, The Modern, located in Midtown at the Museum of Modern Art, remains a Michelin two star. This highly respected New York restaurant flourished again despite closing its doors for a time this summer to undertake a complete kitchen renovation and refreshed dining room. Chef Abram Bissell and crew continued to dazzle patrons with a tantalizing contemporary fare that delicately balances top-flight ingredients at the height of freshness to create such culinary creations as tender lobster "marinated with truffles" and topped with a creamy sauce of radish and herbs.

In the ultimate three-star category, Cesar Ramirez's Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare, Daniel Humm's Eleven Madison Park, Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Jean-Georges, Eric Ripert's Le Bernardin, Masa Takayama's Masa and Thomas Keller's Per Se all retained their vaunted status.

On the one-star front, 12 new eateries have gained this prized culinary distinction in the new edition of the Michelin Guide. Chelsea's La Sirena and Ushiwakamaru restaurants were awarded one stars. La Sirena represents the latest culinary venture from celebrity chef Mario Batali who has selected Chef Josh Lauranowho honed his skills at Del Posto and Babbo to prepare a New York-style Italian menu. Ushiwakamaru was just relocated to Chelsea last year and brought veteran Chef Hideo Kuribara and his team's supreme sushi with it.

Harlem  which is now home to its first-ever Michelin starred restaurants-- welcomes Nagasakinative and legendary sushi chef, Chef Shinichi Inoue, whose establishment, Sushi Inoue, offers four extraordinary options for omakase.

In Manhattan's Financial District, L'Appart is nestled in the sprawling French market, Le District. It is captained by Chef de Cuisine Nicolas Abello, who worked with Gerard Vie in France, Pierre Gagnaire in London and Daniel Boulud in New York, refining a constantly changing and evolving French menu.

Greenwich Village is home to three one-star newcomers: Gunter Seeger NY-- named for its head chef who is a longtime Atlanta culinary figure--offers a serious and technically uncompromising contemporary menu in a casual setting; Nix, which is the brainchild of Chef John Fraser, focuses on vegetables and thus recognizes the desire of many to eat less meat and still enjoy a memorable gourmet experience, and Sushi Zo which is named after its famous chef and owner and has created excitement among New Yorker sushi lovers, most of whom know of the famed omakase chef only from his reputation established for many years in Los Angeles.

In Midtown East, two new stars make their debut in the new edition of the Michelin Guide. Offering a seasonal and tantalizing earthy Scandinavian fare, Agrern is the product of the Danish food entrepreneur Claus Meyer who co-founded the world famous noma restaurant, and is located in the Grand Central Terminal. Sushi Ginza Onodera is especially noteworthy in a crowd of New York sushi restaurants due in part to its unrelenting pursuit of fresh and seasonal fish, much of which is hand speared by Japanese fisherman.

Another sushi restaurant on this year's one-star list is Kanonyama, which has been a part of the East Village culinary fabric for nearly a decade. Chef Nobuyuki Shikanai has helped expand the size and focus of the restaurant with several new menu items and added an impressive omakase counter.

Lower East Side's Contra joins the one stars under the capable leadership of co-owners and head chefs Fabian von Hauske and Jeremiah Stone who have thrilled frugal high-end food enthusiasts with a six-course $67 tasting menu that has evolved recently to offer an enjoyable balance in creative contemporary concepts with high-quality taste.

Rounding out the new one-stars is Brooklyn's Faro with Chef Kevin Adey at the helm who offers a very noteworthy twice-weekly pasta menu, and a regular fare of rustic American and Italian a la carte options made to perfection.

In this 2017 edition, 77 New York restaurants received a coveted Michelin star rating; of course the mere inclusion in the MICHELIN Guide New York 2017 is an acknowledgment of excellence and quality.

The release of the MICHELIN Guide New York 2017 comes about one week after Michelin announced its famous Bib Gourmand choices. Starred restaurants and Bib Gourmands are only two of the categories within the MICHELIN Guide New York 2017. The book also includes a popular "Under $25" category. In fact, throughout the guide there are helpful symbols for easy reference on price ranges, overall dining comfort, wheel chair access, late night dining, breakfast and brunch service, and notable wine, beer, sake, and exceptional cocktail lists. Eateries that serve dim sum are also noted.

New York is one of four cities in the U.S. where Michelin publishes an annual guide. The others include Chicago, San Francisco and Washington D.C.

About the MICHELIN Guide

Thanks to the rigorous MICHELIN Guide selection process that is applied independently and consistently around 28 countries, the MICHELIN Guide has become an international benchmark in fine dining. The selections of all restaurants in the guide are made by Michelin's famously anonymous inspectors who dine in the areas regularly. These local inspectors are trained to scrupulously apply the same time-tested methods used by Michelin inspectors for many decades throughout the world. This ensures a uniform, international standard of excellence. As a further guarantee of complete objectivity, Michelin inspectors pay all their bills in full, and only the quality of the cuisine is evaluated. To fully assess the quality of a restaurant, the inspectors apply five criteria defined by Michelin: product quality, preparation and flavors, the chef's personality as revealed through his or her cuisine, value for money, and consistency over time and across the entire menu. These objective criteria are respected by all MICHELIN Guide inspectors, whether in Japan, the United States, China or Europe. They guarantee a consistent selection so that a star restaurant has the same value regardless of whether it is located in Paris, New York or Tokyo.

Michelin has been a pioneering force in advancing mobility through innovation and excellence in manufacturing quality. The company patented the pneumatic, or air-filled, tire in the late 1800s. This was a milestone moment in mobility, permitting automobile owners to travel at great length in a single journey. Then, in an effort to prompt travelers to enjoy their newfound mobility, the company created guides and detailed maps to steer travelers on their way. The most famous publication that developed from this is the internationally recognized MICHELIN Guide.

Here is the entire list of 77 starred selections:

New York City MICHELIN Guide 2017

Starred establishments

Three Stars

Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey

Brooklyn Downtown Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare Cesar Ramirez Manhattan Gramercy, Flatiron & Union Square Eleven Madison Park Daniel Humm Manhattan Upper West Side Jean-Georges Jean-Georges Vongerichten Manhattan Midtown West Le Bernardin Eric Ripert Manhattan Midtown West Masa Masa Takayama Manhattan Midtown West Per Se Thomas Keller

Two Stars

Excellent cuisine, worth a detour

Manhattan Midtown East Aquavit Brooklyn Williamsburg Aska Manhattan TriBeCa atera Brooklyn Fort Greene & Bushwick Blanca Manhattan Upper East Side Daniel Manhattan East Village Ko Manhattan TriBeCa Jungsik Manhattan Midtown West Marea Manhattan Midtown West Modern (The) Manhattan Greenwich & West Village Soto

One Star

A very good restaurant in its category

Manhattan Midtown East Agern Manhattan Midtown West Ai Fiori Manhattan Gramercy, Flatiron & Union Square Aldea Manhattan Upper West Side Andanada Manhattan Midtown West Aureole Manhattan Greenwich & West Village Babbo Manhattan TriBeCa Batard Manhattan Midtown West Betony Manhattan Greenwich & West Village Blue Hill Manhattan Gramercy, Flatiron & Union Square Breslin (The) Manhattan Upper East Side Cafe Boulud Manhattan Midtown East Cafe China Manhattan East Village Cagen Manhattan Greenwich & West Village Carbone Queens

Casa Enrique Manhattan Gramercy, Flatiron & Union Square Casa Mono Manhattan Midtown East Caviar Russe Manhattan Lower East Side Contra Brooklyn Williamsburg Delaware and Hudson Manhattan Chelsea Del Posto Manhattan Upper West Side Dovetail Brooklyn Fort Greene & Bushwick Faro Brooklyn Fort Greene & Bushwick Finch (The) Manhattan Midtown West Gabriel Kreuther Manhattan Greenwich & West Village Gotham Bar and Grill Manhattan Gramercy, Flatiron & Union Square Gramercy Tavern Manhattan Greenwich & West Village Gunter Seeger NY Manhattan SoHo & Nolita Hirohisa Manhattan East Village Jewel Bako Manhattan Gramercy, Flatiron & Union Square Junoon Manhattan Midtown East Kajitsu Manhattan East Village Kanoyama Manhattan East Village Kyo Ya Manhattan Financial District L'Appart Manhattan Chelsea La Sirena Brooklyn Downtown La Vara Brooklyn Williamsburg Luksus at Trst Brooklyn Williamsburg Meadowsweet Manhattan Greenwich & West Village Minetta Tavern Manhattan SoHo & Nolita Musket Room (The) Manhattan Greenwich & West Village Nix Manhattan Gramercy, Flatiron & Union Square NoMad Brooklyn Williamsburg Peter Luger Manhattan Greenwich & West Village Piora Manhattan SoHo & Nolita Public Manhattan SoHo & Nolita Rebelle Brooklyn Downtown River Cafe (The) Brooklyn Williamsburg Semilla Manhattan Midtown East Sushi Ginza Onodera Manhattan Harlem, Morningside & Washington Heights Sushi Inoue Manhattan Upper East Side Sushi of Gari Manhattan Midtown East Sushi Yasuda Manhattan Greenwich & West Village Sushi Zo Brooklyn Downtown Take Root Manhattan Midtown East Tempura Matsui Manhattan Midtown West Tori Shin Manhattan Midtown East Tulsi Manhattan SoHo & Nolita Uncle Boons Manhattan Chelsea Ushiwakamaru Manhattan Greenwich & West Village Wallse Manhattan Greenwich & West Village ZZ's Clam Bar

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SOURCE Michelin

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MOSCOW, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Mobile TeleSystems PJSC ("MTS" or "the Company" -NYSE: MBT; MOEX: MTSS), the leading telecommunications provider in Russia and the CIS, and Samsung Electronics, the global consumer electronics and IT company, announce the launch of Wi-Fi calling in Russia enabling subscribers to make voice calls wherever there is a Wi-Fi connection (Voice over Wi-Fi).

Voice calls using the Wi-Fi calling technology do not require customers to install any applications. Once customers enable the Wi-Fi calling option on their smartphone, voice calls will be automatically redirected to the Voice over Wi-Fi format, with the Wi-Fi connection acting as a base station for the customer. The key difference from existing OTT services is that a voice call is still processed using a mobile operator's network and for the subscriber it appears as an ordinary call from one mobile number to another.

Wi-Fi Calling technology enables users to make calls from locations that may be less well served by traditional cellular networks but where there is a stable Wi-Fi connection. The service is priced under current tariff plans as an ordinary call.

The service will launch in Moscow and the Moscow Region first and will be available initially to Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge users. The service will then be rolled out over wider geographical coverage and an increasing range of devices over the course of 2017.

Commenting on the launch of Wi-Fi Calling, MTS Vice President for Strategy and Marketing, Vasyl Latsanych, said: "Wi-Fi Calling represents a new step in the development of telecoms infrastructure. This is one of the most promising technological solutions aimed at enhancing network quality and expanding the coverage of mobile services for subscribers. The technology means that every Wi-Fi connection point can act as one of our base stations. It enables us to provide our clients with high-quality services even in places without access to a cellular network, without costly investments in improving indoor coverage. MTS is pleased to be the first operator to launch Wi-Fi Calling in Russia and the timing is not accidental. We have closely examined the roll-out of Wi-Fi calling by our foreign partners, and as one of the most innovative global companies, we strived to be the first to provide this kind of service for our clients in Russia. Samsung was deliberately chosen as our partner to introduce Wi-Fi Calling as Samsung smartphones are traditionally among the most popular in Russia, so we are confident that this new service will be in high demand."

"Samsung Electronics' mission is to create advanced products and services. We welcome the launch of innovative Wi-Fi Calling technology by our long-standing partner - MTS. Through this service, users of our flagship devices, Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, will be able to appreciate the high quality of the Wi-Fi modules installed in their smartphones for yet another purpose. In fact, it utilizes the same high-speed internet access but is aimed at solving a different problem - providing voice services in places where a traditional cellular network is not accessible for a variety of reasons," - commented the Head of Samsung Mobile in Russia, Arkady Graf.

* * *

For further information, please contact in Moscow:



Joshua B. Tulgan

Director, Department of Corporate Finance and Investor Relations

Mobile TeleSystems PJSC

Tel: +7 495 223 2025

E-mail: [email protected]





Learn more about MTS. Visit the official blog of the Investor Relations Department at http://www.mtsgsm.com/blog/



* * *

Mobile TeleSystems PJSC ("MTS" -NYSE:MBT; MOEX:MTSS) is the leading telecommunications group in Russia and the CIS. We provide wireless Internet access and fixed voice, broadband and pay-TV to over 100 million customers who value high quality of service at a competitive price. Our wireless and fixed-line networks deliver best-in-class speeds and coverage throughout Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Turkmenistan and Belarus. To keep pace with evolving customer demand, we continue to grow through innovative products, investments in our market-leading retail platform, mobile payment services, e-commerce and IT solutions. For more information, please visit: http://www.mtsgsm.com.



* * *



Some of the information in this press release may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of MTS, as defined in the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify forward looking statements by terms such as "expect," "believe," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "will," "could," "may" or "might," and the negative of such terms or other similar expressions. We wish to caution you that these statements are only predictions and that actual events or results may differ materially. We do not undertake or intend to update these statements to reflect events and circumstances occurring after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. We refer you to the documents MTS files from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically the Company's most recent Form 20-F. These documents contain and identify important factors, including those contained in the section captioned "Risk Factors" that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections or forward-looking statements, including, among others, the severity and duration of current economic and financial conditions, including volatility in interest and exchange rates, commodity and equity prices and the value of financial assets; the impact of Russian, U.S. and other foreign government programs to restore liquidity and stimulate national and global economies, our ability to maintain our current credit rating and the impact on our funding costs and competitive position if we do not do so, strategic actions, including acquisitions and dispositions and our success in integrating acquired businesses, potential fluctuations in quarterly results, our competitive environment, dependence on new service development and tariff structures, rapid technological and market change, acquisition strategy, risks associated with telecommunications infrastructure, governmental regulation of the telecommunications industries and other risks associated with operating in Russia and the CIS, volatility of stock price, financial risk management and future growth subject to risks.



* * *

SOURCE Mobile TeleSystems (MTS)
LEXINGTON, Ky., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- NASPO ValuePoint, an organization that provides the highest standard of excellence in public cooperative contracting, today announced the first master agreement awards of the Cloud Solutions multi-state cooperative procurement. The request for proposal, developed and led by the State of Utah and a sourcing team of state procurement and IT professionals from eight states, resulted in competitive awards granted to 38 cloud service providers. Douglas Richins, NASPO ValuePoint's Chief Executive Officer said, "The success of this groundbreaking procurement is in large measure due to the excellent leadership by the State of Utah, the dedication of a very talented group of state procurement and IT professionals on the sourcing team, and collaboration with state CIOs."

Douglas Richins described the contracts as "covering a full range of cloud solutions that help public entities quickly access the benefits of reliable and secure cloud services for use to serve residents." The awards cover all software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) models as defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Chris Hughes, Assistant Director for the Utah Division of Purchasing and General Services and Procurement Lead, described the new cloud portfolio as including "a very broad range of services from cloud-based phone systems, unified communications, enterprise resource planning (ERP) modules, desktop as a service, programs to combat fraud, waste and abuse, data analytics and security as a service to application development in PaaS and cloud hosting services, combining IaaS with a range of managed services and system integration to deliver secure and reliable computing and storage infrastructure to name some of the cloud solutions that will be available."

Nelson Moe, Chief Information Officer for the Commonwealth of Virginia, one of the states participating in the multi-state procurement, said, "These contracts developed by the State of Utah and NASPO ValuePoint will help governments become more agile in their deployment of technology solutions to reduce costs and improve services for our taxpayers; and, because the cloud providers will be refreshed every two years, the cloud solutions will remain up-to-date."

The multi-state cloud acquisition offers an unparalleled range of choices to help state and local governments improve IT service delivery through reliable and secure cloud-based solutions. Michael DeAngelo, Washington State Deputy Chief Information Officer and one of the CIO advisors for the procurement, said, "This new cloud solutions marketplace represents a major leap forward in enabling governments to partner with cloud providers to more effectively deliver services to citizens."

Specifically designed for government cloud acquisition, the request for proposal uses the Cloud Security Alliance's Consensus Assessments Initiative Questionnaire (CAIQ), Cloud Controls Matrix (CCM) and the Security Trust and Assurance Registry to help states assess security and data controls in cloud applications. Elayne Starkey, Delaware Chief Information Security Officer, said, "Sending sensitive government data to the cloud can be a scary proposition. These contracts meet a critical need within the government sector by providing a mechanism for state and local governments to leverage cloud solutions and ensure that potential cloud vendors meet data security and protection requirements."

Daniele Catteddu, Chief Technology Officer for the Cloud Security Alliance, described, "The approach the State of Utah took to the address cloud security is exactly the one that CSA has envisioned when CCM and CAIQ were initially created. Now that STARWatch is under development, we are continuing on with that vision in providing standard support for facilitating the cloud services selection and procurement. We believe that the State of Utah is adopting a very effective way to ensure that the appropriate security controls are in place for the needs of the states who will use the contracts."

State and local governments may begin using these master awards as participating addendums are signed between the state and a cloud solutions provider. Participating addendums, award documents, the request for proposal, service summaries, contracts, key contacts, and more are posted on the NASPO ValuePoint web site as the master agreements are executed by the State of Utah.

For more information, please contact Dugan Petty, NASPO ValuePoint, Education and Outreach Coordinator for Information Communications and Technology at [email protected].

About NASPO ValuePoint

The NASPO ValuePoint Cooperative Purchasing Organization (formerly WSCA-NASPO) provides the highest standard of excellence in public cooperative contracting. By leveraging the leadership and expertise of all states with the purchasing power of their public entities, NASPO ValuePoint delivers the best value, most reliable, competitively-sourced contracts. Since 1993 NASPO ValuePoint or its predecessor has been the cooperative purchasing arm of NASPO (the National Association of State Procurement Officials) encouraging, fostering, and guiding the nation's most significant public contract cooperative. NASPO ValuePoint is a unified, nationally-focused cooperative aggregating the demand of all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the organized United States territories, their political subdivisions, and other eligible entities, spurring the best value, innovation, and competition in the marketplace.

Contact:

Dugan Petty

[email protected]

(503) 510-3363

SOURCE NASPO ValuePoint

Related Links

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National Health Foundation held its 11 th Annual Hospital Hero awards luncheon on Friday, November 4, 2016 at the Skirball Cultural Center. Beverly White of NBC4 Southern California served as master of ceremonies. All nominees were honored for their outstanding contributions, and three nominees were chosen as the 2016 Hospital Heroes. The event raised nearly $60,000 in support of National Health Foundation's mission to improve the health of individuals and underserved communities by taking action on the social determinants of health and bridging gaps in the health care system.

La Verna McMiller, RN, BSN, MSN is a 2016 Hospital Hero. La Verna manages one of the most challenging patient care units in the state, the sub-acute care center at Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center San Pedro. Patients are transferred from hospitals throughout the state with gunshot wounds, terminal cancer, and other life threatening conditions. She urges her nurses to never give up on a patient and shares her motto, "Miracles do happen." La Verna's optimism results in amazing outcomes for patients who were never expected to return home. Over a 27-year tenure, she has become known for the personal connection that she makes with patients and their families. She is a fierce guardian of safety, especially around infection control, which is extremely important as most of her patients are ventilator, tracheostomy -dependent or in a vegetative state. Under her guidance, her staff provides respect and compassion, treating patients who often cannot respond.

Shawn Aguirre, MSN, RN is a 2016 Hospital Hero. When heavy rain poured down on Brea Canyon road during rush hour causing a minor accident that pushed a woman's car into the hill, 20 -year-old Bryce Kulasxa had just left work and pulled over to see if he could help. As Bryce walked back to his truck, he heard a screech and saw a large GMC Sierra sliding out of control. Suddenly, the Cal State Fullerton student was laying underneath the truck in pain and shock. The next thing he remembers is a woman tapping him on his shoulder telling him to "stay with them." That woman was St. Jude Medical Center nurse educator, Shawn Aguirre. For the next 30 minutes, Shawn lay under the truck to calm Bryce while waiting for the paramedics to arrive. She called Bryce's mom using his cell phone and stayed with her on the phone until paramedics transported him to the hospital.

Tommy Covington, RN is a 2016 Hospital Hero. He served 4 years in the Navy as a hospital corpsman, treating wounded soldiers from Vietnam until 1968. Spurred by a shortage in male nurses, he earned a nursing degree and joined Children's Hospital Los Angeles in 1970. Since 1975, he has worked the night shift - 7 pm to 7 am - on the hematology-oncology floor. He credits his military background for his tireless work ethic and poise when dealing with difficult patient health situations. Covington has remained in contact with many Children's Hospital families. One family, whose child died 20 years ago, joins him on fishing trips. "We email, we talk, and we reminisce about their child we took care of and the love we shared," he says. "Love is the reason I do what I do."

National Health Foundation is a nonprofit that is dedicated to improving the health of individuals and underserved communities by taking action on the social determinants of health and bridging gaps in the health care system. National Health Foundation's vision is that all people, regardless of who they are or where they live, can achieve their highest level of health.

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SOURCE National Health Foundation

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CHICAGO, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Restaurant Association (NRA) is accepting applications for the 2017 FABI Awards, its annual celebration of the year's most ingenious and impactful food and beverage products. Award recipients will be recognized at NRA Show, which runs May 20-23, 2017, at McCormick Place in Chicago.

Judged by an independent panel of industry operators and experts, the FABI Awards acknowledge only the most exciting breakthroughs in taste, marketability, creativity and profit potential in foodservice operations. Consequently, these trend-defining products become "must-see" for NRA Show attendees, who recognize the potential of such incredible edibles in terms of delivering unique and delicious new experiences to the table.

"We were really excited to receive a FABI Award," said John Stephano, Director of Marketing and Training, Atalanta Corporation. "Not only does it signal to the industry that we're the leader in Specialty Imported foods for foodservice, it also goes a long way towards driving extra traffic to our NRA Show booth. The interest and excitement around our products has been terrific. In a nutshell, the FABI Award has really helped us get the word out about our new and exciting products."

FABI Award recipients enjoy many exclusive benefits, including prominent placement in pre-Show print/digital promotional efforts; company logo and product information on NRA Show website; inclusion in an official press release announcing FABI Award recipients; priority placement in on-site opportunities with broadcast media; booth signage indicating product is a FABI recipient; and extensive coverage via NRA Show media relations. Last year, the aforementioned NRA Show communication efforts garnered more than 117 million impressions.

To apply for a FABI Award, please visit Restaurant.org/Show/FABI. Submission deadline is January 11, 2017. Manufacturers may enter any food or beverage product introduced to the U.S. foodservice market between May 1, 2015 and May 20, 2017. The product will be evaluated by the FABI Award's independent panel of experts, including:

Timothy J. Dietzler , Director of Dining Services, Villanova University

, Director of Dining Services, Lori Estrada , Senior Vice President of R&D, Wendy's

, Senior Vice President of R&D, Wendy's Christopher Koetke , CEC CCE HAAC , Vice President, The School of Culinary Arts, Kendall College

, , Vice President, The School of Culinary Arts, John Li , Senior Vice President of R&D, Bloomin' Brands

, Senior Vice President of R&D, Bloomin' Brands Robin Rosenberg , Vice President, Chef de Cuisine, Levy Restaurants

, Vice President, Chef de Cuisine, Levy Restaurants Lee Ann Shaw , Global Procurement Director, Hot Beverages and Snacks, Aramark

, Global Procurement Director, Hot Beverages and Snacks, Aramark Bret Thorn , Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

For more information on the FABI Awards program, Please visit Restaurant.org/Show/FABI .

The National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show is the largest annual gathering of restaurant, foodservice and lodging professionals in the world. NRA Show 2017 will be held May 20-23 at McCormick Place in Chicago. Beverage Alcohol for Restaurants (BAR), the only beverage-alcohol event exclusively focused on the restaurant and hospitality industry, will run concurrently, from May 21-22. NRA Show attracts more than 67,000 attendees from all 50 states and 100+ countries, and showcases the latest products, services, innovation as well as up-to-the-minute information about trends and issues and growth opportunities. For more information, visit NRA Show and BAR websites at Restaurant.org/Show and Restaurant.org/BAR, respectively. NRA Show can also be found on Twitter (@NRAShow ) , Facebook, Instagram (@NRAShow), Pinterest and the year-round content hub, Brainfeed.

Founded in 1919, the National Restaurant Association is the leading business association for the restaurant industry, which comprises more than one million restaurant and foodservice outlets and a workforce of 14.4 million employees. We represent the industry in Washington, D.C., and advocate on its behalf. We operate the industry's largest trade show (NRA Show May 20-23 2017, in Chicago); leading food safety training and certification program (ServSafe); unique career-building high school program (the NRAEF's ProStart); as well as the Kids LiveWell program promoting healthful kids' menu options. For more information, visit Restaurant.org and find us on, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

More news and information from the National Restaurant Association: http://www.restaurant.org/pressroom

National Restaurant Association on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube

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SOURCE National Restaurant Association
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Just last week prop 64 was passed in California allowing Cannabis usage recreational. The reform in the US brought the voters together and the margin of victory was more successful that the presidential race. During a time where the nation needs healing, unity and dialog. New Amsterdam Naturals cannot think of a better way than Cannabis bring everyone together. This victory is a powerful message that Marijuana is finally transforming global perceptions of the drug.

New Amsterdam Naturals is the premiere Cannabis store in California, having won multiple awards including the Cannabis cup, the ultimate seal of excellence in the Cannabis industry. The carry the best, most exclusive Cannabis in the world as well as offering a wide variety of the highest quality and exotic strains. New Amsterdam Naturals is dedicated to healing the pain caused by the stigma surrounding medical Cannabis. They do so by providing members safe and affordable access to quality medicines as well, as outstanding members of the community. New Amsterdam Naturals only release a limited quantity to members of their collective. They pride them selves in the best quality strains, grown locally with the highest quality nutrients.

New Amsterdam Naturals was founded by Cannabis veterans, where one of the founders was studying to become a medical doctor with a focus on oncology, and where he saw the hardships patients with cancer had in their daily lives to get medical Marijuana. The New Amsterdam Naturals founders then dove onto the Cannabis scene in 2006, where they now carry some of the most influential and powerful quality strains in California.

Through the founders' unique way to select the best quality products, New Amsterdam Naturals has gained a reputation as the premier medical Cannabis shop in Los Angeles. New Amsterdam Naturals carry the top Cannabis brands in the industry including the best selling CANNASTAR, which has won over 15 High Times Cannabis cups.

Their reputation of quality products, fair pricing and excellent customer service together with their long standing community outreach, is growing their reputation everyday as California's premier medical Cannabis dispensaries.

New Amsterdam Naturals has gone beyond the Cannabis industry to capture some of the most vital community charitable work such as community building, free classes as well as a community event series they will launch in 2017. The New Amsterdam Naturals founders are two of the most vital counter culture figures of the medical Cannabis culture today. New Amsterdam Naturals are happy with the passage of prop 64 for patients and industry as a whole. New Amsterdam Naturals is a legal medical Cannabis collective based in Los Angeles. A Prop D & Pre-ICO Established in 2006.

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SOURCE New Amsterdam Naturals

Related Links

http://www.nanwla.com


EAST HANOVER, N.J., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Novartis announced today results of a new analysis demonstrating that Entresto (sacubitril/valsartan) tablets reduced the risk of all events  first and repeat heart failure (HF) hospitalizations as well as cardiovascular (CV) deaths that followed HF hospitalization  compared to enalapril among heart failure patients with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).1 The findings are from a post-hoc analysis of PARADIGM-HF, the largest clinical trial ever conducted in HF,6 and are being presented at the American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions 2016 in New Orleans.

"In PARADIGM-HF, about one-third of heart failure patients with a first event experienced subsequent events  underscoring the substantial risks faced by patients with this life-threatening condition," said Professor John McMurray of the University of Glasgow, and co-principal investigator for PARADIGM-HF. "The fact that sacubitril/valsartan not only reduced the risk of a first event, but also of repeat events  which are at least as serious and costly, and all too common  is highly significant and reinforces why this medicine is now guideline-directed therapy."

Investigators conducted a comprehensive analysis of all heart failure hospitalizations and all CV deaths that took place in the PARADIGM-HF trial. A total of 3,181 primary endpoint events (including 1,251 CV deaths) were observed during the median 27-month double-blinded follow-up period of PARADIGM-HF, and about one-third of patients with a primary event also experienced a repeat event (defined as repeat HF hospitalizations or a CV death that followed HF hospitalization). Using multiple statistical analysis models, investigators found that Entresto demonstrated a risk reduction of between 20%-24% for all events (first-time and repeat events) compared to enalapril.1 These findings are consistent with the proven benefit of Entresto for reducing the risk of a first event in PARADIGM-HF (a 20% risk reduction compared to enalapril on the primary endpoint, a composite measure of time to CV death or first HF hospitalization).1,2

"The better we understand the results from PARADIGM-HF, the more confident we are that Entresto can help keep many heart failure patients with reduced ejection fraction out of the hospital and alive for longer," said Fabrice Chouraqui, president of Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. "These heart failure patients deserve to benefit from this breakthrough medicine, and we are pleased that Entresto is increasingly being used as a proven treatment to help reduce their risks."

Additional post-hoc analyses from PARADIGM-HF also presented at AHA Scientific Sessions further support the efficacy and safety benefits of Entresto among a range of HFrEF patients compared to enalapril.3,4,5 These analyses found:

Treatment with Entresto was associated with fewer diuretic dose increases and more dose reductions compared to enalapril. 3

Patients receiving Entresto and a mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist (MRA) had a lower risk of severe hyperkalemia (high potassium levels, >6) compared to those taking enalapril and an MRA. 4

In patients with severe HF symptoms (NYHA functional class IV), Entresto showed consistent benefit when compared to the overall patient population of PARADIGM-HF.5

About Heart Failure

Heart failure is a debilitating and life-threatening condition, which impacts nearly 6 million Americans and is the leading cause of hospitalization among Americans over the age of 65.7,8 About half of people with heart failure have heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).9 Reduced ejection fraction means the heart does not contract with enough force, so less blood is pumped out.10 Heart failure presents a major and growing health-economic burden that currently exceeds $30 billion in the United States, which accounts for both direct and indirect costs.11

About Entresto

Entresto is a twice-a-day medicine that reduces the strain on the failing heart. It does this by enhancing the protective neurohormonal systems (natriuretic peptide system) while simultaneously inhibiting the harmful effects of the overactive renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS).12,13 Other heart failure medicines only block the harmful effects of the overactive RAAS.14 Entresto contains the neprilysin inhibitor sacubitril and the angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) valsartan.12

Entresto is indicated in the US to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death and hospitalization for heart failure in patients with chronic heart failure (NYHA Class II-IV) and reduced ejection fraction.12 Entresto is usually administered in conjunction with other heart failure therapies, in place of an angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or an angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB).12 Entresto film-coated tablets are available in three dosage strengths: 24/26 mg, 49/51 mg, and 97/103 mg (sacubitril/valsartan).12 These doses are referred to as 50 mg, 100 mg, and 200 mg in the clinical trial literature including the New England Journal of Medicine publication of the results of PARADIGM-HF. The target maintenance dose of Entresto is 97/103 mg twice daily.12

Novartis is committed to providing patients with affordable access and resources through Entresto Central. For more information, please call 1-888-ENTRESTO or visit www.entresto.com.

Please visit http://www.pharma.us.novartis.com/product/pi/pdf/entresto.pdf for Entresto full Prescribing Information.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

Entresto can harm or cause death to an unborn baby. Patients should talk to their doctor about other ways to treat heart failure if they plan to become pregnant. If a patient gets pregnant while taking Entresto, she should tell her doctor right away.

Patients are not to take Entresto if they are allergic to sacubitril or valsartan or any of the ingredients in Entresto; have had an allergic reaction including swelling of the face, lips, tongue, throat or trouble breathing while taking a type of medicine called angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB); or take an ACE inhibitor medicine. Patients are not to take Entresto for at least 36 hours before or after they take an ACE inhibitor medicine. Patients should talk with their doctor or pharmacist before taking Entresto if they are not sure if they take an ACE inhibitor medicine. Patients are not to take Entresto if they have diabetes and take a medicine that contains aliskiren.

Before they take Entresto, patients should tell their doctor about all of their medical conditions, including if they have kidney or liver problems; are pregnant or plan to become pregnant; are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. Patients should either take Entresto or breastfeed. They should not do both.

Patients should tell their doctor about all the medicines they take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. They should especially tell their doctor if they take potassium supplements or a salt substitute; nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs); lithium; or other medicines for high blood pressure or heart problems such as an ACE inhibitor, ARB, or aliskiren.

Entresto may cause serious side effects including serious allergic reactions causing swelling of the face, lips, tongue, and throat (angioedema) that may cause trouble breathing and death. Patients are to get emergency medical help right away if they have symptoms of angioedema or trouble breathing. Patients are not to take Entresto again if they have had angioedema while taking Entresto. People who are black or who have had angioedema may have a higher risk of having angioedema if they take Entresto. Entresto may cause low blood pressure (hypotension). Patients are to call their doctor if they become dizzy or lightheaded, or they develop extreme fatigue. Entresto may cause kidney problems or an increased amount of potassium in the blood.

The most common side effects were low blood pressure, high potassium, cough, dizziness, and kidney problems.

Please see full Prescribing Information, including Boxed WARNING available at http://www.pharma.us.novartis.com/product/pi/pdf/entresto.pdf.

Patients are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Disclaimer

The foregoing release contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by words such as "confident," "can," "breakthrough," "increasingly," "growing," "committed," or similar terms, or by express or implied discussions regarding potential new indications or labeling for Entresto, or regarding potential future revenues from Entresto. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on the current beliefs and expectations of management regarding future events, and are subject to significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. There can be no guarantee that Entresto will be submitted or approved for any additional indications or labeling in any market, or at any particular time. Nor can there be any guarantee that Entresto will be commercially successful in the future. In particular, management's expectations regarding Entresto could be affected by, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, including unexpected clinical trial results and additional analysis of existing clinical data; unexpected regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; the company's ability to obtain or maintain proprietary intellectual property protection; general economic and industry conditions; global trends toward health care cost containment, including ongoing pricing pressures; unexpected safety, quality or manufacturing issues, and other risks and factors referred to in Novartis AG's current Form 20-F on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Novartis is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Novartis

Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation offers a broad range of medicines for cancer, cardiovascular disease, endocrine disease, inflammatory disease, infectious disease, neurological disease, organ transplantation, psychiatric disease, respiratory disease and skin conditions.

Located in East Hanover, NJ Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation is an affiliate of Novartis AG, which provides innovative healthcare solutions that address the evolving needs of patients and societies. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis offers a diversified portfolio to best meet these needs: innovative medicines, eye care and cost-saving generic pharmaceuticals. Novartis is the only global company with leading positions in these areas. In 2015, the Group achieved net sales of USD 49.4 billion, while R&D throughout the Group amounted to approximately USD 8.9 billion (USD 8.7 billion excluding impairment and amortization charges). Novartis Group companies employ approximately 118,000 full-time-equivalent associates. Novartis products are available in more than 180 countries around the world. For more information, please visit http://www.novartis.com.

Novartis is on Twitter. Sign up to follow @Novartis at http://twitter.com/novartis

For Novartis multimedia content, please visit www.novartis.com/news/media-library

For questions about the site or required registration, please contact [email protected]

References

McMurray JJV, Packer M, Desai A, et al. Analysis of Recurrent (Including First and Repeat) Primary Endpoint Events (Composite of Heart Failure hospitalizations and Cardiovascular Death) in PARADIGM-HF. American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2016; New Orleans, LA , USA. McMurray JJV, Packer M, Desai AS, et al. Angiotensin-Neprilysin Inhibition versus Enalapril in Heart Failure. N Engl J Med. 2014;371:993-1004. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1409077. Vardeny O, et al. Reduced loop diuretic use in patients taking sacubitril/valsartan compared with enalapril: The PARADIGM-HF study. American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2016; New Orleans, LA , USA. Solomon S, Packer M, Claggett B, et al. Reduced Risk of Hyperkalemia in Heart Failure Patients Treated with an MRA and Sacubitril/Valsartan Compared with Enalapril: The PARADIGM-HF Trial. American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2016; New Orleans, LA , USA. McMurray JJV, Gong J, Rouleau J, et al. Efficacy and safety of sacubitril/valsartan in patients in NYHA functional class IV. An analysis of PARADIGM-HF. American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2016; New Orleans, LA , USA. McMurray JJV, Packer M, Desai AS, et al. Baseline characteristics and treatment of patients in prospective comparison of ARNI with ACEI to determine impact on global mortality and morbidity in heart failure trial (PARADIGM-HF). Eur J Heart Fail. 2014;16(7):817-25. Mozaffarian D, Benjamin EJ, Go AS, et al. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics2016 Update: A report from the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2015;133;e38-e360. doi: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000000350. Weir LM, Pfuntner A, Maeda J, et al. HCUP facts and figures: statistics on hospital-based care in the United States , 2009. Rockville, MD : Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2011. Owan TE, Hodge DO, Herges RM, et al. Trends in prevalence and outcome of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. N Engl J Med. 2006;355:251259. Ejection Fraction Heart Failure Measurement. American Heart Association Website. http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/HeartFailure/SymptomsDiagnosisofHeartFailure/Ejection-Fraction-Heart-Failure-Measurement_UCM_306339_Article.jsp (link is external). Published March 24, 2015 . Accessed October 10, 2016 . Heidenreich PA, Albert NM, Allen LA , et al. Forecasting the impact of heart failure in the United States : a policy statement from the American Heart Association. Circ Heart Fail. 2013;6:606-619. Entresto Prescribing Information Langenickel T, Dole W. Angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibition with LCZ696: a novel approach for the treatment of heart failure. Drug Discovery Today. 2012:4: e131-9. Yancy CW, Jessup M, Bozkurt B, et al. 2013 ACCF/AHA guideline for the management of heart failure: A report of the American College of Cardiology Foundation/American Heart Association task force on practice guidelines. Circulation. 2013;128:e240-e327.

SOURCE Novartis

Related Links

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LOS ANGELES, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Family caregivers need a source of spiritual encouragement, says Caregiver Partners, the organization launching a new mobile app that serves as a quiet, understanding friend anytime and anywhere. The non-denominational Caregiver Prayer app is free and available today at the App Store, Google Play and online at CaregiverPrayer.com.

When someone is seriously ill and receiving constant care, people are naturally concerned and want to help. However, these well-meaning friends and family often don't think to ask about the welfare of the caregiver. The work of caregivers is simply taken for granted. Sharing the Caregiver Prayer app with someone who is caring for a friend of loved one is a thoughtful way to say, "I'm thinking of you."

In a national study, caregivers were asked about the guidance and support they received from outside sources. Seventy-five percent said they turned to prayer  more than any other resource.

App users receive short devotional messages every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to provide much-needed inspiration for the demands of the day. The app also features a section for sharing one's concerns, and a place to request prayer from the Caregiver Prayer Support Group. A safe and private chatroom enables caregivers to connect in real time, reminding them that they are not alone.

"Pray for me, I'm depressed and exhausted," explains one user, underscoring just how vital the Caregiver Prayer app is for this community. Others think of the app as a quiet, compassionate friend.

"I need this at a time in my life that is difficult," adds another user. "My husband has been severely ill for over three years, and we are about to go through surgery. This app has provided the guidance and strength I needed. I would recommend it to any caregiver."

The emotional and physical costs of caregiving have become the nation's hidden healthcare crisis. AARP data reveals that over 40 million Americans  one in every six adults  are now serving as family caregivers. Many work full time and go home to face the demands of caregiving. Collectively they provide over 37 billion hours of unpaid care to family members.

The constant demands of caring for an ailing family member are often intense and prolonged. Anxiety and stress combine to take a heavy toll of the caregiver's own physical and emotional health. At the same time, caregivers are often reluctant to talk about their own issues. They feel that complaining will sound like a lack of caring. The Caregiver Prayer app is therefore a vital tool for these millions of hard-working people.

About Caregiver Partners, Inc.

Caregiver Partners is a non-profit organization. Its team of seasoned caregivers and medical professionals created the Caregiver Prayer app, a convenient mobile tool to help caregivers feel more supported, encouraged and spiritually connected.

For media / radio interviews, please contact:

Faith Spencer, Director of Promotions

818-522-9302

[email protected]

SOURCE Caregiver Partners

Related Links

http://www.CaregiverPrayer.com


ATLANTA, Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Through the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association (NHCAA) database SIRIS(Special Investigative Resource and Intelligence System), hosted by LexisNexis Risk Solutions, NHCAA brings insights to the market on how to curb health care provider fraud. Now, the results of a joint research study between LexisNexis Health Care and the NHCAA provide a new vantage point from which NHCAA members can view potential fraud, waste and abuse (FWA). The study results will be announced at the NHCAA Anti-Fraud Expo, November 15-17, Atlanta, GA.

SIRIS is a contributory database that allows NHCAA members to submit, track, monitor and share information related to potential provider fraud and associated investigations. The new research study assessed the value of adding external provider derogatory data to SIRIS and determined the following:

Incorporation of external derogatory provider data into SIRIS can expose providers that possess strong indicators of fraud. Fraud data from different industries can provide alerts of potential fraud earlier than data from within a single market.

"The key learning from the study was that incorporating public records such as bankruptcies, liens and judgements, medical license expirations and criminal records all can shine additional light on health care fraud," said Cynthia Lucas, Senior Director of Anti-Fraud Initiatives, NHCAA. "When we add the ability to leverage interest across multiple industries to identify suspicious subjects, we become much better equipped to catch newer, more sophisticated fraud schemes. Our joint research study with LexisNexis Health Care reveals new ways to determine activities and signals that are highly predictive of fraud and enable our members to address potential fraud earlier."

Specifically for the study, SIRIS providers were analyzed using LexisNexis Health Care data and analytics to see what derogatory data was returned and if that data applied to the SIRIS records in a meaningful way. LexisNexis Health Care applied three additional layers of data in the study:

1) Provider-centric data such as licenses, sanctions, National Provider Identifier and Drug Enforcement Administration information;

2) Non-health indicators such as criminal, sex offender, deceased records, bankruptcy liens and judgements; and

3) Fraud inquiries from finance, insurance and government markets from the LexisNexis Fraud Defense Network (FDN), a cross-industry initiative offering resources and actionable intelligence to connect the dots between different industries to improve fraud mitigation and prevention efforts.

For example, in the study, the FDN detected 124 SIRIS providers at high risk for fraud from outside of health care, including one provider investigated for financial services fraud three times and insurance fraud one time the year before being added to SIRIS. The study also found several examples of bankruptcies filed the year before these providers were added to SIRIS investigations for services not provided and up-coding.

"When payers have data on licensing expirations and deceased records, they can withhold payment for further investigation of fraud," said Mark Isbitts, Director, Payment Protection, LexisNexis Health Care. "Other types of data, like bankruptcies or past fraud inquiries within other industries, help insurers identify indicators of potential fraud."

The ability to predict the likelihood that a provider has committed or may commit fraud in the future enables insurers to prioritize providers based on risk and optimize resource allocation for monitoring, investigating and preventing FWA.

Isbitts will discuss how data insights can help prevent fraud in his presentation, "The New Menace: FWA on the Marketplace Exchange & Organized Crime" on Thursday, November 17th at 10:30 a.m. at the NHCAA Annual Training Conference, Hanover DE, Exhibit Level.

About LexisNexis Risk Solutions

LexisNexis Risk Solutions (http://www.lexisnexis.com/risk/) is a leader in providing essential information that helps customers across industries and government predict, assess and manage risk. Combining cutting-edge technology, unique data and advanced analytics, LexisNexis Risk Solutions provides products and services that address evolving client needs in the risk sector while upholding the highest standards of security and privacy. LexisNexis Risk Solutions is part of RELX Group plc, a world-leading provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries.

Our health care solutions combine proprietary analytics, science and technology with the industry's leading sources of provider, member, claims and public records information to improve cost savings, health outcomes, data quality, compliance and exposure to fraud, waste and abuse.

About NHCAA

Founded in 1985, the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association is the leading national organization focused exclusively on the fight against health care fraud. Members comprise more than 100 private health insurers and those public-sector law enforcement and regulatory agencies having jurisdiction over health care fraud committed against both private payers and public programs.

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SOURCE LexisNexis Risk Solutions

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FAR HILLS, N.J., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- In an official response to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and to the gas companies that comprise the shell organization known as PennEast, the New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel (Rate Counsel) yesterday continued to blast the PennEast pipeline project by further substantiating its assertions that the proposed gas pipeline is not needed and does not benefit the public. New Jersey Conservation Foundation (NJ Conservation), Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association (SBMWA), and the Eastern Environmental Law Center (EELC) applaud the serious economic investigation that Rate Counsel undertook, and renew their call for FERC to deny any approvals for this project.

"The state agency that represents us, the paying public, has again concluded that the PennEast pipeline is not needed, would be unfair to consumers, and would result in profits so massive that it would be like 'winning the lottery,'" said Tom Gilbert, campaign director, NJ Conservation.

"In the absence of any demonstrated need for this project, we call on FERC to reject the proposed PennEast pipeline," Gilbert said.

In a striking rebuke of PennEast's claims, the Rate Counsel said that "while the faith demonstrated in 'if you build it, they will come' makes for a wonderful movie plot, it cannot be the basis for building an enormously expensive greenfield pipeline."

"The damage that PennEast would cause to drinking water, our communities, and our health and safety is too great to proceed with the project only to pad the pockets of PennEast's owner companies," Gilbert said.

In its submission to FERC filed on November 14, the Rate Counsel pointed out numerous false conclusions and contradictions in PennEast's response to the state agency's initial report. In one such instance, Rate Counsel emphasized that PennEast's claims that the pipeline is needed are contradicted by the regulatory filings of the companies that have signed on to receive gas from the pipeline. In these filings the utilities state that they "currently have adequate capacity," "have experienced minimal load growth during the past years of very low gas prices," and "project very limited new load growth."

The Rate Counsel also dismantled PennEast's assertions that the project would result in cost savings, or lessen the price spikes experienced during severe weather events such as the Polar Vortex in 2013-2014. Rate Counsel affirmed that the increase in prices wouldn't have been eliminated simply by increasing capacity and that PennEast would have had limited, if any, effect.

The Rate Counsel also dismissed PennEast's claims that the pipeline is needed for reliability and supply diversity:

"PennEast fails to acknowledge that numerous outlets currently exist for gas produced from the Marcellus and Utica shales. Rate Counsel is likewise unaware of any complaints that gas is locked into either field due to a lack of pipeline capacity."

The Rate Counsel stated that PennEast would actually reduce supply diversity, noting that the PennEast affiliate companies that would receive gas from the pipeline already "obtain substantial amounts of gas from the Marcellus and Utica shales."

"It is particularly damning that Rate Counsel pointed out exactly how PennEast's economic justification is a moving target without any legs. Rate Counsel aptly described PennEast's new arguments for what they are  after the fact changes to its project application that still do not cure the project's legal and economic defects," said Jennifer Danis, senior staff attorney, EELC, counsel to NJ Conservation and SBMWA.

"Opponents of the PennEast pipeline stand firmly behind the Rate Counsel's position that this self-dealing project only serves the companies behind PennEast  PSE&G, South Jersey Gas, New Jersey Natural Gas, and Elizabethtown Gas. The project should be stopped in its tracks," said Jim Waltman, executive director, SBMWA.

The full Rate Counsel letter is available to download here. Also filed with FERC yesterday along with Rate Counsel's letter is the Affidavit of David E. Dismukes, Ph.D.

About New Jersey Conservation Foundation

About Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association

About Eastern Environmental Law Center

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160817/399148LOGO

SOURCE New Jersey Conservation Foundation
SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Voice conversations play a critical role in consumer decisions about financial products according to the State of the Consumer Banking Experience published today by Invoca, the call intelligence company. Invoca conducted a survey of more than 1,200 U.S. adults who have taken out a loan greater than $15,000 in the last three years to understand how consumers' interactions with a financial institutions impact their banking decisions.

While financial institutions will spend more than $8 billion on digital advertising in 2016, the survey found that customers rely heavily on offline interactions when making important financial decisions. When evaluating a loan, respondents ranked in-person meetings and phone calls as their preferred modes of communication with financial institutions; more than a quarter made at least four phone calls to financial institutions before selecting one for their loan. And the bigger the loan the more likely potential customers are to call: 93 percent of people who took out loans of $100,000 or more made at least one call to the financial institution they ultimately chose for their loan.

Consumers expect their experiences with their bank to be connected, however, no matter how they choose to interact: 75 percent of respondents said they expect a seamless experience when switching between channels such as SMS, phone calls, email and online chat. Further, they expect offline conversations to be integrated back into digital touch points: 45 percent of respondents said seeing digital ads that conflicted with a conversation they had on the phone negatively impacted their decision to take a loan from that institution.

"Financial marketers are grappling with a host of challenges that impact the customer experience like internal silos, lack of unified data, poor attribution, and incomplete martech stacks," said Kyle Christensen, SVP marketing at Invoca. "This study brings to light what's at stake for financial institutions that fail to keep up with the demands of today's mobile consumer. While it can seem like a massive undertaking, those that begin to unify the customer experience across channels will have a considerable advantage in 2017 and beyond."

"Analyzing loan options online is always a great way to comparison shop, but sometimes consumers just want to be able to speak to a loan officer now," said John Challis, senior director of performance marketing at LendingTree. "When a consumer is ready to pick up the phone, they are typically further down the funnel and close to transacting with someone on our vast network of lenders. By working with Invoca, we've been able to easily drive more of these high-value calls to our lender network, and tie the ROI back to our marketing investment."

Key Findings Include:

Omnichannel is the New Normal

Consumers use multiple screens and channels to interact with financial institutions, including in-person visits, calls, apps, chatbots, social media, and more. They aren't thinking about these as separate conversations, however: 75 percent of consumers say that it's important or extremely important to be able to easily switch between channels while interacting with their bank.

When communicating with their bank during an average month:

76 percent of respondents use at least two different channels

37 percent of respondents use three or more channels

For complicated decisions, offline interactions reign:

64 percent of respondents said in-person or phone calls were their primary modes of contact when evaluating an institution for a loan

72 percent of people evaluating a loan made at least two phone calls to financial institution during the vetting process; 26 percent made four or more calls

Phone Call Experience Can Make or Break a Decision

More than half of respondents said they were more likely to take out a loan from an institution they spoke with on the phone during the loan process; this increased to nearly three-fourths of consumers who took out a loan of $100K or more.

When evaluating a loan, after a negative call experience:

56 percent would be likely to choose another financial institution

26 percent would write a negative review online

When evaluating a loan, after a positive call experience:

57 percent would be likely to choose that institution for their loan

51 percent would refer someone to that same lender

Know your customer

80 percent of loan shoppers said a call answered by a representative who immediately knew their account history and relationship had a positive influence on their decision

56 percent said having to restate information each time they were transferred to a representative had a negative impact on their decision

The Future of Omnichannel Banking Includes Conversation

As banking becomes more digital, it's clear that human interaction will still play a large role in financial services. For instance, while 80 percent of people use their bank's app for checking balances or transferring money, consumers prefer to use offline interactions for more complex or sensitive issues.





For sensitive information, people want to talk to a person, not a bot

49 percent of bank customers said they would be uncomfortable discussing fraudulent banking charges with a chatbot

81 percent of respondents said they are comfortable talking over the phone about loan options, compared to only 43 percent who would be comfortable talking to a bot about loan options

Only 17 percent of bank customers said they would use a chatbot assistant if their bank offered it

A report detailing the findings of the survey is available online at: http://blog.invoca.com/study-finds-conversations-play-critical-role-consumers-financial-decisions/

About Invoca

Invoca helps the modern marketer optimize for the most important step in the customer journey: the phone call. With Invoca's Voice Marketing Cloud, marketers can get granular campaign attribution to understand why customers are calling, gain real-time intelligence about who's calling and analyze what's being said in conversations. Marketers can put this data to work directly in the Voice Marketing Cloud by automating the ideal customer experience before, during and after each call. With an ecosystem of over 30 technology partners, marketers can inject call intelligence into their existing technology stack, giving them the ability to orchestrate a true omnichannel customer journey. Invoca is backed by Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners, Accel Partners, Upfront Ventures, Rincon Venture Partners, Salesforce Ventures, and Stepstone. For more information, please visit www.invoca.com.

SOURCE Invoca

Related Links

http://www.invoca.com


SAN MATEO, Calif., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- NextLabs, a leading provider of data-centric security software to protect business critical data and applications, announced their European expansion with the launch of a new operation in the UK and the hiring of enterprise industry veteran Mark Clark to run EMEA operations. The company is headquartered in San Mateo, CA with offices around the world, including Singapore and Malaysia.

The addition of the UK operation comes as business opportunities in Europe are growing significantly across all industries. This reflects the importance organizations are placing on protecting data and safeguarding information sharing. As regulations and data security challenges increase and become more complex to implement, organizations are looking to a new breed of security software that can scale quickly to prevent violations and automate a vast collection of data security policies and procedures to consistently control, monitor, and audit information handling activities. NextLabs has developed a very strong partnership with SAP and Siemens, and the growth in demand of the joint solutions with SAP and Siemens is requiring more local presence. "SAP is extremely excited that our partner, NextLabs, is currently launching their EMEA operation in London," said Chris Johnson, VP, Sales, SAP GRC EMEA. "It is widely accepted that the next generation of data security and access management solutions will be 'attribute-based' and hence, the SAP GRC suite is emboldened through the close partnership with NextLabs. Security is of the utmost concern to most of our customers and it is vital to us that we can offer the latest technologies and innovations to answer modern business challenges."

To successfully manage and drive demand and customer engagement in EMEA, NextLabs has hired Mark Clark, who has held Executive and senior positions at Imprivata, Hitachi Data Systems and EMC. Mr. Clark will be responsible for scaling the EMEA business, including building the sales team and working closely with partners to drive sustainable growth. "I am delighted to be joining NextLabs at an exciting time in the company's growth and look forward to extending NextLabs technology leadership and strong market position into the EMEA region; we have a tremendous opportunity to expand our business into both established and new markets across EMEA."

The expansion into EMEA provides global coverage for our customers and partners to allow NextLabs to better meet the growing demands of the next generation data security software to combat cyber threats and protect critical digital assets. "We are proud to be in the position to take another major step forward in establishing NextLabs as a truly global player in the data centric security arena," said Keng Lim, CEO, NextLabs. "With the addition of Mark Clark to our team, we are ready and able to quickly scale our European business and ensure that our customers in EMEA are well served."

NextLabs, Inc. provides data-centric security software to protect business critical data and applications. Our patented dynamic authorization technology and industry leading attribute-based policy platform helps enterprises identify and protect sensitive data, monitor and control access to the data, and prevent regulatory violations  whether in the cloud or on premises. The software automates enforcement of security controls and compliance policies to enable secure information sharing across the extended enterprise. NextLabs has some of the largest global enterprises as customers and has strategic relationships with industry leaders such as SAP, Siemens, Microsoft, and IBM. For more information on NextLabs, please visit http://www.nextlabs.com.

Press contact:

Jill Rubin

NextLabs, Inc.

[email protected]

6505779101

SOURCE NextLabs

Related Links

http://www.nextlabs.com


NEW YORK, Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- North America Medical Imaging Information Systems Market Outlook to 2022



Summary



GlobalData's new report, "North America Medical Imaging Information Systems Market Outlook to 2022", provides key market data on the North America Medical Imaging Information Systems market. The report provides value, in millions of US dollars within market segments - Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS), Radiology Information System (RIS) and Cardiology Information Systems.

The report also provides company shares and distribution shares data for the market category, and global corporate-level profiles of the key market participants. Based on the availability of data for the particular category and country, information related to pipeline products, news and deals is available in the report.



The data in the report is derived from dynamic market forecast models. GlobalData uses epidemiology and capital equipment-based models to estimate and forecast the market size. The objective is to provide information that represents the most up-to-date data of the industry possible.



The epidemiology-based forecasting model makes use of epidemiology data gathered from research publications and primary interviews with physicians to establish the target patient population and treatment flow patterns for individual diseases and therapies. Using prevalence and incidence data and diagnosed and treated population, the epidemiology-based forecasting model arrives at the final numbers.



Capital equipment-based forecasting models are done based on the installed base, replacements and new sales of a specific device/equipment in healthcare facilities such as hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centers. Data for average number of units per facility is used to arrive at the installed base of the capital equipment. Sales for a particular year are arrived at by calculating the replacement units and new units (additional and first-time purchases).



Extensive interviews are conducted with key opinion leaders (KOLs), physicians and industry experts to validate the market size, company share and distribution share data and analysis.



Scope



- Market size for Medical Imaging Information Systems market segments - Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS), Radiology Information System (RIS) and Cardiology Information Systems.

- Annualized market revenues (USD million) for each of the market categories. Data is provided from 2008 to 2015 and forecast to 2022.

- 2015 company shares and distribution shares data for Medical Imaging Information Systems market.

- Global corporate-level profiles of key companies operating within the North America Medical Imaging Information Systems market.

- Key players covered include Fujifilm Holdings Corporation, GE Healthcare Limited, Carestream Health, Inc., Philips Healthcare and Others.



Reasons to buy



- Develop business strategies by identifying the key market segments poised for strong growth in the future.

- Develop market-entry and market expansion strategies.

- Design competition strategies by identifying who-stands-where in the market.

- Develop investment strategies by identifying the key market segments expected to register strong growth in the near future.

- What are the key distribution channels and what's the most preferred mode of product distribution - Identify, understand and capitalize.

Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p04283976-summary/view-report.html



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



http://www.reportlinker.com

__________________________

Contact Clare: [email protected]

US: (339)-368-6001

Intl: +1 339-368-6001

SOURCE Reportlinker

Related Links

http://www.reportlinker.com


Pullman Place, located at 909 2 nd Street, NE, is a 42-unit, boutique condominium that's situated between NoMa, Union Market, and H Street Corridor, three of the District's most dynamic and fastest growing neighborhoods. Totaling 41,000 gross square feet, Pullman Place will offer residents various amenities including a rooftop lounge and grilling station, private fitness center, and secured bike storage. Interiors will feature high-end gloss lacquered kitchen cabinets, quartz countertops, plank wood flooring and spa-inspired bathrooms. Pullman Place is nearing completion and units are currently being marketed on a pre-sale basis by Urban Pace, the exclusive sales and marketing team for the project.

The second D.C. development underway by FORTIS and Northridge Capital is located near Logan Circle, at 1628 11th Street, NW. The urban-infill project will feature 32 top-of-the-line luxury residential units. The Project is situated squarely in the heart of the Logan Circle neighborhood, just two blocks from 14th Street and three blocks from both the Shaw and U Street Metro stations. The condominium units will average 1,060 square feet, featuring best-in-class finishes and design, including 10' ceiling heights, custom European kitchens, Bosch appliances, Caesarstone and marble countertops, Porcelanosa bathrooms, Waterworks bathroom fixture, floor-to-ceiling glass windows, large landscaped patios and barbeque areas. The building will also accommodate 20 below-grade parking spaces and a comprehensive amenity package that will far exceed other boutique developments in the neighborhood, including a fitness center, rooftop lounge, fully vegetated roof and a dog washing station. The project is targeting completion by 2nd quarter of 2017.

Equity for both developments is being provided by Northridge Capital, LLC, on behalf of its overseas investors. Debt financing is being provided by EagleBank, which has been active in construction lending in the local Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

About Northridge Capital

Northridge Capital, LLC, is an independent real estate asset management firm that has invested in more than 40 assets with a combined acquisition value of approximately $800 million since its founding in 1997. Based in Washington, D.C., the company focuses on generating superior risk-adjusted returns for international high net-worth individuals and institutions

About The FORTIS Companies

FORTIS is a Washington, D.C.-based real estate development and investment company that is focused on creating extraordinary multifamily residential and mixed-use projects. With a combined 30 years of experience, FORTIS' team has built more than 2,500 multifamily units in the D.C. region with a combined value in excess of $800 million.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161101/434828

SOURCE Northridge Capital, LLC
A Shanghai-Hangzhou high-speed intercity train pulls out of the Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station in Shanghai, Oct 26, 2010. [Photo/VCG]

The top economic planner has approved five railway projects with a total investment of close to 200 billion yuan ($29.23 billion) so far this month, China Business News reported.

The Ganshen railway, with a total investment of 64.13 billion yuan, connects Ganzhou city of Jiangxi province and Shenzhen city of Guangdong province. The project, with a total length of 432 kilometers and 14 stations, is expected to complete in 2020.

The National Development and Reform Commission also approved the Beijing-Tangshan intercity railway, a key part of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei intercity rail transit network. The 148.7-kilometer rail link has a total investment of 44.9 billion yuan.

Meanwhile, another three approved projects, Zhangjiajie-Jishou-Huaihua railway, Mudanjiang-Jiamusi railway and a new freight rail line, Shenmu North (Hongliulin) - Fengjiachun section of the Shenwa railway, involved an investment of 38.24 billion yuan, 38.56 billion yuan and 8.75 billion yuan respectively.

The above-mentioned five rail projects have a total value of 194.58 billion yuan, the newspaper said.

The government has sought ways to increase investment in infrastructure projects in a bid to shore up the economy.

The National Development and Reform Commission approved 15 fixed-asset investment projects with total investment reaching 218.8 billion yuan in October, official data showed Friday.

The projects cover transportation and energy, said Li Pumin, secretary general of the National Development and Reform Commission, during a news conference.

China's fixed-asset investment in the first nine months grew 8.2 percent year on year, slightly up from the 8.1 percent registered during the January-August period, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

Xinhua contributed to this story.
PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Building on a legal career spanning more than 40 years, Anthony S. Volpe, a founding partner of Philadelphia-based Intellectual Property law firm Volpe and Koenig, P.C., announced the launch of BusinessMediation.com. Business Mediation is dedicated solely to resolving business disputes in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/439265

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/439262LOGO

Business Mediator Tony Volpe

Volpe's decades of experience, as an attorney and business advisor in a wide range of industries spanning intellectual property, commercial litigation and issues pertaining to all areas of business disputes, makes him uniquely qualified to help parties get to yes. Volpe based the practice in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Princeton, New Jersey, but has access to conference facilities throughout the United States and travels nationally to accommodate the parties.

"I'm a big believer that alternative dispute resolution channels such as mediation provides businesses with the opportunity to resolve matters without the lengthy, expensive and often draining process of litigation," said Volpe. "Quite simply, I enjoy the process of mediation," said Volpe. "Through BusinessMediation.com, I can provide the setting, services and experience needed to successfully find a mutually acceptable common ground among multiple parties."

As Volpe sought to slowly wind down from the day to day grind of his legal practice, he determined that his business acumen and experiences in mediation representing adverse parties represented the perfect chance to continue doing what he loved in a setting where ideally both parties feel victorious at the conclusion.

BusinessMediation.com is a national mediation service solely dedicated to resolving business disputes. For more information, visit our website at www.businessmediation.com.

BusinessMediation.com

30 South 17th Street, 18th Floor

Philadelphia, PA 19103-4196

Media Contact:

Anthony S. Volpe, Esq.

Mediator

Phone 215-568-6400

email: [email protected]

SOURCE BusinessMediation.com

Related Links

http://www.businessmediation.com


MACY, Neb., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Facing eminent extinction with only an estimated 12 fluent speakers, the native language of the Omaha tribe will be the focus of a revitalization effort centered within the tribe's public schools. The project, developed by The Language Conservancy and supported by a $100,000 W. K. Kellogg Foundation grant, will develop a pre-K through high school language education program in Nebraska with the Umoho (Omaha) Nation Public School, the Walthill Public School and the Omaha Tribal Education Department.

Only about 150 people speak or understand parts of the language and elders and teachers associated with the Omaha tribe said the remaining fluent speakers are all over 70 years old, according to Wil Meya, executive director of The Language Conservancy.

"Thanks to the support of the Kellogg Foundation we have the unique opportunity to begin a program of recovery and revitalization of a native language that is on the precipice of extinction," Meya said. "When we lose a language we lose culture, history, knowledge and a unique way of looking at the world."

The project will lead to the creation of an introductory level textbook and accompanying audio CD that will be distributed for free to the participating Omaha reservation schools. A teacher training course will be conducted and language pre-tests and post-tests for students will also be developed and conducted.

"Tribal members and educational institutions of the Omaha tribe have been struggling to create teaching materials to aid in the resurgence of our language, said Vida Stabler, director of the Umohon (Omaha) Nation Public School Indian Education Program. The tribe is based in Macy, Neb., and has over 7,000 members nationally.

"With textbooks and audio CDs created in part from interviews and recordings with the tribe's remaining Elders we will have additional resources to teach, grow and increase daily use of our Omaha language," Stabler said. "We're trying to rescue far more than our endangered language, but our unique culture which also is a significant piece of American history and culture."

The project design created a partnership with the Indian Education Department at Omaha Nation Public School and will partner with the Nebraska Indian Community College for future training events.

The United Nations estimates that of the world's 6,000 different languages, over 40 percent  about 2,571  are endangered, including 191 in the United States.

The Language Conservancy (TLC) is a nonprofit organization based in Bloomington, Ind., that is leading the revitalization of endangered Native American languages across the U.S. by providing critical support to tribal education departments, schools, and by increasing public awareness on the crisis of disappearing languages. @LangConservancy

SOURCE The Language Conservancy
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 500 of California's most ardent warriors in the fight against runaway production filled The Beverly Hilton's International Ballroom November 13 for the 22nd Annual California On Location Awards (COLAs), which recognize location managers, public employees and other professionals who help facilitate production across the Golden State.

This year's awards were presented amid a spirit of growing optimism, as California's expanded Film & Television Tax Credit Program 2.0 is helping the state retain its status as the world's production capital.

The upcoming Warner Bros. feature 'CHiPs' took home the most awards, earning top honors in two categories  Location Manager of the Year, Studio Feature Film (Rick Schuler) and Location Team of the Year, Studio Feature Film. Other winning projects included Hulu's 'Future Man,' ABC's 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,' HBO's 'Silicon Valley,' CBS' 'Scorpion,' 'The Circle' and the Netflix original film 'Mascots.'

Awards were given to projects in categories covering studio and independent feature films, TV series, commercials and music videos, as well as public employees at the city, county, state and federal levels.

This year's COLAs also included presentation of the special Signature Award to California Film Commission Executive Director Amy Lemisch. The Signature Award is the highest COLA honor, and is presented only when an individual or group demonstrates extraordinary success in keeping production in California. It was last presented in 2014 to a team of industry professionals for their efforts to facilitate passage of the state's expanded tax credit program.

"No one has been a better partner and champion for filming in California than Amy Lemisch," said COLA Co-chair and Imperial County Film Commissioner Charla Teeters. "Amy has worked tirelessly to facilitate production and ensure California remains competitive. She is our state's best weapon in the fight against runaway production, and we can't think of anyone more deserving of this award."

Produced by Film Liaisons in California Statewide (FLICS), the COLAs have grown to become the largest awards program focused on the work of California location professionals.

The 2016 COLAs drew nearly 150 project submissions. Finalists and winners were determined via a vote by members of FLICS, past COLA winners and a steering committee of Teamsters Local 399 members.

The full list of 2016 COLA nominees is included below. For more information please visit http://www.californiaonlocationawards.com/.

About FLICS

Film Liaisons in California Statewide (FLICS) is a 501(c) 6 non-profit corporation founded in 1988 to heighten the level of professionalism and visibility of regional film commissions/film offices across the Golden State. More than 40 member commissions/film offices benefit from the organization's development of quality standards, guidelines, education and marketing resources. Through its members, FLICS also provides the production community with a range of location support services. The organization's two signature events  the annual Film in California Conference and California On Location Awards (COLAs) -- facilitate, celebrate and honor California-based production activity and job creation.

Full List of 2016 COLA Winners:

Location Manager of the Year, Studio Feature Film

Rick Schuler

"CHiPs"

Location Team of the Year, Studio Feature Film

Rick Shuler, Location Manager

"CHiPs"

Location Manager of the Year, Independent Feature Film

Michael Wesley

*Mascots"

Location Team of the Year, Independent Feature Film

Edward Mazurek, Location Manager

*The Circle"

Location Manager of the Year, Television One-Hour

Justin Hill

"Marvels- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."

Location Team of the Year, Television One-Hour

Murray Miller, Location Manager

"Scorpion"

Location Manager of the Year, Television Half-Hour

JJ Levine

"Future Man"

Location Team of the Year, Television Half-Hour

Kelly Harris, Location Manager

"Silicon Valley"

Location Manager of the Year, Reality Television

Deven Chierighino

"Amazing Race, Final Season"

Location Manager of the Year, Commercial

Frank Yoshikane

State Farm Insurance:

Location Manager of the Year, Music Video

Chris Gutierrez

*The Odyssey"

Public Employee of the Year, City

Steve Youel

"City of Placerville"

Public Employee of the Year, County

Deputy Josh Bisantz

El Dorado Sherriff's Office

Public Employee of the Year, State

James Valdez

California State Parks

Public Employee of the Year, Federal:

Elaine Hanson

Bureau of Land Management

Contact:

Charla Teeters

FLICS/Imperial County Film Commission

(760) 337-4155

filmhere[at]sbcglobal[dot]net

Erik Deutsch

ExcelPR Group

(323) 851-2455

erikd[at]excelpr[dot]com

SOURCE FLICS
BROOKFIELD, Wis., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- OnCourse Learning is offering a new Military Lending Act course geared toward informing bank and credit union employees about the expanded MLA and helping institutions mitigate risk to their businesses for non-compliance.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/439026LOGO

"As of Oct. 3, 2016, financial institutions were required to be compliant with the July 2015 Final Rule that expanded the breadth of coverage to a broader range of closed-end and open-end credit products," said Jeff Kelly, vice president of governance, risk & compliance at OnCourse Learning. "Our new MLA course provides education for staff and peace of mind for business compliance officers who know staff has been effectively trained on the new requirements."

The course topics include the following:

Understanding general requirements of the MLA;

Determining covered borrowers, such as military borrowers, who include active service duty members and their dependents;

Identifying covered transactions, such as: non-mortgage related consumer, open-end, closed-end, credit transactions;

Verifying whether covered borrowers qualify;

Realizing limitations and restrictions set by the MLA;

Understanding possible penalties and civil enforcement to mitigate risk.

To learn more, visit the OnCourse Learning new Military Lending Act course.

According to the Washington State, Office of the Attorney General website, the MLA requires that certain types of consumer credit include definite protections when offered to active duty service members and their dependents. The website states, "Under the law:

Lenders are prohibited from securing the loan by holding a check or car title, or by obtaining access to a bank account;

A clear description of payment obligations and other disclosures must be provided;

Mandatory arbitration clauses and waivers of legal rights may not be included as loan terms; and

Interest rates and most fees are capped at an annual percentage rate (APR) of 36%."

OnCourse Learning Financial Services is a leading provider of governance, risk and compliance training for the bank, mortgage, credit union, gaming and nonbank financial services industries. It offers a comprehensive course catalog complemented by its sophisticated learning management system. To learn more, please contact 866-512-9888, visit OnCourseLearning.com/Financial-Services or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

For media inquiries, contact:

Deborah Filipek, Media Relations Manager

847-908-8017

[email protected]

About OnCourse Learning

OnCourse Learning delivers licensure, regulatory and compliance education solutions throughout the nation's leading industries including financial services, healthcare and real estate. Through trusted industry expertise, compliance management and technology solutions, OnCourse Learning focuses on advancing the e-learning environment for individuals and businesses to help to build new careers, empower employees through knowledge and identify efficiencies in corporate training management. OnCourse Learning offers a full suite of educational products including state and federally approved prelicensing and continuing education programs, accredited course content, exam prep tools, publications, e-books, events and a sophisticated and customizable learning management system and course-authoring tool. To learn more, visit OnCourseLearning.com.

SOURCE OnCourse Learning
DALLAS, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- OnTime Networks, a global leader for rugged, time synchronized Ethernet solutions for the Aerospace and Defense Industry, announced today the expansion of its military-grade Gigabit Ethernet switch portfolio with the new CloudberryMIL CM-5000 Series.

The new Cloudberry CM-5000 Series is a 3U OpenVPX Fully Managed Layer 2/3 Ethernet Switch providing 24 Gigabit Ethernet and four 10Gigabit Ethernet ports. Specifically designed to reliably provide high-performance connectivity for harsh climatically and noisy electrical demanding environments (e.g. high altitude, extreme shock, & vibration, extended temperatures, humidity, dust & water exposure, noisy EMI, dirty power) for applications on land, in the air and on sea.

Markus Schmitz, Managing Director of OnTime Networks in the U.S., stated "The NEW CloudberryMIL CM-5000 Series high-performance 3U VPX switch platform has up to 24x SGMII/1000BASE-KX ports and up to 4x10G ports (2xXAUI and 2x10BASE-T or 4x10GBASE- KR) and allows for more open, flexible network architectures, as the unit can be software configured. The unit complies with VITA 46, VITA 48, and VITA 65 (Option) and is ideal for High-Performance Embedded Computing (HPEC) systems, such as radar, sonar and image processing, "vetronics" systems (vehicle electronics), as well as rapidly deployable networks for flexible communication in the field. Further, the CM-5000 switch platform is meeting the latest requirements specified by the VICTORY standardization."

Pal-Jrgen Kylles, CTO of OnTime Networks further commented, "The NEW CloudberryMIL CM-5000 Series 3U VPX switch module is loaded with all required firmware, enabling its immediate operation without any development effort. The included web interface provides an intuitive GUI for use in configuring and managing switch functionality. Further, the unit supports IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol (PTP) and powerful Layer 2/3 switching and routing capabilities. The new switch also responds to the growing demand for high security with its access control, authorization and declassification features.

About CM-5000-MIL Series

OnTime Networks' CloudberryMIL CM-5000 Series is a high-performance 3U VPX Gigabit Ethernet Switch line for embedded and harsh environment applications. The CM-5000-MIL 3U VPX Ethernet switch series is compliant with the latest VICTORY specification as an Infrastructure Switch, with a powerful set of networking features to implement highly advanced in-vehicle network architectures. VICTORY is short for Vehicular Integration for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance/Electronic Warfare (C4ISR/EW) Interoperability. This single-slot switch solution provides the essential foundation to implement a VICTORY architecture in today's modern networked and SWaP-sensitive vehicles.

With the CM-5000-MIL, OnTime Networks is able to leverage its extensive industry experience and technology leadership to deliver a rugged VPX switch solution that provides high performance and lower SWaP for military system applications. The CM-5000-MIL is based on the layer 3 switch core with up to 24 Gigabit Ethernet Ports and up to four (4) 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports. The unit offers the unique capability for multiple combinations of 10 Gigabit interfaces, such as XAUI, 10GBASE-T and 10GBASE-KR. The CM-5000-MIL Gigabit Ethernet switch line is designed to support advanced network architectures for the defense industry. Supporting an extremely low power and fast boot architecture, the CM-5000-MIL can be used to connect modules within a VPX system, or externally to other systems or sensors. Each 1G capable port supports legacy 10Mbps and 100Mbps connections.. Auto-negotiation ensures that any connected Ethernet device can connect seamlessly to the CM-5000-MIL. All Base-T ports support auto-MDI/MDIX which provides trouble-free connections using both straight-thru as well as cross-over connections. The CM-5000-MIL 3U VPX switch provides an extensive set of networking features and supports familiar industry standards, such as Command Line Interface (CLI) for setup and configuration, as well as SNMP and web management interfaces. Its simplified browser-based user interface is an intuitive management tool, enabling convenient use of the switch's comprehensive feature set for a better optimized network. The rugged CM-5000-MIL combines the latest networking hardware and software technology into a cost effective building block for all rugged deployed systems. With additional features such as Energy Efficient Ethernet and Precision Time Protocol (IEEE-1588v2/ PTP) support, the CM-5000-MIL enhances the networking capabilities in today's SWaP-sensitive applications. CM-5000-MIL mechanical and electrical design guarantees reliable operation over the full range of rugged application environments.

The CM-5000-MIL is a complete networking solution, with pre-integrated and optimized software that runs on its on-board processor. All software is included for the full suite of Layer 2/3 switching functionality and protocols, along with a comprehensive set of management interfaces to configure and monitor the switch.

The CM-5000-MIL is designed to be fully VITA 46/VITA 48/VITA 65/OpenVPX compliant.

About OnTime Networks

OnTime Networks is a technology leader for rugged, time synchronized, fully managed, modular Gigabit Ethernet switches, specifically designed to operate reliably in the harsh and climatically demanding environments of the Aerospace and Defense Industry. Recognized for innovation and excellence, OnTime focuses on precise time over Ethernet according to IEEE 1588 (PTP) as core technology. For more information, please visit www.ontimenet.com .

SOURCE OnTime Networks
"Over the past 35 years, I've been dedicated to being a positive influence in the mortgage industry so I'm excited to be recognized on this inaugural list," said Arvielo. "As a business owner who's passionate about the work I do, it's a pleasure to be acknowledged for my accomplishments." Arvielo manages operations and sales for New American Funding's headquarters, branches, and 2300 employees. She also impacts her local community through initiatives such as Latino Focus Committee , which she spearheads as an avenue to educate Hispanic consumers pursuing homeownership; and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County, where she serves on the Executive Board.

Arvielo has also committed to leveraging her passion for the mortgage industry and Latino Americans by serving on the Corporate Board of Governors for the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals and the Board of Directors for the Latino Donor Collaborative. She's also a member of the affordable lending panels for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and sits on the MBA's Consumer Affairs Advisory Council and Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

Recently, Arvielo was recognized for her influence in the business world by Ernst & Young as Entrepreneur of the Year for Orange County, as an Elite Woman in Mortgage by MPA, and as an Influential Lender by the LA Business Journal. She was also named the 2016 Business Award winner by LA Times Latinos de Hoy.

The OCBJ directory was distributed to subscribers on Monday, November 14th.

About New American Funding

New American Funding is a Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae Direct Seller/Servicer, FHA Direct Endorsement and VA Automatic mortgage lender. The company is licensed in multiple states across the nation, has over 122 branch locations and offers a variety of purchase home loan and refinance loan options, including: Conventional, FHA, Cash Out, Fixed Rate and Adjustable Rate Mortgages, VA, HARP 2.0, Jumbo, and Reverse Mortgages.

RELATED LINKS

http://www.newamericanfunding.com

https://www.facebook.com/newamericanfunding

https://twitter.com/newamericanteam

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161115/439695

SOURCE New American Funding

Related Links

http://www.newamericanfunding.com


LA FARGE, Wis., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Organic Valley, the farmer-owned cooperative of more than 1,800 organic family farms, is launching a holiday campaign that defends one of America's favorite foes of the post-WWII era: delicious, creamy butter. The co-op has an advertising arsenal that includes a video featuring its own farmer-owners, and a live-streaming website where they will be sculpting the faces of our nation's "War on Butter Heroes" in real time out of Organic Valley's organic, pasture-raised butter.

The War on Butter is officially over. The farmers of Organic Valley declare victory: Butter won!

The campaign, created by the Chattanooga-based Humanaut agency, has a long-form video that celebrates the end of the "War on Butter," the true story of how butter and fats were once blamed for every negative health trend from obesity to heart disease. The "solution" was an increase in butter replacement spreads and sprays made from artificial ingredients and the increase of low-fat and fat-free foods that often upped their carbohydrate quotient (read: sugar) to compensate for flavor. As a result, we have been denying ourselves the extraordinary taste, richness and texture of real butter for decades.

A spokesperson details the war's history and presents humorously doctored Egyptian hieroglyphics and Renaissance paintings that highlight our collective love for butter "until, in the 1950s, the party happening inside our pies, pastries and mouths came to an end."

Fortunately for our taste buds, the family farmers at Organic Valley were working "underground" to make organic pasture-raised butter even better while this butter battle raged. Organic Valley introduced the first organic cultured butter in 1991, and it has since won 46 awards for its premium butters, which include salted, cultured, pastured and high-fat European-style. Most batches are still slow-churned using vintage churns at the cooperative's creamery in Chaseburg, Wisconsin.

"The last five years have seen a sea-change in thinking on saturated fats, including those in dairy food," says Nina Teicholz, investigative science journalist and author of the bestselling The Big Fat Surprise. "More than a dozen systematic reviews and meta-analyses now reveal that saturated fats have no effect on your risk of dying from heart disease. Also, there's at least one rigorous new clinical trial showing that full-fat dairy is actually better than low-fat dairy for fighting heart disease."

Ultimately, Organic Valley farmers were right all along: Butter is packed with healthy fats and a better balance of omega-3 and omega-6. "Butter has officially won the war on itself," the ad's narrator says. "And victory tastes awesome!"

While the "War on Butter" may be over, Organic Valley is getting busy. To commemorate the occasion, artists will live-sculpt the faces of our nation's Butter Heroes out of organic butter at TheWarOnButter.com. The effort will kick off with a sculpture of George Siemon, a founding farmer of Organic Valley and "CEIEIO" of the pioneering cooperative. From November 15 to 22, the public can nominate their own Butter Heroes via Twitter and invite friends and family to vote for their favorites. Each day's winner will be sculpted in real organic butter.

The site also features coupon offers for Organic Valley butter, showcases mouth-watering recipes such as Maple Pecan Pumpkin Bread and Chai Snickerdoodles, and elaborates on Organic Valley's philosophy that slow-churning in small batches using milk from pasture-raised cows results in better butter.

Teicholz concludes, "We have to rethink our views about all saturated fats, including dairy fats. If they cause no harm, then not only is 'butter back,' but so are whole milk and cheese. The natural, full-fat versions of these dairy products are clearly the best for health. And, after all, cows don't produce skim milk. The more natural and less processed the food, the better."

About Organic Valley

Founded in 1988, Organic Valley is America's largest independent cooperative of organic farmers and one of the nation's leading organic brands, representing more than 1,800 farmers in 36 states. Focused on its founding mission of saving family farms through organic farming, Organic Valley produces a variety of organic foods, including organic milk, cheese, butter, spreads, creams, eggs, soy and produce, which are sold in supermarkets, natural-food stores and food cooperatives nationwide. With its regional model, milk is produced, bottled and distributed right in the region where it is farmed to ensure fewer miles from farm to table and to support our local economies. For further information, visit www.organicvalley.coop. Organic Valley is also on Twitter @OrganicValley and Facebook at www.facebook.com/OrganicValley.

About Humanaut

Humanaut is a Brand Invention Agency founded in 2013 and based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Humanaut works with established clients and startups to launch new products, build brands and product experiences from scratch and develop non-traditional marketing campaigns. Humanaut has collaborated with SodaStream, Lyft, Gaia Herbs, EJ Gallo, Nomva, Snap Kitchen, Friends of the Earth, and Organic Valley, and is an equity partner in several startups, including Felt. For more information, visit Humanaut.is.

Media contact:

Steve Sapka, [email protected]

(305) 479-5208

Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLqUoMrgFTc&feature=youtu.be

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SOURCE Organic Valley

Related Links

http://www.organicvalley.coop


HARRISBURG, Pa., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Secretary of Education Pedro A. Rivera and Pennsylvania's Education for Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness Program (ECYEH) today urged Pennsylvanians to join them in recognizing November 14th through 18th as National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week in Pennsylvania.

"Each year, approximately 2 million American children experience a period of homelessness, and nearly 40 percent of the nation's homeless are under age 18," said Sec. Rivera. "Homelessness affects everyone in our communities, and can cause particular difficulties for children as they attempt to earn an education. It's our job as public servants and educators to not just raise awareness of their plight, but extend a helping hand. I invite all Pennsylvanians to join me in doing so."

Each year during the week before Thanksgiving, advocates raise awareness for hunger and homelessness, organize community events, and meet with lawmakers to discuss programs and legislation. The event, a national effort, aims to combat hunger and homelessness in communities and increase access to social support services for those who need it.

In the commonwealth, Pennsylvania's ECYEH program aims to help homeless youth maintain stability during a period of homelessness. The EYCEH program was developed by the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) in 1988 after the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act (now known as the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Improvements Act of 2001) became law. The program assesses Pennsylvania's homeless children population, develops appropriate responses and establishes McKinney-Vento Homeless sites.

During National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, the EYCEH program will work with

local school districts to discuss their responsibilities to homeless children and youth, increase awareness about the needs of homeless children, reveal and overcome possible educational barriers, explain current legislation and policies, and provide practical tips for working with homeless children.

For more information about National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, please visit the National Coalition for the Homeless website.

MEDIA CONTACT: Nicole Reigelman, 717-783-9802

SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Education

Related Links

http://www.state.pa.us


HARRISBURG, Pa., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In the early 1950s, Georges Duboeuf strapped his family's wines to the back of his bicycle and pedaled around central France to sell the bottles to local chefs. In honor of that tradition, and respecting how Duboeuf put Beaujolais Nouveau wine on the global map, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board will host bicycle giveaways at three Fine Wine & Good Spirits Premium Collection stores to mark this year's release of the fruity red wine.

Beginning Nov. 17  per French law, Beaujolais Nouveau is released no earlier than the third Thursday of November  Beaujolais Nouveau will be available for sale in select Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores for $10.99 for a 750mL bottle and $21.99 for a 1.5L bottle.

A special tasting of Beaujolais Nouveau, complete with food pairings, will be held on "Beaujolais Nouveau Day" between 5:00 PM and 7:00 PM at three Fine Wine & Good Spirits Premium Collection stores:

The Waterworks, 974 Freeport Rd., Pittsburgh 15238

15238 West Shore Plaza Shopping Center, 1200 Market St., Lemoyne

Ardmore Plaza Shopping Center, 62 Greenfield Ave., Ardmore

At 5:00 PM in each of those stores, a drawing will be held to award a Linus Roadster Classic bicycle. Drawing entries are available in these three stores, and entrants must be present to win.

All Fine Wine & Good Spirits Premium Collection stores will hold tastings of Beaujolais Nouveau on Nov. 18 between 4:00 PM and 6:00 PM

In recent years, Beaujolais Nouveau Day has become a world-wide celebration, as wine lovers gather to sample the first taste of the year's wine and begin the holiday season. Fresh, soft Beaujolais Nouveau is a perfect complement to Thanksgiving dinner and other holiday fare.

The wine, made from Gamay grapes in France's Beaujolais region, is fermented for just a few weeks before being released for sale. Grapes are harvested by hand, and a lack of barrel aging allows the young wine to retain much of its light, fruity flavor.

The PLCB regulates the distribution of beverage alcohol in Pennsylvania, operates more than 600 wine and spirits stores statewide and licenses 20,000 beverage alcohol producers and retailers. The PLCB also works to reduce and prevent dangerous and underage drinking through partnerships with schools, community groups and licensees. Taxes and store profits  totaling $15.1 billion since the agency's inception  are returned to Pennsylvania's General Fund, which finances Pennsylvania's schools, health and human services programs, law enforcement, and public safety initiatives, among other important public services. The PLCB also provides financial support for the Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement, the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, other state agencies and local municipalities across the state. For more information about the PLCB, visit www.lcb.state.pa.us.

MEDIA CONTACT: Elizabeth Brassell, 717-783-8864

SOURCE Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board

Related Links

http://www.lcb.state.pa.us


ALAMEDA, Calif., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Penumbra, Inc. (NYSE: PEN) today announced that Kevin Sullivan has tendered his resignation from the company's Board of Directors for personal health reasons, effective immediately.

"Kevin's contributions to Penumbra have been immeasurable," said Penumbra Chairman and CEO Adam Elsesser. "Going back to his commitment as an investor during the early days following Penumbra's founding and continuing with his service on the Board, Kevin's strategic thinking and understanding of how to scale a business and manage and motivate people is, without question, exceptional. He has been an incredible asset to the Penumbra Board of Directors. I will be forever thankful for Kevin's service to our company, and we will keep Kevin in our thoughts as he tends to his health with the support of his family and friends."

From 1987 until his retirement in 1999, Mr. Sullivan served as a senior human resources executive at a number of companies, including Wells Fargo and Company and Apple Computer, and as an Executive Consultant at Watson Wyatt Worldwide. Prior to that Mr. Sullivan held various personnel management positions of increasing responsibility at Digital Equipment Corporation.

About Penumbra

Penumbra, Inc., headquartered in Alameda, California, is a global interventional therapies company that designs, develops, manufactures and markets innovative medical devices. The company has a broad portfolio of products that address challenging medical conditions and significant clinical needs across two major markets, neuro and peripheral vascular. Penumbra sells its products to hospitals primarily through its direct sales organization in the U.S., most of Europe, Canada and Australia, and through distributors in select international markets. Penumbra and the Penumbra logo are trademarks of Penumbra, Inc.

Investor Relations

Penumbra, Inc.

510-995-2461

[email protected]

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SOURCE Penumbra, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.penumbrainc.com


Working together 'only correct choice', Chinese leader tells president-elect

President Xi Jinping said on Monday that "there are a lot of things" China and the United States need to, and can, cooperate on, in a phone call congratulating Donald Trump on his US presidential election victory.

"Facts have proved that cooperation is the only correct choice for China and the United States," Xi told Trump, noting that the past 37 years of diplomatic relations have brought concrete benefits to the people of the two countries, as well as facilitating global peace and stability.

Since China and the US now have important opportunities and great potential for cooperation, Xi said the two countries should better coordinate in promoting the economic development of both countries and the world, and expand exchanges in all fields to bring bilateral ties forward.

"During the call, the leaders established a clear sense of mutual respect for one another," a statement from Trump's presidential transition office said. "President-elect Trump stated that he believes the two leaders will have one of the strongest relationships for both countries moving forward."

The two leaders also agreed to keep in close contact and meet at an early date.

Tao Wenzhao, a researcher of Sino-US relations at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said mutual interests between the US and China will not be subject to US political changes. Both US parties subscribe to developing relations with Beijing.

Tao said it will take time to see how Trump's China policy develops after he takes office, though the new administration "will not necessarily resort to a trade war with China", despite his statements during the campaign and pressure from many US politicians for greater containment of China.

Tao said that is "because he is a smart businessman, and a trade war surely impacts both sides".

Fu Mengzi, a Sino-US relations researcher at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, said there should be a distinction between Trump's statements during the campaign and his policies as president.

"He knows the importance of China-US relations. He will find some 'China hands' to draft his policies toward China," he said.

At a daily news conference on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China has remained in close communication with the US side, including Trump's team.

Geng also said that China expects to expand cooperation with the new US administration at all levels and in various fields, including infrastructure construction .

"The fundamentals of China-US relations will not change in the future, even though frictions may occur," Fu said.

Tao said the Chinese government will continue to cooperate with the Obama administration, citing the 27th China-US Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade coming up in Washington, DC.

Zou Shuo contributed to this story.
SANTA MONICA, Calif., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Insurance consulting and actuarial services company, Perr&Knight launched their newly redesigned website on October 6th, unveiling a clean, responsive design to help clients and prospects access industry information more quickly from any device.

Updated User Experience

The executive team re-engineered the website's user experience to make important information accessible on both desktops and mobile devices. The team consolidated the navigation menu, established a clearer division between service offerings and web-based products, and made industry resources like white papers and reports easier to find and download.

Perr&Knight's Managing Principal and Chief Executive Officer, Tim Perr, explains, "Technology moves at lightning speed and the insurance industry and its vendors, like Perr&Knight, need to keep up. As we continue to offer our insights and expertise on the developments that affect our clients, it was important for us to maintain a resource that insurance professionals could easily access at any time, from anywhere. We wanted our clients and prospects to be able to obtain the information they needed with one or two clicks."

Highlighting the People Behind the Services

The updated website features photos, bios and contact information for all of Perr&Knight's key personnel. "We want our clients to feel connected to our staff. We hear a lot of complaints throughout the industry that insurance companies run into communication barriers when talking with technical consultants like actuaries," explains Perr. "Our actuaries are friendly, approachable people who pride themselves on explainingin plain English their findings and recommendations."

Separating Services and Products

New navigation enables users to clearly distinguish between the services offered by Perr&Knight and software solutions available for license. While teams at Perr&Knight utilize internally-developed insurance software as part of their service offerings, now website users can learn more about these products to determine whether a self-service license is appropriate for their needs.

"Our popular StateFilings.com and Bureau Monitoring products have been used for years to connect our consultants and their work with our clients. The latest version of StateFilings.com is now integrated with Bureau Monitoring as well as many other complementary functions and can be licensed as a product directly by our clients," continues Perr.

Design Considerations

Perr&Knight contracted San Diego B2B ad agency Bop Design to spearhead their website redesign. "Perr&Knight's former website served its purpose for many years," says Kara Jensen, Creative Principal at Bop Design. "But with this creative overhaul, we wanted to help Perr&Knight showcase their vast array of services in a way that didn't overwhelm their users." Under the direction of Perr&Knight, the design team created a colorful, full-page layout that quickly points users toward desired information, featuring related industry publications on nearly every page.

"Our goal is more than just letting our clients know what we do," concludes Perr. "We aim to be a primary resource for insurance professionals who want to stay on top of industry changes so they can provide more effective services to their customers."

For more information, visit PerrKnight.com or call (888) 201-5123 Ext 3.

About Perr&Knight:

Founded in 1994, Perr&Knight provides insurance consulting and software solutions to the property & casualty and accident & health industries. Services include actuarial consulting, product development, insurance policy and forms consulting, regulatory compliance, state filings, licensing, technology consulting, statistical reporting, data services, and predictive analytics. Software includes StateFilings.com, a leading cloud-based state filings management solution. With offices in Santa Monica, Boca Raton, the New York Metro Area and Fort Worth and more than 100 insurance professionals, Perr&Knight is among the largest independent actuarial and insurance consulting firms in the United States.

Perr&Knight

401 Wilshire Blvd.

Suite 300

Santa Monica, CA 90401

SOURCE Perr&Knight

Related Links

http://www.perrknight.com


MINNEAPOLIS, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- phData, a big data consulting firm and managed services provider, today announced it has joined the Confluent Partner Program to help drive adoption and implementation of Apache KafkaTM and real-time solutions. Confluent, provider of the first streaming platform based on Apache Kafka, designed the program to enable a rapidly growing community around Apache Kafka and Confluent. It is the largest ecosystem of technology vendors, consulting and system integrators and authorized training partners offering Kafka-based solutions and services.

Confluent Open Source includes Apache Kafka as well as software that extends the capabilities of Kafka and makes it easier to use. Confluent Partner Program members have the opportunity to develop robust data connectivity based on Kafka's Connect API, easily build stream processing applications with the Kafka Streams API and promote the solutions to customers worldwide.

"By joining the Confluent Partner Program, phData can better serve their customers as they deploy Apache Kafka and operationalize their big data environments," said Rich Brazeau, director of business development and alliances at Confluent. "We welcome phData and look forward to working together as companies deploy real-time data pipelines and build stream processing applications."

"It has long been phData's goal to increase accessibility to data in order to empower better decision making. This partnership with Confluent enables us to deliver on that commitment," said phData CEO Mac Noland.

"We are thrilled to be partners with Confluent," stated phData President Brock Noland. "Confluent's focus on building community and fast real-time streaming solutions makes this partnership a natural fit. It will allow us to more effectively serve our clients in providing a Kafka-based solution in managing their big data."

About Confluent

Confluent, founded by the creators of open source Apache KafkaTM, provides the streaming platform that enables enterprises to maximize the value of data. Confluent lets leaders in industries such as retail, logistics, manufacturing, financial services, technology and media, move data from isolated systems into a real-time data pipeline where they can act on it immediately. Backed by Benchmark, Data Collective, Index Ventures and LinkedIn, Confluent is based in Palo Alto, California. To learn more, please visit www.confluent.io. Download Apache Kafka and Confluent at www.confluent.io/download.

Connect with Confluent

Read our blog: www.confluent.io/blog

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ConfluentInc

 Confluent, Inc. 20142016. All rights reserved. Apache, Apache Kafka and Kafka are trademarks of the Apache Software Foundation. All other marks used are the property of their respective owners.

About phData

phData is a big data consulting and managed services firm based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. phData is the premier provider of Hadoop implementation in the Upper Midwest and provides expert guidance to large businesses to leverage their big data. phData's managed service offering specializes in developing, implementing and maintaining turnkey, comprehensive Cloudera solutions. For more information visit: www.phdata.io.

The company, brand and product names are used herein for identification purposes only and may be the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

phData Contacts:

Related Links

phData website

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com

SOURCE phData, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.phdata.io


BOSTON, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Pingup, the nation's largest transaction platform for local services businesses, today announced that it has increased 2016 daily platform transactions by 11x and monthly transaction value by 16x by the end of Q3. Pingup now aggregates over 200,000 businesses across digital directories, search engines and social networks, including Facebook, Kik and Yahoo, with over 300 million users.

Pingup gives consumers the ability to schedule services and order food natively within their publisher network using action buttons and bots. This provides local merchants opportunities to increase business 24/7 whenever and wherever consumers are searching. Pingup technology allows appointments and orders to immediately show up within merchants' software system thus completing the consumer's task and closing the commerce loop within seconds.

2016 results YTD-end of Q3

Average daily transactions increased 11x

Monthly transaction volume increased over 10x

Monthly transaction value increased 16x

Month-over-month transaction growth is also over 40% YTD. To continue delivering stellar results Pingup has made senior team hires of Dan Gilmartin as CMO, Head of Product and Ben Sack as Chief Scientist. Before joining Pingup Dan held senior roles at BlueConic, PayPal, Where and Sprint. Dan is leading efforts to expand Pingup's transaction platform. Ben specializes in artificial intelligence, machine learning and cluster computing and is focused on conversational commerce and business automation that further develop Pingup's marketplace. Prior to Pingup Ben worked with companies including Bank of America, Merck and HBSC.

"We are pleased with these outstanding results. This is proof that consumers want real-time, frictionless transactions with their local merchants on search engines and social networks," said Mark Slater, CEO at Pingup. "The opportunity here is tremendous and I'm excited to have Dan and Ben join the team as we create the future of automated local commerce transactions."

About Pingup Pingup is the nation's largest transaction platform for local services businesses, using proprietary technology to connect hundreds of thousands of local merchants with leading publishers and social platforms including Facebook, Kik, Bing and Yahoo that have over 300 million monthly users. Pingup aggregates over 200,000 US businesses, more than triple OpenTable's quantity in the US and continues to add thousands of businesses each month. The company is headquartered in Boston's Innovation District and backed by Avalon Ventures. For more information visit http://pingup.com. Follow us on Twitter:@pingupapp.

Contact: Heather Sears

(617) 752-1691

[email protected]

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SOURCE Pingup

Related Links

http://www.pingup.com


JACKSON, Mich., Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Plexus Technology Group, LLC (Plexus TG), a market-leading, best-of-breed provider of anesthesia information management systems (AIMS), is pleased to announce their latest strategic partner, HEYER Medical AG, an innovative medical technology provider, will be demonstrating a comprehensive anesthesia recordkeeping system at MEDICA 2016 in Dusseldorf, Germany, held November 14-17.

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HEYER Medical will showcase Plexus TG's easy-to-use, scalable anesthesia documentation solution, Anesthesia Touch, which seamlessly integrates with HEYER's patient monitors and anesthesia delivery equipment. Using the integrated solution, anesthesia providers can automatically capture physiological data and quickly document events and clinical actions during surgery.

"We are excited for the opportunity to present an established, reliable anesthesia EMR system with HEYER's anesthesia machines, as well as offering one-on-one demonstrations to conference attendees at this year's MEDICA 2016," said Klaus Schickhaus, president of HEYER Medical AG.

"We are pleased to team up with HEYER Medical at MEDICA 2016 to strategically exhibit the synergy between our two product offerings," commented Tony Mira, CEO of Plexus Technology Group. "This is an exciting opportunity and one that aligns our future goals."

For more information about how Plexus TG's Anesthesia Touch solution improves efficiency and to learn more about HEYER's complete line of anesthesia machines, please visit hall 11, booth, B19.

As an iPad-based anesthesia documentation solution, Anesthesia Touch's full KLAS rating demonstrates Plexus TG's commitment to providing complete AIMS functionality for their clients and partners. For more information, visit www.klasresearch.com.

About HEYER Medical AG

In 1883, mechanical engineer Carl Heyer began to develop devices enabling healing vapors to be inhaled without the need to visit thermal springs. Over the years his devices became increasingly compact and, thanks to industrial production, increasingly affordable, so that soon they could be shipped to doctors and clinics all over the world. Similarly, atomization of medication was developed, enabling targeted local treatment of respiratory tract diseases to be administered and further boosting the spread of inhalation technology.

HEYER's experience in inhalation technology served as the foundation to develop into the anesthesia technology and ICU ventilator sectors. HEYER equipment enables doctors to administer anesthetic gas to patients in precisely monitored amounts. For more information, visit www.heyermedical.de.

About Plexus Technology Group, LLC

Plexus Technology Group, a subsidiary of MiraMed Global Services, is a leading provider of anesthesia information management and medication management systems. Anesthesia Touch is a full-featured AIMS for both Windows and iOS platforms that supports concurrent charting and streaming physiologic data. It is easy to use, improves processes, enhances patient safety, provides comprehensive anesthesia documentation and is certified as a full EHR for meaningful use. Pharmacy Touch, a modular add-on to Anesthesia Touch, automates controlled substance reconciliation, eliminates duplicate documentation, reduces drug errors and delivers charge capture and decision support at the point of care. For more information, visit www.plexustg.com.

Contact:

Jennifer Dixon, Director of Communications

781.915.0221

[email protected]

SOURCE Plexus Technology Group

Related Links

http://www.plexustg.com


NEW YORK, Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Report Details

Visiongain assesses that the global Police and Law Enforcement market will reach $7.08bn in 2016. It is therefore critical that your strategic planning is timely and your forecasting plans are in place to take advantage of the market opportunities presented in this report.



Visiongain's report will ensure that you keep informed and ahead of your competitors. Gain that competitive advantage.

The report will answer questions such as:

- What are the prospects for the overall Police & Law Enforcement Equipment market?

- Where are the major opportunities within the Police & Law Enforcement Equipment market?

- Who are the key players within the Police & Law Enforcement Equipment market?

- What are the drivers and restraints underpinning the Police & Law Enforcement Equipment market?



5 Reasons to buy. Why you must order and read this report today:



1) The report provides detailed profiles of 9 leading companies supplying Police & Law Enforcement Equipment and also market share analysis of the leading 5 companies

- Airbus Group

- Textron Inc.

- Finmeccanica SpA

- TASER International Inc.

- Digital Ally, Inc.

- Aeryon Labs Inc.

- Glock GmbH

- MD Helicopters Inc.

- Safariland Group



2) The study reveals where and how companies are investing in the Police & Law Enforcement Equipment market. We show you the prospects for the following 11 national markets which are further segmented by the 5 submarkets

- China

- France

- Germany

- India

- Israel

- Japan

- Russia

- Saudi Arabia

- Turkey

- U.K.

- U.S.

- Rest of the World



3) The analysis is also underpinned by an exclusive interview with a leading expert

- Jean Marc Royer, Marketing Manager, Parapublic and Law Enforcement Market Segment, Airbus Helicopters



4) Our overview also forecasts and analyses these 5 submarkets from 2016-2026. These are revealed at the global level and for each of the leading 11 national markets

- Platforms & Vehicles

- Lethal & Non-Lethal Weapons

- Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

- Surveillance & Screening

- Communications & Services



5) See details of 317 unique contracts relating to the Police & Law Enforcement Equipment market



Competitive advantage

This independent 283 page report guarantees you will remain better informed than your competitors. With 227 tables and figures examining the Police & Law Enforcement Equipment market space, the report gives you an immediate, one-stop breakdown of your market. PLUS national market forecasts, as well as analysis, from 2016-2026 keeping your knowledge that one step ahead of your rivals.



Who should read this report?

- Anyone within the Police & Law Enforcement Equipment value chain.

- Police Commissioners

- Lethal Weapons Contractors

- Chief Technologists

- Solutions Architects

- Technical Support Officers

- Law Enforcement Consultants

- Counter-Terrorism Officers

- Chief Executive Officers

- Chief Financial Officers

- Chief Operating Officers

- Business Development Managers

- Marketing Managers

- Technologists

- Suppliers

- Investors

- Banks

- Government Agencies

- Consultancies



How will you benefit from this report?

- This report you will keep your Police & Law Enforcement Equipment knowledge base up to speed. Don't get left behind.

- This report will allow you to reinforce strategic decision decision-making based upon definitive and reliable market data.

- You will learn how to exploit new technological trends.

- You will be able to realise your company's full potential within the Police & Law Enforcement Equipment market.

- You will better understand the competitive landscape and identify potential new business opportunities & partnerships.



Don't miss out

This report is essential reading for you or anyone in the Police & Law Enforcement Equipment sector. Purchasing this report today will help you to recognise those important market opportunities and understand the possibilities there. Order the: Police & Law Enforcement Equipment Market Report 2016-2026: Militarisation and Modernisation of Police Technologies: Platforms & Vehicles, Lethal & Non-Lethal Weapons, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Surveillance & Screening, Communications & Services now. We look forward to receiving your order.

Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p03816955-summary/view-report.html



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



http://www.reportlinker.com





__________________________

Contact Clare: [email protected]

US: (339)-368-6001

Intl: +1 339-368-6001

SOURCE Reportlinker

Related Links

http://www.reportlinker.com


NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The election of Republican candidate Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States has the food and agriculture sector awaiting clarification on his policies and positions. The Rabobank Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory (FAR) group has authored a report on the possible implications of the election.

"Republican-controlled Executive and Legislative branches could mean swift action when the new administration takes office," notes Pablo Sherwell, Rabobank head of Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory, North America. "Our analysts and others around the world are keeping a close eye on trade, labor, the upcoming Farm Bill and regulations impacting production agriculture, as these areas are where potential policy changes could have longer-term implications on the industry as a whole."

While President-elect Trump's policies are yet to be clearly defined, his statements during the campaign suggest drastic changes from current policy could be on the horizon. Acknowledging that any change, and the subsequent impact, is uncertain, Rabobank analysts dissect key areas to watch, both short and long-term:

In the short term, agricultural markets may be affected by foreign exchange volatility, as well as changing business appetite and consumer confidence.

Looking towards the next year, it will be critical to watch potential revisions to trade agreements, labor policies and business regulations, as well as the effects these elements will have on economic growth.

Short-Term Implications

The lack of market information creates uncertainty, and uncertainty generates market volatility. We saw this first-hand last week, when an initial uncertainty over President-elect Trump's policy direction resulted in a short-term sell-off reaction by markets.

"Currently, the export share of U.S. agricultural production represents more than 20 percent in volume and value terms, making U.S. price formation highly dependent on foreign trade and therefore foreign currency," said Sherwell.

Longer-Term Implications

Trade agreements, agricultural policy and labor will act as key areas where potential policy changes could have longer-term implications on the industry as a whole.

Trade Agreements: As the number-one global agricultural exporter, the U.S. F&A sector is one of the main drivers of global agriculture and trade, reaching nearly $125 billion in 2016. Currently, the U.S. exports commodities that complement the rest of the world's food supplyany change to U.S. agricultural trade agreements will not only affect global prices and trade dynamics but also U.S. farmer margins.

Farm Bill 2018: The current Farm Bill is scheduled to be renewed by 2018. Because the Republican Party holds the majority, the development, approval and implementation of the 2018 Farm Bill is likely to be a smoother process than that of the previous bill. Regulatory reductions have been a policy direction advocated by President-elect Trump during his candidacy, and it is likely that the direction will shift even more toward an environment of reduced regulation.

Labor: The U.S. food and agriculture industry is highly dependent on migrant labor, particularly in sectors such as produce, animal protein and food service operation. If immigration laws are enforced more strictly, business owners may face labor shortages, which would pressure their margins.

The full report, "The F&A Sector After the Election: What to Watch" is available here.

About Rabobank International Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory (FAR)

The Rabobank International Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory (FAR) group is a global team of more than 80 analysts who monitor and evaluate global market events that affect agriculture worldwide. This international team works to collect key insights into commodity markets; conduct in-depth analysis of the factors that drive sector success (or failure); and examine the megatrends that ultimately influence clients' business strategy. These analysts are internationally respected experts in sectors from protein to produce, inputs to oilseeds, and their knowledge is shared with Rabobank customers.

About Rabo AgriFinance

As a leading financial services provider for agricultural producers and agribusinesses in the United States, Rabo AgriFinance adds value using industry expertise, client-focused solutions, and by creating long-term business relationships. Rabo AgriFinance offers a comprehensive portfolio of services that gives producers the right products to prepare for, and take advantage of, market opportunities. Rabo AgriFinance representatives offer a wide array of financial services and knowledge to help customers realize their ambitions. This comprehensive suite of services includes loans, insurance, input finance and effective risk management products. Rabo AgriFinance is a division of Rabobank Group, the premier bank to the global agriculture industry and one of the world's largest and safest banks.

About Rabobank

Rabobank Group is a global financial services leader providing wholesale and retail banking, leasing, and real estate services in more than 40 countries worldwide. Founded over a century ago, Rabobank today is one of the world's largest banks in the world with over $750 billion in assets. In the Americas, Rabobank is a premier bank to the food, agribusiness and beverage industry, providing sector expertise, strategic counsel and tailored financial solutions to clients across the entire food value chain. Additional information is available on our North America Wholesale Banking website or social media: Twitter LinkedIn.

About Rabobank, N.A.

Rabobank, N.A. is a California community bank and a leading provider of agricultural financing and full-service banking products to California consumers, businesses, and the agriculture industry. With nearly 120 retail branches, we serve the needs of communities from Redding to the Imperial Valley through a regional structure that promotes local decision-making and active community involvement by our employees.

Rabobank, N.A. is a division of Rabobank Group, the premier lender to the global food and agricultural industry and a financial services leader providing commercial, retail, and agricultural finance solutions in 48 countries around the world. From its century-old roots in the Netherlands, Rabobank has grown into one of the world's largest and safest banks. www.rabobankamerica.com

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150819/259591LOGO

SOURCE Rabobank

Related Links

http://www.rabobank.com


EMERYVILLE, Calif., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- RACO Manufacturing and Engineering Co., a leading provider of field-proven remote alarm monitoring, reporting and notification systems, has introduced Verbatim Connect for its Verbatim alarm autodialer product line. Verbatim Connect  used with the Verbatim system, in continuous production since 1989  is the latest industrial internet of things (IIoT) innovation in alarm autodialer monitoring. Verbatim Connect provides web access to any existing Verbatim monitoring system so users can make smart, timely decisions about all their remote equipment.

Specifically, Verbatim autodialer users can now monitor their entire fleet on a single dashboard  the AlarmAgent Dashboard. This comprehensive remote equipment monitoring capability enables at-a-glance monitoring of status, unit location and more. A complete alarm event history displays the details of each alarm, including who acknowledged it, and how much time elapsed before acknowledgement, when the equipment condition returned to normal. Plus, Verbatim Connect allows for cloud-based alarm notification via SMS message, email, pager or phone. It all adds up to smarter alarm monitoring  anytime, anywhere.

"Verbatim Connect has been extremely well-received since launching at WEFTEC," said James Brown, vice president of sales and marketing for RACO. "It's part of our commitment to advancing the industry and continually developing new solutions to help our customers get the most value from our products."

About RACO Manufacturing and Engineering Co.

For more than 60 years and with more than 60,000 installations, RACO Manufacturing and Engineering Co. of Emeryville, California, has provided municipalities, industry and government with a wide variety of high-quality, reliable remote monitoring systems and RTUs for data logging, alarm autodialing, reporting and control. For more information, contact RACO at 1400 62nd St., Emeryville, CA 94608; Ph: 800-722-6999; Fax: 510-658-3153; email: [email protected]; or visit racoman.com

Follow RACO on Twitter: @RACOmann

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/439052LOGO

SOURCE RACO Manufacturing and Engineering Co.
TEL AVIV, Israel, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

RADWIN (http://www.radwin.com), the global broadband wireless leader, today unveiled its new JET AIR PtMP series for the residential market. The JET AIR base station delivers 250 Mbps and is built on RADWIN's field-proven bi-directional Beamforming technology which has been adopted by tier-1 carriers worldwide. JET AIR enables Service Providers to deliver bandwidth-demanding services such as TV streaming (e.g. Netflix), gaming and online applications for residential consumers. RADWIN's new JET AIR will be available for shipment on January 2017.

The JET AIR series is a new addition to RADWIN's 5 GHz portfolio that also includes JET PRO 750 Mbps Beamforming base station designed for Service Providers serving both residential and business customers with a commitment for SLA. RADWIN's unique bi-directional Beamforming provides the benefit of uplink interference immunity and also delivers longer range and higher downlink sector capacity as well as greater spectrum efficiency.

As part of the new offering, RADWIN is releasing two new Subscriber Units (SUs) that provide up to 100Mbps: SU AIR for residential users and SU PRO for hybrid enterprise and residential segments. The new IP67 Subscriber Units support up to 256 QAM and are powered by the WINTouch application tool that automates installation and alignment to significantly shorten the installation process. A TurboGain Slide-on Antenna that doubles the service range is available with the new Subscriber Units.

Roni Weinberg, RADWIN's EVP Global Business & COO: "RADWIN is a dominant player in the telco market and our radios have been deployed globally by Tier 1 carriers. With the latest release of JET AIR and the new SU AIR, we are bringing our carrier-class solution with bi-directional Beamforming to the residential market. The new JET AIR radios address the needs of Service Providers looking to deliver higher broadband services to households. Service providers are excited to adopt the new JET AIR platform and benefit from RADWIN's renowned quality in the residential market."

RADWIN will present new JET portfolio at AfricaCom, booth E18c. To schedule a meeting contact: [email protected]; +972-54-210-1795

About RADWIN

RADWIN is a leading provider of Point-to-Multipoint and Point-to-Point broadband wireless solutions. RADWIN's systems deliver optimal performance in the toughest conditions. Deployed in over 170 countries, RADWIN's solutions power applications including backhaul, broadband access, private network connectivity and video surveillance transmission. Visit RADWIN: http://www.radwin.com





RADWIN Sales

US: +1-201-252-4224

HQ: +972-3-769-2820

Email: [email protected]



Media Contact

Tammy Levy, RADWIN

Tel: +972-3-766-2916 / +972-54-210-1795

Email: [email protected]



SOURCE RADWIN
DURHAM, N.C., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- ReverbNation, the company that has helped millions of emerging artists advance their careers, announced today that they will tap into the music-centric publishing network of The FADER to begin featuring select brand programs on ReverbNation.com, which generates more than 10 million visitors per month. Building off of their 2016 collaboration, "The Watch List" monthly single series which identified the most promising artists in the ReverbNation community and gave them heightened promotional exposure at retail, in the press and online, this deeper partnership is expected to unlock an important new capability for ReverbNation and will enable brands to forge deeper relationships with independent artists and their fans.

2016 has seen ReverbNation increasingly leverage its digital platform and unique curation capability to build turnkey promotional vehicles for major national brands. This summer's national contest developed for the Marriott Rewards Credit Card from Chase, created direct and meaningful career opportunities for ReverbNation artists, and drove value for the Marriott Card by generating more than 3,000 artist entries that reached more than 1.5 million music fans.

In selecting The FADER's publishing network, ReverbNation is sticking firmly to its "Artist-first" mission.

"It's vitally important to us we connect brands to fans of new music in a way that is wholly sympathetic to both the ReverbNation brand and the sensibilities of our artists," said Simon Perry, Chief Creative Officer at ReverbNation. "We believe The FADER, who is steeped in an artist-first ethos, is the best media partner in the world to deliver against this creative mission."

"Over the course of the past decade and a half, The FADER has built an unmatched reputation as the authority on music, culture and lifestyle, identifying stars and trends long before they hit the mainstream," said Andy Cohn, President and Publisher of The FADER. "ReverbNation has done much the same, amassing a highly desirable audience built on the passion and authenticity that only emerging artists can provide. We believe brands will want to tap into this powerful platform and are looking forward to getting started."

Since its formation, ReverbNation has helped millions of artists, including some of the biggest names in music today. Imagine Dragons, Alabama Shakes, Kacey Musgraves, Mac Miller, A$AP Rocky, and Hunter Hayes, to name just a few, have used ReverbNation's platform to help establish themselves and grow their careers. Recently, with its proprietary curation at scale capability ReverbNation has identified and played an instrumental role in the development of the careers of such artists as Walk The Moon, Rachel Platten, The Record Company and Sammy Brue.

About ReverbNation

ReverbNation is the global leader in empowering independent Artists to advance their careers. Since its founding in 2006, ReverbNation has remained committed to putting more than 4 million Artists First through exposure to the music industry, connection to a worldwide audience, and access to powerful promotional tools. With the introduction of the company's Artist Development group along with its industry-leading talent identification capability, ReverbNation is positioned to play a pivotal role in the development of the next generation of successful Artists. For more information, ReverbNation.com. Follow ReverbNation on Twitter @ReverbNation.

About The FADER:

Launched in 1999 and founded by Rob Stone and Jon Cohen, The FADER is an award-winning, ahead- of-the-curve, music, style, and culture publication and the unofficial guide to what's next. Led by President and Publisher Andy Cohn, The FADER is credited with giving early exposure to top artists including Kanye West, Bon Iver, Kendrick Lamar, Outkast, The Strokes, Drake and The White Stripes. The FADER brand has expanded in innovative ways, providing a cross-platform reach across print, digital, mobile, social media, and experiential realms, including the flagship live music event, The FADER FORT, in New York and Austin, that presents some of today's most innovative programming and emerging artists to fans.

SOURCE ReverbNation

Related Links

http://www.reverbnation.com


WALTHAM, Mass., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Rocket Software is proud to continue its efforts with Framingham State University to offer students a minor degree in Enterprise Systems and a five-course Enterprise Systems Certificate Program. Mainframe industry professionals developed the minor and certificate programs and will also teach the courses.

"Industry has spoken when it comes to the skills that they are looking for in university graduates. They want professional hires who are familiar with enterprise computing skills and can be productive almost immediately," stated Bryan Smith, Vice President of R&D and Chief Technology Officer at Rocket. "Many fiduciary companies like Fidelity Investments rely on mainframes to securely and efficiently handle massive amounts of data, and the Enterprise Certificate Program is one step we're taking to help professionals get the skills they need for these in-demand jobs." Rocket helped Framingham State University see the value in such a program by bringing their computer science department together with IBM and local industry leaders. Rocket also supplied the first adjunct professor to this program.

"The Enterprise Certificate Program will be a great way for our students to find work after graduating," noted Conny Breuning, chair of Framingham State's Computer Science Department. "Demand for these jobs is so high, alumni with a minor or certificate can get rewarding jobs in the field without the cutthroat competition you'd see for positions in mobile or data scientist positions."

IBM, a Rocket Business Partner, is contributing expertise to the technical skills curriculum, as well as technology resources to the program. The IBM Academic Initiative for z Systems, which aims to help meet the growing global demand for top technical talent, has for many years, provided curricula to universities to teach z Systems technical content. This new initiative with Framingham State will focus on the critical role the mainframe plays in many Fortune 500 companies around the world in powering critical workloads such as transaction processing. In addition, the students in Framingham State's program will have virtual access to a z Systems mainframe made available through the Academic Initiative to access the curriculum and hands-on workshops in their courses.

"As companies depend on the speed, scalability and security of the mainframe, they are prioritizing finding skilled professionals to continue innovating on the system," said Meredith Stowell, Director, z/OS ISVs, Community Engagement and Skills, IBM. "This work with Framingham State shows how, when we bring together a university, an industry partner and IBM to respond to the interest of students who recognize the opportunities the IBM mainframe represents, it truly creates the winning conditions to drive needed skills into the market and quickly place students in jobs upon graduation."

About Rocket Software

Rocket Software (www.rocketsoftware.com) is a technology company that helps organizations in the IBM ecosystem build solutions that meet today's needs while extending the value of their technology investments for the future. Thousands of companies depend on Rocket to solve their most challenging business problems by helping them run their existing infrastructure and data, as well as extend those assets to take advantage of cloud, mobile, analytics, and other future innovations. Founded in 1990, Rocket is based in Waltham, Massachusetts with locations in Europe, Asia, and Australia.

About Framingham State University

Framingham State University provides small, personalized classes on a beautiful and traditional New England campus, located just 20 miles west of Boston in the heart of the MetroWest corridor. As a public university, Framingham State prides itself on its quality academic programs, affordability, and commitment to access for all qualified students. Student success is central to the mission of the University. Many options are available for student support, including programs to help freshmen transition to the University. The University also has a well-developed honors program for exceptional students and is home to several centers and institutes.

Press Contacts:

Richard Berman

VerbFactory for Rocket Software

[email protected], 415-359-4906

Dan Magazu

Communication Director, Framingham State University

[email protected], 508-626-4539

SOURCE Rocket Software

Related Links

http://www.rocketsoftware.com


Tang Yin's calligraphy scroll sold high at Beijing auction Updated: 2016-11-14 15:32 By Lin Qi(chinadaily.com.cn)

Tang Yin's calligraphy scroll in xingshu, or semi-cursive script, sold for 59.6 million yuan ($8.7 million) in Beijing. Photos provided to China Daily

A calligraphy scroll in xingshu, or semi-cursive script, has sold for 60 million yuan ($8.7 million) at a Beijing sale of classic Chinese paintings and calligraphy.

One of the "four great masters of Ming Dynasty", Tang Yin (1470-1524) composed three poems for this piece expressing his dissatisfaction at not being recognized in polite circles.

It was included in the Catalog of Ancient Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy compiled in the 1980s.

The calligraphy generated competitive bidding in China Guardian Auctions' "Grand View" sale.

Dozens of classic Chinese paintings and calligraphic pieces went under the hammer.

These increasingly rare items have attracted more interest over the last three years with buyers seeking a sound source of origin.

A four-screen painting of flowers and birds by Zhu Da (1626-1705), also known as Bada Shanren, the legendary monk painter and a descendant of the Ming royal family, fetched the second biggest selling price. The painting sold for 43.7 million yuan.

Guofang Tie (A Letter to Visiting Friend) by Song Dynasty poet and calligrapher Zeng Yu (1073-1135) came in third, grossing 40.2 million yuan.
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

A polar scientist, a robotic suit designer and an eye specialist who wants to save millions of people from going blind are among 10 innovators from around the world who have won Rolex Awards in the 40th anniversary year of the programme. Other winners have projects as diverse as technology to stop hunger and conservation initiatives to save species and habitats.

The 10 Laureates and Young Laureates will be recognized tonight at a public awards ceremony in Los Angeles.

The Rolex Awards are an international philanthropic programme that supports new and ongoing projects by individuals taking on major challenges to benefit mankind. It has served as a benchmark for corporate philanthropy the world over for four decades.

Hundreds of luminaries, leading scientists, environmentalists and business people from Los Angeles and abroad will gather this evening at the Dolby Theatre, a Hollywood landmark that is renowned as home of the Academy Awards, to celebrate the spirit of enterprise manifest by the winners chosen in this commemorative year.

The 10 winners of 2016 join the 130 Laureates who have gone before them in the 40 years since the Awards' launch in 1976 when the programme was created to observe the half-century celebration of the iconic Rolex Oyster chronometer, the world's first waterproof wristwatch.

"We are celebrating a very significant occasion in the history of the Awards and in the history of Rolex," said Rebecca Irvin, Head of Philanthropy at Rolex. "Forty years ago the company initiated the Rolex Awards to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Oyster in a manner that reflected the spirit of enterprise on which the company was founded."

"What better place to pay tribute to this enterprising spirit and the pioneering work of the 10 Rolex Awards winners than a city  Los Angeles  that embraces diversity and innovation."

The six men and four women were chosen by an international Jury of 12 eminent experts who selected them after meeting with the finalists who had been shortlisted from among 2,322 applicants representing 144 nationalities. Each Laureate receives 100,000 Swiss francs (US$104,000) and each Young Laureate 50,000 Swiss francs (US$52,000) to advance their projects; all receive a Rolex chronometer and worldwide publicity.

The five Rolex Laureates honoured at the ceremony are:

Andrew BASTAWROUS, 36, United Kingdom  is an ophthalmologist whose team's smartphone-based portable eye examination system, Peek Vision, is radically changing eye care in sub-Saharan Africa and other resource-poor settings. Working in partnerships, trained lay people such as teachers or community volunteers can screen for vision problems, blindness and other eye diseases, enabling accurate diagnosis and treatment. Bastawrous and his team will set up a centre of excellence for Peek training and learning in Kitale, Kenya.

Kerstin FORSBERG, 32, Peru  is a biologist protecting giant manta rays by helping fishermen pursue ecotourism as an alternative income source and training them alongside ecotourists to collect data on the distribution and abundance of this species. Forsberg will work with local communities to raise awareness and appreciation of giant mantas through outreach programmes that creatively combine the use of science and education.

Vreni HAUSSERMANN, 46, Chile/Germany  is exploring Chilean Patagonia's fjords to document the unknown and unique life at the bottom of the sea at three remote areas by combining exploration and science in an attempt to create support for conservation through public outreach. She is also raising awareness about the damaging effects of current human activities to engage the public and decision-makers in setting up a science-based network of marine protected areas.

Conor WALSH, 35, Ireland  is a mechanical and biomedical engineer, based at Harvard University in the US, who is tackling the mobility problems of stroke sufferers and others by developing a soft robotic suit that can be worn under clothes and will enable physically impaired people to walk without assistance. Expected to be ready in about three years, after clinical trials and regulatory approval, his "exosuit" will analyse and gradually train muscles, limbs and joints back into healthy patterns of movement.

Sonam WANGCHUK, 50, India  is a Ladakhi engineer who is solving the problem of a lack of water for agriculture in the desert landscapes of the western Himalayas by building "ice stupas". Named after Buddhist monuments, these conical ice mounds behave like mini artificial glaciers, slowly releasing water in the growing season. He intends to build up to 20 ice stupas, each 30 metres high and capable of supplying millions of litres of water. A long-term aim is to build an alternative university and engage youth in the environment.

In light of the growing number of achievers under the age of 30 who are tackling today's challenges with fervour, Rolex began a Young Laureates segment of the Enterprise Awards programme in 2010 to encourage younger pioneers at a critical stage of their careers and help them bring innovative ideas to fruition.

The five Young Laureates announced at the Los Angeles ceremony are:

Joseph COOK, 29, United Kingdom  is a pioneer in the field of glacial microbiology who, through his "Ice Alive" mission, is exploring polar ice microbes in the vast "frozen rainforest" of the Greenland ice sheet and communicating how these microbes influence climate, nutrient and carbon cycles, and other aspects of our world and its systems.

Oscar EKPONIMO, 30, Nigeria  is addressing the problems of food poverty through Chowberry, a cloud-based application that automates the monitoring of food products approaching the end of shelf-life and generates notifications to food retailers, allowing them to offer discounts to charities, and ultimately helping to alleviate hunger in the country.

Christine KEUNG, 24, United States  emigrated to the US at the age of four and is using her education as a force for good by empowering women in north-western China, where her family originated, to work with doctors and industry to reduce water and soil pollution and act as environmental stewards and agents of change.

Junto OHKI, 29, Japan  is improving communication among hearing-impaired people worldwide by expanding a crowdsourced, online sign-language database dictionary called SLinto, which will bridge the gap between the 126 extant sign languages and become a global platform for all existing and new signs.

Sarah TOUMI, 29, France/Tunisia  is spearheading a grass-roots initiative, Acacias for All, in Tunisia, to fight the country's desertification caused by climate change and reduce poverty among farmers through reforestation and crops more suited to a lower rainfall. She also runs a non-governmental organization to help women and youth realize their potential.

The 2016 winners become part of the community of the Rolex Laureates and Associate Laureates who have helped to reshape the world in the 40 years since the Awards were created. Tonight's 40th anniversary celebration in Los Angeles acknowledges the catalytic impact that they have made on their communities and beyond.

Rolex philanthropy

Philanthropy and corporate social responsibility have been an integral part of Rolex's corporate culture since its beginnings. Supporting the greater good and individual achievement is fundamental to the company's ethos. The Rolex Awards for Enterprise and its sister programme, the Rolex Mentor and Protege Arts Initiative, comprise the two major international philanthropic programmes created and run by the company. The Arts Initiative brings together emerging artists with masters in architecture, dance, film, literature, music, theatre and the visual arts for a year of intensive collaboration. The aim is to help ensure that artistic excellence is passed on to the next generation. Both programmes foster innovation and advance the work of those who exemplify the vision, originality and excellence that define Rolex.

For further information on the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, visit: rolexawards.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Anne-Sophie de Guigne

The Rolex Awards for Enterprise T : +41 22 302 22 00

T : +41 22 302 76 88 (direct) [email protected]

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SOURCE Rolex

Related Links

http://www.rolexawards.com


WASHINGTON, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Roll Call announced today that Rep. John Katko (R-NY) and Rep. William Keating (D-Mass.) will deliver the keynote remarks at The Future of Aviation Security policy event held at The Newseum Knight Studio on Wednesday, November 16, 2016, from 8:00 to 10:30 a.m. The event is sponsored by U.S. Travel Association.

"President-elect Trump has signaled that infrastructure will be an early element of his agenda, and airport security is sure to be under scrutiny," says CQ Roll Call Chief Content Officer David Ellis. "We will turn a critical eye to such an important issue in advance of congressional action, and I thank U.S. Travel for partnering with us on this event."

The keynote remarks will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Randy Walerius, Managing Editor for Legislative Analysis at CQ Roll Call, with Christopher Bidwell, Vice President, Security, Airports Council International - North America; Marcus Faust, Attorney and Counselor at Law, Marcus G. Faust, P.C., representing McCarran International Airport; Jeffrey Goodell, Vice President, Government and Airport Affairs, JetBlue Airways Corporation; Captain Billy J. Nolen, Senior Vice President, Safety, Security and Operations, Airlines for America; Chad F. Wolf, Vice President & Senior Director and Former Assistant Administrator of Policy at TSA, Wexler | Walker.

Discussions will focus on how the Transportation Security Authority has evolved to address the landscape with multilayered protocols that protect the homeland and the traveling public. But a tumultuous legislative environment has led to budgetary uncertainty for TSA, a patchwork of fixes, and instances of long lines for travelers. What is being done in Congress to address these concerns, and what does it all mean for the future of TSA and air travel security?

"The Transportation Security Administration must continue to evolve along with the threat landscape, for the sake of both national security and the economy and job creation. We will help Congress and the executive branch identify and execute the policy options that will ensure TSA performs its work smoothly, efficiently and effectively over the long term," says U.S. Travel Association President and CEO, Roger Dow.

To register, visit www.rcaviationsecurity.com.

To watch the live stream, visit http://bit.ly/aviationsecurity.

About Roll Call

Since 1955, Roll Call has provided trusted, award-winning political reporting on the people and politics of Capitol Hill. Founded as the newspaper of record for members of Congress and their staffers, Roll Call has grown to be the premier source of congressional coverage for anyone with an interest in Capitol Hill. Roll Call offers incisive and forward-thinking analysis, taking readers into the inner sanctums of the most powerful leaders in Washington with: Breaking news and analysis on the politics driving Congress; Ground-breaking political commentary from D.C.'s most esteemed political pros; Campaign coverage and election updates, in real time and on the go; Features and investigations that shed light on how government really works.

SOURCE Roll Call
FREMONT, Calif., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Royole Corporation, a global pioneer and manufacturer of advanced flexible displays, flexible sensors, and smart devices, has received (USD) ~$80M in series Pre-D funding from WARMSUN Holding Group. The company now has a market valuation of approximately (USD) $3B, making Royole one of the world's fastest-growing technology start-ups. The new round of funding will help the company invest more resources into research and development, production, sales, and other fields in order to accelerate its growth. During 2012-2015, Royole has raised (USD) ~$200M up to Series-C round of funding.

"Royole is on the go and on the grow," Royole Founder and CEO, Dr. Bill Liu, stated. "Our advanced 3D virtual mobile theaters, Royole-X and Royole Moon, that deliver cinematic movie-watching and immersive gaming experiences anywhere, anytime, are proving extremely popular, while our proprietary flexible display and flexible sensor technologies are attracting interest and order requests from around the globe for a variety of uses. WARMSUN's early participation is a terrific kickoff to our Series D round of funding. It fully demonstrates the industry's confidence in the future growth of Royole Corporation. We continue to work with a number of other investors to conclude Series D funding."

Utilizing proprietary flexible electronics technologies, Royole creates and manufactures the most advanced flexible displays, flexible sensors, and smart device electronics in the world. It also provides IP licenses, services, and solutions for a variety of industries associated with display and flexible electronics applications. It has accrued over 500 patents (issued and pending) and know-hows on materials, processes, devices, circuits, software, and product design in a number of countries around the world.

In 2016, Scientific American named Royole one of its "5 Under 5" recipients as one of the five most innovative startups within five years of inception, and the San Francisco Business Times recognized the company at its "Annual Tech & Innovation Awards". Thomson Reuters selected Royole as the Best of CES 2016 in Las Vegas CES Show. In 2015, Forbes named Royole's Founder, Dr. Bill Liu, as one of the Top 10 Most Innovative Entrepreneurs in US and China.

"We are excited to work with Royole for their future hi-tech products," stated WARMSUN Holding Group. "Royole's team has demonstrated extraordinary capabilities and vision in creating and leading next-generation disruptive technologies on flexible displays, flexible sensors and smart devices. Royole is shaping a new landscape in the technology industry and has great potential to change the way people interact with the world."

About Royole Corporation

Royole was founded by Stanford engineering graduates in 2012 with the mission to improve the way people interact with and perceive their world. The company creates and manufactures advanced flexible displays, flexible sensors, and smart devices. It also provides IP licenses, services, and solutions for a variety of industries associated with displays and flexible electronics applications. In 2014, it introduced the world's thinnest full-color AMOLED flexible display with a thickness of 0.01mm (0.00039 inches, approximately 1/5 the thickness of human hair) and a bending radius of 1mm. In 2015, it began mass production of proprietary flexible electronic devices, and introduced the world's first foldable virtual mobile theater, Royole-X and later Royole Moon. In 2016 at International CES in Las Vegas, it introduced the world's first curved car dashboard based on flexible electronics.

Royole has received many global awards for its technology innovations and fast growth, including the Best of CES 2016 by Thomson Reuters, "5 Under 5" 2015 Most Innovative Startups in China by Scientific American, 2016 Annual Tech & Innovation Award by San Francisco Business Times, and 2015 Top 10 Most Innovative Entrepreneurs in US and China by Forbes. Royole is backed by leading venture capitalists, including IDG Capital Partners, CITIC Capital, Knights Investment Group, Alpha Wealth, Greenpine Capital and Shenzhen Capital Group. A verified 'unicorn' company, it has offices in Fremont, CA, Hong Kong, and Shenzhen, China. For more information, please visit: www.royole.com.

Safe Harbor Statement under the U. S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:

This release contains forward-looking statements that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. Many of these risks, uncertainties and other factors include failure of clinical trials, delays in development, registration and product approvals, changes in the competitive environment, increased government control over pricing, fluctuations in the capital and foreign exchange markets and the ability to maintain patent and other intellectual property protection. The information presented in this release represents management's expectations and intentions as of this date. Royole Corporation expressly disavows any obligation to update the information presented in this release.

PR Contact:

Andrew Wille

Copernio

(714) 891-3660/(847) 917-3174

[email protected]

All products/services and trademarks mentioned in this release are the properties of their respective companies.

2016 Royole Corp. All rights reserved.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160915/408234LOGO

SOURCE Royole Corporation

Related Links

http://www.royole.com


SAN ANTONIO, Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- "It's not too late to boost your holiday sales," says Justin Page, an expert in search engine optimization and marketing. To prove it, he's holding an informational seminar for San Antonio-area businesses where he will provide actionable tactics retail businesses can implement to see a big positive impact. The event is scheduled for November 21 at 10 a.m. at the Petroleum Club Building in Energy Plaza. Sponsoring this event is Peter Margolis, president of Initial Energy Services and a long-time San Antonio resident and business owner. To learn more about this free seminar, and to register to attend, visit http://www.freeseminarsanantonio.com/.

Page is not using this one-hour seminar to sell anything. Instead, he's giving away a wealth of knowledge that can be applied quickly by any type of retail business. "My goal is to help local businesses achieve greater success in SEO and SEM," he says, "without spending a single penny or countless hours of precious time with no guarantee of a return."

While brick-and-mortar retail performance has been lukewarm in recent years, eCommerce continues to be a hot ticket. Fortune magazine predicts that digital sales will reach almost $95 billion this holiday shopping season. That would be a new record, and would mean that eCommerce has grabbed more than 10% of total holiday shopping market share for the first time ever. The writing on the wall is clear - there's no better time than now to optimize one's web presence locally and globally.

During the one-hour seminar, Page will cover how to do exactly that. Even at this late hour, he says, it's possible to promote one's business effectively and supercharge their holiday profits. Moreover, the tools he discusses are accessible to anyone, anywhere. Business owners only need to set aside 15 minutes a day to create a measurable upswing in web traffic and conversions.

According to Page, many of the tricks and tools he describes are the same as those employed by major enterprises. Small businesses can use them just as effectively to pull some revenue their way, without making a huge and perhaps risky investment in a marketing plan. Plus, these tools are effective not just during the holidays, but all year long.

About Justin Page

Independent Consultant Justin Page has been at the forefront of Internet and corporate search optimization for nearly 30 years. He possesses a unique hands-on talent in web search engine optimization for sales generation, reputation and brand management, and emergency response. Page brings an insider's knowledge and a "good guy" marketing approach to every client relationship.

Contact:

Justin Page

[email protected]

973-342-4520

SOURCE Justin Page
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif., Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Preschool teachers, aides, custodians and support staff working in the San Bernardino County Preschool Services Department will soon become members of Local 1932. The local union filed for recognition on behalf of the 503 workers on November 4 and San Bernardino County Human Resources recognized the Teamsters as having the majority on November 7.

"We look forward to having these dedicated school workers as part of Local 1932," said Randy Korgan, General Manager/Secretary-Treasurer of Local 1932. "Our organizers have spent long hours with the workers to bring this unit, the largest public employee unit in the county not yet represented by the union, into our Teamster family."

The Preschool Services Department's jobs are spread out over 38 schools and the entire San Bernardino county, one of the largest in the state, which extends from Chino and Pomona all the way to 29 Palms and Barstow.

Toi Waddles, a preschool teacher at Fontana Citrus Head Start said, "My mom has been in a union since I was one year old. I grew up seeing the difference the union made in our lives. I have told my co-workers that being part of the Teamsters will change our lives for the better."

"When we were able to collect over 290 signatures in support of Teamster representation, we knew the majority of the preschool services department workers were unified," said Peter Sierra and L. Rommel Martinez, both organizers with Local 1932. "We were fortunate to have had the help, too, of Local 63, Joint Council 42 and many volunteer organizers."

The preschool workers will become part of the Teamsters Public Services Division, which represents over 273,000 public employees across the country.

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Visit www.teamster.org for more information. Follow us on Twitter @Teamsters and "like" us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/teamsters.

Contact:

Jessica Mosher, (909) 889-8377

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100127/IBTLOGO

SOURCE Teamsters Local 1932

Related Links

http://www.teamster.org


TSX.V: SCZ

FSE: 1SZ

VANCOUVER, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Santacruz Silver Mining Ltd. (TSX.V:SCZ) (the "Company" or "Santacruz") announces the results of its resource estimate for the Panuco silver deposit located in Zacatecas, Mexico. The Panuco deposit is situated within Santacruz's Veta Grande project area and is located approximately five kilometers north of the Company's Veta Grande Mine and mineral processing facility. The deposit is accessed by paved road and is characterized by modest relief at an average elevation of 2300 meters above mean sea level. The Veta Grande project consists of 184 mining concessions covering an area of 8,944 hectares (22,101 acres) in the Zacatecas Mining District, Mexico.

The Veta Grande project is divided into two concession groups, described as the Veta Grande properties, and the Zacatecas properties (collectively "Veta Grande project"). The Panuco deposit is situated within the northwest quadrant of the Zacatecas properties and centered on concession title 233300 (Panuco). The property is subject to the Company's completion of a purchase contract for US$1.5M with Minera Cordilleras (subsidiary of Golden Minerals Company see press release dated May 4, 2016). The previous operator was Minera Cordilleras.

Highlights of the mineral resource estimate are as follows:

Inferred mineral resource of 16,342,456 AgEq ounces grading 192.40 g/t AgEq;

Panuco resource sits outside of currently mined areas of the Veta Grande and La Cantera vein systems and is the first indication of mineral resource growth potential in the Veta Grande project area;

resource sits outside of currently mined areas of the and vein systems and is the first indication of mineral resource growth potential in the project area; The veins are open along strike and down dip, providing numerous drill targets to further clarify resource potential;

Drill program recommended to continue to explore and expand the resource base;

The Panuco deposit is a low sulfidation (silver-gold, lead-zinc) vein system comprised of three vein structures: Panuco Central vein, Panuco NW vein and Tres Cruces vein. The mineral resource estimate encompasses all three vein structures and includes mineralization defined by trenching and drilling over a strike distance of 2.4 km.

The resource estimate was conducted on the analytical database generated from 1,869 chip samples from 183 surface trenches and 2,607 core samples from 75-drill holes totaling 23,444 meters. The surface channel samples and core drilling were completed by Minera Cordilleras between 2009 and 2011, inclusive. The resource estimate was carried out according to National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum standards by Gary Giroux, P.Eng. of Giroux Consultants, a professional engineer and qualified person. The effective date of the resource estimate is October 5, 2016.

Based upon a 100 gram per tonne ("g/t") silver equivalent ("AgEq") cut-off, the resource is as follows:



(tonnes) AgEq (g/t) Ag (g/t) Au (g/t) Pb (%) Zn (%) AgEq Oz Inferred 2,642,000 192.40 181.0 0.17 0.02 0.04 16,342,456

Arturo Prestamo, President and CEO, remarked, "We are very pleased with the results of the first resource estimate to come out of our land package in the Zacatecas Mining District. We believe the Panuco resource estimate is just the first indication of the significant potential that exists in this region. Further work aimed at expanding the resources in the area will occur in conjunction with production at the Veta Grande Mine."

Mineral Resources:

Three dimensional solids were built from cross sections to constrain the three mineralized veins, namely the Panuco Central vein, the Panuco NW vein and the Tres Cruces vein. A block model with blocks 20 m along strike, 5 m across strike and 5 m in the vertical was superimposed over the mineralized solids. Grades for gold, silver, lead and zinc were interpolated into blocks containing some percentage of veins by Ordinary Kriging. Each vein was estimated separately using only composites from that vein. Due to the sparsity of drill hole data both drill hole and surface trench composites were used. Capping of assay data was applied. An average specific gravity of 2.74 was applied to the vein portions of blocks while a value of 2.68 was assigned to the waste portions.

The density of the data for all three veins and insufficient data to establish semivariograms for the Panuco NW and Tres Cruces veins has led to classifying all estimated blocks as Inferred. The tables below summarize results of the resource estimate and provide a range over various cut-off grades:

Resource classed as Inferred within Mineralized Solids:

Cut-off AgEq (g/t) Tonnes > Cut-off (tonnes) Ag (g/t) Au (g/t) Pb (%) Zn (%) AgEq (g/t) AgEq Ozs. 70.0 3,647,000 152.2 0.16 0.02 0.04 163.16 19,130,877 75.0 3,558,000 154.5 0.16 0.02 0.04 165.43 18,924,371 80.0 3,406,000 158.2 0.16 0.02 0.04 169.32 18,541,667 90.0 3,034,000 168.4 0.17 0.02 0.04 179.82 17,540,302 100.0 2,642,000 181.0 0.17 0.02 0.04 192.40 16,342,456 115.0 2,221,000 197.4 0.17 0.02 0.04 208.80 14,909,873 125.0 2,065,000 204.0 0.17 0.02 0.04 215.52 14,308,840 140.0 1,741,000 219.1 0.18 0.02 0.04 231.25 12,944,138 150.0 1,477,000 234.1 0.19 0.02 0.04 246.84 11,721,502 175.0 1,103,000 262.0 0.21 0.02 0.03 275.61 9,773,714

An economic study or similar study has not been completed for the Panuco deposit and an economic cut-off value is unknown. The authors are of the opinion that based on the mineralization characteristics, grade, location and other factors described in this report the Panuco deposit has similarities to the Veta Grande vein system, which is located five km south of the Panuco deposit. The Veta Grande Mine is currently operating at a cut-off value of 100 g/t Ag. Metallurgy has not been completed at this stage for the Panuco deposit. Recoveries are based on actual recoveries from the Veta Grande mineral processing facility which is currently processing material from the nearby Veta Grande and La Cantara vein systems.

The metal prices used in the silver equivalent estimate are listed below.

Gold price $1100/oz Recovery of 70 % Factor = Au *Rec*Price/31.1035 = 24.76 Silver price $17/oz Recovery of 79.2 % Factor = Ag *Rec*Price/31.1035 = 0.43 Lead price $0.80/lb Recovery of 84.2 % Factor = Pb% * 22.046223 * Rec * Price = 14.85 Zinc price $0.80/lb Recovery of 82.2 % Factor = Zn% * 22.046223 * Rec * Price = 14.50





GMV = (Au *Rec*Price/31.1035) + (Pb% * 22.0462 * Rec * Price) + (Ag * Rec * Price/31.1035) + (Zn% * 22.0462 * Rec * Price)

AgEq = GMV / Ag Factor = GMV / 0.43

Data Verification

Van Phu Bui, P.Geo. of ARC Geoscience Group("ARC") conducted a site visit to the Panuco deposit on August 16th to 18th, 2016. Mineralized drill core intersections, specific gravity, drill hole collar locations, drill hole database and assays, geological mapping and historical surface workings, and surface sampling in trench and outcrop were independently verified against digital data supplied by Santacruz. Gary Giroux, P.Eng. of Giroux Consultants has not visited the Panuco deposit but has relied on the geological data and information verified by ARC.

Sampling and Laboratory

Half-core samples and chip samples from surface trenches were submitted to ALS Chemex in Zacatecas, Mexico, and were assayed at ALS Chemex in Vancouver, Canada. ALS Chemex, now ALS Mineral, is an ISO accredited and certified laboratory service. All samples were prepared by crushing 70% to <2 mm (CRU-31). The fines are rifle split and further pulverized 85% to <75 microns (PUL-31). Pulps were then analyzed by 33 element four acid ICP-AES (0.25 g by ME-ICP61) and fire assay with an AA finish for gold (50g by Au-AA24). Samples with gold results above 10 g/t using Au-AA24 were rerun using fire assay with a gravimetric finish (50g by Au-GRA22). Samples with silver above 100 g/t using ME-ICP61 were rerun using fire assay with gravimetric finish (30g by Ag-GRA21). Over-limit for copper, lead and zinc using ME-ICP61 were rerun by an aqua regia digestion with an ICP-AES finish (ME-OG62).

Qualified Persons

All technical information included in this statement has been reviewed and approved by Van Phu Bui, P.Geo. of ARC Geoscience Group and Gary Giroux, P.Eng. of Giroux Consultants ltd.,who are both independent of the Company and each of which is a qualified person, pursuant to the meaning of such terms in NI 43-101.

About Santacruz Silver Mining Ltd.

Santacruz is a Mexican focused silver company with two producing silver mines (Rosario and Veta Grande); an advanced-stage project (San Felipe) and three exploration properties including the Gavilanes property, El Gachi property, and Zacatecas properties. The Company is managed by a technical team of professionals with proven track records in developing, operating and discovering silver mines in Mexico. Our corporate objective is to become a mid-tier silver producer.

'signed'

Arturo Prestamo Elizondo,

President, Chief Executive Officer and Director

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward looking information

Certain statements contained in this news release, such as planned production and milling levels, costs, sales prices and efficiencies, constitute "forward-looking information" as such term is used in applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information is based on plans, expectations and estimates of management at the date the information is provided and is subject to certain factors and assumptions, including, that the Company's financial condition and development plans do not change as a result of unforeseen events, that third party ore to be milled by the Company has properties consistent with management's expectations, that the Company obtains all required regulatory approvals, and that future metal prices and the demand and market outlook for metals remains stable or improves. Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause plans, estimates and actual results to vary materially from those projected in such forward-looking information. Factors that could cause the forward-looking information in this news release to change or to be inaccurate include, but are not limited to, the risk that any of the assumptions referred to prove not to be valid or reliable, which could result in lower revenue, higher cost, lower production levels, delays, and/or cessation in planned work, that the Company's financial condition and development plans change, delays in regulatory approval, risks associated with the interpretation of data (including in respect of the third party ore), the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits, the possibility that results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations, as well as the other risks and uncertainties applicable to mineral exploration and development activities and to the Company as set forth in the Company's continuous disclosure filings filed under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. There can be no assurance that any forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader should not place any undue reliance on forward-looking information or statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information or statements, other than as required by applicable law.

Rosario Mine

The decision to commence production at the Rosario Mine was not based on a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability, but rather on a more preliminary estimate of inferred mineral resources. Accordingly, there is increased uncertainty and economic and technical risks of failure associated with this production decision. Production and economic variables may vary considerably, due to the absence of a complete and detailed site analysis according to and in accordance with NI 43-101.

Veta Grande Mine

The decision to commence production at the Veta Grande Mine was not based on a feasibility study on mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability. Accordingly, there is increased uncertainty and economic and technical risks of failure associated with this production decision. Production and economic variables may vary considerably due to the absence of a complete and detailed site analysis according to and in accordance with NI 43-101.

Cinco Estrellas Property

The decision to commence production at the Cinco Estrellas Property was not based on a feasibility study on mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability. Accordingly, there is increased uncertainty and economic and technical risks of failure associated with this production decision. Production and economic variables may vary considerably due to the absence of a complete and detailed site analysis according to and in accordance with NI 43-101.

SOURCE SantaCruz Silver Mining Ltd.

Related Links

www.santacruzsilver.com


STONY BROOK, N.Y., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Softheon, a proven leader in cloud-based health insurance exchange, has announced that Sendero Health Plans (Sendero) is now live with Softheon's full marketplace solution for enrollment remediation, financial management, reporting and analytics. The Texas-based, provider-sponsored health plan fully implemented the entire product suite in 17 days.

A community health plan with over 20,000 Marketplace members, Sendero has served the needs of central Texas' medically underserved population since 2011. The organization was seeking a solution to improve its business processes, with a specific focus on plan enrollment and payment reconciliation. Sendero selected Softheon's proven solutions suite to further enhance the quality of its services while improving the overall consumer experience for its members.

"Driven by a deep commitment to our organization's mission and the population we serve, we were seeking a comprehensive solution that would benefit both our employees and our members" said Wesley Durkalski, CEO of Sendero Health Plans. "Based on our extensive experience in managed care and the Marketplace, and years of work with CMS and the state of Texas, we knew the functionality we needed in a new technology solution, and Softheon's offering met and exceeded expectations."

Sendero has implemented Softheon's full solution suite, including its Clarity exchange platform, Gateway integration engine, Remedy enrollment management system, Equity payment solution and Foundry data analytics and reporting capabilities. With comprehensive out-of-the-box functionality, Softheon's solutions are already helping Sendero to relieve administrative burden, improve efficiency, and enhance member satisfaction. Softheon continuously updates its technology to stay current with frequently changing requirements put forth by state and federal authorities, which is of utmost importance to health plans like Sendero.

"Once again, our team has completed a full end-to-end implementation in an exceptionally short amount of time," said Eugene Sayan, Founder & CEO of Softheon. "We know how important it is for our clients to be up and running as quickly as possible, and we consider this to be a business imperative, not just a 'nice-to-have' feature."

With a technology-driven revolution sparked by the Affordable Care Act, Softheon has maintained its position as a premier solutions architect in a highly competitive and dynamic industry. Recognized by Gartner*, IDC, AHIP, ACAP, HCEG, and other respected organizations, Softheon is the nation's leading platform addressing the industry's ever-changing regulatory demands.

About Sendero Health Plans

Sendero Health Plans, Inc. ("Sendero") was formed in 2011 as a new, non-profit organization in central Texas to improve access to care for those covered by publicly-funded health insurance programs. Sendero's mission is to provide comprehensive healthcare coverage and to arrange for innovative, high quality, and cost-effective medical services for health plan members within Central Texas. Sendero Health Plans understands and treats its members and their families with compassion and respect. For more information, please go to www.senderohealth.com.

About Softheon

Empowering the nation's first state health benefit exchange since 2008, Softheon's vision and strategic direction address healthcare payer, provider, and government agencies' goal of meeting Affordable Care Act (ACA) milestones. Softheon provides HIX Integration, Direct Enrollment, Premium Billing, and Edge Server solutions for insurance carriers of all sizes participating in Federal and State Health Insurance Exchange (HIX) Marketplaces. Softheon's Marketplace Connector Cloud (MC2) has been trusted by health plans in all 50 states as an accelerated federal, state, and private exchange integration platform. Softheon MC2 is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution where insurers pay a one-time activation and ongoing PMPM fees for exchange members only, while eliminating most, if not all, risks associated with ACA enrollment compliance and other mandates.

Softheon was ranked 34th on 2016 Healthcare Informatics 100, a compilation of the top health IT companies based on HIT revenues from the most recent fiscal year. Additionally, Softheon has been recognized by Cloud Tech Insights as one of 2016's top 10 cloud storage solution providers.

*Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151103/283295

SOURCE Softheon

Related Links

http://www.softheon.com


YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Solar FlexRack, a division of Northern States Metals and an innovative leader in photovoltaic mounting and tracking solutions, announced today that Black & Veatch has performed a bankability study of its TDP Turnkey Tracker. The technical report covers the tracker's design, reliability, durability, installation, operations and maintenance.

According to GTM Research, over 70% of the US ground-mount systems are now being installed with trackers. Tracker installation growth in 2017 is expected to be 19%.*

Jeff Gwinnell, President and C.E.O. of Solar FlexRack said, "We're pleased to complete this bankability report and to further customers' confidence in the powerful TDP Turnkey Tracker solution that reduces project installation risks and costs."

Solar FlexRack's TDP Tracker design leaves rows easily accessible for operation and maintenance. Its smart backtracking maximizes energy production. Bundling the high-tech tracker with best-in-class project services provides next-level services and support to commercial and utility-scale solar project developers, EPCs and installers. From preliminary layout and design, through geotechnical engineering, construction and commissioning, Solar FlexRack's turnkey tracker solution delivers an optimized, robust tracker, along with a team of experts with decades of solar experience to ensure your project's success. To learn more about the TDP Tracker Solution, please visit http://solarflexrack.com/products/tracker/.

* https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/global-pv-tracker-market-to-grow-254-year-over-year-in-2016

About Solar FlexRack

Solar FlexRack, a division of Northern States Metals, is an integrated solar company that offers custom-designed, fixed tilt ground mount and single-axis tracking systems in the commercial and utility scale, solar mounting industry. Solar FlexRack also offers full turnkey packages, including engineering, geotechnical, pullout testing, field, layout, and installation services to address the actual site conditions of an installation, providing a full scope of services from design to delivery and installation. Solar FlexRack has completed almost 1.5 GW of solar racking installations in 32 states across America and five countries globally. For more information, visit www.solarflexrack.com

SOURCE Solar FlexRack

Related Links

http://www.solarflexrack.com


DUBLIN, Nov 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "The Future of South East Asia Gasoline Supply and Demand, 2005-2025: Trends, Drivers, Challenges and Forecasts of Gasoline Production and Consumption under Current Market Dynamics" report to their offering.

South East Asia Gasoline Outlook report provides detailed analysis and forecast of Gasoline consumption patterns and supply scenario in all key Gasoline markets in South East Asia. Forecasts of production and demand of each of the Gasoline markets in South East Asia are provided annually from 2005 to 2025.

Drivers and challenges of industry growth in each of the South East Asia countries are analyzed. Further, information on current refining capacity, refining complexity along with planned refining infrastructure details are also provided in the South East Asia Gasoline outlook report.

Historic data is taken largely from government ministries and companies involved, ensuring highest accuracy of the data. Further, forecasts are made through our sophisticated methodology considering current market conditions and future prospects. Gasoline Forecasts for each market are evaluated by in-house experts and also validated by industry professionals to ensure utmost accuracy and certainty.

The research work also provides information on leading refining companies in each country along with business profiles of three leading Gasoline suppliers in the region. All latest industry developments in South East Asia Gasoline are also provided in the report.

Scope

- Annual forecasts of country wise Gasoline consumption and Gasoline production from 2005 to 2025

- All key Gasoline markets are analyzed in detail - Refining, coking, FCC and Hydrocracking capacity outlook for each of the refining markets are provided from 2005 to 2020

- Drivers and Challenges of operating and or investing in the Gasoline markets

- Details of all planned refining projects in each of the Gasoline markets

- Details of leading Gasoline suppliers in the the markets is provided

- Company profiles of three leading refining companies in the Gasoline market

- All largest Gasoline industry developments in the Gasoline market

Key Topics Covered:

1. Tables & Figures

2 Executive Summary

3 Brunei LPG Production and Consumption Outlook to 2025

4 Indonesia LPG Production and Consumption Outlook to 2025

5 Malaysia LPG Production and Consumption Outlook to 2025

6 Myanmar LPG Production and Consumption Outlook to 2025

7 Philippines LPG Production and Consumption Outlook to 2025

8 Singapore LPG Production and Consumption Outlook to 2025

9 Thailand LPG Production and Consumption Outlook to 2025

10 Vietnam LPG Production and Consumption Outlook to 2025

11 Business Profiles of Leading Refiners

For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/9jlps4/the_future_of

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COSTA MESA, Calif., Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Travel Costa Mesa is excited to announce a special offer from partner hotels guaranteed to make holiday shopping easier this season. From November 11, 2016 through January 7, 2017, guests who book a minimum of two consecutive nights with select Costa Mesa hotels will receive a $100 gift certificate to South Coast Plaza.

From one-of-a-kind boutiques to luxury designers, Costa Mesa offers a range of shopping options for all. The renowned South Coast Plaza is a luxury shopping destination with critically acclaimed restaurants and an unparalleled collection of more than 250 retail stores and designer boutiques. Costa Mesa partnering hotels for this offer include the following:

The complete South Coast Plaza package includes the following:

$100 Gift Certificate

Gift Certificate Complimentary Valet Parking

Admittance to the coveted Access Suite

VIP Shopping Passport

Along with world-class shopping at South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa is home to award-winning performances at Segerstrom Center for the Arts including Mamma Mia! and Elf the Musical this holiday season. Costa Mesa is the ultimate Southern California retreat, centrally located between Los Angeles and San Diego and just minutes from beaches, the Disneyland Resort and Knott's Berry Farm.

For more information on Costa Mesa's South Coast Plaza Package and a list of participating hotels, visit http://www.travelcostamesa.com/scp100/.

Travel Costa Mesa was established in 1995. The organization's primary goal is to promote tourism to the city and to fund programs and activities that benefit the hotel and motel businesses within the city of Costa Mesa. For more information on travel to the city of Costa Mesa, visit www.travelcostamesa.com. Travel Costa Mesa is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization.

Media Contact:

Jenny Wedge

Travel Costa Mesa

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(714) 786.8579



Alexis Whitley

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SOURCE Travel Costa Mesa
Isbrand Ho (left), BYD's Europe managing director says his company is exploring more assembly locations in Europe while it will put the first one built in Hungary into production in early 2017 in an interview with China Daily. [Photo by Marton Kovacs/For China Daily]

BYD, China's leading electric automaker, is to invest 20 million euro to construct a bus assembly plant in Hungary, the first one to be built by a Chinese car maker in Europe.

The company, the fast growing supplier of pure electric buses to cities across Europe in recent years, said its decision, which will create 300 new jobs, was based on Hungary's engineering excellence and competitive labor costs.

Hungary's active "Eastward Policy", aimed at attracting investment and boost trade flow from outside the European Union, was also a consideration in helping finalize the deal.

"The Hungarian plant will begin production in the first quarter of 2017. It will have its own R&D Centre and battery test facility," Isbrand Ho, BYD's Europe managing director, told China Daily.

Ho made the announcement on Monday at a ceremony in Budapest. The plant will be located in the northern Hungarian city of Komarom.

He said the factory will eventually employ up to 300 people and be capable of assembling up to 400 vehicles a year on two shifts, with initial output focusing on BYD's range of emissions free electric buses and fork lift trucks.

Ho revealed that his company are still exploring other European locations for building assembly plants.

"The announcement reinforces our company's commitment to the European market," said Ho.

"This is our first manufacturing facility but it won't be our last  we are actively looking for other locations".

Ho said BYD, with its e-buses buses and cars running in cities such as London, Amsterdam and Brussels, is helping European countries cut carbon emissions, a key move as the Paris climate change agreement will come into effect soon following strong support by China, the US and the EU.

Duan Jielong, the Chinese Ambassador to Hungary, said it was no surprise that the sales of the BYD electric bus were growing rapidly in countries such as the UK, France and the Netherlands as the diesel era comes to an end.

"The e-bus project has not only shown the commitment of the Hungarian government in developing green transportation but also will help rebuild the competitiveness of the country's bus industry," said Duan.

To contact the reporter: fujing@chinadaily.com.cn
NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Tapad, the leading provider of unified cross-device marketing technology solutions, today announced an expanded partnership with LiveRamp, an Acxiom company and leading provider of omnichannel identity resolution, to make the proprietary Tapad Device Graph accessible beyond Tapad-hosted direct integrations. Through LiveRamp, Tapad's Device Graph Access now extends to more than 400 ad tech and mar tech platforms.

Tapad's Device Graph enables marketers to understand, monetize and measure consumer engagement across all digital channels, and Tapad's unified consumer view is recognized as one of the most accurate, scalable cross-device solutions in the market today. Through the expanded partnership with LiveRamp, the Tapad Device Graph can be distributed to the hundreds of platforms used to reach consumers on digital channels and measure campaign performance - even as devices are added daily to Tapad's extensive graph.

"Increasingly, marketers want access to cross-device targeting and measurement capabilities within their preferred platforms," said Anneka Gupta, chief product officer of LiveRamp. "Our expanded partnership makes it easy for marketers to access Tapad's graph through the rapidly growing set of integrations available in our partner ecosystem."

This is the latest of several initiatives between the two technology platforms designed to make the integration of cross-screen platforms seamless, privacy-safe and easy to use for dynamic and engaging marketing efforts.

"During the past year, Tapad has expanded its global presence and rapidly grown its data business - Tapad Coral - doubling the number of companies integrating our device graph into their platforms and growing our annualized run rate by 210%," said Pierre Martensson, GM of Tapad Coral and APAC. "Our expanded partnership with LiveRamp positions us to meet the increased demand for Tapad Device Graph Access and enable new platforms to apply our graph with unprecedented speed."

About Tapad

Tapad Inc. is a marketing technology firm renowned for its breakthrough, unified, cross-device solutions, acquired by Telenor Group in 2016. With 91.2% data accuracy confirmed by Nielsen, the company offers the largest in-market opportunity for marketers and technologies to address the ever-evolving reality of media consumption on smartphones, tablets, home computers and smart TVs. Deployed by agency trading desks, publishers and numerous Fortune 500 brands, Tapad provides an accurate, unified approach to connecting with consumers across screens. In 2015, Tapad began aggressively licensing its identity management solution, the Tapad Device Graph, and swiftly became the established gold-standard throughout the ad tech ecosystem. Tapad is based in New York and has offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Frankfurt, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Singapore and Toronto. TechCrunch called the powerhouse Tapad team "a hell of a list of entrepreneurs who created some of the most valuable online advertising companies of the last decade." Among Tapad's numerous awards: TNCNet's Tech Culture 2016, EY Entrepreneur of The Year (East Coast) 2014, among Forbes' Most Promising Companies two year's running, Deloitte's Technology Fast 500, Crain's Fast 50, Entrepreneur 360, Digiday Signal Award, iMedia ASPY Award, and a MarCom Gold Award.

About LiveRamp

LiveRamp offers brands and the companies they work with identity resolution that is integrated throughout the digital ecosystem, and provides the foundation for omnichannel marketing. Our services transform the technology platforms used by our clients into people-based marketing channels that improve the relevancy of marketing, and ultimately allow consumers to better connect with the brands and products they love. LiveRamp is an Acxiom company, delivering privacy-safe solutions to market and honoring the best practices of leading associations including the Digital Advertising Alliance's (DAA) ICON and App Choices programs. For more information, visit www.LiveRamp.com.

PR Contact

Lauren Leff for Tapad

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CHERRY HILL, N.J., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Through its "Housing for Everyone" grant competition, TD Charitable Foundation, the charitable giving arm of TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank, will help 25 grant winners provide homes for single-parent families.

The TD Charitable Foundation's 11th annual "Housing for Everyone" grant competition will award nonprofit organizations a total of $2.5 million in grants this year to bolster affordable housing efforts from Maine to Florida.

"There are so many single parent families in need of housing, so this year's campaign focus is very important," said Mike Rayder, Donation and Foundation Manager, TD Charitable Foundation. "Housing is a necessity for everyone, and we are invested in making a positive impact in our communities and supporting organizations that provide affordable, quality housing to those who need a bit of help."

This year's "Housing for Everyone" grants winners are:

Connecticut : Bridgeport Neighborhood Trust, Inc.

Neighborhood Trust, Inc. D.C., Washington : Transitional Housing Corporation

Transitional Housing Corporation Florida : Neighborhood Renaissance, Inc.; Homeless Emergency Project, Inc.; Riviera Beach Community Development Corporation, Inc.

Neighborhood Renaissance, Inc.; Homeless Emergency Project, Inc.; Riviera Beach Community Development Corporation, Inc. Maine : Volunteers of America Northern New England

Volunteers of Maryland : Volunteers of America Chesapeake , Inc.

Volunteers of , Inc. Massachusetts : Newvue Communities, Inc.; Elizabeth Stone House , Inc.; Community Builders, Inc.

Newvue Communities, Inc.; , Inc.; Community Builders, Inc. New Hampshire : The Housing Partnership

The Housing Partnership New Jersey : Urban League of Essex County ; Affordable Housing Alliance, Inc.; Housing and Neighborhood Development Services, Inc.; Garden State Episcopal Community Development Corporation

of ; Affordable Housing Alliance, Inc.; Housing and Neighborhood Development Services, Inc.; Garden State Episcopal Community Development Corporation New York : Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement, Inc.; Women in Need, Inc.; Long Island Housing Partnership, Inc.; Community Development Corporation of Long Island , Inc.; New York Institute for Human Development

Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement, Inc.; Women in Need, Inc.; Long Island Housing Partnership, Inc.; Community Development Corporation of , Inc.; New York Institute for Human Development Pennsylvania : Hispanic Association of Contractors and Enterprises, Inc.; Gaudenzia, Inc.

Hispanic Association of Contractors and Enterprises, Inc.; Gaudenzia, Inc. Rhode Island : Pawtucket Citizens Development Corporation

Pawtucket Citizens Development Corporation South Carolina : Northside Development Corporation

: Northside Development Corporation Vermont : Lamoille Housing Partnership, Inc.

Organizations were required to have tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status or be a governmental agency, and to develop or maintain affordable housing, or provide housing-related programs and services to very low-, low- and moderate-income individuals or families.

A staunch commitment to active involvement in the local community is a vital element of the TD Bank philosophy. TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank and the TD Charitable Foundation provide support to affordable housing, financial literacy and education, and environmental initiatives, many of which focus on improving the welfare of children and families.

About the TD Charitable Foundation

The TD Charitable Foundation is the charitable giving arm of TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank, and is one of the 10 largest commercial banking organizations in the United States. The Foundation's mission is to support individuals, families and businesses in the communities TD Bank serves, The Foundation has made more than $167.3 million in charitable donations since its inception in 2002 primarily in the areas of affordable housing, financial literacy and education, and the environment. More information on the TD Charitable Foundation, including an online grant application, is available at www.TDBank.com.

About TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank

TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank, is one of the 10 largest banks in the U.S., providing more than 8 million customers with a full range of retail, small business and commercial banking products and services at approximately 1,300 convenient locations throughout the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Metro D.C., the Carolinas and Florida. In addition, TD Bank and its subsidiaries offer customized private banking and wealth management services through TD Wealth, and vehicle financing and dealer commercial services through TD Auto Finance. TD Bank is headquartered in Cherry Hill, N.J. To learn more, visit www.tdbank.com. Find TD Bank on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TDBank and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TDBank_US.

TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank, is a member of TD Bank Group and a subsidiary of The Toronto-Dominion Bank of Toronto, Canada, a top 10 financial services company in North America. The Toronto-Dominion Bank trades on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges under the ticker symbol "TD". To learn more, visit www.td.com.

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BRUSSELS, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Today UCB announced that The Lancet published full results from EXXELERATE, the first head-to-head superiority study of two treatments in the anti-TNF class. The study compared CIMZIA (certolizumab pegol) plus methotrexate (MTX) to Humira (adalimumab) plus MTX in adult patients with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who were inadequate responders to MTX. The study did not meet its primary endpoints for superiority, demonstrating no statistically significant difference in efficacy between CIMZIA and Humira in combination with MTX in both short-term (12-week) and long-term (2-year) evaluations. However, data from the study demonstrated that switching between these anti-TNFs without a wash-out period was beneficial to some patients.1

"We are very pleased that this study has been accepted in The Lancet. Prior to EXXELERATE, the body of evidence supporting the use of anti-TNFs after initial anti-TNF treatment failure was limited, as no trials have evaluated the efficacy of an immediate switch from one anti-TNF to another. EXXELERATE, among other important information, provides evidence supporting the treat-to-target approach, emphasizing the importance of clinical decision making three months after initiating therapy. By following this approach, and using a second anti-TNF at Week 12 in the event of inadequate response, clinicians maximize the potential benefit of anti-TNF therapy. This also allows early identification of patients within six months who may not have an adequate response to anti-TNF therapy and who may benefit from a different mode of action," said Professor Dr. Josef S. Smolen, Department of Medicine 3, Division of Rheumatology, Medical University of Vienna, Austria.

"With EXXELERATE, UCB has taken significant steps to help better inform treatment decisions and bring real world value to patients. EXXELERATE highlights the potential value of switching between CIMZIA and Humira after a pre-determined time interval. The ability to make a treatment decision at three months, as demonstrated in this trial, should benefit patients and minimize resource allocation to an ineffective therapy," said Emmanuel Caeymaex, Head of Immunology and Executive Vice President, Immunology Patient Value Unit, UCB. "Approximately half the initial responders achieved low disease activity within two years, demonstrating that we are developing solutions that enable patients to achieve a desirable level of disease control."

The percentage of patients achieving an ACR20 response at three months was 69.2 percent versus 71.4 percent with CIMZIA and Humira, respectively, and the percentage of patients achieving a state of low disease activity (LDA) at two years were 35.5 percent versus 33.5 percent, respectively.1

In the study, 14.7 percent of patients receiving CIMZIA [n=67] and 12.9 percent of patients receiving Humira [n=59] did not respond to their initial therapy at three months, with response defined as being in LDA or DAS28(ESR) reduction from Week 12 of 1.2. At three months, 65 patients on CIMZIA and 57 patients on Humira were switched to receive immediate treatment with the other agent without a wash-out period between treatments (patients switching from Humira to CIMZIA received the loading dose of CIMZIA). Of those patients, 57.9 percent switching to CIMZIA (n=33/57) and 61.5 percent switching to Humira (n=40/65) responded 12 weeks later by achieving a state of LDA or DAS28 (ESR) reduction from Week 12 of 1.2.1

The secondary efficacy endpoints between CIMZIA and Humira showed patients achieving LDA at Weeks 6 (20.5 percent and 18.1 percent), 12 (30.4 percent and 29.7 percent) and 52 (41.6 percent and 38.3 percent) respectively.1 Change from baseline in HAQ-DI from week 104 was -0.62 and -0.72 and normative physical function (HAQ-DI  0.2522) was achieved by 20.3% and 22.2% for CIMZIA and Humira respectively.

For the study population (n=915), overall safety was similar between agents, including incidence per 100 patient-years of treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs, 139.9 and 134.8), serious TEAEs (SAEs, 9.4 and 7.7), and serious infections and infestations (2.2 and 2.0), for CIMZIA and Humira, respectively (defined by treatment at onset of adverse event). For those patients who switched from one TNF inhibitor to the other, no serious infections or infestations were reported in the 70-day period following treatment switch.1

In addition to being published in The Lancet, these data were also presented today as an oral presentation during the plenary session at the 2016 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, November 11-16, 2016.

About EXXELERATE1

EXXELERATE (NCT01500278) was a Phase 4, 24-month (104-week) randomized, single-blind, parallel-group, head-to-head superiority study. The study was designed to evaluate the short- and long-term efficacy of certolizumab pegol (CZP) compared with adalimumab (ADA), both in combination with methotrexate (MTX), in the treatment of moderate to severe RA patients who have not responded adequately to MTX.

The primary endpoints of the study were the percentage of patients with an ACR20 response at Week 12 (i.e., 20% improvement in tender or swollen joint counts and a 20% improvement in at least three of the other five criteria: patient assessment, physician assessment, pain scale, disability/functional questionnaire, and acute phase reactant) and the percentage of patients who achieved low disease activity (DAS28[ESR] 3.2) at Week 104.

Biologic-naive patients (n=915) with moderate to severe RA and an inadequate response to MTX, were randomly assigned at baseline (Week 0) in a 1:1 ratio to receive either:

A standard loading dose regimen of CZP 400 mg at Weeks 0, 2 and 4 + MTX, followed by CZP 200 mg Q2W + MTX.

ADA 40 mg Q2W + MTX, with placebo also given at Weeks 0, 2 and 4 to maintain blinding

MTX dosing was maintained at 1525 mg/week orally or subcutaneously, with one dose adjustment permitted between Week 12 and Week 52, and a one dose adjustment permitted between Week 52 and Week 104. For patients unable to tolerate MTX at these doses, MTX dose could be reduced to 10 mg/week after Week 12.

At Week 12, patients were categorized as responders, if they achieved low disease activity (LDA), defined as DAS28(ESR) 3.2 or had a DAS28(ESR) change from baseline (CFB) reduction 1.2.

Patient response at Week 12 determined what treatment they received from this point onwards. Week 12 responders continued with their initial treatment through Week 104. Week 12 non-responders switched treatment, either from CZP to ADA or vice versa, depending on their initial randomised treatment. At Week 24, subjects achieving LDA defined as DAS28(ESR)

About Cimzia In the US

Cimzia is the only Fc-free, PEGylated anti-TNF (Tumor Necrosis Factor). Cimzia has a high affinity for human TNF-alpha, selectively neutralizing the pathophysiological effects of TNF-alpha.

Cimzia is indicated for the treatment of adults with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis, adults with active psoriatic arthritis (PsA), and adults with active ankylosing spondylitis (AS). In addition, it is indicated for reducing signs and symptoms of Crohn's disease and maintaining clinical response in adult patients with moderately to severely active disease who have had an inadequate response to conventional therapy. See important safety information including risk of serious bacterial, viral and fungal infections and tuberculosis below.

Important Safety Information about Cimzia in the US

Risk of Serious Infections and Malignancy

Patients treated with Cimzia are at an increased risk for developing serious infections that may lead to hospitalization or death. Most patients who developed these infections were taking concomitant immunosuppressants such as methotrexate or corticosteroids. Cimzia should be discontinued if a patient develops a serious infection or sepsis. Reported infections include:

Active tuberculosis, including reactivation of latent tuberculosis. Patients with tuberculosis have frequently presented with disseminated or extrapulmonary disease. Patients should be tested for latent tuberculosis before Cimzia  use and during therapy. Treatment for latent infection should be initiated prior to Cimzia  use.

Invasive fungal infections, including histoplasmosis, coccidioidomycosis, candidiasis, aspergillosis, blastomycosis, and pneumocystosis. Patients with histoplasmosis or other invasive fungal infections may present with disseminated, rather than localized disease. Antigen and antibody testing for histoplasmosis may be negative in some patients with active infection. Empiric anti-fungal therapy should be considered in patients at risk for invasive fungal infections who develop severe systemic illness.

Bacterial, viral and other infections due to opportunistic pathogens, including Legionella and Listeria.

The risks and benefits of treatment with Cimzia should be carefully considered prior to initiating therapy in patients with chronic or recurrent infection. Patients should be closely monitored for the development of signs and symptoms of infection during and after treatment with Cimzia, including the possible development of tuberculosis in patients who tested negative for latent tuberculosis infection prior to initiating therapy.

Lymphoma and other malignancies, some fatal, have been reported in children and adolescent patients treated with TNF blockers, of which Cimzia is a member. Cimzia is not indicated for use in pediatric patients.

Patients treated with Cimzia are at an increased risk for developing serious infections involving various organ systems and sites that may lead to hospitalization or death. Opportunistic infections due to bacterial, mycobacterial, invasive fungal, viral, parasitic, or other opportunistic pathogens including aspergillosis, blastomycosis, candidiasis, coccidioidomycosis, histoplasmosis, legionellosis, listeriosis, pneumocystosis and tuberculosis have been reported with TNF blockers. Patients have frequently presented with disseminated rather than localized disease.

Treatment with Cimzia should not be initiated in patients with an active infection, including clinically important localized infections. Cimzia should be discontinued if a patient develops a serious infection or sepsis. Patients greater than 65 years of age, patients with co-morbid conditions, and/or patients taking concomitant immunosuppressants (e.g., corticosteroids or methotrexate) may be at a greater risk of infection. Patients who develop a new infection during treatment with Cimzia should be closely monitored, undergo a prompt and complete diagnostic workup appropriate for immunocompromised patients, and appropriate antimicrobial therapy should be initiated. Appropriate empiric antifungal therapy should also be considered while a diagnostic workup is performed for patients who develop a serious systemic illness and reside or travel in regions where mycoses are endemic.

Malignancies

During controlled and open-labeled portions of Cimzia studies of Crohn's disease and other diseases, malignancies (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) were observed at a rate of 0.5 per 100 patient-years among 4,650 Cimzia-treated patients versus a rate of 0.6 per 100 patient-years among 1,319 placebo-treated patients. In studies of Cimzia for Crohn's disease and other investigational uses, there was one case of lymphoma among 2,657 Cimzia-treated patients and one case of Hodgkin lymphoma among 1,319 placebo-treated patients. In Cimzia RA clinical trials (placebo-controlled and open label), a total of three cases of lymphoma were observed among 2,367 patients. This is approximately 2-fold higher than expected in the general population. Patients with RA, particularly those with highly active disease, are at a higher risk for the development of lymphoma. The potential role of TNF blocker therapy in the development of malignancies is not known.

Malignancies, some fatal, have been reported among children, adolescents, and young adults who received treatment with TNF-blocking agents (initiation of therapy 18 years of age), of which Cimzia is a member. Approximately half of the cases were lymphoma (including Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma), while the other cases represented a variety of different malignancies and included rare malignancies associated with immunosuppression and malignancies not usually observed in children and adolescents. Most of the patients were receiving concomitant immunosuppressants.

Cases of acute and chronic leukemia have been reported with TNF-blocker use. Even in the absence of TNF-blocker therapy, patients with RA may be at a higher risk (approximately 2-fold) than the general population for developing leukemia.

Postmarketing cases of hepatosplenic T-cell lymphoma (HSTCL), a rare type of T-cell lymphoma that has a very aggressive disease course and is usually fatal, have been reported in patients treated with TNF blockers, including Cimzia. The majority of reported TNF blocker cases occurred in adolescent and young adult males with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis. Almost all of these patients had received treatment with the immunosuppressants azathioprine and/or 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) concomitantly with a TNF blocker at or prior to diagnosis. Carefully assess the risks and benefits of treatment with Cimzia, especially in these patient types.

Melanoma and Merkel cell carcinoma have been reported in patients treated with TNF-antaganists, including Cimzia. Periodic skin examinations are recommended for all patients, particularly those with risk factors for skin cancer.

Heart Failure

Cases of worsening congestive heart failure (CHF) and new onset CHF have been reported with TNF blockers. Cimzia has not been formally studied in patients with CHF. Exercise caution when using Cimzia in patients who have heart failure and monitor them carefully.

Hypersensitivity

Symptoms compatible with hypersensitivity reactions, including angioedema, dyspnea, hypotension, rash, serum sickness, and urticaria, have been reported rarely following Cimzia administration. Some of these reactions occurred after the first administration of Cimzia. If such reactions occur, discontinue further administration of Cimzia and institute appropriate therapy.

Hepatitis B Reactivation

Use of TNF blockers, including Cimzia, has been associated with reactivation of hepatitis B virus (HBV) in patients who are chronic carriers of this virus. Some cases have been fatal. Test patients for HBV infection before initiating treatment with Cimzia. Exercise caution in prescribing Cimzia for patients identified as carriers of HBV, with careful evaluation and monitoring prior to and during treatment. In patients who develop HBV reactivation, discontinue Cimzia and initiate effective anti-viral therapy with appropriate supportive treatment.

Neurologic Reactions

Use of TNF blockers, including Cimzia, has been associated with rare cases of new onset or exacerbation of clinical symptoms and/or radiographic evidence of central nervous system demyelinating disease, including multiple sclerosis, and with peripheral demyelinating disease, including Guillain-Barre syndrome. Rare cases of neurological disorders, including seizure disorder, optic neuritis, and peripheral neuropathy have been reported in patients treated with Cimzia. Exercise caution in considering the use of Cimzia in patients with these disorders.

Hematologic Reactions

Rare reports of pancytopenia, including aplastic anemia, have been reported with TNF blockers. Medically significant cytopenia (e.g., leukopenia, pancytopenia, thrombocytopenia) has been infrequently reported with Cimzia. Advise all patients to seek immediate medical attention if they develop signs and symptoms suggestive of blood dyscrasias or infection (e.g., persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, pallor) while on Cimzia. Consider discontinuation of Cimzia therapy in patients with confirmed significant hematologic abnormalities.

Drug Interactions

An increased risk of serious infections has been seen in clinical trials of other TNF blocking agents used in combination with anakinra or abatacept. Formal drug interaction studies have not been performed with rituximab or natalizumab; however, because of the nature of the adverse events seen with these combinations with TNF blocker therapy, similar toxicities may also result from the use of Cimzia in these combinations. Therefore, the combination of Cimzia with anakinra, abatacept, rituximab, or natalizumab is not recommended. Interference with certain coagulation assays has been detected in patients treated with Cimzia. There is no evidence that Cimzia therapy has an effect on in vivo coagulation. Cimzia may cause erroneously elevated aPTT assay results in patients without coagulation abnormalities.

Autoimmunity

Treatment with Cimzia may result in the formation of autoantibodies and, rarely, in the development of a lupus-like syndrome. Discontinue treatment if symptoms of lupus-like syndrome develop.

Immunizations

Do not administer live vaccines or live-attenuated vaccines concurrently with Cimzia.

Adverse Reactions

In controlled Crohn's clinical trials, the most common adverse events that occurred in 5% of Cimzia patients (n=620) and more frequently than with placebo (n=614) were upper respiratory infection (20% Cimzia, 13% placebo), urinary tract infection (7% Cimzia, 6% placebo), and arthralgia (6% Cimzia, 4% placebo). The proportion of patients who discontinued treatment due to adverse reactions in the controlled clinical studies was 8% for Cimzia and 7% for placebo.

In controlled RA clinical trials, the most common adverse events that occurred in 3% of patients taking Cimzia 200 mg every other week with concomitant methotrexate (n=640) and more frequently than with placebo with concomitant methotrexate (n=324) were upper respiratory tract infection (6% Cimzia, 2% placebo), headache (5% Cimzia, 4% placebo), hypertension (5% Cimzia, 2% placebo), nasopharyngitis (5% Cimzia, 1% placebo), back pain (4% Cimzia, 1% placebo), pyrexia (3% Cimzia, 2% placebo), pharyngitis (3% Cimzia, 1% placebo), rash (3% Cimzia, 1% placebo), acute bronchitis (3% Cimzia, 1% placebo), fatigue (3% Cimzia, 2% placebo). Hypertensive adverse reactions were observed more frequently in patients receiving Cimzia than in controls. These adverse reactions occurred more frequently among patients with a baseline history of hypertension and among patients receiving concomitant corticosteroids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Patients receiving Cimzia 400 mg as monotherapy every 4 weeks in RA controlled clinical trials had similar adverse reactions to those patients receiving Cimzia 200 mg every other week. The proportion of patients who discontinued treatment due to adverse reactions in the controlled clinical studies was 5% for Cimzia and 2.5% for placebo.

The safety profile for patients with Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA) treated with Cimzia was similar to the safety profile seen in patients with RA and previous experience with Cimzia.

The safety profile for AS patients treated with Cimzia was similar to the safety profile seen in patients with RA.

For full prescribing information, please visit www.ucb.com

Cimzia is a registered trademark of the UCB Group of Companies.

Humira is a registered trademark of Abbvie.

About Cimzia in the EU/EEA

In the EU, Cimzia in combination with methotrexate (MTX) is indicated for the treatment of moderate to severe active RA in adult patients inadequately responsive to disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) including MTX.

Cimzia can be given as monotherapy in case of intolerance to MTX or when continued treatment with MTX is inappropriate. Cimzia in combination with MTX is also indicated for the treatment of severe, active and progressive RA in adults not previously treated with MTX or other DMARDs.

Cimzia has been shown to reduce the rate of progression of joint damage as measured by X-ray and to improve physical function, when given in combination with MTX.

Cimzia, in combination with MTX, is also indicated for the treatment of active psoriatic arthritis in adults when the response to previous DMARD therapy has been inadequate. Cimzia can be given as monotherapy in case of intolerance to methotrexate or when continued treatment with methotrexate is inappropriate.

Cimzia is also indicated in the EU for the treatment of adult patients with severe active axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA), comprising:

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) - adults with severe active AS who have had an inadequate response to, or are intolerant to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).

Axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) without radiographic evidence of AS - adults with severe active axSpA without radiographic evidence of AS but with objective signs of inflammation by elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) and/or Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) who have had an inadequate response to, or are intolerant to NSAIDs.

Important Safety Information about Cimzia in the EU/EEA

Cimzia was studied in 4,049 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in controlled and open label trials for up to 92 months. The commonly reported adverse reactions (1-10%) in clinical trials with Cimzia and post-marketing were viral infections (includes herpes, papillomavirus, influenza), bacterial infections (including abscess), rash, headache (including migraine), asthaenia, leukopaenia (including lymphopaenia, neutropaenia), eosinophilic disorder, pain (any sites), pyrexia, sensory abnormalities, hypertension, pruritus (any sites), hepatitis (including hepatic enzyme increase), injection site reactions, and nausea. Serious adverse reactions include sepsis, opportunistic infections, tuberculosis, herpes zoster, lymphoma, leukaemia, solid organ tumours, angioneurotic oedema, cardiomyopathies (includes heart failure), ischemic coronary artery disorders, pancytopaenia, hypercoagulation (including thrombophlebitis, pulmonary embolism), cerebrovascular accident, vasculitis, hepatitis/hepatopathy (includes cirrhosis), and renal impairment/nephropathy (includes nephritis). In RA controlled clinical trials, 4.4% of patients discontinued taking Cimzia due to adverse events vs. 2.7% for placebo.

Cimzia is contraindicated in patients with hypersensitivity to the active substance or any of the excipients, active tuberculosis or other severe infections such as sepsis or opportunistic infections or moderate-to-severe heart failure.

Serious infections including sepsis, tuberculosis and opportunistic infections have been reported in patients receiving Cimzia. Some of these events have been fatal. Monitor patients closely for signs and symptoms of infections including tuberculosis before, during and after treatment with Cimzia. Treatment with Cimzia must not be initiated in patients with a clinically important active infection. If an infection develops, monitor carefully and stop Cimzia if infection becomes serious. Before initiation of therapy with Cimzia, all patients must be evaluated for both active and inactive (latent) tuberculosis infection. If active tuberculosis is diagnosed prior to or during treatment, Cimzia therapy must not be initiated and must be discontinued. If latent tuberculosis is diagnosed, appropriate anti-tuberculosis therapy must be started before initiating treatment with Cimzia. Patients should be instructed to seek medical advice if signs/symptoms (e.g. persistent cough, wasting/weight loss, low grade fever, listlessness) suggestive of tuberculosis occur during or after therapy with Cimzia.

Reactivation of hepatitis B has occurred in patients receiving a TNF-antagonist including Cimzia who are chronic carriers of the virus (i.e. surface antigen positive). Some cases have had a fatal outcome. Patients should be tested for HBV infection before initiating treatment with Cimzia. Carriers of HBV who require treatment with Cimzia should be closely monitored and in the case of HBV reactivation Cimzia should be stopped and effective anti-viral therapy with appropriate supportive treatment should be initiated.

TNF antagonists including Cimzia may increase the risk of new onset or exacerbation of clinical symptoms and/or radiographic evidence of demyelinating disease; of formation of autoantibodies and uncommonly of the development of a lupus-like syndrome; of severe hypersensitivity reactions. If a patient develops any of these adverse reactions, Cimzia should be discontinued and appropriate therapy instituted.

With the current knowledge, a possible risk for the development of lymphomas, leukaemia or other malignancies in patients treated with a TNF antagonist cannot be excluded. Rare cases of neurological disorders, including seizure disorder, neuritis and peripheral neuropathy, have been reported in patients treated with Cimzia.

Adverse reactions of the hematologic system, including medically significant cytopaenia, have been infrequently reported with Cimzia. Advise all patients to seek immediate medical attention if they develop signs and symptoms suggestive of blood dyscrasias or infection (e.g., persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, pallor) while on Cimzia. Consider discontinuation of Cimzia therapy in patients with confirmed significant haematological abnormalities.

The use of Cimzia in combination with anakinra or abatacept is not recommended due to a potential increased risk of serious infections. As no data are available, Cimzia should not be administered concurrently with live vaccines. The 14-day half-life of Cimzia should be taken into consideration if a surgical procedure is planned. A patient who requires surgery while on Cimzia should be closely monitored for infections.

Cimzia was studied in 325 patients with active axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) in a placebo-controlled clinical trial for up to 30 months and in 409 patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) in a placebo-controlled clinical trial for up to 30 months. The safety profile for axSpA and PsA patients treated with Cimzia was consistent with the safety profile in RA and previous experience with Cimzia.

Please consult the full prescribing information in relation to other side effects, full safety and prescribing information. European SmPC date of revision 15th September 2016.

http://www.ema.europa.eu/docs/en_GB/document_library/EPAR__Product_Information/human/001037/WC500069763.pdf

REFERENCES

Smolen et al. Head-to-Head Comparison of Certolizumab Pegol versus Adalimumab in Rheumatoid Arthritis: 2-Year Efficacy and Safety Results from the Randomized EXXELERATE Study. Lancet. 2016

For further information, UCB:

Corporate

Communications Investor Relations Brand Communications









France Nivelle, Antje Witte, Andrea Levin Christopher,

Global Communications, Investor Relations, UCB Immunology Communications, UCB

UCB





T +32.2.559.9178, T +32.2.559.94.14, T +1.404.483.7329

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]









Laurent Schots,





Media Relations, UCB





T +32.2.559.92.64,





[email protected]







About UCB

UCB, Brussels, Belgium (www.ucb.com) is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of innovative medicines and solutions to transform the lives of people living with severe diseases of the immune system or of the central nervous system. With more than 7 700 people in approximately 40 countries, the company generated revenue of  3.9 billion in 2015. UCB is listed on Euronext Brussels (symbol: UCB). Follow us on Twitter: @UCB_news

Forward looking statements - UCB

This press release contains forward-looking statements based on current plans, estimates and beliefs of management. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including estimates of revenues, operating margins, capital expenditures, cash, other financial information, expected legal, political, regulatory or clinical results and other such estimates and results. By their nature, such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions which could cause actual results to differ materially from those that may be implied by such forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Important factors that could result in such differences include: changes in general economic, business and competitive conditions, the inability to obtain necessary regulatory approvals or to obtain them on acceptable terms, costs associated with research and development, changes in the prospects for products in the pipeline or under development by UCB, effects of future judicial decisions or governmental investigations, product liability claims, challenges to patent protection for products or product candidates, changes in laws or regulations, exchange rate fluctuations, changes or uncertainties in tax laws or the administration of such laws and hiring and retention of its employees. UCB is providing this information as of the date of this press release and expressly disclaims any duty to update any information contained in this press release, either to confirm the actual results or to report a change in its expectations.

There is no guarantee that new product candidates in the pipeline will progress to product approval or that new indications for existing products will be developed and approved. Products or potential products which are the subject of partnerships, joint ventures or licensing collaborations may be subject to differences between the partners. Also, UCB or others could discover safety, side effects or manufacturing problems with its products after they are marketed. Moreover, sales may be impacted by international and domestic trends toward managed care and health care cost containment and the reimbursement policies imposed by third-party payers as well as legislation affecting biopharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement.

SOURCE UCB

Related Links

http://www.ucb.com


WASHINGTON, Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Latino Coalition (TLC), the leading national non-partisan advocacy organization representing Hispanic businesses and consumers, released the following statement congratulating President-Elect Donald J. Trump and the new 115th U.S. Congress:

"The Latino Coalition congratulates President-Elect Donald J. Trump on a hard-fought victory," said Hector Barreto, The Latino Coalition Chairman and former U.S. Small Business Administrator. "After one of the most contentious races in modern history, the voters spoke loudly on Election Day, rejecting the status quo and electing real change for the direction of our country and our government. The electorate of this nation used their vote as a referendum on big government, regulations stifling small business, unwarranted intrusion on financial institutions and anti-growth policies."

"For far too long, our nation's small business community has been burdened with higher taxes, more regulations, the Affordable Care Act and U.S. jobs shipped overseas," Barreto explained. "In spite of all that, the Latino entrepreneurial spirit has not been broken. In fact, Latino entrepreneurs are 1.5 times more likely to become business owners and those businesses are growing at 15 times the national growth rate. In total, there are more than four million Hispanic-owned businesses in America, with more than $660 billion in combined annual revenue.

"We look forward to working with the Trump administration and the new congress to expand opportunities and create a positive economic environment for America's 28 million small businesses. Small business has always been the engine of America, providing immeasurable contributions and unmatched economic, job-creating power to our economy."

"With a network and database encompassing over one million small businesses and 90 organizations nationwide, The Latino Coalition looks forward to rolling up our sleeves and working with the Trump administration and the new Congress to bring about true change and confront the challenges the American people are facing," added TLC's National Executive Director, Allen Gutierrez. "Our number one goal is to bring prosperity back through growing our economy, creating jobs and lowering the disparity in education and income gaps in the Latino community. We believe strongly that a united America can still be that beacon of hope to the world, especially if our entrepreneurial sector is strong again."

ABOUT THE LATINO COALITION- The Latino Coalition (TLC) was founded in 1995 by a group of Hispanic business owners from across the country to research and develop policies solutions relevant to Latinos. TLC is a non-profit nationwide organization with offices in California, Washington, DC and Guadalajara, Mexico. Established to address and engage on key issues that that directly affect the well-being of Hispanics in the United States, TLC's agenda is to create and promote initiatives and partnerships that will foster economic equivalency and enhance and empower overall business, economic and social development for Latinos. Visit www.thelatinocoalition.com.

SOURCE The Latino Coalition

Related Links

http://www.thelatinocoalition.com


The NEF, an African Institute for Mathematical Science (AIMS) initiative in partnership with the Robert Bosch Stiftung, is a global platform that connects science, society and policy in Africa and the rest of the world  with the goal to leverage science for human development globally. In March of this year, the NEF, in partnership with the Government of Senegal, hosted the NEF Global Gathering 2016, the first global forum for science on African soil with more than 1000 participants from research, academia, government, the private sector and civil society fields to discuss how science and technology can solve global challenges.

"After a successful NEF Global Gathering 2016, we are excited to launch the process to recruit the next class of Africa's most brilliant young scientists. The first class, through their compelling presentations during the NEF Global Gathering in Dakar, demonstrated to the world that Africa is a source of cutting-edge research, life changing innovations and scientific leadership. The NEF Fellows are changing perceptions, breaking barriers and inviting global collaboration that is necessary for Africa's and the world's development trajectory. We are so confident that this year we have expanded the number of NEF Fellows from fifteen to twenty spots," said Mr. Thierry Zomahoun, NEF Chair and President and CEO of AIMS.

Application to the NEF Fellows programme is open to Africans from around the world - including those who currently reside in the Diaspora - in all fields of science, including the social sciences, humanities and technology fields. Applicants must be under 42 years, hold a PhD and demonstrate a strong track record of research/findings that have a global impact.

Dr. Ingrid Wuenning Tschol, Senior Vice-President Strategy of the Robert Bosch Stiftung, which has partnered with AIMS to create the NEF, said: "As we saw in Senegal, the NEF Fellows are excellent representatives of their fields. They are doing brilliant research, mentoring the next generation of African scientists and they are showing the potential of Africa to the rest of the world, but also to the African leaders. As we open the new call for applications, we hope to ignite greater collaboration among scientists on the continent and globally. We also believe that strengthening research on the African continent will have sustained positive impact for the world. We encourage all who qualify to apply to the NEF Fellows programme."

In addition to attending and presenting at the NEF Global Gathering 2018, NEF Fellows will participate in research tours and visiting scientist weeks with partners. NEF Fellows will be facilitated in speaking and publishing globally and supported in their research. The tenure of the NEF Fellows runs until 30 June 2019.

The applications to the NEF Fellows programme will run from 15 November 2016 to 27 January 2017 and applications can be accessed at nef.org/fellows. The selected NEF Fellows will be announced in June 2017. To meet some of the current NEF Fellows, click here

About the Next Einstein Forum

Launched in 2013, the Next Einstein Forum (NEF), an African Institute for Mathematical Science (AIMS) initiative in partnership with the Robert Bosch Stiftung, hosts biennial NEF Global Gatherings where hundreds of outstanding thinkers and distinguished stakeholders from around the world, gather together in Africa, to leverage science for global development. The next NEF Global Gathering 2018 will be held in Kigali, Rwanda, in March 2018 under the patronage of H.E. Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda. The NEF has been endorsed by the African Union Commission, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Governments of Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa, the African Academy of Sciences (AAS) and a growing number of private sector and civil society partners from across the world who are passionate about positioning Africa's scientific community as an influential member in the global scientific community, which will ensure sustainable human development in Africa and other parts of the world.

In addition to the NEF Global Gathering, the NEF runs the NEF Fellows Programme and the NEF Ambassadors Programme (which brings together 54 young Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Social Sciences Ambassadors, passionate about demonstrating the impact of science on daily life in their respective countries). The NEF hosts policy initiatives including Science/Education Ministerial Meetings and publishes a Declaration at each NEF Global Gathering with concrete measures to increase Africa's scientific and innovation output. Further, in 2017, the NEF will begin hosting science-industry-policy roundtables to encourage stakeholder collaboration. The goal is to raise $100 million USD by 2020 towards scientific research and public engagement in Africa and engage 100 million young people around science and technology on the continent. We believe the next Einstein will be African. More at nef.org Twitter: @NextEinsteinFor Facebook: NextEinsteinForum

MEDIA CONTACTS

Nathalie Munyampenda

Associate Director, Partnerships and Public Engagement

E: [email protected]

T: + 1 647-588-5464

Mimi Kalinda

Director of Communications, AIMS Global Network

E: [email protected]

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/439343-INFO

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160216/333990LOGO

SOURCE Next Einstein Forum

Related Links

http://nef.org


NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine today announced the results of The Princeton Review's 11th annual survey naming the 25 undergraduate and 25 graduate schools best for entrepreneurship studies.

Babson College captured the #1 spot on the undergraduate entrepreneurship programs ranking list for the 5th consecutive year. Harvard University finished #1 on the graduate entrepreneurship programs list for the 3rd consecutive year.

Out of more than 300 schools offering entrepreneurship studies that The Princeton Review surveyed, 35 institutions' undergraduate and/or graduate programs made the roster of top schools for 2017. The two lists of top 25 undergraduate and graduate schools for entrepreneurship studies can be found below.

The Princeton Review posted the lists at www.princetonreview.com/entrepreneur, as well as the methodology for the survey, criteria for the rankings, and detailed profiles of the schools.

The rankings can also be viewed on www.entrepreneur.com/topcolleges and will be published in the December issue of Entrepreneur, available on newsstands November 22. Entrepreneur's feature on the lists reports on the kinds of real-world insights, emerging trends and business ideas that fuel the entrepreneurial spirit shared across the campuses on the lists.

The Princeton Review conducted a 60-question survey from May through August 2016. The survey asked schools to report on levels of their commitment to entrepreneurship studies inside and outside the classroom. More than 40 data points were analyzed for the tally to determine the rankings. Topics included: the percentage of faculty, students, alumni actively and successfully involved in entrepreneurial endeavors, the number and reach of mentorship programs, scholarships and grants for entrepreneurial studies, and the level of support for school-sponsored business plan competitions.

The 2017 list includes two newcomers to the undergraduate list: The University of Iowa (#19), and Texas A&M University (#20). Three schools are new on the graduate list: the Texas A&M University (#21), The University of Texas at Dallas (#22), and Northeastern University (#25).

Many schools on the lists have exceptional offerings. Among them, Rice University, #3 on the graduate list, offers one of the largest and richest graduate student business plan competitions. Last year, it awarded $1,522,350 for student entrepreneurial projects. At Brigham Young University, #2 on the undergraduate list, students graduating within the last five years have started 320 companies that have raised $430 million in funding. At the University of Michigan, #3 on the undergraduate list, the school offers its students access to 33 different clubs that support students' entrepreneurial efforts and additionally host multiple on-campus competitions awarding more than $460,000 in prize money.

"These colleges and business schools have superb entrepreneurship programs," said Robert Franek, The Princeton Review's Senior VP-Publisher. "We highly recommend them to any applicant aspiring to launch a business. Their faculties are truly engaged in entrepreneurism. Their courses are rich with in-class and out-of-class experiential components, and the financial and networking support their students and programs receive via donors and alumni is extraordinary."

"We're honored to join Princeton Review in spotlighting these schools for their role in cultivating entrepreneurship," says Jason Feifer, editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine. "It's exciting that schools across the country are embracing entrepreneurism, exploring and developing new ways to promote it, and preparing their students for an ever-changing economy that's full of opportunities. And it'll be even more exciting to see what these students do next." The Princeton Review has partnered with Entrepreneur Media Inc. on this project since 2006. Only schools that participate in The Princeton Review entrepreneurship program survey are eligible for consideration for the rankings. The company also reports school rankings in several other categories in its annual books The Best 381 Colleges, Colleges That Pay You Back, and The Best 294 Business Schools. All Princeton Review rankings are accessible at www.princetonreview.com.

The Princeton Review's Top Schools for Entrepreneurship Studies for 2017

Top 25 Undergraduate Schools

Top 25 Graduate Schools

Schools Listed By Country / State / City

Top 25 Undergraduate Schools

Babson College Brigham Young University (UT) University of Michigan  Ann Arbor Northeastern University Baylor University University of Houston City University of New York, Baruch College Temple University University of Maryland  College Park Washington University in St. Louis University of Washington University of Oklahoma Syracuse University University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University of Dayton Miami University Tecnologico de Monterrey ( Mexico ) University of Utah University of Iowa Texas A&M University Texas Christian University Clarkson University Belmont University Loyola Marymount University DePaul University

Top 25 Graduate Schools

Harvard University Babson College Rice University Northwestern University University of Chicago University of Michigan - Ann Arbor Brigham Young University (UT) City University of New York, Baruch College Temple University University of South Florida University of Virginia University of Texas at Austin DePaul University University of Washington University of Utah University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Syracuse University Saint Louis University University of Oklahoma University of Maryland - College Park Texas A&M University University of Texas at Dallas University of Rochester Washington University in St. Louis Northeastern University

About The Princeton Review

The Princeton Review is a leading tutoring, test prep and college admission services company. Every year, it helps millions of college- and graduate school-bound students achieve their education and career goals through online and in person courses delivered by a network of more than 4,000 teachers and tutors, online resources, and its more than 150 print and digital books published by Penguin Random House. The Princeton Review is headquartered in New York, NY and is an operating business of Match Group. For more information, visit www.princetonreview.com. Follow the company on Twitter @theprincetonrev.

The Princeton Review is not affiliated with Princeton University.

About Entrepreneur Media Inc.

For nearly 40 years, Entrepreneur Media Inc. has been serving the entrepreneurial community providing comprehensive coverage of business and personal success through original content and events. Entrepreneur magazine, Entrepreneur.com, and publishing imprint Entrepreneur Press provide solutions, information, inspiration and education read by millions of entrepreneurs and small business owners worldwide. To learn more, visit entrepreneur.com. Follow us on Twitter at @Entrepreneur and like us on Facebook at facebook.com/entmagazine.

Websites

www.princetonreview.com/entrepreneur

www.entrepreneur.com/topcolleges

SOURCE Entrepreneur Magazine
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161109/437441 )

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161109/437440 )



Startups, business and R&D

1956 participants from 47 countries from around the world met in Warsaw, Poland between 24th and 27th of October. 291 startups competed in the Great Pitch and took part in networking activities with 192 investors and 371 corporate representatives. Pre-planned 1:1 meetings again turned out to be a success, since there were 3072 of them carried out. Lectures and discussion panels were held by world experts in innovation, new technologies, business, marketing and sales. A new element of the conference agenda was a separate day dedicated to research and development of Polish companies. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and Higher Education Jarosaw Gowin, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Robert Grey, Director of the National Centre for Research and Development Maciej Chorowski, Director of the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development Micha Banka and European science and business representatives participated in the debate. During the opening of Wolves Summit R&D, Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed the audience about working on promoting Polish startups on foreign and national markets.

Great value for business

Four intense days of 1:1 meetings and lectures by world experts turned the Warsaw's Palace of Culture and Science into a place of business development on a global scale. Startups had the chance to find out more about the art of presenting and investors and corporate managers could see young tech projects pitch live on a few stages.

- We managed to create conditions, which encouraged talks between startups, investors and corporations. Many participants from the October edition appeared at the conference for yet another time. It proves the values the event delivers - Barbara Piasek, CEO at Wolves Summit says.

Networking activities, opportunities to conduct talks in both formal and informal conditions and the presence of investors, corporate representatives and startups from 47 countries are not the only reasons participants willingly come to Wolves Summit.

Everyone in one place

- The atmosphere at the conference is great. We came here to meet investors and business partners, but also our future customers. It's very convenient to have everybody in one location - Grzegorz Wojcik, CEO at Autenti, explains. Autenti is a startup that won the main prize of $100 000 in the Great Pitch competition. This platform for approving documents and signing contracts online won the recognition of the judges and as a result Autenti, as the first Polish startup in Wolves Summit's history triumphed in the Great Pitch.

At the same time experienced startups, whose goal is often to find new clients and business partners, competed for a Media Package. The winner in this category was another FinTech company, a Danish startup Yourpay. It specializes in payment facilitation for small and medium companies.

- During the meetings my main focus was on investors. My colleague, a sales representative, got many new contacts from partners. We hope the Media Package we won will help us develop the company in Poland - Mathias Gajhede, CEO at Yourpay, says.

Research and development in Poland

Wolves Summit also focused on the activity of startups in Poland and on promoting R&D. Representatives from the National Centre for Research and Development, Polish Agency for Enterprise Development, Ministry of Science and Higher Education and Ministry of Foreign Affairs particularly mentioned the support young tech companies in the country can count on regardless of their industry.

- In no way do we limit the initiative of entering a path of their own entrepreneurship. Any idea may turn out to be a divine spark. They do not have to be ideas from a certain list - Maciej Chorowski from the National Centre for Research and Development says - some areas, stated in the Responsible Development Plan like electromobility, Batory programme, naturally generate the concentration on concrete technologies But it doesn't mean an idea not fitting those strategies will be evaluated negatively, since it may be beyond all others' imagination - he adds.

Networking at its best

- During the upcoming editions of Wolves Summit we still want to concentrate on networking, introducing business, technology and funds representatives. We receive feedback from the participants that startups established partnerships with investors from the very first day of the conference. It makes us even happier because it was our goal all along - Barbara Piasek sums up. The four-day conference full of meetings, lectures and startup pitches was a huge success, but the organizers do not stop there and plan another, even more valuable Wolves Summit event in 2017.

Media Contact:

Paulina Galinska - Corporate Leader;

[email protected]

+48 536 799 977





SOURCE Wolves Summit
United Arab Emirates and GALWAY, Ireland, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Galway based TitanHQ has announced a major partnership with the Middle East based cyber security operator Zservices. The announcement was made during Enterprise Ireland's trade mission to KSA and the U.A.E led by Charlie Flanagan TD, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161115/439470

The exciting deal will see cyber security powerhouse Zservices partnering with TitanHQ to sell SpamTitan, the leading cloud based anti-spam solution for business, across the Middle East, Africa and India. Zservices will be focusing on the telco, technology, communications, large enterprises, government entities, retailers, pharma and education industries across the Middle East and Africa. The announcement is a huge boost for TitanHQ and a testament to 20 years of product development in the email security space.

Zservices is the only cyber security-as-a-service in-country cloud operator in the Middle East. Zservices cyber security SaaS operation is supported by strong partnerships with the largest Middle East national service providers and telecoms, offering a comprehensive cyber security portfolio that fits and addresses the cyber security needs of the region.

Welcoming the announcement Minister Flanagan said: "As Enterprise Ireland's trade mission will demonstrate, the opportunities for innovative Irish companies to build partnerships and increase their sales to the Middle East region are real and tangible. Today's announcement by TitanHQ is a great example of what is possible for highly innovative Irish companies in this dynamic market. I wish TitanHQ and Zservices every success for the future."

Mr. Nidal Taha, President of Zservices added: "Unlike other cloud-based security companies, Zservices operates the first and only Middle East type approved Internet SaaS cyber security cloud infrastructures physically located and deployed across multiple strategic Middle East secure data centers. We're excited to add SpamTitan to our cloud infrastructure."

Kevin Sherry, Executive Director Global Business Development at Enterprise Ireland said: "With Enterprise Ireland assistance, Irish companies have been hugely successful in growing their exports to the GCC member states. Last year, exports of Enterprise Ireland backed companies to the region increased by 12% to over 507m with further strong growth projected this year. TitanHQ's partnership with Zservices demonstrates the clear opportunities that exist for Irish companies in the region. It is also testament to TitanHQ's innovation and ambition. Our teams in Ireland and the Middle East will continue to work with TitanHQ to grow export sales to the GCC region, offering them the opportunity to scale and contributing directly to jobs growth and prosperity at home in Ireland."

About TitanHQ

TitanHQ provides businesses worldwide with comprehensive network security protection through their award-winning suite of email and web security solutions. In operation since 1999, TitanHQ has a deep understanding of the complex IT threats that face IT professionals today. Offering businesses a comprehensive, yet affordable subscription-based suite of security solutions that incorporates the latest spam and virus protection, web security and email archiving technology.

With an impressive 95% customer retention rate the company has 6,500 customers in 129 countries worldwide. Headquartered in Galway, Ireland, the company also operates a US office in Tampa, Florida as well as 75 partner offices worldwide.

For more information, please visit http://www.titanhq.com

About Zservices

Zservices is a Middle-East based cyber security cloud operator, operating a multi-tenant cloud security architecture of Zscaler, Spamtitan and other custom-designed cloud architectures spanning the entire Middle East region. Zservices Cyber Security Cloud is supported by strong partnerships with the largest Middle East National Service Providers and Telecoms, offering a comprehensive cyber security portfolio that fits and addresses the cyber security needs of the region.

Zservices Middle East Security Cloud is built physically within the Middle East boundaries at multiple highly available secure data centers in the United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, State of Qatar, State of Kuwait, Kingdom of Jordan, Kingdom of Morocco and Republic Arab of Egypt, offering first & only cyber security cloud across the entire Middle East.

Unlike other cloud-based security companies, Zservices operates the first and only Middle East type approved Internet SaaS cyber security cloud infrastructures physically located and deployed in highly available fashion across multiple strategic Middle East secure data centers, ensuring:

Comprehensive security, data protection, visibility and control  100% in the cloud

Localization of Security-as-a-Service offering

Faster service response time

Regional service level agreements

In-country privacy, in-country traffic termination, in-country security processing

Compliance with telecom regulations.

For images please visit: http://www.titanhq.com/images/uploads/product/icons/TitanHQ-Enterprise-Ireland-Gulf-min.jpg

For further information please contact:

Geraldine Hunt  Tel: +353 91 545500 / email : [email protected]

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This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com

SOURCE TitanHQ

Related Links

http://www.titanhq.com


IRVINE, Calif., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Telecommunication Systems Division today announced its new "Trade Up to Toshiba" programs, enabling legacy customers of its Strata DK and Strata CTX business telephone systems to affordably trade up to Toshiba's VIPedge cloud-based, IPedge IP and Strata CIX on-site business telephone solutions.

Moving to Toshiba's VIPedge and IPedge solutions help businesses comply with Kari's Law (S. 2553), which went into effect earlier this year and mandates that 911 calls be made without first pressing '1' or '9'. Available through select Authorized Toshiba Dealers, the "Trade Up to Toshiba" promotion runs through March 29, 2017.

"We are encouraging all of our legacy customers to upgrade their systems to comply with Kari's Law," said David Ansehl, director of sales for Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Telecommunication Systems Division. "Toshiba's 'Trade Up' promotions make it affordable to move to Toshiba's cloud and on-site telephone solutions."

Kari's Law is named for Kari Hunt, who was killed by her estranged husband at a motel in Northeast Texas in late 2013. Her nine-year-old child tried repeatedly to dial '911' from the motel room's phone but was not able to get through as the motel required dialing '9' to get an outside line.

Toshiba is offering three "Trade Up" programs that will help businesses comply with Kari's Law.

1. Trade Up to VIPedge Cloud Telephone Solution, Get Free Telephones

Trade up to Toshiba's VIPedge cloud-based business telephone solution and get a free IP5531-SDL telephone for each trade-in of Toshiba or select competitors' telephones.

2. Upgrade to IPedge On-site Telephone System, Get Free UC Licenses

Upgrade to any model of Toshiba's IPedge on-site business telephone system or Strata CIX with IPedge App Server and get 10 to 30 free UCedge licenses, depending on the system model. UCedge is Toshiba's award-winning unified communications application that gives users the power to communicate how, where and when they want  via smartphone, PC or tablet  and with whomever they want  by unifying their communications across platforms via Voice, Chat, Collaboration and Presence.

3. Buy Five IP Telephones, Get Half Off

New and existing Toshiba customers can get half off MSRP when they purchase five IP5000-series telephones. Or, get 30 percent off MSRP when purchasing less than five telephones. Toshiba's IP5000-series business telephones run on users' existing data networks at up to gigabit speeds and extend capabilities to remote locations. They are compatible with Toshiba's VIPedge, IPedge and Strata CIX platforms.

Among the Industry's Longest Business Phone System Warranties

Toshiba offers one of the longest manufacturer's warranties in the business telephone industry. Toshiba's Value Plus warranty program offers a two-, three- or five-year manufacturer's warranty on Toshiba's IPedge systems plus up to seven-year warranties on Toshiba's IP5000 series telephones. Toshiba also offers up to seven-year warranties on Strata CIX business telephone systems.

Recycling of Old Systems

Systems that are traded in become the property of the Authorized Toshiba Dealer. Authorized Toshiba Dealers are responsible for having systems recycled in a timely manner in accordance with Toshiba policy and all applicable laws, including using R2 or e-Stewards certified recyclers.

For more information, visit: http://www.telecom.toshiba.com/tradeup/

About Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc.

Telecommunication Systems Division (TSD)

Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Telecommunication Systems Division is one of the six business units of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. (TAIS) and offers business communication solutions for SMB enterprises and enterprises with multi-site or regional locations. Toshiba's VIPedge cloud-based business telephone solution and the IPedge and Strata CIX systems offer Voice over IP, voice mail and unified messaging, conferencing and collaboration, unified communications applications, networking, mobility and more. Together with Toshiba's PCs, tablets, copiers, and surveillance video cameras/recorders, Toshiba's Telecommunication Systems Division helps enterprises maximize business efficiency in communications and mobility. Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., TAIS is an independent operating company owned by Toshiba America, Inc., a subsidiary of Toshiba Corporation. For more information, visit www.Telecom.Toshiba.com.

About Toshiba

Toshiba Corporation, a Fortune Global 500 company, channels world-class capabilities in advanced electronic and electrical product and systems into three focus business fields: Energy that sustains everyday life, that is cleaner and safer; Infrastructure that sustains quality of life; and Storage that sustains the advanced information society. Guided by the principles of The Basic Commitment of the Toshiba Group, "Committed to People, Committed to the Future," Toshiba promotes global operations and is contributing to the realization of a world where generations to come can live better lives.

Founded in Tokyo in 1875, today's Toshiba is at the heart of a global network of 550 consolidated companies employing 188,000 people worldwide, with annual sales surpassing 5.6 trillion yen (US$50 billion) (as of March 31, 2016).

To find out more about Toshiba, visit www.toshiba.co.jp/index.htm.

For additional information, or to purchase Toshiba telecommunication products, visit http://www.telecom.toshiba.com for an Authorized Toshiba Dealer.

Follow us on Facebook (ToshibaPhoneSystems), Twitter (toshibaphonesys) and LinkedIn (Toshiba-telecommunication-systems-division).

 2016 Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. All product, service and company names are trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of their respective owners. Information including, without limitation, product prices, specifications, availability, content of services, and contact information is subject to change without notice.

Toshiba PR Contact:

Teri Sawyer, T&Co.

714-801-1687

[email protected]

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SOURCE Toshiba America Information Systems - Telecommunication Systems Division

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SAN DIEGO, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Ubiqomm today unveils its ubiquitous high-speed data connectivity solution, especially designed for enterprise drone fleets engaged in present Line of Sight (LOS), and in the future, "Beyond Visual Line of Sight" (BVLOS) flights. "The application for drones is increasing exponentially as companies apply drone technology for surveying and performing emergency operations in remote locations, and other use cases including traffic monitoring in cities, and above stadium live-streaming of sporting events. Consistent high-speed data connectivity between drones and ground control centers is becoming mission critical," said Saum Vahdat, VP of Marketing and Business Development at Ubiqomm.

Ubiqomm's wireless solution encompasses a network of base stations on the ground and communications devices mounted on drones. Each base station is capable of supporting all drones within its 25km+ coverage radius. The seamless handoff with the adjacent base station ensures ubiquitous coverage in a large area while connecting drones to a cloud backhaul. Ubiqomm's unique patented solution uses multiple techniques, such as innovative antenna design for both base stations and drones, mobility management, and interference mitigation, together achieving very high bandwidth efficiency. Mr. Vahdat added "Dubbed as "Wi-Fi in the Sky," Ubiqomm's solution enables 10x lower CapEx and OpEx as compared to terrestrial LTE networks while enabling very high-data rates of 200Mbps between drones and base stations."

Ubiqomm is partnering with Skyriver, an affiliated company in the Bridgewest Group portfolio of businesses with expertise in wireless broadband network design and deployment, in the millimeter wave and lower spectrum bands. Together, the two companies are offering demonstrations to companies that are interested in leveraging Ubiqomm's technology for their own products and services. The demonstration includes multiple drones flying within a region approximately 25km away from their San Diego base station. Each drone will be transmitting multiple 1080p video streams to the base station, utilizing secure high-speed links (200+ Mbps).

Ubiqomm and Skyriver are seeking industry partners for development, testing and trials of UAV traffic management (UTM) protocols in addition to the "Wi-Fi in the Sky" network solution, paving the way for BVLOS flight operations.

About Ubiqomm  www.ubiqomm.com

Ubiqomm is a wireless communications system design and development company. We are focused on delivering ubiquitous broadband systems for enterprise drones and Internet to the home. Ubiqomm's offering includes system design, communication payload / base station, ground terminals / airborne terminals, and system optimization and deployment.

Ubiqomm has a strong intellectual property portfolio and is well-positioned to be the leading supplier of connectivity for future drone fleets.

About Skyriver Communications  www.skyriver.net

Skyriver is a leading-edge wireless broadband provider transforming broadband via technological ingenuity and inspiring customer insight. The company's innovative approach to broadband service stems from its mission to advance connectivity for data-driven businesses. Leveraging its expertise in wireless communications, Skyriver is meeting the rapidly accelerating demand for enterprise bandwidth through its pioneering developments in millimeter wave (mmW) broadband.

About the Bridgewest Group  www.bridgewestgroup.com

The Bridgewest Group is an opportunistic investor that creates long-term value through the application of superior industry knowledge, operational expertise and significant financial resources to attractive investment opportunities. The Bridgewest Group is a closely held investment company with global assets in the biotech, wireless communications, infrastructure for "internet of things," semiconductor, real estate, and financial services industries. Having been in business for over twenty-five years and headquartered in San Diego, California, the Bridgewest Group has operations across the USA, Europe and Asia.

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SOURCE Ubiqomm

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The first direct flight between China and Portugal is slated to take flight in the summer to bolster tourism from China to Portugal.

The new flight between Beijing and Lisbon is scheduled to start from June 2017, but no further details have been revealed.

The announcement was made during Portugal Prime Minister Antonio Costa's state visit to China.

On October 8, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang held a welcoming ceremony for his Portuguese counterpart in Beijing. The two leaders witnessed the signing of eight collaborative projects after holding talks.

Costa said the launch of a direct flight from Beijing to Lisbon would pave the way for better connectivity between the two countries.

Luis Araujo, president of Turismo de Portugal, the Portuguese National Tourism Authourity, said both the Chinese and Portuguese tourism industries had been longing to see the direct flight launched and he was honored to cooperate with Beijing Capital Airlines CO to make the flight possible.

According to Turismo de Portugal, Portugal is the eighth most visited European country among Chinese tourists. In the first half of 2016, the country welcomed 153,000 Chinese visitors, a 35 percent increase compared to the same period last year, while overnight hotel stays also increased 29 per cent to 271,200.

Portugal has set up eight visa centers in China. Besides the three first-tier cities, there are others in Fuzhou, Shenyang, Wuhan, Chengdu and Nanjing.
RIDGEFIELD, Conn., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced updated results from data for 494 patients participating in the ongoing phase III RE-VERSE AD study, which showed that administration of 5g of idarucizumab immediately reversed the anticoagulant effect of dabigatran, the active ingredient in Pradaxa (dabigatran etexilate mesylate). Idarucizumab, marketed in the U.S. as Praxbind, is the first specific reversal agent for a novel oral anticoagulant (NOAC) approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and RE-VERSE AD is the largest patient study investigating a reversal agent for a NOAC. The updated results from this expanded interim analysis were presented today at the American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions 2016 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

RE-VERSE AD includes the types of patients healthcare professionals may treat in real world emergency settings. The study enrolled patients treated with dabigatran who had uncontrolled or life-threatening bleeding (Group A, n=298, 60%) or required emergency surgery or an invasive procedure (Group B, n=196, 40%). This includes severely ill or injured patients (e.g., patients in an automobile accident with multiple injuries, patients with aortic aneurysm, patients receiving an organ transplant) who as such require urgent reversal of dabigatran.

The primary endpoint of reversal of the anticoagulant effect of dabigatran within four hours was 100 percent, as measured by diluted thrombin time (dTT) and ecarin clotting time (ECT) (95% CI, 100-100). Of note, reversal was evident immediately after administration of idarucizumab. For Group A patients with extracranial bleeding, median time to confirmation of hemostasis was 3.5 to 4.5 hours, depending on anatomical location. The source of bleeding was similar to the previous interim analysis (45% GI, 33% ICH). In Group B, 93 percent of patients experienced normal hemostasis during surgery, and the median time to the operating room was 1.6 hours after administration of idarucizumab.

No safety signals attributed to idarucizumab were detected. All serious adverse events reported were considered to be related to the index event or comorbidities rather than to study treatment. Thrombotic events occurred in 6.3 percent (31/494) of patients within 90 days after idarucizumab administration. Approximately two-thirds of these patients received no anticoagulation prior to the event. Mortality rates were 12.3 percent (Group A) and 12.4 percent (Group B) at 30 days, and 18.7 percent (Group A) and 18.5 percent (Group B) at 90 days.

"The availability of idarucizumab as a reversal agent for dabigatran is an important development in anticoagulation care, and RE-VERSE AD is the most robust examination of its real-world use and impact," said Dr. Charles Pollack, lead investigator of RE-VERSE AD, Professor of Emergency Medicine, Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia. "These results further support that, although idarucizumab is likely to be rarely used, a specific reversal agent provides an important therapeutic option for physicians and patients."

"The growing body of evidence for idarucizumab adds to Boehringer Ingelheim's legacy of firsts in cardiovascular disease," said Sabine Luik, MD, senior vice president, Medicine & Regulatory Affairs, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. "We believe this research and these results help drive our understanding of the contribution of idarucizumab for patient care."

About RE-VERSE AD

RE-VERSE AD is an ongoing phase III global study that includes patients taking PRADAXA who require urgent procedures or have uncontrolled bleeding. The primary endpoint was the maximum percentage reversal of the pharmacodynamic anticoagulant effect of dabigatran within 4 hours after the administration of idarucizumab, based on central laboratory determination of dTT or ECT.

The study is the first of its kind in patients, and has been underway since May 2014, enrolling up to 500 patients in more than 35 countries.

There are serious risks to consider when treating patients with PRAXBIND, including warnings and precautions for thromboembolic risk, re-elevation of coagulation parameters, hypersensitivity reactions and risks of serious adverse reactions in patients with hereditary fructose intolerance due to sorbitol excipient. The most frequently reported adverse reactions (5%) in PRAXBIND-treated healthy volunteers was headache (12/224, 5%) and in the Phase III RE-VERSE AD study in patients were hypokalemia (9/123, 7%), delirium (9/123, 7%), constipation (8/123, 7%), pyrexia (7/123, 6%) and pneumonia (7/123, 6%).

Please see more complete details of these risks in the "About PRAXBIND" section.

About Praxbind (idarucizumab)

INDICATIONS AND USAGE

PRAXBIND is indicated in patients treated with Pradaxa when reversal of the anticoagulant effects of dabigatran is needed:

For emergency surgery/urgent procedures

In lifethreatening or uncontrolled bleeding

This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on a reduction in unbound dabigatran and normalization of coagulation parameters in healthy volunteers. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon the results of an ongoing cohort case series study.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS

Thromboembolic Risk

Dabigatran-treated patients have underlying diseases predisposing them to thromboembolic events. Reversing dabigatran therapy exposes patients to the thrombotic risk of their underlying disease. To reduce this risk, resumption of anticoagulant therapy should be considered as soon as medically appropriate.

Re-elevation of Coagulation Parameters

Elevated coagulation parameters (e.g., activated partial thromboplastin time or ecarin clotting time) have been observed in a limited number of PRAXBIND-treated patients. If reappearance of clinically relevant bleeding together with elevated coagulation parameters is observed or if patients requiring a second emergency surgery/urgent procedure have elevated coagulation parameters, an additional full dose may be considered.

Hypersensitivity Reactions

There is insufficient clinical experience evaluating risk of hypersensitivity to idarucizumab, but a possible relationship could not be excluded. Risk of hypersensitivity (e.g., anaphylactoid reaction) to idarucizumab or excipients needs to be weighed cautiously against the potential benefit. If serious allergic reaction occurs, immediately discontinue PRAXBIND and institute appropriate treatment.

Risk in Patients with Hereditary Fructose Intolerance

PRAXBIND contains 4 g sorbitol as an excipient. When prescribing PRAXBIND in patients with hereditary fructose intolerance consider the total daily amount of sorbitol/fructose consumption from all sources as serious adverse reactions (e.g. hypoglycemia, hypophosphatemia, metabolic acidosis, increase in uric acid, acute liver failure and death) may occur.

ADVERSE REACTIONS

The most frequently reported adverse reaction in 5% of idarucizumab-treated healthy volunteers was headache (12/224). The most frequently reported adverse reactions in 5% of patients were hypokalemia (9/123), delirium (9/123), constipation (8/123), pyrexia (7/123) and pneumonia (7/123).

As with all proteins there is a potential for immunogenicity with idarucizumab. In treated patients, treatment-emergent antibodies with low titers were observed (9/224).

USE IN SPECIFIC POPULATIONS

Pregnancy and Nursing Mothers

PRAXBIND should be given to a pregnant or nursing woman only if clearly needed.

Please see full Prescribing Information .

About Pradaxa (dabigatran etexilate mesylate)

Indications and Usage

Pradaxa (dabigatran etexilate mesylate) capsules is indicated:

to reduce the risk of stroke and systemic embolism in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION ABOUT PRADAXA

WARNING: (A) PREMATURE DISCONTINUATION OF PRADAXA INCREASES THE RISK OF THROMBOTIC EVENTS, (B) SPINAL/EPIDURAL HEMATOMA

(A) PREMATURE DISCONTINUATION OF PRADAXA INCREASES THE RISK OF THROMBOTIC EVENTS

Premature discontinuation of any oral anticoagulant, including PRADAXA, increases the risk of thrombotic events. If anticoagulation with PRADAXA is discontinued for a reason other than pathological bleeding or completion of a course of therapy, consider coverage with another anticoagulant

(B) SPINAL/EPIDURAL HEMATOMA

Epidural or spinal hematomas may occur in patients treated with PRADAXA who are receiving neuraxial anesthesia or undergoing spinal puncture. These hematomas may result in long-term or permanent paralysis. Consider these risks when scheduling patients for spinal procedures. Factors that can increase the risk of developing epidural or spinal hematomas in these patients include:

use of indwelling epidural catheters

concomitant use of other drugs that affect hemostasis, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), platelet inhibitors, other anticoagulants

a history of traumatic or repeated epidural or spinal punctures

a history of spinal deformity or spinal surgery

optimal timing between the administration of PRADAXA and neuraxial procedures is not known

Monitor patients frequently for signs and symptoms of neurological impairment. If neurological compromise is noted, urgent treatment is necessary. Consider the benefits and risks before neuraxial intervention in patients who are or will be anticoagulated.

CONTRAINDICATIONS

PRADAXA is contraindicated in patients with:

- active pathological bleeding;

- known serious hypersensitivity reaction (e.g., anaphylactic reaction or anaphylactic shock) to PRADAXA;

- mechanical prosthetic heart valve

WARNINGS & PRECAUTIONS

Increased Risk of Thrombotic Events after Premature Discontinuation

Premature discontinuation of any oral anticoagulant, including PRADAXA, in the absence of adequate alternative anticoagulation increases the risk of thrombotic events. If PRADAXA is discontinued for a reason other than pathological bleeding or completion of a course of therapy, consider coverage with another anticoagulant and restart PRADAXA as soon as medically appropriate.

Risk of Bleeding

PRADAXA increases the risk of bleeding and can cause significant and, sometimes, fatal bleeding. Promptly evaluate any signs or symptoms of blood loss (e.g., a drop in hemoglobin and/or hematocrit or hypotension). Discontinue PRADAXA in patients with active pathological bleeding.

Risk factors for bleeding include concomitant use of medications that increase the risk of bleeding (e.g., anti-platelet agents, heparin, fibrinolytic therapy, and chronic use of NSAIDs). PRADAXA's anticoagulant activity and half-life are increased in patients with renal impairment.

Reversal of Anticoagulant Effect : A specific reversal agent (idarucizumab) for dabigatran is available when reversal of the anticoagulant effect of dabigatran is needed: For emergency surgery/urgent procedures In life-threatening or uncontrolled bleeding

: A specific reversal agent (idarucizumab) for dabigatran is available when reversal of the anticoagulant effect of dabigatran is needed:

Hemodialysis can remove dabigatran; however clinical experience for hemodialysis as a treatment for bleeding is limited. Prothrombin complex concentrates or recombinant Factor VIIa may be considered but their use has not been evaluated. Protamine sulfate and vitamin K are not expected to affect dabigatran anticoagulant activity. Consider administration of platelet concentrates where thrombocytopenia is present or long-acting antiplatelet drugs have been used.

Thromboembolic and Bleeding Events in Patients with Prosthetic Heart Valves

The use of PRADAXA is contraindicated in patients with mechanical prosthetic valves due to a higher risk for thromboembolic events, especially in the post-operative period, and an excess of major bleeding for PRADAXA vs. warfarin. Use of PRADAXA for the prophylaxis of thromboembolic events in patients with AFib in the setting of other forms of valvular heart disease, including bioprosthetic heart valve, has not been studied and is not recommended.

Effect of P-gp Inducers & Inhibitors on Dabigatran Exposure

Concomitant use of PRADAXA with P-gp inducers (e.g., rifampin) reduces exposure to dabigatran and should generally be avoided. P-gp inhibition and impaired renal function are major independent factors in increased exposure to dabigatran. Concomitant use of P-gp inhibitors in patients with renal impairment is expected to increase exposure of dabigatran compared to either factor alone.

Reduction of Risk of Stroke/Systemic Embolism in NVAF

For patients with moderate renal impairment (CrCl 30-50 mL/min), reduce the dose of PRADAXA to 75 mg twice daily when dronedarone or systemic ketoconazole is coadministered with PRADAXA.

For patients with severe renal impairment (CrCl 15-30 mL/min), avoid concomitant use of PRADAXA and P-gp inhibitors.

ADVERSE REACTIONS

The most serious adverse reactions reported with PRADAXA were related to bleeding.

Most frequent adverse reactions leading to discontinuation of PRADAXA were bleeding & gastrointestinal (GI) events.

PRADAXA 150 mg resulted in higher rates of major and any GI bleeds compared to warfarin.

In patients  75 years of age, the risk of major bleeding may be greater with PRADAXA vs warfarin.

75 years of age, the risk of major bleeding may be greater with PRADAXA vs warfarin. Patients on PRADAXA 150 mg had an increased incidence of GI adverse reactions. These were commonly dyspepsia (including abdominal pain upper, abdominal pain, abdominal discomfort, and epigastric discomfort) and gastritis-like symptoms (including GERD, esophagitis, erosive gastritis, gastric hemorrhage, hemorrhagic gastritis, hemorrhagic erosive gastritis, and GI ulcer)

Other Measures Evaluated

In NVAF patients, a higher rate of clinical MI was reported in patients who received PRADAXA (0.7/100 patient-years for 150 mg dose) than in those who received warfarin (0.6).

Please see full Prescribing Information, including boxed WARNING and Medication Guide.

About Boehringer Ingelheim

Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., based in Ridgefield, CT, is the largest U.S. subsidiary of Boehringer Ingelheim Corporation.

Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the world's 20 leading pharmaceutical companies. Headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany, the company operates globally with 146 affiliates and more than 47,000 employees. Since its founding in 1885, the family-owned company has been committed to researching, developing, manufacturing and marketing novel treatments for human and veterinary medicine.

Boehringer Ingelheim is committed to improving lives and providing valuable services and support to patients and families. Our employees create and engage in programs that strengthen our communities. To learn more about how we make more health for more people, visit our Corporate Social Responsibility Report.

In 2015, Boehringer Ingelheim achieved net sales of about $15.8 billion (14.8 billion euros). R&D expenditure corresponds to 20.3 percent of its net sales.

For more information please visit www.us.boehringer-ingelheim.com, or follow us on Twitter @BoehringerUS.

Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. either owns or uses the trademarks Pradaxa, Praxbind and RE-VERSE AD under license.

SOURCE Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

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WASHINGTON, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- U.S. News & World Report, the global authority in rankings and consumer advice, today announced the 2017 Best Cruise Lines rankings, evaluating 15 top cruise lines across six categories. Twenty-four million passengers are expected to take a cruise this year and interest continues to climb. The rankings help travelers select the best cruise by brand, region, itinerary and budget.

For the first time, Celebrity Cruises is named the No. 1 Best Cruise Line for the Money and the No. 1 Best Cruise Line in the Mediterranean. Disney Cruise Line earns distinctions both as the Best Cruise Line for Families and the Best Cruise Line in the Caribbean for the fourth consecutive year. Crystal Cruises continues its reign as the Best Luxury Cruise Line and the Best Cruise Line for Couples.

"Cruise lines are going above and beyond to reach new audiences and keep existing customers happy by offering high-quality amenities, brand-new ships and updated itineraries  but that doesn't mean choosing one is easy," said Gwen Shearman, travel editor at U.S. News. "The Best Cruise Lines rankings help travelers sort through their options by showcasing the lines and ships that meet the high expectations of travelers and critics alike."

The methodology for the Best Cruise Lines rankings factors in expert evaluations of cruise ship quality, reputation among travelers, results from health assessments conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other factors such as price class and itinerary offerings.

To share your thoughts about the Best Cruise Lines rankings, visit Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using #BestCruises.

About U.S. News & World Report

U.S. News & World Report is a digital news and information company that empowers people to make better, more informed decisions about important issues affecting their lives. Focusing on Education, Health, Personal Finance, Travel, Cars and News & Opinion, USNews.com provides consumer advice, rankings, news and analysis to serve people making complex decisions throughout all stages of life. More than 37 million people visit USNews.com each month for research and guidance. Founded in 1933, U.S. News is headquartered in Washington, D.C.

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SOURCE U.S. News & World Report

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WASHINGTON, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S.-Russia Business Council (USRBC or Council) announced today that Mark Sutton, Chairman and CEO of International Paper, has been unanimously approved by its Board of Directors to be the next Chairman of the USRBC. Mr. Sutton assumed the Chairmanship at the USRBC Annual Meeting in San Francisco on November 10-12, 2016.

"Mark understands the strategic importance of U.S.-Russia commercial relations and the imperative of business-to-business engagement between Russians and Americans," said Dan Russell, President and CEO of the USRBC. "The U.S.-Russia Business Council is delighted that its new Chairman leads a company with a proud trajectory in Russia. International Paper is a major investor in Russia and has partnered with Ilim Group, the largest integrated paper and pulp manufacturer in Russia, to run an exemplary joint venture. International Paper models excellent corporate practices in Russia, and we look forward to Mark's leadership of the USRBC."

"The U.S.-Russia Business Council is a respected, balanced voice on bilateral economic issues and I am delighted to be assuming the Chairmanship of this organization," said Mark Sutton.

Separately, Mr. Russell thanked Klaus Kleinfeld, Chairman and CEO of Arconic, Inc., for his dedicated service and leadership of the Council. "Klaus' enthusiasm energized U.S.-Russia commercial relations from the early days of the Obama Administration. His steady leadership and commitment to keeping private sector relationships on track during challenging times have been key to the U.S.-Russia Business Council successes," said Mr. Russell.

**

The U.S.-Russia Business Council (USRBC) is a 501(c) 3 non-profit trade association of approximately 160 companies committed to offering a non-partisan open platform for discussion and advancement of U.S.-Russia commercial relations.USRBC actively seeks Russia's continued integration into the rules-based global economy. Learn more at www.usrbc.org.

**

International Paper began its operations in Russia in 1998 with the acquisition of the Svetogorsk pulp and paper mill, one of Russia's largest pulp and paper mills. In Russia, International Paper produces and markets office and offset papers, liquid packaging board and bleached chemical thermo-mechanical pulp. International Paper has invested more than$ 740 million in the upgrade and modernization of the Svetogorsk pulp and paper mill operations. The company's Russian footprint also includes a 50:50 joint venture with the Russian-based Ilim Group, the largest integrated paper and pulp manufacturer in Russia. The joint venture has funded a $1.2 billion capital expansion projects at Bratsk and Koryazhma. International Paper is a responsible investor committed to sustainable forestry and other environmental and social projects which benefit the Russian community.

**

Mark Sutton was named CEO of International Paper in 2014 and became Chairman of the Board in January 2015. Immediately prior to becoming CEO, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer with responsibility for leading and running the company's global businesses. Mr. Sutton has been with the company his entire career, joining International Paper as an engineer at the Pineville, Louisiana mill in 1984. He has worked in a variety of senior management positions, including Senior Vice President of Industrial Packaging; Senior Vice President, Printing and Communications Papers - The Americas; Senior Vice President, Global Supply Chain; and Vice President of Corporate Strategic Planning. He also worked in International Paper's European businesses, first as Director of European Corrugated Packaging Operations and then Vice President and General Manager responsible for all corrugated packaging operations across seven countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Mark holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Louisiana State University.

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SOURCE U.S.-Russia Business Council

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TUCSON, Ariz., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- VERTESS (www.vertess.com), a leading healthcare M+A advisory firm, today announced the closing of two major healthcare transactions in Q3 2016.

VERTESS represented Integrity Medical, Inc., a Savannah, GA-based provider of complex rehabilitation technology (CRT), in an acquisition by National Seating & Mobility, Inc., a national, Franklin, TN-based leader in the CRT marketplace.

"This acquisition was very beneficial to our client, as well as the buyers, who were able to strategically expand in core areas they had identified," noted Bradley Smith, the VERTESS Managing Director/Partner who represented Integrity Medical in their transaction.

Alpine Investors, Inc., was a buy side client for VERTESS in the purchase of Acumen, Inc., a Mesa, AZ-based provider of fiscal agent services, primarily for publicly-funded elder citizens and people with disabilities. Acumen is being integrated into TEAM RMS, Inc., a San Francisco, CA-based company offering similar services in the private sector.

Tom Schramski, PhD, CMAA, Founder and Managing Partner of VERTESS, who represented Alpine Investors, said "We've had a great 2016 delivering strong value to all parties and we believe that 2017 will be another tremendous year for our clients."

For more information, please contact Tom Schramski at [email protected].

About VERTESS

VERTESS is a healthcare-focused M+A firm with expertise in diverse healthcare and human service verticals, ranging from behavioral healthcare, substance abuse treatment and cognitive disabilities to DME, home care/hospice, urgent care centers and other specialized services and products. The VERTESS professional M+A team members have a combined 100+ years of executive experience launching, building and successfully exiting their own healthcare companies, giving them a unique understanding of the objectives of healthcare owners and executives.

VERTESS has successfully advised and consulted with middle market healthcare companies across the country. It is establishing a strong international presence with its new office in Mexico City, Mexico. VERTESS is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona with additional offices in Scottsdale, Dallas/Ft. Worth, New York City, and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.vertess.com.

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SOURCE VERTESS

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"We get ideas on where and how to spend vacations based on what we read and see online but we travel because we want to experience a place. VR gives us the chance to experience a place before we get there. We can check out the hotel room, see how clear the water is in a resort, check out how spacious a car is and others," a respondent stated.

Other major findings are:

79% remembered brand names, specific product features and ad messages proving VR ads are more than just a novelty. (See accompanying infographic)

64% are willing to purchase products and services they tested within VR if they can

8 of 10 of those that are willing to purchase products and services within VR are males

"The key lies in allowing VR users to interact with the products and services being advertised. They aren't just looking at a poster or watching a 30-second TV spot. They can open a car door and check out the dashboard. A real estate agent in California can let prospective buyers that are in Australia see houses they are selling. Consumers see results even before purchasing a product," said Sandy Shen, co-founder of Etoron.

This is the first global study that tests how AR and VR ads can change a consumer's purchasing process.

About VRADX

VRADX fully operates in North America, China, Russia and Europe making it the first truly global VR and AR ad platform. It recently partnered with Original Force and Lions Gate for the first VR-based movie promo for the movie L.O.R.D. (https://en.vradx.com/media/). The promo revealed how VR & AR can actually extend and strengthen the connection between the movies and the viewers by creating a venue where viewers can interact with movie characters, further explore storylines and experience movie locations.

Contacts:

Los Angeles Contact:

Fairlane Raymundo

[email protected]

China Contact:

Sandy Shen

[email protected]

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SOURCE VRADX

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CHICAGO, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Today VTech announced its Sort & Discover Activity Cube was chosen as one of the Top 10 Preschooler-Approved Toys by The Goddard School. Winning toys for the 9th annual toy test were evaluated first-hand by thousands of children in 50 Goddard Schools across the country. Submissions were judged on the toy's ability to encourage interaction and child-initiated play, promoting creativity and collaboration  all while maintaining the child's creative interests over time.

"We're honored that our Sort & Discover Activity Cube was selected as a Top 10 Preschooler-Approved Toy," said William To, President, VTech Electronics North America. "Our Baby, Infant and Preschool toys are designed in collaboration with our Expert Panel to support developmentally meaningful skills and experiences, so we're pleased that our Activity Cube met the approval of the ultimate toy experts themselves  kids."

The Sort & Discover Activity Cube features five sides of fun. Little ones will love exploring seven fun activities and two electronic panels that introduce colors, numbers, animals and more. They can turn the book page, twist the spinner and slide the animals to develop fine motor skills. The activity cube also develops hand-eye coordination with the shape sorter and colorful shape blocks.

"By exploring a range of toys that have been carefully evaluated by our early childhood education team, children help provide insight into both the educational and 'fun' value of some of the most exciting new toys on the market," said Dr. Craig Bach, Vice President of Education, Goddard Systems, Inc. "The Sort & Discover Activity Cube was a big hit with our testers and provides great educational value to our preschoolers, something we're always striving to offer at our schools.

The Sort & Discover Activity Cube is designed for ages 9-36 months and retails for $29.99. Additional information can be found at www.vtechkids.com/learning.

About VTech

VTech is a world leader in age-appropriate and developmental stage-based electronic learning products for children. As a pioneer in the learning toy category, VTech develops high-quality, innovative educational products that enrich children's development and make learning fun. With a rich, almost 40 year history, VTech has not only established itself as a learning authority but also consistently remains at the forefront of innovation with multiple award-winning products. The company also has a broad range of award-winning infant and preschool products available in 24 different languages worldwide, with more than 100 new products introduced every year. VTech was awarded a prestigious 2015 Toy of The Year (TOTY) Award for its Go! Go! Smart Animals Zoo Explorers Playset. In order to further strengthen VTech's position as a learning authority, the company's Expert Panel, with esteemed experts in reading, language arts, science, math, and child development, consult on new product introductions.

VTech Electronics North America, LLC is based in Arlington Heights, Illinois. VTech Electronics Limited is headquartered in Hong Kong with distribution globally.

For more information on VTech's additional product lines, visit www.VTechKids.com, www.facebook.com/VTechtoys on Facebook or follow @VTechToys on Twitter.

About The Goddard School

Learning for fun. Learning for life. For nearly 30 years, The Goddard School has used the most current, academically endorsed methods to ensure that children from six weeks to six years old have fun while learning the skills they need for long-term success in school and in life. Talented teachers collaborate with parents to nurture children into respectful, confident and joyful learners. The Goddard School's AdvancED- and Middle States-accredited F.L.EX. Learning Program (Fun Learning Experience) reaches more than 50,000 students in more than 450 Goddard Schools in 36 states. The Goddard School's comprehensive play-based curriculum, developed with early childhood education experts, provides the best childhood preparation for social and academic success. To learn more about The Goddard School, please visit www.goddardschool.com.

Media Contact:

Nicole Centinaro

Coyne Public Relations

973-588-2000

[email protected]

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SOURCE VTech

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PRAGUE, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The long anticipated release of the Windytv iOS app is finally here. Starting now, users can visit the App Store and download the free Windytv app directly to their iPhone.

With breathtaking wind displays and striking weather pattern views, Windytv's users will enjoy this app just as much as the desktop version, but now they can view it easily throughout the day. Immediate access to Windytv is not only beneficial to the most adventurous sportsman, but any user.

For those using the app for specialized forecasts, there are more in-depth and detailed options, such as altitude adjustments, airport runway details and multiple data source options. In the detailed location forecast you can view webcams in the vicinity to get a clear view of the actual weather at that exact spot.

The Windytv Android app has experienced great success with over 500,000 downloads and a 4.7 rating, the highest in the weather category. The iOS app shares mostly the same features of the Android app, including: multiple overlays, unit options, specific location forecast and airport location details. This version of the iOS app will include the ECMWF model, which provides the highest resolution and most accurate forecast available.

With a large following of loyal users, who can attest to the benefit and assistance that this weather service provides, Windytv now has one goal and one purpose: to build the best weather forecast available. This exciting app brings Windytv one step closer to that goal by giving their users easy and convenient access to invaluable weather details, at their fingertips.

Download the app for free today! http://apple.co/2e4B3n9

About Windytv:

Born at the end of 2014 with an aim toward advanced weather users whose activity is highly dependent on weather, such as kiters, windsurfers, surfers, pilots, sailors and fishermen. Today, a record number of 1.6 million unique visitors in a single day has shown that Windytv is a priceless tool for anyone looking to avoid dangerous weather phenomena.

Media Contact:

Adrienne Glenn

Public Relations Director

http://www.windytv.com

[email protected]

+420-775-889-990

SOURCE Windytv
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Woodruff-Sawyer & Co. announced today that its Board of Directors has named Andy Barrengos Chief Executive Officer, effective November 30, 2016. Mr. Barrengos, 52, is a 20-year veteran of Woodruff-Sawyer with a client focus in a number of complex risk sectors, including Technology and Life Sciences. Andy is a Partner, a Senior Vice President and a Director of the Firm. He will become the sixth CEO in Woodruff-Sawyer's 98-year history.

"We believe that Andy is the ideal CEO to lead Woodruff-Sawyer forward," said Woodruff-Sawyer Chairman Stan Loar. "He is a proven executive with deep industry experience, a passion for client service and superlative management skills. We are confident that under Andy's leadership Woodruff-Sawyer will continue building on our premier risk management and insurance franchise, and delivering the trusted counsel that is the hallmark of our Firm."

"Woodruff-Sawyer is home to an incredibly talented and dedicated team with a client-focused culture that serves as the foundation for our success," said Mr. Barrengos. "I am deeply honored to lead Woodruff-Sawyer and I look forward to working with Stan, our Board, Leadership Team, Shareholders and colleagues to fulfill our vision for our clients and employees. We have a strong market position and an unrivaled reputation in the marketplace, and I want to build on that momentum as we take our Firm into its second century of growth and success."

The Board also announced the promotion of Zac Overbay and Carolyn Polikoff to newly created senior leadership positions. Mr. Overbay, Senior Vice President and Claims Practice Leader, will become the Firm's Chief Administrative Officer. In this role, he will assume responsibility for many of the Firm's operational functions in support of its growing national footprint, resources and industry sectors. Ms. Polikoff, Senior Vice President leading the Firm's San Francisco Corporate & Executive Protection Practice, will become the National Practice Leader for all Corporate & Executive Protection and Property & Casualty Insurance business units. In this enterprise-wide role, she will oversee all non-Benefits revenue in order to better integrate the Firm's services across these business units and provide even more consistent client service through a unified national structure.

Mr. Overbay and Ms. Polikoff will join the Firm's current senior leadership team, which includes Mary Sklarski, the Chief Strategic Development Officer, responsible for enterprise-wide growth initiatives and insurer relationships; and Kathy Prosser, the National Employee Benefits Practice Leader, responsible for Employee Benefits nationally.

"We are thrilled to have Zac and Carolyn on our Senior Leadership team with Mary and Kathy," said Mr. Loar. "Their appointments reflect the depth of our talent. They are seasoned executives whose skills will be valuable additions to our senior leadership team."

Background on Andy Barrengos, Zac Overbay and Carolyn Polikoff

Mr. Barrengos joined Woodruff-Sawyer in 1996 and has served in a series of positions of increasing responsibility. He has more than 30 years' experience in the insurance industry and is an expert in strategic planning, risk management, program design and new product development. Over his career, he has worked primarily with clients in complex-risk sectors including those in Technology and Life Sciences, with a focus on Directors and Officers Liability, Products Liability, Cyber/Errors & Omissions Liability, and other Property & Casualty risk areas. Prior to joining Woodruff-Sawyer, Mr. Barrengos was the Regional Director for Sedgwick's Life Sciences Practice in California and previously an Underwriting Manager for Technology and Life Sciences companies with Chubb. He serves on the advisory councils for the major insurers and also participates in their product development efforts.

Mr. Overbay joined Woodruff-Sawyer in 2002 and has led the Claim Audit and Consulting Practice at Woodruff-Sawyer since that time. In this role, Mr. Overbay provided client consultation in the areas of resolving coverage disputes, business litigation, and large-scale catastrophic property losses both nationally and internationally. Prior to joining Woodruff-Sawyer, Mr. Overbay was with the State Farm Insurance Companies, where he managed various Property and Casualty claim departments. He was also a member of the company's national catastrophe team, providing emergency claim response.

Ms. Polikoff joined Woodruff-Sawyer in 2006, and has led the firm's Corporate & Executive Protection Practice since 2010. In this role, she advised clients and Woodruff-Sawyer brokers and consultants on matters relating to the full suite of corporate & executive protection insurance policies, including Directors and Officers Liability, Employment Practices and Fiduciary Liability insurance. Prior to joining Woodruff-Sawyer, Ms. Polikoff spent 11 years as a financial institutions underwriter for Directors and Officers as well as Errors and Omissions Liability insurance.

MEDIA CONTACT

Melinda Mui

[email protected]

Woodruff-Sawyer & Co.

50 California St., 12th Floor

San Francisco, CA 94111

415.402.6593

About Woodruff-Sawyer & Co.

Woodruff-Sawyer is one of the largest independent insurance brokerage firms in the nation, and is an active partner of Assurex Global and International Benefits Network. For 98 years, Woodruff-Sawyer has been partnering with clients to implement and manage effective and innovative insurance, employee benefits and risk management solutions, both nationally and abroad. Headquartered in San Francisco, Woodruff-Sawyer has offices throughout California, and in Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Hawaii and New England. For more information, call 844.WSANDCO (844.972.6326) or visit www.wsandco.com.

SOURCE Woodruff-Sawyer & Co

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The study, conducted on behalf of Expedia by Northstar, found that America again trails much of the world in work-life balance on the metric of paid vacation. Americans received 15 paid vacation days from their employers in the past year, and took only 12. With three days unused, this means American workers effectively failed to take approximately 375 million paid vacation days within the past year.*

"We've been looking at vacation and work life balance for more than a decade now and while many of the employed adults we survey agree that regular vacations are important for their general health and wellbeing, there are still plenty who have trouble maintaining the important balance between work and life," said John Morrey, Vice President & General Manager of Expedia.com. "We believe vacation, no matter how you define it, is critical to maintaining this balance and we hope that Vacation Deprivation serves as a good reminder to take a few days off and disconnect."

Paid Vacation: A Right in Europe, a Luxury in Asia

Across Europe, paid vacation days are very much a right. The study found that Spanish workers are given 30 days off and take all 30. The same is true of the Finnish and French. Italian and German workers are given 30 days of vacation and take 25 and 28 of those days, respectively.

Being given 30 days off for vacation isn't exclusive to European nations, however. Brazilians take their full complement of 30 afforded vacations days, as do residents of the United Arab Emirates.

North American countries, specifically the United States, Canada, and Mexico, earn about half that time off work. Study respondents in each nation report having 15 days available, and take 12, 14 and 12 days in turn.

North American paid vacation habits most closely resemble those in Asia. Vacation Deprivation revealed that South Koreans are given 15 days and take only 8, the least among the 28 countries surveyed. The Japanese take 10 of 20 days available, Malaysians take 12 of 16 possible days and Thai workers take 12 of 15.

Vacation Deprivation is a State of Mind

Despite having 30 vacation days available to them, 68 percent of Spanish and United Arab Emirates workers feel "very or somewhat vacation deprived," the most among all respondents. A full 25 percent of Americans described themselves as "very vacation deprived," the highest percentage in the field. Only 6 percent of Norwegian and Swiss respondents said the same.

Guilt and worry prompt many workers to skip vacation. In particular:

Nine percent of Americans said they worried that taking their full allotment of days off "will be perceived negatively" by their employer.

About 14 percent of Americans reported feeling high levels of guilt, with 6 percent of Americans claiming to feel so guilty that they simply take no time off whatsoever.

A full 29 percent of Americans reported that they typically go one year or longer between vacations.

More than one in five (22 percent) U.S. employees feel they should wait a year or more into a new job before taking a day off.

Despite these worries, American bosses are perceived to be largely supportive of vacation. Seventy-five percent of Americans felt that their employers are "supportive," in contrast to bosses in Finland (29 percent), Spain (37 percent) and Brazil (42 percent).

Vacation as an Incentive, Key to Happiness

When asked which perks employees would value most during compensation negotiations, more vacation time ranked highly. The study found that:

Additional vacation was the second most prized work incentive, cited by 21 percent of Americans, trailing "flexible work hours" (22 percent) and edging "ability to work from home" (19 percent).

"Better insurance" ranked fourth. Across all 28 countries, only Americans, at 17 percent and Canadians (11 percent) had "better insurance" desires in excess of 10 percent. The global average was 5 percent.

Just under a quarter of Americans (23 percent) strongly agree they deserve more vacation days then they are given.

The same percentage of US workers reported that the prospect of additional vacation days would motivate them to change jobs.

About 15 percent would even agree to a reduction in pay for more vacation time.

Roughly 28 percent of Americans say they are "more easily aggravated" at work if they do not, or cannot, take enough vacation time.

Nearly four of ten U.S. workers (38 percent) admitted to making vacation plans during the work day, just under the global average of 40 percent.

Disconnection is Desired but Difficult

Among these 28 countries, 10 percent of workers, on average, said they check email "multiple times per day" on vacation. Slightly more than one-third (34%) of Americans claimed to "never" check email on vacation. "Disconnecting from work" ranked third on the list of what makes Americans happiest when they are on vacation, trailing "exploring somewhere new" and "spending time with those I am travelling with." The Swedes and the Danish were least likely to check email at on vacation, while workers in Hong Kong, India, UAE, and South Korea were most likely to check at least once per day.

About 46 percent of Americans said they would give up social media for a week for one extra day of vacation. More than half of Americans (51 percent) would avoid alcohol, 41 percent would abstain from coffee, 29 percent would skip television and 28 percent would give up sex. About 21 percent of American survey respondents said they would forego the internet entirely for one additional day off. A full 8 percent vowed not to shower.

A deeper analysis of Vacation Deprivation can be found on Expedia Viewfinder.

Vacation Practices by Country Country Vacation Days Offered Vacation Days Taken Unused Days Australia 20 15 5 Austria 25 25 0 Belgium 24 23 1 Brazil 30 30 0 Canada 15 14 1 Denmark 25 25 0 Finland 30 30 0 France 30 30 0 Germany 30 28 2 Hong Kong 14 14 0 Ireland 21 21 0 India 21 15 6 Italy 30 25 5 Japan 20 10 10 Malaysia 16 12 4 Mexico 15 12 3 Netherlands 25 22 3 New Zealand 20 19 1 Norway 25 25 0 Singapore 18 14 4 South Korea 15 8 7 Spain 30 30 0 Sweden 25 25 0 Switzerland 25 25 0 Thailand 15 12 3 UAE 30 30 0 United Kingdom 25 25 0 USA 15 12 3

* As of September 2016, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were just under 125 million Americans who work full-time.

About Vacation Deprivation

Expedia first commissioned Vacation Deprivation in 2000 to examine the work-life balance of Americans. In 2005, Expedia began comparing behaviors across countries. As of 2016, Vacation Deprivation has grown to encompass 28 countries. 9,424 employed adults aged 18 and older were asked by Northstar about work-life balance in September 2016.

This study was conducted on behalf of Expedia by Northstar, a globally integrated strategic insights consulting firm. It was conducted online from September 12 to September 29, 2016, across North America, Europe, South America, and Asia Pacific using the Kantar-owned GMI (Global Market Insite) and Lightspeed Research amalgamated group of panels. The study was conducted among 9,424 employed adults aged 18 years of age and older across 28 countries. Sampling quotas and weighting were used to ensure the sample is representative of each country's population in terms of age and gender. Assuming a probability sample, the margin of error would be +/-1.0 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

About Expedia.com

Expedia.com is one of the world's largest full service travel sites, helping millions of travelers per month easily plan and book travel. Expedia.com (https://www.expedia.com/, 1-800-EXPEDIA) aims to provide the latest technology and the widest selection of top vacation destinations, cheap tickets, hotel deals, car rentals, destination weddings, cruise deals and in-destination activities, attractions, services and travel apps. With the Expedia Best Price Guarantee, Expedia.com customers can get the best rates available online for all types of travel.

Expedia, Expedia.com, Expedia+, Find Yours, Vacation Deprivation and the Airplane logo are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Expedia, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the property of their respective owners  2016 Expedia, Inc. All rights reserved. CST # 2029030-50.

Web site: https://www.expedia.com/

About Northstar

NORTHSTAR is a strategic marketing insights and consulting firm that aligns leading edge, customized research techniques and cultural context with proprietary and proven strategic marketing frameworks and models to drive insights to impact. Northstar's suite of services relate to the most critical elements of brand, customer and marketing strategy, with sector expertise in travel and tourism, retail, automotive, CPG, food & beverage, financial services, pharma / health care, transportation and fashion / luxury. For more information, please go to www.northstarhub.com.

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SOURCE Expedia.com

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"Our newest board members bring a broad range of valuable experience: from military, business, and nonprofit to government, education, and medicine," said Mike Linnington, WWP chief executive officer. "I look forward to working closely with our new board members, gaining their valuable insights, learning from their experiences, and furthering our efforts to connect, serve, and empower our warriors."

Lt. Gen. Richard Tryon was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps after graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1975. During his 40-year career in the Marine Corps, Tryon participated in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, Operation Provide Comfort, and completed overseas assignments in Japan, Germany, and Iraq. He served as Commanding General 2nd Marine Division (Camp Lejeune), and Commanding General of the Multinational Force  West (Iraq). He also served as Commander, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Command and U.S. Marine Corps Forces Europe until retiring in 2014. Tryon is currently the Senior Fellow in International Leadership at the Hicks Honors College, University of North Florida.

The Honorable Juan Garcia is the Global Leader for Career Advancement at Amazon, a company which this year pledged to hire 25,000 additional veterans and military spouses over the next five years. Garcia recently served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Manpower and Reserve Affairs) from 2009 to 2015, where he was responsible for all matters pertaining to manpower and personnel policy within the Department of the Navy (DoN). Secretary Garcia also served as a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives from 2007 to 2009. Garcia is a second-generation Naval Aviator who completed deployments in the Persian Gulf and the Western Pacific. He served as a flight instructor at NAS Corpus Christi, and continues to command a reserve unit at Naval Station Kitsap.

Mr. Ken Fisher is chairman and chief executive officer of the Fisher House Foundation, where he oversees a network of 71 Fisher Houses in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. The foundation houses more than 30,000 families each year, while their loved ones are treated at major military and Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers. Mr. Fisher is also a senior partner at Fisher Brothers, where he manages, markets, and leases a portfolio of more than 6.5 million square feet of commercial space around the country, including New York City and Washington DC.

Fisher received the U.S. Army's highest civilian honor, the George C. Marshall Medal, in 2009. In 2015, Fisher was chosen as an inaugural recipient of the Lincoln Awards, which recognize exceptional citizens who provide opportunities and support to American veterans.

Dr. Jonathan Woodson is the Lars Anderson Professor in Management and Professor of the Practice at Boston University's (BU) Questrom School of Business; Professor of Surgery at Boston University's School of Medicine, and Professor of Health Law, Policy and Management at Boston University's School of Public Health.

Prior to returning to Boston University in 2016, Dr. Woodson served (since 2010) as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), where he was the principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense for all health and force health protection issues while ensuring the effective execution of the DoD medical mission. Dr. Woodson oversaw the medical readiness for all military medical services including the evacuation and treatment of those deployed during combat operations, those treated in worldwide military health facilities, and those entitled to medical treatment through TRICARE services worldwide. Dr. Woodson is also a Brigadier General in the U.S. Army Reserves.

Prior to his time in the Department of Defense, Dr. Woodson served as Dean for Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, Professor of Surgery at the Boston University School of Medicine, and senior attending vascular surgeon at Boston Medical Center.

Wounded Warrior Project would like to thank Mr. Guy McMichael III for his decade of service on the board of directors. A veteran of the United States Army, Guy McMichael developed a distinguished career of service over many years. A graduate of Harvard University and the University of Michigan Law School, Mr. McMichael enjoys widespread esteem within both the civil service and veteran communities. He began his career in public service as a deputy prosecuting attorney. He later served as General Counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, playing key roles in the enactment of 40 pieces of legislation to benefit America's veterans and their families.

Mr. McMichael served on the WWP board since 2007, helping oversee a time of unprecedented growth within the organization. He last served as vice chair before reaching his term limit this year.

About Wounded Warrior Project

The mission of Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) is to honor and empower Wounded Warriors. WWP's purpose is to raise awareness and to enlist the public's aid for the needs of injured service members, to help injured servicemen and women aid and assist each other, and to provide unique, direct programs and services to meet their needs. WWP is a national, nonpartisan organization headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. To get involved and learn more, visit woundedwarriorproject.org.

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SOURCE Wounded Warrior Project

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European Union institutions should aspire to build up a talent reservoir during the coming five years comprised of at least 500 civil servants capable of speaking fluent Chinese who are experts in specific China-related areas, says Pierre Defraigne, executive director of the Brussels-based Madariaga  College of Europe Center. [Photo by Fu Jing/chinadaily.com.cn]

European Union institutions should aspire to build up a talent reservoir during the coming five years comprised of at least 500 civil servants capable of speaking fluent Chinese who are experts in specific China-related areas, says a former senior Brussels official.

"Only in this way will Brussels know more about Beijing and balance its understanding deficit," said Pierre Defraigne, executive director of the Brussels-based Madariaga  College of Europe Centre.

Defraigne told China Daily that Brussels has lacked "quality debates" about China for decades. He said the most important reason for this the lack of civil servants within European institutions who have a deep and intensive knowledge about China's reforms, development and history.

Defraigne was a civil servant from 1970 to 2005, when he retired as deputy director-general of the Directorate-General for Trade (DG Trade). He had been Head of Cabinet between 1999 and 2002 for Pascal Lamy, who was European Commissioner for Trade. And Defraigne was deeply involved in China's WTO accession and has been closely watching China's development for many years.

He noted that EU institutions today employ more than 55,000 civil servants, largely in Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg.

"But I should say, no more than 20 of them can speak fluent Chinese and have a good command of special knowledge about this rising power," he said.

Defraigne believes there is still a huge knowledge gap between the two sides, despite decades of active trade and economic exchanges.

"We lack mutual understanding, but it's more on the EU side than on the Chinese side," he said.

Because of the crucial importance of China-EU ties, he wants Brussels to "hire or train" a team of 500 China experts in the coming five years.

These China-ready officials should be able to speak fluent Chinese, read Chinese newspapers and discuss issues with their Chinese counterparts without an interpreter.

"I think it would change a lot in Brussels if we do this," Defraigne said.

He also would like to see EU member states develop more Chinese-speaking officials.

"Brussels should be the main source of expertise on China," he said. "I deeply believe that it should become a key concern of the EU."

Chi Fulin, president of the China Institute of Reform and Development, shares Defraigne's opinion and welcomes his proposals.

In the past year and a half, Chi has traveled to Brussels six times to participate in dialogues with think-tanks and EU institutions.

"We felt it was workable, discussing general topics about China, but it was really hard to deeply explore issues with our European counterparts, and especially with officials," said Chi.

"Defraigne's proposal is visionary and Brussels should give it immediate consideration."

Chi said both China and the EU should consider developing additional projects to expand exchanges within academia and think-tanks.

"Both sides need to make this a priority, to bridge the understanding gap between the two powers," said Chi.

Yao Yueyang contributed to the story
SANTA ROSA, Calif., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Ygrene Energy Fund, Inc., the leading provider of residential, multifamily and commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing, today announced the completion of a $145 million private securitization transaction with strategic insurance partner, Global Atlantic Financial Group, by issuing privately rated Class A notes. The transaction is the company's second securitization to combine both residential and commercial assets in multiple states, including California and Florida.

Authorized by local municipalities, Ygrene provides 100% financing for property owners to deploy energy efficiency, renewable energy, water conservation and climate resiliency upgrades to their buildings through their award winning YgreneWorksTM PACE program. Currently approved in over 319 cities and counties across California, Florida, Georgia, and Missouri, Ygrene offers the only PACE program with repayment terms of up to 30 years, resulting in lower monthly payments and potentially making even the most expensive upgrades affordable.

This securitization funds approximately 6,041 energy and water conservation projects, providing home and business owners with over $290 million in estimated savings on energy and water bills, and eliminating over 174,000 metric tons of CO2 from the atmosphere.

"We are excited to complete our second private PACE securitization with Global Atlantic," said Ygrene CEO, Stacey Lawson. "By combining residential and commercial assets in multiple states, we are able to offer a powerful tool that will help property owners across the country save energy and money, communities meet their environment goals and create local jobs, and ensure a high quality return for investors."

Since Ygrene's inception in 2010, thousands of home and business owners have utilized this simple and affordable PACE financing mechanism to improve the value of their properties and to save on their energy and water bills. Ygrene has approved over $2.07 billion in water conservation, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and climate resiliency improvements, and has completed projects representing an estimated 8,679 local jobs and $1.4 billion in annual economic stimulus for local communities.

"The successful closing of this securitization, along with the high rating and advance rate, reinforces the growing understanding by ratings agencies and investors of the strength and security of the PACE asset class," said Michael Chan, Ygrene CFO. "It's a very exciting time for Ygrene and the PACE industry as a whole. I expect this trend to continue as we build strong, long term relationships with strategic investors."

Ygrene's PACE program has won a number of national and international awards including the 2012 Edison Award for Best Clean Energy Finance Model, the Climate Change Business Journal Innovation Award, and a Business Excellence Award from Richard Branson's Carbon War Room presented at Rio+20. Ygrene has also been selected as a "financial ally" by the Better Buildings Challenge, which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.

About Ygrene Energy Fund

Ygrene Energy Fund is the nation's leading provider of residential, multifamily and commercial property assessed clean energy financing. The award-winning, privately funded YgreneWorks program provides immediately accessible financing with no upfront payments for energy efficiency, renewables, water conservation, and, in certain areas, hurricane protection, electric vehicle charging stations and seismic upgrades. Ygrene is committed to making it easy for property owners to invest in their future and a healthier environment. Over the next five years, YgreneWorks is expected to create tens of thousands of jobs and invest billions of dollars into local economies. Learn more at ygreneworks.com.

About Global Atlantic

Global Atlantic Financial Group, through its subsidiaries, offers a broad range of retirement, life and reinsurance products designed to help our customers address financial challenges with confidence. A variety of options help Americans customize a strategy to fulfill their protection, accumulation, income, wealth transfer and end-of-life needs. In addition, Global Atlantic offers custom solutions and responsive service for the capital, risk and legacy-business management of life and annuity insurance companies around the world.

Global Atlantic was founded at Goldman Sachs in 2004 and separated as an independent company in 2013. Its success is driven by a unique heritage that combines deep product and distribution knowledge with insightful investment and risk management, alongside a strong financial foundation of $50 billion in assets.

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SOURCE Ygrene Energy Fund

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Chinese young film directors and producers pose at the opening ceremony of the one week festival in Brussels on Thursday. [Photo by Fu Jing/China Daily]

Chinese film directors are staging a one-week festival in Brussels, the second edition after last year's screening in the heart of the European Union.

The festival got under way on Thursday.

Twenty young film producers and directors, ranging from 17 to 26 years old, screened their short films for the first time to help Europeans get to see different images of China.

Movie-goes can watch thirteen short films and eight movies in the Flagey, an art house in Brussels.

The youngest one in the group is a high school student aged 17, and the oldest is 26; most of them haven't been to Europe before. Their films primarily reflect Chinese daily life, ranging from the love and tensions among family members, to conflicts between modern livelihoods and nature and tradition.

Monica Urian, a European Commission policy officer, said she loves Chinese culture, practicing kung fu with four of her colleagues every Tuesday evening in their office.

"What impressed me the most are those films about daily life, especially love stories, ' said Urian, adding that her favorite is Suzhou River, directed by Lou Ye.

Alex, an Italian lawyer working in Brussels who is a Chinese film fan, and who would only give his first name, said he found traditional values in the movies, which have been almost lost in Europe. He has been watching Chinese films for twenty years, with more than one hundred movies in his collection.

"I am fascinated by the values such as respect for the friends, for the family and the seniors, love and hate at the utmost degree, settling the conflicts before they expose, keeping the given word and accepting fate and destiny without useless complaint."

While for some others who just make their initial contact with Chinese movies, it is sometimes difficult to understand regarding the cultural or historical contexts.

One Belgian lady, who wouldn't give her name, watched a kung fu movie called The Master and said she felt a bit lost because there was too much fighting and too many knives.

Alex commented that Chinese movie makers should avoid repeating a simplistic identity with martial fighting, adding "Chinese culture has much more to offer by far."

"Moving images remain an important bridge to connect our peoples, and there stands the need to make space for more movie festivals of this kind," said Yang Yanyi, ambassador of China Mission to the European Union at the opening of the festival.

The EU's Urian, whose responsibility is specifically cultural diversity and innovation, also wished there would be more platforms for people-to-people dialogue between China and the EU, to make for further understanding and cooperation.

Yuan Mengqian, the head of the young film directors delegation, agreed and said that via the festival, they had also learnt a lot from the European students about their creativity and broader horizons.

"We really benefit from this kind of eye-opening exchanges with our European colleagues and hopefully, we can do better in the future by getting more young students of arts involved," she said.

Yao Yueyang contributed to the story

To contact the reporter: fujing@chinadaily.com.cn
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Mumbai, Nov 11 : Indian actress Priyanka Chopra's maiden Punjabi film as a producer, titled "Sarvann", will release in December.

The actress, who produces movies under the Purple Pebble Pictures banner, tweeted: "*Drum roll* So proud to announce Purple Pebble Pictures' debut Punjabi film 'Sarvann' Coming this December! Watch this space for more! Sarvann."The Punjabi film is the second project in the regional zone for the "Bajirao Mastani" star. Earlier, she produced a Marathi film titled "Ventilator".

The film features Amrinder Gill and will be produced by Priyanka's mother Madhu Chopra under their home banner.

It is written and directed by Karan Guliani, who has also penned the story with Ambadeep Singh serving as screenplay and dialogue writer.

Meanwhile, Priyanka is busy in the west with the second season of American TV series "Quantico" and her debut international film "Baywatch", which stars Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron.
Mumbai, Nov 12 : Britain-based boy band The Vamps will return to India later this month to play at the Global Citizen Festival India, where names like Jay Z and Coldplay will plug their music chords.

The Vamps, artistes of Virgin EMI UK, made their debut India visit earlier this year for a collaboration with Vishal-Shekhar for the song "Beliya".

They will be coming to India on November 16. Global Citizen Festival India will be held at the MMRDA grounds here on November 19.

"Global Citizen Festival is an amazing event for such a good cause and we are honoured to have been asked to be a part of it," James McVey said in a statement issued on behalf of the band.

"We had an incredible first visit to India in August and are very much looking forward to coming back to see our fans, perform our new single 'All night' and our other hits at this world renowned festival," McVey added.

Apart from McVey -- the lead guitarist and vocalist -- The Vamps comprises Brad Simpson (lead vocals and guitar), Connor Ball (bass guitar and vocals) and Tristan Evans (drums and vocals).

The Vamps also worked on a song for Ajay Devgn's recently released "Shivaay".

The inaugural Global Citizen Festival India will see participation from international as well as Indian celebrities.
New Delhi, Nov 13 : Warning of an impending anarchy, Delhi Chief Minsiter Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw his decision to spike the 500 and 1,000 rupee notes.

Saying the November 8 demonetisation had caused immense hardships to people across the country, the AAP leader asked Modi to shed "arrogance" and withdraw the scheme that has led to a severe cash crunch.
China will respond accordingly to the Slovak president meeting with the Dalai Lama, which was in contravention of the one-China policy that Slovakia had promised to stick to, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Monday.

President Andrej Kiska of Slovakia has "severely damaged" the political foundation of ties by meeting the Dalai Lama in Slovakia on Sunday, disregarding China's strong opposition, Hua said in a daily news conference in Beijing.

"The 14th Dalai Lama has long been engaged in anti-China and separatist activities, and has been conspiring to split Tibet away from China, she said.

Hua reiterated that China is resolutely opposed to the Dalai Lama engaging in anti-China and separatist activities in any guise or manner in any country, and is against officials of any country having contact, in any form, with him.

China requires Slovakia to have a clear understanding of the anti-China and separatist nature of the Dalai clique, effectively respect China's core interests and major concerns, and strictly stick to the one-China policy, Hua said.

Also, Slovakia should take effective measures to eliminate the negative influence caused by the wrongful behavior and thus restore the development of its ties with China, she said.
Hyderabad/Vijayawada, Nov 14 : Closure of banks in Telangana on Monday further added to the woes of people reeling under a severe currency crunch while in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh long queues were witnessed outside the banks for a fifth consecutive day.

With no cash in hand for their daily expenses, people turned out in large numbers at banks and post offices for exchange of demonetised notes but were disappointed to learn that it was a holiday on account of Guru Nanak jayanti.

Though banks functioned over the weekend, this was not sufficient to meet the requirements of the people. Hoping that banks will function normally, many turned up at bank branches since early morning.

With no small currency to buy the essentials, the lower middle class and daily wage earners were hit hard.

"I neither have a debit nor a credit card to make purchases like others. No kirana shop is accepting the old notes," said Pochamma, a housewife, who came to exchange the money at State Bank of India branch in Toli Chowki but returned disappointed.

With ATMs remaining closed, there was no relief for the people. Narsing Rao, a retired employee, made several rounds to ATMs in AKoti and surrounding areas in Central Hyderabad but found all of them closed.

'Out of service' and 'Out of cash' hanging from the doors of ATMs greeted the customers. Some banks preferred to close and lock the ATMs.

The situation was no different in other towns across Telangana. Traders complained that the shortage of small currency has hit hard the businesses.

In Hyderabad, police arrested Telangana unit Congress President Uttam Kumar Reddy and other leaders for staging a protest against demonetisation. The protestors raised slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Congress leaders said people were suffering due to ill-conceived move of the Centre.

The Congress party also staged protests in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.

Long queues were seen at banks and post offices in Vijayawada, Guntur, Visakhapatnam, Tirupati and other towns in Andhra Pradesh.

Police were having a tough time in controlling crowds as utter chaos prevailed at almost all bank branches. With ATMs remaining closed, people had no alternative but to stand in queues and wait for hours for their turn to exchange the demonetised notes.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Monday reviewed the situation. He asked the bankers and other officials to be on alert till the situation returned to normal.

The Chief Minister directed officials to ensure that no inconvenience is caused to people. He said separate counters should be opened for women and senior citizens.
Washington, Nov 14 : US President-elect Donald Trump has named two top advisers to his administration, tapping Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus as his new Chief of Staff and his campaign CEO Steve Bannon as chief strategist and senior counsellor.

"Steve and Reince are highly qualified leaders who worked well together on our campaign and led us to a historic victory. Now I will have them both with me in the White House as we work to make America great again," Trump said in a statement on Sunday.

The campaign statement, which listed Bannon's role first, referred to the two men as "equal partners", CNN reported.

"Bannon and Priebus will continue the effective leadership team they formed during the campaign, working as equal partners to transform the federal government, making it much more efficient, effective and productive," the statement said.

Priebus is among the longest serving chairmen of the Republican Party, and has generally been popular amid different factions within the party.

He is largely credited with building the ground game that elected Trump and with helping to unite his party after a divisive primary that resulted in many Republicans shunning Trump's nomination, according to sources.

House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had last week urged Trump to pick Priebus, a source told CNN.

Trump's son-in-law and top advisor, Jared Kushner, has also said privately he is supportive of that decision.

After the announcement, a spokesman for Ryan said the speaker was pleased by the decision.

"The speaker is very happy for his friend and ready to get to work," said Doug Andres, his spokesman.
New Delhi : The past week has been momentous with two important events: the election of Donald Trump as the 45th US President and the Indian governments decision to demonetise the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes.

Both had an element of surprise. While many opinion polls had predicted a Hillary Clinton victory, everyone, including the media, was unaware of the demonetisation till Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced it in an 8 pm broadcast on November 8. While it is difficult to predict what a Trump presidency might look like, it is relatively easier to foresee the impact of the demonetisaion. This was previously resorted to in 1946 and 1978, but it is for the first time that a move of this magnitude has been undertaken where approximately 86 percent of the currency in the two denominations became defunct overnight.

These are four broad areas where the impact is expected: the economy; politics and the security situation; the housing market and black money hoarders; and the common people.

On the economic front, due to insufficient money supply, there is expected to be hoarding of smaller denomination notes. This is expected to result in a slower growth in demand. But these are expected to be short term, especially if the government is able to replenish the money supply.

However, the propensity to spend may decrease in the short- to medium-term. Barring this, much of the money is going to be flushed out of the system. People with genuine money are rushing to banks to exchange this, leading to parking of funds with the banking sector. Already about Rs 1.5-2 trillion has been deposited out of the total Rs 17.3 trillion of the cash, out of which over Rs 14 trillion is in demonetised denominations.

Another important impact is on the informal component of the economy, which is now slowly turning to banks to replace currency. This is expected to again be used for assessments of the size of this component in the economy. Also, as the government decides to tax unreported money above Rs 2.5 lakh there is bound to be a rise in tax revenues.

The stock markets have already seen a decline due to the sudden move as well as due to the Trump ascendancy.

The second important impact is on politics and the security situation. With the assembly elections in 12 states in 2017-2018, the biggest of them being Uttar Pradesh, with a population equivalent to Brazil, the impact could be considerable.

There have been statements from political parties of all hues on how the move is anti-common man. The Trinamool Congress, the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Left parties have all tried to question the government's move. While there is merit in questioning how this could have been done better, asking too many questions raises the risk of these parties being perceived as corrupt.

The nature of demonetisation demanded it be kept secret, as otherwise people with ill-gotten money could have exchanged their cash for assets such as gold and other metals. The three-and-a-half-hour timeframe saw investments by people to get gold and the like. However, the Income Tax Department is now looking at these carefully. Despite this, the impact of the decision has signaled a move to remove funding, which could have been used for gaining power.

Apart from this, the move also has important implications for the security dimension with it having removed counterfeit currency that could have been used for fuelling terror and Maoist operations. However, these are small-term impacts and counterfeit currency can again appear in the future. Modi has signaled that there is more to come in his resolve to solve the corruption conundrum.

The third important element is with respect to the housing market, and black marketers and hoarders. The housing market is set to see a decline in prices as the stock of cash is removed from the system. Also, the 60:40 rule, which seemed to be the de facto norm, will most likely change as there will be a move away from cash. This will also reduce the size of the overall parallel economy.

There are reports of some counterfeit currency having been burnt as these cannot be taken to the banks for exchange. Rumour-mongering is rife at the moment with prices of items such as salt rising. However, it must be said that such rumour-mongering is at best avoidable and not to be believed.

Finally, the impact on people has been huge. Common people have been queuing at the banks for exchanging their notes and withdrawing their currency in smaller denominations. The impact can be felt on all sections of society with the poor being badly hit. The rich and a majority of middle class can pay through cards but the poor have little option. Another important facet is the urban versus rural consumers. While the urban folk will somehow be able to avail of goods and services, the rural folk being away from banking system, will find it relatively difficult to exchange their notes till December 30. The pain for most people is real, but it is time to behave humanely with those in need. Finally, the move shows a preference away from cash to a cashless economy.

The impact of these two events can only be judged completely in due course of time. However, for the time being, the government should make provisions for swift revamping of the currency exchange process as well as recalibration of ATMs for life to return to normal for the common folk. The decision has been bold and risky and it is time for the implementation agencies and citizens to work together to improve the efficiency with which this can be done.

(The article is co-authored with Sankalp Sharma, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Competitiveness, India. Amit Kapoor is Chair, Institute for Competitiveness & Editor of Thinkers. The views expressed are personal. Amit can be reached at amit.kapoor@competitiveness.in and tweets @kautiliya)
Chennai, Nov 15 : The first look and title of actress Nayanthara's yet-untitled Tamil project will be unveiled on Friday to coincide with the star's birthday.

In a statement, the makers announced that the first look poster and title of the Minjur Gopi-directed film will be revealed at midnight on Thursday.

In the film, Nayanthara plays a District Collector, who delves into the water problems of her jurisdiction.

Also starring the child actors -- Vignesh and Ramesh -- from National Award winning Tamil film "Kaaka Muttai", the film's principal shooting has been wrapped up and it's gearing up for release soon.

Nayanthara is currently busy shooting for Tamil thriller "Imaikaa Nodigal", which also stars Atharvaa, Raashi Khanna and Anurag Kashyap, who is being introduced as the antagonist.
Agartala, Nov 15 : Datamohan Jamatia was reinstated by the Tripura High Court a year after he was removed as law secretary for allegedly making "derogatory remarks" about the judiciary, an official said here on Tuesday.

The official said that the Tripura High Court's Registrar General Satya Gopal Chattopadhyay in a notification late Monday transferred Jamatia as the Legal Remembrancer and Law Department Secretary from district and sessions judge of Unakoti district.

Acting Legal Remembrancer and Law Secretary A.K.Nath has been transferred to Unakoti district as district and sessions judge.

The official said that the court in November 2015 removed Jamatia and transferred as the district and sessions judge of Unakoti district for making the alleged "derogatory remark" about the judiciary in an official note to Chief Minister Manik Sarkar.

The tussle between the high court and the state government kicked off after the court had issued the notification transferring Jamatia as district and sessions judge of Unakoti district.

Law Minister Chakraborty, in his letter to the then chief justice Deepak Gupta, expressed the state government's inability to relieve Jamatia as law secretary as he was looking after important cases pending in the Supreme Court and elections to the local bodies in Tripura.

The high court had turned down the law minister's plea and stuck to its decision.

A division bench of the high court in April wanted contempt of court charges to be framed against Jamatia for making the "derogatory remark".

Jamatia denied making any such remarks and filed a petition before the Supreme Court against the high court decision.
Islamabad, Nov 15 : Pakistan won't go the India way. It will not demonetise Rs 5,000 notes or withdraw Rs 40,000 prize bonds, the media reported on Tuesday.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said late Monday that rumours to this effect were baseless and "no such proposal is under consideration of the government", Dawn reported.

Haroon Akhtar Khan, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, earlier on Monday said the proposal to discontinue the currency notes and prize bonds of the highest denomination was under consideration.

Some experts have said the prize bonds and Rs 5,000 notes were fuelling corruption and tax evasion.

Last week, a Pakistani MP called for a withdrawal of 1,000 and 5,000 rupee notes from circulation citing the example of India where 500 and 1,000 rupee notes have been axed.
Jammu, Nov 15 : Schools located in border areas of Jammu and Kashmir which were ordered to shut after Pakistani shelling reopened on Tuesday, officials said.

Authorities shut down 174 schools in villages close to the International Border in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts a fortnight back for the safety of children.

Pakistani forces have been shelling and firing at defence and civilian areas on the International Border and the Line of Control (LoC) since the Indian Army launched a surgical strike on terror launch pads in Pakistan-administered Kashmir in September.

The border skirmishes have affected the normal functioning of nearly 420 schools in the border areas.

After gradual reduction in firing, authorities have started efforts to resume normal functioning of the schools.
New Delhi, Nov 15 : Nothing can justify terror, visiting Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said on Tuesday, and added that India and Israel stand together in defending their people and values against the threat of terror.

"Nothing can justify terror. Terror is terror. Terror is terror and terror is terror," Rivlin said in his media statement after talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi here.

"Israel and India are threatened by terror because we uphold the values of freedom. We stand together in defending our people and values," Rivlin said.

Rivlin also invited Prime Minister Modi to visit Israel.

"It will be our privilege to welcome you in Jerusalem," he said.

The Israeli President arrived here on Monday on a week-long state visit -- the first by an Israeli President in nearly 20 years.

Rivlin is here on the invitation of President Pranab Mukherjee.

Earlier, Rivlin was accorded a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan. He also paid respects at the Raj Ghat.
New Delhi, Nov 15 : Amid the battle raging for the control of Bombay House, the headquarters of the $103 billion Tata empire, interim Chairman Ratan Tata met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley here on Tuesday, but neither side offered any comment.

"I am very uncomfortable talking," Tata said, after the 30-minute meeting.

According to Finance Ministry officials, there is concern in North Block over the ongoing battle for control of Tata group companies between Ratan Tata and ousted Chairman of Tata Sons Cyrus Mistry, who otherwise happens to be chairman and director of several entities.

The Finance Ministry is keen on protecting the interests of all stakeholders.

In Tata Motors, foreign portfolio investors hold 26.11 per cent stake, while insurance companies have 10.36 per cent.

In another flagship company of the group, Tata Steel, the foreign funds hold 12.8 per cent, HDFC has 4.65 per cent while insurance companies hold 19.39 per cent.

In a curious turn of events, while independent directors of a host of Tata companies have come out in support of Mistry, Tata Sons has called for a shareholders' meeting in five firms -- Indian Hotels, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Chemicals and Tata Consultancy Services -- seeking his removal from their boards.

Mistry, 48, was removed as chairman of Tata Sons in October with the holding company saying he had lost the confidence of the board due to several factors, and that trustees were increasingly concerned with the growing trust deficit.

Ratan Tata, who had made room for Mistry four years ago, was reinstated as the chair in an interim capacity. A search is on for a new chair.
New Delhi, Nov 15 : Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday rejected allegations that the demonetisation move was leaked to certain people.

"The allegation of selective leak of demonetisation is absurd. No leak was made to anybody. Utmost secrecy was kept during the entire exercise," Naidu said here.

Some opposition leaders have accused the government of leaking the November 8 announcement to spike the 500 and 1,000 rupee notes in advance to certain individuals.

"Certain hardships faced by people are being blown out of proportion," the minister said.

Naidu, who is also the Information and Broadcasting minister, said the government was ready to face Parliament in the winter session that starts on Wednesday.

The decision to demonetise Rs 500 and 1,000 notes was not sudden, he said, but well thought out.

"This is a war against corruption and black money," Naidu reiterated. People with vested interests were "spreading rumours to create panic in society", he said.
Vice-Premier Ma Kai said on Tuesday the global economic slowdown was the main cause of the overcapacity of steel, something Beijing and Brussels will tackle together.

Ma said steel overcapacity is a global problem but noted that China made concerted efforts between 2011 and 2015 to cut its overcapacity.

"We are determined to reduce steel overcapacity by 100-to-150 million tons during the 2016 to 2020 period," said Ma, who was co-chairing the annual EU-China High-level Economic and Trade Dialogue in Brussels, along with Jyrki Katainen, vice-president of the European Commission. "This amount roughly equals the total of European capacity."

"I can tell you that we are going to reduce 50 million tons this year and we will complete this task," he said. "We have checked the numbers onsite and they are solid."

Katainen said both sides followed up on the last summit's agreement to establish a dedicated bilateral platform on steel and the Global Forum set up at the G20 summit in Hangzhou.

More than 50 top executives representing the European steel industry have written to European Union leaders calling for tougher anti-dumping measures to deter what they regard as unfair competition from China. Their demands for a tougher US-style tariff regime will find an echo among some European leaders worried by the impact of imports of domestic plants and jobs. But once again Britain, facing negotiations on the terms of its exit from the EU, is likely to be the odd man out.

The UK has consistently said it backs China's claim to market economy status.

Britain has in the past been among those blocking proposed toughening anti-dumping measures, despite the challenges currently confronting the UK steel industry. In March, unnamed senior EU officials were quoted as saying Britain had blocked attempts to reform EU anti-dumping rules to combat what was described as a glut of cheap Chinese steel imports.
Jammu, Nov 15 : The Pakistan Army on Tuesday resorted to heavy shelling and automatic gunfire at Indian positions on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, a defence spokesperson said.

Lieutenant Colonel Manish Mehta told IANS that the firing in the Sunderbani sector of Rajouri district started around 7 in the morning.

"Our troops retaliated effectively and appropriately. Firing exchanges continued in the area up to 11 a.m," the spokesperson said.

The fresh violation of a 2003 ceasefire agreement came a day after Pakistan alleged that seven of its soldiers were killed in firing from the Indian side.
Lucknow, Nov 15 : Thousands of people lined up outside banks and ATMs in the state capital and other parts of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday as banks opened after a holiday.

Quite a few people queued up outside bank branches overnight to exchange demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes while early risers joined the queues in the early morning hours.

Serpentine queues were seen in Alambagh, Aliganj, Hazratganj, Narahi, Sarojininagar, Niralanagar, Chinhat, Takrohi, Indiranagar, IT College crossing, University Road and many other places in state capital Lucknow.

Short on new currency and patience, people openly expressed their resentment over the demonetisation move of the Centre and griped that it was causing them great inconvenience since November 8.

At some places, however, support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi was quite evident among women and youth, who said the move will go a long way to benefit the country and its people.

Reports from Sitapur, Gonda, Agra, Ambedkarnagar, Kanpur, Etawah, Mainpuri, Firozabad, Varanasi, Shrawasti, Ghazipur, Gorakhpur and Ballia told of long queues outside banks and automated teller machines.

Fearing law and order problems, heavy police presence was ensured in most districts and ambulances pressed into service to deal with any eventuality.
New Delhi, Nov 15 : Hitting out at the opponents of the demonetisation move, the BJP said on Tuesday that while Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to remove corruption and black money from the country, the opposition parties want to remove him from the post.

"We hoped that the opposition parties will support the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency but they (opposition leaders) are standing for corruption and black money. They have been unmasked now," Bharatiya Janata Party Secretary Shrikant Sharma told a press conference here.

Sharma said despite facing problems, people across the country have supported the demonetisation, though some opposition parties are trying to derail this by defaming the Centre and spreading rumours.

"Those who are anti-development and have accumulated black money want to remove the Prime Minister, who wants to remove corruption and black money from the system," Sharma said, adding that this fight is "of the people and for the people".

Hitting out at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav for his remarks that black money saves the economy when there is an economic crisis, the BJP leader said the ruling Samajwadi Party in the poll-bound state is rattled by the "surgical strike" against black money.

"Akhilesh ji, in the last four and a half years, you accumulated black money. You gave place in your Cabinet to those who were carrying out black money business. You are criticising Modi and the Union government as the surgical strike against black money has hit the right target," Sharma said.

Sharma, who is also the BJP's national media convenor, took on Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the left parties and the Samajwadi Party for criticising the government's move on demonetisation.

"When the common man was being looted under the Congress rule earlier, you all supported that government. Even the Aam Aadmi Party later formed a government in Delhi with the help of the Congress. People of this country know who is against black money and who is for black money. They have been unmasked," the BJP leader said.
Shillong, Nov 15 : The Assam Regiment, an infantry regiment of the Indian Army, on Tuesday began its four-day Platinum Jubilee celebrations at its regimental centre here in Meghalaya.

On Wednesday, Chief of the Army Staff General Dalbir Singh will be addressing the soldiers of the Assam Regiment and dedicate the war memorial here at Happy Valley.

The greeting 'Tagda Raho' will ring across the picturesque Happy Valley in Shillong as former commanding officers get together with retired and serving 'Rhinos' -- as the troops call themselves -- during the celebrations.

The regimental greeting 'Tagda Raho' (Stay Fit) was first introduced by Late Major General S.C. Barbora, who was commanding officer of the regiment in the 1960s.

General Dalbir Singh will be accompanied by Deputy Chief of the Army staff Lt. Gen. Subrata Saha, who is the Colonel Commandant of the regiment, besides General Officer Commanding in Chief of Eastern Command Lt. Gen. Praveen Bakshi and Army Commander, Central Command, Lt. Gen. B.S. Negi.

The four-day celebrations would include presentation of colours to four of the newly-raised Battalions of Assam Regiment, dedication of War Memorial, commemoration of the raising, battalion get-together, Sainik Sammelan and inauguration of a museum, Defence PRO Group Captain Amit Mahajan said.

The Assam Regiment was raised on June 15, 1941 in Shillong by Lieutenant Colonel Ross Howman at the Governor's House of the undivided Assam. The House is the present day Raj Bhavan in Meghalaya's capital Shillong.

"The regiment was raised to meet demands from the undivided state of Assam and to counter the threat of Japanese invasion. It was baptism by fire for the regiment. The Assam Regiment fought a battle at Jessami and participated in the epic defence of Kohima and capture of Aradura (Nagaland)," Defence Spokesman Amit Mahajan told IANS.

The regiment was adjudged the best marching contingent in the services category during Republic Day Parade 2016. The contingent, comprising 149 soldiers from the seven north eastern states, was led by Lt Aditya Bisht.

The Assam Regiment has the unique distinction of winning six battle honours and theatre honour of Myanmar during the Second World War and also had the distinction of winning Battle honour of Chhamb and theatre honour of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947-48 and again in 1971, Mahajan said.

After Independence, the Assam Regiment has participated in all the wars India has fought against Pakistan and against China. The soldiers of the regiment were also inducted in the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka and UN Peace Keeping Force in Cambodia.

The regiment has now raised 15 regular units, three Rashtriya Rifles units, three infantry battalions of the Territorial Army, two Ecological Battalions of the Territorial Army and two battalion of Arunachal Scouts.

Three battalions of the regiment also acquitted themselves admirably at Siachen Glacier, the highest battlefield of the world.
New Delhi, Nov 15 : The Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday staged a protest against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal outside the secretariat for his "support towards the black money holders".

The protesting workers were detained by police as they raised slogans against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor.

Attacking Kejriwal, Delhi BJP unit president Satish Upadhyay told the media: "It is sad that when Delhi government should have extended support to people standing in lines we find Kejriwal extending support to people with black money."

Upadhyay said the issue of problems being faced by people in queues is an emotional one being used by Kejriwal to extend indirect support to black money holders.

The protest came a day after Kejriwal questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

Kejriwal also attacked Modi over the currency spike, saying it caused problems for the common man.

Kejriwal called the November 8 demonetisation a poorly planned exercise. He asked the government to stop being adamant and withdraw it immediately.
New York, Nov 15 : Instant messaging service WeChat may enhance people's feelings of overall satisfaction with life if they use it for fun and to pursue their interests, says a study.

WeChat use, however, will not necessarily bring happiness or unhappiness though that depends on how you use it, said the team of Chinese researchers.

The study, conducted by Zhengbao Wen from Hangzhou Normal University; Yinghua Ye from Zhejiang University; and Xiaowei Geng from Ludong University in China examined the motivations for and intensity of WeChat use by university students as they related to the users' emotional experience and feelings of well-being.

"With its multi-faceted functionalities, research into the psychological impacts of this lifestyle app are only just beginning to be understood," said Brenda K. Wiederhold from Interactive Media Institute, San Diego, California.

According to its parent company Tencent, as of the second quarter of 2016, WeChat reported over 806 million active monthly users, a 34 per cent rise from the same period in 2015.

The study appeared in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.
Beijing, Nov 15 : The Chinese military has conferred the title of "revolutionary martyr" on pilot Yu Xu, the first Chinese woman to fly the J-10 fighter jet who died in an accident during a routine flight training on Saturday.

Born in 1986, in Sichuan province, Yu joined the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force in September 2005, and had flown four types of aircraft, Xinhua news agency reported.

She was one of the pilots selected to fly over Tian'anmen Square during the 2009 National Day parade and had flown the J-10 in air shows at home and abroad, according to air force spokesman Shen Jinke.

From country girl to China's first female J-10 pilot, Yu devoted her most precious years to the building of a strong army, Shen said.

Yu's death has saddened the country, with people mourning her in various ways. About 10 million people laid virtual wreaths at an online mourning hall set up for her.
Nay Pyi Taw, Nov 15 : Myanmar will export about 100,000 tonnes of pulses to India annually and a Memorandum of Understanding is being established in this regard, the media reported on Tuesday.

India has proposed to increase its demand for Myanmar's mung beans and pigeon peas by 25,000 tonnes per year starting next year, Xinhua news agency reported.

However, the country's yield has declined since last year although the country produced over 600,000 tonnes of mung beans and over 200,000 tonnes of pigeon peas before.

The country exports on an average about 240,000 tonnes of various pulses per year.

Myanmar pulses are mainly exported to India, followed by China, Indonesia, the European Union and Japan, according to the Myanmar Pulses, Beans and Sesame Seeds Merchants Association.
Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 15 : People in Kerala are turning restless, as their wait in the serpentine queues to deposit, exchange or withdraw money from banks and ATMs since the scrapping of high-value currency notes is turning out to be really long.

Tuesday once again saw long queues at ATMs in the state and shortage of cash, as over the past a few days, especially in the villages of the state.

People were apparently more upset following a fresh announcement of the central government, according to which indelible ink marks would be used to prevent people from making cash withdrawals more than the permissible number of times from bank counters.

State Finance Minister Thomas Issac reacted sharply to the new decision and said that this is going to further complicate issues.

"Instead of resolving issues, the Centre is creating more troubles through the use of indelible ink. The decision is a foolish one," said Issac.

Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala said the need of the hour is not to spread the ink on the fingers but to see that new currencies are launched.

"The ordinary people are in distress and it's most unfortunate that they are seen as black money holders. Time is running out as people are losing patience," said Chennithala.

On Tuesday, the youth wing of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) -- Democratic Youth Federation of India -- and the Communist Party of India (CPI) workers marched to the regional office of the Reserve Bank of India in the state capital, shouting slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Meanwhile 65 ATMs in the capital city of the State Bank of Travancore saw currencies of Rs 2,000 placed in the cash tray for the first time in the state.

Popular anti-corruption crusader and head of the Vigilance and Anti Corruption Bureau, Jacob Thomas welcomed the decision of spiking the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

"This will help fight the counterfeits," said Thomas, who is on a mission to fight corruption and has taken on top politicians and bureaucrats.

Priya, a housewife in the capital city, said today (Tuesday) was the date to pay the fees of their children and they have no money to pay.

"My neighbour was generous enough to give me a cheque for Rs 5,000 and when we went to the bank to encash the cheque, we were shocked as the bank staff asked us to bring the account holder also to withdraw cash, along with an identification document.

"This has crossed all limits and we were forced to deposit the cheque into our account. Now, to get the money after collection, it will take at least three days," said an infuriated Priya.

Meanwhile things appear to have gone haywire in the cooperative sector, as the 14 district cooperative banks has now been denied permission to exchange their customer's spiked currencies.

In protest, the entire cooperative sector in the state will remain closed on Wednesday to protest the new move of the central government in withdrawing permission that was granted earlier.

"This is a concerted move by the Centre to help the new generation banks and hence this decision is being implemented. Let the authorities inspect the working of these cooperative banks.

"Through this decision, the cooperative sector, which was the backbone of the rural economy of Kerala, has taken a severe beating," CPI-M state Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan told reporters.

The construction industry in the state, where a huge majority of the three million migrant labourers are employed, is also in a severe crisis.

"We are not getting our salary. Now we are left with no money, as it's been a week since we were paid. Now please give us some food to eat," said a group of migrant labourers in Thiruvalla.

However, the Kerala government has stepped in to help the people, as it has decided to accept the spiked currencies at petrol pumps and is also accepting those currencies for payment of bills.

"I got a call from a person who was standing at a private hospital complaining that they are not accepting the spiked currencies. When I spoke to the hospital authorities, they told me that they are helpless and if I get them new currencies, they will accept it.

"I told them to accept it and keep it with them without returning the balance amount, but their need should be addressed," said state's Health Minister K.K. Shylaja.

The agrarian sector in the state has also virtually come to a standstill as produce such as copra, cardamom, areca nut and rubber are not being picked up by buyers.

The daily auction of cardamom at Idukki was stopped on Tuesday as a cash crunch prevailed, denting the hopes of the farming community in the state.
New Delhi, Nov 15 : Linda, a 34-year-old tourist from Sweden, has been facing a traumatic time standing in bank queues for the past few days to get cash.

Apart from the shortage of cash, she has had to suffer people clicking her photo without permission, getting stalked and even listening to lewd comments passed at her. Since the demonetisation move a week ago, Linda and other foreign tourists are an upset lot.

"For the last three days it's been a big challenge to get some cash," Linda told IANS standing in the middle of a crushing queue of around 400 people at a Citibank ATM kiosk in Paharganj.

"I had to go to three banks, and everyday I had to spend around three to four hours to get cash," Linda said, referring to the severe cash crunch in the country since the government spiked 500 and 1,000 rupee notes on November 8.

She was also upset by the response of the bystanders, and said, "I went mad, when people here passed lewd comments at me."

She said many clicked pictures of her and many tried to follow her to her hotel. "I feel insecure as there is no proper security arrangement at the banks," Linda said.

She said this was her second visit to India and she has been in the country for about a month. "But my second trip experience has been horrible (due to demonetisation)," she said, adding that most people did not have the correct information.

"What has been more frustrating is that there was no proper information available," she said, and added that she's cutting short her visit and returning to her country.

Many other foreign tourists in Delhi are finding it tough to manage. Rebecca, from England who was on a month's trip to India, told IANS, "I have had to cut short my trip due to the cash crunch. Now I am going back just after 18 days."

Sharing her experience of standing in the bank queues, Rebecca said, "Standing in the queues is very scary. People stare, they try to come close and they follow us and stalk."

Kem, a tourist from Japan residing in a hotel in Paharganj area, told IANS: "I have run out of cash. I am unable to buy any food items due to that, so every night I wait at the window of my hotel room and keep a tab on the Citibank ATM just to find out when it will open."

Kem said he was left with only a Rs 100 note and the cash crisis had forced him to cancel his trip to Jaisalmer in Rajasthan.

Asked how he was paying for his food and hotel bills, Kem said: "I have asked them to wait till the situation improves and I get cash through banks or the ATM machines."

Several other foreign tourists said they had no option but to return to their countries. Many said they had to depend on the kindness of hotels or restaurants.

Aster, a 50-year-old female tourist from Israel, told IANS: "I had to stay hungry for two days as I did not have any cash with me. But then I requested the restaurant here to accept my currency and adjust it at the Indian currency value."

She also rued that there were many people who were trying to profit from the current situation. "Many people are asking us tourists to give our currencies to them at lower rates. This is cheating and it's very racist" in nature.

"We are not fools that we don't understand the value of the currency. Right now I am not left with any other choice but to get some cash," Aster lamented.

However, there are also some people who have helped foreign tourists.

Manju, who runs a mehendi and tattoo shop in Paharganj, told IANS: "A couple from England has been residing in a hotel here for the last one week. I tattooed them but after the old currencies were scrapped they were unable to pay me."

"They also did not have any cash. So I arranged some home food for them at my home here," she said.

Local shopkeepers in Paharganj said that earlier the market would teem with foreign tourists but was now virtually empty, post demonetisation.

Harbour, who arrived from Britain on Monday on his 30th trip to India, told IANS: "At the airport I had exchanged some cash as I had to go to Ajmer," adding that "There is no choice but to cope with the situation."

"The government should create separate ATM kiosks for foreign tourists in markets and railway stations," said Harbour, who added that India is like a second home to him as he was born in Haryana's Rewari district.

(Anand Singh can be contacted at anand.s@ians.in)
The European Commission called on European Union institutions and member states to speed up action on proposed new trade defense instruments to come into effect when the protocols on calculating anti-dumping tariffs involving Chinese exporters expire in December.

The December 11 deadline marks the 15th anniversary of China's accession to the World Trade Organization.

The Commission, the executive arm of the 28-member EU, issued a document ahead of its Wednesday weekly meeting urging finalization of a package of proposals on the long-debated issue between China and EU.

The Commission said it has already put forward proposals in 2013 but they had failed to gain unanimous agreement from European institutions and member states as the December deadline approaches.

The meeting comes one day after China's Vice-Premier Ma Kai and Vice-President of the European Commission, Jyrki Katainen, confirmed that Brussels would live up to its obligations under China's WTO accession agreements signed 15 years ago.

China maintains that its WTO accession deal included automatic recognition of Market Economy Status, which some EU members object to.

At their annual high-level trade and economic dialogue on Tuesday, both sides also agreed to jointly put impetus into the global economy, cut steel overcapacity and speed up bilateral investment talks while injecting more efforts to find synergies between European investment scheme and China's Belt and Road Initiative.

During the 15-year WTO transitional period, the accession agreement allowed the EU and other WTO members, in anti-dumping cases, to compare the cost of China's exports with that of a surrogate country and to disregard China as a market economy. The EU usually choses economies where the cost is much higher than in China in order to calculate the margins of industry injury and to levy anti-dumping tariffs on China's exporters.

Many European Union member states, such as the UK, the Nordic countries, Greece, Hungary and the Netherlands, have favored abiding by China's WTO accession protocol. Globally, up to 100 countries worldwide have treated China as a market economy since its WTO entry in 2001.

After meeting with Ma Kai on Tuesday, Kris Peeters, Belgium's deputy prime minister, said in a news release that his country also believed it must abide by provisions and agreements of China's WTO accession.

However, the experts have warned that it is still too early to conclude that the European Union will complete the complex debate, consultation and approval procedures to reform its trade defense instruments before a December 11 deadline.

Fredrik Erixon, director of Brussels-based European Center for International Political Economy said it is not a decision for the European Commission to make on its own. It needs the support of member states and the European Parliament, and for the time being there is not enough support for them to change EU anti-dumping legislation reflecting China's market economy status.

"Let's see what happens,"said Erixon during an interview with China Daily.

"The way the Commission has proposed to deal with it, proposing a wholesale reform of how trade defense instruments deal with trade-distortive state interventions, is very complicated and will take time to get through the EU machinery."

Pierre Defraigne, Executive Director for the Brussels-based think-tank the Madariaga College of Europe Foundation said the EU should have treated China as a market economy at an earlier date but it failed due to its long-time policy of following the United States regarding to its China policy.

"I have long called on the EU to treat China as a market economy but it is regretable that it had not shown such political vision as of today,"said Defraigne, who worked as cabinet head of former trade commissioner Pascal Lamy when China joined WTO in 2001.

To contact the reporter: fujing@chinadaily.com.cn
Mumbai, Nov 15 : Offering aesthetic cultural demonstrations accompanied by an array of food options and music, multi-city festival Eat Play Love (EPL) will be held here on December 17.

The two-day festival will then travel to Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune and Nagpur. It is the first edition, and the organisers plan to expand to newer regions over the next three years.

Eat Play Love will also have artists showcasing their best work, making Ford Field Park look like a living art gallery.

Spearheaded by Percept Live and The Eat India Company, visitors at the festival will journey through the culinary road of India with participation from more than 100 exhibitors from across the country.

"While there are many festivals today, they cater to specific genres and are skewed to a sub sect of the city's population thereby ending up being either too localised or being limited in their offering.

"We aim to build and deliver on the 360 degree experience by reflecting on the diversity and spirit of each city and its citizens," Chandni Dhall, partner Eat Pray Love, said in a statement.

The festival will have dedicated zones to art, photography, retail, wellness, comedy and adventure sports.

Eat Play Love will be undertaking slum beautification, street installations at traffic junctures, countdown timers at heritage city spots and travelling caravans as well.
Seoul, Nov 15 : North Korea's Deputy Director for North American affairs Choe Son-hui has left for Geneva to hold talks with experts and diplomats from the US, South Korea's foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

During her layover at the Beijing airport, Choe told the media that she was going to attend a meeting with old friends, EFE news agency reported.

The South Korean ministry and other experts in Seoul believe the North Korean envoy is scheduled to hold talks with former US politicians and diplomats in a meeting similar to the one held in Kuala Lumpur last month.

On October 21 and 22, North Korea's vice foreign minister Han Song-ryol, and the North's UN Ambassador Jang Il-hun met former US envoys Joseph DeTrani and Robert Gallucci and expert Leon Sigal to discuss the conflict between the two countries.

Choe's meeting in Geneva would be the first of its kind since Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential elections.

It is believed that North Korea is trying to gather information on the position of Trump's administration towards the Kim Jong-un regime.

Dialogue between the two countries were stalled during US President Barack Obama's term, following an intensification of conflict due to North Korea's nuclear arms programme.

The Obama administration, who demands North Korea take a firm step towards denuclearisation before initiating talks, has adopted a policy of tough economic and trade sanctions against the country to choke its economy and force it to abandon its nuclear programme.

Meanwhile, North Korea has called for dialogue without preconditions, and demanded it be recognised as a nuclear state and a definitive peace treaty with South Korea to replace the armistice that ended the Korean War (1950-53).

During his election campaign, Trump did not rule out a meeting with Kim Jong-un and also mentioned a possible re-negotiation of military alliances with its allies in the region, South Korea and Japan, including a withdrawal of US troops from these countries.
New Delhi, Nov 15 : In a boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modis 'Make in India' initiative, automaker Ford has decided to export to the US its Ecosport SUVs manufactured at its plantsin Chennai.

Ecosport is one of the most popular subcompact SUVs around the globe. Its new version was unveiled at the Los Angeles Auto Show on Monday.

USA Today said the introduction of the SUV at the US auto show came with "a big surprise".

"EcoSport is going to be made in India and imported into the US," it said, adding the car will be manufactured in Chennai before it goes on sale in 2018.

The daily quoted Michael O'Brien, Ford Marketing Manager for SUVs, as saying: "We build EcoSport in six locations around the globe. We sell it in 100 markets, and so, just like we make Explorers and export from here into other global markets, we are going to export EcoSport from Asia Pacific, and we are going to sell it here in the US."

The decision to import India-made SUVs came even as Ford has come under attack in recent months from President-elect Donald Trump for moving production of small cars from the US to Mexico.

Ford started making EcoSport in India since 2013. The SUV is also assembled in Brazil, Thailand and Russia.

The daily said Ford is aiming EcoSport at two main US consumer groups -- "millennials and empty nesters".

And that is why the automaker chose "to reveal the EcoSport right off the Hollywood Walk of Fame at an event headlined hip-hop producer and Snapchat king DJ Khaled titled 'Go Small, Live Big'."
Athens, Nov 15 : US President Barack Obama on Tuesday arrived in Athens for a two-day visit amid draconian security measures as his trip marks the first to the country by a US leader since 1999.

A large part of the Greek capital has been locked down, and snipers are deployed on rooftops and public gatherings have been banned, Xinhua news agency reported.

Despite the ban, the Communist Party-affiliated union PAME and other trade unions have called for protests on Tuesday.

Some 4,500 Greek police officers are participating in the security operation, together with 300 US security personnel.

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos will welcome the outgoing President at the Presidential Mansion and then Obama will have talks with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

The first day of the visit will end with an official dinner hosted by Pavlopoulos.

On Wednesday, the US President is expected to visit the Acropolis and deliver a speech at Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre before leaving Greece to continue his current Europe tour.
New Delhi, Nov 15 : Foreign traders at the India International Trade Fair on Tuesday complained their business was hit as customers didn't have enough cash in small denominations or new currency to buy their wares.

Businessmen from countries like Afghanistan, China, Thailand and South Korea were not happy as customers were offering them old currency, which the government demonetised on November 8.

The traders urged the organisers to allow them to accept old notes as their business was suffering.

Ishaq Timor Zada, who owns a carpet manufacturing firm in Kabul, said his business in India had suffered for the first time in 10 years as visitors were ready to pay only in the now illegal currency.

"It is a big worry for us. We are not allowed to accept 500 and 1,000 rupee notes which most customers are dishing out... They are out of 100 rupee notes and most ATMs at the trade fair are not functional," Timor Zada told IANS.

"I am sure this year business is not going to go so well. If they (organisers) install more ATMs or provide us some other way of accepting payment through cards, it might improve our business," he said.

An exhibitor from Thailand said: "It is very difficult this year as almost all the customers are facing a cash crunch. Obviously, our business was much better on the inaugural day itself last year.

"For the last two days, we have not recorded any sale," 26-year-old Lisa told IANS.

At the China pavilion inside the Pragati Maidan, although a few stalls were seen accepting the old currency of Rs 500 and 1,000, many refused to accept the notes.

"I bought a bag. I am happy they accepted my 500 rupee note. But not all are accepting the old currency. I wanted to shop more with the money left so as to avoid rush and inconvenience at the banks," shopper Meera told IANS.

An upset Chinese trader told IANS: "I urge the trade fair organisers to provide us with alternatives. Either allow us to accept the old notes or provide card swiping machines."

The trade fair witnesses 7,000 participants and representation from 24 nations as well as Indian states and union territories, public and private enterprises. Some 800 rural artisans and craftsmen are also taking part.
Dhaka, Nov 15 : At least seven militants of banned Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were indicted on Tuesday in a case filed for killing a Japanese national in Bangladesh.

A court in Rangpur district, 304 kms from Dhaka, framed charges against the JMB militants for killing Hosie Kunio in October last year, Xinhua news agency reported.

Special Judge's Court of Noresh Chandra Sarker in Rangpur also fixed January 4 next year for holding the hearing in the case.

Kunio was gunned down on October 3 last year in Rangpur district by motorcycle-borne assailants days after the killing of an Italian citizen Tavella Ceasar in Dhaka's diplomatic zone.

Five of the accused are now behind bars while one is on the run and another militant was killed in a reported shoot-out with law enforcers.
Marrakech, Nov 15 : United Nations Secretary General Ban ki-Moon on Tuesday said he is confident that US President-elect Donald Trump would distance himself from his election rhetoric against the Paris Climate Change Agreement, saying "now it has become unstoppable".

"As you may know, last week I spoke to President-elect, Mr. Trump and I brought up many issues, peace and security issues, including the issue of climate change. I remain very optimistic about our effort to combat climate change," Ban told reporters here.

Terming it historic, he said the Paris agreement, now ratified by 109 countries, has come into force in record time.

"Never in the history of the United Nations, any convention, agreement or treaty has entered into force in such a short period of time. And it also has the highest number of member statesaso it has established a lot of records, in fact.

"The global unity around climate change once seemed to be unthinkable but now it has become unstoppable," said an optimistic Secretary General, who is going to demit office in just one-and a-half months after a 10-year-long tenure.

"I am too much optimistic about the Paris agreement continuation," Ban told this IANS correspondent to a query on the sidelines of the media briefings.

The global business community is now fully on board and moving forward to decarbonise and lessen their carbon footprint, said Ban, who is here attend the high-level segment of the 22nd Conference of Parties (COP22) conference - his last UN climate conference as Secretary General.

According to him, every member of the United Nations has signed on to the Paris agreement. "Delegations were not forced to sign. They signed on because they believe that it's in the interest of their own country, and it's in the interest of the whole world and planet Earth."

He said now the Paris agreement has come into force and that he would discuss the impact of climate change with Trump more in detail personally.

"I raised this issue and I am looking forward to another meeting in person with him (Trump) and will discuss on all matters of our common concern, including climate change."

In reply to another question, Ban said: "I think most of all the countries, 193 now, they have signed and more than 75 percent of global greenhouse emissions accounted for by 109 countries (that ratified). So it is wholehearted commitment...as President of the US, I am sure that he (Trump) will understand this."

Tracing the US President-elect roots as a smart businessman, the Secretary General said: "However, my sense is that as a very successful business person in the past, before being elected, I believe that he understands that there are market forces already at work on this issue and that we need to harness these forces for the good of the planet."

Batting for the continuation of the climate initiatives by the next UN Secretary General too, he said more than 3,000 scientists around the world have repeatedly issued assessment reports that climate change has been happening.

"We don't have plan B because there is no planet B. We have to work very hard, very seriously and urgently. This what I am telling, not as only Secretary-General, but as one the citizens of this world," he added.

(Vishal Gulati is in Marrakech to cover COP22. He can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)
Kolkata, Nov 15 : Israeli film "Cheer Me Up", which deals with domestic violence, had its world premiere at the ongoing 22nd Kolkata International Film Festival. Its makers say many women don't realise they are being suppressed.

Helmed by female directors Mili Ben Hayl and Tamar Shippony, "Cheer Me Up" is based on true life events surrounding Hava Luzon, who experienced suppression and domestic violence for 20 years before finally finding her way out.

"We hope we can get it to wider audiences because it is an important issue and it happens across the globe," said Mili at the film fest on Tuesday, a day after the premiere.

"Usually when people think about domestic violence, they think about the physical aspect of violence. But there are so many aspects of violence that no one is talking about and you want to touch upon subtle areas of violence which people don't think is violence at all," Mili added.

This film started out in a writing workshop for women where the filmmakers met Luzon, who is credited as the scriptwriter along with Mili.

Speaking out against domestic violence, Luzon who has three children, said many women don't realise they are under suppression.

"My life started closing in on me. I had to give up my will," summed up Luzon about those harrowing two decades.

Shippony said the film distils down the crucial 48 hours of Luzon's life into 75 minutes, where she starts thinking of the possibility of leaving her husband. Further, the film steers clear from portraying the husband as the bad guy.

"It focuses on 48 hours where the protagonist is thinking about leaving, how she is going to do it and if that's actually possible. It was not physical violence... She was not beaten by her husband. In the film, the husband is loving and is not willing to give up on her," Shippony said.

"It is interesting to note that one out of three women face domestic violence and most women are murdered after they have run away from the husband, not while they are with them. So there are complexities associated with domestic violence," emphasised Shippony.
New Delhi, Nov 15 : After the JNU administration on Tuesday denied permission to its student body to hold 'Chalo JNU' protest at the varsity campus, students went ahead with the planned march as, according to them, such permission is never required.

"Permission from the administration is never required in JNU for any march or any other programme. There is so much freedom in this university," All India Students' Association (JNU unit) President Rama Naga told IANS.

"They are unnecessarily creating a drama by notifying that it's illegal to organise this protest march. In reality, this is what that they say every time something happens against them. They are not doing anything for Najeeb but are rather hampering those who are protesting."

The Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union went ahead with the planned protest as a show of solidarity for student Najeeb Ahmed, who went missing from the campus a month ago after a scuffle with a Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) member.

"It is a national call against injustice. Students from different universities including Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi University, Aligarh Muslim University and Allahabad University among many others have joined us in this march for justice," said Naga.

"After completing our march from Ganga Dhaba till R block, we will have a public meeting. It's been 30 days since Najeeb's disappearance. Except for ABVP, all parties are together here protesting against the injustice," he added.
New Delhi, Nov 15 : The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, which is virtually at war with the Narendra Modi government over the demonetisation issue, on Tuesday got a shot in the arm when BJP ally Shiv Sena decided to join its march to Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wednesday to press for rollback of the currency spike decision.

Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah are also to participate in the march.

Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes will no longer be legal tender from November 8 midnight, Trinmaool supremo Banerjee has been up in arms against the move.

She has reached out to opposition parties, including arch rival Communist Party of India-Marxist, for putting up a united fight against what she said was an "anti-people" move.

"Mamata will be walking tomorrow (Wednesday) to Rashtrapati Bhavan and we are going to meet the President (Pranab Mukherjee). Besides Delhi Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah will be present," Trinamool Rajya Sabha member Derek O'Brien said on Tuesday.

"We have spoken to the Left (parties); we have spoken to others like the Shiv Sena. This is not the time for politics; this is the time to take the people's story, which is a grim story, to the President," he said.

While Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray had a telephonic conversation with Banerjee on the fallout of demonetisation, party MP Sanjay Raut said the party will join the march.

"Mamata called up Uddhav and said they are going to the meet the President. She asked if the Shiv Sena will join the march.

"We have decided to join the march on the basis of issues related to demonetisation," Raut told media persons in Mumbai.

A constituent of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA at the Centre and in Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena has virulently criticised the demonetisation move.

"I have spoken to various political parties. I have spoken to (Congress Vice President) Rahul Gandhi, (Bihar Chief Minister) Nitish Kumar, (Odisha Chief Minister)Naveen Patnaik and (Samajwadi Party chief) Mulayam Singh Yadav.

"If they want to join me, it is good. If not, then I will go alone with my MPs," Banerjee told media persons in Kolkata before leaving for Delhi.

While Banerjee had called up CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury to express concern over demonetisation, the Marxists are unlikely to be part of the Trinamool march.

Replying to media queries on the CPI-M joining the march, Yechury said his party will confront the Narendra Modi government in Parliament first and decide its future course of action based on the government's response in the house.

The Trinamool, though, appeared unperturbed.

"It is not about the left or the right; it is about everyone. It is time to act, the matter (demonetisation) has already spun out of hand," said O'Brien.
BUCHAREST -- Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said Wednesday that Romania's cooperation with China in the field of would not be affected by the country's general elections or other political factors.

Main political parties in Romania welcome foreign investment, there is no objection to the nuclear power plant project, the president explained when answering Xinhua's question at a briefing for foreign media.

He said he believed that Romania's cooperation with China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) would not be adversely affected by the general elections at year-end, no matter which party or ruling coalition would come to power.

Earlier on the day, Romania's Nuclearelectrica, the state-owned company administrating nuclear energy, announced that negotiations with China's CGN over the construction of units 3 and 4 at the Cernavoda nuclear-power plant have reached the finish line.

"We are on the finish line, but there are still some aspects to be clarified, primordially, the role of the Romanian Government in the project. There is still one round of talks with various state bodies and we need some little extra time," Danilea Lulache, Director General of Nuclearelectrica, was quoted as saying by official Agerpres news agency.

The nuclear project is a large-scale cooperation projects between China and Romania.

In November last year, Nuclearelectrica and CGN signed a memorandum of understanding regarding the development, construction and decommissioning of units 3 and 4 of the Cernavoda nuclear plant.

A support letter in relation to the Cernavoda project was signed at the beginning of this year by the Romanian government, which outlines major areas of support and commitment associated with the project.

Cernavoda is home to two operating Candu reactors, units 1 and 2, and produces around 18 percent of the country's electricity. The doubling of the production capacity of the plant through the construction of two new units represents a major competitive advantage in the medium and long term, according to local analysts.
New Delhi, Nov 15 : The Press Council of India (PCI) is "neither a paper tiger nor a regulator", its Chairman C.K. Prasad said here on Tuesday, and added that the council has only been trying to be a "facilitator" for press freedom.

Addressing a press conference, Prasad said: "In media, we are often described as a paper tiger...this is not true."

The former judge cited the example of one verdict of the PCI which has gone against an incumbent Union minister.

The PCI Chairman said: "We are not a regulator, as often suggested. The council is not here for policing the media."

But, he said, the delay in disposing of cases has been an issue before the PCI and steps have been taken accordingly to ensure that pending cases are disposed of fast.

"We disposed of about 1,000 cases during my tenure since November 2014. So far, we have only 282 cases pending and most of these are dated after April 1, 2016."

"In fact, disposing of the old cases have helped pass the message that the Council means business and is not a paper tiger," he stressed.

Prasad said the PCI will celebrate National Press Day and PCI Golden Jubilee on November 16 (Wednesday).

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi will grace the session," he said, adding the Press Council delegations from Bangladesh, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka would be attending the function.

"Delegations from Pakistan are also expected...they have confirmed and now we are trying to arrange visas for them," Prasad said.

PCI member C.K. Naik, a senior journalist, said as Bhutan and Afghanistan do not have any press councils, they would be represented at the Golden Jubilee functions by the representatives from their embassies here.

Senior journalist S. Nihal Singh, among others, will be honoured with the special "Raja Ram Mohan Roy Award" for "Outstanding Contribution Towards Journalism", he said.
Gurugram, Nov 15 : The Haryana government on Tuesday issued an order to take stringent action against those business houses which are not accepting cheques, demand drafts and online payment from customers, an official said.

Haryana's Chief Secretary D.S. Dhesi on Tuesday issued orders to Deputy Commissioners to lodge complaint against business houses that refuse to accept payments from the customers in certain modes.

"It has been reported that certain business houses, including hospitals, caterers, tent houses and others, are not accepting cheques, demand drafts and online payment transfers from customers," Dhesi said in his letter to Deputy Commissioners.

"After consideration of the matter, the government has directed that in such cases customers may be advised to lodge their complaint to concerned Deputy Commissioners for an appropriate action against such establishments," the top bureaucrat said in his letter.

Anxious crowds massed outside Gurugram banks to withdraw money or deposit or exchange their demonetised currency notes as most of the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) remained cashless here for the sixth consecutive day.

People gathered in large numbers outside over 700 branches of various banks and more than 1,300 ATM booths to withdraw cash only to find that the ATMs in the millennium city were cashless.

People across the city found that most of ATM booths of government as well as private banks were not working.

Same was the situation at the ATM booths in upscale New Gurugram areas.

According to a source, contractors and some factory owners have pressed their labourers into service to exchange their Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes demonetised on November 8.

Most of the people facing problems in getting their old currency notes exchanged, however, said the demonetisation was the right step.

It will cause inconvenience to the common man for a week or two but will help the country in the long run, they said.
Kabul, Nov 15 : Hundreds of Afghan people have taken up arms against Taliban in the northern Jowzjan province after the fundamentalist rebel group intensified its armed activities in the neighbouring Saripul and Faryab provinces.

"Several hundred people gathered in Faizabad district of Jowzjan province this afternoon and vowed to support government forces in the war against Taliban rebels," Xinhua news agency quoted a pro-government armed man as saying.

He said the people have bought arms and ammunition with their own money to fight Taliban insurgents, and "the remedy to eliminate Taliban rebels is mobilising people against the hardliner group and backing government forces".

Taliban militants fighting the government to regain power, according to locals, have killed innocent civilians, destroyed schools and ruined health clinics.

"We have been fed up with the Taliban's harsh interpretation of Islam and their despotic policies," another pro-government armed commander, Sahib Khan, told Xinhua.

He warned the armed insurgents to either lay down arms or face dire consequences of the people's wrath.

Taliban militants in their recent onslaught have captured some villages in parts of Faizabad and Ghormach district and have set ablaze several houses, according to locals.

Even scores of women have taken up arms in parts of Jowzjan province to fight the Taliban over the past couple of months.

The armed rebel group in its latest offensive against government interests launched coordinated attacks in the southern part of Jowzjan's neighbouring Saripul province early Tuesday, triggering fighting.

"Taliban militants launched coordinated attacks on the southern part of Saripul provincial capital, the Saripul city early this morning but fled after suffering casualties. They left behind nine dead bodies, including of two key commanders, Gul Hamid and Mabariz," an official said.

Fifteen more militants have been injured and sporadic fighting between security forces and Taliban fighters is going on in some villages on the outskirt of the provincial capital the Saripul city, 360 km north of Kabul, the official added.

He also confirmed that six security personnel have been killed or injured in the fighting.

Taliban militants, who are active in parts of Saripul province, have not commented.

Meanwhile, observers believe that the Taliban militants would intensify activities to gain more ground and consolidate their grip ahead of snowfall in the mountainous country.
New Delhi/Hyderabad, Nov 15 : A 70-year-old man died on Tuesday while standing in a queue outside a bank in Andhra Pradesh as common people across India continued to struggle for cash, the way they have been doing since the government spiked high value currency notes a week ago.

Lakshminarayana, 75, collapsed while waiting in a long queue for over two hours at an Andhra Bank branch in Marredpally in Secunderabad, the twin city of Hyderabad, witnesses said.

He was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared him dead due to cardiac arrest. A resident of Railway Colony in Secunderabad, he had gone to deposit Rs.1.7 lakh in scrapped currency notes of Rs 500 and 1,000.

The witnesses said there was a huge rush at the bank and Lakshminarayana had to wait very long in the absence of a separate queue for senior citizens -- despite official directives to banks to ensure one.

Elsewhere in India, as millions mobbed banks and ATMs, the mass struggle continued endlessly in the wake of the November 8 announcement of demonetisation of large currency notes.

Men and women stood in serpentine queues for hours to exchange or deposit their spiked notes with new ones or withdraw cash to meet their daily expenses.

Some of them were successful and many others lost patience when they couldn't get any money. There was no respite from the chaos at banks. The security personnel had a tough time controlling crowds.

The government blamed the long queues outside banks on people trying to convert their black money into white by sending agents to exchange money again and again.

To prevent this, the government said banks would now use indelible ink -- as is done during elections to prevent bogus voting -- so that people were stopped from making multiple cash exchanges.

Ankush Tiwari, a security guard with a private company, said he reached an ATM in Lajpat Nagar in south Delhi at 6 in the morning. A dozen people were already there.

"There was no cash but we were told it will be refilled. We waited till noon when cash was reloaded. I got to withdraw Rs 2,500 (the maximum limit) around 1 p.m.," Tiwari told IANS.

The story of chaos and suffering played out almost similarly in major cities, including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata, and innumerable smaller towns and rural parts of India.

In Hyderabad, many complained that bank officials were attending only to a few influential and major customers known to them.

"I waited for over two hours but bank officials said they can't give me new notes as I don't have an account," said G. Narsaiah, a construction worker who had come to exchange Rs 2,000 in old notes.

Long queues were seen outside all banks and ATMs in much of the country's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh.

Sohail, a mechanic with an aluminium fitting shop in Lucknow, said he was having huge difficulties due to the demonetisation. "I am facing difficulty to even arrange meals for my family. Where do I go?"

Belonging to a poor family, Sohail said he had not sent any money to his ageing parents in Firozabad, also in Uttar Pradesh, for days.

In Kerala, the situation got more chaotic as district cooperative banks have been denied permission to exchange the spiked currencies. In protest, the entire cooperative sector will remain closed on Wednesday.
New Delhi, Nov 15 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday sought the support of all political parties over his government's demonetisation decision, in the way they had cooperated in the passage of the GST Bill in Parliament.

Modi also called for their support on the issue of holding simultaneous elections in the country, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar told reporters after the conclusion of an all-party meet.

"Prime Minister's request is for cooperation, similar to what they did for GST (Bill). We are requesting them to cooperate in the crusade against corruption, black money and fake currency," Kumar said.

He said that the Prime Minister also appealed to the political parties to use the Winter Session of Parliament for debate and discussions on issues of national interest and public welfare.

The Prime Minister also called for discussion on the state funding of elections and simultaneous polls, he added.
New Delhi, Nov 15 : Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad on Tuesday termed the government's demonetisation policy a "big scam" and said there should be an inquiry into the "selective leakage" of the government's move.

Azad also clarified that the Congress is with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and other opposition parties on the issue of demonetisation, but it would not be part of the delegation led by TMC chief Mamata Banerjee that will meet President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday.

"The government was not prepared to implement the demonetisation policy. People are suffering, farmers and daily-wage earners don't have money.

"It was done in haste and without any preparation. It is a very big scam. It could be the country's biggest scam," said Azad after an all-party meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Azad said there should be an inquiry into the leakage of information on the demonetisation policy of the government, and it should be discussed it Parliament, which begins on Wednesday.

"The selective leakage that happened..many knew about it..even few BJP people knew about it," he said, demanding to know how the new Rs 2,000 note came out in the open even before November 8, when the Prime Minister made the announcement. "How did this happen?"

Asked if Congress was for roll back of demonetisation, Azad said: "We are not for rollback of the scheme..We are concerned about the inconvenience caused to the people. We are against black money," said Azad.

"But we are objecting to the way it was done in total haste without making any preparation," he added.

On the question of meeting the President along with Mamata Banerjee, Azad said: "TMC and we are all together..whether it is Congress, TMC, BSP, Samajwadi party, CPI-M, CPI, JD(U), all are united.."

He said that Banerjee has sought an appointment with the President, but the Congress was for first raising the issue in Parliament.

"Our general view is we shall not seek an appointment with the President on the very first day itself..We shall first discuss the issue inside the house, and then if need arises we shall seek an appointment," added Azad.

Azad added that the Congress supports Banerjee's move, and will continue to support her.

"We support the Bengal CM. She is well within her rights to meet the President. If we seek an appointment with the President later, TMC will be a part of that," said Azad.

Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said that Congress will raise the issue of demonetisation in the Lok Sabha.

"Demonetisation is the biggest issue..we'll take it up in the Lok Sabha. The dispute between judiciary and executive will also be raised in Parliament. this issue must also be solved," said Kharge.
New Delhi, Nov 15 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of receiving bribes while he was the Gujarat Chief Minister and sought a judicial probe into the issue. The Delhi assembly also sought a reversal of the demonetisation move.

He made the accusation during a special session of the assembly, which passed a resolution urging President Pranab Mukherjee to direct the union government to immediately withdraw the "draconian demonetisation".

In the course of his speech, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader dropped a bombshell.

Quoting from what he said were official records, Kejriwal referred to an October 15, 2013 Income Tax raid on the Aditya Birla group in Delhi during which Rs 25 crore in cash was seized.

He said officials seized documents, account books, computer records and a laptop belonging to a senior company official that had a message that stated "Gujarat CM-25 Crore (12 done-rest?)".

"It clearly suggested a payment of Rs 25 crore to the then Gujarat Chief Minister," he said.

Kejriwal urged the assembly to add the allegations against the Prime Minister to the resolution on demonetisation and urged President Mukherjee to order a Supreme Court monitored probe into it.

The assembly adopted the resolution by voice vote.

The house also resolved to refer the allegations of receipt of bribes by "persons holding high offices from Birla and Sahara Groups" to the Supreme Court with a request to order suitable inquiry.

The AAP leader said the Sahara group's offices were raided in 2014 and several documents with names of various political leaders including Modi were recovered.

The Chief Minister alleged that Modi took the money to clear some projects in Gujarat.

Kejriwal also referred to the way senior BJP leader L.K. Advani refused to contest the Lok Sabha elections in 1996 when he was linked to the hawala scandal and said he wondered whether Modi would uphold similar values.

The AAP leader claimed that the demonetisation was actually a "war against the poor people of the country".

He said while many in the country were not able to conduct weddings, there were reports that Rs 500 crore was being splurged at the marriage of the daughter of a mining scam accused in Karnataka known to be close to the BJP.

Kejriwal urged the President to direct the government to withdraw at once the demonetisation scheme that has led to a cash chaos all over the country with millions thronging banks and ATMs.

He said the November 8 announcement to spike the 500 and 1,000 rupee notes had caused misery to ordinary people.

The resolution called the scheme a "fraud" on the nation and said it had been launched to benefit a particular political party through its agents in the black money market.

Kejriwal also accused Modi of helping big corporates and said the Prime Minister had waived off Rs 1.14 lakh crore dues of corporates but was threatening people who deposit more than Rs 2.5 lakh in banks.

"You are a Prime Minister of the rich. And you have snatched the livelihood of the poor."

Opposition leader Vijender Gupta was marshalled out from the house after he raised a din when Kejriwal was speaking.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia earlier said the demonetisation move would not curb black money.

"You use pest control to kill insects, you don't set the entire house on fire," Sisodia said.
Marrakech, Nov 15 : Amid speculations on US President-elect Donald Trump rolling back from the Paris climate agreement, United Nations General Assembly President Peter Thomson said that world is at such a crucial stage that one country's change would have huge effects.

Several senior UN officials had reacted to Republican Trump's victory where Secretary General Ban ki-Moon saying he was hopeful that Trump would change his mind, while COP 22 President Salaheddine Mezouar hoping that one country quitting would not change anything.

"World can't afford any country regressing its commitments to the climate change. Any country rolling back from the Paris climate agreement would have huge impact on the global commitments," said Thomson in his address at the opening ceremony of the joint high level segment of the 22nd Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22), 12th session of the parties to Kyoto Protocol (CMP12) and the first session of parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA1).

The meet was opened by Moroccan King Mohammed VI and in presence of Ban - who is attending his last UN Climate Conference as Secretary General, Mezouar, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa along with heads and delegates of over a hundred of countries.

Thomson, who did not take any names while stressing his point, however added that the effect of climate change is being faced by every country and this makes it imperative for all of them to stick to their commitments.

"Droughts, hurricanes, storms and other such natural disasters are rapid. Due to rise in sea level existence of several nations is under threat. It is therefore very important that we all remain committed and understand that there are urgent steps required," said Thomson, who is from the South Pacific island of Fiji.

He stressed on the finance mobilisations for the developing countries, which is a commitment by the developed nations to provide $100 billion to the developing nations by 2020, in order to help them meet their NDCs and commitments under Paris Agreement.

He also urged for scaling up the investments.

"Aggregating difference between what has been pledged by the countries and whaty scientific community tells us is required," he said.

Trump -- a climate change sceptic -- has threatened to cancel the Paris deal if he cames to power. This would mean the threshold achieved for the Paris Agreement would be jeopardised as America accounts for 17 per cent of the global emissions, the biggest chunk after China.

(Kushagra Dixit is in Marrakech at the invitation of TERI to cover COP-22. He can be contacted at kushagra.d@ians.in)
New Delhi, Nov 15 : Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday denied that the November 8 demonetisation was announced without proper preparations which put the common man to immense difficulties.

"The government was fully prepared before announcing the decision despite the requirement of strict secrecy," Jaitley said at an all-party meeting convened by the government on the eve of the winter session of Parliament, which begins here from Wednesday.

He said the decision was only part of the larger government strategy to tackle corruption and unaccounted money.

"It started with the government's decision to set up a Special Investigation Team on unaccounted money right after assumption of office," Jaitley said.

He said opening the bank accounts of a large number of people was the central piece of the broad strategy to checkmate the flow of unaccounted money.

"Round tripping of monies through Mauritius, Cyprus and now Singapore was effectively checked," he said.

The minister said while currency accounts for only four per cent of gross domestic product across the world, it comes to 12 per cent in India and hence the government is working towards effective currency management.

The opposition parties, including the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party, the left parties and the Samajwadi party have accused the central government of ensuring no proper preparations ahead of demonetisation.

Delhi Chief Minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said demonetisation will not bring black money into the banking system but only lead to changing hands.

West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee termed it a hasty decision while Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said it was a very badly executed move.
Srinagar, Nov 15 : The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Tuesday dismissed some policemen for showing cowardice during weapon-snatching by militants, an official said.

Special Director General, Coordination and Law and Order, S.P. Vaid told IANS that after carrying out investigations into weapon-snatching incidents by militants from policemen posted on guard duties during the last four months, it was established that some of these policemen had exhibited cowardice by showing no resistance during these incidents.

"Some of these policemen, most of them posted in Kulgam and Anantnag districts, were found guilty of cowardice during weapon snatching incidents by militants.

"In other cases where the deployed guards fired even one shot in retaliation, weapon snatching by militants was thwarted. One of our brave policeman lost his life while resisting such an attempt by militants," said Vaid.

"It was, therefore, decided to dismiss from service some policemen who had been found guilty of showing cowardice," he added.

During the last four months, militants had managed to snatch dozens of weapons from policemen posted on guard duties, mostly at places where members of minority Kashmiri Pandit community still continue to live in the Valley.
Eight Chinese students in the UK have made it to the finals of the Mayor of London's International Student Innovation Awards 2016.

An everlasting cooling system, which ensures that medical vaccines reach their destinations undamaged, and a device which stops the tremors in Parkinson's disease sufferers are just two of the inventions they have submitted.

The International Student Innovation Awards were set up to highlight the work of the London's international students and also to provide financial assistance to help students take their innovations to the next stage of development.

Hundreds of entries, from 49 different countries and 17 London universities, have been received and have now been whittled down to a final shortlist.

An event crowning 'London's most innovative international student' - who will receive 10,000 to kick-start their business - will be held on Nov 2 at Central Saint Martins, Granary Square.

The awards were devised by London & Partners, the Mayor's official promotional company, and are supported by the UK Government's Education is GREAT campaign, the British Council, Cambridge English, IDP Education and The PIE.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: "The incredible range of talent on show in these awards celebrates the best of the capital and clearly demonstrates that London is open to talent and ideas from across the globe. We need to do all we can to ensure that London remains the best and most welcoming destination for international students."
Agra, Nov 15 : Long serpentine queues at banks and ATM kiosks in the city of the Taj showed no signs of shortening on Tuesday while cash crunch was reported to have claimed the life of a two-year-old child in Mainpuri district of Uttar Pradesh.

The child died on Monday as a hospital refused to extend treatment after his parents failed to arrange the required cash in time.

Small traders and shopkeepers were angry that their sales were affected after the demonetisation. Markets wore a deserted look for want of customers, who seemed largely cashless.

People trying to cremate the bodies of kith and kin at the Taj Ganj crematorium here were hassled due to shortage of notes of smaller denominations. The Kshetra Bajaja Committee, which runs the facility, announced on Tuesday evening that notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 would be accepted from Wednesday.

A bank source said as per information with them, workers of political parties and employees of industries in the area, including shoe-manufacturing units, have queued up with cash from black money launderers or owners of firms to deposit money in their bank accounts.

On Monday, a 15-day-old newborn also died of a wound as her father had Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes that private hospitals allegedly refused to accept, police sources said.

She was then admitted to the local S.N. Medical College and Hospital, which promptly referred her to All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi, but she could not be taken to the national capital as no ambulance driver was willing.

In Firozabad, a private nursing home refused to release a child's body for cremation on Monday till the family arranged money in smaller denominations to clear the treatment bill. The police later intervened to sort out the issue.
New Delhi, Nov 15 : India and Israel on Tuesday said the international community must act with with resolve against terror networks and states that harbour them and agreed to boost cooperation to combat the forces of extremism and radicalisation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who held talks with visiting Israeli President Reuven Rivlin here, said that engagement between India and Israel was multi-dimensional and wide-ranging.

He said the two leaders deeply value their strong and growing partnership to secure their societies.

"Our people are constantly threatened by forces of terrorism and extremism. We recognize that terrorism is a global challenge, knows no boundaries and has extensive links with other forms of organized crime," Modi said in a joint briefing with the Israel president.

Without naming Pakistan, Modi said "Regrettably, one of the countries of its origin and spread is in India's neighbourhood."

"We agreed that the international community must act with resolve and determination against terror networks and states that harbour them. Failure to act and silence of speech only encourages the terrorists," he said.

In his remarks, Rivlin said India and Israel stand together in defending their people and values against the threat of terror.

"Nothing can justify terror. Terror is terror," he said.

"Israel and India are threatened by terror because we uphold the values of freedom. We stand together in defending our people and values," Rivlin said.

He also invited Modi to visit Israel.

Earlier in the day, Rivlin was accorded a ceremonial reception at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Rivlin arrived in India on Monday on a week-long state visit -- the first by an Israeli President in nearly 20 years.

Rivlin will visit Taj Mahal in Agra on Wednesday and also visit a water treatment plant in Sikandra. He is also scheduled to visit Chandigarh.

In his remarks, Modi said the two countries agreed to broadbase their growing defence partnership.

"We agreed that the international community must act with resolve and determination against terror networks and states that harbour them. Failure to act and silence of speech only encourages the terrorists. We agreed to intensify our cooperation to combat the forces of extremism and radicalisation that threaten all peace-loving nations," he said.

He said the two countries also prioritised practical and specific engagement such as in the cyber domain.

Modi said Israeli companies can scale up their tie-ups with flagship schemes of Make in India, Digital India, Skill India and Smart Cities as the current trajectory of the Indian economy offered promising opportunities for them.

He also said that the growing number of Indian students, going to study in Israel and the vice versa, can be an important bridge in the bilateral partnership.

"Two and a half decades of our friendship has brought rich dividends for both our nations. It has also strengthened voices of peace, stability and democracy globally," said Modi, pointing to the two countries celebrating 25 years of full diplomatic relations next year.
Bengluru, Nov 15 : The Karnataka government on Tuesday announced setting up the first Women's Park at Kalaburgi in the state's north to facilitate women entrepreneurs open their manufacturing and processing units.

"The first Karnataka Ladies Association and Manufacturers Park (K-LAMP) in the Kesaratagi industrial area of Kalaburgi will have facilities to incubate, train, develop and test diverse products for mass production," said Additional Chief Secretary K. Ratna Prabha at a conclave here.

Kalaburgi is about 640 km from Bengaluru.

The state government also launched a website (www.klampk.com) dedicated to women entrepreneurs on the valedictory day of the 'ThinkBig 2016', a global summit of women entrepreneurs in partnership with the US-based WEConnect International global network.

"Special incentives have been provided in the state's new industrial policy for the Hyderabad-Karnataka region comprising the six backward districts of Bidar, Bellari, Kalaburgi, Koppal, Raichur and Yadgir to encourage women entrepreneurs set up their units in various sectors," said Prabha.

Admitting that many women had to be groomed for promoting enterprising ventures across the state, she said the Industry Department would conduct seminars, worships and product-oriented programmes for budding women entrepreneurs in different sectors.

"Going forward, the KIADB (Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board) will develop an exclusive Women's Park on a 50-acre land near Bengaluru, with plots of 5,000 square feet each for micro and small-scale units," she added.

Addressing about 2,000 women delegates from 19 states across the country and dozen countries from the world over, Biocon Chairperson Kiran Mazmudar Shaw urged the women entrepreneurs to think big and build scale.

"Don't be contended with opening a boutique or a small-scale unit but realise your full potential and break the mindset," she said.

As about 90 per cent of women rely on self-financing, Shaw said banks and venture capitalists should realise that women were worth investing in and advised them to change their mindset.

Announcing a 'Women Start-up' programme at the IIM-B school, Goldman Sachs India Chairman Sonjoy Chatterjee said the course would help women think of and initiate new ventures of their own.

"The free-of-cost year-long programme will train, mentor, incubate and support women to select projects in partnership with a Wall Street financial services firm," said Chatterjee.
New Delhi, Nov 15 : The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, which is virtually at war with the Narendra Modi government over the demonetisation issue, on Tuesday got a shot in the arm when BJP ally Shiv Sena decided to join its march to Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wednesday to press for rollback of the currency spike decision.

Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah are also to participate in the march.

While Banerjee, the West Bengal Chief Minister, herself reached out to several prominent opposition party leaders, including Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the Congress, CPI-M and the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) refused to be part of the march.

"Tomorrow (Wednesday) I am meeting President Pranab Mukherjee on demonetisation issue. I have spoken to various political parties. If they want to join me, it is good. If not, then I will go alone with my MPs," Banerjee told media persons in Kolkata before leaving for Delhi.

Besides a telephonic conversation with Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray on the fallout of demonetisation, Banerjee also called up Odisha Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal chief Naveen Patnaik and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav among others to join the march.

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said the party will participate in the march.

"Mamata called up Uddhav and said they are going to meet the President. She asked if the Shiv Sena will join the march. We have decided to join the march on the basis of issues related to demonetisation," Raut told media persons in Mumbai.

A constituent of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA at the Centre and in Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena has virulently criticised the demonetisation move.

Gearing up to confront the Modi government in Parliament over the issue, the Communist Party of India-Marxist said it will not be a part of the march.

"There is no question of joining the march," CPI-M politburo member Mohammad Salim told IANS.

Party General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Monday said the Marxists will confront the Modi government in Parliament first and decide the future course of action based on the government's response in the house.

Both the JD-U and the Congress extended support to Banerjee's crusade but declined to participate in the march.

"We support the Bengal Chief Minister, she is well within her rights to meet the President. But we shall not seek an appointment with the President on the very first day itself," senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said.

"We shall first discuss the issue inside the house, and then if need may arise we shall seek an appointment. The Trinamool can be a part of that," he added.

"While we have very good relations with Mamata's party, we don't have total unison with the Trinamool. The JD-U will not join the protest march," party Rajya Sabha member K.C. Tyagi told IANS.

"There can be a difference on going to the President's place altogether but we will remain united in Parliament," he added.

The Trinamool, however, appeared unperturbed on the opposition's failure to unite on the proposed march.

"This fight is not for any party or individual interest. This is a fight against the financial calamity unleashed by this government," Banerjee said upon her arrival in the national capital.

"We too are against black money. But 99 percent of the nation is being punished for the crimes committed by the one percent," she said.

"It's their prerogative, whether the Congress or CPI-M join or not, we have no issues on that."

"But then," Banerjee said, "what is the use of the doctor coming when the patient has already died. We cannot waste time, we cannot wait for the patient to die. The situation is grave, and we cannot allow the people to suffer like this."
Mumbai, Nov 15 : Flaying the Centre for the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday that "it was based on one person's thinking and could turn out be a mega scam".

"The big black money players have been allowed to go scot free by the Prime Minister.. People like (Vijay) Mallya and Lalit Modi are sitting abroad," Gandhi said, speaking to mediaperons here late on Tuesday night.

He claimed that most economists with whom he discussed the issue said the demonetisation decision of November 8 was not thought out properly and was based on "one persons' thinking."

Gandhi, who arrived here late in the evening in connection with a court hearing in Thane on Wednesday, was interacting with mediapersons at the MCA Club in Bandra.

He also attacked the BJP for depositing Rs 1 crore in a bank account in Kolkata on the same day the demonetisation announcement was made.

Instead of demanding a rollback of demonetisation, Gandhi said the government should ensure implementation of it with "sensitivity".

"Do you see any black money players in the queues. It is only the farmers, government servants and common man," he said.

He said there was no economic rationale behind the decision.

Rahul Gandhi also refused to comment on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mother going to a bank in Gandhinagar to exchange her demonetised currency. "Mine and Narendra Modiji's style is different. I won't speak on his Mataji," he said.

"A couple of days back, the PM was laughing in his speech, then next day he was crying. He should decide what he wants to do," Gandhi added, referring to Modi's different speeches on demonetisation.

"I am seeing on social media that BJP leaders are holding cash stacks in their hand, where did they get this money from?" Gandhi asked.
New Delhi, Nov 15 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday paid homage to tribal freedom fighter Birsa Munda.

"I pay homage to Bhagwan Birsa Munda on his birth anniversary and recall his courage and efforts towards empowerment of tribal communities," the Prime Minister said in an official statement.

Birsa Munda, who was also a religious leader, belonged to the Munda tribe.
New Delhi, Nov 15 : Jet Airways on Tuesday said it has expanded its existing cooperation with Kenya Airways, the national carrier of Kenya, by sharing codes on its domestic flights between Mumbai, New Delhi, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.

"Through this agreement, Kenya Airways will place its flight code (KQ) on Jet Airways' seven daily flights between Mumbai and New Delhi, five daily flights from Mumbai to Ahmedabad and five daily flights between Mumbai and Hyderabad for travel effective November 15, 2016," the airline major said in a statement.

The airline said the arrangement will continue to include Jet Airways' code (9W) on Kenyan's double daily flights on the Mumbai-Nairobi route, allowing the passengers to connect to other onward destinations in Africa.

"Expansion of our codeshare relationship with Kenya Airways will allow us to offer the India diaspora in Kenya convenient access to more destinations in India," Jayaraj Shanmugam, Chief Commercial Officer of Jet Airways, was quoted as saying in the statement.

"At the same time, Indian travellers can continue enjoying the opportunity to explore more of Kenya and East Africa via our international codeshares, strengthening the relationship between the people of the two nations."
November 15 : Private bus operators in the State seem to have finally mustered up the courage to put an end to the practice of policemen hitching free rides in private stage carriers.

The decision has been reportedly taken on the strength of a circular issued by the chief ministers office.

The chief ministers office received an anonymous letter recently seeking the CMs help in putting to an end the inveterate practice of policemen enjoying rides free of cost in private buses, a report carried by news portal southlive said.

Pinarayi Vijayan took cognisance of the matter and issued directions to convert the anonymous letter into a circular.

The chief minister also reportedly gave instructions to have the letter conspicuously displayed in police stations across the State.

Emboldened by this, the private bus operators association co-ordination committee announced the news at a press meet convened by them.

The news report quotes the association office bearers as saying that the free rides availed of by policemen needed to be done away with since the private transport sector is going through a severe crisis.

The practice of policemen travelling ticketless was an affront to the police department, they said, exhorting the police community to co-operate with them.
Rome, Nov 16 : As US President, Donald Trump is likely to emphasise the negative effect on the US economy of an historic climate pact to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, former Italian Environment Minister Corrado Clini said on Tuesday.

"The latest and most accurate information on climate change comes from US government agencies, particularly NASA and NOAA. The data and images provided leave little doubt concerning the direct and indirect effects of the Earth's rising temperatures. This is just as obvious in the Arctic and in Greenland as it is on the Tibetan Plateau - the birthplace of rivers that carry water to over two billion people throughout Asia," Clini told Adnkronos.

"The US is the world's leading democracy and economic power and I doubt that President Trump - regardless of the questionable opinions he expressed on the supposedly political nature of climate change during his campaign - would challenge the data issued by his own country's government agencies.

"Instead, we should expect President Trump to demand insights into how the international agreements on fossil fuel divestment will impact the US economy. One of Trump's winning cards to turn the electorate in his favour was his ability to leverage the discontent and the demands of the voters who lost their jobs in part, apparently, because of America's recent environment and energy policies," he said.

"In fact, Trump's motivations are the same as the US Senate's in 2015 and are quite close to those that led to the unanimous rejection of the Kyoto Protocol in 1999, during Bill Clinton's presidency.

"And we all know that if Obama had asked the Senate to ratify the Paris Agreement, the Senate would have rejected it too. In other words, Trump is more like the child from H.C. Andersen's 'The Emperor's New Clothes' rather than some evil genius trying to undermine a worldwide climate agreement," said Clini.

"Trump is zeroing in on the Paris Agreement's economic impact, which so far has been dismissed as 'someone else's concern'," Clini said.

He was referring to the landmark deal to keep global warming "well below 2 degrees Celsius" this century adopted by almost 200 nations at a United Nations climate conference in December 2015, which came into effect on 4 November.

The Paris Agreement calls for a worldwide decrease in fossil fuel consumption, cutting its contribution to the global energy demand from 86 per cent to 50 per cent over the next 25 years.

But during the same period, according the International Energy Agency, a 35 per cent increase in the global demand for energy is expected, coming mostly from India, China, South-East Asia, South America and the Middle East.

"It is a very intricate puzzle. Trump raises an issue that concerns Europe as well as America: if we want to reduce worldwide fossil fuel consumption, then how can we offset the increased energy demand in emerging and developing economies without harming the developed economies?

"China could legitimately remind Trump and Europe that in spite of its per capita GDP being six times lower than America's and 5 times lower than G7, the country invested twice as much as the US in clean technologies in 2015 ($110 billion versus 56) and has reached a decarbonisation rate of 4 per cent, i.e. twice as much as the G7 countries.

"And let us not forget that despite the significant role of renewables and nuclear power, India's impressive growth in the next 25 years will call for a four-fold increase of coal consumption. In the context of worldwide fossil fuel divestment, how won't India's growth affect the economies of the US, Europe and Japan?" Clini said.
Chinese advocate for the rights of the disabled Zhang Haidi will take over the top leadership role at Rehabilitation International, a leading global network for the rights of disabled people and their full inclusion in society.

Zhang assumed the new role at the organization's annual meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Thursday. She had been serving as chairwoman of the China Disabled Persons' Federation.

Under her leadership, Rehabilitation International will upgrade its global network, encourage more involvement from developing countries and make the best of rehabilitation expertise, particularly for disabled women and children, Zhang said in her inauguration speech.

"Our responsibility is to help as many disabled people as possible gain access to rehabilitation  to see the light, to hear the sound, to sit, to stand, to walk, to run, to equally integrate into society and live a happy life," she said.

Known as a writer and translator, Zhang was elected as the group's president in 2014, which put on track to take over this year.

Zhang, 61, pledged to make more efforts in her four-year tenure to eliminate prejudice and discrimination and to promote an equal, sharing and inclusive environment worldwide for people with disabilities.

"People congratulate not only me but also China for what it has achieved in recent years to help its disabled people," she told China Daily on the sidelines of Rehabilitation International's World Congress.

Zhang was paralyzed at the age of 5 but educated herself to university standards before earning a master's degree in philosophy at Jilin University. She was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of York in 2013 and another by the University of Massachusetts Boston in 2015.

A prolific writer, Zhang's published works include Beautiful English, Wheelchair Dream, and Unsinkable Boat.

There are about 85 million disabled people in China, less than a third of whom are registered. China had only about 7,000 rehabilitation centers as of 2015, with 232,000 employees.

"China has just entered an important stage with the presidency of a global organization dedicated to rehabilitation and people with disabilities," said outgoing RI President Jan Monsbakken. "I think it's about time for China to hold such a position."

An increasing number of Chinese are rising to key positions in world organizations, ranging from Margaret Chan's appointment as director-general of the World Health Organization to Yang Shaolin's more recent appointment as chief administrative officer of the World Bank Group.

Founded in 1922, the New York-headquartered Rehabilitation International network includes service providers, government agencies, academics and researchers. Its World Congress, staged every four years, will next convene in Denmark in 2020.
In her dreams, Victoria is free to explore a world with no limits. She and her dog, Amigo, have fun discovering new adventures together. This story is a new kind of fairy tale, where the happy ending doesnt involve finding a significant other, but rather finding yourself, and what makes you happy.

Sandra Alvarado announces the release of "Victoria's Dreams: Adventures in Space," her first children's book.

"Children dream of a happy life and a bright future. What they can grow up to be is limited only by their imaginations," states Sandra. "This story is a new kind of fairy tale, where the happy ending doesnt involve finding a significant other, but rather finding yourself, and what makes you happy.

"Victoria's Dreams: Adventures in Space" tells the story of the young, precocious Victoria. She is being raised by her single father, Daniel, who adopted her at age three. They live in Hollywood, California.

Daniel gives Victoria a puppy for her 13th birthday. She names her puppy Amigo, and he becomes her best friend.

Victoria posts all of her wishes and ideas onto her Happily Ever After bulletin board, focusing her goals and motivating her toward making them come true.

When she has to come up with a project for her schools science fair, Victoria drifts off into a dream that takes her and Amigo on an amazing adventure into outer space, where they are exposed to a whole new world of possibilities.

When she awakens, she has a great idea for her school project, but will her classmate, Robert, beat her with his creation?

"'Victorias Dreams' is meant to encourage young imaginations, and to promote the confidence it takes to dream without limits," says Sandra.

Sandra Alvarado is a television news director and lives in Los Angeles, California. She was born in Chile, and moved to Hollywood, California as a child. Her parents, Abraham and Fresia, encouraged their four children to dream big, and assured them that with hard work and perseverance, anything could be possible. She has two sons, Jordan and Brandon, who write screenplays. When they were small, she made up stories for them. They suggested she write a book.

Sandra has always wanted to tell stories that encourage children to pursue their dreams.

"Victorias Dreams: Adventures in Space" is available now on Amazon in paperback and Kindle eBook. Spanish edition coming soon.

Contact:

(818) 920-8021

facebook @VictoriasDreamsBooks
Premier Li Keqiang meets with Latvian Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis on Friday local time in the country's capital Riga. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Premier Li Keqiang vowed on Friday to strengthen cooperation with Latvia in infrastructure and production capacity and showed willingness to participate in railway and port projects in the Baltic Sea area.

Latvia is a crucial partner for China in Central and Eastern Europe and under the framework of European Union, Premier Li said when meeting with Latvian Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis in the country's capital Riga.

Li is on his first visit to Latvia, where he is also scheduled to attend the 5th Meeting of Heads of Government of China and Central and Eastern European countries, which kicks off on Saturday.

For the past 25 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties, both countries have consolidated political trust, deepened pragmatic cooperation in various fields, and nursed increasing people-to-people exchanges, Li said.

China has cost-effective equipment and rich experience in building railways and ports, and is willing to participate in Europe's infrastructure projects such as Rail Baltica, a trans-European railway linking Riga and Berlin, and the construction of ports and a logistics park under the framework of a three-sea harbor district cooperation initiative, Li added.

The initiative refers to cooperation programs concerning the Adristic Sea, the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea. It was proposed by Premier Li in last year's China-CEE countries meeting in Suzhou, Jiangsu province.

Li said China is willing to strengthen other pragmatic cooperation with Latvia, which will be taken as an important transit point for China-EU trade.

Kucinskis said Latvia will cultivate a stable environment for Chinese enterprises and strive to become a portal for Chinese enterprises to enter the market of Central and Eastern European countries.
"Its a bittersweet time for our family and employees. We want this closing to be special, so we've made the business decision to offer extremely discounted prices on all our in-stock pianos.

When people in Wisconsin think of pianos, they think of Netzows.

Now, after 131 years in business, the sound of piano keys being played at Netzow's Pianos will go silent as its current owner, Steve Datz, retires and closes the doors of this iconic piano company forever.

Starting in 1885, the storied history of Netzow's is one that parallels the ebb and flow of Milwaukee itself. During the first year, Charles Netzow moved to 507 11th street to begin selling sewing machines from a wagon, according to family stories. He expanded the business to include pianos in the years following. In 1896 Netzow created a wholesale business of manufacturing pianos and published a catalog offering eight models of Fernwood, Netzow and Mehlin upright pianos and a single Mehlin grand. After a few years, the manufacturing side of the business closed, and the retail operations reopened as Netzow Brothers with Elmer, one of the Netzow sons, taking the lead. In 1956, the downtown Milwaukee store relocated to 2125 North Ave at Fond du Lac. Netzows left this location in 1981 and moved their store to its current location at 88th and North Ave.

In 1988 Netzows Pianos was sold to an employee group headed by Steve Datz, who is the remaining owner today. For many years, the store has been home to the iconic Yamaha piano brand known around the world. Thousands of families, schools, churches and musicians have purchased their pianos at Netzows over the years.

When discussing the closing, Steve Datz stated, "Its a bittersweet time for our family and employees and were grateful to have made so many friends over the years. We want this closing to be special so we've made the business decision to offer extremely discounted prices on all our in-stock pianos. It's our way of closing the doors in a positive way and to say thank you to this tremendous community."

Netzows is holding a private liquidation of all in-stock pianos on Thursday, Friday & Saturday, November 17-19, in their showroom at 8853 W. North Avenue, Wauwatosa, WI 53226. Appointments to the private sale can be made by calling 262.422.3031. The liquidation will be open to the public on Sunday, November 20, from noon until 5pm.
Oncolinx is a Spin-Out from The Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI) Oncolinx is a shining example of what can be achieved through the CAI program. With its fourth competition now concluded, CAI's challenge model has shown success in building extraordinary startups to leverage high-growth federal technologies.

A spin-out company from the Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI), Oncolinx, has won the 43North Startup Competition. This premier international startup competition, sponsored by the New York Power Authority and Governor Andrew Cuomos Buffalo Billion, awarded Oncolinx the grand prize of $1 million. Oncolinx outcompeted 541 other companies, including 142 semifinalists and sixteen finalists. Along with its grand prize, 43North will grant Oncolinx free incubator space in Buffalo, New York, marketing exposure, mentorship from experienced entrepreneurs, and ten years of freedom from New York state taxes. This recognition comes only a little more than two years after Oncolinx launched from CAIs inaugural entrepreneurship competition, the Breast Cancer Startup Challenge, a partnership with the Avon Foundation for Women and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Since winning the Breast Cancer Startup Challenge (BCSC) in March of 2014, Oncolinx has achieved remarkable success. Through the BCSC, Oncolinx won the opportunity to execute an exclusive license, granted by the NIH in 2015, to an innovative, commercially viable NCI invention. This promising cancer immunotherapy is an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), in which a biologically active drug, called Azonafide, is attached to a monoclonal antibody with the ability to specifically target malignant cancer cells. Due to this selective targeting of cancer cells, Oncolinxs innovation can avoid the adverse side-effects of traditional chemotherapy, which also destroys healthy cells. At present, Oncolinx has signed eighteen partnership agreements with universities and pharmaceutical companies, such as Celgene, Merck, and Novartis. These partnerships have given Oncolinx access to an arsenal of different monoclonal antibodies, which Oncolinx will employ to fight as many as thirty different cancer indications. Oncolinx expects to begin first-in-human trials on a partnered drug in 2017.

Oncolinx was fortunate to get its start in the Breast Cancer Startup Challenge. Since then, Rosemarie Truman, her team, Dr. Nadya Tarasova, and the NCI have given us unparalleled support as we developed their drug and accelerate it towards clinical trials. We look forward to continuing to draw on the NCI and CAI as great resources as we move forward, said Sourav Sinha, CEO of Oncolinx.

On Buffalos biggest stage, Oncolinxs co-founders pitched to nearly three thousand audience members, including renowned investors from across North America, New York Lieutenant Governor  Kathy Hochul, New York Power Authority Chairman  John Koelmel, and American broadcast news correspondent  Luke Russert. Yet, Oncolinxs co-founders are accustomed to the spotlight. Prior to receiving the 43North grand prize, Oncolinx had participated in and won other prestigious startup competitions, including MassChallenge, MassBio, and the Rice Business Plan Competition. Moreover, Oncolinx was awarded incubator space from Mass Innovation Labs and the Texas Medical Centers TMCx accelerator. By the end of 2016, Oncolinx plans to carry out experiments onboard the International Space Station in the ISS National Laboratory, managed by NASA and CASIS.

One of 58 spin-outs, Oncolinx is a portfolio company of the Center for Advancing Innovations challenge-accelerator program, a first of a kind national startup competition designed to identify and accelerate the market potential of nascent federal technologies. To date, CAI has partnered with the NIH and NASA in order to commercialize their portfolio of over 25,000 breakthrough inventions through this award-winning challenge-accelerator model. Other CAI portfolio companies include Angio360, a diagnostics company for the early detection of cancer in humans and dogs, and NeuroCognetix, a third-party solutions provider for the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) industry. Both startups, launched from CAIs Neuro Startup Challenge in 2015. Like Oncolinx, each of these game-changing companies is prepared to make a positive impact on the world, using one of over 150,000 federally funded inventions from the top 150 United States research institutions.

Rosemarie Truman, Founder of CAI, said, Oncolinx is a shining example of what can be achieved through the CAI program. With our fourth challenge now concluded, CAI's challenge model has shown success in building extraordinary startups to leverage high-growth federal technologies. If we can continue to cultivate and commercialize even a fraction of the vast portfolio of 150,000 federally-funded inventions, we can create unprecedented impact to the US economy.

ABOUT CAI:

The Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI) is a global public-private partnership, non-profit focused on creating a virtuous circle of innovation and driving growth breakthroughs through novel, creative paradigms and models. CAI's mission is to accelerate and increase the volume of research commercialization in support of high growth business to ignite entrepreneurship, bolster the global economy, and maximize the commercial and knowledge-based potential of promising inventions. CAIs award-winning challenge-based accelerator, rigorous evidence-based due diligence, and capital-efficient lean management models serve to hyper-accelerate gazelle high-performing startups for outsized investor returns. Through its NIH-sponsored Breast Cancer Startup Challenge, Neuro Startup Challenge, and Nanotechnology Startup Challenge in Cancer competitions, as well as its NASA-sponsored Space Race, CAI has launched 58 startups and trained more than 2000 entrepreneurs. For additional information about CAI, please visit http://www.thecenterforadvancinginnovation.org.
Thomas W. Burch III HPTY has an established reputation as a national litigation powerhouse. I could not be more excited to work alongside the preeminent toxic tort attorneys in the United States

Hawkins Parnell Thackston & Young LLP (HPTY), a national litigation firm, is pleased to announce that Thomas W. Burch III has joined the San Francisco office as a partner.

We are thrilled to add another first-chair trial lawyer to our national toxic tort and environmental group, said Ronald G. Polly, Jr. managing partner of HPTY. Tom brings a wealth of experience that strengthens our deep stable of trial lawyers.

Burch brings more than 30 years of experience as a trial lawyer and litigator defending corporations and individuals in complex litigation involving product liability, toxic tort, environmental, and commercial disputes. He has been trial counsel in numerous toxic tort cases as well as cases involving commercial issues, including antitrust, breach of contract and general negligence.

HPTY has an established reputation as a national litigation powerhouse, Burch said. I could not be more excited to work alongside the preeminent toxic tort attorneys in the United States.

Prior to joining HPTY, Burch was partner-in-charge of DeHay & Ellistons office in Houston, Texas and he relocated to California in 2008 to open and manage the firms office in Oakland, California. He continues to be licensed to practice law in both California and Texas.

Burch received his undergraduate degree from the University of Houston in 1980 and his law degree from South Texas College of Law in Houston in 1984.

About Hawkins Parnell Thackston & Young LLP

Over the last half century, HPTY has grown to include more than 150 lawyers in 9 offices located in Atlanta, Austin, Charleston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Napa, New York, St. Louis and San Francisco. HPTY represents some of Americas largest corporations, small local businesses and individual clients in high-risk litigation and business disputes across the country.
Euro-American Brands, LLC and its partner, The Hero Group, announce the launch of their Hero Spread the Goodness Holiday Sweepstakes offering consumers a chance to win a $500 supermarket shopping gift card (No Purchase Necessary. Ends 12/31/16). Hero is also spreading the goodness this holiday by donating over $32,000 worth of product in 2016 to Feed the Children to help families in need.

Heros holiday sweepstakes will be supported by digital banner advertising, a new website, and a social media program that will spread the goodness by highlighting Heros unique flavor varieties and offering consumers exciting meal, appetizer, and dessert recipe ideas for holiday entertaining. The Hero brand also begins a new local TV advertising campaign this month that directs consumers to the jam aisle of top retailers who carry Hero Fruit spreads. Consumers will be sharing and posting recipe ideas via social media using #BeAKitchenHero.

Dite Van Clief, President of Euro-American Brands, had this to say about the recipe-centered holiday promotion: Because there are so many options for including fruit-based products in holiday meals, we felt that the Hero brand, a global leader in the fruit spreads area, should provide consumers with creative alternatives in meal planning. With so many unique Hero fruit flavors to choose from, such as Black Cherry, Forest Berry, Red Currant, and Bitter Orange -- all with high fruit content -- our goal is to offer how- to meal preparation ideas for festive celebrations.

For more information on Hero and holiday recipes or to enter the Hero Spread The Goodness Holiday Sweepstakes, visit http://www.herofruitspreads.com.

About Hero:

Established in the quaint Swiss village of Lenzburg in 1886, Hero has become the gold standard of gourmet fruit spreads, both for consumers and for professional chefs, and is

available in 37 countries worldwide. Hero fruit spreads can be found in the jam section of most leading retailers.

About Euro-American Brands:

Founded in 1990, Euro-American brands originated as an importer of German specialty foods and confections. Since then, the product portfolio has grown to include the finest products from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.

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As Silicon Valleys M&A market heats up, AlwaysHired -- a sales training bootcamp which places SDRs in tech positions -- acquired Traind.net a recruiting and sales training firm.

This merger generates a partnership that allows for more entry into the technology marketplace for sales development representatives. Now, graduates of AlwaysHired tech sales bootcamps can find employment in the market faster and will be skilled in the correct on-boarding and training processes.

Our partnership will be transformational for this new industry we are creating, said Gabriel Moncayo, Co-Founder and CEO of AlwaysHired. AlwaysHired is the premiere sales bootcamp while Traind.net is the premiere sales placement engine. Joining forces will provide incredible value to both our students and our partner companies alike. We're thrilled to team up to elevate the social impact we can create together.

This comes at a time when AlwaysHired growth is scaling with placement of students in over sixty technology firms including: Facebook, Yelp, Okta, Lever, and ProsperWorks.

Traind.nets chief executive Brandon Omoregie agreed that the acquisition will help Traind.net service its clients in new ways and will help provide them with more end-to-end solutions.

Omoregie notes, "I founded Traind.net because I saw rising demand for something fresh and different to conventional recruiting practices. Our goal is to help companies that are hiring sales teams to recognize revenue faster and cut down on-boarding times by making quality hires. Hiring sales reps that are trained in a company's sales stack, cadence and best practices prior to the interview process changes ramp times to weeks instead of months.

To learn more about these companies and how they are able to transform job seekers into sales employees at the worlds top technology companies, visit their websites at http://www.alwayshired.com/ and http://traind.net/.

Contact:

Shimrit Sadi

AlwaysHired

800.526.0722

shimrit(at)alwayshired.com

About AlwaysHired

AlwaysHired is the premier in-person immersive sales training boot camp for people who want full time sales jobs at the best technology companies in SF. Its a 150-hour course consisting of: hands-on instructor led Salesforce training, sales stack training, sales methodology training, objection handling, live cold calling, mock interviews and networking with recruiters from the leading tech companies in the Bay Area. Since its launch last year, AlwaysHired students have landed jobs at over 60 growing companies, including Lever, Yelp, Facebook, ZeroCater, ProsperWorks and Magnet Systems.

About Traind.net

Traind.net, founded in October 2015, is a recruiting firm helping companies better identify qualified sales applicants by improving the on-boarding and new hire training process of SDRs. This is achieved by training those candidates in an organizations best practices, before theyre hired. The companys leadership team includes Mathew Caldwell (VP of People at Instacart), Max Altschuler (Founder and CEO of Sales Hacker), Richard Harris (Founder of The Harris Consulting Group) and Shawn Hickman (Sales Manager at Neustar). Traind.net has an impressive portfolio of clients, such as DiscoverOrg, ClearCare, 8x8, and Aria Systems.
Friendship Villas at La Cholla "The company aims to allocate $100 million in potential acquisitions and/or developments into the senior housing arena within the next year," says The Tanbic Companys Founder and CEO, Tanner Bickelhaupt

It is no surprise that the Senior Living industry is in the beginning stages of tremendous growth. The National Investment Center for Senior Housing and Care Industry (NIC) estimates that the number of people turning 75 and older will grow at a rate of approximately 2.1% annually during the next five years and that growth will intensify significantly between 2021 and 2039. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Baby Boomers will all reach the age of 65 and older by 2029 and account for more than 20% of the total U.S. population.

Investment firms are beginning to take notice of the senior housing space. Among these investment firms eyeing the senior housing space is Scottsdale, Arizona-based The Tanbic Company. "The company aims to allocate $100 million in potential acquisitions and/or developments into the senior housing arena within the next year," says The Tanbic Companys Founder and CEO, Tanner Bickelhaupt.

For the last year, The Tanbic Company has been actively forming partnerships with experts within the senior operations industry, including full-service senior living provider Solterra Senior Living. Scottsdale, Arizona-based Solterra Senior Living offers operation and management services in Arizona and Colorado. The acquisition of Friendship Villas at La Cholla is Tanbic and Solterras first acquisition together.

According to Mr. Bickelhaupt, providing housing to seniors fills a need in a socially responsible way, while simultaneously producing attractive returns to our investors. For us, our senior operators must share our goals, most importantly our commitment to providing genuine care. Senior housing is now a lifestyle choice made by informed middle and upper-income consumers with a broad range of options. Tanbic views assisted living and memory care facilities as an often-overlooked segment of the market to provide risk-adjusted returns. Due to the complexity of operations, investors have historically favored independent living facilities, which require fewer services. We believe the one who cares the most, will win the most. It is not just about providing care and compassion to the resident but also to their families, their friends, and our staff. Our business is about creating a community, and if we are successful at that, everything else works out.

Friendship Villas consists of a total of 103 beds. The campus is made up of five villa homes, four of which support 18 residents each. The fifth villa is dedicated to serving up to 31 memory care residents. The acquisition price was $15.4 Million.

For more information about The Tanbic Company visit http://www.tanbic.com

About The Tanbic Company

The Tanbic Company is a middle market, real estate private equity firm. The companys investment objective is to generate a consistent return comprised of current cash flow income and capital appreciation, with low volatility and little correlation to the general marketplace. The firm seeks to invest between $3 million to $12 million in equity capital per transaction. Tanbic has two primary investment focuses within the commercial investment arena: multi-family market rate/value add and senior housing/independent and assisted living.
The Belize Zoo, on the way to Chaa Creek, is a great way to get up close and personal to some of the eco-resort's natural neighbours It makes an already pleasant travel experience that much better.

Belizes recent upgrades to its domestic airport involves much more than just a name change, and represents another step forward in the little countrys evolution as one of the worlds premier tourism destinations, according to The Lodge at Chaa Creek.

Its one more example of how the government and private sector are working together to make travel easier for visitors," Chaa Creek general manager Bryony Fleming Bradley said, And, with the high season and Christmas holidays coming up, the timing couldnt be better, she added.

Belizes Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation had just announced the inauguration of the Sir Barry Bowen Municipal Airport after an extensive renovation project expanded the runway, improved lighting for nighttime landings and saw a range of other improvements.

Ms Bradley said the renovations, which she said enhance the airports safety and efficiency, offer benefits to Chaa Creek guests who prefer to fly to the eco-resort via the Maya Flats airstrip adjacent to Chaa Creek.

It makes an already pleasant travel experience that much better, she said.

The November 7 2016 media release highlighted the improvements and concluded that, The remodelled airport is now a world class, modern facility which will boost the already steady and phenomenal tourism growth in Belize.

Ms Bradley said that while the majority of Chaa Creek's guests still enjoy the overland route, with free pickup and drop off at Belize's international airport and a scenic drive along the Western Highway with optional visits to the Belize Zoo, a growing number of visitors are choosing to fly in.

Many people still prefer the scenic drive, which takes you from coastal mangroves, through savannahs with small farms and homesteads, rolling pastures with the Maya Mountains in the background and past little villages like Hattieville, Ontario, Mount Hope, Unitedville and Roaring Creek before coming into Santa Elena and over the picturesque Hawksworth Bridge to San Ignacio Town. Then its a short hop past the ancient Maya site of Cahal Pech and on to the turnoff to Chaa Creek.

Especially when combined with a stop at the Belize Zoo, the drive gives visitors a lovely introduction to Belize, and with our comfortable, air-conditioned vans and friendly drivers its quite a pleasant trip, she said.

Ms Bradley said the introduction of Tropic Airs Maya Flats airstrip near Chaa Creek some years ago made domestic air travel an easier option for guests.

Especially for people on tight schedules, coming from far away, or who just want to check into their rooms, get a cool drink in their hands and jump into the pool or a hammock as soon as possible, the local air service is a real boon.

With international carriers continually upgrading services from more hubs with increasingly competitive rates, combined with Tropic Airs great local service, getting to and from Chaa Creek, and from Chaa Creek to Belizes Caribbean coast and regional destinations like the ancient Maya city of Tikal in Guatemala, travel in Belize is getting easier, more comfortable and more affordable all the time, Ms Bradley said, And the newly upgraded Sir Barry Bowen Airport is icing on the cake, she added.

Ms Bradley said that the municipal airport upgrades are especially welcome in light of new accommodations, tours and other features that include new luxury villas and a Belize Cultural Grand Tour that Chaa Creek is introducing over this years holiday season and for 2017.

Our new Ix Chel Luxury Rainforest Villas opening in December 2016 are setting new standards for luxury accommodations with floor to ceiling glass walls and expansive verandas offering private, 180 degree panoramic views of the rainforest along with personal Jacuzzis, plunge pool and the attention of a personal butler. Guests can literally have breakfast with snow falling in the US and then be soaking under the stars following a sumptuous dinner that evening after enjoying an easy, seamless travel experience.

Its all part of Belizes ongoing evolution as the preferred destination for many travellers, and enhances Chaa Creeks reputation as Belizes Destination within a Destination,' Ms Bradley said, citing Chaa Creeks variety of accommodation, the number of amenities and activities within the eco-resorts 400-acre private nature reserve, all-inclusive Belize vacation packages and numerous tours and excursions that cover the country and regional attractions.

Belize has really come into its own as a premier travel destination, and its great to see that the travel industry, international and domestic, has responded so enthusiastically.

Someone once said its not just the destination, but the journey as well. Now we can say that we offer the best of both, Ms Bradley said.

The Lodge at Chaa Creek is a multi-award winning eco resort set within a 400-acre private nature reserve along the banks of the Macal River in Belize.
Tony Sos, a personal injury attorney at Dellecker Wilson King McKenna Ruffier & Sos, has been appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors at United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) of Central Florida. The position is a 2-year commitment, which began on July 1, 2016. As Chairman, Sos will lead the all-volunteer Board of Directors in providing fiduciary and legal oversight of the organization while promoting its services and raising awareness.

"I am looking forward to a great term with UCP. The schools provide vital support for parents and students of all different abilities in myriad ways. I see it as my job and the Board's job to help ensure that the support and unique services offered continue meet the needs of the families in the schools," said Tony Sos of Dellecker Wilson King McKenna Ruffier & Sos (http://www.dwklaw.com).

Sos has been active with UCP for over 6 years, serving on the Board of Directors and helping to fundraise for the organization.

"I was hooked early on. As soon as I saw how kids of all different abilities interacted and learned from one another, I was in. It really moved me to see kids learning together and from one another like that," noted Sos.

UCP of Central Florida is a tuition free public charter school. The school is a resource for families, children, the medical community, and referral agencies in Central Florida, providing support, education and therapy services in Orange, Osceola, and Seminole counties. UCP operates seven campus locations for children with disabilities and developmental delays, including cerebral palsy, Down Syndrome, autism, spina bifida, and speech and hearing delays.

"Tony will be a great asset to our Board of Directors. His experience as an advocate for children and families makes him particularly well-suited to the role of Chairman of the Board. I have no doubt his deep concern for the students well-being will be first and foremost in his decision-making," noted Dr. Ilene Wilkins, President/Chief Executive Officer of UCP (http://www.ucpcfl.org).

Sos is a partner at Orlando's Dellecker Wilson King McKenna Ruffier & Sos law firm. He is a recipient of the 2015 Lawrence G. Mathews, Jr. Young Lawyer Professionalism Award and an active member of the Orange County Bar Association. He earned his law degree from the University of Florida in 2003 and his undergraduate degree in legal studies from the University of Central Florida. He is a member of The Florida Bar, the Florida Justice Association, and the American Association for Justice. Learn more about Tony Sos here.

UCP relies on the skills and services of volunteers to make a difference in their schools and communities. They have volunteer openings for students, individuals, and local businesses that want to make a difference in the lives of UCP's students and their families.

About Dellecker Wilson King McKenna Ruffier & Sos: The personal injury attorneys at Dellecker Wilson King McKenna Ruffier and Sos in Orlando, FL, serve as allies, strategic coordinators, and resources to help families obtain compensation for damages and costs they have endured from incidents such as car accidents, medical malpractice, and defective product injuries. They specialize in cases that involve injuries or losses that will impact their clients for the rest of their lives. Visit http://www.dwklaw.com to learn more about the attorneys and their areas of specialty.

About UCP of Central Florida: UCP of Central Florida consists of seven public charter schools serving kids with and without disabilities in the Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties. Research-based academics lay the foundation for each student's future success. We provide support, education and therapy services to each of our students and families, therefore creating a learning environment that unlocks the potential for every student.
The cremation rate in America for 2015 is projected to be 48.5 percent according to the study, and the burial rate for 2015 is projected to be 45.4 percent.

A new study by the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA), the worlds leading association representing funeral directors, has shown that for the first time in history, Americans are choosing cremation services over burial services to honor their loved ones. The 2016 NFDA Cremation and Burial Report shows how the country has adopted cremation in 2015 as the preferred method of caring for those who have passed away, which states are choosing cremation services, and how the cremation rate for the country is expected to rise over time.

The cremation rate in America for 2015 is projected to be 48.5 percent according to the study, and the burial rate for 2015 is projected to be 45.4 percent. In 2005, the NFDA conducted a similar study and found the cremation rate was only 32.3 percent and the burial rate was 61.4 percent. The cremation rate in America has been growing steadily since the latter half of the 20th century, and this new study shows that by 2030 nearly 3 out of 4 Americans will choose cremation if the trend continues as expected. Cremation is most popular in the western states, Florida, and the Northeast, and burial is more popular in the South and the Midwest. Some states, such as Hawaii, boast even higher cremation rates. The 2015 projected cremation rate in Hawaii is 73.3 percent, and is expected to reach 86.4 percent by 2030.

The 2016 NFDA Cremation and Burial Report also featured information concerning Canadas choices in funeral services. Over half of all Canadians are choosing cremation services with a cremation rate of 65.5 percent and a burial rate of 33.2 percent. The cremation rate is expected to rise in Canada as well to 89.4 percent by 2035.

The study also found that those who chose cremation were very likely to commemorate their loved ones life with some kind of funeral or memorial service. With 36.6 percent of those surveyed associating a cremation with memorial services, 10.4 percent associating cremation with a viewing and memorial service, and 7.4 percent associating cremation with no service at all, families have found new ways to remember their loved ones.

The cremation rate is rising in America for numerous reasons including cost, religious acceptance, environmental concerns, and a more transient society. The price for funeral services has been rising over the years, and now a casket for a traditional burial can cost over a thousand dollars alone, which does not include a grave marker, funeral service, plot space, or other fees associated with traditional burials. Cremation requires far fewer moving parts, so cremations tend to be less expensive than traditional burials. Numerous religions have also begun to accept cremation over the past few decades as a valid way to remember a loved one, giving many traditional families a new option for funeral services. Cremations also require less land use and use fewer toxic chemicals in the process of preparing a loved one for a service than a burial does, leading many environmentally-conscious families to choose cremation for their loved ones. Additionally, Americas transient society is contributing to the higher cremation rate and has even changed family dynamics, altering the entire process of funeral and memorial planning. With family members and friends living across many states and even many countries, people are turning to cremation as a more flexible option.

As Americas most trusted cremation provider, Neptune Society is dedicated to leading the nation in quality cremation services and caring for each loved one that comes into their care. In addition to caring for families at the time of need, Neptune Society specializes in assisting people make end-of-life decisions in advance through cremation preplanning. For more information about cremation services near you, find a nearby location and talk to one of Neptune Societys cremation experts today.
www.VCGFL.com No United States military veteran should be in need of basic shelter. Helping install a new roof is the least we can do to say thank you for their service and sacrifice, said Stephen Shanton, CEO and President of Venture Construction Group of Florida.

Venture Construction Group of Florida (VCGFL) will provide a new roof to a disabled Army veteran in West Palm Beach Nov. 17-18 through the Owens Cornings national Roof Deployment Project in partnership with Support Our Troops. VCGFL is an Owens Corning Platinum Preferred Contractor a member of a nationwide network of more than 300 contractors. As a way to show gratitude to veterans, servicemen and women and families who have made great sacrifices, Venture Construction Group of Florida will provide labor to build a new roof, and Owens Corning donates the materials.

West Palm Beach resident and U.S. Army disabled veteran, Sergeant Horowitz, purchased his first home while deployed in Afghanistan. After enduring an IED explosion and returning back home, Horowitz learned that his roof did not pass windstorm mitigation inspection, causing his mortgage and insurance premiums to double. The inspection initially passed when he purchased the home.

No United States military veteran should be in need of basic shelter. Helping install a new roof is the least we can do to say thank you for their service and sacrifice, said Stephen Shanton, CEO and President of Venture Construction Group of Florida.

Owens Corning, its Platinum Preferred member network, the Owens Corning Foundation and Support Our Troops hopes to lessen stressors that can burden military families in their daily lives.

I believe widespread civilian support is essential to the morale and well-being of our American troops and their families. The Roof Deployment Project makes a huge difference in military families lives, and Support Our Troops is honored to be a part of this program. We have a basic moral obligation of stepping up for those who preserve our liberties, livelihoods, and businesses, says Martin C. Boire, Executive Director of Support Our Troops.

The national Roof Deployment Project has already helped more than a dozen military families across the country this year.

In addition to providing construction, renovation and restoration services, Venture

Construction Group of Florida is committed to educating property owners through the insurance restoration process including damage from hail, tornadoes, hurricanes, wind, fire and flood. Giving back and helping others is an integral part of the companys mission.

About Venture Construction Group of Florida

Venture Construction Group of Florida (VCGFL) is a leader in residential and commercial construction, roofing, renovations, restoration, storm damage repairs, and 24/7 emergency services throughout the state of Florida. VCGFL is a full-service general contractor and assists residential and commercial property owners with construction and restoration needs. VCGFL is committed to operational excellence and exceptional customer service. VCGFL takes care of the details every step of the way including roofing, siding, windows, drywall, flooring, paint, gutters to rebuilding properties after major storm events from hurricanes, tornadoes, and hailstorms. VCGFL is a proud Owens Corning Platinum Preferred Contractor, an exclusive certified National Storm Damage Center Preferred Contractor, Platinum Preferred Certified Contractor with the National Insurance Restoration Council (NIRC), Owens Corning Platinum Preferred Contractor, WindStorm Insurance Network WIND Certified Umpire and WIND Certified Appraiser, member of the United Association of Storm Restoration Contractors, and a member of the Florida Roofing & Sheet Metal Contractors Association (FRSA) VCGFL credentials have been vetted and screened through independent third party Global Risk Management Solutions. Founded in 1998, VCGFL services commercial and residential properties throughout the state. For more information call 866-459-8351 or visit us online at http://www.vcgfl.com.

About Roof Deployment Project

The Roof Deployment Project is an initiative by Owens Corning and its Platinum Preferred Contractors to identify, honor and help protect deserving military families by installing new roofs. For more information on the Roof Deployment Project, visit RoofDeploymentProject.com.

About Owens Corning

Owens Corning develops, manufactures and markets insulation, roofing, and fiberglass composites. Global in scope and human in scale, the companys market-leading businesses use their deep expertise in materials, manufacturing and building science to develop products and systems that save energy and improve comfort in commercial and residential buildings. Through its glass reinforcements business, the company makes thousands of products lighter, stronger and more durable. Ultimately, Owens Corning people and products make the world a better place. Based in Toledo, Ohio, Owens Corning posted 2015 sales of $5.4 billion and employs about 16,000 people in 25 countries. It has been a Fortune 500 company for 62 consecutive years. For more information, please visit http://www.owenscorning.com.

About Support Our Troops

Support Our Troops provides simple constructive ways for citizens and community minded businesses to show their patriotism and appreciation for those who sacrifice so much to protect our country, our homes, our families, and our American way of life. Support Our Troops is a registered trademark licensed through SupportOurTroops.org. The official SupportOurTroops.org website is a nationwide platform for individuals, organizations, businesses and non-profits to bolster Americas troops and their families in a multitude of ways. It is a moral covenant with those who serve to protect us and our families.

Media Inquiries:

Mateusz Orlewicz

Elev8 Consulting Group

Ph: 386.243.5388

Web: http://www.elev8cg.com
KUNMING - Premier Li Keqiang on Saturday called for enhancing agricultural cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries to bring new vigor to global trade and investments in the area.

In a congratulatory letter sent to the Meeting of China-CEEC Ministers of Agriculture, the premier said China is willing to share its experience with CEE nations for better cooperation.

China and CEE countries have achieved successful results in technological exchanges, industrial cooperation and the production and trade of farm produce, Li said.

In the letter, Li hailed the importance of agriculture in the country's development, highlighting the role of government in rural reforms, structural adjustment and rural infrastructure to spur growth in agriculture.

The meeting, focusing on a green environment and innovative agricultural development, was held in the southwestern city of Kunming. Agriculture ministers and business representatives from the 16 CEE countries attended.
Rheem and Powerhouse Dynamics Partner for Online HVAC Management With SiteSage integration, the data can be accessed remotely to help ensure all Rheem units are operating at peak performance. SiteSage is a game-changer for our customers and for us.

Powerhouse Dynamics, creator of the award-winning SiteSage enterprise asset and energy management system, and Rheem, producer of water heaters, boilers, and HVAC equipment today announced a new partnership. The two companies have teamed to install SiteSage sensors on Rheems innovative and award-winning H2AC TM Rooftop Unit, the first and only integrated air and water system designed specifically for full-service restaurants and other commercial applications with high hot water demand.

By integrating their rooftop units with SiteSage, Rheem is able to provide their customers with enterprise-wide remote control and access to advanced diagnostic data, which to date has only been retrievable at the equipment site. The cloud-based SiteSage software delivers visibility into system performance on all Rheem units installed across all of a customers locations. A complete SiteSage system can control and analyze all key facility equipment in real time to improve operational efficiency.

Rheem H2AC units are high-performance hybrid heating, air-conditioning and water heating systems that deliver a comfortable store environment and substantially reduced hot water costs at very high efficiency. The ClearControl running Rheem rooftop unit collects a broad range of data on the systems operation, which can be used to ensure the units are operating at peak performance and can help technicians diagnose any issues.

Through SiteSage, facilities personnel can now receive alerts generated by the Rheem units, notifying them of developing issues. Before they roll a truck to the location, HVAC technicians can use SiteSage to access detailed operating information, diagnosing a problem remotely and ensuring that they arrive onsite with the correct parts.

Bobby Seals, Senior Commercial Manager for Rheem, says, Before SiteSage integration, the Clear Control data was stranded on the rooftop unit. With SiteSage integration, the data can be accessed remotely to help ensure all Rheem units are operating at peak performance. Repair personnel can even resolve issues remotely, saving our customers money. SiteSage is a game-changer for our customers and for us.

Rheem is an innovator in offering highly efficient HVAC technology to their customers, reducing operating costs while keeping guests and employees comfortable. We are proud to partner with Rheem to bring that innovation to the next level, making actionable information available to restaurants, hotels, and other businesses, and their service providers, on demand in real time, said Jay Fiske, Vice President of Business Development for Powerhouse Dynamics.

SiteSage, in use at thousands of restaurants, convenience stores, retail stores and other small commercial facilities across North and Central America, combines enterprise-wide equipment controls with granular monitoring and patented analytics to reduce energy consumption, improve equipment uptime, and reduce labor costs while ensuring food safety. The SiteSage Internet of Things (IoT) platform is factory-integrated with a wide range of equipment from commercial ovens and fryers to irrigation systems to HVAC, connecting facility equipment to the cloud.

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About Powerhouse Dynamics

Powerhouse Dynamics uses cloud-based controls and analytics to deliver enterprise-wide energy and operational efficiencies to portfolios of small commercial facilities, including restaurants, convenience stores, retailers, and others. The award-winning Powerhouse Dynamics SiteSage platform reduces energy, maintenance, and repair expenses by connecting and centralizing control, analysis, and management of energy-consuming equipment.

Engineered specifically for smaller facilities, SiteSage features powerful functionality delivered via simple online and mobile interfaces. The system continuously enhances efficiencies by controlling major loads, monitoring power consumption and the performance of individual pieces of equipment, and tracking gas and water usage. Patented analytics deliver actionable intelligence via diagnostics and alerts. SiteSages enterprise-wide benchmarking capabilities identify underperforming facilities and assets. To learn more about how Powerhouse Dynamics customers maximize energy and equipment maintenance savings and enhance food safety with minimal staff effort, visit powerhousedynamics.com, Twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube.

About Rheem

Founded in 1925, Rheem is the only manufacturer in the world that produces heating, cooling, water heating, pool/spa heating and commercial refrigeration products. Rheem is headquartered in Atlanta, and it has an international presence in 14 countries. The companys premium brands include Rheem, Raypak, Ruud, Eemax, Richmond and Splendid, as well as commercial refrigeration brands Russell, Witt, ColdZone and Kramer, which are part of the companys Heat Transfer Products Group (HTPG) division. To learn more, visit http://www.Rheem.com.
Student Loan Genius, leading student loan benefits provider and financial wellness solution, has today announced its student loan benefit is now a part of the benefits packages for Pinterest, Twilio and Spredfast employees.

With 70 percent of todays graduates entering the workforce burdened with student loan debt, forward-thinking employers are increasingly moving to incorporate student loan repayment assistance into employee benefits offerings in a bid to attract and retain talent and help impact the nations $1.3 trillion student loan debt crisis.

In a competitive environment, organizations have to think outside the box to attract and keep top talent and foster the kind of workplace cultures that drive innovation  especially in the technology sector, said Tony Aguilar, CEO at Student Loan Genius. Pinterest, Twilio, Spredfast and our other clients are seriously committed to their employees financial wellness. That commitment is helping solve a giant problem in our economy today.

More than 1,000 employees at Pinterest, and 500 employees of social marketing company Spredfast, recently gained access to the Student Loan Genius platform and the technology thats helped other users cut their monthly payments by an average of 38 percent. Meanwhile, employees of cloud communications startup Twilio have been receiving student loan help for 10 months.

Social media is the fastest moving industry weve ever seen. We need the very best talent to be able to keep up with the pace of innovation, and always looking for new ways to invest in our team is a huge part of that process, said Carol Howard, SVP of Human Resources at Spredfast. Offering Student Loan Genius was an easy decision. By removing barriers, like financial stress, we allow our employees to focus on the things that matter, like delivering the very best product to our customers every day.

For more information about how Pinterest, Twilio and Spredfast are helping employees tackle student loans or information on Student Loan Genius benefits, email pr(at)studentloangenius.com or call Jovan Hackley at 443.955.6826.

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ABOUT STUDENT LOAN GENIUS

Student Loan Genius helps todays most competitive companies and employees pursue real financial wellness by tackling one their biggest life hurdles, student loans. Inspired by their own personal student loan debt experiences, the team invented Americas first and complete student loan benefit that helps employees reduce debt and create real long-term financial wellness. Learn more at studentloangenius.com.

ABOUT PINTEREST

Pinterest is the worlds catalog of ideas. More than 150 million people use Pinterest every month to get more creative in their everyday lives. With more than 75 billion Pins, Pinterest has ideas for all interests including fashion, beauty, recipes, parenting and much more. Launched in 2010, Pinterest is based in San Francisco, CA and available everywhere at Pinterest.com and on iOS and Android devices.

ABOUT TWILIO

Twilio makes communications easy and powerful. With Twilio's platform, businesses can make communications relevant and contextual by embedding real-time communication and authentication capabilities directly into their software applications. Founded in 2008, Twilio has over 500 employees, with headquarters in San Francisco and other offices in Bogota, Dublin, Hong Kong, London, Mountain View, Munich, New York City, Singapore, and Tallinn.

ABOUT SPREDFAST

Spredfast is transforming the way companies connect with consumers. Spredfast's smart social software enables companies to build lasting relationships with today's digitally-connected consumer. Brand and media companies use the Spredfast Social Software Platform to manage, integrate, and amplify social content across any digital touch point in real time. With global reach, Spredfast customers manage over one billion social connections across 84 countries. More than 650 customers, including all five major broadcast networks and fifty percent of Interbrand's 2015 World's Best Brands, have partnered with Spredfast to create first-class social experiences. For more information, visit http://www.spredfast.com.
Peter L. Miller, CPCU, president and chief executive officer of The Institutes, has been selected as a 2016 finalist for Philadelphia SmartCEOs Circle of Excellence Awards. The award acknowledges his leadership in the risk management and property-casualty insurance industry.

The Circle of Excellence program recognizes the areas most accomplished business leaders for their industry impact and market leadership. This years finalists represent organizations that collectively generate more than $4.24 billion in annual revenue and employ 25,860 individuals in Greater Philadelphia.

An awards ceremony was held on November 9, at which Miller was recognized as a finalist, among more than 300 local executives and guests. For additional recognition, the 2016 finalists will be profiled in the November/December issue of Philadelphia SmartCEO magazine.

The Circle of Excellence finalists are shaping the future of Philadelphias business community and ensuring the sustainability, safety and efficiency of our community for years to come, said Jaime Nespor-Zawmon, president of SmartCEO. We proudly recognize their successes and contributions, and we believe that their impact will make a difference for customers and clients across the nation.

Miller is recognized in particular for his dedication to ensuring that The Institutes remain true to their mission of empowering risk management and insurance professionals to help those in need through their own continuing professional development.

We are fortunate to have a leader who knows the business and who is both highly engaged and strategic in his efforts to proactively plan for the future of our industry, said Anita Bourke, executive vice president at The Institutes. In addition, Petes commitment to creating a strong corporate culture fuels growth and employee engagement in our workplace.

To learn more about Miller as a 2016 Circle of Excellence finalist, please visit SmartCEOs webpage.

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About The Institutes | Risk and Insurance Knowledge Group

As the industrys trusted and respected knowledge leader, The Institutes are committed to meeting the evolving professional development needs of the risk management and insurance industry. We prepare people to fulfill their professional and ethical responsibilities by offering innovative educational research, networking, and career resources. Our offerings include the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation program, associate designation programs, introductory and foundation programs, online courses, continuing education courses, leadership education, custom solutions and assessment tools.

CPCU is a registered trademark of The Institutes. All rights reserved.
Rachel Title, MD Her principles are completely aligned with our mission to Deliver evidence-based solutions to promote the most efficient and effective use of medical resources, across a range of specialties, for the benefit of patients, payers, physicians, and providers.

Care to Care is pleased to announce that Rachel Title, MD has accepted the position of Chief Medical Officer. She will oversee all clinical initiatives and programs for Care to Care.

Dr. Title joined Care to Care in April 2015 as a Senior Medical Director and immediately engaged with clients, referring physicians and industry leaders in building our Radiation Therapy and Medical Oncology programs. Since joining Care to Care she has worked alongside Drs. Julian Safir and Michael Komarow, former Chief Medical Officers, and will continue to implement Care to Cares patient centered and physician friendly approach to benefit management.

Dr. Title is a Board Certified Diagnostic Radiologist specializing in Body and Breast Imaging. She graduated summa cum laude, and first in her class, from Boston Universitys Accelerated Seven Year Medical Program with a major in Medical Sciences and a minor in Mathematics. While at Boston University Dr. Title received honors and awards including Phi Beta Kappa, Trustee Scholarship, and Alpha Omega Alpha honor society, where she served as president. She completed an internship in Internal Medicine at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland, a radiology residency at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center and a fellowship in Breast & Body Imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

Prior to joining Care to Care, Dr. Title was an Assistant Attending Radiologist in Breast & Body Imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Assistant Professor of Radiology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell. Her training and experience at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center have given her a strong background in oncologic imaging. She also has years of experience in private practice where she served as Director of Breast MRI. Dr. Title has published several journal articles and has presented her research at the RSNA annual meeting.

Her principles are completely aligned with our mission to Deliver evidence-based solutions to promote the most efficient and effective use of medical resources, across a range of specialties, for the benefit of patients, payers, physicians, and providers. stated Barbara Kelman, Chief Operating Officer.

About Care to Care, LLC

Care to Care is a URAC-Accredited Multi Specialty Benefit Utilization Management company that provides evidence based solutions to ensure payers, their network providers and their beneficiaries receive appropriate and cost-effective care. We reduce redundant or unnecessary procedures, testing and specialty referrals thus improving care and decreasing delays in treatment.

Care to Cares proprietary guidelines are the most advanced in the industry continuously updated by small, focused teams of board certified physicians. We are agile, efficient, and focused on excellence, building the industrys best programs with the most talented thought leaders.
2016 REACH Digital Marketing Summits

Acara Partners recently held its second REACH Digital Marketing Summit of 2016 before an enthusiastic and energetic group of medical aesthetic leaders at the ENVIRON Training Center in Delray Beach, FL.

ENVIRON, a world-renowned skin care brand recognized for providing innovative cosmetic products to customers across the globe, served as a Platinum Level sponsor for both this REACH Digital Summit in Delray Beach, FL on November 5 and a previous digital summit in Mashpee, MA, in September.

The Delray Beach REACH Digital Summit featured an all-day seminar on the importance of digital marketing and communication as it relates to growing ones practice or business. Sessions were presented by Francis X. Acunzo, CEO of Acara Partners and Reach Beyond Marketing, and John Powers, Senior Communication Consultant for Reach Beyond Marketing. Specific topics included:



Beyond 2020: The Shape of our Digital World

1,000 Likes and Beyond: How Social Media Can Maximize Your Business

Website Insight and Branding: How Visitors Convert to Patients

Content CEO: Captivate, Engage, and Optimize to Generate Leads

Control the Click: The Top SEO Strategies

Developing your Digital Marketing Plan.

Plans are underway for the 2017 REACH Digital Marketing Summit series, to be held next year in a number regions across the United States. For more information, please visit reachdigitalsummit.com.

About Acara Partners

Francis and Colleen Acunzo are recognized pioneers in the medical aesthetics industry. Driven by their passion for success, this entrepreneurial husband-and-wife team applied their years of experience when they co-founded Acara Partners in 2003. Their dedication has established their firm as the industrys quintessential, comprehensive business advisory, marketing, advertising and digital agency.

Acaras team of experts integrates knowledge of strategic planning, digital marketing, web development, graphic design and social media management to drive growth, revenue and profits for their clients. With an impressive roster of over 165 current and past clients in major cities in most of the 50 states, as well as internationally, Acara Partners is known for helping to lead the impressive medical aesthetics industry growth spurt, as well their ability to double the revenue of many of the businesses they work with.

To learn more, please visit http://www.acarapartners.com.
Arroweye Solutions, a leading card marketing and production firm, announced today that Kathleen Campbell, Arroweyes quality manager, passed The International Card Manufacturers Associations (ICMA) ACE-P certification. Campbell joins Marce Rose, Arroweyes operations manager, who is also a recent recipient of both the ACE-M and ACE-P certification.

In the dynamic card-manufacturing industry, Arroweye continues to demonstrate its card marketing and production expertise by meeting card education standards and producing unmatched prepaid, gift, debit and credit cards through digital, on-demand card production for hundreds of top brands and businesses in the U.S. The ICMA ACE-P certification is awarded to card-industry professionals who attain the skills and knowledge of card personalization and fulfillment in eight major categories, including: printing and barcodes, magnetic stripe encoding, embossing, laser engraving, smart card encoding, financial transaction card data, fulfillment, standards/testing. The ACE-M designation evaluates the skills and knowledge of card manufacturing professionals and is comprised of eight key sections: PVC/plastics, inks, adhesives, printing, collation, lamination, die-cutting and standards/testing.

"Congratulations to Kathleen and Marce on the elite ICMA accreditation, said Bob McCormick, Arroweye Solutions vice president of operations. Completing the ICMA certification is a massive accomplishment and supports Arroweyes rigourous standards for industry knowledge and production excellence.

"Arroweye and its staff continues to demonstrate itself as leaders and experts in the card marketing and production industry, said Arroweye Solutions CEO Render Dahiya. In this dynamic payments environment, its a priority to employ staff who hold the skillset and knowledge to offer the only digital, on-demand card production model in the world.

About Arroweye

Arroweye is the only single-source provider of Digital On-Demand card marketing and production solutions for the credit, debit, gift and prepaid card industries. The companys patented technology creates a more efficient and cost-effective model for card marketers and card issuers, giving them a highly customizable solution to increase speed to market, adoption rates and profitability. Founded in 2000, Arroweyes solution is approved by Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover, and has driven the companys growth as one of the top fintech companies serving banks, credit unions and retailers. For more information, visit http://www.arroweye.com.
2017 WHWC Product Gallery

The Vollrath Company, LLC, is proud to announce its newest buffet line  Cubic Display System, and its most recent frozen treat innovation by Stoelting  Autovend, have been selected for the Whats Hot! Whats Cool! Product Gallery at The North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers (NAFEM) Show, held from Feb. 9-11 in Orlando, Florida, at Orange County Convention Center.

Explore both Vollrath and Stoeltings industry-leading products that bring creative proficiency to todays foodservice operations at booth #1435 throughout the highly-anticipated show.

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

Cubic Display System

Fusing modern elegance with unparalleled flexibility, Vollraths Cubic Display System provides adaptable, streamlined solutions for buffets, banquets, chef stations and catering events. Portable and lightweight, Cubic collections and components can be mixed and matched to create eye-catching displays that suit creative and practical needs. Its sleek components are designed to integrate with each other and include melamine bowls, pedestals, trays, beverage dispensers, cutting boards, platters and more. The system also accommodates standard size steam table pans on applicable products. With many stackable options, the Cubic collection saves valuable storage space when not in use and is quick to assemble for fast buffet setup and takedown.

Cubics modular components allow height and visibility to be added in both linear and L-shaped setups  maximizing the serving area with additional vertical space in the same footprint. Everything slides easily into place and provides a stable, reliable framework for heavy items. The customized configurations ensure that serveware stays securely in place, while the black color and clean lines allow guests to focus on the food, rather than the display system. The intuitive use of space leaves room for decorative elements and garnishes. Eliminating clutter and distracting elements, the seamless elegance of Cubic creates personalized food service setups for every market. For more information about Vollraths Cubic Display System, visit vollrath.com/cubic.

Stoelting Autovend

The Stoelting Autovend offers frozen soft serve from a vending machine that can be operated independently 24/7. It is ideal for retail environments including colleges, convenience stores, transportation venues, health care facilities, business and industry locations and much more. Requiring only 18 square-feet of retail space, the Autovend generates revenue with a significantly lower investment in floor space, operations and staffing. It can be customized with branding of the operators choice.

Plug-and-play ready, the system is operator programmable and includes a robust reporting interface dashboard capable of connecting and monitoring the machine through Wi-Fi or cellular 3G/4G at any time. The Autovend will dispense 154 servings before a refill is needed, so operators are not required to be with the machine while it is operating. The customizable reporting interface features real-time product inventory management for operators, including amount of product sold, trends and historical data versus real-time information, along with monitoring product temperatures and maintenance frequencies. The dashboards optional service management component is capable of sending instant email notifications if a problem is detected and can automatically dispatch technicians through a specific service channel.

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About Vollrath Company

The Vollrath Company, LLC, based in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, has a reputation for the design, development and manufacture of the foodservice industrys finest smallwares and equipment. With a collection of exceptional people, industry leading products and helpful consultative services, Vollrath is assembled for one purpose  to advance the art of hospitality. For more information about Vollrath, its products, facilities in the U.S., Europe, Mexico and China, and the 19 foodservice industries it serves, visit vollrath.com. Stay connected with Vollrath on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn.

About Stoelting Foodservice

Stoelting Foodservice, a division of The Vollrath Company, LLC, is an industry leader in frozen treat equipment, offering a broad and premium line of soft serve, frozen custard, batch and frozen beverage dispensing equipment that supports a wide range of foodservice venues. For more information about Stoelting, its products, facilities in the U.S., Europe and Mexico, and the foodservice industries it serves, visit stoeltingfoodservice.com. Stay connected with Stoelting Foodservice on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

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Were excited to help reshape the Texas energy market by offering joint solutions to the consumer that have not been seen before.

Cypress Creek Renewables, the nations leading developer of local solar projects, and TriEagle Energy, a leading independent energy retailer based in Woodlands, Texas, today announced the launch of a new direct-to-consumer program that will make solar energy more accessible to thousands of Texas consumers. Through the new SunEagle program, residents in North Texas can instantly enjoy the benefits of solar energylow, fixed rates for years and a 100% renewable energy supplywithout installing a solar energy system on their home, apartment or condo. The program will provide innovative, environmentally friendly energy service to almost 3,000 Texas residents, who will receive 100% renewable energy and help support Cypress Creeks 5-megawatt solar farm located in Walnut Springs, Texas.

Were excited to help reshape the Texas energy market by offering joint solutions to the consumer that have not been seen before, said Cypress Creek CEO Matthew McGovern. Its an ideal way to offer solar for all without the need for any installations, while still locking in a 5-year price guarantee to both homeowners and renters.

Unlike traditional solar energy systems, no installation equipment or crew is needed to take advantage of the SunEagle program. Any consumer can sign up and start receiving renewable energy by the time their next energy bill arrives. In addition, local solar farms, like Cypress Creeks Walnut Springs installation, create local jobs and revenue for the state, as well as support the growth of the nations clean energy economy.

Texas is currently ranked number one nationally in solar potential, explained Rob Cantrell, Executive Vice President for TriEagle and Crius Energy. The TriEagle team is pleased to find a way to unlock that potential now by offering affordable energy with powerful environmental and economic rewards through our alliance with Cypress Creek Renewables.

TriEagle Energys parent company, Crius Energy, plans to expand its work with Cypress Creek Renewables in the coming months to make solar a reality for even more consumers. With over 4 gigawatts of local solar farms deployed or in development across 15 states, Cypress Creek Renewables is the largest and fastest-growing dedicated provider of local solar farms in the United States and is well on its way to generating enough energy to power nearly a million U.S. homes. Crius Energy currently serves nearly 1 million residential customer equivalents in the U.S. through its family of world-class energy brands, including TriEagle Energy.

For more information on the SunEagle program, or to sign up for 100% renewable energy, visit http://www.suneaglesolar.com

About Cypress Creek Renewables: Cypress Creek Renewables is the American leader in Local Solar. Cypress uses a data-driven approach to identify and acquire underutilized land on which it builds solar farms ranging from 2  20MW on average, and it currently owns the largest solar farm east of the Mississippi River. Cypress sells the renewable energy these solar farms create back to local communities, typically at rates lower than fossil fuels. This process guarantees widespread, affordable access to clean energy.

Cypress is fully integrated, it finances, builds and operates its utility-scale solar farms with the support of over 200 team members and it has invested over $1.5 billion into solar farms since 2014. Cypresss philosophy is that the solar farm process only works if it is a win for everyone, promoting partnerships with landowners, local communities, regulators, lenders and consumers (utilities, businesses and individuals) to maximize green energy usage as well as to create local jobs and community development.

With over 4 gigawatts of local solar farms deployed or in development (enough to power nearly a million homes) across 15 states, Cypress Creek Renewables is the largest and fastest-growing dedicated provider of local solar farms in the United States.

About TriEagle Energy: TriEagle Energy is a Texas-based retail energy provider specializing in commercial and small industrial businesses. With innovative products, outstanding customer service and competitive pricing, thousands of residential and business customers have entrusted their power needs to TriEagle since 2003. TriEagle is a Better Business Bureau Accredited Business and an active member of the Retail Energy Supply Association (RESA). The company is part of Crius Energy's family of best-in-class energy brands, which also includes Comcast Energy Rewards, Public Power and Crius Solar. Learn more at http://www.criusenergy.com.
The Drury Design team swept the 2016 NKBA (National Kitchen and Bath Association) Chicago Midwest Chapter Design Vision Awards, winning eight honors including Best in Show and Most Dramatic Makeover. Drury Designs studio is a nationally recognized home and kitchen design center with over 2,000 completed projects, hundreds of client references, dozens of design awards, and a multitude of regional and national press accolades.

Chicago Kitchen Designers Award List

1. Best in Show / Edmund L. Zelinski Award | Designer: Diana Burton for a Western Springs home remodeling project

2. Most Dramatic Makeover, chosen by Modern Luxury/CS Interiors | Designer: Alicia Saso, AKBD for a Glen Ellyn home remodeling project

3. First Place Professional Design Award Large Kitchen | Designer: Janice Teague CKD/CBD shared prize for a Hinsdale home remodeling project

4. First Place Professional Design Award Medium Kitchen | Designer: Diana Burton for a Western Springs home remodeling project

5. Before & After Professional Design Award Large Kitchen | Alicia Saso, AKBD for a Glen Ellyn home remodeling project

6. Before & After Professional Design Award Medium Kitchen | Diana Burton for a Western Springs home remodeling project

7. Third Place Professional Design Award Large Kitchen | Alicia Saso, AKBD for a Glen Ellyn home remodeling project

8. Third Place Professional Design Award Large Bathroom | Janice Teague CKD/CBD for a Hinsdale home remodeling project

Diana Burton Wins Best in Show

The dramatic Western Spring home renovation opened up much of the vintage homes first floor; completely reconfiguring the kitchen and living areas to be more welcoming, functional and up-to-date. Earning perfect 10s from three judges, this kitchen design also earned first place in the Medium Kitchen category, as well as receiving the award for most impressive Before and After Kitchen transformation.

"The original space had significant issues to overcome, including a chimney that had to be integrated into the space. Our team thrives on creative challenges," said designer Diana Burton. "We reconfigured the space to make it appear that the chimney was part of the plan all along."

Alicia Saso, AKBD Wins Most Dramatic Makeover and Before & After Awards

Alicia Saso, AKBD designed a remarkable Glen Ellyn home remodel that won Most Dramatic Makeover and in the large kitchen category, third place and the Before and After awards. The design incorporates original fixtures from a 1930s Spanish colonial into a streamlined, modernized, open space.

Janice Teague, CKD/CBD Wins First Place Large Kitchen

Honored in a tie for first place in the large kitchen category, Janice Teague, CKD/CBD designed this award-winning project for a professional chef. Two islands, zones for cooking and entertaining, and professional-quality appliances elevate this Hinsdale kitchen to incredible heights. Janice also received third place for a sophisticated renovation of a large master bath, which included extensive built-in storage to contain clutter and expansive swaths of rich wood and light-colored marble and tile to create a relaxing retreat.

"We're thrilled that our designers are being recognized for what we've known all along," said Gail Drury, CMKBD, president and creative director at Drury Design. "Our team is incredibly talented, and can work magic with any size home or budget. What you can't see from the photos, though, is how wonderfully these bath and kitchen designs work for our clients. It's our goal to create a winning partnership from day one."

About Drury Design Kitchen and Bath Studio

Founded by Gail Drury, CMKBD in 1987, Drury Design's Client Focused Design approach integrates design recommendations, materials selection and construction management into one seamless customer design, project management, and build experience. For kitchen, bath and home remodeling ideas, view Drury Design's Chicago kitchen design portfolio online at http://www.drurydesigns.com/portfolio/ or visit the studio at 512 N. Main Street in downtown Glen Ellyn, Illinois. To schedule a complimentary in-home design consultation, call 888.444.1055.
Jibe Inc., a recognized leader in candidate experience software, announced support for the Google Cloud Jobs API. The Google Cloud Jobs API uses machine learning to connect job seekers with better matches on company career sites.

Jibe enables turnkey adoption of this new solution for employers, streamlining integration between applicant tracking systems (ATS) and Google Cloud Jobs API.

Jibe has long invested in ATS integration, helping employers get more out of Oracle Taleo, IBM Kenexa, PeopleSoft, SAP SuccessFactors, iCIMS, Greenhouse, ADP and more.

Jibes support for Google Cloud Jobs API enables organizations to power their career sites with Google machine learning technology. Job seekers will be presented with more relevant search results, which will lead to better, more qualified candidates for employers.

Research shows that career sites are the most important source of hire for every business. Career site search is a critical function for connecting candidates with the right opportunities. Google has built machine learning models using millions of publicly available job listings. These models identify the relationship between many items of career relevanceskills, preferences, seniority, locationand produce better job search results for candidates.

Jibes CEO, Joe Essenfeld, explained the importance of offering support for Google in the Jibe platform. With the launch of Google Cloud Jobs API, Google machine learning will become the standard for career sites and is a cornerstone of our Candidate Experience Platform.

Support for the Google Cloud Jobs API is now fully implemented in Jibes Candidate Experience Platform. Enterprise clients who are interested in working with Jibe to implement Google Cloud Machine Learning on their career site can sign up for a demonstration on the Jibe website (https://www.jibe.com/google/).

For more information on Google Cloud Jobs API, please refer to the Google Cloud Platform (https://cloud.google.com/jobs-api).

About Jibe: Headquartered in New York, Jibe delivers cloud-based candidate experience software and recruitment marketing tools for both enterprise and mid-market companies. Jibe provides a complete consumer-like experience at every candidate touch point, from searching for job openings to submitting applications. With its exceptional experience in ATS integration, Jibes end-to-end platform creates a branded user experience for career sites and allows organizations to leverage their existing investments.

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If youd like to learn more or schedule an interview with Jibes CEO, Joe Essenfeld, please contact Mike Roberts via mroberts(at)jibe(dot)com.
Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto (2nd L) and Chinese Ambassador to Hungary Duan Jielong (4th R) attend a ceremony of Chinese-Hungarian Friendship awards in Budapest, Hungary on Nov 10, 2016. The annual Chinese-Hungarian Friendship awards were presented in a ceremony at Budapest's Chinese-Hungarian Bilingual Primary and Secondary School on Thursday. [Photo/Xinhua]

BUDAPEST - The annual Chinese-Hungarian Friendship awards were presented in a ceremony at Budapest's Chinese-Hungarian Bilingual Primary and Secondary School on Thursday.

The ceremony was held with the presence of Chinese Ambassador to Hungary Duan Jielong and Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto.

This year's winners were Yan Jianshu, general manager of Air China's Hungarian arm, and five Hungarian wineries: the Fritz Winery, the Wunderlich Winery, the Meszaros Winery, the Korona Winery and the Takler Winery.

Yan and representatives from the wineries received the awards from Szijjarto, Duan, and MP Lajos Olah who heads the Great Wall Hungarian-Chinese Friendship Association.

Szijjarto said that with the assistance of Yan Jianshu, Air China opened Budapest-Beijing direct flights in May last year, and the number of visitors from China increased by 40 percent in the past year.

In the first eight months of this year, more than 108,000 Chinese tourists visited Hungary, he added.

Szijjarto said that wine is one of the most famous Hungarian products. In the first eight months this year, Hungarian wine exports to China rose by 37 percent to $2.5 million, he added.

Yan voiced her thanks, saying that Beijing-Budapest direct flights set up an air bridge for the Chinese-Hungarian friendship, and have facilitated business and tourism. Air China will strive to provide safer and more quality services in the future, she added.

The awards were established by the Great Wall Hungarian-Chinese Friendship Association and 11 other organizations.

They are granted to persons or organizations who have done an outstanding job of boosting the ties between Hungary and China.
Lucas Group As the leader in executive search, Lucas Group is committed to providing measurable, actionable and structured growth opportunities for our Recruiting Associates

Lucas Group, the premier executive recruiting firm in North America, announced promotions of five outstanding Associates. With a heavy emphasis and focus on career path progression as well as employee retention, Lucas Group takes pride in building careers for its Associates and rewarding their success.

As the leader in executive search, Lucas Group is committed to providing measurable, actionable and structured growth opportunities for our Recruiting Associates, said Carolina King, Vice President of Human Resources at Lucas Group. We have high expectations for our Recruiting Associates, but we also equip them with necessary tools to succeed and in-turn reward them when they achieve their goals. As an innovative organization, we are only as strong as our individual team members, and thats why its important we continuously mentor and guide Recruiting Associates throughout their careers with us.

The following individuals have been promoted to the positions listed below:

Molly GarveyExecutive Senior Partner, Human Resources; Los Angeles

Bob CarignanSenior Partner, Sales & Marketing; Atlanta

Scott CooperSenior Partner, Manufacturing; Dallas

Taylor WilsonSenior Partner, Manufacturing; Atlanta

Hanley HolcombSenior Executive Search Consultant, Accounting & Finance; Los Angeles

Lucas Group promotes a collaborative, collegial work environment where Associates of all levels help one another succeed. From sophisticated onboarding to mentoring with veteran recruiters, Associates are provided every resource needed to thrive at Lucas Group.

Lucas Group Recruiting Associates are professional, passionate and high performing individuals, said King. We are always looking for new colleaguespeople who share our vision of company and personal success. These promotions are highly deserved, and we look forward to their continued professional success with us.

In addition to the practice groups mentioned above, Lucas Group Associates also specialize in Information Technology, Legal and Military Transition recruitment. Since 1970, the executive search firm has been building an impeccable team of recruiters which now consists of more than 350 individual contributors. With 15 offices located throughout the U.S., Lucas Group offers mid-tier to Fortune 500 corporations broad, national reach together with expert, localized search, resulting in strategic hires that are mutually-beneficial for both parties.

About Lucas Group

Lucas Group is North Americas premier executive search firm. Since 1970, our culture and methodologies have driven superior results. We assist clients ranging in size from small to medium-sized businesses to Fortune 500 companies find transcendent, executive talent; candidates fully realize their ambitions; and associates find professional success. To learn more, please visit Lucas Group at http://www.lucasgroup.com and connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
We are very excited that Wim is joining our firm. He brings with him 30 plus years experience in the financial services industry, extensive contacts and a passion for customer services.

The Dowling Group, a prominent Greenwich, CT based wealth management firm, announced today that William Wim Ludington has joined the firm as a Partner and Head of Business Development. Ludington will be tasked with expanding the firms extensive line of services to a broader client base throughout Fairfield and Westchester Counties and the tri state area.

Sean Dowling, CEO of The Dowling Group, welcomed Mr. Ludington saying, We are very excited that Wim is joining our firm. He brings with him 30 plus years experience in the financial services industry, extensive contacts and a passion for customer services. His drive and enthusiasm for business development will be integral to our strategic plan.

Wim Ludington commented, I am honored to be joining such a prominent wealth management firm. Their reputation and track record is one I want to be associated with. In 2008, when the financial markets had a significant contraction, Dowling Groups client portfolios experienced moderate compression relative to the overall market. By the end of 2009 client portfolios were fully recovered to positive. That is impressive and a real testament to Sean and his team, a team I am now proud to be a part of.

Mr. Ludington, a graduate of Denison University, has served in client facing roles at American International Group, Marsh & McLennan, J.P. Morgan, UBS Investment Bank and others. The foundation of his career is predicated on deep and lasting client relationships. Mr. Ludington focuses on helping people attain their personal and professional objectives and is less distracted by pushing specific products and proprietary ideas. He brings a deep knowledge of the financial markets and insurance industry and a reputation of problem solving and preserving the strength of his client relationships.

The Dowling Group is a prominent wealth management firm based in Greenwich, Connecticut. Their team of award winning professionals are experts in assisting clients with family office wealth management, income tax preparation, investment management, financial planning and risk management. Begun in 1979, today The Dowling Group is a second generation family owned firm. They have been consistently ranked Top Wealth Manager by Westchester Magazine since 2013. For more information, please visit: http://www.thedowlinggroup.com.
worldwidelogo.jpg We want to show how St. Louis Childrens Hospital does more than just protect kids from illness and injury. The doctors, nurses and staff also protect cherished moments of childhood with donation-funded programs that help their patients be kids again.

This week, J. Walter Thompson Chicago launches three new spots for St. Louis Childrens Hospital, highlighting the impact donations have on the lives of sick children.

The TVCs, The Wish, Gowns and Window, are designed to raise awareness of the power of contributions made to St. Louis Children's Hospital's donation-funded programs, like its TOUCH Therapy Dogs, Music Therapy, and Camp Independence for children with cerebral palsy. Each TVC captures the childrens perspective on how donations help them enjoy the treasured moments  like prom or time away at summer camp  that their illness almost took away. The spots invite the audience to Become a Guardian of Childhood and donate to St. Louis Childrens Hospital.

The 30- and 60- second spots, some of which feature real patients and hospital staff, are the latest elements of Guardians of Childhood, a multichannel campaign launched in October 2016 that includes Broadcast, OOH, Print, Radio, Digital and Social activations. The campaign is driven by the insight that sickness does not just threaten childrens health; it also threatens to rob them of the joys of childhood.

Mike Beamer, J. Walter Thompson Chicago Creative Director, said of the campaign: We want to show how St. Louis Childrens Hospital does more than just protect kids from illness and injury. The doctors, nurses and staff also protect cherished moments of childhood with donation-funded programs that help their patients be kids again. We wanted to tell these stories to inspire the local community to join St. Louis Childrens Hospital as Guardians of Childhood and make sure every child experiences the magic of childhood.

Jackie Ferman, Director of Marketing for St. Louis Children's Hospital, added: This campaign is an invitation to the St. Louis community to come together and become a Guardian of Childhood by donating to St. Louis Children's Hospital. We are a non-profit and all of the programs weve developed are funded solely through donations. JWT Chicago has really brought to life the importance of these programs, the power of donations and the important impact they have on protecting the magic of childhood.

The TVCs will begin airing in St. Louis on November 14 and run through December 2016.

Anyone can donate to the St. Louis Childrens Hospital here.

View all three spots in the links below:



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ABOUT J. WALTER THOMPSON WORLDWIDE

J. Walter Thompson Worldwide, the worlds best-known marketing communications brand, has been creating pioneering solutions that build enduring brands and business for more than 150 years. Headquartered in New York, J. Walter Thompson is a true global network with more than 200 offices in over 90 countries, employing nearly 10,000 marketing professionals. The agency consistently ranks among the top networks in the world and continues to be a dominant presence in the industry by staying on the leading edgefrom hiring the industrys first female copywriter to developing award-winning branded content today. For more information, please visit http://www.jwt.com and follow us @JWT_Worldwide.
The significant number of vessels receiving this honor is a testament to the dedication to quality and safety by our crews and shore-side personnel.

Ninety-seven vessels owned or operated by Crowley Maritime Corp. have been recognized by the Chamber of Shipping of America (CSA) with Certificates of Environmental Achievement. The associations awards honor companies for operating vessels without any environmental incidents, displaying a commitment to respecting and protecting the environment on oceans and inland waterways.

The 97 vessels represent a combined sum of 992 years of service without an environmental incident, such as reportable spills or port citations, with 43 of them having served at least 10 years without an incident  a credit to Crowleys longtime commitment to safety and high performance.

The significant number of vessels receiving this honor is a testament to the dedication to quality and safety by our crews and shore-side personnel, said Mike Golonka, vice president, government services, who was part of the Crowley team that accepted the awards during an event Nov. 2 in Washington, D.C. We appreciate the recognition from CSA and applaud their commitment to promoting safe, environmentally responsible marine operations. It is a value we share.

In todays world, it seems our industry only gets front-page news when spills or other environmental problems occur, said Kathy J. Metcalf, president of CSA. It is encouraging to see how many vessels go for years achieving environmental excellence. It should be clear to the American public that we in the maritime industry take our stewardship of the marine environment very seriously.

The awards are open to all owners and operators of vessels that operate on oceans and inland waterways. More information on the awards program can be found on CSAs website, http://www.knowships.org.

Crowley vessels honored by the CSA are below with their business unit, listed by name with continuous years without incident:

CROWLEY MARINE SERVICES

ARCTIC HAWK 13

ADMIRAL 4

AKU 16

AVIK 3

CHIEF 17

GOLIAH 9

GUARD 11

GUARDIAN 16

GUARDSMAN 8

GUIDE 17

HUNTER 3

KAVIK RIVER 46

KUPARUK RIVER 46

LEADER 5

MASTER 18

NACHIK 7

NAVIGATOR 2

OCEAN 2

OCEAN SKY 3

OCEAN SUN 3

OCEAN WAVE 4

OCEAN WIND 3

PROTECTOR 5

PT. THOMPSON 19

RAMPART 16

RESPONSE 2

SAG RIVER 41

SCOUT 17

SEA PRINCE 12

SESOK 7

SIKU 3

TIOGA 18

TOOLIK RIVER 16

VALOR 9

VETEREN 16

VIGILANT 16

SEA VOYAGER 2

STALWART 3

TANERLIQ 17

TUG ALERT 16

TUG ATTENTIVE 3

TUG AWARE 6

TUG BULWARK 16

TUG NANUQ 17

CROWLEY PETROLEUM SERVICES

ATB ACHIEVEMENT/650-8 6

ATB COASTAL RELIANCE/550-4 3

ATB COMMITMENT/650-6 2

ATB COURAGE/650-5 8

ATB GULF RELIANCE/650-2 9

ATB INNOVATION/650-9 3

ATB INTEGRITY/650-4 8

ATB LEGACY/750-1 5

ATB LEGEND/750-2 4

ATB LIBERTY/750-3 3

ATB OCEAN RELIANCE/550-3 8

ATB PACIFIC RELIANCE/650-1 10

ATB PRIDE/650-7 3

ATB RESOLVE/650-3 8

ATB SEA RELIANCE/550-1 14

ATB SOUND RELIANCE/550-2 14

ATB VISION/650-10 2

FLORIDA 3

PENNSYLVANIA 4

CROWLEY PUERTO RICO SERVICES

DEFENDER 16

ENSIGN 16

EXPLORER 16

MONITOR 16

PATRIARCH 16

SENTINEL 3

SENTRY 16

TUG ADVENTURER 3

TUG RANGER 16

CROWLEY TECHNICAL MANAGEMENT

CAPE INSCRIPTION 5

CAPE INTREPID 11

CAPE ISABEL 4

CAPE TRINITY 3

CAPE WRATH 2

EMPIRE STATE 6

EVERGREEN STATE 5

GOLDEN STATE 6

NATIONAL GLORY 8

OCEAN FREEDOM 4

OCEAN GIANT 2

PELICAN STATE 6

SS CURTISS 17

SS WRIGHT 11

SUNSHINE STATE 6

MARINE TRANSPORT LINES

CAPE DECISION 13

CAPE DIAMOND 12

CAPE DOMINGO 11

CAPE DOUGLAS 9

CAPE DUCATO 10

MARINE TRANSPORT MANAGEMENT

CHARLESTON EXPRESS 18

PHILADELPHIA EXPRESS 18

ST LOUIS EXPRESS 18

WASHINGTON EXPRESS 4

YORKTOWN EXPRESS 15

Jacksonville-based Crowley Holdings Inc., a holding company of the 124-year-old Crowley Maritime Corporation, is a privately held family and employee-owned company. The company provides marine solutions, energy and logistics services in domestic and international markets by means of six operating lines of business: Puerto Rico liner services, international liner services, logistics services, petroleum services, marine services and technical services. Offered within these operating lines of business are: liner container shipping, logistics, contract towing and transportation; ship assist and escort; energy support; salvage and emergency response through its 50 percent ownership in Ardent Global; vessel management; vessel construction and naval architecture through its Jensen Maritime subsidiary; government services, and petroleum and chemical transportation, distribution and sales. Additional information about Crowley, its subsidiaries and business units may be found at crowley.com.

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Volunteers are teaming up to package more than 10,000 meals for the worlds hungry on Friday, November 25.

While many shoppers are fighting the crowds on Black Friday, volunteers from the Rotary Club of Leawood will be fighting world hunger. Stop Hunger Now and local volunteers are teaming up to package more than 10,000 meals for the worlds hungry on Friday, November 25. The event is open to the public and volunteers are encouraged to register here to volunteer.

The goal of the event is to raise $2,900 to fund over 10,000 meals to help those suffering from hunger around the world. The meals will be assembled on Black Friday, November 25, 2016 at Stop Hunger Now Kansas Citys warehouse located at 11888 W 91st Street Overland Park, Kansas 66214. Volunteers will be working in two shifts from 9am to 11am and 12pm to 2pm. This event is open to the public. Volunteers are asked to donate $40 each or $100 per family to fund the cost of the food.

Stop Hunger Now meal packaging events are a volunteer-based program that coordinates the streamlined packaging of highly nutritious dehydrated meals comprised of rice, soy, vegetables and 23 essential vitamins and minerals.

My daughter participated in a Stop Hunger Now meal packaging event when she was in high school. At first she was reluctant, but after getting started working the high energy assembly line and celebrating our packaging milestones with the gong she was hooked, said Brad Moore, Leawood Kansas Rotary Club. She is now a college freshman and is making a special trip home to participate in the Black Out Hunger event. I am proud that through the Stop Hunger Now meal packaging event she developed a passion for ending hunger and is dedicated to giving back in her life.

Around the world, nearly 795 million people lack adequate food. Stop Hunger Now operates meal packaging locations in 20 cities throughout the U.S. and six international locations in South Africa, Malaysia, the Philippines, Italy, India and Peru. Last year, more than 353,500 volunteers from corporations, churches, schools and civic organizations packaged Stop Hunger Now meals.

For more information contact Baylee DeLaurier, Program Manager Stop Hunger Now Kansas City at (913) 871 8107 or kansascity(at)stophungernow(dot)org.

About Stop About Stop Hunger Now

Stop Hunger Now works to end hunger by providing food and life-changing aid to the worlds most vulnerable people, and by creating a global commitment to mobilize the necessary resources. Based in Raleigh, N.C., Stop Hunger Now operates meal packaging programs in 20 U.S. cities and in South Africa, Malaysia, India, Italy, Peru and the Philippines. For information, visit http://www.stophungernow.org.
We are extremely pleased that Intelidata has selected VisualVault as their preferred partner for the automation of high volume content and data applications. - Steve Leichtman, CEO of VisualVault

VisualVault, a SaaS-based Business Process Automation (BPA)/ Enterprise Content Management (ECM) software company, signed a business partner agreement with Intelidata, who is headquartered in Santiago, Chile. Intelidata is a Business Process Outsourcing technology company with offices and enterprise level clients throughout Latin America. This agreement will give Intelidata the ability to sell and use VisualVault with their clients for the automation of high volume document and data processing applications.

We are extremely pleased that Intelidata has selected VisualVault as their preferred partner for the automation of high volume content and data applications., commented Steve Leichtman, CEO of VisualVault. This is another important step in our commitment towards global expansion of our partner program.

Intelidata has a strong base of clients they service in the Customer Communication Management and Enterprise Content Management markets; many of which are large global companies. This partnership supports VisualVaults strategic goal of working with global partners to focus on the solutions strength of automating high-value document and data processes.

VisualVault offers us an advanced SaaS-based solution to manage the exceptionally large volume of content and provide advanced automation capabilities such as workflow and Intelligent Forms for our clients, said Hector Raffo, Director of Intelidata. We have found VisualVault extremely scalable and easy to deploy and a very supportive partner who is committed to our success.

About VisualVault

Founded in 2009, VisualVault is a private, Arizona-based, Business Process Automation (BPA)/Enterprise Content Management (ECM) company specializing in the automation of data and document intensive processes at an enterprise level. The VisualVault platform is a cloud-based application that includes Intelligent Forms (i-Forms) which automate and validate both structured and unstructured data. These i-Forms streamline manual data entry and routing processes to boost overall productivity and accelerate business results.

VisualVault enables its clients to search and present content in a contextual manner configured for their specific business requirements, improving adoption through flexibility and ease of use. VisualVault's integrated platform standardizes user data so it may be accessed, viewed and used across an enterprise providing users with live dashboards for end-to-end reporting, analysis and decision making. VisualVaults mission is transforming our clients processes quickly and cost-effectively, without replacing expensive core legacy systems, by streamlining their data and document intensive processes with our uniquely configured software that is delivered as a service.

About Intelidata

Intelidata is a private company, based in Santiago de Chile with offices in Argentina, Colombia and Peru. It was founded in 2008. It is primary focused in providing Managed Services and Implementation Services for Customer Communication Management (CCM), covering from processes like cleaning and preparation of data to generation, delivery and archiving of multi-channel communications.

Press Contact:

Jason Hatch

VisualVault

Phone: 480-308-4400 x225

jason.hatch(at)visualvault(dot)com
Because phishing attacks are proliferating in complexity and frequency, in addition to the risk of human error and an increasingly overburdened SOC teams, now is the time for enterprises to supplement their phishing security with real-time automation.

IRONSCALES, the first and only automated email phishing response solution to combine human intelligence with machine learning, today announced the release of its newest whitepaper, Combatting Modern Email Phishing Attacks: The Power of Incorporating Machine Learning into a Phishing Mitigation Approach. The whitepaper is available for free download by visiting: https://ironscales.com/combatting-email-phishing-attacks/.

Around the world, phishing attacks, including those with ransomware, malware, bots, spam, spoofing, and pharming within, have evolved from a matter-of-fact nuisance into an epidemic in which enterprises, on average, spend $4 million per event to remediate. Perpetrated by every type of cyber criminal, from nation state threat actors and hacktivists to script-kiddies and fraudsters, phishing now accounts for 95 percent of all successful cyber attacks worldwide, despite companies spending millions to educate employees on how to identify and report attacks.

The most common method of preventing successful phishing attacks to date has been employee education, said Eyal Benishti, founder and CEO. Because phishing attacks are proliferating in complexity and frequency, in addition to the risk of human error and an increasingly overburdened SOC teams, now is the time for enterprises to supplement their phishing security with real-time automation.

Combatting Modern Email Phishing Attacks

While employee training still plays a role in phishing mitigation, recent events have proven its not an effective solution on its own. In this whitepaper, IRONSCALES explains:



The evolution of phishing from hit-or-miss scams by amateur hackers to highly-targeted and sophisticated attacks by professional cyber criminals and its impact on the enterprise.

The current phishing mitigation approach and why relying solely on human intelligence is insufficient at best.

How machine learning can expedite the time from attack to remediation from several weeks to just minutes and reduce the risk of falling victim altogether.

The value of enterprises coming together to combat phishing attacks through sharing threat intelligence through automation.

To download the whitepaper, visit https://ironscales.com/combatting-email-phishing-attacks/.

For more information on IRONSCALES, visit our website at http://www.IRONSCALES.com and follow us on Twitter @IRONSCALES.

About IRONSCALES

IRONSCALES is the first and only automated email phishing response solution to combine human intelligence with machine learning. Its employee-based intrusion prevention system is the first phishing solution with an automatic one-click response, which expedites the time from phishing attack to remediation from weeks to seconds, without ever needing the SOC team's involvement. Headquartered in Raanana, Israel, IRONSCALES was founded by a team of security researchers, IT and penetration testing experts, as well as specialists in the field of effective interactive training, in response to the increasing phishing epidemic that today costs companies millions of dollars annually. It was incubated in the 8200 EISP, the top program for cyber security ventures, founded by alumni of the Israel Defense Forces elite Intelligence Technology unit.
Apvera, a leading threat intelligence company in Singapore, today announced that it has closed a S$1.7M round of financing, led by ACP and SPRING SEEDS Capital. The round also included participation from Asia-based Nest Ventures, muru-D of Singapore and existing investors, Central Exchange. As part of the financing, Mr. Surinder Kathpalia, Director of ACP shall be joining Apveras Board of Directors. The new funding will be used to develop and scale Apveras Insight 360 threat intelligence platform, and accelerate its go-to-market and sales execution efforts; increasing the platforms ability to detect, prevent and predict warning signs associated with potential endpoint behavioral security threats.

We firmly believe that automation and machine learning is the way of the future and a key ingredient in identifying threats through behavioral intelligence, said Sameer Narula, Managing Partner of ACP. Apvera has built an impressive platform demonstrating that companies can no longer afford to take the same static path to detecting threats and just how eagerly the market is embracing this new approach

Thanks to the support we have received from governmental organizations such as SPRING Singapore, Singapore is the perfect location for us to build our business and expand it to new clients  not just in ASEAN, but also globally, said Eric Meyer, CEO Apvera. We would like to thank each of the investors who have validated our technology and have provided us with on-going guidance through this round of funding. For us, the next step is to deploy this capital in a structured way that will help us achieve a new level of global traction and scale.

Given the ever-increasing scope and tenacity of targeted cyber-attacks on businesses, organizations and governments, Apvera diverges from the widely-accepted notion that advanced threat protection alone will be a vital aid in defending against advanced threats. Signature-based methods of threat detection, are no longer acceptable. Apvera is transforming the security industry through the application of user and entity behavior analytics, bringing real time endpoint profiling and anomaly detection leveraging advances in machine learning. The Apvera Insight 360 platform adopts an internal and external view, with lateral movement modelling of endpoint activities; combined with threat intelligence derived from within an organizations perimeter. The self-learning, multi-dimensional behavioral analytics platform examines all user, endpoint, application and network activities, providing a comprehensive 360-degree view of the organizations security posture.

Apvera is targeting various industries with a tailored use case approach, offering a range of innovative business solutions which help solve complex industry challenges. For instance, Apvera helps financial services businesses protect their intellectual property, sensitive client data and business-critical infrastructure as well as satisfying regulatory compliance. Financial services firms face a growing number of stringent industry and government regulations and these data protection and privacy mandates increase regulatory compliance costs and risks. Automating risks management and compliance programs is one way an organization can seek to improve its cyber-resilience.

Todays Cybersecurity and risk realties are driving corporate boards in the financial services industry prioritize defense of their digital assets, said Ranodeb Roy, CEO & CIO of RV Capital Management. Apvera has figured out how to effectively address business technology risks by allowing organizations to make sound, risk-informed decisions based on a highly relevant industry-specific threat profile.

In order to address emerging risk, organizations need access to the latest security models that can anticipate and respond immediately to any type of threat. Apvera is simplifying Cyber Security through use-case based packaged analytics that can pinpoint the exact security risk and then make an appropriate action in a timely and effective manner.

Apvera will be at the Singapore Fintech Festival. To meet the leadership team or attend the conference please reach us at sales@apvera.com. http://www.fintechfestival.sg/

About Apvera

Apvera, a leader in automated threat intelligence solutions, is transforming the way organizations detect, prevent and predict real-time behavioural threat anomalies. Through user and entity behaviour analytics, Apvera Insight 360 profiles malicious and abusive activities that otherwise go unnoticed, and effectively consolidates and prioritizes threats identified applying actionable intelligence so organizations can quickly prevent or mitigate loss. Powered by machine learning, and advanced semantic computing, Apvera prioritizes threats, both external and internal, that pose the greatest business risk, enabling organizations to make rapid decisions on where to focus time and resources.

Visit us at http://www.apvera.com

About ACP

ACP is a Singapore based global investment manager founded by experienced entrepreneurs and seasoned investors. ACP invests in early growth businesses in Asia; takes a long-term view to its investments and consistently backs high quality entrepreneurs and teams through multiple businesses. With access to expertise in international business development, market intelligence, brand building and technical development; ACP helps its entrepreneurs achieve the full potential of their business.

Visit us at http://www.acpven.com/

For more information or interview requests, contact:

Zoe Belhomme, PR Manager

zoe.belhomme(at)apvera.com
The Pennsylvania Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) and the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, both based at the University of Pennsylvania, have been awarded a planning grant as part of the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA)s POWER Initiative. The goal of the project is to develop a statewide roadmap which policymakers and practitioners can use to identify and implement local and statewide action steps to provide services to prepare, sustain, and grow small businesses affected by changes in the coal economy.

Working with the Kleinman Center, the Pennsylvania SBDC will spearhead the development of a plan to outline strategic responses to enable small businesses to successfully adapt to the rapid transitions occurring in the power sector and in coal-reliant communities and supply chains.

The SBDCs are active players in all of the regions of the state that will be targeted by this project and are involved in regional planning activities related to responding to the changing coal economy, said Pennsylvania SBDC State Director Christian Conroy. The goal is to identify needs and opportunities that are common to these regions so that a multi-faceted approach can be implemented to sustain and grow the states critically important small business sector, he added.

There is much being said about coal communities, but very little being done. This important partnership is dedicated to finding solutions for those people and places that bear the brunt of changes in the U.S. energy system. The Kleinman Center is committed to bringing the very best scholarship to bear on these very human challenges, says Mark Alan Hughes, Professor of Practice at PennDesign, and Faculty Director of the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.

EDAs POWER Initiative is an integrated, multi-agency effort to invest federal economic and workforce development resources in communities and regions negatively impacted by changes in the coal economy. Under POWER, the term coal economy is used to refer to the complete supply chain of coal-reliant industries. This includes, but is not limited to: coal mining, coal-fired power plants, and related transportation, logistics, and supply chain manufacturing.

The project plan of the Pennsylvania SBDC and the Kleinman Center will include three phases: research; obtaining statewide, regional, and local input; and planning for implementation. The initial phase will focus on gaining a better understanding of the coal mining and power industries, while collecting detailed data on the coal impacted regions which can be used to help identify issues and craft potential solutions. The second phase will include verifying the initial research and findings through convening a series of statewide and local stakeholder meetings. The final phase will include presenting the plan to stakeholders and gathering support for implementation.

Companies in coal impacted communities who are interested in working with their local SBDC for confidential, no-cost business consulting can visit http://pasbdc.org/centers to find the center that serves their county.

Stakeholders and policymakers interested in being involved in this project should contact the Pennsylvania SBDC at pasbdc@wharton.upenn.edu.

About Pennsylvania Small Business Development Centers (SBDC)

The Pennsylvania SBDC network is the only statewide, nationally accredited program that provides high quality one-on-one consulting, training and information resources to empower new and existing businesses. SBDC consultants work with entrepreneurs in confidential, individualized sessions to help them with a range of business issues including testing a new business proposition, shaping a business plan, investigating funding opportunities, and much more. The SBDC program is a public/private partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development and 18 universities and colleges across the Commonwealth. For more information on the Pennsylvania SBDC services and impact, please visit http://www.pasbdc.org.

About Kleinman Center for Energy Policy

The mission of the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy is to cultivate energy policy innovation and promote its applicationcreating opportunities for students, researchers, and professionals to debate viewpoints, explore options, and develop agendas for decision and action. The Kleinman Center focuses on projects that foster thoughtful and impactful energy-related research; develop the next generation of energy leaders; and create conditions for energy policy stakeholders to explore options and develop agendas. To learn more, please visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu.
Were excited to be a part of the intern program providing on-the-job training for students. Its even more valuable when we can offer an individual a full-time opportunity to continue to innovate and elevate the Utelogy platform for its user-community,

Utelogy Corporation, creator of software for control and management of audiovisual systems for business and education, is continuing to develop a world-class enterprise control platform with the hiring of new software developers.

Utelogy provides Software-Defined audiovisual (SDAV) technology for control management, analytics and services for smart classrooms, conference rooms and video-conference rooms. With its desire to continually innovate, Utelogy has extended current intern, Ahmad Alhyek a full-time position.

Ahmad is a recent graduate of California State Polytechnic UniversityPomona majoring in Computer Science. Ahmad joined Utelogy as an intern working for class credit in the spring of 2016. After demonstrating incredible value to the team, Ahmad is joining Utelogy as a full-time developer.

Were excited to be a part of the intern program providing on-the-job training for students. Its even more valuable when we can offer an individual a full-time career opportunity to continue to innovate and elevate the Utelogy platform for its user-community, added Frank Pellkofer, CEO of Utelogy.

About Utelogy Corporation:

Started in 2009, Utelogy Corporation publishes an enterprise technology control and management platform without limits. Utelogy is a flexible, scalable software solution for control and management of AV systems that puts the power in the hands of the user. http://www.utelogy.com
UK preparing legislation to trigger Brexit, confident of deadline Updated: 2016-11-08 09:25 (Agencies)

LONDON - The British government is preparing legislation to trigger the procedure to leave the EU, Sky News reported on Monday, despite Prime Minister Theresa May saying she is confident of overturning a court decision that may delay Brexit.

May's plans to start the formal divorce procedure from the European Union by the end of March were dealt a blow last week when England's High Court ruled that her government must seek parliamentary approval for triggering Article 50.

May wants government, not parliament, to shape Britain's approach to leaving the EU and has said she will appeal the ruling in Britain's highest court - a stance her ministers and aides stuck to on Monday, avoiding any comment on the report.

Sky News quoted sources as saying the government was preparing a bill, legislation that will have to be considered in both houses of parliament in what could be a lengthy process and potentially delay May's timetable.

May's spokesman told reporters the government was focused on winning its appeal to the Supreme Court next month and meeting the March deadline - an argument repeated by her minister responsible for Brexit, David Davis.

Davis also told a rowdy session in parliament that the court's decision may not come until January.

The court ruling has stirred passions in Britain just over four months after 52 percent of voters supported leaving the EU in a referendum which deepened splits in the country and gave voice to resentment - mirrored across Western Europe and the United States - with a ruling elite seen as out of touch.

One lawmaker from the ruling Conservative party resigned last week over May's approach and dozens of others hope to soften the terms of Britain's departure.

Several accused the government on Monday of undermining democracy by trying to bypass parliament, most of whose members had favoured a vote to remain in the EU.

"The government has approached its task in the wrong way and its approach is now unravelling, and I am afraid to say it's unravelling in a most ... ugly way," said Keir Starmer, the opposition Labour Party's Brexit spokesman.

"Only parliament can make and repeal laws."

Some said they wanted to know the government's stance on the EU's lucrative single market of 500 million consumers - something Davis said he would make public "in due course".

But Davis, a leading campaigner for Brexit, repeated May's mantra that the government would deliver "the will of the people". Although willing to consult lawmakers, he said the prime minister would not be forced to reveal her hand.

"We won't achieve a good negotiation outcome if this is a negotiation being run by 650 people in this House of Commons. No negotiation in history has been run that way," Davis said.

"Indeed if parliament insists on a detailed minimum negotiating position that will quickly become the maximum possible offer from our negotiating partners."
These all-inclusive, cell-based, and robust kits reduce time, cost, and risk in the drug discovery process by producing easy-to-analyze, accurate results in a fraction of the time of most other kits available.

INDIGO Biosciences, the recognized industry-leader in Nuclear Receptor research, and Bertin Pharma have announced the completion of a European distribution agreement. Over 40 product references for studying nuclear receptors are now available for European researchers doing their work in drug discovery and toxicology. These innovative tools are used for profiling compounds in research areas such as metabolic disorders, cardiovascular disease, cancer, obesity, and even endocrinology. These all-inclusive, cell-based, and robust kits reduce time, cost, and risk in the drug discovery process by producing easy-to-analyze, accurate results in a fraction of the time of most other kits available.

Bertin Pharma is one of the major European players for the supply of reagents and assay kits dedicated to research and development for the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food industries. Bertin Pharma has marketed biological reagent ranges for over 25 years. Its long R&D experience combined with its international distributor channels enable Bertin Pharma to deliver life sciences tools on time and to support customers throughout their experimentation.

With the addition of INDIGO's portfolio of Nuclear Receptor Assay kits, Bertin Pharma completes it existing ranges of biomarker assays applied to expertise areas including metabolic syndrome, hypertension, and oncology.

"It has been a real honor to be introduced to Fred and his company, and we rapidly found a lot of complementary aspects of our businesses. The Nuclear Receptor Assay range perfectly fit with our customers' needs, and will empower our commercial activity." Patrick Vitaux, Bioreagent Department Manager, Bertin Pharma

"We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Bertin Pharma to expand our distribution network in Europe. We look forward to working with Patrick and his team to bring INDIGO's assay portfolio to their customers throughout the region." Fred Marroni, CEO, INDIGO Biosciences

About INDIGO Biosciences, Inc.

INDIGO Biosciences has established itself as an industry-leading provider of both products and services focused on nuclear receptors. INDIGO offers both screening services and assay kits for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, agri-business, nutriceutical industries, as well as government research agencies and academic researchers.

For more information on INDIGOs products or services, please visit indigobiosciences.com
We've demonstrated proven results with our online test prep in the past. Now, with our College Board-approved online courses, students will be better prepared than ever to tackle the AP exams and earn college credit.

As the need for schedule rigor adds to the already-panic-inducing pressure of the college admissions process, students are looking for opportunities to add AP-level courses to their transcripts. But not every school has the resources to teach that AP Human Geography or AP Computer Science A course, leaving some students in the College Board dust.

That's where Shmoop (http://www.shmoop.com) comes in. Shmoop, a digital publisher known for its award-winning test prep and certified online courses, has received approval from the College Board for several of its online Advanced Placement courses, including AP English Language and Composition, AP English Literature and Composition, AP Comparative Government and Politics, AP Psychology, and yes, even AP Human Geography and AP Computer Science A. That means each course "meets or exceeds the curricular expectations colleges and universities have for [the] subject," according to the College Board.

Each of Shmoop's AP courses can be taken virtually or in a blended learning environment, for maximum flexibility. They include intros, readings, activities, assessments, and major prep for the AP exam, all presented with Shmoop's signature wit. To take advantage of the goods, schools simply add Shmoop's audited courses to their AP course ledger. Then, with basic teacher gradingwhich Shmoop facilitates via answer keys and teacher notesstudents will have access to an otherwise unavailable course.

The goal? To make every AP course and exam accessible to every student, regardless of their school or district's resources. "We've demonstrated proven results with our online test prep in the past," says Ellen Siminoff, CEO of Shmoop. "Now, with our College Board-approved online courses, students will be better prepared than ever to tackle the AP exams and earn college credit, no matter where they are."

Shmoop hopes to get the College Board seal of approval on many more AP courses in the future, including Calculus, Statistics, Art History, and more. To take advantage of Shmoop's AP courses, schools and districts can contact sales@shmoop.com for bulk discounts. Individuals looking for AP test prep can subscribe to Shmoop for a low monthly rate.

About Shmoop

Shmoop offers hundreds of thousands of pages of original content. Their Online Courses, Test Prep, Teaching Guides, Learning Guides, and interactive Study Tools are written by teachers and experts and balance a teen-friendly, approachable style with academically rigorous concepts. Shmoop sees 15 million unique visitors a month across desktop and mobile. The company has won numerous awards from EdTech Digest, Tech & Learning, and the Association of Educational Publishers. Launched in 2008, Shmoop makes the magic happen from a labradoodle-patrolled office in Mountain View, California.

College Board and AP are registered trademarks of the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this product.
White Christmas Chances We have a weak La Nina, the cooler than normal sea-surface temperature pattern in the south-central Pacific Ocean which increases the odds for snow in late December across the northern U.S.

Harris-Mann Climatologys long-range snowfall Christmas forecast predicts a high 80% chance or greater of at least an inch of snow on the ground across most of Canada and much of the extreme northern U.S. north of Interstate 90 on December 25.

"We have a weak La Nina, the cooler than normal sea-surface temperature pattern in the south-central Pacific Ocean which increases the odds for snow in late December across the northern U.S.," says Meteorologist Randy Mann.

According to Harris-Mann long-range weather forecasters, while much of the region from about I-90 northward has an 80 percent chance of snow on Christmas Day, there is a 70 percent chance of a White Christmas across extreme northeastern Washington, northern Idaho, Montana and New England. Probabilities dip to 50 percent between Interstate 90 and Interstate 80, which includes most of Idaho, Colorado, South Dakota, much of Nebraska, Iowa, northern and central Illinois, northern Ohio and Pennsylvania and New York State, but not New York City. The Big Apple only has a 30 percent chance of a White Christmas this year.

"As frigid Arctic air pushes southward into the northern and central U.S., heavier snowfalls are expected from the violent collisions between the very cold air to the north and copious amounts of moisture from the North Pacific regions as well as the Gulf of Mexico," says Climatologist Cliff Harris.

Harris-Mann predicts that cities and towns in the central U.S. near Interstate 70 eastward to the Mid-Atlantic states likewise have around a 30 percent chance of seeing snow on the ground on December 25. There is only a 10 percent chance of a White Christmas across most of the southern U.S. this year, but anything is possible in this cycle of wide weather EXTREMES.

According to Mann, "Although we are in the cooler La Nina cycle, the southern U.S., including Southern California and the Desert Southwest are not likely to have any snow as we are in a warmer temperature pattern across the globe."

Harris-Mann weather forecasters say that much of northern Europe and northern Asia have a very good chance for a White Christmas in 2016. The northern British Isles have a 30 percent chance of a White Christmas, with a strong 80 to 90 percent probability of snow across Norway, Sweden and Finland in Scandinavia. From eastern Europe into Russia, there is a 80 to 90 percent chance for a White Christmas. Northern Italy only has about a 30% chance of seeing snow on December 25. Many of these regions are already seeing very cold and snowy weather.

Harris-Mann Climatology also provides a daily weather and commodity service. Their website provides detailed monthly temperature, precipitation and snowfall forecasts for most U.S. and Canadian cities. They have recently added "best time to travel" videos for 200 U.S. and world cities. All this information is available at http://www.LongRangeWeather.com.
Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony at Uniform Advantage Businesses like Uniform Advantage are continuing to invest in Florida and create new opportunities for families in South Florida.

Uniform Advantage (UA), a multi-channel retailer of uniforms to healthcare and hospitality industries hosted Florida Governor Rick Scott in their new corporate headquarters in Downtown Fort Lauderdale. Governor Scott visited UA on October 21st and took part in their ribbon-cutting ceremony, commended Uniform Advantage for their large increase in job growth, promoted them as an employer of choice, as well as announced Floridas September job numbers.

In support of UAs relocation to Fort Lauderdale and company growth, Governor Rick Scott, in company with Lieutenant Governor Carlos Lopez-Cantera, Executive Director for the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity Cissy Proctor, Vice Mayor of Fort Lauderdale Dean Trantalis, President and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance (GFLA) Bob Swindell, and various community leaders and alliance members toured Uniform Advantages new headquarters and spoke with employees.

UA started as a single store 31 years ago, Susan Masimore, President and CEO of Uniform Advantage, said. It never occurred to me that we would actually get here. But here we are, thank you so much. We have the pleasure of hosting several prominent guests here today to help us celebrate this milestone in our company and we greatly appreciate the warm welcome and all the support weve received from the Governors office, the city of Fort Lauderdale, and the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance.

Now, Uniform Advantage has turned that one store into 29 retail store locations, 10 of which are in Florida, and employs more than 200 people. Lieutenant Governor Carlos Lopez-Cantera applauded UA and said, This is a great company and its another example of how here in Florida, we prioritize jobs because jobs help families. UA is predicted to create 50 new jobs by the end of 2018. By the end of 2016 they have already created 43 new jobs and most certainly will create more jobs than forecasted in the upcoming years.

Governor Scott explained the importance of UAs effort to create more new jobs, Businesses like Uniform Advantage are continuing to invest in Florida and create new opportunities for families in South Florida. Over the year, the Fort Lauderdale area added 34,000 new jobs, which is great news. More than 1.2 million Floridians have gotten jobs in the past five years, and we will continue to do all we can to help every individual who wants a job to find one.

For more information on Uniform Advantage, visit their website. If interested in working at Uniform Advantage visit the career page for more information and detailed job descriptions.

About Uniform Advantage

Uniform Advantage has represented style, quality and, above all, customer satisfaction for more than 30 years. As the first division of UA Brands, the chain was launched with a single South Florida store in 1985. Today, the company operates 29 retail locations in key markets across the U.S.; e-commerce and print catalog divisions; plus, designs and manufactures its own proprietary healthcare apparel lines. The companys corporate office is based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with a distribution center near Atlanta, Georgia. Learn more at http://www.UniformAdvantage.com or by calling 800-283-8708.
Traveler, "Kid" - artwork The pure, high-octave sound of a childs singing voice evokes a young Michael Jackson during his Jackson 5 years. This Kid also has a distinctive groove and this tune radiates optimism.

Warm. Welcoming. Joyous. Music has the ultimate power to bring people together in an increasingly fractured world. The right song at an ideal moment can wield a mighty effect. Kid is Travelers latest release and its the second original production since the bands re-launch. Travelers Kid (Outside In Records) is out now.

Buoyed by energy and enthusiasm, Traveler channels its positivity into Kid. The track feels like an affirmation of humanity and brotherhood and the acceptance of others who may not look like us. Summoning emotions through signature sounds that exude youthful exuberance  as when we were children and the world seemed kind, the possibilities endless  Kid is a mid-tempo, positively danceable tune. With a cavorting melody and gently syncopated percussion, Kid seems to soothe, assuring listeners that the sun will shine again. Characterized by Travelers now-signature synthesizers and a groovy bassline, Kid is distinguished by massive major chords that elicit a feeling that everything will be alright.

Kid delights with a ska-inflected spoken word on the intro bidding a live audience to take heart, for a partys about to begin. The track dovetails into the brightest, giddiest of moods with sitar-influenced synthesizers and a lush, resonant beat that turns the most ordinary of days into a celebration. The pure, high-octave sound of a childs singing voice evokes a young Michael Jackson during his Jackson 5 years. This Kid also has a distinctive groove and this tune radiates optimism.

Traveler is a live electronic band comprised of the American producers Zander and Peitzke. Travelers live performances take listeners on a journey of emotion through sound and cutting-edge visuals. Established in 2010 and currently based out of Santa Barbara, California, Traveler has opened for major headlining acts such as Flume, Seven Lions, Duke Dumont, Odesza, Autograf, Emancipator, Pretty Lights, Bob Moses, Lee Burridge and others. Zander of Traveler has performed as a DJ at key festivals including: Burning Man in the Black Rock Desert north of Reno; Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) in Las Vegas; Beyond Wonderland in San Bernardino; Lucidity Festival in Santa Barbara; and Envision Festival in Costa Rica. Additionally, Zander has DJd at leading nightclubs including Avalon in Los Angeles.

Said Zander of Kid, Peitzke and I started this track a while ago and we kept coming back to it after getting a great reaction playing it out live. The timing just feels right to release it now, and theres still a ton more original music were getting ready to put out really soon!

Listen to TRAVELER, Kid, here: https://soundcloud.com/travelermusic/kid-original-mix

For more information on Traveler, Andrew Rayel, MaRLo, RedOne, The Bloody Beetroots, Alex M.O.R.P.H., Paul van Dyk, VANDIT Records, Giuseppe Ottaviani, Crystal Waters, Harber, X-Change, MIMO, and artists like Armin van Buuren, contact EMILY TAN Media Relations (U.S.), +1(917) 318-3758, EmilyEmilyTan(at)aol.com. Follow EMILY TAN Media Relations on Twitter @EmilyEmilyTan and LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/pub/emily-tan/4/342/70b.

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As staff in state departments of education across the U.S. diligently review and revise their accountability systems to meet the new requirements of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), they have opportunities to promote equity and positive school climate.

In a policy memo released today, William Penuel, Elizabeth Meyer, and Michelle Renee Valladares of the University of Colorado Boulder provide guidance to states for selecting more inclusive school quality and student success indicators for accountability systems.

ESSA is the latest reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, replacing No Child Left Behind as the primary federal law guiding K-12 education policy. Though the federal accountability system under ESSA is still primarily focused on a familiar set of academic indicators, such as state assessments, the new act brought many significant changes.

What makes ESSA different is that it also requires state decision-makers to include a non-academic indicator, which can offer a window of opportunity for states to consider issues of school quality or student success beyond test scores, explains Professor Penuel. Our goal with this memo is to help states weigh their options.

Rather than provide a fixed list of indicators that each state should adopt, or even a fixed list of categories for states to consider, the authors of Making the Most of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)  Helping States Focus on School Equity, Quality and Climate describe the risks and possibilities that states should consider when deciding on indicators. In doing so, they point toward the twin areas of opportunities to learn and school climate.

The memo, published by the National Education Policy Center, recommends the following approaches for selecting indicators that address the importance of equity and of students perceptions of support, safety, and respect in the classroom:



Identify indicators that signal the importance of equity, including opportunities to learn and creating safe and inclusive learning environments.

Adopt multiple non-academic indicators that states and schools can report in their annual report cards.

Carefully combine indicators to signal what is important and avoid perverse incentives for manipulating any one indicator.

Create reciprocal accountability in which district and state leaders have responsibility to provide resources and create conditions needed to improve quality and student success indicators.

Help schools make sense of data on quality and student success indicators by coupling them with opportunity and resource indicators.

Identify potential evidence-based resources ahead of time that can support schools in improving performance on the indicators and where there may be gaps in available resources.

Develop an accountability plan that funds and supports school improvement for schools that need it.

Plan for a multi-stage rollout that can make new measurement approaches more successful and manageable over time.

As states and districts work to implement ESSA, non-academic indicators can signal a move away from punitive, high-stakes testing and towards a more holistic understanding of what helps students and educators thrive in school settings, said Elizabeth Meyer, Associate Dean for Teacher Education at CU Boulder. Adapting measures that have a focus on equity and on improving school environments for the most vulnerable students can help states emphasize programs and interventions that can move schools in directions that promote positive, healthy, and high-achieving environments.

Find Making the Most of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)  Helping States Focus on School Equity, Quality and Climate, by William Penuel, Elizabeth Meyer, and Michelle Renee Valladares, on the web at: http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/ESSA

The National Education Policy Center (NEPC), housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education, produces and disseminates high-quality, peer-reviewed research to inform education policy discussions. Visit us at: http://nepc.colorado.edu

Find Documents:

Press Release: http://nepc.info/node/8310

NEPC Publication: http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/ESSA
Sediment Sampling 360factors EHS Division

360factors, Inc., a leading cloud-based Enterprise Risk and Compliance Management technology and services company, is happy to announce that 360factors is one of the sponsors of the Wester Dredging Association Gulf Coast Chapter Annual Conference which will be held in Galveston Texas on 14-16 November 2016. Representatives Carl Teinert and Bobby ONeal will be attending from 360factors. According to WEDA, the meeting will provide a forum for the exchange of information of interest to the dredging industry and its associates. Representatives from all areas of the industry, including regulatory, resource agencies, contracting, and manufacturing, will attend to discuss dredging economics, benefits, technologies and current issues. Representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers  Galveston, New Orleans, and Mobile Districts will be participating.

WEDA anticipates the event will be extremely beneficial to the Gulf Coast navigation stakeholders, sponsors, pilots and brownwater associations, and state & federal agencies.

Working with our team and qualified laboratories, drillers, and transportation providers, 360factors has successfully delivered U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) approved dredge material evaluations for numerous clients on the Gulf Coast over the past several years and enjoys the opportunity to participate in WEDA events. For more information on the WEDA Conference, visit https://westerndredging.org/index.php/regionalchapters/gulf-chapter.

About 360factors, Inc.

360factors, Inc. (Austin, TX) helps companies improve business performance by reducing risk and ensuring compliance. Predict360, its flagship software product, vertically integrates regulations and requirements, policies and procedures, risks and controls, audit and inspections, and on-line training and qualifications, in a single cloud-based platform. 360factors offers consulting services in the areas of air, water, and waste permitting and compliance, site investigation and remediation, environmental and dredge material sampling and evaluation, engineering and geology, expert testimony, health and safety, and operational risk management. Its Managed Services incorporate outsourced risk and compliance services using Predict360.

Further information can be found at http://www.360factors.com/.

Source 360factors Inc.

Carl Teinert

Senior Project Manager

carl.teinert(at)360factors(dot)com

512-610-7105

http://www.360factors.com
West Monroe Partners, a full-service North American business and technology consultancy, today announced that senior director John Stiffler has relocated to join the firms San Francisco office. Stiffler will establish a local Mergers & Acquisitions presence to support West Monroes existing clients in Northern California as well as lead the M&A practice for the entire West Coast. Prior to transferring to San Francisco, Stiffler led the firms M&A practice in West Monroes Chicago office.

Stiffler is a recognized leader in the M&A space, with more than 30 years of global business and technology consulting experience across multiple industries, including manufacturing and distribution, healthcare, high tech and professional services. Since joining West Monroe in 2008, he has partnered with both financial and strategic buyers on IT strategy formulation, pre-close IT and operational due diligence, and post-close planning, as well as carve-outs and post-close program management execution, to help clients achieve business goals and realize their investment theses. Stiffler currently serves approximately 50 M&A clients in San Francisco and on the West Coast.

The addition of John Stiffler to our San Francisco team enables us to better serve our clients in Central and Northern California, and expands our expertise in the local market, said Will Wu, Customer Experience director and head of the San Francisco office. Im thrilled John is bringing his expertise to help drive growth in our market, increase our local offerings and contribute to developing the next generation of leaders in our office.

Following last years acquisition of Etherios and the establishment of a San Francisco office, strategic growth and geographic expansion in Northern California continues to be part of a multi-year strategy for West Monroe Partners. The San Francisco office will continue to expand its headcount and deepen its capabilities in M&A and Customer Experience.

I couldnt be more excited to embrace this opportunity and help strengthen our presence in San Francisco and beyond, stated Stiffler. This move allows me to work more closely with our Bay Area clients, while helping to build upon the momentum Will has already gained locally. I look forward to contributing to the community and culture of the office and developing new relationships in the Bay Area and the larger Northern California market.

Stiffler joins two other recent leadership additions to the West Coast M&A team: Nancy Tseng in Los Angeles and Mark Huson in Seattle. Together, the team will work to serve clients and grow the M&A practice up and down the West Coast.

About West Monroe Partners

West Monroe is a progressive business and technology consulting firm that partners with dynamic organizations to reimagine, build, and operate their businesses at peak performance. Our team of more than 800 professionals is comprised of an uncommon blend of business consultants and deep technologists. This unique combination of expertise enables us to design, develop, implement, and run strategic business and technology solutions that yield a dramatic commercial impact on our clients profitability and performance.
The judges obviously saw what our readers have long known: FCW and GCN consistently deliver outstanding coverage of public-sector IT.

1105 Public Sector Media Group is proud to announce that FCW and GCN have been named as winners and/or received honorable mentions in five of Folios 2016 Eddie & Ozzie Award categories.

For more than 20 years, the Eddie & Ozzie awards have recognized excellence in magazine editorial and design across all sectors of the industry. Winners and honorable mentions were decided by a panel of more than 300 judges.

1105 Medias Folio Eddie Award Winners:

B-to-B  Series of Articles  Government / Public Sector / Education



Winner: FCW, FedRAMP Coverage

B-to-B  Full Issue  Technology / Telecom



Honorable Mention: GCN, March/April 2016 Issue

1105 Medias Folio Eddie Digital Award Winners:

B-to-B  Website  Government / Public Sector / Education



Honorable Mention: FCW.com

1105 Medias Folio Ozzie Award Winners:

B-to-B  Use of Digital Imagery



Winner: GCN, August 2015: Too Old to Die Feature (Dragutin Cvijanovic & Jeff Langkau, Illustrator/Photographer; Jeff Langkau, Creative Director; Dragutin Cvijanovic, Art Director)

B-to-B  Cover Design  25,000  100,000 Circulation



Honorable Mention: FCW, June 15, 2015: Bringing Order to Cyberspace (Dragutin Cvijanovic & Jeff Langkau, Illustrator/Photographer; Jeff Langkau, Creative Director; Dragutin Cvijanovic, Art Director)

"A lot of the most important stories in government IT aren't particularly sexy, so we take pride in making sure our coverage is both substantive and engaging. FCW's reporting of FedRAMP is a great example of that, so I'm thrilled that the FOLIO judges recognized the quality and importance of that coverage, said Troy K. Schneider, editor-in-chief of FCW and GCN. GCN's award for legacy IT feature is a great honor as well; we also received honorable mentions in three additional categories, so the judges obviously saw what our readers have long known: FCW and GCN consistently deliver outstanding coverage of public-sector IT.

All of the winners can also be viewed on Foliomag.com at http://www.foliomag.com/events/folio-eddie-and-ozzie-awards-luncheon-2016/

About 1105 Public Sector Media Group

1105 Public Sector Media Group, a division of 1105 Media, Inc., provides information, insight and analysis to the Government IT and Education IT (FED/SLED) sectors. Our content platforms include print, digital, online, events and a broad spectrum of marketing services. http://1105publicsector.com
In his new role as President, Dominick will be responsible for managing the day to day operations of the company and is challenged to expand our companys market presence with our current product offerings while exploring some exciting adjacent markets.

Quintron Systems, Inc. (quintron.com), the global provider of mission critical voice conference systems and integrated electrical and network solutions, today announced that on November 1st Dominick Barry was appointed as the new company president. Mr. Barry brings over 35 years of diverse industry experience focused on Department of Defense (DoD) and NASA Range and Space Launch Operations. Mr. Barry assumes the position previously held by David Wilhite, and Mr. Wilhite remains with Quintron as the companys CEO.

We welcome Dominick to the Quintron team and are excited about the potential he brings to our company, said Mr. Wilhite. In his new role as President, Dominick will be responsible for managing the day to day operations of the company and is challenged to expand our companys market presence with our current product offerings while exploring some very exciting adjacent markets.

I have worked with Quintron personnel and used their equipment and installations throughout my career, said Mr. Barry. I am very honored to have been offered this opportunity and I look forward to representing a company that has come to be known for its exceptional quality, performance, and customer satisfaction.

Prior to joining Quintron, Mr. Barry was the principal partner for Pro-Merit, Inc., providing executive level support to presidents, CEOs, and senior executives in the defense, transportation, information technologies, and space industries. Prior to joining Pro-Merit in January 2014, Mr. Barry was Vice President of Strategic Programs for the Global Security Group within URS Federal Services. In this position, Mr. Barry managed the development, planning, and implementation of a strategic initiative focused on the operations, maintenance, and sustainment of Department of Defense Major Range Test Facility Bases (MRTFB). Mr. Barry was also responsible for the formulation, development, and implementation of a broad based strategic approach to capture new business opportunities in the space, space launch, information operations, and intel sectors.

Mr. Barry holds a Masters of Science in Organizational Management and Behavior from Chapman University and Bachelor of Arts from San Francisco State University in Business and Organizational Behavior. Additionally, Mr. Barry holds multiple certifications in project management, technical problem solving, decision making, team development, and organizational change, as well as holding a lifetime teaching credential in Business and Industrial Management from the state of California.

For more information about Quintron solutions and services call 805.928.4343 or visit quintron.com.

About Quintron

Quintrons Communications Systems Division provides premier technology solutions for mission critical conference systems used at major operations centers around the globe. The Integrated Systems Division provides full-service technology solutions from electrical and network infrastructure to security camera and audio-visual systems. Visit quintron.com or call 805.928.4343 for more information.

# # #

All trademarks in this release are the property of their respective owners.
Moroccan security stand guard in front of the entrance of the World Climate Change Conference 2016 (COP22) in Marrakech, Morocco, November 9, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

With the election of Donald Trump as the next US president, who has promised to withdraw the US from the Paris Climate Change Agreement, the European Union indicated on Friday that it will work closely with China to prevent the US from backsliding on its commitment to making the Paris accord effective.

The message was delivered by the European Parliament delegation, consisting of 12 parliament members, before they fly to Marrakech, Morocco to attend the second week of United Nations climate change conference.

The parties which have approved the Paris agreement will embark on their first talks at the conference and Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama have signed three presidential documents to inject special political will in the process of talking and approving the global pact.

Though it is still unknown whether the incoming Trump administration will reject the Paris agreement, during his presidential campaign Trump called global warming a hoax and promised to withdraw from the US from the accord.

"Trump's victory will undoubtedly have severe consequences on the way of tackling climate change at global level," Jo Leinen, vice-chair of the European Parliament delegation told China Daily on Friday in an email. "The EU and China should join forces in Marrakech in order to move forward the Paris agreement."

Leinen predicted that Trump's election risks to "paralyze or even jeopardize the process of ratification and implementation of the Paris agreement."

China and the US approved the agreement shortly before the G20 summit in Hangzhou in September and European Union followed the suit in October. The leading global emitters' approval and ratification have paved the way to ensure that the agreement took effect earlier this month.

Leinen said in Paris, China and the EU played a key role of honest brokers among different "camps" during the negotiations, which contributed to the final conclusion of the ground-breaking agreement.

"And this time in Marrakech, China is expected to line up with the EU," he said. "These two global powers should assume their responsibility by forming a new coalition with the aim of fighting for a progressive global climate policy."

The delegation chair, Giovanni La Via, said in Marrakesh that the 12 parliament members will work on the implementation of the Paris agreement.

"We helped to make it become binding, but it is evident that the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions currently on the table are not sufficient to achieve the objective of limiting climate change to well below 2 degrees", said La Via.

"We shall also work to consolidate the trust between developed and developing countries."

"Marrakesh should send out the signal that the path chosen in Paris is irreversible", said Leinen. "The climate targets need to be achieved step by step in the coming years. The European Union must be an engaged player in this process and act as a broker between the partners of the North and the South."
With our Code of Conduct to guide our business practices, Partners are excited to build relationships with their clients that exceed their expectations.

Headquartered in Strongsville, Ohio, Union Home Mortgage has been steadily increasing business on a large-scale for over the past 40 years of operation. Licensed in 35 states and with 96 branches across the country, positive brand awareness has supported UHMs $2.4 billion in responsible lending in 2016.

This continued growth has earned the privately-held company recognition in the community over the past few years. Most recently and for the first time, Union Home Mortgage has been named the 14th of the 52 fastest-growing companies in the Northeast Ohio region by being recognized on the Crains 52 list.

On behalf of our Partners (employees), we are honored to be one of the Crains 52, Bill Cosgrove, UHM CEO and Owner, shared. He added, With our Code of Conduct to guide our business practices, Partners are excited to build relationships with their clients that exceed their expectations.

Determined by qualifications such as revenue growth and total overall revenue, Crains 52 celebrates innovation and entrepreneurship. Union Home Mortgage is driven to continue to grow and serve its clients with world-class interactions and assistance in achieving their individual homeownership goals.

To learn more about Crains 52, please click here. If you are interested in learning more about Union Home Mortgage Corp., please visit http://www.UnionHomeMortgage.com.
I was so happy to see these families come out and support this book. It means a lot to me because I want Hispanic parents and relatives to encourage their childrens learning. Reading and writing is so essential to building successful lives and careers.

During Halloween weekend, Raul Castillo, a Hispanic author and educator, used a not so scary witch to bring home the point to Spanish-speaking families in his book "La Bruja Que No Fue A La Escuela" (The Witch Who Never Went to School) the importance of reading and writing at the offices of Ponce Reyna Agency/Farmers Insurance in Aurora, Illinois.

Dressed in festive costumes, the agencys staff welcomed 25 families to personally meet Castillo and learn more about his book. This was one of a few stops that he presented a childrens book event in Aurora and Elgin, Illinois.

Written in Spanish for children ages 8 and up, Castillo's book describes a grandfather recalling a tale to his grandson of how the elder in his youth met a friendly witch who was in search of a school to develop reading and writing skills. Their encounter leads them to a local library where they discover the joy of reading and develop a friendship where the boy promises to help the witch in her quest for learning. The 13-page book is published by Fig Factor Media, LLC and contains color illustrations drawn by Patricia Sanchez, Castillos wife.

I was so happy to see these families come out and support this book, Castillo says. It means a lot to me because I want Hispanic parents and relatives to encourage their childrens learning. Reading and writing is so essential to building successful lives and careers.

Gabriela Reyna, owner of Ponce Reyna Agency/Farmers Insurance, welcomed the idea to let have Castillo display his book and its positive message to children.

As we help families with their insurance needs, we also wanted them to see the good things that local residents such as Raul Castillo are doing to help the Hispanic community. Reyna says. We recognize the importance of an education and we were proud to have Raul join us to bring that message home.

For more information about Raul Castillo, visit http://www.rcontiveros.com.

About Raul Castillo:

As an educator in Mexico and The United States for over 30 years, Raul Castillo knows the important of education too well. A Spanish teacher at Elgin High School and a former elementary schoolteacher, he shares his message about the importance of reading and writing with his new book, La Bruja Que No Fue A La Escuela (The Witch Who Never Went to School). The 26-page book is published by Fig Factor Media, LLC and contains color illustrations drawn by Patricia Sanchez,

Castillos wife. For information about the book, visit http://www.rcontiveros.com.

About Ponce Reyna Agency/Farmers Insurance

Gabriela Reyna is the award-winning owner of Ponce-Reyna Agency/Farmers Insurance in Aurora, Illinois and a passionate insurance and financial services professional. She holds a Life Underwriter Training Council Fellow (LUTCF) designation and has more than a decade of experience in the insurance industry. Before founding her business, she worked at both State Farm and Allstate insurance agencies. As an individual sales representative she has won several sales awards and distinctions as a top producer before she founded Ponce Reyna in 2007 with her brother Francisco. The agency grew quickly, in part from its concentration on the Hispanic marketplace and her relationship building skills. For the last four years, her Farmers Agency has been a Presidents Council award honoree, which is reserved for the most esteemed Farmers agencies in the country.
Celebrating its proven approach to creating pathways to employment for low-income young adults, the job training nonprofit Year Up Wilmington will host a corporate and community partner breakfast on November 15, 2016, from 7:30 am to 9:00 am at Hercules Plaza, 1313 North Market Street. More than 50 representatives from corporate and community partners are expected to attend.

Jen McDermott, Executive Director at JPMorgan Chase, will speak about successful strategies for building talent pipelines with Year Up. Joe Coyle, Year Up Greater Philadelphia Executive Director, will also speak at the event.

The Corporate and Community Partner Breakfast is an opportunity to meet with a number of organizations that are dedicated to helping young adults launch exciting careers while ensuring that businesses have the talent they need to grow, said Coyle. Its a chance to take part in directly supporting young people in Delaware and help them enter the professional workforce.

Year Up provides low-income young adults (ages 18-24, without college degrees) with six months of technical and professional training in areas such as IT, financial operations, and customer service support, followed by a six-month internship at top companies like JPMorgan Chase.

Nationwide, 85 percent of Year Up graduates are employed or attending college full-time within four months of completing the yearlong program, with an average starting salary of $36,000/year. Learn more about Year Up by following us on Twitter @YearUp and on Facebook.

About Year Up Inc.

Year Up's mission is to close the Opportunity Divide by providing urban young adults with the skills, experience, and support that will empower them to reach their potential through professional careers and higher education. Year Up achieves this mission through a high support, high expectation model that combines marketable job skills, stipends, internships and college credits. Its holistic approach focuses on students' professional and personal development to place these young adults on a viable path to economic self-sufficiency. Year Up currently serves more than 3,000 students a year at sites in Arizona, Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, the National Capital Region, New York City, Philadelphia, Providence, Puget Sound, San Francisco Bay Area, and South Florida. To learn more, visit http://www.yearup.org or http://www.youtube.com/yearupinc.
Samtecs PCUO FireFly PCIe Optical Micro Flyover Cable Assembly provides key optical connectivity for PCIe over Fiber applications.

The technical collaboration between Samtec, a privately held $625MM global manufacturer of a broad line of electronic interconnect solutions, and PLDA, the industry leader in PCI Express interface IP solutions, provides a groundbreaking solution for PCIe 4.0 endpoint development by combining PLDAs PCIe 4.0 hardware and IP with the Samtecs PCUO PCIe Optical Flyover Cable Assembly.

The PLDA PCIe 4.0 Platform Development Kit (PDK) is a complete development platform based on PLDAs PCIe compliant XpressSWITCH IP and PLDAs XpressRICH4 controller IP for PCIe Gen4 technology running on a Xilinx Virtex UltraScale FPGA. This new product provides the first PCIe Gen3 x8 (upstream) to PCIe Gen 4 (downstream) Integration Backplane. By working with the PLDA Gen4SWITCH, early developers of PCIe 4.0 technology can be among the first to test PCIe Gen4 architecture for Endpoint/PHY/boards with their own software, designs and boards in a real system.

Samtecs PCUO FireFly PCIe Optical Micro Flyover Cable Assembly leverages MMF technology to support the PCIe Gen4 links of up to 100 m. Samtec FireFly solutions offer high-density, ease-of-routing and optimized signal integrity. The PCUO series features a x4 optical engine enabling aggregation for x8 and x16 PCIe links. The PCUO also offers support for bidirectional reset and cable present sidebands for both transparent and NTB applications.

Key features of the combined solution include:

Gen4SWITCH, which is based on a Xilinx Virtex UltraScale XCVU065-2FFVC1517E FPGA and features:

One PCIe Gen3 x8 electrical Upstream

One PCIe Gen4 x4 electrical Downstream

Gen4SWITCH FPGA includes PLDA XpressSWITCH IP configured with:

1 PCIe Gen3 x8 US port connected to Gen3 capable computer

1 PCIe Gen4 x4 DS port connected to external DUT

1 PCIe Gen4 x4 DS port connected to PLDA PCIe Gen4 IP as PCIe Gen4 x4 embedded EP

Gen4 DUT is connected to Gen4SWITCH via Samtec PCUO FireFly PCIe Optical Flyover Cable Assembly.

Samtecs PCUO FireFly PCIe Optical Micro Flyover Cable Assembly provides key optical connectivity for PCIe over Fiber applications, said Matt Burns, Technical Marketing Manager at Samtec. The PCUO series offers designers the flexibility to achieve higher data rates and greater distances as evidenced by two x4 PCIe 4.0 optical links supported in the PLDA PCIe 4.0 PDK.

PLDA is proud to be at the forefront of PCIe 4.0 development with our Gen4SWITCH product, said Roman Tourneau, Marketing Manager at PLDA. The collaboration between PLDA and Samtec was one of the keys to delivering the PCIe 4.0 throughput required by designers to test their PCIe 4.0 solutions and reduce their time to market.

Samtec will display the PLDA PCIe 4.0 PDK with the PCUO FireFly PCIe Optical Flyover Cable Assembly at the upcoming SC16 November 14-17, 2016 in Salt Lake City, UT. Please stop by Booth #2522 for further details.

To learn more about the Samtec PCUO PCIe Optical Flyover Cable Assembly, please download our PCIe Mid-Board Optics eBrochure or visit http://www.samtec.com/firefly.

To learn more about the PLDA PCIe 4.0 PDK featuring the Gen4SWITCH platform, please visit https://www.plda.com/products/pcie-solutions-asicsoc/pciefpga-prototyping/gen4switch.

About Samtec, Inc.

Founded in 1976, Samtec is a privately held, $625MM global manufacturer of a broad line of electronic interconnect solutions, including IC-to-Board and IC Packaging, High-Speed Board-to-Board, High-Speed Cables, Mid-Board and Panel Optics, Flexible Stacking, and Micro/Rugged components and cables. Samtec Technology Centers are dedicated to developing and advancing technologies, strategies and products to optimize both the performance and cost of a system from the bare die to an interface 100 meters away, and all interconnect points in between. With 33 locations in 18 different countries, Samtecs global presence enables its unmatched customer service. For more information, please visit http://www.samtec.com.

About PLDA

PLDA has been successfully delivering PCI and PCI Express IP for more than 20 years. With over 6,200 licenses, PLDA has established a vast customer base and the worlds broadest PCIe ecosystem. PLDA has maintained its leadership over four generations of PCI Express specifications, enabling customers to reduce risk and accelerate time to market for their ASIC and FPGA based designs. PLDA provides a complete PCIe solution with its IP cores, FPGA boards for ASIC prototyping, PCIe BFM/testbench, PCIe drivers and APIs. PLDA is a global company with offices in North America (San Jose, California) and Europe (France, Italy, Bulgaria).

Samtec, Inc.,

P.O. Box 1147

New Albany, IN 47151-1147

USA

Phone: 1-800-SAMTEC-9 (800-726-8329)

http://www.samtec.com
Video is art and its entertaining, but when used effectively it can have a dramatic impact on the way you sell, explained Helbig.

Now startups and entrepreneurs have a low cost option to tell their story through video. Fabulist is a U.S. based content agency that makes short videos for startups using stock footage. An anti-boring video company, Fabulist was recently launched to rid the world of Meet Bob animated explainer videos.

By 2019, online video will be responsible for 80 percent of global Internet traffic, according to Cisco. The Washington Post even noted a year ago how video is eating the web. While the average animated explainer video costs $1,500-$5,000 a pop, the average startup doesnt have that kind of moneyyet they do want to tell their story in the most engaging way, especially as the trend continues away from traditional marketing and advertising to video.

Video production is expensive and were here to change that, said Matt Helbig, founder of Fabulist and executive producer at Fifty Square Feet. Fabulist uses stock video footage, professional voiceover and compelling music to create simple yet beautiful videos that help startups articulate the value of their product or service in an engaging and affordable way.

There are few, if any, high production value options for video content at the $500 price point. The problem is production, because getting a crew to shoot video is expensive. However, there has been an unforeseen upside in the explosion of video, and the massive trove of royalty-free stock footage has grown in parallel with the eruption of digital video.

With the surge of video content for the web, especially social media, there has been a correlating increase in the amount of high quality stock footage available to editors, Helbig continued. While this material wasn't designed to be stock in nature, because there's so much of it, it's now possible to weave it together into something new, compelling and cool.

Fabulist is able to dramatically lower the production costs of an amazing video with world-class editors by taking advantage of the staggering amount of beautiful stock footage that, for the first time, is available to everyone. Fabulist is a team of expert storytellers who are all based in Americas Finest City and have worked with Airbnb, Twitter, Google and others.

Video is art and its entertaining, but when used effectively it can have a dramatic impact on the way you sell, explained Helbig. We like to think of ourselves as making art out of repurposed footage. In other words, we recycle and we take our creative work seriously.

Fabulist is planning a stock footage only film festival for 2017 called Stock-Stock and will be accepting submissions from editors across the U.S. In addition, the company is aggressively acquiring and licensing stock, while offering a 100 percent money back guarantee on all videos. The creative team is also planning to roll out an enterprise solution in early 2017.

About Fabulist

Based in San Diego, Calif., Fabulist repurposes found art to offer an affordable video solution for startups, starting at $499. Using stock video footage, professional voiceover and compelling music, we create simple but beautiful videos that articulate the value of a product or service. Although Fabulist formally launched in late 2016 to serve startups, our crews and partners have collectively created over 1,000 videos for some of the most influential brands, media companies, agencies and all around nice people since 2010. Fabulist doesn't outsource videos to other countries; all editors that work on our projects are in San Diego, and collectively in October 2016, they drank almost 1,000 cups of coffee. Fabulist is a budget-friendly offshoot of FIFTY SQUARE FEET. Learn more at fabuli.st.

About Fifty Square Feet

Based in San Diego and San Francisco, Fifty Square Feet is a full-stack video agency that connects brands to stories. Our passion is matching brands to content that creates fans, fuels movements, beats projections and ultimately changes behavior. We strive to cultivate the most imaginative and accomplished talent while forging a strong bond with our clients, agency partners and brands, and collaborating with only the best storytellers. 50 has been creating influential and award winning branded content, commercials, broadcast content, short documentaries and experimental films since 2014. Learn more at fiftysqft.com.

###

For more information, including the press release scheduled for November 15, 2016, email Brian Justice, Principal, Brian Justice Strategic Communications, at brian(at)just-comm.com.
AIM Solder, a leading global manufacturer of solder assembly materials for the electronics industry, is pleased to announce that Manuel Munguia, Senior Technical Support Engineer  Mexico, has successfully completed the SMTA Certification program, and is now recognized as an STMA Certified Process Engineer.

The SMTA Certification Program is a three-day offering, intended for SMT Process and Manufacturing Engineers, consisting of a 1.5-day workshop on topics in SMT processes. The program concludes with an open and closed book examination. This challenging examination requires both written answers and calculations, with the intent to enable the attendee to establish competitive credentials, as certified by the SMTA.

We are proud of Manuels achievements and delighted to have him on our technical support team, said Carlos Tafoya, AIMs Technical Support Director. He has always demonstrated great enthusiasm and passion for improved SMT processes, contributing to the continued success of our team.

Based in Mexico Manuel may be reached by phone at +5213316014215 or by email at mmunguia(at)aimsolder(dot)com.

About AIM

Headquartered in Montreal, Canada, AIM Solder is a leading global manufacturer of assembly materials for the electronics industry with manufacturing, distribution and support facilities located throughout the world. AIM produces advanced solder products such as solder paste, liquid flux, cored wire, bar solder, epoxies, lead-free and halogen-free solder products, preforms, and specialty alloys such as indium and gold for a broad range of industries. A recipient of many prestigious SMT industry awards, AIM is strongly committed to innovative research and development of product and process improvement as well as providing customers with superior technical support, service and training. For more information about AIM, visit http://www.aimsolder.com.
Kevin P. Ray, of counsel at global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP, has authored the book Art & Business Law: Transactions in Art & Cultural Property.

Published by American Bar Association Press in November 2016, this book discusses how art can affect the world of business. As art has gained greater acceptance as an investment, art is appearing in a variety of transactions that expand the traditional dealer-gallery-auction house sale form. Art transactions increasingly include many art-secured lending, securitization, and commercial transactions. Topics covered include culture, fakes and forgeries, questions of titles, restrictions on materials, forms of art-secured transactions, express and implied warranties on art, and copyright.

Rays practice is focused in the areas of art and cultural heritage law and financial services. He represents and advises artists, art galleries, art collectors, museums, and cultural institutions in a variety of transactions, including consignments, questions of title, provenance, and compliance with national and international law. He also advises lenders and debtors on issues unique to art, antiquities and other cultural property in a variety of lending and commercial transactions.

Ray is a frequent speaker and writer on art and cultural heritage law issues and is a regular contributor to Greenberg Traurigs art law blog, Cultural Assets. He is also a past co-chair of the American Bar Associations International Law Sections Art & Cultural Heritage Law Committee.

About Greenberg Traurig, LLP

Greenberg Traurig, LLP is an international, multi-practice law firm with approximately 2,000 attorneys serving clients from 38 offices in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The firm is No 1. on the 2015 Law360 Most Charitable Firms list, second largest in the U.S. on the 2016 Law360 400, Top 20 on the 2015 Am Law Global 100, and among the 2015 BTI Brand Elite. More information at: http://www.gtlaw.com/.
The partnership with Haivision assures the integrity and simplicity of IPTV with DISH offering a great channel lineup, a small footprint and an affordable solution for enterprise customers.

Haivision, a market leader in enterprise video and streaming solutions, today announced a strategic partnership with DISH to deliver secure digital television content to desktops and displays within enterprises. DISH is a leading provider of programming over satellite to consumers, hospitality, and businesses.

The unique solution between the DISH SMARTBOX platform and Haivisions IPTV system incorporates a security framework assuring content protection to each desktop and set-top box. Additionally, grouped and individual content viewership restrictions can be established by system administrators for every channel, user and display. The DISH SMARTBOX reduces cost and saves space by serving up to 96 HD channels within a compact, energy efficient 5RU headend system. This combined solution protects content providers, simplifies enterprise IPTV deployments, and is substantially more economical than traditional IPTV architectures for enterprises.

Delivering IPTV within enterprises to hundreds or thousands of viewers has presented a number of security and scalability challenges for companies, said Alistair Chatwin, DISH director of product management. The partnership with Haivision assures the integrity and simplicity of IPTV with DISH offering a great channel lineup, a small footprint and an affordable solution for enterprise customers.

Haivision has a 12 year history of delivering the highest quality IPTV for enterprises so employees can stay informed about current events. Haivisions IPTV solutions are used by financial organizations so traders can make immediate and informed decisions, governments to accurately assess regional and global events, broadcasters for internal distribution of on-air content, and within enterprises to inform and entertain.

The combined Haivision DISH solution brings more channels at a lower cost to the enterprise audience, said Peter Maag, Haivision chief marketing officer. Haivisions secure multicast IPTV technology assures content protection and deterministic viewership.

About Haivision

Haivision, a private company founded in 2004, provides media management and video streaming solutions that help the worlds leading organizations communicate, collaborate and educate. Haivision is recognized as one of the most influential companies in video by Streaming Media and one of the fastest growing companies by Deloittes Technology Fast 500. Haivision is headquartered in Montreal and Chicago, with regional offices located throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and South America. Learn more at haivision.com.

DISH Media Contact

Chelsea Satkowiak

720-514-6214

Chelsea.Satkowiak(at)dish.com
The men and women who have served and sacrificed to protect our country deserve our unwavering support, said entrepreneur and philanthropist, Bob Parsons.

The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation has awarded $1 million to the George W. Bush Foundation for its military initiatives and ongoing dedication to improving overall veteran wellness. The Military Service Initiative (MSI) of the George W. Bush Institute honors the service and sacrifice of post-9/11 veterans and their families, ensuring they make successful transitions to civilian life with a focus on gaining meaningful employment and overcoming the invisible wounds of war. The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation was established in 2012 by well-known American entrepreneur Bob Parsons and business executive Renee Parsons to serve low-income and underserved populations, marginalized communities and causes often overlooked or underfunded. For Bob Parsons, a decorated U.S. Marine Corps Vietnam Veteran, support of the military community is a critical aspect of The Foundations mission.

The men and women who have served and sacrificed to protect our country deserve our unwavering support, said Parsons. Our partnership with the Bush Institute will go a long way in helping those struggling with serious issues, many of which are too often overlooked.

The wellness component of MSI focuses on addressing the invisible wounds of war which speak to mental health injuries such as traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress. Unfortunately, many in need dont ask for help because of the stigma surrounding mental health challenges and perceived lack of adequate resources. The Bush Institute has developed a library of resources to combat negative stereotypes and raise awareness of the symptoms, seriousness, and treatment of these issues.

Laura and I have dedicated the rest of our lives to supporting our veterans and their families, said President George W. Bush "At the Bush Institute, we are focused on addressing the invisible wounds of war, removing the stigma that surround them, and ensuring veterans and caregivers seek and receive comprehensive care. Im grateful to The Bob and Renee Parsons Foundation for helping to make this important work possible.

According to the Bush Institute, the MSI was inspired by the courage of the military, who serve and sacrifice to defend the United States in support of enduring freedom. The Initiative also highlights organizations that support U.S. service personnel and their families during deployment and after they return home.

Ongoing support for our nations veterans is not only one of the core areas of focus for The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation, but a cause close to our hearts, said businesswoman and philanthropist, Renee Parsons. We are proud to support an organization that is helping deserving men and women get critical care that goes beyond treating their physical injuries.

The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation deals primarily in the areas of homelessness, medical care, at-risk youth, education and veterans support. The Foundation provides transformational gifts to nonprofit organizations that are successfully addressing these issues and can demonstrate and measure the impact of their work. To learn more about The Foundation and organizations they support, visit tbrpf.org.

About The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation

The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation inspires hope by providing critical funding at critical times to communities striving to make a difference. The Foundation primarily focuses on issues in the greater Phoenix area. The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation believes every person is entitled to an education, good nutrition, medical care, a stress-free, happy environment and the hope that they too, will share in the American Dream. The Foundation provides funding to nonprofit organizations that are successfully addressing these essential needs. The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation is also committed to the children of Haiti, helping to grow and improve schools, medical services and overall well-being for communities in rural Haiti. tbrpf.org.

About The Bush Institute

Housed within the George W. Bush Presidential Center, the George W. Bush Institute is an action-oriented, nonpartisan policy organization with the mission of cultivating leaders, advancing policy, and taking action to solve todays most pressing challenges. The work is achieved through three Impact Centers  Domestic Excellence, Global Leadership, and our Engagement Agenda  by which the Bush Institute engages the greater community with its important work.
Clevens Face and Body Specialists is proud to announce a recent collaboration with a local charitable foundation to help a teen in need. Malaks Medical and Dental Warriors reached out to Ross A. Clevens, MD, FACS for assistance with a young man named Lewis who had been severely bullied because of the appearance of his nose. Through the nonprofit Face of Change, Dr. Clevens donated his time and skill to provide a pro bono rhinoplasty or nasal contouring procedure for Lewis.

Every year, more than 3.2 million students are the victims of bullying, according to DoSomething.org. As many as 160,000 kids skip school each day to avoid taunting and teasing. Disproportionate facial features and physical deformities are some of the most common triggers for bullying in kids and teens. Lewis, a hardworking AP student active in his high school jazz band, was born with a nose that caused him to be the object of ridicule by his peers and teachers alike. He was even told by an adult ROTC instructor that he had a face only a mother could love.

Malak Hammad of the Melbourne nonprofit Malaks Medical and Dental Warriors first noticed the shy teenager at an event. This young man really touched my heart, Hammad said. She immediately brought Lewis to the attention of Dr. Clevens and Face of Change, a charitable entity created by the Clevens family more than 10 years ago. Face of Change provides food and medical care for needy children locally and abroad. Lewis brought to us a story where he was the victim of severe bullying because of his appearance. It was such a distressing story, we felt that we could help, says Dr. Clevens. He was a great candidate for a rhinoplasty or cosmetic nasal surgery to re-contour his nose.

Now an Industrial Engineering major at the University of South Florida, Lewis has changed from a shy high schooler to a self-assured college student. Post-surgery, I do feel a lot more confident, he says. The people around me definitely made it clear that my nose looked weird. From elementary school all the way into high school, my peers and even some of my ROTC instructors had some quips to say about my nose  it was kind of hooked, it was kind of droopy  and now that thats gone, they really have nothing negative to say about me. And thats just really nice.

Recognizing the social value of facial plastic surgery, Dr. Clevens has participated in the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Domestic Violence Project, offering pro bono reconstructive surgery to victims of domestic violence and trauma. It feels fantastic to be able to use my skills and talents as a facial plastic surgeon to help an individual, he says. In this case, it really made Lewis much more comfortable with himself, helped with his self-esteem and improved his social interactions.

An award-winning double board certified facial plastic surgeon, Dr. Clevens has practiced in Brevard County for 20 years. He is the creator of the Laser-Assisted Weekend Necklift and a pioneer in the use of PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma) healing gel to speed recovery and improve patient outcomes. Trained at Yale, Harvard, and the University of Michigan, Dr. Clevens founded Clevens Face and Body Specialists. The practice offers Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, Breast & Body Surgery, NeoGraft Permanent Hair Restoration, SculpSure Body Contouring, Injectables and Fillers, Laser Treatments, Skin Cancer Care, and Medical Grade Skin Care. The practice provides comprehensive patient care at offices in Melbourne and Merritt Island.

To learn more about Lewis, click here to watch a video about his story. For more information about Clevens Face and Body Specialists or the nonprofit Face of Change, call 321.727.3223 or visit http://www.drclevens.com.
Ermenegildo Zegna, the luxury Italian menswear brand, opens a new branch in London's Bond Street, the home of many luxury brands' flagship stores. [Photo/provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Ermenegildo Zegna, the luxury Italian menswear brand, is targeting overseas Chinese shoppers at a new branch it has opened in London's Bond Street, the home of many luxury brands' flagship stores.

The number of Chinese tourists visiting the UK reached a new record high of 270,000 in 2015. Those visitors spent more than 586 million pounds ($738 million), according to VisitBritain, the UK's official tourism board.

To better respond to the influx of Chinese customers, the new Zegna London Global Store has hired Chinese-speaking sales staff and the services of personalized consultants who can explain the brand's history and culture.

Ermenegildo Zegna, the fourth-generation CEO who runs the family brand, said: "Chinese customers are one of our biggest clienteles. By offering native speaking staff , who understand the culture and the customers' needs, we are able to bring a comfortable shopping experience to our Chinese patrons."

To satisfy the particular tastes of Chinese customers, the fashion house in London has stocked a wide range of luxurious menswear collections.

"Chinese love light wear because they use the products for traveling, and also they adore sportswear and leather goods," said Zegna."We have a good assortment of those products in the London Global Store particularly catering to the tastes of the Chinese."

The Italian company, which has its own sheep farms in Australia that supply wool to mills in Italy, opened a branch in China in 1991, becoming the first luxury apparel company to launch a store within the Chinese market.

Greater China is now its biggest single market, accounting for about one third of its global sales of 1.26 billion euros ($1.37 billion) in 2015.

"This would not happen if we did not take the market seriously by making the early entry, building the right store, creating the right team and keeping investing in new things," Zegna said.

He believes retailers selling in the China market should never stand still and rest on their laurels, because customers keep asking for more products and services, and because competition is fierce.

"To remain a leader as a menswear luxury brand in China, you have to keep renewing yourself and reinvesting in the brand to make sure that people are given superior service and a constant innovative brand proposition," Zegna said.

He added that China's key stores have become a testing ground for the company as it introduces new products and ideas because Chinese customers enjoy being exposed to fresh thinking.
Feldco Windows, Siding and Doors Being able to thoroughly delight our customers starts with providing a great working experience for every employee.

Feldco Windows, Siding and Doors, the industrys leader in replacement windows, siding and doors, announced today that it has once again been named one of Chicago Tribunes Top Places to Work. This makes it the 6th time Feldco has been recognized as a top Chicagoland area employer. The recognition relies solely on the input of employees, who opt in to provide feedback on their jobs, work culture and overall workplace satisfaction through a survey. From competitive compensation and benefits to internal events keeping employees engaged, Feldco goes above and beyond to make sure each employee enjoys coming to work every day.

Being able to thoroughly delight our customers starts with providing a great working experience for every employee, says Shari Fey, Human Resources Manager at Feldco. Fey, along with others in management, strongly believes that keeping employees happy is the key to successfully satisfying customers on a daily basis. Fey continues, We make sure we delight each other first which carries through to our customers.

Customer Delight is at the heart of everything Feldco does and is even one of their Five Keys to Success which also includes Accountability, Productivity, Professionalism and Teamwork. The combination of the five keys helps Feldco continuously service and satisfy over 350,000 homeowners across the Midwest from the Chicagoland area to Central and Northern Illinois, Wisconsin and most recently, Iowa. Doug Cook, Feldco Owner and President, says that Feldcos non-stop growth is directly related to the hard work of the companys entire team.

We value our employees and their endless commitment to Feldco, he stated. Their dedication has helped us achieve many significant milestones as a company and we are incredibly proud of everything we continue to accomplish as a team.

Some of those accomplishments include being named America's #1 Window and Door Company in 2015 and continuing to expand into more and more markets across the Midwest at a rapid pace.

As the company continues to expand, they place an emphasis on providing opportunities for all employees to develop their skills, grow professionally and personally and to advance their careers internally.

Feldco also continuously looks to add more talented and motivated individuals to their team. For more information about career opportunities at Feldco, visit their careers page.

Feldco is the Midwests leading replacement window, siding and door specialist. Founded in 1976, the company is focused on delighting customers by making home improvement projects simple. With premium products, factory-direct pricing and certified installers, Feldco provides an excellent overall value and experience for over 350,000 customers. The company offers free in-home demonstrations and lifetime product warranties. Feldco serves all of Central and Northern Illinois, Northwest Indiana, Southern and Northeast Wisconsin and as of June of 2015, Eastern Iowa. Feldco has showrooms in Chicago, Des Plaines, Rockford and Peoria, IL, Madison, Cudahy and Menasha, WI, and Davenport, IA. Please visit Feldco's website or contact the company's Communication Center (866-4FELDCO or 708-437-4000) to learn more about Feldco's products and services.

Feldco has been also previously named one of Chicagos Tribunes Top Workplaces in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. They have also been recently recognized as the #1 Window and Door Company in America by Window and Door Magazine. Doug Cook has been honored by the Daily Herald for Entrepreneurial Excellence as well.
Today, Chaos Group releases V-Ray 3 for Revit, a professional rendering plugin tailored to the unique needs of architects and designers. An intuitive interface and streamlined controls have made V-Ray 3 for Revit the most design-friendly renderer yet, providing a simple way to create high-quality renders directly in Autodesk Revit.

V-Ray 3 for Revit is built on the industry-standard rendering technology used by 92 of the top 100 architecture firms, and is ready for professional design and visualization projects, from imagery to VR. Optimized to handle large BIM datasets, V-Ray preserves the integrity of the BIM database, allowing architects to add realistic lights, cameras and materials using a non-destructive workflow.

V-Ray for Revit gives us the ability to render great imagery and use it as part of our design process, said Daniel Hurtubise, BIM manager at Renzo Piano Building Workshop. We can test out ideas, get feedback, and make decisions faster. Its a new level of freedom, and something we think most architects will be excited about.

V-Ray for Revit is the next link in Chaos Groups mission to create a unified rendering standard for the AEC community. With updates to V-Ray for SketchUp and Rhino coming soon, projects will be able to look consistent, regardless of visualization application.

V-Ray for Revit opens visualization up to the entire design team, said Brian Russell, V-Ray for Revit Product Manager at Chaos Group. Now every team member can communicate more effectively at every stage of the process.

Top Ten Features Include:



Design-Friendly Interface  Quickly balance quality and speed with V-Ray for Revits render presets. Work in draft mode for early iterations and switch to high quality for presentations.

Physical Materials  Automatically convert Revit materials to V-Rays physically-correct format.

Diagrammatic Materials  Easily make scenes look diagrammatic or like a scale model with material presets like basswood and foam core.

Physically Based Lighting  Accurate options for IES and HDR image-based lighting, as well as support for Revit Sun and Sky.

One-Click VR Output  VR cameras can help designers verify scale during the design process.

Aerial Perspective  Add realistic atmospheric depth with aerial perspective.

Section Boxes  Render sections easily with full support for Revit's native section boxes.

Denoiser  Automatically removes artifacts and noise, cutting render times with GPU-acceleration.

Material Editor  Import and edit VRmats exported from V-Ray for 3ds Max, Rhino and SketchUp.

V-Ray Swarm  New web-based distributed rendering allows firms to speed up rendering times by using the power of all available desktops and render nodes.

To schedule a meeting with Chaos Group or to view a demonstration in booth #2982 during Autodesk University, please contact: David Tracy, david.tracy(at)chaosgroup(dot)com.

Availability

V-Ray 3 for Revit is available now for Windows and is compatible with Autodesk Revit 2015, 2016, 2017. A full workstation license can be purchased for $695, 500, or 430, and includes a new online licensing option. Academic pricing and product availability coming soon.

About Chaos Group

Chaos Group is a worldwide leader in computer graphics technology, helping artists and designers create photoreal imagery and animation for design, television, and feature films. Chaos Group specializes in physically-based rendering and simulation software used daily by top design studios, architectural firms, advertising agencies, and visual effects companies around the globe. Today, the company's research and development in cloud rendering, material scanning, and virtual reality is shaping the future of creative storytelling and digital design. Founded in 1997, Chaos Group is privately owned with offices in Sofia, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Seoul, and Tokyo. For more information, visit: chaosgroup.com.

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Press Contacts:

Chaos Group

David Tracy, david.tracy(at)chaosgroup(dot)com

http://www.chaosgroup.com

Liaison Inc.

Colin McLaughlin, (503) 796-9822, colin(at)liaisonpr(dot)com

http://www.liaisonpr.com
SAN MATEO, CA (November 11, 2016). The Vanguard Cleaning Systems brand has been ranked #15 on Entrepreneur Magazines Top 100 Franchise Opportunities for Veterans list for 2016. This marks the third consecutive year that the Vanguard brand has placed in the top 15 of this list.

Vanguard Cleaning Systems Master Franchise regional offices offer a number of options for purchase of Janitorial Franchises. Under the Vanguard Vet Program, qualifying Veterans may receive a 10% discount on the initial franchise fee for their selected business plan.

About the Vanguard Cleaning Systems Brand

Founded in 1984, the Vanguard Cleaning Systems organization is built upon over 3,000 independently owned and operated franchised commercial cleaning businesses, which are licensed and supported by a Master Franchise network of 53 independent regional offices throughout North America. Vanguard franchised commercial cleaning businesses service more than 15,000 businesses, healthcare companies, educational facilities, and non-profit organizations.

The Vanguard brand has been included among the top 50 franchises of Entrepreneur magazines annual Franchise 500 list for eight consecutive years. You can learn more about the Vanguard Cleaning Systems franchise organization at http://www.vanguardcleaning.com.
KISS guitarist Tommy Thayer and country music star Darius Rucker announce new Ernest Hummingbird storybook app, and donation to 170 Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. @ernesthum @cmnhospitals

KISS guitarist Tommy Thayer and country music star Darius Rucker on Monday announced the release of the Ernest Hummingbird storybook app and underscored their support of Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals by donating the app to its 170 childrens hospitals.

Ernest Hummingbird is a heartwarming children's story of hope and inspiration, Thayer said. Our wish is that all children will enjoy the storybook and have fun singing-along with Ernest.

At Medical University of South Carolinas (MUSC) Childrens Hospital on Monday, Thayer and Rucker, who helped bring to life Ernests stories on the app, announced the donation of the app to the 170 Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals across North America, making it available to the more than 10 million kids treated at member hospitals across North America each year. The storybook app is now available for purchase in the iTunes store for $2.99.

Thayer and Ruckers ongoing dedication to philanthropy and supporting children's hospitals healthcare initiatives continues to be a priority for both of them. While at MUSC Childrens Hospital, they visited with patients and performed a song from the storybook app. Thayer and Rucker, along with app creator Mechem Media, also donated a select number of iPads to the hospitals Child Life Department so that patients and future patients can enjoy and benefit from Ernest Hummingbirds adventures.

These amazing stories provide another resource for caregivers, such as Child Life specialists, to connect with kids. Such stories of hope and inspiration are helpful in the care of kids who are facing challenging diseases and injuries or complicated surgeries, said Amanda Mahaffey, director of Childrens Miracle Network at MUSC Childrens Hospital. Its charitable support from friends like Tommy and Darius that help us provide services, such as Child Life programs, that are not covered by insurance or government programs.

Thayer, who recently raised funds through a Charity Buzz campaign for Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals, is the lead guitarist of the legendary rock band KISS. Regarded as one of the most influential rock and roll bands of all-time, KISS's career milestones are staggering including sales of over 100 million albums worldwide. In 2014, Thayer partnered with Mechem Media creating new intellectual properties for TV, film, new media and mobile. For more information visit tommythayer.com.

Rucker, who has a longtime partnership with MUSC Childrens Hospital, attained multi-platinum status in the music industry with Grammy award-winning group Hootie & the Blowfish. Since re-introducing himself to the world as a country artist, he has released four consecutive albums to top the Billboard Country albums chart and earned a whole new legion of fans. In 2014, Rucker won his third career Grammy for Best Solo Country Performance for his triple platinum selling cover of Wagon Wheel. Rucker is currently headlining his Good for a Good Time Tour. For more information and tour dates visit dariusrucker.com.

MUSC Children's Hospital is the largest and most comprehensive pediatric health care facility in South Carolina and one of 170 Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals across North America. Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals raises vital funds and awareness for these hospitals, helping them to provide care for kids that are not covered by government or insurance programs.

Follow the app release on social at #ErnestForKids.

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About Children's Miracle Network Hospitals

Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals raises funds and awareness for 170 member hospitals that provide 32 million treatments each year to kids across the U.S. and Canada. Donations stay local to fund critical treatments and healthcare services, pediatric medical equipment and charitable care. Since 1983, Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals has raised more than $5 billion, most of it $1 at a time through the charitys Miracle Balloon icon. Its various fundraising partners and programs support the nonprofits mission to save and improve the lives of as many children as possible. Find out why childrens hospitals need community support, identify your member hospital and learn how you can Put Your Money Where the Miracles Are at CMNHospitals.org and facebook.com/CMNHospitals.
Hitachi Solutions Americas industry-first focus enables our team to develop and deliver business solutions that enhance customers productivity, while simultaneously helping them smoothly navigate evolving industry trends.

Hitachi Solutions America, Ltd., a leading provider of global industry solutions based on the Microsoft Cloud, is pleased to announce its new ebook is now available, Ground-to-Cloud: An Industry Guide for Evaluating a Move to Cloud CRM. Click this link to download a copy: http://bit.ly/2fLNuW9

On-premises CRM and Cloud CRM both deliver crucial insight into customer data and business interactions, providing companies with a 360-degree view of customer needs and behaviors. With this insight, businesses are better able to deliver the personalized service that customers expect, fueling sales conversions and greater revenues.

On-premises CRM and Cloud CRM, and the different hosting options that each offers, pose different advantages and disadvantages. The ebook delves into the benefits and challenges that companies can expect in terms of data security and trust, data control, system connectivity, customizability, mobile access, innovation, and more, from each platform, and how these features apply to business.

A helpful checklist in the ebook guides companies by asking key questions around business priorities and operations, decision processes, and the goals that the business intends the CRM system to achieve. Answers to these questions help to better frame the CRM search and evaluation by creating a clear understanding of business needs and expectations, and the key metrics that will be used to measure system success.

In addition to the checklist, a section detailing questions to ask a Cloud service provider is also an important chapter of the Ground-to-Cloud ebook. Finding the right Cloud service provider for delivering a Cloud CRM system is a critical part of finding the right Cloud CRM system. The questions in this section help businesses uncover the expertise a provider has in system implementation, the Cloud CRM product, and industry processes.

While delivering excellent customer service is a shared goal across industries, companies in different industries follow distinctive processes and customer engagement models, and thus have different CRM desires and requirements. The Ground-to-Cloud ebook discusses the customer trends currently shaping the Financial Services; Retail; Architecture, Engineering, & Construction (AEC); and Professional Services industries. The ebook details what companies in those industries should look for in a CRM system that will help them evolve with these trends, and thus set-up customer engagement for success in both the short-term and long-term future.

Hitachi Solutions Americas industry-first focus enables our team to develop and deliver business solutions that enhance customers productivity, while simultaneously helping them smoothly navigate evolving industry trends, said Michael Strand, Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing, Hitachi Solutions America. We enjoy sharing our thought leadership with people who are curious about new business technology, or who may be exploring new systems for improving customer engagement processes.

To download a copy of the ebook, Ground-to-Cloud: An Industry Guide for Evaluating a Move to Cloud CRM, please click this link: http://bit.ly/2fLNuW9

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About Hitachi Solutions America, Ltd.

Hitachi Solutions America, Ltd. helps its customers to successfully compete with the largest global enterprises using powerful, easy-to-use, and affordable industry solutions built on Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft Dynamics CRM enhanced with world class Business Analytics, and Portals and Collaboration. Recognized as the Microsoft 2014 CRM Global Partner of the Year and the 2014 Dynamics Global Outstanding Reseller of the Year, Hitachi Solutions America provides global capabilities with regional offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, India, Japan, China, and Asia Pacific. For more information, call + 1 949.242.1300 or visit: http://us.hitachi-solutions.com.

About Hitachi Solutions, Ltd.

Hitachi Solutions, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is the core IT Companies of Hitachi Group and a recognized leader in delivering proven business and IT strategies and solutions to companies across many industries. The company provides value-driven services throughout the IT life cycle from systems planning to systems integration, operation and maintenance. Hitachi Solutions delivers products and services of superior value to customers worldwide through key subsidiaries in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, India, China, and Asia Pacific. For more information on Hitachi Solutions, please visit: http://www.hitachi-solutions.com.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, delivers innovations that answer societys challenges with our talented team and proven experience in global markets. The companys consolidated revenues for fiscal 2015 (ended March 31, 2016) totaled 10,034 billion yen ($88.8 billion). Hitachi is focusing more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes power & infrastructure systems, information & telecommunication systems, construction machinery, high functional materials & components, automotive systems, healthcare and others. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the companys website at http://www.hitachi.com.
Penguin Computing, provider of high performance computing, enterprise data center and cloud solutions, today announced support for Intels Visual Compute Accelerator as a 3D graphics accelerator for Scyld Cloud Workstation, a clientless 3D accelerated remote desktop solution.

Supporting Intels Visual Compute Accelerator is consistent with our strategy of driving Scyld Cloud Workstation across a wider range of platforms for our customers, said Victor Gregorio, Vice President and General Manager of Cloud Services at Penguin Computing. We are realizing exceptional density and impressive outcomes implementing Intels Visual Compute Accelerator. For example, we can host more than 1,000 simultaneous graphics accelerated sessions in a single Penguin Computing Tundra Open Compute rack.

Scyld Cloud Workstation provides secure, easy remote access to Linux and Windows workstation-class desktops through standard web browsers - eliminating the need for client-side installations and changes to firewall policies. Scyld Cloud Workstation offers significant time savings by removing the requirement to download large data files by moving pre- and post-processing to the cloud for highly efficient HPC workflows.

The rapid adoption of cloud-based HPC solutions is driving the need for 3D accelerated remote desktops, said Al Diaz, VP and general manager, Product Collaboration and Services Division, Data Center Group, Intel Corporation. By supporting Intel VCA, Penguin Computing is able to deliver a very cost effective remote desktop solution.

Intels Visual Compute Accelerator brings 4K high definition media processing capabilities to platforms based on the Intel Xeon processor E5 family. The Intel Visual Compute Accelerator integrates three Intel Xeon processors E3 with Intel Iris Pro graphics and Intel Media Server Studio-enabled hardware accelerated video processing into a PCIe card form factor that fits into Intel Xeon processor E5-based servers.

With the rise of cloud computing, the requirement for high-density remote desktop solutions is a critical focus for us, said Thomas Ruge, CEO and Founder, Colorado Code Craft, who partners with Penguin to deliver Scyld Cloud Workstation. Whats unique about this Scyld Cloud Workstation is the capability to run highly-interactive user applications, such as CAD and HPC apps for viewing and rotating 3D data directly in the cloud.

In September, Penguin Computing announced Scyld Cloud Workstation 3.0, which provides true multi-user remote desktop collaboration for cloud-based Linux and Windows desktops. The announcement included a range of new features including improved quality of service intelligence for Scyld Cloud Workstation - ensuring that the user experience of a Scyld remote desktop feels like a local workstation.

Visit Penguin Computings booth #817 at SC16 in Salt Lake City.

About Penguin Computing

Penguin Computing is one of the largest private suppliers of enterprise and high performance computing solutions in North America and has built and operates the leading specialized public HPC cloud service Penguin Computing On-Demand (POD). Penguin Computing pioneers the design, engineering, integration and delivering of solutions that are based on open architectures and comprise non-proprietary components from a variety of vendors. Penguin Computing is also one of a limited number of authorized Open Compute Project (OCP) solution providers leveraging this Facebook-led initiative to bring the most efficient open data center solutions to a broader market, and has announced the Tundra product line which applies the benefits of OCP to high performance computing. Penguin Computing has systems installed with more than 2,500 customers in 40 countries across eight major vertical markets. Visit http://www.penguincomputing.com to learn more about the company and follow @PenguinHPC on Twitter.

Penguin Computing, Scyld ClusterWare, Scyld Insight, Scyld HCATM, Relion, Altus, Penguin Computing on Demand, POD, Tundra, Arctica and FrostByte are trademarks or registered trademarks of Penguin Computing, Inc. Intel, Xeon and Iris are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries.

Contact:

Phillip Bergman

Viewstream

845-728-3984

pbergman(at)viewstream.com
The Stasis Monitor and Tablet Continuous monitoring of vitals is essential for any hospital that strives to improve their clinical outcomes. Stasis Monitors are able to do this without burdening the limited human resources of hospitals and with increased efficiency.

Stasis Labs, a cloud-powered health monitoring company, today announced that it has raised $5M in a seed financing led by RTP-HC, the healthcare-focused investment arm of RTP Ventures, with participation from Wonder Ventures, Techstars Ventures, and others. Milena Adamian, MD, who previously founded LSAN & Azimuth Ventures, heads RTP-HC and will be joining the companys Board of Directors.

In June, Stasis graduated from the Techstars Healthcare Accelerator, in Partnership with Cedars-Sinai. Stasis was recently endorsed by the International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank Group, to improve and expand the reach of medical technology worldwide.

Most hospital patients around the world are only seen by a nurse once every six hours. Due to the high cost and complexity of existing monitoring devices, these vulnerable patients are left alone without even a vitals monitor to watch over them. Tragically, up to 75% of injuries and deaths in hospitals happen to these vulnerable patients who lack basic medical supervision.

Stasis has built a cloud-connected vitals monitoring system that enables access to a fundamental medical tool around the world. Continuous monitoring of vitals is essential for any hospital that strives to improve their clinical outcomes. Stasis Monitors are able to do this without burdening the limited human resources of hospitals and with increased efficiency, said Dr. Alben Sigamani, MD, Group Head of Clinical Research for the Narayana Health hospital chain.

Four years ago, Stasis CEO Dinesh Seemakurty was in India when his grandfather was admitted to the hospital. His grandfather prematurely passed away when doctors missed a deterioration in his vital signs due to a lack of adequate monitoring. As a trained EMT, I knew the technology existed, and yet, hospitals werent buying it, said Seemakurty.

Stasis COO Michael Maylahns lifetime of exposure to medicine inspired a three-month medical research trip in rural Costa Rica. Constant reminders of his host familys poor access to quality healthcare drive his passion for global healthcare innovation.

Seemakurty and Maylahn met at the University of Southern California, where they completed biomedical engineering degrees. They teamed up with top engineers in their graduating class, Clayton Brand and Derek Nielsen, to introduce a new generation of patient monitoring.

The Stasis System is currently live in multiple hospitals in Bangalore, India. Stasis will be using the funds to continue expanding throughout Indian hospitals and prepare to enter the US and other markets worldwide, said Maylahn. The patient monitoring market is rapidly growing as non-ICU monitoring is increasingly prioritized, bringing it to a projected $26.2B market size by 2022. "Stasis has great potential, with clear and distinct value proposition for the world's biggest healthcare system, the US, and for the fastest growing healthcare economies, such as India and Southeast Asia, said Adamian, who led the financing.
UAE KP Chair Meeting with Civil Society at KP Plenary in Dubai Through these meetings with African officials and civil society, we continue to focus on giving Africa a voice to speak for the interests of its people

Joined by Leopold Mboli Fratran, Minister of Mines from the Central African Republic, the UAE Kimberley Process Chair, Ahmed Bin Sulayem, has held discussions with civil society organisations and African experts on the diamond industry at the annual KP Plenary taking place in Dubai from November 13  17. The meetings fall on the back of the announcement that the KP Chair will contribute US$ 25,000  an amount that will potentially be matched by the Australian KP Vice-Chair  as part of a proposed US$ 105,000 Common Fund for NGOs affiliated with the KP.

Despite the KPs Civil Society Coalition (CSC) upholding their boycott of the Plenary meeting, independent NGOs and experts from Africa held discussions with Mr. Bin Sulayem due to the innovative proposals and remediation efforts of the UAE KP Chair over the past year. Among the participants from the Central African Republic were Placide Ngombe, President of the Organisation Centrafricaine pour le Developpement Durable, an organisation focused on sustainable development; Regina Toguera, President of Mines Arts et Ressources Centrafricaines (MARCA) and a member of the KP Follow-Up Committee in Berberati  one of the zones in CAR recently made complaint for exports; and Ruth Laoubai, Head of Programmes and Projects at the Association des Femmes Centrafricaines pour le Developpement Durable (AFCADD). Also in attendance were Dr. Oladiran Bello, Executive Director of Good Governance Africa; as well as Albert Kabuya Muyeba, a former KP focal point from the largest non-governmental organisation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since 2004 who is currently serving a 15 day-long suspension from his current position at CENADEP.

The attendance of these individuals from civil society organisations in Africa is the strongest endorsement yet of the progress the UAE has made as KP Chair in the past year, said Mr. Bin Sulayem. We are pleased to hear from these representatives how our continued work is met with great appreciation from the African people who are most affected by the KP, especially the families of artisanal miners. It is also encouraging to know that they have chosen to engage the broader KP community to have productive discussions, and have voiced their strong support for the initiatives we have proposed that are focused on establishing the UN Permanent Secretariat and the Common Fund for NGOs. This strong support we have received from the civil society representatives is reassuring; we are indeed on the right path to level the playing field between importing and exporting countries and ensure that African people receive their fair share from diamond production.

The meetings focused on the UAE KP Chairs proposals this year to establish a Permanent Secretariat in the UN, primarily directed at given the initiative greater structure when bringing countries back into the process; and around the establishment of a Common Fund for NGOs in the KP. The latter would enhance transparency and provide the civil society organisations the resources to more actively participate in KP events. At the opening session of the Plenary, the UAE KP Chair announced that it will contribute US$ 25,000 towards the establishment of this Fund, with Australia - the KP Vice Chair - looking to potentially match this amount. Mr. Bin Sulayem has also called on the rest of the industry to contribute another US$ 55,000 to create a total Fund of US$ 105,000.

Speaking during the meeting, Mr. Leopold Mboli Fratran, CARs Minister of Mines, said: On behalf of the CAR government, I would like to extend my appreciation to the restless efforts undertaken by the UAE KP Chair since the beginning of 2016. Not only is UAE KP Chair the first KP Chair to ever visit the CAR but his approach focused on understanding the challenges affecting the African nations and most importantly, the livelihoods of miners and their families. Thanks to his determination to help the people of the CAR, we have welcomed the announcement of four compliant zones for export thus bringing hope to the long-suffering diamond industry in the country. Currently, the traceability of diamonds from the first source of extraction in the CAR is unmatched across Africa but we know this is an ongoing and long process. Therefore, we would like to commend these continued efforts as well as the proposed initiatives around the establishment of the UN Permanent Secretariat and the Independent Fund for NGOs. We consider these to be steps in the right direction and we look forward to collaborating further with Mr. Bin Sulayem and the KP community to ensure greater compliance with the KP as to halt the illicit diamond trade.

Mr. Bin Sulayem added: Through these meetings with African officials and civil society, we continue to focus on giving Africa a voice to speak for the interests of its people. This enables the KP community to make informed decisions on how to further strengthen the KP mandate and contribute to the sustainability of source markets across the supply chain. We strongly believe that genuine progress in these areas is realistic  and that by working together we can put these structures into place to make the KPs framework far more robust.

We would like to encourage the Civil Society Coalition to take the lead of their peers to re-engage in discussions as we continue to have an open door policy to their participation and strongly believe that the KP is strongest when it lives up to its collaborative tripartite structure, concluded Mr. Bin Sulayem.

-Ends-
Effective Quality Oversight of Pharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Organizations (CMOs) Course "Effective Quality Oversight of Pharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Organizations (CMOs)" has been pre-approved by RAPS as eligible for up to 11 credits towards a participant's RAC recertification upon full completion.

Led by well-known Pharmaceutical Consultant Andrew Campbell, ComplianceOnlines popular seminar on quality oversight of CMOs comes to Florida in 2017. This training program will address regulatory requirements for CMO quality oversight and will help attendees understand the CMO business model.

Given the constant updates in the industry, each session in the seminar will cover these industry updates and focus on best practices on how to manage CMOs on an ongoing basis. The training will focus on the topics such as selection and qualification of CMOs, development of quality agreements, understand CMO operations, and review of key CMO records and others.

Seminar instructor Andrew Campbell has over 25 years of pharmaceutical quality assurance and quality systems experience in both industry and consulting roles. Mr. Campbell has worked in clinical supply and commercial manufacturing environments, and has experience with integrated manufacturing and contract manufacturing business models. He has extensive expertise in the areas of deviation - CAPA, change control, GMP auditing, GMP training, and regulatory inspection preparation and management.

For more information or to register for the seminar, please click here.

Dates: Thursday, March 30, 2017 (8.00 AM- 4.30 PM) and Friday, March 31, 2017 (9.00 AM- 1.00 PM)

Location: Tampa, FL

Registration Cost: $1,899.00 per registration

Early bird discounts: For discounts on early registrations, please click here.

Register by phone: Please call our customer service specialists at +1-888-717-2436 or email to customercare(at)complianceonline(dot)com

For more information on ComplianceOnline or to browse through our trainings, please visit our website.

About ComplianceOnline

ComplianceOnline is a leading provider of regulatory compliance trainings for companies and professionals in regulated industries. ComplianceOnline has successfully trained over 35,000 professionals from 9,000 companies to comply with the requirements of regulatory agencies. ComplianceOnline is headquartered in Palo Alto, California and can be reached at http://www.complianceonline.com. ComplianceOnline is a MetricStream portal. MetricStream (http://www.metricstream.com) is a market leader in Enterprise-wide Governance, Risk, Compliance (GRC) and Quality Management Solutions for global corporations.

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Mr. Ahmad Alhendawi

15 November 2016, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: The World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) is pleased to announce the appointment of Ahmad Alhendawi as its next Secretary General, the youngest in the history of the organisation.

"I am honoured and humbled to be offered the opportunity to serve as the Secretary General of such a unique organisation representing the largest educational youth movement in the world, said Mr Alhendawi upon accepting the offer.

A passionate advocate for young people, Mr Alhendawi has served in various capacities in regional and international organisations, rising through the ranks to the position of United Nations Envoy on Youth in 2013. Mr Alhendawi believes in giving a voice to young people and recognises the importance of youth empowerment and involvement in global and local issues.

Mr Alhendawi, born in Jordan in 1984, holds a Masters degree in Advanced European and International Relations, a diploma as Policy Officer in European and International Organizations from the Institut Europeen in Nice, and a Bachelors degree in computer information systems from the Al-Balqa Applied University in Jordan. Perhaps most importantly, he was once a Scout himself.

Mr Alhendawi is a strong supporter of WOSM and is a familiar face at international Scouting events. He visited the 23rd World Scout Jamboree in Japan last year and most recently the Roverway in France.

Mr Alhendawi continued, I am confident Scouting holds a solution for youth development in the 21st century. I look forward to working with WOSM's team to expand the Movement and deepen its social impact, while continuing to create a better future for children and young people.

As the Secretary General of WOSM, Mr Alhendawi will be entrusted with the mandate of promoting and safeguarding the interests of the Scout Movement. As its Chief Executive Officer, he will also direct its Secretariat, the World Scout Bureau.

Following the announcement of Mr Alhendawis appointment, World Scout Committee Chairperson Joao Armando Goncalves commented that, The world has changed and continues to change very rapidly. We need someone like Mr Alhendawi who can steer the movement through uncertainty and help us to reach out to all segments of society and most importantly, to grow".

Mr Alhendawi succeeds Scott Teare, who retired last month. He is expected to begin his first day in office at the World Scout Bureau, Global Support Centre in Kuala Lumpur, on 1 March 2017.

Ends

About the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM)

Scouting is one of the worlds leading educational youth movements, engaging millions of young people around the world to be active citizens to create positive changes in the communities they live in. Since 1907! Founded by Lord Baden-Powell, WOSM is a confederation of 164 National Scout Organizations in a network of over 40 million members, including some seven million volunteers. As it has been doing for more than a century - creating a better world - it will continue to do so, and even better with the many Messengers of Peace across the globe.

For media enquiries, please contact:

Dong-Wook Lee, Global Director, Communications & External Relations

World Scout Bureau Global Support Centre, Kuala Lumpur

E-mail: dw.lee(at)scout(dot)org Tel: (+60) 12-636-6056

Skypename: dwook9
The European Union has indicated it will work closely with China to prevent the US from backsliding on its commitment to the Paris climate agreement.

The message was delivered by a 12-strong European Parliament delegation before it left for Marrakech, Morocco, for the second week of the UN climate change conference.

Parties that have approved the global pact will start their first talks at the conference, and President Xi Jinping and United States President Barack Obama have signed three presidential documents to inject special political will into the approval process.

Jo Leinen, vice-chair of the European Parliament delegation, said in an email on Friday that the EU and China should join forces in Marrakech to push forward the Paris agreement. Leinen said both played a key role as brokers among different "camps" in the Paris negotiations.

"This time, in Marrakech, China is expected to line up with the EU," he said. "These two global powers should assume their responsibility by forming a new coalition with the aim of fighting for a progressive global climate policy."

Jonathan Taylor, vice-president of the European Investment Bank, said on Friday that the bank will boost co-financing with China on climate mitigation projects, as part of future plans to raise the proportion of climate investment in developing countries to 35 percent of its overall lending in these countries by 2020.

Progress can be made in building road maps for the $100 billion investment plan, he said, referring to the 2010 pledge by developed nations in Cancun, Mexico, to raise $100 billion a year by 2020 to help developing countries cope with climate change.

However, "major divergences persist" on the funding plan after a weeklong negotiation, said Gu Zihua, a representative with the Chinese delegation, amid a possible threat from US President-elect Donald Trump.

Shigeru Ushio, Japan's chief negotiator, said a US withdrawal from the Paris agreement would be "serious".

Kenneth Berlin, CEO of the Climate Reality Project, which was founded by former US vice-president Al Gore, warned that Trump's election could overshadow climate talks and is a disaster for international efforts to tackle climate change.

"If Trump follows through with his plan to withdraw, other developed nations will need to fill the place of the US."

Contact the writers at wangyanfei@chinadaily.com.cn
QA Graphics, a leader in the building automation system (BAS) graphic outsourcing industry, has an employee that has received their Google AdWords and Google Analytics Individual Qualification (IQ) certifications. QA Graphics Content Marketing Manager will use this knowledge to direct the companys online marketing efforts.

The Google certification is a professional accreditation that Google offers to individuals who demonstrate proficiency in basic and advanced aspects of AdWords and Analytics after successfully passing their exams. An AdWords certification allows individuals to demonstrate that Google recognizes them as an expert in online advertising.

The three test cover the following areas:



The AdWords Fundamentals exam covers basic and intermediate concepts, including the benefits of online advertising and AdWords, and best practices for managing and optimizing AdWords campaigns.

The Display Advertising exam covers advanced concepts and best practices for creating, managing, measuring, and optimizing Display campaigns.

The Google Analytics Individual Qualification (IQ) is a demonstration of proficiency in Google Analytics.

About QA Graphics - QA Graphics is a leader in the building automation and green building industries. The company specializes in HVAC graphic development services, system graphics, floor plan graphics, and Energy Efficiency Education Dashboards (EEEDs). Since 2006, QA Graphics has served as an expert design resource for the building controls industry and is able to provide BAS graphics for any type of building automation. The company also provides marketing solutions such as interactive applications, 3D design and animation, UX design, videos, and more. Visit http://www.qagraphics.com to learn more.
Amy Everett (right) with Pet Wants Founder Michele Hobbs Just like with people, healthy pets starts with healthy food. At Pet Wants, we are dedicated to making sure pet parents understand whats in pet food, why nutrition is important and what makes Pet Wants different.

Amy Everett is excited to announce the launch of her new all-natural pet food business, Pet Wants on the Bay.

Pet Wants carefully developed proprietary pet food is slow-cooked in small batches with fresh, all-natural ingredients once per month, so every kibble is guaranteed to be fresh and packed with nutrition. Pet Wants on the Bay offers free, personal delivery from Waldorf to Upper Marlboro, from Shady Side to Chesapeake Bay and nearby communities.

I love animals and I care about their wellbeing. Just like with people, healthy pets starts with healthy food. At Pet Wants, we are dedicated to making sure pet parents understand whats in pet food, why nutrition is important and what makes Pet Wants different. Then, if you decide that Pet Wants is a good fit for you and your pets, well get to know your animals so we can make sure were bringing you the most beneficial Pet Wants products, Everett.

In addition to being made fresh monthly, Pet Wants only sources the best salmon, chicken, lamb, brown rice and other ingredients available. Theres no sugar added, no fillers and no animal by-products and Pet Wants never uses corn, wheat, soy or dyes, which means the food is great for animals with allergies.

Everett has always had animals in her life, starting with a Saint Bernard named Cleo her family got when Everett was five years old. Now Everett has two Great Dane puppies  Daisy Mae, a Blue Great Dane, and her one-week younger half-sister Sophie, a Black and White Great Dane  and two rescue cats, Vita and Pebbles. Vita is a Sealpoint Siamese who was rescued and nursed back to health after her kittens were drowned and she barely avoided the same fate. Her other cat, Pebbles, is a tiny but fierce black cat who lived her entire first year in a small cage before Everett rescued her. Everett is excited to be able to build on her passion for animals through Pet Wants.

I retired from the Department of Homeland Security after 14 years with the intention of going back after a short break, but after I adopted Daisy Mae and Sophie, I quickly realized I wanted to combine their need for balanced nutrition, my desire to spend time with my animals rather than commute four hours a day, and my need to have a career. Thats when I found Pet Wants and its exciting because this isnt work  its our lives together and its fun, Everett said.

Pet Wants originally launched in Cincinnati in 2010. Owned by Michele Hobbs, the business was built to provide proprietary crafted, fresh, slow-cooked, all-natural pet food delivered to customers through a retail store and a convenient home-delivery service. Hobbs, now the company founder, turned the business into a franchise in 2015 with the help of Franchise Funding Group, an investment and franchise-development company designed to help entrepreneurs scale their companies nationally as franchise systems.

Having fresh, nutritious food delivered right to do your door combined with my passion for pets and nutritional education is what makes Pet Wants unique, Everett added. Im looking forward to offering Pet Wants in my community.

To order Pet Wants food for your favorite companion or to learn about the company, call (443) 722-1672, AEverett(at)PetWants(dot)com or visit http://www.PetWantsontheBay.com.

About Pet Wants: Pet Wants was started by Michele Hobbs out of love for her pets and frustration. Veterinarians were unable to help relieve her dogs painful skin allergies. After doing much research, Michele discovered the national dog food brand she trusted was not fresh, not all natural, and lacked sufficient nutrition...and when pet food sits in warehouses and store shelves for months and months it loses even more nutritional value. She was committed to developing a better solution for all dogs and cats. Their food is exclusively crafted fresh, healthy, slow-cooked and all natural with no sugar added, no fillers and no animal by-products. They source only the best salmon, chicken, lamb, brown rice, and other ingredients. Fresh ingredients make for better food and better health for pets. And since they never use corn, wheat, soy or dyes, the common pet health problems associated with these ingredients are no longer worries. Their fresh food is conveniently delivered to the customer within weeks of production, not months. Roughly half of Pet Wants products are sold through their store and half through their convenient, home-delivery program. You can learn more at http://www.PetWants.com.
The feeling when you walk into this home is one of comfort, function, letting the outside in, and a great use of space!

Wayne Homes celebrated the grand re-opening of the Gettysburg model at the companys Sandusky Model Home Center this past weekend. The home was remodeled inside and out, and redecorated by Mandil, Inc. from Denver, Colorado to feature current popular design trends for new custom homes.

At the grand re-opening event, visitors toured the redesigned Gettysburg to view its new features.

The stream of visitors was non-stop both days, Sales manager Jennifer Neese said. The word of the weekend was wow, what a change! Its safe to say we exceeded the expectations of those who came to see the finished product.

The three-bedroom, two-bath, ranch-style Gettysburg shows an open concept design, making it family friendly and perfect for entertaining. The kitchen, designed from the Providence II floorplan kitchen, features Aristokraft maple antique painted cabinets, a subway tile backsplash, quartz countertops, and a farmhouse-style sink.

So many families today love an open concept, Neese said. The feeling when you walk into this home is one of comfort, function, letting the outside in, and a great use of space!

The home also has luxury vinyl flooring throughout the main living area and a black granite tile fireplace face with a black painted Kenwood style mantle in the great room. A vented solar skylight, a fixed skylight, and a vented solar skylight with light filtering blinds in the great room and master bedroom show off the latest in skylight design and functionality.

The exterior of the home was refreshed to feature premium weathered shake siding, raised panel shutters, and Ottawa dry stack stone, giving it a lake cottage feel.

This model gives our prospects a great opportunity to see the layout of two different homes, the Gettysburg and the Providence II, Maurie Jones, Vice President of Marketing, said. Since we cant build a model of every floor plan we offer, we took the opportunity to show a couple different features of the Providence II in the Gettysburg. So far the response from our clients and prospects has been very positive.

At the event, guests also had the opportunity to win a $500 Kalahari Resort gift card and a gift basket, courtesy of Home Savings. The $500 Kalahari Resort gift card was raffled off and won by Jonathan and Brittaney Brandt of Lorain, Ohio. Justin Sherman went home with the gift basket.

For more information about Wayne Homes and the Gettysburg model at Sandusky, visit WayneHomes.com.

About Wayne Homes

Wayne Homes is a custom home builder in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan, and West Virginia (see all Model Home Centers). We offer 40 fully customizable floor plans and a team dedicated to providing the best experience in the home building industry. For more information, Ask Julie by Live Chat or call us at (866) 253-6807.
Artists Dick Zimmerman and Wyland

Legendary painter and photographer, Dick Zimmerman http://www.dickzimmerman.com/who has created portraits for hundreds of iconic celebrities including, Tom Cruise, Michael Jackson's "Thriller", John Travolta and was personally commissioned by Salvador Dali to create his 50th wedding anniversary portrait with Salvador Dalis wife, Gala, has joined forces with acclaimed artist, Wyland, Artist of the Sea. Wyland and Zimmerman are currently working on their 10th iconic collaboration, from Salvador Dali to Vincent Van Gogh.

Wyland http://www.wylandgalleries.com/, is best known for his large outdoor murals of buildings featuring images of life-size whales, and other sea life. Today, the Wyland name has become synonymous with the new generation of awareness about environmental conservation. His photography, paintings and sculptures are so inspiring, that Wyland has helped educate a generation about the importance of marine life conservation.

The artists met at a prestigious Art festival in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and developed a mutual respect for one another.

I have the highest respect for Dick, he is right at the top of the list of the greats, says Wyland.

I am excited for what this collaboration has in store. I have no plans to stop and will continue to be inspired by Wyland and the icons we are capturing, says Zimmerman.
The key for us lies in balancing our rapid growth and expansion while evolving the company and culture in a manner that makes Rightpoint a place where people want to grow their careers.

Rightpoint, a leading national digital agency, has been recognized as one of the areas most dynamic and supportive local businesses by the Chicago Tribune in its special Top Workplaces 2016 issue. Rightpoint was honored with all of this years winners during the Top Workplaces 2016 event, held at Solider Fields exclusive United Club on Thursday, Nov. 10.

This is the third consecutive year that Rightpoint has been named to the Top Workplaces list. In addition, Rightpoint co-founder Brad Schneider and Director of People Potential, Vaiva Vaisnys, provided commentary for a accompanying Tribune article about the importance of employee retention.

We are continually working to provide strategic staffing opportunities for our team members to build their skills and leadership opportunities that will help build their careers, said Rightpoint Co-founder Brad Schneider. The key for us lies in balancing our rapid growth and expansion while evolving the company and culture in a manner that makes Rightpoint a place where people want to grow their careers.

Rightpoint joined fellow honorees and more than 700 C-level Chicago executives at the high-profile Top Workplaces 2016 awards ceremony, now in its seventh year. Companies were selected by employee surveys conducted by WorkplaceDynamics, LLC, that measured such key qualities as company leadership, communication, career opportunities, working environment, managerial skills, pay and benefits.

Each year, the Chicago Tribune is proud to recognize the companies that are making a real difference in the lives of their employees, said Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Bruce Dold, who served as the host of the Top Workplaces 2016 event. This years lineup of progressive-minded businesses reflects those qualities that truly make Chicago the City That Works.

This recognition reflects Rightpoints consistent and rapid growth since it was founded in 2007, including its acquisition of Boston-based Agency Oasis in April, which expanded its presence into six new U.S. markets including Boston, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York and San Francisco, and established it as a leading national digital agency.

###

About Rightpoint:

Rightpoint is a customer experience agency with technology at its core. Serving Fortune 1,000 companies, Rightpoint is the only agency driving transformational change from the inside out. Founded on the belief that great customer experiences are fueled by the people who deliver them, Rightpoints mission is to remove barriers and uncover new possibilities to connect companies with their customers across every touchpoint. From web, mobile and social to IoT, eCommerce and cloud, Rightpoint brings a holistic point of view that enables exceptional experiences with lasting impact. With a client base of more than 250 companies, Rightpoint was named to Forbes 2014 list of America's Most Promising Companies and Crain's 50 Fastest Growing Companies in Chicago in 2016. For more information, visit rightpoint.com and follow @Rightpoint.

About Chicago Tribune Media Group:

Chicago Tribune Media Group is a diversified media and marketing solutions company that reaches 4.9 million people each month across all platforms. CTMGs robust portfolio of media solutions includes the Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago Tribune, and a collection of niche and digital offerings including RedEye, Hoy, Chicago magazine, Naperville Magazine, The Mash, Blue Sky Innovation, chicagotribune.com, chicagonow.com and metromix.com. As the regions leading voice, CTMG also extends into the suburbs of Chicago through popular titles including TribLocal, The Beacon-News, The Courier-News, Lake County News-Sun, Naperville Sun, Post-Tribune in Northwest Indiana, Daily Southtown, and 32 Pioneer Press weekly newspapers.
To support programs and providers in the thick of the current opioid crisis and rapid growth in addiction treatment, we seek to work with the leading solution providers to support our members' businesses.

The American Addiction Treatment Association (AATA) and Infinity Behavioral Health Services are proud to announce a landmark three-year vendor agreement. The American Addiction Treatment Association (AATA) is a national trade association that provides online resources and training events, including state-by-state compliance requirements for licensing and certification, operations, reimbursement, clinical standards, patient privacy, quality assurance, and risk management. Infinity provides unparalleled revenue cycle management services to behavioral healthcare providers within the addiction treatment industry.

As a leading revenue cycle management company in the behavioral healthcare industry, Infinity Behavioral Health Services is an organization that shares AATAs vision. Infinity values education and best practices, which is in line with our approach, said attorney Harry Nelson, partner at Nelson Hardiman, LLP and founding board chair of AATA. To support programs and providers in the thick of the current opioid crisis and rapid growth in addiction treatment, we seek to work with the leading solution providers to support our members businesses. Our Vendors play essential roles for compliant treatment programs. Our goal is to guide addiction treatment professionals navigating through changing laws and regulations so they can stay ahead of requirements by remaining compliant. Our aim is to serve as an educational, resource-driven association so programs can focus on helping patients.

Infinity Behavioral Health Services is an innovator in the addiction treatment industry by becoming the first exclusively endorsed Revenue Cycle Management company sponsor of AATA.

As the industry leader in RCM services and a company that holds regulatory compliance in the highest importance, Infinity applauds AATAs initiative to fill a gap in the addiction treatment industry by providing informative, accessible resources about the compliance issues which are critical to our industry, Infinitys CEO Eloy Paez said.

For over five years, Infinity has worked closely with partners in the substance abuse, mental health, and laboratory space by providing them with utilization review, billing, collections, consulting. and management services. Focusing on the long-term growth of its partners requires Infinity to stay ahead of and in compliance with the latest regulatory changes, Paez noted. Revenue Cycle Management in the behavioral health space requires careful adherence to the national web of regulatory requirements for both treatment providers and RCM companies. Infinitys industry-leading expertise in the field is the perfect complement to the knowledge-base of AATA to keep treatment providers informed and up-to-date on the latest and most important legal developments in the insurance reimbursement field.

In the coming years, AATA and Infinity will provide the industry with educational seminars, webinars, and white papers on issues at the intersection of insurance reimbursement and regulatory compliance. These include upcoming events to address the implications for addiction treatment of the recent election and anticipated changes in federal law and regulations.

On November 17th in Los Angeles, AATA and Infinity are offering a seminar: The Intersection of Practice of Medicine and Drug Rehabilitation. The panel will discuss the incredible growth in the addiction treatment industry, safety problems, AB 848, The Stone Act, and CPOM issues. Addiction treatment professionals need to meet a set standard of care in Californias legal framework and the panel will provide guidance and educational resources helping treatment programs navigate the changing laws and regulations.

On December 7th in Fort Lauderdale, AATA and Infinity are holding a seminar on the topic of Patient Financial Responsibility in Insurance Billing. Participants will learn how drug treatment programs can address the pressure to reduce the cost of programs for those with limited financial means without violating the law. Waiving a patients financial responsibility is increasingly alleged by payors to be a form of fraud, and insurance companies are aggressively pursuing programs that waive client deductibles, copayments, or coinsurance. Legal forms of marketing, offering scholarships, and charitable donations will also be discussed.

Owners, operators, investors, and employees of residential and outpatient substance abuse treatment programs, and sober living facilities may benefit from AATA membership and resources. Health professionals, attorneys, marketers, and other professionals who work in addiction treatment should plan on attending AATAs programs. AATA membership is available to recovery industry professionals, owners, and operators to navigate the evolving clinical and regulatory landscapes. For more information on becoming a member or vendor of the Association, visit http://www.addiction-tx.com, call (888) 958-2282, or email: info(at)addiction-tx(dot)com.

Since 2011, Infinity Behavioral Health Services has provided unparalleled revenue cycle management services to behavioral healthcare providers. Because Infinity is clinician owned and operated, it understands the day-to-day issues involved in navigating managed care companies and how they affect your business. Infinitys goal is to help providers enhance quality of service, while increasing revenue and maintaining compliance with industry and managed care standards. To learn more about how Infinity can help your business, call (800) 446-3982 or email info(at)infinitybehavioral(dot)com.
A Forever Recovery has seen thousands of lives get saved by their rehab program, so they know that people actually can do something about it.

In recent news, A Forever Recovery, a reputable drug and alcohol addiction rehabilitation center based out of Battle Creek, Michigan, participated in this years Rally for Recovery held in Lansing, Michigan. Lansing, being the state capital for the state of Michigan, is the states hotspot for political and cultural movements of all shapes and sizes. This is the city to get things done, and A Forever Recovery was more than happy to jump on the bandwagon and contribute and help out with this pro-recovery event.

The Rally for Recovery event has been going on for some time now and has been a big rally item all across the country too for that matter. It is actually based off of a similar Canadian event that has been occurring annually in Canada since 2012. Recovery Day is an annual, Canadian event, first held on September 30, 2012, which demonstrates and celebrates the ability and the intention of those with drug, alcohol, and behavioral addictions to achieve long-term sobriety and to live productive and healthy lives into the future and for the rest of their lives too. The event was held in 12 major Canadian cities in 2013, 25 cities in 2014, and 30 cities in 2015, with it now expanding down into the states as, Rally for Recovery. Recovery Day is an important holiday for Canadians too, and now it is an important crusade for Americans as well.

The main goal and key behind A Forever Recoverys involvement in this years Rally for Recovery in Lansing, Michigan was to:

Remove the stigma associated with individuals who are struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. They are not just addicts. They are not just labels. They are not the drugs that they take or the crimes that they commit. They are individual human beings who need help to beat their addictions once and for all.

A Forever Recovery has been working tirelessly for years now to not only free as many people as possible from the confines and the restraints of addiction but to also make a point to free as many people as possible from the negative stereotyping of addicts as being nothing but criminal druggies and worthless, degenerate, time wasting people. A Forever Recovery has seen thousands of lives get saved by their rehab program, so they know that people actually can do something about it. They see that people can change and improve their condition in life, so the stereotyping and stigma against people who suffer with addiction is actually very unnecessary and in fact very dangerous and unhelpful.

Rally for Recovery is just getting started in the U.S. The event in Canada that it was based off of was exemplary, and AFR is hoping to be able to continue to make Rally for Recovery just as exemplary.
We are on a mission to provide hope and support in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew...Offering a helping hand to struggling neighbors is what this campaign is all about.

Chris Humphrey Insurance Agency, a full-service insurance provider serving the families of Goldsboro and Kinston, has announced the latest beneficiary of their thriving community involvement program. The new campaign fundraises in support of Lenoir/Greene United Way and those affected by the devastation of Hurricane Matthew. Flooding in the state has caused at least $1.5 billion in damages with over 100,000 homes and businesses affected. At least 26 residents of North Carolina lost their lives. Donations to this worthy cause may now be made at https://www.crowdrise.com/hope-after-hurricane-matthew/fundraiser/chrishumphrey2.

Progress in the recovery from Hurricane Matthew is a slow but steady effort being made by dedicated state officials, compassionate volunteers and local communities working together. Lenoir/Greene United Way provides vital outreach to families affected by the storm in Lenoir and Green counties with an eye toward avoiding duplication of effort for maximum effectiveness. The Unmet Needs Committee is a team which combines the support of local businesses, the faith community and other nonprofit organizations who are striving to provide short-term relief and long-term disaster recovery funding for agencies offering services for community needs which are going unmet.

We are on a mission to provide hope and support in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew, said Chris Humphrey, owner of Chris Humphrey Insurance Agency. Our friends at Lenoir/Greene United Way do a wonderful job of addressing immediate needs in our local community. Offering a helping hand to struggling neighbors is what this campaign is all about.

The agency is so passionate about their community cause that they have pledged to donate $10 to the Lenoir/Greene United Way for each and every referral they receive for an insurance quote for the duration of the campaign. Readers wishing to pitch in and have the agency make a donation in their name may recommend friends and family for no-obligation quotations at http://chrishumphreyinsurance.com/causes/hope-hurricane-matthew/.

In the meantime, the caring team at Chris Humphrey Insurance Agency has mobilized to vigorously promote the initiative through a variety of channels, including shining a spotlight on the Lenoir/Greene United Way in this months issue of their community magazine. Our Hometown is a dynamic print and digital publication which is delivered to thousands of households in and around Goldsboro and Kinston every month. Readers may enjoy current and past issues of the magazine at http://chrishumphreyinsurance.com/magazines/.

The companys innovative Community Program chooses a new local organization, family or individual every two months to receive their support. To stay in the loop on whats happening in the community by keeping tabs on past and future causes, readers are encouraged to bookmark http://chrishumphreyinsurance.com/community/.

About Chris Humphrey Insurance Agency

Serving North Carolinas families from offices in Goldsboro and Kinston, Chris Humphrey Insurance Agency has a simple mission: to provide the finest insurance and financial services in the industry while delivering consistently superior service. Humphrey and his team of dedicated professionals believe in protecting all the things which are most important to their clients (their families, homes, cars and more), and in helping to prepare long-term strategies to enable financial success and security. The agency has made an ongoing commitment to positively impact the communities it serves by vigorously seeking out and supporting local worthy causes. Their dedicated agents may be reached by calling 919-736-3434 (Goldsboro) and 252-527-3666 (Kinston). More information on the agency may be found by visiting http://chrishumphreyinsurance.com/.
Ladders, Inc. Michael and Stephanie are leaders in their fields and join Ladders and our executive ranks at an important time in our growth story.

Ladders, Inc., the largest membership-based job matching site for professionals, today announced two new hires to its executive team, Michael E. Lee and Stephanie Chan. This announcement comes on the heels of the recent addition of Russell Sinclair as VP of Product, Consumer, earlier this year.

Michael E. Lee joins Ladders as Chief Operating Officer, where he will be responsible for operations, customer success, account management, finance, human resources and facilities. Stephanie Chan begins her role as Vice President of Marketing for Ladders, where she will be in charge of all external marketing, sales and promotional activities for the company.

Michael and Stephanie are leaders in their fields and join Ladders and our executive ranks at an important time in our growth story," said Marc Cenedella, CEO and Founder of Ladders. They are smart, innovative, successful executives who make a terrific fit for Ladders as we expand on our promise to help our members manage, market and move up in their careers.

Prior to joining Ladders, Lee was the Chief Financial Officer at Wyng (formerly Offerpop), a customer engagement SasS platform, where he helped lead the company through Series C-1 financing while also managing finance, accounting, human resources and facilities. Lee has also led finance at startups H.Bloom and MYHABIT (Amazon.com), and he has a decade of corporate experience at Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Kraft. He holds an AB from Harvard University and an MBA from the Johnson School at Cornell University.

Ladders is a dynamic enterprise and I am excited to be a part of its upward trajectory of helping professionals find the right job for their careers, said Lee. I hope to bring new ideas and a fresh outlook to the team as we look to continue our positive momentum into 2017, and as we grow even further as a premium platform for both professionals and recruiters.

Chan has over 12 years of experience in the marketing field for both consumer and media brands, with her most recent tenure at InStyle and StyleWatch of Time Inc. as Vice President of Consumer Marketing, had her overseeing all consumer revenue for the fashion brands. In 2014, Stephanie co-founded Please and Carrots, an educational subscription service focused on early learning and development. Stephanie earned her MBA from Kellogg School of Management and a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University.

As an entrepreneur and a marketer, I understand Marcs passion for building and growing a company that focuses on customers and their needs. With the innovation and technology behind the brand, I am eager to reach new audiences and markets with our upcoming products, said Chan. There is a range of job platforms on the market, but Ladders resonated with me as one that truly cares about helping professionals succeed in their careers. Im excited to help consumers find amazing career opportunities and recruiters identify their next superstar hire with Ladders.

For over 13 years, Ladders has been a stronghold in the career development and recruiting industries. With its continued growth, the company will expand its product offerings throughout 2017 and the future.

For more information on Ladders, please visit http://www.theladders.com.

About Ladders, Inc.

Ladders, Inc., is the largest membership-based job matching site for professionals. Ladders is an American company, founded in 2003 and headquartered in New York, NY. Over 9 million members use Ladders to manage, market and move up in their careers. For more information on Ladders, please visit http://www.theladders.com.

Media Contact

Diala Demashkieh

Matter Communications

617-874-5210

Ladders [at] matternow [dot] com
International School Moshi (ISM) Since 2002, our scholarship students have graduated and attended the top U.S. universities on full academic scholarships, including Harvard, Stanford and Yale Universities.

The International School Moshi in northern Tanzania, in conjunction with Lalafofofo, is seeking support for a new scholarship initiative to bring educational empowerment to the next generation of Tanzanian students. The initiative, African Leadership ScholarshipMaking a Difference in Africa, is seeking support to fund the program, benefiting talented East African students.

The International School Moshi (ISM) has announced that it is seeking support for a new scholarship initiative,African Leadership ScholarshipMaking a Difference in Africa, which aims to bring educational empowerment to the next generation of talented East African students. ISM has earned a reputation for offering a world-class education to students from diverse backgrounds and cultures throughout Tanzania.

As the first school in Africa to offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) program, ISM has an extensive history of working with local East African communities on projects that benefit the regions future generations.

The African Leadership Scholarship is the latest in ISMs dynamic scholarship roster designed to assist East African students who show potential but cannot afford the opportunity to attend ISM. Each year the schoolED Certified by NGOSource for U.S. grant-makers and U.S. tax payersoffers two scholarships for the (IB) diploma program at its Moshi campus, and four middle years program (MYP) scholarships, two for day students at the Arusha campus and two for boarding students at the Moshi campus. The African Leadership Scholarship is being established to benefit additional promising Tanzanian youths.

Each year the school receives numerous scholarship applications from students who can benefit significantly from its world-class education. The goal is to fund new scholarships through donors who are motivated to help support African students who have proven leadership potential.

An ISM education provides students with the knowledge and skills that will enable them to utilize their individual and academic qualities to realize their ambitions, whatever path they may choose in life. Making an exceptional education accessible to academically talented Tanzanian students previously attending a public government school, regardless of their background or financial circumstances, is particularly important to ISM.

The superior quality of ISM scholarship applicants means that those chosen to receive funding represent the best of the best among Tanzanias most distinguished students. ISM has a 100 percent success record for obtaining fully funded undergraduate study placement for its scholars after graduation.

According to Gemma May, ISM Development and Alumni Officer, all ISM scholarship students go on to fully funded undergraduate study at the best universities in the US.

Since 2002, our scholarship students have graduated and attended the top U.S. universities on full academic scholarships, including Harvard, Stanford and Yale Universities, May says. These universities offer a limited number of academic scholarships per year to Tanzanian students, and ISM students have a proven track record of procuring these scholarships and maintaining a high academic standard during their university careers in the U.S.

ISM aims to raise funds for the African Leadership ScholarshipMaking a Difference in Africa, scholarships by early January, 2017. Interviews for potential scholarship recipients will be announced at the end of January, 2017 and attendance will begin in August, 2017.

We are grateful to everyone who has contributed to our scholarship programs at every level in the past, May says. However, we know that there are more prospective students who could benefit from an ISM education.

We are reaching out to potential donors who understand the value of making a world-class education available to more academically talented Tanzanian students who would otherwise not be able to attend ISM.

African Leadership Scholarship details and applications will be available to students on the ISM admissions / scholarship website page in January, 2017.

To learn more, visit the International School Moshi Just Giving website, email gemmamay(at)ed.ismoshi.com, or call +255 27 2505029, 2505030. In the U.S., email info@lalafofofo.org, or call 650.218.3027.

About International School Moshi:

International School Moshi (ISM) is an international day and boarding established in 1969 to serve the needs of the expatriate and local communities. ISM is located on two campuses in Moshi and Arusha in northern Tanzania, providing a fully accredited international education for students ages 3 to 20. The school offers the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma, Middle Years (MYP) and Primary Years (PYP) programs and the Diploma program (DP). The Diploma program is available to students age 16  19, grades 11 and 12.

ISM serves approximately 500 students comprising more than 40 different nationalities; approximately 300 students (including more than 150 boarders) attend the Moshi campus, and approximately 200 day students attend the Arusha campus. ISM provides a broad range of educational offerings while maintaining a high standard of individual care.

ISM is ED Certified by NGOSource for U.S. grant-makers. US tax payers can utilize CAF America to receive their tax deductions, and the schools UK Charitable Trust receives the donation.

About Lalafofofo.org:

Lalafofofo.org is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization founded by the Vaughan Family of Atherton, Calif. and headquartered in Moshi, Tanzania and Atherton. Lalafofofo is a source of affordable, small-scale service projects in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania, East Africa. Lalafofofo links individuals, youths, families and groups in the U.S. directly to much needed projects benefiting women and children in the Kilimanjaro region.

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'We want to see a smooth transition' in Washington Updated: 2016-11-14 07:42 By Chen Weihua in Washington(China Daily)

Ambassador expects bilateral relations to see continued growth after Trump takes office

China looks forward to further strengthening ties with the United States after President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan 20, according to Cui Tiankai, the Chinese ambassador in Washington.

"What we want to see in China is a smooth transition and continued growth of our bilateral relations, so that we can bring even greater benefits to our two peoples," he said in an interview on Friday with CNN's Christiane Amanpour.

President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory message to Trump after his election victory on Wednesday. Vice-President Li Yuanchao also congratulated Mike Pence, the US vice-president-elect.

Asked about Trump's campaign rhetoric, such as a pledge to impose a 45 percent tariff on Chinese imports and branding China a currency manipulator, Cui said bilateral relations are based on growing common interests and cited cooperation in a range of areas, including the global economy, trade and investment, energy and counterterrorism.

Both countries have greatly benefited from increased cooperation in recent decades, the diplomat said, adding that common interests "will determine the future direction of this relationship".

Trump talked about the tariff early in his campaign but has not mentioned this in recent months. It is believed such a tariff would not only violate World Trade Organization rules, but would also be opposed by the US business community and Congress because of fears of a trade war.

"We never want to have any war ... with other countries. Besides, China and the US are WTO members, so we should all play by WTO rules," Cui said.

Trump made several controversial promises during his campaign, but his post-victory speech was conciliatory. He pledged to seek common ground with other countries, not hostility.

It is unclear how the president-elect will deal with his pledge to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, which has been signed by more than 190 countries and came into effect on Nov 4. Trump has previously called climate change a "Chinese hoax".

"Climate change is a global challenge," Cui said. "All countries have to work together to respond to it. Whatever other countries might do ... China will continue to make efforts to respond to climate change and try to aim at green and sustainable development."

Asked whether Trump will continue the US' interventionist policy in the Asia-Pacific region, which has disrupted US-China relations, the ambassador added, "China is ready and willing to work with all partners for the continued prosperity and stability in the region. We certainly see the US as one of the major partners in this regard."

The ambassador said China had watched the US election closely, but had made no comment and taken no side.

"We just look forward to continuing the cooperation with the American government and, of course, continued friendship with the American people," he said.

chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily 11/14/2016 page3)
John Vasikaran, CEO, Merka Africa I stepped in as CEO for Africa to focus on expanding the business footprint and portfolio in the African continent, through cutting edge technology and new products to meet the current challenging conditions of existing and potential customers.

Merka Corp., a Telecom and Media Consulting company announced today the integration of John Vasikaran to its team as Chief Executive Officer of African operations. Vasikaran assumed his new role in October 2016. Merka's founders Fabian Vega (CEO) and Patricio Molina (COO) are confident that John's local presence and extensive Executive experience in several Tier 1 mobile operators in the African markets will boost its presence and revenues.

It is an incredible honor for me to lead business in Africa for Merka, said Vasikaran. I stepped in as CEO for Africa to focus on expanding the business footprint and portfolio in the African continent, through cutting edge technology and new products to meet the current challenging conditions of existing and potential customers.

Vasikaran brings to the table over 20 years of experience in Strategic and Tactical Planning, Network Planning and Roll-out, Commercial Functions and General Administration. He holds a Masters degree in Business Administration and a Bachelors degree in Commerce from Loyola College. He will be based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Since 2011, Merka has enjoyed success in the telecommunications industry in over 35 countries by offering tier one mobile operations with Low & Zero Balance Services such as Collect Call, Balance Advance and Brand Sponsored SMS. Their clients and partners include Bharti Airtel, America Movil, Telefonica, Movistar and Claro.

With a highly experienced team in mobile and media markets in Latin America, Africa, Europe and the United States, Vasikaran is confident that Merka will pave the way for the future of the telecommunications industry.

I believe that in the next five years the Telecom and ICT industry will become more ubiquitous and intelligent, and we at Merka focus on products and provide solutions bearing this in mind.

About Merka:

Merka is the pioneer in the Low and Zero Balance Services market, awakening a new appetite for value added services. Since 2011, we have been designing, operating and monetizing high-volume/revenue generating value-added services for operators in the developing world, mainly Latin America and Africa.

Merka is the leader and has the largest worldwide network of Low and Zero Balance Services with launched operations in 25 countries and more in the process of launching.
Sudden cardiac arrest is not on consumers' radar. There is an urgent need to create a uniform definition of sudden cardiac arrest in consumer-friendly language and use it consistently across organizations, the medical community, and the media

Nearly 300,000 people die from sudden cardiac arrest [1] each year in the U.S. [2], but the life-threatening condition is not on consumers radar, according to a study by the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation, in collaboration with StrataVerve, presented at the American Heart Association Resuscitation Science Symposium. The innovative research may be the first of its kind since it applied consumer product research thinking to determine where sudden cardiac arrest fits in the hierarchy of healthcare concerns among the general public.

Fielded in November 2015, the research consisted of online interviews of a representative sample of 1,000 U.S. respondents, plus a benchmark sample of 200 respondents from King County, Washington, an area recognized for its high cardiac arrest survival rates. In addition, in-depth interviews were conducted among tourists in Orlando, Florida.

Although sudden cardiac arrest is the third leading cause of death in the U.S. [3], researchers found that cancer, diabetes and heart disease are the top three healthcare concerns among consumers. Few respondents mentioned heart attack as a concern and no one mentioned cardiac arrest.

Study findings also suggest there is considerable confusion about the difference between heart attack and cardiac arrest, which may be contributing to consumer apathy. There was even confusion among those who have taken a CPR course as to when to use it and why.

When survey participants were introduced to a consumer-friendly definition of sudden cardiac arrest and the importance of bystander intervention, interest in learning CPR and how to use automated external defibrillators increased dramatically. What motivated respondents most was the fact that sudden cardiac arrest can happen to anyone at any time, and the fact that CPR can double or triple survival rates.

Our research indicates there is an urgent need to create a uniform definition of sudden cardiac arrest in consumer-friendly language and to use it consistently across organizations, the medical community, and the media, said Mary Newman, MS, of the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation. An integrated marketing, communications and outreach plan at a national level is of utmost importance if we are to increase survival from sudden cardiac arrest.

Jennifer Chap of StrataVerve has a personal connection to the cause. She helped save her husband Rick's life when he collapsed at their home in 2012. Alerted by their cat Buddy that something was wrong, she found Rick, called 911, and, with dispatcher assistance, provided CPR until EMS arrived. When Rick arrested, I too was unaware of sudden cardiac arrest in seemingly healthy people," she said. So, I was driven to apply my research expertise to learn how many others like me would be unaware, and what will motivate a person to be prepared to save a life.

For more information, click here.

To watch video clips from interviews, click here.

[1] Sudden Cardiac Arrest is a condition that occurs when the heart unexpectedly stops beating. As a result, blood is no longer pumped to the brain and other parts of the body and the person suddenly passes out and appears lifeless. Some victims also experience abnormal gasping and seizures. Death follows within minutes if the person does not receive immediate CPR and treatment with a defibrillator.

[2] Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics2016 Update: A Report from the American Heart Association Mozaffarian D, et al. Circulation. 2016;133. Originally published December 16, 2015.

[3] IOM (Institute of Medicine). 2015. Strategies to improve cardiac arrest survival: A time to act. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

About the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation

The Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation is a national community benefit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to raising awareness about sudden cardiac arrest and saving lives. Programs include the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Network, an online community that provides peer support and opportunities for survivors and family members to participate in awareness, advocacy, and research initiatives.

About StrataVerve

StrataVerve is a strategic marketing and research firm with expertise in consumer insights, product development and brand strategy across multiple categories. The StrataVerve difference is an integrated, analytic decision-driven approach that turns research findings into consumer action.
Scytl Technology Improves Efficiencies, Scalability and Accessibility to Over 53M Voters During the 2016 US Election The accolades received by many of our customers for the quality of our solutions, but more importantly, the quality and dedication of our staff further strengthens our belief in the use of innovation and technology to enhance democratic processes.

Today, Scytl announces the successful leverage of its election modernization technology during the 2016 US Election, providing over 53 million registered voters and thousands of election staff across 28 states the benefits of more efficient, scalable and accessible election processes.

Scytl continues to innovate and enhance its solutions to exceed customer expectations and the inherent demands of todays technology advanced society combining intuitive and user-friendly features with the highest security standards in the industry. Scytl has provided election modernization technology in the US since 2008 and most recently for the 2016 US Election:



12 States (24%) leveraging Scytl technology on a state-wide basis

28 States (56%) leveraging Scytl technology in jurisdictions in their state

980 jurisdictions (31%) across the US leveraging Scytl technology

+53 M registered voters (36%) will directly benefit from Scytl technology during the 2016 US Election.

83% of Scytls customers have trusted Scytl technology for various electoral processes.

I want to thank Scytl for their support during the 2016 Election. It has been great to work with you. We were all extremely pleased with Scytl Election Night Reporting and have received really great feedback on the reporting. I am so very glad that we were able to get this program in place - I know that it contributed to the overall positive perception of how our election processes and services were experienced. Barbara J. Levey, Assessor-Clerk-Recorder- Registrar of Voters, Merced County, CA

Scytls election modernization solutions deployed in the US cover the full election cycle from Pre-election to Election Day to Post-election with tailored functionality associated to the tasks required in each cycle and provide complete election management functionality with no gaps left untended to, simplified management and support, improved data integration and maximum security and transparency.

Having been with the company for over 14 years, I have never felt prouder of my team and the technology we provide for elections that directly benefits our US citizens far and wide. The accolades received by many of our customers for the quality of our solutions, but more importantly, the quality and dedication of our staff further strengthens our belief in the use of innovation and technology to enhance democratic processes, concludes Marc Fratello, General Manager, Scytl.

--End release--

Notes to editors

Additional details on Scytl election modernization technology successfully deployed across 28 states during the 2016 US Election:



Scytl Voter Education: Maximized election bodys web presence, expanding voter outreach and increasing voter participation, and was used by 9 states and 29 counties.

Scytl Poll Worker Management: Significantly improved efficiencies in the hiring, training and management of large temporary poll worker staff, and was used by 3 states, 1 of which will use Scytl Poll Worker Management on a state-wide level (SC) and 48 counties.

Scytl Election Training: Provided flexibility by enabling election staff to learn at their own pace from anywhere in the world, and was used by 12 States, 3 of these states used Scytl Election Training on state-wide level (CT, MS, SC) and 168 counties across the 12 states.

Scytl ePollBook: In addition to expediting voter check-in and verification, Scytl ePollBook provided election officials with centralized management and real-time visibility into elections as they unfolded and was used by DuPage County and Peoria County in Illinois.

Scytl eBallot Delivery: Enabled military and other remote and absentee voters to receive and return ballots electronically via secure online transmission, and was used by 7 states on a state-wide level (AK, AR, KY, MS, NY, OK, WV) and 476 counties.

Scytl Election Night Reporting: Presented election results online in real-time through an efficient, user-friendly and intuitive graphical interface using maps and graphics to illustrate voter turnout, totals by vote type, and results by polling place, and was used by 15 states; 5 of these states on a state-wide level (AR, CO, GA, KY, SC) and by 536 counties.

Customer quotes

Christine Giordano Hanlon Monmouth County Clerk: The combination of Scytl Voter Education and Scytl Election Night Reporting has significantly simplified and reduced the burden we face in the days leading up to the elections and on Election Day. Scytl Voter Education helped our office provide our constituents a simpler way to find their voter information, polling place locations with Scytl Election Night Reporting providing seamless real-time access to election results.

Celeste M. Riley, County Clerk Cumberland County: Our constituents have provided positive feedback. In particular, people have commented on the ease of use of the ENR system as well as simplistic, yet thorough information included in the program.

Kathy Dent, Supervisor of Elections, Sarasota County: Scytls technology helped our office post results online in a timely fashion. Streamlined processes and impeccable support are just some of the reasons why we selected all of Scytls solutions.

Kevin Tunell, Communications Director, Yuma County Arizona: We were left in a bind at the last minute. Our previous Election Night Reporting (ENR) was unavailable and we had just 3 weeks to come to a solution. Scytl stepped up to the plate and had us up and running in time for the election. Not only that, our ENR has never looked better. The technology and support were unexpected. Im still getting compliments from the public and inquiries from counties from across the State asking, How did you do that?

John Gardner, Solano County Registrar of Voters: Our previous process required phone calls, repeated call-backs, and manual processing for each poll worker. We now can sign-up most poll workers within minutes through automation. This is a huge savings on staff time. Our staff have achieved what normally takes hours to run from our previous system, in just a few minutes within Scytls election staffing solution.

About Scytl

Scytl is the global leader in secure election management and electronic voting solutions. Specializing in election modernization technologies, Scytl offers the first end-to-end election management and voting platform, providing the highest security and transparency standards currently available. Scytl has capitalized on its more than 18 years of research to develop election-specific cryptographic security technology protected by more than 40 international patents and patent applications, positioning Scytl as the company with the largest patent portfolio of the industry.

Scytls solutions have been successfully used in over 47 countries across the globe over the last 10 years, including Canada, the United States, France, Norway, Switzerland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the UAE, India, Iceland and Australia. Scytl is headquartered in Barcelona, Spain, with strategic offices in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Peru, and Greece, as well as field offices in the UK, Ukraine, Mexico, Malaysia, India, Bangladesh, and Australia. For more information, visit http://www.scytl.com.

Media Contacts

Pierre Mayo

Marketing Manager, Scytl

pierre.mayo(at)scytl(dot)com

+1 813 865 7534

Leticia Barcia

Vice President of Marketing, Scytl

leticia.barcia(at)scytl(dot)com

+34 934 230 324
Through this acquisition, we expect to accelerate our growth efforts and expand our presence as one of the largest plastic packaging manufacturers in North America.

Sinclair & Rush, Inc., through its VisiPak division, has successfully completed the acquisition of National Plastics, Inc., of St. Louis, Missouri, a thermoform manufacturer focused on clamshell packaging and clamshell stocking programs. The move by VisiPak, a leading manufacturer of clear plastic packaging products, expands their current line of plastic thermoform packaging to include additional shapes and sizes. Both manufacturers also produce thermoformed blisters and trays. Production will continue at both facilities as each location will remain in operation. This acquisition expands the VisiPak domestic manufacturing locations to three in the St. Louis, MO area and one in Carlstadt, NJ. VisiPak also offers international manufacturing capabilities in the United Kingdom, China and Australia.

"This acquisition correlates directly with our long-term strategies regarding increased product offerings and market reach," said Brad Philip, President and COO of Sinclair & Rush, Inc. Mr. Philip continued, "The synergies created allow us to offer the broadest line of packaging products and related services, from concept to completion, of anyone in the industry."

The move increases manufacturing capacity and augments packaging options for customers from both businesses. The VisiPak customer base will have an expanded selection of clamshell packaging with over 140 additional sizes and styles bringing the total to over 170 in-stock, ready-to-ship options. The National Plastics customer base will now have access to the complete line of VisiPak packaging solutions including plastic tube container packaging, clear folding cartons, flexible vinyl caps and plastic plugs for use with its plastic tube containers. In addition, VisiPak will continue to offer decorating, design services, contract packaging, assembly and fulfillment services at its U.S. and international manufacturing locations.

Jeff Barket, Director of Sales and Marketing for Sinclair & Rush, Inc., stated, "VisiPak and National Plastics share several key fundamentals, such as a vision for differentiated growth in the marketplace, strong technology platforms, and a high performance culture committed to operational excellence and providing quality products. Through this acquisition, we expect to accelerate our growth efforts and expand our presence as one of the largest plastic packaging manufacturers in North America."

About VisiPak

VisiPak specializes in the design and production of clear plastic packaging utilizing extrusion, thermoforming, injection molding and other fabricating and decorating technologies. The St. Louis based company provides clamshell packaging, clear plastic tubes, transparent boxes, blister packs, plastic trays and plastic containers, jars, and vials. The company offers many stock packaging solutions that are ready for immediate shipment. For more information, visit http://www.visipak.com.
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WASHINGTON - US presidential election winner Donald Trump on Sunday told his supporters to stop harassing minorities in his first televised interview as president-elect.

Trump said he was "saddened" by reports that incidents of harassment and intimidation of minorities had spiked since his election.

"I hate to hear that. I am so saddened to hear that," Trump said when asked about the reports at the interview with the CBS's "60 Minutes," which was taped Friday and aired in full Sunday.

Police across the country are investigating a wave of alleged hate crimes against Muslims, Hispanic Americans, black people, ethnic minorities and the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community in the wake of the US election.

Attackers professing support for Trump have been accused of numerous attacks following his shock victory, including death threats, physical assaults and racist graffiti.

Among the incident is the alleged robbery of a Muslim student at San Diego State University by two men who "made comments about President-elect Donald Trump and the Muslim community" before stealing her purse, rucksack and car.

There were also many reports of attacks on women wearing hijabs and Islamic dress.

Trump's election victory has sparked days of protests in several major cities nationwide, and analysts believe that the demonstrations may continue for some time.

The "we reject the president-elect" chant echoed far and wide again in New York City Saturday, as thousands of angry New Yorkers protested against Trump's win.

The protesters, mostly young people, gathered at Union Square in force and soon marched towards the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, residence and campaign headquarters of the real estate mogul and reality show star turned politician.

The police force of the city was on high alert, barricading the entrance of Trump Tower and many storefronts.

Protesters have also taken to the streets of Chicago, Miami, Denver, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Louisville, Kentucky, Baltimore and other cities.

While most protests have been peaceful, there have been reports of violence and at least one shooting.

A man was shot and injured during a protest march in the early morning hours of Saturday in the city of Portland, the US state of Oregon, police said on Saturday.

The police said in a news release that the victim was participating in the protest march when he was shot, and that he was continuing to recover from his non-life-threatening injuries.

Analysts said the reason behind the widespread protests across the country is that Trump has elicited much controversy over the past year in one of the most controversial and nastiest presidential races.

The question remains whether the protests will continue, fade out, or even turn violent in the days and weeks to come.

"The protests against Trump will continue. Progressive forces are strongly opposed to Trump's agenda and will ferociously resist what he is doing. There is a risk that protests turn violent and exacerbate societal tensions," Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.
A first batch of six Chinese tourists has been airlifted from the worst-hit town of Kaikoura to Christchurch after a deadly quake rocked much of New Zealand early on Monday.

Staff with the Chinese consulate general in Christchurch, the country's second largest city, said that "altogether 21 Chinese tourists, including one slightly injured in the head, have been found trapped in Kaikoura so far, and they are all safe now".

The six evacuees are three pairs of mother and child and the youngest child is five years old. They arrived at Christchurch at around 3 pm, said Consul General Jin Zhijian.

"The injured has received proper medical treatment and is doing well," he said.

A magnitude-7.8 quake hit just after midnight on Monday, leaving two dead.

Some 1,000 tourists were reported stuck in Kaikoura, a popular tourist destination famed for its coastal scenery and whale-watching activities, which is some 100 km away from the epicenter.

The quake-triggered landslides have left the town isolated. Helicopters are now the only means of transportation available for the outside world with the small town.

The Chinese tourists posted their plight on social media and called for help before their smartphones ran off power. With the information, the consulate general staff, who flew to the town soon after the quake with food and other relief goods, found them later.

Related: 'Utter devastation' after major quake

Wellington becomes a virtual ghost town with workers ordered to stay away from city

A powerful magnitude-7.8 earthquake pummeled central New Zealand on Monday, killing at least two people, damaging roads and buildings and setting off hundreds of strong aftershocks.

Emergency response teams flew by helicopter to the region at the epicenter of the tremor, which struck just after midnight some 90 kilometers northeast of Christchurch in the South Island, amid reports of injuries and collapsed buildings.

"It's just utter devastation, I just don't know ... that's months of work," New Zealand Prime Minister John Key told Civil Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee after flying over the coastal town of Kaikoura, according to Brownlee's Twitter account.

He described landslips in the area as "just horrendous". In a statement, Key said of the likely damage bill: "You've got to believe it's in the billions of dollars to resolve."

Power lines and telecommunications were down, with huge cracks in roads, land slips and other damage to infrastructure making it hard to reach the worst-affected areas.

A tsunami warning that led to mass evacuations after the original quake was downgraded after large swells hit New Zealand's capital Wellington, in the North Island, and Christchurch.

Wellington was a virtual ghost town with workers ordered to stay away while the city council assessed the risk to buildings, several of which were damaged by the tremor.

Hundreds of aftershocks, the strongest a magnitude-6.2 quaked at about 1:45 pm, rattled the South Pacific country, fraying nerves in an area where memories of a deadly 2011 quake are still fresh.

State of emergency

Christchurch, the largest city on New Zealand's ruggedly beautiful South Island, is still recovering from the magnitude-6.3 quake in 2011 that killed 185 people.

New Zealand's Civil Defense declared a state of emergency for the Kaikoura region, centered on a tourist town about 150 km northeast of Christchurch, soon after Monday's large aftershock.

"Our immediate priority is ensuring delivery of clean water, food and other essentials to the residents of Kaikoura and the estimated 1,000 tourists in the town," Brownlee said.
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Childrens author and illustrator Yumi Heo, creator of more than 30 distinctive books praised for their varying visual perspectives and stylized, often whimsical imagery, died on November 5 after a long battle with cancer.

Heo was born in Korea in 1964 and grew up there, frequently moving with her family to a series of small rural towns due to her fathers assignments as an officer in the military. In a 2013 interview for Korean-American video series The Portfolio, Heo said that during her childhood in the Korean countryside of the 1970s, Nature was my playground. She recalled washing clothes with her mother in the stream and playing with the frogs all the time with her brothers near the rice paddies.

Recognizing how difficult it was for her children to keep friends when the family moved so often, Heos mother found a way to ease her daughters loneliness by encouraging her interest in art and signing her up for art lessonstaken every day after schoolbeginning in junior high. Heo then studied graphic design at Sang Ji University in Korea where she earned her B.A. After a stint as a graphic designer for an amusement park, Heo saw an advertisement from the New York School of Visual Arts soliciting students, and moved to New York in 1989 to continue her education there. She earned her MFA and also met her husband, fellow artist Steven Dana; speaking about that time, Heo told Portfolio, I had the best three years of my life.

As a transplanted New Yorker she was in awe of the citys huge buildings and masses of people. Heo told Portfolio that she began to find her own voice in her art by spending time in Grand Central Terminal and Chinatownalways with her sketchbookas well as visiting exhibits and exploring the work of other artists in books and experimenting with different art media in her studio. Turbulent events in New York City in 1990 and 1991, namely the Korean grocery boycott by African-Americans and the Crown Heights riots, inspired Heos thesis project for graduate school. She made doll-like sculptures of Korean, Jewish and African-American characters that eventually became the cornerstone for a picture-book project titled In Brooklyn. Various New York editors admired the book, but none took it on. However, Heos art made an impression. Not long after Heos graduation from SVA, Laura Godwin, then senior editor at Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, thought Heo would be the perfect illustrator for a Korean folktale she had in-house, from a collection by Suzanne Crowder Han. The Rabbits Judgment was published in 1994. In an interview with PW that year Heo said, This was a tale I had known since I was a child in Korea, and I felt a real connection with it.... I was very comfortable with it from the start. I would say that this art came from inside of me.

Heo illustrated several folktales and picture books by other authors, including Henrys First-Moon Birthday by Lenore Look (Atheneum, 2001) and Sometimes Im Bombaloo by Rachel Vail (Scholastic, 2001). She also wrote several of her own picture-book texts, among them One Afternoon (Orchard, 1994) and Ten Days and Nine Nights: An Adoption Story (Schwartz & Wade, 2009).

In addition to her picture books, Heo designed a public art project for the Manhattan Transit Authoritys art for transit program. Between 1996 and 1999, Heo created an art installation called Q Is for Queens consisting of 30 stained glass windows spotlighting the landmarks and people of Queens (A Is for Aqueduct Race Park; K Is for Korean Festival are among the images). The windows are located along the #7 subway line at the 33, 40, and 46th Street Stations. Heo has said that the project was inspired by the book A Is for Asia by Cynthia Chin-Lee (Orchard, 1997), which she happened to be illustrating around the same time.

Another Heo-illustrated picture book, Polka Dot Penguin Pottery (Schwartz & Wade, 2011), written by Lenore Look, which featured a paint-your-own pottery studio, inspired Heo to create a mobile pottery store, which she brought around to birthdays, play dates, clubs, and other venues in the Westchester area of New York in recent years.

On November 7, Heos husband Steven Dana announced the creation of a Yumi Heo Memorial Fund. The money raised will go toward continuing the training for her daughter, a competitive figure skater, and to fund a scholarship fund for students in Korea.

Holts Laura Godwin shared this remembrance: Yumi was extremely gracious, enthusiastic, and inquisitive, she said. I loved the way she incorporated mistakes into her art rather than erasing or deleting them. If she drew a squiggle where she hadnt intended, it would show up in the final art as a tree or a rabbit or whatever struck her fancy. She was part artist, part magicianand always an inspiration.

Also at Henry Holt, Christy Ottaviano, publisher of Christy Ottaviano Books, who, like Godwin, worked with Heo on several books, offered this tribute: Yumi was incredibly innovative in her artistic approach to illustration and had such an original point of view. I know she influenced many artists in the industry with her design sensibility, painting talents, and overall aesthetic. I loved working with Yumi. She was a beautiful person who always managed to inspire those around her. She left us much too soon.

And Anne Schwartz, v-p and publisher of Random House imprint Schwartz & Wade Books, said, Yumi was one of the gentlest, most dedicated and creative people Ive had the joy to work with. Her art was quirky, it was playful, it was exciting, it was deeply original. Her vision was unlike anyone elses, and working with her was inspiring for me. I have a hard time believing that she is gone; I will really miss her.

Heo is survived by her husband, son, and daughter.

This article has been updated to reflect the correct subway stations where Heo's art is featured.
Learn about ovarian cancer today in Rock Island

The CEO/founder of the NormaLeah Ovarian Cancer Initiative will present Sisterly Advice to BEAT the BIG O today at 2 p.m. in the community room at the Rock Island Public Library, 401 19th St.

The one-hour informative and entertaining session is free for women and men, open to the public, and will include a multi-media presentation, light refreshments and an opportunity for women to ask questions about symptoms, risk factors, diagnostic tests, genetic links and health insurance coverage for preventive measures, according to a news release.

Jodie Kavensky will speak about her experience as a caregiver and how she takes control of her health because of her inherited BRCA mutation. Each attendee will walk away with life-saving

information about ovarian cancer, symptom cards to distribute to family and friends and the

knowledge to be vigilant about their own health, the release states.

The goal of each session is to educate women about the symptoms of ovarian cancer, and how to seek proper medical guidance. Ms. Kavensky says sharing this information is critical for earlier detection and greater survival rates.

Each year, about 22,000 women in the United States receive a diagnosis of ovarian cancer, according to the release. When diagnosed in early stages, there is a 92-percent cure rate. There is no reliable screening test for ovarian cancer, so the most powerful weapon in the fight is knowledge of the disease, the release states.

Hassle-free holiday skin tips

Gildas Club is hosting a discussion on hassle-free holiday skin tips with speaker Traci Malone on Tuesday, Nov. 29, from 6-8 p.m. at Gildas Club Quad Cities, 1234 East River Drive, Davenport.

Ms. Malone will review tips for keeping skin hydrated and controlling redness and irritation.

She is an 11-year veteran of the beauty industry, and is a licensed esthetician and instructor., according to a news release. She began her esthetician career in a medical spa, and owns her own skin-care spa.

Ms. Malone also has special training in esthetic oncology. She teaches continuing education

classes at Eastern Iowa Community College, and has a bachelors degree in business administration from St. Ambrose University, the release states.

For more information and to register, call Gildas Club at 563-326-7504, or email

Gildas Club Quad Cities provides support, education and hope to all people affected by cancer, free of charge. As a Cancer Support Community affiliate, Gilda's Club QC is part of the largest employer of psychosocial oncology mental health professionals in the United States, the release states. Its global network brings the highest quality cancer support to the millions of people touched by cancer.

5 small steps to improve your health

Even the smallest changes can have a big impact on your health, and you can start improving your wellness today with these five steps.

1. Take a stand. The average person sits for about 13 hours a day. Whether eating, working, driving or relaxing, that's a lot of sitting. Stand up for your health by resolving to get up at least once an hour. Walk to the bathroom, the water fountain or to ask your question in person instead of via email.

2. Run in place  any place. Effective exercise can happen without the gym membership. Just 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week can dramatically reduce your risk of diabetes.

3. Floss for your heart. If you're like 80 percent of surveyed adults, you don't floss, and that can increase your risk of heart disease  so add it to your regimen every day.

4. Don't underestimate the importance of a good nap. Getting a good night's sleep helps you function better during the day, but it can also reduce your risk of heart disease and diabetes. Even a 30-minute nap can leave you feeling rested and ultimately support your health.

5. Smallersize your plates. During the last 20 years, the average portion size has doubled. To take smaller portions, start using smaller plates. Your brain will feel as though you have still taken a full plate of food, but you'll consume fewer calories.

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The lawsuit filed Monday in Cook County Circuit Court targets American, aircraft manufacturer Boeing Inc. and engine manufacturer General Electric Aviation.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports the lawsuit claims GE sold a faulty engine that Chicago-based Boeing used to assemble an unsafe aircraft. The passengers also claim American Airlines employees should have done a better job inspecting the plane. They contend employees failed to provide "assistance, supervision and instruction" during evacuation.

Pilots on Oct. 28, aborted the takeoff of American Airlines Flight 383 to Miami. All 161 passengers and nine crew safely evacuated, with officials saying 20 people suffering minor injuries.
CAMBRIDGE  Facing a Dec. 30 deadline, Henry County Board members approved an application to have one of the states enterprise zones in spite of various members misgivings.

Board member Lynn Sutton noted the original Kewanee enterprise zone, which was extended in order to allow for the wind farms and an ethanol plant  created $783 million in investment in the county.

It is one of the key incentives we can offer, he said.

Enterprise zones offer state money in the form of sales tax on building materials as well as state utility tax forgiveness.

An amended form of the Henry County application includes 100 percent local property tax forgiveness on the portion of the property that increases in assessed value. Had the board not approved the application as is but instead changed it, Mr. Sutton gave the opinion there would not be time for all other participating Henry County communities to approve it by the deadline.

Galva city administrator David Dyer spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting, relating a parable of someone who believed hed outfoxed an old man with the ability to read events. The person reasoned if he held a live bird in his closed hands and asked the old man if it was living and could fly away or if it was dead, he could reveal it alive if the old man said it was dead or crush it if the old man predicted it was alive. He asked the old man which it was, but the latter just said its whatever you want it to be.

Mr. Dyer returned to his topic, the enterprise zone application. I hope youll let it fly, he said.

The third phase wind farm property is not currently in the proposed new enterprise zone. Noting the existing wind farm was added to the zone later, board member Ann DeSmith pointed out with up to 70 permits at stake, it could mean $350,000 to $425,000 the county would be giving up. She added the extension would not be automatic.

If they come back, we have a choice to say yes, she said.

The enterprise zone application was approved 17-3 with Kippy Breeden, Bill Preston and Loren Rathjen voting no.

The board also approved a fiscal 2017 budget with a deficit of $226,883 consisting of $12,015,787 in general fund revenue and $12,242,670 in spending. The budget projects a cash balance of $2,437,304 as of Nov. 30, 2017. The county had $4.3 million in reserves as of Nov. 30, 2015.

Finance committee chairman Loren Rathjen said the finance committee didnt believe the county board would cut employees until the reserve is gone. He said the failure of the public safety tax referendum last week would mean tougher decisions next year in order to provide squad cars, sheriffs deputies and people to run the courthouse.

Public safety chair Marshall Jones said a neighboring county has cut 20 percent across the board. Thats a possibility, he said.

The budget was approved in a 16-4 vote with Kippy Breeden, Rick Livesay, Kathy Nelson and Daniel Ames voting no.

Transportation chairman Rick Livesay removed discussion of a wind farm road agreement, explaining the firm isnt ready.

The project is delayed til next spring or summer time, he said. (County highway superintendent) Steve Brandau spent a lot of time and energy on it. They wanted to pursue it as soon as possible, and now theyre kind of backpedaling.
I wanted you to see me closer and understand that I would never want to be in your place, having two sons that are going to go to prison, said Davis, who has struggled openly for two days with the fates of the young men before him.

Adnan, he told them, will go to prison for 10 years.

The scene, unfolding in a packed courtroom in Minneapolis, ended the second of three days of sentencing in the terror conspiracy case, a day that saw harsher sentences  10 years for two defendants, 15 years for a third  for young men who pleaded guilty but refused to cooperate with government prosecutors.

Farah, 20, the last to be sentenced Tuesday, was arrested in April 2015 when federal agents rounded up six men involved in the scheme in a series of arrests in Minneapolis and San Diego. He had applied for an expedited passport to leave the United States, but his parents confiscated it when it arrived in the mail. Davis reminded Farahs father that the action saved his sons life.

Your children lied to you, Davis said. They lied to you about what they believed and what they were about to do.

Adnan Farahs attorney, Kenneth Udoibok, made an extraordinary plea of his own during the hearing, noting that he himself was spared recruitment to become a child soldier in Nigeria, a fate that fell on six friends he knew.

I understand how easy it is to mislead children, Udoibok said.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Winter challenged Farahs statement that he wished someone would have intervened to tell him and his co-conspirators that they were on the wrong path.

Hes blaming people around him for simply not telling them that joining an organization that beheads people is wrong, Winter said. Its quite stunning.

Farahs hearing concluded a long day marked by expressions of remorse.

Davis twice ordered defendants to take a seat so he could show their families the same grisly propaganda videos produced by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, that they once watched and discussed. The judge at one point asked that a young child be removed from court before a prosecutor played a scene depicting a mass beheading of prisoners.

Oh my God, one woman said under her breath.

In a hearing earlier in the day, Davis sentenced Farahs co-defendant Hanad Musse to 10 years in prison after a tearful hourlong hearing.

Musse, 21, who once described himself as a servant of Allah, eventually pleaded guilty and had asked for 72 months in prison. Federal prosecutors had recommended 15 years.

Addressing the judge in a soft voice and reading from a written statement, Musse said, Its been a hard long year for many people. To his mother, who traveled from Kenya to support him, he added: I love you and I made a mistake. Relatives in the courtroom began quietly sobbing.

I lied to everyone, I tried to deceive everybody, Musse continued. I undermined my parents existence, I overlooked the position that they had in my life. My way of thinking would lead me to destruction. I was never entrapped nor lured into this crime.

Like other defendants, Musse listened as Davis pointed out the differences between their cases and other federal crimes, where a good educational record and job history typically predict a successful rehabilitation.

What youve done is you turned us on our head, Davis said. You used what we used for predictors of success to deceive us in order to do harm.

As the hearing came to a close, the judge asked Musse: Sir, are you a terrorist or not?

Yes, I am a terrorist, your honor, Musse replied.

Musses attorney, Andrew Birrell, told the judge that a maximum sentence after his clients guilty plea would send the wrong message toward the goals of deterrence and rehabilitation.

I do think, judge, I do think we can save this guy and I think thats what we need to do, Birrell said.

Winter countered that Musse had tossed aside an opportunity to cooperate with the government and lied to a court expert, Daniel Koehler, during an interview weeks before three co-conspirators were going to stand trial.

His mission was to protect his co-conspirators who were still pending trial, Winter said.

Musse acknowledged that he didnt cooperate with prosecutors, saying he would have lost his communitys support.

In Tuesdays first hearing, defendant Hamza Ahmed was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his convictions on charges of supporting ISIL and committing financial-aid fraud to finance an attempted trip to Syria.

I want you to understand I am not completely changed, Ahmed, 21, told Davis. Im in the process, but nobody changes overnight. Im trying every day. I want to reach that point.

Davis told Ahmed he appreciated his frankness, then said: There is an opening for you, displaying a small space with his fingers.

Ahmed was one of four defendants stopped by federal agents in 2014 after taking a Greyhound bus to New York in an attempt to fly to the Middle East. He pleaded guilty last April, just weeks before he was set for trial in Minneapolis.

Ahmed said he was thankful that federal agents removed him from the plane, recognizing it would have sent him eventually to his death.

I refuse for this to be my legacy, I will come back, make a positive (difference) for my community, for people around me and I will be remembered.

Ahmed had asked for a reduced sentence and release to a community rehab program; prosecutors sought 15 years in prison.

His attorney, JaneAnne Murray, also made an impassioned plea for her client, saying he was not a leader, recruiter or organizer of the conspiracy. She described him as a very dutiful son in a large extended family, and said he became entranced by ISILs internet messaging as he sought identity online while stuck at home looking after his younger siblings so his mother could work evenings at a bakery.

Its a tragedy because he was a perfect mark for that powerful, voluminous propaganda by ISIL, Murray said.

After the hearing, Ahmeds father, Naji Ibrahim, left the courtroom deeply saddened.

My son would have died if he went to Syria. I thank the government for stopping my child, Ibrahim added. But my son is young, he made a mistake. They should have given him a chance. But I also accept my mistake, that I didnt give my son (more) time. I was busy working seven days a week. This is hard.

This weeks sentencing hearings conclude a yearlong FBI investigation of terror recruitment in Minnesota that led to the convictions of nine young Somali-Minnesotans on charges of conspiracy to support ISIL. Six pleaded guilty and three were convicted during a trial in Minneapolis last spring, which also included charges of conspiracy to commit murder abroad. Two more defendants were charged in absentia after successfully leaving for Syria.

The final three defendants  Guled Omar, Mohamed Farah and Abdirahman Daud  who were convicted at trial and face longer potential prison terms, will be sentenced Wednesday.
"What we are really designing this for is the squeezed middle, the people on average incomes who get $800-$1000 worth of tax relief," said Luxon.

2 hours ago
The Y1 DMUs were built by Fiat in 1979-81 for Swedish State Railways (SJ) and were last used by Varmlandstrafik on regional services in the Karlstad area.

The vehicles are equipped with air conditioning and passenger Wi-fi and seat 68 passengers.

The first units are due to arrive in Uruguay before the end of the year and will enable AFE to increase frequencies on the Montevideo - 25 de Agosto line. AFE says it is also studying the reinstatement of passenger services elsewhere in the country which were withdrawn in 2012.
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In a crisis, there's a tendency in government to add more people to address the problem, but doing so often slows decision-making.

The growth of the National Security Council (NSC) and its effects on decision-making were the focus of a panel discussion, Making Decisions in National Security, Saturday afternoon at the nonprofit RAND Corporation. The discussion, part of RAND's Politics Aside event, was moderated by Malcolm Gladwell, author and journalist for The New Yorker, with panelists Maren Brooks, senior director, National Security Council, and Ambassador Charles Ries, vice president, International at RAND.

Gladwell cited Fred Brooks' 1975 book, The Mythical Man-Month and Brooks' Law, which says that adding manpower to a late software project makes it even later. People often believe they can speed up a project by adding additional bodies to a task, but tasks are not perfectly divisible. Adding more people increases communication costs; coordinating and sharing information takes time.

It would be easier to make policy on the things that matter if you have fewer people, Ries said. The more people you have, the more they generate meetings, because they have to justify their existence.

Brooks said the size of the NSC has tended to ebb and flow over time. When Condoleezza Rice was the National Security Advisor, she thought the NSC was too large and planned to reduce it, only to see it grow by 50 percent by the time she left, in part because of the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Ries said the tendency to expand agencies after a crisis happens because it's often easier to invent something new rather than require the agency to fix problems in the existing structure. He said he was also bothered by the proliferation of newly created czars outside of the agency structures to deal with emerging problems. The problem occurs when a czar goes to deal with a foreign counterpart and finds there isn't one.

We don't make policy and decide what to do in a vacuum; we're dealing with other governments, Ries said. If we can think about things the way our allies, partners and adversaries do, we'll be better placed to adopt strategies that can succeed.

Brooks said an alternative solution for an emerging crisisfor example, Ebolawould be to bring in 15 people to solve the problem on more of a task-force level, in a time-defined surge capacity rather than creating a permanent czar.

 Lisa Sodders
The battle to retake Mosul from the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) began several weeks ago.

The battle to drive Syrian rebels out of Aleppo has been going on for more than four years.

Although both battles are components of the complicated conflict raging across Syria and Iraq, the tactics employed by the attackers differ dramatically and reflect not only different doctrines of how to fight insurgents, but also different views about the future of the two countries.

Backed by U.S.-led coalition airpower and ground support from the United States and Turkey, Kurdish peshmerga forces and Sunni tribal units are pushing toward the city of Mosul from the north and northeast while Iraqi regular army units and predominantly Shiite militias are entering the city from the south and southeast.

ISIS fighters in Mosul could still escape to the west, as some already have, although Iranian-backed Iraqi militiamen are reportedly moving to cut off the road from Mosul to Raqqa, the ISIS's capital in Syria.

This raises a strategic question. A great many of ISIS's combatants are foreign fighters  jihadist volunteers who have flocked to ISIS from around the world. If the Islamic State falls  that is, if the territory it holds is recaptured  its leaders and local fighters can shave their beards and continue their armed struggle underground, as they did for many years in Iraq, and as most military analysts suspect they will do again.

But this is not an option for foreigners who can easily be identified. The foreign fighters must flee to other jihadist fronts, risk returning home or fight to the death where they are.

All three possibilities are happening.

From the perspective of the countries whose nationals have joined ISIS by the thousands, the return of these fighters from Syria and Iraq raises the danger of new jihadist uprisings and more terrorist attacks. These countries might prefer to see as many ISIS fighters as possible corralled and captured or killed in Iraq and Syria.

But closing the ring, leaving an army of ISIS fighters in Mosul with no options but to surrender or die fighting, will only increase the difficulty of retaking the city.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed leader of ISIS  who reportedly left Mosul before the battle  has ordered the estimated 3,000 to 5,000 ISIS fighters who remain in the city not to retreat, but to wreak havoc on the advancing enemy.

With months to prepare, ISIS has dug bomb shelters and tunnels, planted mines and booby traps, and can use civilian hostages as human shields.

Urban warfare is difficult and destructive. A small number of dug-in, determined defenders can impose heavy casualties on any attacking force. With months to prepare, ISIS has dug bomb shelters and tunnels, planted mines and booby traps, and can use civilian hostages as human shields.

The second battle of Fallujah in 2004 was the bloodiest battle in the Iraq War. In taking the city back from 3,000 to 5,000 insurgents, highly trained and well-equipped American and British forces suffered more than 700 casualties. Most of Fallujah's civilian population had fled the city before the battle began, greatly reducing the risk of civilian casualties and allowing the use of heavy firepower.

With a population that once approached 2 million, Mosul is Iraq's second-largest city. No one knows exactly how many people live in Mosul today. Hundreds of thousands fled after its capture by ISIS in 2014, and more left as the bombing campaign against ISIS escalated. The United Nations is preparing to care for several hundred thousand refugees from Mosul. Their presence imposes constraints on the use of airpower and artillery.

It is not clear that Iraqi forces would be able to sustain the heavy casualties that would come if Mosul were to become another Fallujah. Iraqi army commanders might decide to let the more fanatical militia units carry the burden of the battle.

Certainly, pressure would increase to use more airpower and artillery with fewer constraints. ISIS's well-advertised record of atrocities has eliminated any sympathy for its fighters and erodes that for the civilians who remain in Mosul. But a more promiscuous use of heavy weaponry poses a different set of risks.

The battle for Mosul cannot begin to closely resemble the battle of Aleppo, where Syrian government and Russian forces appear unconstrained in their application of firepower, even deliberately bombing and shelling civilian targets, which the United States and its allies have denounced. There can be no equivalency.

Taking Mosul Aleppo-style would provoke international condemnation and threaten to crack the U.S.-led coalition.

Taking Mosul Aleppo-style would provoke international condemnation and threaten to crack the U.S.-led coalition. A wholesale slaughter would also guarantee the enduring hostility of Iraq's Sunni population.

A city that initially fell to ISIS in less than a week in 2014 will take a much longer time to recapture, but neither Washington nor Baghdad will want to see the battle of Mosul become a protracted siege, which may dishearten the attackers, try American patience and increase pressure for escalation to finish the brawl.

Protracted battles also increase the risks of terrible mistakes  ISIS defenders will try to lure attackers into accidentally killing civilians. A long battle also increases the risks of the occurrence of external events, such as political upheavals elsewhere, new crises or major terrorist attacks, that can fundamentally alter strategic calculations in Iraq.

The battle of Mosul is not just about defeating ISIS. It is about restoring Mosul to the multi-ethnic city it once was, which is a microcosm in recreating Iraq as a diverse but unified, multi-ethnic, multi-sectarian state.

The United States portrays the battle of Mosul as one of liberating the city from its brutal ISIS occupiers. It is, of course, controversial, but reducing resistance in Mosul by allowing some desperate fighters to flee  enabling the Iraqi forces to achieve an easier morale-building victory  may be strategically and politically preferable to a long and savage battle to retake the city street by street.

What happens after the fighting will be as important as the battle itself, and may be even more difficult.

The United States, and presumably the government of Iraq, will want to avoid the reprisals that have marred some of Iraq's previous liberations of towns held by ISIS. That means maintaining discipline in the Iraqi army and holding the Shiite militias in check.

Shiite volunteer units, motivated by religious sentiments and historic grievances, have been ardent and ferocious fighters against the Sunnis in ISIS, but they also have exhibited a tendency to settle scores with summary executions and property seizures. The heavy casualties that come with urban warfare  especially snipers and booby traps that impose casualties without a visible enemy to shoot back at  make it more difficult to keep bloodlust under control.

From the perspective of reconciliation, the United States may choose to treat Mosul's civilian inhabitants as victims of occupation rather than as ISIS collaborators, even while knowing that this is not entirely true. Some ISIS fighters, no doubt, will try to escape with the refugees; all young men will be suspect.

Some may be diehard followers of al-Baghdadi. Others may justifiably claim that they were coerced into service or that economic survival gave them no choice but to draw pay as ISIS soldiers.

Beyond the fighters, however, are those who will have been active collaborators.

The issue in dealing with them is not justice, but the concern that as ISIS goes underground, they will be ISIS's spies and enablers.

The local population knows who they are, but may be reluctant to point them out for fear of future reprisal or conviction that a Sunni underground may be their only insurance policy against Shiite retribution. False accusations can also be expected as the unfortunate citizens of Mosul curry favor among the new occupiers and/or settle their own scores.

Distinguishing a future terrorist underground from the merely unfortunate will require segregation and interrogation while not allowing intelligence operations to turn into opportunities for wreaking vengeance. This is not something U.S. personnel will have the mandate or skills to do.

Captivity for some fleeing from or freed in Mosul could also create tensions with the United Nations and international aid organizations, which may tend to see those streaming out of or left behind in Mosul from strictly a humanitarian point of view. Large-scale imprisonment will not necessarily work either, unless accompanied by effective de-radicalization and rehabilitation.

One must remember that ISIL itself was nurtured in a U.S.-run prison in Iraq.

The battle of Aleppo is now in its fifth year. Syrian government forces control the western half of the city while a coalition of rebel forces, including both jihadist and secular formations supported by the West, occupy its eastern half. The rebel forces  whose numbers may range from 8,000 to 15,000 fighters  confront Russian-supported Syrian government forces, pro-government militias and Shiite volunteer units from Iran, Iraq and Lebanon, including Hezbollah.

Before the outset of Syria's civil war, Aleppo's population exceeded 2 million people, making it Syria's most populous city and roughly the same size as Mosul before its capture by ISIS. Approximately 80 percent of the inhabitants were Sunnis, making Aleppo a hotbed of resistance, although not all Sunnis opposed the regime, and even fewer took up arms.

Today, about 275,000 civilians are believed to still reside in the eastern, rebel-held part of the city, while an estimated 1.5 million live in the government-controlled western part.

The current government offensive in Aleppo began in June. By late July, government forces had succeeded in cutting off the last rebel corridor between Aleppo and the Turkish border. Efforts to drive the rebels out of Aleppo escalated in September. The battle has been characterized by artillery barrages and heavy bombing by Russian and Syrian aircraft, including Syria's continuing use of barrel bombs, improvised but highly destructive devices responsible for thousands of deaths. The United Nations has denounced their use.

The government's tactics appear deliberately indiscriminate. The U.N.'s human rights chief has described them as war crimes. Where targeting is apparent, it appears to be aimed at schools, hospitals and rescue workers.

This kind of warfare reflects Syria's and Russia's approach to counterinsurgency, which aims at making life untenable in zones outside of government control by attacking commerce, food production, public health and other essential services necessary for day-to-day living.

It makes no distinction between rebel fighters and noncombatants.

Such tactics, plus indiscriminate attacks and atrocities by jihadist fanatics like ISIS, which advertises unlimited violence and atrocities as evidence of its authenticity, have turned more than half of Syria's pre-war population into refugees seeking safety inside and outside Syria.

The Syrian government seems determined not just to annihilate the rebels in Aleppo, but to depopulate the rebel-held part of the city.

Syria's ruthless strategy in the battle of Aleppo recalls both Syria's own history and that of the Soviet Union in dealing with internal threats.

Syria's ruthless strategy in the battle of Aleppo recalls both Syria's own history and that of the Soviet Union in dealing with internal threats. In response to a Sunni Muslim Brotherhood uprising in 1982, Hafez Assad  then-president of Syria and father of current President Bashar Assad  shelled the rebels' stronghold in the city of Hama, killing tens of thousands in order to root out a few hundred insurgents.

It was deliberately brutal and broke the back of the rebellion. Syrians are still haunted by the event.

From the 1930s into the 1950s, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin forcibly transferred entire populations: masses of people considered a potential security threat on the basis of class or ethnic identity. It is estimated that these forced internal migrations affected as many as 6 million people.

Millions died on the way to or during their harsh exile in Siberia, but the internal deportations snuffed out actual, imagined and potential opposition to the regime. Some, like the survivors of the hundreds of thousands of thousands of Chechens deported in the 1940s, were not allowed to return to their homes until the 1990s.

What is taking place in Aleppo is not senseless violence, from the Syrian regime's perspective. It denies rebels popular support, not by winning hearts and minds or turning the population against the rebels, but rather by turning the people into refugees on the run or reducing them to subsistence-level.

It is a means of creating terror and thereby a warning to other Syrian towns that even the presence of rebels will bring total destruction. It also radicalizes the surviving rebels, propelling them into the ranks of the fanatics whom many Syrians and foreign powers regard with equal or greater dread.

The Assad regime emerges as the lesser of two evils.

Syrian authorities have little concern about identifying who among the civilians might secretly support the rebels. A civilian in a rebel-held zone, by geographic definition, is a rebel supporter, whether out of sympathy or as a consequence of coercion.

But the slaughter currently taking place in Aleppo also betrays the Syrian government's vision of what Syria will be in the future.

It makes reconciliation between its minority Alawite-dominated regime and its Sunni majority population impossible. The conflict has become existential for all sides. Syria is effectively partitioned along sectarian and ethnic fault lines.

The government's style of warfare deepens rather than bridges these divisions. It accepts that Syria will remain a divided country with a government controlled enclave connecting Damascus, Aleppo, and the Western governorates, separate Kurdish enclaves in the north, which are a great concern for Turkey, and a vast ungoverned Sunni badlands to the east, much of which is still dominated by ISIS.

The battle of Aleppo is nothing more than sectarian and political cleansing.

Perhaps, when world attention turns to other matters, this part of Syria can gradually be reconquered, but for the immediate future, it is a terrorist problem for the West. In the context of this vision of the future, the battle of Aleppo is nothing more than sectarian and political cleansing.

The Syrian government's strategy undermines any American illusions about the prospects for a grand negotiated settlement for the country that will bring peace and eventually produce a democratic government of national reconciliation that is able to command the allegiance of all its people. The difficulty of even a partial cessation of hostilities in Syria was underscored by the failure of the recent cease-fire negotiated by Russia and the United States, which took months to put into place.

Syrian strategy  brutal and meriting international condemnation as a war crime  in the short run may prove more effective than Western efforts, which rest upon being able to make fine distinctions among Syria's myriad of rebel factions and turn the more acceptable groups into an effective force capable of resisting the government's onslaught while simultaneously destroying dangerous jihadists to protect the West and other countries against their terrorist campaigns.

Both Syria and Russia disregard world opinion. Bashar Assad is desperate and has nothing to lose. Russian President Vladimir Putin's attitude is one of disdain, based upon a calculation that there is little support among Russia's accusers for confrontation over the plight of Syria's rebels or its unfortunate civilians. That makes things easier for Damascus and Moscow.

Aleppo is the result. Mosul poses a more difficult challenge.

Brian Michael Jenkins is a senior adviser to the president of the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation, and the author of the recent RAND report How the Current Conflicts Are Shaping the Future of Syria and Iraq.

This commentary originally appeared on The Hill on November 14, 2016. Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed research and analysis.
While one in ten Spanish connected households pay for online content, only 1.8% subscribe to Netflix.





Even though the subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service doesnt deliver country-by-country figures, a report about Spains online habits shows over 200,000 homes out of the almost 14 million households with broadband Internet access are subscribing to Netflix.According to the report published by the Comision Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (CNMC), Spaniards spend over one hour per day watching online content, but most of it is for free. The report also reveals that the younger the demographic, the higher online video consumption.Online platforms from the free-to-air (FTA) networks, which deliver video-on-demand (VOD), live and catch-up content for free lead TV consumption through the Internet in Spain. Atresmedias Atresplayer is used by 45% of people who regularly use these kinds of services, while RTVE.es is selected by 37% and Mediasets Mitele by 34.8%.One in ten Spaniards uses subscription-based over-the-top (OTT) services to watch TV and video, with Telefonicas Yomvi (formerly Canal+) being used in 7.8% of the Internet homes. Netflix, which landed in Spain a year ago, is subscribed to by 1.8%, TotalChannel by 1.5% and Wuaki.tv by 1.1%.
Turners latest TNT Original, Good Behaviour, has been snapped up by Australian subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service Stan and by Sky New Zealands SoHo channel.





The new thriller, staring Downton Abbeys Michelle Dockery, debuts on both platforms on 16 November  at the same time as its US premiere.Michelle Dockery plays the chaotic, petty criminal Letty Raines in the show, created by Chad Hodge (Wayward Pines) and Blake Crouch (Wayward Pines) and based on the books by Crouch. Juan Diego Botto (Ismael, El Greco), Terry Kinney (Oz, Show Me a Hero) and Lusia Strus (Wayward Pines, Cotton) also star.Letty Raines is described by the broadcaster as a thief and con-artist whose life is always one wrong turn or one bad decision from implosion. Out of prison and trying to re-connect with her ten-year-old son, chaos resumes when Raines overhears a hitman being hired to kill someone.Good Behaviour is, says Turner, part of a change of direction for TNT towards offering cinematic, originals. Next years slate of programming on the channel includes Will, a raucous drama that tells the story of young William Shakespeare, played by newcomer Laurie Davidson. Turner networks truTV and TBS are also developing a number of original comedies including: Im Sorry, Those Who Cant and Search Party starring Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development).
Web TV series All About Section 377 is set to gain a wider audience and a place in Indian broadcasting history as NDTV prepares to air the countrys first TV series highlighting LGBT issues.





Taking its name from the Indian Penal Codes Section 377, which criminalises homosexuality, director Amit Khannas eight-episode Web series is now being remade for television. Not only is its subject matter a first for a fictional TV series in India, it is also the first time a Web series has been picked up by a national broadcaster.The lighthearted programme , produced by The Creative Gypsy, explores the relationship between a homophobic man who moves into the Mumbai home of his gay cousin (played by Amit Khanna) and his boyfriend. Ultimately, says Khanna, the show is about freedom of love.The first series reportedly attracted over 40,000 viewers per episode on YouTube when it streamed earlier this year.With Hitachi confirmed as the title sponsor, All About Section 377 will be aired on NDTV Prime at 9pm on Fridays, beginning 25 November. Episodes will be repeated on Saturdays and Sundays.NDTV Prime got in touch with us last month to discuss the formalities and we were elated, Amit Khanna is quoted as saying in Mid-day. The limited online audience gave us encouraging feedback, and by airing it on television, issues of LGBT community will grab more eyeballs.After the urban setting of season one, a second season of All About Section 377 will focus on LGBT issues in rural areas. Shooting is planned in Punjab.
RAPSI hosted a live text broadcast from Moscow's Basmanny District Court where Russian Economy Minister Alexey Ulyukayev was brought on suspicion of taking a bribe linked to Bashneft deal.

LIVE TRANSCRIPT

19:32 That's all for today. Thank you for being with us. See you later!

19:21 Ulyukayev to stay under house arrest till January 15, 2017. He is prohibited from leaving his apartments without a permission, contacting with anybody, except his close relatives, lawyers and investigators.

19:18 The judge says that placing Ulyukayev under house arrest is adjusted by the circumstances of his arrest. Unfortunately, the judge didn't go into detail.

19:15 Ulyukayev placed under house arrest.

19:10 The courtroom is now fully packed by cameramen who were allowed to shoot the final scene as the judge would deliver the ruling.

19:04 Keep calm, we are going to hear the ruling soon. Judge Karpov's getting back.

18:42 Well, judge Karpov enjoys his time. We are still waiting for the ruling along with Ulyukayev. He's sitting in the courtroom like a granite monument.

18:25 The arrest of Ulyukayev reached top news headlines today because last time such a high-ranking official got under arrest in Soviet times. Notably, a group of officials, including prime-minister, was arrested in August 1991 after a failed coup.

18:11 Wow, we've got another surprise for you. Roman Nesterov is the investigator who is on the stage today. He investigated the so-called Yves Rocher case against Alexey Navalny and his brother Oleg. Here's the full Yves Rocher story.

17:59 Could you even imagine that Ulyukayev is a... poet? Russian RAPSI reveals his skills here. Ulyukayev first published rhymes in 1978. He debuted his first book of poetry in 2002, another one in 2012. Finally, in 2013 the third book titled Avitaminoz (meaning in English vitamin deficiency) was published.

17:51 Judge Karpov decided not to read out excerpts from an on-site inspection report. He said that the ruling would be handed down at 6.30 p.m. Moscow time and left the courtroom.

17:46 Interestingly, Ulyukayev was not placed in a special cage what contradicts an ordinary procedure. Instead, Ulyukayev is sitting with his lawyers on one bench.

17:39 Investigators disagree along with prosecutors.

17:34 Ulyukayev asks the court not to be placed under house arrest taking into account his senior parents. Ulyukayev's lawyer supports the claim. He turns to a comment made this morning by some top Russian official who said that detention of Ulyukayev may negatively affect the work of Russia's economy ministry. Gridnev reminds about Russian interests and the role of his client for Russian economy.

17:31 Ulyukayev says that it's in his interests to cooperate with the investigators. It should be noted here that he refused today to answer questions of investigators. At least that's what they told the court.

17:25 Investigators allege that Ulyukayev may try to flee if he is not placed under house arrest. They demonstrate an order according to which Ulyukayev should be on a business travel to Cuba and Peru.

17:16 Investigators ask the court that Ulyukayev be placed under house arrest. They claim that Ulyukayev was caught red-handed and that witnesses recognized him.

17:10 Investigators lay out evidence for Ulyukayev's lawyers to get acquainted with.

17:03 The hearing finally begins. Ulyukayev says that he is Economy Minister. He has two underage kids and problems with health. Notably, he suffers from atherosclerosis. He is speaking quietly, journalists can hardly hear what he says.

17:01 Our reporter notices prominent Russian lawyer Timofey Gridnev in Ulyukayev's team. Former Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev were once among Gridnev's clients.

16:55 By the way, here's the broadcast in Russian. Enjoy)

16:51 Judge Karpov shows in the courtroom. He greeted the journalists who occupied benches of the courtroom.

16:46 As a matter of fact, Ulyukayev pleaded not guilty as he was questioned earlier today, RIA Novosti reported.

16:36 Ulyukayev enters the courtroom ignoring questions of journalists concerning his guilt. Ulyukayev is seen without handcuffs.

16:25 Judge Artur Karpov is to review the motion today filed by investigators. Judge Karpov presided over a number of high profile cases, including notorius Bolotnaya case concerning riots in central Moscow in 2012.

16:18 Those who failed to take a seat in the courtroom may watch a TV broadcast of the hearing in the hall of the court.

16:10 In the meantime, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed a decree appointing Yevgeny Elin, Ulyukayev's deputy, Economy Minister ad interim. Presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov in his turn has told journalists that the decision to dismiss Ulyukayev from his post hasn't been made yet.

16:05 The hearing is to start in 30 minutes, according to personnel of the court.

15:59 Ulyukayev was brought to court not long ago. The court is buzzing. Cameramen and journalists who have been waiting for the hearing since 9 a.m. Moscow time do their best to get into a courtroom. The entrance is obviously blocked. Personnel of the court manages to keep order as buzzing increases.

15:58 May we remind you that basing on a complex operation carried out by Russias Federal Security Service (FSB), on November 15 the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against Ulyukayev on suspicion that he accepted a bribe in especially large amount. According to the Investigative Committees spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko, the circumstances of the crime are that Alexey Ulyukayev, who holds a government post in the Russian Federation, received $2 million on November 14. Allegedly he received this sum for the positive assessment provided by the Economic Development Ministry, which allowed oil giant Rosneft to complete the deal on purchasing the government-owned 50 per cent stake in another Russian oil company, Bashneft.

15:55 Welcome to RAPSIs live broadcast from Moscow's Basmanny District Court. We are sure you have missed it so much. We have missed these live reports as well, so today we are going to have some fun waiting for Russian Economy Minister Alexey Ulyukayev. Oleg Sivozhelezov and Vladimir Yaduta are with you today, dont forget to refresh this page to keep tuned!
Russian court to review Uniqlo brand owners lawsuit against UTair airline in December

MOSCOW, November 15 (RAPSI)  Russias Intellectual Property Court (IP Court) on December 14 will review a lawsuit filed by Fast Retailing Co., Ltd., which owns Uniqlo clothing brand, against Russian airline UTair over preliminary termination of legal protection of UT trademark, court documents read on Tuesday.

The Federal Service for Intellectual Property was assigned as a third party in this legal dispute.

Fast Retailing Co., Ltd., which is based in Japan, asks the court to terminate legal protection of this trademark regarding all clothing products since it is not used.

Earlier the lawsuit of Japanese company has been put on a halt due to absence of several documents, including one that confirms payment of governments toll.
Russian nationals suspected of illegal hi-tech exports to stay in custody in US

MOSCOW, November 15 (RAPSI, Vladimir Yaduta)  Russian nationals Dmitry Karpenko and Alexey Krutilin arrested on suspicions of being implicated in illegally exporting high-technology products from the United States to Russia, are to stay in detention, the US District Court for Eastern District of New York, where the case is to be tried, has ruled.

Charges brought against Karpenko, 33, and Krutilin, 27, also indicated in the case materials as David Powell and Simon Fox, are based on the evidence presented by NSA agent Susan Ruiz. According to her, the arrested men allegedly conspired to deliver cutting-edge microelectronics to Russia via companies BKLN Spectra, Inc. (Spectra) and UIP Techno Corp. (UIP Techno), registered by Barysheff in Brooklyn in 2015, without receipt of the governments permit.

As law enforcers in the U.S. believe, defendants have deceived suppliers of microelectronics about product customers, provided forged shipping documentation and falsely classified the exported devices on records furnished to the Department of Commerce. However, technology products were delivered to Russia through Finland.

Karpenko and Krutilin were arrested along with Alexey Barysheff, a naturalized citizen of the United States.

According to Ruiz, Karpenko and Krutilin arrived to New York on October 1 and planned to return to Russia on October 7. On October 3, they travelled to Denver, Colorado, where the next day allegedly attempted to get in a U.S. Air Force base located in Colorado Springs.

Earlier, the Russian nationals have refused to take part in pre-trial hearings in Colorado agreeing to the whole process including bail hearings to take place in New York.

At present Richard Levitt is the defense counsel of Karpenko and Raymond Granger of Granger & Associates defends Krutilin.

The Russians could face up to 25 years in prison and a $1 million fine is convicted.
Hearings in criminal case against Karaulova to resume on November 16

MOSCOW, November 15 (RAPSI, Yevgeniya Sokolova)  The Moscow District Military Court will continue hearing a case against Varvara Karaulova (Alexandra Ivanova), the Moscow State Universitys student, who stands charged with attempting to join the Islamic State militants in Syria, on November 16, RAPSI reports from the courtroom on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, defense began presentation of evidence in the case. The court heard testimony from Vyacheslav Komarov, the owner of a cottage where Karaulova lived with her parents after she returned to Russia from Turkey.

Komarov characterized Karaulova as educated girl. She is not a talkative one, but conversations with her are interesting if you manage to engage her, Komarov said. He added that they often discussed literature. The witness denied any talks about Islam with Karaulova.

During October 31 hearings it was revealed that Karaulova suffers from mental illness.

The student went on trial on October 5. Her parents, friends as well as teachers of the Moscow State University have been already questioned.

The second-year student of the Moscow State Universitys Faculty of Philosophy allegedly decided to join the Islamic State terrorist group, also called ISIS, an organization which had been banned in Russia, and secretly started off for Istanbul on May 27, RAPSI previously reported.

Karaulova was arrested on June 4 near Turkey's border with Syria along with 13 other Russian citizens when attempting to cross into the territory occupied by Islamic State terrorists.

After being escorted to Russia in October, Karaulova was put in jail.

She pleaded not guilty.




MOSCOW, November 15 (RAPSI, Oleg Sivozhelezov) - Russian Economy Minister Alexey Ulyukayev on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to receiving an especially large bribe, RAPSI reports from Moscows Basmanny District Court.

Ulyukayev also declined to admit his guilt during interrogation conducted in the Investigative Committee earlier on Tuesday and actually refused to testify, according to investigators.

However, he agreed to cooperate with the investigators.

The court is currently hearing a motion by investigation to put the minister under house arrest.

Ulyukayev was officially charged with extorting an especially large amount bribe.

According to acting spokeswoman for the Investigative Committee Svetlana Petrenko, the minister was arrested overnight into Tuesday when receiving a $2 million bribe. He allegedly demanded Russian state-controlled oil giant Rosnefts representative to pay him a bribe for lawfully providing a positive review and evaluation of a deal that allowed Rosneft to acquire governments share in mid-sized producer Bashneft. She added that Ulyukayev threatened to create obtrusions for Rosneft with use of his position.

Presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told RIA Novosti that Vladimir Putin was informed when the investigation was launched.

However, he failed to answer the question whether the situation with Ulyukayev can affect Bashneft deal.

Bashneft was controlled by the government of Russias Bashkortostan region until 2003, when a major stake was sold to companies affiliated with Ural Rakhimov, son of the former head of Bashkortostan Murtaza Rakhimov. The company was privatized in 2009 when Russian oil-to-telecoms conglomerate AFK Sistema gained control of it.

Investigators opened a criminal case in April linked to deals with Bashneft shares in 2002 to 2009.

Rakhimov and billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov were implicated in the sale of Bashneft stock in 2009. Rakhimov was charged in absentia with embezzlement and money laundering, put on the international wanted list.

The Moscow Commercial Court granted in October 2014 a claim which had been filed by the Investigative Committee and ordered AFK Sistema, its subsidiary Sistema-Invest to forfeit Bashneft stock.
MOSCOW, November 15 (RAPSI, Diana Gutsul)  Russian Economy Minister Alexey Ulyukayev was arrested on suspicion of taking a bribe, the Investigative Committee told RAPSI on Tuesday.

According to investigators, a criminal case against Ulyukayev was launched on November 15. He is suspected of receiving bribe on Monday for a positive review of a deal that allowed state-controlled oil giant Rosneft to acquire a 50 percent share stake in mid-sized producer Bashneft.

Investigators expect to bring charges against Ulyukayev soon.

Presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told RIA Novosti that Vladimir Putin was informed when the investigation was launched.

However, he failed to answer the question whether the situation with Ulyukayev can affect Bashneft deal.

Bashneft was controlled by the government of Russias Bashkortostan region until 2003, when a major stake was sold to companies affiliated with Ural Rakhimov, son of the former head of Bashkortostan Murtaza Rakhimov. The company was privatized in 2009 when Russian oil-to-telecoms conglomerate AFK Sistema gained control of it.

Investigators opened a criminal case in April linked to deals with Bashneft shares in 2002 to 2009.

Rakhimov and billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov were implicated in the sale of Bashneft stock in 2009. Rakhimov was charged in absentia with embezzlement and money laundering, put on the international wanted list.

The Moscow Commercial Court granted in October 2014 a claim which had been filed by the Investigative Committee and ordered AFK Sistema, its subsidiary Sistema-Invest to forfeit Bashneft stock.
IWPR, November 4, 2016

Large numbers of unregistered madrassas, or religious schools, operating in Afghanistan may be serving as a source of extremist recruitment, according to speakers at a series of IWPR debates.

Public events held in August and September heard that the government urgently needed to crack down on institutions with no specific curriculum and no official oversight.

In Nangarhar, officials said that fully two thirds of the provinces 1,500 madrasas were not registered with the government and operated without permits.



Female students in full body veil at the Ashraf-ul Madares madrassa, an unregistered religious school in northern Kunduz province. A BBC investigation has found that the madrassa preaches that listening to radio, watching television and taking photos are un-Islamic activities and that women should not work outside their homes. (Photo: BBC News) Female students in full body veil at the Ashraf-ul Madares madrassa, an unregistered religious school in northern Kunduz province. A BBC investigation has found that the madrassa preaches that listening to radio, watching television and taking photos are un-Islamic activities and that women should not work outside their homes. (Photo: BBC News)

My department is trying its best to register these madrasas and monitor their lessons, said Mawlawi Abdul Zahir Haqani, head of the provincial department of haj and religious affairs. He added that he did not believe that radicalisation was a problem in such schools.

However, another religious scholar, Mawlawi Atiqurrahman, said the madrasas and mosques in areas outside government control did serve as a recruiting tool for extremists.

In the areas that are under insurgent influence, people are incited against the government and encouraged to support terrorism.

In Kunar, religious scholar Mawlawi Najibullah Haqyar said that unregistered madrasas had led to a state of anarchy.

They are fronts for war against this government. Anyone who accepts citizenship of this country and should implement and respect all its rules.

Others argued that such schools were being exploited by outside forces to fuel ongoing conflict in their country.

Mohammad Omar Sati, head of the peace secretariat in Kandahar province, argued that graduates of madrasas in Pakistan had been among the insurgent fighters in Afghanistan.

Pakistan also wants to bring the unofficial madrasas in Afghanistan under its control and use them against the Afghan government, he said.

Parwan provincial council member Hasiba Hift, said, Interfering countries like Pakistan use such madrasas to change young peoples mindsets by provoking them against the government. 

She added, Students are fed anti-government propaganda in unofficial madrasas and brainwashed in order to prepare them to carry out acts of terror.

In Logar province, debate participants said that the government had an important role to play in monitoring such institutions.

Mohammad Qasim Khoshiwal, deputy head of the Logars provincial council, said that it was only natural that an Islamic country such as Afghanistan had a large number of religious schools.

But order had to be imposed from above, he continued.

Peace will be possible when all the religious madrassas are registered and an effective system is used to monitor them, Khoshiwal said.

In Kapisa province, debate participant Shukrullah Mohammadi suggested that Kabul establish a central body to oversee the schools.

The government should set up a control centre in order to coordinate and unify the messages of of religious leaders in the mosques, he said, noting that this had been one of the recommendations made at IWPRs Kabul Peace Conference held earlier this year.

This report was produced under IWPRs Promoting Human Rights and Good Governance in Afghanistan initiative, funded by the European Union Delegation to Afghanistan.
IWPR, November 7, 2016

By Qayum Babak

An investigation by IWPR has revealed that child marriage remains rampant in the north of Afghanistan, with the local authorities warning that they are powerless to combat the practice.

Dozens of fathers and tribal elders interviewed in Balkh, Faryab, and Jowzjan provinces all said that most girls in their communities were married off between the ages of nine and 14.

The legal age for marriage in Afghanistan is 16, although it can be as low as 15 with parental consent.

Local officials and rights workers said that they had been unable to combat traditional practices that often led to young girls being married off to much older men for large sums of money.

The Afghanistan Human Rights Independent Commission (AIHRC) also confirmed that the practice was rampant.

Shah Mardanqal, a 70-year-old resident of Kata Qala village in the Pashton Kot district of Faryab province, said with satisfaction that he had married his 14-year old daughter to Sarwar Baik, 60, in return for 3,000 US dollars, a cow and 10 sheep.

A girl should be married while she is still young, he told IWPR. Here, all parents earn money from their daughters marriages, I did too.

Asked why he had forced his underage daughter to marry a 60-year-old man, he said, A father who keeps his young daughter at home and doesnt get her married commits a sin.

Najmuddin, a 65-year-old resident of the village of Jin Mala in the Shibirghan district of Jowzjan province, also said he had no regrets about marrying off his three daughters when they were aged between 11 and 17 years old.

He added that he had received a total of 19,000 dollars in bride prices.

I sold my daughters after the Islamic scholar in our village told me that the marriage of underage girls was not a sin in Islam, Najmuddin continued.

He claimed that he would not have been forced to sell his daughters if government help would have been available to help lift his family out of poverty.

Najmuddins eldest daughter Runa was married at the age of 11 to a 40-year-old man called Adil, from the village of Pancharigh in Aqchah district.

When I got married, I knew nothing. I didnt even know what a husband was and what marriage involved, she said. I was very scared when I entered my husbands house.

Mohammad Bhai, another of Najmuddins three sons-in-law, said that he had paid 6,500 dollars for his younger daughter Firooza.

Because Firooza was betrothed to marry me, I travelled to Iran and spent many years working to earn this much money, he said.

Both parties consent to marriage is required in Islam for a wedding to be lawful. The ceremony must be carried out by a religious scholar in the presence of two witnesses.

Mawlawi Hanif, the scholar who conducted all three of Najmuddins daughters marriages, said that he had carried out dozens of such ceremonies involving underage girls in Shibirghan city.

He argued that Islam did not prohibit the marriage of girls.

Whoever disputes this, I am ready to discuss it and challenge him, he said.

Brutal Consequences

Balkh director of womens affairs Suhaila Hadid said she could not give exact figures for the number of child marriages in the region, but added, I want to say that every day when I come to my office I face a new case of forced or underage marriage.

Qazi Sayed Mohammad Sameh, head of the AIHRC regional office in Balkh, also said that child marriage was an ongoing crisis.

He said that figures from 2015 showed that 56 cases of forced marriages of underage girls had been registered in the northern provinces. He stressed, however, that this was just the tip of the iceberg.

The cases of forced marriages of underage girls in remote areas and villages are much higher than we thought or expected, he continued.

Sameh said that the cases that they registered related mostly to much older men who had paid large sums to marry young girls.

Such marriages, she continued, were due to poverty, illiteracy, and outdated traditions.

As a result, girls were deprived of their education and often felt they had no other option but to run away from home. Sometimes girls and older women went on to commit suicide. Complications from repeated and early pregnancies were also a serious issue.

The Law on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, enacted by presidential decree in 2009, prohibited a range of abuses including marriages that are coercive, involve minors or amount to a transaction between the two families. However, this law was rejected by parliament in May 2013, and has been shelved ever since.

Hasina Rastaqi, head of childrens rights support at the AIHRC, said that although they tried to educate the public on such issues it was nonetheless the governments duty to take action against the practice.

Preventing such forced and underage marriages is the governments responsibility, she continued, adding, We have held workshops to try and increase awareness among some villagers.

Manizha Mukhlas, who works for the Humanitarian Assistance for the Women and Children of Afghanistan (HAWCA) NGO, argued that the authorities needed to make an example of anyone involved in such cases.

All the people involved in forced and underage marriages should be investigated by the government including the girls father, the religious scholar and the two witnesses.

She continued, Investigating those people who are involved in forced and underage marriages will frighten people and serve as a lesson for others, and thats how to prevent such marriages.

In a tiny minority of cases, women feel able to pay the penalty of ending their marriages in a country where it is seen as deeply shameful for a woman to apply for divorce.

Sharifa, 20, is a resident of Bazar Markaz in the Shor Tapa district of Balkh province. She was given as a third wife to carpet seller Tajuddin by her father, Tangi Berdi, who told IWPR, I sold my daughter for 10,000 dollars because all fathers in Balkh take money from their son-in-laws in exchange for giving their daughters to them.

As soon I set foot in my husbands house, he started torturing and harassing me, Sharifa told IWPR, adding that the situation had been so unbearable that she was prepared to risk the social consequences of leaving her marriage.

I went to the court and got divorced from my husband, she said.

Asked why he had mistreated Sharifa, Tajuddin replied, I have two more wives as well as Sharifa. Whenever I got angry with one of my wives, I beat all three, so as to treat all of them equally.

This report was produced under IWPRs Promoting Human Rights and Good Governance in Afghanistan initiative, funded by the European Union Delegation to Afghanistan.
IWPR, November 7, 2016

By Asila Gahreek

Local officials in the northwestern province of Faryab have acknowledged that ongoing lawlessness is allowing perpetrators of domestic violence to act with impunity.

Law enforcement officers say that they are simply unable to venture into areas controlled by insurgents to make any arrests. Suspects were increasingly exploiting this disorder to escape to more remote parts of the province to evade justice.

In addition, in many areas outside government control Taleban courts are used to adjudicate issues of family law. This has dire consequences for the women involved.

Sarbuland Khan, head of the domestic violence unit of Faryab police, confirmed that the security forces had limited powers.

The Faryab police has little power or capability to arrest criminals in areas where armed insurgents are present, he said. After committing crimes, many suspects in Faryab now hide in areas under the control of the insurgents to avoid being captured.

IWPR interviewed dozens of women in the province about their experiences of domestic abuse.



Rokhshana, 19, was stoned to death by the Taliban in Afghanistan's Ghor province. Forced to marry against her will, she decided to elope with another man and was caught and sentenced to death by the Taliban court. Rokhshana, 19, was stoned to death by the Taliban in Afghanistan's Ghor province. Forced to marry against her will, she decided to elope with another man and was caught and sentenced to death by the Taliban court.

In one particularly shocking case, a 20-year-old woman had her nose cut off by her husband who subsequently escaped into Taleban-held territory to avoid arrest.

Reza Gul, from the village of Shar Shar in Ghormach district, told IWPR, I was 13 when my father betrothed me to 25-year-old Mohammad Khan in exchange for 1,000 dollars. A year later I was married to him.

She said that her marriage had been violent right from the start.

I was brutally beaten by my husband because [he felt] I wasnt worth those 1,000 dollars that he paid my father.

Now with a one-year-old baby, she recalled how her husband had twice broken her hand and leg. In early 2015, the violence reached an intolerable elvel.

At the start of January 2015 my husband got angry with me without any reason and started beating me so hard that I fainted, she continued, adding that at that point she had returned to her fathers house to seek help.

Her father approached a panel of Taleban judges to ask them to arbitrate. They ruled that Reza Gul should return to live with her husband but ordered that he should behave more kindly to her.

However, when she returned to her marital home on January 16, Mohammad Khan once again attacked her, slicing off her nose with a sharp knife before escaping. He has yet to be apprehended.

Reza Guls family took her to a local clinic where doctors told her that there was nowhere in Afghanistan where her wounds could be treated.

After her case won media attention, Faryab governor Syed Anwar Sadaat sent her for treatment in a Turkish hospital.

Sadaat told IWPR that the local authorities were unable to combat violence against women due to the lack of security in the area.

Everything in Faryab province is related to war and insecurity, he said. As long as there is fighting in Faryab, we will not be able to do anything.

Zarlasht Bariz, head of womens legal affairs at the Faryab office of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) agreed that the lack of government control meant that gender violence was now rampant.

Taleban rule in Ghormach district has allowed men to be violent and cruel against women, she said, adding that tribal and ad hoc courts simply did not prevent such abuses.

Sharifa Azimi, head of womens affairs in Faryab province, said that there was simply nothing she could do to help women like Reza Gul.

As the provincial head of womens affairs, I find it unacceptable that a man can illegally buy a 13-year-old girl from her father for 1,000 dollars, torture that helpless girl and mutilate her in public, she continued.

I feel humiliated and ashamed that I bear such a big responsibility towards the women of Faryab but I cant properly perform my duty.

Beaten and Abused

In another recent case, a drug addict attempted to kill his wife by stabbing her repeatedly in the stomach. He said that she had dishonored him by continuing to work as a teacher despite his objections.

Zubaida, a 26-year-old resident of Maimanas fourth district, told IWPR how her husband had tried to prevent her working.

I was married to Kaikawos, my cousin, six years ago; however, my husband went to Iran to find a job and left me alone with my mother and our two infant children in Maimana for four years.

During that time, she began teaching in the village of Khwaja Paitakht.

Since his return two years ago, Kaikawos had repeatedly beaten and abused his wife. Zubaida said that he had burned her work clothes and even tried to strangle her.

I am a teacher, but my husband is not happy about me working and so turned my life into a living hell for the last two years.

In another attempt to stop her working, Zubeidas husband sent her to live with his parents in Sherin Taghab district, 50 kilometres away from Maimana.

Undeterred, she continued to make the lengthy round trip from home to school and back again.

When my husband realised that taking me to Sherin Taghab couldnt stop me from continuing my job, he shared my phone number with a local Taleban commander in Sherin Taghab and complained about me.

Threatened by the Taleban with death unless she gave up teaching, Zubaida had to return to Maimana.

Worse was to come. In May this year Kaikawos took a knife and stabbed her eight times in stomach, before stabbing himself. He has been charged with attempted murder.

Having survived this latest ordeal, Zubaida decided to file for divorce.

IWPR managed to track down Kaikawos to the hospital in Maimana where he was receiving treatment for his self-inflicted wounds.

Asked why he had attempted to murder his spouse, Kaikawos replied, Zubaida is my wife and I dont like her working alongside male teachers at school. Shes my wife, not their wife. It is true that I am addicted to heroin, but I am not that much of a weakling that my wife has to support me.

Nooria Fikri, who works for the Maimana gender rights NGO Zanan Barai Zanan, said that it was weak government had left women and girls at the mercy of violent men.

This appalling situation, Fikri continued, creates the opportunity for every criminal to take advantage.

Indeed, amid the lack of security in the province, local militia leaders are also able to act with impunity.

Gul Andam, a 60-year-old mother-of-eight from Dara Zang village in Garziwan district, told IWPR how she was hospitalised for two months in December 2015 after an attack by a local gang.

Gul Andam said that a militia commander had ordered her to be beaten in relation to a family dispute over land.

[His men] hit me and beat me with the handles of their guns. Somehow I survived, but I was badly wounded in my stomach, shoulder and legs.

Asked why she had not reported the violence to the local authorities, Gull Andam answered, The local government in Faryab is more likely to listen to a stone than to the problems of a woman.

She said that she still lived in fear that the local strongman would order her to be killed.

There are many powerful and armed gangs in Garziwan district, she continued. They dont just rule in villages and some remote areas, but anywhere they want. They can easily kill their targets even inside a hospital, in the streets or on a main road in [the provincial capital] Maimana.

Reza Gul, who has returned to Faryab after her treatment in Turkey, also believes she faces a bleak future.

Now living in a safe house, she said, I dont have any plans to ever married again. I dont want to experience [the same pain] and for another man to see the wounds which were given to me by my first husband, Mohammad Khan.

This report was produced under IWPRs Promoting Human Rights and Good Governance in Afghanistan initiative, funded by the European Union Delegation to Afghanistan.
New York Daily News, November 10, 2016

By Suad Patton-bey

Numerous U.S.-funded schools in Afghanistan are poorly attended and structurally unsound, and some lack basic necessities such as clean water and electricity, according to a watchdog report.

The report, written by John Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, addresses observations from 25 schools in the province of Herat.

The schools were either built or rehabilitated using taxpayers' funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Through September, the United States has disbursed $868 million for education programs in Afghanistan.

The schools are operated by the Ministry of Higher Education.

Investigators at schools in Herat  Afghanistan's third-largest city  found absenteeism for students and teachers. While officials reported an average enrollment of 2,639 students at each of the schools in the Herat province, only 561 students on average were found at each school, or 23 percent of the reported numbers, according to the report.

Many of the inspected schools, which are operated by the Ministry of Higher Education, lacked basic necessities such as clean water and electricity, while others had structural deficiencies that interrupted the process of education, Sopko wrote.

Missing or broken doors and windows were also common.

USAID, in a written response to NBC News, claimed the site visits weren't enough to substantiate the claims from the SIGAR report.

Sopko fears corruption and security issues could undermine the positive impacts the United States has had in Afghanistan, especially as the Taliban regains influence in the country.

"We could lose it all and all the investment for the last 15 years if we don't get it right as we go forward," Sopko told NBC News.
Breitbart, November 11, 2016

By Edwin Mora

Homosexuals in Afghanistan are forced to live in fear and secrecy to avoid being kidnapped, robbed, beaten up, blackmailed, arbitrarily arrested in what police describe as honey traps, and murdered by relatives in honor killings, reports the Associated Press (AP), citing first-hand accounts by various Afghan gay men.

Nevertheless, the prevalent sexual abuse of young boys by powerful men in Afghanistan, an ancient Afghan custom known as bacha bazi (playing with boys), is culturally sanctioned.

Under the Taliban regime, the practice had been considered a capital offense, punishable by death.

However, the practice has been resurrected since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 overthrew the terrorist groups regime, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), an independent U.S. watchdog.

Current law dictates that bacha bazi perpetrators could be executed, but only if the boy dies.

Yet the bacha bazi, as the sponsors are known, are rarely punished for the years of abuse they commit against the dancing boys, and it is not unusual to see older men in public with their young sex slaves, reveals AP.

While the boys themselves can carry the stigma of their [bacha bazi] days throughout their lives, their sponsors, most of them married with children, are not regarded as homosexual, and their actions are often justified with the saying women are for children, boys are for fun, adds the news service.

Members of the U.S.-trained Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), which includes police and army units, have been accused of engaging in the centuries-old practice.

Meanwhile, homosexuals share with the AP how difficult it is for them to come out in public and meet other gay men for casual sex without risking their life and freedom.

The AP quotes Khalil Rahman Sarwary, a psychology lecturer at Kabul University, as saying gay men suffer from psychological problems and unhappiness when they are forced to marry and have children because they are too afraid of being discovered as gay.

In some cases, homosexual men reach a point of frustration where they end up murdering their wives.

AP notes:

To be homosexual in Afghanistan is to live in fear. Naveed and Rameen, young gay men in the capital Kabul have lost count of the number of times theyve been lured into dangerous situations on what they believed to be dates.

Both men describe being robbed, beaten up and blackmailed, and receiving death threats. Theyve even eluded police honey traps that could have seen them thrown in prison without charge, simply on suspicion of being gay.

They know they could be killed, with impunity, if they reveal their sexuality.

AP identifies the gay men by one name only, pointing out that Afghan gay men use fake names to keep their sexual orientation hidden from relatives and colleagues.

After coming out as a homosexual, Zabi became an honor killing victim, murdered by his family, according to his gay friend Rameen.

He was shaming the family by being open about it. They stabbed him so many times, he told AP. It was a warning for us, for other gays. Now we keep to ourselves; we live a hidden life. And a hidden life is no life at all.

Honor killings usually refer to the murder of women deemed to have tarnished their family reputation through some perceived violation of Sharia law. However, some men have also been victims of such killings.

Although honor killings are mainly (87 percent) a Muslim-on-Muslim crime, Hindus and Sikhs in India as well as members of the Yazidi minority in Iraq have also been identified as perpetrators, best-selling author, lecturer, columnist, and retired psychotherapist Dr. Phyllis Chesler told Breitbart News in September 2015, adding that both women and men are capable of carrying out murders of honor.

Naveed, 24, told the AP he had almost ended up kidnapped by a man he met at one of the major hotels in the Afghan capital of Kabul after they shared phone numbers at a doctors waiting room.

The 24-year-old said, He seemed nice, and he was quite handsome, so I thought: why not? But it was a set up; he tried to kidnap me. He drove me to a place where a gang of men were waiting with guns  Im sure they would have killed me, but I ran away.

Muslim-majority Afghanistan, a U.S. ally that has received billions in American taxpayer funds for nation-building efforts, including judicial reforms and the development of Sharia law, remains a conservative, religious society 15 years after the U.S. military dethroned the Taliban regime.

Taliban militants and other jihadists groups that operate in Afghanistan revile the LGBT community as abhorrent to Islam.

The terrorist group has meted out brutal death sentences for homosexual behavior.

Sex outside marriage and homosexuality have been criminalized in Afghanistan.

Pederasty, which is understood to refer to sodomy or sex between an adult man and a boy, is punishable by 5 to 20 years in prison, according to the Justice Ministry, notes the AP. The death sentence can be applied if the subject dies as a result of the act.
AT, November 12, 2016

The former intelligence Chief Rahmatullah Nabil has said the Taliban insurgents are supported by Iran as the country aims to counter the growing Daesh emergence reach in the country.

Taliban insurgents are receiving financial and equipment support from Iran, particularly in the western parts of the country, Nabil said in an exclusive interview with the Voice of America Television Channel.

He added that Russias interest towards Afghanistan has also grown as the violence has spread in northern parts of the country during past two years.

The intelligence cooperation between China and Afghanistan has increased during the recent years, Nabil said.

He emphasized that the Taliban group continues to receive support from Pakistan and the Red Brigade of the Taliban group continues its insurgency with modern equipment in their custody.

Nabil asserted the groups Red Brigade is mainly fighting in western and southern parts of the country, including Helmand, Farah, and Uruzgan provinces.

The remarks by Nabil came as the Afghan officials have long been criticizing Pakistan for supporting the Afghan militant groups, specifically the Taliban and Haqqani terrorist network by providing them with safe havens in its soil.

Afghan officials said earlier Tehran has quietly increased supplying of weapons, ammunition and funding to the Taliban, and is now recruiting and training their fighters, posing a new threat to Afghanistans fragile security. But Iran has also been accused of providing equipment to the Afghan militant groups in the country.
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Honor Defense, an American pistol manufacturer, produced a special handgun specifically to benefit the Navy SEAL Foundation.



Here's what they have to say about it:

Honor Defense is proud to announce the auction of a custom firearm to support the Navy SEAL Foundation.

As an American firearm company, it is our privilege to support the Navy SEAL Foundation with an auction of a firearm. We want to show our support and appreciation to this organization that supports the Naval Special Warfare community. said Gary Ramey, President of Honor Defense. Our country and industry should do more to support families of American military. 

Honor Defense will auction a Sub-Compact 9MM semi-automatic pistol that has been customized by Pittsburgh Cerakote. In addition, Robaldo Holsters has made a custom holster for the auction as well. The auction will be held on GunsAmerica.com next week, starting November 10th, 2016 for 10 days at: https://www.gunsamerica.com/Classifieds/View/_983590569.aspx

All proceeds will be going to the Navy SEAL Foundation. Each year, the Foundation serves over 9,000 active-duty NSW personnel and their families, as well as post 9-11 SEAL and SWCC Veterans. Further information can be found at: https://www.navysealfoundation.org/
Over 100 Years of Artifacts in One Place

To those seeking the highest office in the land, Iowa is where their political dreams rise or fall. Iowa is also about as Midwestern as it gets  it's truly part of the American Heartland and the only U.S. state to be bordered on both east and west by rivers. While some coastal residents may consider it flyover country, Iowa has plenty of attractions.

For those in and around the Hawkeye State, or just driving through Iowa on Interstate 80, there's a must-see museum for military history buffs and firearm enthusiasts alike. It's the Iowa Gold Star Military Museum, and it easily wins a gold star for its presentation and inspiring displays.

It might seem surprising that Iowa would be home to a notable military museum, given that the state wasn't the site of any major engagements. In fact, the Battle of Athens (a small skirmish that took place in August 1861 during the opening months of the Civil War) was fought in neighboring Missouri, as close as any front lines have been to Iowa. Yet the state is still rich with military history.

Given that it was part of the Louisiana Territory, it had been part of both the French and Spanish empires before becoming an American territory and later a state. It supported the Union during the Civil War and, due to efforts by Samuel J. Kirkwood, Iowa's first wartime governor, the Hawkeye State sent more than 75,000 of its sons as volunteers. Sadly more than one-sixth of those who volunteered never returned home by the time the war ended in 1865.

During World War II, five more sons of Iowa would become famous for their service. The Fighting Sullivan Brothers of Waterloo, Iowa, were among the tens of thousands of men from the state to volunteer during World War II. All five brothers were killed in action after serving together on the USS Juneau (CL-52) in November 1942.

It's the sacrifices of all of these sons of Iowa for which the Iowa Gold Star Military Museum was built. The museum's mission is stated clearly to honor and depict the military experience of Iowa citizens in all wars, homeland defense, and Iowa service. The museum's purpose is to collect, preserve, and exhibit materials that illustrate the story of Iowa's military past from statehood to the present. The Iowa Gold Star Museum honors the heroic service of all Iowa veterans.

Camp Dodge and the Iowa Gold Star Museum

Just driving up to the Iowa Gold Star Museum can be a thrill in itself, as it's located in Camp Dodge, an active National Guard post that was first constructed in 1907. Named after Brigadier General Grenville M. Dodge, who organized Iowa's first National Guard in 1856 and later served a term in Congress representing Iowa, the camp was used as a regional training center for U.S. forces in the First World War. It served as an induction center for new service members during World War II, and since that time has been a Guard and Reserve installation.

It's home to the National Maintenance Training Center, Joint Forces Headquarters, Iowa's emergency operations center, a Military Entrance Processing Command installation, and the State Police academy.

The Iowa Gold Star Military Museum is a member organization and facility of the Army Museum System, and as noted it's meant to honor the services of Iowa veterans. It does this in spades via its impressive collection, including 140,000 artifacts, documents, and photographs ranging from the Civil War era to present. Currently, just a fraction (some 1,000 items) are on permanent display, while many others are rotated so that repeat visitors can expect to see something new.

The entire collection, apart from the outside exhibits of military vehicles, is housed in the former headquarters building for the Iowa National Guard on Camp Dodge. It chronicles the contributions of Iowa veterans in state and national defense from the early 19th century, when Iowa was acquired by the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, to the present day. Nearly 60 percent of the items have come from Iowa military veterans through donations to the museum.

The bulk of the collection is made up of real artifacts, including a Civil War cannon, Indian War-era Gatling Gun, and a partially restored Vietnam War-era UH1 Huey helicopter. The museum even has a bicycle that was used by the Viet Cong to move equipment down the Ho Chi Minh Trial  and could likely be the only such example of one in any museum collection today.

One replica, which is understandable, is a full-size WWII Curtiss P-40 Warhawk. It was added to the collection in 2012 to honor the four Iowans who served in China as part of the Flying Tigers during World War II. The plane is a recreation of the one flown by Lt. Colonel William N. Reed, who served as the commander of the Chinese-American Composite Wing. Reed had destroyed a total of nine Japanese aircraft in aerial combat as well as eight additional Japanese aircraft on the ground. Reed was shot down and killed in December 1944.

It's a replica P-40B that has been suspended from the ceiling since October 2012, and it represents Reed's aircraft as it would have appeared in January 1942, said Michael Vogt, curator of the Iowa Gold Star Military Museum.

The Small Arms Collection

As the Iowa Gold Star Museum is part of the Army Museum System, it features one of the most impressive collections of military small arms found anywhere in the country. In total, the collection includes 324 small arms of foreign and domestic manufacture, explained Vogt.

These include numerous American rifles from the Civil War to modern day, as well as many small arms from the Second World War. The museum is fortunate to have pieces on loan from the United States military, including several vintage sniper rifles. Among the donated items is a working example of the German StG44, the world's first assault rifle.

The collection's World War II weapons include some impressive pieces such as a Soviet PPSh-41 submachine gun, an M3 Grease Gun, and a Browning Automatic Rifle, while the Vietnam War-era firearms include the M14, two different versions of the AR-15/M16, and an M60 machinegun.

A full room is dedicated to the rest of the weapons collection and filled with more than 250 weapons in total  from a recoilless rifle to a Lewis gun, as well as several anti-tank weapons and bazookas. Among the sniper rifles in the museum's collection are a Springfield, an M14, and a very rare WWII-era German G-43, still considered one of the most effective semi-automatic sniper rifles ever created.

The Iowa Gold Star Military Museum is truly worthy of a gold star in excellence.

Iowa Gold Star Military Museum

Address:

Camp Dodge

7105 Northwest 70th Avenue

Johnston, Iowa 50131-1824

Regular Hours

Monday through Friday

8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Saturday

10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

(Closed Sundays, holidays, and holiday weekends)

Admission:

Free (Donations accepted and appreciated)

Phone:

(515) 252-4531

URL:

www.iowanationalguard.com/History/Museum/Pages/home.aspx
A few days have passed since the 2016 presidential election that shook America to the core, 
In order to address issues of campus inclusiveness from the perspective of the administration, the University of Georgia looked to give a voice to students, faculty and staff by conducting the Count Me In Survey in the fall of 2015.
Voter guide: Race previews, what to know before you vote

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)  The futuristic city-state of Dubai announced a deal on Tuesday with Los Angeles-based Hyperloop One to study the potential for building a line linking it to the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi.

The announcement of the deal took place atop the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, with a panoramic view of the skyline of this futuristic city-state serving as both a backdrop and a sign of Dubai's desire to be the first to rush toward the future.

However, no financial terms were immediately discussed and the technology itself remains under testing, despite the Apple-like product talk given by Hyperloop CEO Rob Lloyd.

'This has become a transportation hub and leader in the world,' Lloyd said, mentioning long-haul carrier Emirates and the city's driverless metro, the longest in the world. 'In the Emirates, we believe everything is possible.'

A hyperloop has levitating pods powered by electricity and magnetism that hurtle through low-friction pipes at a top speed of 1,220 kph (760 mph). Tesla co-founder Elon Musk first proposed the idea in 2013.

Organizers suggest the Dubai-Abu Dhabi travel time by hyperloop would be only 12 minutes  significantly down from the hour-plus journey it now takes by car between the two cities. Later asked about the cost, Hyperloop co-founder Josh Giegel told The Associated Press the cost would be 'somewhere between the cost of putting a road in and a high-speed rail.' He did not elaborate.

In October, Dubai hosted a competition to design a hyperloop track. In that 48-hour project, designers presented ideas for a possible track between Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central, Dubai International Airport and Fujairah International Airport. Under their plans, the hyperloop trip of some 145 kilometers (90 miles) over a mountain range would be 10 minutes or less, compared to the current hour and 20 minutes by road.

The deal announced on Tuesday would be far simpler.

There would be several stations throughout Dubai connecting the hyperloop system to Abu Dhabi. The pods would then be able to carry passengers and cargo between the cities. At the event Tuesday, Hyperloop officials showed several circular station models for Dubai, including one at Emirates Towers on Dubai's main artery, Sheikh Zayed Road.

Already, government-backed port operator DP World has signed an agreement with Hyperloop One to explore the feasibility of the using the technology at Dubai's sprawling, man-made Jebel Ali Port. DP World CEO Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem attended Tuesday's event with Mattar al-Tayer, the head of Dubai's Roads & Transportation Agency.

'Dubai is a city that understands global change and seizes the opportunity to pioneer,' al-Tayer said.

For now though, Hyperloop One continues its tests in the Nevada desert.

'We do aspire to build the world's first hyperloop here in the United Arab Emirates,' Lloyd said. 'That is our aspiration. We have a lot of work to do.'
MADISON, Wis.  A man whose homicide conviction was overturned in a case profiled in the Netflix series "Making a Murderer" could be celebrating Thanksgiving at home with his family in Wisconsin after a judge Monday ordered him released from prison.

Brendan Dassey's release was ordered by U.S. Magistrate Judge William Duffin even as prosecutors appeal the judge's earlier ruling overturning Dassey's conviction. It's not clear how quickly Dassey will be released. He faces a Tuesday deadline to provide information on where he will live and federal probation officers must also inspect the site before he is released. Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel promised to file an emergency motion in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to keep Dassey behind bars.

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Duffin ruled in August that investigators tricked Dassey into confessing he helped his uncle, Steven Avery, rape, kill and mutilate photographer Teresa Halbach at the Avery family salvage yard in Manitowoc County in 2005. Investigators allege Avery lured her there by asking her to take photos of a minivan.

The state has appealed that ruling and argued Dassey should remain in prison while it was pending.

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Dassey was convicted of first-degree intentional homicide, second-degree sexual assault and mutilating a corpse. He was sentenced to life in prison in 2007. Court documents describe Dassey as a slow learner who had poor grades and has difficulty understanding language and speaking.

In his August ruling, Duffin said investigators made specific promises of leniency to Dassey and that no "fair-minded jurists could disagree." Schimel, in his appeal, said investigators didn't promise leniency and they specifically told Dassey that no promises could be made.

Attorneys are in the process of filing legal briefs in the appeal, which is expected to be argued sometime next year.

State prosecutors argued that in the meantime, Dassey should remain in prison because he's a serious threat to public safety. But Duffin in ordering Dassey set free cited his "exceedingly benign" prison disciplinary record and the fact that he had no convictions before the Halbach case.

Dassey, now 27, was 16 when Halbach was killed.

The judge ordered Dassey released as soon as the federal probation office approved where he was going to live and "completed whatever additional investigation it deems necessary." Dassey's attorney, Steve Drizin, said he didn't know how long that would take but he hoped Dassey would be free by Thanksgiving, which was just 10 days away.

"That's what I'm focused on right now, getting him home, getting him with his family and then helping him to re-integrate back into society while his appeal plays out," Drizin said.

Dassey had until noon Tuesday to provide the federal probation and parole office with the address of where he plans to live. Drizin would not say exactly where Dassey would be living.

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Given that his family lives in northeast Wisconsin, there is little chance Dassey will try to flee, the judge said. Under the judge's order, Dassey would be forbidden from having contact with Avery or Halbach's family.

Dassey's attorneys filed a motion seeking his release in September after Duffin overturned his conviction. That filing said Dassey had developed a plan with a social worker that calls for him to live initially with his mother in a family-owned trailer in rural northeastern Wisconsin about 100 miles from Manitowoc, arguing that would minimize the disruption for the community, Dassey and the Halbach family.

The plan calls for Dassey to later relocate to an apartment in Brown County that his mother and stepfather would rent for him. He would then start participating in educational and job training.

Mike Halbach, Teresa's brother, and Barb Janda, Dassey's mother, did not return calls for comment.

Dassey would have to meet numerous other conditions, including reporting to a probation officer, not owning a gun or other weapon, being available for home visits and getting approval before moving. Any travel outside of eastern Wisconsin would have to be approved by the court and Dassey could not get a passport.

Avery was convicted in a separate trial and was also sentenced to life in prison. He's pursuing his own appeal.

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Their cases gained national attention after Netflix aired "Making a Murderer" last year. The series spawned widespread conjecture about the pair's innocence. Authorities who worked on the cases said the series was biased, but it generated calls from the public to free both men.

Associated Press
'We have collected Rs 83,702 crore in deposits in five days.'

The pressure is evident in State Bank of India Chairman Arundhati Bhattachaya's voice as she, along with her senior colleagues, has been in constant touch with the bank staff to effectively manage the continuing demands on the network and to give confidence to the public that things are improving for the better after the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

Even as she expresses satisfaction at the improving situation of currency transactions at the branch level, she has concerns over falling interest margins and having to forgo fee income on ATM transaction charges.

Bhattacharya spoke with Abhijit Lele on how the bank has dealt with the situation and the implications for its balance sheet.

What is the feedback coming from the branches and ATMs?

There has been pressure at branches, which the staff has managed pretty well. Ensuring that ATMs remain ready (for withdrawal) has been one of the biggest challenges.

Customers have been polite and have cooperated well. This has been the overwhelming feedback from the branch network across the country.

How long will the queues at ATMs and branches continue?

Transactions are going down as people get serviced. The network in South India was open on Monday where activity (transactions) saw a 25 per cent dip.

Since it was a holiday (on the occasion of Guru Nanak Jayanti) in some parts of the country, volumes may go up at branches on Tuesday as they open for business.

But from Wednesday, activity will begin to move down, reflecting customer confidence.

ATM units in the network are being reconfigured to facilitate the new notes.

We are working with technical partners and this work is picking up pace.

More and more ATMs will be available for use.

We expect things to become normal by the end of this month.

How much money has come into the bank's kitty as deposits and disbursed to customers?

We have collected Rs 83,702 crore (Rs 837.02 billion) in deposits in the last five days.

We have exchanged over Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion) of scrapped notes.

Withdrawals from SBI branches were Rs 9,342 crore (Rs 93.42 billion) since November 10.

Have customers used more electronic channels?

Yes, there has been sharp rise in transactions on electronic platforms.

The point of sales volumes have gone up by 300 per cent and Internet banking transactions have increased by 140 per cent.

Banks would certainly be happy to get so much cheap money, but where are the avenues to deploy, given the weak credit demand?

What does it mean for margins?

We are getting a lot of money in savings and current accounts and it will bring down cost of funds.

However, there is a challenge of both credit growth and yields on treasury bonds.

Net interest margins, which are around three per cent may come under pressure.

Plus, the bank will also have to forgo part of the fee income due to the decision to waive off ATM transaction charges till December end.

Photograph: PTI Photo
'Farmers are much pained today.'

'They have no idea what to do with the money they have.'

Vitthalbhai Radadiya, the BJP MP from Porbandar, tells Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore how demonetisation has led to rural distress.

Vitthalbhai Hansrajbhai Radadiya, the Bharatiya Janata Party's member of Parliament from Porbandar, has emerged the first voice from within the BJP to oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetisation scheme.

The way it is being implemented on the ground, Radadiya said, has put the rural economy and farmers in great distress.

Speaking over the telephone, Radadiya told Rediff.com that farmers, who have accounts in district cooperative banks, have been facing acute shortage of cash since November 9.

"The RBI (Reserve Bank of India) circular not allowing exchange or deposit of the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes from any district cooperative banks has led to the collapse of the rural economy," Radadiya said.

The MP from Porbandar, who in 2012 had brandished a gun at a toll booth when asked for his identity card and who later joined the BJP and won the Lok Sabha seat in 2014, is the chairman of the Rajkot District Cooperative Bank, which has over 1,800 branches across Gujarat.

"In the wake of the RBI circular, where will the farmers go to deposit and exchange their old notes?" Radadiya asked.

"Why are other banks allowed this freedom and why only single out district cooperative banks?" the Porbandar MP asked.

"What wrong have we done? Are we money launderers that we are being looked upon with suspicion?"

Radadiya has already made a representation of the impact of this ban on district cooperative banks to Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and BJP President Amit Shah.

"They said they will soon come out with a solution to this mess as they don't want the farmers to suffer a loss because of demonetisation," the MP said.

The entire rural economy, Radadiya pointed out, is based on cash transactions and squeezing out liquidity in such an abrupt manner will only harm the farmers' interests.

"The farmers, who have to stand in long queues outside banks, are much pained today. They have no usable money left with them. They have no idea what to do with the money they have. If the government doesn't come out with a solution quickly," the MP warns, "there will be more chaos."

IMAGE: Women queue up outside a bank to exchange old notes in Beawar, Rajasthan. Photograph: PTI Photo
A task force will speed up the recalibration of 200,000 ATMs so these can dispense the new Rs 2,000 notes.

Arup Roychoudhury reports.

The government on Monday advised banks and the National Payment Corporation of India to waive charges on e-transactions till December 31, to help out cash-strapped people hit by the demonetisation drive.

Following this, the NPCI waived till year-end the switching fee for all RuPay issuing and acquiring member banks for point of sales and e-commerce transactions.

It has also set up a task force, under Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor S S Mundra, to speed up the recalibration of 200,000 automated teller machines across the country so that these can dispense the new Rs 2,000 denomination currency notes.

The old machines cannot do it because of a size mismatch.

The decisions were taken after the government went into a huddle on Sunday night to address the crisis unleashed by its move to demonetise high-value currency notes last Tuesday.

Late on Sunday, after delivering two high-emotion speeches justifying the reform, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met senior ministers, bureaucrats and RBI officers.

The government has also decided to extend the use of the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes for utility payments till November 24. The earlier deadline was Monday.

'Enough cash is available with the RBI. There is absolutely no reason to panic. The supply of various networks will be improved in the days to come,' Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said.

'The focus is further strengthening and activation of the network of business correspondents, the network of post offices, ATM networks and the network and reach of the banking system, activation and widening the facility of e-payment,' he added.

The PM's Sunday meeting went on till past midnight, and Cabinet ministers with different portfolios -- home, urban development, information and broadcasting -- as well as ministers of state for coal, power and finance.

RBI Governor Urjit Patel and senior officers of the Prime Minister's Office and the Union finance ministry were also present.

Asked if the authorities were unprepared to deal with the side effects of the government move, purportedly to flush out black money hoarders, Das said that was not so.

Sources said the government and the Bharatiya Janata Party were apprehensive of the fallout of the move, leading to law and order problems. But leaders of the government and the party felt people had been patient and public anger would subside when more currency notes are pushed into circulation in the days to come.

The focus of the PM's Sunday meeting,, Das said, was also on disbursement of cash in rural areas.

The cash-holding limit for 120,000 banking correspondents, who form a crucial link in the rural monetary chain, has been increased to Rs 50,000 and banks have been given flexibility to increase this limit on a case-to-case basis. It has been also decided to provide cash multiple times to the banking correspondents.

Supply of cash to 130,000 post offices would also be enhanced.

However, Das clarified, higher cash withdrawal limit of Rs 2,500 was only for recalibrated ATMs.

A large number of micro-ATMs would be deployed to help people withdraw cash through debit cards.

To help small traders meet their business requirements, Das said the government has decided to increase the cash withdrawal limit to Rs 50,000 per week from current accounts.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the BJP's Parivartan Rally in Ghazipur. Photograph: PTI Photo
Indians waiting patiently in serpentine queues outside Mumbai banks tell Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf they back Modi's move and are ready to suffer for the larger good of the country.

Photograph: PTI Photo

At 3 am on Tuesday, Hareshwar Tandel woke up.

Never in his life, he tells me, had he bathed so early, but he wanted to reach the bank early this morning.

"I reached the Bank of Maharashtra at 4.30 am, the first person in the queue. I drank three cups of tea by 8 am," he adds. "I have to go to work at 10 am.".

"I need money because there is a wedding in my sister's home, and I have to give her Rs 10,000," he says.

"For my son's wedding my sister had given me a Rs 50,000 loan and I have to return her money now. The marriage is on Saturday, November 19," Tandel adds.

He had tried to withdraw money on Saturday, but failed to do so.

"I only got a chance to deposit Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes worth Rs 50,000," he says. "The money I had come to deposit was bisi (chit fund) money."

"I run a small chit fund business and all the money landed with me before Modi banned Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes," Tandel explains.

Despite all the inconvenience, Tandel, left, lauds the demonetisation move.

"I am ready to suffer for two days, but this is good for the country. Lots of people are suffering now," he says, "but those who have earned money honestly have nothing to fear."

"I have worked hard and honestly to earn money, therefore I support Modi. In the future there will be no black money," Tandel assures me. "In the future, there will be no corruption."

But Tandel is not happy with the government's decision to first release Rs 2,000 notes into the market.

"He (Modi) should have got Rs 500 notes first because that would have solved this crisis," says Tandel. "There is no change (for a Rs 2,000 note) in the market and this is creating lots of problems. I am hoping this problem will be solved in one week."

"I have not eaten non-veg food for a week," he confesses. "But I am ready to sacrifice this much for a better future."

Akhilesh Kanojia tried to withdraw money on Sunday, but couldn't do so.

"I have no money for a cup of tea. I knew that today I have to get money somehow. I reached the ICICI bank at 4 am. My landlord is asking for rent and I have no money to give. I do not use any credit cars, debit cards or Paytm," he says.

Kanojia, who hails from Prime Minister Modi's Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi, shares a room with friends in Mumbai.

"The situation was very bad for us yesterday (November 14). We had nothing to eat except rice and dal. None of my roommates had money to buy vegetables," adds Kanojia.

"I have to reach office by 11 am, therefore, got ready early and came to the bank to withdraw money," he says, adding that he is ready to suffer because he knows the prime minister is doing a good job for the country.

"It is frustrating though to stand in the queue for long hours, but then I convince myself that it is not me alone who is suffering. The entire country is suffering. In Varanasi," he says, "the situation is worse because there are not many banks compared to Mumbai."

"Believe me," he adds, "people are not complaining in my hometown too because they know Modiji's move will be good for all of us in the long term."

IMAGE: Mukhtar Shaikh waits outside the bank. Photograph: Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com

Mukhtar Shaikh has been standing in the queue outside the Bank of Baroda branch since 3 am.

"The first time I have come so early to a bank," he says, adding, "I have drunk at least six cup of teas and smoked a full packet of cigarettes in the last five hours."

"I own a shop, but there is no business these days. There is no money at home either," Shaikh adds.

"Business is down 70 per cent after demonetisation, but I support Modi. In one masterstroke, he has made all the black money useless. People who had hoarded money are running helter-skelter and have no idea what to do with it," he says.

The prime minister, Shaikh emphasises, is a man of vision.

"He has great ideas and he will never do anything in haste. People are complaining about shortage of money, but just wait for three days and everything will be sorted out," says Shaikh. "On the news I saw helicopters flying all over the country to distribute currency."
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday night accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of laughing when 18-20 people died in queues outside banks and ATMs and termed the demonetisation of high currency notes as a decision sans rationale.

Nearly 18 to 20 people died in queues (outside banks/ATMs) and PM Narendra Modi was laughing. He should clarify whether he was laughing or crying, he said, in an apparent reference to Modis remarks in Japan and Goa.

He also claimed that Bharatiya Janata Party people were alerted beforehand about the demonetisation.

How can one explain the BJP people in West Bengal depositing crores in high-denomination notes just before PMs announcement on November 8? Rahul asked.

BJP workers were seen holding up bundles of the new Rs 2000 notes, as seen from images on the Internet, before Modi announced this decision, he told reporters in suburban Bandra.

This move by the Modi government will turn out to be a big scam, Rahul said.

He also claimed that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was kept in the dark about the announcement.

I dont think even finance minister knew about the demonetisation announcement, Rahul said.

The PM took the decision without thinking. We dont want to reverse it, but at least resolve the difficulties people are facing, he said.

Many economists say there is no rationale to this decision. They say its a decision based on political calculation, he said.

The entire opposition is united against Modi governments demonetisation move which has resulted in massive inconvenience for people, Rahul said.

Go after the big players in black money. I dont see that happening. We cannot let farmers and labourers stand in queues for months, he said.

Asked to comment on Modis mother standing in a bank queue, Rahul quipped: Mine and Narendra Modis styles are different. I wont speak about his mother.

Image: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi arrived in Mumbai on Tuesday night. Photograph: Sahil Salvi

-- WAR ON BIG NOTES
In an embarrassment for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, its oldest ally Shiv Sena on Tuesday decided to side with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Parliament on Wednesday to oppose the process in which the demonetisation move is being implemented by the Modi government.

South Mumbai Sena MP Arvind Sawant said Mamata telephoned his party chief Uddhav Thackeray and sought Sena's support in "voicing the concerns of the common man".

"People are being harassed and the poor are being troubled by this move. Initially, the government said the trouble will be over in 2-3 days and now the PM asks cooperation for another 50 days," said Sawant.

Clarifying his party's stand on the issue, Sawant said Sena was not against weeding out black money. "But the process in which it is being done is not right. They (government) should have been prepared for the chaos," he added.

On Mamata's telephone call, he said, "Mamataji said she is talking to more political parties to side up against the government. Whoever wants to join us will join us. Sena will voice the concerns of the common man and side with Mamataji in Parliament for common people."

He said, "Sena will be a part of the parties that are against the process in which the (demonetisation) move is implemented. The government should have had a contingency plan (in place) before implementing the decision."

Sawant said the sudden scrapping of high-value denominations of Rs 1,000 and 500 was a "sheer harassment for the common man."

Mamata is trying to play a pivot against the Modi government and is tapping into public sentiment post withdrawal of the high value tenders announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8.

Accusing the Modi government of turning the people of the country into "beggars", Mamata earlier in the day said in Kolkata that she would meet President Pranab Mukherjee on the issue irrespective of whether other parties join her or not.

She has also flayed the decision to use indelible ink to mark customers who exchange defunct currency notes and said it showed that this government "distrusts" the common people.
For the first time, the Central Reserve Police Force has deployed a team of women commandos in anti-Naxal operations in Jharkhand.

The 135 women, belonging to the 232 battalions Delta company, are currently undertaking operations under the close supervision of CRPFs 133 battalion in Naxal-infested forests on the outskirts of Ranchi near Khoonti area.

Sanjay A Lathkar, CRPF IG of Jharkhand, said, On October 17, a company of woman commandos was for the first time inducted in CRPF to counter Naxal insurgency in Jharkhand. They have started carrying out anti-Naxal operations.

Neeraj Pandey, CRPF Commandment of 133 battalion, said, The women are brave and currently undertaking first hand experience of anti-Naxal operation in forests outside Ranchi. They have been provided extensive training in CRPF academies specially for countering the Naxals.

Since the induction of women commandos, the strength of our operation in Naxal-infested areas has increased two-fold, Pandey said.

The women commandos are second to none and have been given training on a par with men. They are equally able to tackle the Naxal issue, he said.

We wanted to serve our country and that is why we are here. We have resolved to eradicate the Naxal menace completely as it is not only harmful and fatal for people but also affecting the progress of the country, said Shakti Tirkey, Delta company commander who is heading the 135 woman commandos.

G V H Giri Prasad, deputy inspector general, CRPF said women commandos come handy in several situations while carrying out anti-Naxal operations.

It was felt that to tackle women Naxals, there should be women commandos who must be equally capable of neutralizing Naxals. The women commandos are well prepared and well groomed to face any situation and hardships. There is no difference between a man and a woman commando, Prasad said.

The woman commandos are experts in carrying out all types of anti-Naxal operations.

They have been trained in several case studies and carry out their operation in a perfect manner. They are equipped with modern weapons and software to assist them in executing their plan, the CRPF officers said.

IMAGE: CRPF deploys women commandos in anti-Naxal operation for the first time in Ranchi, Jharkhand on Tuesday . Photograph: PTI Photo
Free dialysis will be provided free dialysis for those below the poverty line as part of free healthcare for the poor, reports Veena Mani.

Union Health Minister J P Nadda said that 4,000 dialysis centres would be established across the country. The minister also mentioned that the government was working to provide free dialysis for those below the poverty line. The subsidy will be provided by the central government.

Dialysis is the clinical purification of blood, as a substitute for the normal function of the kidney.

This comes at a time when the government is working on a national health policy, where free basic healthcare for those below the poverty line will be the focus.

Some states have already invited bids to open dialysis centres in their states.

The state health department has stirred up a hornets nest with its recent decision inviting bids to start dialysis centres in 14 state run rural hospitals in eight districts under the Public Private Partnership mode.

Andhra Pradesh too has been one of the states. NephroPlus will be providing dialysis in 13 towns.

Other states like Madhya Pradesh have also floated tenders to set up dialysis centres. The cost of each bed in a dialysis unit is around Rs 8 to 10 lakh.

Vikram Vuppula, the chief executive officer of NephroPlus, and a dialysis provider that has been teaming up with the Andhra Pradesh government, is of the opinion that the government is on the right track to provide free dialysis as in other countries.

He, however, says that there should be rules on the minimum number of beds that each centre in the PPP mode should have.

Among the other government schemes to provide healthcare for all is the latest insurance-based scheme wherein BPL families will get support from the government up to Rs 1 lakh.

The prime minister announced this scheme on Independence Day this year, which the government plans to implement from the next financial year. A cabinet note is in the making. This scheme will be replacing the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana which provides support up to Rs 30,000.

Image used for representative purposes only.
Reflecting their growing proximity, India and Israel on Tuesday decided to further "broad-base" their already close defence partnership and intensify cooperation in combating radicalisation and extremism, while calling upon global community to act tough against terror networks and States harbouring them.

The two countries also agreed to deepen their cooperation in a variety of areas including trade and investment, agriculture, water resources and cyber crime during extensive talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, who is on his first visit to India.

Giving gist of his talks with the Israeli leader, Modi, in a media statement, said people of both countries were constantly threatened by forces of terrorism and extremism and both sides agreed to intensify cooperation in combating them effectively, particularly having "practical and specific" engagement such as in the cyber domain.

"We recognize that terrorism is a global challenge, knows no boundaries and has extensive links with other forms of organized crime," he said.

In an obvious reference to Pakistan, the prime minister said, "Regrettably, one of the countries of its origin and spread is in India's neighbourhood.

"We agreed that the international community must act with resolve and determination against terror networks and States that harbour them. Failure to act and silence of speech only encourages the terrorists," he said.

Noting that Rivlin's visit has given a "crucial push" to efforts to build new pillars in bilateral ties, Modi said both sides noted the strength of the growing defence partnership and agreed on the need to make it "more broad-based" through production and manufacturing partnerships.

India is Israel's largest buyer of military hardware and the latter has been supplying various weapons systems, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles over the last few years but the transactions have largely remained behind the curtains.

The two sides inked two pacts to strengthen cooperation in agricuture and water resources management sectors.

Referring to growing collaboration between the two countries, particularly in defence sector, Rivlin, the first Israeli president to visit India in two decades, said his country is ready to "make in India and make with India".

He also asserting that nothing can justify terrorism. "We stand together in defending our people and our values," Rivlin said.

The two sides inked two pacts to strengthen cooperation in agriculture and water resources management sectors.

Talking about security cooperation, the prime minister said that the two sides agreed to "intensify cooperation to combat the forces of extremism and radicalisation that threaten all peace-loving nations. We also prioritised practical and specific engagement such as in the cyber domain."

He said both sides recognised that terrorism is a global challenge that knows no boundaries and has extensive links with other forms of organised crime.

Referring to Israel's expertise in micro-irrigation in drought-prone areas, the Prime Minister said and water management and conservation, and collaboration in scientific research were identified as areas for priority engagement.

He said both sides agreed that the current trajectory of the Indian economy has opened up many promising opportunities for Israeli companies which can scale up their tie-ups with our India's flagship schemes like Make in India, Digital India, Skill India, and Smart Cities.

"Indian and Israeli companies can also work together in high-technology manufacturing, and services sectors. Make in India and as President Rivlin told me in our discussion, Make with India can generate jobs and benefit both geographies. Our partnership can generate jobs and benefit both geographies," he said.

Modi said India was also grateful to Israel for its "clear support" to India's bid for permanent membership in a reformed UN Security Council.

On people-to-people ties, the prime minister said the 2000-year old Jewish community in India represents a thriving link to this past, adding people of the two countries were "biggest strength and the biggest beneficiaries" of the strong Indo-Israel partnership.

"Two-and-a-half decades of our friendship has brought rich dividends for both our nations. It has also strengthened voices of peace, stability and democracy globally. Your visit provides an opportunity to break new ground and shape new contours of our partnership," Modi said.

In his remarks, Rivlin hoped Modi will visit Israel soon.

There were indications that Modi may visit Tel Aviv in first part of 2017 which will be 25th year of formal diplomatic ties between the two countries. India had established "full" diplomatic relationship with Israel in 1992 though it had recognised the country in 1950.

"As we approach this big milestone, we are both committed to advance our engagement on several fronts. And, build on convergences and commonalities in our interests and concerns on regional and global issues," Modi said.

Rivlin, who arrived in New Delhi on Monday, was given a ceremonial reception at Rashtrapati Bhavan earlier in the day. The Israeli leader also visited Raj Ghat and paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomes Israeli President Reuven Rivlin at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Tuesday. Photograph: @MEAIndia/Twitter
With frustration over the cash crunch mounting, Parliament looks set to witness a firestorm of protest on the issue of demonetisation when it meets for the winter session on Wednesday, with a joint opposition having readied itself to put it on the mat.

Though Mamata Banerjees Trinamool Congress failed to build a consensus on her partys proposed to march to Rashtrapati Bhawan on Wednesday itself to protest demonetisation of high-value currency notes, 13 parties led by main opposition Congress resolved to vigorously raise the issue of hardship faced by the common people due to the exercise aimed at squeezing out black money from the system.

As ATMs struggled in disgorging cash and banks appeared crumbling under pressure due to demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 bills, a Congress-led opposition went into a huddle to devise ways to pin down the government on the issue.

At a meeting of 13 opposition parties including arch rivals TMC and Communist Party of India-Marxist, besides Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal-United and Dravida Munnetra Kazagham, opposition leaders unanimously concluded that it was too early to visit the President on the issue which must first be raised adequately in parliamentary forums.

An all-party meeting, which was also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saw him seek the oppositions cooperation for demonetisation exercise aimed at tackling black money, counterfeit currency notes and terror funding, but his unrelenting rivals picked holes in it and accused him of not adhering to the principle of confidentiality and leaking information about the impending action.

Leader of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, however, made it clear after the all-party meeting that his party was not in favour of a roll back of demonetisation.

It is a big scam, perhaps the biggest. There was selective leak of information, many in the Bharatiya Janata Party and even others knew about it (demonetisation) beforehand. We will raise the issue in Parliament... There should be an inquiry... who should hold the inquiry should be decided.

Some say this is an economic surgical strike before the elections (in some states including Uttar Pradesh) aimed at finishing rivals and saving the ruling party (BJP), Azad said after the meeting.

About Mamata Banerjee deciding to go ahead with her proposed march to Rashtrapati Bhawan, Azad said, she had sought an appointment with the President as a chief minister.

She is within her right to go to the President alone, but when we go to him together, TMC will be a part of it.

We have been against black money, we are against black money and we shall be against black money. We have been criticising the government for its failure to bring back black money stashed abroad. But today, people are dying while standing in queues, workers, farmers have no money to pay their bills at hospitals. People from Kashmir to Kanya Kumari are harassed, he said.

Various parties have separately given adjournment notices in Lok Sabha and for suspension of proceedings in Rajya Sabha to discuss the issue and highlight the plight of the common man.

Meanwhile, the Delhi assembly passed a resolution demanding a roll back of the demonetisation exercise.

As the government came under attack, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said a revolutionary or transformative step may have initial hiccups, but it gives long-term gains.

He said the demonetisation of higher currency notes had to be implemented with all secrecy as otherwise the people would have taken care of their ill-gotten wealth.

There is need for ending parallel economy. Our neighbour is hiding, abetting, funding and training terrorists. There is 20 lakh crore of rupees of counterfeit currency in India which is weakening our economy. There are also arm dealers, smugglers..., he said, addressing a legislators workshop in Delhi on infrastructure in the states.

The move will also curb Maoist operations as they thrive on black money.

Hitting out at the opposition, BJP said while Prime Minister Narendra Modi was working to curb black money and corruption with his demonetisation exercise, rival parties had ganged up against him.

Terming demonetisation as a surgical strike on black money, BJP National Secretary Shrikant Sharma claimed that the general public is in the support of the move and now it has taken a shape of peoples movement.

He added that despite difficulties, the common man is supporting the decision.

Mamata Banerjee, however, unleashed a tirade against the government on the issue, saying the people have been reduced to beggars after having to stand in long queues to withdraw their own hard earned money.

Tomorrow I am meeting the President on demonetisation issue. I will be meeting him with 40 of my MPs. I have spoken to various political parties. I have spoken to Rahul Gandhi, Nitish Kumar, Naveen Patnaik, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Arvind Kejriwal.

If they want to join me, it is good. If not, then I will go alone with my MPs. National Conference leader Omar Abdullah is likely to join me, Banerjee told reporters at Kolkata airport before leaving for New Delhi.

Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram of Congress ridiculed the demonetisation move, saying banks doling out cash to citizens was proof that achhe din have arrived.

In a series of tweets, the senior Congress leader also took a dig at the Modi government on the way it was implementing the scheme, remarking that millions of working people standing in queue. Long live productivity.

Shiv Sena, a National Democratic Alliance constituent which has been targeting the Modi government on demonetisation, said party leader Uddhav Thackeray was in touch with Mamata Banerjee on the issue.

Mamata Banerjee and Uddhav ji are in touch. This is not a political issue but something which concerns people. Shiv Sena will do whatever it can to ease the hardship of people, its Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said.

In a sarcastic take on the emotional pitch of Modi over demonetisation, Shiv Sena said his decision to scrap high value currency notes would not put his life in danger unlike his predecessors Indira and Rajiv Gandhi who were assassinated while fighting for greater goals of the country.

Making an emotional appeal at a function in Goa on November 13, Modi had said that there were certain forces up against him that may not let him live and destroy him completely due to his decision on demonetisation and asserted that he was ready to face any consequence but would not get bogged down even if he was burnt alive.

PM Modi is under a security which is impregnable where even a mosquito cannot bite him. Lives have been sacrificed by those innumerable freedom fighters for the nation. (Former PM) Indira Gandhi had waged a war against Khalistani anti-nationals, for which she paid by sacrificing her life, the Sena said in an editorial in party mouthpiece Saamana, edited by Raut.

UP CM Akhilesh Yadav, in a controversial take on demonetisation said economists were of the opinion that black money helped the Indian economy in times of global recession.

I am very clear on this... black money should not be generated. Economic experts say the magnitude of the global economic crisis at times is not felt in India because of strong (parallel) economy of black money, he said in Lucknow.

IMAGE: Opposition leaders discuss strategy ahead winter session of Parliament in New Delhi on Tuesday. Photograph: Shirish Shete/PTI Photo
United States President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that Donald Trump tapped into a troubling strain of rhetoric playing on Americans fears of globalisation to win the presidency.

Obama was speaking after talks with Greek PM Alexis Tsipras in the capital, Athens, as part of a final tour that also takes in Germany and Peru.

IMAGE: US President Barack Obama and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras shake hands at the end of a press conference at Maximos Palace in Athens, Greece. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Youve seen some of the rhetoric among Republican elected officials and activists and media. Some of it pretty troubling and not necessarily connected to facts, but being used effectively to mobilize people, Obama said, adding, And obviously President-elect Trump tapped into that particular strain within the Republican Party and then was able to broaden that enough and get enough votes to win the election.

The US president said that both Trumps election and the British vote to leave the European Union reflected the need to deal with peoples fears that their children wont do as well as they have.

Sometimes people just feel as if we want to try something and see if we can shake things up, Obama said. And he said that in times of stress, people are going to be looking for something. They might not know what theyre looking for, Obama said, and they may opt for change, even if theyre not entirely confident what that change will bring.

IMAGE: Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras welcomes US President Barack Obama before their meeting in Athens. Photograph: Aris Messinis/Pool/Reuters

The US president also called Greece a reliable ally in its commitment to NATO, even under tremendous strain from the countrys debt crisis.

We are proud to count Greece as one of our closest allies and one of our greatest friends, Obama said at the news conference, commending the countrys ability to meet its financial obligations to NATO despite austerity measures.

Global leaders have expressed concerns over President-elect Donald Trump's suggestion on the campaign trail that the US might not keep its current level of international commitments, including to NATO.

IMAGE: US President Barack Obama and Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos inspect a guard of honour at a welcome ceremony in Athens. Photograph: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

Obama also praised Greece for showing extraordinary compassion to hundreds of thousands of migrants, many of them fleeing war, in what has become an enormous challenge for the entire European Union.

I want to thank Greek people for their humanitarian response and their extraordinary compassion, Obama said.

Over a million people passed through Greece last year, and the crisis-hit country has struggled to accommodate over 60,000 refugees left stranded on its territory when Balkan states farther north shuttered their borders earlier this year.
Freedom of the Press 2016 - Colombia

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 18 October 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom of the Press 2016 - Colombia, 18 October 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582ac6d8c.html [accessed 2 November 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.

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

Legal Environment: 13 / 30 (1) (0 = best, 30 = worst)

Political Environment: 26 / 40 (1) (0 = best, 40 = worst)

Economic Environment: 17 / 30 (1) (0 = best, 30 = worst)

Press Freedom Score: 56 / 100 (1) (0 = best, 100 = worst)

Quick Facts

Population: 48,218,000

Net Freedom Status: Partly Free

Freedom in the World Status: Partly Free

Internet Penetration Rate: 52.6%

Overview

The media in Colombia continued to work under difficult conditions in 2015. Journalists continued to face a high level of violence, including an increased number of physical attacks and threats throughout the country. Some progress was made in chipping away at Colombia's long history of impunity for attacks against journalists, but a number of ongoing legal and political issues served to limit full journalistic freedom.

Key Developments

Local press freedom monitors registered the largest number of attacks against journalists since 2009, including two murders.

Although the mastermind of a notorious journalist murder was convicted and sentenced, impunity remained the norm for Colombia's dozens of journalist killings over the past two decades.

Legal Environment: 13 / 30 (1)

The 1991 constitution guarantees the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of information, but defamation remains a criminal offense. In May 2015, the Constitutional Court denied an appeal that sought to strike an 18-month prison sentence issued to Gonzalo Lopez Duran, who was convicted in 2014 for a comment on a news article on the El Pais website that allegedly defamed a public servant. Lopez subsequently brought his case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, where it remained pending at year's end. Media outlets also continue to face frequent civil lawsuits related to their coverage of sensitive topics such as organized crime and corruption. The suits require substantial resources to fight in court, even if most are ultimately dropped.

In July, the Constitutional Court handed down another problematic decision, ruling that media outlets must update stories involving the progress of legal cases, even without receiving specific requests to do so. In a separate decision, the court applied the "right to be forgotten," ordering Google to take steps to block search engines from finding a news article linking an individual to human trafficking, after the individual was later found not guilty. Congress initiated debate during 2015 on a reform to the criminal procedure code that threatened to limit press access to judicial processes and impose conditions on reporting of legal cases.

Attorney General Eduardo Montealegre was at the center of several press freedom-related controversies during the year. According to the Inter American Press Association, Montealegre demanded that several reporters turn over information gathered from sources, and also warned citizens of criminal penalties for delivering video recordings of crimes to the media rather than to the authorities.

Colombia's transparency and access to information law was updated in 2014. However, in June 2015 a new law took effect regarding the right to petition for information that, some civil society organizations stated, conflicted with the 2014 law in ways that could limit effective access to information. Moreover, a January presidential decree regulating the 2014 law was drafted in a way that increased the range of potential justifications for denials of official information.

Two official bodies are responsible for regulating and licensing Colombia's broadcast media. The Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications regulates the licensing of radio outlets, while the nominally independent National Television Authority (ANTV) regulates television licensing. No licensing is necessary for print media.

The confidentiality of journalistic sources is protected under the constitution and by judicial rulings, but illegal surveillance has presented an ongoing challenge in Colombia, with dozens of journalists filing complaints against the administration of President Alvaro Uribe (2002-10) and distrust peaking after a series of 2010 phone-tapping scandals. Two former high-ranking officials, former intelligence chief Maria del Pilar Hurtado and former Uribe chief of staff Bernardo Moreno, were convicted and sentenced in 2015 in connection with the scandal. Accusations of illegal surveillance continue to emerge, however. In December 2015, journalists from radio station La FM presented evidence that National Police agents had been following them and monitoring their communications, possibly in retribution for critical coverage produced by the outlet.

Political Environment: 26 / 40 (1)

Independent and privately owned print and broadcast media are generally free to express a variety of opinions and cover sensitive issues without official restrictions. However, journalists throughout the country, particularly in rural areas, face harassment from various actors, including paramilitaries, local criminals, drug-trafficking groups, guerrilla movements, and the government. Sensitive topics include corruption, organized crime, drug and human trafficking, land conflicts, indigenous rights, illegal mining, and extrajudicial executions. A pervasive climate of fear has led to self-censorship, particularly in rural settings and during election periods. The government operates an extensive program that provides protection to scores of journalists, although reporters have criticized the program's effectiveness.

The Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP), a local watchdog group, registered 232 victims in 147 cases of press freedom violations, the largest number since 2009. Two of the most significant cases were the murders of Luis Peralta in Caqueta in February and Flor Alba Nunez in Huila in September. In each case the journalist had reported on crime and corruption in their respective region. Another visible manifestation of Colombian journalists' insecurity was the brief kidnapping in May of investigative reporter Juan Diego Restrepo in Norte de Santander by the People's Liberation Army (EPL) guerilla group. Several other murders of press workers also occurred during the year, though it was unclear whether they were connected to their work.

Death threats are still the most frequent type of violation against the press, with FLIP compiling information on 59 cases in 2015. An illustrative example was the threat against El Espectador correspondent Edinson Bolanos in Cauca, who received a call in November warning him that he might "receive a surprise for saying things that aren't so." Bolanos, who had recently published an article discussing mining controversies in his region, was forced into internal exile in Bogota.

Impunity for those who threaten, attack, or kill members of the press continues to prevail in Colombia. While a 2010 reform extended the statute of limitations for violent crimes against journalists and human rights defenders from 20 to 30 years, the extension applies only to crimes committed after 2000. The few murders classified by the attorney general as crimes against humanity have no statute of limitations, however. The main advance against impunity occurred in June, when former congressman Dixon Ferney Tapasco was sentenced to 36 years in prison for ordering the 2002 murder of journalist Orlando Sierra. The case marked one of the few convictions of an intellectual author in Colombia's dozens of journalist murders since the early 1990s. Conversely, repeated postponements marred the case of several individuals accused of complicity in the 2000 kidnapping and sexual assault of reporter Jineth Bedoya. Similar delays characterized courtroom proceedings against former intelligence chief Jose Miguel Narvaez for the 1999 murder of humorist Jaime Garzon, a trial that stretched into its fourth year in 2015.

Economic Environment: 17 / 30 (1)

Media ownership is concentrated among a few groups of private investors, and television is the dominant news medium. All print media in Colombia are privately owned. The government operates three public television stations, but the two private free-to-air networks dominate the ratings. The pattern in radio is similar, with the two public national radio stations attracting a small audience share. There are hundreds of community radio stations, which have sometimes faced pressure from the government and armed groups. Local media depend heavily on advertising by regional and municipal government agencies to stay in business, encouraging collusion among media owners, journalists, and officials. According to an investigation by Reporters Without Borders and the Federation of Colombian Journalists, the opacity of the media sector makes attempting to trace and analyze market shares and the specific distribution of state advertising extremely difficult.

As of 2015, the country's internet penetration rate reached 56 percent. The public is making increasing use of social-networking websites such as Facebook and other digital tools, all of which are providing a new arena for journalists to cover sensitive topics like corruption and organized crime. However, a series of leaks regarding surveillance platforms possessed by various intelligence and prosecutorial agencies prompted media watchdogs to issue alerts about potentially unlawful and invasive monitoring of internet and mobile phone communications.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom of the Press 2016 - Canada

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 18 October 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom of the Press 2016 - Canada, 18 October 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582ac6d9f.html [accessed 2 November 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.

Press Freedom Status: Free

Legal Environment: 5 / 30 (0 = best, 30 = worst)

Political Environment: 7 / 40 (0 = best, 40 = worst)

Economic Environment: 6 / 30 (0 = best, 30 = worst)

Press Freedom Score: 18 / 100 (0 = best, 100 = worst)

Quick Facts

Population: 35,833,000

Net Freedom Status: Free

Freedom in the World Status: Free

Internet Penetration Rate: 87.1%

Overview

Conditions for media in Canada are free and stable, and outlets are generally able to operate and exercise editorial independence without undue interference. However, several harsh laws passed in recent years have led to concern about respect for freedom of expression. Police mistreatment of journalists at public events  though infrequent  also remains an issue.

Key Developments

A controversial antiterrorism law came into force in June 2015; it includes provisions against "terrorist propaganda" and prohibits actions that "encourage" or "promote" terrorism.

Following its annual National Freedom of Information Audit, Newspapers Canada reported in October that the federal government had made few advances in improving access to information in 2015.

In an exceptional case, a National Post editor resigned in October after newspaper executives prevented him from publishing a column dissenting from the paper's endorsement of the Conservative Party.

In March 2015, police in Montreal harassed and detained media professionals who were covering student protests.

Legal Environment: 5 / 30

Canada's 1982 constitution guarantees freedoms of expression and the press. The government may legally restrict free speech with the aim of ending discrimination, ensuring social harmony, or promoting gender equality. Hate speech is an offense under the penal code but is rarely prosecuted as a criminal offense. In 2014, the government repealed a section of Canada's Human Rights Act prohibiting expression "that is likely to expose a person or persons to hatred or contempt." Hate speech is also an offense in some provincial legislation. In June 2015, Quebec authorities introduced a bill to prevent and combat speech that incites hatred or violence against a particular individual or group of people. Watchdogs voiced concerns that the bill's vague language and harsh penalties could have a chilling effect on freedom of expression; the draft proposes fines of up to C$20,000 (US$16,000) for violations against individuals and C$250,000 (US$200,000) for violations against groups.

In 2014, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), alongside the Toronto Star and the production company White Pine Pictures, brought a case against the federal government, challenging the denial of journalists' access to Canadian citizen Omar Khadr  a former detainee at the U.S. military detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who had been transferred to a Canadian facility in 2012. The plaintiffs alleged that by blocking media access to Khadr, who had given consent to be interviewed, the government was violating constitutional guarantees for freedom of the press and the public's right to information. In February 2015, a federal court ruled that the government had not violated the constitution by denying media access to Khadr. In May, Khadr was released on bail and was able to give interviews without undue interference.

In the wake of a deadly terrorist attack on Canada's Parliament Hill in 2014, the Conservative Party government of Stephen Harper  in power from 2006 until November 2015  introduced Bill C-44, the Protection of Canada from Terrorists Act. It had been drafted before the attack but was subsequently portrayed by the government as an urgent priority. Bill C-44 proposed to broaden the powers of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), and journalists expressed concern about provisions that would increase the agency's surveillance authority. It became law in April 2015.

In June 2015, a separate piece of antiterrorism legislation, originally introduced as Bill C-51, came into force. The law includes provisions against "terrorist propaganda" and prohibits actions that "encourage" or "promote" terrorism. It also widens the powers of the CSIS and other security agencies to deal with such threats and, among other things, authorizes the seizure and censoring of online and offline "terrorist propaganda." Domestic opposition to the law was significant, and a petition for repeal was ongoing at year's end. Freedom of expression advocates argue that the law's broad scope and vague wording leave room for abuse and, among other things, could be used to curb free speech. In June, the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) challenged the constitutionality of several portions of the law in court. In July, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) stated that the law could impose undue restrictions on human rights and suggested that it be amended to ensure compliance with Canada's obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

In October 2014, the controversial Protecting Canadians from Online Crime Act, Bill C-13, passed into law. While the measure was presented as an attempt to combat cyberbullying, press freedom advocates argue that its language is vague, and that it allows internet service providers (ISPs) and telecommunications companies to voluntarily give customer information to the government without the latter having to produce a warrant. The law's approval was rendered more contentious by a Supreme Court decision in June 2014 to require law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant in order to access such information from service providers. Despite this contradiction, the law came into effect in March 2015.

Defamation remains a criminal offense, punishable by up to five years in prison. A 2009 Supreme Court ruling allows journalists to avoid liability for alleged defamation if they are able to show that they acted responsibly in covering a matter of public interest, even if their statements are found to be untrue. A criminal defamation case filed by fashion mogul Peter Nygard against the CBC remained unresolved at the end of 2015; Nygard alleged that a 2010 CBC documentary about him had been defamatory. In July 2015, a Manitoba provincial judge ruled that Nygard's allegations were sufficiently supported in order to proceed to a criminal trial.

There are no specific laws that protect confidential sources, and the courts often decide whether to respect confidentiality on a case-by-case basis.

Efforts to obtain information from the federal government typically involve long waits, and requests are hampered by federal agencies' ability to grant themselves extensions on requests. Newspapers Canada, a newspaper industry partnership, released the findings of its annual National Freedom of Information Audit in October 2015. It reported that of the approximately 450 information requests submitted to public bodies as part of the audit, only 70 percent received answers within 30 days. The report also noted variation among government levels and provinces in providing complete information, finding the federal government to be among the least open bodies in this regard. In 2014, legislators introduced a bill to strengthen the Access to Information Act (ATIA), but it was defeated in April 2015. In March, the information commissioner submitted a report to Parliament detailing 85 recommendations for updating the ATIA.

The National NewsMedia Council, a voluntary, self-regulatory body for Canada's news media industry, was formed in 2015. The body is an amalgam of regional press councils  the Ontario Press Council, the Atlantic Press Council, and the British Columbia Press Council  and seeks to function as a forum for resolving complaints against members and promoting ethics across the sector.

Political Environment: 7 / 40

Canadian news media, including the public broadcaster CBC, are free to express diverse views. Although public officials and entities generally grant interviews and access to events to journalists, the Supreme Court in 2011 upheld Quebec court rules that prohibit media outlets from broadcasting the audio recordings of court proceedings or using cameras and recording equipment beyond designated areas of courthouses.

In an exceptional case, the editorial and comment editor of the National Post resigned in October 2015 after executives prevented him from publishing a column dissenting from the paper's endorsement of the Conservative Party and Harper. The National Post is owned by Postmedia, the largest newspaper company in Canada.

Police have sometimes mistreated media professionals during major protests and high-profile events. Journalists reported facing police harassment while covering student protests in Montreal in March 2015. Police also arbitrarily detained a number of media workers during the protests, and were reported to use excessive force. Following these incidents, representatives of the media and Montreal police convened a meeting to discuss improving interactions between security forces and media professionals at public events.

Economic Environment: 6 / 30

The Canadian media sector includes a variety of privately owned print and online outlets, and commercial broadcasters compete with the public CBC, which airs programming in French and English on multiple television and radio stations. Broadcasting rules stipulate certain percentages of Canadian content on different types of stations, and encourage the creation of original local programming. Internet use is widespread and unrestricted, with more than 88 percent of the population accessing the medium in 2015.

Concentration of private media ownership remains an issue. Four corporations  Bell Canada, Shaw, Rogers, and Quebecor Media  account for about two-thirds of television revenue. Bell Canada, the country's largest telecommunications company, also has important stakes in radio broadcasting, wireless internet, and mobile services. In 2013, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission approved Bell's C$3.27 billion (US$3.17 billion) takeover of Astral Media, giving Bell control over 36 percent of the English-language television market and 23 percent of the French. The regulator approved Bell's bid with the requirement that the company divest many of its existing television and radio assets, but the deal still entailed a high level of vertical integration and media concentration.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom of the Press 2016 - Cameroon

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 18 October 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom of the Press 2016 - Cameroon, 18 October 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582ac6da13.html [accessed 2 November 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.

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Legal Environment: 22 / 30 (0 = best, 30 = worst)

Political Environment: 22 / 40 (1) (0 = best, 40 = worst)

Economic Environment: 21 / 30 (0 = best, 30 = worst)

Press Freedom Score: 65 / 100 (1) (0 = best, 100 = worst)

Quick Facts

Population: 23,739,000

Freedom in the World Status: Not Free

Internet Penetration Rate: 11.0%

Overview

The media environment in Cameroon is constrained by a restrictive legal regime. Journalists reporting on sensitive subjects risk police questioning, lawsuits, and extrajudicial detention. As violence has increased in the Far North Province due to the terrorist activities of Boko Haram, the government has focused its scrutiny on journalists covering that region.

Key Developments

A Nigerian journalist arrested in July 2015 was held for several months without charge or access to a lawyer, reportedly on suspicion of having links to Boko Haram, which he had covered in his work. He remained in detention at year's end.

In September, a newspaper publisher was arrested for photographing the police breakup of a workshop on democracy. His trial was postponed several times during the year.

No serious physical attacks on members of the press were reported in 2015.

Legal Environment: 22 / 30

Although the preamble to Cameroon's 1996 constitution guarantees freedom of expression and freedom of the press, these rights are not uniformly respected in practice. Defamation remains both a civil and a criminal offense, drawing fines and up to six months in prison. The burden of proof is on the defendant in defamation cases, truth is not a defense, and the penal code grants public figures additional "special protections." The 1990 Law on Social Communication ended prepublication censorship, but Article 17 of the 1996 amended law gives officials the power to ban newspapers that are deemed a threat to public order.

In 2014, President Paul Biya promulgated a new antiterrorism law that could sharply limit press freedom. Journalists convicted of "defending terrorism," either in print or on the air, can face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of 25 to 50 million CFA francs ($42,000 to $84,000). Moreover, defendants can be tried in military courts.

The 2010 Cybersecurity and Cybercriminality Law and an electronic communications law include measures that allow the immediate identification of internet users, while failing to include sufficient protections against abuse of power and invasion of privacy, both of which can affect journalists and their sources.

While there is no specific law on freedom of information, the 1990 Law on Social Communication does confirm the "right to know." However, the government does not make documents or statistics freely available to the public or the media in practice.

Several journalists were arrested or punished for their work under existing laws during 2015, with at least two facing allegations of collaborating with Boko Haram. Ahmed Abba, a Nigerian journalist for Radio France Internationale (RFI), was arrested in July in Maroua, located in the Far North Region. He was transferred to Yaounde, where he was held for several months without charge or access to a lawyer, reportedly on suspicion of having links to Boko Haram, which he had covered in his work. He was granted access to his lawyer in October, and his trial opened in November. Freelance journalist Simon Ateba was temporarily detained in late August for entering the Minawao refugee camp in the Far North Province without official permission, and on suspicion of spying on behalf of Boko Haram. The camp houses roughly 50,000 Nigerian refugees who fled from Boko Haram.

Several other detentions occurred in 2015, including the brief arrest and subsequent questioning in October of journalist Elie Smith, moments before his scheduled appearance on the privately owned Equinox TV station's political program, Le Debat. He had been set to discuss the state of the opposition in Congo (Brazzaville). In September, Cameroonian reporter and publisher of the newspaper Generation Libre, Francois Fogno Fotso, was arrested for photographing the police as they broke up a workshop on democracy that had been organized by an nongovernmental organization (NGO). His trial was postponed several times during the year. In July, Xavier Messe, editor of the daily newspaper Mutations, was detained for six hours, and interrogated about an article in the paper about tensions between members of Cameroon's ruling party.

Separately, Felix Ebole Bola, president of Cameroon's National Union of Journalists and a senior reporter at Mutations; Rodrigue Tongue of the opposition newspaper Le Messager; and Baba Wame, a former journalist, were charged in 2014 with possessing national security information concerning an insurgent from the Central African Republic, and failing to notify the authorities. In December 2015, the three were called before a military tribunal judge and informed that the case against them would move forward.

The country's media regulator, the National Communications Council (CNC), was created by a presidential decree in 1991 and given powers extending from frequency allocation to arbitration on libel and defamation cases. In 2012, another presidential decree authorized the CNC to impose sanctions including bans on media outlets. The council has increasingly exercised this authority in recent years.

Political Environment: 22 / 40 (1)

A number of independent newspapers report critically about the government, and radio call-in shows and television debate programs often feature strong criticism of the administration and individual officials. However, media outlets operate under the constant threat of prosecution or regulatory sanctions, leading many journalists, particularly in the broadcast media, to self-censor. State-owned media outlets are frequently given privileged access to official sources.

The presence of Boko Haram in the north has made reporting there extremely difficult. No serious physical attacks on members of the press were reported in 2015. In April 2014, the car of Denis Nkwebo, an editor at Le Jour, was destroyed in an explosion outside his home. In previous articles, Nkwebo had scrutinized security forces' efforts to curb attacks by Boko Haram in the north.

Economic Environment: 21 / 30

Cameroon's only national newspaper is the state-owned Cameroon Tribune, which publishes articles in both French and English and has a daily circulation of about 20,000. Several hundred other newspapers and periodicals operate throughout the country, often with regional concentrations; regular publication for smaller newspapers can be challenging due to cost and irregular enforcement of government regulations. A number of the dailies with the largest circulations are openly critical of the government, but they are not well distributed outside of urban areas.

The state-owned broadcaster, Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV), is widely viewed as progovernment in its news coverage. Owners of mainstream private broadcast media, including private television stations, are also reportedly under the government's influence. Though radio remains an important medium for news broadcast in Cameroon, most of the country's privately owned stations, of which there are about 200, are in large urban areas. Only major international broadcasters  the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), RFI, and Africa No. 1  air across the entire country; Cameroon's private radio stations have local or regional reach. Radio and television stations must be licensed, which requires a lengthy application process and expensive annual fees. Rural nonprofit radio stations are exempt from licensing fees but in the past have been barred from discussing politics. No cases of this were reported in 2015, though programming at many such stations is typically apolitical.

While there are no official restrictions on the internet, usage is limited to about 21 percent of the population in 2015. Online media are expanding rapidly, driven in large part by mobile internet access. Cameroon is burdened with some of the highest bandwidth charges in West and Central Africa despite its access to a submarine cable, SAT3, which links the region to Europe.

Corruption in the media is considered pervasive, with contributing factors including low wages for journalists, lack of formal training, and lack of familiarity with the profession's ethical standards.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom of the Press 2016 - Bulgaria

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 18 October 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom of the Press 2016 - Bulgaria, 18 October 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582ac6dbf.html [accessed 2 November 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.

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

Legal Environment: 12 / 30 (1) (0 = best, 30 = worst)

Political Environment: 16 / 40 (1) (0 = best, 40 = worst)

Economic Environment: 12 / 30 (0 = best, 30 = worst)

Press Freedom Score: 40 / 100 (2) (0 = best, 100 = worst)

Quick Facts

Population: 7,181,000

Freedom in the World Status: Free

Internet Penetration Rate: 55.5%

Overview

The media in Bulgaria are generally free of overt government interference, but many outlets are beholden to major advertisers and owners with political agendas. Journalists also face threats and assaults in the course of their work, including from politicians and other powerful interests.

Key Developments

Banking regulators imposed fines on two media companies in January 2015, penalizing them for their coverage of a corruption-related 2014 financial crisis and its aftermath.

The parliament adopted positive amendments to the country's freedom of information law in November.

Politician and media mogul Delyan Peevski continued to acquire new assets during 2015, and several outlets that were thought to serve his interests participated in smear campaigns against investigative journalists and others who criticized him or the government.

Legal Environment: 12 / 30 (1)

The constitution protects freedoms of speech and of the press, and the government generally respects these rights in practice. However, some laws authorize financial penalties for media-related offenses. Defamation is punishable by large fines, and government officials have filed suits against journalists, though the courts tend to favor press freedom in such cases.

A regulatory body, the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC), has intervened in media coverage of the banking sector and related corruption since the 2014 collapse of Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB) unsettled the country's financial system. In January 2015, the commission imposed a record fine of 160,000 leva ($90,000) on Economedia, the publisher of titles including Capital Weekly, Capital Daily, and Dnevnik, accusing them of "market manipulation" and refusing to disclose sources. In a similar case that month, the regional news website Zov News received a fine of 100,000 leva. Appeals were pending at year's end. Meanwhile, in August, FSC chairman Stoyan Mavrodiev sued Capital journalist Rossen Bossev for defamation in his articles and interviews in other media. Prior to the January fines, Capital and Dnevnik had reported on corruption allegations against Mavrodiev.

In November 2015, the parliament adopted amendments to the Access to Public Information Act that facilitate electronic information requests and expand the categories of information subject to proactive disclosure, among other improvements. While the law was already considered fairly robust, state officials sometimes improperly deny information requests or withhold basic information from media outlets they consider unfriendly, and courts are not consistently supportive of access rights.

The broadcasting regulatory body is subject to pressure from the government, politicians, and large corporate interests, and is notably ineffective at addressing problems such as hate speech. Vacancies on the broadcasting council remained unfilled during 2015 due to political disagreements in the parliament.

Political Environment: 16 / 40 (1)

The media environment is pluralistic, but editors and journalists routinely shape their reporting to suit the political and economic interests of owners or major advertisers. The New Bulgarian Media Group (NBMG), owned by Irena Krasteva but widely believed to be controlled by her son, parliament member Delyan Peevski, has a history of strongly supporting whichever parties are in power. In August 2015, Peevski declared that he held 50 percent of the shares in the Balkan Media Company, the parent company of NBMG, making his role more explicit. The group continued to acquire new media assets during the year.

Some television stations or hosts are openly associated with political parties, and those linked to right-wing nationalist factions often carry hate speech aimed at minorities and refugees. Media coverage of the October 2015 municipal elections and a referendum on electoral reform featured paid partisan content that was often not labeled as such.

Reporters continue to face pressure and intimidation aimed at protecting economic, political, and criminal interests. Journalists, commentators, and bloggers are sometimes questioned by law enforcement personnel about their activities, and prominent politicians have displayed intolerance for media criticism. Impunity for past crimes against journalists remains the norm, encouraging self-censorship.

There were multiple reports of harassment, threats, and physical attacks against journalists and media outlets in 2015. In October, a reporter and a cameraman from Nova TV were assaulted in the town of Samokov by a municipal council candidate and several of his supporters. Another reporter from Nova TV, Veronika Dimitrova, was publicly threatened by a politician that month after her investigation revealed connections between his party and a criminal group. In August, the daily newspaper Sega, which had been critical of the government, revealed that the National Revenue Agency had started a tax inspection against it. The agency then announced that it was investigating the entire print sector because it had been identified as an industry with a high risk of tax fraud.

In a new trend that emerged during the year, several media outlets and tabloid-style websites  many of them owned by or associated with Peevski  launched smear campaigns against journalists and editors who produced critical reporting on the government or the media mogul.

Economic Environment: 12 / 30

A number of private newspapers publish daily, though most are owned by NBMG and a small number of competitors. Foreign media companies own two of the three leading national television stations, bTV and Nova TV; the third is the public broadcaster, Bulgarian National Television (BNT). Both Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) and BNT generally provide substantive news coverage with a range of viewpoints, but they are vulnerable to political interference, and BNR was shaken by disputes over its management, editorial independence, wage cuts, and controversial opinion programs during 2015. Foreign firms have also played an important role in the print and radio sectors. Internet connections are readily available, and online media outlets have proliferated in recent years. The internet penetration rate in 2015 was nearly 57 percent. Social media are extremely popular and play a crucial role in civic and political mobilization.

Media concentration remains problematic, and ownership transparency rules are weak and poorly enforced, though a law that took effect in 2014 was designed to restrict ownership of media by companies based in offshore tax havens. Some observers said the measure was aimed at rivals of Peevski's media conglomerate, which controls multiple print, broadcast, and online outlets as well as the country's dominant print distribution business. In 2015, Peevski declared ownership of a stake in the cigarette maker Bulgartabac, a major advertiser, and moved to acquire other such companies, including the electronics retailer Technomarket. Peevski also received regulatory approval to purchase the television station Kanal 3.

A number of media outlets suffered economic repercussions from the 2014 failure of KTB, which was widely suspected of funding media enterprises to advance the political and business interests of its owner and his associates, including Peevski. The television station TV7 moved toward insolvency during 2015, having depended on loans from the bank, and bankruptcy officials attempted to seize its equipment in an April raid. In August, the daily newspaper Presa and its weekly affiliate Tema were abruptly closed due to similar financial problems related to KTB loans.

The limited and increasingly concentrated private advertising market has raised the importance of state advertising and other de facto subsidies, especially for local outlets. Individual journalists face decreasing salaries and job insecurity, leading to unethical practices and acquiescence to editorial pressure.

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Freedom of the Press 2016 - Botswana

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 18 October 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom of the Press 2016 - Botswana, 18 October 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582ac6dd13.html [accessed 2 November 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.

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

Legal Environment: 12 / 30 (0 = best, 30 = worst)

Political Environment: 19 / 40 (0 = best, 40 = worst)

Economic Environment: 14 / 30 (1) (0 = best, 30 = worst)

Press Freedom Score: 45 / 30 (1) (0 = best, 100 = worst)

Quick Facts

Population: 2,139,900

Freedom in the World Status: Free

Internet Penetration Rate: 18.5%

Overview

Botswana's media environment continued to deteriorate in 2015. A number of legal cases were initiated against journalists during the year, while in January, a cyberattack against an independent newspaper destroyed more than a decade's worth of its archived data. Botswana remains without an access to information law.

Key Developments

In May 2015, three journalists were arrested and charged with the unlawful disclosure of information in connection with a story linking government officials to illegal oil and diamond deals.

In March, lawmakers voted to reject a freedom of information bill that had been introduced to the parliament.

The same month, the independent newspaper Mmegi reported that a presidential aide had confirmed a long-suspected government policy of not advertising with various private media outlets. The official described the policy as a cost-cutting measure, though Mmegi noted that the outlets in question tended to report critically on the government.

In January, a cyberattack against Mmegi destroyed 12 years' worth of its archived data. Its editor alleged that the attack had been perpetrated by the security services in retaliation for a story unflattering to the security service's director.

Legal Environment: 12 / 30

Although press freedom is not explicitly guaranteed in the constitution, clauses safeguarding freedoms of speech and expression undergird extensive legal protections for media outlets. The constitution contains a number of provisions concerning national security, public order, and public morality that can be used to limit press freedom.

Journalists continued to face lawsuits in connection with their work in 2015. Three journalists with the Botswana Gazette were arrested in May in connection with a story that linked members of Botswana's ruling party to alleged illegal oil and diamond deals. The Botswana Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crimes (DCEC) also reportedly visited the paper's offices and threatened to seize its computers. Though the journalists were released, one reporter was charged under Section 44 of the DCEC Act with unlawfully disclosing information relating to an ongoing investigation, and could face a year in prison and a fine of 2,000 pula ($200).

In 2014, the sedition law was invoked against Outsa Mokone, editor of the Sunday Standard. Mokone was arrested and charged with sedition after the paper published a story claiming that President Ian Khama had been involved in a road accident in his private vehicle. In May 2015, Mokone sued the government over the legality of his detention over a period of two days in 2014. Both cases were pending at year's end.

Defamation is both a civil and criminal offense. In past years civil defamation suits by public officials and others have been a problem for journalists, and although some cases are eventually dropped or dismissed, the lengthy trials and associated legal costs pose a threat to journalism. In March 2015, tabloid journalist Daniel Kenosi was arrested and charged with defamation and the unlawful distribution of obscene material under Section 16 of the Cybercrime and Related Crimes Act, in connection with social media posts implicating a government minister in a sex scandal. He is reportedly the first person to be charged under the cybercrime law. The Botswana chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) urged the prosecution to withdraw the charges against Kenosi, saying the cybercrime law's provisions violate freedom of expression as guaranteed in the constitution. Separately, in November, three journalists from the Sunday Mail were arrested for "communicating false statements prejudicial to the state" for a story that linked police and park officials to the poisoning of dozens of elephants.

Access to public information remains a major problem for journalists. Lawmakers from the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) rejected a freedom of information bill in March 2015; the country's minister of presidential affairs and public administration, upon the bill's failure to clear the parliament, stated that the government had secrets to keep.

Parallel media regulatory regimes exist  one statutory and one self-regulatory. The 2008 Media Practitioners Act establishes a statutory media oversight body which enables the minister of communication to exert significant influence over a new Media Council's handling of complaints against journalists. However, the act has not entered into force due to a legal challenge by media outlets, nongovernmental organizations, and trade unions. A ruling on the law's constitutionality was pending in 2015. The Press Council of Botswana is made up of independent media workers and operates its own self-regulatory Media Complaints Committee.

The Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority (BOCRA) began operating in 2013. BOCRA and its founding act have been criticized for not allowing the registration of community radio licenses.

Political Environment: 19 / 40

State-owned outlets have been accused of acting as mouthpieces for the ruling party. A number of private outlets report critically on the government.

Fear of reprisals for coverage that is critical of the government has reportedly led to increased self-censorship. Commercial interests have also led to increases in self-censorship, and some outlets have reportedly suppressed articles for fear of losing advertising contracts with the government or large businesses.

The alleged use of the intelligence services to intimidate and spy on journalists and others is a growing concern. In January 2015, Mmegi, the only private daily newspaper in Botswana, experienced a cyberattack that destroyed 12 years of archived data. Its editor claimed that the Directorate on Intelligence and Security Services (DISS) had perpetrated the attack in response to a 2012 article that raised questions about DISS director Isaac Kgosi's personal finances.

Physical attacks on journalists are rare in Botswana, and no serious incidents were reported in 2015. However, journalists sometimes face interference while working. In May 2015, a union leader interrupted a speech to workers at a rally in Selebi Phikwe to berate a journalist with the state broadcaster, and to demand that he switch off his camera. The union official alleged that the public broadcaster typically ignored union activities and implied that it was biased toward President Khama. A number of other journalists covering the event left in protest of the union leader's actions.

Economic Environment: 14 / 30 (1)

State-owned outlets dominate the broadcast media, which reach far more residents than the print media but provide inadequate access to the opposition and government critics. The private Gaborone Broadcasting Corporation television system and two private radio stations have limited reach. Botswana easily receives broadcasts from neighboring South Africa.

Internet access is rare outside cities. An estimated 28 percent of the population used the medium in 2015, and the government does not restrict access.

A range of independent newspapers and magazines espousing a variety of views are published in the capital. The widest-circulating newspaper, the state-owned Daily News, is free to readers and is generally the only newspaper available in rural areas. High printing costs and limited distribution networks mean that independent papers usually have modest pressruns.

The media relies heavily on advertising. In March 2015, Mmegi reported that a presidential aide confirmed that the government had indeed prohibited all departments and state-owned enterprises from advertising with a number of private newspapers and radio stations; Mmegi noted that the affected outlets reported critically on the government. Upon confirming the policy, the aide reportedly described it as a cost-cutting measure.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom of the Press 2016 - Belarus

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 18 October 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom of the Press 2016 - Belarus, 18 October 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582ac6df4.html [accessed 2 November 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.

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Legal Environment: 29 / 30 (0 = best, 30 = worst)

Political Environment: 34 / 40 (2) (0 = best, 40 = worst)

Economic Environment: 28 / 30 (0 = best, 30 = worst)

Press Freedom Score: 91 / 100 (2) (0 = best, 100 = worst)

Quick Facts

Population: 9,524,247

Net Freedom Status: Not Free

Freedom in the World Status: Not Free

Internet Penetration Rate: 59.0%

Overview

Belarus's media environment remained one of the most hostile in Europe in 2015. The government exercises almost total control over mainstream media through legal restrictions and discriminatory economic regulations, which have been extended to online outlets. Numerous journalists were detained and fined during the year, but reporters were able to cover the October presidential election without significant physical interference.

Key Developments

The authorities blocked the online journal KYKY.org in June, forcing it to remove articles that contradicted official narratives about World War II.

More than two dozen fines were imposed on journalists during the year, with the average amount approaching the average monthly salary of workers in Belarus.

Legal Environment: 29 / 30

Belarus's constitution provides for freedom of the press, but the legal framework as a whole remains highly restrictive for the media. Criticism of the president and governmental officials is a criminal offense that carries penalties including imprisonment and fines. In August 2015, an investigation was launched into an article published by the independent newspaper Slonimskaya Hazeta, which allegedly defamed President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. Provisions of several other laws, including the media law and legislation banning "extremist" content, allow for arbitrary prosecution of reporters and the suppression of dissent.

The Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) documented 19 cases in which journalists were detained by police while conducting their professional duties during 2015. Many of them were targeted for contributing to foreign media outlets without accreditation, and some were detained repeatedly. For instance, Kastus Zhukowski, a freelance reporter, was detained four times during the year. Journalists were fined in 28 cases, for a total of 147 million Belarusian rubles ($9,500). The average fine, 5.3 million rubles, is close to the average monthly salary of 6.8 million rubles.

There are no effective legal guarantees of public access to government records. The Ministry of Information serves as the country's media regulator, and its procedures for licensing and registration are opaque and politicized. Legal amendments that extended rules for print media to online outlets came into force in January 2015. They were adopted urgently in December 2014, without public discussion or consultations with the media industry or civil society. The changes give the Ministry of Information authority to block access to any website deemed to be breaking the law if it has received two warnings within 12 months. Prohibited content includes information that "may harm the national interests of the Republic of Belarus." The ministry does not need a court's permission to restrict access, and there is no legal procedure to appeal its decisions. Other provisions of the amendments increased online outlets' legal responsibility for content, including user comments.

Political Environment: 34 / 40 (2)

The state-dominated mainstream media consistently promote Lukashenka's image and minimize the political opposition. This was especially clear during the 2015 presidential election campaign, when the incumbent received the majority of coverage and airtime. Most private outlets based in Belarus practice some degree of self-censorship, especially when reporting on the family and business interests of Lukashenka and his closest allies.

Bloggers and online journalists produce more independent or critical content, and the influence of internet-based media relative to mainstream outlets has grown in recent years. The government has responded by expanding its efforts to censor digital media. The state-owned telecommunications firm Beltelecom controls all international data transfers and blocks some critical websites, while the state security service reportedly monitors internet communications.

In June 2015, the Ministry of Information ordered the online publication KYKY.org to be blocked for disseminating articles that contradicted the official position on World War II. The website was reinstated after its editorial board removed the articles in question.news websites and social-networking platforms were subject to blocking and cyberattacks on several occasions during 2015. In October, distributed denial-of-service attacks were launched against BelaPAN, an independent news agency, and its Naviny.by website. The attacks began after the publication of a critical article about an event attended by Lukashenka, and stopped after a few days. According to the Ministry of Information, 40 websites were officially blocked in Belarus during 2015, including 18 for content related to drug trafficking and 11 for distributing extremist materials.

The government and its supporters have often subjected foreign media, local independent journalists, and press freedom activists to various forms of harassment and intimidation. However, conditions improved somewhat ahead of the 2015 presidential election, which the government viewed as an opportunity to burnish its diplomatic and economic relations with Europe and the United States. Arrests and fines of journalists notably dropped off after independent reporters publicly complained of the harassment in August.

Economic Environment: 28 / 30

The government maintains a virtual monopoly on domestic broadcast media. Only state or indirectly state-owned television stations broadcast nationwide. Belarusian-language broadcasters transmitting from Poland, including Belsat television, Radio Racyja, and European Radio for Belarus, employ Belarusian journalists with foreign financial support. Although some three-quarters of officially registered print outlets are privately owned, few produce original journalistic content. Foreign ownership of media outlets in Belarus is restricted to 20 percent.

According to the BAJ, over 85 percent of Belarusians use television to obtain information, while 57 percent get their news online. About 62 percent of the population had access to the internet in 2015. Beltelecom, the state-run telecommunications company, retains a monopoly over internet domains, controls the telecommunications infrastructure, and is by far the largest internet service provider.

Independent media outlets work within severe legislative and economic constraints, making it difficult to compete with state-owned media. The amendments to media legislation passed in 2014 oblige all media distributors to be registered, placing even greater pressure on independent outlets. Most such outlets use private distributors to disseminate their publications, as state-run enterprises often refuse to distribute them for politically motivated reasons. In 2015, Belsayuzdruk, the state-owned distributor, and Belposhta, the national postal service, continued to refuse to sell or deliver several independent newspapers.

The authorities discourage advertisers from doing business with critical outlets. In 2015, the advertising market shrank by at least 30 percent amid broader economic difficulties in the country, and the contraction had the greatest impact on independent media. Over 70 percent of Belarus's gross domestic product comes from state-owned companies, and their employees are required to subscribe to state newspapers. These companies also face administrative pressure to advertise only in state or state-friendly media. State-owned media are supported by tax exemptions and direct subsidies from the state budget. In 2015, the government spent 804 billion Belarusian rubles ($52 million) to support state media.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom of the Press 2016 - Austria

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 18 October 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom of the Press 2016 - Austria, 18 October 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582ac6e02d.html [accessed 2 November 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.

Press Freedom Status: Free

Legal Environment: 8 / 30 (0 = best, 30 = worst)

Political Environment: 9 / 40 (1) (0 = best, 40 = worst)

Economic Environment: 6 / 30 (0 = best, 30 = worst)

Press Freedom Score: 23 / 100 (1) (0 = best, 100 = worst)

Quick Facts

Population: 8,615,955

Freedom in the World Status: Free

Internet Penetration Rate: 81.0%

Overview

The Austrian media atmosphere is stable, and both state and nonstate actors generally respect press freedom. However, a number of legal shortcomings  including the existence of criminal defamation and the weakness of access to information legislation  remain major concerns.

Key Developments

Legislators unveiled a draft freedom of information law, but media workers and watchdogs criticized several of its provisions, including a restrictive definition of "information," vague and expansive exceptions, a lengthy response window, and the lack of an independent oversight body.

In February, police in Vienna interfered with media professionals who were covering a demonstration, detaining several journalists for allegedly obstructing the public gathering.

In August, a district court in Burgenland fined the online platform Dossier 2,000 ($2,200) for trespassing, finding that its journalists had violated property rights while interviewing asylum seekers at a controversial privately owned housing facility; the court did not take public interest into account in its ruling.

Legal Environment: 8 / 30

The Basic Law of 1867 and the Media Law of 1981 provide the foundation for freedoms of expression and the press, and the government generally respects these provisions. However, stringent civil and criminal defamation legislation remains on the books, and press freedom advocates continue to urge the government to revise these measures.

In 2014, the Austrian Constitutional Court implemented a European Court of Justice ruling against a much-debated European Union (EU) data retention law from 2006. The legislation required telecommunications companies and internet service providers to store user data for up to six months, and the Constitutional Court's move compelled authorities to cease retention and delete data that had been stored while the law was in effect. In January 2015, following terrorist attacks on the office of the Charlie Hebdo magazine as well as a grocery store in Paris, senior Austrian politicians suggested reintroducing data retention legislation in order to improve security against militant extremism. No legislation had been adopted at year's end, and critics of the proposal maintained that the potential benefits of data retention outweigh the risks to civil liberties.

The 2010 Terrorism Prevention Law penalizes the preparation and organization of terrorist acts as well as training for terrorist purposes. Under the law, individuals who incite hatred or contempt against any group can face up to two years in prison. While some watchdogs have warned that this provision could be used to curb freedom of expression, there were no convictions on such charges in 2015. There was no evidence during the year that a contentious 2012 amendment to the Security Police Act, which enables state authorities to monitor, wiretap, film, and locate individuals, had been used to deter journalistic work or intimidate investigative reporters.

The constitution includes a provision on official secrecy, and the overall legal framework on access to information  containing vague criteria for compliance and lacking a strong appeals mechanism  is among the weakest in the world. In 2015, during a parliamentary inquiry into the failed Hypo Group Alpe-Adria bank, legislators themselves experienced difficulties gaining access to information and documents through official channels. Domestic and international advocates of transparency and media freedom have campaigned for a new freedom of information law as well as the abolition of official secrecy, and official discussion of draft legislation began in 2015. The journalistic community criticized several portions of the bill, including a restrictive definition of "information," vague and expansive exceptions, the response window of up to eight weeks, and the lack of an independent oversight body. A public consultation process concluded in December, and no further progress had been made at year's end.

The Austrian Communications Authority regulates broadcast licenses and manages frequencies, and is also responsible for the legal supervision of audiovisual services and the public broadcaster. Its five members are appointed for six years by the head of state on the recommendation of the federal government.

The self-regulatory Austrian Press Council handles complaints regarding content in newspapers and magazines. However, membership is not obligatory for such outlets, and the three largest newspapers  Kronen Zeitung, Heute, and Osterreich  do not participate in the council. The functioning of the council elicited generally positive reviews from the media community in 2015, particularly for regulating coverage of the refugee crisis facing Europe. In October, the council reported that it had dealt with 807 cases since its reestablishment in 2010, and that Kronen Zeitung, Heute, and Osterreich had been the most frequent subjects of complaints; the latter has unsuccessfully sued the council for questioning the ethics of some of its articles.

Political Environment: 9 / 40 (1)

Political influence at the Austrian Public Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) remained an issue in 2015. Elections for members of ORF management, scheduled for 2016, are expected to produce a significant leadership change, as most members of the ORF Foundation Council, which selects the broadcaster's leadership and controls its budget, have ties to the Austrian People's Party (OVP). The Austrian government faced criticism during the year for granting ORF reporters exclusive access to the country's refugee shelters, excluding private broadcasters.

There is no official censorship, but some legal constraints  for example, a ban on any form of Nazi propaganda or anti-Semitism  allow the authorities to restrict access to websites that promote certain content.

Journalists in Austria operate without threat of harassment, intimidation, or violence. However, media professionals experienced exceptional difficulties while covering politically sensitive stories in 2015. In February, police in Vienna interfered with journalists who were covering a rally held by the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West (PEGIDA) movement and a simultaneous counterdemonstration. In addition to blocking access to the full assembly site, police also detained several journalists along with counterdemonstrators under article 285 of the criminal code, which prohibits obstructing a registered and approved demonstration.

Separately, in August, a district court in the Burgenland region fined the online platform Dossier 2,000 ($2,200) for trespassing, finding that its reporters had violated property rights while interviewing asylum seekers at a privately owned housing facility. In its lease with the owner, the government had required that all nonstate visitors have prior permission from the state refugee agency. The defendants noted that they had secured permission from their interviewees, and that their investigation  concerning whether the facility's owner had addressed grave shortcomings in sanitary and safety conditions previously revealed by Dossier  was in the public interest. A regional court upheld the ruling in December.

The case of Stephan Templ, a journalist and writer convicted in 2013 of fraud in a property restitution claim, continued to cause controversy in 2015. Templ, a regular contributor to the Neue Zurcher Zeitung and a critic of the government's treatment of property seized by the Nazi regime, began serving his one-year prison sentence in October. In late December, Templ's legal representatives discovered state records disproving the prosecution's claim, and were continuing efforts to overturn his conviction at year's end. Domestic and international watchdogs widely maintained that the case was politically motivated.

Economic Environment: 6 / 30

There are several competitive national dailies, but regional newspapers dominate the print sector, enjoying up to 90 percent of their respective markets. Austria's public broadcasting network operates alongside numerous private outlets. Cable and satellite services are widely available and offer content from both Austrian and German stations. Approximately 84 percent of the population accessed the internet in 2015.

Although Austria's Cartel Court has the authority to monitor the media environment to ensure diversity, media ownership remains highly concentrated. In many regions, the largest newspaper also owns the only private regional radio station. The Media Transparency Law, which took effect in 2012, forced public agencies to disclose their media advertisements for the first time. A 2013 law on corruption defined ORF journalists as public-service employees and set strict rules regarding their acceptance of benefits. In July 2015, the parliament adopted a small broadcasting reform package that, among other things, reduced bureaucratic hurdles for founding, operating, and merging outlets. The reforms also eased and clarified restrictions on sponsor references during ORF broadcasts.

The government has provided all daily and weekly newspapers with annual direct payments since 1974, with higher amounts given to newspapers that are considered especially important to the diversity of opinion. In 2015, legislators discussed a proposal to increase these subsidies in order to ensure the sustainability of the print sector, but had not adopted changes at year's end.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom of the Press 2016 - Bahrain

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 18 October 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom of the Press 2016 - Bahrain, 18 October 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582ac6e04.html [accessed 2 November 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.

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Legal Environment: 28 / 30 (0 = best, 30 = worst)

Political Environment: 37 / 40 (0 = best, 40 = worst)

Economic Environment: 22 / 30 (0 = best, 30 = worst)

Press Freedom Score: 87 / 100 (0 = best, 100 = worst)

Quick Facts

Population: 1,412,299

Net Freedom Status: Not Free

Freedom in the World Status: Not Free

Internet Penetration Rate: 91.0%

Overview

Media houses and professionals operate in a highly restricted environment, and conditions for press freedom did not change significantly in 2015.

Key Developments

New arrests and prosecutions of media professionals were reported during the year, and threats, intimidation, and harassment also continued.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, there were five journalists in prison as of December.

In February, authorities closed the Al-Arab television station just hours after it began operating because the outlet aired an interview with an official from the opposition group Al-Wefaq.

Legal Environment: 28 / 30

Although the constitution guarantees freedoms of expression and the press, the government uses the 2002 Press Law to restrict the rights of the media. The Press Law allows up to five years' imprisonment for publishing criticism of Islam or the king, inciting actions that undermine state security, or advocating a change in government. Journalists may be fined up to 2,000 Bahraini dinars ($5,300) for a list of 14 other offenses. Libel, slander, and "divulging secrets" are criminal offenses punishable by terms of no more than two years in prison or a fine of no more than 200 Bahraini dinars ($530). The government also uses counterterrorism legislation to curtail the activities of opposition groups and restrict freedom of expression. In 2014, the government amended the penal code to specify a prison sentence of one to seven years and a fine of up to 10,000 Bahraini dinars ($26,500) for anyone who publicly insults Bahrain's king, flag, or national emblem.

There is no law guaranteeing freedom of information. The Information Affairs Authority (IAA) has the power to censor and prevent the distribution of local and foreign publications, close newspapers through court proceedings, ban books and films, block websites, and prosecute individuals. Under the 2002 Telecommunications Law, the government has considerable authority to regulate internet activity. All websites are required to register with the IAA, and religious and political content is heavily censored. Website administrators are responsible for all content posted on their sites and are subject to the same libel laws as print journalists.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, there were five reporters behind bars as of December 2015. Some, including photographer Ahmed Humaidan, remained subject to highly restrictive conditions, barred from visitation by family members.

Political Environment: 37 / 40

Prior to the protests of 2011, the Bahraini media's coverage of news and politics was more critical and independent than in most other Gulf countries. Nonetheless, newspapers tended to avoid covering "sensitive" issues such as sectarian tensions, relations with surrounding countries, government corruption, demonstrations, and human rights violations. After the protests erupted in early 2011, media outlets and individual journalists came under increased pressure from the government. Media workers have reported being contacted directly by government representatives and warned not to report on subjects related to the prodemocracy demonstrations or other sensitive issues. Most domestic opposition publications have been shut down. Some, such as Al-Wasat, were eventually reopened, but they remain targets of legal harassment and public intimidation.

In February, authorities closed the Manama-based television station Al-Arab just hours after it began operating because the outlet aired an interview with a leading official from the opposition group Al-Wefaq. Al-Waleed Bin Talal, a member of the Saudi ruling family, was the owner of the outlet, which employed more than 200 people.

When reporting on the arrests of journalists and activists, the mainstream media typically adhere to the accounts given in official press releases. One exception is Al-Wasat, which tends to provide more thorough coverage. Al-Wasat continued to face pressure from Bahraini authorities in 2015, facing a temporary suspension in August due to allegations that it had violated the nation's press law by publishing false news.

Progovernment media sometimes engage in misinformation. A 2014 report from Bahrain Watch found 25 instances from 2011 through 2013 in which the Bahraini press had simply invented quotations from foreign officials to support government positions. For example, in October 2013, the sister papers Akhbar al-Khaleej and Gulf Daily News falsely quoted a former U.S. general as saying that antigovernment protests in Bahrain were instigated by Iran and formed part of an American conspiracy.

The only alternative space for public expression in Bahrain is online. However, the internet is closely monitored, with the government devoting considerable resources to surveillance and cybersecurity. Various opposition publications have survived on the web but are forced to operate clandestinely from outside the country. Through orders to internet service providers (ISPs), the government blocks thousands of websites, many of which are targeted for their politically sensitive content. Internet platforms used for video streaming or for holding online seminars are blocked, as are the sites of human rights groups operating within Bahrain. Because the mainstream press self-censors, bloggers and microbloggers have become more active to fill the void; many face government scrutiny as a result. Online critics of the Bahraini government's support of the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen, launched in 2015, have faced punitive measures.

Media workers have consistently faced difficulty covering antigovernment protests, and can face arrest or violence in the course of reporting. In November, photojournalist Sayed Ahmed al-Mousawi faced terrorism charges in court after covering antigovernment protests. He received a 10-year prison sentence and was stripped of his citizenship. Separately, in a mass court decision in February, four journalists were among a total of 72 Bahrainis stripped of their citizenship on questionable allegations of supporting terrorism.

In October, security forces threatened photographer Mohammed Al-Oraibi with arrest if he did not agree to cooperate as an informant. Al-Oraibi had been arrested in 2014, and had reported being tortured while in custody. Separately, authorities arbitrarily detained internationally renowned photographer Sayed Baqer Al-Kamel in December, but released him after two days.

The government has restricted foreign media access in recent years, particularly during sensitive periods like the anniversary of the landmark 2011 protests and the country's Formula One Grand Prix. Many journalists have been denied entry, and several have been deported for covering antigovernment protests in the past. Authorities barred Nicolas Kristof, a columnist for the New York Times, from entering the country to cover the 2015 session of the Manama Dialogue, an annual meeting of officials from the Gulf countries.

Economic Environment: 22 / 30

Bahrain hosts six privately owned daily newspapers, four in Arabic and two in English. While some of these papers can be critical of the government, only Al-Wasat is considered independent of government influence; its editors nevertheless practice self-censorship. The government does not own any newspapers, but the IAA maintains significant control over private publications. Newspapers rely heavily on advertising revenue to sustain their operations and often tailor coverage to avoid offending advertisers that do not want their businesses associated with critical reporting.

The government maintains a monopoly on domestic broadcast media. Private broadcasting licenses are not awarded despite continued interest from media owners. Foreign radio and television broadcasts are generally accessible without state interference, and the majority of households have access to satellite stations. Qatar's Al-Jazeera and Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya, which is based in the United Arab Emirates, remain the main sources of news in Bahrain. The internet is also widely used as a news and information source. Some 93 percent of Bahrain's population accessed the internet in 2015.

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Freedom of the Press 2016 - Armenia

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 18 October 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom of the Press 2016 - Armenia, 18 October 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582ac6e113.html [accessed 2 November 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.

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Legal Environment: 20 / 30 (1) (0 = best, 30 = worst)

Political Environment: 23 / 40 (1) (0 = best, 40 = worst)

Economic Environment: 20 / 30 (0 = best, 30 = worst)

Press Freedom Score: 63 / 100 (2) (0 = best, 100 = worst)

Quick Facts

Population: 3,017,106

Net Freedom Status: Free

Freedom in the World Status: Partly Free

Internet Penetration Rate: 46.3%

Overview

Despite constitutional and legal protections, press freedom in Armenia remains hampered by various factors. Journalists face threats, intimidation, harassment, and physical and verbal attacks in the course of their work. The government and media owners exercise significant influence on editorial content, and the overall media environment encourages self-censorship. Independent outlets are able to take advantage of the country's relatively open online space.

Key Developments

In October, the legislature adopted regulations needed for the implementation of freedom of information legislation.

Authorities continued to postpone the completion of Armenia's digital transition, reportedly due to a delay in securing decoders for socially vulnerable households.

Violence against journalists was particularly egregious in June, during a series of protests over planned increases in electricity prices; police unlawfully obstructed the ability of media professionals to cover the events, used water cannons to disperse protesters and media professionals alike, and damaged cameras and other equipment.

Legal Environment: 20 / 30 (1)

Article 27 of the constitution and related legislation protect freedoms of expression and the press. However, political and business elites do not always respect these protections, and a number of legal restrictions exist as well. The government eliminated criminal liability for defamation in 2010, but the offense remains subject to high monetary penalties under the civil code, which allows individuals to sue on grounds of damage to their "honor, dignity, and business reputation." Plaintiffs  often politicians, businesses, or other media outlets  frequently seek compensation out of proportion to the damage allegedly inflicted. In 2011, the Constitutional Court ruled that media outlets cannot be held liable for "critical assessment of facts" and "evaluation judgments," and encouraged lower courts to suggest nonmaterial compensation in lieu of hefty fines. Since then, lower courts have been more responsive to claims for disproportionate compensation, often reducing the damages originally requested by plaintiffs. However, corruption and general inefficiencies in the judiciary affect the ability of journalists to receive fair treatment in the courts.

Although security forces, judges, and other officials sometimes pressure journalists to reveal sources, no journalist has been jailed or otherwise held criminally liable for refusing to reveal a source. In June 2015, state investigators launched a case against Kristine Khanumyan, editor of the online news portal Ilur.am, in relation to her source for a story on police misconduct in the Shirak region. Khanumyan faced criminal charges for refusing to comply with a lower court decision to reveal her source, but prosecutors dropped the case amid domestic and international criticism, including from the Organization for Security and Co-operation (OSCE) representative on freedom of the media. In October, the Constitutional Court issued a landmark ruling in its review of the lower court decision, finding that disclosure was not appropriate because the case did not involve a grave crime or the safety of an individual.

Armenia passed freedom of information legislation in 2003, and in October 2015, the National Assembly adopted regulations needed for implementation. The impact of the new regulations was not yet clear at year's end. In the past, the absence of regulations had been frequently cited by state bodies as grounds for denying information requests. Many government departments regularly provide incomplete information, and access to some files  including previously classified Soviet-era data  remains problematic. In an October 2015 report on compliance with access to information legislation, the Freedom of Information Center, a local nongovernmental organization (NGO), noted that the National Assembly, the National Security Service, and the Ministry of Defense were among the least responsive entities at the national level.

The licensing and regulatory framework is not open or competitive, and tends to limit media freedom and diversity. Radio and television outfits must obtain operating licenses from the National Commission on Television and Radio (NCTR). Its eight members serve six-year terms; four are appointed by the president and the rest are elected by the National Assembly. Print and online media do not require licenses.

There are no barriers to entry into the journalistic profession, and media workers are free to form professional groups. Most journalistic associations rely heavily on international funding.

Political Environment: 23 / 40 (1)

Editorial independence is affected by pressure from media owners and their relationships with Armenia's political and business elites. The government exercises considerable influence on the content and views of public media.

Self-censorship is prevalent, owing to continued harassment and intimidation of journalists, a climate of impunity, and concerns about reprisals for criticism of the government or prominent public figures. Self-censorship is particularly common in the broadcasting sector. Journalists have more freedom to report online, as a growing number of independent online media outlets serve as platforms for diverse, alternative reporting.

Although grave violence against journalists has decreased in recent years, there were egregious exceptions in June, during a series of protests over planned increases in electricity prices. Police unlawfully obstructed the ability of media professionals to cover these events, forcefully removing some of them from the demonstration site. Security forces also used water cannons to disperse protesters and media professionals alike. At least 14 media workers were injured on a single day during the weeks-long demonstrations, dubbed "Electric Yerevan," and many reported damage to equipment. The head of national police issued an apology to the affected individuals, promising reimbursements for damages. However, at year's end, there was no indication that officers who assaulted or otherwise interfered with the media had faced disciplinary measures. Separately, state actors also interfered with the ability of some reporters to cover Armenia's constitutional referendum in December.

Economic Environment: 20 / 30

Most of the dominant broadcast media are controlled by the government, government-friendly individuals, or other political and business elites. The print sector is small and continues to decline amid a rise in the accessibility and popularity of online sources. Although most print outlets are privately owned, they tend to reflect the political and ideological leanings of their owners, who are often tied to a particular political party or interest. Television is the most popular source of news, and dozens of private channels operate alongside the public broadcaster. Russian and minority-language media are widely available. Although outlets often shield their true ownership structures, the individuals and interests behind most prominent outlets are generally known.

The internet penetration rate was 58 percent in 2015. Online news media and bloggers play an important role in providing a diverse range of news and analysis. The government does not require registration to access the internet or satellite television, and both are freely available.

The country officially began its transition to digital broadcasting in 2010, and in 2015, officials continued to postpone the deadline for completion. The delay has been primarily attributed to difficulties in securing decoders for socially vulnerable households, as required by law. In December, legislators passed amendments to the Law on Television and Radio in preparation for the switchover, explicitly enabling private multiplexes to provide digital transmission. At year's end, most reports indicated that regional analog broadcasters would be permitted to continue operating until multiplexes were able to support their transmissions digitally. Local watchdogs as well as the OSCE representative for freedom of the media have criticized the lengthy process, noting that authorities remain vague about deadlines and that the December amendments set onerous commercial requirements for multiplexes.

Public media outlets receive preferential treatment, enjoying primary access to official news and a high share of government advertising. Small state subsidies are available for private print media, but due in part to high distribution costs, the vast majority of newspapers are not profitable and remain financially dependent on their owners or patrons. Advertising is prohibited on public television and radio, with some exceptions during special cultural and educational programs. Outlets do not always differentiate between editorial and sponsored content.

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Freedom of the Press 2016 - Algeria

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 18 October 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom of the Press 2016 - Algeria, 18 October 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582ac6e213.html [accessed 2 November 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.

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Legal Environment: 22 / 30 (1) (0 = best, 30 = worst)

Political Environment: 23 / 40 (0 = best, 40 = worst)

Economic Environment: 17 / 30 (0 = best, 30 = worst)

Press Freedom Score: 62 / 100 (1) (0 = best, 100 = worst)

Quick Facts

Population: 39,948,000

Freedom in the World Status: Not Free

Internet Penetration Rate: 18.1%

Overview

Authorities continued to invoke restrictive laws against critical journalists and those deemed to have engaged in blasphemy. The government has significant control over the country's media regulatory bodies. State agencies continued to engage in both direct and indirect censorship of domestic and foreign media outlets.

Key Developments

A number of journalists were charged or penalized under various laws in 2015 in connection with criticism of public officials, frequently contained within Facebook posts.

In April, staff at the satirical television program Weekend received a directive to overhaul the program's format after airing a segment that referred to Algerian officials' property assets in France; the staff decided to end the program rather than enact the changes.

The Ministry of Communication continued to block the distribution of foreign media when it deemed their content objectionable.

Legal Environment: 22 / 30 (1)

The Algerian constitution guarantees freedom of expression. However, a variety of restrictive laws can be invoked to penalize journalists. Defamation is a criminal offense, and reporters can be penalized under laws against blasphemy. A 2001 amendment to the information code criminalizes writing, speech, and cartoons that insult or offend the president, the parliament, the judiciary, or the armed forces. A 2009 cybercrime law gives the authorities the right to block websites deemed "contrary to the public order or decency."

A number of journalists were charged or penalized under various laws in 2015 in connection with criticism of public officials, frequently in Facebook posts. In April, the cartoonist Tahar Dehejiche was arrested after sharing on Facebook cartoons about the exploitation of shale gas in Algeria, one of which authorities deemed insulting to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. In October, freelance journalist and frequent government critic Hassan Bouras was arrested on allegations of insulting the state and taking actions aimed at displacing the regime; he remained in detention at the year's end. In November, Mahda Okasha, an anticorruption activist and the manager of a cybercafe in Algiers, was arrested and detained for four days for posting photographs criticizing state bodies on Facebook. He was interrogated by the public prosecutor and his court case, originally scheduled for December, was postponed twice. Separately, in February 2015 Mohamed Chergui, the editor of Eldjoumhouria, a government-owned newspaper, was sentenced in absentia by a court in the city of Oran to three years imprisonment and ordered to pay a fine of 200,000 dinars ($2,000). He had been charged with blasphemy in 2014 for featuring an article that contained nontraditional theories about the origin of the Koran.

The country lacks legislation that enshrines the right to access official information. A 2012 information code was hailed by its proponents as an important reform that would enhance media freedom by nominally abolishing prison sentences for press offenses and opening up key media sectors to private ownership. However, the law imposes limitations on coverage of a variety of subjects  including criminal investigations and state security  and steep fines of up to 500,000 dinars ($5,000) for press-related offenses. Journalists who fail to pay the fines can face jail time.

The state holds great control over Algeria's regulatory institutions. Journalists must obtain a press card issued by a commission that was established by the Ministry of Information in 2014. This interim commission is composed of 13 members, 11 of whom are professional journalists chosen from the public and private media sectors, with the remaining two representing the ministries of communication and labor. An Algerian journalist who applies for accreditation as a correspondent for foreign media is vetted by the Central Directorate for Army Security (DCSA), which investigates his or her private life.

A 2014 broadcasting law formally authorized the creation of privately owned channels. However, it imposes several strict conditions on shareholders' license eligibility including having Algerian nationality, no criminal record, and, if born before July 1942, justification that their conduct "was not contrary" to the 1954 revolution. It also sharply limits the extent to which private stations can provide independent news programming, in part by restricting airtime devoted to news. In addition, television stations are legally required to obtain a license from the Audiovisual Regulation Authority; however, there is no specific timeframe for a response, nor are legal challenges permitted in the event of a delay or rejection.

Journalists and editors lack strong representative institutions. The government does not restrict internet access, but is known to monitor internet activity and electronic communications.

Political Environment: 23 / 40

State agencies continued to engage in both direct and indirect censorship of private outlets in 2015. In April, staff at the satirical television program Weekend received a directive to overhaul the program's format, after airing a segment that referred to Algerian officials' property assets in France. The staff decided to end the program rather than enact the changes. In October, the private television station El Watan TV was shut down by the Ministry of Communication on grounds of "attacking the symbol of the Republic" and broadcasting illegally. Its closure came after it had aired an interview with Madani Mezrag, a former leader of the armed wing of the banned Front Islamique de Salut (FIS), in which he criticized President Bouteflika for refusing to allow him to create a new political party. Self-censorship also remains widespread, motivated largely by a fear of defamation charges or other forms of government retaliation such as denial of advertising.

Foreign media outlets continued to face harassment and barriers to free reporting in 2015. In March, the communications minister warned foreign journalists that their accreditation would be withdrawn if they failed to respect the rules of the country, warning specifically against violating laws prohibiting defamation and insult. His statement followed the ministry's refusal, also in March, to renew the accreditation of Boualem Ghomrassa, a correspondent for the London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper, for his criticism of the government in a foreign television interview.

Officials block distribution of foreign papers when they carry content deemed subversive. The Ministry of Communication blocked the distribution of the French magazine Marianne in January 2015 for publishing a cartoon considered blasphemous, as well as a February issue of the Paris-based magazine Jeune Afrique, which contained a four-page survey on President Bouteflika's relationships with various women. Foreign media coverage of issues related to national security and terrorism is considered especially sensitive. The Algeria offices of Qatar's Al-Jazeera satellite television network remained closed in 2015.

Algerian journalists faced hostile rhetoric from officials during 2015. In March, a presidential adviser declared in a public address on a national holiday that the opposition media was unethical and aimed "to frighten and demoralize the people." However, the handful of instances of violence and intimidation committed against journalists during the election period in 2014 were not repeated in 2015.

Economic Environment: 17 / 30

In October 2015, the Ministry of Communication reported that there were 269 accredited publications operating in Algeria, 140 of which were printed daily. Six daily newspapers are government operated. Online news media has proliferated with the development of a 3G network. About 38 percent of Algerian residents accessed the internet in 2015, mostly through mobile phones.

The state-run television broadcaster, Entreprise Nationale de Television (ENTV) manages five different channels. There are five state-owned radio stations with national reach, operated by the Entreprise Nationale de Radiodiffusion Sonore (ENRS), which also operates and 48 local stations. State-owned television and radio outlets typically broadcast biased information, display favoritism toward the president, and refrain from covering dissenting views. However, many households have satellite dishes that provide access to private television broadcasts. There are several dozen private television channels, and while most of them have offices and studios in Algiers, the law effectively requires that they these channels broadcast from outside Algeria; most lease equipment from companies in Jordan or Lebanon. Only five of the existing private channels have officially been granted licenses.

The economic model of Algeria's press is based mainly on public advertising, controlled by the state-run National Institute for Publishing and Advertising (ANEP). The ANEP, which forms a significant source of income for most publications, tends to favor progovernment content. Privately owned newspapers, journalists, and academics have called for a legal framework to govern the advertising sector. Private advertising has increased, but has faced criticism for issuing contracts according to political or other biases. In February 2015, the head of Ooredoo, a Qatari mobile phone operator, threatened to cut off advertising to Algerian media outlets that attack Algeria or Qatar.

The government controls the printing and distribution of most newspapers. Several newspapers are heavily indebted to the state printing agency and, in September 2015, many of them received formal payment notices containing threats to revoke their commercial contracts. Only the El-Watan and al-Khabar newspapers have their own printing and distribution networks.

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
Freedom of the Press 2016 - Afghanistan

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 18 October 2016 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom of the Press 2016 - Afghanistan, 18 October 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582ac6e313.html [accessed 2 November 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.

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Legal Environment: 18 / 30 (2) (0 = best, 30 = worst)

Political Environment: 26 / 40 (2) (0 = best, 40 = worst)

Economic Environment: 18 / 30 (1) (0 = best, 30 = worst)

Press Freedom Score: 62 / 100 (5) (0 = best, 100 = worst)

Quick Facts

Population: 32,247,000

Freedom in the World Status: Not Free

Internet Penetration Rate: 6.4%

Overview

Conditions for press freedom in Afghanistan have improved in recent years amid greater media diversity, rising professional standards for journalists, and a decline in legal harassment and censorship. However, violence against journalists remained a serious problem in 2015 as the country suffered from growing insecurity, and the media continued to face legal and other interference from the authorities.

Key Developments

The government dissolved a discredited media complaints commission in May, replacing it with a new body that has greater civil society representation and a stronger legal foundation.

A total of 95 cases of violence against journalists were documented in 2015 by the watchdog group Nai Supporting Open Media in Afghanistan, though this represented a decrease from 125 in 2014.

Legal Environment: 18 / 30 (2)

Article 34 of the constitution allows for freedom of the press and of expression, and the Mass Media Law prohibits censorship. However, there are broad legal restrictions on content that is deemed "contrary to the principles of Islam and offensive to other religions and sects."

Cases involving journalists are supposed to be handled by a commission devoted to media issues, but the legal framework's ambiguity has led to muddled implementation. Five media laws have been approved since 2002, and journalists lack clarity on how different provisions are meant to be applied. Article 130 of the constitution vaguely stipulates that courts and Islamic jurists can rule on cases "in a way that attains justice in the best manner," creating leeway for discriminatory or contradictory rulings.

Freedom of expression and the free flow of information were subjected to interference on national security grounds on a number of occasions in 2015. Authorities at the national and provincial levels reportedly issued directives to subordinates to refrain from giving any security-related information to the media without first consulting higher officials, drawing complaints from journalists. In August, a satirical Facebook page called "Kabul Taxi" was temporarily shut down. While the cause was unclear, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) had been investigating the page after it carried criticism of senior security officials, and several journalists were summoned for questioning in an attempt to identify who was responsible for the page.

The 2014 Access to Information Law states that government-held information should be presumed available to the public, except in instances that would threaten national security, compromise privacy, or interfere with a criminal investigation. A new commission tasked with overseeing implementation was formed in September 2015; it would review all complaints and violations relating to the access to information process.

Under amendments to the Media Law adopted in January 2015, a new Media Complaints and Violations Investigation Commission was formed late in the year, headed by the minister of information and culture and including representatives of journalists' groups and media freedom advocates. The previous commission, which was established in 2005, was dissolved in May. It had been operating under questionable legal authority since 2009, and was frequently criticized for violating journalists' rights and lacking independent membership. The new commission is supposed to review all cases involving media and journalists before possible referral to prosecutors or the courts, but this procedure was not always observed. In November, the Attorney General's Office directly summoned the chief editor of the popular newspaper Hasht e Subh (8 AM Daily) for questioning about its coverage, drawing objections from civil society groups.

Journalists' organizations are able to operate and advocate for the rights and interests of their members, though the law offers few effective protections for unions and labor rights.

Political Environment: 26 / 40 (2)

Media outlets have proliferated in recent years, collectively conveying a diversity of views. The patterns of ownership and funding mirror the country's disparate political and cultural forces, leading to a highly partisan media environment. Major sources of support for and influence over outlets include political parties, ethnic factions, the military, international donors, and foreign governments such as those in Iran and Pakistan. However, some broadcasters, such as Tolo TV, are commercially viable and able to exercise a greater degree of independence in their reporting.

Local authorities have occasionally forced the closure of media outlets for reporting on official corruption and other sensitive topics, and journalists face an acute risk of violence from state and nonstate actors in the context of the ongoing military conflict. Women journalists in particular encounter regular harassment and threats, leading some to leave the profession. Journalists often resort to self-censorship to avoid violating cultural norms or offending local sensitivities, though this is less of a problem than in years past.

A total of 95 cases of violence against journalists were documented in 2015 by the watchdog group Nai Supporting Open Media in Afghanistan, down from 125 in 2014. The Taliban rebel movement was deemed responsible for 40 of the cases, 32 were attributed to government officials, and 1 was linked to international forces; the perpetrators in the remaining 22 cases were unidentified.

Nai reported four killings of journalists during the year, including three possible assassinations and one death during an air strike by international forces, though the Committee to Protect Journalists did not confirm any work-related murders for 2015. Following their brief occupation of the northern city of Kunduz in late September, the Taliban issued death threats against all employees of 24 media outlets that reported on their crimes. The year's other cases of violence included brief detentions by the Taliban as well as threats or illegal summonses by state agencies. In a number of instances, journalists were first abused by police or other officials and then threatened to suppress any formal complaint or legal proceedings. While authorities sometimes offered apologies and pledges to support journalists' rights, advocacy groups called for the perpetrators to be held criminally responsible.

Economic Environment: 18 / 30 (1)

Afghanistan is home to 83 local and national television channels, 161 radio stations, 325 print outlets, and 12 news agencies. The government owns some media outlets, but most are in private hands. While radio is still the main source of news for most Afghans, especially in rural areas, television is making significant inroads, as ownership of sets has risen. International radio broadcasts in Dari or Pashto  such as those from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Voice of America, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty  remain key providers of information for many residents, supplementing the increasingly competitive national media. Newspaper readership is low, mainly due to the low literacy rate of about 36 percent, but also because of distribution problems and the rise of new broadcast options.

Internet penetration has gradually increased thanks to the wider use of smartphones and the expansion of mobile internet service, but the process is slowed by illiteracy and poor infrastructure. More than 8 percent of the population used the internet in 2015, whether through office and home connections or through mobile devices. Mobile-phone news alerts, blogs, and social media are growing in usage and importance, particularly among urban youth. Even mobile devices without internet service facilitate citizen journalism and participation in radio and television call-in shows, and digital communications in general have reduced the impact of traditional obstacles to news production and distribution.

The international community and local media organizations have for the past decade been supporting programs aimed at developing a genuinely independent media sector, and they have been fairly successful in this regard. However, there are a number of indications that the withdrawal of foreign combat forces  most of which had left Afghanistan by the end of 2014  has had a negative effect on both donor funding for media projects and the broader economic situation in the country.

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Guatemala: Young Blood, Old Vices

Publisher International Crisis Group (ICG) Author Arturo Matute Publication Date 14 November 2016 Cite as International Crisis Group (ICG), Guatemala: Young Blood, Old Vices, 14 November 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b0d324.html [accessed 2 November 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.

Guatemala's would-be reformist President Jimmy Morales won office by a landslide last year by using a simple but effective slogan: "not corrupt, nor a thief". In one of Latin America's most violent, unequal and impoverished countries, his election was part of an anti-corruption "tsunami" that began in April 2015, led by the UN-backed International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) and the Attorney General's Office (AG). The racket that emerged in April 2015 in the customs authorities claimed the scalps of high-ranking officials, sparked massive protests throughout the country, and eventually brought down the corruption-plagued administration of former President Otto Perez Molina, who was jailed promptly after his resignation.

Perez Molina's former vice president, most of his cabinet, scores of politicians and many prominent businesspeople now face trial in connections to the customs fraud and a barrage of ensuing cases. As a result, Guatemala stands at a crossroads. Either it continues the unprecedented anti-corruption actions, or falls back into the vice-ridden past where illicit networks sought to embezzle, defraud, bribe and extort public money for private gain, with no adverse consequences.

The past year proved how emboldened institutions are now willing to use legal prosecution to disentangle the state and political parties from criminal groups. Guatemala's capacity to bring to justice officials who had previously enjoyed complete impunity represented a unexpected revolution in national life. The country is still reeling from the shock of this change, and the outcome of this process is far from certain. "Justice doesn't change states on its own, it just contributes to identify what ails them" warns CICIG commissioner, and centrepiece of the judicial campaign, Colombian investigative judge Ivan Velasquez.

President Jimmy Morales, an outsider who gained fame as a TV comedian, broke with a relatively long tradition of Guatemalan politics in winning by 67.4 percent of the vote in the second round of the 2015 elections even though he was not the runner-up in the previous presidential contest, nor the greatest spender in the campaign. Manuel Baldizon, the candidate in question on both counts, fled the country after a poor showing in the first round, allegedly to escape the wrath of his many financial backers.

However, Morales is now struggling to differentiate his government from that of his predecessors. A new joint CICIG and AG investigation into corruption in the National Registry of Property (NRP) has enveloped Samuel "Sammy" Morales, the president's older brother and a close adviser, and Jose Manuel Morales, his son. The two men allegedly presented an invoice in 2013 to the NRP for US$12,000 for an event that never took place. They are barred from leaving the country during the investigation.

The case illustrates the slow pace of change in Guatemala. While the modes and networks of corruption have been disturbed, structural conditions of poverty and inequality, as well as rates of violent crime, remain far above the global or Latin American average. Recent death threats against Attorney General Thelma Aldana and the judge handling the main corruption cases are the most sinister side of this anti-reform backlash: Aldana had to leave the country for a month, but the threats have reportedly continued since her return.

The Guatemalan Congress modified the electoral law in April 2016 and introduced stronger controls over financing of political parties. It also passed laws to strengthen the autonomy of the attorney general and create a much-delayed institute for victims of crime. But critics point out that the initiatives have been hastily patched together to assuage popular demands for reform, and are riddled with inconsistencies. They argue that more stringent rules are needed to ensure internal democracy within parties to prevent them from being controlled by strongmen, or to allow for start-up parties such as "Seed Group" (Grupo Semilla), "Justice Now" (Justicia Ya) and "We Are" (Somos) to get a foothold in the party system.

Even though many of these recent achievements are impressive, frustration has festered among many of the civil society groups that drove the anti-corruption mobilisation last year. Most of the lawmakers elected in 2015 conform to the traditional way of doing politics in Guatemala, described in a report published by CICIG as a system where "the money that comes from corruption [to finance political parties] is increased by resources contributed by criminal organisations, which achieve dangerous influence and, in certain localities, control over authorities". Recent efforts by the president to secure control of Congress' governing board have been sharply criticised for relying on deputies with shady pasts.

Evidently, President Morales has not become the anti-corruption crusader that many voters wished for. His anti-establishment stance still lacks a clear plan to clean up political life and to broaden the state's measly provision of basic services. His effort to improve state finances by raising what are Latin America's lowest tax rates was badly planned and rejected by most sectors of society. The shadow of the so-called military "juntita" - a clique of former army officers who came into power with him - hangs over his administration and undermines his credibility as a political outsider. His call on foreign states not to intervene in Guatemalan judicial matters, presumably under the advice of juntita members bitter at international support for cases against human rights violations during the armed conflict, has also been questioned by international bodies. Falling asleep during the presentation of the 2017 budget has not helped his public image.

However, a counter-reformist backlash is unlikely. The traditional powerful actors who dominated Guatemala's post-conflict democracy and might seek a return to the old order have lost the initiative and lack an agenda. The army is no longer a preeminent political force, and would be very reluctant to join an anti-reform effort that would face fervent opposition from citizens and international opprobrium. Opposition from the private sector has also weakened. The head of the main business association and a former fortress of political power, the Coordinating Committee of Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial, and Financial Associations (CACIF), recently pledged the private sector would continue to support the anti-corruption campaign, even if it harms its members. Another new constituency vocally supporting reform is an engaged and critical middle class making use of new outlets in cable television, online newspapers and radio.

At the same time, some of Morales' high-level appointments have pumped oxygen into his faltering administration. One of them is Francisco Rivas, a lawyer who ascended through the ranks of the prosecution service leading investigations that produced the arrests of major drug traffickers - earning him the trust of the attorney general, the CICIG and U.S. security agencies. Rivas is now providing the operational back-up to their investigations, which was not always forthcoming in previous administrations.

Another fresh face is the current Health Minister Lucrecia Hernandez, daughter of Myrna Mack, an anthropologist murdered by a military death squad in 1990 due to her work with communities displaced by the conflict. Hernandez and her aunt, Helen Mack, have carried out a decades-long struggle for justice in the case and created the Myrna Mack Foundation, one of Guatemala's leading human rights organisations. Waging a complicated battle against entrenched corruption in the health ministry, Hernandez confronts an acute crisis of medical supplies in hospitals.

Juan Francisco Solorzano Foppa, for his part, was allegedly blackballed by the military juntita and prevented from joining Rivas in the interior ministry, but has since become another member of Morales'young bloods after his appointment as chief of the Guatemalan Tax Bureau (SAT). He worked for thirteen years in the Attorney General's Office, where he carried out investigations against street gangs and undertook the wiretap recordings that helped bring down the Perez government. "Foppa" developed a reputation of fearlessness, and in his new role has taken on large firms formerly considered untouchable, such as the steel works "Aceros de Guatemala", the soft drinks firm "Big Cola" and the drugstore chain "Farmacias Galeno", which during his first three months in his job returned over US$110 million in unpaid taxes.

But Guatemala needs more than new faces in politics to right the wrongs of the old establishment. International backing is fundamental in this effort, and unless the Republican president-elect's campaign against undocumented migration affects other areas of policy in Central America when he takes power in 2017, U.S. support seems reliably strong.

The U.S. remains the region's geopolitical hegemon, and regards the Northern Triangle of Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras) as one of its national security priorities, largely due to the stream of migrants and refugees fleeing the region's poverty and violence. Guatemala is exemplary in enjoying bipartisan U.S. support in its anti-corruption crusade and is a beneficiary of the Plan of the Alliance for Prosperity of the Northern Triangle of Central America, which will significantly increase cooperation funding.

Extraordinarily, the actions of the U.S. in Guatemala are regarded as welcome even by individuals personally harmed by its earlier Cold War interventions. The "holy trinity" of the U.S. embassy, the attorney general, and the CICIG, as certain wits brand it, has been fundamental to the high-level corruption cases and reform plans in the fields of justice, politics and the constitution as a whole. Allies of the U.S. government in Guatemala are also changing, as reflected by the absence of some of its usual political associates during independence day celebrations in July 2016: most of those present were less prominent civil society activists and academics.

The strengthening justice system, new initiatives for political reform processes and support from an activist citizenry and the international community provide President Morales with exceptional opportunities to turn his campaign slogan into the new identity of the Guatemalan state. If properly implemented, reforms to the electoral law and the subsequent constitutional amendments may go a long way to cleaning up politics, but the construction of a new political party system is a challenge that must be dealt with head on. Rules must be simplified so that new groups, composed primarily of young people, are able to participate. These new political actors should hopefully be able to overcome the divisions of the past and the injustices in Guatemala society. There is a long road to travel, but the journey has at least begun.
UN provides food assistance to 100,000 Iraqis as conflict in Mosul intensifies

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 14 November 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN provides food assistance to 100,000 Iraqis as conflict in Mosul intensifies, 14 November 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b0e8e40e.html [accessed 2 November 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.

14 November 2016 - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has provided food assistance to some 100,000 people fleeing the intensifying conflict in Mosul, including a distribution on Sunday to 25,000 people in Gogjali, while also working tirelessly with its partners to reach families that remain trapped in Mosul city and newly recovered areas.

Despite opening more camps, thousands of families remain in need of urgent care and food assistance. WFP is providing ready-to-eat rations to families, including supplying families of five with a month's worth of staple foods, including rice, wheat flour, chickpeas, vegetable oil, sugar and salt.

"We are providing food to people who need it regardless of whether they are in camps or have stayed in their homes or surrounding neighbourhoods," stated Sally Haydock, WFP Country Director in Iraq. "People have had their lives uprooted - it is our duty to ensure that food is not an additional worry for them at this difficult time."

The struggle of the families to find decent living conditions, affordable food, and medical services continues in many retaken areas.

According to Ms. Haydock, WFP is very concerned about the food security of people trapped inside Mosul, and is currently working with its partners on "monitoring frontlines and working to reach families in need as soon as there is safe access."

At the moment, the agency says it has enough rations in the Mosul area to provide food for 2.1 million people for three days, and half a million family rations, which could feed 2.5 million people for one month.

Noting that three million people in Iraq have been displaced by conflict since mid-June 2014, WFP says it has food assistance to more than one million vulnerable Iraqis across all 18 governorates.
Member of award-winning blogging collective arrested in Addis

Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 15 November 2016 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, Member of award-winning blogging collective arrested in Addis, 15 November 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b0f654.html [accessed 2 November 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.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is concerned about the detention of Befekadu Hailu, a citizen journalist and member of the Zone 9 blogging collective, since 11 November, amid a spate of violations of freedom of information by the government since it declared a state of emergency on 9 October.

Hailu previously spent 18 months in detention after being arrested along with five other members of the Zone 9 collective under Ethiopia's terrorism law in April 2014. Zone 9 was awarded RSF's Press Freedom Prize in the citizen journalist category last year.

Colleagues reported Hailu's latest arrest to Agence France-Presse. Zone 9's Facebook page says he was arrested in connection with an interview he gave to Voice of America's Amharic-language service on 31 October. The police are said to be holding him at a police station in the Addis Ababa district of Kotebe.

Zone 9 bloggers still being harassed

Hailu and the five other Zone 9 members arrested in April 2014 were initially charged with "working with foreign organizations claiming to defend human rights" and "receiving funding in order to incite the public to violence via social media." They were subsequently charged with violating the terrorism law.

Two of the six detained Zone 9 members were released on the justice minister's orders in July 2015, shortly before a visit to Ethiopia by US President Barack Obama. The other four were acquitted and released in October 2015. A seventh Zone 9 member who was tried in absentia was also acquitted.

However, the prosecutor's office appealed against their acquittal to the supreme court, which is due to hold a hearing on the appeal today.

"We call on the authorities to bring no charges against the citizen journalist Befekadu Hailu and to free him at once," RSF editor-in-chief Virginie Dangles said. "We also urge the supreme court to uphold the acquittal of the Zone 9 bloggers. The prosecution was unable to support the charges against them at their trial and no new evidence has been produced since then."

Natnael Feleke, one of the Zone 9 members acquitted in October 2015, was also arrested again six weeks ago, on 4 October, for referring in a public place to government repression. He was released on bail two days later.

Zone 9 representative Zelalem Kibret was prevented from travelling to France in November 2015 to receive the RSF Prize. Officials confiscated his passport without giving an explanation as he was about to board his flight.

Crackdown on free speech under state of emergency

The already limited space for free speech and for independent news and information has shrunk even more since the state of emergency was imposed on 9 October in order to suppress a wave of protests by members of the Oromo community, dozens of whom have been killed.

Under the state of emergency, viewing, sharing or republishing reports by diaspora media outlets such as Ethiopian Satellite Radio and Television (ESAT) and Oromo Media Network is now punishable by three to five years in prison because these outlets are deemed to be "owned by terrorist organizations."

Ethiopia's sole Internet service provider, Ethiocell, disconnected the Internet in most of the country, including the capital, on 9 October, at a time when mobile Internet had already been disconnected in the Oromo and Amhara regions for several weeks because of the anti-government protests.

As a result, social networks and all apps such as Skype that use VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) were rendered inaccessible. Social networks and mobile Internet are still blocked.

These measures have also had an impact on the print media. The Addis Standard, an English-language monthly that is one of the country's few independent newspapers, announced on 25 October that it was suspending its print edition and laying off a dozen of its 23 employees because it could not find a company to print it.

Addis Standard co-founder and editor Tsedale Lemma told Agence France-Presse that their lawyers had advised them not to print anything political.

Ethiopia is ranked 142nd out of 180 countries in RSF's 2016 Press Freedom Index. For more information about Ethiopia, click here.
Iran: Abuse and repression of Baha'i religious minority again on the rise

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 14 November 2016 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Iran: Abuse and repression of Baha'i religious minority again on the rise, 14 November 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b10984.html [accessed 2 November 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 extremely discriminatory and repressive measures long-threatening the Baha'i religious minority in Iran have seen a sharp increase in the past couple of weeks, with arbitrary detentions and mass forced closures of Baha'i-owned businesses.

On 2 and 3 November 2016, police agents sealed off more than 100 small businesses belonging to followers of the Baha'i faith in several cities across Iran, including in the northern cities of Qaemshahr, Saari and Noshahr, and the southern city of Bandar Abbas. Apparently the businesses were shut down because they had observed Baha'i religious holidays on 1 and 2 November [1], however no judicial orders or warrants justifying the closures have been produced.

In the past few days, the authorities have also detained at least five followers of the Baha'i faith in the city of Saari, the provincial capital of Mazandaran. The five - Soheil Haqdoost, Nima No'khah, Behnam Mirzaei, Arsham Samiee and Shahrooz Zamani - were some of the small business owners who had called on the Mazandaran Governor-General's Office to ask for their illegally shut-down businesses to be re-opened. As of present, these men are still arbitrarily detained, but have not yet been charged with any crime.

Followers of the Baha'i faith constitute the largest religious minority in Iran, but their rights are not recognised by Iran's Constitution and thus they face constant discrimination and the risk of abuse. Although human rights groups and the United Nations have frequently criticised Iran's treatment of religious minorities and in particular the Baha'i, the authorities have consistently refused to recognise the Baha'i faith and other religious minorities and continue their repressive assault against them.

For almost four decades, followers of the Baha'i faith have faced extensive discrimination and repression in Iran, including the demolition of their cemeteries, a ban on Baha'i students accessing post-secondary education, the closure of the Baha'i institute of higher education and imprisonment of its instructors, detention and imprisonment of scores of other followers of the faith, confiscation of their farmland and other property, a prohibition against Baha'i working in the public sector, and a refusal to issue business licences and closures of Baha'i-owned businesses.

Our organisations again call on the Iranian authorities to respect international law and human rights standards, and immediately end the repression and harassment of Iran's Baha'i community. The international community also has an important role to play, and must demand that the Iranian authorities repeal all discriminatory laws and policies against the Baha'i and Iran's other religious minorities, and ensure that they can fully enjoy their basic human rights as recognised by international law.

FIDH

& its member Iranian organisation

League for the Defence of Human Rights in Iran (LDDHI)

Footnotes

[1] Any expression or observation of a religion other than Islam or the three other faiths recognised in the Iranian Constitution is severely repressed in Iran.
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.
Malaysia: Quash sentence against whistle-blowing MP

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 14 November 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Malaysia: Quash sentence against whistle-blowing MP, 14 November 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b17134.html [accessed 2 November 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 Malaysian authorities should quash the 18 months jail sentence handed down to Rafizi Ramli, a whistle-blowing member of parliament, Amnesty International said today.

Rafizi Ramli has been convicted under the Official Secrets Act of 1972 for being in possession of and disclosing part of the Auditor General's report into the 1MDB corruption scandal that is engulfing Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak.

"Rafizi Ramli acted in the public interest by bringing to light information about one of the biggest corruption scandals in Malaysia's recent history. The authorities should have published the Auditor General's report from the beginning, rather than trying to suppress it," said Josef Benedict, Amnesty International's Deputy Director for South East Asia and the Pacific.

"Rafizi Ramli's sentence should be quashed immediately and he should be protected against any retaliation stemming from the disclosure of information that shows wrongdoing. By invoking the Official Secrets Act, the Malaysian authorities are yet again taking the cover of national security to stop people from raising legitimate questions about the 1MDB funds and obstructing the society from receiving such information."

Rafizi Ramli is currently on bail pending an appeal to the High Court. If the appeals process is exhausted without the verdict being overturned, he will lose his seat in parliament and be sent to prison solely for the peaceful exercise of his rights.

"If Rafizi Ramli is imprisoned, Amnesty International would consider him a prisoner of conscience," said Josef Benedict.

Amnesty International is alarmed by the widespread use of national security legislation and other restrictive laws to choke peaceful dissent in Malaysia.

Background

On 24 March 2016, at a press conference in the lobby of parliament, Rafizi Ramli publicized a page of the Auditor General's report into the 1MDB corruption scandal.

On 3 April 2016, he was detained for three days before being charged under the Official Secrets Act 1972.

Rafizi Ramli is also charged under section 97(1) of the Banks and Financial Institutions Act at the Shah Alam sessions court for exposing the National Feedlot Corporation Scandal, involving an RM250million (50 million pounds) government loan intended for a cattle breeding project.

He has also been found guilty under section 504 of the Penal Code for 'Provoking UMNO members' at the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court and fined RM1,800.

1Malaysia Development Bhd (1 MDB) was established by Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2009, as a step towards establishing a financial hub in Kuala Lumpur.

The fund missed payments for some of the US $11bn it owed to banks and other creditors.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Myanmar: Growing Fears Over Rohingya Fighters

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Alexander Sehmer Publication Date 28 October 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 21 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Myanmar: Growing Fears Over Rohingya Fighters, 28 October 2016, Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 21, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b19a14.html [accessed 2 November 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.

Link to original story on Jamestown website

Gunmen killed nine police officers in a series of raids on border posts in Myanmar's Rakhine state on October 9, an area where tensions run high between Myanmar's Buddhists and its Muslim Rohingya population. The raids have prompted violent reprisals by the military, as well as the subsequent displacement of large parts of the local population and the withdrawal of aid workers from the area (Myanmar Times, October 11; Myanmar Times, October 18).

It has also raised concerns that the plight of the Rohingya could become a growing focus for regional jihadist networks. In the days following the attacks, videos circulated online, apparently showing militants in Myanmar declaring jihad on the government and calling on fighters around the world to join their struggle (Channel NewsAsia, October 14).

Local government officials originally blamed the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) for the attacks on the outposts bordering Bangladesh (Myanmar Times, October 10). While there is some suggestion the group wishes to claim responsibility for the attacks - this was indicated in a somewhat ambivalent Facebook post attributed to the group - the RSO has for years been largely dormant. Instead, the attacks have been attributed to the Aqa Mul Mujahideen (AMM), a little-known band of Rohingya fighters, which Indian intelligence officials say has links to Pakistan (Mizzima, October 19). AMM appears to have originated from Harkat ul-Jihad Islami Arakan, which is linked to the Pakistani Taliban and has operations in Bangladesh.

Militant jihadist groups such as the Pakistani Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba periodically make mention of the Rohingya's plight, suggesting there is a potential for greater links with regional extremist groups (Express Tribune, July 26, 2012). Further, Islamic State has been actively building its capacity in Southeast Asia, and harsh treatment in Myanmar makes the Rohingya vulnerable to such advances. The sizeable and frequently persecuted Rohingya refugee population also provides a pool of potential recruits already spread around the region. Their involvement in regional conflicts, such as Kashmir, has so far been fairly limited, but that could change (The Tribune, November 13, 2015).

Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi has made efforts to address the Rohingya's situation, including appointing an advisory commission headed by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to make recommendations on ways to end the tension and communal violence that has wracked Rakhine state (Myanmar Times, August 25). Even so, her government has generally been slow on the issue.

In light of recent events, they will need to move faster. So too, the crackdown by Myanmar's military, which has followed the October 9 attacks, must be tempered as it can only serve to further alienate the country's Rohingya population.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Niger: Security Forces Repel Islamist Prison Attack

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Alexander Sehmer Publication Date 28 October 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 21 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Niger: Security Forces Repel Islamist Prison Attack, 28 October 2016, Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 21, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b1aba4.html [accessed 2 November 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.

Link to original story on Jamestown website

Gunmen mounted a failed attacked on a high-security prison in Niger on October 17, in an apparent attempt to free Islamist fighters. Despite a sustained gun battle, the attack was repulsed, with one attacker killed. The man was found wearing a suicide belt he had been unable to detonate, according to Mohamed Bazoum, the interior minister (Twitter, October 17). No prisoners appear to have escaped during the attack (Afrika News, October 17).

In early reports, an unnamed official attributed the attempted prison break to the Mali-based Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJWA), which split from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in 2011 (Tamtam, October 17). Mali-based militants have targeted the prison before, helping to free 22 inmates, including convicted terrorists, in an attack in 2013 (al-Jazeera, June 23, 2013). It also follows just days after an American aid worker was abducted in Abalak. The attackers killed the aid worker's bodyguard, apparently intending to sell the aid worker to militants across the border in Mali (eNCA, October 16).

Suggestions also have been made that the prison attack was the work of Boko Haram. The prison at Koutoukale, about 30 miles northeast of Niamey, is overfull with more than 500 inmates, many of them Boko Haram members. Most of them were transferred recently from the Diffa region, close to the border with Chad and northeastern Nigeria (Tamtam, October 17).

Diffa has seen a months-long joint military campaign waged by Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria in a push to mop up Boko Haram fighters who have infiltrated the region. Attacks in Diffa began in February 2015, but have escalated this year as Boko Haram operations in Chad and Cameroon have declined and potentially at the behest of Islamic State (see Terrorism Monitor, August 19). In recent months, Boko Haram fighters destroyed a medical facility in Yebi and raided another in Ngarwa (CAJ News, May 26).

The Diffa campaign has been slow, and it has struggled with poor coordination between the regional allies. More recently, however, it has seen some relative success, with scores of militants killed and others sent to join the overcrowded inmates in Koutoukale (eNCA, October 1). This success, however, is limited to the targeting of Boko Haram fighters; hundreds of thousands of people  more than 302,000 according to estimates from the UN refugee agency  remain displaced in the region as a result of the conflict, many of them Nigerians who have fled across the border to escape the militant group.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Impact of Georgian Parliamentary Elections on Relations With Russia

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Giorgi Menabde Publication Date 10 November 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 181 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Impact of Georgian Parliamentary Elections on Relations With Russia, 10 November 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 181, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b1b584.html [accessed 2 November 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.

Link to original story on Jamestown website

Following the second round of the parliamentary elections on October 30, the ruling party, Georgian DreamDemocratic Georgia (GDDG), received a constitutional majorityover three-quarters of the seats in the new parliament. The opposition party of former president Mikheil Saakashvili, United National Movement (UNM), will have only 27 members of parliament against the 115 of the ruling party. Other pro-Western partiesRepublicans and Free Democratssuffered a crushing defeat and fragmented or ceased to exist completely (Newsgeorgia.ge, November 3).

The opposition fears that the authorities will use their large advantage in the parliament to change Georgia's foreign policy from a pro-Western to a pro-Russian course. "GDDG is controlled by the Russian [sic] oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is acting in the interests of Vladimir Putin, not Georgia," UNM parliamentarian Nugzar Tsiklauri claimed (Author's interview, November 7). His colleague and member of the UNM Political Council, David Darchiashvili, believes that the latest developments in Russian-Georgian relations, including certain statements by Russian officials as well as some actions by the Georgian authorities, "already give reasons for serious doubts and suspicion in this regard" (Author's interview, November 7).

The pro-Western opposition in Georgia was alarmed by a recent statement made by the head of the Russian State Duma's Committee for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Eurasian Integration and Communications with Compatriots, Leonid Kalashnikov. The Russian official stated that the results of the October parliamentary elections in Georgia "created the chance for a resumption of inter-parliamentary dialogue" and that "consultations regarding this are already underway." Kalashnikov said, "We are considering how to make this happen," adding that the Russian side intends to propose to the Georgian parliament holding a joint Russian-Georgian parliamentary session to discuss bilateral problems. Regarding the overwhelming victory of GDDG over Saakahsvili's UNM party, he declared, "The primary thing is that the [Georgian] policy based on confrontation [with Russia] was defeated and a chance to resume relations between our countries has appeared" (Sputnik-georgia.ru, November 1).

On November 3, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin lectured the Georgian side for "not being prepared to resume diplomatic relations with Russia." He concluded, "I constantly tell the special representative of the prime minister of Georgia for relations with Russia, Zurab Abashidze, about such incidents [of Tbilisi 'sinking' back into anti-Russian rhetoric] in the course of our ongoing dialogue" (RIA Novosti, November 3).

Last month, Abashidze stated that Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili and the Georgian authorities as a whole "do not envisage the possibility of restoring diplomatic relations with Russia until Russia retracts its illegal recognition of the so-called 'independence' of Abkhazia and South Ossetia," which he called a "red line." He declared that "during the dialogue with [his Russian counterpart in bilateral talks] Grigory Karasin, we only discuss economic, trade and humanitarian issues. That is, only the issues that we can resolve without crossing our red lines" (Author's interview, October 9).

Members of parliament from the ruling party dismissed the claims that they were carrying out "consultations" with their Russian counterparts. "[T]hey are impossible while Russia occupies our territories," the chairman of the parliamentary Committee on Defense and Security, Irakly Sessiashvili, told this author on October 28. Sessiashvili specifically raised Moscow's continuing "unfriendly actions," which it was undertaking in parallel to bilateral talks about "restoring diplomatic ties and inter-parliamentary dialogue." In particular, Sessiashvili recalled the decision of the Russian Ministry of Defense to sign contracts with residents of occupied South Ossetia to serve in the military as well as setting up a "united military group of Russia and Abkhazia" (Kommersant, October 26; Author's interview, October 28). Similarly, GDDG parliamentary deputy Zachary Kutsnashvili noted that "Russian embassies in Sukhumi and Tskhinvali [the capitals of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, respectively]" are obstacles that prevent Tbilisi from restoring diplomatic ties with Moscow. "Once Russia agrees that there is only one embassy of Russia in Georgiain Tbilisiall obstacles to restoring our relations in full will immediately disappear," he stated (Author's interview, November 2).

However, the opposition asserts that the ruling party's actions speak louder than words. One of the leaders of UNM, Sergo Ratiani, pointed out that several days ago "the GDDG delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe [PACE] refused to support the resolution [on Ukraine's territorial integrity], which Moscow detested" (Author's interview, November 6). The head of the parliamentary majority and a member of the Georgian delegation to PACE, Zviad Kvachantiradze, explained that the Ukrainian delegation "did not indicate sufficient effort on their side to gain their Georgian colleagues' support to vote for this resolution" (Interpressnews.ge, October 13).

Georgian authorities realize that Mikheil Saakashvili might use accusations of "changing the country's foreign policy orientation" as a serious tool of political pressure against the GDDG. Saakashvili remains the leader of the Georgian opposition despite his political career in Ukraine. Therefore, GDDG demonstrates it is prepared to take steps toward the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union. In November, joint NATO-Georgian military exercises will take place in the suburbs of the Georgian capital (Armenpress.am, November 7). Georgia's Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze stated that the government "welcomes the increasing presence of NATO on the Black Sea" and is prepared to support the activities of the Alliance in the region (Golos-ameriki.ru, October 28).

Military expert and a former aide to the Georgian representative office at NATO, Vakhtang Maisaya, argued that he sees no visible indicators of a changing Georgian foreign policy course. Rather, he stressed that the question is "how much the West itself, including NATO, is prepared to do to achieve greater integration of Georgia into the Alliance. Unfortunately, for example, at the NATO Warsaw Summit, no decision was taken on establishing a joint [Black Sea] naval group according to the formula '28+2,' with the participation of Georgia and Ukraine. NATO refuses to give our country a Membership Action Plan [MAP], which would signify a move from the third to the fourth level of integration with the organization," Dr. Maisaya said (Author's interview, November 2). According to Irakly Aladashvili, the editor-in-chief of the military analysis journal Arsenali, "The United States, United Kingdom and other NATO countries increasingly often hold military exercises on Georgian soil. They use increasingly powerful military equipment in those exercises, such as the Abrams main battle tank and the Bradley infantry fighting vehicle" (Author's interview, November 6).

David Avalishvili, an analyst with the news analysis agency GHN, also does not expect Georgia to shift from a pro-Western to a pro-Russian foreign policy orientation. "[A]ll of the country's political establishment is oriented toward the West [] and a policy change in the direction of Russia would bring the ruling party nothing but big domestic political problems. Such a move would reinforce the opposition, which is only waiting for the slightest reason to start massive anti-government protests" (Author's interview, November 7).

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Kyrgyzstan Prepares for Referendum on Boosting Powers of Prime Minister, President

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Cholpon Orozobekova Publication Date 10 November 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 181 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Kyrgyzstan Prepares for Referendum on Boosting Powers of Prime Minister, President, 10 November 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 181, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b1c194.html [accessed 2 November 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.

Link to original story on Jamestown website

Kyrgyzstan will hold a referendum, on December 11, on controversial constitutional changes that have been harshly criticized by opponents (Azattyk.kg, Kloop.kg, Knews.kg, November 8). The country, which faces a presidential election in 2017, adopted the current constitution in June 2010, after the revolution that toppled then-president Kurmanbek Bakiev. In 2010, this constitution was assessed by the Council of Europe's (CoE) Venice Commission as a shift toward a parliamentary system, and as the introduction of a more balanced distribution of power, a stronger legislature, and an improved section on human rights (Coe.int, August 29).

After six years, despite a moratorium prohibiting any changes to the constitution until 2020, put in place by the Interim Government in 2010, Kyrgyzstanis will be casting their ballots on whether or not to add 26 amendments. The members of that Interim Government, including former president Rosa Otunbaeva, made a joint statement on August 30, 2016, urging voters not to change the current constitution, which they have called a guarantee that the country will not return to an authoritarian regime (Gezitter.org, August 30).

One of the important proposed changes is the repeal of the primacy of international human rights treaties Kyrgyzstan is party to over domestic court decisions (Azattyk.kg, November 1). The suggested amendments to the constitution also include measures to strengthen the position of prime minister. For example, the head of government will be empowered to appoint his or her own ministers, except for the ministers of defense, national security and internal affairs, which will continue to be appointed by the president. Currently, all other cabinet posts are chosen by the parliament. Furthermore, under the proposed amendments, the prime minister will be allowed to maintain his or her seat in the legislature (if this person was an elected lawmaker), even while serving as the head of government. Opponents of these proposed amendments charge that President Almazbek Atambayev may be seeking to move into this more powerful prime minister role after his term ends in 2017 (Azattyk.kg, June 30, 2016). Atambayev is barred by the current constitution from running for a second presidential term when his mandate concludes.

According to parliamentarian Almambet Shykmamatov (of the opposition Ata Meken party), the proposed changes aim to strengthen both the president and the prime minister's power. "These changes will weaken the parliament and the judiciary system, making them completely dependent on the president and prime minister. For example, the president is taking more power over the judiciary system, [he will be able to appoint and sack judges]. Moreover, the parliament is losing its power to force the resignation of the prime minister. So this means the government will not feel accountable to the parliament, and the prime minister is going to become more powerful" (De-facto.kg, September 30).

The leader of the Ata Meken party, Omurbek Tekebayev, echoes these thoughts, arguing that the proposed changes aim to preserve and strengthen the political influence of President Atambayev and his entourage, even after he leaves office. "The idea to introduce amendments to the constitution and transfer much of the decision making from the president to the prime minister will only lead to authoritarianism. If the president is keen to change the constitution, he should launch a constitutional council to debate all the proposed matters and postpone the referendum until the spring of 2017," Tekebayev said (Kyrgyztoday.kg, July 29).

On October 11, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of the Kyrgyz Republic concluded that all the proposed amendments up for referendum are not contrary to fundamental human rights or the country's protected freedoms and civil rights. The Chamber also decided that calling for a popular vote on these changes does not violate Article 114, which lays out the process for amending the constitution. Lawyers and human rights activists called the decision of the Chamber illegal and biased (24.kg, October 12).

International experts have also weighed in negatively on the efforts to change Kyrgyzstan's constitution. In a joint opinion, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE ODIHR) and the CoE Venice Commission concluded in August that the proposed constitutional amendments "would negatively impact the balance of powers by strengthening the powers of the executive, while weakening both the parliament and, to a greater extent, the judiciary" (Coe.int, August 29). The Venice Commission noted that while some changes were needed to "clarify" the current constitution, "the majority of the proposed amendments to the Constitution would appear to raise concerns about key democratic principles, in particular, the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary." The president of the Venice Commission, Gianni Buquicchio, suggested that such massive amendments need thorough public discussion (Platforma.kg, August 8)

Kyrgyzstani citizens will have to answer "yes" or "no" regarding the entire slate of proposed changes, instead of being able to decide individually on each of the 26 amendments. This setup for the referendum has been widely criticized. Zholbors Zhorobekov, a Kyrgyz political scientist, says that it contradicts logic and international norms. In his opinion, the authorities should have first asked the people in a referendum whether they would like to see the constitution changed at allparticularly since there is a legal moratorium in place on any constitutional amendments until 2020. "If people support a referendum to make changes, then a special commission consisting of lawyers, civil society and public activists [could be convened to] start consultations" Zhorobekov argued (Azattyk.kg,October 25).

According to the Central Election Commission, Kyrgyzstan plans to spend 67.4 million soms ($980,000) on the December referendum (Kaganat.kg, November 5). But leaving Kyrgyzstan's structural economic problems aside, it bears noting that this Central Asian republic had already experienced two revolutions within the past decade, which forced out the sitting head of state. This rushed and far-reaching constitutional referendum may upend any semblance of political and economic stability that Kyrgyzstan needs at this moment.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Russia Scores Symbolic Victory in Moldova's Presidential Election

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Mihai Popsoi Publication Date 15 November 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 182 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Russia Scores Symbolic Victory in Moldova's Presidential Election, 15 November 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 182, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b1c9d4.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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On November 13, Moldova held run offs for its first direct presidential election in 20 years. The change resulted from a controversial Constitutional Court decision earlier this year (see EDM, March 8), which was seen as an attempt by the ruling establishment to defuse the protest movement against government corruption. The move can be considered successful as the presidential campaign has overtaken the public agenda. Moreover, despite integrity being a major theme of the campaign, the candidate associated with the ruling establishmentand, in fact, supported by the media empire owned by Moldova's gray eminence Vlad Plahotniucwon the race. Igor Dodon (aged 41) was elected president with 52.3 percent of the vote. His opponent, Maia Sandu (aged 44), fell 70,000 votes short (Cec.md, November 14). Allegations of voter fraud abound: several polling stations abroad ran out of ballots, the Central Election Commission (CEC) misreported the results, and a concerted effort was uncovered to bribe and bus in Transnistrian residents into Moldova proper to vote for Dodon (Agora.md, ProTV.md, Ziarul de Garda, November 14). Several hundred protesters gathered to demand a revote and the resignation of CEC members (Agora.md, November 14). However, these cases are unlikely to carry much weight with the pro-government Constitutional Court, which is expected to validate the results in the upcoming days.

The presidential campaign was brief but divisive and, perhaps, the dirtiest in Moldovan political history. Former minister of economy (20062009) during Communist Party rule, Igor Dodon, now chairman of the Party of Socialists, went to great lengths to smear his opponent, Maia Sandu, a Harvard-educated former World Bank economist and the current chairwoman of the Action and Solidarity Party. Sandu ran on an anti-corruption platform, but Dodon attacked her integrity by associating her with an infamous recent billion dollar scandalthe bailout of three Moldovan banks by the government with funds from National Bank reserves. At that time, Sandu served as the education minister in Vlad Filat's cabinet. Filat was convicted to nine years in prison. No evidence exists to suggest that Sandu participated in or benefited in any way from the bank scandal. In fact, Sandu is on record questioning the government's plans vis-a-vis the bailout (Independent.md, September 9). Nevertheless, Dodon had a significant advantage in publicizing his narrative by benefitting from larger traditional media access as well as stronger door-to-door efforts. Sandu's lack of resources and weak grassroots organization forced her to rely predominantly on social mediafirst and foremost, Facebook. In light of the above, Sandu's 47.7 percent of the vote is actually a remarkable achievement.

Geopolitical concerns played second fiddle in the campaign, partially because neither candidate had strong foreign affairs experience, but even more so because both candidates made the strategic calculation to downplay foreign policy in their platforms. Dodon has clearly learnt his lesson that a Moldovan politician cannot win a direct election by overemphasizing his or her ties with Russia. After all, Dodon himself and his fellow party colleague lost the last two races for Chisinau mayor largely because the contests had turned into referendums on foreign policy and the direction of the country, despite the mayor having no authority over international matters.

This time around, Dodon was much more cautions with his pro-Russian agenda. In fact, during the presidential debates and throughout the last few weeks of the campaigning, he veered toward the center by no longer insisting on the repeal of Moldova's Association Agreement with the European Union. Moreover, he came out in support of the visa free regime with the EU (Europalibera.org, November 8). Still, Dodon toed the Russian line by openly acknowledging the illegally annexed Crimea as Russian territory, leading some Ukrainian politicians to call for him to be declared persona non grata and even introduce an economic blockade on Moldova, should Dodon maintain his stance once elected (Pravda.ua, November 4). Russian backing was also manifest in Dodon's highly publicized blessing by Patriarch Krill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church (Actualitati.md, September 22). Furthermore, the head of Moldovan Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Vladimir, publicly endorsed Dodon, followed by other prominent clergy who questioned Maia Sandu's faith and sexual orientation, in light of her being single and childless (Ziarul de Garda, November 4).

Still, Dodon's win would have been impossible without the backing of Moldova's gray eminence, oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc. Despite throwing his toxic public endorsement behind Sandu, Plahotniuc actually ended up working tirelessly through his media conglomerate to advance Dodon's candidacy (Ziarul de Garda, November 6). Thus, Plahotniuc bought himself some time until the 2018 parliamentary election, which is when the future of the country and Plahotniuc's own fate will be decided. Should a Dodon-Plahotniuc coalition emerge after the 2018 elections, Moldova will re-enter the gray zone of trying to balance between EU and Russia, since actual integration with the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) is currently not feasible for economic, political and geographic reasons. However, Moscow does not need Moldova in the EEU per se, as long as it can successfully preclude the country from joining the European Union and, even more so, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). That is why Russia was quick to celebrate Dodon's victory. The head of the Foreign Relations Committee in the State Duma, Alexei Pushkov, applauded "the downfall of the pro-Western liberals in Moldova," adding that "association with the EU offered Moldova nothing and will give nothing to Ukraine" (Agora.md, November 14).

Nonetheless, the Russian victory is largely symbolic as the new president has no constitutional powers to influence the country's course in the short run. And Dodon's elections could, potentially, backfire by galvanizing the pro-Western base ahead of the 2018 election, thus again setting Moldova on a European integration path. Certainly, the upcoming two years will be prone to increased political instability. It will take foresight, wisdom and patience to navigate these turbulent waters. It remains to be seen if the new wave of pro-Western Moldovan politicians is up to the task.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Saakashvili's Resignation: Start of Ukrainian Parliamentary Election Campaign?

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Oleksandr Gavrylyuk Publication Date 14 November 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 182 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Saakashvili's Resignation: Start of Ukrainian Parliamentary Election Campaign?, 14 November 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 182, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b1d054.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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The sudden resignation of the governor of Odesa region, Georgia's former president Mikheil Saakashvili, roiled the Ukrainian media landscape last week (November 7). Saakashvili was appointed to head the coastal Black Sea province, in May 2015, by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, a long-time personal friend. He attributed his resignation to continual sabotage of his regional reform efforts by the central government, including by the president's "corrupt inner circle" (YouTube, November 7).

The presidential administration responded the same day following Saakashvili's announcement, claiming that his departure from the governor's post was in fact planned as early as last summer. At that point, however, Poroshenko and Saakashvili allegedly both agreed to postpone the decision, so as to enable the latter to fulfill his goals for the region. Among these unfinished projects were the construction of the Odesa-Reni motorway, the streamlining of port customs procedures (the so-called "Single Window System"), and others. But none of these were accomplished, a source in the Porosehnko administration said, adding, "Saakashvili just pre-empted [his sacking] to produce the impression of a voluntary resignation" (Hromadske.ua, November 7).

During his tenure as governor, Saakashvili succeeded in fulfilling only 14 of his 34 policy promises. Another 14 can be considered "in progress." And he undeniably failed to accomplish six of his declared promises, including holding an open competition for the head of the Regional Customs service as well as instituting an electronic customs regime at Odesa's newest airport terminal (Slovo i Dilo, November 7).

Many local politicians and political experts agree that the Odesa governor's discharge was long expected. Ukrainian parliamentarian Anton Gerashchenkoa close ally of one of Saakashvili's main political opponents in Kyiv, Interior Minister Arsen Avakovwrote on his Facebook page that it would have been impossible to repeat the success of Georgian reforms in Ukraine. In his opinion, back in 2003, in Georgia, Saakashvili was part of a unique team of several democrats and reformers, which also included Kakha Bendukidze, Nino Burjanadze and Zurab Zhvania. "[Within that team,] Mikheil Saakashvili played the role of the destroyer of the old corrupt system, but there were also those who were building a new Georgia." Gerashchenko claimed that Saakashvili's arrogance and domineering character broke up this successful team in 2007, while its positive achievements were undermined by accusations of human right violations by the government (Facebook.com/anton.gerashchenko.7, November 7).

"Petro Poroshenko, who has known Mikheil Saakashvili since his university years in Kyiv, invited him to Ukraine. On the one hand, he wanted to utilize Saakashvili's popularity and experience to imitate reforms, while, on the other hand, he has used Saakashvili as a ram to divide his political enemies," Gerashchenko maintained. So, Saakashvili was, in his opinion, instrumental in pushing Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky's team from Odesa and in ousting the thenprime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk. According to Gerashchenko, Saakashvili was promised the premiership following Yatsenyuk's resignation, but President Poroshenko ultimately preferred to see his old client, Volodymyr Groysman, head the national government (Facebook.com/anton.gerashchenko.7, November 7).

Having appointed Groysman, the president took full control of the Cabinet's activity, just as he had earlier done with the country's National Bank and foreign ministry, wrote the influential Ukrainian blogger who goes by the name "Anti-Colorados." This, in his opinion, meant the preservation of Saakashvili and his Ukrainian team and, at the same time, Poroshenko's refusal to carry out radical reforms. "Saakashvili just could not implement his projects, as their scale was much larger than that of the [Odesa] region and [his reform goals] dealt with issues that could be addressed only in Kyiv. So Mikheil's proper place should have been that of prime minster, with a free hand to effect reforms. But Poroshenko preferred Byzantine politics, having surrounded himself with his own cronies and clientele [sic]. And this is the fundamental mistake, which will one day count against the President," he wrote. A man of Saakashvili's political stature was just too big to run a region, according to Anti-Colorados. Having, however, accepted the president's proposal, Saakashvili was supposed to understand the implied difficulties and be prepared to respond to challenges in the long run. But it proved impossible to transform a single region into an oasis in the middle of a corrupt desert. Still, Anti-Colorados believes the Odesa governor should have continued his efforts, no matter the problems and resistance he faced (Novaukraina.org, November 8).

Meanwhile, Igor Tyshkevich, an analyst with the Ukrainian Institute for the Future, thinks that Saakashvili's resignation was neither unreasoned nor spontaneous. Instead, it was well thought out and marked the beginning of a new and intricate political game. "Saakashvili has found himself in dire straits," Tyshkevich wrote, adding, "his further presence in Odesa would not only take him nowhere, but threaten his political prospects. The post of regional governor is obviously not the best launching pad for a political struggle" (Hvylya.net, November 7).

However, Tyshkevich has argued, it is not only the former Odesa governor, but also the Ukrainian president, who has reached a stalemate. Poroshenko's personal and party approval ratings have been slumping against the gloomy prospects of a pre-term parliamentary election. Yulia Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna, Oleg Lyashko's Radical Party and Yuriy Boyko's Opposition Bloc seem eager to exploit the popular discontent with soaring utility bills and shrinking living standards. All are ready to call for early elections next year. And in those circumstances, they could be expected to ride the wave of anger and significantly expand their presence in a new legislature. President Poroshenko, on the other hand, is looking to avoid or at least delay a popular vote, so as to try to counteract his opponents' gains. Saakashvili, meanwhile, still enjoys soaring popularity and his rhetorical talents are undisputable. In early elections, he would presumably be able to seriously challenge the Ukrainian political populists for votes. "The former Georgian president is no worse at sensing the popular mood than Tymoshenko and can teach her a thing or two about preaching populism," Tyshkevich argued. This, in the analyst's opinion, is apparently in the president's interest and hints at a possible secret agreement between Poroshenko and Saakashvili (Hvylya.net, November 7).

On November 11, Saakashvili announced he would be launching a new political party, "New Force," and called for early elections (Tabula.ge, November 11). His main problem at the moment is a lack of personnel and infrastructure for building his own political project. Still, a close alliance with the president could certainly speed up the process of party building. And the quicker he can build his party, the sooner one can expect the next parliamentary elections.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
New Monuments of Russian Heroes of Russian-Circassian War Anger Circassians

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Valery Dzutsati Publication Date 8 November 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 179 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, New Monuments of Russian Heroes of Russian-Circassian War Anger Circassians, 8 November 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 179, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b1e154.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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In October, authorities in the city of Krasnodar inaugurated a monument commemorating Cossack ataman and Lieutenant General Grigory Rashpil. The monument was erected to mark the 320th anniversary of the Kuban Cossack Military. Rashpil took an active part in the Russian conquest of the North Caucasus in the 19th century (Kavkazsky Uzel, October 16). The dedication of yet another monument of a Russian tsarist-era general in the North Caucasus (see EDM, September 26, 2013; May 30, 2015) reignited resentment among Circassian activists against the government policy of commemorating Russian heroes who are simultaneously despised by Circassians. General Rashpil was known among the Circassians as one of the "butchers of the Circassian people." In 1841, Rashpil reportedly defended Russian settlements from an attack by the Abadzekhs (one of the Circassian tribes) in the Black Sea area. During 18501855, the Russian military commander took part in ravishing Circassian lands in an attempt to break their resistance (Onkavkaz.com, November 4).

Unlike in other parts of the North Caucasus, Russian tsars actively strived to efface the Circassians' presence from their homeland. The reason for such brutal ethnic cleansing was that Moscow wanted to secure its access to the Black Sea coast. Hence, Russia's long war with Shamil in the eastern part of the North Caucasus did not result in mass deportations or the elimination of the conquered peoples; whereas in the western part of the region, an estimated 90 percent of the Circassian population was either killed, starved to death, or deported. Moscow followed this up with a resettlement of ethnic Russians, Cossacks, and other friendly ethnic groups within months after Circassians were deported from their homeland. Although the Russian government maintains that those events should be relegated to the distant past, judging by its active policy of promoting monuments commemorating Russian heroes of the Russian-Circassian war, this history still has a high political salience. By erecting memorials to Imperial Russian generals and leaders, who killed and conquered Circassians, the Russian governmentwillingly or notis intimidating today's Circassian populations living in the Northwest Caucasus.

"The more indignation the oppressor's figure evokes among us [Circassians], the more readily the authorities appear to be commemorating such people," Circassian activists Aslan Beshto told the news agency Kavkaz-Realii. According to Beshto, the commemoration of the most notorious and brutal figures who participated in the Russian conquest of the western North Caucasus is becoming increasingly common. Memorials are created for the "Cossacks, who settled and made livable this wild place," as if there had been no people and no culture before the arrival of Russians, Beshto said ironically. In 2003, the authorities inaugurated a monument of the notorious Russian General Grigory Zass, who was known as the "collector of Circassian skulls." Another 19th century Russian general with a controversial reputation in the North Caucasus, Aleksei Yermolov, was honored by multiple monuments in the cities of Stavropol region, Moscow and elsewhere. The grand duke of Russia, Mikhail Romanov, was honored with a monument in Adygea in 2010, despite multiple protests by Circassian activists. As such, many Circassians are angry at what they see as an apparent government-sponsored campaign of renewed conquest (Kavkaz-Realii, November 3). The discontent among Circassians is further exacerbated by the fact they this group does not have nearly as many monuments dedicated to their heroes, as the Russians do. Circassian activist Aramby Khepai said: "There is not a single monument of the defenders of the [North] Caucasus or Circassia across the [North] Caucasus. My clan, which resided on the territory of the modern-day Republic of Adygea, was practically completely eliminated" (Onkavkaz.com, November 4).

Circassians, along with other peoples of the North Caucasus, would certainly like to install monuments featuring their own historical heroes. But apparently, Moscow is quietly but effectively discouraging them from doing so. Instead, the North Caucasus is full of monuments celebrating the friendship of Russians and locals, along with Soviet-era monuments of Vladimir Lenin and other Soviet figures.

The Circassian flag has, thus, become one of the alternative symbols for the Circassians. The Circassian green flag with crossed arrows and scattered stars often surfaces at gatherings of Circassians in Russia and around the world. Many Circassians are convinced that the role of a single flag to unite a divided nation has been exceptionally high. This green-and-gold banner became the official flag of the Republic of Adygea. Besides, Adygea, Kabardino-Balkaria, and Karachaevo-Cherkessia now officially celebrate the Day of the Circassian Flag on April 25 (Onkavkaz.com, October 30).

Despite the importance of the Circassian flag, however, it does not have the same property of stability and presence as stationary monuments. Given the Russian authorities' activities in expanding the installation of monuments featuring Russian heroes and the outcry it causes among the Circassians, it is plausible to suggest that a "war of monuments" is likely to become unleashed in the region. Adygea is the most probable candidate to be such a "battleground" of monuments. The republic has a majority ethnic-Russian population, but its government is dominated by ethnic Circassians (Adygeans). Soon after Russians installed a statue of Russian Grand Duke Mikhail Romanov in Adygea, Circassians called for constructing a monument for their own heroHaji-Kizbech Sheretluko, one of the most notable early 19th century leaders of the Shapsugs who successfully fought off the tsarist Russian army for some time (Aheku.net, March 27, 2014). Russians clearly wield much greater resources than the Circassians. Therefore, monuments to Russian heroes will almost certainly continue to "outpace" statues dedicated to figures from Circassian history, further disenfranchising the Circassian population in the Northwest Caucasus.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Is Bashkortostan About to Explode Along Ethnic Lines?

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Paul Goble Publication Date 8 November 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 179 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Is Bashkortostan About to Explode Along Ethnic Lines?, 8 November 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 179, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b1e8e4.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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By population, Bashkortostan is the largest non-Russian republic in the Russian Federation. And yet, its particular ethnic mix has meant that this Middle Volga region has heretofore been far less unsettled than many others. The titular Bashkirs, a Turkic Muslim people, form only 29.5 percent of its population, with ethnic Russians forming 36.1 percent. The Volga Tatarsanother Turkic Muslim people to which the Bashkirs are closely related but with whom they have a complicated relationship because of Moscow's policies of playing the two off against each othermake up another 25.4 percent of the republic's population.

Now, however, evidence has been mounting that the republic may be about to explode along ethnic lines. The Bashkirs are becoming increasingly assertive in defense of their rights and their republic, while extremist Russian nationalist groups have been mobilizing and even arming themselves to defend their ethnic group or to attack others. The major question now is whether the Tatars will align with the Bashkirs. Such an outcome would make Turkic Muslims the majority of the population in Bashkortostan and expand neighboring Tatarstan's influence there and in other non-Russian republics. Alternatively, if Bashkortostan's Tatars stand aside, this would weaken Kazan's influence and might very well encourage the local Russian plurality to try to achieve a greater political role across the Middle Volga.

But regardless of what the Tatars of Bashkortostan do, the rising tensions in that republic present a serious problem for Moscow. Like Tatarstan, almost all of the transportation and communication arteries connecting European Russia with Siberia and the Far East pass through these two Turkic Muslim republics. Therefore, any violence in either of them could effectively cut the Russian Federation in two. That is something that has given both Kazan and Ufa greater power than they would otherwise have, on the one hand, and made Moscow more sensitive to what goes on in either of these two republics, on the other.

Last month (October 11), on the anniversary of Bashkortostan's declaration of state sovereignty in 1990, a group of Bashkir nationalists assembled to complain that Moscow had gutted the provisions of that document. They further argued that the central Russian government was allegedly working hard to destroy the social, economic and political basis of the republic (Kyk-byre.ru, October 19).

According to the resolution adopted by the meeting, Moscow throughout Vladimir Putin's reign has violated the 1990 Bashkortostan declaration, the Russian Constitution and various international agreements to which Russia is a signatory in order to "concentrate to an unjustified extent power in the federal center." Specifically, they complained that Putin had suppressed the office of republican president and installed his agent rather than allowing Bashkirs to vote for head of their republic. Additionally, Moscow distorted Bashkir history in serious ways and closed schools and other facilities in other to undermine the Bashkir language. The resolution's authors charged that Moscow had destroyed local healthcare and other social services as well as key economic facilitiespurportedly, in the name of saving money, but in fact to hurt the Bashkirs while inflicting less harm on Russians.

"Not in one of these cases, however, did the republican or federal authorities ask the opinion of the population," the resolution continues. Moreover, Moscow has been destroying the environment in Bashkortostan and arresting Bashkir activists. Consequently, the activists declared, they are compelled to take action to demand that both Moscow and Ufa live up to the 1990 sovereignty declaration and the Russian constitution, form a "truly federal state with division of powers," restore Bashkir control over its national resources, restore an elected republic presidency, reopen Bashkir-language schools and other institutions, and end the repression of Bashkir national organizations, including restrictions on where and when demonstrations can take place.

In the weeks since then, there have been a series of small protests in predominantly Bashkir districts within the republic that have sought to promote these goals as well as to complain about the falsification of the September Duma elections and the failure of local officials to live up to their electoral promises and legal responsibilities. Many of the activists have taken to attending local council meetings in the hopes of changing the leaderships of these bodies (Proufu.ru, October 10).

While the Bashkir activists so far remain committed to acting within the law to press their demands, the Russian nationalists in Bashkortostan have demonstrated that they are prepared to use violence to defend their community and to advance their specific interests, including fascist ones (Proufu.ru, October 18). Late last month, Bashkortostan's interior ministry announced the detention of 30 members of a Nazi band that has sought to spread its views via the schools in Bashkortostan's cities. Consisting of ethnic Russians, this band united representatives of the Right Sector, which is banned in Russia, and various neo-Nazi groupings. According to law enforcement sources, this group has committed numerous other crimes as well.

What is worrisome is not only the rise and size of this group but the unwillingness of the authorities to do more than to go after its role in placing extremist materials on the Internet. The interior ministry says that it is currently detaining members of the band only on that basis, thus opening the possibility that the group will increasingly turn from the virtual world to the real one. History suggests such a result would represent a dangerous development given that some of the members of this band, operating under the gang name "White River," have organized demonstrations in favor of Adolf Hitler and against the Bashkirs and other non-Russians.

If the Russian national extremists engage in more attacks, the Bashkirs are now angry enough to respond; and the result could be some of the worst nationalist-inspired violence outside of the North Caucasus in many years.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Assessing the Glacial Progress in Russia's Military Modernization

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Roger McDermott Publication Date 8 November 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 179 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Assessing the Glacial Progress in Russia's Military Modernization, 8 November 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 179, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b1f284.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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Russia's political-military leadership places great emphasis upon military modernization, assumes its targets will be fully met, and offers frequent statistics to illustrate success in this long-term endeavor. Deputy Defense Minister Dmitry Rogozin, expresses confidence in the capacity of the defense sector to harness civilian technologies to benefit the Armed Forces. Yet, there are signs that the pace of rearmament may be slowing, while the finance and defense ministries openly argue about the scale of state funding required to ensure such modernization to 2025 (see EDM, October 6, November 3). Equally, based on the defense ministry figures for annual procurement, it is a complex task to establish the modernization priorities or define areas that are proving to be challenging (Rossiyskaya Gazeta, October 30; Armeskiy Sbornik, October 2016).

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu regularly expounds a message of relentless progress in military modernization. Reflecting on the achievements of the defense industry in the third quarter of this year, Shoigu noted that the share of advanced modern weapons and equipment had increased by 0.2 percent to reach an overall figure of 48 percent; 62 percent of the state defense order has already been fulfilled. By 2020, the share of modern or new weapons and equipment must reach 70 percent in order to declare the modernization program a success. Shoigu's supporting evidence looks impressive. He notes the delivery of 4 aircraft, 13 helicopters and 21 radars; repairs of 13 aircraft; the Western Military District (MD) receiving Bal and Bastion coastal missile complexes as well as two regimental sets of advanced S-400 air defense systems; and the Navy receiving more than 100 Kalibr and Oniks cruise missiles (TASS, October 21).

Nevertheless, Shoigu's year-on-year figures appear to indicate that the rate of modernization is actually slowing, with numbers down in aircraft, helicopters, radars, combat vehicles or ship deliveries. He uses these figures to convey an impression that despite the numerous challenges facing the defense industry and the Russian economy, the process itself and the state target remain intact. However, there are also some gaps in the figures, including no mention of the numbers of coastal systems being procured, or offering any figure for fresh unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) procurement (Krasnaya Zvezda, October 11, 2015; October 23, 2016). Manufacturing and repairs of combat vehicles, aircraft production and some advanced technologies such as UAVs are struggling to maintain the momentum in the modernization program, with a tailing off in the respective figures year-on-year. Among the most prominent examples of modern aircraft procurement, which the defense ministry highlights, are the numbers of Su-30SM fighters entering service, perhaps bolstered by their use in combat missions in Syria (Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye, October 21).

Shoigu also referred to the delivery of three sets of automated command-and-control systems, a core unifying element in the modernization drive, but offered no total figures for these advanced systems. According to defense industry sources, rapid progress is being made toward introducing the new Ratnik individual soldier gear, with 120,000 sets procured since 2014 (RIA Novosti, November 5).

The high-technology end of rearmament is clearly being prioritized by the political-military leadership. And this appears to be well placed with supporting infrastructure to help alleviate some of the problems facing the domestic defense industry. Recently, defense experts and journalists were invited to visit Tula, with its 25 defense companies and its reputation as the armory capital of the country. Aleksandr Denisov, the CEO of the holding Vysokotochnyye Kompleksy (Precision Complexes), explained to his guests from Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye that Precision Complexes is the most highly visited part of defence industry by President Putin, leading members of the government as well as the top brass. This fact confirms the level of interest in precision-strike systems but affords no tangible insight into the rate of high-technology modernization (Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye, October 21).

Precision Complexes specializes in producing tank and anti-aircraft guided weapons, modern high-precision weapons, radars, as well as simulators to train anti-tank gunners. The company is working on simulators to train crews for the new generation Armata T-14 tank, as well as infantry fighting vehicles such as the Kurganets and the armored personnel carrier Bumerang. These simulators use laser technology and promise to markedly enhance training standards for such specialist systems (Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye, October 21). Clearly training and educational support is underway for the introduction of greater numbers of high-technology assets in the military. Achieving advances in this area will help to facilitate defense modernization, as more contract personnel come into service in the Armed Forces.

Indeed, study and training are key factors in the success of the defense companies operating in Tula, as it boasts its own specialized training center in order to ensure sufficiently high standards among employees. The center produces training materials in five languages and trains 4,000 to 6,000 personnel annually (Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye, October 21). Precision Complexes also draws on a long established domestic laser technology capacity, which it exploits in new simulator designs (Voyenno Promyshlennyy Kuryer, November 1).

Russian military commentators recognize that there are deep-seated issues facing the targets for military modernization without simply resorting to massaging the figures. Introducing the T-14 Armata tank in meaningful numbers will prove to be costly, as well as the modern advanced combat vehicles; and some observers see a need for optimization or resetting targets not least because the state funding levels needed for the armament program to 2025 may be slashed by as much as 50 percent (Voyenno Promyshlennyy Kuryer, November 1). It is unsurprising that Putin counsels the defense industry to plan for a future lean period in state orders. The year-on-year comparison of official figures suggests that 20162017 may well be critical tests for the viability of the rearmament strategy, with progress either stuttering or halting.

Underlying the official figures, while there are discernible difficulties in meeting national targets, there is also continued evidence of long-term state interest in compelling the defense industry to produce more high-technology assets for the military. But even if the 70 percent new or modern equipment target set for 2020 is achieved in full, it is unlikely that it will be evenly spread across the Armed Forces in all service branches and arms. Still, with a high value placed on advanced network-enabled technologies coupled with greater numbers of contract personnel, it is certain that the Russian Armed Forces will possess new and modernized military capability for offensive and defensive purposes.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Belarus Balances Pursuit of Economic Growth With Strengthening National Identity

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Grigory Ioffe Publication Date 9 November 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 180 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Belarus Balances Pursuit of Economic Growth With Strengthening National Identity, 9 November 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 180, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b1f854.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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On Belarus's eastern flank, the conflict with Russia over natural gas prices has reportedly been resolved; but the parameters of the resolution are not transparent. In the words of Belarusian Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov, the price of gas remains $132 per 1,000 cubic meters, as Russia insisted, but the Belarusian side is "satisfied by the attendant decisions" (Belta.by, October 31). At the same time, a certain amount of Azerbaijani oil was delivered to the Mozyr refinery to make up for Russia's cut in exports of crude oil to Belarus to penalize Minsk for underpaying for Russian natural gas (Belta.by, October 31). For the umpteenth time, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka declared that "a delay in establishing a common market for energy in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) does not suit us" (Naviny.by, October 28). As per Russia's suggestion, common prices on energy across the Moscow-led economic bloc will only be set in 2025.

Several other recent developments have also been undermining Belarusian-Russian economic integration. Specifically, on November 1, Russia stopped allowing passenger cars from third countries to freely enter Russia via Belarus. Immigration and customs controls do not exist on the Belarusian-Russian border, and so Russia is now demanding that foreign cars enter its territory across border crossings with such controls conducted by Russian authorities. That would imply quite a detour for Russia-bound foreign drivers crossing Belaruseither through Latvia or through Ukraine. This arrangement is an absurdity: Belarus's borders with European Union countries already have Belarusian customs and immigration controls, while the freedom of movement of peoples across borders is enshrined in both the Belarus-Russia Union State and the EEU (of which Russia and Belarus are founding members). The limitation for cars has not yet been extended to citizens of third countries entering Russia via Belarus by trains and aircraft; but these issues are reportedly "under scrutiny" (Naviny.by, November 1). A Belarusian visa does not longer allow citizens of third countries to enter Russia and vice versai.e., there is no EU-style Schengen Zone equivalent in the EEU, despite the fact that this bloc has far fewer members than the European Union.

Another notable development has been the growing number of Belarusians who worked abroad in Russia who are now returning to their home country. Scores have come back because wages in Russia are no longer significantly higher than in Belarus. Concurrently, 82,000 Belarusians received job authorizations in the European Union in 2016. In Belarus itself, wages look grim. From January to September, the highest monthly wages in the country were in Soligorsk district of Minsk Oblast, where potassium is extracted. There, Belarusians on average earn 1,058.4 rubles (about $557) per month. In the city of Minsk, monthly wages amounted to 1007.8 rubles ($530). But plenty of areas fall within the $250$270 range (Naviny.by, November 1). Presumably, Belarusians who earn such small monthly wages must mainly or exclusively rely on consuming homegrown food.

Belarusian exports to Russia have been shrinking overall. But one silver lining may be seen in the fact that the Minsk Truck Factory (MAZ), which for quite some time was operating at a loss, suddenly reported growth in its sales to Russian buyers: 364 trucks were sold in September, 13 percent more than in September 2015 (Tut.by, October 18). According to one popular line of thinking, Belarus should preserve its current economic model, which is dominated by large state-run businesses. However, to unleash its economic potential, the country should allow the CEOs of these state-owned enterprises to undertake risky decisions without fear of criminal prosecution and to engage in serious marketing research without having to worry about being charged with corruption (Respublika, October 21). According to an alternative opinion, most eloquently expressed by Kirill Rudyi, Belarus's ambassador to China and a former economic advisor to the president, Belarus seriously needs to propel private businesses to a position of strength. Furthermore, he argues, the country needs good lawyers who can protect fledgling domestic businesses as well as sociologists to unmask the drivers of local consumer behavior (Tut.by, November 3). One problem with this solution is that it has already been tried, to some degree in Russiabut the results do not look attractive.

Belarus's closeness to Russia is sometimes asserted by pointing to the fact that Belarus remains one of only two post-Soviet countries that retain November 7, the anniversary of the Communist Revolution of 1917, as a national holiday (the other being Kyrgyzstan). Russia itself, however, no longer celebrates November 7. In his congratulatory remarks to the nation, Lukashenka underscored that the former Soviet Union set international standards in social welfare, equality, inter-ethnic consensus and achieved momentous breakthroughs in industry, agriculture, spacecraft technology, etc. The priceless experience of previous generations inspires the present population, he claimed (President.gov, November 5). Moreover, on November 7, "on the request of veterans and communists" of the Minsk Tractor Factory, a monument to Vladimir Lenin was moved from a location inside the fenced territory of the factory to its original and more visible location outside the factory's checkpoint (Tut.by, November 5).

Referring to the role of Russia in the Belarusians' worldview, Stas Karpau, a Belarusian-language blogger, opines that his countrymen who love Russia are fixated on it, while Belarusians who dislike Russia are fixated on it even more, as they constantly repeat that Belarus is not Russia. But within such a formulation, there is little room for Belarus itselfthat is, a Belarus that can exist on its own without Russia as the meaningful other, he asserts (Stas Karpau, November 4). The oversized role of Russia in Belarusians' reflection over their own country irritates some nationalist thinkers. Thus, yet another blogger, Eduard Palchys, who was recently released from jail after being charged with inciting inter-ethnic hatred in his writing (see EDM, November 2), explained in an interview that his texts were not so much aimed against Russia. Rather, he said, his blog posts were meant to awaken Belarusians' self-defense instinct in the face of a perceived threat to Belarusian statehood. In 2014, amidst the early stages of the growing crisis in Ukraine, most Belarusians did not see that threat and instead became easy victims of Russian propaganda (Tut.by, October 31).

The recent developments in Belarus, thus, make up a kind of a jigsaw puzzle, whose overarching theme is not easy to tease out. But clearly, the lasting problem of developing Belarusian identity has grown entwined with the newer problem of overcoming the country's economic slowdown. The government will need to employ strategic thinking to solve this puzzle.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Russia's 'Youth Army': Sovietization, Militarization or Radicalization?

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Sergey Sukhankin Publication Date 9 November 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 180 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Russia's 'Youth Army': Sovietization, Militarization or Radicalization?, 9 November 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 180, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b20284.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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In addition to concrete steps aimed at upgrading Russian military capabilities, Moscow has launched a vigorous campaign promoting the cult of the military within Russian society, particular focusing on younger generation of Russians. On September 1, the government launched the so-called "Yunarmia" military-patriotic movement, to be composed of Russian schoolchildren. Two months later, it is said to have already assembled around 27,000 members (Mil.ru, accessed November 9). The movement was initiated by the Ministry of Defence (it is frequently nicknamed "the army of Sergei Shoygu," the present minister of defense) and enjoys the full support of Russian President Vladimir Putin. It currently consists of 5,000 branches all across Russia, on the basis of the Central Sport Club of the Army (CSKA) and the Volunteer Society for Cooperation with the Army, Aviation, and Fleet (DOSAAF). In the majority of regions, the local Yunarmia branches are headed by veterans of the Afghan or Chechen wars.

The main agenda of the movement is concerned with nurturing the young generation in accordance with Russian national traditions that reject such "foreign" elements as LGBT rights, religious fanaticism, radical nationalism, various sects, and "aggressive minorities" that allegedly seek to overthrow "legitimate governments." Moreover, it is construed as an "inoculation against Fascism" (Russkaya Pravda, April 10). Also, there is an explicit reference to some "contemporary stage of Russian patriotism" that is based on restoring all "spiritual staples" (a notion introduced by Putin in 2012) and a readiness of ordinary people to serve the motherland (Tretya Mirovaya Voyna, accessed November 9).

Russian Minister of Defence Shoygu has also been very explicit as to the goal of the Yunarmia movement: the popularization of military ideology and the fostering of a special bond between young Russians and the army. "Paratroopers and racketeers, infantrymen and tank crew are determined to invite each and every member of 'Yunarmia' into their circle," he noted earlier this year. On the other hand, Alexander Kanshin, the head of the National Association of Reserve Officers, has claimed that even in a short-term prospect, the youth movement is likely to accept "hundreds of thousands" of new members. Indeed, Yunarmia was conceived as a militarized wing of the "Russian movement of schoolchildren," and thus it potentially has truly immense human resources at its disposal. Moreover, even though membership is officially "voluntary," there are serious doubts in this regardparticularly considering Russo-Soviet historical tradition. Some observers have already compared the new organization to its historical predecessor of the mid-1980s, which played the role of a military supplement to the Soviet Pioneers youth organization. The alleged similarity is not only based on the visible ideological commonalities between the two, but is also underscored by the uniforms its members are given (Kp.ru, May 25).

One should not, however, conflate Yunarmia with such artificially created pro-Kremlin projects of the early 2000s as "Nashi": the former is, by no means, just another "patriotic" initiative created by Russian political technologists. Rather, Yunarmia is a growing movement closely linked with the Russian Armed Forces. And considering the militaristic ideology now seen growing in the country, it the new "youth army" should be understood as an organic "part of the Russian state" (Openrussia.org, August 12).

Notably, Kaliningrad oblastthe Russian "island in Europe," which is currently also being subjected to profound Soviet-style militarization (see EDM, November 7)seems to have been chosen by Moscow to showcase Yunarmia's launch. The ceremony of acceptance of the first Yunarmia members in the oblast was carried out with unprecedented pomp: not only was it attended by prominent Russian sportsmen, it also allowed the new members to undertake a short sea voyage on the naval corvette Steregushchiy (Tvzvezda.ru, July 9).

The "militarization of public conscious" in Kaliningrad has more recently taken yet another turn. On October 26, the holding company AO "Voentorg" had an opening ceremony for the first store in the exclave oblast that will sell consumer goods branded "Russian Army" ("Armija Rossii"). All in all there are only six stores of this kind across Russia; the one located in Moscow is physically situated right in front of the United States Embassy. The launch event for the Kaliningrad store was overseen by the commander of the Baltic Sea Fleet, Vice Admiral Alexander Nosatov (Newkaliningrad.ru, October 26).

Aside from products aimed at adultsthe so-called "Polite People" brand, styled in the Soviet tradition of goods dating from the early 1940sthe shop offers a special line for children branded "Polite Bears." The children's line also adheres to the currently extremely popular "military style" (Minoborony Rossii, October 25). Undoubtedly, the last aspect should be viewed as an extremely dangerous and far-reaching trend that underscores the growing link between the youngest members of Russian society and the cult of militarism. Quite recently, the Russian blogosphere was appalled by the release of a children's bed designed to look like the notorious "Buk" missile system, which was used to down the MH17 Boeing passenger jet over eastern Ukraine, in July 2014 (Mk.ru , October 1).

Admittedly, it would be quite inaccurate to claim that today's Yunarmia and its Soviet-era predecessor are entirely analogous. In fact, today's "youth army" appears to be a much more ominous phenomenon for Russian society. Given the extent of xenophobia and the cult of the military in Russian society today, the emergence of a mass popular youth movement like Yunarmia reflects a much darker time of the last century when young people became tools of totalitarian regimes in Europe. It will be up to Russians to make sure Yunarmia does not retread these footsteps of the past.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Short-Term Personnel Contracts Negate Goals of Russia's Military Reforms

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Aleksandr Golts Publication Date 9 November 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 180 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Short-Term Personnel Contracts Negate Goals of Russia's Military Reforms, 9 November 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 180, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b20b44.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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The Kremlin's growing geopolitical ambitions have once again undermined previous successes of Russian military reform. In particular, the Defense Committee of the State Duma (parliament) recently approved amendments to the law "On Military Duty and Military Service." The amendments, originally proposed by the Ministry of Defense, will allow military personnel to conclude service contracts with the Russian Armed Forces for a period of six months to a year. Until now, the shortest possible contract period was three years. Contracts can be signed not only with individuals in the reserves, but also with conscripts a month away from completing their mandatory service. According to the draft law, these short-term contracts apply only during extraordinary circumstances, such as for dealing with a natural disaster or other emergency, when additional forces are needed to restore the constitutional order, or to maintain or restore peace and security abroad (Rossiyiskaya Gazeta, November 1).

The Explanatory Memorandum to the bill explicitly insists that short-term contracts will help to solve problems that have arisen as the result of "a change in the military-political situation, [and the] intensification of activities of international terrorist and extremist organizations." In this situation, the "need to increase the mobility of troops, to form aggregated and non-standard units and staffing them in a short time" becomes urgent. The bill also takes into account the specifics of military service of the crews of the ships and submarines of the Navy (Duma.gov.ru [.doc file], October 19).

With regard to naval service, the authors of the law note that the mandatory service term of sailor-conscripts can sometimes end in the middle of a long ocean voyage. Though this concerns only several hundred sailors. Therefore, commanders must be able to offer these sailors short-term contracts to extend their service. In fact, several years ago, the defense ministry had planned to transfer all sailors serving on ships into permanent, long-term service contracts. Ironically, defense ministry officials at that time argued that these contract-service reforms would bring about greater "professionalization" of all Navy crews-the identical argument being employed now for the proposed short-term contracts.

It is important to focus on the draft law's intent to create "aggregated and non-standard units" in the Armed Forces and to rapidly equip them. This is the first time such formations have ever been mentioned in official Russian documents. Their introduction by the Ministry of Defense appears to be an attempt to give legal status to those Russian citizens who, as reported, are already fighting in Syria and before that in Ukraine (Haaretz, November 5). These people are hired through intermediaries to undertake combat roles, but their activities abroad are not covered by current Russian legislation. More recently, the government has attempted to legalize their existence by adopting a law on private military companies. However, that bill is stuck in the Duma due to opposition by the Federal Security Service (FSB), which strongly opposes sharing the state's monopoly on violence with private entrepreneurs. Many Russian military experts contend that the defense ministry intends to solve the military's manning problems via these proposed short-term contracts. "We have long been fighting in modern conditions; we need to form groups and forces for specific purposes In such a way, it is possible to assemble a team of professionals selected for a particular task on different war fronts," insisted Ivan Konovalov, the director of the Moscow-based Centre for Strategic Trend Studies (RIR, October 18). In fact, however, such an arrangement represents the legalization of mercenaries.

The establishment of contracts for Russian soldiers dates back to a 2003 federal target program to change the military from an overwhelmingly conscript- to a partially contract-service force. This decision immediately generated numerous abuses. Conscripts were frequently compelled-sometimes through violence or even forms of torture-to sign service contracts to become "professional" soldiers in the Armed Forces. For instance, commanders would keep soldiers who refused to sign the contract stuck outside in the cold for hours. As a result, more than 80 percent of so-called "kontraktniki" newly signed to the Armed Forces were troops with no more than six months of service under their belts. Officers would promise 18-year-old boys, not too experienced in legal matters, that they could voluntarily terminate their contract after serving the required two years of compulsory service. However, this represented only a partial termination, and after leaving, their salaries went into the pockets of commanders. If the deception was discovered, the soldiers were immediately declared as deserters. Not coincidentally, in 2009, after their "successful" completion of the program, the number of deserters amounted to 7,000 men (Lenta.ru, February 11, 2009).

This negative experience pushed then-defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov to annul the possibility of extending contracts to draftees; the option was retained only for reservists who, after completing their full two years of conscript service, spent some time in civilian life. A person who signs the contract is then required to pass an additional special three-month training session before being assigned to a military unit. On the other hand, the newly proposed short-term service contracts seriously undermine the professionalism and necessary skill set of military personnel. Moreover, a man who decides to fight in the military for a few months for the money will likely lack any significant devotion to his motherland.

The six-month service-contract initiative may in fact indicate that the Kremlin is seriously considering a major ground operation in Syria in the near future. Clearly, the brutal air strikes over Aleppo did not bring the desired military effect so far. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's army is too anemic to effectively utilize Russia's air support, and the Syrian government forces' attack on Aleppo has once again become bogged down. Short-term conscripts could, therefore, play a role in implementing the operational plan worked out last year during the strategic exercise Tsentr (Center) 2015. Reportedly, these maneuvers practiced using a 100,000-strong ground force to capture an unnamed country overrun by terrorists. Russian defense ministry officials later admitted openly that the "Syrian theater" was on their minds vis-a-vis the exercise (Voenno-Promishlenniyi Kurier, November 4, 2015). But putting together such a large ground force for action in Syria is not easy: the Russian have authorities repeatedly promised not to send conscripts to fight abroad. Whereas, the government apparently does not feel it bears such responsibility for the lives of contract soldiers-even short-term ones-who, presumably, have voluntarily chosen the risky profession of a soldier. It seems, therefore, Russia is abandoning the priority of improving the quality of its military personnel in favor of simply pushing up the numbers of men-under-arms who can be sent into battle.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Uzbekistan Determined to Improve Relations With Its Neighbors

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Umida Hashimova Publication Date 26 October 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 172 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Uzbekistan Determined to Improve Relations With Its Neighbors, 26 October 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 172, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b218e4.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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Uzbekistan's diplomats may never have been quite as busy as Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov has been in just the past several weeks. In addition to attending or hosting a series of routine meetings, Kamilov has also become a goodwill ambassador for Uzbekistan's interim president, Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyaev. The interim head of state is pursuing a new policy of mending relations with Uzbekistan's immediate neighbors, the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan, as well as intensifying relations with Kazakhstan and Afghanistan. And Kamilov and his foreign ministry have been tasked with executing this policy course.

A truly remarkable breakthrough took place earlier this month. On October 1, a 130-person delegation from Kyrgyzstan, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Mukhammetkalyy Abulgaziyev, was met by Uzbekistan's Deputy Prime Minister Adham Ikromov on the Uzbekistani side of the border, in Andijan (Kyrgyz Television, October 3). The governors of the northern regions of Kyrgyzstan, officials from the border city of Osh, law enforcement personnel, and representatives of Kyrgyzstani educational and religious institutions were invited by their Uzbekistani colleagues to spend a full day filled with cultural events, formal and informal meetings, and various visits organized by Uzbekistan (KyrTAg, October 1; Gazeta.uz, October 2). The event had the appearance of a Kyrgyz-Uzbek reunification day. But most importantly, it was an opportunity for the two sides to connect faces to names in anticipation of future cross-border cooperation. The event concluded with the signing of several memorandums of understanding. These agreements establish monthly reciprocal meetings to discuss and execute plans for cooperation and the resolution of outstanding issues, particularly at the local level. In fact, the first sign of progress in calming bilateral tensions occurred a couple weeks later, when Uzbekistan relaxed its restrictive border-crossing regulations. Previously, citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic were only allowed to freely cross the Uzbekistani border to attend funeral ceremonies. Now the list of allowed reasons to come to Uzbekistan has expanded (Current Time, October 13).

The Kyrgyz-Uzbek reunification day (and what will follow as a result) most likely came out of Foreign Minister Kamilov's side meeting with Kyrgyzstani President Almazbek Atambayev, at the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit, in Bishkek, on September 15 (President.kg, September 15). The plan to host a meeting in Andijan was probably conveyed then. Another issue Kamilov and Atambayev discussed on the sidelines of the CIS summit was border demarcation and delimitationperhaps the two countries' most contentious point of disagreement. Although the specifics of these discussions are not known, extensive joint collaboration on border demarcation has ensued since then. Governmental working groups on border delimitation and demarcation met for a cumulative total of two weeks during September 20October 14 and discussed how to deal with contentious sections of their shared frontier. In its first meeting, the working group discussed 23 sections of the border, and in the second55 (Gazeta.uz, September 20; Kun.uz, October 14). It is true that border-related intergovernmental meetings between Uzbekistan and the Kyrgyz Republic are not new. But the difference today is that the frequency and duration of these meetings have noticeably increased, and the groups are reportedly focusing on specific disputed areas.

Considering the success of the October 1 visit to Andijan by the Kyrgyz delegation, it is safe to assume that Uzbekistan may soon invite a similar delegation from the bordering regions of Tajikistan. Unlike in the case of Kyrgyzstan, the first steps toward mending relations with Tajikistan were actually taken two years ago by then-president of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, who passed away on September 2. Karimov met with his Tajikistani counterpart, Emomali Rahmon, in September 2014, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Dushanbe. Following this meeting, the two sides decided to divide their long list of bilateral disagreements into immediate-, middle- and long-term issues (see EDM, June 5, 2015). Last month, to set the stage for further developing positive relations in the post-Karimov era, Foreign Minister Kamilov visited President Rahmon on September 29. Afterward, Prime Minister Mirziyaev had a follow-on telephone conversation with the Tajikistani head of state (Gazeta.uz, September 30; Uza.uz, October 5).

Despite these positive trends, Uzbekistan is still in the early stages of mending and restoring relations with the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan. On the other hand, its trade and intergovernmental relations with Kazakhstan are continually growing stronger. Kazakhstan's First Deputy Prime Minister Asqar Mamin traveled to Tashkent on September 23. And soon thereafter, a delegation from Uzbekistan, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Ulugbek Rozuqulov, visited southern Kazakhstan to discuss opening trade zones across several border areas as well as taking further actions to increase bilateral trade (Ozbekiston TV channel, 10 October; Anhor.uz, October 11). Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are also working on finalizing their final border demarcation. The last meeting devoted to this issue was held on September 2930 (Mfa.uz, September 30).

Uzbekistan is also attempting to intensify cooperation with Afghanistan. Foreign Minister Kamilov participated in the Brussels Conference on support for Afghanistan, which was held on October 45. Representatives from 75 countries and 26 international organizations met along with Afghan President Ashraf Gani to discuss political, trade and transportation cooperation (Uzreport.uz, October 7). Prior to this conference, Prime Minister Mirziyaev specifically mentioned widening the spectrum of cooperation with Afghanistan when he visited Suxandarya, Uzbeksitan's region bordering on Afghanistan (BBCUzbek service, September 12).

Uzbekistan's recent diplomatic blitz aimed at its neighbors is undoubtedly being orchestrated by interim president Mirziyaev. But what effects can this pivot be expected to have on Uzbekistan and the wider region? First, by resolving Uzbekistan's outstanding border disputes with its neighbors, Tashkent will be able to finally eliminate one of the most contentious obstacles to intraregional cooperation at various levels. Increased interstate cooperation in Central Asia, in turn, will presumably contribute to stronger region-level development. A stronger Central Asia will be in a better position to resist and withstand outside pressurefinally being able to negate the divide-and-rule tactics employed by some outside powers, which, some experts argue, the region has for decades been subjected to. Second, by improving relations with its immediate neighbors, Uzbekistan is opening the door to more lasting dialogue, which is necessary for tackling specific outstanding and future issues or conflicts. The development of active cooperation with its neighbors is bound to substantially improve Uzbekistan's reputation in the regionwhich is unquestionably conducive to Tashkent's foreign policy.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Why Is Karachaevo-Cherkessia Quiet When Its Neighbors Suffer From Violence?

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Valery Dzutsati Publication Date 25 October 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 171 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Why Is Karachaevo-Cherkessia Quiet When Its Neighbors Suffer From Violence?, 25 October 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 171, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b22a94.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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Karachaevo-Cherkessia, a small republic in the Northwestern Caucasus, was among the first areas of the Russian Federation to witness a rise in Islamic jamaats during the 1990s. Yet today, Karachaevo-Cherkessia is a relatively quiet place, unlike neighboring Kabardino-Balkaria and most other North Caucasus republics to the east. The contrast is quite puzzling, given many of the risk factors that Karachaevo-Cherkessia shares with Kabardino-Balkaria and other volatile republics in the region.

The Karachay battalion took part in the first Russian-Chechen war of 19941996. Ethnic Karachays were implicated in the bomb attacks on the Moscow metro in the 1990s. Karachays were also reportedly involved in the explosions of houses in Moscow in 1999, which paved the way for the second Russian-Chechen war. According to Karachaevo-Cherkessian lawyer Ruslan Kubanov, radical Islamists have since left the republic, while their sympathizers came to an informal agreement with local law enforcement officials. "The authorities promised not to use unjustified violent methods against [Muslim] believers, and they, in turn, pledged not to touch the police and not to stir tensions," Kubanov told the Onkavkaz.com news analysis agency. Kubanov further argued that the police in Karachaevo-Cherkessia generally do not use unwarranted brutality toward suspects, unlike in the more violent republics of the North Caucasus. At the same time, the lawyer conceded that the police in the republic still sometimes used unlawful methods of investigation, but he only recalled a few such cases, and in those the suspect's guilt was already pretty well established. Ruslan Kambiev, a government inspector for human rights in Stavropol region, told Onkavkaz.com that the authorities in Karachaevo-Cherkessia abstained from harassing Muslims for their beliefs and punished them only if they actually broke the law (onkavkaz.com, October 19).

According to data published by the Kavkazsky Uzel news agency, Karachaevo-Cherkessia had the lowest number of violent attacks during the period of 20102015 of any federal entity in the North Caucasian Federal District. The republic had fewer victims of terrorist attacks than even the predominantly non-Muslim territories of North Ossetia or Stavropol region (Kavkazsky Uzel, February 10).

Though small, with only half a million residents, Karachaevo-Cherkessia has a particularly ethnically and religiously diverse population. Ethnic Karachays, a Turkic-speaking people, comprise a plurality in the republic, with 41 percent. Ethnic Russians come in second with 32 percent. Ethnic Circassians (a.k.a. the Cherkess) make up 12 percent of the republican population. Abazins, who are linguistically related to both the Circassians and the Abkhaz, comprise 8 percent of the population. Another Turkic-speaking group, the Nogais, make up a little over 3 percent. Karachaevo-Cherkessia has the second-largest proportion of ethnic Russians after Adygea in the North Caucasus. This may explain both why the authorities are less willing to use unbridled brutality in the republic, and also why they might have better information about militants to launch more targeted assaults on the suspected militants. Russian authorities habitually use heavier firepower against non-Russian suspects than against ethnic-Russian criminals in predominantly ethnic-Russian regions. Under Soviet rule, Karachaevo-Cherkessia was part of the large Russian-majority Stavropol region, which also probably had an effect on the republic due to improved intelligence networks the Russian security services had in the area.

Despite the relative peace in Karachaevo-Cherkessia in recent years, the situation may not last. On October 20, the Federal Security Service's (FSB) spokesperson in Karachaevo-Cherkessia announced that the security services intercepted a group of six people in the republic who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. The group of militants reportedly planned attacks on government offices (TASS, October 20). The leader of the group, a 19-year-old unnamed man reportedly came from a Russian Orthodox family. The group had not carried out any attacks; it had only collected information. Experts warn that the high level of unemployment, the republic's archaic clan structures, as well as corruption all facilitate the spread of social protest. Some dark forces can always be found that will utilize such social protests for their own interests, analysts argue (Onkavkaz.com, October 21).

Another way of explaining the relative peace in Karachaevo-Cherkessia is to look at the degree to which government institutions in the republic are being infiltrated by religious individuals. Experts admit that religiosity among young people in the republic has increased in the past two decades. Thus, the state bureaucracy and the local police forces are more religiously infused than they used to be in the past. Kubanov noted, "They [religiously inclined government functionaries and police officers] pray in a mosque with everyone. It brings people together. When a young man, who is prone to aggression, prays next to a government official or a police officer, he begins to better understand them and regard them as normal people rather than enemies. Similarly, the police officer can no longer revert to cruel methods of investigation against a person who prays next to him" (Onkavkaz.com, October 19).

A greater understanding between the Muslim community and the regional authorities in Karachaevo-Cherkessia certainly can lead to better security outcomes. However, it is unclear whether Moscow will tolerate this for long. The example of Kabardino-Balkaria indicates that the authorities normally prefer to strike preemptively to antagonize, alienate and radicalize the Muslim community in order to justify the government terror that follows. So far Karachaevo-Cherkessian society has managed to combine government pressure against radicals with the absence of extreme brutality. But the republic is still at risk for interference by Moscow if the latter decides that there is too much rapprochement between the local Muslim community and the republican government.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
With Eye Toward 2018 Elections, Putin Spearheads Strategic Infrastructure Mega-Projects in Crimea

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Ridvan Bari Urcosta Publication Date 24 October 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 170 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, With Eye Toward 2018 Elections, Putin Spearheads Strategic Infrastructure Mega-Projects in Crimea, 24 October 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 170, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b23674.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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Though still two years away, the presidential elections in Russia are already on the minds of the political elite in Moscow. The sitting head of state, President Vladimir Putin, is constitutionally permitted to run again in 2018. And though most expect that he will, his public vacillations on the subject have raised an air of intrigue over the Russian political process. "I have not yet made a decision for myself," Putin claimed two months ago in an interview with Bloomberg (Vesti, September 2). Assuming that he will stand for re-election, it is clear that the legacy of the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its continued development will play a key role in boosting Putin's popularity in time for the vote. As such, the Kremlin is playing up a series of large-scale infrastructure projects on this illegally seized Ukrainian peninsula.

The Crimean annexation has dominated Russian propaganda for the past two yearsa narrative aimed at both an external and internal audience. The triumphant slogan "Krym nash!" ("Crimea is ours!") underlines the myth of the return of Russian greatness. But in fact, the "reunification" continues to create an enormous burden on the Russian economy because of the Western sanctions passed in response to the annexation as well as the large federal budget costs associated with subsidizing and restructuring Crimea and Sevastopol (see EDM, April 23, 2015; May 25, 2016). Nonetheless, Moscow feels it must demonstrate to the world that it is able to surmount all these all challenges and withstand the West's attempts to isolate it internationally. The perception of Putin standing up to the West will thus be predicated on the Kremlin's ability to showcase tangible successes in Crimea since the annexation.

As early as March 2014even predating the notorious "referendum" that called for Crimea's accession to the Russian Federationthe Kremlin has pledged to build three large-scale infrastructure projects on the peninsula. These projects are a thermal power station in Sevastopol, the "Tavrida" highway (SevastopolSimferopolKerch), and the enormous Kerch Strait Bridge to connect Crimea with Russia proper. The Russian Federal Targeted Program "Social and Economic Development for Crimea and Sevastopol Until 2020" states that these three mega projects aim to eliminate constraints on transport and energy on the peninsula (Fcp.economy.gov.ru, accessed October 24).

When Russia moved to fully annex Crimea, the peninsula was still overwhelmingly dependant on Ukraine for a number of crucial supplies such as electricity, water and food. And in retaliation, in spring 2014, Kyiv cut off water supplies shipped south via the Crimean Northern Canal (Buvr.crimea.ua, April 24, 2014). In 2013, Ukraine proper sent 700 million cubic meters of water to Crimea. But in 2015, this supply was only 17.7 million (Crimea.kz, May 21, 2015). To date, chronic water scarcity in Crimea has been a disaster for the local agricultural sector.

Moreover, since autumn 2015, Ukrainian activists have put in place an economic blockade at the border; and last November, they blocked all electricity supplies coming from Ukraine to the peninsula (see EDM, October 2, 2015; January 6, 2016). The Crimean blackout lasted almost four months. Putin used these problems to showcase Russia's ability to withstand challenges created by its "enemies." In May 2016, the Russian president oversaw the opening of the last branch of the Kuban "Energy Bridge"electrical transit lines that carry electricity across the Kerch Strain from Krasnodar oblast to Crimea. During the ceremony, he declared, "We managed to break through the energy blockade of Crimea within a brief period of time, and we will likewise do away with any other blockade against Russia, should someone wish to test us again" (TASS, May 11). This Russian "success" required close top-down supervision from the Kremlin.

Such top-down supervision will also be required in the three aforementioned mega infrastructure projects in Crimea, not least because each of them promises to bring economic, political and even military benefits to Russia. The building of a new 470-megawatt Thermal Power Station in Sevastopol will not only satisfy the energy requirements of this strategically vital port city, but will also help alleviate tensions between the civilian population and the military. As a result of the peninsula's chronic rolling blackouts, the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which is based out of Sevastopol, has continually chafed at having to share scarce electricity resources with civilians (Uatoday.tv, November 26, 2015) The first block of the planned Sevastopol thermal plant is expected to be commissioned by late 2017 (TASS, May 11).

The planned Tavrida highwayfrom Kerch to Sevastopol, via the local capital of Simferopolalso has important strategic implications for Russia. Significantly, the Tavrida highway will directly link up to the Kerch Bridge, which will connect Crimea with mainland Russia (see below). According to the government, the highway, which is expected to cost 139 billion rubles ($2.2 billion), will be the only direct route from Kerch to Simferopol. It will become operational in 2018 (Tass.ru, September 20). As such, the Tavrida highway will have a strategic military value, substantially increasing the mobility of Russian forces deployed to the peninsula from Russia. Putin is clearly concerned about this project's completion. In March 2016, when visiting Crimea, the Russian president threatened to "hang" whoever was responsible for the delays and obstructions to completion of the highway (Rbc.ru, March 18).

The enormous, 19-kilometer-long Kerch Strait Bridge is particularly designed to demonstrate the might of Russia to the world. If it is actually completed (see EDM, July 14, 2015; May 25, 2016), this bridge will be the longest in Europe. Even more importantly, Moscow is wagering that this road-and-rail link will finally fully integrate the Crimean peninsula with the Russian economic system. Putin has declared that the Kerch Bridge must be built as soon as possible (Gazeta.ru, March 15, 2015).

It is no coincidence that these three ambitious mega projects are all expected to be completed by 2018. The goal of the Sevastopol thermal plant, the Tavrida highway and the bridge across the Kerch Strait is not simply to improve the lives of ordinary Crimeans. Rather, and perhaps more importantly, these projects are meant to showcase the Putin government's effectiveness in time for the 2018 presidential elections.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Belarus the Object of Two Peculiar Tugs of War

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Grigory Ioffe Publication Date 24 October 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 170 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Belarus the Object of Two Peculiar Tugs of War, 24 October 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 170, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b24484.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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Although Belarus has resolved its argument with Russia about the price of natural gas, the parameters of this resolution are still subject to different interpretations. The two sides have apparently not yet reached a consensus on the scale of the price discount (if any) or the mechanism of its delivery to Belarus. On that issue, the usually well-informed Lenta.ru is noncommittal and construes the details of the gas price deal first recounted by Kommersant (see EDM, October 17) as just one of the possibilities (Lenta.ru, October 18). Obviously, non- disclosure of the resolution's details contributes to this confusion. In turn, the absence of such details is the result of face-saving considerations on the part of both parties. Russia, for example, is not happy with a popular idea that Minsk always wins its price-related arguments with Moscow, and Minsk is not happy with the Russian media routinely labeling Belarus "Russia's poor cousin."

In that regard, the interview of Belarus's Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei to a Polish daily is noteworthy as it is titled "We Are Not Dependents of Russia" (Rzeczpospolita, October 17). Based on the assumption that what you acknowledge is oftentimes less important for understanding of your identity than what you disown, Russia's "patriotic" online media outlet Vzglyad chided Makei for even using this sort of language. The fact of Belarus's dependency is "at the very least not obvious," the Russian outlet declared (Vzglyad, October 19).

On the one hand, the share of Russia in Belarus's international trade is 48 percent, and 39 percent of Belarus's overall exports are directed to Russia. Meanwhile, Russia itself has also long benefited from a net trade surplus with Belarus: $17.1 billion in Russian exports went to Belarus in 2015, while imports from Belarus totaled only $10.4 billion that year. For Belarus, this is the largest country-specific trade deficit of all countries with which it trades. On the other hand, the makeup of Belarus's and Russia's exports to each other exposes the former as a more advanced economy, as it sells largely value-added goods to Russia and buys largely resources. Crude oil alone accounts for more than half of Belarus's purchases from Russia ($9 billion in 2015). Aside from trucks and industrial machines, Belarus sells processed foods; and a network of Belarusian grocery stores operates in major Russian cities (Vzglyad, October 19). Just walking around for an hour in downtown in St. Petersburg, on October 20, this author came across two such stores.

Moreover, in the words, of Kirill Koktysh, an associate professor at the Moscow Institute of Foreign Relations, "Belarus is the locus of an irreplaceable transit route for Russia's oil and gas. During the period preceding the current economic crisis, the amount of hydrocarbons pumped through Belarus was worth from $100 billion to $120 billion per year. So if Belarus used to receive $35 billion in direct and indirect (through price discounts) subsidies from Russia, these might be called just that, subsidies, but these may also be called Belarus's legitimate fee for facilitating a large-scale hydrocarbon trade between Russia and the West After all, you would not call a minority shareholder a dependent just because he is a minority" (Vzglyad, October 19).

Apparently, this sort of reassurance is delivered from time to time because Russia's expert and lay audience has a pent-up demand for it. Meanwhile, the West is engaged in a different sort of game: interests versus values. When it comes to Belarus, "values" routinely imply democracy promotion, whereas "interests" suggest strengthening Belarus's independence in view of perceived necessity to contain Russia. Interests unequivocally trumped values both when Belarus was first ostracized (1996) by the West and when rapprochement with it was underway, first in 20072010 and then beginning in 2014 (see Grigory Ioffe, "Geostrategic Interest and Democracy Promotion: Evidence from the Post-Soviet Space," Europe-Asia Studies, 2013, Vol. 65, No. 7: pp. 1,2551,274). Yet, throughout this time, the values-interests tug of war has dominated the public-relations apparatus of the West's Belarus policies and noticeably hindered reconciliation with Minsk. Apparently, this is why the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has not yet launched its new lending program to Belarus, although all the signs of IMF's readiness to do so have been on display for some time. Apparently, for the same reason, the United States extended its suspension of economic sanctions on Belarus but has not lifted them altogether (Belta.by, October 19)even while pledging a "gradual" normalization of its relations with Minsk (Naviny.by, October 18).

Sending conflicting signals about the Euronestan inter-parliamentary assembly of the Eastern Partnership which includes Belarusexemplifies this same policy indecision. Moreover, the fact that all the leaders of the Belarusian opposition have a voice in the pending Euronest decision (Naviny.by, October 19) also demonstrates a peculiar conflict of interests: Brussels could decide to accept the recently elected Belarusian parliamentarians into the Euronest, but it would be doing so at the expense of the Belarusian opposition, which has been currently filling the void. Meanwhile, legislators from Azerbaijan have never been ostracized in this same manner by the Euronesta clear demonstration of double standards on the part of Europe. Even the harsh tone of a Polish journalist questioning Foreign Minister Makei in Warsawmost accurately revealed in the transcript of the interview (Mfa.gov.by, October 9) but smoothed over by the Polish media outlet itself (Rzeczpospolita, October 17)reflects the fact that Belarus is held to higher standards than other countries.

Pulled in opposite directions by two peculiar tugs of wardependency versus magnanimity from Russia and interests versus values from the WestBelarus retains composure but suffers from lingering economic decline. Thus from January to March 2016, the real income of Belarusians was 7.1 percent lower than during the same period in 2015 (Tut.by, October 18). It seems that it would be in the interests of all parties involved to chart a clearer course, that is, to cut back on demagoguery and extend a helping hand. A healthy dose of realpolitik might be a good prescription for the indecision malaise.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Russian Actions in Syria Overshadow Kremlin's Diplomatic Maneuvers on War in Eastern Ukraine

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Pavel Felgenhauer Publication Date 21 October 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 169 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Russian Actions in Syria Overshadow Kremlin's Diplomatic Maneuvers on War in Eastern Ukraine, 21 October 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 169, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b25204.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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Three conflicts occurring simultaneously along separate fronts are currently vying for international attention: Russia and its allies continue to besiege the Syrian opposition forces in Aleppo, and a massive Russian naval force is assembling in the Eastern Mediterranean. Meanwhile, Iraqi and international coalition forces led by the United States are besieging the Islamic State in Mosul. And at the same time, fresh fighting has flared up in the Russian-occupied eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas. Meaningful dialogue between Moscow and the West has been strained, with barbs and insults traded instead of arguments. A planned visit by President Vladimir Putin to Paris this week was canceled after both sides expressed mutual displeasure over Syria. German Chancellor Angela Merkel stepped in and, on short notice, offered to organize a Ukraine-Germany-France-Russia summit in Berlin on October 19, to discuss the implementation of the Minsk Two peace plan for Donbas. At first, Moscow hesitated. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the press, "Chances are extremely low for a so-called Normandy format summit on October 19, since little progress has been made by presidential aides in preliminary negotiations" (Militarynews.ru, October 17). But ultimately, Putin went to Berlin.

On October 16, a notorious Donbas warlord, Arsen Pavlov (a.k.a. Motorola), was killed by a bomb planted in the elevator of his apartment building in Donetsk. "Motorola"a Russian volunteerturned Donbas separatist, accused by Kyiv of war crimeswas given a hero's funeral in Donetsk. The separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko declared that Motorola was killed by the Ukrainian military special forces. He said this was a breach of the ceasefire and a "declaration of war." Donbas separatists threatened to march on Kyiv to avenge the death (Sputnik News, October 18). As the date of the Berlin summit approached, barrages engulfed most of the ceasefire line in the Donbas, with both sides reporting casualties (Militarynews.ru, October 19).

Many other separatist warlords have been killed in the last two years in mysterious circumstancesmostly those who, like Motorola, were part of early 2014 lawless start of the Donbas insurgency. Each time, the Ukrainian military were blamed; but no concrete evidence was ever presented. Motorola's violent death could have been an inside job, explicitly designed to instill fear of a looming escalation to the conflict (Mk.ru, October 17).

The Donbas unified separatist army is organized in two corps commands (1st corps in Donetsk and the 2nd in Lugansk). All senior command positions are occupied by Russian generals and officers on a rotational basis; all logistic support is provided by the Russian military. A Novaya Gazeta investigation found that, since summer of 2015, Donetsk's official separatist leader, Zakharchenko, lost all command over the separatist military and cannot begin any "war" without a direct order coming through the Russian military chain of command (Novaya Gazeta, May 27).

Until next January, the Russian military will not be ready for any major ground action in Ukraine, because autumn is beset by bad weather and, in November and early December, over 120,000 well-trained conscript soldiers who have served out their one year of compulsory service are scheduled to be demobilized. Thus the recent scare of an imminent military escalation in Donbas could have been intended to put pressure on Paris and Berlin, whose governments were in turn expected to pressure Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko into political concessions. This seems to have been the Russian game plan for the Berlin summit, which is being hailed today as a success: Putin "in principal" agreed to a possible future deployment in Donbas of an armed (with side arms) "police" mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). But according to leaks from the Kremlin, Merkel and French President Francois Hollande in return relentlessly put pressure on Poroshenko to make game-changing concessions to Russia. Foreign ministers and experts of the four countries must, by December, produce a "road map" timetable of measures to reinforce the ceasefire and partially disengage forces; while the parliament in Kyiv must change the Ukrainian constitution to allow a "special status" for and regional elections in the separatist-held Donbas (Interfax, October 20).

Changing the Ukrainian constitution and allowing regional elections while the two Moscow-backed separatist army corps are in position would legitimize the Donbas separation. Poroshenko does not have the votes in the parliament to pass such legislation, and any attempt to push it through could cause a political storm in Kyiv, possible regime change, and the total destabilization of Ukraine. An acute crisis in Ukraine and possible state collapse is a true roadmap for Moscow to take over the nation it considers part of its heritage. If Poroshenko resists Western pressure to concede, he may lose political and financial support, thus dooming his regime anyway. Moscow hopes to be rewarded by sanctions relief from the European Union for being constructive. Poroshenko seems to have been humiliated and entrapped in Berlin (Interfax, October 20).

Putin's well-calculated success was somewhat tarnished by Syria, which he discussed with Merkel and Hollande after Poroshenko was sent packing. Putin was strongly pressed to stop the carnage in besieged Aleppo and later told journalists a previously announced "pause in the bombing of Aleppo" will be prolonged, possibly until next week. In return, Putin demanded the West must help push the former al-Nusra jihadists out of Aleppo and "separate the moderate opposition from terrorists." During the "pause" in bombing, Russian and Syrian government forces offered "corridors" for civilians to leave Aleppo together with opposition fighters, who are expected to lay down their arms. No United Nations humanitarian relief aid is allowed into the rebel-held eastern half of Aleppo during this "pause." Merkel told reporters after the summit that a temporary "pause" in bombing is not enough; while Hollande accused the Russian military of committing war crimes (Interfax, October 20).

Russia has been concentrating a large naval task force off the Syrian coast that may, by next week, expand to 20 warships from the Black Sea, Baltic and Northern Fleets (Militarynews.ru, October 6). Russias two largest warshipsthe carrier Admiral Kuznetsov and nuclear battle cruiser Pyotr Velikiywith two guided-missile frigates and support vessels are steaming from the Barents Sea to Syria to join the assembled task force (Militarynews.ru, October 15). According to Russian and Syrian sources, by next week the present "pause" will end, and those opposition fighters in Aleppo who reject the last offer to surrender could be "cleansed" (Izvestia, October 20). The present fighting in Donbas may partially subside after the Berlin summit; either way, major action is unlikely until next January. But in Aleppo, Moscow does not seem ready to put its offensive permanently on hold.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Turkey and Russia Work on Normalizing Relations, Sign Agreement on Scaled-Back Turkish Stream Pipeline

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Orhan Gafarli Publication Date 21 October 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 169 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Turkey and Russia Work on Normalizing Relations, Sign Agreement on Scaled-Back Turkish Stream Pipeline, 21 October 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 169, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b25b14.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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Earlier this month, Turkey hosted the 23rd World Energy Congress in Istanbul. The theme of the Congress, held on October 913, was "Embracing New Frontiers." The participantswho included 3 presidents, 56 ministers, as well as academics and energy experts from 82 countriescame together to address global energy-related issues and innovation in the field (see EDM, October 19). One of the most important developments to come out of this event was the attendance of Russian President Vladimir Putinhis first visit to Turkey since the downing of a Russian jet on the Turkish-Syrian border on November 24, 2015. While in Istanbul, Putin met with his Turkish counterpart, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The two leaders signed a long-awaited intergovernmental agreements on the proposed Turkish Stream natural gas pipeline, which would stretch along the bottom of the Black Sea and across the European section of Turkey (Yeni Safak, October 10). In their face-to-face talks, the two leaders also discussed the Akkuyu nuclear power plant project, which is being built and largely financed by Russia; improving defense-sector cooperation; cooperation in launching Turkish rockets into space; and lifting the Russian embargo that was imposed on Turkish goods following last year's crisis (Sabah, October 10). The two also broached the subject of humanitarian aid for the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo (Hurriyet, October 14).

After Erdogan sent Putin a letter, on June 27, apologizing for the death of the Russian pilot shot down by a Turkish F-16 last November, both leaders agreed to restore bilateral relations. They held their first post-crisis meeting in St. Petersburg, on August 9 (Deutsche WelleTurkish service, August 9). Since then, bilateral relations have been gradually improving. But some of the most significant signs of the thaw came out of this month's Putin-Erdogan meeting in Istanbul: Russia partially lifted its ban on fruit and vegetable imports from Turkey and the two sides agreed to launch a $500 million Turkish-Russian investment fund. And perhaps most notably, Moscow and Ankara signed an intergovernmental deal on Turkish Stream (Haberturk, October 14).

Looking at the details of the October 10 agreement on Turkish Stream, it is clear that this gas pipeline project has been seriously downsized. When the proposal was first floated by Putin on December 1, 2014, Turkish Stream was supposed to annually deliver 63 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Russian gas15.75 bcm was to be imported by Turkey, and the other 47.25 bcm would be marketed to Europe (see EDM, February 26, 2015). But according to the agreement just signed by Putin and Erdogan, Turkish Stream would now be reduced to two pipelines with an annual capacity of 15.75 bcm each. Accordingly, the first line of the gas pipeline would be used to transport gas to Turkish consumers, and the secondto Europe. In return, Russia agreed to offer Turkey a discount of 10.25 percent on Russian gas supplies (Carnegie.ru, October 14).

Russian natural gas exported to Southeastern Europe via the second pipeline of Turkish Stream might face obstacles in the form of the European Union's energy-sector anti-monopoly legislation, however. Dr. Volkan Ozdemir, an energy specialist at the Institute for Energy Markets and Policies, argued that, presumably, the monopoly problem could be overcome through the establishment of an associated Turkish-Russian joint company to export this gas. "But Gazprom is not open to this," he said (Kommersant, October 11).

It is not a coincidence that the Turkish Stream project is slated for completion in 2019. That is the same year that Russia's contract with Ukraine on the transit of Russian gas shipments to Europe will expire. With Turkish Stream, Russia is clearly planning to reroute gas exports to Turkey, Ukraine, Romania and Bulgariacurrently being shipped via the Ukrainian pipeline networkthrough the planned pipeline across the Black Sea and Turkey (Carnegie.ru, October 14). But to what degree will Turkey be able to take advantage of this new pipeline on its territory to boost its geopolitical role as a regional energy hub? According to Dr. Ozdemir, "Turkish stream will make Turkey an energy corridor for Russia in the same way the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline [TANAP] has already made it for Azeri natural gas. Yet, there is a confusion of concepts in Turkish foreign energy policy: Ankara will have a difficult time using international projects [like Turkish Stream] to properly transform the country into a gas hub, despite [the government's rhetoric] about Turkey becoming a regional energy hub. If negotiations between the EU and Russia fail, only the first line will be constructed; and most probably this will make Turkish Stream another Blue Stream pipeline between Turkey and Russia" (Author's interview, October 13). Blue Stream carries up to 16 bcm of Russian gas, under the Black Sea, directly to the Turkish market.

At the same time that the Turkish Stream deal was signed, a joint Russian-Turkish investment fund was created and Russia's ban on fruit and vegetable imports from Turkey was partially lifted. Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci announced the economic sanctions were only lifted on fruit (Dha.com.tr, October 12). Thus, a partial ban Turkish produce still stands. Moreover, problems remain in terms of abolishing visa requirements for Turkish citizens wishing to travel to Russia.

Another serious bilateral bone of contention has been the war in Syria. Moscow and Ankara have been engaged in a dialogue on this issue after Turkey launched its "Euphrates Shield" military operation in Jarablus, Syria, on August 24. Turkey seeks to create a safe zone along the Turkish-Syrian border, 98 kilometers long and 45 kilometers deep (Anadolu Agency, February 26). The question of the safe zone does not appear to have been mentioned during the recent Putin-Erdogan meeting in Istanbul, on October 10. However, the two sides did address the option of Russia delivering humanitarian aid to Aleppo over the Castillo Highway, with Turkey's support (Sabah, October 10). Turkish-Russian negotiations on Syria continue (Inforu News, October 14).

Bilateral trade relations between Turkey and Russia remain fragile, and they are closely linked to developments in Syria. Indeed, events in the Middle East explicitly affect Moscow-Ankara ties. Their bilateral relationship can thus be expected to suffer from a lack of confidence as long as the Syrian crisis remains unresolved.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Baltics to Build Stronger Logistics Within the EU and NATO

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Olevs Nikers Publication Date 19 October 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 168 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Baltics to Build Stronger Logistics Within the EU and NATO, 19 October 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 168, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b26484.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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Earlier this month (October 2016), the governments of the Baltic States and Poland finally reached all the necessary political, financial and technical agreements to implement one of the most ambitious projects inside the European Unionlinking Finland, the Baltic States and Poland with the unified Trans-European Transport Network (NRA, October 10). The agreed-upon project, which will also have important logistical implications for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), envisions a continuous rail link from Tallinn (Estonia) to Warsaw (Poland), via Riga (Latvia) and Kaunas (Lithuania). The construction of this railwayknown as "Rail Baltica"is planned to start by 2020 and should be completed by 2030. The section from Helsinki to Tallinn will for now be operated by existing commercial ferries.

Altogether, the European Commission has allocated 442.2 million euros ($485 million) for the construction of Rail Baltica until 2020, or 81.83 percent of the project's co-financing. The railway line will be built according to the 1,435-millimeter European standard gauge (LETA, April 30). This past summer, Michael Cramer, the chairman of the European Parliament's Transport and Tourism Committee, emphasized the importance of this railway connection: "In 2003, I traveled by train from Berlin to Tallinn. This trip lasted 60 hours, and I had to transfer nine times. Before World War II, the same route could be accomplished within 27 hours. Thus, the Rail Baltica project is very important both ecologically, because trains are more environmentally friendly, and, of course, it is necessary to connect the Baltic States with the rest of Europe" (Lsm, August 28).

Last September, Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian and Polish parliamentarians announced, that Rail Baltica would be the most important project for the Baltic States in the 21st century. This railway will be of crucial to the Baltics' national security, regional economic growth, as well as the promotion of solidarity and good neighborly relations among these states. The Rail Baltica project had long been stalled by disagreements over how to share the value added tax (VAT) related to the project's construction. In July, the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian ministers signed a preliminary agreement on the allocation of VAT (BNN, September 19). But the final agreement was not reached until early October.

As European Commission representative Catherine Trautmane has admitted, there are certain risks related to this project: "One of the risks is the compatibility of standards and technology. Although this problem is slowly being solved. There are also associated environmental risks because the route WarsawTallinn [passes through] some protected areas." Another risk is related to the unresolved administrative barriers among the three Baltic countries, she said (LETA, April 30).

Such obstacles aside, experts and politicians have mainly stressed the Rail Baltica project's economic benefits for the countries involved. But there are also important security implications of this proposed railway. In 2011, the British research company AECOM Ltd. published one of the earliest feasibility studies of Rail Baltica project that stressed its impact on military logistics in the region. AECOM's report indicates that the construction of the new European standard rail line would, if necessary, allow for the direct delivery of military equipment from Central Europe to the Baltic States (Sam.gov.lv, May 31, 2011). Since then, many other politicians, government officials and experts have advocated for the Rail Baltica project specifically on "military" grounds.

Dr. Maris Andzans, of the Latvian Institute of International Affairs, who recently has studied the impact of Rail Baltica on regional security, stresses that the new railway connection will have crucial importance for strengthening military logistics and the operational capabilities of all three Baltic States. The railway will bring more efficient transportation options for military goods than any of the transit routes currently available by sea, air or road (Maris Andzans, Latvian Institute of International Affairs, 2016).

The military importance of railways was clearly demonstrated during the 2008 Russian-Georgian War, as well as during the ongoing armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine. A typical train can move up to 120 armored unitstanks, armored vehicles or other machinesin a single trip. It is possible to move even more equipment at a time by sea; but compared to rail, the time required for this transport is longer. While most NATO member states have railroads that use the standard 1,435 mm gauge, the Baltics still rely on the wider, Russian- and Soviet-built 1,520 mm rail lines. But even these are extremely limited in their density. When built, the new Rail Baltica line would thus allow the North Atlantic Alliance to move large volumes of military cargo from Germany and Poland to the Baltic States without interruptionsaving time and limiting the numbers of personnel and transport equipment involved in the logistics. This railway, therefore, has the potential to become crucial to the Baltic States' defense.

Since the European standard gauge ends at the Polish-Lithuanian border, the United States Army Europe has had to rely on much more difficult logistics routes to reach the Baltic States. One option is to ship equipment across the Baltic Sea to the ports of Klaipeda, Ventspils, Liepaja, Riga or Tallinn; another option is to fly equipment in via Riga Airport (TVNET, June 13). The first attempt to deliver US heavy armored equipment to the Baltics was practiced during the military exercise Baltops 2010, when several vehicles, including an Abrams main battle tanks, were transported from the Western port of Ventspils to Garkalne railway station (the site near the largest shooting range and military base of Adazi) in central Latvia and back (Maris Andzans, Latvian Institute of International Affairs, 2016).

Of course the act of moving heavy equipment off of a boat and onto a train adds additional time and complexity to a logistical operationa fact that may be particularly perilous in war time. A rail connection between the Baltic States and the rest of Europe, however, promises to dramatically improve this vulnerable transportation chain, which is undoubtedly good news to both Baltic and NATO defense planners.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Russia's Air Operations in Aleppo Boost Domestic Military Prestige

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Roger McDermott Publication Date 18 October 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 167 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Russia's Air Operations in Aleppo Boost Domestic Military Prestige, 18 October 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 167, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b26a74.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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Russia's military operations over the past two and a half yearsfrom the seizure of Crimea, to support for separatists in Donbas, to its intervention in Syriahave revealed differing aspects of the country's growing military capability. While the use of hard power in these divergent theaters was also mixed with soft power, Moscow maximized the potential results and simultaneously obviated the risks. Operations in Syria have exemplified this approach with fairly minimal losses for the Russian Armed Forces and high impact in terms of international diplomacy. The information campaign has clearly proved successful at home and is being conducted vigorously abroad to promulgate Moscow's take on its motives and aims in Syria. However, despite serious allegations over the Russian bombing of Aleppowith wide-scale reported civilian damage, including to hospitalsparadoxically, the overall campaign and targeting of Aleppo remains popular among most of the Russian public (RIA Novosti, October 18, 17). Careful media management by the Kremlin and the defense ministry has consequently served to supply a significant boost to the wider prestige of the Russian Armed Forces generally and the Aerospace Forces (Vozdushno Kosmicheskikh SilVKS) in particular.

According to the reputable Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM), 73 percent of Russian citizens believe the criticism of VKS operations in Aleppo is unfounded. The agency conducted the polling on October 89, across 46 regions of Russia, among 1,600 people; the statistical margin of error was 3.5 percent. VTsIOM found that its respondents consider the Russian intervention has "caused serious damage to terrorists" and saved Syria from disaster; though it remains too early to draw a fuller conclusion. The survey found that 32 percent support the current government policy; these respondents believe the campaign needs to continue. Around one in five (21 percent) consider it necessary to slow down the air operations or choose a more cautious stance. While 14 percent believe Russia should exit the conflict. Less clear were results regarding the future outcomes or consequences of Moscow's involvement in the conflict, with 53 percent finding it difficult to make any predictions. Some fear negative consequences (27 percent), such as increased tensions with the West or fresh sanctions imposed on Russia. And approximately one in ten (11 percent) believe Russia will strengthen its global standing, improve its defenses and acquire new allies as a result of the Syria campaign (RIA Novosti, October 17).

Although the polling reveals some nuances, including uncertainty about the long-term consequences of the Syria operation for Russia, the most interesting feature of the findings is the rather high level of support and lack of substantial domestic questioning of the VKS bombing of Aleppo. This stands in stark contrast to the international outcry concerning reports of civilian targeting in Aleppo and accusations that the air strikes are indiscriminate. Even the latest VKS pause in the bombing for humanitarian reasons, was met skeptically by the international community. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has been at the forefront of such criticism of Moscow's actions, accusing the country of behaving like a "pariah state," arguing in favor of deepening the sanctions against Russia, and calling for protests outside its London embassy (Interfax, October 15).

Moscow's dismissive response to such criticism was swift and targeted. Russia's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Alexander Yakovenko, demanded that the UK Foreign Office should provide tangible evidence to support the accusations made against the Russian air force. It seems Moscow was especially enraged about the accusation of its possible war crimes in Syria, and responded in turn by accusing the UK and its allies of trying to cover up their support for the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly known as al-Nusra Front). Yakovenko dismissed the accusations against the VKS as fabricated and based solely on the use of social media. The presentation by the Russian defense ministry concerning the alleged targeting of the United Nations humanitarian aid convoy also differed from the reporting by Western media (Interfax, October 17).

Whether the targeting of civilians is a deliberate or inadvertent act on the part of the VKS, Moscow moved quickly to challenge the emerging Western narrative. This speed and consistency with which Russia has counter-attacked foreign critique of its actions serves to lessen the impact of negative international opinion domestically. Even when things go wrong, the weight of Russian state propaganda machinery can confuse, vigorously rebut and mitigate any potential damage. In this case, the official Kremlin line on the recent hospital and UN aid convoy bombings is that Western allies are trying to deflect attention away from their own purported tacit support for al-Nusra by questioning the Russian "evidence" that has been offered and demanding that convincing proof should be furnished. The diplomatic response to criticism of Russia's military action in Syria is a familiar variant of plausible deniability (Rossiyskaya Gazeta, October 17). In this informational battleground, the actual facts become of secondary importance in a sea of confusion and counter-accusation.

In other words, both in terms of public opinion within Russia and among the political-military leadership, the actual conduct of the campaign and its strategic aims are relegated to only second-order importance. What is clear, however, considering the VKS campaign to date, is Moscow's willingness to see it through and play a patient game in its Syrian adventure. This is further underscored by the announcement that the naval logistical facility at Tartus, a key supply hub for the VKS operations in Syria, will gain the status of a naval base (see EDM, October 13). According to Deputy Defense Minister Nikolai Pankov, the 2015 bilateral agreement has been ratified and documents are being prepared to cement this for a 50-year period. The message is clear: the Russians are in Syria to stay (Interfax, October 17).

The continued popularity of the Syria operation in Russian domestic opinion is sure to continue, as the Kremlin and the public adjust to the rarity of a low-cost, high impact conflict with a minimal price in blood for Russian military personnel. In turn, the VKS's performance and its knock-on effects strengthen public esteem for the Armed Forceson a level that eclipses Crimea. Equally, Moscow believes it can ride out any criticism of its actions in Syria owing to both the complex nature of the conflict and the lack of progress by the United States after several years of a more "surgical" approach. Yet, beneath the information operation to support the VKS is the quite real effort to test Washington in the twilight of Barack Obama's presidency (Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye, October 14).

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Violence Spirals in North Caucasus After Establishment of Russian National Guard

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Valery Dzutsati Publication Date 18 October 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 167 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Violence Spirals in North Caucasus After Establishment of Russian National Guard, 18 October 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 167, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b27144.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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A significant spike in violence has been registered in the North Caucasus. Within the span of just one week, October 39, an estimated 18 people were killed and 4 more suffered injuries in insurgency-related violence across the region. Fifteen suspected rebels, including eight in Chechnya, six in Ingushetia and one in Dagestan, were killed. Two police officers were killed in Kabardino-Balkaria and one in Chechnya. Government forces launched a wave of special operations in the North Caucasus at the start of the month. On October 2, a counter-terrorist operation regime was introduced in Tabasaran district of Dagestan. On October 7, a counter-terrorist operation regime was introduced in parts of the city of Nazran and the village of Gazi-Yurt, in Ingushetia. On October 9, another counter-terrorism operation was launched in Dagestan's Suleiman-Stalsky district. In two separate episodes, eight suspected militants were kidnapped in Dagestan between the end of September and beginning of October (Kavkazsky Uzel, October 10).

On October 14, relatives of those kidnapped individuals staged a public protest action in the Dagestani town of Khasavyurt, located in the northwestern part of the republic. The police deny that these missing individuals are being held in their custody. At the same time, the officials say that the "disappeared" persons were involved in the activities of the armed underground movement. Relatives of the kidnapped individuals are asking government officials to disclose their location, but so far they have received no response (Chernovik, October 14).

The Russian government has repeatedly stated that insurgency violence in the North Caucasus was declining. However, the massive wave of special operations and kidnappings in recent weeks casts doubt on the authorities' claims. Some analysists tie this month's spike in violence in the North Caucasus to recent appointments made to the Russian National Guarda domestic paramilitary force of 400,000, which President Vladimir Putin announced the creation of earlier this year (see EDM, April 7). Specifically, two well-known figures have been named first deputies to National Guard head Viktor Zolotov: Sergei Melikov, who was until recently Moscow's envoy to the North Caucasus, and Sergei Chenchik, heretofore a top official in the Ministry of Interior. The two men reportedly compete with each other for power, and Chenchik is apparently more inclined to use crude force against insurgents than Melikov. The latter allegedly favors a combination of "carrots" and "sticks," while the former is known among the region's journalists as "the godfather of North Caucasus special operations." The fact that these newly appointed National Guard deputies both have a history of focusing on the North Caucasus indicates that Moscow remains resolved to deal with the region and to allocate considerable military resources to tackle the situation there. In their competition with one another for recognition from higher-ups, Melikov and Chenchik may be trying to highlight their efficacy at targeting and killing militants (Onkavkaz.com, October 12).

Other experts, however, say that the ongoing spike in violence is related to the growth of the Islamic State (IS) in the region. According to the Moscow-based Dagestani expert on North Caucasus Islam Akhmed Yarlykapov, the IS is less dependent on particular charismatic personalities in its insurgency movement than the Caucasus Emirate was in the past. Hence, it is harder for government forces to target a few key figures and inflict serious operational damage to the organization. Also, unlike the Caucasus Emirate, the IS currently has no competitors in the region and can enjoy a "monopoly" among radicals, Yarlykapov pointed out (Kavkazsky Uzel, October 12).

Meanwhile, different analysts point to a whole combination of factors that may be responsible for the unexpected regional spike in violence. For instance, regional expert Denis Sokolov said that the increased violence should be accepted as a "new normal" in the North Caucasus for several reasons: First, now that Moscow achieved some level of stable equilibrium in its gamble in eastern Ukraine, the North Caucasus is again becoming a target of focus for government forces. Second, he argued, the ongoing outflow of North Caucasus rebels to the Middle East has slowed down due to mounting barriers to their travel as well as the declining appeal of the IS to Russian Muslims. And the outspoken Russian expert on the North Caucasus Orkhan Jamal even asserted that the Russian security services are knowingly ramping up their activities, targeting ordinary Muslims, and antagonizing and radicalizing them in order to justify their high budgets (Kavkazsky Uzel, October 12).

The most recent wave of violence in the North Caucasus indicates that Moscow's self-proclaimed victory over the insurgency in the region is far from a reality. The Russian security services seem to be continuing their illegal practice of kidnapping suspects, meaning the authorities still have to rely on fear to govern the area. Although government forces currently retain sufficient resources to carry out numerous special operations in the region, it is unclear what will happen when those funds become scarce. The economic situation in the North Caucasus and the entire country is deteriorating; and coupled with the aggressive government campaign against suspected Islamists, all this may result in a rising tide of the insurgency rather than in its looming end.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Anti-War Protests in Russia; Anti-Russian Protests in Belarus

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Paul Goble Publication Date 18 October 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 167 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Anti-War Protests in Russia; Anti-Russian Protests in Belarus, 18 October 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 167, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b27b24.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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The Moscow mediaand all too often news outlets in the Westpaint Russians as a nation 100 percent behind Vladimir Putin's war in Syria, and Belarusians as a nation fully behind Russia. But in fact, Russian support for Putin's aggression and Belarusian support for Russia is much lower than typically reported. Polls show that Russians are less supportive of President Putin today than they were only a few months ago (82 percent in late September compared to 89 percent last June) (RT, September 28). And the statements of Belarusian officials as well as opposition figures underscore that Belarusians view Russia increasingly as a threat than as an ally (Udf.by, September 7). Now, brave people in both countries are increasingly speaking out against Putin's wars in the first case and against Russia's pressure in the second.

Over the past year, small groups of demonstrators have repeatedly stood in the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg with signs denouncing Putin's aggression in Syria (Uatoday.tv, October 17, 2015). The protesters at these rallies are never particularly numerous (at most a couple hundred individuals), and no one would suggest that they represent anything approaching the majority view of Russians. But the words on their placards almost certainly reflect the views of others who feel the same way but are not yet prepared to risk their jobs (or worse) to speak out against the Kremlin. And because that is so, these cries of despair on the part of the few may ultimately point to a majority movement in the future that will demand a different policy and a different leader.

Last Sunday, October 16, demonstrators held such an anti-war rally in St. Petersburg. The protesters carried signs and placards with slogans such as (Vk.com, Facebook.com/ali.charinskiy, October 16):

No to a Second Afghan War! Fathers and Mothers of Russia: Do Not Let Yourselves Be Deceived Twice!

Bombing Aleppo Is a Crime Against Humanity and Not Part of the Struggle Against Terrorism!

Did You Know That Putin's Pilots Are Bombing Peaceful Civilians in Aleppo Who Are Just Like You?

Putin and Assad Are Brothers in Blood.

Today, Aleppo Is the Target. Could Voronezh or Vladivostok be Tomorrow? As Long as the Kremlin Chooses the Targets, No Life Is Safe.

If You Say You Are Fighting Terrorism and Then You Bomb Aleppo, You Are a Terrorist!

Putin and Assad Were Presidents. Now They Are War Criminals.

What is most striking about these slogans is that they link Putin's aggression in Syria to the situation of ordinary Russians whose sons have died in earlier Moscow campaigns or who may die in this or some other future one. As more Russians die in combat and as news of this spreads through Russia, more ordinary people are likely to draw the same conclusions that the people standing on St. Petersburg's main street already have.

Similar conclusions can and are likely to be reached by ever more Belarusians in response to a symbolic protest that took place in Brest over the weekend. Several hundred Russians paratroopers from Kostroma have arrived to the city and are slated to take part in a military exercise this week. Their presence infuriated some unknown Belarusians, who put up a banner on the gates of the facility where these foreign soldiers are being housed. The banner read "Russians Go Home!" adding that Putin is "a s**t" (Charter97.org, October 17).

The presence of this paratrooper unit on Belarusian soil is especially controversial because it is widely known that it took part in the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008 as well as the invasion of Ukraine in 2014. Consequently, as the Belarusian opposition news portal Charter97 put it, "the very appearance of such an odious military formation on the territory of Belarus can be considered on its face an act of aggression, and joint exercises a few kilometers from the border of the EU [European Union] a direct challenge." Charter97 further asserted that the Kostroma paratroopers' presence signifies the Belarusian military's and the Alyaksandr Lukashenka regime's propensity to act as "Putin's puppets" (Charter97.org, October 17).

The unrelated but concurrent demonstrations in St. Petersburg and Brest are of course unlikely to lead to any short-term radical changes in the policies of either country. But such actions help change the climate of public opinion. This was true following the actions of the brave protesters in the Baltic countries in the 1980s, the Crimean Tatars in the same decade, and many other nations then and laterincluding now in Russian-occupied Crimea and elsewhere. As has historically been the case, the voice of a marginalized opposition today can ultimately grow and transform into the thunderous demands of the majority, which these regimes will be unable to ignore.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Belarus Charts Course Between Russia and Poland

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Grigory Ioffe Publication Date 15 November 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 166 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Belarus Charts Course Between Russia and Poland, 15 November 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 166, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b280c4.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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The nine-month-long argument about the price of Russian natural gas for Belarus has finally been resolvedfor now. Belarus will compensate Russia for underpayment from January 1 to July 1, 2016 (during that period, Belarus payed only $73 per 1,000 cubic meters instead of $132, as it was supposed to). Beginning on July 1, the price of gas for Belarus is retroactively reduced by 30 percent, from $132 per thousand cubic meters to around $92; Russia will compensate Gazprom for the loss, and Belarus pledges to overturn its decision to increase its natural gas transit fees (see EDM, October 12). Also, Russia will restore the volume of oil to Belarusian refineries. Oil exports to Belarus had been lowered earlier to penalize Minsk for its delinquency on payments of Russian gas (Kommersant, October 10). Once again, Minsk succeeded in wresting a concession from Moscow. At the same time, however, Belarus remains overly dependent on Russia for energy.

During his most recent visit to neighboring Poland, Vladimir Makei, Belarus's minister of foreign affairs, underscored that Belarus is in no way willing to distance itself from Russia. At the same time, he added that being dependent on just one country is a flaw, particularly at a time of economic crisis (Tut.by, October 11). Belarus's relations with Poland are currently experiencing a honeymoonan abrupt change from the situation only a half a year ago. For Poland, Belarus used to be perceived as a dictatorship that discriminated against its Polish minority; for Belarus, Poland was seen as a promoter of color revolutions and a sponsor of Belarus's "fifth column"President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's label for the Belarusian pro-Western opposition (Gazeta Prawna, October 13).

At loggerheads with Brussels and amidst tense relations with Russia, Poland's conservative government reversed the country's Belarus policy in order to, as some observers claim, counterbalance Russia's overwhelming influence on its neighborhood (Tut.by, October 13). Belarus's mediation in the Ukrainian crisis came in handy. Suddenly, criticism of Belarus's allegedly dictatorial practices was muted. As for the fate of the Polish minority in Belarus, the tacit assumption is that its situation is bound to further improve if ties between Polish and Belarusian officials are allowed to grow stronger. In March, Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski was received by Lukashenka; and now Foreign Minister Makei was also received by Polish President Andrzej Duda. Meanwhile, a group of leaders of Belarus's opposition met this month in Brussels, where they suggested that the newly elected Belarusian parliament should be excluded from Euronestan inter-parliamentary assembly that brings together lawmakers from the European Parliament and the national legislatures of the Eastern Partnership countries, which include Belarus (Tut.by, October 13). However, the leader of the pro-government faction of the Polish Sejm (lower chamber of parliament), Ryszard Terlecki, had already pledged cooperation with the Belarusian parliament several months before (Tut.by, August 3). In addition, Intercity, the Polish rapid-transit railway connection KrakowWarsawBiaystok has just been extended across the border to the Belarusian city of Grodno.

Relations between Belarus and Poland have an inter-ethnic dimension as well. Belarusian national identity historically developed later than the identities of the Poles and Russians. As a result, alternate periods of Russification and Polonization of Belarusian lands are both routinely reproached in Belarusian historiography. In Janka Kupala's 1922 Belarusian-language play Tuteishiya (Locals), the so-called "Western scientist" character speaks Polish and claims Belarus is a part of Poland, whereas the "Eastern scientist" expresses symmetrical claims in Russian. That symmetry, however, is partial. The reproach of Russification has been tenacious on the side of Belarus's Westernizing nationalists, but it has not developed much traction across other social strata. In contrast, the reproach against Polonization has a greater grassroots appeal. Suffice it to say that during the run-up to the 2006 presidential elections, Svetlana Alexievich, who later (2015) received the Nobel Prize in literature, expressed the view that Alyaksandr Milinkevich, that year's opposition front-runner, would not be popular in Belarus, because his manners come across as "too Polish" (Svaboda.org, January 31, 2006).

Apparently due to implicit homogenizing pressures, each subsequent post-war census has recorded a numerical decline of self-identified Belarusians in Poland and self-identified Poles in Belarus. In Belarus, the percentage of Poles declined from 6.7 in 1959 to 4.3 in 1970, 4.2 in 1979, 4.1 in 1989, 3.9 in 1999 and 3.1 in 2009. Still, in northwestern Belarus, the areas of compact settlement of people with Polish identity remain. Two secondary schools with Polish as the language of instruction function in the cities of Grodno and Volkovysk. The most Polish rayon (district) in all of Belarus is centered in Voronovo (Werenowo), Grodno Oblast. Here, 83 percent of the rayon's 26,290 residents are Poles. This is a part of the historical Wilno (Vilnius)centered area now cut across by the Belarusian-Lithuanian border. Ethnic Poles continue to dominate the adjacent part of Lithuania as well.

This author visited Voronovo in mid-October 2016. The Polishness of the district amply displays itself in cemeteries and in local Roman Catholic churches, where the prayer books are in Polish and printed in Warsaw and priests are Polish speakers. At the same time, most younger people and the rayon administrators communicate in perfect Russian, in line with the language situation in Belarus at large; whereas most street signs are in Belarusian. If one were to indulge in mirror imaging (i.e., we see things not as they are but as we are), then the absence of any Polish-language street signs in that most Polish district of Belarus might be seen as an outrage. However, it must be said that Belarus is a country whose ethnic majority itself is not in the habit of manifesting its identitya reality described and explained by Yury Shevtsov in his seminal 2005 book, The Phenomenon of Belarus. And the country's minorities have appropriated the same self-effacing style as their modus vivendi. Those not at peace with that choice have long left. Those who stay put but are interested in teaching their kids Polish may do so: in the Voronovo district, nine children are currently enrolled in regular classes of Polish and 232 in optional classes. In addition, Catholic parishes help send local children to summer camps in Poland; and contacts with relatives in Lithuania and Poland are unobstructed.

Ensconced between Poland and Russia, Belarus slowly but surely is evolving as a true bridge between the West and the East in Europe. In the atmosphere of growing regional tensions (see EDM, October 12), the potential benefits of a well-functioning bridge cannot be overestimated.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Russian Meddling in the Balkans Threatens to Reverse Region's European Integration

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Publication Date 15 November 2016 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Russian Meddling in the Balkans Threatens to Reverse Region's European Integration, 15 November 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b289a4.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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While international attention focuses on the United States presidential election, the war in Syria or Brexit, Moscow continues to stir the pot in the Balkans. Illustratively, as Montenegrins prepared to vote in parliamentary elections on October 16, Prime Minister Milo ukanovic warned that Moscow was financially backing pro-Russian opposition parties pushing for a reversal of the country's European integration course. The opposition Democratic Front, which opposes Montenegro's impending entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), has denied these allegations (Balkan Insight, Macedonian Information Agency, October 16). In the end, the ruling, pro-Western Democratic Socialists won a solid plurality of the vote, but will likely need to seek a coalition partner to form a new government. As has long been clear, Russia is doing anything it can to reverse Balkan integration with the European Union and NATO. Linked to this, Moscow is acting to undermine the democratization and stabilization of the Balkan region in order to reassert Russian influence there as well as prevent the "finalite" of a Balkan and European settlement.

Even under the tsars, Russia routinely referred to notions of Orthodox or Slavic unity when it came to its dealings with the Balkans, and it is certainly playing that card again today (Balkanist, May 29, 2015; Balkan Insight, March 10, 2016). But in reality Moscow's attitude is cynical and patronizing, and strongly reflects an attitude of great power chauvinism. Perhaps the most revealing manifestation of this cynicism and condescension was a statement this past September by Pyotr Tolstoy, who ran on the ruling United Russia ticket for a Duma seat. Tolstoy told a Bulgarian national television channel that while he would naturally espouse a "benevolent" policy toward Bulgaria if elected, "We will just buy out the entire Bulgaria. Half of its coastline we have already purchased" (Novinite.com, September 19). But Tolstoy is not the only actor who feels he can simply display Russian arrogance toward Balkan states with impunity. Russia's ambassador to Serbia, Aleksandr Chepurin, who has a long record of intervening forcefully in Serbian domestic politics, told the local newspaper Vecernije Novosti that if Belgrade imposed anti-Russian sanctions under EU pressure, that "would be disastrous for Serbia" (B92.net, September 17).

Indeed, Serbia and the Bosnian-Serb population of Bosnia-Herzegovina are key targets of Russian machinations. In a recent example, Igor Kim, the owner of Russia's Expobank, who is reputedly close to President Vladimir Putin, is following in a long line of other Russian businessmen seeking ports of entry into Serbia's economy. In particular, he is looking to buy Serbia's Hypobank. Kim's efforts parallel or converge with the continuing Russian interest in buying up media companies in Serbia, bankrolling pro-Russian parties in Serbia's Parliament, selling weapons to Serbia, and opening an office to sponsor cooperation with Russia. Together, these form part of the economic arm of Russia's campaign to enhance its influence in Serbia and in the Balkans more broadly; indeed, similar tactics are on view throughout the region (Blic.rs, September 23). Moscow also applies military pressure on Belgrade to join the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), whose membership includes most Eurasian republics of the former Soviet Union (Blic.rs, September 9).

Russian intervention has been even more overt in Bosnia. Defying the Constitutional Court in Sarajevo, Milorad Dodik, the veteran leader of Bosnia's Serbs, and a clear client of Putin, organized a referendum on September 25 to restore "Statehood Day" within his federal entity of the Serb Republic (Republika Srpska). Statehood Day is a Serbian Orthodox Christian holiday that falls on January 9 and is the anniversary of the Bosnian Serbs' secession from Bosniaan act that in part launched the bloody wars of the 1990s. This referendum is regarded as a dry run for a projected independence vote in 2018, which Dodik is also threatening to hold. A declaration of independence by the Serb Republic would destroy the basis of the Dayton Accords, which created the present-day political order of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and it would create a new pro-Moscow statelet in the heart of the Western Balkans (Carnegie.ru, October 4). As pressure grew to postpone or cancel the Statehood Day referendum, Russia's ambassador to Bosnia, Pyotr Ivantsov, stated that the question of whether or not to hold the vote was strictly an internal decision of the Bosnia Serbs; he blamed the Bosnian Constitutional Court, which ruled against the referendum's legality, for the whole problem. Moreover, he claimed that while everyone supports a functional Bosnia-Herzegovina, it cannot be achieved by "having the international community say what should be done" (Glassrpske.rs, September 22; Nezavisnenovine.rs, September 3; Carnegie.ru, October 4).

A couple of days before the September 25 vote, Putin received Dodik in Moscow and allegedly repeated to Dodik that the referendum was an internal matter. Nevertheless, it seems pretty clear that Putin was signaling his support because there was nothing else the two men had any urgent reason to discuss at that point in time (Carnegie.ru, October 4). Later, on September 28, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova declared her country's opposition to the "politicization" of the Statehood Day referendum issue. Disingenuously claiming that Moscow fully supports the Dayton Agreement, she then criticized Valentin Inzko, the High Representative to Bosnia-Herzegovina, for his use of extraordinary powersgranted to the position via international agreement in Bonn, in 1997to try and derail the illegal Serb Statehood Day referendum (Mid.ru, September 28).

Whatever Moscow's motives might be, it is clear that it intends to continue playing the ethnic-Serb card to derail an independent and unified Bosnia under the Dayton formula. Moreover, Russia is acting to prevent Serbia and any of its Balkan neighbors from Europeanizing their economies, political systems, and defense policies. The leverage Moscow seeks by acquiring Balkan media outlets, buying local banks, pushing for arms sales agreements, inciting ethnic passions, subsidizing political parties and media empires, as well as through displays of force are all, to a greater or lesser degree, designed to halt or reverse the region's European integration drive. It is thus up to the US and the EU to develop an effective countervailing strategy to this Russian effort, or risk losing the Balkans for the foreseeable future.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
US and UK Embassies Warn of Potential Terrorist Attack in Bishkek, Surprise Kyrgyz Security Services

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Cholpon Orozobekova Publication Date 17 October 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 166 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, US and UK Embassies Warn of Potential Terrorist Attack in Bishkek, Surprise Kyrgyz Security Services, 17 October 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 166, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b29094.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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On October 8, both the United Kingdom's and United States' embassies in Bishkek issued warnings about an increased threat of a terrorist attack on Kyrgyzstan sometime that month. The suspected attack, if it materialized, was supposed to possibly involving the kidnapping and hostage taking of Kyrgyzstani officials or foreign diplomats (24.kg, October 8). The British embassy encouraged citizens of the UK to remain vigilant in public places, stay away from crowded areas and follow any security advice from the local authorities. Washington's embassy in Bishkek called on US citizens to practice good personal security habits: exercising vigilance when in public places or while using mass transportation, being aware of their immediate surroundings, as well as avoiding crowded places, in addition to always following the instructions of local authorities, especially in an emergency (Azattyk.kg, Kloop.kg, 24.kg, Sputnik.kg, October 8).

This marked the first time that several major powers' diplomatic missions had published such warnings about an imminent terrorist attack in Kyrgyzstan, or provided such a specific timeframe for this anticipated incident. The warnings released by the two embassies were quickly picked up and widely disseminated by the local media, striking fear and panic in Kyrgyz society (Politkilinika.kg, October 11). At the same time, Kyrgyzstani security services in the capital began to distribute and post placards on the city's public transit that featured instructions for how to remain properly vigilant against potential terrorist threats. The press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs declared, however, that those placards were not motivated by any particular warning or threat, and had been a pre-planned preventative measure (Azattyk.kg, October 10).

Some local experts argued that the Kyrgyzstani government should take these Embassy warnings seriously. But Sapar Isakov, who heads the foreign policy department within the presidential administration, expressed surprise over how the US and UK embassies could have published such terrorism watch advisories without first consulting Kyrgyzstan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "I know for a fact that the US embassy did not hold any consultations with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan. In this regard we are perplexed. How is it possible there were no consultations with the corresponding bodies of the country of residence? The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will demand an explanation [of the two Western governments]," Isakov said (Kabar.kg, October 10). Subsequently, US Ambassador Sheila Gwaltney and UK Ambassador Robin Ord-Smith were summoned to the foreign ministry offices in Bishkek (24.kg, October 11). As of October 13, the ministry revealed no details about the outcome of these discussions or whether the foreign embassies shared any information with the Kyrgyz Republic's government regarding the possible terrorist attack.

The State Committee for National Security (SCNS) of Kyrgyzstan declared that it does not possess any information regarding the possibility of a terrorist attack in October. It added that neither the US nor UK embassy had shared any information with the Central Asian republic's security services prior to publishing the aforementioned warnings to their own citizens (Kloop.kg, October 9). According to the 2015 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report, released by the World Economic Forum, Kyrgyzstan ranks 97th in "Safety and Security," after Algeria and Iran. In this ranking of 141 countries, Turkey placed 121st and Russia came in 126th (Sputnik.kg, October 12).

Yet, the two Western embassies' warnings did not materialize completely in a vacuum. The advisories came just days after a video was uploaded to YouTube on October 5, in which three Kyrgyz young men, allegedly based in Syria, threatened Kyrgyzstan's government. Furthermore, the militants accused President Almazbek Atambaev of further damaging the country's economic situation and raising unemployment in the country (Zanoza.kg, October 8). The video's main message was that only Islam and sharia law would save the Kyrgyz people; the three men in the recording pledged to continue fighting to build a Caliphate in the region. Nurlan Ismayilov, a Kyrgyzstani expert on religion and security issues, believes the YouTube video and the later warnings from the US and UK embassies could in fact be interlinked. "Usually embassies make such warnings when they have concrete information and deep analysis. It is frightening that a threatening video and the warnings by two diplomatic missions appeared together, one after another," Ismayilov declared (Azattyk.kg, October 10).

After a terrorist attack on the Chinese Embassy in Bishkek, which took place on August 30, all diplomatic missions in Kyrgyzstan have taken steps to be more vigilant. According to the SCNS, the August attack on the Chinese embassy was carried out by a 33-year-old Uyghur man who was a member of Jabhat Fateh al-Shama Sunni Islamist militant organization (formerly an al-Qaeda affiliate known as Jabhat al-Nusra) fighting in Syria. Some experts believe this attack could signify a wider penetration of the region by militant and terrorist groups, with Kyrgyzstan now being on the front line in Central Asia. Zakir Chotoev, the deputy head of the State Commission of Religion Affairs, said, "In light of what is going on in the world, and taking into account that our citizens are fighting in Syria as well as the last terrorist attack on the Chinese embassy, all these are reasons why we have to stay vigilant and prepared, and why we should worry" (Azattyk.kg, October 10)

Opposition leader and prominent Kyrgyzstani politician Omurbek Tekebaev alleged that the country's special services might be organizing terrorist attacks to distract people from Kyrgyzstan's internal problems, unite them against such threats, and to eliminate some domestic opposition figures. "Our special services might organize one or two terrorist attacks to spread fear among the population. We know how, in the past, authoritarian leaders organized terrorist attacks to eliminate opposition leaders," he declared (Spuntik.kg, October 11).

Without any further details revealed about the supposed terrorist threats warned against by the UK and US embassies, it is only possible to speculate as to why these warning were released and what they mean for the country's overall level of security. If there is a real threat, it is time for Kyrgyzstan's security services to show increased professionalism and try to prevent any possible attack. But if Tekebaev's allegations are valid, and Kyrgyzstan's special services really were planning some covert operations, the two Western diplomatic missions may have acted in order to send a signal to the society. A third realistic possibility is that the August 30 attack on the Chinese embassy unnerved all diplomatic missions in Bishkek, putting them all on high alert. And if so, advisory warnings like those published by the UK and US might become more frequent and routinethough London and Washington may not have expected such a pointed reaction from the local authorities or the media.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Constitutional Majority Looms as Georgia's Opposition UNM Party in Danger of Emaciation

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Devi Dumbadze Publication Date 31 October 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 174 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Constitutional Majority Looms as Georgia's Opposition UNM Party in Danger of Emaciation, 31 October 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 174, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b29fd4.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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Sunday's runoffs in 50 precinctswhich became necessary because none of the candidates in these single-mandate districts garnered an absolute majority of the vote in the first round of the October 8 Georgian parliamentary electionswere overwhelmingly won by the ruling Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia (GDDG). On October 30, the party captured 48 more seats (out of the 49 it was contesting), in addition to the 67 it secured three weeks ago (Netgazeti.ge, October 31). Thus, GDDG has acquired a constitutional majority, which all but denigrates the only serious opposition party, United National Movement (UNM), into the role of an emaciated observer in the country's future parliament. In the second round, one seat was also won by a candidate of the IndustrialistsOur Homeland party, and another went to Salome Zurabishvili, an independent candidate, backed by GDDG (Civil Georgia, October 31).

UNM decided, contrary to its leader Mikheil Saakashvili's urging, not to boycott the first round's results (see EDM, October 27), despite numerous indications that a substantial percentage of votes could have been manipulated and that a prevailing atmosphere of intimidation likely contributed to low voter turnout (see EDM, October 13). In fact, voter participation was even worse in the second round, constituting about 35.7 percent (Civil Georgia, October 31). It is reasonable to claim that this further decrease was, at least partially, caused by the rift within UNM, which has only widened since Saakashvili's call for a boycott. Sandra Roulofs, a popular UNM candidate in Zugdidi and Saakashvili's wife, declared that she would not participate in the runoffs among UNM's 45 contenders. It is still unclear whether she will join the parliament through the UNM proportional party list (where she was listed as the second name from the top), though this seems highly unlikely. Would not Roulofs' bold proclamation that the October 8 elections were doctored and illegitimate, after which she stepped aside (Ambebi.ge, October 23), delegitimize her own actions, if she were still to rejoin the parliament just a few weeks later? However, as political observer Ghia Nodia contends, her failure to do so would, indeed, crystalize the conflict between Saakashvili and his party (Netgazeti.ge, October 24.

Likely, Saakashvili's physical distance played its part in bringing about UNM's second hard defeat this monthlosing all of the runoff votes it participated in on October 30. The party's core, the Political Bureau, had earlier voted 32 in favor of joining parliament; 9 votes were against, while 20 party representatives abstained or were not present for the vote (Netgazeti.ge, October 12). In its decision, the party leadership gambled that relegating Saakashvili to the position of a mere honorable party head, who would no longer participate in its strategic and tactical decisions, could win the party valuable support of those voters disenchanted with GDDG but opposing what one could call UNM's "old guard," led by the former president (see EDM, October 27). But at present, UNM lacks any prolific leaders: the charismatic Saakashvili is abroad in Ukraine (where he serves as governor of Odesa province), and other UNM politicians with distinctly strong leadership records, such as Gigi Ugulava and Ivane "Vano" Merabishvili, remain in prison. Without Saakashvili's aura of past victories, it seems that, at least for the time being, UNM has turned qualitatively into just another of the many small opposition parties, though it did receive the largest support (approximately 500,000 votes) of any of the pro-Western parties in Georgia. It may have shot itself in the foot by not following Saakashvili's lead. Perhaps foreseeing the perils of a possible GDDG constitutional majority, he sought to avoid granting legitimacy to a contestable election. Whereas, his party decided to join the parliament in order to try to secure for itself the tangible policymaking tools that Saakashvili feared would now be out of grasp anyway due to the ruling faction's overwhelming control of the legislature (Tabula, October 28).

Meanwhile, thanks to its constitutional majority, GDDG will not even require the nationalistic Alliance of Patriots parliamentary faction (six seats) to second the ruling party's motions in the legislature. GDDG can freely proceed with implementing its recently announced drastic legislative changes, which threaten not just Georgia's democratic institutions, but also its national security. Zurabishvili, a former foreign minister under Saakashvili's first administration, and presently an independent candidate who also won her runoff election in Tbilisi's Mtatsminda district thanks to GDDG's support, declared just days before the final vote that Georgia's law designating South Ossetia and Abkhazia as occupied territories is presumably "blocking" Georgia's possibility to maneuver in its relations with Russia (Pia.ge, October 27). Some Western experts, such as the United States' former ambassador to Georgia, Kenneth Yalovitz, predict that the Caucasus region in general and Georgia in particular will lose its significance for US foreign policy in the coming years (YouTube, October 11). And according to the Russian paper Izvestia, Russia's and Georgia's negotiatorsGrigory Karasin and Zurab Abashidze, respectivelyare preparing to discuss "restoring diplomatic relations between the countries," and "Georgia has to make the first step" without any concessions regarding the current status of the breakaway regions (Izvestia, October 11).

At the same time, the Georgian Dream coalition's previous defense minister, Tinatin Khidasheli (until recently from the Republican PartyPirveliradio.ge, October 30), is criticizing GDDG for not participating in three recent North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ministerial meetings in Bucharest, Sofia and Ankara, inter alia concerning Black Sea security cooperation (Interpressnews, October 27). GDDG also notably refused to back the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's (PACE) resolution in support of Ukraine; Eka Beselia, the Georgian representative to PACE, claimed the resolution concerned Ukraine, not Georgia (Primenews, October 17). GDDG is attempting to justify its actions with casual double-talk: the Georgian government is assuring the domestic public that NATO's decision to increase the Alliance's defenses along the Russian border somehow "without question" reflects Georgia's role in NATO's Black Sea Program (Netgazeti.ge, October 30). Yet, such assurances clash with observable actions being undertaken by Georgia's government, which suggest ever greater permissiveness on the part of Tbilisi toward Russia's occupation of Georgian territory. Such a new pattern in Georgia's foreign policy is likely to grow more overt following GDDG's gained constitutional majority in the parliament.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Armenia's New Defense Minister Proposes 'Nation-Army' Concept

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Armen Grigoryan Publication Date 31 October 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 174 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Armenia's New Defense Minister Proposes 'Nation-Army' Concept, 31 October 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 174, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b2a6b4.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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The National Assembly of Armenia affirmed Karen Karapetyan as the country's new prime minister, on September 13. Karapetyan's previous career was predominantly linked in various ways to Russia's natural gas producer Gazprom (with the exception of ten months in 20102011, when he served as mayor of Yerevan). He has worked as the chief executive of Gazprom's Armenian subsidiary; and since 2011, he worked in Moscow at a bank owned by Gazprom (Armenpress.am, September 13).

Karapetyan could choose his own candidates for most ministerial posts in the new cabinet. However, the ministers of foreign affairs, defense, and national security, as well as the head of the police were appointed by the president, who kept three of his four appointees at their posts. President Serzh Sargsyan replaced only the previous minister of defense, Seyran Ohanyan, with Vigen Sargsyan (no relation to the sitting head of state), who since 2011 had headed the presidential staff.

Vigen Sargsyan was the last member of the new cabinet to be named; his appointment was officially announced on October 5. In his inaugural speech at the National Assembly, the new defense minister called for building a "nation-army." Given Armenia's regional situation and its existing political challenges, he declared, a large army will remain a reality. Therefore, he continued, "the armed forces should play a greater role in the country's social and economic life." Defense Minister Sargsyan suggested that the entire population should be linked to the army by means of scientific, economic, industrial or other projects, and the army must become "a school and workshop of society." Demobilized soldiers should be much more patriotic, better educated and ready for combat, he concluded (Azatutyun.am, October 5).

Minister Sargsyan further elaborated on the "nation-army" concept during the parliamentary hearing preceding the adoption of the new cabinet's governing program. According to him, the "nation-army" concept requires all branches of the government, as well as political bodies and civil society organizations, to understand the level of their relations with national defense. The "nation-army" concept should become the foundation of state governance and be conveyed to all Armenians at home and in the diaspora. Furthermore, he said that not only would society invest human and material resources into defense, but the army would reciprocally invest in civilian society and become a "workshop for military and patriotic education" (Armenpress.am, October 20). Later, at a gathering at the Ministry of Defense, he declared that even though the Armenian Armed Forces are already quite large (over 51,000 active servicemen and 210,000 former service personnel available for the reserves, according to the 2012 IISS Military Balance) when compared to the country's territory (29,700 square kilometers) and population (3.05 million), the "nation-army" strategy does not mean that the state or society will have to be militarized. "Quite the contrary," he said, "it means that the army would be more democratic [and] fully integrated with society in such spheres as economy, science and education, ecology, and sport"; everything produced by the army will serve society and the state. The head of the defense ministry also claimed that the "nation-army" concept will encourage economic growth due to demand for products commissioned by the army. Besides, he called for anti-corruption measures and made several statements about the army's role in and emotional connection with society (Armtimes.com, October 29).

The "nation-army" idea is not entirely new. But previous proposals along these lines were more limited than Minister Sargsyan's current description of this concept. For example, several years ago, there were calls to end university students' ability to postpone the draft, to introduce universal conscription for women, and to increase the army's role in society because of Armenia's difficult geopolitical situation. After the so-called "four-day war" in April 2016 (see EDM, April 14), discussions about this issue further intensified. Some members of parliament, the president of the Armenian union of IT companies, and other officials also expressed the need to expand the country's domestic industrial production for military purposes (Tert.am, April 29; Aravot.am, May 30; Panorama.am, September 24). One proposal even called for establishing a sperm bank that would keep draftees' sperm in order to "sustain the gene pool," as a large-scale war could be imminent. Although the spokesman of the Ministry of Defense called the idea "interesting" (Armlur.am, May 2), that initiative was ultimately declined by the government (Armlur.am, May 26).

For now, it is difficult to speculate how Defense Minister Sargsyan's "nation-army" concept would actually work in practice. On one hand, this stress on military and patriotic education closely resembles a similar policy approach Russia is now attempting to carry out (see EDM, July 27). However, it is questionable to what extent patriotic rhetoric will be effective in uniting Armenian society considering the highly limited prospects for the country's economic recovery at present. On the other hand, a new "patriotic" agenda could be part of a strategy aimed at some level of asset redistribution without reforming the basic structure of the existing economic system. So far, the government has been unable to compel businesses belonging to oligarchs to pay taxes; but a "nation-army" program that stresses greater links between the military and civilian life might open up more investment in the military industry, perhaps create a few hundred new jobs, as well as allow for the allocation of extra funds to buy more Russian weapons. As the military parade on Armenian Independence Day showed (see EDM, September 26), brandishing new weapons helps boost patriotism, which is quite useful with general elections coming up a half a year from now. The government's actions in the next few months may more fully clarify the true essence of the "nation-army" notion. It remains to be seen whether this concept will have any practical real-world consequences for Armenia's defense and security posture, or if it will be little more than a popular slogan of the new government.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
The Kuznetsov Smokescreen: Russia's Peculiar Naval Taskforce to Syria

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Pavel Felgenhauer Publication Date 27 October 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 173 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, The Kuznetsov Smokescreen: Russia's Peculiar Naval Taskforce to Syria, 27 October 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 173, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b2acd4.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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The Russian aerospace forces (Vozdushno Kosmicheskye SilyVKS) continue to bomb the Syrian opposition, as Russia's Iranian-led allies carry on land attacks against the rebel-controlled half of Aleppo. But meanwhile, Russia's two largest warshipsthe carrier Admiral Kuznetsov and nuclear battle cruiser Pyotr Velikiyhave reached the Mediterranean. The Kuznetsov and Pyotr Velikiy, accompanied by two guided-missile frigates and support vessels, departed Severomorskthe main naval base of the Russian Northern Fleet on the Barents Seaon October 15 and sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar on October 26. The Kuznetsov was belching dark smoke on the way like a coal-driven World War I battleship. The pro-Kremlin press spun the Kuznetsov smoke as a deliberate demonstration of Russian might: The ship was deliberately producing lots of smoke to send the Brits and other pro-American Europeans an ominous signal"I am coming" (Kp.ru, October 24).

The Kuznetsov voyage was indeed noticed in the West, and fears were expressed that its strike fighters could be used to bomb Aleppo. The Spanish authorities reportedly made a decision last month to allow three ships of the Kuznetsov carrier group to refuel and resupply in Ceutaa Spanish enclave on the coast of Morocco opposite Gibraltarfrom October 28 to November 2. The nuclear vessel Pyotr Velikiy does not need refueling and could stay out at sea. Ceuta, an overseas Spanish territory not covered by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) defense obligations, is a popular stopover port for Russian naval ships going in and out of the Mediterranean (see EDM, September 2, 2015). Since 2011, there were reportedly some 60 such visits, and these have a sizeable positive impact on the local economy. The news that the Kuznetsov could make a stopover in a Spanish port on its way to possibly bomb Syrian towns, caused public dismay across Europe; thus, the visit was promptly canceled. The Ministry of Defense in Moscow announced it had decided to sail past Ceuta, apparently to avoid the humiliation of being officially rejected. The Russian government blamed "the [United States] and NATO" for having pressured Madrid to reconsider. The defense ministry declared that the Kuznetsov in fact does not need a port stopover and can be refueled at sea. It was also reported that the Kuznetsov carrier group could end up docking on Malta or in Algiers, as alternatives to Ceuta (Vz.ru, October 26; Kommersant, October 27).

On October 27, the Maltese government itself announced it would ban the Kuznetsov carrier group ships from docking. The island country's authorities did not confirm or deny whether Moscow had asked to dock there (Interfax, October 27). Reportedly, on October 27, the Kuznetsov carrier group stopped in international waters, off the Mediterranean coast of Morocco. Apparently, the Russian vessels were being refueled by military tanker Osipov, which is accompanying the carrier group (Interfax, October 27). Algeria may have also spurned the Kuznetsov. Its bloody bombing campaign in Syria seems to be costing Moscow more and more international damagenot only in the West, but possibly within the Sunni-dominated Muslim and Arab world as well.

The Kuznetsov carrier group has been moving to its presumed destination off the Syrian coast at a remarkably slow pace of less than ten nautical miles per hour, on average, from Severomorsk to Gibraltar (Vz.ru, October 26). This, together with the thick smoke bellowing from the lead ship is an indicator of serious engine trouble. A limited speed capability, even if it does not develop into a total breakdown, could severely impede the Kuznetsov's operations: For successful jet takeoff with maximum payload, the carrier must be moving at maximum speed. The Kuznetsov was never really designed to play the role of a US-type carrier, which can rapidly send out jets to attack enemy land or sea targets. Furthermore, the Russian carrier currently steaming across the Mediterranean was not designed for long-distance voyages. The Kuznetsov lacks a catapult, and its standard Su-33 (also known as Su-27K) jet fighters take off the deck using a jump ramp and thrust without much ordinance or fuel, armed with only air-to-air missiles for aerial combat. The Su-33 is not equipped for precision ground or sea attacks and cannot be of much use in bombing Aleppo or anything in Syria. Russia built just over 20 Su-33s in the 1990s. Further production was long ago terminated, and the Kuznetsov today carries only about 10 Su-33 leftovers. The depleted Kuznetsov air wing has reportedly been boosted by four new MiG-29K/KUB carrier jets, developed by Russia for India. The Russian navy plans to refit the Kuznetsov with an entire MiG-29K air wing, after the carrier returns from its present voyage. A couple of new Ka-52K attack helicopters may also be onboard the Kuznetsov, in addition to several other support helicopters (TASS, July 2).

The Ka-52K and the MiG-29K are designed to attack land targets. They could be used against the Syrian opposition, but their numbers aboard are minuscule and incomparable with the firepower of the VKS forces already deployed in Syria. On top of that, the MiG-29Ks' payloads would be limited by the lack of a catapult and the low speed of the Kuznetsov. So what is the Kuznetsov actually doing in the Mediterranean together with the Pyotr Velikiy?

During a possible global showdown, the Kuznetsov's logical place is in the Barents Sea, where its jet fighters would be tasked with defending the crown jewels of the Russian navythe strategic ballistic missile-carrying nuclear submarines against aerial attack by US (NATO) anti-sub aircraft. Operating close to its home base in the Barents Sea, the Kuznetsov's faulty engines would be less of a problem. In turn, under this kind of scenario, the high-speed, ocean-going nuclear battle cruiser Pyotr Velikiy would presumably be deployed somewhere far offsecluded in the fjords of Greenland or Patagoniapreparing for a sudden suicide solo dash attack of a high-priority transatlantic US troop convoy or carrier group in the mid-ocean and using its nuclear-capable Granit heavy supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles. The Pyotr Velikiy has 20 Granit launch-tubes, and the Kuznetsov has 12. Granit missiles may be used against land targets, but Russian retired admirals insist they would be inaccurate, too expensive and ineffective without a nuclear warhead (Gazeta.ru, October 20).

The main reason behind the Kuznetsov and Pyotr Velikiy's Mediterranean deployment, therefore seems to be to show off; and it appears to be working. Of course, up to now, the deployment has produced mostly negative PR, but maybe the Kremlin believes all publicity is good publicity.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Does Mikheil Saakashvili Have a Political Future in Georgia?

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Giorgi Menabde Publication Date 27 October 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 173 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Does Mikheil Saakashvili Have a Political Future in Georgia?, 27 October 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 173, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b2b3e4.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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The opposition United National Movement (UNM) came in distant second in the Georgian parliamentary elections that took place on October 8 (see EDM, October 13). The party of former president Mikheil Saakashvili received only 27.11 percent of the vote for the party list. And it is unlikely to pick up more than a handful of seats on October 30, in the second round of voting in those single-member districts where no candidate won an absolute majority during the first round. So while the ruling Georgian DreamDemocratic Georgia (GDDG) looks likely to achieve a constitutional majority in the next legislature, UNM could end up winning only 2729 parliamentary seatseven fewer than the 44 seats it won in 2012 (Cec.gov.ge., Parliament.ge, accessed October 26).

Saakashvili has remained the leader of Georgia's main opposition party despite his forced departure from the country after his presidential term expired in November 2013. The General Prosecutor Office has launched four criminal investigations against him, accusing the former head of state of overstepping his authority and embezzling government funds (Kommersant, November 27, 2014). In May 2015, Saakashvili was nominated governor of Ukraine's Odesa province and he accepted Ukrainian citizenship. Legally, he had to give up his Georgian citizenship; the current president of Georgia, Giorgi Margvelashvili, refused to grant an exception for him in this matter (Lenta.ru, December 4, 2015).

Despite remaining abroad, in Ukraine, Saakashvili nonetheless actively participated in UNM's electoral campaign and remained the most recognizable face of the opposition. He publicly expressed his thoughts on a future government and proposed the current chief of the Ukrainian National Police, Khatia Dekanoidze, to become interior minister of Georgia (Kommersant, October 3). And while addressing a rally in support of UNM via videoconference, on October 5, he pledged to "return to Georgia immediately after UNM's victory" (Kommersant, October 6). However, a day before voting day, Saakashvili unexpectedly told Ukrainian television that he would not be returning to Georgia "whatever the outcome of the elections" (Interpressnews.ge, October 8).

After the disappointing election results were announced, UNM leaders criticized Saakashvili and blamed him for their party's defeat at the polls. "Instead of campaigning in a constructive way, UNM's electoral slogans were [drowned out] by questions of whether Saakashvili would return to Georgia immediately after the elections," complained Shota Utiashvili, a former head of the Department for Analysis at the Georgian Ministry of Interior. He further argued that Saakashvili's statements about "the army and police being on his side" frightened voters during the campaign (Interpressnews.ge, October 10).

The head of the opposition TV station Tabula, Tamara Chergoleishvili, was even more blunt. She called all of Saakashvili's electoral promises about his imminent return to Georgia "fake" and reprimanded the UNM leader for making such statements, which, she argued, prevented the opposition from capturing more votes in the elections. "Saakashvili is trying to suggest that UNM is nothing without him, and he gives us orders from Odesa. Let him return and prove that we are nothing without him," Chergoleishvili indignantly stated (Ipress, October 11).

After the first round of voting, Saakashvili called on his party to boycott the second round of elections and refuse to participate in the parliament's work to protest the "falsification of the voting on October 8" (Interpressnews.ge, October 10). But the UNM's ruling council disagreed with its informal leader. The vast majority of the party heads supported "fighting on" (Kvirispalitra, October 12). Only a few members of the opposition party's council backed Saakashvili's position, including lawmaker Nugzar Tsiklauri. "This parliament, where one party will have the majority, looks more like the 'parliament' of Turkmenistan, where there is no democracy whatsoever" Tsiklauri said (Interpressnews.ge, October 11).

Tensions in Georgia's largest opposition party further escalated when Mikheil Saakashvili's wife, Sandra Roelofs, who is second on the UNM's party list, refused to participate in the second round of elections in Zugdidi district. She pointedly referred to the "senselessness of continuing the campaign under the conditions of total falsification by the authorities" (Sputnik-georgia.com, October 23). But the party leadership openly criticized Roelofs' move, saying that the former first lady's decision "harmed the opposition" (Tabula, October 23). Saakashvili stated that his wife made her decision to withdraw from the elections "independently," and Roelofs herself rejected claims that her withdrawal was motived by her husband (Rustavi 2, October 23).

The infighting in the party does not seem likely to avert the decision of the vast majority of the elected UNM members to continue working in the Georgian parliament and oppose the ruling party there. However, the conflict inside UNM does cast doubt on Saakashvili's future in the party and Georgian politics in general.

Can UNM survive without a charismatic leader like Mikheil Saakashvili? Some experts believe yes. "UNM must signal to voters who support reforms and a pro-Western course for the country that the party is prepared to appropriate all the positive aspects of Mikheil Saakashvili's tenure and reject all the negative sides of his legacy. Thus, UNM should transform itself into a party in which Saakashvili might be an 'honorary chairman' or an 'important founding figure,' but not an active leader- who makes decisions," Nika Imnaishvili, an expert for the news-analysis agency, GHN, told this author. According to Imnaishvili, many Georgian voters support the Westernization of the country as well as Georgia's accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union; but they fear that Saakashvili's personality and his governance style "might lead the country to a civil war or another war with Russia." The expert asserted that "this category of Georgian voters is rather large. They do not like [Georgian Dream founder] billionaire [Bidzina] Ivanishvili and his informal stay in power. They do not like Georgian Dream, and they are prepared to vote for UNM, but without Saakashvili being in a position of power there" (Author's interview, October 10).

UNM did not confirm whether it was considering replacing Saakashvili as the leader of the party. "Saakashvili is a significant political figure not only on the scale of Georgian politics but also on the international scale. He is a very distinguished person. He will remain on Georgia's political scene regardless of changing relations and various disagreements," member of parliament David Darchiashvili told this author. Darchiashvili added that the "still quite young" Saakashvili's formal status in the party has nothing to do with his actual influence or political weight: "Disagreements are normal. Many party members disagree with Saakashvili's opinion, which means that he had succeeded in establishing a European party" (Author's interview, October 10).

For now, the vast majority of UNM's leadership apparently agrees with Darchiashvili. The next meeting of the party's ruling council does not plan to review Saakashvili's status or the party's attitude toward its founder.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Russian Information WarfareNot Just Hackers and Trolls

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Jorgen Elfving Publication Date 27 October 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 173 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Russian Information WarfareNot Just Hackers and Trolls, 27 October 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 173, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b2baf4.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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"Information warfare," according to the Russian definition of the term, combines technology (i.e., cyber warfare and electronic warfare) with psychology ("winning hearts and minds") (Encyclopedia.mil.ru, accessed October 27). When commenting on the psychological aspect of Russian information operations, foreign observers generally focus on the strategic and operational levelfor example messaging broadcast by the Russian propaganda channel Sputnik and online activities of so-called "trolls." But what about the psychological aspect of Russian information warfare at the tactical level? This topic was recently discussed in an article by Colonel K. A. Trotsenko, "Information Warfare at the Operational-Tactical Command Level," published in the August 2016 issue of Voennaya Mysl. The article should be seen in the context of a unique military exercise held in mid-August, in southwestern Russia (Mil.ru, August 19). The exercise, dubbed "Elektron 2016," focused on electronic warfare and had an interesting feature: using spoofed cellular phone text messages to lure the "enemy" into an area specifically being pre-targeted by artillery and rocket fire.

Notably, information warfare was also, for the first time, a significant part of the large-scale follow-on exercise held in southwestern Russia during September 510"Kavkaz 2016." Therefore, it seems highly probable that the aforementioned article in Voennaya Mysl and Elektron 2016 were not an isolated phenomenon, but instead should be seen as being linked to the conduct of Russia's subsequent Kavkaz exercise.

Exactly how information warfare was employed and put to use during Kavkaz 2016 is not known in detail. But upon its conclusion, news accounts noted the exercise was characterized by a high observance of information security best practices. For instance, according to the Russian chief of the General Staff, Army-General Valery Gerasimov, none of the Kavkaz participants were allowed to use cellphones at any point during the exercise (Rns.online, September 14). This suggests that the Russian military has taken to heart lessons from the conflict in Ukraine, whereby one side's use of mobile phones can be exploited by the other to provide actionable intelligence.

During Kavkaz 2016, the Russian military organized a special group tasked with information warfare. This group consisted of representatives from the General Staff, personnel from the information warfare centers of the Russian military districts, members of various electronic warfare assets, as well as members of units from the service tasked with protecting state secrets (TASS, September 14). According to General Gerasimov, this information warfare group solved tasks similar to those normally undertaken by an indirect fire planning group, though the chief of staff did not elaborate further on the details. In some cases, he said, the information warfare group actually performed better at those tasks (Tvzvezda.ru, September 16). Colonel Trotsenko's August article in Voennaya Mysl provides one blueprint for carrying out information warfare at the tactical level and, arguably, might reflect how information warfare was utilized during Kavkaz 2016.

For Russian forces operating at the tactical level, success will not come thanks to cyberattacks or Internet trolls, but rather by establishing information superiority and injecting oneself into the enemy's decision cycle. In other words, the Russian military will attempt to force the adversary into making a new decision or modifying his previous decision in a manner detrimental to him. For Russian tacticians, this can be accomplished by using both technology and what can be characterized as "psychology." These are two sides of the same coin, which must be employed in tandem: that is, the use of technology is a precondition for the use of psychology against the enemy.

In practice, the technical part aims to act on the adversary's information processesi.e., the collection and analysis of information and its subsequent dissemination in the form of tasks to the unitsby targeting his systems for command and control. This is accomplished by electronic warfare, the preparation and use of kinetic energy against components in the adversary's command and control system, but also by employing maskirovka (military deception) and reconnaissance. Psychology, or what the author calls "forestalling," implies the use of a tactics by highly maneuverable forces, high-speed single maneuvers or the creation of special situations that the adversary's command-and-control system cannot cope with. In addition, it requires denying the adversary the possibility to act in a similar manner against one's own forces. In this context it is worth noting that "maneuver," according to the Russian definition, refers not only to the maneuvering of military units, but also embodies maneuvering with fire and ordinance (Trotsenko, "Information Warfare at the Operational-Tactical Command Level," Voennaya Mysl, August 2016).

What the article in Voennaya Mysl describes is, in essence, not new in the history of warfare. But in the Russian context, it may represent a new insight when it comes to Russian military tactics, ways to defeat the enemy, and how to act on the battlefield. One of the objectives of the military reforms initiated in 2008 was to create "a new officer," although what that meant has never been clarified (Vpk.name, December 11, 2008). Some experts have interpreted this to mean an officer who is given more freedom of action and who is capable of showing initiativea necessity on the modern battlefield (Oborona.ru, No. 7, July 2016). This understanding of the goal could very well be correct: indeed, from time to time, open-source reporting on Russian military exercises explicitly notes scenarios where personnel needed to think "outside the box." So the stereotype of rigid Soviet and Russian tactics on the battlefield may be quickly becoming a thing of the past. And in a hypothetical future conflict with Russia, the appearance of "little green men" may not be the only surprise in store for allied militaries.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Is Sleeping Beauty Kaliningrad Oblast About to Wake Up?

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Jorgen Elfving Publication Date 7 November 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 178 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Is Sleeping Beauty Kaliningrad Oblast About to Wake Up?, 7 November 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 178, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b2c284.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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In early October, the Estonian media reported that Russia was transporting, by ship, Iskander short-range ballistic missiles from Ust Luga (Leningrad Oblast) to the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad (ERR, October 7). This news sparked a wave of commentary by politicians and experts in the Baltic Sea region: most saw this nuclear-capable missile deployment as a provocation. The picture painted by the media also gave the impression that the Iskanders were to be based in Kaliningrad oblast on a permanent basis. Domestically, Russian commentators repeatedly suggested that permanently basing the Iskanders in Kaliningrad would be an adequate response to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) activities in Central Eastern Europe. Such arguments are certainly not new: already in 2008, the Russian military hatched plans to deploy Iskanders to Kaliningrad, and thenRussian president Dmitry Medvedev in fact mentioned this possibility publicly (RIA Novosti, June 5, 2008; Gazeta.ru, October 10, 2016).

Iskander ballistic missiles have been moved in and out of Kaliningrad oblast on several occasions in the pastfor example, during an exercise on March 1621, 2015 (Mil.ru, March 18, 2015). In this most recent case, the Russian Ministry of Defense also declared that the movement of the missiles was part of an ordinary military exercise. And there is nothing to suggest that the 152nd Missile Brigade in Chernyakhovsk (Kaliningrad oblast) has been equipped with Iskanders so far (RIA Novosti, October 8). Rearming Russian missile brigades is usually done at Kapustin Yar (Astrakhan oblast, just east of Volgograd), where the Iskander missile system is handed over to units who are trained on the new equipment, do some live firing and then return to their ordinary garrisons (Vegchel.ru, June 6). Nonetheless, the presence of necessary infrastructure at a missile brigade base is a precondition for rearming. So the erection of tent-style storage sites in Chernyakhovsk might indicate that the 152nd Missile Brigade in Kaliningrad could indeed soon be armed with Iskander missiles (Mil.ru, October 21).

Nine missile brigades across Russia are currently equipped with Iskanders, and according to a source in the Missile Troops and Artillery Staff, two further brigades remain to be armed with this advanced missile system (Gazeta.ru, October 10). The Russian ground forces are presently divided into 11 armies; and assuming that each of these armies features an attached missile brigade, this strongly suggests that all of Russia's army-sized ground forces units are specifically planned to include Iskanders in their tables of organization and equipment. However, the specific announcement that two brigades are currently awaiting deployments of Iskanders implies that either one of Russia's 11 armies or the Kaliningrad-based 152nd Missile Brigade (attached to the Naval Infantry and Coastal Defense, not the ground forces) will presumably not be equipped with this theater ballistic missile. In the latter case, Russia would have to redeploy other missile brigades to Kaliningrad oblast if it wants a missile with a longer range in that area than the OTR-21 Tochka (NATO reporting name: SS-21 "Scarab") presently deployed there. Such a scheme would back up the Russian defense ministry statement claiming that the October deployment of Iskanders to Kaliningrad was part of an exercise activityespecially if it can be ascertained that these missiles were indeed later transported back to Russia proper.

However, it is not just Iskanders that are of interest in the Baltic Sea region. Two Buyan-class corvettes, the Zelenyy Dol and Serpukhov, were also recently redeployed from the Black Sea Fleet to the Baltic. Both ships will be part of a newly formed division there, which will receive another three corvettes of the same class before 2020. The Baltic Fleet is also said to have received the Bal coastal defense missile system. And the advanced Bastion coastal defense system is also routinely mentioned in this context. The Bal will replace the older Redut missile, presently wielded by the 25th Coastal Missile Regiment at Donskoye. This regiment is reportedly being upgraded to brigade strength (Izvestia, October 26).

Recent military developments in the Baltic Sea region, including the formation of the 11th Army corps in northwestern Russia earlier this year, cannot be considered in isolation. Together, they add to Russia's anti-access and area denial (A2/AD) capabilities in the area. In January 2015, Kaliningrad oblast was specifically singled outin addition to the Arctic and Crimeaas a high-priority area for continued investment in force generation and the development of Russian military capabilities (Vz.ru, January 30, 2015). But until recently, Russia's Baltic exclave saw little such progress, especially compared to what has been going on in the Artic and Crimea (see EDM, December 9, 2014; March 27, 2015; September 21, 2015; November 6, 2015). Such halting progress may have contributed to the dismissal of the former commander of the Baltic Fleet, Vice Admiral Viktor Kravtjuk, and a number of other high-level officers this past June (see EDM, July 6, 19). The mass sacking presumably removed an administrative obstacle to moving from words to deeds when it comes to boosting Russia's military capabilities in Kaliningrad oblast. Another explanations may be that the leadership in Moscow recently concluded it needs to more substantially counter NATO in the region. Or perhaps Russia is militarizing Kaliningrad in anticipation of Sweden and Finland joining the North Atlantic Alliance. Moscow has frequently stated that should Sweden decide to join NATO, Russia would take military measures.

Although Kaliningrad oblast is too small to host an overwhelming military buildup, this Russian region has apparently begun to enjoy renewed attention from Moscow. It cannot be excluded that this attention will in practice result in ever more robust Russian A2/AD capabilities in the Baltic regionwith serious implications for neighboring countries and the NATO alliance.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
NATO Forces in Baltic: Numerous but Disjointed

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Olevs Nikers Publication Date 7 November 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 178 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, NATO Forces in Baltic: Numerous but Disjointed, 7 November 2016, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 178, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b2c934.html [accessed 2 November 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.

As the Baltic States continue to confront Russian air and naval power in the Baltic Sea, two small missile ships, the Zelenyy Dol and the Serpukhov entered this crowded body of water at the end of October. These Russian vessels will reportedly become part of a newly formed Baltic division in the near future (TVNET, October 26). The redeployment of the Zelenyy Dol and Serpukhov is just the latest regional development negatively affecting the security of the Baltics. None of these three post-Soviet republics has the financial resources available to sufficiently strengthen its own naval capabilities in response. Therefore, in order to defend their sovereignty and ensure the sustainability of their defense sectors, the Baltic States' naval policies will continue to stress the ability to "fill the gaps" in the full spectrum of Allied maritime operations in the region.

In terms of the regional military balance, the Balticsas full members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)actually appear to be in fairly strong position defensively. The German navy operates 15 surface combatants along with five submarines in the Baltic, whereas Poland is undergoing a major long-term modernization of its naval forces. Meanwhile, Sweden (not a NATO member, but a strong partner of the alliance) has one of the finest conventional submarine fleets in the world. Norway is currently introducing the fifth-generation F-35 strike fighter into service. Overall the North Atlantic Alliance and its close partners have more than 400 modern combat aircraft in the region, some of them capable of conducting electronic warfare operationsan important aspect of potentially defeating Russia's anti-access and area-denial (A2/AD) bubbles (Usni.org, April 25).

However, according to a report by the Tallinn-based International Defense and Security Centre, written at the request of Estonia's parliamentary National Defense Commission, NATO forces in the Baltic region are not sufficiently equipped and not ready to undertake protection operations in the Baltic Sea. Specifically, the report questions NATO's ability, in the event of a crisis, to overcome Russia's A2/AD capabilities in order to deploy military reinforcements to the Baltic countries. "Moreover, due to declines in the strength and capacity of European armies, only the United States possesses a wide range of military capabilities needed to carry out defensive operations against a broad attack on the Baltic Sea region," the report says (TVNET, April 20).

The three Baltic States nevertheless have been upgrading the abilities of their naval forces to plug into larger NATO formations operating in the region. Estonia's National Defense Development Plan, for example, has stipulated further development of the country's mine warfare capability. In particular, Estonia is modernizing three mine countermeasure vessels, a diver group and one naval auxiliary ship. The limited navies of Lithuania and Latvia serve similar purposes. The Lithuanian Navy is tasked with protecting national interests in territorial waters and throughout Lithuania's exclusive economic zone (EEZ); conducting explosive ordnance search-and-disposal operations; coordinating maritime search-and-rescue missions; supporting the Armed Forces' special operations; controlling and protecting the country's strategic lines of communication and fisheries; as well as policing offshore polluters. With the largest naval force among the three Baltic States, the Latvian Navy performs minesweeping operations, carries out search-and-rescue missions; and monitors ecological activities in nearby waters. Together with Lithuania and Estonia, Latvia's main development priorities for its navy are to expand joint activities within the Baltic States' Ship Squadron (BALTRON) and the creation of the shared Sea Surveillance System (Kmin.ee, Kam.lt, Mod.gov.lv, accessed November 6).

According to a study by Lieutenant Commander Mati Terve, at the Baltic Defense College, the Baltic States' navies are able to conduct constabulary operations in territorial waters and sometimes in their EEZs as well as contribute to coastal defense. But these small forces lack the ability to participate in power projection operations. Their specialization is the only way to contribute to larger coalitions: for example by their active contribution to the Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 1 (SNMCMG1) (Baltdefcol.org, accessed November 6).

Sea control is an ambitious operation and for small states like the Balticsalmost impossible to achieve. Therefore, according to Terve, in order to protect their sea lines of communication, he Baltic States will need to at least build up their sea denial capabilities. These three countries' present naval capabilities resemble those of the Singaporean Navy from the 1980s. At that time, limited funding allowed Singapore's naval forces to take part in restricted operations, focused primarily on sea denial (Baltdefcol.org, accessed November 6). Out of the three Baltic States, only Latviawhich owns one minelayer in its naval fleetcan physically perform sea denial operations.

Maritime power projection operations, meanwhile, can be bolstered by sea-based attack aircraft, submarine- and surface-launched cruise missiles, naval fire support, as well as amphibious and special forces. These capabilities are precisely lacking in the Baltic States, but they can be achieved through deeper regional cooperation within NATO. The Baltic navies' mine countermeasure ships are obviously unable to project power against a potential adversary; however, by operating within the SNMCMG1, and in collaboration with other Allied assets, they could significantly influence an adversary's actions. At the same time, a full spectrum of Allied maritime operations in the Baltic will have to include surveillance and reconnaissance, which involves locating, identifying, and tracking aircraft, surface vessels and submarines. This will only be possible in cooperation with larger regional powersespecially Germany and the Scandinavian countries.

This past summer's BALTOPS 2016 military exercise drew to the Baltic Sea region approximately 6,000 personnel, 45 warships and 60 aircraft from 17 countries. Participants included the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland, Denmark and the Netherlands, along with all three Baltic republics, and NATO partners Sweden and Finland (Lsm.lv, June 6). BALTOPS 2016 sent an important message to Russia, showcasing the US and NATO's determination to freely operate in the Baltic Sea. In the exercise, the Alliance practiced using its collective maritime forces to ensure access to the region in the event of having to reinforce the exposed Baltic States in a crisis or during wartime (Usni.org, June 1).

The Baltic navies' mine countermeasure capabilities and competencies are well known inside NATO. But to more fully contribute to their self-defense and boost their role within the coalition, the Baltic States will need to develop additional network centric warfare capabilities. In particular, all three Baltic navies lack sufficient abilities to carry out information exchange and maritime situational awareness. If successfully developed, these capacities would seriously ease regional cooperation with NATO's "heavy assets" in the Baltic.

Table 1: Naval Forces of the Baltic States

Country Available Naval Vessels Estonia Mine countermeasure vessel  3 Auxiliary vessel  1 Latvia Hydrographic survey vessel  1 Minelayer  1 Minehunter  5 Patrol Boat  5 Coastal patrol boat  6 Lithuania Mine countermeasure vessel  4 Patrol boat  4 Auxiliary vessel  3

(Source: Kmin.ee, Kam.lt, Mod.gov.lv, accessed November 6)

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Mali: Islamic State Considers its Alternatives

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Alexander Sehmer Publication Date 11 November 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 22 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Mali: Islamic State Considers its Alternatives, 11 November 2016, Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 22, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b2d1f4.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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Islamic State (IS) has acknowledged a pledge of allegiance from a fledgling group of Islamist fighters in Mali following several recent cross-border attacks by the group, and as IS itself comes under pressure in Iraq and Syria.

On October 30, the IS Amaq news agency broadcast the pledge by Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, a former fighter with the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) and later with al-Mourabitoun. His so-called Islamic State in the Greater Sahara is behind two recent attacks in Burkina Faso: one in October on a military position near the northern border with Mali that killed five people, and one in September on a customs post in Markoye, which left two people dead (AP, October 12; Jeune Afrique, September 2; L'Info, September 6).

The acceptance of al-Sahrawi is something of a turnaround for IS. Previously, IS ignored a pledge he made in May 2015 as part of al-Mourabitoun (al-Akhbar, May 13, 2015). At the time, IS leadership likely saw little use for al-Sahrawi, and the al-Mourabitoun leader, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, disavowed the statement soon afterwards.

Possibly, the recent attacks have boosted al-Sahrawi's standing with IS. They earned condemnation  along with other attacks in the region  from the Economic Community of West African States (NTA, October 21). The attacks have also prompted Burkinabe forces with the UN mission in Mali (MINUSIMA) to redeploy closer to their home border (Sidwaya, November 6).

But IS likely has another reason. Its new willingness to welcome al-Sahrawi comes as it watches territory it controls in Iraq and Syria being slowly reclaimed. In his first statement in nearly a year, supposedly made as Iraqi forces press in on Mosul, IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi attempted to rally his supporters. However, he also hinted that IS "provinces" elsewhere, which he termed the "pillars of the caliphate," would have a greater role to play going forward (al-Jazeera, November 3).

As IS looks further afield, Mali in particular  where the government is struggling with Islamist attacks while trying to implement a shaky peace deal with rebel groups  looks promising (Sahel Intelligence, September 8). The Sahel has been largely dominated by al-Qaeda's affiliates, but that could change. Islamic State has already succeeded in coopting a faction of Boko Haram in Nigeria, splitting the group (see Terrorism Monitor, August 19). IS fighters fleeing the bombardment of Sirte in Libya could choose to move into Mali, and a recent supposed truce there agreed to by al-Qaeda-linked Ansar Dine could open up space for IS expansion.

As IS faces defeat in Iraq and Syria, its franchises in places like Mali  and elsewhere, such as in Yemen where it has a well-established foothold  will likely receive even greater attention.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Afghanistan: 'Secret' Talks with Taliban Offer Little Promise

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Alexander Sehmer Publication Date 11 November 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 22 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Afghanistan: 'Secret' Talks with Taliban Offer Little Promise, 11 November 2016, Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 22, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b2d9a4.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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Reports the Taliban has held two rounds of "secret" discussions with Afghan government officials have raised hopes that peace talks could be revived, but internal divisions within the group and the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan suggest such talks remain only a remote possibility.

The talks were held in September and October in the Taliban's "political office" in Qatar, which the group has maintained since 2013. While the Taliban has issued no official confirmation on the subject, the Afghan government has since acknowledged they took place (ToloNews, November 7).

Present at the discussions were Mullah Abdul Manan Akhund, brother of the late Taliban founder Mullah Omar, and Afghanistan's spy chief, Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai. The presence of Manan lends the talks some gravitas. He was brought into the Taliban leadership in recent months in a move aimed at healing rifts within the group (Afghanistan Times, September 16). A U.S. official was also present at the talks, according to British newspaper The Guardian, which first reported the discussions (The Guardian, October 18).

Peace talks with the Taliban have been at a standstill since former Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a U.S. drone strike in May, but the group is unlikely to favor talks now at a time when they are enjoying success on the ground in Afghanistan. In the last month, the group has again made bloody gains in Kunduz. Meanwhile, local politicians in Uruzgan province report that Taliban fighters have besieged scores of Afghan troops for nearly two months (ToloNews, November 4; ToloNews, November 6).

Indeed, there appears to have been little progress in the Qatar discussions (Daily Times, October 19). Following the talks, however, the group dispatched three senior officials  including former Taliban ambassador Maulvi Shahabuddin Dilawar  to Pakistan (Express Tribune, October 23). The Taliban have played down that trip as a regular visit, but Pakistan appears not to have had a presence at the Qatar meeting and likely expected to be involved.

In recent months the Pakistani security services have arrested a number of Taliban leaders for reasons that are not wholly clear (Express Tribune, October 12). Some suggest the arrests may be aimed at pushing the Taliban towards peace talks. A less charitable view is that the arrests are a warning to the group from the security services  a reminder to the group's leadership at a time when some in are calling for the group to break its ties with Pakistan (Khaama, October 22). Either way, with the Taliban's divisions still not fully healed and the group redoubling its efforts on the ground, the prospect of peace talks remains far off.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Why al-Nusra's 'Break' With al-Qaeda Poses a Problem for the West

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author James Pothecary Publication Date 28 October 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 21 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Why al-Nusra's 'Break' With al-Qaeda Poses a Problem for the West, 28 October 2016, Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 21, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b2ea04.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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In July, the leader of Syrian Islamist militant group Jabhat al-Nusra, Abu Mohammed al-Julani, announced his faction had changed its name to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (JFS) and was amicably splitting from al-Qaeda (Hurriyet Daily News, July 29).

The move is genuine, insofar as al-Qaeda has ceded formal organizational control of the group. However, Jahbat Fatah al-Sham (JFS) remains ideologically aligned with al-Qaeda, and the West has taken little notice of the move. This split and rebranding has made JFS more palatable to potential rebel partners in Syria, and that in turn has the potential to make the situation in Syria more difficult for the West.

Conscious Uncoupling

Al-Nusra was founded in 2011, as the Syrian civil war began, by al-Qaeda's central command to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad's government and exploit the emerging chaos to implement its brand of sharia (Islamic law) wherever possible in Syria. Since then, it has been a major non-state armed group and a key component in the rebel movement, despite being targeted by international forces as a terrorist organization.

On July 28, in a video disseminated by the al-Jazeera news channel, al-Julani announced that the newly named JFS was no longer affiliated with any external entity. Flanked by senior deputies and wearing military fatigues, he talked about jihad and the establishment of sharia, but purely within the context of al-Sham, the Arabic term for the Levant. This formal dissociation with al-Qaeda was authorized by Ayman al-Zawahiri, the al-Qaeda leader (Middle East Eye, July 28). In the long-term, however, it is likely that JFS will formally re-join the group's global network.

JFS' operations are concentrated in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo and the governorate of Idlib. It has also launched kinetic operations abroad  in January 2014, it claimed responsibility for a vehicle-borne IED attack in the Lebanese capital Beirut (The Daily Star, January 21, 2014). Although its precise force levels are difficult to verify, an offer by the UN special envoy for Syria to escort 900 JFS fighters out of the northern city of Aleppo suggests it possesses a large fighting force (Middle East Eye, October 11). JFS's contingent likely represents approximately 10 percent of rebel forces in Aleppo, which is roughly analogous to its national strength.

International Impact

Thus far, foreign powers have declined to use the group's new name. The U.S. State Department, as of October 11, continues to refer to JFS as al-Nusra (Daily Press Briefing, U.S. Department of State, October 2). Russia also continues to publicly refer to JFS by its former name (BBC, September 30).

Rhetoric aside, international military action against JFS continues apace. In October, the United States killed a senior JFS commander (al-Jazeera, October 4). Russia, meanwhile, has maintained its operational tempo against JFS (AFP, October 10). The July 28 announcement, therefore, has not led to any marked change in JFS's perception by Russia or the United States. The perceived links between JFS and al-Qaeda are too deeply embedded in both countries' foreign affairs and defense establishments to be undone by any single speech.

However, it is unlikely al-Julani expected anything more. Rather, the dissociation with al-Qaeda will give diplomatic cover to sympathetic actors, such as elements within the Qatari state, to continue to provide some support for JFS without the baggage of association with an al-Qaeda affiliate. The links between Qatar and JFS, although murky, are extensive. It was Qatari mediation that freed three Spanish journalists kidnapped by al-Nusra in May this year (Alaraby, May 8). Qatari involvement was also crucial in organizing al-Nusra's release of 13 Christian nuns on March 10, 2014 (al-Monitor, March 2014). Both show there is some degree of interaction between Doha and JFS, and the rebranding will likely allow Qatar and other sympathetic actors to escalate their support.

Domestic Implications

Foreign capitals, however, were not al-Julani's primary audience. Instead, the announcement was aimed at the commanders of the other Syrian rebel groups. Only days after the announcement, JFS participated alongside a multiplicity of other rebel factions, in a dramatic military push that attempted to break the Syrian regime's siege of east Aleppo (al-Monitor, August 2). Although the advance faltered and the Syrian army responded with a vicious counter-offensive, the message was clear  JFS had positioned itself firmly in the mainstream rebel opposition to al-Assad.

The group's new standing within the rebel community is apparent. In October 2016, the jihadist group Jund al-Aqsa, under attack by various other Islamist groups for a suspected alliance with Islamic State (IS), pledged loyalty to JFS (al-Alarabiya, October 9). Jund al-Aqsa calculated that the newfound "respectability" of JFS, along with its combat capability, would protect it from further attack by other Islamist groups. Whether this strategy will prove effective is less important than the fact its high command perceived the move as a legitimate course of action.

JFS's dissociation with al-Qaeda, then, is a play for an improved domestic position among the Syrian rebel community, one which appears to be paying off. By representing itself as an organization entirely focused on Syria, rather than an affiliate of a global network, JFS can market itself more effectively to other rebel forces, cementing its position in the center of the anti-Assad movement.

JFS's symbolic break with al-Qaeda has had some minor manpower consequences. Local media sources have reported a number of defections from JFS to IS over the issue. Certainly, extreme hardline Islamist fighters might continue to withdraw support for JFS out of theological distaste for its now more moderate image.

However, such defections are likely to remain small-scale, and it will not reduce JFS's capability. Instead they demonstrate the seriousness with which the rebranding is being taken, both within JFS and the wider rebel movement (al-Monitor, August 5).

The move also reflects al-Qaeda's adaptability. Al-Qaeda's ability to reorient itself based on its operational interests in advancing the cause of militant Islamism, rather than rigid hierarchical principals, is to the network's benefit. Furthermore, al-Qaeda's actions will be perceived positively within Syria as an act of generous pragmatism. Rebel forces will be more sympathetic to al-Qaeda, should, as seems likely, it formally return to Syria. There will likely be little to stop it re-assimilating JFS when the operational and strategic situation in Syria is more favorable.

Increased Complexity of Syria Conflict

By giving itself nominal space from al-Qaeda, JFS is entrenching its domestic position, and Washington must respond more carefully to the group as a result.

Despite the dissociation, JFS has not changed its ideology and there has been no shift in the group's use of political violence  it remains a terrorist group. The rebranding has, however, had some appeal to groups such as Jund al-Aqsa. While Jund al-Aqsa is, likewise, a terrorist group, the concern is that JFS may grow in appeal to other rebels, especially as efforts in Syria focus on Aleppo.

Any attempt to scale-back anti-JFS operations would likely be met by a backlash in Congress, and lay the White House open to accusations it was being hoodwinked by jihadist propaganda. But if more palatable rebel groups intensify military and logistical cooperation with JFS, it will become increasingly difficult to strike at the organization without alienating partners on-the-ground.

At the same time, Washington must be weary that if (or when) JFS formally returns to the al-Qaeda fold, it will be in a stronger position than ever to advance the group's violent agenda.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
'Surgical Strikes' Mark Change in India's Stance on Cross-Border Attacks

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Sudha Ramachandran Publication Date 28 October 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 21 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, 'Surgical Strikes' Mark Change in India's Stance on Cross-Border Attacks, 28 October 2016, Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 21, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b2f154.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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On September 29, India announced it had carried out "surgical strikes" on terrorist "launch pads" in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (POK), in an operation aimed at "neutralizing terrorists" and preempting their infiltration beyond the Line of Control (LoC).

According to Lt. Gen. Ranbir Singh, India's director general of military operations, "significant casualties" were inflicted on the "terrorists and those who are trying to support them" (Hindustan Times, September 29). Islamabad, however, played down the incident, with the Pakistani military claiming it was simply an "episode of cross-LoC fire" (Dawn, September 30).

Pakistan is partially correct, as the Indian attack on the night of September 28-29 cannot be described as "surgical." It was not "an aerial attack with precision-guided weapons, launched aircraft or UAVs," but more in the nature of "a commando raid" or a "quick and shallow insertion" of Indian forces that involved "assault and return" (Observer Research Foundation, October 5). Still, a well-targeted assault on terrorist staging posts did take place, according to a report in Indian Express, which drew on classified intelligence documents and accounts of eyewitnesses in POK (Indian Express, October 7).

Of key concern now is whether these strikes, which could herald a new robustness in India's response to cross-border terrorism, will deter attacks emanating from Pakistan.

'Pre-Emptive' Strikes

India has termed the strikes pre-emptive, but they are also a response to recent attacks by Pakistan-backed terrorist groups, the immediate trigger being the attack on the Indian Army camp at Uri, near the LoC, on September 18. The Uri attack, which left 18 soldiers dead, was the deadliest on an Indian military facility in over a decade. It triggered immense outrage across the country, prompting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to vow some form of retaliation (The Hindu, September 18). For over a decade, Modi has promised strong action against Pakistan's backing of terrorist attacks in India. Though since his government took power in May 2014, there has been little in the way of a robust response, despite several major attacks, including that on an Indian air force base in Pathankot in January.

The army's assault on terror camps in POK has been widely welcomed in India. Political parties across the spectrum have backed military action, despite also criticizing the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government's chest-thumping nationalism in the wake of the strikes (The Hindu, September 30; Hindustan Times, October 9).

The strikes have been praised as an "operational necessity" and a "fitting reply" to "Islamabad's unrestrained [and] unrepentant use of proxies to strike on Indian soil" (Times of India, September 29; Hindustan Times, September 29). Abroad too, the attacks drew little criticism. The United States and Russia appeared to sympathize with the Indian position and acknowledged the strikes in terms of India's right to defend itself (The Quint, September 30; Times of India, October 14). Even China, a long-standing ally of Pakistan, did not condemn Indian military action, instead simply calling on both India and Pakistan to "exercise restraint" (India Today, September 30).

Possible Strategic Shift

In the past, India has opted for strategic restraint in response to attacks (Scroll, October 1). Attacks from Pakistan-backed groups would draw angry condemnation from India, dialogue with Islamabad would be suspended and in some instances Pakistan's role would be raised at international forums. Before long, however, talks would resume. India, it seemed, was averse to military action, perhaps keen to avoid an escalation of conflict with its unstable, nuclear-armed neighbor.

With the recent strikes, that appears to have changed. Delhi has signaled instead that it has the "political will to face up to the risks of escalating the confrontation with the Pakistan army" in order to deal with cross-border terrorism (Indian Express, October 3).

However, the change in India's response to terrorism emanating from Pakistan may not be as dramatic as the Modi government would have India believe. In recent weeks, it has emerged that  on at least three occasions between 2009 and 2014  the previous government carried out similar strikes (Times of India, October 4). As India's Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar confirmed before a parliamentary panel, the army had carried out "limited-caliber, target-specific, counter-terrorist operations" across the LoC on several occasions in the past. The difference was that this time, the Modi government publicized its actions (Indian Express, October 19).

Public Messaging

While the Modi government's decision to make public its assault on militant bases in POK was partially motivated by domestic concerns  it wanted to be seen to be taking visible action on terrorism  the announcement was "intended, equally, to communicate to Islamabad and to the world's capitals that India will use all instrumentalities, political, economic, social, diplomatic, and if necessary, military, to confront and counter Pakistan backed terrorism" (Scroll, October 1).

Through the strikes, India has sent a message to Pakistan that terrorist attacks, which were hitherto viewed by Islamabad as a low-risk and low-cost strategy to "bleed India," will carry a high cost for Pakistan (Indian Express, October 9). Analysts have called for cross-border military attacks to become "a regular [Indian] response to terror attacks from across the LoC," indicating that robustness in dealing with Pakistan-backed terrorism would be the new norm (Indian Express, October 3).

There remains a question over just how successful such strikes will be in deterring Pakistan-based terrorism. It would seem unlikely that Pakistan will allow the strikes to go without a response. Retaliation should therefore be expected.

Pakistan's generals could back terror attacks on Indian civilian and military targets in India and elsewhere, intensify instability in Kashmir and escalate tensions along the LoC and the International Border (Indian Express, October 3). Already the Jamaat-ud Dawa, a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which is close to the Pakistan military establishment, has warned of a "befitting response" (Hindustan Times, September 30). The warning is perhaps unsurprising as it was LeT that suffered the worst losses in the Indian action in POK (India Today, October 9).

Since the assault in POK, Indian army camps in Baramullah and Kupwara, a police post in Shopian, and a government building in Pampore (all in Kashmir) have all come under terrorist fire. Cross-LoC firing and shelling has also surged over the last fortnight (Indian Express, October 18).

Dangers of Escalation

A breakdown of the 2003 ceasefire would undermine India's security. Not only would it facilitate the Pakistan military's infiltration of terrorists into India under the cover of cross-LoC artillery fire, as has been the case in the past, it also would hamper India's construction of a fence along the LoC. The fence has played an important role in controlling infiltration. Should the ceasefire collapse, however, it would enable Pakistan to target and destroy it (The Wire, September 29).

Some have argued that one-time strikes are unlikely to bring about a change in Pakistan's outlook and that such actions should become a "routine affair," with India targeting terrorist camps in POK every time Pakistan-backed terrorists carry out attacks in India (Indian Express, October 3).

That would put India on a slippery slope. While there has been international acquiescence to India's recent "surgical strikes," there is always a danger that such strikes could go wrong and risk injuring or killing civilians. That would turn global opinion against India and contribute to a surge in anti-India sentiment in Pakistan. It would enhance support for the military in Pakistan, and the possibility of an Indian strike in POK at some point eliciting a Pakistani nuclear response cannot be ruled out.

Surgical strikes and targeted attacks on terrorist launch pads and camps are useful primarily to destroy infrastructure or eliminate terrorists. But they will not change the mindset of the militants or their sponsors. When used frequently, such strikes have had the opposite effect.

India's targeted military action on terrorist staging posts in POK can be expected to escalate the conflict, at least in the short term. The Pakistani military is likely to deploy its affiliates to carry out attacks in India and/or breathe fresh life into militancy in Kashmir. An unraveling of the nearly 13-year-long ceasefire looms  a boon for Pakistan-based terrorist groups, but of little benefit to either country.

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Karachi's Security Crackdown a Boost for Pakistan's Islamists

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Farhan Zahid Publication Date 11 November 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 22 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Karachi's Security Crackdown a Boost for Pakistan's Islamists, 11 November 2016, Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 22, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b2f884.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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Political violence and gang wars in Karachi have remained a critical issue for the Pakistani authorities over the years. The situation even became an agenda item in the country's National Action Plan on counter-terrorism, an initiative that received unanimous approval in parliament following the 2014 massacre by Taliban militants of 145 school children at an army pubic school in Peshawar.

Led by the Pakistan Rangers paramilitary force and targeting criminal gangs, terrorist groups and the militant wings of political parties, the Karachi Operation has been under way since 2014 in an attempt to impose law and order on a part of the country that has become increasingly chaotic.

The main purpose of the crackdown was to target criminals, thousands of whom were associated with the militant wings of political parties (Express Tribune, March 24, 2015). But action on the sprawling network of Islamist terrorist groups such as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in Karachi has also been important. Unfortunately, a lopsided focus on the operations of Karachi's powerful secular parties has opened up a space where Islamists political movements can thrive.

Terrorism and Organized Crime

Karachi, with an estimated population of 20 million people, is the backbone of Pakistan's struggling economy. All major political parties have a presence there, to a greater or lesser degree, and their alleged militant wings operate seemingly with impunity. The popular Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), a secular party that mainly represents the Urdu-speaking middleclass migrants from India who arrived during partition in 1947, has for years accused its political opponents of acts of violence. And the accusations go both ways. (The News, March 4) Despite the accusations, however, MQM maintains a sizeable following in the city, holding 17 of the 20 National Assembly seats.

In addition to political violence, Karachi has been indirectly affected by Pakistan's military operations against Islamist fighters in other parts of the country. A series of military operations in the tribal areas and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province have displaced hundreds of thousands of people in the tribal areas who have migrated to the cities. According to one senior police officer from Sindh, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, TTP's several factions, the Afghan Taliban, al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Baluch Liberation Army and Islamic State all have a presence in Karachi's Pashtun-majority areas as a result. [1]

Attempts to tackle the situation go back to 2011, when the Supreme Court, in a suo moto decision, ordered the authorities take action on the deteriorating situation in Karachi (Express Tribune, October 6, 2011). Initially a police-led operation was launched, but it failed to yield the desired results. This prompted the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Shariff to change strategy, giving the lead role to the Rangers in September 2013 (Dawn, September 5, 2013).

Since then, the operation has enjoyed some success and led to a sharp decline in number of terrorist incidents. [2] There remain, however, significant concerns over how the operation has been carried out, and the lenience with which it treats Islamist political groups.

Secular Activists Targeted

Secular political parties say they have been targeted while the authorities have allowed Islamist political parties the freedom to continue their activities. In May, MQM accused the Rangers of the extrajudicial killing of 240 workers and, in a separate incident, the forced disappearance of another 171 (Dunya News, May 12; Dawn, May 3). The ruling party of Sindh province, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), also accused the Rangers of moving beyond their mandate when Rangers personnel arrested PPP stalwart Dr. Asim Hussain on charges of facilitating terrorists in his hospital (ARY News, July 19).

The authorities deny they have been discriminatory, but it is clear that the militant wings of religious parties, as well as proscribed sectarian groups, are still active. Student movements and the charity wings of militant Islamist organizations, as well as those affiliated with Islamist political parties, have been allowed to continue.

In the space opened up by the crackdown on the activist networks of the mainstream political movements, the Islamist parties are set to take advantage. As the U.S.-based author and security expert, Arif Jamal, has noted: "The weakening of the MQM and other political parties is creating a lot of space for jihadist groups in Pakistan terrorist organizations like Dawa fundraise millions of dollars on the occasions of Eid-ul-Azha while political parties such as the MQM are not allowed to fundraise for genuine charity reasons. In fact, every year the jihadists fundraise hundreds of thousands of dollars" (DW, August 23).

In an indication of the growth of Islamist-sectarian parties in Karachi, it is notable that during last year's municipal elections the proscribed Islamist terrorist group Sipah-e-Sahaba, the parent organization of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, participated under the name Rah-e-Haq, and succeeded in winning nine seats in Karachi's Pashtun majority areas displaying its growing strength and support base (The News, December 7, 2015).

Extending the Crackdown

Islamist militants, whether operating in Karachi or in other parts of the country, treat Karachi as a safe haven and a source of funding, obtained through extortion, kidnapping and robbery. The spirit of the Karachi crackdown should have to be a non-discriminatory drive for the establishment of law and order. Brushing aside Islamist terrorist groups and militant wings associated with religious parties will solve part of the problem facing Karachi.

Islamist parties and Islamist militant groups have a symbiotic relationship. While they differ in how they intend to achieve their goals, their political views have much in common.

Linking the crackdown on Karachi's criminal elements to the anti-terrorist National Action Plan is a positive measure aimed at broadening the ambit of the operation and curbing Islamist violence. But unless the crackdown is broadened and extended to the activist wings of the Islamist political parties, it will serve only to create a dangerous vacuum that Islamists will seek to fill.

NOTES

[1] Author interview with a senior police officer who requested anonymity (October 4).

[2] See Pakistan Security Report (2015) published by Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies (PIPS).

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Jund al-Aqsa: The Disappearance of a 'Third-Way' Faction in Syria's Conflict

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author John Arterbury Publication Date 11 November 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 22 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, Jund al-Aqsa: The Disappearance of a 'Third-Way' Faction in Syria's Conflict, 11 November 2016, Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 22, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b30624.html [accessed 2 November 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.

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Long-simmering tensions between Jund al-Aqsa, Ahrar al-Sham and several smaller rebel groups erupted into outright fighting across Syria's Hama and Idlib provinces at the beginning of October, culminating in the death of a revered Ahrar al-Sham commander known as al-Dabous. An ensuing truce, mediated by Jabhat Fateh al-Sham with the assistance of Saudi Salafist cleric Abdallah al-Muhaysani, ultimately resulted in Jund al-Aqsa's integration into Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.

While the move has superficially calmed tensions, the growth of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham through the assimilation of smaller jihadist groups could ultimately bring further instability to northern Syria.

The rise and subsequent assimilation of Jund al-Aqsa illustrates how internal divisions can weaken a small, powerful and nominally independent jihadist group. It also shows how independent jihadist groups like Jund al-Aqsa can undermine rebel cohesion and empower larger radical groups, but more crucially it heralds an important change in the jihadist landscape of northern Syria.

A 'Third-Way' Jihadist Group

Jund al-Aqsa had been notionally neutral in the Islamic State (IS)/al-Qaeda split, (Aymenn al-Tamimi, October 24, 2015). Many of Jund al-Aqsa's senior leaders had deep ties to al-Qaeda  even acknowledging al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zarqawi's role as leader of global jihad in words that fell just short of pledging their bayah (allegiance)  but it was at heart a non-monolithic organization. It could not be classified as an al-Qaeda front, nor as an extension of IS. Instead it was a "third-way" jihadist group, operating within an ambiguous political space (Bellingcat, May 2).

In early October, the group began implementing an austere interpretation of sharia in areas under its control and reasserted its independence by refusing to recognize any agreements between armed parties in the Syrian conflict (Al-Quds al-Arabi, October 3). This approach defied al-Qaeda's recent strategy of gradually implementing sharia and prompted veteran jihadist ideologue Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi to weigh in, after Jund al-Aqsa's assimilation into Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, arguing against practicing such a version of sharia and suggesting that those who tried to emulate Jund al-Aqsa would meet a similar fate (Twitter, October 13).

Jund al-Aqsa's independent position afforded it numerous benefits, including relative operational autonomy and financial backing from individuals in certain Gulf States. Yet undermining its stature in the rebel landscape was the widespread belief that its members harbored secret sympathies for IS, earning it the nickname "Raqqa's parking garage" among northern Syrians (Arabi21, July 28, 2015). One Syrian activist even disparagingly called it a "politically correct safe haven for Islamic State supporters." [1]

It remains possible that Jund al-Aqsa members may have been involved in external terror plotting. German terror suspect Jaber al-Bakr reportedly traveled to Raqqa earlier this year on behalf of a small group of IS supporters. He traveled via the rural Idlib town of Saraqib, where, at the time, Jund al-Aqsa had a notable presence, lending credence to the belief that Jund al-Aqsa members maintained links with IS in Raqqa (Der Spiegel, October 17). Given the reputation among Syrians of Jund al-Aqsa members for keeping contacts in the so-called Caliphate, it is possible these IS supporters and Jund al-Aqsa are one and the same. Indeed, a series of sleeper cell attacks targeting Ahrar al-Sham members in Idlib were widely attributed by other rebels to Jund al-Aqsa members; and at various times Jund al-Aqsa members described themselves as part of a "caliphate," and even employed IS hymns as background music in propaganda videos.

A failed assassination bid on a Jund al-Aqsa commander in Ariha in July  an attempted car bombing in which only the man's children were injured  prompted speculation that Jund al-Aqsa was struggling with internal divisions. [2]

Hama Offensive

The smuggling outpost of Abu Dali and its environs present an interesting case study in how "third-way" jihadists can alter battlefield dynamics. Situated in the countryside of northern Hama, the town acts as a transit point of smuggled goods between regime-held territory in Hama and rebel-held Idlib, with the pro-regime Sunni clan of Ahmad Darwish overseeing a lucrative black market network.

The intricacies of the northern Hama smuggling network made many rebel groups reluctant to attack, but Jund al-Aqsa, with its hardline (even by Syrian standards) Salafist views and a disproportionate number of foreign fighters, paid little consideration to northern Syria's amorphous conflict economy. During the recent northern Hama offensive, Jund al-Aqsa shock troops blasted through long-static defensive lines manned by Sunni pro-regime forces that opposed the rebels not out of loyalty to President Bashar al-Assad, but as a function of the elaborate nexus between the area's political economy and its security architecture (Arabi21, October 18).

Despite its fighting prowess, however, the wedding of Jund al-Aqsa to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham has caused divisions among supporters of the larger group, particularly among those who view Jund al-Aqsa as sympathetic to IS and wish to move away from the AQ/IS brands. A controversial fatwa against Turkey's Euphrates Shield operation has also fueled divisions among regional Islamic jurists and rebel groups, meaning that Jabhat Fateh al-Sham's move came against a backdrop of fierce debate over how hardline Islamists view their role in the struggle against the Syrian regime (Atlantic Council, October 14).

It has also perhaps exacerbated internal rifts in Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, which have been ongoing since the group's disengagement from the al-Qaeda network and nominal rebranding in July (see Terrorism Monitor, October 28).

Fueling Divisions

The absorption of Jund al-Aqsa has rapidly become a point of contention among Syrian rebels. This response is similar to how members of another "third-way" jihadist group, Liwa al-Tawba, migrated to Raqqa and pledged allegiance to IS following a joint attack with IS fighters along the Aleppo-Homs highway near Khanasser in February (Micro Syria, March 7; Al-Quds al-Arabi, February 26).

Eastern Syria activists reported that some Jund al-Aqsa members defected to IS following the absorption into Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (Twitter, October 12). Notably, some Jund al-Aqsa fighters in Hama initially refused the offer to join Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, reportedly restating their loyalty to Abu Dhar al-Jazrawi (a.k.a. al-Najdi al-Harethi), the group's emir (Twitter, October 9).

That al-Qaeda-leaning al-Muhaysani helped arbitrate an end to the dispute is noteworthy because earlier in the year Jund al-Aqsa had prohibited his visit to territory it held in northern Hama, showing that under pressure the group was willing to engage with him even if some members disapproved of his positions. It was likely al-Muhaysini's leveraging of Abu Anas Saraqib, a hardline senior member of Ahrar al-Sham, that helped to secure the peace deal and eventually win the acquiescence of Abu Yahia al-Hamawi and Ahrar al-Sham more widely (Twitter, October 10).

Al-Muhaysini himself straddles the Syrian rebel divide. Many rebels see him as close to al-Qaeda, but his ability to negotiate between Jund al-Aqsa, Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, as well as his oblique endorsement of Turkey's Euphrates Shield operation  which Jabhat Fateh al-Sham publicly condemned  shows him to be a deft political player, despite criticism from some jihadists that he has a self-inflated sense of importance.

Still, the absorption has caused some public consternation among Ahrar al-Sham's members, and a statement by rebel group Suquor al-Sham showed others were also suspicious of the deal (Twitter, October 19). It is likely that mistrust will remain between some Hama and Idlib rebel groups and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham for some time to come.

Unknown Variables

In September 2015, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham snapped up the jihadist coalition of Jaish al-Muhajireen wal Ansar and, since taking Jund al-Aqsa into its fold, has also integrated Jama'at al-Mourabiteen, itself a newly minted jihadist group, and the small Idlib-based Jund al-Sharia (Twitter, October 18; Twitter, November 2). This trend demonstrates that Jabhat Fateh al-Sham is eager to consolidate its base by bringing in lesser players, which could have important ramifications for Syrian rebel dynamics if other rebel groups see this behavior as being too aggressive since the absorbing group is prone to inheriting the lesser group's liabilities.

Consequently, Jund al-Aqsa is a case study for small jihadist groups in the northern Syria theater, demonstrating that survival sometimes means coming under the umbrella of larger players. While Jabhet Fateh al-Sham put a damper on the controversy that Jund al-Aqsa  weakened by internal divisions  was causing, it also illustrates that these more powerful outfits can use groups like Jund al-Aqsa to their advantage, legitimizing themselves through dispute arbitration or boosting their own manpower.

Policy makers should be aware that outlets like Jund al-Aqsa inject an erratic variable into the opposition milieu. They are vulnerable to schisms, in-fighting and absorption on account of their radicalism or internal divides. Larger extremist groups may try to game this to their own advantage. As such, strategic calculations must be made under the assumption that groups like Jund al-Aqsa are key risks to local stability and the viability of legitimate opposition to the Syrian regime.

NOTES

[1] Author interview with Syrian activist, August 2016

[2] Author interview with Syrian activist, July 2016

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
An Unwinnable War: The Houthis, Saudi Arabia and the Future of Yemen

Publisher Jamestown Foundation Author Michael Horton Publication Date 11 November 2016 Citation / Document Symbol Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 22 Cite as Jamestown Foundation, An Unwinnable War: The Houthis, Saudi Arabia and the Future of Yemen, 11 November 2016, Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 22, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b30c04.html [accessed 2 November 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.

Link to original story on Jamestown website

Saudi Arabia and its allies are engaged in an unwinnable war in Yemen. The Saudi-led campaign called "Operation Decisive Storm" began in March 2015 with the aim of forcing Yemen's Houthi rebels to withdraw from the Yemeni capital of Sanaa and reinstalling Yemen's internationally recognized government from exile in Saudi Arabia. Despite 20 months of aerial bombardment and an estimated expenditure of $5 billion by Saudi Arabia alone, the results of the war are anything but decisive (Independent, October 23).

The Houthis retain control of northwest Yemen, and their alliance with Yemen's ancien regime led by former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh has deepened. The Houthis enjoy broader support than ever before. The war has helped the Houthis transform themselves from a parochial rebel movement to a national movement that routinely casts itself as a "defender of the nation" in the face of Saudi aggression.

With little or no progress to show for nearly two years of war, Saudi Arabia is employing increasingly brutal tactics. In addition to its continued use of internationally banned cluster munitions, Saudi Arabia's air force is reported to be targeting Yemen's farms and its most productive agricultural lands (Independent, October 23; Haaretz, November 6). [1] If true, this is a modern form of siege warfare. However, rather than starving a single city into submission, an entire country is under siege. The UN warns that Yemen is on the brink of a devastating famine (United Nations Dispatch, October 19). [2]

These tactics are unlikely to break the resolve of the Houthis or their allies. Nor will they have a significant impact on the Houthis' ability to continue to fight. The Houthi organization is inherently resilient, determined and increasingly able to meld its well-honed guerrilla tactics and forces with conventional ones. What the ongoing war will ensure  and likely already has  is that Yemen will endure a prolonged period of heightened instability that may significantly impact the stability of the region.

Masters of the Mountains

The Houthis, or Ansar Allah, is an organization forged by years of war in some of the most rugged terrain on the planet. Since their first war with the Yemeni government in 2004, Houthi fighters have proved themselves to be the masters of the mountains and canyons in which they fight. The Houthis' mastery of irregular warfare enabled them to survive and evolve from a small parochial organization to one that was able to move out of the mountains and seize large parts of Yemen in 2014.

The genesis of the Houthi movement can be traced to a revivalist organization called the "Believing Youth," formed by members of the eponymous Houthi family. The Houthis are a prominent family of Sayyid (descendants of the Prophet) clerics who started the Believing Youth with the goal of reviving and fostering interest in the Zaidi branch of Shia Islam, which was perceived to be threatened by "foreign" ideologies such as the Salafism exported by Saudi Arabia. [3]

Zaidism is a conservative branch of Shia Islam and is closer doctrinally to Sunni Islam than to the dominant Twelver or Jafari Shia sect. The Believing Youth then evolved into a fully-fledged rebel group known as the Houthi movement. This lengthy metamorphosis was greatly accelerated by the death of Hussein al-Houthi at the hands of government troops in 2004. From 2004 until the beginning of the so-called Arab Spring, the Houthis engaged in six protracted wars with the Yemeni government.

It was during these hard-fought wars that the Houthis cohered as an organization and learned how to fight and win against conventional forces, which, until 2011, always outnumbered and outgunned them. In their sixth and final war against the Yemeni government of former president Saleh, the Houthis faced some of the Yemeni Army's best-trained troops drawn from the Republican Guard and from the American trained and equipped Special Forces and counter-terrorism units. In addition, the Houthis were also targeted by Saudi Arabia's air force, as well as by limited numbers of Saudi Special Forces who crossed into Yemen. Still, the Houthis prevailed over both the Yemeni and Saudi forces. They captured a number of Saudi Special Forces troops, who they later ransomed, while the Yemeni troops were forced to withdraw to fortified bases, which they abandoned in the wake of the 2011 uprising against the Saleh government. [4]

There are many reasons for the Houthis' success as an armed rebel movement, but first and foremost is their intimate knowledge of the rugged mountains and canyons in which they fight. The Houthis and the tribesmen who make up the bulk of their loose membership have long understood that Yemen's mountains are a remarkably effective force multiplier. Mountains favor defensive warfare. Those who have invaded Yemen in the past  the Ottoman Turks twice and, later, the Egyptians  quickly discovered that mountainous northwest Yemen, just like Afghanistan, is a graveyard for invaders. [5] Second, the Houthi leadership has worked tirelessly to build personal and organizational relationships with a range of tribes and clans, most of whose members include both Zaidi Shias and Sunnis. Third, the Houthi leadership  most particularly in the early years  rewarded initiative and functioned somewhat along the lines of a meritocracy. Those who led from the front, like some members of the Houthi family, were given more responsibility. [6] This stands in stark contrast to the Yemeni Armed Forces where nepotism and tribal identities largely determine who advances through the ranks.

It was a combination of the Houthis' fighting acumen and the organization's early reputation for being relatively meritocratic and uncorrupt that allowed it to rapidly fill the power vacuum that developed after the 2011 popular uprising against the Saleh government. The Houthis leveraged their early support for the anti-Saleh government protesters to win supporters and to build alliances with key tribal power blocs. In a further demonstration of the Houthis' political pragmatism, in 2014 the leadership formed an alliance with their former adversary, ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh. This relationship, and the fact that Saleh and his sons retained the loyalty of large parts of the Yemeni Army, facilitated the Houthis' rapid and largely bloodless takeover of Sanaa in September 2014 (Middle East Eye, September 2014).

Saudi Arabia's Strategy

As a Zaidi Shia organization, the Houthis' rise to power set off alarm bells in Saudi Arabia, which views them as proxies for Iran. In fact, Iran has little influence over the Houthis, who have repeatedly disregarded Iran's advice, including Iran's warning against seizing the Yemeni capital.

The Houthis' disregard for Yemen's internationally recognized but unpopular government and their push south in 2015 helped trigger the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen (Yemen Times, March 2015). Saudi Arabia's strategy is three pronged: first, it is engaged in what looks to be an increasingly desperate aerial campaign that it claims is targeting military sites; second, it continues to enforce a naval and aerial blockade of northwest Yemen in an attempt to stop supplies from reaching the Houthis; and lastly, Saudi Arabia and its allies are training and arming a mix of militias made up of southern separatists, soldiers loyal to the government, militant Salafists and tribesmen. The groups are being used as proxies in the land war against the Houthis.

While the aerial campaign is low risk  the Houthis and those Yemeni Army units fighting with them no longer have functioning air defense systems  it is also ineffective. The Houthis have a great deal of experience fighting whilst under the threat of aerial bombardment. Consequently, they know how to use Yemen's terrain to hide materiel and how to counter intense aerial surveillance. In many respects, the aerial campaign has benefited the Houthis. The often indiscriminate bombing  a recent example being the October 8 bombing of a funeral in Sanaa, which killed 140 people  has helped bolster support for the Houthis among many Yemenis who had regarded them as usurpers (Guardian, October 15). [7]

The sanctions and naval blockade have also proved ineffective at impeding the Houthis access to materiel. The sanctions are having a severe impact, increasing malnutrition and putting further pressure on an already dilapidated healthcare system. Yemen imports 90 percent of its food and is wholly reliant on imports for medical supplies. [8]

In an attempt to increase the efficacy of the campaign against the Houthis, Saudi Arabia and its partners  primarily the UAE  are focusing more attention on using local proxies. However, this is likely to prove as ineffective as the other two parts of their strategy.

Fickle Allies

Yemen's socio-political landscape is much like its terrain: complex, rugged and treacherous, even for those who know how to navigate it. Egypt sent soldiers to what was then North Yemen in 1962 in a bid to back Republican forces against Royalists fighting for Imam al-Badr, the ruler of North Yemen. The Egyptians eventually deployed more than 50,000 troops to Yemen. These troops enjoyed superior and dedicated air support from the Egyptian Air Force. Yet, a relatively small number of tribesmen, aided by ex-members of the British and French Special Forces, were able to keep thousands of well-armed troops pinned down. [9]

Yemen's mountains played a key role in this. Another factor, however, was that the Egyptians' allies in the war  tribes whose support they thought they had bought  were anything but loyal. The adage often repeated by Egyptian soldiers and Yemenis on both sides was, "a Republican by day and a Royalist by night," a reference to the unreliability of tribesmen whose first loyalty was to their clan and then their tribe. Other loyalties are driven by pure pragmatism  in many cases loyalty was determined by which side paid the most and which had the best rifles to give away.

Systems of loyalty and patronage in Yemen remain byzantine and fundamentally local. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have spent months training and equipping militias to fight on behalf of Yemen's unpopular president-in-exile, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi (Emirates News Agency, November 2015). Much of their effort has focused on recruiting tribesmen from the perennially fractious but strategic and resource rich governorate of Marib, located in central Yemen (The National, November 2015). Despite being relatively well armed and well provisioned, these "pro-Hadi" militias have made little or no progress against the Houthis and those tribes allied with them. The front-lines in the war have hardly shifted for the last nine months in spite of repeated claims by Saudi Arabia and the UAE that a major offensive to re-take Sanaa is imminent or even already underway.

The inability of pro-Hadi forces and Saudi-backed militias to launch a sustained ground offensive is no doubt due in part to their unreliability and the mixed motives of some of their leadership. It is far more profitable and reasonable for many of these pro-Hadi militias to maintain a low-level of conflict and continue to extract money and arms from two exceedingly wealthy patrons. The thriving trade in the advanced weaponry provided to and then sold by many of the pro-Hadi militias is evidence of the mixed motives of some of the militia leaders. Just as was the case during its wars against the Yemeni government, the Houthi organization is able to source most of the weapons that it requires internally (Middle East Eye, April 2015). [10] Anti-tank weapons and advanced anti-tank rifles, as well as hand-launched surveillance drones, are all in high-demand and consequently command high prices. [11] Anti-tank missiles are at the heart of the Houthis' cross-border hit and run attacks on Saudi armor and guard posts in the Saudi province of Najran. [12]

AQAP: Feeding the Wolf at the Door

While the Saudi and UAE backed militias may be making little progress against the Houthis and their allies, this is not the case with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). AQAP, which is benefiting from the war in Yemen more than any other organization, is successfully engaging Houthi forces in key Yemeni governorates. AQAP is well organized and determined to secure as much influence in vulnerable parts of Yemen as possible. In what are dangerous parallels with the actions of rebel groups and militant Salafi organizations in Syria, AQAP is actively enmeshing itself with genuine anti-Houthi/pro-government militias. AQAP is able to do this because it is motivated, at least partly, by ideology and, most importantly, because it is a relatively well-run organization with a diffuse but effective chain of command. This contrasts with the informal and fluid leadership of tribal militias and the quickly assembled pro-Hadi forces that are typically more motivated by personal gain than by the prospect of engaging and defeating their enemies.

Before the start of Operation Decisive Storm, AQAP was an organization that was on the ropes financially and strategically. As the sworn enemies of the Houthis and all Shia (deemed to be heretics by Salafists), AQAP was locked in a deadly battle with the Houthis and their allies. It was a battle they were losing. AQAP was being slowly pushed out of key governorates like al-Bayda by tribal militias supported by the Houthis. In many areas, as it has tended to do in the past, AQAP's leadership was too assertive and acted to suppress traditional tribal leadership and customs rather than co-opt them. Thus, they lost the critical support of the communities in which they lived and fought.

This is no longer the case. AQAP's ever-nimble leadership watched and learned from the Houthis who have long relied on engaging and co-opting tribal leaders. Now AQAP, which had to some degree de-emphasized tribal engagement, has put engagement efforts at the forefront of its offensive strategy in the governorates of al-Bayda, Shabwa, Lahej and Abyan. [13]

AQAP is now a part of what can broadly be called anti-Houthi forces (The New Arab, February 23). How and to what extent it is able to capitalize on its recent gains remains to be seen, but what is certain is that AQAP is now a much stronger organization than it was even six months ago.

As AQAP deepens its involvement in the civil war between those forces allied with the Houthis and those forces that oppose them, it will become increasingly difficult for Saudi Arabia and its allies to ensure that AQAP is not a beneficiary of aid meant for their own anti-Houthi forces. As the war in Yemen continues, AQAP  just as with militant Salafi and al-Qaeda linked groups in Syria fighting the government of Bashar al-Assad  might increasingly be viewed as a useful and effective proxy against the Houthis. Given that AQAP has struck targets in Saudi Arabia in the past, indirectly enabling them is likely to prove dangerous for the House of Saud in the near future.

Stalemate

Saudi Arabia and its partners are engaged in a war that has no clear strategy for achieving its objectives of forcing the Houthis to retreat and reinstalling a pro-Saudi government. Reliance on fickle allies and on dangerous militant Salafi groups to fight the Houthis will not enable Saudi Arabia to achieve its objectives. But despite numerous reports of Saudi troops massing on the Yemeni border, it is highly unlikely that the kingdom will deploy anything but a token number of troops to Yemen. The use of armed proxies will likely be the extent of its involvement on the ground. The reasons for this are complex and have more to do with internal Saudi politics than a sound understanding of what risks these troops would face. [14] However, if Saudi Arabia and its partners were to deploy troops to northwest Yemen, they would face a battlefield scenario similar to what Israel faced when it invaded Lebanon in 2006, but without the benefit of the Israeli Defense Force's (IDF) disciplined and well-trained officers and soldiers.

In 2006, Hezbollah, an organization that has undeniably close ties to Iran, fought the IDF to a standstill by using a deadly mix of conventional and irregular tactics. [15] The Houthis who are now allied with, and to some degree have incorporated, some of the best-trained units from the Yemeni Army, would likely employ a comparable mix of irregular and conventional tactics against an invading force. [16] Furthermore, they would have the benefit of Yemen's rugged terrain. While the frequent claims about Iran supplying the Houthis with weapons are dubious  Yemen, now more than ever, is awash in weapons  it is highly probable that the Houthi leadership has received advice and guidance from Hezbollah and its Iranian advisors.

A ground assault by Saudi Arabia and UAE forces remains highly unlikely and would no doubt prove calamitous for both nations. Thus, Saudi Arabia seems set to continue its costly but futile aerial campaign, while continuing to arm a disparate mix of tribal militias that are incapable and largely unwilling to take on the Houthis and their allies.

Looking Back to Look Forward

Saudi Arabia's three-pronged strategy will not defeat the Houthis and their allies, it will only further impoverish the millions of Yemenis who now have no jobs, no access to health care and who are increasingly food insecure.

The air strikes that have targeted infrastructure, schools, hospitals and homes have bolstered support for the Houthis and allowed them to cast themselves as defenders of a nation under attack by a foreign power. The Saudi-led campaign has also helped create a space in which militant Salafi organizations, in particular AQAP, can operate with a high degree of freedom and have access to evermore desperate recruits.

In order to examine what might stabilize Yemen, it is helpful to look back to the 1962-70 civil war between Royalist and Republican forces in what was then North Yemen. This war was only settled after the foreign powers involved in it  Egypt and Saudi Arabia  withdrew. In that war, Saudi Arabia supported the Royalists, and ironically helped arm and provision the grandfathers of many of the men who now call themselves Houthis.

Neither the Royalists nor the Republicans were able to defeat one another even with, in the case of the Republicans, the help of 50,000 Egyptian troops. The war was finally ended by Yemeni-driven negotiations that allowed both sides in the conflict to save face, reconcile their grievances and participate in governing what became the Yemen Arab Republic. Admittedly the current conflict in Yemen is more complex as it encompasses both north and south Yemen and all the tensions that accompany a country that was never properly unified.

Despite the north-south tensions, a process similar to the one that settled the 1962-70 civil war was underway before Saudi Arabia launched Operation Decisive Storm in 2015. With the help of then UN Special Envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar, all sides in the current conflict were close to reaching an interim power-sharing agreement. The Houthis had a working relationship with the leadership of many of the southern separatist movements as both groups had been oppressed by the Saleh government. But thanks to the Houthis' push south, their brutal occupation of Aden and abuses by all sides, this relationship has broken down.

Just as in Yemen's last civil war, neither side in the current conflict will be able to defeat the othereven with outside support. The only solution is to restart Yemeni driven negotiations. The alternative is years of low-level conflict that will spread beyond Yemen's borders and negatively impact regional stability and security.

The House of Saud would do well to remember the sage advice of its founder, King Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud, who said on his deathbed, "the good or evil for us will come from Yemen." [17] The leadership of Yemen's various rebel groups and its government-in-exile, meanwhile, would benefit from recalling a very Yemeni proverb: "Nothing can break a stone but its sister."

NOTES

[1] See Human Rights Watch (August 2015); Human Rights Watch (May 2016); Amnesty International (May 2016)

[2] Yemen Food Security Information System Development Program (October 2016)

[3] The reasons behind the rise of the Houthis are complex and beyond the scope of this article. For requisite background see: Barak Salamoni, Regime and Periphery in Northern Yemen: The Huthi Phenomenon, RAND Corporation, 2010; and for a more nuanced look at the reasons behind the growth of the Houthi Movement, see: Isa Blumi, Chaos in Yemen: Societal Collapse and the New Authoritarianism, Routledge, 2010).

[4] Michael Horton, "Borderline Crisis," Jane's Intelligence Review, (January, 2010)

[5] See: Jesse Ferris, Nasser's Gamble: How Intervention in Yemen Caused the Six Day War and the Decline of Egyptian Power, Princeton University Press, 2012.

[6] Leading from the front is something that  at least until 2012  members of the Houthi leadership practiced. The Houthis' current leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi routinely led men in battles with the Yemeni Army. It is important to note that demonstrating bravery and proving oneself capable and competent are requirements for a leader as stipulated by Zaidi doctrine.

[7] See Human Rights Watch (October 13, 2016); BBC (October 9, 2016)

[8] See 'Yemen's Invisible Food Crisis,' Oxfam (March 2016)

[9] See Duff Hart-Davis. The War that Never Was: The True Story of the Men Who Fought Britain's Most Secret Battle, Century, 2011

[10] Following the popular revolt against the Saleh government in 2011, the Houthis seized vast stores of weapons and materiel that were abandoned by Yemeni Army troops that left their bases, particularly in al-Jawf. Since then, many Yemeni Army units have allied themselves with the Houthis and consequently the Houthis have access to a wide range light, medium and heavy weapon systems. However, reports of Iran supplying the Houthis with weapons persist. Most recently, Gulf-based analysts and news sites have claimed that weapons are being smuggled from Iran to Oman and then across the Omani border to Yemen. Aside from the fact that the Houthis do not require additional weapons, this is highly unlikely because the Omani government clearly values and benefits from its neutrality. It would not risk its political position to facilitate arms smuggling. Because Oman's border is secured by well trained and disciplined troops, many of which are drawn from the tribes whose land makes up the border, if weapons were being smuggled, it would not go unnoticed or unchecked.

See this analysis of the varied claims about intercepted weapons shipments from Iran: https://consortiumnews.com/2016/10/31/justifying-the-saudi-slaughter-in-yemen/

[11] See Jonathan Spyer, "Changing Battlefields Drive Insurgent Innovation," Jane's Intelligence Review, November 2016.

[12] The Houthis have posted hours of footage of their attacks on Saudi forces on Youtube. The centrality of ATGMs to their cross-border raids is evident.

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEGjTkZJX20

[13] For an analysis of why social links and enmeshment in local communities are critical to AQAP see: Fawaz Gerges, Rise and Fall of al-Qaeda, Oxford University Press, 2011

[14] Michael Horton, "Saud Control: New Saudi King Goes on the Offensive," Jane's Intelligence Review (September 2015)

[15] Williamson Murray (ed.), Hybrid Warfare: Fighting Complex Opponents from the Ancient World to the Present, Cambridge University Press, 2012, pg. 290

[16] The Houthi leadership, in particular Abdul Malek al-Houthi, is seemingly well versed in literature pertaining to irregular warfare and is particularly interested in how Hezbollah and the Eritreans fused irregular warfare tactics with conventional tactics.

[17] Christopher Van Hollen, "North Yemen: A Dangerous Pentagonal Game," Washington Quarterly 5 (3), 1982, p. 137

Copyright notice:  2010 The Jamestown Foundation
Saudi Arabia: Prosecution for Forming Human Rights Group

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 15 November 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Saudi Arabia: Prosecution for Forming Human Rights Group, 15 November 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b33f84.html [accessed 2 November 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.

Saudi prosecutors filed criminal charges against two activists in late October 2016, for "forming an unlicensed organization" and other vague charges relating to a short-lived human rights organization they set up in 2013, Human Rights Watch said today. None of the alleged "crimes" listed in the charge sheet resemble recognizable criminal behavior, and none of them took place after October 2013.

The defendants, Mohammad al-Otaibi and Abdullah al-Attawi, formed the Union for Human Rights in 2013, but they were unable to obtain a license for the group because Saudi Arabia generally did not allow independent non-charity nongovernmental organizations at that time. In late 2015, Saudi Arabia issued a new law that would theoretically allow such groups to obtain licenses, but authorities have continued to jail and prosecute independent activists based on similar charges.

"There is no justification for Saudi Arabia's prosecution of activists for simply forming groups to call for human rights," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "But the decision to prosecute activists for forming a human rights group now that the law allows for such groups indicates that the Saudi authorities still view independent civil society an enemy rather than an ally."

A Saudi activist with direct knowledge of the case told Human Rights Watch that al-Otaibi and a group of three others formed the Union for Human Rights in April 2013. Members of the group were summoned for investigation by Saudi authorities less than one month later, after the organization issued several statements via social media. All of the founders pledged to close the organization.

In late April 2013, the group's founders applied for registration with the Social Affairs Ministry, since reorganized as the Labor and Social Development Ministry. The ministry rejected the application in May. In the rejection letter, which Human Rights Watch reviewed, the director general of charitable associations and institutions wrote that, "...in studying the application it became clear that it is not in line with the regulation on charitable foundations and associations ... we advise you to await the issuance of the law on civil associations and institutions, which provides for the establishment of civil associations in the area of human rights." Authorities issued the associations law in November 2015.

Authorities summoned al-Otaibi and al-Attawi again in March 2014, and both pledged to stop issuing statements, reports, or participating in TV interviews.

According to the charge sheet, al-Otaibi and al-Attawi face a series of vague charges including "their participation in forming an association and announcing it before acquiring the necessary license," "their participation in drafting, issuing, and signing a number of statements over internet networks that include offending the reputation of the kingdom...," and al-Otaibi faces the charge of "making international human rights organizations hostile to the kingdom by publishing on a social media site false reports about the kingdom..."

Though all the founders signed the pledge to halt all human rights activism, the charge sheet states that after monitoring his compliance with the pledge, "it became clear that [Mohammad al-Otaibi] continued with his previous path and a number of his violations of it were documented" The "violations" the charge sheet goes on to lay out, however, refer only to activities that supposedly occurred prior to the pledge, including "meeting members of and sympathizers with dissolved [Saudi Association on Civil and Political Rights] ...the last meeting of which occurred on September 14, 2013."

Of the charges levied against the two men, one is tied to a violation of article 6 of the Saudi cybercrime law, which proscribes "producing something that harms public order, religious values, public morals, the sanctity of private life, or authoring, sending, or storing it via an information network," and imposes penalties of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to three million Saudi Riyals (US$800,000).

Similar cases in the past against human rights activists have resulted in prison sentences of between 5 and 15 years.

"Saudi Arabia regularly charges its domestic critics with harming the reputation of the country, but prosecutions like this do far more damage to the country's reputation and often prove that its critics' complaints are spot on," Whitson said.

Copyright notice:  Copyright, Human Rights Watch
Saakashvili Steps Down as Odessa Governor  What Now?

Publisher EurasiaNet Author Joshua Kucera Publication Date 8 November 2016 Other Languages / Attachments Russian Cite as EurasiaNet, Saakashvili Steps Down as Odessa Governor  What Now?, 8 November 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/582b39f94.html [accessed 2 November 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.

Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has stepped down from his post as governor of the Ukrainian region of Odessa. The resignation closes one chapter on the story of one of the post-Soviet space's most colorful statesmen, but Saakashvili gave no hint about what his next step might be.



In a press conference to announce his resignation, Saakashvili lashed out at the corruption and ineffectiveness of his former partners in government, particularly President Petro Poroshenko. "What difference for Ukrainians does it make who will treat them like dirt: Poroshenko or Yanukovych; what difference who will steal from them?" Saakashvili said. Tellingly, however, Saakashvili did not even mention Georgia in his address, a fact that did not go unnoticed in Tbilisi.



Since resigning, Saakashvili has posted a number of stories on his Facebook page, lauding his record in Odessa. And he suggested in one post that he intends to continue his career in Ukraine: "Everyone needs to get accustomed to the fact that I'm a Ukrainian politician and I will win or lose not in Georgia, but in Ukraine."



But few expect him to abandon Georgia completely. "What is predictable about Misha is that he doesn't like to be predictable," said Hans Gutbrod, a Tbilisi-based political analyst, using Saakashvili's nickname. "So from Tbilisi everything seems possible, at this point."



Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko brought on Saakashvili in February 2015 as an adviser on introducing Western reforms into Ukraine, hoping that Saakashvili could replicate his success in rooting out corruption in Georgia. Three months later, Poroshenko dispatched Saakashvili to Odessa, one of Ukraine's most notoriously corrupt regions. That job required Saakashvili to take Ukrainian citizenship and give up his Georgian citizenship.



But it did not take Saakashvili long to find his ambitions in Ukraine frustrated, and to start blaming Poroshenko. "Reforms delayed are reforms denied," he said at a press conference in April. "Not a single promise given after Maidan [the 2014 revolution also known as Euromaidan] . . . has been fulfilled." "If you cannot help, at least don't hinder," Saakashvili added, addressing Poroshenko.



"He [Poroshenko] has not moved a finger to make this project work," Saakashvili said at his resignation press conference. "I just want to ask: how much can you lie and cheat?"



During his time in Ukraine, Saakashvili has always kept a toe in Georgian politics. He remains the unofficial leader of his political party, the United National Movement, which never replaced him as chairman when he lost his Georgian citizenship. Saakashvili stepped down as president in 2013 and subsequently left the country. In 2014, he was charged with abuse-of-power crimes allegedly committed while he was president and has been threatened with arrest if he tries to return to Georgia.



Nevertheless, he continues to comment on Georgian politics with Georgian media outlets, and promised  or threatened  to return to Georgia after October's parliamentary elections. He campaigned for the UNM via video screen in Tbilisi in the last days of the campaign. "We may be separated by this sea," he said, speaking from Ukraine and pointing at the Black Sea behind him, "but my heart beats in unison with yours, counting . . . the days and seconds to our final victory . . . three days are left before I cross this sea . . . see you in a victorious Georgia!"



That last-minute intervention may have sunk the UNM's hopes, and they finished a distant second to Saakashvili's nemesis, the Georgian Dream party. Some senior UNM members have started to publicly argue that the party needs to find a new leader.



But the party would have trouble moving forward without Saakashvili, said Michael Cecire, a Washington-based Caucasus analyst and fellow at the Washington think tank New America. Saakashvili is reported to still have some control over the party's finances, and other sources of funds have become more scarce, Cecire said in an email interview with EurasiaNet. "Since the death of prominent UNM backer Kakha Bendukidze, and the gradual evaporation of other local UNM party funders in Georgia, the party has become more, and not less, dependent on Saakashvili for funding."



Personally, Saakashvili also retains significant leverage in the party. "Another complication is that many of the UNM's top party cadres remain personally loyal  and personally indebted in various ways  to Saakashvili," Cecire said. "These will ensure that Saakashvili, even as a political millstone, can never really be entirely sidelined or overruled in the UNM without much more fundamental changes. But that also could consign the UNM to an extended period in the political wilderness."



Saakashvili seems more likely to continue his career in Ukraine, Gutbrod said. "There is a political opening in Ukraine for [Saakashvili] right now, and there isn't in Georgia," Gutbrod told EurasiaNet. "So it would seem plausible that Ukraine indeed holds his attention, for the time being. If he wants to force an issue in Georgia, he can still do this in a year, whereas there is unlikely to be an immediate path back to Kyiv if he were to return to Tbilisi."



Saakashvili was trying "to sit on two chairs" while serving in Ukraine, but keeping active in Georgia, said Kornely Kakachia, director of the Georgian Institute for Politics. Now it appears that he will focus on Ukraine for the time being. "I think that after the [October parliamentary] election he understood that he has no stake at Georgian politics for at least next 4 years" until the next elections, Kakachia told EurasiaNet. But he added that it is also possible that he will bring his trademarked reform-oriented, anti-Russia skills to another post-Soviet state. "It seems he believes he has a role in post-Soviet politics," Kakachia said, suggesting a comparison to "a post-Soviet Che Guevara  only right-wing."

Copyright notice: All EurasiaNet material  Open Society Institute
MarketWatch

After record-breaking sales of I-bonds in October, the U.S. Treasury is dangling another good deal in front of savers for the next six months. Starting Nov. 2, when I-bonds will be available again after site maintenance at TreasuryDirect.gov, the inflation-adjusted annualized rate will be 6.89%, down from 9.62%. The fixed rate at the time of purchase will stay with the bond as long as you hold it  up to 30 years  but the inflation adjustment resets every six months in November and May.
On Tuesday, Alaska Airlines ALK has made history, becoming the first major airliner to man a commercial flight using renewable, alternative jet fuel made from forest residuals. The fuel is made from the limbs and branches of trees left over from harvesting of managed forests, according to the company.

Washington state-based Alaska Airlines flew commercially between Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and Reagan National Airport using a 20% blend of sustainable aviation biofuel; the airliner said it is chemically indistinguishable from regular jet A fuel. The renewable jet fuel was developed by the Washington State University-led NARA, or Northwest Advanced Renewables Alliance.

"This latest milestone in Alaska's efforts to promote sustainable biofuels is especially exciting since it is uniquely sourced from the forest residuals in the Pacific Northwest," Joe Sprague, Alaska Airlines' senior vice president of communications and external relations, said in a statement.

While one flight using this sustainable jet fuel wont have that much impact on Alaska Airlines greenhouse gas emissions, the airline could reduce its emissions by roughly 142,000 metric tons if it could replace 20% of its entire fuel supply with the tree-based jet fuel at Seattle-Tacoma. That number is equivalent to eliminating 30,000 passenger vehicles off the road for one year, according to CNBC.

United Airlines Basic Economy Fare

Also on Tuesday, United Continental UAL announced that it will become the first major U.S. airline to limit customers who paid low fare prices to just one carry-on bag that must fit under a seat. The company is hoping the move will help boost profit.

Travelers who buy Uniteds Basic Economy fare will have to wait to be assigned seats until the day of departure, which means that customers on the same ticket stand the chance of being split apart. The airline will also prohibit fliers who have bags that can only fit in the overhead bins, and these low fare customers cannot accrue miles towards Elite status.

Story continues

In other words, travelers may become even more frustrated, stressed, and annoyed while flying.

United hopes the new business strategies will add $4.8 billion to its operating income every year by 2020, since more customers will likely pay to check bags or select higher flight fares that allow for more two free carry-ons. "Customers have told us that they want more choice and Basic Economy delivers just that," said Julia Haywood, United's chief commercial officer, in a news release.

Despite the restrictions of the Basic Economy fare choice, boarding processes may end up moving at a faster pace if fewer customers search for overhead bin space.

United also announced that it will defer dozens of aircraft deliveries to aircraft maker Boeing Co. BA, another move to aid in profit boosting.

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Shares of Anheuser-Busch InBev (Euronext Brussels: ABI-BE) ended Monday down 1.85 percent on a report that the brewer might have its eyes on U.S. beverage giant Coca-Cola (KO) for its next acquisition.

InBev, the world's largest brewer, already completed a $107 billion purchase of SABMiller, but the Sunday Telegraph said Carlos Brito, the Belgian company's CEO, could be eyeing its next acquisition target, Coca-Cola. A deal for Coke, with a stock market capitalization of $176 billion, could provide a big bonus payday for InBev's top managers, the report said.

In intraday trading, InBev's U.S.-listed stock was down $4.26, or 4 percent, at $101.80. Coke's stock was flat.



It's not the first time Coca-Cola has been mentioned as a possible takeover target for InBev. PepsiCo (PEP) also has been a rumored target in the past.

Under a so-called "2020 Dream Incentive Plan," which InBev has previously disclosed in U.S. regulatory filings, about 65 of the brewer's senior management can share in a bonus if its "ambitious growth target" of reaching at least $100 billion in annual revenue is reached. A deal for Coke, which had annual revenue last year of $44.3 billion, would likely put InBev's annual revenue over the $100 billion mark.



The bonus pool in four years would stand at $350 million, meaning if it were equally distributed among the execs it would equal more than $5 million apiece, according to the Telegraph.

Coca-Cola and InBev declined comment.

A transaction involving Coca-Cola also could reteam Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) Coke's largest shareholder  with Brazil's 3G Capital. Affiliates of 3G have been shareholders of InBev since the late 1980s, and 3G partnered with Berkshire in 2015 to complete the merger of H.J. Heinz Co. and Kraft Foods Group into Kraft Heinz (KHC).

InBev's closing of the SABMiller deal last month led Coca-Cola to terminate bottling contracts in more than a dozen markets with SAB. A deal for Coke could reverse the move and help produce global synergies and cost savings for the two companies, according to analysts.





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So, it has happened: Contrary to nearly all polls and predictions, Donald Trump, the Republican Party candidate, was elected the 45th President of the United States On Nov. 8.

It was a sudden turn of events: Trump had faced not only intellectuals and minorities, as well as a significant part of the urban public opposing his candidacy, but also the highly critical attitude of the media. However, Trump was elected, receiving overwhelming support from farmers and other rural people and the angry white voters, and it is now a good time to think what his presidency would mean for the world.

North Korean leaders tend to support Trump and are perhaps rejoiced with the news of his sudden victory. At least, the North Korean media treated him more favorably than Hillary Clinton. From the viewpoint of North Korea, Donald Trump is a good choice since he could be the president who might even consider the withdrawal of U.S. forces from South Korea, and at any rate, being an isolationist, he is likely to be less willing to engage with Seoul and Tokyo.

But it is likely that the North Korean decision makers will soon discover that their hopes have little, if any, foundation. They are happy about Donald Trumps isolationist tendencies, but these tendencies are probably not that relevant from their point of view. Had North Korea been a small country which does not matter to the U.S., Donald Trumps pronounced unwillingness to get involved with other peoples problems would probably help Pyongyang. However, North Korea is a country which is not only developing nuclear weapons and delivery systems, but also frequently making highly bellicose statements, specifically targeting the U.S., and is working hard to design long-range missiles, capable of striking U.S. territory.

In fact, in the modern world there are only two countries, China and Russia, which are capable of carrying out a nuclear attack against the U.S.. Other nuclear states either have no missiles capable of reaching the U.S. or are long-term American allies. North Korea is determined to become the third such country, and this is why the Trump Administration will not be able to ignore it.

Of course, President Trump at the beginning of his term, as he said during the campaign, is likely to initiate a new round of negotiations with North Korea. There is a problem, though: No matter who is in charge in Washington, the U.S. government can currently accept only one solution to the North Korean nuclear issue  that is, the complete denuclearization of the country. However, the only solution which is good for the Americans is unacceptable to the North Koreans, who are determined to remain nuclear no matter what.

So, there is virtually no space for a compromise, and this is what Donald Trump and his negotiators will learn pretty soon. Once this becomes clear, it is likely that the Trump Administration will switch to a hard linevery hard, indeed. Trump and the majority of his Republican supporters belong to a foreign policy tradition which presumes that any grave challenge to the United States should be met with great toughness and, if necessary, application of force. No doubt, attempts to create long-range missile whose only conceivable target is the U.S., do qualify as a grave challenge.

Therefore, even though the Trump Administration is likely to first try to negotiate with Pyongyang, these talks are likely to end in failure, and will be followed by a really tough set of sanctions. If North Korea continues to develop and test long-range missiles, submarine-based missiles and nuclear weapons, one cannot even rule out the possibility of a U.S. preemptive precision strike against North Koreas nuclear and missile research and production facilities.

The policies of the Trump Administration toward China and Russia can influence North Korea's position in the international community. Donald Trump has already criticized China many times while was quite friendly to Russia. Therefore, under his watch, the United States might move close to Russia, but relations between the U.S. and China are likely to be strained. If such a situation arises, North Korea may find itself in a much more difficult economic situation.

North Korean leaders should not congratulate themselves over the outcome of Nov. 8: Donald Trump as president is likely to strengthen, not weaken, the outside pressure Pyongyang now deals with.
Nan Ying (R), vice president of China's Supreme People's Court, speaks at a meeting on the assessment and implementation of the National Human Rights Action Plan in Beijing, June 14, 2016.

China on Tuesday executed a man who fatally shot a local official with a nail gun in protest over the forced demolition of his home, in spite of a massive public campaign for a reprieve.

Jia Jinglong was executed in his home city of Shijiazhuang in the northern province of Hebei after his death sentence was reviewed and approved by the Supreme People's Court in Beijing, state news agency Xinhua reported.

In a case that became emblematic of widespread anger over social injustice in China, the highest court ruled that Jia's crime was "extremely serious," and merited the death penalty.

Jia had pleaded guilty from the start to shooting his former village chief He Jianhua in the head with a nail gun, and to planning the attack, including his getaway vehicle.

He was convicted of intentional homicide and sentenced to death, and also deprived of his political rights for life on Nov. 24, 2015, by the Shijiazhuang court, and his appeal to the provincial-level court was rejected last May.

Jia's case drew widespread public opposition to the death penalty, including from prominent lawyers.

The Supreme Court's review of Jia Jinglongs case didn't take into consideration the allegations of illegal and corrupt dealings linked to village land sales and forced demolitions, an appeal letter submitted to the Supreme People's Court on Monday said.

The ruling also "ignored Jia Jinglongs forthright confession and guilty plea in evaluating the severity of punishment," the letter said.

The review also ran counter to current policies requiring caution when applying the death penalty, it said.

Chinese legal expert Xin Ke said legal factors had little to do with the decision, however.

"The reason for Jia Jinglong's death is simple and has little to do with the law," Xin said. "It's about whether or not forced evictions will continue."

"If they had no plans to continue them, then there would be no need to execute him. He had to die because they do plan to continue with them," he said.

Miscarriage of justice

Veteran journalist Gao Yu said Jia Jinglong had become a martyr to those fighting forced eviction and demolitions, or those seeking legal compensation for the loss of their homes.

"The cries of tens of millions of people wouldn't be enough to prevent the execution order from being implemented," Gao said. "Jia Jinglong has become a martyr of forced evictions and demolitions."

"This is yet another case that is a miscarriage of justice, and the government has blood on its hands," she said.

Former state prosecutor-turned-rights activist Shen Liangqing said Jia's execution was entirely in keeping with the ruling Chinese Communist Party's current "stability maintenance" strategy.

He said local governments rely on local property development to generate income.

"Around 60 percent of local government income across half the country is dependent on forced demolitions and evictions," Shen said.

"That's why Jia had to die. In legal terms, the severity of his crime certainly wasn't any worse than that of Gu Kailai," he said, in a reference to the wife of former Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai, who was handed a suspended death sentence for the murder of British businessmen Neil Heywood.

"These things are decided by the wider political climate, and ever since President Xi Jinping took office, there has been an extremely repressive stability maintenance policy," Shen said.

A triumph for rule of law

The Global Times newspaper, a tabloid linked to Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily, defended the decision to execute Jia in an editorial, calling it "a triumph for rule of law."

It claimed Jia's victim wasn't to blame for his "trouble" and that compensation had already been paid to his father.

But Beijing-based rights lawyer Chen Jiangang said the victim, He Jianhua, was the "jaws and claws" of the ruling party.

"I think they wanted to send the message to anyone who might be thinking of opposing them that they shouldn't, to make them lose courage," Chen said. "It's to keep the population cowed."

"They are basically saying that if any of us have the temerity to kill a member of the ruling class, then this will be their revenge," he said.

Reported by Yang Fan and Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Lee Lai for the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
This undated photo released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) at the defence detachment on Mahap Islet in Ongjin County, South Hwanghae, Nov. 11, 2016.

The North Korean regimes latest weapon in its attempt to foil the West comes in a cigarette pack as Pyongyang is enlisting citizens to collect the packs' aluminum-laminated liners for use as military camouflage, sources tell RFAs Korean Service.

The central authorities are collecting tinfoil to support the military, a source in North Hamgyong province told RFA. While tinfoil is used inside a pack of filter cigarettes, it now has a military purpose.

While most people call it tinfoil, a cigarette packs inner liner is usually an aluminum foil and paper laminate. North Korean authorities say that the foil from cigarette packs and other bits are being used to cover sensitive military facilities.

The order to get tinfoil was originally given last June, but it was moved back because of other urgent supporting businesses, the source said. However, the command has been given again to schools by (the surveillance organization) In-Min-Ban this month. Other relevant organizations are also under pressure to collect tinfoil.

As part of the effort, young school children are pressed into service to collect the inner wrappers from cigarette packs.

As the command has been repeated, small school children go out and pick up the empty cigarette packs, the source said.

And if a North Korean doesnt smoke or collect much foil, the authorities will gladly take cash in lieu of the material.

In-Min-Ban asks people who cannot offer tinfoil to pay cash instead, said the source. The authorities say its to support the North Korea Peoples Army, but most people think its just an excuse to collect money.

'Something that does not amount to a row of beans'

Another source in North Hamgyong province told RFA that facilities at the Rochon military base in the province are now covered by foil.

It is used specifically as a camouflage net for anti-aircraft machine guns deployed near the Sunam market, that source said. It has become an attraction to many residents.

The North Korean authorities are telling the countrys citizens that the foil deflects satellite photos, allowing the military to keep its secrets more easily.

To some North Koreans, the foil drive is another example of the governments inability to field an effective military force.

The residents do not care about the authorities military secrets or the military situation," the source said. The authorities cannot feed the soldiers properly, so the number of soldiers who suffer from malnutrition is increasing. In this circumstance, what is going to change even if military facilities are disguised?

While the Pyongyang is pushing the foil collection, ordinary North Koreans see it as a joke.

The residents mock the authorities for collecting something that does not amount to a row of beans, said one of the North Hamgyong sources.

With the foil drive, North Korean citizens question whether or not a military that has to use waste from discarded cigarette packs is up to the job.

The residents are laughing at the authorities command because the authorities ask for supplies for the military facilities, the other source added. They criticize whether the North Korea Peoples Army, which uses waste tinfoil for camouflage, is a proper army when advanced weapons are used in modern times.

Reported by Jieun Kim for RFAs Korea Service. Translated by Soo Min Jo. Written in English by Brooks Boliek.
Myanmar border guard police carry the coffin of a comrade, killed in an attack on an outpost, during a funeral in Maungdaw township, western Myanmar's Rakhine state, Nov. 5, 2016.

Myanmar security forces have killed nearly 70 insurgents and detained more than 230 others in violence that has occurred in Rakhine states Maungdaw township since deadly attacks on border guard stations and subsequent clashes with armed groups last month, the countrys armed forces said on Monday.

Rohingya terrorists set fire to six villages and ran away, though residents have blamed soldiers for the arson, the militarys announcement said.

Local residents and rights activists have accused the armed forces of killing civilians, raping women, and burning down homes in the areas under security lockdown, where the majority of residents are Rohingya. Though the army has denied the allegations, it has not permitted independent observers or journalists to enter the area.

Nearly 230 houses and other buildings have been burned since the Oct. 9 attacks, and nine clashes between military units and attackers have occurred with nine instances of soldiers opening fire on attackers and three instances of attackers bombing military vehicles, the army said.

During the attacks, seven army soldiers, including a military unit commander, were killed, and five were injured, the announcement said. Ten policemen also died in the attacks, and six were injured.

Security forces transferred the 234 people it arrested to the Myanmar Police Force which released 23 after it was determined that they had not been involved in any of the attacks.

During the weekend, Myanmar soldiers killed roughly 30 villagers they say attacked them with machetes and wooden clubs in an upsurge in violence in the area.

About 200 Rohingyamostly women and childrenhave fled the violence and are stranded at the Bangladesh border, where Bangladeshi guards have refused to let them pass, Agence France-Presse reported on Tuesday, citing community leaders. A border guard spokesman, however, put the figure at closer to 80, the report said.

Rakhine commission visit

The recent upsurge in violence has prompted the Myanmar governments Rakhine Advisory Commission to meet with representatives from the state government and ethnic Rakhine and Muslims communities on Monday in Rakhines capital Sittwe.

Saw Khin Tint, a commission member, said the panel wants to visit Maungdaw township to survey the security situation.

We have plans to visit Maungdaw, but we cant make the trip because of security reasons, the chairwoman of the Rakhine Literature and Culture Association in Yangon and vice chairwoman of the Rakhine Womens Association said.

We will visit Rakhine villages and refugee camps and Bengali villages and refugee camps tomorrow and will listen to what the people have to say, she said, using a derogatory term for Rohingya that is used by Myanmars Buddhists, who view the Muslims as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

The Myanmar government formed the nine-member commission, led by former United Nations chief Kofi Annan, on Aug. 24 to work on conflict resolution, humanitarian assistance, and development issues in the impoverished and restive western state.

Diplomats from the United Nations, United States, and other countries visited Maungdaw earlier this month and got the government to agree to allow humanitarian aid workers into the area.

The latest spate of attacks has been the bloodiest since 2012 when more than 200 people died during communal violence between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, and tens of thousands of Rohingya were forced into squalid internally displaced persons camps where they are denied basic rights, including that of citizenship.



Reported by Min Thein Aung for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
In this episode of Heard It From Her we spoke with Pavla Holcova, the founder and director of the Czech Center for Investigative Journalism. Among the centers major projects was a collaboration with RFE/RL contributors Khadija Ismayilova and Nushabe Fatullayeva looking into the financial dealings of Azerbaijans first family. She told us about how a stretch under house arrest in Cuba led to her start in investigative journalism, and about how she sleuths out official corruption and other dodgy deals some high profile figures would rather keep secret.
A Russian hacker who was convicted for his leading role in one of the largest data thefts in U.S. history has been released from prison after serving most of his 12-year sentence.

Vladimir Drinkman was released from a Pennsylvania jail on October 28, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons told RFE/RL.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) did not respond to an RFE/RL request for comment on whether Drinkman had been turned over for deportation, a process that can take up to several months. Drinkman's lawyer, Igor Litvak, declined to comment. RFE/RL could not immediately reach Drinkman.

Drinkman was a key member of a criminal hacking group that penetrated major U.S. corporations, including Heartland Payment Systems, which at the time it was breached in 2008 was one of the biggest U.S. payment-processing firms. The Heartland attack -- the largest breach in history at the time -- cost the payment company more than $200 million in losses.

Varonis, a U.S.-based cybersecurity firm, ranks the attack on Heartland among the 10 largest data breaches of all time.

Chuck Brooks, a cybersecurity expert and adjunct professor at Georgetown University, said the Heartland hack was a "wake-up call" for the payments and financial industries to enhance their cyberdefenses.



He said the breach led to stronger security policies, including a better understanding by CEOs and CFOs of the threats to business sustainability and reputation.

"After the breach, many companies added more stringent data and security policies, including encryption, multifactor authentication, and monitoring of systems and networks," Brooks told RFE/RL.

Heartland also later established the Payments Processing Information Sharing Council (PPISC), which serves as a forum for banks and payment processors to share information about breaches and compliance issues, he noted.

In addition to breaking into Heartland, the hacking gang also breached Nasdaq OMX Group, 7-Eleven, JC Penney, JetBlue Airways, and others, according to prosecutors. In total, they stole the data of more than 160 million credit cards, leading to more than $300 million in damages.

Greg Hunter, a Virginia-based lawyer who has represented cybercriminals from the former Soviet Union, said the Heartland case demonstrated the sophisticated evolution of Russian-speaking hackers.

"This was the beginning of specialization," Hunter told RFE/RL. "Rather than an individual hacker spending a lot of time stealing credit card data and then trying to monetize it, you had guys specializing in breaching the security apparatus of a site, others selling the data."

The appearance of hacker forums was critical to the phenomenon of a division of labor, he said.

Hacker sites "allowed these guys to find each other and work together. A guy who breaches banks could just focus on that, knowing he could find others to either help him know what to get and how to use it, or just buy his services outright," Hunter said.

Several of the most commonly used forums where hackers bought and sold stolen credit card data and traded tips included Cardplanet and Direct Connection. A Russian man, Aleksei Burkov, was extradited from Israel to the United States and later pleaded guilty in 2020 to U.S. charges related to his oversight of those forums.

He was deported to Russia last year.

According to U.S. court filings, Drinkman and another co-conspirator, Alexandr Kalinin, specialized in penetrating network security and gaining access to the corporate data systems. Drinkman along with a third man, Roman Kotov, also focused on mining the networks to steal valuable data.

Another Russian man, Dmitry Smilyanets, then sold the stolen credit card information on forums for $10 to $50 each and distributed the proceeds of the scheme to the others, according to prosecutors.

Kalinin and Kotov, both of whom are Russian citizens, are believed to still be in Russia.

Drinkman was arrested in the Netherlands in June 2012 at the request of the United States, along with Smilyanets.

While Smilyanets cooperated with U.S. authorities and arrived in the United States a few months after his arrest, Drinkman fought his extradition for more than a year.

Ultimately, Drinkman pleaded guilty in 2015 and was sentenced to 12 years in prison, including time served since his arrest. It is one of the harshest sentences given to a Russian hacker.

Drinkman served a total of 10 years and four months, or 86 percent of his sentence. U.S. federal prisoners earn credit each year for good behavior and typically serve 85 percent of their sentence.

Smilyanets was sentenced to just time served, or less than six years, and currently resides in the United States, where he works as a cyberthreat intelligence analyst.

He declined to comment when contacted by RFE/RL.
When Vladimir Putin looks West, he thinks he sees something very familiar.

He sees an angry, disenfranchised, and humiliated working class that has been left behind by globalization.

In many ways, when Putin looks West, from Europe to North America, he thinks he sees Russia in the 1990s.

And just as the Russia of a quarter of a century ago was ripe for a tough-talking leader who rejected liberal orthodoxies and promised to restore national greatness, Putin thinks much of the West is ripe for this brand of leader as well.

Putin thinks this is his moment. He thinks his time has come.

Just as he turned resentment into power in Russia, he is now seeking to turn that trick internationally.

He aspires to be the global icon of antiglobalization. He seeks to lead the nationalist international. He aims to spearhead a popular front of populists.

As Peter Pomerantsev so aptly put it, Putin is turning himself into the Che Guevara of the antiestablishment right.

And for the time being, he seems to be moving from success to success.

And with elections looming next year in the Netherlands, France, and Germany -- elections where populists are on the rise -- he's looking forward to more successes in the near future.

This is a very dangerous moment because Putin's goals are not modest.

He seeks nothing short of the destruction of NATO, the European Union, and the rules-based international order that has kept the West strong, stable, and safe for decades.

He wants to party like it's 1815, to return to a world where empires and great powers can act unfettered.

Because it is only in such a world that he believes Russia can thrive.

Keep telling me what you think on The Power Vertical's Twitter feed and on our Facebook page.
Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court say they have "reasonable basis" to believe the United States committed "war crimes" by torturing prisoners in Afghanistan.

The U.S. military subjected at least 61 detainees in Afghanistan to "torture, cruel treatment, [and] outrages upon personal dignity," an initial investigative report said on November 14.

A further 27 people were tortured by the CIA, it said, with the majority of the alleged crimes occurring between 2003 and 2004 when President George W. Bush was in office.

The United States never ratified the treaty establishing the court, but because the alleged abuses occurred in countries that ratified the treaty -- Afghanistan, Poland, Lithuania and Romania -- the court has jurisdiction.

The report claims the crimes were not "isolated," but were part of "approved interrogation techniques" aimed at extracting "actionable intelligence" from detainees.

The court was established in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. It said it would decide "imminently" whether to commence a full investigation.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said the United States did not believe a full investigation is "warranted or appropriate."

"The United States is deeply committed to complying with the law of war, and we have a robust national system of investigation and accountability that more than meets international standards," Trudeau said.

President-elect Donald Trump has said he would reinstate waterboarding -- a torture method that simulates drowning that was abandoned by the Obama administration -- and techniques that are "a hell of a lot worse" to obtain information from "terrorists."

With reporting by AP, Reuters, AFP, and dpa


Chinese business execs are not worried about Donald Trump getting tough on them

For all President-elect Donald Trump 's anti-China talk, Chinese business leaders say they're looking forward to working with a "businessman."

"You, know, he's good at making deals, 'The Art of the Deal,' right, so reaching a deal that's beneficial for both sides" will be key, Charles Zhang, CEO of Chinese internet search giant Sohu.com (SOHU), told CNBC. "I think it's important to sit down and talk. That's ... a positive side of the Trump presidency."

"I wouldn't worry," added Zhang, who has a doctorate degree in experimental physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He spoke this past weekend on the sidelines of the MIT-China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum, where Chinese business executives and fund managers were mostly upbeat about growth prospects for Chinese companies.

"Winter is the best time for a start-up," more than one China -based venture capitalist said at the conference.



U.S. goods and services trade with China totaled almost $660 billion in 2015, according to an estimate from the U.S. Trade Representative website. The United States had a trade deficit of $336.2 billion with China last year.

Claiming he can create more U.S. jobs, Trump has called for a 45 percent tariff on Chinese imports and says he wants to label the country a currency manipulator. His campaign platform states that the U.S. Trade Representative should bring trade cases against China in the U.S. and the World Trade Organization.

"The Chinese are looking at Trump 'glass half-full," Charles Freeman III, nonresident senior fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center at Brookings, told CNBC in a phone interview Monday.



"There certainly was a perception that values and U.S. security interest were more important than economic interests for the current and maybe previous administration," he said.

The Beijing party line echoes the positive tone voiced by the country's business executives. A Sunday opinion piece in China's state-controlled newspaper Global Times said the tariff is "merely campaign rhetoric."

Story continues

If such a tax was imposed, China would take a "tit-for-tat" approach, the op-ed piece said, but "Trump as a shrewd businessman will not be so naive."

That optimism may not be warranted.



"I think a little caution would be in their best interest ... There is a lot of political pressure on President-elect Trump to follow through on his promises," said Timothy Heath, senior international defense research analyst at Rand Corp.



He said official reports on a Monday phone call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Trump "suggests to me the Chinese are being cautious."

Indeed, some U.S. business leaders have struck a more somber tone than their Chinese counterparts on what Trump's stated protectionist policies could bring. The real estate mogul has also called for tougher positions on immigration, potentially reducing the number of H-1B visas for high-skilled foreign workers who can enter the United States.

"I can't think of any upside" to the Trump election win, Yasheng Huang, an associate dean at the MIT Sloan School of Management, said in opening remarks at the MIT conference Saturday. He said he saw at least two downsides, on immigration and foreign policy.

"There is a concern for all of us, for all the tech companies, (for) Chinese students, Indian students," he said. "We need (them) for this community to develop vibrant technology and vibrant innovation."
WASHINGTON -- A senior Republican senator has warned President-elect Donald Trump against softening U.S. policy toward Russia, saying any "reset" of relations would be a dangerous move.

The comments by John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee and a persistent critic of Russia, suggest tensions between Trump and congressional Republicans who want tougher action against Moscow.

McCain on November 15 alluded to a telephone conversation between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which Putin called for improved bilateral ties.

McCain said: "We should place as much faith in such statements as any other made by a former KGB agent who has plunged his country into tyranny, murdered his political opponents, invaded his neighbors, threatened Americas allies, and attempted to undermine Americas elections."

McCain also alluded to outgoing President Barack Obama's attempts to mend ties with Russia after Moscow's invasion of Georgia in 2008. he effort was known as a "reset."

"At the very least, the price of another 'reset' would be complicity in Putin and [the] butchery of the Syrian people," he said.
A group of migrants clashed with Serbian police as they tried to enter Croatia on their way to Western Europe.

Some 100 migrants broke a Serbian police cordon on November 14 and tried to enter Croatia across fields, but were stopped by police forces from both countries, who encircled them in the no-man's-land, witnesses said.

The migrants, largely from Afghanistan and Pakistan, marched for two days on the highway some 125 kilometers from the Serbian capital, Belgrade, and arrived at the border on November 13.

They said they did not want to return to reception centers in Serbia, complaining about living conditions, and demanded free passage to Western Europe.

Croatian Interior Minister Vlaho Orepic said Croatia would not allow illegal entry to the migrants.

Serbian Interior Minister Nebojska Stefanovic said his country would not allow the migrants to block highways and border crossings to cross into "another country which would not take them."

According to the United Nations refugee agency, around 6,400 migrants from countries such as Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan are registered in Serbia. But local nongovernmental organizations say the number is close to 10,000.

Based on reporting by AP and Reuters
NATO wants dialogue with Russia, the chief of the alliance said ahead of talks with EU defense ministers in Brussels.

"Russia is our biggest neighbor, Russia is there to stay," Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on November 15. "And especially when tensions run high and especially when we face many different security challenges, it is important to have dialogue."

But Stoltenberg insisted that NATO "will never respect or accept the violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine."

Moscow's relations with the West have plunged to levels of acrimony unseen since the end of the Cold War following Russia's military seizure of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March 2014 and an ensuing war between Kyiv's forces and Russia-backed separatists.

Stoltenberg also said he was sure that President-elect Donald Trump would meet all U.S. commitments to the alliance. "A strong NATO is important for Europe but it's also important for the United States," he said.

Trump caused concern during his election campaign when he called NATO "obsolete" and said he would withhold U.S. support from alliance members unless they increased military spending and "fulfilled their obligations" to the United States.

On November 14, President Barack Obama said he was sure Trump would stand by U.S. security commitments.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP
WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Barack Obama says Donald Trump has indicated strong backing for NATO, despite statements to the contrary made by the Republican during his successful election campaign.

Obama said on November 14 that he and Trump had a useful and "free-flowing conversation" when the two met last week, two days after Trump's stunning victory over Hillary Clinton.

Speaking to reporters ahead of his final foreign trip as president, Obama was asked what he will tell foreign leaders about Trump's faith in the NATO military alliance.

Obama replied, "There is no weakening of resolve when it comes to America's commitment to maintaining a strong and robust NATO relationship."

During the election campaign, Trump suggested that NATO members need to invest more into the alliance. He also suggested that the United States might not come to the defense of NATO members if they didn't increase their military spending.

Obama said that during their meeting Trump "expressed a great interest in maintaining our core strategic relationships." He said that included "strong and robust NATO" partnerships.

Obama's remarks contrast with those he made during the final weeks of the election campaign, when he derided Trump as a man unfit to handle the codes that U.S. presidents use to authorize nuclear missile attacks.

The outgoing president was also asked about past criticism by Trump and some Republicans in Congress that the landmark deal that curbed Iran's nuclear ambitions should be torn up. Iran's president, and other officials, have voiced repeated concern in the days since Trump's election that the agreement might be rejected.

Obama said the deal was successful and continued to curtail Tehran's ability to build nuclear weapons.

"It becomes more difficult to undo something thats working, then undo something that isnt working," Obama said. "When youre not responsible for [the agreement], you can call it a terrible deal. But when you are responsible for it...you are more likely to look at the facts."

Obama will travel to Germany, Greece, and Peru during his final trip as president.
U.S. President Barack Obama said that President-elect Donald Trump had expressed his commitment to maintaining the United States' strong relationships with its NATO allies. Speaking in Washington on November 14 before the last foreign trip of his presidency, Obama also emphasized the importance of a smooth transition of power to the incoming president. (AP)
In this episode of Heard It From Her we spoke with Pavla Holcova, the founder and director of the Czech Center for Investigative Journalism. Among the centers major projects was a collaboration with RFE/RL contributors Khadija Ismayilova and Nushabe Fatullayeva looking into the financial dealings of Azerbaijans first family. She told us about how a stretch under house arrest in Cuba led to her start in investigative journalism, and about how she sleuths out official corruption and other dodgy deals some high profile figures would rather keep secret.

Read The Reports:

An Azeri Enclave in the Czech Republic

Balkan Organized Crime Sets up in the Czech Republic

Panama Papers:The Czech Republic
Russia's security service says it has detained five suspects with ties to the Islamic State (IS) extremist group who were plotting to carry out attacks in the country.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) said on November 15 that it had "thwarted the activities of a group created to perpetrate crimes of a terrorist and extremist nature" in Moscow and the North Caucasus region of Ingushetia.

"Five members of this criminal group were detained as a result of an operation," during which five firearms, two homemade bombs, and various types of ammunition were found at the suspects' homes, a statement said.

It did not specify when or where the operation took place.

The FSB said on November 12 it had detained 10 people with alleged links to the IS group and accused them of planning terrorist attacks in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

It said the suspects were detained in an operation in conjunction with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Based on reporting by AFP and AP
The arrest of Economic Development Minister Aleksei Ulyukayev -- the most senior official to face trial in post-Soviet Russia -- threatens to shake the country's political and economic structures to their foundations.

Moreover, while the particulars of the case relate to the controversial sale of a $5 billion chunk in one state-owned oil company to another, analysts suggest the real risk could be the government's planned selloff of a major share in the world's largest publicly traded oil company, Rosneft, and the fortunes of the Kremlin insider who runs it.

"The moral and psychological consequences will be similar to those that came with the arrest of [former oligarch Mikhail] Khodorkovsky in 2003," Valery Solovei, a political science professor at the Moscow State Institute of Foreign Relations (MGIMO), told RFE/RL in a reference to the exiled former Yukos oil CEO and Putin critic who spent a decade as Russia's best-known prisoner.

Ulyukayev was detained overnight on November 14-15 on suspicion of accepting a $2 million bribe in exchange for approving the state's sale of the Bashneft regional oil company to Rosneft, which is also controlled by the Russian state. President Vladimir Putin fired him on November 15, the Kremlin said, after a court ordered him placed under house arrest.

Rosneft is effectively controlled by Igor Sechin, a member of Putin's closest inner circle who is widely considered one of the most powerful people in Russia.

Putin said in September that the government hoped to bring in $11 billion with the sale of a 19.5 percent stake in Rosneft, which was to be overseen by Ulyukayev.

"It seems clear that this whole matter will, if not stop the privatization of Rosneft entirely, at least make it much more difficult," said Moscow-based political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin. "The privatization would, on the one hand, weaken Sechin's position as head of Rosneft and, on the other, help the government's economic managers to solve the budget-deficit problem."

Falling Revenues

Russia has seen budget revenues plummet amid a prolonged drop in global oil prices and economic woes brought on in part by Western sanctions over Moscow's seizure of Crimea from Ukraine and Russian countersanctions.

"After the latest events, it is perfectly obvious that there will be much fewer players who are willing to buy into Rosneft and defend their stockholder interests against Sechin," Oreshkin added. "So I am sure that the privatization of Rosneft will be postponed, if not entirely canceled."

Prosecutors were quick to state publicly that Rosneft was not under investigation and that the Bashneft privatization was not in question.

But Mikhail Krutikhin, a partner in the RusEnergy consulting firm, suggested that Ulyukayev's arrest was "a beautiful way out of an ugly situation" for Sechin that will "close the matter of a Rosneft deal."

Unable to control the privatization, Krutikhin speculated, Rosneft could have come to see Ulyukayev's arrest as "Plan B."

Novaya Gazeta quoted unnamed law-enforcement sources as saying that Oleg Feoktistov, the head of security at Rosneft and a high-ranking Federal Security Service (FSB) officer who was seconded to the company, actively participated in the investigation against Ulyukayev.

Rosneft spokesman and longtime Kremlin-friendly state-television commentator Mikhail Leontiev told Gazeta.ru that the arrest of Ulyukayev was "excellent work" by the security services.

Rise Of The Siloviki?

More broadly, Ulyukayev's arrest could signal the ascendency of the so-called siloviki bloc -- shorthand for those connected with the security agencies and the military -- over relative liberals in the sphere of economic policy, said Solovei.

Ulyukayev, 60, was a member of the economic-reform team of 1990s acting Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar. He is considered an advocate of the liberalizing reforms -- including reducing the role of the state in the economy -- advocated by former Putin-era Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin.

"Not many people realize that there is an alternative economic program that one might call 'moderately directed,'" Solovei told RFE/RL. He suggested that scheme was "being prepared with the support of the siloviki and the oil companies."

Solovei distinguished the siloviki program from the "fully directed," state-dominated economic model advocated by leftist presidential adviser Sergei Glazyev. That model, he argued, is a red herring, intended to make the siloviki proposals seem more moderate.

"Since the government liberals were standing in the way of the 'moderately directed' model, it would seem that they struck at the weakest link," Solovei said. "Ulyukayev does not have particular influence in this arena and doesn't have powerful connections."

'Preemptive Strike'

Moreover, Solovei cited unconfirmed speculation that Ulyukayev planned to resign in the near future over disputes with Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.

"They carried out a preemptive strike in order to show what happens to anyone who stands in their way or dreams of some sort of 'cursed liberal reform,'" he alleged.

Asked whether the arrest of Russia's economy minister could rattle foreign investors and darken the investment climate, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, "I don't think so," according to the TASS news agency.

"On the contrary," Peskov said, "understanding that the fight against corruption, irrespective of positions, is held on a regular and consequential basis, is an extra plus to the investment appeal of any country."

"It is absolutely clear that Russia's prestige and the investment climate will not be improved by this development," analyst Oreshkin said. "That is, the victories of administrative influence are achieved by sacrificing real economic growth. Under the current system of power, the most important people are those with their hands in the vault, rather than those who are concerned with making sure the vault is full."

Written by RFE/RL correspondent Robert Coalson based on reporting by RFE/RL Russian Service correspondents Valentin Baryshnikov and Lyubov Chizhova


Russian President Vladimir Putin has fired Economic Development Minister Aleksei Ulyukayev, whose arrest on charges of large-scale bribe taking has jolted Russias ruling elite.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on November 15 that Putin dismissed Ulyukayev due to a "loss of trust," Russian news agencies reported.

Ulyukayevs dismissal comes less than 24 hours after he was detained on charges of taking a $2 million bribe for facilitating state-owned oil giant Rosneft's takeover of another state-held oil company, Bashneft, in October.

His arrest sent shock waves through the countrys ruling elite.

A Moscow court on November 15 ordered Ulyukayev under house arrest.



Ulyukayevs detention in connection with the case is the highest-level arrest to have occurred during Putins 16 years in power and has stunned the political and financial classes. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said it was beyond my comprehension.



The charges come amid a high-profile antigraft campaign and recent shake-ups among senior Russian officials that observers have tied to the presidential election due in March 2018, in which Putin is widely expected to seek a new six-year term.

Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for Russias federal Investigative Committee, said Ulyukayev "was caught red-handed as he received a bribe."



The agency, a Russian analogue of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, said Ulyukayev has been charged with extortion and "grand bribe taking" and that it asked the court to allow him to be held under house arrest.

Moscow's Basmanny District Court on November 15 granted that request, ordering Ulyukayev to remain under house arrest until mid-January.



Ulyukayev's lawyer, Timofei Gridnev, said that Ulyukayev has "not admitted his guilt" and that he thinks his detention is "a provocation against a state official." Russian investigators also said Ulyukayev has denied that he is guilty.



The Investigative Committee said the case was initiated after Rosneft reported extortion of $2 million.



It added that Bashneft's $5 billion sale to Rosneft is indisputable.

Rosneft is controlled by Igor Sechin, a Kremlin insider who is regarded as one of the most powerful people in Russia.



Medvedev told pro-Kremlin lawmakers on November 15 that "what has happened" in the Ulyukayev case "is beyond my comprehension" but added that "neither a minister, nor a lawmaker, nor a governor, nor any other state servant has immunity if they are involved in corruption-related crimes," the state-owned TASS news agency reported.

Medvedev issued a statement earlier in the day calling for a "thorough investigation" and said he had discussed Ulyukayev's case with Putin. He also appointed Deputy Economy Minister Yevgeny Yelin as acting economy minister.



The criminal charge Ulyukayev faces is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.



Aleksandr Shokhin, head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, which is often labeled "the oligarchs' union," said he believes Ulyukayev is innocent.



"This could trigger a serious government shake-up," he told Gazeta.ru.



Ulyukayev, 60, has overseen the massive privatization of state companies, capped by regional oil firm Bashneft's sale to state-controlled Rosneft in a controversial deal last month.



The deal was postponed in August after Ulyukayev and other ministers objected to Rosnefts participation, arguing that a state company cannot participate in a privatization process. Putin himself intervened, ruling that Rosneft could participate because it is partially owned by British Petroleum.



Rosneft was the only bidder for the stake after rival Lukoil dropped out shortly before the deadline.



Interfax quoted an unnamed law-enforcement source as saying the government is not investigating Rosneft. Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontyev told TASS that no one is questioning the Bashneft privatization, which was "absolutely aboveboard."



Ulyukayev was appointed economic development minister in 2013 and had been deputy chairman of Russia's central bank for a decade before that. He is seen as a member of the more liberal camp in circles surrounding Putin, who observers say seeks to maintain power and control by balancing various forces in the elite and playing them off one another.



Ulyukayev's detention is the latest in a spate of high-profile official corruption cases in Russia in recent weeks. In June, then-Kirov Oblast Governor Nikita Belykh was arrested and accused of accepting a 400,000 euro bribe. In September, Interior Ministry Colonel Dmitry Zakharchenko was arrested after police found $120 million during a raid on his Moscow apartment.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Russian Service, Reuters, TASS, AFP, Interfax, and Business FM
Russia says jets from its aircraft carrier have launched their first strikes on Syria.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the Russian Air Force started a "major operation" on November 15 against positions of the Islamic State group and the former Al-Qaeda branch in the Idlib and Homs provinces.

"For the first time in our naval history, the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov started taking part in combat," Shoigu also said at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin.

The warship was deployed in the eastern Mediterranean last month.

Meanwhile, air strikes hit rebel-held areas in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo for the first time in three weeks.

Syrian state television and activists reported that the strikes were conducted by Syria's air force.

Russia has been carrying out air strikes in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces for more than a year.

Based on reporting by AFP, Reuters, and AP
The lead prosecutor for the International Criminal Court has for the first time said the simmering conflict in Ukraine should be considered an international armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.



As a practical matter, the determination by Fatou Bensouda, issued on November 14, will change nothing on the ground in eastern Ukraine, where fighting between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces has increased and decreased since April 2014 and continues despite cease-fire deals.



Nor will it change Russia's annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which has been rejected by the vast majority of United Nations member states. Moreover, Russia is not a member of The Hague-based court, whose mandate includes prosecution of war crimes and related crimes. Ukraine is also not a member, though it has accepted the courts jurisdiction on a limited basis.



But the finding, included in a report released November 14 by Bensouda's office, adds legal heft to arguments in Ukraine, and much of the West, that Russia is to blame for instigating the war.

"According to information received, the situation in the Crimea and Sevastopol is equivalent to the international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation," the report said. "This international armed conflict started not later than February 26, when the Russian Federation employed members of its armed forces to gain control over parts of the territory of Ukraine without the consent of the government of Ukraine."



Sevastopol is a Crimean port city and the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.



The report labels the situation in Crimea an occupation by Russian forces and highlights the plight of Crimean Tatars, who have faced persecution, kidnappings, and killings on the peninsula for their opposition to the Russian annexation.



It also concludes that shelling by both sides in eastern Ukraine and Ukraines detention of Russian military personnel there points to direct military engagement between Russian armed forces and Ukrainian government forces that would suggest the existence of an international armed conflict.



Russia has repeatedly denied its forces are involved in the conflict, despite overwhelming evidence documented by international observers, journalists, and others.



The finding that the fighting constitutes an international armed conflict could also trigger more legal scrutiny for how prisoners of war are treated, as well as heightened protections for civilians affected by the fighting.



The report was released as part of an annual accounting of the preliminary investigations that ICC investigators have conducted in 2016. Under the court's rules, if the prosecutor concludes there is enough evidence to merit a full investigation, he or she must then seek court authorization.



The United Nations says at least 9,600 people have been killed in the conflict in eastern Ukraine since April 2014 and hundreds of thousands displaced.
ON MY MIND

I'm still trying to unpack the arrest of Economic Development Minister Aleksei Ulyukayev. But here are some initial thoughts.

Somebody as powerful as Ulyukayev just doesn't get arrested in Russia unless they crossed somebody even more powerful.

Ulyukayev is the highest official arrested in Russia since 1991, and possibly the first minister since 1953!

If the Investigative Committee's version of events can be believed, that Ulyukayev extorted a bribe from Rosneft, then he clearly crossed Igor Sechin. In that case, it would be all neat and clean and Sechin would walk away victorious.

But the fact that this case is tied up in the highly politicized Bashneft privatization, and Rosneft's efforts to acquire that firm (which makes it an odd "privatization," in which one state company acquires another), makes all sorts of intrigue possible.

Could somebody be trying to undermine Rosneft's acquisition of Bashneft and Ulyukayev got caught in the crossfire? It's plausible. We'll just need to wait for more data points to emerge.

IN THE NEWS

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed battered bilateral ties between their countries in the first phone call between the two men since Trump's election last week.

U.S. President Barack Obama says Donald Trump has indicated strong backing for NATO, despite statements to the contrary made by the Republican during his successful election campaign.

The United States has added six Crimean representatives newly elected to Russia's parliament to its sanctions blacklist for supporting Moscow's illegal annexation of the Ukrainian territory in 2014.

Poland says it will build a new territorial defense force of 53,000 volunteers by 2019 in order to guard against threats from Russia.

Russia's Economic Development Minister Aleksei Ulyukayev has been detained for extorting a bribe

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has called for a "thorough investigation" over the detention of Ulyukayev, the government press service says.

Russia's economy contracted by 0.4 percent over the past year, authorities say, indicating that while it remained in recession it appears to be stabilizing.

Russia's Defense Ministry says a MiG-29K fighter jet has crashed in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Syria after taking off from the deck of Russias Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has expressed his outrage to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry about the refusal to grant a U.S. visa to Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the president of the World Chess Federation.

Two close allies in Ukraine of Georgias former President Mikheil Saakashvili have resigned from their posts, just days after Saakashvili himself stepped down from his post as the governor of Ukraines Odesa region.

Hundreds of people took to the streets of Moldova's capital on November 14 after a pro-Russia politician was declared the winner of the country's presidential runoff election.

WHAT I'M READING

More Trump-Russia Fallout

What kind of deal might Putin and Trump make? In his column for Republic.ru, Moscow-based political analyst Vladimir Frolov weighs in on the possibilities.

In a piece on the Brookings Institution's website, Fiona Hill, co-author of the book Operative In The Kremlin, writes that "Putin and the Kremlin are experts at reading the popular mood. And they were watching America."

In his column for The Washington Post, Jackson Diehl writes that how Trump handles Putin will be one of the first indications of whether the liberal world order is in jeopardy.

In a piece for CAPX, veteran Kremlin-watcher Edward Lucas, author of the book The New Cold War, compares the Trump and Putin worldviews.

And Kevin Rothrock has a piece up on Global Voices looking at how Russia's opposition is viewing Trump's victory.

The Liberal World Order In Peril

Timothy Garton Ash has a piece in The Guardian on what the West needs to do to resist the wave of antiestablishment populism.

The New York Times looks at Angela Merkel, the last best hope for the Western world.

In his column for Bloomberg, political commentator Leonid Bershidsky argues that Europe is not quite ripe for a full-blown populist revolution.



The Pacific Council on International Policy interviews Agnia Grigas, a fellow at the Atlantic Council and author of the book Beyond Crimea: The New Russian Empire, on Trump, Russia, and the future of Europe's security architecture.

The Minister's Arrest

RBK looks at what was behind the arrest of Economic Development Minister Aleksei Ulyukayev.

Cadres Decide Everything!

In a piece in Vedomosti, Moscow-based political analyst Nikolai Petrov looks at the impact of recent personnel changes in the Kremlin.

Putin Vs. 'Putin'

In a piece for Intersection Magazine, Tatiana Stanovaya argues that Russia has become a country of "little Putins." (available in English and Russian)

"For many years, the entire structure of the regime was based on loyalty to a physical entity. Nowadays, Putin the physical entity is separate from 'Putin' as a set of values for Russia's salvation; Putin's ideology. But the system cannot distinguish between those who back Putin and those who support 'Putin' as a virtual, eternal value. 'Putin' cannot have a heart attack tomorrow, it does not age or grow tired. It is eternal," Stanovaya writes.

The Kiriyenko Factor

Also in Intersection Magazine, Vladislav Inozemtsev looks at the reasons and consequences of Sergei Kiriyenko's appointment as deputy Kremlin chief of staff in charge of political management. (available in English and Russian)

New SRB Podcast

The new SRB Podcast, hosted by Sean Guillory of the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies, looks as "Stalin, Clans, and Terror." Sean's guest is UCLA professor Arch Getty, author of the recently published book Practicing Stalinism: Bolsheviks, Boyars, and the Persistence of Tradition.
KYIV -- Ukrainian authorities locked down the heart of the capital on November 15 as hundreds of demonstrators protested outside government buildings over poor economic conditions and rising prices for vital necessities such as natural gas and bread.

Police vehicles and officers in riot gear blocked streets around Kyiv's government quarter and stood guard with bomb-sniffing dogs in front of the presidential administration, the central bank, and parliament, where crowds braved freezing cold to demand lower utility prices and higher pensions.



Government officials claimed the protests marked the start of a Kremlin-orchestrated plan to "destabilize" Ukraine, which faces economic difficulties and a simmering war against Russia-backed separatists who hold parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces in the east.



Organizers of the protest included leaders of Opposition Bloc -- created from the remnants of the defunct party of former President Viktor Yanukovych, who was driven from power by protests known as the Euromaidan and fled to Russia in 2014 -- and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna party.

"Three years after the [Euromaidan protests], we can say that Ukraine's clan system has been revived. Unfortunately, we again have a president who is an oligarch of the highest level," Tymoshenko said of President Petro Poroshenko in a call to protest published on the party's site on November 14.



Her critics claimed she was merely fomenting unrest to further her own political ambitions, though some participants told RFE/RL that they had heeded Tymoshenko's call to protest out of frustration with the government. Others, however, said they were apolitical and had come out to earn some money.

Anya, a 60-year-old pensioner who declined to give her last name because she feared having her $130-per-month pension taken away by the government for protesting, said she and her two friends answered an online advertisement that promised $5 for five hours of demonstrating.



Oleksandr Tkachuk, chief of staff of Ukraine's domestic SBU security service, said that security was particularly tight because the authorities fear that the protests marked the start of a Kremlin-managed plan to undermine the government by supporting former political allies of Yanukovych and encouraging early parliamentary elections.



"We have previously stated that we have the information proving Russias attempts to hijack Ukrainian politics and internal affairs, exploit different grievances to provoke mass revolt and destroy the existing political system," Tkachuk told RFE/RL.



He was referring to a document leaked by Ukrainian hackers last month which they claim was taken from the e-mail of a senior aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The document's authenticity has not been confirmed.



"It does not necessarily mean that today's demonstrations are completely organized by Russias puppets," Tkachuk added. He provided no specific evidence of a Russian role in the protests.



Many analysts believe Russia is continuing to seek to foment divisions and instability in Ukraine after forcibly seizing the Crimean Peninsula in March 2014 and backing the separatists in eastern Ukraine, where the conflict has killed more than 9,600 people since April 2014. But observers also say that Poroshenko's government uses warnings about a Russian threat to deflect criticism over pressing problems such as corruption and economic troubles.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called for Washingtons "resolute support...in countering Russian aggression," as he and President-elect Donald Trump spoke by telephone for the first time since the U.S. election.

In a statement posted on November 15 to his website, Poroshenko said he was ready to work with Trump's new administration to strengthen bilateral ties.

He said the two agreed to meet in the future and that the groundwork was being laid for Poroshenko to visit Washington early in 2017. However, Poroshenko did not mention a specific date.

The statement said Poroshenko also stressed the need for Washingtons support for Ukraine to implement "crucial reforms."

It made no mention of Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia seized and illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

That annexation has been rejected by the United States and nearly all United Nations member states.

There was no immediate comment from Trump's transition team about the phone call.

The conversation came one day after Trump held a similar talk with Russia's President Vladimir Putin and both issued optimistic statements abuout the prospects of improving U.S.-Russian relations.
The United States has added six Crimean representatives newly elected to Russia's parliament to its sanctions blacklist for supporting Moscow's illegal annexation of the Ukrainian territory in 2014.

The six -- Dmitry Belik, Andrei Kozenko, Konstantin Bakharev, Svetlana Savchenko, Ruslan Balbek, and Pavel Shperov -- were all elected on September 18 to represent the Black Sea peninsula and its naval port of Sevastopol.

The elections were "illegitimate," the U.S. Treasury said on November 14, adding that the sanctions announcement follows similar action against the six by the European Union.

They were complicit in policies "that threaten the peace, security, stability, sovereignty, or territorial integrity of Ukraine," it said.

The move was part of "maintaining pressure on Russia until it respects the security and sovereignty of Ukraine," said John Smith, acting director of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

"Treasury will continue to sanction those individuals involved in Russia's annexation of Crimea and its destabilizing activities in Ukraine," he said.

The sanctions bar Americans and U.S. corporations from doing business with the six. Any assets they have on U.S. territory are also frozen.

With reporting by AFP
A group of 18 major corporations, including big names such as Microsoft, Walmart, Best Buy, Ikea, Staples and Mars Inc., among others, have sent a letter to state lawmakers and the Virginia State Corporation Commission calling for an explicit legal framework to expand access to renewable energy from utilities and third-party sellers.

The letter was included last week as part of public comment on a request to the commission by Appalachian Power for a voluntary, 100 percent renewable energy rider that will come before the commission for a hearing today. Opponents contend the measure is actually aimed at thwarting competition from third-party providers and financiers of renewable energy in the utilitys Southwest Virginia service area.

As global companies providing products and services to consumers around the world from our operations in Virginia, we value not only a reliable and affordable electricity supply but also a clean one, says the letter, which does not reference Appalachian Powers rider request directly but requests further expanding options for companies to procure renewable energy in the commonwealth.

Virginia currently lacks the specific legal pathways for companies to enter into power-purchase agreements with non-utility energy service providers, including third-party financing, which is attractive because it spares companies major upfront capital expenses and the risk associated with operation and maintenance, the letter says.

The companies request more choice, including the ability to negotiate direct arrangements; cost-competitive renewable energy tariffs; subscriptions to community solar projects; and other policy mechanisms tailored to the needs of large buyers.

The current regulatory landscape in Virginia for renewable energy creates a degree of legal doubt that makes financing difficult to obtain, said Walton Shepherd, a staff attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental nonprofit.

The bottom line is all you need is a little uncertainly to prevent a market that is otherwise a mature market elsewhere, he said. Its just enough to quash it. ... Its booming everywhere else but in Virginia, and large global businesses are taking notice.

State law says that customers can purchase electricity provided 100 percent from renewable energy from any supplier of electric energy licensed to sell retail electric energy within the commonwealth ... if the incumbent electric utility serving the exclusive service territory does not offer an approved tariff for electric energy provided 100 percent from renewable energy.

Critics argue thats why Appalachian Power is pushing its tariff program, to stifle the entrance of third-party power providers, also known as competitive service providers. Such providers can either negotiate a deal to install solar panels on a residents or businesss roof and lease them to the owner, or build their own solar arrays or wind farms off-site and then sell the power to businesses, community organizations or other purchasers through long-term agreements.

A typical small business or individual customer does not have the option to shop except to use this 100 percent renewable energy section in the code, said William Reisinger, a former assistant Virginia attorney general now in private practice representing the Maryland-D.C.-Virginia Solar Energy Industries Association.

The trade association partly opposes the rider because APCO is relying on existing wind and hydroelectric power in its portfolio, all from other states, to meet the renewable requirements rather than building new renewable generating capacity.

In our opinion, theyre signing up to pay an excessively high price for energy they are already receiving, Reisinger said.

The rider would also prevent other third-party providers from entering APCOs service area and negotiating arrangements with customers, opponents argue.

They are not proposing to build any new renewable facilities with this rider. Not one. Not a single kilowatt of new energy, said Cale Jaffe, director of the University of Virginias Environmental and Regulatory Law Clinic, which represents Appalachian Voices, another opponent of the rider. (Theyre) just going to shuffle some papers and repackage those as a renewable tariff. ... A rider that inhibits competition and inhibits free market choices for renewable energy, thats a step backward.

John Shepelwich, an APCO spokesman, said the company is indeed repackaging existing generation but plans to add additional renewable generation from wind and solar over the next 10 to 15 years. He said no competitive service providers are currently offering 100 percent renewable services to APCO customers.

Its not like were out there trying to shut out somebody. The offers not out there to begin with. Were actually the first to make the offer, he said, calling the opposition unfortunate.

Much of the opposition has kind of been based on misinformation or a misunderstanding at best, Shepelwich added.

In Dominion Virginia Powers service area, which includes much of the rest of the state, the utility offers a state-sanctioned pilot program for wind and solar facilities on a customers property, though it still carries restrictions, including a 50-megawatt cap systemwide and limits on how much each customer can generate.

The legislation authorizing the program says a customer who wants to purchase electricity from a third party must utilize the pilot program in Dominions territory; otherwise, the customers supplier must provide 100 percent of the load requirements.

Dominion fully supports the development of renewable energy and we have many renewable energy options available to our customers, the company said in a statement, pointing to the pilot as well as net metering, which allows customers with renewable power resources like solar panels to connect with the grid and pay only for their net usage. Dominion also participates in a solar purchase program, which helps customers cover the cost of installing solar generation.

In 2015, APCO sought a separate, experimental rider that would have allowed participating nonresidential customers to enter into contracts with third-party developers to install and maintain renewable power generation on their properties, though the customer would have been required to continue to purchase all of his or her electricity from the utility and pay the third-party generator in exchange for a renewable output credit determined by market price of renewable energy.

In August, the commissions hearing examiner recommended that the commission deny the rider request, which APCO subsequently withdrew over the objection of groups like the Southern Environmental Law Center, which wanted the commission and courts to settle legal questions surrounding who can enter into power purchase agreements with third-party providers.

We ended up being in the curious position of opposing the application and opposing the request to withdraw, said Will Cleveland, an SELC attorney who said APCOs proposed plan would have allowed the utility to dictate all aspects of the agreements. We wanted the courts to provide clarity on these legal issues.

But that clarity may be coming.

Mark Rubin, executive director of the Virginia Center for Consensus Building at Virginia Commonwealth University, has been mediating meetings between utilities, electric cooperatives, the solar industry and environmental groups and other interested parties since last spring, with the goal of putting forward policy recommendations during the upcoming General Assembly session.

The meetings have been really excellent, said Rubin, also a former counselor to Gov. Tim Kaine. The folks have been working together, from my experience, quite well. Were working through a number of very complex issues.
A driver is facing charges after an SUV hit a Chesterfield school bus Tuesday.

According to police, a stolen SUV ran a stop sign and collided with the bus about 8 a.m. at the intersection of McRae and Rattlesnake roads.

Five J.G. Hening Elementary School students were on the bus, a Chesterfield County Schools spokesman said.

None of the students was injured.

The SUV driver is facing charges of DUI and possession of a stolen vehicle, police said.
A Richmond man who faces multiple felony charges in a shooting in South Richmond on Saturday turned himself in Monday night, police said.

Milton A. White Jr., 22, of the 3400 block of Clydewood Avenue, is charged with breaking and entering, maliciously discharging of a firearm within a dwelling, and using a firearm in the commission of a felony.

On Nov. 12 about 10:45 p.m., officers responded to the 4900 block of Orcutt Lane for a report of a person shot. They found a man suffering from a gunshot wound inside a home. The man was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Anyone with information is asked to call Major Crimes Detective Amira Sleem at (804) 646-3871.

You also can contact Crime Stoppers by calling (804) 780-1000, going online to www.7801000.com or by sending a text message to 274637, using the keyword iTip followed by the tip.

All Crime Stoppers methods are anonymous.
Former Gov. Bob McDonnell will join Regent University in January as a distinguished professor in government, the school announced Tuesday.

McDonnells legal ordeal surrounding federal corruption charges came to an end earlier this year following a unanimous Supreme Court ruling vacating his convictions.

He is returning to the Virginia Beach-based school where he received his law degree.

We are delighted to welcome Governor McDonnell back to Regent University, the schools chancellor and founder, Pat Robertson, said in a statement.

As we train students to serve in government, law and other disciplines, McDonnell will bring his extensive public service experience as an Army officer, prosecutor, state legislator, attorney general and governor.

A release said McDonnell, Virginias 71st governor who served from 2010-2014, will teach in the Robertson School of Government and will help establish a Governors Center for Federalism and Civility, an initiative to assist the states in understanding their role in a federal society.

Teaching is something that Ive often considered throughout my years of public service, McDonnell said in the statement released by the school.

During my painful journey through the justice system after I left the governors office, I came to the realization that politics and polls are much less important than people and policies, he added. Im eager to engage with Regent students and faculty in and out of the classroom, and I hope that my experiences can inspire others to consider careers in public service.

Once considered a possible vice presidential running mate to Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, McDonnells term as governor was marred by a federal corruption investigation into his relationship with the favor-seeking CEO of a Henrico County dietary supplement company who lavished the family with more than $177,000 in gifts and loans.

In September 2014, a federal jury in Richmond convicted him on 11 counts and his wife, Maureen, on nine counts. The trial judge later threw out one of Maureen McDonnells convictions on a charge of obstruction of justice.

Bob McDonnell was sentenced to two years in prison but remained free while his legal team pursued his case. They argued that McDonnell never used his office for personal gain. They said prosecutors and the judge presiding in the case overreached in defining what the defense termed routine political conduct as corrupt behavior.

In June the U.S. Supreme Court threw out McDonnells convictions. In September, the federal prosecutors declined to retry the former governor, whose legal bills after more than three years are said to be in the millions.

Since leaving office, McDonnell has worked as a business consultant for companies such as Bay Mechanical and The ESG Companies in Virginia Beach. Last year, along with his sister, Maureen, he formed The McDonnell Group, a business consulting firm. He also serves on the local boards of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce and Samaritan House.
The U.S. Justice Department has filed a brief in a lawsuit raising constitutional concerns about Virginias policy of automatically suspending drivers licenses when people cant afford court costs and fines.

Last week, the Justice Department filed a statement of interest in a class-action case against the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, brought this summer by the Legal Aid Justice Center, a Virginia nonprofit, on behalf of four people whose licenses were suspended because of a failure to pay costs, fines and fees assessed by courts.

The statement of interest advances the United States position that suspending a drivers license is unconstitutional if it is done without providing due process and without assessing whether the individuals failure to pay was willful or the result of an inability to pay, the Justice Department said in a statement. As the Supreme Court has affirmed, the constitution prohibits punishing a person because of his or her poverty.

The suit alleges that the state relies upon suspension to coerce payment of money owed to the courts.

While those who can afford to pay generally do, for those who cannot, suspension of their drivers licenses is automatic and mandatory upon default, without inquiry into the reasons for nonpayment or consideration of the debtors financial circumstances.

The Legal Aid Justice Center says that more than 900,000 Virginians had suspended drivers licenses because of unpaid costs or fines last year, according to information obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. In the same year, the DMV issued 366,773 suspension orders for those reasons, with about 40 percent of the underlying offenses wholly unrelated to driving, the center said.

For many, this means giving up their only mode of transportation to work, forcing them to choose between losing their jobs and risking incarceration for driving illegally, the center says.

There are about 5.7 million regular drivers licenses issued by the state, the DMV says, not including nearly 209,000 commercial drivers licenses and about 167,000 active learners permits. As of Sept. 1, there were 647,517 licenses suspended for just failure to pay fines and costs, the DMV said.

The federal brief maintains that a drivers license is a constitutionally protected interest under clear Supreme Court precedent that cannot be suspended without adequate notice and a meaningful opportunity to be heard first.

Drivers licenses are essential for people to work and get health care, Vanita Gupta, principal deputy assistant attorney general and head of the Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. License suspensions for reasons that are unrelated to public safety unnecessarily disrupt lives, she added.

This brief advances the departments robust efforts to prevent unlawful practices that punish poverty at every stage of the justice system and that trap vulnerable residents in cycles of debt from court fines and fees, Gupta said.

The Virginia Attorney Generals Office had no comment on the brief, said Michael Kelly, a spokesman.

However, in a memorandum in support of a motion to dismiss the suit, filed last month, the state argued that the plaintiffs are making a policy argument, not a legal one, since it is Virginia state courts and court clerks who issue suspension orders in accordance with state code, not the DMV commissioner.

State law says that any person, whether licensed by Virginia or not, who drives a motor vehicle on the highways in the commonwealth shall thereby, as a condition of such driving, consent to pay all lawful fines, court costs, forfeitures, restitution and penalties assessed against him for violations of the laws of the commonwealth; of any county, city, or town, or of the United States.

At the time of conviction, courts are directed to order people who cant fully pay fines and costs within 30 days to pay in installments in individual arrangements with the clerk of court.

Failure to do so results in an automatic suspension, though drivers can pay a fee to have their license reinstated and enter into a payment program with the court. Drivers can also petition for restricted licenses that allow them to get to work.

Clerks are required to send drivers written notice of the suspension of the license, effective 30 days from the date of the conviction, if fines and costs are not paid. The notice can be provided at the time of trial or sent by mail. Courts also have discretion to give defendants more time to pay their costs, the state argues.

Although plaintiffs have set forth what could be described as a persuasive argument that courts should give indigent criminal defendants greater latitude with respect to the imposition or repayment of fines and costs, what they have presented is, at its heart, a policy argument  and this is not a policy-making forum, the filing says.

It is a court of law, and it is legal standards that govern whether this case must rise or fall. And by every legal standard that could conceivably be applied, their suit fails.

A new rule from the Supreme Court of Virginia that takes effect Feb. 1 is intended to ensure that all courts approve deferred and installment payment plans in accordance with state law and to further the legal values of predictability, fairness and similarity in the collection of fines, court costs, penalties and restitution throughout the courts of the commonwealth.

It sets out definitions for fines and costs and installment payment plans and requires courts to offer defendants who are unable to pay to be offered some type of deferred or installment payment plan.

Courts cannot deny payment plans because of past defaults or a referral to collections, among other criteria, and must provide written notice of all available payment alternatives and community service programs.

The rule also sets limits on down payments, allows payments made within 10 days of the due date to be considered timely, and requires courts to take into account the defendants financial resources in light of the defendants financial obligations, including defendants indigence, as well as the fines and costs the defendant owes in other courts, among other provisions.

Though Angela Ciolfi, an attorney with the Legal Aid Justice Center, called the rule a very positive step forward, she said it wont affect the merits of the suit, which is scheduled for trial on Dec. 11, 2017.

The Justice Department brief signals that this is a civil rights issue with national implications, she said.
Gov. Terry McAuliffe has headed overseas for a nine-day trade mission to the Pacific Rim. The governor has worked hard to advance Virginias exports, but his efforts this time will face headwinds from the election of Donald Trump.

Republicans in Congress have given up on completing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal that would have substantially lowered foreign tariffs on American goods. The TPP was not only one of the largest trade deals in history, it represented a rare and commendable example of bipartisan cooperation in Washington. To his credit, President Obama pushed relentlessly for its enactment, not only because of the gains it would bring to the U.S. economy but also because it would help counteract Chinese hegemony in the region.

Trumps intransigent opposition to free trade has convinced those on Capitol Hill that efforts to keep the TPP going are hopeless. Hillary Clinton also had voiced opposition to the pact, but her stance was an opportunistic reversal of her previous position, driven largely by the unexpected success of Bernie Sanders insurgency during the Democratic primaries. On most issues Trump has been as inconstant as a weather vane, but trade is an unfortunate exception.

The 12 nations in the TPP account for more than 40 percent of U.S. agricultural exports. Passage of the TPP would have slashed foreign tariffs on Virginia peanuts by 736 percent, cut foreign duties on Virginia pork by 388 percent, and lowered tariffs on Virginia-produced wheat and other products by 30 percent or more.

McAuliffe will be visiting Japan, one of Americas largest trading partners, but Japans taxes on American-made goods is nearly three times the U.S. tax on Japanese goods, and in some cases 20 times as high. The TPP would have lowered Japanese tariffs substantially  e.g., by zeroing out that countrys current 20 percent tariff on ground and seasoned pork. No matter how good a salesman McAuliffe might be, he wont be able to do anything about Japanese tariffs that raise the cost of U.S. goods. The same goes for another TPP country he will visit: Australia, which imposes a duty of almost 9 percent on imported clothing.
BONN, GERMANY and VIENNA, AUSTRIA--(Marketwired - Nov 15, 2016) - Deutsche Telekom ICSS http://www.telekom-icss.com and DIMOCO Messaging http://www.dimoco.eu today announced their partnership in the Application-to-Person (A2P) SMS business. With a contractual framework affording direct connection to Deutsche Telekom's network, DIMOCO Messaging clients can now quickly, directly and reliably reach 156 million mobile consumers via A2P messaging in 50 countries across the globe.

DIMOCO Messaging powers communications between companies and consumers through their preferred SMS channel. Leveraging direct connectivity to Deutsche Telekom ICSS, DIMOCO Messaging's A2P solutions play a significant role in bringing simplification and efficiency to consumer communications. Marketing campaigns, user authentication as well as alerts and reminders are just a few examples of what is possible in the A2P market.

This deal comes at a time when the A2P market has become increasingly central to the SMS landscape. A2P's percentage of overall worldwide SMS traffic has skyrocketed from 11.7 percent in 2010 to 22.4 percent in 2015 and opened new business possibilities. Not ending there, the number of A2P messages is expected to reach 1.76 trillion annually by 2018, according to Portio Research. In addition, the value of the global A2P messaging market is projected to increase from $55 billion in 2015 to $60 billion by 2020, as Juniper Research reports.

"DIMOCO Messaging continues to strengthen its position on the international A2P mobile messaging market", says Mathias Hollerl, DIMOCO Messaging Managing Director. "We see an increasing demand for communication solutions from our clients that require fast and reliable message delivery. The partnership with Deutsche Telekom ICSS reaffirms the high level of trust in our company among major international players and allows us to expand our offering and fulfill clients' requirements for mission-critical and time-sensitive application-to-person (A2P) messaging using the ICSS global footprint. The excellent experience we've had in our co-operation with ICSS has resulted in another partnership with their SMS+ solution."

"We have had a long-lasting business relationship with DIMOCO as a client for our SMX one-way product, which provides SMS termination to a long list of international networks and also includes P2P as well as A2P traffic", says Gergely Vadas, Head of Mobile World at Deutsche Telekom ICSS. "With our SMS+ transit solution they now receive a solution that perfectly fits DIMOCO's requirements for providing best-in-class A2P messaging products to their global customers base. Thanks to SMS+ transit DIMOCO obtains added-value in terms of more destinations, higher quality and more flexibility regarding billing.

"With SMS+ transit, DIMOCO can now reach the mobile networks of Deutsche Telekom and its partners as well as its affiliates in Europe and outside of Deutsche Telekom's footprint through partner networks. This is a complete, high-availability solution from one provider that offers fast, reliable, secure and quality termination of messages."

About DIMOCO Messaging

DIMOCO Messaging provides carrier-grade, high quality messaging products enabling businesses to communicate to their customers on a truly global scale. DIMOCO leverages relationships with mobile network operators and in-country partners to offer clients direct connectivity while combining local market expertise with fast message delivery. http://www.dimoco.eu/press.html

About Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom is one of the world's leading integrated telecommunications companies with more than 156 million mobile customers, 29 million fixed-network lines and around 18 million broadband lines (as of December 31, 2015). The Group provides fixed-network/broadband, mobile communications, Internet and Internet-based TV products and services for consumers, and ICT solutions for businesses and corporate customers. Deutsche Telekom has a presence in more than 50 countries and employs about 225,200 people worldwide. The Group generated revenues of 69.2 billion euros in the 2015 financial year -- roughly 64 percent of it outside Germany. For further information, see http://www.telekom.com

About International Carrier Sales & Solutions (ICSS)

International Carrier Sales & Solutions (ICSS) is one of the world's leading carriers and an innovation driver for IP-based solutions. As an integral part of Deutsche Telekom's International Wholesale Business Unit, ICSS serves the international wholesale requirements of the DT Group with its international affiliates and more than 860 external customers worldwide. One of the units' core competencies is to focus on building business partnerships around the globe. With years of experience in the international wholesale communication market, ICSS has the expertise to provide clients with tailor-made solutions. The innovative technologies are offered on a global basis with a special emphasis on Europe. The cutting-edge offerings of ICSS include the following business segments: Internet & Transport: Enable a connected society by partnering with one of the premier European Internet and content players. Mobile World: Mobilize your customers' lives with innovative and profitable solutions from ICSS, a premium mobile enabler. Carrier Enterprise Services: Securely connect your customer's global sites with a major European multi-service provider. Global Voice: Excellence and innovation with scale from the international market leader for retail voice termination. For further information, see http://www.telekom-icss.com.

Picture material:

Mathias Hollerl, DIMOCO Messaging Managing Director

High Resolution: http://dimoco.at/fileadmin/user_upload/Presse/2016/160711_ROCCO_report_high_res.jpg

Low Resolution: http://dimoco.at/fileadmin/user_upload/Presse/2016/160711_ROCCO_report_low_res.jpg

DIMOCO
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
RICHMOND 

Legislators reacted with disbelief and fury Monday to their state watchdog agencys report about the quasi-independent Virginia Economic Development Partnership.

The report documents a long history of operating with little oversight or accountability for the taxpayer money that VEDP uses to attract new businesses, expand established ones, and promote Virginias trade interests abroad.

The report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission warns that the partnership has left the state vulnerable to fraud by failing to establish policies for awarding incentive grants to new and expanding businesses or requiring them to perform to their requirements, despite giving out nearly $400 million in incentive grants over the last 10 years.

We spend boatloads of money [on economic development] every year, said House Appropriations Chairman Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, a member of the legislative commission. To read this really made me sick to my stomach.

Jones said he supports the reports recommendation that the General Assembly withhold $1.5 million in the current state budget and tie future appropriations to improved performance.

Theyve got a lot of proving to do before Im willing to allocate any more dollars to them, he said at the end of a 90-minute presentation of the staffs findings and 35 recommendations.

Political issue

The report immediately became an issue for next years gubernatorial campaign as House Majority Leader Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights, denounced the globe-trotting, ribbon-cutting economic development approach of Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, who was on a trade mission to the Pacific Rim. Ed Gillespie, one of four candidates for the GOP nomination for governor, released a statement calling it a damning critique of McAuliffes administration.

But even Republican members of the commission acknowledged that the problems documented by the report had been rooted in the history of the partnership.

It was created in 1995 under then-Gov. George Allen, a Republican, as an authority insulated from much of the oversight required of state agencies.

One of the worst things here is the culture and the pattern over many years, said Del. John OBannon, R-Henrico, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee.

McAuliffe said in a statement, It is my hope that we can work collaboratively with members of the General Assembly and other stakeholders to reform VEDP to ensure better management of taxpayer dollars and more accountability throughout the organization.

McAuliffe said he has instructed members of his administration to review the JLARC report and identify opportunities, either through legislative or executive action, to maximize the impact of Virginias economic development efforts.

House Speaker Bill Howell, R-Stafford, called the report very disappointing.

VEDP lacks the basic practices necessary for effective management and marketing of Virginias economic development activities, Howell said in a statement. It is important that we do everything we can to get VEDP back on the right track so that Virginia can remain competitive when attracting new jobs and investment.

Reorganization plans

The partnerships newly revitalized board of directors is embroiled in a reorganization and search for a new executive director to replace Martin Briley, who left in March after revelations that VEDP had awarded a $1.4 million grant in 2014 to what turned out to be an illegitimate company that had proposed a manufacturing operation in Appomattox.

While it is humbling for many to see the shortcomings of the old VEDP catalogued in black and white, it is encouraging to see that our vision for an improved VEDP that we embarked on in 2015 is shared by JLARC, said Daniel Gundersen, interim president and CEO, in a Nov. 4 letter to Orrock.

An investigation by The Roanoke Times found the partnership had relied partly on a company website that published false information and included a North Carolina address where the company never had been present. After the newspapers Jan. 17 publication of its findings, the 20-year-old partnership adopted policies for the first time to ensure due diligence in vetting prospects.

The partnerships internal research staff first raised concerns about due diligence in 2011, the same year Briley was appointed under the administration of Gov. Bob McDonnell, the study said.

Who did they take it to? Jones asked heatedly. Who made the decision to blow it off?

The lack of written policies and procedures left the state with little proof that the companies had created the jobs, wages and capital investments promised, or that they were required to repay the money when they failed.

To me, this is just wide open for criminal activity, said JLARC Chairman Del. Bobbie Orrock, R-Caroline.

Proposed solutions

Among proposed solutions is the creation of a separate division within VEDP to administer incentive programs and ensure compliance with their terms. But the agencys interim leadership and JLARC staff disagree on whether the authority has taken enough steps in that direction.

VEDP said it had created a full-time position for an incentives coordinator in September and had made plans to create an incentives management unit, but JLARC staff said the partnership previously had not revealed such a plan.

Similarly, the partnership said it has already implemented written policies and procedures for tracking incentive performance and verifying that companies perform according to their commitments.

But JLARC said the new policies for four of the 10 incentive programs are too vague to be actionable and to ensure staff are making decisions in a consistent and transparent manner, or consistently monitoring and verifying project performance, enforcing clawbacks [to return money to the state], and granting extensions only to the extent appropriate.

Management critique

The report says VEDP is not an efficiently or effectively managed organization. It said the agencys leadership provides little guidance and training to employees, and exercises lax oversight of whether they are working the hours or producing the results for which they are paid what JLARC described as above-average wages for a state agency.

It also rebukes the board of directors for not meeting its requirements as a body that is supervisory, not merely advisory, or even being aware of four previous consultant reports dating to 2011 that identified many of the management problems documented in the report.

JLARC said the most effective division of VEDP has been its international trade operation, which the General Assembly voted this year to move into a separate executive agency next April. The JLARC report cautions against creating the Virginia International Trade Corp., which it said could worsen already poor coordination between the states primary marketing services and its primary export promotion services.

Its the only one thats working, responded Del. Steve Landes, R-Augusta, vice chairman of the Appropriations Committee and sponsor of the bill to move the operation into a separate organization.
Faraday Future

Faraday Future has stopped work on its $1 billion factory in North Las Vegas, Nevada.

The secretive, Chinese-backed automotive startup said it would build its future electric, autonomous vehicles at the plant, after holding a groundbreaking ceremony there in April.

Since then, Faraday Future has hit some speed bumps  including falling behind on millions of dollars in escrow payments meant to cover costs for the plant.

AECOM, the contractor overseeing the project, said it may resume work at the site in early 2017, according to a statement obtained by Jalopnik on Monday.

The factory project was expected to create 4,500 jobs in the economically depressed region minutes from the Las Vegas Strip.

A Faraday Future representative told Business Insider late Monday that the company is "refocusing efforts" on its upcoming production vehicle in the meantime.

In an email to Business Insider last month, Faraday Future said business between the startup and AECOM was "strong" and that it was "committed to building [the] factory of the future in North Las Vegas."

In that same statement, the company asserted that both companies were "working diligently to resolve the overdue payment."

Faraday Future groundbreaking 1

According to comments from Nevada state treasurer Dan Schwartz cited in the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Sunday, it appears that little progress was made in that endeavor. "We've expressed concerns from the beginning that Faraday didn't have the funds to undertake or complete this project," Schwartz said. "Within the last several weeks, our concerns remain unabated."

Though some Nevada state officials emphatically supported the Faraday Future project, Schwartz was one of its earliest skeptics.

The company's primary investor, Jia Yueting, sent a letter to employees earlier this month saying "We sped blindly ahead ... our cash demand ballooned. We got overextended in our global strategy. At the same time, our capital and resources were in fact limited," Bloomberg reported.

Story continues

Jia is the chairman of Beijing-based tech company, LeEco, which made a splashy US debut in late October. LeEco is also planning to build its own electric, self-driving car.

Faraday Future has been teasing its upcoming production vehicle over the last several months. It's expected to make its official debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

NOW WATCH: Everything we know about the Tesla Model 3





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A team of World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) officials participating on behalf of the World Diamond Council (WDC) in events during the Plenary meeting of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) which takes place in Dubai, UAE, from November 13  17, WFDB reported.

Other WFDB members will be attending the five days of meetings and discussions as observers. The events include a panel discussion as part of the Third Forum on Rough Diamond Evaluation hosted by KP Chair Ahmed Bin Sulayem, and a Special Forum on synthetics or man  made diamonds.

The Forum on Rough Diamond Evaluation will discuss a generic set of valuation criteria for rough diamonds between industry stakeholders. The meeting will build on discussions from the two previous meetings held on the subject, with the last taking place in Antwerp in October. Meanwhile, the second event aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the current state of synthetic diamond production and its possible effects on the natural, mined diamond sector.

"Rough diamond evaluation is a difficult subject, so discussing valuation criteria is extremely helpful, "said WFDB President Ernie Blom.

"As for the synthetics topic, there will be panels featuring top-line participants from across the diamond pipeline. We will be receiving the latest estimates on synthetic production and then having an in-depth discussion on the subject. I believe that this is the perfect time, during the KP Plenary meeting, which will hear reports on many important issues relating to conflict diamonds, to discuss wider topics pertaining to our business," Blom added.



Alex Shishlo, Editor of the Rough&Polished European Bureau in Brussels




After the government imposed a surprise ban from Nov 8th 2016 on 500- and 1,000 denomination rupee notes, forcing the countrys unaccounted money to be channeled into hard assets, there was a boost in the gold and jewellery business in the country.

Official gold price remained relatively stable, while the unofficial rate climbed significantly.

Indians have until December 30 to deposit the old currency notes in their bank accounts; but if they want cash they can only exchange new notes up to the value of $60. Theres also a limit on the amount of new notes individuals can withdraw, set at $150 per day and $300 per week.

According to the Indian government, it took the unprecedented step in an attempt to curb financing of terrorism and other subversive activity such as espionage, smuggling of arms, drugs and other contrabands into the country.

As far as diamond industry is concerned, the impact will be more evident in demand trends rather than drying up liquidity. However, local jewelers are enjoying the sudden boost in demand.



Aruna Gaitonde, Editor-in-Chief of Asian Bureau, Rough & Polished




Addressing the Kimberley Process Plenary in Dubai, Andrey Polyakov, President of the World Diamond Council (WDC) praised the success of the Kimberley Process in weeding out conflict diamonds from the legitimate diamond trade and promised to render technical and financial assistance to the diamond industrys watchdog.

Noting that throughout its 16-year history, the Kimberley Process (KP) has been repeatedly criticized for its cumbersome structure and slowness in decision-making, the speaker said that even though not everything was perfect, the KP coped with its main task - to protect the market from conflict diamonds. The latest example is the ongoing support for a successful resolution of the situation in the Central African Republic. Well-timed and concerted actions of the KP allowed to stop the export of conflict stones and in fact continue to contribute to the hopeful conclusion of the armed conflict in the country, WDC president said.

For those who think KP is no longer of use, I believe its never ending importance was again underlined this year. The story of CAR brings positive news not only to the diamond market. Its value is far bigger - as out of the CARs 4 million population, 1 million people rely on the diamond industry for their livelihood. With the resumption of legitimate trade, the budget of CAR started receiving much awaited income from diamond mining and begin economic recovery. Many people of CAR can finally get a legitimate job, he added.

This example once again demonstrates that the actions of the KP determine not only the future of the diamond market, but also the state of regional economies, and most importantly  the lives of millions of people relying on the diamond industry, Andrey Polyakov said.

Mentioning rough diamond valuation as one of the biggest challenges today, he pointed out that lack of practical experience and qualified specialists, as well as fragmented approaches towards valuation prevent some countries to efficiently and accurately assess potential revenues, thus creating space for non-transparent operations with rough diamonds. It is obvious that this problem is very complex, but nothing is easy on the right path, and I am glad to witness the KP paying appropriate attention to it, he said.

WDC will continue on its mission to further protect the integrity and reputation of the Kimberly Process. Promoting the KP to the main stakeholders and general public, and creating an understandable supply chain transparency in support of the KPCS, constitute an integral part of the WDC Strategic Plan, adopted in April 2016, WDC president added.

But we have decided that our responsibility needs to reach even further. Being the unified industry representative in the KP, WDC has always advocated the ability of our members to self-regulation. With the aim to improve industry transparency and consumer confidence, the WDC created the System of Warranties, which extends the confirmation of non-conflict origin of rough diamonds further down the chain to the final consumer. Currently the WDC discusses the possibilities of improving the SoW and making it more solid and up-to-date, Andrey Polyakov continued.

It goes without saying that within the KP, the WDC will continue to provide technical and financial assistance as well as the Administrative Support Mechanism implementation. We will represent the diamond industry in the KP committees, review visits and on other occasions. In particular, the WDC reaffirms its readiness to lead the work of the WGDE and hopes for its candidacy to be re-approved for the next term, he said.

Theodor Lisovoy, Rough&Polished, Moscow




HNTB

HNTB Corporation (HNTB) has promoted Joseph Guzzi, PMP, to Pennsylvania office leader.

Guzzi is based in the firms Philadelphia office and brings more than 38 years of experience in client services and project management, representatives say. According to HNTB spokesman David Fridling, Guzzis effective start date in his new role was Nov. 4, 2016.

He serves the firms multi-disciplinary transportation infrastructure practice, leading more than 150 Pennsylvania-based professionals in four offices throughout the state. As office leader, he now manages planning, directing and implementing client relations and oversees major projects in Pennsylvania.

Joes extensive knowledge and experience with Pennsylvanias transportation infrastructure is of great value to our clients, said Mike Sweeney, PE, president of HNTBs Northeast division. Pennsylvania has many opportunities to improve mobility, and we are confident in Joes ability to provide leadership for solving tough issues and helping deliver complex transportation programs.

Guzzi joined the company in 2007 and has since played a vital role in supporting HNTBs rail and transit clients and in growing the rail and transit practice in the east, officials say. He has also managed complex mega and design-build projects for HNTB, working as client service leader for several Pennsylvania clients.

Before he joined HNTB, Guzzi served as division engineer for Amtrak in Philadelphia and manager of engineering maintenance and construction for the CP Rail / D&H Railway in Albany, N.Y.

Throughout his career, Guzzi has managed more than $1 billion in capital and maintenance railway infrastructure programs, representatives say.
Kansas City Southern

David L. Starling, who recently retired as President and CEO of Kansas City Southern, now has an intermodal terminal named after him.

KCS on Nov. 11 re-named its intermodal facility in Wylie, Tex., the David L. Starling Wylie Intermodal Terminal. It was Daves vision that brought this facility to fruition, so it is appropriate that it be renamed in his honor, said Patrick J. Ottensmeyer, who succeeded Starling on July 1, 2016. We greatly appreciate Daves service and direction as CEO over the past six years. KCS performance during his tenure as CEO is truly remarkable, and much of the companys success can be attributed to his leadership. KCS wishes Dave and his wife, Candace, the very best in retirement.

The David L. Starling Wylie Intermodal Terminal opened for operations on July 13, 2015 serving domestic and international intermodal customers. The terminal brings a relatively new gateway to Wylie and Collin County, offering KCS customers the opportunity to move their goods to a national and international market by way of this world-class facility, KCS said.

With more than 40 years in the transportation business, Starling, Railway Ages 2012 Railroader of the Year, acquired substantial experience in the North American rail industry and in intermodal and global shipping logistics. He began his railroad career in 1971 with the St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad (Frisco) and during the next 14 years held various positions in rail operations at the Frisco and later Burlington Northern (BN) when the Frisco was merged into BN. In 1988, he joined American President Lines (APL) as managing director of stack train operations for the Chicago region and later the Southern region.

From 1993 to 1994, he served as managing director of the Philippines for APL and was responsible for all regional functions including financial, legal and governmental relations.

In 1995, Starling became APLs managing director for Hong Kong/South China region, then later became vice president for Central Asia, responsible for China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

In 1999, he relocated to Panama and was named President and Director General of KCS subsidiary Panama Canal Railway Company (PCRC), with responsibility for the reconstruction of the railroad and its subsequent operation. In July 2008, he joined KCS as President and Chief Operating Officer and The Kansas City Southern Railway Company (KCSR) as a director, President and CEO. In May 2010, he was elected to the KCS board of directors and in August 2010 named CEO.
The Swiss stock market ended the first session of the new trading week with a small increase. The market got off to a strong start, but pared its gains over the course of the morning and slipped into the red around midday. However, the market managed to pop back into the green in late trade.

Financial stocks were among the best performers throughout Europe Monday. The banks provided a boost to the Swiss market, but the weak performance of the index heavyweights limited the market's upside. The early struggles on Wall Street also had an impact on investor sentiment.

The Swiss Market Index increased 0.21 percent Monday and finished at 7,896.85. The SMI reached an intraday high of 7,976 points. The Swiss Leader Index climbed 0.84 percent and the Swiss Performance Index added 0.12 percent.

Credit Suisse was the top gainer of the session, with an increase of 5.9 percent. UBS advanced 5.5 percent and Julius Baer gained 3.0 percent. The prospect of less regulation on banks during a Donald Trump presidency in the U.S. drove the sector higher.

Cyclical stocks were also among the gainers at the start of the trading week. LafargeHolcim rose by 2.1 percent. The cement group will hold its investor conference on Friday. Adecco increased 2.9 percent, Actelion climbed 3.6 percent and Aryzta added 3.7 percent.

Shares of Sonova finished higher by 1.1 percent. The hearing system manufacturer reported increased sales and operating profit in the first half of the year, meeting analysts' expectations. The company also reaffirmed its full year forecast.

The index heavyweights all finished in the red Monday. Novartis decreased 0.5 percent and Roche surrendered 0.4 percent. Novartis is reportedly considering the sale of its struggling Alcon eye care division. Shares of Nestle also dropped 1.0 percent.

SGS and Schindler each weakened by 1.8 percent. Sika declined 1.3 percent, Lonza forfeited 1.0 percent and Syngenta lost 0.8 percent.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Market Analysis
Harman International Industries (HAR) announced Monday morning that it has agreed to be acquired by Samsung Electronics for $112.00 per share in cash, or approximately $8.0 billion.

Harman International Industries gapped up sharply Monday, but was range-bound throughout the session. Shares finished with a gain of 22.07 at $109.72 on the highest volume of the year. The stock soared to a new high for the year.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway disclosed after the bell Monday that it has invested in four airline companies. The company has purchased stakes in American Airlines Group (AAL), United Continental Holdings (UAL) Southwest Airlines (LUV) and Delta Air Lines (DAL).

American Airlines is up 1.85 on 251K shares after the close. Southwest is rising 1.51 on 850K shares and Delta is advancing 1.53 on 226K shares. United Continental is also higher by 1.41 on 52K shares.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
Australia will on Wednesday release Q3 figures for wage costs, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. In the previous three months, wages were up 2.1 percent on year and 0.5 percent on quarter.

Australia also will see October results for new motor vehicle sales, as well as the leading index from Westpac.

Motor vehicle sales in September were up 2.5 percent on month and 0.8 percent on year, while the leading index added 0.1 percent on month.

Japan will release Q3 numbers for housing loans; in the second quarter, loans gained 2.4 percent on year.

Thailand will provide Q3 figures for gross domestic product; in the second quarter, GDP expanded 0.8 percent on quarter and 3.5 percent on year.

Singapore will see October numbers for imports, exports and trade balance. In September, imports were worth 32.43 billion SGD and exports were at 39.40 billion SGD for a trade surplus of 7.06 billion SGD.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Economic News

What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
Lundin Mining Corp. (LMC,LUN.TO), a Canadian base metals mining company, announced Tuesday that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its indirect interest in TF Holdings Limited to an affiliate of BHR Partners, a Chinese private equity firm.

The consideration includes $1.136 billion in cash and contingent consideration of up to $51.4 million. The contingent consideration consists of $25.7 million if the average copper price exceeds $3.50 per pound and $25.7 million if the average cobalt price exceeds $20 per pound, both during a 24-month period beginning on January 1, 2018.

The consideration to be received by Lundin Mining is equal to the implied value of the Company's stake in TF Holdings based on the transaction between Freeport-McMoRan Inc. and China Molybdenum Co., Ltd. announced in May, the company said.

TF Holdings is a Bermuda holding company that owns an 80 percent interest in Tenke Fungurume Mining S.A. Lundin Mining has an indirect 30 percent interest in TF Holdings and therefore, an effective 24 percent interest in Tenke.

In connection with the deal, Lundin Mining has waived its right of first offer to acquire Freeport's indirect interest in TF Holdings.

The Transaction is subject to the receipt of certain regulatory approvals, the completion of Freeport's sale of its interest in TF Holdings to CMOC and other customary closing conditions. A termination fee of $100 million is payable to Lundin Mining in certain circumstances, including upon termination of the Transaction due to the failure to obtain necessary regulatory approvals.

The Transaction is expected close in the first half of 2017.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
US President Barack Obama has said his successor is committed to maintaining the United States' core strategic relationships, including NATO.

At a White House press conference Monday before embarking on his last official foreign tour, the outgoing president said that in his conversation with Donald Trump, the President-elect expressed a great interest in maintaining America's core strategic relationships.

"And so one of the messages I will be able to deliver is his commitment to NATO and the Transatlantic Alliance. I think that's one of the most important functions I can serve at this stage, during this trip, is to let them know that there is no weakening of resolve when it comes to America's commitment to maintaining a strong and robust NATO relationship, and a recognition that those alliances aren't just good for Europe, they're good for the United States, and they're vital for the world," Obama told reporters.

He later left for a week-long three-nation trip that covers Greece, Germany and Peru.

Obama said he looks forward to his first visit in Greece. "And then, in Germany, I'll visit with Chancellor Merkel, who's probably been my closest international partner these past eight years. I'll also signal our solidarity with our closest allies, and express our support for a strong, integrated, and united Europe. It's essential to our national security and it's essential to global stability. And that's why the Transatlantic Alliance and the NATO Alliance have endured for decades under Democratic and Republican administrations."

"Finally, in Peru, I'll meet with the leaders of countries that have been the focus of our foreign policy through our rebalance in the Asia Pacific. This is a time of great change in the world. But America has always been a pillar of strength and a beacon of hope to peoples around the globe. And that's what it must continue to be," Obama told reporters.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Political News
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) said that new results from the Phase 3 Oral Psoriatic Arthritis TriaL (OPAL) studies, Broaden and Beyond, will be presented at the 2016 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting from November 11 to 16 in Washington, DC.

OPAL Broaden and OPAL Beyond evaluated the efficacy and safety of Xeljanz, or tofacitinib citrate, in adult patients with active psoriatic arthritis or PsA who had an inadequate response (IR) to conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs or to tumor necrosis factor inhibitors, respectively.

Pfizer noted that OPAL Broaden and OPAL Beyond met their primary efficacy endpoints, showing a statistically significant improvement with tofacitinib 5 mg and 10 mg twice daily compared to treatment with placebo at three months as measured by American College of Rheumatology 20 (ACR20) response.

OPAL Broaden, which was a 12-month duration trial with a three month placebo-controlled period, evaluated the efficacy and safety of tofacitinib 5 mg and 10 mg BID compared to placebo in adult patients with active PsA who had an IR to at least one csDMARD and who were TNFi-naive.

OPAL Beyond focused exclusively on the TNFi-IR patient population. In both studies, patients who were initially randomized to placebo advanced to tofacitinib 5 or 10 mg BID in a blinded manner at three months.

Michael Corbo, Chief Development Officer, Inflammation & Immunology, Pfizer Global Product Development said, "As the only JAK inhibitor being investigated in psoriatic arthritis, tofacitinib, if approved, would provide patients and healthcare professionals the first medicine in a new class to treat this disease. We continue to progress the OPAL clinical development program globally and look forward to possible future regulatory filings."

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
US President-elect Donald Trump spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time after he won the election last week.

The Trump Transition team said in a statement that Putin called Trump to offer his congratulations on winning a historic election. "During the call, the two leaders discussed a range of issues including the threats and challenges facing the United States and Russia, strategic economic issues and the historical U.S.-Russia relationship that dates back over 200 years."

The US President-elect, who had praised Putin during the election campaign, told the Russian President that he is very much looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and its people.

A Kremlin statement said the two leaders will try to normalize US-Russia relationship, which is currently "extremely unsatisfactory".

Putin, who was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Trump last Wednesday, agreed with the President-elect to stay in touch by phone and arrange to meet in person at a later date, the Kremlin added.

The top-level conversation coincided with a statement from US President Barack Obama, who said his successor is committed to maintaining the United States' core strategic relationships, including NATO.

The multi-nation western military alliance considers Russia as one of its potential threats, and maintains military bases in key European countries.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Political News
Matthew Harrigan, the chief executive of San Diego-based cyber security start-up PacketSled, has resigned after he posted on his Facebook page that he will assassinate President-Elect Donald Trump.

Harrigan posted "I'm going to kill the president. Elect," according to the Reddit copy of his Facebook comments.

PacketSled on Tuesday said it has accepted the resignation of President and CEO Matthew Harrigan, effective immediately. Fred Wilmot, the company's Chief Technology Officer, will serve as interim CEO while the Board of Directors conducts a search for a permanent replacement.

"We want to be very clear, PacketSled does not condone the comments made by Mr. Harrigan, which do not reflect the views or opinions of the company, its employees, investors or partners," the company said.

On Sunday, Harrigan tweeted on his Twitter handle that his post comments were meant to be a joke. "My humble apologies that a flawed joke has become public/out of context. My poor judgement (sic) does not represent the views of @packetsled," he said.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
Congresswoman Kristi Noem, R-S.D., announced Monday she will not seek re-election to a fifth term in the House and will instead run for Governor of South Dakota in 2018.

Noem, who was easily re-elected last week, said she is ready to work with President-elect Donald Trump on issues such as tax reform, repealing and replacing Obamacare, a new farm bill and reducing the size of government.

However, Noem praised the idea of temporary citizen legislators and said she does not want to make a career out of Congress.

The congresswoman said she will subsequently return to South Dakota and run for governor of the state rather than run for another term.

"I love South Dakota and believe our leaders have done a lot of things right," Noem said in a post on Facebook. "But we could use some fresh ideas from someone who has had to hustle to make a dollar and pinch a penny to make it last.

"This has been my experience for the majority of my life, as a farmer, rancher and small owner," she added. "That's why today, I'm asking for your support to serve as South Dakota's next Governor."

The Sioux Falls Argus Leader noted Noem's decision comes as a ballot measure approved last week prevents candidates for governor from collecting more than $4,000 a year from any person or political committee.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Political News
A first-of-its-kind journey along India and Pakistan border

What binds the two most talked about nations - India and Pakistan together? What makes the
GettyImages 609736750

Sen. John McCain seemed to warn President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday not to trust Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"With the US presidential transition underway, Vladimir Putin has said in recent days that he wants to improve relations with the United States," McCain said in a statement.

The Arizona senator added: "We should place as much faith in such statements as any other made by a former KGB agent who has plunged his country into tyranny, murdered his political opponents, invaded his neighbors, threatened America's allies, and attempted to undermine America's elections."

McCain, the Republican presidential nominee in 2008, added that Putin was aiding Syrian President Bashar Assad in a "barbaric war against the Syrian people."

"The Obama administration's last attempt at resetting relations with Russia culminated in Putin's invasion of Ukraine and military intervention in the Middle East," he said.

McCain added: "At the very least, the price of another 'reset' would be complicity in Putin and Assad's butchery of the Syrian people. That is an unacceptable price for a great nation. When America has been at its greatest, it is when we have stood on the side those fighting tyranny. That is where we must stand again."

McCain wasn't the only Republican senator attempting to influence the direction of Trump's foreign policy. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky on Tuesday urged the president-elect not to nominate John Bolton as secretary of state, calling the former UN ambassador a "menace."

Trump will take office as the 45th US president in January.

NOW WATCH: A model that has correctly predicted the presidential election since 1980 says Clinton will have a landslide victory





More From Business Insider


Several local companies successful in Best of the Best awards
After a memorable battle against his opponents, Selina from Moamoa has been crowned the 2016 Queen of Lip Sync at the annual Diva Competition.

The event was held at Maliu Mai Bar at Fugalei. The bar also hosts the weekly diva shows.

Four contestants competed against each other in three rounds, including many hit songs by their personal favourite divas and theatrical storylines about lost love, trust and girl-power.

The amusing hosts not only introduced the participants, but also made sure the audience was enjoying their performances.

The candidates were judged by faafafines who have all gained performance experience in several diva shows in Australia, New Zealand and other countries all around the world.

One of them took the stage before the winner was announced and impressed the crowd.

Last years queen also performed a series of songs, so the competing divas definitely learned by watching two experts.

The divas gave their heart and soul with powerful songs like Whitney Houstons One Moment in Time or Little Mixs Secret Love Song, but also showed off their dancing skills on stage to Taylor Swifts Picture To Burn.

But the Lip Sync was not only on international, well-known songs. During musical breaks, the divas acted dramatic storylines out, such as a fight between husband and wife over an affair.

Selina presented the plot with humorous facial expressions and gestures which resulted in many laughs from the audience.

In every round the faafafines beamed with new make-up, hair and elegant dresses.

Two contestants impressed with full physical involvement and took off their shirts during their hip-hop performance. The crowd could have not cheered louder.

Yet, Selina who stayed fully clothed was able to win the judges over and secured the crown of Queen of Lip Sync 2016.

The excited audience, which enjoyed delicious food served by Maliu Mais staff, included fellow faafafines, supporters, as well as families, foreigners and volunteers.
A senior Police officer, Tagaolo Iosefatu Wright, has been jailed for one year for stealing petrol from the Maritime Division of the Police.

The decision was delivered by Justice Vui Clarence Nelson in the Supreme Court last week.

Tagaolo was represented by lawyer, Leota Raymond Schuster while Lucy Sio appeared for the prosecution.

In respect of the three counts of theft of petrol you are accordingly convicted and sentenced to 12 months in prison, Justice Vui said in sentencing.

On the charge of theft of the plywood, to account for the fact that the sheets were returned, convicted and sentenced to 3 months in prison, concurrent term. Restitution monies of $1,000 to be released to Ministry of Police forthwith.

The defendant was found guilty of three counts of theft as a servant for stealing a total of 120 litres of petrol during 2014. He was also found guilty of theft as a servant for stealing four sheets of plywood in January 2015.

At the time the defendant held the rank of Superintendent and headed the Division. The petrol is used by the Police patrol vessel MV Nafanua and its smaller support craft.

The following is the decision by Justice Vui:

1. After a defended hearing, defendant was found guilty of three counts of theft as a servant of a total of 120 litres of petrol during 2014 and one count of theft as a servant of four sheets of plywood in January 2015. The said properties belonged to the Maritime Division of the Ministry of Police. At the time the defendant held the rank of Superintendent and headed the Division. The petrol and plywood were kept in the Oil Store of the Division compound at Matautu Wharf. The petrol is used by the Police patrol vessel MV Nafanua and its smaller support craft.

2. Defendants method of operation according to the evidence was that he would wait until the end of the day when few officers were on duty and no outsiders/strangers were in the compound. And then instruct one of his subordinate officers to siphon the petrol using a faagaau or hose from the 44-gallon drums in which it was kept into smaller 20 litre red coloured jerry-cans. These were then placed in the boot of his mini-van which he used to drive to and from work.

Although only three charges could be proven I was satisfied from the evidence of the many Police officers called that the defendant was engaged over a period of time in the systematic plunder of Police petrol for his own personal purposes. According to some of the witnesses this had been going on for years. I quote from the courts decision handed down on 09 September 2016 paragraph 16:

The evidence of many other police officers was to the same effect. The defendant habitually siphoned petrol from the 44-gallon drums into smaller jerry-cans which he took away. Not surprisingly the witnesses were unable to provide dates with any degree of accuracy but all agreed it was an ongoing practice engaged in by the defendant who was at the time in charge of the Police Maritime Division and the Motor Vessel Nafanua.

This behaviour according to the testimonies spanned 2014 and possibly earlier as well. Chief Electrician for the Nafanua Talia Nukulaelae recalls he did this six times on the defendants instruction over the period of his employment 2010 to 2014. The defendant was able to do this because no separate record was kept covering the ingoings and outgoings of the Division Oil Store. And because he kept the key.

3. The theft of the 4 sheets of plywood was different. This was one-off offending but again was carried out on the defendants instructions and under his supervision. Paragraph 32 of the decision:

Information S1369/15 charges the defendant with stealing from his employer the Ministry of Police four hardboard plywoods valued at $688.00.

The evidence of Senior Sergeant Simaile Tuatagaloa was that in January 2015 he witnessed the plywood and some wire mesh loaded onto a dyna truck belonging to Sergeant Avele Tuilaepa on the defendants instruction. The plywood came from the Oil Store and belonged to the Maritime Division.

It had been ordered for cyclone repair work to the Maritime Base. He said that when he returned from a meeting earlier that particular day, he saw what was happening so took a photo of the plywood and mesh wire in the tray of the dyna.

This was produced as Exhibit P-6 for prosecution. The Sergeant said he took the photo because many things had been happening but there was no evidence. At page 75 of the transcript of his evidence he says:

Ua tele mea ua ou vaaia, leai se mau maumau tutu o lea tulaga. Ona ou sau lea ou tau mai ai loa ile lauga plywood ia ma mea ia ei totonu o le loli a Avele ou sau loa pue le ata.

He also said in cross examination at page 82 that he had witnessed on some occasions the theft of petrol described by the other police officers.

4. When hearing the evidence I found it disturbing that the defendants subordinate officers including those of senior rank seemed to be part of a Police culture of blind loyalty and obeisance to superior officers.

Loyalty and obedience are qualities to be admired but not to the extent of turning a blind eye to what was potentially criminal behaviour on the part of a senior colleague. Only when an investigation was launched did these police officers then feel confident and assured enough to report what they had witnessed.

I have struck this in other cases involving Police officers and it is hoped that this kind of inexcusable, neglectful and dishonourable malaise can be permanently purged from the police psyche: and that Police officers of all rank be reminded of the terms of the sacred oath they took before God, the court and the people of this country, an oath which relevantly reads -

I do swear that I will well and truly serve the Independent State of Samoa without favour or affection; that I will prevent to the best of my power all offences against the same; and that I will to the best of my skill and knowledge discharge all the duties thereof faithfully according to law. So help me God.

An oath which Tagaolo deliberately and callously shredded into many little pieces.

5. The maximum penalty for each count of theft as a servant by virtue of section 165(e) and section 165(f) of the Crimes Act 2013 is 10 years imprisonment. The defendant has been found guilty of four counts of theft as a servant, three involving petrol and one involving four sheets of plywood.

While the monetary value of these materials is small, the criminality of the defendants offending in my view is not. He held a senior rank in the Police and in the Maritime Division, he was the Officer in Charge. The degree of responsibility vested in him was of the highest order. As was the trust bestowed upon him as a Senior Police Officer.
The man who was Acting Commissioner of Police, Samoa Mulinuu Mulinuu, has been suspended.

The decision has just been confirmed by the Acting Prime Minister, Tuitama Dr. Talalelei Tuitama.

The Acting P.M. did not provide details except to say that the suspension which became effective this morning is over irregularities within the Police Force.

Samoa was the Acting Commissioner when the Police arrested and charged suspended Police Commissioner, Fuiavailili Egon Keil on Monday.

Fata Aviga Salale is the new Acting Police Commissioner.

Details soon.
Wherever in the world Prime Minister Tuilaepa might be, he should seriously consider getting on the next flight to Samoa. Ideally we want him to stay and enjoy those international meetings to save the world.

But then again his children need him now more than ever. The fact is their little scrap has just gone from bad to worse in the past couple of days the people of this country have every reason to be alarmed.

And its no longer just a case of teething problems; were talking about an epileptic fit of gigantic proportion.

Yes, in the Ministry of Police today, everyone is throwing a fit so that just about all senior Police officers have been suspended for one reason or another. We are sincerely concerned that we might run out of senior Police officers to maintain law and order.

Whats more, the worry is that with these things there is the potential that it could explode. After all, anywhere there is smoke; fire is never too far away.

And with Police officers wielding such tremendous power and responsibility, if this fracas is not resolved sooner, we have every reason to be anxious. As long as Police officers are engaged in internal bickering and personal attacks driven by ulterior motives, no one is safe.

Now unlike Tuilaepa who thinks his kids are only just having a little fun, we say this is not fun at all. Its scary and these childish antics have become a major embarrassment for Samoa.

Weve gone from the political stability capital of the Pacific to the laughing stock of the world within a few days. Today we want to say we are neither proud of the behaviour of the Police nor accepting of the latest developments weve seen.

We dont need to tell you anymore about whats happening. The details about the multiple suspensions, the fighting and whats been going have been well told. Whats more, the unsigned letters, petitions from faceless police officers, officials who have only spoken to the media on the condition of anonymity and many other sources have painted a very unflattering picture of the Police.

Its been sad to watch.

To be brutally frank; it doesnt look like this mighty mess can be resolved internally. Its already spilled out so publically and the details will continue to leak as long as there are simmering differences.

Naturally, people will take sides and believe whatever they want. Which is okay.

From our standpoint at this stage, we are not so much interested in taking sides. Of course the truth will emerge and from there we will know exactly who has been doing what. The hammer will fall on where it needs to drop.

In the meantime, this madness has got to stop for the sake of this countrys reputation. Often we talk about coups and political problems elsewhere near and far. This is the start of something we dont want to think about the end if its not contained and sorted out now.

Which is why we believe Prime Minister Tuilaepa should come back and sort out this mess once and for all.

And if he does not, he should seriously listen to opposition Member of Parliament, Olo Fiti Vaai, who has called for a Commission of Inquiry to investigate what is going on.

The Member of Parliament is concerned about Members of the Public.

How can the Police investigate people and go out to deal with the public if they cannot deal with their internal issues? Olo said.

Now here is whats really worrying. You see, Olo compared the situation to an incident where a Cabinet Minister was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy between two fellow H.R.P.P members.

If we do not fix this someone might die from it, said the M.P.

We all know what happened in the past about the Minister who was murdered.

We should never forget about the past and if this problem is not fixed people will die from it and the government has done little to resolve it.

Well some people might say this is extreme and a bit alarmist but Olo has got a point. We can never ignore these things. Besides, if its true that history always repeats itself, weve got to be alert.

Lastly, the most obvious question is how did it become this bad?

This is not new in the Ministry of Police. How many times have we seen anonymous letters from police officers in the past about internal matters at the Ministry? Olo said.

All those letters were addressed to the Minister and the Prime Minister and all they did was brush them aside without really looking into the things that were raised.

The writers of those letters were not gossipers as they said. They were trying to alert the leaders of our country of the internal issues that they did not see and only heard rumours of.

The Minister in charge should have done something about it and take the accusations seriously instead of falling asleep and not doing his job to fix the internal issues of his Ministry.

Olo said it is disgraceful to see Police officers turn on each other.

It is such a disgrace that these internal issues are making headlines internationally. Its a reflection of bad leadership from the Ministry, the Minister and the government.

Olo has made some very legitimate points. This government will do well to listen and take his advice constructively. When the security of a nation is placed at risk  as it has been in this case - we need the leaders to stand up and take ownership of the problem and do something about it.

Whats happening in the Police cannot continue. On Monday when Police officers scuffled over the decision to charge the Commissioner, we saw the bad.

But this could still get very ugly. Lets pray it doesnt reach that. May God help Samoa!
Dear Editor,

This is starting to smell like a rat. Ten more concocted charges?

Now the police ministry is getting so, so small with the actions of those wannabe police commissioners faceless ghosts trying to fool others but never me; never ever me.

What is Tuitama Talalelei talking about here about Samoa being a peaceful country?

Before Fuiavailili Egon Keil came into the Ministry, a police officer was killed at Aana under the watch of Lilomaiava Fou Taioalo as Commissioner.

Long before Fuiavailili Egon Keil took up the post as Police Commissioner, Barbara Dreaver of TV NZ had reported about drugs and gangs.

Remember?

What did the government do?

It certainly came up with a game plan; Code of Silence and the Culture of Denial.

Denial it was a concocted story with actors paid for by TV NZ. But the killing of the police officer came after at Vailuutai.

Thats what you called peaceful Samoa cousin Tuitama Talalelei?

Oh yes he and I are cousins from Tuitama Fiaaluae and Isopo.

Stick to the development process cousin bro not the dirty Samoa police ministry smell of rats.

Tofaeono Joe Hollywood
One more senior Police officer has been suspended by Cabinet as the rift within the Ministry of Police continues to deepen.

The man who was Acting Commissioner of Police, Samoa Mulinuu Mulinuu, has become the latest to be suspended following an emergency Cabinet meeting yesterday.

The decision was confirmed by the Acting Prime Minister, Tuitama Dr. Talalelei Tuitama. Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi is overseas.

The Acting P.M. did not provide details except to say the suspension, which became effective yesterday is over irregularities within the Police Force.

We have just finished our meeting and I can confirm that hes suspended, said Tuitama.

Asked how long the suspension would be, Tuitama said that would depend on the circumstances.

The Acting Prime Minister also confirmed that an investigation would be launched into the irregularities Samoa is suspended over.

He could not confirm the details but said the Office of the Attorney General is working out the logistics.

Attempts to get a comment from the Office of the Attorney General were unsuccessful. Attorney General Lemalu Herman Retzlaff has just returned from overseas.

Contacted for a comment, Samoa confirmed he was not at work but he declined to say anything else.

In the meantime, Cabinet has endorsed Fata Aviga Salale as the new Acting Police Commissioner. He could not be reached for a comment.

But according to a Police officer who is not authorised to speak to the media, Samoas suspension is connected to charges and the manner in which Police officers arrested Police Commissioner, Fuiavailiili Egon Keil on Monday. A scuffle broke out among Police officers at the station when Fuiava was arrested over new charges.

The Commissioner, who has since been suspended (see other story) is facing one charge of incite and procure to murder and nine charges in connection to firearms. One firearm-related charge is in connection to an AK47 the Commissioner authorized to be used by the Tactical Operation Unit (T.O.S)."

Asked about Commissioner Fuiavas suspension yesterday, the Acting Prime Minister said the decision is in line with usual government policy.

The charges against the Commissioner are very serious and he should be suspended pending the investigation against him, he said. That was the decision made and the recommendation from the Attorney Generals Office to suspend him.

Samoa was the Acting Commissioner when the Police arrested and charged Fuiava.
Members of the public- it seems  are not in a hurry to choose sides in the ongoing feud within the Ministry of Police.

Following the second suspension of Police Commissioner, Fuiava Egon Keil based on fresh charges from the Police on Monday, members of the public the Samoa Observer spoke with yesterday are more interested in the Police getting their issues sorted.

Douglas Papu, 38, of Saoluafata, said the Police have given Samoa a bad name. Political stability is very important to Samoa but what theyve done is rocked that image, he said.

How can we expect a peaceful country if the Ministry of Police are at war?"

I pray all those corrupt officers will be removed from the ministry as soon as possible. Im not so sure of whos right and whos wrong but I pray that this matter will be solved soon.

Leota Lemusu, of Solosolo, said the clash highlights issues that have been bubbling beneath the surface for a long time.

I think there is too much dishonesty in the Ministry of Police nowadays, said the 86-year-old.

Looking at the way they are behaving, Im very disappointed. They have shown no respect at all. " I heard they fought against each other. Thats very low in my opinion. Leota said its time to call in Police officers from New Zealand and Australia to help.

Were not safe here anymore. Let them (Police in Samoa) fight and make sure to throw them all in prison.

Liki Ah Sam, of Saleimoa, said the people involved need to grow up. The problem with the officers in the ministry is that they have too much pride and that makes them blind to their own faults and shortcomings, the 48-year-old said.

No one is perfect. In fact, when we admit we are at fault, that shows that were growing up, we understand.

Paulo Amiga, from Falelauniu, is worried about a bigger issue.

Personally, I think the differences at the Ministry of Police will spill into fights between the families involved and that will be very bad for Samoa, he said.

The Prime Minister should stop calling them (his children). Because thats exactly what is happening, they are acting like children.

For 48-year-old mother Tuese Tui, of Toamua, she wants a peaceful solution. As a mother, we should all pray for peace in this country, she said. The Ministry of Police should remember that united we stand divided we fall.

We dont know where the devil is targeting us most of the time but relying on Gods Arm will make it very easy for us to deal with the problem.
Its been said time and time again, farmers have the ability to make more than most working class people in Samoa.

Its not a major feat considering the minimum wage level in Samoa.

For Tui Vanu, from the village of Lotosoa, Saleimoa, he became a farmer not long after leaving his job and he hasnt turned back since.

The young farmer says he earns a lot more from his plantation than he did in his previous employment.

I spend my days staying home and helping out my family, Tui told the Village Voice.

I know so many people who go around wasting time on things that dont matter. Every day I wake up early in the morning and make sure I am at the plantation by seven.

Thats the best time to start my plantation work because I dont want to work in the heat of the sun. I have to make sure I am done by the time the sun becomes unbearably hot.

He admits that his farm isnt too big but its still good money nonetheless.

My farm isnt too big but it works for me, Tui said.

I grow taro, bananas and coconuts. This has been my life for about two years now. Not only does my plantation provide my family with food, I can also earn a bit of money from selling at the market. Its good money and its quick. He says that he only became a farmer because he needed a way to take care of his family but when he realized its potential, he stuck to it.

I was employed but when I stopped working at my job I struggled for find another way to provide for my family, Tui said.

When I started farming, I quickly realized that the earnings I get from the plantation were pretty good and so I continued with it.

Its actually better than what I made from my previous job. I could make one trip to the market and make some money on that day. Tui says there are so many reasons why he prefers working as a farmer than any other job.

Comparing the money I make from working and being a farmer, I think farmers make more money, he said.

There are costs when you work such as bus fares that need to be paid. If you put together the money we use on bus fares over a long period, its a huge waste.

When I go to the plantation I dont need to take the bus, I just walk and gather what I need for the day and go sell it by the road.

I make so much more money as a farmer than I did when I was working. Another perk is that I am my own boss and its up to me when I rest or not.
Taeao Vaifale, from the village of Leauvaa, doesnt complain much.

She knows everyone in Samoa goes through their fair share of struggles but she believes there is always a way to help each other.

Aged 44, Taeao runs a roadside stall where she sells produce from her plantation. She also sells pork buns at the nearby primary school. The hardworking mother finds any means necessary for her familys survival.

One problem I see in Samoa is the very high cost of living, Taeao told the Village Voice.

Everyone is trying to get through life so no matter how much my family struggles; I stick to my belief that we should always help one another.

An example would be when I am selling pork buns at the school for $1 and a kid comes up with just 80cents, I never turn them away because I know we are struggling. The high cost of living is affecting everyone in Samoa but we can always help one another.

Taeao takes every day as it comes. Whenever she makes money, it goes straight to buying whats needed for the family.

This is how my family earns money, she said as she held up her pumpkins.

When I sell some pumpkins every day then I am able to buy some sugar, salt or some coffee for that day. Then the next day I sell some more pumpkins then I can buy some other things for food.

Its a nice way to earn money on a daily basis. Not only is the money needed for food, its also needed for the childrens school expenses.

Earning money from the plantation has been the familys way of survival for a while now.

We have been earning this way for a very long time but back then we did delivery, Taeao said.

I told my family that its better to have a roadside stall or our own to sell our own pumpkins because a lot of petrol goes to delivering to other stalls.

We are just about to about to harvest our peanuts so we can sell that here too.

Asked how much they make a week, Taeao says about $200 a week. We grow peanuts, pumpkins, cabbages and many other crops at our inland farm, she said.

From pumpkins alone we can make about $20 a day and that increases when the other crops are ready for harvest.

We can make a little over $200 from selling things here at our stall. Even when it comes to the childrens schooling expenses, the plantation provides.

We rely heavily on what we grow to earn money because we have no one currently employed at our house, Taeao said.

We provide everything from the plantation; even the childrens schooling expenses, the plantation provides for that too.

Every morning I make my way and sell some pork buns at the school before I go to the plantation. For me as a mother, I know the usefulness of my work.
The 7th Measina Samoa Conference opened at the National University of Samoa (N.U.S) Fale yesterday.

Guided by the theme Practices may Change but the Foundation Remains, the conference started with an ava ceremony prepared by the N.U.S Centre for Samoa Studies Department.

The retired Vice President of the Land and Titles Court, Faamausili Solonaima Brown, highlighted the importance of culture. I strongly believe that tradition and culture are precious because I am respected as a matai Samoa, said Faamausili. Samoa is founded on God since Malietoa Faiga accepted the missionaries from Britain. That was when changes were made, as the pastor was called the susuga but not for Malietoa anymore.

Faamausili also delved into some of the changes since the arrival of the missionaries.

The changes which people faced nowadays are mainly because of mental, physical and especially the way they live their lives. The familys income as their main focus of life, she said.

Others do bet on religions donations for they do not want any other family to be on the top but their family, she said.

She mentioned the challenges that include donations for the religions in Samoa.

Some are not happy because of the many donations needed by the churches, such as Faiga Me, Alofa and Taulaga, she explained.

Apart from the challenges in the churches she also talked about the changes within the Samoa culture as in between the matai sao and the extended families.

The matai sao bestows new matai titles without the knowledge of the extended families.

The matai sao divides the extended families in different saofaiga to satisfy what they want.

The current matai sao decides to relocate the children of the latest matai sao so that he can have the land all to himself.

The latest matai saos son wants to become the next matai sao without mentioning the tautua from the families while the matai sao was alive, Faamausili said.

Faamausili thanked God for dismissing the act to note the rightful owners of traditional lands for it solved many issues between Samoan families who have lost their lands.

She asked the participants when Samoa will overcome these issues concerning the culture and tradition through lands and titles.

May God help us, may we hold on to our culture and tradition for it might be stolen from us, she concluded.

The conference will continue until Thursday the 17th of November 2016.

*Katalina Tovia is a final year Media and Journalism student at the N.U.S .
The Embassy of the United States of America in Samoa has rejected reports circulated on social media yesterday that Samoans no longer need visas to enter America.

One of the websites which promoted the report was www.usaradio.com.

The story said the United States Department of State had announced the new development, saying that Samoans had free access to the United States and any of its territories.

It quoted US Secretary of State, John Kerry, as saying the idea is to facilitate business trade between the two countries. The news received instant coverage across the world. On social media, the page was quickly share hundreds of times with it attracting thousands of likes.

But the excitement did not last long. Late yesterday afternoon, the U.S Embassy issued a statement dismissing the reports.

Please be advised there have been no changes to the U.S. Visa Waiver Program concerning Samoan Citizens, the statement reads. Any Samoan Citizen planning to travel to the United States will need a U.S. visa.

It turns out, Samoa was not the only country affected. The people behind the hoax also said the same thing about many other countries  including neighbouring Tonga.
In an early test of its therapy for Parkinsons disease, International Stem Cell Corp. in San Diego said Monday that the stem cell-based treatment appears to be safe.

The first patient in the Phase 1 clinical trial, conducted in Australia, was treated at the end of July. A checkup three months later found no sign of complications, said Russell Kern, the companys executive vice president and chief scientific officer.

In addition, there are some indications of efficacy in relieving symptoms of the movement disorder, Kern said after giving a presentation at the Society for Neurosciences 2016 convention in downtown San Diego. The conference is scheduled to run through Wednesday.

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The patients handwriting has improved, Kern said. But because the trial is designed to measure safety, thats considered a minor development that still needs to be confirmed. And more patients need to be treated.

At least we can say there are no adverse events, Kern said. The patient, a man in his 60s, is set to be examined again at the six-month mark.

The second patient will probably be treated in the next two to three weeks, Kern said. A total of 12 are expected to be treated.

More information is available at j.mp/iscophase1.

Parkinsons is caused by the destruction of brain cells that make the neurotransmitter dopamine. International Stem Cells therapy replaces these with new cells, grown from unfertilized, or parthenogenetic human egg cells. These cells act much like embryonic stem cells, and can be differentiated into cells that secrete dopamine.

Precursors to the dopamine-making cells are injected into the brain, where its hoped they will mature, take hold and produce dopamine, relieving Parkinsons symptoms.

Cyto Therapeutics, a subsidiary of ISCO, is conducting the clinical trial in Australia, because its regulatory system allows work to proceed faster. It is performing the clinical trial at Royal Melbourne Hospital in Melbourne.

If the Phase 1 trial goes well, ISCO plans to ask permission to perform a Phase 2 trial in the United States, Kern said.

Other stem cell-based therapies are being readied for clinical trials. A group in San Diego, Summit for Stem Cell, proposes to use artificial embryonic stem cells made from patients to be treated.

Unlike true human embryonic stem cells, use of these induced pluripotent stem cells is regarded as ethically acceptable by those who oppose abortion, such as the Catholic church.

In late July, a Parkinsons disease research project at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla supported by Summit for Stem Cell got $2.6 million to develop that therapy. The grant came from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the states stem cell agency.

A similar therapy shows long-term signs of efficacy, according to Dr. Curt Freed, professor of medicine of the University of Colorado at Denver. This treatment uses human fetal dopamine-producing neurons, said Freed, who heads the universitys Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology.

The cells survive as long as 27 years, Freed told reporters Monday. The transplants make it possible for about 25 percent of patients to stop taking dopamine-producing drugs, Freed said. And theres no need to take immuno-suppressive drugs to prevent rejection, he said.

One problem with this therapy is that fetal dopamine-making brain cells are limited in supply. In addition, the use of fetal tissue is controversial, Freed said.

Dopamine-making neurons derived from stem cells could provide an infinite supply of cells, and not have the issue of using fetal tissue transplants, he said.

RELATED

The San Diego Parkinsons Association is fighting for its existence after budget difficulties and fundraising friction.

 Parkinsons patients hike and raise money for stem cell research

bradley.fikes@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1020
For those traveling next week for Thanksgiving, credit an improved economy for what will be the highest holiday traffic by air and car in nearly a decade, projects AAA.

The auto club is projecting that beginning next Wednesday, 48.7 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home over the extended weekend, an increase of one million travelers compared with last year and the most Thanksgiving travelers since 2007.

Across the nation, San Diego is expected to be the third most visited destination, just behind Las Vegas and San Francisco, based on reservations made on AAAs online booking site.

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A more robust economy during the second half of the year, reflected in rising wages and increased consumer spending, is responsible for the expected growth in holiday travel, the auto club said.

While the average price of gas has crept upward more recently, AAA still estimates that U.S. drivers have saved more than $28 billion in fuel costs so far this year compared with the same period last year.

Most will travel on the tried and true holiday road trip, thanks to gas prices that are holding at close to $2 per gallon, said AAA CEO Marshall Doney. Others will fly, take the bus or set off on a cruise to celebrate with their loved ones.

Some 43.5 million Americans  or 89 percent of all holiday travelers  are projected to drive this Thanksgiving, up 1.9 percent over last year.

Across the country, most drivers will pay the second least expensive Thanksgiving gas prices since 2008, when the national average was $1.85 per gallon. Mondays national average price for a gallon of gasoline was $2.16, 11 cents more than the average cost on Thanksgiving last year, according to the auto club.

In San Diego County, the average price Tuesday was $2.83.

Air travel over the holiday will be up as well, with 3.7 million Americans expected to fly to their destinations, an increase of 1.6 percent, AAA says.

Based on the clubs leisure travel index, airfares are projected to be up 21 percent this Thanksgiving, with an average roundtrip flight costing $205. The industry trade group, Airlines For America, however, says more affordable airfares are driving increased holiday traffic volumes.

For the first nine months of this year, fares declined 5.6 percent over the same period last year, the trade group said.

Holiday travel projections for Southern California residents are expected to be released on Thursday. As with the national forecast, San Diego is a top Thanksgiving destination for the region.

TOP THANKSGIVING DESTINATIONS

Las Vegas, Nevada San Francisco, California San Diego, California Orlando, Florida New York City, New York New Orleans, Louisiana Anaheim, California Fort Lauderdale, Florida Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Seattle, Washington

Source: Auto Club AAA

lori.weisberg@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-2251 Twitter:@loriweisberg
Papa Doug Manchester says he learned as a child that his responsibility to the community is to give back. The U-T San Diego publishers fulfillment of that promise  a history of charitable giving that stretches back four decades  was honored Wednesday when he was named 2013 Nice Guy of the Year by the Nice Guys organization.

The all-volunteer group, made up of 140 local philanthropists and business leaders, raises money for needy San Diegans. With no paid staff or overhead, all of the money raised  $14.7 million since 1979  goes to local charities.

Each year, the membership (which includes men and women) chooses a Nice Guy based on his or her record of giving. Last years honoree was investor Ernest Rady, who this week told Manchester, his former next-door neighbor and longtime friend, that being chosen by his colleagues as a Nice Guy was the greatest honor of his life.

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At a luncheon to announce the 2013 award Wednesday at Amaya restaurant in La Jolla, Manchester said he feels the same way.

Im very humbled by the fact that Im being recognized by this esteemed group, he said.

Nice Guys President Skip Hodgetts said Manchester was a clear favorite among members this year, not only because of his generosity but because of the high profile he can bring to the organizations charitable causes.

Papa Doug stepped up to the community in a fashion that many people in this community may not understand, Hodgetts said. Hes a very generous man.

Manchester said Wednesday that he is especially focused this year on raising money for cancer charities. In April, U-T San Diego announced an ambitious $1 million fundraising campaign for the American Cancer Society. U-T CEO John Lynch, also a past Nice Guy of the Year honoree, said that if the campaign doesnt meet its goal through community and charitable events, the U-T will write a check for the difference.

Manchesters history of giving to local causes includes endowments and scholarships to his alma mater, San Diego State University, and the University of San Diego and Cathedral Catholic High, as well as donations to the Child Abuse Prevention Foundation, Preuss School, Monarch School, Polinsky Childrens Center, San Diego Diocese ministries, YMCA, Boys & Girls Clubs, Scripps Memorial Hospital and the USS Midway Museum.

Manchesters philanthropy and achievements will be celebrated at the annual Nice Guys black-tie gala Nov. 2 at The Grand Del Mar Resort in Carmel Valley, which the Manchester Financial Group developed and owns. Gala chair Debbie Giaquinta said the event is expected to raise between $200,000 and $250,000.

Nice Guys San Diego gave $1.24 million to local charities last year, including $640,000 for its Victory Fund, which aids local wounded Marines, sailors and their families.
Four recent graduates of San Diego Mesa Colleges interior design program are already making their mark in the industry. They have won national and regional design awards, and since graduating in May, they all have found work in the interior design field.

Theyre excited and ready to go, said Holly Hodnick, a professor and the head of Mesas interior design program. Hodnick, who is planning to retire in January, has been mentoring students at Mesa for 16 years.

Jennifer Pranskevich, 30, a double major in interior design and architecture, received a regional award from the California and Nevada chapters of the American Society of Interior Designers and the Las Vegas Design Center. The award, called the Andyz, was launched last year to recognize excellence in design. Her winning entry in the student category included a floor plan, material board and 3D computer images for a one-bedroom condo in La Jolla that would serve as a vacation home for a young couple or an executive. Her goal was to create a tranquil environment using natural, neutral materials mixed with aqua accents.

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Pranskevich, who works as a biochemist for Scripps, said she started taking the interior design courses for fun.

I did it for fun for a really long time. Then I realized I liked it more than I liked working as a biochemist. While she hasnt given up her biochemistry job, she is also working at Folio Design in Del Mar, where, she said, she gets to use her whole brain.

The three other students won national recognition from the National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA), a 53-year-old nonprofit trade association. The three participated in a charrette design competition, which gives contestants three hours to render a hand-drawn design for a kitchen, including exact measurements and code requirements.

There are a lot of little things that arent law, but guidelines, that help you design a kitchen that is easy to get around and people friendly, said Stephen Shaw, one of the three winners. Shaw, 42, is now working part time at Borelli Design+Cabinetry, focusing on kitchen and bath design.

Nine Mesa students were among 100 entrants from 11 colleges for the charrette. To compete, colleges must be accredited by the NKBA. Mesa is the only college in San Diego County to achieve accreditation, which includes offering a course in kitchen and bath design, as well as a minimum of 24 semester credit hours in construction, design and business management and internships for a minimum of 160 hours in the kitchen and bathroom design industry.

Shaw was awarded fifth place and a $2,000 scholarship, while Leonardo Herruzo and Kathryn Waller each earned an honorable mention and a $1,000 scholarship for the charrette. Of the five students who placed in the competition, only two were from the United States. The other three were from Canada.

Waller, 26, said she took Interiors 101 as an elective to complete an associates degree in Asian history and then transfer to UC San Diego, where she was planning on majoring in public relations.

I fell in love with it. Its the perfect career and industry, she said of interior design, because it combines creativity with organization, details and working with people. She is now working at the architectural design firm LPA after a summer internship there.

Herruzo, 32, also won a student Star Design award from NKBA San Diego Chapter. Of the seven professional and two student awards given by the local NKBA chapter in September, Mesa grads picked up four of the professional and both students honors.

The Mesa program, Herruzo said, teaches you what you need to know  what your portfolio and projects need to look like. They have crazy standards. Im thankful they taught us all that.

A native of Brazil, Herruzo, 34, now works full time as a designer at Restoration Hardware. Like many of the programs students and graduates, Herruzo has had a previous career. His was in publishing and advertising in Brazil.

Students who complete the 60-unit program at Mesa earn an associate of science degree (45-50 units will earn a certificate of achievement). The program, which Hodnick calls grueling, usually takes three years and covers the technical, creative and business aspects of the profession.

Over the years, the program has expanded because the world is a lot more technical place, Hodnick said. Students need to learn building codes, American Disabilities Act rules, 3D rendering as well as the design basics. Think about lighting, she said. Its now a whole class. Lighting has become really technical with energy codes.

One of the programs electives is a semester of internships. The internships give you the opportunity to try different areas, said Loryelle De La Pena, 32, who is scheduled to graduate in 2017. Like many other students, she said she stumbled into the program and got hooked. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in photography and enrolled at Mesa to broaden her education.

De La Pena is past president of the schools interior design club, which acts as an extension of the curriculum, with field trips, volunteer opportunities and scholarships. It bridges the gap between education and work, she said.

The recent graduates attribute the programs success to the strong connection between students and professionals. The program has 355 students, two full-time professors and eight adjunct professors, who still work in the industry.

Holly has been invaluable in keeping the educational standards top notch in the design department. She has handpicked instructors that are experts in their field to teach the classes that are offered, said Helene Lindquist, an interior designer who teaches the kitchen and bath design course.

The reason why I choose Mesa over any other design program is because it puts us in professional settings, Waller said.

The majority of the student body has one or two degrees, she added. Thats important. Its our life experiences that are the difference. That makes us the designers that we are.

Schimitschek is a San Diego freelance writer.
UPDATE:

Times for Thursdays public ship tours of the Chinese hospital ship Peace Ark have changed.

The Chinese navy vessel is docked at downtown San Diegos Broadway Pier this week for visits with U.S. Navy and Veterans Affairs medical professionals.

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This is the first visit of Chinas hospital ship to the U.S. mainland. The vessel was commissioned in 2008 and was dispatched by China for disaster aid to the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.

Public tours will be held from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 to 5 p.m. at Broadway Pier.

ORIGINAL STORY:

For the first time ever, a Chinese navy hospital ship will offer public tours on the U.S. mainland, and San Diego is the location.

Chinas Peace Ark arrived in San Diego today for a five-day visit with U.S. Navy and Veteran Affairs officials.

On Thursday, the Chinese ship will open to the public at Broadway Pier in downtown San Diego, U.S. Navy officials said.

The Peace Ark, commissioned in 2008, is operated by Chinas Peoples Liberation Army (Navy.)

Like the U. S. Navys San Diego-based Mercy and Virginia-based Comfort hospital ships, the Peace Ark boasts operating theaters and hundreds of hospital beds. One way the Peace Ark is different: Doctors onboard practice both Western-style medicine and traditional Chinese techniques.

The Peace Ark was in Hawaii in 2014 when China participated for the first time in the Rim of the Pacific naval exercises.

Back then, it was docked at Pearl Harbor Naval Base. The result was that access was somewhat limited, though tours were offered.

While here, Peace Ark personnel are scheduled to tour the Naval Medical Center in Balboa Park, Naval Health Research Center, the VA hospital in La Jolla and the Mercy.

Chinese and U.S. officials will each host an official reception. The American event will be at Point Loma Naval Bases Admiral Kidd Catering Center, and the Chinese event will be held on the hospital ship.

A U.S. Navy official said the two navies are not doing whats known as military-to-military exchanges in San Diego -- though that has happened in the past. Only the medical staffs will meet and discuss their jobs.

Tension between the United States and China has been heightened since late last month when the U.S. destroyer Lassen sailed within 12 nautical miles of artificial islands that China has built in the South China Sea. U.S. allies have objected to Chinas bid to expand its sovereign territory with the man-made islands.
More than 40 Baja California journalists have signed a public letter to Gov. Francisco Vega de Lamadrid demanding an investigation into an alleged smear campaign carried out by members of the state government against two Tijuana journalists who have been critical of his administration.

Adela Navarro, the prize-winning editor of the investigative newsweekly Zeta and Dora Elena Cortes, editor of the website Agencia Fronteriza de Noticias, both have said that they received information that they were to be the subject of personal attacks by members of the state government. At least two other journalists have come forward to say they were asked to publish personal information about Navarro aimed at discrediting her, but refused to do so.

You are talking about the people who have the constitutional obligation to protect you, Navarro said last week on an AFN webcast.

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The journalists statement, published Friday in local newspapers, names Jorge Alberto Cornejo Manzo, a Baja California official who is in charge of official government publicity. The conduct of state government officials, who have been acting under the indication, compliance or ignorance of the governor, is unprecedented in Baja California, the statement said.

The journalists statement came two days after the state government issued its own public declaration. It said that the state government has absolutely no knowledge of this supposed campaign, and roundly denies that the states media office or any other office or officials are orchestrating actions that attack the work of media organizations.

The Baja California Human Rights Commission has opened an investigation into the journalists allegations. The Committee to Protect Journalists in New York City has weighed in, issuing a statement in support of Navarro. Disseminating infamies about the privates lives of journalists is a tactic that is increasingly used in attempt to silence journalists in Mexico, the statement said.

sandra.dibble@sduniontribune.com

@sandradibble
A 45-year-old lobster diver was found dead Monday near Manhattan Beach Pier after he had gone missing almost 24 hours earlier.

Members from the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department dive team found the lobster hunters body about 10:55 a.m. in an underwater pipe, according to authorities.

Jeff Tolly disappeared about 11 a.m. Sunday about three miles north of Manhattan Beach Pier, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Authorities said Tolly likely entered the pipe in search of the crustacean.

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Spencer Parker, an ocean lifeguard specialist with Los Angeles County Fire Department, told KTLA-TV that its common for divers to wander into the narrow pipe to look for lobsters.

Tolly was last seen wearing his black diving suit with fins and a scuba tank.

The Coast Guard launched a helicopter and two 87-foot patrol boats from Channel Islands and Corona Del Mar.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

For breaking news in California, follow @VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.
Thousands of Los Angeles-area high school students walked out of their classrooms Monday morning, streaming into the streets for several hours to protest President-elect Donald Trump.

Many were too young to vote but said their futures were at stake and so their voices needed to be heard.

They identified themselves proudly on handmade signs and flags as Latinos, transgender and supporters of womens rights.

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A lot of us dont agree with what Donald Trump is saying, said Evelyn Aguilar, a 15-year-old sophomore at Collegiate Charter High School in East L.A., who protested in her school uniform. A lot of people are worried about being deported and violence against them because of their sexual and ethnic identity.

Nearly 4,000 students from about 18 schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District participated in walkouts throughout the day Monday, said Steven Zipperman, chief of the L.A. School Police Department. Students from numerous Eastside schools left their morning classes to gather at Boyle Heights Mariachi Plaza and Lincoln Park in Lincoln Heights and marched to City Hall for a rally. At schools in other parts of the city, such as Hamilton High, students left their classes later in the day.

1 / 10 Hundreds of Los Angeles-area students walk out of their classrooms and converge on City Hall in downtown Los Angeles to protest Donald Trumps election as president last month. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 10 Students shout as they march on downtown Los Angeles after walking out of class on Monday. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 10 Hundreds of Los Angeles-area students walked out of their classrooms and converged on City Hall in downtown Los Angeles on Monday to protest President-elect Donald Trump. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 10 Protest leaders talk to the crowd at Mariachi Plaza after hundreds of students walk off seven East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights high school campuses to protest President-elect Trump. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 10 Students carry flags and signs down 1st Street toward downtown Los Angeles to protest President-elect Trump. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 10 Hundreds of students walk off their East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights high school campuses to protest President-elect Trump. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 10 Hundreds of students walk off their East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights high school campuses to protest President-elect Trump. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 10 Alfredo Gama of Students Deserve Grassroots Coalition speaks to students as they sit on the steps of city hall after their march on downtown Los Angeles. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 10 Hundreds of students walk off their East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights high school campuses to protest President-elect Trump. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 10 Students board a bus back to school after a march on downtown Los Angeles on Monday. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

The students  acted very calmly, very respectfully, Zipperman said. There were no issues, no arrests, no violence.

The Eastside walkouts student organizers are part of the United Students program at InnerCity Struggle, an East L.A. community group that promotes social and educational justice. They issued a statement saying they were protesting Trumps calls for the mass deportation of immigrants in the country illegally, the construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

Eastside students know that this is the time to show our targeted community members that we stand in unity with them and exercise our right to protest to ensure that Los Angeles County leaders commit to doing everything in their power to support all vulnerable communities, the statement said.

Students from Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez High School in Boyle Heights held signs that read, United We Stand and DNC failed working people. One students sign was pink with a black swastika and Trumps face at the center.

A woman who declined to give her name shouted to Mendez High students at Mariachi Plaza: No talking to the media! They will twist our words!

L.A. Unified Supt. Michelle King issued a statement urging students to remain on campus.

These are important conversations that need to take place, she said. We want our students to know they are not alone. However, it is critical that students not allow their sentiments to derail their education or for their actions to place them in danger.

She said that they could talk about their concerns in school and that the district is working to give them a forum with assemblies and classroom dialogues.

At Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights, administrators used the school intercom to urge students to stay in class.

Students should remain on campus where theyre safe, their voices blared. Ignorance  can often lead to violence. Please understand that the greatest way to overcome ignorance is through education.

Teachers were instructed to stay in their classrooms and keep teaching.

Plans for some of Mondays school walkouts were announced after students from different Eastside schools asked InnerCity Struggle activist Nancy Meza to help them organize. Meza was brought to the U.S. as a child, grew up in Boyle Heights and was able to stay in the country because of President Obamas Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy.

Meza said the students were marching for themselves and their families.

Many of them are immigrants or their families are immigrants, she said. They are just really scared about those campaign promises coming to fruition.

After gathering at City Hall, students flowed into Grand Park, where someone beat a drum and others chanted and waved signs. Despite warnings from teachers that there could be consequences for ditching class, students said they were proud to stand up for their beliefs.

Yesenia Flores, 15, a sophomore at Roosevelt High, held a sign: Trump makes us fear for our lives.

All Ive wanted to do is make my parents proud, she said. I cant make my parents proud if theyre not here.

Blanca Villaseor, a sophomore at Collegiate Charter High, said she was protesting the president-elect on behalf of her parents. The sign she was holding read: Latinos contra Trump  Spanish for Latinos against Trump.

Suzanne Rueda, 15, a sophomore at the downtown Ramon Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts, said shed been protesting since the day after the election. As of Monday, she hadnt been reprimanded for missing class, but she said shed heard an announcement that morning over the school intercom that students who missed school could be suspended. She thought that was misguided.

It feels like were leading ourselves, she said. We cant vote. This is all we can do.

Shortly after noon, school buses began arriving at City Hall to pick students up and take them back to class.

joy.resmovits@latimes.com

sonali.kohli@latimes.com

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

Twitter: @Joy_Resmovits, @Sonali_Kohli and @VeronicaRochaLA

Times staff writer Hailey Branson-Potts contributed to this report.

UPDATES:

6:20 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details and comments from students and officials.

This article was originally published at 11:25 a.m.
Thanksgiving will be extra special for a small Southeast San Diego nonprofit group that gives microloans to local entrepreneurs.

Two Bank of America executives stopped by Monday, purportedly to review a grant application with managers of Accion San Diego. Instead, they carried flowers and balloons and handed the shocked CEO, Elizabeth Schott, a blown-up check for $200,000.

Her organization, which funds small business start-ups here, already had been selected from about 20 applicants invited to apply this year for the banks annual Neighborhood Builders grant.

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Over the past 11 years, the bank invested more than $4 million in this community outreach program, says Krista Torquato, B of As market manager for San Diego, joined Monday by Karen Harrison, its small business banking executive.

Last year, the $200,000 grant went to the local Goodwill Industries.

Helping hands: An orchid to 18/8 Fine Mens Salons in La Jolla for being ahead of the curve, so to speak. Its stylists have just been trained to spot signs of cancer on the heads and necks of their customers.

Such skin cancers often escape early diagnosis because they surface in difficult-to-view areas.

Noting that people get haircuts far more often than doctors physicals, a former Paul Mitchell artistic director and her physician husband have launched a mission to train stylists and beauticians to recognize moles that change size, shape or color and, if so, urge customers to consult a doctor.

Unfortunately, most beauty professionals arent adequately trained to spot skin cancer, says Dr. Dean Foster who, with his wife, Jeanne, initiated the nonprofit Eyes on Cancer program in 2014. Their goal is to train and certify in 2017 more than 5,000 beauty professionals to identify skin cancers early and possibly save lives.

Both of Deans parents succumbed to cancer, and he is a cancer survivor. While they didnt suffer from cancer of the skin, its visibility makes it a prime candidate for early detection.

A little over a month ago, Charles Glatt, a stylist at the Kelly Cardenas Salon in Cardiff, which instituted the Fosters training, noticed a brownish dot with a ring around it behind a clients ear. He took a photo, showed it to the man and suggested he consult a dermatologist.

Sure enough, it was cancerous and they were able to remove it, Glatt reported.

So far, five salons in San Diego, a few in other areas of the country, and several individuals who trained at Paul Mitchell schools nationwide, have received Eyes on Cancer certification. The Fosters also added online instruction at eyesoncancer.org.

Police praise: Fifty years ago, the local gay and lesbian community criticized the San Diego Police Department for its raids of gay bars and nightclubs.

On Sunday, though, the LGBT communitys top Nicky Awards went to the SDPD and to Chief Shelley Zimmerman.

Under Chief Zimmerman, the San Diego Police Department has welcomed gay and lesbian officers, as well as the departments first transgender police officer, said longtime local activist Nicole Murray Ramirez. He also praised the SDPDs steps to assign extra protection to local gay nightclubs after the Orlando nightclub shootings.

diane.bell@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1518

Twitter: dianebellSD

Facebook: dianebell.news
For the American Civil Liberties Union, the election of Donald Trump is a potential nightmare with a huge upside.

Thousands have taken to the streets to beat breasts over Trumps victory, but a roughly equal mass of humanity has turned to a cerebral 96-year-old to protect their constitutional rights.

Since Election Day, the ACLUs Facebook followers have spiked 25 percent to nearly a million, reported Anthony D. Romero, national executive director; $7.2 million has been sent in from 120,000 donors ($60 average).

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This is the greatest outpouring of support in our nearly 100-year history, greater than the days after 9/11, Romero declared in a statement.

Monday afternoon, I had coffee in Chula Vista with Norma Chavez-Peterson, the executive director of the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties.

I asked her about the local surge of support.

Its good, she said and then paused to reflect. But Id rather have it a different way.

On Nov. 8, the ACLU and Planned Parenthood held a joint election viewing party.

By 8:30 in the evening, the mood was somber, Chavez-Peterson said. The fiesta turned into a wake.

I didnt sleep that night, she admitted. I was shocked, numb.

I asked her if any of the assembly, which numbered about 200, supported Trump.

No, she laughed. (Obviously, dumb question.)

By 9:30 the next morning, she said, ACLU directors from around the country were on a conference call, charting a strategy to highlight the pavilion of red flags in Trumps campaign. At 11 a.m., Chavez-Peterson gathered her staff of 32 to check signals.

In short order, the national ACLU released The Trump Memos, an analysis of the specific areas where the president-elect had been openly hostile to civil liberties  mass deportation, Muslim travel ban, torture, libel, surveillance and abortion.

It was a preemptive call to progressive arms (with footnotes).

Chavez-Peterson is quick to remind, however, that every president has been an ACLU target. (Obama, for example, has been blistered as the Deporter-in-Chief.)

Nevertheless, the 42-year-old mother of three daughters, a daughter of immigrants, believes she speaks for her generation (and younger millennials) when she says, Weve never seen anything like this.

Clearly, the biggest issue for the San Diego ACLU will be the prospect of around-the-clock arrests and deportations.

In a more immediate sense, however, researching Trump appointees and defending the right of individuals to get out on the street and protest are the ACLUs top priorities, she said.

Its an interesting question, it seems to me, if advocacy for the right to protest the result of an election becomes an implicit encouragement to protest as a warning shot across the bow of a ship that wont leave the dock until Jan. 20. (Its an open question how closely Trumps campaign rhetoric will match up with his executive actions.)

I asked Chavez-Peterson if the shoes were reversed, if Clinton had won and alt-right-style protests had broken out to challenge the results, would the ACLU be so quick to defend that unruly exercise of free speech.

We would, she declared. We have.

As if synchronized, we both said the word Skokie, the infamous 1977 march by neo-Nazis in a largely Jewish Chicago suburb that the ACLU famously defended.

Along that same contrarian line, I asked Chavez-Peterson if there was a civil right that would have been more threatened under a Clinton as opposed to a Trump presidency.

Not from our analysis so far, she smiled.

The Second Amendment?

She smiled again. Not really the ACLUs focus, she said.

I guess the NRA has that one pretty well covered, I said, trying to be helpful.

For fun, Id hoped to get Chavez-Petersons impressions of the Hollywood gala on Sunday night that honored, among others, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the star of Oliver Stones film Snowden.

Chavez-Peterson had intended to drive up, but she was tired out from a long, hard week. But someone had sent her a photo of Edward Snowdens face illuminated on a screen.

In his remarks at the 93rd annual Bill of Rights dinner, Gordon-Levitt, who donated his salary for the movie to the ACLU (and a film project on democracy and the Internet), warned that NSA spying would likely be shot up with steroids under Trump.

Just think about how that mass surveillance system will be in the hands of a man who said he doesnt care what the Constitution says unless it works for him, the actor said, according to a report.

In an unannounced video appearance from Moscow, Snowden offered that a Trump presidency is a moment that were all fearing, but we should not despair.

This is a surprise, Gordon-Levitt reportedly said of his role models virtual cameo. I didnt know this was coming.

Turns out I can keep a secret, Snowden said to raucous laughter. (This could be the first joke the normally morose fugitive has ever cracked.)

The link between Snowden and the ACLU is profound. The ACLU is serving as Snowdens principal U.S. advocate, arguing that Obama should pardon the NSA leaker, a pretty remote possibility given Obamas past statements that Snowden should face trial in the United States.

Trump, on the other hand, has suggested execution as a fit punishment for treason.

With Trump expected to play the role of elected Wolf in the White House  and Snowden as exiled Lamb in Moscow  the ACLU, always a principled, uncompromising actor in the American courtroom drama, is poised to loom even larger.

logan.jenkins@sduniontribune.com
pat mccrory

A week after Election Day, North Carolina still doesn't know who will be its next governor.

Despite facing a deficit of 4,500 votes last week, incumbent Pat McCrory refused to concede to Democrat Roy Cooper, insisting they wait on a tally of absentee and provisional ballots.

As the state starts counting those ballots, Cooper's lead has actually grown, and is close to 5,000 as of Tuesday morning.

The results will be finalized by Friday, but if McCrory's margin is within 10,000 votes, he can ask for a recount  something that would keep the race going until the end of the month.

McCrory's campaign has also claimed there was "malfeasance" in the vote-counting in heavily Democratic Durham County, which reported results later than other counties in the state.

The complaint drew a harsh rebuke from Cooper's camp.

"McCrorys appointees were the ones who administered the election and reported the results," Cooper spokesman Jamal Little said, according to the Raleigh News & Observer. "Any claims of 'malfeasance' are nothing more than a desperate attempt by the McCrory campaign to overturn results of an election they have lost."

Both campaigns are raising funds to challenge or defend the results of the election.

NOW WATCH: Trump goes on a tweetstorm less than 48 hours after promising to be more 'restrained' on Twitter





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San Diego continues to struggle with a shortage of police officers despite recent compensation increases and new recruiting strategies.

Nearly 180 of the Police Departments more than 2,000 budgeted sworn officer positions were vacant as of late October, frustrating city leaders who have been expecting the numbers to drop.

The problem would have gotten significantly worse without a package of large compensation increases given to police last year, Chief Shelley Zimmerman told a City Council committee last month.

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Aggressive recruiting efforts, particularly in low-income areas and minority neighborhoods, is now the main strategy the city is pursuing, Zimmerman told the councils Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee.

It is showing results, but relatively slowly, she said. Zimmerman said the problem, which has been exacerbated by officers fleeing to other law enforcement jobs with higher pay, began with hiring freezes and other staffing decisions during the Great Recession.

It didnt take us one year to get into this position, she said. Its going to take us many years to get to our budgeted staffing.

But last summer there was optimism the compensation increases, which targeted veteran officers who had been leaving for other jobs, would sharply and quickly make a difference.

An analysis by the Independent Budget Analyst shows that hasnt happened and that the city has barely made a dent in the problem over the last three years.

The analysis shows the number of vacant positions has dropped from 207 to 177 since 2013, and that the rate of officers leaving or retiring each month has remained between 12 and 14 during that time.

Although theres been a lot of hiring and a lot of emphasis on recruiting and retention, the hiring has been offset by consistent attrition, said Chris Olsen, a fiscal and policy analyst for the IBA.

Councilman Todd Gloria said hes frustrated the compensations increases arent moving the needle and urged Zimmerman to come up with a plan even if it includes asking the council for more money.

Meanwhile, the citys 9-1-1 call dispatch center continues a success story that began last spring in the wake of some long-delayed responses to emergency calls that got significant media attention.

Since a series of management changes and 26.6 percent pay raises for dispatchers, average wait times have dropped every month and the percentage of calls answered within 10 seconds has climbed from 67.41 percent to 88.43 percent in September, nearly matching the national standard of 90 percent.

Police Capt. Jerry Hara said 35 new dispatchers have been hired this year and 32 are still with the city, a much lower attrition rate than before the changes.

Hara said the city has also begun tracking non-emergency calls to the departments general number, (619) 531-2000.

Despite frequent complaints that calls to the line get answered too slowly, Hara said 29 percent are answered within 10 seconds and 83 percent are answered within 2 minutes. He said the average wait hovers around 4 minutes, but varies from week to week and season to season.

david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick
Mexico and the Philippines will soon join Balboa Parks village of international cottages in an unprecedented expansion of the popular attraction that celebrates cultures from around the world.

The City Council on Monday unanimously approved the expansion, which will also include newly built cottages for Peru, Panama, Korea, India, Palestine, Turkey and possibly Lebanon.

Many have called the absence of Mexico and the Philippines conspicuous based on the large number of San Diego residents with ties to those two countries.

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A groundbreaking ceremony for the nine new cottages is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday. The new cottages, which will be spread over five separate buildings, are scheduled to be completed by December 2017.

They will join 19 other cottages, many dating back to 1935, that represent countries mostly in Europe and the Middle East.

The expansion will allow more groups to show off their culture to the region every weekend, instead of being forced to rotate their displays in the nearby Hall of Nations with other countries that lack cottages.

People from all over the world have made San Diego their home and have brought with them their cultures, traditions and history, Mayor Kevin Faulconer said after the councils vote. Though our ancestry may mean we bring different perspectives to how we see the world, we share one thing in common: we are all San Diegans. These cottages will give us the opportunity to further showcase our diversity, which is one of our citys greatest strengths.

The new cottages will be built in two locations on the outer edge of the international village, with one group on the northern edge and another on the southern edge.

They have been designed to look similar but not identical to the original cottages built in 1935, so they will blend in well but also allow people to tell them apart.

They will be built mostly in undeveloped mulch areas, minimizing disruptions and removal of trees.

The cottages are officially known as the House of Pacific Relations complex, which was built in the core of the park for the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition.

These new cottages will join the existing ones to harmonize peacefully as nonpolitical and nonsectarian cultural organizations in the heart of Balboa Park, said Eugenie King, president of the House of Pacific Relations.

Cottages are typically run by volunteers who want to share their culture with San Diego, including music, dance, art and food.

The international cottages are free and open to the public every Sunday between noon and 4:00 p.m., with some open additional hours.

Arturo Castro, president of the House of Mexico, said allowing the group to have its own dedicated cottage would prompt it to be open more often.

He also noted that the international villages are a unique venue.

Theres no other place in the country that has something like this, he said.

The countries seeking new cottages contributed $200,000 each for the joint construction of all nine.

Lebanon had been slated to be included, but a recent lawsuit has jeopardized that.

Sam Abed, co-founder of the House of Lebanon and mayor of Escondido, said Monday he was optimistic the litigation would be quickly cleared up and that Lebanon will be part of the project.

The new cottages will join others previously built for China, the Czech and Slovak nations, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Norway, Poland, Puerto Rico, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine and the United States.
Seeking stronger ties between residents and police officers in the wake of recent turbulence, San Diego will revive a long-dormant community policing board and urge its members to set lofty goals.

The Citizens Advisory Board on Police/Community Relations will focus on the idea that policing San Diego is a shared responsibility that suffers without robust collaboration between residents and police.

The board, which the City Council voted unanimously to revive on Tuesday, will focus on making residents aware of their rights and responsibilities when interacting with police.

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It may also recommend policies designed to make law enforcement more sensitive, effective and responsive.

The boards role will be separate and distinct from the Citizens Review Board on Police Practices, which evaluates complaints from residents and reviews officer-involved shootings.

Mayor Kevin Faulconer said reviving the community policing board, which has been dormant since the late 1990s, will help unify San Diego.

Behind the badge, our police officers are San Diegans just like the rest of us  but for some it can be hard to see that, Faulconer said. Its so important to give San Diegans a new opportunity to work alongside the city and create a better understanding of how we need to keep our neighborhoods safe.

Faulconer predicted the board would help reduce crime.

This board will help encourage police and residents to find new ways to strengthen that relationship, come up with new ideas on how we prevent crime and, most importantly, make sure all San Diegans in all neighborhoods are not just safer but feel safe too, he said.

Revival of the board comes after multiple officer-involved shootings in San Diego and controversy over a delayed San Diego State study of racial profiling by the Police Department.

This is so timely  its obvious the people of San Diego really do want a closer relationship with our Police Department, said Councilwoman Marti Emerald, chair of a council committee that oversees public safety. They want to feel as though we are all on the same path, all in the same room listening to each other. I think this is going to meet a real need.

Brian Marvel, president of the labor union representing San Diego police officers, said he expects the board to foster more crucial two-way communication.

Any time we can actively engage the public and actually teach them so they get a better understanding of what we do out on the streets and why we do the things that we do and what case laws there are, is always a plus, Marvel said. Public engagement with the community and the police is huge.

Councilwoman Myrtle Cole vowed on Tuesday to secure significant funding for the revived board during budget deliberations next spring.

The mayor has agreed to quickly begin making appointments to the 15-member board, which must be confirmed by the council.

A policy approved Tuesday says the board must have at least one member from each of the citys nine council districts, one member from a police employee group, a human relations expert, a member familiar with youth issues and two members with backgrounds in either social services, corrections or probation.

All members will be volunteers, serve two-year terms and receive no pay.

Cole, an African American who publicly apologized last summer for controversial comments she made defending racial profiling, said she wants the revived board to be proactive.

Given the critical issues facing our nation and our city, the role of this board is necessary to promote and encourage open communication and corroboration between the Police Department and the residents of the city, recognizing that policing the city of San Diego is a shared responsibility, Cole said.

The board was originally created in the 1980s in response to a police shooting, but it stopped meeting shortly after the Citizens Review Board on Police Practices was created in 1998.

david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick
A man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a woman was beaten and stabbed for no apparent reason in the community of Morena early Monday morning, San Diego police said.

Gregg Taylor is accused of approaching the 59-year-old woman as she was getting out of her car on Morena Boulevard near Savannah Street about 5 a.m. Police Officer Dan Lasher said Taylor hit and stabbed her three times without warning.

She called 911 and was taken to a hospital with stab wounds to the chest and a cut hand. Her injuries werent considered life-threatening, Lasher said.

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Officers located Taylor, 57, three blocks away. He was arrested and booked into jail.

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lyndsay.winkley@sduniontribune.com
The owner of a marijuana refining business went to court Monday in an effort to regain money seized from his familys accounts after a January raid of his company  the kind of showdown that could become more common now that state law allows recreational pot while federal law prohibits it.

James Slatic of Med-West Distribution said a host of city officials toured his Kearny Mesa facility when it opened, to make sure he was in full compliance with state and municipal law.

We worked with them, applied for every permit, they walked through our facility, he testified before Superior Court Judge Jay M. Bloom. No one wrote to us and said we were in violation of any rules.

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The Med-West owner said he was particularly careful to meet every requirement because of this regions history of prosecuting medical-marijuana patients and dispensaries.

San Diego County has a reputation in the state for being the most Draconian toward cannabis businesses, he said.

California voters made medical marijuana legal under Proposition 215 in 1996, and followed that up with Proposition 64 to make recreational marijuana legal last week. The drug remains illegal under federal law.

Med-West Distribution was raided by a San Diego drug task force in late January, when dozens of heavily armed agents poured into the company headquarters early in the morning.

Agents arrested the two employees on duty and seized $324,000 in cash. They also confiscated the inventory of edible pot, topical creams and other products and nearly every company record.

In court affidavits, agents said Med-West was illegally processing marijuana into concentrated products. Neither Slatic nor the two employees arrested in January have been charged with crimes.

Slatic filed a legal complaint seeking to compel the District Attorneys Office to return more than $100,000 taken from his personal bank account and those of his wife and two teen-aged daughters.

He has not sought the return of the $324,000 in cash seized at Med-West or the inventory. The company went out of business in the aftermath of the raid and about 35 employees lost their jobs, Slatic testified.

The affidavits submitted to the court before the raid were signed by San Diego police Det. Mark Carlson, who is currently assigned to a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration narcotics task force.

Carlson testified Monday that he believes what Med-West was doing at the Kearny Mesa headquarters was a violation of state law.

It was being used to process marijuana concentrate and/or refine the materials, he said. To me refinement is extraction.

State law doesnt allow manufacture of a controlled substance using a process of chemical extraction. Slatics contention is that his business only refined oils, it didnt extract them.

Cannabis scientist Andrew Pham testified that equipment seized by drug agents during the raid was incapable of extracting concentrated marijuana, as alleged by Carlson.

Pham testified that, based on his review of chemicals and other materials seized at the Kearny Mesa office, the company was not extracting concentrated pot.

With the equipment listed, the only possible thing you could do is refine the material thats already been extracted, said Pham, who is the lead scientist at a San Diego laboratory that develops synthetic marijuana-based medicines.

Pham said if Med-West was extracting marijuana concentrate from raw materials, the drug agents would have found raw plants, butane, carbon dioxide and other required supplies.

When you remove the plant waxes, youre not actually concentrating the material because the concentration stays the same, he testified.

Deputy District Attorney Jorge Del Portillo asked Carlson if anyone presented him a license indicating that Med-West was a medical cannabis shop properly licensed by the city of San Diego. The detective said no.

Del Portillo also noted that a hazardous-materials crew discovered flammable liquids at the Med-West offices that could present a danger to the public.

Slatic accused the District Attorneys Office of policing for profit the idea of law enforcement agencies using asset-forfeiture rules to seize cash and property without convictions to boost their budgets.

The District Attorneys Office, San Diego Police Department and San Diego County Sheriffs Department raise and spend millions of dollars a year under the civil asset-forfeiture rules.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill in September that requires police and sheriffs departments in California to win convictions before they can keep seized assets, and that law will go into effect until Jan. 1.

When the District Attorneys Office froze and then seized the Slatics personal bank accounts, his daughter attending college in Northern California could no longer buy groceries, he said. Slatics wife and daughters testified Monday that their finances had nothing to do with Med-West.

Testimony will continue Tuesday. Both sides will submit final briefs in the case before Judge Bloom issues a ruling.

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It was a happy and poignant day on Monday for a war-wounded Camp Pendleton Marine who received a service dog and life-saving companion, trained by prisoners at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility.

Master Sgt. James Horner, a career military man who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, stood in front of some 100 people gathered at the prison and gave an emotional speech about how much the dog, named Saturn, has meant to him and his family.

It was the black Labradors graduation day from POOCH, or Prisoners Overcoming Obstacles and Creating Hope, a program administered by Tender Loving Canines, a non-profit organization that provides assistance dogs to wounded warriors and children with autism. Graduation Day for Saturn also meant introducing other dogs in the program, and celebrating its success.

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The dogs change lives for those they serve as well as for their trainers, many of whom are incarcerated for the rest of their lives.

Master Sgt. James Horner sits with his service dog Saturn after the dogs graduation ceremony at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility. (John Gibbins/San Diego Union-Tribune )

Saturn has been the joy of our life, said Horner, who was injured in three separate explosions and joked that he was an IED magnet.

He brought joy to my family because now my kids got their dad back and more importantly, my wife got her husband back, he said.

Horner, 50, suffered several injuries that affected his eyesight, his hearing and his neurological system and left him suffering from debilitating post-traumatic stress disorder, with trauma so severe he said he shut down emotionally and cut himself off from friends and family. The condition left him paranoid and hyper-vigilant, with anxiety he said he was never able to turn off.

The married father of two said he would go to the base, where he works as a meteorologist, and come home, but something as simple as a trip to Costco or Target was an insurmountable effort that was impossible for him to accomplish. Now that he has Saturn, all that has changed.

He gives me strength and confidence that I never had before, said Horner, whose voice cracked several times as he spoke, as his wife Ingrid and oldest son Tristan, 20, looked on.

At the beginning of the ceremony, Donovan Warden Daniel Paramo said that Gov. Jerry Brown has challenged the prison and the corrections department to change its culture.

Theres just so much good coming out of this program, Paramo said.

Its an absolute blessing, said Dayle Long, who is serving 40 years to life for second-degree murder.

Long, a former Riverside County Sheriffs Deputy who used to conduct underwater search and rescue operations, trains a black lab named Donovan along with his cell-mate, James Fox. Fox was sentenced to life without parole for murdering two people.

I never thought Id ever see a dog again, said Fox, who said it was the same for many prisoners, some of whom havent pet a canine in decades. Now Ive got something to care about, and that gives me some of my humanity back.

Donovan, who Fox described as a rock star, is being trained to help people with mobility issues. And the men have trained him to do fist bumps with his snout.

It has no service application whatsoever, but it makes him pretty popular, Fox said as the audience laughed in approval.

Anerae Brown, who received 31 years to life for a gang-related homicide, and Dontaye Henderson of Oceanside, who is serving 83 years to life for first-degree murder, both spoke about how the dog training has changed them for the better.

The two, as well as the other prison dog trainers, were selected after undergoing a rigorous screening process. The men involved must have also gone one year with no disciplinary actions.

TLCs programs director, Victoria Cavaliere, said being admitted into the program is a powerful incentive for compliant behavior and for following rules.

Brown said it teaches the men teamwork, leadership, tolerance, attention to detail, accountability and more.

The pooch program has afforded me an opportunity to vindicate myself against the self-inflicted perception that I was an unsalvageable gang-banging criminal lacking all redeeming qualities, said Brown, who has served 25 years of his sentence. Its a tremendous statement of faith that weve been entrusted with the care of these living beings.

Henderson, who is training a black lab named Star with skills that will allow her to help autistic children, said the opportunity was wonderful as well as humbling.

I think I learn more from Star than I teach her, he said.

Cavaliere said that the non-profit organization spends about $10,000 a year for each dog being trained. Currently, there are five canines at Donovan. They dogs come from shelters or are donated or purchased, she said.

The prisoner who trained Horners dog has since been released. Horner said he appreciates all the man did for him and his family and that he doesnt care about why he had been in prison. He said he hopes to meet him one day and that if he does he would tell him he did an awesome job.

Horner also said that doctors wanted to treat his PTSD with medication but he did not want to go that route. Saturn, who never left the Marines side all afternoon, gave him another, better option. I won because of him, he said.

The audience responded with a standing ovation.

619-293-1710

debbi.baker@sduniontribune.com

twitter.com/Debbi_Baker
A week after Donald Trumps stunning election, the American public remains divided. Some are cheery and ready for change; others are appalled and fearful. Tens of thousands of people have responded to his victory with defiant protests, as is their right, but Trumps own tone has been subdued, especially compared to his vitriolic campaign rhetoric. He tweeted that these protesters were very unfair! on Thursday, then lauded their passion for our great country on Friday. Meanwhile, some Democrats in Congress are continuing harsh attacks on Trump, hinting that they wont cooperate with the Trump administration, as House Republicans resisted the Obama administration.

Heres the thing: Attacking policies is one thing, but ultimately, no one should be rooting for a failed presidency. This is why President Obamas attempt to bring Trump within the conventional fold of American politics is so welcome. In a news conference on Monday, Obama was asked a series of questions that may have been meant to get the president to renounce the president-elect or at least repeat past criticisms. Instead, while acknowledging his concerns about what Trump might do, the president attempted to offer reassurances, both to Americans and to the world.

Obama suggested that despite campaign pledges to junk the Affordable Care Act, Trump would instead be sobered by the question of what happens to the 20 million people who have insurance because of the landmark 2010 law.

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On the nearly 1 million young immigrants, brought here by their parents, who benefit from a 2012 executive order giving them legal protections, Obama suggested that whatever his campaign rhetoric, Trump would be sobered before deporting American kids who had to meet standards such as graduating high school or being in school.

On foreign policy, Obama said that contrary to Trumps campaign rhetoric, the president-elect told him he had a great interest in maintaining our core strategic relationships and had a commitment to NATO. And that when it came to the deal that the U.S. and other global powers struck with Iran, Trump might drop his criticism once he grasped that the accord was achieving its key goal of preventing Tehran from building nuclear weapons.

An easy explanation of President Obama essentially urging everyone to remain calm is that he wants to pacify Trump to keep intact his legacy and policies, starting with Obamacare and outreach to Iran. But a better explanation is that Obama, ever the analyst, has thought for months about what to do if the long shot won the presidential race. Maybe he saw the downside of having the Oval Office occupied by a polarizing, erratic figure and decided to contain the threat he posed by encouraging the public to accept Trumps election and warning the pragmatic president-elect against precipitous decision-making.

In 2014, President Clinton revealed his successor, George W. Bush, sought his counsel with surprising frequency even as Bush pursued policies Clinton didnt embrace. If the 44th and 45th presidents had such a relationship, that would be reassuring  and show that both leaders know the stakes are high.

See also:

Congratulations, President Donald Trump. Time to look beyond the election.

Heres how Donald Trump could change California, profoundly

What are people protesting at these anti-Trump rallies, exactly?
Regarding No love for Trump at Balboa Park protest (Nov. 14): If you were wondering what constitutes a basket of deplorables, look no further than the Donald Trump haters protesting in the streets. The tantrum-throwing, whine-when-you-lose, Clintonites march to protest an election outcome they cant reverse.

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Their signs and placards espouse veiled slogans of disdain and hatred towards working-class Americans. Their messages drip in elitist hypocrisy, professing that uneducated angry whites upset the vote they expected and needed to maintain the status quo of government handouts they demand each month.

Meanwhile, the working class, at the center of their disdain, head off to jobs each day to earn a wage heavily burdened with taxes that get redistributed to those who have the leisure to protest in the streets.

Who are really the deplorables, who represent their party as hateful, ignorant, selfish and act as uneducated rabble-rousers? Leftists will never admit its them.

Warren Bartholomew

Santee

* * *

The Trump people seem to think that President Obama and Secretary Clinton should say something to the people protesting the election in the streets. They did, both of them.

But President-elect Trump and his people should stop whining and meet with the people who remember what he said during the campaign. That is why they are in the streets.

At some point the Trump administration should start to kick in. The protesters would be a good start for his team.

Richard Schauer

Escondido

* * *

Reality check to anti-Trump demonstrators: Republicans were every bit as disappointed and fearful when an incompetent, inexperienced Barack Obama was elected president.

We didnt take to the streets, destroy private property, throw assassination threats around Twitter, write not my president on our foreheads, cry, need safe spaces or whatever.

Its been an agonizing eight years of watching Obamacare get ramrodded through Congress, experiencing Obama bumble his way through international negotiations, letting our ambassador and brave Americans get killed in Benghazi and setting race relations back 50 years. From one unaddressed Black Lives Matter crisis to another, its been very, very painful for those of us on the other side.

It was a fair election and the Democrats lost. Perhaps they can behave as courteously and courageously as the conservatives have when the loss went the other direction.

Diane Obright

Olivenhain

* * *

Once again a Republican has become president of the United States without winning the popular vote of the citizens of this country I think that H.L. Mencken got it right 96 years ago in a column he wrote in The Baltimore Evening Sun on July 26, 1920.

As democracy is perfected, the office of the President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and a complete narcissistic moron.

Mary Croft

San Diego

Terms limits would make leaders focus

Regarding Election wasnt a rejection of Obama (Oct. 14): Dennis Neary was right on the button with his comments about congressional representatives and the only solution I see to it is to establish a term limit that is long enough but after which they could not get re-elected.

That way they would not have to spend any time fund-raising for their next election and could spend more time doing the job they were elected for.

S.J. Larson

Clairemont

The Electoral College works until it is wrong

Regarding Should the U.S. get rid of the Electoral College? (Nov. 12): Over the years, there has been plenty of discussion about the fairness and legitimacy of the Electoral College.

The outcome of our most recent presidential election has brought it back into sharper focus, especially since Hillary Clinton won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote, prompting many of her supporters to declare Donald Trumps election invalid.

One cannot help but wonder where these people would stand on the subject if, instead, Trump had won the popular but lost the electoral vote.

Do you suppose they would be marching around condemning it as outmoded and irrelevant?

Joseph J. Andrilla

San Diego

At what point would citizens stop dividing?

Lets take Dean Schwabachs idea, Could it be time for an independent California? (Nov. 11), to its logical conclusion. If California secedes from the U.S., because of its political differences with the electoral process, then is it not logical that the 26 counties that voted for Trump could then secede from this entity of new-California?

And if within these 26 red counties, there were polling places or neighborhoods that voted blue. Could these then further secede from the anti-new-California? Etc.

Is this idea at this time not the epitome of I lost the game, so I am going home and am taking my ball and bat with me?

Daniel R. Collins

San Diego

Want to see more letters that appear only online? Follow @UTLetters on Twitter and UTOpinion on Facebook.
Since Donald Trump s election on Nov. 8, people have taken to the streets in at least two dozen U.S. cities to protest the president-elects  what, exactly?

We were curious, so we set out to list the five most common reasons being given for these protests. It turns out people are protesting Trumps conduct, his policies and his election, among other things.

Protests are taking place in red and blue states, in large cities such as New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Diego, Atlanta, Portland, Omaha, Nebraska, and Kansas City, Missouri and in smaller cities such as Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Springfield, Massachusetts, in groups of hundreds and in groups of thousands.

Heres what the protesters are saying.

1. Not my president.

Thousands of anti-Donald Trump protesters, including many pro-immigrant groups, hold a demonstration along 5th Avenue as New Yorkers react to the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States on November 13, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

On social media and some city streets, not my president has become a rallying call for people who are unwilling to accept Trump will become the countrys 45th president after handily winning the nations electoral college vote but seemingly losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton .

Im just doing my part in democracy, Los Angeles protester Alfred Diaz told the New York Times. I feel that this is a way for me to voice my opinion.

We reject the president-elect, others chanted in Portland, Oregon.

2. Be kind, not racist!

Students from numerous area high schools come together in Mariachi Plaza before continuing their march to City Hall to protest the upset election of Donald Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton in the race for President of the United States on Nov. 14, 2016 in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

Some protesters are focused on comments Trump has made about Mexico and immigration, border security issues that resonated with his supporters but left many Latinos and Muslims in America anxious.

One political group that advocates for Latino rights organized a protest in Chicano Park in San Diego. We understand that the people are afraid and we want to reverse that fear, a member said.

In some cities, protesters are chanting that refugees should be welcome in spite of language Trump has used about Muslim immigrants.

3. Women are no joke.

Protester Sonja Spray carries a sign reading WOMEN are NO JOKE in Chicagos Millennium Park on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2016. Several hundred people joined a Chicago demonstration to protest the election of Donald Trump as president (AP Photo/Carla K. Johnson)

While Trump and his supporters shrugged off the language as locker room talk, the Access Hollywood video uncovered a few weeks before the election showed Trump using lewd words to describe women left some Americans thinking it was symbolic of his thoughts about women in general.

In Los Angeles, Kim White said she was protesting because of how Trump treats and talks about women. "People are like: 'Give him a break, he didn't mean it," she told the Los Angeles Times. "I'm sorry. Words matter."

Leading up the the election, Trump was accused by several women of inappropriate sexual conduct.

4. Stop Trumpism and TPP.

Activists shout slogans as they march during an anti-Trump and anti-TPP protest November 14, 2016 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Some protesters are marching to call attention to particular issues, such as free trade.

Just Monday morning in Washington, D.C., a group of protesters shut down an expressway with a sign that said Stop Trumpism and also made known its feelings about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Protesters said they dont fully trust Trump to shut down the agreement as he said he would.

Other subjects being raised by protesters are a womans right to an abortion as outlined in Roe v. Wade, climate change and healthcare.

5. Electoral college equals voter suppression

Protestors demonstrate against President-elect Donald Trump outside Independence Hall November 13, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images)

Some people are pushing by petition to overhaul the electoral college after Clinton won the popular vote but not the election. In California, people are exploring the nearly impossible proposition of Calexit, a twist on the term Brexit used after the British exit of the European Union.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who lost the Democratic nomination to Clinton, said the protests are warranted as many people felt they couldnt support Trump or Clinton.

People are angry, he told USA Today. People are upset.

So what does Trump think about all this?

Two days after the election, Trump criticized the protesters, saying they were professional in nature and incited by the media.

The next day, he took a different tack, expressing a desire to see people come together instead.

Protests are continuing the week after the election. How long they will last remains to be seen, but at least one effort to protest at the presidential inauguration on Jan. 21 appears to be gaining steam.

The Womens March on Washington has drawn 75,000 RSVPs marked to attend on its Facebook event page. Still a long way to go from the million women it hopes to attract.

Email: abby.hamblin@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @abbyhamblin

ALSO

Calexit: All this secession talk is just a waste of time in California

Congratulations, President Donald Trump. Time to look beyond the election.

Trump, GOP victories don't guarantee unified government
Fired Poway Unified School District Supt. John Collins is alleging the school board violated state law by not offering him a requested classroom teaching assignment.

A claim filed against the district by an attorney representing Collins contends that Collins, fired July 10 for alleged financial improprieties, has a valid California teaching credential and while the board was within its right to terminate his administrative contract, members erred in not giving him the opportunity to return to a classroom as a tenured teacher.

The claim, filed Sept. 26, is the required first step toward a possible lawsuit in the matter. The school board reportedly discussed the matter in closed session on Tuesday night.

The district has never taken the legally required steps to terminate Dr. Collins from his position as a tenured (permanent) classroom teacher, the claim says. Accordingly, Dr. Collins is legally entitled to be serving the District as a classroom teacher within the District. As a result, the suit says, Collins has been denied salary, benefits and other rights and privileges that are afforded tenured teachers.

The school board voted 5-0 to terminate Collins contract as superintendent after commissioning and reviewing the results of an audit of that contact. Board President Michelle OConnor Radcliff said at the time the audit revealed over $345,000 in overpayments and unauthorized payments to Collins.

Collins has denied those and other related allegations.

The claim cites sections of the state Education Code says that a school administrator or supervisor, after having completed a probationary period, becomes a permanent employee as a classroom teacher. It notes that Collins obtained his California single subject teaching credential (English) in 1984 and that the credential is valid until June 1, 2018.

The District, however, has and continues to wrongfully deny him that opportunity despite his numerous requests that he be allowed to serve as a classroom teacher within the District for which he is legally entitled.

If the district wanted to terminate his status as a tenured teacher, it should have held a hearing within 30 days of Collins receiving charges, according to the claim. He received an undated statement of charges at his home on June 25. He responded to the charges in writing on July 21. No hearing was ever scheduled, the claim says.
Do you own a property with a well in San Diego County? Is it dry due to the prolonged statewide drought?

Help is available.

A new emergency water distribution program is offering assistance to residents without access to running water for drinking and sanitation due to a dry well. Residents who qualify can receive low-interest loans to replace individual water well systems and install temporary water tanks. The water assistance is not for landscaping or agricultural needs.

The program was created as a result of an executive order by California Governor Jerry Brown. Local assistance is available through the County of San Diego and the Rural Community Assistance Corporation.

For the emergency water distribution program, applicants must:

Own a property with a well that has gone dry due to drought

Earn a total gross monthly household income less than or equal to 200 percent of the federal poverty level (see www.cdss.ca.gov/foodstamps/PG3628.htm)

Own and live in a primary residence on the property with the well

Own and live in a legal dwelling on a legal parcel

Have plans for a long-term water supply solution

For a low-interest loan, applicants must own and occupy the property or plan to purchase the property with the dry well, and earn an annual gross household income of $62,883 or less.

For more information, visit readysandiego.org/emergencywater, email readysd@sdcounty.ca.gov or call 858-565-3490.

Michele Clock is a communications officer with the County of San Diego Communications Office.
Generally speaking, your lease with a landlord is a binding agreement that cannot be easily modified, but California has recently adopted laws that provide special protection and rights to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking or elder abuse.

The laws recognize that everyone should be able to feel safe and secure in their home. If a tenant becomes the target of a predator, both the tenant and the landlord should be able to make reasonable changes to keep the tenant safe and comfortable.

The law now allows a domestic violence victim to break their lease early without any penalty or fee, as long as they provide the landlord with at least 14 days written notice to vacate along with a copy of a temporary restraining order, an emergency protective order or a police report issued within the last 60 days. In lieu of a police report or restraining order, the tenant may also provide a report written by a qualified third party, such as a domestic violence counselor, or a report written by a health practitioner such as a doctor, psychiatrist or a licensed marriage counselor.

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In some situations, a domestic violence victim may not want to move or may not have the resources to move. Another option is to ask the landlord to change the exterior locks on the unit. If the tenant provides the landlord with a copy of a police report or court order, the landlord must change the locks within 24 hours. Most landlords will have no problem changing the locks, but if it takes longer than 24 hours for the landlord to respond, the tenant themselves may change the locks. If the tenant takes this route, the tenant must use locks of similar or better quality than those provided by the landlord, and the locks must be changed in a workmanlike, or professionally acceptable, manner. The tenant must also notify the landlord within 24 hours that the locks have been changed, and provide the landlord with a copy of the new key.

The fact that you are a victim of domestic violence or a similar crime should not be a reason for a landlord to end your lease or refuse to renew it. However, there are three circumstances in which the landlord may end a lease: first, if the perpetrator of the crime is a tenant of the unit along with the victim; second, if the victim allows the perpetrator to visit the property after an act of abuse has been reported; or third, if the landlord has reason to believe that the perpetrators presence on the property is a threat to other people on the property.

Everyone deserves to have safe, stable housing. If youve suffered domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking or elder abuse, discuss these options with your landlord to find a solution that works for both of you.

Molly Kirkland is director of public affairs for the San Diego County Apartment Association.
By Jeff Mason ATHENS (Reuters) - Barack Obama offered solidarity with Greece over its debt and migrant crises on Tuesday during his final trip to Europe as U.S. president before handing over power to Donald Trump. Obama delighted his Greek hosts by supporting debt relief for the recession-battered country, which has seen its economy shrink by a quarter in just seven years, but riot police had to use teargas to quell anti-U.S. protesters in central Athens. Greece hopes Obama will be able to persuade its foreign creditors to restructure some of its debt, which stands at nearly 180 percent of national output. "We cannot simply look to austerity as a strategy," Obama said after talks with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. "Our argument has always been that when the economy contracted this fast, when unemployment is this high, that there also has to be a growth agenda to go with it and it is very difficult to imagine the kind of growth strategy that's needed without some debt relief mechanism," Obama said. Athens signed up to a third economic bailout package of up to 86 billion euros (74.79 billion pounds) in mid-2015 but says it needs a long-term debt restructuring to exit the crisis - a message repeated on Tuesday by Tsipras, a leftist whose popularity is waning. Obama, who said the United States would stand "shoulder to shoulder" with Greece, a NATO ally, was due to visit Germany on Wednesday, the main champion of economic austerity in Europe. "YANKEES GO HOME!" Leftist groups are angry that Obama, the first U.S. leader to visit Athens since Bill Clinton in 1999, is visiting just two days before the anniversary of a bloody 1973 student revolt that helped topple a Greek military junta backed by Washington. The clashes, just a few km (miles) from where Greek leaders were hosting Obama at a state dinner, erupted after about 7,000 people, some of them hooded, marched through central Athens and tried to reach the parliament and the U.S. embassy. The protesters waved banners that read: "We don't need protectors!" and "Yankees go home!" As well as its economic travails, Greece, a country of 11 million, has been grappling with a migrant crisis engulfing Europe. More than 60,000 people are stranded in Greece after their onwards journey into Europe was sealed off this year as borders were shut in the Balkans. "It is important that we don't have any single country bear the entire burden of these challenges," Obama said. Humanitarian organisations have called on Obama to press the need for a European response to the problem and to demand wealthier countries take in a bigger share of refugees. Obama, who is in Athens until Wednesday afternoon, was staying at a luxury seaside resort on a peninsula south of Athens, less than 15 km (9 miles) from a disused airport that is temporarily housing hundreds of migrants and refugees. Children played outside the abandoned terminal through washing lines strung with laundry. Some sat on a battered old sofa as Obama's motorcade sped past them. "We want Obama to come and see us here, how we are living like prisoners," said Hatzi Naser, 42, from Afghanistan, still mired in conflict more than a decade after U.S. forces ousted the Taliban following the 9/11 attacks on the United States. "He is the reason we are here, because of his army's war. We want him to come and see the filth we are living in." (Additional reporting by Lefteris Papadimas, Renee Maltezou, Karolina Tagaris, Michele Kambas; Writing By Michele Kambas and Karolina Tagaris; Editing by Gareth Jones)
US President Barack Obama boards Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland as he heads to Athens, the first stop on his final foreign trip, on November 14, 2016 (AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski) (AFP)

Washington (AFP) - US President Barack Obama headed across the Atlantic late Monday on his final foreign trip while in office -- a farewell tour of Europe and a summit with Asia-Pacific leaders to reassure concerned allies after Donald Trump's election.

Obama will first go to Greece, his first trip to the birthplace of democracy, where he will visit the Parthenon and hold talks with the country's leaders.

Security will be tight in central Athens, with thousands of police officers on the streets and traffic cut off for several hours.

Civil servants, communists, far-left groups and anarchists all plan to hold demonstrations as Obama swings through the Greek capital.

He then heads to Germany for key discussions with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, long one of his closest foreign partners.

He will also meet there with French President Francois Hollande, British Prime Minister Theresa May and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

The leaders plan to discuss the crises in Syria and Ukraine, as well as the fight against the Islamic State group.

In a pre-trip news conference, Obama told reporters he would "signal our solidarity with our closest allies and express our support for a strong, integrated and united Europe."

"It's essential to our national security and it's essential to global stability," he said.

"That's why the trans-Atlantic alliance and the NATO alliance have endured for decades under Democratic and Republican administrations," he added, seeking to allay fears that Trump will seek to sideline the alliance.

Obama also said he believes his successor has a "commitment to NATO."

The American president will conclude his trip with a stop in Peru for a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Among the leaders he is expected to meet there is President Xi Jinping of China.

"This is a time of great change in the world, but America's always been a pillar of strength and a beacon of hope to peoples around the globe. And that's what it must continue to be," Obama said.
When traveling north, there is one bumpy road that will take you to the west side (or the leeward side) of the island. It takes you from the reef side to a strange scrubby moonscape of jagged limestone

stunted trees and lush mangroves and then the other side of Ambergris Caye. Crystal clear, calm blue waters less than 5 feet deep, sand bottom and sand bars. Beautiful.

But things are getting BUSY! Its not longer a hidden paradisea spot for only locals on Sunday afternoon.

Has Secret Beach, with the gaudy sign and sudden upwelling of new businesses, jumped the shark?

Havent heard that term? Let me help.

To jump the shark, broadly, is to change the style or quality of something, the point where something goes into decline. The phrase comes from an episode of Happy Days in which the uber-cool Fonzie, wearing swim trunks and his leather jacket, jumped (on water-skis) over a shark.

Totally. Not. Cool.

It was considered the mark of the end of a great show.

Sowith 4 eateries, 3 places to buy drink (one with a license to stay open until MIDNIGHT), a beach club and room for many many more people. Is it the end of an era at SECRET Beach?

My opinion: It is DEFINITELY no secretand many have been mourning that. But I think its bigger and BETTER. Especially during the week

Here are pictures of what I saw yesterday.

The very first time I wrote about the area was March, 2013and it was still a bit of a secret. You can see the pictures here. But the only structure, other than two docks over there was this blue house.

As we drove over, you first pass Caye To Paradise. A pretty pastel house with a handful of cabins

I wrote about them earlier this year just before they opened.

And then Auroras Food Truck. She was closed yesterday

But two new eateries have sprung up since my last visit. One is an outpost of Pirates Treasure less than one mile north of the bridge on the main road. Now they have opened Pirates Not so Secret Beach Bar & Grill in the little blue house.

With a rooftop viewing deck

You can see Rosario Caye on the left hand side of this picture

the tiny caye that some sketchy developers are proposing NINETY OVER THE WATER STRUCTURES FOR. HOPEFULLY this never comes to fruition. Id MUCH rather see Henry Winkler out there.

They have also painted the dock a pretty pretty blue.

The swimming off the two docks here is lovely.

As is the sunning  this little boa was here first.

I helped him move along and took my spot at the end of the dock.

There is beach and rocky shoreline but the water is gorgeous.

Did I mention that?

Now take a short walk northvery short.

And there is another bar and grill with a beach club!

Holy moly! This place seemed to spring out of nowhere in the last few monthsand its beautiful.

I can DEFINITELY see lounging here during the week. I love these new additions and increased beach space.

And another plus of all these businesses? The trash situation seems to be more under controlnow there is incentive to clean up

And the view to the north. There are now two more docks and two more cleared but empty lots.

Love the new secret beach. Definitely not a secret but a beautiful spot to spend the day when you live here or are visiting.

Just be warnedit will be the MOST busy on weekends.
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During World War II, the British first rejected Americas B-17 Flying Fortress as too complicated. After suffering heavy losses, they reconsidered the bomber, but only after many lives were lost.

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America debuted the Boeing B-17, its latest development in military bombers, in 1940. The B-17 included a feature so advanced  the turbo-supercharger  that the Army had originally prohibited its sale to any foreign power. But that prohibition had been eased for the British now that they were fighting for their survival.

The British werent impressed.

They dismissed Boeings Flying Fortress as too new and too complicated. Also, it wasnt British. So the Royal Air Force launched its air offensive against Germany with the older British bombers. In the following months, the RAF suffered losses so heavy, they reconsidered the American bomber.

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By 1941, the British were flying B-17s and, according to author W. L. White, they were hitting the enemy harder, more frequently, and with less risk to the crew. This prompted White to reflect on the lives of airmen lost to the stubborn thinking of British military planners.

For the first few years of the war, the Allies  both British and American  struggled to get ahead of the Germans on the technology curve. The Nazis had been planning their conquest for years. Their opponents had looked away from the growing crisis, not wanting to think about another war so soon after the last one.

When war began, the Allied nations assumed it would be fought much like the First World War: a long stalemate with trench-bound troops and occasional bombings. That notion was shattered in June of 1940, when the Germans swept across Europe to conquer France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. The world was stunned.

Here in America, many who had considered the new war as a pointless repeat of World War I now began to urge the U.S. to rebuild and modernize its military.

But re-arming the nation would be expensive and time-consuming. On December 7, two months after The Dying and the Buying appeared in the Post, the Japanese sped up the modernization of the U.S. Pacific fleet by destroying much of its power at Pearl Harbor.

As you read this article, keep in mind that Flying Fortresses were taking people farther from earth than ever before: the turbo-supercharger enabled the B-17 to operate at 30,000 feet. White explains how designers overcame the challenges to aviators operating at such high altitudes.
We say goodbye to Robert Vaughn, television star of the 1960s best known for his role as Napoleon Solo in "The Man from U.N.C.L.E."

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When The Posts profile of Robert Vaughn appeared in 1965, he was as big a star as television had. He was receiving 2,500 pieces of fan mail every week, and frequently mobbed by female admirers.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. played to Americas fascination with spies, which had begun with the James Bond novels and motion pictures. It was easy to imagine a world of spies during the Cold War. Throughout the 1950s, Americans had repeatedly heard warnings that Communist agents were at work in business, government, and schools to undermine the U.S.

But U.N.C.L.E. never took espionage seriously. Vaughns character, Napoleon Solo, gently spoofed the spy genre just as his contemporary, Adam West, played a campy version of Batman. (The characters unusual name was lifted from a mobster in Ian Flemings James Bond story, Goldfinger.)

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Before Ronald Reagan rose to national prominence, the idea of a performer running for office seemed ridiculous. Vaughn, a long-time liberal Democrat, dismissed the idea of his running for office in Don Freemans interview, but he never lost an interest in politics. He was one of the first actors to publicly state opposition to the Vietnam War. With other entertainers, he formed an anti-war wing of the party, which promoted Eugene McCarthy for president.

It was John F. Kennedy who inspired political interests in Vaughn. He remained involved after JFK was killed. But with the death of Robert Kennedy, Vaughnlike many of his contemporarieslost heart for politics.
Fort Dodge, IA -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/15/2016 -- Here is good news that may be of interest to those who are looking to choose the best banks in Singapore. Bankssingapore.com is providing the details of the banks operating in Singapore. They are ranking the banks also so these people can easily pick the best banks in the country.



Bankssingapore.com points out how a number of people admire the subtle rise of Singapore as an economic power-house of Asia by being a major tourist attraction as well as a place that offers banking services of very high quality. But even among the banks that operate here, people may like to choose the best ones and that is the reason they are providing these details, says the site.



Some more good news for people and it is bankssingapore.com is offering tips to them so they can pick the best banks in Singapore. According to the site, the best banks are those that ensure that their clients get the right value for their money. This means that those who do transactions with them should be required to pay only reasonable charges or fees. In fact, people judge a bank by taking into consideration factors like the fees and the costs they have to pay for the services offered by the bank.



The second factor people consider for choosing the right banks is the convenience of doing transactions. If the banks provide the right ambiance and have put in place the right facilities, people are certain to throng those banks for carrying out their transactions.



Similarly, accessibility and wide networks are also important factors which means the banks should have branches in various areas that can be accessed easily and conveniently. Of course, the banks should offer the convenience of doing mobile banking as well so customers can check their account details and carry out their banking transactions even when they are on the move.



Finally, the best banks in Singapore should ensure to offer value-added services. This means customers should be offered services that are much beyond their financial needs or expectations.



The discontent of people is compared to a chameleon. Until it is spotted, its existence may be doubted. So, if banks assume that people are very much satisfied with their services, they may be in for a shock. Therefore, they cannot afford to become complacent. They should constantly keep working for satisfying their clients on a consistent basis. If they stick to this mantra, they will always remain the best banks in Singapore.



About Bankssingapore.com

Bankssingapore.com is providing the details of the banks operating in Singapore so those who are looking to choose the best banks in Singapore can easily make their choices. The site is ranking the banks also based on their functioning style and various other important factors. The site offers tips also so it will be easy for customers to choose the right bank that suits their needs.



For Media Contact:

bankssingapore.com
UNESCO and the US-based Association for Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) signed an agreement on 10 November to use science centers and science museums as platforms to communicate sustainable goals (SDGs) through the organisation of ad-hoc events on local, regional, and international levels, during a meeting in UNESCO headquarters, as part of the commemorations of the first International Day for Science Centers and Museums (IDSCM).

The agreement also aims to enhance informal science, technology and math education (STEM) with hands-on, interactive exhibits, inquiry-based science education programs that advance STEM learning and innovative ways.

According to Flavia Schlegel, Assistant Director-General for the Natural Sciences at UNESCO, in the closing session, science centers are the crucial part of the puzzle to hook up children and their families in science.

We need to persuade policy makers to build and maintain more science centers around the world, which can also reach the rural areas, for example through itinerant exhibitions and activities. Luisa Massarani, SciDev.Net

Talking to Anthony F. (Bud) Rock, CEO of ASTC, he believes that this agreement will help to strengthen science centers among the UNESCO country members. In return, we will try to address the SDGs every year, on the International Day for Science Centers and Museums, he said.

As the head of RedPOP, the Latin American sister of ASTC and a professional of a hands-on science center in Brazil (Museum of Life), I welcome the initiative myself.

Science centers have been increasing around the world. In my own region, there has been an increase in their establishment since the 1990s. At least 470 science centers were identified in the last survey conducted by RedPOP  although keeping them alive every year is still a big challenge due to budget contraints.

Most of the science centers are in bigger cities and many countries in Latin America and the Carribean, as well as in other parts of the developing world  particularly in Africa, still have too few initiatives. We need to persuade policymakers to build and maintain more science centers around the world, which can also reach the rural areas, for example through itinerant exhibitions and activities.

Due to this international effort, about 300 science centers around the world participated in the IDSCM. The agreement can only succeed if UNESCO engages meaningfully with other networks around the world in this initiative. Luisa Massarani, SciDev.Net

Elizabeth Rasekoala, President of African Gong, the African network for science communication, argued at the event that many science centers are Eurocentric. We need to think about the developing world context and the needs of the developing world.

Razekoala is right. There are good examples of science centers that have been doing a good job in engaging people in the developing world. But we need to do more. If we want to make a difference through science centers, we need to create strategies to make them even more relevant for the developing world. They should be a culturally accessible space for dialogue and for public participation on science issues that impact peoples' lives.

The plan is to make IDSCM an annual event. It was organised on the occasion of the World Science Day for Peace and Development by UNESCO, ASTC (United States), International Council of Museums (ICOM) and the regional networks RedPOP (Latin America), ASPAC (Asia Pacific), Ecsite (Europe), SAASTEC (Southern Africa), and Names (North Africa and Middle East).

Due to this international effort, about 300 science centers around the world participated in the IDSCM. The agreement can only succeed if UNESCO engages meaningfully with other networks around the world in this initiative.

This piece was produced by our Latin America and Carribean edition.
Several European nations are under attack by a severe bird flu epidemic with reports of outbreaks of the deadly and highly contagious H5N8 virus that are coming from different parts of Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

Updated reports are suggesting that traces of the virus are also being found in Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands, Denmark and Croatia.

According to Mail Online, the outbreak seems to be particularly serious in Germany where the state of Schleswig-Holstein has confirmed one outbreak at a farm housing 30,000 chickens and 9,000 turkeys, all of which will now be culled. As a precautionary measure, the government has also sealed off an area of 1.2 square miles around Grumby.

Meanwhile, the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety has also confirmed a second outbreak at a chicken farm in Vorarlberg, located near the German and Swiss borders. The fate of more than 4,000 birds currently living in these facilities seems bleak as the authorities prepare to slaughter them to prevent the crisis from getting worse.

However, the move may have come a bit too late as another Austrian poultry farm close to that chicken farm was reportedly tested positive for H5N8.

Unfortunately, for people whose livelihood depends on these poultry farms, the outbreak has hit the region at the worst possible time.

"Christmas is when we see our main turnover. We have to kill about 1,000 animals," said Klaus Flatz, an Austrian farmer, reports Express.

"For us this is a huge challenge to deal with both physically and mentally. We will have to see how we can cope with the situation economically."

Meanwhile, dead birds found along Lake Geneva in Switzerland have also been tested positive for the virus, indicating that it is sweeping through the neighboring countries, too. The challenge for the authorities will be to prevent migratory birds to spread the disease to farm poultries.

The H5N8 does not directly affect humans -- at least, not so far -- but the strain is virulent in wild birds.
A rare diamond could be sold for $25 million at auction at the Sotheby's Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels sale on Nov. 16 in Geneva, Switzerland. It holds an 8.01 karat blue stone referred to as the "Sky Blue Diamond."

Rare "Sky Blue Diamond" goes up for auction this week, could fetch $25 million #CBS4Morning https://t.co/CdPRmtJgtf  CBS4 Indy (@CBS4Indy) November 14, 2016

CNN reports that this rare diamond is considered one of the largest blue diamonds that is to be sold at auction. This would be the highlight among other 345 rare gems offered by Sotheby's on Thursday. Blue diamonds are indeed rare and the demand for these gems have increased in recent years.

Some of the remarkable items that could be yours are a historic 18th century diamond brooch priced between $3 and $5 million. A 17.07 karat rare pink diamond valued at $12.2 million is also for auction.

David Bennet, chairman of Sotheby's jewelry division, described the rare blue diamond as wonderfully clear celestial blue, presented in an extremely elegant square emerald cut. He further said that it would captivate all collectors of exceptional gemstones, as noted by Kuwait Times.

In the catalog of Sotheby's, it says that blue is the color of trust, honesty, loyalty, reliability and responsibility. It is also noted that its idealistic color inspires higher ideals and evoked peace and tranquility.

Meanwhile, the world's largest diamond -- a 14.62 karat gem known as "The Oppenheimer Blur" -- is selling for $57.5 million since May 2016. It is the world's most expensive blue diamond ever.

On the other hand, the one that made headlines was the 12.03 karat blue diamond that was bought by Hong Kong businessman Joseph Lau for $48.4 million in November 2015. This is considered the world's most expensive diamond ever sold.
It has been previously reported that Hollywood was sued for influencing kids of smoking. As some of their rated PG films show that the characters are smoking tobacco by which claims have been presented that these influence children to have a smoking vice. Now, the court agrees that Hollywood has nothing to do, legally, with the alleged influence.

Timothy Forsyth filed a class action against the Motion Picture Association of America or MPAA. The claims state that the MPAA rating system was a misrepresentation. As the viewing of tobacco, imagery can influence children to smoke, according to The Guardian.

The lawsuit stated that "In 2012 the surgeon general concluded that the scientific evidence established that exposure of children to tobacco imagery in films causes children to smoke."

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that in 2014, scientific evidence was found that if the MPAA continues to label the PG and PG-13 ratings on films that have an image of tobacco, the youth rating will influence 3.2 million children to be addicted to nicotine. As a result, 1 million of those children would die from tobacco-related disease.

The MPAA represents six major Hollywood studios. In its defense, it argued that the rating of the film amount to different options. It cited that the first amendment protects the freedom of speech. It stated that the rating system does not intend to "prescribe socially-appropriate values" but to give guidance based on what parents from the U.S. would think about the film's appropriateness for their children.

As follows, Forsyth said that all films that represent smoking should have an R rating. It means that 17-year olds should be accompanied by parents or guardian in cinemas.

However, in a report by The Hollywood Reporter, the judge rejected the argument, stating that "Forsyth insists that a rating less stringent than R is a representation that 'the film is suitable for children under 17 unaccompanied by a parent or guardian'. The ratings plainly make no such representations. Rather, the PG and PG-13 ratings caution parents that material in such movies may be inappropriate for children as such, neither intentional nor negligent misrepresentation claims are tenable as pleaded."

Now, the rating board made up by parents considers three questions where smoking is characterized: it is either pervasive in the film, it glamorizes the act or whether there is a historic or another mitigating context.
If one is wondering why his Facebook newsfeed seemed to be full of amateur shots of the Moon Monday night, then he might be one of the few who is not making a fuss over the supermoon, which is said to be the biggest ever from our vantage point on Earth for nearly seven decades.

As The Washington Post noted that the term "supermoon" is arbritrary -- and the term was not used in such a way until it was defined by astrologist Richard Noelle, who began using it in the 1970s. Still, his definition was not quite so astronomical -- it is merely a new or full moon that happens when the Moon is within 90 percent of its closest approach to the Earth in a given orbit.

Yet, actual astronomers are not too fond of using the term supermoon, because when everything is "super," then none really is. Instead, they often use the term perigee -- and a perigee moon occurs a few months out of every year.

The current season alone, for example, is going to see five supermoons, including the moons of Sep. 16, Oct. 16, Nov. 14, Dec. 16 and Jan. 12, 2017. Yes, supermoons are actually more common than you might think -- so while they are not as rare as say a total solar eclipse or even the closest approach of Mars in 60,000 years.

So how does one explain the existence of the supermoon, and why is it that everyone is making a big fuss out of it?

The Moon circles the Earth every four weeks. But because the orbit is not circular, but rather elliptical, there is a point every month when it is at its closest point to Earth, and there is a point when it is furthest. There are rare times when the rotations keep the satellite so close to Earth that it becomes "super."

News Australia also pointed out that the opposite, naturally, is called a "micro moon."

On Monday night, however, people see the Moon at its closest -- it will take another 18 years for them to see another one like it again.
Chopper footage from the Shinnecock Canal off Hampton Bays showed thousands of dead bunker fish floating near the edge of the water and in marinas, with workers seen scooping fish carcasses out of the water.

State officials told NBC New York that they think predators were chasing the school of fish into the canal. Due to the massive population, many of them died from lack of oxygen. Officials took samples to confirm the theory.

This is not the first time that a massive killing happened. Earlier this year, hundreds and thousands of fish also floated in the water in a similar fashion in New Jersey's Raritan Bay. Officials said that the fish were likely chased into the bay by bluefish or skates and died as the levels of dissolved oxygen in the water arrived at low levels.

Despite the massive deaths, officials said that the public should not worry about the water as it poses no threat for humans at this point. Still, the numbers are massive. A fisherman scooping fish into a boat after seeing them pop up said that he estimated about 2,500 in his boat within 15 minutes.

The fish kill drew large crowds and traffic to Hampton Bays as spectators lined the bridge to see the piles of dead fish. Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman told Patch.com that, "We fear it's going to get worse tonight, because there are a lot of live bunker still in the Shinnecock Bay. They're going to run out of oxygen. There's just not enough of a water column, when you have that many fish in a small, concentrated area."

The unseasonably warm weather also played a part in the lower oxygen levels. Stonybrook University Professor Christopher Gobler noted that fishing restrictions in southern states also allowed the fish populations to grow in the past two years, and kills have become more common on local levels.

The decomposing fish are also expected to rise to the surface of the water -- and Tuesday's predicted stormy weather could pose more problems as tide gates close to push more fish into the Shinnecock Bay -- and the fish smell might remain for a while in the area.
Scientists are nervous of what might the newly elected president will do to the environment. Here are some reasons why the newly elected president, Donald Trump, will cause damage to the environment.

During the campaign of Donald Trump, he said that climate change is a hoax created by the Chinese. So scientists now are analyzing the damages that Trump can do with the environment today. Here are some examples of what the damages can be, according to Business Insider.

Backing out in the Paris Agreement: Donald Trump wants to denounce the accord of the historic agreement. The Paris Agreement stated that it has been agreed that the 103 countries will work together and fight the rising of the global temperature of 2 degrees Celsius. The pledge of the United States is to reduce the greenhouse emission by 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, according to Economic Times.

Killing the Clean Power Plan: President Obama posted the clean Power Plan as a national regulation. The fate of this plan relies on the Supreme Court, as the court voted to delay its rollout until the appeals process has been completely achieved. Meanwhile, Donald Trump plans to abolish the Clean Power Plan. However, the president and CEO of Climate Reality Project said that it is not that easy to swipe out the project.

Cut all federal spending on clean energy: Donald Trump has promised that he will cut all federal government funds that are related to clean energy. He shared that the effort already spent over $100 billion in the span of 8 years.

However, the U.S. has pledged to share money to an International fund to support poorer countries in reducing their carbon pollution. A senior legislative representative of environmental organization Greenpeace told the Business Insider that it would be odd for them to basically require taxes to go up just because it is renewable energy.

Trump campaigned on a platform of decreasing taxes for individuals and corporations.
The CyanogenMod community has announced an Android 7.1 Nougat update, Nightly CM14.1 for select devices. Steve Kodnik published the news on the official blog and revealed the names of select devices that will get the update.

Android 7.1 Nougat update will be available for Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, LG G3,LG G4, Xiaomi Mi3, Xiaomi Mi 4,OnePlus 3,Galaxy S5,HTC One, and ZenFone 2. The update for other devices would be rolled out at later stages.

The nightly build is not the final product and is always full of bugs. It is released to the users to find out bugs that users can unearth. Steve in the blog post requested users to not file a bug report for missing features as the update was a work in progress. CyanogenMod is using crowd development and hopes more people can get involved in the project, as reported by NDTV.

The CyanogenMod software update has a better UI experience and notification orders. The device will have a better battery life with the update. It will also enable status bar clock customization, double tap sleep, brightness control via status bar and access to setting via a quick pull-down.

The Android 7.1 Nougat update by Cyanogen is an experimental project and hence it is important that before downloading it users should take certain precautions. Before installing the custom ROM it is essential that the device is rooted. The device also should have more than 80 percent battery. The update is compatible with only certain devices and that too GSM. If a wrong ROM is installed it can result in the devices being bricked.

Kodnik noted that CyanogenMod will release monthly snapshots of bugs that are fixed. Once all the issues are fixed it will release a stable Android 7.1 Nougat update, CM14. You can download the update from here.

Have you tried the update? Share your experience in the comment section below for the benefit of other users.
Barack Obama

President Barack Obama said in a press conference Monday that when he traveled to Europe this week he would be able to deliver a message to US allies that President-elect Donald Trump remained committed to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Obama told reporters that Trump "expressed a great interest in maintaining our core strategic relationships" when the two spoke last week at the White House.

"I think that's one of the most important functions I can serve at this stage, during this trip, that there is no weakening of resolve when it comes to America's commitment to maintaining a strong and robust NATO relationship," Obama said. "And that there is a recognition that those alliances aren't just good for Europe, but they're good for the United States and vital for the world."

Obama's characterization of his conversation with Trump about NATO appears to contradict what Trump said during his campaign about the 28-member defense alliance.

Trump frequently questioned the value of NATO along the campaign trail, and he has postulated that the US should not be obligated to come to the defense of its NATO allies if they "aren't paying their bills."

Obama has also criticized some NATO members in the past for not paying their fair share. But he has never gone as far as to suggest, as Trump has, that the US disengage from the alliance completely because some of its members are not living up to various financial obligations.

Trump's comments have worried European officials faced with a rapidly deteriorating relationship with Moscow. Russian officials warned over the summer that Europe could find itself in Russia's "crosshairs" if NATO didn't back down from plans to conduct war games in the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

"The newer members of NATO  and especially the Baltics  have reason to be very concerned," Stephen Biddle, an adjunct senior fellow for defense policy at the Council on Foreign Relations who is a professor of political science at George Washington University, told Business Insider last week.

Story continues

"They're not rich enough or big enough to defend themselves against the Russians, and a Trump administration's willingness to help them is very unclear," he said.

It's more unclear given Trump's stated admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as his apparent desire to work more closely with Russia to fight terrorism once he takes office.

Putin has repeatedly characterized the US-led organization as an "aggressive" force whose aim is to isolate Russia from Europe  rhetoric that has grown more heated amid NATO's military exercises in the Baltic Sea. Russia has responded to those drills by transferring nuclear-capable missiles to Kaliningrad, which borders Poland and Lithuania.

Trump and Putin spoke by phone Monday, Trump's transition team said, in a call in which Trump said he was "very much looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the people of Russia."

NOW WATCH: OBAMA: Certain elements of Trump's temperament 'may not serve him well' in the White House





More From Business Insider


Doctors in the Netherlands claim they have successfully tested a new implantable computer-brain interface that allows patients suffering from the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) disease to spell messages, albeit very slowly.

The new technology was first tested on a 58-year-old woman who happens to be in the late stages of the disease that had rendered her unable to move her muscles or speak. Previously, her only mode of communication with rest of the world was through eye movements. However, with this new computer-brain interface, she is able to communicate by identifying a string of onscreen letters by imagining that she is pointing at them with her right hand.

"We've built a system that's reliable and autonomous that works at home without any extra help. There's not a single system that even comes close to this," chief author Nick Ramsey of the Rudolf Magnus Brain Center at the University Medical Center Utrecht said in a telephonic conversation with Reuters.

Because the technology is still in its infancy, the patient is currently only able to spell two letters per minute. But the researchers are optimistic that it will improve significantly over the years.

"The speed is not that important. It's the certainty with which you can express yourself," said Ramsey, adding that the woman can now communicate with people even in outdoor settings where her eye-tracking equipment does not always work.

The initial findings of the research were presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience on Nov. 12. The researchers stated that they were motivated by the idea of helping ALS patients to lead a better life at home with the help of technology that could be deployed continuously without any disfigurement or discomfort.

(You can find more about the findings in the New England Journal of Medicine.)
President-elect Donald Trump reportedly wants to restart the programs under NASA to send astronauts on Mars and start numerous missions to Jupiter's moon Europa, something that was canceled by his predecessor.

As per reports, Trump wants to focus on getting rid of bureaucratic waste as well as cut back on environmental science research so that the American space agency can go forward with more ambitious plans of sending humans to the Red Planet and robots to Europa, which incidentally have been identified as two of the best places for finding alien life-forms.

According to Washington Post, the Republican Representative from Oklahoma Jim Bridenstine will in all possibility lead NASA. Bridenstine is one of the main advocates for human space exploration for Congress. The new programs under the Trump government could also help companies in mining resourceful minerals from the asteroid belt. Furthermore, NASA's mission around low-Earth orbit could be handed over to private companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin and Orbital AK.

"NASA should be focused primarily on deep-space activities rather than Earth-centric work that is better handled by other agencies," said Peter Navarro and Robert S. Walker, senior advisers to the Trump campaign, according to Space News. "Human exploration of our entire solar system by the end of this century should be NASA's focus and goal."

As per industry analysts, Trump could also increase the overall budget for NASA, at the same time doing away with various other programs supported by President Barack Obama such as the Asteroid Redirect Mission, money from which can be diverted to Mars exploration mission.

In addition, Trump could also cut the more than $2 billion fund the space agency spends on Earth Science Mission Directorate that focuses on improving weather prediction and climate modeling and covers global warming science.

At the moment, functions such as space technology and astrophysics under NASA are getting only $826.7 million and $781.5, respectively.
President Barack Obama offered some prescriptions for his own Democratic Party on Monday, suggesting that maybe this year's campaigners had not focused enough on the grassroots.

Democrats, the president implied, should be able to win over more Americans, if only they would get out more into the rest of the country.

"I believe that we have better ideas, but I also believe that good ideas don't matter if people don't hear them. And one of the issues that Democrats have to be clear on is that given population distribution across the country, we have to compete everywhere, we have to show up everywhere," Obama said. "We have to work at a grassroots level, something that's been a running thread through my career."

Democrats were unable to win majorities in the House or the Senate, and presidential nominee Hillary Clinton suffered a surprising defeat to Republican Donald Trump.

Obama cited his own career successes in explaining what successful grassroots campaigning looks like.

"I won Iowa not because the demographics dictated that I would win Iowa, it was because I spent 87 days going to every small town, and fair, and fish fry, and VFW hall. And there were some counties where I might have lost, but maybe I lost by 20 points instead of 50 points," Obama explained. "There're some counties that maybe I won that people didn't expect  because people had a chance to see you and listen to you and get a sense of who you stood for and who you were fighting for."

So, Obama said, the challenge facing the Democrats "is how do you dig in there and create those kinds of structures so that people have a sense of what it is that you stand for."





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Shanghai has pipped Hong Kong in English-language proficiency again, after logging a big improvement over the past five years, according to a new report.

In another standout result from the EF English Proficiency Index (EPI) for 2016, Singapore became the first Asian country to crack the highest proficiency band for English, placing 6th overall in the index. English is the first language in the city-state, which operates a bilingual language policy in state schools.

The Netherlands ranked first in the index, while Scandinavian countries Denmark , Sweden , Norway and Finland rounded out the top 5.

The EPI, compiled by education company EF Education First, was based on the results of 950,000 adults who took an online English test administered by EF. A total of 72 countries and territories were ranked in this year's edition of the index, which was revealed exclusively to CNBC.

While China was ranked 39th out of 72 countries, compared to Hong Kong's 30th place in the worldwide rankings, the Chinese financial capital Shanghai logged better test scores than Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China and regional financial hub.

Shanghai recorded an EPI score of 55.54, compared to Hong Kong's score of 54.29 in 2016. However, China's capital, Beijing, came in slightly lower than Hong Kong, with a score of 53.49.

In terms of improvement in EPI scores, Shanghai experienced a 5-year score change of 4.35, compared to Hong Kong's 0.64 improvement. Shanghai's scale of improvement was similar to Singapore's, with the latter clocking a 5-year score improvement of 4.87.

Shanghai has previously bested Hong Kong in English proficiency only once before, in 2014.

Minh Tran, senior director of research and academic partnerships at EF, said Shanghai's improvement was due to the growing importance of English in China in response to an increasingly internationalized business and employment world.

"Chinese companies, such as Alibaba and Huawei, that are looking to operate abroad or attract foreign capital are expecting higher English proficiency levels from their applicants," Tran explained.

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He attributed Hong Kong's stagnation on English proficiency to the elevated status of Cantonese in the territory since it was handed over by Britain to China in 1997. Hong Kong adopts a trilingual policy, which promotes the use of Cantonese, Mandarin and English.

However, an increased emphasis on Mandarin - which is more commonly spoken in mainland China than Cantonese - in recent years has resulted in controversy, as Hong Kongers fear the loss of local culture, especially given the ongoing backdrop of pro-Beijing and pro-democracy tensions.

"Though the rising importance of Mandarin has not devalued English in the Hong Kong job market, it follows logically that when the focus shifts from a single foreign language to two, there is less time allocated to English study than previously," Tran said, adding that Hong Kong's reputation as an international finance hub could potentially be at risk if it lost out to other Asian cities on English proficiency.

China as a whole lags Hong Kong in the EPI, which Tran said was due to varying English proficiency across the country in line with development and income levels, with Tier 1 cities performing better than their inland counterparts.

ASEAN countries performed fairly well in the index. Malaysia and the Philippines took 12th and 13th places respectively, and ranked in the second-highest proficiency band.

Vietnam and Indonesia were surprisingly strong performers, EF's Tran said, coming in at 31st and 32nd places. He cited the competitive education system in Vietnam for the headway the country had made in improving English proficiency. Vietnam rolled out an ambitious $450 million national program in 2008 to improve English language proficiency by 2020.

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Cooking and heating sources are also a key contributor to Africa's air pollution crisis. From 1990 to 2013 outdoor air pollution rose to 36 percent across Africa, causing an increase in pulmonary and respiratory diseases like heart attack, stroke and lung cancer.

"People burn these inefficient fires usually in their home," Danny Wilson, a development engineer at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, told Seeker. "They're producing a lot of smoke, it's as if you were barbecuing right there in your kitchen. And they're doing that three times a day, every day."

Nearly half the people on Earth use wood or coal to cook their food, and every year three to four million people die from illnesses related to fuel used for cooking.

Wilson and his team are trying to build new cookstoves with efficient designs and distribute them to places like Sudan, Darfur and Ethiopia where this problem is prevalent.

"The cook stoves are designed to really satisfy two important needs for people," Wilson told Seeker. "One is to reduce the amount of fuel that people have to burn to cook their food, then the second objective is to reduce the amount of smoke that people are exposed to."

Last year, Seeker's Laura Ling visited Tanzania and witnessed this problem firsthand. She met a woman named Mwanaidi in the rural part of the country, who said she uses firewood to cook everything.

"I use the firewood to cook tea, ugali, rice, vegetables and to boil water for the kids," she said. "When the smoke enters my eyes it hurts. Then tears start to come out," she said.

Mwanaidi knows regularly inhaling smoke is a health risk, but wood is her only available fuel source.

RELATED: Which Are The Most Polluted Cities in The U.S.?

While cookstoves are a key contributor to deaths from air pollution, in many African countries pollution from traffic and power generation are an even larger contributor to fatal illnesses. In addition to air pollution, Africa continues to deal with rampant issues like unclean water, unsafe sanitation, malnutrition and an energy crisis, making it difficult to tackle each problem individually.

In Sudan and Darfur, international conflict has raged since 2003, and two million people are living in camps where it's difficult to find fuel for cooking.

"When your life centers around a seven hour walk to go get wood and bring it back home, it's very hard to make space for education, business, or entrepreneurship, time and energy invested in kids, etc.," Wilson said. "This problem is not only a health crisis, it's also an economic crisis, and I think of it as a crisis of drudgery."

Wilson's stove, called the Berkeley-Darfur stove, burns wood but reduces fuel use by 50 percent. Wilson and his team are continuously testing and updating their design as well. Thanks to data they receive from a sensor attached to each stove, they're always working to make them more efficient.

RELATED: 92 Percent of the World Breathes Polluted Air

It's estimated that three billion people worldwide cook and heat their homes using inefficient and dangerous sources of fuel.

"Because the problem is so large, there is a very large potential impact," Wilson said. I can see how the decisions that I'm making as a designer or the decisions that partners are making in the field are influencing people's lives. It just gives me energy and excitement to keep on going."
Argentina will cull 100,000 beavers which are devastating southern woodlands by gnawing down huge trees, officials said Monday.

The plague of big-toothed rodents has struck in the Tierra del Fuego province, a far southern region known as "the End of the World."

"They can cut down a small tree in a few hours and a big one in days. We are talking about trees that are 100 or 150 years old and they do not grow back," said the region's conservation chief Erio Curto.

"They cut down trees on the riverbank so the water overflows and floods everything," he told reporters.

He said Argentine authorities had signed an agreement to exterminate the beavers with neighboring Chile. The surrounding Patagonia region spans the border of the two countries.

Experts in the provincial government said it could take as long as 10 to 15 years to cull all the beavers.

The cull is backed by the United Nations and environmental groups.

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Experts will catch the beavers in traps and then bash them on the head to kill them quickly, officials said.

A few dozen beavers were brought from Canada and introduced to the region in 1946 to breed for their fur. But their breeding has got out of control.

Authorities estimate the beavers have destroyed an area twice the size of Buenos Aires.

"When I saw it I was reminded of Poland after the Second World War, where all the trees had been blown away," said the prominent naturalist Claudio Bertonatti, speaking in a recent documentary.

"What had happened? Beavers, that's what had happened," he said, interviewed in the documentary, "Beavers: the Invasion at the End of the World."

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The robots are coming for our jobs. Someday, they'll take the wheel from human truckers, the plow from human farmers, the scalpel from human surgeons and maybe even the paintbrush from artists. But how exactly will society cope with the transition of jobs from human to machine hands?

The answer to that could be a basic income, a stipend provided by the state as a social safety net for displaced workers. In fact, President Barack Obama even weighed in on the idea of a basic income in a recent interview with Wired. "Whether a universal income is the right model - is it gonna be accepted by a broad base of people? - that's a debate that we'll be having over the next 10 or 20 years," Obama said.

The argument for a universal basic income has been rekindled lately by futurists, technologists and policymakers alike concerned with the labor force of the future. But as a concept, basic income dates back almost a century.

Traditionally, basic income proposals and their derivatives, such as Social Security, weren't so much about technological displacement of workers as they are measures for combating labor market instability, alleviating poverty, improving public health and compensating for unpaid work, such as care-giving.

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Looking at both conditions in the present as well as experimenting with models for the future, a handful of governments around the world have explored the idea of a universal or needs-based basic income. To be clear, basic income is different from welfare, heavily regulated government programs with extensive requirements and strings attached to money provided the needy. A basic income generally comes without preconditions.

In Ontario, one of the first pilot programs in North America aimed at providing a basic income to those in need is due to begin next year. In fact, Canada first experimented with the idea in the 1970s, Sheila Regehr, chairperson of the Basic Income Canada Network, tells Seeker. Canada also has experience with similar social programs, both of which began at the provincial level before going national, for seniors and for children.

This upcoming pilot is aimed at individuals struggling with job precariousness, food security or other financial hardships, and the desired results of this effort and those that would follow on a larger scale include "improved health outcomes for people, improved child outcomes in education... improved social functioning, and better inclusion in all sorts of things from democratic process to community involvement," Regehr said.

Certainly the possibility of technological displacement resonates with an increasingly anxious workforce, which partly explains why the issue is gaining public support from individuals and organizations across the political spectrum.

"For the general population, for people who read about how many truck drivers are going to be displaced, how many high-end professional jobs medical fields could be displaced, I think they are concerned even though they still see that as a little far out," Regehr said.

"People on the ground now though are feeling the impacts of precarious employment that has technical aspects but is there for lots of other reasons as well," Regher added.

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Finland also has plans for experimenting with a basic income provision in 2017. The government will randomly select 2,000 current recipients of unemployment benefits to receive 560 euros ($602) per month. The experiment and follow-up research aim to find out whether providing a basic income can move more people back into the labor market, compared with those receiving other state benefits, according to a statement by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.

The focus again is job precariousness, an increasingly far-reaching concern in the future as technology further encroaches on jobs performed by humans.

In June of this year, Swiss citizens voted on what would have been a true universal basic income for all of its people, with supporters of the measure aiming for a monthly stipend of 2,555 francs ($2,560). The plan was overwhelmingly rejected by 77 percent, but the effort was still a milestone in that it marked the first time in history any country held such a vote.

The concept of a basic income isn't just a policy being explored in wealthy nations. Emerging markets, where two-thirds of jobs are threatened by the prospect of technological displacement, according to U.N. report published last week, also have reasons both in the present and future to experiment with basic incomes.

In Kenya, a country where thousands live on less than a dollar a day, an effort spearheaded by the nonprofit GiveDirectly announced a $30 million dollar plan to combat through the provision of direct aid to 6,000 for 10 to 15 years.

"At worst that money will shift the life trajectories of thousands of low-income households," GiveDirectly co-founders Michael Faye and Paul Niehaus wrote on Slate earlier this year. "At best, it will change how the world thinks about ending poverty."

For basic income advocates, who see an opportunity to alleviate the concerns of those in immediate need, the time for these programs is now. But the results of these pilot programs could very well inform future policy. And as new technology takes over old jobs, what is just an experiment now could be a necessity in the future.

WATCH: Will Robots Take Our Jobs?
As climate scientists forecast the dire consequences of global warming, and renewable energy becomes cheaper and cheaper to produce, there's a growing movement to create a global power grid fueled by clean energy.

This "internet" of electricity - linked by a globe-spanning network of high-voltage power lines - could harness cheap solar power from China's Gobi Desert to charge electric cars in California. Or tap geothermal reserves in El Salvador to meet peak electricity demand in London.

China is leading the charge for global energy interconnection or GEI. It's already invested billions of dollars in high-voltage power lines to connect far-flung renewable power sources like the Gobi Desert with its booming coastal cities.

RELATED: Could Our Power Grid Ever Fail?

Now, a China-led coalition called the Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization (GEIDCO) intends to develop an Asia Super Grid that would interconnect large swaths of China, Russia and Japan.

GEIDCO hopes the Asia Super Grid will become the first piece in a global energy puzzle. The State Grid Corporation of China, one of the chief backers of GEIDCO, predicts that every country will have its own super grid by 2030, and that the global energy "internet" will be completed by 2050 and powered by 80 percent clean energy.

"The idea of a 'super grid' is so appealing because you can invest more highly in areas with the greatest and cheapest renewable energy potential without worrying about how to use it," said Jaquelin Cochran with the National Renewal Energy Laboratory.

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Right now, that's one of the biggest challenges facing regional electrical grids that want to go green - how to use excess bursts of power from wind and solar. Running a power grid is all about equalizing supply and demand. If it's a particularly sunny or windy day, a smaller grid won't be able to use all of that excess energy and it's wasted.

"The wind is there and the sunlight is there and you don't add it to the grid. You just don't use it," said Cochran, which explains why smaller grids are hesitant to invest in more renewable power sources.

But a super grid doesn't have to worry about wasting power. If production is high in one part of the grid, the excess energy could be shipped halfway across the world where production is low. With a globally connected grid, you could install endless fields of wind turbines in the arctic or a ring of solar farms around the equator and supply enough clean energy to power the world's biggest cities.

Of course, such a global energy grid would require immense investments in high-voltage power lines and unprecedented levels of political cooperation. Cochran says that regional power grids in the United States can't even coordinate to more efficiently share resources. What are the odds that Russia and China and the United States could put aside geopolitical feuds to collaborate on a project of this scale? The Brexit vote and the U.S. election point to a trend toward inward-looking nationalism, not global goodwill.

Maybe it will take a juicy economic carrot to get politicians motivated. According to estimates from China's State Grid, high-voltage power lines from northwest China to Germany could provide clean energy for $0.12 per kilowatt-hour, which is half the cost of generating the same renewable power in Germany.

WATCH: Our Power Grid Is Failing. What We Can Do About It?
Edward Snowden continued his efforts to push for "digital democracy" and what it means under a Trump administration, but did not address what his own future may hold as an exile in Russia.

Snowden spoke live via a telepresence robot to a conference in Oakland, Calif., called the Real Future Fair sponsored by the website Fusion.

His comments were streamed on Facebook and YouTube. He also spoke Monday to law students in Buenos Aires and a tech conference in Amsterdam last week.

"If you want to build a better future, you have to do it yourself," Snowden said Monday. "Elections matter, votes matter but never are enough."

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Snowden is a former intelligence analyst and is wanted by U.S. law enforcement authorities for revealing details of secret surveillance programs run by the National Security Agency. He landed in Moscow in June 2013 and has been living there ever since.

President-elect Donald Trump has called Snowden "a traitor."

For his part, Snowden said that technology has helped him and other whistleblowers and dissidents stay alive and broadcasting.

"With every morning I go to sleep, I grow more hopeful that you can't stop the signal anymore, you can't shut out outside voices," he said. "We are living through an extraordinary moment, the end of exile as a political tool of repression. We are starting to see not just for America and its dissidents, but others throughout the world can speak in a protected manner."

Snowden had urged his 2.5 million Twitter followers to vote for a third-party candidate this year. Part of that was his seeing pre-election polls showing that Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton had been given a better than 90 percent chance of victory.

"At the time, it seemed like there was never be a safer election for a third party option. Now, people are wondering was that the wrong thing," Snowden said. "But it's inappropriate that people should not vote for people they do not believe in. Now we are getting into a politics that is against choice and progression and instead you must always choose between two bad options."

RELATED: A Snowden Pardon? Past Presidents Have Done Worse

Snowden wasn't asked nor did he volunteer any information about his future in Russia. President-elect Trump spoke to Russian president Vladimir Putin this week by phone and the two have decided to meet.

Will the fate of Snowden, who is still under an American arrest warrant, be part of negotiations over some other deal?

Andrei Soldatov is a Moscow-based journalist and author of the new book "The Red Web" about the history of Russian surveillance techniques. He said that Snowden's days in Russia could be numbered if Putin decides to use him in a bigger geopolitical chess game.

"If (Putin) decides to give up Snowden, that is not a big problem inside Russia," Soldatov told Seeker via Skype from Russia. "Maybe it would not even be a problem for Putin's reputation abroad. Even outside Russia, they are divided about his actions. One day Putin may decide 'I've had this card for three years why not use it now.' "

Soldatov said that while Snowden has been a frequent critic of U.S. intelligence and surveillance measures to the Western media, he has refused to answer questions about his relationship to Russia security agencies to Moscow-based journalists.

"Mr. Snowden didn't give any options for journalists to check and understand what's going on with him. He keeps pretending that he is another country and not Russia. He has refused to talk to Russian or Moscow-based journalists. It's impossible to understand his situation, he's extremely secretive."

Soldatov said that one way he has kept out of jail in Russia is to make public any time Russian security agents contact him in any way.

"The best protection is to be transparent about your dealing with the security service," Soldatov said. "It's my strategy and this happens to be quite the thing that has kept me out of prison for all these years. When you are transparent it's a good thing."

Soldatov also noted that Snowden's Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, is also a member of the public council of the Russian security service, known as the FSB.

The public council was established in 2007 to promote the image of the FSB. Kucherena also serves as chairman of the Institute for Democracy and Cooperation, an organization for Russia's propaganda machine, according to Soldatov.

Kucherena's spy novel about an American whistleblower was optioned by Hollywood filmmaker Oliver Stone and became part of the screenplay of Stone's recent film "Snowden." Kucherena also helped arrange to get Snowden into the film, in which he also appears via telepresence robot at the end.

Soldatov notes the irony of a Snowden arguing for human rights and privacy freedoms in a country with a questionable record and human rights and which has had a large-scale effort to quash internet freedoms.

"I do not think he is manipulated," Soldatov said about Snowden. "But he is definitely bound by some secret or private agreements. There were some rules imposed on him. He has accepted those rules."

WATCH: Everything You Need to Know About Edward Snowden
Nearly half the people on Earth use inefficient fuel sources like wood or coal to cook their food. Every year three to four million people die from illnesses related to smoke inhalation from cooking this way, as smoke from open fires contains high amounts of toxic chemicals which can cause a variety of illnesses, including lung cancer and stroke.

To help combat this global health issue, Danny Wilson from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has developed a specially designed efficient cookstove. Wilson and his team are distributing these stoves to places like Sudan, Darfur and Ethiopia where the problem is quite prevalent.

Laura Ling spoke with Wilson to find out more about his life-saving project for this Seeker Stories video. Read this article to learn more about the crisis.
Grandview Aquarium, in Guangzhou, China has announced that its captive bear Pizza  a 3-year-old male often called "the world's saddest polar bear" due to his difficult living conditions  will be temporarily returned to his birthplace in an ocean park, BBC News reports.

The move comes after intense pressure and petition efforts from animal rights groups brought Pizza's plight to a worldwide audience. Pizza lives in a too-small enclosure, with large windows into his world filled with visitors' faces to make him uneasy, they argue. Recently, new video showing the animal in its enclosure sparked fresh calls for Pizza's release.

Pizza's mall home will be renovated, and his living space will roughly double, according to the New York Times.

RELATED: New Video of the 'World's Saddest Bear' Sparks Outrage

While animal rights groups have cheered Pizza's move, they are pushing for a permanent home far from the mall.

"No amount of renovation could ever make a shopping mall a suitable place for this animal, and to send him back now would be cruel and heartless," said Humane Society International China policy expert Peter Li in a statement. "We commend the mall for being gracious enough to listen to Chinese and global voices of concern and hope they will do the right thing for this poor bear who has already been through enough."

WATCH VIDEO: The Pros and Cons of Zoos
Press Release

November 15, 2016 Hontiveros to LGUs: Respect and fully implement RH law PASAY CITY - Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday called on the local government of Sorsogon City to respect the full implementation of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act (Republic Act 10354), also known as the RH Law, after a Commission on Human Rights (CHR) report indicated that it withheld artificial contraceptives from women residents in the last four years. "Sorsogon City Mayor Sally Lee, who is otherwise known as an advocate of women's participation in societal affairs, should immediately answer the serious allegations made by the CHR. Withholding artificial contraceptives from women is an insult to the hard work of Filipino women's movement who waited 13 long years for the passage of the RH Law," Hontiveros said. Hontiveros, who is the Chair of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, said that the RH Law is a landmark piece of legislation that solidified reproductive health rights and choices. "The government must provide free access to family planning commodities to poor women nationwide to help address the country's high maternal mortality rate. Our women should be given the widest array of options on how to plan and manage their families. Withholding access to contraceptives is a clear violation of the law," Sen. Hontiveros said. It was reported that the CHR has documented reports that women in far-flung barangays in Sorsogon City were denied reproductive health products and services. The documentation likewise reported of unwanted pregnancies and instances that women gave up their babies for adoption as a result of the denial of RH services. "We want the Sorsogon City government to explain and be accountable to these alleged violations. It is our moral and civil obligation to ensure that we continue to respect, protect and uphold women's rights. The refusal to implement the RH Law is an utmost disrespect to the choices of women regarding family planning methods in accordance with the law. Kailangan may sumagot at may managot sa mga paglabag na ito," she added. Hontiveros vowed to ensure the full funding of the RH Law in the proposed 2017 National Budget.
Press Release

November 15, 2016 Opening Statement

Plenary Debates

2017 National Budget

Senate Minority Leader Ralph G. Recto

15 November 2016 Thank you, Mr. President, thank you, Madame Chairperson. Magandang umaga po sa inyong lahat. The Chairperson is a well-known advocate of local weaves and indigenous textiles; and if I may liken this budget to the elegant ethnic dresses she likes to wear, then I can say that, thanks to her, it is as intricately made, and as beautifully woven. It is not easy to weave this tapestry of spending. You have to fasten together thousands of threads, and hope that the finished product will be big enough to provide warm comfort to all. Especially to the President, so that when he shows off this "tapestry of spending" next year, people will not be shouting "the Emperor has no clothes!" Mr. President: It has been said that we campaign in poetry, but govern in prose. The budget is the prose of governance. It is the budget that translates rhetoric to reality. It redeems promises made. In governance, funds proposed in the budget speak louder than words. The budget is also the annual expression of development plans. A program that is not funded remains marooned in fantasyland. The budget is what separates "drawing" from reality. I agree with the good Chairperson when she emphasized in her sponsorship speech that the budget is more than a row of numbers. Indeed, it is more than a spreadsheet, and should not be seen as an accounting ledger. The conventional way of reading - and dissecting - the budget using the traditional PS-MOOE-CO-FINEX way, or disaggregating it by region, or by agencies, does not fully capture its importance to the Filipino. It is more than an allocation for payroll, or an outlay for operating expenses, or how much will be set aside for travel, for gasoline, or for utilities. It is more than a bill of particulars for roads to be paved, schools to be built, canals to be dug. The conventional way to read the budget is to hold a magnifying glass over the fine print and peso signs. But to better analyze it, the budget should be held up to higher exacting standards. In short, to view it from the prism of what we want to achieve as a nation. It should be gauged by how many poor it would deliver from poverty, how many jobs it would create, how it will - and where it will - spur growth, how it will distribute opportunity, and how many people it will liberate from chronic hunger. These are the checklists I will soon be asking from you, Madame Sponsor. And I know that you will agree with me that although the biggest chunk of the budget funds overhead, its main objective, however, is how to overcome poverty and things that set us back from progressing. So for P3.3 trillion, how many people will march away from the poverty line by December next year? For P3.3 trillion, how many jobs will be created? Sa puntong ito, matagal na po akong proponent ng pagkakabit ng jobs odometer sa national budget. For P3.3 trillion, how far will the GDP needle move? I will be asking these, Mr. President, because in looking at the budget, it is not the size of investments that is important, but the impact. It is the yield that matters. To truly measure a budget's efficacy, then we must subject it to the following test: its poverty-reducing, job-creating, growth-inducing potential. The second framework I will be using in scrutinizing this budget is to situate it in the long-term program of this administration. If the Duterte administration will be here for six years - and I have no doubt that it will, and I am not among those making daily novenas that it won't be able to - then this budget is the first of six annual installments it will be making. In effect, this is the 15 percent downpayment of what you will spend, of what you hope to achieve, and deliver, by 2022. You cannot divorce one GAA from the overall spending plan. In fact, this maiden GAA of yours is important, for it is not only the cornerstone in resource allocation but also sets the template. I want to have a tunnel-end view so that we will know where the GAA for 2017 is in the overall scheme of things. You know, planning myopia is an ingrained trait in our political culture. We cannot see beyond five years. We treat a five-year plan as too long and too far into the future. Mabuti na lang ang NEDA, mayroong Ambisyon 2040. Our planning cycle follows the election calendar. Kung sa local, ang gusto 1,000 days program, so much so that it creates bias for short-gestating projects that must be inauguration-ready in time to be milked for pogi points during the reelection period. Eh hindi na magpapareelect ang Pangulong Digong, kaya gusto kong tanungin ang relasyon nitong 2017 budget sa mga bagay na gusto nyang magawa by 2022. Six years from now, our population will grow from this year's 103.6 million to 114 million, meaning there will be 10.44 million more people to be fed, to be sheltered, to be cared for, to be schooled, to be kept safe. Kung tataas ang populasyon, ganun din ang budget. Batay sa aking estimate, sa loob ng anim na taon, gagasta ang administrasyong Duterte ng tumataginting na P26.71 trillion. In comparison, using straight computation, si PNoy P12.84 trillion ang ginasta. Si GMA mga P9.8 trillion. Sa bigas na lang, kung bawat Pinoy na halos lahat ay mahilig sa unli rice ay kokonsumo ng 114 kilos kada taon, kailangan natin buksan sa irigasyon ang 475,000 hectares of land. Sapat na ba ang initial downpayment sa 2017 upang makamit ang 2022 agricultural and nutritional goals para hindi lumaki lalo ang GNP or Gutom Na Pilipino? Between now and 2022, we must be able to create 12 million jobs, or 2 million a year - quality jobs, hindi yung nagpastol ka ng isang kambing, counted ka na as gainfully-employed unpaid family worker. This data comes from NEDA so it is unimpeachable. Ang tanong: Will this budget indeed be instrumental in generating 2 million jobs by December next year? Ang isa pang target ay ang pag-gradweyt sa kahirapan ng 7.1 million Pinoys sa 2022. Mula 21.9 million poor noong nakaraang taon, pababain ito sa 14.8 million sa 2022. Hindi naman ito isang bagsakan. Paunti-unti. Itaya na lang natin na isang milyon kada taon ang matatanggal sa hanay ng mahihirap, ang tanong: Paano magagawa ito ng P3.3 trillion na budget? The budget is a poverty-crushing tool. In the dashboard of indicators on how effective the budget is, the ability to cut the number of poor ranks among the most important. Sa edukasyon, kung taun-taon tataas ang DepEd student population ng konserbatibong 1.7 percent na lamang, nangangahulugan na pagsapit ng 2022, ang number of enrollees sa public schools ay tataas mula sa kasalukuyang 22.06 million to 24 million, o dagdag na 1.9406 million na batang estudyante. Ang tanong: Sapat na ba ang downpayment na ilalagak ng 2017 national budget upang masabi nating on track tayo para sa educational goals 2022? Isa pang tanong na nasa isip ng mga mamamayan na gising na bago tumilaok ang manok upang makarating sa opisina ng maaga, at hatinggabi na makakauwi, ay sapat na ba ang downpayment sa 2017 upang maibsan ang traffic? So Mr. President, what lies ahead for this great country of ours will be the focus of my interpellation. My queries will go beyond next year's budget cycle. Gusto ko makita ang kabuuan. Because government spending plans should not be confined to the time it would take the earth to revolve around the sun. I know that we may never be precise in our projections as there is no such thing as an infallible crystal ball, but nonetheless, we must strive to predict our prospective requirements, so that we can match these with our revenue program, so that we can plan early on how to finance future needs, so that we can prepare for contingencies, so that we can realize our people's dreams. This budget cannot be taken separately. It is the foundation of future expenditures. I will also be focusing on revenues. And I am glad the man who will raise P9 billion a day next year to finance this budget is here. In the government division of labor, while it is Ben Diokno who gets the credit in releasing the money, it is Sonny Dominguez who must raise the cash. Let us not forget that appropriation is a mere downstream activity of revenue collection. It is taxation, which makes appropriation possible. The privilege to spend springs from the duty to collect taxes. Yes, the budget presented to us today is a catalogue of expenditures. But because too often big numbers mesmerize us, we seem to overlook the important fine print, that every peso that will be spent will be collected from the people. And yet, the legislative tradition is that when it comes to the appropriations bill, we only sponsor and highlight the expenditures. We seldom sponsor the revenues it would entail. Kaya itatanong ko na rin, upang hindi mahirapan ang DOF, BIR at BOC, kung ano ba ang mga gastusin na pwede ipagpaliban, na pwede tipirin. Perhaps, by cutting expenses, we could lighten the burden this budget will impose on our people. Naku lalung-lalo na ngayon na mayroong pangamba sa pagkapanalo ng Duterte ng Amerika bilang Pangulo. Should Trump be treated as a macroeconomic assumption, that I would like to ask from the economic managers. And lastly Mr. President, The minority will also be asking what guarantees are in place that will prevent the repeat of the scourge that was underspending which we saw in the just recent past. How can we turbocharge the utilization, in a manner that will speed up spending without leaving the government shortchanged? Mayroon bang incentives na ibigigay doon sa mga mabilis at maayos gumugol ng pondo? At ano naman ang mga presidential invectives na ipupukol sa mga mahina at makupad gumasta? If our people pay taxes promptly, then the way they are reimbursed through this budget, which is said to be a catalog of rebates, must be done in a prompt manner too. We owe it to them. There is no other way because budget delayed is development denied. Mr. President, Madame Chairperson, thank you for enduring my abbreviated, truncated and very brief preliminary remarks. Tutal abbreviated din naman ang plenary debates, shortened to 5 days, kaya hinabaan ko na ang aking pasakalye.
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Cannabis experts and their allies packed Oakland City Hall for a raucous public hearing Monday night, at which the City Council voted to re-craft a set of controversial pot laws it passed in May.

After a four-hour debate, the council voted 4-3 to direct the city administrator to write new laws and significantly revise an equity permit program that sets aside half of Oaklands pot permits for ex-convicts and a small number of East Oakland residents. Its members also scrapped plans to force cannabis businesses to hand over 25 percent of their profits to the city, and to require pot retailers to pay back taxes and hefty $10,000-a-day fines.

The vote fell along political lines, with council members Dan Kalb, Annie Campbell Washington, Rebecca Kaplan and Abel Guillen in favor of changing the program, and council members Desley Brooks, Larry Reid and Noel Gallo dissenting. Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney was absent.

The council also requested a comprehensive analysis from the citys Department of Race and Equity before the laws come back for a vote in January.

Although it was approved unanimously, the equity program sparked a six-month political fight that has all but hobbled Oaklands marijuana permitting efforts. Sponsored by Brooks, it reserves half the citys permits for people who fit a narrow set of criteria: either they were jailed on marijuana convictions in Oakland within the past decade or they have lived for at least two years in a designated East Oakland police beat that saw a high number of marijuana arrests in 2013.

The six designated police beats in the equity program are either in Brooks district or the district represented by her ally Reid.

Brooks said the intent of the program was to benefit people whose lives were disrupted by drug-related prosecutions and incarceration. Without special set-asides, she said, were setting up systemic issues that prevent people from competing.

Critics say the program is too restrictive and would choke off the citys pot trade amid an anticipated boom, now that California voters have approved Proposition 64, the ballot measure to legalize recreational pot in 2018.

After hearing these arguments, several council members expressed regret for the May vote, and three of them  Kalb, Guillen and Campbell Washington  pushed an alternative proposal that would offer loans, tax incentives and expedited permits to perceived victims of the war on drugs, without constricting the industry and the tax money it could bring. They asked that this alternative be the framework for the new laws in January.

Brooks, Reid and Gallo shot back with proposals that would tighten the citys grip on its cannabis sector. In September, they pushed plans to force all pot businesses to hand over 25 percent of their profits, and at least one seat on their board of directors, to the city. On Monday, they floated a plan that would force large-scale businesses to pay back taxes, plus interest, and $10,000-a-day fines for every day they have operated.

Under federal law (cannabis) was illegal, Brooks said. We dont typically reward illegal activity. The other council members refused to sign on to the plan.

Speakers at the meeting were infuriated by the ongoing squabbles and delays.

Your politicizing of this process has been shamefully negligent to the citizens of our city, said Michael Grafton, a cannabis advocate. This is a race, and the consequences of your machinations is that Oakland is stumbling out of the starting gate.

Other speakers said Oakland is in danger of losing its reputation as one of the most cannabis-friendly cities in the U.S.

In the context of repression, prohibition and confusion at the state and federal level, Oakland made it work, said James Anthony, a lawyer who helps fledgling marijuana entrepreneurs start their businesses. He noted that in 2004 Oakland was the first U.S. city to issue a permit for a medical cannabis dispensary. Now it has fallen behind other cities in the region.

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Yet some praised the equity program as a means to correct past racial injustice and prevent African Americans and Latinos from getting left behind once the industry goes above ground.

As council members bicker, time is running out for Oakland. State law requires that all cannabis businesses have a city permit and a state license by January 2018, and many other cities already have permit systems in place. Some operators who spoke at the meeting said they may have to flee if the May laws remain intact.

My business does not want to leave Oakland, but the equity permit program in its current form would create an impossible situation for us, said William Roberts, a lab manager at the East Oakland cultivation facility Dark Heart Nursery.

Kalb said he shared those concerns.

With Prop. 64 passing, and other cities looking to do things, we have a time-sensitive goal to get things done here, he said.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan
A federal appeals court overturned an arbitration award in a multimillion-dollar investment case Friday because the lead arbitrator impersonated a California attorney  something he did in dozens of cases before being exposed.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a new arbitration hearing to Move Inc., a Santa Clara online real estate services provider that sued Citigroup Global Markets in 2008 for allegedly mismanaging $131 million of Moves funds.

Move had agreed to refer any disputes with Citigroup to arbitration before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a private organization that oversees the securities industry. From a list provided by the agency, Move picked veteran attorney James H. Frank as its first choice, saying an experienced lawyer was needed to examine the complex issues. Frank chaired the three-member panel that, after 20 hearing sessions, ruled against Move in December 2009.

It wasnt until March 2014 that legal publications disclosed that Frank had been impersonating a retired Southern California attorney with the same name.

Reuters later reported that Frank had taken part in 38 arbitration cases for the agency between 1998 and 2011. The news service said Frank claimed he was a California lawyer but that the State Bar had lost his records. However, Reuters reported, Frank admitted lying to the agency about being licensed in New York and Florida, and, when asked by a reporter why he had lied, replied, Its a damn good question and one that Im having trouble with.

After conducting its own investigation, the agency removed Frank from its arbitration panels, but did not vacate any decisions in which he had participated or offer to reconsider them. Fridays ruling was the first by a federal appeals court on any of Franks cases, and could set a precedent for others seeking to reopen their cases.

Although federal law generally requires the losing side in an arbitration case to file a challenge within three months, the court said the deadline should be waived in this case, since Move justifiably relied on the information provided by the agency about Frank, and acted promptly once it learned the truth.

The court disagreed with a federal judge who had ruled that Move had failed to show that its rights in the arbitration were affected by Franks participation.

The company had rejected other candidates for the panel who lacked Franks apparent credentials, Judge Dorothy Nelson said in the 3-0 ruling. While Citigroup contended there was no evidence that Franks participation affected the outcome, there is simply no way to determine whether that was the case, Nelson said.

The parties received a hearing chaired by an impostor, and, as a result, Move was deprived of a fundamentally fair hearing, Nelson wrote.

Moves lawyer, Susan Williams, said the most important part of the ruling for any other arbitration challenges was the courts willingness to extend the three-month deadline. Others in the courts jurisdiction who seek to reopen their cases can benefit from the ruling, she said, if they can show they acted quickly after discovering the deception.

Financial Industry Regulatory Authority spokeswoman Nancy Condon said Frank, who was approved by the agency as an arbitrator in the 1990s, would not have cleared review today. We have a much more robust background check in place, including a full check on licenses and schools, she said.

There was no immediate comment from Citigroup. Frank could not be located.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko
Takeharu Nakashima came to America this week hoping to do business. He brought a team of people to a Santa Clara hotel Monday to show off a medical device that tracks blood flow. Its already sold in Japan; soon, too, he hopes, it will be offered in the U.S.

But last weeks election results have created a cloud of uncertainty for cross-Pacific commerce, including the demise of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an agreement that would have knitted the U.S., Japan, and other countries in Asia and Latin America into a tighter web of trade. President-elect Donald Trump said he might renegotiate existing trade agreements, too.

That left Silicon Valley executives with few answers for their counterparts abroad at the annual conference of the U.S.-Japan Council, a nonprofit that works to foster business ties between Japanese and American companies.

The conference, held for the first time in Silicon Valley, with more than 700 attendees, comes at an awkward time.

Im sure on the minds of everyone here is what will happen in the U.S. under a new administration, said Irene Hirano Inouye, president of the U.S.-Japan Council. The outcome of the election does make it hard to predict what the future will hold.

Wendy Lee

Through a translator, Nakashima said he hoped there wouldnt be any impact on trade between the countries. That optimism will be tested.

This week, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will meet with Trump in New York. Abe hopes to further strengthen the U.S.-Japan relationship, said Masaharu Kohno, a Japanese diplomat. Despite setbacks which appear certain to doom the agreement, Kohno said the Japanese government remained deeply committed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Trump in June called a rape of our country, according to Bloomberg. The agreement would have ended tariffs and taxes on certain products from countries including Japan.

The United States should not be isolationistic, Kohno said.

Others, including Brad Smith, president and chief legal officer of Microsoft, spoke about the importance of collaboration between countries, especially as more information moves to the cloud, and data servers are located overseas.

The conference at the Hyatt Regency was attended by people in business and government. About 150 of the attendees were from Japan. Many came to network, with hopes of striking deals with local tech firms.

Japan was once a leader in technological innovation  think of how it dominated cell phone technology up until a decade ago  but lost its edge in part due to a risk-averse culture, analysts said.

Japanese businesses were advised to take cues from Silicon Valley in diversifying their workforces, which remain dominated by men, and selling globally.

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While U.S. tech companies have struggled to diversify their ranks to include more women and minorities, Japans business culture has much further to go. James Higa, a board member with the U.S.-Japan Council, spoke about how difficult it was to recruit Japanese men to Apple Japan in the mid-1980s because the company was not yet a household name. So he made an effort to recruit women instead.

I basically went to them and said, Would you like to serve tea and translate letters into English for the rest of your life? Higa said. He offered his recruits the opportunity to lead projects and defended them against vendors and male employees who felt uncomfortable dealing with women. His efforts helped increase the number of women at Apple Japan to 60 to 70 percent of the workforce.

While a change in administration could close off new trade opportunities, ideas like that could still flow over the ocean.

Wendy Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: wlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thewendylee
President-elect Donald Trumps plan to deport 2 million or more immigrants with criminal records will take some time to implement, if it happens at all. But experts said Monday the new administration could move toward that goal by taking steps such as reinstating raids on factories and other workplaces and by encouraging, or pressuring, local police to act as immigration officers.

Trump stepped back Sunday from his pre-election vow to immediately deport all 11 million immigrants who are in the U.S. without authorization and said on CBS-TVs 60 Minutes that he would target the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers.

We have a lot of these people, probably 2 million. It could be even 3 million, he said. We are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate.

On its face, Trumps plan resembles President Obamas stated policy of concentrating on expelling criminals. The Obama administration deported a record 2.5 million immigrants from 2009 through 2015, and says that 91 percent of the immigrants it removed in 2015 had criminal records.

But in practice, the current administration has left deportation priorities to officers in the field and their supervisors, who were told to concentrate on the most dangerous criminals and on repeat offenders.

STEPHEN CROWLEY/NYT

For eight years, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) managers have been told, We want quality, not quantity. Work with other law enforcement agencies and focus on (deporting) the really undesirable, said Philadelphia attorney William Stock, president of the 14,000-member American Immigration Lawyers Association.

The message from the Trump administration is, We want numbers.

Dave Ray, spokesman for the conservative Federation for American Immigration Reform, said Trump is simply following through on a campaign promise.

President-elect Trump is doing exactly what he said hed do during his campaign, Ray said Monday. Hes going to quickly secure the border and target criminal aliens currently in the country for deportation. Many of these criminal aliens have committed and recommitted crimes against innocent Americans and should have been deported long ago.

But Stock said Trumps proposed policy would expand deportation to include immigrants who were convicted of small-scale theft and other relatively minor crimes many years ago and who pose no apparent threat to society.

At last count, Stock said, about 1.9 million immigrants were facing possible deportation because of their criminal records. Some were in the U.S. illegally when they committed their crimes, while others were legal residents but not yet citizens.

Immigrants can challenge deportation by applying for political asylum, on the grounds that they would be persecuted in their homeland, or by providing evidence that they are longtime residents whose families would suffer extreme hardship. They are entitled to hearings before immigration judges and, in most cases, are allowed to remain free on bond during the proceedings.

To speed up the proceedings, Stock said, Congress would have to substantially increase funding for the immigration courts, which are severely backlogged and short-staffed.

But he said the Trump administration could short-cut the hearings by changing rules that allow many immigrants to be released from custody while their cases are pending. Facing a year or more behind bars, a lot will give up and accept deportation, Stock said.

He said he also expects Trump to renew the workplace raids conducted under President George W. Bush, who sent agents to factories and farms that were thought to employ people without documentation. One publicized raid of an Iowa meat-packing plant in 2008 resulted in nearly 400 arrests and subsequent deportations of about 300 immigrants, who pleaded guilty to crimes such as having false identity papers.

Obamas policy of authorizing regional ICE offices to suspend deportation proceedings against immigrants who face hardships will surely end, said Bill Hing, an immigration law professor at the University of San Francisco. He said as many as 80,000 unauthorized immigrants, mostly parents, have been granted reprieves.

Trump will end that overnight, Hing said.

The new president has also promised to immediately revoke Obamas 2012 executive order that has halted deportation of more than 700,000 immigrants who entered the United States illegally before age 16, had not yet turned 31 and had no serious criminal record.

While Trump hasnt mentioned those immigrants as a high priority for deportation, he does have all their addresses, and theyre likely to receive letters next year advising them to leave the country, Hing said,

Obama tried to extend the reprieves in 2014 to include about 4 million immigrant parents of U.S. citizens or legal residents, but a federal court blocked his order, a divided U.S. Supreme Court refused to reinstate it, and Trump intends to rescind it.

Hing said Trump signaled additional policy changes by naming Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach an immigration adviser on his transition team. Kobach drafted laws in Arizona and Alabama authorizing state and local police to question newly arrested people about their immigration status, laws largely overturned by federal courts. Last week Kobach described Trump and Obama as diametric opposites on immigration.

A separate federal law allowed U.S. officials to contract with local law enforcement officials  most notably, Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz., who was defeated in his re-election bid last week  to enforce immigration laws. The Obama administration suspended those agreements in December 2012, but Hing said Trump is certain to renew them.

Trump has also pledged to withdraw all federal funding from sanctuary cities like San Francisco, which have declined to notify federal immigration officials when they are holding an immigrant who lacks documentation. San Francisco officials have vowed not to back down despite the prospect of losing $1 billion in aid.

There will be a big fight if the Republican Congress allows defunding, said Stock, whose home city, Philadelphia, also faces the loss of federal funds.

Supporters of sanctuary cities say a federal ban would make immigrants reluctant to report crimes or cooperate with police for fear of deportation. Stock foresaw a more general anxiety as well.

I think it will be a climate where immigrant communities feel fear for their futures, he said. Communities theyve been part of will be asked to turn on them.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko
The East Bay was ground zero for a protest movement whose influence was felt for years.

The Chronicles front page from Nov. 15, 2011, covers the dismantling of an encampment of hundreds of Occupy protesters outside Oakland City Hall.

About 1,000 Occupy Oakland protesters returned Monday night to Frank Ogawa Plaza, 12 hours after police evicted the movements tent city, and debated a range of reactions from re-establishing the encampment to refocusing on community organizing, the story read.

This was the second time the camp in downtown Oakland was cleared. The first time, at the end of October, campers who had been ousted marched in protests that turned violent, punctuated by Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen suffering a skull fracture when he was hit by what was believed to be a police tear gas canister.

The tents soon went back up near Mayor Jean Quans office, leading to this days eviction, which didnt last long.

The city reopened the newly cleared plaza outside City Hall around 5 p.m. and said protesters could gather there around the clock, the story read. However, police said they would prevent camping from now on, and as the night went on, there were no tents in evidence.

The protests, though, would follow.

Top O the Top of the News: Crab seasons scheduled start is once again in jeopardy because of a price dispute between fishermen and processors. C1. Thats a juicy, buttery, succulent story that has a hook with claws.

See more front pages: Go to SFChronicle.com/covers to search a database of hundreds of Chronicle Covers articles that showcase the newspapers history.

More from the Archive The Vault Home of the San Francisco Chronicle's archive and more than 150 years of journalism covering the Bay Area and beyond.

Chronicle Covers highlights one classic Chronicle newspaper page from our archive every day for 366 days. Library director Bill Van Niekerken and producers Kimberly Chua, Michelle Devera and Jillian Sullivan contributed to the project. Tim ORourke is the executive producer and editor of SFChronicle.com. Email: torourke@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TimothyORourke

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This was the ugly side of San Francisco.

The Chronicles front page from Nov. 14, 1957, covers a racist refusal to sell Giants star Willie Mays and his wife a home in the city.

Mays, the spectacular center fielder of San Franciscos newly acquired Giants, ran into the color barrier here yesterday. He and his wife were turned down in their attempt to buy a home  because they are Negroes, the story read, using the accepted language at the time.

This level of racism would have been expected in other cities in other states in the 1950s, but this was San Francisco. This was front-page news.

After looking at several houses, Mays offered $37,500 for a new home (on) Miraloma Drive, adjoining St. Francis Wood, the story read. It was the price the owner was asking. But after several days of waiting, Mays was turned down.

The house is still for sale, at the same price, but not to Mays.

Its heartening today to know how far the city has come, but its remarkable that this happened less than 60 years ago to one of San Franciscos greatest heroes.

Now thats a big story: Actress Marilyn Monroe cut her thumb to the bone last night while carving a roast, read a completely and utterly serious mini-story near the bottom of the front page. Maybe the next days cover had the hot lead on Jayne Mansfields blistering headache.

See more front pages: Go to SFChronicle.com/covers to search a database of hundreds of Chronicle Covers articles that showcase the newspapers history.

Chronicle Covers highlights one classic Chronicle newspaper page from our archive every day for 366 days. Library director Bill Van Niekerken and producers Kimberly Chua, Michelle Devera and Jillian Sullivan contributed to the project. Tim ORourke is the executive producer and editor of SFChronicle.com. Email: torourke@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TimothyORourke

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Homelessness is one of San Franciscos most visible problems in a time of plenty. Yet, when it comes to addressing this long-term issue, San Franciscans arent ready to be realistic.

For proof, look no further than the measures they passed  and failed to pass  on election day. No on Prop. K, which would have raised the sales tax. Yes on Prop. J, which would have dedicated about $50 million of the sales tax money to homeless services. Yes on Prop. Q, which ostensibly makes it illegal to pitch tents on sidewalks.

Essentially, the voters are saying theyd love to spend sales-tax money on homeless services  but they have no interest in paying more sales tax. Its unclear where voters imagined this money would come from.

Prop. Q is also a statement of fantasy. The measure will empower police to remove tent camps with 24 hours notice, as long as the city has available beds somewhere. San Francisco doesnt have enough housing or shelter beds for homeless people, so the ban will be a hollow one.

There are many possible explanations for why the voters made these choices.

The ballot was far too crowded. Multiple tax measures on the ballot may have left voters feeling stressed about the overall hit to their wallets. Perhaps voters dont understand why San Francisco spends so much money on homeless services already  $241 million in fiscal year 2015-16  and seems to make so little progress.

Regardless of the reasoning, its clear that the voters are tired of the visible, and intractable, homeless problem. They also expect city leaders to solve the problem with the means already available to them. Thats not an impossible task, given the citys $9.6 billion annual budget.

Mayor Ed Lee has offered a constructive response to the election results by canceling the now useless Prop. J and directing his budget director to find money in the city budget to pay for crucial priorities like new Navigation Centers. We urge all of the citys leadership to be creative and relentless when it comes to solving this problem, which isnt going away.
Hillary Clinton voters, I feel your pain. Ive been on the losing side more times than I cared to be. Its painful and personal. I would venture to add that Donald J. Trumps victory probably is more bitter than a Clinton win would have been for conservatives because you didnt see it coming. You lost and you were sucker punched. Oooph.

For most of you, the approach voiced by Kevin Eckery, a GOP consultant who did not vote for Trump, should be instructive. We got head-faked, Eckery told me. The election was never about Trump, it was about his voters. In the future Eckery plans to listen with a little more humility.

Over time, one gets used to election loss, the stab of betrayal recedes from sharp to dull pain. You learn to accept it. At least Trump is capable of pleasantly surprising.

Sunday, protesters surrounded Oaklands Lake Merritt to renounce the president-elect. As long as they dont destroy peoples businesses and block traffic, they are free to voice their concerns and proudly exercise their First Amendment rights.

Partisans, however, do not have a right to turn classrooms into Democratic caucuses, as suggested in a lesson plan which San Francisco Unified administrator Bill Sanderson sent to schools. It advised: Let us please not sidestep the fact that a racist and sexist man has become the president of our country by pandering to a huge racist and sexist base.

And: DO NOT: Tell them that we have LOST and that we have to accept this. We do not have to accept ANYTHING except that we must and will fight for justice against an unjust system and against unjust people.

It is scary to think that people entrusted with childrens education are so clueless that they see it as their job to inculcate students with a cartoonish view of Trump voters. Also, the lesson includes no recognition that the people have spoken. Many Democrats were aghast when Trump said he wasnt sure if he would accept the verdict of the election. Yes, it was poor form, but I knew that if the tables were turned, many Clinton voters would not be real zen about it.

Ive had many adults tell me they didnt know how they could tell their children Trump won. May I suggest that some kids would not be so traumatized if their parents hadnt whipped them into a lather of indignation about The Other?

But also, while the lesson says it wants all students to feel respected, it doesnt give so much as a nod to the notion that some students might like Trump. In San Francisco, Trump won 10 percent of the vote. (Thats probably more than the number of transgender students administrators work overtime to make feel welcome. So share the love.)

The California Education Code prohibits school employees from engaging in political activities on the job. Even if not directly unlawful, a question still arises as to whether or not an employee recommending the substitutionary lesson for the days assignment is appropriate and allowable, explained Bill Lucia of the school reform advocacy group EdVoice.

All racists, eh? One-third of the 676 counties that elected President Obama twice switched to Trump. Inquiring minds should want to know why. Obama might call this one of his teachable moments, but that only works for those ready to learn about other people.

Debra J. Saunders is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: dsaunders@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DebraJSaunders
San Francisco is filled with ghosts. Dashiell Hammett apparently shows up at Johns Grill every day for lunch, while a restless spirit is said to linger around the Curran Theatre ticket booth. Apparitions of the citys subcultures are visible, too, if you know where to look.

I see ghosts around every corner, says choreographer Joe Landini. On Saturday, Nov. 12, he and fellow dance maker Amy Lewis conjured the spirits of leatherman culture, which thrived south of Market Street from the 1960s through the 1980s and was decimated by the AIDS crisis. SoMa Now and Then, their hour-long walking tour, combines an audio soundtrack with Landini in solo dances at provocative sites. (The tour repeats for two more weekends; bring a smartphone, headphones and a sense of adventure.)

Landini, 52, and Lewis, 42, lead two dozen guests deep into leather territory. Winding off and back onto Harrison and Folsom streets for 1.5 miles, SoMa meanders by still-active locales like the SF Eagle leather bar and Blow Buddies sex club, into former cruising alleys and past former bathhouses that were shut down by then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein because of the AIDS crisis. Some sites eventually became mainstream nightclubs; others were razed to make way for condominiums.

Gabriella Angotti-Jones/The Chronicle

At the first stop, Landini reports drily that Sex was a lot easier in SoMa. In Pacific Heights, it was a lot of work. You had to sit and talk to someone for three or four hours first. While you listen, he moves heavily through Ringold Alley, shuffling his boots, carving the air with his arms and miming cigarette puffs.

That is the beginning and end of decorum in the soundtrack, which Lewis edited from their private conversations about Landinis sexual awakenings in SoMa. (For the record, he doesnt consider himself a leatherman: I was so terrible at taking directions, he quips.) The unrehearsed dialogue is refreshingly frank and peppered with Landinis jovial sarcasm, in the way a script could never be.

Broken glass, afternoon traffic and the dank mist of liquor, hovering in the doorway of a bar, become fortuitous set dressing. Don Clevers 1936 mural Workers and Tractors, at 943 Harrison, evokes the ghost of an even earlier generation.

Lewis and Landini presented the work-in-progress at ODC Theater over the summer, then adapted the choreography for the public venue; he keeps his pants on in this version, for example. He improvises along the way, because the city is always in motion. Im dodging beer bottles, homeless people walked through, and on Morris Street there was a big pothole, he said afterward.

He also doesnt listen to the voice-over during the performance; liberated from sound cues, he is free to get lost in the moment. In Brush Alley, a former cruising street with a brick wall that still reads Schiff & Sons Contractors (phone Market 4377), all of a sudden I was grunting and breathing, he said. He knew that we were listening to his coming-out story, but I dont know where that came from. I was so in it.

While SoMa is rich in backroom details (no one under 18 is allowed), Landinis anecdotes reveal nonerotic dimensions of the leather scene, too: brotherhood for gay men ostracized by their families of origin, health care in time of need, and outreach that continues today.

Theres something for every consenting adult in SoMa, though Landini and Lewis find that gay and straight audiences tend to give different feedback. A gay man who came to the ODC show said that the story wasnt shocking, but he was trying to wrap his head around the movement, Lewis says. Whereas straight people who see a lot of contemporary dance understand the dance but say, The sound is blowing my mind.

Im a queer person myself, said Kat Bussey, 34, on vacation from Melbourne, Australia. The underground queer sex scene of San Francisco is quite different to a lot of other places. You got quite a clear picture. And as it harks back to a unique period in San Francisco history, SoMa keeps the citys tradition of in-your-face, on-the-run performance alive.

Exploring the remains of the clubs and bathhouse also provokes thoughts about the effects of ongoing gentrification. Im really interested in dislocation, and people that have been displaced, says Lewis, who choreographed the Tread the Tendernob walking tour of Nob Hill and the Tenderloin in 2011 and brought the idea for SoMa to Landini. As neighborhoods, artists and people of color struggle to maintain a foothold in the city, she asks, What do we want to hold onto or bring back, and what do we want to change?

I think that what the city is discovering, slowly  incredibly slowly  is that those cultures and artist have to be nurtured, Landini says. Thats why when Amy was talking about the project, I was like, Yes, this is the kind of work we should be making.

Claudia Bauer is a Bay Area freelance writer.

SoMa Now and Then: 3 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, Nov. 19-20, and Dec. 3-4. Meets up the block from the SF Eagle, 398 12th St., S.F. $20. www.pushproductions.org
On the day after President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated in January, tens of thousands of women are planning to gather on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.  but not to protest against Trump. At least not yet.

Instead the Womens March on Washington is designed to deliver a positive message after the negativity of the presidential campaign and to be a show of strength. If Trump tries to enact some of the policies he described during his campaign, the women lining up behind the march  and their allies, many of them former Hillary Clinton supporters  hope to be ready to push back.

The Jan. 21 event sprang up as an idea on Facebook and other social media sites hours after Trumps victory last week, and it has exploded virally online since then. Over the weekend, plans for sister marches around the country multiplied, and Bay Area organizers met Monday to plan at least one locally on the same day.

Unlike the demonstrations held in Oakland, San Francisco and many other cities around the country since the election, organizers of the Womens March on Washington do not intend it to have an anti-Trump bent. Instead, organizers say, they want to give people something to be in favor of.

It is an answer to the question that gets asked, What can I do? said Renee McKenna, who is among those trying to organize one or more marches in the Bay Area.

Michael Short/Special To The Chronicle

I hope that when people come together, face to face, they realize that they are not alone, McKenna said. Theres strength in numbers.

The idea is that women, allied with others who felt insulted by Trump during his campaign  including immigrants, Muslims and people with disabilities  can agree to support one another if one of the groups has grievances with Trump administration policies.

This is not a political protest, and we dont have demands, said Fontaine Pearson, a photographer in Memphis, who is one the organizers of the march in Washington. What we want is it to change the dynamic and change the culture in this country. Change the culture that allows someone like Trump to be elected.

The national and the local events are still in the early planning stages. Organizers are trying to obtain permits for the national demonstration, which would include a gathering on the National Mall and a march to the White House. Several speakers have already been confirmed, Pearson said, but she declined to reveal who they were.

It is an entirely volunteer effort so far. Except for a Maine resident who donated $15,000 to help defer travel costs for residents there to attend, no major donors are backing the event yet.

In an effort to tamp down the political nature of the march, Pearson said that while other organizations will be welcome, were making it clear were not allying ourselves with other groups.

Although many Californians have committed online to traveling to Washington, similar events are being planned closer to home.

In the Bay Area, organizers met Monday to determine whether to have marches in Oakland, San Francisco or both. In San Francisco, the Walk for Life West Coast  an annual event that brings tens of thousands of supporters for a rally in opposition to abortion  has long been scheduled for Jan. 21. McKenna said womens march organizers are trying to avoid a clash with that event.

Preliminary plans also are under way to have womens demonstrations in Los Angeles and potentially San Diego, Sacramento and Santa Cruz, organizers said.

Counter-inaugural demonstrations are not usual, said Doug McAdam, a professor of sociology at Stanford University and author of Deeply Divided: Social Movements and Racial Politics in Post-War America. Mass demonstrations greeted the first White House days of Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan as well as the second term of George W. Bush.

We probably wont know until we look back in a year or so if these mobilization efforts bear fruit, said McAdam, an expert on social movements.

Trumps own actions in the White House are likely to do more to mobilize people, McAdam said.

If his rhetoric continues to be more moderate and conciliatory and if he behaves in a more moderate fashion, then demonstrations might dampen, McAdam said. But if he were to pull together a deportation force, then you will really see people get mobilized.

Many of the women headed to Washington are going less to make a political statement than to make a personal one.

Anne Hartig said she is not even a Facebook person. But once she learned of the march, she felt she had to be there.

Mainly because of the idea that weve lost a lot of hope after we saw how the election turned out, said Hartig, who lives in Burbank and plans to attend with her sisters-in-law who live in Atlanta.

Hartig said that given Trumps infamous videotaped comments from 2005 on how he used his celebrity status to push himself on women, and many other actions and comments by the president-elect that she interpreted as misogynistic, I think its really important to see a lot of women out there.

After the reality that Trump had won set in, Dany Warman of San Francisco said, I felt powerless. Just sad and confused and I didnt know how to channel that emotion.

I represented most of the things that were trashed in the election. A woman. Mexican. An immigrant, Warman said. And so were a lot of the things that I stand up for  climate change. Being pro-choice. Same-sex marriage. It made me really upset that everything I want was shut down and smashed.

This allowed me to channel my energy instead of mourning, she said.

Although they insist the womens marches arent political, women who oppose Trump clearly have work to do politically: Pre-election predictions of a huge gender gap favoring Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton failed to materialize. Exit poll data showed that Clintons 54-42 percent advantage over Trump was barely larger than the margin by which President Obama won the womens vote in 2012 over Republican Mitt Romney.

Michelle Moquin said she was really disappointed that more women didnt oppose Trump. The San Franciscan plans to attend the Washington event because I hope this will pull us together and show everyone that that we have a loud voice and we will use it.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli
To a passerby, the scene would have looked unremarkable: another wine tasting at another fancy San Francisco restaurant. But to California wine-industry insiders, Mondays In Pursuit of Balance tasting at RN74  the final tasting that group held before disbanding  marked the end of an era.

In Pursuit of Balance was, on a basic level, a wine club: a nonprofit association of California Pinot Noir producers that held tastings around the world to promote its members wines. But in reality, the group more closely resembled an art movement: manifesto-driven, unified by theory, designed to upend the hegemony of a dominant system.

Its mission? To raise awareness of a particular style of Pinot Noir in California. Like many art movements before it, In Pursuit of Balance rose up against an establishment, ignited controversy, made enemies and then, just when the establishment seemed to be changing, suddenly called it quits.

In Pursuit of Balance started where it ended, at RN74. One evening in 2010, Rajat Parr  then the restaurants wine director and owner of Sandhi Wines and Domaine de la Cote  sat at the bar with Jasmine Hirsch, who had recently moved back to Sonoma to work for her familys winery, Hirsch Vineyards. Both Parr and Hirsch produced Pinot Noir, and noted how different their wines seemed, stylistically, from most other California versions.

This difference is the seed from which the movement bloomed. The prevailing style of Pinot Noir in California, they felt, had become one of excess  hedonistic blockbuster wines with too much alcohol and too much big, sweet fruit flavor. The markets, and the big critics, rewarded this style: Witness the successes of Kosta Browne, Williams Selyem, Marcassin.

But quietly, under the radar, there was a movement of producers in California answering a different ideal: wines of restraint, more fresh than opulent, more savory than sweet. Lower in alcohol, higher in acid, and (this was key to their argument) a more honest expression of place  what we mean when we say terroir. These producers had no mainstream advocates; all they had were a few excited sommeliers in San Francisco. The objective of In Pursuit of Balance was to give this movement a voice.

James Tensuan/Special to The Chronicle

Between them, on that evening in 2010, Parr and Hirsch could name all the California Pinots they enjoyed on two hands. They figured they should taste them. They figured they should invite their friends. The plan quickly evolved into a larger tasting, selling tickets to the public.

Expectations for that 2011 event were modest. We were like, Who the heck wants to come to a California Pinot tasting? Hirsch said.

But it sold out in three days. Journalists attended. The room was packed. And  most telling of all  the conversation about stylistic restraint in California Pinot took off like wildfire.

I got a bunch of hate mail, Parr said. There hadnt been a plan for a second event, but it soon became clear that the group had struck a nerve. There was so much energy, positive and negative, that we said, What the hell, lets just do it again.

Energy, indeed: Many of the first 23 winery participants describe its emergence in revolutionary terms. We didnt have a voice. We didnt have Robert Parker, we didnt have James Laube, said winemaker Jamie Kutch, referring to two prominent critics of California wine. So we decided to speak up in a group.

James Tensuan/Special to The Chronicle

How did this wine movement gain so much immediate attention? Maybe the time was right for a rebellion story, one about overthrowing systems. Maybe it was the sheer audacity of purporting to challenge the voices of Parker and Laube. The charisma of Hirsch and Parr helped.

By its third year, overwhelmed with requests from wineries that wanted to join and sensitive to the charge that we were just picking our friends, as Hirsch put it, In Pursuit of Balance set up its formal membership with a blind tasting panel.

That year, 2013, was also the first that the group held a tasting in New York. Every wine buyer in New York showed up, Parr said. Jay McInerney, famous chronicler of New York nightlife, immortalized their raucous afterparties in the Wall Street Journal.

They had become the cool kids.

Which did a lot to boost the individual successes of the groups members. In Pursuit of Balance put us on the map, said Dave Gollnick, owner of Mindego Ridge Vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The day they announced wed joined is the single biggest mailing list sign-up weve had. Mention it to distributors or restaurant wine buyers, and their ears perked up.

James Tensuan/Special to The Chronicle

Meanwhile, as In Pursuit of Balance spread its gospel of balance, an opposition formed. The group started to look less like the underdog.

Detractors took to online forums like eRobertParker and WineBerserkers, calling In Pursuit of Balance the PETA of the wine world, for example. The comments carried anti-elitist tones familiar to any art movement: Most of us do recognize a distinct elitist vibe from Parr, (In Pursuit of Balance) and that overall movement, read one WineBerserkers post, kind of similar to the vibe you get from indie film snobs.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

The very establishment that the upstarts sought to critique fought back. James Laube, in a 2014 Wine Spectator column, wrote: Somms and (In Pursuit of Balance) acolytes who cling to the notion that what works in Burgundy, the Loire Valley or Austria will also work in California need to consult a map and open their minds.

When In Pursuit of Balance announced in May that it would cease operations, the decision seemed to make sense. Hirsch and Parr were burnt out; they have their own businesses to run. Maybe theyd grown tired of being Internet scapegoats. More likely, though, is that they felt theyd accomplished their mission. Theyd set out to start a conversation; that conversation was out in the universe, bigger than their tasting events.

As Hirsch and Parr look back on the balance-seekers short, dazzling life, they speak in the same revolutionary terms that made their message resonate in the first place. Theres been a very long period of dominance for the ripe style of wine, and for specific voices, Hirsch said. Theres a multitude of voices now. That can be scary for people who have held the microphone for so long.

Frankly, and Im not gonna shy away from saying this, she continued, I think we were unexpectedly successful. And people get freaked out when you challenge the dominance of a critical view.

At some point, the In Pursuit of Balance manifesto  fundamentally about how wine style can either express or repress terroir  became the central discussion point for the entire wine industry. Does excessive ripeness homogenize, as Hirsch puts it? Or is ripeness the true expression of this sunny pleasure-dome, California?

Should wine be merely delicious? Or, as the group asserted, should it be a kind of art?

As with any successful movement, the legacy of In Pursuit of Balance isnt that this question has been answered. Its that the question has been asked.

Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicles wine, beer and spirits writer. Email: emobley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Esther_mobley Instagram: @esthermob
Hundreds of people protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline surged onto San Franciscos Market Street on Tuesday, blocking traffic on the major city artery for two hours, while calling for an end to the planned 1,172-mile crude oil conduit they see as a potential disaster for sacred American Indian land.

Holding signs reading Water is life and We are here to protect, the group formed a circle in Civic Center Plaza and burned sage in a peaceful sunrise prayer service before hitting the streets.

We want to all come together and open our eyes and hearts. We need to talk to the corporations and open their eyes and hearts, Isabella Azizi, a Richmond resident who helped organize the protest, told the crowd over a loudspeaker outside City Hall.

Just before 9 a.m., the demonstrators began marching up Market Street, blocking traffic in both directions as they headed to the Army Corps of Engineers offices on Market Street, between 10th and 11th streets. Once there, they locked arms and blocked all the buildings entrances.

San Francisco police officers stood by, blocked traffic and facilitated the march. There were no reports of arrests.

Around 11 a.m., the protesters marched back to Civic Center Plaza, where they said a final prayer and sang an American Indian song before ending the demonstration.

Once the protesters cleared out, police reopened Market Street in both directions.

The $3.7 billion Dakota Access Pipeline was approved in July by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The 30-inch diameter pipeline would run through North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Iowa and Illinois.

Energy Access Partners, developer of the pipeline, says the project would tap into 7.4 billion barrels of crude oil and make the United States less dependent on foreign oil.

But the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe sued the Army Corps, saying the project threatens the Tribes environmental and economic well-being and would damage and destroy sites of great historic, religious and cultural significance to the Tribe.

Law enforcement in North Dakota last month tried to force demonstrators out of locations in Standing Rock, deploying pepper spray and nonlethal rounds while arresting 142 protesters.

Violent images and videos of the clashes have spread online and through social media, increasing support and awareness for the issue.

The San Francisco protest was part of a nationwide day of action, in which more than 200 demonstrations took place across the country.

We want to stop the fossil fuel industry, Azizi said. No more taking the oil out of the ground. It wants to stay in Mother Earth.

During the demonstration, musician Michael Franti surprised the protesters by giving an impromptu acoustic performance.

I believe in indigenous sovereignty and renewable energy for the future. In order for us to achieve that, we have to invest in renewable energy today, Franti told The Chronicle. The pipeline is the opposite of that.

Protester Judy Grether, 73, said it was important for people to take a stand against the pipeline, particularly in the wake of Donald Trumps election as president of the United States.

Trump being elected makes it all the more urgent. Its scary, Grether said. He could do in our planet.

San Francisco resident Charlie Ballard, 42, said he visited the Standing Rock reservation in September.

As a native person, I felt the calling to come protect the water, Ballard said. If the pipeline breaks, it could poison the drinking water for millions. People dont understand how serious this is.

Hartman Deetz, one of the organizers of the protest, added, This is just the beginning of the fight.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky
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Donald Trump might not have a lot of supporters in San Francisco, with a little less than 10 percent of the city's population voting for him, but the President-elect still has a small stake in the city.

Many locals don't realize Trump owns part of 555 California St., the city's second-tallest skyscraper, formerly the Bank of America Center (and soon to be third-tallest skyscraper when the Salesforce Tower is finished). But when the real estate mogul-turned politician first hit the campaign trail and went on to become the President-elect, word spread and small groups of protesters have hit the Financial District address.

While Vornado Realty Trust owns 70 percent interest in the building and manages the property, Donald Trump has 30 percent limited partnership.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Kathleen Pender pointed out in a 2015 story that this was a passive real estate investment for Trump.

"Vornado acquired its 70 percent stake in the two buildings in 2007 from U.S. entities controlled by a Hong Kong investment group for $1.8 billion," Pender wrote. "Trump was a limited partner in the investment group and had been feuding with it, according to Forbes. The deal left Trump with a 30 percent stake in the two buildings.

In other words, 555 California probably isn't a high priority for Trump and he likely doesn't care that protestors are targeting the building.

Regardless, small groups of people are showing up. On Facebook on Nov. 13, several members of the Live Protest Channel posted that they were part of a sit-in at the building.

"Small group at 555 California @ Kearney in SF, all with signs," wrote one. "I wish I remembered to print mine."

Also that day, a Facebook member posted a list of Trump-owned businesses to avoid visiting, among them 555 California.

Another Facebook user shared a message on the pro-Clinton channel Pantsuit Nation, encouraging tenants of 555 California to vacate. "Idea for protest: Call for businesses to abandon their office space at 555 California St., San Francisco," Shelly Howard of S.F. wrote.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the post hadn't gained much traction Howard feels the effort is worthwhile. "I just think that protests that directly affect Trump's finances have a higher likelihood of getting his attention," she told SFGATE.

And over at SF Curbed, a real estate blogger showed how one Trump critic used 555 as a backdrop to express "displeasure over the country's current President-elect."

This isn't the first time protestors have targeted 555 California. The SF Occupy movement staged a rally at the building in 2012 (see some photos above).

SFGATE reached out to Vornado Realty Trust to find out whether their management has increased security around the building in light of the election and didn't hear back at the time of publishing this story.
The Mountain View high school teacher who compared president-elect Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler and was later suspended returned to work Monday.

Frank Navarro, a Holocaust scholar who has taught at Mountain View High School for 40 years, previously told The Chronicle the schools principal and district superintendent put him on paid leave Nov. 10 after a parent complained about parallels he drew between Trump and Hitler in his world studies class.

The superintendent, Jeff Harding, denied that Navarros suspension was related to a lesson comparing Trump to Hitler in a letter sent to parents Monday. Harding did not elaborate on the circumstances of the suspension in the letter, citing it as a personnel matter.

Navarro was only absent from the classroom for a portion of one afternoon, according to Harding.

Harding and Navarro did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

The administrators involved were responding to a specific parent and student complaint of a serious nature, Harding wrote in the letter. It is our duty to investigate such a complaint to ensure the emotional safety of all of our students.

Navarro previously denied saying directly that Trump and Hitler were one and the same, but said he described to students similarities in how both promised to eject foreigners and make their countries great again.

This parent said that I had said Donald Trump was Hitler, but I would never say that, Navarro told The Chronicle on Saturday. Thats sloppy historical thinking.

The schools newspaper, the Oracle, initially published an article late last week about the investigation, leading to outrage and fears of censorship from both parents and students.

A change.org petition supporting the then-suspended history teacher had gathered more than 35,000 signatures by Monday night, calling the administrations decision dangerous and disgusting.

I understand that the headlines around this issue are stoking some of our worst fears about censorship following the recent election, Harding wrote. And I am very appreciative that there are parents willing to reach out and speak up for values that are important to our democracy.

Michael Bodley is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mbodley@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @michael_bodley
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Cannabis experts and their allies packed Oakland City Hall for a raucous public hearing Monday night, at which the City Council voted to re-craft a set of controversial pot laws it passed in May.

After a four-hour debate, the council voted 4-3 to direct the city administrator to write new laws and significantly revise an equity permit program that sets aside half of Oaklands pot permits for ex-convicts and a small number of East Oakland residents. Its members also scrapped plans to force cannabis businesses to hand over 25 percent of their profits to the city, and to require pot retailers to pay back taxes and hefty $10,000-a-day fines.

The vote fell along political lines, with council members Dan Kalb, Annie Campbell Washington, Rebecca Kaplan and Abel Guillen in favor of changing the program, and council members Desley Brooks, Larry Reid and Noel Gallo dissenting. Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney was absent.

The council also requested a comprehensive analysis from the citys Department of Race and Equity before the laws come back for a vote in January.

Although it was approved unanimously, the equity program sparked a six-month political fight that has all but hobbled Oaklands marijuana permitting efforts. Sponsored by Brooks, it reserves half the citys permits for people who fit a narrow set of criteria: either they were jailed on marijuana convictions in Oakland within the past decade or they have lived for at least two years in a designated East Oakland police beat that saw a high number of marijuana arrests in 2013.

The six designated police beats in the equity program are either in Brooks district or the district represented by her ally Reid.

Brooks said the intent of the program was to benefit people whose lives were disrupted by drug-related prosecutions and incarceration. Without special set-asides, she said, were setting up systemic issues that prevent people from competing.

Critics say the program is too restrictive and would choke off the citys pot trade amid an anticipated boom, now that California voters have approved Proposition 64, the ballot measure to legalize recreational pot in 2018.

After hearing these arguments, several council members expressed regret for the May vote, and three of them  Kalb, Guillen and Campbell Washington  pushed an alternative proposal that would offer loans, tax incentives and expedited permits to perceived victims of the war on drugs, without constricting the industry and the tax money it could bring. They asked that this alternative be the framework for the new laws in January.

Brooks, Reid and Gallo shot back with proposals that would tighten the citys grip on its cannabis sector. In September, they pushed plans to force all pot businesses to hand over 25 percent of their profits, and at least one seat on their board of directors, to the city. On Monday, they floated a plan that would force large-scale businesses to pay back taxes, plus interest, and $10,000-a-day fines for every day they have operated.

Under federal law (cannabis) was illegal, Brooks said. We dont typically reward illegal activity. The other council members refused to sign on to the plan.

Speakers at the meeting were infuriated by the ongoing squabbles and delays.

Your politicizing of this process has been shamefully negligent to the citizens of our city, said Michael Grafton, a cannabis advocate. This is a race, and the consequences of your machinations is that Oakland is stumbling out of the starting gate.

Other speakers said Oakland is in danger of losing its reputation as one of the most cannabis-friendly cities in the U.S.

In the context of repression, prohibition and confusion at the state and federal level, Oakland made it work, said James Anthony, a lawyer who helps fledgling marijuana entrepreneurs start their businesses. He noted that in 2004 Oakland was the first U.S. city to issue a permit for a medical cannabis dispensary. Now it has fallen behind other cities in the region.

Yet some praised the equity program as a means to correct past racial injustice and prevent African Americans and Latinos from getting left behind once the industry goes above ground.

As council members bicker, time is running out for Oakland. State law requires that all cannabis businesses have a city permit and a state license by January 2018, and many other cities already have permit systems in place. Some operators who spoke at the meeting said they may have to flee if the May laws remain intact.

My business does not want to leave Oakland, but the equity permit program in its current form would create an impossible situation for us, said William Roberts, a lab manager at the East Oakland cultivation facility Dark Heart Nursery.

Kalb said he shared those concerns.

With Prop. 64 passing, and other cities looking to do things, we have a time-sensitive goal to get things done here, he said.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan
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Dozens of graduate students at UC Berkeley sent a starkly worded petition to campus leaders Monday demanding that a renowned architecture professor and Middle East scholar be suspended immediately for sexually harassing a student.

Nezar AlSayyad, an internationally recognized academic who teaches in the architecture department and Department of City and Regional Planning, is the latest prominent faculty member at UC Berkeley found to have sexually harassed a student or colleague in violation of University of California rules, The Chronicle reported on Sunday.

The next day, 74 students and three alumni from City and Regional Planning sent a petition to campus Chancellor Nicholas Dirks, the Academic Senates tenure committee, and other campus leaders demanding that they consider the most severe punishment available, tenure revocation. They also demanded that the campus leaders apologize to any victims and do a better job protecting students.

Those who signed the petition are refusing to attend AlSayyads classes and are asking for another way to finish the semesters work. They are planning protests Tuesday and Thursday outside Wurster Hall.

In response, administrators have called a meeting Tuesday with campus officials and College of Environmental Design leaders to discuss all aspects of how best to protect student welfare and support their needs and interests, a campus source said.

In October, an independent investigator hired by UC Berkeley concluded that AlSayyad had spent months ingratiating himself with a graduate student before placing his hand on her upper thigh in 2013, proposing they become close friends and suggesting they go to Las Vegas. The student, Eva Hagberg Fisher, filed a complaint this year with the campus Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination. After a five-month investigation, the investigator said the evidence showed that AlSayyad appeared to groom Ms. Fisher for the possibility of becoming a romantic or sexual partner.

The Chronicle also spoke with two former faculty members who said that another student alleged more than 20 years ago that she and AlSayyad had sex and that she felt taken advantage of. Her complaint was never investigated, and the former student declined to comment. Another student accused AlSayyad this spring of nonsexual misconduct, and an investigation is pending.

AlSayyad, 61, has denied all allegations of misconduct. He told The Chronicle that he feels victimized and that administrators are overreacting for fear of being perceived as soft on sexual harassment. He could not be reached for comment Monday. But on a faculty listserv, he called the story vicious and defamatory.

Students who signed the petition said they wanted to stand in solidarity with Hagberg Fisher and to express frustration with a campus process that prevents administrators from notifying students sooner about investigations into faculty misconduct.

Its infuriating, said Brooke Staton, 27, a masters student who is taking a required course from AlSayyad.

The findings and the graduate students strong response follow revelations this year and last about three high-profile employees at UC Berkeley  an astronomy professor, the Law School dean and a vice chancellor  who groped, kissed or touched students or colleagues. In each case, the campus responded with minimal discipline until the cases became public. The astronomer quit under pressure, and the others stepped into tenure-protected faculty roles but have been given no courses to teach.

AlSayyad has also been given no courses to teach this spring, according to a source connected to the College of Environmental Design, which houses AlSayyads departments.

The investigator recommended that campus officials begin the process of deciding whether AlSayyad violated the Faculty Code of Conduct, which could lead to tenure revocation. That has happened only twice at UC Berkeley in 25 years.

Hagberg Fisher, 34, said she was moved to tears when she heard about the letter.

To see this magnitude of response was just profound, she said. It is such a public disavowal of a person and his behavior.

Nanette Asimov and Cynthia Dizikes are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com, cdizikes@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov and @CDizikes
San Francisco's Transamerica Pyramid once loomed ubiquitous in the city's skyline. As the economy soared, so did glass towers, rising to meet a booming housing demand. It can still be seen poking over landscapes from several parts of the city.

In fact, it was long the tallest structure in the city, standing at 853 feet. It now gives way to the Salesforce Tower, located at First and Mission Street. While no longer the tallest, it still remains one of the city's most unique structures. You can see how the city skyline has transformed over the years in John King's ode to the building on the San Francisco Chronicle website.
General Electric Co. agreed to buy ServiceMax, a Pleasanton cloud software company, for $915 million to expand its digital operations and enhance equipment maintenance.

The deal will help GE automate and digitize the servicing of heavy-duty machinery, the Boston company said Monday. GE expects the acquisition to close in January.

Its no secret our services revenue is the bulk of our earnings and is a key part of what makes us successful, Bill Ruh, chief executive officer of GE Digital, said in an interview. Were moving away from where its all on paper to where its all becoming fully automated. Services are becoming a key part of the digital economy.

GE is investing in software operations and attempting to position itself as a digital industrial company that makes equipment outfitted with sensors to improve productivity. CEO Jeffrey Immelt has sold off most finance and consumer businesses while focusing on industries such as energy and aviation.

GE Digital, established last year in San Ramon, may become a $15 billion business by 2020, the company has said. GE has developed an operating system called Predix to help run industrial equipment more reliably and efficiently.

ServiceMax provides field-service management software to remotely track equipment maintenance, create work orders and manage repair schedules. The company had raised more than $200 million from investors including GEs venture arm.

Court

HP Enterprise

loses ruling

A judge has ordered Hewlett Packard Enterprise to continue working on a long-delayed project to build a new computer system for Rhode Islands Division of Motor Vehicles.

Superior Court Associate Justice Michael Silverstein on Monday issued a temporary restraining order at the states request to block the Palo Alto company from walking off the unfinished job.

The judge notes the sharp divide between the parties over the contractual obligations, the companys threat to walk away and the harm the state would suffer.

The state sued HP Enterprise this month, saying it has paid more than $13 million for a computer system that hasnt been fully delivered. The sides met for court-ordered mediation.

The company has said it met its contractual obligations.

Regulators

SEC leader

to step down

The Securities and Exchange Commission says its leader, Mary Jo White, will leave at the end of the Obama administration.

White, a former federal prosecutor and private securities lawyer, was appointed by President Obama in February 2013. Her term doesnt end until 2019. President-elect Donald Trump is due to take office Jan. 20 and likely will name his own choice to head the market watchdog agency in the near future.

Investments

Buffett gets

airline stakes

Warren Buffett is changing his mind about airlines and buying stakes in several major carriers including American Air Lines and Delta Air Lines.

The billionaire investor has famously avoided the sector in the past, although his Berkshire Hathaway does own NetJets, which sells partial ownership interests in business jets.

Buffett disclosed the new investments, which also include United Continental Holdings, Monday in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Bankruptcy

American

Apparels woes

American Apparel is seeking bankruptcy protection for the second time in just over a year, unable to find its footing even after a contentious fight for control with founder Dov Charney.

Canadas Gildan Activewear is buying the brand for $66 million.

The Los Angeles retailer first filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October 2015, about a year after it fired Charney for violating its sexual harassment policy. Charneys legal campaign to retake control of the company was rejected by a bankruptcy court judge in January.

American Apparel has lost money every year since 2010.

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A Millbrae resident who allegedly punched a Latino man after making derogatory comments about Mexicans in Redwood City was charged with a hate crime, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Michael Anthony Goggins, 34, pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of resisting an officer and a misdemeanor hate crime charge Monday at the San Mateo County courthouse in Redwood City, said District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

An employee at a Chevron gas station in the 2200 block of El Camino Real called police about 10:40 p.m. on Nov. 9 after Goggins started yelling at the worker, officials said. He shouted, Why are you in my country?; F you and You are lazy  according to the San Mateo County district attorneys office.

The suspect then fled to Willow Street, where its alleged he randomly attacked a Latino man. The victim, a 20-year-old Redwood City resident, was walking with a friend when Goggins approached and punched him in the chest, said Lt. Sean Hart, a Redwood City Police Department spokesman.

It appeared to be that the motivation was based on peoples race, Hart said.

Goggins allegedly spoke to the victim in Spanish, saying, Im white, Im from here, where are you from? He then used a racial slur to describe the victim before punching the victim in the chest, police said.

Goggins ran to Laurel Street, where he was met by police officer. He ignored police commands, violently resisted officers, and tried to bite them, officials said.

After he was taken into custody Goggins mentioned hitting a Mexican man, because he is a traitor and began talking about aliens invading the country.

He was taken to a medical center for psychiatric evaluation. He was later booked at the Maguire Correctional Facility, where he was being held on $50,000 bail, prosecutors said.

Hart said Goggins was impaired at the time of the incident but it was not clear if it was due to mental illness or drugs.

The assault came a day after the presidential election, one of many reports of alleged hostility against minorities following the election of Donald Trump.

On Monday, a Latina nanny caring for two toddlers was assaulted in San Franciscos Fort Mason in another hate crime committed by a possibly mentally unsound man. He told her through broken Spanish, No Latinos here, grabbed the woman by the neck, and shoved her, said Nathan Sargent, a spokesman for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

In Mondays case, the woman couldnt positively identify the suspect and there werent other witnesses, so the man was not currently facing hate crime or assault charges, officials said.

Chronicle staff writer Kimberly Veklerov contributed to this report.

Jenna Lyons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jlyons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JennaJourno
A Latina nanny caring for two toddlers was assaulted Monday in San Franciscos Fort Mason by a man who told her through broken Spanish, No Latinos here, officials said.

The assailant grabbed the woman by the neck and shoved her, said Nathan Sargent, a spokesman for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The incident happened about 10:45 a.m. in the Great Meadow area of Fort Mason.

The man did not appear to be a native Spanish speaker, the woman told police.

A jogger passing by stopped and helped the nanny call 911, Sargent said, and U.S. Park Police officers quickly located a suspect who matched the description of the assailant.

The suspect, who evaded questioning, was held on suspicion of resisting arrest. He may have mental health issues and was taken to San Francisco General Hospital for a 72-hour psychiatric evaluation, Sargent said.

Because the woman couldnt positively identify the suspect and there werent other witnesses, the man is not currently facing hate crime or assault charges, Sargent said.

We consider this an isolated incident and at the same time a chance to say that parks are for everyone, he said. National parks especially are a place for all people to come together and feel welcome.

San Francisco Supervisor Mark Farrell, whose district encompasses Fort Mason, said he wanted prosecutors to seek the full penalty for the attacker, if the crime was motivated by racial hatred.

Hate and discrimination fester and grow when we do not address and challenge it, he said in a statement.

In the week since the presidential election, a number of hostile incidents toward minorities have been reported across the country, including at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz. Groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center say they have seen an uptick in harassment, especially in schools and colleges, by people emboldened by Donald Trumps campaign rhetoric.

California Attorney General and incoming U.S. Senator Kamala Harris sent a bulletin last week to police agencies outlining hate-crime laws due to an uptick in threats of hate crimes and other violent extremism.

Any witnesses to the Monday assault were asked to call (415) 561-5150.
Senator Barbara Boxer has filed a piece of legislation that, if successful, would call for an amendment to the Constitution that would do away with the electoral college.

Such a bill is unlikely to pass  Boxer has co-sponsored legislation like this before to no serious interest  but in the wake of Donald Trump's win in the electoral college and Hillary Clinton's win in the popular vote, Boxer opted to revive the idea.
Members of Congress, as well as liberals (and some conservatives) across the country, are taking action after finding themselves appalled by President-elect Donald Trump's appointment of former Breitbart editor Steve Bannon as a top White House aide.

One such democrat, Congressman David Cicilline (D-RI), has created a letter to Trump requesting that he rescind his selection of Bannon in the presidential cabinet.
President-elect Donald Trumps win has fed talk of secession among West Coast liberals, with some now wondering whether California could become Canadas next province.

Secessionists stirring the pot are nothing new on the West Coast, but in recent years Cascadia had been the vision du jour in the Pacific Northwest. Depending on who is talking, this secession scheme would have British Columbia, Washington and Oregon as well as bits of the surrounding states and provinces break away.
WASHINGTON  An oil billionaire, a North Dakota lawmaker and a former Bush administration official are being considered to run Donald Trumps Energy Department, according to transition planning documents obtained by the Associated Press.

The documents also outline early policy priorities for a Trump administration. Topping the list is repealing the Clean Power Plan, an Obama administration effort to limit carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants. Implementation is currently on hold awaiting a court ruling.

Those under consideration for energy secretary include Harold Hamm, an Oklahoma oil tycoon and leading proponent of fracking, and North Dakota Rep. Kevin Cramer, an early Trump supporter from a major oil drilling state. Venture capitalist Robert Grady, who worked in President George H.W. Bushs administration, is listed as a contender to lead both the Energy and Interior Departments.

Its unclear whether the list is exhaustive or has been reviewed by Trump. The Republican is in the early stages of setting up his administration.

The Trump to-do list targets recent Obama administration efforts to reduce air and water pollution that have been opposed by Republicans and industries that profit from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels, including the waters of the United States rule and ozone regulations.

Trump calls climate change a hoax perpetrated by China and others and has said he will rescind the Clean Power Plan  the linchpin of President Obamas strategy to fight climate change.

A coalition of conservative states has challenged the Clean Power Plan and also has challenged an Environmental Protection Agency rule that expanded the definition of waters protected under the Clean Water Act to smaller non-navigable waters and seasonal tributaries.

The Obama administration says the rule would safeguard drinking water for 117 million people, but Republicans and some Democrats representing rural areas say the regulations are costly, confusing and amount to a government power grab. Federal courts have put the rules on hold as judges review lawsuits.

On his campaign website, Trump called for rescinding all job-destroying Obama executive actions and has vowed to unleash an American energy revolution, allowing unfettered production of oil, coal and natural gas. He would sharply increase oil and gas drilling on federal lands and open up offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean and other areas where it is blocked.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said last week he has asked Trump to move quickly to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada, which Obama rejected last year.

Trump highlighted the stalled Keystone project during a late October campaign swing through Florida, saying: Were going to approve energy infrastructure projects like the Keystone pipeline and many more. He listed the project among his top priorities for the first 100 days of his administration, saying it could provide a lot of jobs, a lot of good things.
CANNON BALL, N.D.  The company building a $3.8 billion oil pipeline sought a federal judges permission Tuesday to circumvent President Obamas administration and move ahead with a disputed section of the project in North Dakota, as opponents held protests across the country urging it to be rejected.

Energy Transfer Partners of Dallas and a subsidiary asked the court to let them lay pipe under a Missouri River reservoir, a plan the Standing Rock Sioux says threatens its drinking water and cultural sites. The Army Corps of Engineers said Monday it needs more time to study the impact of the plan.

While President-elect Donald Trump, a pipeline supporter, probably would green light the project when he takes office in January, the company is trying to win federal approval  or a court order  to allow it to go forward now. The delay has already cost nearly $100 million, the company said in court documents, and further delay in the consideration of this case would add millions of dollars more each month in costs which cannot be recovered.

On Tuesday, the company blamed the Obama administration for political interference in the pipeline review process.

The Army Corps referred a request for comment to the Justice Department, which declined comment.

Protests were being held Tuesday across the country, from San Francisco to Vermont. Activists called for demonstrations at Army Corps of Engineers offices and at banks financing the pipeline construction.

Twenty-eight protesters were arrested near Mandan, N.D., after a group of about 400 protesters put a truck and tree branches on BNSF Railway tracks near a pipeline work staging area and tried to set it on fire, Morton County sheriffs spokesman Rob Keller said.

They had a rope soaked with kerosene, he said. A (Highway Patrol) trooper with an extinguisher doused it so it wouldnt light.

Trains were delayed three hours, railroad spokeswoman Amy McBeth said. Officers in riot gear used pepper spray and in one instance a stun gun against protesters who refused to leave.

Mandan is about 50 miles north of a camp where hundreds of protesters have gathered in recent months to oppose the pipeline. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental attorney and president of the New York-based Waterkeeper Alliance, which seeks to protect watersheds worldwide, visited the camp Tuesday, speaking out against the arrests of protesters and a project he says will benefit billionaires and not the American people.

What they are doing here is a crime, an environmental crime, and there are real victims, he said.
SHERIDAN, Ill.  U.S. prisons are experimenting with a high-priced monthly injection that could help addicted inmates stay off opioids after they are released, but skeptics question its effectiveness and say the manufacturer has aggressively marketed an unproven drug to corrections officials.

A single shot of Vivitrol, given in the buttocks, lasts for four weeks and eliminates the need for the daily doses common with alternatives such as methadone. But each shot costs as much as $1,000, and because the drug has a limited track record, experts do not agree on how well it works.

Proponents say Vivitrol could save money compared with the cost of locking up a drug offender  about $25,000 a year for each inmate at the Sheridan Correctional Center, 70 miles southwest of Chicago.

Dr. Joshua Lee of New York Universitys medical school said more evidence is needed to determine whether the medication can help substantial numbers of people and whether its worth paying for, but the early results are encouraging.

It sounds good, and for some of us, it feels like the right thing to do, said Lee, a leading researcher on the treatment.

Vivitrol is emerging as the nation searches for ways to ease an opioid epidemic that affects more than 2 million Americans and an estimated 15 percent of the U.S. prison population. Many experts view prisons  where addictions human toll can be seen most clearly  as a natural place to discover what works.

Christopher Wolf had already served prison time for nonviolent crimes when he was ordered into treatment for a heroin addiction by a judge who suggested Vivitrol. Three months later, the 36-year-old from Centerville, Ohio, is clean and working full time as a cook.

He now suggests the medication to other addicts.

I dont have cravings, Wolf said. I see how much better life is. It gets better really fast.

Vivitrol targets receptors in the brains reward system, blocking the high and extinguishing urges. In some programs, prisoners get an injection before release, then follow-up shots from any clinic.

For decades, researchers have recognized addiction as a relapsing brain disease with medication an important part of therapy. But most jails and prisons reject methadone and buprenorphine, the other government-approved medications for opioid addiction, because they are habit-forming and can be abused.

You couldnt design something better for the criminal justice system, said David Farabee of UCLA, who leads a Vivitrol study in a New Mexico jail. Theres been pushback with other medications, people saying, Were just changing one drug for another. That argument goes out the window when youre talking about a blocker like Vivitrol.
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WASHINGTON  Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani emerged as the favorite to serve as secretary of state in Donald Trumps incoming administration, a senior Trump official said as the president-elect narrowed down his Cabinet picks.

The official said that there was no real competition for the job and that it was Giulianis if he wanted it. The official requested anonymity.

Giuliani, a top Trump adviser, said Monday night at a Washington event sponsored by the Wall Street Journal that he wont be attorney general in Trumps administration  a job for which the former federal prosecutor had been seen as a top contender even before Trumps election.

Giuliani said he thought John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, would be a very good choice for secretary of state. But asked if there was anyone better, he replied with a mischievous smile: Maybe me, I dont know.

Trump was also considering Monday whether to inject new diversity into the GOP by recommending a woman  Michigan GOP Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel  to lead the Republican Party, and a gay man  Richard Grenell  to represent the United States at the United Nations.

The moves, among dozens under consideration from his transition team, follow an intense and extended backlash from Trumps decision on Sunday to appoint Steve Bannon, a man celebrated by the white nationalist movement, to serve as his chief strategist and senior adviser.

After winning the presidency but losing the popular vote, President-elect Trump must try to bring Americans together  not continue to fan the flames of division and bigotry, said House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco.

Inexperienced on the international stage, Trump spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone Monday. His transition office said he is very much looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the people of Russia. Trump also has spoken in recent days with the leaders of China, Mexico, South Korea and Canada.
Updated: November 9, 2019

If the quote Time is gold is literally true, then the Philippines is throwing away hundreds of gold bars every day.

Traffic in Manila and a lot of other places in the country has been a scourge to the millions of commuters for decades, and it has gotten significantly worse lately.

The big-picture problem of traffic in Manila

In 2015, the traffic navigation app Waze conducted a survey on the driving experience of 50 million users in 32 countries and 167 metro areas.

That year, traffic in Manila ranked the worst across all metro areas. Waze conducted that survey again this year, and Manila remained the worst in terms of traffic, while Cebu was cited as the least satisfying city to drive in.

However, the real costs of traffic go beyond what is stated in a driver satisfaction survey. We would need to consider reputation and economic costs, among others.

Various surveys and studies have calculated the immense costs of the heavy traffic Manila is experiencing.

The time is gold costs

Crowdsourcing survey website Numbeo has been conducting its traffic index per country, measuring the amount of time a person in a certain city spends in commute.

Since 2014, the Philippines ranked among the ten worst places for traffic. As for traffic in Manila, one infrastructure consultant recently wrote that the average person spends between 90 and 150 minutes commuting every day.

We havent even considered the commute of people from the suburbs who work and have to go through the traffic in Manila.

And the average statistics dont take into consideration the hours added to the time spent on traffic during times when its payday Friday or a rainy day that floods half the roads in Manila.

The big-money costs

Traffic in Manila is estimated to cost a3 billion per day, according to a study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency. Thats about 120 gold bars daily, in case youre wondering.

Imagine around 10 million people spending an hour or more in traffic in Manila, when they should be working or doing something worthwhile.

The productivity costs would amount to billions. At present, its a3 billion daily. However, if things dont get better, this becomes a6 billion daily by 2030.

Your personal costs (those that you know)

Assuming that there are 10 million workers in Metro Manila, the daily a3 billion whittled away to traffic in Manila amounts to an average of a300 per day per worker.

How did we arrive at that figure? We simply looked at the cost of commuting in Manila. Thats a12-a30 per train ride, a25-a50 per van ride, a10-a25 per tricycle ride, a7-a25 per jeep ride, and a12-a50 per bus ride.

This doesnt include the fuel costs from driving your own car into traffic in Manila, the premium buses, taxis, and Grab / Angkas rides being taken, which may cost an additional hundred pesos or more daily.

Your personal costs (if youre from far-away places)

From those fare estimates, we can estimate the various transport costs that commuting to and from work can entail.

For those who live in Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal, the daily commute into the traffic Manila offers (along with the good pay) consists of either a bus ride or a van ride, along with hitching a jeepney or tricycle, and sometimes even all four.

Were looking at a70-a150 in daily expenses for commuting into traffic in Manila, sometimes even more. Thats up to a3,000 a month.

Thats a lot to pay for a traffic ride of at least three hours. And thats enough money to bedspace somewhere near work, an option not available to a lot of people in the suburbs.

The hidden costs of traffic in Manila

However, the costs of commuting to and from Manila go beyond the purse. People traveling within, to, and from Manila spend 1,000 hours per year in traffic, 700 more than the global average.

Those 700 hours in traffic in Manila amount to about two per day, or one-fourth of your work day. Thats a125 per day, assuming that a person earns a500 daily.

Suppose you drive to work. When your car is idle, it wastes three-fourths of a liter per hour. Thats around a30 per hour idling.

Were not even counting the opportunity and psychological costs of traffic in Manila. Beyond all the hours wasted stuck in traffic, that traffic-caused tardiness at work might have cost you a promotion opportunity or two.

And sometimes, you even end up more fatigued while in traffic in Manila than at your actual work, increasing your health risks. Needless to say, those costs run to the thousands.

Final Thoughts

Traffic in Manila is expensive. And we need to constantly remind those in government that were expecting them to do better at finding effective solutions.

Meanwhile, we also need to be patient. Find ways to make our time in traffic more productive. Lessen the need to go out unnecessarily. And be disciplined in following traffic rules whenever were out on the streets.

This article was submitted by GoBear Philippines  Asias first unbiased metasearch engine or comparison website for banking and insurance products like loans, credit cards and insurance. Find out more: www.gobear.com.ph.

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"They found the air horn guy!!", one man exclaimed on a Southern California city's police department's Facebook page.

For weeks an El Segundo neighborhood has been terrorized by a man in a small car armed only with an air horn.

Neighbors in the small city Los Angeles County, known to people outside of California as 'that place where Q-Tip lost his wallet,' reported a train-like whistle being blown at all hours of the night. So when police spotted the car  a 2006 Chevy Aveo  and pulled over driver John W. Nuggent, several residents "responded to the scene and initiated a citizen's arrest," according to a Facebook post by the El Segundo Police Department.

The department say an air horn was found on the seat next to Nuggent.

"This is a great example of community members and the police department working together. As a reminder, if you see something, say something," the department said on Facebook announcing the arrest of the alleged-culprit.
President-elect Donald Trump's hiring of Breitbart executive editor Steve Bannon as his top White House advisor was not met kindly across the aisle.

While it's certainly not unusual for members of one party to not approve of a rivaling party's presidential cabinet selections, it is strange for such a pick to be followed by so much controversy. Bannon, unlike others in his position, has been repeatedly and widely accused of racist, sexist, and homophobic statements and acts.
It took a jury only two hours Monday to decide that a 50-year-old former bartender is mentally competent to stand trial on three counts of murder for the brutal hammer attack killings of three women in Oakland more than 25 years ago.

The jury's verdict means that Michael Monert will have a second trial beginning Nov. 30 on three counts of murder and the special circumstance of committing multiple murders for the deaths of the women in 1989 and 1991.

Monert's first trial began on May 17 but at the request of Monert's attorney, Todd Bequette, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Kevin Murphy declared a mistrial two days later based on Monert's courtroom conduct, which included talking during opening statements in the case.

Prosecutor Butch Ford said the killings of the three women had gone unsolved for more than 20 years, but in 2012 Monert was arrested and charged with the murder of Pamela Sanders on July 29, 1991, after his fingerprints, which were on file for a separate sexual assault case in Oregon, were matched to those found on a tarp that was covering her body.

After undergoing a preliminary hearing and being ordered to stand trial for Sanders' death, Monert sent a note to bailiffs at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin in December 2013 saying that he wanted to make a full confession, Ford said.

Monert then provided Oakland police Officer Herb Sanders, who was investigating the case, with details about Sanders' death and also said he had killed 29-year-old Debra Lynn Adkins at the entrance to Roberts Regional Recreation Area on Skyline Boulevard on Oct. 1, 1989, and 37-year-old Janie Flahiff on May 20, 1991, according to Ford.

Monert was charged with the additional murders in January 2014 but then a long legal odyssey began.

Criminal proceedings against Monert were suspended later in 2014 for him to be mentally evaluated but in 2015 he was found to be mentally competent to stand trial.

After Murphy declared a mistrial in May, he ordered another psychiatrist to examine Monert even though he'd already been examined by a number of other psychiatrists over the years.

His competency trial, which began last week, featured testimony by several psychologists.

In his closing argument in the competency trial Monday, Ford told jurors that they should find Monert to be competent because that is what five of the seven psychiatrists who've examined him have said.

Ford admitted that Monert often acts up in court, as Monert did Monday when he disrupted the argument by his own attorney Todd Bequette. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Kevin Murphy ejected him from the courtroom.

But Ford told jurors, "Focus on what he (Monert) is saying, which is rational."

However, Bequette said Monert should be found incompetent because he's not able to assist him in presenting the defense's case.

"He's demanding that I pursue an irrational defense," Bequette said.

The defense attorney said one of the key issues in the case is that Monert suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was physically assaulted in 2002. He said that triggered a delusional disorder that falsely convinced Monert that he had killed the three women who are listed as the victims in the case.

Bequette said Monert's explanation for the reason he confessed "is not rational" because Monert claims he was given a drug that made him confess and he was tortured in his jail cell by the jail's intercom.

In his opening statement in Monert's trial in May, Ford said Monert was "a serial killer" who lured women he believed were prostitutes, killed them by hitting them in the head with a hammer and then dumped their bodies in secluded parts of Oakland.

Ford said that when Monert made his confession, he revealed information only the killer would know.

But Bequette said, "The criminal justice system is prosecuting an innocent man," saying he believes Monert's delusional disorder is the reason he confessed.

After the jury ruled that Monert is competent to stand trial, Bequette asked Murphy to reverse the verdict based on his opinion that there was no factual basis for it or it was contrary to the law. Murphy will rule on that motion.

In another development after the verdict, Monert asked that he be allowed to represent himself and Murphy said he will hold a hearing on that issue on Thursday.

Shortly before that, four armed bailiffs temporarily removed Monert from the courtroom when he ignored an order by one of the bailiffs that he stop talking to Murphy's court reporter while Murphy was in his chambers researching a legal issue in the case.

Monert tried to push a heavy wooden chair at the deputies during the encounter and shouted, "I'm trying to have a conversation here!" and, "I've never been so insulted in my life!"
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SACRAMENTO  An early look at Californias 2018 gubernatorial election shows Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom leading the field of declared and likely candidates to replace Gov. Jerry Brown, a Field Poll released Monday found.

Twenty-three percent of the states registered voters favor the former San Francisco mayor, a Democrat who is running for the seat. San Diego Republican Mayor Kevin Faulconer came in second, with 16 percent of voters saying they would like to see him elected governor. Fresno Republican Mayor Ashley Swearengin placed third among preferred candidates with 11 percent. Faulconer and Swearengin have been rumored to be considering a run but have not yet jumped into the race.

Other likely and declared candidates include Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, 7 percent; former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, 6 percent; environmentalist Tom Steyer, 5 percent; Secretary of State Alex Padilla, 4 percent; state Treasurer John Chiang, 2 percent; and former state Controller Steve Westly, 1 percent.

A quarter of voters said they are undecided in the 2018 race to replace the termed-out Brown.

It will be a very interesting race, said Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo. This will be the next generation of California politics in the state.

The poll included likely candidates as well as those who have announced they are running. Newsom jumped into the race in 2015. Chiang announced his bid in May, former state schools Superintendent Delaine Eastin jumped into the race earlier this month, and Villaraigosa officially became a gubernatorial candidate last week.

Eastin announced her campaign after the poll was conducted or she would have been included, DiCamillo said.

A voters party registration was one of the biggest indicators of whom that voter will support, the poll found. Newsom was the pick of one-third of Democrats and 2 percent of registered Republicans.

When candidates were identified with their party affiliation, as they are on the ballot when people cast their votes, Republicans favored Faulconer 42 percent to Swearengins 31 percent.

But when party affiliation was left out, support for Faulconer and Swearengin dramatically dropped.

Whats interesting is if you dont mention party, the two Republicans go way down because Republicans cant identify who the Republicans are, DiCamillo said.

DiCamillo said it will be interesting to see whether the race includes two Democrats like last weeks U.S. Senate race between state Attorney General Kamala Harris and Orange County Rep. Loretta Sanchez. DiCamillo said Harris election to Sen. Barbara Boxers seat showed that when a Democrat faces another Democrat, many Republicans opt to not vote.

Many Republicans sat on their hands in that race, he said.

The Field Poll surveyed 1,200 registered voters online between Oct. 25-31 in English and Spanish, depending on the voters preference. Because the poll was conducted online using an opt-in panel, there is no sampling error estimate.

Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez
CAIRO  One of Egypts highest courts overturned a death sentence imposed on Mohammed Morsi, who was the countrys first democratically elected president and was ousted in 2013 by the military.

Morsi, who is serving a life sentence in prison for offenses related to espionage and inciting violence, is likely to remain in prison indefinitely.

The annulment of his death sentence  as well as the sentences against five other leaders of Morsis Muslim Brotherhood movement  suggests the governments reluctance to execute leaders of the Brotherhood, which still maintains some public support after its role in the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

The Brotherhood, which held power for just over a year, has been classified as a terrorist group by the government of Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, the president and a former military leader, and thousands of the groups leaders and members have been jailed, killed or have gone into exile. Even so, observers widely believe that executing top leaders like Morsi could lead to a new surge of violence.

The Court of Cassation, an appellate panel that interprets and applies Egyptian law, ordered a retrial of a case in which Morsi was charged with orchestrating a prison break during the chaotic days of the 2011 uprising against Mubarak. The case must be heard again in the courts.

Morsi may again be given the death sentence, said Khaled Nashar, the spokesman for the Ministry of Justice.

But even if Morsi is again sentenced to death, the penalty is unlikely to be carried out, if only for the reaction it would provoke within Egypt, said H.A. Hellyer, a scholar at the Atlantic Council, a think tank in Washington.

If Morsi were executed, he said, it could undo the uneasy calm that has settled in Egypt since 2013, when el-Sissi, who was then commander of Egypts armed forces, led an uprising that deposed Morsi amid a popular wave of anger against the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood. Morsi had been democratically elected president the year before.

El-Sissi led a crackdown against the group, including killing at least 800 people, and possibly as many as 1,000, when security forces dispersed a sit-in in Cairo in August 2013.
MOSUL, Iraq  Explosions and gunfire rattled parts of eastern Mosul and Islamic State militants fired mortars from apartment windows Tuesday as Iraqi special forces waged fierce urban combat in the countrys second-largest city.

Hundreds of civilians filled the streets clamoring for food and cigarettes in recently retaken neighborhoods, where supplies were running low. Some of the troops handed over their own rations.

Iraqi forces say they have largely cleared the neighborhoods of Zahra and Qadisiya in eastern Mosul after pushing into the area Nov. 4. The operation to retake the militant-held city began Oct. 17, and troops made swift progress before their advances slowed once they pushed into more densely populated areas.

Iraqi forces moving in from the south have maintained slow progress and remain more than 12 miles from central Mosul.

This morning, we have like 1,000 people from the civilians, who escape from this area to safer area, said Ali Tahseen, a special forces solider in eastern Mosul.

Mosul has been under the tight control of the extremists for more than two years and is still home to 1 million civilians. Aid groups have warned of a humanitarian crisis if hundreds of thousands are forced from their homes during the military operation.

This is a problem for us because the food we have is not enough for them, and were waiting for more food to be sent from the government, said Maj. Salam al-Obeidi. Now the Iraqi soldier is giving his food to the civilians.

Residents gathered on the streets to exchange news. A long line grew outside a shop selling cigarettes, where people argued and bought dozens of packs each now that the extremists and their smoking bans were gone.

Before, it was prohibited, cigarettes are prohibited, said one resident, Hani Hamed, laughing happily. Now we are free to smoke, so they are buying lots of cigarettes.

Near the northeastern Zahra district, explosions and gunfire erupted as the special forces advanced. Islamic State militants fired mortar rounds on the troops from apartment windows in the al-Samah neighborhood, wounding at least seven civilians when the shells landed in the streets below.

The army set up a field clinic with seven beds in a dust-swept open area to treat wounded troops and civilians. Teaming up with foreign volunteers, Iraqi medics administered first aid before sending the wounded to the hospital.

The Iraqi armed forces do not release casualty figures, but field medics have noted dozens of killed and wounded since the battle for Mosul began.

At a news conference, Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Saad Maan said the military has driven Islamic State out from over a third of the eastern half of the city, which is divided by the Tigris River.

Col. John Dorrian, a spokesman for the U.S.-led forces supporting the operation, said at the same news conference that air strikes had destroyed 59 suicide car bombs and more than 80 tunnels.

In Baghdad, meanwhile, bombings in and around the city killed at least 14 people Tuesday and wounded more than 50, Iraqi officials said.
1 Kashmir conflict: Pakistans military said Indian troops fired on its soldiers in Kashmir on Monday, killing seven and prompting return fire, as officials warned that the tense standoff between the nuclear-armed rivals could escalate. The two sides have traded fire repeatedly in recent weeks across the Line of Control, which divides the Himalayan region into Indian and Pakistani-controlled zones. The two nuclear rivals each claim the entire territory. This could be catastrophic for the region, said Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif. The latest escalation was set off by a September attack on an Indian military base by Pakistani militants.

2 Moldova vote: A pro-Russian politician won Moldovas presidential race, final results showed Monday, an election that many Moldovans hope will rekindle ties with Moscow. Igor Dodon won 52.2 percent of Sundays vote, while Maia Sandu, who ran on an anticorruption ticket, had 47.8 percent. Moldovas president represents the country abroad, sets foreign policy and appoints judges, but needs parliamentary approval for major decisions. Dodon wants to restore ties with Russia, which placed a trade embargo on Moldovan wine, fruit and vegetables in 2014 after Moldova signed an association agreement with the European Union.
BEIRUT  Russia launched new strikes in Syria on Tuesday involving carrier-borne jets and long-range missiles as opposition activists on the ground reported that the first air strikes in nearly a month struck the besieged, rebel-held parts of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.

According to activists, between four and 10 people were killed in the strikes on Aleppo, raising concerns of a return to daily deadly bombardment in Syrias largest city.

The Russian blitz began hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin and President-elect Donald Trump discussed Syria over the phone and agreed on the need to combine efforts in the fight against what the Kremlin called their No. 1 enemy  international terrorism and extremism.

The Obama administration has been trying for months to negotiate a cease-fire in Aleppo, a city that has become the epicenter of the war between President Bashar Assad and rebels fighting to topple him, some of whom receive U.S. aid. From the militants side, al Qaedas Syrian affiliate is fighting alongside the rebels, but the Islamic State has no presence in Aleppo.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Putin that Su-33 jets from the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov are involved in the operation, marking its combat debut.

We launched a major operation to strike the positions of the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra in the provinces of Idlib and Homs, Shoigu said at a meeting with Putin, referring to al Qaedas branch in Syria by its old name. He said the Russian strikes are targeting ammunition depots, training camps and armaments factories.

As part of the Russian operation, a navy frigate launched long-range Kalibr cruise missiles and the military also used Bastion missiles stationed in Syria to strike militant targets in the rebel-held northern province of Idlib and the central province of Homs. Shoigu said that before launching the strikes, the military intelligence had thoroughly identified and selected targets, including factories producing toxic chemical agents.

Its a well-developed, industrial-scale production, he said, adding that the strikes will continue. He did not mention Aleppo.

Meanwhile, Syrian activists reported strikes in all three places  Idlib, Homs and Aleppo.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in Britain said missiles fired from Russian warships in the Mediterranean struck areas in Aleppo province and on the eastern edge of nearby Idlib. The observatorys chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said the areas hit with missiles are strongholds of jihadist groups, including the al Qaeda affiliate known as Fatah al-Sham Front.

In Geneva, meanwhile, two U.N. agencies said food production in Syria has shrunk to an all-time low, threatening to drive more people from their homes after 5 years of war.
LAGOS, Nigeria  Thousands of children have died of starvation and disease in Boko Haram-ravaged northeastern Nigeria, Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday quoting a new survey that is forcing Nigerian officials to stop denying the crisis.

The Paris-based organization hopes that official recognition of the calamity in which thousands are dying will help bring urgent aid before older children also start dying, said Natalie Roberts, emergency program manager for northeast Nigeria.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand  The first U.S. warship to visit New Zealand in more than 30 years was changing course Tuesday to help evacuate people stranded in a coastal town after a powerful earthquake.

Hundreds of tourists and residents remained stranded in the town of Kaikoura and faced a third disrupted night after a powerful quake early Monday cut off train and vehicle access.

New Zealand military officials said they were on target to evacuate about 200 people by helicopter on Tuesday as a major rescue operation unfolded.

New Zealand Defense Minister Gerry Brownlee said that the U.S. Navy destroyer Sampson was heading south to Kaikoura and would be able to deploy two helicopters to help in the evacuation.

The Sampson had been due to sail into Auckland on Wednesday as part of 75th anniversary celebrations for the New Zealand navy.

The visit by the U.S. ship is significant because it ends a 30-year-old military stalemate between the countries that was triggered when New Zealand banned nuclear warships.

Brownlee said Australia was also diverting Her Majestys Australian Ship Darwin to Kaikoura.

Despite the changes to the planned celebrations, its poignant to see the anniversary marked with such cooperation and camaraderie, Brownlee said in a statement.

The operation comes as several buildings in Wellington, New Zealands capital, were evacuated and streets cordoned off Tuesday after engineers determined that a nine-story office building was in danger of collapsing.

The magnitude-7.8 quake that struck New Zealands South Island left two people dead and triggered a small tsunami. It also brought down rocks and mud that swept across highways and cracked apart roads.

Strong aftershocks continued to shake New Zealand, rattling the nerves of exhausted residents.
Three Santa Feans arrested shortly after participating in a demonstration against President-elect Donald Trump are set for release today after supporters raised enough cash to bail them out.

Prosecutors charged Sergio Muterperl, 30, with aggravated assault on a police officer, a felony carrying up to 18 months in jail. Judge Donna Bevacqua-Young set his bond at $2,500.

Travis Barnes, 20, faces misdemeanor charges for assault on a police officer and possessing less than an ounce of marijuana. His bond was set at $2,000. Both protesters, along with a third man, 18-year-old Morgan Cook, received charges of blocking a roadway and resisting arrest. The judge ruled that Cook be released on unsecured bond.

The arrests happened shortly after a peaceful march on Saturday afternoon that started on the Plaza and included parts of Cerrillos Road, Marcy Street and Paseo de Peralta. SFR estimated about 200 people participated, while a police report puts that number at 400.



Police approached Muterperl as the crowd started dispersing from the Plaza, according to a police report and his attorney, Mariel Nanasi. The criminal complaint says all three protesters fled from the police, towards the Plaza Arcade on San Francisco Street, but does not state why they were singled out.



The police version of events alleges that Santa Fe police officer Alejandro Arroyo tried to grab Muterperl in the building, but got pulled down a staircase after the protester tried to escape his grasp. Arroyo said in court that he injured his right shoulder in the scuffle.

Muterperl disputes this version of events, according to Nanasi, who attended the march and volunteered to take him on as a client when she saw police approach him [See video below]. She says her client is a victim of "targeted prosecution," claiming police singled out Muterperl for organizing the march.



"I was literally talking with Sergio, and one of the police officers said, 'Let's get him.' Then officers ambushed him," says Nanasi, a civil rights attorney also known for her role as the founder of New Energy Economy.

The afternoon march followed rallies at the Plaza and outside the capitol. Muterperl told SFR on Saturday that no one planned to walk the streets of Santa Fe that day, but organizers from One Billion Rising and the internet activism collective Anonymous expressed interest in marching.

Steven Hsieh (Steven Hsieh)

With a crowd gathered at the Plaza, Muterperl called for the rally to move to the streets. Protesters followed him onto the road, where they blocked occasional traffic. SFR spoke with some participants who saw the impromptu parade and passing by and decided to join. Police cruisers followed behind, flashing lights and blaring sirens. Police also attempted to barricade intersections with cars, but protesters walked around the barriers and continued marching.

Muterperl was in the news earlier this summer when, as an Atalaya Elementary School teacher, he was charged with two counts of child molestation, but

. He has always maintained his innocence. An outspoken advocate, Muterperl was also forcibly removed from a Trump rally in Albuquerque.

Jeffrey Haas, the attorney for Cook and Barnes, says the two defendants both work at Rock n' Roller skating rink.



Haas, who attended the rally, says the police displayed unnecessary aggression during the protest.

"It was almost like they were angry and needed to find scapegoats," he says, referring to his clients as the scapegoats.



Santa Fe Police spokesman Greg Gurule says Muterperl "was recognized as one of the people inciting the large group of people to create problems in the street that could be a potential danger to other citizens." He added that officers were probably recording with body cameras during the incident and that footage would be made available when ready.



Moments before Muterperl's arrest, he told the Plaza crowd that he feared police would target him as the protest's organizer.



Supporters raised about $600 to allow Muterperl and Barnes to contract with bail bondsmen. Nanasi says the men will likely be released later this evening.

Santa Fe Reporter
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The New Zealand Defence Industry Association, bracing for protests at its annual forum in Auckland this week, says it is a "misunderstood" sector that generates $60 million for the economy by providing support services to the NZ Defence Force.

The vast majority of the 170 defence supply organisations represented at the NZDIA Forum support NZDF with enabling services including maintenance, repair and overhaul, logistics, professional advisory services, ICT and engineering," said NZDIA chair Bernie Driver. "Close to 1,000 people are employed nationally in food and services alone, and a further 600 in repair and maintenance contracts.

At the 2015 forum in Wellington, speakers were almost drowned out by protestors opposed to the defence industry and delegates had to be escorted into the event by police. This year's two-day event at Auckland's Viaduct Events Centre is likely to draw more foreign dignitaries as it coincides with the Royal New Zealand Navy's 75th-anniversary celebrations, Operation Neptune.

New York Stock Exchange-listed Lockheed Martin, whose products include the Black Hawk helicopter, the F-16 and the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile, is again principal sponsor for the event. Lockheed is what is known as a prime contractor to the military, winning major contracts which it then turns to the local industry to help fill. Much of that work is won by Lockheed's mission systems and training division, maintenance and overhaul divisions.

"In the past, we haven't spoken about it. This year it is a conscious decision to try to get balanced perspective in the media," Driver said. The NZDIA has previously been dubbed "merchants of death," which he said was "a misguided label."

"Look, the government determines that New Zealand chooses to have an armed force and most New Zealanders would be incredibly proud of NZ Defence," he said. Much of its work was civil, such as rescue and support work after this week's Kaikoura earthquake, "but even when they are in harm's way we want them to be the best equipped they can."

According to the NZDIA website, a principal sponsor package costs $30,000 plus GST. Also on offer were 'cocktail function sponsorships' at $13,000, 'pre-awards dinner cocktail sponsorships' at $10,000 apiece and a wine sponsor, also $10,000. A further $60,000 was divided between everything from tea breaks to lanyards.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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Turners, the financial services firm formerly known as Dorchester Pacific, has strengthened its ties with Motor Trade Finance by funding a non-recourse loan product that will allow MTFs franchisees and dealers to sell vehicles to people with a higher credit risk.

MTF chief executive Glen Todd said in a statement that about 90 percent of the loans were expected to be for consumer purchases of motor vehicles, with the balance for commercial lending such as on trucks and machinery.

"The addition of a non-recourse product gives our franchisees and dealers greater choice to meet their individual appetite for risk and return, without exposing MTF shareholders to any additional risk," he said.

The 40-year-old vehicle finance company for auto dealerships has until now operated on a recourse basis, where MTF would provide the credit but the dealer would take on the risk of recovery if the loan went bad. That's an arrangement that's meant dealers and MTF are relatively risk averse compared to a Turners, which along with its own $176 million loan book has an in-house debt collection arm, auction services and auto insurance. Non-recourse loans will leave Turners to chase defaulters.

Turners chief executive Todd Hunter said he was optimistic about the funding arrangement, which is backed by Bank of New Zealand for an initial two-year term.

"It's a way to pass on our scale and risk appetite to their originator network," Hunter told BusinessDesk. Turners didn't have a specific target of how much lending it would write but had projected that it could become "a $50 million ledger within two years."

Hunter said MTF is offering "a white-labelled lending product that we offer to the wider market."

Turners is sitting on a paper profit from its acquisition of about 8 percent of MTF at $1.15 a share. The stock last changed hands on Sharemart at $2.50 and there's currently a buy order for 40,000 shares at $1.50 apiece. While both Turners and Heartland Bank have circled MTF, the Dunedin-based auto-financier said in June that it had rejected all offers from parties that had expressed interest in buying into the business as too low or unattractive.

Turners shares rose 1.9 percent to $3.21 and have gained 7 percent this year, just ahead of the S&P/NZX 50 Index.'s 6.7 percent gain. MTF's $40 million of perpetual bonds with a coupon of 4.47 percent were last quoted on the NZDX at $63 per $100 face amount, down from as much as $76 a month ago.

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Statistics New Zealand's decision to review the schedule of data releases after this week's 7.5 magnitude earthquake left its Wellington headquarters unusable for up to a year has highlighted the agency's reliance on the head office.

The quake damaged the 11-year-old building to such an extent that Statistics NZ's staff won't be allowed back in for up to 12 months, and its website and public data sources are out of action, although its Auckland and Christchurch offices remain open. The agency was scheduled to release the September retail trade survey today, but has put that off until further notice and is reviewing its current release calendar.

While that's seen as more of a nuisance to economists who rely on government data, New Zealand Institute of Economic Research's Christina Leung says the agency has too much emphasis on the Wellington office.

"I can't believe that they have all their systems all concentrated and are so reliant on Wellington," Leung said. "Even with the Auckland and Christchurch operations, given they're so reliant on Wellington and that's out, it's not like there's any business continuity. It's definitely not ideal for anyone else."

Statistics NZ has been here before after its major data processing site in Christchurch was damaged in the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury quakes, and the agency delayed some key data after that disaster.

Still, the delays to the release calendar won't be as relevant over the next month with largely second-tier data scheduled for publication.

Bank of New Zealand head of research Stephen Toplis said he was quite relaxed given Statistics NZ will get on top of things eventually and that there hadn't any indication of a hold-up in the major indicators, while ASB Bank chief economist Nick Tuffley expects there will be some short-term disruption and slower releases of some data, but says it will "definitely be a temporary thing".

Last week the Reserve Bank delivered its final monetary policy review of the year and won't update its economic forecasts until February. A spokesman said its economics team works with Statistics NZ, but also uses other sources when forming its view on the economy.

Statistics NZ signed an 18-year lease with CentrePort for the Harbour Quays building during the 2016 financial year. CentrePort has suspended operations since the quake, citing damage to buildings and liquefaction in places. Fellow Harbour Quays tenant Bank of New Zealand has been told its Wellington office is "structurally sound", but doesn't anticipate sending staff back into the building this week.

CentrePort's investment property was valued at $47.9 million as at June 30 and generated $3.7 million of revenue in the year.

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Chinese billionaire Jiang Zhaobai has left the board of his New Zealand farming operation, though he isn't giving up on the nation's agribusiness sector.

Jiang retired as a director of Milk New Zealand Holdings, the vehicle which owns the former Crafar family farms, on Nov. 1, Companies Office filings show. However, he's still a director of a separate holding company that bought the former Synlait Farms group.

Jiang's Shanghai Pengxin ventured into New Zealand's farming in 2012 when it bought the Crafar farms out of receivership and later went on to buy the Synlait farms. However, last year its plans to buy the Lochinver farm near Taupo was rejected by the government against an Overseas Investment Office recommendation, and Pengxin later ditched plans to buy other farms in Taupo and Northland.

Those acquisitions were to be a pre-cursor to Pengxin selling its interest 55 percent-owned subsidiary Hunan Dakang Pasture Farming Co, a Shenzhen-listed company, and grant Hunan Dakang management rights over its interest in Synlait Farms. The effect would have been to reduce Shanghai Pengxin's interest in Crafar and Lochinver to 55 percent from 100 percent, bringing on board other Chinese investors via the listed entity.

Pengxin went ahead with the restructure despite the deals falling through, receiving OIO approval in August after a 22-month wait.

"The reason the chairman is no longer a director of the holding company is because he believed it appropriate to enable Hunan Dakang to appoint its own director," a Milk NZ spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. "Jiang Zhaobai remains committed and supportive of New Zealand's agribusiness sector."

Pengxin has since turned its efforts to developing a processing factory to produce long-life yoghurt, but hasn't been able to find a local investor to buddy up with that would meet OIO requirements. That's prompted Pengxin to seek revised conditions on its investment allowing it to develop a factory on its own with limitations on the amount of milk it would take, however the company has again faced a slow response by regulators.

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Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce has been charged with putting together a business continuity package for the South Island coastal town of Kaikoura after Mondays massive earthquake cut the main highway connection to both the north and the south.

Prime Minister John Key, Finance Minister Bill English and Minister for Earthquake Recovery Gerry Brownlee outlined the governments early response to the quake in a press conference this morning, as heavy flooding also cut off the capital city, Wellington, from the rest of the country.

There was no sense at this stage what that (a support package) would cost or what the structure would be, said Key. Like Christchurch, we look to people to have their own insurance capability and if they dont have that, we will look to potentially give them some support.

A violent storm lashing the country was hampering immediate relief efforts for Kaikoura, although American and Malaysian navy ships visiting New Zealand for the navys 75th anniversary have offered three additional military helicopters to help ferry supplies in and international tourists out of the town.

Some 140 foreign tourists with international flights to catch were being prioritised for evacuation, Key said.

Brownlee said: Heres a town that is largely dependent on the tourist market and farming and fishing as well, so were looking at how we maintain the activity thats there and support those people.

This mornings press conference underlined the fragilities exposed in New Zealands main road, ferry, and rail arterial links. All roads in and out of Wellington were closed by flooding, the ferry terminals in both Wellington and Picton requiring post-quake repairs to return sailings connecting the North and South Islands to normal, on top of estimates of billions of dollars of repairs required to the main highway connecting to the top of the South Island with Christchurch.

The main arterial route for the North and South Islands is going to be significantly disrupted in parts for quite some time and the cost of restoring that will fall to the government, or quite a lot of it, said English.

Were dealing with large slips, issues like Picton and Wellington both having significant issues around damaged infrastructure, he said. These things are all a pretty hard fix.

However, he stressed the country had the financial resources to deal with the issues, even though the Earthquake Commissions National Disaster Fund remains depleted following the massive rebuild required following the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes, which flattened Christchurch.

Theyve got a government guarantee so theres no question over their ability to extend their coverage and meet all the claims, he said.

Key also raised the prospect of being able to open a southern route on State Highway 1 into Kaikoura more quickly than repairs to the highway between Kaikoura and Blenheim, where there are not only slips, but also severely damaged roads and bridges, along with much of the railway line destroyed along the route.

He raised the prospect of needing to realign the highway to try and future-proof it against similar damage in future quakes, but it was too early to speculate on whether and what shape such a project might take.

Wellingtons CentrePort is expecting substantial costs also, and the future of commercial property developments on port land is a major looming question.

The Bank of New Zealands Wellington headquarters has been closed for a second time following a major quake, the Statistics New Zealand headquarters may be closed for up to a year, and the Greater Wellington Regional Councils headquarters sank some 15 centimetres.

All three buildings are recent developments on the port precinct opposite the citys Westpac stadium, which is also the subject of inspection for damage.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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The Takeovers Panel says it won't accede to a request from Bapcor Finance to convene a meeting to look into alleged breaches of the Takeovers Code by Hellaby Holdings and its adviser Grant Samuel in urging shareholders to reject a takeover offer from the ASX-listed company.

Last Wednesday, Bapcor made a formal request for the panel to convene a meeting under section 32 (1) of the Takeovers Act to determine whether the code had been breached in relation to the offer. Hellaby has urged shareholders to reject Bapcor's offer of $3.30 a share, or $322.5 million, after Grant Samuel valued the company at $3.60-to-$4.12 apiece. Hellaby stock last traded at $3.29 and has gained 18 percent in the past three months, while the NZX 50 Index fell 8.5 percent. Bapcor made the offer on Sept. 27.

The panel met over the past two days "and, on the basis of the information available to the panel, including the information in Bapcors request and the preliminary submissions of Hellaby and Grant Samuel, the panel considered that there was no reasonable possibility that either Hellaby or Grant Samuel acted in a manner inconsistent with rule 64 of the Takeovers Code in respect of the allegations made. On that basis, the Panel has decided not to convene a meeting."

Preston, Victoria-based Bapcor made its offer on Sept. 27, amounting to an 8.9 percent premium to Hellaby's shares at the time, and said it had secured acceptances for 30 percent of the target via lock-up deals with Salt Funds Management, Accident Compensation Corp and Hugh Green Holdings Castle Investments. The takeover is a play for Hellaby's auto parts business and Bapcor has said it will sell the target company's equipment, resources and footwear businesses if successful.

Bapcor has said if it doesn't succeed in taking over Hellaby it plans to enter the New Zealand automotive market either organically or through another acquisition.

The company's shares fell 1.1 percent to A$5.20 on the ASX and have declined 9.3 percent in the past three months.

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Green Flag complete: Shaw pilots, maintainers return home

Team Shaw Airmen assigned to the 20th Fighter Wing returned home to Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, Nov. 10, after participating in Green Flag 17-2 at Nellis AFB, Nevada.



Green Flag is an exercise that provides air-to-ground operational training, flying F-16CM Fighting Falcons out of Nellis AFB to support Army troops in Fort Irwin, California on the ground.



Green Flag really benefits Shaws F-16 pilots by giving them an opportunity to meet training objectives in order to provide combat-ready forces to the combatant commander, said Staff Sgt. Jimmy Queen, 20th Logistics Readiness Squadron deployment operations NCO in charge.



This exercise helps not only F-16 pilots prepare for deployment operations throughout the world but maintainers as well.



Maintainers worked closely with the F-16 pilots making sure there were no problems with the aircraft before they took flight.



Participating in the Green Flag exercise for the first time really helped me learn a lot of new and useful things as well as understand my aircraft systems better, said Airman 1st Class Thomas Prigge, 20th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron avionics technician.



Approximately 200 people from Shaw AFB participated in this 26-day exercise to provide close air support and meet bombing objectives with friendly troops on the ground in order to secure the U.S. Air Forces position as number one in air, space, and cyberspace.


BENGALURU: While demonetization of currency in denominations worth 500 and 1000 has created hustle in the country, black money holders are finding their own loopholes to prevent the money from loosing above their shoulders. Indians are being panicked and are in a hurry to exchange the old currency notes into the newly printed version through the nearest banks possible. Where, on the other hand, some are evading tax inspectors through investing their lump sum black money in different ways.

When it comes to investments, the only thing that strikes our mind is jewelry, as everybody knows the price of gold always surges or remains stagnant but never drops. An industry source in Mumbai also reported that 250 Kg of gold were sold within few hours after the announcement, which amounted to around 750 million rupees. Secondly, the wedding industry has even witnessed booming calls from people to purchase large items from anyone willing to accept old notes.

Relationships come first even in the case of monetary issues. Some are even looking up to friends, domestic staff and even senior citizens to exchange cash in small denominations. As per the banks rule, anybody depositing over 2, 50,000 rupees has to be notified to the tax authorities. While, the usual ways of exchanging continues, here comes the unusual way of exchanging money by paying travel agents to book expensive first-class tickets and then canceling them later to get reimbursement with cheques and bank transfers.

A senior citizen in Mumbai told Reuters that the undeclared wealth of 5, 00,000 was split up through opening multiple bank accounts for four of her domestic workers.

Read Also:

India's Carbon Emission Grew By Over 5 Pct In 2015

India's Crackdown On Black Money Will Help Financial System: European Union
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It's typical on an anniversary to reflect on how far you've come in the years you've spent together.

And the Bayonne Bridge, which spans the Kill Van Kull to link Bayonne, N.J., and Port Richmond, has come a long way in the 85 years since it opened to traffic Nov. 15, 1931. The bridge is currently in the middle of its $1.3 billion "Raise the Roadway" construction project, which began in 2013.

On Tuesday, as the bridge celebrated its special day, the Port Authority made a special announcement of its own regarding its progress with the project: The installation of a new, elevated roadway that stands 215 feet above mean high water over the Kill Van Kull and 64 feet higher than the existing roadway. The additional air draft will allow the Port of New York and New Jersey to welcome larger and more efficient vessels.

Media was invited Tuesday to walk over the new roadway, which will initially open with two 12-foot lanes of traffic, one in each direction.

"What we've done today is reconnected from New York to New Jersey with the very special structure that was done by Othmar Ammann," said Steven Plate, chief of major capital programs for the Port Authority. "If you study him, he was a master builder of particular bridges and we had the very special privilege of making it more functional in the sense of relating to today's times and demands, making it wider and providing for breakdown lanes and also pedestrian walkways as well as bike paths."

Plate noted that the Port Authority also wanted to make it "functional from the point of view of dealing with our ports."

By late 2017, the project will achieve navigational clearance for "neo Panamax" container vessels, which will pass under the bridge en route to Port Newark/ Elizabeth and Howland Hook.

"It will bring a tremendous amount of income and business to our region," Plate said.

Plate, who spoke along with Cedrick Fulton, director of the Port Authority's Department of Tunnels, Bridges and Terminals, said that the Port Authority is in "very good shape for opening the northbound [lane] by mid-next year and also opening up the navigational clearance for the large post Panamax ships by the end of next year."

Plate noted that the overall project completion is expected by the end of 2019.

"All the structure is in place, now we're fitting it out," he said. "We're putting in lighting, dividers, painting, all the stuff that just makes it come alive."

The eventual removal of the bridge's lower roadway will be by late 2017.

"There's a lot of stuff to do but we've done a lot," said Plate. "We've done a tremendous amount. You look at this as a work of art too. It's a tremendous project."

The Raise the Roadway project aims to construct the new bridge roadway deck above the existing roadway, while ensuring limited disruption to traffic on the lower deck.

Fulton called the project an "engineering wonder" but said his main concern throughout the project is the commuters.

"The most important thing from my perspective ... is to make sure that the traveling public and the community are afforded the least impact," Fulton said, noting that the Port Authority particularly considered peak traveling periods including the "a.m. and p.m. rush," summer and holidays when adjusting the bridge's hours.

The cost of the toll will not increase, Fulton noted. He also noted that when the new roadway opens next year, the Bayonne Bridge will become an all-electronic tolling facility.

The experience will be the same for E-ZPass customers, except that there will be no need to slow down at a toll plaza. Cash payments will no longer be accepted, however. Customers without an E-ZPass will receive a toll bill by mail to the registered owner of the vehicle.

According to Neal Buccino, Port Authority senior public information officer, by the time the project is complete in mid-2019, the new roadway will have opened at its full width, with four 12-foot lanes, a 2-foot-8-inch median barrier, outside shoulders measuring 4 feet, 9 inches, and inside shoulders measuring 2 feet, 8 inches -- a significant improvement over the current bridge.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- More than 50 people gathered in Great Kills Monday night to take part in a candlelight vigil for those affected by addiction.

The event, at St. Clare's Lady Chapel on Nelson Avenue, was put together after several members of the parish passed away from addiction in recent months, parishioner Mike Gigante said.

"We decided to have a vigil just to get together as people, and show our support to one another," Gigante said.

Most of the people there had felt the effects of addiction in one way or another. JoAnne Rende lost her daughter, Emily Elizabeth Foote, to an accidental overdose on Nov. 11, 2015.

"Being here is part of a healing process," Rende said. "Maybe I can help other people, because you don't know what it's like until you suffer from it."

She described her daughter as a young woman with extreme potential who was larger than life. Foote's childhood friend, Katelyn Farley, joined Rende at the service to remember her friend.

Farley had also lost her younger sister, Tara Rosado, a few weeks before Foote's death, in a Florida drug deal gone bad, she said. Now she tries to do anything she can to raise awareness about the ongoing crisis.

"I've never met an addict who had a problem confronting their addiction,'' Farley said."It's the families who have the issue confronting it. People who use drugs want to overcome the addiction."

Police in the Florida Keys arrested two individuals in March in connection to the gunshot death of Rosado, according to a report from Flkeysnews.com.

Several people spoke about their own experiences with addiction before the candle lighting, including Msgr. Jeff Conway, of St. Patrick's parish in Richmond.

He described himself as an alcoholic in recovery, with more than 35 years of sobriety.

"It's just important to pray for people who have lost their relatives, and give them support," Conway said. "I think we're just looking to do anything we can."
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. --Two parcels of industrially-zoned land in Mariners Harbor are being revived as manufacturing sites after being sold to two large Brooklyn-based companies for a total of $13 million.

Brooklyn's World Wide Plumbing will be relocating to 125 Lake Ave. -- a seven-acre parcel that includes 100,000 square feet of warehouse buildings -- and Royal Seafood Baza has already established a food distribution and processing operation at 175 Lake Ave. on 90,000 square feet of property, said Gary Mayzlin of the Brooklyn-based Kalmon Dolgin Affiliates, Inc. (KDA).

Mayzlin represented both buyers and the sellers in the sale of the industrial complex.

"With commercial real estate market values on the rise on Staten Island, it came time for the investor, 135 Lake Avenue Realty LLC, to cash out," said Mayzlin. "The property afforded buyers a highly desirable location with existing structures at a fraction of the cost of compatible properties and sites in Brooklyn."

A number of companies have occupied the site over the years, most notably Cross Sinclair Paper Company from the mid-1970s until early 2000s. The property was then sold to investors and repositioned as a multi-tenanted industrial complex.

WORLD WIDE PLUMBING

Mayzlin said he was approached by the principals of World Wide Plumbing, a plumbing supply company based at 15th Avenue in Brooklyn, after the long-established operation outgrew its existing facilities and began searching for a new home.

"The property at 125 Lake Ave. was very appealing to the principals of World Wide Plumbing because of the existing buildings with yard it could occupy immediately, and the opportunity for expansion in the future to redevelop land for more usable space," said Mayzlin, noting the company will add a significant number of jobs to Staten Island's employment pool.

"With M3 zoning the property can support over 600,000 square feet of industrial (and) commercial buildings. The deal was negotiated and closed recently for approximately $9 million," he added.

ROYAL SEAFOOD BAZA



Royal Seafood Baza, which is a major wholesaler and importer of food products with offices at Gravesend Neck Road in Brooklyn, acquired the property -- consisting of a 50,000 square-foot industrial warehouse with 40,000 square feet of parking -- for its food distribution and processing operation. Royal Seafood Baza also operates a dozen retail supermarket locations under the "Net Cost Market" brand in the New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania metro areas.



Mayzlin originally negotiated a net lease of 175 Lake Ave. to Royal Seafood Baza with an option to purchase. During the lease term, the property was renovated and converted to a first-class food distribution and processing facility. The purchase option was recently exercised by the tenant for approximately $4.05 million.

"They (Royal Seafood Baza) spent a lot of money to bring the old industrial warehouse up to date and make it a first class food distribution facility," he said.

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President Barack Obama speaks to reporters during his final news conference. He predictred that President-elect Donald Trump may have to adjust his expectations once he takes office. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- In his first news conference since last week's upset election results, President Barack Obama predicted that President-elect Donald Trump may have to adjust his expectations once he takes office.

"This office has a way of waking you up. Those aspects of his positions or his predispositions that don't match up with reality, he will find shaken up pretty quick because reality has a way of asserting itself," Obama said.

Obama was questioned about Trump's temperament, which he had criticized during the campaign.

"There are going to be certain elements of his temperament that will not serve him well unless he recognizes them and corrects them," Obama said. He cited, for example, the impact that an inaccurate comment from the President of the United States could have around the world.

"I think he recognizes that this is different," he said.

Obama encouraged Americans to give the President-elect some time to get adjusted to the responsibilities of the presidency.

"It is a big challenge," he said. "This office is bigger than any one person and that's why ensuring a smooth transition is so important."

The president met with reporters Monday afternoon before leaving the United States on the last scheduled foreign trip of his presidency, to Greece, Germany and Peru. He will meet with the prime minister of Greece on Tuesday.

(Do you agree that President-elect Donald Trump will have to adjust his expectations once he takes office? Use the Comment section below and let us know what you think.)
staten island ferry boarding.jpeg

Passengers board the upper level of the Staten Island Ferry from Whitehall Terminal.

(Staten Island Advance/Anna Sanders)

CITY HALL -- The city wants to open up lower-level boarding for Staten Island Ferry riders at Whitehall Terminal to help ease traffic across the harbor on the North Shore.

Right now only passengers who are disabled or have bicycles can board from the lower levels at both terminals.

"Our current focus is opening up lower-level boarding to all passengers at Whitehall," said Alana Morales, a spokeswoman for the Department of Transportation (DOT). "We will be exploring ways in which to improve passenger flow at St. George terminal down the road."

The city expects to implement lower-level boarding at Whitehall within the next 18 months.

The plan is among a series of measures proposed by the city to reduce congestion and accommodate a slew of upcoming redevelopment projects alongside old infrastructure on the North Shore.

"In general, greater efficiency of ferry operations can have a positive impact on the attractiveness of the service, helping to encourage mode shifts to mass transit," the $330,000 study reads.

MORE SECURITY AFTER 9/11

Vehicles haven't been allowed on the Staten Island Ferry since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

DOT ended lower-level boarding for passengers in July 2004 as part of a new safety plan approved by the U.S. Coast Guard following the passage of the federal Maritime Transportation Security Act in 2002.

Additional federal regulations required that all embarking passengers must be separate from those disembarking. The DOT said lower levels in both Staten Island Ferry terminals were also designated as "restricted areas" and weren't accessible to the public without a security regime in place.

The U.S. Coast Guard would have to approve any changes to lower-level boarding.

"A risk and vulnerability assessment would need to be conducted, mitigation measures would need to be provided, and our 'Combined Vessel and Facility Security Plan' would need to be amended to reflect the more broad-based lower-level access," Morales said. "Following submission to and approval by U.S. Coast Guard, a plan can then be implemented."

Petty Officer and spokesman Steve Strohmaier said the Coast Guard is still working with the DOT on the loading proposal.

NO WORD ON COST

Exact cost of the change is unknown, but the DOT said both additional security and operational personnel would be required. The city would also have to install passenger counters and security cameras, as well as portable barriers.

How many passengers would use new lower-level boarding at Whitehall is also unclear.

"Passengers utilizing lower-level boarding would depend entirely on the total number of passengers attempting to embark at any given time," Morales said.

SO WHY NOT ST. GEORGE?

Increasing boarding capacity is meant to limit passenger bottleneck, something that's supposed to decrease boat delays from Whitehall and enhance North Shore transportation overall.

The city's traffic study notes that the proposal will address transit at the St. George Ferry Terminal area, though only Whitehall will see changes.

"It's important to note that the two terminals are configured differently," DOT spokesman Scott Gastel said. "St. George Ferry Terminal is equipped with staircases which already make it easier for passengers to access the lower level. Whitehall has no such amenity."

The city is focusing on accommodating an increase in tourists and other passengers heading toward St. George, not necessarily those Staten Islanders commuting to work in Manhattan.

"As for flow at St. George for those headed to Whitehall, we'll look at ways to improve passenger flow through St. George, as that is also a priority," Gastel said.
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Taipei, Nov. 15 (CNA) Samsung Taiwan said on Tuesday that a move by the South Korean electronics giant to recall its problematic phablet -- the Galaxy Note 7 -- could continue until the end of this year. The company also urged local customers to apply for a refund or exchange the faulty product for a different Samsung model as soon as possible.
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
It's been a great week for Canberra artist Kerry Johns, who has won this year's $20,000 Eutick Memorial Still Life award at Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, for her work Flowers in a window.

The judges unanimously agreed that Johns' entry displayed "a quietly innovative approach to the still life genre and displayed an inviting depth of colour and energy".

Kerry Johns, Flowers in a window, the winner of the 2016 Eutick Memorial Still Life Award at Coffs Harbour.

In the same week and closer to home, Johns was named the winner of the inaugural Empire Global Art Award in the Over 25 Category at Tuggeranong Arts Centre, for Not Mt Clear, a work the judges described as "sophisticated and enduring".

"We like the way the landscape captures that overlap of observation and evocation," the judges said.
Most Canberra teenagers have never heard of the Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes or Violent Soho.

But for a group of 15-year-old Canberra girls, these alternative/indie icons are the ultimate inspiration.

Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers - Scarlett McKahey, Neve van Boxsel, Anna Ryan, Pip Gazard and Jaida Stephenson - are gaining popularity on Triple J's Unearthed. Credit:Graham Gall

Say hello to Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers (TJJT), an alternative rock band uniting five students from the Orana Steiner school in Weston. The girls came together in July 2015, with a shared love of all things indie/alternative, including groups like Nirvana and Australia's Ball Park Music.

The band is fronted by lead vocalist Anna Ryan, with Scarlett McKahey on lead guitar, Neve van Boxsel on drums, Pip Gazard on keyboard and Jaida Stephenson on bass guitar.
The University of Canberra is negotiating to sell former student accommodation building Arscott House, which it was gifted by the ACT government in 2011.

The building, near the Belconnen town centre, was gifted to the university at the end of 2011, and in 2015 the university closed it for student accommodation.

Arscott House in Aikman Drive, Belconnen. Credit:Google Maps

Auditor-General Maxine Cooper highlighted the Arscott House deal in a 2015 report into the ACT government's loans and support to the university for affordable student accommodation.

She said then that the university should make a decision about its future. If it was no longer to be used for student accommodation and the university made a profit from it, it should make "an appropriate adjustment" to the ACT government.
As one major Australian bank prepares to leave western Sydney, another is preparing to move in with the NAB likely to become an anchor tenant at Parramatta Council and Walkercorp's Parramatta Square project.

The Commonwealth Bank last year angered advocates for the area when it said it would not renew leases at Parramatta, Sydney Olympic Park and Lidcombe, and would instead move into new offices at Australian Technology Park near Redfern.

But NAB could reverse the trend if, as expected, it signs leases to move into the $2 billion Parramatta Square development being built by Walkercorp.

NAB is also to move into a new tower above Wynyard Station in Sydney's central business district. Opening offices at Parramatta Square, which is to be connected by a pedestrian tunnel to Parramatta Station, would enable relatively easy travel between the two NAB sites on Sydney's Western rail line.
Sydney's coastal homeowners face their property values being reduced, as the future risk of increasingly extreme weather events grows, a climate risk consultant says.

Dr Karl Mallon, director of science and systems for Sydney-based consultants Climate Risk, said Australia's quintessential problem is that "you can build a house which is insurable tomorrow, but is wholly unsuitable 30 years down the track".

The message follows the release by the independent Climate Council of its latest report, Super-charged storms in Australia, which argues that the nation is highly vulnerable to "storm surges associated with tropical cyclones and extra-tropical cyclones, including [more intense] east coast lows."
Monster conglomerate Wesfarmers, whose businesses range from retailers Coles, Kmart and Target to chemicals and fertilisers, has kicked off a sale process for its two Australian coal mines after prices for the commodity soared this year, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The Perth-based company has sent preliminary information on the Curragh and Bengalla mines to potential buyers ahead of calling for bids, the people said, asking not to be identified as the details aren't public.

Bengalla: Less than a year that Rio has sold its stake in the Hunter Valley coal mine, Wesfarmers is looking at doing the same.

Wesfarmers is working with UBS on the potential divestments, which may fetch as much as $2 billion, two of the people said.

Prices for coking coal, a material used in steelmaking, have nearly quadrupled this year as China cut its own production to ease overcapacity. Anglo American's board recently rejected a bid for its Australian metallurgical coal assets after deciding the offer was too low given recent price rise, people familiar with the matter said earlier this month.
Billionaire retailer Gerry Harvey has forecast the end of annual meetings as investor advocacy group the Australian Shareholders' Association called for him to step down.

The ASA is calling on the Harvey Norman executive chairman to resign, saying he should be replaced by an independent non-executive director.

Mr Harvey said 'I think it's inevitable that shareholder annual general meetings will disappear.' Credit:Louie Douvis

It also said the company should change its auditor to provide a "fresh set of eyes" on the accounts, and said the majority of the board should be independent within two years.

The ASA voted against the Harvey Norman accounts, its remuneration report and the re-election of two directors at Monday's AGM.
Looks like Amazon could be the next huge company to give up an employee review process that forces managers to rank employees against each other, making job performance all about survival of the fittest.

Amazon told Geekwire it planned to overhaul the worst part of the review process, although it did not offer details on the revisions.

A spokesperson confirmed the change, saying: "We're launching a new annual review process next year that is radically simplified and focuses on our employees' strengths, not the absence of weaknesses. We will continue to iterate and build on the program based on what we learn from our employees."

Rank and yank
Bosses at the giant Defence Department have been lying to their public servants about the public sector bargaining debacle, a Senate committee has been told.

Commonwealth bureaucrats based in northern Australia gave evidence to the the committee examining the handling of the three-year bargaining saga in Townsville on Tuesday with one Defence official saying he and his colleagues felt they were under siege from their department's senior management.

Defence public servants Deb Hayman and Ian Reid face a Senate Committee in Townsville.

Defence public servant and former police officer Ian Reid told the hearing of the anger and disillusion felt about the stalled bargaining process by he and his co-workers at a north Queensland military installation.

Defence's 18,000 public servants are among about 97,000 who have still not signed up to deals offered under the Coalition's tough public sector bargaining framework after their previous workplace agreement expired in 2014.
It's a trend changing the complexion of households across the Western world: young people are lingering much longer in the family home. This chart shows that nearly 60 per cent of those aged 15-29 are still living with their parents across the 35 wealthy member nations of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. In Italy, Slovenia and Greece more than three quarters of that age cohort have not yet flown the coop. Australia's proportion has reached 54 per cent.

There's been a marked change in the "life course transition" to independent adulthood in most advanced economies over the last 20 years. The average age at which women in OECD countries have their first child rose by almost three years to 28.7 years between 1995 and 2014. The average age at first marriage for both men and women in the OECD has climbed from the mid-20s into the low to mid-30s since 1990.

Local cultural norms play a role of course. But so does economics. Since the 2008 global financial crisis the proportion of young people living with their parents has climbed across the OECD. In France the share spiked by 12.5 percentage points in that period. Most nations with a high proportion of under-30s still living at home also have a very high rate of youth unemployment.
John Barilaro's election as NSW Nationals Party leader on Tuesday was unopposed, his colleagues having decided that rivalry and infighting might be counter-productive at this low point in the party's political fortunes. If the party room actually intended a public show of unity, then it was a wise move for the Nationals appear to be in deep disfavour with voters following last weekend's Orange by-election.

The Nationals have held Orange since 1947, and at the 2015 state election Andrew Gee retained it for the party with a margin of 21.7 per cent. So when Mr Gee resigned to contest the federal seat of Calare at the 2016 federal election, few people would have seen it as anything other than an opportunity to send a new Nationals face to Macquarie Street. That's not what voters were entertaining, however.

Scott Barrett, the Nationals' candidate suffered a swing against him in the first preference count of 33.8 per cent. At the time of writing, the after-preference swing against him was 21.8 per cent, and unless postal and absentee votes favour the Nationals, Philip Donato (the candidate of the Shooters Fishers and Farmers party) will be the new MLA for Orange.

The preference swap deal struck between the Shooters and Labor before the by-election was undoubtedly a factor in Mr Donato's strong two-party preferred showing. However, general dissatisfaction with the Nationals' performance in government, crystallized around its controversial support for Premier Mike Baird's now abandoned greyhound racing ban, may have been a far larger contributor to the Orange disaster.
The election of Donald Trump, whose campaign trafficked in racism and misogyny, as president of the United States is a calamity. But for those who experienced in 2014 the election of Narendra Modi, proud member of a minority-baiting alt-right organisation, as India's prime minister, Trump's ascent induces deja vu. And to those who have witnessed the subsequent radical makeover of India under Modi, the prospect of Trump assuming supreme power brings on acute foreboding.

For what is threatened now in the US is not just free trade, liberalism or a technocratic and professional class of politician accused of being out of touch with ordinary people. It is democracy itself - the central project of the modern world, in which people come together to form a political community that defines its shared laws, ensuring dignity and equal rights for each citizen, irrespective of ethnicity, race, religion and gender.

US vice president Joe Biden and House Speaker Paul Ryan listen as India's prime minister Narendra Modi addresses a joint meeting of US Congress in June. Credit:Andrew Harrer

Anguish and despair must quickly give way to a fuller reckoning with the deeper reasons behind Trump's empowerment. We must ask: Where do we stand, and where do we go from here?

Here the Indian experience can be instructive, if not uplifting. For over a decade, Modi was on the fringes of India's political and intellectual life. Accused of supervising mass murder and gang rapes in the state of Gujarat in 2002, he was blocked from travelling to the US and Europe. Journalists and pundits hailed technocrats such as former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, an Oxford-educated economist, for their secular outlook as well as economic wizardry.
"It takes a village..." was perhaps Hillary Clinton's most memorable line. It was given a macabre twist in the Academy Award-winning movie Spotlight, about the cover-up of sexual abuse by Catholic Church clergy in Boston. One of the actors observed that "if it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one".

We are about to learn more about the NSW "village" of Newcastle, in which an extraordinary number of respected citizens appear, through action or inaction, to have helped cover up allegations of sexual abuse.

Bishop Greg Thompson has taken a leading role against sex abuse. Credit:Jonathan Carroll

Four years after Julia Gillard announced the royal commission into institutional responses to abuse, the Anglican Bishop of Newcastle Greg Thompson is due to take the stand on Wednesday in Sydney when the commission reconvenes for case study 42. He has already given evidence privately, as perhaps the most senior clergyman to do so. He grew up in the Hunter Valley and was sexually abused while a student in Newcastle. After serving as a priest in many parts of Australia, including Canberra, he returned to Newcastle as bishop in 2014.

He says he was greeted by senior community figures keen to "groom" him. One legal figure recommended a system of internal reviews; an opportunity for the new bishop to "learn" but also, he realised, be potentially compromised. Thompson went straight to the police.
While it may be too soon to make accurate predictions about what a Trump presidency will mean, there is a very real prospect of a substantive shift in US foreign policy. The Economist Intelligence Unit has rated Trump's win as one of its top 10 global risks alongside continued fragmentation of the EU and conflict in the South China Sea. While that assessment is probably based on a worst-case scenario, it is a reminder that we should not be naive in this period of uncertainty.

Most observers discounted that Trump could win. We should now know better than to simply discount that he might do what he promised.

We are at a change point, and face the possibility of a very different world and a very different America. Our collective task now is to carefully and dispassionately consider Australia's foreign policy and global interests over coming months, and how best to effect these within the alliance framework

First, we must acknowledge that Trump's campaign rhetoric expressed views that run counter to what are core values for most Australians. The bipartisan criticism of some of his comments reflects this fact. For Labor, the fact that the alliance with the US is central to Australia's foreign and security policy has never meant that we trade away our values  values like respect and equality for women, racial and religious tolerance, and economic and social openness.
Nonetheless, the transition to the US will not be easy, and is made considerably more difficult by the fact that some of these people have been detained under very stressful conditions for as much as three and a half years. Many spirits have been broken. These refugees will need considerable help in resettling successfully. While welcoming the government's announcement, Labor has criticisedthe time it took to reach this deal. But it is important to recognise why the government has been in no hurry to find a durable solution. The government has subscribed to the principle of "no advantage" first articulated in the 2012 report produced by the Expert Panel on asylum seekers. The principle states that asylum seekers should receive no advantage from taking a boat to Australia over asylum seekers who did not make that journey. According to the UNHCR, resettlement needs in 2017 are projected to be 1.19 million people. In 2015, the total number of resettlement places offered around the world was 134,000. Based on these figures, the average waiting time for resettlement is in the range of nine years. The whole point of offshore detention and processing was to send a strong message that it was not worth taking a boat bound for Australia. The government was happy to pursue, in a half-hearted and expensive way, resettlement options in Cambodia, PNG and Nauru. These were not viewed as attractive resettlement options.

But the condition of asylum seekers and refugees on Nauru and Manus under Australia's care soon became an international embarrassment. With whistleblowers, journalists, doctors, civil society organisations in Australia, international NGOs and the government's own Human Rights Commission keeping the spotlight on conditions on Manus and Nauru, the government eventually had to find a durable solution for asylum seekers and refugees. The government remains concerned that finding a durable solution for refugees on Nauru may be an encouragement for people smugglers. This is an understandable fear, but recent history suggests it is most unlikely to lead to a resumption of boats heading for Australia. From 2002 to 2004, the Howard government resettled refugees on Nauru in Australia, and this did not lead to a resumption of boat arrivals. The threat of offshore detention is an enormous disincentive. Furthermore, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has been very clear the US arrangement is a one-off deal. Anyone who subsequently arrives on Nauru or Manus will face the uncertainty of if and when they will be resettled. The announcement today that refugees must accept any resettlement option presented to them or face 20 years on Nauru or return to their country of origin where they fled persecution may be reasonable if a durable resettlement option is offered, such as is the case under the US deal. But if a different iteration of this deal ever emerges in future and resettlement is to a country that is not a signatory to the Refugee Convention, or does not have the capacity to resettle and integrate refugees (such as Cambodia), this amounts to pressuring refugees to return to a place of danger or live in limbo for much of their lives.

The US deal is not contingent on legislation, now before parliament, for a lifetime ban on any people processed on Nauru and Manus since mid-2013 entering Australia. This is important as the ban is wrongly conceived, and has rightly been rejected by Labor. It is already abundantly clear that asylum seekers arriving by boat will not be resettled in Australia. Whether they will be able to visit Australia in some other capacity later in their lives will not be high on an asylum seeker's list of concerns. The effect of this bill is to punish for life an extremely vulnerable group of refugees, simply for the legitimate act of seeking protection and, in some cases, seeking reunification with family members. Although it is possible for people in this position to apply to the minister to lift the ban, this may well turn out to be costly, time-consuming and complicated. The government should be content to offer a good news story to the refugees on Nauru with its announcement of the US deal, rather than hitting them with a final punishment as they leave Australian government control to begin their new lives.
The Belarus Free Theatre company have long produced challenging theatre, their works a call to arms against oppression and censorship in their homeland, but their latest production, Burning Doors, may be their most exacting yet.

It's also their most personal, documenting as it does the stories of persecuted Russian artists  something with which the troupe itself is keenly familiar.

Famed Russian punk-rock protest group Pussy Riot. Credit:Vanya Berezkin

Established by husband and wife team Natalia Kaliada and Nicolai Khalezin and director Vladimir Shcherban in 2005, the BFT has never had an official premises in Belarus; the only theatre company banned in Europe, the trio were placed on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's blacklist of "enemies of the state", and had to stage their works in private apartments and public spaces, having previously been stormed by police, its members and audience members arrested. The type of performances that generate a buzz in the indie theatre scene here  announced secretly, held in underground car parks  are for the BFT matters of life and death. Audience members are told to bring their passports to make their release from any arrests by the KGB faster.

Ironically, even in exile in the UK, where the founding trio have lived since 2011, the BFT is more successful than ever, existing both inside Belarus's regime, conducting auditions and rehearsals via Skype between the UK and Belarus, actively campaigning for human rights and the release of political prisoners  many of them their friends and colleagues  around the world.
Air pollution resulting from controlled burning near Sydney was so severe it probably caused 14 premature deaths in May and sent dozens of people to hospital, according to a new health study.

The research, published in The Medical Journal of Australia, used statistical models to identify baseline deaths and cardiovascular and respiratory hospitalisation rates. It found about a 5 per cent increase during a six-day period last autumn of high pollution over the city.

"It was one of the worst events in Sydney's history", comparable with the pollution from major bushfires, said Fay Johnston, head of the Environment and Health research group at the University of Tasmania. "Conditions were perfect for hazard-reduction burns, and there were many burns."

The most dangerous form of pollution involves particles of 2.5 microns or smaller. Such particulates - roughly one-sixth the width of a human hair - can enter the lungs or bloodstream and damage the health of the young, the old or those with chronic conditions.
The Labor party has decided to step back from Donald Trump's America and reassess while putting more emphasis on Asia, a break in the longstanding bipartisan consensus towards Australia's chief ally.

While stating that Labor remains committed to the alliance with the US, the party's foreign affairs spokerperson, Penny Wong, says that "we should not be naive".

"We are at a change point, and face the possibility of a very different world and a very different America," she writes in an opinion piece for Fairfax Media.

"We need to consider a broader range of scenarios than was previously within contemplation."
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has accused Opposition Leader Bill Shorten of hypocrisy on a breathtaking scale, as the issue of foreign workers taking Australian jobs threatens to become a political battleground all the way to the election.

In a marked hardening of his rhetoric over the 457 skilled migration visa system, Mr Shorten has moved to align the ALP more closely with the populist anti-globalisation, economic nationalism tendencies of the Donald Trump-led Republicans in the US.

That brought a swift rebuke from both government and business, even though one LNP backbencher chimed in to agree with Mr Shorten.

"This leader of the opposition is a rank opportunist," said Mr Turnbull. "He is completely hypocritical on this issue."
The captain wryly says the ship is built for speed, not comfort, but Sea Shepherd hopes its new rugged fast-boat will be a "game changer" in its battle to stop Japanese whalers.

The $12 million custom-built vessel, christened Ocean Warrior, made its first port of call in Australia on Tuesday, tying up for a customs inspection at Melbourne's Williamstown dock and preparing for a protest campaign against Japan's whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean.

"Going down there, it's been really difficult going head-to-head with the harpoon ships because they could always run away," said the ship's captain, Adam Meyerson.

But he said the Ocean Warrior - with its four engines and specially-installed long range fuel tanks at the expense of extra accommodation berths or storage - was capable of speeds to outrun any ship in Japan's whaling fleet.
Australia's ineffective political donation laws have allowed 85 per cent of all private money going to major parties avoid scrutiny while more than half remains entirely undisclosed, a new report has found.

Research by University of New South Wales lecturer and former Howard government adviser Belinda Edwards finds that disclosure of donations to political parties in Australia has become effectively optional, with sums of as much as $20 million easily hidden using so-called donation splitting and other methods.

Released by left-wing activist group GetUp!, the report finds that after the 2013 election, the Coalition and Labor declared less than 25 per cent of their privately raised income as donations to the Australian Electoral Commission.

About half of the cash came from a range of party fundraising bodies, leaving between 12 and 15 per cent clearly linked to specific political donors.
A pint of beer a day could help reduce the risk of having a stroke or developing cardiovascular disease, new research has found.

A study of 80,000 adults found the natural decline in high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or "good" cholesterol, in the body was slowed by a moderate intake of alcohol.

Cheers to beer news. Credit:Givaga

The results showed that one or two daily servings of alcohol for a man, or up to one for a woman, was associated with a slower HDL decline than either not drinking at all, or drinking too heavily.

While the trend applied to both beer and spirits, the effect was most visible for drinkers of beer, the Pennsylvania State University study found.
A Chinese "slapping therapy" practitioner linked to the death of a Sydney boy has been arrested in England after a woman died during one of his health retreats.

Diabetic Aidan Fenton, 7, died at the Hurstville Ritz hotel in Sydney's west last April having attended a week of courses run by the "self-healing" proponent Hongchi Xiao.

Police questioned, then released, Mr Xiao after the death, which remains the subject of an ongoing investigation by Australian detectives. He has since continued to hold classes around the world to promote paidalajin, a therapy based on fasting, stretching and slapping that bruises patients.

Danielle Carr-Gomm, a 71-year-old diabetic, died suddenly on October 20 during a weekend retreat run by Mr Xiao in south-west England.
The planning body that approved James Packer's Barangaroo casino "misunderstood" the nature of its powers, the barrister for community groups opposed to the development told the NSW Land and Environment Court on Tuesday.

The argument is central to the "David and Goliath" legal challenge mounted by Millers Point Fund Incorporated, an entity formed out of local community groups against property giant Lendlease, Mr Packer's Crown Sydney Property, and the state government to have the planning approvals for the 71-storey hotel and casino complex declared invalid.

At the heart of the challenge is the decision by the NSW Planning Assessment Commission to approve the construction of the $2 billion Crown Sydney Hotel Resort on land previously reserved for parklands.

In June, the PAC signed off on "modification eight" to the Barangaroo Concept Plan, which proposed building the hotel on the site of the foreshore park and relocating the park away from the harbour. The scale of building was also increased, and it was approved for use as a casino.
"I've got a package for Joe," said the man on the doorstep.

With that, Joseph Antoun went to his front door and was shot four times through a wire screen on the night of December 16, 2013.

Blacktown Brothers For Life gang leader Farhad Qaumi, and second-in-charge Mumtaz Qaumi, are on trial for the murder of Mr Antoun.

They are accused of accepting a contract to kill Mr Antoun at his Strathfield family home in exchange for money related to the purchase of a kebab shop. They have pleaded not guilty.
The chief of the NSW corruption watchdog, Megan Latham, has accused Premier Mike Baird of "an unprecedented attack" on the agency's independence after he unveiled a bill outlining details of a radical overhaul which would force her to reapply for her job.

In an extraordinary statement on Tuesday shortly after Mr Baird tabled the bill, Ms Latham, the Commissioner of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, responded by stating the changes create "a fundamentally weaker organisation".

"By significantly altering the structure and governance of the commission, the bill represents an unprecedented attack on the independence and effectiveness of the commission as a leading anti-corruption agency," she warned.

The bill may also raise questions about ICAC's ability to deliver a final report in Operation Credo, the investigation of Australian Water Holdings involving the Obeid family and now Senator Arthur Sinodinos, overseen by Ms Latham.
NSW will take the lead in Australia in introducing laws to protect traditional Aboriginal languages under a Baird government plan to preserve and revive the critically-endangered tongues.

The government will develop the bill in consultation with the community and Aboriginal language experts, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Leslie Williams will announce on Wednesday.

The Baird government aims to introduce legislation to protect Aboriginal languages in the second half of 2017. Credit:James Alcock

It is expected to be introduced in state Parliament in the second half of 2017.

Mrs Williams said the bill would recognise Indigenous Australians as the owners of their traditional languages and give "higher priority" to government efforts to support their revival and preservation.
Police at the scene where Pasquale Barbaro was shot dead. Credit:Nick Moir At the time Barbaro was pursuing Mr Antoun over an alleged $750,000 debt Mr Antoun owed to Griffith wine merchants. Mr Antoun was in business with Mr Alex at the time he was killed. The shooting happened outside the home of construction figure George Alex. Credit:James Alcock Barbaro had told associates he had twice tried to kill Mr Antoun but had not gone through with it because both times Mr Antoun had been carrying a child.

Barbaro had been living with his girlfriend in Harrington Park, in Sydney's south-west, after moving from Elizabeth Bay earlier this year. Former Brothers for Life Blacktown chapter leader Farhad Qaumi. His girlfriend was "saddened and shocked" by his death. "He was on his way to see me last night but never made it," she said on Tuesday. Pasquale Barbaro had "100 people that want to knock him"

Police have previously told a Sydney court that Barbaro was "known to be part of the Italian Mafia in Griffith, NSW. He is known by police to be heavily involved in organised crime including major drug supply and firearm offences". As well as Mafia connections, Barbaro also counted Afghan gangsters such as Qaumi and Kings Cross identities including Michael Ibrahim among his closest associates. But he was also not short of enemies and in the past three weeks a well-known crime figure said everyone seemed to desert Barbaro, even his bodyguards. Joe Antoun with his wife Teagan. "He's got a hundred people that want to knock him," the crime figure said. Another described him as a bully and a thug. "He was a very dangerous man."

CCTV footage shows Farhad Qaumi, left, and Pasquale Barbaro at The Star casino in January 2014. He was also suspected of being a police informant. Barbaro liked the trappings that crime brought. Pasquale Barbaro. Credit:Instagram A fortnight before his June 2012 arrest for the manufacture of the drug ice, Barbaro was spoken to by police for parking his black Lamborghini in a No Stopping zone in St Marys. He boasted to police it was the only such car in Australia and was worth $2 million.

He also told the police he had plenty of money because his family owned mines in the Philippines and he had a company in the city that hired out cranes. Police continue to scour the scene after Pasquale Barbaro was shot dead. Credit:Nick Moir His arrogance rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way. Barbaro had fallen out with Melbourne underworld figure Mick Gatto who, Barbaro claimed, had not shown him enough "respect". When a major Sydney crime figure organised a meeting between the pair 18 months ago, Barbaro, who was wearing a suit, was sweating profusely. It turned out he was wearing a bullet-proof vest. Barbaro kept bad company. According to company records, his business partners, without exception, were also convicted criminals.

In 2010 he and his mate Aaron Sabbah established Illuminati, a restaurant and bar in Glebe. The venture failed with the pair dodging the $300,000 they owed in rent. In June this year Sabbah was jailed for wielding a large black dildo to demand money from a mechanic. One of Barbaro's recent friendships was with organised crime figure Dallas Fitzgerald, the son of jailed bikie boss Felix Lyle. The pair are alleged to have been involved in stealing 50 kilograms of drugs from a rival dealer. At the time of his murder, Barbaro was facing the possibility of 20 years in jail over the manufacture of ice. He was initially refused bail and while in jail his then-wife Melinda Barbaro was told by alleged fraudster Ian Lazar that there was a "hit" out on her husband. Lazar convinced her to hock her Mercedes for $35,000. Mr Lazar, who pocketed the "protection" money, has been charged with fraud.

Barbaro was understood to be required to give evidence at Mr Lazar's trial. Police were angry when Barbaro was eventually granted bail as he was still on parole for a previous drug conviction, having been released from jail in 2008 after serving three years of a six-year sentence. He was also on a good behaviour bond at the time he was allegedly involved in the ice deal having been convicted of fraud offences in May 2010. In July 2002, he was sentenced to five years' jail in the ACT for possessing a prohibited weapon, armed robbery, theft and burglary. In November 2015, Barbaro survived an attempt on his life at Leichhardt, in Sydney's inner-west, believed to have been carried out by another underworld figure Hamad Assaad.
Planners decided against building entry and exit ramps for the WestConnex toll road at Camperdown in Sydney's inner west because the expense or disruption they would cause could not be justified, the head of the corporation overseeing the project said.

And, despite significant opposition from residents in the inner west, Sydney Motorway Corporation chief executive Dennis Cliche told a business gathering that internal polling suggested about two-thirds of people were in favour of WestConnex.

"I have been predicting this for some time that even those that don't like the project, now that we're under construction in stages one and two, are telling us, 'please finish it'," he said.

The Baird government last week unveiled plans for the final stage of Australia's largest motorway project that ditched plans for ramps at Camperdown but widened tunnels linking the M4 and M5 motorways from three to four lanes.
A former Brisbane banker is dead after setting himself and his ex-girlfriend's home on fire as she and her family hid in the bathroom.

Detectives were investigating whether the Monday night attack on the Wilmot family in Ipswich was a murder attempt by Teneriffe man Neil de Graaf.

Mr de Graaf's ex-girlfriend April Wilmot, 23, her 48-year-old mother, Tracey, 18-year-old brother Shannon McLeod and his 18-year-old girlfriend were lucky to be alive after the father-of-four drove his BMW into their garage and set the house alight, police said.

The attacker's mother Margaret said her son had been struggling.
A stoush between Brisbane City Council and the state government over planning for south-east Queensland is heating up.

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk this week sent a letter to Brisbane residents calling on the Queensland government to deliver "critically needed transport and social infrastructure for our suburbs".

Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk has called out the state government over the draft South-East Queensland Regional Plan. Credit:Robert Shakespeare

"Without more investment in public transport, roads, schools and green space, the liveability of our city is at risk," Cr Quirk wrote.

Cr Quirk said the draft South-East Queensland Regional Plan set the council a target of approving more than 223,000 new homes over 30 years to keep up with the city's growing population.
A former NASA astronaut who spent six months on the International Space Station plans to pilot the first commercial journey to the edge of space in a high-altitude balloon.

Ron Garan was so transformed by his experience viewing Earth from orbit he wants as many people as possible to experience a vision of the world from space.

It'll cost you $US75,000 ($99,000) and the first trips are planned for 2018.

"Looking out from the space station, I didn't see an economy, I saw an iridescent biosphere teeming with life," he said. "At the moment our primary focus is on the economy, but we need to shift from thinking economy-society-planet ...
Three months after the Black Saturday bushfires incinerated the bushland around Kinglake, Jane Melville returned to check on her precious frogs.

For the previous two years she had been studying the wild populations of two of the area's more common species: the southern brown tree frog and plains brown tree frog. Returning to the area north east of Melbourne that had been scorched by the firestorm was an anxious moment.

Museum Victoria herpetologist Jane Melville found frogs around Kinglake had a shallower gene pool after Black Saturday, due to inbreeding. Credit:David Paul

"I didn't quite know what to expect," the Museum Victoria herpetologist admitted. "We could have gone out there and found absolutely no frogs."

Instead the frog calls that greeted Dr Melville and her colleagues lifted their spirits: there was a chorus in the recovering bush.
San Diego: The chief executive of San Diego cybersecurity start-up PacketSled Inc. has been put on administrative leave after election night posts on social media about assassinating President-elect Donald Trump.

Matt Harrigan, who founded PacketSled in 2013, wrote the comments on his Facebook account as election night unfolded. The account has since been deleted, but his comments were copied and posted on Reddit.

On Monday, Packetsled issued a statement saying Harrigan had been placed on leave.

"PacketSled takes recent comments made by our CEO seriously," it said.
An alleged crime figure charged after he was shot in the face and drove himself to hospital has been granted bail, after a Supreme Court judge raised doubts about the strength of the prosecution cases.

Nabil Maghnie, 40, was in September arrested and charged with firearms offences, days after he was shot twice through the windscreen of his car and took himself to the Northern Hospital in Epping.

Nabil Maghnie drove himself to hospital after he was shot twice through the windscreen of his car. Credit:Jay Cronan

Mr Maghnie was last month refused bail, when a magistrate was told he also faced charges related to an August brawl involving members of the Mongols motorcycle gang outside South Melbourne's Gotham City brothel, and a brawl at Crown casino in July.

Justice Kevin Bell on Tuesday said he shared police concerns that Mr Maghnie was a risk of offending if released, but found that of four prosecution cases against him, two  the affray case from the brothel and separate firearms charges  were weak.
How many jobs can you think of that involve the everyday risk of random assault by a stranger?

That was the confronting question a group of Melbourne bus drivers and their union representatives put to the public on Tuesday morning at a rally on the steps of state parliament.

There have been more than 100 reported physical assaults in the state so far this decade, and this, coupled with the shocking murder of Brisbane bus driver Manmeet Alisher last month, has drivers demanding better protection.

Bus drivers perform an essential service, transporting children to school and commuters to work, but put themselves in potential harm's way every time they stop the bus, the rally heard.
A woman accused of murdering her long-term partner called triple-0 after fatally hitting him with a stool, and was recorded saying "I hope you die" during the call, a court has heard.

Gayle Dunlop, 60, appeared in the Supreme Court on Tuesday for the first day of her trial.

Ms Dunlop was in an on-and-off relationship with the dead man, John Reed, 63, for about 25 years and the pair had a long history of violence, the court heard.

Police had been called to their Seaford unit a number of times before Mr Reed died on July 20, 2015.

Prosecutor Nanette Rogers said in her opening address that Ms Dunlop had struck Mr Reed in the back of the head with a wooden stool at least once on July 18, 2015, and once more when he was on or near the floor.
A law firm will set up a booth at the Strawberry Fields music festival this weekend, with Victorian and NSW police expected to catch dozens of drug users and drivers.

The annual festival at Tocumwal, on the northern banks of the Murray, will again feature a heavy police presence over several days.

Last year police caught more than 200 people last year and seized LSD, magic mushrooms, cannabis, speed, ketamine, ecstasy and prescription pills. Credit:Karl Grenet

Officers caught more than 200 people last year and seized LSD, magic mushrooms, cannabis, speed, ketamine, ecstasy and prescription pills.

Victorian officers nabbed a Melbourne man with 100 ecstasy pills and speed, while NSW officers caught a man with nearly 30 MDMA tablets, MDMA rock and mushrooms.
Premier Daniel Andrews makes "no apology" for sending up to 40 juvenile offenders to adult prison despite a damning Ombudsman's report condemning the practice as indefensible.

Mr Andrews upped the tough talk on Tuesday, insisting that an adult prison was the "most appropriate facility" for those responsible for rioting at the Parkville Justice Centre over the weekend, despite claims it could breach Victoria's Charter of Human Rights.

"The behaviour that we have seen at Parkville is completely unacceptable. I am sick, and the Victorian community is sick of it. Those inmates will be going to adult prison and I make absolutely no apology," Mr Andrews said.

Former Victorian Ombudsman George Brouwer was scathing in a 2013 report of a decision by the Youth Parole Board to incarcerate five children in the Charlotte Management Unit at Port Phillip Prison between July and August 2012.
A teenager threatened a 70-year-old man with a gun in an attempt to steal his van, adding to Victoria's escalating number of carjackings.

On October 21, the 70-year-old was sitting in his parked van on Dalton Road in Lalor when a powder blue Ford Falcon with no registration plates pulled in front of him, police said.

Police want to speak to this young man over an attempted carjacking in Lalor.

The Ford driver got out of his vehicle and approached the victim, pulled out a black handgun and demanded he get out.

The 70-year-old lay down in his van to protect himself, and the young offender walked back to his car and drove off. He was last seen travelling east on Childs Road in Lalor.
It was 50 years ago, but John Coon still sometimes wakes, howling and scared, as the memories rise up.

He and the other bedwetters being paraded through the orphanage dining room, stinking sheets held aloft.

Stealing stale bread from the bakery truck and softening it in water to eat. He was always hungry.

And the darkest flashback. The man in charge of the dormitory, who beckoned John into his bedroom.
The estranged sons of Joseph "Pino" Acquaro are suing their uncle for a greater share of the slain Melbourne lawyer's $1.6 million estate.

Eight months after their father was gunned down in Brunswick, Alfred, Alessio and Adriano Acquaro are suing the executor of the will, Pino's brother Massimo Acquaro, in the Supreme Court.

Joseph 'Pino' Acquaro was gunned down in Brunswick in March last year.

Pino Acquaro, who had represented clients linked to the Calabrian mafia, or 'Ndrangheta, was shot outside his Lygon Street gelataria Gelobar on March 15.

Fairfax Media revealed on Monday that the investigation into his execution was moving away from the underworld, however, and that the main suspect was a man with whom Mr Acquaro had had a relatively minor business dispute.
States could be forced to hit households and businesses with new charges to pay for local rail and road projects, under a dramatic "reshaping" of infrastructure funding flagged by the Turnbull government.

In a new hardline approach to "value capture" - where those who benefit from big projects are targeted to help cover the cost - the Federal government has signalled it wants the states to rake back project costs as a condition of federal funding.

Credit:Craig Abraham

The Turnbull government has already ruled that recovering funding from the beneficiaries of large projects through "targeted contributions" should be a consideration when making decision about which projects to fund.

But a discussion paper to be released on Wednesday by Urban Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher suggests the controversial approach could be mandatory for federal cash.
Premier Daniel Andrews was caught by surprise after the Turnbull government released $1.5 billion originally set aside for the scrapped East West Link project.

The premier said he had first learned the federal roads funding had been confirmed in a letter delivered at 10.41pm on Monday night.

Under the funding plan, which had been under negotiation, Canberra will unlock cash initially allocated for the dumped East West Link. It will now be directed to other road and freight projects.

"The money has always been held by Victoria," Mr Andrews said of the East West Link money. "It had been provided for a different purpose, for a botched project  one that just does not stack up."
Drivers between Albany and Perth have vented their anger on social media after being scammed by a man pretending to be broken down with his car on Albany Highway.

Police at Cranbrook, some 320 kilometres south of Perth, have confirmed they are investigating the scam after numerous reports of a man, who had popped the bonnet of his car and was asking drivers for fuel money in the stretch down south.

Dozens of people described a man with a limp waving down cars, his white station wagon pulled up on the side of the road. On some occasions it was reported a woman and child were also in the car.

Victims said the man usually asked for cash, explaining he had run out of petrol and needed to get to Perth, with attendance at a funeral among the reasons he provided for the trip.
Firefighters in the South West are currently battling five reported bushfires in the Shire of Denmark, with one reported to have flames "10 metres high".

A watch and act notice has been issued for those in the vicinity of Mount Shadforth Road in Denmark, McNabb Road, Turner Road, Cussons Road and Peace Street.

Firefighters are battling blazes across the state. Credit:Hannah Barry

The Department of Fire and Emergency Services has advised residents near Mt Shadforth to begin evacuation, or prepare to actively defend their properties.

The fire is currently unpredictable and moving fast in a northerly direction.
Former Miss Universe Australia Renae Ayris has been forced to defend herself against allegations of racism, following her comments on SBS documentary First Contact.

The program documents the journey of six Australian celebrities and their journey into "Aboriginal Australia".

Tom Ballard, Renae Ayris, "Dicko", Nicki Wendt and Natalie Imbruglia experience life inside a model prison on First Contact. Credit:SBS

In a short advertisement, Ms Ayris is pictured walking along a red dirt road.

"I know a lot of Aboriginal people believe they're owed something, but I just feel like everyone should be treated equally," she said.
A Russian minister has denied charges of corruption after his overnight arrest sent shockwaves through the Russian elite and sparked speculation of a power struggle inside the Kremlin.

Alexei Ulyukayev, the minister of economic development, was charged with soliciting a $2 million cash bribe to facilitate the controversial sale of an oil company involving a key ally of Vladimir Putin last month.

Mr Ulyukayev denied his guilt and called his arrest a "provocation" when he appeared in Moscow's Basmanny district court yesterday.

"I am determined to cooperate with the investigation as much as possible. I request more lenient measures of restraint," the minister said at a hearing to determine whether he should be remanded in custody. The judge ordered Mr Ulyukayev to be placed under house arrest and wear an electronic tag after officials argued he was a flight risk.
"It's heartening to see overseas partners so willing to alter their plans and offer their assistance," Mr Brownlee said. "Despite the changes to the planned celebrations, it's poignant to see the anniversary marked with such co-operation and camaraderie." Pictures shared on social media showed large sections of rocky coast, covered in seaweed and abalone, apparently lifted out of the sea by the force of the quake. The immediate focus has been getting the more than 1000 tourists out of Kaikoura, which is also in need of water, food and sanitary supplies.

Hundreds of stranded tourists had been housed in the communal halls of the local indigenous Maori Ngai Tahu tribe and fed with crayfish. Officials said more than 400 people had been evacuated by helicopters from the town, including a dozen with a range of injuries. Transport Minister Simon Bridges said massive landslides that buried road and rail links along the South Island's east coast would take many months to repair. Meanwhile, a snow warning may spell trouble for motorists on the remaining route between Christchurch and Picton, after the quake shut State Highway 1 from Kaikoura. Wellington reels

Wellington's CBD is unlikely to return to business as usual in the short term as assessment continues on quake-damaged buildings. A building in central Wellington is at significant risk of collapse after the earthquake left one of its main support beams looking like a broken bone. Emergency services rushed to evacuate nearby buildings and cordon off part of Molesworth Street, near Parliament, about 5pm on Tuesday. Officials Wellington are to decide within days whether it would have to be brought down. Staff from the Wellington Emergency Response team warned people away from the area. One could be heard saying, "Keep away, that building is going to come down."

People in other buildings around the area - including a church, Rugby House and the New Zealand Red Cross headquarters - were evacuated as a precaution. Another building, on the corner of Taranaki and Manners streets in central Wellington, suffered cracks and damage but the fire service said that there was no risk of it collapsing. The earthquake damaged Statistics New Zealand's headquarters so extensively that staff were told they may not be back for a year.At least one floor is believed to have collapsed, with another floor also damaged. The full extent of the damage will not be known until inspectors go into the building, where about 500 people work. The Bank of New Zealand building on the Wellington waterfront has also been extensively damaged. Staff are unlikely to return to work this week as assessments continue.

As if the earthquake damage was not enough, Wellington was hit by wild weather that caused commuter chaos on Tuesday. Another storm is brewing on Wednesday as well. Help from abroad The Defence Minister said the New Zealand Defence Force had accepted offers of help from the US, Australia, Canada, Japan and Singapore. Vessels in action include the USS Sampson, the first US warship to visit New Zealand in 33 years, which will deploy two MH60 helicopters.

Until an agreement reached last month, US military ships had been prevented from visiting New Zealand due to the country's nuclear-free stance adopted in the 1980s. Australian has diverted the HMAS Darwin, which will use its Seahawk helicopter from offshore, while Canada is sending the HMCS Vancouver. They will join New Zealand's HMNZS Canterbury, HMNZS Wellington, HMNZS Te Kaha and tanker ship HMNZS Endeavour. Christchurch, the largest city on the South Island, is still recovering from a 6.3 magnitude quake in 2011 that killed 185 people. Loading
New era: Vice-President-elect Mike Pence, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, President-elect Donald Trump and his wife Melania at Capitol Hill on Friday. Credit:AP "If you're given an important role in the transition, it sends a signal to other people that you matter," said Joel Goldstein, a law professor at St Louis University who is widely considered one of the nation's leading experts on the sometimes obscure history of the vice-presidency. "Other political actors want to deal with you due to your perceived access and influence to the president." It also gives the vice-president a chance to put his own stamp on the administration. While Trump ran as a political outsider and was not shy in burning bridges to establishment Washington, Pence is a popular GOP figure who may opt to select longtime allies for key roles. Mike Pence talks with his mum, Nancy Pence, after a Veterans Day ceremony on Friday. Credit:AP "Those who get new jobs may feel beholden to the vice-president and feel responsive to him," Goldstein told AP. "It's a way of guaranteeing a degree of loyalty."

Pence is 57. If Trump is re-elected, then Pence will be in his mid-sixties in 2024 and well-placed to run for president himself. That's what almost all vice-presidents dream of doing. So he needs his boss to succeed, and he needs to be seen as critical to the president's success, while maintaining a distinct identity himself as a champion of regular Republicans who have sometimes been wary of Trump's eccentric campaign. Vice-President-elect Mike Pence poses for photos after speaking at a Veterans Day ceremony. Credit:AP "This is a big test for Pence," Ari Fleischer, who became Bush's first press secretary, told The Associated Press. "If it goes well, it will portend a bigger job for him in the White House." Pence was born in 1959, in Indiana, to a family of Irish Catholic Democrats. As late as 1980, he voted for Jimmy Carter for president. But at college he underwent two key conversions - one to evangelicalism, the other to Ronald Reagan's Republican Party. The man Mike Pence deposed as transition team leader: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Credit:AP

After training as a lawyer, Pence ran twice - unsuccessfully - for Congress as a Republican and became a talk radio host. In 2000 he made it to the House of Representatives. In 2012 he was elected governor of Indiana. Former vice-president Dick Cheney in 2015, during the unveiling of his marble bust. From left, listening are Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan and former president George W. Bush. Credit:AP On the campaign trail this year, Pence brought people to their feet by saying: "I am Christian, conservative, Republican, in that order." He meant it. In 2002, he argued on the floor of the House that school books should teach that evolution is just a theory. He has tried to remove funding from abortion providers, and as governor signed a law stating that aborted fetuses must be interred or cremated (the rule even applied to miscarriages).

He also tried to introduce a religious freedom act that many felt was a charter to discriminate against gays and lesbians. Pence's hardcore social conservatism is, however, balanced by nuance in other areas - nuances that moderates hope he will bring to the administration. He does believe that climate change is happening and that man is partly responsible. He once called Trump's proposed ban on Muslim immigration "offensive and unconstitutional". He is also a supporter of free trade and a critic of foreign policy isolationism. Within the new administration, he will probably make the case for tax cuts rather than a splurge on infrastructure spending. In fact, Pence was not Trump's first choice for the ticket - not because of any open antipathy but because Trump wanted his good friend Chris Christie for the role.

Trump's staff and family, on the other hand, thought better of it. This sleight of hand might have saved the ticket: Pence's smooth performance in the vice-presidential debate reassured many voters. However, he might have found himself doubting his own decision. When a tape emerged of Trump apparently bragging about sexual harassment, Pence was said to be disgusted. For 24 hours, it was speculated that he might either quit the ticket or become the locus for a "dump Trump" movement. But it is believed that once Trump apologised, Pence came around to the view that the scandal was behind them, the presidential hopeful was being persecuted, and the campaign could and should win. Pence's reconciliation proved critical to Trump - it was almost akin to a papal blessing.
New York: As older demonstrators across the United States protest the election of Donald Trump, American teachers and school pupils are facing challenges in dealing with an incoming president who built a campaign often branded as sexist, racist and bullying.

Harassment in schools and on university campuses across the country has been widely reported over the past week while in New York City, a part of the country built on tolerance and diversity, school teachers told Fairfax Media the election of Donald Trump had sparked unprecedented discussion and concern from students of all age ranges.

'I hope you will change': a primary school student in New York hopes President-elect Trump will be a better person.

"When Obama was running for president you could feel excitement but this election came into the school in a different way," said Anna Allanbrook, principal of Brooklyn New School, a public elementary school in New York City.

"Things Trump would say were so outrageous that children would somehow hear it and repeat it  almost fascinated that an adult could say something like that and get away with it. They were struck by his language and behaviour, that there was this person in the campaign who would say things that they knew to be inappropriate."
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PHILIPSBURG:--- We commend Prime Minster, William Marlin, for insisting that the Oyster Pond border dispute be brought to our Parliament which is indeed the direct representative of the people of Sint Maarten. After presenting the problem to Parliament his proposal should have been to request parliament to invoke article 67 of the State Regulation (Constitution) as suggested by MP Sarah Wescott-Williams. Article 67 authorizes Parliament to represent the interests of Sint Maarten to the Government of the Kingdom and to the States General of the Netherlands. As the Oyster Pond conflict is clearly a matter between the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Republic of France, the SMCP is of the opinion that a lasting solution to this problem must be sought at the Kingdom and Republic levels.

In the past Prime Ministers, Sarah Wescott-Williams and Marcel Gumbs tried to resolve the issue at the local level by writing letters to the local French authorities of Saint Martin. On both occasions, the conflict was quelled only temporarily. Since no permanent solution has been put in place the problem continues to resurface as French authorities reinterpret unsettled pond border demarcations. Even though, in times like these, the Sint Maarten Government and the people appeal to the Concordia Treaty of 1648 as well as to the Franco-Dutch Treaty, signed in 1994 and ratified in 2007 the border dispute has continued to raise its ugly head from time to time.

Note that the Franco-Dutch Treaty is only aimed at improving border control through joint controls on the so-called risk flights at both airports namely the Princess Juliana Airport and LEsperance Airport. This Treaty only went into force in 2013 when the then Minister of Justice, Roland Duncan, installed the working committee as specified in the Treaty.

As the Oyster Pond conflict is not regulated by the Franco-Dutch Treaty it, therefore, requires a new land or pond demarcation regulation or treaty between the Kingdom and the Republic. Until this is finalized it behooves the local authorities on both sides of the island, namely the President of the Collectivite and the Prime Minister of Sint Maarten to find a temporary solution at the local level until the Kingdom and the Republic have established a permanent solution for Oyster Pond and any other land and water disputes.

Under the former Netherlands, Antilles Parliament could have submitted grievances to the Governor as well as to the Kingdom Government and the States General. However, the State Regulations of the new countries (Aruba, St. Maarten, Curacao) have omitted the governor and given Parliament the possibility to address its concerns and grievances directly to the Kingdom Government and the States General. In the matter of the Oyster Pond dispute, Parliaments only recourse is to submit this case directly to the Kingdom Government and request that this matter is resolved post haste via negotiations between the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Republic of France.

Prime Minister Marlin is now the third prime minister dealing with this issue. Clearly, a permanent solution is required. During the two-day presentation on the border dispute, only the DP faction rejected the Council of Ministers action to boycott the official ceremonies to be held on the French side on Sint Maarten Day. We assume that Parliament, being a direct representative of the people, also received an invitation to attend the official Sint Maarten Day ceremonies. We believe that if Parliament did not intend to accept this invitation then, out of respect for the voters, it should have informed the people that it was not going to represent them at the official ceremonies and give reasons for its absence. Reading the message written by the Chairman of Parliament one could have assumed that he was going to be present. Are we to conclude that the chairman of parliament, by his absence, was boycotting the official celebrations?

It was also surprising to observe that even Governor Holiday, or in his absence the acting Governor, was blatantly absent from the official celebrations. Are we to conclude that the Governors absence is to be interpreted that the Kingdom Government, whom he represents, also supported the boycott?

SMCP is of the opinion that Parliament has an essential role to play in bringing about a permanent solution to this dispute. In the motion that Parliament passed on November 10th, mention was made to call on the Dutch Kingdom Foreign Affairs Minister "to promptly address this matter with his counterparts in Paris." SMCP believes that this motion must be followed up by a letter from Parliament, according to article 67, requesting the Kingdom Government to seek a permanent solution to the Oyster Pond border conflict together with their French counterpart. If this is not done, we will be faced with a similar border dispute again sometime in the near future. Let it be on record that the people of Sint Maarten, exercised their right, via their elected representatives in Parliament, to have all land and water border issues resolved permanently via a Treaty between the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Republic of France.

Wycliffe Smith

Leader of the Sint Maarten Christian Party
POINTE BLANCHE:--- The fourth new cruise vessel on its inaugural call for the month of November will be Harmony of the Seas, the newest addition to Royal Caribbeans award-winning Oasis Class fleet which will dock on Wednesday, November 16.

Port St. Maarten will be welcoming the new vessel to its shores on Wednesday with the traditional plaque exchange and words of welcome. There will also be six cruise ships in port on Wednesday, the first of two six-ship days in November. The next one will be on November 30.

Port St. Maarten Management is looking forward to the visit as it once again is testimony to the strategic agreements that the port secured with cruise lines that allows the destination to receive these colossal vessels which ensures a long-term sustainable future for the country.

The new cruise ship was built over a 32-month period at the STX France shipyard. Considered the largest and most innovative cruise vessel afloat, costs more than US$1 billion to construct and is the 25th ship in the Royal Caribbean fleet.

In November 2016, Harmony arrived at her homeport of Port Everglades, Fort Lauderdale, FL., from where she will offer seven-night eastern and western Caribbean sailings.

The newest member of the fleet will join sister-ships Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas, sailing from Port Canaveral and Port Everglades respectively, on the east coast of Florida.

The world's biggest ship with the world's best features just got even better. There's no turning back once you take the plunge 10 stories into the mysteries of the deep on the tallest slide at sea, Ultimate Abyss, as well as the exhilarating multilevel Perfect Storm slides.

Royal Caribbean has also reimagined and enhanced the unique experiences that have made Royal Caribbean the best cruise line overall 12 years in a row. As the kids explore Splashaway Bay, take a tree-lined stroll through Central Park, or find your own haven in any of the other seven iconic onboard neighborhoods.

Sip a post-dinner cocktail crafted by a robot in our unique Bionic Bar, or sit back and watch for the first time at sea, Broadway's hit Musical Grease. Share every moment with not just family onboard, but friends back home with VOOM - the fastest Internet at sea.

Harmony of the Seas has a gross tonnage of 226,500; a length of 1,187 feet; beam of 154 feet; offers seven distinct neighbourhoods and 16 decks; can carry 5,479 passengers and 2,100 crew from 77 different nationalities. The two other Oasis Class vessels are Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas.
St. Joe County floats site for relocation of Portage Manor residents

The county plans to sell Clay Township Park to the township for a nominal fee, rather than continue to lease it.
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An RL10 rocket engine, a proven upper stage engine used in hundreds of space flights over the last 50 years, goes through testing at NASA's West Palm Beach, Florida test facility.

What could be mistaken for a futuristic water cannon is actually a piece of technology developed more than 50 years ago that is destined to help launch NASA's next megarocket, the Space Launch System.

The RL10, a rocket engine developed in the 1950s by Pratt & Whitney, flew first in 1963. This engine has traveled to each planet in our solar system, powering spacecraft such as Voyager 1  the first to reach interstellar space.

The RL10 rocket engine out-performs all other current engines and has over half a century of performance and documented reliability to its name. With more than 400 flights, over 15,000 hot fires on record and more than 2.3 million seconds of hot fire operation time with a greater than 0.999 demonstrated reliability during its use, the RL10 has earned its place in history. [The World's Tallest Rockets: How They Stack Up]

Because of its stellar record and its technically mature design, this rocket engine will make its way from the history books into the future of human spaceflight.

NASA's new Space Launch System, or SLS for short, will utilize this upper stage engine to launch an Orion spacecraft in the latter part of 2018 as well as eventually sending astronauts beyond the moon. Aerojet Rocketdyne of West Palm Beach, Florida will produce several RL10C-3 engines for NASA, powering its several planned deep space missions, with the ultimate goal being NASA's Journey to Mars.

According to James Burnum, NASA SLS Liquid Engines RL10 manager, "Engines are one of the most complex rocket elements  We need a reliable engine with a proven track record that has the performance to power humans to deep space."

Using the RL10 "leverages existing propulsion technology to provide SLS with a robust engine in a timely manner [avoiding] costs associated with a new engine development program," added Steve Wofford, SLS Liquid Engines manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where the SLS Program is managed.

The $174 million, 8-year contract leaves Aerojet Rocketdyne responsible for the management, testing (at NASA's West Palm Beach, Florida test facility), certification and delivery of the engines.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com .
A still from the 2016 sci-fi film "Arrival. In the movie, 12 alien spaceships land on Earth in different locations around the globe.

The prospect of aliens visiting Earth has been percolating through human thought for decades, thanks to countless sci-fi books and movies, such as the newly released film "Arrival." But it's still not clear how we would deal with the real thing.

Astronomers have drawn up a series of recommended actions to be taken after the detection of a signal from a faraway alien civilization, but it seems that no such effort has been made with regard to E.T.'s arrival here, said veteran alien hunter Seth Shostak.

"I don't know of any protocol if they land," said Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute in Mountain View, California. [13 Ways to Hunt Intelligent Aliens]

A still from the 2016 sci-fi film "Arrival. In the movie, 12 alien spaceships land on Earth in different locations around the globe. (Image credit: Paramount Pictures)

"I've never heard of any such thing, and I'd be surprised if there was one," Shostak told Space.com. "But who knows what's in the bowels of the Pentagon?"

The U.S. military devises an incredible array of contingency plans  the Pentagon mapped out an invasion of Canada in the 1920s and '30s, after all, as part of a hypothetical war with the United Kingdom  so it is indeed possible that some kind of alien-fighting blueprint is locked away in a filing cabinet in Washington, D.C.

However, if the new arrivals turn out to be hostile or predatory, even the most ingenious battle plan would almost certainly fail, Shostak said. Any extraterrestrial civilization capable of journeying from its own star system to Earth would be far more technologically advanced than humanity is, he noted.

"It would be like taking on the Roman legions with the U.S. Air Force," Shostak said.

Some thinkers have speculated that the nations of the world would come together to fight off this existential threat to human civilization, but Shostak isn't so sure.

"I just don't see it. Nothing else has ever prompted that kind of a reaction," he said. "Nuclear weaponry is an existential threat, too, and I haven't noticed a lot of worldwide thinking that, 'We've all got to get together and stop this.'"

International cooperation might be even more difficult in the event of a SETI detection, or the arrival of friendly aliens on Earth.

"There's immediately going to be competition  'Well, these guys are in touch with the aliens. We've got to get in there. Who knows what sort of good stuff the aliens might be telling them?'" Shostak said.

It's not clear whether clearly established protocols could help smooth such potential trouble spots. Take the SETI-detection protocol, which basically instructs scientists to double-check the signal; tell other researchers and prominent organizations, such as the United Nations, of the discovery; and not broadcast a message back to E.T. without proper "international consultation." (You can read the full protocol here: http://www.seti.org/post-detection.html.)

"We know from experience  from what happens when there's a false alarm, like this Russian signal of a couple of months ago  what really happens is that the protocols aren't even looked at," Shostak said, referring to a possible detection apparently caused by an old Soviet military satellite. "Nobody cares. What really happens is the media start calling up the scientists."

The relatively muted reactions to SETI false alarms also provide a clue about how humanity would respond to a bona fide detection, Shostak said. In short, the odds of mass hysteria are pretty slim, he said.

"People aren't rioting in the streets" after false alarms, he said.

The arrival of alien spaceships on Earth would present a much more immediate potential threat than a SETI detection, of course. So how would humanity react to a possible invasion? We may just have to wait and see.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
The joint NASA/ESA's Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA) aims to slam an impactor into an asteroid in 2022 to test deflection technologies.

BERLIN  If a large asteroid were headed for a direct hit with Earth, humanity probably couldn't count on Bruce Willis and a nuclear bomb to save the world from certain doom, "Armageddon"-style.

But a robotic spacecraft might be able to push a deadly asteroid off its collision course.

That's the possibility the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA want to investigate with their Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA) mission, proposed to launch in 2020. And Monday (Nov. 14), a group of planetary scientists and space experts released a letter here at Berlin's Museum fur Naturkunde to drum up support for the asteroid-nudging test run, just weeks before European officials will decide whether to go ahead with the mission. [Potentially Dangerous Asteroids (Images)]

Asteroid risk

Though scientists believe that big, Earth-threatening asteroids are relatively rare, the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor strike offered a stark reminder that there could be potentially dangerous objects in Earth's solar system that have yet to be discovered and studied. The space rock that exploded without any advance warning over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk was only about 65 feet (20 meters) wide, and yet the meteor injured 1,200 people and damaged thousands of buildings.

A bigger asteroid could wipe out a whole city, scientists have said.

"We know the approximate number of objects in the different size classes, but we know almost nothing about their characteristics," Alan Harris, a senior scientist from the German Aerospace Center (known by its German acronym, DLR) told reporters at a press conference Monday. "To prepare for the deflection of an asteroid, we need to know much more."

The letter that Harris and more than 100 other scientists signed noted that, of the thousands of known near-Earth objects, there are currently more than 1,700 asteroids considered potentially hazardous.

"Unlike other natural disasters, this is one we know how to predict and potentially prevent with early discovery," the scientists wrote in the new letter. "As such, it is crucial to our knowledge and understanding of asteroids to determine whether a kinetic impactor is able to deflect the orbit of such a small body, in case Earth is threatened. This is what AIDA will help us assess." [Three Ways to Deflect an Asteroid: Former Astronaut Explains (Video)]

Two missions, two space rocks

AIDA is really two missions: ESA's Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM) and NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). Both would fly to the binary asteroid system Didymos, which is set to pass within 6.8 million miles (11 million kilometers) of Earth in 2022.

This binary system consists of the 2,625-foot-wide (800 m) asteroid Didymos and its smaller "moonlet," Didymoon, which, at just 560 feet (170 m) in diameter, is about same size as the Great Pyramid of Giza.

If the mission goes ahead as planned, the AIM spacecraft (which would be about the size of an office desk) will launch in October 2020 and arrive at Didymos in June 2022 to study the asteroid system and put a lander on Didymoon. AIM will also have a front-row seat to witness DART's impact with Didymoon. When DART crashes, it will slightly adjust the orbit of Didymoon around Didymos, testing the type of technology that could one day be used knock a dangerous asteroid off its trajectory.

"We have never visited such a small body," said AIDA/AIM principal investigator Patrick Michel, ofFrance's Observatoire Cote d'Azur and the nation's National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), who was one of the scientists who drafted the letter.

Didymoon's small size will indeed pose some challenges. For instance, scientists have hardly been able to characterize the moonlet from the ground.

"We don't even know its shape," Michel told Space.com.

And Didymoon's gravity is minuscule. The object has an escape velocity of just 0.13 mph (0.21 km/h), meaning if you could stand on the surface of the asteroid and jump, you wouldn't come back down to the surface of the space rock; you'd just float away, Michel said. Putting a lander on the surface of such a small body and getting it to stay there will be difficult, he added.

Getting AIM off the ground

The mission managers behind AIDA are concerned not only with testing technology that might protect Earth from an asteroid impact, but also in gaining scientific knowledge. Asteroids are leftovers from the early formation of the solar system, so it's hoped that up-close examination of Didymos and Didymoon would also yield a wealth of scientific data and surprises about asteroids, like ESAs Rosetta mission did for comets. And AIDA would be the first mission to allow scientists to observe an impact experiment at asteroid scale, which could be used to validate collision models.

"Even though it's a technical demonstration, we will get a lot of science out of it, because we will go to a totally unknown world," Michel said.

Some scientists and investors are looking for ways to exploit asteroids for their natural resources, and the data AIDA collects could inform future asteroid-mining missions, researchers added.

The appeal for support comes at a crucial time for AIM. In early December, ESA's Council of Ministers will meet in Lucerne, Switzerland, and decide whether to approve funding for the mission.

To take advantage of Didymos' close approach to Earth, AIM would have to launch in October 2020 to reach the asteroid system. Scientists and industry leaders involved in AIM said they were hopeful that the mission would get the go-ahead from ESA's delegates in just a few weeks.

"We are really optimistic, because it is a very unique opportunity," said Cornelius Schalinski, deputy head business development for OHB, the German private space company charged with leading industry partners in implementing AIM.

"It has to go in 2020. Otherwise, the opportunity is lost," Schalinski told Space.com. "It is an asteroid that gets pretty close to Earth, so we can, with comparatively small cost and effort, test technologies that we need for future missions that are further away."

AIM is considered a low-cost mission, priced at 250 million euros ($269 million USD at current exchange rates), including the launch. (Rosetta, for comparison, cost close to 1.4 billion euros, or $1.5 billion USD, but that was also a much longer mission involving a much bigger spacecraft.)

The next several years could be a boon for asteroid research and exploration. In addition to AIM and DART, the Japanese space agency, JAXA, has its Hayabusa 2 spacecraft set to reach the asteroid Ryugu in July 2018 for a sample-return mission. A month after that, NASA's OSIRIS-REx probe, which launched in September 2016, will arrive at its target, 101955 Bennu, on its own sample-return mission. And NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission, scheduled to launch in late 2021, aims to pluck a boulder off the surface of a near-Earth asteroid and bring that piece into orbit around the moon.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
A new documentary chronicles the years-long journey of former Google executive Alan Eustace to complete the highest-altitude skydive in history.

On Oct. 24, 2014, Eustace rode a helium-filled balloon to an altitude of more than 25 miles (40 kilometers) above New Mexico  about 18 miles (29 km) above the typical cruising altitude of commercial airliners. Eustace then pulled a chord that separated him from the balloon and sent him plummeting (safely) back to Earth.

What motivated a 57-year-old tech executive with a wife and two young children to risk his life on such a mission? The new movie "14 Minutes from Earth" gives some insight into Eustace's motivations, but primarily documents the incredible engineering challenge of building a suit that would protect Eustace during his death-defying dive. [Record-Breaking Supersonic Skydive from 'Near-Space' in Photos]

Into the stratosphere

"The idea of being above the Earth's atmosphere  seeing the blackness of space, the curve of the Earth  I mean, that's got to be something that all [Space.com] fans have dreamed about, fantasized about," Eustace told Space.com in an interview. He said that, growing up during the Apollo era, he also harbored fantasies of exploring the space above Earth.

Eustace exudes a mild, agreeable demeanor, but as the movie illustrates, beneath that exterior is an engineer who thrives on being challenged. He also skydives as a hobby, and has completed more than 500 jumps in his life endeavors that appear to reflect his nerves of steel. [Watch Alan Eustace Leap from 135,000 Feet (Video)]

In 2010, Eustace had the idea to make a suit that would allow human beings to explore high-altitude regions of Earth's atmosphere the way scuba divers explore the depths of the ocean. Just like in the ocean, human exploration is limited by physical barriers, not a lack of courage.

Earth's atmosphere is divided into layers. The troposphere extends from the ground to about 7 miles (11 km) up. The stratosphere, which extends from the top of the troposphere to about 31 miles (50 km) up, is the region that Eustace wants to open up to exploration.

There are many features of the stratosphere that could harm a human: little or no oxygen, low atmospheric pressure and below-freezing temperatures. A person traveling from the ground to the stratosphere and back to the ground in a matter of minutes also has to be protected from the rapid changes in temperature and air pressure, as well as the intense speed and air friction.

To tackle those challenges, Eustace hired Paragon Space Development Corp. to lead a project he dubbed the Stratospheric Explorer (StratEx). The spacesuit manufacturer ILC Dover was brought in as another partner in the project. Once the team was assembled, it took them 18 months to prepare Eustace for his historic jump.

Alan Eustace comes in for a landing in a suit engineered to let humans fall to Earth from unprecedented altitudes. (Image credit: Paragon Space Development Corporation)

Defying death

The new film paints a beautiful portrayal of the engineering challenges of building an entirely new technology from scratch. During the first test flight from an altitude of 14,000 feet (4,300 meters)  a typical height for recreational skydiving  so many things went wrong, it's a wonder Eustace survived.

The team hadn't fully anticipated Eustace's limited range of motion in the suit, which meant he almost couldn't deploy his parachute, and then couldn't steer it. He survived the fall but landed miles away from the landing range, in the middle of the desert. That would have been fine, except that when he exited the plane, the suit's communications and GPS antenna broke off as he passed through the door, so the team couldn't talk to him and couldn't locate him. Thankfully, a military helicopter was in the area and spotted Eustace's bright-orange parachute from the air.

"[The first jump] served the major role of going, 'Oh my God! We're actually putting a human in a spacesuit  and real [stuff] can go wrong, and we could kill someone," Jane Poynter, one of the founders of Paragon, said in the film.

Another problem that arose during that first flight was that Eustace was spinning and couldn't stop himself. Spinning can cause jumpers to lose consciousness or leave them too disoriented to open their parachute at the right time. In 2012, Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner broke the record for the highest-altitude skydive when he leaped from a height of nearly 128,000 feet (39,000 m), or more than 24 miles (38 km). (Eustace added more than a mile to that record, jumping from an altitude of 135,890 feet, or 41,419 m.) Baumgartner also experienced intense, uncontrollable spinning during the first part of his dive, and it nearly killed him. After his first flight, Eustace's team at Paragon added more features to the suit that were designed to stop him from spinning during the fall.

At times, the obstacles of the mission only seemed to grow larger, and the challenges only seemed to grow in number. But Eustace's dedication seemed unwavering. While facing life-threatening situations and massive technical challenges, Eustace continued to exude a positive attitude  even joy.

"Alan definitely has a personality [such that] he liked this because it was so difficult," Jared Leidich, an engineer with Paragon, said in the film. "And the more difficult it got, the cooler he thought it was."

That's not to say Eustace was unaware of the risk he was taking. Toward the end of the film, the risk of the project is thrown into sharp relief during the original launch date for Eustace's record-setting jump. Just before liftoff, a system on the balloon catches fire on the runway, ruining the balloon and aborting the launch. Had the fire started during flight, it could have been fatal.

"It became incredibly real and personal when Alan is saying, 'OK, I've arranged for this airplane; if anything goes wrong, the airplane is going to get [Eustace's wife] Kathy and bring her out,'" Poynter said. "And I'm like, 'Please, God, make it so I don't have to call this plane.'"

Leap of faith

By the time the team was ready for Eustace to make his record-setting leap, the StratEx team had conducted dozens of safety tests and hundreds of dry runs, and put in tens of thousands of engineering hours.

Even though viewers of the film know the outcome of the jump, it is still nerve-racking to watch the final preparation. The film has established that running all the tests in the world doesn't always prepare you for the things that can go wrong during the complete execution of a system.

The film's title, "14 Minutes from Earth," refers to the duration of Eustace's record-setting free fall. A typical skydive from 14,000 feet equates to about 60 seconds of free fall, and about 5 to 7 minutes of coasting after the parachute is deployed. On the way down, he reached a top speed of 822 mph (1,322 km/h), breaking through the sound barrier and creating a sonic boom that could be heard on the ground. Once Eustace hit the ground (after deploying his parachute later than expected), everyone in the control room waited with bated breath until the extraction team called out over the radio, "green extraction," meaning Eustace was unharmed.

"14 Minutes from Earth" is a detailed story about overcoming an incredible engineering challenge in the name of space exploration and the deep human desire to push boundaries. It is available for digital download starting today (Nov. 19) on video on demand services like Amazon, iTunes and others. Video extras, including the uncut video from Eustace's suit camera during his descent, are included on the iTunes version.

Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
WASHINGTON  Nearly a week after Donald Trump was elected president, his campaign has yet to send a team to NASA to prepare for the upcoming transition in administrations, an agency official said Nov. 14.

Speaking at a meeting of a NASA advisory committee, Greg Williams, deputy associate administrator for policy and plans in the human exploration and operations mission directorate, said the agency had not yet been informed by the Trump campaign's transition team who the individuals are that will deal with NASA.

"The new administration has not yet named its transition team members that interface with NASA, so we don't yet know who we'll be talking to," Williams told the NASA Advisory Council's human exploration and operations committee, meeting at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We are prepared to talk with them when they arrive." [What a Trump Administration May Mean for NASA]

Sources said immediately after the Nov. 8 election that Mark Albrecht, the former executive secretary of the National Space Council during the administration of George H.W. Bush and, later, president of International Launch Services, would lead up the NASA transition efforts. However, there has been no formal announcement from the campaign about that selection, nor other names to work with him on NASA transition issues.

The Trump campaign has been slow to ramp up its transition efforts, in large part because of limited planning prior to the election. Much larger agencies have yet to meet transition teams that are typically in place within a few days after an election. At a Nov. 14 forum organized by The Atlantic magazine, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said he had not yet heard from the Trump transition team for the Defense Department, but expected them to arrive at the Pentagon this week.

Despite the uncertainty about what a Trump administration will do in space, Williams said at the advisory committee meeting that he hoped the next administration and next Congress would maintain the agency's current exploration plans, collectively known as Journey to Mars. "We hope to be building on the consensus we've achieved on the phases of exploration, the progression of human exploration from the ISS all the way to the surface of Mars," he said.

He added that NASA expects to know more in the next week about its budget for fiscal year 2017. The agency, along with the rest of the federal government, is operating under a continuing resolution (CR) that funds programs at 2016 levels through Dec. 9. Congress reconvenes this week for a lame duck session whose top priority will be passing some kind of appropriations bill.

Williams said he did not know if Congress would be able to pass a full-fledged appropriations bill, perhaps in the form of an "omnibus" or "minibus" that combines several appropriations bills into a single package. If not, Congress could instead pass another short-term CR and allow the new Congress in January to take up appropriations bills. Another, but less likely, option is for Congress to pass a CR for all of fiscal year 2017. [The Biggest Space Issues Facing President-elect Donald Trump]

At a Nov. 14 webinar on science policy issues organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Bart Gordon, a former chairman of the House Science Committee who is now a partner at Washington law firm K&L Gates, said he believed appropriators in the House and Senate will seek to get their bill passed this year, unless congressional leaders decide to defer that in order to strike a broader deal with the Trump administration early next year.

"The appropriators would like to finish their work. They'd like to get it done," he said. "The question, I think, for the broader Republican caucus is, do they see some grand deal that could be done in the spring with infrastructure and tax reform."

A final decision about 2017 appropriations could also remove the uncertainty surrounding the future of NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM). Language in the House version of an appropriations bill funding NASA prohibits the agency from spending any money on efforts associated with ARM. House appropriators said they believed that "neither a robotic nor a crewed mission to an asteroid appreciably contribute to the overarching mission to Mars."

"What that was was a signal to us that we need to come talk to them and tell them why this fits, why it makes sense," Williams said. That led to what he called "really good dialogue" with appropriators in the House and Senate about the importance of ARM to NASA's exploration plans. "As they learn about that and they see what we're doing, I think they're seeing some of the value of this and we're making some headway."

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.
Obama on Trump's election: We 'have to guard against a rise in a crude sort of nationalism'"We are going to have to guard against a rise in a crude sort of nationalism or ethnic identity or tribalism that is built around an 'us' and a 'them,'" he said. "And I will never apologize for saying that the future of humanity, the future of the world is going to be defined by what we have in common, [not] those things that separate us and ultimately lead us into conflict."As Israel Prospers, Obama Set to Give Billions More in Aid While Netanyahu Demands Even MoreThe U.S. already transfers $3.1 billion in taxpayer money every year to Israel  more than any other country by far  but the new agreement Obama is set to sign significantly raises that amount, and guarantees it for 10 years.The U.S. Just Agreed to Give Israel $38 Billion in Military Aidnothing more crudely nationalistic then an apartheid racist nationVenezuelan envoy to UN: Does Israel seek 'final solution' against Palestinians?go figure
I'm not saying he is or he isn't but given his lack of saying anything about stopping the protests and riots after the election it may well mean he supports them for just this reason. He held a 40 minute press conference yesterday and did not say a word encouraging people to accept Trump's win or urging people to stop engaging in protest against a free & fair election. My thought is that it is quite possible he, and the democrats, want this to escalate into massive civil unrest whereby he can declare martial law thus preventing Trump from taking over the presidency and giving the authority to intern all those opposed to the NWO and their globalist agenda.



Anyone got any thoughts?
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Canary Islands, 14 Nov 2016 (SPS) The President of the National Council (Parliament), Kharti Addouh, began Sunday a working visit IN the Canary Islands.

Mr. Addouh held a meeting with the Saharawi community in the Canary Islands during which he recalled the main role of this community to amplify the momentum of solidarity with the legitimate struggle of the Saharawi people in Spain.

The President of the National Parliament also informed the community of the latest developments in the Saharawi question at the international level and the situation in the occupied territories, stressing that the international community is now aware of the Saharawi people's determination to resist recover their legitimate rights in self-determination and independence. (SPS)

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Paris (France), November 15, 2016 (SPS) - Saharwi community in France has demonstrated in front of the Spanish embassy in Paris to condemn the signing of the Madrid shameful Agreement in November 14, 1975 in the complete absence of the legitimate owners of the Sahrawi cause under the banner of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Hamra and Rio de Oro (Polisario Front).

Demonstrators have chanted in front of the Spanish Embassy in Paris, various slogans calling the Spanish administration to assume its historical and moral responsibility towards the suffering of the Saharawi people for more than four decades, appealing it to contribute to the settlement of the dispute when it assumes the presidency of the UN Security Council next December.

They also sent letter to Spanish Government calling it to shoulder its historical, political and moral responsibilities towards the Saharawi people as the administrator power of the territory.

It should be recalled that this first demonstration of its kind has witnessed remarkable media coverage. SPS

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An underage drinking party was busted Nov. 11 when Cass County Deputies and Nebraska State Patrol officers showed up at the scene at 25215 Holdrege Street in rural Elmwood.

Upon their arrival, numerous parties fled in vehicles and on foot. Deputies captured two 18 year olds in possession of alcohol and another in possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. One was from Lincoln and the other was from Ashland.

The juvenile with the marijuana was 17 and from Gretna. He was cited for possession of marijuana,, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana with intent to deliver. The two others were cited for minors in possession of alcohol. All parties were released from the scene with their guardians permission.

Law enforcement searched the residence and found more drug paraphernalia, scales and a stun gun. While no owner/residents were located in the house, information was investigated as to who resides at that location.

Two vehicles parked along Holdrege Street were towed due to being road hazards. At this time, it is unknown how many contacts NSP made as a result of the party. The incident is still under investigation.
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A Quinnipiac University student won the first Global Student Entrepreneur Awards contest held in Connecticut, and will represent the state at the national GSEA competition in March 2017 in Kansas City, Mo.

Kostas Sousoulas bested runner-up Devane Coke of the University of Bridgeport, with Sousoulas developing an idea for Yimello Smoothies created from all-natural, non-GMO ingredients. The state finals were held Nov. 9, 2016 at Norwalk Community College.
STAMFORD  Staff members of a city middle school have been accused of racially discriminating a student, according to a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education.

The complaint was filed with the education departments Office of Civil Rights. However, details of the case have not been released to protect the identity of the student and because its an active investigation.

The incident occurred while staff was administering consequences for fighting and other infractions, a district official said in a memo last week to Superintendent of Schools Earl Kim.

The official, Mike Meyer, executive director of student support and special programs for the district, said the complaint refers to an isolated incident that occurred last school year and not a pattern of discrimination.

As part of its probe, which began Oct. 24, the Office of Civil Rights has requested extensive information about the students disciplinary history dating back to 2013 as well as data on the districts policies, procedures and practices pertaining to discipline, district spokeswoman Sharon Beadle said.

The district has until Nov. 30 to provide the information.

This information includes district and school-based discipline, district and school-based professional development on disciplinary policies and procedures, and information on how these are communicated to families, Meyer wrote in his memo.

Meyer also said officials are in regular communication with the education department to ensure a timely response to its request and are making every effort to reach a favorable outcome to this complaint.

The Education Department would not provide further information or confirm case-specific details.

The issues under investigation are possible racial discrimination in the administration of discipline and retaliation, an Education Department spokesman said in an email.

Meyer said the district takes an action plan as soon as such complaints are filed to correct potential problems.

What I like to do is be proactive and try to address the concern that was raised, he said. In general, my experience with the Office of Civil Rights is very positive. We work together to find a resolution.

This is the second civil rights complaint filed against Stamford Public Schools in as many years, according to the U.S. Department of Education. A complaint filed in August 2015, which is still pending, involves possible disability discrimination and discrimination on the basis of sex, an education department spokesman said. However, no details were released.

noliveira@hearstmediact.com, 203-964-2265, @olivnelson
Sgt. 1st Class Connie Oberg had a role reversal of sorts.

While employers are known for presenting awards to exemplary workers, Oberg wanted to see her boss and place of employment receive some notable honors.

Oberg is a human resources assistant at Fremont Health Medical Center. She has served in the United States Army Reserves for 12 years  six of which have involved active duty. Shes had two overseas deployments  the second of which occurred with just a weeks notice. Shes also needed to leave for a class or training.

Whatever the situation, Oberg has found her boss, Bethany Childers, and Fremont Health to be supportive. So she gave Fremont Health an American flag she obtained during an overseas deployment.

And she nominated Childers, FHMC human resources director, to receive recognition from the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Childers was named a Patriotic Employer by the Department of Defense program known as Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR).

She was presented with a framed certificate by Steve Tellatin, military outreach director for the Department of Defense Nebraskas ESGR, and Steve Hokamp, area chairman.

Oberg first joined the U.S. military in the 1980s after her sister, Julie Kendal, decided to do so.

I thought, If she can join, so can I, Oberg said.

Oberg enlisted in 1985 and served in the Army in Germany and in Colorado and then two additional years in the U.S. Army Reserve.

She remained active duty until 1992. She and her husband, Steve, were raising their son, Colin, and daughter, Hadley, when she started working at Fremont Health.

Oberg became employed in food services at the hospital in 1992. Eleven years later, she transferred to the surgical department as a secretary, then moved to the human resources department.

In 2006, she had a chance to reconsider her life as a reservist. She rejoined the Army Reserve about a decade after getting out.

During her first overseas deployment in 2010-11, Oberg did office work. She was set to deploy again.

I wasnt going to deploy until April 2016, but at the end of July 2015 a unit called and asked me to deploy so I had to leave in one week if I took it, she said. I heard it was going to be a good deployment, a good experience.

Oberg was going to be able to cook  something she really wanted to do.

She noted that many people in the military worry if theyll have the same position or even a job when they return from their military service.

Oberg talked to Childers about the deployment.

And even though there was just a weeks notice, Childers told her not to be concerned.

Its a great feeling to know you can go over there and focus on your job overseas and now worry when you come home about having to look for a job or what you are going to do to pay the bills, Oberg said.

Oberg didnt have to worry about hard feelings with her boss or fellow employees. She called them a couple of times and even Skyped them once.

While overseas, Oberg was able to cook for about 120 people. She planned meals. She had two cooks who cooked the meat, starch and vegetable part of the meals.

I did all the baking, she said. It was great. I absolutely loved it.

And she knows the important role that food can play.

I take a lot of pride in what I do and I like to put out a really good product, she said. Food is a morale booster. When youre away from home, you look forward to meals.

Obergs husband sent semi-sweet chocolate chips and brown sugar so she could make chocolate chip cookies. She made pink and red desserts for Valentines Day. She baked banana bread, something she hears people over there are still talking about today. Being able to bake was a good experience.

It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it, she said.

She was deployed from August 2015 to April 2016.

Oberg had an American flag flown overseas for Fremont Health and then brought it home to present to the hospital. She also nominated Childers for the Patriotic Employer Award.

Every time I need to go to a class for the military and for two-week annual training, she supports me, Oberg said. Shes very supportive of my military career.

Thats important, Oberg added, since shes working full time at Fremont Health and her military work is almost like a part-time job.

It could be overwhelming, but with the support it makes it a lot easier, she said.

Childers didnt know she was nominated for the Patriotic Employer Award until Oberg told her, then discovered she was selected to receive it.

I was so honored, Childers said. The military was honoring me, when we were trying to honor her (Obergs) service.

Besides the certificate, Childers received a special pin.

The best part about it was truly letting Connie know how important she is and the role she plays in the military, Childers said.

Childers speaks highly of Oberg.

Connie is a very driven person, Childers said. Shes very courteous and organized. She does not expect to be in the limelight and doesnt need accolades. She is able to balance being a mom and a wife and work and her military career.

Childers praised her entire staff.

I have a wonderful staff and they all feel that support for each other, Childers said. Its all about the team members. I wouldnt have been able to do it if I didnt have an outstanding team.

Its a family environment, she added. They truly want to acknowledge each individual.  They support each person if they need to be gone for whatever reason. The staff want people to be who theyre intended to be.

We have each others back whether its an illness or a military leave or just being there for someone in a time of need. Fremont Health also supports that.

Oberg works closely with Fremont Health recruiter Bernita Mascher during the hiring process of new employees.

I like the interaction with employees, Oberg said. It keeps me busy every day. Its never dull.
Along with the change of season comes new beginnings at Keep Fremont Beautiful. After spending nearly five years in the Main Street Collective
B ritish American Tobaccos audacious $47 billion (38 billion) bid to march back into the US market looked in jeopardy today when its target rejected the offer.

BAT last month offered $20 billion cash and $27 billion in shares for the 58% of Americas RJ Reynolds it doesnt already own.

This was greeted by Brexiteers as a sign that UK companies were not spooked by the Euro vote and had the confidence to do big deals overseas.

The deal was heralded as the biggest takeover of an overseas business by a British company since RBSs ill-fated $97 billion takeover of ABN Amro in 2007. However, this morning it looked in doubt, as the RJ Reynolds board demanded more money. Neither side would comment and BAT did not issue a stock market statement.

Bloomberg reported that the companies are still in talks and that BAT is willing to find more cash.

City analysts say it will have to if it wants to secure a deal that would create the biggest stock market-listed tobacco business in the world, bringing together BAT brands such as Dunhill and Lucky Strike with Newport and Camel, owned by Reynolds.

The deal was thought to be secure since there are five BAT directors on the board of Reynolds. They are not involved in the bid talks, which is in the hands of a transaction committee, but were assumed to be au fait with the thinking of Reynolds shareholders.

Some investors, including Capital, Vanguard and Invesco, have stakes in both companies and are assumed to be supportive of the logic behind the deal if not the terms.

At the time of the bid, BAT, which is headed by Nicandro Durante, said the merger was the logical progression in our relationship and estimated cost savings of $400 million. City analysts said that this is a low level of savings for such a huge deal.

If BAT does get its deal through, it would mark its return to the US market after 12 years away.

Citigroup said in a note today: Reynolds American has rejected BATs offer, but we regard this as a formality Reynolds is seeking a higher price from BAT, having rejected the existing offer.

This doesnt surprise us; rather we think it is part of the well-established dance involved in takeovers.

BAT shares edged up 16p to 4297p, leaving the company valued at more than 80 billion.

RJ Reynolds has been going since 1875. It is the second-biggest tobacco player in America after Altria, which owns Philip Morris.

BATs UK rival Imperial Tobacco might welcome the collapse of the deal. Analysts say it will be under pressure to do its own mega-deal if the RJ Reynolds bid does go through..


T herell be plenty to talk about over the Christmas turkey for the Hourican boys. All three of the Irish brothers had careers at RBS with varying success, and now all have departed to pastures new with similar mixed results.

The highest flier was John, famous for trousering 5 million in bonus shares in 2012 when he ran RBSs investment bank. He quit a year later, carrying the can for RBSs role in the Libor scandal, rather nobly, I thought. That left David and Declan.

David left to set up a hedge fund in Singapore which was reportedly wound down after failing to raise enough cash from investors. And then there was one.

Declan became head of finance of RBSs controversial Global Restructuring Group in 2008. This was the division roundly criticised in the FCA report last week into how it mistreated troubled SME customers.

He left in October to run the finances at Tesco Bank, which a few weeks later had one of the worst UK hacking attacks in British financial history.

Now, back to the most famous brother, John. After quitting RBS, he landed another unenviable job at a bust bank, this time running the Bank of Cyprus.

Cypriots hated the organisation even more than Brits loathed RBS. But there was a difference: at the Bank of Cyprus, it was the customers who had suffered from its collapse, not taxpayers; Cyprus was an early experiment in the European concept of bank bail-ins, where depositors, rather than the state, had to fund bank rescue.

Today, two years after a fundraising including Donald Trumps pal Wilbur Ross, Hourican has said he will float shares in the bank in London.

These days, a mere 62% of the loan book is underperforming  a legacy of Cypruss financial crisis. The shares traded in Cyprus are now half their price when Ross jumped in.

Never mind that: Hourican says it makes a profit and will benefit from accessing new shareholders via London.

Personally, Id call it as risky as a punt on RBS, but what do I know? Never a dull moment for those Houricans

BTs crossed lines

Asked why Vodafone does so many tech innovations in Germany but not here (smart lamp-posts, anyone?), Vittorio Colao has a simple answer: BT Openreach.

BTs monopoly network is more expensive to access than nearly every other country, he says. Service is more sluggish, too. Moving a phone number from one provider to another takes 11 days here compared with one in Spain, three in France, five in Germany.

Why? Because with a monopoly in the backbone of our telecoms network, what incentive is there to behave better?
D uring one of her hustings speeches in July for the Conservative Party leadership, Theresa May flagged significant reform of the UKs boardrooms, and she has reiterated the aim since becoming Prime Minister. A government consultation paper on this issue is expected to be published very shortly and her speech at the Guildhall last night warmed to a similar theme.

Like many, she ascribes the unexpected vote for Brexit partly to a collapse of public trust in elites, including Big Business. One of the Prime Ministers solutions is to have workers represented on company boards.

As you can imagine, her comments have ignited a great deal of debate in the business community. Much of it, though, is far from hostile.

As yet, further details are sketchy. Will the policy be compulsory and apply to all companies, regardless of size? Who will appoint the worker representatives  staff or the board? What if a company doesnt comply?

Mays intervention on this issue has merit. Opinion polls consistently tell us that the ordinary consumer, or voter, distrusts the motives of large corporations and perceived high levels of executive pay. Having the voice of workers represented at boardroom level could help to rebuild trust. From personal experience, I can testify that having worker representatives on company boards can be beneficial.

For 19 years, until I stepped down in 2014, I was chairman of FirstGroup, a transport operator in the UK and the US with 110,000 employees.

FirstGroup is alone among UK Plcs in having a worker representative on its main board. Such a position has been earmarked ever since the company was founded, amid the deregulation of Aberdeens municipal bus services in the Eighties. The current employee director is Mick Barker, a veteran train driver from Luton.

In my 25 years on the FirstGroup board, I found having an employee director immensely useful. Without exception, they took their role seriously and always put their duty to the company first.

I can vouch that the non-executives benefited from the presence and input of the employee director. We consulted them when we wanted to find what was happening at the coalface, and the executive directors regularly bounced ideas off them. Employee directors were also beneficial for internal morale. They were great ambassadors when the board travelled to visit operations, facilitating better connections for us with the workers at the various depots.

While FirstGroup has undoubtedly benefited from having an employee director, government should not make the policy mandatory. Firms differ vastly in size and scope.

For example, at some of the UKs largest companies the majority of staff and earnings are overseas. In these circumstances, asking a foreign-based employee to join a UK board and so undertake full plc governance duties could prove complex, while asking a UK employee to represent a global majority might seem odd.

We await the governments precise intentions for worker representatives. If the intent is for them to have an influence on executive pay, this might be better achieved other than by membership of the remuneration committee.

For example, there might instead be an annual meeting between worker representatives and the remuneration committee, where the latter has to explain and justify its pay awards. Such meetings might prove salutary and influential for committee members.

"The failure of business to tap into the widest pool of talented people is damaging for us all."

Furthermore, any reform must not undermine the tradition of the unitary board, where each member undertakes full duties as a director of the company. Each director must add value to the overall discussion. FirstGroup has demonstrated effectively that it is possible to involve a worker representative and to maintain the unitary board structure.

Other structures risk these individuals not having a rounded view of the company and the issues it faces, risk undermining the accountability of such individuals for the decisions for which they are responsible and remove the influence of their accountability to shareholders.

Where the model of worker representation does not fit well, more can and should be done to educate and remind board directors of their responsibilities under section 172 of the Companies Act. The legislation is clear and well-written. This explicitly states that directors have a duty to promote the success of the company covering all stakeholders, including the interests of the companys employees.

We should also remember that worker representatives are not a panacea for corporate ills, perceived or not. The often-cited continental model hasnt stopped high-profile governance failures, such as at VW.

At a societal level, the failure of British business to tap into the widest possible pool of talented people is damaging for us all. Worker representatives on boards could be one way of improving diversity of opinion and experience. This can only aid corporate governance, which should not be optional but embedded in companies wider business processes.

A long-term approach, taking into account all key constituencies, including employees, and adopting high levels of good governance is a win-win for stakeholders. My fund managers at Aberdeen Asset Management are not alone in rating these attributes as a major positive investment differentiator.

Martin Gilbert is chief executive of Aberdeen Asset Management
P remier Foods on Tuesday unveiled plans for a rival to Pot Noodle in the latest move by the Mr Kipling maker to boost sales and reassure shareholders it was right to spurn a potential takeover offer this year.

The manufacturer came under fire when Schwartz spices owner McCormick walked away from an indicative 537 million, 65p-a-share offer, for Premier Foods.

Instead Premier Foods agreed a tie-up with Japanese noodles firm Nissin, which has built up a near-20% stake in Premier Foods.

Chief executive Gavin Darby said: Nissin is more than just a shareholder. It is an investor which can help drive more sales and profits for the business.

He added that Nissin will aid US expansion and provide the intelligence to produce Batchelors Super Noodles in a pot. They will be sold from next year.

Jefferies analyst Martin Deboo welcomed the update: Instant noodles is a hot market right now. The Pot Noodle colossus is ripe for attack.

Sales fell 1.8% to 348 million in the 26 weeks to October 1.

The pre-tax loss widened to 8.7 million from 5.1 million.
W hen Donald Trump came out to give his acceptance speech I was expecting a repetition of his campaign rhetoric: building the wall, scrapping Obamacare and taking back control. But it was actually a measured, statesmanlike performance and to my mind he hit the right note. I wondered whether maybe this man has got what it takes after all.

On the environment, for example, Im convinced President Trump will take a more nuanced approach than Candidate Trump ever did. Candidate Trump scoffed at the notion of global warming, saying it was a scare cooked up by the Chinese to deprive hard-working Americans of their jobs. Yes, Candidate Trump spoke of ordering the US to withdraw from the Paris convention on climate change, as well as apparently planning to put a well-known climate-change denier in charge of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. But under President Trump, is all this really going to happen?

It may prove as difficult for the US to withdraw from the climate change convention at short notice as it will be for the UK to leave the EU. And will Trump really allow a free-for-all as far as exploitation of Arctic resources is concerned? I doubt it. Quite apart from the checks and balances inherent in the US constitution Trump will be conscious of his legacy. He wont want to go down in history as the man who hastened the destruction of Americas environmental heritage, its mountains, seas and lakes.

I lived and worked in the US through much of the Sixties. For me the roots and inspiration of the global environmental movement lie there more than anywhere else. John Muir, a Scottish-American, founded the Sierra Club in California in 1892. Theodore Roosevelt, Americas 26th President, created five national parks, four game refuges, 51 bird reservations as well as the National Forest Service. Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1962. And in 1970 President Nixon  a Republican, like Trump  oversaw the passage of probably the most important piece of environmental legislation ever passed, the National Environmental Policy Act.

There is another way in which Trump may unwittingly ensure himself an important environmental legacy. Though Candidate Trump promised to double economic growth, pulling out of trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement or the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership may have precisely the opposite effect. Since it has so far proved impossible, in spite of all the talk of the green economy, to decouple economic growth from environmental destruction, the potentially disastrous economic consequences of ending free trade arrangements as proposed by Trump may be what the worlds environment needs!

Donald Trump: Is the President-elect already breaking campaign promises?

I hope one of Trumps advisers shows him the World Wildlife Funds 2016 Living Planet report, which reveals that global populations of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles declined by 58 per cent between 1970 and 2012. The report says we could witness a two-thirds decline in the half-century from 1970 to 2020 unless we reform our food and energy systems and meet commitments on climate change, protecting biodiversity and supporting genuinely sustainable development. Now thats a real challenge for the 45th President.

Stanley Johnson is an author, journalist and former Conservative MEP
D onald Trump's election win is the beginning of a new reality that politicians in the West must come to terms with, Tony Blair has said.

The former prime minister said Mr Trumps triumph in the US presidential election was an earthquake and his rhetoric on immigration had shifted the political scene.

I wont pretend to you I wasnt surprised by what has happened over this past period, because I am, and what it means is not entirely clear to me yet, Mr Blair told Canadian TV channel CBC.

But there is a new reality youve got to make sure you come to terms with.

He warned that the Brexit vote, the success of Mr Trump and the rise of far-Right parties in Europe could lead to more hardline anti-immigration policies, with a greater risk of politicians exploiting peoples concerns.

US Election: Thousands protest Trump's victory

If people think that their communities and their societies are being changed without them being part of the debate about it, without them being engaged, then they will feel angry and fearful, he said.

If the centre does not act in a strong, coherent way  then there will be people who can come along and exploit and develop that anger and turn it into a very powerful movement.

Round-up of Trump's most infamous comments in the run-up to his presidency

In a warning to Canada, he urged prime minister Justin Trudeau to ensure the country resisted similar anti-immigration rhetoric. He said: Once these issues start to become real issues in the political arena, they do have a very divisive effect.

Today, Ukip leader Nigel Farage said speculation that Mr Trump would bypass Theresa May and speak directly to him on British and international matters was nonsense.

He said his close relationship with Mr Trump meant he should be useful to the Government, but he was not expecting to be asked to join the Cabinet.

Nigel Farage the first UK politician to meet Trump since election

Common sense says that I should be useful somehow to this country in getting that relationship with America back to where it should be, said Mr Farage.

Mr Trumps preparations for taking office in January have taken a new turn after he asked for top security clearance for his children.

First Lady Michelle Obama urged to 'run for president'

If the unprecedented request is granted, his son Donald Trump Jr, his daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner, would all have access to national security secrets.

However, nepotism rules forbid them from having official jobs in the West Wing and security clearance, if granted, would designate them as national security advisers.
Review at a glance









N ow in its eighth year, the Wimbledon International Music Festival is firmly established as one of the capitals major autumn events, and it seems to get better and better. The theme of this years programme is the inspiration of folk music across various cultures and to illustrate the potency of the nationalistic element in Bohemian music, the festival played host to one of the leading Czech string ensembles, the Skampa String Quartet.

Martinu is a special enthusiasm of festival director Anthony Wilkinson who, I believe justifiably, describes the Fifth Quartet as a masterpiece. The composer, who was famously born at the top of a church tower, seems to have internalised a sense of time  the tick-tock of a clock is heard in the third movement  in a way that other babies imbibe their mothers milk.

More seriously, the work, written in 1938, shortly before the German invasion of Czechoslovakia, has a real sense of urgency, a quality brought out in this powerful reading by the Skampas. Hurling themselves into the maelstrom of the first movement, they used the dissonances to winch up the tension. Both the elegiac slow movement and the dynamic finale were strongly projected.

In Dvoraks E flat quartet, op. 51, the lively folk rhythms were buoyant, while the Schubertian major/minor switches of the third movement were suitably poignant.

The strength of Smetanas First Quartet is less political than personal  the clue is in the title, From my Life  and we even hear the fateful ringing of his incipient deafness. But the Skampas wholly idiomatic performance did justice not only to the sadness but also the joy, cellist Lukas Polak raising a smile with his inebriated rubato in the folk dance of the second movement.

Festival continues to Nov. 27; wimbledonmusicfestival.co.uk

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Review at a glance









D uring her ten year comedy career Susan Calman has encountered trolls and haters but one thing really rankles. it is being called a Radio 4 Favourite. In The Calman Before The Storm the former lawyer presents the evidence to argue that she is not what people think she is.

For starters she has calculated that she is not always on Radio 4 and has the percentages to prove it. Furthermore, she is more foul-mouthed than people expect. Listeners who hear her being politely self-deprecating in the 6.30pm slot have no idea how much swearing has been cut.

Elsewhere she is determined to upend other assumptions. It turns out that she has lied about how tall she is  slightly  and has a gentle, illuminating rant about showbiz heightism, illustrated by an anecdote about missing out on being the love interest of a Hollywood A lister because she was deemed too diminutive.

The set zips enjoyably along, touching on topics as diverse as depression, being gay, having a cat named after a TV crimebuster and trying not to appear foolish on Celebrity University Challenge. There is a neat interlude where the audience gets to work out where her accent places her in the Caledonian class structure. There are lots of laughs, some a little bargain basement. The mere mention of the words Jeremy Clarkson gets a kneejerk chuckle.

What Calman does not do, however, is dispel the idea that she fits into a Radio 4-shaped hole. She can clearly be passionate and angry as well as witty, but Radio 4 favourite remains a fair description. Though meant as a compliment not a criticism.

Until November 19, Soho Theatre; sohotheatre.com

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E ven post-Olympics theres still a side of the East End that remains an alien no-mans land to many Londoners. But the opening last week of London City Island, which developer Ecoworld Ballymore refers to as a 12-acre mini Manhattan, on the Leamouth Peninsula just a pillar-box-red pedestrian bridge from Canning Town, is a step forward in the push to regenerate some of the capitals most deprived industrial sites.

Megan Piper, a 31-year-old art dealer and co-founder of The Line, Londons first dedicated contemporary sculpture walk, has long seen the potential of the area.

Its such a strange urban landscape, she says, as we stroll along the banks of the River Lea from Stratford High Street towards London City Island.

Its one thats changing so quickly with the building of residential and mixed-use developments, but youve still got Victorian gas holders and Brutalist architecture such as the Balfron tower that separates you from Canary Wharf at Cody Dock. Its this strange layering of Londons architecture and history set against a waterway that is also home to amazing wildlife  theres a beautiful kingfisher at Cody Dock, you know.

The English National Ballet and the London Film School will be relocating to London City Island, with the Film School due to open in late 2017 and the English National Ballet in 2018. The developer is also bringing in Piper to extend the Line to the site.

Well be developing and delivering public art as well as establishing an artist- in-residence programme, says Piper. Its so exciting to play a part in turning the island into a multidisciplinary cultural hub.

Alex Chinneck - A Bullet from a Shooting Star / Chris Tubbs Photography

Its a massive development both for The Line and for Piper. In December 2013 she was nursing a broken heart. Her beloved Piper Gallery, opened just 18 months earlier on Newman Street to a flurry of positive press, closed after her backer pulled out.

A chance meeting with Clive Dutton, then the head of regeneration for Newham council, proved to be pivotal in the next stage of Pipers career. I first met Clive at David Baileys exhibition of east London photographs in the Royal Docks, which coincided with the Olympic opening, she recalls. I was drawn immediately to his warmth and ambition and we became friends. Hed come to all my private views at the gallery.

I was curious about his vision for east London post-Olympics and was so excited by the picture he painted. We started talking about the art and culture strategy outside of the Olympics and I felt there was an opportunity to do something different. Rather than commissioning I thought we could borrow work that has been squirrelled away and hidden from public view and bring it outdoors, democratising the presentation of art through bringing it to the waterways, linking places and people to them in the process.

To cover initial planning and logistics, 140,000 was raised through crowdfunding. But we received in-kind support from so many amazing partners that would have amounted to millions in cash, says Piper. These included the architects Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and Liberty Special Markets, which provided insurance, as well as support from the Garfield Weston Foundation and Bloomberg among others.

I wanted to establish a permanent outdoor exhibition that had a rolling programme and dynamic quality rather than the whole project being confined to permanent commissions. By borrowing a number of works from artists and galleries and private collections for two to three years we are giving people a reason to come back.

The first works of art came through an open submission. Artists, galleries and private collections were invited to propose works and were selected by a panel that included art-world bigwigs such as Mark Wallinger and Ivan Harbour and was chaired by Piper. Among the impressive roster of works were sculptures by Damien Hirst, Eduardo Paolozzi and Richard Wilson as well as Antony Gormleys Quantum Cloud, which was already in situ but incorporated into the trail.

In May 2015 The Line was born, running between the Olympic Park and the O2 in North Greenwich, roughly following the lines of the meridian and the waterways. Two weeks after it opened Dutton passed away from cancer.

It was devastating to lose him and I still miss him terribly, says Piper. His enthusiasm and bold ambition were infectious and his spirit still lives on in The Line.

Antony Gormley - Quantum Cloud (Luis Veloso)

Piper grew up in Islington and went to Francis Holland School before studying psychology at Edinburgh University. My parents divorced when I was nine and Id spend weekends with my father going to museums and galleries. I remember really strongly Paul Klee, Patrick Caulfield and Lucio Fontana at the Hayward Gallery  they blew my mind as a child and young teenager.

When I left university I had no idea what I wanted to do so I asked myself where I felt most comfortable and the answer was always in an art gallery. I didnt have the academic training but I grew up with my parents putting postcards in my lunchbox every day of different artworks and asking questions in a very philosophical way.

Piper has recently brought in Susie Allen and Laura Culpan of Artwise to head up the curation of The Line and they are currently working with the developer to fine-tune the brief before the commissioning process begins to find a permanent piece for the island next year. She has also relaunched her own exhibition programme and moved from Fitzrovia to a modest space on Jermyn Street.

Im in the downstairs of antiques dealer Harris Lindsay now, recapturing the ethos of my first gallery with my roster of what I refer to as re-emerging artists. And this time there are no backers, she grins.

On November 24 shes set to open a sculpture exhibition of recent work by Paul de Monchaux on the premises.

Clive and I used to talk about how people are hungry for experiences, says Piper. The Line is a day out, a little adventure  its not a walk in a park and it requires map reading and initiative.Its a warts-and-all experience, there are bits that arent so pretty but its part of the experience. Thats life, isnt it?

London City Island is open now. Paul de Monchaux: Ten Columns is at 67 Jermyn Street, SW1, from November 24 to January 11; the-line.org

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L ike many things in her life, Billie Piper embraced her triumph at Sunday nights Evening Standard Theatre Awards wholeheartedly. It feels GREAT, laughs the 34-year-old, handling the statuette for the Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress, which she won for her heartrending performance as Yerma at the Young Vic, in a production that turned Lorcas barren Spanish villager into a modern London woman desperate for a child.

The applause from the starry crowd at the Old Vic, at an evening co-hosted by Sir Elton John and Evening Standard owner Evgeny Lebedev, was as heartfelt and unanimous as the reviews lauding her performance.

Piper was devastatingly good, wrote the Standards Henry Hitchings. For the Times, her full-blooded performance marked the former teen pop stars transition into a major dramatic artist. After the opening night a veteran producer and I, shaken and open-mouthed, agreed that we had seen the performance of the year. Wow. Just wow, said the producer.

Piper was nominated for the same award in 2013 for her performance in The Effect, written by her great friend and collaborator Lucy Prebble, so her win this year is all the sweeter. It feels like it comes at a good time and its such a fancy night, she says. Its just nice, after the end of a run, to then go and drink nice cocktails and dress well and meet loads of wonderful people and grab an award. These little moments in life are gone in a flash, and its exciting that you experience them once in your life.

Billie Piper wins best actress at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2016

It also provides validation at the end of a difficult year. Piper was divorced in May from Laurence Fox, the scion of the acting dynasty, after nine years of marriage. When they first separated in March they stated that no other party was involved and that they would continue to co-parent their sons Winston, eight, and Eugene, four.

This subject is off limits but it must have made Yerma  and the physically and emotionally exposing last series of Skys Penny Dreadful, which she shot as her marriage was breaking up  all the more wracking.

I think you are drawn to certain things in certain points in your life, she concedes. Ive noticed that I have always found myself doing something [professionally] that comes out of something personal. You have to connect to things. Maybe you are just in a more emotional place where you can be affected by certain stories.

At curtain calls for Yerma shes looked ...like shit? she interrupts. No, shattered, I say. I am always wrecked at the end of a show, she nods. And I was always in a state of shock at the end of that one.

Billie Piper - In pictures 1 /45 Billie Piper - In pictures Billie Piper attend as Tiffany & Co to celebrate fashion and film at the new Annabels in 2018 Dave Benett I Hate Suzie Sky Atlantic Time traveller Billie Piper as Rose in Doctor Who BBC First hit Billie Piper sings in her 'Because we want to' music video The 76th Venice Film Festival Getty Images Billie Piper wearing Erdem at 76th Venice Film Festival Getty Images Billie Piper attending the Virgin Media BAFTA TV awards, held at the Royal Festival Hall in London PA Billie Piper with Johnny Lloyd GC Images Billie Piper arrives at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London in 2017 PA Billie Piper and Johnny Lloyd during The Olivier Awards 2017 at Royal Albert Hall Getty Images Billie Piper attends the Olivier Awards nominations in 2017 Getty Images Best Actress Billie Piper, winner of the Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress at The 62nd London Evening Standard Theatre Awards Dave Benett Billie Piper arrives ar Vogue with Tiffany & Co Pre Bafta Party at Annabel's member's club in Mayfair Splash News Belle Secret Diary Of A Call Girl starring Billie Piper as Belle Tiger Aspect Yerma Billie Piper as Yerma at Young Vic On stage The Great Britain' photocall at the Lyttelton Theatre Rex Features Glasto girl Billie Piper at Glastonbury PA Supportive friend Piper with Matt Smith at the press night performance of "American Psycho" at The Almeida Dave Benett Opening night At the press night performance of "Strangers On A Train" at the Cafe de Paris Dave Benett Thespian Billie Piper at the 60th London Evening Standard Theatre Awards Dave Benett Branching out Billie Piper as Connie in 'The Effect' at the Cottesloe Theatre in 2012 Rex Features Reasons To Be Pretty Billie Piper as Carly in 'Reasons To Be Pretty' at The Almeida Theatre in 2011 Rex Features Penny Dreadful 'Penny Dreadful' with Billie Piper as Brona Croft and Josh Hartnett as Ethan Chandler Showtime Treats Laurence Fox (centre), Billie Piper and Kris Marshall in 'Treats' Steve Waters Billie Piper with Laurence Fox Nigel Howard The Ruby in the Smoke Billie Piper as Sally Lockhart with Hayley Atwell as Rose Garland and JJ Field as Frederick Garland in 'The Ruby in the Smoke' BBC Mansfield Park Billie Piper as Fanny stars in 'Mansfield Park' (2007) Jon Hall/ITV Rose Billie Piper with David Tennant in Doctor Who BBC Raunchy role In Secret Diary of a Call Girl ITV Seductive Billie Piper in Secret Diary Of A Call Girl ITV Chris Evans interviews wife Billie Piper in 2005 First love With first husband Chris Evans at the "The Orange British Academy Film Awards" at The Odeon Leicester Square in 2004 Getty Images Finding fame Billie Piper during her popstar years appearing at the Brit Awards in 1999 Rex Features Reclusive Billie Piper performing a song on SMTV presented by Ant & Dec in 1989 Rex Features

No surprise there. This Yerma, adapted by Australian writer-director Simon Stone, was performed inside a glass box, like a fish tank or a lab cage. At the start Pipers unnamed character is a successful journalist engaging in flirty talk about anal sex with her businessman partner in the new home that theyve somewhat guiltily bought in an edgy part of London. By the end she is a desperate woman, hollowed out by rounds of IVF and her gnawing baby hunger, savagely turning against her lover and her family, and ultimately herself.

When Stone first contacted Piper she read Lorcas original and found it entrancingly poetic, but something shed rather read than watch. I find period stuff frustrating, she says. I do it because its all thats on offer, really, for an English actress, but it is not something I am really comfortable with.

Perou/Camera Press

Stone assured her hed update the play, and on the first day of rehearsals he told the cast about the box, gave Piper four pages of script and asked them to discuss the plays central issue. The story and performances grew organically, which gave the play its energy. Now I cant imagine working any other way, says Piper.

The story felt timely. The conversation about fertility is rife among friends and women generally and in the media, she says. Or maybe its that Ive entered my thirties and thats all I hear. But I know loads of people going through it. I have seen what its done to people I know, and its not as full-blown as Yerma, but its pretty f***ing awful. Its terrible for your relationship and friendships. And having had children myself, knowing what it feels like, the thought of not being able to have that is just traumatic. I know it would make me unbelievably depressed, and angry and so jealous.

Piper had her children young but then shes done everything young. She left her working-class parents in Swindon at 12 to stay with grandparents and attend the Sylvia Young Theatre School. She became the youngest pop artist to debut at number one with Because We Want To at 15. After a struggle with anorexia she gave up pop when she met and married 34-year-old presenter Chris Evans at 18.

She separated amicably from Evans in 2004, aged 22, then effortlessly charmed the nation as Rose Tyler in the rebooted Doctor Who in 2005. At 25 she starred as happy hooker Belle in TV series Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

That was 2007, the year she married Fox, having met him in 2006 on the set of Christopher Hamptons play Treats, her stage debut. Given her assurance on stage its strange to remember there have been only three other shows between that and Yerma: Neil LaButes Reasons to be Pretty at the Almeida, rewritten to accommodate her pregnancy; Prebbles The Effect at the National, about the chemical causes of love; and Richard Beans freewheeling comedy Great Britain, also at the NT, in which she played a sly, winky, evil tabloid editor.

I assumed shed made enough from music to relaunch as an actress (and to not take a penny of Evanss millions when they split). No. I think Im still in debt to certain record companies, she says. I didnt earn much compared to the amount I worked.

Lots of things, such as the cost of filming music videos, came out of her earnings, plus I was a child, so I spent a lot of it. Depressed by the punishing workload and fan abuse over her relationship with Richie Neville from boyband Five, she splurged on limos back to Swindon or to friends boltholes  although Evans gave her a 110,000 Ferrari after their first date she couldnt drive until she was 19.

Evans was pivotal, though: He is like chief encourager. If there is something you believe in he will champion you. He encouraged me to pursue acting and hooked me up with an agent and showed me loads of arthouse movies, which I studied and studied.

There were loads of fails before she won the role of Rose, and though she loved Doctor Who  I have not worked with a nicer group of people since  she quit after a year because the role brought a level of uncomfortable fame similar to her pop days.

Now theatre is what she wants to do. Its where the interesting roles are for women, she says, although they tend to be mad or unhinged or sad. But I like playing those crazies, or women with stuff going on. And TV is good for women now as well. Its just film that seems to be... nothing.

With writers such as Prebble  with whom she is devising a series  and Sharon Horgan leading the field, female characters on TV are now well-rounded and full-bodied, crass and fun and loose. Still, for TV its very rare that you read a role that doesnt involve a sex scene. Shes only played prostitutes twice  in Secret Diary and Penny Dreadful  but I still get sent hooker scripts once every four months.

Despite her past body issues Piper says nude scenes were possible because I feel like a tomboy, so its easier for me to share my body in that way. Im not programmed in that sexual way. I could sit around in my pants in front of people and I wouldnt care because I dont feel I am doing it to be suggestive.

Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2016 - In pictures 1 /48 Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2016 - In pictures Ruth Wilson poses on the red carpet as she attends the 62nd London Evening Standard Theatre Awards Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images Sheridan Smith poses on the red carpet as she attends the 62nd London Evening Standard Theatre Awards Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images Orlando Bloom signs autographs and takes selfies with fans at The London Evening Standard Theatre Awards Ian West/PA Joan Collins and Elizabeth Hurley at the London Evening Standard Theatre Awards the Old Vic London Zak Hussein/SilverHub Billie Piper attending the The London Evening Standard Theatre Awards held at the Old Vic Theatre, London Ian West/PA James McAvoy poses on the red carpet as he attends the 62nd London Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2016 Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images Lily Donaldson attending the The London Evening Standard Theatre Awards Dave Benett/Getty Images Dita von Teese and attending the The London Evening Standard Theatre Awards Ian West/PA Elizabeth Hurley poses on the red carpet as she attends the 62nd London Evening Standard Theatre Awards Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images Dame Kristin Scott Thomas arrives at The 62nd London Evening Standard Theatre Awards Dave Benett Helen McCrory attending the The London Evening Standard Theatre Awards Ian West/PA Sir Patrick Stewart, Glenn Close and Sunny Ozell arrive at The 62nd London Evening Standard Theatre Awards Dave Benett Elizabeth Debicki arrives at The 62nd London Evening Standard Theatre Awards Dave Benett Michael Gambon poses on the red carpet Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images The Duke of Cambridge attends with Evgeny Lebedev at the The London Evening Standard Theatre Awards held at the Old Vic Theatre Ian West/PA Orlando Bloom attending the The London Evening Standard Theatre Awards h Ian West/PA Amber Le Bon attending the The London Evening Standard Theatre Awards held at the Old Vic Theatre Zak Hussein/SilverHub Sheridan Smith poses on the red carpet as she attends the 62nd London Evening Standard Theatre Awards Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images MyAnna Buring attending the The London Evening Standard Theatre Awards Ian West/PA Ruth Wilson attending the The London Evening Standard Theatre Awards Ian West/PA Glenn Close arrives at The 62nd London Evening Standard Theatre Awards, Dave Benett/Getty Images Tuppence Middleton attending the The London Evening Standard Theatre Awards Ian West/PA Ellie Brown attends The London Evening Standard Theatre Awards at The Old Vic Theatre John Phillips/Getty Images Ellie Bamber attending the The London Evening Standard Theatre Awards held at the Old Vic Theatre Dave Benett/Getty Images Mary Portas attending the The London Evening Standard Theatre Awards held at the Old Vic Theatre, London Ian West/PA Sir Patrick Stewart and Sunny Ozell arrive at The 62nd London Evening Standard Theatre Awards Dave Benett/Getty Images Ophelia Lovibond poses on the red carpet as she attends the 62nd London Evening Standard Theatre Awards Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images Ralph Fiennes arrives at The London Evening Standard Theatre Awards at The Old Vic Theatre Dave Benett Emily Berrington attending the The London Evening Standard Theatre Awards Ian West/PA Kenneth Branagh and Lindsay Brunnock attending the The London Evening Standard Theatre Awards held at the Old Vic Theatr Ian West/PA Sophie Melville attending the The London Evening Standard Theatre Awards held at the Old Vic Theatre Ian West/PA John Malkovich attending the The London Evening Standard Theatre Awards Dave Benett Glenn Close and Andrew Lloyd-Webber attending the The London Evening Standard Theatre Awards Ian West/PA Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini attending the The London Evening Standard Theatre Awards held at the Old Vic Theatre Ian West/PA Amber Riley attending the The London Evening Standard Theatre Awards held at the Old Vic Theatre Dave Benett/Getty Images Aoife Duffin attending the The London Evening Standard Theatre Awards held at the Old Vic Theatre Ian West/PA

Shes said in the past that she disliked her oversized features and her monster feet, has been frank about suffering from rosacea and facial hair but says now that being in her thirties, and a mother, shes let go of any anxiety about how she looks. Needless to say, even though shes tired after a childcare failure today and wearing a knackered oversized lumberjack shirt, she remains extravagantly beautiful.

Is she in a good place now? Im in a great place, yeah, she says. I am in a great professional moment. I am happy at home and in love with my children and I feel all right. Shes gained a new-found respect for her mother since becoming a mum herself and has a solid network of friends in north London.

Theres a chance, she reveals, that Yerma will be revived at the Young Vic, then transfer to New York. The project with Prebble is proceeding at a leisurely pace. It means you are not out of the house for 15 hours on end, you can see your kids at the end of the day, and be there for play dates, and have a life that feels relatively normal, she says. We have a deep, deep love for each other, and we have a laugh. I think we are working on something that is exciting and I hope will see the light of day. But even if it doesnt it will be a nice way to spend a couple of years  and way more fruitful than auditioning for another prostitute.

Right now, though, she wants to take it easy. Im still coming down a bit with Yerma, she says. And at this point of the year its time to just bed in and get cosy, isnt it? Its beautiful, I like the cold, I love England, and all the festivities. I love Halloween, I love fireworks, I love Christmas  Im a real slag for all the festivities.

This Christmas therell be an extra decoration  a Standard Theatre Award  in the Piper household.

@nickcurtis

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L and at Biarritz airport at the height of summer and you can expect half of your fellow travellers to be heading for the oversized luggage. Biarritz of course is the home of surfing in France and thousands make the pilgrimage to its golden sands and rolling waves.

The savvy traveller, though, will turn south - towards the Pyrenees, snowcapped in the winter but dotted with villages full of traditional red-and-white Basque-style houses. Its light years away from what many visitors might call France. The French Basque Country starts in Biarritz and nearby Bayonne but the Basque influence is far more in evidence the further south you go from these urban outposts.

Our first stop on a whistlestop tour of the French Basque region takes us just 10 minutes drive from the airport, to the village of Arbonne. It's essentially a boulangerie, a post office and ... a cider house. The Basques are as passionate about this fine tipple as the Bretons and Normans further north - and Arbonne's Cidrerie du Fronton, with its long tables and convivial atmosphere, has character in spades. The cider actually comes free with your meal, and you pour it yourself from huge vats on the wall.

Further south and the picturesque village of St-Pee-sur-Neville brings us into first contact with that great Basque tradition, pelota. This curious squash-like game featuring players lashing a ball against a fronton (wall) with the help of a huge wooden claw attached to the hand can be witnessed first-hand at many exhibition matches held in the Basque villages.

Come to St-Pee on the second Sunday of May and you are likely to be overrun by the huge Herri Urats festival celebrating Basque language schools. It's actually held at the lovely St Pee lake just outside town, with its sandy beach and cafes and a nearby camping ground.

It's hard to stay away from the beach, though thankfully the Basque flavour extends here too. Bidart ticks all the right boxes here, offering not only glorious sands and great waves but also a delightful village centre up the hill, with a Basque-style town hall, 16th-century church, pelota wall and al fresco dining at the Hotel du Fronton or Hotel Elissaldia opposite. The presence of a country and western band playing on the steps of the town hall while encouraging visitors to line dance adds a surreal touch to our visit.

Saint Jean de Luz

Need a bit more resort glitz? Head further south to St Jean de Luz, with its fishing port and marina, as well as a sweeping bay sheltered by sea walls. St Jean is full of life, with restaurants and bars gathered around its charming place Louis XIV, where you might also be lucky enough to be serenaded by an orchestra or prove inspiration to a painter.

St Jean de Luz is also the home of macaroons - Maison Adam, with its distinctive red and black chillis above its awning on the edge of place Louis XIV, has been going since 1660 when the family first devised the macaron recipe.

Did I mention chilli? If you are a fan then you can't miss a visit to Espelette. The Espelette pepper - mainly used in the production of Bayonne ham - is only mildly spicy but is hot stuff indeed around here, particularly in this months harvest season when they are hung out to dry on balconies of every house. The Espelette pepper festival is held on the last weekend of October and attracts thousands of tourists.

La Rhune's 'Petit Train'

Foodies will also love Ainhoa, with its huge Basque houses and restaurants such as Auberge Alzate with its lovely terrace at the back with views of the Rhune mountain. The Rhune, incidentally, makes for a great day out in itself, as the rickety Petit Train  an authentic wooden train dating to 1924  takes you from Sare up the 905-metre high mountain on a 35-minute ride past red-headed sheep and pottoks (Basque ponies) grazing on the slopes.

And last but not least there is St-Jean-Pied-de-Port, a preserved 13th-century town on the River Nive with an ancient Roman bridge, the Pont dEyheraberry, over the Nive River thats just 8kms from the Spanish border. Its the old capital of the Basque province of Lower Navarre and also a starting point for walkers on the Camino de Santiago walk.

This lush, hilly region is also home to some splendid wines  sadly we do not have time to visit the Irouleguy wine trail just outside town on the way to Saint-Etienne-de-Baigorry. The perfect excuse for a return visit, surely.

Must visit destinations in France 1 /20 Must visit destinations in France 1. CORSICA Technically part of France since 1768, this mountainous Mediterranean island still carries a distinctly Italian flavour. Known as the Isle of Beauty, Corsica is only 180km long and 80km wide, but it boasts everything from craggy hilltop villages and dense forests for hiking to sandy Caribbean-style beaches and stylish towns with Michelin restaurants. Stay in the stunning Casa Del Mar near Porto Vecchio for design-conscious five star treatment. Prepare to be blown away by the beauty of the light here  Henri Matisse declared his passion for colour was ignited here. Alamy 2. MARSEILLES The capital of Provence, louche Marseilles sits on the opposite side of the Riviera to Nice. Greek traders founded this Mediterranean port 2,600 years ago so you can expect a lot of history  Persians, Romans, Russians, Vietnamese and North Africans have all left their mark on this melting pot city. Gone are the days when Marseilles was synonymous with football and crime, now it's cultural destination with brilliant restaurants, cool and affordable design hotels like Mama Shelter - and a new direct Eurostar service since 2015. Watch the sailing boats go by from the Old Port and make sure you visit the trendy Panier district. Bouillabaisse, a fish stew that originated in Marseilles Alamy A stylish bedroom at the affordable Mama Shelter hotel in Marseille Mama Shelter 3. CAP FERRET Like the French love child of North Cornwall and Nantucket, Cap Ferret is one of Frances best kept secret and no doubt the chic, low-ley Parisians who weekend and summer here want to keep it this way. Perched on a long, spit of sand on the Atlantic Coast, Cap Ferret is sandy, secluded and packed to the nines with oyster beds, which supply the whole of France. Holidaying here is a little insight into French life with lazy days at the beach, platters of oysters for lunch at one of the many shacks lining the shore, languorous bike rides and late dinners at Chez Hortense, the most popular place in town. Stay at La Maison du Bassin.



Make a pit stop in Bordeaux, where the airport is, for wine tasting and a visit to the world's first wine theme park. Alamy Cap Ferret Alamy 4. LYON Theres a new direct Eurostar to Lyon, so theres never been a better time to make a weekend trip to Frances gastronomic capital. With more then 4,000 restaurants, Lyon has more restaurants per capita than the whole of France, including 15 Michelin-starred ones. Make a trip to a local Bouchon, family-owned bistros serving rich, homemade dishes unique to the city. There are also forward-thinking museums such as Musee de Confluences, electro music festivals like Nuits Sonares and romantic hotels which take you back to Renaissance times. Visit in December also for La Fete de Lumiere. A typical bouchon in Lyon 5. NICE After playing host to EURO 2016 football tournaments, Nice is enjoying a moment in the spotlight. Its a proper city thats buzzing all year round, not just during summer like its glitzier Cote dAzure neighhours St Tropez and Monaco. Fronted by the glamorously named Bay of Angels, Nice can credit its timeless allure to a stunning beachfront promenade (Promenade des Anglais), Belle Epoque architecture and a stylish selection of hotels  we recommend the pink and white Negresco on the seafront. It also has some of Frances finest restaurants, including the unique La Petite Maison in the Old Town. Alamy 6. CARCASSONNE Found in southern Frances Languedoc region, Carcassonne is most famous for being a medieval hilltop citadel of fairytale standards  so much so that its said to have been the inspiration for the palace in Sleeping Beauty. Cobbled streets, a cartoon museum, Romanesque-Gothic churches and a castle  floodlit at night - make it well worth the visit, but dont neglect the new town, which has its own charms. Theres plenty in the surrounding area to explore including plentiful vineyards, canals and the pretty villages in the rugged Corbieres region to the south. Alamy 7. BIARRITZ Napoleon put this west coast town on the map in the mid-19th century, transforming it into a playground for the rich and famous  Frank Sinatra, Rita Hayworth and Ernest Hemingway all passed through. After World War II the glamour faded and the bright young things have since been swapped for laid-back surfer types, drawn to the powerful six foot Atlantic breakers on this stretch of Basque Coast made famous by film maker Peter Viertel in 1957. For a taste of its gliterrati past, stay in the Hotel du Palais, following in the footsteps of Coco Chanel. Head to Le Grande Plage for the waves - it suits all standard. It's oyster country too - enjoy platters at La Cabane a Huitres. Alamy 8. PROVENCE You can't have a French bucket list that doesn't include Provence. With its romantic rolling fields of lavender, honey stone buildings and daily markets, it's the heaven on earth that captivated Cezanne. For a chic retreat stay in the Crillon-le-Brave where you can while away your days drinking matchless local rose and taking in the spectacular panoramic views. Cheese lovers should stop off at the miraculous shop La Fromagerie du Comtat. Visit L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue for antiques and Aix-en-Provence for linen markets. 9. PORQUEROLLES The beaches of Ile de Porquerolles are some of France's best kept secrets. Just over four miles long and two miles wide, it's part of a cluster of three islands off the French Riviera between Marseille and Cannes. Building on the island is all but forbidden and there are no cars, so you can expect a serene sanctuary that resembles a time gone by, with mainly French families quietly enjoying a paddle and a swim on its beautiful beaches. Stay in the wonderfully secluded Le Mas du Langoustier hotel. 10. VERSAILLES So youve been to Paris, but have you ever made it out to Versailles? Dont let the swarms of tourists put you off, Louis XVIs Chateaux and its architecture, interior design and landscaping is one of the most spectacular sights in the world. Dont miss the legendary Hall of Mirrors and its three square miles of garden. Order your ticket in advance and go early  and take a picnic. 11. SETE If you continue down the Canal du Midi from Carcassonne towards Montpellier you'll eventually reach Sete. It lies on a headland between the Mediterranean Sea and the Etang du Thai, a lagoon which twists around the town giving it the impression of a laid-back Venice and is famous for its oyster beds. Come in July for DJ Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Festival or in August for the Saint Louis Day jousting tournament - quite the spectacle.

Details: Basque Country

British Airways flies from London Heathrow to Biarritz twice a week from April to September, ba.com

Basque Tourism: tourisme64.com

Rhune train: rhune.com, 18 return for adults
A former Tory MP who was falsely accused of raping children is to sue the Metropolitan Police, according to reports.

It comes after Harvey Proctor met with Chief Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe today in London to discuss the forces investigation into historical sex abuse allegations against him.

Operation Midland was launched after claims of sexual abuse, torture and murder by high profile figures in the 70s and 80s - but it closed in March without a single arrest.

Mr Proctor, former Army chief Lord Bramall and late Tory peer Lord Brittan were publicly named in connection with the 2.5 million investigation.

Mr Proctor told Sky News: "I have asked my solicitors to look towards taking proceedings against the Metropolitan Police Service."

Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe: the Chief Commissioner met Mr Proctor today to apologise / EPA

A report published one week ago found the Met guilty of grave errors of judgement and serious failings in connection to the VIP abuse allegations investigation.

In a damning study, a retired High Court judge found that the Operation Midland inquiry could have taken place "speedily" without the suspects learning of the claims.

Sir Richard Henriques also revealed that the main witness behind the claims who is known as "Nick" is now under investigation for perverting the course of justice.

Scotland Yard previously apologised to Lord Bramall, whose wife died before his name was cleared, and the widow of Lord Brittan, who died in 2015 not knowing his name had been cleared, for aspects of its handling of the case.

A Met police spokesman said: "We can confirm that the Commissioner has met with Harvey Proctor and delivered in person the apology that he outlined last week.

"We are not prepared to comment further on a private meeting."
T he family of a 14-year-old schoolboy from east London who died after he fell ill during detention have told of their "shock and devastation".

Year Nine pupil Nasar Ahmed is believed to have suffered a severe asthma attack at Bow School in Tower Hamlets.

He was taken to Royal London Hospital by ambulance where he spent four days in intensive care but died on Monday afternoon.

His cousin, Sani Begum Sania, said his parents, who hurried to the school before travelling to hospital with their son, were devastated and in shock.

He was panicking. He collapsed. His father was called in and found him on the floor and the paramedics were treating him and said his heart and breathing had stopped, she told the MailOnline.

The boy He died after being taken ill at Bow School / Google StreetView

He was on a life support machine, but he was badly brain damaged. He was dead already, I would say, but the machine was keeping him alive.

Ms Begum Sania said last night the family gathered at his bedside in this hospital before his life support machine was switched off at about 8pm.

A spokesman for the Met said his death was being treated as unexplained.

Executive head teacher Cath Smith said in a statement: I am very sad to confirm that one of our Year 9 pupils, who was taken ill at school last Thursday, has passed away in hospital.

The whole school community sends our thoughts and prayers to him, and to his family.

We will continue to offer support to the family, his fellow pupils and teachers at this very difficult time.

We will, of course, cooperate fully with investigations into the circumstances of this tragic incident and will also carry out a thorough review of what happened ourselves.

Sources said Nasar, who suffered complex medical needs including severe eczema, had a medical care plan at his school which was activated as soon as he became unwell.

His family were called to the school, along with a Bengali translator, and were told he was being put in detention following an incident at lunchtime.

The source said: He was in internal exclusion. He had a medical care plan at the school and when he fell ill that care plan was activated.

Nasar was with three other boys in a separate room being supervised by a teacher when he complained of breathing problems that got rapidly worse, sources said.

Two trained first aiders who knew Nasars medical history rushed to help him as staff made a 999 call and received expert advice over the phone as they waited for paramedics.

A post-mortem examination will take place and the coroner and social services have been informed.

Pictures of him lying unconcious in hopsital have been circulated on social media.

The teenagers family have claimed he had been wrongly punished after accidentally tipping over a bin as two boys were fighting in the playground.

He added: Officers from Tower Hamlets are conducting a number of enquiries in relation to the incident and the investigation is ongoing.
A man who stole thousands of pounds worth of audio equipment from a charity-run cultural centre in east London has been jailed for over three years.

Darren Paul Ammon, 41, was sentenced to 39 months behind bars at Snaresbrook Crown Court after pleading guilty to burglary on October 3.

Police were called to a report of a burglary at Rich Mix Cultural Foundation in Bethnal Green at around 9am on April 20 this year.

Over 3,500 worth of audio equipment had been stolen overnight from the property, which is home to a cinema and mixed arts centre.

Jailed: Darren Ammon faces 39 months behind bars

CCTV cameras at the rear of the building captured the moment Ammon broke into the private workshop area at 6.30pm.

He was seen walking around the premises and then leaving with the equipment.

Ammon was arrested and charged on September 6.

Cultural centre: Rich Mix is located on Bethnal Green Road / Google

PC Jason Hornett from Tower Hamlets said: "Thanks to clear quality of the CCTV footage and the help of the public and media following a pro-active appeal, we have been able to arrest and put Ammon before the courts.

This is an excellent example of CCTV being used effectively to identify a suspect and secure a conviction."

Rich Mix describes itself as "east Londons independent arts venue", boasting a three-screen cinema and various performance spaces.
A man caught in a sting by a group of paedophile hunters after he arranged to meet what he thought was a 13-year-old girl for sex in south London has been jailed for two years.

Video captured the moment Adrian Stroe, 28, was confronted by vigilantes after he sent a string of sexually explicit messages and photographs to his young target.

He had arranged to meet the girl near East Croydon train station on September 3.

But he was instead met by members of the Hunted One group who challenged him over the messages sent before he was arrested by police.

Stroe was filmed admitting he was in big trouble after he realised the girl he thought he had been grooming online was in fact one of the group posing in order to snare sex offenders.

He was then arrested by officers from British Transport Police who referred the case to the Met.

Stroe, of Taverstock Road, pleaded guilty to attempting to meet a child for sexual grooming and causing a child to view sexual activity at a hearing at Croydon Crown Court in October.

He was sentenced to two years in prison for the sexual grooming offence and a 12-month concurrent sentence for the second offence at the same court on Monday.

Store was also given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order to run indefinitely.

Detective Constable Sam Bennett from Croydon CID said: "Stroe was brazen in his attempt to lure and exploit what he believed to be an underage girl. We will not hesitate to detect, arrest and put those who seek to groom children online before the courts."
T housands of prison guards have walked out today in protest over health and safety concerns, throwing the criminal justice system into chaos.

The Prison Officers Association (POA) union said it had directed all its members to stop working and take part in a day of protest after negotiations with the Government broke down.

The walkout means the Jo Cox murder trial is unlikely to be continue today because defendant Thomas Mair has not been brought to the Old Bailey.

Steve Gillan, the POA's general secretary, said as many as 10,000 prison workers would take part in what is effectively a strike where they would only provide emergency cover.

The protest, which began at midnight, comes after a string of high profile incidents at prisons, including an alleged murder, a riot and two inmates escaping.

But the Ministry of Justice claimed the industrial action was unjustified and blasted it as "unlawful".

Across the country, courts have ground to a halt as defendants in custody have not been produced and prison guards are refusing to arrange videolinks instead.

In addition to the Jo Cox trial, the first court appearance of Robert Butler - who is accused of a murder in Pentonville Prison which forms part of the guards complaints - could not take place because of the walk-out.

Senior judge Mrs Justice McGowan has been forced to abandon the sentencing of a man who killed his wife, just as the distraught children of the couple arrived at court.

They wont produce him at any stage today, nor will a videolink be possible, she said, adding: Its extremely unfortunate for the family.

Hundreds of courtrooms around the country are now expected to sit empty for the day, at a huge cost to the taxpayer. Only cases involving defendants on bail will be able to go ahead.

Mr Gillan said: "Every prison officer in England is commencing a protest outside their establishment against the disregard for health and safety of our prison officers and prisoners."

They will provide emergency cover for fires and medical incidents in order to protect prisoners' well-being, he said.

Prison officers cannot by law take part in a strike and Mr Gillan admitted the day of action will be "interpreted as a strike".

A union spokesman said: "The POA has consistently raised the volatile and dangerous state of prisons, as chronic staff shortages and impoverished regimes has resulted in staff no longer being safe, a lack of discipline and prisoners taking control of areas.

"The continued surge in violence and unprecedented levels of suicide and acts of self harm, coupled with the recent (alleged) murder and escapes, demonstrate that the service is in meltdown."

Two prisoners - including a convicted attempted murderer - managed to escape from Pentonville prison, in north London, on November 7, sparking a manhunt in which they were eventually recaptured.

Weeks earlier, inmate Jamal Mahmoud, 21, died after being stabbed at the jail on October 18 in an attack which left two others injured.

On November 6, up to 200 prisoners went on a rampage in HMP Bedford.

An MoJ spokesman said: "There is no justification for this action.

"We have been engaged in constructive talks with the POA over the last two weeks and have provided a comprehensive response to a range of health and safety concerns.

"The Government has announced an additional 2,500 frontline officers to help reduce violence in prisons.

"We have well-established contingencies in place to manage prisons and keep the public safe, but we are clear that this constitutes unlawful industrial action, and we will seek remedy in the courts."
P olice are investigating the unexplained death of a 14-year-old boy who died after he was taken ill during detention at an east London school.

Year Nine pupil Nasar Ahmed, 14, who is reported to have had severe asthma, fell ill last Thursday at Bow School in Tower Hamlets.

He died on Monday afternoon.

A Met Police spokesman said his death was being treated as unexplained.

The boys uncle told the BBC he was in with detention with his friends after lunch. He later complained he felt ill and asked to get his inhaler.

The school then called an ambulance and the boy was taken to the Royal London Hospital.

He died after being taken ill at Bow School / Google StreetView

Before the boys death, the school released a statement which said the boy was being supervised along with three others when he complained he felt unwell.

He showed signs of breathing difficulties that rapidly got worse. Additional adult help was immediately sought and two trained first aiders, who had full knowledge of the students medical needs, were rapidly with the student, the statement said.

School staff then dialled 999 and paramedics arrived to treat the boy before he was rushed to hospital.

A statement from executive head teacher Cath Smith, given to the BBC today, said: "I am very sad to confirm that one of our Year 9 pupils, who was taken ill at school last Thursday, has passed away in hospital.

"The whole school community sends our thoughts and prayers to him, and to his family. We will continue to offer support to the family, his fellow pupils and teachers at this very difficult time.

"We will, of course, cooperate fully with investigations into the circumstances of this tragic incident and will also carry out a thorough review of what happened ourselves."

A Met Police spokesman said: "We were informed on Sunday, 13 November that a child was being treated in an east London hospital after being taken unwell at a school in Tower Hamlets on Thursday, 10 November.

"On Monday, 14 November the 14-year-old boy died. His next of kin have been informed.

"A post-mortem examination will take place in due course. The Coroner has been informed.

"The death is being treated as unexplained at this time.

"Officers from Tower Hamlets are conducting a number of enquiries in relation to the incident and the investigation is ongoing."

This page is being updated.
V irtual doctors offering free advice were beamed into some of Londons busiest commuter spots today.

Telepresence robots  featuring screens connected to real-time GPs  rolled into Waterloo station and Oxford Circus to give diagnoses and advice for the next stage of medical investigation.

Celebrity doctor Hilary Jones led the team of medics, who spoke to those comfortable enough with discussing their ailments in public. The Double Telepresence Robots, which start at 2,400, resemble a stick-mounted iPad with a camera fitted on top of a mini-Segway electric vehicle.

The virtual consultations were held to showcase what the future may hold for patients as part of a promotion for a new US medical drama. Pure Genius, starring Kick-Ass 2 actor Augustus Prew, is about a Silicon Valley billionaire who teams up with a surgeon to run the most revolutionary medical centre on earth.

Other technology on show includes a pill-sized supercomputer capable of checking a patients vital signs from inside the gastrointestinal tract. Telehealth systems are already used by some hospitals and the NHS is exploring using video technology like Skype for patient appointments.

Dr Jones said: The telepresence screens are a virtual face-to-face with a doctor. If someone is walking through Waterloo with something on their mind, and this is picked up by the robot, then theyve already achieved something.

Pure Genius premieres tomorrow at 9pm on Universal Channel.
A young woman suffered life-changing injuries after being hit by a London bus in Aldgate.

The pedestrian, in her 20s, was struck in St Boltoph Street just before 3.25pm on Monday.

City of London Police, ambulance and fire crews rushed to the junction with Aldgate High Street.

A City of London Police spokeswoman confirmed the woman had been rushed to hospital with life-changing injuries to her legs and pelvis.

Dramatic images showed police vans and fire engines blocking the road while medics tended to the patient.

The road was closed for close to three hours while emergency services dealt with the incident.
G oogle has confirmed plans to expand its London headquarters at Kings Cross and create 3,000 new jobs in the capital.

The firm's chief executive, Sundar Pichai announced plans to build a 10-storey, 650,000 square foot complex alongside its new offices in Pancras Square.

It comes as a major boost following months of speculation over the future of technology firms in the capital after Britain leaves the EU.

Speaking on his first visit to the UK as the technology giant's chief executive, Mr Pichai said it will be the first wholly owned and designed Google building outside of the US.

It is believed the project will cost in excess of 1 billion.

An artist's impression of the new Google office at King's Cross / Google

He added: "Here in the UK, it's clear to me that computer science has a great future with the talent, educational institutions, and passion for innovation we see all around us.

"We are committed to the UK and excited to continue our investment in our new King's Cross campus."

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan called the announcement a "vote of confidence" in the city.

Sadiq Khan: The first 100 days

"Google's commitment to London is very welcome," he said.

Sundar Pichai was speaking on his first UK visit as Google's CEO / PA

"This is a global, pioneering company at the forefront of new technology - and so London, a pioneering city, and home to many of the world's most talented and innovative people, is a great and natural choice for expansion.

"This is a vote of confidence in our great city - creating high-skilled jobs, supporting growth and demonstrating that London is open to business, new investment and talent from around the globe.

"London is one the world's leading technology hubs and investment into the capital post-Brexit remains robust, so Google's expansion will further strengthen our city's reputation as a global leader in digital technology."

In June, 2,500 employees began moving into the firm's new King's Cross offices, its largest in Europe.

First pictures of Google's huge new offices in the Kings Cross 1 /9 First pictures of Google's huge new offices in the Kings Cross Workers can sit on 17,000 sofas at Google's new King's Cross HQ Tim Soar Black steel and oak staircases wind between the upper floors Tim Soar All food and drink is complimentary in the canteens at the Google office Tim Soar Workers who need to recharge their batteries can take a kip in 'sleep pods' Tim Soar The stairs are said to have been designed to encourage chance encounters between colleagues for collaborative chats. Tim Soar Staff can also do cookery classes at the Google offices Tim Soar Tim Soar

The announcement of the planned expansion was also greeted with enthusiasm by Chancellor Philip Hammond.

"This is big vote of confidence in Britain's leading position as a global tech-hub and more evidence that leading firms are choosing to invest here," he said.

Landmark Brexit Ruling: What happened and what happens next?

"Our technology industry is central to securing future economic growth and this Government is committed to ensuring it continues to thrive. It's further proof that Britain is open for business and that we continue to be an outward-looking, world-leading nation."

Mr Pichai, speaking at Google's offices in King's Cross, also admitted the recent US election, which has divided many, had raised "questions of equality" and other "challenges" for the technology giant to face.

Google's search engine was criticised for promoting allegedly misleading and 'fake news', including a story that suggested President-elect Donald Trump had won the popular vote against Hillary Clinton, despite votes still being counted in some states.
F amily and friends of Nick Alexander, the British man murdered in the Paris attacks, were joined by a host of rock stars for a tribute concert on Tuesday night.

Travis frontman Fran Healy, Supergrass's Gaz Coombes and rockers Maximo Park were among those on the bill for the Shepherds Bush Empire gig.

Called A Peaceful Noise, the event was arranged after Mr Alexander, originally from Colchester in Essex but who was living in London before his death, died at the Bataclan theatre in Paris on November 13 last year.

The 35-year-old was a roadie with US band the Eagles Of Death Metal when three terrorists stormed the 150-year-old building and killed those inside.

His sister Zoe Alexander said the Shepherds Bush event was "really personal" to her brother and included performances by artists who had toured with her brother or were friends with him.

She said ahead of the gig: "Nick's at the heart and centre of this event but we also want to reflect generally how the industry came together.

"Everybody will bring their own thing to it.

Sting brings music back to the Bataclan one year after Paris atrocity

"We'll be there down the front - family, friends, fans of the artists and people who just want to pay tribute.

"I wish we weren't putting it on but we can't change what happened."

Nick Alexander: The roadie died in the Paris terror attacks a year ago / PA

"I have hugely mixed feelings going into the weekend but the concert has been a hugely positive focus for us, as is the charity we set up," she said.

"We are very grateful for the support everybody has given this event.

"I think it's going to be uplifting, emotional, but a really special and hopefully very fitting tribute to everyone who was there at the Bataclan."

Coombes said his "heart melted a bit" when he heard "what a huge fan" Mr Alexander was of his music.

"I just wanted to be part of it, to play my songs and then feel - and for everybody to feel - the strength of being together in one place and pushing forward," he said.

Fran Healy, of Travis, said he had first met Mr Alexander on the band's 2009-2010 tour.

He said Mr Alexander was "super cool" and "a really nice guy".

"Your merchandise people, you don't really see because they are always in the venue first and they leave last and then they go to bed on the bus with you and you don't see them," he said.

"Nick was different - he was always around and a lovely, lovely guy."

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Ms Alexander, 43, visited the Bataclan at the weekend for its reopening by Sting, along with the families of other victims

She said: "It was very important for us to stand side-by-side with the other families that had gone through the same experience. There is great strength to be gained there."

"It was a very powerful experience but it had a very strong and determined energy, but also a very joyful energy, she said. There was a very celebratory tone about it.

"While we must not forget what happened we need to carry on making music - and the message from that was really clear."

Money raised from the London gig will go to The Nick Alexander Memorial Trust and Josh Homme's Sweet Stuff Foundation.

Additional reporting by the Press Association.
L ondon stargazers hopes of seeing the biggest supermoon for decades have been dashed by cloudy weather.

The event, described as "undeniably beautiful" by American space agency Nasa, will not be matched until the moon makes a similar approach in 2034.

The moon's proximity to the horizon caused an optical illusion known as the "low-hanging moon" effect, where it can be measured against familiar objects such as trees and houses.

Affelia Wibisono, an astronomer from the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, said those using cameras would have the best result.

But social media was filled with frustrated people who could barely see anything at all.

One user tweeted: I've never hated Londons weather as much as today URGH.

Some people posted pictures of a hazy white blur in the sky.

Others had a more creative solution to the problem.

And this was the closest tweeter Carl got to seeing a big moon.

A lot of the "sightings" may not have been genuine.

But other Londoners did mange to stay optimistic.

Generally, the concensus was the best time to see the lunar spectacular was on Sunday evening.

At the weekend, Londoners managed to capture some incredible images of the stunning moon.

Supermoon 2016 - In pictures 1 /22 Supermoon 2016 - In pictures Supermoon passing The Shard at Park Plaza Westminster @londonfromtherooftop An aeroplane flies past the London Eye wheel, and moon, a day before the "supermoon" spectacle in London Toby Melville/Reuters The moon rises behind a car on the The Emirates Air Line (cable car) in London's Docklands Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images The moon over the O2 Arena in south-east London, Victoria Jones/PA A pod on the London Eye is seen against the moon a day before the "supermoon" spectacle in London Peter Nicholls/Reuters The moon over the O2 Arena in south-east London Victoria Jones/PA People on a funfair ride are silhouetted against the moon Neil Hall/Reuters The moon rises behind Canary Wharf in London AFP/Getty Images The moon over the O2 Arena Victoria Jones/PA A commerical jet flies in front of the moon on its approach to Heathrow airport in west London Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images Another shot of the moon as it rises over the O2 Arena Victoria Jones/PA A pod on the London Eye is seen against the moon Neil Hall/Reuters The moon behind the London Eye Toby Melville/Reuters A bright supermoon rises over Whitby Abbey, in North Yorkshire Craig Brough/Reuters A family take a selfie as the moon rises a day before the "supermoon" spectacle on Beacon Hill near Loughborough, Britain Darren Staples/Reuters The moon rises behind the castle of Almodovar in Cordoba, southern Spain Miguel Morenatti/ AP A full moon rises behind a statue of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin on the eve of the "supermoon" spectacle, Baikonur, Kazakhstan Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters

Supermoons generally appear to be 14 per cent bigger and 30 per cent brighter than other full moons.

Primrose Hill had been named the best place in the capital to see this one, offering keen sky watchers the bonus of stunning views across the capitals skyline.

Highgate Hill, Greenwich Park and Crystal Palaces Westow Hill were also highly rated by experts.
S adiq Khan was today urged to allow London companies a break from contributions to the cost of building Crossrail through supplements to their business rates.

Property consultants said the Mayor needed to ease the pain ahead of swingeing rises in business rate bills that begin next April. Under a framework set up by predecessor Boris Johnson all 47,000 London businesses with a rateable value of 55,000 or more must contribute to the projects cost.

John Webber, head of rating at Colliers International, said: Given the significant increases in rates from next year, Sadiq Khan could offer a 12-month Crossrail levy holiday to hard-pressed London firms bracing themselves for once-in-a-generation rates hikes.

Rajesh Agrawal, deputy mayor for business, said: The Mayor has been clear that the last thing businesses need is a hike in main business rates on the scale the Government is proposing from next April.

He believes we need far stronger transitional arrangements and that London needs greater control over business rates, including being able to set the tax rate in the capital.

The Mayor is considering the options available for alleviating the impact of the most recent revaluation.
S adiq Khan was holding talks with Philip Hammond today to present his wish list for London ahead of next weeks autumn statement.

The Mayor is pushing the Chancellor for fresh devolution powers over public services, as well as over some taxes, arguing it would help the capital to thrive after Brexit.

At the Treasury meeting today he was expected to call for more housing funding, streamlined planning powers and for the capital to control the Governments flagship work programme.

Mr Hammond has appeared more willing than some of his predecessors to talk about devolution and has even appointed a senior Treasury civil servant to oversee which powers could be handed out.

Experts called Mr Khans chances of getting a positive result from the autumn statement better than evens but there is still some way to go.

City Hall insiders claimed the Mayor had been working his socks off with ministers to try to achieve his devolution ambitions.

Mr Khan argues that handing more powers to London will also boost jobs and growth elsewhere.

Discussions are also taking place about how the Mayor could have more strategic control of business rates under Government plans to devolve them in their entirety to local councils.

The Mayors wish list includes beefed-up criminal justice powers, more control over skills, suburban rail services and aspects of the NHS.

He has already reconvened the London Finance Commission to draw up proposals to take to ministers.

Professor Tony Travers of the London School of Economics said: The Mayor has a better than evens chance of achieving further devolution.

"The question is: how radical will a powerful Conservative government want to be in giving more powers to a newly elected and popular Labour Mayor?

He added: Devolution of services and taxation powers would address one of the many problems revealed by the Brexit vote: people feel cut off from the decisions that affect their lives.

"It would also be in the Treasurys interests to liberate Londons government to generate more growth and taxation.
T he government does not have an overall plan for Brexit in part because of divisions between Cabinet ministers, a leaked memo has suggested.

More than 500 projects relating to leaving the EU are being worked on in Whitehall, meaning an extra 30,000 civil servants may need to be hired, it says.

The assessment - entitled Brexit Update and dated November 7 - was leaked to The Times newspaper after being carried out by a consultant working for the Cabinet Office.

It said that although departments have "worst case" plans, "this falls considerably short of having a 'Government plan for Brexit'".

The memo warned that business figures are expected to "point a gun at the government's head" to ensure they get good deals after ministers reportedly gave assurances to Nissan that their business would not be hit by Brexit.

Theresa May: Brexit is an opportunity to make globalisation work for all

Theresa May was also mentioned in the memo for her habit of "drawing in decisions and details to settle matters herself", which it suggested would be unsustainable.

The Prime Minister has said she will invoke Article 50 - triggering the formal process of withdrawing from the EU - by the end of March.

The memo says: "Individual departments have been busily developing their projects to implement Brexit, resulting in well over 500 projects, which are beyond the capacity and capability of government to execute quickly."

It adds: "Every department has developed a bottom-up plan of what the impact of Brexit could be  and its plan to cope with the worst case. Although necessary, this falls considerably short of having a government plan for Brexit because it has no prioritisation and no link to the overall negotiation strategy."

The Times reported that the document also highlights splits between Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Brexit Secretary David Davis and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox on one side and Chancellor Philip Hammond and Business Secretary Greg Clark on the other.

A Number 10 spokesman told the newspaper: "This is not a government report and we dont recognise the claims made in it.

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We are focused on getting on with the job of Brexit and making a success of it.
P rison officers who walked out in a 24-hour protest have been ordered to go back to work by the High Court.

Up to 10,000 officers in England and Wales had stopped work at midnight on Tuesday in a demonstration against a "surge in violence" in jails.

The Prison Officers Association (POA) protest threw the criminal justice system into chaos with the Jo Cox murder trial at the Old Bailey one of many postponed.

The justice secretary had claimed the action was unnecessary and branded it "unlawful".

And at the High Court on Tuesday afternoon, the Government won an injunction against the walkout.

Mr Justice Kerr heard an urgent application for the injunction to "restrain" the POA from "inducing any form of industrial action".

The judge's order will have immediate effect with prison officers expected to return to work "forthwith".

He said it was a "very urgent" application with evidence of up to 80 per cent of staff taking some sort of action in the majority of prisons.

"A number of incidents have occurred in prisons today and the situation is very concerning indeed," he said.

Stuart Brittenden, counsel for the union, had argued: "The POA's position is that the Secretary of State is in breach of their contract in failing to provide a safe place and a system of work, and, as such, any instruction to them to continue working in those conditions in this environment is an unlawful one."

The POA had directed all its members to take part in the protest on Tuesday morning after negotiations with the Government over safety broke down.

Prison officers cannot by law take part in a strike and Mr Gillan had earlier admitted the action would be interpreted as one.

The protest, which began at midnight, followed a number of high profile incidents, including an alleged murder, a riot and two inmates escaping.

Answering an urgent question in the Commons, Justice Secretary Liz Truss said she met the POA on November 2 and talks with her team over safety measures continued over the next fortnight.

"These talks were due to continue this morning," Ms Truss told MPs. "Instead the POA failed to respond to our proposals and called this unlawful action without giving any notice."

Ms Truss said the union's position is "unnecessary and unlawful" and "will make the situation in our prisons more dangerous".

Announcing the move, the union said the "continued surge in violence and unprecedented levels of suicide and acts of self harm", coupled with the recent alleged murder and escapes "demonstrate that the service is in meltdown".

About 60 guards gathered in the car park within the gates of Pentonville. Dave Todd, POA representative for London, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, said conditions in prisons were "volatile and dangerous".

"We need to act to protect ourselves," he said. "It has not come about quickly - it's a build-up over probably years actually.

"It's just unsafe. To me, prison officers taking this type of action speaks volumes for what's happening inside."
A n academic who left his wife after she tried to run him over is locked in a divorce battle over a 1 million house and claims that they were never legally married.

University lecturer Khaled Hayatleh was punched by Reem Mofdy before she drove at him in her red convertible BMW because she believed he had cheated on her.

Their marriage broke up and they both filed for divorce in 2013 and began a legal battle over assets.

Mr Hayatleh claims a 1 million house in Oxford, which he owned before meeting his now ex-wife, should not be included in the divorce settlement and he has told the Court of Appeal that their marriage was never valid.

The house at the centre of the court battle / Champion News

However, Ms Mofdy insists that they are legally husband and wife, and accuses Mr Hayatleh of seeking to avoid his financial responsibilities to her arising out of their marriage.

Mr Hayatleh, a lecturer in electronic engineering at Oxford Brookes University, moved to Britain from Syria in the Eighties and acquired British citizenship.

In 1999, he and Ms Mofdy had an arranged religious marriage in Syria. Mr Hayatleh did not attend the ceremony but sent his brother as a stand-in, a valid and legal move under Syrian law. Ms Mofdy moved to Oxford the same year and they had another ceremony.

Divorce battle: Khaled Hayatleh / Champion News

The couple, who have a daughter, broke up after Ms Mofdy was convicted of common assault after the incident outside their home in Kidlington near Oxford in March 2012.

Mr Hayatleh asked the divorce courts to declare that his marriage to Ms Mofdy was not properly registered and therefore was a non-marriage in the eyes of the law.

Judge Robin Tolson QC ruled against him in May, but Mr Hayatleh has asked the Court of Appeal to overturn the decision.

Nick Goodwin QC, for Mr Hayatleh, said he decided to end the relationship due to a number of incidents in which the wife was violent towards the husband, including an attempt to run him over. He said there were Syrian documents which record Mr Hayatleh as being single.

William Tyzack, for Ms Mofdy, suggested Mr Hayatleh may have a strategic motive for claiming that they were never married.

The Appeal Court judges will give their ruling at a later date.
T his is the amazing sight of the UKs largest Christmas tree farm seen in spectacular aerial footage.

Drynie Wood, in Scotlands Black Isles, is home to 6.5 million Nordman fir trees.

Impressive footage taken from the air shows countless rows of greenery amid picturesque countryside.

Some 45,000 of the UKs favourite Christmas trees are grown on the farm for Waitrose every year.

The trees are hand cut and packaged before being shipped to supermarkets ready for the festive season.

The festive paradise spans 1,000 hectares and is home to wildlife including deer and nesting birds.
B arack Obama has admitted he absolutely has concerns about Donald Trumps abilities to lead the US.

Speaking at his first press conference since the election, the President advised his successor to correct some aspects of his personality.

Mr Obama said: "I think what will happen with the President-elect is that there are going to be certain elements of his temperament that will not serve him well unless he recognises them and corrects them.

The pair met on Thursday during Mr Trumps first visit to the White House.

Barack Obama and Donald Trump meet at White House

Mr Obama told journalists he had offered the Republican politician some honest advice during the meeting.

He said: "We had a very cordial conversation.

Do I have concerns? Absolutely."

Mr Obama told Mr Trump he must reach out to voters who did not support him.

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He also added that he believed Mr Trump would make a bid to "send some signals of unity" to people who were alienated by his campaign.

And, he urged the President-elect "to reach out to minority groups or women or others that were concerned about the tenor of the campaign".

Mr Obama promised that he and his team would work towards a smooth transition when Mr Trump is inaugurated January.

He said Mr Trump will have more "time and space" than he had to make "judicious decisions".

And, added that he would urge the business tycoon to think "long and hard" before he cracks down on young undocumented immigrants.

Mr Obama refused to comment about Mr Trump's first senior appointments, including naming Stephen Bannon as the chief strategist of his administration.
A British tourist who was allegedly gang-raped in Dubai has been charged by police for having extra-marital sex.

The 25-year-old reported her alleged ordeal at the hands of two men to local police but was then locked up and charged, The Sun reported.

It is feared the woman, who has since been bailed, could be given a long prison sentence after breaking the United Arab Emirates strict laws.

Meanwhile her alleged attackers, both from the UK, have been allowed to return home.

The pair filmed their hotel room attack on mobile phones, it is claimed.

A friend told the paper the victim's passport had been confiscated. She said: She went to the police as the victim as one of the worst ordeals imaginable but she is being treated as the criminal.

Sex outside of marriage is banned in the United Arab Emirates. In 2013, a Norwegian woman who said she had been raped by a colleague was jailed for 16 months.

She was later pardoned and allowed to leave the country.

The Foreign Office said it was aware of the case and was working with the victims family.
E mpty, barren and bleak: this wasteland is all that remains of the Jungle migrant camp in Calais. Bulldozers have flattened the vast shanty town, which was home to thousands of people hoping to reach the UK before a mass evacuation began three weeks ago today.

Once a bustling sprawl of makeshift shops, huts, tents, community centres, places of worship and a theatre, the land is now eerily empty.

A road surrounding it, once the scene of daily clashes between police firing tear gas and rock-throwing migrants, is now guarded by a single police van.

The main track through the camp is a mudflat strewn with saucepans, food tins, beer cans, plastic bottles, clothes and shoes. It used to be lined with restaurants and shops, and groups of migrants gathered around camp fires.

Deserted: the Calais Jungle Camp / Jeremy Selwyn

Childrens textbooks lie on the ground next to where a school once stood. On one of them, in childrens handwriting, is the name Suliuman Youseif. Another reads Bashir Abdall and a third Feisel Husein. The books, found beside a school shoe, are full of translations between Arabic, English and French for basic words such as thank you.

The deserted camp in Calais / Jeremy Selwyn

Next to the flattened area of the shanty town are containers in which unaccompanied minors and migrants who wanted to claim asylum in France were housed. Mattresses and bin liners full of belongings litter the floor. A childrens bicycle and toys, including an action figure in a cape, lie abandoned.

Abandoned: A child's toy and shoe at the camp / Jeremy Selwyn

More than 5,000 adults evacuated from the camp now live in about 160 resettlement centres, also known as Welcome and Orientation Centres (the French acronym is CAO), across France. More than 1,900 minors were taken into care and over 300 children have been transferred from Calais to Britain. The Help Refugees charity said it did not know how many were in the most recent group, but said they were all female and reached UK by Eurostar on Saturday.

The mass exodus three weeks ago led to chaotic scenes as scuffles broke out on the main road leading into the camp, with thousands queuing outside a processing centre to be bussed to temporary accommodation. The road now lies empty, save for the odd lorry making deliveries to an industrial estate.

People taken to the CAOs have been given four weeks to decide whether to claim asylum in France, according to charities, who fear those who want to reach Britain could return.

Belongings strewn around the Jungle camp / JEREMY SELWYN

The hundreds who chose not to move to temporary accommodation have set up illegal camps in Paris or joined ones in nearby Dunkirk and Norrent-Fontes. Charities say others have travelled to Belgium and Germany. According to aid workers, the authorities have also stopped processing asylum applications in Calais to prevent it attracting more migrants.

Refugees leaving the Calais Jungle 1 /13 Refugees leaving the Calais Jungle Refugees surge through a barrier at the camp in Calais Jeremy Selwyn There were chaotic scenes today as thousands of people began to leave the camp Jeremy Selwyn Huge queues formed - it came after violent clashes overnight between riot police and migrants Jeremy Selwyn Work to flatten the camp was due to begin today Jeremy Selwyn The refugees were told to leave the camp or face arrest and possible deportation Jeremy Selwyn Desite chaotic scenes, the refugees were said to be resigned to their fate Jeremy Selwyn The camps residents were today being processed before being bussed to temporary accommodation centres Jeremy Selwyn More than 1,200 police and officials were deployed as the operation to clear the Jungle started Jeremy Selwyn Todays first wave of departures were voluntary Jeremy Selwyn Camp residents, mostly men and male teenagers, gradually streamed out carrying belongings in suitcases and bin bags Jeremy Selwyn

Since the clearance, local businesses and tourism chiefs say there has been a steady increase in custom, with people now less scared to venture out into the town. Diana Hounslow, director of tourism for Pas-de-Calais, said: We hope to return to normality and that local businesses can begin to prosper once more. The Christmas period is now upon us and already spelling better times for Calais with lots of British visitors enjoying our good food and shopping facilities.

Rubbish left at the camp in Calais / Jeremy Selwyn

In the historic Place dArmes, a square featuring the 13th-century Tour du Guet watchtower, diners filled the restaurants and bars late into the evening. Tourism chiefs also say that, with fewer road blockages and the threat of roadside attacks subsiding, more motorists are travelling through to the Picardy region south of Calais, famed for its wine and cuisine. Ferry company P&O, which crosses between Dover and Calais, also reported smoother crossings and less disruption around the port.

A port insider said: There is now a very visible police presence throughout Calais and everyone is very reassured. The police and not the migrants are back in charge and everyone, from dock workers to drivers to townspeople, feel safer again. Migrants are trying to board trucks still, but from miles further away. Security has always been tight here, but the fact there is no longer a camp for people to re-group, obtain intelligence about security and plot more attempts has drastically altered the landscape.

The Standard witnessed riot officers stopping and searching two Afghan refugees in the town centre, forcing them to remove their jackets and spread themselves against a wall.

Later, Abdul Qadir and Abdul Jabad, 27, who say they fled the Taliban, said they were two of a handful of migrants still living in Calais in sheltered accommodation. They showed temporary ID cards given to them while they wait for their French asylum applications to be processed, after they left the Jungle and opted to stay in France.

Mr Jabad said: Every night there is police. We stay in a house round here because it is a nice life and we give the money for that. I think there are only about 15 or 16 refugees in Calais now because the Jungle is finished. We seek asylum in France.

French president Francois Hollande ordered the clear-out of the Jungle last month. About a third of the camp, the population of which at times reached 10,000, had already been demolished earlier this year.

Many charity workers welcome the clearance but say it has made providing aid more difficult, with some fearing migrants will return after the four-week deadline for claiming asylum ends next week.

Juncal Alonso, a volunteer with Help Refugees, said: Even though the conditions were terrible, it was a place full of life and with a really strong feeling of community  it was a symbol of how people can live together having different religions, speaking different languages and coming from different cultures.

Workers clear the Calais Jungle camp

Now all the charities have to move to create a strategy and get aid to lots of different places. The camp didnt have the best conditions, but at least charities could operate there. Charlotte Morris of Citizens UK, which has helped more than 60 unaccompanied children move from the camp to the UK by providing legal assistance, said: Its definitely a good thing that Calais is no more and the children are better safeguarded than they were before. It was a very dangerous place for the kids because anyone could walk in and do anything.

Some of the kids went missing and were never heard from again. The only issue now is there is no focal point for how many unaccompanied children there are in France.

The charity has more than 40 live cases, and Ms Morris said there were still about 200 minors who had a right to be in the UK because they have family members there.

Clare Moseley, founder of Care4Calais, one of the biggest charities to operate in the camp, said: What we are starting to see now is the first people leaving the CAOs, which will increase over the weeks.

They could end up coming back to the Calais area because the demolition doesnt solve the underlying problem.

Follow David Churchill on Twitter: @David_Churchill
H undreds of German police carried out simultaneous terror raids today in 10 of the countrys 16 states hunting for Islamic State supporters and recruiters.

Armed police and elite SEK anti-terror units were involved in the swoop on more than 200 flats and offices belonging to a group calling itself The True Religion, which has publicly backed the aims of IS.

The operation was carried out at 6.30am (7.30am UK time) and at the same time the German government announced that the group was being banned for good.

The Salafist sect believes in a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam and caused controversy in Germany with a project called Lies! to hand out 25 million translations of the koran for free. Many of the 800 Germans who travelled to the so-called caliphate declared by IS in Syria and Iraq were Salafists.

One of the places stormed today was a flat in a high-rise building in Bonn where the sects leader Ibrahim Abou-Nagie, 52, lives. He was hauled out of bed and off for questioning along with hate preacher Said El Emrani 34, who goes by the name Abu Dujana.

Abou-Nagie has called for Sharia law to be introduced worldwide to replace traditional justice systems.

Fifteen searches were carried out at properties in Frankfurt and dozens of boxes of IS recruiting material and other jihadist literature seized.

In the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria there were 35 raids while in Lower Saxony officials searched more than 20 properties. In Berlin almost 20 places were stormed, in Baden-Wurttemberg 15, and about five each in Schleswig-Holstein, Rhineland-Palatinate and Hamburg.

Search warrants were also issued against a mosque association in Baden-Wurttemberg and Hamburg.

The authorities said the group is unconstitutional and against the idea of international understanding, and its propaganda material and cash assets were being seized.

The government said the groups membership glorifies Holy War and terrorist attacks as well as building up a unique melting pot for recruitment of jihadists.

At least 140 members of The True Religion have travelled to the Middle East to fight with IS.

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The federal office for the protection of the constitution  the BvF or internal intelligence service  estimates the number of radical Islamist Salafis in Germany at 9,200 and rising.

Of these 1,200 are considered capable of terror acts. Twenty per cent of them are women.
T wo teenagers on the run from their parents live-streamed a shootout with police before taking their own lives.

The two 15-year-olds, named as Denis and Katya, were found dead with gunshot wounds inside a house in the north-western Russian Pskov region after a standoff with police.

Chilling footage live-streamed on Periscope and posted on Instagram showed the pair chatting to the camera and firing at police outside.

In the video, the girl explains that she had an argument with her mother after she went to a sleepover that she was not allowed to go to.

Denis, 15, fires a shotgun at police from the window of the house / Instagram

Her mother arrived to fetch her and Denis allegedly shot her in the hip before the pair ran away and spent three days hiding from their parents at a house in the village of Krasniye Strugi.

On Periscope: the teenager named as Denis

During the Periscope livestream, Katya is heard saying: We have zero options.

Denis adds: If we dont surrender, we die. But if we surrender, we will never see each other again.

Katya, in a still from the live video stream

The National Guard special forces said in a statement to TASS news agency that they found the bodies of a girl and a young man with clear signs of suicide, adding that they did not open fire.

Investigators said they were trying to find out the reason the teenagers took the desperate step and where their weapons came from.

Russian childrens ombudswoman Anna Kuznetsova said: This is a terrible tragedy. Were looking into the circumstances and the details of what happened.

Access to guns in Russia is tightly restricted.

A spokesman for the Russian Investigative Committee said: The investigating authorities reported sighting of shooting at a police car in which law enforcement officers arrived at one of the houses in the village for the purpose of tracing the missing teenager.

It was found that two 15-year-old barricaded themselves in the house armed with weapons.

Law-enforcement officers negotiated with them for several hours but no result was achieved and the teenagers stopped responding.

Special forces officers used stun grenades and stormed the house where the teenagers were found dead with gunshot wounds.
T he comfort of a warm pie is hard to beat. You could be baking a lofty lemon meringue pie for dessert or using up your sunday leftovers, encasing it in pastry.

We've rounded up our pick of the best pie dishes which will be at home equally in the oven as on the table. From designer ceramics to heavy gauge alloys, aesthetics to functionality, we're dishing up our favourites to make your search as easy as pie.

1. Emile Henry ruffled pie dish

Bright and bold, this pie dish from French brand Emile Henry is everything you need for a showstopping pastry masterpiece. With large fluted edges, it will produce almost cartoon-like proportions for your hand crafted pie.

Amara, 25.45, Buy it now

2. Lakeland earthenware fluted pie dish

This earthenware dish is gently fluted for an understated centrepiece. Combining practicality and rustic charm, it's a timeless addition for your cookware cupboard.

Lakeland, 24.99, Buy it now

3. Le Creuset Round Pie Dish

The classic French brand, Le Creuset, shows off its signature ombre colours on its round pie dish. Durable and longlasting, its clean lines will ensure a pristine pie every time.

Kitchens Cookshop, 33.95, Buy it now

4. Sophie Conran for Portmeirion Round Pie Dish

The beautiful ridges in Sophie Conran's pie dish make it just as attractive whilst empty as it would be brimming with filling. For a designer pie dish, you cannot go far wrong.

John Lewis, 29, Buy it now

5. Falcon Enamel Pie Dish

Sometimes the classics are best. This enamel pie dish from Falcon does exactly what it says on the tin.

Sainsburys, 4.50, Buy it now

6. Silverwood Fluted Pie Dish

The heavy gauge alloy of Silverwood's pie dish will allow for a even distribution of heat so no chance of any soggy bottoms.

Abraxas Cookshop, 13.99, Buy it now

Fiona MacConnacher completed her Diplome de Patisserie at Le Cordon Bleu Paris. Follow her on Instagram @thecapedpatissiere

Follow us on Twitter @ESLifeandStyle and on Facebook
J ames Corden looks set to bag this years Christmas number one with his Sainsburys single.

The comedian and actor, who hosts the Late Late Show over in the US, could be about to land the most coveted chart position of the year with The Greatest Gift for Christmas is Me.

The soundtrack to the supermarkets festive advert shot up the charts just 48 hours after being released and is on track to crack the top five in the midweeks.

After the advert was aired for the first time over the weekend, fans were quick to praise the song on Twitter, with many asking how they could download the track.

Giving in to popular demand, the song was made available to download on Spotify and quickly became one of the most downloaded tracks on the site.

On track: Cordon looks set to bag this years Christmas number one / Theo Wargo/Getty Images

Fans seem keen to get Cordens effort to the top of the charts as all proceeds go to Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Sainsbury's Christmas ad - in pictures 1 /10 Sainsbury's Christmas ad - in pictures Sainsbury's has unveiled it's Christmas advert for 2016 It tells the tale of hard-working dad Dave Dave creates toy versions of himself so he can spend time with his family at Christmas The film is directed by Sam Fell Over 180 people worked on the production, from conception through to final film The intricate sets took 16 weeks to build There are 26 characters in total, with over 1,000 separate puppet faces created for all the characters This is the first time full colour 3D printed faces have ever been used in animation production in the UK

James Corden needs an xmas number 1 with those vocals on the Sainsbury's ad, one person wrote on Twitter.

James Corden needs to be Christmas Number 1, another fan posted.

But Cordens yuletide song isnt the only single vying for the top spot this year as it will go head-to-head with the X Factor winners single.

Rival brand John Lewis also have a sterling single accompanying their Christmas advert, a cover version of Randy Crawfords Ill Fly Away, recorded by The Vaults.
J eremy Clarkson and his ex-Top Gear presenters "smashed" a car headlong into the Hollywood Walk of Fame today in a fresh stunt for their new show.

The car, with a CL4RK50N number plate, appeared to have plummeted from the sky into the world famous California boardwalk, with police "caution" tape stretched around it.

It was the latest in a series of fake crashes Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May have set-up to promote their return to television this Friday.

Earlier, at Hackescher Markt in Berlin, a similar stunt was performed using a Toyota Prius with the number plate H4MM0ND.

Crash: The scene at Hackescher Markt in Berlin (Getty Images) / Getty Images for Amazon Prime Vi

Londoners also got a taste of the trio's organised chaos, with another Prius smashing into a a red post box in King's Cross.

The staged crashes are to promote new show The Grand Tour, which airs on Amazon Prime this week.

Another stunt? Commuters discover the Grand Tour's smashed up car in King's Cross / Jeremy Selwyn

It marks a return to television for the three presenters after they quit the BBC 20 months ago.

'The Grand Tour' Crash Launch - in pictures 1 /13 'The Grand Tour' Crash Launch - in pictures A car 'crashed' into a post box outside King's Cross Station in London Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images The stunts are aheadd of the launch of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May's new show, 'The Grand Tour' Jeremy Selwyn The trio are returning to the BBC after 20 months Tim P. Whitby/Getty Imagesi A car 'crashed' into the ground at the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California Randy Shropshire/Getty Images The car had the number plate CL4RK50N Randy Shropshire/Getty Images The ex-Top Gear team have a bigger budget for their Amazon show Randy Shropshire/Getty Images Mr Hammond said: "We're not going to disappoint, because we can't." Randy Shropshire/Getty Images A car 'crashed' into the ground at the Hackescher Markt in Berlin, Germany Clemens Bilan/Getty Images Mr Hammond said: "We've got to make this good or they will come and torch us - and rightly so." Clemens Bilan/Getty Images The trio will tour the world in their new series Clemens Bilan/Getty Images

Mr Hammond, 46, told the Daily Telegraph this week there was a lot of pressure to get it right but people should not be concerned about their huge new budget, which enabled them to travel the world for scenes.

Amazon launch trailer of The Grand Tour

He said: "We're not going to disappoint, because we can't.

"We've got to make this good or they will come and torch us - and rightly so."

Former racing driver and current motoring editor of Confused.com, Amanda Stretton said: Its great to see the return of Clarkson, May and Hammond.

"A travelling tent of a studio means we will see a revamp of the old format which is good news for fans as elements of the old show were perhaps beginning to turn stale.

"This is the perfect opportunity to freshen things up."
Western Nebraska Community College announced that it has received a $25,000 gift from Douglas, Kelly, Ostdiek, Ossian, Broderick and Vogl Law Firm. As part of the WNCC Works: Expanding the Possibilities campaign, the gift will support the upcoming Performing Arts Center renovation. In addition, Phil and Colleen Kelly have generously helped to fund the Richard Douglas Memorial Scholarship endowed fund to support future students at WNCC.

We are pleased to support WNCC and the 'Expanding the Possibilities campaign,' said Attorney Phil Kelly. As a local employer, we believe it is important for the economic vitality of western Nebraska to provide local educational opportunities that support job growth and the educational needs of people throughout the area. Many of the members of our staff have taken classes at WNCC to enable them to assist our attorneys in handling complex matters, and were grateful that the educational opportunity is available, he added.

Douglas, Kelly Law Firm has been providing legal services to clients in western Nebraska since 1977. With offices in Scottsbluff, Chadron, and Crawford, six attorneys provide legal services and assists clients with governmental issues, contracts, real estate transactions, wills and probate, divorce, criminal law, and personal injury.

The donation comes in the midst of the fundraising campaign for the college, which extends through the fall of 2016. This year also marks the landmark 90th anniversary of Western Nebraska Community College. The campaign has raised more than 90 percent of its goal. WNCC joins many community colleges that have launched campaigns to raise private donations and individual giving.

This gift will be directly invested in our students through a long-term scholarship fund, as well as the Performing Arts Center renovation that will help dozens of future students, said WNCC President Todd Holcomb. We are very thankful for the commitment of the Douglas, Kelly Law Firm partners, and to Phil Kelly for his long-term support and assistance to WNCC, he added.
For Terry Gilliland, Paul Snyder, and Bob Kinsey, Monday was their first meeting after being elected to the Scottsbluff Board of Education last week.

All three have experience being on the board and have varying backgrounds.

Paul Snyder, who is now serving his third term, has been on the school board since 2007.

Bob Kinsey was elected to the board again after a hiatus. He previously served on the board for 16 years.

Im glad to be on it again, Kinsey said. I enjoyed being on the school board and I was involved in the beginning of all this at the high school.

I had an opportunity to go through a couple of walk-throughs at the high school, said Kinsey. I am really excited where our high school is going to be. It will be one of the premier high schools in the state of Nebraska once it is done.

Terry Gilliland is serving his second term and has been on the board for four years. He said he feels good about being on the board and is honored.

Its a privilege to serve on the school board, said Gilliland. Every meeting and every experience has been positive.

Gilliland was an educator for 46 years before he retired.

Ive been apart of a lot of schools and Scottsbluff has outstanding schools. There is outstanding leadership, Gilliland said.

Gillilands platform is to see the new high school completed, come down on budget, and look at the issues with the elementary school buildings.

Next year, the Scottsbluff board will consist of Ruth Kozal, Paul Snyder, Mark Lang, Terry Gilliland, Kyle Long and Robert Kinsey.

Snyder said that he is excited about being on the school board, and he is particularly excited about Phase II of high school construction and the whole project.

It will provide a lot of opportunities for students in the school district, Snyder said.

Snyder sees a number of goals for the Board of Education to work on in the future.

One of the things that is important to me is that we address the needs of every single student, Snyder said.

Snyder said the common assumption is that students need to be ready for college, but he also said its necessary to get students who arent going to college prepared for life after high school.

He said students need to be prepared to go into the workforce, know how to balance a checkbook, and know how to be contributing citizens.

Synder, Gilliland and Kinsey expressed that they care about the fiscal responsibility of the school district.

Our constituents are concerned about the finances and tax issue, said Kinsey. Thats a major problem in Nebraska since K-12 education consumes a large portion of property tax.

Gilliland said they are not going to overspend but do the best with what they have.

Snyder said at the same time he wants the school district to offer a competitive teacher and administration salaries so that they can have the best and keep the best.

The members also focused on the growth of the student population where there has been steady growth.

Snyder said in a growth situation, it starts at the younger population and gradually increases, and that the school district might see use of pod classrooms in the future.

He doesnt foresee construction at a significant level happening in the future.

Well need to make some adjustments without building something new, said Snyder.

Kinsey could see the school district lease or contract other buildings in the district.

Snyder said that people want to come here and want to be part of the school district which means they are offering things people want and appreciate.

I think one of the things that makes me proudest is the achievements of our students, said Snyder.  We just have an amazing number of over-achievers, at all levels.

Snyder said as a board theyve had great relationship and have always gotten along, and that there have never been any long, drawn out fights where things have not gone someones way.

Relationships are what it is all about, Snyder said. I think as board members you have to have very good relationship with your superintendent, with your principals  you certainly have to have good relationships with your patrons, the business community who are partners on many, many fronts on what the school does and what the school does with students.
This page is archived. Data published after 5 April 2022 can be found on the renewed website. Go to the new statistics page

Published: 15 November 2016

Turnover in manufacturing grew by 0.4 per cent in June to August

According to Statistics Finland, turnover in manufacturing in the June to August period was 0.4 per cent higher than in the corresponding period of the year before. Domestic sales grew by 0.1 per cent and export turnover by 0.7 per cent from one year ago.

Three months' year-on-year change in turnover in manufacturing (C) sub-industries (TOL 2008)

were evenly divided into both contracted and grown ones. Turnover grew most in the forest industry, by 3.3 per cent, and in the electrical and electronics industry, by 2.9 per cent from the year before. By contrast, turnover contracted in the chemical industry, by 1.6 per cent, in the food industry, by 0.8 per cent, and in the metal industry, by 0.2 per cent.

Three months' year-on-year change in turnover in main industrial categories (TOL 2008)

In the, turnover in mining and quarrying increased by 9.8 per cent. Turnover in water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities decreased by 0.5 per cent, and that of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply by 2.2 per cent from one year before.

The index of turnover in industry describes enterprises whose main industry is manufacturing. The calculation of the indices is based on the Tax Administrations value added tax data which are supplemented with data obtained with Statistics Finlands sales inquiry. The monthly turnovers of manufacturing enterprises can vary considerably, especially in the metal industries. The variation is mainly due to invoicing practices. The final invoice for major machinery deliveries and projects may be recorded in the sales of one month, even if the delivery had required the work of several months or years.

Source: Index of turnover in industry 2016, August, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Maija Sappinen 029 551 3348, Kirsi-Maaria Manninen 029 551 2681, myynti.teollisuus@stat.fi

Director in charge: Mari Yla-Jarkko

Publication in pdf-format (348.4 kB)

Updated 15.11.2016

Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Index of turnover in industry [e-publication].

ISSN=1798-596X. August 2016. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 2.11.2022].

Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tlv/2016/08/tlv_2016_08_2016-11-15_tie_001_en.html
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Firefighters from Statesville and across Iredell County are providing assistance to responders combating the many wildfires that are still ravaging many western counties.

City of Statesville Fire Department Deputy Chief Gary Styers said his department has deployed three firefighters, who joined with a fourth firefighter and an engine sent by the Troutman Volunteer Fire Department.

The four firefighters left early Saturday morning to assist in the Lake Lure area in Rutherford County. Styers and Troutman Fire Chief Allen Church said the crew is assisting with protecting homes in the area from the flames of the Party Rock fire, one of at least 15 fires burning across the state.

The chiefs said firefighters were eager to give their assistance.

Obviously our guys know that the folks of western North Carolina are in need and firefighters definitely respond in times of need, Styers said. Its not every day we see a disaster like this. Its pretty impressive as far as the size of the fires.

Church added it is difficult for a small volunteer department to send many resources, but his department was still able to spare some.

Other deployments to the Lake Lure area include eight personnel and an engine from the Mooresville Fire Department, according to Mooresville Chief Curt Deaton. The department also sent a brush truck on Monday.

Harmony, Shepherds and South Iredell departments have all sent firefighters or engines. Harmony said it is planning to send a brush truck this week as well.

Its a brotherhood thing, so we just try to help out when we can, said Capt. Brandon Lester with the Harmony Volunteer Fire Department.

The deployments still leave enough resources in Iredell to combat any emergencies, Deaton stressed. It is also a benefit to the firefighters that are battling the fires.

The folks that go to a large scene like this can bring some skill and knowhow back into this county, Deaton said. I think its a win-win. Were helping some fire departments on the west part of the state while also learning valuable skills that can help us if there is every anything like this here.

Deaton also expressed hope that all firefighters will return safely. Departments may rotate deployed personnel with new firefighters if needed.

On Monday, Gov. Pat McCrory said the Party Rock fire near Lure Lake may burn until March if there is a lack of precipitation.
By MARK EVANS mevans@stegenherald.com Bloomsdale will probably host a major fireworks display. The pyrotechnics will not take place until 2024, however. During the Oct. 12 board of aldermen meeting, Kevin Wehner and city officials again discussed the possibility of a July 4 fireworks display at the youth soccer fields on land leased by the city
A humanitarian disaster marked by masses of returning refugees, internal displacement, insecurity, poverty, economic decline, and narcotics is looming in Afghanistan.

As the international community stands idly by, a storm gathers as multiple crises imperil the lives, livelihoods, and well-being of Afghanistans estimated 30 million people, jeopardizing the countrys hard-fought gains of the past 15 years.

While Afghans continue to return from Pakistan in droves, a quieter and largely unnoticed crisis is brewing along the border with Iran. In the past month alone, 41,141 undocumented Afghans have returned from Iran (many of whom were previously deported), bringing the year-to-date total to 371,623 as of the end of October.

These numbers are not surprising, considering Irans systemic exploitation of Afghan refugees, particularly the unregistered. Most of this group does not have basic rights, with only limited access to employment and education, and are frequent targets of police harassment and abuse.

In an interview for my recent research piece, an Afghan woman who left Iran for Europe said, There are a lot of police that are jailing Afghans. They intimidate, harass, and cause many problems for Afghans, especially if the Afghans do not have a refugee card or identity card. The police won't let Afghans work or even look for work; they are constantly badgering them.

Others, like those described by Nasir Haidarzai and Joe Lowry of the International Organization For Migration (IOM), return with a heroin addiction. It's widely reported that they get paid in heroin rather than cash, reads their recent feature. They soon get addicted, and when they are too far gone to work they are rounded up and put on buses. After a while, they try to come back. It's cyclical.

Stories like these are pervasive, and for every documented case there are many more affected in silent struggle. The unregistered status continues to plague returnees long after their re-arrival to Afghanistan, as this limits their access to domestic support services. UNHCR limits its assistance to registered Afghans, and although IOM provides some aid to unregistered returnees, this only extends to the most vulnerable cases -- around 20 percent overall. For those relative few who qualify for this support, the offering is quite limited, covering only transportation, transit and health services benefits. All told, roughly 600,000 undocumented Afghans have returned from Pakistan and Iran over the course of this year alone, and these have been left mostly to fend for themselves.

With Afghanistans harsh winter approaching, returning Afghans will join the roughly 1.2 million internally displaced Afghans -- or IDPs -- a number that has more than doubled since 2012. Earlier this year, Amnesty International reported on the squalid living conditions for IDPs and the ever-increasing competition for the meager resources as their numbers increase. And the candle is burning on both ends, with international donor money drying up as the world has largely moved on from Afghanistan. These factors further strain an existing crisis situation: according to a World Food Programme (WFP) 2014 survey, there are already 9.3 million food insecure Afghans, a number that has surely increased in recent years.

In parallel, the European Union and Afghanistan have signed the highly controversial Joint Way Forward agreement, which will allow the EU to deport thousands of rejected asylum seekers and force further involuntary returns. It goes without saying that this will only exacerbate an already desperate situation.

Hope Lost

The hopelessness of the life waiting for Afghan returnees and IDPs seems to have escaped the consciousness of the international community, particularly the EU, Pakistan, and Iran. In addition to a lack of resources, the security situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated significantly since the drawdown of foreign forces.

Ben Anderson, author and journalist, recently returned from Afghanistan and said:

All the places I've spent years watching the Brits, Americans, and Afghans fight hard for -- places like Sangin, Gereshk, and Marjah [in the southern Helmand Province], are now back in Taliban hands. Morale is very low among the good leaders and commanders I know. They dont feel like they are getting the support they need, and they seemed to accept the resurgence of the Taliban as inevitable. A senior policeman even told me the people in Helmand are happier under the Taliban. That's a pretty stark sign of how badly the whole project has failed.

A Volatile Cocktail

Eroding morale is unsurprising in a war-torn country where momentum appears to be negative. Places like Helmand and northern province of Kunduz have continuously been caught in the crossfire between the Taliban and government forces. More troubling still is that the Taliban continue to consolidate gains -- they now claim control of 97 districts, a significant increase over last year, as civilian casualties mount.

The economy continues to reel as the country grapples with spiraling unemployment following the drawdown of foreign forces and dwindling foreign aid. The situation appears bleak, a volatile cocktail of deteriorating security, lack of basic resources, and abject poverty. In such circumstances, concerns naturally heighten around the vulnerability of the displaced and disaffected to the draw of insurgent groups -- particularly young males, who may seek refuge with Taliban or Islamic State militants. Add to this the odd U.S. military action, such as the recent airstrike that killed 30 civilians near Kunduz -- many women and children among them -- and the risk of radicalization only increases.

Heather Barr of Human Rights Watch summed things up neatly at a recent Afghan Womens event in London, saying, Donors continue giving money, but they stopped caring long ago.

This is a shared sentiment within the Afghan community, which remains in desperate need of international support.

Barin Sultani Haymon is a London-based researcher. Her work has been focused on social and economic issues in Afghanistan and among the Afghan diaspora in the West. These views are the author's alone and do not represent those of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Firewood household prices in Romania have doubled over the past year as a result of legislation getting tougher, Director General of the Romsilva National Forestry Corporation Ciprian Pahontu told an energy conference on Tuesday.

"We are witnessing some turbulences on the market for firewood this autumn. They are generated first of all by legislation on legality of firewood in circulation and trade getting tougher. Over the last year, the Government has taken measures to contain illegal harvest and sale of timber. That has generated a quite important effect: in 2015, households could purchase firewood at prices of 200 lei per cubic metre; what is happening now in the countryside, where firewood is very much in use for heating, prices have almost doubled to 400-450 lei. This is a cumulated effect that includes legislation getting tougher and the effect of a governmental regulation of November 2015 that troubled the wood market in production year 2016," said Pahontu.

He added that Romsilva will make available 450,000 cubic metres of firewood for households by the end of the year.

"In 2016, Romsilva released to the market wood that had been rejected by business operators at two biddings and one negotiation. As of September 30, Romsilva managed to release 450,000 cubic metres of wood to the market. In 2015, almost one million cubic metre of firewood were provided to the households. The Government has taken measures to secure successful overwintering. The Government has promised us to release 450,000 more cubic metres to the market by the close of the year. Romsilva is not the only market player," Pahontu told the conference organised by Focus Energetic.

agerpres.
Over 100 pensioners affiliated with the Unirea National Pensioners Federation of Romania at 10:00 am started a protest in front of the Government House in Bucharest, in central Victoria Square, with their main grievance being a drop in their living standards.

Chairman of the Unirea National Pensioners Federation of Romania Dumitru Cojanu told agerpres. that he called on both president Klaus Iohannis and Premier Dacian Ciolos to tell the pensioners what pensions they are going to draw in 2017 and in years to come. Cojanu has also specified that he expects to be received, along other representatives of the pensioners, inside the Government House to discuss their grievances.

According to the federation, the reason for their 15 November public rally is deepening poverty and a drop in the living standards over the past years due to diminished purchasing power.

The pensioners say that the real pension is smaller than in the crisis year 2009, due to the pensions having been frozen in 2010 - 2011 and the 2.8pct average increases in 2012 - 2016. They demand pensions being computed against 45pct of the average gross wage, the taxation only of the part of the pensions that exceeds the average gross wage, an increase in the number of subsidised and free medicines, an increase in subsidies for medical prosthesis and also an increase in the number of treatment vouchers, to 400,000, from 220,000.
KMG International, through its member companies Rominserv and Rompetrol Gas, continues to support in 2016  2017 the medical emergency interventions of SMURD, at national level. Through this partnership, the Group donates to the Emergency and ICU unit of Floreasca Emergency Hospital, an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation device (ECMO), as well as uniforms for SMURD medical volunteers.

We understand the needs of the public health system and we believe in our social duty to contribute to the countrys development and provide quality care to patients. This initiative comes as a continuation of our commitment taken back in 2009, when we launched the grants for medical projects, with investments exceeding $ 5 million, as well as our efforts in keeping high health & safety standards for our employees - says Catalin Dumitru, Senior Vice-President of KMG International.

Through this responsible partnership, developed with Rompetrol since 2009, we have managed to support aero-medical activity carried out by SMURD, through the General Inspectorate of Aviation. We will continue this cooperation for the development of vital projects, through which we can provide the necessary logistical support for the work carried out by the emergency medical service SMURD, in order to be able to save all the patients, that are in critical medical conditions, who require highly qualified medical assistance, at the highest professional standards.  Dr. Raed Arafat.

This partnership continues the agreement signed in 2009, up to 2015, through which Rompetrol Rafinare provided Jet fuel for medical helicopters operated by the Inspectorate for Aviation and the Mobile Emergency Service for Resuscitation and Extrication (SMURD), facilitating the transportation and lifesaving of 5808 injured people, and registering 10,347 flight hours.

The ECMO equipment ensuring extracorporeal membrane oxygenation will be utilized to provide cardiac and respiratory support to patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit, as well as during their transportation by SMURD teams. At the country level, there are just a few ECMO devices in the health system, the price of a single one amounting to around EUR 55,000. The mobile equipment donated by Rompetrol is the first of its kind in the national health system, being used in emergency transportation of patients.

At the same time, Rompetrol Gas brings its contribution in buying uniforms for medical volunteers (over 750 at national level), their role being instrumental in ensuring the first-aid provided to those injured in road accidents.

This year, KMG International acquired and donated to the National Institute of Blood Transfusion two plasma freezers, which are in accordance with the current required European standards, as well as medical equipment for laboratories. KMG International Group invested over USD 8 million in community development projects in the country over the past years, with an overall 300,000 beneficiaries. The investments in the health sector, one of the strategic directions of the Group, targeted rehabilitation of units and endowment with medical devices of more than 60 hospitals in the country. In 2013, Marie Curie Hospital received funds to implement  for the first time in Romania  the ECMO technique (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) for the neonatal patients who suffered severe respiratory and cardiac disease and were not responding to standard reanimation methods.
Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court say they have "reasonable basis" to believe the United States committed "war crimes" by torturing prisoners in Afghanistan.

The U.S. military subjected at least 61 detainees in Afghanistan to "torture, cruel treatment, [and] outrages upon personal dignity," an initial investigative report said on November 14.

A further 27 people were tortured by the CIA, it said, with the majority of the alleged crimes occurring between 2003 and 2004 when President George W. Bush was in office.

The United States never ratified the treaty establishing the court, but because the alleged abuses occurred in countries that ratified the treaty -- Afghanistan, Poland, Lithuania and Romania -- the court has jurisdiction.

The report claims the crimes were not "isolated," but were part of "approved interrogation techniques" aimed at extracting "actionable intelligence" from detainees.

The court was established in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. It said it would decide "imminently" whether to commence a full investigation.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said the United States did not believe a full investigation is "warranted or appropriate."

"The United States is deeply committed to complying with the law of war, and we have a robust national system of investigation and accountability that more than meets international standards," Trudeau said.

President-elect Donald Trump has said he would reinstate waterboarding -- a torture method that simulates drowning that was abandoned by the Obama administration -- and techniques that are "a hell of a lot worse" to obtain information from "terrorists."

With reporting by AP, Reuters, AFP, and dpa
Boeing Co. is moving 500 jobs to its north St. Louis County campus from California.

The jobs moving to St. Louis County from Huntington Beach, Calif., are part of a consolidation of the companys Defense, Space & Security business headquartered in St. Louis, spokeswoman Sarah Reed told the Post-Dispatch.

We will be bringing 500 positions to St. Louis, Reed said, adding the jobs are support positions, not production jobs. Chicago-based Boeing currently employs 14,500 people in the St. Louis area.

Additionally, Boeing announced Tuesday that its closing its El Paso, Texas, and Newington, Va., sites.

In order to push ourselves farther and win more business, we need to make the most of our resources and talent, Leanne Caret, president and CEO, Defense, Space & Security, said in a statement. These steps will help us be a stronger partner for our customers worldwide.

The consolidation is part of an effort to enhance efficiency and promote greater collaboration, the company said, adding that new facilities will not be added in the St. Louis area for the added jobs. We wont be adding any infrastructure at this point, Reed said.

The jobs are professional-level positions ranging from engineering to finance, said Reed.

About 1,600 jobs will be moved from Huntington Beach, mainly to other California locations. Huntington Beach hosts a design and research center working with small satellite technology, advanced space access, networked systems, cybersecurity, unmanned underwater vehicles, and advanced manufacturing.

Boeing has moved several hundred jobs to St. Louis over the past three years, in fields such as information technology, research and development and support for the F-22 Raptor fighter. But overall Boeing employment in the metro area has hovered in the 14,500 to 15,000 range.

Boeing plans to hire 700 people by 2023 to make wing and tail parts for its 777X airline at a newly built plant at its sprawling complex in north St. Louis County.

Thousands of other St. Louis production jobs face an uncertain future over the long term as Boeing seeks enough orders to keep its F/A-18 and F-15 fighter lines far into the next decade. The company has enough F/A-18 orders to operate until 2020 and enough F-15 orders to last until early in the next decade.

Boeing is bidding to build the next Air Force trainer, and a win would likely extend employment in St. Louis. The first prototype of the trainer was built in North County.

The state of Missouri is offering incentives worth $229 million over 18 years if Boeing adds 2,000 jobs here. Under the complex deal, Boeing could reap $146 million if it simply keeps the current job count, and lesser amounts if it limits job cuts.

Missouri elected officials cheered the latest job transfer announcement.

Boeings decision to move more than 500 jobs to Missouri makes perfect sense  because the St. Louis region, and frankly our entire state, offer one of the most dedicated, innovative workforces in the country, and play a critical role on our nations defense, U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill said in a statement.

The 500 new jobs that Boeing is bringing to St. Louis are a testament to the citys talented, dedicated workforce, and the potential our state has to drive the aerospace industry forward, said U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt in an emailed statement.

This addition of jobs is a testament to the skill and dedication of our workforce, collaboration with the county, and the quality of life area residents enjoy, said St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger.

Boeing Defence Australia, Boeing Defense Saudi Arabia, and Boeing Defence United Kingdom will be aligned and managed in a new global operations group led by David Pitchforth, who will continue as managing director of Boeing Defence UK, Boeing said.
The Clayton Board of Aldermen unanimously approved a tax abatement agreement with Centene Corp. on Tuesday night that paves the way for the fast-growing health insurer to build a huge new office campus for 2,000 additional employees.

An agreement between the Medicaid managed care company and Clayton knocks 40 percent off real property taxes on the new buildings planned along Forsyth Boulevard in downtown Clayton. Half of the personal property taxes are to be abated.

The vote came despite opposition from some residents, who complaints included the hefty tax incentives, the lack of a public vote on the plan, congestion from the project and construction noise while it is built.

Mayor Harold Sanger, while expressing empathy for residents concerns, said board members ultimately made the decision they believe is best for the community, including the school district.

Sanger added that some opposition to the proposal was based on misinformation, namely people believing that a tax abatement means the city is taking public funds and writing a check to Centene to build.

In all, the agreement is projected to save Centene about $75 million over 20 years, or about $40 million in todays dollars, on the $772 million project. The company has also won approval for $10 million in Missouri BUILD bonds and has requested some $35 million in state incentives for companies that add enough new workers.

Clayton officials have said they were able to negotiate with Centene for an incentive package that was less than the company originally asked for. The company first wanted half of the value of its new buildings abated.

Centene, which runs Medicaid programs for states, is one of the regions fastest-growing companies and already employs about 1,000 people at its headquarters in downtown Clayton. It plans to add about 1,000 new jobs, some from locations outside the region, and consolidate 1,000 jobs from other offices around St. Louis County.

By 2020, Centene hopes to build two office towers of around 30 stories each. One would include a hotel and an auditorium and plaza that could be used for public events. Centene would occupy only half of the buildings initially, leaving room for roughly 3,000 additional employees at other companies. A final phase with no timeline could add a third, 25-story office building.

While the first office buildings are being constructed, Centene would also be adding a parking structure with about 130 attached residential units. Throughout the developments parking structures, Centene is expected to add somewhere around 5,800 parking spots.

Resident Stacey Smith was among about 100 people who attended the board meeting, which was moved to Wydown Middle School to accommodate the crowd. She said the choice to not include residents in project talks was dismissive and condescending.

She and her brother, Scott Smith, are partnering with lawyer Frederick Berger to create a political action committee in opposition to the measure.

They say the group We Want A Vote believes the decision to give incentives to Centene should not be up to the board but to local homeowners.

The people who put you in office never voted to put this large of a project in motion, Berger said during the meeting.

Let them have a say. Its their money, he added later.

The PAC is collecting signatures to have the issue put on the ballot.

The aldermen said they wanted to avoid giving Centene a reason to build outside of Clayton by not approving the deal.

Like some others on the board, Alderman Ira Berkowitz said he too understood residents concerns. In a perfect world ... a company that makes $40 billion in revenue wouldnt be saying they needed a tax break and there would be legal measures in place to prevent that, Berkowitz said, but the board didnt see putting the issue to a public vote as a viable option.

Its not the first time Clayton residents have challenged the citys tax abatement packages. In May, Clayton settled with a group of residents that had sued in 2014 to force a vote on a tax break package for a 26-story apartment building going up on South Meramec Avenue. The settlement dropped the abatement from 50 percent to 20 percent and is projected to save the city and other taxing jurisdictions $5 million.

The next step in the process is to approve the design of the project.
DES MOINES  Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds said Monday shes had no discussions with Gov. Terry Branstad about ending his current term early to take a post in President-elect Donald Trumps administration.

She said she expects the focus to be on working with a GOP-led Iowa Legislature to move their goals to the next level.

Reynolds dismissed speculation about Branstad possibly being eyed as Trumps pick to be the next U.S. ambassador to China given his close ties to Chinese President Xi Jinping and his strong support in helping Trump win Iowa in last weeks election.

She also said it was coincidence that Branstad currently is leading an Iowa trade mission to China and Japan, noting the visit was planned months ago for this week.

As youve heard the governor and I say multiple times, were proud of what weve been able to do. But were not done yet. Weve got a lot to do, so Im looking forward to continue serving Iowans, Reynolds said during the administrations weekly news conference Monday,

Reynolds sidestepped questions if she planned to run for governor in 2018 and told reporters, I dont know what the governors going to do when asked if Branstad would seek a seventh term.

She did confirm that she had Branstad have not talked about the possibility of him not serving out the remaining two years and two months of his current term after the election last week.

Republicans will return to the Statehouse in January with a new majority in the Senate to go with a slightly larger majority in the House.

Im excited about this next legislative session and Im excited to get back to work on behalf of Iowans, Reynold said. Were going to sit down  the governor and I and our team and our staff and legislators  and were going to talk about putting an agenda together that will take Iowa to the next level.

The lieutenant governor said the Branstad administrations goals continue to be growing quality jobs, shrinking the size of government, returning Iowa schools to world-class caliber, making Iowa the healthiest state in the nation as a way to help control spiraling health care costs and improving the quality of Iowas water supply.

Thats the big picture were looking at, Reynold said. Well sit down and take a look at everything and then work with legislators and see how we continue to move the state forward.

The 2017 sessions agenda may be tempered by the amount of state tax money available for budgeting once the state Revenue Estimating Conference meets in December.

That could be somewhat restrictive on what our opportunities are moving forward. All of that has to come into play when we take a look at next steps, she said.

Iowas economic growth has been slowed by depressed farm commodity prices that have hovered below the cost of production, and Reynolds said the objective of the trade mission Branstad is leading to China and Japan is to expand Iowas exports and to encourage reverse investment in Iowa by Chinese companies.
Special Request is written by Town and Country resident Alanna Kellogg, author of the online recipe column KitchenParade.com and veggie evangelist at the food blog about vegetables, A Veggie Venture.

To request a recipe  Would you like to request a recipe from a restaurant that is still open in the St. Louis area? Send your request along with your full name and the city you live in to reciperequest@ post-dispatch.com.
On Oct. 20, St. Louis Alderman Cara Spencer of the 20th Ward sent a simple request to the St. Louis Police Department.

I am requesting Shot Spotter data for the Gravois Park, Dutchtown (3rd District only) and Marine Villa neighborhoods YTD, month by month to compare where we are this year over where we were last year, she wrote in an email. The note was copied to an aide who works for Mayor Francis Slay.

I am especially interested in looking at August, September and soon October of this year to see what sort of spike we may be seeing in gunfire in our communities and people are reporting just an absolute ton of gunfire.

What Spencer and others soon found out is that the ShotSpotter technology had been turned off since July. The Cherokee Street area aldermans email spurred a flurry of communication, finger-pointing and blame-shifting between the department run by Police Chief Sam Dotson and the administration of the longest-serving mayor in the citys history. I obtained the records through a Sunshine Law request to the mayors office. They show a level of management dysfunction that some had feared when voters in 2012 returned control of the police department to the city.

Its a problem the next mayor, and Dotson  now that hes given up on trying to become the next mayor  will have to figure out if they dont want to repeat the episode. Whats clear in the emails, and based on interviews of some involved, is that ShotSpotter never had to be turned off in the first place.

The cancellation of ShotSpotter came in an email on June 17. The services term for the ShotSpotter gunshot location system installed in the City of St. Louis expired on June 30, 2016, said the note from Dale Cephers, the director of southwest region sales for SST, the company that makes ShotSpotter. The technology had been in use in St. Louis since 2008. Most big cities across the country use the technology, particularly in high-crime areas. Using high-tech microphones placed in key areas, it tracks gunshots in real time, and can be used to direct police to gunfire even before 911 calls are made.

The police department had been using asset forfeiture funds to pay the $180,000-a-year cost of ShotSpotter. This year, during budget negotiations in the spring, Dotson sought to move the expense to general revenue. The budget director denied the line item.

Why? According to emails from both budget director Paul Payne and director of operations Todd Waelterman, the police department had indicated ShotSpotter wasnt a priority.

After I requested information from the mayors office about ShotSpotter being turned off, Payne wrote Slay spokeswoman Maggie Crane about why it wasnt in the budget:  in budget discussions, SLPD reported they did not think this was an effective policing tool. Requested increase was not budgeted. Dotson disputes that he ever questioned ShotSpotters importance.

In a letter to the mayor dated July 7, Dotson let Slay know ShotSpotter was being turned off, and that it was a big problem:

Without question this lack of funding will have a detrimental impact upon the Departments ability to address and prosecute violent crimes.

The mayors office was already working on the problem. On the same day ShotSpotter was turned off, Slays chief of staff, Mary Ellen Ponder, asked the citys attorney, Michael Garvin, to send a legal opinion to Dotson telling him it was OK to spend asset forfeiture money on ShotSpotter. Thats what had been done in the past, but since the previous budget year, the Board of Aldermen had passed a budget bill that included an amendment saying any new asset forfeiture spending had to be approved by the boards public safety committee.

That amendment was invalid and unenforceable, Garvin wrote Dotson on Aug. 12. He told Dotson he could use asset forfeiture money for ShotSpotter.

The letter wasnt enough for Dotson, the chief told me in an interview. So Garvin wrote another one in October. After receiving that letter, Dotson sought further approval from Public Safety Director Richard Gray. That approval came the week I first wrote about ShotSpotter being turned off. The system was back on by the end of the month.

According to Cephers letter, it never needed to be turned off in the first place.

As our customers consider the ShotSpotter system a mission critical component of their public safety process, ShotSpotter generally continues to provide services after a term expires while working with the customer through their purchasing process to renew, he wrote. However, the City has not provided any indications that such a renewal is forthcoming 

A simple phone call could have saved the day. Instead the system was turned off, and the only accountability being sought for the delay is against the police officer who confirmed to me that the system had been turned off. Sgt. Heather Taylor, president of the Ethical Society of Police, an association representing black police officers, is facing disciplinary action for talking to me.

Spencer eventually got a response to her request. But because ShotSpotter was off, she cant compare gunfire year-to-year in the months of July through October.

Maybe gunshots were up. Maybe they werent.

Bureaucratic bungling buried the answer.
BENTON COUNTY  An Amber Alert was issued for two children who vanished with their mother Monday in Benton County, Mo.

Carmelita Wilson, 39, of Warsaw, Mo., abducted her two children Gabriel Longleywilson, 9, and Serenity Longleywilson, 7, officials said.

The three were last seen at 26284 State Highway 00 in Warsaw, about 200 miles southwest of St. Louis

Wilson was described as being 5 feet and 6 inches tall with a light build, blue eyes and blond hair.

Descriptions and photos of the children were not available.

Police said they believe Wilson is driving the two children in a red 1998 GMC Jimmy with a Missouri license plate that read "CL6X4F."
ST. LOUIS  Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyces office must begin providing the last known address of crime victims and witnesses to defense lawyers, an appeals court here ruled Tuesday.

The court said prosecutors may continue stripping personal information such as birth dates Social Security numbers and phone numbers  from police reports it shares. Joyce called it a victory for protecting people named in them, saying it shuts down the whole idea that you really have to turn over all of this sensitive information.

Mary Fox, who as head of the public defenders office here challenged the redaction policy, lauded Tuesdays decision as well-reasoned. She said, Most importantly, we see it as a reaffirmation that the prosecutor must follow the rules. They cant change the rules because they dont like them.

The two have battled since last year over interpretation of a 1979 Missouri Supreme Court pretrial disclosure rule on protecting victims and witnesses while guaranteeing the accused a fair trial.

In August, Joyces office asked the Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District to overturn St. Louis Circuit Judge Michael K. Mullens order that prosecutors provide unredacted police reports.

St. Louis prosecutors had been redacting the information for more than a decade, and Joyce said no case was ever overturned because of it.

But Judge Lawrence E. Mooney wrote in the appellate courts opinion, The Circuit Attorneys practice of routinely withholding this information is in direct contravention of the mandates of the rule. He added, This practice should stop immediately.

He rejected the public defenders argument that additional personal information should be divulged because it constitutes a statement.

Joyce has said she believes the rule is unconstitutional and antiquated in an age of social media that makes it easy for people to share sensitive information. She has argued that a state constitutional amendment on crime victims rights, passed in 1992, overrides the rule.

Fox maintained that Joyces practice violated fair trial rights and put additional pressure on overworked and underfunded public defenders.

Joyce said her office will continue to request court orders to protect information on a case-by-case basis, and to seek other remedies through the courts and the Missouri Legislature.
ST. CHARLES  A Wentzville man accused of critically injuring his infant son in a horrific case of abuse appeared by video in St. Charles County court here Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the 7-week-old baby clings to life at a hospital, suffering from bleeding on the brain and broken bones, among other injuries.

The boy's father, Robert James Burnette, 19, briefly answered questions from a judge during his initial hearing Tuesday morning. He said he was seeking a public defender.

Burnette told Associate Circuit Judge Matthew Thornhill that he had a history of bipolar disorder and Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism. Burnette, who is on suicide watch at the St. Charles County Jail, said he'd been seeking medication and counseling.

Burnette spoke haltingly during the roughly 10-minute hearing.

"You're not talking to me in a way that makes me think you're completely together," the judge said.

Thornhill asked Burnette if he understood the seriousness of the charges. "Uh, yes," Burnette replied.

Prosecutors said they had been told Burnette had mental health issues but they had no confirmation of that. It was unclear whether he would undergo a mental health evaluation as part of the case.

His bail remained set at $500,000, cash-only. Burnette's next hearing was set for Nov. 22.

The baby's mother, Megan L. Hendricks, 20, also made a brief appearance by video Tuesday morning. Authorities say she witnessed the abuse and made no effort to get help. She faces the same felony abuse charge and was held with bail set at $250,000, cash-only.

The charge means she is "equally responsible," Thornhill told her during her hearing. "It's a very serious charge. You could do up to 15 years. That's not in the jail where you are, it's the big house."

She told the judge she was trying to hire an attorney. Her next hearing was also set for Nov. 22.

'We're asking for prayers'

Outside the courthouse Tuesday morning, about two dozen people held a prayer vigil for a baby they've never met. The boy has been identified only as J.B. in court documents, but social media posts identify him as Jaxon James Burnette.

Some mothers in the group held blue balloons and bounced toddlers on their hips. Others held handmade poster board signs that said "Justice for Jax." They read about the baby in news reports Friday.

One of the women attending, Michelle James, said: "We want to be his voice."

"We couldn't ignore it," James, 28, of O'Fallon, Mo., said. She held a poster with a photo of the baby at 4 weeks old. "We're asking for prayers, really."

James doesn't know the baby or his family. She and Holly Culver, of Wentzville, started drumming up support for the baby on Friday after reading the Post-Dispatch account of the baby's abuse. They are both mothers of young children.

"It's heartbreaking," said Culver, 28. "I felt sick to my stomach. It happened literally 10 minutes from my home."

They and other women at the vigil had heard about the case last week. Some formed groups on social media to support the baby. Some people have asked expressed interest in adopting the boy if he survives.

Two mothers from Independence, Mo., in the Kansas City area came to St. Charles for the vigil, and Wentzville Mayor Nick Guccione and Alderman Linda Wright were at the gathering.

'A horrific case'

At a news conference Monday, St. Charles County Prosecutor Tim Lohmar described "a horrific case."

Police say Burnette shoved his fingers down the throat of his 6-week-old son. He wanted to find the babys voice box and stop him from crying, authorities say. More abuse followed. The baby was thrown onto a bed. Shaken violently. Picked up by the back of his neck.

The abuse is alleged to have happened between Oct. 18 and Nov. 7 at the couples home in the 100 block of St. Charles Street in Wentzville. Police got involved after the child was taken to St. Joseph Hospital West and physicians reported the likelihood of child abuse.

Burnette was charged Nov. 8 with abuse or neglect of a child, causing serious emotional or physical injury. The crime is a felony, punishable in Missouri by up to 15 years in prison. The boy's mother faces the same charge, filed Nov. 9.

Lohmar said the child was "in critical but stable condition."

"That's good news," Lohmar said. "It is also sad in the sense...(that) if the child does hang on, the quality of life that the child will have is going to be very, very minimal."

He said the investigation "is very much ongoing."
ST. LOUIS  Calling gun violence a major health crisis in the city, 28th Ward Alderwoman Lyda Krewson announced on Tuesday that she has filed a bill that would ban so-called assault weapons inside the city limits.

Krewson, a candidate for mayor, also introduced a companion bill requiring that all guns left in unattended vehicles be stored in secure lock boxes permanently attached to the vehicle.

She called the two bills a response to the Missouri Legislature's September vote allowing anyone 18 and over to carry a concealed gun without a permit, background check or any training.

Krewson also cites a demonstration earlier this year in which groups stood on the street in the Central West End carrying assault rifles.

I've been thinking about this for a while, she said. I think it's time to push back against some of this. These are common sense provisions, and they're worth fighting for.

The assault weapon ban would make it illegal for anyone to import, sell, manufacture, transfer or possess an assault weapon in St. Louis. It would not apply to law enforcement or members of the military.

Should the bill pass, city residents who already own an assault weapon would have 60 days after it becomes law to dispose of the weapon or remove it from the city limits.

The bill broadly defines assault weapons, but in an interview, Krewson summed them up as military-style weapons.

Most people don't think assault weapons are essential to self-defense or hunting, she said.

Any assault weapon carried or possessed after the ban takes effect would be subject to seizure and forfeiture by the city. Violating the law would carry a 90-day jail sentence and up to a $500 fine.

Krewson said the second bill, requiring all guns left in unattended vehicles to be locked in a secure container, is an attempt to cut down on the number of weapons stolen from cars and later used in violent crimes.

There are law-abiding, good folks carrying guns in cars, she said. We just want them put into a locked box, when the vehicle is unattended.

Krewson said city police estimate they seized more than 2,000 guns last year that were either possessed illegally or used in connection with a crime.

As we know, most guns used in crimes were not bought by the perpetrator of that crime, Krewson said.

The bill would also require gun owners to report the theft or loss of a firearm to police within 48 hours of discovering the weapon was stolen or lost.

Failure to securely store a gun or failure to report a lost or stolen gun would also be punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a fine of up to $500.

California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Washington, D.C., have all banned assault weapons. Minnesota and Virginia have passed laws regulating them.
ST. LOUIS  Officers are trying to sort out what happened after a 5-year-old boy was injured in a shooting Sunday afternoon in the city's Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood.

The boy's mother took him to a hospital with a wound to his cheek Sunday, police said. She told officers she was in her vehicle near North Grand Boulevard and Montgomery Street about 12:30 p.m. waiting for her boyfriend to come out of a nearby business when someone started firing shots.

The boy was hit. Three other young children were in the car but were not hurt, police said.

Police say they are trying to sort out the conflicting accounts of the woman, the boyfriend and witnesses. It's possible the shots were fired by someone known to the boyfriend, police said.

The investigation is ongoing. The boy's medical condition was not available, but police said he was stable.
Two Ladue Horton Watkins High School students were disciplined last week after one student suggested that black students should go to the back of the bus.

The incident happened on Thursday afternoon, when two male students were boarding a school bus that was fairly full.

They were chanting, Trump, Trump, Trump, said Susan Downing, spokeswoman for the school district.

The chanting escalated to the point where one of the students suggested that African-American students should sit in the back of the bus.

That clearly upset people on the bus, Downing said.

The next morning, school officials interviewed the students involved and reviewed school bus tapes of the incident. The two boys were disciplined.

The district cannot say who the students are or how they were disciplined because of federal student privacy laws. But Downing said that in situations like this, suspension would not be an unusual punishment.

This is not something we are taking lightly at all, she said. This is not what we stand for in our district and it's time to react to that and make sure that we know who we are, what's expected and what we stand for as a school community."

District officials are currently weighing options for constructive ways students and community members can discuss and react to what happened. Organizations like the NAACP, HateBrakers and Ladue Cares have reached out to the district for possible collaborations, Downing said.

The district has already been working on its own tolerance initiatives.

High school staff underwent diversity and equity training on Election Day last week. The middle school started hosting a program called Courageous Conversations this school year about what its like to be a parent to African-American boys.

On Sunday, it was announced that the district also promises to ban suspensions of preschoolers through third graders by the 2018-2019 school year. Suspensions as a whole disproportionately affect students of color.

Its not as if were just learning that these are conversations that need to be had, Downing said.

Editor's note: A prior version of the story incorrectly said that more than one student suggested that African-American students should go to the back of the bus.
ST. LOUIS  City Treasurer Tishaura Jones announced Monday that shes running for mayor, joining a race many consider wide open following Mayor Francis Slays surprise announcement last spring that he wont be seeking a fifth term.

Jones joins 28th Ward Alderman Lyda Krewson, Aldermanic President Lewis Reed and 21st Ward Alderman Antonio French as candidates who have publicly announced they are running. Police Chief Sam Dotson, who previously had announced his candidacy, has dropped out.

Collector of Revenue Gregory F.X. Daly has formed an exploratory committee and is considering entering the race.

On Monday, state Sen. Jamilah Nasheed wrote on Twitter that she had signed paperwork with the Missouri Ethics Commission to raise money to run for mayor. She ended her tweet with a #StayTuned hashtag.

And elected St. Louis School Board member Bill Haas, a frequent candidate for various posts, also says hes running.

All are Democrats. The primary is March 7, and the general election is April 4.

Jones, 44, announced her candidacy while giving a reporter a tour of the city covering different landmarks in her life, including her childhood home and her church.

The former state representative also stopped at the City Workhouse and at the north end of the proposed MetroLink expansion  locations that fit into her campaign platform.

Jones pitch for mayor is that government should work for the people. She points to her time in the treasurers office, where she just won reelection to her second term.

This is an office that only used to collect parking (revenue) and handle the citys investments. Now its an office that finds ways to use the money it brings in to benefit people, she said.

Jones likes to talk about the Office of Financial Empowerment she created along with her staff. The office hosts lunch and learns, where people on their lunch breaks learn how to better manage their money.

The office also created the College Kids Childrens Savings Account program, building off of research that says even a small amount of college savings improves a childs chances of college success.

In its second year, the office estimates 6,400 city kindergartners will be automatically enrolled in a college savings program by next summer. That went from idea to implementation in one year, she said. Thats lightning speed when it comes to government.

Jones said it took only a year to reduce the number of cash-only metered parking spaces from 10,000 to 7,700, while also modernizing them to accept credit and payments by phone.

Jones has also been a vocal supporter of the proposed Northside-Southside MetroLink expansion. In August, Jones pushed for and got approval from the St. Louis Parking Commission to use $2 million in city parking funds to study the proposal.

On crime, Jones said the city needs to expand economic opportunities and jobs.

Nine times out of 10, if someone is picking up a paycheck, theyre not picking up a gun, she said.

Jones, a single mother raising a 9-year-old son, said she expects to draw from a large coalition including progressives, activists, immigrants and African-Americans.

If elected, Jones said she would also look to amend the city charter to limit mayors to two terms and apply a racial-equity lens to the way the city conducts business.

We need to make sure that we consider (racial disparities) in whatever we are doing, she said.

Right now, a childs ZIP code determines what kind of health outcomes they will have, and it determines the types of opportunities they will have.
MASON CITY  The Mason City Airport Commission wants Air Choice One to continue to serve the Mason City Municipal Airport.

The commission voted Monday to make that recommendation to the Federal Aviation Administration, which has the final say.

Airport Manager Pam Osgood said, The momentum of what Air Choice One has accomplished over the last two years can continue with a four-year commitment to provide quality air service to the traveling public of North Iowa.

Air Choice One has provided air service in the cities of Burlington, Iowa, and Decatur, Illinois, for the past eight years and four years in Jonesboro, Arkansas. I believe this track record speaks for itself in recommending Air Choice to the DOT, she said.

Osgood said another key component is that Air Choice One is established in three major hubs, St. Louis, Minneapolis and Chicago. It will also serve passengers in Fort Dodge.

This is truly a unique situation for Mason City and Fort Dodge. I want to thank the traveling public for their support of Air Choice One over the past two years, and the best is yet to come, said Osgood.

Air Choice One, based in St. Louis, operates an eight-passenger aircraft.

The other bidders were Aerodynamics Inc. of Kennesaw, Georgia, and Boutique Airlines, headquartered in San Francisco.

The commissions recommendation will go the FAA along with letters of support from Mason City Mayor Eric Bookmeyer and Clear Lake Mayor Nelson Crabb.

The DOT subsidizes air travel to smaller airports through its Essential Air Service program.

Air Choice One began serving Mason City in November 2014.
WASHINGTON  U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill says that certainly Im the underdog in her upcoming re-election in 2018.

The Missouri Democrat's observation comes off an election in which Hillary Clinton, the presidential candidate she endorsed and was a frequent surrogate for around the country, lost by 19 percentage points to Donald Trump, and after Republican Roy Blunt held his Senate against a tough challenge from Democratic Secretary of State Jason Kander. Republicans swept the top of the ticket in Missouri in last weeks election, dealing Democrats one of their worst Missouri outcomes in recent memory.

It was the largest margin of victory for a presidential candidate in Missouri since incumbent Republican Ronald Reagan beat Democrat Walter Mondale by just over 20 percentage points in 1984.

McCaskill told the Post-Dispatchs Jim Gallagher that Democrats have got to do a better job in convincing working-class voters that Democrats are on their side.

My party has done a terrible job of communicating how hard we are working for people in hourly jobs, she said.

Of Clintons problems in Missouri  she got just 37 percent of the vote  McCaskill blamed some lack of enthusiasm.

She was so familiar to people, McCaskill said. It wasnt a bright and shiny object.

The next few months on the Republican side will be interesting, with several possible contenders for the nomination to oppose McCaskill.

But she wont be alone. Democrats are in danger of losing even more seats in the Senate in 2018 because, depending on the outcome of the Michigan presidential vote count, where Trump is leading, Trump will have won 10 states where Democratic senators will be up for election in 2018.

Besides Missouri, those states are West Virginia, Montana, North Dakota, Indiana, Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania. In addition, Democrat Sen. Jean Shaheen will be up in New Hampshire, where Clinton leads by fewer than 3,000 votes over Trump in the latest, unofficial results.

Democratic senators are also up for re-election in Missouri and Virginia, both of which were closer in the Trump-Clinton contest than many Democrats expected. The only Clinton-won state where incumbent an incumbent Republican could have tough challenges is Dean Heller in Nevada. Trump won Arizona by a relatively narrow margin, and Republican Sen. Jeff Flake is up there in two years. (Chuck Raasch)

ON THE WEB:

BY THE NUMBERS:

33  Number of U.S. Senate seats up for election in 2018

25  Number of those seats now held by Democrats or independents (Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Angus King of Maine) who caucus with them.

SHE SAID IT:

A lot will depend on the next two years of President Trump. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., assessing her re-election situation in two years.
FLORISSANT  In a transformation characterized by Mayor Thomas Schneider as turning lemons into lemonade, an eyesore that has bedeviled the city and neighbors for eight years is about to reincarnated as a training site for first responders.

The city announced last week that the five Fleurissant Parc Place town homes will soon be used by the Florissant Valley Fire Protection District, Florissant police and the Black Jack Fire Protection District to develop and enhance public safety skills.

Employees of the three agencies have already started the process of removing and boarding up windows in the five units that represented the initial building phase of an upscale town home development that went belly up during the recession.

Florissant in a written statement called the conversion a solution to a problem that has been a source of annoyance for the city and nearby residents alike.

The three-story town homes have stood, unfinished, at the intersection where North New Florissant Road ends at Carla Drive since 2008.

Im sick of looking at it, a Carla Drive resident told the Post-Dispatch in October. We all (complain) about it, but it doesnt do any good.

The town homes eight years ago represented the beginning of a project developers viewed as a complement to the neighboring Kensington Square Apartments and a subdivision of single family homes.

Instead, the recession intervened, leaving the unpainted town homes exposed to the elements and the remainder of the eight-acre Fleurissant Parc Place site undeveloped.

Steven and Milton Goldenberg, the owners of Golden Management  the firm that manages Kensington Square and other area apartment projects  purchased the Fleurissant Parc site four years ago with the objective of filling the property with senior housing.

Those plans have been slowed by missed deadlines coupled with miscommunication with the city.

Schneider credited the Goldenbergs on Monday for their role in transforming the town homes into a facility to serve the public good.

The Goldenbergs and Florissant building officials agree that the town homes are structurally sound.

Soon, the tattered exteriors will be coated with 200 gallons of paint applied by union painters working with All-American Painting Contractors, located in North County.

Union electricians with the KB Electric Company of Florissant have agreed to work on lighting and security systems.

Meridian Waste Management in Bridgeton is donating a construction trash container.
Three local school districts plan to buck the trend of using out-of-school suspensions as a strategy for improving discipline among preschoolers through third-graders. The districts hope to achieve better classroom behavior through alternatives such as behavioral specialists and social workers.

The districts, Maplewood-Richmond Heights, Normandy and Ladue, are following the St. Louis Public Schools, which in September banned suspensions for preschoolers through second-graders.

A number of academic studies have found that suspensions can disrupt students education, fail to improve safety for other students and harm the overall school environment.

Studies show that black students are suspended on average four times more than whites, feeding the school-to-prison pipeline. Missouri leads the nation with the largest racial disparity for elementary school suspensions, and is fourth in high school suspensions.

Trying such alternatives is a smart decision. An even smarter one would be to fund early-childhood education programs that help tackle many of the behavioral issues that become ingrained in children through inattention during crucial periods of brain development. Missouri voters had the opportunity to approve one such measure on Nov. 8, by raising the states 17-cents-a-pack tobacco tax and earmarking the increased revenue for early childhood education, but they rejected it.

Children who live in poverty are often traumatized by their surroundings, have inadequate food and health care, and lack traditional family support systems. Expecting them to self-adapt from the radically different life at home to the classroom setting is a setup for failure.

Out-of-school suspensions are more likely to increase childrens exposure to the conditions that feed inattentiveness and impulsive behavior and lead to disruptive behavior. Its hardly a formula for success.

Suspensions began escalating decades ago, during the administration of President Ronald Reagan, when harsh discipline was viewed as a way to get rid of disruptive kids so others could learn. Suspensions might be a quick fix for a range of disciplinary problems, but studies show there are better alternatives to change student behavior over the long term.

Early-childhood classrooms expose students to the educational environment and help head off behavioral issues while laying a foundation for social interaction, self-control and academic achievement.

In later years, students who have been suspended are more likely to drop out of school. In worst-case scenarios, dropouts face the likelihood of incarceration later in life. At a minimum, their job prospects are diminished, increasing the chance that theyll become a burden on society.

The social costs are enormous. A study by the University of Californias Civil Rights Project published in June estimates that high school dropouts cost the nation more than $35 billion in lost wages and taxes, increased crime, higher welfare expenses and poorer health.

Starting kids off with good pre-kindergarten education costs less in the long run. Voters in Missouri shortchanged themselves on Nov. 8.
On Election Day, 69.95 percent of Missouri voters supported an amendment to put limits on contributions to candidates in state elections. By the end of the week, some of Missouris biggest donors were saying, in effect, no problem, they could get around that.

It takes a special kind of arrogance, a malign sense of entitlement, to thumb your nose at the will of nearly 70 percent of voters. Amendment 2 substantially outpolled every candidate for statewide office, meaning it had support from Republicans and Democratic voters alike. Regardless of politics, Missourians are wise to the outsized influence that big, secret donors have in Jefferson City, and they want it stopped.

Voters said the same thing in 1994, only to see a Republican Legislature and governor bypass the limits and approve ways to shuffle and launder money among various committees so that the public couldnt tell who was buying influence from whom.

Amendment 2 was designed to stop that. It placed a $2,600 limit on direct contributions to candidates. It placed a $25,000 limit on contributions to political parties. It closed the committee-to-committee laundromat. It requires full disclosure of donors names. No one is allowed to anonymously contribute more than $25 in cash to any candidate or committee.

The intent of Amendment 2 could not be more clear. And yet when The Associated Press asked Travis Brown, chief lobbyist for conservative megadonor Rex Sinquefield, about the effect of the amendment, Brown said:

It wont change large donor fundraising at all. It actually will probably make it more powerful.

Big donors like Sinquefield could try to thwart the voters will by forming multiple political action committees, each of which could contribute $25,000 to a candidate. It would take a lot of paperwork  40 committees writing 40 checks to give $1 million  but its doable if you have enough money.

Or big donors could do what theyve done in federal elections, which have a similar $2,600 individual limit: Use independent expenditure committees to give unlimited amounts of money. Independent committees are not supposed to coordinate with candidate committees, but the feckless Federal Election Commission has been lax in enforcing this rule.

Independent committees already have played a sneaky role in Missouri elections. Republican Gov.-elect Eric Greitens, who opposed Amendment 2 yet campaigned on cleaning up Jefferson City, benefited from nearly $6 million in dark money during the primary and general elections.

Section 7 of Amendment 2 clearly states that no contribution shall be made or accepted, directly or indirectly, in a fictitious name, in the name of another person, or by or through another person in such a manner as to conceal the identity of the actual source of the contribution.

Voters were clear. It shouldnt take a lawsuit to figure this out, but it probably will.
A Texas woman is facing felony charges for letting pet tigers and monkeys, along with other exotic animals, roam through her home, endangering her 14-year-old daughter.

Trisha Meyer, 34, had promised to sell an exotic kitten to a man in California over the summer, according to documents filed in Harris County court.

The Houston Chronicle reported that the man paid Meyer $3,000 but did not receive the kitten.

About a month later, an animal cruelty squad and a Texas game warden went to Meyer's house. They found three tiger cubs and a skunk roaming through the living room, bedroom and kitchen.

Meyer also had a large male tiger and several monkeys, including some that she said are "vicious" and one that attacks people.

Meyer left her Houston home and went to Las Vegas with her animals. She was arrested and her tigers confiscated in Nye County.
MASON CITY | A Mason City woman accused of forging more than $1,500 in checks has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Maggie Moyer, 32, who pleaded guilty in September to three felony counts of forgery, was given a five-year suspended prison sentence and was put on probation for five years on each count last week. A $750 fine on each count was suspended.

According to court documents, Moyer:

 Endorsed two stolen payroll checks worth $264.17 on Feb. 24 at First Citizens Bank in Mason City.

 Forged two checks worth $875 on May 13, deposited them into the account of a man she was caring for and then immediately withdrew the money from an ATM.

 Presented a stolen and forged check worth $389.83 on April 21 in Mason City.

-- Mary Pieper
Centre lecturer and associate professor Orjan Bodin recently received a 3 million SEK grant from the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsradet). The project aims to explore the questions: Is collaborative natural resource management improving ecological status? If so, how?

Research has shown that environmental processes rarely adhere to socially defined boundaries, and because of this, traditional management schemes tend to fail in effectively managing and conserving boundary-spanning ecosystems.

In the past decades, research has suggested that collaborative governance arrangements are better suited to align with the ecosystem in question, and therefore should lead to better ecological outcomes. However, there has been a lack of empirical evidence involving both ecological and social data to support these claims.

This project will help to address this research gap, and aims to develop a theoretical and methodological framework partly based on a network modelling approach. It will take an interdisciplinary approach grounded in previous research from ecology, natural resource management, and political science.

This newly funded project will run over four years, and will be led by Bodin. However, it will work in collaboration with centre researcher Erik Andersson; Daniel Nohrstedt from Uppsala University researcher and Sara Borgstrom from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). It will also fully fund a PhD position.

Bodin says that this project will enable us to conduct an empirical investigation of a long-standing question in environmental research, namely if collaborative arrangements improve the ecological status of the managed ecosystem.
MASON CITY  The Iowa Supreme Court last week denied further review of a Cerro Gordo County jurys decision to find the driver of a van that struck and killed a pedestrian not at fault.

Clyde DeWayne Parker Jr., 37, was hit shortly after 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 18, 2014, while walking along the 900 block of South Monroe Avenue in Mason City.

His estate filed a lawsuit against the vans driver, Gayle Shatek, and her husband, Timothy Shatek, the owner of the van.

Gayle Shatek was talking with her husband on a cell phone when her van struck Parker, a Mason City resident who was walking with traffic on the side of the street, according to court records.

Parkers estate was seeking damages for funeral and medical expenses, loss of earnings and Parkers pain and suffering.

In June 2015 a Cerro Gordo County jury found Gayle Shatek was not at fault in the accident.

Parkers estate appealed the jurys decision. The Iowa Court of Appeals upheld the decision in September 2016.

The estate asserted the district court abused its discretion by allowing Parkers criminal history information to be entered as evidence during the trial. The estate claims this evidence was irrelevant.

Parker was convicted in 2011 on a felony charge of methamphetamine delivery.

The appeals court noted the estates expert witness testified regarding economic damages, including the loss of accumulation to the estate due to Parkers death.

The ruling stated the evidence of Parkers criminal history was relevant because during cross-examination the expert witness acknowledged a persons criminal history could affect employability, future earnings and accumulation to the estate.

The appeals court noted Parkers criminal history was discussed only briefly during the trial.

The estate also challenged one of the jury instructions, claiming it was misleading and confusing.

The instruction stated that the jury was allowed to consider whether Parker exercised reasonable care in walking in the street, noting although a pedestrian has the lawful right to travel upon the streets, they are designed primarily for vehicular use.

The appeals court ruled the instruction was not misleading or confusing, but a correct statement of the law.
THE 15,000 Highflyer/Million In Mind 4-Y-O & 5-Y-O Novices Chase is the highlight of Warwicks seven-race card on Wednesday and Top Notch looks to have an outstanding chance of lifting the first prize, writes David Hucker.

This is a race that usually attracts a small, but select field, having been won in the last two years by Ptit Zig and Bristol De Mai.

Owners Simon Munir and Isaac Souede will be hoping to follow up the success of Bristol De Mai with Top Notch, who was rated at 158 over hurdles, finishing fifth behind Annie Power in the Stan James Champion Hurdle in March.

Top Notch made his debut over fences when a close-up third to the highly-regarded Charbel at Uttoxeter last month and, with runner-up Le Prezien scoring at Cheltenham on Sunday, the form looks rock solid.

A field of 14 will line up for the opening PJ & KR Smith-Maxwell Horse Ambulances "National Hunt" Novices Hurdle over two miles and Doncaster bumper winner Midnight Maestro will be fancied to open his account over jumps for owner J P McManus and trainer Alan King.

But, with the runner-up not having raced since and the third horse failing to score in four subsequent hurdle races, it is difficult to weigh up the form and a better bet may be the Dan Skelton trained Asum, who made a promising debut here in April.

Others to consider are GetRhythm from the Tom George stable and the unraced Destinys Star, the choice from six entries for trainer Jonjo ONeill.

Chantara Rose, a course winner over hurdles, heads the weights in the following Whitson Bloodstock Mares Novices Handicap Chase, but she comes here off the back of a poor run last time when pulled up at Ffos Llas.

Song Saa won two of her four races last season, on soft and heavy going, so she should be suited by underfoot conditions and, although her jumping has to be taken on trust, she looks handily weighted.

Chepstow winner Colins Sister tops the ratings in the Thoroughbred Breeders Association Mares Novices Hurdle and is bound to run her usual solid race. She has to carry a penalty for that success and my find Which One Is Which, who was runner up to Copper Kay in a Listed race at Cheltenham twelve months ago, too hot to handle.

There is a competitive-looking field of eleven for the Racing UK.com Conditional Jockeys Handicap Hurdle, including course winner What A Scorcher, who was not disgraced when third to Cliffs Of Dover at Cheltenham on her last run.

With her two wins this season having come on good ground, there is a question mark over whether she will be as effective on a softer surface this time, but she brings solid form credentials into the race and must be the one to beat.

The long-distance Geoff Hancock Celebration Handicap Chase is another that will test punters in trying to find the winner, but Leith Hill Legasi, who is not the most consistent of performers, may be the one to be on if putting his best foot forward.

Only one of the 14 who contest the concluding Whitson Bloodstock David Nicholson Memorial Fillies "Junior" Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race has run before, so the betting market is likely to the best guide to finding the winner.

Trainer Alan King learnt his trade as assistant to Gloucestershire trainer David Nicholson, in whose memory this race is run, and he won it in 2014 with Lady Persephone, ridden by Richard Johnson, who had also started out under the watchful eye of The Duke as Nicholson was known.

Without a runner last year, King is looking to Passing Call this time and, with her dam Call Me ALegend notching up six successes, including a heavy ground chase win over the course, she is certainly bred for the job.
Crude oil drips from a valve at an oil well operated by Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA, in the oil rich Orinoco belt, near Morichal at the state of Monagas April 16, 2015. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File Photo

By Scott DiSavino

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices were little changed in volatile trading as the market weighed Russia's comments about a possible meeting with Saudi Arabia that renewed hopes for a production freeze deal against a bigger-than-expected U.S. crude inventory build.

Brent futures fell 2 cents to $46.93 a barrel by 12:52 p.m. EST (1752 GMT). U.S. crude rose 7 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $45.88 per barrel.

That followed a near 6 percent price surge on Tuesday on news the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries would renew efforts to limit production ahead of its official meeting in Vienna.

Russia said it was ready to support OPEC's decision on an output freeze and sees big chances that the oil producers' group can agree on the terms of the freeze by Nov. 30, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said crude stocks increased for a third straight week and rose by a bigger-than-expected 5.3 million barrels last week, topping analysts' 1.5 million-barrel build in a Reuters poll. [EIA/S]

"Fundamentals are weighing on oil prices following the release of the weekly oil inventory report from the U.S," said Abhishek Kumar, senior analyst at Interfax Energy's Global Gas Analytics in London.

"Price volatility will increase as we approach the OPEC meeting scheduled for Nov. 30, but markets will not ignore fundamentals," Kumar said.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said he will meet with OPEC secretary-general Mohammed Barkindo in Caracas on Wednesday to discuss the freeze.

A number of energy ministers from OPEC countries are also likely to meet informally in Doha on Friday to try to build consensus over decisions taken by the full group in September in Algiers, an Algerian energy source said.

Those informal meetings could include energy ministers from Saudi Arabia and Russia. But Iran's oil minister will not be attending, sending the country's OPEC governor instead, sources said.

"We see enough cooperation between these two oil power houses to keep a significant amount of OPEC premium embedded in the market," Jim Ritterbusch, president of Chicago-based energy advisory Ritterbusch & Associates, said in a note.

Dutch bank ABN Amro, meanwhile, lowered its oil price forecasts on Wednesday, expecting Brent and U.S. crude to average $50 a barrel in the fourth quarter.

"We estimate the possibility of an actual OPEC production cut as 50-50," said Hans van Cleef, senior energy economist at ABN Amro.

(Additional reporting by Karolin Schaps in London and Aaron Sheldrick in Tokyo; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Louise Heavens)
Carriage Services, Inc. (NYSE: CSV) is pleased to announce that we have partnered with Rich & Thompson Funeral Services in the Strategic Market of Raleigh/Durham/Greensboro in North Carolina. Dating back to 1913, the Rich & Thompson name has been a prominent name in funeral service in both Burlington, NC and Graham, NC. At their current locations of Burlington, NC since 1935 and Graham, NC since 1957, the two businesses serve over 550 client families annually and have been under the leadership of S. Lloyd Carter and James "Jim" Guthrie since 1973.

Mel Payne, Chairman and CEO of Carriage, stated, "The partnership with Rich & Thompson Funeral Services expands our presence in the Strategic Market of Raleigh/Durham/Greensboro as we continue to add Being The Best funeral service brand names in the state of North Carolina to our Carriage family of elite businesses. We are honored to provide a succession planning solution for Lloyd and Jim that will combine their unparalleled service and reputation with our support functions for continued growth of the business. We look forward to supporting Herbert "Chip" Rhodes, Scott Rhodes, and Roy Glasgow as they assume daily leadership responsibilities and jointly we are committed to continuing the culture instilled by Jim and Lloyd of consistently providing high value personal services to their client families and communities."

Jim Guthrie and Lloyd Carter said, "In searching for a partner, we had two requirements. First, the business had to continue to operate in the 'Rich and Thompson' way. Second, the 'family' atmosphere must be maintained while serving our families with the utmost integrity and pride. With Carriage we have found the ideal partner. We can continue to serve our community with the same quality and compassion that has been upheld since our founding."

Carriage Services is a leading provider of funeral and cemetery services and merchandise in the United States. Carriage currently operates 170 funeral homes in 28 states and 32 cemeteries in 11 states
The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE: EL) announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire Too Faced, the feminine, playful makeup brand renowned for high-quality, stylish cosmetics that consumers love. Too Faced, one of the fastest growing makeup brands in specialty-multi and online, is expected to strengthen the Companys leadership position in the fast-growing prestige makeup category globally, increase the Companys consumer reach in the specialty-multi channel, and win with millennials  all in strong alignment with the Companys strategy.

Launched in 1998 by cosmetics visionaries Jerrod Blandino and Jeremy Johnson, and currently led by Johnson, Blandino and CEO Eric Hohl, Too Faced offers an unabashedly empowering line of cosmetic products for the eyes, face and lips. Beloved for its high-quality, innovative formulas, irreverent product names and distinctive packaging, Too Faced creates an emotional, authentic connection with consumers and has developed a strong following and built a vibrant community among millennials who are passionate about social media, fashion and pop culture. Too Faced has over 7.3 million Instagram followers and is among the top eight makeup brands in the specialty-multi channel in the United States.

Too Faced has experienced impressive growth over the past several years, and is expected to reach more than $270 million in net sales in 2016. This represents growth of more than 70% for the year and 60% compounded annually over the past three years. Too Faced has been part of leading global growth equity firm General Atlantics portfolio since 2015. The Estee Lauder Companies has agreed to acquire the entities that own the brand for a purchase price of approximately $1.45 billion. The acquisition is expected to close in December 2016.

Too Faced is one of the most dynamic makeup brands in the world, said Fabrizio Freda, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Estee Lauder Companies. It has tremendous growth momentum in specialty-multi and online  important, strategic and fast-growing channels. With Too Faced, we see terrific opportunity for additional value creation through expansion in new and existing markets both in the U.S. and internationally, as well as in travel retail globally. Jeremy, Jerrod, Eric and the entire Too Faced team have built an amazing and innovative brand. We look forward to working with them to continue to build on the brands winning spirit.

We are delighted to be joining forces with The Estee Lauder Companies as we continue to drive Too Faceds dynamic growth, said Jeremy Johnson and Jerrod Blandino, Co-Founders of Too Faced. We started our careers behind the counters of the Estee Lauder brand, so this is truly a homecoming for us. The Estee Lauder Companies appreciates our unique vision  to provide innovative, cruelty-free makeup products that give women the confidence to have fun, play and dream big  and is committed to ensuring that we retain and build on the core pillars of our brand that are so important to us and our fans. This commitment, combined with ELCs incredible world-class resources, will help us assure the ongoing growth and success of Too Faced for many years to come.

Too Faceds diverse range of color cosmetics includes cult favorites across all makeup subcategories. The iconic Better Than Sex Mascara, which launched in 2013, quickly became the number one selling mascara with all of the brands primary retail partners in multiple markets, and has sold over 2.5 million units globally. Born This Way, the brands coveted undetectable foundation that launched in July 2015, has also become one of the bestselling foundations within its channels of distribution. Too Faced is also known for its unique and beautifully packaged eye shadow palettes and collections, which strategically combine bestsellers with new creations; for example, the brands Christmas Collection has become a hero franchise that is significantly reinvented every year, driving its phenomenal success.

The entrepreneurial spirit at the heart of The Estee Lauder Companies is evident in the remarkable success of Too Faced, said William P. Lauder, Executive Chairman of The Estee Lauder Companies. Jerrod and Jeremy started the brand with a simple, yet compelling creative concept, and transformed it into something that is truly extraordinary. We are absolutely delighted that Jeremy and Jerrod are returning to the Company where they began their careers in beauty, and we welcome the entire Too Faced team to our family.

"Too Faced is a terrific growth company with an impressive track record of successful product innovation and an authentic connection with its customers. Weve enjoyed a strong partnership with Jeremy, Jerrod, Eric and the rest of the Too Faced team and believe the companys bright future will only be enhanced as part of The Estee Lauder Companies portfolio, said Andrew Crawford, Managing Director and Global Head of Retail & Consumer at General Atlantic.

John Demsey, Executive Group President, The Estee Lauder Companies Inc., will add Too Faced to the portfolio of brands that he oversees.

The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. received financial advice from Evercore and BNP Paribas, and legal counsel from Lowenstein Sandler LLP. Too Faced received financial advice from Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Jefferies LLC, and legal counsel from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP.

Conference Call

The Estee Lauder Companies will host a conference call from 8:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. (ET) tomorrow, November 15, 2016 to discuss this transaction. The dial-in number for the call is 888-294-4716 in the U.S. or 706-902-0101 internationally (conference ID number: 20656069). The call will also be webcast live at http://www.elcompanies.com/investors/events-and-presentations.

The forward-looking statements in this press release, including those in the quoted remarks and those relating to the expectations for the acquired brand and the benefits of the acquisition, involve risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those forward-looking statements include current economic and other conditions in the global marketplace, actions by retailers, suppliers and consumers, competition, the Companys ability to successfully integrate the acquired business and/or implement its long-term strategic plan, and those described in the Companys annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2016.
Regency Centers Corporation (NYSE: REG) and Equity One, Inc. (NYSE: EQY) announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Equity One will merge with and into Regency, with Regency continuing as the surviving public company and creating the preeminent shopping center Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT). The resulting enterprise will have industry-leading operating, development, redevelopment capacities as well as an unparalleled portfolio of primarily grocery-anchored properties uniquely positioned to sustain growth in net operating income (NOI) and create value for all of its stakeholders. The combined company is expected to have a pro forma equity market capitalization of approximately $11.7 billion and a total market capitalization of $15.6 billion, making it the largest REIT by equity value in the shopping center index.

Bringing together these two highly complementary businesses creates a best-in-class platform capable of delivering sustained growth and value creation over the long-term, said Martin E. Hap Stein, Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Regency. Shareholders of both companies are poised to benefit from an expanded presence in top metro areas, a higher organic growth profile, expanded development and redevelopment program, and greater tenant diversity. Through this transaction we are creating the nations preeminent shopping center REIT with excellent embedded growth potential. Importantly, we expect the transaction to be accretive to core FFO per share while preserving a sector-leading balance sheet, with greater financial flexibility to support growth initiatives.

This merger will be a transformative event for both companies, said David Lukes, Chief Executive Officer of Equity One. The alignment of our respective portfolios, development/redevelopment pipelines, industry-leading operations, and access to a lower cost of capital, opens us to new avenues of growth that will benefit all shareholders. Equity One shareholders are receiving an attractive valuation for the companys assets, and have the opportunity to participate in the future growth prospects of a powerful new company led by a best-in-class management team.

Under the terms of the Agreement, each share of Equity One common stock will be converted into 0.45 shares of newly issued shares of Regency common stock. On a pro forma basis, following the closing of the transaction, Regency shareholders are expected to own approximately 62 percent of the combined companys equity, and former Equity One shareholders are expected to own approximately 38 percent. The merger is subject to customary closing conditions, including the approval of both Regency and Equity One shareholders. The parties currently expect the transaction to close during the first quarter or early second quarter of 2017.

This strategic transaction was unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of both companies. The merger will create a national portfolio of 429 properties encompassing more than 57 million square feet, including co-investment partnerships, and located primarily in high density in-fill and affluent trade areas. The combination will provide increased penetration within key target areas, broader tenant diversity, and meaningful balance sheet capacity. As a result, the combined company will feature the attributes necessary to deliver consistent NOI growth, along with the capabilities to pursue accretive capital deployment opportunities through disciplined development and intense asset management.

Summary of Strategic Benefits

The merger of Regency and Equity One uniquely positions the combined company to enhance shareholder value as the preeminent grocery-anchored shopping center REIT:

Unparalleled Portfolio of High-Quality Centers: Increased concentration in higher density, in-fill metro areas. The companys five largest areas of Southern and Northern California; Southeast Florida; New York; and the Washington / Baltimore corridor, which together will represent more than 50 percent of total annualized rent, increases density by more than 30 percent and demographic purchasing power by 15 percent.

Increased concentration in higher density, in-fill metro areas. The companys five largest areas of Southern and Northern California; Southeast Florida; New York; and the Washington / Baltimore corridor, which together will represent more than 50 percent of total annualized rent, increases density by more than 30 percent and demographic purchasing power by 15 percent. Enhanced NOI Growth Profile: The high quality of the combined platform provides for significant and sustainable embedded NOI and net asset value growth opportunities.

Expanded Value-Creation Opportunities: The combined best-in-class national development, redevelopment, and leasing platform is positioned to produce industry-leading performance.

The combined best-in-class national development, redevelopment, and leasing platform is positioned to produce industry-leading performance. Greater Diversity of High-Quality Tenants: The top 10 tenants of the combined company, which include category-leading grocers and retailers such as Publix, Kroger, Whole Foods, and TJX, will represent approximately 18 percent of total ABR, with no single tenant representing more than approximately three percent.

The top 10 tenants of the combined company, which include category-leading grocers and retailers such as Publix, Kroger, Whole Foods, and TJX, will represent approximately 18 percent of total ABR, with no single tenant representing more than approximately three percent. Superior Financial Strength and Flexibility: With enhanced size and scale, the combined company will maintain a conservative balance sheet with the flexibility to pursue compelling investment opportunities.

With enhanced size and scale, the combined company will maintain a conservative balance sheet with the flexibility to pursue compelling investment opportunities. Annualized Operating Cost Savings: The combined company expects to realize approximately $27 million in annual run-rate cost savings by 2018, primarily related to the elimination of duplicative corporate and property-level operating costs. In addition, the combined company expects to realize additional synergies from economies of scale, increased operational efficiencies and its ability to augment an already-talented team.

Leadership and Organization

Both the Board of Directors of Regency and the Board of Directors of Equity One unanimously approved the transaction. The number of directors on Regencys Board of Directors will be increased to 12, of which two directors designated by Equity One and one director designated by Gazit-Globe will be appointed to the Regency Board. Mr. Stein will serve as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the combined company, and Regencys President and Chief Financial Officer, Lisa Palmer, Executive Vice President of Development, Mac Chandler, and Executive Vice President of Operations, James Thompson, will continue in their respective roles at the combined company. Chaim Katzman, current Chairman of Equity One and Gazit-Globes designee on the Regency Board, will serve as non-executive Vice Chairman of the combined company. Gazit-Globe, which owns approximately 34 percent of the outstanding stock of Equity One, has agreed to vote in favor the transaction. John C. Schweitzer will continue to serve in his role as lead director for Regency.

Upon completion of the merger, the companys headquarters will remain in Jacksonville, Florida. The company will retain the Regency name and will continue to trade under the ticker symbol REG (NYSE).

Pro Forma Operations and Balance Sheet

Both companies own and operate high-quality grocery-anchored shopping centers located in fundamentally strong areas throughout the country. On a pro forma basis, the combined company will have an increased presence in higher-density, in-fill trade areas and enhanced tenant diversification. Given the complementary assets and operations of the two companies, the combined platform has meaningful opportunities for synergies, and margin improvement is expected. The combined company expects to increase cash flow at the property level by marking rents to market rates, realizing contractual rent increases, growing small shop occupancy and re-merchandising. In addition, the combined company is expected to have greater liquidity, a strong investment-grade balance sheet and a well-staggered debt maturity profile supported by long-standing relationships.

Dividend Policy and Declaration

Each company is expected to continue its ordinary course dividend policy during the pendency of the merger, and will also pay a pro-rated pre-closing dividend, so as to equalize the dividend payment dates and periods for each company.

Advisors

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is acting as financial advisor, and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is acting as legal advisor, to Regency. Barclays is acting as lead financial advisor, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. is acting as co-financial advisor, and Kirkland & Ellis LLP is acting as legal advisor to Equity One. ICR, LLC served as communications advisor for the transaction.

Conference Call

The companies will host a joint conference call on Monday, November 14, 2016 at 7:00 pm EST to discuss the proposed merger. Participants will include Mr. Stein, Regencys Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Palmer, Regencys President and Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Lukes, Equity Ones Chief Executive Officer, and Matthew L. Ostrower, Equity Ones Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. The conference call-in number is 800-289-0487 (Domestic); or 913-312-0844 (International) or interested parties can join the live webcast of the conference call by accessing the Investor Relations section of each companys website at www.regencycenters.com or www.equityone.com.

A transcript of the call and the conference call replay will be posted when available on the respective companies websites under the Investor Relations sections.
Seven school districts in Floyd, Mitchell and Chickasaw counties may offer kindergarten prep classes this spring, thanks to a local school ready grant.

Potential North Iowa school districts include Charles City, Central Springs, St. Ansgar and Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock, according to FMC Early Childhood Iowa Area Director Laurie Kristiansen.

Funds for the classes are administered by the Floud, Mitchell and Chickasaw Early Childhood Iowa board, originating from the state's Early Childhood Iowa school ready funds. Funding from the same grant offers preschool scholarships to eligible students in participating preschool programs throughout the three-county area.

Applications will be reviewed when the board meets 6:30 p.m. Nov. 21 in the Floyd County Courthouse's lower assembly room. The meeting is open to the public.

Email Kristiansen at kristiansen5775@gmail.com for more information.
(Updated - November 14, 2016 5:03 PM EST)

SEC Chair Mary Jo White, after nearly four years as the agencys head, today announced that she intends to leave at the end of the Obama Administration. Under Chair Whites leadership, the Commission strengthened protections for investors and the markets through transformative rulemakings that addressed major issues highlighted by the financial crisis. The Commission also instituted a new approach to enforcement that has resulted in greater accountability and record actions through, among other things, the use of admissions of wrongdoing and enhanced data analytics and technology.

Chair White, who became the 31st Chair of the SEC in April 2013, will be one of the SECs longest serving Chairs.

It has been a tremendous honor to work alongside the incredibly talented and dedicated SEC staff members who do so much every day to protect investors and our markets, said Chair White. I am very proud of our three consecutive years of record enforcement actions, dozens of fundamental reforms through our rulemakings that have strengthened investor protections and market stability, and that the job satisfaction of our phenomenal staff has climbed in each of the last three years. I also want to express my appreciation for the engagement and dedication of my fellow Commissioners and my financial regulator colleagues, past and present.

In addition to completing the vast majority of the agencys mandates under the Dodd-Frank Act and all of its mandates under the JOBS Act, Chair Whites leadership has advanced the agencys mission through other critical rulemakings and built robust and effective frameworks for the SECs regulatory regimes going forward.

My duty has been to ensure that the Commission implemented strong investor and market protections, and to establish an enduring foundation for future progress in the most critical areas - asset management regulation, equity market structure and disclosure effectiveness, said Chair White. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of the SECs staff, we have accomplished both.

Chair White drove many important rules and other policy measures to completion. Under her leadership, the Commission advanced more than 50 significant rulemaking initiatives, including:

Fundamental reforms to the money market fund industry and unprecedented new disclosures and protections for mutual fund investors in a major initiative to strengthen regulation of the $67 trillion asset management industry

Enhanced equity market structure oversight, including wide-ranging new controls on how key market participants handle technology and systems issues

A comprehensive framework for enhancing the effectiveness of corporate disclosure for investors

Extensive new safeguards for the financial system and for investors in the more than $7 trillion security-based swap market

New ways for smaller companies to raise capital needed to grow their businesses

New post-crisis restrictions on proprietary trading and investments by broker-dealers and other financial institutions through the Volcker rule

Major enhancements to transparency and risk management for asset-backed securities, which were a significant contributor to the financial crisis

Strong operating standards for the clearing agencies that stand at the center of our financial system

Extensive reforms to the regulation of credit rating agencies and how they address conflicts of interest that can harm investors

First-ever regulatory framework for municipal advisors who are critical to the capital raising activities of thousands of local governments

Modernized rules of practice for conducting administrative proceedings, including providing expanded rights of discovery

To enhance accountability of those who violate the securities laws, Chair White implemented the Commissions first-ever policy to require admissions of wrongdoing in certain cases where heightened accountability and acceptance of responsibility is appropriate. Thus far, the Commission has required admissions from more than 70 defendants, including 44 entities and 29 individuals.

During Chair Whites tenure, the Commission brought more than 2,850 enforcement actions, more than any other three-year period in the Commissions history, and obtained judgments and orders totaling more than $13.4 billion in monetary sanctions. The Commission charged over 3,300 companies and over 2,700 individuals, including CEOs, CFOs, and other senior corporate officers.

The record number of enforcement actions over the last three fiscal years against companies and senior executives involved many first of their kind cases in asset management, market structure and public finance. Other major cases involved insider and abusive trading, violations of anti-corruption rules and misconduct in accounting and financial reporting. In the last year alone, the Commission brought a record 868 enforcement actions. And for the first time, the Commission devoted significant resources and emphasis on using cutting edge data analytics to uncover and investigate misconduct resulting in numerous enforcement actions involving insider trading, asset management and complex financial instruments.

As a result of the successful whistleblower program, the Commission has awarded more than $100 million, since inception  virtually all during Chair Whites tenure  to whistleblowers who provided key original information that led to successful enforcement actions.

Under Chair Whites leadership, the Commission made significant enhancements to its examination program, including increasing staff by about 20 percent by hiring new examiners where funding permitted and redeploying staff from other program areas to heighten focus on the fast-growing investment management industry.

The exam program also increased its use of advanced quantitative techniques to enable examiners to detect misconduct by more quickly analyzing large amounts of data. Over the past year, the examination program conducted more than 2,400 formal examinations of registrants, an increase over each of the prior seven fiscal years. The Commission also enhanced technology in its examination program through the National Exam Analytics Tool (NEAT), which enables examiners to analyze large volumes of trading data much more efficiently.

Chair White serves as a member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council and on several other domestic and international organizations, including the International Organization of Securities Commissions, the Financial Stability Board, the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation Monitoring Board, the Financial and Banking Information Infrastructure Committee, and the Federal Housing Finance Oversight Board.

Chair White added, It has been and will always be critical for this agency and the public that the SEC remain truly independent. That independence is crucial to our ability to protect investors, safeguard our markets and facilitate the capital formation that fosters innovation and the growth that is essential to our national economy.

Prior to her arrival at the Commission, Chair White spent decades as a federal prosecutor and securities lawyer. As the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1993 to 2002, she prosecuted cases involving complex securities and financial institution frauds, other white collar crime and international terrorists. She also served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and was Chief Appellate Attorney of that offices Criminal Division. She served as Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York as well as the First Assistant U.S. Attorney. In private practice, she was a litigation partner and chair of the litigation department of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, overseeing more than 200 lawyers. Chair White is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American College of Trial Lawyers.
KARLSKRONA, Sweden, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Compuverde announced the release of its Metro cluster, an enterprise-grade, high-availability solution that is designed to tolerate the loss of an entire data center with zero downtime. The solution has an industry-unique, unusually simple deployment, which requires a low-latency connection between the sites and eliminates the need for Fiber Channel, extra connectivity management, storage controllers or other types of added complexity. Compuverde customer Inprove IT Infrastructure Solutions has developed a bundle offering based on HGST and Mellanox hardware, powered with Compuverde software defined storage. Read more here: https://www.inprove.nl/compuverde-re-invents-metro-cluster/

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The Metro cluster solution is a resilient active-active setup that synchronizes data between two separated physical locations, providing complete protection not only for "simple" problems like disk, server or network failure, but also for "worst-case" scenarios such as complete data center failure.

Simple to deploy and reduced costs: Set-up involves no special hardware and only requires a low-latency connection, up to 5ms, allowing two data centers to be placed over the same LAN while removing the traditional overhead of installing fiber channel and other management connectivity.

Set-up involves no special hardware and only requires a low-latency connection, up to 5ms, allowing two data centers to be placed over the same LAN while removing the traditional overhead of installing fiber channel and other management connectivity. Redundancy and availability: Data is synchronously mirrored and distributed to two independent physical locations to prevent application downtime. Active-active nodes ensure that there is no central orchestration, no complex infrastructure to set up and maintain and no single point of failure.

Data is synchronously mirrored and distributed to two independent physical locations to prevent application downtime. Active-active nodes ensure that there is no central orchestration, no complex infrastructure to set up and maintain and no single point of failure. Network synchronization: The cluster is interconnected through a private, high-speed, low-latency network. This network deals with synchronization between the nodes while the public network delivers access for clients through any of the major protocols: SMB, NFS, iSCSI, Amazon S3 and OpenStack Swift.

The cluster is interconnected through a private, high-speed, low-latency network. This network deals with synchronization between the nodes while the public network delivers access for clients through any of the major protocols: SMB, NFS, iSCSI, Amazon S3 and OpenStack Swift. Easy scalability: Scaling is done simply by installing new nodes and adding them to the primary and secondary locations. Users will see a linear increase in capacity, performance and IOPS as new nodes are added.

Koen de Jonge, CEO, Inprove IT Infrastructure Solutions, said: "As a supplier of IT infrastructure solutions based on open standards, our mission is to provide our customers with industry-leading technology that is flexible and doesn't require a lot of configuration or additional training. We have found that the Metro cluster from Compuverde is very easy to deploy. You can really feel the 'Swedish by design' philosophy. We appreciate the flexibility and freedom we have gained with this solution."

Amit Katz, vice president, Worldwide Ethernet Switch Sales, Mellanox Technologies, said: "The Compuverde Metro Cluster is a great demonstration of the performance and cost efficiency of our 100G Ethernet networking solutions. The combination of the SN2100 100G Ethernet switch, ConnectX-4 Lx 25G adapter server connectivity and LinkX cabling achieves unmatched performance, reliability and robustness. This solution achieves high availability in 1U of Rackspace, with low power, and at an affordable price point."

Stefan Bernbo, CEO and founder, Compuverde, said: "A Ponemon Institute study found that unplanned data center outages cost companies nearly $9,000 per minute  not to mention damage to brand reputation. We have developed a solution that not only solves these challenges but also provides end users and MSPs alike with the reliability needed for protecting critical applications and data."

About CompuverdeCompuverde is an established provider of software-defined storage solutions, based in Sweden. Its energy-efficient, unified storage solution has made possible a hardware-agnostic storage platform that easily scales to hundreds of nodes, exabytes of data and trillions of files. Find out more at www.compuverde.com.

Editorial Contact:

Rebecca Parr Nadel Phelan, Inc. (831) 440-2404 [email protected]

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/compuverde-introduces-metro-the-first-storage-solution-for-dual-data-centers-with-no-added-complexity-300363563.html

SOURCE Compuverde
MARIN COUNTY, Calif. and SAN CARLOS, Calif., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- eMotorWerks, an award-winning leading provider of intelligent and connected smart-grid electric vehicle charging solutions, and Marin Clean Energy (MCE), California's first community choice aggregation (CCA) program, announced a cutting-edge private-public partnership that delivers advanced charging solutions, purchase discounts on a range of smart grid enabled charging stations, and charging rewards for residential and commercial customers in the MCE service area.

MCE currently provides energy service to an estimated 4,000 electric vehicle owners in its service area and expects over 25,000 by 2020. Customers interested in the SmartCharge EV program, which launches in January 2017, began enrolling this month through the MCE SmartCharge EV website.

This collaboration with MCE comes in tandem with eMotorWerks winning the Mobility Category for the 2016 EPIC awards. Winning companies were announced today in Marrakech during the Low Emissions Solutions Conference hosted by the Government of Morocco, WBCSD, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and ICLEI.

"Our mission is to build a path to a cleaner planet by lowering energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. Given the growing demand for electric vehicles in our member communities, and the need to incorporate grid information for truly smart charging, we chose to partner with eMotorWerks. Their solutions and services allow us to build a program that can help accelerate EV adoption with renewable energy supply," said Dawn Weisz, CEO of MCE.

Through the eMotorWerks cloud-based JuiceNet platform, MCE is able to deploy a variety of smart-grid capable EV charging stations that can respond to grid load and pricing conditions. By adapting to real-time conditions, JuiceNet minimizes grid bottlenecks and electricity procurement costs. These dynamic grid and market capabilities enable MCE to further increase its mix of renewable energy, helping to grow local economies, reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions, and provide clean and affordable charging options to its customers.

In addition to these benefits, the joint SmartCharge program provides cash back rewards to participants for not charging their EVs at times when demand for electricity is high, while at the same time reducing the need for emissions-heavy sources of energy.

The program is initially focused on residential customers and provides $150 discounts on smart-grid-enabled EV charging stations, including eMotorWerks' best-selling JuiceBox stations, and additional stations from GE and others. Customers who already own an EV charging station may choose to receive a free JuicePlug, a universal adapter that converts any existing non-connected residential charging station into a smart-grid-ready one with remote charging capability via a smartphone app.

"The demand for electric vehicle charging in Northern California is growing much faster than many anticipated. From a grid standpoint, the amount of energy required to charge an EV is the same as an entire house. With that type of load demand and EV proliferation, utilities and grid operators can only hope to maintain grid reliability and stability, without building new power plants, through an ability to communicate and manage the energy these EVs are drawing and when. We're excited to see MCE taking this innovative and forward looking approach to EV grid management," said Valery Miftakhov, Founder & CEO of eMotorWerks.

About eMotorWerks

Founded in 2010, and based in the San Francisco Bay Area, eMotorWerks is revolutionizing the electric vehicle (EV) charging market with its JuiceNet-enabled smart grid EV charging solutions. JuiceNet enabled devices, such as the company's connected, high-power JuiceBox charging stations, maximize charging efficiency and speed while providing EV owners intuitive control and visibility. By shifting when and how much electricity JuiceNet-enabled stations draw from the grid, eMotorWerks helps utilities and grid operators reduce electricity costs, ease grid congestion, and maximize the use of solar and wind power. eMotorWerks contracts with grid operators for those services and shares back a portion of proceeds to EV drivers via upfront purchase discounts and ongoing rewards for smart-grid charging. For more information on eMotorWerks, visit www.emotorwerks.com.

About MCE

MCE is a not-for- profit, community-based electricity provider offering 50% to 100% renewable electricity from sources such as solar, wind, bioenergy, geothermal and hydroelectricity at competitive rates in Marin County, Napa County and the cities of Benicia, El Cerrito, Lafayette, Richmond, San Pablo, and Walnut Creek. By choosing MCE, customers help support new instate and local renewable energy generation. More at www.mcecleanenergy.org.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/emotorwerks-and-marin-clean-energy-announce-smartcharge-electric-vehicle-program-to-maximize-renewable-energy-capacity-in-northern-california-300362670.html

SOURCE eMotorWerks
Houston, Texas (PRWEB) November 15, 2016

Shopping around for home insurance Houston, Dallas, Austin or San Antonio can be tiresome; it is often the last thing on the to do list. However, it is important to make sure all that hard-earned money is maximized. Make sure to contact an independent agent when notifications of any possible rate increases are received. It's important to read the entire release to see how Frank is able to offer up to a 30% savings on premium.

Most families are currently with captive carriers like State Farm, Allstate or Farmers, whereas a smaller portion of individuals are benefiting from all the services an independent carrier can provide. Call 713-955-2559 to find out which carrier recently had a rate reduction on homeowners in Texas. Strong encouragement goes out to everyone in making their own decision and doing what is best for them and their family, which is the whole purpose of this article to provide recommendations that can be used to lower premium. Furthermore, here are ways to save:

1) Shop around getting two to three quotes is always good.

2) Consider raising the home deductible.

3) Purchase auto insurance tx with the same person or company who provided the home coverage.

Be sure to click the social media links attached and be on the lookout for the next article on discussing why auto insurance prices are on a steady up rise.

Frank Medina Insurance has an A+ rating with the BBB and is a member of the Professional Insurance Agents of Texas. Frank started his agency after working in claims for several years. His agency has been helping Texans with auto, home, flood, life and business since 2014.

Anyone in Texas that is interested in receiving a homeowner's reduction in premium send an e-mail to info(at)fmitx.com and type in SAVENOW in the subject line. When responding be sure to include full name, address and phone number.

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/homeinsurancetx/frankmedinainsurance/prweb13846171.htm
By Robin Emmott

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union extended its sanctions on Syria on Monday, banning the country's central bank chief and its finance minister from traveling in Europe and freezing their assets in a further step to isolate President Bashar al-Assad.

The decision to target Central Bank Governor Duraid Durgham and Finance Minister Maamoun Hamdan, along with 16 other government ministers, made good on the EU's threat last month to increase sanctions on Syria over the bombing of Aleppo.

Diplomats said targeting the country's finance chiefs was aimed at pressuring Assad and limiting the central bank's ability to obtain financing. The bloc already has a ban on dealings with the central bank, as well as an oil embargo and arms embargo.

The European Union singled out as central bank governor Durgham as "responsible for providing economic and financial support to the Syrian regime."

Hamdan, among those picked in a government reshuffle in July, was put under sanctions along with Syria's ministers responsible for areas such as electricity, water, industry and information.

The decision now puts a total of 234 people and 69 companies and institutions under sanctions for what the bloc said was "repression against the civilian population in Syria."

While the European Union has no military role in the conflict in Syria, it is the biggest aid donor and is facing a migration crisis sparked partly by those fleeing war in the Middle East. The 28-nation bloc accuses Assad of war crimes for the bombing of schools, hospitals and civilians in the country.

In any future peace settlement, the EU sees no future role for Assad, whose military, backed by Russia's air force, stands accused of devastating the rebel-held eastern part of Aleppo and its population, choking off basic supplies to starve civilians.

(Reporting by Robin Emmott)
KIEV (Reuters) - A brawl broke out between two Ukrainian MPs on Monday during a meeting of parliament faction leaders in Kiev, as one party leader accused another of working with the Kremlin and calling for him to be jailed.

Oleh Lyashko, the leader of Radical Party, was on the receiving end of several punches thrown by Opposition Party leader Yuriy Boyko after he accused Boyko of traveling to Moscow to receive orders from the government there.

"Instructions must be received from your own people, from Ukrainians," Lyashko said.

"By the way, I also want to ask the SBU (Security Service of Ukraine) why they visit Moscow and are not yet in jail?" he added, before Boyko jumped to his feet and aimed a punch at Lyashko's face.

Other lawmakers were quick to intervene and end the scuffle. But Lyashko continued his tirade, leading to a second fistfight.

This is not the first time Lyashko, known for his populist views, has been a part of violent scuffles in parliament, where brawls happen on a regular basis.

The Opposition Bloc mainly unites lawmakers from the now defunct Party of Regions, the party of Viktor Yanukovich, the pro-Kremlin Ukrainian leader who fled the country for Russia after mass protests and shootings in 2014.

(Writing by Matthias Williams; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
FORM 3 UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549



INITIAL STATEMENT OF BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP OF SECURITIES



Filed pursuant to Section 16(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

or Section 30(h) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 OMB APPROVAL OMB Number: 3235-0104 Expires: December 31, 2014 Estimated average burden hours per response: 0.5

1. Name and Address of Reporting Person * MOLLENKOPF STEVEN M (Last) (First) (Middle) GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY 41 FARNSWORTH STREET (Street) BOSTON MA 02210 (City) (State) (Zip) 2. Date of Event Requiring Statement (Month/Day/Year)

11/04/2016 3. Issuer Name and Ticker or Trading Symbol

GENERAL ELECTRIC CO [ GE ] 4. Relationship of Reporting Person(s) to Issuer

(Check all applicable) X Director 10% Owner Officer (give title below) Other (specify below) 5. If Amendment, Date of Original Filed (Month/Day/Year)

6. Individual or Joint/Group Filing (Check Applicable Line) X Form filed by One Reporting Person Form filed by More than One Reporting Person

Table I - Non-Derivative Securities Beneficially Owned 1. Title of Security (Instr. 4) 2. Amount of Securities Beneficially Owned (Instr. 4) 3. Ownership Form: Direct (D) or Indirect (I) (Instr. 5) 4. Nature of Indirect Beneficial Ownership (Instr. 5) No securities are benefically owned 0 D

Table II - Derivative Securities Beneficially Owned

(e.g., puts, calls, warrants, options, convertible securities) 1. Title of Derivative Security (Instr. 4) 2. Date Exercisable and Expiration Date (Month/Day/Year) 3. Title and Amount of Securities Underlying Derivative Security (Instr. 4) 4. Conversion or Exercise Price of Derivative Security 5. Ownership Form: Direct (D) or Indirect (I) (Instr. 5) 6. Nature of Indirect Beneficial Ownership (Instr. 5) Date Exercisable Expiration Date Title Amount or Number of Shares

Explanation of Responses:

Brian Sandstrom on behalf of Steven M. Mollenkopf 11/14/2016 ** Signature of Reporting Person Date Reminder: Report on a separate line for each class of securities beneficially owned directly or indirectly. * If the form is filed by more than one reporting person, see Instruction 4 (b)(v). ** Intentional misstatements or omissions of facts constitute Federal Criminal Violations See 18 U.S.C. 1001 and 15 U.S.C. 78ff(a). Note: File three copies of this Form, one of which must be manually signed. If space is insufficient, see Instruction 6 for procedure. Persons who respond to the collection of information contained in this form are not required to respond unless the form displays a currently valid OMB Number.

I, Steven Mollenkopf, hereby appoint General Electric Company (GE) to assist me in the preparation and filing of Section 16 reports, and execute the below Power of Attorney for this purpose. Upon my election as a director of GE and, until further written notice, I hereby individually authorize Christoph Pereira (GE's Vice President, Chief Corporate, Securities and Finance Counsel), Aaron K. Briggs (GE's Executive Corporate, Securities and Finance Counsel) and Brian Sandstrom (GE's Executive Corporate, Securities and Finance Counsel) to sign on my behalf any Form 3, Form 4, Form 5, Form 144 or related form that I have filed or may file hereafter in connection with my direct or indirect beneficial ownership of GE securities, and to take any other action of any type whatsoever in connection with the foregoing that in his opinion may be for the benefit of, in the best interest of, or legally required by me. Signed:Steven Mollenkopf Date: 4 Oct 16








UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION





Washington, D. C. 20549





FORM 8-K





CURRENT REPORT





Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934





Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported) November 9, 2016





Commission File Number Registrant, State of Incorporation, Address and Telephone Number I.R.S. Employer Identification No. 1-6468 Georgia Power Company (A Georgia Corporation) 241 Ralph McGill Boulevard, N.E. Atlanta, Georgia 30308 (404) 506-6526 58-0257110





The name and address of the registrant have not changed since the last report.





Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions:





[ ] Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425) [ ] Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12) [ ] Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b)) [ ] Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c))





















Item 5.03. Amendments to Articles of Incorporation or Bylaws; Change in Fiscal Year .





On November 9, 2016, the Board of Directors of Georgia Power Company (the Company) approved certain amendments to the Companys Bylaws (as so amended, the Bylaws) effective as of November 9, 2016. Sections 31, 32, 33 and 36 of the Bylaws were amended to allow for uncertificated shares.

The foregoing description is qualified in its entirety by reference to the Bylaws, as of November 9, 2016, a copy of which is attached and incorporated herein as Exhibit 3.1 to this Form 8-K.





Item 9.01. Financial Statements and Exhibits .





(d) Exhibits





3.1 Bylaws of the Company, as amended, effective November 9, 2016.





SIGNATURE

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.

Date: November 15, 2016 GEORGIA POWER COMPANY





By /s/Melissa K. Caen Melissa K. Caen Assistant Secretary

























Exhibit 3.1









BYLAWS OF GEORGIA POWER COMPANY

As Amended November 9, 2016









Seal





SECTION 1. The corporate seal shall be circular in form and bear the name of the Company in the margin and the year of organization and the word "Seal" in the center.









Stockholders' Meetings





SECTION 2. The annual meeting of the stockholders shall be held, upon notice as hereinafter provided, at the principal office of the Company in the City of Atlanta, County of Fulton, State of Georgia, on the third Wednesday in the month of May in each year, if not a legal holiday, and if a legal holiday, then on the next secular day following, or at such other time and date as shall be determined by the Board of Directors, when the stockholders entitled to vote thereon shall elect by plurality vote the Board of Directors, and transact such other business as may be brought before the meeting. At the annual meeting any business may be transacted irrespective of whether the notice calling such meeting shall have contained a reference thereto.





SECTION 3. Special meetings of the stockholders shall be held, upon notice as hereinafter provided, at the principal office of the Company in the City of Atlanta, County of Fulton, State of Georgia, except such meetings as the Chairman of the Board or the President or the Board of Directors expressly determine shall be held elsewhere within or without the State of Georgia, but within the United States, in which case meetings may be held, upon notice as hereinafter provided, at such other place or places as the Chairman of the Board or the President or the Board of Directors may determine.





SECTION 4. At all meetings of the stockholders, the holders of capital stock of the Company representing a majority of the aggregate number of votes entitled to be cast at the meeting, present in person or represented by proxy, shall constitute a quorum requisite for the transaction of business, except as otherwise required by the Charter or by law. If, however, a quorum shall not be present or represented at any meeting of the stockholders, the stockholders entitled to vote thereat, present in person or by proxy, shall have power to adjourn the meeting from time to time without notice other than announcement at the meeting, until the requisite amount of voting stock shall be present, except as otherwise required by the Charter or by law. At such adjourned meeting at which the requisite amount of voting stock shall be represented, any business may be transacted which might have been transacted at the meeting originally notified.





SECTION 5. Each stockholder entitled to vote in accordance with the Charter or any amendment thereof and in accordance with the provisions of these Bylaws or of any action taken pursuant thereto shall be entitled, in person or by proxy, to the vote provided by the Charter for each share of stock entitled to vote held by such stockholder. Except where the transfer books of the Company shall have been closed or a date shall have been fixed as the record date for the determination of its stockholders entitled to vote, as hereinafter provided, no share of stock shall be voted on at any election for Directors which shall have been transferred on the books of the Company within twenty days next preceding such election of Directors. The vote for Directors, and, upon the demand of any stockholder, the vote upon any question before the meeting, shall













be by ballot. All elections shall be decided by plurality vote except as otherwise provided by the Charter and/or by the laws of the State of Georgia.





SECTION 6. Written notice of the annual meeting shall be mailed to each stockholder entitled to vote thereat, at such address as appears on the stock books of the Company, at least ten days prior to the meeting, provided that, unless otherwise required by applicable law, such notice may be provided by electronic transmission to any stockholder that has given consent to receive notice by electronic transmission. It shall be the duty of every stockholder to furnish to the Secretary of the Company or to the Transfer Agent, if any, of the class or series of stock owned by him, his post office address and to notify said Secretary or Transfer Agent of any change therein.





SECTION 7. Special meetings of the stockholders, for any purpose or purposes, unless otherwise prescribed by statute, may be called by the Chairman of the Board or by the President, and shall be called by the Chairman of the Board or by the President or the Secretary upon the order in writing of a majority of or by resolution of the Board of Directors or at the request in writing of stockholders owning one-fourth of the entire capital stock of the Company issued and outstanding and entitled to vote. Such request or order shall state the purpose or purposes of the proposed meeting. On failure by the Chairman of the Board or the President or the Secretary to call such special meeting when duly requested, the makers of such request or order may call such special meeting over their own signatures.





SECTION 8. Written notice of a special meeting of stockholders, stating the time and place and object thereof, shall, unless waived in writing, be mailed, postage prepaid, or delivered, at least ten days before such meeting, to each stockholder entitled to vote thereat, at such address as appears on the books of the Company, provided that, unless otherwise required by applicable law, such notice may be provided by electronic transmission to any stockholder that has given consent to receive notice by electronic transmission. No business may be transacted at such meeting except that referred to in said notice, or in a supplemental notice given also in compliance with the provisions hereof, or such other business as may be germane or supplementary to that stated in said notice or notices.





SECTION 9. No stockholder shall be entitled to notice of any meeting of stockholders with respect to any shares registered in his name after the date upon which notice of such meeting is required by law or these Bylaws to have been mailed or otherwise given to stockholders.









Directors





SECTION 10. The affairs of the Company shall be managed by a Board of Directors consisting of not less than five nor more than the maximum number allowed by law (with the precise number of Directors to be fixed from time to time by resolution of the holders of the Companys common stock), who shall be elected annually by the stockholders entitled to vote, to hold office for one year and until their successors are elected and qualify except that any Director who is a full-time employee of the Company shall cease to be a Director upon termination of his employment as a full-time employee or upon his retirement from active duty under the Company's pension plan; provided that in the event of failure to hold such annual meeting of the stockholders or to hold such election at such meeting, such election may be held at any special meeting of the stockholders called for the purpose and the Directors then in office shall continue





- 2 -









in office until their successors shall have been duly elected and qualified. If the stockholders at such annual meeting or at any special meeting called for the election of Directors shall not elect a full Board of Directors at such election, the Directors elected may elect the remaining Directors in the manner provided below for the filling of vacancies.





In addition to the Directors authorized by the first paragraph of this section, there may also be one or more honorary members of the Board of Directors consisting of retired employees of the Company or of any affiliated company or companies who were serving as regular members of the Board of Directors at the time of their retirement from active duty under the Company's pension plan, or of any other former members of the Board who did not wish to continue or were unable to continue as regular members of the Board, or of any other persons whose services as such will be of value to the Company. Any such retired employee or other former member of the Board or other person may, on the recommendation of the Chief Executive Officer of the Company, be elected as an Honorary Director at any Board of Directors' meeting by the vote of the majority of the entire Board then in office or at any meeting of the stockholders by the vote of the holders of the majority of the stock issued and outstanding and entitled to vote at such meeting. An Honorary Director so chosen shall hold office until the next annual meeting of stockholders. Honorary Directors shall receive notices of all meetings of the Board of Directors and shall receive the customary fee or salary and expense reimbursement or allowance for attending meetings and may participate in an advisory capacity in all discussions and deliberations of the Board of Directors, but will not have the right to vote. Such Honorary Directors shall not be counted in determining compliance with the number of Directors authorized by the first paragraph of this section or in determining the existence of a quorum.





No Director, other than an employee-director of the Company, shall serve for more than a total of 12 years in that capacity unless otherwise determined by the Board. Therefore, the Board will not nominate for re-election any non-employee Director if the Director shall be serving in his or her twelfth year of service as a member of the Board on or prior to the date of annual meeting of the stockholders at which the nomination would be presented. In addition, no person shall be eligible to serve as a Director or as an Honorary Director after his 70th birthday. In special circumstances, the Board of Directors, in its sole discretion, may ask that candidates who have served past their 12 year term limit or 70th birthday continue to serve on the Board.





Any Director of the Company may resign at any time by giving written notice to the Chairman of the Board or the President or the Secretary of the Company. Such resignation shall take effect at the time specified therein; and, unless otherwise specified therein, the acceptance of such resignation shall not be necessary to make it effective.





Each Director who is not an employee-director of the Company shall tender his resignation from the Board of Directors when a change occurs in his principal business association prior to normal retirement. Upon receipt of a tender of resignation in accordance with the foregoing statement, the Board of Directors, in its sole discretion, shall determine whether such resignation shall be accepted.





SECTION 11. In case of any vacancies in the Board of Directors through death, resignation, disqualification, or any cause other than by reason of removal, the remaining Directors, if less than a quorum, by affirmative vote of a majority thereof, or if a quorum, by a majority vote of such quorum, may elect a successor or successors, and the Director or Directors so chosen shall





- 3 -









hold office until the next annual election and until their successor or successors shall be elected and qualified.





SECTION 12. In addition to the powers and authorities expressly conferred upon it by the statute, by the Charter and by these Bylaws, the Board may exercise all such powers of the Company and do all such lawful acts and things as may be done by the Company as are not by statute or by the Charter or by these Bylaws directed or required to be exercised or done by the stockholders.





SECTION 13. A majority of the Board shall constitute a quorum and shall be competent to do all acts which the Board can do.





SECTION 14. Any and all of the Directors may at any time be removed without cause assigned by the vote of the holders of a majority in number of all of the outstanding stock entitled to vote, given at a meeting called for the purpose of considering such action.









Meetings of the Board of Directors





SECTION 15. The newly elected Board of Directors may meet at such place and time as shall be fixed by the vote of the stockholders at the meeting at which such newly elected board was elected, for the purpose of organization or otherwise, and no notice of such meeting shall be necessary to the elected Directors in order legally to constitute the meeting, provided a quorum shall be present, or they may meet at such place and time as shall be stated in a notice given to such Directors either personally or by mail or by facsimile, e-mail transmission or other similar electronic means of communication, at least two days prior to such meeting or as shall be fixed by the consent in writing of all the Directors.





SECTION 16. Regular meetings of the Board may be held without notice at such time and place as shall from time to time be determined by the Board.





SECTION 17. Special meetings of the Board may be called by the Chairman of the Board or the President, with at least two days' notice to each Director, by delivered letter, by mail or by facsimile, e-mail transmission or other similar electronic means of communication or by personal communication either over the telephone or otherwise; special meetings shall be called by the Secretary in like manner and on like notice, on the written request of two Directors or on the request of the Chairman of the Board or the President.





SECTION 18. Directors shall be entitled to a fee for attendance at each regular or special meeting of the Board, or a committee of the Board, and/or to a monthly or annual fee or salary; provided that no fees or salaries shall be paid to those Directors who are officers or employees, other than retired employees, who are on a fixed basis of compensation from the Company or any subsidiary or affiliated company and who have duties and responsibilities to such companies other than those arising from the office of Director. Directors shall be reimbursed for actual expenses, if any, incurred in attending meetings of the Board of Directors and in otherwise performing duties as such Directors or in lieu thereof to an allowance for expenses. The amount of fee for salary paid to Directors and expense allowance, if any, shall be fixed by the Board of Directors.





- 4 -

















Executive and Other Committees





SECTION 19. The Board of Directors may, by resolution or resolutions passed by a majority of the whole Board, designate an executive committee and such other committees created at the discretion of the Board, each consisting of three or more Directors and each of which committees may act by a majority of its members. Such executive committee shall have and may exercise all the powers and authority of the Board of Directors in the management of the business and affairs of the Company when the Board is not meeting; and each other committee shall have such powers of the Board and otherwise as are provided in the resolution or resolutions establishing such committee or its charter. Provided, however, notwithstanding anything to the contrary herein, the executive committee and all other committees established by the Board shall have no power or authority (1) to amend the Charter or these Bylaws; (2) to adopt a plan of merger or consolidation; (3) to sell, lease, exchange or otherwise dispose of all or substantially all of the assets and property of the Company; (4) to voluntarily dissolve or revoke a voluntary dissolution of the Company; (5) to fill vacancies on the Board or any of its committees, or (6) to perform any other action prohibited by the laws of the State of Georgia. Unless otherwise specifically permitted by the Board of Directors, the rules promulgated by these Bylaws with respect to meetings of Directors, notice, quorums, voting and other procedures at such meeting shall be applicable to meetings of the executive and any other committee established by the Board of Directors, except that special meetings of any such committees may be called on at least one day's notice to all members of such committee.









Officers





SECTION 20. The officers of the Company shall be chosen by the Board of Directors at its first meeting after the meeting of stockholders at which such board has been elected. The executive officers shall be a President, one or more Vice Presidents as said Board of Directors may from time to time determine and, in the discretion of the Board of Directors, a Chairman of the Board. The administrative officers shall be a Secretary, a Treasurer and a Comptroller, and such Assistant Secretaries, Assistant Treasurers and Assistant Comptrollers as the Board of Directors may from time to time determine. Any two or more offices may be held by the same person, except the offices of President and Secretary. The Chairman of the Board and the President shall be chosen from among the Board of Directors, but the other officers need not be members of the Board.





SECTION 21. The Board may appoint such other officers and agents as it shall deem necessary, who shall hold their offices for such terms and shall exercise such powers and perform such duties as shall be determined from time to time by the Board.





SECTION 22. The officers of the Company shall hold office at the pleasure of the Board, until their successors are chosen and qualified. Any officer elected or appointed by the Board of Directors may be removed at any time by the Board of Directors with or without cause.









Powers and Duties of the Chairman of the Board





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SECTION 23. The Chairman of the Board shall preside at all meetings of Directors and stockholders. Unless otherwise provided by the Board, under the supervision of and subject to the Board of Directors, he shall have the general control and management of the business and affairs of the Company; and he shall perform and do all acts and things incident to the position of Chairman of the Board and such other duties as may be assigned to him from time to time by the Board of Directors.





Unless otherwise provided by the Board, the Chairman of the Board shall have full power and authority on behalf of the Company to execute any stockholder's consent and to attend and act and to vote in person or by proxy at any meetings of stockholders of any corporation in which the Company may own stock, and at any such meeting shall possess and may exercise any and all the rights and powers incident to the ownership of such stock and which, as the owner thereof, the Company might have possessed and exercised if present. The Board of Directors by resolution from time to time may confer like powers upon any other person or persons.









Powers and Duties of the President





SECTION 24. The President shall do and perform all acts and things incident to the position of President and such other duties as may be assigned to him from time to time by the Board of Directors or the Chairman of the Board. In the absence or inability to act of the Chairman of the Board, he shall act in his stead. In the event the office of Chairman of the Board has not been filled by the Board of Directors, or in the event it is specifically provided for by the Board, the President shall have the powers and duties attributed to the office of Chairman of the Board under the other provisions of these Bylaws.









Powers and Duties of Vice Presidents





SECTION 25. The Vice Presidents shall perform such duties on behalf of the Company as may be respectively assigned to them from time to time by the Board of Directors or the Chairman of the Board. In the absence or inability to act of the President, any one of the Vice Presidents may act in his stead. Notwithstanding any other provision of these Bylaws, under emergency conditions existing in case of catastrophe wrought by war affecting the territory, facilities or personnel of the Company, in the event of the absence, death or inability to act of the Chairman of the Board, the powers and duties of the Chairman of the Board shall, until the end of the emergency or until prior action by the Board of Directors, devolve successively upon the President and such other officers as shall have been designated in a resolution adopted by the Board of Directors, and in accordance with the order of succession set forth therein.









Power and Duties of the Secretary





SECTION 26. It shall be the duty of the Secretary to act as custodian of the minutes of all meetings of the Board of Directors and of the stockholders and of any committees of the Board of Directors which keep formal minutes; he shall attend to the giving and serving of all notices of the Company; he shall attest the seal of the Company upon all contracts and instruments executed under such seal and shall affix or cause to be affixed the seal of the Company thereto and to all certificates of shares of the capital stock. He shall have charge of the corporate records





- 6 -









and other corporate matters, of the stock certificate book, transfer book and stock ledger, and of such other books and papers as the Board of Directors or the Chairman of the Board may direct. He shall perform such other duties as may be assigned to him from time to time by the Board of Directors or the Chairman of the Board.









Powers and Duties of the Treasurer





SECTION 27. It shall be the duty of the Treasurer to have the care and custody of all the funds and securities of the Company. He shall be accountable for the receipts and disbursements of the funds of the Company. He shall endorse checks, drafts and other instruments for the payment of money for deposit or collection when necessary or proper and shall deposit the same to the credit of the Company in such depositories as the Board of Directors may designate; he shall perform all acts incident to the position of Treasurer, and such other duties as may be assigned to him from time to time by the Board of Directors or the Chairman of the Board.









Powers and Duties of the Comptroller





SECTION 28. It shall be the duty of the Comptroller to maintain adequate records of all assets, liabilities, and accounting transactions of the Company; he shall have charge of the installation and supervision of all accounting and statistical records, financial and statistical statements and reports, and the supervision of the accounting methods and systems in use by all departments and shall perform such other duties as may be assigned to him from time to time by the Board of Directors or the Chairman of the Board.









Assistant Secretaries, Assistant Treasurers and Assistant Comptrollers





SECTION 29. An Assistant Secretary or an Assistant Treasurer or an Assistant Comptroller shall, in the absence or disability or at the request of the Secretary or Treasurer or Comptroller, respectively, perform the duties of the Secretary or Treasurer or Comptroller, respectively, and shall perform such other duties as may, from time to time, be assigned to him by the Board of Directors or the Chairman of the Board. The performance of any such duty shall be conclusive evidence of his right to act.









Duties of Officers May Be Delegated





SECTION 30. In case of the absence of an officer of the Company, or for any other reason deemed sufficient, the Board of Directors or the Chairman of the Board may delegate, for the time being, the powers or duties, or any of them of such officer to any other officer, or to any Director.









Transfer Agents and Registrars





SECTION 31. The Board of Directors may appoint one or more Transfer Agents or Transfer Clerks and Registrars, and may require all stock certificates, certificates representing any rights





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or options and any written notices or statements relative to uncertificated stock to be signed by such Transfer Agents or Transfer Clerks acting on behalf of the Company and by such Registrars.









Certificates of Stock





SECTION 32. The shares of the Company shall be represented by a certificate or shall be uncertificated and shall be entered in the books of the Company and registered as they are issued. The certificates of stock of the Company shall be of such form and devise as the Board of Directors may elect. They shall be numbered, shall exhibit the names of the registered holders and shall certify the number of shares owned by the person in whose name issued, and shall be signed by, or in the name of the Company by the Chairman of the Board, the President or a Vice President and by the Secretary or an Assistant Secretary or the Treasurer or an Assistant Treasurer, and shall be sealed with the corporate seal of the Company, which signatures and seal, in the case of certificates signed by a Transfer Agent or Transfer Clerk and a Registrar, may be facsimile. In case any officer or officers who shall have signed any such certificate or certificates, or whose facsimile signature shall appear thereon, shall cease to be such officer or officers of the Company, whether because of death, resignation or otherwise, and before such certificate or certificates shall have been delivered by the Company, such certificate or certificates may nevertheless be adopted by the Company and be issued and delivered with the same force and effect as though the person or persons who signed such certificate or certificates, or whose facsimile signature appears thereon, had not ceased to be such officer or officers of the Company, and the issuance and delivery of any such certificate or certificates shall be conclusive evidence of such adoption.





Within a reasonable time after the issuance or transfer of uncertificated stock, the Company shall send to the registered owner thereof a written notice containing the information required to be set forth or stated on certificates pursuant to the Georgia Business Corporation Code and O.C.G.A. Section 46-8-1 et seq.









Transfers of Stock





SECTION 33. Transfers of stock shall be made on the books of the Company only by the person named in the certificate or by attorney lawfully constituted in writing and upon the surrender of the certificate therefor, which shall be canceled before the new certificate or evidence of the uncertificated shares shall be issued, or upon receipt of proper transfer instructions from the registered owner of uncertificated shares.





SECTION 34. The Board of Directors shall have the power to prescribe a period not exceeding 70 days prior to any meeting of the stockholders or the date for payment of any dividend or the date for the allotment of rights of the date when any change or conversion or exchange of capital stock shall go into effect, during which no transfer of stock on the books of the Company may be made, or may fix a day not more than 70 days prior to the holding of any such meeting of stockholders or such date when any change or conversion or exchange of capital stock shall go into effect, as a day as of which stockholders of record entitled to notice of and to vote at such meeting of stockholders, or such date for payment of any dividend or such date for the allotment of rights or such date when any change or conversion or exchange of capital stock shall go into





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effect, shall be determined, and only stockholders of record on such day entitled to notice or to vote at such meeting of stockholders or entitled to receive payment of any such dividend or to any such allotment of rights or to exercise the rights in respect of any change, conversion or exchange of capital stock, as the case may be, notwithstanding any transfer of any stock on the books of the Company after any such record date fixed as aforesaid; provided, however, that in the case of any meeting of stockholders, such period prescribed or day fixed, as aforesaid, shall not be less than ten days prior to such meeting of stockholders.









Registered Stockholders





SECTION 35. The Company shall be entitled to treat the holder of record of any share or shares of stock or of any right or rights or option or options as the holder in fact thereof and accordingly shall not be bound to recognize any equitable or other claim to or interest in such share, right or option on the part of any other person, whether or not it shall have express or other notice thereof, save as expressly provided by the laws of the State of Georgia.









Lost, Stolen or Destroyed Certificates





SECTION 36. No certificate of shares of stock of the Company or uncertificated shares of stock of the Company shall be issued in place of any certificate alleged to have been lost or stolen or destroyed, except upon the submission of proper proof by the owner and the delivery to the Company of a bond of indemnity against such lost or stolen or destroyed certificate and except under such regulations and restrictions as the Board of Directors may prescribe.









Annual Report and Inspection of Books





SECTION 37. The Chairman of the Board and the President shall make and present to the annual meeting of stockholders a report showing a Balance Sheet and Income Statement for the preceding fiscal year. A copy of such report shall be made available to each stockholder, either by mailing such report to each stockholder at least fifteen days in advance of the annual meeting or by making such report available electronically in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, Rule 14a-16 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or any successor rule thereof. Such report may also contain such other information and may be in such detail as the Chairman of the Board, the President and the Board of Directors may determine in their absolute discretion.





The stockholders of the Company entitled to vote, by a majority vote at any meeting duly called, or in case such stockholders shall fail to act, the Board of Directors, shall have the power from time to time to determine whether and to what extent and at what times and places and under what conditions and regulations the accounts and books of the Company (other than the stock ledger) or any of them, shall be open to the inspection of stockholders; and no stockholder shall have any right to inspect any account or book or document of the Company, except as conferred by statute or authorized by the Board of Directors or by a resolution of such stockholders.









Depositories, Checks and Notes





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SECTION 38. The Board of Directors are authorized to select such Depositories as they shall deem proper for the funds of the Company. All checks, drafts and demands for money against such deposited funds and all notes of the Company shall be signed by such officers or persons as the Board of Directors may from time to time designate.









Fiscal Year





SECTION 39. The fiscal year shall begin the first day of January in each year, and shall end on the thirty-first day of December of such year.









Notices





SECTION 40. Whenever under the provisions of these Bylaws notice is required to be given to any Director, officer or stockholder, it shall not be construed to mean personal notice, unless otherwise provided in these Bylaws, but such notice may be given (1) in writing, by mail, addressed to such stockholder, officer or Director at such address as appears on the books of the Company, and such notice shall be deemed to be given at the time when the same shall be thus mailed, or (2) where expressly permitted by these Bylaws, by facsimile, email transmission or other similar electronic means of communication.





Notice need not be given of any adjourned meeting, special or regular, of stockholders or Directors other than by announcement at the meeting which is being adjourned.





Any stockholder, Director or officer may waive any notice required to be given by statute or under the provisions of the Charter or under these Bylaws, and such waiver shall be deemed equivalent to the notice so required; provided, always, that such waiver shall be in writing and signed by such stockholder, officer or Director, or by his duly authorized attorney, whether before or after the meeting or the time stated therein, notice of which is being waived.









Indemnification and Related Matters





SECTION 41. Each person who is or was a Director or officer of the Company or is or was an employee of the Company holding one or more positions of management through and inclusive of department managers (but not positions below the level of department managers) (such positions being hereinafter referred to as "Management Positions") and who was or is a party or was or is threatened to be made a party to any threatened, pending or completed claim, action, suit or proceeding, whether civil, criminal, administrative or investigative, by reason of the fact that he is or was a Director or officer of the Company or is or was an employee of the Company holding one or more Management Positions, or is or was serving at the request of the Company as a director, officer, employee, agent or trustee of another corporation, partnership, joint venture, trust, employee benefit plan or other enterprise, shall be indemnified by the Company as a matter of right against any and all expenses (including attorneys' fees) actually and reasonably incurred by him and against any and all claims, judgments, fines, penalties, liabilities and amounts paid in settlement actually incurred by him in defense of such claim, action, suit or proceeding, including appeals, to the full extent permitted by applicable law. The





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indemnification provided by this Section shall inure to the benefit of the heirs, executors and administrators of such person.





Expenses (including attorneys' fees) incurred by a Director or officer of the Company or employee of the Company holding one or more Management Positions with respect to the defense of any such claim, action, suit or proceeding may be advanced by the Company prior to the final disposition of such claim, action, suit or proceeding, as authorized by the Board of Directors in the specific case, upon receipt of an under taking by or on behalf of such person to repay such amount unless it shall ultimately be determined that such person is entitled to be indemnified by the Company under this Section or otherwise; provided, however, that the advancement of such expenses shall not be deemed to be indemnification unless and until it shall ultimately be determined that such person is entitled to be indemnified by the Company.





The Company may purchase and maintain insurance at the expense of the Company on behalf of any person who is or was a Director, officer, employee, or agent of the Company, or any person who is or was serving at the request of the Company as a director (or the equivalent), officer, employee, agent or trustee of another corporation, partnership, joint venture, trust, employee benefit plan or other enterprise, against any liability or expense (including attorneys' fees) asserted against him and incurred by him in any such capacity, or arising out of his status as such, whether or not the Company would have the power to indemnify him against such liability or expense under this Section or otherwise.





Without limiting the generality of the foregoing provisions, no present or future Director or officer of the Company, or his heirs, executors or administrators, shall be liable for any act, omission, step or conduct taken or had in good faith, which is required, authorized, or approved by any order or orders issued pursuant to the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, the Federal Power Act, or any federal or state statute or municipal ordinance regulating the Company or its parent by reason of their being holding or investment companies, public utility companies, public utility holding companies or subsidiaries of public utility holding companies. In any action, suit or proceeding based on any act, omission, step or conduct, as in this paragraph described, the provisions hereof shall be brought to the attention of the court. In the event that the foregoing provisions of this paragraph are found by the court not to constitute a valid defense on the grounds of not being applicable to the particular class of plaintiff, each such Director and officer, and his heirs, executors and administrators, shall be reimbursed for, or indemnified against, all expenses and liabilities incurred by him or imposed on him, in connection with, or arising out of, any such action, suit or proceeding based on any act, omission, step or conduct taken or had in good faith as in this paragraph described. Such expenses and liabilities shall include, but shall not be limited to, judgments, court costs and attorneys' fees.





The foregoing rights shall not be exclusive of any other rights to which any such Director or officer or employee may otherwise be entitled and shall be available whether or not the Director or officer or employee continues to be a Director or officer or employee at the time of incurring any such expenses and liabilities.





If any word, clause or provision of these Bylaws or any indemnification made under this Section 41 shall for any reason be determined to be invalid, the provisions of these Bylaws shall not otherwise be affected thereby but shall remain in full force and effect. The masculine pronoun, as used in these Bylaws, means the masculine and feminine wherever applicable.





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Amendments





SECTION 42. The Bylaws of the Company may be altered, amended or repealed at any meeting of the Board of Directors, by the vote of a majority of the entire Board then in office, or at any meeting of the stockholders by the vote of the holders of the majority of the stock issued and outstanding and entitled to vote at such meeting, in accordance with the provisions of the Charter and of these Bylaws.
























UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 12b-25

NOTIFICATION OF LATE FILING

(Check one):  Form 10-K  Form 20-F  Form 11-K x Form 10-Q  Form 10-D  Form N-SAR  Form N-CSR

For Period Ended: September 30, 2016

 Transition Report on Form 10-K  Transition Report on Form 20-F  Transition Report on Form 11-K  Transition Report on Form 10-Q  Transition Report on Form N-SAR

For the Transition Period Ended: _____________________

Nothing in this form shall be construed to imply that the Commission has verified any information contained herein.

If the notification relates to a portion of the filing checked above, identify the Item(s) to which the notification relates:

PART I  REGISTRANT INFORMATION

Evergreen-Agra, Inc. Full Name of Registrant N/A Former Name if Applicable 19800 MacArthur suite 300, Address of Principal Executive Office (Street and Number) Irvine CA, USA 92612 City, State and Zip Code

PART II  RULES 12b-25(b) AND (c)

If the subject report could not be filed without unreasonable effort or expense and the registrant seeks relief pursuant to Rule 12b-25(b), the following should be completed. (Check box if appropriate)

x (a) The reason described in reasonable detail in Part III of this form could not be eliminated without unreasonable effort or expense (b) The subject annual report, semi-annual report, transition report on Form 10-K, Form 20-F, Form 11-K, Form N-SAR or Form N-CSR, or portion thereof, will be filed on or before the fifteenth calendar day following the prescribed due date; or the subject quarterly report or transition report on Form 10-Q or subject distribution report on Form 10-D, or portion thereof, will be filed on or before the fifth calendar day following the prescribed due date; and (c) The accountant's statement or other exhibit required by Rule 12b-25(c) has been attached if applicable.

PART III  NARRATIVE

State below in reasonable detail why Forms 10-K, 20-F, 11-K, 10-Q,10-D, N-SAR, N-CSR, or the transition report or portion thereof, could not be filed within the prescribed time period.

The registrant was not, without unreasonable effort or expense, able to file its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2016 by November 14, 2016. The registrant anticipates that it will file its Form 10-Q within the "grace" period provided by Securities Exchange Act Rule 12b-25.

PART IV  OTHER INFORMATION

(1) Name and telephone number of person to contact in regard to this notification





Rene Hamouth 604 764-7646 (Name) (Area Code) (Telephone Number)

(2) Have all other periodic reports required under Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 or Section 30 of the Investment Company Act of 1940 during the preceding 12 months or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such report(s) been filed ? If answer is no, identify report(s). x Yes  No (3) Is it anticipated that any significant change in results of operations from the corresponding period for the last fiscal year will be reflected by the earnings statements to be included in the subject report or portion thereof ?  Yes x No

If so, attach an explanation of the anticipated change, both narratively and quantitatively, and, if appropriate, state the reasons why a reasonable estimate of the results cannot be made.

2

Evergreen-Agra, Inc.

(Name of Registrant as Specified in Charter)

has caused this notification to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.

Date: November 15, 2016 By: /s/ Rene Hamouth Rene Hamouth Title: Chairman of the Board
Dortha Joyce Havranek

ROCKFORD  Dortha Joyce Havranek, 84, of Rockford, died Saturday, Nov. 12, 2016, at the I.O.O.F. home surrounded by family.

Visitation will be held from 5-7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016, at Fullerton Funeral Home, 302 West Main, Rockford.

Funeral Services with a one hour prior visitation will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 18, 2016, at Rudd United Methodist Church, 611 6th Street, Rudd, IA, with Pastor Jim Roth officiating.

Interment will follow at Riverside Cemetery in Rockford.

Joyce was born on April 15, 1932, to Mervil and Mildred (Matthews) Merriss. She attended school in Rockford and graduated from Rockford High School. Joyce met the love of her life, Bob Havranek, at a local roller skating rink. They were united in marriage on Feb. 4, 1951, at Wesley United Methodist Church in Mason City. Joyce and Bob had 65 wonderful years together. To their union, four children were born. Their family resided on a farm in Rockford and Joyce became a homemaker and farmers wife. She supported her husband whole-heartedly and was the reasoning behind their farm earning the Outstanding Farmer Award.

Not only was Joyce a diligent server to her family, but also to God. She was very strong in her faith and enjoyed reading her Bible and attending church regularly.

Throughout her life Joyce and Bob took many trips together. They would go camping at Fox Lake in Minnesota and out in Colorado. The couple went to Hawaii three times and also many times to Florida. In their younger years they liked to spend Friday nights at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake where they would dance and meet up with friends. Joyce liked any kind of crafts, woodworking and ceramics. She also liked to bake and began baking cakes for family birthdays and did the intricate work of decorating the cakes. For years Joyce and Bob went to Dog Trialing, which was a hunting competition for the German Short Hair Pointers they bred.

Joyce will be lovingly remembered by her family as a person who put others needs before her own. As a wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, she would bend to the needs of those she loved, which is the legacy she has left behind.

Those left to cherish her memory include her husband, Bob Havranek of Rockford; children: Diane (Paul) Martin of Rockford, Scot (Angela Beglet) Havranek of Rockford, Linda (Jeff) Rodemeyer of Clear Lake and Stacie (Jason) Stokes of Rockford; grandchildren: Nathan Martin, Joel Martin, Rachel Ginbey, John Martin, Sarah Radcliff, Olga Reding, Daniella Havranek, Alexander Havranek, Justin Rodemeyer, Jonathan Rodemeyer, Heather Rodemeyer, Jesse Stokes, Jacob Stokes and Josiah Stokes; one niece and three nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents and sister, Lois Norem.

Joyces family would like to thank the staff at the I.O.O.F. Home for their continued care over the last 7 years.

Online condolences may be left at www.fullertonfh.com. In expression of sympathy memorials may be directed to the Joyce Havranek Memorial Fund.

Fullerton Funeral Home and Cremation Services, 302 West Main, Rockford, Iowa 50468 641-756-3311, www.Fullertonfh.com.
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Lori K. Roths

GARNER  Lori K. Roths, 61, of Garner, died Friday, Nov. 11, 2016, at her home.

Funeral services will be held 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16, at the Cataldo Funeral Chapel, 160 E. 4th St., in Garner, with Rev. Justin Asche officiating.

Cremation will follow the service with inurnment at a later date in Concord Township Cemetery in Garner.

Visitation will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at the funeral chapel.

Lori Kay Roths, the daughter of Richard and Kathleen (Wilson) Geith, was born May 17, 1955, in Ottumwa, Iowa. She graduated from Ottumwa High School in 1973. Lori lived in Colorado, California, Hawaii and Florida before moving to Garner. On July 15, 2000, she was married to Rob Roths at the Little Brown Church in Nashua. They lived in Garner where Lori was employed as a dental assistant in Garner and Clear Lake. She also worked at Bills Family of Foods in Garner, Caseys General Store in Garner and most recently at Payless Foods in Clear Lake. She enjoyed family trips to Leech Lake, shopping and spending time with her kids and granddaughter.

Lori is survived by her husband, Rob, of Garner; her mother, Kitty Geith of Homestead, FL; three children, Sadie (Josh) Evenson of Norwalk, Colby Amstutz of Clear Lake and Lindsay Amstutz of Des Moines; a granddaughter, Taylor Perry of Norwalk; and two brothers, Dick (Tala) Geith of Homestead, FL and Bob (Janis) Geith of Fort Lauderdale, FL.

She was preceded in death by her father, Dick Geith.

Cataldo Funeral Home, 641-923-2841, www.cataldofuneralhome.com.
FOREST CITY  Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds fielded questions Monday from residents about her background  shes from St. Charles, in Madison County  then toured Forest Plaza Assisted Living, their refurbished, state-of-the-art facility.

She was impressed.

Its really a great place for our residents to live and call home, Reynolds said. I go to 99 counties each and every year, so I always look for different facilities to visit. This is a great opportunity for me to see how theyve renovated an old hospital and turned it into an assisted living facility. Its just an opportunity to visit different facilities across the state and get their perspective on whats working and whats not.

Dave Steffens Jr. and Alan Johnson of Leading Edge Development Services, Lake Mills, purchased the former Forest City Community Hospital site in 2001. They created an assisted living facility with 40 apartment units on the upper level and a clinic in the lower level along with physical therapy and occupational therapy areas and a pharmacy.

Steffens said he was pleased with Reynolds visit.

I think this is something youre going to need to see more of, particularly in rural Iowa where facilities like this can be in short supply, he said. It keeps the residents close to their families and also their friends. Having friends come out here or being able to go visit, or participate in clubs that they were active in, I think is a huge part of making assisted living work.

It was good to see Reynolds tour Forest Plaza and all the partnerships within the facility, and how this building was taken from a struggling hospital that the city sold to a private entity, and was very well developed, said Beth Bilyeu, executive director of Forest City Economic Development.

This has several different impacts for us as a region, Bilyeu said. Its not a nursing home, but its still their home. And its a way for socializing much more. Its nice memories for them, its nice services. And the trickle-down effect is it opens up houses in our area. As seniors move into other houses, young families can move into their houses. And it expands our housing base.

Reynolds also spoke to residents about her intent to re-invest in Iowa, the importance of working with young people in computer science technology and Gov. Terry Branstads planned redesign of the states mental health care system.

She said she is excited and optimistic about last weeks presidential election.

Im ready to get to work and continue to move Iowa in the right direction, Reynolds said. I think everybodys probably glad that its finally over. Well take a look at how we can grow the economy, make sure that Iowans have opportunities for great careers. Continue to invest in education and our young people, and really helping Iowans get the skills that they need to be successful to fill the jobs that are available right now let alone the jobs of the future. Water quality will be another issue that well hopefully get something done with this year. Really looking forward to having a partner in Washington, D.C., who really understands the roles of the state.
MASON CITY  U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, was not forgotten by Cerro Gordo County voters who went to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 8, in an election where there was nearly a 73 percent voter turnout.

Many residents showed their displeasure with both major party candidates by writing in other choices for president.

Sanders, who challenged Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, received 153 of the 262 write-in votes that were cast in the presidential race.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan received 10 write-ins. Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who sought the Republican nomination, got six, as did Republican Vice President-Elect Mike Pence.

Scattered write-ins were cast in state and county elections as well.

Cerro Gordo County supervisors canvassed the results of Tuesdays election and found everything to be in order.

The canvass showed that 23,137 of the countys 32,071 registered voters cast ballots  a voter turnout of 72.1 percent.

That fell short of totals in the last three presidential elections in which turnout was 72.9 percent in 2012, 74.5 percent in 2008 and 73.8 percent in 2004.

Highest voter turnout in Cerro Gordo County in the past 30 years in a presidential election was in 1988 when the total was 79.1 percent.
Ravensdown, the farmer-owned fertiliser co-operative, is the new sponsor for the NZ Guild of Agricultural Journalists and Communicators prestigious Agricultural Communicator of the Year Award.

Regarded as the premier award for agricultural communicators, it will be known as the Ravensdown Agricultural Communicator of the Year Award.

Next year will be the 31st year an industry champion will be honoured and the $2500 cash prize from Ravensdown will be presented alongside a large greenstone trophy at the awards dinner at the NZ National Agricultural Fieldays at Mystery Creek.

The Guild welcomes Ravensdown into its family of sponsors, and hopes the relationship will continue for another 30 years, says guild secretary Sue Miller.

The Ravensdown sponsorship replaces that by Landcorp which had been associated with the prestigious award for the past 30 years.

Newly signed primary sponsor Ravensdowns Chief Executive Greg Campbell says the award is about "honouring the people and groups who are showcasing and communicating relevant and important information to both the sector and the wider audience with a vested interest in what we produce".

New Zealands primary industry is made up of a diverse bunch of sectors, from scientists to teachers to farmers and everything in-between, all working towards a common goal of being the worlds best and most sustainable producer of food.

There are significant challenges and innovations that these people deal with and those stories and learnings need to be told. Thats why Ravensdown wants to champion those talented communicators who do just that, says Greg.

Were thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the New Zealand Guild of Agricultural Journalists and Communicators who run the awards on making sure every part of the primary sector is acknowledged and honoured.

Nominations open early May next year, which must come from Guild members, however anyone in the sector can be nominated.
Dont be fooled by their appearance  these women may look like sweet nanas, but this week theyre taking a firm stand.

Theyre participating in a week of peaceful protests to counter the week of war taking place up in Auckland.

The Royal New Zealand Navy is marking its 75th anniversary with several days of military-themed events, including naval formations, military parade, and a ships open day. But some of the key sponsors are military contractors, who will be there to advertise their wares.

It will also be the first time a U.S. warship has entered New Zealand waters since the ANZUS bust-up of the 1980s. A peace flotilla has been planned to sail out and meet the incoming battleships, but its been suggested protestors could be arrested as terrorists.

Tauranga peace advocate Dolores Flynn-Edge was so concerned about that possibility, she gave Transport Minister Simon Bridges a letter.

I asked him: Is that true? I always thought we in New Zealand had the freedom to protest if we wanted to.

Dolores herself wont be on the water  shes going up to hear a lecture on whether there can be such a thing as a just war  but she stands in solidarity with those who are. She also finds the governments priorities to be misplaced.

The government are paying a lot of money to upgrade the navy and military, she says.

Yet they cant find any money for the hungry children?

Her friends Mary Rose, Joy Rising, and Merrill Simmons-Hansen are going up as well. As to the terrorist threat, Mary Rose maintains theyre too old to worry about getting arrested.

All of the women are united in their opposition to war, and hope others will join them in standing up for peace this week.

As Dolores puts it: Weve got enough war going on without having to play war games.

More info on the peace protests can be found at aucklandpeaceaction.wordpress.com
The New Zealand Defence Force has deployed four Air Force NH90 helicopters to help evacuate a large number of tourists and residents from Kaikoura.

The area was badly hammered by the massive 7.5 magnitude earthquake on Monday morning.

We have mobilised additional assets to support the Governments response to the earthquake, and we have been working with the Ministry of Civil Defence to ensure the lifelines and basic needs of the Kaikoura community are met, says Air Commodore Darryn Webb, the Acting Commander Joint Forces New Zealand.

Our priority today is to evacuate the tourists and residents of Kaikoura who have been displaced by the earthquake and are now being accommodated at a local marae and various community buildings.

Darryn says about 5000kg of aid supplies earmarked for Kaikoura are currently at Christchurch and include food, water and hygiene products, and jerrycans of diesel. The aid supplies were from the Ministry of Civil Defence, Red Cross and the NZDF.

He says several international partners have also offered to lend a hand, and these offers of assistance are currently being considered.

Hundreds of Defence Force personnel, at least eight aircraft and two ships are currently assisting in the Governments earthquake response.

The Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management says a national relief support effort is underway following yesterdays 7.5 magnitude earthquake.

Director Sarah Stuart-Black says the Ministry is coordinating a national support effort targeting those communities worst affected by yesterdays quake.

The National Crisis Management Centre and local emergency responders were activated during the night, with staff from Canterbury CDEM and multiple agencies helping with the response.

Our top priority is ensuring the safety and wellbeing of those affected by yesterdays earthquakes.

We know that water, food and fuel are required in Kaikoura, Hurunui and Marlborough, and were coordinating relief supplies and transport to get those essentials in.

We are working with government agencies to provide the right level of support to Civil Defence Emergency Management Groups. In particular we are coordinating with the New Zealand Fire Service, New Zealand Police and the New Zealand Defence Force to make sure groups get what they need.

NZ Defence Force NH90 helicopters have been deployed to transport staff and resources to communities in the Hurunui and Kaikoura districts, and assist with evacuations. The HMNZS Canterbury and HMNZS Wellington are en route to Canterbury to assist in the response.

Urban Search and Rescue teams, together with Civil Defence, Police, Red Cross staff and building inspectors have also been deployed. Welfare centres are open in the district. GNS Science have landslide specialists gathering information about the landslides and land stability.

The Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management is reminding people to stay safe and continue to be prepared for further aftershocks. People are asked to follow the advice of local Civil Defence groups and stay informed through media and social media reports.

Its heartening to see so many people help their loved ones, neighbours, friends and others in need. Continue to look after each other.

Aftershocks will to continue. Remember to drop, cover and hold. It stops you being knocked over, makes you a smaller target and protects your organs. Do not run outside or stand in doorways.

For the most detailed and up to date information about Kaikoura follow Canterbury Civil Defence through their website or social media. Offers of support from throughout the country should be made to local Civil Defence offices.

Important advice:
Local MP and Trade Minister Todd McClay has been re-selected as the National Party candidate for the Rotorua electorate in the 2017 general election.

He says it is an honour to be the Rotorua electorates Member of Parliament and a privilege to serve the Te Puke community, along with all New Zealanders.

The last two years have seen a significant period of growth and development for the Rotorua electorate, which will provide wide benefit for everyone in our community, says Todd.

The Bay of Plenty region is humming, but there is still a great deal of work to do in order to ensure that continues.

He says a number of key initiatives have been delivered for the electorate in recent years, but he is very pleased to have built on a strong relationship with the kiwifruit industry  a significant contributor to the New Zealand economy.

"Kiwifruit is a big employer and the backbone of the Bay of Plenty growth story. The industry is having one of its best years and has recovered well from PSA. I remain a staunch advocate for the benefits of the Single Desk. It is delivering better returns for our growers.

Over my eight years in parliament, the Government has focused on providing opportunities for young people. Achievement levels in local schools have increased as a result of hard work of our teachers and we have delivered more apprentice and trades training places at the Bay of Plenty and Waiariki Technical Institutes (Toi Ohomai).

Government continues to invest in infrastructure to make the Bay of Plenty a productive and competitive economy. We have seen hundreds of millions invested in the Tauranga Eastern Link and local roads to deal with congestion and make our roads safer.

I look forward to working with newly elected Mayor Webber and the Western Bay Council, as well as community organisations and local industry, to ensure continued growth and opportunity.

Another important highlight for Todd since becoming Trade Minister has been the opportunity to promote Te Puke and the Bay to international trade partners.

The Bay of Plenty punches above its weight as an export region and I have enjoyed working with local businesses to identify new opportunities for them overseas."

Todd was first elected to Parliament after defeating long-standing Rotorua MP Steve Chadwick in 2008 and 2011, and high-profile media personality Tamati Coffey in 2014, increasing his majority at each election.

He was appointed a Government Minister in 2013. In 2014 he was promoted to Cabinet, and in 2015 was promoted Minister of Trade. He is also the Minister of State Owned Enterprises, and Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs.
CLEAR LAKE  For nine years, Lylas Boutique has offered shoppers a place to get trendy, unique womens clothing in downtown Clear Lake.

But now the stores lease is up, and the business might close if co-owners Twyla Tindall and Lisa Barillas cant find another Main Avenue storefront.

They must vacate their existing location, 314 Main Ave., by the end of February to make way for a planned expansion by their landlord, Clear Lake Bank & Trust.

We definitely dont want to go out of business, Tindall said. That was never our plan.

The expansion involves Clear Lake Bank & Trusts corporate office and service center at 322 Main Ave., which is right next to the boutique.

Tindall says shes known for years an expansion was possible, but was surprised when she learned it could happen by next spring. In August, she and Barillas signed a lease through July 2017.

The expansion is necessary now because Clear Lake Bank & Trust has run out of space in the downtown location, said Paul Stevenson, the banks executive vice president.

He said the company reconfigured the layout of the downtown locations multiple times over the years to make the best use of existing space, but has simply run out of room.

We believe (an expansion will) allow our employees a more efficient work environment to better serve our customers, he said.

The bank has added 40 employees in the last decade. It has branches in Garner and Mason City, all of which Stevenson said would remain open after the expansion.

Although details are still being finalized, it appears the expansion would require tearing down the buildings housing Lylas Boutique and another business, J Avenue. The buildings also have upstairs apartments.

Though separate buildings, Lylas and J Avenue share a stairwell and hallway, Stevenson said.

Plans arent finalized yet, but it would appear we may be tearing them down and rebuilding new, he said. Thats the best and most efficient way to go about it.

Tindall said bank staff have been trying to help her find a new place for the boutique, but there isnt much space available.

I will say the bank has been helpful in trying to locate a place for us to move, she said. There just isnt any.

Making it in Clear Lake, in Tindalls mind, requires being on Main Avenue to take advantage of big holiday events like the annual Fourth of July celebration and Christmas By the Lake.

If Lylas cant stay on Main Avenue, it likely will close by the end of the year.

The Clear Lake Area Chamber of Commerce has also tried to help the two businesses.

The bank expansion is being done for a really good, valid reason, said Chamber CEO Tim Coffey. And, again, its a shame that at least one of them may not be able to continue.

Judy Linahon, owner of J Avenue, plans to close. Her last day will be Dec. 31.

Its impossible, Linahon said, of finding another suitable Main Avenue rental. Its a great problem for Clear Lake to have, but it doesnt help anybody trying to relocate.
Seeing babies feel sand between their toes for the first time, and watching toddlers enjoy the novel texture of paint between their fingers is something Melissa Palmer revels in.

Every day is different  depending on the children, what their interests are, youre not doing the same thing every single day, says the Early Childhood Education teacher of 14 years.

And every day is a challenge in a special unique way  its really awesome.

And for Melissa, this week is special and unique. Shes been recognised for her oozing passion and dedication to her career by being named runner-up in the early childhood category in the New Zealands Most Inspiring Teachers campaign.

Melissa, who has been working at ABC Central Tauranga for 13 years next March, has wanted to an ECE teacher since I was little.

Her parents friends had younger children, so interacting with them uncovered a yearning.

She first completed a certificate in early childhood education, then a national certificate, a diploma and a degree  a Bachelor of Teaching.

Does she freak out at the responsibility of looking after others children? It is a huge responsibility  youre a looking after peoples treasures every single day.

But its actually a privilege that they trust me with their most prized possession.

I just absolutely love what I do.

And you can tell. Each child is their own person, has their own interests that we like to extend and enrich their lives, says Melissa.

She works with under twos at ABC Tauranga central as one of nine staff, including an admin person and cook, looking after the centres 45 families. Shes also worked with over-twos.

The under twos  theyre development is just at such a high rate. They are learning things constantly. And everything to them is new.

Some havent done a painting before or felt the texture of paint between their fingers, some havent had the opportunity to go to the beach  so taking off their socks in the sandpit and seeing their toes wiggle in the sand for the very first time is magic!

Parents can see their childs progress at ABC Tauranga Central through a video on each childs story page online. That I get to be a part of that is amazing  and being able to share these experiences with their parents is great too.

Melissa was nominated for the accolade by fellow teacher Gemma Gilbert, who says her colleague is the most dedicated teacher I have met.

Melissa has made a positive difference in many childrens lives through her constant positivity, respectful practice and enthusiasm for ensuring every child has the best start to life.

Im in awe of her respectful and nurturing teaching practice, which she demonstrates daily. Children love to be around Melissa, where they feel lots of aroha in her presence, says Gemma.

Absolutely, I am dedicated, says Melissa. This is not a nine-to-five job. We dont walk out of the building at the days end and thats the end of it.

Its researching, doing after-hours at the centre, bringing in the families so they can network with each other. Its going the extra mile.

For example, Melissa is one of many ECE teachers youll regularly see at the beach  and not for their own enjoyment.

For a teacher a beach isnt just a place where you swim in the water. Its a resources collecting opportunity. So youll often see ECE teachers at the beach collecting resources.

Our job is 24/7.

Melissa says theres always change at the centre, with children going off to school, new and old families coming and going, and new faces. So is it hard to let go?

You dont just become part of childrens lives  you become part of their family. So yes, I have shed a few tears as they leave for school.

Its not a job to us  it really is a passion.

Her three children, now aged 12, 11 and nine, have all been at the centre. This means I can relate to the parents on their level  so I know communication in those first few months is really important.

And how does her new accolade make her feel? I did cry a little bit  the overwhelming support from past and present families  yeah, its appreciation.

I thank all the teachers, parents, family and friends for all their support.

Melissa also says its nice to receive recognition for something that is her passion.

What I like about early childhood education is I have the opportunity to be a part of childrens lives and really make a difference.
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Amy Dibley of Physio Direct Ltd has been named the supreme winner of the annual Rural Women New Zealand Enterprising Rural Women Awards.

Amy is from Rotorua and started up her business to meet a gap in the market. She offers physiotherapy and other allied health services in rural service towns in the Central North Island, and in Canterbury in the South Island.

"Amy was a standout finalist in the awards," says Wendy McGowan, Awards judge and National President of Rural Women New Zealand. "The judges appreciated Amys innovative approach and business planning skills which have grown the Physio Direct franchise. Her team offer a health service that meets the needs of rural residents, who often struggle to access services such as physiotherapy in remote towns. Well done Amy, we wish her every success for the future."

The judging panel also included Grant Rae, ANZ Privates Associate Director, and SWAZI New Zealands Sales Manager, Warwick Bean and HP New Zealands Sales Specialist, David Farquhar. They joined Wendy McGowan in interviewing the four finalists and reviewing their financial information and also their business plans. They were very impressed with the high standard of entries.

The 2016 Enterprising Rural Women Awardswinners:
Police are appealing to the public for help to locate Troy Redfern who has a warrant out for his arrest.

The 37-year-old has breached his prison release conditions and police also want to speak to him in relation to two domestic-related assaults.

Redfern is believed to be using methamphetamine and there are concerns about his mental welfare. Members of the public should not approach him, but call 111 immediately.

If you have any non-urgent information contact Detective Sergeant Chris Goldsmith on 021 191 4015.

Information can also be provided anonymous via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
The New Zealand Defence Force has deployed its NH90 helicopters to deliver vital supplies of immediate aid to the coastal town of Kaikoura.

Stranded tourists and residents have also been evacuated as part of a national relief effort following Mondays 7.5 magnitude earthquake.

Some flights early yesterday were delayed by weather conditions, but by early evening about 140 people had been evacuated.

The Air Force expected to fly almost 200 people to Christchurch by last light.

Among those rescued are 11 campers, including two babies, at Kaikouras Goose Bay campground.

Wing Commander Scott McKenzie, Commanding Officer of the Royal New Zealand Air Forces 3 Squadron, says four Air Force NH90 helicopters have been dispatched to deliver essential supplies and rescue hundreds of residents and tourists from Kaikoura.

The earthquake has cut off land access to Kaikoura and disrupted power and water supplies. So weve been delivering food, water, diesel fuel and other basic necessities the entire day, and evacuating people out of there.

The NZDF, Ministry of Civil Defence and Red Cross have about 5000kg of immediate aid supplies earmarked for Kaikoura at Christchurch. The supplies include food, water and hygiene products, and jerrycans of diesel.

Air Commodore Darryn Webb, the Acting Commander Joint Forces New Zealand, says the NZDF has mobilised additional aircraft and vessels to support the Governments response to the massive earthquake.

We have been working with the Ministry of Civil Defence to ensure the lifelines and basic needs of the Kaikoura community are met.

He says the NZDF has also accepted offers of assistance from international partners. Aerial surveillance aircraft from the United States and Japan are due to conduct aerial surveys of quake-damaged areas this afternoon.

Hundreds of Defence Force personnel, at least eight aircraft and two ships are currently assisting in the Governments relief effort.

Multi-role vessel HMNZS Canterbury left Auckland for Kaikoura last night, and is expected to arrive in Kaikoura at 9am today.

The offshore patrol vessel HMNZS Wellington, with a Littoral Warfare Unit embarked, is also on her way to Kaikoura and was due at 5am.
Bat enthusiasts from across Australasia will be flocking to Hamiltons Claudelands Arena for a special symposium this Sunday.

Hosted by local bat advocacy group Project Echo, the symposium is part of ERA2016  the Ecology and Restoration Australasia conference which is taking place from November 1923.

Its the first joint conference between New Zealand and Australian ecological societies and will include delegates from a broad range of universities, organisations, governments, and volunteer groups.

Representatives from Project Echo, which was established by the Waikato Regional and Hamilton City councils plus the Riverlea Environment Society Incorporated will also be on hand to provide an update on recent native bat developments in the city.

The symposium will also feature Hamilton City Council community planting co-ordinator Gerard Kelly giving a talk about his involvement in Project Echo and how its been inspiring many young people to explore the citys gullies and roosting bat populations.

Hamilton is the perfect place to host this symposium because it is one of the few cities in New Zealand to still support a resident population of long-tailed bats.

With the help of the local community, we have been working hard to gather information on bat populations throughout the city. Now weve started to focus our efforts on protecting trees where bats roost, and targeted pest animal control in selected parks in the city.

Symposium delegates will get a chance to encounter bats in real life during a number of field trips, to the Pureora Forest, Pukemokemoke Reserve and Hammond Bush.

But if youre a bat enthusiasts whos unable to attend the conference, Waikato Museum will be offering bat encounters for members of the public next year.

Various staff from Waikato Regional Council will be at the conference sharing their experience on environmental restoration.

Ecologist Dr Yanbin Deng will talk about how to enhance the resilience of Kahikatea forest remnants in the Waikato region, while senior biodiversity officer Dr Andrea Julian will explain how she prioritises sites for possum control.

To learn more about the long-tailed bat and Project Echos efforts to protect them visit the Waikato Regional Councils website at: www.waikatoregion.govt.nz/projectecho/

For more information about the ERA2016 conference and bat symposium visit: www.era2016.com

Hamilton City Councils community planting co-ordinator Gerard Kelly inspecting a bat roosting box. Photo: WRC
I do not expect most of the nations young people will ever get used to the idea of President Trump. Thats OK. You are not required to like our new president.

But the millennials who are feeling down after the election shouldnt just sit back and watch this nation, or the world, go down a path you disdain. Its time for your generation to stand up and forge your own political plan of action.

First: Stop complaining about how the election system doesnt work. The Electoral College has been ignoring the will of the people since the Constitution was written; thats not the main reason Donald Trump won. He was elected because too many people, including millennials, sat home and complained about their choices instead of voting for Hillary Clinton.

Data from the Pew Research Center show:

The millennial generation  18- to 29-year-olds  is now about as large as the Baby Boomers. Millennials had the power to decide the election, or at least strongly influence the outcome, but instead many stepped aside and let their parents and grandparents, who voted in double their numbers, choose Trump, according to estimates from the U.S. Elections Project. National exit-poll data found millennials made up 12 percent of voters this year, compared to 19 percent in 2012. People ages 65 and older made up 26 percent of voters.

You need to use your energy and your voice to advocate for change. Pick your top two priorities: the environment, the economy, womens rights, immigration. Then make sure your voice is heard. Volunteer for a cause you believe in, donate and call or email your U.S. representatives and demand they vote to take action on things like the Paris climate agreement, for example. Talk about these issues at the Thanksgiving table and have these same discussions with your friends.

Consider branching out and advocating on behalf of the people who feel left out of the economic boom you have benefited from.

Broaden your social network. Look beyond social media and interact face-to-face. Get out of the echo chamber, politically and demographically. Join a community group or congregation. Have an open mind. Find your middle ground and work together on issues that matter, like homelessness or gun safety.

Change can begin at home. Many of our nations biggest recent political achievements started in states and local municipalities. Gay marriage, pot legalization, minimum-wage increases, common-sense gun laws. Anyone can propose a bill to a lawmaker or gather signatures and put an initiative on the ballot.

If you dont know your lawmakers, make appointments to visit them in their district offices. Share your concerns. Start an online petition. Testify before legislative committees. Run for office if youre not getting the action you want.

On the national scene, remember that the president has limited powers that are balanced by the other branches of government. If you want immigration reform and a path to citizenship, join an advocacy group and lobby Congress. March on Washington, people. Its been done to great effect in the past, to stop the Vietnam War and to fight for civil rights.

If you dont like the two-party system, be part of expanding our political scene. But dont wait until 2020. Sign up now to organize people to run for local office, or run yourself and advocate on the state and national level. The same effort could be applied to amending the Constitution to eliminate the Electoral College.

Millennials, its in your hands to make sure this nation elects the president of your choice in 2020. If youre not registered to vote, today would be a good day to change that. Go online to register: st.news/register-to-vote. Hold a party, set up some computers and have all your friends do the same. Tell them they cant have a beer or glass of wine until they have registered.

Now get to work.
I just read in the Globe Gazette that Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds will be showing up in Forest City as a part of her 99-county tour of the state.

Hmm. Is she already beginning her campaign to follow Gov. Branstad into office? I always suspected this was the strategy for Reynolds coat-tailing Branstad around the state doing nothing but standing beside him smiling at us.

The question for Iowa voters will be does she have the bona fides, toughness and political skill to handle a much bigger and more responsible job?

Johanna Anderson, Osage
Deric J. Brown

Syracuse, NY -- There was a gun between Deric Brown's legs.

That's what Syracuse police Officer Joseph Mauro III saw when he approached Brown's white Nissan sedan the night of Oct. 9 on Walnut Street near Syracuse University, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said today.

The officer ordered Brown, 41, to show his hands. But instead of putting his hands on the steering wheel or in the air, Brown reached down for the gun, Fitzpatrick said.

At that instant, Mauro could have shot the suspect under New York law, the DA said.

He didn't. Instead, Mauro retreated to his marked police SUV. What happened next was caught on the dashboard camera of a passing vehicle.

Brown stepped out of the car and opened fire toward the police officer, who had taken cover behind his marked vehicle, according to the video. The video recorded four shots; a total of seven were fired from Brown's gun, Fitzpatrick said.

Spent pistol at scene after Deric Brown police shooting. Photo depicts image taken by police after incident.

Mauro fired three shots back toward Brown. The gunman continued firing, Fitzpatrick said.

When the gunfire stopped, Mauro saw Brown facedown on the sidewalk. He called for backup.

It was determined that Brown was shot twice: once in the right thigh and once in his chest, puncturing both lungs and killing him.

Four of Brown's bullets struck the front of Mauro's police vehicle. Brown's 9 mm Ruger pistol was found completely expended of bullets.

That's the account -- based on witness accounts, the video and the officer's testimony -- that led an Onondaga County grand jury Monday to find Mauro was justified in killing Brown, Fitzpatrick said during a morning news conference.

Fitzpatrick said Mauro acted heroically and said it was a miracle that he survived. The DA said Mauro showed restraint by not shooting Brown initially after the suspect went for a weapon in the vehicle.

Mauro is a 16-year police veteran with SWAT training, the DA said. That training likely helped him in the shootout, he said.

Mauro will now return to active police duty after being cleared by the grand jury, said prosecutor Joseph Coolican.

Officer Mauro's SUV was struck by four bullets in the shootout with a driver who opened fire on the officer. The yellow arrows point to the bullet holes. This photo comes from an image of the SUV taken by authorities.

Brown had a long criminal record that included drugs and weapons convictions. He had a large tattoo across his chest that read: "In guns we trust," with an image of two pistols, the DA said.

He had told others that if he was caught again with a gun, they would read about him in the newspapers because he wasn't going back to state prison, Fitzpatrick said. He declined to identify who Brown told those statements to.

Based on his criminal history, Brown faced a sentence that included the possibility of life in prison if convicted of another illegal weapons charge. Fitzpatrick said his office would have likely sought a 20- to 25-year-to-life sentence based solely on the illegal weapon.

Had Brown survived the shootout, he would have faced a first-degree attempted murder charge, as well, for opening fire on the police officer, the DA said.

Brown was employed as a food service worker at SU, Fitzpatrick said.

Prior to speaking to reporters this morning, the DA said he met with Brown's family. He showed them the video and other evidence against their son. Without elaborating on their conversation, Fitzpatrick called the family "remarkably decent people."
PHOENIX, N.Y. -- Ismael Hernandez took precautions when he answered an ad to purchase merchandise on a social media site Sunday, state police investigators said.

The 22-year-old village of Phoenix man arranged to meet the seller on Cherry Street, a neutral location on a public street that was just a couple blocks from his home, state police Investigator Ben Miller said.

"The victim didn't want (the seller) to know where he lived," Miller said.

Hernandez also arrived with a friend, who waited in a nearby vehicle, the investigator said.

But after Hernandez gave the men, whom he had never met, cash for an item he would never receive -- one shot rang out and the car sped away.

Hernandez had been shot in the chest, but was still alive.

Less than 24 hours after the search for the robbers began, state police had one man in custody.

State police say Tommy E. Washington, 20, of 128 Amherst Ave., Syracuse, used his real name when he posted the ad that Hernandez responded to on a social media site. But investigators do not believe Washington and his friends intended to give Hernandez the item after he paid for it, Miller said.

"We believe their intent was robbery," said Miller, who works with the state police Troop D Major Crimes Unit.

Investigators say Washington and at least one other man, but possibly as many as four other men drove in a silver car from Syracuse to the Oswego County village of Phoenix to meet Hernandez after "they arranged for the purchase on a social media site."

Hernandez paid the men as they sat inside the silver car in front of 9 Cherry St., Miller said. But the men never gave Hernandez the merchandise, the investigator said.

"He knew they were getting ready to take off," Miller said. "He's upset."

A small argument ensued, the investigator said.

Then, within a matter of seconds, the men in the car start to drive away and someone in the car fires one shot at Hernandez as he stood outside the car near the driver's side window, Miller said.

Tommy E. Washington

The bullet struck Hernandez in the chest and the robbers sped away.

Hernandez's friend, who was waiting in the vehicle nearby, heard the shot and rushed to help him, Miller said. Investigators say they do not think the robbers ever saw Hernandez's friend.

The friend drove Hernandez to his parents' home a couple blocks to Lock Street, where someone called 911 around 10:30 p.m. Sunday.

Members of the Phoenix Enterprise Fire Co. provided medical care to Hernandez as he lay on his parents' bedroom floor, semi-alert, until an ambulance arrived, Phoenix Volunteer Fire Chief John McDonald said.

Hernandez was conscious when Menter Ambulance took him from his parents' home to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, the fire chief said. Hernandez was in stable condition Monday night.

"The bullet just missed his vitals," Miller said. "He was unlucky, but lucky."

Investigators interviewed Hernandez at the hospital on Monday. They also talked to family and friends of the robbery suspects.

Although police found a "minuscule" amount of marijuana, they do not think the robbery-turned-shooting was a drug deal-gone wrong, Miller said.

"It wasn't a drug deal," the investigator said. "The victim was trying to buy merchandise from Mr. Washington."

Washington's family called him Monday to say state police were looking for him; he then told police where they could find him, Miller said.

Washington was charged with first-degree robbery, a felony. He is being held at the Oswego County Jail.



State police say they are still looking for the other men who were in car with Washington, including the shooter.

Investigators would not provide specific details about the case so that they can verify information witnesses, suspects and tipsters provide as the investigation continues, Miller said. Those details include: what social media site Washington used to arrange the sale; what merchandise Hernandez intended to buy; and how much cash was taken during the robbery.

State police investigators say they are working with Phoenix police detectives on the case. They ask anyone with information about the shooting and robbery to call state police in Oneida at (315) 366-6000.
CAYUGA COUNTY, N.Y. - A Syracuse man was arrested by the Cayuga County Sheriff's Office for sending porn to a 12-year-old online and propositioning the child for sexual favors, the sheriff's office announced today.

Joshua E. Mauro

Joshua E. Mauro, 25, of 209 1/2 Lawrence Ave. in Syracuse, was arrested and charged with first-degree disseminating indecent material to a minor, a felony.

The office began investigating Mauro on Nov. 10 and found he had been making inappropriate contact with a 12-year-old child in Cayuga County, deputies said.

Mauro used several different online platforms to talk to the child, having conversations about sex and sending the child pornographic images and videos, deputies said.

Mauro's charge also suggests he asked the child for sex, sexual contact, or an obscene and sexual performance, according to New York state law.

He was arraigned in the Town of Owasco Court and is being held in Cayuga County Jail on $10,000 cash bail or $20,000 bond.

Cayuga County deputies ask anyone with information about Mauro to call (315) 253-6562 or leave tips online through their website.

Reporter Kira Maddox covers crime and safety for Syracuse.com. She can be reached anytime: Email | Facebook | Twitter
PHOENIX, N.Y. -- State police say they have arrested a Syracuse man in connection with a shooting Sunday night in the Oswego County village of Phoenix.

Tommy E. Washington, 20, of 128 Amherst Ave., was charged Monday with first-degree robbery, a felony.

Washington is accused of robbing the victim, but he is not believed to be the person who shot 22-year-old Ismael Hernandez, state police investigators said Monday night.

Tommy E. Washington

Hernandez was shot in the chest about 10:30 p.m. Sunday as he stood outside a car in front of 9 Cherry St. in the village of Phoenix, authorities have said.

After he was shot, a friend sitting in a nearby vehicle helped Hernandez and drove him to his parents' house on Lock Street, state police said. From there, Hernandez was taken to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, where he remained in stable condition Monday night.

"There are additional suspects that were involved in this incident with Mr. Washington, and the state police are requesting any additional information," troopers said in a news release.

The state police Bureau of Criminal Investigation are working with Phoenix police detectives. They ask anyone with information about the shooting to call state police in Oneida at (315) 366-6000.
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Award Kabayiza

(Syracuse Police Department)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Police have charged a man with killing a 64-year-old woman on Syracuse's North Side.

Award Kabayiza, 24, of 920 Butternut St., Syracuse, was arrested Monday night and charged with murdering Jesca Nyirakubanza, of Syracuse. The murder happened at 10:26 p.m. on Butternut Street, said Police Chief Frank Fowler.

Officers rushed to 1406 Butternut St. to investigate an injured person report. When officers arrived, they found a woman with "serious" head injuries, Fowler said.

An American Medical Response ambulance crew responded to the scene. Soon after, the woman was pronounced dead.

Officers conducted interviews and collected evidence. Fowler said investigators quickly identified a suspect: Kabayiza.

The acquaintances were both new Americans with a shared social group, Fowler said. Kabayiza and Nyirakubanza had recently immigrated to the country from the same part of the Congo, he said.

Kabayiza went to Nyirakubanza's home Monday evening, Fowler said.

While at the home, Kabayiza was left alone with Nyirakubanza for a "short period" of time, Fowler said. During that time, Nyirakubanza suffered blunt force or direct trauma, he said, declining to give more details.

Kabayiza was arrested at the scene.

The type of trauma that caused Nyirakubanza's death will be determined by the medical examiner's office, Fowler said. The motive for the murder also remains under investigation.

"We don't know what led up to this," Fowler said.

Kabayiza was charged with second-degree murder. He is in the Onondaga County Justice Center without bail.

Nyirakubanza's death marks Syracuse's 26th homicide of 2016. This year is the deadliest year in the city's history, Fowler said.

Syracuse police aim to have no homicides, Fowler said. Investigating 26 violent deaths is disturbing, he said.

"That's 26 lives lost. That's 26 of our citizens that have died," Fowler said. "It really troubles us around here."

Although police are confident there are no other suspects in Nyirakubanza's death, Fowler asked anyone with information about the North Side murder to call (315) 442-5222 or submit tips anonymously through the SPD Tips app.

Do you know Jesca Nyirakubanza? Syracuse.com would like to speak to family or friends willing to share insights into her life. Reach reporter Samantha House at 315-466-4160 or by email at shouse@syracuse.com.
This feature is coordinated by The Post-Standard/Syracuse.com and InterFaith Works of CNY. Follow this theme and author posted Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.

Jawala Regmi

I am Jawala Regmi from Bhutan. On Sept. 7, 1992, my wife and I, along with our four children, fled our home and country. The Bhutanese government made us stateless by confiscating our citizenship and turning our heavenly life into one of misery. We took refuge in a camp in Nepal. After suffering untold miseries for almost two decades, we decided to move to the United States. Leaving our birthplace was painful; but, for the future of our children, we left Nepal. In our documents we learned that we would be received by InterFaith Works. When we arrived at the airport, we were surprised to be greeted by a staff member who was from our culture and spoke our language. He explained how InterFaith Works would help us. Through services, encouragement and support, we were able to find jobs, and soon, stand on our own feet. (

See Thursday's CNY Inspirations for more about the Regmi family

.)

Refugees from Bhutan, Jawala Regmi and his family were resettled in Syracuse by InterFaith Works' Center for New Americans.
Blog_CommunityGridoption2.JPG

This is an artist's rendering of what the street-level replacement of Interstate 81 would look like in downtown Syracuse. Letter writers thank the state DOT for the hard work to come up with the final options and praise this "Community Grid" option for its many benefits.

(New York State Department of Tra)

To the Editor:

Congratulations are in order for New York State Department of Transportation Commissioner Matthew Driscoll and Project Director Mark Frechette. The latest version of the "Community Grid" option, unveiled in early October, is sure to garner national attention as one of the most innovative and thoroughly researched regional transportation designs ever produced by a state DOT.

Choices for replacement of the I-81 viaduct have now been narrowed by DOT to only two: The Community Grid and a taller, wider, more destructive viaduct. The choice seems obvious. The Community Grid would cost almost half a billion less; it would avoid the demolition of 20 downtown buildings; it would require fewer years for construction; and it would free up acres of land in the center of the city for new development. All of this would be accomplished with no negative impact on regional travel times. DOT's extensive computer modeling found there would be "no substantial differences" between travel times with the Community Grid or a new viaduct.

Here is a list of the things that impress us most about DOT's Community Grid design:

 Dispersing traffic across the street grid. Most vehicles on the I-81 viaduct are traveling to or from the city or its vicinity. Community activists have encouraged DOT to optimize the city's street grid to disperse this traffic. That's exactly what DOT has done, and why the name for this option has changed from "Boulevard' to "Community Grid."

 Two-way streets. One-way streets offer speed while two-way streets offer flexibility. DOT asked city planners to provide a list of the streets they would like to see converted from one-way to two-way. DOT ultimately converted all of the streets on the city's list to two-way, then proceeded to convert even more that weren't on the list.

 A new approach to University Hill.The latest Community Grid design moves the major I-690 interchange three blocks east, from Almond to Crouse and Irving streets. This new design eliminates today's Adams & Harrison bottleneck at I-81, moving traffic more efficiently to and from University Hill.

 Under, rather than over, the railroad tracks. The DOT has now determined that I-81 can pass beneath the CSX rail line just west of University Hill. This new configuration opens up Van Buren as another major access point to the Hill, relieving congestion at Adams and Harrison.

 Grounding the West Street Interchange. DOT plans to demolish the soaring on and off ramps at West Street and I-690, bringing the West Street interchange down to street level. The result will be a new at-grade, pedestrian friendly intersection where today there is, literally, a concrete wall.

 New land for development. Removing the viaduct would free up 10 to 20 acres of land for new development in the center of the city. Highway removal has spurred urban redevelopment in cities across the country, including Rochester, San Francisco, Milwaukee, Boston and Portland. The same can happen here in Syracuse. To date, DOT has offered few details about how much land would become available and how it will be handled. This is land that was taken from the city half a century ago. Will it be returned to the city, or will it remain state land? We hope that in the months to come DOT will provide more details about the disposition of the land that would be freed up by the Community Grid.

Although there are many benefits, there are still areas for serious improvement in DOT's current design.

The "Common Features." While Syracuse south of I-690 will likely enjoy removal of an interstate freeway and a more walkable city center, DOT plans just the opposite for the neighborhoods north of I-690.

DOT says federal standards require -- regardless of the viaduct replacement option -- that "missing" on and off ramps be built between I-690 and I-81. Doing so would actually lengthen, by more than three miles, the distance vehicles must travel between I-690 and I-81. Rather than new elevated ramps, why not improve the existing -- and shorter -- Bear Street connection?

DOT says it must also widen what is now I-81 north of I-690, resulting in eight total lanes -- wider than any other highway in the region. Once the excavation is complete, and the new lanes are added, four overpasses north of I-690 would need to be completely rebuilt.

These unneeded features would add hundreds of millions of dollars to the overall project, and cause years of unnecessary disruption. No one in the community seems to be calling for them. If they are driven solely by federal requirements perhaps a waiver should be requested.

Given the thoughtful, forward thinking work already done by the DOT, we are hopeful that they will reconsider their plans for the 690 "flyovers" and widening of Route 81. The Northside will be better served by a more conservative approach that is respectful of this wonderful neighborhood.

Van Robinson

President, Syracuse Common Council

Robert Doucette

President, Armory Development & Management for ReThink81.org

Robert Haley and Dean Biancavilla

AIACNY I-81 Task Force

Peter Sarver

Moving People's Transportation Coalition

Nadine Lemmon

Tri-State Transportation Campaign
Barack Obama, Nancy Reagan

President Barack Obama escorts former first lady Nancy Reagan after signing the Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission Act during a ceremony at the White House in 2009. With the protests over Donald Trump's election, it's worth remembering that similar protests greeted Reagan's election in 1980, Richard Nixon's in 1968 and '72, as well as others in the 19th century.

(AP file photo / Haraz N. Ghanbari)

By Zachary Karabell | The Washington Post

Donald Trump's election has been greeted with panic by a considerable portion of the country. Large swaths of commentators have described his victory as a potential disaster for the nation - placing a "xenophobic racist" and "clown" in the Oval Office.

Articles with headlines like "Day of Mourning," "An American Tragedy" and "Autocracy: Rules for Survival" have bounced across the Internet. As the New Yorker's David Remnick wrote, "This is surely the way fascism can begin."

At times like these, it helps to look to our past for perspective. And the truth is that we've been here before, many times, throughout the 19th century and in living memory.

In 1968 and 1980, the same liberal, educated and urban swaths of the country voiced similar fear and despair about the outcome - a sense that the nation as they knew it could not survive. And yet here we are, decades later, still enamored with the republic they were sure was doomed.

When Richard Nixon was elected in 1968, he had been in public life for more than 20 years, and he cultivated a reputation as a staunch, unyielding ideological Cold Warrior who had little but contempt for liberals and elites. He advocated for the "silent majority" and had little interest in minorities. As a congressman in the 1940s, he led the House Un-American Activities Committee to root out suspected communists. He became Eisenhower's vice president almost entirely because of his rigid conservative credentials. Nixon was at times respected but rarely liked by the public, his adversaries or even by his allies.

On the eve of his election in 1968, the United States was bitterly divided and teetering on the edge of violence. There were riots outside the Democratic National Convention, and nationalist proto-Trump third-party candidate George Wallace was ascendant.

When Nixon squeaked into office with a tiny margin, liberals and the left despaired. As the late liberal senator Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) recounted in his memoirs, the reaction in his household was simple: "Nixon is a fascist pig." When Nixon won reelection in 1972, Hunter S. Thompson recalled bewildered Democrats quoting from the book of Jeremiah after the debacle, saying that "the harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." They looked bleakly at long years in the wilderness, not realizing that Watergate and the eviction of Nixon were but a season away.

The election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 was greeted on the left with no less pain and fear. Like Nixon, Reagan ran as a Cold Warrior, which also meant running against the elites who were seen as too soft - on dangers abroad and on crime, lawlessness and moral decay at home. One Cornell activist and supporter of incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter spoke for millions when he said Nov. 5, 1980: "The election of Ronald Reagan is a disaster for the country because he's a fascist. He's a dangerous person." I can vividly remember my high school history teacher walking dazed through the corridors convinced that the end of the republic was at hand, a phrase he muttered throughout the coming days in dead seriousness.

Coretta Scott King confessed that she was "scared" of Reagan as president, worried that it would mean tailwinds for the Ku Klux Klan. As historian Gil Troy observed, opinion polls showed that the electorate liked neither Reagan nor Carter, but liberal vehemence toward Reagan was particularly acute. Sound familiar?

Reagan attributed his victory to his promise "to put Americans back to work" and to make the country stand tall and proud on the global stage after the humiliations of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Iran hostage crisis. When asked why he won, he said simply that when people looked at him, "they saw themselves and saw that I'm one of them."

Much the same could be said of Trump.

In many ways, the American picture improved under Reagan, as it might have regardless of who was in the Oval Office but that redounded to his credit. Economic growth accelerated; the Soviet Union began to stumble and then crumble; and the public mood brightened considerably, even as Reagan filled his cabinet with cronies of questionable aptitude such as Edwin Meese in the Justice Department and the deservedly forgotten James Watt at the Interior Department, who proceeded to rail against women and minorities filling his department.

You can argue about how destructive or constructive Nixon and Reagan proved to be. You cannot credibly argue that the nation's foundations were acutely tested by their presidencies, which was precisely what liberals firmly believed after the election wins. Watergate indeed strained the country, but the system bent and didn't break. The fears then and the fears now sound the same and, if memory serves, felt the same. And similar forces were in play: Angry men from the heartland were the core of both electoral waves, the core of Nixon's base in 1968 and in 1972 and of Reagan's in 1980. They bore, as well, a similar animus to the liberals and elites and wealthy of the coasts and cities.

Every story is different, but we have been here before. Maybe not with the expansive powers of the post-Cold War imperial presidency, maybe not with the same echo chamber of social media, but even so. We have been bitterly, ragefully divided. Had Hillary Clinton won, 59 million voters would have felt just about what 59 million voters feel today: that truly churning combination of disgust and dread at who will be the next president.

Trump has promised to upset the norms that have governed Washington. He has tapped into dark anger to an exceptional degree. And, yes, in other countries at other times, that has been the first step on an ugly road. Could it happen here? Sure, it could. But possible isn't probable, and we have danced this dance before. He has a mandate to break a system that in many ways is broken; few of us disagree that Washington is in deep need of something other than the way things have been. There are risks there and danger, but if past is at all prologue, we will find that the sum of all our fears amounts to far less than many of us just now believe.

Karabell is the head of global strategy at Envestnet, a financial services firm, and the author of "The Leading Indicators: A Short History of the Numbers That Rule Our World."
An assault rifle and tactical vest may now be in the hands of a drug dealer in Upstate New York after they were stolen from the unlocked vehicle of a Department of Homeland Security Agent.

Lawrence Russell

The DHS officer, Leroy Doctor, "had left his machine gun laying on the back seat of the vehicle," according to an affidavit from Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent Sean Martineck provided to the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.

Suspect Russell Lawrence admitted stealing items from unlocked cars in Brighton in September to fund his heroin addiction. Prosecutors told WHAM-TV that Lawrence stole the Colt M4 rifle, a tactical police vest and two 30-round rifle magazines from the vehicle.

Doctor notified Brighton Police about the theft, and police arrested Lawrence in Parma on November 6 after he crashed a stolen vehicle. He told them he thought he had locked his car.

Lawrence admitted selling the agency-issued .223 assault rifle, vest and ammo to a drug dealer the same night he stole them for $750 in cash and heroin.

The whereabouts of the weapon is now unknown. It is also unknown if the DHS agent is still employed.

Lawrence, who had three prior felony convictions, has been charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of a controlled substance and possession of a stolen firearm.
Swedish English

Toronto, Ontario (November 15, 2016) - Lundin Mining Corporation (TSX:LUN) (OMX:LUMI) ("Lundin Mining" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its indirect interest in TF Holdings Limited (TF Holdings) to an affiliate of BHR Partners, a Chinese private equity firm, for $1.136 billion in cash and contingent consideration of up to $51.4 million, consisting of $25.7 million if the average copper price exceeds $3.50 per pound and $25.7 million if the average cobalt price exceeds $20 per pound, both during a 24-month period beginning on January 1, 2018 (the Transaction). The consideration to be received by Lundin Mining is equal to the implied value of the Companys stake in TF Holdings based on the transaction between Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (Freeport) and China Molybdenum Co., Ltd. (CMOC) announced on May 9, 2016.

TF Holdings is a Bermuda holding company that owns an 80 percent interest in Tenke Fungurume Mining S.A. ("Tenke"). Lundin Mining has an indirect 30 percent interest in TF Holdings and therefore, an effective 24 percent interest in Tenke.

In connection with the Transaction, Lundin Mining has waived its right of first offer to acquire Freeports indirect interest in TF Holdings. The Transaction is subject to the receipt of certain regulatory approvals, the completion of Freeports sale of its interest in TF Holdings to CMOC and other customary closing conditions. A termination fee of $100 million, which has been secured by a letter of credit that has been received by the Company, is payable to Lundin Mining in certain circumstances, including upon termination of the Transaction due to the failure to obtain necessary regulatory approvals.

Mr. Paul Conibear, President and CEO commented: The decision to sell our minority interest in Tenke has been arrived at following a careful and lengthy consideration of all options open to us. It was a difficult decision, respecting the 20 years of Lundin involvement in Tenke, and the special nature of this world class asset. The sale will enable Lundin Mining to advance its strategy to incrementally grow the company with projects and operations we control, while maintaining a strong balance sheet.

We want to thank our long standing partners, Freeport and Gecamines, who have been instrumental in the development of Tenke into a world class operation to be proud of. We are confident that the new Tenke partners will continue to build on Tenkes highly successful record and realize the future development potential of the properties.

The Transaction is expected close in the first half of 2017.

BMO Capital Markets is acting as financial advisor to Lundin Mining. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP are acting as legal advisors to Lundin Mining.

About Lundin Mining

Lundin Mining is a diversified Canadian base metals mining company with operations in Chile, the USA, Portugal, and Sweden, primarily producing copper, nickel and zinc. In addition, Lundin Mining holds an indirect 24% equity stake in the world-class Tenke Fungurume copper/cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in the Freeport Cobalt Oy business, which includes a cobalt refinery located in Kokkola, Finland.

On Behalf of the Board,

Paul Conibear, President and CEO

The information in this release is subject to the disclosure requirements of Lundin Mining under the EU Market Abuse Regulation and/or the Swedish Securities Market Act. This information was publicly communicated on November 15, 2016 at 2:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

Forward Looking Statements

Certain of the statements made and information contained herein is forward-looking information within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation including, without limitation, with respect to the timing of closing of the Transaction, the circumstances in which the termination fee is payable, and the Corporations strategy to seek out high quality base metal growth globally. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to information with respect to the Companys strategy, plans or future financial or operating performance. Forward-looking statements are characterized by words such as plan, expect, budget, target, project, intend, believe, anticipate, estimate and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions may or will occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions, assumptions and estimates of management considered reasonable at the date the statements are made, and are inherently subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other known and unknown factors that could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation: receipt of certain regulatory approvals; the completion of Freeports sale of its interest in TF Holdings to China Molybdenum Co., Ltd.; the ability of the buyer to secure financing to fund the purchase price; the satisfaction of closing conditions; uncertain political and economic environments; foreign currency fluctuations; risks inherent in mining including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected geological formations, ground control problems and flooding; risks associated with the estimation of mineral resources and reserves and the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with the Companys expectations; the potential for and effects of labour disputes or other unanticipated difficulties with or shortages of labour or interruptions in production; actual ore mined varying from estimates of grade, tonnage, dilution and metallurgical and other characteristics; the inherent uncertainty of production and cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses, commodity price fluctuations; changes in laws or policies, foreign taxation, delays or the inability to obtain necessary governmental permits; and other risks and uncertainties, including those described under Risk Factors Relating to the Companys Business in the Companys Annual Information Form and in each management discussion and analysis. Forward-looking information is in addition based on various assumptions including, without limitation, the expectations and beliefs of management, the assumed long term price of copper, nickel, lead and zinc; that the Company can access financing, appropriate equipment and sufficient labour and that the political environment where the Company operates will continue to support the development and operation of mining projects. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 15 November 2016



Jack de Kreij, Chief Financial Officer and Vice Chairman of the Executive Board has informed the Supervisory Board that he has decided to step down as per 1 February 2018.

Jack (1959) is serving as Vice Chairman of the Executive Board and CFO since January 2003.

The Supervisory Board respects his decision.

As a result, Jack de Kreij will step down from the Executive Board on 1 February 2018, once the 2017 financial year has been closed.

By announcing his departure at this early date, there will be ample time to identify a successor and to ensure an appropriate transfer of duties.

Jack de Kreij on his decision, "I have served in the Executive Board since January 2003 and after an inspiring period and successful growth of the company, I deem it a natural moment to transfer my duties after 15 years in 2018, in order to start a next phase in my professional life including Supervisory Board positions at TomTom and Corbion."

The Supervisory Board of Royal Vopak takes this early opportunity to thank Jack de Kreij for his significant contributions to the company.

Profile Vopak

Royal Vopak is the world's leading independent tank storage provider for the oil and chemical industry. As per 15 November 2016, Vopak operates 67 terminals in 25 countries with a combined storage capacity of 34.6 million cbm, with another 3.5 million cbm under development, to be added by 2019. Vopak's mission is to ensure safe, reliable and effective storage and handling of bulk liquid products at key marine locations that are critical to its customers around the world. The majority of its customers are companies operating in the oil, chemicals and gas sector, for which Vopak stores a large variety of products destined for a wide range of industries. Vopak's strategic focus is on four categories of terminals: Major hubs, supporting intercontinental product flows, Terminals facilitating growth in global gas markets, Import and distribution terminals in major markets with structural deficits, Industrial and chemicals terminals in the Americas, the Middle East and Asia.

For more information, please contact:

Media contact:

Liesbeth Lans, Manager external communications

Telephone: +31 (0)10 400 2777

e-mail: global.communication@vopak.com Investor Relations contact:

Chiel Rietvelt, Head of Investor Relations

Telephone: +31 (0)10 400 2776

e-mail: investor.relations@vopak.com

This press release contains inside information as meant in clause 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation.
Conspiracy Theories in the Information Age, Part 1

In the past, heightened rhetoric and propaganda were the tools of choice for those looking to convince an electorate to vote them into office, and conspiracy theories were their bane. This election season has seen the rise of a new form of persuasion, one thats unique to the Information Age.

For months, WikiLeaks creator Julian Assange had promised to rain bombshells on the narrowing field of presidential candidates, and he indicated that Hillary Clinton would be the target of the release. Rumors had swirled around the secrets the former secretary of state might have wanted to protect when she deleted more than 30,000 emails from a private server.

As the U.S. celebrated Independence Day, WikiLeaks released the first batch of emails, and the fireworks began. Nothing in the emails proved particularly damaging for Clintons presidential aspirations, though.

WikiLeaks had released troves of sensitive information in the past, so at first glance its actions represented nothing new. However, that particular series of leaks was about to introduce much of the world to a new form of propaganda.

The Tainted Well

During the Cold War, authoritarian regimes had their own mouthpieces, along with enough control over the populace to stomp out dissenting voices, noted Mark Fenster, a professor at the University of Florida and author of Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture.

They were organs of the state, and they spoke about whatever it was the government wanted to speak about, he told TechNewsWorld. Those were obviously perfect means of distributing propaganda  particularly if the government was also able to suppress any other voices from making it to the public.

With the rise of the Internet, it became difficult to drown out competing voices. From the delivery of paquetes of digitized American culture in Cuba to hacktivism in China, the Internet has provided tools that make it next to impossible for any government to silence its critics completely, or to screen outside ideas from their view.

Weve got an interesting experiment going on right now, Fenster said in an interview conducted prior to last weeks election, if the allegations are true that Russian hackers, ordered by the Russian government, got hold of email documents from [Clinton campaign manager] John Podesta, the DNC and the Clinton campaign, and are releasing them collectively to in order to manipulate the election for their preferred candidate: Donald Trump.

The cache of Clinton campaign documents might not have been as devastating as Assange initially indicated, but it undoubtedly added a new dimension to this election season and introduced the public to what might be called the tainted well.

This isnt propaganda in the classic since, Fenster said, but it is a way of trying to shape government opinion.

Because of the positive adjectives Pressident-Elect Donald Trump used to describe Russian leader Vladimir Putin during the campaign, speculation grew that the leaked emails were intended specifically to damage Clintons chances.

However, it is still not clear that Russia  even if it did commission the hacks  aimed to sway the election toward Trump. Russia might have been trying to prevent either candidate from having a mandate upon taking office, suggested Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, in a conversation prior to the election.

I think Russia isnt trying to promote either candidate at the moment, it is operating to ensure that neither of them will be able to actually govern if elected, operating under a broad strategy of discrediting the government and effectively fermenting revolt, he told TechNewsWorld.

Please Sir, More Propaganda

Whatever the true motives of the leaks and their possible sponsors might have been, its indisputable that the Internet has created a world thats ripe for and receptive to propaganda in many forms  from ads many try to avoid, to stories that gain attention through votes cast by mouse clicks and screen taps.

Even if unintentional, online news services currently track interests and serve up news based on those interests, noted Enderle.

During the latest election cycle, for instance, liberal and conservative voters received very different news streams, he pointed out, so their perceptions of the world were very different. It helped to massively polarize the two views.

Just as social media metrics have advanced to help marketers serve up relevant ads at the moment consumers are primed to purchase goods or services, those same tools can be used to dish out fake or heavily biased news, according to Enderle.

Confirmation bias already teaches we are very vulnerable to this type of manipulation, and this same methodology is largely used for telephone and Internet scams, he observed.

While there are few governments that grip as tightly as North Korea does these days, states still use propaganda for good and bad, according to University of Floridas Fenster.

Governments use propaganda all of the time, he said.

They do so by publishing information on their websites or releasing information to the press and NGOs to report on, Fenster noted. Oftentimes, governments have their own public relations offices that might not be named as such but work the same.

There are times when governments turn to conspiracy theories as a form of propaganda, suggested Richard W. Lachmann, a professor of comparative/historical sociology and political sociology at the University of Albany.

Whenever a country is losing a war, there always are conspiracy theories to explain the loss, he told TechNewsWorld.

When it comes to propagating propaganda about war, its common for governments to spin webs about traitors, he added.

Most famously, there was the stab in the back conspiracy theory in Germany at the end of World War I, when many Germans came to believe that their defeat was due to Jewish traitors in Germany rather than to the manpower and weapons edge of the Allies, Lachmann said.

In the Information Age, theres a new way to tell war stories that favor one side over the other. Dip from a tainted well and offer a drink to a world thats thirsty for information.
Whether or not smartwatches are already on the way out the door is still up for debate. One thing that most people can agree on is that battery life remains an issue on almost every wearable currently on the market.

That won't be an issue with the Matrix PowerWatch, however, as this particular wearable is powered entirely by your body heat using advanced thermoelectric technology.

As with other wearables, the PowerWatch is capable of syncing to an Android or iOS device where it can track your steps, monitor calories burned and keep tabs on the quality of your sleep. A single button press offers up the option to set a timer or access a stopwatch. It's also capable of showing you how much electricity your body heat is generating in real-time.

At the heart of the Matrix PowerWatch is the AMBI Q which the company tells Engadget is the world's lowest power-consuming microprocessor. It's far from a full-featured smartwatch like you'd find from Samsung or Apple but again, it doesn't ever require that you take it off to charge it.

Matrix Industries is seeking funding for the PowerWatch on Indiegogo. With two months remaining in its campaign, Matrix Industries has generated over $66,000 toward its $100,000 flexible funding goal. A pledge of $99 (free shipping in the US) gets you on the list to take delivery of a PowerWatch in July of next year.
It's that time of year again when the bi-annual TOP500 list of the fastest supercomputers in the world is released. The 48th edition shows that while Chinese machines are hanging on to the number one and two positions, the US now has the same number of computers in the top 500 as its Asian rival.

Back in June, Sunway TaihuLight's Linpack benchmark of 93 petaflops knocked Tianhe-2 - clocked at 34 petaflops - off the number one spot. The highest US supercomputer on the list, the 17.59 petaflop Titan, was in third place. Six months later, the top three entries remain the same.

June's list also marked the first time that China had more supercomputers in the top 500 than the US - 167 compared to America's 165. But the two countries are now back on equal terms, boasting 171 entries each.

In terms of aggregate Linpack performance, the US holds 33.9 percent of the total, slightly ahead of China's 33.3 percent. Adding together the performance of all the supercomputers on the list equals 672 petaflops, an increase of 60 percent compared to the same period last year.

Germany sits behind China and the US with the third largest number of supercomputers in the top 500. It's followed by Japan, France, and the UK.

Two new computers make it into November's top ten: the 14 petaflop Cori arrives at number five, which is a Cray XC40 system from Berkeley Lab's National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC); while Japan's Oakforest-PACS - rated at 13.6 petaflops - comes in at number six. Both machines run Intel Knights Landing Xeon Phi 7250 68-core processors.

One interesting statistic from the list is that 498 of the 500 computers are now running Linux. Only two Chinese machines - at 386 and 387 - run IBM AIX, a variant of Unix. Linux completely overtook Unix as the supercomputer OS of choice in 2004, just six years after it first appeared on the list, and has been ahead ever since.
Apple on Tuesday added a new product - a book - to its stable that nobody saw coming. It's not a new MacBook Pro, mind you (that came in September), but an actual, physical book that'll set you back at least $199.

The book, Designed by Apple in California, is a linen-bound, hardcover volume that chronicles 20 years of Apple's design expressed through 450 photographs illustrating the company's design process as well as its finished products. Photographs were captured by Andrew Zuckerman, perhaps best known for his style of capturing subjects against a white background.

Apple says the book is dedicated to the memory of co-founder Steve Jobs.

In the foreword for the book, Apple's Chief Design Officer writes:

While this is a design book, it is not about the design team, the creative process or product development. It is an objective representation of our work that, ironically, describes who we are. It describes how we work, our values, our preoccupations and our goals. We have always hoped to be defined by what we do rather than by what we say. We strive, with varying degrees of success, to define objects that appear effortless. Objects that appear so simple, coherent and inevitable that there could be no rational alternative.

Designed by Apple in California, which Apple says was developed over an eight-year period, will be printed using specially milled, custom-dyed paper with gilded matte silver edges using eight color separations and low-ghost ink (if that means anything to you). Apple served as its own publisher on the project.

It'll be offered in two sizes - a small version measuring 10.20" x 12.75" priced at $199 and a large version measuring 13" x 16.25" that'll command $299 - and will go on sale November 16 (tomorrow) via Apple's website and at select Apple retail stores in the US. That's an awful lot of money (Apple tax) for a coffee table book but for the diehard Apple fan or those with enough disposable income, it may be worth the money.
Kaspersky Lab, an international antivirus software and cybersecurity provider based in Russia, has accused Microsoft of anticompetitive practices. Russian authorities have started an investigation after Kaspersky's complaint.

Why Is Microsoft Accused Of Anticompetitive Behavior?

Eugene Kaspersky, the cofounder and CEO of Kaspersky Labs, claims that Microsoft bundled its antivirus software Windows Defender with Windows 10, which is an anticompetitive behavior.

Kaspersky added that Microsoft has significantly reduced the time period given to independent developers to adapt their antivirus software for the company's latest operating system - Windows 10 - from two months to just six days. This has resulted in many security apps to be flagged as incompatible and then replaced with Microsoft's own Windows Defender.

The Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service is investigating the allegations from Kaspersky. The FAS explains that Microsoft may have violated Part 1, Article 10 of the Federal Law, which regulates protection of competition.

Kaspersky claims that Microsoft used its dominant market position to restrict and eliminate competition.

Investigation By The FAS

Russian authorities say that they want to offer equal opportunities to all companies doing business in the country.

"Since Microsoft itself develops antivirus software  Windows Defender that switches on automatically if third-party software fails to adapt to Windows 10 in due time, such actions lead to unreasonable advantages for Microsoft on the software market. Our task is to ensure equal conditions for all participants on this market," says Anatoly Golomolzin, FAS deputy head.

Microsoft Facing Other Problems With Russian Government

The latest investigation started by Russian agencies is not the only problem that Microsoft is facing in Russia.

In June 2016, Microsoft announced that it is acquiring LinkedIn, a social networking website for professionals. However, LinkedIn will be blocked in Russia as a local court has ruled that the service breaches the country's data protection rules. The ruling came after LinkedIn failed to shift data of users on Russian servers to comply with the country's laws.

Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, is also making a move to push off various foreign software providers from the country. The government sees Microsoft as a major threat as Putin believes that some Microsoft products like Office and Windows can be potentially used by governments of other countries to spy on Russia.

Microsoft is facing difficult times in Russia. The Kaspersky complaint is an addition to Microsoft's woes in the country and if found guilty, Microsoft may to pay huge fines to Russian antitrust agencies.

Microsoft has not issued any statement on Kaspersky's allegations but it is likely that the company will release its official stance over the allegations.

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Law enforcement representatives are worried about the increased number of military-style, semiautomatic rifle kits that can be assembled at home. The "ghost guns", as they are called, have become more popular during the past years, while concerning the firearms rights activists.

The reason behind their concern lies in the fact that the ghost gun kits don't require any serial number or marking, which makes them impossible to be traced. Florida is one of the areas where this problem is rising, due to the increasing number of companies producing the kits.

Additionally, the guns can be also purchased through online means, and there are thousands of websites selling them without any background check of the customers who fill in the requests.

Legal Loopholes Encourage Use Of 'Ghost Guns'

The loophole causing this entire issue lies in the fact that the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives defines firearms in a manner that doesn't require any mandatory manufacturer-stamped serial number, should the gun kits be bought for personal use purposes.

According to Police Chief Thomas Grimaldi's statement during an interview, these companies are completely legal, despite the many concerns they are raising. There are more than six such companies operating only in Volusia County, Florida, which makes a possible regulation in this respect even more complicated.

Elite Custom Railing, a company operating in Holly Hill, Florida, creates components for a AR-15 kit; the increasing interest in this industry is partially due to the fact that guns whose trigger mechanisms are designed by this manufacturer have been correlated to a number of mass shootings.

Raising Concerns For Public Safety

According to a co-owner of a similar company in Florida, the reason why these gun kits are not as dangerous as they seem is that they have to be assembled manually by its users, which makes it very complicated for average criminals to employ them in their activities.

The company co-owner also mentioned that, should a criminal want to use such a gun as part of an illegal act, it's times easier to steal one than create one at home, which opens a new series of public safety concerns.

While many of these businesses' representatives are not worried about the possibilities these ghost gun kits open to the criminals, it was also reported that a great number of tutorial are accessible online.

Consequently, the entire information on how to home-build these rifles once their components are purchased is widely available online, which makes virtually anyone capable to watch the YouTube tutorials and read the how-to.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A team of scientists from Europe is heading to East Antarctica this week to drill into the ice core in order to find our planet's oldest ice. The project, called Beyond EPICA-Oldest Ice (BE-OI), will give insight on the climate situation of our planet since prehistoric times.

The ice the researchers will examine is approximately 1.5 million years old, and it will be found at 1.8 miles beneath the surface. As part of the research, the air inside the ice will be examined. This procedure will allow the scientists to get a picture of the manner in which the air composition changed since the dawn of time.

Oldest Ice: Answer To Earth's Climate Behavior

There have been previous projects similar to this one. In the beginning of the 2000s, a similar ice core was drilled from Antarctica, allowing scientists to analyze the climate conditions that our planet recorded roughly 800,000 years in the past.

While the current project is mainly a continuation of the previous attempts, the novelty it brings is the depth of the ice core that will be subjected to scientific study, which is roughly double the initial one. This way, the period that will be examined by the BE-OI project goes back to the cold glacial times the planet went through approximately 40,000 to 100,000 years ago.

Investigation Of The World's Climate Cycle

The investigation will examine the climate cycle of Earth, providing the scientific world with massively important information on the climate dynamics from during the climate period shifts. The project will also allow creating a pattern of our climate cycle's activity, which will then create a clearer picture of the way global warming has affected the natural variation of the climate cycle.

Another significance of the current research is that it will give insight on the way the ice will behave as global warming contributes to the melting of ice sheets. The Eastern region of Antarctica is one of the most conclusive places where such a research could be conducted because of the long-term activity of the ice sheets in the area.

The main benefit of having the possibility to examine such a long-lasting record of our planet's climate is that the current hypotheses of the scientists will be either confirmed or declined. The data that was examined up until now is insufficient for a comprehensive series of conclusions to be drawn when it comes to the climate behavior of our planet.

"During previous studies we determined key regions where we expect the oldest continuous ice record on Earth. Now we have to prove this and it is important that we learn as much as possible about deposition processes and the composition of the ice," explained BE-OI project coordinator Olaf Eisen, a glaciologist from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
There are a number of viral videos showing the New Zealand sky during a 7.8M earthquake. There are lights that appear in the skies during the natural phenomenon, which has raised the interest of the online communities interested in alien activities.

The video that was uploaded on YouTube has already raised over 480,000 views, and it depicts the skies over Christchurch on Sunday, Nov. 13, the night when the earthquake occurred.

There are numerous comments on the video, and most of the people confirm having seen the lights as well during the most intense parts of the earthquake.

Viral Phenomenon

The video was featured by numerous media sources, who acknowledge that it might have been possible. However, most of these sources dismiss the hypothesis and has raised the UFOlogists' interests, saying that it is really entirely possible for a phenomenon like this to have taken place during an earthquake.

Among the comments posted on the YouTube video, some came from journalists who were interested in the story, asking for the contact information of the person on whose account the video was posted.

Earthquake Lights - Divided Opinions

Most of the people who commented on the video actually confirmed having seen the lights during the earthquake.

Some of the people who posted comments explained that they were, in fact, terrified of the phenomenon for which they had no explanation whatsoever.

Other comments, however, dismissed the hypothesis of an extraterrestrial phenomenon taking place in New Zealand, explaining that there was a similar occurrence during a 2011 earthquake, which had been scientifically explained. Thus, the opinions on the matter are profoundly divided, most of the people who commented seeking to confirm their own hypotheses.

Additionally, there was a research published in the science journal Seismological Research Letters, which explained that the phenomena are merely the result of a positive charge, which seems to be generated with the stress gradients that accumulate on the ground's surface during the earthquakes. The results of this charge are powerful emitting plasma-based color images, which can be interpreted as anything but an extraterrestrial phenomenon.

Factually speaking, there was a 7.5M earthquake in Canterbury, followed by a series of powerful lights in the sky. As a result of the earthquake, a tsunami warning was issued, but it was raised no longer afterward.

While the bizarre phenomenon is still explained by each category of audience in agreement with their previous beliefs, it is true that future research on the topic could bring more clarity to this matter, which seems to have divided the opinions of people browsing the internet.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A consortium of internet companies has already published a congratulatory missive to President-elect Donald Trump. Alongside a pledge of support, the letter included a laundry list of policies that the signatories hope will be supported during the Trump presidency.

The open letter was signed by 40 internet companies, which include Yahoo, Facebook, Amazon, Google, Uber and Twitter. It is widely seen as a first step to repairing the relationship between Trump and Silicon Valley.

Tech companies, with a few exceptions, have overwhelmingly supported Hillary Clinton during the course of the presidential election and even denounced Trump due to his constantly shifting policy positions.

Tech Policy Priorities

Key policy proposals that could resonate with Trump's team include the easing of regulation and tax cuts for profits from intellectual property. The signatories also want Trump to put pressure on Europe, which has been imposing restrictive policies and rules lately on U.S. tech companies.

The 12-page letter also identified key policies and statutes that must be maintained or reinforced. These include the Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, among others.

Some positions that could clash with Trump's own policy agenda involves the support for strong encryption and the proposal to reform the existing governmental surveillance programs. Trump has previously advocated a boycott of Apple products when the company did not comply with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's request to unlock the encryption of an iPhone owned by a suspected terrorist.

Why Listen To Tech Companies

It is not yet clear, therefore, how Trump is going to respond to the letter. Perhaps in anticipation that the requests will fall on deaf ears, the signatories reminded the president-elect that his campaign has benefitted from tools offered by the tech sector, which energized his supporters in the process.

There was also a reference to the fact that the internet is responsible for 6 percent of the U.S. economy. This was highlighted by figures that could appeal to Mr. Trump's entrepreneurial side such as the potential benefits of global e-commerce for the United States and how the internet is helping propel advanced economies to new heights in the past five years.

Moving Forward

Some tech companies are already instituting their own initiatives to adapt to the possible changes to the regulatory environment and even address issues such as employee morale. Apple's CEO Tim Cook has already sent an email to the company's employees, exhorting them to move forward regardless of which candidate they supported.

"I recall something Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said 50 years ago: 'If you can't fly, then run. If you can't run, then walk. If you can't walk, then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward,'" Cook said.

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BELGRADE, Mont., Nov. 15, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Xtant Medical Holdings, Inc. (NYSE MKT:XTNT), a leader in the development of regenerative medicine products and medical devices, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the Irix-C cervical cage for use with autograft and/or allograft and the expansion of the range of levels allowable from C3-T1 to C2-T1. Previously the device was cleared only for use with autogenous bone graft. This furthers Xtant Medical's goal of being a comprehensive supplier of products to spine surgeons.



Xtant Medicals 3Demin and patented OsteoSponge technology are excellent allografts to use with Irix-C due to their ability to compress, fill and expand in the devices graft chamber, allowing for ideal bone contact and fusion. OsteoVive, a cellular allograft, can also be used in conjunction with Irix-C. This new clearance is indicative of common surgical practices of using allografts in cervical cages to promote fusion.

Dr. Gregory Juda, Chief Scientific Officer of Xtant Medical states, "This new FDA clearance allows Xtant Medical to leverage the clinical effectiveness of our established allograft product offerings for use with our stand-alone interbody devices in cervical discectomy and fusion procedures. We expect that the use of these products as a combined spinal fusion solution will result in positive patient outcomes."

The Irix-C Cervical Integrated Fusion System is a stand-alone cervical intervertebral fusion device intended for spinal fusion procedures at one level (C2-T1) in skeletally mature patients for treatment of degenerative disc disease.

Xtant Medical estimates the worldwide market for cervical fusion devices at $1.3B and growing. The worldwide market for Demineralized Bone Matrix (DBM) is estimated at $485M. Irix-C, 3Demin, OsteoSponge, and OsteoVive are currently widely available.

About Xtant Medical Holdings

Xtant Medical develops, manufactures and markets regenerative medicine products and medical devices for domestic and international markets. Xtant Medical products serve the specialized needs of orthopedic and neurological surgeons, including orthobiologics for the promotion of bone healing, implants and instrumentation for the treatment of spinal disease, tissue grafts for the treatment of orthopedic disorders, and biologics to promote healing following cranial, and foot and ankle surgeries. With core competencies in both biologic and non-biologic surgical technologies, Xtant Medical can leverage its resources to successfully compete in global neurological and orthopedic surgery markets. For further information, please visit www.xtantmedical.com.

Important Cautions Regarding Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains certain disclosures that may be deemed forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include statements that are predictive in nature, that depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, or that include words such as "continue," "efforts," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "projects," "forecasts," "strategy," "will," "goal," "target," "prospects," "potential," "optimistic," "confident," "likely," "probable" or similar expressions or the negative thereof. Statements of historical fact also may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. We caution that these statements by their nature involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially depending on a variety of important factors, including, among others: our ability to integrate the acquisition of X-spine Systems, Inc. and any other business combinations or acquisitions successfully; our ability to remain listed on the NYSE MKT; our ability to obtain financing on reasonable terms; our ability to increase revenue; our ability to comply with the covenants in our credit facility; our ability to maintain sufficient liquidity to fund our operations; the ability of our sales force to achieve expected results; our ability to remain competitive; government regulations; our ability to innovate and develop new products; our ability to obtain donor cadavers for our products; our ability to engage and retain qualified technical personnel and members of our management team; the availability of our facilities; government and third-party coverage and reimbursement for our products; our ability to obtain regulatory approvals; our ability to successfully integrate recent and future business combinations or acquisitions; our ability to use our net operating loss carry-forwards to offset future taxable income; our ability to deduct all or a portion of the interest payments on the notes for U.S. federal income tax purposes; our ability to service our debt; product liability claims and other litigation to which we may be subjected; product recalls and defects; timing and results of clinical studies; our ability to obtain and protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights; infringement and ownership of intellectual property; our ability to remain accredited with the American Association of Tissue Banks; influence by our management; our ability to pay dividends; our ability to issue preferred stock; and other factors.

Additional risk factors are listed in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q under the heading "Risk Factors." You should carefully consider the trends, risks and uncertainties described in this document, the Form 10-K and other reports filed with or furnished to the SEC before making any investment decision with respect to our securities. If any of these trends, risks or uncertainties actually occurs or continues, our business, financial condition or operating results could be materially adversely affected, the trading prices of our securities could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment. The Company undertakes no obligation to release publicly any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. All forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.
Google's pair of self-branded flagships, the Google Pixel and Pixel XL, have been out in the market for close to a month now, and while many have issued due praise for Google's premium non-Nexus offerings, only a few know that these phones were actually manufactured by HTC.

In fact, before HTC ran up to the task, Huawei was almost slated to manufacture the pair of flagships until a vague falling out with Google occurred, dissolving further plans. Now, an executive from Huawei has confirmed that Google has approached Huawei to manufacture the Pixel phones, but Huawei pulled out due to a number of concerns.

Why Huawei Didn't Want To Make the Google Pixel

Google had previously collaborated with Huawei for the Nexus 6P, the company's previous flagship offering along with LG's Nexus 5X. Apparently, Google wanted to extend the partnership it had with Huawei, but upon hearing Google's plans with the pair of smartphones, Huawei grew disinterested.

Colin Giles, Huawei's VP for the company's Consumer Business Group, was the one who confirmed Huawei's withdrawal, as stated in an article (translated) by German blog WinFuture.

Google apparently wanted the Pixel to entirely carry its own name, dropping any branding footprint from partner manufacturers. Killing its "Nexus" naming scheme was ample evidence of this sentiment. Huawei apparently didn't find this amenable. Its farewell was occupied by HTC, now the manufacturer of the Pixel phones, though true to Google's intent, the HTC branding is nowhere to be found, save for a subtle and hidden logo embedded in the device's battery.

Obviously, Google is banking on its "Phone by Google" branding strategy even if it means that the actual manufacturers would receive considerably less, if any, visibility. Google's Nexus phones previously featured the makers of the device, and the company was more lax about opening the phones to other channels for those who wanted to purchase a unit.

This time, Google is aggressively marketing the Pixel phones as its own, even handling sales altogether. HTC had been relegated to mere manufacturer instead of earning its own signature.

Did Google Fall Short On Its Promises For the Nexus 6P?

The partnership between Huawei and Google was spearheaded by last year's Nexus 6P. Google reportedly fell short on its roster of promises for the 6P. According to Android Police, it promised a multi-hundred-million-dollar ad campaign for the phone alongside prominent exposure across major brick-and-mortar retail outlets of U.S. carriers, with the implied agreement that Huawei would match Google's offer of dollar for dollar.

The Nexus 6P was never launched on a major U.S. carrier, and Google even demanded to lock the phone for a certain period on its own store, straining the two's relationship.

The State Of Google And Huawei's Partnership

Google and Huawei seem to have put its differences behind, as the two will reportedly continue pursuing "strategic initiatives" and products together, including a smartphone slated for the latter half of 2017.

Would you have liked to see a Huawei-made Google Pixel? Feel free to share us your thoughts!

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
An implantable computer-brain interface has allowed a paralyzed woman with late-stage ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, to communicate without assistance.

What is ALS?

ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that can affects the nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, the condition leads to dysfunction of the nerves that control muscle movement and affects an estimated 30,000 Americans.

Brain Implant For Late-Stage ALS Patient

Doctors in the Netherland reported in a new study that a high-tech implant enabled "locked-in" patient Hanneke De Bruijne to communicate with others by spelling out messages at a rate of two letters per minute.

The 58-year-old has been robbed of her ability to speak or move her muscles because of her condition albeit her mind is intact. The experimental implant allowed her to type words and convey her thoughts without assistance.

Study researcher Nick Ramsey, from the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands explained that the brain implant allows the patient to remote-control a computer with her brain, which enables her to convey her needs to her caregivers.

The ability to make an independent call for help is critical for the patient in case her ventilator stops working or saliva builds up.

With the cutting-edge setup, the woman, who used to rely on eye movements and blinks prior to the installation of the system, can spell letter by letter by making brain-clicks with which she would select letters on a keyboard shown on a computer screen.

"By attempting to move her hand and by using software that automatically extracted electrocortical signal features, the patient was able to control commercial communication software that could type, albeit at a slow rate," Ramsey and colleagues wrote in their study.

"The patient was able to use the system to replace an eye tracker when lighting conditions made the eye tracker impossible to use."

Ramsey's team also reported of the patient's high level of satisfaction with the device. The patient used the device multiple times in a week.

System For Paralyzed People Who Can Still Think

Researchers hope that the system would eventually help people who can't move, particularly those whose brains are still capable of thinking and communicating, such as some stroke survivors.

"We've built a system that's reliable and autonomous that works at home without any extra help. There's not a single system that even comes close to this," Ramsey said.

The research was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Nov. 12.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Now that Samsung's most recent smartwatch is closing in on its official release, the company has already uploaded an official teardown that pared down the Samsung Gear S3 into its individual parts, boasting the technology that powers the device under the hood.

We usually wait for longtime consummate teardown professionals over at iFixit for rigorously taking apart devices down to the last screw. They'd likely upload their own shortly, but now that an official one's available, let's see what's inside the Samsung Gear S3.

Bezel

The Gear S3 retains Samsung's unique circular navigation interface from Gear S2. You rotate a circular bezel around the watchface to get around the user interface. The teardown reveals a component with a bezel guide slid in between the bezel and the front case, with ceramic balls and springs interspersed throughout that makes the bezel interface possible.

Display

The Gear S3 is Samsung's first smartwatch iteration to come with a Corning Gorilla Glass SR+ display, designed specifically for wearable devices. It adds an extra layer of protection to withstand strenuous usage.

The Samsung Gear S3 has a 3-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 360 x 360. It has 16 million colors and a full color Always On Watch feature that shows the time even when in idle, without resorting to a completely blank screen.

An ambient sensor is also present to adjust accordingly to different lighting conditions, so when users aren't looking on the screen, the Always On Watch feature can take the backseat to save battery.

Also embedded in the Gear S3 is Magnetic Secure Transmission technology which allows owners to make payments via Samsung Pay by connecting the smartwatch to a compatible payment terminal.

Mainboard

In the Gear S3's mainboard is a number of sensors that pave the way for the device's fitness-focused features such as tracking runs, measuring your heartbeat and much more. Like other smartwatches centered on fitness activities, there's a built-in GPS inside the Gear S3 to monitor and geotag fitness activities.

Also inside is a barometer that can measure altitude and atmospheric pressure while also being able to detect changes in the weather. Of course, a smartwatch wouldn't be a smartwatch without a heart rate monitor, and Samsung didn't forget to outfit the Gear S3 with one.

These are just some of the parts detailed in the teardown, with further examination of the Gear S3's rear casing and bands decked out extensively in Samsung's official teardown article.

The Gear S3 is Samsung's upcoming smartwatch, sporting a larger battery, a built-in GPS and an optional cellular connectivity for some models. Like its predecessor, the Gear S3 will feature Samsung's Tizen-based OS and apps, but Android phones may still be paired with it.

Additionally, The Gear S3 will have two extra variants, the classic and frontier editions, but the price points of these are still undetermined. The Wi-Fi and Bluetooth model will cost $349.

The Samsung Gear S3 hits U.S. shelves beginning Nov. 18, according to CNET. The smartwatch will be available for purchase at Amazon, Best Buy, Macy's, Samsung's own online store and participating wireless providers.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Facebooks fake news problem solved in 36 hours by these students

Facebook has been recently caught in a storm over the questionable role that the company played in promoting fake news in the lead-up to Donald Trumps victory in the U.S. election last week. The reason is that the social networking giant has been accused of allowing propaganda lies disguised as fake and misleading news articles to be spread on the social media site without being checked. Almost half of adult Americans depend on Facebook as a source of news, a recent study by the Pew Research Center found.

Even, President Barack Obama called Facebook a dust cloud of nonsense for spreading false information during the election cycle. However, on the other hand, Facebook said that since fake news is such a small percentage of the stuff shared on Facebook, it couldnt have had an impact. Also, the social networking giant said that searching for the real news from the lies is a difficult technical problem.

But not for these four college students, who during a hackathon at Princeton University sponsored by Facebook, created an algorithm in the form of Chrome browser extension in just 36-hours. They named their project FiB: Stop living a lie.

The students are Nabanita De, a second year Masters in Computer Science student at UMass Amherst; Anant Goel a freshmen in Purdue University; Mark Craft, a sophomore at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and Catherine Craft, a sophomore at UIUC.

Talking about how their news feed authenticity checker works, De told Business Insider:

It classifies every post, be it pictures (Twitter snapshots), adult content pictures, fake links, malware links, fake news links as verified or non-verified using artificial intelligence.

For links, we take into account the websites reputation, also query it against malware and phishing websites database and also take the content, search it on Google/Bing, retrieve searches with high confidence and summarize that link and show to the user. For pictures like Twitter snapshots, we convert the image to text, use the usernames mentioned in the tweet, to get all tweets of the user and check if current tweet was ever posted by the user.

A little tag in the corner is added by the browser plug-in that says whether the story is verified or not.

For example, it discovered that the news story (see below) promising that pot cures cancer was fake; so it noted that the story was not verified.

However, the news story (see below) about the Simpsons being bummed that the show predicted the election results? That was real and was tagged verified.

The students have released their extension as an open source project. Therefore, any developer with the knowledge can install it and make changes to it.

While a Chrome plug-in that marks fake news clearly isnt the complete solution for Facebook to police itself, the social networking giant will have to remove fake stuff entirely. It should not just add a small, easy to miss tag and not ask people to install a browser extension.

However, the students show that algorithms can be developed to find out within reasonable certainty which news is true and which is not. And this can be done to place that information in front of readers as they think of clicking.

It is said that several Facebook employees are so upset about this situation that they have formed an unofficial task force inside the company to determine how to fix this issue, reports BuzzFeed. Will FiB will give them a helping hand? We will have to wait and watch.

Source: Business Insider
The Venezuelan president described the day with his Colombian counterpart as fruitful, intense and extensive. | Read More
Norwegian English

We would like to inform you that there are still available places at Hydro`s Capital Markets Day in London on December 1, 2016.

We kindly ask you to register your interest as soon as possible, through the following link, www.hydro.com/cmd. We will confirm your participation shortly thereafter.

Best regards,

Investor Relations in Hydro

Investor contact

Contact Stian Hasle

Cellular +47 97736022

E-mail Stian.Hasle@hydro.com
TORONTO, Nov. 15, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sprott 2015 Flow-Through Limited Partnership  CEE Units (the Partnership) announced that it will be proceeding with the tax-deferred transfer of the assets of the Partnership (the Mutual Fund Rollover Transaction) into Sprott Resource Class of Sprott Corporate Class Inc. The transaction will take place on or about January 24, 2017 after the close of business. In exchange for the assets, Series A shares of Sprott Resource Class will be issued to the Partnership and then distributed to individual limited partners on a dollar equivalent basis. The Partnership will be dissolved on or about January 26, 2017.



The Sprott Resource Class has had strong performance this year, with a year-to-date return of 84.01% as of October 31, 2016 outperforming its benchmark (Blended Index, see table below) by 43.51 points. Despite the funds approximate 40% weight in the gold sector, strategic stock selection and tactical asset allocation have proven successful in maintaining the positive performance of the fund this year.

Fund Name Code Value Date MTD YTD 3M 6M 1YR 3YR 5YR SI Resource Class  A SPR106 10/31/16 -4.38 % 84.01 % 2.52 % 23.93 % 76.25 % 12.64 % -3.18 % -2.39 % Blended Index* 10/31/16 0.72 % 40.50 % 0.16 % 7.57 % 32.24 % -0.22 % -3.93 % -3.19 %

All returns and fund details are a) based on Series A shares; b) net of fees; c) annualized if period is greater than one year; d) as at October 31, 2016; e) 2011 annual returns are from 10/17/11 to 12/31/11. *Blended Index (50/50 S&P/TSX Capped Materials Total Return Index and S&P/TSX Capped Energy Total Return Index) and is computed by Sprott Asset Management LP based on available index information.

Sprott Resource Class investment objective is to seek to achieve long-term capital growth by investing primarily in equity and equity-related securities of companies in Canada and around the world that are involved directly or indirectly in the natural resource sector. Resource specialists Paul Wong and Jason Mayer are the lead portfolio managers on the Fund.

Sprott Asset Management LP, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sprott Inc., is an investment manager dedicated to achieving outstanding returns for its investors over the long-term. With a history dating back to 1981, Sprott has a team of leading investment professionals that think independently and have the courage to act on their convictions. Sprotts clients include individual and high-net-worth investors, institutions and endowments. Please visit www.sprott.com to learn more about Sprotts award-winning investment professionals and their market insights.

Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with mutual fund investments. Please read the prospectus of the relevant Fund before investing. Mutual funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated. The information contained herein does not constitute an offer or solicitation to anyone in the United States or in any other jurisdiction in which such an offer or solicitation is not authorized or to any person to whom it is unlawful to make such an offer or solicitation. Prospective investors should consult their financial advisor to determine if such Funds may be sold in their jurisdiction.

For further information, please contact us at 1 (416) 362-7172 or 1(866) 299-9906 or invest@sprott.com.


DENVER, Nov. 15, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today the American Medical Association (AMA) passed policy that ensures patients with obesity will receive better care.

The Obesity Medicine Association (OMA) applauds this decision by the AMA. Representatives from OMA introduced the policy to the AMA House of Delegates calling on the AMA to establish a position that the use of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) for weight loss is inappropriate. The AMA House of Delegates voted to approve this statement as official AMA policy.

HCG has long been touted as a miracle weight loss supplement, but clinical trials have shown that HCG does not induce weight loss or improve a person's health.

The policy is consistent with a position statement released by OMA in 2010 denouncing the use of HCG as a treatment for weight loss.

"To date, scientific studies have shown HCG to be an ineffective treatment option," said Dr. Ethan Lazarus, OMA's representative in the AMA House of Delegates.

"Nevertheless, many 'medical' weight loss centers claim that HCG is a miracle treatment. They continue to offer HCG, deceiving individuals to spend money on a treatment that doesn't actually work," Lazarus added.

Lazarus addressed the AMA House of Delegates during its interim meeting with the message that obesity is a chronic disease and should be treated appropriately. This policy deeming the use of HCG for weight loss inappropriate is one of several policies adopted by the AMA in the last few years that improves how patients with obesity receive care in the U.S.

Dr. Lazarus is an obesity medicine specialist in Greenwood Village, Colo.

# # #

About the Obesity Medicine Association

The Obesity Medicine Association (OMA) is the largest organization of clinicians dedicated to preventing, treating, and reversing the disease of obesity. OMA members believe that sustained results  brought about by comprehensive, individualized treatment plans  improve overall health and provide hope for those affected by obesity. Learn more about OMA at obesitymedicine.org.

A photo accompanying this release is available at: http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=41888
Sex work is, as the saying goes, the worlds oldest profession  except that the saying uses prostitution instead of sex work.

The change to a less pejorative term is warranted by a shift in attitudes toward sex workers that contributed to Amnesty Internationals decision in May to urge governments to repeal laws criminalizing the exchange of sex for money by consenting adults.

Amnesty Internationals appeal was met by a storm of opposition  some of it from people who were evidently failing to distinguish between the sex industry as a whole and the human trafficking that, in many countries, is a tragic part of it.

No one wants to legalize coercion, violence, or fraud in the sex industry, or the use of sex workers who are not adults. But some organizations campaigning against trafficking understand that when sex work is illegal, it is much riskier for sex workers to complain to the authorities when they are enslaved, beaten, or cheated.

For that reason, the International Secretariat of the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women applauded Amnesty International for supporting decriminalization.

There was also opposition from some feminist organizations, which accused Amnesty of protecting the rights of pimps and johns. Instead, they argued, we should end the demand for paid sex  but without explaining how this is to be done.

Source: The Case for Legalizing Sex Work by Peter Singer  Project Syndicate
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Story updated, 11:30 a.m., Nov. 15, 2016

The abrupt dismissal Tuesday morning of the grand jury investigating attempted bribery allegations leveled against the Ascension Parish president and a Gonzales businessman caught a key witnesses off guard.

A. Wayne Lawson, the Gonzales City Council candidate who claims Parish President Kenny Matassa tried to bribe him into leaving the Nov. 8 election, showed up at the parish courthouse in Donaldsonville mid-morning Tuesday ready to give his testimony only moments after grand jurors had been dismissed.

"I'm on my way in. I got a 10 o'clock appointment," Lawson, wearing a suit and his regular fedora, told a reporter and one of the grand jury witnesses standing in a courthouse parking lot.

When informed the grand jury had gone home for reasons that were unclear, Lawson expressed surprised.

"Oh, really? What happened?" he asked.

Lawson left for the courthouse and returned later, apparently learning then he would not be testifying Tuesday.

"I came to the conclusion that it's been called off for whatever reason. I just look forward to the next time I'm served," Lawson said of a future subpoena to testify before the grand jury.

Lawson has said he participated in a news investigative sting to record Matassa and Gonzales businessman Olin Berthelot allegedly offering him $1,200 in repairs for his trailer and a parish job to withdraw from the City Council race against incumbent Neal Bourque.

Lawson, who says he did not take the alleged attempted bribe, stayed in the race but lost to Bourque last week, 61 percent to 39 percent.

Matassa has denied the allegations, claiming he was offering Lawson, his friend, a loan and some unrelated political advice. Matassa has said Lawson had little chance of winning. Bourque has said he knew nothing about Matassa and Berthelot meeting with Lawson or of any attempt to get Lawson to leave the race.

Story updated, 10:50 a.m., Nov. 15, 2016

A spokeswoman for the Louisiana state attorney general could not say when grand jury proceedings investigating attempted bribery allegations against the Ascension Parish president and a Gonzales businessman would resume after the hearing was called off Tuesday morning.

But Ruth Wisher, spokeswoman for Attorney General Jeff Landry, said a new grand jury would meet again o Friday to be seated.

She could not say if the Attorney General's Office would begin presenting the case at that time or where the grand jury would meet.

Earlier on Tuesday, Wade Petite, publisher of the Pelican Post and one of the figures in the news investigative sting in late July that prompted the investigation, could be seen waiting to testify before the grand jury as jurors filtered into the courthouse's upstairs courtroom shortly after 9 a.m.

Petite, a former criminal defense attorney, was working on his crossword puzzle as he sat outside the courtroom.

Later, after grand jurors left, Petite said he was told by assistant attorney Jeff Traylor that the proceedings were off for Tuesday and that he would re-served with a subpoena. Petite didn't know when that would be.

Story updated, 10:05 a.m., Nov. 15, 2016

A grand jury hearing to investigate allegations of attempted bribery by Ascension Parish president Kenny Matassa and a Gonzales businessman was called off Tuesday morning as a first witness was waiting to give testimony.

Ruth Wisher, a spokeswoman for state Attorney General Jeff Landry, confirmed the grand jury was called off for Tuesday.

In light of the recent recusal and expiration of the current grand jury, we will continue any presentation before the newly seated grand jury, which is expected to be in place by this Friday," Wisher said. "This does not change the nature of the investigation or our presentation.

Wisher made the comment Tuesday morning as grand jurors were seen leaving the Ascension Parish courthouse in Donaldsonville, as well as Assistant Attorney General Jeff Traylor. Traylor declined comment on what was happening as he left the courthouse.

Original Story

GONZALES  District Attorney Ricky Babin has recused his office from the bribery attempt probe against Kenny Matassa and his longtime friend because some members of the prosecutors staff contributed to the Ascension Parish president's recent campaign.

The decision to recuse his office comes on the eve of expected grand jury proceedings into the probe. The grand jury is to decide whether criminal charges should be brought against Matassa and businessman Olin Berthelot, both accused of trying to bribe a Gonzales City Council candidate to leave the race.

Babin, district attorney for the 23rd Judicial District, said Monday he is recusing his office from the investigation to avoid any appearance of conflict. The contributions were made in Matassa's campaign last year in a hotly contested election against surveyor Clint Cointment.

Babin said he was able to find four DA employees who gave to Matassa's campaign after reports surfaced Monday of some donations. The state Attorney General's Office, which has been part of a joint probe into Matassa and Berthelot, will handle the investigation in the future.

Campaign reports show some Babin staffers, like Sandra Capone and her husband, gave small amounts to Matassa last year  $300 in October 2015, but Assistant District Attorney Chuck Long gave $5,000 to Matassa in two contributions in February and November 2015.

Ruth Wisher, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Jeff Landry, refused to comment on the recusal's impact on Tuesdays planned proceedings.

"I can say that our office just learned of the recusal and will conduct a full and thorough review of all details and proceed appropriately in the best interest of justice," Wisher said.

Babin said he expected the grand jury to meet Tuesday, but allowed for the possibility it could be only the opening day of the proceeding.

Matassa, who is in his first year as parish president after five terms as a Gonzales councilman, has been under a cloud since recordings surfaced in early August. They are purported to show him and Berthelot offering candidate A. Wayne Lawson $1,200 in repairs for his trailer and a parish job to withdraw from the City Council race against incumbent Neal Bourque.

Lawson, a part-time barber who is a sometime but unsuccessful political candidate in Ascension, did not withdraw but lost to Bourque last week, 61 percent to 39 percent.

Hours after the story was posted on the news website Pelican Post on Aug. 1, Babin announced his office was investigating the allegations. The recordings include a July 27 meeting among Matassa, Berthelot and Lawson at Berthelot's Bayou Financial Services office in Gonzales, during which aspects of the deal, city politics and other matters are discussed for more than 40 minutes.

The recordings were made by Lawson with help from Pelican Post Publisher Wade Petite in an investigative news sting. His website has been sharply critical of Matassa and his administration.

In later recordings, Berthelot alone can be heard apparently confirming that Lawson would get the $1,200 if he turned in withdrawal paperwork. Lawson and Petite also recorded the day the transaction was to be completed but Lawson has said he walked away before the deal was finished.

Matassa fired back that he was offering a loan and some unrelated political advice to a friend who had little chance of winning, while also separately offered him a parish job opportunity. Matassa also accused Petite, who also ran for a City Council seat but took third Nov. 8, of being behind the recordings and trying to smear him.

Though Babin had initially said he hoped the investigation could be wrapped up in a month, the August floods soon followed, causing delays in the probe as some investigators homes were flooded, he said.

The probe has included a forensic examination of the audio and video recordings turned over by Petite and Lawson, Babin said. He would not speak to what that examination has determined nor even confirm that Matassa or Berthelot has been identified as targets of the investigation.

In August, Matassas attorney Lance Unglesby promised that if a grand jury is convened, his client would testify. Lewis Unglesby, who is also representing Matassa, said Friday that Matassa is more than likely to testify.

Mr. Matassa is proud of his service as president and has great trust in the people of Ascension Parish and judgment of Ascension Parish. Well be happy to explain anything necessary to resolve this issue, Lewis Unglesby said.

Steven Moore, Berthelots attorney, did not return a message for comment Monday.

If Matassa is an investigation target, he cant be forced to testify, but if he does testify, he could run the risk of self-incrimination and waiving his right to remain silent.

Some lawyers provided varying opinions on whether the Fifth Amendments protection against self-incrimination applies if Matassa starts speaking to the grand jury. Ken Levy, an LSU law professor, said whether that right is waived in the grand jury room depends on the type of questioning and testimony.

At some point, however, if a target who has been informed of his right to remain silent begins answering questions that could be incriminating, that person may end up waiving his right not to continue testifying, Levy said.

Though grand jury proceedings are secret, that testimony could be used against the defendant in court.

Under state criminal procedure, grand jury targets can have their attorneys present but they cannot object or otherwise interrupt questioning. Grand jury targets can confer with their attorneys, however.
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BRPD officers talk it over while investigating a shooting at Gus Young Avenue and 44th Street on Monday, Nov. 14, 2016.
While state tax credits are under scrutiny amid budget problems, child care advocates said Tuesday the subsidies have resulted in better care, more qualified teachers and federal dollars.

"The bottom line is they have been incredibly successful on what we hoped they would do," said Melanie Bronfin, executive director for the Louisiana Policy Institute for Children in New Orleans.

Bronfin's group issued a report this week that said the aid  called school readiness tax credits  has helped 14,500 low-income families finance care for their infants, toddlers and pre-school students.

The percentage of children getting subsidies enrolled in higher quality child care centers has doubled, the report says, and child care staff enrolled in professional development courses rose from about 1,200 to 5,800.

The study was released as lawmakers and others begin grappling with how to tackle Louisiana's latest budget crisis, including another daunting shortfall for the financial year that begins July 1.

The financial mess has put tax credits under heightened scrutiny in the scramble to save dollars.

While many families struggle to pay for child care, "Louisiana's fiscal crisis has called into question the purpose and effectiveness of all its tax credits," according to the report. The credits cost the state about $16 million per year, officials said.

However, backers of the tax credits scored a victory when a 13-member task force on how to change tax policies recommended that the assistance be left in place.

In a report, the panel said the credits makes sense "in part because these programs help all families and improve educational outcomes, and in part because they leverage federal money." The subsidies have helped the state qualify for an $80 million federal grant, according to the study.

There was some sentiment on the task force to recommend that the credits be dumped.

Barry Erwin, a member of the group, said it is clear that the credits are part of a key state goal.

"We have a policy in our state that we are trying to promote early education and also improve the quality of it, even for children at very early ages," Erwin said Tuesday.

"This is a really important part of the policy," he said. "And I think it has a good track record."

Erwin is president of the Council for a Better Louisiana.

One of the credits offers child care centers up to $1,500 per student if the centers achieve certain quality ratings.

Another provides child care teachers and directors up to $3,260 for credentials earned.

A third credit assists low-income families who use centers that meet certain standards for children under 6.

Those credits averaged $223 in 2014, according to the report.

Bronfin said the credits, which were enacted in 2008, are especially needed after huge drops in another child care program for low-income families.

Relief may be on way for child care recipients A state panel Thursday recommended easing eligibility rules for low-income families to quali

Enrollment in that effort, called the Child Care Assistance Program, has fallen 68 percent since 2008 amid state budget troubles.

CCAP helps pay for the cost of child care for children from birth to 4 years old while parents are at work, school in job training.
Gov. John Bel Edwards' chief budget adviser will unveil the administration's proposal for closing a $315 million deficit to lawmakers on Friday, a gap that threatens to force new cuts across state agencies and public colleges.

Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne will outline the recommendations to the joint House and Senate budget committee, seeking to close a budget hole left from the fiscal year that ended June 30.

It wasn't clear if the proposal would rely solely on cuts to close the gap or if the Edwards administration has found any pots of money to offset some of the deficit.

"The commissioner is not revealing any specifics of his plan prior to the Friday meeting," Dardenne spokesman Cody Wells said Monday.

Agencies and colleges have been asked to draw up scenarios for coping with cuts of 7 percent to 10 percent in the state general fund revenue they get. That's money from general tax collections  not their fines, fees and other dedicated financing sources.

The Edwards administration has been sifting through those scenarios. Dardenne told lawmakers at their last joint budget committee hearing that he doesn't expect the governor will support an across-the-board reduction and will want to be "more selective" in divvying up cuts.

The $315 million deficit from last year stems largely from worse-than-expected personal income and business tax collections, driven by declines in private-sector employment, particularly in the oil and gas industry.

Louisiana's unemployment rate is 6.4 percent, third-worst among states.

The Edwards administration has warned that Louisiana's income projections in the current year also could be too high, worsening the financial gap. But the administration wants to wait to see more tax collection data before revising the state's income forecast for this year, because Louisiana gave out extensions for tax payments after the mid-August flooding.

"We don't have enough definition around the current midyear (gap), but we do know that revenue is not coming in the way that it was forecasted," Edwards said Monday. "We believe that there will be a shortfall in the current fiscal year as well that will have to be addressed."
U.S. Senate candidate Caroline Fayard likened her Democratic rival Foster Campbell to former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, but now she's backing Campbell in next month's runoff.

Republican Charles Boustany accused his former foe John N. Kennedy's campaign of spreading a salacious story about his alleged involvement with a murdered prostitute. Now Boustany has publicly endorsed Kennedy in the runoff.

And Republican John Fleming painted Kennedy as a liberal in disguise as the race to get into the runoff unfolded, but now he's supporting Kennedy, too.

Democrat Campbell and Republican Kennedy will go head-to-head in the Dec. 10 runoff for Louisiana's open U.S. Senate seat.

And now, the third-through-fifth place finishers in the Nov. 8 primary have put aside their differences and gotten behind their respective parties' candidates, despite some harsh feelings generated in the often heated primary race.

The move showed a marked turn from last year's governors race, in which Republican candidate Jay Dardenne endorsed Democrat John Bel Edwards in the runoff and Republican Scott Angelle never endorsed anyone. Both GOP candidates had openly sparred with Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter, who decided to retire from the Senate after he lost to Edwards.

In a news release, Fayard said she met with Campbell on Monday to discuss the Senate race.

"After the setbacks suffered last week by the Democratic Party nationally, it gives me great hope to know that Foster Campbell will protect President Obama's legacy and fight for the same Democratic Party values that Secretary Clinton, myself, and so many others have championed," Fayard said in a statement. "I'm happy to stand with Democrats across our state and country in support of him."

Her spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for further details.

In one of the harshest ads from the primary cycle, Fayard attempted to link Campbell to Duke using clipped, out-of-context audio from a forum they participated in that was not supposed to be recorded. The New Orleans-area Alliance for Good Government yanked its endorsement of Fayard after she refused to stop running the ad.

Campbell called Fayard a "liar" over the commercial. His own ads questioned Fayard's experience and family connections.

Campbell's spokeswoman Mary-Patricia Wray said that Fayard didn't apologize for the controversial ad. "I think there is a mutual benefit to moving on," she said.

On the Republican side, U.S. Reps. Fleming, of Minden, and Boustany, of Lafayette, have both endorsed Kennedy, who was long thought to be the front-runner in the race.

"The voters of Louisiana will have a clear choice this December and the choice for me is clear  I will be proud to support John Kennedy because he is the one candidate who will work to bring fiscal sanity, repeal Obamacare, and confirm constitutionalists to the Supreme Court," Fleming said in a statement. "I look forward to working with John and his campaign in the weeks to come."

The campaign between Boustany and Kennedy had grown particularly heated after Boustany blamed Kennedy for attempting to highlight allegations in Murder in the Bayou," a book about the unsolved murders of eight prostitutes in Jefferson Davis Parish from 2005 to 2009. An unnamed source in the book claims Boustany was involved with at least one of the women, though no corroborating evidence is offered. Boustany has steadfastly denied the claims.

The book doesn't attempt to link Boustany to the deaths.

Just a week after finishing narrowly behind Campbell and missing out on a shot in the runoff, Boustany signaled that he was ready to move on.

"Republicans who care about the future of our country need a Republican in the Senate who will work with Donald Trump to roll back the failed liberal policies of President Obama," he said in a statement endorsing Kennedy.

Twenty-four candidates ran for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican David Vitter in January. Kennedy won 25 percent of the vote on Nov. 8, while Campbell took 17 percent.

Boustany came in third place with 15 percent of the vote, followed by Fayard with 12 percent, and Fleming at 11 percent.
I suspect that Jeff Sadows diatribe (The Advocate. Nov. 27) against what he sees as the evils of liberalism would surprise his students who, 
One story line to emerge from Louisiana's Senate runoff pairing is that the contest between Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell and state Treasurer John Kennedy is something of a replay of last year's gubernatorial election.

Campbell has the support of Gov. John Bel Edwards, and shares not only his Democratic affiliation but his economic populism and his conservative views on guns and abortion. Kennedy is backed by Edwards' vanquished opponent, outgoing U.S. Sen. David Vitter, a political ally ever since Vitter recruited him way back when to become a Republican and challenge Democrat Mary Landrieu. Operatives who worked on both sides of last year's contest are back this year too.

But if much is the same, a whole lot more is different.

Campbell doesn't share some of Edwards' attributes, including the West Point resume that he played up during the campaign and that seemed to resonate with voters. Kennedy doesn't have some of Vitter's weaknesses, most glaringly the prostitution scandal that Edwards skillfully exploited.

But the more important factor is that a Senate seat is simply not a governorship.

State politics seem to become more like the national version each year, but Louisiana government still hasn't achieved full-on partisanship.

That's not just due to custom, but practicality. Budget issues tend to drive state government, and if Louisiana's voters generally support Republican austerity up in Washington, there's reason to believe that some of them balk at it closer to home.

Last year many influential business leaders supported Medicaid expansion, and cast their position not just in moral but also economic development terms. The vast middle class clearly wants to preserve fully-funded TOPS college tuition scholarships, which, as I've written before, could have come right out of Bernie Sanders' playbook. And former Gov. Bobby Jindal, who ran a rigidly anti-tax administration with an eye toward his own aborted presidential run, left a budget in free fall and saw his approval rating crash and burn.

Up in Washington, D.C., it's a different story.

The national GOP's stands on cultural issues and things like regulation tend to loom larger, and that gives Republicans more of a leg up with Louisiana voters. President-elect Donald Trump may have bucked Republican orthodoxy on some issues, but he and his party appear to be right in line here.

National Democratic leaders don't share Edwards' and Campbell's pro-gun rights and anti-abortion philosophies, something the governor considers key to his ability to earn a hearing from many Louisianans on other issues. The national Democrats are considerably more interested in environmental protection and less supportive of unfettered oil and gas production than Louisiana Democrats like Landrieu, who was as much of a cheerleader for the homegrown industry as her GOP peers. That's why it's so easy for Republican candidates for federal office to paint even moderate Democrats as out of touch with their constituents.

So it's not at all surprising that Louisiana voters have increasingly turned Senate elections into referenda on the national parties.

As recently as 2004, both of the state's Senate seats were held by Democrats. But that year Vitter, then an up-and-comer whose personal transgressions had yet not become public, thwarted retiring U.S. Sen. John Breaux's attempt to install a like-minded replacement, conservative Democrat Chris John. Kennedy ran as the more moderate Democratic choice in that race.

Landrieu won her last re-election against Kennedy in 2008, largely on the strength of her status as post-Katrina rainmaker for the state and on an enthusiastic Democratic turnout for Barack Obama. But even then, there were signs that the path was disappearing. Despite her strength as an incumbent, she won just 52 percent of the vote.

By the time 2010 rolled around, Louisiana's Senate elections had become almost completely nationalized. Despite news from three years earlier that he'd been a customer of a Washington, D.C. prostitution ring, Vitter campaigned almost exclusively on his opposition to President Barack Obama and won easily. In 2014, Bill Cassidy used the same formula to send Landrieu packing.

Louisiana Republicans soon won't have Obama  or Hillary Clinton  to kick around any more, but particularly after the presidential election we just survived, partisan emotions are still running high.

Something pretty dramatic would have to happen between now and Dec. 10 for those feelings not to determine the identity of Louisiana's next U.S. senator.
After the historic floods, drinking-water service to nearly 3,000 Baton Rouge-area homes was disconnected for not timely paying their bills despite the governors emergency order for the company to wait.

We simply made an honest mistake, said Hays D. Owen, senior vice president and chief administrative officer at the Baton Rouge Water Co., which has been providing drinking water to the Baton Rouge community since 1888.

But an oops, sorry explanation may not be good enough for the states utility regulators.

Nobody else had an issue with misinterpreting the executive order, said Public Service Commission Chairman Scott Angelle, of Breaux Bridge. None of the other dozens of providers of electricity, natural gas and drinking water in Louisiana started cutting off their customers during the flood emergency.

During its meeting Thursday, the five elected commissioners will examine Baton Rouge Waters disconnections after the floods.

How to handle the violation of the governors executive order is but one level of a more complex issue of how utilities go about cutting off services that customers really cant do without and whether those privately owned companies use the reconnect fees and penalties to raise additional revenues.

In this instance, Owen said, company officials were confused about when the governors order was extended in September and will recompense those affected during the month-long purge of late-paying water customers.

Thirteen people died and the homes of hundreds of thousands were inundated from widespread flooding after more than 20 inches of rain fell in three days in early August. Hundreds of thousands of others, while not directly affected, worked nonstop helping those who were.

Gov. John Bel Edwards increases federal flood aid request to $4 billion Gov. John Bel Edwards has increased the amount of federal money he thinks the state needs fo

Gov. John Bel Edwards issued the executive proclamation on Aug. 17, set to expire Sept. 9. He later extended his proclamation. Technically, the order to suspend disconnects was issued by the PSC in response to Edwards' proclamation.

Owen said the company missed the orders extension and started turning off water to customers who hadnt paid their bills on Sept. 12. The homes of about a quarter of Baton Rouge Water's roughly 250 employees were flooded, and 12 different pumping stations were damaged in the August floods.

If we werent an honest company, the franchise wouldnt have been extended, and we wouldnt have been in business for 128 years, Owen said.

Baton Rouge Water will issue credits for any fees charged  its water, customers cant do without  to return the flow, Owen said. Along with a handful of interest and penalties, the largest fees charged are the flat $50 to reconnect service plus 5 percent addition on past due fines.

Absolutely, at a minimum, the people affected have to be reimbursed because there was no authority to disconnect, Angelle said. He is in the Dec. 10 runoff to elect the next congressman representing Acadiana.

The Louisiana Public Service Commission, which has the authority to fine recalcitrant utility companies, also is looking at whether Baton Rouge Waters legally required notice of its intentions to stop the flow of drinking water is unique enough to catch the customers attention. Some of the 2,904 Baton Rouge Water customers disconnected after Sept. 12 were not in the flooded areas but had been so busy they overlooked the bills.

It is the customers responsibility to open up those notices and read the information that is coming from us, Owen said. But Baton Rouge Water, by Friday, will have a new computer program that will place disconnect intentions in the subject line of emails sent to customers who chose online billing.

The economics of not getting paid after providing a product is unsustainable, and its not right on a moral level, Angelle said, adding, I get that. But the commission believes that the greater public policy decision is to allow people on their backs, through no fault of their own, to get back up again, even if means postponing past due collections for a short period.

Part of Baton Rouge Waters reasoning for disconnecting so quickly is likely to be where the fiercest battle is pitched, the outcome of which will have the longest ranging consequences.

Baton Rouge Water is contracted by the East Baton Rouge city-parish government to collect fees for local sewer usage, which are linked to the amount of water a customer uses, and garbage collection. That monthly money also was frozen by the governors order even though those local services are not regulated by the Public Service Commission.

Owen said the utility was pressured by the city-parish government. We got instructions from the city-parish to get back to normal operations, which we did, Owen said.

Public Service Commission lawyers asked for and have not received any written communications of such a request. But Adam Smith, interim director of environmental services, said city-parish officials weren't aware that Edwards' declaration had been extended when they made the request of Baton Rouge Water.

Regardless, Baton Rouge Waters contract, by the commissions own rules, is not under state oversight, Owen argued.

Wrong, said Commission Chairman Angelle.

You cant subcontract your way out of regulatory oversight. If that were the case, then every public utility would subcontract around the constitution, Angelle said. At the end of the day, thats a battle were ready and have to fight.
'I came back for the hugs': Artist, doctor with famous last name returns to New Orleans

With famous clients and a famous name, artist and doctor's life comes full circle to New Orleans
daagh wrote:

The paradox of the Roman empires history is marked by the fall of the western part around the 5th centaury A.D with several regions succumbing to cross border terrorism and internal insurgency, breaking into independent kingdoms, the rise of the eastern part, with the empire fire-walling the crises, and retaking most of the lost territories to establish a firm rule of over most of the Eastern Europe for another six to seven centuries



(A) with several regions succumbing to cross border terrorism and internal insurgency, breaking into independent kingdoms, the rise of the eastern part, with the empire fire - walling the crises, and retaking



(B) as several regions succumbed to cross border terrorism and internal insurgency and broke into independent kingdoms, and the rising of the eastern part as the empire fire-walled the crises and retook



C) when several regions succumbed to cross border terrorism and internal insurgency and broke into independent kingdoms, and by the rise of the eastern part, where the empire fire-walled the crises to retake

(D) with several regions succumbing to cross border terrorism and internal insurgency and breaking into independent kingdoms, and by the rise of the eastern part, with the empire fire -walling the crises, and retaking



(E) amid several regions succumbing to cross border terrorism and internal insurgency broke into independent kingdoms, and by the rise of the eastern part, as the empire fire -walling the crises, retook



Can somebody rate this?

A) Lacks a conjunction and not parallel

B) Not parallel (Tense)

fall

rising

C) Change in meaning . Also there is an issue at the end of the underlined part - where the empire fire-walled the crises to retake most of the lost territories to establish a firm rule of over most of the Eastern Europe. How can you fire-wall a crises to retake lost territory ? It's completely illogical.

Original Sentence:

with several regions succumbing ...

with the empire fire-walling the crises...

when several regions succumbed to cross border terrorism ...

where the empire fire-walled the crises to retake ...

D) Perfect: Parallel and preserves the original meaning

E) Not Parallel (Tense)

succumbing

broke

Life is a highway

I wanna ride it all night long Signature Read More

The sentence talks about a paradox, so we must look for two scenarios, separated by a conjunction. The conjunction will make it easy to spot the paradox.Also the 2 scenarios must be parallel. The structure of the sentence can be broken up asParadox marked1.) by X,and2.) by YLets look at the options one by one.Paradox marked1.) by the fall of the western part ...,2.) the rise of the eastern partParadox marked1.) by theof the western part ...,and2.) theof the eastern partParadox marked1.) by the fall of the western part around the 5th centaury A.Dand2.) by the rise of the eastern part,The parts in Bold explain the reasons for the Fall and Rise of the parts of empire and are essential for explaining the paradox. But option C converts these parts into mere modifiers of the time and area, hence these parts become non-essential.Paradox marked1.) by the fall of the western part around the 5th centaury A.Dand2.) by the rise of the eastern part,Non-essential modifiers can be safely removed without changing the meaning of the sentence, but if we remove the non-essential modifiers from this option, we are left with a sentence that no longer explains the paradox.Paradox marked1.) by the fall of the western part around the 5th centaury A.Dand2.) by the rise of the eastern partParadox marked1.) by the fall of the western partwith several regions succumbing to cross border terrorism and internal insurgency and breaking into independent kingdomsand2.) by the rise of the eastern part,with the empire fire -walling the crises, and retaking most of the lost territoriesParadox marked1.) by the fall of the western partamid several regionsto cross border terrorism and internal insurgencyinto independent kingdoms_________________
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards speaks at the Zachary mayor's annual prayer breakfast on Nov. 4. Edwards was a guest of Mayor David Amrhein, marking the first time a sitting governor has spoken at the event.
Police have called for witnesses following an attempted robbery of the Raiders Club in Weston early on November 14.

Police said two staff members were approached by a man in the Raiders Club carpark on Liardet Street, Weston about 2.30am Monday morning.

The man threatened the staff members with a weapon, demanding to be let into the club, but the staff were unable to provide the man access to the club and he left on foot.

The offender is described as being about 180cm tall, of an average build and speaking with an Australian accent.
A second leading Australian produce supplier to Coles and Woolworths is facing allegations of exploiting illegal migrant workers.

The Mornington Peninsula vegetable farm of high-profile Victorian grower A & G Lamattina & Sons was on Tuesday the scene of a dramatic raid by the National Union of Workers after the Fair Work Commission exercised a rarely used power to allow union officials to demand to see employment records for every worker on the farm.

National Union of Workers execute a court-ordered raid at Lamattina farms on the Mornington Peninsula. Credit:Eddie Jim

It is only the second time the FWC has granted the union this power to conduct a raid without notice - the first was in 2010.

Documents show the commission was satisfied the union had good evidence to show workers were being exploited and underpaid at the Mornington Peninsula farm.
A woman from Coffs Harbour is facing more than 35 years in a United States jail after being accused of being involved in one of the biggest insurance frauds in Californian history.

Kirsten Wallace was due to face a Los Angeles court early on Tuesday after being charged on Thursday with multiple counts relating to the alleged fraud of $US176 million ($233 million) involving drug rehabilitation centres.

A mugshot of Australian Kirsten Wallace following her arrest in US on significant fraud matters.

The California Department of Insurance alleges Ms Wallace, who was the chief financial officer of the Community Recovery company which ran about 20 rehab centres, and company owner Chris Bathum were involved in "an elaborate conspiracy" to defraud patients and insurers.

Prosecutors will allege Ms Wallace and Mr Bathum, who is also being investigated for sexually assaulting patients, stole patient identities, bought health insurance policies for patients without their knowledge and continued to bill insurance companies for treatment after the services were completed.
The golden crab of the Gulf of Mexico has not been fished commercially [ #permalink

Quote:

Also, it would be great if you can share insights on how to idenitfy and eliminate opitons that are wordy

never

NOT

single answer choice, by itself

based on a COMPARISON

'wordiness' CANNOT be the first thing you consider

Before making any judgments of 'wordiness', you MUST determine whether any of the 'added' words are required in order for the sentence to work properly .

I can outrun every girl in my class

I can outrun every boy in my class

I can outrun every OTHER boy in my class

The government of

that of

Wordiness should always be a RELATIVE JUDGMENTan absolute judgment.In other words, you shouldattempt to judge whether a, is 'wordy'.Any judgment of 'wordiness' should beof two or more answer choices. Eliminate answer choices that are OBJECTIVELY MORE wordy THAN OTHER choices.Also,Sometimes, 'extra' words in an answer choice are NECESSARY! When that's the case, answer choices that do not contain the necessary word(s) are WRONG, even though they're shorter than the correct version.E.g., I'm male. When I was in school, I could have said ""but I could NOT have said "". The latter sentence would erroneously imply that I'm female; I would have to say "". In the last example, the word "other" does NOT create 'wordiness'; the sentence would be nonsense without it. "country X is more stable thancountry Y" is a correctly written comparison. "The government of country X is more stable than country Y", on the other hand, is INCORRECTLY written, because it compares a government with a country (rather than with another government). Once again, the longer version is not 'wordy', because the additional words are needed to make the sentence grammatical and sensible.You can't consider 'wordiness' until you have determined whether there are any 'extra' words that are NECESSARY, as there are in the two preceding examples._________________
On the old game show Let's Make a Deal, contestants were presented with a choice: the prize sitting in front of them, or whatever was behind Door #2. Could be a new car, could be a toothpick. There was no way to know unless they took the gamble.

In last week's election, a near majority of Americans chose Door #2. And we still have no idea what's behind it.

Donald Trump's longest-standing view on any foreign policy issue is his 30-year anger at Japan for supposedly free-riding on its US alliance. Credit:AP

Donald Trump, now President-elect, is a wild-card president. Just about anything could happen in the next few years. He could build a bipartisan coalition to fix infrastructure and education, provide new training opportunities for low-skill workers and promote a less interventionist foreign policy.

He could just as likely transform the federal government into a weapon against First Amendment and minority rights, making good on his threats against the press, his vow to register Muslims, his plan for a deportation squad.
'Modern day slavery." This is how one lawyer described the appalling conditions of the illegal foreign workforce used at some Victorian farms. The pay and conditions, exposed in a Fairfax report this week, are shocking: workers paid an effective hourly rate as low as $2.50, some even left in debt, working 14-hour days, crammed together, sleeping on floors in rundown farmhouses.

It is shocking and shameful that this gross exploitation is taking place in Victoria, and authorities have a clear responsibility to act. The big question, however, is how much produce suppliers and the major supermarkets who buy their fruit know about this practice.

Foreign workers are particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Credit:Penny Stephens

Supermarkets including Coles, Woolworths and Costco are selling fruit grown and picked by this shamefully exploited workforce. The Age has argued before that big companies must, as far as possible, know what is going on in their supply chain. It is not good enough for major supermarkets and fruit suppliers to say they didn't know. They are making big profits on the back of this exploitation. They ought make it their business to know.

The use of this hidden, illegal workforce also raises broader questions about the ethics and practices of the big supermarket chains, whose aggressive dealing with suppliers over products such as milk, bread and fruit are ramping up pressure all the way down the supply chain. Whether or not supermarkets are turning a blind eye to the employment practices of their suppliers, they must be aware that their own heavy-handed deals are making it very tough for others to carve out a profit margin.
It got less attention but something else significant happened on election night in America. As Donald Trump was being made President-elect, citizens in four states  California, Massachusetts, Nevada and Maine  voted to tax and regulate recreational cannabis. As well, voters in Florida, North Dakota and Arkansas approved medical marijuana initiatives, while voters in Montana rolled back restrictions on an existing medical marijuana law.

This means that eight American states out of 50 have now voted to regulate cannabis and 28 states out of 50 have now either voted for or legislated for lawful medicinal cannabis.

California, in particular, is a powerful trendsetter within and beyond the US. Indeed it's often the case in culture, politics and economics that what happens in California today, happens in the rest of the US tomorrow and the rest of the world the next week. California has been in the doldrums but its economy is rapidly growing again, and has now overtaken France and Britain to become the world's sixth-biggest economy.

Almost 20 years ago California approved lawful medicinal cannabis, the first jurisdiction in the US and indeed in the world to do so. While the initial rules legislated in 1997 have recently been tightened, 27 other US states have now followed California's example.
On a chilly winter's night in Canberra two years ago, Malcolm Turnbull attended the launch of a new group of cross-party MPs keen to show their support for the ABC.

It was a rough time for the national broadcaster.

Only a fortnight before, its budget had been cut by $35.5 million over four years  a 1 per cent reduction  and the government had terminated its $223 million Australia Network international broadcasting contract.

So the audience that gathered at Parliament House was heartened to hear the then communications minister defend the national broadcaster and outline why it was such an important part of the Australian landscape.
Asylum seekers and refugees who have left Nauru and Manus for medical treatment in Australia, including sexual assault victims and mental health patients, will have to return to the islands if they are to have any chance of being accepted under the US resettlement deal.

However, they risk being forced to stay on Nauru if they are rejected by US authorities or the deal is scrapped.

Refugee advocates estimate that at least 10 women are in Australia receiving treatment for injuries sustained from sexual assault and rape while on Nauru. Those receiving treatment for serious mental and physical health issues and their immediate family and children make up another 360.

Under current laws, those receiving treatment in Australia will not be considered for a US visa unless they return to Nauru to apply.
The Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla Parker-Bowles, hired a team of female bodyguards to accompany her on a recent three-day tour of Middle East.

During an official visit to Dubai, Abu Dhabi and al-Ain, together with Prince Charles last week, Camilla was escorted by a security detail made up of five local women, according to Clarence House.

The Duchess of Cornwall was accompanied by female members of the UAE Presidential Guard for her tour of the Middle East. Credit:Instagram/@clarencehouse

When visiting dignitaries are not in town, Shaima al-Kaabi, Basima al-Kaabi, Hanan al-Hatawi, Nisreen al-Hamawi and Salama al-Remeithi make up part of the United Arab Emirates' Presidential Guard, which has more than 50 women in its ranks.

This year Shaima al-Kaabi, Hatawi and Hamawi all scaled Mount Everest.
There will be many things to look forward to in the next four years of Donald Trump's presidency, especially if you are a member of that segment of the population commonly known as "The Joker from The Dark Knight". But probably the most exciting thing about the Age of Trump will be the return of good old-fashioned glamour to geopolitics.

The glamorisation of the White House has already begun, with Trump's first wife Ivana nominating herself as prime candidate for the post of Ambassador to the Czech Republic. This is an outstanding idea, as Ivana possesses the two most important attributes for this position: a) she's originally from the Czech Republic; and b) she's met Donald Trump at least once.

But Ivana will bring a bit extra to the diplomatic realm  that dash of pizazz, of glitz, of shameless big-haired ostentation. Because that's what the Trump White House is going to be all about: inspiring Americans  and indeed citizens of all countries  with conspicuous displays of overwhelming privilege. Washington will become Xanadu, and Trump himself will be, if not exactly Kubla Khan, at least Zsa Zsa Gabor.

He'll start by appointing Ivana ambassador to Prague, but there are plenty more diplomatic postings to be doled out and plenty more Trumps to accept them. If his first wife can go to the Czechs, it seems logical to make his second wife, Marla, ambassador to Georgia, where she's from. Not necessarily the same Georgia, mind you, but it'd be petty to expect anyone in the Trump administration to know the difference. Then there are the children. I'd say Ivanka to France for the shopping, Tiffany to New Zealand so her father can more effectively forget that she exists, and Donald jnr and Eric to African nations of their choice where they can kill large numbers of exotic animals. So will the world be infused with the Trump ethos: have a good time, all the time, and take what you want when you want it.
Reza Saramad has been in Australia barely six years and has been underpaid or not paid at all on three separate occasions - a total of nearly $20,000.

He has reclaimed only a fraction of that so far.

Finding work hasn't been an issue for Reza Saramad; problems surface when it's time to be paid. Credit:Pat Scala

The Afghan tiler is part of a new underclass: the workers who sell us food, clean our offices and build our homes and commercial towers. And they are routinely underpaid. The problem is particularly acute in Melbourne's west, according to a new report.

"Exploitation is rife," notes the report's author Catherine Hemingway, a solicitor at Footscray-based WEstjustice.
The NSW Deputy State Coroner Elaine Truscott has visited the site where police are searching for the body of Sydney man Matthew Leveson.

Police have been searching for the remains of the 20-year-old for the past six days in Royal National Park in Sydney's south.

Ms Truscott spent nearly two hours at the site and was shown around the area by Detective Chief Inspector Gary Jubelin and a team from the homicide squad.

Mr Leveson's boyfriend Michael Atkins, 53, led police to the area in the early hours of last Thursday after confessing it was where he had buried the body in 2007.
With MDMA, the link between dose and the risk of death is unpredictable. Almost half (49 per cent) visited drug harm reduction websites and forums, the survey by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) found. Just 18 per cent looked at government websites, preferring Google and other search engines (49 per cent), Wikipedia (37 per cent), Facebook news feeds (27 per cent) and even Reddit (24 per cent). Users offer each other support and guidance when they've had a bad trip and help build the encyclopaedic list of substances, their reported source, chemical composition, effects and harms. The information can be surprisingly accurate. It can also be dangerous guesswork.

Researchers at the Dutch government-sponsored Drug Information Monitoring Service tested the reliability of the drug content and dosage information on ecstasy pill report websites by comparing it with their own data. They reported most of the content on the sites should not be considered harmful, but they deemed 15 per cent of reports could be dangerous, usually because they underestimated the amount of MDMA in particular batches. But DIMS' data is not publicly available. In a climate of zero tolerance drug policies, the sites often offer users the only time-sensitive pill alerts. The Australian government's deterrence-driven National Drugs Campaign aims to make drugs less appealing to young people by informing them of the potential negative consequences of drug use. The link between dose and the risk of death is unpredictable. People who have died from MDMA do not always have very high levels of the drug in their blood.

"In the absence of a better system, people will use the systems that are available," said NDARC researcher and Bluelight administrator Monica Barratt. "People are using drugs, and the internet is not going away," Dr Barratt said. "We believe we need to change the way we approach drugs and talk about the best ways of dealing with these issues. "Most people come [to Bluelight] to learn how to use drugs more safely. Members actively disseminate information to warn people of highly dangerous, adulterated drugs." The site also collaborates with researchers to provide a source of data for monitoring new drugs. "Often academics use anecdotal [cases] from the forums in their journal articles," Dr Barratt said. "It's the best information we have about how people use drugs."

The posts on Bluelight forums range from dream-like fantasies to time-stamped trip reports described in meticulous detail as authors log the amount of each substance they take, the combination and the way the physical and mental sensations evolve over the trip. As you scroll through the forum, thread titles read "Is this normal?","Ghosts and stuff", "Interlocking Gods" and simply "Whoa". There are rules for users; most importantly, users are banned from asking for or offering drugs, and from giving specific details and prices and information on where to buy substances. "WE ARE NOT HERE TO HELP YOU SCORE DRUGS!" the Bluelight user guidelines read. Most users adopt pseudonyms. Some use a Tor hidden service to connect anonymously. Harm reduction site Tripsit scrambles IP addresses by default.

Tripsit also offers users live chats with volunteers who will virtually "babysit" individuals through bad trips, offering comfort and support through what is often a frightening and isolating experience. Bluelight is manned by about 100 volunteers who moderate comments on the forums constantly. They usually respond within minutes when a user posts a distressing message. But, in the event of an emergency, volunteers are hamstrung by the anonymity. "That's one of the realities of running a site that lets people use pseudonyms: you can't alert emergency services because you may not know where the person is," Dr Barratt said. "You can ask them, or you can tell them to call an ambulance, but you can't actually get them help." A journal paper recently accused Bluelight of being a place to procure drugs based on two cases studies.
Newly sworn-in Deputy Premier John Barilaro has declared "a clean slate" for the NSW Nationals hours after he was elected party leader following the dramatic resignation of Troy Grant over the Orange byelection.

After a ceremony at NSW Government house attended by his family, Mr Barilaro said the Nationals needed to be realistic about the party's poor showing in Saturday's contest.

"We must be honest with ourselves and accept that the people of NSW  in this case the people of Orange  have felt that this government, that we the Nationals have let them down," he said.

Mr Barilaro, the minister for skills and small business, was on Tuesday elected unopposed as NSW Nationals leader, while primary industries minister Niall Blair became deputy after education minister Adrian Piccoli decided to not recontest.
A former assistant commissioner of the NSW graft watchdog has warned Mike Baird's controversial overhaul of the agency risks the perception that "it's corrupt".

Anthony Whealy, who is also chairman of Transparency International Australia, blasted a bill introduced by Mr Baird on Tuesday which he says weakens the Independent Commission Against Corruption and forces its current chief Megan Latham to reapply for her job.

Mr Whealy noted the move followed ICAC's Operation Spicer investigation into Liberal party fundraising before the 2011 state election which ended the political careers of a number of Mr Baird's Liberal party colleagues.

"The perception will arise immediately in the community's mind that there's a very direct link between the two," he told ABC radio on Wednesday. "It will look like payback from a vengeful government."
Sacked 97.3FM radio presenter Robin Bailey says she was "blindsided" by the station's decision not to renew her contract.

The popular presenter, who had been part of the station's climb to a top-two spot in the breakfast ratings this year, said she was "ambushed" on Monday morning, before the shake-up was announced.

"The announcement today that I am leaving the 97.3FM breakfast team has come as a complete shock," she said in a statement on Monday.

"I have been blindsided by ARN's decision not to renew my contract.
The stepfather charged over the death of Queensland toddler Mason Jet Lee will make a bid to be released from custody later this week.

William Andrew O'Sullivan, 35, is one of three people charged with the manslaughter of the 21-month-old boy, who was found dead at a Caboolture home, north of Brisbane, on June 11.

William Andrew O'Sullivan, 35, is one of three people charged with the manslaughter of his 21-month-old stepson Mason Lee.

O'Sullivan, who has been in custody since his arrest in late July, has lodged an application for bail in the Brisbane Supreme Court, which is set to be heard on Friday.

AAP
The long-term consequences of a nude selfie pose just as much risk to Queensland school leavers as drugs and alcohol, schoolies week organisers have warned.

But the message was somewhat overshadowed by a local man, who hijacked the organisers' media conference to complain about the erection of fences along the beach, which curtailed locals' access.

The man berated Gold Coast Schoolies Advisory Group chairman Mark Reaburn during the media conference at the Surfers Paradise foreshore on Tuesday, telling him and his staff to remove fencing that had been erected on the beachfront and give the beach back to the public.

Mr Reaburn said trying to stop school leavers from descending on Surfers Paradise was like trying to "hold back the tide".
A young man who kept a sub-machine gun in a pink gym bag and a loaded handgun in a Louis Vuitton satchel in suburban Melbourne has been jailed for a year.

But because Luke Debono has already served seven months, he'll be out of jail and on a two-year corrections order in less than six months.

Police found a submachinegun and ice in Luke Debono's unit. Credit:Facebook

The 21-year-old from Sunbury was involved with a now-dismantled crime syndicate involving a former Victorian policeman.

On Tuesday, the Melbourne County Court heard police were looking for Mr Debono to question him over an unrelated shooting in Maidstone in 2015.
One of the young men charged over Monday's dramatic West Gate Bridge pursuit was on parole when he fled from police, a court has heard.

The man, 18, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday. Two younger co-accused also face charges over the chase.

The 18-year-old faces seven charges linked to the chase and an alleged armed robbery spree beforehand.

Police allege he tried to flee arrest on Monday in a stolen car  even after three tyres had been deflated by officers.
The campaign by the big miners against Brendon Grylls' mining tax continues with a new resources industry-commissioned report claiming it would cost 7200 jobs.

The WA Nationals' leader has proposed a controversial hike in the rental fee paid by BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto from 25 cents to $5 a tonne, arguing that the state's two biggest miners can afford to and should pay a fairer share into the public coffers.

The proposed new tax on iron ore would lead to the loss of 2900 jobs in the Pilbara region, 3400 in WA in total and 7200 nationally. Credit:Rob Homer

The Minerals Council of Australia - which counts BHP and Rio as members - commissioned a report that argues the proposed new tax on iron ore would lead to the loss of 2900 jobs in the Pilbara region, 3400 in WA in total and 7200 nationally.

The researchers Deloitte Access Economics say the lift in production costs would discourage BHP and Rio from further investing and so shrink the economy and cost jobs.
The Bunbury mum of an ex-ice addict has lambasted Kmart Australia for selling a drink jar product which looks strikingly similar to methamphetamine drug paraphernalia.

The store advertised the "unique light bulb drink jars" as a "great addition to your tableware [that] can be used to serve drinks, beverages and more".

A household survey shows Australians are far more aware now of the dangers meth posed than they were three years ago.

Created in the shape of a light bulb and accessorised with a straw, the product carries a strong resemblance to the homemade "crack pipe light bulbs" from which users without access to meth pipes sometimes consume their drugs.

Lina Pugh, who started the Facebook page "Ice in Bunbury: a mother's nightmare" and leads a support group for families of those struggling with drug addiction, said she was "appalled" by the product.
"Another day and another stonka. This one going 3.08kg on the scales and a PB for Daz!"

Fishers can inflate the size of their catches when telling the story on dry land, but crayfisher Darren Douche has photographic proof of a monster crayfish he snatched while freediving in five metres of water off Perth.

Posting in the Sea Creatures Spearfishing Facebook group, Mr Douche called his massive catch a "stonka", tipping the scales at more than three kilograms with a 170-millimeter carapace - the upper shell of the lobster.

"Could put a saddle on that," one Facebook user said.
The paramedic critically injured in a head-on collision involving an ambulance south of Perth last month says he's "just happy to be alive".

Wesley Ackerman, 33, was in the passenger seat of the St John Ambulance on the way to pick up a patient when it was hit by a car travelling on the wrong side of the road in Oldbury, 45 kilometres south of on October 10.

Paramedic Wesley Ackerman has spoken for the first time about his horrific accident. Credit:Facebook

The father-of-three suffered horrific injuries in the accident, including fracturing his jaw, breaking several ribs and fracturing his spine in multiple places.

Speaking for the first time since the accident, Mr Ackerman said he was looking forward to spending Christmas with his kids.
Marketed as the perfect balance - but rejected by the local planning panel for being out of character with its surrounds. "The overall design of the building appears very generic, lacking in contextual response and character. "The lack of any significant landscaping at ground floor level and to the Level 5 terrace is a particularly poor outcome that contributes little to residential amenity as well as the surrounding streetscape. A single tree is indicated on the podium terrace plan. The complete building design. "Little reference to sustainability measures is noted."

Residents' Save the South Perth Peninsula action group spokeswoman Vicki Redden said the planning scheme for the Mends Street sub-precinct encouraged small-scale commercial and retail uses. Next aged-care tower to be considered is the Lyall Street development nearby, between Perth Zoo and the riverfront. "There is absolutely nothing small scale or sensitive in this proposal," she said. "Child Care and High Level Residential Aged Care are not included in the Mends St preferred land uses." She said local planning law required that high level residential aged care facilities must be situated next to a public park or contain adequate recreational facilities on site, as well as be on sites containing 40 per cent landscaping.

"People with Dementia and Alzheimers being housed on the 16th floor alongside the busiest intersection in South Perth?" she said. "Older people living in apartments in certainly not a new thing - but including specific High Level Aged Care is something that needs a lot more thought and professional input than an architect changing some labels on the drawings just to get around a scheme requirement. How do you get 124 very old, often disabled people down 16 floors when the first safety procedure is don't use the lifts? "Where are the specifically designed, quiet outdoor areas where patients can walk or sit freely and safely?" No rational person would consider 'Aged Care' appropriate for this style building, in this location."

Though the City of South Perth did not criticise the building design, the development assessment panel rejected the application 4-1 because of these issues as well as traffic and height issues. Council modelling of the cumulative traffic impacts of the several towers already approved around the building suggested there would be "significant impact on the amenity of the area" if a building of this scale was also approved. The DAP decided the height was out of context in the area, particularly given the council's "imminent" planning scheme amendment to reintroduce 80-metre height limits in the area. If Planning Minister Donna Faragher approves the amendment, the Zone Q tower and five others already approved will be in contravention of planning law. Regarding the aged care factor, DAP presiding member Charles Johnson said though there was "some discussion" the panel deemed it qualified it was deemed to qualify in the end and was not the reason for the rejection.

He noted that a retirement lifestyle village type development would not qualify  only "high care", meaning more or less full and constant care and supervision, would count as non-residential. Whether the building would comply with Australian building codes for high-care residential aged care facilities was not within the DAP's remit. "That would have to be assessed at the building licence stage," he said. "You wouldn't be able to build the building without passing that code." Alzheimer's Australia WA Education, Research & Consultancy general manager Jason Burton said while he could comment specifically on this issue, Alzheimer's Australia WA promoted an 'enabling environment for people with dementia framework' based on 10 evidence-based principles.

The principles include providing safe environments that are easy to move around and understand, that avoid too much visual or auditory stimulation and provide community links.  "The scale of a building will have an effect on the behaviour and feelings of a person with dementia," they say. "The experience of scale is determined by three factors; the number of people that the person encounters, the overall size of the building and the size of the individual components ... a person should not be intimidated by the size of the surroundings or confronted with a multitude of interactions and choices. "Aimless wandering can be minimised by providing a well defined pathway, free of obstacles and complex decision points ... both internal and external, providing an opportunity and reason to go outside." "The way of life offered needs to be clearly stated and the building designed both to support it and to make it evident to the residents and staff. The building becomes the embodiment of the philosophy of care, constantly reminding the staff of the values and practices that are required while providing them with the tools they need to do their job."

Mr Burton said the organisation encouraged all developers to consider these principles when designing buildings to be used by people living with dementia. "The provision of aged appropriate housing and supported accommodation is a complex and topical issue. How to provide high level care within a multi-storey building is a challenge for the aged care industry and community and is becoming a more common reality in urban areas," he said. Spokesman for developer group Better South Perth, Paul Plowman, said high-rise aged care was not unknown in Perth, with Amana Living offering a facility at the old Sundowner Hotel in the western suburbs. "What Zone Q put forward in terms of future urban living, combining child care and aged care in a building with a public amenity deck, was quite innovative in terms of where we are going as a community, quite extraordinary," he said. "There were some spectacular elements of that building. The City of South Perth is applying different rules to different people. When they approved the similar design of Civic Heart that criteria wasn't applied, but now the state architect somehow has a role to play in making commentary on design?
Police are scouring the suburb of Tuart Hill, searching for a gunmen after a man was shot in the leg on Tuesday morning.

A 33-year-old man was shot in the leg just before 3am, after he became involved in an altercation with occupants of a home in Huckle Street.

The gunshot wound is not considered life-threatening and the man is in Royal Perth Hospital undergoing surgery.

Anyone who can assist in this investigation is asked to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or make a report online at www.crimestopperswa.com.au.
Beijing: A Hong Kong court has ordered two young pro-independence lawmakers to vacate their seats after they modified their oaths of office to include derogatory comments towards China, bringing to an end a contentious saga which prompted street protests and unprecedented political intervention from Beijing.

Hong Kong's High Court ruled on Tuesday the actions of Yau Wai-ching, 25, and Sixtus "Baggio" Leung, 30, had amounted to them "declining" to take their oaths and therefore disqualified them from assuming office in the semiautonomous city's Legislative Council.

Ms Yau and Mr Leung, whose Youngspiration political party advocates Hong Kong's independence from China, were elected in September amid a portent of anti-mainland sentiment  especially among the city's younger demographic  that has smouldered since citywide pro-democracy protests in 2014.

While swearing in on October 12, the pair inserted a derogatory term for China while displaying a banner reading "Hong Kong is not China". It prompted a furious reaction from Beijing, with the National People's Congress Standing Committee issuing a rare interpretation of Hong Kong's Basic Law which effectively banned from office those who deliberately altered the words of the oath or who delivered it in a "dishonest manner".
Wellington: New Zealand emergency services and defence personnel began evacuating hundreds of tourists and residents from a small South Island town amid more strong aftershocks on Tuesday, a day after a powerful earthquake killed two people.

The 7.5-magnitude tremor struck just after midnight on Sunday, destroying farm homesteads, sending glass and masonry toppling from buildings in the capital, Wellington, and cutting road and rail links throughout the northeast of the ruggedly beautiful South Island.

As aftershocks continued to rattle the region, emergency services cordoned off streets in Wellington and evacuated several buildings due to fears one of them might collapse.

The town of Kaikoura, a popular base for whale-watching about 150 km north-east of Christchurch, the South Island's main city, was completely cut off by massive landslips.
Beijing: A polar bear named Pizza, whose fate as an air-conditioned exhibit for shoppers in a mall in southern China prompted millions of animal lovers to call for the release of what they called "the world's saddest polar bear," is moving but perhaps only temporarily.

The exhibition space at the Grandview Polar Sea World at the Grandview Mall in the steamy city of Guangzhou is being "optimised and upgraded," causing the move, according to a notice on a social media account of the aquarium, where Pizza and hundreds of other arctic animals are housed indoors.

"Pizza, the 'bear baby' that a million customers have enjoyed, will say a temporary farewell to everyone for a while, to return to where he was born and to his daddy and mommy," the notice read.

Chinese animal welfare groups welcomed the news but said it did not go far enough. Pizza should be permanently re-housed, they said.
Washington: US President-elect Donald Trump is in for a quick wake-up call and will have to adjust his temperament when he confronts the realities of his new job on January 20, President Barack Obama said on Monday.

In a news conference at the White House, his first since the shocking election results last week, Obama said the freewheeling Trump could not be as outspoken as he was during the long and bitter campaign that ended with the Republican's win over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Subdued and carefully choosing his words, Obama gave what appeared to be dispassionate advice to his successor free of much of the partisan rancour that marked the election campaign.

"This office has a way of waking you up," Obama said. "Those aspects of his positions or predispositions that don't match up with reality, he will find shaken up pretty quick because reality has a way of asserting itself."
Washington: They were asides in an Obama press conference on Monday  "gestures are important;" and later, "it's important to send signals of unity  to reach out to minority groups and others who were concerned by the tenor of the campaign."

The outgoing president deliberately sidestepped invitations to join a critics' pile-on over Donald Trump's naming of the white nationalist lightning rod Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist in the White House.

But in saying as little as he did, Obama spoke volumes about the controversy of having the likes of Bannon so close to the Oval office.

Likewise, senior elected Republicans made their criticism of Trump's embrace of Bannon as loud by saying virtually nothing about it  instead they heaped praise on Trump's good sense in appointing Republican Party chairman Reince Priebus as his White House chief of staff.
Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin rang US President-elect Donald Trump on Monday night before the Kremlin issued a statement saying they have agreed to work towards "constructive cooperation", including on fighting terrorism.

Mr Putin and the billionaire vowed to establish a new relationship between their two countries based on "mutual respect", the Kremlin announced, and they agreed to "assess the current unsatisfactory state of bilateral relations", develop trade and economic ties and establish joint efforts to fight international terrorism.

Agreeing to stay in regular contact by phone, and to arrange a face-to-face meeting soon, Mr Putin wished Mr Trump "success in the implementation of the pre-election program, and noted his willingness to build a partnership dialogue with the new administration on the principles of equality, mutual respect and non-interference in the internal affairs of each other".

Mr Trump said after the call he was looking forward to "a strong and enduring relationship with Russia".
Washington: There's been a lot of talk in recent days about President-elect Donald Trump's decision to give his three eldest children formal positions on his transition team.

Readers have wondered: is the decision legal? Is it ethical? Does it signal Trump's intention to involve his children in his administration? And what does it mean that Trump's children have transition roles just as they are poised to take over the family business?

Let's clear up some of the confusion. To put it simply, Trump has a lot of flexibility when it comes to staffing his transition. He has less flexibility when it comes to staffing his administration, though ethics experts said it will not be hard for him to bend existing rules.

To start, let's look at Friday's announcement that Donald, Jr, Ivanka and Eric Trump, as well as Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, will serve on the transition's executive committee.
Washington: The US military's top commander in the Pacific tried on Tuesday to reassure allies that Washington will maintain its commitment to Asia and maintain strong military relations with partners, some of whom are worried about President-elect Donald Trump's foreign policy.

"I have no doubt that we will continue our steadfast commitment to our allies and partners in the Indo-Asia Pacific,"

Admiral Harry Harris, head of the military's Pacific Command, said at an event held by the publication Defense One.

"The need for and the value of American engagement in the Indo-Asia-Pacific is convincing and it has (been) proven over decades," Harris said.
Volkswagen 3.0 TDI Fix Or Buyback Plan Announced







Washington DC November 15, 2016; David Shepardson writing for Reuters reported that Volkswagen AG has reached an agreement with U.S. regulators for a mix of buybacks and fixes for 80,000 polluting Audi, Porsche and VW 3.0-liter vehicles, two sources briefed on the matter said Tuesday.

The agreement includes a buyback offer for about 20,000 older Audi and VW SUVs and a software fix for 60,000 newer Porsche, Audi and VW cars and SUVs, the sources said. A separate, more complex fix is expected to be offered for the older vehicles. Talks are ongoing between lawyers for the owners and Volkswagen over compensation for the owners ahead of a Nov. 30 court hearing.

The agreement is a major step toward Volkswagen resolving its outstanding diesel emission issues in the United States - after it reached a separate $10.03-billion buyback offer for 475,000 2.0-liter vehicles in June.

Volkswagen has already agreed to spend up to $16.5 billion to resolve U.S. diesel emissions cheating allegations, including the 2.0-liter buyback offer.

Audi said it is still working closely with regulators "to reach an agreement on an approved resolution" ahead of a Nov. 30 court hearing, but declined to comment on confidential talks.

Elizabeth Cabraser, the lead attorney for the owners, said in a statement that any agreement between owners and the company should offer all 3.0-liter owners a choice between a buyback or a fix if approved by regulators.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declined to comment Wednesday.

"While an agreement between the EPA and Volkswagen may address some of the environmental damage, it does not hold the company accountable for the harm caused to consumers. We will continue to pursue a fair resolution on their behalf," she said.

Details of a final settlement are still being worked out but Volkswagen is expected to save potentially billions by avoiding a buyback of all 3.0-liter vehicles.

Volkswagen is also expected to face billions in fines as part of a separate potential settlement with the Justice Department to resolve an ongoing criminal investigation and a civil suit alleging civil violations of the Clean Air Act. Volkswagen also faces legal action by at least 19 U.S. states.

The 475,000 2.0-liter diesel vehicles have software that allowed them to evade emissions rules in testing and emit up to 40 times legally allowable emissions in onroad driving. The 3.0 liter vehicles have an undeclared auxiliary emissions system that allowed the vehicles to emit up to nine times allowable limits.

Court documents show that at least 60 percent of those owners have already signaled they plan to sell the vehicles back.

The 2.0 liter buyback offer includes compensation of $5,100 to $10,000 per vehicle beyond the vehicle's value. Volkswagen wants to offer significantly less compensation to 3.0-liter owners, the sources said.

Audi has also come under scrutiny over whether some gasoline vehicles have separate software that lowered carbon dioxide emissions by detecting whether a car's steering wheel was turned as it would be when driving on a road.

VW has been barred from selling diesel vehicles in the United States since 2015 and has said it has not decided whether it will resume U.S. diesel sales.

Reporting for Reuters; David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Nick Zieminski

Volkswagen 3.0 TDI Solution Comments:

From Karl Brauer, senior analyst for Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book:

Volkswagen continues to make progress resolving its diesel issue, with this fix offering a far less costly solution than a full buyback of all 3.0-liter models.

From Rebecca Lindland, senior analyst for Kelley Blue Book:

VW needs to get this diesel issue behind them ASAP, so they can continue the rebuilding and recovery process. Addressing concerns of current owners and prospective owners with a go-forward plan is also critical. Working with CARB to accomplish these goals is a huge step in the right direction.

From Michael Harley, analyst for Kelley Blue Book:

This is good news, as it demonstrates that progress is being made to clean the emissions of the 3.0-liter diesel that Audi supplied to the Volkswagen Group. While this represents another incremental step forward, the German automaker still needs to secure approval on a fix for its 2.0-liter diesel, which is the bulk of the scandal.
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Its been nearly a week since America voted and Donald Trump is still the president-elect.

So how was your weekend? Samantha Bee asked her viewers. I turned off the news and watched an amazing film about a woman president. Then I smuggled that film to the neutral zone to the Man in the High Castle but it didnt work. Were still in the wrong timeline!

Back in the real world, President-elect Trump has hired noted alt-right white nationalist Steve Bannon as his chief adviser and, as CNN reported, raised racial concerns in the process. Today Trump has fueled racial concerns? an exasperated Bee asked. Bannon joined Trumps campaign last summer. How is CNN just now discovering that hes the milkshake that brings all the deplorables to the yard?

Then there is Trumps first campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who just this week resigned from his gig at CNN to prepare for his inevitable White House position. Why would he need to leave CNN for that? she asked. Will a cranked-up buzz cut accused of assaulting a reporter be the next press secretary?

As names like Rudy Giuliani for attorney general and Newt Gingrich for secretary of State make the rounds, Bee said, Some people say Trump is deliberately floating the most outrageous names so people will be slightly relieved when his actual picks are slightly less awful. How else could you explain this? From there she presented the speculation that Sarah Palin could be named secretary of the interior or even head of the Department of Energy.

Forget it, Sarah, you cant hold down a job, unless its the job of distracting everybody from the more traditionally terrible names on the list, Bee said, pointing to the climate change-denying non-scientist who is likely to run Trumps EPA.

Yes, this Cabinet list isnt just a liberals nightmare, Bee added. A liberals nightmare is running out of almond milk at a brunch party. This is a nightmare for anyone who thinks job candidates should have experience and education beyond the qualification of being named Steve.

But there was nothing more simultaneously laughable and terrifying for Bee than the prospect of Secretary of Education Ben Carson. Good news, rocket scientists: America will no longer be using brain surgeon as a cliche for smart, she said. From now on, when we call someone a real brain surgeon it means semi-conscious political mouth-breather whos only in the public eye because Republicans think liberals care only about identity politics and will be happy with any rapture-awaiting zombie who kind of looks like them.

In the meantime, Bee urged Trumps supporters to ignore the Goldman Sachs bankers in line for Treasury secretary and enjoy the parade of misfits, deplorables, zealots and extremists who, come January, could be packing their bags for the White House.
OCETI SAKOWIN CAMP, Standing Rock ReservationThe moral soul of this continent is at Standing Rock, and at the moment that soul is being beaten, maced, pepper-sprayed, tear-gassed, and locked up by a militarized police force acting on behalf of foreign oil companies.

As North Dakota police lock up and abuse peaceful water protectors, members of a growing resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline slated to transport oil under the Missouri River, it becomes clear that the fight over the tribal land of Standing Rock is not only the primary battleground for indigenous sovereignty; it is the center of the fight for clean water, to fight climate change, and to ban hydraulic fracturing. At its base, this is a struggle between the people and a government corrupted by corporate power.

Wes Mekasi Horinek, an activist with the water rights group Bold Alliance was arrested during a camp raid by local police. He described the atrocities hes witnessed: peaceful protesters were hooded, put in stress positions, strip-searched. We were placed in dog kennels with numbers written on our arms for hours. Elders were kept in cages in the basement of the police station for days.

Theyre the type of images that evoke the infamous photos from Abu Ghraib. North Dakota police have been accused of destroying sacred objectseagle feathers stripped off religious leaders, peace pipes broken, and during an Oct. 27 raid in one of the camps, tribe members were ripped out of sweat lodges and arrested. Our teepee flaps were forced open with the muzzle end of an M-4 rifle, remarked Floris White Bull, a prominent activist and the great-grandniece of the legendary Lakota Chief Sitting Bull.

The scene at the front line is surreal. There are 40 or 50 water protectorsyoung people from all over the nation who have come to protect this watershed from the Dakota Access Pipeline. In the water40-degree water; North-Dakota-in-November cold-ass waterstanding there shivering with Mylar blankets, holding hands, praying, unable to reach the shore that is guarded by a line of 60 or 70 or 100 police in riot gear.

Cold, half-naked, prayerful, and peaceful, the protectors speak directly to the police gathered from five different states. Please leave our watershed. Leave our sacred burial grounds. All we want is clean water, they say.

Even while periodically being shot at with rubber bullets, they keep their grace, their composure, their prayers, and entreaties for peace. This is the kind of bravery I have never seen; the willingness to be 100 percent vulnerable in the face of state licensed violence. I felt like I was watching the Salt Mine Protests lead by Gandhi himself, where hundreds of Indians allowed themselves to clubbed and beaten in protest of the British Empire. I wondered whether I was witnessing another tottering empire about to fallan empire set up to defend the dying petrochemical industry, one becoming less legitimate with each water protector beaten, sprayed, and arrested.

The Dakota Access Pipeline is proposed to carry crude oilfracked out of the Bakken Formation in western North Dakotaacross both Dakotas, Iowa, and eventually to Illinois. The pipeline is being challenged at every point along the route. Farmers in Iowa have been arrested by the busload, objecting to what they call eminent domain for private gain. Shale oil companies have dug up their backyards to transport some of this, the dirtiest, most polluting fuel on the planet, from another Indian reservation, Fort Berthold. And the Democratic (and Republican) love affair with fracking of all kinds represents a fundamental shift in American energy policy, away from conventional oil and gas and toward what should be called extreme energyenergy that is more dangerous, more expensive, and worse for the planet.

The form of this extreme energy that I am most intimately acquainted with, fracking, has poisoned watersheds across the U.S., increased greenhouse-gas emissions, and put communities in peril around the world. Fracked oil and natural gas represent a new frontier in exploiting fuel reserves that must not be extracted if we are to keep civilization above water. We are so close to crucial tipping points that our foremost climate scientist, James Hansen, famously called the rise of fracking, the development of Canadas vast Tar Sands, and other new forms of extraction as game over for the planet. The amount of greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, and methane that would be emitted by tapping these fields is so onerous that it would warm the planet well past a point where we can keep glaciers frozen and the Eastern Seaboard above the rapidly rising seas.

So, this Dakota Access Pipeline is not just an issue of indigenous peoples sovereignty, although that is first and foremost in the battle at Standing Rock. It represents the center of our climate-change and fracking fight as we know it in the United States.

The struggle against #DAPL, as it is called on Twitter, was first brought to light by the youth council of Standing Rock, who literally ran thousands of miles from their reservations to Washington, D.C., and then to New York City to plead their case to the public and President Obama.

Their primary rallying cry was for their water. The Dakota Access Pipeline is slated to run beneath the Cannonball River, a tributary to the Missouri and part of a watershed that supplies 17 million people. The pipeline was originally planned to go through Bismarck, but the residents there objected and the Army Corps of Engineers along with Dakota Access Pipeline LLC decided to reroute itstraight through the Native American reservation. Of course, that decision underlines the deep environmental racism that happens when the United States plans energy projects. Routing the pipeline through Standing Rock Reservation rather than via the predominantly white state capital city is emblematic of a centurys worth of housing the most dangerous energy projects in communities of color.

But this is not a just a symbolic or abstract moment of environmental grandstanding. The Native Americans at Standing Rock have a real point when it comes to the danger to their water supply. Pipelines the world over leak at an alarming ratemore than 2,000 in the last two decades. Since 2009, the annual number of significant accidents on oil and petroleum pipelines has shot up by almost 60 percent, according to the Associated Press. In fact, the industry exists in what I call a permanent state of criminal negligence, and spills are more often the result of decades of neglect than chance malfunctions.

One recent USA Today investigation shows that hundreds of spills have gone unreported in North Dakota alone, and there is no federal agency that is tasked primarily with monitoring, policing, or cleaning them up. Looking at just our recent history, one can see many examples of watersheds that were devastated by oil and gas negligence. The Yellowstone River spill. The Kalamazoo River spill, which several years after their spill, and millions of dollars later, still hasnt reached any significant state of cleanup. The recent oil leak at Santa Barbara, contaminating beaches along the California coast. The rupture at Mayflower, Arkansas, where an entire town had to be abandoned because Exxons oil pipeline flooded out an entire town. Pictures of suburban garages bathed in oil and toxic substances and volatile organic compounds, benzene, and other carcinogens, are exactly the kind of all too commonplace messes that the Standing Rock tribe is trying to prevent.

The decision whether to move ahead rests with the Army Corps of Engineersand that is to say, President Obama. The pipeline has snaked its way up both sides of the river. On either side of the Cannonball, there is a 400-yard corridor controlled by the Army Corps and on which the pipeline company does not have a permit to drill. (In fact, its treaty land that was ceded to the Standing Rock Nation in 1851, and where an ancient burial ground exists.) Engineers would have to horizontally drill underneath the river and come out the other side. Theyd have to do that through the Army Corps land. For that, they need President Obamas explicit approval.

So now, we wait for Obama to actas water protectors get maced and pepper-sprayed all along the shore of the river.

The protests are set to go global. The Indigenous Environmental Network, Honor the Earth, and 350.org are calling for peaceful demonstrations at Army Corps offices and in other locations on Nov. 15. Hundreds of actions are planned in support of the Standing Rock water protectors.

Back at the riverbank, upon arrival theres a commotion. Someone screams that a young kid has been hit by a rubber bullet. We see people rushing to an ambulance and speeding someone away. I get the firsthand report. The kid whos been shotit was one of the teenagers on the banks. He was speaking to one of the officers, and gathering wood to make a makeshift barricade in the water to stop the police boats from approaching the site when he was shot in the back at point-blank range. Hes coughing up blood.

Running back to see yet another barrage of pepper-spray, I hear cheers from both sides of the river. Is it possible that these folks are cheering when they are getting maced?

Along the banks, I see the first line of defenders who have been pepper-sprayed crying and choking. They cannot breathe. Their faces are being flushed with bottles of Milk of Magnesia by medics on shore. Lying down covered in Mylar blankets, they are choking and crying. Some white. Some Native American. Some black. All of themgasping for breath and wincing past the pain.

I speak with one. I say, Are you alright? He says, Yeah. This doesnt bother me. Ive been pepper-sprayed so many times. Im not afraid.

It reminds me of a conversation I had with another young girl earlier in the week, a woman who only gave her first name, Suzi. She walks up to the police barricade at the bridge on State Route 1806. Shes got lollipops and gum in her pocket. The police step out of their jeeps with their M-4 rifles, their body armor, in front of a row of LRADsthe noise cannons they use to disperse the crowd. She says, Im here to give you this candy. She told me that she was going to kill them with love and hugs and sweetness. A little bit bemused, two soldiers hold out their hands. She says, Give these to the cops that have good hearts. Dont give them to the Dakota Access Pipeline workers. Were praying for you. Even though you are not on our side, youre human beings and we love you. The police take the lollipops and bubble gum and say thank you.

Fearlessly, she walks back across the barricades, beyond the burned up trucks and cars. I say, Arent you scared? She says, No. I say, Really? She says, What are they gonna do? Shoot me? and I said, Well, frankly, yes. And she says, Well, so what? Ill take one for the team. Im protected. Im surrounded by love.

You might call this the naivete of youth, but that would be an insult to bravery like this. Standing Rock affirms over and over again that people need justice; they need to participate and they need to sacrifice and they need to be involved.

The greed, individualism, and consumerism that are the hallmarks of our American society now are not really what binds us together as a civilization. Our need to do good, to be good, to stand up for each other, to fight for the environment, to fight for our rights, to fight for what is rightthat ends up being stronger than anything else.

So, as I race back to the front line from the ambulance taking the young boy off, I barely get my footing when I hear ka-pow! I see a crowd not five feet away from me scattering. I turn my face and my rolling camera to the right and I see Erin Schrode, my colleague in reporting, limping away. I think, Oh my God. This cant possibly be happening. The cops had fired into the crowd and hit Erin in her lower back. I race to her and say, Did they shoot you? Wincing through tears, she nods, crying, Yes! Yes!

A crowd assembles around her, including Wes Mekasi Horinek. Shes saying, Im OK. Im OK. Im OK. Even through her puffy winter jacket, the blow that she describes as devastating has left a huge welt just below her ribs on the right side of her back. Medical attention comes to her quickly. The medic looks at me and says, They are targeting journalists, and theyre targeting medics.

Later, in an interview, I ask him to elaborate. He says, Well, last Thursday on the front lines, I was arrested while I was trying to administer medical aid to people who had been injured. I spent three days in jail. My colleaguethe other medic on the scenewas literally ripped out from behind the steering wheel of our ambulance while it was in drive, causing the car to potentially lurch toward a crowd a people. We were both in jail for three days.

Theres a pattern of repression against journalists in North Dakota unfolding every day. Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman was written up on charges for her reporting in Standing Rock, where a private security firm sicced dogs on Native protesters, biting and assaulting them.

Goodman was presented with criminal-trespass charges, which were eventually thrown out. Shailene Woodley was arrested for livestreaming to 40,000 fans. Her arrest, captured on her smartphone, has had millions and millions of views. Deia Schlosberg, my producer on my most recent film, How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Cant Change, is facing a 45-year sentence for taping an oil and gas protest in North Dakota.

And now, Erin Schrodeshot in the back, in the middle of an interview. She actually captured herself being shot. When she saw it, she immediately went into convulsions and sobbed, reliving the impact. I guess its not that easy to watch yourself being hit in the back. A military expert later confirmed that this was not a normal bean-bag round or what you call a rubber bullet. This was a rubber round shot out of a grenade launcher. A .37 to .40 mm round that is never supposed to be used against peaceful demonstratorsa round whose application is primarily to knock down doors. I personally saw three of these rounds being fired against the crowd.

The response from the local cops? We are not aware of her being shot, Lt. Tom Iverson, a North Dakota Highway Patrol Public Information Officer, said, after shown a video of Erin getting hit. As we all know, you take what you see on social media, on Facebook, with a grain of salt. It is unbelievable, the false lies that are out there on social media.

I dont know which is more disturbing: the fact that police shot a reporter in the back or the fact that yes, they charged a round against peaceful protestors and have absolutely no records of incident. This is the gunboat that shot Erin Schrode.

It was the guy on the right. He doesnt have a badge or name on his uniform because Morton County allowed these officers to go anonymous in the fieldanother egregious human-rights violation. Erins story exploded in the press and the irony of that was not lost on her. She spent the next week pointing out how it was not her story that should be reported because she was a white woman and a reporter. The story that should be reported is about how these Native tribes are being abused every single day.

If we are going to stop a Trump administration from ravaging our country and our climate, we are all going to have to leave our house a lot more to go to demonstrations, to stand in between the fossil-fuel industry and their jack-booted thugs. Its going to take great personal sacrifice and political will on the ground in the form of people in the streets. Dont let the water protectors sacrifices be in vain. It is as if American history is being played out in miniature. On one side, the terrible legacy of the genocidal Indian wars of Manifest Destiny, atrocity, and slaughter. On the other side, the great American tradition of equality, egalitarianism, the Bill of Rights, democracy, the fight for human rights. The collision course of history couldnt be clearer than it is at Standing Rock. On one side, the descendants both genealogically and ideologically of General Custer and on the other side, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Wounded Knee. The ghosts of history dance in front of us on the water. The vapors of tear gas and pepper spray menacing their legacy. It is the fight for the climate, for the Bill of Rights, and for all of America standing there shivering in the water. We owe it to all that is right and just to be moved by this struggle and to participate.

The very next day, just after dozens were treated for pepper spray and tear gas and several were shot with rubber bullets, the water protectors went back out to face dozens of riot police. As usual, they were unfazed, prayerful, loving, and fighting for all of us.
Donald Trump is reportedly looking for top-secret clearances for his children, a sign that rather than entering the Oval Office with an eye for avoiding conflicts of interest hes preparing to rush headlong into a minefield of them.

The president-elect has begun asking how he could secure high level clearances for Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jr., his three adult children with first wife Ivana, as well as for Ivankas husband Jared Kushner, according to CNN and CBS. All four family members are members of his transition team, though Trump has said his children wont serve formal roles in his administration but instead will run the family business while he runs the country.

This is why we created the nepotism law in the first place. Huge conflicts of interest. You cant have your kids being advisers. It has to be properly qualified officials who are experts in the fields, Bradley Moss, a lawyer specializing in security-clearance law, told The Daily Beast. Its an issue of comfort for the President-elect because hes relied on his children so much. But I dont foresee a viable legal or ethical loophole or exception.

Its unclear exactly whether Trumps request could even be fulfilledat least legally. A 1967 law prohibits the president from hiring their immediate family members in the federal government, and to have a security clearance an individual must work the government in some capacity: as a civilian, as a military official or a contractor.

Even if they came in as unpaid advisers, theres no such thing as an informal government position that allows you to be sponsored for access to classified information, Moss said. Theres no exception. Theres no loopholes.

And it would difficult to see how Trump could argue that his children have a need to know without a formal government role.

This is not the family business, this is the presidency. The days of family nepotism is over, not just due to policy and practice but by law. Security clearances are not candies to be doled out like at Halloween. You must have a need-to-know that is supposed to be taken seriously in advancing the business of the government rather than an individual, said Mark Zaid, another national security lawyer.

But a former Obama administration official said Trump could simply be asking for them to be cleared so they can have unescorted access to parts of the West Wing. Even First Ladies have to be cleared to access that part of the White House, but that doesnt mean they have access to top-secret areas like the Situation Room, the official said, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to discuss the clearance process publicly. The level of clearance for people with unescorted access to visit the President in the West Wing is known as Yankee White, which could be what Trump is seeking.

CBS, however, reports that Trump wants his kids to be able to see top secret information, defined as information that could cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security if released.

If the Trump children ran the Trump Organization while also serving as high-level, informal advisers, their suggested dual roles would invite an unprecedented conflict of interest.

If President-elect Trump seeks a security clearance for his children, it will show he either has no understanding of the potential conflict of interest problems he faces or doesnt care, said Larry Noble, general counsel of the Campaign Legal Center. If he seeks a security clearance for his children who are running the businesses, it will undermine the credibility of any claim that his children will not be involved in advising him on government policies. It raises the real danger that his children will be able to influence government decisions to benefit Trump businesses and run those businesses with inside knowledge of actions and policies the government take.

During an interview with Trump and his family on 60 Minutes taped last week, Eric Trump said that the children would remain in New York to run their fathers business. So well well well be in New York and well take care of the business, the younger Trump said. I think were going to have a lot of fun doing it. And were going to make him very proud.

Ivanka Trump also said that she would not be interested in a formal role in the upcoming administration. Im going to be a daughter, she said when asked about a possible role. But Ive Ive said throughout the campaign that I am very passionate about certain issues. And that I want to fight for them.

Interestingly enough, while the law prohibits nepotism, it doesnt require the president to give up his or her business holdings while serving in the Oval Office.

Eric, Ivanka, and Donald Trump Jr. did not immediately respond to requests to comment for this story.

Kimberly Dozier contributed reporting
Sometimes a friend pops up where least expected, and thats the role President Obama has chosen to play as he speaks in the most generous terms about President-elect Donald Trump despite all the discord he has sown at home and abroad.

As Obama embarks on his final foreign trip as president to Greece, Germany, and Peru, he said he is carrying a message from Trump that there is enormous continuity between the outgoing and incoming administrations, and there is no weakening of resolve for NATO and the Transatlantic Alliance.

Theyre not just good for Europe but good for the United States, Obama said at a press conference Monday before leaving the country for a week. Maybe all this positive talk is wishful thinking on Obamas part, or perhaps the president will be proven correct when he says, This office has a way of waking you up Reality has a way of inserting itself.

The hour and a half Obama spent with Trump last week offered the two men a chance to size each other up, and Obama has been selectively sharing parts of their conversation to reassure Trumps critics they should not despair, that the same political gifts that allowed Trump to pull off the biggest upset in modern times could be put to good use if he chooses well. The strong bond Trump established with the voters, Thats powerful stuff, Obama said.

Asked to comment on Trumps selection of Breitbart CEO Steve Bannon as a top counselor in the White House, Obama begged off on the grounds that it would violate his pledge to work with Trump for a smooth transition if he commented on every appointment. The people have spoken, he said. Donald Trump will be the next president, and it will be up to him to set up a team that he thinks will serve him well and reflect his policies.

Given several opportunities by reporters to say something negative about Trump, the direction he might be going, or his temperament, Obama took the high road, urging that Trump be given time and space to figure out the team he wants and how to balance what he said in the campaign with the more complex reality that now confronts him.

Campaigning is different from governing. I think he recognizes that and that he is sincere in wanting to be a good president. Hes going to try as best he can to make certain he delivers, Obama said. There are certain things that make for good sound bites but dont always translate into good policies. He said he told Trump that because of the bitter nature of the campaign, its important to send signals of unity to minorities, to women, to groups that opposed him.

The Constitution does not require an orderly transition, but it is one of those norms that Obama said he respects and intends to uphold. Aside from the message it sends the world about the peaceful transfer of power, Obama also has a vested interest in getting Trumps ear as much as possible as the new president finds his footing on policies.

With international agreements, the tradition has been you carry them forward across administrations, Obama said, making his pitch for the Iran deal, the Paris climate agreement, and the EPAs Clean Power Plant initiative, which undergirds the goals of the Paris agreement. All three have been on the GOPs chopping block.

A questioner asked about GuantanamoTrumps declaration that he will keep it open and Obamas failure to keep his pledge to shut it down. I havent been able to close the darn thing, he said to a ripple of sympathetic laughter. But he had greatly reduced the population, he said, and he used the question to offer one additional piece of advice to the incoming administration.

There are all these rules and laws and norms, and you got to pay attention to them, he said, even when their existence frustrates your intentions. Take that part of the job seriously, he said. We listened to the lawyers.

The press conference was a chance for Obama to tote up the accomplishments of his eight years and his belief that he is leaving a national security structure and an economy to his successor that are stronger than the ones he inherited. He did acknowledge that there are people out there who are deeply disaffected, or otherwise we wouldnt have had the result we had. But he contrasted the economic collapse of 2008 into 2009 with the much rosier picture of today, despite the dark picture Trump painted on the campaign trail. He will have time and space to make judicious decisions, Obama said.

The president seems to be putting his faith into Trump rising to the occasion, that someone who pulled so many rabbits out of the hat might just pull it off again.

As for the Democratic Party, Obama was never much of a party builder, and he signaled that hes not going to be playing a role as the Democrats fight among themselves over which direction they should go. Its important for me not to be big-footing, he said. But he noted that he won Iowa in 2008 not because of demographicsIowa is one of the whitest states in the countrybut because he spent 87 days visiting small towns, county fairs, fish fries, and VFW halls. And while he lost some counties, he lost them by 20 percent, not 50 percent.

And when he appeared in Washington in 2005 after winning a Senate race, Democrats were demoralized. Republicans controlled the Senate and House. John Kerry had just lost the presidency, and Obama and one other Democrat (Ken Salazar of Colorado) were the only two national winners. Two years later, Democrats took the House. Things can change pretty rapidly, but they dont change inevitably, he said.

That same thinking can be seen in the stance Obama has taken toward Trump. While declining to believe the worst, Obama is doing his best to influence a new president who had no idea he would win and has little idea of what to do now that hes done it.
On Tuesday Russia woke up to the biggest bribery scandal in years, the arrest of Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukayev. The investigators claimed that they detained Ulyukayev after receiving information from the oil giant Rosneft, a company managed by Igor Sechin, one of Russias most powerful men and a close associate of President Vladimir Putin.

By the end of the day, Putin had fired Ulyukayev, saying he had "lost his trust." The accused is to be held under house arrest at least until the new year.

The economy minister allegedly tried to extort a $2 million bribe from Rosneft in exchange for approving the companys deal purchasing state shares of another oil producer, Bashneft. The Investigative Committee, which brought the charges, said that minister Ulyukayev used his authority to create problems for Rosnefts activities and that the minister would hear the detailed counts against him in the near future.

The news sounded extraordinary to Russian ears, since Putin is famous for not locking up his top officials, almost regardless of their alleged crimes.

Putin personally appointed Ulyukayev for the ministers post in 2013, so now the arrest and the allegations against him have raised more than a few eyebrows, not least because the known and alleged corruption in the government usually is attached to the word billions not millions.

Novaya Gazeta reporter Irina Gordiyenko says she does not believe the story about Russias economy minister risking his reputation for such a small bribe: $2 million is a funny bribe considering the scale of the deal, Rosneft privatizing Bashneft; and the investigation does not have any questions for Rosneft? How wonderful, Gordiyenko wrote on Facebook.

Russians remember too many examples of shocking state corruption, including those revealed by the independent investigation by Aleksei Navalny, an opposition leader and anti-corruption campaigner, which described in detail how Vladimir Putins close friends Vladimir Yakunin, Gennady Timchenko, and Arkady Rotenberg made $15 billion on state contracts during the preparation work for Sochi Olympics.

Typically in high profile criminal cases we might expect incredibly incriminating videos. But did Russia see images of Minister Ulyukayev receiving suitcases stuffed with wads of hundred-dollar bills, the kind featured in movies about the Russian mafia of the 1990s? Nope.

According to Novaya Gazeta sources, the head of the Rosneft security service, former FSB (state security) official Oleg Feoktistov, who had originally investigated the case. The $2 million bribe supposedly was inside a bank deposit box. The report

also said that the minister was not seen anywhere close to the box.

For now there are too many questions around the Rosneft-Ulyukayev case, ex-Finance Ninister Aleksei Kudrin cautiously wrote on his blog Tuesday afternoon.

The main question everybody had was whether the arrest of such a high-profile federal official was the bugle call for a battle between the Kremlins towers.

There is a long simmering, almost traditional war for Putins Russia going on between officials with epaulets, the siloviki who came from the ranks for the military, the GRU and the KGB, as Putin himself did, and the so-called liberal elites.

For a long time Putin has used these factions against each other to maintain checks and balances and keep himself on top. But now the tensions are boiling over.

Yelena Panfilova, vice-chair of Transparency Internationals board of dirctors, told The Daily Beast on Tuesday, I am not surprised to see the ministers arrest, this is siloviki fighting their war for their beloved power.

Since the beginning of Russias conflict with Ukraine, the so-called Siloviki Clan have been winning that war, and the charges against Ulyukayev are widely seen as another salvo, regardless of the official gloss put on it.

The Kremlin uses the war on corruption to multiply the battles between the clans, says Panfilova.

Those who know Ulyukayev insist that he is an honest man in an impossible position, trying to manage an oil-dependent economy crushed by low oil prices and Western sanctions.

Earlier this year Russian bloggers gave the 60-year-old minister a nickname,

Scuba Diver for repeating again and again that Russias economy had at last bottomed out.

Everything is very fragile, this is obvious, we are lying somewhere on the bottom, the minister told the RIA news agency last year.

After the ministers arrest, one of the bloggers, Sobaka, posted a joke: Russian citizens are embarrassed to see the amount of the bribe for the minister of economic development and say that it diminishes the greatness and dignity of our rich country.

But to Russias liberal wing leaders, including Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, the conflict between Ulyukayev and Rosneft is no laughing matter. Ulyukayev was not the only official in Russian government, who opposed Rosneft growing bigger and preferred to see private investors buying Bashneft shares.

The arrest is strange and astonishing news and a very serious accusation, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Economic Development, Yelena Lashkina, told reporters on Tuesday. The head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Alexander Shokhin, said he did not see much logic in the accusations against Ulyukayev, either.

Why did Russia need to see this messy public scandal, the fight between the most influential men? Some believed it was a warning for everybody.

The power system strives for survival, while inside it, the main players fight each other, said Olga Bychkova, a news editor and political observer for the news radio station Echo of Moscow. That is why some of the rules grow weak and others change, depending on the demands of the current time. Everybody should understand that today absolutely none of them can rely on their privileges, including those who thought they were holy cows. Nobody can be safe any longer.
On the evening of June 17, 2016, a group of a hundred concerned folks gathered at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center in Manhattan. Only five days earlier, Omar Mateen had murdered 49 people and wounded 53 others inside Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida. There was a range of dark emotions in the air: sadness and pain, indignation and fear, and anger.

In the cramped room, Kevin Hertzog, John Grauwiler, Rob Khol, and Brian Worth sat at a folding table facing a pressing question: Is there a way to respond effectively to the deadliest mass shooting and hate crime in the history of the United States?

With New York Citys LGBT Pride parade only a week away, the group decided to participate in the annual march to honor the victims of the tragedy and comfort affected communities by reminding the nation that violence and policies that promote it are intolerable.

They had to act fast, secure a spot in the march, create signs, and perhaps wear similar clothing. Thats when Mari Gustafson, a graphic apparel designer in attendance, offered to sketch artwork, find a way to produce stencils, arm participants with cans of spray paint, and alter their T-shirts and tank tops so that marchers would be able to communicate a clear message: Gays are against guns.

The next day, Gustafson designed punk culture-inspired graphics. Ed Roth, the owner of a company that produces laser-cut stencils, heard about the project on Facebook and donated his products. Managers of Lucky, a bar in the East Village, offered their outdoor space as a venue to host a spray-painting party.

The following Sunday, June 26, Gays Against Guns (GAG) made its debut on Fifth Avenue. Surrounded by enthusiastic cheers, the group staged die-ins, a form of protest in which demonstrators fall to the ground to represent the victims of gun violence.

From that day, Gays Against Guns became an inclusive movement with hundreds of members and 12 U.S. chapters in other cities.

Their aim is to create cultural change in American attitudes toward guns and encourage meaningful reforms that will guarantee the safety of all individuals, particularly those belonging to vulnerable communities.

In the past four months, GAG activists performed several acts of civil disobedience. Demonstrators targeted the headquarters of BlackRock, one of the largest corporate shareholders of gun companies stock; the Reebok-sponsored CrossFit Games, which awarded their top athletes with Glock handguns; and the firearms manufacturer Sig Sauer in New Hampshire (a Sig Sauer semi-automatic rifle and a Glock semi-automatic pistol were the weapons used by the shooter at Pulse). During these protests, GAG activists distributed fact sheets containing information about gun deaths in America and occupied designated locations by chanting and holding die-ins. Others participated as human beings: haunting white-veiled walkers who held posters with photos and names of victims.

Its natural to note early similarities between GAG and the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), the queer-led advocacy group that reshaped the history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the U.S. by raising awareness through vehement protests that ultimately led to life-saving structural changes.

Both movements arose out of frustration and grief in a tiny room of the LGBT Center in New York City. Like ACT UP, GAGs initiatives focus on corporations and elected officials unable or unwilling to ensure that all citizens are safe from harm. Lastly, both groups rely on direct action as a way to address two public health crises that put all Americans at risk.

GAG-New York now meets every other Thursday at the LGBT Center to plan future demonstrations. Many members regularly gather to create T-shirts and other accessories that are sold online to support the groups activities. Items are spray-painted by hand, and, therefore, each article is unique.

Their design evokes a mission, a purpose, and a promise.

Back in 1987, ACT UP advocates recognized that the HIV/AIDS epidemic would become a threat to the general population. Today, in a similar fashion, GAG activists remind us that gun violence harms people indiscriminately, from LGBT young adults in an Orlando nightclub to members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, from students to moviegoers, from our soldiers to our children.

For more info, please visit the GAG Website and GAG Shopping site.
Ive seen it in Africa; in the Middle East; in Southeast Asia; and in the Caucasus. Tear away the thin veneer of civilization and we become the Lord of the Flies.

The bullying, the assaults, the crude graffiti, and vile social media posts of the past few days feel all too familiar. The waters being tested, the boundaries probed.

Maybe there is a beast, said Simon, in William Goldings classic exploration of the savagery that underlies even the most civilized human beings, maybe its only us.

I first witnessed the gruesome evidence of mans potential for inhumanity in what is now called the Republic of the Congo, deep in Conrads Heart of Darkness. Bloated bodies of French and Belgian men, women and children littered the streets, many half-eaten by the dogs who had been their pets just days before, slaughtered by rebels who had invaded their mining outpost.

In Lebanon, I watched as flares lit the night sky over the Sabra and Shatila slums of south Beirut, where Christian militiamen spent the night massacring upwards of 3,500 Palestinian and Shiite civilians, mostly women, children and the elderly, who had been left behind when the PLO was forced to evacuate in the face of an Israeli siege.

In the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, I drove through village after village that had been looted and flattened by rival Christian Armenian and Muslim Azeri armies and militias, killing scores and eventually displacing upwards of one million people.

And in Indonesia, site of the murder of at least 400,000 people in 1965-66, the so-called Year of Living Dangerously, in 1998 I saw rioting crowds beating and killing ethnic Chinese in riots that engulfed parts of Jakarta during the Reformasi revolt that overthrew dictator Suharto.

Lets be clear: We the people of the United States have not descended into such savagery. Thank God.

A Muslim high school girl being accosted by boys in a parking lot is an act of intolerance. A gay boy finding swastikas painted on his car is a crude homophobic deed. Hispanic children being taunted by other kids telling them their parents are going to be locked up behind The Wall, is a case of bigotry.

Those are three of the incidents Ive heard about here the Pacific Northwest, where the red/blue divide runs down the spine of the Cascade Mountain range. But journalist Shaun King, who has been tracking such hate crimes on his twitter feed, said Saturday he had received more than 10,000 such reports from across the nation.

Thats called a pattern.

Resentment. Othering. Name-calling. Bullying. Violence. History shows us that is the slippery slope to inhumanity. Nazi Germany. Rwanda. Cambodia.

The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away.

A friend in a liberal college town in Western Massachusetts posted a picture of what had been a bucolic rural overlook. In the last few days, the rocks have been painted with crude graffiti: Kill all Niggers. Fuck the Jews.

There is a steady and deeply troubling drip, drip, drip of such stories. The mens room fliers at Texas State University calling for vigilante squads to go arrest & torture those deviant university leaders spouting off all the Diversity Garbage. Blacks being told by whites that they will soon own them. Whites only signs on drinking foundations and bathrooms. Swastikas on walls, cars and middle school boys bathrooms. And countless shouts of go home to anyone who somehow looks different.

The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering.

Not politically-correct. That was Trumps election mantra. Its code for not giving a shit what polite society thinks. The bully can do whatever he wantsand sneer about it.

Bollocks to the rules! Were strongwe hunt! If theres a beast, well hunt it down! Well close in and beat and beat and beat!

For 18 long months, Trumps rallies have echoed with chants of Lock her up! and much worse, as the candidate quietly nodded and smiled.

At last the words of the chant floated up to them Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood.

Asked by the Wall Street Journal if he thought his election rhetoric had gone too far, Trump responded flatly, No, I won.

The lesson has not been lost on a small, aggrieved sub-set of his supporters. Every crude thought can now be given voice; every improper impulse can now be acted on. To Hell with civilization. Time for the vigilantes to mount up.

Meanwhile, the president-elect stands silent and allows the frenzy of the crowd to take over.

You were outside. Outside the circle. You never really came in. Didnt you see what wewhat they did?

Trump has spoken of the need to heal Americas wounds, but the signals he is sending to his followers say something completely different: No room for dissent.

Watching white nationalists celebrate while innocent Americans cry tears of fear does not feel like America, Sen. Harry Reid said Friday, calling the president-elect a sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fueled his campaign with bigotry and hate. The Trump teams response: Reid should be very careful.

The breakdown of convention is not limited to the right. In Portland, Oakland, and other cities, anti-Trump demonstrators have broken shop windows and set fires in the streets. A GOP office in Virginia was damaged, an innocent man beaten in Chicago. Kill Trump graffiti has appeared. Trumps opponents, too, feel the frisson of violence in the air.

Context is important. Most of what has unfolded has involved psychological or physical bullying. No one has been killed. No one has been lynched. But the line is easily crossed, accidentally or with will and forethought.

It is incumbent on every American to now find a way to bridge the chasm. But only one man is about to don the mantle of leader of the free world. Only one man has declared himself president of all Americans.

Only one man has torn asunder the conventions of civility through pronouncements that were both incendiary and demeaning to large swaths of the American public; only one man can now calm the excesses of his followers and assuage the fears of those who voted against him.

If he is serious about wanting to bind the wounds of division.

All this I meant to say. Now Ive said it. You voted me for chief. Now you do what I say.

There is a certain liberation in chaos. Its the reason some soldiers and reporters become addicted to war. The rules dont apply to us. The violent sub-set of Trump supporters, clad in their Trump that Bitch t-shirts and Drain the Swamp hats, are experiencing that emotional high.

They understood only too well the liberation into savagery that the concealing paint brought.

But 21st-century America is not the Congo or Beirut. We do not conduct pogroms or persecutions. We can only hope the excesses of the past days are a post-election purge never to be repeated; that the new president will speak up before things get out of hand.

If he does not, we could end up like Goldings protagonist Ralph, looking back and weeping for the end of innocence, the darkness of a mans heart.
LONDONLove did not Trump hate. Whichever way you voted, that statement stands, because even some of those who may have raised this pro-Hillary slogan have been out on the streets doing a disservice to peaceful anti-Trump protestors, by rioting.

Fear has won. We are all scared. But as this mourning process moves from denial, to grief, and on to acceptance, we liberals, not just in the United States, but globally, must begin to consider how to regroup, reform, and resurrect.

That resurrection cannot come without a realization that the Democratic Party establishment has had its day. They blew it, big time.

To have endorsed the ultimate Washington insider when the rebel was there right before you was utter folly. To have backed a paragon of the party establishment during an age of outsider opportunities was sheer naivete. To have ignored the insurgent in favor of the stagnant was stubborn. To prefer the anointed over the popular was plain hubris. To have coveted the corporate while ignoring the common man was corrupt. Now, we have lost the House, the Senate, and the presidency to possibly the least competent candidate in history. That is our fault. So yes, it is time for reform. And nothing short of a major overhaul of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) will suffice.

This March, the chair of the DNC will be up for grabs. This seat has lately been mired in allegations of debate fixing and question-rigging. The sitting head of the DNC is Donna Brazile, a longtime Democrat and former CNN contributor. Brazile leads in an interim capacity after Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned amid serious corruption allegations. Hacked emails appeared to show Wasserman Schultz and other now-former DNC officials collaborating to undermine Bernie Sanderss popular campaign to clinch the Democratic nomination. But Interim Chair Brazile herself has come under fire after another set of hacked emails showed her forwarding questions from a town hall presidential debate jointly hosted by CNN to the Clinton campaign at Trumps expense.

This is totally unacceptable. Liberalism, democracy, and the reputation of the Democratic Party are just too important to tolerate such cronyism. To regain the trust of disenfranchised millennialsthe future of the party, mind youwho were denied the candidate of their choice, a radical change is needed. This requires a total reimagining of the function of the DNC, its purpose, its reach, and its organization. Only a complete overhaul will do.

Vermont governor Howard Dean, who ran the DNC from 2005 to 2009, has announced his intention to stand again for the role. But that would not be an overhaul. It would simply be a rinse and repeat.

There is another option.

Clean, grassroots, and progressive, this option is a party outsider. He is pro-choice, pro-gay rights, and a human rights campaigner. As the second congressman to endorse Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primaries, he has shown that he saw what the Democrat-elite fatefully failed to see. This option therefore has the backing of the Sanders revolution that never was, and has the chance to resurrect some of that hope the young then felt when they asked us all to Feel the Bern, and we didnt listen.

Keith Ellison is an African-American and currently co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Despite being elected in a post 9/11 world, he was the first Muslim Congressman. And all of this sends a perfect message to President-elect Trump, symbolizing the opposite of the worst excesses of the Trump campaign.

In a call Thursday night with members of the liberal grassroots group Democracy for Action, Rep. Ellison said he was keen to help the party move forward: My shoelaces are tied up tight, and Im ready to get out on that court. He announced his candidacy on Monday.

MoveOn.org, a major progressive network, also said in a statement that Ellison would be an excellent DNC chair. Bernie Sanders has already declared his hand, backing Ellison by saying, You cant tell working people youre on their side while at the same time youre raising money from Wall Street and the billionaire class. The Democratic Party has to be focused on grass-roots America and not wealthy people attending cocktail parties.

Sanders accepted that the party must continue its high-value fundraising, but suggested a micro-donor model, too, akin to his presidential campaign, saying millions of people are willing to put in 20 bucks, 30 bucks, 50 bucks if theres a party to believe in.

Hes right, obviously. But will the Democratic establishment pay heed?

Humbly, I put it you them that they must. They have no choice. Ellison will face some resistance. He is not known as a fundraiser. Assuming he would remain a representative, he wouldnt be able to hold the chairmanship as a full-time job. But this could be fixed by drafting in competent deputies.

In terms of values, Id advise Ellison to focus the Democratic Party on the future. In a post-Brexit, President-Trump world, liberals must move beyond post-modernism. Identity politics, censorship, and feelings based policy are in danger of rendering liberals as post-factual as the populist right.

The rallying cry of new, young Democrats should now be open, inclusive, universalist liberal internationalism. Former British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was the closest the U.K. had to this, but he came up politically short. America thirsts for a leader of such assertive, open liberalism.

On the economic globalization front, yes, in the long run the corrective impact of the market kicks in through specialization efficiencies. But it was the great John Maynard Keynes himself who retorted to the capitalists, In the long run were all dead. This is precisely why he argued for softening the blow of market corrective forces. In our rush for globalization, we liberals forgot this, and forgot the white working classes in the process.

Keith Ellison could change this. His great value is in what he could come to symbolize to the young voters who supported Bernie Sanders in droves, and yet abandoned Hillary Clinton in equal measure.

Ellisons value is in the potential for the DNC to show that it has learned its lesson, and that it is finallybetter late than neverlistening to the outsiders who want change, and who are not stained by spending too many years greasing palms.

And Ellisons value is in the signal his selection could send to the rest of the world.

His selection would be a beautiful reminder to concerned citizens everywhere that the USA is not only the inward-looking America of Donald Trump, but that it is also the America of this outward-looking, progressive black Muslim from Minnesota, who swore his Congressional oath of allegiance on the Holy Quran.
The moral arc of history bends toward justice. Right?

Not necessarily, especially when it comes to justice for LGBTQ people and other sexual and gender minorities. Here in the United States, recent gains are now imperiled by the upcoming Trump presidency. And around the world, there are many places where, contrary to Dan Savages popular video series, it is steadily getting worse.

Consider three very different examples: Brazil, Indonesia, and Nigeria. Three continents, three different cultural and religious contexts, different forms of government with different kinds of leaders. And yet, in all three, a steadily worsening situation for LGBTQ people.

1. Brazil

For sexual and gender minorities, Brazil has long experienced the best of times and the worst of times. The country is cosmopolitan, libertine, and legally progressive, with laws against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI in international human rights parlance).

But Brazil is also the deadliest place in the world to be gay. An astonishing 1,600 people have died in anti-LGBTQ hate attacks over the last four and a half yearsnearly one person every day. And those are just the figures officially tabulated by police; the actual count is likely higher. Transgender women have been disproportionately targeted, making up 40 percent of victims.

One reason for this appalling level of anti-LGBTQ violence is Brazils violence in general, with street crime of all sorts plaguing Brazils cities. Another reason may be a backlash to same-sex marriage, which Brazils high court legalized in 2013.

But a primary reason is the export of U.S.-based homophobia. Evangelicals have risen from 5 percent of the Brazilian population in 1970 to nearly 25 percent today, and their leadersmany trained in the United Stateshave exported the U.S. Christian rights extreme homophobia to the Brazilian context.

They are also in Brazils congress. The parliamentary coup that removed liberal president Dilma Rousseff from office was accomplished with back-benchers affiliated with evangelical Christian groups. Indeed, the investigation against her was initiated by Congressional Speaker Eduardo Cunha, who had a history of anti-gay remarks (and called on Congress to establish Heterosexual Pride Day) before he was forced out of office as bribery charges were filed against him.

Now, with the conservative government led by Michel Temer (and his all-male cabinet), those factions are in power. Investigative journalist Joao Ximenes Braga told The Daily Beast that the Temer government has already shut down human rights programs in the country and that members of his coalition have called for a repeal of laws protecting LGBTQ people. Its no surprise that Brazils LGBTQ community, led by groups like Grupo Gay da Bahia, has strongly protested against Temer, both before and after the impeachment.

But with Brazils right wing in power, the precarious situation of LGBTQ people in the country is threatened still further.

2. Indonesia

Indonesia is half a world away and threatened by right-wing Islam, rather than right-wing evangelical Christianitybut some of the patterns are eerily familiar.

According to a recent report by Human Rights Watch, 2016 has marked a turning point in the country. Beginning in January 2016, the report said, a series of anti-LGBT public comments by government officials grew into a cascade of threats and vitriol against LGBT Indonesians by state commissions, militant Islamists, and mainstream religious organizations. That outpouring of intolerance has resulted in proposals of laws which pose a serious long-term threat to the rights and safety of LGBT Indonesians.

The severity and swiftness of the persecutionit would be wrong to call it a backlash, as there were no advances being lashed back againstis particularly surprising for Indonesia, which prides itself on its moderate form of Islam. In the past, anti-LGBT acts were largely confined to militant Islamists, even though anti-gay sentiment is widespread. (In 2013, 93 percent of Indonesians said society should not accept homosexuality.)

But this was different. Government officials have called for LGBT organizations to be banned from campuses and for LGBT people to be banned from holding office. One minister called being LGBT a disease of the chromosome, and it should be treated. Another called LGBT equality a proxy war. And yet another noted that having more than one wife for a man is still normal but LGBT is another issue.

Meanwhile, a group of conservative law professors has filed a court case attempting to force the criminalization of same-sex sexual behavior. A paramilitary training program with 1.8 million participants declared homosexuality to be one of the nations enemies. A school for transgender girlswaria as they are known in Indonesian culturewas shut down after threats by Islamists. And a public opinion poll conducted in August showed that LGBT people were now the most disliked group by Indonesian Muslims, even ahead of communists and Jews.

Some moments have bordered on the surreal. One mayor told parents that feeding infants instant noodles or baby formula would make them gay. And the governments communication ministry demanded that instant messaging apps remove emojis depicting same-sex couples. (Line agreed; WhatsApp has thus far refused.)

Whats behind the flareup? Activists say the abrupt shift in government rhetoric is cower[ing] in the face of militant Islamists. And indeed, the rightward drift in Indonesian political lifenot entirely unlike that in Brazilappears to be part of the reason for the change in official rhetoric, with the attendant consequences felt in the streets of Jakarta. Ironically, Indonesias relatively tolerant indigenous form of Islam is being supplanted by fundamentalist Islam brought in from outsideyet the Islamists claim to be protecting Indonesian culture.

Whatever the factors behind the sudden shift, however, the situation in Indonesia is in flux, and each day seems worse than the previous one.

3. Nigeria

Nigeria is the most populous nation in Africa, with 173 million people. And in 2014, it passed one of Africas worst anti-gay laws, the so-called Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act.

On paper, the SSMPA merely prohibits anything that could support same-sex marriage. In reality, however, its known as the Jail the Gays Law and has been used as a pretext for horrifying violence, state-sanctioned or state-tolerated, against LGBTs.

The reality of LGBT people in Nigeria is getting worse, said Adebisi Alimi, who fled his country after being beaten within inches of his life. The many organizations in the country working to preserve the rights of LGBT people are working under a very difficult and challenging environment.

Alimi (who last year participated in The Daily Beasts Quorum: Global LGBT Voices program) said that since the law was passed, watchdog groups have recorded two mass arrests and dozens of acts of violence. In 2014, the group Solidarity Alliance recorded 45 cases of abuse against LGBT peoplewith nearly three-quarters coming from their friends or family members. The week Alimi spoke with The Daily Beast, a young man was stripped naked by a mob for allegedly cross-dressing.

Western media coverage recently has managed to make a bad situation even worse. Last December, The New York Times published an error-filled and poorly sourced article claiming that U.S. support for LGBT equality had led to a backlash around the world, particularly in Nigeria.

In fact, as The Daily Beast reported at the time, most Nigerian LGBT activists welcome any support they can get, and the Times article misstated the amount of U.S. aid by at least an order of magnitude.

Nor was the SSMPA a backlash against the United Statesor to same-sex marriage, which no one has advocated for in Nigeria. Rather, Christian LGBT activist Davis Mac-Iyalla told The Daily Beast, the real battle is religious in nature. African Anglican Church leaders, tainted by the Episcopal Churchs support for LGBT people, took a hard line in order not to seem more lenient than Muslims (Sharia governs 12 Nigerian states and punishes homosexuality by imprisonment, caning, or stoning).

Said Mac-Iyalla, The very first bill to further punish Nigeria homosexuals was an executive bill sponsored by the government in 2006, with the full blessing of the Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion.

One thing is for sure: The situation of LGBT people in Nigeria grows more precarious every day, and now, with the likely ending of U.S. support for LGBT issues around the world, they will lose their greatest advocate.

It is time the international community take a pause on its relationship with Nigeria, Alimi said, and demand a detailed evaluation of the Nigeria human rights record as it concerns LGBT people. The picture is more bleak than we imagined.
Crying can be therapeutic, healing, a way to connect. It can convey to another party that they are hurting you and should stop, or as a signal to other concerned parties that the crier is in a place of emotional vulnerability and could use support. But heres what crying doesnt do: change a goddamn thing about what happened on Nov. 8. Nor does crying stop the advance of the new American trajectory. Death, time, and Donald Trumps transition team are numb to human emotional needs.

Late on Nov. 8, the news was a slideshow of faces one might expect to see in the aftermath of tragedy, not a democratic election. Hands laid lightly over mouths, eyes wide, heads leaned over adjoining shoulders, tears both open and concealed. Its probably safe to say that nobody at Hillary Clintons would-be victory party at Manhattans Javits Center expected what was about to happen when the world opened up beneath them, and that if theyd known, they would not have shown up to be photographed and had their sadness enshrined in perpetuity.

Millennials are by no means a coddled generation; their lifes work will be, basically, to unfuck the world in all of the ways that their parents and grandparents generations fucked it. But theyre the Harry Potter generation, a generation that has been told that theres virtue in being true to oneself, and that after the threat of darkness, light wins. They strive for authenticity, they value authenticity in others. They are sensitive. They care.

As such, the crying seemed especially pronounced among the young. For many millennials who voted overwhelmingly for Clinton, this was the first loss of their politically aware lives. Theyd only dealt with adult concerns during Barack Obama and Joe Bidens administration, theyd only had Michelle, Malia, Sasha, Bo, and Sunny decorating the White House lawn. The cultural issues that had been important to them as a demographic had won out, for the most partLGBT rights, mainstream embrace of the sort of feminism that makes everybody feel good about themselves all the time, the push toward marijuana legalization, multiculturalism and wokeness as a barometer for high-quality art. Theyve been able to customize their virtual neighborhoods, surrounding themselves only with other people whose views and sensibilities are represented in the mainstream progressive media. Being forced to confront millions of people who deviate drastically from everything they believe is good is likely to be a shock to their systems.

The crying continued throughout the week. On the subway in New York City, sniffles punctuated heavy silence. Sickness or sadness? It was impossible to tell without staring. Friends confessed to each other theyd cried dozens of times. Foreigners living and working legally in America cried privately, cried together. The sadness came in waves. People said it felt like a death, like a breakup, like a national disaster. People checked in on each other. Are you OK? theyd ask, as though a relative had passed.

Harrowing tales of crying continued into Friday, as Lena Dunham published an essay in Lenny Letter about how she was so distraught on election night, she broke into a hive that matched the hive of another woman in attendance at the Hillary Clinton rally, and how she cried for days after the election. The crying continued into the weekend. Saturday Night Lives cold open ended with Kate MacKinnon, in character as Hillary Clinton tickling out Leonard Cohens Hallelujah on a piano, teary-eyed as she promised to fight on.

The forces that elected Trump do not care about Clinton supporters crying for days. In fact, Id venture a guess that theyd love for nothing more than to hear that Hillary Clintons defeat caused Lena Dunham to weep and develop a hive, or to learn that the trains in New York City were full of shell-shocked liberals who could not believe that this countrys culturally-decelerated middle actually imposed its will on them. Call it the You Think Youre Better Than Me?! Vote.

Dislike of Hillary Clinton was a motivator for many Trump voters; its not a stretch to imagine that they wish the same sadness and failure on her supporters. Trumps was a campaign that enjoyed the support of a troll army that barraged Trump critics with hate on social media, that hired as its CEO the head of Breitbart (which, full disclosure, once published a piece wherein it implied that I deserved it that time I was randomly assaulted in Brooklyn). Crying is exactly what a troll candidate and his trollalikes would prefer his opponents do when defeated. Mercy isnt exactly their forte. At a certain point, talking or writing about how much youve been crying doesnt do anything but make them happy.

In the time a plurality of the nation has spent crying, President-elect Donald Trump has not taken a moment to recognize the waterworks. Hes been completely unresponsive to millions of tweets about crying when he floated the idea of Steve Bannon filling a senior-level position at the White House, or when he appointed a climate-change denier to head up the EPA transition. He flippantly dismissed the notion of Roe v. Wade being repealed, suggesting that women in states without legal abortion simply skip on over to a state where its legal. He doesnt have to care about what the side that lost the election thinks about him in the same way that the hunter who catches a mink in a trap isnt normally swayed by the animals cries of pain.

Crying and swapping stories about crying, as cathartic as it can feel, ultimately serves little purpose. It wont undo whats been done. And it wont garner sympathy from the opposition. If anything, it gives them more strength. If its not going to alter the behavior of those who are causing you offense, then its nothing more than performance for the people with whom you agree.
There has been something delightfully ironic about watching Glenn Beck become one of the sanest voices in conservative media over this past year.

The Texas-based right-wing radio host and founder of The Blaze websitewho once declared that Barack Obama has a deep-seated hatred for white peoplewas #NeverTrump from the beginning of the GOP primaries. He initially threw his weight behind Ted Cruz and didnt budge from his anti-Trump stance even after Cruz decided to endorse the man who insulted his wife and blamed his father for the JFK assassination.

As Election Day approached, Beck openly toyed with the idea of voting for Hillary Clinton, criticized Trump during the third presidential debate for his baffling incoherence on abortion, and called FBI Director James Comey irresponsible for tossing an October grenade into the race at the last minute.

Throughout the race, however, Beck has reserved his harshest words for Steve Bannon, who just this weekend was named President-elect Trumps chief strategist. But is Becks great moral outrage over the self-proclaimed leader of the alt-right as selfless as it seems? Or is it personal?

It was all the way back in February of this year, when Cruz still had a chance and months before Trump had hired Bannon to serve as his campaign CEO, that Beck launched his attack.

Im telling you that I believe that Bannon thinks hes either going to be the chief of staff or hes going to be the next Roger Ailes, Beck said, presciently. He accused the Breitbart executive chairman of taking orders from a political candidate and reworking your entire site to promote the lies of a specific candidate without any kind of truth behind these things. In Becks view, that made Bannon more like Joseph Goebbels than Ailes.

Andrew Breitbart would be spinning in his grave right now, Beck said, referring to the late founder of Breitbart.com.

But as it turns out, neither Breitbart nor Bannon were big fans of Beck, who launched The Blaze as a direct competitor to Breitbart after he was let go by Ailes and Fox News.

A few months after Beck started broadcasting his GBTV show online in 2011, Andrew Breitbart went on Steve Bannons Victory Sessions podcast, and the two men spent a good deal of time trashing their new competition.

Beck had made some provocative comments comparing Newt Gingrich to Barack Obama and suggested Tea Partiers only liked Gingrich because he was white, and Breitbart and Bannon accused Beck of race-baiting.

In the past, Beck has made a lot of mistakes, and his supporters come out and try to defend him, because Beck is a coward and will not defend himself when he makes a mistake or lies about a person or steals content, Breitbart said.

Egging him on, Bannon replied, Hold on, I want to go back over this: Youre saying that Glenn Becks a coward, Glenn Becks a liar, and youre saying that Glenn Beck steals material from people?

Oh yes, and this is well-documented, Breitbart said, laying out what he viewed as Becks deliberately misleading coverage of the Shirley Sherrod scandal, which began its life on Breitbarts Big Government website. He went on to say that Beck has been known to take countless bloggers content, to turn it into book gold, to turn it into chalkboard gold, his infamous chalkboards, an allegation explored in detail by The Daily Callers Matthew Boyle earlier that year.

Asked by Bannon what he would like to see Beck do next, Breitbart said, At this point, I dont care what he does because hes dead to me.

Five years later, Bannon had officially joined the Trump campaign and Beck was openly calling him quite possibly the most dangerous guy in all of American politics and a horrible, despicable human being. His assertion that Bannon uses the Dark Web to exact revenge on his enemies landed Beck on Breitbarts list of the  six dumbest claims  journalists made about Bannon.

After news broke that Bannon would be joining Trump in the White House, Beck once again warned against Bannons clear tie to white nationalists, adding, Hes a terrifying man.

These sentiments were echoed on Monday by Dana Loesch, who sued Breitbartciting an increasingly hostile work environmentbefore joining The Blaze, during her live show. Steve Bannon puts himself above everything, she said of her former boss. I just dont think this is a good fit for the country. Maybe it is for Steve Bannon, but its not a good fit for the country. Loesch suggested that Bannon will enter the White House with vengeance and pettiness in his heart, which should alone disqualify him from advising the president.

When Beck first joked that Bannon was angling to be Trumps chief of staff earlier this year, he had no idea how right he would end up being. That job may have ended up going to Reince Priebus, but it was Bannon who got top billing on the official press release. In the end, Bannons ambitions far exceeded being the next Roger Ailes.

Now, a man who has never hid his disgust for Beck is about to become arguably the second most powerful person in Washington, if not the country. And at the same time, Trump and his team have made every indication that they intend to act hostilely toward a rigged media that they believe has been biased against them from the beginning.

It is yet another irony that Beck now finds himself in their crosshairs along with the rest of us.
According to NerdWallet, Inc., 5.1% of Metro New Orleans identifies as LGBT. Only San Francisco, Portland, and Austin have more gay locals. For LGBT travelers, that means youll find more authentic experiences here than you will in most cities. Whats more, youll be welcomed with open arms.

To whet your appetite, weve cobbled together five fascinating facts from New Orleans LGBT past. And this is just the beginning. Come back in the weeks to come for more tales from the citys rainbow-colored past.

LGBTQ&A

Q: What is the oldest continuously operated gay bar in the U.S.?

A: That honor belongs to Cafe Lafitte in Exile, opened in 1933 down the street in what is now Lafittes Blacksmith Shop. The fact that it existed peacefully just blocks from the first Roman Catholic convent in the U.S. wasnt lost on the writer of In Exile: The History and Lore Surrounding New Orleans Gay Culture and Its Oldest Gay Bar. Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote are just a few of the famous people who have bellied up to the bar here. Dont leave without stopping at 901 Bourbon Street for a drink and a little history.

Q: Where did Tennessee Williams write A Streetcar Named Desire?

A: In a little apartment at 613 St. Peter Street, Tennessee Williams polished A Streetcar Named Desire, for which he would win the 1948 Pulitzer Prize. Williams loved the city. He called the French Quarter his spiritual home. They say that only four hours after arriving in New Orleans in around 1938, Tennessee Williams wrote in his journal, Here, surely, is the place I was made for.

Every spring, the city of New Orleans pays tribute to Williams with its annual Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival. Part of the festival includes auctioning off reservations for his table on the first floor of the famous Galatoires restaurant on Bourbon Street. Also, keep up with the Tennessee Williams Theater Company, producing his shows year round.

Q: Which Saints player was the first professional team-sport athlete to come out?

A: New Orleans has always loved its boys in black and gold, but heres something to think about while attending a Saints game or touring the Mercedes-Benz Superdome: running back David Kopay, who played for the Saints in 1971, came out in 1975, three years after retiring.

Q: What was the Gay Liberation Front?

A: According to Blake Pontchartrain, after the 1969 Stonewall riots in New Yorks Greenwich Village, the New Orleans chapter of the Gay Liberation Front was formed. While it wasnt around for long, many believe it was one of the first important civil rights organizations for the LGBT community.

In his book, Rebels, Rubyfruit and Rhinestones: Queering Space in the Stonewall South, author James Thomas Sears said that the group, formed in the fall of 1970, raised money by hosting buffet dinners and dances on Sunday night. They also started the first gay publication in Louisiana, a newsletter called Sunflower.

By January 1971, about 75 members of the group marched on City Hall, with signs denouncing intimidation, brutality, and terror tactics of local police against members of the gay community. In June of that same year, they commemorated the anniversary of the Stonewall incident with a gay-in in New Orleans City Park.

Q: How many people were at the first Southern Decadence?

A: Southern Decadence is the fifth-largest tourism event in New Orleans. But, according to In Exile: The History and Lore Surrounding New Orleans Gay Culture and Its Oldest Gay Bar, only about 50 people attended the first Southern Decadence party. In August of 1972, a group of friends were living in a small, $100-a-month cottage in the Treme facetiously named Belle Reve after Blanche DuBois grand Mississippi plantation in the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire. According to legend, the group decided to throw a going-away costume party for a friend, and around 50 people were invited to come as their favorite Southern Decadent. The party was so much fun they decided to make it an annual event.

Want to discover more New Orleans gay history? Youve come to the right place. Watch for our upcoming series on LGBT History GoNOLA.
Self-taught artist and Red Beans Parade founder Devin Dewulf shares his favorite things to eat, drink, see, and do in New Orleans.

Self-taught folk artist Devin DeWulf first came to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina as a volunteer photographer, documenting the efforts of non-profits and other groups involved in getting the city back up on its feet. He moved to the Marigny in July 2007, and one day while walking around his new neighborhood, he stumbled upon a painted car.

My mind was blown, DeWulf recalls about seeing that car for the first time. It happened to be for sale and had a phone number attached to it. DeWulf dialed the number on a whim, and, in true New Orleans fashion, the cars owner Susan Ireland was more than willing to talk to him about her painted car, and even showed him how to paint his own. And then, he just kept on painting.

Prior to this fateful meeting, DeWulf had only painted a couple timesin an art class he took while traveling abroad, for example. New Orleans unlocked the realization that I enjoyed making art, he explains, and what he describes as his intrinsic style emerged almost right away. Now, when hes not caring for his young daughter, DeWulf paints primarily found objectspieces of wood or cabinet doors left on the side of the street, for exampleas well as on canvas and occasionally large outdoor murals. Lately hes taken to hand-sewing beads and sequins onto his canvas paintings, a process that can take up to a year to complete, to add texture and depth.

Speaking of texture, DeWulf is also the founder of the Red Beans Parade, the Lundi Gras second line that marches annually through the Marigny and Treme sporting hand-made, bean-beaded costumes. One of DeWulfs first photo projects in New Orleans involved documenting a group of Mardi Gras Indians. In observing their costume preparations, he was greatly inspired by the idea of meticulously working on a suit all year long only to wear it for one season. DeWulf considers the Red Bean Parade, which loosely employs this meticulous costuming process, to be as much an art form as his paintings are. In fact, its this kind of creative ritual that caused him to fall in love with New Orleans in the first place.

DeWulf explains that one of his favorite things about this city is that regular people make culture here. Whether its costuming, parading, making music, or participating in second lines, New Orleans seems to have the highest per capita rate of everyday culture-makers. And DeWulf, with his self-taught style that marries pleasure and enjoyment with meticulous care, fits in perfectly here.

Check out some of DeWulfs paintings, including Louisiana: People Stronger Than Water. Produced by DeWulf and Where YArt, 100% of the proceeds from the pieceboth prints and the painting itselfgoes to the Associated Professional Educators of Louisiana (APEL) as they work to replenish school supplies in Louisiana classrooms affected by recent flooding.

20 QUESTIONS WITH DEVIN DEWULF

1. Who is your favorite New Orleanian, dead or alive, real or imagined?

Easily Louis Armstrong. I find his joy for life and life-affirming ways inspiring. I love thinking about him when I am in the CBD (his childhood neighborhood).

2. What first brought you to New Orleans?

I actually came as an idealistic volunteer photographer post-Katrina. By my second day I saw John Boutte sing, ate a shrimp po-boy, and fell in love with this place.

3. In your opinion  whats the best neighborhood in New Orleans?

I like my neighborhood a lot (Bywater), but honestly, I think most neighborhoods have some very special places. Especially the ones that preserve the culture of the city.

4. If its a beautiful day, where are you going to spend it?

Bayou St. John or in City Park, walking among the beautiful oak trees.

5. Describe the best meal youve eaten in New Orleans.

Two Sisters in the East  back when they were in Treme. Amazing soul food.

6. Wheres your favorite brunch spot?

My house! Biscuits and boudin on a lazy weekend day with good friends over. My daughter can run around, and we dont have to pay anything if she breaks stuff!

7. Whats your favorite type of po-boy? Where do you get it?

Roast beef po-boy from Fradys hits the spot for me. I like it messy!

8. Youve got friends visiting, and its their first time in New Orleans  where are you taking them?

They have to see a brass band. And honestly, a second line is the essential New Orleans experience for someone to have. So I usually insist that they do not fly out of town until Sunday night or Monday.

9. Whats your favorite neighborhood bar?

Seals Class Act Lounge. That is the home of our Red Beans Parade beaning sessions and Mrs. Seal is super nice!

10. What is your favorite New Orleans cocktail, and where do you go to get it?

Sazerac, for sure. I usually use that to judge bars, too; its a good barometer of how for-real they are.

11. Whats your favorite dessert or sweet treat in the city?

I really miss the Hubigs Pies. Like. Really. Bad.

12. Best spot to see live music?

Can I say a festival? Nowadays, with a small child in tow, thats the place to be! Otherwise, I love the Ooh Poo Pah Doo bar.

13. Favorite New Orleans musician or band?

So hard! I may actually have 20 favoritesJames Andrews? Maggie Koerner, John Boutte, Tank and the Bangas.

14. Favorite New Orleans festival?

French Quarter Festival for sure!

15. Whats your ideal New Orleans date night?

Slyvain with my wife.

16. What are your favorite local shops?

Octavia Books, Louisiana Music Factory, Dirty Coast.

17. What is your favorite New Orleans museum?

Odgen Museum of Southern Art. I love it thereespecially when they have good live music.

18. Where do you go to watch The Saints play?

Hope to be in the Dome!

19. Describe New Orleans in one word.

Tchoupitoulas.

20. When was the last time you fell in love with New Orleans, and why?

Most recentlyliterally an hour ago when we had a wonderful conversation with a parking lot attendant with three gold teeth and a beautiful smile. We talked about how babies are real cute but then they become teenagers with lots of attitude. The man was charming and had an amazing presence. I love New Orleans people.

*Editors Note: This edition of 20 Questions was brought to you by Where YArt is a curated community of over 100 New Orleans artists, where you can meet the people creating art, learn their stories, and even find them on the ground in the City. Discover, follow, and shop the art of our community online at Whereyart.net and in New Orleans at 1901 Royal St.
Villages to visit:

First things first, I recommend you take your time to explore the islands towns. When you arrive in Santorini you will be in the capital town of Thira (otherwise known as Fira). It's a more touristy area as it's considered a port city, and I preferred to spend a little less time here and a little more time visiting the other villages like Oia (pronounced eee-yah), Pyrgos (I blogged about this small village here) and Imerovigli.

Pyrgos is the highest village and provides sweeping views of the island. It's a lot less crowded than the others so I definitely recommend heading over early to explore and feel alone and lost in the maze of narrow white-washed pathways.

In the middle of the island lies Imerovigli, which is a great place to catch the sunset and grab dinner!

Oia is the most popular of all the towns (read: definitely full of tourists), but it sits on the point of the island so you feel a bit more isolated, which of course, I love. It's a beautiful little village and great place to take some hundreds of photos, do a little shopping and explore. If you aren't staying in the village it can be difficult to get the photos you're looking for because a lot of the pathways are blocked off with restricted access only to hotel guests. So if you're headed to Santorini, definitely look into staying at one of their incredible hotels (more on those below).

What to do:

You can wander and explore on your own as I did, or you can opt to take a tour or rent scooters / four wheelers. The island is small so you feel like you can take your time a bit more in your explorations. If you're on a romantic getaway, I think taking a wine tour would be so fun (when you're not lounging by the pool or having sex with your honey haha). Check out Santorini Brewing Company or Boutari Winery.

What to wear:

When packing for Santorini, you guys know me, I couldn't wait to pack beautiful flowy dresses, like this one, that would compliment the white-washed villages and crystal blue seas. Hence, I packed a lot of blue and white. It's actually pretty warm there (aka super hot even in October when I was there), so a breezy dress is the perfect option. As for a bag, my backpack was ideal because I could carry any trinkets I bought and my big old camera when it wasn't strapped around my neck. Other than that, all you really need is a few swimsuits, sandals, tees, shorts and a scarf for when it gets chilly in the evenings and you're good to go!

Where to stay:

Anywhere you stay will provide gorgeous views of the Aegean Sea, so you really can't go wrong! But definitely check out Mystique, a Luxury Collection resort in Oia, Kirini in Oia, Santorini Secret in Oia or the Gold Suites in Imerovigli.

How to get around:

Once you arrive in Fira you can either find a taxi, take the bus or have your hotel arrange for a car to pick you up. As I mentioned in this post here, if you do take a taxi, be sure to grab your drivers card if you head to a more remote village like Pyrgos so you can call him to come back and get you.

How to get there:

You can fly into Fira or take a "high speed" ferry from one of the other islands. I however took a beautiful cruise on the 'Jewel of the Seas' by Royal Caribbean Cruises. It was a beautiful 11 day cruise that left from Rome, Italy and we visited Positano + Sorrento before heading onto Greece (Santorini, Mykonos, Athens) and then Turkey (Ephesus).

However you choose to visit, it's sure to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Estimados amigos,

Les doy cordialmente la bienvenida a este Blog informativo con articulos, analisis y comentarios de publicaciones especializadas y especialmente seleccionadas, principalmente sobre temas economicos, financieros y politicos de actualidad, que esperamos y deseamos, sean de su maximo interes, utilidad y conveniencia.

Pensamos que solo comprendiendo cabalmente el presente, es que podemos proyectarnos acertadamente hacia el futuro.

Las convicciones son mas peligrosos enemigos de la verdad que las mentiras.

There are decades when nothing happens and there are weeks when decades happen.

You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.

No soy alguien que sabe, sino alguien que busca.

Only Gold is money. Everything else is debt.

Las grandes almas tienen voluntades; las debiles tan solo deseos.

Quien no lo ha dado todo no ha dado nada.

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.

If you know the other and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.

We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share.This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP)  New Zealand on Tuesday began a rescue operation of about 1,000 tourists and hundreds of residents who remain stranded in the coastal town of Kaikoura after a powerful earthquake cut off train and vehicle access.

The defense force said it had started to ferry people out by military helicopter at about 9 a.m. A navy ship that left from Auckland is due to arrive in the area on Wednesday morning.

The magnitude-7.8 quake struck the South Island early Monday. It left two people dead and triggered a small tsunami. It also brought down rocks and mud that swept across highways and cracked apart roads.

Home to about 2,000 residents, Kaikoura is a popular destination for travelers taking part in whale-watching expeditions or wanting a stopover with mountain views. But the quake knocked out water supplies and sewerage systems and left people with no easy way out.

"From all directions, Kaikoura has essentially been isolated," Air Commodore Darryn Webb, the Acting Commander of New Zealand's Joint Forces, told The Associated Press. "There's a real imperative to support the town because it can't support itself."

Webb said the military was using four NH90 helicopters that could each transport about 18 people at a time out of the town. He said the ship could potentially pick up hundreds of people if weather conditions allowed.

"We're going to get as many people and belongings out as quickly as we can," Webb said.

He said the operation could take several days and that if needed, a C-130 military transport plane could drop fuel, water, food and other supplies to the town.

Elsewhere, many people returned to work in the capital, Wellington, after the quake shut down much of the central city on Monday. But some buildings remained closed and heavy rain and flooding compounded the difficulties for others.

Strong aftershocks continued to shake New Zealand, rattling the nerves of exhausted residents. The country was largely spared the devastation it saw in 2011 when an earthquake struck the city of Christchurch and killed 185 people. That quake was one of New Zealand's worst disasters, causing an estimated $25 billion in damage.

Monday's quake caused damage in Wellington and was also strongly felt in Christchurch. Residents said the shaking went on for about three minutes.

Police said one person died in Kaikoura and another in Mt. Lyford, a nearby ski resort. Several other people suffered minor injuries in Kaikoura, police spokeswoman Rachel Purdom said.

Prime Minister John Key flew over the destruction in Kaikoura by helicopter as aftershocks kicked up dust from the landslides below. Cars could be seen lying on their sides and parts of the road were clearly impassable.

"It's just utter devastation," Key said.

He later toured the area and met with locals. He estimated the cleanup effort would run into the billions of dollars and said clearing the debris and blocked roads could take months.

Kaikoura resident Terry Thompson said he was out of town when the quake struck but managed to reach his wife on her cellphone before the phone died.

"She said the glass exploded right out of the double ranch-slider," he said. "The neighbor's chimney was gone, there were breakages and things smashed everywhere."

Thompson said his wife helped a 93-year-old neighbor and a tourist into her car and drove to higher ground.

"They stayed in the car all night but couldn't sleep," Thompson said. "They're all very, very tired and concerned about the state of their property."

Video taken from a helicopter near Kaikoura showed three cows stranded on an island of grass in a paddock that had been ripped apart in the quake. The patch of grass was surrounded by deep ravines of collapsed earth, trapping the animals where they stood.

The quake temporarily knocked out New Zealand's emergency call number, 111. In Wellington, it collapsed a ferry loading ramp, broke windows and caused items to fall from shelves. It also forced hundreds of tourists onto the streets as hotels were evacuated.

Australians Paul and Sandra Wardrop and their children, Alexander, 15, and William, 12, were on the 10th floor of the Park Hotel when the shaking began.

"We felt that the building was going to collapse," Sandra Wardrop said. "You could hear the sounds of the building shaking and see cracks appearing in the walls, in the plasterwork in the bedroom."

The family was among dozens of people who took shelter in the capital's parliamentary complex, which threw open its doors.

Police, meanwhile, stepped up their patrols after receiving several reports of burglaries in homes and businesses that had been evacuated due to the quake. Police said six guns, some of them antiques, were stolen from a home near the town of Nelson.

Authorities in Wellington told people who work in the city's central business district to stay home on Monday. Officials said some large buildings were showing signs of structural stress. The city's suburban rail network was shut while crews checked tracks, bridges and tunnels.

New Zealand, with a population of 4.7 million, sits on the "Ring of Fire," an arc of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean where earthquakes are common.

The location of Monday's quake largely helps explain why the damage was so minimal compared to the 2011 temblor, said Mark Quigley, associate professor of active tectonics at the University of Melbourne in Australia.

The 2011 quake was located almost directly beneath Christchurch, meaning tens of thousands of people were exposed to the most violent shaking at the epicenter. Monday's quake was centered in a rural area that is home to just a few thousand people.

The 2011 quake also had a tremendous amount of high-frequency energy, including very strong vertical ground motions that felt "like you're being picked up by a giant and being shaken around," Quigley said.

But for those in Christchurch on Monday, the shaking felt very different  more of a rolling motion. "They were far enough away that a lot of that high-frequency energy was dissipated," Quigley said.

The quake was centered 93 kilometers (57 miles) northeast of Christchurch at a depth of 23 kilometers (14 miles), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The USGS initially estimated it had a magnitude of 7.4 before revising it to 7.8.
A little girl left alone at the Port Authority Bus Terminal yesterday morning worried good Samaritans who took her to a police station. Authorities subsequently discovered that the five-year-old's mother had been killed in a Connecticut apartment.

The girl, who was found before 10 a.m., allegedly said that her father, Elmer Gomez Ruono, 32, left her at the station, and Stamford police said that surveillance video shows them entering the station from a bus.

The child's parents had recently separated and the girl and her mother had moved from Flemington, NJ to Stamford, according to NBC New York: "Police said there were a few friends and family over the small one-bedroom apartment Sunday night and that there was some sort of domestic dispute after guests left the party, and that's when [the mother] was killed."

WABC 7 reports that, according to sources, "the girl did not appear harmed or traumatized, but they believe she may have been witnessed some of the crime."

It appears the girl's mother, a 30-year-old Guatemalan national, died in a struggle.

Stamford police caption Richard Conklin said, "We know very, very little because they only moved here within the last day or two from New Jersey. We are struggling to come up to speed on this very rapidly."

Police are seeking Ruono.
As you might expect, the election of Donald Trump as American president has cast a pall over the climate talks in Marrakesh.

On Saturday I was sitting at working tables across from a journalist speaking to his editor, trying to sell him or her a story. I don't understand Spanish, but it wasn't hard to distinguish the name "Donald Trump" regularly peppering his side of the conversation.

At the NGO stalls, and those of government officials, "what will he do? what can he do?" is a regular topic of conversation. Will he take the 'nuclear option' - and unfortunate term but an apt one - and withdraw entirely from the UNFCCC?

Will he start the process of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement - something that could take four years, and not take effect until the end, hopefully, of his presidency?

But as one American here said to me, since his election he hasn't said anything about climate change. And back in 2009 he was on the "right side", calling for action to cut emissions. Unpredictability and inconsistency in this case might work in the planet's favour.

But whatever Trump does, there's a mood of determination here in Marrakesh. The urgency of slashing our carbon emissions before we exceed the biological limits of this one fragile planet is obvious to everyone here - as it is increasingly obvious to the world.

We must all press ahead with tackling climate change in every way possible

Whether it's discussion of the need to promote and support small-scale, carbon-efficient agriculture that can also secure food security in areas of the world that desperately need it, the focus on coral bleaching that threatens to destroy one of the world's natural wonders, and foundations of crucial food supplies and ocean health, or the realities of air pollution that kills millions every year (and is closely related to pneumonia deaths in children) and is closely correlated to greenhouse gas emissions: action needs to happen today (although yesterday would have been much better).

What's evident at every turn is the fast-growing importance of China to COP - and in the world. I was in a plenary session last week at which nations were reporting on their progress towards their Nationally Determined Contributions to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The chair said: "I call on the delegate from China." It was only a routine question for the Estonia delegation about the monitoring of their emissions, but you could feel the level of concentration in the room rise immediately. The changeover started to happen in Paris. China, which had been a drag on the progress of talks up to then, started to become a leader, and that's even more evident now.
Making a return to our two favourite summer locations, Mount Maunganui and Nelson in early January 2023, we've got whiff of the first release lineup and me oh my, yes boy
Senator Bernie Sanders is fired up in the wake of President-elect Biff's shocking victory. Yesterday he made rousing appearances on The View and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, looking as energized as ever. For anyone battling the dark undertow of despair that Emperor Trump is currently surfing into the White House, Sanders's impassioned words are a lifeline right now.

In the first clip, after the rapturous chanting of "BERNIE! BERNIE!" dies down, Colbert cordially asks the Senator how he's been, to which Sanders replies tersely and without humor: "It's been a tough week." Indeed. He then goes on to analyze some of the overlap between the frustrated working class voters who were receptive to both Sanders's and Trump's campaigns.

"Democrats should not be losing to a candidate who insults so many people, who wants to give huge tax breaks to the top two-tenths of one percent, and who rejects climate change. How are we losing these elections? Something is fundamentally wrong," Sanders said. "What I'm trying to do right now is bring about structural changes in the Democratic party so it becomes a grass roots party."

In the second clip, Sanders expanded on his current agenda, bluntly declaring that "the Democratic Party cannot continue to be run by the liberal elite. The party has got to transform itself to be a party which, first of all, opens the door, that is the party that feels the pain of working-class people, of the middle class, of low-income people, of young people."

"Our job right now, and this is terribly important, what you do now is get heavily into the political process," Sanders said. "When millions of people stand up and fight back, we will not be denied."

Sanders has endorsed progressive Minnesota congressman Keith Ellison for the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee, saying he would be "a fresh start." In 2015, Ellison anticipated Trump's victory early in the Republican primary, only to have the punditry laugh smugly in his face on live television.

During a recent TV appearance on Sunday, Ellison said, "Youve got to have a vision to strengthen the grass-roots. Make the voters first, not the donors first. I love the donors and we thank them, but it has to be that the guys in the barbershop, the lady at the diner, the folks who are worried about their plant is going to close  theyve got to be our focus."

The Huffington Post breaks down the significance the DNC chair will have in steering the party's direction through the wilderness:

The head of the DNC is typically anointed by a Democratic president, and is often a figurehead primarily responsible for fundraising, rather than major strategic decisions. With Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress and the presidency, however, the head of the DNC will play a much more influential role in Democratic politics. The formal selection of the chief is decided by a complex voting process involving state party leaders, who drifted strongly for Clinton over Sanders in the presidential primary. Endorsements from Reid and Schumer suggest that the thinking in establishment circles has become more sympathetic to Sanders supporters following Clintons loss.

In an op-ed in the Times last week, Sanders expanded further on how the Democratic Party can recover:
Millennial Moms Review: 2022 Acura MDX is pretty close to the perfect family car

I dont know if perfect is attainable, especially considering weve got the world of options when it comes to modern vehicles. Were spoiled and, as such, we have very specific needs and wants. Driving-wise, the 2022 Acura MDX is one of my favourite ...
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A new website called Report Hate, launched in the wake of last week's upset presidential election, has fielded more than 435 reports of hate incidents in the last week ranging from racist graffiti to assaults.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which is spearheading the initiative, monitors more than 1,500 domestic hate groups, including the Ku Klux Klan and the neo-Nazi movement. This is the first time the nonprofit has generated an open call for hate incidentsa direct response to Donald Trump's election, and a campaign characterized by explicitly racist, sexist and homophobic rhetoric, not to mention promises to ban and deport minority groups.

According to the SPLC, New York State ranks among those with the most reported incidents so far, with 26 reported as of Tuesday. California tops the list with 51 reported incidents. Texas has 31, Washington State 27, and Oregon and Pennsylvania 19 each.

"Since Donald Trump won the election we've seen an alarming number of hate-based incidents occur throughout the nation, some of which are no doubt stemming from Trump's hate-filled campaign," said Heidi Beirich, director of SPLC's Intelligence Project. "We've collected more than 435 such incidents since the electiontruly a frightening number."

Lecia Brooks, director of outreach for the SPLC, spoke with WNYC yesterday, when the number was still hovering around 300 reported incidents. This "is more than the past six months combined," she said.

Brooks stressed that the reports are unverified, and that the SPLC will be working in the coming days and weeks to verify them using police and media reports. However, she dismissed the rightwing media position that such incidents are being blown out of proportion in the press. "People are really in danger," she said.

In New York City, the SPLC has seven reported incidents to date, including several at city universities. According to Brooks, the campus backlash might be attributable to Trump, and may also be a response to last fall's upswell of Black Lives Matter support at schools across the country. "We think folks became emboldened during the [presidential] campaign," she said. "Now that [Trump's] won, young people, especially young people, feel entitled to say what they have been feeling all along."

In the immediate aftermath of last week's election, three students at the NYU Tandon School of Engineeringone black, one Latina, one Muslimsaid a fellow student called them racial slurs, arguing it was fair game because "Donald Trump is president now." That same day, Muslim students at NYU Tandon found the door to their on-campus prayer room vandalized by Trump supporters. And over the weekend, four dorm rooms at the New School were found vandalized with swastikas.

On the state level, Governor Cuomo has already launched two investigations into alleged hate incidents: one at SUNY Geneso, where graffiti of a swastika and the word Trump" appeared in a residence hall, and another in Wellsville, New York, where a softball dugout was allegedly covered with "Make America White Again" tags and a spray-painted swastika.

Today, Cuomo launched a toll-free hotline to report such incidents. The number, (888) 392-3644, will be staffed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.

Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the SPLC, conducted an interview with Dan Rather making the case that Trump's affiliation with Breitbart News Chairman Steve Bannon has raised the stakes, as Breitbart "has become essentially... the most important platform for the alternative right" and is "essentially a kind of racial nationalist position presented as news."

"The alt-right basically is a rebranding of white supremacy for the digital age," he added.

In an interview last week, Anti-Defamation League Policy Director Etzion Neuer told Gothamist that his organization has also been fielding many reports of hate incidents since the election. He said that in the aftermath of such a contentious election, increased media interest might contribute to the uptick in hate incident reports. "People might report incidents they might not otherwise, and the media starts reporting on these incidents that might not otherwise have felt newsworthy," he said.

"That's not faulting media," he added. "But media plays a role in that. It can be positive, but it can also lead to what appears to be an artificial rise [in hate incidents]. We are extraordinarily careful trying to ascertain the veracity of each report."

You can report a hate incident to the SPLC here.
One of your duties as a manager or business owner is not to just handle tough employees, but also to let them go when justified. While handing a pink slip to an employee is never a pleasant task, its a necessity if you want to have a thriving business.

Instead of letting these employees overstay their welcome -- with serious repercussions to your business -- keep a lookout. If you notice one or more of these following eight signs. then its best to fire this employee sooner rather than later.

1. No call/no show.

As a leader, you need to have empathy. If an employee lost their mother or father in a sudden and tragic accident the last thing that is one their mind is to call out of work. However, if this happens a second time, then maybe its time to get a little suspicious. After all, absenteeism ends-up costing you and your business both time and money since youre asking your other team members to pick-up the slack.

You should have a policy in place that addresses guidelines for time off and handling last minute absences. Make this policy known to your employees for the get-go. For me personally, I give an employee a warning for their first no call/no show, but if it happens again, theyre fired on the spot. I know that sounds harsh, but I have a business to run and cant keep having this type of person holding me and my team back.

Related: FBI Hostage Negotiation Tactics You Can Use Every Day

2. Productivity is down.

To be fair, there are times when productivity can decrease. Sometimes a project has become larger and more time-consuming than initially planned. That doesnt mean that your employees are slacking or lack the skills needed to be successful. It just means that theyre swamped.

But, if you have one specific employee who keeps handing in assignments past the deadline then thats an obvious red flag that theyre productivity has declined. Other signs include their work requires several revisions, theyre constantly asking co-workers for assistance, or their taking-up too much of your time, then its time to let that employee go.

3. Stirs the pot.

This individual can do some serious damage to your workplace if left unattended, and I think you know what type of person Im talking about. They spread rumors. They pit colleagues against each other. They incite mutiny by undermining management or bad-mouthing a supervisor. If you have an employee who wont embrace company initiatives, quibbles about project requirements and gets a kick out of causing trouble, then its probably time for you to part ways.

Related: Marriott CEO to Trump: 'We Should Keep the Welcome Mat Out'

4. Cant handle change.

Change is inevitable, especially at a fast-moving company. Employees need to be comfortable with change and eager to improve our abilities, says Matthew Bellows, CEO of Yesware. We need to keep our skills growing at pace with the company.

This can actually be tough when you have a hard-working employee who is responsible and fits the culture of your company. Unfortunately, if they can no longer perform at a high level because the pace is too fast for them, then unfortunately its time to move-on to someday who can.

5. Argumentative/unpredictable.

As a leader, you want to encourage innovation and have employees who will change you and the status quo. However, if theres an employee who is always starting arguments with you, their colleagues, or even customers, then thats a pretty good sign that they're capable of having a major blowup. This type of behavior isnt just frightening, it also creates an uncomfortable work environment for your other employees. Simply put. That person has to-go before things become too hostile.

6. Theyre not trying to improve.

Lets say that you have an employee who is tardy or afraid of public speaking. Instead of making an effort to arrive to the workplace earlier or start taking public speaking classes, the employee doesnt make any sort of effort to rectify their mistakes or better themselves then its probably in your best interest to give the employee the ax.

Related: 46 Facts You Should Know About Entrepreneurship (Infographic)

7. Theyre a placeholder.

I get it. When you first started you needed to hire wherever you could until things took-off. I know this firsthand because I brought in some friends and family members during the early stages of my business. The thing is, if they dont have the skills or experience to help take your business to the next level then theyre just a placeholder.

Again. This can be extremely tough since it has nothing to do with their work ethic or personality. Hopefully theyll understand that its an essential move you have to make in order to help your business grow.

Related: 22 Qualities That Make a Great Leader

8. Customers and vendors are complaining.

Did you know that 86 percent of customers will stop doing business with a company because of a bad customer service experience? Even more troubling is that a dissatisfied customer will tell between 9-15 people about their experience. In other words, you have to keep your customers happy. If youre receiving complaints about an employee from customers because of sub-par customer service then you have to let them go.

The same can be side of vendors. Who would they want to do business with an organization that has rude or apathetic employees?

Related:

8 Signs You Should Fire an Employee

4 Ways Effective Leaders Deal With Incompetent People

6 Ways to Reinvigorate Your Team After Firing an Employee



Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
If you own a cat, you've probably heard that you should keep it inside - and if you live in Australia or New Zealand, you've definitely heard it. Veterinarians and rescue groups argue that it's better for the cats, who can be slammed by cars, eaten by coyotes or poisoned by antifreeze while strolling about. Conservationists say it's better for birds and other wildlife that cats love to maim and kill.

But there are downsides to the indoor feline lifestyle. Cats can get bored, leading them to bug you at midnight or leap at the television during the best moments of the World Series or David S. Pumpkins. They can become aggressive, causing them to view your ankles as enticing scratching posts. They can get lazy and fat, like the majority of American cats.

Or they can fall victim to what Abigail Tucker, author of the recent book about cats, "The Lion in the Living Room," refers to as "the most serious disease of feline modernity": idiopathic cystitis, or Pandora Syndrome. The symptoms are bloody or painful urination, frequently outside a litter box, and other gastrointestinal, dermatological and neurological ailments. The cause, researcher Tony Buffington told Tucker, is indoor living that has removed from cats the control and territory they crave.

One big issue, cat experts say, is that in the 10,000 years or so since humans adopted cats as vermin-catchers, people have not selectively bred them to match their new lethargic, indoor lifestyle. In other words, just beneath the surface of that fluff ball on the ottoman is a skilled predator whose instincts tell it to roam, stalk and pounce. When there's nothing suitable to act on, problems can arise.

People have long mistakenly viewed cats as low-maintenance pets that only need a bowl of kibble, a place to sleep and an occasional scratch, said Mikel Delgado, a graduate student at the University of California in Berkeley who studies cat behavior.

"We've just been like, 'Oh, you're cute and cuddly. Come inside,' and we've kind of forgotten about what cats are built to do, which is hunt," Delgado said. "We're not recognizing who cats really are and what they need."

But fortunately, we are living in pet-obsessed modern America, so there's a growing industry to help cat owners make their home something of a predator's wonderland - or, at least, a tolerable territory. Blogs can show you how to build screened cat patios, or catios, or you can order a kit or hire someone to construct one. The website Hauspanther, which says its mission is "to spread the word about how good design can enhance the way we live with cats," directs cat owners toward minimalist cat climbing complexes, modern felt cat baskets and Nordic-style feline furniture.

And for those desiring a smaller investment, the market now sells a plethora of products intended to offer cats a sort of simulated hunting experience. Indoor cats may not be able to act on their drive to scale trees and stalk prey. But they can use what are known as "food puzzles," or contraptions that hold food - wet or dry - in balls, boxes, mazes or even pinatas that cats must use their brains and bodies to swat and open.

"Any cat in their natural environment would not just be handed a bowl of mice," said Delgado, who co-hosts a website exploring the features - and extolling the virtues - of food puzzles for cats. "They would have to work for any food item they obtain."

Many cat owners might not believe their pudgy, sleepy kitties would cooperate with food puzzles. But Delgado recently co-authored a recent paper in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, and it listed several cases of problematic cat behavior that the researchers resolved or improved with the products.

One young male was extremely afraid of people, but after being given food puzzles, he allowed petting and came when called. An 8-year-old obese cat lost 20 percent of his body weight after being given purchased and homemade food puzzles, which can be as simple as a yogurt container with holes punched in it. Several kitties stopped urinating outside of their litter boxes - once they had food puzzles.

But even if the cats exert effort to obtain their food from a rolling piece of plastic, does that mean they like to? Might it not drive them nuts in the process?

Asked that question, Delgado brought up a counterintuitive phenomenon called contrafreeloading, which is used to describe animals' preference for food that requires effort over identical food that is given to them. This behavior has been observed in many animals - from rats to gerbils to pigeons to wolves - and scientists still haven't agreed on why they do it.

Just one species studied didn't display contrafreeloading. That's right: Cats.

But Delgado said she is skeptical of that finding. The study was conducted decades ago and with a very small sample size, she noted. "Why would cats be the exception?" she asked. "We need to revisit this study with cats."

Delgado acknowledged that introducing food puzzles can be challenging, and she advises owners to start with easy ones - with a regular food source still available so cats don't get frustrated - then ramp up the difficulty. Each cat in a household should have its own puzzle, she said.

When it works, owners often "see their cat in a new light," Delgado said. "Given that the overall trend from the conservation movement and vets and rescue groups is to keep cats indoors, then we have to face this problem we have, which is that just keeping cats indoors isn't enough."

Karin Brulliard is a national reporter who runs the Animalia blog. Previously, she was a foreign correspondent and a local reporter.
NORWALK  A Norwalk man was charged with assault after police say words were exchanged over a perceived racial remark at a Connecticut Avenue gas station Monday night.

An officer from Norwalk Police Departments Street Enforcement Team stopped at the Global Service Station at 244 Connecticut Ave. shortly before 6 p.m. to purchase a bottle of water when he was approached by a frantic witness to the altercation.

The officer reported the witness had a look of horror when she pounded on the window of his vehicle and said, hes killing him.

According to police, the officer found Christopher Joyner-Entzminger on top of another male near the gas pumps. Police said that Joyner-Entzminger punched and kicked the other man in the face, causing substantial injuries.

The two men were separated and continued yelling back and forth at one another, and calling each other names.

Paramedics were then called to the scene. Surveillance footage showed the mens exchange in which the other man, Antonio Torcasio, 39, had become combative. Footage also showed Joyner-Entzminger strike the man multiple times with a closed fist.

No specifics were provided by police about the nature of the remark that set off the confrontation.

Entzminger-Joyner, of Taylor Avenue, was charged with first-degree assault and second-degree breach of peace. His bond was set at $100,000 and he was given a court date of Nov. 23.

Torcasio, of Kellogg Street, was charged with second-degree breach of peace. He was given a court date of Nov. 23.

llake@hearstmediact.com
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As the moon made its closest pass by Earth in 68 years on Monday, Nov. 14, 2016, residents across the county were lucky to capture a peek.
A bit of history: Richard Webb

Richard Webb  born May 5, 1580  a founding settler of Hartford and Norwalk, Connecticut, served as a deputy of the General Court of the Connecticut Colony from Norwalk in the session of May, 1656. He died in July, 1665.

Web came to America from England in 1626, and originally settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He went to Hartford in 1636, with the congregation of Thomas Hooker. His home was on the west aide of Main Street, near the present corner of Church Street. In Hartford he served as a grand-juror in 1643, as a townsman in 1649, and as a surveyor of highways in 1650.

He was one of the signers of the agreement for planting Norwalk, June 19, 1650. He moved there soon after.

He is listed on the Founders Stone bearing the names of the founders of Hartford in the Ancient Burying Ground in Hartford, and he is also listed on the Founders Stone bearing the names of the founders of Norwalk in the East Norwalk Historical Cemetery.

Webbs paternal grandmother was Margaret Arden, sister of Mary Arden, the mother of playwright William Shakespeare.

Veterans Day  all year long

As a constant reminder of our military service veterans, the East Norwalk Historical Cemetery bears stark witness to all those who served in our nations history  and, particularly those of East Norwalk and the city itself.

In 1982, a survey of the markers in the cemetery noted 91 graves bear the remains of those who died in eight wars: starting with King Phillips War of 1675, through the Revolutionary War, the Indian War of 1740, the French and Indian War, the War of 1812, the Spanish-American War, the Civil War, and World War II.

Maya Angelou wrote: How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!

And, to that end, the East Norwalk Association Library recognizes and celebrates Americas veterans by including in its inventory an ever-growing section of books themed around our nations military history.

Most recently, a collection of U.S. Navy Nautical Maps/Charts of World War II vintage  with some dating further back  was donated to the East Norwalk Association Library. They were brought back by a serviceman in the Navy during WWII and donated by a relative. The 138 maps range in size from approximately 20-by-24 inches up to 36-by-60 inches. Generally, they are in very good/excellent condition without any tears, stains or mildew. These maps will join a collection of more than 300 books which were donated anonymously in memory of the donors uncle, who served in the Army.

There is, too, a collection of more than 300 books donated by Lydia and Michael Herd  the books originally amassed by Lydias uncle, George Liska.

These books are being added to those already in the Military collection originally gathered to honor Earl S. Carpenter a WW II Veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps who passed away several years ago, age 91. Born in Norwalk, Earl was a graduate of Norwalk High School, Class of 1940. He served on the Veterans Memorial Committee and as a board member of the East Norwalk Historical Cemetery Committee and the East Norwalk Improvement Association. In addition are books dedicated in memory of another East Norwalk Association board member, Phillip Marzoff, whose special interest was ships and Naval history.

Specially designed, and personalized bookplates are affixed to each book in the collection.

This is in addition to the year-round display  a 6-by-3-foot handsomely framed photograph of the Shea-Magrath memorial plaques and the two brave men themselves depicting the Shea-Magrath Memorial at Calf Pasture Park (from where Shea Island is visible).

Both Daniel Shea and John Magrath had served their community in Norwalk and as active members of the Boy Scouts before entering the Army. John was an Eagle Scout and Daniels love of the outdoors was recognized by naming Shea Island in his honor.

So, to our East Norwalk and all veterans and those still serving  we thank them and offer the words of John Doolittle: Americas Veterans have served their country with the belief that democracy and freedom are ideals to be upheld around the world.

Humane Society features D2R2  Dogs To Read To

Check out the following link on the Humane Societys website to read about the East Norwalk Association Librarys D2R2  Dogs to Read to nationally acclaimed program:

www.humanesociety.org/parents.../

lesson_plans_for_teachers.html

Since its inception at the East Norwalk Association Library in April, 2009, the nationally recognized program offers an opportunity for children to read a book of their choosing to various specially certified dogs each Saturday morning from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. continues to a very popular event.

So far, several hundred children have participated in the program with more than eight different dogs enjoying being read to. After the session, the children receive a certificate of participation and get to keep the book they have read.

To participate on any Saturday, call the East Norwalk Library at 203-838-0408 ext 100, or email: maureen@eastnorwalklibrary.org.

TTD sponsors annual Food And Toy Drive

With the holiday season fast approaching, there are many people in our community who need your help. This year, again, the Third Taxing District Electrical Department is sponsoring its Annual Food and Toy Drive  beginning Monday, Nov. 14 through Friday, Dec. 16.

The following locations in East Norwalk will be accepting non-perishable food and unwrapped toy donations: Third Taxing District Office, 2 Second St.; East Norwalk Association Library, 51 Van Zant St.; Firehouse Station #3, 56 Van Zant St.; Ice Rinks, 10 Seaview Ave.; Harbor Harvest, 7 Cove Ave.; Jimmys Mediterranean Deli, 65 Van Zant St.; Winfield Street Italian Deli, 69 Winfield St.; Mikes Deli, 194 East Ave.; Partners Cafe, 1  Cove Ave.; Partners To Go, 10 First St.

Donations will also be accepted at the Christmas Tree Lighting at Roger Ludlow Park on Sun., Dec. 4, at 5 p.m. (Rain Date: Sun., Dec. 11, at 5 p.m.). Cash contributions for the purchase of toys and food will also be accepted at the TTD office at 2 Second St.

Like East Norwalk Association Library on Facebook

Log onto Facebook and search for East Norwalk Library  like the library and youll be privy to happenings and other bits of information regarding the East Norwalk Library and the community it serves.

You can visit the East Norwalk Association Library on the web at www.eastnorwalklibrary.org.

The East Norwalk Association is open Monday through Friday, 12:30 to 5:30 p.m.; Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; closed Sundays and holidays.

If theres some East Norwalk happening or other East Norwalk news or features you would like to share with the readers, email: stan@eastnorwalklibrary.org, or call 203-249-6293.
Americans sent an unmistakable message Tuesday: Washington is broken and needs disruption. I hear that and agree.

In recent days, Nebraskans who voted for Donald Trump, or Hillary Clinton, or none of the above, have all asked me this question: Now what? For over a year, you were concerned about Donald Trumps character and about whether he recognizes the Constitutions limits on presidential power. So are you going to oppose him now, or will you get on the Trump train?

I get why folks are asking but, humbly, this shouldnt be an either-or question.

If you voted for our president-elect, you should not now become an uncritical follower. And if you voted against Mr. Trump, you should not now be a knee-jerk critic. (As has been reported, I voted for Mike Pence on my presidential ballot.)

Now that the people have spoken, every American has two patriotic duties regarding our president-elect and the policy agenda he will outline:

First, we root for him, and especially for his steady hand as commander in chief. We pray that God grants him wisdom and discernment in his new calling. (My family has prayed for him for weeks at our breakfast table and will do so every morning.)

Second, even as we hope for his personal effectiveness and success, we should all still argue for principles we believe in. In the American system, the vast majority of policy is to be made by the peoples legislative representatives  not by the executive branch or by unelected judges. And thus the Congress needs to hear from the people on the issues.

There will be disagreements  between neighbors, between the executive and legislative branches, between political parties. This is a good thing. This is an intentional feature of our system, not a bug.

The marketplace of ideas should be civil, but it should also be contested. We should disagree respectfully. Reflexive tribalism and reflexive partisanship are signs of a sick republic, not a healthy one. And so we should argue about Mr. Trumps coming proposals.

Millions of Americans  many inspired by Trump, but also a great many who are skeptical of him yet still reluctantly voted for him  understandably want Washington disrupted. Were demanding an end to self-dealing and the one-size-fits-all answers of that citys elite. Frankly, thats why I ran two years ago.

Yes, there are absolutely some things that worry me  from his comments surrounding our First Amendment freedoms to his trade agenda, which would make it harder for Nebraskas farming families  but while we wont agree on everything, I am also encouraged by the policies that he appears now to be prioritizing with a Republican Congress.

These include many items conservatives have long championed:

n Nominating judges who reject lawmaking from the bench.

n Ending cronyism with an ethics package that starts with term limits.

n Repealing Obamacare and replacing it with a system that empowers families and patients over bureaucrats.

n Securing our borders as a prerequisite to any rational national security policy.

n Passing big tax reform, aimed not chiefly at the marginal rates of the wealthiest but at lowering the cost of trying and succeeding in America.

n Repealing large portions of the Dodd-Frank Act that make it especially difficult for small banks to lend in Nebraska.

I am delighted there is a moment of opportunity to advance a conservative agenda. And President-Elect Trump has an opportunity to make that conservative agenda his own.

Some Nebraskans will be less zealous about parts of this agenda. Thats OK. No voter  whether thrilled or worried about our new president  should uncritically join his train or uncritically hope for his failure. All or nothing isnt how Americans think about government.

We are not North Koreans, swearing a loyalty oath to the Dear Leader. Nor are we the French Resistance, plotting against the new regime from day one. Rather, we should hope for his personal flourishing and his wisdom, and we should simultaneously vigorously debate his ideas.

Senators should not be reflexive antagonists. Nor should senators go along to get along. Rather, Im there to do what Nebraskans hired me to do: Uphold my oath to defend the Constitution regardless of partisan politics, hear and represent their concerns in Washington, fight for limited government and for the limitless potential of every American and look for big solutions that create more opportunity for all.

I am going to be looking for places where we share common ground with the president. Yes, there will also be times when Congress and the White House disagree  that is part of our system. Thats why the founders created different branches of government.

Lets get to work. Lets look for common ground. Lets reaffirm a Constitution that checks and balances the three branches of government.

And lets all hope for our presidents success.

The author is the junior U.S. senator representing Nebraska.
Phillies make history: Five homers off Astros starter in Game 3 win

McCullers, pitching in his first World Series game since 2017, became the first pitcher in postseason history to give up five home runs in a game.
Rudy Giuliani, a man who, in this Harry Potter fanfic, would certainly be cast as Voldemort's sister, is reportedly at the top of the list for Secretary of State.

If chosen for this position, Giuliani's bat wings will fly him all over the world, where he'll be free to make negotiations with other nations and take some pointers on expanding Constitutional freedoms from Vladimir Putin. He'll also be responsible for advising Trump on foreign policy and will supervise our immigration policy abroad, which is great news, considering how historically welcoming Giuliani's been to people of color.

Trump's been teasing his Cabinet of Horrors for the last week, but this potential appointment hits close to home. Yes, Rudy Giuliani was heralded as America's Mayor in the aftermath of 9/11, but a couple inspiring speeches in the aftermath of tragedya tragedy he actually made worsedoesn't erase two mayoral terms worth of civil liberty violations, racism, cuts to education, tax increases on the middle class, health care failures, police brutality, and ferret bans.

I understand that Giuliani was a source of comfort after 9/11. I was here, so you don't have to send me condescending emails about how I "don't know" what Giuliani did for this city. He had a few good press conferences and was vaguely funny on SNL when we needed it. But Giuliani was never really a hero. Our future Crypt Keeper of State failed to set up an adequate terrorism attack response after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, even though he crowed endlessly about how much experience he had in dealing with terrorism (he didn't). He stuck the Office of Emergency Management command center on the 23rd floor of 7 World Tradedespite the fact that the World Trade Center was already a proven terrorist targetand did not aid the office in preparing for large scale attacks.

He never established clear-cut protocols for fire and police departments or improved the 911 system, even though he collected tax money to do just that, so on 9/11 dispatchers were telling people who called in to stay put when they should have evacuated. Giuliani was accused, among other things, of failing to provide the World Trade Center's first responders with adequate radios and equipment, which led to a lot of confusion and probably a lot of deaths.

In the aftermath of 9/11, he did not push the Department of Environmental Protection to issue guidelines to test or clean up private buildings contaminated with asbestos, etc. from the collapsed Twin Towers, and he put the unprepared city Department of Design and Construction in control of recovery efforts instead of more able agencies like FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers. He then spent the next 15 years exploiting a national tragedy for his own political gain.

But of course, Giuliani's sterling legacy isn't just limited to how he fucked up 9/11. His administration was the subject of 26 civil liberty violation cases, 22 of which it lost. It was during his administration that the police force implemented stop and frisk, an unconstitutional tactic that exacerbated already fraught tension between cops and minorities.

Giuliani, meanwhile, spent half a decade refusing to meet with top black elected leaders, claiming that spurning them could "accomplish more for the black community." It was only after the death of Amadou Diallo, the unarmed Guinean immigrant who was shot and killed in the Bronx by police officers in 1999, that Giuliani even bothered reaching out. Indeed, this history of apparent disdain for non-white constituents bodes poorly for citizens of foreign nations that may soon have to deal with Secretary of State Giuliani.

"This is a guy who was largely tone deaf to the needs and concerns of minority New Yorkers throughout his two terms," Tom Robbins, an investigative reporter who spent years chronicling the Giuliani administration's endless scandals for the Village Voice, told Gothamist. "Even with the bad police shootings that we had here, he was astonishingly inept in his responses." Robbins recalled the shooting of Patrick Dorismond, a security guard who was mistakenly killed by undercover police officers in March of 2000. "Giuliani insisted he had to be in the wrong, and produced his juvenile record, and told the press he was 'no altar boy," Robbins said. "It turned out, in fact, that he was an altar boy."

Robbins also pointed out Giuliani's misdoings at the Department of Justice, when he was an Assistant Attorney General in the Reagan Administration. Then, Giuliani was detailed to handle a burgeoning Haitian refugee problem, with thousands of Haitians fleeing dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier.

"Giuliani made sure not only that Haitian refugees were held in essentially concentration camps, but he traveled to Haiti, he met with this dictator, pronounced him a fair ruler, and went and testified to Congress that there was no need for political refuge for those people, at the same time that Baby Doc was singling out his opponents and murdering them," Robbins said. "I just dread to think about him sitting down with Assad. These are people he has more in common with than opposition, I'm afraid."

Robbins added, "I fear Rudy could be the Rasputin of this administration."

It's also noteworthy that Giuliani's consulting firm has taken money from Venezuela, Qatar, and Iranian exiles, which is certainly a potential conflict of interest should he be Secretary of State (but let's point fingers at the Clinton Foundation!) Still, the other frontrunner for the appointment is former United Nations ambassador and outspoken war hawk John Bolton. Bolton notably pushed the Iraq War, called for the bombing of Iran, and has loudly criticized UN leadership.

Donald Trump will choose your poison.
Glen Carbon officials hope with the passing of the sales tax referendum, the proposed 2016 property tax levy could be lowered.

At the last regular meeting of the Board of Trustees, Glen Carbon Director of Finance Scott Borror presented for approval the tax levy estimate for 2016. Presented to the board after Finance and Administration Committee review, Borror said the tax levy estimate is $2,750,025.

This maximum levy estimate is a 4.839 percent increase from last year, he said.

Because we didnt go more than 5 percent higher we do not need a truth in taxation hearing.

Borror said the exercise is to establish, preliminarily, the maximum of what the levy could be before bringing it to the full board for final approval in December.

Village Administrator Jamie Bowden informed trustees that the number could change as the Finance Committee continues to work on the budget.

We set it high at this point, Bowden said. We try to get as close to our maximum as possible, but that doesnt mean that when the board approves the final levy it wont go down.

The property tax levy funds a variety of things in the village that include the General Fund, police, police pension fund, insurance and streets.

It is the funds that go to the streets that could result in a lower levy with the passing of the sales tax increase.

The street and bridge fund has an estimated $170,000, Borror said. One option that exists to lower the levy is that we could look at decreasing or eliminating the amount from the levy for streets because we now have sales tax revenue sources.

While the process of establishing the final levy amount is still ongoing, Mayor Rob Jackstadt said the village should always explore ways to reduce property taxes.

Tonight is the high estimate, he said. We need to look at ways to lower the real estate taxes and we have a lot of things to look at between now and December.

Jackstadt said the exercise is similar to a household calculating all of its expenses for a year and then requesting that amount of money.

We take a realistic look at our anticipated expenses and what we are going to need, he said. We have to levy the amount in the range of reasonableness for the future expense. It is a tremendous amount of work and Id like to thank the department heads and the finance committee for doing this. It takes a lot of work.

In other news related to the property taxes, the board of trustees unanimously adopted a resolution to abate a tax levy related to the repayment of a general obligation bond.

It was determined that the bond payment can be paid with water and sewer revenue. The approval eliminates $113,300 from the tax levy.
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Linkedin Chris Razook (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, November 15, 2016

Family businesses have long proven to be the engine of growth for many economies around the world, and Indonesia is no exception: More than 95 percent of the countrys businesses are family owned, generating millions of jobs and playing a pivotal role in the economy.

In the Asia Pacific, the top 85 family businesses employ more than 3 million people and account for 4.3 percent of the regions gross domestic product (Global Family Business Index, Center for Family Business, University of St. Gallen). In the EU and the US, roughly 85 percent of businesses are family run (Upton/ Petty).

However, family businesses often have short life spans with a mere 33 percent surviving the founder and an astounding 95 percent failing by the third generation, figures from the Family Business Network show. They often become victims of their own making, failing to prepare subsequent generations for the demands of a growing business and a much larger family network in many cases.

To cope with these challenges, it is high time for family governance to become part of the discussion around dinner tables in Indonesia. Such principles explain how family businesses should set up their governance structures, including the establishment of a well-structured board, a professional management team, sound control functions and proper shareholder and disclosure practices. They also introduce mechanisms to manage potential challenges within the family, such as family constitution, employment, succession planning, disputes and shareholding.

Numerous studies have shown that good governance can help companies improve performance through better decision-making, stronger risk management and enhanced efficiency; effective governance can also boost the confidence levels of potential investors and business partners, resulting in improved access to capital.

Through our investment work at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), we have seen firsthand the benefits of good governance in family businesses across all sectors.

Many Indonesian firms, such as Blue Bird Group, realize the business value in raising governance standards and have taken (or are in the process of taking) steps to do so.

As Indonesia undergoes rapid industrialization with an expected growth rate of around 5 percent a year, more and more foreign investment is pouring into the country; foreign direct investment rose 7.8 percent year-on-year to a record Rp 99.7 trillion in the third quarter of 2016. Foreign investors will want to seek trustworthy business partners and good governance will play a crucial part in their decision-making.

Investors will not only look at the governance of the business but also at the familys role in it: What is the background of this family? Where did their money come from? How is the family involved in the business and how will it be involved in the future? This is where family governance  not just corporate governance  becomes a crucial part of the equation. The unique challenge for family businesses is one of sustainability: Their long-term success is tied not only to the fundamentals of the business but also to the family behind the company.

Common Challenges: Based on IFCs own experience, common challenges afflicting many familyowned companies in Asia stem both from fundamental shortcomings in their corporate governance practices and particular issues relating to their familys role in the company:

 Boards of commissioners comprising mostly family and friends.

 Poorly functioning boards that meet infrequently with ad hoc proceedings.

 Informal management structures with ill-defined policies and processes.

 Nepotistic employment practices with family members holding key positions regardless of whether they are qualified.

 Key-person risk and concentrated decision-making, typically with the founder or family patriarch

 Lack of transparency outside (and sometimes even inside) the family.

The challenges for a family business will change as the company goes from generation to generation. For example, during the first or founder generation, the main concerns relate to core issues of succession and survivability. As the founders children take over, these concerns will have shifted to maintaining the family vision and ownership while integrating an increasing number of outsiders.

In the third generation, when there are often dozens of family members with some form of interest in the business, the challenges are more about managing disputes and family participation in the business while balancing the varied interests across the cousin confederation.

In general, Indonesian companies wishing to raise their family governance standards should:

 Address the corporate governance of the business itself, starting with a well-structured board of commissioners and sound control functions.

 Ensure succession planning for both family and non-family members is being adequately addressed by the board.

 Undertake measures to professionalize the management team, including merit-based employment and formal accountability and incentive mechanisms.

As a family, consider employing particular family governance mechanisms, such as a family constitution, family council and other key family policies to help govern the relationship between the family and the business.

Every company is different and will require its own practical approach to governance. Changes should also be done at the right pace based on business needs and what works for the company. For example, some family businesses opt for setting up an advisory board of select individuals who can provide strategic advice to the company, rather than making major changes to the composition of its board of commissioners right away.

Once they become comfortable with the advisory board and the way it functions, they would transform it into a full board of commissioners. Likewise, some family firms hire outside professionals to key executive positions such as CFO or COO as a way to test non-family members and strengthen the capacity of the management team.

Various tactics can be adopted over time to make the notion of having outsiders involved in the business more palatable for the family.

Once a family business brings in outside investors, improving governance practices, particularly in terms of board structure and shareholder practices, will become an imperative. Such investors, while placing faith in the family by investing in the first place, will naturally want to ensure that their interests are appropriately balanced with those of the family.

None of this needs to be onerous or daunting for a family firm. Practicality should prevail in such matters and improved governance will foster the companys success for the next generation and beyond.

---------------

We are looking for information, opinions, and in-depth analysis from experts or scholars in a variety of fields. We choose articles based on facts or opinions about general news, as well as quality analysis and commentary about Indonesia or international events. Send your piece to community@jakpost.com. For more information click here.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
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Linkedin I Gede Wahyu Wicaksana (The Jakarta Post) Surabaya  Tue, November 15, 2016

No one can be sure as to how US president-elect Donald Trump will lead America and play its world role. However, what happens under the new administration does not directly relate to the realities of the presidential campaign.

When Trump is in the White House, two circumstances will remain at work in US foreign policy: the dynamics of great power politics and internal political pressures.

For this reason, Trump does not have wide space to maneuver Americas external conduct in a way that completely contradicts the outgoing Barack Obama governments foreign policy. It, in turn, affects Jakarta-Washington relations.

The three most important parts of US international affairs are Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. There Washington is facing the increasingly significant presence of world powers, mainly China and Russia.

(Read also: Future of the global economy after Trump's victory)

This is certainly not about retaining the balance of power between US-China-Russia triangular ties, because there are not effective quantitative or qualitative measurements to approach the situation of being balanced in great power politics.

Since the 1990s, however, the US has been building an American order through the expansion of values, norms and institutions aimed at serving its global interests for security and wealth. Interrupting the US order, the Chinese and the Russians are making alternative choices that are by some means attractive to regional states.

That allows for the development of the so-called beyond American order. Therefore, the primary objective of US foreign policy is to maintain the favorable systems and mechanisms achieved after the Cold War, including regional economic and political cooperation.

Although Trump launched many provocative plans about the US standing against the existing order, the thriving rearrangement of global politics will prevent Trumps US from making radical changes with the potential to disrupt efforts to stabilize the American order.

Within this context, the policy on strengthening diplomacy and multilateralism, instead of waging war and unilateralism, is the more rational course of action for the US.

On the domestic front, postelection politics in the US are also an important factor to thwart Trumps controversial ideas being materialized.

With the high level of education and humanitarian awareness, the American public and civil society continue to put strong social pressure on politicians who wish to implement policies of intolerance toward a particular culture, religion, community or nation.

Even though Trumps victory over candidate Hillary Clinton was astonishing, it does not necessarily mean that most Americans like what he has said and done. Arguably, the majority of voters wanted the country to be led by a leader from outside the political circles that have been in bitter quarrels and vying against one another, causing unpleasant impacts for the people.

The political gamble is advantageous for a newcomer like Trump. However, the incoming president will be closely watched by people who are inclusive, democratic and aware about the inevitability of the globalizing world society.

With this in mind, Indonesians should not be worried about Trump. Washington has no valid reason to be hostile toward Jakarta. Indonesia is still continually important to the US strategic Asia policy. Good relationships between the two sides shaped by Obama are the modality for Trump to keep Indonesia in the loop.

First, Indonesia is the largest ASEAN country and mover of various regional economic and political organizations in the Asia Pacific, in which the US is engaged.

(Read also: COMMENTARY: What does Trumps win mean for the Indonesian economy?)

The US order such as the war on terror received large legitimacy due to the work of the ASEAN Regional Forum.

That is why withdrawing from, or at least reducing roles in, such regionalism means making room for the promoters and supporters of beyond the American order, most likely the Chinese dream, to broaden the scope of their involvement in the Asia-Pacific region, something that the US does not want to take place.

Second, Jakartas declared global maritime axis doctrine and policy, which demonstrate a closer connection with China, followed up with multibillion dollar infrastructure investments, can be comprehended by Washington as a signal of the attempt to decrease dependence on the US.

The populist nationalist leaders in Jakarta who seek to postpone deals on a PT Freeport Indonesia contract extension are clear evidence that the American economic order is challengeable. Thus, can the American government take a harsh stance on Indonesia on the issue? Perhaps it cannot on account of the cost being higher than the benefit.

Third, in nontraditional foreign policy areas, such as the fight against transnational terrorism and radicalism, Indonesia plays a significant role as a bilateral partner of the US. Trump, who showed unfavorable views about the Muslim world, cannot ignore that the more than 200 million Indonesian Muslims are not only a matter of numbers, but also of quality, in the US war on terror.

Then, the question for the Indonesian side is how Jakarta can benefit from the strategic importance and advance its bebas aktif (free and active) foreign policy toward the new US leadership.

Bebas aktif does not connote a prohibition of becoming part of any external orders, yet it suggests independence against outside influences, and bases action merely on the interests of Indonesians.

---------------

We are looking for information, opinions, and in-depth analysis from experts or scholars in a variety of fields. We choose articles based on facts or opinions about general news, as well as quality analysis and commentary about Indonesia or international events. Send your piece to community@jakpost.com. For more information click here.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
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Linkedin Ni Nyoman Wira (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, November 15, 2016

In accordance with World Diabetes Day that falls on Nov. 14, science and technology company Merck has announced its list of 2016 Diabetes Award winners from universities in Africa and Asia.

On the list is Najmah Kuddah, a student with the School of Medicine at the University of Indonesia.

Indonesia has the worlds fifth largest population with diabetes, yet 73.7 percent of it goes undiagnosed due to a lack of awareness. This could be someone we love, Najmah said in a press release.

This award means everything to me. I can do something for my family and my country.

(Read also: Why breakfast is a must for adolescents)

Prior to the announcement, the award committee received 500 concept submission applications from medical students from universities across Africa and Asia.

The competition invited participants to propose ideas to improve the early detection and prevention of diabetes in their own countries, as well as encourage their societies, scientific communities, local authorities, media outlets and relevant stakeholders to think and act on diabetes-related issues every day.

Ten participants were selected as winners and, in addition to Indonesia, they hail from Kenya, India, Uganda, Ghana and the United Arab Emirates. All winners will receive a one year postgraduate diabetes diploma from the University of South Wales in the United Kingdom.

The Merck Diabetes Award is part of the Merck Capacity Advancement Program launched in April this year. (kes)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, November 15, 2016

A study conducted by WWF Indonesia has found that the majority of coral reefs in waters around Southeast Sulawesi have been damaged. The lack of hard coral cover, high rubble cover and high sedimentation rates are signs that the underwater ecosystem is in a dire state.

Several factors have caused this serious threat against Southeast Sulawesis coral reefs. As reported by tempo.co, WWF Indonesia sea conservation coordinator Estradivari said on Sunday that the coral damage had been caused by the rise of nickel mining activities in the province.

Aside from that, an outbreak of coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish posed a threat to the coral ecosystem, with the presence of 30 of the starfish per location according to data obtained from Oct. 14 to 25.

Moreover, Estradivari noted that blast fishing, the practice of using explosives to kill large numbers of fish, was recorded to have struck a single location seven times  enough destruction to threaten the reefs ecosystem. Another factor that has threatened the underwater ecosystem is the exploitation of coral to become foundational supports for houses in some coastal villages.

(Read also: Things to know about coral reefs and their importance)

Anung Wijaya, conservation and rehabilitation staff member at the Southeast Sulawesi Fisheries and Marine Agency, said his team had conducted biophysical studies to assess the relevance between different regions and optimize the design of a marine conservation network in Southeast Sulawesi.

The study results recommended the establishment of three organizations under a conservation network, namely the Marine National Park (TWAL), Losolo Bay and the Regional Sea Conservation Area (KKPD).

"Southeast Sulawesi, which 75 percent water, is a sea with much potential with its rich biodiversity," said Anung.

He hoped the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry would soon confirm the plan to immediately deal with coral reef damage. Currently, the provinces KKPD has begun management plan preparation and conservation area zoning. (mra/kes)
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Linkedin Alicia A. Caldwell (Associated Press)  Tue, November 15, 2016

Immigration was a top issue in his campaign, and President-elect Donald Trump's promises are about to be put to the test. A look at immigrants in the US by the numbers:

Immigrants in US illegally: about 11 million.

Criminal immigrants: As of 2012, government estimated 1.9 million immigrants were convicted criminals and could face deportation.

Criminal immigrants in US illegally: Migration Policy Institute in Washington estimates about 820,000 of the criminal immigrants came illegally.

Deportations under President Barack Obama: More than 2.5 million.

(Read also: 'We're not going anywhere': Millennials march against Trump)

Deportation costs: Average cost of each deportation is about $12,500, according to a 2011 government estimate.

Immigration court backlog: More than 521,000 cases pending in federal immigration court, according to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

Immigrants with pending deportation orders: 88,128 as of 2015, according to Executive Office for Immigration Review at Justice Department.

Young immigrants protected from deportation by Obama administration: More than 741,000 approved for deferred action, which shields them from deportation and authorizes them to legally work.

Border fence: About 650 miles of fencing already in place along US border with Mexico, in parts of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

Length of US-Mexico border: Roughly 2,000 miles.

Border Patrol agents: 18,321 agents patrol US border with Mexico.

Arrests at border: 408,870 people were arrested trying to cross border illegally during 2016 budget year that ended Sept. 30.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, November 15, 2016

Jakarta governor candidate Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono said during a campaign stop in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, Tuesday, he would increase the number of absorption wells in flood prone areas to mitigate the disaster risk.

Flooding is a complicated problem, but for me the solution is to make absorption wells, he said on Jl. Kebon Bawang.

Agus said Jakartas water management should shift from horizontal drainage to vertical absorption.

He said if he was elected governor he would empower the communities to make the wells.

Absorption wells are not only the responsibility of the administration but also of the people, he said as quoted by Antara news agency.

Residents were enthusiastic to meet him and they commented on his looks.

Agus is running for the 2017 election with former Central Jakarta mayor Sylviana Murni as his running mate. (evi)
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Linkedin Indra Budiari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, November 15, 2016

A series of rejections by locals have prompted incumbent gubernatorial candidate Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama to change his campaign style. On Monday, Ahoks campaign team launched a center where the governor will be available to receive residents who wish to lodge reports and complaints about city-related matters.

The center, called Rumah Lembang, is located on Jl. Lembang, Menteng, Central Jakarta. Immediately after its inauguration, Rumah Lembang received dozens of Jakartans who arrived to see Ahok and convey their support for the beleaguered governor. They reported problems related to land ownership, potable water, road infrastructure and traffic.

Ahok promised to follow up on the complaints via Qlue, a mobile app through which users can file reports on problems in the city.

We will pass it on to Qlue, just like how other people process their public complaints. Some people said they wanted to file a complaint but didnt know how to use Qlue, he said on the sidelines of the launch of Rumah Lembang.

Several people took the opportunity to have a picture taken with Ahok. Others conveyed support for the governor, who is facing legal pressure over alleged blasphemy.

I dont agree that Bapak [Ahok] should drop out of the race. You have to promise me that you will keep moving forward whatever the situation, said Afni, a resident of Sunter, North Jakarta.

Ahok said he would continue to carry out blusukan (impromptu visits) during the campaign period.

Were aware that people who have expelled us and put up banners rejecting [our presence] are actually not residents of areas where they have staged protests, Ahok said.

During a campaign stop in Rawa Belong, West Jakarta, on Nov. 2, Ahok was rushed to safety by security personnel after people protested his presence and accused him of committing blasphemy.

A week later, Ahok had to cancel a visit to Kedoya, West Jakarta, after a group of people claiming to be local residents rejected his presence for the same reason.

Candidate Agus Harimurti, meanwhile, has promised to give Rp 1 billion (US$74,489) to each community unit (RW) every year. Let me repeat this once again, Rp 1 billion per year. Rp 1 billion, Agus said to the thunderous applause of hundreds of people who attended his campaign event in Gelanggang Remaja, North Jakarta, on Sunday evening.

A similar program was also launched by then Jakarta governor Fauzi Bowo in 2008 known as the Subdistrict Resident Empowerment Program (PPMK). However, at the time the programs effectiveness was questionable because although it was designated to assist micro businesses, many of the poor families used the money to cover daily and educational expenses.

Former minister and gubernatorial candidate Anies Baswedan, meanwhile, opted to visits residents of Jembatan Lima subdistrict in Tambora, West Jakarta, on Monday. The area often makes headlines for the many fires that break out there.

Anies went to a house of an elderly person who suffered burn wounds in a fire earlier this month.

Please be patient, God would not test you beyond your limits, he said.

Separately, an Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI) political analyst, Siti Zuhro, said separately that Ahok and running mate Djarot Saiful Hidayat had no choice but to receive supporters at the center because a number of residents had collectively rejected them.

They have no other choice than to be passive like that as I doubt that hundreds of barricades could be erected to protect them during the campaign period. She told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

She added that several things could be learned from this case.

First was that public rejection should not be underestimated. Public rejection is a reflection of their distaste. By rejecting Ahok and Djarot, the public is indirectly saying We dont choose you, she said.

Second was that Indonesian people do not like arrogant and ostentatious leaders. (caw/vny)
Modesta Toribio sat in her office in Jackson Heights, Queens, Saturday afternoon, as her 4-year-old daughter made a poster asking President-elect Donald Trump to let her immigrant friends stay in the United States.

"I don't think we're going to be safe in New York City, but we're not going anywhere," she says. Toribio immigrated to New York from the Dominican Republic 13 years ago. She works as an organizer at the immigrant advocacy group Make The Road New York and last Tuesday she spent the day getting out the vote on Long Island. She says she felt certain that Hillary Clinton was going to win the presidential election. When Trump emerged victorious, Toribio and her colleagues, as well as the immigrant clients they serve, were shocked and horrified.

By the time she came into her office on Wednesday, she says, people looked like "there had been a terrorist attack."

"I wanted to cry, but now we have to begin preparing for the worst," she said. Since Trump's election, the organization's phones have been ringing nonstop.

Trump's election has cast a pall over immigrant communities across the United States, as they face the reality of a president who has promised to build a wall along the border with Mexico, deport millions of undocumented immigrants, and ban Muslims from entering the country. Trump will inherit an extensive deportation apparatus that has been beefed up by the Obama Administration, with support from a Republican-controlled congress. President Obama has presided over the deportation of more immigrants than any of his predecessors in office.

In the past eight years, the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has cracked down harshly on New York City's immigrant communities. New York's "sanctuary city" policies prohibit coordination and information-sharing between city agencies and the federal immigration authorities, but the city does not have the power to prevent ICE from operating within its bounds. ICE agents have conducted hundreds of raids in the city, entering homes and picking up people from courthouses.

Immigrant advocates and organizers fear the raids will only get worse under a Trump presidency.

"We don't have four years to get through, and we certainly don't have eight years," said Abraham Paulos, executive director of Families for Freedom, an organization that works with immigrants who come into contact with the criminal justice system.



(Scott Lynch / Gothamist)

In an interview that aired Sunday night, Trump said he would focus his deportation efforts on individuals with criminal convictions, much in keeping with President Obama's current immigration policy. New York City politicians have pledged to protect immigrant communities, but for many, that pledge feels toothless.

"We need to just go to the basics and organize, because we have no reason to believe any word our politicians say," Paulos said. "You've already done nothing to stop home raids that are already happening."

Paulos also expressed concern about data the city has collected for Mayor de Blasio's ID NYC initiative, which offers identification to New Yorkers regardless of immigration status.

The legislation that created that program includes provisions for the destruction of data that may compromise the security of participants. Mayor Bill de Blasio has said his administration will invoke these provisions if necessary.

The mayor has also more broadly pledged to defend immigrants, but has not yet offered specifics on his plans to do so.

One of Trump's main campaign promises was the immediate repeal of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program that has allowed young immigrants who register with immigration authorities to avoid deportation. DACA was created through executive order, which means Trump could cancel it with the stroke of a pen. If he does so, over 36,000 immigrants in New York State are at risk for deportation. ICE already has their names and addresses on file.

Even if Trump chooses not to immediately end DACA, his plans to target immigrants with criminal records threaten thousands of New Yorkers. People could be deported for crimes "involving moral turpitude," which could mean anything from turnstile jumping, selling counterfeit goods, or petty theft. Any type of criminal record could put an individual into deportation proceedings, even if they stand a good chance at winning their case eventually.

"Think about itover a third of New York City is foreign born. One in nine have a criminal record. If they don't come for us today, they'll come for us tomorrow," Paulos said.



(Scott Lynch / Gothamist)

On Sunday, the day after I met with Toribio in Jackson Heights, Make The Road, as well as several other immigrant rights organizations, led a march through midtown Manhattan to protest Trump. At the march, thousands of people voiced their anger at Trump's immigration policy plans, as well as his stance on women's and LGBTQ rights.

Daniel Altschuler, the director of civic engagement and research at Make The Road, has been a critic of the Obama Administration's immigration policies, but he said he sees the threat posed by a President Trump as far graver.

"We've called Obama the 'deporter-in-chief,' and his administration has been harrowing for many people in the immigrant community," Altschuler told Gothamist. "That being said, the rhetoric and the threats of Donald Trump have a qualitative difference in the scale of the threat. We see someone who has vowed to attack communities. Someone who has vowed to not only continue to expand the immigration enforcement apparatus, but to attack cities and jurisdictions that have taken steps to integrate and protect immigrants."

Undocumented immigrants do not have a right to counsel in immigration proceedings, though in New York City, almost 90 percent of immigrants detained by federal authorities receive a lawyer. (Nationally, less than 40 percent go through deportation proceedings with legal representation.)

In 2013, the City Council created the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project, which established the nation's first network of public defenders for immigrants facing deportation.

The city's legal service organizations are girding for heavy caseloads of immigrant clients, as the prospect of mass deportations looms.

"Right now, we're thinking through the ways that people are going to be targeted and found and how we can provide training to folks, and how we could do deportation defense and create support teams that are standing by ready to help," said Alisa Wellek, the executive director of the Immigrant Defense Project.

"We're planning to use the last few years as a blueprint for the tactics that we can expect to see, but ramped up. Under Trump, we might go back to the types of large-scale raids that we saw during the Bush years, and not so much from Obama, who focused on home raids and smaller actions."

Wellek says state lawmakers could be a key ally on efforts to shield the city's immigrants from a federal crackdownif Albany is interested in helping.

"There's a lot of room for criminal justice reform on the state level that could protect immigrants from deportation," Wellek told Gothamist. This could include Governor Andrew Cuomo pardoning immigrants with low-level criminal convictions on their records, or pressuring prosecutors not to over-charge individuals arrested for minor violations. On the city level, the de Blasio Administration could roll back "broken windows" policing practices that criminalize acts like fare-beating or drinking in public.

"There's a lot that could be done given the nightmarish scenario we're now in," Wellek said.

But time is short. Trump will take office in just two months.

"We don't know what's going to happen," Toribio said. "But for now, we have to take Trump at his word."

The President-elect said Sunday he would immediately deport two to three million immigrants.
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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, November 15, 2016

Jakarta governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama would not attend the blasphemy case screening on Tuesday at the National Police office due to scheduled campaign activities, his lawyer has said.

"He has confirmed that he can't come. He is scheduled to receive residents at Rumah Lembang," Ahok's lawyer Sirra Prayuna said at National Police headquarters on Tuesday, referring to Ahok's campaign secretariat on Jl. Lembang, Central Jakarta.

Eighty lawyers from Ahok's legal team will represent him at the screening.

The team will take nine witnesses, comprising three eyewitnesses, two criminal law experts, two religious experts and two language experts, to the case screening.

A case screening is part of a crime investigation prior to the police deciding whether or not to name someone a suspect.

(Read also: Police retract plan to televise case screening of Ahok blasphemy allegation)

Previously, National Police chief Tito Karnavian said that Ahok would invite a Quran expert from Egypt, Sheikh Amr Wardani, an ulema from Al-Azhar University, to testify for him. However, Sirra said that the expert was unable to come to the case screening.

"He can't come because a relative is sick," he said.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, November 15, 2016

Jakarta gubernatorial candidate Anies Baswedan has promised to upgrade the Jakarta Smart Card (KJP) to a KJP Plus in an attempt to earn support from residents ahead of next year's election.

During a campaign event in the Pasar Manggis subdistrict of Setiabudi in South Jakarta, Anies, who rode in on a delman (traditional horse-drawn carriage) together with his wife, said the KJP Plus was aimed at improving residents' social and economic condition in line with his promise to create sustainable development in the city without neglecting welfare.

"Not only are we going to continue the KJP program, we will improve it" he said, drawing applause from dozens of residents.

He promised the current student support program, introduced by then-Jakarta governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, would not be terminated. Many residents have expressed concern that, should the incumbent candidate Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama and his running mate Djarot Saiful Hidayat fail to retain their positions, the program will be ended.

(Read also: Two ex-KPK commissioners join Anies-Sandi campaign team)

Anies promised to increase the amount of money disbursed to each card holder. School dropout would also be able to benefit from the program, so that they would have money to join a course, the former education and culture minister added.

Currently, each student from low-income families receives between Rp 200,000 (US$15) and Rp 670,000 per month.

"The recipients of KJP [funds] will also be able to hold the Indonesia Smart Card (KIP)," he said, referring to the nationwide version of the KJP.

Anies has frequently promoted the programs and said most residents he met during his gubernatorial campaign were demanding a governor that pays serious attention to social welfare, particularly with regard to health and education. (fac/jun)
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Linkedin Juliana Harsianti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, November 15 2016

Pick me: Different coffee beans and brands are on display during the coffee clinic in Jakarta.

But first, coffee was the tagline of a coffee drinking program held by the Embassy of Australia in cooperation with Anomali Coffee Jakarta.

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Linkedin Dylan Amirio (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, November 15 2016

Bank Indonesia (BI) on Monday officially launched a financial technology (fintech) office to monitor the services offered by the young and thriving industry so as to ensure innovation continues and consumers simultaneously enjoy security.



BI governor Agus Martowardojo described the new office as an advisory hub for all fintech companies operating in Indonesia and as a facilitator to help the industry expand further and ensure greater financial inclusion in a country where half the population does not have access to banks.



As part of its office, BI plans to monitor the development of fintech companies through its regulatory sandbox, a sort of laboratory where ideas on innovation are shared between regulators and fintech players so they can be tested and evaluated with the central banks supervision before they go commercial.



It is a method that has been adopted by other countries such as Singapore and the UK to foster their small, yet booming fintech industries.



The focus for the sandbox will be on facilitating interactions, on monitoring the development of business innovation and cyber security and on consumer protection, which will be the most important aspect to consider, BI deputy governor Ronald Waas said on Monday.



BI will have a direct hands-on role in the sandbox, as it would require input from fintech firms as well to draft new relevant regulations.



As a further boost to the industry, the Financial Services Authority (OJK) said that its proper fintech regulation, which will benefit third-party fintech players such as startups, would likely be ready by the end of the year.



The incentives given by regulators to the industry are the ecosystem for them to grow in, said the OJKs deputy commissioner for non-bank institution supervision, Dumoly Pardede.



The OJK already has an existing digital finance regulation, but it only applies to traditional financial players, such as banks.



The continuing rise of fintech services and digital payments in Indonesia is due partly to the increasing number of internet users nationwide. BI noted that there are approximately 90 million internet users, which roughly accounts for 35 percent of the population. By 2020, the country hopes to have more than 100 million users.



There are about 120 fintech firms, mostly startups, currently operating in Indonesia in separate segments, such as peer-to-peer lending, e-wallets, crowdfunding and financial settlements, OJK data show. Total transactions within the fintech platforms are forecast to reach $14.5 billion with an annual growth rate of 18.8 percent expected until 2020, according to market statistics portal Statista.



Fintech players welcomed BIs new fintech office.



Its a good point of entry to have people who are willing to push the industry forward, especially in BI because it has the ability to recommend to other ministries and institutions to harness the industry further, said Boan Sianipar, vice president of business development and government affairs at the one-year-old fintech firm, Xendit.

-------------------

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Linkedin Dylan Amirio (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, November 15, 2016

Bank Indonesia (BI) on Monday officially launched a financial technology (fintech) office to monitor the services offered by the young and thriving industry so as to ensure innovation continues and consumers simultaneously enjoy security.

BI governor Agus Martowardojo described the new office as an advisory hub for all fintech companies operating in Indonesia and as a facilitator to help the industry expand further and ensure greater financial inclusion in a country where half the population does not have access to banks.

As part of its office, BI plans to monitor the development of fintech companies through its regulatory sandbox, a sort of laboratory where ideas on innovation are shared between regulators and fintech players so they can be tested and evaluated with the central banks supervision before they go commercial.

It is a method that has been adopted by other countries such as Singapore and the UK to foster their small, yet booming fintech industries.

The focus for the sandbox will be on facilitating interactions, on monitoring the development of business innovation and cyber security and on consumer protection, which will be the most important aspect to consider, BI deputy governor Ronald Waas said on Monday.

BI will have a direct hands-on role in the sandbox, as it would require input from fintech firms as well to draft new relevant regulations.

As a further boost to the industry, the Financial Services Authority (OJK) said that its proper fintech regulation, which will benefit third-party fintech players such as startups, would likely be ready by the end of the year.

The incentives given by regulators to the industry are the ecosystem for them to grow in, said the OJKs deputy commissioner for non-bank institution supervision, Dumoly Pardede.

The OJK already has an existing digital finance regulation, but it only applies to traditional financial players, such as banks.

The continuing rise of fintech services and digital payments in Indonesia is due partly to the increasing number of internet users nationwide. BI noted that there are approximately 90 million internet users, which roughly accounts for 35 percent of the population. By 2020, the country hopes to have more than 100 million users.

There are about 120 fintech firms, mostly startups, currently operating in Indonesia in separate segments, such as peer-to-peer lending, e-wallets, crowdfunding and financial settlements, OJK data show. Total transactions within the fintech platforms are forecast to reach $14.5 billion with an annual growth rate of 18.8 percent expected until 2020, according to market statistics portal Statista.

Fintech players welcomed BIs new fintech office.

Its a good point of entry to have people who are willing to push the industry forward, especially in BI because it has the ability to recommend to other ministries and institutions to harness the industry further, said Boan Sianipar, vice president of business development and government affairs at the one-year-old fintech firm, Xendit.
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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, November 15, 2016

Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), the countrys biggest lender, will provide banking services such as customer management, payroll and electronic payments to Lion Air.

BRI president director Asmawi Syam said after the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Tuesday that the airline would benefit from the bank's advanced technology, including in satellites. Meanwhile, BRI can also access Lion Air's value chain such as travel agents and other airline supporting business.

"We can give loans to the travel agents and other airline vendors," he said at his office in Jakarta.

Asmawi said the bank would also participate in the airlines plan to build a small and medium enterprise (SME) center in Manado, North Sulawesi. The bank is interested in re-branding the building to become BRI SME Center.

Lion Air president director Edward Sirait said the SME center would be built nearby the 170-room Lion International Hotel.

This is in accordance with the company's plan to increase the number of flights between the city and China.

"We hope to attract 4,000 Chinese tourists a week. It is a big opportunity for SMEs in Manado to sell their handicraft to tourists," Edward said.

Currently, the airline serves direct flights to Manado from six cities in China, namely Changsha, Chongqing, Macau, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Wuhan. (evi)
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Linkedin Haeril Halim and Nurul Fitri Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, November 15 2016

The effectiveness of the countrys deradicalization program has been put under scrutiny in the wake of the attack at a church in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, on Sunday, the chief suspect in which is a former terrorism convict.

The National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) has blamed poor coordination among related institutions for the failure to monitor terrorism convicts in society after they have finished their prison sentences.

The BNPT has become the subject of criticism since it became known that Johanda, the suspected perpetrator of the Samarinda attack, which claimed the life of a toddler and left three others injured, had returned to join radical groups after he was released on parole in July 2014.

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Linkedin Christina A. Cassidy (Associated Press) Atlanta, United States  Tue, November 15, 2016

Reported hate crimes against Muslims rose in 2015 to their highest number since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to FBI statistics released Monday.

Overall, the total number of hate crimes against all groups reported by law enforcement agencies to the FBI increased from 5,479 in 2014 to 5,850 last year. That remains far lower than the numbers seen in the early 2000s, but the FBI release comes amid numerous reports of attacks nationwide based on race and religion following last week's presidential election.

The most recent reporting covers calendar year 2015, which included the terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, as well as Republican Donald Trump's call for a ban on all Muslims entering the US. All of those, however, did not occur until the final two months of the year.

It's not yet known whether Trump plans to implement such a ban now that he has won the presidency. Critics say his pledge has contributed to anti-Muslim sentiment.

"We've seen how words from public figures like Donald Trump translate into violence," said Mark Potok with the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups in the US

Last year, there were 257 reported incidents of anti-Muslim bias compared to 154 the year before, a 67 percent increase. The number of reported hate crimes against Muslims peaked at 481 in 2001.

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said he was not surprised to see the large increase in 2015 and said he expects the trend to continue.

"We saw a spike in anti-Muslim incidents nationwide beginning toward the end of 2015. That spike has continued until today and even accelerated after the election of President-elect Trump," Hooper said.

There have been reports of racist and anti-religious incidents around the country since the Nov. 8 election.

Two students at a vocational school in York County, Pennsylvania, held a Donald Trump sign in a hallway as someone shouted "white power," an incident captured on video and widely shared on Facebook.

In Silver Spring, Maryland, a banner advertising a Spanish-language service at an Episcopal church was slashed and the words "Trump nation. Whites only" were written on the back.

Authorities on two California State University campuses, in San Diego and San Jose, were investigating reports that two women wearing headscarves were attacked. At San Diego State University, authorities said a Muslim woman had her car keys and vehicle stolen by two men who targeted her while she wore a hijab and made comments about Donald Trump's election.

At the same time, a videotaped assault in Chicago showed black men beating a white man as onlookers screamed, "You voted Trump!"

On Sunday, Trump said he had not heard reports that some of his supporters might be harassing minorities.

"I am so saddened to hear that," Trump said during an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes." ''And I say, stop it. If it, if it helps, I will say this and I will say right to the cameras: Stop it."

According to the FBI report, the majority of hate crimes were motivated by bias against race or ethnicity. Of the 4,216 victims of a hate crime motivated by race or ethnicity, 52 percent were black, 18.7 percent were white and 9.3 percent were Hispanic or Latino. Crimes against Jews increased about 9 percent, while bias incidents involving sexual orientation were up 3.5 percent.

Civil rights groups have expressed concern that a Trump administration could radically reshape the US Department of Justice, particularly when it comes to policing but also in terms of the priority placed on hate crimes. Those concerns were compounded over the weekend after Trump named as his chief White House strategist Steve Bannon, who came to his campaign from Breitbart News. Under his leadership, the Breitbart website became one of the leading outlets of the so-called alt-right, a movement often associated with far-right efforts to preserve "white identity" and oppose multiculturalism.

Michael Lieberman with the Anti-Defamation League said there have been "unprecedented efforts" to address hate crimes in recent years, from outreach to law enforcement, community meetings and an emphasis on cooperation among federal agencies.

Any increases, including the ones seen in anti-Muslim crimes, could be due in part to more reporting by victims as well as better reporting and tracking by law enforcement agencies. The number of law enforcement agencies sending data on hate crimes to the FBI decreased by about 3 percent in 2015.

An AP investigation earlier this year found 17 percent of local law enforcement agencies had not submitted a single hate crime report during the past six years as part of the FBI's tracking program, prompting concerns that an undercount was masking the true scope of hate and bias crimes in the US

"Gaps in participation and incomplete reporting demonstrate materially that this work must continue, and we will be pressing the Trump Justice Department and US attorneys so this important work will be ongoing," Lieberman said.

___

Associated Press writers Deepti Hajela in New York City and Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama, contributed to this report.
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, November 15 2016

The number of homestays in Thousand Islands regency has risen significantly in the past four years, thanks to an increase in demand by budget travelers.

Based on data released by Bank Indonesias (BI) Jakarta office, by 2015 the islands had 322 homestays, with several more under construction. This figure compares with 278 homestays in 2014.

However, the regency has seen little increase in the number of resorts or restaurants since 2013.

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Officers from the NYPD's Collision Investigation Squad have arrested a suspect in the hit-and-run killing of Matthew von Ohlen, a Queens man who was fatally struck by the driver of a black Chevy Camaro while biking in a Williamsburg bike lane in July.

A police source told Gothamist that the arrest was made this morning at 8:30. The suspect, 56-year-old Juan Maldonado, resides in South Williamsburg. He was indicted this afternoon in Brooklyn Supreme Court on eight counts including second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and leaving the scene of an accident. Bail was set at $100,000.

Video surveillance recovered from the scene of the crash shows that the 35-year-old was riding in a designated bike lane when he was struck. Law enforcement sources told Pix11 in July that the driverwho was shielded by tinted windowsmay have struck von Ohlen intentionally, slowing down and moving into the bike lane to strike him.

The charges filed today, carrying a top sentence of 15 years, imply recklessnessnot intentionality.

"This was not an accident," said acting District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, "but rather a reckless act for which we intend to hold this defendant accountable."

Von Ohlen was biking home from a shift as a bartender at Apotheke in Manhattan on the morning of July 2nd when he was struck in front of 690 Grand Street in Williamsburg, between Manhattan and Graham Avenues. The crash took place around 2:20 a.m.

The DA said Tuesday that, according to an investigation, Maldonado "swerved" into the bike lane on Grand Street and sped through a red light before striking von Ohlen. He then "hit the victim's bicycle from behind causing the victim to fall. The defendant continued driving, running over the victim and dragging him approximately 10 to 20 feet as he sped away."

The last update on the von Ohlen case came on July 6th, four days after von Ohlen's death. At the time, police identified the Camaro allegedly involved in the crash and confirmed that a suspect had been identified based on the vehicle's registration. Since then, radio silence on the case and a marked uptick in cyclist ticketing on Grand Street has angered and puzzled safe streets advocates.

The NYPD source said Tuesday that DNA evidence has linked both von Ohlen and Maldonado to the Camaro.

Von Ohlen started Bikestock with partner Joseph Huba in 2013.

Following his death, eight friends got matching tattoos of his initials, and helped spray-paint sections of the memorial bicycle. Von Ohlen's girlfriend made a plaster mold of her hand in the classic rocker symbol, which friends mounted between the handlebars and topped with a pair of antlers. The water bottle cage holds a white-painted Old Overholt bottle, emptied out so that friends and family can slip messages inside.

"I lost one of these anchors in my world," said Logan Gilbert, von Ohlen's longtime roommate in San Francisco and fellow NYC bartender.

Mayor de Blasio pledged to catch and punish more hit-and-run drivers during his annual Vision Zero check-in last December, and recently passed legislation doubling hit-and-run fines. But arrest rates are still below 50 percent. Of 38 fatal hit-and-run crashes between July 2015 and June 2016the most up-to-date statistics available13, or 34 percent, have resulted in an arrest.

Transportation Alternatives Director Paul Steely White addressed the significance of the von Ohlen case on Tuesday.

"We were watching this case very closely because it has the potential to be pivotal to restoring trust that the NYPD will protect the lives of vulnerable road users," he said. "We've seen too many cases where there has been a reflexive response to victim blame. In addition to restoring faith, I think this will also send a strong message to motorists that they must respect the right of way of bicyclists especially in bike lanes and crosswalks."

Maldonado's attorney, Howard Kirsch, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

UPDATE 9:45 a.m.: This post has been updated to include the suspect's name and top preliminary charge.

UPDATE 1:45 p.m.: This post has been updated with charges, and statements pertaining to this afternoon's arraignment.
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, November 15 2016

The Jakarta Police have arrested a man for allegedly masterminding a scam targeting partygoers through a bogus website.

Jakarta Police mobile detective unit head Adj. Sr. Corm. Budi Hermanto said the suspect, identified as 31-year-old Lasellomo, or Omo, and his friends had set up a bogus website that resembled that of the Djakarta Warehouse Project (DWP), the nations biggest electronic dance music festival.

We arrested him in Parepare, [South] Sulawesi, Budi said, as quoted by tribunnews.com on Sunday evening.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, November 15 2016

The police in Mampang, South Jakarta, have arrested a man, identified as Ahmad Saifulkhan, for allegedly firing an airsoft gun at a South Jakarta Transportation Agency official after the official tried to prevent him from using a Transjakarta busway lane.

Mampang Police chief Comr. Syafei said on Tuesday that Ahmad was arrested at his home in Pejaten, South Jakarta, on Monday night.

During questioning, Ahmad admitted the crime, Syafei said as quoted by tribunnews.com.

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Linkedin Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Susannah George (Associated Press) Mosul, Iraq  Tue, November 15, 2016

Hundreds of Iraqi civilians lined up on Tuesday for food in eastern neighborhoods of Mosul recently retaken from the Islamic State group, as rations ran low, an Iraqi officer said.

Maj. Salam al-Obeidi says some 700 residents gathered in three areas of the Zahra and Qadisiya neighborhoods, the latter of which was the scene of a fierce IS counterattack a day earlier.

"This is a problem for us because the food we have is not enough for them and we're waiting for more food to be sent from the government," al-Obeidi said. "Now the Iraqi soldier is giving his food to the civilians."

Iraq launched a major offensive last month to drive IS out of the northern city, the country's second largest, which is still home to more than 1 million civilians.

Special forces have captured a foothold in the city's east, and have been advancing slowly over the past week to avoid casualties and civilian deaths as IS fighters emerge to attack from the dense, urban landscape, often with armor-plated suicide car bombs.

The militants struck back against special forces in Qadisiya a day earlier, Maj. Gen. Sami al-Aridi said. Two dozen men wearing suicide vests charged the front lines, setting off a three-hour battle that killed 20 militants and severely wounded a special forces soldier.

The Iraqi armed forces do not release official casualty figures, but field medics have noted dozens of killed and wounded since the operation to liberate the city began on Oct. 17.

Since last week's quick advance into Mosul proper, Iraqi forces have struggled to hold territory under heavy IS counterattacks.

At a news conference outside Mosul, Col. John Dorrian, a spokesman for the US-led forces supporting the operation, said airstrikes had so far destroyed 59 suicide car bombs and over 80 tunnels.

"We will continue to strike the enemy for as long as it takes for the Iraqi flag to be raised over Mosul and every other corner of this country," he said, adding that the coalition had conducted over 4,000 strikes with air power and artillery since the campaign began.

The United Nations meanwhile said smoke from oil wells and a chemical plant torched by IS near Mosul has forced over 1,500 people to seek medical treatment for respiratory problems.

The group's humanitarian affairs coordination office said the fires have emitted toxic smoke for 25 to 60 days, affecting 14 towns.

It says the mid- and long-term effects on people's health, the environment, agriculture and livelihoods could be dire.

IS shelled and set fire to the al-Mishraq Sulfur Gas Factory south of Mosul in late October, causing the deaths of at least four people from toxic fumes, the UN has said, likening the attack to the use of chemical weapons.

Nearby oil wells set ablaze by IS have been burning uncontrollably since June.

___

Associated Press writer Sinan Salaheddin contributed to this report from Baghdad
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Linkedin I Gede Wahyu Wicaksana (The Jakarta Post) Surabaya  Tue, November 15 2016

No one can be sure as to how US president-elect Donald Trump will lead America and play its world role. However, what happens under the new administration does not directly relate to the realities of the presidential campaign.

When Trump is in the White House, two circumstances will remain at work in US foreign policy: the dynamics of great power politics and internal political pressures.

For this reason, Trump does not have wide space to maneuver Americas external conduct in a way that completely contradicts the outgoing Barack Obama governments foreign policy. It, in turn, affects Jakarta-Washington relations.

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Linkedin Margareth S. Aritonang (The Jakarta Post) Vientiane, Laos  Tue, November 15, 2016

Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu has suggested that Myanmar could implement its own version of his ministrys widely criticized Bela Negara (State Defense) program as a way to tackle security challenges, including terrorism.

Speaking to his Myanmar counterpart, Defense Minister Sein Win, in a meeting in Vientiane on Tuesday, Ryamizard said the peoples force was more effective than any weapon in the fight against terrorism. This was one of the reasons Indonesia had developed the State Defense program, he went on.

Weapons contribute only 1 percent in winning a fight against terrorism while peoples force accounts [for] 99 percent, he said.

Ryamizard said Indonesias huge population of around 250 million was a great power to fight against terrorism, an ideology-based threat that was currently affecting the country with the largest Muslim population in the world.

The Bela Negara program provides room for all 250 Indonesian people to face terrorist groups such as the IS [Islamic State] extreme group. All of the citizens must defend the country, he stressed.

The Bela Negara program has raised criticism from various parties worried that it is an attempt to re-militarize the country. Some of them argued that training civilians with military skills, even if they were basic, might lead to clashes among people.

Responding such concerns, the Defense Ministry has repeatedly said that military training would only be provided to locals living in conflict-prone areas. (ebf)
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Medan  Tue, November 15 2016

Immigration officials in Medan, North Sumatra, will hand over Malaysian graft fugitive Mohamad Khaizad bin Hashim to the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) before deporting him.

The MACC, with the assistance of Indonesias Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) would bring Khaizad to Jakarta on Tuesday, Medan immigration spokesman Petrus Teguh said on Monday. From Jakarta, Khaizad will then be deported back to Malaysia.

Despite the deportation, the immigration office would still follow up the immigration violations committed by Khaizad, Petrus said.We have prepared multiple charges against him, he said referring to violations that included an illegal residence permit and the forging of Indonesian identity documents.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Medan  Tue, November 15 2016

A fire at a fuel depot owned by state oil and gas company Pertamina on Jl. KL Yos Sudarso in Medan, North Sumatra, on Saturday evening left three employees injured.

The depot was out of action for several hours after the blaze broke out at 6:30 p.m. and did not resume operations until midnight.

A spokesperson for the companys northern Sumatra region, Fitri Erika, said the fire did not disrupt the fuel supplies.

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Linkedin Josef Federman (Associated Press) Jerusalem  Tue, November 15, 2016

A senior Israeli Cabinet minister on Monday said the election of Donald Trump has helped create an opportunity for Israel to abandon its stated commitment to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

The remarks by Naftali Bennett reflect sentiment in the nationalist Israeli right wing that Trump's election could usher in a new era of relations with the United States. While the two countries are close allies, relations were sometimes tense between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu because of their vastly different world views.

Bennett last week welcomed Trump's election, predicting that "the special relationship" with the US would grow stronger and noting that the Republican campaign platform had no mention of a Palestinian state. "The era of a Palestinian state is over," he declared at the time.

Speaking to foreign reporters on Monday, Bennett was more cautious, citing an order by Netanyahu for his Cabinet not to talk about the election in public. But he made clear that he will push his own government to rethink its commitment to Palestinian independence.

"The combination of the changes in the United States, in Europe and the region provide Israel with a unique opportunity to reset and rethink everything," Bennett said.

"It's no secret that I think that the notion of setting up a Palestine in the heart of Israel is a profound mistake," he added. "I believe that we have to bring alternative new ideas instead of the Palestinian state approach."

Though Bennett said he didn't know whether Trump would support that view, he said it's critical that Israel now clearly define its own vision.

"My expectation is not from anyone abroad," he said. "After many years, the Israeli government has to decide what do we want."

Bennett's comments were also an indicator of the pressure Netanyahu could soon face to abandon his commitment to the "two-state solution" favored by Obama and the international community.

For two decades, the international community has been pushing for a negotiated peace deal that would include the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip  areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.

The thinking was that Israel's continued occupation of millions of Palestinians would create a demographic time bomb in which Arabs would eventually outnumber Jews, threatening Israel's status as a democracy with a Jewish majority.

After opposing Palestinian independence for most of his career, Netanyahu reluctantly endorsed the idea shortly after Obama took office in 2009. But critics, including Obama, have said that continued Israeli settlement on occupied territories have undercut this goal, and the Obama administration has at times questioned Netanyahu's commitment to seeking peace.

Bennett leads the Jewish Home party, a coalition partner that is affiliated with the West Bank settler movement. He is one of the most influential voices in Israeli politics, and both his party and most members of Netanyahu's Likud oppose Palestinian statehood on either religious or security grounds.

Bennett has instead called for annexing parts of the West Bank and granting the Palestinians in other parts expanded autonomy, with new roads, office parks and economic opportunities, with Israel retaining overall security control.

Israeli hard-liners welcomed Trump's election last week, noting the strong support for Israel in his campaign platform and the many pro-Israel officials who advised him during his campaign. Their spirits were further boosted after a Trump adviser, Jason Greenblatt, told an Israeli radio station last week that his boss doesn't think West Bank settlements are an "obstacle to peace."

Following Greenblatt's comments, Cabinet Minister Ofir Akunis, a close Netanyahu associate, called for a renewed wave of settlement construction.

But such sentiments may have been premature.

Trump's unpredictability has raised concerns that he might change his attitudes once in office. Over the weekend, for instance, Trump told the Wall Street Journal that he would like to help broker a solution to the conflict "for humanity's sake."

In an interview with "Israel Today," a free daily owned by Republican super-donor Sheldon Adelson, Trump said he believed his administration can play "a significant role" in helping the Mideast parties reach an agreement.

Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Sunday that he would soon be meeting Trump. He ordered his Cabinet and lawmakers to avoid speaking to the media about the election while the incoming US administration formulates its policies.
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Linkedin Hendarsyah Tarmizi (The Jakarta Post) Tokyo  Tue, November 15 2016

Japans major conglomerate Itochu Corporation and one of worlds major electricity company, Electric Power Development Co. Ltd (J. Power), have promised to fully support the construction of the coal-fired Batang power plant in Central Java, which will become not only the most efficient but also cleanest thermal power plant in Southeast Asia.

The commitment was made during a meeting between the executives of the two big companies with President Director of publicly listed coal miner PT Adaro Energy Tbk, Garibaldi Thohir, in Tokyo last week.

The Batang power plant, which will have two generators each with a capacity of 1,000 megawatt (MW), is currently being constructed by PT Bhimasena Power Indonesia (BPI), a joint venture between Adaro and J. Power, each with share ownership of 34 percent, and Itochu with a 32 percent stake.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, November 15, 2016

President Joko Jokowi Widodo has sent his condolences to the family of Intan Olivia Marbun, a 2-year-old girl who died following a firebomb attack at Oikumene Church in Samarinda, East Kalimantan on Sunday.

After he delivered a speech at the Army Academy in Bandung on Tuesday, Jokowi said the terrorist attack was outside the boundaries of humanity.

There are no words to describe my deep sorrow for the loss of Intan. This is outside the boundaries of humanity, because we are talking about our children, he said as quoted by news agency Antara.

The President added that violence and terrorism were a global challenge also faced by other countries and that he had instructed the military to ensure peoples security all over Indonesia. (evi)
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Linkedin Fadli (The Jakarta Post) Batam  Tue, November 15, 2016

In response to a situation in Batam in which businesspeople have refused a rise in land rents, President Joko Jokowi Widodo sent Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution to meet Batams businesspeople on Tuesday.

On Monday, representatives of businesspeople in Batam  Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) Riau Islands head Makruf Maulana and Kadins Batam head Jadi Rajagukguk  met with Jokowis chief of staff Teten Masduki in Jakarta to protest new rents issued by the Free Trade Zone Management Body (BP Batam).

Some businesspeople have suspended trading at their shops in Nagoya and Batam Center since Monday, following the distribution of a leaflet asking them to close in support of a campaign to demand the abolition of the so-called annual mandatory authority fee (UWTO).

Rajagukguk said on Tuesday that in response to their complaints, the President, via Teten, sent Darmin to Batam to talk to the businesspeople about plans to revitalize the Batam Free Trade Zone.

We want policies that do not support business to be revised or revoked, he said.

Tjaw Hioeng, secretary of the Batam Industrial Zone Association, said he had heard about a meeting with Darmin. It was a sudden meeting. We dont know what the government has decided, he said.

BP Batam announced the raise in UWTO in October. BP Batam said the raise was the first in 25 years and the highest increase was 25 percent. However, businesspeople begged to differ, saying the increases could be as much as 10 times their previous rents. (evi)
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Linkedin Viriya P. Singgih (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, November 15, 2016

The Kalla Group, owned by the family of Vice President Jusuf Kalla, will collaborate with Japanese partners to build a Rp 10 trillion (US$750 million) liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal in Banjarnegara, Banten.

A Kalla Group subsidiary, Bumi Sarana Migas, will be responsible for constructing the terminal, which will have a capacity of 500 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd), equal to 4 million tons of LNG, it announced on Monday.

The western part of Java will experience a gas deficit caused by the depletion of gas reserves in Sumatra, whereas gas demand will increase, the corporation wrote in a press statement, citing its rationale for the investment, which was based on a forecast from energy think tank Wood Mackenzie.

The company has had a suitable plot of land on the foreshore where the water has an adequate depth for the necessary vessels. A nearby island will act as a barrier to protect big LNG carriers, such as the Q-Flex and Q-Max series, from the waves, said Bumi Sarana Migas spokesperson Nanda Sinaga.

The Kalla Group has appointed an engineering consultant from Japan to design the LNG receiving terminal. Last year, the group also made an agreement with a partner from Japan, which has a vast experience in operating LNG terminals and in gas distribution.

Funding for the Rp 10 trillion infrastructure project will come from shareholders, as well as through loans from Japanese government financial institutions and Japanese banks, according to the Kalla Group, which did not elaborate.

The Kalla Group began exploring the possibility of developing an LNG terminal in 2013 with technical help from its Japanese counterpart. They found that Banjarnegara was very ideal to be developed as a land-based LNG regasification terminal, it wrote in the statement.

Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia, are expected to become net gas importers by 2030, as demand is predicted to increase to more than 200 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas and local supplies would not be able to meet it, resulting in the need to import about 60 bcm, according to data from Pertamina.

By then, Indonesias deficit is expected to be 4.07 mmscfd. The highest demand for gas will come from Java and Sumatra because of the growth of industries in those regions. Java is predicted to have a deficit of 1.56 mmscfd by then and Sumatra of 3.87 mmscfd.

Most of the demand currently comes from state-owned electricity company Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), but other non-PLN demands are also expected to rise by 7 percent per year from 2015 to 2025. The demand is driven primarily by fertilizer, refinery and mining industries, most of which are located in eastern Indonesia.

On the other hand, Southeast Asia is expected to develop regasification infrastructure with a capacity of almost 75 million tons per annum (mtpa) by 2030 and it will possibly lead to a race among neighboring countries over who can get the cheapest gas import contracts.

We have to be more aggressive, especially seeing the developments in Thailand, Vietnam and even in the Philippines. We have to be ready to face some competition, Pertamina director for gas and renewable energy Yenni Andayani said.
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Linkedin Ina Parlina and Suherdjoko (The Jakarta Post) Semarang  Tue, November 15, 2016

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loongs visit to Central Java on Monday marked a new chapter in the economic ties between Singapore and Indonesia, symbolized by a joint venture in the development of a key industrial compound.

Lee and President Joko Jokowi Widodo officially launched the Kendal Industrial Park, located in Central Java.

The two leaders were in the provinces capital Semarang for a leaders retreat aimed at discussing issues related to bilateral ties, particularly economic cooperation.

In a ceremony after the meeting, Jokowi cited the industrial park located in Kendal regency, which is on the outskirts of Semarang, as the new icon in bilateral ties.

The events were held as Singapore has been exploring investment opportunities outside the traditional areas of Batam -- located less than an hour from Singapore by ferry -- and Greater Jakarta.

The Kendal industrial park, a joint venture between Indonesian property giant PT Jababeka and Singaporean Sembawang Corporation, or Sembcorp, is Singapores first industrial park in Indonesia outside the Batam, Bintan, and Karimun areas in Riau Islands.

I hope that this cooperation continues to flourish, said Jokowi.

Citing the importance of the compound, Jokowi pledged it would be a priority industrial zone housing an array of labor-intensive sectors, such as manufacturing, furniture, fashion, food and high-tech industry.

Lee added that the industrial park was a clear example of a win-win outcome displaying what the two countries can do by working together for the long-term benefit of our people.

The ongoing first phase of the 2,700-hectare park covers more than 800 hectares. Having attracted 20 companies, 4,000 jobs are expected to be generated from the project.

Singapore, Lee said, wanted Indonesia to succeed because the two economies are closely intertwined.

And I am confident that under President Joko Widodos leadership, our bilateral friendship will continue to flourish and there will be many more win-win projects like KIK [the Kendal industrial park] to come, Lee added.

Singapore is Indonesias biggest investor this year, with investment totaling US$7.1 billion in the first nine months. The figure is up by 44 percent compared to the same period last year.

In a bid to improve the business climate, Indonesia has taken numerous measures, including through economic deregulation and legal reform, and has been pushing for massive infrastructure development to improve connectivity in the archipelago.

But it was batik diplomacy that appeared to be an ice-breaker for the two leaders in Semarang.

Jokowi and First Lady Iriana took Lee and his wife Ho Ching to see how batik was made.

Lee was seen taking pictures using his mobile phone before Jokowi told him to try batik-painting himself.

During the leaders meeting, which was initially scheduled for August but postponed after Lee suffered from a temporary drop in blood pressure, Jokowi deemed Singapore as one of our key partners in trade and investment, while Lee confirmed bilateral relations are in good shape.

Lee also told Jokowi that Singapore was willing to collaborate to help Jokowis ambitious 35,000-megawatt power plant program.

Another possible future cooperation was to establish a network of business leaders from both countries, dubbed the Indonesia-Singapore Business Council, Lee said, adding that he believed doing so would enhance bilateral ties.

Lee made the proposal during the meeting, a plan, in which, according to Lee, was later agreed by Jokowi.

This will enable our businesses to network more deeply and understand opportunities on both sides, Lee added.

The neighbors also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on tourism cooperation, which will open the door for possibilities to develop new tourist destinations in Indonesia and to expand cruise routes, while Lee also expressed Singapores support in helping Indonesias capacity building in hospitality and tourism.
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Linkedin Ina Parlina and Suherdjoko (The Jakarta Post) Semarang  Tue, November 15 2016

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loongs visit to Central Java on Monday marked a new chapter in the economic ties between Singapore and Indonesia, symbolized by a joint venture in the development of a key industrial compound.



Lee and President Joko Jokowi Widodo officially launched the Kendal Industrial Park, located in Central Java.



The two leaders were in the provinces capital Semarang for a leaders retreat aimed at discussing issues related to bilateral ties, particularly economic cooperation.



In a ceremony after the meeting, Jokowi cited the industrial park located in Kendal regency, which is on the outskirts of Semarang, as the new icon in bilateral ties.



The events were held as Singapore has been exploring investment opportunities outside the traditional areas of Batam -- located less than an hour from Singapore by ferry -- and Greater Jakarta.



The Kendal industrial park, a joint venture between Indonesian property giant PT Jababeka and Singaporean Sembawang Corporation, or Sembcorp, is Singapores first industrial park in Indonesia outside the Batam, Bintan, and Karimun areas in Riau Islands.



I hope that this cooperation continues to flourish, said Jokowi.



Citing the importance of the compound, Jokowi pledged it would be a priority industrial zone housing an array of labor-intensive sectors, such as manufacturing, furniture, fashion, food and high-tech industry.



Lee added that the industrial park was a clear example of a win-win outcome displaying what the two countries can do by working together for the long-term benefit of our people.



The ongoing first phase of the 2,700-hectare park covers more than 800 hectares. Having attracted 20 companies, 4,000 jobs are expected to be generated from the project.



Singapore, Lee said, wanted Indonesia to succeed because the two economies are closely intertwined.



And I am confident that under President Joko Widodos leadership, our bilateral friendship will continue to flourish and there will be many more win-win projects like KIK [the Kendal industrial park] to come, Lee added.



Singapore is Indonesias biggest investor this year, with investment totaling US$7.1 billion in the first nine months. The figure is up by 44 percent compared to the same period last year.



In a bid to improve the business climate, Indonesia has taken numerous measures, including through economic deregulation and legal reform, and has been pushing for massive infrastructure development to improve connectivity in the archipelago.



But it was batik diplomacy that appeared to be an ice-breaker for the two leaders in Semarang.



Jokowi and First Lady Iriana took Lee and his wife Ho Ching to see how batik was made.



Lee was seen taking pictures using his mobile phone before Jokowi told him to try batik-painting himself.



During the leaders meeting, which was initially scheduled for August but postponed after Lee suffered from a temporary drop in blood pressure, Jokowi deemed Singapore as one of our key partners in trade and investment, while Lee confirmed bilateral relations are in good shape.



Lee also told Jokowi that Singapore was willing to collaborate to help Jokowis ambitious 35,000-megawatt power plant program.



Another possible future cooperation was to establish a network of business leaders from both countries, dubbed the Indonesia-Singapore Business Council, Lee said, adding that he believed doing so would enhance bilateral ties.



Lee made the proposal during the meeting, a plan, in which, according to Lee, was later agreed by Jokowi.



This will enable our businesses to network more deeply and understand opportunities on both sides, Lee added.



The neighbors also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on tourism cooperation, which will open the door for possibilities to develop new tourist destinations in Indonesia and to expand cruise routes, while Lee also expressed Singapores support in helping Indonesias capacity building in hospitality and tourism.

-------------------

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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, November 15, 2016

The country's biggest airline Lion Air will create a new joint venture airline in Vietnam around the second semester next year using the Batik Air brand, the companys director has said.

Lion Air president director Edward Sirait said the company was currently negotiating with a local partner in Vietnam.

According to the plans, Lion will take a portion of 49 percent and the remaining 51 percent will be the local partner's equity.

"We will use the 'Batik Air' brand in Vietnam," he said after signing memorandum of understanding (MoU) with BRI in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Previously in 2014, the company wanted to create a new airline in Australia with 100 percent ownership.

Lion Air co-founder Rusdi Kirana said the plan had to be postponed due to ASEAN market expansion.

"The expansion to Malaysia and Thailand needs a lot of planes, so it is not enough to serve the Australian market. If we insisted on operating with a limited number of planes, it will not be able to reach economies of scale," Rusdi added.

Lion Air created Malindo Air in Malaysia in 2012 and continued the expansion with Thai Lion Air in the following year. Both Malindo and Thai Lion have around 10 and 17 percent market shares in their respective countries.(jun)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, November 15, 2016

The Manpower Ministry hopes to liberate 82,000 child workers working in companies throughout Indonesia over the next five years by collaborating with the Culture and Education Ministry and the Religious Affairs Ministry.



The ministry said it would help underage workers found working in companies by sending them to shelters to be trained for a different future.



We are working together with the Culture and Education Ministry to help children so they can go back to school as soon as possible. We are also collaborating with the Religious Affairs Ministry to guide children into Islamic boarding schools, said Herman Prakoso Hidayat, the secretary of the directorate general of labor inspection at the Manpower Ministry, on Tuesday.



The ministry said it had deployed 1,760 supervisors throughout the country to map out companies that employed underage workers in labor-intensive industries such as textiles and tobacco.



Supervising 20 million companies [throughout the country] is hard because we only have a limited number of supervisors, but we are continuously maximizing our capacity, he said.



Herman said the ministry had successfully taken care of 16,500 child workers so far this year.

The total number of underage workers in Indonesia is estimated at 1.7 million, he added. (win/dmr)
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Linkedin Haeril Halim and Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta/Medan  Tue, November 15, 2016

When his 2-year-old daughter Intan Olivia asked to be allowed to join her cousin playing on the front porch of the Oikumene Church, Anggiat Marbun let her go without a giving it a second thought. It was the last time Anggiat would see his daughter alive.

Intan was pronounced dead at 3.05 a.m. on Monday from severe burns to her body caused by a home-made bomb thrown at the church compound by Juhanda, a former terrorism convict linked to the Islamic State (IS) movement.

I was holding her close to me while I was praying in church before her cousin came to ask me to let her go outside and play with the other kids. As the prayer concluded, I said amen and the bomb went off at the same time. All I could think of at that moment was my daughter, said Anggiat.

She is my first child and she is the only one I have, Anggiat Marbun told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

I rushed to rescue her [but to no avail], Anggiat said, before calling for the interview to end.

Three other toddlers were seriously injured in the blast and as of Monday were still receiving intensive medical treatment at a hospital in Samarinda.

Many have reacted with outrage to the latest attack, with the hashtag #RIPIntan becoming a trending topic in the country on Monday on social media site Twitter.

A photo of Intan with a backpack strapped on her back has gone viral with thousands of Twitter users uploading a stylized photo of the 2-year-old on various social media platforms.

Many pictures based on the original photo with the addition of angelic wings have also been uploaded onto the internet.

Lawmaker Budiman Sudjatmiko of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) wrote from his Twitter handle @budimandjatmiko that Intan is proof that in Indonesia, terrorism can kill people very close to us. They kill from a blind fanaticism.

The countrys largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) meanwhile has condemned the terror attack, labelling it a true act of blasphemy.

NU chairman Said Aqil Siradj called on Muslims in the country to fight terrorist acts.

What happened in Samarinda was an act of blasphemy of Islam. It is real blasphemy because the act is against the teaching of Islam. Such conduct shatters the image of Islam as a peaceful religion Said told the Post.

The NU chairman said that any Muslims who launched a terror attack in the name of Islam were in fact not Muslims, because in principle Islam respected pluralism in society.

Representing President Joko Jokowi Widodo, Culture and Education Minister Muhadjir Effendy flew to Samarinda to express condolences to Intans family.

On behalf of the government and the President, we offer our deep condolences. We condemn the act, especially because the victims are toddlers, who are innocent.

Children only want to play in peace and receive love from those around them, said Muhadjir, who could be seen holding back tears while speaking to Intans family.

In the wake of the attack, the National Polices counterterrorism unit Densus 88 has questioned 15 witnesses and declared Juhanda a suspect on Monday.

At least five individuals have also been arrested as alleged accessories to the attack.

The suspect, Juhanda, who lives in a mosque in Samarinda, learned how to assemble a bomb in Aceh between 2009 and 2011, said the police.

National Police spokesman Ins. Gen. Boy Rafly said Juhanda learned the bomb-making technique in Aceh from the group of Southeast Asias most wanted terrorist Dulmatin, who was killed in 2010.

After the explosion, the team launched an investigation and searched a house in Lowojana Indah block VV No.13 where personnel seized a laptop, a cellphone and documents, Boy said, adding that the National Police would step up their investigation to pursue more suspects in the case.

One day after the Samarinda attack, a group of people also reportedly threw a handmade bomb at a Buddhist monastery in Singkawang City in West Kalimantan on Monday. No victims were reported in the latest attack.

It is not yet known if the incidents in Samarinda and Singkawang are connected. The West Kalimantan Police are still investigating the attack.

Meanwhile, a Catholic church in Batu city in Malang also reportedly received a bomb threat on Monday. Police officers from Batu and Malang police offices were dispatched to comb the area after receiving a report of a bomb threat at the church.
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Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, November 15 2016

More than a week after the massive Nov. 4 rally, political parties in the ruling coalition, led by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), scolded three other members of the coalition for joining the street protests and putting the groupings unity at risk.

Politicians and members of the National Mandate Party (PAN), the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Awakening Party (PKB) endorsed the rally and, in fact, participated in the street protest, which ended in violence and looting. The rally attracted about 100,000 people from various Muslim groups who demanded Jakarta Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama be prosecuted on blasphemy charges.

[Were] disappointed [with the three parties]. Although its their constitutional right, their political stance is questionable. [They] seem to be inconsistent, PDI-P executive Eva Kusuma Sundari said on Monday.

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Linkedin Matthew Pennington (Associated Press) Washington  Tue, November 15, 2016

The US approach to Asia faces a major overhaul when Donald Trump takes office, but what will take its place? A new report warns of a leadership vacuum and even a nuclear arms race if the US withdraws from a region threatened by a provocative North Korea.

But authors of the Asia Foundation report provided to The Associated Press ahead of its publication Tuesday also say in some parts of the region there's hope that a shift from President Barack Obama's signature foreign policy could be for the good.

Despite the major diplomatic capital invested by Obama in reaching out to Asia in the past eight years, his so-called "pivot" policy has yielded only modest gains in countering the rise of an assertive China. There's been a slight increase in the US military presence in the region; a political opening in former pariah state Myanmar; and better relations with old enemy Vietnam.

The main economic plank of his policy  the Trans-Pacific Partnership  is in ruins. Trump's election victory has erased chances of early US ratification of the 12-nation trade pact.

Determining what else of Trump's populist campaign rhetoric translates into action remains a guessing game  one with high stakes for Asia.

Trump has raised the specter of withdrawing US forces from South Korea and Japan unless they share more of the burden of hosting the 80,000 troops  even as neighboring North Korea has conducted nuclear and missile tests with unprecedented intensity.

The Asia Foundation report, based on consultations among academics and former officials from 20 Asian nations, warns that withdrawing US forces could compel Tokyo and Seoul to seek their own nuclear deterrents  rather than rely on America's  which in turn would "trigger massive destabilization of the regional order."

"A precipitous reduction of engagement in Asia would be detrimental to the interests of most Asian countries as well as the United States," the report says.

Trump has taken some early steps to allay those fears. He quickly reassured the leaders of Australia, Japan and South Korea of his commitment to US alliances. On Thursday, Trump will meet in New York with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who is traveling to a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in Peru.

Japan's archrival, China, views a Trump presidency with less trepidation. It has viewed the pivot as a US attempt to contain China's rise as a military and economic power.

But Beijing is wary of Trump's threat to impose hefty import tariffs over alleged trade and currency violations, amid fears it could stoke a trade war. President Xi Jinping Monday called Trump and told him that cooperation was needed between the world's two biggest economies.

Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a Thai academic and one of three co-authors of the report, said that despite the uncertainty over Trump's lack of government experience, he has something in his favor  a clean slate.

Thitinan said that's a plus in Southeast Asia, where current US policy has failed to live up to its billing and where criticism on human rights has turned off old allies like the Philippines and Thailand.

"Southeast Asian nations don't want to be dominated by China, they don't want to put all their eggs in the China basket, but they've had to because the pivot and rebalance were shallow and ultimately hollow," he said.

Indian academic C. Raja Mohan said Trump has in his own chaotic way opened a constructive debate about how Asian nations might take a more active role to cope with the rise of China with less dependence on America.

"Unlike the European liberals' reaction in the last few days, Asians are going to accommodate rather than object," Mohan said. "We have to deal with who is in power in Washington."

Once Trump fills top positions on foreign policy and defense, his intentions on Asia should become clearer. A recent commentary by two Trump advisers may offer clues.

Former Republican congressional aide Alexander Gray and University of California economist Peter Navarro advocated an Asia-Pacific policy of "peace through strength." They cited Trump's commitment to increase the US Navy from 274 to 350 ships, saying it will reassure allies that the US "remains committed in the long term to its traditional role as guarantor of the liberal order in Asia."

But they add: "It's only fair - and long past time - for each country to step up to the full cost-sharing plate."

South Korea currently pays about US$860 million a year  about 50 percent of non-personnel costs of the US military deployment on its soil  and is paying $9.7 billion more for relocating US military bases. Japan pays about $2 billion a year, about half of the cost of the stationing US forces.

Despite fears of chaos if the US withdraws its military, former South Korean foreign minister, Yoon Young-kwan, there will be "strong reservations" about paying more.
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Linkedin Margareth S. Aritonang (The Jakarta Post) Vientiane, Laos  Tue, November 15, 2016

Indonesia is sounding out the possibility of tapping into the potential of Laos, which currently relies on other countries to develop its weapons systems, in a bid to continue to improve the countrys defense industry.

Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu presented an offer to his Laotian counterpart, National Defense Minister Chansamone Chanyalath, during a meeting at the Laos Defense Ministry in Vientiane on Tuesday. The meeting was held on the sidelines of the ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting (ADMM) Retreat.

The Indonesian Defense Ministry is ready to connect you with Indonesian defense companies if Laos is interested, said Ryamizard.

To complete Indonesia-Laos defense cooperation, he said, Indonesia was also ready to expand collaboration in the field of defense education and training between the two countries.

We need to intensify and improve our collaboration on education, Ryamizard said. Indonesia is basically open to welcoming military students from Laos to study at our staff and command schools.

Indonesia does not currently engage in any defense cooperation with Laos except in the field of education and training. Ryamizards proposal on the supplying of defense equipment for Laos, if it is realized, will mark the first collaboration between the two countries in this respect. (ebf)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, November 15, 2016

Water from overflowing rivers has flooded thousands of houses in the West Java municipalities of Tangerang, Bekasi and Karawang following heavy rain.

In Karawang, the flood was caused by water from the Citarum river and its tributaries, while in Tangerang it was caused by the Angke river overflowing, Sutopo Nugroho, spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), said Monday, as quoted by news agency Antara.

He added that flooding in Karawang had intensified from Friday to Monday. In Telukbuyung village of Karawang regency, 678 houses, two mosques, two schools and seven prayer houses had been inundated, he said, while at the Bintang Alam housing complex, 650 houses had been flooded, affecting 997 people.

On Monday, five districts near the Citarum river in Bekasi regency were also flooded, Antara reported.

On Sunday in Tangerang, thousands of houses were flooded by the overflowing Angke river. Local authorities reported seven affected locations in Tangerang: Larangan Utara, Ciledug Indah, Karang Tengah, Flyover Cibodas, Alam Jaya, Periuk Jaya and the Total Persada housing complex. (evi)
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Linkedin Tama Salim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, November 15 2016

The UN High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) has urged Indonesia to reconsider signing the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees as part of concerted efforts to resolve the issue of irregular migration.

As issues of irregular migration and forced displacement of people garner a broader audience on the global stage, the UN refugee agency raised the need for countries to come together in finding a global solution.

The UNHCR Assistance High Commissioner for Protection, Volker Turk, argued that all countries were affected by the forced displacement of people and suggested that Indonesia would be best served by being a party to the convention.

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Linkedin (Eleven Media Group/ANN) Yangon, Myanmar  Tue, November 15, 2016

The Myanmar Press Council (MPC) and four other media organizations have issued a joint statement calling for a quick resolution to the detention of Eleven Media Groups CEO and chief editor in accordance with the Media Law.

They said the case should be considered under the Myanmar Media Law, which prescribes rules and guidelines as well as a code of ethics, with the media council acting as an arbitration body to resolve disputes.

The five Myanmar media organizations see the lawsuit against the two journalists from Eleven Media under section 66 (d) of the Telecommunications Law as an attempt by authorities to turn a blind eye to the Media Law and the role of the media council, and as an attempt to curtail the freedom of expression.

The defamation case was filed by the Yangon regional government on behalf of the chief minister. The two journalists were taken to prison without bail or a court hearing after they turned themselves in to the local police station to face the charge. The court hearing is not due until Nov. 25.

The joint statement was issued by MPC, Myanmar Journalists Association, Myanmar Journalists Network, Myanmar Lawyers Network and Burma News International.

They said that for a democratic system to flourish, the development of key pillars that carry out checks and balances was crucial. An independent and responsible media performs an important role to ensure checks and balances on the functioning of the legislative, executive and judiciary branches.



We all believe that filing a lawsuit against the Eleven Media Group by the Yangon Region chief minister under section 66 [d] of the Telecommunications Law would tantamount to neglecting the Press Law and the Press Council, and in consequence a suppression of the freedom of expression. We are not arguing about the accuracy of the facts and figures in this case, but we are pointing to the manner in which action was taken, the statement said.



The governments use of Section 66 (d) is seen as a tool to limit the peoples freedom of expression, which is the lifeline of democracy. In this case, the ruling Yangon regional government, which secured majority votes in the election, used the telecom law applied by the previous government instead of the Media Law. We believe this may tarnish the dignity of the government, the statement said.

The five organizations urged media houses to ensure the accuracy of facts and figures in their news and opinions. If something is wrong in the publications, we urge accountability and responsibility for the sake of the public, according to the statement.

They urged the Yangon regional government to terminate immediately prosecution under the Telecommunications Law, which threatens the free expression of the media, and asked the government to cooperate with the press council.

Meanwhile, a lawyer said bail must be given to the two journalists of the Eleven Media Group who are facing charges under Section 66 (d) of Telecommunications Law.

Kyaw Lin stated at a press conference that the detentions of Eleven Media CEO Dr Than Htut Aung, and chief editor Wai Phyo are entirely against the law.

The Telecommunications Law was enacted in October 2013, while the Media Law was enacted in March 2014. According to the provisions of Section 3 (g) of the word definition in 1973, if the previous law is different from the later one, then the latter must be approved and used, he said.

Consequently, the use of the Telecommunications Law is a violation of the law. Instead, the Media Law should be used. Section 2 (a) of the Media Law states that the law covers print media and broadcasting media as well as the Internet media and the editor takes responsibility. For that reason, the two accused persons are journalists and consequently they should be sued only under the Media Law, he added.

This article appeared on the Eleven Media Group newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post
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Linkedin (Associated Press) Bangkok  Tue, November 15, 2016

Testimony has begun in the trial of two men accused of a deadly 2015 bombing at a Bangkok landmark after a dispute over the defendants' translators.

Mieraili Yusufu and Bilal Mohammad have pleaded not guilty in the Aug. 17, 2015, bombing of the Erawan shrine, which is popular among Chinese and other tourists. Fourteen of the dead were tourists.

Testimony began Tuesday after the court overruled defense objections that two translators provided by the Chinese Embassy might be prejudiced against the defendants, Chinese nationals from the Muslim Uighur minority.

The defendants maintained that China doesn't respect Uighurs, but the court said there was no evidence the translators would be biased.

Thai authorities say a people-smuggling gang whose activities were disrupted by a crackdown carried out the bombing as revenge.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, November 15, 2016

Garuda Indonesia has been named Most Improved Airline by AirlineRatings.com, an independent plane safety and product rating website, for its improvements in service and safety.

AirlineRatings.com appears to have taken notice of the national flag carriers improvements over the last five years. Garuda has also refurbished its airplanes and been cleared to fly to Europe and the US.

(Read also: Garuda dubbed world's most loved airline)

Garuda corporate communications vice president Benny S. Butarbutar said the award reassures the hard work and process of improving Garuda services for its passengers, as quoted by kompas.com on Monday. In fact, toward the future, this award will be a challenge that will have to be overcome with more innovations that will add value to Garuda Indonesia."

AirlinesRatings.com has also awarded other airlines in different categories. Below is its list of worlds top 10 airlines in 2017. (mra/kes)

(Read also: Garuda Indonesia plans Japan stopover en route to US)

1. Air New Zealand

2. Qantas

3. Singapore Airlines

4. Cathay Pacific

5. Virgin Australia/Virgin Atlantic

6. British Airways

7. Etihad Airways

8. All Nippon Airways

9. Eva Air

10. Lufthansa
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Linkedin Jessicha Valentina (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, November 15, 2016

Holidaymakers planning a trip to Bali now have a new luxury hotel option at Kuta Beach.

Officially opened on Friday, The Anvaya Beach Resort Bali is the latest foray from Santika Indonesia Hotels and Resorts and the first five-star hotel to be wholly owned and managed by the group. It features 495 rooms in seven categories, including a beachfront suite and The Anvaya Villa.

(Read also: Two Bali hotels make Tripadvisor Asia top-10)

A photo posted by The Anvaya Beach Resort Bali (@theanvayabeachresortbali) on Sep 23, 2016 at 7:08pm PDT

In regards to the interior design, the establishment showcases three major periods in Bali, namely early Balinese, Hindu Dharma and modern Balinese. The early Balinese interior can be spotted in The Anvaya's Kunyit Restaurant, meeting rooms, the ballroom and deluxe rooms. For the Hindu Dharma time, the interior design is applied in the central lobby, as well as the hotels premiere deluxe suites and premiere suites. Meanwhile, modern Balinese touches can be seen in the interior of The Anvayas luxury villa.

In addition to the luxurious design, The Anvaya also boasts facilities such as a wine cellar, swimming pool, kids club, spa and in-house fitness room. (kes)
Readers new to Roberto Calassos work often feel a bit bewildered, as if his books ought to come with a warning: This book is unlike any youve ever read. In addition to addressing the actual subject of the book, the reviewer must therefore explain who Calasso is, unpack his unorthodox rhetorical strategy, and provide some orientation to his uncommon perspective. This is easier said than done.

The Art of the Publisher, Calassos most recent work, consists of only 150 smallish and deceptively simple pages containing his speeches, essays, and occasional pieces about publishing. Briefly, he argues that publishing is an art, books are art objects, and the publisher is an artist. The publishers art has always been to provide the guiding sensibility for the publishing house and for the works it publishes. This sensibility is the mythos or spirit, if you will, of the publishing house. Todays publishing houses lack this kind of vision and thus do not produce art. And the every-writer-and-reader-for-himself universe of electronic publishing cannot be art either, because it, too, lacks a guiding vision and the art object, books.

There could scarcely be anyone more qualified than Calasso to make this case, and The Art of the Publisher offers entry into his fascinating world of leading edge literati. Intellectually, he is elegant and stylish in an Italian way: traditional, subtle, original. He writes from his formidable knowledge and from his experience as a founder and editorial director of Adelphi, an Italian publishing house of exceptional depth and quality with a backlist that includes the likes of Friedrich Nietzsche, Milan Kundera, Vladimir Nabokov, and Leonardo Sciascia. He considers publishing itself a literary genre. He writes erudite and highly original works on subjects few have considered, never mind named. He has an international following.

Calassos rhetorical method is always a mosaic. [Paris Review, 2012] His PhD thesis concerned the theory of hieroglyphs in Sir Thomas Browne. He says, [The] idea of a language made up of images is connected with all of my work. [Paris Review.] His books often begin with an image, almost a digression, that he deconstructs bit by bit as he traces its presence here and there; explicating its relationship(s) within mythology, religion, art, literature, history, languages (he knows eight), and the classics; making unexpected and seemingly effortless connections; and finally arriving at a new meaning for which the original image is now an emblem of a much larger whole. To those accustomed to a linear, PowerPoint-like arrangement of information, this agglomerative way of proceeding can be baffling. The following is my own attempt  not Calassos  to show what the experience of reading Calasso can be like:

While out walking you spy a coin on the sidewalk. You pick it up, intending to make a wish and throw it over your shoulder, a gesture that already connects you to a distant past. But, wait, its a gold coin with the image of a head crowned with a laurel wreath. And old. Did a coin collector accidentally drop it? You turn it over in your palm, recalling your own coin collection  the buffalo nickel, the pure silver dollars, the tiny pockets in the album. Did you know that the Smithsonians coin collection, the largest in the world, has more than 450,000 coins? Unfortunately, the exhibit closed years ago for lack of money. Upon closer inspection, you see that the image on the coin is likely Roman. The Romans minted coins from the 4th century BC at the temple of Juno Moneta, (the source of our word money), and they set up mints across the Empire, establishing minting practices for all time. Earlier still, Ploutos, the sometimes-blind Greek god of wealth, carried a cornucopia and dispensed riches. His near contemporary, a Phrygian named Midas, and the latters fairy-tale descendants had a different attitude toward wealth, one akin to the hedge fund managers. Along with coins and money came trade, banking, and the Medici, though the Romans had already invented checks, which are today dispatched on smartphones.

Question: When you toss the coin over your shoulder, what do you toss? Answer: Civilization. A book by Calasso is always a journey into and through civilization in the company of an expert guide.

In The Art of the Publisher, Calasso concerns himself with what the good publisher is and argues in favor of the publishers critical role in the furtherance of civilization through the expression of his own, highly refined sensibility. Consequently, it seems surprisingly self-evident when he says that the good publishing house is one that publishes only good books, i.e., books of which the publisher tends to feel proud rather than ashamed. Or that, as in most artistic activities, success in publishing is frequently unremunerative:

along with roulette and cocottes, founding a publishing house has always been one of the most effective ways for a young man of noble birth to fritter away his fortune.

At this point, Calasso explores some questions in contemporary publishing the answers to which arent necessarily obvious.

1. Why does one become a publisher?

[Because]publishing has always involved prestige, if only because it is a kind of business that is also an art[and]in order to practice it, money is an essential element.

With respect to publishing itself, he allows that very little has changed since [Johann] Gutenbergs time. He takes the reader down a rabbit hole of publishing history  typefaces, woodcuts, prefaces, publicity, and, of course, books  wherein we meet Aldus Manutius, an Italian humanist (1449-1515), the creator of the most beautiful book ever made, the inventor of the paperback, and the first to conceive of the publishing house as form:

the choice and sequence of titles to be published; the texts that accompany the books; the way in which the books are presented as objects.

In other words, the good publisher gives form to the essential reading of his time. This is very, very important to Calasso.

Todays dispersed and disparate publishing business, particularly the digital universe, directly challenges Calassos claim that a good publisher has an essential role and is himself artist. Even among the well read, Calassos kind of publisher seems a relic of an earlier time. In advocating for the relevance of those very few publishers who still remain faithful to the publishers art, Calasso can seem like a unicorn among donkeys. Undeterred, he insists that the good publisher by imposing his judgments, his noes and yeses, his style, his taste on the available possibilities

. . . give[s] form to a plurality of books as though they were the chapters of a single book. . . [and takes] . . . a passionate and obsessive care over the appearance of every volume.

In this way, a good publishing house becomes:

a single text formed not just by the totality of books that have been published there, but also by all its other constituent elements, such as the front covers, cover flaps, publicity, and quantity of copies printed and sold, or the different editions in which the same text has been presented[and this totality is]a literary work in itself, belonging to a genre all its own.

This vision is at the heart of Calassos argument. It is both secular and spiritual. The single chain that is formed by all the books published by the publisher is the unique work of art that the publisher brings to the literary table. It is both tangible  the books  and intangible  a reflection of the mythos or sensibility that is expressed in the chain and the totality, which imply other related books not written. For Calasso this totality is numinous.

2. Couldnt these tangible and intangible connections exist without the publisher?

For the most part, publishing today, whether print or digital, lacks the overarching sensibility that only the good publisher provides:

There would still be good and bad books, but those good books would appear as sporadic, isolated events with no congenial context into which to fit them.

Calassos good publisher is an endangered species in a business sense as well. In publishing today, form has become the organization chart, and mythos is merely brand power:

There are very few people today who can be given the title of publisher. They could probably be counted on the fingers of two hands. Editors, on the other hand, are many and increasing, if editors are those who discover, follow, develop, and launch a certain number of books within the catalog of a publishing house. All editors are associated with a list of authors and books as though they are theirs. This, however, does not include the form itself  the catalog, the program of the publishing house for which they work. If a publishing house is not conceived as a form, as a self-sufficient composition held together by a high physiological compatibility between all of its constituent parts, it easily turns into a casual association, incapable of triggering that magical element  brand power  that even marketing experts consider essential for achieving some degree of success.

Managers in todays publishing houses often know little or nothing of books and care even less about form. Their mandate is profits. Calasso believes this organizational pattern precludes the publishers art. It is, in fact, anti-art.

3. But wont information technology make all written works more widely available?

A little web-surfing  mine  turns up dozens of niche sites for contemporary fiction, poetry, essays, and works of art  an argument in favor of art for arts sake as the artists contribute their work gratis. Publishers websites  publicity arms, really, but presented as literary hubs  display varied imprints defined by consumer preferences. Other sites are more serious literary efforts that vanish when the editor gets a paying job. Barriers to entry are low, and some sites are scarcely more than hobbies. Often, sites are cross-listed, the better to achieve a higher ranking within the Google algorithms. The result is ever more self-referential and enclosed universes. A few sites, such as this one, grow and thrive because they serve real needs.

Calasso doubts the literary value of such websites and that Google books can become the greatest library in history. Quantity is not quality. He finds Googles ambitions totalitarian and oppressive and the implications for publishers negative:

In the face of[immediate access to everything]which grows wider and better every day, the publisher can only seem like a miserable obstacle.

Democratization in literary publishing isnt necessarily desirable either:

information technology aims toward a situation  its own utopian vision  in which, as everything is connected with everything else, the result is[a state of confusion and disorder]in which everyone can claim to have contributedWhether or not a world of this kind is desirable does not, for most people, seem a question of any urgency

The cloud is an apt image for this digital fog:

if we limit the field to that of publishing, it can be said with certainty that there is one element that the cloud of knowing (or, more accurately, the cloud of information, though hasnt the very distinction between information and knowledge become blurred?) can do without: judgment, that primeval capacity to say yes or no. But judgment was the basic founding element for the existence of the publisher[who]has always had the one undeniable prerogative: to say yes or no to a manuscript and decide in what form to present it. But if judgment can be easily dispensed with, this is even truer of form. Indeed, discussion about form could soon become meaningless.

4. Still, doesnt the existence of literary sites, publishing houses driven by consumer preferences, as well as the self-publishing boom refute Calassos claim that only the good publisher can provide a meaningful place for literary output?

In the digital universe everyone with a computer can be his own publisher, his own arbiter of taste, his own stylist of content, his own decider, but absent the publishers taste and judgment, there can be no art in Calassos sense of the word. Absent the chain, the totality, the publishers vision, there is no form, no mythos. Writers, readers, and books bob alone on a sea of dreck.

5. Why is someone like Calasso better at choosing what to bring to our attention than we are?

Perhaps its not surprising that Calasso has been accused of elitism and paternalism. To be fair, however, his argument rests on more subtle grounds than simply that the good publisher is the necessary, singular arbiter of quality. Rather, he sees the publisher as having a responsibility to establish a vision and within that vision to practice his art. In this way, the publisher becomes the custodian and purveyor of what he believes is essential to his culture and time. The gods are the fugitive guests of literature, he says, meaning that the publishers mission, while secular, has a sacred element: the carrier or custodian of a mythos that guides and is reflected in the collective works he publishes. This spirit unites otherwise solitary authors, readers, and books. The sum of his acts as a publisher thus constitutes a form, which is, like sculpture or painting, art.

Calasso ends by returning to the image of Manutius. He wants publishers to aspire to create new books that are equally as beautiful as Manutiuss perfect book. For some this charge may seem precious and as suffocating in its imposition of critical judgment as the Internet is in its lack of discrimination. This much is certain: No other publisher today has dared to claim as his own the singular judgment and unique artistry of the publisher-artist Calasso describes so precisely. That is because the one he has in mind is himself and the art his own.
In recent years, short courses and foundation courses have become increasingly popular at drama schools. Many students undertake a part-time or one-year training course in order to prepare for a full time actor training course.

In the past, these courses have been slammed for being too expensive and because many people dont actually make it onto future training courses. So we decided to find out if it really is worth it from those who have done it.

"Rose Bruford Foundation really prepared me for a BA Acting course. We constantly learnt new techniques and skills and it just furthered my aspiration of becoming an actress. My confidence got a lot better without me realising too. We did a lot of work on monologues that without, I feel I wouldn't have done as well this year."

 Elle Wilson, Foundation in Acting, Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance

here Find out more about the course

"Grab all the experience you can get as soon as you can get it. Not only will you have a hell of a lot of fun, you'll also learn massive amounts that will help you in the future, and that's never a bad thing. Don't sit around doing nothing for a year; get working and training as soon as possible and you'll be so glad you did!"

 Francesca Dell, Foundation in Acting, Academy of Live and Recorded Arts

"I learnt how to present my best self. You'll end up doing so many mock auditions and so many spine roles that nothing surprises you in the auditions - even if you're unaware of it, you'll be ready."

- Molly Walker, Foundation in Acting, Academy of Live and Recorded Arts

here Find out more about the course

"It was definitely worth it. Without sounding like an arrogant prick, I'm now at GSA. I wouldn't be here if I didn't have some talent, and I think that talent is down to Conti's foundation training. Don't doubt foundation courses. Yes, it's what you do if you're not ready, but it makes you ready."

- David Paynes, Foundation in Acting, Italia Conti

here Find out more about the course

"I did a foundation course at Oxford School of Drama before coming to Drama Studio London and I'd say, if you're lucky enough to have the money, they can be a great way of working out whether drama school is for you. You honestly don't really understand what it's going to be like at drama school until you've been to one, and it could save you a lot of time and money in the long run if you realise after a foundation course, that it's not what you want to do. It can also make you hungry for more, and drive your determination to get on to a three-year! You don't need a foundation course to get on to a three-year, but if you're having a year out, make sure you use it productively and get proactive with improving your acting."

 Eleanor Doherty, Foundation in Acting, Oxford School of Drama

here Find out more about the course

"It's taken me four years to get my place at drama school, and I think that's hugely because when I started out I wasn't mature enough and didn't have enough experience to survive a drama school training - and those schools that I applied to could obviously see that as well.

"However, over these four years I have gone out and gained experience, through a combination of a drama school course and a year with a theatre company, and I have a lot to thank for the experience these opportunities gave me.

"I know that some people think that gap years and foundation courses aren't worth the hassle and I would agree that some charge very high fees, and often for only part-time hours, making these types of courses inaccessible for many.

"But there are schools out there that offer similar courses or even government funded courses. There are some out there that offer a really good introduction into training. I would also ask, what else would you be doing if you weren't doing a foundation course or something similar? Be careful that you know what you are paying for, but if it keeps you active, engaged and meeting likeminded people then why not?"

 Elizabeth Bell, Part-time Diploma in Acting, Royal Central School of Drama & Peer Productions Theatre Company

here Find out more about the courses

"What they require you to do in drama school is not for everybody. It is a serious training and you are expected to work as professionally as you were on a film set, and the process demands you to work hard, physically, emotionally, psychologically, and mentally; therefore, I believe that doing a foundation course before approaching the training is one of the best ways to understand if you're done for this - if you've never had any kind of experience, or just come out of high school, or even if you actually have had experiences previously.

"It is not only a course where you learn techniques, you learn about yourself and how far you can push yourself, and what being an actor means. You grow as a human being and that will make your attitude much stronger, will develop your personality and at the end of it you will be able to make your own decision. It is all about commitment."

 Luca Ippoliti, Foundation in Acting, Giles Foreman Centre for Acting
After a year of high-profile fashion and television appearances and a spot on US Glamour's Women of the Year list, the body-positive activist and model Ashley Graham now has her own Barbie.

Come on @Barbie, let's go party!!! Thank you to my new and incredible @Mattel family for this honor! #beautybeyondsize #barbie #curvybarbie A video posted by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@theashleygraham) on Nov 14, 2016 at 4:48pm PST





In an Instagram post, Graham describes the Barbie as an 'honor', using the powerful hashtag #beautybeyondsize.

Graham has been a passionate voice in the fashion industry, promoting more diversity and inclusivity. By celebrating her curves, whilst openly acknowledging the self-doubt she suffered growing up, she has been urging girls and women to love themselves and their bodies.

With touching thighs, beauty marks and full eyebrows, the Barbie captures distinctive elements of Grahams look. The dolls outfit is based on one of Grahams NYFW looks, reflecting her style and confidence with an eye-catching sparkly dress.

Having helped Mattel to design the curvy Barbie, Graham was presented with her doll at Glamours Women of the Year Summit yesterday in Los Angeles.

Grahams doll follows Mattel's recent introduction of different skin tones and sizes to their range of Barbies. Rather than the typically blonde-haired and very slim Barbie dolls that we are used to seeing, Graham's curvy Barbie with wavy brown hair is refreshing.

After much criticism that Barbies have presented a too-narrow definition of beauty for too long, Grahams Barbie is another important step for the doll's body-images.

Mattel celebrate Ashley Graham and her body-positive messages with the Barbie doll, encouraging more people to recognise that there is beauty in diversity and #beautybeyondsize.

We are so excited to introduce our one-of-a-kind @TheAshleyGraham #Barbie doll! Ashley continues to inspire us all to break boundaries and redefine beauty. #Shero #YouCanBeAnything #GlamourWOTY A photo posted by Barbie (@barbie) on Nov 14, 2016 at 4:39pm PST




People love these colourful gin-filled Christmas baubles so much they keep selling out within minutes.

The cheeky decorations have a hefty double measure of Pickerings craft gin inside  perfect for keeping warm this winter.

Theyre so popular the inventive Scottish brewery that came up with the idea can only hand-fill enough to release one more batch before Christmas.

Having made just a few hundred when the company started producing the decorations in 2014, Summer Hall distillery in Edinburgh said it expects to sell hundreds of thousands next year as they scale up and start using production machines.

A box of six costs 30, with each plastic ball containing 50ml of the good stuff.

Co-founder Marcus Pickering said they started off as a bit of fun for a Christmas fair and people went absolutely wild for them.

He added: We sold hundreds in minutes and decided to spread the Christmas cheer by adding them to our production line as a fun, seasonal offering.

Boozy baubles hanging enticingly from a Christmas tree (Pickerings Gin)

Brand manager Leah Shaw Hawkins said they were cheeky, quirky, a bit fun and tie in with the festive spirit.

She added: At Christmas you have a few more tipples than normal, and the popularity of gin is through the roof right now.

We even supply a gin advent calendar. People love the novelty of trying differently crafted spirits and the Christmas theme is a real hit.

Weve had people buying them and giving one each to friends, groups buying a box and each taking their favourite colour, all sorts really.

People on the Pickerings Ginfriends mailing list can find out when they go on sale a day before everyone else.

Those lucky enough to get their hands on one of the elusive boxes may share with friends and family  if theyre feeling ginerous.
Millions of sex-seekers could have their details made public after a sex and swingers website suffered a major hack.

Intimate information of around 400 million accounts linked to Adult Friend Finder, including those of five million Britons, may be at risk, according to a report by monitoring group Leaked Source.

The group said the breach was the largest weve ever seen and it dwarfs a similar attack on marital affair site Ashley Madison last year.

Lustful promises made by the popular hookup site (screengrab)

Information including emails, passwords and purchasing habits over a 20-year period is said to have been hoovered up  even from deleted accounts.

The site promises to satiate your need for amazing sexual experiences and boasts it has helped millions of people find swinger groups and threesomes.

Parent company Friend Finder Networks also owns adult webcam sites which are said to have been affected too.

The login screen of sex site Adult Friend Finder (Screengrab)

Vice president Diana Ballou told technology site ZDNet: Over the past several weeks, Friend Finder has received a number of reports regarding potential security vulnerabilities from a variety of sources.

Immediately upon learning this information, we took several steps to review the situation and bring in the right external partners to support our investigation.

Friend Finder takes the security of its customer information seriously and will provide further updates as our investigation continues.

Leaked Source said it would not make the information searchable for the time being after much internal deliberation.
As students in this day and age, we face innumerable pressures. Whilst coming to terms with adult life and bearing responsibilities, its no surprise that some of us succumb under the mental stress.

What doesnt help the issue, is bullying - verbal, physical or cyber bullying, all of which take a massive toll on the lives of many.

In 2013, social media rallied in memory of Lewis Thelwall, a 19-year-old who hanged himself as a result of bullying via social networking sites. The forensics and photography student was said to be ''vulnerable'' after his father's death; something no doubt further exacerbated by the barrage of false rumours spread across social sites. This was a tragic case, one which begs the largely overlooked question of mental health.

The emotional well-being of our peers is scarily underrated, as students are just expected to pick up the pace and deal with it. Being bullied is known to lead to depression and anxiety, as well as eating disorders and decreased academic achievement. These issues can continue into adulthood. In the aforementioned case it led to suicide. We need to be educated on the warning signs, for ourselves and the people closest to us.

Knowing how to deal with such ordeals is essential to maintaining good mental health, and preventing any conditions from advancing. One of the main challenges students face nationwide is asking for help - the very mention of mental health seems to profess a negative vibe.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has a wonderful initiative called Tea and Talk - get a group of people and talk about mental health. Make it okay to speak about your feelings - its a wonderful opportunity to tell your friends and family if somethings affecting you.

Students - education is not easy. Socialising and putting yourself out there is not easy. Stepping into a new institution, be it college or university, can feel like youre putting yourself on a pedestal - inviting all forms of criticism and judgement.

This alongside additional educational and family pressures or money worries is enough to send someone flying head first into a nervous breakdown. This is such a pivotal yet vulnerable moment in our lives, and how we deal with these stressful situations will project onto future similar situations.

Recognising the signs of emotional distress isnt the hard part, but doing something about it certainly has its challenges. It could be you who needs a helping hand, or it could be someone close to you.

Below Ive listed a few signs of bullying and anxiety. If any of these sound familiar, then please - put yourself first.

Bullying:

- Changes in eating habits

- Difficulty sleeping or frequent nightmares

- Sudden loss of friends or avoidance of social situations

- Feelings of helplessness or decreased self-esteem

https://www.stopbullying.gov/ For more, visit

Anxiety:

- Feelings of panic, fear, and uneasiness

- Problems sleeping

- Cold or sweaty hands or feet

- Shortness of breath

http://www.mind.org.uk/ For more, visit
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Members of the community joined forces with Anderson High School to give students a hands on opportunity to practice their interviewing skills recently.

Volunteers from several different types of business worked with students in Christine Barlages Virtual Enterprises program to interview students, look over their resumes and otherwise teach them how to go through the process of a job interview.

Members of our community came together to interview each student on an individual position, which they had applied for, Barlage said. Students applied for positions such as human resources, payroll, public relations, and so on, while other students chose to interview for leadership roles in executive positions.

Following the interview process, the students were given written feedback of how they did in the interview.

Self-reflection is paramount in learning and was completed by each student after interviewing, Barlage said.

The day after the event the students typed letters to thank the interviewers for their time.

The Virtual Enterprise program, other than offering opportunities like the interview day, has students create and run their own virtual business.

The students are broken down into smaller groups and have to create business plans, and run a company as if it were real.

The virtual companies are working to create their products, promotions, placement, and pricing strategies before they head to Pigeon Forge, Tenn. for the Mid-West Trade Show.

The Virtual enterprise website describes the program as giving students a a head start on jobs and careers. Virtual Enterprise reinforces students academic skills and achievements, reignites their interest in education, and raises their desire to graduate and pursue lifelong learning, the site says.

For more information on the national Virtual Enterprise courses visit veinternational.org.
6,000 officials suspected in B142bn rice scheme loss

BANGKOK: The justice minister has received a list of 6,000 state officials suspected of malfeasance leading to losses totalling B142 billion in the Yingluck Shinawatra governments rice-pledging scheme.

corruptioncrimepolitics

By Bangkok Post

Tuesday 15 November 2016, 03:12PM

Public auditors find rotting grain at a warehouse in Phitsanulok province during an survey of rice stockpiled under former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatras rice-pledging scheme in 2014. Photo: Chinawat Singha

Minister Paiboon Koomchaya said at Government House today (Nov 15) that the list came from the Prime Ministers Office and the ministries of agriculture, commerce, finance and interior.

Of the 6,000 names, 2,000 were former ministers and members of sub-committees at executive levels, and the other 4,000 were officials at operational levels, the justice minister said.

That did not mean all of the listed people had already been found guilty, Gen Paiboon said.

Authorities would examine the details to confirm those really responsible for the loss, and how much they should pay individually to compensate the state.

He also said the Interior Ministry had yet to list business operators also responsible for the B142bn loss.

The government is demanding B178bn in compensation for the losses accumulated by Ms Yinglucks rice-pledging scheme for the 2012-2014 crops. The former prime minister has been ordered to pay 20 per cent of the sum, or B35.7bn. The military government blames her for not stopping the scheme once it was found plagued with losses and corruption, despite being advised repeatedly to do so.

The government has said it would order the other government officials involved, and business operators, to pay the remaining 80%, totalling B142bn.

The Yingluck governments pledging price was set at 40-50% higher than the market price in the hope that hoarding rice in massive stockpiles would push up global prices, but the scheme backfired.

In September Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha issued an order under Section 44 of the 2014 interim constitution authorising the Legal Execution Department to seize the assets of state officials found liable to pay civil damages for the rice programme losses.

Read original story here.
Danish Phuket expat dies after accidentally slashing arm while trying to break into own home

PHUKET: Friends today are making arrangements to have 41-year-old Danish expat Allan Birger Bruun buried on the island after he bled to death from slashing his arm on glass while breaking into his own home in Chalong last week.

deathaccidentspolice

By The Phuket News

Tuesday 15 November 2016, 11:06PM

Phuket expat Allan Birger Bruun, 41, from Denmark, died after suffering a deep cut to his arm inflicted when he smashed the glass on his front door to enter his own home, say police. Photo: Chalong Police

Lt Jaras Lempan of the Wichit Police received a call from an emergency ambulance of Dibuk Hospital on Nov 6, leading to Maj Col Thada Sodarat of the Chalong Police arriving at Mr Bruuns home shortly after. Mr Bruun had a very serious cut near his right elbow. He had severed a blood vessel and was bleeding profusely, Col Thada told The Phuket News today (Nov 15). I believe he was locked out of his house and used his elbow to break the glass on the front door to get in, Col Thada said. When he was discovered he was rushed to Dibuk Hospital immediately  but it was too late. Doctors confirmed that he died of blood loss. They also confirmed that he had a pre-existing heart condition, Col Thada noted. His body was later transferred to Vachira Hospital morgue, he added. Mr Bruuns friends, with permission from the family, are making arrangements for Mr Bruun to be buried in Phuket, Lt Jaras said today. Col Thada noted, Mr Bruun had lived in Phuket for many years. Lt Jaras confirmed that the Danish Embassy had been notified of Mr Bruuns death and the arrangements being made for his funeral.
Phuket lottery vendors nabbed for overcharging

PHUKET: Police have arrested 17 lottery-ticket vendors in Phuket for selling overpriced tickets to the public.

crimepolice

By Darawan Naknakhon

Tuesday 15 November 2016, 10:05AM

Officers at Phuket Provincial Police Station put on display lottery tickets seized from vendors charged with overcharging. Photo: Darawan Nakanakhon

Officers at Phuket Provincial Police Station put on display lottery tickets seized from vendors charged with overcharging. Photo: Darawan Nakanakhon

The arrests came after complaints were filed against the vendors, Phuket Provincial Police Chief Inspector Col Akanit Danpitaksan announced at a police press conference yesterday (Nov 14).

According to the complaints, overpriced tickets were being sold at 21 locations across the island and we were told that some vendors sold popular numbers for as much as B100 apiece, Col Akkanit explained.

The government-mandated price is B80 per ticket.

Our undercover officers went to these locations bought tickets from vendors, and we found these 17 vendors selling overpriced tickets, he said.

All 17 vendors were taken to Provincial Police Station and charged, he added.

Col Akanit also said that his officers were carrying out an order from the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO).

All guilty parties will face harsh punishment according to NCPO policy. The penalty for selling overpriced lottery tickets is a fine of up to B10,000 or up to one month in prison, or both, he said.

We will also send the names of vendors who have a history of selling overpriced tickets to the Government Lottery Office, he added.

Please report to the police if you know of any vendor who is selling overpriced tickets, Col Akkanit concluded.
Probe begins for alleged Israeli killers missing wife

NONTHABURI: The Crime Suppression Division (CSD) has launched an investigation into the missing Thai wife of an Israeli man who allegedly murdered his compatriot and hid the dismembered body parts inside a wall in the couples Nonthaburi home.

crimehomicidedrugspoliceviolenceconstruction

By Bangkok Post

Tuesday 15 November 2016, 08:56AM

Anan Saengurai, 62, holds a photo of his daughter Nantiya, the missing wife of the accused Israeli murderer Shimon Biton. Photo:Sanook.com via Bangkok Post

Nantiya Saengurai, 37, the wife of Israeli suspect Shimon Biton, who allegedly murdered Eliyahu Cohen, a 63-year-old Israeli former police officer, has been missing for over a year, said her father.

Anan Saengurai, 62, fearing for his daughters safety, lodged a petition with the CSD urging the agency to find his daughter.

The petition was received by Col Jirapop Phuridej and Col Arun Wachirasrisukanya, superintendents of the CSD.

The plot got considerably thicker yesterday (Nov 14).

Biton is an ex-convict who was jailed for 10 years in 2000 for disposing of a body in a murder case. He was initially charged with the murder of another Israeli, but the prosecutor reduced the charges.

According to the Jerusalem Post Biton is also known to be involved in drug trafficking.

And there is more.

The man Biton has been accused of killing, Eli Cohen, was also a murderer convicted in a Bangkok court in 2004.

Cohen lured his Israeli wife Carol Amsalem to Bangkok on a one-way plane ticket, then tortured her with a hot iron and acid, and finally killed her. He then butchered her body, bagged her remains and disposed of them. Not all of her remains were found.

After serving eight years of his 150-year prison sentence on the murder-related charges, Cohen was given amnesty and released. He left Thailand.

While it is unknown how he was allowed back into the country  where, ironically, he became the victim of a gruesome murder-butchery case  he was known to be a dual citizen of Australia and Israel and may have simply switched passports.

Meanwhile, in the Cohen murder case, Biton, now 53, was detained at the Phattharawan housing estate in Nonthaburis Bang Bua Thong district on Saturday (Nov 12) after police discovered three bags containing body parts hidden inside a wall during a raid on his house.

Police believed the dismembered body was Cohens.

According to Mr Anan, Ms Nantiya met Biton on Khao San Road in Bangkok and they lived as a couple for over 20 years. They also have a 17-year-old son who police believe may have colluded with his father in concealing Cohens body.

After hearing about the arrest of Biton, Mr Anan went to Bang Bua Thong police station yesterday to inquire about his daughter.

According to police, Biton said Ms Nantiya was nabbed by Lao authorities at the Nong Khai border checkpoint for drug-related offences. Mr Anan then contacted the Lao embassy in Bangkok but obtained no information about the arrest of his daughter.

Mr Anan said his grandson told him that Biton had forced Ms Nantiya out of the house because she had stolen money from him.

Mr Anan doubted this story given that his daughter raised her son by herself when Biton was jailed in the 2000 murder case. Ms Nantiya even took him to get his ID card made at a district office, said her father.

According to police records, Ms Nantiya has committed drug offences in Thailand.

Col Jirapop said the probe will be jointly conducted by CSDs subdivisions 1 and 2, adding he instructed authorities to gather as much evidence as possible relating to Biton.

The agency also worked with the Israeli embassy to examine Bitons passport after police suspected his name may have been changed several times.

Col Jirapop also ordered authorities to re-investigate a case in 2000 in which Biton was convicted in a murder case of another Israeli. He was not charged with the murder, but was convicted with dumping the dead body into the Mae Klong River.

Col Arun said at the time Biton was sentenced for the murder, Ms Nantiya was three months pregnant.

Police said checks with the Lao embassy found Ms Nantiya had never entered the country; however, Biton and his son travelled to Laos together from Sept 9 to 12.

Col Arun said he instructed investigators to inspect Bitons rented house in Bang Kruai district of Nonthaburi where he lived with Ms Nantiya and his son before they moved to the house in Bang Bua Thong district, also in the same province.

The owner of the house in Bang Kruai district will also be asked to verify whether the structure and landscape of the house have been altered, he said.

The CSD will also seek cooperation from Kasetsart University on procuring equipment to examine the soil in the house which may contain small fragments of human bones, he said.

The CSD investigators also found irregularities in Bitons bank account, into which B200,000 had been wired from a Russian man in Pattaya.

The CSD will further examine the money trail of both Biton and his son to discover whether they are linked to other crimes.

Both are in police custody after the Nonthaburi Provincial Court and the Nonthaburi Juvenile and Family Court approved their detention requests submitted by police. DNA samples were also collected from Biton, who will be questioned further.

Earlier, his son, who is a minor, was charged with helping his father conceal Cohens body and stealing credit cards and documents allegedly belonging to Cohen. The son told investigators his father had killed a man, but did not witness it, according to Maj Gen Susak Prakkamakul, commander of Nonthaburi Provincial Police.

Read original story here.
Suspects surrender for fatal shooting of Phuket policemans son

PHUKET: Two suspects wanted in connection with the shooting of a Patong policemans son on Sunday night (Nov 13) surrendered to police yesterday (Nov 14). Both men denied the allegations made against them.

crimedeathhomicidepolicepatongviolencetransport

By Tanyaluk Sakoot

Tuesday 15 November 2016, 11:23AM

The two suspects seen here after surrendering to police yesterday (Nov 14). Photo: Phuket City Police Station

Maj Col Natthaya Suwanpong of the Phuket City Police was informed by staff from Mission Hospital at 7:30pm on Sunday that a man, named as 21-year-old Thanapon Chusawad, had died while being transported to the hospital following a shooting incident close to British International School, Phuket (BISP).

A friend of the victim, Yutranan Jitchareon, 21, told police that he and Mr Thanapon had gone to an area close to BISP to discuss with a debt collector a B500 debt they owed. (See story here.)

Lt Col Nareuordin Pangleesen, an investigator from Phuket City Police Station confirmed to The Phuket News today (Nov 15) that 35-year-old Pademchai X Chaichana, and Kan Meuk Phuthalang, 22, surrendered at 4pm yesterday.

Both men have been accused of conspiracy to murder, conspiracy to try to murder, conspiracy to illegally obtain a firearm and conspiracy to bring a gun into a public area without permission. However, they have both denied the allegations made against them.

After being questioned, Pademchai did admit that he was the gunman but he still denied the charges. He claimed that he shot Mr Thanapon in self-defence, he said.

Asked what was behind the shooting, Lt Col Nareuordin told The Phuket News that he was told the issue stemmed from a B500 tattoo, no other details were available.

When questioned more about the case, Maj Col Natthaya told The Phuket News to talk with the Chief of Phuket City Police Station, Col Kamon Osiri.

The Phuket News attempted to contact Col Kamon today but he was unavailable for comment.
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U Texas signs agreement with Japan to collaborate on TMT

News Release from Univ of TexasSan Antonio

Nov. 11, 2016 -- Today The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) signed an agreement to collaborate in all aspects of astronomy, including the planned Thirty Meter Telescope.

This agreement will help strengthen relations between the U.S. and Japan, by encouraging the exchange and collaboration of scientific and technological knowledge. Its with a partnership like this that UTSA makes significant progress in reaching our internal goal of becoming a Tier One research university, said UTSA President Ricardo Romo.

In addition to President Romo, the signing was attended by NAOJ Director Masahiko Hayashi, Congressman Joaquin Castro, Consul-General of Japan in Houston Tetsuro Amano and Hiroshi Karoji, professor of astronomy at Princeton University.

Chris Packham, associate professor of astronomy at UTSA, is leading a team of American and Japanese scientists in building instruments for the telescope, which is planned to be one of the largest ever built.

Ive been collaborating with my fellow astronomers in Japan for 20 years, he said. Its one of the leading nations in astronomy and the new telescope is an historic project. Im thrilled to be a part of it.

The telescopes proposed massive mirror, which is designed to be 30 meters wide, will enable it to see much farther than current ground-based telescopes, the largest of which possess mirrors roughly 10 meters across. The mirror is designed to allow astronomers to view the furthest reaches of space to address questions concerning the origin of the universe, peer into the centers of black holes in distant galaxies and examine the atmospheres of exoplanets.

The project, which is a collaboration between the United States, Japan, Canada, China and India, is expected to be completed in the next 10 years.

Another aspect of the partnership will be an exchange of scientists and graduate students between Tokyo and San Antonio to further internationalize UTSAs diverse campus. Packham is already hosting scientists from the NAOJ to participate in top-tier research efforts at UTSA.

Today represents a huge step forwards in a multi-year project, which we expect to help put UTSA astronomy on a strongly rising profile, Packham said. Astronomy is a highly internationalized enterprise, its always moving to see so much support and collaboration among nations to answer such profound astronomical questions.

Congressman Castro is the co-chair of the U.S.-Japan Caucus, which aims to facilitate bilateral collaboration on issues of common interest between the two nations, including technological development.

I congratulate everyone here in San Antonio and Japan who made this achievement possible, Castro said. And I applaud the work UTSA has continued to do on a national scale.

---30---

MSA: He said it will likely be located in Hawaii or the Canary Islands.
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SD Secretary of State office says Smith remedied campaign finance mistake

Rep. Jamie Smith's campaign originally did not include the mailing addresses of his donors in violation of campaign finance law.
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For those interested in becoming members of this community, contact John at john@johnspiers.com.
BILLINGS -- The Billings Re-Entry Task Force turned nearly 60 law-abiding residents into felons last week.

Gathering in the downtown DoubleTree Hotel ballroom, representatives from organizations across Billings experienced the felon re-entry simulation put on by Billings Probation and Parole.

Participants got a small envelope explaining what had landed them in the Montana State Prison. The form also detailed what requirements they needed to meet as part of their supervised release from prison.

Passages worker Lacey Stovall's form said she'd been convicted of burglary, but it isnt what you think, she joked.

The participants included people like Stovall, who work with felons on a daily basis at places like Passages Women's program and the Alpha House prerelease center. Some had no direct connections to felon re-entry, including a Montana State University Billings professor and a representative of the Downtown Billings Alliance.

Nancy Niedens, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was a convicted drug user, according to her card. She was told she needed to submit each day to a UA, initials unfamiliar to her. UA stands for urine analysis  the abbreviation is common in the criminal justice system.

The exercise was meant to simulate a felons first month out of prison. Multiple tables around the ballroom represented different places an offender may need to go to in their first month. This included the courthouse, the Department of Motor Vehicles, a pawn shop and the probation and parole office.

Most participants spent their first week trying to get a state-issued identification card.

It's the first struggle of many offenders leaving prison, said Probation and Parole officer Katie Weston.

In the simulation, not having an ID prevented offenders from getting anything done, not unlike in the real world, Weston said.

It was the second time Weston has put on the simulation. The first time was in Helena, where Institutional Probation and Parole officers participated. Institutional officers work inside the prisons to prepare offenders before they're released. After completing the simulation, the officers wanted to work harder to make sure exiting felons at least had a state ID before returning to a community, Weston said.

During the simulation, participants called to one another asking where the Alcoholics Anonymous class was and how it was different from Narcotics Anonymous. Multiple times, someone would go to a table to ask where something was, only to learn they were in the right place by accident.

Probation and Parole Eastern Bureau Chief Jennie Hansen said this can be a problem for people who are sent to Billings, because although it has many resources, it can be difficult to navigate.

They come to Billings and they dont know where anything is, Hansen said. It can end up being more detrimental to them.

The second week, the line to buy bus tickets stretched on. Whenever a participant went to a new table, they had to present a bus ticket, making transportation a top priority for most.

Billings buses do not run on Sunday and stop running early in the evening, Hansen said, making it difficult to accept anything other than a nine-to-five job.

By the end of the simulation, half the people were back in jail. Many had resorted to stealing. More stood looking overwhelmed as Weston sounded the last two minutes of the fourth simulated week.

It gets scary when you start missing appointments, Stovall said. It makes you not want to go back.

Stovall had returned to her thieving ways not long after the simulation began.

MSUB Professor Alan Christensen said by the end he was happy for the three minutes he got to spend in jail. His feet hurt and he just wanted to sit down. Christensen used to employ people from Alpha House, the men's prerelease center, for his landscaping company, he said.

I guess I was doing a nice thing, but I didnt really understand what they were up against, Christensen said.

The criminal justice system was built to keep some people separated from others, Christensen said. He never really thought about what it would be like to return to a society after being ostracized.

About 95 percent of offenders in prison right now will return to the community at some point, Weston said. That number was based on national figures, but with Probation and Parole supervising more than 2,000 felons, the reality that former offenders return to the community cannot be denied.

Of prisoners released in 2012, about 63 percent have not committed another crime since their release. Of those released in 2013, 61 percent have not re-offended. The national average inverts Montanas statistics, with the majority of offenders returning to prison within three years.

Billings Probation and Parole Division Deputy Chief Chris Evans said the system has undergone a massive change since he began with the agency about 16 years ago. The office no longer follows the idea of trail and jail, which encouraged officers to be strict when it came to violations.

The 29 Probation and Parole officers in Billings each supervise about 80 to 90 offenders at any given time, Evans said. The Billings office has the largest case load in the state.

Billings is more open to giving those extra chances people need, Weston said. There is more support built in here.

Evans said he wants officers who are willing to work with people, and people like Weston who have a passion for helping others find better solutions.

Weston supervises offenders who have spent extensive time in prison before being released to the community. While these offenders have committed crimes that might make the public nervous, like homicides or sex offenses, they are often the most willing to comply with their supervision.

They dont want to be involved in the criminal life anymore, Weston said.

While an offender might come to Probation and Parole on their fifth or sixth chance for re-entry, Weston said officers work to not judge offenders on their past.

Probation and Parole determines an offender's level of supervision on a one-to-five scale. Level one means having contact with a probation and parole officer at least three times a month. About 85 offenders in Billings require this level of supervision.

Weston and her partner, Sarah Reil, prefer to meet with the offenders they supervise in person. Being in a persons house gives Reil a better idea of how her offenders are doing. She can also meet their families and neighbors and can spot bad situations before they develop, she said.

We arent going to send someone to jail for a positive drug test, Evans said. Relapses happen. People just need to be honest with the person supervising them.

When an offender commits a new offense and causes injury, Evans said officers take it hard. They reach out to family and treatment providers, trying to figure out if they could have prevented it, Evans said.

What it ultimately comes down to is them deciding, I cant live like this anymore, Weston said. They have to, and we like them to, come to that decision on their own.
It's our annual Labour Weekend tradition ...The Sound 'Hall Of Fame' Countdown... Where we honor the greatest 500 songs of all time as voted by you.
A rally on the steps of the Capitol building Monday opposed Montana Highway Patrol's involvement in policing the Dakota Access petroleum pipeline protest near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota.

Speakers also spoke to the importance of clean water and of their objection to how people -- elders, women and children -- were being treated at the protest by authorities.

We have the world behind us, said Rep. Rae Peppers, D-Lame Deer. We have the United Nations behind us.

Law enforcement officials in North Dakota requested help from Montana under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, according to a news release from the Montana Department of Justice.

The compact is an agreement among all 50 states, and requests are from governor-to-governor.

After North Dakotas request for assistance was approved by the Montana governors office, the Attorney Generals office authorized the use of 10 Montana Highway Patrol troopers.

Their deployment began Oct. 29 and was scheduled to last 14 days, the news release stated.

A spokesman with the Montana Department of Justice declined to release the names of the troopers who were involved and where in the state they are based, citing safety concerns.

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock said last week he would consult with the state's Native American leaders before fulfilling any future requests for law-enforcement assistance at the site, the Associated Press reported. Conditions near the reservation have changed since he approved the last request, he said in a statement.

Dustin Monroe, organizer of Monday's rally, said the event was intended to keep state government accountable.

The offices of Gov. Bullock and Attorney General Tim Fox were both involved in sending the Highway Patrol troopers to North Dakota, Monroe said.

When you start putting injustices on American citizens on American soil ... thats basically American terrorism to me, he said before the start of the rally that drew more than 75 people.

The message that we really want to send to the governor is just talk with us. The Native American community is the people that put you in (office) this election. If this story had broken a day before, we might have had a different governor, Monroe said.

If you look at the people that are here right now, he said of the crowd at the foot of the Capitol steps, its Montana. This isnt just a Native American problem, this is our problem and Montana doesnt want to support this pipeline.

Many of those who came for the rally carried signs that opposed sending Montana officers to North Dakota, and one was fashioned using the back of a "Bullock for governor" sign.

Keep Mt. Cops out of Standing Rock, read one sign and another said Protect Mother Earth. You Cant Drink Oil, Water is Sacred stated yet another of the signs that were mostly hand lettered.

Ed Buster Moore, who came from the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana, said he was once on the Fort Belknap tribal council.

He wore a war bonnet with its golden eagle feathers as he waited for his turn where he would pray.

Moore said he earned the right to wear the bonnet. His role as a spiritual person, he added, gave him the right to pray in public.

He introduced himself to the rally when it was his time and said his ceremonial name is Wisdom Giver.

Moore spoke softly through the bullhorn that all speakers used. His prayer was carried by a strong west wind. Afterward, he explained his prayer.

He said he humbled himself before the Creator and Jesus.

I asked all the good spirits of the world to come and help us, he said.

His prayer asked for pity on the people and to help the children and the adults, elders and veterans.

He asked too for the Creator and Jesus to be with the people in their minds and hearts, and that our chiefs do the right thing and make the right decision.

Paul Never Miss A Shot sat on the Capitol steps and waited for the rally to begin as his granddaughter sat next to him. He is originally from Rosebud, South Dakota, but moved to Helena about three years ago.

Protecting water from being polluted by the petroleum that the pipeline will carry is important, Never Miss A Shot said, adding that too many pipelines in North Dakota have had failures.

Were looking out for all the people, not just the Native Americans.

Were saying enough is enough, he continued, and he explained thats why he was part of Mondays rally, to stand with the Standing Rock Sioux and say no to the pipelines construction.

The rally, he said, was part of the peaceful protest.

Were just praying that somebody will listen, Never Miss A Shot said. Hopefully something will be done.

Were praying that the governor and the legislators listen and put a halt to it once and for all, he said.

Someone needs to help us to stop it.
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In this Jan. 22, 2016, file photo, a U.S. Capitol Police officer warns a group of pro-abortion rights people to move or they face arrest, as they attempt to block the March for Life 2016, in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington. Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion nationwide, could be in jeopardy under Donald Trump's presidency. If a reconfigured high court did overturn it, the likely outcome would be a patchwork: some states protecting abortion access, others enacting tough bans, and many struggling over what new limits they might impose. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
On June 23, the British population took the country and the world by surprise by voting in a national referendum to leave the European Union (EU).

Britain's exit (commonly termed "Brexit") looks likely to happen in April 2019 or later. The United Kingdom's departure will be a dramatic trauma for it and the European economic and political union. Many areas of shared tax law and practice may be affected, including indirect and direct taxes. Companies need to start understanding their own tax exposure to Brexit and have plans ready to mitigate the risks. However, initially, the question of when, how, and, indeed, if the U.K. will depart the EU is to yet be resolved.

Brexit process and timing unclear

Much uncertainty remains ahead as to the manner and timetable for Brexitthere was no planning undertaken in the run-up to the referendum.

Under EU rules, the first step is for the U.K. government to formally notify the EU of its intention to leave. Under Article 50 of the EU Lisbon Treaty, this notification would trigger a two-year negotiation period between the United Kingdom and the remaining 27 member states. At the end of this process, all parties must agree on the terms of separation and a future trading modelwhich would include trade tariffs and many tax practices.

The U.K. government recently indicated that it would trigger Article 50 by the end of March 2017, which implies an April 2019 exit. However, there are many hurdles to this timetable. On Nov. 3, the British High Court of Justice ruled that the U.K. government must seek approval from the U.K. Parliament before it can invoke Article 50, holding that the U.K. government "does not have the power . . . to give notice pursuant to Article 50 . . . for the United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Union" (R. v. Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, [2016] EWHC 2768 (Admin) (Q.B. 11/3/16) (slip op. at 32)).

Because a majority of the members of Parliament opposed Brexit, they are likely to propose many delaying amendments and changes to the U.K. government's plans. This could add at least a year to the exit timetable. When and if those challenges are overcome, major questions still remain about the constitutional positions of Scotland Parliament and Northern Ireland Assembly that could also delay or derail Brexit.

Political issues aside, it is far from clear what post-Brexit trading model the U.K. will negotiate with the EU. The U.K. may have to leave the EU's Single Market for goods and services as much of the reason the British voted to leave the EU has been attributed to the Single Market's obligation for the free movement of people across national borders. An exit from the Single Market would likely mean that goods and services sold from the U.K. to the EU would then incur new tariffs and trading restrictions. This would have a damaging effect on the thousands of United States and other non-EU companies that have selected the U.K. as their base for EU trade.

Indirect tax risks

The biggest potential tax transformation post-Brexit will be for the value-added tax (VAT), which is the EU's sales tax, levied throughout the production chain. The EU version of the VAT is based on the recommended Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development model. Similar versions have been implemented around the world, including in most of Africa and Asia. China and India are completing consumption tax reforms based on the EU VAT model.

All member states of the EU are obliged to implement and follow the rules of the EU VAT Directive. This covers what items are taxable; taxable date; country of taxation on cross-border supplies; allowable deductions for VAT incurred; partial exemptions; and basic VAT rate principles.

Upon exiting the EU VAT regime, the U.K. would be free to set these rules for itself. In a number of cases, the U.K. could use this freedom to its advantage. For example, the EU has restricted some of the VAT deductions available to the financial services industry. The U.K. could widen these to attract more banks and insurance companies from the rest of the EU and globally.

However, since the VAT is such a major contributor to the U.K.'s tax receiptsapproximately 17% of 2015 revenuesit is unlikely that major changes are ahead. The U.K.'s VAT rate may increase from 20% to around 22%, which could help fund a cut in the corporate income tax rate as the U.K. seeks to promote itself as a low-tax destination for global multinationals.

Outside of the EU VAT regime, a series of trade simplifications in the rest of that EU will be lost to the U.K. This may cause complications for U.S. corporations that based their European operations in the U.K. to have free access to the EU. The list of issues includes:

Exports to the EU of goods and services from the U.K. will face EU VAT when they clear into the EU, while currently they are zero-rated for VAT purposes (taxed at 0%). While this VAT should be recoverable, there could be cash flow risks and delays.

The VAT registration exemptions on complex supply chainsincluding triangulation (exemption from VAT registration in all member states where goods are delivered) and VAT commissionaire structures (making sales using an undisclosed agent)involving the U.K. will be void. This may undermine many global manufacturers' European tax structures and leave them vulnerable to VAT liabilities.

U.S. and other non-EU digital service (downloads of games, software, e-books, films, music, online learning, etc.) providers that have benefited from the mini-one-stop shop (MOSS) single EU VAT return to report VAT on digital services via the U.K. will have to separately register again in another EU member state.

U.S. companies selling goods from the U.K. to Europe may have to appoint special tax agents, known as fiscal representatives, which will require bank guarantees on local VAT liabilities.

Customs duties likely to rise

As part of its exit from the EU, the U.K. will have to consider if it wishes to leave the EU Customs Union, too. This provides for the free movement of goods without border tariffs. The U.K. will be keen to do so to gain freedom to negotiate its own Free Trade Agreements around the world without EU interference.

However, this will come at a cost. It is unlikely that the EU will grant the U.K. tariff-free access to its 460 million consumers if it leaves the EU. This could mean an average rise of 4% on the costs of moving goods into and out of the U.K. to Europe. For multinationals using the U.K. for some or all of their international production chain, this will be an unwelcome bottom-line cost.

Direct taxes not exempt from change

Direct taxes, notably the corporate income tax, are outside of the purview of the EU. In theory, this should mean no changes for company taxation for businesses with operations and subsidiaries in the U.K.

However, the EU exerts considerable influence indirectly. Companies depending on payments into the U.K. from abroad may suffer new withholding tax cash flow problems. The EU Parent-Subsidiary Directive and the Interest and Royalties Directive prevent such tax losses, but these would no longer apply to the U.K. outside of the EU.

One key EU initiative the post-Brexit U.K. will miss out on is the proposed harmonization of direct taxes, which may be an advantage. The EU is set to propose limiting the competitive tax planning opportunities its member states have been using to attract global multinationals through initiatives such as the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base. The U.K. would now fall outside of this proposal, again enhancing its position as a tax-friendly global base.

Tax planning for Brexit

Now that a potential exit date has been announced, April 2019, it is time for multinationals to start planning for the prospective tax changeseven though they will not be fully determined until trade model negotiations are more advanced. Suggested measures include:

Establish a company task force with relevant stakeholders in the business's tax affairs. This should include representatives from tax, finance, procurement, sales, and planning.

Scope out international supply chains with U.K. and EU VAT registrations. This will help determine where there may be cash flow risks and losses.

Plan for alternative structures for supply chains and determine likely costs/benefits of the changes.

Map out international holding company structures, with flows of payments, dividends, interest, and royalties. These should be compared to tax treaties to ensure that the withholding tax losses will not be triggered post-Brexit.

Present the outcome of the above to the C-suite-level executive to gain his or her understanding of the risks, and ensure the organization has worked through all potential scenarios for when Brexit outcomes are clarified.

Richard Asquith, vice president for Global Tax Compliance at Avalara, a tax software company, is a U.K. Chartered Accountant based in London, responsible for helping businesses understand and manage their tax compliance obligations as they enter or expand into new markets.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mother Heerabaa Modi on Tuesday exchanged demonetised currency for Rs 4,500 at a bank in Gandhinagar in Gujarat.



PM Modi's mother Heeraba Modi | ANI

Wearing a white cotton sari, Heerabaa, in her 90s, reached the bank a week after Modi administration banned all 500 and 1,000 rupee notes. She later showed a new 2,000 rupee note to journalists.
Two persons were arrested on Tuesday, in connection with the recent murder of a journalist working in a prominent vernacular daily.

Scribe Dharmendra Singh, a journalist with Dainik Bhaskar, was shot dead by some unidentified assailants when he was having tea at a roadside stall in his village Amra talab of Rohtas district.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted to probe the murder case, arrested two persons during a raid late last night, a statement issued by the office of the Director General of Police (DGP) said.

Those arrested have been identified as Radhika Raman Rai and Manish Singh, Patna Zonal Inspector General N H Khan told PTI.

Both the accused have been arrested from two separate places of Rohtas district, he said.

While Rai is the resident of Rohtas district, Manish, who is wanted by the police in three cases lodged in Rohtas district, is the resident of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, the statement said.

On the basis of information available from those arrested, police has also seized a motorcycle (BR-24 N 9904) which was used in the crime, it said.

Police is interrogating the duo and conducting raids to nab other absconding culprits, the statement said, adding that the matter is being investigated from all angles.

Dharmendra, who is survived by his wife and a son, had an old rivalry with Pappu Singh, currently lodged in a jail and is a resident of Dumariya village under Mufassil police station of the district, it said.

On the basis of a written complaint of Ravindra Singh, brother-in-law of the journalist, police lodged an FIR with Mufassil police station against four named and two unnamed persons in the murder case, the statement said.

"We have already constituted an SIT to probe the case and chargesheet would be submitted against those arrested in the case on a priority basis and would be put to speedy trial," Khan said.

The murder of the journalist in Rohtas has come close on the heels of killing of a scribe of a Hindi daily in Siwan, Rajdeo Ranjan, in May.
President-elect Donald Trump is in for a quick wake-up call and will have to adjust his temperament when he confronts the realities of his new job on January 20, President Barack Obama said on Monday.

In a news conference at the White House, Obama said the freewheeling Trump could not be as outspoken as he was during the long and bitter campaign that ended last week with the Republican's surprise win over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Subdued and carefully choosing his words, Obama gave what appeared to be dispassionate advice to his successor free of much of the partisan rancor that marked the election campaign. "This office has a way of waking you up," Obama said. "Those aspects of his positions or predispositions that don't match up with reality, he will find shaken up pretty quick because reality has a way of asserting itself."

The two men met in the Oval Office last week to begin the transition of power. Obama said on Monday he believed Trump would be pragmatic in office and not approach the country's problems from an ideological perspective. "There are going to be certain elements of his temperament that will not serve him well, unless he recognises them and corrects them," Obama said.

"Because when you're a candidate and you say something that is inaccurate or controversial it has less impact than it does when you're president of the United States. Everybody around the world is paying attention. Markets move," he said.

Obama declined to wade into a controversy over Trump's appointment of right-wing firebrand Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist, saying it would "not be appropriate" for him to comment on Trump's appointments.

But Obama, who criticised Trump's temperament during the campaign, said it was important for Trump to send signals of unity after the hard-fought campaign. He said the political gifts that allowed the Republican to upset Clinton would be put to good use in the White House. "I've been encouraged by his statements on election night about the need for unity, his interest in being president for all people," Obama said. "In an election like this that was so hotly contested and so divided, gestures matter."

Anger over Bannon

The president-elect, a businessman who has never held public office, and his transition team are working on picking members of his Cabinet and the heads of federal agencies.

A Trump transition team official denied media reports on Monday that Trump was seeking security clearance for three of his children and his son-in-law.

Such clearance would allow Trump to discuss matters of national security with his daughter Ivanka, sons Eric and Donald Jr. and son-in-law Jared Kushner. Federal law prohibits him from hiring family members to serve in his administration, but all four played key advisory roles through the campaign.

Trump has insisted that to avoid conflicts of interest, his children would run his sprawling business operations once he assumed the presidency.

Democrats, civil rights groups and even some Republicans slammed Trump for choosing Bannon as a key aide, saying it would elevate the white nationalist movement into the top levels of the White House.

Making his first appointments since last week's upset win, Trump picked Bannon as his chief strategist and counselor, and Washington insider Reince Priebus as his chief of staff on Sunday, saying the two would share the task of steering his administration as "equal partners."

The choice of Priebus was seen as a conciliatory signal of Trump's willingness to work with Congress. But critics blasted the selection of Bannon, who spearheaded a shift of the Breitbart News website into a forum for the "alt-right," a loose online group of neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites.

"There should be no sugarcoating the truth here. Donald Trump just invited a white nationalist into the highest reaches of the government," said Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, who called on Trump to rescind the choice.

The Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said Bannon's appointment sent "an alarming signal that President-elect Trump remains committed to the hateful and divisive vision that defined his campaign."

Even some conservatives and Republicans voiced dismay on Bannon. Evan McMullin, who ran as a conservative independent presidential candidate, wondered on Twitter if any national Republican leaders would condemn the pick of "anti-Semite" Bannon.

John Weaver, a top strategist for Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich, tweeted that the "racist, fascist extreme right is represented footsteps from the Oval Office. Be very vigilant America." Kasich was one of 16 Republican presidential hopefuls Trump defeated in the party primaries.

Priebus defended Bannon on Monday, calling him a wise and well-educated former naval officer and saying he had not encountered the sort of extremist or racist views that critics are assailing.

"He was a force for good on the campaign," Priebus said on Fox News, adding they were in agreement on "almost everything" in terms of advising the president-elect.

Kellyanne Conway, Trump's former campaign manager and a senior adviser, told reporters in New York she was offended by the reaction to Bannon, describing him as a "brilliant tactician."

Police in New York on Monday were investigating two cases involving swastikas drawn or painted in public spaces, as civil rights activists said there had been a surge in hate crimes following last week's election.

Local media reported hundreds of students walked out of a high school to protest Trump on Monday in Silver Spring, Maryland, and students gathered at the University of Washington in Seattle to protest Trump.

Among those reported to be under consideration for top posts in a Trump administration are former US House speaker Newt Gingrich, as a possible secretary of state or secretary of health and human services; Stephen Hadley, former national security adviser under president George W. Bush, as a possible defense secretary; former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani as attorney general; and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin as interior secretary.
DECATUR  Harris School third-graders are learning about helping others.

The Community Impact Project, spearheaded by teachers Taylor LaFrence and Cindy Ventress, is a way for kids to give back. The teachers asked the students to research needs in the community and choose an organization to assist. The kids selected Northeast Community Fund.

We challenged our students to look up different organizations in our community because third grade is a big year for learning about community as a whole, LeFrence said.

The students voted on which organization to help, and wrote persuasive papers from which they made iMovies for the school's Facebook page. Northeast Community Fund director Jerry Pelz has visited the class to talk students about the people they help and gave the kids a list of regular needs.

Thanks to the students' fundraising efforts and grants from the Illinois Education Association's SCORE program and the Decatur Public Schools Foundation, the children and teachers went shopping at Walmart.

LeFrence was particularly proud of what good bargain hunters the students were. With $80 to spend per group, the kids found handwarmers in multi-packs that were less expensive than buying them singly, and so they could buy more of them for less money. Other groups purchased fruits and vegetables, tea lights, toothpaste and toothbrushes, Chap Stick, granola bars and washcloths. They kept track of their purchases, and with a total of $665 dollars to spend, came in under the wire at $664.21.

They'll receive the IEA grant in a couple of months and will go back to buy more items for Northeast Fund then.

Then we delivered the items to Northeast Community Fund, Ventress said, and that in itself was a lesson, for the children to see exactly where their donation was going.

All the schools in Decatur have a high poverty rate, LeFrence said, and the kids were helping other kids in need as well as doing something to improve their community.

The kids were wonderful, Ventress said.

You'd think that 38 kids in Walmart would be chaos, LeFrence said with a laugh. But they were marvelous. They wanted to push the cart, they wanted to do the searching (for items), and they were looking for deals.
Swedish chief prosecutor Ingrid Isgren arrived at Ecuador's London embassy on Tuesday to question Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, in connectionwith a rape investigation

Assange, who has repeatedly denied the rape allegation, was questioned by prosecutors on Monday at the embassy.Assange, who enraged Washington by publishing a flood of secret U.S. diplomatic cables, fled to the embassy in 2012 for fear that, if extradited to Sweden, he could be sent on to the United States and face a long prison term there for leaking U.S. secrets.
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When your children wake up in the morning, do they jump out of bed excited about the school day ahead? When you walk through your childrens schools, do you notice joyful students, happy teachers and interactive lessons? If not, its time to seriously consider moving your family to Rochester, NY.

Derech HaTorah is Rochesters Torah elementary school. Its the school that leaves visitors wishing they lived in Rochester. Its the school that makes parents whisper a silent tefilla of thanks when they think about how their children spend their days. Its the school where you hear laughter and joy in the halls. Its the school that focuses on skills and has the communitys Rosh HaYeshiva marveling at the level of the talmidim.

Its the school where secular studies are taken seriously and students ace regents exams in 7th and 8th grade. Its the school where bullying is never tolerated. Its the school that you wish you could have attended as a child. When children grow up in a warm environment where they are loved and appreciated, they thrive and usually become very productive, successful adults.

When childrens talents are recognized and encouraged, they explore and develop them and creatively contribute to klal Yisrael. When childrens learning styles are met and they experience success in academics, their potential is limitless. When children live out-of-town, they are excited about life and new experiences and are eager to make new friends. When children attend Derech HaTorah of Rochester, they are treasured, challenged and eager to learn.

Intrigued? Dont take our word for it. Call a friend in Rochester and youll get an even better testimonial. Or, best of all, come for a Shabbos  with your family
OWANECO  A soldier from Central Illinois is recovering from serious injuries she suffered in a deadly suicide bomber attack while serving with the Army in Afghanistan.

Pfc. Maggie Bilyeu, 26, from Owaneco, survived with a broken leg and shrapnel wounds to her chest in the blast, which happened early Saturday at Bagram Air Base. The bombing killed two American contractors working at the base and two soldiers, including 20-year-old Pfc. Tyler R. Lubelt from Tamaroa in Perry County.

Bilyeu was airlifted to emergency medical treatment at a U.S base in Germany before being transferred to Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland where she underwent surgery Tuesday morning.

Bilyeu is the daughter of Burt and Kim Bilyeu, and the family said the Army is flying her parents out to be with her. Maggie Bilyeu's brothers, Cole and Dusty, have already left to be with their sister.

Bilyeu had been in the Army a little more than a year and was deployed to Afghanistan nine weeks ago. Her cousin, Kristi Millburg of Morrisonville, said Bilyeu had been taking part in a fun run on base in honor of Veterans Day when the suicide bomber struck. Press reports suggested the attacker, a member of the Taliban, had blended in with casual laborers who gather at the base daily to seek work.

Millburg, 30, said her cousin had found her calling since joining the Army and excelled at it, loving the military life. Yeah, she did awesome. ... She recently got named as 'Soldier of the Month,'  Millburg added. You could see a 100 percent difference in her after she found her calling.

Millburg said her cousin wasn't one to dwell on the obvious risks of frontline service. She is a tough girl; it's a 'No, I got this,' kind of thing with her,'  she said.

Asked if her near-death experience would put Bilyeu off from returning to Afghanistan, Millburg had no doubts what her cousin would say: If they woke her up and got her out of bed, she'd probably try to get back over there right now, she said.

Millburg isn't sure if the injuries Bilyeu suffered will affect her military career, but she has started a GoFundMe page to help her cousin out at gofundme.com/maggie-bilyeu-recovery.

She has done her part to serve and protect us, and I think we should at least do something for her, explained Millburg. And so many in the community want to reach out and help her.
During the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, 12 Cheshvan, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the presence of the media announced One last issue. Today, Minister Tzachi Hanegbi will submit to the Cabinet a proposal to lift the immunity of documents and protocols of the commissions of inquiry on the disappearance of the Yemenite children. The families whose children disappeared and the public at large deserve to know what the commissions of inquiry discussed. I know that you (Minister Hanegbi) speak about lifting all of the restrictions and, in effect, allowing people to see with their own eyes all of this material on the Internet. I would like to thank you, Tzachi, for your welcome and expedited action, and that of your team. I would like to also thank MK Nurit Koren and the other MKs for working to advance this important issue.

Hanegbi responded, Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister. Todays decision will not eliminate the pain and suffering that thousands of immigrants have endured. Brothers, sisters and families, live with the feeling of their children gone for many decades. But this decision is important in two respects. First of all, to really allow family members and their authorized representatives, and in fact to the public to go online and see the difficult, oppressive and gloomy picture in its fullness, and get as close as possible to understanding the truth.

Secondly, the government today, I believe, will put an end to this unbearable reality, unjustified confidentiality, that has been imposed for seventy years on these materials, at least in mine and in the eyes of the professional staff, and we could not find any discussion, any explanation that clarifies why anyone thought it was so necessary. It will put an end to the suspicion, skepticism and mistrust towards the state agencies by the families.

I thank the Prime Minister who initiated this move in which I was authorized to present my recommendation to the government. I thank the Justice Minister who placed her office and her team at my disposal on this issue. I thank the team which worked closely with me for many months: the archivist of the state archives, Jacob Lazovic, Head of the Freedom of Information unit, the Ministry of Justice, Rivkie Dvash and the legal adviser of the State Archives, Naomi Aldouby. Indeed, as the Prime Minister said, this is just the beginning of the process. Try going online and understanding this subject. The Knesset should confirm our decision and MK Nurit Koren will continue to lead the implementation

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
El Al pilots on Sunday implemented job actions at the expense of many of the airlines passengers. On Sunday, flight 027 from Tel Aviv scheduled to take off during the evening hours was grounded, leaving passengers stranded. Once again, the job action surrounds pilots demands for a salary increase. The cancelation of that flight led to the cancelation of another flight that was to head to Israel from NYC on Monday.

Pilots used Facebook to apologize to travelers but their words did little for stranded passengers at the airport and elsewhere. The pilots for flight 027 simply did not arrived for the flight, compelling the airline to ground the flight.

The pilots will in the coming days decide if a work dispute will be called. In the meantime, numerous flights have been canceled due to job actions in recent months. El Al blames the job actions for its poor rating as the worst airline regarding timely service.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Due to issues with the packaging of bottles of Acamoli Forte produced by the Teva Company, the company has announced a recall. According to the media release, there may be a slight leak from the bottles cap, prompting the voluntary recall. Company officials stress the recall is simply due to the possible leak and it has nothing to do with the integrity of the syrup.

Consumers may return the product to stores and receive a credit or another.

Acamoli is paracetamol, a medicine to reduce fever and pain, found in many if not most Israeli homes. It can be used from birth and can be purchased without a prescription. It is a non-narcotic painkiller suitable for children and adults for the relief of mild pain and fever reduction.

Teva Pharmaceuticals explains the recall is voluntary as part of its ongoing efforts to maintain its high standard.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Rav of the community of Amona Rabbi Yair Frank has announced that if chas vsholom that are involuntarily evicted from their community there will be passive resistance only, stating there would be absolutely no violence. Rav Frank feels that if the government orders the expulsion of the community situated next to Ofra, in the Shomron, it has lost its right to exist, calling on lawmakers to do what it must to prevent uprooting additional Jewish communities.

Rav Frank is waiting for Bayit Leumi party leader Minister Naftali Bennett to announce that Amona is a red line and if the government orders its expulsion in compliance with a High Court of Justice ruling, the party will bring down the coalition government. While some members of Bayit Yehudi have made such a statement, Bennett has yet to do so.

The rav added that it is most difficult even to imagine an expulsion as Am Yisrael light Chanukah candles, a chag representing geula, expressing optimism that the decree will be overturned.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Anger and fury describe the PA (Palestinian Authority) response to the bill that would silence the mosques around Israel that to date, have been permitted to wail at any volume they choose in the call to prayer. Hamas calls the bill a dangerous development and unauthorized meddling in religion.

The bill, which enjoys the backing of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, has PA Chairman Abu Mazen furious and he warns that if passed into law, the consequences will be severe. PA spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina announced the PA will turn to the UN Security Council and all other international forums against the bill.

The bill was presented to the Ministerial Law Committee on Sunday, 12 Cheshvan, and it was approved by the ministers. The bill would prohibit houses of worship from using loudspeakers.

For many residents of northern Jerusalem and other neighborhoods around Israel, the mosques wail at all hours of the day and night, regularly disturbing the peace and annoying residents. Efforts to have mosques lower the volume have been unsuccessful, leading to the bill. Many northern Jerusalem residents explain their quality of life has been significantly compromised by the daily wailing of the mosques.

Other PA officials are warning the bill will lead to a regional religious war if passed into law in the Knesset. The PA adds that even if the bill passes, it will not change religious realities in Jerusalem or the Islamic commitment to Jerusalem holy sites.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
SIBAT, the International Defense Cooperation Directorate at the Ministry of Defense is a key partner in the 2016 HLS and Cyber conference which begins 14 Cheshvan 5777 in Tel Aviv.

Delegations from around the world are gathering in Israel for the conference with a keen interest Israeli technology, in particular, its cyber developments. Each country with which SIBAT works has a need for cyber security solutions, with some of the worlds most advanced, leading countries seeking collaborative research and development, whether through the Ministry of Defense or Israeli industries. There is also great demand for varied solutions, including state cyber protection, as well as training and solutions to defend from a host of organizations.

At the end of every year, SIBAT holds a strategic assessment for the defense world, including an up to date status report identifying future trends in all relevant fields for the target audiences of SIBAT and the Israeli defense industries. This year, a situational analysis focusing on the defensive and military cyber spheres will also take place. The cyber situational assessment will identify specific opportunities and needs in over twenty countries across the globe, in which SIBAT has representatives and close ties with military clients, local police and government officials. The cyber situational analysis has led SIBAT to declare 2017 as Israels year of cyber security exports, in which the Ministry of Defense will coordinate a special effort to advance the exceptional capabilities of Israels cyber defense industries and military.

SIBAT Director, Brigadier-General (res) Mishel Ben Baruch: Cyber warfare is combat terrorism. Cooperation between nations is necessary to eliminate and reduce the vulnerability and prices paid by countries as a result of cyber-attacks. We identified specific opportunities and needs in more than 20 counties around the world, with which SIBAT has close ties. The Israeli defense industries have amazing capabilities in research and development and technology, some of which is traditional defense technologies being adapted for cyber. Our industries have excellent marketing capabilities and the ability to bring clients tailored, flexible solutions.

A special survey conducted by SIBAT of its customers indicates a wide need and key trends in the field of cyber exports: development and supply of cyber vaccines to weapons and command and control systems, establishment of an advanced national CERT center, protection of strategic facilities, establishment of SOC centers, training and trainers, cybercrime and advanced cyber service.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is publicly calling on opposition leader MK Yitzchak Herzog to apologize for referring to residents of Yehuda and Shomron as viruses during an interview with Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) on Monday, 14 Cheshvan.

The prime minister stated the residents of these communities are an integral portion of the country, serving in the IDF and contributing to the nations economy. Bougie apologize immediately Mr. Netanyahu said, referring to Herzog by his nickname.

Herzog was speaking about the Normalization Bill which seeks the bypass the High Court ruling compelling the destruction of Amona. He also stated the Torah teaches Jews they may not steal, questioning how they can try to legalize a community which the court determined was built on Arab land.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Eleven Middle East and North African countries are accusing Iran of sponsoring terrorism and constantly interfering in the internal affairs of Arab nations, sparking tension and instability in the region.

In a letter to the U.N. General Assembly circulated Monday, the 11 countries cited Irans support for Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen and the Shiite Hezbollah group in Lebanon which has sent fighters to support the Syrian government. They also accused Iran of supporting terrorist groups and cells in Bahrain, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and elsewhere.

They reiterated a statement by Bahrains foreign minister in September that the only way forward is for Iran to comprehensively change its foreign policies and end hostilities.

The letter, organized by the United Arab Emirates, was signed by Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, among others.

(AP)
Vouching for the successor he never imagined having, President Barack Obama on Monday sought to reassure an anxious nation and world that Donald Trump would maintain Americas alliances and its status as the indispensable nation. He credited the president-elect for tapping into American voters anxiety and enthusiasm.

Do I have concerns? Obama added. Absolutely.

Speaking at a White House news conference before a three-nation trip that was supposed to be his grand valedictory tour, Obama pointedly refused to criticize Trump, who only a week ago Obama said was woefully unprepared for the job and couldnt handle the nuclear codes.

Instead, Obama did his best to soothe the pangs of uncertainty at home and abroad after a divisive campaign that included charges of racism, sexism and other offensive rhetoric, and questions from Trump about the validity of the United States security relationships in Europe and Asia.

There is enormous continuity  that makes us that indispensable nation when it comes to maintaining order around the world, Obama said. Relationships and policies go beyond presidents, he said, adding that military officials, diplomats and intelligence officers would cooperate with their foreign counterparts as before.

In his White House meeting with Trump last week, Obama said the Republican expressed a great interest in maintaining our core strategic relationships, including strong and robust NATO partnerships.

It was a sharp change in tone for Obama, who regularly mocked Trumps candidacy in the last days before the election, even accusing the billionaire businessman and former reality television star of helping the Islamic State group with his rhetoric about Muslims and undermining U.S. democracy through his claims of a rigged election. At the time, almost all polls showed Democrat Hillary Clinton leading Trump.

Asked about one of Trumps most contentious moves since his triumph, appointing Steve Bannon as chief strategist and senior adviser, Obama said it was up to the president-elect to appoint a team that will serve him well.

It takes a while for people to reconcile themselves with that new reality, Obama said of the choice of Bannon, a man celebrated by the white nationalist movement. Of Trump, Obama said its important for us to let him make his decisions. But adding a hint of worry, Obama said he counseled Trump during their White House meeting: Its really important to send some signals of unity.

Whereas Obama hailed Trumps impressive ability to speak to voters, he also delivered a subtle critique of Clintons campaign.

He said Democrats must broaden their focus beyond just swing states after an election that left the Senate and House in Republican hands, as well as most of the nations governors mansions. He rejected the idea that demographic advantages would lead to all-but-assured victories for the party, saying it must rebuild at the local, state and national levels.

Were going to have to compete everywhere, he said, reflecting on his own 2008 win in Iowa, a state that went for Trump this time. Were going to have to show up everywhere.

Clinton kept a relatively light campaign schedule until the final weeks of her campaign, mostly attending smaller events in battleground states. Her campaign focused heavily on motivating the Democratic base of women and minority voters, rather than swaying independents. Good ideas dont matter if people dont hear them, Obama said.

While Obama is in Germany, Greece and Peru, he said his team would accelerate efforts to ensure a smooth transition to the Trump administration.

He stressed that he would try to strengthen the American economy over his final two months, so that when we turn over the keys, the cars in pretty good shape.

(AP)
President-elect Donald Trumps transition team says the incoming president will meet with Vice President-elect Mike Pence in New York on Tuesday as he makes decisions on his senior staff and Cabinet.

Pence is overseeing the transition effort.

Spokesman Jason Miller tells reporters that Pence will meet with Trump at Trump Tower to review a number of names for the incoming administration.

Miller says, This is an absolute top priority.

Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions has been meeting with Trump officials on Monday evening. Miller says Trump would be lucky to have him in any capacity and vice versa.

(AP)
BISMARCK, N.D.  The Army Corps of Engineers on Monday said it has finished a review of the disputed Dakota Access pipeline but wants more study and tribal input before deciding whether to allow it to cross under a Missouri River reservoir in North Dakota.

The announcement, which came amid speculation that federal officials were on the brink of green-lighting the crossing, spells further delay for the project. Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, the company developing the pipeline, said earlier Monday that it expected to be moving oil through the pipeline by early next year if it received permission.

The corps in July granted the company the permits needed for the project, but in September said more analysis was warranted in the wake of American Indian concerns. The Standing Rock Sioux, whose reservation will be skirted by the $3.8 billion, four-state pipeline, says it threatens its drinking water and cultural sites.

Energy Transfer Partners disputes that and said last week it is preparing to bore under the river.

Army Assistant Secretary Jo-Ellen Darcy said in a letter to company officials and tribal Chairman Dave Archambault that "additional discussion with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and analysis are warranted." That discussion is to include potential conditions on an easement for the pipeline crossing that would reduce the risk of a spill.

Darcy said the Army will work with the tribe on a timeline "that allows for robust discussion and analysis to be completed expeditiously." Army spokeswoman Moira Kelley would not elaborate on whether a decision would be done by the time President Barack Obama leaves office. Donald Trump, a pipeline supporter, is set to take office in January.

Archambault and Energy Transfer Partners spokeswoman Vicki Granado did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The 1,200-mile pipeline is to carry North Dakota oil through South Dakota and Iowa to a shipping point in Illinois.

The company building the $3.8 billion Dakota Access oil pipeline said before the Army announcement Monday that it expects to finish construction by Dec. 1, except for the small disputed section in North Dakota, and could begin moving crude early next year if the government gives final approval.

In an email to The Associated Press, Energy Transfer Partners said it would finish the pipeline within 120 days of getting approval for the easement beneath Lake Oahe, the Missouri River reservoir in southern North Dakota.

Also Monday, officials locked down the North Dakota Capitol after pipeline opponents gathered there, one day before groups planned more than 200 protests at Army Corps of Engineers offices and other sites across the country.

Nearly 470 protesters have been arrested since August supporting the Standing Rock Sioux.

Energy Transfer Partners said it has suffered losses "in the millions" to vandalized equipment along the pipeline route in North Dakota. The company said it was taking steps to protect the pipeline from vandalism, but declined to disclose details.

The rallies set for todeay at such places as state Army Corps offices, federal buildings and offices of banks that have helped finance the project are seeking to draw Obama's attention.

The groups, including the Indigenous Environmental Network, Honor the Earth and Greenpeace USA, want Obama to permanently halt the construction of the pipeline, the focus of confrontations between police and protesters in North Dakota for months.

A United Nations group that represents indigenous people around the world said the U.S. government appears to be ignoring the treaty rights and human rights of American Indians opposing the pipeline.

The Nov. 4 statement from the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues called on the government to "protect the traditional lands and sacred sites of the Standing Rock Sioux and uphold their human rights commitments."

Forum member Edward John in late October visited a camp in North Dakota that's drawn hundreds of protesters from around the globe. He said he found a "war zone" atmosphere and that "I felt as though I was in an armed conflict zone on foreign soil."

Justice Department spokesman Wyn Horbuckle said the agency has been in communication with law officers, tribal officials and protesters "to facilitate communication, defuse tensions, support peaceful protests, and maintain public safety."
The bill intended to limit the volume emanating from mosques, which enjoys the backing of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, is being fiercely opposed by Arab MKs, the PA (Palestinian Authority) and others who feel it is a violation of freedom of religion.

One objection came from a surprising place, from a resident of Arad who feels the Erev Shabbos siren announcing the arrival of Shabbos is no less annoying. Veronica Yerushalmi of Arad was interviewed by Ynet and she explained her opposition to the siren which is sounded on Erev Shabbos and Yomtov, calling it an unwanted invasion and interruption in the tranquility of the day.

She explains at times it is music of one song or another. She told Ynet that a few years ago she rented an apartment which she and her family loves, in the Chalamish neighborhood of the city but now, on Fridays, without warning, the music begins blasting for a number of minutes.

Veronica adds she has turned to local officials in the hope of silencing the speakers and it worked for about a half year but now they are back. There is no enforcement and everyone does as they please she feels.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
The German government announced Tuesday it had banned an Islamic group, The true religion, which is suspected of targeting teenagers to radicalize to fight in Syria and Iraq. At the same time, police raided about 190 offices, storehouses, mosques and apartments of members and supporters.

In searches in 60 cities in western Germany and in Berlin, police seized documents, hard drives, smartphones and weapons, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said. Nobody was detained.

The group  also known as Read!  has been distributing German-language copies of the Quran across the country. The interior minister said that more than 140 youths had traveled to Syria and Iraq to join fighters there after having participated in the groups campaigns in Germany.

The translations of the Quran are being distributed along with messages of hatred and unconstitutional ideologies, de Maiziere told reporters in Berlin. Teenagers are being radicalized with conspiracy theories.

Young men in long robes and bushy beards handing out German copies of the Quran has been a common sight in downtown and shopping areas across Germany for several years.

Security officials said that the group had about 500 members. In a warehouse near the western city of Cologne, authorities seized about 21,000 German-language copies of the Quran.

The ban came a week after security authorities arrested five men who allegedly aided the Islamic State group in Germany by recruiting members and providing financial and logistical help.

The German interior minister stressed that the ban does not restrict the freedom of religion in Germany or the peaceful practice of Islam in any way. However, he said the group had glorified terrorism and the fight against the German constitution in videos and meetings.

We dont want terrorism in Germany  and we dont want to export terrorism, de Maiziere said adding that the ban was also a measure to help protect peaceful Islam in the country.

Some 850 people are believed to have traveled from Germany to Syria and Iraq to join extremist groups like the Islamic State as fighters. All in all, security officials say that there are about 9,200 so-called Salafists in Germany who practice an ultra-conservative form of Islam that can also turn violent.

The head of The true religion group, 52-year-old Palestinian-born Ibrahim Abou-Nagie, is currently in Malaysia, the German news agency dpa reported. He has in the past repeatedly preached against infidels at mass events in Germany and on videos and social media.

(AP)
President Reuven Rivlin on Tuesday morning 14 Cheshvan opened his state visit to India as he was welcomed in an official ceremony by President Pranab Mukherjee of India at the Presidential Residence in New Delhi. President and First Lady Rivlin were greeted by horse guards who escorted their motorcade. The delegations then stood for the playing of both the Israeli and Indian national anthems, before the President went on to review a guard of honor.

The President commented, I am very honored and pleased to be the guest of Preside Mukherjee. He visited us a year ago and we are very privileged and honored to be today here in your great country, in India. Thank you so very much for welcoming me Mr. President.

The President then went on to lay a wreath, and as is customary sprinkled petals, on the tomb of Mahatma Gandhi. At the end of the ceremony, the President wrote in the official guest book quoting the verse from Leviticus (19:18), Love thy neighbor as thyself.

The President said, In the spirit of this place, I wrote the quote Love thy neighbor as thyself, a fitting aphorism for all humanitarians in the world, and among them Gandhi himself. When asked on his impressions of the visit, the President said, Israel and India have a firm alliance, between two peoples and two states with illustrious and greatly inspirational pasts. Similarly in this place, where the old world meets the new, one can feel all these things and see how they are expressed in the visit. I am hopeful that my visit will serve to deepen the ties between us and this wonderful people, with whom we have so much in common.

President Rivlin then went on to hold a working meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and a series of meetings with other key officials. This evening, the President and First Lady will attend a state dinner in honor of their visit.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem/Photo Credit: Mark Neiman, GPO)
Jerusalem police announced terrorism has dropped by 40% in the capital despite the terror attacks that began in Tishrei 5776. Police report there were 4,647 rock-throwing attack in 2016 as compared to 2,844 in 2016.

Firebomb attack were down significantly as well, from 741 in 2015 to 432 in 2016. Police credit nationwide cyber units that monitor social media for preventing 134 attack in Yerushalayim. Police also credit their deployment of forces in key areas as well as special counter-terrorism measures that have been implemented.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman speaks of the possibility of the government having to order the evacuation and destruction of Amona based on the High Court of Justice ruling. Speaking at a ceremony in the south, the senior minister on Tuesday, 14 Cheshvan called to refrain from bringing the IDF into a political matter, signaling the expulsion may occur as planned.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Lieberman arrived in southern Israel to attend the inauguration of the IDF city in the Negev. It was in his remarks at that event that Lieberman signaled the community of Amona may be removed as the court has ordered.

Lieberman explained the IDF simply follows orders as the decisions are made by the cabinet and it is possible the cabinet will have to order the expulsion at Amona.

The Prime Minister spoke about the civil war in Syria and Israels close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
[COMMUNICATED CONTENT]

By M Lowinger

Shabbos might just never be the same again for thousands of members of the Flatbush community who participated in this years Shabbos Project. Not only did it provide an opportunity to invite less-affiliated guests to our community, but also to inspire ourselves and revitalize our own personal Shabbos experience.

Everybody loves Shabbos, but do we really appreciate it fully? Are we thrilled when Shabbos begins? Do we celebrate Shabbos with enthusiasm or do we find ourselves chasing the clock? And finally, do we want to share the beauty of what we experience with our fellow Jew?

There were plenty of guests, to be sure, who were less familiar with Shabbos, the services and the frum community. There was a genuine sense of camaraderie in the streets, in the shuls, and at every venue. The unspoken sentiment was: We are all one, despite our differences in lifestyle or background.

Anyone who attended Kabolas Shabbos at Agudas Yisroel Bais Binyomin savored the powerful melodies of the tefillos led by Yehuda Green. Says Moshe, The shul was so full, there wasnt an empty seat in the house.

Later that evening, the crowds returned en masse. Mr. Isaac Gross, sponsor of the Shabbos Project, made welcoming remarks, speaking of the great accomplishments of the Shabbos Project world-wide and the role Project Inspire has played in the community. Rabbi Yissocher Frands dynamic presentation followed, encouraging all to share the beauty of Yiddishkeit with their fellow Jew, as well as suggesting that we inspire our own Shabbos table by sharing a hashgacha pratis experience of the week.

At a festive Oneg, Rabbi Yisroel Reisman cautioned us not to treat Shabbos as if it were recess. Rabbi Lieff urged us to anticipate Shabbos all week long. And Rabbi Ephraim Shapiro told us about the tremendous positive roshem that a Rosh Yeshiva had made on a black woman who worked in a hotel. She distinctly remembered him forty years later. Even our smallest actions can make a life-time difference. The stories varied, but the messages remained focused. Experience a meaningful Shabbos. Bring Hashem into our lives. And never be afraid to approach someone about Yiddishkeit.

In the morning, Rabbi Chaim Sampson, Founding Director of Project Inspire, spoke about the five levels of pleasure, explaining what they are and how to differentiate between real and counterfeit pleasures. Early afternoon, Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky was introduced by Rabbi Steve Burg, CEO of Aish HaTorah, who graciously joined the community for Shabbos. Rabbi Orlofsky, with his usual dose of humor, explained how to answer difficult questions about Yiddishkeit.

Mrs. Tzippy Reifer  a Chassidishe housewife who wanted to help a friends son who struggled with questions about Yiddishkeit  enthralled the ladies with her personal story. This pursuit led her to the Project Inspire Kiruv Training Seminar and today she is a polished speaker and a dynamic force for kiruv in her area. She represents a classic example of how one person can make a world of a difference.

Hundreds gather for shalosh seudos. We are introduced to David. David was searching for meaning in his life and might yet still be searching were it not for the kindness of a random Yeshiva bochur who helped him find lodging when he arrived all alone in Eretz Yisroel. Some time later, through Project Inspire, he was introduced to the warmth and hospitality of the Passaic community. Today he is engaged to a lovely young lady and together they will build a bayis neeman biyisroel. A little bit of chizuk can certainly go a very long way!

An inspiring musical havdalah led by Yehuda Green was followed by spirited music and dancing. Shabbos is long over, but nobody is in a hurry. Instead we are all thinking of the message we heard from Rabbi Lieff. As soon as Shabbos is over, tell someone you cant wait for Shabbos to come again.

It was a miraculous Shabbos, says Rabbi Chaim Sampson, where people invited their less affiliated friends, as well as the entire frum community gaining personally from the speakers and baalei tefilah. When we get the inspiration we need for ourselves and share it with others, miracles happen!

Sarah Leahs Story

I gained tremendously from the Shabbos program, but I think I gained even more from the reactions of my guests. We hosted three girls, Esti, Zahava, and Miriam, with two of their teachers. The girls came from unobservant families, and were amazed at everything in our home. Youre so lucky that you have this beautiful family, they told me. Youre so lucky to keep Shabbos every week in your beautiful home. And Wow! You have a husband who learns Torah! Seeing my life through their eyes was amazing. It made me appreciate everything I have so much more!

Tiffanys Story

Tiffany came to Flatbush from South Jersey, informing her hosts that she had just recently discovered she was Jewish and that this would be her first Shabbos experience.

It was all very new and exciting to her. We explained, says Izzy, that on Shabbos we truly experience peace and quiet. She loved it. Sometime during Shabbos she told us, This is good for my soul.

When Shabbos ended, Tiffany started making her way home. About an hour later, she sent a text message to her host family. Im so sad, she wrote, to go back to my reality.

Aish Alumni & Jinspire Join The Shabbos Project

A special event is always more meaningful when shared with others. Project Inspire, as a program of Aish Hatorah, reached out to Aish Alumni to join the Flatbush community for Shabbos.

The Aish Alumni, many of whom are still on their journey to Torah observance, responded with enthusiasm. The group was hosted on Friday evening by Mr. and Mrs. Isaac and Edie Gross at Agudas Yisroel Bais Binyomin.

You are my heroes, Mr. Gross told them. You have all come so far in your lives and have given up so much. You inspire us to really dig deep and become better people.

Also joining was a group of men and women who recently attended Jinspire trips to Israel. They were joined by their observant City Leaders and mentors. Says one Leader who participated in the event, The sense of achdus and warmth was palpable. We had a wonderful time!
[COMMUNICATED CONTENT]

https://helpdinush.com/dinush

Dina Rivkin, 4.5 years old, was born with Esophageal atresia, a birth defect which affects the alimentary tract. It causes the esophagus to connect to the lungs rather than connecting normally to the stomach.

After birth, Dina underwent a complicated surgery and spent a month in hospital.

During her first months of life, Dina failed to eat and would vomit everything. At the age of 10 months, it was decided to feed her via her stomach. Complications lead to another surgery, and to a life-threatening stay at the intensive care unit.

Till the age of 18 months, Dina was fed via her stomach. About six months ago, the Schneider Hospital decided to feed her via a nasogastric feeding tube. She has never eaten on her own.

Her doctors are recommending she undergo an urgent fundoplication surgery. This highly specialized operation requires know-how and experience. They recommended that Dina be sent to the Boston Childrens Hospital, where Dina can recover her abilities to eat, grow and develop like any normal little girl.

This is the website with pictures, video and most importantly donate link: https://helpdinush.com/dinush
When New York City launched the nations biggest municipal ID card program last year, advocates said it would help people living in the U.S. illegally to come out of the shadows.

But since Donald Trump was elected president, city officials are instead fielding questions about whether the cards could put those same people at greater risk of being deported.

The city has vowed to protect cardholders personal records and might even delete them. The program has a kind of self-destruct provision that allows for the information to be destroyed at the end of the year.

At least one state lawmaker has criticized that idea, saying it could make it impossible to trace people if any have gotten cards fraudulently.

Some immigrants are taking comfort in the citys stance.

(AP)
President Barack Obama pointed Tuesday to fears of globalization, economic uncertainty, suspicion of elites  anything but his own performance  as he grasped for ways to explain the unexpected rise of Donald Trump.

Opening his final overseas trip as president, Obama acknowledged he was surprised by Trumps victory  and said it stemmed from deep-seated anxieties among working-class Americans that government must do better to address. But, he added paradoxically: Thats been my agenda for the last eight years.

People seem to think I did a pretty good job, Obama told reporters, citing his strong approval numbers. So there is this mismatch, I think, between frustration and anger.

Obamas diagnosis of what went wrong for Hillary Clinton and Democrats offered little in the way of a road map for Democrats to avoid a similar fate in future elections. Democrats reeling from their resounding defeat last week are divided about what went wrong and even more divided about how to fix it.

In a joint news conference with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Obama said his proposals on jobs, education and infrastructure would have helped the same voters whose frustration drove Trumps success at the polls  if only theyd been implemented.

The problem was I couldnt convince the Republican Congress to pass a lot of them, Obama said.

It was also the clearest sign yet that the president did not accept Trumps election as a repudiation of his policies, despite Trumps ardent rejection of nearly every piece of Obamas legacy.

Obamas words are being watched closely by world leaders who see parallels between Trumps election and the rise of far-right movements in their own countries amid continued economic anxiety. After Athens, Obama planned visits to Germany and Peru.

Obamas visit sparked large protests in central Athens, prompting riot police to use tear gas and stun grenades to disperse about 3,000 left-wing marchers after they tried to enter an area declared off-limits to demonstrators. No injuries or arrests were reported.

Obama seemed skeptical that the new prescriptions being offered would satisfy voters restlessness.

At home, Obamas party is split as it tries to come to terms with Trumps win. Some Democrats are pushing for an immediate and concerted effort to block Trump at all costs, while others want an internal shake-up and new direction aimed at winning back support among working-class voters.

There needs to be significant change in our party, said DNC National Finance Chairman Henry Munoz III, whos considering a bid for chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Nearly a dozen Democrats are mulling bids, including Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim-American elected to Congress, and South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison.

Obama has not weighed in directly on the leadership fight. But on Tuesday, he suggested the problem wasnt the course he set for the party, but some of the shortcomings of Hillary Clinton and her campaign.

Presidential elections always turn on personalities, they turn on how campaigns are run, they turn on natural desires for change, he said, not mentioning Clinton by name.

Clintons supporters say she faced a difficult balancing act: She embraced Obama, hoping to avoid alienating his supporters, while simultaneously trying to acknowledge the persistent economic challenges and the uneven economic recovery.

There is a tension between the real life, which is very tough for working-class voters, and the presidents overall narrative, Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg said.

At each stop on his trip, Obama expects to confront apprehension from world leaders who fear Trump could bring about seismic changes in U.S. foreign policy and withdraw the U.S. from its traditional leadership role.

Paying the first presidential visit to Greece since Bill Clinton in 1999, Obama sought to reassure NATO allies that Trump, despite belittling the alliance during the campaign, wouldnt abandon it. Obama said Democratic and Republican administrations had respected NATO and predicted significant continuity even as we see a transition in government.

Tsipras, held his tongue for the most part, noting that Trump was now the president-elect and would be a major player on the world stage. He said he knew little of Trump but had become acquainted with his aggressive manner during the campaign.

I did not wish to repeat the criticisms that many of have made during the election period, Tsipras said.

(AP)
The following is via Breaking911.com

A 24-year-old electrician from the Bronx says he was attacked on the subway 5 train for being a Trump supporter.

Corey Cataldo says he was wearing a Make America Great Again hat while on the commute Friday when a black male started staring at him.

Police told The New York Daily News his attacker said Great, another white Trump supporter, before his assault.

Cataldo explained the ordeal to WABC, He asked me if Im a Trump supporter. I said yeah and thought hed say me too. People have been doing that [] But no. This man was not a Trump supporter.

The next thing I know, I have hands around my neck and Im being choked. [] I try to fight him off, and another gentleman comes over, pretends like hes going to help me and says get off of him. He shoves me up against the wall, up against the window.

The man says the assault only stopped when the train doors opened and the suspects fled.

The NYPD confirms they are investigating.

READ MORE: BREAKING911.COM
SEATTLE (AP)  Democratic mayors of major U.S. cities that have long had cool relationships with federal immigration officials say they will do all they can to protect residents from deportation, despite President-elect Donald Trump's vows to withhold potentially millions of dollars in taxpayer money if they do not cooperate.

New York City's Bill de Blasio, Chicago's Rahm Emanuel and Seattle's Ed Murray are among those in "sanctuary cities" that have tried to soothe worried immigrant populations.

"Seattle has always been a welcoming city," Murray said Monday. "The last thing I want is for us to start turning on our neighbors."

In Providence, Rhode Island, Mayor Jorge Elorza, the son of Guatemalan immigrants, said he would continue a longstanding policy of refusing to hold people charged with civil infractions for federal immigration officials. Newark, New Jersey's Ras Baraka echoed that decision, calling Trump's rhetoric on immigration "scary."

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck told the Los Angeles Times that he's committed to a longtime policy of staying out of immigration issues. Mayor Eric Garcetti has backed that up but stopped short of calling LA a sanctuary city because the term is "ill-defined."

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney restored sanctuary status when he took office in January and said last week that the city would protect its residents.

During the campaign, Trump gave a speech in which he promised to "end the sanctuary cities" and said those "that refuse to cooperate with federal authorities will not receive taxpayer dollars." He blamed such policies for "so many needless deaths."

Trump didn't elaborate on his plans for cracking down on the cities. In a "60 Minutes" interview broadcast Sunday, he said his administration's priority will be deporting criminals and securing the border.

But significant questions  and unease  remain about his approach to sanctuary cities.

There is no legal definition of the term, which is opposed by some immigration advocates who say it does not reflect that people can still be deported.

It generally refers to jurisdictions that don't cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That can mean, for example, that they don't notify immigration officials when an undocumented immigrant is about to be released from custody.

Some cities, like San Francisco, have long declared themselves safe havens for immigrants, issuing local ID cards to allow them to access government or other services.

The term also been used to refer to cities that bar their employees, including police, from inquiring about a person's immigration status because crime victims and witnesses might be less likely to talk to investigators if they are worried about being deported.

"We don't want anybody to be afraid to talk to us," said Sheriff John Urquhart of Washington's King County, which includes Seattle.

Because states and cities can't be required to enforce federal law  and there's no U.S. requirement that police ask about a person's immigration status  it's likely that any Trump effort to crack down on sanctuary cities would focus on those that refuse to comply with ICE requests, said Roy Beck, chief executive of NumbersUSA, which wants to see immigration levels reduced.

It's also unclear what money Trump might pull. For Congress to impose conditions on federal money heading to the states, the conditions must be related to the funding's purpose, the U.S. Supreme Court has said.

For example, the government threatened to withhold highway funds from any state that failed to adopt a 0.08 blood-alcohol limit: Both the limit and the highway funding were related to road safety.

"If the funding is for improving childhood education, it's hard to say that's reasonably related to local law-enforcement cooperation with deportations," said Mary Fan, a University of Washington law school professor.

However, the U.S. Justice Department's inspector general looked at some jurisdictions with sanctuary policies earlier this year and concluded some appear to violate a federal law that says state and local governments may not prohibit or restrict workers from sharing information about a person's immigration status with federal immigration officials.

Having such policies could jeopardize millions of dollars in DOJ grant money the jurisdictions receive, the inspector general's memo said.

About 300 jurisdictions nationwide have sanctuary-like policies, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, which calls for lower immigration levels.

"The result is people who should be deported, who have come to the attention of police because of crime, are released back into the community," said Jessica Vaughan, the group's director of policy studies.

A prime example for supporters of a crackdown on sanctuary cities is the fatal shooting of Kate Steinle last year on a San Francisco pier. A man who had been previously deported and had been released by local law enforcement was charged in her death.

Immigrant advocates say they are worried Trump's plans will wind up deporting more than violent criminals and they are gearing up for a fight.

"These cities have reaffirmed they're going to respect the dignity of all their residents," said Matt Adams, legal director at the Seattle-based Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. "What they're saying is, 'We're not going to use our resources to separate families, to deport children, to tear communities apart.'"
Budget airline easyJet today saw a big profits drop after a year of 'unprecedented external events', but its shares still rose with the weak numbers in line with guidance

The FTSE 100-listed firm's pretax profits fell by 27.9 per cent to 495million for the full year to September 30, in first annual fall for six years, as its total sales dipped 0.4 per cent to 4.67billion.

The airline said: 'Disruption due to air traffic and other strikes in Europe, as well as severe weather and runway closures at Gatwick airport, has severely impacted easyJets performance during the year.'

easyJet cancelled 3,268 flights in the past year, compared to 2,637 the year before.

Tough year: Budget airline easyJet has suffered a 27.9 per cent drop in annual pretax profits

But, with the airline having already flagged up the profits drop in October, easyJet's shares rose this morning, gaining 3 per cent, or 31.0p at 1,063.0p.

Richard Hunter, of Wilson King Investment Management, said: 'The shares have suffered given the uncertainties, falling 42 per cent over the last year, as compared to a 10.4 per cent gain for the wider FTSE 100 in that period.

'The market consensus has also cooled of late, dropping to a hold, albeit a strong one. Whether there is scope for upgrades on this view given easyJets resilience will become clearer in the following months, but the markets reaction to the numbers in early trade shows some grounds for optimism.'

In its results statement, easyJet said 'unfavourable movement' in currency markets cost the airline 88million, meanwhile, 'unprecedented' events also hit the company to the tune of 150million.

Airlines have been impacted by a combination of terror attacks across Europe, Egypt and Tunisia, air traffic control strikes in France, political turmoil in Turkey, as well as intense competition in the sector.

The airline said it is conducting an 'organisational review' in a bid to create a 'simpler, more efficient organisation.'

Carolyn McCall, easyJet's chief executive, said: 'Looking ahead, the easyJet model remains strong as does the demand environment and we continue to see opportunities in the medium term to grow revenue, profit and shareholder returns.

'In a tougher operating environment strong airlines like easyJet will get stronger and we will build on our already well-established network.'

Despite uncertainties created by the Brexit vote, easyJet said nearly half of its growth will be in the UK in 2017.

The airline is planning 'double digit' growth in London and other key bases, such as Manchester, Venice, Berlin and Amsterdam.

The airline's annual passenger numbers increased by 6.6 per cent to 73.1 million.

Wyn Ellis, an analyst at Numis, said: 'FY16 was as an annus horribilis for easyJet, given terrorist events in Brussels, Paris, Sharm el Sheikh, and Turkey which severely impacted travel patterns.
Europe pleases: Encouraging performances in Germany and Italy helped lift first half trading at mobile telecoms giant Vodafone

Shares in mobile phones giant Vodafone ticked higher today after the group posted a rise in first half earnings cheered by a better-than-expected performance in Europe.

The FTSE 100-listed group said its underlying earnings rose by 4.3 per cent to 7.9billion (6.9billion) for the six months to the end of September, beating City forecasts for 7.8billion.

Chief executive Vittorio Colao said the good performance in Europe was led by Germany and Italy.

The company's European fixed-line infrastructure covers around 30 million homes, and the group is beginning to achieve strong customer momentum for its mobile, TV, broadband and other services.

Mr Colao explained: 'We have further improved our performance during the first half of the financial year with Europe modestly ahead of our expectations - led by Germany and Italy - and good execution in Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific.

'Overall, we expect to sustain our underlying performance in the second half of the year and remain on track to meet our full-year objectives despite macroeconomic uncertainties.'

In morning trading, Vodafone shares were up 0.9 per cent, or 1.8p at 206.4p.

However, the results were overshadowed by trouble at Vodafone's Indian business, which has come up against stiff competition from billionaire Mukesh Ambani and his company Reliance Jio Infocomm - which is offering customers free mobile phone calls.

As a result, the UK group booked a 5billion non-cash charge against its Indian business.

The heavy losses in India pushed the group to an overall pretax loss of 5.39billion for the first half, compared with a small profit of 149million during the same period last year. Total revenues also fell to 27billion, down from 28.1billion in 2015.

The issues in the sub-continent also means t he highly anticipated IPO of Vodafone's India unit will now not take place until well into next year.

Delayed: Vodafone will not launch the anticipated IPO of its Indian unit before March next year

Vodafone's chief executive said: 'Competition in India has increased in the year, reducing revenue growth and profitability.

'We have responded to this changing competitive environment by strengthening our data and voice commercial offers and by focusing our participation in the recent spectrum auction on acquiring frequencies in the more successful and profitable areas of the country.'

George Salmon, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: 'Amid competitive pressures rising in India, Vodafone has taken a 5billion impairment.

'Writing off that kind of amount is never nice, and the fact that it is in one of its key emerging markets will be particularly difficult to stomach.

'However, Vodafone's European businesses have now returned to growth, so today's results are something of a mixed bag.'

TALKTALK POSTS SURGE IN FIRST HALF PROFITS, BUT WORRIES OVER LOST BROADBAND CUSTOMERS HITS SHARES Telecoms firm TalkTalk saw recovery efforts after last year's cyber attack pay off as it posted a surge in first half profit, and expects materially higher full year profit. The FTSE 250-listed firm said a relentless focus on retaining existing customers helped its pretax profits jump to 46million for the six months to September 30, up from 14 million a year earlier. TalkTalk said it was still feeling the impact of the cyber hack after losing 98,000 retail broadband customers in the first half, although this was largely offset by 69,000 new wholesale customers signing up. The group's so-called customer churn rates was 1.4 per cent in the half year, down from 1.48 per cent a year earlier. But on a net basis, it lost 29,000 broadband customers, while it also shed 56,000 TV subscribers in the first half. Total revenues in the first half fell 1.1 per cent to 902million, but profits were helped as it made 17million in savings from a company overhaul. TalkTalk shares dropped 4 per cent, or 8.2p 192.9p in lunchtime trading, as the broadband customer losses overshadowed the sharply higher first half results. The group, however, did say it had seen a strong start to its new price plans, with 10 times as many customers re-contracting with the group than on average in a month. Dido Harding, TalkTalks chief executive, said: "One year on from the cyber attack, we have maintained a relentless focus on looking after our existing customers and keeping up the pace across a wide range of operational improvements to make TalkTalk simpler and better for customers.

The company also tweaked its range for its overall full year earnings to 15.7billion to 16.1billion. The top limit was previously 16.2billion.

Vodaone put this narrowing down to large swings in exchange rates since June's Brexit vote.

The firm stated that a 1 per cent change in the sterling to euro exchange rate could knock its earnings by around 20million.

Meanwhile a 1 per cent change in the rupee to euro exchange rate is also expected to hit earnings by a similar amount.

Vinay Sharma, Senior Trader at ayondo markets, said: 'Vodafones share price has recently hovered between 200p and 240p. Whether todays result will give it enough momentum to break out of this range remains to be seen though.
New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Cloudy. High 78F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early with showers later at night. Low 68F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
This is not the usual quadrennial shift in politics we're having in the United States. It is a new world. Everything is upside down. There is nothing we can count on. All we are accustomed to is up for grabs.

Right now, most of the media  big-time newspapers, cable and network television news, a variety of news websites and a bunch of self-important, know-it-all pundits including Oprah Winfrey  are busy normalizing the president-elect. Give him a chance, they say, things will be fine.

No, things will not be fine.

His second appointment to the highest tier of White House advisers is a man who has spent recent years promoting, even celebrating, white nationalism in addition to publishing vicious anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim and anti-immigration attacks at Breitbart News where he was chairman before joining the * campaign.

Does anyone think it gets better from here? How about Newt Gingrich for secretary of state? Rudy Giuliani for attorney general, anyone? Or Ben Carson for education secretary? Sarah Palin's name has been bandied about too.

* is not a normal politician, not even a normal person. Do not allow the media to convince you he is. His sexist, xenophobic, racist and hateful statements are not just another policy position.

We will talk about all this later but Tuesdays at TGB are usually a day off so I'll keep it short.

Sunday night on his HBO program, Last Week Tomight, host John Oliver warned against normalizing * and made a passionate call for action by all of us.

He makes a good start on some of the steps we can take to fight back and there will be additional ideas at this blog in the coming days, weeks and months.

This is the final Last Week Tonight show of 2016. It will return early in 2017. (As is often the case with Oliver, there is a lot of profanity, a quite prolonged section of it toward the end. It's okay. It won't harm you.)
By Christina Soloyan

Eco-education and raising awareness about the environment and possible solutions. These were the objectives of the SunChild 6th International Environmental Festival held in Yerevan from November 11-14.

Launched in 2007, the festival afforded an opportunity for people in Armenia to watch important environmental films produced all over the world. The organizer of the festival is the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC).

This years SunChild Film Festival presented 38 films. Along with film screenings, the festival included workshops and exhibitions. The exhibition Sustainable Development, preceding the opening ceremony, was organized in partnership with the French Embassy.

This is an exhibition that the Ministry of Education in France has created with the famous French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand. He took the photographs in different parts of the world on the topic of sustainable development, in order to inform people about what is going on in the world. Especially, youth must be aware, because they are the future of the nation. If they are informed, perhaps, there will be more care about the environment and the animals, says Natali Tsagris, the French Language and Culture Attache.

This year, the organizers of the SunChild Festival celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Eco-clubs of FPWC. This is an educational project implemented in the regions of Armenia, which has a goal to provide eco-education to children living in the countryside.

Children are the basis of development. Educating children is our investment in the future, said Eva Martirosyan, deputy president of the FPWC. During the eco-classes children get acquainted with the environmental issues facing Armenia. They also shoot films about ecological issues in their communities. Martirosyan said that during ten years, children have shot 40 films, some of them have even won prizes at different festivals.

Armenias Ministry of Nature Protection has been a partner of the festival since 2012. Deputy Minister Khachik Hakobyan says that any event promoting environmental safety, and eco-education is important.

We have created an Eco Education Coordinating Board that has developed a plan to design a strategy for eco education and environmental awareness for the government in 2017. We will use past experience and will rely on current projects to find new strategic solutions to reach a wider audience, says Hakobyan. He adds that the ministry has organized eco educational programs for more than thousand children in Armenia during the last two-three years.

The competition categories of the SunChild Festival were Wildlife, Environmental Issues and Children and Youth. Jury member and film critic Raffi Movsisyan pointed out that the festival is important for the Armenian audience and the region.

Documentary films are an important part of Armenian cinematography, but, unfortunately, few environmental films are produced; environmental topics usually are addressed in reportage form. And I know that the SunChild Festival includes those kinds of films as well, said Movsisyan.

Armenian directors presented four films during the festival.

Zoosh and Toivo is a film shot by TUMO students. It portrays a day of two volunteers from Germany who decided to work in the Yerevan Zoo and dedicate their time to animals.

Unree, the short film of Gev Harutyunyan approaches the issue of tree cutting radically; the film presents parallels between cutting a tree and killing a child.

The film of Seda Grigoryan, #GetRooted: Building Bridges, shows the successful attempts to save the environment in Armenia. The video tells about the program of Armenia Tree project, in which local students and students from USA plant trees in Armenia.

Another Armenian film included in the screenings was Energy Efficiency for a Sustainable Future. The film was produced by the Yeghvard Youth ecological NGO - an organization led by the youth of Yeghvard, city in Armenias Kotayk Province.

In an attempt to be eco-friendly, festival awards were fashioned from recycled metal.

This year, due to financial limitations and trying to reduce the ecological damage to the world we do not have guests. Each airplane flight causes huge damage to the ecosystem, Martirosyan said.

Landfill Harmonic, a film about a group of Paraguayan children who play instruments made of garbage, closed the 2016 SunChild International Environmental Festival.

(Christina Soloyan is a third-year student at Yerevans American University of Armenia. She started her career in journalism at Internews Armenia (Media Initiatives Center). Currently, she manages the independent AUA student newspaper The Bridge and works as a journalist at CivilNet Online TV)
By Samson Martirosyan

During a November 10 Armenian government cabinet meeting, newly appointed Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan presented draft of legislative amendments regulating compensation payments to military personnel and their families.

According to the proposed amendments, families of military personnel killed in action and those seriously wounded or suffering disabilities would receive one time and monthly payments in varying amounts depending on the level of the disability.

This insurance scheme would be valid for 20 years. Cumulatively, the amount of money for the compensation will be 82 million AMD (US $171.000) for officers, 70 million AMD (US $146.000) for sergeants and 48 million AMD (US $100.000) for privates. Monthly benefits would also vary depending on military rank.

The events of April 2016 showed that damage to life and health of military personnel caused by large-scale military operations are impossible to fully cover from the budget. Thus, theres a need for new financial sources and a new system, said Minister Sargsyan said.

The situation on the Nagorno-Karabakh - Azerbaijan frontline got worse earlier this year in April. It was the biggest escalation of the conflict since the 1994 ceasefire agreement. Four days of heavy fighting are now known as four-day war, which resulted in numerous casualties from both sides and further destabilization of the region.

Each month, 1000 AMD (US$2.50) will be automatically withheld from the salary of every working person in Armenia. The sum will not change regardless of the income amount.

Additional sources would include stock sales, grants and donations. The ministry says it also encourages voluntary contributions to the fund. Those earning minimum wage of 55.000 AMD (US $115) wont have to pay the 1000 dram, their employers will pay it instead of them.

A special foundation would be established to organize, coordinate and distribute the funds. The foundation will also have an executive board, consisting of representatives from the Central Bank of Armenia, the government and civic organizations - three from each.

According to Defense Minister Sargsyan: All the payments will go directly to the budget and only after would funds be transferred to the foundation.

Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan and his cabinet have approved the plan. It will be sent to the parliament for further discussion and voting. The chances are high for the amendments to be adopted by the parliament, considering that this plan is one of the first actions considered as a reform by the prime minister and his cabinet.

Thus, in addition to high taxes, generally low salaries and high living expenses, an additional financial burden will be placed on the shoulders of taxpayers. Although 1,000 (approximately US$2.50) AMD monthly is not a large sum, the way the government is planning to collect it is not fair and raises several issues.

First, literally no public hearings on the issue were organized before sending the plan to the parliament.

The new cabinet seems to have adopted a working style just like the previous one - drafting laws and amendments, approving them quickly, and then sending them to the parliament, which, in turn, OKs virtually anything proposed due to the absolute majority of the ruling Republican Party.

It is a clear indicator that public opinion was and continues to be openly ignored by the government, with justifications like ...a need of new financial sources and a new system being vague and ill-defined.

If the amendments are adopted by the parliament, taxpayers now will have to deal with another imposed form of taxation, or however it is defined by the authors, which more resembles obligatory charity.

As news surfaced about the new tax, some critical voices were heard.

Interestingly, almost everyone agrees that the need for better social security and help to overcome economic hardships and anxieties of military personnel is non-debatable, but what is important is the way the government acts to help the ones in need.

Second, inefficient use of taxpayer revenue has always been a problematic issue in Armenia, and the new plan just adds to it.

The creation of new foundation responsible for the distribution of funds couldnt sound more controversial to sane thinkers given the myriad corruption risks, questions of accountability and preposterous budget expenditures in Armenia.

Just the other day ArmTimes.com reported that the Ministry of Defense is going to pay 50 million AMD (US $104.000) for a concert dedicated to the anniversary of formation of the Army of Republic of Armenia.

Celebrations will take place on January 28 and will have 1200 participants. There will be posters, pins, special videos and a concert show. The company organizing the celebrations has reportedly been created recently - when the open bid was just announced.

Can an institution willing to spend 50 million AMD in three days for celebrations ensure efficient spending of funds collected to go to Armenias soldiers? Government arguments that there are not enough funds in the budget are untrustworthy in this context.

Third, due to the so-called April four-day war on the Nagorno-Karabakh frontline, many shortcomings and mismanagements in the army have been partially, if not fully, revealed.

The public continued raising concerns about accountability, corruption and demanded real reforms. Some army officials were fired and some were replaced, but the question of real reforms still exists. Unfortunately, it isnt as frequently addressed as right after the April events.

Here, it is worth mentioning that the compensation will apply only to those incidents occurring after January of 2017, meaning those already wounded, disabled and killed wont get any compensations. Two logically interconnected questions arise from this fact.

Will the situation on the frontline escalate thus causing more victims in 2017?

Is the proposed plan just a buffer safety cushion for the respective institutions (MoD) for justification of more victims, existing mismanagements and corruption in case there are more calls for accountability and real reforms?

Fourth, the whataboutist tactics that the government has adopted against those opposing the plan is problematic since not only does it further increase distrust of the public towards such sensitive issues as army management, but it also creates jingoistic sentiments openly implying that the critics of the plan are against helping those in need and are bad people. Whereas, in fact, many mention the complete opposite, pointing to evident misconceptions of the adopted tactics.

Finally, choosing to help only the people with disabilities acquired during military service perfectly dovetails with the general direction of militarization of society.

Such a move, directly and indirectly, makes those people who acquired their disabilities outside of military service irrelevant and ignored.

In other words, disability might be regarded as unimportant and insignificant unless acquired during military service. Besides, there are other casualties in the army not resulting from direct military combat actions, and the plan does not envisage any benefits for such cases, making other casualties irrelevant the same way.

However the parliament votes, the new plan has little chance of taking public opinion into account. Public hearings on the issue are planned in the parliament. The MoD also announced that public discussions are soon to be held on the issue.

(Follow Samson Martirosyan's Twitter account HERE)
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By Patrick Donachie

Long Island City will benefit from 180 additional pre-K seats in the fall 2017 school year, according to the School Construction Authority and Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Astoria).

The SCA announced it would convert the bottom two floors of 27-35 Jackson Ave. at Court Square into a pre-K space, SCA President Lorraine Grillo said. Van Bramer said the new seats were sorely needed in a neighborhood that is quickly expanding.

Long Island City is growing rapidly, and our neighborhoods children need a place to learn, Van Bramer said at a news conference outside the space Nov. 2 to announce the new seats. We fought long and hard for these desperately needed classes, and Im beyond thrilled that we are now able to add 180 permanent pre-K seats for our neighborhoods children, starting in September 2017. When we invest in schools, we invest in our communitys future.

Van Bramer and community advocates said Long Island City was in desperate need of pre-K seating due to a huge increase in the construction of residential units, totaling more than 11,000 over the past 10 years. The Gantry Parent Association was formed in October 2015 in response to the burgeoning issue of space, and Kadie Black, the associations board chairwoman, expressed her appreciation at the news of new seats.

This is wonderful news for our children and community, she said. The Gantry Parent Association deeply appreciates the leadership of Council member Jimmy Van Bramer and the response of the School Construction Authority to the urgent need for pre-Kindergarten classrooms for the growing Long Island City community.

The additional seating follows an announcement this summer that the Department of Education and the SCA would add two additional sections of universal pre-K in the pre-k section of Public School 78.

Pre-K for All was prominently highlighted by Mayor Bill de Blasio in the first year of his administration, trying to ensure free, full-day pre-kindergarten for every New York child. The number of seats available in the city is now approximately 70,000, compared to 20,000 at the start of the de Blasio administration, according to the mayors office. A DOE spokeswoman said that there were nearly 1,200 pre-K seats available in Long Island City now, compared to only 261 in the 2013-14 school year.
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By Bill Parry

Womens rights activists are planning a massive solidarity march on Washington, D.C. to protest the election of Donald Trump as president.

The Womens March on Washington will begin with a rally at the Lincoln Memorial Jan. 21, one day after the Inauguration, and organizers are calling on all defenders of human rights to stand with them to send a bold message to the new administration that womens rights are human rights.

The rhetoric of the past election cycle has insulted, demonized, and threatened many of us  women; immigrants of all statuses; those with diverse religious faiths, particularly Muslim; people who identify as LGBTQIA; native and indigenous people; black and brown people; people with disabilities; the economically impoverished and survivors of sexual assault, organizers said on a national Facebook page. We are confronted with the question of how to move forward in the face of national and international concern and fear.

The rally will begin at 10 a.m. and will be followed with a march to the White House.

Organizing committees are forming in all 50 states. Volunteers in New York can fill out a survey at https://bit.ly/mwmorganize and more information can be found at NYC-Downstatehttps://www.faceb ook.com/ event s/ 32086 51682 87826.
By Tomislav Jakic

Shock! Disbelief! Total surprise! Those media (and politicians) who have in the preceding election campaign totally uncritically, but systematically supported Hillary Clinton, try by using such words to convince the public opinion (and themselves most probably) that the election of Donald Trump as the next American President is a total surprise (a mistake, almost). But  this is not how things really are. This is, simply, not true.

On one hand Trump seems to be a surprise to those who conducted an almost unprecedented media campaign for the former Secretary of State and for those too who allowed to be convinced (if not deceived) by this campaign, but on the other hand Trumps victory is no surprise at all for those who tried, free of all prejudices, to analyze all elements of the election campaign and its foreseeable result. Of course one could argue about the fact that it is tragic for todays America and its political scene, dominated by Republicans and Democrats who successfully prevent any third candidate to come even close to the presidential race, that in these elections we witnessed the confrontation between an excentric millionare, a somewhat dubious businessman and a figure from the reality shows and a woman directly responsible for destabilizing the whole Middle East and for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. But, there is not one single word about this from those who are shocked and surprised.

The campaign started with the firm conviction that the winner will be Hillary Clinton, former First lady, former senator from New York and former Secretary of State. Her victory was, so to say, programmed and she was treated as a favorite in everything and in every moment. This went so far (and we know it thanks to Wikileaks) that the leadership of the Democratic party torpedoed, during the primaries, the campaign of Bernie Sanders who portrayed himself as a socialist and announced a political revolution, thus becoming the most dangerous rival of Clinton. Although not young himself, Sanders and his ideas attracted young voters (some surveys conducted after the election show that in some key states, where Hilary Clinton failed, Sanders would have been victorious over Trump). But, the nomination had to go to Hillary, a favorite of financial circles who financed her campaign either directly, or in advance, paying her enormous fees for lectures in which she said things that she would never repeat in the campaign and before those whose votes she wanted to win. But, besides being a favorite of financial circles, she was a favorite of those political circles too who wanted the continuation of the policy of a transformed Barack Obama, a President welcomed with great hopes, who during his first term of Office took a starting position, marked by his speeches in Cairo and Prague, only to become the true successor of George W. Bush, bombing even more countries than he did and inaugurating again, after a short intermezzo, interventionism plus confrontation with Russia as undisputed cornerstones of Washingtons foreign policy.

And so Sanders was eliminated and the nomination went to Hillary Clinton, a women whose intelligence and political experience could not be denied, but who was described by the founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, as a person who was eaten alive by her own ambition. On the other side there was Donald Trump, climbing towards the nomination for a presidential candidate, financing in the first stage almost entirely the campaign out of his own pocket. His success was not the result of the policy of the partys leadership, but mostly of the votes of those who were attracted by his very often extremely rude populism, on the verge of open racism (these characteristics will gradually almost disappear during Trumps campaign that was to follow). And he got the nomination on a very stormy Republican partys convention, during which some delegates in protest even left.

And the arena was ready for the confrontation between a political amateur, racist, sexist and vulgar person with an experienced politician (although he would say that her experience was a bad one). In this moment the political-media machinery started to work full speed. About Trump nothing good could have been said or written, despite the fact that in his first foreign policy speeches, as a presidential candidate, some new and encouraging tones were registered, while at the same time it was not possible (or allowed), at least in the mainstream media, to either say or write anything negative about Hillary Clinton, despite the never brought to end scandal with her using an unprotected server for sending messages as Secretary of State and despite the fact that she obviously lied saying she did not erase any of the messages and that not a single one dealt with matters of national security. The curtain was up for a battle between the evil Trump and the good Hillary. In reality the curtain was up for a mud-wrestling between two candidates who were not selective at all choosing the instruments to destroy each other. And the propaganda machine continued to work full speed. After each TV confrontation public opinion surveys were published showing Hillary was convincingly better in comparison with her opponent (there was, as far as we know, only one exception). After that voters opinion surveys were published, all of them giving Hillary great chances to win and Trump almost none.

Thus the stage was set for the final act  the ritual execution of the candidate who refused to accept that everything was over, until he himself comes to the conclusion that it is over  despite his sometimes openly racist statements and their public echo (mainly abroad) and despite his sexual scandals (real or fabricated, most probably both). But, and this is obvious now, Trump was not acting without knowing what he was doing. Repeatedly invoking the silent majority, he played on the card of the Americans (and there are not only a few of them) abandoned by the society and those who feared they could experience the same destiny. It might be a paradox, but it is true: in the eyes of these people the blonde billionar appeared as some sort of a Robin Hood. In him they saw their last straw. He promised to bring back the factories that fled to cheap countries, he announced big projects for modernizing the infrastructure, he spoke about opening new working possibilities and making America great again. Former Secretary of State could not respond to this with her cheap slogan about America being great because it is good (most probably her staunchest supporters were afraid that someone could ask people from Libya or Syria what they think about both America and her being good). Above all she made both a strategic and tactical mistake: she did not want to deal with Trump as an unworthy opponent; instead of him she choose as her opponent the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, degrading Trump to his mere puppet. Consequently her speeches were more and more anti-Russian intoned and cold war colored, so that Trump with his announcement of talks and deals with Russia (especially in the fight against global terrorism) started to sound moderate and common sense driven (to those who wanted to hear and understand, naturally).

The day of the decision came. And it was, as it was. And we have today President-elect Donald Trump, elected with a convincing majority (of electoral votes, popular votes are not decisive, due to the specific American system of electing the President).His first speech after Hillary Clinton conceded in a phone call to him was well calibrated, low key, but not without substance, it was the address of a statesman. The pledge that he will ban all Muslims from entering the USA disappeared from his web page. And while he is preparing to take over in direct talks with the current President who was obviously forced to join the anti-Trump hysteria, proclaiming him totally unfit for the highest position in the state, some media who all of a sudden see clear, or the Russian media, who never openly sided with Trump, but never demonized him either, have fun exposing politicians form the West with their statement before the US elections and after. Just one example, the British foreign minister, Boris Johnson. Before the elections he boasted how he avoids certain streets in New York, out of fear he might bump into Donald Trump. And after the elections he is looking forward to work with President Trumps administration.

It seems realistic to expect that Trump will disappoint both the European extreme rightists (who are overwhelmed by his victory), as well as liberals (not necessarily of left orientation) who are despairing and exchanging messages of condolences. Trump is without any doubt a conservative, but he comes not out of the same nest as the European neo-fascists who are more and more aggressive with every day passing; he played without any scruples the lowest instincts of the voters to get as many votes as possible, but his domestic policy will most probably be similar to those of Nixon and Reagan. These were, one must admit, not the best times for liberals, but neither were they put before committees for investigating anti-American activities, nor were they forbidden to work. In the field of foreign policy Trump will enter the path of calming down the relations with Russia (that are almost on the boiling point), which is still his magnum crimen in the eyes of some European politicians, prisoners of the past; he will enter the path of strengthening (but with Russia and not against it) the fight against global terrorism. Otherwise he will orient America towards itself, putting it in a semi-isolation and giving the US an active role on the international scene only when American interests are in question (and not necessarily interests of the Wall Street). To many he might appear as dangerous, simply because he is an unknown. Potentially he is really dangerous if he insists on denying the global warming and transforms this into American policy. But it seems to us prematurely and simply not serious to judge him today completely negative only because he avoided (in accordance with the law) to pay for years the federal tax and because of his sexual escapades (does anybody still remembers Bill Clinton, the Oval Office and Monica Levinsky?). Equally not serious is to state that his election victory is a surprise and totally unexpected. This author published in July this year an article under the title President Trump?, stating as follows: The rich businessman whose biggest advantage is that he owes nothing to anybody, because he is until now more or less financing his campaign out of his pocket, presented a mixture of populism, demagogic approach, sounding phrases and pure politics. Further: Repeating constantly that he will bring back the sense of security to every American, he openly pledged his support to homosexual community, promising to protect it from any kind of violence (and thanked  as a Republican  the audience for applauding him after this). And he made sure that among his supporters there were representatives of other races (such as Koreans for Trump). And finally: Trumps first big political speech shows that the battle for the white House will be waged between two at least equal rivals; Trump will without any doubt repeat the slogan used in his speech on the Convention: She says: Everything will stay as it is. And I say: Nothing will remain as it is. And with some sarcasm, but not without effect: She is asking her supporters to say that they are with her. And I am telling you and the whole of America: I am with you, I will be your voice, I will be your champion. Published in July 2016.

In the meantime the champion became President-elect. He will take over in mid-January next year. Until then the horror of those who played (for their own interest, but wrongly) on the card of Hillary Clinton, as well as the horror of those who without any real basis believed the she is the Godgiven President f the US, will calm down. Donald Trump, the man who described himself with the words: I know the system best. So I am the one who can fix it  45th President of the USA. So, why not?
Syria\s government and its ally Russia launched Tuesday a wide-ranging assault on rebel strongholds with renewed strikes on the besieged eastern neighbourhoods of battered second city Aleppo.

The operation was the first of its kind since Donald Trump won the US presidential election last week.

Moscow said it had begun a "major operation" which saw the first missions carried out by warplanes taking off from the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier that arrived off Syria last week.

In Aleppo, Syrian government aircraft pounded the eastern neighbourhoods with air strikes and barrel bomb attacks, a monitor and AFP correspondent said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least five civilians were killed in the bombardment, the first of its kind since October 18.

An AFP correspondent in east Aleppo said strikes hit the Sakhur, Fardos and Masakan Hanano neighbourhoods while ambulances sped through the streets to evacuate the wounded.

Warplanes dropped flares to counter heat-seeking missiles, he said.

The bombardment ended a period of relative respite for more than 250,000 people living in besieged eastern Aleppo.

On October 18, Moscow said it was halting its air strikes ahead of a short-lived truce and Syrian strikes on the rebel east also subsided, with bombardment mostly confined to areas where clashes were taking place on the edges of the city.

The respite came after international criticism of a ferocious assault launched by Syrian and Russian forces on September 22 in a bid to recapture eastern Aleppo city.

Civilians were among hundreds of people killed in the bombing campaign, which also destroyed infrastructure.

Moscow has organised several brief truces to encourage residents and surrendering rebels to leave east Aleppo, but few have gone.

No aid has entered eastern Aleppo since it was first surrounded by government troops in mid-July, and the UN warned Thursday it was distributing its last remaining food rations in the rebel districts.

The UN\s food agency, FAO, said on Tuesday that a farming crisis across war-torn Syria has reduced food production to a record low and raised fear that people will be forced to flee famine.

On Sunday, east Aleppo residents received text messages from the army warning rebels to leave within 24 hours.

"After the end of this period, the planned strategic offensive will begin," the message said.

Once Syria\s economic powerhouse, Aleppo has been ravaged by the war that has killed more than 300,000 people across the country since it started in March 2011 with anti-government protests.

Yasser Yusef, a member of the political office of the Nureddine al-Zinki rebel group, expressed fears that the bombardment would lead to "massacres and crimes against humanity in northern Syria and particularly in Aleppo city and Idlib."

"Russia and the regime are trying to foil the efforts of the United Nations and the international community to reduce violence and protect civilians and deliver aid to civilians in all the besieged areas," he said.

As the strikes hit Aleppo, Moscow announced its Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier was now being used it its campaign to bolster President Bashar al-Assad\s government.

"For the first time in our naval history, the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov started taking part in combat," Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said.

"Today from this carrier, our Sukhoi-33 (bombers) began their operations."

Russia has been carrying out a bombing campaign in Syria for the past year and deployed a naval contingent to back up its operation.

The Admiral Kuznetsov, Russia\s sole aircraft carrier, arrived in the eastern Mediterranean off the Syrian coast as part of a flotilla of ships sent to reinforce Russia\s military in the area.

Shoigu said the "major operation" began at 0730 GMT Tuesday aiming to inflict heavy damage on "the Islamic State group and the Al-Nusra Front\s positions in Idlib and Homs provinces."

Al-Nusra Front is the old name of Al-Qaeda\s former Syrian affiliate. It is now known as Fateh al-Sham Front.

An AFP correspondent in Idlib said strikes hit several parts of the rebel stronghold province, including Maaret al-Numan, Saraqib and Ariha.

Idlib is largely controlled by a powerful rebel alliance that includes Fateh al-Sham.

The assault is the first major military development since the election of Trump, who has suggested working more closely with Russia in Syria.

SOURCE: AFP
Suicide bombers targeted two major cities in Iraq on Monday, striking security forces in the Sunni city of Fallujah and Shiite pilgrims in the holy city of Karbala in the country\s south, killing at least six people in each attack.

The bombings are an apparent attempt by the Islamic State group to strike back as government troops\ advance on their stronghold in the northern city of Mosul. The Sunni militant group claimed responsibility for both bombings.

In Fallujah, the attack was carried out by twin suicide car bombers in the city center  the first such incidents since Iraqi forces in late June declared it "fully liberated" of Islamic State militants after a monthlong operation aided by U.S.-led airstrikes.

Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen Saad Maan said one of the Fallujah bombers killed two policemen and wounded 17 people, including nine civilians.

"They hit a security checkpoint," he said, adding that traffic had been heavy in the area and around 10 vehicles including an ambulance had been damaged. The second bomber killed four people, including two policemen.

IS claimed responsibility for the attack, posting videos online of the bombers before the attack, their faces masked and brandishing assault rifles. Fallujah was the first Iraqi city to fall to IS, in January 2014. Since IS was driven out, families have begun returning to the city, 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Baghdad.

Earlier in the day, a suicide bombing targeted the sacred Shiite city of Karbala, killing at least six civilians in an attack also claimed by IS.

According to Maan, the ministry spokesman, six suicide bombers tried to sneak into Karbala from its western outskirts but security forces detected and killed five of them. The sixth attacker broke into a house in the city\s Ayn al-Tamer neighborhood, where he detonated his suicide vest, killing six people and wounding another six, Maan said.

The attack came as hundreds of thousands of faithful Shiites have been walking to Karbala to commemorate the 7th century death of Imam Hussein, Prophet Muhammad\s grandson and an iconic Shiite martyr. The city, where Imam Hussein and his brother are buried, is located some 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Baghdad. On Sunday, pilgrims are expected to converge on the city for the climax of a 40-day mourning period, known as al-Arbaeen.

In an online statement, the Islamic State group said it targeted "polytheists  in filthy Karbala." It put the number of the suicide bombers at five, saying they clashed for hours with the security forces and set off their explosives consecutively when they ran out ammunition.

The militants often exaggerate their claims. The Associated Press could not verify the authenticity of the statement, but it was posted on a militant website commonly used by the extremist group.

Like other Sunni extremist groups, IS considers the Shiites heretics and has frequently targeted Shiite civilians and places of worship.

"We are walking all these long distances, we are not afraid of terrorists, we are not afraid of Daesh," said 56-year-old pilgrim Sattar Hussein, using the Arabic acronym for IS. "We are not afraid of anyone who defames Islam. And especially those who are targeting the al-Arbaeen."

Wearing a black traditional Arab dress, Hussein was among hundreds of pilgrims leaving Baghdad on foot to head to Karbala under tight security measures. Some of the marchers were carrying religious flags, including some with a portrait depicting Imam Hussein, as security forces set up check points to search them.

In southern Iraq\s Shiite heartland, Karbala is far from Mosul, where a massive Iraqi military operation  launched last month and backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and paramilitary militias  is underway to free the city, Iraq\s second-largest, from IS.

A U.N. spokesman said Monday that more than 54,000 people have fled their homes as a result of the Iraqi military operation to retake Mosul from IS militants. Farhan Haq said that number represented an increase of 6,600 people since four days ago.

About three quarters of the displaced people are being shelter in camps set up by the U.N. and its humanitarian partners and one quarter are been housed in host communities, Haq said.

He added that the World Food Program has provided food assistance to more than 100,000 people fleeing the conflict, including a distribution to 25,000 people on Sunday in Gogjali, the first neighborhood retaken inside Mosul.

On Sunday, a wave of attacks in and around Baghdad killed at least 23 people and wounded 70 others. Many of the assaults targeted Shiite pilgrims walking toward Karbala.

SOURCE: Associated Press
Select the Times' Boys and Girls Athletes of the Week for Oct. 24-30
EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this story had the incorrect date.

A Wall Street Journal editor will discuss her book about women and business in a free talk Dec. 6 sponsored by the New York State Writers Institute and the Times Union's Capital Region Women@Work. Joann Lublin, management news editor, will read from "Earning It: Hard-Won Lessons from Trailblazing Women at the Top of the Business World" at 8 p.m. in Page Hall on the UAlbany Downtown Campus.
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Esme Savoie crawls along the floor, a smile on her face, as her mother greets visitors to their home.

The girl is tiny for an almost 6-year-old. She cannot walk, and she can read words but does not regularly speak and is fed through a tube. She has been diagnosed with four different genetic mutations including for two different types of epilepsy.

The child's battle with her illness and her happy nature led her mother, Hillary Savoie, to create the Cute Syndrome Foundation, a charity that raises money for research into the rare disorders she faces and to assist parents of children who share her neurological issues.

"We started the Cute Syndrome Foundation in 2013 shortly after my daughter was diagnosed," she said.

More Information Get connected How to help: The website includes information on how to donate. Donations can be made through PayPal. The Cute Syndrome is a registered, tax-exempt charity. On the web: http://www.thecutesyndrome.com Read Hillary Savoie's writing: http://www.romper.com Contact: hillary@thecutesyndrome.com See More Collapse

The foundation works on two types of epilepsy: PCDH19, which only occurs in females, and SCN8A, both of which Esme has. Both are rare, with 500 girls diagnosed with PCDH19 and 150 people with SCN8A.

PCDH19 causes developmental delays, autism and psychological issues, Savoie said, while SCN8A can cause severe developmental delays, respiratory and muscular disorders. Children who suffer from epilepsy also face a high incidence of sudden death.

"We do a lot of work with organizations that address sudden death from epilepsy because it's such a problem in our organization," she said.

The foundation also funds medical research and family support especially for SCN8A, Savoie said.

It is sponsoring an event for family members and researchers to meet and talk at the American Epilepsy Society conference Dec. 2 in Houston.

They also worked with a foreign partner to fund research.

"We were able to co-fund a 100,000 euro project with a foundation in Italy," she said.

That grant, equal to around $103,000 at the time, was awarded to the CNR Institute of Neuroscience Milan, Italy for Dr. Maria Passafaro and Dr. Elena Battaglioli's proposal to study the molecular mechanism of mutated PCDH19.

The charity is helping to fund a registry for patients with SCN8A and promising research at the University of Michigan. It provided a $25,000 grant for research that Dr. Ann Poduri of Boston Children's Hospital is studying using zebrafish to help find treatments for PCDH19 Epilepsy.

"In total with our partners, we've funded a quarter of a million dollars in research, advocacy and awareness," Savoie said.

Getting the right information to parents and doctors is critically important, she said.

A more common form of epilepsy is known as SCN1A, but the drug commonly used to treat it, Keppra, can be dangerous for those with the form Esme has, Savoie said.

"Children with 1A shouldn't be treated with a certain class of drugs," she said. "They work for patients with 8A."

Esme has had severe reactions to five different anticonvulsants, her mother said. One caused her to lose 1.5 pounds within two weeks. Another time she went 72 hours without sleep because of a drug reaction.

Savoie and her husband, Andre Savoie, were told at birth that Esme had some kind of genetic disorder. They chose not to test her immediately. By three months, she was not thriving. One day, she experienced cardiac and respiratory arrest. Fortunately, she and her mother were two minutes away from Saratoga Hospital, where she got help right away.

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"That was the point we decided to do the testing," she said. "We went through round after round of testing, and they found nothing. She was still very sick."

At 10 months, she began to have seizures. "She would turn blue and she would shake," her mother said. "It was 30 seconds, 60 seconds. I started scanning the Internet."

She watched hours of video recordings of children having seizures, trying to identify what was causing her daughter's neurological issues. One doctor told Savoie that her daughter was not having seizures and that she as her mother was being "hysterical."

"We finally brought her out to Boston Children's Hospital," Savoie said. There, the PCDH19 was identified.

"The reason we called it 'the Cute Syndrome' was because it took so long to find out what it was," Savoie said.

Even in all that she has faced, Savoie stresses, Esme is a happy child.

"She is reading. She is able to identify words and use those words to communicate with cards," she said. "She occasionally says words. They come out of nowhere. She says 'Mama.' She talks and I think she makes sense to her. She is a really playful child. Even in the toughest of moments, that doesn't go away."

Savoie writes regularly about Esme, starting first on her own website at www.thecutesyndrome.com and now on romper.com.

"The thing I most want people to know about Esme is she's just a regular kid," Savoie said. "I want everything for her that a mother wants for a child. I just want her to have a happy childhood."

tobrien@timesunion.com  518-454-5092  @timobrientu
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In August, when floodwaters ravaged Louisiana in the worst natural disaster to strike America since Superstorm Sandy in 2012, the New York Bar Foundation did not sit still.

The foundation  the philanthropic arm of the New York State Bar Association  raised $10,000 donations to help victims of the flood cope with the myriad of legal issues impacting devastated flood victims.

"It's the better side of attorneys," New York Bar Foundation president John H. Gross told the Times Union of his group's work. "We were extraordinary pleased to assist."

It was just another example of the work of the foundation, which dates to 1950. The organization takes in charitable contributions from law firms, corporations, individual donors and other groups and provides grants to legal service providers to help those in need get legal representation, Gross said.

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Gross, who is based in Hauppauge, Long Island, explained his organization launched similar fundraiser efforts four years earlier in the wake of Sandy and in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. So when a member of the foundation's board of directors asked Gross what the foundation should do to aid the victims of the flooding in Louisiana, Gross decided to let history repeat itself.

The foundation solicited donations for legal service corporations in Louisiana that would be for distributed through the Louisiana State Bar Association) to assist people in legal distress because of the effects of the flood.

"Just anything and everything that arises when a tragedy like that hits," Gross said.

Storm-ravaged victims faced legal issues ranging from insurance matters and contractors to landlord-tenant disputes and people qualifying for government assistance.

Last year, the foundation spent around $650,000 on 99 grants to 99 legal service outfits across New York state to help clients ranging issues raging from domestic abuse situations to helping former prison inmates readjust to society to people facing immigration issues. One person aided by the foundation was a young woman from France who had been used as a sex slave; the foundation's money helped free her.

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Gross' foundation was hard at work this week  it just held a two-day campaign that raised $10,000 for veterans in need of legal representation, he said.

"There are all sorts of terrific legal service outfits in New York state that assist veterans such as to get some additional funding," Gross said.

"We're always trying to raise money."

rgavin@timesunion.com  518-434-2403  @RobertGavinTU
Albany

A giant liquor distributor defrauded four city bars over a period of years by charging for alcohol that the businesses never ordered or received, according to a lawsuit seeking more than $1.25 million in damages.

The suit, filed Tuesday, alleges a salesman for Southern Wine and Spirits, with knowledge of management, repeatedly put through unrequested last-minute orders, known as "will calls," that the representative signed for under his own name or with forged signatures, sometimes misspelled, of representatives of The Barrel Saloon, The Capital Bistro, Public House 42 and Pearl Street Pub.

The businesses, co-owned by Chris Pratt and Alessio Depoli, are all in Albany and opened between 2009 and 2014. Filed on behalf of Pratt and Depoli by attorney James D. Linnan, the suit seeks $500,000 for Pearl Street Pub, the oldest of the four bars, $250,000 apiece for the other three, punitive damages to be determined, court costs and attorney fees.

After a review of financial records and inventory, Pratt said the bars paid Southern more than $42,000 for wine and spirits they neither ordered nor received, most taken as part of automatic monthly withdrawals. He also found more than $100,000 charged through his accounts with Southern that wasn't paid by the bars, suggesting the Southern rep was padding sales figures by ordering on the bars' accounts, returning some products and likely selling the remainder elsewhere on the side, according to Linnan.

The practice came to light over the summer, when Pratt, alerted to a discrepancy, asked to review his will-call orders. While his records showed only 10 will-calls, he eventually turned up from Southern a stack of orders several inches thick dating back years, he said. Some were for products that his bars don't sell, such as high-end Scotch for the barbecue-focused Barrel Saloon, and others for quantities that would take many months to sell.

Pratt, in an interview Tuesday at Linnan's Albany office, acknowledged he should have caught on sooner.

"We weren't paying attention," he said. "But they're a (multibillion)-dollar company. You don't think they're going to be scamming you."

The suit names Southern Wine and Spirits of Upstate New York and Southern Glazer's Wine and Spirits of Upstate New York, its name as of earlier this year following a merger. The New York company is a subsidiary of Southern Glazer's Wine and Spirits, a $16 billion-a-year conglomerate that is the country's largest distributor of wine and spirits, selling more than 150 million cases in 44 states plus, the District of Columbia, the Caribbean and Canada, according to reports in industry journals.

Linnan said negotiations with Southern broke down when the company offered an unsatisfactory financial settlement and refused to acknowledge a systemic practice of padded bills and charges for products never ordered. Linnan, who previously owned a restaurant and has represented bars and restaurants in legal matters for decades, said conversations he and Pratt have had with other bar owners suggest the abuse is rampant.

"It's not just me; it's every bar owner in the state," Pratt said. Referring to Southern, he added, "They know it happens, and they haven't changed their policies, as far as we know." He said he switched his business to other distributors except for key brands including Tito's Vodka, Jameson Irish Whiskey and Fireball Cinnamon Whisky, which are demanded by customers by name and carried exclusively by Southern.

Linnan said when he and Pratt brought their allegations to the State Liquor Authority, they were told the agency has been alerted in the past to similar behavior by Southern.

"To my knowledge, the SLA is investigating this matter," he said. An agency spokesman didn't immediately reply to an inquiry seeking comment.

Hank Greenberg, an Albany attorney representing Southern, said he had not seen the suit and declined comment.

sbarnes@timesunion.com  518-454-5489  @Tablehopping  http://facebook.com/SteveBarnesFoodCritic
London

Prosecutors questioned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Monday about a possible sex crime in Sweden six years ago.

They did not comment on the closed-door proceedings at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London where Assange has lived for more than four years to avoid extradition to Sweden and possibly to the United States.

The interview is expected to continue Tuesday and possibly extend beyond that. Assange's version of events, and a possible DNA sample, will shape Swedish prosecutors' decision on whether to charge him.

The questioning was being led by an Ecuadorean prosecutor in the presence of Swedish prosecutor Ingrid Isgren and a Swedish police investigator.

The Swedish investigation into possible sexual crimes began when two women Assange met in Sweden in 2010 complained to authorities. Some of the alleged misconduct is no longer being investigated by police because of the statute of limitations.

Assange is being questioned about the possible rape of one of the women who complained. He has not been indicted or charged but is the subject of an international arrest warrant.

Prosecutors say no immediate decision on the future of Assange's case will be made.

Assange's Swedish defense lawyer, Per Samuelsson, complained that he had been barred from the hearing.

Samuelsson told the Swedish national broadcaster SVT, "An Ecuadorean lawyer has taken up this question as a formal issue in the introduction of the hearing."

WikiLeaks released a statement also complaining about the Swedish lawyer being excluded and said Assange cooperated "fully" with investigators.

Assange has denied wrongdoing and says he fears being extradited to the U.S. because of his WikiLeaks work. It isn't known if he faces a secret grand jury indictment in the U.S.

The sex crime allegations were made shortly after Assange and WikiLeaks became well-known worldwide for releasing hundreds of thousands of pages of classified U.S. government documents.

One Swedish woman said Assange intentionally damaged a condom and pinned her down while having sex. A second woman said Assange had sex with her without a condom while she was asleep. In Sweden, having sex with an unconscious, drunk or sleeping person can lead to a rape conviction punishable by up to six years in prison.

A Swedish investigation was launched, then dropped for lack of evidence, and then started again as prosecutors sought to question Assange about possible molestation and rape.

By then Assange was in Britain, making it harder for Swedish prosecutors to question him. They sought an international arrest warrant for him that was issued in November 2010.

Assange surrendered to police in London and was freed on bail. He then moved into the Ecuadorean Embassy in London in June 2012. He has remained in control of WikiLeaks, which released hacked emails relating to the Hillary Clinton campaign in the final weeks of her run for president.
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Kodjo Dzikunu wants to be a painter.

But first, he had to learn how to say "hi."

In his home country Togo, located on the West African coast, he farmed avocados, yams, bananas and pineapples on the county's rich "paum" trees.

"Paum?" I ask. "Could you repeat that? Pohn? Pahhhm?"

More Information Get connected Literacy Volunteers of Rensselaer County: For more information go to www.lvorc.or call 274-8526 Get connected Faces of Addiction Albany Fashion Show Where: Albany Marriott, 189 Wolf Road, Colonie When: Sunday, Nov. 20, 10 a.m. Cost: $45 per person For more Info and tickets: http://www.albanyfashionshow.com See More Collapse

A few times later, Kodjo's friend and classmate Clement Niangoram grabs my notebook and with a light sigh writes in big, capital letters the word "PALM."

The Ivory Coast native hands the page back with a smirk that's equal parts amusement and frustration, then the two exchange side glances that say about the same. There's a palpable feeling that they'll trade light-hearted barbs about the episode in their native French later, all at my expense.

For now, though, they're happy to speak kindly and slowly in English.

Since coming to the United States through an immigration lottery program, the two have no doubt grown accustomed to repeating themselves.

Kodjo, who arrived first in the Bronx in 2005 and then moved to Troy in 2010, said the most difficult part of learning English was the small things.

"Some people talk quickly, uh huh," he said to Clement with a nod. "It's a lot of things."

Chief among them? How to respond when someone says "hi."

"You don't have English in Togo," he said. "It's French. I learned some (English) after school in Togo. But it's not much."

"We knew 'good morning' and 'how are you' in Togo before getting here," the 54-year-old said. "But if somebody say 'hi,' you don't know how to respond."

"'Hi'?" He asks with a feigned look of confusion. "Hi? I did not know how."

"But now I know."

Since moving to the area, Clement and Kodjo have been taking lessons from the Literacy Volunteers of Rensselaer County, a nonprofit organization that teaches basic language skills on the third floor of the First United Presbyterian Church in Troy.

A few times a week, the two meet with volunteers there to, as the 66-year-old Clement calls it, learn "small, small, small things" like how to use a computer, apply for jobs or, most importantly, write, read and speak English.

"That's why we are here now," said Kodjo. "We learn English to be a little better in the future. That's why we're here."

Literacy Volunteers has been around for 48 years and relies mostly on donations and volunteers  245 or so last year  to operate.

"Our mission is not just to teach adults and provide them literacy skills to help improve their skills," said Judith Smith, executive director. "But in doing that we also are helping to empower them  to help them be more independent themselves."

David Garwood, a former analyst for the state of New York, started working at LVRC in 2010.

A "child of the turbulent '60s" who was looking for "the most social justice and change" he could find, he first thought about volunteering at a soup kitchen,

"No person should go hungry in a developed country," he said.

Then he realized something else: "If you can read, you can teach yourself anything."

In Rensselaer County, that help is very much needed. Roughly 1 in 5 (or about 30,000) adults there have "very low, limited literacy abilities," Smith said, and so offering a place where residents can learn basic language skills at no cost is integral to a community that has a fairly large immigrant population. She said about 66 percent of the LVRC's students are there for English as a second language training.

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"English is hard," Garwood said. "It's hard for me."

His approach to teaching, he said, is in the nuance of the language. "Let's translate 'it's raining cats and dogs.' It's hard," he offers as evidence to the complexity.

In his class, he teaches students (including Kodjo and Clement) "six different ways to say 'no, you've got that wrong' without saying 'no' or 'wrong.'"

And when students can't get it quite right, he tells them: "You sound like an immigrant."

"If you speak like a child, people are going to treat you like a child," he added.

Thus far, the tough love has paid off. With Garwood's help, Kodjo and Clement, who were almost entirely illiterate in English a few years ago, have been able to find jobs and ultimately become United States citizens.

"If I come in (to LVRC), I do anything. I become a citizen," said Clement, who worked as a mechanic and at a gas refinery before leaving Africa, but now works in the kitchen at Samaritan Hospital.

He recently dialed back his workweek to three days, and plans to use the extra time at the LVRC.

"I work here now," he said.

Other attendees of the program boast similar success stories: Smith spoke at length about a particular student who, after being "burned out of her village in Burma" and immigrating to the United States, worked tirelessly to learn English, often pulling 14-hour days between her job at Sealy Mattress in Troy and lessons with her teacher.

The student, whose name Smith could not give, went from completely illiterate to a thriving worker at the store. Now, she's going to beauty school.

Writing in the LVRC's annual "In Their Own Words" collection, another student describes her experience: "I was born and raised in Sudan," writes Amani Elmokhtar. "Back there the kids were taught to be grateful and not take anything for granted. We were given very little and we were taught to be happy with what we had. Kids in America have so much that some may take it for granted ... We grew up caring about family and others and getting a good education to improve our lives. Life in America is so much easier so everyone has a chance to improve themselves."
The Ballybrophy rail which serves parts of North Tipperary is coming under increasing threat following a report on operating costs in Irish Rail.

A new report, which will be brought to Cabinet, claims that it costs 550 per passenger to operate the service that serves Birdhill, Nenagh, Cloughjordan, Roscrea and Ballybrophy.

The report compares this cost to running the DART in Dublin which costs the taxpayer 90c in State subvention.

However, Labour TD Alan Kelly has defended the line, claiming the report's authors were not comparing like with like.

"They are not comparing apple with apples and oranges with oranges," he said this Tuesday on RTE Radio 1's Morning Ireland.

Deputy Kelly maintained that most of the line's problems stemmed from a lack of investment down the years, which left the line with multiple level crossings and, consequently, low speeds. Some of the crossings facilitate landowners move cattle from field to field.

Deputy stated that the line needed to stay open if Tipperary was to continue to attract investment such as First Data in Nenagh and the proposed hydroelectric power station in Silvermines.

He also took issue with a report in the Irish Times which stated the route began in 2012, when he was Junior Minister for Transport, pointing out that the line opened in 1863.

In 2012, following representations by Nenagh Community Rail Partnership over a number of years, Irish Rail introduced a changed schedule to allow for more trains, including an early morning service to Dublin. This service has since been withdrawn.

The report, part of a review by the National Transport Authority, claims that only 73 people use the line daily, generating 753 per day. That would give an annual passenger rate of 26,645 passengers.

Deputy Kelly further stated that the Ballybrophy line could not be taken in isolation and that threats to the Waterford line must also be taken into account.

Most public transport services are not profitable. The reason they are there in the first place is to facilitate the greater good and members of the public, he said.

Fianna Fail TD Jackie Cahill also defended keeping the line open, saying that any attempts to close it will be met by "fierce opposition by the people of North Tipperary".

"We all know there are challenges with the train service, but just because something is difficult doesnt mean it shouldnt be done. We can increase capacity through a variety of measures  change the operating times to reflect working times and increasing the frequency of services. One of the biggest mistakes this country ever made was ripping up hundreds of miles of railway lines across the country in the 1950s. Entire generations of people across rural Ireland have not had the opportunity to develop a relationship with the train network. This takes time, and effort and support, and the communities living along the Limerick to Ballybrophy should be encouraged, not discouraged, from using the train service," he said.

Deputy Cahill said that Minister Ross needed to understand that an Ireland existed beyond the M50, and that communities in rural North Tipperary deserved access to commuter rail services as much as anywhere else.

"Before the Minister attempts to close this rail connection, he needs to ask himself: 'Has everything been done to increase passenger numbers that can be done, and can changes be made to the frequency to entice passengers out of their cars and onto trains?'" he asked.

Meanwhile, Nenagh Rail Community Partnership's Virginia O'Dowd, said it needed to be emphasised to Minister for Transport Shane Ross that the line served a social as well as an economic role.

She also pointed out that the Harcourt Street line in Dublin had been closed in the late 1950s by Todd Andrews only for the Government to spend thousands of millions buying back land and property to build the LUAS line that now serves south Dublin. Much of the line is on the bed of the old rail line.

The nearest stations to Nenagh would be Thurles, Templemore or Limerick. People will simply take their cars to Dublin and clog up the roads, said Ms O'Dowd. "Would Minister Ross be prepared to drive from his South Dublin constituency to Newbridge in County Kildare to catch a train? she asked.

The former county councilor also pointed out that there were no public transport links between any North Tipperary towns and Thurles, Templemore or Ballybrophy.

The train will cease to be an option and Irish Rail will simply lose what ever revenue they were getting on the Ballybrophy line, she said.

Ms O'Dowd said that the line should not be looked at purely as a line to Dublin and should be seen as a way to travel between towns along its route.

"The line has never been properly marketed. You can't have a main line marketing strategy for a branch line," she said. "The Ballybrophy line could be used as a tourist line in the way some local lines are used in Scotland, Wales and England."

She pointed out that her group had encouraged promoting the line under its own brand along the lines of the Silver Line or something similar but this did not sit well with top management.

"We have always had a fantastic relationship with local management and staff within Irish Rail," she said.

The former Labour county and Nenagh town councillor also took pointed out that, online, the Ballybrophy line was not given as an option to travel from Limerick to Dublin, with passengers only being directed along the Limerick to Limerick Junction route.
Nextiva CEO Honored for Outstanding Leadership

By Alicia Young , Web Editor

Nextiva, a cloud communications company, announced last week that its CEO Tomas Gorny was recognized with the William F. McWhorter Award at the 2016 Governors Celebration of Innovation Awards presented by the Arizona Technology Council. The William F. McWhorter Award is presented by the Arizona Technology Council to an individual or organization that contributes to Arizonas technology industry through community involvement, leadership, visibility, and excellence in economic development activity.

Based on Gornys resume, its clear what his priorities are and why he was chosen for the award. Gorny is a respected leader in the Arizona community and technology industry but, most importantly, he leads by example. He is involved in day to day operations and takes part in developing and implementing overall growth strategies and product innovation for Nextiva. His efforts to improve his companies speak for themselves; Gorny is CEO of Nextvia and SiteLock, and both companies were named the two fastest growing tech companies in Arizona last year by the Deloitte Tech Fast 500 list.

Those accomplishments are strictly business-related. What sets him apart and made him the best candidate for the award is his list of pursuits that expand past the workplace, to the Arizona community as a whole. In 2012, Gorny began his mission to improve his Arizona community by founding the Gorny Foundation. The purpose of his foundation is to improve health research, educational programs and global advocacy. Then, in 2015 he created Nextiva Cares, which is a formal philanthropic program at Nextiva. Through this program, Nextiva partners with a different not-for-profit organization in the Arizona community each month to raise awareness. Nextiva helps run campaigns, donates supplies and money, volunteers and offers educational programs to help raise awareness about whatever issue the not-for-profit stands for. In his spare time, Gorny also likes to speak at events in the community, where he offers advice about business and the technology industry.

Everyone seems to wholeheartedly agree that Gorny deserves the award: Tomas embodies the lead by example philosophy better than anyone I know, says Yaniv Masjedi, Nextivas Vice President of Marketing. He is always looking for ways to give the people in our community more opportunitieswhether its through job creation, funding for health research, or advocating for the Arizona tech industry. His generosity knows no bounds.

Gorny truly does deserve the William F. McWhorter Award and, by the sound of it, it looks like hes not slowing down anytime soon.

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Edited by Maurice Nagle
November 15, 2016

If you travel frequently for business, you should be aware of the danger posed by cyberattacks. Hacking and identify theft now get plenty of coverage. Most tech savvy people know enough to protect their computers and use secure passwords. Some people, however, don't realize that they're especially vulnerable to cybercrimes when traveling for business.







Why Business Travelers are Targeted

While tourists and anyone traveling for any reason should be careful, business travelers need to be especially vigilant. For one thing, business travel often brings you to parts of the world where cybercriminals are active. Hackers, identity thieves and other cybercriminals also know that business travelers are likely to be dealing with financial data and perhaps proprietary information that has value on the black market.

International travel creates special risks for business travelers. Not only do you have to worry about hackers but, in some cases, foreign governments may be complicit in data breaches. Keep in mind that when you travel in certain countries, you may not have any right to privacy.

Be Wary of Hotels

When you travel for business, you probably stay at hotels. Unfortunately, hotels are frequently targeted for cyberattacks. In 2015, for example, three major hotel chains announced breaches of customer data. Customers of Hilton, Hyatt and Starwood, at various locations in North America and Europe, had personal data stolen during the holiday months of November and December.

While its impossible to predict when or where such attacks will occur, business travelers should be aware that hotels are not necessarily secure. When comparing hotels, its a good idea to look at what security measures are taken to protect customers information. One practice that increases risks is management holding onto guests credit cards.

Precautions for Business Travelers

Certain precautions can reduce your risks while traveling on business. Never use public computers for anything related to business or financial transactions. Spyware is often attached to public PCs. This includes computers found at hotels, Internet cafes and other public places.

Using cash instead of credit cards is one way to make your transactions more secure. If you're traveling in a foreign country, make sure youre always carrying a good amount of the local currency. When you pay in cash, you dont have to worry about anyone stealing your information. When getting cash, however, you need to be wary of ATMs, another popular target of cybercriminals. Getting cash back at grocery stores is a safer option that also saves you ATM fees. If you must use ATMs, bank branches are generally more secure than machines found in smaller establishments.

Business travelers should be extra vigilant about using difficult passwords when using their devices. If some of your passwords are currently short or easy to guess, its a good idea to change them before you travel. The longer and more complex your password, the more difficult it is for either human hackers or bots to guess them.

Its also important to keep close watch over your devices. One of the easiest ways for someone to steal your data is to simply steal your device. A more sophisticated trick is to tamper with a device while the owner is not looking. Always keep your computers, phones or tablets close at hand when traveling. Finally, when discussing important business information or financial details, be aware of your surroundings. Youre generally safer speaking in public places than in your hotel room. Using your own phone is a better choice than a hotel phone, which may be monitored.

Business Travelers Need to be Vigilant

Its important to be conscientious when traveling on business. Cybercriminals are always on the lookout for ways to steal financial data and any type of valuable information. No matter where youre going, you should take precautions to keep your devices, credit cards and conversations private. Many of these tips are worth following at all times. Business travelers, however, need to be extra cautious about keeping their data secure.

Edited by Alicia Young
[November 15, 2016] Advanced IT Concepts Receives Additional U.S. Army Contracts

WINTER SPRINGS, Fla., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Continuing to make headlines, Advanced IT Concepts (AITC) announced today that it has been awarded two new contracts to support the United States Army's Intelligence Center of Excellence (ICoE) in Fort Huachuca, Arizona. The contracts, with a combined Period of Performance (POP) of five years, will focus on the development of Unit Tasks Lists (UTL) and Collective Tasks Lists (CTL) for the Theater Intelligence Brigade (TIB) and other military intelligence units, in support of the Chief of Staff of the Army's (CSA) Initiative for Assessing and Reporting Training Readiness (ARTR). The TIB contract has four subject matter experts for a one-year data collection period and task analysis effort. The ARTR contract also has four subject matter experts for up to five years and will revise all military intelligence unit collective training tasks, create new tasks as required to comply with collective task standards and business rules established by the Chief of Staff of the Army.



This effort is being implemented with AITC's strategic partner, Intelligence, Communications and Engineering (ICE), Inc., located in Sierra Vista, AZ. The work will be primarily based at Fort Huachuca, AZ, along with some efforts at the seven TIB's located both inside and outside the continental U.S. "Being awarded this contract is another significant achievement for AITC. It continues to boost our reputation as a trusted professional services provider for the federal government. It also translates to more work, program support staff and revenue for our company, spurring more success to our local economy and state. We are continuing to strive for success adding to our contract portfolio, "says Gabe Ruiz, AITC President & CEO.

The contracts provide direct support to the U.S. Army's Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) and the ICoE Training Development and Support Program based at Fort Huachuca. The total value of both contracts over five years (if all options exercised) is $3.9 million. "The Army's intelligence community utilizes the latest technology and equipment, along with highly trained and skilled personnel to develop critical information and make operational decisions. AITC is proud to support this effort to advance the training and skill development that is central to future successful missions," says Wells Barlow, AITC Business Development Manager. AITC was awarded the contract based on several years of exceptional past performance in a similar capacity. These were part of the 10 new contracts received by AITC in the last two months with a combined value of more than $13 Million, building the company's momentum after recently announcing the win of the $70 Million Army Medical Simulation Support Services (MS3) contract. About Advanced IT Concepts (AITC):

AITC is an SDVOSB and SBA 8(a) certified IT systems integrator, value-added reseller and service provider to federal, state and local governments. For more than 10 years, AITC draws upon significant telecommunications and Information Technology proven experience to ensure customers' goals are met by delivering superior client services through a full suite of IT specialized services. For details, visit www.aitcinc.com. Contact: Christa Santos

407-230-7018

[email protected] Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/439084

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161004/415029LOGO

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/advanced-it-concepts-receives-additional-us-army-contracts-300363110.html SOURCE Advanced IT Concepts, Inc. (AITC)

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[November 14, 2016] AIG Agrees to Sell Japan Life Insurance Business to FWD Group

American International Group, Inc. (NYSE:AIG) today announced that it has agreed to sell its Japan life insurance business AIG Fuji Life Insurance Company, Ltd. (AFLI) to FWD Group, the insurance arm of Pacific Century Group. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161114006617/en/ This transaction does not affect AIG's extensive non-life insurance business in Japan, the largest of any foreign-based insurer in the country. AIG will continue to focus on Japan's property and casualty (P&C) market through its local subsidiaries Fuji Fire & Marine, Ltd., AIU Insurance Company, Ltd., and American Home Assurance Company, Ltd. These companies provide commercial insurance and services, as well as personal insurance coverage lines, including accident & health, auto, homeowners, and travel insurance. Japan, where AIG has operated since 1946, is the third largest commercial market and the largest personal insurance market globally for AIG, based on net premiums written by country. "Like other actions we've taken this year, the sale of AIG Fuji Life makes us a leaner insurer that's better focused on the geographies and segments where we have the critical mass and expertise to provide tremendous value to our clients," said Peter Hancock, President and Chief Executive Officer, AIG. "In this core market for AIG, we are committed to growing both our commercial and consumer personal insurance lines. At the same time, our AFLI clients and colleagues will benefit from FWD's commitment to growing the life business in Japan. Beyond the deal's close, we look forward to partnering with FWD on life distribution in support of its goals, and in exploring other future opportunities." Following completion of the deal, FWD Group will maintain AFLI's existing life insurance distribution agreements with AIG Japan. In-force policies will not be affected by the expected transfer of ownership. Since FWD's establishment in 2013, it has become a pan-Asian life insurer across Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam with a strong base in Hong Kong and Macau. FWD's entry into Japan, the second largest life insurance market in the world, further extends its regional footprint and is part of its vision to become a leading pan-Asian insurer. "AIG Fuji Life is a strong foundation for FWD's entry to Japan and our partnership with AIG will give FWD access to an extensive distribution network with an established customer base. We aim to develop and grow AFLI through investment in the long-term and our customer-led, technology-driven approach." said Huynh Thanh Phong, FWD Group Chief Executive Officer.



This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements, including the closing of the transaction described herein, are not historical facts but instead represent only AIG's belief regarding future events, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside AIG's control. Except for AIG's ongoing obligation to disclose material information as required by federal securities laws, AIG is not under any obligation (and expressly disclaims any obligation) to update or alter any forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Factors that could cause AIG's actual results to differ, possibly materially, from any forward-looking statements include the factors set forth in AIG's filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

About FWD Group Established in 2013, FWD spans Hong Kong & Macau, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam, offering life and medical insurance, general insurance, and employee benefits across a number of its markets. FWD Group currently has over 1.2 million customers and over 2,900 employees. FWD is focused on creating fresh customer experiences, with easy-to-understand products, supported by leading digital technologies. Through this customer-led approach, FWD will achieve its vision to become the leading pan-Asian insurer that changes the way people feel about insurance. FWD is the insurance arm of Pacific Century Group (PCG), an Asia-based private investment group established in 1993, PCG operates across three core business pillars; financial services, technology, media & telecommunication, and property. For more information please visit www.fwd.com. About AIG American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is a leading global insurance organization. Founded in 1919, today AIG member companies provide a wide range of property casualty insurance, life insurance, retirement products, mortgage insurance and other financial services to customers in more than 100 countries and jurisdictions. These diverse offerings include products and services that help businesses and individuals protect their assets, manage risks and provide for retirement security. AIG common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Additional information about AIG can be found at www.aig.com and www.aig.com/strategyupdate | YouTube (News - Alert): www.youtube.com/aig | Twitter: @AIGinsurance | LinkedIn (News - Alert): http://www.linkedin.com/company/aig. These references with additional information about AIG have been provided as a convenience, and the information contained on such websites is not incorporated by reference into this press release. AIG is the marketing name for the worldwide property-casualty, life and retirement, and general insurance operations of American International Group, Inc. For additional information, please visit our website at www.aig.com. All products and services are written or provided by subsidiaries or affiliates of American International Group, Inc. Products or services may not be available in all countries, and coverage is subject to actual policy language. Non-insurance products and services may be provided by independent third parties. Certain property-casualty coverages may be provided by a surplus lines insurer. Surplus lines insurers do not generally participate in state guaranty funds, and insureds are therefore not protected by such funds. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161114006617/en/

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[November 15, 2016] BIOPHYTIS Presenting Four Posters on Sarconeos at 9th International Conference on Cachexia, Sarcopenia, and Muscle Wasting

ROMAINVILLE, France, Nov. 15, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIOPHYTIS (Alternext Paris:ALBPS), a biotechnology company specializing in the development of drug candidates to treat diseases of aging, announced today that four posters on Sarconeos (BIO101), the Companys lead drug candidate for the treatment of sarcopenia, have been accepted for presentation at the 9th International Conference on Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle Wasting, being held December 10-11, 2016 in Berlin, Germany. Stanislas Veillet CEO BIOPHYTIS, said: "Sarcopenia, or muscle wasting, is a growing problem as the world population continues to age and live longer. Having four poster presentations focusing on Sarconeos at a conference specifically tailored to and attended by key opinion leaders in muscular dystrophies is the perfect opportunity to showcase to key opinion leaders its method of action, clinical development, and patient outcomes observed to date. Posters: Title: BIO101, a drug candidate targeting Mas receptor for the treatment of age-related muscle degeneration. From molecular target identification to clinical development. Authors: Pierre Dilda1, Anne-Sophie Foucault1, Maria Serova1, Sissi On1, Sophie Raynal1, Stanislas Veillet1, Waly Dioh1, Rene Lafont1,2 1 BIOPHYTIS, Parc Biocitech, 102 avenue Gaston Roussel, 93230 Romainville, France 2 Sorbonne Universites, UPMC Univ Paris 06, CNRS - Institut de Biologie Paris Seine (BIOSIPE), 75005 Paris, France Title: Mechanism of action of BIO101, a Mas receptor activator: A drug candidate for the treatment of sarcopenia. Authors: Maria Serova1, Sophie Raynal1, Sissi On1, Stanislas Veillet1, Waly Dioh1, Pierre Dilda1, Rene Lafont1,2 1 BIOPHYTIS, Parc Biocitech, 102 avenue Gaston Roussel, 93230 Romainville, France 2 Sorbonne Universites, UPMC Univ Paris 06, CNRS - Institut de Biologie Paris Seine (BIOSIPE), 75005 Paris, France Title: SARA-PK: A combined study of the safety and pharmacokinetics of BIO101 in healthy young and older volunteers after single ascending and multiple ascending oral doses for 14 days. Authors: Waly Dioh, Susanna Del Signore, Philippe Dupont, Louiza Daudigny and Stanislas Veillet

BIOPHYTIS, Parc Biocitech, 102 avenue Gason Roussel, 93230 Romainville, France. Title: Electronically administered Patient Reported Outcomes (ePROs) in sarcopenic older patients  the SARA Clinical data Platform novel approach to Clinical Trials. Authors: Susanna Del Signore1, 2, Gianluca Zia1, Stefania Del Signore1 and Waly Dioh2 1 Bluecompanion ltd, London, United Kingdom. 2 BIOPHYTIS, Romainville, France.



About The Society on Sarcopenia, Cachexia, and Wasting Disorders (SCWD)

The Society on Sarcopenia, Cachexia, and Wasting Disorders was founded in 2008 on the initiative of Dr. Stefan D. Anker and Dr. John E. Morley, whose leadership and vision guided the expansion of clinical expertise and research in this field. The Society on Sarcopenia, Cachexia and Wasting Disorders is a non-profit scientific organization comprised of an international and multidisciplinary group of health-care professionals primarily active in these fields. The SCWD seeks to further research on cachexia and sarcopenia and wasting disorders and bring practical solutions to health-care teams worldwide grappling with treatment. The spectrum of clinical disorders represented by the SCWD Society includes, but is not limited to cachexia, sarcopenia, the syndrome of muscle wasting associated to cancer, COPD, diabetes, heart failure, aging and other chronic conditions. In recent years, there has been tremendous growth in new diagnostic information, pharmacological and nutritional treatments for wasting disorders, as well as a greater number of associated clinical trials. About SARCONEOS (BIO101)

Sarconeos is a first in class drug candidate based on the activation of the Mas receptor (major player of the renin-angiotensin system) restoring muscular anabolism, inhibiting myostatin, that has demonstrated meaningful activity in animal models of muscular dystrophies. Sarconeos is developed in the treatment of sarcopenia, an age-related degeneration of skeletal muscle, leading to loss of mobility in elderly people. This condition, for which no medical treatment currently exists, was first described in 1993 and has entered the International Classification of Diseases (M62.84) in 2016. It affects more than 50 million people worldwide.

About BIOPHYTIS:

BIOPHYTIS SA (www.BIOPHYTIS.com), founded in 2006, develops drug candidates targeting diseases of aging. Using its technology and know-how, BIOPHYTIS has begun clinical development of innovative therapeutics to restore the muscular and visual functions in diseases with significant unmet medical need. Specifically, the company is advancing two lead products into mid-stage clinical testing next year: Sarconeos (BIO101) to treat sarcopenic obesity and Macuneos (BIO201) to treat dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The company was founded in partnership with researchers at the UPMC (Pierre and Marie Curie University) and also collaborates with scientists at the Institute of Myology, and the Vision Institute. BIOPHYTIS is listed on the Alternext market of Euronext Paris (ALBPS; ISIN:FR0012816825). For more information: http://www.BIOPHYTIS.com Disclaimer

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, these forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. For a discussion of risks and uncertainties which could cause the Company's actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, please refer to the Risk Factors (Facteurs de Risque) section of the Listing Prospectus upon the admission of Companys shares for trading on the regulated market Alternext of Euronext Paris filed with the AMF, which is available on the AMF website (www.amf-france.org) or on BIOPHYTIS website (www.BIOPHYTIS.com). This press release and the information contained herein do not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe to shares in BIOPHYTIS in any country. Items in this press release may contain forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties. The Companys actual results could differ substantially from those anticipated in these statements owing to various risk factors which are described in the Companys prospectus. This press release has been prepared in both French and English. In the event of any differences between the two texts, the French language version shall supersede. BIOPHYTIS

Stanislas VEILLET

CEO

[email protected]

Tel : +33 (0) 1 41 83 66 00 Milestones

Press and investor relations

Bruno ARABIAN

[email protected]

Tel : +33 (0) 1 83 62 34 84

Mob : +33 (0) 6 87 88 47 26 LifeSci Advisors

Chris MAGGOS

Managing Director, Europe

[email protected]

Tel : +41 79 367 6254 Citigate Dewe Rogerson

International press

Laurence BAULT/Antoine DENRY

[email protected] / [email protected]

Tel : +33 (0)1 53 32 84 78

Mob : +33(0)6 64 12 53 61



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[November 14, 2016] BioTalent Canada to Be Featured on CEO Clips on the Documentary Channel

BioTalent Canada will be featured on The Documentary Channel beginning November 14, 2016, Monday through Friday, throughout the day and evenings as part of CEO Clips, a series which profiles the most innovative publicly traded companies in North America. BioTalent Canada is a national non-profit organization which ensures that Canada's bio-economy has access to the skilled people it needs. In the clip, Rob Henderson, President and CEO of BioTalent Canada, explains the uniqueness of BioTalent Canada as an organization, "We are right at the centre connecting job seekers with biotech companies, along with federal government," he said. "I think it is absolutely fantastic being able to get young people into jobs, newcomers, women, people with disabilities, that's what we do here everyday." BioTalent Canada's footprint has expanded within the bio-economy, building one of Canada's largest biotech networks: over 37 companies and associations, and injecting over $3 million in wage subsidy capital into the sector. BioTalent Canada's initiatives to grow Canada's biotech workforce were lauded in the 2016 edition of Scientific American Worldview. Through its multiple programs like wage subsidies for recent graduates and persons with disabilities, BioTalent Canada is looking to place over 300 individuals into bio-economy jobs. Companies interested in applying for wage subsidies are encouraged to visit biotalent.ca/wage-subsidies.



In addition to The Documentary Channel, the video can also be viewed online via this link: http://www.b-tv.com/biotalent-ceo-clip/. It will also be posted on these financial portals: BNN.ca Finance, Thomson Reuters Insider Network, YouTube, as well as on BTV/CEO Clips. About The Documentary Channel:

"Documentary is a digital television station devoted to showing the best documentaries from Canada and around the world. With its special emphasis on feature length films, watching Documentary is like having a cinema in your own living room, showing award winning films twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week."

About BioTalent Canada

BioTalent Canada is the HR partner of Canada's bio-economy. As an HR expert and national non-profit organization, BioTalent Canada focuses on building partnerships and skills for Canada's bio-economy to ensure the industry has access to job-ready people. Through projects, research, and product development, BioTalent Canada connects employers with job seekers, delivers human resource information, and skills development tools so the industry can focus on strengthening Canada's biotech business. For more information, please visit biotalent.ca. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161114006457/en/

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[November 15, 2016] Dashlane Debuts New Password Management Features For Businesses

NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Dashlane, the award-winning leader in online password and identity management, announces new features now available to Dashlane Business users. The latest update introduces more robust security provisioning, password management, and access control for IT managers, while also instituting high levels of privacy for employees. Impractical security solutions create burdensome costs for organizations. Time and money are lost training employees and forcing the implementation of software that is not user-friendly. Dashlane Business delivers a practical and secure password solution that also provides an outstanding end-user experience. People use the same passwords at home and work, and these passwords are breached all of the time. The new Dashlane Business features ensure that employees are not reusing passwords and endangering their organization's infrastructure. Additionally, Dashlane is the only password manager that makes a distinction between an employee's personal and professional passwords. This powerful combination safeguards the privacy of the employee's personal accounts and dramatically reduces the likelihood an employee can exit an organization with access to accounts they are no longer authorized to use. "Security isn't one-size fits all, and solutions should adapt to the needs of an organization, as well as the rapidly changing threats they can face at any given time," said Emmanuel Schalit, CEO, Dashlane. "We've reached a point with password reuse andsystem permissions where it's not enough to just secure your most critical accounts - all logins for users need to be accounted for without crippling your IT staff."



The following Dashlane Business updates will allow for rapid deployment and adoption at scale. Regardless of an organization's size, they simplify password management at the administrative level. SAML Support and Enterprise Deployment : Dashlane Business customers can automate user provisioning with the latest SAML and MSI-based technologies. The removal of manual invitations by administrators saves time deploying, provisioning, and on-boarding employees.



: Dashlane Business customers can automate user provisioning with the latest SAML and MSI-based technologies. The removal of manual invitations by administrators saves time deploying, provisioning, and on-boarding employees. Exclusive Smart Space Management : Streamlines organization for users and maintains visibility of their password security for work credentials. Every login that has either email or URLs with a company's domain will automatically be saved in Business space, either by default, or by requirement.



: Streamlines organization for users and maintains visibility of their password security for work credentials. Every login that has either email or URLs with a company's domain will automatically be saved in Business space, either by default, or by requirement. Remote Deprovisioning: Ensures company logins remain secure if an employee leaves an organization. Credentials are removed from the company space when a user is revoked, but are recoverable for a 30-day backup period before being permanently deleted.



Ensures company logins remain secure if an employee leaves an organization. Credentials are removed from the company space when a user is revoked, but are recoverable for a 30-day backup period before being permanently deleted. Custom Policy Settings: Lets administrators set company security and sharing policies at the team level for all users. For more information, please visit: dashlane.com/business

About Dashlane Dashlane Business is trusted by 6,000+ companies to create, enforce, and track effective access management, and features the only patented security architecture in the industry.

Dashlane Business begins at $2/user per month and scales by volume, with custom setup options available for enterprising licensing. The company's consumer product is used by 6 million people worldwide. Dashlane was founded by Bernard Liautaud and co-founders Alexis Fogel, Guillaume Maron, and Jean Guillou. The company has offices in New York City and Paris and has received $52.5 million in funding from TransUnion, Rho Ventures, FirstMark Capital, and Bessemer Venture Partners. Learn more at dashlane.com Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161107/436784

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161107/436785 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dashlane-debuts-new-password-management-features-for-businesses-300358550.html SOURCE Dashlane

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[November 15, 2016] MorphoSys to Raise Capital via a Private Placement of New Shares

Martinsried / Munich, Germany, Nov. 15, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MorphoSys AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: MOR; Prime Standard Segment, TecDAX; OTC: MPSYY) today announced the launch of a private placement of up to 2,622,088 new shares to institutional investors in Europe and North America via an accelerated book building transaction. "MorphoSys has successfully broadened its development pipeline that currently stands at a record high of 110 programs, 28 of which are in clinical development," said Jens Holstein, Chief Financial Officer of MorphoSys AG. "With the proceeds of this offering, we plan to further support our transition into a late-stage biotech company based on our advancing proprietary pipeline with a clear focus on oncology and selected highly promising programs in inflammation." MorphoSys will offer up to 2,622,088 new shares from authorized capital, or up to approximately 9.9% of the registered share capital, to qualified and other eligible investors. The new shares will be issued excluding pre-emptive rights and are scheduled to be admitted to listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange following their issuance. Book building will commence immediately. It is anticipated that books will close tomorrow, although the bookrunners reserve the right to close the books at any time. In connection with the placement, BVF Partners, L.P. and affiliates, a San Francisco-based specialist biotech investor intends to place an order for approx. 1.2 million shares. MorphoSys will be subject to a customary lock-up of 90 days. MorphoSys plans to use the net proceeds from the transaction in particular to: Fund the further clinical development of MOR208, the Company's wholly owned investigational anti-CD19 antibody, which is currently in two phase 2 combination studies in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), one of which is expected to be transitioned into a pivotal phase 3 study next year. In addition, it is intended to start an additional phase 2 combination study with MOR208 in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL);

Fund the further clinical development of MorphoSys's wholly owned program MOR202, an anti-CD38 antibody currently in a phase 1/2a clinical trial in multiple myeloma;

Advance MorphoSys's co-development programs MOR106, an anti-IL-17C antibody jointly developed together with Galapagos currently in a phase 1 clinical trial in atopic dermatitis, as well as MOR209, a bi-specific antibody targeting PSMA and CD3, jointly developed together with Aptevo Therapeutics (formerly Emergent BioSolutions) in castration-resistant prostate cancer;

Start clinical development of MOR107, a constrained peptide with potential in fibrotic diseases developed by Lanthio Pharma, a wholly owned subsidiary of MorphoSys;

Initiate, advance and/or accelerate the development of other proprietary programs, including advancing of pre-clinical or clinical stage assets into later stages of clinical development prior to licensing;

Fund potential in-licensing of oncology product candidates and/or acquisition/in-licensing of additional technologies. Deutsche Bank and J.P. Morgan will act as Joint Bookrunners for the offering. Disclaimer:

This press release is for information only and does not constitute an offer to sell, purcase, exchange or transfer any securities or a solicitation of any such offer in the United States or any other jurisdiction. The securities referred to herein have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act") and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration under the Securities Act. Neither MorphoSys AG (the "Seller") nor any other participant in the transaction described herein intends to register any securities under the Securities Act or with any securities regulatory authority of any state or other jurisdiction in the United States in connection with the proposals described in this announcement.



Deutsche Bank AG and J.P. Morgan Securities plc are acting solely for the Seller and no one else and will not be responsible for providing the protections afforded to customers of Deutsche Bank AG and J.P. Morgan Securities plc nor for providing advice in relation to the transaction. The shares may not be offered to the public in any jurisdiction in circumstances which would require the preparation or registration of any prospectus or offering document relating to the shares in such jurisdiction.

No action has been taken by the Seller or Deutsche Bank AG and J.P. Morgan Securities plc or any of their respective affiliates that would permit an offering of the shares or possession or distribution of this announcement or any other offering or publicity material relating to such securities in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required. In member states of the European Economic Area ("EEA"), this announcement and any offer if made subsequently is directed only at persons who are "qualified investors" within the meaning of Article 2(1)(e) of the Prospectus Directive (Directive 2003/71/EC) ("Qualified Investors"). Any person in the EEA who acquires the securities in any offer (an "investor") or to whom any offer of the securities is made will be deemed to have represented and agreed that it is a Qualified Investor. Any investor will also be deemed to have represented and agreed that any securities acquired by it in the offer have not been acquired on behalf of persons in the EEA other than Qualified Investors or persons in the UK and other member states (where equivalent legislation exists) for whom the investor has authority to make decisions on a wholly discretionary basis, nor have the securities been acquired with a view to their offer or resale in the EEA to persons where this would result in a requirement for publication by the Seller or Deutsche Bank AG and J.P. Morgan Securities plc of a prospectus pursuant to Article 3 of the Prospectus Directive. The Seller and Deutsche Bank AG and J.P. Morgan Securities plc and any of their affiliates, and others will rely upon the truth and accuracy of the foregoing representations and agreements. In the United Kingdom, this document is only being distributed to and is only directed at persons who (i) are investment professionals falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (as amended) (the "Order") or (ii) are persons falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order (high net worth companies, unincorporated associations, etc.) (all such persons together being referred to as "Relevant Persons"). This document is directed only at Relevant Persons and must not be acted on or relied on by persons who are not Relevant Persons. Any investment or investment activity to which this document relates is available only to Relevant Persons and will be engaged in only with Relevant Persons. About MorphoSys

MorphoSys developed HuCAL, the most successful antibody library technology in the pharmaceutical industry. By successfully applying this and other patented technologies, MorphoSys has become a leader in the field of therapeutic antibodies, one of the fastest-growing drug classes in human healthcare. Together with its pharmaceutical partners, MorphoSys has built a therapeutic pipeline of more than 100 human antibody drug candidates for the treatment of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and Alzheimer's disease, to name just a few. With its ongoing commitment to new antibody technology and drug development, MorphoSys is focused on making the healthcare products of tomorrow. MorphoSys is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol MOR. For regular updates about MorphoSys, visit http://www.morphosys.com. HuCAL, HuCAL GOLD, HuCAL PLATINUM, CysDisplay, RapMAT, arYla, Ylanthia, 100 billion high potentials, Slonomics, Lanthio Pharma and LanthioPep are registered trademarks of the MorphoSys Group.

This communication contains certain forward-looking statements concerning the MorphoSys group of companies. The forward-looking statements contained herein represent the judgment of MorphoSys as of the date of this release and involve risks and uncertainties. Should actual conditions differ from the Company's assumptions, actual results and actions may differ from those anticipated. MorphoSys does not intend to update any of these forward-looking statements as far as the wording of the relevant press release is concerned.

For more information, please contact:

MorphoSys AG

Anke Linnartz

Head of Corporate Communications & IR Jochen Orlowski

Associate Director Corporate Communications & IR Alexandra Goller

Senior Manager Corporate Communications & IR Tel: +49 (0) 89 / 899 27-404

[email protected] Attachments: //www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/caabe67d-7039-497f-a4b5-60dff1da7a09

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[November 15, 2016] New Muslim Prayer Room Opens at NCKU to Accommodate More People

A newly-built large Muslim prayer room for more than 200 Muslim students formally opened on November 14 at Sheng-Li Campus of National Cheng Kung University's (NCKU) this Monday. At the opening ceremony, NCKU President Huey-Jen Jenny Su happily met with the students and commented, "I'd like to take this opportunity to express how earnestly we are and try everything we can to make sure that your study life here at NCKU or in this city can be as fulfilling as you deserve." NCKU currently has more than two thousand international students spanning five continents enrolled, many of them are Muslims. To provide proper prayer facilities for Muslim students on campus, the university expanded its space in the Sheng-Li 6th Dormitory so as to accommodate more people at the ame time.



President Su said, "This place can be publicly used for all, not just for you but also for your country fellows from the same religion who would like to spend some time or have some use of this particular place." According to NCKU's Muslim student, prayer facilities are essential for school because Muslims are required to pray five times a day. During the winter, most would expect to pray twice during a working day and once during the summer.

Located at the third floor of the Sheng-Li 6th Dormitory, this new prayer room is the biggest gathering place for Muslims in southern Taiwan. Currently there are more than 200 Muslim students studying at NCKU. These students are from around the world, including Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Egypt and other countries. Several small prayer rooms had set up at the departments in the university to meet the need of Muslim students for daily pray. Muslim students' needs and expectation are considered in the design of this newly-built large prayer room. Its structural safety assessment is also done by a team of architects and engineers. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115005803/en/

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[November 15, 2016] Over 200 Attend Fasano Longevity Conference to Hear Broad Range of Topics

Over 200 longevity professionals attended the November 7th Fasano Longevity Conference, to hear a broad range of topics bearing on longevity markets. Washington insider, Kevin Madden, keynoted the morning session with his insights on the Impact of this year's groundbreaking Presidential Election; and afternoon keynote speaker, Dr. Vladimir Canudas-Romo of the renowned Max Planck Center on the Biodemography of Aging, presented his analysis of the Latest Demographic Trends. In between the keynote presentations SuttonPark Capital's CEO, Josh Wander, evaluated the latest Capital Market Trends in Life Contingent Structured Settlements, while analyses of Investment Opportunities in the Tertiary Life Settlement Market and Life Insurance Structures were made by Rocky Roland and Prannoy Chaudhury, respectively. /p>



Deloitte (News - Alert) Consulting's Chris Stehno's presentation of the case for Predictive Modeling as a new tool in underwriting analysis; and original research by Dr. Jochen Russ on Mortality Distributions at Older Ages for Multiple Impairments. The Conference finished with Ernst & Young's Gareth Mee's analysis of the Impact of BREXIT on Financial Markets. Said Michael Fasano, President of Fasano Associates, "This year's Conference had something for everyone - from politics to demography, and I was happy to see such a large turnout." Fasano described his Conference as "Investor Focused". He added: "What distinguishes our Conference is that we are able to get longevity experts with fresh perspectives who can combine relevant experience with truly original research."

DVDs of the Conference are available ([email protected]) for $495. Next year's Fasano Longevity Conference will be held on Monday, November 6, 2017 in Washington, DC. About Fasano Associates: Fasano Associates is a leading underwriting consulting firm serving the life, health, annuity and life settlement industries. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115005031/en/

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[November 15, 2016] Park Place Technologies Acquires Ardent Support Technologies

CLEVELAND, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Park Place Technologies announced today that it has purchased Ardent Support Technologies, a premier third-party support provider for data center hardware based in Dover, New Hampshire. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. "Ardent Support Technologies has been a trusted partner of Park Place for years," says Ed Kenty, Chairman and CEO of Park Place Technologies. "They share the same values as our own Service First Philosophy  that our customers' needs are most important when it comes to the support of their data center hardware. I am happy to welcome the Ardent team into the Park Place family." Acquiring Ardent Support Technologies will allow Park Place to enhance their experienced, world-class team of Level 3 engineers to service data centers across the United States and Canada. Ardent's o-Founder, Jim Stevens will join Park Place to coordinate integration and support future strategic sales efforts. "We are excited to officially join the Park Place Technologies team," said Stevens. "Ed and the rest of the executive team share the same perspective on what it means to be a leader in data center maintenance. The Level 3 team at Ardent is exceptional, and will allow Park Place greater depth to its already outstanding offering."



About Ardent Support Technologies Ardent Support Technologies is a premier third-party support provider for mission-critical infrastructure for Fortune 500 companies around the world. Offering customizable Support Services and coupled with industry-unique "In Touch Support" programs, organizations are provided the highest quality support all while 40-70% lower than the OEM.

About Park Place Technologies Park Place Technologies is a leading provider of hardware maintenance and support, specializing in extended warranty services for storage, servers and network equipment. Park Place Technologies' core competency of service maintenance, coupled with its professional services for storage, server and network equipment, enable it to extend the lifecycle of customer data centers. Established in 1991, Park Place Technologies has expanded quickly over the last two decades to become a premier provider of hardware maintenance and support. With support locations around the globe, Park Place Technologies services tier-one OEM equipment, including hardware from EMC, IBM, HP, Sun/Oracle, NetApp, Dell, Cisco, Hitachi, Brocade and Juniper, as well as legacy systems. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151215/295994LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/park-place-technologies-acquires-ardent-support-technologies-300363483.html SOURCE Park Place Technologies

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[November 15, 2016] Silver Spring Networks Broadens Smart Utilities Ecosystem Through New Development Agreement with Kamstrup

Today at European Utility Week, Silver Spring Networks, Inc. (NYSE:SSNI) announced the signing of a new development agreement with Kamstrup A/S, a global supplier of intelligent metering solutions for energy and water consumption owned by Danish energy company OK. Silver Spring and Kamstrup will integrate Silver Spring's standards-based IPv6 Gen5 platform and Kamstrup's OMNIPOWER electric meter series to help increase speed to market for smart energy solutions in EMEA, LATAM and Asia Pacific. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115005707/en/ "We were drawn to Kamstrup's experience in understanding the challenges facing the power utility industry in different regions, and their triangulation on customers, production and development to enable rapid innovation," said Eric Dresselhuys, Co-Founder and EVP of Global Development, Silver Spring Networks. "We look forward to working with Kamstrup to expand on our mission to connect things that matter the most." "Like Kamstrup, Silver Spring believes that it is important to take a holistic approach to the entire value chain in order to more rapidly deliver customized solutions," said Hans Peter Kyk, General Sales Manager, Kamstrup. "Building on each of our own successes, we are excited to develop joint solutions with a company that has a track record like Silver Spring to meet the growing demands for intelligent energy solutions in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and South America. This collaboration is part of our partner strategy of providing modular and interoperable solutions from meters to analytics." Silver Spring's Gen5 platform is the company's fifth generation platform for the Internet of Important Things, offering speeds up to 2.4 Mbps, simultaneous mesh communication on both sub-Gigahertz and 2.4 GHz frequencies, integration of 4G LTE (News - Alert) communications, and industry-leading performance, reliability, security and scalability. Kamstrup's OMNIPOWER series provides standard IEC1107 and DLMS interfaces, wide temperature range, load profiling, built-in disconnect and prepayment, and tamper proof and magnetic immunity for residential single-phase and three-phase meters, and commercial & industrial CT meters. Silver Spring has more than 24 million enabled devices delivered, and is working with leading smart energy and utilities providers and smart cities on five continents. With more than 6.4 million electric meters and 5.1 million water and heat meters sold, Kamstrup aims to bring intelligent meters to homes around the world. With one of the industry's leading partner ecosystems, the open, standards-based Silver Spring IPv6 network offers customers choice and support across a broad range of intelligent device players. To learn more, please visit Silver Spring at European Utility Week in Hall 3, Booth B111 from November 15-17 in Barcelona, Spain. For additional information on Silver Spring partners, please visit www.silverspringnet.com/partners.



Join the Silver Spring Networks Conversation Read more on the Silver Spring Connect blog at www.silverspringnet.com/blog

Follow @SilverSpringNet on Twitter (News - Alert)

Like Silver Spring Networks on Facebook at www.facebook.com/silverspringnetworks

Learn more about the Wi-Sun Alliance and the value of open standards-based IoT networking at www.wi-sun.org About Silver Spring Networks

Silver Spring Networks enables the Internet of Important Things by reliably and securely connecting things that matter. Cities, utilities, and companies on five continents use the company's cost-effective, high-performance IoT network and data platform to operate more efficiently, get greener, and enable innovative services that can improve the lives of millions of people. With more than 24.9 million devices delivered, Silver Spring provides a proven standards-based platform safeguarded with military grade security. Silver Spring Networks' customers include Baltimore Gas & Electric, CitiPower & Powercor, ComEd, Consolidated Edison, CPS Energy, Florida Power & Light, Pacific Gas & Electric, Pepco Holdings, and Singapore Power. Silver Spring has also deployed networks in Smart Cities including Copenhagen, Glasgow, Paris, Providence, and Stockholm. To learn more, visit www.ssni.com. About Kamstrup Kamstrup is a world-leading supplier of energy and water metering solutions. Our solutions support utilities and are also applied in properties with individual metering. For 70 years, we have delivered reliable, cost-effective ways to measure and manage energy and water consumption worldwide. By anticipating our customers' challenges, we enable them to run a better business and inspire smarter, more responsible solutions for the communities they serve. Our solutions include consumption meters, smart metering systems, hosting and services, analytics and smart grid applications. All products are produced with the highest certifications for environmental safety and quality in our automated production facilities in Denmark. Follow Kamstrup on kamstrup.com

LinkedIn

Facebook Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements about Silver Spring Networks' expectations, plans, intentions, and strategies, including, but not limited to statements regarding the scope, benefits, and timing of Silver Spring's engagement with Kamstrup, as wells as the performance and capabilities of Silver Spring's Gen5 networking and data platform. Statements including words such as "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" or "future" and statements in the future tense are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions, which, if they do not fully materialize or prove incorrect, could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties include those described in Silver Spring Networks' documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to Silver Spring Networks as of the date hereof. Silver Spring Networks assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115005707/en/

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[November 15, 2016] TMTS 2016 - The Mass Production Era of the 5-Axis Machine Tool Has Arrived

Taiwan International Machine Tool Show (TMTS) was launched in 2010 by the Taiwan Machine Tool & Accessory Builders' Association (TMBA), and has become one of the most important metalworking trade fairs in Asia. Every TMTS exhibition, there has been a record number of visitors, drawn to the show by unique topics and display items that reflect the development of Taiwan's Industry. Dr. Eric Chuo, the former TMBA Chairman, is more than just the pioneer of Taiwan's automation industry. He also puts a lot of time and effort into ensuring that the Taiwan machine tools industry is constantly growing. Dring this TMTS pre-show interview, Dr. Chuo expressed his care and expectation for the show and the machine tools industry, hoping that everyone in the industry keeps an open mind for the upcoming challenges.



Mainland China has always been Taiwan's largest export market. However, the decreasing demand from January to August 2016 has caused a hugely negative impact on sales. Dr. Chuo stated, despite the overall drop in demand, there is still a future for Taiwan manufacturers. The main goals at this point are to accelerate the upgrading of Taiwan's machine tool industry, to search for new application processes, and to learn from competitors, which will help with the development of new and innovative products. "Let's take the Chinese market, for example, the manufacturers not only need machines, but also the automation set. We offer add-on services to fulfill market demands. Taiwan's machine tool manufacturers are capable of offering the China market smart machines necessary for single stop automation, and there's no need to make fully automatic lines if there is no such demand. The single stop smart machines show great performance in various areas," Dr. Chuo pointed out during the interview.

More information about TMTS: http://www.tmts.tw/en/ View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161114006717/en/

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"The Spark," an 8-story building proposed for Madison's near east side, would house StartingBlock.
[November 15, 2016] UnitedHealth Group to Host Military and Veterans Career Fair in Florida; Seeking to Hire More Veterans and Their Spouses

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH):







WHAT: UnitedHealth Group will host a Military and Veterans Career Fair Tuesday, Nov. 15, from 5 to 8 p.m. in Jacksonville, Fla., with the goal to hire veterans and/or their spouses for jobs in Florida. The career fair is a one-day event where transitioning military and veterans, and their spouses can meet with UnitedHealth Group recruiters, veteran employees and business leaders. There will be stations set up for seminars on networking, resume writing and interviewing skills. This event is free to attendees. UnitedHealth Group has more than 3,000 job openings in Florida, in addition to nearly 2,000 telecommuting (i.e. work from home) positions, and aims to fill these positions by the end of the year. The open positions encompass all types of careers at all levels: technology, clinical, business operations, finance, network management, sales and marketing, customer service, health care operations, administrative professionals and sales support. Interested candidates can learn more and register for the job fair at https://careers.unitedhealthgroup.com The UnitedHealth Group family of businesses is committed to hiring military veterans. In partnership with Veterans Jobs Mission, the leading private-sector solution addressing U.S. military veteran unemployment, UnitedHealth Group encourages military veterans who are interested in a position to learn more and/or apply for a job at https://careers.unitedhealthgroup.com Interested individuals can also use UnitedHealth Group's online Military Skills Translator to help convert military experience into opportunities available at UnitedHealth Group. WHEN: Tuesday, Nov. 15; 5-8 p.m. WHERE: The career fair will take place at Florida State College at Jacksonville, Deerwood Center; 9911 Old Baymeadows Rd; Jacksonville, Fla., 32256. Attendees can enter through the main entrance of the campus which is off of Old Baymeadows Road and park in the Deerwood Center parking garage. CONTACT: Will Holman UnitedHealth Group 952-979-5862 [email protected]

About UnitedHealth Group

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) is a diversified health and well-being company dedicated to helping people live healthier lives and helping to make the health system work better for everyone. UnitedHealth Group offers a broad spectrum of products and services through two distinct platforms: UnitedHealthcare, which provides health care coverage and benefits services; and Optum, which provides information and technology-enabled health services. For more information, visit UnitedHealth Group at www.unitedhealthgroup.com or follow @UnitedHealthGrp on Twitter (News - Alert). Click here to subscribe to Mobile Alerts for UnitedHealth Group. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115005074/en/

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[November 15, 2016] WEI Named 2016 Supplier of the Year by NMSDC

WEI, a New England-based technology company, has been honored by the National Minority Supplier Development Council, NMSDC, as Class IV 2016 Supplier of the Year, joining an elite group of minority-owned businesses nationwide who are making technological leaps and bounds. WEI was nominated by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. There are four categories of NMSDC's Supplier of the Year award, based on annual sales; one company from each class is honored with the recognition. They include: Class I: For firms with less than $1 million in sales

For firms with less than $1 million in sales Class II: For firms with $1 million to $10 million in sales

For firms with $1 million to $10 million in sales Class III: For firms with $10 million to $50 million in sales

For firms with $10 million to $50 million in sales Class IV: For firms with more than $50 million in sales According to the NMSDC, "These minority businesses have distinguished themselves by successfully demonstrating growth in sales and employment while overcoming significant obstacles, consistently providing high quality products, services and solutions at competitive prices, and significantly contributing to the growth and development of their communities. The corporations exhibit extraordinary support of and positive impact on minority supplier development in various areas, including the implementation and maintenance of world-class minority supplier development processes, providing access to capital and sourcing minority suppliers in non-traditional categories." A long-standing member of the NMSDC, WEI offers custom IT solutions and technical support to Fortune 500 corporations, government agencies, healthcare organizations, universities, financial intitutions, associations and organizations.



"We are incredibly honored to have been named NMSDC's Supplier of the Year," said WEI founder Belisario Rosas. "It was a great experience to attend the NMSDC conference and get to know other minority business leaders from around the nation. We would like to thank our clients, partners and outstanding team members for helping us grow and thrive in today's digital marketplace." Earlier this year, WEI was named Supplier of the Year by the Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council, which is a non-profit affiliate of the NMSDC. They also ranked in the top 100 of CRN and The Channel Company's Solution Provider 500 list, which recognizes highly accomplished leaders in the IT channel, and were awarded CVS Health's 2015 Innovator of the Year award.

The NMSDC serves to advance business opportunities for certified Asian, Black, Hispanic and Native American business enterprises and connects them to corporate members. One of the nation's leading corporate membership organizations, the NMSDC provides increased procurement of new client leads and business opportunities for minority businesses of all sizes by certifying companies on behalf of corporate members, aiding in the development of diversity programs, connecting through signature networking events and advocating on behalf of each minority member. About WEI WEI is an expert in business technology improvement, helping clients optimize their compute environments and work efficiently. WEI works with clients to integrate corporate strategy, new technologies and their current IT environment into one company-wide model to increase utilization and efficiencies around their unique business processes. WEI's clients benefit from a strong focus on customer satisfaction and attention to detail. They combine cutting edge technology with architectural design, value-added services, onsite training, integration, testing labs and a commitment to quality. From solution design through implementation, WEI's sales and technical team remains focused on providing unwavering support throughout a project. For more information please visit www.WEI.com. About NMSDC The National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) advances business opportunities for certified minority enterprises and connects them to corporate members. Membership includes some of America's largest publicly-owned, privately-owned and foreign-owned companies, as well as universities, hospitals and other buying institutions. Please visit http://www.nmsdc.org for more information. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115005752/en/

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[November 15, 2016] Wolters Kluwer Announces the Winners of Its 2016 Community Impact Award

Wolters Kluwer today named both Bank of North Carolina of High Point, N.C. and Pennsylvania-based Washington Financial Bank as winners of its 2016 Community Impact Award. The award honors financial institutions for the breadth of their positive impact to low- and moderate-income communities, and their innovative application of community development programs in communities where they do business. The announcement was made at the company's 20th annual CRA & Fair Lending Colloquium, held in Las Vegas. The Colloquium brings together federal regulators, attorneys, bank compliance officers and other industry experts for insights on navigating the increasingly complex regulatory and risk management landscape facing financial institutions today, including the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Bank of North Carolina won for its work with the High Point Revitalization Program, which aims to revitalize and stabilize blighted or declining neighborhoods while increasing affordable home ownership in those areas. As part of the program, the bank partners with the city of High Point to build or renovate clusters of blighted properties, and it provides an affordable mortgage product to help qualified homebuyers purchase the new housing at or near cost. The program is targeted toward the under-banked and, in some cases, ignored parts of the population. It is coupled with an educational component-a finance course that takes several months to complete and includes gudance on insurance, how to pay property taxes, and other elements of mortgage lending.



"We have a long history and deep roots in High Point," said Britt Faircloth, vice president and fair banking manager at Bank of North Carolina. "It was important for us to invest in the city where we are headquartered and where we began, as we not only want to improve the areas around us, but also ensure that this community continues to grow." Washington Financial Bank is now a two-time Community Impact Award winner. This year, the bank won for its Washington County City Mission Program, which helps ensure homeless men, women, children and veterans have access to housing. Washington Financial Bank worked to help the area's homeless shelter, the Washington City Mission, receive $1.5 million in Affordable Housing Program grants from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh to rebuild after a fire destroyed part of their facilities. Washington Financial also reinforced its decades-long support of the Mission with a $50,000 pledge through its Charitable Foundation to the Mission's new veterans' facility as part of this project.

"These grants directly impact the revitalization of the community, our citizens' health and safety, and the overall quality of life," said Chris Oravetz, assistant vice president and community reinvestment officer at Washington Financial Bank. "We are proud to partner with the City Mission to help them rebuild and fund these vital programs." "These two institutions are evidence that banks can positively impact the communities where they operate in very meaningful ways," said Timothy R. Burniston, executive vice president, U.S. Advisory Services and Regulatory Relations. "We are honored to recognize their commitment and caring toward the citizens they serve, especially those in low- to moderate-income areas." About Wolters Kluwer Governance, Risk & Compliance

Wolters Kluwer Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) is a division of Wolters Kluwer which provides legal, finance, risk and compliance professionals and small business owners with a broad spectrum of solutions, services and expertise needed to help manage myriad governance, risk and compliance needs in dynamic markets and regulatory environments. The division's prominent brands include: AuthenticWeb, Bankers Systems, BizFilings, Capital Changes, CASH Suite, CT Corporation, CT Lien Solutions, ComplianceOne, Corsearch, Expere, GainsKeeper, LegalVIEW, OneSumX, Passport, TyMetrix 360, Uniform Forms, VMP Mortgage Solutions and Wiz. Wolters Kluwer N.V. (AEX: WKL) is a global leader in information services and solutions for professionals in the health, tax and accounting, risk and compliance, finance and legal sectors. Wolters Kluwer reported 2015 annual revenues of 4.2 billion. The company, headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands, serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries and employs 19,000 people worldwide. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115005161/en/

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[November 15, 2016] Xceedance Appoints Rajesh Iyer Senior Vice President - Head of Data Sciences

Xceedance, a global provider of property/casualty insurance technology, analytics and consulting services, today announced the appointment of Rajesh Iyer as senior vice president - head of data sciences. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115005174/en/ Xceedance is a managed services company that partners with insurers, reinsurers, brokers and MGA/MGUs worldwide, providing analytics, technology and process engineering solutions to enrich insurance workflows, operations and strategic programs. Insurance data sciences is the application of a smart mix of domain expertise, technology, statistics, machine learning and learning theory to achieve insurance business objectives. The challenges that data sciences can address span the full insurance value chain, including product design, pricing, underwriting, marketing, claims, finance, customer service and more. Rajesh will be responsible for managing the company's data sciences practice, including the development of a dedicated data sciences and services team to support clients and new initiatives. Working from the North America headquarters of Xceedance in Boston, he will also collaborate with the broader Xceedance sevice delivery teams worldwide to create strategic data products and analytic tools.



With more than 20 years of insurance experience, Rajesh has worked with leading U.S. insurers and service providers, including Nationwide, USAA, Mu Sigma and EXL. He most recently served as vice president, decision analytics at EXL in New York, where he led numerous data initiatives for top 10 P&C and L&A carriers. Rajesh also led multiple projects to deploy the power of analytics to improve and optimize operational outcomes. Prior to that, he was executive director, comparative pricing at USAA and director of client management at Mu Sigma in Chicago. "Rajesh brings a wealth of data and analytics focused experience to Xceedance and we're very excited to have him on board," said Amit Tiwari, EVP, global head of technology at Xceedance. " He has built data-driven solutions for the full scope of insurance operations, and he has helped numerous companies create enterprise-wide analytic solutions."

"Data sciences is becoming increasingly prevalent in the industry, mobilizing insurers to leverage all manner of internal, external, structured and unstructured data to inform strategic decisions," according to Rajesh Iyer. "The insight-driven outcomes of data sciences can improve the performance of insures and support their abilities to optimize customer experience." About Xceedance Xceedance is a global provider of insurance analytics and consulting services to property/casualty insurers, reinsurers, brokers, managing general agents and program administrators. With offices in the United Kingdom, United States and India to serve a diverse community of clients, Xceedance partners with insurers to launch new products, drive operations, implement cutting-edge technology, and deliver advanced analytics capabilities and process optimization. The company deploys teams of experienced insurance professionals to help insurers worldwide enhance policyholder service, enter new markets, boost workflow productivity and improve profitability. For more information, visit www.xceedance.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115005174/en/

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[November 14, 2016] Zenlayer to showcase new SDN platform at GITC 2016

BEIJING, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The largest Internet technology conference in China, Global Internet Technology Conference (GITC), will be held in Beijing at the China National Convention Center on November 24-25, 2016. Zenlayer, a global software defined network and service provider, will join as a gold sponsor and showcase its next generation SDN platform. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/438944

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160314/343934LOGO Interconnection with a little bit of Zen

In today's complex and fast-moving digital world where user behavior can change overnight, enterprises need a simple way to manage IT resources while adapting to the everchanging demands of users. Zenlayer has built innovative solutions that allow an easier and more transparent way to deploy and manage global IT resources so that enterprises can globalize their business within minutes. Powered by Bare Metal Cloud, SD-WAN and Edge Computing, Zenlayer delivers a complete, end-to-end solution from storage to networking to delivery.



On-demand and pay-as-you-go

Zenlayer's platform utilizes its 50+ global data centers and global IP backbone as the foundation to provide infrastructure that scales on-demand and cross-border private networks that can be provisioned instantly. In addition, users have the flexibility to burst in order to meet peak demands and to pay for only what they use. Meet Zenlayer at GITC

Zenlayer's M06 booth will be located near the main conference room on the 4th floor of the Convention Center. The Zenlayer team will be available to demo new products and discuss business opportunities.

At midnight on the opening day of GITC, Zenlayer will launch its brand-new website that debuts its vision of a world where connections between cloud, business and people embody the principles of Zen: simple and effortless. Please visit Zenlayer's website on November 24, 2016 at www.zenlayer.com to learn more. About GITC (http://www.thegitc.com)

Now in its fourth year, the Global Internet Technology Conference (GITC) is organized by Kylin Club and iTech Club. Each year, GITC brings together senior industry leaders to build partnerships and share insights on industry trends, new ideas and innovative technologies. The goal of GITC is to build the world's leading Internet technology exchange and business cooperation platform. Media Contact

Dalerie Wu

[email protected]

1.909.718.3558 (x1111)







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[November 14, 2016] EQUITY ALERT: Rosen Law Firm Files Securities Class Action Lawsuit Against Alere Inc. - ALR

Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, announces that it has filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of purchasers Alere Inc. securities (NYSE:ALR) from February 29, 2012 through November 4, 2016, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"). The lawsuit seeks to recover damages for Alere investors under the federal securities laws. To join the Alere class action, go to http://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-982.html or call Phillip Kim, Esq. or Kevin Chan, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action. NO CLASS HAS YET BEEN CERTIFIED IN THE ABOVE ACTION. UNTIL A CLASS IS CERTIFIED, YOU ARE NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL UNLESS YOU RETAIN ONE. YOU MAY ALSO REMAIN AN ABSENT CLASS MEMBER AND DO NOTHING AT THIS POINT. YOU MAY RETAIN COUNSEL OF YOUR CHOICE. According to the lawsuit, throughout the Class Period Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed o disclose that: (1) Alere's wholly-owned subsidiary, Arriva Medical, LLC ("Arriva"), was submitting claims to Medicare for deceased patients; (2) the foregoing conduct subjected Arriva to revocation of its Medicare enrollment; and (3) as a result, defendants' statements about Alere's business, operations, and prospects, were false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. On November 4, 2016, Alere revealed that Arriva's Medicare enrollment will be revoked by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ("CMS") based on CMS' assertion that Arriva had allegedly submitted claims for 211 deceased patients over a five year period. On this news, shares of Alere fell $6.13 per share or over 14.5% from its previous closing price to close at $36.10 per share on November 4, 2016.



A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than January 13, 2017. If you wish to join the litigation, go to http://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-982.html or to discuss your rights or interests regarding this class action, please contact Phillip Kim or Kevin Chan of Rosen Law Firm toll free at 866-767-3653 or via email at [email protected] or [email protected]. Follow us for updates on LinkedIn (News - Alert): https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm or on Twitter (News - Alert): https://twitter.com/rosen_firm.

Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. ------------------------------- View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161114006653/en/

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[November 14, 2016] Announcing The Fintech Asia 100 of 2016 Brought to You by EY

SINGAPORE, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The FinTech Asia 100 list of this year's top 100 fintech movers and shakers were revealed in front of a live audience last night at the Aura Sky Lounge, at the National Gallery. It was also the opening networking event of the Singapore FinTech Festival. The FinTech Asia 100 is compiled by Next Money, in partnership with EY and supported by Visa. This 2016 list includes some familiar names of the regional fintech scene, and additional new players, such as Jun-Seong Han, CFIO (Chief Future Innovation Officer) Hana Financial Group (Korea) and Cindy Chow, Executive Director Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund (China), who have earned their way into this coveted top 100. Some interesting statistics to note from the FinTech Asia 100 are that 26% of this year's selection are female and out of the 100 fintech leaders, 38 are entrepreneurs, 41 are CEOs and 15 different markets are represented, which is up from 13 last year. India has the most members on the list, with 18 individuals and Singapore, Hong Kong and mainland China are tied with 15 individuals each on the list. The FinTech Asia 100 individuals were selected by the following nine judges that represent a thorough cross-section of the fintech community throughout the region. Rob Findlay , CEO, Next Money, Singapore

, CEO, Next Money, Varun Mittal , Regional Head of Operations and Fund Management helloPay and Lazada Group, Singapore

, Regional Head of Operations and Fund Management helloPay and Lazada Group, Markus Gnirck, Partner, Tryb, Singapore

Natalie Fleming , Board Member, Fintech Association of Japan , Japan

, Board Member, Fintech Association of , David Lynch , CEO, CPT Global, Australia

, CEO, CPT Global, Jon-Tzen Ng , Head, Strategy & Design at Ping An Technology, China

, Head, Strategy & Design at Ping An Technology, Sukhoon Eun , Founder & CEO, Superstring, South Korea

, Founder & CEO, Superstring, Maaike Steinebach ; Chief Executive, Hong Kong Branch and MD Institutional Banking & Markets, Commonwealth Bank of Australia ( Hong Kong Branch)

; Chief Executive, Branch and MD Institutional Banking & Markets, Commonwealth Bank of ( Branch) Khemara Ros , Cambodia MBI Manager, Asian Development Bank, Cambodia All the individuals considered forthe FinTech Asia 100 were systematically rated by the judges on the following three key criteria:



A proven track record of positive impact on the fintech sector, be it through investment, exit, market share, shift or growth, in their respective market. A clear position of leadership in the fintech community and influence through their business, and/or social and media channels. A clear vision of the future through their work and commentary that builds a better future for the finance industry by challenging the status quo or extrapolating and pushing current financial business models toward the future. Next Money CEO, Rob Findlay, said: "We are thrilled to present this year's FinTech Asia 100 with EY and Visa's support, especially at the beginning of the Singapore FinTech Festival. The growing strength and breadth of accomplishments by all of the individuals included in this year's list are a testament to the growing maturity of fintech in Asia and across the globe. These are, without a doubt, the individuals that are actively shaping the next iteration of the global finance industry." Liew Nam Soon, EY Asean Managing Partner, Financial Services, Ernst & Young Solutions LLP, said: "The FinTech Asia 100 is an important strategic initiative for EY. While fintech has gained ground only in recent years, adoption rates are growing fast in Asia. The EY FinTech Adoption Index indicated that adoption of fintech could double among digitally active consumers within the next 12 months, with markets such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia being most active. Local fintechs can benefit from Asia's influence as part of an increasingly competitive global playing field. They will be able to better leverage opportunities to work collaboratively with the more established companies within financial services, with the ultimate objective of delivering more innovative and customer-centric solutions and offerings to their customers."

To see the FinTech Asia 100 list in its entirety, go to fintechasia100.com. About Next Money Next Money, co-founded by Rob Findlay, is a global fintech community that fosters the reinvention of finance through design, innovation and entrepreneurship. Next Money brings together peers from across disciplines including start-ups, banking, technology and design. Through meet-ups and events, hosting speakers and panelists, members come together to discuss, learn and discover new ways to transform the finance industry for the better. Originating in Singapore, Next Money has grown over the past four years into a global brand represented by city chapters of like-minded people all over the world and continues to expand. Learn more about Next Money and the Fintech Finals 2017, go to ff17.nextmoney.org/. About EY EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all of our stakeholders. In so doing, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for our clients and for our communities. EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com. About Visa Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions, and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable electronic payments. We operate one of the world's most advanced processing networks -- VisaNet -- that is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and assured payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa's innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, pay ahead with prepaid or pay later with credit products. For more information, visit usa.visa.com/about-visa, visacorporate.tumblr.com and @VisaNews. Media Contacts Cognito

Mariko Braswell

+65-6221-7310

[email protected] EY

Sophia Mah

+65-9647-8607

[email protected]

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Real Housewife of Sydney, Victoria Rees Officially Launches Wrinkles Schminkles and Supports the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute

Revolutionary Australian beauty brand Wrinkles Schminkles held its official launch event with a fundraising cocktail party in support of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute.

The official launch event had a decidedly 'Sydney Housewife' theme as it was hosted by Wrinkles Schminkles' Victoria Rees - recently cast as one of The Real Housewives of Sydney. Held at the Joh Bailey salon in Australia, the event was also filmed for an upcoming episode of The Real Housewives of Sydney, to be aired in the US early next year.

Guests included fellow Real Housewives of Sydney cast: Melissa Tkautz, Maddy Samaei, Krissy Marsh and Nicole O'Neil as well as Skye Leckie, Lizzie Buttrose, Tali Kock, Isabella Lucas, Jacqueline Gazelle and Wrinkles Schminkles founder Gabrielle Requena.

The beuty launch also included a charity component, in which Wrinkles Schminkles donated all proceeds from products purchased on the night to the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute. Pledges may still also be made via the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute donation page.







Wrinkles Schminkles founder, Gabrielle Requena explains:

"Rather than a standard launch event we decided to give something back and since our hero product, the Chest Smoothing Kit, is heart shaped and based on medical principles, we thought it was a perfect link into the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute."

"The VCCRI raises funds for women's heart health, which is the biggest killer of women in Australia with one Australian woman dying every hour," Requena added.

About Wrinkles Schminkles

Wrinkles Schminkles has a core range of 100% Medical Grade Silicone Pads to treated wrinkles overnight, while you sleep. They target the parts of the body that tend to show the signs of aging - the chest, decollete, decolletage, neck and, of course, the face. Simply peel, stick and sleep for smooth, wrinkle-free skin.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161114006666/en/
[November 14, 2016] Mobile Device Management Market by Solution, Service, Deployment Type, Vertical, and Region - Global Forecast to 2021

LONDON, Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- "Increasing smartphone and tablet penetration, strong adoption of BYOD policies, and growing security concerns regarding corporate data is expected to drive the overall market"The Mobile Device Management (MDM) market size is estimated to grow from USD 1.69 billion in 2016 to USD 5.32 billion by 2021, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 25.8% due to increasing smartphone and tablet penetration, strong adoption of BYOD policies, and growing security concerns to protect corporate data. In addition, MDM's capability to manage and synchronize different OS platform devices through a single console has led to an increasing demand for MDM services and solutions. However, factors such as reluctance to implement MDM solution on the employees' personal phones due to privacy constraints and low adoption of MDM solutions by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) because of budgetary constraints are the major restraints in the overall growth of the market. "Application management solution is expected to dominate the market during the forecast period" In 2016, the application management segment is expected to dominate among MDM solutions. With the growing number of mobile apps, this solution provides granular controls to the administrators in an organization which ultimately helps them in managing and securing the app data. "Asia-Pacific (APAC) is projected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period" North America is expected to hold the largest market share of the MDM market in 2016 due to the increased mobile workforce, increased smartphones penetration, BYOD trend, and higher cloud-based deployment of MDM solutions in the region. APAC is estimated to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period as the organizations in this region are looking to adopt enterprise mobility solutions to meet the demands of the dynaic mobile workforce. Better economic growth, usage of mobile devices by the high percentage of young population, demand for cloud-based solutions by SMEs, use of local brands of tablets and smartphones for business purposes, and the growing BYOD trend are other factors responsible for the rapid growth of MDM market in this region.



In the process of determining and verifying the market size for several segments and sub segments gathered through secondary research, extensive primary interviews were conducted with key industry personnel. The break-up of profiles of primary discussion participants is given below. - By Company Type: Tier-1: 35%, Tier-2: 45%, and Tier-3: 20% companies- By Designation: C-Level: 35%, Director Level: 25%, and Others: 40% - By Region: North America: 45%, Europe: 20%, Asia-Pacific: 30%, and Rest of the World: 5%

The list of MDM vendors profiled in the report is as follows: 1. VMware AirWatch (U.S.) 2. MobileIron (U.S.) 3. BlackBerry Ltd. (Canada) 4. Citrix Systems (U.S.) 5. IBM Corporation (U.S.) 6. Sophos Group PLC (U.K.) 7. SOTI, Inc. (Canada) 8. NetPlus Amtel (U.S.) 9. SAP (Germany) 10. Symantec Corporation (U.S.) 11. Microsoft corporation (U.S.) Research CoverageThe global mobile device management market has been segmented on the basis of solutions, services, deployment types, verticals, and regions. The various types of analysis covered in the study include SWOT analysis, value chain analysis, competitive landscaping, and DROC analysis. Reasons to Buy the ReportThe report will help the market leaders/new entrants in this market in the following ways:1. This report segments the mobile device management market comprehensively and provides the closest approximations of the revenue numbers for the overall market and the sub segments across different verticals and regions.2. The report helps the stakeholders understand the pulse of the market and provides them information on key market drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities.3. This report will help the stakeholders to better understand the competitors and gain more insights to better their position in the business. The competitive landscape section includes competitor ecosystem, new product developments, partnerships, and mergers & acquisitions. Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/4315096/ About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

http://www.reportbuyer.com For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mobile-device-management-market-by-solution-service-deployment-type-vertical-and-region---global-forecast-to-2021-300362768.html SOURCE ReportBuyer

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[November 15, 2016] TalentSprint's Women in Software Engineering (WISE) Program to Groom 1000 New Women Engineers

HYDERABAD, India, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- TalentSprint in collaboration with its partners has announced that within the next three years it will deploy its exclusive WISE program (Women in Software Engineering) to skill and empower 1000 young women graduates who can aspire for advanced technical roles in the global IT sector.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/438695LOGO )

With universities and colleges striving to produce a reliable supply of women engineers who can undertake advanced technology work, TalentSprint has been engaged in creating a highly talented pool of women software engineers who can compete with the finest minds in software programming. The WISE initiative is being run in collaboration with academic and industry partners. Addressing journalists, Dr. Santanu Paul, TalentSprint's Co-Founder and CEO, said, "Globally, women have less access to complex technology assignments compared to men. Through our WISE program we hope to bridge this gender bias as we believe diversity in the workplace is extremely important in today's technology world. Women bring a different perspective and sensibility that is required to build successful technology organizations. Our WISE program therefore mentors and develops women software engineers from lesser known colleges to compete head to head with IITians, NITians, and IIITians." WISE is a boot-camp style program based on experiential and self-learning. It equips select women graduates with the latest industry tools, modern programming practices, and helps them to secure positions at top software companies in the country. Some of its graduates have been mentored by top women engineers at Microsoft, launched their apps on Microsoft and Android App Stores, made it to Google Summer of Code, won the National IT Skill Competition, and been selected to represent India at the World Skill Olympics. Sharing her experiences, Charu Srinivasan, Partner Group Engineering Manager, Cloud & Enterprise, Microsoft India (R&D) Pvt. Ltd. said, "WISE believes that we can inspie women to pursue careers in computing by exposing them to real life role models and providing experiential learning opportunities. Our Microsoft mentors have embraced the WISE program because we want to help young women software engineers to achieve any goal they set for themselves. Our program was launched with great enthusiasm and this has grown stronger with each batch. The initiative has sparked strong support within the organization and to see the mentees grow in ability and confidence is extremely motivating as we can see how our guidance supports their professional development. The most encouraging aspect is that each mentee is becoming an agent of change, forming mentoring rings to steer fellow students. Nurturing our mentees to become confident game changers has been very satisfying for the mentors at Microsoft."



WISE program was initially launched by TalentSprint in 2013 in partnership with BVRIT Women's College in Hyderabad with the aim of creating world-class women engineers from within lesser-known colleges. WISE program was later extended to the Sri Vishnu Engineering College for Women in Bhimavaram, West Godavari District. According to K. Vishnu Raju, Chairman, Vishnu Educational Society, "This is an exciting time for our women's colleges. The WISE program is targeted at providing world-class software education to all our women students. This innovative program from TalentSprint is turning them into outstanding engineers and helping reduce the gender gap in the software industry. With the help of this strategic partnership with TalentSprint, our aim is to align ourselves with contemporary and future expectations of the global IT sector." Speaking on the occasion, Suman Reddy, MD, Pegasystems India, said, "This is a far reaching initiative from TalentSprint. We are totally committed to making our organization a diversity leader and bringing technically sound women software engineers on-board. The WISE program has the perfect design to achieve our strategic objectives. The idea of recruiting women software engineers straight out of college who are well-schooled in the latest software engineering principles and techniques is very exciting indeed."

WISE Program philosophy - Enable students to work with Mid-Size software systems (more than 100,000 lines of code) by experiential learning. - Focus on building a complement of skills to make the women confident and competent. - Develop an impressive resume with visible and verifiable expertise and experience, relevant for large Multi-National Software Organizations. About TalentSprint TalentSprint is India's leading Youth Career Accelerator. Its digitally intelligent platform empowers every young person to pursue an exciting career of their choice. Funded by Nexus Venture Partners and the National Skill Development Corporation, TalentSprint aims to empower 1,000,000 young job seekers to pursue careers in Information Technology, Banking and Financial Services, and Education. The platform delivers technology-enabled experiential learning through a mix of cloud, contact, and colleges. It leverages digital and social media for youth outreach and forward integrates with a high quality employer network. TalentSprint has enabled 100,000+ youth and 700+ employers since inception. It is the recipient of several national and international awards including the TV5 Business leader Award 2015, Excellence in Education Award 2015, World HRD Congress HR Tech Leader Award 2014, CIO Review Company of the Year Award 2014, Silicon India Industry Performer of the Year Award 2014, Deloitte Fast 500 APAC Award 2014, Deloitte Fast 50 India Award 2014, NSDC Best Performing Partner Award 2013, RED Herring Top 100 Asia 2012, FICCI LeapVault Skills Champion Roll of Honor 2012, NSDC Best Non-Corporate Partner 2012, NASSCOM Emerge 50 2011 and SKOCH Digital Inclusion 2011. For more information please visit http://www.talentsprint.com Media Contact :

Tanushree Kulkurni,

Candour Communications

[email protected]

+91-8861005345



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[November 15, 2016] TUV Rheinland Attended CNTAC-ZDHC Conference with Focus on Green Supply Chain

HONG KONG, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals Group (ZDHC) and China National Textile & Apparel Council (CNTAC) jointly hosted the 4th CNTAC-ZDHC Conference on Hazardous Chemical Control & Sustainable Manufacturing in Shanghai, China. Over 800 participants representing international buyers, signatory brands, value chain affiliates, associates, and manufacturers took part in this event. TUV Rheinland attended the conference as an active proponent of ZDHC, and committed itself to promoting reforms in supply-chain management for chemical-related industries through open collaboration in order to improve environmental safety and human health. Representatives from the textile industry, United Nations Environment Programme, CNTAC Office for Social Responsibility, and ZDHC experts each delivered presentations on the meaning of ZDHC signatory brands, the Chemicals in Product (CIP) project, Chemicals Stewardship Initiative 2020, Joint Roadmap Project, ZDHC MRSL, and the execution of other tools. The discussions highlighted the next steps in engaging with supply chains to implement the tools and methodologies for chemical management, and in supporting chemical manufacturers and suppliers with training and capacitydevelopment.



Mohammed Dkhissi, TUV Rheinland Global Business Field Manager Softlines & Vice President Global Key Accounts, said during his speech at the cocktail reception: "TUV Rheinland is delighted to be joining over 20 leading brands and working together. We aim to employ TUV Rheinland Group's knowledge of the impacts of textile and leather production processes and products in a preventative and foresighted manner." For modern consumers, "environmental friendliness and ethics" is not just an option. It is what they expect from products. Considering the fact that today's fashion supply chain is an intertwined web of chemical suppliers, global commodity farmers, synthetic material developers, mills, and factories, a holistic solution to address the aforementioned challenges would require awareness and capacity development via Technical Training, improvement monitoring via Audits, and conformance via Testing at all relevant steps of the supply network.

The chemicals in products have been of significance ever since the first RSLs came out in the 1990s. TUV was glad to contribute as a sponsor at this event, and we have launched our web-based training platform, based on gamification, focused on the "Sound management of chemicals," said Rakesh Vazirani, Program Manager for Textile Sustainability Solutions. "Based on experience pertaining to chemicals management in other industries, this could set the platform for EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) policy for textiles. TUV Rheinland feels privileged to be working together with the apparel and footwear industry, to better understand the chemicals, their process implications, and means to mitigate adverse impact on human health and the environment." Additionally, with our membership in the SAC, TUV Rheinland joins over 170 global brands, retailers, and manufacturers, as well as government, non-profit environmental organizations, and academic institutions, which are collectively committed to improving supply chain sustainability in the apparel and footwear industries. Along with the ZDHC project's emphasis shift from tool development to tool application, TUV Rheinland's experts are also involved with Training and Assessment activities related to the Higg Index. The ZDHC Programme has identified four key areas and two cross-cutting areas which are critical towards eliminating hazardous chemicals from the global textile and footwear industries. The key areas are the Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (MRSL), Wastewater Quality, Audit Protocol, and Sound Management of Chemicals (SMC) Training Services. As an independent technical Testing, Inspection, and Certification services provider, TUV Rheinland's comprehensive network of testing laboratories and education centers in Germany, China, India, Bangladesh, Turkey, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and elsewhere can provide chemical suppliers, farmers, synthetic material developers, manufacturers, and factories with testing, inspection, certification, quality control improvement, and technical training services. Specific services include: training on sound management of chemicals, chemical inventory management with our proprietary TOGS database, SDS interpretation, SAC Higg Index assessment, auditing services according to "Sound Management of Chemicals" principles, wastewater testing, and MRSL testing of chemical formulations. CONTACT: Simon Hung

+852 2192 1948

[email protected] Photo - http://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20161115/8521607423-a

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[November 15, 2016] Sequans' Monarch LTE Cat M1 Chip to be Demonstrated Live in Japan at NTT DOCOMO's R&D Open House

Leading LTE for IoT chipmaker Sequans Communications (News - Alert) S.A. (NYSE:SQNS) will demonstrate its LTE Category M1/NB1 (NB-IoT) chip, named Monarch, at NTT DOCOMO'S R&D Open House, to be held November 17-18, 2016 at NTT (News - Alert) DOCOMO's R&D Center in Yokosuka, Japan. At this annual event, NTT DOCOMO presents the latest advances in technology to its customers and partners. Sequans will demonstrate the LTE Cat M1 mode of Monarch in live communication with a Rohde & Schwarz (News - Alert) eNodeB (base station) emulator. "This demonstration is an important step in our evaluation of new technologies and we do appreciate support from Sequans with this Monarch platform," said Toshiyuki Futakata, vice president and senior manager of NTT DOCOMO's Communication Device Development Department, Radio Access Technology Group. "We are very proud to collaborate with NTT DOCOMO to demonstrate Cat M1 technology in Japan," said Georges Karam (News - Alert), Sequans CEO. "Monarch is the world's first true LTE Cat M1 chip, meaning it is optimized in both silicon and software, built from the ground up to adhere to the new narrowband standards, thus becoming the smallest in size and lowest in power consumption of any LTE chip available in the market today. It is not an earlier generation chip modified with software to simulate the new Cat M1 capabilities. I am very excited to say that Monarch is operating as designed and we have made initial shipments for network deployments beginning in Q4."



Monarch is the industry's most highly integrated Cat M1/NB1 (NB-IoT) chip, whereby baseband, RF transceiver, power management, and RAM (News - Alert) memory are integrated into a single, tiny 6.5 x 8.5 mm package. Monarch is fully compliant with the 3GPP's Release 13 definitions for narrowband LTE (LTE-M and NB-IoT). In addition, Monarch supports advanced features such as programmable RF filtering for global band support in a single SKU, and proprietary dynamic power management technology for ultra low power consumption and operating life of 10+ years. About Sequans Communications

Sequans Communications S.A. (NYSE:SQNS) is a 4G chipmaker and leading provider of single-mode LTE chipset solutions to wireless device manufacturers worldwide. Founded in 2003, Sequans has developed and delivered six generations of 4G technology and its chips are certified and shipping in 4G networks, both LTE and WiMAX, around the world. Today, Sequans offers two LTE product lines: StreamrichLTE, optimized for feature-rich mobile computing and home/portable router devices, and StreamliteLTE, optimized for M2M devices and other connected devices for the Internet of Things. Sequans is based in Paris, France with additional offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Israel, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, and China. Visit Sequans online at www.sequans.com; www.facebook.com/sequans; www.twitter.com/sequans View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161114006260/en/

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[November 15, 2016] British Airways and Iberia Join Concur TripLink to Help Corporate Customers Capture Business Travel Spend, Fulfill Duty of Care Needs

FRANKFURT, Germany, Nov. 15, 2016 /CNW/ -- Today at GBTA EMEA, Concur, the world's leading provider of integrated travel and expense management solutions and services, announced new partnerships with the UK and Spain's largest international airlines, British Airways and Iberia. The partnerships will enable mutual customers to capture business travel bookings being made directly on British Airways and Iberia channels via TripLink. By integrating the airlines' channels with Concur TripLink, the companies' mutual customers can improve both policy compliance and duty of care efforts  in particular through the ability to apply policy when employees book directly on ba.com, Iberia.com or send their British Airways or Iberia itineraries to TripIt. "Duty of care responsibilities are greater than ever for companies today. Knowing where employees are and having the ability to reach them is a key priority for many businesses," Mike Eberhard, president for Concur, says: "By integrating Concur TripLink with UKs and Spain's leading global premium airlines, we are now able to solve a massive duty of care challenge for our customers on a global scale." TripLink is the first solution of its kind to extend the benefits of a managed travel programme to direct supplier bookings. This allows businesses to: Ensure end user compliance with company travel policy

Fulfill duty of care requirements

Maximise the use of negotiated corporate discounts

Gain visibility into spend, even when booked directly with suppliers

Have a consolidated view of all travel programme data

Increase traveller productivity and satisfaction with TripIt Pro for all travellers



Adam Daniels , Chief Commercial Officer, at British Airways, said: "In today's fast-paced mobile and data-driven world, it is more important than ever before for companies to oversee their employees' travel bookings and expenses. By integrating with TripLink we are offering this capability to a wide range of companies, regardless of how they book." Marco Sansavini, Chief Commercial Officer, at Iberia, said: "By partnering with Concur, we're helping bring Iberia's bookings into view. Now corporate customers can properly reach their travellers, better control costs and  most importantly  fulfill their duty of care to employees."

Global Concur TripLink partners include AccorHotels, Airbnb, Air Canada, American Airlines, Avis, Booking.com, Trainline Europe (Captain Train), Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Etihad Airways, Hertz, HRS, HotelTonight, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), Lufthansa, Marriott International, National Car Rental, Omni Hotels, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Sixt Rent a Car, United Airlines and Wally Park. For more information about TripLink, visit Concur.com/TripLink About British Airways:

British Airways is the UK's largest international airline and one of the world's leading global premium carriers. Operating one of the most extensive international scheduled airline route networks, together with its joint business agreement, codeshare and franchise partners, British Airways flies to more than 70 different countries. The airline carries more than 40 million customers a year and has a fleet of more than 280 aircraft. About Iberia:

Iberia is Spain's largest airline and the leading carrier on routes between Europe and Latin America. Together with its subsidiary Iberia Express and its franchise partner Iberia Regional/Air Nostrum, it operates about 600 flights each day with a fleet of 134 aircraft to 125 destinations in 38 countries. It offers easy and convenient connections at its hub in T4 in Madrid-Barajas airport. Iberia was Europe's most punctual airline and second in the world in 2015, according to Flightstats. The airline is a member of the oneworld alliance that operates more than 14,000 daily flights to some 1,000 destinations in more than 150 countries. For more information, please visit http://grupo.iberia.es About Concur:

Concur, an SAP company, imagines the way the world should work, offering cloud-based services that make it simple to manage travel and expenses. By connecting data, applications and people, Concur delivers an effortless experience and total transparency into spending wherever and whenever it happens. Concur services adapt to individual employee preferences and scale to meet the needs of companies from small to large, so they can focus on what matters most for their businesses. Learn more at www.concur.co.uk or the Concur Newsroom. CONTACT: Laurel Cifala, [email protected] and (206)268-2229 Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160215/333423

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151103/283657LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/british-airways-and-iberia-join-concur-triplink-to-help-corporate-customers-capture-business-travel-spend-fulfill-duty-of-care-needs-300362650.html SOURCE Concur

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[November 15, 2016] Lyft Continues to Build Passenger and Driver Preference, Announces Iconic In-Car Connected Device and Playful New Brand Campaign

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Lyft unveiled Amp, the rideshare industry's first in-car connected device. Designed to make passengers' and drivers' in-car experience smarter, safer and more fun, Amp is an iconic and innovative device that will enable personalized rideshare experiences. As part of this announcement, Lyft also revealed its latest brand campaign, "Ride on the Bright Side." Set to run through the end of 2016, the campaign highlights the friendliness, safety and efficiency of Lyft's service while giving a playful wink to the rideshare industry's competitive landscape. AMP Amp will hit the road on December 31, 2016 in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York City, and roll out to all of Lyft's 200+ markets by mid-year 2017. The ambient lighting on Amps front will be visible in windshields, and the hidden screen on the back of the device displays messages pushed through a bluetooth connection. By matching the device's color to that displayed in-app on the passenger's phone, drivers and passengers can easily identify one another at pickup. "With the introduction of Amp comes the retirement of Lyft's beloved pink mustache, which has evolved from the fuzzy Carstache on car grilles, to the sleek Glowstache dashboard ornament," said Ethan Eyler, Lyft's Head of Ride Experience. "Both paved the way for Amp, which will sit on dashboards, illuminating the streets with an iconic glow while better connecting drivers and passengers."



NATIONAL BRAND CAMPAIGN Also announced today is Lyft's "Ride on the Bright Side" brand campaign, developed in partnership with agency of record Made, that brings to life the reasons customers choose Lyft. Four TV spots directed by award-winner Wayne McClammy and out-of-home advertisements featuring illustrations by artist Noma Bar are set to go live this week. The TV ads, which star Tobias Jelinek from Netflix's hit show 'Stranger Things,' take a comedic look at Lyft's people-first commitment and the overall rideshare landscape.

Both the TV and out-of-home elements were built around a multi-month research process that uncovered the factors driving consumer preference for Lyft: experience, driver quality and safety. These pillars of the brand shine through in Lyft's second national advertising campaign. "We've always heard from our drivers and passengers that they love Lyft's friendly service, and now we know that 97% of people who have used Lyft are likely to recommend us to someone else," said Melissa Waters, Head of Marketing. "Ride on the Bright Side' showcases our momentum, highlighting why customers consistently choose Lyft." ABOUT LYFT

Lyft was founded in June 2012 by Logan Green and John Zimmer to reconnect people and communities through better transportation. Lyft is the fastest growing rideshare company in the U.S and is available in more than 200 cities. Lyft is preferred by drivers and passengers for its safe and friendly experience, and its commitment to affecting positive change for the future of our cities. Contact: [email protected] Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/439165

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/439167

Video - https://youtu.be/AjMDDqytSJY

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/439166

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160628/384477LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lyft-continues-to-build-passenger-and-driver-preference-announces-iconic-in-car-connected-device-and-playful-new-brand-campaign-300362617.html SOURCE Lyft

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[November 15, 2016] Maatrum Technologies Chisels an all new Path for Property Verification

CHENNAI, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Maatrum Technologies Aims to Simplify Document Verification for Property Owners/Buyers Maatrum Technologies, a startup from Chennai, is all set to automate the Property Verification process for homebuyers and existing owners in Tamil Nadu. For almost a decade now, Tamil Nadu, especially Chennai has been a major hub for real estate developments. Unlike other metropolitans that have a floating population, Chennai seems to have a fairly stagnant resident profile contributing to the growth of this sector. And whenever a property transaction is on the cards, document verification becomes inevitable. Maatrum tries to address this bit of the real estate puzzle with its instant Property Report. Sifting through property documents could be a trying experience for anyone that's planning to buy property. While the number of documents itself is huge, deciphering the language could be even more demanding. Most buyers consult with a real estate lawyer who will go through property records on the buyer's behalf and give a report; this could take anywhere between a week or month depending on the complexity of the documents and workload of the lawyer. Maatrum tries to expedite this process by giving an instant report with crucial details like Property Ownership, Guideline Value, Encumbrance Certificate and Property tax/Water tax dues all in one report, enabling a quicker and hassle-free decision-making experience. "Real estate transactions are traditionally very slow, involve loads of paperwork, are fraught with corruption and often involve legal disputes. Although any Internet startups in India are solving the first problem of 'finding a property', we feel that the other painful steps are still offline and have not been solved. With Maatrum.com, we aim to significantly reduce real estate fraud," said Anosh Agarwal, Founder & CEO, Maatrum Technologies.



Since its initial rollout in August 2016, Maatrum.com claims to have generated almost 1000 reports, with around 10,000 visitors to the website in less than two months time. The company plans to offer other important property details like Patta, outstanding electricity bill, etc., soon enough to comprehensively address the needs of property buyers/owners. "I own a property in the outskirts of Chennai, which I don't visit often. I decided to generate an online EC just to make sure there wasn't any fraudulent activity. I found Maatrum.com on Google; it asked me for a few details about my property and in less than five minutes, I got the EC for my property. I am truly impressed with the Maatrum report that explains property details in a simplified format. In fact, I've referred Maatrum to some of my friends too," adds Mr. Sabesan R, a property owner from Chennai

Whilst adding more features to the existing website, Maatrum.com plans to take its services to the neighbouring states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in the coming months. Visit their Facebook page to keep abreast of the developments and offerings. To learn more about Maatrum Technologies, please visit http://www.maatrum.com. Write to [email protected] for any query related to property. About Maatrum Maatrum Technologies is a startup based out of Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The company was founded with the ambitious dream to unlock the true potential of the Indian economy by solving some of India's most difficult problems. With their current offering, Maatrum.com aims to create a new wave in the Indian 'Online Real Estate Title Verification' space, with the help of technology. The Maatrum Property Report has been designed in such a way that the property buyer/owner will be able to get legal details about their property from a few clicks. More importantly the report is so simple that the user will be able to take informed decisions based on the transactions and details specified. Added to this, all details are verified from the Tamil Nadu government websites, making the report all the more authentic. At the moment, maatrum.com offers its services for properties in Tamil Nadu and plans to expand to other states in near future. Media Contact:

Sophia Madhavan,

AGM - Digital Marketing,

Maatrum Technologies

[email protected]

+91 8220918181



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[November 15, 2016] itelligence Helps Everlam Launch its Digital Transformation With SAP S/4HANA

BIELEFELD, Germany and BRUSSELS, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Everlam, the PVB film producer from Mechelen, Belgium is now among the first companies in the Benelux countries to be running on SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management. With this implementation by the SAP partner, itelligence, Everlam is taking an important step towards its further growth and development. itelligence AG announced today that it has assisted Everlam in redesigning and simplifying the company's IT environment, made necessary by relocation of Everlam's headquarters from Germany to Belgium, along with its rapid growth. Several scenarios were developed, and selecting the SAP HANA platform and the SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management solution proved to be the best option. Everlam produces high-quality polyvinyl butyral (PVB) film for the manufacture of laminated safety glass. The clear and coloured PVB films available are deployed by glass laminators throughout the world. The headquarters and technology centre are located in Mechelen, Belgium. SAP S/4HANA is SAP's next-generation ERP suite designed for in-memory computing that allows companies to "Run Live" by gaining instant access to detailed, real-time information. SAP S/4HANA is natively built on the SAP HANA platform, designed with the award-winning SAP Fiori user experience. With SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management, companies can now digitise each activity and each function right from the start. Harald Hammer, CEO of Everlam, said, "The decision to work with SAP S/4HANA totally corresponds with our vision: to support our customers through the constant improvement of our products and services."



Marc Goyvaerts, Managing Director of Everlam, said, "The implementation of SAP S/4HANA is a milestone for Everlam in successfully realising our company growth strategy. The new functions of SAP S/4HANA help us to respond even more quickly and professionally to customer needs and enquiries. In the process, itelligence, our SAP service provider, has won us over with professional and service-oriented execution." The implementation of SAP S/4HANA at Everlam was carried out by the SAP partner, itelligence. itelligence AG is a leading SAP partner - not just in the Benelux countries, but also across Europe and throughout the world. The itelligence advisors played an important strategic role in the planning, execution and optimisation of the company's implementation and digital transformation project.

Wim Jansen, Managing Director of itelligence Benelux said, "We succeeded in implementing SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management at Everlam in less than six months. We are particularly proud of this project, where Everlam has become one of the first companies to be able to use this fundamentally different software. For Everlam it presents genuine added value in today's digital business environment. Everlam is a great example of how companies can be supported in the transition to the most recent, innovative next-generation software suite from SAP." SAP, SAP S/4HANA, SAP HANA, SAP Fiori and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE (or an SAP affiliate company) in Germany and other countries. See http://www.sap.com/corporate-en/legal/copyright/index.epx for additional trademark information and notices. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. itelligence is one of the leading international full-service providers of solutions in support of SAP solutions, employing about 5,600 highly qualified employees in 24 countries. As a frequently awarded SAP partner, among others global value-added reseller, SAP Certified in Cloud Services, SAP-Certified Provider of Hosting Services for SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud and SAP Platinum Partner, itelligence realizes complex projects in the SAP solution-based environment worldwide. The company's services in support of SAP solutions range from consulting and licensing to application management services and hosting services to proprietary industry-specific SAP. In 2015, itelligence generated total sales of EUR 696.2 million. Public Relations



Silvia Dicke

Tel: +49(0)521-91448-107

Fax: +49(0)521-91445-201

[email protected]



itelligence AG

Konigsbreede 1

33605 Bielefeld

http://www.itelligencegroup.com



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[November 15, 2016] Eutelsat Unveils 'Konnect Africa' Brand for Satellite Broadband Venture

Regulatory News: Today's launch at the Africacom event of the 'Konnect Africa' brand by Eutelsat (News - Alert) Communications (Paris:ETL) marks a change in scope of the 'Broadband for Africa' venture set up to galvanise the market for satellite broadband services in Sub-Saharan Africa. A renewed effort to bridge the digital divide The 'Konnect Africa' brand and new slogan, 'Taking Broadband Further', have been devised to reflect Eutelsat's ambition to accelerate satellite broadband connectivity across the African continent. With a 20 strong team located in key African markets and in Europe, Konnect Africa aims to become one of the leading suppliers of new-generation services, working in close partnership with African partners to promote high-quality broadband at affordable prices for homes and businesses, and contributing to reducing the digital divide on the continent. Commercial launch on track for 2017 The new brand is a new milestone in advance of the launch of commercial services that will start to roll-out in 2017, ramping up to cover more than 20 Sub-Saharan countries by 2019. Konnect Africa's portfolio of services will be adjusted to the profiles and needs of its partners, to match their position in the value chain: data, mobile or VSAT operators, ISPs and pay-TV platforms that can bundle TV with Internet services. Konnect Africa will offer a complete range of services, from bandwidth supply to end-to-end solutions. Click here for the website: www.konnect-africa.com



For more on the Konnect Africa click here for the video: https://youtu.be/gH8tGLc-1Z4 Meet the Konnect Africa team during AfricaCom (15-17 November) on the Eutelsat stand: D6.

About Eutelsat Communications

Established in 1977, Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL, ISIN code: FR0010221234) is one of the world's leading and most experienced operators of communications satellites. The company provides capacity on 38 satellites to clients that include broadcasters and broadcasting associations, pay-TV operators, video, data and Internet service providers, enterprises and government agencies. Eutelsat's satellites provide ubiquitous coverage of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Americas, enabling video, data, broadband and government communications to be established irrespective of a user's location. Headquartered in Paris, with offices and teleports around the globe, Eutelsat represents a workforce of 1,000 men and women from 37 countries who are experts in their fields and work with clients to deliver the highest quality of service. For more about Eutelsat please visit www.eutelsat.com www.eutelsat.com - Follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) @Eutelsat_SA and Facebook (News - Alert) Eutelsat.SA View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115005774/en/

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[November 15, 2016] DataPath Appoints New Senior Vice President of U.S. Government Sales

ATLANTA, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- DataPath, Inc., a leading provider of remote field communications and information technology solutions to the aerospace, broadcast, government, and infrastructure markets, announced today that the company has appointed Kevin Benedict as its new Senior Vice President of U.S. Government Sales. In this role, Benedict will be responsible for leading the growing DataPath sales team that is dedicated to serving U.S. defense, intelligence, and civilian agencies as it expands and diversifies its customer base. Benedict brings extensive satellite communications expertise in the civilian ad military sectors to DataPath, meaning he has experience on both the customer and supplier sides of the industry. In addition to his most previous role as Vice President of Business Development at SES Government Solutions, Benedict has held numerous senior-level business development, strategic planning and program management positions at several defense contractors including Raytheon, Ball Aerospace, and SAIC. Prior to joining the defense industry, Benedict served as a career U.S. Air Force officer with positions spanning Satellite Acquisition, Space Launch Operations, and High Performance Computing. These positions included serving as the Chief of the Satellite Acquisition Branch for the DoD Space Test Program, Senior Launch Crew for the 30th Space Wing, and Director of the Maui High Performance Computing Center.



Benedict's educational background is also deep. He holds an Executive MBA with an emphasis on international business from the University of Colorado, a Master of Science in Space Operations and Space Systems Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology, a Master of Arts in Human Resources Development from Webster University, and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Colorado Technical University. Benedict has earned numerous professional accreditations including certification as a Project Management Professional. His appointment is part of a strategic initiative to increase DataPath's presence in the Washington D.C. area. In order to strengthen long-term relationships with customers and industry partners, Benedict will be based in the region at an office set to open in Northern Virginia in early 2017. DataPath has also already hired additional local business development and engineering personnel.

"For 25 years, DataPath has provided dedicated service to the U.S. military. While we expand into new commercial and international markets, the addition of Kevin Benedict to DataPath's leadership team demonstrates that we also remain firmly committed to carrying on our proud heritage as a trusted provider to the U.S. government," said David Myers, President and CEO of DataPath. "Kevin's 20 years of military service paired with his broad knowledge of satellite networks means he brings a true understanding of the unique communications requirements of government customers." About DataPath Inc. In remote and high-risk operating environments, dependable real-time communications are critical to situational awareness and mission success. DataPath specializes in advanced communications solutions tailored to the unique requirements of aerospace, broadcast, government, and infrastructure clients. Our solutions include a range of both custom and commercial off-the-shelf field communications and information technology products, including satellite communication systems, network management software, and cyber security services. All of our offerings are backed by 24x7 customer care and global field support. At DataPath we are passionate about helping our clients achieve mission success. For more information, visit www.datapath.com. Contact: DataPath, Inc.

Anna Fry

[email protected] Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150519/216981LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/datapath-appoints-new-senior-vice-president-of-us-government-sales-300362653.html SOURCE DataPath, Inc.

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[November 15, 2016]

Noted Philadelphia IP Attorney Tony Volpe Launches Business Mediation Practice

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Building on a legal career spanning more than 40 years, Anthony S. Volpe, a founding partner of Philadelphia-based Intellectual Property law firm Volpe and Koenig, P.C., announced the launch of BusinessMediation.com. Business Mediation is dedicated solely to resolving business disputes in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/439265

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Volpe's decades of experience, as an attorney and business advisor in a wide range of industries spanning intellectual property, commercial litigation and issues pertaining to all areas of business disputes, makes him uniquely qualified to help parties get to yes. Volpe based the practice in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, andPrinceton, New Jersey, but has access to conference facilities throughout the United States and travels nationally to accommodate the parties.







"I'm a big believer that alternative dispute resolution channels such as mediation provides businesses with the opportunity to resolve matters without the lengthy, expensive and often draining process of litigation," said Volpe. "Quite simply, I enjoy the process of mediation," said Volpe. "Through BusinessMediation.com, I can provide the setting, services and experience needed to successfully find a mutually acceptable common ground among multiple parties."

As Volpe sought to slowly wind down from the day to day grind of his legal practice, he determined that his business acumen and experiences in mediation representing adverse parties represented the perfect chance to continue doing what he loved in a setting where ideally both parties feel victorious at the conclusion.

BusinessMediation.com is a national mediation service solely dedicated to resolving business disputes. For more information, visit our website at www.businessmediation.com.

BusinessMediation.com

30 South 17th Street, 18th Floor

Philadelphia, PA 19103-4196

Media Contact:

Anthony S. Volpe, Esq.

Mediator

Phone 215-568-6400

email: [email protected]

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/noted-philadelphia-ip-attorney-tony-volpe-launches-business-mediation-practice-300362963.html

SOURCE BusinessMediation.com
[November 15, 2016] Beacon Startup Blesh Raises $4M and Partners with Volkswagen for Smart Key Fobs

PALO ALTO, Calif., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Blesh, a startup company based in Palo Alto providing beacon platform services, has recently partnered with Volkswagen Turkey for its smart key fobs, to be sold online and handed out to new buyers starting from November 2016. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/438819

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/438820 Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8S_uPektmI The smart key fob is a beacon itself, as it works with Bluetooth Smart (aka Bluetooth Low Energy). It is paired with Volkswagen's mobile app, "Volkswagenim" (My Volkswagen). The key fob works for 3 main purposes. Once the customer is done pairing the key fob with the app, they can locate their phone nearby by tapping twice on the key fob and hear a beeping sound coming from their phone. They can do the exact opposite and locate the key fob - hence the keys to their car - through the app. It works as a Bluetooth selfie shutter, working like a very long selfie stick by having almost 50 meters of range. The key fob is unique ina way that it includes Google's Physical Web functionalities. In fact, it is one of the first major Physical Web products on the market.



The Physical Web functionality will be very useful if the key fob is lost and found by someone else. The device will only send out the Physical Web signals when the device is inactive and might be lost. When someone else finds the key fob, they will see a URL at the Chrome widget on iOS or receive a notification on their Android advice, with information on how to report a lost keyfob. "Our experience in the beacon market has shown very strong interest from industries like retail and banking, however we see the Volkswagen smart key fob as the first major beacon project in the automotive industry." said Devrim Sonmez, CEO of Blesh. "We are very excited to announce our partnership with Volkswagen for a device that is not only an innovative IoT product but also can be an integral part of people's lives. The product also shows how beacons can be used for daily life challenges."

About Blesh Based in Palo Alto with offices in Istanbul and Atlanta, Blesh provides a beacon platform for enterprises and developers all around the world. Founded in late-2013, Blesh has already deployed more than 45K beacons, integrated its platform with 100+ apps and reached 25 Million SDK downloads. Blesh beacons are deployed in leading retail chains, airports, bank branches and ATMs, subway stations, more than 135 malls, cafes and restaurants, office buildings and university campuses. Blesh is also the first official provider of Physical Web beacons and one of the few authorized sellers of the Eddystone beacon format, both announced by Google in 2015. The company received its first funding by angel investors Turgut Gursoy, Emre Berkin, Kemal Ciliz and Ali Sabanci in 2014 and received $4M Series A funding this year. The Series A round was led by TRPE Capital. Visit www.blesh.com for more information about the company. Media contact:

Can Cihan

[email protected]

+905354684446 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/beacon-startup-blesh-raises-4m-and-partners-with-volkswagen-for-smart-key-fobs-300363024.html SOURCE Blesh

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[November 15, 2016] 30 Percent of Employee Surveys Include Insights on How to Improve the Customer Experience, InMoment Finds

As brands the world over gain a better understanding of the vast competitive advantages that come with delivering positive and differentiated customer experiences, their own employees are an essential source of insights, according to customer experience optimization solution provider, InMoment. "Over the nine years we've been collecting employee engagement feedback, we've heard from hundreds of thousands of employees across multiple industries and countries," said Dr. Paul Warner, vice president of consumer and employee insights. "In addition to talking about their own jobs, we found that nearly one-third of employees comment about the customer experience. Themes include ideas on how teams can work together better for the customer; how managers can better support employees when dealing with customers; and the barriers employees face in providing an exceptional experience. The sheer number of customer-centered comments is astounding. Even more interesting is that they emerge out of a process designed to gather their employees' perceptions of their own jobs-not necessarily the customer experience." Additionally, a recent study by CustomerThink found that B2B companies rank this kind of feedback, called Voice of Employee (VoE), as the most actionable type of feedback in improving the customer experience. Warner continued: "Employees, especially front line staff, spend most of their time at the place where brand promise and customer experience meet. As such, they have a particularly empathetic view of customers, as well as inside knowledge of how and why your business works-and doesn't. Plus, inviting employees into improving and even designing better customer xperiences enhances their own engagement levels. Companies that fail to leverage VoE to its fullest extent are leaving money on the table."



"Voice of Employee feedback is an essential element in truly understanding both employees and customers," said Fiona Regan, people development director at Revolution (News - Alert) Bars Group PLC, a leading operator of premium bars with a strong national presence across the UK. "Because employees know our business in ways customers simply cannot, they have the unique ability to identify the root causes of why we are delivering great experiences, and where we're falling short. In addition, when we invite employees to become part of actually creating and improving customers' experiences, their own engagement levels increase. Working with InMoment to understand customers and employees in such a holistic way is giving us a level of insight into our business we've never had before." New Voice of Employee Whitepaper

To help brands both leverage and improve employees and their experience, InMoment is introducing a new whitepaper titled "Better CX Begins with Employees: Where Voice of Customer, Employee Engagement, and Voice of Employee Intersect (News - Alert)" available for download here at no cost.

"Voice of Employee feedback is proving to be a rich and focused expression of the frustrations our employees encounter when working with our clients daily," said Ralph Cumbee, chief experience officer at Solarity Credit Union. It also tells us what we're doing right and what we need to focus on from those who have the most frequent and intimate contact with clients. Many times our clients know they have an issue but don't know the inside story-but our staff does. This allows us to close loops much quicker and monitor issues before they negatively impact our metrics. I recommend use of this approach as an addition to surveying clients." InMoment also recently announced VoE capabilities in its new Experience Hub 2.0 that include ad hoc surveys and on-demand forums, as well as the functionality built into InMoment's case management solution. About InMoment

InMoment is a cloud-based customer experience (CX) optimization platform that helps brands leverage customer stories to inform better business decisions, and create more valuable relationships with their customers. Through its Experience Hub, InMoment provides Voice of Customer (VoC), Social Reviews & Advocacy, and Employee Engagement solutions, as well as strategic guidance, support, and services to more than 350 brands in 95 countries. For more information, visit http://www.inmoment.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115005825/en/

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[November 15, 2016] Congress Takes Action to Reverse the Nation's Diabetes Epidemic

The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) applauds the passage of the National Clinical Care Commission Act (H.R. 1192) yesterday in the U.S. House of Representatives as a crucial step towards improving the care and well-being of almost 30 million Americans suffering from diabetes and its consequences. H.R. 1192, which has been a long-standing legislative priority for AACE, establishes a public/private commission consisting of the country's foremost diabetes researchers, specialists, clinical healthcare professionals and patient advocates who will collectively assess federal diabetes initiatives to identify redundant or ineffective activities and critical gaps, and recommend new approaches to address the disease to the Secretary of Health and Human Services and Congress. The commission will help streamline and leverage the substantial federal investment in diabetes research, policy and programs, which currently are spread across more than 35 federal agencies. Since the bill was first introduced in the House during the 112th Congress, the prevalence of diabetes has continued to surge: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), diabetes afflicts one in every nine adult Americans, and an additional 86 million Americans have prediabetes. The total annual cost of diabetes in the U.S. is estimated at $245 bilion.



"As long-time advocates and supporters of this legislation, we're extraordinarily pleased that this bill is moving forward to the Senate for consideration," said AACE President Dr. Pauline Camacho. "Our appreciation goes to Representatives Pete Olson (News - Alert) and Dave Loebsack, and their House colleagues who supported this bill, and to the many other diabetes organizations across our nation that joined AACE in advocating for its passage." "We look forward to what will hopefully be quick consideration by the Senate to enact the National Clinical Care Commission Act this year. Congress should not pass up the opportunity to do something about diabetes and begin to reverse the devastating human and economic toll the disease imposes on our healthcare system," added AACE President Elect Dr. Jonathan Leffert.

The Senate companion legislation is sponsored by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) with 33 Senate co-sponsors. To read the bill in its entirety, or to learn more about supporting the National Clinical Care Commission Act, visit: https://www.aace.com/article/220 About the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) represents more than 6,500 endocrinologists in the United States and abroad. AACE is the largest association of clinical endocrinologists in the world. The majority of AACE members are certified in Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism and concentrate on the treatment of patients with endocrine and metabolic disorders including diabetes, thyroid disorders, osteoporosis, growth hormone deficiency, cholesterol disorders, hypertension and obesity. Visit our site at www.aace.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115005968/en/

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[November 15, 2016] The June Intelligent Oven Is Now Shipping

The June Oven is an intelligent convection oven that takes the guesswork out of cooking and ensures that your meal comes out precisely how you want it, making everyone a better cook. Today, June is delighted to announce that the June Oven will begin shipping to pre-order customers during December and will begin fulfilling new orders the following month. The chances of overcooking chicken today are the same as they were in 1859 when the electric stove was invented. No matter how much care and time you put into finding recipes, buying the freshest ingredients, chopping, mincing, mixing and marinating, your work can go to waste in a matter of degrees or minutes. June solves this. The June Oven uses the latest in sensors and artificial intelligence to recognize, monitor and cook food to your liking. With machine learning and neural network technology, you can trust and depend on June to cook your food to the same excellent standard, each time. June's custom-designed heating and convection configurations deliver precise cooking performance. The six carbon fiber heating elements are divided into three individually controlled banks with two convection fans that can be independently adjusted. For example to create a caramelized crust, June uses the following settings - the top outer bank runs at 70% power, the top inner bank runs at 60% power, the bottom bank runs at 50% power and both convection fans run at 60% speed. In contrast, in bake mode June uses the following settings - the top outer bank runs at 40% power, the top inner bank runs at 30% power, the bottom bank runs at 90% power and both convection fans are off. June currently identifies 25 common foods and cooks them in the best way. From caramelized roasted butternut squash to juicy on the inside, crispy on the outside roast chicken, June will make sure your food is cooked properly using the appropriate multi-step cook program. You no longer have to poke and cut into your food to know if it is ready or not. When you put a steak in June, the HD internal camera talks to the onboard four-core NVIDIA (News - Alert) processor and runs one of June's neural networks to identify the food. June inquires on your preferred doneness of the steak and selects a multi-step cook program to ensure it is cooked as instructed. June automatically transitions between roast and broil settings to cook the steak to a precise internal temperature. You don't have to monitor anything. June just needs your help to flip the steak to sear both sides and of course June tells you when to do this. Thanks to analysis of the food thermometer data from the food June has cooked to date, June is able to predict when your steak will be ready. And when it's time to eat, June will send a notification to your iOS device. A team of chefs has been training June to perform like one of them. When you cook a steak for the first time you are able to do it with the expertise and precision of a chef who has cooked 100+ steaks in a June Oven. As more and more foods are cooked in June, the list of recognized foods and multi-step pesets will continue to grow. The June Oven is continuously adapting, learning and improving.



"We've used the latest technology in all areas of June from the materials to build it to the artificial intelligence that controls it." said Matt Van Horn, CEO and Co-Founder of June. "In developing the first oven that really does take the guesswork out of cooking, we hope to achieve our goal of inspiring people to cook more." The June team worked in collaboration with design firm Ammunition. Robert Brunner, Ammunition Founder and Partner, says, "June's technology is more advanced than anything else on the market, and in many ways it's reinventing the notion of what an oven should do. We wanted the design to reflect this modern approach to cooking by creating a beautiful, sleek device that looks at home in any kitchen."

The June Oven: Carbon fiber heating elements - June uses six carbon fiber heating coils, allowing it to preheat three times faster than other ovens.

June uses six carbon fiber heating coils, allowing it to preheat three times faster than other ovens. Safe to touch - June's proprietary cooling technology keeps the outside safe to touch even when cooking at 500F and does not heat up your kitchen.

June's proprietary cooling technology keeps the outside safe to touch even when cooking at 500F and does not heat up your kitchen. Advanced insulation - June uses heavy duty insulation to minimize heat loss for even cooking and to maximize energy savings.

June uses heavy duty insulation to minimize heat loss for even cooking and to maximize energy savings. Food ID - The June Oven uses an HD camera and the latest advances in artificial intelligence to instantly identify common foods you put inside and recommend custom cook programs. The camera lets you watch your food come to life in real time and share a time-lapse of your cooking with friends and family.

The June Oven uses an HD camera and the latest advances in artificial intelligence to instantly identify common foods you put inside and recommend custom cook programs. The camera lets you watch your food come to life in real time and share a time-lapse of your cooking with friends and family. Dual adaptive convection fans - June's convection fans rotate in opposite directions to evenly mix the air to eliminate cold spots and reduce cooking time by 33%.

June's convection fans rotate in opposite directions to evenly mix the air to eliminate cold spots and reduce cooking time by 33%. Precision heating - Maintains uniform temperature from corner to corner and does not fluctuate over time. Ovens are individually calibrated before shipping to achieve this. Yields better cooking results no matter what you're cooking.

Maintains uniform temperature from corner to corner and does not fluctuate over time. Ovens are individually calibrated before shipping to achieve this. Yields better cooking results no matter what you're cooking. Dial and touchscreen - June's precision dial and responsive 5-inch touchscreen are intuitively designed to let you control every aspect of cooking.

June's precision dial and responsive 5-inch touchscreen are intuitively designed to let you control every aspect of cooking. Built-in digital scale - June's built-in digital scale enables you to weigh anything on the top of the oven.

June's built-in digital scale enables you to weigh anything on the top of the oven. Maximum capacity - Engineered to maximize cooking space in a compact frame, June fits up to a 6lb chicken or 11x16 casserole dish.

Engineered to maximize cooking space in a compact frame, June fits up to a 6lb chicken or 11x16 casserole dish. Automatic updates - June's operating system updates automatically making sure your June cooks with our latest technology. June comes with the following accessories: Food thermometer - Connected inside June, may be inserted into the food in the oven to measure the internal food temperature. The high precision thermometer is accurate up to 1F and can be used when cooking meat, fish, pies, baked potatoes and much more. The June probe is only 1.8mm (0.07 inches) thick, and unlike other probes, will not damage your food.

Connected inside June, may be inserted into the food in the oven to measure the internal food temperature. The high precision thermometer is accurate up to 1F and can be used when cooking meat, fish, pies, baked potatoes and much more. The June probe is only 1.8mm (0.07 inches) thick, and unlike other probes, will not damage your food. Pan - Made from solid core aluminum with a high performance PFOA/PTFE free non-stick coating,June's pan distributes heat evenly and is easy to clean.

Made from solid core aluminum with a high performance PFOA/PTFE free non-stick coating,June's pan distributes heat evenly and is easy to clean. Roasting rack - For use on the pan when roasting to keep foods elevated and create a crisper finish.

For use on the pan when roasting to keep foods elevated and create a crisper finish. Wire rack - Slides into any of the three rack positions.

Slides into any of the three rack positions. Crumb tray - Sits at the bottom of June to collect drippings and crumbs. Slides out for cleaning.

Sits at the bottom of June to collect drippings and crumbs. Slides out for cleaning. Companion App to track your meal from anywhere - Use the companion app available in the App Store to track the progress of your food from anywhere. It includes customized alerts on your phone, watch, or tablet that tell you when your food is ready. Check in and control your oven from anywhere. The June Oven is available now for purchase for $1,495 through the June website at https://juneoven.com and through February 2017 at the June Pop-Up Showroom located at The Village at Corte Madera in Marin County, California. June will be offering a payment plan to new customers through Affirm to finance the June Oven with 0% interest for $125 per month, at no additional cost to the customer. The June Oven comes with a full 2-year warranty, and 100-day no questions asked return policy if purchased before March 2017. About June At June, the mission is to use the power of technology to inspire everyone to cook. June was founded in 2014 by CEO Matt Van Horn, co-founder of Zimride (now Lyft) and former vice president of business at Path, and CTO Nikhil Bhogal, the inventor of many of the Apple (News - Alert) camera's technology patents. June is headquartered in San Francisco. June has raised $29.5 million from acclaimed investors including Foundry Group, Eclipse, First Round Capital, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Sound Ventures, Vaizra and a group of angel investors including Matt Rogers from Nest. More information is available at www.juneoven.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115006027/en/

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[November 15, 2016] iQ Media Launches Real-Time Searchable TV Platform For Advertisers & Marketers

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 15, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- iQ Media (www.iq.media), a pioneer of in-the-moment media measurement technology, today announced the launch of its first real-time searchable TV platform for brands. Through its proprietary logo-recognition and spoken word-detection technology, iQ Medias new platform monitors logo appearances and tracks spoken brand name and keyword mentions on earned and paid TV, as they happen. Marketers are now able to evaluate and accurately measure their (and competitors) TV and brand sponsorship investments without the delay characteristic of current TV data delivery options.

Founded in 2010, iQ Media launched as a media intelligence and monitoring platform specifically for PR and communications teams, helping hundreds of companiesincluding Dominos Pizza, Energizer, NHL, Red Bull and SONIC Drive-Inprove media ROI, optimize campaign spend and get actionable competitor data in real-time. With its new fully-automated TV measurement solution, iQ Media will now serve marketing teams at large, giving them real-time access to TV data across all 210 DMAs. Marketers enter the keywords or logos they want to track into the system and the iQ Media platform begins reporting occurrences of brand mentions and logo appearances as they happen. Marketers have traditionally had to wait several weekseven monthsto get data about their TV campaigns and sponsorship investments. This wait-time is incompatible with the dynamic and responsive nature of todays consumers, however, said Kye Strance, CEO and president of iQ Media. Because our platform is fully automated and is scanning TV and media content around the clock, it doesnt miss importan brand events, such as a logo appearing on an athletes shirt or hat for a split second on live TV.



iQ Medias new searchable TV platforms key features and benefits include: Real-Time Logo and Spoken-Word Recognition: iQ Medias proprietary logo-recognition and spoken word-detection technology accurately identifies when a brand is seen and heard on TV, and definitively distinguishes between earned vs. paid occurrences. This data allows marketers to immediately evaluate, measure and understand the ROI of major media investments.



iQ Medias proprietary logo-recognition and spoken word-detection technology accurately identifies when a brand is seen and heard on TV, and definitively distinguishes between earned vs. paid occurrences. This data allows marketers to immediately evaluate, measure and understand the ROI of major media investments. Instant Competitor Intelligence: iQ Medias comprehensive ad-hoc search feature allows brands to track multiple competitor logos and brand names simultaneously, in real-time (or across historical data), resulting in a comprehensive view of competitors paid and earned media placements, campaign performance, market proliferation, and other media insights. Marketers can additionally plot their own campaigns up against competitors to see how their plans stack up to relevant brands.



iQ Medias comprehensive ad-hoc search feature allows brands to track multiple competitor logos and brand names simultaneously, in real-time (or across historical data), resulting in a comprehensive view of competitors paid and earned media placements, campaign performance, market proliferation, and other media insights. Marketers can additionally plot their own campaigns up against competitors to see how their plans stack up to relevant brands. Real-Time TV Attribution & Searchable Audience Segments: iQ Media gives marketers split-second insights into TV events while on air, so that they can correlate demographic, geographic, time-of-day, and even third-party data with audience behaviors. This helps brands attribute on-air activities to digital traffic, purchase activity and social engagement.



iQ Media gives marketers split-second insights into TV events while on air, so that they can correlate demographic, geographic, time-of-day, and even third-party data with audience behaviors. This helps brands attribute on-air activities to digital traffic, purchase activity and social engagement. Six Years of Historical TV Programming: iQ Media has built the industrys largest compilation of historical TV content, with over 22 million hours of TV programming. This gives marketers access to trend, demographic- and competitor-specific data on campaignstheirs or competitorsrun over the last six years, for use in benchmarking and strategic media planning. iQ Media has won several awards, including being named an Entrepreneur 360 Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America in 2016, one of the Best Places to Work in PA in 2014 and 2016, and the Codie Best Software-as-a-Service Application in 2015. iQ Media is backed by investors Edison Partners and GMH Venture Partners.

For more information about iQ Media and its new platform, please contact Gretel Going, [email protected] or 212.680.0179. About iQ Media

iQ Media is the pioneer of real-time searchable TV, changing the way marketers access and evaluate their brand performance across earned and paid media. With over 22 million hours of TV content from 210 DMAs, iQ Media delivers heard and seen logo recognition, competitor data, industry benchmarks and local to national-level audience data. Serving brands such as Domino's Pizza, Energizer, NHL, Red Bull and SONIC Drive-In, iQ Media provides a single, user-friendly platform that helps marketing, PR and customer insights teams better understand earned and paid media TV ROI, moments after it happens. For more information, please visit www.iq.media MEDIA CONTACT Gretel Going Channel V Media [email protected] 212.680.0179 x102

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[November 15, 2016] TmaxSoft designates US office as global HQ and appoints Joshua Yulish as new Global CEO

CHICAGO, Nov. 15, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TmaxSoft, a multinational technology innovator focused on infrastructure software, today announced that its office in Chicago, USA, has been designated as its new global headquarters and that Joshua Yulish has been appointed as Global CEO, a new role in the company created specifically to drive global expansion.

Founded in 1997 by Professor Daeyeon Park in South Korea, TmaxSoft has grown to become the largest independent software company in its domestic market. Its core focus lies in providing infrastructure solutions that give enterprise CIOs viable alternatives to the traditional dominant software providers for driving digital business. After almost two decades of expansion, with 12 subsidiaries established worldwide including in the US, UK, Brazil, and China, the company has made the decision to reassign the global headquarters to Chicago, IL., to drive accelerated global growth. Three new regional headquarters have also been established to drive localized sales and marketing efforts. The companys South Korean office will become the regional headquarters for the Asia-Pacific region, headed by Simon Kim. This location will also continue as the primary location for research and development. The EMEA region headquarters will be based in London and lead by Andy Kim, while the new global headquarters in Chicago will also serve as the regional headquarters for the Americas, led by Joshua Yulish. Simon and Andy were previously in key leadership roles with TmaxSoft, and will be responsible for the companys expansion into 10 new markets across Asia-Pacific and EMEA in 2017. Professor Park commented on the new organizational strategy: The headquarters of a business represents its nerve center. It orients the organizations strategy and helps shape its culture. While we have derived huge benefits from our South Korean roots, including access to some of the worlds most talented engineers, ths is the ideal time to take advantage of the unparalleled track record that leading US companies have for successfully taking local brands to global markets.



In the US, competition is fierce, the talent pool is sophisticated and large, and you have to learn to win at scale  its a breeding ground for world-beating companies. For TmaxSoft, this move represents our intensified focus on growth and on competitiveness. It will allow us to change the way we strategize and operate to boost our American presence, as well as to develop a strong platform for global growth, he added. The appointment of Joshua Yulish to the new role of Global CEO, created to bring greater centralized direction to TmaxSofts global expansion, complements this adjustment. Joshua has been leading the companys aggressive American expansion as CEO of TmaxSoft Inc. since 2015, and he has experience in managing global teams at Hewlett-Packard and other enterprise software companies.

Joshua commented: I am honored to be leading TmaxSoft into this exciting new phase. As the preeminent leader in the software industry in South Korea, the company has technological innovation in its DNA, and this move is an opportunity to inject American industriousness and growth-savvy into the genetic mix. Having led the development of the companys presence in the US for over a year now, its clear to me that were well-positioned to take on established companies in the infrastructure space in the US, and to subsequently use this position to further accelerate our global expansion. The American headquarters will be home to our new global marketing facility, which will bring cohesion to our go-to-market process and ensure that the TmaxSoft story is consistently and effectively communicated and understood in all of the countries in which we are operating. Centralizing the marketing function and rooting it in English further reflects our global orientation, added Joshua. The global headquarters is located in downtown Chicago. In order to accommodate the newly expanded team and infrastructure, a new, purpose-built space is currently under construction, and the company expects to assume occupancy in the Spring of 2017. Chicago was chosen not only for its growing stature as an international hub of trade, but also for its rapidly expanding presence in the technology sector and its large talent pool. Joshua concluded: As a city that is central to markets across the US and all of North America, Chicago represents the perfect base from which we can drive our presence in the US and beyond. I am determined to take this new challenge head on and help drive TmaxSoft forward to become one of the worlds preeminent international software companies. NOTES TO EDITORS About TmaxSoft, Inc.

TmaxSoft is a global software innovator focused on infrastructure and data modernization, with solutions that offer enterprise CIOs viable alternatives to support their global IT powerhouses and drive competitive advantage. Tibero is the best enterprise RDBMS for the Virtual Data Center. Our licensing model allows enterprises to fully maximize their virtualization investment by only licensing the cores associated to a given VM, resulting in drastically lower TCO. OpenFrame is a legacy rehosting solution that enables mainframe applications, resources and data to be migrated to a less expensive, high performance open or cloud system while reducing TCO and minimizing risk of migration. JEUS is the first Web Application Server in the world to be J2EE 1.4, JAVA EE 5, and JAVA EE 6 Certified, and delivers improved security over traditional WAS. TmaxSoft was founded in 1997 in South Korea and today has over 800 employees in 12 strategic centers around the world. The companys global headquarters is located in Chicago, IL, USA. Please visit www.tmaxsoft.com for more information. Press contacts: Henri Attan / Edward Dodge Spreckley T: +44 (0)20 7388 9988 E: [email protected]

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[November 15, 2016]

Atrenne honored by Military & Aerospace Electronics with Gold Innovators Awards

BROCKTON, Mass., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Rugged component and system vendor, Atrenne Integrated Solutions, Inc. announced today that its Small Form Factor SFF 760 Series chassis received a Gold Rating at the 2016 Military & Aerospace Electronics Innovators Awards. The Innovators Awards are selected based on innovation, value to the user, sustainability, meeting a defined need, collaboration, and impact.

The award winning SFF 760 series rugged chassis enables off-the-shelf Mini-ITX and PCIe commercial electronics CCAs to be deployed in the SWAP and cost-constrained, harsh environments characteristic of ground mobile, naval and airborne applications, including stratospheric altitudes, well above 50,000 feet. Commercial components are typically not designed to operate in extreme mil-aero environments. For example, commercial CCAs are often designed for atmospheric pressure corresponding to 10,000 fee and below.







"It is a great honor to be recognized by Military & Aerospace Electronics," noted Eran Strod, Director of Marketing, Atrenne Integrated Solutions. "Atrenne prides itself on innovation and responsiveness to customers and our SFF 760 Series embodies our commitment to excellence."

For more information on the SFF 760 series, please see the SFF 760-92 product page.

About Atrenne Integrated Solutions

Atrenne Integrated Solutions, Inc. is an advanced, vertically-integrated, component and system provider serving aerospace, defense, computing, communications, and other technology-driven industries. Atrenne delivers integrated components, electronic packaging, fabricated metal, electronic assemblies and value-add build-to-print manufacturing services to industrial markets across the globe. With more than 40 years of experience, Atrenne provides innovatively engineered products and services throughout the program lifecycle, from concept to manufacturing to obsolescence management. Atrenne is proud to provide customers with fully-tested, reliable, electromechanical solutions on-time and with world-class quality. Atrenne is headquartered in the United States.

About Military & Aerospace Electronics

Published since 1990, Military & Aerospace Electronics delivers time-sensitive news, in-depth analyses, case studies, and real-world applications of new products, industry opinion, and the latest trends in the use of mil-spec, rugged and commercial of-the-shelf components. The Military & Aerospace Electronics brand includes the magazine, website (www.militaryaerospace.com), email newsletters and webcasts.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160823/400475LOGO

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/atrenne-honored-by-military--aerospace-electronics-with-gold-innovators-awards-300363251.html

SOURCE Atrenne Integrated Solutions
[November 15, 2016] John C. Mather Named Honorary Member of The Optical Society

The Optical Society (OSA) announced that John C. Mather was named an Honorary Member. Mather was chosen for "his contribution to NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) project which is regarded as the starting point of cosmology as a precision science." The Optical Society's Honorary Membership is the most distinguished membership status a society member may achieve and this status is confirmed by the OSA Board of Directors. "Our work on the COBE project began the era of precision measurements of the cosmos and confirmed the expanding universe picture to extraordinary accuracy," said John C. Mather, Senior Astrophysicist, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "New optical technologies continue to make discoveries in space possible. This year's discovery of gravitational waves was enabled by optical interferometers and I expect more discoveries once the James Webb Space Telescope is launched in October 2018. I am delighted today for this honorary membership and thank the OSA Board of Directors. " Alan Willner, 2016 President of The Optical Society and Steven & Kathryn Sample Chair in Engineering, University of Southern California, California, USA, remarked "Due to the sophisticated optical measurement techniques, precision measurement of the cosmos has been made possible - a truly amazing achievement. It is a sincere pleasure for me to honor John C. Mather with this membership." John C. Mather received his B. A. degree from Swathmore College, Pennsylvania in 1968. He continued on with his studies and attended University of California at Berkeley, California where he received the Ph.D. in 1974. As an NRC postdoctoral fellow at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (New York City), he led the proposal eforts for the Cosmic Background Explorer (1974-76). He joined the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in 1976-1988 as a Study Scientist, as a Project Scientist (1988-98) and later as the Principal Investigator for the Far IR Absolute Spectrophotometer (FIRAS) on COBE. As Senior Project Scientist (1995-present) for the James Webb Space Telescope, he leads the science team, and represents scientific interests within the project management.



NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) was a satellite dedicated to cosmology. Its goals were to investigate the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) of the universe and provide measurements that would help shape our understanding of the cosmos. COBE carried three optical and infrared instruments, a Far Infrared Absolute Spectrophotometer, a Differential Microwave Radiometer with three channels, and a Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment. COBE observed the universe on the largest scales possible, by mapping the cosmic microwave and infrared background radiation fields and determining their spectra. It produced conclusive evidence that the hot Big Bang (News - Alert) theory of the early universe is correct, showed that the early universe was very uniform but not perfectly so, and that the total luminosity of post-Big Bang objects is twice as great as previously believed. Among his many awards and recognitions, John C. Mather was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1997, to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1998, to Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1996, and to Fellow of The Optical Society in 2009. He received an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree, Swarthmore College in 1994 and an Honorary D. Sci. from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2008. He also received the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics from the Franklin Institute in 1999, the Cosmology prize from the Pat and Peter Gruber Foundation in 2006, the Nobel (News - Alert) Prize in Physics, with George Smoot, in 2006, the Robinson Prize in Cosmology from Newcastle University in 2008, and the Gold Medal from the Prime Minister of India in 2009.

The Optical Society's Honorary Membership is the most distinguished membership status a society member may achieve and this status is unanimously confirmed by the OSA Board of Directors. Mather joins a roster of 48 distinguished Honorary Members, 15 of whom are living. For a complete listing of OSA's honorary members, visit OSA's website. About The Optical Society Founded in 1916, The Optical Society (OSA) is the leading professional organization for scientists, engineers, students and business leaders who fuel discoveries, shape real-life applications and accelerate achievements in the science of light. Through world-renowned publications, meetings and membership initiatives, OSA provides quality research, inspired interactions and dedicated resources for its extensive global network of optics and photonics experts. For more information, visit osa.org/100. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115006078/en/

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[November 15, 2016] BlueCross, UT Partnership Looks to Reduce Opioid Overdose Deaths

Seconds save lives when it comes to drug overdoses. Now Tennessee law enforcement officers will be supplied with and trained to administer an antidote to overdose victims, thanks to a partnership between the University of Tennessee Law Enforcement Innovation Center (LEIC) and the BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Health Foundation. Naloxone is a drug that can be administered as a nasal spray or injection to reverse the deadly effects of opioid drug overdoses, which is primarily respiratory arrest. In 2014, more than 1,200 Tennesseans overdosed as a result of opioid addiction. "Naloxone can temporarily reverse the effects of an overdose by neutralizing opioids in the system and can restore normal breathing in three to five minutes," said Don Green, LEIC executive director. "It allows law enforcement officers to buy time for people suffering overdoses until emergency medical professionals can arrive. Naloxone can save lives." LEIC began training law enforcement officers on the use of Naloxone on Nov. 1. Up to 600 officers will receive the training this year, including how to apply to receive the drug from the manufacturer. The Naloxone training program is funded by a $35,000 grant from the BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Health Foundation. Additionally, the grant provides$250,000 to purchase Naloxone for Tennessee law enforcement agencies.



The Naloxone training and supply program is part of a larger effort by BlueCross to combat the widespread problem of opioid abuse in Tennessee. That effort includes a $1.3 million grant to expand statewide the successful Count It! Lock It! Drop It! program of the Coffee County Anti-drug Coalition. "Opioid abuse is a complex issue that takes multiple efforts to address," said Dawn Abel, BlueCross director of community relations and foundations. "We see this partnership with the Law Enforcement Innovation Center as another effective tool to fight the problem."

About University of Tennessee Law Enforcement Innovation Center The Law Enforcement Innovation Center (LEIC) is an agency of the University of Tennessee Institute for Public Service. Formed in 1997, LEIC is a leading training and technical assistance provider for the law enforcement community across the nation. Over the past 15 years, more than 30,000 law enforcement officers, other criminal justice practitioners and public school personnel have completed training and educational programs. About BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Health Foundation, Inc. The BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Health Foundation, Inc., was established in December 2003 as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation organized to promote the philanthropic mission of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. The foundation awards grants focused on high-impact initiatives across the state that promote healthy lifestyle choices and help control health care costs for all Tennessee residents. Working with civic and economic partners, the foundation is dedicated to the support of research, innovative programs and creative approaches to improve the health and quality of life of Tennesseans for generations to come. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115006275/en/

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[November 15, 2016] Retro Fitness Franchise: A Fit for Everyone

Not many franchises can say they have professional athletes, doctors, military veterans, firefighters, high-level executives, multi-brand franchisees, independent business owners and a pop star in their franchise system, but Retro Fitness can. The fast-growing, national low-cost high-value fitness franchise has been gaining popularity amongst a wide group of franchise prospects and is increasingly attracting multi-unit franchisees to its system. In the past 18 months alone, 15 separate groups of multi-unit franchise owners have joined the franchise. "Our diverse group of franchisees is a big part of what makes Retro Fitness so successful," said Retro Fitness CEO and founder Eric Casaburi. "Everyone brings something different to the table, and while we're the ones providing them with all the knowledge they need to know about the Retro Fitness business model, there's so much that we learn from them in return. It's an exciting time to be part of the Retro Fitness family." Here are some reasons recent franchisees joined the Retro Fitness franchise system: Complimentary to Existing Franchises - Anish Patel: Patel and his father own several Super 8, Days Inn and Quality Inn hotel franchises and are also developing three Great Clips franchises in Maricopa County, Arizona. He recently signed a five-unit agreement with Retro Fitness as a compliment to existing business assets.

Patel and his father own several Super 8, Days Inn and Quality Inn hotel franchises and are also developing three Great Clips franchises in Maricopa County, Arizona. He recently signed a five-unit agreement with Retro Fitness as a compliment to existing business assets. Diversifying Franchise Portfolio - Lawrence and Larry Jasenski: Lawrence and his father, Larry, own 23 Subway locations throughout the Albany-Schenectady, New York area and signed a five-unit deal with Retro Fitness to help them diversify their food and beverage portfolio. Their first location just opened for workouts this month.

Lawrence and his father, Larry, own 23 Subway locations throughout the Albany-Schenectady, New York area and signed a five-unit deal with Retro Fitness to help them diversify their food and beverage portfolio. Their first location just opened for workouts this month. Career after the NFL - Jameel McClain: McClain is a former NFL linebacker whose professional career spans eight seasons, including a Super Bowl win with the Baltimore Ravens in SB XLVII. He played seven seasons with the Ravens and one with the New York Giants. He signed a threeunit deal with Retro Fitness and is on track to open his first location in Catonsville, Maryland in December. David Garrard is another former NFL player who joined Retro Fitness in 2013 and currently has two gyms operating in Jacksonville, Florida and one under development.

McClain is a former NFL linebacker whose professional career spans eight seasons, including a Super Bowl win with the Baltimore Ravens in SB XLVII. He played seven seasons with the Ravens and one with the New York Giants. He signed a threeunit deal with Retro Fitness and is on track to open his first location in Catonsville, Maryland in December. David Garrard is another former NFL player who joined Retro Fitness in 2013 and currently has two gyms operating in Jacksonville, Florida and one under development. Making an Independent Gym Better - Jordan Knight: Known as the front man of New Kids On The Block, Knight joined the franchise in 2015 to convert his existing Cranston, R.I. gym, Fit World, into a Retro Fitness. His 10-year-old club needed a whole new energy and Knight wanted to increase value for members, all while gaining support from a franchisor. He plans to continue growing the Retro Fitness brand with new locations in Massachusetts.

Known as the front man of New Kids On The Block, Knight joined the franchise in 2015 to convert his existing Cranston, R.I. gym, Fit World, into a Retro Fitness. His 10-year-old club needed a whole new energy and Knight wanted to increase value for members, all while gaining support from a franchisor. He plans to continue growing the Retro Fitness brand with new locations in Massachusetts. Planning for Retirement - Ralph Basile, Daniel Pace and Peter Pace: With a few decades each in sales, the Pace brothers saw gym ownership as the perfect platform to supplement their families' retirement savings. They took over the Kingston, New Jersey Retro Fitness location in June with Daniel's brother-in-law, Basile, who runs the day-to-day operations of the gym. His background consists of being a volunteer firefighter in the Monmouth Junction as well as a 911 dispatcher for the South Brunswick Police Department, a position he held for almost ten years.

With a few decades each in sales, the Pace brothers saw gym ownership as the perfect platform to supplement their families' retirement savings. They took over the Kingston, New Jersey Retro Fitness location in June with Daniel's brother-in-law, Basile, who runs the day-to-day operations of the gym. His background consists of being a volunteer firefighter in the Monmouth Junction as well as a 911 dispatcher for the South Brunswick Police Department, a position he held for almost ten years. A Sound Financial Investment - Joseph Ciolino, Anthony Ciolino, Angela Schmuck, Ryan Schmuck and Jason Schaefer: Joseph Ciolino is currently the CFO and a shareholder at Belfor, one of the nation's leading property restoration companies with $1.5+ billion in revenue across 250 offices in 28 countries. Ciolino also owns investments in more than 100 other companies and is the primary investor to the three Retro Fitness locations his team purchased this past March. Schaefer is leading operations, having run a small independent personal training studio in Michigan for several years. Their first location opened earlier this month in Rochester, Michigan.



investor-friendly franchise's growth are strong-unit economics, streamlined business operations and a focused, forward-thinking approach that continuously brings more value to franchisees and members. About Retro Fitness

Founded in 2004 by entrepreneur Eric Casaburi, Retro Fitness has evolved from a regional Northeast gym concept into a national fitness system with more than 150 gyms open in 16 states. Under Casaburi's leadership, Retro Fitness is expanding its footprint with more than 100 gyms in its development pipeline and plans to have 250 gyms open in the next two years in new, major markets, such as Florida, Illinois, California, Maryland, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Each Retro Fitness location is equipped with a full-service fitness center, including 60-100 pieces of equipment supplied by leading manufacturers. The burgeoning franchise has placed in the top 300 of Entrepreneur's magazine's prestigious Franchise 500 list for six consecutive years. For more information, please visit www.retrofitness.com, and to learn more about franchise opportunities visit www.retrofranchising.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115006327/en/

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[November 15, 2016] Top Dealers And The Team Behind Chairish Join Forces To Unveil DECASO

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Starting today, the world's top modernism and antique dealers have a new online home: DECASO, the Decorative Arts Society. DECASO is a new online platform created in collaboration with a carefully vetted group of the world's most discerning modernism and antique dealers (a sampling of participants is available on request). The mission of DECASO is to create the most trusted online destination for sophisticated interior designers, collectors and connoisseurs to discover the world's finest modernist and antique furniture, decor and decorative art objects. Immediately, design lovers will discover an ultra-curated selection of over 20,000 truly exceptional items and are invited to connect directly with the world's foremost expert dealers. Developed with an innovative business model, DECASO uniquely offers dealers membership into an exclusive selling community capped at 500 US dealers. Participating dealers, howeer, will access much more than simply a shared online selling destination. DECASO unites the traditionally fragmented world of small independent dealers into a larger society of their peers, where sellers can exchange industry information, share business insights as well as partner with DECASO management to shape their online distribution long-term.



Focused on working with the dealer community, DECASO's executive management team is comprised of the accomplished leaders behind vintage marketplace powerhouse Chairish, Levi Strauss & Co and travel megabrands like Expedia, Hotwire and TripIt. "We are thrilled to partner with such esteemed dealers to develop a wholly new brand that addresses the unmet needs of the luxury design market. By uniting world class dealers, inventory, technology, site design and marketing expertise, we're creating the most trusted place to discover truly exceptional things," said Gregg Brockway, Co-founder & Chairman of DECASO.

DECASO is now live at www.decaso.com and may be found on Instagram at @DECASOhome. The site, developed with creative direction by Cinnamon Projects, features a leading edge aesthetic, rich functionality and easily accessible dealer contact information. For more information about DECASO dealers, photos and the executive team, please contact Lauren Urband at THE CONSULTANCY PR at [email protected]. About DECASO:

DECASO is the new online home for the world's top modernism and antique dealers. From the creators of Chairish, DECASO enjoys a proven technology and operations platform and a dealer-friendly business model. Learn more at www.decaso.com. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161110/437979LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/top-dealers-and-the-team-behind-chairish-join-forces-to-unveil-decaso-300361010.html SOURCE DECASO

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[November 15, 2016] Cellaria to Release Novel Ovarian and Breast Cancer Cell Models

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 15, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cellaria, LLC, a scientific innovator that develops revolutionary new cancer models for challenging tumors, today announced the release of two new ovarian cancer cell models and one breast cancer cell model. With these additions to its model library, Cellaria expands on its mission to provide researchers with more accurate models of the tumor, enabling more relevant and impactful research and accelerated discovery efforts.

By tying its models to clinical indications, Cellaria aims to ignite research innovation and step beyond traditional cell lines that overestimate drug efficacy and lack biological relevance. Of the two new ovarian models, one was derived from a patient with serous ovarian cancer, and the second cell model was derived from a patient with endometrioid ovarian cancer. The new breast cancer cell model was developed from a patient with ER positive breast cancer. The cell models are heterogeneous and stable, using SNP genotyping to evaluate genomic stabiity with 85%-98% concordance between the patient tumor and the cell model. Cellarias Cell Models are supplied with a Certificate of Analysis that provides detailed lot-specific information about the expected growth rate, clinical history, and quality test results, including STR profiling for cell line authentication.



Earlier this year, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) announced that it was retiring the popular NCI 60 panel of human cancer cell lines, replacing it with a rejuvenated repository of cancer models that are derived from fresh patient samples. These samples would also be tagged with clinical information. As the global cancer research community adopts tools that are more representative of patients, Cellaria is setting the pace with its growing portfolio of patient-specific models. With the existing challenges in identifying oncology drug candidates that will be successful, pharmaceutical companies need improved models to target candidates with the highest chance of success in the clinic, said David Deems, chief executive officer at Cellaria. These unique cell models for ovarian and breast cancer will help scientists better understand drug response from heterogeneous patient populations and improve their research outcomes.

About Cellaria

Cellaria creates breakthrough oncology models that reflect the unique nature and complexity of a tumor. Using these informative models, cancer researchers are better able to select promising compounds and work towards personalized approaches that would enable physicians to identify the most effective treatment for each patients needs. Cellarias innovative products help lead the research community to more personalized therapeutics, revolutionizing and accelerating the search for a cancer cure. For more information, visit www.cellariabio.com. You can learn more about our cell models here. Contact: Tim Walsh for Cellaria Bio 617.512.1641 [email protected]

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Malaysia - Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband and Digital Media - Statistics and Analyses 2016-2021 - Research and Markets

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Malaysia - Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband and Digital Media - Statistics and Analyses" report to their offering.

This report provides a comprehensive overview of trends and developments in Malaysia's telecommunications market. The report analyses the Telecoms Infrastructure, mobile, fixed broadband, and Digital Economy sectors.

Key developments:

- Strong subscriber growth was continuing on the HSBB service (Malaysia's NBN).

- The Malaysian government released a National Internet of Things (IoT) Strategic Roadmap.

- Telekom Malaysia (News - Alert) secured a 20-year contract to help construct, deploy and manage a new submarine cable system.

- Telekom Malaysia arranged to establish a new Point of Presence (PoP) in Laos in collaboration with the Lao National Internet Centre (LANIC).

- Telekom Malaysia signed of two public private partnership (PPP) agreements with the Government of Malaysia.

- The ten year HSBB 2 project encompasses the deployment of additiona access and core capacity covering state capitals and selected major towns throughout the country.







- Telekom Malaysia agreed to provide fibre backhaul to support U Mobile's LTE rollout.

- Celcom Axiata, Telekom Malaysia and Packet One (News - Alert) Networks (P1) announced three core deals being related to TM Next-Gen Backhaul (NGBH), High Speed Broadband (HSBB) (Access) and domestic roaming services.

- DiGi had introduced LTE (News - Alert)-Advanced (LTE-A) technology to 29% of the nation's population. Companies mentioned in this report:

- Telekom Malaysia; Maxis Communications; Celcom; DiGi.com; Time dotcom; Axiata; Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert); U Mobile; Packet One Networks; YTL Communications; MyRepublic.

Subjects include:

- Market and industry analyses, trends and developments;

- Facts, figures and statistics;

- Industry and regulatory issues;

- Infrastructure;

- Major players, revenues, subscribers, ARPU;

- Broadband, VoIP

- Mobile voice and data markets;

- Broadband (FttH, wireless);Mobile and broadband forecasts to 2021.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Key statistics

2. Telecommunications market

3. Regulatory environment

4. Fixed network operators

5. Telecommunications infrastructure

6. Broadband market

7. Digital media

8. Digital economy

9. Mobile communications

Companies Mentioned

- Celcom Axiata

- Digi Communications

- Malaysian Communications (News - Alert) and Multimedia Commission

- Maxis Communications

- Telekom Malaysia

For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/j25rg9/malaysia

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115006361/en/
[November 15, 2016] Quanterix to Unveil Groundbreaking Neurodegenerative Disease Research and Strategic Partnership at Neuroscience 2016

Quanterix Corporation, a company digitizing biomarker analysis to advance the science of precision health, today announced a strategic collaboration with UmanDiagnostics AB, a company specializing in the early detection of brain diseases, to provide commercial access to a Simoa ultrasensitive NeuroFilament Light (Nf-L) assay. Additionally, the company today unveiled that researchers from the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the German Center for Neurodegenerative Disease, will present new results from research conducted using Quanterix' Simoa technology at Neuroscience 2016 on November 12 - 16, 2016 in San Diego, CA (News - Alert). Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's Disease, are currently incurable and have debilitating conditions that result in progressive neurodegeneration, which may start 20-30 years before symptoms are noticed. Developing specific, sensitive and predictive biomarkers is one of the major challenges so far for establishing therapeutic treatment for these diseases. The major barrier is a lack of highly sensitive and reliable tools to measure the gradient difference of molecules in the bloodstream at the pre-symptomatic stage. Many of the critical neurology health related biomarkers, including Nf-L, are not present in high enough concentrations in the blood to be detected with standard assay technology today. Quanterix' digital health solution, Simoa, solves this problem by giving researchers the ability to closely examine critical biomarkers simultaneously, in a hypersensitive and reliable manner. The strategic partnership with UmanDiagnostics will provide researchers and clinicians with commercial access to the most sensitive NeuroFilament Light (Nf-L) assay available on the market, which will improve detection and diagnosis capabilities in neurology. "We are extremely pleased to be working closely with Quanterix to provide Uman's highly specific Nf-L antibodies for use in the Simoa assay format. This enables the world's most specific and sensitive assay for Nf-L," said Dr. Niklas Norgren, CEO, UmanDiagnostics. "The Simoa Nf-L assay is capable of detecting this highly informative neuronal damage biomarker directly in blood, enabling simplified assessment of a variety of neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Multiple Sclerosis, and potentially a critical way to access concussion-related neurological issues." "This year's Neuroscience event is a great opportunity for researchers to showcase groundbreaking discoveries in several different areas of neurology and an appropriate forum for us to unveil our partnership with UmanDiagnostics," said Kevin Hrusovsky, CEO and Executive Chairman, Quanterix. "Our collaboration with UmanDiagnostics will provide critical, commercial availability of our Simoa-based assay, which can detect and quantify Nf-L in blood. We look forward t advancing research with this sensitive assay and uncovering groundbreaking discoveries in neurology disease. We're also excited to take part in this innovative conference and collaborate with leading scientists in the field to transform the way in which we detect and treat neurodegenerative disease in the future."



Additional information on the University of Mississippi Medical Center and German Center for Neurodegenerative Disease research session and presentation include: Nanosymposium Session Details: "Using a Single Molecule Digital Analyzer to Measure Blood Based Biomarkers for Neurodegenerative Diseases"

When: Saturday, November 12, 2016, 1:00 - 1:15 p.m. PT

Where: San Diego Convention Center, Room 32B

Authors: J. Wang, Department of Pathology, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Q. Zhang, B. Zheng, J. Lage, C. Stockmeier, T. Mosley, University of Mississippi Medical Center

Session Abstract: Using Quanterix technology, these researchers have successfully developed an ultra-sensitive, single molecule digital analyser platform which can measure the molecules in plasma and tissue homogenates at serial pg/ml to fg/ml in a very reliable manner - R square values are as high as 99 in serial dilution tests. They've now successfully established the tests for several cytokines and also for a neurosteroid allopregnanolone in human plasma samples. Further spike and recovery experiments in diluted samples help them to accurately measure the spiked samples in calibrator into those diluted brain samples (recovery 70-93%). The high sensitivity also indicates that these molecules can be measured in a small size quantity/volume (less than 200) of samples. Therefore, the highly sensitive and reliable measurement platform can be used to determine the blood based, early changes of bioactive molecules for neurodegenerative disease. The results will also provide targets for developing therapeutic strategies for these neurodegenerative diseases. Poster Presentation Details: "Prevention of Tau Increase in Cerebrospinal Fluid of APP Transgenic Mice Suggests Downstream Effect of BACE1 Inhibition"

When: Wednesday, November 16, 2016, 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. PT

Where: San Diego Convention Center, Halls B-H

Authors: J. Schelle, German Center for Neurodegenerative Disease, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Graduate School of Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, L. Hasler, German Center for Neurodegenerative Disease, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Natural and Medical Science Institute, J. Gopfert, Natural and Medical Science Institute, T. Joos, Natural and Medical Science Institute, H. Vanderstichele, ADx NeuroSciences, E. Stoops, ADx NeuroSciences, U. Neumann, Neuroscience, Novartis Institute for BioMedical Research, D. Shimshek, Neuroscience, Novartis Institute for BioMedical Research M. Staufenbiel, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, M. Jucker, German Center for Neurodegenerative Disease, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research S. Kaser, German Center for Neurodegenerative Disease, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research

Presentation Abstract: The inhibition of the beta-site amyloid precursor protein-cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1) is a main therapeutic approach for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. The characterization of BACE1 inhibitors has largely focused on direct effects, (i.e. the reduction of -amyloid (A) generation and deposition in the brain). These researchers previously reported an age-related increase of tau protein in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of A precursor protein (APP) transgenic mice reminiscent of changes in the CSF of AD patients. Using a novel high-sensitivity tau sandwich immunoassay they now demonstrate that BACE1 inhibition prevents CSF tau increase both in early-depositing APP tg mice and APP tg mice with moderate A pathology. Their results demonstrate that BACE1 inhibition not only reduces A generation but also downstream AD pathophysiology. The tight correlation between A aggregation in brain and tau levels in CSF renders CSF tau a valuable marker to predict the effectiveness of BACE inhibitors in current clinical trials. Quanterix will also be hosting a webinar with Dr. Michelle M. Mielke, Professor of Epidemiology and Neurology, The Mayo Clinic, and Dr. Stephan Kaser, HIH Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, on Friday December 2, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. EST on novel CNS biomarker applications enabled by Simoa. The webinar will highlight the use of a Simoa custom assay and the commercial tau assay for different applications in mouse and human studies in both cerebrospinal fluid (mouse) and blood (humans). To learn more about the webinar and register, please visit: http://www.quanterix.com/resources/webinars/novel-cns-biomarker-applications-enabled-single-molecular-array-simoa-technology.

For more information on Quanterix and Simoa technology, please visit booth #3009. To learn more about the Simoa neurology assay menu, please visit: http://www.quanterix.com/therapeutic-areas/neurology. About Quanterix

Quanterix is a company that's digitizing biomarker analysis to advance the science of precision health. The company's digital health solution, Simoa, is changing the way in which healthcare is provided today by giving researchers the ability to closely examine the continuum from health to disease. In doing so, Quanterix enables much earlier disease detection, better prognoses and enhanced treatment methods to improve the quality of life and longevity of the population for generations to come. The technology is currently being used for applications in a majority of therapeutic areas, including oncology, neurology, cardiology, inflammation and infectious disease. The company was established in 2007 and is located in Lexington, Massachusetts. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115006365/en/

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[November 15, 2016] Hyundai Adds Blue Link Skill For Amazon Alexa

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyundai becomes the first mainstream automaker to connect cars with homes using Amazon Echo and its new Blue Link skill for Amazon Alexa. Starting today, Hyundai owners have the convenience of locking, unlocking and remote starting their vehicles from the comfort of their couch, kitchen or bedroom using voice commands. The new Blue Link skill for Amazon Alexa is available across Alexa-enabled devices and Hyundai vehicles equipped with the second generation of Blue Link. "Our customers increasingly want more ways to interact with their vehicles, especially when they are hustling to get out the door," said Barry Ratzlaff, executive director, digital business planning and connected operations, Hyundai Motor America. "Linking smart devices like the Amazon Echo and Apple Watch to vehicles via Blue Link continues to fill that desire. Allowing consumers to send commands to their car is just the beginning." Adding even more convenience to the ownership experience, owners of the all-new Hyundai IONIQ Electric and Plug-in Electric vehicles are able to start and stop the charge of their cars with the ease of simple voice commands with the Blue Link skill. Hyundai owners can request various functions of their car including: Remote start and stop charging of the Hyundai IONIQ Electric, IONIQ Plug-in and Sonata Plug-in

Remote engine start with climate control across all supported Hyundai models

Remote door lock/unlock across all Hyundai models

Remote horn/lights across all Hyundai models equipped At home, a Hyundai owner can experience interactions like these:







Owner: "Alexa, ask Blue Link to start charging my IONIQ." Alexa: "Request for remote charging your IONIQ has been sent." Owner: "Alexa, tell Blue Link to start my car at 80 degrees." Alexa: "Request for remote starting your car with climate control has been sent." Owner: "Alexa, ask Blue Link to lock my Santa Fe." Alexa: "Request for remote locking your Santa Fe has been sent."

Blue Link brings seamless connectivity directly into the car with technology like Remote Start with Climate Control, Destination Search powered by Google, Remote Door Lock/Unlock, Car Finder, Enhanced Roadside Assistance, and Stolen Vehicle Recovery. Blue Link can be easily accessed from the buttons on the rearview mirror, the web or via smartphone app. In addition to the new Blue Link skill, some of these features can be controlled via the latest Android Wear and Apple Watch smartwatch offerings. "We're excited to work with Hyundai to expand their Blue Link skill for Amazon Alexa to more cars with Blue Link," said Rob Pulciani, director, Amazon Alexa. "Being able to complete simple tasks like locking your car doors, set your car temperature, and moreall with just using your voice from inside the comfort of your homeis a magical experience. We can't wait for Alexa and Blue Link customers to try out this new skill." The Blue Link skill for Amazon Alexa is compatible with second generation Blue Link equipped vehicles. These vehicles include: All 2017 model Blue Link equipped vehicles

The following 2016 model vehicles: Genesis, Azera, Tucson , Sonata (SE, Sport Limited, Sport 2.0T, Limited 2.0T, Eco 1.6T), Sonata Hybrid (Limited Ultimate package), Veloster (Tech package), Elantra GT (Tech package)

, Sonata (SE, Sport Limited, Sport 2.0T, Limited 2.0T, Eco 1.6T), Sonata Hybrid (Limited Ultimate package), Veloster (Tech package), Elantra GT (Tech package) The following 2015MY vehicles: Genesis, Sonata, Azera. How It Works

To send commands to Hyundai vehicles via Alexa, users must enable the Blue Link skill in their Alexa app available on iOS, Android and Fire tablets, and then link their existing Blue Link account within the Alexa app. Voice commands will only be sent to Hyundai vehicles after Alexa prompts owners for their Blue Link Personal Identification Number (PIN). HYUNDAI MOTOR AMERICA

Hyundai Motor America, headquartered in Fountain Valley, Calif., is a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Co. of Korea. Hyundai vehicles are distributed throughout the United States by Hyundai Motor America and are sold and serviced through more than 830 dealerships nationwide. All Hyundai vehicles sold in the U.S. are covered by the Hyundai Assurance program, which includes the 5-year/60,000-mile fully transferable new vehicle limited warranty, Hyundai's 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain limited warranty and five years of complimentary Roadside Assistance. Hyundai Blue Link Connected Care provides owners of Hyundai models equipped with the Blue Link telematics system with proactive safety and car care services complimentary for one year with enrollment. These services include Automatic Collision Notification, Enhanced Roadside Assistance, Vehicle Diagnostic Alert, Monthly Vehicle Health Report and In-Vehicle Service Scheduling. For more details on Hyundai Assurance, please visit www.HyundaiAssurance.com.

Please visit our media website at www.hyundainews.com and our blog at www.hyundailikesunday.com.

Hyundai Motor America on Twitter | YouTube | Facebook Video - http://origin-qps.onstreammedia.com/origin/multivu_archive/PRNA/ENR/HyundaiAlexaSkillVideo30sec.mp4 Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161111/438459 Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161111/438460 Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161111/438461 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20131002/LA90771LOGO-b To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hyundai-adds-blue-link-skill-for-amazon-alexa-300361768.html SOURCE Hyundai Motor America

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[November 15, 2016] Allen Matkins Welcomes Tax Partner Frank Dworak

Allen Matkins, a California-based full service real estate and business law firm, announced today the hiring of tax partner Frank W. Dworak in its Orange (News - Alert) County office. Frank joins Allen Matkins' Corporate and Finance Department and Tax Practice Group where he will advise clients on joint ventures and other tax oriented entity structures, corporate mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, domestic and international tax planning, and tax controversy matters. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115006483/en/ Frank W. Dworak, Allen Matkins (Photo: Business Wire) "Frank's broad range of experience on complex tax issues aligns nicely with ourstrategic focus on the intersection of corporate, tax and real estate matters. Allen Matkins' service to clients for which real estate assets are an important aspect of their business and to the general real estate industry requires a deep and broad bench with tax expertise. We are thrilled to have Frank expand and strengthen this critical practice area," says David L. Osias, managing partner of Allen Matkins. "Allen Matkins represents a variety of clients within different industries, from emerging startups to Fortune 100 companies, that each have specific tax legal needs. Frank's proven capabilities support the firm's culture of devoted client service and high-level results." In addition to Frank, Allen Matkins has 30 other tax and corporate attorneys focused on investment fund, joint venture and similar capital market and tax focused matters.



Prior to joining Allen Matkins, Frank was a partner in the Orange County office of K&L Gates where he represented a broad range of clients, including family offices, entrepreneurs, hedge funds, private foundations, and both private and public corporations. Frank has advised clients with respect to taxable and tax deferred mergers and acquisitions, partnership and LLC structuring and operating issues, like-kind exchanges, and international tax issues including withholding, transfer pricing, subpart F, treaty issues, and passive foreign investment companies. Frank also has served as Senior Attorney with the Large Business & International Division of the IRS Office of Chief Counsel. He received a bachelor's degree from Northwestern University, his juris doctor, cum laude, from Northwestern University School of Law, and his master of laws in taxation from New York University School of Law.

ABOUT ALLEN MATKINS Allen Matkins, founded in 1977, is a California-based law firm with approximately 200 attorneys in four major metropolitan areas of California: Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego and San Francisco. The firm's areas of focus include real estate, construction, land use, environmental and natural resources; corporate and securities, real estate and commercial finance, bankruptcy, restructurings and creditors' rights, joint ventures and tax; labor, employment and OSHA; and trials, litigation, risk management and alternative dispute resolution in all of these areas. For more information about Allen Matkins please visit www.allenmatkins.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115006483/en/

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[November 15, 2016] Safran Delivers the First Jet Engine Exhaust System Component for Boeing's 777X Airplane

LE HAVRE, France, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The initial jet engine exhaust system component for Boeing's new 777X airplane has been delivered by Safran Nacelles, achieving another on-time milestone in this Safran group company's first major role as a supplier to the U.S. aircraft manufacturer. Provided to Boeing was the exhaust system's center body - a complex-shaped unit that contributes to the proper aerodynamic flow of exhaust from the 777X's General Electric GE9X turbofan engines. "On-time deliveries and meeting Boeing's high expectations are Safran Nacelles' priorities for this program, and we are fully committed to meeting our commitments on the 777X exhaust system," said Jean-Paul Alary, the President of Safran Nacelles. "We're building a strong and valued relationship with Boeing based on our experience in nacelle integration, and we look forward to additional opportunities to grow our associaion in the future."



The two-piece exhaust system center body was delivered from Safran Nacelles' Le Havre, France, production facility. It is composed primarily of titanium and incorporates an acoustically treated area for reduced engine noise levels. A second development unit is in production at Safran Nacelles for delivery to Boeing before year-end, involving the center body, the nozzle and the center vent tube - representing a complete exhaust system.

The 777X's exhaust systems are among the largest of their type ever manufactured for civil aircraft, and fully benefit from titanium's lower mass and increased resistance to heat in jet engine applications. Safran is a leading international high-technology group with three core businesses: Aerospace (propulsion and equipment), Defence and Security. Operating worldwide, the Group has 70,000 employees and generated sales of 17.4 billion euros in 2015. Safran is listed on Euronext Paris and is part of the CAC40 index, as well as the Euro Stoxx 50 European index. Safran Nacelles is the world's second leading supplier of aircraft engine nacelles, with more than 17,000 in service, logging over 100,000 flight-hours per day. It supplies nacelles and components for all segments of the aviation market, from business and regional jets to mainline commercial jets. For more information : http://www.safran-group.com and http://www.safran-nacelles.com / Follow @Safran and @SafranNacelles on Twitter

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[November 15, 2016] Hartford and Tolland County Families to Have Thanksgiving Dinner with Turkey and All the Trimmings This Holiday

More than 15,000 families in Hartford and Tolland counties will be able to sit down to Thanksgiving dinner thanks to the generosity of Hartford employers and residents who stopped by 185 Asylum St. this morning to drop off turkeys and other holiday food items, and donate money for additional meals. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115006652/en/ Volunteers from Bank of America and UnitedHealthcare collected turkeys donated by Hartford employers and residents as part of Foodshare's annual "Turkey Tuesday" Thanksgiving food drive, held at the companies' 185 Asylum Street offices. More than 600 turkeys and 1,634 pounds of food were collected during the four-hour food and funds drive, which will be given to more than 15,000 families in Hartford and Tolland counties (Photo: Alan Grant, Digital Creations). Over the course of the four-hour "Turkey Tuesday" food and fund drive, hundreds of people dropped off turkeys, stuffing, cranberry sauce and other holiday food items. The food will be distributed to families in need in Hartford and Tolland counties. "Thanksgiving is a holiday for everyone. We want to thank everyone who has stepped up to help our friends and neighbors celebrate a traditional Thanksgiving next week. We are also grateful for the many people who recognize that hunger is a year-round issue, and have been able to make an additional financial gift," said James Arena-DeRosa, president and CEO of Foodshare. "A special thank you to our friends at Bank of America, Stop and Shop and UnitedHealthcare for their ongoing support." Foodshare will continue to collect and distribute food for Thanksgiving until Tuesday, Nov. 22. The food bank's Bloomfield distribution center is accepting donations and has extended its hours of operation beginning Wednesday, Nov. 16. For more information on how to help, or for a list of food donation sites, visit ATurkeyand30.org.



"Organizations like Foodshare help make our communities stronger by supporting families in need," said Kevin Cunningham, president, State of Connecticut, Bank of America. "Through the dedication of our volunteers and partners at Turkey Tuesday, more than 15,000 local families will be able to share a nice meal together this Thanksgiving." "UnitedHealthcare is grateful for the opportunity to partner with Foodshare, Bank of America and Stop and Shop so families can enjoy a Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings," said Craig LaFiandra of UnitedHealthcare.

UnitedHealthcare and Optum employee volunteers helped gather donations and load the Foodshare truck with turkeys and other food donations, and UnitedHealthcare conducted its own food drive among its more than 2,000 Hartford-based employees at its 185 Asylum St. office. About Foodshare

Foodshare is Greater Hartford's regional food bank, working to nourish our neighbors every, single day by increasing access to healthy food. In addition to providing 11.5 million meals worth of food through 300 local programs each year, Foodshare is building collaborative partnerships across the region and advocating on behalf of those we serve, to help stabilize lives with one goal in mind-building a stronger and healthier Greater Hartford for us all. Join the movement today by visiting www.foodshare.org. About Bank of America

Bank of America is one of the world's leading financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving approximately 47 million consumer and small business relationships with approximately 4,700 retail financial centers, approximately 16,100 ATMs, and award-winning online banking with 32 million active users and more than 18 million mobile users. Bank of America is among the world's leading wealth management companies and is a global leader in corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and individuals around the world. Bank of America offers industry-leading support to approximately 3 million small business owners through a suite of innovative, easy-to-use online products and services. The company serves clients through operations in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and more than 35 countries. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE: BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. About UnitedHealthcare

UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people nationwide live healthier lives by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. The company offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, military service members, retirees and their families, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with more than 1 million physicians and care professionals, and 6,000 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com or follow @myUHC on Twitter (News - Alert). Click here to subscribe to Mobile Alerts for UnitedHealth Group. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115006652/en/

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[November 15, 2016] Yirendai Reports Third Quarter 2016 Financial Results

BEIJING, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Yirendai Ltd. (NYSE: YRD) ("Yirendai" or the "Company"), a leading online consumer finance marketplace in China, today announced its unaudited financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2016. Starting from the second quarter of 2016, the Company changed its reporting currency from the U.S. dollar ("US$") to the Renminbi ("RMB"), to reduce the impact of increased volatility of the RMB to US$ exchange rate on the Company's reported operating results. The aligning of the reporting currency with the underlying operations will better depict the Company's results of operations for each period. This release contains translations of certain RMB amounts into US$ for convenience[i]. Prior period numbers have been recast into the new reporting currency. In the third quarter of 2016, Yirendai facilitated RMB 5,617.5 million (US$842.4 million) of loans to 92,479 qualified individual borrowers on its online marketplace, representing a 120% year-over-year growth; 59% of the borrowers were acquired from online channels; 40.5% of the loan volume was originated from online channels and 98.3% of the online volume was facilitated through the Yirendai mobile application. In the third quarter of 2016, Yirendai facilitated 171,460 investors with total investment amount of RMB 5,953.5 million (US$892.8 million), 100% of which was facilitated through its online platform and 83.2% of which was facilitated through its mobile application. For the third quarter of 2016, total net revenue was RMB 876.7 million (US$131.5 million), up 137% from the same period in 2015; net income was RMB 344.3 million (US$51.6 million), representing an increase of 308% from the same period in 2015.





For Three Months Ended in RMB million September 30, 2016 June 30, 2016 QoQ Change September 30, 2015 YoY Change Amount of Loans Facilitated 5,617.5 4,538.7 24% 2,551.3 120% Total Net Revenue 876.7 733.8 19% 370.7 137% Total Fees Billed (non-GAAP) 1,322.6 1,110.8 19% 587.8 125% Net Income 344.3 260.6 32% 84.4 308% Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP)* 220.7 265.0 -17% 127.2 73% * The sequential decrease of adjusted EBITDA was primarily due to an expense of RMB 81.3 million (US$12.2 million) related to an organized fraud incident concerning one type of Yirendai's FastTrack loan products, which was first detected in July 2016. "We are pleased to deliver another quarter of solid business growth as we stayed focused on technology-driven product development and partnership expansion," commented Ms. Yihan Fang, Chief Executive Officer of Yirendai. "We continued to enhance our credit assessment model during the quarter by adding new data sources, fine-tuning our processing algorithms and introducing more stringent anti-fraud measures. We believe the Interim Measures for the Administration of the Business Activities of Online Lending Information Intermediary Institutions promulgated on August 24th, 2016 by the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security and the State Internet Information Office is an important milestone for China's online lending industry. We believe it will drive the healthy development of the industry and benefit both lenders and borrowers. We are well positioned to expand and strengthen our industry-leading position and are confident that we will be able to provide better services to more customers." "Our strong third quarter results were primarily attributable to continued growth in loan origination and stable asset performance," said Mr. Dennis Cong, Chief Financial Officer of Yirendai. "We enjoyed a tax credit of RMB 151.7 million in this quarter as our subsidiary, Yi Ren Heng Ye, became qualified as a software enterprise which makes it eligible for a favorable income tax rate. We believe this demonstrates to the market our outstanding financial technological capabilities and proven track record of business operations. We are committed to investing in our future growth and enhancing our market leadership." Third Quarter 2016 Financial Results Total amount of loans facilitated in the third quarter of 2016 was RMB 5,617.5 million (US$842.4 million), increased by 120% year over year from RMB 2,551.3 million in the same period of 2015, reflecting strong demand for our products and services. As of September 30, 2016, the Yirendai platform had facilitated approximately RMB 25.7 billion (US$3.8 billion) in loan principal since its inception. Total net revenue in the third quarter of 2016 was RMB 876.7 million (US$131.5 million), increased by 137% from RMB 370.7 million in the same period of 2015. The increase of total net revenue was mainly attributable to the growth of loan origination volume. Total fees billed (non-GAAP) in the third quarter of 2016 were RMB 1,322.6 million (US$198.3 million), increased by 125% from RMB 587.8 million in the same period of 2015, driven by the growth of loan origination volume. Upfront fees billed to borrowers in the third quarter of 2016 were RMB 1,192.4 million (US$178.8 million), increased by 109% from RMB 569.2 million in the same period of 2015. Monthly fees billed to borrowers in the third quarter of 2016 were RMB 105.8 million (US$15.9 million), increased by 349% from RMB 23.6 million in the same period of 2015. Service fees billed to investors in the third quarter of 2016 were RMB 110.9 million (US$16.6 million), increased by 318% from RMB 26.6 million in the same period of 2015. Operating costs and expenses in the third quarter of 2016 were RMB 674.4 million (US$101.1 million), compared to RMB 471.2 million in the previous quarter and RMB 244.4 million in the same period of 2015. Sales and marketing expenses in the third quarter of 2016 were RMB 423.0 million (US$63.4 million), compared to RMB 355.2 million in the previous quarter and RMB 182.4 million in the same period of 2015. Sales and marketing expenses in the third quarter of 2016 accounted for 7.5% of amount of loans facilitated in this quarter, decreased from 7.8% in the previous quarter as we continued to benefit from the strong investor demand. Origination and servicing costs in the third quarter of 2016 were RMB 62.4 million (US$9.4 million), compared to RMB 42.7 million in the previous quarter and RMB 27.4 million in the same period of 2015. Origination and servicing costs in the third quarter of 2016 accounted for 1.1% of amount of loans facilitated in the third quarter of 2016, compared to 0.9% in the previous quarter. General and administrative expenses in the third quarter of 2016 were RMB 189.0 million (US$28.3 million), compared to RMB 73.3 million in the previous quarter and RMB 34.6 million in the same period of 2015. General and administrative expenses in the third quarter of 2016 accounted for 21.6% of total net revenue, compared to 10.0% in the previous quarter. The increase in general and administrative expenses was mainly due to an expense of RMB 81.3 million (US$12.2 million) related to an organized fraud incident, the increased salary expenses as we expanded our technology team and the share-based compensation expenses of RMB 15.3 million (US$2.3 million). In the third quarter of 2016, the Company recognized an expense of RMB 81.3 million (US$12.2 million) related to an organized fraud incident concerning one type of our FastTrack loan products, which was first detected in July 2016. After uncovering the fraud incident, the Company suspended the offering of the FastTrack loan product in question and made it available again on its marketplace starting late July with more stringent requirements which aim to prevent similar type of fraud incident. Income tax benefit in the third quarter of 2016 was RMB 132.0 million (US$19.8 million), compared to income tax expense of RMB 43.3 million in the same period of 2015. The income tax benefit was primarily because the Company's subsidiary Yi Ren Heng Ye Technology Development (Beijing) Co., Ltd. became qualified as a software enterprise which makes it eligible for an exemption of enterprise income tax for 2015 and 2016. Total amount of tax credit in the third quarter of 2016 was RMB 151.7 million (US$22.8 million), including RMB 69.2 million associated with full year 2015 and RMB 82.5 million associated with the first and second quarter of 2016. Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP) in the third quarter of 2016 was RMB 220.7 million (US$33.1 million), decreased by 17% from RMB 265.0 million in the previous quarter and increased by 73% from RMB 127.2 million in the same period of 2015. The sequential decrease of adjusted EBITDA was primarily due to an expense of RMB 81.3 million (US$12.2 million) related to the aforementioned fraud incident in July 2016. Net income in the third quarter of 2016 was RMB 344.3 million (US$51.6 million), increased by 308% from RMB 84.4 million in the same period of 2015. Basic income per ADS in the third quarter of 2016 was RMB 5.76 (US$0.86), increased by 29% from RMB 4.46 in the previous quarter and 241% from RMB 1.69 in the same period of 2015. Diluted income per ADS in the third quarter of 2016 was RMB 5.70 (US$0.85), increased by 28% from RMB 4.46 in the previous quarter and 237% from RMB 1.69 in the same period of 2015. Net cash generated from operating activities in the third quarter of 2016 was RMB 268.9 million (US$40.3 million), increased by 37% from RMB 196.1 million in the previous quarter and 172% from RMB 98.8 million in the same period of 2015. As of September 30, 2016, cash and cash equivalents excluding the risk reserve fund balance was RMB 1,106.3 million (US$165.9 million), compared to RMB 1,336.3 million as of June 30, 2016. The decrease of cash and cash equivalents was primarily due to the Company's increased investment in short-term assets, presented as available-for-sale investments and held-to-maturity investments on balance sheet, to enhance its return from operating cash. As of September 30, 2016, balance of held-to-maturity investments was RMB 172.5 million (US$25.9 million) and balance of available-for-sale investments was RMB 298.0 million (US$44.7 million). Risk Reserve Fund. In the third quarter of 2016, Yirendai set aside in the risk reserve fund an amount of RMB 376.7 million (US$56.5 million), which is equal to 7% of the loans facilitated through its marketplace[ii] during the period. In the third quarter of 2016, the Company made payments in a total amount of RMB 201.3 million (US$30.2 million) out of the risk reserve fund to pay out the outstanding principal and accrued interest of default loans. As of September 30, 2016, restricted cash balance associated with the risk reserve fund was RMB 930.7 million (US$139.6 million), compared to RMB 755.2 million as of June 30, 2016. The principal balance of performing loans covered by the risk reserve fund was RMB 16,204.6 million (US$2,430.0 million) as of September 30, 2016, compared to RMB 12,963.6 million as of June 30, 2016. In the third quarter of 2016, Yirendai accrued liabilities from risk reserve fund guarantee of RMB 511.8 million (US$76.8 million), including 81.3 million (US$ 12.2 million) of estimated payouts in excess of its stand ready obligation related to the aforementioned fraud incident that we detected in July 2016. The Company has not adjusted the estimated percentage of expected cash payouts for its ongoing loan facilitation, because the Company believes that the fraud incident does not impact its assessment of the overall default risk for its portfolio given its extent of identification for the fraud incident. The ongoing accrued liability from the risk reserve fund guarantee is equal to 8% of the loans facilitated through its marketplace[ii]. During the quarter, the Company released liabilities of RMB 201.3 million (US$30.2 million) to pay out the outstanding principal and accrued interest of default loans. As of September 30, 2016, liabilities from risk reserve fund guarantee was RMB 1,238.7 million (US$185.8 million). Delinquency rates. As of September 30, 2016, the overall delinquency rate for loans that are 15-89 days past due was 1.9%, compared to 1.7% as of June 30, 2016. The slight increase of delinquency rates was in line with the Company's expected delinquency level of its asset portfolio. Net charge-off rates. As of September 30, 2016, the charge-off rates for Grade A, B, C, and D loans originated in 2015 were 5.1%, 5.9%, 7.5% and 6.1%, respectively, compared to 4.5%, 4.5%, 5.7% and 4.2% as of June 30, 2016. As the 2015 vintage loans continued to mature, the charge off level is within our risk performance expectation. Other Operating Metrics and Business Results As of September 30, 2016 , Yirendai had facilitated RMB 25.7 billion ( US$3.8 billion ) of loans on the Yirendai online marketplace since its inception in 2012.

, Yirendai had facilitated ( ) of loans on the Yirendai online marketplace since its inception in 2012. As of September 30, 2016 , remaining principal of performing loans [iii] totaled RMB 17.0 billion ( US$2.6 billion ), increased by 24% from RMB 13.8 billion as of June 30, 2016 and 153% from RMB 6.7 billion as of September 30, 2015 .

, remaining principal of performing loans totaled ( ), increased by 24% from as of and 153% from as of . In the third quarter of 2016, the Yirendai platform facilitated loans for 92,479 borrowers, 59% of whom were acquired from online channels.

Total amount of loans facilitated in the third quarter of 2016 was RMB 5,617.5 million ( US$842.4 million ); 40.5% of the loans was originated from online channel, and 98.3% of the online volume was facilitated through Yirendai's mobile application.

( ); 40.5% of the loans was originated from online channel, and 98.3% of the online volume was facilitated through Yirendai's mobile application. In the third quarter of 2016, the Yirendai platform facilitated loans for 171,460 investors, 100% of whom were acquired from online channels, with annual rates of return ranging from 5.00% to 11.25%.

In the third quarter of 2016, loans made to Grade A, B, C, and D borrowers represented 7.0%, 4.7%, 8.9% and 79.4% of the Company's product portfolio, respectively. Business Outlook Based on the information available as of the date of this press release, Yirendai provides the following outlook, which reflects the Company's current and preliminary view and is subject to change. The following outlook does not take into consideration the impact of stock-based compensation expenses. Full Year 2016 Total loans facilitated will be in the range of RMB 19,750 million to RMB 20,000 million ( US$2,962 million to US$2,999 million ), increased from its original business outlook of RMB 19,000 million to RMB 20,000 million

will be in the range of ( ), increased from its original business outlook of to Total net revenue will be in the range of RMB 3,080 million to RMB 3,120 million ( US$462 million to US$468 million ), increased from its original business outlook of RMB 3,000 million to RMB 3,100 million

will be in the range of ( ), increased from its original business outlook of to Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP) will be in the range of RMB 910 million to RMB 930 million ( US$136 million to US$139 million ), increased from its original business outlook of RMB 800 million to RMB 850 million Non-GAAP Financial Measures In evaluating the business, the Company considers and uses several non-GAAP financial measures, such as fees billed and adjusted EBITDA as supplemental measures to review and assess operating performance. We believe that fees billed and adjusted EBITDA provide useful information about our core operating results, enhance the overall understanding of our past performance and prospects and allow for greater visibility with respect to key metrics used by our management in our financial and operational decision-making. The presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America ("U.S. GAAP"). The non-GAAP financial measures have limitations as analytical tools. Other companies, including peer companies in the industry, may calculate these non-GAAP measures differently, which may reduce their usefulness as a comparative measure. The Company compensates for these limitations by reconciling the non-GAAP financial measures to the nearest U.S. GAAP performance measure, all of which should be considered when evaluating our performance. See "Operating Highlights and Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP measures" at the end of this press release. Currency Conversion Effective April 1, 2016, the Company changed its reporting currency from US$ to RMB. The change in reporting currency is to reduce the impact of increased volatility of the RMB to the US$ exchange rate on the Company's reported operating results. The aligning of the reporting currency with the underlying operations will better depict the Company's results of operations for each period. Prior to April 1, 2016, the Company reported its annual and quarterly consolidated statement of operations, cash flow data and balance sheet in US$. In this announcement, the unaudited financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2016 are stated in RMB. The related financial statements prior to April 1, 2016 have been recast to reflect RMB as the reporting currency for comparison to the financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2016. This announcement contains currency conversions of certain RMB amounts into US$ at specified rates solely for the convenience of the reader. Unless otherwise noted, all translations from RMB to US$ are made at a rate of RMB6.6685 to US$1.00, the effective noon buying rate for September 30, 2016 as set forth in the H.10 statistical release of the Federal Reserve Board. Conference Call Yirendai will host a conference call to discuss about its third quarter 2016 financial results at 8:00 AM U.S. Eastern Time on November 16, 2016, which corresponds to 9:00 PM Beijing/Hong Kong time on the same day. The dial-in details for the live conference call are as follows: International: 1-412-902-4272 U.S. Toll Free: 1-888-346-8982 Hong Kong Toll Free: 800-905945 China Toll Free: 4001-201203 Conference ID: Yirendai A replay of the conference call will be available until November 23, 2016 by dialing: International: 1-412-317-0088 U.S. Toll Free: 1-877-344-7529 Replay Access Code: 10095946 A live and archived webcast of the conference call will be available on Yirendai's website at yirendai.investorroom.com. Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements constitute "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "target," "confident" and similar statements. Such statements are based upon management's current expectations and current market and operating conditions, and relate to events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond Yirendai's control. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any such statements. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, uncertainties as to Yirendai's ability to attract and retain borrowers and investors on its marketplace, its ability to introduce new loan products and platform enhancements, its ability to compete effectively, PRC regulations and policies relating to the peer-to-peer lending service industry in China, general economic conditions in China, and Yirendai's ability to meet the standards necessary to maintain listing of its ADSs on the NYSE or other stock exchange, including its ability to cure any non-compliance with the NYSE's continued listing criteria. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties or factors is included in Yirendai's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and Yirendai does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law. About Yirendai Yirendai Ltd. (NYSE: YRD) is a leading online consumer finance marketplace in China connecting investors and individual borrowers. The Company provides an effective solution to address largely underserved investor and individual borrower demand in China through an online platform that automates key aspects of its operations to efficiently match borrowers with investors and execute loan transactions. Yirendai deploys a proprietary risk management system, which enables the Company to effectively assess the creditworthiness of borrowers, appropriately price the risks associated with borrowers, and offer quality loan investment opportunities to investors. Yirendai's online marketplace provides borrowers with quick and convenient access to consumer credit at competitive prices and investors with easy and quick access to an alternative asset class with attractive returns. For more information, please visit yirendai.investorroom.com. For investor and media inquiries, please contact: Yirendai

Hui (Matthew) Li

Director of Investor Relations

Email: [email protected] Christensen IR

In China

Christian Arnell

Phone: +86 (0) 10-59001548

Email: [email protected] In U.S.

Linda Bergkamp

Phone: +1 (480) 614-3004

Email: [email protected]

[i] Unless otherwise noted, all translations from RMB to U.S. dollars are made at a rate of RMB 6.6685 to US$1.00, the effective noon buying rate for September 30, 2016 as set forth in the H.10 statistical release of the Federal Reserve Board. [ii] In the third quarter of 2016, the Company facilitated RMB 235.4 million (US$35.3 million) of loans invested in by a trust, which was not covered by the risk reserve fund. The Company transferred cash to the trust in an amount equal to 7% of the loan amount as a security fund to protect the trust from potential losses resulting from defaults of these loans. [iii] Performing loans refer to loans on which payments of interest and principal are less than 90 days past due. Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (in thousands, except for share, per share and per ADS data, and percentages)

For the Three Months Ended

For the Nine Months Ended

September

30, 2015

June

30, 2016

September

30, 2016

September

30, 2016

September

30, 2015

September

30, 2016

September

30, 2016

RMB

RMB

RMB

USD

RMB

RMB

USD Net revenue:

























Loan facilitation services 362,080

713,383

848,322

127,213

842,389

2,096,793

314,432 Post-origination services 5,671

17,232

23,487

3,522

14,500

59,115

8,865 Others 2,909

3,176

4,902

735

5,134

10,973

1,645 Total net revenue 370,660

733,791

876,711

131,470

862,023

2,166,881

324,942 Operating costs and expenses:

























Sales and marketing 182,350

355,246

423,003

63,433

436,656

1,033,085

154,920 Origination and servicing 27,415

42,653

62,449

9,364

59,012

141,856

21,273 General and administrative 34,599

73,330

188,961

28,336

92,305

322,397

48,346 Total operating costs and expenses 244,364

471,229

674,413

101,133

587,973

1,497,338

224,539 Interest income 1,435

7,253

9,778

1,466

1,685

22,065

3,309 Non operating income, net -

91

259

39

-

350

53 Income before provision for income taxes 127,731

269,906

212,335

31,842

275,735

691,958

103,765 Income tax expense / (benefit) 43,287

9,286

(131,946)

(19,786)

83,686

(44,659)

(6,697) Net income 84,444

260,620

344,281

51,628

192,049

736,617

110,462



























Weighted average number of ordinary shares used in computing basic net income per share 100,000,000

117,000,000

119,441,029

119,441,029

100,000,000

117,819,616

117,819,616 Basic income per share 0.8444

2.2275

2.8824

0.4322

1.9205

6.2521

0.9376 Basic income per ADS 1.6888

4.4550

5.7648

0.8644

3.8410

12.5042

1.8752



























Weighted average number of ordinary shares used in computing diluted net income per share 100,000,000

117,000,000

120,861,971

120,861,971

100,000,000

118,293,263

118,293,263 Diluted income per share 0.8444

2.2275

2.8485

0.4272

1.9205

6.2270

0.9338 Diluted income per ADS 1.6888

4.4550

5.6970

0.8544

3.8410

12.4540

1.8676



























Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets

























Cash and cash equivalents 126,259

1,336,329

1,106,262

165,894

126,259

1,106,262

165,894 Restricted cash 313,766

792,637

974,345

146,112

313,766

974,345

146,112 Loans at fair value -

175,614

367,949

55,177

-

367,949

55,177 Held-to-maturity investments 80,000

2,500

172,500

25,868

80,000

172,500

25,868 Available-for-sale investments -

-

298,000

44,688

-

298,000

44,688 Other assets 531,385

734,263

1,111,946

166,745

531,385

1,111,946

166,745 Total assets 1,051,410

3,041,343

4,031,002

604,484

1,051,410

4,031,002

604,484 Liabilities from risk reserve fund guarantee 376,328

928,166

1,238,689

185,752

376,328

1,238,689

185,752 Payable to investors at fair value -

166,193

355,340

53,286

-

355,340

53,286 Other liabilities 259,822

566,865

695,907

104,358

259,822

695,907

104,358 Total liabilities 636,150

1,661,224

2,289,936

343,396

636,150

2,289,936

343,396 Total equity 415,260

1,380,119

1,741,066

261,088

415,260

1,741,066

261,088



























Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Cash Flow Data

























Net cash generated from operating activities 98,832

196,108

268,875

40,320

212,810

787,000

118,018 Net cash provided by/(used in) investing activities (82,599)

105,411

(679,486)

(101,894)

(87,671)

(613,919)

(92,063) Net cash (used in)/provided by financing activities -

(87,914)

179,221

26,876

-

74,898

11,232 Effect of foreign exchange rate changes (180)

12,733

1,323

198

(258)

12,163

1,824 Net increase / (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents 16,053

226,338

(230,067)

(34,500)

124,881

260,142

39,011 Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period 110,206

1,109,991

1,336,329

200,394

1,378

846,120

126,883 Cash and cash equivalents, end of period 126,259

1,336,329

1,106,262

165,894

126,259

1,106,262

165,894 Operating Highlights and Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Measures (in thousands, except for number of borrowers, number of investors and percentages)

For the Three Months Ended

For the Nine Months Ended

September

30, 2015

June

30, 2016

September

30, 2016

September

30, 2016

September

30, 2015

September

30, 2016

September

30, 2016

RMB

RMB

RMB

USD

RMB

RMB

USD Operating Highlights:

























Amount of loans facilitated 2,551,320

4,538,687

5,617,485

842,391

6,256,065

13,602,688

2,039,842 Loans generated from online channels 826,703

1,832,078

2,275,473

341,227

2,016,681

5,282,933

792,222 Loans generated from offline channels 1,724,617

2,706,609

3,342,012

501,164

4,239,384

8,319,755

1,247,620 Fees billed 587,781

1,110,849

1,322,598

198,335

1,380,518

3,280,861

491,994 Remaining principal of performing loans 6,720,677

13,771,180

17,028,346

2,553,550

6,720,677

17,028,346

2,553,550 Remaining principal of performing loans covered by risk reserve fund 5,432,918

12,963,604

16,204,583

2,430,019

5,432,918

16,204,583

2,430,019 Number of borrowers 36,493

68,882

92,479

92,479

98,546

211,458

211,458 Borrowers from online channels 18,299

40,033

54,585

54,585

48,645

122,221

122,221 Borrowers from offline channels 18,194

28,849

37,894

37,894

49,901

89,237

89,237 Number of investors 144,107

196,059

171,460

171,460

185,704

473,984

473,984 Investors from online channels 143,607

196,059

171,460

171,460

176,700

473,984

473,984 Investors from offline channels 500

-

-

-

9,004

-

- Adjusted EBITDA 127,240

264,962

220,716

33,099

276,218

692,291

103,815 Adjusted EBITDA margin 34.3%

36.1%

25.2%

25.2%

32.0%

31.9%

31.9%



























Reconciliation of Net Revenues

























Fees billed:

























Transaction fees billed to borrowers 592,777

1,095,749

1,298,247

194,683

1,404,031

3,230,892

484,501 Upfront fees billed to borrowers 569,227

1,016,393

1,192,449

178,818

1,364,213

2,982,135

447,198 Monthly fees billed to borrowers 23,550

79,356

105,798

15,865

39,818

248,757

37,303 Service fees billed to investors 26,558

88,068

110,943

16,637

51,880

263,563

39,524 Others 3,083

3,366

5,196

779

5,436

11,631

1,744 Value-added tax (34,637)

(76,334)

(91,788)

(13,764)

(80,829)

(225,225)

(33,775) Total fees billed 587,781

1,110,849

1,322,598

198,335

1,380,518

3,280,861

491,994 Stand-ready liabilities associated with

risk reserve fund (178,592)

(363,095)

(430,569)

(64,568)

(437,924)

(1,069,386)

(160,364) Deferred revenue (18,471)

(15,857)

(16,553)

(2,482)

(44,410)

(52,776)

(7,914) Cash incentives (27,725)

(19,556)

(24,074)

(3,610)

(58,988)

(55,337)

(8,298) Value-added tax 7,667

21,450

25,309

3,795

22,827

63,519

9,524 Net revenues 370,660

733,791

876,711

131,470

862,023

2,166,881

324,942



























Reconciliation of EBITDA

























Net income 84,444

260,620

344,281

51,628

192,049

736,617

110,462 Interest income (1,435)

(7,253)

(9,778)

(1,466)

(1,685)

(22,065)

(3,309) Income tax expense 43,287

9,286

(131,946)

(19,786)

83,686

(44,659)

(6,697) Depreciation and amortization 944

2,309

2,816

422

2,168

7,055

1,058 Share-based compensation -

-

15,343

2,301

-

15,343

2,301 Adjusted EBITDA 127,240

264,962

220,716

33,099

276,218

692,291

103,815 Delinquency Rates



Delinquent for



15-29 days

30-59 days

60-89 days All Loans











December 31, 2013

0.2%

0.4%

0.3% December 31, 2014

0.3%

0.2%

0.2% December 31, 2015

0.4%

0.5%

0.4% March 31, 2016

0.5%

0.8%

0.5% June 30, 2016

0.5%

0.7%

0.5% September 30, 2016

0.5%

0.8%

0.6%













Online Channels











December 31, 2013

0.1%

0.9%

0.3% December 31, 2014

0.4%

0.3%

0.2% December 31, 2015

0.6%

0.8%

0.6% March 31, 2016

0.6%

1.2%

0.8% June 30, 2016

0.6%

0.8%

0.7% September 30, 2016

0.5%

0.8%

0.8%













Offline Channels











December 31, 2013

0.3%

0.2%

0.2% December 31, 2014

0.3%

0.2%

0.2% December 31, 2015

0.3%

0.4%

0.3% March 31, 2016

0.5%

0.7%

0.4% June 30, 2016

0.5%

0.6%

0.4% September 30, 2016

0.5%

0.7%

0.5% Net Charge-Off Rate Loan

issued

period

Pricing

grade

Amount

of loans

facilitated

during

the period

Accumulated

M3+ Net

Charge-Off as of

September

30, 2016

Total Net

Charge-Off Rate

as of September

30, 2016







(in RMB thousands)

(in RMB thousands)



2013

A

258,322

23,071

8.9%



B

-

-

-



C

-

-

-



D

-

-

-



Total

258,322

23,071

8.9% 2014

A

1,917,542

107,415

5.6%



B

303,030

20,787

6.9%



C

-

-

-



D

7,989

515

6.5%



Total

2,228,561

128,718

5.8% 2015

A

873,995

44,922

5.1%



B

419,630

24,716

5.9%



C

557,414

41,913

7.5%



D

7,706,575

470,091

6.1%



Total

9,557,613

581,642

6.1% Q1-Q3 2016

A

826,114

758

0.1%



B

541,098

1,302

0.2%



C

1,102,524

5,216

0.5%



D

11,132,951

57,560

0.5%



Total

13,602,687

64,835

0.5% To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/yirendai-reports-third-quarter-2016-financial-results-300363504.html SOURCE Yirendai Ltd.

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Two candidates seeking NLCS Board District 2 seat

In this year's general election, two candidates are seeking election to the district two seat on the NLCS board: Adam Parsley and Michael Patton.
U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, a congressman from Minnesota, is seeking to become the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee and has garnered the support of both Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders. A progressive, Ellison is shown here giving the keynote speech in September at Fighting Bob Fest in Madison. PHOTO BY SAIYNA BASHIR
"Hi, I'm Kathy. I'm from UW-Madison. Do you mind if I join you?"

Those words, or some variation, provided an introduction at gas stations, coffee shops, cafes and churches across small-town Wisconsin.
Why you can trust Tom's Guide Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test .

Design: Goodbye Case

The Hero5 retains the blocky shape of its predecessors, but wraps the camera in a rubbery exterior, with protection around the lens and gasket-sealed doors for the battery compartment and ports. That allows the camera to survive a 10-meter (33-foot) dive into water, as well as light rain, splashes and mild bumps on land.

It's just a tad larger and heavier than the old, naked GoPro camera modules, at 2.4 x 1.7 x 1.3 inches (including the protruding lens) and 4.2 ounces. A light bracket around the edges of the camera is all that's needed to attach the Hero 5 to GoPro's dozens of mounting kits.

For water adventures, GoPro sells a $50 housing, the Super Suit (opens in new tab), which takes the Hero5 down to scuba-worthy depths of 196 feet (60 m) a big improvement on the 131 feet (40 m) possible for previous GoPro cameras with housings. Close rival Garmin's Virb Ultra 30 camera measures 1.7 x 2.3 x 0.8 inches and 3.1 ounces but needs a case for any waterproofing (down to 131 feet), which expands it to 2.3 x 3.1 x 1.3 inches and 5.5 ounces.

GoPro Hero5 Black at Walmart for $32.99 (opens in new tab)

MORE: Best Action Cameras

Controls and Usability: Vastly Improved

GoPros's extensive, pro-grade setting options have been infuriating to access in the past. The Hero4 Black had a 0.8-inch monochrome screen and only three buttons for menu navigation, resulting in a lot of sore fingers and cursing. The Hero5 Black adds a 2-inch LCD touch screen with an intuitive, though not simple, interface. (Full disclosure: I know the executive director at EPIC.im, the company that worked with Garmin on the interface design.)





Basic adjustments are super-easy: you simply tap boxes at the bottom of the screen to change the resolution, frame rate and field of view (narrow to wide). You reach other options by swiping across the screen in different directions, but these mechanisms aren't apparent at first.



Swiping from the left, for instance, accesses a gallery of photos and videos you've shot, and swiping from the right brings up its advanced settings, such as white balance, ISO, RAW-file format shooting and wide dynamic range (the latter two being new capabilities in this camera). There's even an animated tutorial explaining the buttons and key settings. (The full product manual is available online (opens in new tab).)

The screen also provides a colorful live preview and the ability to review footage right on the device. The Hero5 Black retains the older models' monochrome LED display on the front to display basic current settings, such as the selected video format and battery level, but it seems like a superfluous feature now.



GoPro's mobile app (for iPhone and Android) had always been the only practical way to navigate the cameras' settings and options. Even with the better on-screen controls, the app is still handy. It provides every parameter of the camera, even the remaining capacity on the microSD card, and it manages easy software updates for the Hero5 Black. Animations in the app guide you through steps to take on the camera screen when setting up a Wi-Fi connection.

The app also allows full remote control of the camera. That's handy if the Hero5 Black is mounted on your helmet or on the outside of your car, or if you're controlling it remotely, such as when it's strapped to a dog harness (opens in new tab). Finally, the app provides access to the GoPro Plus cloud-storage service, which we'll describe in a bit.

Voice Control: Pretty Reliable

Even better than onscreen controls is the ability to simply tell the camera what to do. The Hero5 Black responds to 12 voice commands, all starting with "OK, GoPro." The commands cover about everything you'll need when out shooting, such as "start video recording," "stop video recording," "take a photo," "shoot a photo" and "shut down." A beep indicates that the camera has understood the command.

The excellent Garmin VIRB Ultra 30 action camera also has voice control, although with fewer commands and a bit less reliability. I put the Hero5 Black in some rough situations, such as when I spoke softly from 15 feet away, or mumbled commands standing next to a busy thoroughfare.

The camera almost always caught what I was saying, though it wasn't perfect. I had to repeatedly yell in certain noisy conditions, and I didn't feel confident to rely on voice commands for image-quality tests. In those cases, I used manual controls to make sure the camera was recording or snapping a photo.

MORE: Best 360-degree Cameras

Video And Photo Quality: Near the Top

Professionals and even amateurs have captured amazing video with GoPro cameras. Like its predecessors, the Hero5 Black shoots crisp, detailed video that holds up even when the camera jumps all over the place, such as on a bumpy bike trail.



The electronic image stabilization is excellent. It's still obvious in some videos that the camera is being jostled, but details like foliage aren't scrambled into a blur, as with lesser cameras.



GoPro also combats rolling shutter, a side effect of modern image sensors that produces a wobbly appearance when there's a lot of motion, as if you were looking through a blob of Jell-O. The Hero5 Plus' image processor usually wipes out this effect.





On the Hero5, detail is excellent in 1080p HD, and even better in 4K video. The 4K footage is noticeably sharper than HD, even when displayed on a screen with less-than-4K resolution, such as the 2560 x 1600 Retina Display of my MacBook Pro.



The camera's color quality is good, but not class-leading. That honor resides now with Garmin's Virb Ultra 30. GoPro videos and photos tend to have a warm (orangey) color. It's often a pleasant effect, but can be problematic in some cases. Going into GoPro's Protune menu to manually set white balance could alleviate this, assuming the lighting conditions stay consistent throughout your shoot.

Photo: Sean Captain

In video shot with the Hero5 along the water in San Francisco, the grass appears a tad yellowish compared with footage from the Ultra 30. There's also an unnatural dash of magenta in the sky, making the clouds a bit pinkish.





The Ultra 30, in comparison, nails the rich green grass and blue sky in this shot leading up to the Golden Gate. (These differences may not matter for professionals who use GoPro's "Flat" color setting and hand-tune color in postproduction.)

The Hero5 Black has improved low-light capabilities. In a very dark nighttime setting in a park, it captured a fairly bright image with surprisingly good detail in the distant architecture.

Battery Life and Storage: Long Shooting Time

The Hero5 Black's 1220mAh Lithium-ion battery has a smidgen more capacity than its predecessors. I tested it at 1080p/60fps, and the battery ran for 1 hour and 58 minutes, versus 1 hour and 32 minute for the rival Garmin Virb Ultra 30. Enabling Wi-Fi and the smartphone app eats into battery time, as does enabling voice commands and GPS, which were all turned off for my tests of both cameras.



To keep the Hero5 Black going for a long outing, consider buying an extra battery (opens in new tab) for $20 or a battery plus two-battery charger (opens in new tab) for $50.

MORE: Top-Rated Waterproof and Rugged Cameras

The Hero5 Black has a microSD slot and takes cards up to 128GB in capacity, enough to hold about 9 hours and 20 minutes of 1080p/60fps video (twice as much as the Hero4 Black). GoPro publishes a list of recommended cards (opens in new tab).

GoPro Plus: Cloud Storage and Perks for a Price

GoPro has introduced a new service with the Hero5 Black (and the simpler Hero5 Session)  a $5/month subscription plan called GoPro Plus (opens in new tab). Its chief feature is online storage for 35 hours of video (at resolutions up to 1080p), 62,500 photos (up to 12MP), or some mixture of the two.



Videos are available to edit online, using GoPro's mobile app or Mac/PC software called Quick. (The subscription fee also provides access to soundtracks.)





With Plus, a GoPro can be set to automatically upload videos and photos over your home Wi-Fi network whenever the camera is plugged in for charging. You can share content from your Plus account to social networks. (Without Plus, you can upload video to Facebook and Instagram from the mobile app, but that uses your cellphone's data plan.)



Plus also bumps you to the front of the queue for tech-support calls, chat or email, and it provides a 20 percent discount (up to $2,000 per year) on purchases of some gear from gopro.com.

You don't need Plus to live-stream video  GoPro is supported by Livestream and Periscope's mobile apps. A GoPro camera connected to a smartphone over Wi-Fi will appear as a camera option in the apps. (At press time, the Livestream or Periscope apps didn't appear to support the Hero5 Black yet.)

Accessories: Fully Covered

No matter how good its competitors' cameras might be, no one can touch GoPro on the variety of housing, mounts and other peripherals available.

The Hero5 Black comes with just a basic kit: the open housing called simply "The Frame" and a few adhesive mounts. But there are so many expansion options. GoPro lists about 100 on its site (not counting SD cards)  about a third of which are compatible with the Hero5 Black (opens in new tab).

Then there are all the third-party products, such as bike helmets, with built-in GoPro-compatible mounts. Highlights include remote controls, a deep-water housing, an electronic stabilizer (opens in new tab) and mounts for bike and motorcycle helmets, cars, surfboards and handlebars. It's a testament to GoPro's design that companies like Garmin make housings and mounts that are obvious knockoffs.

Bottom Line

The Hero5 Black continues GoPro's reputation for great quality in both photos and video. It now, finally, adds great usability with a clear touch-screen interface and pretty reliable voice control. The Garmin Virb Ultra 30 is an equally strong performer and a fine alternative. But GoPro also stands out for its slim, waterproof design and utterly thorough choice of add-ons.
The Samsung 960 EVO 1TB NVMe SSD is an attractive alternative in a category dominated by expensive products that often have more bark than bite. Don't expect any more high-capacity value-focused NVMe products anytime soon. The 960 EVO is the best you will get in 2016 and early 2017.

Why you can trust Tom's Hardware Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test .

Specifications & Overview

Update: We've updated our original review, which included the 1TB and 256GB capacities, by adding the results and analysis of the 500GB capacity 960 EVO.

Samsung's EVO series has dominated the consumer SSD market for the past several years. The series has balanced performance and price, but NVMe is an industry-wide reset. Today we see if Samsung will dominate for another product generation.

The Samsung 960 EVO is the mantle in the NVMe room. In many ways, the EVO series has historically been the focal point because they are the SSDs by which we judge every other drive. The EVO series is never the fastest, and it isnt even the cheapest. Samsung continues to position the EVO right in the middle, and this is by design. The company is the only SSD manufacturer to make a purpose-built mid-tier product. The strategy is just as complex as it sounds. Users gain a great deal of performance for a few dollars more than entry-level products. If we separate the market into four tiers, the EVO series pricing fits right in the middle, but the performance is 3/4th of the way up the scale. Samsung's 3D TLC V-NAND sells for the same price as other NAND manufacturer's planar (2D) 2-bit per cell (MLC) flash. To put it simply, you get more for less; the EVO is a true bang-for-your-buck product.

The strategy worked well for Samsung with performance-limited SATA products, but NVMe is the top-fuel class. The protocol runs on the high-performance PCIe bus, which doesn't have an effective ceiling for today's consumer flash technology. The EVO series utilizes 3-bit per cell (TLC) NAND flash that performs well enough to hide behind the limited SATA bus, but we easily see the limits of the technology over the PCIe bus. For the EVO to continue as the industry standard, Samsung has to mask the native TLC performance. That is very difficult without the SATA performance constraints, especially when other companies are chasing it with faster MLC flash. That sets the stage for an interesting battle between the SSD giant trying to maintain a leadership position and every other company that had to fight for market share scraps over the last five years. NVMe opens the door for the competition, but the EVO is still the bouncer holding the rope.

Technical Specifications

The 960 EVO will appear first in three capacities that range from 250GB to 1TB. The initial release ships with 48-layer V-NAND using 256Gbit (32GB) die for the two largest capacities. The 250GB model uses Samsung's older 32-layer flash with 128Gbit die (16GB). We expect the series to grow when Samsung releases 64-layer V-NAND with 512Gbit (64GB) die in 2017. For instance, the 850 EVO that we recently tested went from a 1TB ceiling to a massive 4TB as NAND density increased.

Samsungs 5-core Polaris controller that came to market in June on the OEM-specific SM961 NVMe SSD serves as the heart of the 960 EVO. We first learned about the Polaris controller in early 2016 when Samsung held a small briefing for Asian OEM customers in Japan. We didn't have many details about the controller until last month when Samsung hosted storage media in South Korea for the unveiling of the retail 960 series.

Samsung publishes the expected speeds-and-feeds data, but most of the measurements are dependent on the platform and test software, so the results are open to interpretation. Samsung achieved the extremely high sequential performance, which reaches a maximum of 3,200 MB/s read and 1,900 MB/s write, under conditions that are unrealistic with today's software applications. Samsung also publishes queue depth one (QD1) performance specifications that it generated using a Z170 motherboard. We crushed Samsung's QD1 numbers using an ASRock Z97 Extreme6 motherboard with a direct-to-CPU PCIe M.2 channel. There is such a wide delta between Samsungs published data and our measured performance numbers that we list the claimed performance here, but focus on our test results later in the review.

Advanced Features

Samsung attacked thermal throttling from several angles. The Polaris controller runs cool during general desktop use, but it has a high thermal ceiling. Samsung highlights the thin copper strip that it embedded in the 960 EVO's label, but we have our doubts about its effectiveness. For what it is worth, there is a thin copper strip between the adhesive layers and printed layer on the label. The company placed several copper layers under the black paint, and the printed circuit board also features a larger, thicker copper layer that is in closer proximity to the heat source.

Throttling seems to occur in stages to minimize the impact on the user experience. The 960 EVO can operate a full 16 seconds longer than the 950 Pro before the dynamic thermal guard (DTG) triggers and reduces performance to maintain a safe thermal envelope. That allows 60% more data to transfer, which is a full 253GB of data during sequential reads on 512GB-class products.

We also received Samsung's NVMe Driver 2.0 with the 960 EVO. We know very little about Samsung, or any other company's, custom NVMe drivers. We know that installing Samsung's driver clears the high hurdle of Window's data flushing command, which increases data write performance. The driver also increases performance beyond what Windows provides with the flush limit turned off. We cover the driver in more detail later.

The 960 EVO supports full disk encryption, but only with Trusted Computer Group compliant software. The 960 EVO does not currently support Microsoft's eDrive, but Samsung is considering adding support. The 960 EVO would not be the first Samsung retail product to ship without eDrive support initially, but then add the feature after retail products arrived on the market.

Intelligent TurboWrite 250GB 500GB 1TB Default Size 4 GB 4 GB 6 GB Dynamic Size 9 GB 18 GB 36 GB Total Size 13 TB 22 GB 42 GB TurboWrite Performance 1,500 MB/s 1,800 MB/s 1,900 MB/s Native TLC Performance 300 MB/s 600 MB/s 1,200 MB/s

Samsung made extensive changes to its TurboWrite technology. The 960 EVO utilizes Intelligent TurboWrite, which is Samsung's next-generation version of its SLC buffer algorithm. The large overprovisioned area (i.e. 256GB raw capacity to 250GB user capacity) provides the 960 EVO with some flexibility. The EVO features an SLC buffer with a fixed size that can expand under certain conditions. The amount of data on the drive and the previous workload contribute to the buffers ability to expand and absorb an additional amount of incoming data.

Samsung lists the sequential native TLC performance and QD1 measurements in its specifications. Other manufacturers often hide these values from users. There is a wide gap between the 250GB drives 300 MB/s native TLC speed and the large 1TB drives 1,200 MB/s.

Pricing And Accessories

Samsung targets the mainstream market with the EVO series, but it will have a tougher time with NVMe than it had with SATA-based products. The 960 EVO starts out at $129 and moves to $249 for the 500GB model. The top 1TB capacity tips the price scale at $479. We will analyze Samsung's MSRPs and examine other products on the market in the conclusion.

Samsung gives you access to two pieces of software that you can download from the company's website. The first is Samsung's Data Migration Tool that allows you to clone the data from an existing drive to the new EVO. The second is a little more mystical.

Samsung's newest Magician software is still missing. We expect the latest installment with new features to hit the Samsung website in December. We don't have a confirmed date, but we are aware of the new features. The Magician software will enable the normal management tools for the new 960 Series, but Samsung also added new security features. The software includes a Secure File Erase feature, which adds secure deletion for individual files, and Magic Vault, which creates a hidden partition on the SSD for data storage. We will cover both in more detail when Samsung releases the newest version of the software.

Warranty And Endurance

Samsung ships the 960 EVO series from the factory with a three-year limited warranty. Samsung, like all SSD vendors, also limits the warranty by endurance. The 960 EVO 250GB absorbs up to 100TB of data; the 500GB model supports up to 200TB, and the 1TB includes 400TB.

Product Packaging

Image 1 of 3

Samsung returns to using the orange accent color that it paired with the 840 Pro series. Is Samsung trying to tell us something?

Color aside, the package hasn't changed much since the 950 Pro that began shipping last year.

A Closer Look

Image 1 of 5

We talk quite a bit about the major components that make up an SSD, like the controller, DRAM and flash, but we largely ignore the secondary components. Samsung's vertical integration strategy includes manufacturing many of the other components, too. The M.2 form factor constrains the amount of PCB real estate the designers have to work with. You can see the space between each component is much closer than what we typically see on a 2.5-inch SSD. Many of the secondary components are so small we can't even tell what they are, or what function they serve.

The 960 EVO fits all of the components onto a single side of the PCB. That doesn't seem as impressive after reviewing the 960 Pro 2TB with four NAND packages and a controller wedged together, but the EVO is only the second single-sided NVMe 1TB SSD to hit the market (960 Pro being first). All three capacity EVO SSDs are single-sided, but other companies have already released single-sided models in the lower capacities.

MORE: Best SSDs

MORE: Latest Storage News

MORE: Storage in the Forums
Devin Townsend Project are set to make their return to Australia next year, armed with tracks from their brilliant new album, Transcendence, which has been hailed as one of the bands best efforts yet.

The brainchild of eclectic and prolific heavy music mastermind Devin Townsend, DTP are frequent visitors to Australia, having sold out shows in Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne as recently as 2015.

Now the guitar virtuosos and his formidable band will make their way back Down Under for a string of live dates that will take them from Brisbane through to Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth.

Devin Townsend Projects live shows are famous for their visceral energy and offbeat humour, as well as their discography-spanning set-lists, with Dev taking fans on a journey through his singular musical mind.

Devin Townsend Australian Tour Dates

Wednesday, 17th May 2017

Powerstation, Auckland

Tickets: MJR Presents

Saturday, 20th May 2017

The Triffid, Brisbane

Tickets: MJR Presents

Monday, 22nd May 2017

Enmore Theatre, Sydney

Tickets: MJR Presents

Wednesday, 24th May 2017

170 Russell, Melbourne

Tickets: MJR Presents

Friday, 26th May 2017

Capitol, Perth

Tickets: MJR Presents
Following on from their sold-out 2012 tour, Sublime With Rome, featuring the founding members of Sublime with new frontman Rome, have announced their triumphant return to Australia.

The Long Beach legends will be bringing their timeless discography of ska-punk classics Down Under for a trek that will include stops around Australia and New Zealand.

Having sold 17 million albums worldwide, including their multi-platinum debut, 40oz. to Freedom, anthems like What I Got, Doin Time are etched into the hearts and minds of ska fans worldwide.

This is a chance to relive the immortal songs that made Sublime one of the most respected bands in modern punk. Check below for all the dates and ticketing details and make sure you get your tickets fast.

Sublime With Rome National Tour Dates

Tickets on sale 10am Friday, 18th November

Friday, 3rd March 2017

Powerstation, Auckland

Tickets: Kill Rock Star

Saturday, 4th March 2017

The Tivoli, Brisbane

Tickets: Kill Rock Star

Sunday, 5th March 2017

Miami Marketta, Gold Coast

Tickets: Kill Rock Star

Wednesday, 8th March 2017

170 Russell, Melbourne

Tickets: Kill Rock Star

Thursday, 9th March 2017

Big Top, Sydney

Tickets: Kill Rock Star

Friday, 10th March 2017

Metropolis, Fremantle

Tickets: Kill Rock Star
More details have emerged about King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizards ambitious five-album plan for 2017. For those playing catch-up, the band plan on releasing five full-length albums in the new year, starting with their ninth, Flying Microtonal Banana.

Fans of the Melbourne outfit will likely recall that they originally planned to release four albums in the new year. Apparently, they decided this figure wasnt impressive enough. Not even after considering that they only recently unveiled their eighth album in four years.

I figured Im no good at chilling, frontman Stu Mackenzie recently told The Guardian. Over the years Ive tried to keep myself super busy so I dont go insane. If Im going to be a musician and a creative person, I may as well be a productive creative person.

According to Mackenzie, the other four albums are already simmering away in that hyperactive brain of his, though he wouldnt reveal any further details. Only that one of the records will follow the same trajectory as this years Nonagon Infinity and another will be a collaboration with some jazz dudes.

However, speaking to NME, Mackenzie has shed a little bit of light on what we can expect from the rest of the albums, revealing that one of the records will in fact be a collaboration with Los Angeles-based project Mild High Club, who are playing Gizzfest 2016.

Im scared  I think Im going to lose my mind by the end of the year, Mackenzie told NME. We finished the first one, Flying Microtonal Banana, a couple of months ago and have been working on two others since then.

Ones kinda jazzy and is a collaboration with our buddies Mild High Club. The other is kinda heavy and has some ties with Nonagon Infinity. Four and five are too far in the future to think about right now!

Mild High Club is the brainchild of Alexander Brettin, a Chicago musician now based in Los Angeles where he is signed to the prestigious Stones Throw record label. Hes worked with the likes of Ariel Pink, R Stevie Moore, and Silk Rhodes.

As for Flying Microtonal Banana, King Gizz built their own instruments to make the new album, crafting modded guitars with extra frets that gave the band access to microtones  the spaces in between the classic notes that most ears are familiar with.

We were messing around with microtonal tuning, Mackenzie told The Guardian. Without getting too technical, its like dividing the musical notes so theres one extra space: 24 notes an octave instead of 12. It opens up a bunch of possibilities.

Everything you do sounds wrong, Mackenzie said of the three guitars and the bass they had purpose-built for their new songs. Youre culturally attuned to a certain set of frequencies. Our challenge was to make music that didnt sound too wrong within those parameters.
Sugar Mountain 2017 organisers promised one for the ages when they unveiled their eagerly anticipated lineup last month, which features genre-bending UK maverick Blood Orange, Pantha Du Prince, Little Simz, Big Scary, MY DISCO, and more.

Now, theyve announced the very exciting return of Sensory, Sugar Mountains one-of-a-kind audio-visual culinary experience, which combines world-class music with world-class food, offering something to delight foodies and music fans alike.

Next years Sensory soundtrack will be provided by Texan retro-synth masters S U R V I V E, who came to international attention this year for their dark, brooding, ambient work on the soundtrack to the smash Netflix series Stranger Things.

New York-based, Miami-raised Daniel Arsham will be providing the visuals next year. His work has been shown in prestigious galleries such as PS1 in New York, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami, and The Athens Biennale in Greece.

Finally, chef Peter Gunn, best known as one of the culinary masters who helped make Attica, Ezards, and The Royal Mail such respected establishments (as well as his own acclaimed Smith St, Collingwood restaurant IDES) will provide next years menu.

When I opened IDES I put as much thought into the music, the interiors and the lighting as I did the food because for me, all of those different aspects are vital in creating a great dining experience, he said.

Im really looking forward to working with Daniel Arsham and the guys from S U R V I V E to take this idea to a whole new level at Sugar Mountain. Strictly limited tickets for Sensory 2017 are on sale 8am Wednesday, 16th November.

SUGAR MOUNTAIN 2017

ALTA

Baba Stiltz (SWE)

Beppe Loda (ITA)

Big Scary

Black Cab

Blood Orange (UK)

CC:DISCO!

Daydreams DJs

Dro Carey

Jaala

Jack River

Jessy Lanza (CAN)

Kelsey Lu (USA)

Kornel Kovacs (SWE)

KUCKA

Little Simz (UK)

Methyl Ethel

Mood II Swing (USA)

Moses Sumney (USA)

MY DISCO

Palms Trax (UK)

Pantha Du Prince (GER)

Rolling Blackouts C.F.

Slum Sociable

Sui Zhen

Suzanne Ciani (USA) x Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith (USA)

The Belligerents

Tornado Wallace

Weyes Blood (USA)

Saturday, 21st January 2017

Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne

Tickets: Sugar Mountain
Forget Bitcoin, the nostalgia dollar is the currency of the new millennium. Need further proof? The I Love The 90s Tour is about to hit Australia with Vanilla Ice, Salt N Pepa, Coolio, Tone Loc, Colour Me Badd, and Young MC.

Relive some of the most cringeworthy hits of 90s, including Push It (actually a pretty good song), Gangstas Paradise (likewise), Ice Ice Baby (yeah, nah, cringe), Funky Cold Medina, Bust a Move, and I Wanna Sex U Up (double cringe).

The tour has sold out arenas across America and is now set to head Down Under for dates in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Auckland, and Christchurch. Yes, for the price of one ticket, you can get Tone Loc and the guy who wrote both of his big hits (Young MC).

So grab your member berries, your snap bracelet, your Tamagotchi, and your DiscMan, and get your tickets to the I Love The 90s Australian Tour. Check below for all the dates and ticketing details.

I LOVE THE 90s TOUR 2017

Tickets on sale Thursday, 17th November

Saturday, 3rd June 2017

Trusts Arena, Auckland NZ

Sunday, 4th June 2017

Horncastle Arena, Christchurch NZ

Wednesday, 7th June 2017

Hisense Arena, Melbourne VIC

Friday, 9th June 2017

Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney NSW

Saturday, 10th June 2017

Eatons Hill Hotel (Outdoor), Brisbane QLD

Tuesday, 13th June 2017

Perth Arena, Perth WA
Android Central: Emergency alerts help





Apple Support: About emergency and AMBER alerts on your iPhone

The post-election news cycle can get depressing for newsies with no talent . . . Which is most of them . . . Not that there is anything wrong that, we can't all be as captivating as hottieAccordingly, we notice a great many pointless alerts and broadcasts that don't really impact the lives of locals one way or another. Real talk . . . A great many of these Amber Alerts are just divorce and parental disputes gone wrong during a slow news cycle. Furthermore, emergency alerts on the phone are annoying, unnecessary and mostly a waste of time given that very few people are out and about ready to help authorities with a search. TV broadcasts and news alerts are far more effective in helping to convey the message to locals whereas law enforcement taking over mobile notifications and buzzing at full volume is just another reminder that smartphones are just another convenient way to spy on people.And so . . . Since, for the moment, people can still customize their devices. Here's some info for disabling emergency alerts.Readers with a Windows phone can simply turn off their emergency notifications by placing their phone on the floor, crushing it under a boot, shoe or heavy object of some sort and then buying a decent phone.Hopefully, more, discussion, debate and discourse for the morning update and good stuff for the morning update . . .
Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades stated on Monday evening that both sides are not far from concluding the chapter on territorial adjustments

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades stated on Monday evening that both sides are not far from concluding the chapter on territorial adjustments, reported CNA English.

Anastasiades comments came as he and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci announced that talks will once again head to Mont Pelerin, Switzerland from November 20-22.

Both leaders previously visited the Swiss mountain resort from November 7 to 11 and made significant progress during those territorial talks according to the UN.

I want to believe that the dialogue and the ongoing process will be a success if, apart from rhetoric, Turkey will actively contribute to the effort we are exerting, stated the President while addressing an event for the Employers and Industrialists Federation (OEB).

I believe we are not far from concluding the great territory issue which is attached and connected with property, commented Anastasiades.

MAPS

The President also commented that the upcoming talks aim will be to reach an agreement on the territorial adjustments criteria, which will be reflected on maps.

In that case, it is possible to determine a date for a multilateral conference, outlined Anastasiades.

PROMISE TO PARTY LEADERS

The President chose not to announce any further details after stating that he will brief party leaders over last weeks intensive dialogue.

Anastasiades noted that these meetings will be an opportunity for a better exchange of views.

Additionally, Anastasiades added that he adjourned the Swiss-based meeting in order to fulfil his promise to political leaders that he will not continue before informing them, something which "reflects the respect I have for all.

BIDEN, TSIPRAS TALKS

On Monday, the President spoke with US Vice President Joe Biden over the phone. According to Anastasiades, Biden displayed once more his particular interest for Cyprus and for a settlement.

He went on to say that he briefed Biden on the latest talks, asking him for the US continued interest for the important chapters that follow.

Anastasiades is set to depart for Athens on Wednesday where he will brief Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on the latest negotiations.

BACKGROUND

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and illegally occupied its northern third.

Anastasiades and Akinci have been engaged in UN-led negotiations since May 2015, with a view to reunite the island under a federal roof.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
Cyprus has condemned the anniversary for the unilateral declaration of independence of the so called TRNC in a statement on Tuesday

Cyprus has condemned the anniversary for the unilateral declaration of independence of the so called TRNC in a statement on Tuesday.

The statements said that 33 years ago Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot leadership had gone forward with the illegal declaration of independence of the so called TRNC.

This action led to the condemning reaction of the international community, which through a series of resolutions at the United Nations Security Council characterised the action as legally invalid and invited the rest of the UN members to not recognise the so called state, the announcement form the Presidential Palace said.

The statements added that the government is working to stop the illegality and in the framework of international law and the European Unions values reunify the country on the basis of a bizonal, bicommunal, federation.

Cyprus, the statement said, is also seeking to liberate the country of occupying forces.

In this framework are the attempts underway with ongoing negotiations, between the leaders of the two communities, not the breakaway regime and the Republic of Cyprus, the statement said.

The statement added that in the coming days negotiations will start again in Switzerland, with the goal being to agree on the critical issue of territory, which will allow for the next step in negotiations, an international conference on security, to begin alongside further intensified talks.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades will be visiting Athens on Wednesday, November 16 to hold meeting with Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades will be visiting Athens on Wednesday, November 16 to hold meeting with Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, an announcement said on Tuesday.

The President will be meeting with Tsipras at approximately 6pm at Maximos Mansion, and at 7:30pm with Pavlopoulos.

After his meetings, President Anastasiades will be meeting with the head of the New Democracy party in Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

On Thursday, the President will hold separate meetings with all the other political party leaders in Greece, including Potami, Democratic Coalition, the Greek Communist Party (KKE), ANEL, and the Centrists Union.

President Anastasiades will be accompanied by Foreign Affairs Minister Ioannis Kasoulides, and the government spokesperson Nikos Christodoulides.

The President will return to Cyprus on Thursday evening.

At negotiations in Mont Pelerin last week, President Anastasiades had requested a break in Cyprus negotiations on the territory issue to consult with the Greek leadership.

Greece is one of the guarantor powers of Cyprus, along with Turkey and the UK. As guarantors the three countries retain rights to intervene militarily on the island, as per an agreement signed in 1960 in Zurich.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Peeperman License: CC-BY-SA
Another public meeting is scheduled in the Madison area to get comments about the proposed Cardinal-Hickory Creek high-voltage transmission line.

The U.S. Department of Agricultures Rural Utilities Service will host a meeting from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m Dec. 7 at Deer Valley Lodge, 401 W. Industrial Drive, Barneveld.

The 90- or 135-mile, 345-kilovolt electric transmission line would run from the Madison area to the Dubuque, Iowa, area and would cost $500 million.

American Transmission Co., of Pewaukee; ITC Midwest, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and Dairyland Power Cooperative, of La Crosse, are the developers. Dairyland Power plans to seek financial assistance from the Rural Utilities Service for its portion of the project.

Two prospective routes have been identified. One follows Highway 18-151; the other cuts a new corridor, straight west, between Highway 18-151 and Highway 14.

Several open meetings were held in the Madison area earlier this month, drawing more than 200 people.

The federal agency will take public comments through Jan. 6, 2017.
President Barack Obama has said success is not guaranteed in the Cyprus problem negotiations, but that the possibility for a settlement exists

President Barack Obama has said success is not guaranteed in the Cyprus problem negotiations, but that the possibility for a settlement exists.

In statements on Tuesday after meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Athens, the US President said that prospects for a Cyprus settlement are the best that they have ever been.

He added that a solution into a bizonal, bicommunal federation would create new economic opportunities for the people of the island, and be an example for the world.

"Ultimaltely this is a negotiation between Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots. The good news is you have two leaders that are committed to finding compromises," he said.

Obama added that if the two leaders can meet, than Greece, Turkey, the US, and the international community should support an agreement in a way that can be ratified by both sides.

"I think there is a window in the next few weeks, months, where the issue can be resolved," he said.

The US President said to this affect that there may be a period with transition mechanisms, which is estimated by both sides and will allow the communities to move forward from the status quo.

TSIPRAS: ISSUES STILL REMAIN UNRESOLVED

On his part, Tsipras has said that there is hope in the ongoing Cyprus talks.

However, he added that care needs to be taken as key issues remain unresolved still.

The goal of the solution is to the benefit of all the Cypriot people, and that means the withdrawal of all troops and guarantees, he said.

Asked whether pressure can be put on Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to end the occupation of Cyprus, Tsipras said the issue is not a bilateral problem between Turkey and Greece.

He added that it is a problem regarding illegal occupation. We give all our strength to supporting both sides, which will lead to a just and viable solution, Tsipras said.

Tsipras said that Erdogan plays an important role, but it is not my responsibility to pressure him.

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades will be visiting Athens on Wednesday, in preparation for a new round of negotiations set to start in Switzerland on Sunday.

President Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci had discussed the territory issue in Mont Pelerin last week, and will continue to work towards an agreement on criteria for territorial readjustment on Sunday.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
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Moody's Investors Service, a leading provider of credit ratings, research, and risk analysis, has revised its outlook for Oman's banking system to stable from negative.



The stable outlook reflects Moody's expectation that Omani banks' credit profiles will remain broadly stable over the outlook horizon, as increased government borrowing and higher hydrocarbon output will support a level of public spending that will help stabilise the softened economy, following a prolonged period of decline in oil prices.



Moody's report, entitled "Banking System Outlook - Oman: Stable Outlook Reflects Expected Creditworthiness Resilience" expresses Moody's expectation of how bank creditworthiness will evolve in Oman over the next 12 to 18 months.



"The Omani government will help cushion the economic impact of low oil prices by maintaining high levels of public spending despite its lower oil related revenues," said Mik Kabeya, analyst at Moody's. "The government's countercyclical spending policy will bolster the resilience of the banks' asset quality, profitability and capital metrics, while funding and liquidity will weaken moderately."



Moody's expects real GDP growth to slow gradually to 1.7 per cent in 2016 and 2.0 per cent in 2017, from 3.3 per cent in 2015. Subsequently, credit growth will decelerate to an average of 7 per cent-9 per cent over 2016-2017, from 12 per cent in 2015, according to the rating agency.



While we expect problem loans to increase modestly over the outlook period as the expected economic slowdown pressures corporate profits and household finances, loan performance for Oman's banks will remain fairly resilient. The rating agency forecasts problem loans to increase to around 3.0 per cent of gross loans by end 2017, from a low 2.1 per cent at June 2016, Moodys said in the report.



Capital buffers will remain stable, providing the banks with strong loan loss absorbency. System-wide tangible common equity (TCE) is likely to range between 12 per cent-14 per cent of risk-weighted assets over the next 12 to 18 months (13.2 per cent as of December 2015). Furthermore, profitability will also remain healthy despite a marginal decline, with Moody's forecasting net interest margins to decline marginally to 2.2 per cent-2.4 per cent over the outlook horizon (2.5 per cent in 2015), affected by increasing funding costs. Moreover, higher provisioning charges will also weigh somewhat on the profitability.



On the funding side, while the banks will remain predominantly deposit funded, increased domestic government borrowing and slower growth in deposit flows from the government and government related issuers (34 per cent of deposits as of June 2016) will pressure the system's liquidity. This will marginally increase the banks' reliance on confidence sensitive wholesale markets.



Finally, Moody's expects Omani authorities' willingness to provide financial support to the local banks to remain 'very high', in line with the government's long history of supporting the country's banks.  TradeArabia News Service
A total of 42 construction companies and workers walked away with the Taqdeer Award, the worlds first points-based award programme for recognising excellence in labour welfare practices, at a special ceremony held in Dubai, UAE.



The ceremony was attended by decision-makers and leaders from local and international government bodies, labour organisations and private companies, said a statement from the organisers.



The award was launched under the patronage of Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, and chairman of Dubai Executive Council.



Furthermore, the winners were honoured by Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, chairman of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation, it said.



Hussein Nasser Lootah, director general of Dubai Municipality and president of the judging committee, said: The committee has worked diligently to achieve the desired goals of this award. Within a short time of about 10 months only, the award has helped companies achieve a lot and created an everlasting impact and this is just the beginning.



Major General Obaid Muhair Bin Suroor, deputy director general of general directorate of residency and foreigners affairs (GDRFA) in Dubai and chairman of Taqdeer Award, said: It is a moment of great pleasure for us that the award has encouraged and led construction companies in Dubai to set exemplary standards in labour welfare.



The construction sector is vital to Dubais economy and employs over 500,000 workers, each of whom play an important role in Dubais journey to excellence. This award will go a long way in enhancing relationship between employers and employees, in line with the vision of our leadership to ensure happiness and welfare of all and realising Dubais vision of becoming one of the worlds best places to work and live, he said.



The award has received global appreciation and I would like to congratulate the winning companies for setting international benchmarks in labour welfare practices and the workers who have given their best and shown excellence at workplace, which sets an example for others to follow, he stated.



Bin Suroor said the committee expects at least 100 companies for the next edition of the Taqdeer Awards.



Our goal is to encourage companies across all sectors to set such benchmarks as Dubai, guided by its visionary leadership, is continuously working toward attaining excellence, he stated.



In its first phase, the award targeted construction sector and will eventually be extended to other sectors.- TradeArabia News Service
Oman's Special Economic Zone Authority at Duqm (Sezad) has signed three agreements worth RO169 million ($437 million) for the construction of a fishing port and the second package of the Duqm Port.



This awarding of contracts comes as part of the government's plan to make Sezad a major centre for fishery industries in the sultanate. Duqm is the largest fishing port in Oman spread over an area of 600 hectares, stated Yahya bin Said bin Abdullah Al Jabri, the chairman of Sezad.

The first agreement related to the construction of the marine fishing port was signed with Dr Johannes Gustavus Erlings, the CEO of Galfar Engineering and Contracting.

The second was a consultancy services agreement for the construction and supervision of the fishery port at Duqm which was awarded to Cering International Engineering Consulting Company in cooperation with AAK.



Al Jabri signed the agreement for the RO60.7 million ($156.9 million) fishery port project with Sergio Di Maio, the chief executive of Sering in his office at Oasis Knowledge Muscat on Monday.



It involves the development of a fisheries industries area with a group of factories and establishments specialised in fish manufacturing and canning.



The project will be complete within 30 months from the commencement date in addition to six months for preliminaries.



The scope of work includes dredging the harbour basin up to 6 m, land reclamation to construct port service buildings besides development of a tourist area with a wharf, pontoons, floating moorings for fishermen pier with pontoons for coast guard, a crane for boat to maintenance, ramp for boats, marine services and facilities, service buildings, internal roads, parking lots and breakwaters with a total length of 3.4 km, a fixed pier for fishing purposes of 850 m.

The third contract was related to construction of the second package of Duqm Port on the pavement of the commercial pier to accommodate containers, construction of buildings and workshops for operating the pier, and cranes and service roads on the pier.



The second package of Duqm Port will be developed at a cost of RO107.3 million ($278 million) includes the most important operational facilities for the commercial wharf and it will allow the commercial operation thereof.



He indicated that the port is among the most important prime movers of Sezad and one of the strategic projects implemented by the sultanate to support the national economy and activate economic movement in Oman in general and Al Wusta Governorate, in particular.



This package includes the construction of four terminals on the commercial pier, including two for containers about 1,600-m long and 350-m wide to handle about 3.5 million TEUs annually.



There will also be a terminal for dry bulk terminal with a capacity of about 5 million tonnes per year and another terminal with a capacity of 800,000 tonnes per year. The second package also includes construction of the port operations area.



The project is being constructed by a joint venture of Turkish Serka Company and Portuguese MSF Company.



The second package of Duqm Port will be developed within 30 months from the commencement date in addition to 30 days for preliminaries, said Al Jabri after signing the deal with Hunkar Adali, the chairman of Serka and Tiago Fortunato, the vice president, MSF.



As per the agreement, Serka-MSF joint venture will establish a number of buildings in the operation area, commercial terminal, dry bulk terminal, and container terminal.



The scope of work includes supply and installation of traffic lights and parking lots for the commercial terminal, portable water connections, fire-fighting systems, water pumping stations, streetlighting, and infrastructure for communications services and work on improving the ground, supply and installation of two types of highly secured fences.-TradeArabia News Service
US-based Varian Medical Systems has started offering cancer patients in the UAE advanced radiotherapy and radiosurgery treatments with the clinical introduction of TrueBeam medical linear accelerator.



A male patient with neck Hodgkin's lymphoma received the first treatment on a TrueBeam at Mediclinic City Hospital's new comprehensive cancer center in Dubai.



"This landmark treatment means that patients in the UAE now have access to one of the most precise and efficient technologies for treating cancer," said Dr Salim Chaib Rassou, the cancer center's lead radiation oncologist. "We will be able to achieve high levels of precision, excellent image quality and fast throughput using the new TrueBeam technology."



"This is an important clinical advancement in the treatment of many different types of cancer in the UAE and brings new hope to cancer sufferers across the country," he added.



"Mediclinic City Hospital is very proud to be able to offer the first TrueBeam radiotherapy treatment in the UAE at our newly-opened comprehensive cancer center," said hospital director Christian Schuhmacher.



"The center has been set up in collaboration with experts at Mediclinic's Swiss sister company Hirslanden, with TrueBeam data matched to that at Hirslanden. This means that it is possible for a patient to be treated both in Dubai, or if necessary at Hirslanden in Switzerland, without the need for dose recalculations."



Varian's TrueBeam system features a multitude of technical innovations that dynamically synchronize imaging, patient positioning, motion management, and treatment delivery. It was designed to treat tumours in a fast and precise manner, including cancers such as lung and breast that move during treatment as the patient breathes in and out.



"The Varian team in Dubai is very excited to see the first TrueBeam system installed in the UAE providing patients with advanced clinical treatments," said Mutaz Mikashfi, Varian's service area manager, Mena.



"This new system in Dubai expands our collaboration with the Mediclinic group beyond our established long-term support for Mediclinic Hirslanden in Switzerland. We are looking forward to working closely with Mediclinic City Hospital in Dubai to provide patients with the most modern radiotherapy and radiosurgery treatments."



Varian Medical Systems of Palo Alto, California, focuses energy on saving lives by equipping the world with advanced technology for fighting cancer and for X-ray imaging. The company is a global leader in the manufacturing of medical devices and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions with radiation.  TradeArabia News Service
The Saudi Trade Finance Summit, the only premier initiative for Trade Finance Development in the kingdom, will open its doors today at Le Meridien  Jeddah with the official endorsement of Jeddah chamber.



With Saudi Arabia going through a major transformation and the National Transformation Plan attracting the public interest and inspiring private sector to contribute to the diversification of the Nations economy, the summit is designed to discuss the future of kingdoms trade developments.



Under the theme Shaping the Kingdoms Economy: A bright future unfolds, the fourth annual Saudi Trade Finance Summit is bringing together government regulatory authorities, finance professionals from leading corporates along with top financial institutions and technology solution providers to discuss current trade trends and challenges faced by organisations in order to create a thriving economy for the kingdom.



After successfully hosting the previous three editions in Riyadh, the summit organizers QnA International are bringing the event to Jeddah and have received an overwhelming response from the regional businesses. Speaking about the summit, Sidh N.C, director, QnA International said: The STF summit serves as a crucial platform for connecting the key stakeholders for trade finance development in the kingdom and highlight the future trends for the trade finance business in the kingdom.



As trade business is a dominant contributor to the countrys GDP, appropriate trade related solutions catered to clients through new concepts, products, and solutions need to be provided and conferences such as the STF Summit can increase awareness of the latest developments in this important field emphasises Anjum Noman Mirza, headTrade Finance Sales and Solutions Department, Corporate Banking Group, Banque Saudi Fransi who have been supporting the summit as a Platinum Sponsor for the past few years.



Each year the summit puts a spotlight on the innovations in the sector and this year again a lot of innovative concepts will be revealed at the summit. Arup Roy, head of Global Transaction Banking, Saudi British Bank (SABB) believes: The demand for innovative products under Islamic principles is to scale new heights. Banks are expected to expand products beyond traditional offerings such as providing Islamic finance to suit financial requirements at different stages of payable and receivable cycles, and also provide unfunded risk coverage.



With the current diversification initiatives across the kingdom, the summit will cover a crucial topic on financing the growth of commodity trade by addressing concerns and discussing strategies through Qatar National Banks session.



While talking about the SMEs role in trade development, Al Rajhi Bank stresses that Saudi Arabias Vision 2030 will unlock the full potential of the SME sector in Saudi Arabia by addressing the challenges and focusing on initiatives to increase the size of the SME segment and its contribution to Saudis GDP.



Riyadh bank, one of the major supporters of the STF Summit for past few years will also give their perspective on the current usage of Letters of Credit in Saudi Arabia and explore on the new trade mechanisms available.



Another important area of focus is credit information asymmetry within the trade environment which will be discussed at the summit from the government authority SIMAH (Saudi Credit Bureau) along with a focus on the risks in Trade Credit.



The summit is also being supported by BNP Paribas, Emirates NBD, SAP, The Saudi Investment Bank and Tawreeq Holdings, who will join the leading CFOs from the kingdom in panel discussions that will address the current challenges faced by Saudi Organizations and brainstorm on the best possible solutions and strategies. - TradeArabia News Service
Indian engineering and construction firm Larsen & Toubro (L&T) showcased its power transmission and distribution (PT&D) expertise along with its multidimensional engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) capabilities in power infrastructure across the Gulf countries.



Organised under the patronage of Minister of Energy and Industry Dr Mohamed bin Saleh Al Sada and hosted by the Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa), GCC Power 2016 was held under the theme Towards Energy Efficiency at Hotel Sheraton in Doha.



The show, organised by GCC-Cigre, brought together policy makers, transmission and distribution industry professionals, technology leaders and delegates across GCC countries.



At the exhibition, L&Ts offerings were showcased in a 24-sq-m stall across the domains of power transmission and distribution with specific emphasis on landmark infrastructure projects executed in Qatar and GCC to highlight its role as a major EPC player, said the Indian construction group.



Ravindran, executive vice president and head of PT&D Middle East, Bruno Dubois, the head of PT&D Qatar, along with Amareswara Rao, the head of PT&D Oman along with Deepak Nayak, the head of PT&D UAE, and other key team members in Qatar, briefed visitors on the products, it stated.



A key highlight was the visit of Mohammed Saleh Abdulla Al Sada, Qatar Energy Minister, to the stand along with Essa bin Hilal Al Kuwari, the president of Kahramaa, said L&T in its statement.



The others who were present included Ali Said Nasser Al Hadabi, the chief executive of Oman Electricity Transmission Company, Jassem Al Nouri, the under secretary of MEW Kuwait, Ahmed Nasser Al Nasr, the director of technical affairs, Kahramaa and officials of the National Grid (Saudi Arabia), Transco (UAE) Ministry of Energy, AADC and Muscat Electricity Distribution Company.



The three-day conference covered panel discussions, presentations and plenary sessions on energy efficiency, it added.-TradeArabia News Service
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There are almost two million hits once you search the words "Bali" and "paradise". Its popularity in terms of serenity and breathtaking scenery led Bali to be described as the "pearl of Indonesia" and a favorite Australian holiday spot. As per News.com.au, several blogs and reviews have provided different views about the said staycation haven and described it into three angles: The Good, Bad and Ugly sides of Bali.

THE GOOD

Mountains: According to reports by South China Morning Posts, nature lovers can appreciate the sacred Mount Batur where you can swim at the hot springs on the way down after the early morning climb. Also, the four-hour climb in the highest and holiest volcano, Mount Agung, is a must-try destination where white-water-rafting trip can be experienced with a twist of a jungle in order to uncover the secret waterfalls or even relax on Bali's radiant and abundant rice terraces.

Buildings: The island has a very far-fetched architecture, especially in Ubud. Even its simple fence is inspired by art work most likely when surrounded by statues of animals, as per News.com.au

Fashion: Reports says that as known for its traditional outfit, every woman in Bali dresses the same clothing but in different colors and it looks strikingly good.

Beach: One of the beaches in Bali is Kuta beach where you can surf and take up a lesson on surfing. Then at the end of the day, Balinese sunsets will be enjoyed on the sand while having a cocktail.

THE BAD

The bad side about Bali, Indonesia has been unveiled, based on further reports by News.com.au. Most guests are concerned on its Bali's issue on their security and extra travel fees being charged.

Crimes: Stealing bags, pickpocketing, mugging mobile-phone and selling drugs are the levels of crime in Bali. They blamed the crime wave for the migrant workers in their neighboring islands.

Departure fee: Paying both an entry fee and a departure fee that cost $41 is too much for travelers. It is not even on the traveler's budget and only local currency is accepted if you are going to pay those.

THE UGLY

Indonesia is considering a law that is to be implemented for banning the production, distribution and consumption of alcohol. The regulation is to set to make the road safer; but may not seem to match with party goers enjoying a Balinese party with just a tea or milk.

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018
Airbnb is an online marketplace and homestay network that helps travellers to rent short-term lodging in residential properties. The company is currently in a heated legal conflict with the state of New York. A new law is currently implemented in the city that combats short-term rentals. The purpose is to avoid people from altering their apartments into hotels without paying tax. The law will fine tenants or landlords for renting out their properties for less than 30 days. In its defense, Airbnb has submitted evidence that most of its subscribers or hosts list their apartments at most once per month and not in a monthly basis.

On the lighter side, Airbnb is continuously serving travellers around the world. It was welcomed in most countries due to its collaborative method. The company is communicating with the local officials and starts making plans for the betterment of the community.

In an article of Independent it mentioned two examples of the company's goal to join forces with the city, "In London, for instance, Airbnb provides the mayor's office information about the growth of tourism in the outer boroughs of the city to help it spread the economic benefits across the city, rather than keeping it centralized. In other cities such as Paris or Amsterdam, the partnership with local authorities has become much more formal with Airbnb starting to collect tourist tax from its users on behalf of the local authorities."

Airbnb is also helping its host in collecting and remitting taxes like in Paris and Saint-Malo, France; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Lisbon, Portugal and within U.S. such as New Jersey, Louisiana and Chicago. The complete list can be found in their website. Here are some of the reviews of their satisfied customers around the globe. These verbatim testify the acceptance and the benefit of being a member of the Airbnb. Kiminari from Japan said, "If I chose a hotel, I could not meet the local people. With Airbnb, I met with locals who could teach me about their lives and about their traditions... Having these real experiences is my treasure."

"I simply like to help people the same way I'd like to be helped when I travel in another country. It's not just for the reviews, or for the business, or for the reputation. I host because I get to meet people from all over the world, and I can give people from other countries my help and support," Fabio from Brazil commented.

"When I am in Rome I want to feel Italian, when I am in Denmark I want to feel Danish. Then I am able to experience everything like living there. I would really like them to experience my home like they were Icelanders for a week or so. And that is what's fantastic about Airbnb," Anna of Iceland stated.

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018
Thanksgiving means more than just family dinner and celebration for most Americans, especially since the weekend of Black Friday and Cyber Monday feature the biggest sales across the nation. Aside from supermarkets and department stores like Walmart and Macy's, avid travelers also get their fair share of cheap deals, with airlines and hotels offering great discounts online. Here are the top five deals to look forward to this November 28, 2016.

1. Click Frenzy online travel sale

Click Frenzy's promised amazing travel deals this Black Friday with their Travel Frenzy a standalone online travel Sale. According to Traveller AU, offers up to 70 percent off will be available from partner companies such as Cruise1st, Webjet, Tigerair, Hilton Hotels and Hotels.com. Although these companies will be having their own Black Friday sales, Click Frenzy has streamlined the link and has pushed retailers to be more aggressive with discounts. The icing to the cake is that a lucky buyer can win a trip to Italy.

2. Flight tickets for Christmas and New York

In general, the prices of airline tickets for Thanksgiving have gone down 2.6 percent from last year according to The Wall Street Journal. In addition, Christmas trips have gone down even lower at 3.3 percent from last year. The best part is that airlines are opening travel deals right after Thanksgiving, and right on Cyber Monday which could lure people to travel during the off-peal seasons of January and February. Some of the airlines expected to go on the Cyber Monday travel deal sale are Delta, American, Southwest and Interjet, a Mexican budget airline. Some popular destinations where these Black Friday deals can be taken advantage of include Nashville, New York, Cancun and Reyjavik, Iceland.

Read about your dream Iceland honeymoon here.

3. Omni Homestead Resort

For people excited by the outdoors, you can ski for less at the Omni Homestead in Hot Springs, Virginia. This year the resort that has hosted more than 20 US Presidents and other dignitaries is celebrating it's 250th Anniversary. The resort is offering a Cyber Monday deal of just $99 for an individual Ski Season pass across the 45-acres of well-maintained, beautiful trails and slopes.

4. Hilton Head Health

This South Carolina weight loss and wellness resort is offering up to 20 percent off rates on Cyber Monday. This is the perfect time to relax through holiday stress and detox from all the thanksgiving meals of November. According to InStyle, the discounted stay will automatically include all meals and activities, including the resort's many fitness classes and lectures. In addition, credit is given to the guest, which they can use to hire a personal trainer or reward themselves with spa treatments.

5. Dream Hotels

This hotel chain allows buyers to enjoy not only a discounted rate of as low as $219 per night at their Dream Downtown location, but also give travelers a chance to celebrate Thanksgiving with the less fortunate. For every room booked during the Cyber Monday sale, a brand new winter coat is purchased and given by Dream Hotels to a New Yorker in need during its Giving Tuesday "New York Cares" annual Coat Drive.

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018
Samsung is yet in the midst of facing the issues for its exploding smartphones and even appliances yet now another conundrum has occurred. Prosecutors raided the workplace of Samsung Electronics on Tuesday as a major aspect of an examination concerning a presidential cronyism outrage that is engulfing South Korea.

The inquiry of the hardware organization's office in the upmarket Gangnam zone of the capital took after days of claims in household media that Samsung piped a large number of euros into an establishment keep running by a long-lasting companion and "shaman adviser" of President Park Geun-hye.

According to a report by CNN, the prosecutors are looking into whether Samsung is associated with giving as much as $3 million in mystery to bolster the equestrian preparing and Olympic dreams of Choi Soon-sil's 20-year old little girl. Who is Choi? She is a long-lasting companion and counsel to President Park Geun-hye, who's at the focal point of Korea's extending misuse of power outrage.

Choi is at present in prison on charges of manhandling of influence and misrepresentation, said to have such wide control over state issues in spite of no official positions that is she's being called "the influence behind the honored position." Prosecutors trust she advanced herself to the tune of millions by hawking her closeness to and impact over Park.

President Park Geun-hye, according to Yonhap News Agency, has issued two apologies over the scandal since late last month, however, failed to allay the public outrage. Her endorsement appraisals dove a week ago to 5 percent and 11.5 percent, the most reduced figures ever aggregated by Gallup Korea and Realmeter, individually, the surveyors said. The past Realmeter record was held by late president Roh Moo-hyun, whose endorsement rating once floated at 12.6 percent. A huge number of nationals rampaged throughout the weekend, requesting her resignation. Another huge rally is booked to occur in downtown Seoul on Saturday.

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018
Imagine a fishbowl filled with many orange clown fish like Nemo then comes a blue tang fish just like Dory. What do you think will stand out? Even if you're not 20-20 vision, I bet you knew the answer, blue won. As travellers, you had the chance to meet several people with different skin, eye, hair color; accents are also not the same and so with the culture. We live in the same planet, but it seems that we are in different worlds because of these dissimilarities. Ironically, we view beauty differently as well. The beautiful in the north is invisible in the south.

In an article of Quora, an interesting question was flagged. "Have you ever been considered more attractive in a country other than your own?" Find out their answers. LLolyta, from Indonesia said, "Here, in my home country, I can say that i am not considered as beautiful, pretty, or whatever you name it. But, when i went to Europe last summer i got a lot of attention, especially from western guys... Even if i am kinda small for them but they said having a tan skintone is quite sexy (which is one of the reason i should travel more hahaha)."

Katherine Mesh, from Siberia, Russia commented, "So coming to China was indeed very relieving to realize that even after workout or with no make-up at all you are still beautiful and exotic to Chinese people as well as some expats from other countries beside former USSR. Living in China makes you more relaxed and indeed helps you feel better about yourself every day."

"In China, I was seen as particularly attractive, possibly because I am quite tall. Lot's of people wanted to take their photos with me at some of the sights such as the Forbidden City and The Great Wall! I just went with the flow and smiled for the camera," Amy Trumpeter, from England said.

Fatima Ali, Pakistani narrated, "I'm obviously ethnic looking with dark features, I never fit in with my own country's anglophilic measure of attractiveness. Once I moved to the USA and started traveling around Europe, the opposite happened - where I was admired for my exotic looks and praised often. Needless to say, the attention wasn't something I was used to and still isn't- but I'm not complaining!"

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018
Japan is one of the most successful countries in the world. From great technological developments and innovations to delicious delicacies, Japan has them all. Despite all these modern developments made by the country, Japan still preserves its traditions.

Because of these, Japan is frequently visited by many tourists. Once you travel to Japan, there are tons of products that are best to bring back home. According to Muza-chan's gate to Japan and Tsunagu Japan, here are some of the best souvenirs you could find in Japan.

Yukata

Yukata is a traditional Japanese clothing that looks more like a kimono. This is usually worn by the Japanese during festivals. The Yukata can be found on many palces usually visited by tourists so you won't have a problem looking for one.

Sensu

Sensu is the traditional Japanese hand fans that shows the creativity of the Japanese people. With tons of intricate designs and colors to choose from, it would be nice to give these to our friends and families. Since Japan is popular because of these fans, it is easy to purchase these fans from stores especially on special occasions.

Kitchen Knives

Many chefs around the world admire the quality of the Japanese kitchen knives. Two types of these knives are called the honyaki and kasumi, made out of one material and two materials used to make the samurai swords. Bringing some of these wonderful knives will help light up your kitchen.

Origami

Origami papers are just like the Japanese hand fans, they also have many beautiful designs and colors. It can be used as decorations. You can also try learning to fold these origami papers into unique figures. You will find origami papers on stationary stores, Tokyu Hands and many more.

Chopsticks

Japanese people usually eat using chopsticks. The Japanese chopsticks is made out of lacquered wood with different sizes and designs. There are many stores selling different kinds of chopsticks. Some stores even allow you to carve your name in those chopsticks. It is great for practice eating chopsticks even when your back home.

These are just some great souvenirs you can buy in Japan. These things will help you remember the days you've wandered through the streets of Japan. Here is a video tutorial on how to make a flower using Japan origami papers:

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018
Most people would not want to travel during the cold days of the winter season. Many of us would prefer to stay at home and relax by the fire, away from the blistering cold. But even so, there are many good reasons why people should go traveling, especially during the winter season.

Eager travelers will be thrilled if ever they visit wonderful places and do a lot of exciting activities, such as stroll along the baroque cityscapes and cobblestone streets of Vilnius in Lithuania, enjoy a variety of food, music and company while partying in the San Sebastian Street Festival of San Juan in Puerto Rico, watch the floating lanterns of the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival in New Taipei City, Taiwan, go on an African safari in Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park in South Africa, go snorkeling and kayaking in the sparkling blue lagoon of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands and finish off the year by spending it in the New Year's Festival in Dublin, Ireland, as suggested by National Geographic. So, here is a list of five reasons why the holiday season is the perfect time to go on an awesome adventure, acquired from Travel and Leisure:

Reason number one is, there are plenty of airfare deals, especially during the holidays. Some airlines would even promo flight deals that can be acquired for as low as 7 dollars, particularly the post-election deals. The second reason for traveling during this time around is travelers can get luxury for less. Most people would think that it is very difficult to get in to luxury hotels during the holidays, but actually, there are cities like Bangkok if you're planning to go to Asia and Warsaw if you're planning to go to Europe, that offers luxury hotels for a low cost.

Number three, it will lessen one's stress. Studies show that traveling can also decrease the risk of depression and heart attack. Number four, you're running out of time to use your remaining vacation days. It's a good thing to use it now. Lastly, some awesome places are actually disappearing. Due to the change in climate, places like the Galapagos and Venice are in the risk for disappearing. You might want to go there now before it's all gone.

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018
Get up from your desk and go for the thrill of doing something you know only a few have done. And what's better is doing them in a foreign place. And the best place to start?

How about Prague in Czech Republic?

From its local and mystic treasures to statues, Prague is filled with unique and unusual elements that make it stand out. And one prominent gem in Prague is its nightlife. Here are just a few of the hundreds of things you could do in Prague. And we've arranged it purposely to be done in one night.

1) Indulge in a classical concert in The Atrium

For an equivalent of a Big Mac, witness musicians as they perform renditions of classical favorites and unearthed treasures. Some of these musicians are from the pricier venues.

In a small, reconstructed chapel in Prague 3, you are able to attend something similar to what is seen in orchestras.

2) Feel the beautiful spookiness in the Theatre of Estates

Be immersed in the exact same place where Mozart premiered Don Giovanni in 1787. This posh blue jewel box will transport you to a whole new period by simply taking a seat.

3) Visit an 80s club/bar

Though the music scene is rapidly changing, Prague still has bars or pubs that play your all-time favorite 80s tracks for you.The locals here are still attached and into the 80s era, so it's hard to miss an 80s-dedicated club or bar.

4) Meet the green fairy at Hemingway Bar

When looking for Absinthe, be careful. Some aren't that pure or intricate. The Hemingway Bar serves the traditional blend of absinthe. This sleek cocktail lounge provides absinthe via its beautiful old-fashioned fountain. Craft Czech Absinthe, simply the best.

5) Stroll along Prague Zoo

After a long night, it's best to relax in Prague's zoo. Open on Friday and Saturday night, illuminate the zoo by just using your flashlight. And the sights of the elephants and Komodo Dragons will make you fall in love even more with Prague and its exoticness.

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018
Chris Rickert | Wisconsin State Journal Urban affairs, investigations, consumer help ("SOS") Follow Chris Rickert | Wisconsin State Journal Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

The theory among the chattering classes is that white, rural, working-class men handed Donald Trump the presidency because they feel disenfranchised, especially when it comes to their economic situation.

It seems as good an explanation as any for why a sexually abusive reality TV star ended up the leader of this great country  even if his voters might not have much to feel economically disenfranchised about.

Look at Wisconsins county-by-county election results, and you see some unsurprising patterns.

Predictably Democratic Dane and Milwaukee counties went big time for Hillary Clinton. Three predictably Republican counties near Milwaukee  Washington, Ozaukee and Waukesha  went big for Trump.

If the nexus by which to measure Trumps support is economic well-being and whiteness, though, a closer look paints a more complicated picture.

Of the four counties that, percentage-wise, went biggest for Trump, only Florence shows signs of authentic economic suffering. It had the lowest average annual wage in 2015, and the third-highest unemployment rate, or 5.2 percent, as of September.

Two of the Trump-loving counties, Taylor and Washington, had unemployment rates of 3 percent. Green Lake was at 3.5 percent. Washington is in the top sixth of counties in terms of annual wage, Green Lake in the top half and Taylor in the bottom half.

Meanwhile, two strong Clinton counties  Menominee and Milwaukee  had the highest and seventh-highest unemployment rates, respectively. Menominee had the 10th-lowest average wage in 2015.

Large black and Native American populations help explain Democratic support in Milwaukee and Menominee, respectively, but what about the far northern Bayfield, Douglas and Ashland counties? All went for Clinton, and all have plenty of white men. Two have higher-than-average unemployment rates and two have lower-than-median annual wages.

Theres also little sign that the establishment so hated by Trump supporters has been cheating white, rural, economically distressed areas out of their fair share of government aid. In fact, as of 2014, poorer areas generally reaped bigger cuts of state aid than richer ones.

It is perceptions, not precise facts, that matter for opinions, said Kathy Cramer, a UW-Madison political science professor who has studied Wisconsins politics of resentment.

Its not surprising if some election-deciding number of Trump voters saw themselves as a culturally distinct group victimized by an economy thats rigged against them.

Identity politics is strong in American political discourse, and I guess rural, white and male is an identity. Candidates have also long trained voters to see themselves as victims of a system only the candidates can fix.

Analysts can be forgiven for failing to anticipate Trumps victory, which most polls suggested was unlikely.

But Trump voters do have some explaining to do. Like how they could justify elevating to the highest office in the land a misogynistic repeated liar who makes fun of the disabled and attracts support from the white-power movement.
Last Nov 9. Donald Trump was elected as the 45th President of United States of America. This public voting result resulted to shock, bewilderment, and devastation all throughout the states and even some countries in the world.

According to the NY Times, Tourism Economics President Adam Sacks stated that "More money is spent in the United States by international travelers than anywhere else in the world." The news of the Trump Presidency caused the US dollar strength instability in the world market over but US dollar quickly gained ground.

However, it's still too early to gauge the consequences may be. So, what does the presidential election outcome mean to travelers and holidaymakers? Does this mean that traveling to the US will now be more affordable?

A weaker US dollar currency certainly means that UK traveling to the US will get better mileage for their money. Though it's still not apparent if the pound will get back its foothold due to the Brexit vote given that it lost about 20 percent of its original value.

But, if it regained its currency strength then, travels to the US will definitely be a lot cheaper than the previous year. But the question now lies, if these travelers may feel inclined to travel to the US given the current presidential electoral result.

And with the current rallies and protest in the US, even the Turkish government has released travel warnings to its citizen living and visiting US to be careful, as reported by CNN. Travelers are advised to use caution after an increase in racist or xenophobic attacks as some protest has turned violent after the Trump Presidential Victory.

It may be possible that the decreased demand for tourists spots may deflate prices further and may affect the cost value of transatlantic travels. All of these may be contributing factor to cheaper travel to the US.

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018
The Philippines is known to the world as a premier Southeast Asian destination, especially because of its abundance of natural wonders, pristine beaches, exotic wildlife and lively festivals. The Masskara Festival, one of the country's most popular festivals, is held every third week of October in a city called Bacolod, the capital of the country's booming sugar region.

While most people come to the city to experience the energy of the Masskara festival, travellers often find themselves falling in love with the food. Bacolod's cuisine is a balanced blend of sweet, savory, and sour flavors that is guaranteed to melt the heart and fill the belly. If you're planning a trip to The City of Smiles, you're going to want to check out these local-loved dishes.

1. Chicken Inasal

Known to be Bacolod's specialty, chicken inasal is the Filipino take on roasted chicken. It is marinated in a blend of salty and sour flavors then grilled over a charcoal flame, brushed with chicken oil, and served with white rice and a dipping sauce made with soy sauce, spiced vinegar, and a tart citrus fruit known as kalamansi.

This signature dish can be found in various spots all over the city, but establishments such as Aidas in Manokan country and Nena Rose. More adventurous diners might also want to experience dishes of chicken skin, liver, and intestines, cooked in the same manner.

2. Cansi

A piping hot bone marrow soup dish that is native to the island region of Negros, Cansi is known to be an indulgent delicacy. It is made with beef shank with bone marrow that is continuously boiled in a large pot of bone broth throughout the day. This savory soup is given a kick with the use of Batwan, a very sour fruit found only in the region.

Food Bloggers at Philippine online publication Rappler highly recommends going to Bacolod's Shopping district to find the best Cansi in the city. Small street-side establishments such as Sharyn's and Eron's are known to be the most popular.

3. Pala-Pala

A pala-pala is a unique dining experience that involves the hand-picking of fresh seafood and having it cooked in the style of your liking. Pala-palas are an excellent way to showcase the rich oceans of the Philippines, as well as the authentic cooking style of Bacolod.

If you're looking to satisfy your seafood craving, locals will definitely point you towards Aboy's restaurant or Diotay's Eatery. These establishments feature dishes such as baked or grilled scallops, garlic butter shrimp, and the like.

4. Dessert

Being the capitol of The Philippines' sugar industry, it's easy to see why it would be known as a sweet tooth paradise. Bacolod is home to some of the best cake shops, bakeries and patisseries in the country. Most feature desserts that utilize Mascuvado, a rawer form of brown sugar, and other sugar cane by-products.

Locals, as well as food bloggers for Philppine blog Our Awesome Planet, will be able to tell you that Calea is an absolute favorite dessert spot in the city. Featuring a wide variety of cakes, pies, and ice cream confections, it truly is a dessert paradise.

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018
The Croatian city of Dubrovnik is well known for its historical landmarks, gorgeous beaches, and magnificent medieval walls. Nowadays, it is more popularly known as the setting for King's Landing in HBO's "Game of Thrones." The picturesque Pearl of the Adriatic is full of wonderful sights and activities that make it into an incredible vacation destination.

What would you do if you only had one day? With so much you can do but with such little time, planning the right way to spend your precious time can be a hassle. However, there are several ways to efficiently spend twenty four hours in this magnificent city. Here are some tips for spending a day in Dubrovnik.

Walk Around The City Walls

No trip to Dubrovnik would be complete without seeing its magnificent stone walls. A two kilometer walk around them allows travelers to see as much of Dubrovnik as they can. With views of everything from the glistening sea, the scattered islands, the jagged mountains, and the rust-colored roofs of the city, this is the perfect opportunity to take in as much of the scenery as possible.

According to Croatia Traveller, it's best to begin at Pile Gate, walk straight towards Placa or Stradun, and end at the Ploce Gate. The site guarantees that this route will deliver the most scenery, museums and landmarks possible throughout the walk.

Eat Local

Croatia is home to some of the most deliciously fresh Mediterranean cuisine. Grabbing a freshly made sandwich for lunch and some decadent Dalmatian seafood for dinner can more than make up for the lack of time. Dubrovnik is also filled with restaurants that offer indulgent pasta dishes and refreshingly creative salads.

Beach Day!

Croatia is known for its beautiful, clean white and gold sand beaches. The city of Dubrovnik is home to several great beaches that are perfect for picnics, walks, and lounging. Spending the afternoon at the beach may not seem very productive, but it certainly is the epitome of a good vacation.

The Telegraph UK recommends Sveti Jakov, a beach located a few minutes away from the old town. The beach is home to an array of water activities such as kayaking, island hopping, and sailing. They also explain that it's a great beach to enjoy a swim in the turquoise sea.

Embrace The Night

At sundown, the beautiful city of Dubrovnik is transformed into a busy nightlife center. With pubs, bars, wineries and clubs open until early in the morning, the city is strewn with several ways to spend the night. Whether you're looking to have a lively night on the town with bar hopping and clubbing, or looking to end the day with a glass of crisp red wine, Dubrovnik has it all.

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018


Search News Archive : Fast Travel News Promotion Via Search, Social Media + Email Follow Us On : AVIATOR LIFESTYLE CONFIRMS PARTICIPATION IN BIG BOYS TOYS EXHIBITION Industry: Airlines

Aviator Lifestyle, a premier division of Aviator Society, a London-based provider of luxury air charter services



(TRAVPR.COM) UAE - November 15th, 2016 - Aviator Lifestyle, a premier division of Aviator Society, a London-based provider of luxury air charter services, has confirmed its participation in the upcoming Big Boys Toys exhibition, scheduled from November 23 to 26 at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center (ADNEC).



At the upcoming seventh edition of the event, Aviator Lifestyle will be collaborating with Elixium a luxury lifestyle product that offers water from the Malvern springs infused with gold flakes. Elixium water is known for its array of health benefits and neurological advances.



Aviator Lifestyle and Elixium will be exhibiting their products and services at stall F 01 which will be converted into a high-end lifestyle lounge. At this lounge guests will be able to explore luxury lifestyle products and services that Aviator Society has to offer. At the venue, one can also create customized bottles and apply for aviator society membership which allows customers to have Elixium onboard, at a promotional price.



Aiming to strengthen its presence in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, Aviator Societys lifestyle division is making its debut at the exhibition with special offers on its Jet Set Memberships. As a part of the expansion strategy, Aviator Society has recently opened an office in Dubai which represents Aviator Lifestyle and caters to the Aviator Corporate clients within the GCC.



Ramina Soudavi, Managing Director of Aviator Society, said, We are excited to be a part of Big Boys Toys at a time when we are looking at potential opportunities in the region. At Aviator Society, we have a simple mission  to provide a bespoke service that exceeds expectations. We are the unequivocal provider of choice for the fastidious clients who prefer immediate, comprehensive and elite travel solutions.



Aviator Society transforms the private jet charter experience by combining luxury with reliability and efficiency while catering to the needs of our international market. With an extensive global network within the luxury travel and hospitality industry, we deliver only the best to our clients and we are looking forward to share this at the upcoming exhibition, she said.



The Jet Set Membership is an exclusive club for the worldly jet setter both for corporate trips and epicurean travel. In becoming a Jet Set member, one can enjoy exclusive access to the international network of premier partners, their very own dedicated aviation and lifestyle manager, ensuring an instant and exclusive year-round access to all of the services such as guaranteed availability of chartered flights, unlimited and priority booking for Jet Flex, Jet Escapes and cost pricing for on-demand jet travel and helicopter transfers.



At Big Boys Toys, for the first time we are going to offer guests a chance to become a Jet Set member and enjoy a free one month trial, to give you access to our exclusive club and bespoke luxury services year  round,  added Soudavi.



Highlight of this participation will remain the recent Aviator Lifestyle and Elixium collaboration. The private jet flyers will be served Elixiums 24-carat gold infused water and custom made bottles onboard.



Elixium is known for its artful combination of one of the purest and most exclusive waters from England. It is a product for those who take pride in healthy lifestyle as it is not only known to enhance IQ but has healing properties apart from various neurological benefits.



Elixium will offer all our Jet Set members a discount of 10% on any of the subscriptions they opt for. It will ship their orders free worldwide and as part of the subscription, it will also allow them to avail customization service. They can add a family crest or company logo free of charge, she added.



Notably, Aviator Society is a subsidiary of Citigate International and is providing the ultimate aviation experience and luxury services globally.

For more information please email enquiries@aviatorsociety.com or contact our office +97143904008



For media contact:

Hina Bakht

Vice President

MPJ (Marketing Pro-Junction)

Mob: 050 697 5146

h.bakht@mpj-pr.com

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While many of us adults are concerned about the environment for the sake of future generations, here's a story that reminds us to never underestimate the intelligence and initiative of our youngest citizens. Last week, a group of 21 young people, aged 9 to 20 years, won the right to sue the US government for its actions that cause climate change, when an Oregon federal judge ruled that the plaintiffs' lawsuit was valid and could proceed to trial.

According to Motherboard, the lawsuit, which is being spearheaded by Our Childrens Trust, a civic engagement nonprofit for youth, charges President Obama, the fossil fuel industry, and other federal agencies for violating the plantiffs' constitutional right to life, liberty, property, and to vital public trust resources, by continuing to use fossil fuels.

The lawsuit was filed in September 2015, and is supported by noted climate scientist James Hansen, who is a co-plaintiff in the case, as guardian for his granddaughter and for future generations. Since last year, lawyers for the defendants from various governmental organizations have attempted to get the case dismissed on various grounds, including the question of whether minors can defend their constitutional rights like adults, as well as asserting that climate change is not caused by humans. As the chief legal counsel for the plaintiffs, Julia Olson explains:

So this problem of carbon pollution and its terrifying consequences is not the result of inaction; it's the result of affirmative action created by the Department of Energy and other defendants to create that fossil fuel energy system for our nation. It's also the result of EPA's affirmative conduct to allow the pollution coming out of that system.

In her ruling, US District Judge Ann Aiken wrote that the case is not about "not about proving that climate change is happening or that human activity is driving it":

This action is of a different order than the typical environmental case. It alleges that defendants actions and inactionswhether or not they violate any specific statutory dutyhave so profoundly damaged our home planet that they threaten plaintiffs fundamental constitutional rights to life and liberty. [..] Federal courts too often have been cautious and overly deferential in the arena of environmental law, and the world has suffered for it.



"Biggest case on the planet"

The ruling comes right after the surprising election of billionaire businessman, reality television star and professed climate change denier Donald Trump as the next president of the United States. Trump is no stranger to lawsuits: over the last three decades, he and his businesses have been involved in over 3,500 complaints over tax and contract disputes, defamation claims, and allegations of sexual harassment.

Olson had this to say about the significance of the ruling, urging outgoing President Obama to come to an agreement with a binding court order before Trump's inauguration early next year:

We have a President-elect who is an obvious climate denier and both political branches controlled by a party rampant with climate denialism. It makes the job of the court that much more important in our constitutional democracy.

Olson has previously called the lawsuit "the biggest case on the planet", giving voice to the youngest members of society that cannot yet vote but who will no doubt inherit our mess, and hopes it will set a precedent for future federal climate lawsuits. One of the group's most vocal is 16-year-old American-born indigenous environmental youth activist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, youth director of Earth Guardians, who had this to say:

My generation is rewriting history. Were doing what so many people told us we were incapable of doing: holding our leaders accountable for their disastrous and dangerous actions. [..] I and my co-plaintiffs are demanding justice for our generation and justice for all future generations. This is going to be the trial of our lifetimes.

Read the ruling here [PDF], and more over at Motherboard, CNN, Earth Guardians and Our Childrens Trust. You can sign the youth's petition here or donate to their cause here.

[UPDATE November 15, 2016: Lightly edited for clarity.]
Kaleb Villalba, a fifth-grader at St. James Catholic School, who was dressed in a red dress shirt and a red, white and blue tie, said it was important to give thanks to veterans for giving everyone else liberty.

He was one of the fourth- through eighth-grade students from the Madison school  many dressed in red, white and blue  who sang songs and gave cards to veterans at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum Friday in honor of Veterans Day. The cards were made by the schools elementary students with help from their buddies who presented them.

In addition, students and the veterans observed a moment of silence for fallen soldiers.

Frank Bayer, who lives outside of Cross Plains and served in Vietnam for 14 months, said he was touched when a handful of kids gave him cards.

I read every one of them. It brought some tears to my eyes, said Bayer, who enlisted in the Army when he was 17. Im a big Veterans Day fan.

Every year he attends a ceremony at American Legion Post 245 in Cross Plains and is part of a crew that puts up flags for the day and participates in other observances.

Steve Broniarczyk, who is from Indianapolis but was in town for business and has lived in Wisconsin in the past, also took part in the event after seeing it listed on the museums website. He was part of the Marquette University ROTC program and retired from the Army in 2012 after 27 years of service with deployments to Haiti and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

It was a very moving ceremony seeing younger people celebrating America and singing patriotic songs, he said. It gave me a lot of hope for the way our country is headed.

Michael McCabe, St. James principal, said the event fit in well with the schools mission because service is at the heart of what we do and he figured it would have a high impact on students.

Fifth-grader Lilly Moschkau said it was good to think about veterans, and her grandfathers who served were on her mind during the event.

I think the veterans really appreciate us, said fifth-grader Ainsley Lonergan. It feels really good because it feels like youre helping.

This was the first time the museum coordinated the event, said Karen Burch, a senior marketing specialist who served as a journalist in the Marine Corps.

Burch said that she and Erin Hoag, curator of education at the museum, wanted to provide an educational opportunity for children and a feel-good moment for veterans.

Children are so sincere in their feelings and expression, she said.
WASHINGTON  House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., defended Steve Bannon as a top adviser in Donald Trump's White House, praising the political strategist despite critics who note he has provided a platform for white nationalism.

Ryan, who said he talks to Trump every day now, dismissed the furor over Bannon, saying the former editor of Breitbart News was crucial to the Republican president-elect's success.

"This is a person who helped him win an incredible victory," Ryan said Tuesday. "We're confident about moving forward. We're confident about the transition."

Ryan also brushed aside the attacks launched by Bannon and Breitbart against him that criticized the speaker as part of the GOP establishment. Ryan had been slow to embrace Trump, then wavered once he did.

"I'm not looking backward, I'm looking forward," Ryan said. "I'm looking for how we make this work for the American people."
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, November 14

After the conclusion of three-day strike today against the monetary restrictions following demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, major wholesale markets of the city will resume functioning from tomorrow.

Demonetisation of two currency notes coupled with a three-day strike dealt a blow to the business. Its impact is palpable on the retail sector, as the flow of customers has dwindled.

The Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal (PPMB) president, PL Seth, said combined transactions worth at least Rs 200 crore could not materialise in various wholesale, retail, tourism and other trades in the city since the severe liquidity restrictions were put in force by the Union Government.

The PPBM shot off a communique to Prime Minister Narendera Modi. It stated that following demonetisation, severe restrictions had been placed on withdrawal of money from the bank accounts, resulting in harassment of the common man.

Only 400 million people out of a 1,350-million population hold bank accounts. It means that only 30 per cent of our population is equipped with bank accounts, it quipped. The data also takes into account the bank accounts opened under the Jan Dhan Yojna.

Further, exchange restrictions had been placed on exchange of currency, which was further subject to production of IDs in spite of the slow progress of issuing Aadhaar cards and failure to equip all with these cards. The demonetized currency constitutes 88 per cent of Indian currency in vogue. So, it is for sure that the central government is aware of the fact that demonetization cannot be effected without mayhem and chaos. It cannot be compared with the demonetization move of 1978, when Rs 1,000 notes were possessed by a few thousands.

It expressed the fear that it would cost the exchequer thousands of crores and not without making beggars out of breadwinners.

Meanwhile, consumer spending had been severely curtailed while the liquidity crisis had given rise to a credit-based economy.

A trader, Bishan Singh, said common people were buying only necessary articles for their kitchens and their families from their backyard grocery stores on credit. On the other hand, people with credit and ATM cards could procure essential items from reputed chain stores where swipe facilities were available.

Popular wholesale markets like the Shastri market, Bazar Tahli Wala, Pratap bazaar, Majith Mandi, Swank Mandi, Mishri bazaar and others were closed today.

Retail markets were open, but footfall of customers was very low.
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, November 14

A youth was attacked and critically injured by several armed persons in the Kirpal Colony area, falling under the Sadar police station, here last evening. He later succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in the late evening.

The deceased, identified as Manjinder Singh, had returned from Malaysia and was going to change currency along with his brother Chand Masih when they were attacked. The accused suspected that Manjinder and his family were helping his cousin to elope with their cousin sister and solemnize their marriage against the wishes of their family members.

Manjinder had returned from Malaysia, as his wife was pregnant and expecting a child in the next few days.

The police have registered a case under Sections 302, 307, 379-B (2), 427, 120-B, 148 and 149 of the IPC in this connection. They have booked around seven persons while no arrest has been made so far. Among those booked include Sahil alias Shalu, Kulit Singh, George Masih and Rahul, all residents of Kirpal Colony and three unidentified persons.

SHO, Sadar police station, Sukhwinder Singh Randhawa said the accused were at large and raids were being conducted to arrest them. He said the body was handed over to the family after a post-mortem examination.

Sunil Masih, the brother of Chand Masih, stated to the police that he, his elder brother, Chand Masih, and Manjinder Singh were going to exchange Malaysian currency on a motorcycle. He said when they reached a narrow lane, the accused armed with swords and sharp weapons surrounded and attacked them. Sahil shouted, Catch them and teach them a lesson for helping Raja (their cousin) for eloping with their cousin.
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, November 14

A large number of devotees today thronged gurdwaras in the city to mark Gurpurb celebrations. While devotees took a holy dip in the Sirhind canal to celebrate Kartik Purnima.

Gurpurb  the Parkash Utsav of Guru Nanak Dev, the 1st Sikh Guru,  was celebrated with enthusiasm and fervour by people across the city today.

Various programmes were organised at illuminated gurdwaras to mark the occasion. Residents lit candles at the gurdwaras in the evening. Hundreds of devotees thronged Gurdwara Qila Mubarak to pay obeisance on the pious occasion. Langars (free community food) were also organised on the occasion.

The other gurdwaras of the city, Hazi Rattan Sahib, Model Town gurdwara and Singh Sabha Sahib also witnessed a huge number of devotees who attended these places to mark the celebrations.

Kartik Purnima is celebrated on the full moon day or the fifteenth lunar day of Kartik (NovemberDecember). The day also marks the triumph of Lord Shiva over demon Tripurasura. To rejoice the end of the demon, the Devas celebrated Deepavali and hence, the name Dev Deepavali.

A large number of people celebrated the festival in the city. Temples were also decorated with earthen lamps to symbolise the victory of good over evil.
Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 15

The helpline (1860-180-2067) started by the Chandigarh Administration to address grievances and answer queries of the public relating to the exchange and withdrawal of currency from banks was flooded with calls from residents on the first day of its opening.

Aggrieved people, who faced problems in getting money at various banks, kept the helpline staff busy throughout the day. More than 350 calls were received in a single day. Sources said a majority of the complaints were regarding scarcity of new notes in banks.

There were complaints that banks were giving preference to their customers and were refusing to exchange the currency of others.

When one of the callers standing in a queue outside a bank complained that employees were only entertaining their account holders, the helpline staff contacted the manager of the bank and asked him to meet the caller. The manager spoke to the aggrieved resident and explained the situation, said an official managing the helpline. When some people complained that their identity proofs such as Aadhaar card were misused by someone, they were told to contact the police as it was a criminal case. Sources said the helpline received some calls in which residents were shocked to know that some other persons had exchanged currency using the photo copy their Aadhaar cards or other identity proofs. There were a few callers who wanted to know whether they could withdraw up to Rs 5 lakh for a marriage in their family. Some even made complaints against banks. Calls received from Punjab, Haryana Besides residents of Chandigarh, calls were also received from Haryana and Punjab on the helpline.
Tribune News Service

Mohali, November 15

The Mohali police rounded up a person after recovering Rs 19 lakh, all in Rs 1,000 notes, from his possession at the airport here this afternoon.

Inspector Harsimran Singh Bal, in-charge of the police station at the airport, said the person in question was Ved Parkash Kataria, a resident of Greater Kailash, New Delhi.

We rounded him up during checking at the airport. Kataria landed here from a Delhi-bound flight this afternoon. During the search of his luggage, we recovered the cash, said the inspector.

The cash was wrapped in 19 packets and put in the folds of clothes, said the police.

After lodging a daily diary report, the police informed Income Tax Department officials and handed over Katatria and the cash to them.

Investigations are on, said an IT official.

Kataria runs a company, Kataria Weltech Private Company, at Zirakpur.
Tribune News Service

Mohali, November 15

The recovery of three peacock carcasses near fields at Ramgarh Daun village has put Forest Department officials on alert here.

The reason behind the officials anxiety is stated to be the suspected death of the birds, two peahens and a peacock, due to avian influenza or bird flu.

Taking no chances, the officials, who reached the spot and seized the carcasses, sent samples to the Regional Detection Centre, a government laboratory, at Jalandhar for forensic examination.

Confirming the development, District Forest Officer Harbhajan Singh said some deaths of birds had been reported due to bird flu in the North India recently.

We have sent the samples for bird flu tests to Jalandhar, said the DFO.

While Harbhajan Singh said only three carcasses had been recovered, residents of the area claimed that nearly 20 birds had died.

The officials also collected samples of the soil of nearby fields to ascertain whether some insecticide or pesticide sprayed there could be behind the birds death.

The birds seemed to have died in the past two days, said the DFO. Some residents informed the authorities about the deaths yesterday. The Forest Department has registered a case under Section 9 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, in this connection.
Hasan Suroor

ON the morning of Donald Trumps election victory, Britains Daily Mirror devoted its front page to a picture of an uncontrollably sobbing Statue of Liberty. The Lady had snuffed out the torch and dispensed with the tablet; covered her tear-filled face in shame with both hands; and was asking: What have they done?

Well, they had done what societies do when they go into decline exposing the faultlines papered over in good times. All sorts of pent-up frustrations come out in the open. And people abandon their long-cherished idealsfor coarser instincts. Trumps shock election means that Americas long-term economic decline is now mirrored by a political and cultural decline reflecting a deep crisis of self-confidence, and a loss of faith in its future and role in the world.

The silent American majority has spoken and it has said no  very loudly and very unambiguously  to the old idea of a self-confident, liberal and outward looking America (something similar to Indian voters rejection two years ago, of the old, so-called Nehruvian idea of India). And, instead, voted for a timid, inward-looking, shrunken, sour-faced and unwelcoming America. The Washington Post noted that Trumps victory was a victory of illiteracy, ignorance, and cruelty.

Mr Trump was the cruellest candidate since George Wallace. How he won on fear and bile is for political pathologists to study, wrote writer and broadcaster Garrison Keillor.

The arch racist Ku Klux Klan (KKK) proudly claimed Trump as one of its own and boasted that it had put him in the White House. Make no mistake about it. Donald J Trump owes his victory to the South, it said referring to the countrys southern belt with its legacy of KKK-inspired racist violence. No wonder, Trumps slogan, Make America great again is seen by many to mean Make America white again; a call for a return to white supremacy against which millions of Americans fought shoulder-to-shoulder, often at great personal cost, to build a tolerant and culturally diverse modern America.

When a nation starts harking back to a mythical great past it is the surest sign of its cultural decay. Historically, great nations have not become great by retreating into the past; and turning their backs against the future. They have become great by moving forward and embracing the future. And few countries exemplify this better than America. Trumps thumping win on the back of a revivalist campaign is a symptom of a profound crisis at the heart of all that America has stood for; or claimed to stand for. So, it has chosen to be led by a man who in recent months has gone out of his way to show contempt for core American values, including respect for diversity, inclusiveness, an independent judiciary, and, at one point, the democratic process itself, as The New York Times columnist Roger Cohen put it.

What were witnessing  in the jargon of the day is American decline live in slow motion. Trumps entry is the culmination of a long-simmering institutional crisis which has seen nearly every great American institution  the presidency, the judiciary, the army and the security establishment  compromised. It worsened under George W Bushs dysfunctional eight-year presidency when moral and intellectual corruption was allowed to seep into the deepest recesses of key national institutions in the name of fighting terrorism. Many of the popular resentments that Trump was able to milk so effectively have their roots in the Bush era. Organisations designed to uphold and protect constitutional values lost their credibility and came to be seen as part of a rigged system  fuelling anger to a point that people were willing to take a punt on anyone who promised to rid them of the current lot.

However, the story of American decline is part of the bigger story of Wests decline in general. To borrow the American philosopher Harold Blooms phrase, theres a closing of minds going on all over Europe with critical thinking and rational argument, trumped by the basest of nativist instincts. Take Brexit. For all the guff about EU red tape and regaining national sovereignty, ultimately it was about keeping out the ugly foreigners. Which then gave legs to Trumps campaign who famously promised to deliver Brexit-plus-plus-plus.

A wave of crude populism, directed at the lowest common denominator and intended to mine their most irrational prejudices, is sweeping Europe. Almost every European country France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary  has its version of Donald Trump and  in the words of Bernie Sanders  his racist, sexist, xenophobic policies. And they see in his victory a vindication of their own insular worldview. It has given them democratic legitimacy. The Times, London, warned that the continent should brace itself for at least eight Trump moments over the coming months as several countries gear up for polls. Watch out.

Authenticity is the new buzz word. In plain English, it means dismissing civilised behaviour and discourse as political correctness; and being able to be openly rude to people on the basis of their ethnicity, faith or gender. To be abusive is equated with charisma, native charm, and having the courage to tell it, as it is. Trump and his band of authentic European fellow travellers are the new face of a dumbed down Western political culture. And from the looks of it theyre here to stay.

It is being claimed that Trump understood the American mood better than the woolly liberals cocooned in their self-created bubble. (He) heard voices other people werent hearing, claimed Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House of Representatives, who himself pointedly refused to endorse Trump, and described his insulting remarks about a Hispanic judge as the textbook definition of a racist comment.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. The fact is that the Trump camp was as surprised by his victory as were his critics. Apparently, Trump himself was visibly shocked  hardly the reaction of a man who, it is now being claimed, was able to hear voices, others didnt. Trump got to connect with people not because he had some deep insight into their psyche but because the latent racism and jingoism in American society happened to coincide with his polarising rhetoric. That a KKK-endorsed and foul-mouthed demagogue resonated so well with so many people is not an exactly happy comment on modern America.

Meanwhile, its noteworthy that in the space of two years, two of the worlds largest liberal democracies  first India and now America  have opted to be led by right-wing nationalist rabble-rousers. Are the liberals hearing the bell toll? Its tolling for you, dear.

The writer is an Indian columnist based in Britain
Sandeep Dikshit

Sandeep Dikshit

CANADA stands out like a beacon amidst the contracting prospects for migrating or studying abroad in the old haunts such as the United States and the United Kingdom. The 2015 elections reinforced Canada's liberal and inclusive culture by voting in a party that has given representation to all ethnic groups. Of all the immigrant groups, the Indians  with 19 representatives elected to the Canadian Parliament  have been the politically most successful. The new Canadian government, led by Justin Trudeau, intends opening the doors wider for immigrants with a new Citizenship Act. The Canadian Immigration Minister John McCallum, a firm believer in multiculturalism, tells The Tribune about Canada's low threshold for dishonest people, the gradually improving prospects for Indians moving to Canada and the pitfalls all potential immigrants must avoid or overcome.

Mr Minister you are fresh from a visit to the Golden Temple. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has won the US Presidential polls and the official Canadian immigration website is down. It seems many liberal Americans seem to be thinking of migrating to Canada if Trump wins. Is there space left for Indians?

(Laughs). We are an immigration-friendly country. We welcome immigrants because of an ageing population and labour shortage. Most of the migration is coming from India, the Philippines and China (the Minister had earlier visited the other two countries).

There is lots of space for Indians. We are the second-biggest country in the world. Don't worry about that. Movement from India has been up 60 per cent, most of them students. But we won't tolerate fraud and dishonesty in applications. There are many ways to come to Canada but many people are taken for a ride by fraud advisers. Individuals don't know an honest adviser from a dishonest one. Potential immigrants have to be careful about this.

Canada offers an advantage for honest people. People being dishonest or being guided by fraudsters is an issue in many countries.

What kind of people does Canada especially welcome?

If people are skilled or are open to re-skilling, companies are more likely to invest and create jobs. But we welcome everyone. Canada is accepting 25,000 people from Syria and then there are thousands of international students who are getting Permanent Residency (PR) cards.

There are reports of some Indians who went as students and find it hard to survive. Also, there are immigrants who find it difficult to adjust.

We have made changes in the Temporary Foreign Workers Programme. Companies need government approval, called Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) system, before hiring a foreign worker. It has to show that no Canadian had applied for that position. We have divided the LMIA into two categories: high wage and low wage. Employers can offer foreign workers temporary high-wage jobs with a transition plan.

International students had a hard time becoming PRs. But we, (the current government), believe that international students should be the top choice to become Canadians. We are an ageing country, we need people.

More changes are on the way. In a week (November 19), we will award points for certain job offers made to workers in Canada who do not have a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA), additional points for candidates with a Canadian education, and an extension on the validity of Invitations to Apply (ITAs) for permanent residence. My constituents are also unhappy with the growing wait times to sponsor family members as immigrants. We can do many more changes quickly.

What makes Canada a standout among developed countries in being welcoming to immigrants?

There are a number of factors. As a country, we are committed to a multicultural policy. This has been the case for many decades. Asians form a substantial chunk of immigrants. One-third of them are Chinese, 20 per cent Indians and 10 per cent other South Asians. This works well and Canada understands that.

In fact, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had welcomed the first planeload of Syrian refugees.

But we can't take the liberal immigration policy for granted. We have got to manage this carefully. Many Canadians don't want immigration. In fact, many earlier immigrants are among them. As a country though most Canadians welcome immigrants.

Some people from India have faced the rough end of Canadian justice. What is your advice for newcomers to Canada?

I repeat please don't take undue advantage by being dishonest. Please understand our laws. We don't tolerate domestic abuse or sexual harassment. Canada offers pre-arrival training sessions that go through all aspects of Canadian life. People must take language training as well as skill enhancement. I want to say that Canada is a welcoming country. We don't discriminate by religion, ethnicity or anything of that kind. But I am also saying you have to play by the rules in terms of honesty. And if you enhance your language and vocational skills, you will be well taken care of.

sandeep4731@gmail.com

Measures to facilitate immigration

Double immigration applications for parents and grand-parents sponsorship to 10,000 visas per year

Double the budget for processing family class immigration applications to reduce time for waiting

Restoring free access to healthcare for refugee/asylum seekers.

Coming soon: Increase points allocation to applicants who have siblings in Canada on their Express Entry application. Work in progress on this one. Eliminate the $1000 fee for seeking caregivers for family members with physical or mental disabilities.

Part of proposed Bill: Easier for international students to achieve Canadian Citizenship by making adjustments to the Canadian Experience Class programme that will "remove barriers" to international students.

Restore the Canadian Citizenship residency time credit for international students in Canada. This is pending before the senate.

About to happen: Bypass the two year wait period for "conditional permanent residence" for spouses of sponsored individuals.

Restore the maximum age for dependents from 19 to 22, making it easier for immigrants to bring their older children to Canada.
ORLANDO, Fla.  The nations Republican governors met Tuesday in battleground Florida where they were giddy at the opportunity for disruptive changes to wrest power from Washington following the election of Donald Trump.

Wisconsins Scott Walker, the incoming chairman of the Republican Governors Association, said that the skys the limit and that the possibilities are endless now that there was a Republican president and a Republican majority in Congress.

Walker and other governors ticked off a long list of areas they would like to gain more control over whether it was education, transportation, workplace rules, health care or environmental policies.

But it was clear that there was not unanimity on how to unwind President Barack Obamas health care overhaul that included an expansion of Medicaid. An estimated 20 million Americans are now receiving coverage through different elements of the overhaul including Medicaid, or through health care exchanges.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott called the overhaul a disaster and repeated several times that Republicans need to repeal it entirely, although he suggested they find a way to retain some more popular sectionssuch as the one allowing parents to keep their children on their policies until they turn 26.

It doesnt work, its didnt control costs, it was a complete lie, said Scott, a former health care executive who ran one of the nations largest hospital chains and was forced out amid a federal investigation that resulted in the company paying a record fine of $1.7 billion for Medicaid fraud.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, however, said she expected people to continue to enroll for insurance using health care exchanges as long as its the law and that they cant just take away insurance from people who have it now.
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 14

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia today inaugurated 'Delhi Pavilion' at the India International Trade Fair here having a theme of 'Digital Delhi', showcasing government's various digital initiatives, including e-governance.

He was accompanied by Minister of Industries Satyendar Jain, Environment Minister Imran Hussain and Chief Secretary K. K. Sharma

The initiatives included online VAT registration, Swachh Delhi App, online sanction for building plans, and introduction of medicine vending machines, application for sewer and water connection, shop, Udhyog Adhar Naumber, construction permit, payment of electricity connection etc .

Addressing the media, Sisodia said the AAP government's ambitious project, 'Mohalla Clinics' was also at the centre of attraction at the pavilion which also showcased reduction in power bills, free water up to 700 litres, smart school classes and car-free day.

Sisodia along with Satyendar Jain and Imran Hussain, visited stalls of different departments installed at the pavilion.

He said the government is planning to switch over to e-governance completely which primarily means governance by application of information and communication technology.

Among the digital works started are online registration of VAT and shops, online sanction of building plans for residential, commercial, industrial and warehouse buildings with Common Application Form.
Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are similar personalities. Both have a macho outlook towards life and are not afraid of flaunting it. But the political, economic and security structures of their respective nations are poles apart. The world has suffered massive collateral damage whenever the two nations have jostled for influence. Clinton would have been predictable. Trump's victory opens an unprecedented window of opportunity to reset ties. Other countries that get caught in the slipstream of US-Russia rivalry may also breathe easy. Trump's ability to recalibrate America's relationship with Russia will also depend on the people he appoints in key positions and the interests they represent. Currently Russia and the US are locked in confrontation on Syria and Ukraine. The signs for a reset are portentous. There is a sense of weariness over the protracted and resource-draining conflicts in both countries.

Both men will have to draw upon the last ounce of their political capital to bring about a rapprochement on Ukraine and Syria. The US will have to give up its insistence on removing Assad and Russia has to agree on carving Syria into autonomous republics. On Ukraine, Russia has to demonstrate compliance with the Minsk agreement for the US to lift sanctions. This approach may take care of the topical hotspots, a big achievement in itself. But there are existential differences as well. The intent of both leaders may not be enough to normalise US-Russia relations.

US-Russia disagreements on the fundamental principles of international relations are too large to be ever bridged. They can start by reviewing their zero sum game in greater Europe. For a start, the two along with the European Union should revisit the 1990 Charter of Paris for a New Europe. It had resolved to focus on non-security institutions to foster togetherness. Russia may respond warmly if NATO walks back from its borders. There may be other unintended spin-offs. The Kremlin could be encouraged to abandon its siege mentality. This will open up the space for the pro-West factions in Russia to become more active without inviting the wrath of the state. The rub is Trump is Hillarys polar opposite.
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 15

The Haryana Cabinet today approved re-employment of doctors till the age of 65 years and the setting up of a separate Department of Sainik Welfare to provide better services to ex-servicemen (ESM).

The Cabinet approved the recommendations of the Committee of Officers headed by the Chief Secretary to increase the retirement age of doctors of the Health Department. The Cabinet approved the policy decision to give an offer to doctors, who have retired from the Haryana Civil Medical Service (HCMS) and are below 65 years of age to get re-employed on the principle of last pay drawn minus pension for discharging only clinical duties in a hospital of their choice.

Only those doctors, who are below 65 years of age and have at least one year remaining to attain 65 years on the date of filing application will be eligible for re-employment. They may indicate three hospitals in the order of priority, where they would like to get posted.

The Department of Sainik Welfare, with an independent Administrative Secretary, will be staffed mostly by ex-servicemen who are in a better position to understand the difficulties and needs of ex-servicemen, war widows and dependents. At present, the Haryana Rajya Sainik Board (RSB) provides services to ex-servicemen and widows.

The existing Zila Sainik Boards (ZSB) will be renamed as District Sainik Welfare Offices (DSWO) and the Zila Sainik Welfare Officers will now be called as Additional Director, Sainik Welfare-cum-Zila Sainik Welfare Offices.

To improve connectivity between Faridabad and Greater Noida, the Cabinet approved the proposal of the Public Works (Building and Roads) Department for construction of a two-lane road connecting Faridabad-Jassana-Chirsi-Manjhawali-Sheikpur in Haryana and Atta Gujran with Greater Noida Expressway in UP .

With the completion of the project, there will be a reduction of 40 kms distance between Faridabad and Greater Noida.

The Cabinet also approved the proposal of the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department for permanent allotment of a plot in the new Grain Market, Ateli, to the Swami Jagannath Charitable Trust, Ateli, to set up a free charitable dispensary.
Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 15

Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and other Congress leaders today met Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and demanded a special session of the Assembly in view of the Supreme Court verdict on the Sutlej-Yamuna link (SYL) canal and Punjabs refusal to honour it.

We have told the Chief Minister that it is a now or never battle for Haryana. We have asked him to take a strong stand on the issue. We have offered our partys complete support in such endeavours, Hooda told The Tribune after coming out of Khattars official residence.

Earlier, speaking to mediapersons after a meeting of MLAs, ex-MLAs, an MP, ex-MPs and other leaders, Hooda demanded dismissal of Parkash Singh Badal government and imposition of Presidents Rule in Punjab as the SAD-BJP government had been working against the federal structure of the country.

What will happen if Haryana starts behaving like Punjab and blocks the entry of that states inhabitants to Delhi? The national capital is surrounded by our state from three sides. The people of Haryana will not act in the manner the Punjab Government has been working, Hooda said.

He demanded that the Centre should get SYL canal construction completed under its supervision and continue with the Presidents Rule till water started flowing in the canal. He added that there was no legal obstacle and only execution of the Supreme Court judgment was required.

The ball is now in the Centres court. The BJP is the ruling party in Haryana and a partner in Punjab. We hope that the BJP government at the Centre will get the Supreme Court decision implemented immediately and do justice to the people of Haryana, he said.

The Congress delegation would call on the Governor and urge him not to assent any Bill passed by the Punjab Assembly which was contrary to the verdict, he said.

The delegation would meet the Prime Minister and President as well and request them to expedite implementation of the Supreme Court judgment.

Earlier, former Speaker Kuldeep Sharma said 12 Congress MLAs, 42 ex-MLAs, one Rajya Sabha MP, three ex-MPs, three HPCC ex-presidents and 15 AICC members authorised Hooda to lead the partys fight on the SYL issue.

A meeting of party leaders would be organised in Jind on December 11 to decide the future course of action on the issue.
Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 15

With Punjab upping the ante against parting with more water for Haryana through the SYL canal and unanimity among Haryanas political parties to secure its water share, the states BJP government has decided to convene an all-party meeting for November 17 here. While the INLD and the Congress, the two main opposition parties, have already held separate meetings to deliberate on the Punjab stand, the government has decided to convene the meeting to bring all parties on a common platform.

Sources said the government was keen on seeking suggestions from various leaders in dealing with the situation after the Supreme Court ruled on the SYL canal in favour of Haryana.

While Punjab is mincing no words in declaring that it will not part with one drop of water for Haryana despite the verdict, Haryana and the government dont want to take this lying down.

By taking everybody on board, the government wants to make a concerted and collective effort to give a befiting reply to Punjab and its government for denying Haryana its due.

The INLD has served an ultimatum on the Centre to begin construction of the SYL before February 23 failing which the party will take on this responsibility. The Congress under former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has already announced the adhikar sangharsh while demanding dismissal of the Punjab government.

Earlier this month, during the on-day special session of the Haryana assembly to mark the golden jubilee celebrations of the state, the government, on the insistence of the Opposition, had brought a resolution condemning Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badals statement that Punjab and Punjabis will not accept any verdict against the states interest on river waters. The resolution was unanimously passed by the Assembly.
Praveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, November 15

Bhiwani MLA Ghanshyam Saraf's official car crushed a 48-year-old woman to death near Uchana village on National Highway 1 on Tuesday.

The deceased has been identified as Rishidhar, while her daughter Sameera (18) was injured.

People blocked the road as the MLA was alleged to be in the vehicle when the mishap occurred.

Protesters tried to vandalise the vehicle and the police restored to a mild cane-charge.

Police have confiscated the vehicle.

Saraf refused the allegation of negligence and over-speeding. He said the incident took place while over-taking a bus.
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, November 15

The Supreme Court on Tuesday restrained a Panchkula trial court from pronouncing judgment in a 1999 rape case against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra passed the order on a plea by the Dera chief that he was unable to defend himself effectively as some of the witnesses statements were not being brought on record during the trial.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The bench, however, clarified that the trial could proceed and asked the CBI to file its response to the contention by the accused.

On July 1, the apex court had refused to entertain two petitions of the dera chief seeking additional handwriting samples of the alleged rape victim and another for producing further evidence in the trial court at Panchkula.

The accused had pleaded that more handwriting samples of the victim were crucial for establishing his innocence.

If it was a rape or consensual sex will be examined by the trial court by going into the evidence, the bench had remarked while dismissing the appeals against the high court rulings.

The accused is on bail in the case.
Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, November 15

With the successful trial run of electric buses on the ecologically fragile Manali-Rohtang route, it is being expected that these battery operated buses will start plying by the next summer season as per the directions of the National Green Tribunal.

The Board of Directors (BoDs) of the HRTC will be meeting shortly to take a final call on inviting Ashok Leyland and Gold Stone, who have evinced interest in providing these electric buses. So far, no other state is running these electric buses on such a long route and tough hilly terrain.

The trial run of the electric bus by Gold Stone Company has been successful on the Manali-Rohtang route and now Ashok Leyland is also expected to send its vehicle for trial run in December. The BoDs of will soon take a call on whether to go ahead with the purchase of the electric vehicles or stick to the mandatory participation by three companies, said Transport Minister GS Bali.

Though seven companies, including Mahindra, Tata, Kiti and the JBM, had shown interest in supplying electric buses, the bids have been sent in only by Gold Stone and Ashok Leyland. No automobile company in India is manufacturing battery-operated buses and these will have to imported from abroad.

He hoped that in case the BODs gave the go-ahead, then after completion of all the formalities, the state government should be in a position to have these vehicles running on the Manali-Rohtang route from the next summer season.

Tata was also keen to supply electric buses but since they had sought time to be able to meet the requirement, the Himachal Government is in no mood to delay the process any further in view of the NGT directives.

The Ministry of Surface Transport has already agreed to provide 75 per cent funding to Himachal for purchase of 25 electric buses. Each bus is likely to cost about Rs 2 crore. The Centre has also agreed to provide 90 per cent funding for purchase of the smaller electric buses, which will cost much less.

Since the laying of the CNG pipeline between Una to Manali by GAIL will take six months, the purchase of CNG buses has been put on hold till January 31, 2017. The HRTC has also decided to purchase 20 CNG buses with each vehicle to cost about Rs 60 lakh. The CNG Mother Station will come up in Una and the Daughter Station at Manali.
Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, November 15

Even as the authorities today opened 294 government schools, situated within 5-km radius of the International Border, attendance in these educational institutions was thin because of the fear among the border inhabitants.

These educational institutions were closed after the worst-ever shelling from across border on November 1, in which eight civilians, including two children, were killed.

While many schools located near the Line of Control (LoC) are still closed due to unabated shelling, the authorities opened the schools situated near the border to resume classes. In all, 174 schools reopened in Jammu, 62 in Kathua district and 58 in Samba.

Seeking to downplay thin attendance of students in the school, Chief Education Officer (CEO), Kathua, Balbir Singh told The Tribune that many educational institutions were reopened today after a gap of 15 days, so we were expecting thin attendance. The attendance will be 100 per cent within a couple of days, he said.

To provide relief to the students affected due to shelling from across the border, the authorities have adjusted some of the students in schools of the safer zones so that their studies are not affected.

While hoping that functioning in the schools situated on the International Border would be streamlined very soon, Jammu CEO JS Sudan said the decision on the schools located on the LoC would be taken after assessing the prevailing situation. He added that on the first day, attendance was average, but studies would be normal in the border areas soon.

Highly-placed sources said on Monday morning, the authorities had decided to open all the schools situated on the International Border and the LoC, but due to fresh ceasefire violation on the LoC in Akhnoor and Nowshera areas, the authorities deferred its decision to open schools situated on the LoC.

A teacher of one of the government schools of Kathua, preferring anonymity, told The Tribune despite the decision of the authorities to open the schools, residents of border areas were still gripped with fear. They will wait for some days before sending their children to schools, especially those studying in institutions situated near the border, he said.

Director School Education Babita Rakwal told The Tribune that the study of students was suffering due to the prevailing situation on the border, so the authorities had decided to open the schools situated near the border.
Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, November 15

In the last four months of unrest, the number of militants in Kashmir has seen a sharp rise of over 54 per cent from less than 200 to nearly 300, posing a challenge to the security forces which are already battling infiltration and ceasefire violations.

The number of militants has increased despite 44 of them getting killed this year so far. A majority of the militants were eliminated along the LoCwhile attempting to infiltrate during the unrest following the killing of Burhan Wani on July 8.

Militancy will be the main threat in the coming months and the forces are ready to tackle the situation, said Inspector General, Operations, CRPF, Kashmir, Zulfiqar Hassan.

According to official figures, 179 militants were active before the unrest broke out in July and now the number is between 275 and 300.

The increase in the number of militants has been largely due to the spurt in infiltration and nearly 50 local youth have taken up arms during the unrest.

The new recruits are mostly associated with indigenous militant group Hizbul Mujahideen and the Lashkar-e-Toiba, which continue to remain the most dominant outfits in Kashmir.

A senior police officer said at present nearly 220 militants were listed with various security agencies in Kashmir. Of them, 115 are locals and the rest foreigners. The rest of the militants are yet to come on the security radar, even as there are inputs about their presence in various districts.

Those militants who have not been listed have sneaked in recent months and are hiding in forest areas, the officer said, adding that the increase in number of militants is a cause for concern.

A senior officer of the Central Armed Police Forces said the coming months would bring a whole lot of challenges on the militancy front.
WASHINGTON  Speaker Paul Ryan unanimously won his GOP colleagues votes on Tuesday for another term at the helm of the House. He told fellow Republicans he had President-elect Donald Trumps support, and heralded the dawn of a new, unified Republican government.

It feels really good to say that actually, Ryan, of Janesville, told reporters. This will be a government focused on turning President-elect Trumps victory into real progress for the American people.

While victory was the GOP unifier, Democrats were verging on disarray. House Democrats abruptly announced Tuesday that they were delaying their own leadership elections set for Thursday until Nov. 30 to give lawmakers more time to process disastrous election results.

Its not clear whether the election delay might morph into a real challenge to Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. She has led House Democrats for more than 12 years and has consolidated support with strong fundraising and an ability to deliver votes, but theres long been grumbling from Democrats who say new leadership is needed at the top.

As for Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican still has to win a floor vote for speaker in January, when all members of the House will cast ballots, including Democrats.

But he secured the nomination at a closed-door GOP conference vote Tuesday with the strong backing of his fellow House Republicans, even though a few conservative dissenters pushed unsuccessfully to delay the balloting.

Those grumblings of dissent could hardly be heard over the buzz of enthusiasm as House Republicans convened for their first regular conference meeting since Trump won the presidential election. Even though a number of House Republicans, including Ryan, had opposed Trump or were critical along the way, most said theyre now firmly on board and prepared to try to enact Trumps agenda on immigration, infrastructure, energy and jobs.

Republicans also backed Californias Kevin McCarthy to continue as majority leader and Steve Scalise of Louisiana to stay on in the No. 3 job of House whip.

Lawmakers trooped out of their morning meeting in the basement of the Capitol smiling, pledging quick action to roll back President Barack Obamas accomplishments and clutching red Make America Great Again hats.

That was a nice fun touch. Now heres my problem: Every member wants it autographed, said GOP Rep. Chris Collins of New York, who has been tapped as congressional liaison to the transition team.

During the meeting, Ryan told colleagues that hed spoken Tuesday morning with Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who said that he and Trump are very supportive of the leadership team and are looking forward to working with them, said Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo.

Coming after a campaign full of very public GOP infighting and clashes between Ryan and Trump, its a validating moment, said Lummis.

Republicans had widely been seen at risk of losing the Senate and suffering major losses in the House, but instead lost just two Senate seats and a half-dozen in the House, giving them full-scale control of Washington for the first time in a decade.

For Democrats, ill-feeling was only magnified in defeat.

Everythings not good. Business as usual is not gonna work, said Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz. This is about our constituents. Saying we have heard you. We have clearly missed the mark with regard to legislation and messaging.

For Republicans, though, it was heady times after theyve spent years watching their legislative priorities get stymied, if not by Democrats in the Senate then by Obamas veto pen.

The situation also brings risks since Republicans will have no one to blame but themselves if they cant deliver on Trumps promises. Already GOP leaders and Trump himself have been shifting on some of his pledges, including the border wall and a full repeal of Obamas health care law.

On Tuesday, Ryan refused to answer directly when asked if Congress would go along with Trumps plan to spend $1 trillion on infrastructure. These are things were working on. ... The point is Donald Trump wants jobs, he said.

Ryan also avoided a direct answer on Trumps appointment of Stephen Bannon to a senior White House role. Bannons Breitbart website, which embraces white nationalist currents, has frequently singled out Ryan himself for attacks.

Look, I would just simply say that the president is going to be judged on his results, Ryan said. Im not looking backwards, Im looking forward.

In the Senate, Republicans and Democrats were meeting separately Wednesday to pick their leadership teams. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is keeping his job in a chamber that Republicans will control by 52-48. Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is retiring after a 30-year Senate career and will be replaced by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Usha Albuquerque

At a time when the country is going through a major monetary upheaval with the demonetisation of old Rs 500 & 1000 notes, it is pertinent to look at our financial services and the opportunities that a moment in history, even like this, can throw up for us.

The scope of financial services in India has grown manifold in recent years. Almost all of the world class financial services institutions and foreign banks have established their presence in India, as have a large number of mutual funds, venture capital funds and private equity funds with substantial foreign investments creating conditions for increased job and career opportunities in the financial services sector.

Financial Services cover a range of services that deal with the management of money and provided by the finance market, such as commercial banks, investment banks, insurance companies, credit card companies and stock brokerages and so on. The finance industry is multifaceted, offering a variety of positions catering to a number of different skills and interests.

Here are some common career paths in the financial-services industry:

Corporate Finance

Corporate finance jobs involve working for a company in the capacity of finding and managing the capital necessary to run the enterprise, and maximising corporate value and profits while reducing financial risk. With the enormous growth of a network of financial institutions and services there is an increasing need for professionally trained financial managers to handle financial planning and decision making, crucial to every business enterprise. Finance managers handle not just the conventional auditing and accounting, but also a vast range of activities like fund raising, treasury management, investment banking, money market operations, financial and strategy consulting, negotiating lines of credit, coordinating with outside auditors, and possibly mergers and acquisitions where required.

Those with strong analytical and reasoning ability and a feel for finance can work with the finance departments of companies, consulting firms, banks, investment organisations and brokerage firms. Financial institutions such as ICICI, IDBI, HDFC, nationalised banks, and regulatory authorities like CRISIL, insurance companies and multinational financial firms also recruit finance managers.

Banking

Commercial Banking: All commercial banks, government, private and multi-national banks offer a range of financial services, savings accounts, money transfer, foreign currency exchange to loans, credit and mortgages, insurance policies, investment schemes, pension funds, and advice to customers on various financial matters.

Investment Banking: While banks handle wealth, investment banks handle the wealth of companies, corporate houses, organisations, high net-worth individuals and even governments. Investment banking work would involve advising companies on capital formation, mergers and acquisitions, investments and managing capital assets, underwriting, selling, and trading securities (stocks and bonds), international financing, public issue management and providing financial advice to both corporations and wealthy individual investors.

Career options in banking range from bank tellers, loan officers, operations and marketing, to international finance.

Private Equity and

Venture Capital

Private-equity professionals help businesses find capital for both expansion and current operations. They also provide financing for a number of corporate business transactions, such as managed buyouts and restructurings. In recent years many venture-capital professionals (VCs) are working with startups or small, fast-growth companies.

They evaluate the potential of such ventures to determine if the firm will make an investment. The hope of the VC is that the funded company will some day go public i.e make its stock available on the public stock market. While the failure rate of VCs is high, conversely, the rewards, can be huge.

Stocks and Securities

Qualified securities traders and brokers advise on buying and selling of stocks. They often specialise in a variety of financial services such as bond issues, mutual funds, handling of institutional accounts and so on. Securities analysts are expected to have sound knowledge of the market to be able to advise on, and anticipate market trends. The automated screen-based trading facilities and market operation transparency calls for professionals who can cope with the demands and expectations of investors.

Equity Analysts and financial planners are continuously collecting and analysing fundamental and technical data on companies and industry, making profitability projections and financial analysis for individual and institutional investors.

Digital payment providers

Digital payment strategies and operating models are critical for success in todays competitive market, where point of sales, online and mobile channels are converging and new digital commerce models are emerging. Such services require professionals not only competent in finance but also those savvy in computer and IT solutions.

Job prospects

Those with the necessary qualifications and an affinity for finance can work with the finance departments of companies, consulting firms, banks, investment organisations and brokerage firms, as also financial institutions such as ICICI, IDBI, HDFC, and regulatory authorities like CRISIL, insurance companies and multinational financial firms.

With the growth of industry and the current turn towards globalisation, the Indian economy requires the services of more and more specialised professionals in the area of finance. Today companies look for professionals who can perform multiple functions and are well versed with the changing environment. Based on the qualifications, candidates can find lucrative jobs in the area of commercial banking, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, securities and commodity trading, money management, stock broking, real estate services, investment banking, treasury services, credit management and control, international finance, leasing and mortgage services, credit card services, and financial planning.

Finance professionals can also go into the insurance business, foreign exchange management, non-banking financial services organisations, venture capital, and security management. Moreover, those with additional qualifications in these areas can also look forward to lateral career growth. Government agencies and corporates also require financial services professionals to manage their portfolios and statements

For anyone getting into this field, it is also good to be aware of the legal aspects of finance, while a knowledge of computers and IT is an added advantage.

 The writer is Director Careers Smart Pvt Ltd., New Delhi

Getting in

As the term finance implies financial services require professionals with a background in commerce and business. Most foreign banks and financial institutions prefer management graduates from premier management schools, or professionals in accountancy, (chartered accountants and cost accountants), finance experts and economists with post-graduate qualifications in finance, economics, financial planning, capital markets and so on. So a graduation in commerce, economics, mathematics and business management would be the base on which you can build a career in finance. You must also have a sound knowledge of finance, be informed on every industry and keep abreast with the ups and downs of the market.

You could also take up a masters in Finance or Finance Control, Capital Market Studies or courses such as certified Treasury Management, certified Investment Banking, Management of Business Finance, financial management, certified Risk and Insurance Management are other courses that can lead to a career in finance.

Equity research and analysis is a specialised finance field, requiring either an MBA in finance or a Chartered Accountancy qualification

Some other related courses include those of Certified Financial Planner (CFP), Chartered Wealth Manager (CWM), and Chartered International Wealth Manager (CIWM). The CFP or Certified Financial Planner Certification programmes in India is now offered by Financial Planning Standards Board India.

For an actuarial job in the insurance industry a masters degree in Actuarial science or the exams conducted by the Institute of Actuaries of India is the way forward.
Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 15

On the eve of the winter session of Parliament, government and Opposition strategists are preparing for a battle of nerves on the demonetisation drive and the inconvenience that the decision has caused to the people.

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi ruling out a rethink, the Congress-led Opposition has vowed to storm Parliament in all possible ways to hold the government accountable for peoples hardships and move adjournment of business notices to discuss the issue.

Leaders of 13 Opposition parties met in Parliament today and mulled demands of a joint parliamentary committee among other tools to corner the government on demonetisation. The Congress and other parties have been crying scam, questioning the prior information to the ruling BJP.

After deliberations, Opposition leaders today decided not to join TMCs march to Presidents House. Keen not to be seen as standing against the drive to curb black money, no party, including the Congress, Left, SP, BSP, JDU and the NCP, sought withdrawal of the demonetisation move, as demanded by Mamata Banerjee. We are simply saying until the government makes alternative arrangements, old currency be allowed for white transactions, said CPMs Sitaram Yechury. The Opposition camp is learnt to have debated the TMC proposal and concluded that it would send the wrong signal on the very first day of Parliament. All parties agreed they needed to raise the issue in House and exhaust all parliamentary options before considering other measures.
New Delhi, November 15

The central government on Tuesday decided to ban Islamic preacher Zakir Naik's NGO Islamic Research Foundation for five years, an official of the Home Ministry said.

The cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal to declare the organisation illegal under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for five years. Law enforcement agencies would l keep a close watch on all organsiations liked to the foundation.

The Home Ministry will also issue a formal notification soon, the official said.

The move comes after investigations found the NGO was allegedly having dubious links with Peace TV, an international Islamic channel that has been accused of propagating terrorism, the official said.

According to the Home Ministry, Naik, who heads the IRF, has allegedly made many provocative speeches and engaged in terror propaganda.

Maharashtra Police has also registered criminal cases against Naik for his alleged involvement in radicalisation of youngsters.

Law enforcement agencies began investigating the Islamic preacher after a Bangladeshi newspaper 'Daily Star' reported that Rohan Imtiaz, a suspect in the terrorist attack in Bangladeshs Dhaka on July 1, ran propaganda on Facebook last year quoting Naik.

A Mumbai based- preacher, Naik is banned in the UK and Canada for his hate speeches aimed against other religions. He is among 16 banned Islamic scholars in Malaysia.

He is popular in Bangladesh through his Peace TV, although his sermons often demean other religions and even other Muslim sects.

Naik went abroad a few months ago and has yet to return to India.  TNS/ PTI
Arun Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jammu, November 15

The Centre is against adopting Track II in tackling Kashmir unrest. It has rubbished report of the Yashwant Sinha-led delegation to Srinagar as one-sided and without any clear pathway to peace and order in the troubled Valley.

Sources said the Centre was not happy with such unofficial delegations. These delegations have no mandate and it is not binding on the government to take cognisance of the same or work according to their recommendations, a top source said.

The visit of the five-member goodwill team was nothing but a crude attempt to grab headlines for a couple of days, a source in the Central Government said. The government is not at all obliged to work as per their recommendations, he said.

The Centre is clear that the talks will begin only after everyone expresses faith in the Constitution of India. There is no other parameter that can define dialogue. That violence cannot be allowed at any cost, Delhi is very clear. Since there was no change in the attitude of separatists after meeting the delegation, it is obvious that the delegation failed to achieve the basic purpose of forcing the so-called stakeholders to take baby steps towards peace in Kashmir.

The separatists have issued two stringent calendars after that, and there was no mention of halting shutdowns or exempting schools from it. Worse still, the burning of schools has continued.

The top source said there was no breakthrough, which the delegates had claimed, at the conclusion of its visit. Nor had they been able to bring about any worth-mentioning change in the attitude of those people.

As and when the government would wish, it would open its own channels of communication with credible offer in return for peace, but it will not succumb to any blackmail at any stage, the source said. He indicated that the Centre would wait and watch so as to identify players genuinely interested in peace and progress of the state.
New Delhi, November 15

A Congress-led opposition on Tuesday came together seeking to pin down the government on the demonetisation issue in the winter session of Parliament beginning tomorrow but a consensus eluded on TMCs proposed march to Rashtrapati Bhavan for meeting the President.

The leaders will meet again tomorrow to finalise the strategy on the issue agreeing at the meeting to use all parliamentary tools including a demand for constituting a joint parliamentary committee to go into the issue and hold the government to account.

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On its part, TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said her party will go ahead with its plans to meet the President tomorrow. Representatives of the National Conference and AAP are likely to accompany the TMC delegation.

At a meeting of 13 opposition parties including arch rivals TMC and CPI-M, besides BSP, SP, JD-U and DMK, opposition leaders unanimously concluded that it was too early to visit the President on the issue which must first be raised adequately in parliamentary forums.

Various parties have separately given adjournment notices in Lok Sabha and for suspension of proceedings in Rajya Sabha to discuss the issue and highlight the plight of the common man.

So far as the march is concerned, there was unanimous decision by everybody that the march tomorrow is too early. As an opposition party, we must have a march in due course of time, but not on the very first day. On first day of Parliament, we must hold a discussion inside the House.

There was an overwhelming consensus that there is no need to rush to Rashtrapati Bhavan on the very first day before bringing this issue before Parliament, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said after the meeting.  PTI
Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, November 15

India faces a severe shortage of onions as the wholesale markets of Lasalgaon and Pimpalgaon, the country's main hub for the bulbs, have effectively stopped operations since last week when the demonetisation of the bigger currency notes came into effect.

We have told farmers not to bring in onions as we are still trying to find out ways to pay the farmers, an official of the Lasalgaon Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee said.

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Payment to farmers for their crops is carried out in cash. Currency notes of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denominations are most favoured for the transactions.

Bank officials met with representatives of APMCs to find a way out. While banks are prepared to provide the new Rs 2,000 notes to traders at the APMCs, shortage of currency notes of smaller denomination has made life difficult.

According to the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, a party which represents farmers, crops are rotting with farmers as most of the 307 APMCs in Maharashtra are closed.

Meanwhile, at some places, traders are working out ways to pay farmers by cheque. Farmers in Maharashtra are facing a severe shortage of cash following demonetisation, Diliprao Mohite-Patil, who heads the Maharashtra State Market Committees Cooperative Federation Ltd said.

With the markets for agricultural products virtually shut all over Maharashtra, fresh arrivals of vegetables and fruits to cities have been choked. Vegetable vendors say they are supplying old stock as most of their customers are buying on credit on account of the currency shortage.
Mumbai/Hyderabad, November 15

Serpentine queues in front of banks and ATMs showed no signs of letting up on Tuesday as people scrambled for cash a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced his government was withdrawing high-value currencies.

As panicked people continued to crowd financial institutions in droves even before banks opened on Tuesday morning, reports of an elderly man having died of heart attack while waiting in front of a bank in Hyderabad made news.

Laxman Rao, a retired government employee who had lined up in front of a state-run bank in Hyderabad collapsed at the banks entrance.

"He collapsed on the bank's entrance steps and the policemen on duty immediately shifted him to a nearby hospital where doctors declared him brought dead," Deputy Commissioner of Police (North Zone) B Sumathi said. "He died of a heart ailment...He had once earlier suffered a heart attack and had been operated upon."

Media reports suggest that at least 10 people have died in queues in the past week.

As queues showed no signs of abating, Maharashtras Bharatiya Janata Party government decided to set up a cabinet sub-committee to recommend measures to mitigate chaos.

"The cabinet meeting reviewed the situation arising out of the Centre's move to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes," an official in the Chief Minister's office said.

Maharashtra Police has also announced grievance cells in all district and commissionerates to assist the public.

Meanwhile, activists of the Communist Party of India and the DYFI organised separate protest marches to Reserve Bank of Indias office in Thiruvananthapuram to protest the governments decision.

Some scuffles were reported at ATMs and banks in the national capital, forcing police to threaten a crowd with batons outside RBIs office.

The public meanwhile recounted their trials since the move that shook the countrys banking system was announced on Tuesday last week.

"My wife is admitted in Bethany hospital of Thane. Hospital management is not accepting cheque and insisting only on pay orders. Even medical stores are not accepting Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. I fail to understand what to do? These are the worst days of our life," one person, Om Prakash Joshi, said.  Agencies
Tribune News Service

Lucknow, November 15

Fiftyfive-year-old Bitoli of village Makdera of Pisawan Block in Sitapur is a worried woman. She does not know how to hold on for 50 days.

An owner of five bigha land, which she cultivates along with her son, is all ploughed and ready to be sown with the rabbi crop of wheat and mustard. But she does not have money to pay for the seed and fertiliser.

The sesame crop is ready to be sold. She took 20 kg to sell in order to buy inputs for the next crop. But she could find no buyers. She has already approached all baniyas in and around her village, but none has the cash to buy her stock.

One baniya in a village 3 km away is ready to buy her sesame at the rate of Rs 4,000 a quintal, while she had sold her sesame for Rs 7000 a quintal last year. She would have considered selling her crop for a dead loss if he was ready to pay her cash right away. He is only promising to pay soon.

Fifty days for her is too long a period. If the sowing season is over, she and her family would have nothing to look forward to.

The nearest bank is 6 km away where Rs 1,100 is lying in her granddaughters account. That is her last hope. But others from her village tell her that the bank only has Rs 2,000 notes and she wonders how she will get her Rs 1,100 out.

Bitoli is not the only farmer running from pillar to post to arrange for seed and fertiliser following the cash crunch after PM Narendra Modi announced the withdrawal of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes last week.

Uttar Pradesh Samajwadi party president Shivpal Yadav today criticised the Modi government for not allowing the large number of cooperative banks in the rural areas of the state to exchange the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes causing great hardship to farmers.
Modi likely to visit Israel next year

PM Modi is also expected to visit Israel next year as 2017 marks 25 years of the establishment of diplomatic ties between India and Israel. The PM, in the last two years, has already visited many countries in the Middle East, including Iran, which will help India in the delicate balancing of its relations with Israel vis-a-vis the Middle East.

Simran Sodhi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 15

India and Israel today sent out a joint message against terrorism as Israeli President Reuven Rivlin held talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Both leaders emphasised on the threat of terrorism to global security and reiterated their countries commitment in fighting this menace.

The PM, in his remarks, made no mention of Pakistan but also left no doubt in anyones minds that the reference was to the neighbouring country. "We recognise that terrorism is a global challenge, knows no boundaries and has extensive links with other forms of organised crimes. Regrettably, one of the countries of its origin and spread is in Indias neighbourhood," Modi said. The PM went on to add that silence and failure to act has encouraged terrorists.

Rivlin echoed the sentiments expressed by the PM: We stand together in defending our people and our values. Rivlin, in a reference to the growing collaboration between the two countries, in various sectors, particularly defence, said his country was ready to make in India and make with India.

Modi also thanked Israel for its clear support for Indias candidature for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

Rivlins visit here, the first by an Israeli President in 20 years, is significant for a number of reasons. The foremost being the open embrace today by India that it wants to foster closer relations with Israel, despite the historical and traditional closeness it has shared with Palestine, for the past many decades.

India, so far, has always shied away from any public posturing of a close India-Israel relationship.

The two sides inked two pacts to strengthen cooperation in agriculture and water resources management sectors.
San Francisco, November 15

A 17-year-old Indian-origin Sikh boy has been shot dead when he was returning home from work, prompting police to launch an investigation.

The incident took place last week at his home in his garage on Kandinsky Way in California. Famliy of Gurnoor Singh Nahal, who was a high-school student, says he was coming home from work when he was shot.

They do not suspect anything was taken and cannot understand why. We cannot imagine it. We are lost, his uncle Tejinderjit Singh was quoted as saying by the CBS Local News. Nahals grandmother found him lying in the garage. She said he cried for help, but it was too late.

Police have not determined a motive in this case.  PTI
New Delhi, November 15

Reflecting their growing proximity, India and Israel on Tuesday decided to further broad-base their already close defence partnership and intensify cooperation in combating radicalisation and extremism, while calling upon global community to act tough against terror networks and States harbouring them.

The two countries also agreed to deepen their cooperation in a variety of areas including trade and investment, agriculture, water resources and cyber crime during extensive talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, who is on his first visit to India.

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Giving a gist of his talks with the Israeli leader, Modi, in a media statement, said people of both countries were constantly threatened by forces of terrorism and extremism and both sides agreed to intensify cooperation in combating them effectively, particularly having practical and specific engagement such as in the cyber domain.

We recognise that terrorism is a global challenge, knows no boundaries and has extensive links with other forms of organized crime, he said.

In an obvious reference to Pakistan, the Prime Minister said, Regrettably, one of the countries of its origin and spread is in Indias neighbourhood.

We agreed that the international community must act with resolve and determination against terror networks and States that harbour them. Failure to act and silence of speech only encourages the terrorists, he said.

Noting that Rivlins visit has given a crucial push to efforts to build new pillars in bilateral ties, Modi said both sides noted the strength of the growing defence partnership and agreed on the need to make it more broad-based through production and manufacturing partnerships.

India is Israels largest buyer of military hardware and the latter has been supplying various weapons systems, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles over the last few years but the transactions have largely remained behind the curtains.

The two sides inked two pacts to strengthen cooperation in agricuture and water resources management sectors.

Referring to growing collaboration between the two countries, particularly in defence sector, Rivlin, the first Israeli President to visit India in two decades, said his country is ready to make in India and make with India.

He also asserted that nothing can justify terrorism.

We stand together in defending our people and our values, Rivlin said.

The two sides inked two pacts to strengthen cooperation in agriculture and water resources management sectors.  PTI
New Delhi, November 15

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of having accepted a bribe of Rs 25 crore from Aditya Birla Group while he was chief minister of Gujarat.

While addressing the Delhi Assemblys one-day session on Tuesday, Kejriwal said: On 15 October 2013, the income tax department conducted raid on Shubendu Amitabh's house. He was an executive of Aditya Birla Group. His Blackberry phones, laptop everything was thoroughly checked. They found a ledger entry in his laptop stating that on 16 November 2012, the Gujarat chief minister was paid Rs.25 croreFor the first time in history of independent India, a sitting PM's name has come in black money transactions.

This raid happened in 2013. The Congress was in power. But they should have initiated action, given that Narendra Modi was projected as Prime Minister' face for BJP. Then it means that the BJP and Congress had deals between them. They must have thought that once Narendra Modi becomes the PM, he will help them in the Robert Vadra case, Kejriwal said.

He has been claiming that the decision is an attack on black money, but it is an attack on common people. He is protecting his friends. These businessmen pay Prime Minister Modi and in response the Prime Minister ensures that the income tax department does not conduct raids on these businessmen's house, Kejriwal said.

He claimed that when the Income Tax Department filed an appraisal report on deal, the UPA regime did not take action against Modi.

You (Prime Minister Modi) say that the poor man is drinking kadvi chai. But the truth is that, the Prime Minister is offering poison to them in the name of black money, Kejriwal said, accusing Modi of targeting the poor through his drive to withdraw high-currency notes while protecting his corporate friends.

The chief minister also demanded roll back of the drive.

We would urge the government to roll back this scheme. We are not against black money. If they want to implement, then give proper time to people. Plan it properly, we will support you. If they do not roll back immediately then this economy will be in peril, Kejriwal said.

Earlier in the day, the Delhi Government passed a resolution asking President Pranab Mukherjee to direct the central government to withdraw the draconian demonitisation drive.

This assembly resolves to urge upon the Honourable President of India to take necessary steps to institute a high-level probe to be monitored by the Honourable Supreme Court of India to look into the allegations that the scheme is fraud on the nation and that it has been launched to benefit a particular political party through its agents in black money, the resolution stated.  ANI
Islamabad, November 15

Prime Minsiter Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday said Pakistan cannot be bullied by Indian tactics and its restraint should not be misunderstood as weakness, warning that his country was fully capable of defending against any belligerence.

His remarks came a day after the Pakistan army admitted that seven of its soldiers were killed in firing by Indian troops across the Line of Control (LoC) in Bhimber sector.

Pakistan cannot be bullied by such tactics as we are fully capable of defending our soil against any belligerence, Sharif said while chairing a high-level meeting to review the situation along the LoC.

He said Pakistan was exercising maximum restraint in the face of Indian firing, which should not be misunderstood as our weakness, The Express Tribune reported.

Expressing grief over the death of the seven soldiers, Sharif said deliberate escalation of tension along LoC by Indian forces is a threat to regional peace and security.

It is also a futile attempt of the Indian authorities to divert the worlds attention from the worst kind of atrocities they are committing in Kashmir, he said in a statement.

He called on the United Nations to take notice of the ceasefire violations along the LoC. Our armed forces do not initiate fire but will always respond in a befitting manner to any aggression, Sharif said.

Yesterday, Army chief General Raheel Sharif ordered troops to effectively respond to firing by India across the LoC.

Earlier, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz briefed Nawaz Sharif on the increased firing and shelling by India.

He said the recent incidents of firing have led to 26 deaths and 107 injuries in complete violation of the 2003 ceasefire understanding and international law.  PTI
Kathmandu, November 15

Nepal Premier Prachanda has telephoned Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought an arrangement so that Nepalese holding a huge stock of banned high denomination Indian bank notes could swap them with legal currency in the country.

During his five-minute telephonic conversation with Modi, Prachanda told him that Nepalese had quite a big stock of Indian bank notes of 500 and 1,000 denominations that had now been pulled out of circulation.

Hundreds of thousands of Nepalese, who earn a living by working as daily-wage labourers in India, visit the neighbouring country seeking medical treatment or rely on Indian markets to purchase daily essentials, are said to be holding big chunk of scrapped Indian bank notes, Kathmandu Post reported.

Also, those visiting India as pilgrims and those engaged in cross-border trade are said to have a big stock of now-useless Indian bank notes.

Some of these people, according to the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, may lose their entire savings if the now-obsolete notes are not replaced with legal bills.

Considering this, India should make an arrangement so that Nepalese can exchange the banned notes here in Nepal, a statement posted on Prachandas personal website quoted the premier as saying.

In response, Modi said he would immediately resolve the issue and would also ask the Finance Minister to hold talks with the Nepalese counterpart.

Following the Indian governments surprise decision, the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the central bank, also banned the use of those bank notes in Nepal from last Wednesday.

The NRB has said Rs 33.6 million in the denominations of 500 and 1,000 is within the financial system in Nepal, the report said.

The figure includes cash parked at vaults of banks, financial institutions and NRB.

But actual stock of banned Indian bank notes is expected to be much more because Nepalese were previously allowed to carry Indian 500 and 1,000-rupee bank notes worth up to Rs 25,000, it said.

Also, those residing in areas bordering India usually stash Indian notes of larger denominations as they have to frequent Indian markets to buy goods.

The Indian government has said people who have accounts in Indian banks need not worry as the financial institutions will provide them the currency exchange facility. But many Nepalese who own the banned notes do not have accounts in Indian banks.

Against this backdrop, the Ministry of Finance wrote to the Indian Finance Ministry on Thursday requesting that arrangements be made so that Nepalese holding banned Indian notes could replace them with legal tenders here in Nepal.

NRB too wrote a letter to the Reserve Bank of India, seeking exchange facility for Nepalese holding banned Indian notes here in Nepal. The Indian central bank earlier responded saying the NRBs message has been conveyed to the Indian Finance Ministry.

Indian central bank governor Urjit Patel told the same thing to Nepali central bank governor Chiranjibi Nepal during the conversation between the two, a senior NRB official said on condition of anonymity. PTI
New Delhi, November 15

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Chhattisgarh government to give social activist Nandini Sundar four weeks notice before arresting her and some others on charges of murdering a tribal man in Chattishgarhs Sukma district.

The Supreme Court also recorded the state governments promise to refrain from detaining Sundar and some others who have not been booked yet for questioning in the case.

A bench of Justices MB Lokur and Adarsh Goel granted liberty to Sundar and others to approach the court when the police serve them a notice for arrest or interrogation.

"ASG Tushar Mehta says that Nandini Sundar, Archana Prasad, Vineet Tiwari and others will not be arrested or interrogated. State government is directed to give four weeks advance notice before proceeding in the case. Liberty to petitioners to approach court after the notice is served," the Bench said.

The Bench, however, refused to entertain Sundar's plea that the state should first seek the courts permission before arresting or interrogating her and other activists in the case.

"No, they can't be stopped perpetually. If there is a crime, they need to proceed. It is their statutory right. They will first give you notice and then they can proceed," the Bench said.

On November 7, Delhi University Professor Sundar, JNU professor Archana Prasad and some others were booked for having murdered a tribal, Shamnath Baghel, involved in anti-Maoist operations in the Naxal affect district of Sukma.

Activists have called the case an attempt by police to crack down on critics of staged encounters in the state.  PTI
R Sedhuraman

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, November 15

The Supreme Court today endorsed the drive against black money, but asked the government to minimise the hardship being faced by the common man following the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justice DY Chandrachud asked the Centre to take immediate steps to control the collateral damage of the exercise.

You say it is a surgical strike against black money, terrorism and drug running, but the petitioners say it is carpet bombing that affected all people holding cash, without discriminating if the money was white or otherwise, the Bench told Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi.

The Bench made the remark while hearing four PILs on the problems the governments sudden move had heaped on people. The petitioners are VK Sharma, Sangam Lal Pandey, S Muthukumar and Adil Alvi.

Refusing to stay the drive, the Bench asked the government to file a status report on the steps being taken to help the general public before the next hearing on November 25. There was, however, no need for the government to dilute its focus on flushing out black money, it clarified.

The Bench asked the government to consider the petitioners suggestions for helping people in need by letting them use the scrapped notes for essential goods, health services, travel and transport, marriages and other events and payment of fee to lawyers and bail amount.

Arguing for one of the petitioners, senior counsel Kapil Sibal said the government is responsible for the total chaos in the country as it had taken the people by surprise instead of granting sufficient time. The AG, however, said such a drive could be successful only if it was done without notice.
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, November 15

The Chhattisgarh Government today assured the Supreme Court that the state police would not arrest or interrogate activist and Delhi University Professor Nandini Sundar and four others in a murder case unless it got further evidence against them.

Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta gave the assurance in response to a plea by the accused for quashing the police FIR or at least restraining the police from arresting them.

A Bench comprising Justices MB Lokur and AK Goel asked the government to grant four-week time to the accused for their response to any additional evidence gathered by the police before proceeding further in the case.

Mehta submitted the case details in a sealed cover to the court, but the Bench said it was not opening it in view of the state governments assurance.

The Bench also granted liberty to the petitioners to approach the apex court again if they had any problem in the case pertaining to the killing of one Baghel allegedly by Naxalites in insurgency-hit Sukma district in November 2015. The police filed the case on the basis of a complaint by the victims wife.

Arguing for Sundar, senior counsel Ashok Desai said it was strange that police booked his client as she visited the area in May this year, six months after the incident.
Jupinderjit Singh

Just a kilometre away from the busy Chandigarh-Jalandhar highway, and yet so tucked away  it is a characterisation Balachaur would find it hard to find fault with.

The dusty, potholed single lane off the highway towards the town gives an indication of what to expect in the Assembly constituency.

Balachaur is the native place of war heroes like Maha Vir Chakra winner Brig Kuldip Singh Chandpuri of the Battle of Longewala fame (the Sunny Deol-starrer Border was based on him). It was also home to late Lt Gen Bikram Singh, the saviour of Ladakh and Chushul against enemy aggression, in whose memory Jammu has the popular Bikram Chowk, though there is no memorial here. Even the re-naming of his village, Siana, after him has remained on paper.

Road closed. Sewerage-laying work is underway reads a signboard at the entrance of the town. Go back to the highway, take the Balachaur bypass to reach the other side of the town if you are headed towards the offices of the political parties, or spend several hours passing through the town, an auto-rickshaw driver advises. Its a terse reminder of how development has bypassed this area.

The shockers on the ground notwithstanding, two distinct features are perceptible. One, a general pessimism about the whole purpose of conducting elections. Second, the non-Gujjar communities feel they have not got an equal share in jobs and power. The constituency is unique in the sense that Gujjars form majority of the population. Elections, yes, but so what? No change will happen here. I am not losing my sleep over it. I will think about it on election day only, says a youth, showing no interest in any conversation on the subject. His friends nod in acquiescence.

Kuldeep Singh, another youth at the famous Hoshiarpurian Dhaba on the highway, has this to say before he speeds away: The elections make or mar life for the parties and the leaders but bring no change to commoners. I may not even cast my vote.

The resentment among the non-Gujjars, meanwhile, can even prove to be a game-changer in the elections. The Gujjars are about 33 per cent of the 1.40 lakh voters, while the Dalits vote percentage is 28.3 per cent. The Jat Sikhs form the third-largest chunk at 23.4 per cent. The remaining population comprises Sainis and Ramgarhias, among others. The importance of being a Gujjar leader is reflected in the electoral history of Balachaur. The voters have chosen the same Gujjar leader  Chaudhary Nand Lal of the Shiromani Akali Dal  for four consecutive terms.

All communities have voted for me as I have brought unprecedented development in the region. The sewerage project is underway. The canal from Ropar is being relined for better irrigation. A government college came up two years ago due to my efforts, he says.

His confidence is not shared by many. Akali sarpanch of Phirni Majara village Paramjit Kaur says though she is a die-hard Akali supporter, she and other Jats are angry. Gujjar youths have got recruited the most in the police and other departments, she says. Other parties have preferred Gujjar leaders in the past and the same is the trend now. The five ticket contenders of the Congress are all Gujjars. Sham Lal, another Gujjar leader, contested from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 2012 and came second. He later joined the Akali Dal.

The Aam Aadmi Party has also fielded a Gujjar, Brig Raj Kumar (retd) from the constituency. The former Army officer had hogged the limelight as the interrogator of 26/11 Mumbai attacker Ajmal Kasab. After his retirement last year as Director, Army Recruitment Board, he returned to the town and organised camps to advise youths on training for recruitment in the Army and paramilitary forces. Twenty-eight trained in the camps got recruited recently, he says proudly.

Maj Jarnail Singh (retd) is the prospective candidate of the Sucha Singh Chhotepur-led Aapna Punjab Party (APP). He has opened his office opposite the AAPs. A Jat Sikh, the thrust of his campaign is the discrimination by Gujjars against others. He has run into trouble with the government and accused the Akalis of falsely implicating him in four cases, I have just been acquitted in two of those cases.

The importance of caste in elections is reflected by 80-year-old Surjit Singh, who waits for a bus at Majra village, I have always voted for the biggest Jat of all, he says. Who? The Badals, he chuckles, adding, Though they have not done much for the area (keeta kucch nahi saade layi) but we will always vote for his candidate, whosoever he might be.

And Dalits, the second largest vote bank? No party has given us due representation, no wonder we are marginalised as we are not one, feels Suresh Krishnan, a youth.

The last Dalit MLA from here was Hargopal Singh of the BSP in 1992, when the Akalis boycotted the elections.

In rural areas, the road connectivity is an issue. The narrow roads are either worn-out or swift re-carpeting work is on. The Punjab Mandi Board officials are on the ground pushing the contractors and workers to speed up the work. The code of conduct can be imposed any time, says a construction company employee.

Suresh Kumar, a trader standing outside a brick-kiln, is bemused. Last time the road was repaired was just before the 2012 election. And it lasted till the government was formed!
Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, November 15

A sharp dip in the sale of items on the back of a demonetisation move has resulted in lower VAT collection for the Punjab Government in the past week.

The tax collection nosedived by more than Rs100 crore.

The Excise and Taxation Department said the mad rush to get old currency notes exchanged and shortage of cash flow in the market resulted in the decline in collection.

The department collected about Rs40 crore per day. In the past week, the collection has not been even half of that.

The daily collection is between Rs15 crore and Rs18 crore. It is going further down because customers and businessmen are circumspect, said a senior official, adding traders were facing difficulty in depositing cash in banks because of long queues.

Officials apprehended monthly revenue to be down from about Rs1,200 crore to Rs600 crore in November. The situation would revive by January when new currency notes are available easily in market.

An excise official said the last date for depositing excise was October 31 and November 15 with late fee. Majority of liquor traders are not coming forward to deposit money given the shortage of currency notes and poor sales, he said.

Liquor trade hit

Liquor traders told The Tribune their daily sales had dipped, as Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes were not being accepted.

Some vend owners, however, are accepting old notes. The loss of almost 20 per cent of sales has forced some vend owners to accept old notes. This year has been the worst for us in terms of sales and with excise officials pressing for depositing revenue tax by due date, liquor vends are facing losses, a trader said.

Excise and Taxation Commissioner Rajat Aggrawal refused to comment. A senior taxation department official said officers were unwilling to come on record, as it would mean speaking out against the Centres plan to weed out black money.

Banks go out of cash, people suffer as

Muktsar: Residents of Muktsar had a harrowing time on Tuesday as several banks refused to convert demonetised currency notes, saying they were yet to get cash. During a visit to banks, it was found that there were long queues from early morning, but banks were not exchanging notes. There were hardly any queue for senior citizens or women. They demanded senior officers of the administration must visit banks. Some banks have made their own rules to convert the demonetised currency notes. Some banks are asking people to write bank account number on the currency exchange form, bedsides getting the copy of some identity card. Some banks are exchanging notes of their own banks customers, alleged Gurjeet Singh, a local resident.  Archit Watts
Tribune News Service

Faridkot, November 15

Farmers today exposed the illegal exchange of demonetised Rs500 and Rs1,000 currency notes by some employees in the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) in Golewala village of Faridkot.

Over 10 farmers gave a complaint to the Superintending Engineer (SE), PSPCL, Faridkot region.

They alleged that the PSPCL staff refused to accept Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes as payment for power and water bills. The farmers then arranged Rs100 currency notes and paid the bill.

However, around 3pm the farmers saw the cashier posted in Golewala depositing over Rs75,000 in the denomination of Rs500 and Rs1,000 at a bank branch in the village.

The farmers were surprised to see how the cashier changed their deposited Rs100 currency notes with the defunct currency.

Inderjit Singh, SE, PSPCL, said all employees at various places were issued instructions today morning to accept Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes. If the allegations levelled by the farmers are true, it is a gross misconduct on part of the employees in Golewala. I have ordered an inquiry into the allegations, he added.

Pensioners protest

Abohar: Beneficiaries of widow and old-age pension scheme held a meeting here and later held a protest against the Centre and bank managements.  OC

Patients face inconvenience

Pathankot: Patients are facing inconvenience as chemists are not accepting Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes despite the fact that the government has given them liberty to accept these till November 24. Hundreds of patients visiting chemist shops for medicines claim that they are being turned back. However, chemists claim that since wholesalers are not accepting these notes from them it is not possible for them to take these from patients. Rajesh Mahajan, president of the Pathankot District Chemists Association, said that his association had passed a resolution asking the PM, Finance Minister and the RBI to allow wholesalers to accept the demonitised currency till November 24.  Ravi Dhaliwal

Cong to help people outside banks, ATMs

Chandigarh: On a directive from Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, the state Congress on Tuesday told its leadership to help out people waiting in queues outside banks and ATMs. Leaders and activists have been asked to help people fill out forms for exchange of old currency. People not familiar with ATM functioning will be helped. PPCC chief Capt Amarinder Singh lambasted PM Narendra Modi for his inhumane response to the crisis. TNS
San Francisco, November 15

A 17-year-old Indian-origin Sikh boy has been shot dead when he was returning home from work, prompting police to launch an investigation. The incident took place last week at his home in his garage on Kandinsky Way in California.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Family of Gurnoor Singh Nahal, who was a high-school student, says he was coming home from work when he was shot.

They do not suspect anything was taken and cannot understand why.

"We cannot imagine it. We are lost," his uncle Tejinderjit Singh was quoted as saying by the CBS Local News.

Nahal's grandmother found him lying in the garage. She said he cried for help, but it was too late.

"She heard it and it was very loud and I think when she heard that, she came out and then she saw him," Singh said.

His neighbours say that things like this do not happen in their North Natomas neighbourhood.

"It was a young kid. We have kids to a 19-year-old and a 17-year-old, so it's really sad," said a neighbour, Gil Garcia.

Gurnoor went to Inderkum High and was supposed to graduate this spring.

Police responded to the scene and investigated the area for hours asking witnesses for help. They have not determined a motive in this case, the report said. PTI
Lahore, November 15

A pre-Partition gurdwara in Nankana Sahib  the birthplace of Guru Nanak  has been reopened in Pakistan's Punjab province.

"Gurdwara Kiyara Sahib which was closed over 75 years ago has finally been reopened for the yatris," Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) spokesman Amer Hashmi said on Tuesday.

He said thousands of Sikhs gathered in Nankana Sahib to attend the festivities on the 548th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak visited Kiyara Sahib on Monday after it was reopened.

ETPB chairman Siddiqul Farooq also laid a foundation stone of a memorial of Bhai Mardana  a close associate of the first Sikh Guru  in Nankana Sahib.

Farooq also announced that Angetha Sahib at Darbar Sahib Kartarpur will be reopened on November 19 and a ceremony for the Baba Guru Nanak University in Nankana Sahib is scheduled for January.

More than 15,000 people, mostly Sikh pilgrims, attended a Palki event held at Gurdwara Janamasthan Nankana Sahib, 80 kms from Lahore.

Indian Sikhs will also visit other gurudwaras in Punjab province before their departure for home on November 21.  PTI
Ruchika Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 15

Punjabs Council of Ministers on Tuesday decided to restore rights over land acquired for the Satluj-Yamuna Link Canal to its original owners.

The decision was taken at a meeting on Tuesday. Although the Punjab Assembly passed a controversial Bill  The Punjab Satluj-Yamuna Link Canal Land (Transfer if Propriety Rights) Bill, 2016  de-notifying the land, the proposed legislation still awaits the governors approval.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The Supreme Court had on March 17 stayed the Bill passed by the Punjab Assembly about de-notification of land of SYL canal.

The court had also declared the canal a case property. The Punjab Director General of Police, Chief Secretary and Home Secretary, as well as the Union Home Secretary, were made personally responsible for any breach or other damage to the SYL Canal in the state.

All these officers were made receiver of the canal property.

A formal notification de-notifying a total of 3,200 acres of land acquired for the canal in all four districts concerned  Ropar, Fatehgarh Sahib, Mohali and Patiala will be issued on Tuesday itself.

The latest decision is executive action and does not require the Assemblys ratification.

The move comes a few days after the Supreme Court ordered Punjab to allow construction of the canal.

A five-member Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on last Thursday had invalidated the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004, by which the state had terminated its pacts with Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi for sharing the waters of the two rivers and asked the state to complete construction of the canal.

Haryana had argued in the court that the law was passed with the intention to defeat Supreme Court's previous orders directing the state to complete the construction.

Read more: Punjab can't deny Ravi-Beas waters to Haryana, other states, rules SC

Hooda to meet CM Khattar

Meanwhile, Haryana Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda will meet Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar to discuss the controversy and demand bold steps to protect the states interests.

The Congress will support the state government, former chief minister Hooda said, as he demanded dismissal of Punjabs government under Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and imposition of Presidents rule in the state until the canal is constructed under the central governments supervision. (With inputs from Sushil Manav)
New York, November 15

Four Sikh truck drivers in the US have settled a discrimination case against an American trucking giant which will pay $260,000 in damages for denying them employment after they refused to cut their hair and remove their turbans for the company's drug tests.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The Sikh truck drivers reached a settlement agreement with J B Hunt trucking company following a seven-year federal investigation in which the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) found evidence that the company had discriminated against them due to their religious articles of faith, said a release issued by the Sikh Coalition, a Sikh civil rights organisation.

J B Hunt has agreed to pay $260,000 in damages as well as amend company policies and practices to comply with federal anti-discrimination laws.

The company will be obligated to train its hiring personnel on anti-discrimination laws and submit reports to the EEOC for the next two years about its workplace anti-discrimination efforts.

"I am relieved by this resolution because no one should have to face humiliation because of their religious beliefs," said lead complainant Jagtar Singh Anandpuri.

"I have been driving a truck for years, and I know there is nothing about my faith that interferes with my ability to do my job," he said.

Three complainants were denied accommodations after they informed the company that they could not cut their religiously mandated hair for drug testing.

The fourth client was denied an accommodation to the company's demand that he remove his turban while providing a urine sample.

In each case, JB Hunt automatically denied employment, despite the clients' otherwise impeccable job qualifications, the release said.

It added that the US Department of Transportation, which imposes safety standards and regulations on the commercial trucking industry, does not require hair sample tests for employment.

However, alternative forms of drug testing are available, including nail sample tests.

Our clients repeatedly asked for alternatives within the drug testing regimes that would allow them to follow their religious tenets, and those requests were denied. Thankfully J B Hunt has finally switched gears and moved into the right lane to comply with federal anti-discrimination law," said the Sikh Coalition's Legal Director, Harsimran Kaur.

The Sikh Coalition represented the clients in this case since 2008. An estimated 500,000 Sikhs live in the US.

"Employers have a legal and moral duty to honour the religious identity and expression of their workers," said the Stanford Clinic's director, James A Sonne.

"This settlement encourages Sikh Americans everywhere, including at J B Hunt, that they can maintain their articles of faith without sacrificing their livelihood  as is their right, he said.  PTI
Ajay Ramola

Tribune News Service

Mussoorie, November 15

The staff of Hotel Brentwood, along with Congress leaders, served tea to people queued up at an ATM of the State Bank of India here today.

Sandeep Sahni, president of the Uttarakhand Hotel and Restaurant Association, who co-owns Hotel Brentwood, said long queues were a common sight nowadays at ATM booths and people were having a harrowing time waiting for hours for their turn to withdraw money. So hoteliers, in association with Congress men, came up with their plan of serving tea. Its a small gesture. The demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes is a welcome move but the government should have made adequate arrangements, he said.

Satish Dhaundiyal, president of the Congress local unit, said Chief Minister Harish Rawat was concerned over the situation, so he had exhorted to extend help to the people in distress. Due to faulty economic policy, the common man is at the receiving end. The real heroes are bank employees, who are working day in, day out to help out people, he said.

SBIs Kulri branch manager Vivek Sinha said, Our team of 20 employees are working overtime to provide money to people. A woman employee is working despite having a fractured leg.

Govind Prasad Dobhal, manager of Syndicate Banks New Market branch, said the cash was being provided in accordance with fresh guidelines of the Central Government.

Meanwhile, BJP leader Naresh Anand said though people were facing problems, they were with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to deal with the problem of black money.
Moscow, November 15

Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President-elect Donald Trump concluded their first telephone conversation with an agreement to instruct their respective staffs to begin planning for a personal meeting, the Kremlin said.

It was agreed to maintain contact by phone and arrange a meeting in person in the future, with preparations to be conducted by representatives of both sides, the Russian government said in a statement on Monday, Efe news reported.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The principal topic of Mondays discussion was the current state of relations between the US and Russia.

Trump and Putin not only agreed on the absolutely unsatisfactory state of bilateral relations but also expressed support for active joint efforts to normalise relations and pursue constructive cooperation on the broadest possible range of issues, according to the Kremlin.

The Russian leader told Trump that he was ready to develop a dialogue of partnership with the new administration on the principles of equality, mutual respect and non-interference in each others domestic affairs, the statement said.

Both agreed that the upcoming 210th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and the US should encourage a return to pragmatic, mutually beneficial cooperation in the interests of both countries, as well as global stability and security, the Russian government said.

Turning to global issues, Putin and Trump both spoke of the need to work together in the struggle against the number one common enemy--international terrorism and extremism. In this context, they discussed issues related to solving the crisis in Syria, according to the statement.

Following the Kremlin announcement, Trumps office confirmed the call with Putin, saying two leaders discussed a range of issues, including the threats and challenges facing the United States and Russia.

Trump also told Putin he looked forward to a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the people of Russia, the President-elects team said. IANS
Lost in the news last week was a talk in Tulsa about sex. Or, rather, it was about culture, politics and policies about teens and sex.

Oklahoma is No. 2 in the U.S. in the rate of teen births. For decades the state has ranked in the top five, usually in the top three.

We really need to talk about sex.

South Carolina figured it out. In 20 years, its teen birth rate fell by 61 percent, which is the exact rate the national average decreased.

Thats a victory, said Forrest Alton, former chief executive officer of the South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, which is considered one of the most successful such nonprofits in the nation.

We dont do anything better or even on track with the rest of the nation, including public health and social issues, Alton told a crowd of about 250 social workers, public health officials and other advocates for reducing teen births.

That improvement put South Carolina at No. 14 in the teen birth rate. Its not at the low end of the spectrum but is still a lot better than Oklahoma.

Four years ago, Alton was approached by a group of advocates in Tulsa hoping to learn a few lessons. He was honest about it.

The solution for the problem you have is in your community, he said. Im happy to help you find them, but I cant create them.

The question we have to ask is not What is the solution to this teen pregnancy problem? We already know that answer. We already know what to do.

The real question is Will this community be bold enough and courageous enough to do what needs to be done to invest in the commitment to reduce teen pregnancy? 

Alton could relate with teen sex being a decades-old contentious issue, especially in a conservative southern state. When arriving in Oklahoma, he was given a heads-up that some people are uncomfortable talking about sex.

I said, You do know where I got on the plane at, right?  Alton said.

Getting past the stigma meant starting the conversation, gathering data, organizing the different programs and coming up with strategic programs.

Discovered were dire statistics about teen parents being less likely to finish high school and rarely earning a college degree. Infant mortality and low birth weight are more likely with teen moms.

Poverty, particularly generational poverty, was more prevalent among teen parents. One-third of families in poverty began with becoming teen parents.

If we reduce teen pregnancy, we can reduce about every other social problem and save taxpayers money, Alton said.

What resulted was a unique approach focused on public health and economic development.

There is nothing more important than helping those who need help, Alton said. There is nothing more rewarding or valuable than investing in and pouring in resources for the next generation.

Oklahoma started taking steps after Altons initial visit.

The Take Control Initiative, which has expanded statewide, started to offer free, long-term, reversible contraception to low-income women. The Tulsa Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy formed as a partner agency and clearinghouse for data.

In the same 20-year time span, Oklahoma reduced teen births by 47 percent.

You got a late start, Alton said. Most of that has happened in the past three to five years since youve been bold and courageous enough to take on this issue.

Not enough is being done, though.

Teen births are costing the state $169 million a year in related health and welfare costs. And, more girls are becoming teen moms than are entering as freshmen into Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma.

Oklahoma does not have a mandate for health education in schools, which is where most states place evidence-based sex education programs. Meaning, not all students are getting the information.

Not all districts offering a sex education program use a proven program, opting for the much-criticized abstinence- only curriculums. Evidence-based programs are not just about biology.

Modern sex education programs focus on goal setting  like going to college or starting a career  and what it takes to achieve those. They discuss negotiation skills in relationships, and even what healthy relationships look like.

This can help with problems young adults are having with issues like sexual consent and with Oklahomas continuing issues with domestic violence.

Alton noted that only one in four Oklahomans even know the state ranks No. 2 in the nation for teen births.

Were not talking enough on this issue, he said.
PAWHUSKA  Howdy pardner and welcome to Rees world, where cowboys are celebrities, the chow is fit for an army of ranch hands, the lines are long, the shopping elbow to elbow and everyone leaves with a smile.

Since Ree Drummond opened The Pioneer Woman Mercantile on Oct. 31, this formerly sleepy town of about 3,600 has been inundated with thousands of visitors from all over the country.

Such is the draw of Drummond, the popular Pioneer Woman blogger, cookbook and childrens book author, and TV cooking personality.

I went last Thursday primarily to check out the food part of the operation (restaurant, deli, bakery). If you are a man, and you go with your spouse, you will not escape time on the retail gift shop side, either, and you will not go home empty-handed. Take my word for it.

We arrived at 11 a.m., and the line to the restaurant-deli stretched down the sidewalk about as far as the eye could see. We were told it was about a two-hour wait, and best as I could tell, it stayed that way until about 3 p.m. When we left at 4 p.m., the line had dwindled to eight or nine customers still waiting for a table.

I was told by several employees that breakfast, served from 6-11 a.m., has not been nearly as crowded as the lunch hour.

Drummond was not there that day, but her daughter Paige was working as the barista at the coffee bar, and her husband, Ladd, dressed in jeans, boots, vest and big cowboy hat, was greeting customers throughout the store.

Ladd is a real rancher, with movie star looks and charm. I wish I had a dollar for every woman who had a photo, selfie or otherwise, taken with him that day (and Im talking to you, Dr. Bennett).

Part of the reason for the long lines is the restaurant seats only about 80, though it is so frenetic and cozy and loud it seems more people are dining than there are.

When diners enter the restaurant, they receive a regular menu and a deli menu of the day. If they are dining in, they may order off either menu. The deli is the only option for takeout.

We wound up at a wall banquette filled with Southwestern-print pillows, and one table away was one of our eye doctors, Vanessa Bennett, her 5-week-old daughter, Claire, and mother, Carma. The folks on the other side of us were from New Mexico. Its that kind of place.

A Tulsa World photographer also was there that day, and Kurtess Mortensen, who overlooks The Pioneer Woman Mercantile operation and said his title is whatever Ree needs me to do, and Taylor Potter, also untitled but involved in marketing, bookkeeping and other tasks, encouraged us to sample the food brought out for photos.

In the spirit of transparency, I tasted a wide range of food that day, including items we purchased from the deli and regular menu, as well as the dishes that were photographed.

Because I didnt purchase the photographed items, Im not going to rate the restaurant as I normally would. I can say the meats and other ingredients were first-rate, and the common-sounding dishes with interesting little twists and turns were rib-sticking good. Portions I saw generally were large enough for a hungry cowboy, and prices were moderate.

The servers seemed overwhelmed. Service was spotty and slow, though friendly, and the kitchen did get our orders out in good time, 20 to 25 minutes, considering the crowd.

One of the most impressive items we had was a big slice of rare beef tenderloin from the deli that was oh so tender and flavorful. It came with two sides  we picked two different fresh salads  for $12.

We had two of the three main entrees from the regular menu  chicken Parmesan ($12) and fried pork chops ($12). Both of these meats were fork-tender.

The chicken Parm was topped with melted mozzarella and a red sauce laced with oregano, and it was served over a mound of just al dente spaghetti.

The chops had been pounded and pan-fried but still were fairly thick. They were topped with a creamy sweet pepper-and-onion sauce, and the flavor of yellow and red bell peppers came through. They were served with chunky, salty roasted baby potatoes cooked with bacon and onions.

From the sandwich section, we had the beef brisket Reuben ($9) on rye bread. It included a creamy sauerkraut slaw, Thousand Island dressing and melted Swiss cheese, and was served with terrific, unsalted house-made potato chips.

I saw Ladd having the third entree  chicken-fried steak ($15)  sitting at a high-top communal table with one of his sons (Bryce or Todd; I didnt want to interrupt them to ask), and it looked like something I would want to order on another visit. It was made with rib-eye steak covered in cream gravy and served with mashed potatoes.

Another of my favorite dishes was the tomato soup with grilled cheese dippers ($6). The soup, served in a cast-iron bowl, was rich and thick, and the slices of a grilled cheese sandwich were a perfect match for dipping.

Two other starters were the olive cheese bread ($5) and wedge salad ($7). The flatbread was covered in finely minced olives and melted cheese, and the pretty wedge included a quarter head of iceberg lettuce covered in teardrop tomatoes, red onion, bacon, blue cheese crumbles and a good house-made ranch dressing. It didnt mention it on the menu, but the onion was pickled and added a tasty dimension with the other items.

For dessert, we shared tres leches cake ($6) and strawberry cake ($6). The tres leches was moist and tasty with a bit of dulce de leche and served with fried cinnamon-sugar churros. The dense strawberry cake was a bundt cake topped with macerated fresh strawberries and strawberry cream.

Paige, who is still in high school, made us a big latte (16-ounce, $4.50) and a Spicy Cowgirl (20-ounce, $5.50), the latter made with espresso, chocolate, a touch of cayenne and sweet cream over ice. Coffee products come from Tulsas Topeca Coffee Co. and the syrups from Pink House Alchemy in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Mom asked me what I wanted to do at the store, and I decided I wanted to train to be a barista, Paige said. I have great products to work with, and it really has been fun.

Paige said an older sister, Alex, also will work in the store during breaks from college, and her brothers will join the crew when they get just a little bit older.

Those who want a break from the crowds can go to the second-floor bakery, which is relatively quiet and usually has open tables. Customers go down a line and order from what they see in the display cases  savory and sweet pastries, cookies, cakes and candies.

The second floor also has its own coffee bar, and large interior windows allow customers to view the entire bakery in action.

The ground floor has the deli, restaurant and gift shop. The building dates to 1903 and once held Osage Mercantile, Osage Realty Co., a regional telephone company and a C.R. Anthony department store.

The Drummonds, who purchased it in 2012, have done a superb job renovating the building to reflect its former glory, from tin ceilings to wood floors. During renovations, a huge, old mural for National Biscuit Co. (Nabisco) was found under a thick layer of plaster on what once was an exterior brick wall. Its now part of the deli dining area.

The restaurant uses old-fashioned, mismatched platters and plates, as well as mismatched utensils, some of which are available for purchase in the gift shop.

Ree was involved in all of the development and tastings of the recipes we use here, said Mortensen, a former chef at Giadas at the Cromwell, Bouchon in the Venetian and other upscale Las Vegas dining spots. Theres nothing here that doesnt have Rees fingerprints on it.
Now David Attenborough is coming to SBS with David Attenboroughs Wild Singapore staring this Friday night.

The 3 part series looks at Singapores different habitats: from the urban sprawl to the islands hidden wildlife hotspots.

From the overlooked interior to the inaccessible coastline and islands that have become unplanned sanctuaries for Singapores natural heritage, David Attenborough paints a beautifully detailed portrait of Singapores surprisingly diverse flora and fauna.

Episode One: Hidden Wild

Explore Singapores hidden wilderness  overlooked areas of the island that are home to an astonishing variety of fascinating creatures. From thriving wetlands, empty buildings and sleepy islands, these are the secret treasures of the islands wild. Joining a family of local otters in Sungei Buloh, well meet a variety of strange and compelling sights, like the base- jumping Colugo, romantic Fiddler Crabs and Singapores oldest predators  the Crocodiles.

Friday, 18 November at 7.35pm on SBS.
The All Star Family Feud battle between newsreaders and TV hosts which was due to air on Monday will now screen next week.

The episode was replaced with a Donald Trump interview, which won its slot for TEN.

Team captain and television icon Kerri-Anne Kennerley leads her fellow television hosts Tony Barber, Glenn Ridge and John Burgess playing for their charity Look Good Feel Better.

The Newsreaders, captained by Sandra Sully with her team of Ron Wilson, Natarsha Belling and Stephen Quartermain, are competing for their charities, the McGrath Foundation and the Unicorn Foundation.

Who will come out on top and just how will Grant keep four fellow game show hosts under control?

7:30pm Monday November 21st on TEN.
A new local drama series, Fighting Season, has been commissioned by Foxtel to air in 2018.

The six part drama from Goalpost Pictures is a character-driven drama about Australian soldiers returning from Afghanistan. It is written by Blake Ayshford (Nowhere Boys, The Devils Playground, Barracuda).

The series centres on the invisible men and women who fight for our country, what they bring home and what of themselves they leave behind, and the secrets that must remain hidden. It is described as a compelling mystery regarding a possible cover-up where the lines between killer and family man, between hero and victim, between truth and imagination, are constantly shifting.

Foxtel Head of Drama Penny Win said: Fighting Season will be a powerful and provocative addition to Foxtels drama slate of great Australian storytelling. The drama explores a masculine world, unpicking the mythology surrounding The Diggers and the reality of being a modern soldier, as they try to live up to the heroic expectations placed on them by society, and themselves. Their transition from a high-adrenaline existence to being loving husbands and partners is both fascinating and incredibly moving.

Fighting Season will be Foxtels first drama production with Goalpost Pictures and we are very pleased to be working together with Kylie du Fresne and writer Blake Ayshford to bring to life this very timely story.

Goalpost Pictures Kylie du Fresne said: We are thrilled to be partnering with Foxtel. This series tackles an issue being faced by communities across the globe and its a subject that has yet to be tackled in any depth in Australian television drama. At Goalpost we were intrigued by the notion of good soldier, bad citizen and we believe Blake and his writing team have created characters that are complex and fascinating.

Fighting Season has production investment from Screen Australia and Screen NSW, with Broken Hill to be one of the key locations.

Sky Vision, the distribution and production arm of Sky, is handling distribution outside of Australia / NZ.

Across the Foxtel platform, the upcoming Australian drama line-up is a diverse mix of original and iconic stories envisioned for discerning, contemporary audiences: Fighting Season, Wentworth, A Place to Call Home and Picnic at Hanging Rock for showcase, Top of the Lake for BBC First and the movie Australia Day which will have a cinema release ahead of showing on Foxtel Movies.
Wednesday's second legs:

Brndby (0-1) Manchester City

Debutants City only managed a narrow home win against the three-time semi-finalists from Denmark but in the round of 32 the English champions won just 2-0 against Zvezda-2005 in Manchester but triumphed 4-0 in Russia.

Zurich (0-8) Lyon

Holders Lyon now have 29 goals in four European games at their new stadium and after Sunday's 5-0 league win at Rodez have scored 65 times in their ten fixtures this season. Lyon's last competitive away defeat (other than on penalties) was in March 2010, a 1-0 loss at Italy's Torres in a UEFA Women's Champions League quarter-final OL already led 3-0.

Martin Maly

Rosengard (3-1) Slavia Praha

In the only meeting between two of last season's quarter-finalists, a fine first leg in Prague was capped for the Swedish side by the penalty converted by Gaelle Enganamouit in her first European match since an injury for her new club in April.

Twente (0-1) Barcelona

Barcelona won 1-0 home and away at this stage against Twente last season and kept up that sequence in the first leg. Last year's meeting at FC Twente Stadion, venue for August's UEFA Women's EURO 2017 final, was the opening leg of that tie and attracted a round of 16 record crowd of 15,637.

Fortuna Hjrring (1-0) Brescia

Since the current competition system was introduced in 2009/10, each season Fortuna have got through the round of 32 only to lose in the last 16. The 2003 runners-up look set to break that hoodoo after their victory in Brescia, where they lost 1-0 in the first leg 12 months ago before a 1-1 home draw.

Getty Images

Thursday's second legs:

Paris Saint-Germain (3-0) BIIK-Kazygurt

BIIK are the first side from Kazakhstan to make it this far but seem to be coming to the end of the road as they visit 2015 finalists Paris, who are yet to concede in seven league games this season.

Rossiyanka (0-4) Bayern Munchen

Whereas all other German entrants  FFC Frankfurt, Turbine Potsdam, Duisburg and Wolfsburg  won the European title on debut, Bayern have never got further than the round of 16 in their two previous bids. That looks set to change as they take a four-goal lead to the Russian champions, Bayern having also beaten Frankfurt 1-0 on Sunday to move up to second in Germany.

Wolfsburg (5-1) Eskilstuna United

Last season's runners-up and two-time champions Wolfsburg are on course to make it a German double in the quarter-finals after their comfortable win in Sweden, where Zsanett Jakabfi scored four goals to add to her round of 32 hat-trick away to Chelsea. Anja Mittag was again on as a substitute and remains stuck on 49 UEFA women's club competition goals, one off the first half-century.
Hi, my name is Scott C. Waring and I wrote a few books and am currently a ESL School Owner in Taiwan. I have had my own UFO sighting up close and personal, but that's how it works right? A non believer becomes a believer when they experience their first sighting. You witnessed it, your perceptual field changes, so now you need to share it.





I created this site to help the UFO community get a little bit organized. I noticed that there was a lot of chaos when searching for UFO sighting reports, so I hope this site helps. I wanted to support those eyewitnesses who have tried to tell others about what they have seen, yet were laughed at by even closest of friends.





More and more each day the governments of the world leak bits and pieces of UFO information to the public. They have a trickle down theory in hopes of slowly getting citizens use to the idea that we are not alone in universe and never have been. The truth is being leaked drop by drop until one day we look around and find ourselves neck high in it.





The discovery of alien species in existence is the most monumental scientific event in human history, suppression of that information is a crime against humanity.





About me:

I live in Taiwan. I OWN MY OWN ENGLISH SCHOOL, AND ONCE HAD 5 SCHOOLS.

Am Former USAF at SAC base (flight line).

Age: 42

Educ: BA in Elem ed. Masters in Counseling ed.





I had two UFO sightings, (30+bus size orbs) in military and in 2012 personally saw the UFO over Taipei 101 building on New Years Day (and recored it).
No Ukrainian soldier was killed in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone in eastern Ukraine over the past day, Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Spokesperson for ATO issues, Colonel Oleksandr Motuzianyk stated.

No Ukrainian soldier was killed, but six were wounded near Avdiivka, Motuzianyk said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. iy
NATO responds to military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated this at the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting of the defense ministers of the EU Member States in Brussels on Tuesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"We believe that respect to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of each country, including Ukraine, is very important. Therefore, we will never accept a violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. That's why we respond to Russia's aggression against Ukraine," the Head of the Alliance said.

At the same time, NATO Secretary General noted that the military and political bloc sought to preserve the political and diplomatic channels of communication with Russia, and, therefore, to hold a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council in the near future.

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Vice President of the European Commission for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic will visit Moscow in the near future in order to hold talks on supply of Russian gas, transit of which goes through Ukrainian territory to Europe.

Spokesperson for the European Commission Jakub Adamowicz said this on Tuesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports from Brussels.

"Currently, we are planning a visit of Vice President Maros Sefcovic to Moscow. Of course, one of the tasks of this visit is neutral talks about the supportive role of the European Commission in this trilateral format (if Ukraine and the Russian Federation work for that) to extend the agreement on gas transit," the representative of the European Commission said.

He also stressed that Ukraine's role in this issue was very important for Europe.

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Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament Andriy Parubiy has stated that most of the G7 Ambassadors in Ukraine point to the progress in the implementation of reforms in Ukraine.

He said this on the air of ICTV Ukrainian TV channel on Monday evening, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Today, Ive held a meeting with the G7 Ambassadors in Ukraine. They can and have the right to speak authoritatively. Almost all of them have noted the great progress in Ukraine, which relates to reforms in different fields," Parubiy said

According to him, the foreign diplomats have seen the progress precisely in the anti-corruption reform and electronic declaration, judicial, energy reform, and the process of decentralization.

In addition, the Ukrainian Parliament Speaker also noted that the Parliament was working quite effectively now and the bills to support the army, ensure national security and the European integration were being supported by the majority of MPs, regardless of whether they were the part of the coalition or the opposition.

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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko being on an official visit to the Kingdom of Sweden held talks with Speaker of the Swedish parliament (the Riksdag) Urban Ahlin, the presidents press service reported on Monday evening.

The Ukrainian president thanked the speaker and Swedish MPs for the strong support of Ukraine.

The parties discussed the security situation in Donbas, implementation of the Minsk agreements and de-occupation of Crimea. The President expressed gratitude for the consistent position of Sweden regarding the non-recognition of the illegal annexation of Crimea and support for the regime of sanctions against Russia. The Speaker of the Riksdag emphasized the importance of rolling over sanctions against Russia until full restoration of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, reads a report.

President Poroshenko drew attention of Speaker Urban Ahlin to gross violation of human rights in temporary occupied territories in Ukraine.

Also, the Ukrainian president called for the further development of Ukrainian-Swedish parliamentary dialogue, first of all in the framework of the parliamentary groups on interparliamentary relations.

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November 17, the Council of the European Union will consider the issue of start of the inter-institutional negotiations with the European Parliament and the European Commission on completion of the process of making a decision on the abolition of visa requirements for Ukrainian citizens.

This issue is on the agenda of Thursdays meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Governments of the Member States to the European Union, an Ukrinform correspondent reports from Brussels, referring to a source.

"This issue will be discussed by the Council of the European Union on Thursday. If there is a positive decision, the inter-institutional negotiations will begin as soon as the agreement is reached on a new mechanism of the abolition of visa-free regime. I hope that this will happen in the coming weeks," the source said.

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EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini has stressed that a focus on visa liberalization for Georgia and Ukraine is a priority for the European Union.

She stated this at a press conference following the Foreign Affairs Council meeting, the European Council website reports.

"This was an issue that not only Ministers [Foreign Ministers of the EU Member States] discussed, but that I raised to the Ministers in the very beginning  visa liberalisation both for Georgia and for Ukraine  with a clear sense around the table of the Foreign Ministers that this is a priority for the European Union to deliver on that," Mogherini said.

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The presidential race, lasting for several months, has finally come to an end in Moldova. According to the preliminary official data provided by the Central Election Commission (after processing 99.9% of ballots), the leader of the Moldovan Party of Socialists, Igor Dodon has won the country's presidential elections.

Surely, Ukraine has been following the electoral process in the neighboring country with particular attention. First of all, because of Igor Dodons statements about Russian Crimea.

What relations Moldova and Ukraine will have after the politician comes to power, who does not hide his urge towards improving relations with Russia, in which he sees the economic and strategic partner and at the same time wants to maintain good relations with the European Union? How the choice of Moldovas citizens will influence the relations between Ukraine and Moldova?

Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Ukraine to Moldova Ivan Hnatyshyn has shared his opinion on this situation in an exclusive interview with Ukrinform.

- The second round of presidential elections took place in Moldova yesterday [November 13]. What Ukraine feels about the results and what consequences will they have in the future?

- Ukraine respects the results of free will of the citizens of the Republic of Moldova. We are interested in social, political and economic stability be maintained in the neighboring state and the system of state government bodies to operate properly.

- According to the results of preliminary voting data, the winner is the leader of the Party of Socialists, Igor Dodon, who believes that Crimea belongs to Russia". How may this affect Moldova-Ukraine relations?

- Still [on November 14] we have only preliminary results. But I should point out that peoples of the two neighboring countries have the centuries-old historical, economic, cultural and family ties that create a huge potential for further development. We understand the aspirations of Moldovans for sustainable economic development, prosperity, peace and harmony. And we will respect the choice of people of the neighboring state.

- So, this means that the Ukrainian-Moldovan relations will not be significantly changed in the future?

We will continue to step up cooperation in all spheres on the basis of good neighborly relations.

We will actively develop the cooperation with Government and Parliament of the Republic of Moldova.

We have a range of joint projects and events important for the both countries, which we are planning to implement.

As soon as tomorrow, November 15, a meeting of co-chairs of the Intergovernmental Ukrainian-Moldovan Commission for Trade and Economic Cooperation at the level of deputy prime ministers of the two countries is to be held in Chisinau. The work of the Commission is resumed after a 5 year interval. I am sure that the so-called "package agreements", including the completion of the process of demarcation and ensuring the work of Dniester hydro power scheme and other important issues will be sequentially resolved.

Also, the earlier postponed meeting of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko with Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip will be held, as well as the opening of the Bronnitsa-Ungur road bridge.

A meeting of Prime Ministers of Ukraine and Moldova, Volodymyr Groysman and Pavel Filip, is expected to take place in Kyiv at the level of heads of governments of member countries of the GUAM [Organization for Democracy and Economic Development].

- And thats all will take place until the end of the current year? Its rather an eventful program.

Yes, we have a lot of things to do. And we are sure that we will jointly overcome difficulties and fulfil what we planned

- Ivan Mykolayovych, how Moldova-Ukraine relations will develop if Moldova chooses the eastern vector of foreign policy?

- I again stress - we respect the choice and decisions of the people of Moldova if these decisions are taken consciously, not manipulatively.

I am sure that the success of joint projects implementation, and some of them foresee the financial support of the European Union, depends on the invariability of the European course of Ukraine and Moldova, the continuation of implementation of reforms, as well as mutual support on this way.

- What is the position of Moldova on the aggression of Russia against Ukraine?

The support of Ukraine was repeatedly confirmed in the speeches of the president, prime minister and deputy prime minister - minister of foreign affairs of the Republic of Moldova.

We hope that the position of official Chisinau will not change in the future.

Ukraine will hold a dialogue with the president legitimately elected by the people of Moldova, who will respect international law, the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

Ill stress once again that ties with Moldova are deeper than any changes in policy.

Zinaida Hurska, Chisinau
It is currently better for Ukraine not to raise such a politically sensitive moment as NATO membership, but to focus on domestic reforms, including the military one.

Special Representative of NATO Secretary General for the Caucasus and Central Asia James Appathura said this in a commentary to an Ukrinform correspondent in Germany.

"Currently, Ukraine does not aim to become a NATO member. We think it is right, because the reform should be the priority," Appathurai said.

According to him, the issue of membership is "rather politically sensitive and should not be raised now." If some time later Ukraine decides it wants to become a member of the Alliance, everything will depend entirely on the compliance of its armed forces with the NATO standards.

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Moldova is a strategic partner of Ukraine, and the relations between two countries should be based on trust and mutual respect.

First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv said this during a meeting in Chisinau with Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip, Ukrinform correspondent reported from Moldova.

"Moldova is a strategic partner of Ukraine. We want our relations to be based on trust and mutual respect," Stepan Kubiv said.

He welcomed the positive dynamics of bilateral relations, stressing the openness of the parties to dialogue and deepening of cooperation.

According to the head of the Moldovan government, a special attention was paid to the implementation of energy projects and the opening of joint border control points at the Moldovan-Ukrainian border.

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The rally was held near the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Kyiv today. The rally participants, in particular, condemned the aggression of Russia against Ukraine.

This is reported by 112 Ukraine TV channel.

"Several hundred people gathered in front of the Russian Embassy as early as 9 am. People were holding Ukrainian flags and posters reading "Hands off Ukraine." People say they do not agree with Putin's rhetoric on Ukraine, condemn Russia's aggression against Ukraine, and also do not agree with the actions of Moldova and Bulgaria, where presidents with the pro-Russian stance were elected. The security measures were strengthened. The patrol police officers and the National Guard officers were present at the rally," the channels reporter said.

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Published November 15, 2016

MONROE, La.  The University of Louisiana Monroes English program hosted its annual Best Freshman Essay Awards Ceremony Monday, Nov. 14 at 5 p.m. in the media room on the 6th floor of the university library.

This essay contest is held each fall for English 1001 students to demonstrate their writing abilities and creativity.

Essay submissions are from the first essay that freshmen students write in Composition I. The essays are written based on a unit taught alongside Writing Today and the summer reader "This I Believe" (essay selections from NPR).

Students submit their narrative essays for judging by composition instructors. The judges look for creativity, a resounding message and writing level.

We look for someones soul on paper. Its essential for students to showcase their talents, to know they have a voice, to be recognized, said Meredith McKinnie, Director of First Year Composition. The top three essays were awarded prizes.

The award ceremony provides appreciation and recognition for the students hard work. This contest recognizes collegiate writing and the power of storytelling, said Vanelis Rivera, English Instructor in the School of Humanities.

Past winners have continued to succeed by becoming leaders for their peers and being active in other ULM groups on campus.

This years winners are as follows:

First place: Princess Ayika for her essay titled "The Color of My Skin is Not Me." Ayika recounts two isolated experiences involving two elderly white women that influenced her perspective on having dark skin.

Instructor: James Petit

Second place: Even Hebert for his essay titled "Blind Hysteria." Hebert narrates the struggles of engaging in domestic tasks as a blind man with eloquent humor and insight.

Instructor: Meredith McKinnie

Third place: Allison Jackson for her essay titled "Another Day Another Dog." Jackson playfully recounts a chance meeting with an Old English sheepdog, which exemplified her "whole life."

Instructor: Jaleesa Harris

This I Believe is an international organization engaging people in writing and sharing essays describing the core values that guide their daily lives. Over 100,000 of these essays, written by people from all walks of life, are archived on the NPR website, heard on public radio, chronicled through NPRs books, and featured in weekly podcasts.

For more information on This I Believe, visit thisibelieve.org.

For more information on ULMs Summer Reading Program, visit ulm.edu/summerreading.
| By Alex Likowski

As a University president and as a physician both, you might expect that I have some strong opinions on how important it is that we have a good, thoughtful health insurance policy in this state and this nation, and that we ensure that all people have access to fair and appropriate coverage, University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) President Jay A. Perman, MD, told Maryland health care and government leaders, and members of the press at the Nov. 14 launch of the Maryland Health Connection College Enrollment Week.

The Maryland Health Connection was established in 2011 as the states official health insurance marketplace, enabling Maryland residents to explore health insurance plans, compare rates, and determine their eligibility for tax credits (such as those provided under the federal Affordable Care Act), cost sharing reductions, and public assistance programs such as Medicaid and the Maryland Childrens Health Insurance Program. During College Enrollment Week, informational events will be held at institutions of higher education across Maryland aimed at encouraging young adults to enroll for 2017 coverage before the open enrollment period ends Dec. 15.

Self-described "Slam Poet" Gayle D. dramatized the importance of health insurance with a poem about her own family's experience.

Perman drew on his experience as a practicing pediatric gastroenterologist to emphasize the importance of health insurance coverage for all family members. He shared the story of Leah, a young patient suffering for want of health insurance that would cover costly tube feedings necessary for her to thrive.

So now Leahs stepmother is planning to quit her full-time job and go part-time  so that she can work with Leah over breakfast in the morning, and then join her for lunch at school, he explained. Think about the false economy this situation is perpetuating, he urged. The familys medical expenses are going way up. Their income will drop significantly with a part-time job vs. full-time, and Im confident well still have to admit Leah to the hospital for more intensive care  a huge expense. This is the impact of insurance. We need thoughtful conversations not only around getting all people insured, but also getting them the right kind of coverage  humane coverage.

Baltimore Health Commissioner Leana Wen, MD, U.S. Reps. Elijah Cummings and John Sarbanes, Baltimore Mayor-elect Catherine Pugh, Maryland Secretary of Health and Mental Hygiene Van Mitchell, and others also shared their support for College Enrollment Week, and for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare. Several expressed concerns that the incoming federal administration might seek to cut or eliminate coverage for uninsured Marylanders.

For my patients, for our residents this is deeply, deeply personal, said Wen. The ACA may be a policy issue, and its important for us to engage in policy conversations, but ultimately to me as a doctor, as the citys doctor, it is about peoples lives. In Baltimore City in 2010 there were 81,000 adults without health insurance. That number now is less than 40,000. Thats 40,000 people whose families are forever changed because of it.

Dramatizing that point, Maryland Health Connection officials invited self-described slam poet Gayle D. to speak to the audience. Gayles story was made into an animated public service announcement. She also shared a poem about her familys story and the relief they feel finally securing health insurance coverage. Here is a portion of the poem:

We sleep all night, covered. We work, we school, covered. We eat, we argue, we love, covered. We are covered, yall. We are covered. Were covered like snow on the sidewalk. We walk like covered people. We talk like we are protected. We are safe. We are sound. This is the story of a family resting assured. Peekaboo. Were good. Woo hoo! How good you would feel if you were covered, too.
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Douglas Booth meets refugees at the Moria screening centre on the Greek Island of Lesvos.  UNHCR/Georgios Kyvernitis

Douglas Booth is shown round the Moria screening centre on the Greek Island of Lesvos by a UNHCR staff member.  UNHCR/Georgios Kyvernitis

Douglas Booth is shown round the Moria screening centre on the Greek Island of Lesvos.  UNHCR/Georgios Kyvernitis

Douglas Booth meets refugees at the Moria screening centre on the Greek Island of Lesvos. 

Douglas Booth meets refugees in PIKPA village, Lesvos, which provides safe accommodation and a welcoming environment for particularly vulnerable refugees, including women who have lost their children during the crossing, and adults and children with physical disabilities. PIKPA village is a former summer camp, transformed in 2012 into a refugee haven by volunteers with support from the local authorities. It is community-run, and one of its founders, Efi Latsoudi, is one of the joint 2016 winners of UNHCR's Nansen Refugee Award.  UNHCR/Georgios Kyvernitis

Douglas Booth on mission with UNHCR on the Greek island of Lesvos. Across the stretch of water behind Douglas - the Agean Sea - lies Turkey. Many refugees have taken this perilous route when attempting to reach Greece.  UNHCR/Georgios Kyvernitis

UNHCR High Profile Supporter Douglas Booth travelled to Greece in May 2015 to learn more about the experiences of refugees and their journeys fleeing from conflict and persecution. Reflecting on his time in Lesvos, Douglas said:

"There seems to be so much confusion amongst us about the difference between economic migrants, asylum seekers and refugees. Populist views would have us believe that boat-loads of people are invading Europe with the sole purpose of taking our jobs, exploiting our welfare systems, and making money. I'm concerned that it's an opinion born out of misunderstanding and fear-mongering and it isn't a fair reflection of the reality.

The fact is that the vast majority of people crossing the Mediterranean and Aegean are escaping persecution and conflict. They are refugees. The people I met on the island of Lesvos  who had arrived on overcrowded, barely sea-worthy boats only a few hours before - had no option but to flee their homes. It wasn't a choice for them  stay and likely die, or leave behind everything they have ever known and loved in order to survive.

No one chooses to be a refugee. No one hopes for conflict to find them, for friends and family to die, for their home to be destroyed, their education and plans for their future to be interrupted so brutally. No one wants to flee their country, scrabble together enough money from their life savings, selling possessions, borrowing from anywhere they can, to pay unscrupulous smugglers to abuse and exploit them and send them across troubled waters where thousands before them have drowned making the very same high risk journey.

The people I met have endured terrible suffering, loss, heartbreak and fear. They look to Europe for protection. They look to Europe for safety. Yet they are too often met by prejudice, ill-will, hostility, intolerance and anger. I urge people to take some time  even just 5 minutes  to look beyond the headlines and get to know one of the millions of people around the world who have been forced to flee their home. Read or watch a short film of a refugee story here, talk to a refugee in your community. Take time to understand where these people  people just like you and me - have come from, the horrors they have escaped, the journey they have undertaken, the life they have to rebuild from scratch, the hopes they have for the future. I know, like me, you will recognise yourself and your family in them, and understand that refugees are not 'other'  they are ordinary people going through an extraordinary hardship."
SPRINGFIELD - House Speaker Mike Madigan, apparently still steaming about the net loss of three seats in his Democrat caucus last Tuesday, failed to show up at a planned budget leadership meeting at the Governor's office Monday.

The days of authorized spending before the end of 2016 are dwindling, House MInority Leader Jim Durkin told reporters after he and Senate Minority Leader Chris Radogno met with Governor Rauner.

"We have six scheduled days of meeting when all members of both chambers will be in the building," Durkin said. "We're going to run out of spending authority in a very short amount of time. Let's get to work."

Durkin appealed to Speaker Madigan and Senator President Cullerton to set aside vetoes and overrides to focus on a "full, balanced and fair" budget.

When asked if Madigan couldn't find time to work the meeting into his schedule as being a "personality issue" between the speaker and the governor because so much money was spent in the election, Radogno answered with frustration.

"He's got a job to do on behalf of the people of the state of Illinois," the senator said. "This state is suffering. Services are suffering. That's insane to think because he lost seats he shouldn't have to participate. It's an absolute derelection of duty ..."
"I'm concerned about a possible 'grand bargain' or 'grand compromise' that will create a massive tax increase," State Rep. David McSweeney (R-South Barrington) told Illinois Review. "For Republicans to support a tax hike is a wrong answer that will hurt Illinois families. We need to stand against it and oppose all tax hikes."

SPRINGFIELD - Illinois state lawmakers are back in Springfield Tuesday for the veto session, and one state lawmaker is warning taxpayers to beware of any budget resolution that involves a state income tax rate hike.

Republican Governor Rauner has indicated that he's open to raising the income tax rate in order to bring in more revenue, but has said that will happen only if Illinois Democrats agree to needed reforms. Those reforms include changes to the state's workers' compensation system, addition of term limits and/or other concessions that Rauner believes would improve the state's struggling business climate.

Monday, House Speaker Mike Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton failed to show up at a planned meeting with the governor and House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, along with Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno.

McSweeney said that secret working groups to work on the budget are more of the political status quo when voters indicated last Tuesday that they want more transparency and accountability from their lawmakers.

As lawmakers, "we need to do our job, and that doesn't include a massive tax increase masked as a 'grand bargain,'" McSweeney said.

Both chambers are meeting Tuesday at the State Capitol.
Barack Obama's administration policies will no doubt be revised to cater more on private school vouchers to become a government-subsidized system, and basically to generally shrink the Department of Educations in order to boost resources on charter schools.

President-elect Donald Trump also has no problems in totally demolishing the whole department of education and perhaps set-up his version of a liberated schools system where guns are banned among others and a ready to avail student loan facility, as noted from the Miami Herald's report.

Trump's $20 billion grant program focuses on the States providing school choice that aid parents in selecting the most appropriate school for their children highlighting, of course, the vouchers, charter and magnet forms of schools. The budget is intended to be taken from the federal funds.

The given strategy will force the education department to decrease its function thereby allowing his administration to basically reorganize it into a smaller sector ,especially when it implements the "Every Student Succeeds Act" as it is.

The Office of Civil Rights under the education department can also be eliminated if Trump decides not to pursue Obama's sexual assault and racial discrimination investigations in schools. He might need to come up with a branch that safeguards students from being discriminated racially, sexually and physically.

Gerard Robinson,who shares Trump's beliefs and who was an education chief before in Florida and Virginia is certain that choice programs will be a priority in the Trump administration. The $20 billion proposed budget would be insignificant because of the president-elect's gearing on parental choice when it comes to schools, according to Washington Post.

He is confident that Trump will adopt entrepreneurship in the education department in the hope that it will run independently as it will have the jurisdiction to solve own problems. No more dictatorship in the system - only partnership, he added.
After her unfortunate break up with hes former husband, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie made her come back by getting involved in empowering Irish-made film from the Cartoon Saloon.

Catherine Roycroft, Cartoon Saloons Chief Operations Officer, said that Jolie firmly believes in the film and is very excited about it.

Award winning films like the Song of the Sea and The Book of Kells were created by the Kilkenny based animation studio and even made a short film with the help of Temple Street's Children Hospital, as reported by Goss.

The story revolves around of a 12-year old girl Parwana who takes the risk of dressing up as a boy in order to support her family after her father was arrested in Afghanistan. With the help of her best friend, Shauzia, they both take the rough and dangerous road on trying to find out if her father is still alive.

Roycroft added that she can really see Angelina's perseverance and support on pursuing and spreading the message of the film on the empowerment of women in many countries especially in the Middle East and the importance of education. In making the film look more interesting to watch for, they do their best in making it unique and fresh for the viewers. The real voices of those people who came from or were born in Afghanistan were used for the characters.

This November the Cartoon saloon will handle the premier art fair Art Source to meet Ireland future animators on the 11th of the said month which is Friday also the workshop that was prepared for the children will be given on Saturday. These events will run from November 11 to November 13

For the post-production, the film will be showing to Canada in 2017. However, children will still have the sneak peak on how an animated film is made. For admissions, $10 for adults, $ 8 for OAPs and for children under 16 years old who are accompanied by their parents or guardians will be free of admissions.
It's normal these days to use symbols and abbreviations, but have you ever wondered how technology could be affecting the way kids are writing in school? Would their essays and book reports contain as much LOLs and emoticons as their social media posts? Well, you'll be relieved to find out that today's college student writing has the same number of errors as it did back in 1917.

This is according to a national longitudinal study on student writing conducted by Andrea A. Lunsford and Karen J. Lunsford. In fact, the study also found that students nowadays are even writing longer essays and are using more complicated rhetorical techniques.

The study entitled, "Mistakes Are a Fact of Life: A National Comparative Study" was undertaken by Lunsford and Lunsford, rhetoric and composition professors at Stanford University and the University of California Santa Barbara, respectively. This is in response to government studies worrying about the decline of students' literacy level back in 2006.

The two professors did not find evidence that students are using instant messaging (IM) jargon and abbreviations in their papers, no "text speak" and not a single emoji was found. What's surprising is that the researchers found text speak and some of the anticipated digital-era errors students would make in notes and comments teachers made on the students' written works.

The study, published in 2008 involved information from research undertaken in the last hundred years and it replicated the process of analyzing hundreds of papers to identify errors in students' writing.

Apart from revealing that the number of errors students commit in writing has been consistent for the past 100 years, the study also showed that there have been changes in the types of writing errors students were making in the last few years.

With the use of word processors with spell-check and autocorrect, spelling errors became minimal, what became apparent is the use of wrong words because spell-checks would sometimes suggest using a different word in place of what was intended.

There was an increase in capitalization errors, presumably associated with neologisms like "iPhone" and "eBay." There was also great improvement in punctuation that was on the top five list of errors back in 1917. In 2006, punctuation errors were out of the top 10 list.

The most surprising thing Lunsford and Lunsford discovered more than the changes in the writing errors is the fact that the students are actually writing more. In 1986, the average length of a college essay was 422 words, Fast forward 20 years later, it was doubled with an average lenght of 1,038 words.

The researchers believed that this is because of the electronic and digital revolution. Computers made writing easier for today's students who can write with their computers and smartphones compared to 100 or 50 years ago when most students would have been writing manually with pens and papers.

In a way, it is possible that social media and text messaging helped. It made students more comfortable with the written form of expression. Today's students have had more practice in writing compared to others before them.

What educators should worry more about is not finding text speak or emojis on students papers. Making errors is part of the learning process. Kids these days can write more pages than their parents and grandparents combined as they have the means and the technology to do so.

Aside from finding errors, teachers should also focus on helping the students learn to organize their writing and edit relentlessly. This way, they will be able to express what they are trying to get across.
Outgoing President Barack Obama calls on Americans to let incoming President Donald Trump make decisions as he deemed appropriate for the nation. He can be evaluated after his two years in office if people like the outcome or not.

However, his appointment of Stephen Bannon as chief strategist, somewhat confirms his racism ideologies as per critics. Bannon is the former head of Breitbart News and known for his anti-semitic, obvious nationalist and racist opinions, says New York Times.

University of Oklahoma student was suspended pending investigation on his alleged threat against a Muslim student that happened close to the University of Michigan. Racist incidents in educational establishments are reported by The Associated Press and other media.It is also noted that students from Oklahoma got engaged with an anti-black group of students from the University of Pennsylvania, where Trump graduated.

University of Pennsylvania President ,Amy Gutmann is working with the FBI to address the issue. They have increased campus security for added safety. University of Oklahoma President David Boren also suspends the students involved but confident that the racism act did not start from their school.

What's worrying is the report in Ann Arbor, Michigan. A man allegedly threatened a Muslim student to burn her if she won't remove her hijab. It happened adjacent to the University of Michigan campus. Sgt. Patrick Maguire is already investigating the incident.

The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations condemns the anti-Muslim acts after Donald Trump became president. It urges the government to forcefully discourage anti-Muslim behaviors happening right now, as suggested by Dawud Walid, its executive director after expressing his concern.

This is not different however when Barack Obama, America's first black president was elected in 2008. There was also evidence of resistance at that time. Meanwhile. anti-Trump protests happen in places like Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland, Oregon, and New York, according to ABC News.
Friendships are often thought to be causes for distraction, especially for a young student's academic life, but a new study proves otherwise: friendships actually help college students perform better and eventually succeed.

Janice McCabe, associate professor of sociology at Dartmouth, studied 67 students studying in a large, unnamed Midwestern university and found that there are three types of friendships, each of which bring various benefits to a student's performance in college, Inside Higher Ed reported. The results of her study are fully explained in a book titled, "Connecting in College: How Friendship Networks Matter for Academic and Social Success."

McCabe gathered data about the students' academic performances and friendships. Although the students were quick to say that they separate their academics from their friendships, McCabe found the opposite. Students helped one another in their studies by: proofreading each other's papers, reminding each other of deadlines, provided emotional support for one another, and many other behaviors.

McCabe also named three categories of friendship groups: tight-knitters, compartmentalizers, and samplers.

Tight-knitters are those who have one set of friends who likely know each other. This group is characterized by a strong sense of belongingness. Tight-knitters can serve as both a help or a hindrance to academic performance. Those with friends who encourage academic excellence will likely do better, but those who have friends who don't do well and lack motivation to succeed in college can be discouraging as well.

Compartmentalizers, like tight-knitters, have close relationships, but not just with one group of people. These students may have multiple groups of friendships, such as friends in an organization, and then friends in the classroom.

McCabe found that compartmentalizers were very successful, largely because of the kinds of support they receive: a group of friends for academic support, another for social support, and so on.

Those in the last category, samplers, don't have close friendships. Although they don't have strong support, samplers actually do well on their own, which according to McCabe, leads to a question:

"[C]ould samplers be even more successful if they allowed their friends to be friends with academic benefits?" she wrote.

Julia McQuillan, a professor of sociology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, told the Daily Nebraskan that she doesn't fully agree with McCabe's study, but she does believe that students need to have academic-oriented friendships that will help them succeed.
Heritage reports that they are able to have a major input in the Trump presidency, the most input since the election of Ronald Reagan. Members of the group have been in contact with Trump's transition since he won the Republican nomination at this summer's convention in Cleveland, Ohio. Nevertheless, Heritage says it will hold Trump accountable, desiring that Trump will implement Heritage ideas and polices to "Make America Great Again."

Just two days after Donald Trump won his bid for the presidency, representatives from the conservative Heritage Foundation debriefed Chicago area supporters about their organization's optimism and their opportunity to play a key role in transitioning from the Obama Administration to Trump's.

The afternoon's panel participants were Tim Chapman, Chief Operating Officer, Heritage Action for America, and Genevieve Wood, Senior Fellow in Communications, The Heritage Foundation and Senior Contributor to the Daily Signal.

Genevieve Wood, Senior Fellow in Communications

Genevieve Wood expressed what so many of us now believe, that Republicans no longer have any excuse for saying that things can't be done, for Republicans now own all three, the House, the Senate, and the White House. Republicans also won 34 governorships across the country, the highest since 1922.

A different landscape now exists than present before the November 8th election. Although Democrats had a huge ground game in each state to win the election for Hillary, those voting for Trump didn't need anyone to tell them it was Election Day and that they should vote. Republicans came out in mass because they were fed up with the direction of their country and wanted to take it back. With a $20 trillion debt; health care premiums going up; the borders wide open, and the threat of an appointment to the Supreme Court giving progressive judges a 5 - 4 advantage, Republicans were eager to get out and vote for Trump, most recognizing what faced them if the election went the other way.

Ms. Wood asked these questions: Why did we vote for Trump? Was it to repeal Obamacare? Was it to stem the flow of illegal aliens across out southern border? Was it to stimulate the economy and business through decreasing regulations?

The number one reason voters chose Trump on November 8th was because of his ability to appoint Supreme Court justices, she said. For 17% of Trump voters it was their first reason. For 48% of Trump voters it was a very important reason.

If Obama in many situations is not governing according to the Constitution, why should he be permitted to appoint more justices?

This same reasoning was used by The Heritage Foundation in its early fight against the Obama administration filling the vacancy left by Justice Scalia's death. There was concern that some Republicans senators might cave in to give Obama a gift even before knowing how the presidential election would turn out. Had Republicans in the Senate permitted nominee Garland to be confirmed, the election issue of Supreme Court appointments would have been lost.

Mrs. Wood expressed her hope that Trump would repeal Obamacare first. Voters needs to see that Trump is serious in his campaign pledge to repeal Obamacare. Congress would be with Trump, as Congress has already passed a bill to repeal Obamacare, only to have had it vetoed by Obama.

Tim Chapman, Chief Operating Officer, Heritage Action for America

Panel member Tim Chapman said Heritage Action draws the line in the sand to the Washington establishment. Chapman likewise discussed the issue of Obamacare.

It was in 2013 that Heritage Action first started engaging Obamacare. The 2014 election wasn't influenced by the issue, but it did lay the groundwork to eventually getting rid of Obamacare. Last year the GOP-led House and Senate passed a budget resolution, as a dry run. Instructions were included to use reconciliation to repeal Obamacare. The House and Senate were ultimately successful in getting it to Obamas desk, where it was vetoed.

Republicans now have a good chance to advance their own agenda, six years after President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law, and after more than 60 attempts to repeal it. Repealing Obamacare did became closer to reality early Wednesday morning when Donald Trump was elected president. A Reconciliation Bill can again be employed in January, 2017 -- a procedure used in the Senate that allows a bill to pass with 51 votes -- to roll back Obamacare and avoid a Democratic filibuster. Unlike last year, Trump will not veto the measure.

In agreement with Mrs. Wood, Chapman expressed his disapproval of Republicans who seemed willing to allow Obama's Supreme Court nominee Garland to be appointed to the Supreme Court. It would have taken away the incentive to vote for many who considered the make-up of the Supreme Court of utmost importance to the future of this nation.

Chapman predicted a continuing resolution fight when Trump takes office in January of 2017, that will be used as a fundraiser for Democrats should Republicans dare to shut down the government.

Recommended by Tim Chapman is that DACA, an Executive Order signed by President Obama on June 15, 2012, should be the first thing Trump should get rid of. DACA (acronym for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) states that the government will not deport those who meet certain criteria. Meeting certain criteria allows undocumented residents to obtain a drivers license and Social Security number and a two year work authorization which they are permitted to renew after those two years are up.

Questions Addressed

Much time was allotted for Heritage Foundation guests to question Genevieve Wood and Tim Chapman.

About the media disconnect? Most of the media was "out to lunch" and remained in the bubble of their own bias. The Washington, D.C. media remained insulated from what was happening outside Washington, D.C.

About the disaffected white voter who voted for Trump? Democrats rely on identity politics in targeting voters, perceiving they own and need the votes of Blacks, women, Latinos, gays, etc., to win elections. Whites (blue collar workers) who made-up the working class in the rust belt area, were last on the peaking order for Democrats as to how their programs and policies would benefit them, and they lost them.

About the fate of globalism? Trump's election conveyed that patriotism is still alive and that it is fine to think of America first, not as a nation within a global world. We must take our principles to create policies which will advance our principles and beliefs to the rest of the world.

About the first 100 days? Donald Trump's plan for his first 100 days was set forth at his campaign rally at Valley Forge, PA. Trump's immediate action upon taking office in January (strike while the iron is hot) is to appoint a conservative Supreme Court Justice to replace Anthony Scalia; repeal Obamacare; begin education reform; start on tax reform; and deal with crumbling infrastructure to spur the creation of jobs.

About Heritage's relationship with President-elect Trump? Heritage briefed all Republican candidates during the primary election season. Since the Republican Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, when Trump officially became the Republican presidential candidate, Heritage has assembled a transition team. All presidents have 71,000 political appointments to make. Heritage Foundation is now busy collecting resumes to fill these slots (2 to 3 people for each position), also vetting each candidate, so the candidates will ascribe to policies that the Heritage Foundation espouses. This document will then to handed to the Trump Team.

About how to replace weak leadership in the Senate? The Senate is such an insulated place, that it would be difficult to send U.S. Senator Mitch O'Connell packing. Noted was how quickly O'Connell was to take credit for those senators who won. It would take a sustained outside push for O'Connell to leave the Senate. It would be good for Trump to make deals with both House Speaker Paul Ryan and Mitch O'Connell should they remain in leadership positions, by insisting that both work with him to pass his agenda. In the past, Ryan and O'Connor differed with Trump on immigration and trade.

About Trump's Supreme Court Justice pick? Trump must pick one from his list, and then fight for it. Trump's pick for vice president, Mike Pence, must set the criteria for the type of Supreme Court nominee Trump recommends. Picking someone not on the list would shatter Trump's coalition. When Trump receives good advice and follows it, good things happen.

About two competing conservative forces in the Republican Party? There are the traditional conservatives who want less spending and less government. Then there are those conservatives who perceive real issues among the working class. They wish to adhere to the same conservative policy positions by using them in ways to help people get back to work.

About Education Reform? A-PLUS Act (S. 827) is the proposed conservative alternative to NCLB (No Child Left Behind) and would allow states to opt out of the problematic NCLB. A-PLUS, introduced in April 2011 by Senators Jim DeMint (RSC) and John Cornyn (RTX), would rein in the Government's Education Power Grab by increasing state and local control in education while increasing transparency of results to parents and taxpayers. There are plans to push the A-PLUS Act as a bill in 2017. Should the A-PLUS Act pass, there would be no need for the Department of Education.

About Term Limits? The Heritage Foundation believes that the American people should provide term limits through elections, rather than limit times a lawmaker can seek re-election.

About Trump Pursuing Investigation of Hillary? There are on-going Congressional investigations, as well as separate FBI investigations on The Clinton Foundation. The question at hand is whether President Obama will pardon Hillary. Heritage believes it would be best for this nation if we were done with Hillary and her wrongdoings and corrupt practices.

Final thoughts by Master of Ceremonies, Sarah Gough: "We are in Trump's corner but not in his pocket. We want President Trump to do well, because want our country to do well."
November 15 2016

A Victorian mews building in Dundee has been earmarked as a new design hub following submission of plans by Andrew Black Design to transform the Tay Street Lane property into a contemporary business address.This will see the C-listed shell retained whilst a contemporary interior space is fashioned within, allowing three studios to be created  one of which will be taken over by the practice themselves.Black commented: We are extremely excited about the plans which will position us in the heart of Dundees Cultural Quarter, just a few minutes walk from the waterfront.It is hoped to have work get underway early in the new year for completion by May as the fabric of the building has already benefitted from a 2011 refurbishment by Dundee City Council.
November 15 2016

Lochalsh and Skye Housing Association have brought forward plans to deliver 17 affordable flats on the site of a former bus garage in Portree, Skye.The park Road site sits to the west of the village centre and will offer a mix of one and two bedroom flats within a render and blue/grey Cedral weather boarded block.Explaining the design and appearance of the block GJ Johnston building consultants wrote: The design includes measures to temper its apparent scale, give interest and reflect some features of nearby buildings such as the use of distinctive gables, recessed sections and fenestration with a vertical emphasis.The use of vertical cladding and balconies with railings are also designed to give more vertical emphasis to the north west and south east elevations and complement its form. All will help make a positive contribution to enhancing the architectural and visual quality of its location and to define and create an attractive and effective streetscape.A corrugated metal garage will be demolished to make way for the proposal.
November 15 2016

Glasgow City Council has given its blessing to a development framework for the canal corridor between Applecross and Firhill Basins in the Hamiltonhill area of the city.Prepared by Urban Design consultants LUC on behalf of Glasgow Canal Regeneration Partnership the document builds on feedback gleaned from a charrette process titled Glasgows Inner City Village: Tranquil Heart, Vibrant Fringe.Spanning six key themes this looked at creating a linear park in parallel with the canal; offering improved pedestrian and cycle links; new housing provision; passive observation; heritage and culture and promotion of healthy lifestyles.Councillor George Redmond, executive member for jobs, business and investment said: The regeneration of this part of the canal corridor, including Hamiltonhill and parts of Woodside and Firhill, is key to the wider development of the area. This framework will help deliver this very exciting transformation, unlocking the potential of a district of Glasgow that will be home to new housing, businesses and visitor attractions.The framework prioritises development of brownfield land to provide flood protection, housing and improved connections; specifically, restoration of canalside buildings at Applecross Basin, a canal bridge connecting Garscube Road with the Claypits Local Nature Reserve and the housing-led regeneration of Hamiltonhill masterminded by Collective Architecture.
UTSAs Mission

The University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.

UTSAs Vision

To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.

UTSAs Core Values

We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, inclusiveness, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.

UTSAS Destinations

UTSA is a proud Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Education.

Our Commitment to Inclusivity

The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to ending generations of discrimination and inequity. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.
International Education Week Underway at UW

International Education Week at the University of Wyoming continues through Saturday, Nov. 19, with a full slate of events.

The International Student Association collaborates with the Associated Students of UW to host the activities.

Various free public events will take place on campus to celebrate international diversity. Students from other countries bring an important diversity of cultures and ideas to the UW campus, providing opportunities for education, growth and friendships, according to organizers.

International Education Week events are:

Tuesday, Nov. 15, 5-7 p.m. -- Sushi workshop, Wyoming Union fireplace lounge, followed by sushi tasting.

Wednesday, Nov. 16, 5-8 p.m. -- Film The Good Lie will be screened in the UW College of Agriculture and Natural Resources auditorium. Discussion follows.

Thursday, Nov. 17, 4-6 p.m. -- Service project. Meet behind Rolling Mills in the Wyoming Union.

4-7 p.m. -- Washakie International Night, Washakie Dining Center.

Friday, Nov. 18, 6-9 p.m. -- International Night, featuring live performance, improv dance competition and free pizza, Wyoming Union lower floor.

Saturday, Nov. 19, 6 p.m. -- Etiquette Dinner, featuring Middle Eastern food. Event is a formal dinner followed by a dance party, Wyoming Union Ballroom.

For more information, call Maria Almendares, International Students and Scholars coordinator, at (307) 766-5193 or email wyoqtpi@uwyo.edu.
SBDC Workshop to Focus on Proposal Preparation, Cost Accounting

The federal government sets aside more than $2 billion annually to fund early-stage development of new high-tech ideas being pursued by the nations innovative small firms. The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs focus on funding high-risk, high-payoff projects that have significant commercial potential.

SBIR/STTR Phase I Proposal Preparation and Cost Accounting workshops are scheduled Tuesday, Dec. 6, 8 a.m.-4 p.m.; and Wednesday, Dec. 7, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Both workshops will take place at the Wyoming Technology Business Center in Casper at 2435 King Blvd. The Wyoming Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network is hosting these workshops to help Wyoming small businesses prepare competitive research and development proposals.

The SBDC is a partnership among the University of Wyoming, the Wyoming Business Council and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). The SBDC focuses on educating small-business owners and potential owners on how to successfully start and operate small businesses. The SBDCs main office is located at UW.

Jim and Gail Greenwood will teach the workshops. They have been involved in the SBIR program since its inception in 1983, and have taught workshops nationwide. They are the recipients of the coveted Tibbetts Award to honor their contributions to SBIR/STTR outreach and education efforts, and were recognized by the Small Business Technology Council as Champions for Small Business. In addition to training, the Greenwoods critique draft proposals for program applicants.

During the first workshop, participants will learn how to prepare a competitive proposal and participate in this innovative program. Attendees will receive a comprehensive overview of the SBIR and STTR programs, including differentiation between the two, and significant changes occurring as a result of their recent reauthorization. The Greenwoods will then discuss a simple, but effective, four-step process to develop a Phase I proposal targeted to any of the participating agencies. The session will conclude with a brief review of sample Phase I proposals.

During the second workshop, participants will learn about SBIR/STTR cost proposal and cost accounting methods. Developing an accurate cost proposal is key to profiting from an SBIR/STTR project. The workshop will focus on developing an indirect rate (overhead, fringe, facilities and administrative costs, and general and administrative expenses) for your company, and applying that rate to an accurate and defensible cost proposal as part of your Phase I or II SBIR/STTR proposal.

The workshops are free of charge to Wyoming businesses due to funding from a Federal and State Technology grant awarded by the U.S. SBA. Participants can register separately for each day at www.wyomingsbdc.org. The cost for out-of-state attendees is $125.

For more information, call Kelly Haigler Cornish at (307) 766-2904. Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance.

The Wyoming SBDC Network is a business advising group of the Wyoming SBDC, Procurement Technical Assistance Center, Market Research Center and Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR)/Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Initiative. The networks mission is to help Wyoming entrepreneurs succeed. Advising and most market research activities are free of charge to Wyoming residents.

The SBDC is funded, in part, through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. SBA. Additional support is provided by the Wyoming Business Council and UW.
Thanksgiving Potluck at UW Nov. 20

The University of Wyoming International Studies Student Club will host a Thanksgiving potluck dinner for international students Sunday, Nov. 20, at 4 p.m. in the Cheney International Center lounge.

The event is an opportunity for international students to learn about the countrys Thanksgiving Day tradition.

Turkey will be provided, and participants are urged to bring traditional Thanksgiving or international dishes to contribute to the potluck.

For more information, email Kelsey Damon at kdamon@uwyo.edu.


Get ready to rodeo! Beer Park at Paris Las Vegas will celebrate the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) with specials and all-day viewing parties from Thursday, Dec. 1 through Saturday, Dec. 10 (Photo credit: Chris Wessling).

Photo credit: Anthony Mair.

Beer Park will show NFR events on dozens of high-definition TVs, with games visible from every seat in the venue. NFR fans can enjoy specials on whisky and indulge in tailgate-style barbecue classics, including: the guacamole burger, a 100 percent beef brisket burger, cooked over Budweiser beechwood and hardwood charcoal, topped with spicy pepper jack cheese, chipotle mayo and crispy jalapeno peppers, priced at $10.95; the pulled pork sandwich, 12-hour beechwood smoked, bone-in pork shoulder, covered in BBQ sauce and a jalapeno slaw, priced at $11.95; and the meat & potatoes, prime rib cap steak served with crinkle cut garlic fries, lemon and black pepper baconnaise, served picnic style for sharing, priced at $25.95.


Few things are as wonderful during the holiday season as delicious pumpkin pies and working together to better the lives of people in need in our shared community. In keeping with this spirit, Grand Bazaar Shops will hold a pre-Thanksgiving pumpkin pie-eating contest to support two great local non profits on Tuesday, Nov. 22 at 12 p.m. (Pictured: LIBBYs Famous Pumpkin Pie).

Teams representing Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada and Veterans Village Las Vegas will chow down to see who can eat the most pumpkin pie in five minutes for a $3,000 grand prize. The runner up charity will receive a $1,000 donation.

Visitors are invited to the outdoor retail and dining attraction to kickoff the Thanksgiving holiday and watch the tasty and fun competition. The event will be hosted by locally-renowned host, Steph MacKenzie of The Point 97.1. Guests can also participate in fun-filled activities happening around the center, including Thanksgiving-themed complimentary caricature and temporary tattoo artists and photo opportunities with a festive pilgrim and turkey.

Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada and Veterans Village will have outposts at Grand Bazaar Shops Grand Allee, near the entrance to the shops off Las Vegas Boulevard from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 22. Guests can visit the outposts to learn more about the respective charities and make a donation in support. Guests donation of $10 to either of the organizations will receive a $10 shopping voucher to use at virtually any Grand Bazaar Shops store as a thank you.


On Saturday (November 12, 2016), Tropicana Las Vegas teamed up with the Military Hospitality Alliance to host the 13th annual Military Culinary Competition. The culinary event made its debut in Las Vegas this Veterans Day weekend and was hosted by Tropicana Las Vegas newest chef, Robert Irvine.

(Pictured above) This year, the U.S. Army Reserve was crowned the Armed Forces Culinary Grand Champions 2016.

It was an honor to see the top culinary talent among the military branches come together in celebration of Veterans Day weekend, said Irvine. For the military, food is foremost in our thoughts and its important for these military chefs to continue to thrive in their careers. The Military Culinary Competition is a great way for the chefs to come together, have fun, and also promote an active lifestyle to keep our men and women healthy.

Over 30 active duty military from across the world faced off during the ultimate food fight for the title of Armed Forces Culinary Grand Champions. The military chefs worked in eight teams of four, bringing together military members from all branches of the Armed Forces during this hand-to-pan competition.

During the tournament-style competition, each team was tasked with making four plates  appetizer, soup or salad, entree plate, and dessert  from a basket of mystery ingredients over three rounds, with a limited amount of time. Each dish was then judged based on preparation, presentation, flavor and originality. Executive Chefs from Tropicana Las Vegas and M Resort, as well as Presidents of the American Culinary Federation chapters, judged the event.

The names of all winners at 13th annual Military Culinary Competition are as follows: First Place: U.S. Army Reserve

Aqueelah James; Joseph Parker; Jeffrey Vaun; Colby Beard

Received $1,000 each Second Place: Navy Southwest Region

Received $500 each Third Place: Las Vegas Veterans

Received $250 each

Congratulations to all of the winners, said Aaron Rosenthal, General Manager of Tropicana Las Vegas. It was an absolute honor to host the annual Military Culinary Competition here in Las Vegas, and we look forward to showcasing the spectacular talent of these young military chefs for years to come.

To complement the culinary competition, Chef Robert Irvine hosted a special meet and greet. Irvine mix and mingled with guests, active military chef competitors, and the cast members of Tropicana Las Vegas newest show, Band of Magicians.
A seal stays cool in the water on a hot afternoon at the Central Park Zoo on August 18, 2016 in New York City. (Photo: AFP / SPENCER PLATT / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA)

Average temperatures for the year were set to hit about 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.16 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels - meaning that 16 of the 17 hottest years on record were this century, said the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The new record means the world is already more than halfway to the upper limit of 2C of warming overall, 1.5C if possible, which UN nations had agreed upon to stave off worst-case-scenario climate change.

"Another year. Another record. The high temperatures we saw in 2015 are set to be beaten in 2016," WMO secretary general Petteri Taalas said in a statement.

The El Nino weather phenomenon had boosted temperatures in the early months of the year, but even after its effects dissipated, the mercury stayed high.

In parts of Arctic Russia, temperatures were 6C to 7C higher than the long-term average, the statement said. Other Arctic and sub-Arctic regions in Russia, Alaska and northwest Canada were at least 3C above average.

"We are used to measuring temperature records in fractions of a degree, and so this is different," said Taalas.

The WMO report was published as UN climate talks entered their second week in Marrakesh - the first since last year's huddle in the French capital concluded with the climate-rescue Paris Agreement.

The Moroccan followup is meant to agree on rules for executing the plans and goals outlined in the pact, which envisions reining in global warming by cutting back on greenhouse-gas emitting coal, oil and gas for energy.

HIGH IMPACT EVENTS

Earlier Monday, the annual Global Carbon Budget report said carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels have been nearly flat for three years in a row - a "great help" but not enough to stave off dangerous climate change.

Both analyses warned that concentrations of planet-warming greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continued to rise, reaching 400 parts per million in 2015 and likely to exceed that record in 2016.

Global temperatures for January to September this year were about 1.2C over pre-industrial levels, and 0.88C over the average for 1961-1990, said the WMO.

"More than 90 per cent of northern hemisphere land areas outside the tropics were at least 1C above average."

Temperatures were also above normal over most ocean areas, contributing to coral bleaching and disrupted marine ecosystems in tropical waters, the report said.

Arctic sea ice extent was "well below normal" throughout the year.

"Because of climate change, the occurrence and impact of extreme events has risen," the WMO said. Heatwaves and flooding that once occurred once in a generation, are now much more regular.

It pointed to several "high impact" events this year, including Hurricane Matthew which ravaged Haiti in October, flooding in China, several heatwaves, the most damaging wildfire in Canadian history and major droughts.

Food shortages, population migration and conflict are expected to increase as a result of more frequent and potentially more intense weather-related disasters, the report warned.
Quang Ninhs backing is critical for Amata as it increases the chance for the firm to receive the governments thumbs-up. If Amatas proposal fails, the project will face trouble competing with neighbouring Dinh Vu economic zone in Haiphong city.

Quang Ninh Chairman Nguyen Duc Long said at a meeting with Amatas representatives last week that the provincial authorities will co-operate with Amata in submitting a proposal to the government for incentives similar to what Dinh Vu economic zone enjoys.

Incentives offered to Dinh Vu economic zone are considered the highest of their kind in Vietnam. The incentives, if approved, will leverage Amatas ability to attract tenants.

Current incentives for economic zones include tax cuts for their tenants, such as a 10 per cent corporate income tax (CIT) for 15 years following their operation date, CIT exemption for the first four years after they generate taxable income, and a 50 per cent reduction in taxes for the next nine years.

Amatas project, however, is a type of industrial park. Under existing laws, incentives for industrial parks are lower than economic zones, such as only two years of tax exemption and four years of a 50 per cent reduction. There is no personal income tax reduction for employees in industrial parks.

A representative of Amata Group at the meeting confirmed it will try its best to start constructing the first phase of its project by the end of 2016 or early 2017.

Long said that the province has established a special board to facilitate the project. The board would give support to the investor in completing procedures to shorten the time for the start of construction, and help solve investor difficulties.

According to the initial plan, the project has a total area of 6,403 hectares, of which the Song Khoai IP covers 700ha. It will be Amatas first investment in northern Vietnam.

Amata has been investing in Vietnam since 1994, when it started work on its maiden project, Amata Bien Hoa industrial park and township complex in the southern province of Dong Nai.
A production line of electronic spare parts at South Korean SYNOFEX Viet Nam Company in Quang Minh Industrial Park in Ha Noi. Viet Nam has attracted Asian companies thank to its stable political and economic climate as well as large and growing customer demand. - VNA/VNS Photo Danh Lam

Enterprises from Malaysia (38 per cent), Thailand (35 per cent) and Singapore (29 per cent) ranked Viet Nam as one of their top-three expansion destinations, according to the UOB Asian Enterprise Survey 2016.

The enterprises were among the 28 per cent of all 2,500 surveyed respondents who chose Viet Nam as their favoured expansion destination in the next three to five years.

Asian enterprises said they were drawn to Viet Nams stable political and economic climate (41 per cent), large and growing customer demand (40 per cent) and favourable tax and regulatory environment (35 per cent).

With an economic growth of 6.7 per cent last year and 60 per cent of its 90 million people under 35 years old, Viet Nam continues to be an attractive destination for investment.

In the first half of the year, the country received a record US$11.3 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI), a surge of 105 per cent from the same period last year.

Eric Tham, head of Group Commercial Banking at UOB, said the findings from the survey reaffirmed the entrepreneurial spirit of Asian enterprises.

Speaking at an investment forum organised by UOB in HCM City last week, Tham said the top industry sources of foreign investment into Viet Nam included key sectors, such as manufacturing, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, construction, real estate, and energy and natural resources sectors.

Growth in these key sectors is expected to build a strong foundation to support long-term economic growth.

Investments in Viet Nam will also create more jobs and boost income. This in turn will open doors for new economic opportunities as Viet Nams growing urban population and expanding middle class start spending more on consumer goods, and on healthcare services to ensure their personal health and well being. In addition, Vietnamese enterprises will benefit from collaborating with foreign companies in the areas of knowledge sharing and skill transfer, Tham said.

Last year a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) and UOB aimed at increasing investment and trade between Viet Nam and Southeast Asia.

Tham said while Viet Nams economy could be affected by global market uncertainties stemming from a precipitous drop in oil prices and tepid consumer demand in the West, Viet Nams rapid development presents many opportunities for Asian businesses.

With its head office in Singapore, UOB has a global network of more than 500 offices in 19 countries and territories in the Asia Pacific, Europe and North America.
According to information published on the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), Phu Lac Wind Power Plant-Phase I in the south-central province of Binh Thuan will come into commercial operation and join the national grid on November 25.

In its first phase the project installed twelve turbines with a combined capacity of 24 megawatts. It is scheduled to supply around 200,000 kWh of electricity a day to the national grid.

The construction of the 400-hectare plant was started in July 2015 with the total investment capital of VND1.1 trillion ($49.12 million) put forward by Thuan Binh Wind Power JSC.

The facility is the third operational wind power plant in Binh Thuan, after the 30MW Tuy Phong wind power plant invested by Vietnam Renewable Energy JSC and the 6MW wind power project invested by PetroVietnam Power Renewable Energy Limited Company on Phu Quy Island.

Earlier on January 17, another domestic firm, Cong Ly Construction-Trade-Tourism Co., Ltd., started the full operation of Bac Lieu wind farm. The 99MW farm, which was constructed on an area of 1,300 hectares, has the total investment capital of VND5.2 trillion ($233 million).

A company representative said that Cong Ly planned to implement the next phase soon, building 71 additional wind turbines of 2MW each for VND8.85 trillion ($397 million). The construction is scheduled to be carried out over 36 months and operation is going to start in 2018.

Along with positive moves from domestic firms, all previously licensed wind farms invested by foreign investors are long delayed in construction.

In Ninh Thuan alone, there are currently 12 wind farm projects in the provinces master plan, however, all of them are behind schedule. These projects include Mui Dinh, as well as the wind farms of Enfinity, South Korean LandVille Energy, and Malaysian wind power company Timur.

In April 2016, Ninh Thuan denied the plan of Argentinean wind farm company IMPSA to invest in a project in Ninh Phuoc and Thuan Nam districts. The reason was that IMPSA had not finished the administrative procedures to start investment within six months, as promised back in 2011 when the Ninh Thuan Peoples Committee agreed to the project in principle.

Earlier, IMPSA proposed constructing a wind farm and a plant producing wind turbine parts, with the total investment value between $2 and $3 billion. At the end of 2011, IMPSA gained approval to raise the project area to 1,000 hectares from the initial 600. Since then, the company made no more moves.
The meetings, held in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City last week by the Dutch Embassy to Vietnam and Tulip Tours Vietnam Company, attracted more than 180 representatives from 80 Vietnamese travel firms, as well as senior tourism officials.

In attendance were leading Dutch tourism firms such as Incentive Europe, Henri Willig, Keukenhof, Zarare Diamonds, Schaap en Citroen, and Heineken Experience, as well as Vietnamese tour heavyweights like Saigon Tourist, Vietravel, Ben Thanh Tourist, and Fidi Tour. Together, they discussed opportunities for co-operation, and the possibility of jointly organising tours.

Dutch inbound travel companies also introduced special tourism products and services to the attending Vietnamese travel firms.

According to the Vietnam National Administration for Tourism, around six million Vietnamese travelled abroad last year and spent roughly $6 billion, significantly up from $3.5 billion in 2012. According to Vietravel and Saigontourist, overseas tours have grown faster than domestic tours.
Earthquake damage to State Highway One near Ohau Point on New Zealand's South Island, after a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast. (AFP Photo)

A navy ship was steaming towards the seaside town of Kaikoura, which bore the brunt of the quake that claimed two lives when it struck early Monday.

Huge landslides have cut road and rail links to the town, where police say water is running low, power is intermittent and hundreds of people are staying in evacuation shelters.

It has a population of 2,000, which Prime Minister John Key said was bolstered by an extra 1,200 tourists attracted by the area's popular whale-watching cruises.

He said four military helicopters would begin ferrying the trapped visitors, mostly international backpackers, in small groups to Christchurch from early Tuesday.

Naval ship HMNZS Canterbury would take hundreds more when it arrives, likely Wednesday, he added.

Key estimated the quake repair bill would reach billions of dollars but the short-term priority was delivering much-needed supplies to the stricken town.

"It's more water and food, it's more chemical toilets, it's fixing up the road access, getting those tourists out and then ultimately the big clean-up job," he told TVNZ.

The Defence Force said a C-103 Hercules was also on standby to drop supplies, while state broadcaster Radio New Zealand reported up to 50 civilian helicopters could also be drafted into the tourist evacuation effort.

The Canterbury set off from Auckland late Monday and its commanding officer Simon Rooke said the ship could take up to 500 tourists.

"We're going to pick them up by landing craft and sea boats and extract them to Lyttelton (in Christchurch) so they can get to a point of safety," he said.

Heavy rain and driving winds were hampering clean-up efforts, although life outside the main Kaikoura disaster zone was slowly returning to normal as roads opened and power was restored.

There have also been more than 800 aftershocks, some measuring more than 6.0, further complicating the work of emergency crews.

ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED

The tremor, one of the most powerful ever in the quake-prone South Pacific nation, hit just after midnight on Monday morning.

It triggered landslides that dumped mountains of rocky debris on a main highway and ripped railway tracks 10 metres off course.

Huge fissures opened up in roads and some houses were rocked off their foundations by the seismic jolt.

One person was believed to have died at a historic homestead that collapsed at Kaikoura, with another killed at a remote property north of Christchurch.

Experts said the relatively low death toll was because the quake was centred on a sparsely populated area and hit during the middle of the night, when people were in their homes.

It was felt across most of the country, causing severe shaking in the capital Wellington, about 250 kilometres away.

The tremor ignited painful memories for residents in nearby Christchurch, which was devastated five years ago by a 6.3 tremor that killed 185 people.

It also set off a tsunami alert, tsunami warning sirens sounded, with police and emergency workers going door to door to evacuate seaside properties.

While officials initially feared waves of up to five metres, they only reached about two metres before the alert was lifted.

Key flew over the quake's epicentre on Monday and said he was shocked to see such "utter devastation".

The New Zealand leader admitted he was concerned that tourism, the country's biggest export earner, would take a hit after images of the damage flashed around the world.

"People worry about earthquakes," he said, recounting visiting Hungarian President Janos Ader's experience of the latest tremor.

"He'd never been in an earthquake in his life, so he was in the James Cook Hotel (in Wellington) absolutely terrified at what was happening."

Key said New Zealand's strict construction codes meant its buildings were high quality and tourists' chances of being caught in a tremor were "truthfully very low".

The country is on the boundary of the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates, which form part of the so-called "Ring of Fire", and experiences up to 15,000 tremors a year, mostly minor.
The southern province of Binh Duong expects further investment in the province, especially in the area of technology. - Photo tapchitaichinh.vn

According to the MoU, the concerned parties would co-operate on trade and investment promotion issues, creating a bridge between Vietnamese and Italian businesses, and particularly help Italian companies invest in Binh Duong.

Italian companies who come to the province to exchange understanding, finance projects in fields such as technology, research or healthcare, or to increase partnership between regions in Italy and Binh Duong province, will receive help and support.

Fulvio Albano, President of ICHAM, expressed his optimism about the MoU, saying it would open up new opportunities for businesses from both countries, not just the regions mentioned.

Mai Hung Dung, Deputy Chairman of the Peoples Committee of Binh Duong Province said in his speech at the signing that at the moment, Binh Duong had attracted more than 2,800 foreign companies with total foreign direct investment of US$25.3 billion, and he believed Italy in general, and the region of Emilia-Romagna in particular, had great potential to invest further in the province, especially in area of technology.

On this occasion, the Chambers of Commerce of Emilia-Romagna, ICHAM, business representatives from Torino, Italy and Binh Duongs Becamex IDC attended a conference on smart technology in agriculture, biology and food in the province.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (R) meets with Governor of Japans Mie prefecture Eikei Suzuki on November 14

At the meeting in Hanoi, PM Phuc noted the strong and substantive development of the Vietnam-Japan extensive strategic partnership, adding the enhancement of locality-to-locality cooperation is critical to bilateral ties.



Many Japanese enterprises have prioritised Vietnam to invest in and reeled in success. The Northeast Asian nation now ranks second among foreign investors in Vietnam, but the two sides still need to promote investment partnership to turn Japan into the biggest investor, he said.



The Vietnamese Government and local authorities pledge to provide the best possible conditions for Japanese companies, he noted.



The host leader said his country looks forward to stronger collaboration with Mie in tourism as both own many famous landscapes and relic sites. He asked the two sides to continue cultural exchanges, aside from culture festivals held in each others nations.



He also hoped for more labour cooperation, noting that Vietnam has a young population with quality workers.



For his part, Eikei Suzuki said his 50-strong delegation include many city and business leaders in Mie who aim to seek cooperation opportunities in culture, economy, investment and environment.



Surveys show that most small- and medium-sized enterprises in the prefecture want to make overseas investments, and Vietnam is among their top choices, he noted.



Mie prefecture is home to leading technology businesses such as Honda, Toyota and Toshiba, the Governor said, expressing his hope for closer cooperation in this field.



The Mie delegation also worked with officials of some Vietnamese cities, including Hoi An, to boost tourism, investment and business partnerships. The two sides should bolster ties in aviation so as to facilitate the travel to each other, he said.



Eikei Suzuki also voiced the willingness to further cooperate with Vietnam in environmental protection and seaport development.
The Japanese entry to the local realty landscape has helped boost FDI in the sector Photo: Le Toan

According to recent statistics published by the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the property sector was behind the manufacturing and processing sector, which has so far accrued a total of $12.84 billion in 842 newly-registered and 691 capital-added projects, equaling 72.9 per cent of the total foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow to Vietnam.

Some notable investments by foreign investors include the $226 million real estate project named Midtown by Cayman Islands and the $6 billion Saigon Peninsula project by Pavilion Group, Genting Malaysia Berhad, and Vietnamese partner Van Thinh Phat. There is also the complex of port and industrial zones in the north-eastern province of Quang Ninh with the investment capital of over $315 million. Moreover, Amata Long Thanh will earmark $309 million to build up an urban development project in the southern province of Dong Nai.

In addition to the usual South Korean and Singaporean investors, the Japanese are emerging with a range of projects.

Japans Meade Group, the contractor of the Ho Chi Minh City Metro Lines Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien stretch, just started work on a $30 million high-end real estate project in Ho Chi Minh Citys District 2, called Wateria Suites.

Previous to that, Daiwa House Industry, Nomura Real Estate Development, and Sumitomo Forestry were awarded an investment certificate to develop a $220 million condominium project in Ho Chi Minh Citys District 7.

And then there are the big players. Kajima Corporation joined with Indochina Land for a range of property projects with the total investment of around $1 billion in the next ten years. Mitsubishi Estate, another famous Japanese property developer, recently diversified its portfolio in Vietnam by buying into a property development project in Hanoi, with the total investment of $1.9 billion.

According to Yakabe Yoshinori, Deputy Consul General of Japan in Ho Chi Minh City, with the increase in the middle- and high-income classes, the supply of safe and secure housing is becoming an urgent issue.

The real estate sector is becoming very attractive to foreigners as well, with revised housing regulations since July of last year which allow foreigners to own houses in Vietnam, Yoshinori said, at a recent signing ceremony for Ho Chi Minh Citys Kikyo real estate complex. The project is a joint venture between domestic Nam Long Investment Corporation and two Japanese partners, Nishi Nippon Railroad and Hankyu Realty.

Japanese investors prefer to acquire projects which have completed investment procedures and are coming into the construction phase, rather than joining them from the beginning. They have shown a

special preference for projects which are coming into operation and starting the turnover collection period.
Vietnamese popular banh mi has been listed in the top of 20 street foods that one must try around the world, as recommended by the worlds largest travel site Fodors Travel.

The New York-based publisher described banh mi as a mouthwatering sandwich that might best be described as a Vietnamese hoagie.

As a product of French colonialism in Southeast Asia, banh mi has become one of the favorite foods in Vietnam, to locals and tourists alike.

It is a piece of baguette with various fillings. Standard stuffings include meat, which can be grilled pork, meatballs, or cold cuts, cucumber slices, cilantro, pickled carrots, liver pate, and a swipe of mayonnaise.

According to Fodors, banh mi has become increasingly popular and easy to find in many countries, but the best place to eat one is still on the streets of Saigon.

The list of 20 must-try street foods goes round the world from crepe in Paris to egg waffle in Hong Kong.

In many countries around the world, if youre skipping whats being served on the street, then youre missing out on more than just a quick, cheap lunch, it said.
The investment is prompted by increasing consumption volumes, with the 2016 total packed liquid dairy and fruit-based beverages intake at 70 billion litres across ASEAN, South Asia, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Additionally, over the next three years, these markets are likely to grow at a healthy 5.6 per cent per annum, with products packed in Tetra Pak cartons projected to grow at a much faster rate as compared to other packaging formats such as bottles and cans.

Over the years, we have seen substantial growth of our products, driven by a wide portfolio and a number of innovations that we have introduced in the market. Hence our investment in a new plant, which will be our fourth packaging material factory in the region, providing us expansive coverage and scale, allowing us to serve our customers faster and better, said Michael Zacka, regional vice president, Tetra Pak South Asia, East Asia and Oceania. This decision is a strong reflection of our commitment to the region and our firm belief in its future potential.

The greenfield factory is expected to start commercial operations by early 2019. Situated near Ho Chi Minh City, the countrys economic hub, it will be ideally positioned to meet the demand for packaging material of food and beverage manufacturers in Vietnam, other ASEAN countries, Australia and New Zealand.

For manufacturers based in Vietnam, the new factory will bring a host of unprecedented benefits such as consistent supply, reduced lead time, efficiency and flexibility, said Robert Graves, managing director of Tetra Pak Vietnam.

The factory will have an expandable production capacity of approximately 20 billion packs per annum, across a variety of packaging formats, including the popular Tetra Brik Aseptic and Tetra Fino Aseptic. With a strong focus on sustainability, the site will adopt a host of global best practices to minimise the environmental footprint, including the utilisation of a high proportion of renewable energy sources.

This investment will complement Tetra Paks three long-standing production facilities in Singapore, India and Japan, building on the wealth of experience collected throughout the companys historical tenure. Together, the factories will enable the company to offer more innovations, efficiency and customer service to meet the rapid growth in Asia and in Vietnam in particular.

The new factory reflects Tetra Paks confidence in the local economy, and will cater to a rise in domestic consumption for healthy, ready-to-drink beverages among the countrys growing middle class, said Graves. Two key attributes to this are the Vietnams real wage increase (the largest in Asia at 7.3 per cent), and growing consciousness among consumers on health issues and food safety.

In Vietnam, the dairy category, the countrys biggest category and a core business for Tetra Pak is projected to grow steadily, with per capita consumption potentially doubling to 28 litters by 2020 from 15 liters in 2010. Tetra Pak estimates the country will consume a total of 3.3 billion litres of packed liquid dairy and fruit based beverages in 2016. It foresees an average growth of 6.5 per cent per annum during the 2016- 2019 period.

Packaging is critical to the industry, and the new factory will definitely be a boost to the development of the local food and beverage industry, contributing to Vietnams socio-economic growth and integration progress into the regional supply chain, said Graves.
US National Security Advisor Susan Rice. (AFP/Saul Loeb)

In her first public comments since Donald Trump's surprise election win, President Barack Obama's top foreign policy adviser told AFP the weight of the presidency would likely temper Trump's stance.

On the campaign trail, Trump suggested some of America's treaty allies are not pulling their weight and that Washington may not feel bound to defend them, triggering concern in capitals that have relied on US protection for decades.

But, in an exclusive AFP interview conducted nine weeks before Trump takes charge, Rice sought to play down concerns.

"It is manifestly in the United States' interests for these alliances to endure and to be a source of confidence to our partners and for them to understand that they don't need to come from under the US umbrella," she said.

While stressing that she did not want to speak for or speculate about Trump's foreign policy, she sought to reassure key US allies in NATO and the Pacific rim that they will not be abandoned.

"The weight of this office, and the weight of American global leadership, and the responsibilities that it entails, and the history that we share, the interests that endure, make it reasonable for our allies and partners to expect that the United States will uphold its obligations," she said.

During the campaign, Trump at one point suggested - only to later backtrack - that South Korea and Japan might want to build their own nuclear weapons to deter the North Korean threat, raising the spectre of an Asian arms race.

The victorious Republican also repeatedly criticised those European powers accused of not spending enough on NATO's collective defence, rattling the allies on the Alliance's eastern flank concerned about Russian adventurism.

TPP A 'CHALLENGE'

Rice said Obama had reached out to Asian capitals ahead of this week's summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in Peru to reassure them that America still sees its alliances as crucial.

Washington has also sought to bind southeast Asian powers into its orbit, and ensure stability and prosperity in the region, by promoting the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free trade deal to counter-balance China's economic might.

On Monday, Rice admitted what became obvious during the campaign, that coming to an agreement on TPP will be impossible for the Obama administration before it leaves office.

Trump campaigned on a strongly protectionist platform, arguing that previous trade deals had been a disaster for American jobs. Even his defeated opponent, Obama's former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, said she opposed TPP.

But Rice warned that if, as seems likely, TPP is abandoned, it will leave space for China to expand its influence among traditional US allies in southeast Asia.

"TPP is obviously a challenge at this stage," Rice told AFP. "Trade is not going to stop, it will continue," she added.

"We'll be part of it but we won't be as able to shape the framework to serve our values and our interests," she said. "That leaves a vacuum for countries like China and others to fill that is not in our interest."


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Those of us who didnt vote for Trump should help him succeed now
Cambodias election committee has made a last-ditch call for people to register to vote ahead of a November 29 deadline.



The National Election Committee (NEC) issued the appeal on Saturday, saying that nearly three quarters of eligible voters had already registered to cast a ballot in the June 2017 commune elections.



More than 7 million people, it said, had signed up since registration began on September 1.



Hang Puthea, NEC spokesman, said the high registration rate was a positive sign.



This figure shows the citizens interest in participating  it also indicates the effort of the National Election Committee, he said.



He added that those who missed out of registering ahead of the 2017 elections would still be able to register for the 2018 general election.



Yoeung Sotheara, legal officer at election monitor Comfrel, criticized the NECs efforts in rural areas of the country. The education and promotion cannot even be compared with some companys promotions, he said.



Sam Kuntheamy, coodrinator at Nicfec, another election monitor, said the relatively low turnout at this stage of the registration process was largely due to hard-to-reach groups, such as monks and disabled people, migrant workers and rural indigenous people.



The NEC has so far received 81 complaints related to the registration period, local media reported last week.
Racing boats once again plied the Chaktomuk river in Phnom Penh over the weekend as Cambodia celebrated water festival.



The festivities were suspended following a deadly stampede in 2010 that killed more than 350 people, resuming in 2014 before being suspended in 2015 ostensibly due to low rainfall and amid political tensions.

Cambodians taking part in this years event were in high spirits, though turnout was noticeably lower than pre-2010 levels, leading to concern that the tradition could die out.

I feel happy to see the festival because its the tradition of our Khmer people since ancient times. When the government suspended the festivities for two to three times, I feel that I am not happy, Yim Pisal, 24, told VOA Khmer.

More than 250 boats and 17,000 racers took part in the festival this year. On Saturday, King Norodom Sihamoni and Prime Minister Hun Sen were joined by high-ranking officials and foreign diplomats at the festivities, followed by a fireworks display on Sunday night.

Kong Vandy, 30, who turned up for the first day of the festival, said: It seems quiet compared with before the stampede.

Many blamed the scale of the tragedy, which claimed hundreds of lives, on poor government planning, a claim denied by Prime Minister Hun Sens administration.

While festival-goers said they still thought often of the stampede, they said the goernment should do all it can to ensure the tradition continues.

If we dont organize it, it will fade away, said Pisal.

Yun Srey Oun, 35, who attended the festival at the weekend, agreed.

I always come to be entertained. I want the government to organize the festival every year. I dont know what to say if there is no festival, he said.

Chhin Ketana, secretary general of the National and International Ceremonies Organizing Committee, could not be reached.
Last Tuesday, Arkansas became one of 28 U.S. states to legalize the medical use of marijuana. Another 8 states have passed laws allowing its recreational use. But even as more states allow the use of cannabis, implementing laws regulating pot is proving difficult, and then there's the fact that it's still illegal to possess or grow pot under federal law. VOA's Kevin Enochs reports.
In May 1998, Abui, a Chinese-Indonesian canteen owner, had a two year old daughter and another on the way. He and his pregnant wife didnt dare sleep through the night; they took turns on the night watch for five days as rioters ransacked Chinese shops and neighborhoods. It was part of a hectic month of racially charged protests that wracked Java and Sumatra shortly before the collapse of Suhartos New Order government.

Having lived through that, Abui has been relatively unruffled by the civic unrest of recent weeks, which climaxed in a huge rally on November 4 against Jakartas ethnic Chinese governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, known as Ahok.

Look, in 1998, we had no idea how bad it would get. At least this time, they announced the protest far in advance so we knew to stay indoors, he said at his canteen in Pluit Village mall in an ethnic Chinese enclave in North Jakarta. Theres been anti-Chinese sentiment for years. We arent too bothered by mass protests as long as the police keep us safe.

Still, the riots in North Jakarta on the evening of the anti-Ahok rally made him nervous. He had made the mistake of letting his daughter go to the movies, he said, and he demanded she come home in case the rioters spread out. If there are any more protests this month, he and all his Chinese Indonesian friends plan to lock themselves in their houses.

The racially charged discourse surrounding the Ahok protests has made anti-Chinese sentiment more explicit than it has been since 1998. And if it boils over, it has potential to erode some of Indonesias recent advances in embracing Chinese culture after centuries of suppression.

Sectarian differences

The radicalization and Islamization of Indonesian politics has been going on for a while, although the anti-Ahok movement made the situation worse, said Leo Suryadinata, a scholar of Chinese-Indonesian culture at the Singapore-based Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

As I see it, this is an ongoing struggle between the old forces and the reformists. The old forces try to continue to use both Islamic and Chinese issues as they dont have anything else to play on, he said.

One of, but not the only, charges levied against Ahok, who is also Christian, is the idea that a non-Muslim politician should not lead the Muslim-majority province of Jakarta. This is largely an incendiary position by hard-line Islamist groups like the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI). Many others oppose him on non-religious grounds, due to his aggressive land eviction policies.

Racism is just one of four distinct motives of the anti-Ahok protest, according to Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono. The others, he told VOA, are land eviction; political interests due to the incoming local election; and sectarianism, circling around the so-called blasphemy charge against Ahok, which, by the way, is a controversial article that many would like to be scrapped from the Criminal Code.

These events are not normalizing the anti-Chinese racism in Indonesia, so much as they are a reminder that anti-Chinese sentiment is always used to gain political interest in Indonesia, especially in Java, said Harsono.

Young people

Still, for many young people with scant or no memory of the 1998 riots, the uptick in anti-Chinese sentiment has been uncomfortable to observe.

I have never experienced something like this before, said Handy Susilo, a writer and translator in Jakarta. I feel that they are not just exploiting ethnic differences, but also religious differences.

The worst discourse, he said, is on social media, where young people have been emboldened to fan racist flames under the context of discussing politics.

Although ethnic Chinese Indonesians are just 1.2 percent of the population, some of them have enjoyed great business success  they account for more than half of Forbes top 20 richest Indonesian business owners  which has engendered some resentment and cultural repression over the years.

In 1966, a newly elected Suharto banned Chinese names, the teaching of the Chinese language and celebrations of Chinese festivals. President Abdurrahman Wahid walked back these measures when he was elected in 1999, allowing, for instance, the public celebration of Chinese New Year and even declaring it a national holiday in 2003.

For young Chinese-Indonesians like Vivian Marlin  the then-unborn daughter who kept Abui up all night in May 1998  this has been the status quo their whole lives. Recent ethnic tensions are showing them how fragile that state might have been.

Im not worried for my safety, but it is strange that people feel comfortable voicing anti-Chinese statements so publicly now, said Marlin, who is now a college freshman.

The effects of rhetoric

The problem with racist rhetoric, of course, is that its often translated into violence.

There was a small taste of that threat on the evening of November 4, when a faction of protesters looted the Chinese neighborhoods of Penjaringan and Luar Batang in North Jakarta.

They probably vented their anger and racism against presumably Chinese-owned businesses and homes in the area because they were prevented from attacking Ahoks home, which is in the area, said Harsono. It was obviously a serious crime.

If there are more protests in this vein  and one is tentatively scheduled for November 25  its likely that the threat of violence in North Jakarta will redouble. It could be a vicious cycle because theres no guarantee that the protests or rhetoric will subside after the gubernatorial election in February 2017.

Racially charged dialogue, in fact, has never really disappeared in Indonesia, said Suryadinata. It is a useful tool for Indonesian politicians to use when needed, especially, but not only, during elections.
Nearly one thousand high school students from Washington, D.C. and surrounding areas walked out of their schools and marched across the city Tuesday in protest of President-elect Donald Trump.

A human rights club at Woodrow Wilson High School in D.C. informed students through social media and emailed parents with their intent to organize a walkout and a march through the city on Tuesday, students told VOA.

WATCH: Wilson High School protesters

Though hundreds of these students could not vote, they wanted to make their opinions on the president elect and their concerns for their own futures, clear.

One student held a sign in front of the Supreme Court which read, "Please do not cut my education funding!" Other students wore shirts which read "Nasty Woman," a reference to a comment Donald Trump made on his former competitor Hillary Clinton.

"I think it's important that Donald Trump and everybody know thatthe youth of D.C. are against Donald Trump," Lomi, a sophomore at Woodrow Wilson high school, told VOA. "We are just as important as people who can vote, and in four years, we'll be able to vote. And when we do, our voices will be heard."

But she made it clear that her classmates would not wait four years to be heard, expressing her intent to write to her congressmen about what the youth of DC need.

"There's not really anything we can do about him becoming president," her friend Ulu added. "But... he has the power to change things, and I think we need to express that we need change," she said.

Protests continued over the weekend throughout the United States, but the Sunday night demonstrations were smaller than those in the immediate aftermath of the Republican Trump's upset of Democrat Hillary Clinton last week.

Demonstrations ranged from hundreds to thousands of people in major cities such as New York, Portland, Philadelphia and San Francisco over the past week.

But now, activist groups are looking ahead to a march on day after inauguration day, with many people on Facebook indicating their intent to fly to Washington to take part.

One of the largest protests planned for January 21 is the Women's March on Washington, which has over 80,000 people on Facebook marked as "attending."

"We stand together in solidarity with our partners and children for the protection of our rights, our safety, our health, and our families - recognizing that our vibrant and diverse communities are the strength of our country," the organizers wrote on the event page.

In an interview that aired Sunday night, Trump said Americans have nothing to fear about his presidency.

He wrote Friday on Twitter that he loves that there are small groups who have a passion for the country and predicted, "We will all come together and be proud!"
Rising protectionism and trade conflicts with China are major concerns as Asian markets wait for policy clarity from a U.S. administration led by President elect Donald Trump.

During the election campaign, Trump pressed for sharp increases in tariffs with China as well as accusing Beijing of being a currency manipulator in order to favor its exports.

Business analysts and economists in Asia say any policy of trade protectionism would negatively impact the global economy.

Triphon Phumiwasana, a partner with Thailand-based Hatton Capital Partners said, What Im worried most about Trumps policies is the protectionism of his programs, especially towards China. Once it hits China then the rest is basically the supply chain to China and that the production house can slow down and the whole supply chain can slow down  thats the most worrisome.

If Trump follows through with a sharp rise in tariff rates, that would not only affect U.S. workers and companies, but could trigger a trade war as well, analysts say.

Trade wars

Chinas Global Times argued in an editorial on Monday that Trumps threats of tariffs were most likely just campaign rhetoric. But if he did go through with tariffs, China would take a tit-for-tat approach, it said.

A batch of Boeing orders will be replaced by Airbus. U.S. auto and iPhone sales in China will suffer a setback, and U.S. soybean and maize imports will be halted, according to the opinion piece, adding that China could also limit the number of Chinese students studying in the U.S.

U.S. exports to China have seen tremendous growth while President Barack Obama was in office. At the same time, however, the trade deficit between the two countries continues to set new records, rising to more than $365 billion in 2015.

Analysts say a policy of America First that favors U.S. business at home, is also seen by analysts as adding to a tendency of U.S. isolationism and impacting U.S. relations with South East Asia.

The threat by Trump to punish American companies that outsourced jobs is seen as having possibly a major financial impact on the Philippines. Analysts say the business process outsourcing sector earns an equivalent to 10 percent of the Philippines national output (GDP).

London-based market analysts Capital Economics, in a commentary, said imposing high tariffs on all U.S. imports from China could cause real damage to Chinas economy. Other regional economies  key suppliers to the China market  such as Taiwan and Malaysia, would also be hit.

Capital Economics analysts say Trump is likely to begin his presidency by labeling China a currency manipulator, triggering talks between the U.S. treasury and China on currency policy

Protectionism and growth

Daniel Bean, head of foreign exchange research at the Sydney-based ANZ Banking Group, given the U.S. is a major trading partner for Asia, moves to protectionism could impact growth.

Bean was also concerned over policies towards China.

Trumps comments around maybe the Chinese are currency manipulators in his first day in office would not create an environment thats particularly helpful, Bean said.

Bean said Asia faces uncertainties at least until the inauguration in January, there will certainly be a lot of questions where economic growth in the U.S. at present looks reasonable and trade is still free and clear.

But Derek Scissors, an economist and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington D.C. said it is still too early to tell whether the Trump administration will be more strategic about trade or outright protectionist.

If we only see restrictions, with no new initiatives to expand trade, that would say they are protectionist, he said.

On the trade front, other concerns lie in moves by a Trump administration to renegotiate or even scrap a Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (KORUS).

Capital Economics analysts say scrapping the deal would represent a major blow to Koreas export sector, particularly automakers, who have been among the biggest beneficiaries from KORUS.

TPP

Already impacted by the election campaign has been the 12 nation Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) pact.

The TPP has been a key part of the Obama Administrations pivot to Asia. But both Trump and Democrat Party candidate Hillary Clinton, campaigned against the deal.

Trump has said he will withdraw from the deal during his first day in office.

The 12 nations reached a final agreement in October 2015 and are awaiting ratification by each nation. Together, all countries in the TPP, including Vietnam and Malaysia, account for 44 percent of total U.S. goods exports and 85 percent of total agriculture exports.

A recent report by the Council of Foreign Relations said TPP reforms included strengthening intellectual property protections, promoting competitive and transparent business laws as well as enforcing labor and environmental standards.

While the TPP was seen as a symbol of U.S. commitment to the East Asia region, it was not immediately clear how big an impact Trumps withdrawal could have on Americas role in region.

Some believe the end of the deal could boost Chinas Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), putting Beijing in a better position to spearhead its own agreements. Others, however, argue that China's free trade deals are more for the sake of public relations.

AEIs Derek Scissors said what Trump needs to do is combine Americas withdraw from the TPP with a new, meaningful initiative in Asia showing a different commitment than under Obama but nonetheless a strong U.S. commitment.

Consequences

Just how big an impact Washingtons withdraw from the deal will have on China depends on what Trump does to follow up.

If the US goes beyond rejecting TPP and begins to ignore Asia, then China will naturally become more important, Scissors said. However, this may lead countries such as Japan and India to seek to balance China rather than cooperate more.

Malaysias Minister of International Trade and Industry (MITI) Mustapa Mohamed, told a conference in Kuala Lumpur that as many as one million jobs were to have been created under the pact. If there is no TPP Agreement, then those would not be generated, he said.

Economists say Trump is likely to compromise on several policy issues, including tariffs on goods from China, and a renegotiation of the free trade deal with South Korea.

ANZs Daniel Bean, reflecting a tone among analysts, is optimistic Trumps campaign rhetoric will adjust once in office.

What was said on the campaign trail relative to the reality of what occurs is still something that is open to question. So you have to be optimistic, to hopefully when the reality of office arrives, the tone of diplomacy changes somewhat, Bean said.

The Governor of the Thai Stock Exchange, Prinn Panitchpakdi, agreed, telling VOA, What is the rhetoric, what is the reality, what is the real policy? One thing I hope [is that] he will get more constructive, and more practical  which I think [he will]. He a practical man, hes a businessman.
President Barack Obama says good sound bites do not always make good policy, and he says President-elect Donald Trump will find that being in the White House will "shake him up pretty quick."

Obama held his first White House news conference Monday since Trump's stunning election upset over Hillary Clinton last week.

The president already had held a White House meeting with Trump and said he believes the incoming president is not as ideological as people think, and that he will be a pragmatic leader as long as he is surrounded by good people.

Obama said he is leaving the country in better shape than it was when he took power in 2009, when the economy was on the verge of a depression and there were a "huge number of fires" to put out. He said Trump will have the "time and space to make judicious decisions," and that the infamous Trump temperament will not always serve him well.

WATCH: Obama Calls Trump Gregarious, Pragmatic

The president said those who oppose Trump have to recognize that this is the way democracy works. He appealed to them to let Trump make his decisions, saying the American people will judge if they like what they see.

Watch video report from VOA's Mary Alice Salinas:

But Obama said Trump's election  in which total voter turnout was only about 55 percent and Trump lost the popular vote but still won the Electoral College  is a reminder that elections matter and votes count. He wondered aloud how many times the country has to learn that lesson.

WATCH: Obama Talks of Strong, Robust NATO Relationship

Overseas trip

Obama left Monday on the final planned foreign trip of his presidency, with stops in Greece, Germany and Peru.

Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said the trip is a signal of solidarity with the country's closest allies, and a way to show "support for a strong and integrated and united Europe."

Rhodes said to reporters in previewing the trip that no matter the outcome of the election, Obama and the rest of his administration have a stake in seeing the next one succeed, and that the world also has a similar interest.

WATCH: Obama Stresses Strong Transition

Rhetoric and reality

Trump has repeatedly spoken against international agreements reached during Obama's presidency, including the deal to limit Iran's nuclear program, the international climate deal that went into effect last month, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that has not yet cleared the U.S. Senate.

Obama said during his news conference that Iran is a good example of the "gap between some of the rhetoric and the reality." He said it is easy to call an agreement terrible if you are not responsible for it.

He said the evidence shows Iran has been abiding by the nuclear agreement signed last year with the U.S. and five major allies. He said it would be hard to explain why the deal is being unraveled, and that the U.S. would have to sanction the other countries that would still be a part of it.
The military court martial of U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl has been delayed until May 15, after prosecutors requested more time to retrieve classified evidence that was requested by Bergdahl's defense team.

During a pre-trial hearing Monday, the presiding Army judge also heard a prosecution request to allow evidence from two soldiers who said they were wounded while trying to find Bergdahl when he walked off his post in Afghanistan in 2009.

A military officer testified that he saw another soldier shot in the head during the search for Bergdahl. U.S. Army National Guard Sergeant First Class Mark Allen was shot in the head and suffered a traumatic brain injury that has left him in a wheelchair. Another soldier had hand injuries and required surgery because of a rocket-propelled grenade.

Prosecutors argued that Bergdahl's disappearance effectively put other military members in harm's way.

Bergdahl was captured by the Haqqani Network, an ally of the Taliban, and held captive for five years. He was released in May 2014 in a prisoner swap for five Taliban leaders held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Bergdahl is charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, the latter of which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Human rights groups warn the tiny African country of Burundi is at risk of genocide, calling for international action as they released a new report Tuesday that documents widespread abuses under the government of President Pierre Nkurunziza.

Burundi descending into chaos, pulled apart by ethnic hatred that fuels mass killings... even genocide. This is not happening right now, but a movie trailer released by rights groups under the hashtag #StopThisMovie suggests it is entirely possible.

"Were not saying the genocide is coming now. We are explaining that all the mechanisms, all the intention and all the bodies of the repression are ready to commit a possible genocide," said Florent Geel, Africa director for the Paris-based umbrella group International Federation for Human Rights.





Violence, disappearances

A joint report with Burundian rights group ITEKA describes killings, tortures, rapes and disappearances in Burundi since popular protests erupted last year against President Pierre Nkurunzizas bid for a third term.

The report says more than 1,000 people have died, hundreds have gone missing and thousands more are being detained or fleeing the country. It says many of the abuses were committed by youth militias and government security forces.

The groups are calling for an international peacekeeping mission and political dialogue to resolve the crisis.

"Each day, a few people are arrested, disappeared, are killed. This is not a massive violation where all the cameras are coming, but its a daily violation," said Geel.

Ethnic killings

ITEKAs president, Anschaire Nikoyagize, currently lives in exile in Uganda, and he says a new government census counts among the tools aimed at getting Hutus to side with the government, and to turn a political conflict into an ethnic one  in a country scarred by a history of ethnic killings.

United Nations investigators also have warned of the risk of a genocide in Burundi, and the International Criminal Court is considering a full investigation into alleged atrocities. The government, which denies its forces are involved in abuses, recently announced it was pulling out of the ICC.
Colombia's government published a revised peace accord with Marxist FARC rebels on Monday in a bid to build support to end a 52-year war, after the original draft was rejected last month in a referendum amid objections it was too favorable to the rebels.

The expanded and highly technical 310-page document appears to make only small modifications to the original text, such as clarifying private property rights and detailing more fully how the rebels would be confined in rural areas for crimes committed during the war.

The government and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which have been holding talks in Havana for four years, said the new document incorporated proposals from the opposition, religious leaders and others to end a conflict that has killed more than 220,000 and displaced millions.

Substantial changes, such as jail terms for rebel leaders and banning them from public office, were not included. That is likely to anger former President Alvaro Uribe, who spearheaded opposition to the original accord.

President Juan Manuel Santos, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last month for his efforts to end the war, hopes to unite the divided nation behind the new deal after the peace process was endangered by its rejection in an Oct. 2 plebiscite. Colombian voters were deeply split, with many worried the FARC would not be punished and others hopeful the deal would cement an end to violence.

"We are convinced that reading the entire document will allow integral and genuine comprehension of what has been agreed and to see that the changes, precisions and adjustments in the new accord strengthens it and answers concerns and suggestions made by different sectors of society," the government and FARC said in a joint statement in the early hours of Monday.

The new agreement will not jail rebels but those who confess to war crimes will be restricted to specific rural areas for between five and eight years.

Santos said on Saturday that banning the rebels from holding public office - a key demand by many opponents of the initial agreement - was impossible in the new negotiations.

Uribe has yet to comment on the new draft and it is still unclear how the new accord might be submitted for approval.

Santos is not obliged by law to hold a new referendum.

He could seek to ratify it through Congress but that may cause a political and social firestorm as feelings against the FARC run so deep.
The U.S. Congress is reconvening after elections that radically altered both Republican and Democratic lawmakers' assumptions about the balance of power in Washington next year and could have an immediate impact on efforts to keep the U.S. government funded over the coming months.

Republicans saw their majorities trimmed in both houses of Congress but will control the White House beginning in January when President-elect Donald Trump takes the oath of office.

Before the election, many Republican lawmakers envisioned working with Democrats on a longer-term bill to fund the government beyond December 9, when federal spending authority expires.

But prospects for a year-long bill dimmed with Trump's victory. Many Republicans now favor a stop-gap bill, or continuing resolution, to fund the government through February or possibly March, and then forge another spending bill with the input of the new administration.

"We ought to find some way to fund the government until we can come up with a larger deal that would be signed by the next president," said Republican Congressman Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, adding that he hoped the "larger deal" would include a long list of priorities Republicans have been unable to enact with a Democrat in the White House.

"We have a tremendous opportunity," Cramer said. "I want to get to the bigger things. I want to get to dealing with Obamacare and dealing with national security and immigration and taxes."

The Senate gets back to work later Tuesday. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that extending federal funding is a priority for the post-election period, also known as the "lame duck session" of Congress.

Minority Democrats will be able to block some but not all Republican initiatives in the Senate with a procedural maneuver known as the filibuster.

Katherine Gypson contributed to this report.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says a cease-fire in Yemen could start as early as November 17, "provided that everybody does their part."

Yemen's armed Houthi movement and a Saudi-led military alliance have agreed to support a solution for the conflict in Yemen based on the framework laid out to establish a new Yemeni national unity government by the end of the year.

An Omani road map, based on an initiative by Kerry, calls for Yemeni President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi to hand power to a less divisive deputy in exchange for the Houthis withdrawing from Yemen's main cities.

Kerry spoke Tuesday at the end of a visit to the United Arab Emirates and said he is very hopeful the agreement will come together. He added the talks have "a potential to be a real turning point."

The Yemeni government said on Tuesday that it was not interested in the cease-fire and unity government announcement.

Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdel-Malek al-Mekhlafi said on his Twitter page that his government was neither aware of nor interested in "what Secretary Kerry announced, which represents a desire to scuttle peace efforts by trying to reach an agreement with the Houthis apart from the government."

"We have been in touch with Hadi," a senior U.S. government official told VOA on the condition he not be named.

Kerry said that "there's a humanitarian disaster in Yemen.There's serious security and economic and political and humanitarian challenges and our sense is, and most of the parties we talked to, agree, in fact all the parties we talked to agree that there's no military solution.So, if that is the fact, then you've got to get into what is the political solution."

Peace deal doubted

Regional experts painted a more pessimistic view.

"Unfortunately, I have little expectation the peace deal will last," said Hrach Gregorian, American University's international peace and conflict resolution program director.

"I don't know that the regime of President Hadi has any remaining political legitimacy or the capacity to govern, so any deal that is struck will need to address the issue of effective post-war governance," Gregorian told VOA Tuesday.

He added the peace deal "is simply a short break for all stakeholders to catch their breath, and to allow for the international community to deliver much-needed humanitarian aid. The Houthis have gained a commanding position on the ground, and they are not likely to negotiate away their gains."

Kerry also said he had a "very constructive discussion" with Yusuf bin Alawi, the minister responsible for foreign affairs, before also talking about the bloody and desperate situation in neighboring Yemen with Oman's Sultan Qaboos bin Said.

The absolute monarch and Kerry discussed the importance of peace talks and getting a framework in place. In the past, neither side was willing to stop fighting.

Health services needed

The U.S. official said the Houthis agreed "for the first time publicly" to send representatives to a de-escalation and coordinating committee and to "accept the road map including the sequencing that is in the road map presented by the envoy as a basis for negotiations."

The conflict in Yemen in the past 20 months has killed an estimated 10,000 people and millions are in need of food with starvation setting in, according to the United Nations.

The majority of Yemen's 27 million people are also in urgent need of health services and the country is at risk for a significant cholera outbreak, say U.N. agencies.

"Thus far, the emirates and the Saudis I talked to...they have both agreed to move forward with this. They believe it makes sense," Kerry added.
Amid rising tensions between Turkey and the European Union, Germany's foreign minister is visiting Ankara. Berlin has been at the forefront in raising concerns over Turkey's ongoing crackdown on political opponents and the media following Julys failed coup, though Ankara appears ready for a showdown.

After meeting Tuesday, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier admitted talks with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, had not been easy. Steinmeier reaffirmed his countrys support for Ankaras bid to join the European Union, however, saying it is up to Turkey to decide its progress.

Some EU members are calling for membership talks to be frozen because of growing concerns over Turkey's crackdown in the wake of the failed coup. Since then, more than 120,000 people have been dismissed from their jobs and 33,000 arrested, including more than 100 journalists.





Crackdown concern

Steinmeier said Berlin is seriously concerned about the suppression, but he stressed the concern should not be seen as interfering in the judiciary.

Cavusoglu wanted to send a clear message. According to him, an EU foreign minister says daily, "Let us throw Turkey out, let us throw them out of the negotiations, let us throw them out of NATO."

Cavusoglu went on to say Turkey does not deserve such treatment and that it is fed up with what he called an approach that humiliates Turkey. He said it is up to the people to decide what to do.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has indicated Turkey might hold a referendum on whether to continue EU membership talks.



PKK fight

Cavusoglu accused Germany of failing to cooperate in Turkey's battle against the Kurdish separatist group the PKK. He said Turkey had presented more than 4,000 files to Berlin in relation to PKK activities in Germany, and it had received replies to only four of them.

Steinmeier said he was unaware of the requests.

The tough language was not unexpected. Before Steinmeiers visit, Cavusoglu boasted of twice refusing to accept the German foreign ministers phone calls, saying Germany should know its place.

While the ministers spoke, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim delivered an equally robust message to the European Union during a parliamentary address. He said Brussels has to decide whether it is with Turkey or Turkey's enemies, as he ruled out EU calls for reform to the countrys anti-terror laws.

The increasingly tough language is widely perceived as Ankara preparing for a confrontation over the future of its EU bid, and the regional bloc's stance toward Turkey's crackdown.
As U.S. President-elect Donald Trump works out who will be a part of his administration, sources familiar with the situation say former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is a leading candidate to be the country's next secretary of state.

Giuliani has experience as a federal prosecutor, but does not have the foreign policy experience typical of those who have held the post.

John Kerry chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before taking over the State Department. Condoleezza Rice was President George W. Bush's national security advisor. Colin Powell was also a national security advisor and also held senior military posts. Madeleine Albright was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

But Giuliani was a fierce supporter of Trump's campaign and the two men have long known each other.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, another top Trump supporter, told Fox News on Monday that Giuliani might prefer being attorney general or leading the Department of Homeland Security, but that it would be "fabulous" if he were named secretary of state.

"I have no information, but if Rudy wants it, he'll get it," he said.

Gingrich added that Giuliani would bring necessary reform to the State Department. The other candidate reportedly being considered is former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton, who served in that post under Bush and also spent years in two different senior State Department roles.

Trump is meeting Tuesday with Vice President-elect Mike Pence to continue reviewing potential appointees.

Gingrich mentioned Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions along with Giuliani as Trump's closest surrogates, and suggested that with a background in the Justice Department Sessions would be "great" as the next attorney general.

Trump has already named Republican party chairman Reince Priebus as his chief of staff, a position typically in charge of managing operations at the White House and forging the president's agenda.

But his choice of Stephen Bannon as his top strategist has drawn criticism from rights groups, Democrats and some Republicans. Bannon is celebrated by white nationalists and prior to joining Trump's campaign ran the far-right website Breitbart.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said picking Bannon shows Trump "remains committed to the hateful and divisive vision that defined his campaign."

"After winning the presidency but losing the popular vote, President-elect Trump must try to bring Americans together -- not continue to fan the flames of division and bigotry," she said.

John Weaver, a long-time Republican strategist, wrote on Twitter: The racist, fascist extreme right is represented footsteps from the Oval Office. Be very vigilant America.

Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, said his group opposes the Bannon appointment because he and "alt-right are so hostile to core American values."

In Bannon's defense, Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway called him a "brilliant tactician" and noted that Bannon served as a U.S. naval officer and has a graduate degree from Harvard University.

Speaking to reporters Monday on Capitol Hill, Republican House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy also defended Trump's choice, saying he "has a right to select who he thinks is best.''

Trump laid out some of his initial priorities for when he assumes power on January 20, saying that he will keep his campaign pledges to deport 2 million to 3 million undocumented immigrants in the country who have criminal records, and build a wall along the country's southern border with Mexico to halt the stream of migrants into the United States.

He made it clear he plans, as he said during the campaign, to pursue a right-wing agenda, naming Supreme Court justices who are against abortion and favor gun rights. But he said he was "fine" with another Supreme Court decision opposed by many conservatives, one that legalized same-sex marriage.
Gwen Ifill, one of the most prominent African-American journalists in the U.S., has died after battling cancer for months. She was 61.

Ifill joined PBS as the moderator of Washington Week, the public broadcaster's Sunday morning public affairs program, in 1999 and served as the show's managing editor. She was the first African-American woman to host a major political TV talk show. In 2013, she was named co-anchor and co-managing editor with Judy Woodruff of the weeknight evening news broadcast PBS NewsHour.

In 2009, she wrote a book about President Barack Obama, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.

"It is with extreme sadness that we share the news that Gwen Ifill passed away earlier today [Monday] surrounded by family and friends," PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger said in a statement. "Gwen was one of America's leading lights in journalism and a fundamental reason public media is considered a trusted window on the world by audiences across the nation."

A native of New York City, Ifill joined PBS in 1999. Prior to joining PBS, Ifill worked as chief congressional and political correspondent for NBC News, White House correspondent for the New York Times, and political reporter for The Washington Post.

She moderated the 2004 vice presidential debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards, and the 2008 vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin.
Extremism watchers and civil rights groups have welcomed an appeal from Donald Trump for a halt to a surge in harassment and hate crimes, but are urging the president-elect to do more.

In an interview with CBS television network's 60 Minutes program that aired Sunday, Trump was asked about reports of threats and racial slurs hurled at minorities by some of his supporters since the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election.

"I am so saddened to hear that," Trump said. "And I say, 'Stop it.' If it  if it helps, I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: 'Stop it.'"

Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, said Trump's comment was welcome but did not go far enough in forswearing his most virulent campaign rhetoric.

"His statement is welcome and appropriate but the big question is, 'What will be the discourse going forward from candidate Trump, who invoked many harmful stereotypes, versus President-elect Trump, who is in much different position right now,'" Levin said.

As a candidate, Trump labeled Mexican immigrants "rapists" and "killers," and called for a temporary ban on all Muslims entering the country.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) called on Trump to disavow his campaign rhetoric and the "support he's received from the racists and the radical right."

Rise in hate?

Trump's comments on 60 Minutes followed reports of an unprecedented rise in hate crimes in the wake of his Nov. 8 victory.

Mark Potok, a leading expert in extremism and senior fellow with the SPLC, said his group had received some 315 reports of racially-charged incidents in the past week, more than were recorded in the wake of the September 2001 terrorist attacks, with the majority aimed at Muslims.

"We've seen a dramatic upsurge in both hate crimes and then lesser hate incidents, things like Muslim kids being bullied, Muslim women having their hijabs torn off their faces, similar kinds of incidents," Potok said.

In one incident in Columbus, Ohio, a hijab-wearing Muslim woman driving with her children and elderly parents was threatened and verbally abused by a man at a traffic stop, according to the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington-based advocacy organization.

In another incident in Michigan, a man threatened to set a Muslim woman on fire with a lighter unless she took off her hijab, CAIR said.

"I think that It is pretty clear that it's Muslims who have borne the brunt of it, although remarkably the animus and hatred seems to be directed at all minorities of virtually any kind," Potok said.

After Muslims, the "primary and secondary targets" of the recent wave of hate crimes were blacks, Latinos and LGBT people, Potok said.

Just how large a spike in hate crime there has been remains uncertain, however. Several reports have been proven false, and Potok cautioned that most incidents reported to the Southern Poverty Law Center did not amount to hate crime.

Levin of California State University added that there was no "independent evidence to sustain the contention that there were more [hate crimes] in the days after the Trump election than after 9/11."

In response to concerns about rising hate crime, the Southern Poverty Law Center last week launched an online petition calling on Trump to honor his victory speech pledge to be "president for all Americans."

Calls for tougher stand

Muslim advocates, meanwhile, called for a more forceful repudiation of the hate crimes by the president-elect.

In a study on anti-Muslim hate crime released in September, Levin found that anti-Islam incidents soared by 87.5 percent in the five days after Trump announced his controversial Muslim ban last December.

By contrast, his research found that former President George W. Bush's call for tolerance after the September 2001 terrorist attacks led to a sharp decline in hate crimes against Muslims.

"Words matter," Levin said. "The overwhelming majority of Trump's supporters are not hardened bigots at all, but they're fearful and they'll follow his cue. "

Trump's call for a stop to the harassment falls well short of Bush's speech, said Robert Thompson, a professor of television and pop culture at Syracuse University.

"I think Donald Trump could be effective now that he's been elected in making some really substantial speeches telling people to stop it, but what we saw on 60 Minutes was not a substantial speech," Thompson said.
A strategic partnership built between India and the United States in the last two years is expected to deepen under a Trump administration.

However, Indias famed information technology sector could suffer, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modis plan to turn the country into a manufacturing hub, if President-elect Donald Trump acts on campaign pledges to restrict immigration and bring jobs back to the United States, some Indian analysts and observers say.

"When the dust settles down, I dont think India will have cause for complaint under a Trump presidency," said Lalit Mansingh, a former Indian ambassador to the United States

He added that Modi, who has vowed to diplomatically isolate Pakistan for its alleged support of cross-border terrorism, will hope to get more support from Trump, who advocated a tougher stance on terrorism during the campaign. India accuses Islamabad of backing Islamic militant groups fomenting terrorism in India, a charge Pakistan strongly denies.

Mansingh predicted Trump would be a stronger ally on terrorism: "I expect that he will go a step further than what his predecessors did in applying pressure on Pakistan, because all the previous administrations have said the right things but have hesitated from putting pressure on Pakistan because it might affect their operations in Afghanistan. I think Trump may be more forthcoming."

But there is much more uncertainty about how a Trump administration will affect wider Asian geopolitics. Concerns about Chinas growing assertiveness in Asia and its expanding influence in Indias neighborhood helped prompt Modi to deepen Indias military cooperation with the United States, shedding its traditional hesitations about moving too close to Washington.

Modi optimistic

For his part, Modi has sounded an upbeat note on the future of India-U.S. ties under Trump. In a phone call to the president-elect after his victory, Modi said he hoped the two nations would continue to build on the "bedrock of strong Indo-U.S. ties" and tweeted about taking bilateral relations to a new height."

But Jayadeva Ranade, a foreign policy analyst in New Delhi, warned of major changes in Asia Pacific geostrategic landscape if the U.S. opts for a more insular policy. He pointed to the possibility of the U.S. scaling back its presence in the South China Sea.

"What he [Trump] has said about not wanting to be engaged in military terms in the Asia Pacific in effect would mean ceding space to China," Ranade said.

New Delhi, conversely, wants to see Washington deepen its engagement in the region.

Economic concerns

Indias bigger uncertainty relates to how a Trump administration will redraw economic and trade policies at a time when New Delhi has been wooing U.S. companies for more investment and business to boost its economy.

If election rhetoric targeting both immigration and outsourcing translates into policies, Indias $150 billion information technology sector, already battling a slowdown, could face more turbulence. The United States, one of Indias largest investors, employs millions there and accounts for 60 percent of the countrys software exports.

The biggest perceived threat is to H-1B visas, which allow foreign professionals to work in the U.S. and are heavily used by Indian software companies. Indians received more than two-thirds of the H-IB visas in 2014.

Trump's earlier statements that these visas hurt American workers and serve as a "cheap labor program" have raised fears that his administration may move to restrict or raise costs.

This would hit Indian IT companies, according to Shivendra Singh, who heads global trade development for the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), which represents Indias technology industry.

Singh said he hopes the flow of professionals from India will not be restricted.

"It is not that we dont want to hire locally. Definitely that is not the case," he said. But until the United States can address a domestic shortages of STEM skills  in science, technology, engineering and math  "this approach has proven well."

Investment concerns

The possibility of growing U.S. protectionism under Trump also has raised fears of a slowdown in investment flows from the worlds biggest economy. Since taking office, Modi has been wooing foreign firms to set up manufacturing bases in India, hoping to usher in a manufacturing revolution of the kind that China has experienced.

But many analysts feel that India does not have much to fear. They point out that the U.S. is also looking for export markets, and Indias growing economy and huge middle class will lure American companies.

Among those who think that Trump will look favorably on strengthening economic ties with India is Mansingh.

"Particularly as Trump himself comes from a business background," the former ambassador observed, "he will be sympathetic to a greater role for business on both sides."
In a rare public appearance, Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila addressed parliament Tuesday one day after his government resigned in accordance with a deal that keeps him in office until elections scheduled for 2018. But much of the opposition continues to call for Kabila to step down.

President Joseph Kabila was cheered to the platform to address the DRC's National Assembly and Senate. His 45 minute speech was punctuated by frequent applause.

Kabila used a rare public address to defend an October 18 agreement between his political alliance and an opposition faction. The deal permits the president to remain in power beyond December 19, the final day of his second, and under the constitution final term, until the next election, which has been provisionally scheduled for April 2018.

Kabilas prime minister resigned on Monday and the DRC is awaiting the formation of a new government of national unity to lead the country towards the election.

A larger opposition group, known as the Rassemblement, boycotted the deal and demanded the president step down on December 19.

During his speech, Kabila urged the Rassemblement to sign the agreement, saying it was his "most ardent wish."

Kabila aimed a warning at the opposition coalition, saying as the guarantor of Congolese institutions, he cannot allow the country to be taken hostage by a fringe of the political class.

Kabila said he would shortly appoint a new prime minister to lead the DRC to elections.

The president indirectly addressed the widespread concerns that he plans to change the constitution to allow him to stand for a third term.

Kabila said, the constitution will be respected in all its dispositions.

But for many Congolese this statement is not enough.

VOA spoke with the president of the African Association for the Defense of Human Rights, Jean-Claude Katende.

The question that needs to be answered, Katende said, is whether the speech responded to the preoccupations of Congolese people. Katende says the Congolese people think Kabila should have taken the opportunity to announce he will leave power on December 19.

Katende described the speech as "totally disconnected from the aspirations of the Congolese population."

According to Katende, Kabilas promise to respect the constitution does not rule out the possibility of him seeking to modify the constitution.



"We remain very worried about the political future of President Kabila, Katende said.

Kabila has led Congo since succeeding his father, Laurent Kabila, in 2001, initially as an unelected head of state and since 2006 as the elected president.
Kenya's deputy president on Tuesday set ablaze more than 5,250 firearms seized by authorities to discourage the circulation of illegal weapons in a country battling extremist violence.

Deputy President William Ruto presided over the burning of rifles and pistols in three stacks about 15 feet high. They were recovered in this East African country over the past nine years, Ruto said.

Most of the firearms were collected through voluntary surrender, others from violent criminals that were recovered by security personnel and some from the government's disarmament efforts, he said.

Firearms in the hands of wrong people continue to violate our peace and stability and become a threat to the security of our country, Ruto said. Armed violence, community conflict, cattle rustling, poaching violent crime is what makes this illicit firearm dangerous for our country.

All the ills in our society, from terrorism, human trafficking, drug trafficking, are promoted in a big way by illicit firearms in the wrong hands,'' he said.

Kenya has stringent gun laws and obtaining a license is difficult. Applicants must go through several interviews and background checks. Despite the precautions, hundreds of illegal guns are smuggled into Kenya through porous borders, especially from Somalia, Kenya's war-torn neighbor to the north.

Authorities estimate that at least 500,000 guns are illegally held by civilians.

Kenya has been attacked more than 100 times by Somalia's Islamic extremist rebels, al-Shabab, who have recruited hundreds of Kenyans. Al-Shabab has vowed retribution on Kenya for sending its troops into Somalia to fight the militants in 2011. The extremists' deadliest attacks were carried out by gunmen wielding rifles, including the assault on Westgate Mall in which 67 people died in 2013 and the April 2015 attack by four gunmen on Garissa University which killed 148 people, mostly students.
A Kenyan official has said the country may not be able to meet its self-imposed deadline of November 30 to close the huge Dadaab refugee camp. Tens of thousands of Somalis have left the camp in recent months, but they are finding it impossible to scratch out a living back in Somalia.

Monday, Reuters news agency quoted an Kenyan interior ministry official as saying the deadline for closing Dadaab will not be met, because Somalia cannot provide basic services to the returnees.

The ministry has not issued an official statement, and the spokesman declined to comment when contacted by VOA Tuesday.

But it has become clear that Somalis returning home are facing dire humanitarian conditions, including a lack of shelter, clean water, health care and food.

According to the United Nations refugee agency, more than 34,000 refugees have gone back to Somalia, with most settling in the port city of Kismayo.

The vice chairman of the refugee and IDP agency in Somalia's Jubaland region, Mohamed Noor, says there are no essential social services in place to cater for the returnees.

Noor says the returnees had a good life, good health services, and their children were in school getting an education in Dadaab, but when they got to Kismayo there was nothing for them, so his agency decided to stop receiving people temporarily.

Jubaland authorities have refused to accept more returnees from Dadaab for the time being, saying they could not cope with the number of returnees.

Amnesty Internationals Deputy Director for Africa Michelle Kagari says Kenya's government is coercing refugees to return to Somalia, where they risk being injured or killed in the chronic conflict.



We have also reviewed the surveys done by the UNHCR, Kenya, and MSF which found a vast of Somalis in Dadaab did not want to return, so on that front we found out that these returns can in no way be seen as voluntary," Kagari said.

Kismayos deputy mayor Abdi Ibrahim Abdi Barre agrees. He says there is nothing to show the returnees have received assistance. He says those repatriated from Dadaab were released to fend for themselves with a stipend that is not enough to live on and are back looking for support.



Some observers fear some of the returnees, mostly children and young men, may be forced to join al-Shabab.

Kagari says some returnees faced threats and persecution for failing to cooperate with militants.

There were two boys in particular whose father was killed in front of them they were forcefully recruited into al-Shabab they managed to escape after four months and made their way back to Kenya now they are being required to go back again ... Anyone who is returned to Somalia will likely face persecution," she said.

The UNHCR and humanitarian agencies have come under pressure to suspend the repatriation process until the situation in Somalia improves.
U.S. soldier Chelsea Manning, who is serving 35 years in prison for leaking classified documents, is asking President Obama to commute her sentence to time served.

The transgender soldier said in her application to the president, released by her attorneys, that there is no historical precedent for such an extreme sentence for leaking documents.

Manning, a former intelligence analyst in Iraq, has served more than six years of a 35-year sentence for leaking more than 700,000 secret military documents as well as battlefield videos to WikiLeaks.

Since being convicted, the soldier, originally called Bradley Manning, has said she identifies as a women. She tried to commit suicide last month while in solitary confinement, where she was placed after an earlier suicide attempt.

Manning wrote in her application to the president that she is living through "a cycle of anxiety, anger, hopelessness, loss and depression."

"The sole relief I am asking for is to be released from military prison after serving six years of confinement as a person who did not intend to harm the interests of the United States or harm any service members," Manning said.

She is being held at the Fort Leavenworth military prison in Kansas. Manning is not asking for a pardon, meaning her conviction will stay on her record.

Manning's petition includes letters of support from Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers about the Vietnam war, as well as journalist Glenn Greenwald and former military commissions chief prosecutor Morris Davis.

Davis said in a letter accompanying Manning's petition that much of the information Manning leaked had little value and could be found through open sources on the Internet.

Manning has said she released the information to raise public awareness about the impact of the Iraq war on civilians. Prosecutors say Manning is a traitor who put the United States and U.S. armed forces at risk.
Police said nine people were killed in clashes between Shiite Muslims and police during a religious procession in northern Nigeria on Monday, but the minority sect said dozens of its members lost their lives.

The clashes occurred on the outskirts of Kano, a city in a state of the same name, as members of the country's largest Shiite group, the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), conducted an annual procession to Zaria in neighboring Kaduna state.

It was the latest in a series of incidents involving the sect. A judicial inquiry in August reported that 347 IMN members were killed and buried in mass graves after clashes with the army in December 2015, and two sect members were killed in processions in Kaduna state last month.

Kano state Police Commissioner Rabiu Yusuf told reporters that nine people died in Monday's violence  eight IMN members and a policeman. He said several people were injured, including four police officers.

At first we used tear gas on them. They attacked one of our personnel, who sustained a fatal injury, he said. Yusuf said IMN members used the dead policeman's weapon to fire at officers and they had no option but to use live ammunition in response.

Ibrahim Musa, a spokesman for the IMN  whose 1980s founders were inspired by the Islamic Revolution in Shiite Iran  said policemen opened fire on a peaceful crowd and killed "close to" 100 people including women and children.

We view the unwarranted killings by the police as a continuation of the army pogrom started in Zaria last year, he said. The exact death toll was unclear, he added, because most of the bodies were "ferried away by the police, possibly for mass burial.

Last month the Kaduna state government declared IMN as an unlawful society on the grounds that its processions were a danger to peace, and said anyone convicted of being a member of the sect could be imprisoned for up to seven years.

Human Rights Watch estimates that IMN has around 3 million members. The sect's leader, Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, has been held without charge since December following the clashes with the army in Zaria.

Security analysts have drawn some parallels between the IMN and Boko Haram, the Sunni Muslim jihadist group whose insurgency began in 2009 after security forces killed hundreds of its members and its leader Mohammed Yusuf died in custody.

Nigeria, which has 180 million people and is Africa's most populous nation, combines a predominantly Christian south and mainly Sunni Muslim north. Around 250 ethnic groups have co-existed mostly peacefully in the country.
India's efforts to improve the lives of its children are failing due to meager government spending on the youth, Nobel peace laureate and child rights activist Kailash Satyarthi said on Monday, as the country marked its annual "Children's Day."

Children's Day, or Bal Divas, coinciding with the birthday of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, is marked by events such as cultural performances in schools.

"Our nation has the world's highest number of malnourished children, child labor and children vulnerable to sexual offenses, [yet] it is unfortunate this section of the society receives the lowest budgetary allocation," Satyarthi said.

"All our efforts for the development of children fail with such disproportionate investment," he said in a statement.

Children make up more than 40 percent of India's almost 1.3 billion population, yet only four percent of the budget is allocated to under-18s, he said. India has made considerable progress in curbing the exploitation of children over the last decade.

It has introduced laws to protect children and ensure their schooling, as well as a range of social welfare schemes. But activists say implementation is lacking in combating issues such as child labor and sexual exploitation.

A February 2015 report by the International Labor Organization puts the number of child workers in India aged between five and 17 at 5.7 million, out of 168 million globally.

More than half are in agriculture, toiling in cotton, sugarcane and rice paddy fields where they are often exposed to pesticides and risk injury from sharp tools and heavy equipment.

Over a quarter work in manufacturing - confined to poorly lit, barely ventilated rooms in slums, embroidering clothes, weaving carpets, making matchsticks or rolling beedi cigarettes.

Children also work in restaurants and hotels, washing dishes and chopping vegetables, or in middle-class homes, cleaning and scrubbing floors.

Other crimes against children are also a serious concern, say activists. There were over 94,000 crimes against children recorded in 2015, an increase of more than five percent from the previous year, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

Crimes included murder, infanticide, kidnapping and abduction, abandonment and procuration of minor girls. Almost 30 percent were sexual offenses, including rape, said NCRB data.

Satyarthi, whose charity Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement) is credited with rescuing more than 80,000 enslaved children, said a child goes missing in India every eight minutes.

He appealed to legislators across all political parties to devote one day to the discussion of child rights during the last session of parliament this year, which begins on Wednesday.

"Although significant progress has been made for the protection of child rights, critical challenges continue due to gaps in policy and their implementation," he said.

"The fight against child labor, child trafficking and child sexual abuse need higher political will," added Satyarthi, who won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai.
North Korean state media initially praised Donald Trump during his presidential campaign, but following Trump's victory a senior official expressed indifference about the incoming president.

"We do not care about whoever becomes the president of the United States," Kim Yong Ho, the North Korean Foreign Ministry's director of the division of human rights and humanitarian issues, told reporters at the United Nations.

"The fundamental issue here is whether or not the United States has the political will to withdraw its hostile policy toward the DPRK."

During his presidential campaign Donald Trump had suggested that American forces could withdraw from South Korea if the two countries could not agree on a fairer agreement to support the troops stationed there.

North Korea urged Trump to help unify the peninsula by removing the troops. A North Korean state media organization around the time called Trump a "wise politician" and "far sighted" presidential candidate.

The United States has long said that it will never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea and has imposed multiple rounds of strict sanctions over Pyongyang's pursuit of nuclear technology. The six-party talks aimed at verifiably dismantling the program in exchange for sanctions relief and aid have been stalled since 2009.
President Barack Obama says NATO is "absolutely vital" as he seeks to reassure Europe about the U.S. commitment to the alliance under the presidency of Donald Trump.

In Athens, Greece Tuesday on his last foreign trip as president, Obama said NATO "provides significant continuity even as we see a transition of government in the United States."

Following up on issues raised by President-elect Trump and by previous U.S. administrations including Obamas, the U.S. leader called on NATO members to spend more on defense.

Obama had praise for Greece. At a news conference with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, President Obama congratulated the country for spending more than the minimum goal on defense even in difficult times. He said that if Greece can meet its NATO commitment, all our allies should be able to do so.



WATCH: Obama on discussions with Greek leaders

Before leaving the White House on Monday, Obama said Trump had expressed to him a great interest in maintaining Americas core strategic relations. And so one of the messages I will be able to deliver is his commitment to NATO and the Transatlantic Alliance, Obama said. The outgoing U.S. president said he would let European allies know there is no weakening of resolve when it comes to America's commitment to maintaining a strong and robust NATO relationship.

European concerns



European leaders, alarmed by Trumps campaign statements on U.S. commitments, have been anxious for clarification.

Trumps campaign remarks have also fueled ongoing efforts to establish a European defense force separate from NATO.

At a gathering of EU foreign and defense ministers in Brussels Monday, they spoke of a more urgent need to set up their own collective defense arrangement in the face of what, in the view of some European leaders, could be a new era of American isolationism. Ministers on Monday agreed on a defense plan that would, for the first time, allow EU nations to send rapid response forces overseas.

Europe needs to be able to act for its own security, said French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

Given Trumps attacks on Americas long-standing security ties in Europe and Asia, U.S. allies have ample reason to worry about the credibility of Americas commitments to their security going forward, Peter Trubowitz, head of the U.S. Centre at the London School of Economics, wrote after the U.S. election.

Trump on NATO

During his campaign, Trump called NATO obsolete. The remark that perhaps alarmed leaders the most, however, was his suggestion that the U.S. would not automatically defend members if they did not make their minimum contribution to the alliance, which translates into nations spending at least 2 percent of their GDP on defense.

The remarks were seen as a direct hit on the principle of collective defense, a foundation of the alliance. Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty says an attack on one member is considered an attack on all members.

There are indications, however, that some leaders in Europe will be receptive to Obamas reassurances about the future of transatlantic relations under Trump.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expressed hope, saying he is certain that Trump will be a president who will live up to all the commitments of the United States in the alliance because a strong NATO is important for Europe but it's also important for the United States.

Obamas meetings with Greek leaders Tuesday focused on economic issues and the progress that Greece has made in emerging from its economic crisis and the sacrifices its people continue to make under austerity programs that have been imposed to reduce debt.

He offered no debt relief or new U.S. economic assistance.

The U.S. leader did have praise for the Greeks response to the migrant crisis. Obama said people on the Greek islands have shown extraordinary compassion even as they faced their own economic hardship.

Foreign policy achievements



As part of his farewell overseas tour, President Obama hopes to showcase his foreign policy achievements and strides made during his term in the war on terrorism that include the 2011 killing of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, the war on Islamic State militants, and most recently, the launch of U.S.-assisted offensives to retake key cities from IS militants in Mosul, Iraq and Raqqa, Syria.

President Obama will be in Germany on Wednesday before going to Peru later in the week.
Pakistan and China this week activated a new international trade route through the southwestern Pakistani port of Gwadar to showcase a multi-billion-dollar economic cooperation agreement between the two close allies.

Beijing's $46 billion investment under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor will lead to construction of road, rail and communication networks and power projects in Pakistan along the route linking China's western Xinjiang region to Gwadar.

Chinese officials say CPEC is "the major and pilot project of the Belt and Road initiative proposed by President Xi Jinping.

It will ultimately turn the deep water Gwadar port, developed with Chinese financial and technical assistance, into a gateway for imports and exports from Xinjiang to international markets.

The port sits at the convergence of three of the worlds most commercially important regions, the oil-rich Middle East, Central Asia and South Asia. It also lies at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, just outside the Strait of Hormuz.

Pakistani and Chinese officials gathered Sunday at the port to welcome the first convoy of trucks from China. Containers were loaded on two Chinese ships before they sailed to overseas destinations from Gwadar.

The trade convoy passed 3,000 kilometers along the Karakoram Highway through western Pakistan after entering at the Khunjerab Pass, the world's highest paved border crossing.

It proves the connectivity of the local roads and realization of the concept of one corridor with multiple passages, noted Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Sun Weeding in Gwadar.

This trade convoy is the best reflection of the spirits of mutual consultation, joint construction, mutual benefits and win-win cooperation. I believe these spirits will serve as the solid basis for the future construction of CPEC, said the Chinese diplomat.

Pakistani leaders hope the economic corridor will bring development and prosperity to billions of people in the region.

"Pakistan is located at the intersection of three engines of growth in Asia - South Asia, China and Central Asia. CPEC will help in integrating these regions into an economic zone offering great opportunities for people of the region as well as investors from all over the world, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told Sundays ceremony at Gwadar.

For China, the proposed CPEC route will offer the shortest possible access to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. Chinese ships currently travel through the Strait of Malacca and it takes about half a month to transport goods to or from China.

The Pakistani government is under fire at home for allegedly maintaining secrecy around CPEC-related projects and diverting much of the Chinese investment to the populous province of Punjab, a traditional stronghold of Sharifs ruling party.

The prime minister and his spokespeople have repeatedly denied the allegations.

"CPEC is for entire Pakistan and no province and region will be left out of it. The whole nation is united and determined to make CPEC a model of success and a flagship project of Pakistan and China friendship to take our friendship to greater heights," said Sharif, while speaking in Gwadar.

Despite security and political concerns, Chinese and Pakistani officials say that CPEC-related projects have entered into full implementation and are making remarkable progress.

They say 16 out of 24 early harvest projects are under construction and expected to be completed by 2018, creating tens of thousands of new jobs for local people.

Pakistani critics, however, point to a lack of structural reforms, corruption and mismanagement in government institutions for their skepticism about CPEC.

They insist that existing infrastructure needs a major overhaul to be able to absorb pressure that CPEC-related activities will generate in the coming years.

Economist Athar Maqsood Ahmad at Islamabads National University of Sciences and Technology, known as NUST, says signs of improvement already exist in Pakistan, even without CPEC.

The expected (official) growth rate with the help of CPEC is not much higher than what we have achieved on our own in the past, he noted.

The professor said much of the public debate is based on assumptions. He said it is not possible to examine the cumulative dividends of CPEC to Pakistan because documents at relevant Chinese and Pakistani ministries do not provide the same information.
Prosecutors are set to continue questioning WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange about a possible sex crime dating back six years.

Assange will be interviewed Tuesday at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London where he sought refuge more than four years ago.



Prosecutors are focusing on an allegation of possible rape dating back to an incident in Sweden in 2010. Assange has not been indicted.



Swedish prosecutors will weigh his version of events before deciding whether to charge him with a crime.



The investigation began after two women Assange met in Sweden complained to authorities about his behavior.



Assange is being interviewed by an Ecuadorean prosecutor in the presence of a Swedish prosecutor and police investigator.



Swedish officials also want a DNA sample from Assange.



The interview may continue Wednesday.
Mexico has an array of tools to face down financial volatility in the wake of the U.S. presidential election, Finance Minister Jose Antonio Meade said on Monday, after Donald Trump's victory sent the peso currency into a tailspin.

The government can use a windfall stemming from the Mexican central bank's foreign exchange gains on the peso, as well as some 110 billion pesos ($5.3 billion) in its oil stabilization fund, to ensure public finances are stable, Meade said.

"And we're facing this situation with well-capitalized banks," Meade said at an event in the central city of Puebla.

Trump's win sparked fears because of threats he made in the campaign to dump the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) if he could not recast it in the United States' favor, sending the peso to a record low of more than 21 per dollar.

NAFTA is a pact between the United States, Canada and Mexico, which sends 80 percent of its goods exports to the U.S. market.

Meade also noted the Mexican government had refinanced its 2017 debt maturities, meaning it can cover its financing requirements for next year in the domestic market.

"Mexico's public debt ... is something we are revising and discussing with the market," the minister said.

Speaking earlier at the same event, Mexico's Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said he was sure Trump would not ditch NAFTA and noted that new chapters should be added to the trade deal to reflect economic changes over the past 20 years.

An updated NAFTA could cover e-commerce, protection of data and intellectual property in biotech medicine, promoting value chains at small- and medium-sized firms and taking a regional stand against unfair practices such as steel dumping, he added.

Mexico has in recent months slapped tariffs on Chinese steel imports, and one of Trump's top trade advisers, Dan DiMicco, former chief executive of U.S. steelmaker Nucor, has pointedly criticized China for dumping cheap steel on the world market.

If Mexico and the United States were to align policies on such issues it would chime with trade experts arguing for the NAFTA partners to pursue a more regional approach to safeguarding the competitiveness of North America.

Guajardo himself spoke of the need to defend the NAFTA region in an interview with Reuters last week.
U.S. internet companies including Facebook and Amazon have sent President-elect Donald Trump a detailed list of their policy priorities, which includes promoting strong encryption, immigration reform and maintaining liability protections from content that users share on their platforms.

The letter sent on Friday by the Internet Association, a trade group whose 40 members also include Alphabet's Google, Uber and Twitter, represents an early effort to repair the relationship between the technology sector and Trump, who was almost universally disliked and at times denounced in Silicon Valley during the presidential campaign.

"The internet industry looks forward to engaging in an open and productive dialogue," reads the letter, signed by Michael Beckerman, president of the Internet Association, and seen by Reuters.

Some of the policy goals stated in the letter may align with Trump's priorities, including easing regulation on the sharing economy, lowering taxes on profits made from intellectual property and applying pressure on Europe to not erect too many barriers that restrict U.S. internet companies from growing in that market.

Other goals are likely to clash with Trump, who offered numerous broadsides against the tech sector during his campaign.

They include supporting strong encryption in products against efforts by law enforcement agencies to mandate access to data for criminal investigations, upholding recent reforms to U.S. government surveillance programs that ended the bulk collection of call data by the National Security Agency, and maintaining net neutrality rules that require internet service providers to treat web traffic equally.

The association seeks immigration reform to support more high-skilled workers staying in the United States. Though Trump made tougher immigration policies a central theme of his campaign, he has at times shied away from arguing against more H-1B visas for skilled workers, saying in a March debate he was "softening the position because we need to have talented people in this country."

While urging support for trade agreements, the letter does not mention the Trans Pacific Partnership, which Trump has repeatedly assailed with claims it was poorly negotiated and would take jobs away from U.S. workers. The technology sector supported the deal, but members of Congress have conceded since the election it is not going to be enacted.

Trump's often-shifting policy proposals on the campaign trail frequently alarmed tech companies and sometimes elicited public mockery, such as when Trump called for closing off parts of the internet to limit militant Islamist propaganda.

Trump has also urged a boycott of Apple products over the company's refusal to help the Federal Bureau of Investigation unlock an iPhone associated with last year's San Bernardino, California, shootings, threatened antitrust action against Amazon, and demanded that tech companies such as Apple manufacture their products in the United States.
Warplanes from Russia's lone aircraft carrier and a missile frigate struck targets in Syria on Tuesday, bombing areas southwest of the embattled city of Aleppo, as Syrian government aircraft renewed barrel bomb attacks on the city itself.

The first-ever Russian strikes from the Mediterranean-based carrier Admiral Kuznetsov were described by the Kremlin on Tuesday as targeting extremists in Idlib and Homs provinces.

The Russian Defense Ministry said a navy frigate also launched long-range cruise missiles at targets in northern Idlib  an area about 60 kilometers southeast of Aleppo.

However, the ministry insisted the Russian strikes were limited to Islamic State and other extremist targets, and ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov rejected media reports alleging that Russian warplanes were involved in strikes on a hospital in Aleppo.

"Aircraft of the Russian Aerospace forces have delivered no airstrikes in Aleppo for the past 28 days," he said.

In Washington, the State Department blasted Moscow for the new attacks.

"We strongly condemn the resumption of airstrikes in Syria by the Russians," spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said. She also accused Russia of blocking shipments of food and other aid to Aleppo during the bombing lull  a move she said led residents to "starve while [Moscow sought] praise from the international community for halting indiscriminate strikes."

Separately, Syrian news reports said government aircraft bombed "terrorist strongholds" in eastern Aleppo, a territory populated by as many as 300,000 civilians and rebel forces seeking to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

Monitors from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes were the first to hit eastern Aleppo since October 18.

The renewed violence in Aleppo comes a day after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump spoke by telephone with Russian President Vladimir Putin  the Syrian government's strongest ally in the five-and-a-half-year civil war.

Putin said Monday that he and Trump agreed to "combine efforts to tackle international terrorism." However, it remains unclear whether the two governments can agree on a formula for easing the conflict, which the United Nations says has claimed more than 400,000 lives since 2011.

Moscow and Damascus categorize all rebels seeking to oust the Assad government as terrorists, a definition both governments use to justify the deadly and apparently indiscriminate bombings in eastern Aleppo.

Western governments and the United Nations have framed the Aleppo onslaught as a vast humanitarian crisis, with diplomats and human rights organizations arguing that both Damascus and Moscow could face future war crimes inquiries for their roles in the destruction of eastern Aleppo.
Russian prosecutors charged Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev with extortion Tuesday and requested he be placed under house arrest in the highest-level corruption case of its kind in decades. Ulyukayevs lawyer said he denies the charges.

Analysts and observers question the charges as politically motivated and say the arrest of Ulyukayev more likely exposes an internal Kremlin battle between those for and against more state control of the dwindling Russian economy.

Ulyukayev was detained late Monday after a sting operation carried out by Russias Federal Security Services (FSB), according to Russias Investigative Committee (SK).

The SK claims Ulyukayev received $2 million he demanded from state oil company Rosneft in return for a positive assessment from his ministry on a controversial October deal that saw Rosneft purchase a 50 percent government stake in another government-owned oil company, Bashneft.

Prosecutors allege Ulyukayev threatened to obstruct the acquisition if the bribe was not paid.

Fight against corruption?

Russian state media declared it the first arrest of a sitting minister in President Vladimir Putins fight against corruption.

The speaker of Russias lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, said the prosecution of Ulyukayev shows there are no untouchables in Russia and that everyone is equal under the law, reported Russias Tass state news agency.

The government was selling a 50.1 percent share of Bashneft as part of a privatization drive that has supporters and detractors. A number of officials and economists, including Ulyukayev, criticized the participation of state-run Rosneft in the bidding.

Rosneft head Igor Sechin, a close friend and ally of Putin, had been pushing for the deal, which would consolidate more of Russias oil industry under his control. Putin eventually supported Rosnefts $5 billion bid for the governments stake in Bashneft.

Analysts poured doubt on the possibility that Ulyukayev or anyone else would demand a bribe from a company controlled by such a powerful and well-connected person as Sechin, let alone make threats.

Ulyukayev fell victim to the escalating political struggle inside the ruling class, says Vasily Koltashov, head of the Center of Economic Research at the Institute of Globalization and Social Movements. The law enforcement bodies do not act without a command.

Rosneft officially cleared

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state media Putin was informed about the investigation of Ulyukayev from the beginning and noted the charges were very serious and would require very serious evidence.

Peskov said there was no connection between Ulyukayevs case and the legality of the Bashneft purchase, echoing Russias Investigative Committee, which declared the Rosneft-Bashneft deal was "completed on legal grounds.

Alexei Portansky, a senior research fellow at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of the World Economy and International Relations, called Ulyukayev's arrest a "very painful blow" to the government's economic policy-making team.

Liberals vs. State control

Kremlin watchers say with Russias economy contracting as a result of low oil prices, Western sanctions, and lack of diversification, a struggle has erupted among the elites for control of key assets.

Russias Vedomosti newspaper in September cited Federal Antimonopoly Service statistics showing state-controlled companies dramatically increased their share in Russia's GDP, from 35 percent in 2005 to 70 percent by 2015.

Russian authorities in 2014 seized control of Bashneft from oligarch owner Vladimir Yevtushenkov, who was charged with money-laundering and acquiring the company illegally, charges that were later dropped.

Critics called it an asset-grab by the state and reminiscent of the governments seizure of Yukos Oil Company from Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 2003. Most of the broken-up Yukos entities ended up controlled by Rosneft and Gazprom, Russia's state-controlled natural gas monopoly.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who had originally opposed the Rosneft-Bashneft deal until Putin spoke in favor of it, discussed Ulyukayevs case with the president and called for a thorough investigation.

Former Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, an advocate of economic reforms, said the accusations against Ulyukayev raise lots of questions. He called for an objective investigation.
Signs of the long, divisive presidential contest that nearly tore the Republican Party apart were nowhere to be seen Tuesday. Republican members of the House easily renominated Paul Ryan to be their leader. In January the new congress will confirm him as speaker for his first full term.

As members of the House Republican conference convened for their leadership elections. On each of their seats: a red-and-white "Make America Great Again" hat.



Many members left the meeting wearing the Trump campaigns signature hat, demonstrating a solidarity that had been in doubt up until the Republican nominees historic surprise win over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton last week.



"Welcome to the dawn of a new, unified Republican government," Paul Ryan told reporters after the closed conference meeting.



WATCH: Paul Ryan on ambitious Republican agenda for 2017



Ryans position as speaker of the House was widely assumed to be in jeopardy if Donald Trump lost the presidential election, following a chaotic campaign season in which the Republican from Wisconsin walked a fine line between endorsing the nominee of his party and distancing himself from Trumps more controversial statements.

Those days seemed forgotten, though, as Ryan greeted reporters for his first post-election press availability on Capitol Hill.

"If were going to put our country back on the right track, we have to go bold, and we have to go big," said Ryan, who unveiled "A Better Way" back in June  a six-point legislative roadmap that tackles poverty, healthcare and tax reform among other issues.



"There are going to be a lot more things made in America," said Rep. Steve Scalise, holding up one of the hats, as he told reporters the first 100 days of a Trump administration would be crucial in getting the economy back on track.

Potential for division



But Trumps controversial appointment of Steve Bannon, former executive chairman of the far-right leaning Breitbart News, as his senior strategist and co-equal of newly-appointed chief of staff Reince Prebus, eventually could show up cracks in that unity.



"This is a person who helped him win an incredible victory and ran an incredible campaign. The president is going to be judged on the results of this administration, Ryan said of Bannon, who previously had called the speaker "the enemy."



Ryan brushed off Bannons past criticism, saying he was not looking backwards but forwards. One of the immediate concerns moving forward will be funding the government after a continuing resolution expires on December 9.



"Those are decisions that are being made with the transition team; none of those have been made yet. We are now sitting down with the Trump administration-in-waiting along with our colleagues to come up with a game plan," said Ryan.



As Republicans presented a unified front, House Democrats met just down the hallway for a much more introspective meeting. Rep. Tim Ryan, a seven-term Congressman from Ohio, confirmed Monday he was interested in challenging current leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi for the top Democratic leadership spot.



"Weve been through hell," Pelosi told members, who ended up delaying their own leadership vote until November 30, after Congress returns from a Thanksgiving break.
Sierra Leones government is defending a price hike on petroleum products in the country. The government announced last week that it is ending the subsidy of petroleum products, raising the price of a gallon of gasoline, kerosene, diesel and fuel oil.

Under the new measures, pump price for a gallon of gasoline and diesel is up from about 67 cents to about $1.68. Fuel oil is up from about 56 cents to about 90 cents a liter.

Abdulai Bayraytay, spokesman for Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma, says removing the fuel subsidy was necessary to address the loss of revenue caused by the Ebola crisis which affected the countrys tourism industry, and the plummeting price of iron ore.

Bayraytay said when the APC government came into power in 2007 its priority was improve the economy to attract direct foreign investment and in turn create employment.

Thus, we embarked on massive infrastructural development across the country. That, of course created jobs and employment. Thus, the economy was booming. So, during that period, we didnt feel it was necessary to remove fuel subsidy. But as I indicated, because of the plummeting of the prices of iron ore in the international market, revenue was lost. And also, the Ebola of course to the loss of revenue was lost, Bayraytay said.

He said in order to reverse the economic downturn, the government worked with its international partners like the World Bank and the IMF to reduce expenditure.

Last month, the government announced a series of measures to improve revenue generation, including the suspension of all overseas travel for public officials except for essential and statutory travels.

The government also put on hold all new domestically financed capital projects and suppliers contracts. It also stopped new procurement of government vehicles until further notice

The opposition accuses the government of trying to cover up 9 years of mismanagement of the economy, particularly with presidential election looming in 2018.

Presidential hopeful and opposition leader  Alie Kabba -- in a statement condemned the price increases and its effects on the poor.

The recent abrupt elimination of fuel subsidies by the APC government and its cascading killer effects, poses a very serious threat to the livelihood of ordinary citizens and dangerously toys with the very stability of the state. Once again we find ourselves firmly locked in the grips of another undoubtedly disastrous stretch of man-made catastrophes that our country neither desires nor in anyway deserves, Kabba said.

The police have warned against unauthorized demonstrations. In a statement, the police said while they respect the rights of citizens to hold peaceful demonstrations, the public should also know that such rights are accompanied by the responsibilities.

Therefore, we would expect those organizers of demonstrations to identify themselves and notify the inspector general of police in writing, indicating their assembly points, the routes they intend to take and where they intend to end, the statement said.
The United Nations says more than 54,000 people have been displaced in Mosul, where a massive Iraqi military operation is underway to free the city from Islamic State militants.

A U.N. spokesman, Farhan Haq, said Monday the number of displaced people has increased by 6,600 since Friday, with most of them fleeing to displaced persons camps.

Iraqi special forces say they are checking all displaced people for suspected links to Islamic State before allowing them into the camps. They say they have also cleared the Qadisiya and Zahra neighborhoods in Mosul.

The Iraqi troops, backed by a U.S.-led coalition of airstrikes, are moving slowly through the city, trying to avoid casualties to armed forces and civilians as IS militants detonate suicide bombs.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said in a discussion Monday in Washington with The Atlantic magazine and 1776, a global business incubator, that the Iraqi cities of Mosul and Raqqa are the "two central nodes" of Islamic State.

"They have to be destroyed. Our plan early on involved the systematic envelopment of those two forces of those two cities and the destruction of ISIL within them, he said, using an acronym for Islamic State. For a year now, we have been planning that and working with Iraqi forces and the peshmerga."

WATCH: Carter Talks about Fight in Mosul, Raqqa

The World Food Program says it has provided food assistance to more than 100,000 people in Mosul and the surrounding areas. It said that includes a distribution on Sunday to 25,000 people in Gogjali, the first neighborhood inside Mosul retaken by Iraqi's army.

The U.N. agency said it is providing family food rations that include rice, wheat flour, chickpeas, vegetable oil, sugar and salt to people in both camps and neighborhoods.

"WFP is concerned about the food security of people trapped inside Mosul, and in areas surrounding the city, said Sally Haydock, WFP Country Director in Iraq. Together with our partners, we are monitoring frontlines and working to reach families in need as soon as there is safe access."
The trial of two men accused of carrying out the August 2015 bombing at a popular shrine in Thailand began Tuesday after being delayed because of a dispute about translators provided for the defendants.

Bilal Mohammed and Mieraili Yusufu are facing 10 counts, including murder and illegal possession of explosives, connected to the blast at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok that killed 20 people. They deny the charges.

The two are Chinese ethnic Uighurs and objected to the two translators provided by the Chinese Embassy because they said China does not respect Uighurs. The court rejected those concerns.

China's Xinjiang region is home to the Uighur ethnic minority, many of whom complain of repression and have been the subject of an intense anti-terror crackdown by Beijing.

Thai officials say the bombing was carried out as revenge for a crackdown on a people-smuggling network.
A U.S. judge in Minnesota has given jail time to three Somali-Americans found guilty of conspiring to provide material support to Islamic State, but rewarded two of them with lighter sentences for cooperating with the government.

The harshest sentence was given to Zacharia Abdurahman, who got 10 years in prison. Abdurahman pleaded guilty but did not cooperate with the U.S. government against his friends, who also plotted to join Islamic State.

The prosecution wanted 15 years in prison for Abdurahman, who broke down in court. The judge, Michael Davis, made it clear that Abdurahman received the toughest sentence because he did not testify against his former co-conspirators.

Abdurahman was stopped at JFK International Airport in New York in 2014 while attempting to travel to Greece on his way to Syria to join Islamic State. The following year, he was involved in a second attempt to travel to Syria.

Also sentenced Monday was Abdirazak Warsame and Abdullahi Yusuf, both of whom cooperated with the U.S. government. Warsame received 30 months in prison, while Yusuf was released for time served in prison  the 21 months he already had been in jail. Both testified against their former friends.

Warsame was accused of planning to travel first to Somalia and then to Syria. He also was accused of encouraging others to travel to Syria, including Yusuf.

The judge said he believed Warsame's cooperation with authorities was a matter of convenience, while Yusuf's cooperation was more believable. He said it wouldn't make sense to send Yusuf to prison for longer because the government would miss a chance to help him. Davis said he hoped to see Yusuf rehabilitated.

Yusuf reportedly told the judge after the sentence was read, "I won't let you down, your honor." His family expressed relief after the sentencing.

Minnesota prosecutor Andrew Luger said in a statement Monday, "The hard work of rehabilitating those who seek to engage in ideological violence must continue. Judge Davis recognized that fact today in his considered sentences for those defendants who cooperated with the government and have begun to disengage from ISIL's violent ideology."

Six other men are awaiting sentencing in the Islamic State-related terrorism case. Prosecutors have recommended the longest sentence  40 years  for Guled Omar, one of three men who went on trial and was convicted by a jury.

On Sunday night, the parents of the defendants held prayers and a healing service at a mosque in Minneapolis, hoping for leniency from the judge.
Statements made by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump during his campaign made members of the European Union nervous about the future of their relations with Washington and what has until now been seen as America's steadfast commitment to guarantee the security of Europe.

EU foreign and defense ministers are anxious to learn about his plans and they met Monday in Brussels to talk about what Trump's victory means for the region's security.

Topping the concerns of EU ministers is Trump's campaign stance on NATO, after he described the alliance as obsolete. The president-elect also shook Europeans' confidence by suggesting during the campaign the United States would not automatically defend NATO members against an attack by Russia if they had not made their minimum contributions to the alliance.

Ministers going into the meetings in Brussels indicated they are not going to wait for Trump to reveal his true intentions on NATO and are now looking at the U.S. election as an opportunity to further their plans for a European defense force separate from NATO.

"Independent of the outcome of the American election, it was clear for us Europeans that we have to take over more responsibility, and today is a day where we implement a plan or given a political will that Europe is willing to take over more responsibility in form of a European defense union," said German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen.

Separate force

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini earlier said Europe wants a "strong partnership" with the Trump administration. But on Monday, she also suggested Europe must also now look to itself to guarantee its security.

"There is a need to strengthen our security profile, it's what our citizens need," Mogherini said.

Trump's campaign statements and the prospect of their becoming reality have opened a large debate, especially in the time before the president-elect has a chance to clarify his statements and make the new White House policy on U.S. commitments to Europe's defense known.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in September raised the idea of establishing a European military headquarters, saying "common military assets" under such a setup would work in "full complementarity" with NATO.

Trump's campaign remarks appear to have fueled support in Brussels for that proposal. But the idea of a European defense force separate from NATO does not sit well with some, including those who backed Britain's June decision to leave the European Union.

Not so fast

"I think it is far better to have a straightforward defense alliance through NATO which includes all the main European Union countries and led by the United States of America than to have a separate EU army-navy arrangement as well, because I think that would create a scope for muddle and difficulty, John Redwood, a Conservative member of Britain's parliament who campaigned for Brexit, told VOA earlier this year.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, a Brexit supporter, sought to temper the conversation Monday by urging ministers to wait and see what Trump actually proposes for NATO and Europe's security. Johnson said Trump's election is a "moment of opportunity," and he cautioned EU ministers not to undermine the "fundamental security architecture that's looked after us for the last 70 years" by jumping ahead with plans for a European defense force.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence met Tuesday in New York to discuss key appointments in their new government.

The two have more than 4,000 jobs to fill in the U.S. government as they prepare to assume power January 20, but their immediate focus is on filling the top diplomatic post and that of defense secretary, attorney general and Homeland Security chief. All are positions that present the government's face to the world and help lead the country's fight against terrorism.

No public announcements emerged from the daylong meeting at Trump's Manhattan skyscraper home.

But in Washington on Tuesday night, the White House said it had received a signed memorandum of understanding from Pence, an initial step in being able to provide more detailed briefing materials to the incoming administration. Brandi Hoffine, a White House spokeswoman, said "The next step is for the President-elect's transition team to provide us with the names of the individuals they have authorized to represent their transition effort across the government."

There was no indication when that would happen.

Secretary of State

Trump aides are signaling that former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani could be named secretary of state. The 72-year-old Giuliani has no previous foreign policy experience, but Trump associates say he has emerged as a narrow favorite for the position. He was a loyal supporter of Trump during his lengthy run for the presidency leading to his stunning upset win a week ago, often appearing on television news shows to promote the Trump candidacy.

The blunt-spoken Giuliani gained national prominence during his tenure as New York mayor more than a decade ago. For many Americans, he became a symbol of U.S. resolve in the fight against Islamic terrorism in the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people.

But Trump aides also say the president-elect is considering other names, including that of John Bolton, a hawkish former diplomat who was the country's United Nations ambassador under President George W. Bush. Bolton has been a regular television critic of the foreign policies of President Barack Obama.

In Washington, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Bob Corker of Tennessee, told VOA Tuesday that either way, Trump will make an impact on the global stage. He said the Trump presidency "could lead to us resolving our differences with China and other places more readily." He also said he expects other NATO countries will do more to pull their full weight in the alliance.

Crocker also was hopeful about the future of the nuclear deal with Iran.

"That's an area where there will be a lot of bipartisanship  pushing back against missile testing, the buying of conventional weapons they are not supposed to be purchasing," Corker said. "What the next secretary of state will realize is, look, what we want to do is build consensus with our partners, and Iran if we continue to push back as we should be doing, which we are not now doing, Iran will create, just because of their nature, the opportunity for a renegotiation."

National Security adviser, Defense Secretary



U.S. media reports say that another Trump supporter during the election contest, retired Army General Michael Flynn, once the head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, is a possible pick as national security adviser. Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, an early Trump campaign adviser, could be named secretary of defense or attorney general, the country's top legal position.

But selection of Trump's key national security officials was complicated Tuesday when a key figure abruptly resigned from his transition team without explanation. Mike Rogers, a former chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, had been advising top Trump officials on possible appointments.

One conflict Trump is facing is between his vow during the campaign to "drain the swamp" in official Washington and now his need to find qualified officials with experience to handle the government's most challenging positions.

Chief of Staff , Chief Strategist



So far, Trump has made just two appointments. He picked Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, as his White House chief of staff, a selection applauded by Republican leaders who control both houses of Congress.

Trump's choice of Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist has drawn widespread criticism from Democrats and some groups outside the government. Bannon was the Trump campaign's chief executive, joining his election effort in its last months after leading Breitbart News, a website he once described as "the platform of the alt-right," which occasionally has been the home to white nationalist and anti-Semitic vitriol and anti-women views.

Trump is set to become the country's 45th president and the first ever to never have been elected previously to public office, or served in its military or been appointed to a high-level government position.

Popular vote vs Electoral College



He also will be the fifth White House occupant who lost the popular vote in the presidential election but won through the country's Electoral College system of picking its leaders.

In essence, U.S. presidential elections are a series of state-by-state contests, with the winner in each collecting all the electoral votes. The biggest states hold the most sway in the Electoral College, where Trump, when all the votes are counted, is likely to finish with a 306-232 edge over his Democratic opponent, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

But Trump, because he won narrowly in numerous states, while Clinton had a large vote count advantage in two of the biggest states, California and New York, trails her in the popular vote count by more than 670,000 votes.

Trump, in the past, has attacked the two-century-old Electoral College system as a "disaster for a democracy" and said in a television interview after the election, "I would rather see it where you went with simple votes."

In tweets on his Twitter account Tuesday, Trump said, "The Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. If the election were based on total popular vote I would have campaigned in N.Y., Florida and California and won even bigger and more easily."

Clinton and Trump both contested the large southeastern state of Florida, which Trump won, but neither campaigned much in New York or California, where Clinton's dominance ahead of the election was a foregone conclusion.



WATCH: Brief explainer on what the Electoral College is and does


Russian President Vladimir Putin telephoned congratulations to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump Monday and said Russia is ready for a "partner-like dialogue" with the United States.

Trump's office said the incoming president told Putin he is very much looking forward to a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and its people.

It also said the two talked about a range of issues including threats and challenges and strategic economic matters.

A Kremlin release said Putin and Trump agree that U.S.-Russian ties are "extremely unsatisfactory" right now and that their talks need to be based on equality, mutual respect and non-interference in each other's internal affairs.

Democrats have accused the Kremlin of orchestrating the leak of internal Clinton campaign emails that may have damaged her chances of becoming president.

Russia has denied interfering in the U.S. election, but Trump had made no secret of his admiration of Putin for being a "strong leader."

Ties between the Kremlin and the Obama administration have been cool over the last several years primarily over such issues as Ukraine and Syria.

On the Kremlin website it was noted that next year marks 210 years since Russia and the U.S. established diplomatic relations. The posting said mutually beneficial cooperation would meet the interests of the two countries and provide stability and security around the world.
Demonstrations protesting the U.S. presidential election victory of Republican Donald Trump entered their second week on Monday, with thousands of students chanting phrases like "Not My President" after walking out of classes across the country.

The latest protests came as critics slammed Trump's selection of right-wing firebrand Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist, with many fearing the move could lift the white nationalist movement into the top levels of the White House.

The Los Angeles Unified School District estimated that 4,000 students walked out of classes across the city in protest of the president-elect, who campaigned on deporting undocumented immigrants and building a wall between the United States and Mexico.

Officials with Seattle Public Schools said about 5,000 students walked out of 20 high schools and middle schools on Monday. That figure represented about 10 percent of the district's student body, according to schools spokesman Luke Duecy.

Authorities in Portland, Oregon, Montgomery County, Maryland, and the San Francisco Bay Area said hundreds of young people marched in protest as well.

Tens of thousands of people have marched in cities from New York to Los Angeles in largely peaceful rallies since Trump's upset victory last Tuesday over Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump secured enough votes in the 538-member Electoral College to win the presidency despite trailing Clinton in the popular vote.

But there have been sporadic bouts of destruction.

Demonstrators in Oakland, California, last week threw objects at police in riot gear and smashed storefront windows.

More than 100 people had been arrested following days of protest in Portland, Oregon, police said on Monday. Protesters in that city over the weekend blocked traffic and threw objects at police dressed in riot gear who responded with pepper spray and flash-bang devices.

Civil rights groups and police have monitored violence against U.S. minorities since Trump's win, citing reports of attacks on women in Islamic head scarves, of racist graffiti and of bullying of immigrant children.

Trump has called for peace and unity and denounced white supremacist groups that supported him. He said on Sunday he was "so saddened" to hear about racial slurs and personal threats made against African-Americans, Latinos and gay people by some of his supporters.

"I say, 'Stop it.' If it - if it helps," Trump told CBS' "60 Minutes" in an interview.
In rural central Georgia, one religious community has been feeling its way of life is under threat, but many of the mainly white congregants at the Rock Springs Church have found new hope since the presidential election.

Across the U.S. this week, conservative Christians are celebrating the November 8 victory of Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Members of Rock Springs in Milner, Georgia, are no exception. "I think the mood of the people is optimistic," said Dr. Benny Tate, the pastor of the Methodist church, which traces its history back to the 1850s.

Rock Springs lies deep in the heart of Trump country, where rebel flags adorn many front porches and cars. Lamar County, where the church is located, went for Trump by a margin of almost 40 percentage points.

"[We avoided] a huge disaster," Misty Ard from nearby McDonough said after the service. "I think God definitely had his hands on this whole election."

Against both abortion and gay marriage, Ard feared that if Clinton were elected, her freedom would have been curtailed.

"If Hillary would have gotten in there, we would have some very liberal Supreme Court justices and I think our rights and religious freedom as Christians would have definitely been diminished," Ard said.

It's a fear often expressed by conservative evangelicals, many of whom feel they are being left behind in a culture that has largely accepted ideas they deem anti-Biblical.

Everything to lose

A few hundred kilometers away in Baltimore, MD, the mood of the prayer vigil was somber from the start. During an opening prayer, a church leader thanked God for bringing the congregation through a week "filled with hatred, bigotry and heartache." The songs in this predominantly African-American church focused on trusting in God through difficult times. One pastor pondered whether "white male privilege and supremacy" had won the day. The assumption was that it had.

The weekly gathering of the Liberty Seventh-day Adventist Church was in a state of near mourning.

"A lot of us woke up Wednesday morning with a heavy sense of some form of impending doom," said Tembe Sibiya, one of several hundred people who attended the Saturday prayer vigil. Though Sibiya seems to wear a permanent smile and projects a cheery, hopeful demeanor, she doesn't have many nice things to say about Trump.

She's not alone. According to exit polls, Trump won just 8 percent of the African-American vote. That was despite his efforts to reach out to the black community, particularly toward the end of his campaign. But even when he did, many found the attempts offensive, such as when he repeatedly linked African-Americans to "inner-city" slums and said black voters face situations so desperate that they have "nothing to lose" by voting for him.

"We have everything to lose," Sibiya said. "These are our lives. We do not live in blighted communities. We are not a hopeless people. He needs to get to know us better."

Sowing 'seeds of love'

Outside the church, Rocky Twyman, a veteran of the 1960s civil rights movement, solicits signatures on a giant, handwritten card that reads: "By signing, I agree to pray without ceasing that God will touch the heart of President-elect Trump with LOVE."

"We're just trying to sow seeds of love," explained Twyman, who helped organize and publicize the prayer vigil.

Twyman is cautiously optimistic about the billionaire businessman, whom he describes as "apolitical." He admits he has deep concerns, especially about the fact that Trump spent years as one of the central figures of the "birther" movement, which questioned whether Barack Obama, the nation's first black president, was born in the U.S.

"We would hope that in the interest of bringing the country together ... that he would apologize first of all to Mr. Obama, and then also to the groups that he has offended," Twyman said.

Click on the map icons to watch a video from each congregation



Trump has made some gestures toward unity since his November 8 win, vowing to be a "president for all Americans." But the country has seen a wave of racist incidents since the election.

"We're just going to have to pray without ceasing for him that God would touch his heart," Twyman said. "We really need divine intervention at this point."

'We need each other'

When asked what he would tell those in the Baltimore community who are fearful of Trump and concerned about their immediate future, Pastor Tate in Georgia said he would have them know that "we need each other, and that God's created all of us equal."

"Every person should have their dignity," he said. "Even though we disagree, I don't think we need to be angry. So I would let those people know that we love them."

Sibiya, who attended the Baltimore prayer vigil, is also optimistic about how her community will handle the challenges ahead.

"We are part of a community that has weathered many, many storms," Sibiya said. "We are determined to survive.""
Two more Somali-American men have been sentenced to prison for conspiring to provide material support to Islamic State.



Hanad Musse, 21, is one of nine friends in Minnesota's large Somali community who are being sentenced this week for conspiring to join the militant group. Earlier Tuesday, one of his co-defendants, Hamza Ahmed, received 15 years on charges connected to the plot.



Musse, Ahmed and two other men traveled to New York in November 2014, planning to travel to Greece and then on to Syria. They were taken off a plane by federal agents.



Prosecutors said they were part of a group of friends who began encouraging each other to join Islamic State militants in the spring of 2014. Some of their friends made it to Syria, but the nine who were prosecuted did not.



On Monday, three other Somali-Americans were sentenced to prison. Two of them who cooperated with authorities were given light sentences. Multiple year sentences were handed down to those who did not, including Musse and Ahmed.



Four others await sentencing, including three who went to trial and also were convicted on a charge of conspiracy to commit murder outside the U.S., which carries a possible life sentence, although prosecutors are seeking sentences of 30 or 40 years.



The Minneapolis area is home to a large population of Somali expatriates. U.S. authorities have said dozens of young Somali-Americans have left the area since 2007 to join al Shabab, an al-Qaida affiliate based in Somalia.



In 2014, FBI officials said they had begun tracking a group of Somali-Americans from the Minneapolis area to Syria in general, and to Islamic State-held areas in particular.
Britain has approved the extradition of an alleged computer hacker who is accused of snatching data from the U.S. Defense Department, the U.S. Army and the FBI.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has authorized the extradition of 31-year-old Lauri Love, who faces 99 years in prison if found guilty on cyber-hacking charges for allegedly compromising networks between October 2012 and October 2013 and stealing data. He has 14 days to appeal the decision.



Love, who has Asperger's syndrome, told the Daily Mail in an interview published Tuesday that the decision was a ``kick in the gut.'' He says he doesn't ``think much of my future life prospects.''



Love's father, the Rev Alexander Love, says "all we are asking for is British justice for a British citizen."
The international Press is working to persuade us that the electors of Donald Trump have expressed a revolt of the white working classes against the elites. But in fact, all they are doing is prolonging the message of Hillary Clinton, whom these electors specifically rejected. It refuses to consider that the current cleavage has no connection with the themes she treated during the campaign.

And yet we have all seen a new line of fracture appear, not between, but in the heart of the two major parties. A number of Republican leaders supported Clinton, and several Democrat leaders supported Trump. Bernie Sanders even met with him to offer his services. Also, the analysis of the votes in terms of community loyalties (women, Hispanics, African Americans, Muslims , gays, etc.) no longer has any meaning. Although we were inundated with the idea that a vote for Trump was a vote for the hatred of minorities, at least a third of these minorities voted for him.

A few journalists tried to base their comments on the precedent of Brexit, although they had been just as surprised by that decision, and just as incapable of explaining it. If we analyse foreign precedents, we have to at least to take into account the surprise elections of Narendra Modi in India and Rodriguo Dutertre in the Philippines (an old US colony).

Despite the propaganda, the British did not vote against the Europeans, nor the Indians against the Muslims, nor the Philippinos against the Chinese. On the contrary, each of these three peoples hope only to save their own culture and live in peace. Although he was responsible for the anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat, in 2002, Narendra Modi offered his hand to Pakistan, persuaded that the problems between the two countries have been organised and sustained by the colonial powers. In the same way, Rodriguo Dutertre created astonishment by seeking rapprochement with the Chinese enemy.

A few weeks ago, I explained in these columns [1] that the cleavage which divides the United States is not determined either by ethnic loyalties or social class, but by the Puritan ideology. If this explanation is accurate, we should witness an existential struggle of the partisans of this ideology against the Trump administration. Everything that the new President undertakes will be systematically sabotaged. Already, the sporadic demonstrations against the result of election show that the losers have no intention of respecting the rules of democracy.

Rather than thinking about how we might profit from the Trump administration, we should be asking ourselves how we can help him to succeed in liberating his country from its own imperialism, in order to put an end to a unipolar world and the Wolfowitz doctrine - or how we can substitute cooperation for confrontation.

While the US Press speculates on the possible nomination of personalities from the Bush administration to the Trump administration, we should be anticipating the political role that the commercial executives of the Trump Organisation will have to play. They are the only ones he can trust.

We should also take into account General Michael T. Flynn who, although he is a Democrat, was Trumps main advisor on foreign policy and defence during the campaign. A Commander of Military Intelligence, from the first Geneva Conference to the conquest of Iraq by Daesh, he has never stopped opposing President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton, Generals David Petraeus and John Allen, and Jeffrey Feltman, concerning the use of jihadists and terrorism in order to maintain US imperialism. Whether as National Security advisor, director of the CIA, or Secretary of Defense, he will be the best ally for peace in the Levant.
85th Interpol General Assembly

Commissioner of Police Eddie Yome and Chief Inspector Edgar Lopez recently attended the 85th Interpol General Assembly held in Indonesia. Under tight security from several hundred officers, the host nation provided a secure environment for 830 delegates from 164 countries, including countries national police chiefs, to meet for four days under the theme of Identifying and meeting member countries security needs in the face of an ever- changing threat landscape.

Panel discussions were followed by the presentation of Interpols strategies for each of the following key areas:

The threat posed by returning Foreign Terrorist Fighters and the importance of information sharing (eg biometric data), to assist countries in identifying and interdicting these potential threats

The detection, investigation, prevention and prosecution of organised crime groups operating across a range of illicit markets

Addressing the increasing sophistication and diversification of the modus operandi of cyber-criminals

The Interpol General Assembly also endorsed the expansion of Interpols i- Checkit programme, (which checks against Interpols Stolen and Lost Travel Documents (SLTD) database to combat terrorism and transnational crime), to the maritime industry. Interpol also signed several agreements with other security partner organisations to enhance and encourage information exchange. The final day saw delegates elect Chinas Vice Minister of Public Security, Meng Hongwei, as the new President of Interpol, taking over with immediate effect from Mireille Ballestrazzi of France.

Commissioner Yome highlighted how Gibraltars attendance and contribution to Interpol meetings was extremely important for the RGP, stating that the current threat from transnational crime, international terrorism and cybercrime dominating law enforcement agendas worldwide, means that vital policing information from any of INTERPOLs 190 member countries must be securely and swiftly exchanged in order to combat threats effectively.
Carrison? Photo: New York Daily News Archive/Getty Images

Carrie Fisher still knows how to get us all riled up. In her latest memoir, The Princess Diarist (available November 22), the actress revisited her old journals from when she was filming Star Wars, allowing her to recall the time in a decade far, far away when she had a three-month affair with co-star Harrison Ford. Radar has obtained a copy of the book and reports that Fisher writes that she was wine sodden the first time they had sex, which happened after he offered to drive her home. Fisher, who was 19 at the time, said that even though it wasnt a great experience, He was really handsome. Not a lie!

It was so intense, Fisher told People. It was Han and Leia during the week, and Carrie and Harrison during the weekend. The Princess Diarist also includes samples from Fishers late-70s diary entries, which reveal that, like your average teen, she would fantasize that Ford would ask her to marry him and give her a gold band with diamonds (inscribed) Carrison. Fisher writes that she couldnt remember too many details about their relationship, though, because of the brutal strength of Harrisons preferred strain of pot.

Despite all that pot, Fisher still has one or two stories to tell in Peoples published excerpt. She recalls, for instance, the very good kisses: In the taxi, Harrison pulled me back into the seat, moving us closer together until we were two faces, one kiss, going to the place where we would rehearse that kissing we would be doing a year and a half later in The Empire Strikes Back. Check out those kisses in Empire. They did not have to use special effects. And Fisher also is careful to point out that things never got too serious, even if she and Ford joked about it.

Once, at Harrisons apartment, Mark and [crew member] Peter dropped by. It was about eleven in the morning. Clearly I hadnt just dropped by for brunch, as no scones or eggs were in evidence. Harrison took my hand and pronounced solemnly, Were engaged. It was mocking the suggestion that there was anything going on; therefore, it couldnt be true.

Elsewhere, Fisher describes her relationship with Ford as a very long one-night stand, saying that she was relieved when it ended, because she didnt approve of herself. Harrison is a decent  albeit complicated and frequently silent  guy, she concludes. Hes always been decent to me, and as far as I know the only time he cheated on any of his three wives was with me. And maybe he didnt think that counted all that much because of how short I am. Fisher adds that theres still time for Carrison to grow old together, but that gateway is steadily closing. Ford is currently married to Calista Flockhart. He was 34 years old at the time of his affair with Fisher, and married to his first wife, Mary Marquardt, with whom he had two children. They divorced a few years later.
Photo: Allan Tannenbaum/Getty Images

David Mancuso, a DJ who is widely credited for pioneering New Yorks underground party scene in the 197os, died on Monday. He was 72. Mancuso held Manhattans first invitation-only dance party Love Saves the Day on Valentines Day, 1970. Soon, Mancusos regular private club night, the Loft, became a fixture of the nightlife scene  by not selling food or alcohol, he was able to host the large dance parties without a cabaret license. The Loft would go on to inspire a series of private discotheques, which in turn are often credited as serving as the DNA to the parties found in warehouses and loft spaces in major cities today.

As a DJ, Mancuso installed a sound system for the Loft, which was well-known at the time for its exceptional quality. In 1975, Mancuso, Steve DAcquisto, and Vince Aletti created the first record pool, a system that delivered brand-new releases from record companies to the DJs for early exposure in nightclubs. Mancuso was inducted into the Dance Hall of Fame in 2005.

Craig Shifty, Kid Recordings owner, announced the death on Facebook on Monday night. He will be greatly missed, Shifty wrote, but, thankfully, he left the world a lasting vibrant legacy that continues to inspire and influence countless generations of music lovers and clubbers. Read the full post below.
Photo: HBO

As G.R.R.M. reminded us in light of darker times last week, winter is coming. And with it, the sixth season of Game of Thrones, out on DVD and Blu-ray on November 15. To mark the occasion, the behind-the-scenes bonus features are getting their own tour in three events around the country, starting in New York on November 18 and 19. Interactive and virtual-reality displays will demonstrate how the production is put together, and fans will be able to step inside some of the scenes themselves. You can hold the door to save Bran from the White Walkers, stand in for Daenerys as the Temple of the Dosh Khaleen burns down around you, defend Castle Black with virtual weapons, or take Jon Snows position in the Battle of the Bastards.

For a peek at what it might be like, check out this exclusive clip showing how director Miguel Sapochnik, DP Fabian Wagner, camera operator Sean Savage, stunt coordinator Rowley Irlam, and actor Kit Harington staged the battle scene with one long Steadicam shot behind Jon Snow.

Dates for the tour include November 18 and 19 in New York City at Astor Place; November 26 and 27 in Chicago at Grant Park; and December 9 and 10 in Los Angeles at Hollywood and Highland. All events are open from 12:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., with early access granted to the first 20 fans who buy season six before the event and bring it with them. (Register for a fast pass at gotbehindthescenes.com.)
Photo: Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage/Getty Images

When BuzzFeed makes its jump into full-length feature films, its sticking with a subject it knows well: the greatness  and viral storytelling capacity  of BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed and Warner Bros.s Brother Orange, which will chronicle the real-life story of an editor who tracked down his stolen iPhone in China, has cast Big Bang Theorys Jim Parsons in the starring role. Parsons will play editor Matt Stopera, who discovered his stolen iPhone ended up in China after selfies of a man in front of an orange tree appeared on his cloud-shared photostream. A heart-warming, viral tale of international friendship ensued after Stoperas blog post about the incident gained popularity in China, resulting in Stopera organizing a trip to China to meet the man in the photos, Li Hongjun. Now theyre pals and their friendship is getting the Hollywood treatment, because the internet demands it.
Our sixth episode of Timeless takes us on the ride weve been waiting for. Yes, we finally get the knowledge drop on Rittenhouse! In fact, we get pretty much nothing but that sweet, sweet intel, as this weeks field trip to the Watergate era serves mostly as narrative window dressing against which Rittenhouses backstory unfolds.

Lets outline what we now know:

1. The first rule of Rittenhouse is dont talk about Rittenhouse. (Alternate pop-culture reference: Rittenhouse is Voldemort.) Rittenhouse Guy advises Rufus not to say Rittenhouse out loud.

2. Rittenhouses rapport with Mason Industries is pretty comfy. Connor Mason and Rittenhouse Guy are both in that aforementioned limo with Rufus, and while Connor seemed cowed by Rittenhouse in the past, hes not afraid to tell Rittenhouse Guy to quit with the sass when he makes a cavalier comment about Rufuss surveilled brother.

3. Rittenhouse has been around at least since the 1970s, since Rufus is given a number to call while hes in that decade to report on the Scooby Gangs goings-on. (Love that the digits were written old-fashioned-like with the JK5 exchange.)

4. Rittenhouse isnt out to retrieve or expose something, like Flynn is. Rather, its primary purpose seems to be keeping secrets secret. Its important no one hears whats on that tape, Rittenhouse Guy tells Rufus about President Nixons infamous 18 and a half minutes of missing White House audiotape. Not you, not Lucy, not Flynn.

5. Flynn is terrified of Rittenhouse: We cant discuss Rittenhouse here, he tells Wyatt while holding him hostage in that old Lincoln hotel room. (Apparently, Flynn got the memo on the Voldemort thing.) Rittenhouse plays by different rules, do you understand?

6. Ill paraphrase Flynns own words for this last one: Mason Industries successful foray into time travel was quietly bankrolled by Rittenhouse. Four nights after Flynn found out, his wife and daughter were shot dead in their home. Rittenhouse then framed him for those murders, forcing him into a life on the run. (Very A-Team-esque!) Flynns goal is therefore to wipe Rittenhouse from the map.

That last one is what Timeless now hinges on: Who are the real forces of good and the real forces of evil? How long will it take us and the Scooby Gang to be fully convinced of whos bad and whos good? How will alliances form in the wake of those revelations? In my recap of the pilot, I described Timeless as Quantum Leap meets Lost, but now I think another J.J. Abrams show is more apt: Alias, with its double agents carrying out triple-crossing loop-de-loops. Flynn pretty much confirms that loyalties will be realigned when he produces Lucys journal from the future. She is going to write it a few years from now. Its my guide, Flynn says. Apparently, she and I are going to be quite the team one day. Or are they? Lets not forget that tantalizing detail about certain passages in the journal resembling neither Lucys handwriting nor her voice.

Speaking of quite the team, Rufus and Lucy are tasked with pulling off this weeks ticktock: Retrieve that missing Nixon audio within five hours or Wyatt gets it. After paying a visit to Deep Throat (Rufus: I know the porn one), Rufus pieces together that their next clue lies with the Black Liberation Army, which he coincidentally knows a lot about because in college he had a militant crush on a militant girl. He then pulls a switcheroo on Lucy outside BLA HQ, telling her, You should probably wait outside. You should be fine  just dont make any eye contact. If this series lives up to its potential, one day a writer much younger and more erudite than I will craft a terrific dissertation on Timeless and identity politics.

After a cute string of typical Timeless jokes (What you mean, Miller Lite? and Kanye sounds made up), the big twist of the episode arrives: The doc that Flynn seeks and Rittenhouse seeks to destroy isnt a document, its a doc  tor. Specifically, a young African-American woman with a PhD in history (just like Lucy!) who was born into Rittenhouse and had been staying at the Watergate Hotel. She now wants to escape the organizations clutches for good.

So heres our latest piece of intel: Rittenhouse was founded in 1778. You dont join Rittenhouse  like The Doc, youre born into it. The names of members are never written down. Everything about them, as Flynn found, is off the books. And Rittenhouse controls all of us.

The funny part is, even though Rittenhouse has been The Matrix for more than two centuries, theyre as easily tricked as Wile E. Coyote. Rufus and Lucy pull a True Romance by simultaneously sending Flynn and Rittenhouse to The Docs BLA safe house moments after they sneak out, pitting the rivals against one another in a shoot-out. Not to worry, though: All is well when The Doc drives off into the sunset in her BLA-chauffeured lift to freedom.

Or at least, all is well for her. (Lets hope we see more of The Doc in future episodes.) Our Scooby Gang is ultimately torn asunder by trust issues, first by Flynn telling Rufus and Wyatt about the one-on-one conversations hes had over and through time with Lucy, and then by Rufus finally coming clean about his own secret audio recordings. The solution? Rufus is going to be spying on Rittenhouse for us, Wyatt says, to which Rufus replies, Like a double agent? I can barely single agent.

I must admit I find it somewhat implausible that Rufus got away with so much shoddy espionage during this episode, all while under the nose of a seemingly unavoidable Big Brother like Rittenhouse. (Then again, I cant see how The Docs cross-country road trip from D.C. to San Diego would likewise manage to be carried out detection-free.) Rittenhouse Guy himself seems bemused by this strange turn of events when he asks Rufus during his post-Watergate debriefing, What happened that day? Why did Flynn show up at that house? And when Rufus asks how he knows about that stuff, Rittenhouse Guy slyly replies, Who do you think was on the other end of that phone?

But wait, theres more!

In what can only be described as a kickass kicker, Lucy finally musters up the courage to knock on the door of one Benjamin Cahill, a man her mother identified in the previous episode as her real dad. Folks, call me willfully naive  a bit of a Rufus, even  but I am not usually quick on the draw when it comes to guessing plot twists before they happen. But believe you me, I typed the phrase Wanna bet its Rittenhouse Guy? in my notes maybe 15 seconds before he came to the door. Damn!

This, of course, gives credence to The Docs statement that you must be born into Rittenhouse. It also suggests that Lucy will one day, like The Doc, go rogue from it. Maybe shell find out shes in the organization, and then seemingly help to destroy it. That would certainly explain the journal.

I suspect well find out soon enough. In the meantime, Ill keep enjoying the ride. Any show geared toward obliterating the evil forces hell-bent on dominating the United States can count me in.
Anna Kendricks Scrappy Little Nobody.

Anna Kendricks memoir, Scrappy Little Nobody, is pretty misleading, as she hasnt been a nobody for a long time. To be fair, thats a good thing, as the 31-year-old actress has covered a lot of ground in her trajectory from nobody to somebody. The book is a collection of autobiographical essays that cover everything from Kendricks life on Broadway as a young teenager to her glamorous grown-up years on the red carpet. Heres what we learned about Kendricks experiences with money, sex, and Twilight after reading the memoir. We look forward to a whole batch of exciting new stories in Scrappy Slightly Larger Somebody, out sometime around the release of Pitch Perfect 23.

Being a young Broadway star isnt as glamorous as it sounds.

At age 12, Anna Kendrick got a Tony nomination for her supporting role in High Society on Broadway and later went on to appear in A Little Night Music. Despite what you mightve written in your childhood dream journal about having an artistic life in the city, Kendrick insists it wasnt all that exciting. The pay wasnt that great  Kendrick says she went home from High Society with about $250 after the run ended  and she had to spend a lot of time away from her friends at home. When the show closed I was sad but relieved, Kendrick writes. I was ready to go home. Still, maybe because Id seen my family struggle to pay the bills, even while my father was working two jobs, it was disconcerting to be unemployed. Sure, I could go home and go to school and see my friends and family, but at what cost? Was I a twelve-year-old has been?

Im still haunted by this fear, Kendrick adds. It has made me very cautious of feeling comfortable in my careerand turned me into a bit of a workaholic. Perhaps theres an explanation here as to why she was in six movies this year.

She still has no idea what to make of Camp.

The summer before her senior year of high school, Kendrick made her film debut as the scheming Fritzi in 2003s theater-nerd comedy Camp. Though the film went on to success at Sundance and earned Kendrick an Independent Spirit Award nomination, nobody really knew if it was going to work. And it didnt, really, in its theatrical release. Many people who thought they were going to see a musical American Pie were turned off by the homosexuality, cross-dressing, and vintage synthesizers. They were also less forgiving of the uneven quality of the film, she writes. Being in that theater at Sundance was one of the great memories of my career, and maybe my life, so far. But when I met a guy in London the following year who said the movie was boring and weird, I couldnt fault him. And when I met a girl six months ago who told me she named her car and her dog Fritzi, I made a mental note of her distinguishing features in case I had to describe her to the police.

Twilight paid her bills, and an Oscar nomination from Up in the Air didnt change her life that much.

After moving to Los Angeles, Kendrick booked several roles in indie movies, but primarily supported herself with a gig on Twilight. None of the other filmmakers I worked with during those years had ever seen Twilight, she writes, but the series kept me in room and board while I did their movies for no money. It was like the worlds most ridiculous day job. Meanwhile, Kendrick got an Oscar nomination for her work in Up in the Air, which, despite all the visibility it offered her, still didnt pay that well. During the press tour, Kendrick writes, I felt like a fraud! I was being flown around, staying in hotels I could never afford and putting on clothes that someone else picked out. When I went home, I dragged a suitcase full of those items I didnt own across my tar-stained carpet and dumped it out at the foot of my Ikea bed. If nothing else, Kendricks honesty about how franchises offer you financial security makes us support her decision to do as many Pitch Perfect movies as she wants.

Zac Efron could easily be a cult leader.

Anna Kendrick just wants you to know that her Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates co-star Zac Efron could be a cult leader if he wanted. Working with Zac Efron gave me a real-life understanding of how Charlie Manson got all those people to move to a ranch and do his bidding. Hear me out! She writes, later elaborating on his essential magnetism. People are just drawn to this guy. They behave like monkeys around him  You know those movies where some remote culture sees a dude in armor for the first time and mistakes him for a god? Its like that with Zac Efron. Too bad his magic couldnt help the box-office numbers of Neighbors 2.

Anna Kendrick tried to high-five a guy the first time he gave her an orgasm.

In her memoir, Kendrick is very open about her interest in and enjoyment of sex, and includes a few anecdotes about her first experiences with intercourse. For instance: After the first month or so of hooking up with a boyfriend and not orgasming, Kendrick decided to stop masturbating in order to help her experiences with him. When he finally got her to arrive, as she puts it, she decided to tell him: So hey, first time Ive had an orgasm during that whole situation. I raised my hand for a high five. Up top! The guy apparently didnt take the compliment very well, but lets be honest, any form of communication and camaraderie in your sex life should be a good thing.

Kendrick was once really high at the Independent Spirit Awards, but for the least stoner reasons possible.

Thanks to the fact that shes now a successful and well-regarded actress, Kendrick has all sorts of stories from behind the scenes at awards shows. She once saw Drew Barrymore be overwhelmed with emotion after winning a SAG Award. Her co-presenter Stanley Tucci at the same ceremony saw her trying to fix her dress before they walked out, and in the most Tucci moment ever said, Stop adjusting your boobs, you look fine. But the best awards story comes from the time Kendrick had to go to the ER to have a cyst in her nose lanced before the Independent Spirit Awards. After a trip to the hospital, she showed up to the ceremony high as fuck on medications, terrified that she might actually win something for her role in Rocket Science and have to put together a coherent sentence. Cate Blanchett won, Kendrick writes. Of all the amazing contributions that woman has made to the world, beating me that day is the thing Im most thankful for.
* Editor's note: This story has been updated to include additional bills.

State lawmakers began putting their campaign promises on paper Monday morning, as they filed hundreds of bills on the first filing day for the 2017 legislative session.

The proposals face a long road ahead, and only a small minority of them will make it out of committee, survive votes in both Capitol chambers and be signed into law by the governor's pen next year. Heres an early look at some the proposals expected to draw attention when lawmakers reconvene in Austin in January.

Abortion and womens health

Republicans were quick to file several anti-abortion measures on Monday.

House Bill 87 by state Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, would make it illegal for women to have an abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy even if doctors find the fetus has a severe, irreversible abnormality. Currently, state law allows abortions after 20 weeks only when the mothers life is in danger or when a severe fetal abnormality has been detected.

And state Rep. Byron Cook, R-Corsicana, wants Texas health care providers to be required to bury or cremate remains of aborted or miscarried fetuses. He filed House Bill 201, which echoes a recent proposal from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, made at the direction of Gov. Greg Abbott. Cook's bill would penalize health care providers $1,000 for not cremating or burying biological tissue from pregnancy. Medical leaders and reproductive rights activists have vehemently opposed the health commissions proposal, questioning why it doesnt allow exceptions for miscarriages or other pregnancy complications that make a fetus non-viable.

Education and child welfare

House Bill 112 by state Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, would cap the amount of tuition public universities can charge students. Bills in the 2015 session to re-regulate tuition costs were unsuccessful. Universities oppose tuition regulation, in part because state funding now covers a smaller share of their budgets.

State Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, filed Senate Bill 35, which would create universal pre-kindergarten programs for 4-year-olds. It would also expand half-day pre-K to certain eligible 3-year olds. State lawmakers in 2015 approved a smaller grant program to expand pre-K education after Abbott named early education as his top legislative priority, though some pre-K advocates argued that the grants didn't go far enough.

And state Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, filed Senate Bill 77, which makes sexual assault of a parent grounds for terminating the assaulter'sparental rights. Nelson said she filed the bill after being horrified to learn of a female constituent who was raped by her husband but could not have his parental rights removed. No parent should be forced to co-parent with their rapist, and this bill will provide stronger protections for victims of domestic assault, Nelson said in a statement.

State Rep. Tony Dale, R-Cedar Park, filed House Bill 218 to ensure educators who engage in inappropriate relationships with students are reported and charged. Working with the Texas Education Agency, Dale drafted a bill that would expand liability to educators who target students in schools or districts other than their own. It would require principals, not just superintendents or directors, to report inappropriate relationships to the State Board for Educator Certification, or else face criminal charges.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick included this as one of ten priorities to address in the upcoming session. In its last funding request for a two-year budget, TEA included $400,000 to hire three employees for the educator investigations unit, to address a surge in reported incidents.

Senate Bill 160, filed by state Sen. Jose Rodriguez, D-El Paso, is a response to allegations that the Texas Education Agency set an 8.5 percent cap on students receiving special education services. The bill would prevent TEA from implementing arbitrary caps.

Criminal justice

State Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, filed House Bill 64 toabolish the death penalty. Another Dutton proposal, House Bill 158, would require grand jury hearings for police officers to be recorded. In Texas, grand jury proceedings are secret.

State Rep. James White, R-Woodville, filed House Bill 67 to abolish the driver responsibility program, which levies surcharges on drivers for traffic offenses. Lawmakers and criminal justice reformers have compared the unpopular program, which requires drivers convicted of certain traffic offenses, such as speeding and driving while intoxicated, to pay additional annual surcharges on top of any court fines and criminal penalties to maintain their drivers licenses, to an unfair tax on poor Texans. Still, previous attempts to abolish it have fallen short at the Capitol. Revenue from the program provides funding for trauma hospitals across the state.

LGBT matters

State Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, filed a bill that would remove an obsolete, anti-gay law from the books. House Bill 96 would repeal the offense of homosexual conduct from the Texas criminal code. A 2003 U.S. Supreme Court case, Lawrence v. Texas, already struck down the states sodomy law as unconstitutional, meaning the current criminal statute is purely symbolic. Moodys bill would also change the states health and safety code to remove language that homosexuality is not a lifestyle acceptable to the general public.

State Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood, filed Senate Bill 92, which would overturn nondiscrimination ordinances protecting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people that various cities in Texas, including Dallas and Austin, have adopted. Hall's proposal would not allow cities or counties to pass laws barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, or any other basis for legal protections not explicitly mentioned in state law.

Voting issues

House Bill 159, by Dutton, would allow online voter registration. State law currently requires Texans to provide a physical signature on voter registration forms.

And a series of measures proposed by state Sen. Don Huffines, R-Dallas, would impose term limits on elected officials in Texas. Senate Joint Resolutions 10, 12 and 13 would limit terms for state senators and representatives (12 years); elected judges, including those on the Texas Supreme Court (18 years); and local officials (a maximum of 12 years, at the discretion of the local governments). Huffines said the election of Republican Donald Trump, who has no prior political experience, proved that voters were fed up with career politicians. The measures would amend the Texas Constitution and would need voter approval in a statewide election.

Health care

State Rep. Sarah Davis, R-West University Place, filed House Bill 120, which would change the legal language that allows parents to get exemptions from immunization requirements for their children. The proposal would change the allowable vaccine exemption from reasons "of conscience" to "nonmedical" reasons, a nod to the scientific community's consensus that personal objections to vaccines are not rooted in medical science. Activists seeking to guard parents rights to opt out of immunization requirements have mobilized as a political force in Texas, while public health experts widely support the elimination of nonmedical exemptions to immunization requirements.

Meanwhile, Republican opposition to the federal Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, remained robust on the first day of bill filing. Incoming state Sen. Dawn Buckingham, R-Austin, announced she would file a nonbinding resolution urging Congress to repeal the federal health law under the incoming Trump administration.

Transportation

Huffines filed a bill that would put rules governing transportation network companies, including taxi companies and ride-hailing firms, in the hands of the state. Senate Bill 113 comes after Austin voters this year elected to keep regulations that led Uber and Lyft, two app-based transportation network companies, to leave the states capital.

State Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, filed Senate Bill 176, which lays out specific, statewide regulations for the companies. His proposal would require national background checks for drivers and require that users be able to request wheelchair-accessible rides.

And, for the fourth session in a row, state Rep. Tom Craddick, R-Midland, filed House Bill 62 to create a statewide traffic violation for using a smartphone while driving. Similar texting-while-driving bans have routinely failed at the Capitol, including once being vetoed by former Gov. Rick Perry in 2011. In a statement, Craddick said distracted driving was an epidemic in Texas and that his bill would address this life-threatening habit. Zaffirini filed a similar ban, Senate Bill 31, in the upper chamber.

Food and agriculture

State Rep. Dan Flynn, R-Canton, filed House Bill 57, which would allow licensed farmers to sell raw or unpasteurized milk in their homes, at their place of business or at a farmers market. The proposal  which builds on similar legislation from 2015  would not allow the sale of raw milk in supermarkets. Flynn also filed House Bill 95, a proposal to remove Texas from daylight saving time.

State Rep. Eddie Lucio III, D-Brownsville, filed House Bill 164, which would create a statewide fund to subsidize the construction and renovation of grocery stores in food deserts in poor and moderate-income neighborhoods. The Texas Grocery Access Investment Fund would be funded through federal, state and private grants and loans as well as any funds appropriated by the Legislature.

Brandon Formby and Aliyya Swaby contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2016/11/14/bill-filing-day-texas-capitol-revives-old-controve/.
An Austin couple who launched Lets Gel 12 years ago in their home are watching the business of making gel-filled floor mats grow by leaps and bounds, with their Waco manufacturing plant making products for Wal-Mart stores, manufacturing assembly lines, medical facilities and home kitchens.

Were the largest maker of operating room mats in the world, said Robb McMahan, who founded the company with his wife, Lisa.

They are spending $1.5 million to add a fourth foaming line, increase printing capacity and build a 12,000-square-foot warehouse at their facility at 510 Precision Drive.

Lets Gel produces mats under the GelPro name, ranging in length from a few feet for the home to nearly unlimited footage for industry. The expansion gives Lets Gel the flexibility to develop new products, including a wider and longer GelPro Classic and a 9-foot GelPro Elite for large entertaining kitchens.

Mats at the low end sell for $25 at Wal-Mart, and the longer ones can fetch $4,000 to $5,000 apiece, and they feel awfully good to those standing on a production line all day, said Robb McMahan, 48, a Kentucky native who moved to Austin in 1992 and worked for computer giant Dell Inc. designing notebook computers.

He later chose to apply his expertise in engineering to starting his own business. He had a handful of helpers who joined him in pursuing his dream, watching it grow from a line for cooks to others for industrial settings and the medical field, including radiologists, pharmacists and surgeons.

4 patents secured

All the while, the McMahans have secured four utility patents for the design of their mats and have six requests for others pending.

The gel itself is proprietary, and I also use a high-end polyurethane foam, said Robb McMahan, whose gel products for the home feature coverings in an array of colors and designs. My mats may not be quite as cheap as those from China, but they are made with better processes and better technology.

And 90 percent are made in Waco, with the balance coming from a facility in Detroit, he said. The company employs 105 people between Waco and the corporate headquarters in Austin, where all sales, marketing and financial functions take place, he said. Nearly 80 work in Waco, which Robb McMahan said he visits at least twice a week.

When we first bought the Waco plant in April 2015, Lisa and I drove up in our Airstream and lived next to it for six months, he said with a laugh.

Now the company is expanding, having sold more than 2.5 million mats through retailers such as Wal-Mart, Bed Bath & Beyond, Target.com, Staples.com and Amazon. It advertises the mats in lifestyle, cooking and home-furnishings periodicals, among them Bon Appetit, Architectural Digest, Southern Living and Rachel Ray Every Day.

We have spent more than $25 million on print advertising, and we do a lot of online marketing and advertising on social media, said Lisa McMahan. We started out in 740 Wal-Mart stores, but were in 3,200 now and will expand into 3,800 in the February or March time frame, and those are just residential mats.

In-house production

Everything related to GelPro production is carried out in-house, Robb McMahan said, and the company does not contract out any phase of the process.

We have a plant full of manufacturing molds to accommodate more styles and sizes than any competitor. We have our own machinist on staff, and weve created a machining center, he said. Wacos great for that, has a tremendous talent base of people who have a machining, welding and manufacturing skill set.

The company has had very little trouble finding extremely skilled employees, and we look forward to hiring more folks over the next 12 months as business grows, he said. We anticipate increasing sales by 25 percent next year, and it stands to reason we will grow the work force by a similar percentage.

Production employees at Lets Gel start at $12 an hour, with the company spending $300,000 to provide health, dental and vision benefits.

Besides those who work on production lines, Lets Gel employs personnel for a computer-controlled machinery center that features equipment that allows us to cut metal up to 84 inches long in three dimensions, Robb McMahan said. Thats a pretty cool piece of equipment that cost us $200,000.

Robb McMahan said he and his wife own the company, but the plant is run by folks there in Waco, namely plant president Tom Kaylor. McMahan said the company is very much a family affair, with Tom Kaylors sons, Wesley and Thomas Kaylor, also employed there. He said children of staffers often serve as interns.

He said he and his wife are empty nesters, and they have talked about moving to Waco, in part to avoid having to travel construction-clogged Interstate 35.

Moving will depend on the situation, he said. I have such a good management team that it is not necessary to relocate. I basically design and invest in products, oversee operations, sales and finance, while Tom oversees the manufacturing side of the business. But we will continue looking at Waco.

Giveaway campaign

Lisa McMahan said the company engages in random acts of comfort, in that it has begun a campaign to give away 250 mats valued at $30,000.

Founders Robb and Lisa McMahan want to say thank you to some of their longtime customers, and they want to recognize people who spend a lot of time on their feet helping others, said Denise Clarke, a spokeswoman for the couple, in a prepared release.

The campaign began after the couple received a request from a woman in Marietta, Georgia, asking if they would consider gifting a GelPro mat to a friend of hers who spends the majority of her time on her feet canning fruits and vegetables for those in need.

Lisa McMahan said the company also gives members of the military, teachers and first responders a 25 percent discount on products year-round.

She said those wanting to nominate someone to receive free mats are encouraged to visit the company website at www.gelpro.com.

To better health

Not only do GelPro products reduce wear and tear on the feet, Robb McMahan said, they contribute to better health overall and fight fatigue.

We actually shrink during the day. Youre an inch shorter when you go to bed than when you got up, he said. But using our product contributes to joint flexibility and less spinal compression. Its ergonomic and extremely beneficial to your health, which is why were growing in nearly every business area we serve.

That includes the medical field, he said, noting that GelPro mats have become popular with doctors, pharmacists, surgeons and radiologists.
McLennan County commissioners will start accepting applications next month to fill retiring County Court-at-Law Judge Mike Freemans position.

Freeman, 71, announced in August he would retire midterm but has not submitted a letter of resignation or retirement to McLennan County Judge Scott Felton.

Freeman said Tuesday he will submit his letter in late January and retire Jan. 31.

Felton addressed Freemans retirement Tuesday morning at the commissioners meeting, saying the court will accept applications for the position Dec. 1-15 before narrowing the field and interviewing finalists.

Freeman, a former prosecutor who has been a judge for 10 years, will have about two years left on his four-year term. It is up to the commissioners to appoint a replacement.

So far, seven attorneys have said they will seek the position, and two more said they are contemplating seeking the appointment. The seven are Jason P. Darling, Vik Deivanayagam, Christi Hunting Horse, Landon Ramsay, Edward Vallejo, Gerald Villarrial and Doyle Young.

Wes Lloyd and James Rainey said Tuesday they are considering their options.

The judges position pays $157,000 a year. To be eligible for the position, applicants must be at least 25 years old, have been a licensed attorney for four years, and have been a U.S. citizen and a county resident for at least two years before the appointment.

Freeman, who has three grown children and seven grandchildren, served as an elected county attorney in Nebraska from 1976 to 1991 and was an assistant county attorney for three years before that. He moved to Waco in March 1992 and went to work for then-District Attorney John Segrest as one of his top felony prosecutors.

Freeman prosecuted capital murder defendants Kenneth McDuff, Gerald Tigner, Carroll Joe Parr and Michael Dewayne Johnson. All were executed with the exception of Johnson, who killed himself in prison on the eve of his execution.
What a week! As the Presbyterian said after he fell down the stairs: Thank God thats over! Or as Jimmy Carter said: Americans get the leaders they deserve. But Hakuna Matata, America. We need to take a long-range view of matters. I remember a Chinese leader saying recently, Our nation is at a critical turning point; the next 300 years will be critical.

Remember, the Trump presidency will only be 1,445 days  or double that! We can only hope the next four (or eight) years do not feel like Chicagos last 108.

In this uncertain age of globalization, were now experiencing a political 9/11  a seismic whitelash  by people suddenly feeling homeless in their own country. Twenty-seven percent of all Americans voted for Donald Trump (less than voted for Romney in 2012)  just enough in a nation where half of us did not bother to vote at all. Supporters of the Party of Lincoln overlooked all of Trumps baggage  including countless indecencies  because they were fed up with Queen Hillary Clintons condescending arrogance toward them  the deplorables. Many reportedly felt their country was being stolen from them by invading armies of different skin colors and different faiths.

In Wisconsin  a state Hillary never once bothered to visit during her general election campaign  folks are losing or have lost their jobs to robots and are tired of decades of empty political promises. My people, those of the Rust Belt, have been left behind as Americas meritocracy has worked all too well, sweeping them to the curb.

Donald Trump sees himself a winner and last week he won bigly! But what does winning entail post-election? Politics is win-lose but good governance should be win-win. Last week weve seen protesters in more than 35 cities and even on the Baylor University campus express fears about the campaigns white supremacist rhetoric to make America White again. Imagine if even half of these protesters had in preceding weeks channeled their energies into voter turnout initiatives instead of spending this past week marching and lamenting.

That said, now is an ideal moment for the president-elect to speak to those anxieties by calling on all Americans to disavow all forms of xenophobia, racism and sexism.

Even though our democracy is relatively young (only 240 years!), its also resilient. One Chinese proverb reminds us: Whos to say whats good or bad? Hopefully, those in the loyal opposition will pray for and support the incoming administration while defending the continued majesty of E Pluribus Unum. Hopefully, instead of being blanket obstructionists, Democrats will take principled stands to oppose any threats to vital climate-change legislation; attempts to eliminate health insurance for those with pre-existing conditions; and attempts to deport Dreamers and family members of existing American citizens. Hopefully, Congress will support President-elect Trumps stated goals of launching a massive, $3 trillion infrastructure program to put thousands of Americans to work while attacking urban blight and rebuilding our crumbling schools and airports. Hopefully, our new president  in the spirit of Ronald Reagan  will pursue a policy of detente toward Russia instead of recent reckless policies which have unnecessarily raised the threat of war with Russia.

This is not our grandmothers world and we are midstream in an era of exponential change. All of us must respectfully listen and engage one another. We can be optimistic because this country  at the local, grassroots level  is as strong as all of the awesome folks around us. Weve faced much tougher times than this, so now its time to buckle up and keep our powder dry!

A. Christian van Gorder, associate professor of religion at Baylor University, worked for four years for a Dutch human-rights organization serving persecuted Christians called Open Doors International.
Election fallout

Ray Lanfords Saturday guest column pretty much hit the nail on the head: The ball is in the Republicans court. Some of the things President- elect Donald Trump promised are going to be very difficult and controversial. But Mr. Lanford omitted one promise Trump has made that will have a lasting impact.

If the United States abrogates agreements on climate change, we make a huge mistake. The science is clear that the climate is already changing and mans gas emissions of methane, CO2 and other compounds are the cause. Among other evidence, we are seeing Arctic ice has retreated 40 percent since NASA satellites started taking pictures in 1979. This change is altering weather patterns throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Glaciers are melting very fast on all the continents with sea level rising and the oceans have become 30 percent more acidic due to absorbing CO2. Each year is warmer than the previous one  and a warmer atmosphere holds more water vapor.

Flooding, partly as a result of more atmospheric water, has devastated much of Baton Rouge and Houston this year. And massive floods occurred in Europe and Asia as well in unprecedented ways. Droughts are also becoming very severe in many areas of the mid-latitudes, causing massive population migrations out of Africa into Europe.

If Trump pulls the United States out of the Paris agreement and rolls back domestic programs, other nations are free to follow. And this would be a huge step backward that will put him in the history books as a traitor to the human race.

Dave Morrow, Waco

n n n

I write to express grave concerns about President-elect Donald Trumps fitness for the office, particularly in light of his ties to Russia, a foreign interest openly hostile to the United States:

Russia interfering in the U.S. election through espionage and then leaking the results of that espionage to discredit one of our two presidential nominees.

Trump explicitly encouraging Russia to commit further espionage, which borders on treason.

Trumps financial ties to Russia and Russian oligarchs.

While I am aware that the Tribune-Herald did not endorse Trump or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for president, I hope that you will join me now in urging Texas Republican electors to exercise their right to become a faithless elector and either vote for Clinton or abstain from voting for either candidate, in order to secure the safety of the United States and the world.

Stacey Bowers, Buffalo, New York

n n n

This letter was written in regard to the president-elect, all politicians, pundits and people who, when asked about the election results, quickly reply with: The people have spoken.

Truer words have never been spoken. According to my math, Hillary won by 781,118 votes. Yes, indeed, the people have spoken.

Darrell Fisher, Riesel
A Messerschmitt BF109G-2 and a de Havilland Tiger Moth II, are the first of six new aircraft to arrive at the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford, having been transported by road from the museums sister site in London. Visitors can now view the brand new arrivals on display in the museums hangars with four more aircraft due to arrive before Christmas.

The Messerschmitt BF109G-2, designed by Willi Messerschmitt, is a legend alongside the British Spitfire, American P51 Mustang and the Japanese Zero. First flown in 1935, the Bf109 was obsolescent by the second half of World War Two yet it remained the backbone of the German Air Forces day fighter force and was flown by many of her allies. In production right up to the end of hostilities, more than 33,000 were built second only to the Russian Sturmovik as the most prolific military design, and post-war versions served with the Czech, Israeli and Spanish Air Forces, the latter until the mid-1960s  with Rolls Royce Merlin engines. Compact, rugged, fast and heavily armed the Bf109 has the distinction of being flown by the highest-scoring fighter aces in history. With the promised availability of the new Daimler-Benz DB 605A German built engine, design work began on the Bf109G series where higher speeds were obtained, but manoeuvrability and handling were adversely affected. The Bf109G series will be forever linked with the daylight bomber-killing missions in defence of the Reich. German fighter pilots found themselves facing heavily armed American B17 Fortress and B24 Liberator bombers and later long range P38 Lightning, P47 Thunderbolt and P51 Mustang fighters. Ground down by the overwhelming odds, few survived the war.

The museums rare example was disassemble by the museums team of Aircraft Technicians and Apprentices in London and transported on a low loader lorry along the M1, M6 and M54 before being reassembled in its new display hangar at Cosford. Members of the public can now view the aircraft in the museums War in the Air hangar alongside fellow German fighter the Focke Wulf Fw190, facing their British equivalents the Supermarine Spitfire 1 and Hawker Hurricane IIc.

The second of the two new arrivals is the 1930s bi-plane the de Havilliand Tiger Moth II, originally produced as a development of the well-known Gipsy Moth. The Tiger Moth went on to become one of the worlds most famous training aircraft and provided the majority of RAF pilots with their elementary flying training during the Second World War. In the aftermath of the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940, almost any anti-invasion idea was considered and three extraordinary Tiger Moth conversions were put forward. Some were fitted with light bomb racks ready to undertake the bombing of enemy troops attempting a landing, whilst others were fitted with a tank in the front cockpit with powder dispensers located under the wings intended to dust the German troops with a poisonous insecticide as they waded ashore. A more revolutionary idea was the paraslasher; a scythe-like blade fitted to the aircraft and intended to cut parachutists canopies as they descended to earth. Fortunately none of these ideas had to be used, leaving Elementary Flying Training Schools to their vital role of pilot training.

The Tiger Moth was eventually succeeded and replaced by the de Havilland Chipmunk in the early 1950s and both aircraft can now be viewed alongside each other in Hangar 1 at Cosford, positioned next to the Scottish Aviation Bulldog T Mk 1, a further progression in training aircraft. The Tiger Moth also travelled by road to Cosford, alongside the Bf109 .

Other aircraft still to wing their way to Cosford before Christmas include the Wolverhampton built Boulton Paul Defiant M1, Junkers Ju 88R-1, Gloster Gladiator 1 and the Westland Lysander III. Work is already underway at the museums London site to prepare the aircraft for transportation by road to Cosford. Visitors will be able to see all of the new aircraft fully reassembled and in their new display positions by early 2017, with the exception of the Lysander which will spend a short period in the museums Conservation Centre before eventually going on display.

RAF Museum Cosford Curator, Al McLean said:This will be the first time that we have been able to display a Bf 109 in the War in the Air hangar at Cosford and appropriately it will be seen confronting a Hurricane and a Spitfire. The new aircraft arrivals will enable the RAFs story to be more comprehensively represented to museum audiences in Shropshire, as the museum prepares to celebrate and commemorate the centenary of the Royal Air Force in 2018. Whilst there are major transformations planned for the museums London site, some exciting additions for Cosford will include exploring the first 100 years of the RAF, the role it plays today and its future contributions, as well as sharing the story online with a global audience.
Retail giant Amazon is expected to use the changes to the goods and services tax, slated for July 2017, as the catalyst for the start of its physical entry into Australia, according to analysts.

But it will take its time to enter to ensure it gets the model correct from the outset and will focus on grabbing market share from rival eBay.

In the May budget, the federal Government confirmed that from July 1, 2017, the GST would be applied to low-value imports of goods by Australian consumers.

It is designed to boost the competitiveness of domestic suppliers who incur GST on sales of low-value goods within Australia.
Universities will be forced to come clean to prospective students about the real ATAR cut-offs for their courses, following recommendations to the Turnbull government from the nation's top higher education panel.

The Higher Education Standards Panel, in its final report on improving the transparency of higher education admissions, calls for universities to be required to publish much more information about how students are admitted into courses.

The review was commissioned after Fairfax Media revealed that up to 60 per cent of students at some universities were being admitted below the advertised minimum ATAR requirements.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham has said the bonus point system  which helps students who study certain subjects or suffer disadvantage enter university  is as "opaque as a double-frosted window".
It was indeed a marvellous night for a moon dance, with clear skies giving lucky Perth stargazers the best view in the country of Monday's astronomical supermoon wonder.

While cloud cover and scattered showers left many interstate a little dim, thousands of residents across Perth gathered outside their homes and at vantage points like Kings Park to witness the biggest and brightest moon we have seen in 68 years.

The rare phenomenon made many an amateur photographer professional, as evidenced by several stunning images readers sent WAtoday.

While most were impressed with Monday's rare rising, more eager moonwatchers posting online afterwards were not as impressed.
Johannesburg: The body of Australian woman Elly Warren has been released after an autopsy was carried out in Mozambique and is expected to be taken to Johannesburg before being flown home to Melbourne this week.

Ms Warren was found dead outside a public toilet block on Tofo Beach, a popular tourist and diving spot off Africa's south-east coast, on Wednesday.

She had just finished a stint as a volunteer with eco-education company Africa Underwater, diving alongside marine scientists.

Mystery surrounds the 20-year-old's death, with information given to the family indicating she was raped and murdered while local police told Fairfax Media their initial investigations did not point to foul play.
Australian Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been interviewed by Swedish prosecutors who finally agreed to attend the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Our Europe Correspondent Nick Miller was there to bring us the latest on the alleged rape case and on Assange's limelight-loving cat.

Also in London, a court is hearing the case of the man accused of murdering British MP Jo Cox - Cox was killed in the lead up to the Brexit referendum and the court heard her murder may have been politically motivated.

Wikicat: A cat looks out of the window of the Embassy of Ecuador as Swedish prosecutors question Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on Monday. Credit:Getty Images

The latest on the NZ earthquake is here. More than 800 aftershocks have been recorded since a magnitude 7.5 quake hit the South Island just after midnight on Monday morning.

There is much more, of course, on the next steps for US President-elect Donald Trump and his advisers, with our Chief Correspondent Paul McGeough this morning writing on the backlash of Trump's appointment of alt-right poster boy Steve Bannon as his chief strategist.
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Ballot proposal asks Kentucky voters whether there's a right to an abortion
By West Kentucky Star Staff Nov. 14, 2016 | 07:01 PM | PADUCAH, KY

A Paducah man has been arrested after law enforcement got a lead in a hit-and-run investigation from last month.The accident happened on October 21, and the McCracken County Sheriff's Department said the victim reported she was on Benton Road when someone in a white pickup truck ran a stop sign at Valley Street and hit her vehicle, then drove away.About 7:30 am Monday, Sheriff's detectives saw a truck that fit the description of the one from the report, and pulled it over near the intersection of I-24 and Husband Road. Based on the condition of the vehicle and evidence from the scene of the original collision, detectives believed this was the vehicle that was involved, and interviewed the driver, 39-year-old Justin Peck of Reidland.Detectives say Peck initially denied knowing anything about the incident, but later confessed to being the driver of the truck during the collision. Peck reportedly told detectives he left the scene because he was scared and didn't know what to do.According to detectives, Peck told them at the Sheriff's Department that he had a meth problem, and said he had meth and paraphernalia in his truck. He reportedly allowed a search of his truck, and those items were seized, along with software and checks that appeared to be counterfeit. Peck allegedly told detectives he had been forging checks and cashing them in the area.Peck was arrested on charges of possession of a forged instrument, possession of a controlled substance, and possession of drug paraphernalia. The investigation is ongoing and additional charges are likely.

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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Nov. 14, 2016 | PADUCAH, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Nov. 14, 2016 | 06:20 PM | PADUCAH, KY

Police are asking for help with investigations into two vape shop break-ins on Monday that may be related.



A Paducah Police Detective says two men threw a cinder block through a glass door at Chuckin' Clouds on Old Mayfield Road about 12:45 am and broke the front door at Kickin' Ash on Lone Oak Road at 1:20 am. At both locations, vaping devices were stolen, and property and inventory were damaged.



Police say it appears that the same two men committed the crimes. They say a surveillance photo at Chuckin' Clouds shows one of the men, and a camera outside Kickin' Ash shows a glimpse of a dark-colored SUV the men were allegedly driving.



Anyone with information into these crimes is asked to call Paducah Police at 270-444-8550 or call CrimeStoppers at 270-443-TELL. Tipsters also may access the online tip form through the City of Paducah website at http://paducahky.gov/west-ky-crimestoppers. Information leading to an arrest or indictment may result in a reward of up to $1,000.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Nov. 14, 2016 | 04:25 PM | LA CENTER, KY





Earl Gidcumb, a 91-year-old veteran of World War II, was the featured speaker at the annual Veterans Day program at Ballard Memorial High School on Friday. The BMHS band and elementary, middle and high school choirs performed, and high school students took part in a candle lighting ceremony honoring Ballard Countys war dead.Gidcumb kept his speaking engagement, even though he was on leave from a local hospital after having broken a pelvic bone just last week. He told students he graduated from high school in May 1943, and was sworn into the U.S. Navy two days later. He completed basic training in Chicago at Great Lakes Naval Training Station and boarded the U.S. Navy ship LST 218, headed from New Orleans to Pearl Harbor.At the end of October 1943, Gidcumb boarded the USS Indianapolis, where he served until September 1944. The then-teenager told the audience that he had earned five Battle Stars within six months of his high-school graduation. The USS Indianapolis was sunk on July 30, 1945. The circumstances of that sinking, and the numerous shark attacks that reduced the original 900 survivors to 317, were immortalized in the movie Jaws.While on the USS Bottineau in December 1944, Gidcumb earned another Battle Star for an encounter with a Japanese suicide plane in Okinawa Bay - the same plane that later sunk the USS New Mexico. Gidcumb was discharged from the Navy in February 1946. He is best known now for playing Taps at numerous local military services and events.Visitors and passers-by were greeted with an expanded set of American flags on display in front of the buildings, next to U.S. Highway 60. Ballard County Career and Technical Center welding teacher Kevin Chatelliers fifth- and sixth-hour classes built and set the group of new temporary poles, with help from the districts maintenance staff. Flags were donated by Woodmen of the World and local agent Earl Wayne Davis.BMHS Principal Leslee Davis said she hoped to set up the display every year on Veterans and Memorial days.Cutlines:Earl Gidcumb tips his hat to the crowd at the annual Veterans Day program at Ballard Memorial High School. The 91-year-old World War II veteran received a standing ovation after his speech, made from a wheel chair because he had broken a pelvic bone earlier in the week.BMHS students take part in the annual candle-lighting ceremony that honors Ballard Countys war dead.These 20 temporary flag poles were built and set by members of two Ballard County Career and Technical Center welding classes, with help from the districts maintenance department. The flags were donated by Woodmen of the World and local agent Earl Wayne Davis.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Oct. 31, 2016 | SMITHLAND, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Oct. 31, 2016 | 05:16 PM | SMITHLAND, KY

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) has scheduled a public information meeting to share the selected alignment for replacement of the U.S. 60 Cumberland River "Smithland" Bridge.



KYTC District 1 Chief Engineer Mike McGregor urged anyone having an interest in the project to attend.



"We'll have displays available to illustrate the design for reconstruction of the Smithland Bridge available for public review and comment," McGregor said. "This meeting will offer the public an opportunity to discuss the project with our engineering and design staff, as well as with consulting engineers from Stantec."



The meeting runs from 5 - 7 pm on Tuesday, Nov. 15, at the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's Smithland Office at 811 U.S. 60 East. The office is just east of the bridge and east of the Livingston County Fairgrounds entrance.



McGregor noted that participants can provide both written and oral comments during the meeting. Comment sheets will be distributed, and a court stenographer will be available for those who want to make a written or oral statement.



While McGregor encourages attendance at the meeting, citizens who can't attend may submit comments in writing before Nov. 30. They should be addressed to Chris Kuntz, Project Development Branch Manager, Department of Highways District 1 Office, 5501 Kentucky Dam Road, Paducah, Kentucky 42003.



Displays and other materials presented at the public meeting will be available for review at the KYTC District 1 office in Paducah until Nov. 30. Office hours for the District 1 office are Monday through Friday, 7:00 am to 3:30 pm. Comments may also be provided at the time of the visit.



In compliance with Executive Order 12898, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is seeking to engage low-income and minority populations that may be present in the project area. This engagement would facilitate the identification of all potential impacts to the underserved populations and the development of a range of minimization and mitigation measures that would serve to offset potential effects.



In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, anyone with a disability for which the Transportation Cabinet needs to provide accommodations at the public meeting should provide notification of requirements by Nov. 10. This request does not have to be in writing. Please contact Chris Kuntz at the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet District 1 address above or call (270) 898-2431 for further information.



The existing U.S. 60 Cumberland River bridge at Smithland, also known as the Lucy Jefferson Lewis Memorial Bridge and the Smithland Bridge, is at U.S. 60 Livingston County mile point 12.348. The 1,817 ft. through truss structure was opened to traffic in 1931. About 5,100 vehicles cross the bridge in an average day.




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This article was published 15/11/2016 (2178 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MINNEAPOLIS  Dr. Ilo Leppik has dedicated his career to searching for ways to improve treatment for seizures that afflict those with epilepsy.

My passion is to find a better treatment for this condition, the physician and University of Minnesota pharmacy professor says of his patients debilitating  and, in some cases, life-threatening  uncontrolled seizures.

In his quest, he has come to believe in the healing power of cannabis for epilepsy, and has played a key role in getting Minnesotas medical marijuana law passed in 2014. Several of his patients now regularly take a cannabis pill to manage their symptoms related to epilepsy.

photos by Leila Navidi / Minneapolis Star Tribune Files Dawn Swanson and her dog, CJ, are both epileptic. Minnesota epilepsy expert Dr. Ilo Leppik, holding a model of the human brain, believes epileptic dogs, just like humans, can be helped with cannabis treatments.

But lately, Leppik has turned his attention to another kind of patient: the furry, four-legged kind.

Dogs have higher rates of epilepsy than humans do and Leppik believes a cannabis pill could do for canines what its done for humans.

He is pushing to amend Minnesotas medical marijuana law to allow veterinarians to prescribe the treatment for animals.

It could be available to dogs in the same way it is available to humans, he says.

Not only could expanding the law help dogs, but it might also help humans, he argues. The change would open the door for researchers like Leppik to test the effects of cannabis on dogs with epilepsy, which could eventually help lead to a breakthrough for humans.

Legalizing medical marijuana for pets is a novel idea.

So far, half the states have made it legal for people to use marijuana for medical reasons.

Four states and Washington, D.C., have gone a step further, legalizing marijuana for recreational purposes. But no state allows pet doctors to prescribe or recommend marijuana use for animals, Leppik says.

Meanwhile, federal law still views marijuana as a drug with no medicinal value and outlaws it under any condition. However, doctors in states with medical marijuana laws are free to prescribe it to qualifying patients without fear of prosecution.

In veterinary circles, there is widespread discomfort with the idea of giving pot to pets.

I wouldnt rule out the possibility that it could help, says Dr. Tim Krienke, of Rice Pet Clinic & Hospital in St. Paul, Minn. Were starting to see more collaboration between veterinary medicine and medical doctors because there are a lot of things that are so close. Itll be interesting to see how it unfolds, but I think most of us would be leery.

Dr. Ahna Brutlag sees potential benefits for pets, but is also hesitant.

Brutlag, a veterinary toxicologist with the Bloomington-based Pet Poison Helpline, has seen what happens when pets get into their owners pot brownies and devour the whole pan.

Over the past six years, as more states have legalized marijuana, weve had a 448 per cent increase in cases of pets overdosing on marijuana-based products, she says.

Animals that overindulge on pot cookies and other medibles show the classic signs of a person who is high.

They kind of look like a person whos stoned  wobbly and unsteady on their legs, a glassy and dazed expression, Brutlag says. Those are the milder signs.

As amusing as that might sound, too much marijuana in their systems can lead to serious health problems. An overdose can trigger tremors and seizures, Brutlag says. It can even cause the animals heart rate and blood pressure to drop to dangerous levels.

photos by Leila Navidi/ Minneapolis Star Tribune Dr. Ilo Leppik holds a model of the brain in his office in St. Louis Park, Minn. Leppik, an expert on epilepsy, is pushing for an amendment to the Minnesota cannabis law that would allow vets to prescribe cannabis as a treatment for medical ailments in dogs.

She says research needs to be done to determine what, if any, benefits for pet ailments can be found in cannabis and which of the many chemicals from the plant are effective and not harmful to animals.

The biggest question will be finding the right dose  finding a dose thats effective but not so high that it compromises the animals health, she says.

Count Dawn Swanson among the believers in the healing power of cannabis. She used to suffer repeated, uncontrolled seizures a few years ago. They were so bad that they kept her up at night.

She tried 20 different medications to manage her muscle spasms and severe pain, but nothing worked. Finally, she started seeing Leppik and he determined she was a good candidate for medicinal marijuana to treat her symptoms.

Today, she takes a cannabis pill three times a day and has been seizure-free for a year.

The cannabis takes the edge off her pain, too, she says.

On a scale of 1 to 10, my best day is a 6, she says, noting that before she started taking cannabis her pain level was often at an 8.

Before, because of my pain, I could only sleep two hours a night. With the medicinal marijuana, I sleep an average of six hours a night, she says. It changes your life to be able to sleep.

Watching her dog, CJ  who has epilepsy  struggle is painful for Swanson.

He will have a seizure. Hell start shaking. Hell zone out, she says. You can tell at first he knows its coming on  he wants to crawl on my lap. He gets really rigid  like a human would.

CJ takes medicine prescribed by his vet. It helps, but there are side effects. Swanson says shed consider giving him a dose of cannabis if it becomes legal.

Would I rather him take medication thats more natural than the ones hes taking right now? Sure, why not? she says. Personally, after everything Ive been through, I cant see a reason why they shouldnt open it up to more things.

 Minneapolis Star Tribune
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This article was published 15/11/2016 (2178 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Details emerged Tuesday about allegations of corruption against a police officer who died before he could face criminal charges in court.

A 10-year friendship with the officer resulted in jail time for Bradley Gordon Laing of Beausejour, who admitted to pawning stolen police evidence for a gold-selling scheme with Const. Trent Milan, who was an 18-year member of the Winnipeg Police Service.

Laing, 30, was sentenced Tuesday and has 36 days left to serve after he pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of property obtained by crime. He admitted to pawning two necklaces he knew Milan had stolen. The custom-made jewelry had been seized by police executing drug warrants.

FACEBOOK PHOTO Bradley Laing

Thats the unfortunate thing is that you were certainly, as I say, an individual that was convenient at the time. You were a friend of his, you obviously would have been well aware of where he was at, what he was doing. But for you, it met a need  you needed the money and he (Milan) needed to get rid of these items, Provincial court Judge Kelly Moar told Laing during sentencing.

I dont think that the court is in a position to punish you for the actions of Const. Milan. The courts here in order to deal with what youve accepted responsibility for, and that is the fact that you willingly pawned items that you could see had significant value.

At the time of his death in a car crash on Oct. 3, Milan, 42, was accused of stealing police evidence  including illegal drugs and weapons officers had seized. Milan faced 34 charges, including breach of trust, theft over $5,000, possession of dangerous weapons and possession of various drugs for the purpose of trafficking.

About two weeks after WPS held a news conference to announce the charges against one of its own in what then-Deputy Chief Danny Smyth called a dark chapter for the Winnipeg Police Service, Milan swerved his black pickup into the path of an oncoming truck outside city limits and was pronounced dead on scene.

Jewelry originally seized from suspected drug dealer

Milan never had his day in court, but Laings case sheds light on allegations Milan was facing. The offences Laing admitted to stem from an arrangement he had with Milan to sell stolen gold and split the money. Laing was caught after he pawned two expensive, custom-made gold and diamond necklaces in 2013 that police had seized during drug-trafficking investigations. Milan is alleged to have stolen the jewelry from police evidence and later asked Laing to sell them for him. In total, Laing pocketed $3,500 for the two necklaces, which he pawned for more than $5,000 each.

The police service became suspicious after a unique piece of jewelry seized from a suspected drug dealer at the Marlborough Hotel in March 2010 went missing and couldnt be returned to him even after the charges against him were eventually stayed. The bag of jewelry had been in a locked drawer accessible only by certain WPS members, including Milan.

But at the time, Crown attorney Jim Ross said, he (Milan) certainly wasnt the only person with opportunity, and the case went no further.

Milan became a prime suspect later on when another officer reported Milan had shown him a large gold necklace that looked like one that had gone missing  a gold pendant with a diamond-studded dollar sign.

Meanwhile, the suspected drug dealer whod had the charges of possession of proceeds of crime dropped against him later sued the City of Winnipeg over his stolen property. In a civil claim settled in June 2013, the city paid the man $33,000 in damages.

Milan and Laing were charged in September after police searched Milans home in Oakbank. Laing gave police a full confession when he was arrested Sept. 12, court heard. At the time of his arrest, he and Milan hadnt spoken in a couple of years. Milan had become paranoid and refused to do any more business with Laing, his lawyer said.

It may be fair to say in some ways that Milan used him, but Laing was not a dupe or a pawn, Ross said.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS A pick-up truck sits crumpled at the side of the Garven Road close to where it hit a gravel truck.

The defence argued for Laings release with a period of probation considering hes already spent two months in custody. Laing may have known the jewelry was stolen, but he thought it had been stolen from a drug dealer, his lawyer, Theodore Mariash, said.

Milan a source of strength for Laing

Laing met Milan in 2003 when the officer was tasked with notifying next of kin about the suicide of Laings twin brother, who killed himself at the age of 16. Laing had found his dead body in the basement. His brothers death sent Laing into a downward spiral, that launched him into heavy drug use  everything from marijuana to cocaine to pills and opoids, Mariash, said.

While Mr. Milan was initially a source of strength and support for him, the dynamic of the relationship changed over time, Mariash told court Tuesday.

Milan fed Laings drug addiction and began grooming him to exploit him, Mariash said, adding Milan would, at times, assert his power over the younger man by threatening to report Laings drug use and have him arrested.

Laing, who is being held at the Brandon Correctional Centre, appeared via video in a Winnipeg courtroom Tuesday. He was tearful as lawyers spoke about the case. He told the judge he was in treatment for his opioid addiction and had been clean for the past eight months.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay
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This article was published 14/11/2016 (2179 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg has arrived. Or, rather, pizza and beer delivered to your door has arrived.

Its brought to you by HopsPizza.com  a company brewed up by Winnipeg entrepreneurs who believe they have a match made in heaven they were able to marry with home delivery thanks to modernized liquor regulations in Manitoba, said co-owner Terry Davison.

Over the last two years we had this concept of being able to deliver beer and pizza, said Davison, a software developer who built Hops Pizzas online ordering system. The challenge was all all the regulations around it. He said they met with the provincial Liquor and Gaming Authority a few times and figured out how to make it work.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Anthony Paletta (left) and his brother Angelo show off the merchandise inside the Ellice Avenue Holiday Inn. The Hops Pizza co-owners are the first in Canada to deliver pies and beer.

It wasnt that difficult, said Davison, who co-owns the business along with brothers Anthony and Angelo Paletta. They were very willing to work with us.

In 2014, the Liquor and Gaming Authority of Manitoba became the new regulator for liquor and gaming in the province. It brought together regulatory services that had been provided by the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission and the Manitoba Gaming Control Commission. The new authority developed some new rules that allowed for more flexibility in liquor licensing.

It was an effort at modernizing services and decreasing red tape, said authority spokeswoman Kaylee Maslowsky. It allows us to make changes as we need to to suit the circumstances.

The new rules allowed a business like Hops Pizza to get off the ground, delivering beer and pizza to the hungry and thirsty at home.

It was important for the LGA (Liquor and Gaming Authority) to level the playing field by allowing beer vendors to offer delivery service, as Liquor Marts had been allowed to do this for years, said Maslowsky.

Hops Pizza built their kitchens into existing hotels with licensed beer vendors, said Davison. They gave their delivery drivers all the age-verification training that beer vendor staff would receive. Weve been very transparent and worked closely with the Liquor and Gaming Authority, said Davison.

We really wanted to make sure we stayed on side with the regulations, he said. Technically, delivering beer with pizza to peoples homes wasnt the biggest obstacle, said Davison.

The challenge was building a business case around it and ensuring the appropriate ROI (return on investment). He said his only experience in the pizza business was delivering pizzas 25 years ago for D-Jays Restaurant in St. James.

We didnt want to come out with a gimmick, said Davison. We put a lot of time and effort into developing a really good pizza, he said. We have fresh ingredients and our dough and sauce are consistent across all locations  and its at a reasonable price, too.

His favourite, he said, is the Hungry Heffer (sic) with beef, salami, bacon, ham, sausage and double cheese ($19.99 for an extra-large) paired with Alexander Keiths (a six-pack of cans costs $12.52).

Before they got started, he and his business partners could find no other pizza and beer home-delivery service offered in Canada, he said.

Were quite excited working with the concept  its a progressive idea, said Davison, who developed the online ordering technology Hops Pizza and all of its franchises will use. They learned liquor regulations concerning home delivery will present similar challenges in every province.

The first Hops Pizza kitchen opened last week in the Holiday Inn on Ellice Avenue. They deliver to Tuxedo, River Heights, Linden Woods, St. James and part of downtown. Theyre expanding in Winnipeg with two more locations opening Tuesday.

Well cover about 50 per cent of the city, he said. Theyve got their sites set on further expansion.

Other locations are coming on board shortly, Davison said. More Manitobans will soon be able to order pizza and beer from the comfort of their homes, he predicted. Brandon, Portage and Thompson are coming on line in the very near future.

For more go to hopspizza.com or call (866) 266-4677.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
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Winnipeg indigenous advocate Diane Redskys work advancing the cause of womens equality received national recognition Tuesday at the legislature.

Gov. Gen. David Johnston presided over the awards, honouring Redsky  the executive director of Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata  and five other women with Governor Generals Awards in Commemoration of the Persons Case.

The awards highlight Canadian contributions to the advancement of womens equality and celebrate Canadas evolution as an inclusive society. They were established in 1979, in commemoration of the landmark 1929 Persons Case, in which five Alberta women won their legal battle for the right to be recognized as persons, making them eligible for appointment to the Canadian Senate.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Gov. Gen. David Johnston, centre, presented awards in commemoration of the Persons Case to six recipients from left: Winnipegs Diane Redsky, Pascale Navarro of Montreal, Cecilia Benoit of Victoria, Norma Jean Profitt, of Yarmouth, NS, Anna-Louise Crago of Toronto and Lucia Lorenzi (youth award) of Port Coquitlam, B.C.

This was only the second time in history the awards were presented outside of the national capital region. The ceremony was conducted here to mark the 100th anniversary of Manitoba women receiving the right to vote. It was held in Calgary in 1999 to mark the installation of the Famous Five statue.

The legislative chamber was packed with MLAs and the honourees family members and friends, who watched an emotional Redsky accept the award. Instead of giving a traditional speech, Redsky chose to read a letter written to the little women in our family.

As she pointed to her young granddaughters and nieces watching from the gallery, she spoke of the opportunity they have in 2016 that didnt exist in her generation or her mothers.

(My mother) suffered incredible amounts of pain in her life. The world at that time ensured she didnt have a voice and in fact removed and regulated her to a residential school  to which she never recovered, Redsky said. She died young and although this is sad she planted special seeds in her children, seeds that grew within us and made us the leaders we are today.

We have a ways to go still this future has an important role for you, dont be afraid to use your voice and believe in the power of writing a letter. And and dont ever forget I am a girl and I can do what I want.'

Newly appointed Manitoba senator Marilou McPhedran presented the award to Redsky, extolling her long list of accomplishments  including her work with Mawi Wi, one of the largest indigenous-led organizations in the country  calling her a human doing.

But, really we are here today because she is a human being, the human-rights lawyer and University of Winnipeg professor told the legislative chamber. We see in this the ripple effect of Mawi Wi and, in particular, the ripple effect of Dianes leadership in this city.

Redsky, a member of Shoal Lake #40 First Nation  which supplies Winnipegs drinking water  called Winnipeg a special city.

And Id like to think it is because of the water, everyone drinks the Shoal Lake water and it brings out the best in everybody, she said after the ceremony. We are the first province in Canada that gave women the right to vote, although aboriginal women were not included in that, it is still historic and courageous there is lots of hope for the future and lots we can continue to do.

There is still work that needs to be done to improve wage equality and education opportunities for women, she said.

As for U.S. president-elect Donald Trump  who battled accusations of misogyny throughout the recent campaign Redsky believes his victory will bring female advocates together.

We are always taught that everything happens for a reason. With the election in the United States, our teachers come in all shapes and sizes, she said. What I think, and what I am hopeful for and what I actually know is going to happen, is that this a real opportunity for women to come together and us to reignite our unity as women, feminists.

 with files from Larry Kusch

kristin.annable@freepress.mb.ca
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A 41-year-old flood evacuee who joined in fatal beatings on a sleeping homeless man in Winnipeg is trying to kick his addictions while he awaits sentencing for manslaughter.

Oliver James Okemow pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the May 2014 death of 31-year-old Wayne Michael Harper. Harper was attacked twice by a group of men, including Okemow, and later died of a brain bleed.

Crown prosecutor Mark Lafreniere asked Court of Queens Bench Justice Brenda Keyser Monday to impose a sentence of four to seven years for Okemows role in the attacks.

Defence lawyer Theodore Mariash argued for 3.5 years in custody, followed by three years of supervised probation.

A decision is expected next month.

Nothing that occurs today will ever bring Mr. Harper back. What occurred was really a senseless tragedy that cost a man his life. It was drunken bravado and stupidity at its worst, and its now likely to also cost Mr. Okemow his liberty, Lafreniere told court.

Okemow, who was also homeless at the time, was part of a group of men who went looking for Harper to beat him up. One of the men in Okemows group was apparently upset over something Harper had said  the victim held himself out as an enforcer, court heard.

They found Harper sleeping on Century Street.

Okemow was arrested about six months after Harpers death.

A second suspect, 51-year-old Lionel Branconnier, turned himself in to police in September and is facing a manslaughter charge. A third suspect died.

Okemow admitted to being the last to join both beatings  one inflicted when the victim was asleep and the other while he was wounded.

Harper didnt fight back. He was drunk and incapacitated, court heard. Medical experts determined the beatings caused his fatal head injuries.

Okemow shouldnt avoid prison just because the attacks were underway when he punched Harper in the face and head and stomped on his stomach, Lafreniere said.

He said a prison term is necessary to send a message to Mr. Okemow and others who choose to listen that alcohol and anger and stupidity, while being recipes for disaster, are never something that the court will accept.

Defence lawyer Mariash asked the judge to keep in mind Okemow is making bonafide efforts to deal with his addictions in the Winding River treatment program at Headingley Correctional Centre and asked that he be allowed to continue. With credit for the time hes spent in custody, Okemow would be facing jail time, not a prison term, if the judge accepts the defence recommendation.

Mariash said Okemow has been beset by systemic disadvantages that worsened when flooding forced him out of Lake St. Martin First Nation five years ago. He grew up around violence and alcoholism in Oxford House and later moved to Lake St. Martin with his wife. He and his family lived there until the provincial government diverted floodwater away from Winnipeg and toward the reserve, forcing a mass relocation in 2011.

Okemow was a different person in Winnipeg, Mariash said. His marriage broke up in the year after the flood when his wife became concerned about his drinking. Since then, Okemow has been living on the street.

Now that weve had these flood displacees here in Winnipeg for about five years, at this point in time (weve seen) that many of them, because of their upbringing or relationships, are ill-equipped to handle city life and all the corresponding available vices that were not available to them on reserve, Mariash said.

He said Okemow has been assured hell be welcome in Oxford House after he finishes serving his sentence. He hopes to find a support network there.

Okemow told the judge he thinks about Harper every day and considers himself a disgrace to his own family.

I wish I could have done something differently, not to hurt somebody in the way I did. Im terribly sorry to the family of Wayne Harper, and I apologize to everybody. Im sorry, he said.

katie.may@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @thatkatiemay
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Manitoba food banks saw a slight decline in traffic this year, but the province has the second-highest use rate in the country.

HungerCount 2016, the annual report by Food Banks Canada, showed 61,914 Manitobans used a food bank in March 2016, down 2.9 per cent from March 2015. But 4.75 per cent of the Manitoba population sought assistance. Only Newfoundland, at 4.99 per cent, had a higher rate.

Shawn Pegg, director of policy and research for Food Banks Canada, said Manitobas small reduction should be looked at in the context that compared to eight years ago, food bank use in the province is still up more than 50 per cent. The 2015 food bank use in Manitoba was the highest it had ever been.

JESSICA BOTELHO-URBANSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES In March 2016, 61,914 Manitobans used a food bank, which is down 2.9 per cent from March 2015.

Its a slight decline from a record high, Pegg said.

Janelle Duerksen, director of client services and community engagement for Winnipeg Harvest, said the small decline might be attributable to the Rent Assist program in Manitoba, which helps some low-income families with additional money to pay their rent. The program was fully rolled out in 2015, Duerksen said.

She said while the majority of food bank users are in Winnipeg  and Winnipeg Harvest has seen slight declines in demand  food banks outside of Winnipeg are seeing increased demand. More than 40 per cent of food banks in the province reported an increase in the number of clients in March 2016, the HungerCount report says.

All provinces have seen food bank use go up since 2008, when the recession hit. Nationally, more than 863,000 people used a food bank in March 2016, up 1.3 per cent over March 2015, and up 28 per cent since 2008. Half of food bank users are women, and more than one-third are children. In Manitoba, 43 per cent of food bank users are children under 18. Saskatchewan is the only province where a larger percentage of users are kids, at 45 per cent.

Pegg said the new Canada Child Benefit should have an impact on food bank use among kids if the predictions on its impact on poverty reduction for families are realized.

I think it shows the impact a real change can make, Pegg said at a news conference on Parliament Hill to officially release the report.

He called the high rate of food bank use distressing, noting economic shocks in the western provinces have contributed greatly to the national increase this year. Food bank use in Alberta and Saskatchewan was up almost 18 per cent in March compared to a year earlier.

Food Banks Canada is calling on the federal government to adopt poverty-reduction legislation by next October with identifiable targets and adequate funding. It also recommends changing social assistance to address food insecurity and move towards creating a basic income in Canada.

Pegg said the Liberal government has made some good promises to address social inequality and poverty but now needs concrete action to ensure those promises arent mired in a never-ending consultation process with no real progress.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca
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This article was published 14/11/2016 (2179 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitobas health minister is calling on Ottawa for national action to stop the flow of powdered fentanyl from countries such as China.

We need national strategies around that because its an importation issue we need some help with, Kelvin Goertzen said Monday at a press conference at the legislature to mark addictions awareness week.

The event, just days before Fridays national opioid conference and summit in Ottawa, included some of the provinces leading addictions and health officials and the mothers of two victims of fentanyl overdoses.

JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen: 'My hope is that there are clear deliverables that come out of Ottawa'

My hope is that there are clear deliverables that come out of Ottawa, Goertzen said. Thats probably why the (federal health) minister called the meeting, to have a national strategy.

On a provincial level, theres also a need to get a better fix on the extent of the opioid crisis, he said.

We know anecdotally from talking to police and paramedics and parents that the problem is significant, he said. I dont know if we realize the depth of the problem, theres inconsistency in reporting overdoses in provinces, Manitoba being one of them.

Arlene Last-Kolb and Christine Dobbs  both of whom lost 24-year-old sons to fentanyl overdoses  praised the province for speaking up.

Weve been trying to make them realize this is an epidemic and theyre starting to recognize they have to work co-operatively (with us) and take it seriously, Dobbs said.

I believe theyre on the right track, said Last-Kolb.

Illicit opioids are the focus of an overdose epidemic involving hundreds of deaths in Canada.

In what may have been be a first in the country, test results made public last week revealed that a nine-month old baby rushed to hospital in dire medical condition had been exposed to carfentanil in a North End home. Winnipeg police described the drug as 100 times more powerful than fentanyl, which itself is 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine.

Carfentanil is often used by veterinarians tending to large animals. It is also administered to some cancer patients.

The baby is now safe and the parents are facing drug and child-endangerment charges.

Earlier this year, Winnipeg police announced plans to carry kits with the fentanyl antidote naxolone in the aftermath of three ODs in the city in one week.

Over the last 10 years, were looking at somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 dead people in Canada just from opioid overdoses alone, Dr. Benedikt Fischer of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health wrote in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Meanwhile, Goertzen signalled the province has concerns around federal Liberals election promise to legalize recreational marijuana.

We obviously have some concerns about the nature of the product thats going to be made available, how its going to be distributed and how do you test somebody whos under the influence, he said.

Former deputy prime minister Anne McLellan is leading a federal task force on those very questions and is due to report its findings later this month. The federal Liberals have said they plan a strict regulatory framework for the production and distribution of legal pot.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca
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The Opposition is setting the tone for how it wants to see the provincial government handle a forthcoming carbon tax.

The NDP held a press conference at the Brady landfill Tuesday urging Brian Pallisters government to commit dollars raised from the tax to reduce greenhouse gases, create green jobs and protect Manitobans from the impact of the new levy.

If the Pallister government wants to levy a carbon tax on Manitobans, it should make sure the funds raised actually go to protecting the environment and creating green jobs, NDP environment critic Rob Altemeyer said.

BRUCE BUMSTEAD / BRANDON SUN FILES Koch fertilizer plant in Brandon is one of the worst polluters in Manitoba.

Pallister has repeatedly said his government is looking for a made in Manitoba approach to the tax. Carbon tax is typically defined as one based on greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) generated from burning fuels. The tax is designed to elicit a market response that will eventually work to reduce emissions.

The federal program announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in October would impose a minimum carbon price of $10 a tonne in 2018, rising by $10 per year until reaching $50 in 2022. The funds raised are to go back to the provinces, and Manitobas NDP wants to see it invested back into environmental initiatives.

Trudeau has given the provinces two options for implementing the carbon price: either impose their own direct price on carbon that meets or exceeds the national floor price, as British Columbia has already done, or set up a cap-and-trade system, such as Ontario and Quebec are developing.

Altemeyer says the province should take an important step and support composting programs.

Landfills are some of our largest emitters in Manitoba, he said. Over one-third of our waste is organic material that turns into methane in a landfill. When it escapes to the atmosphere, that methane is 25 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

Sustainable Development Minister Cathy Cox said the government is considering its options.

Were working very hard on a plan that will excite Manitobans, ensure we are doing our part for the environment and support our economy in the process, she said in a prepared statement.

 with files from the Canadian Press

kristin.annable@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

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The Cubans have been waiting for Justin Trudeau to visit Old Havana since he became Liberal party leader in 2013. They had planned to unveil a statue of his father to symbolize the warmth and depth of the Canada-Cuba relationship.

Prime Minister Trudeaus short trip no doubt was busy squeezing in meetings with Cubas political leaders, Canadian businesspeople and members of Cubas civil society. Moreover, there is a very good chance that he will get a private sit-down with Fidel Castro himself  a close confidante of his fathers.

It is worth remembering that Pierre Elliott Trudeaus 1976 visit to Cuba was controversial in both Ottawa and Washington, but it served to cement a cordial and productive bilateral relationship. Castro always spoke respectfully and kindly of Pierre Trudeau, regarded him as a wise statesman and saw him as a mentor of sorts. And one should also recall that Fidel Castro was an honorary pallbearer at Trudeaus funeral in 2000.

THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Cuban President Fidel Castro (centre) and Pierre and Margaret Trudeau look over a photo album during their state visit to Cuba in January 1976. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's upcoming trip to Cuba continues Canadas longstanding relationship with the country.

Justin Trudeau will undoubtedly tend to a wide array of issues on the Canada-Cuba agenda: commercial interaction and investment, scientific, educational and cultural exchanges, hemispheric issues and Donald Trumps recent election in the U.S. There is also certain to be a respectful and candid discussion on the thorny issue of human rights in Cuba.

But make no mistake, his trip to Cuba is all about ensuring that Canadas longstanding special relationship with Cuba remains intact. (The visit will also burnish his credentials with those on the left who supported him in the 2015 federal election.) Indeed, the last thing that Ottawa wants  especially as countries all over the world make a mad dash to Havana to scout out possible economic opportunities  is to see Canadas well-earned reputation in Cuba somehow devalued.

It is true that the expected invasion of U.S. travel-seekers could have real pocket-book implications for Canadian vacationers. With the increase in demand, one would anticipate higher prices and perhaps even fewer options for Canadian travel packages to Cuba. But this is minor in the larger scheme of things.

Everywhere I went in Cuba during a 2015 visit, I was quick to ask about the implications for Canada of a normalized U.S.-Cuba relationship. Where exactly would it leave Canadians? Would we eventually be frozen out of the Cuban marketplace by a deluge of deal-making Americans?

One knowledgeable Cuban worker in the tourism sector did say that the U.S.-Cuba entente was all about business and that there would be plenty of business to go around for the Canadians. Maybe. But Im not so sure. Well just have to wait and see what Trump does now.

Still, I was constantly reassured by grateful Cubans that Canadian loyalty and unwavering political support over the decades (recall that Canada and Mexico were the only two countries in the Americas not to sever diplomatic relations with Cuba in the early 1960s) would not be soon forgotten. That Cubans would always have a soft spot in their hearts for Canadians no matter what happens in the U.S.-Cuba relationship.

Trudeaus visit, then, is symbolically important, but it also has a clear commercial motive. In short, he is looking to make sure that Canadian economic interests in Cuba are not callously pushed out and rudely replaced by our American friends. Officialdom in Ottawa should still be mindful, though, that loyalty to Canada, particularly over the longer term, could fall victim to the exigencies of the almighty U.S. dollar.

With U.S. President Barack Obamas legacy of normalizing relations between the United States and Cuba potentially in jeopardy (though I wouldnt bet the farm on it) by an incoming Trump Administration, this is an opportune time for Mr. Trudeau to visit Havana. One of the first things that he should do is to reaffirm for the Cubans Canadas firm commitment to remain engaged in Cuba for the long haul. This is his big chance to send out the correct signals to the current (and future) Cuban political leadership  namely, that Canadians can be counted on as a reliable friend and constructive partner.

Peter McKenna is professor and chair of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown.
MADISON  Charges of sexually assaulting a minor will proceed in Buffalo County against a Winona man, as a federal prosecutor is seeking to dismiss similar charges filed against him in federal court.

Jacob D. Vogel, 32, was charged in May in federal court with sexually explicit conduct with an 11-year-old girl for the purpose of recording it. A charge of crossing state lines with the intent to having sex with a minor was added to the indictment in August.

Vogels attorney, Peter Moyers, had sought to throw out the search warrant that recovered images on Vogels laptop, showing the girl performing sex acts on him. Moyers said the search warrant was overly broad and offered no limits on what authorities could search for in Vogels residence. Moyers also asked the court to dismiss the charges against Vogel for lack of evidence that he intended to cross state lines for the purpose of having sex with a minor.

While Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker was considering Moyers motions to dismiss, Buffalo County District Attorney Thomas Clark filed a first-degree sexual assault of a child charge against Vogel. An arrest warrant has been issued but as of Monday, Vogel had not arrested, according to the Buffalo County Sheriffs Office.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Przybylinski Finn said that Crockers recommendation to District Judge William Conley not to dismiss the charges filed on the same day the government sought to dismiss them was a coincidence.

Buffalo County has the more serious charges against him, Przybylinski Finn said. He faces a mandatory minimum (sentence) of 25 years  if convicted, she said.

Vogel would face a statutory maximum of 15 to 30 years in prison in federal court, but if convicted probably would have received a far lesser sentence under the advisory guidelines federal judges use. As of Monday afternoon, Conley had yet to formally dismiss the federal charges against Vogel.

His federal trial date had been set for Dec. 12.

According to documents filed in federal court:

The girl had been posting sexually explicit messages and photos of herself on an instant messaging account in March to which Vogel, posing under an assumed name, allegedly responded. Vogel told her that he would drive to Buffalo County to have sex with her. She agreed to meet him at her house where he would pick her up.

Vogel picked up the girl at end of her driveway on March 24 and drove a short distance. Although she said she no longer wanted to do this, Vogel told her that he had driven this far, and then sexually assaulted her.

The girl later told her parents about the incident and they contacted the Buffalo Sheriffs Office with a description of the Vogels truck. A sheriffs deputy used the girls instant messaging account to contact Vogel and arrange another meeting.

The FBI used Vogels instant messaging account to match his truck to images on Vogels garage Facebook page, and Vogel was subsequently identified by the girl and arrested.
La Crosse County prosecutors have filed felony theft charges against a woman accused of stealing a service dog from a North Side home and going on a crime spree.

According to reports, witnesses told police that a woman calling herself Paris entered a Hamilton Street residence on Oct. 26 and asked whether she could take the dog, Tootsie, to show her friends. A man there told her the dog didnt belong to him so he could not give permission. He went back to doing something else and when he turned around, the woman had left with the dog.

Later that evening, a woman told police that she was attacked outside a George Street bar by Makayla Anderson, who had a Chihuahua in her purse that she claimed to have stolen and was planning to sell.

That night, police responded to another call in which a man told police that Anderson and another woman kicked in his door and stole cash, lottery tickets, bedding and various pieces of home decor.

Anderson, 23, was arrested on a warrant Wednesday after police responded to a fight on Island Street; she registered 0.194 percent blood-alcohol concentration on a preliminary breath test, a violation of her bond in a previous case. When questioned in the jail, Anderson asked for an attorney before saying, She has her animal. I never stole that animal.

Anderson is charged with theft of a domestic animal, a felony; burglary; misdemeanor battery; misdemeanor theft and bail jumping.

According to the Coulee Region Humane Society, animal control officers recovered Tootsie Oct. 27 in the 1900 block of George Street. She was returned to her owner after receiving updated vaccines.

The dogs owner, Diana Melton, said Tootsie is a service dog who alerts her when she is about to suffer a seizure, and it was the first time in the five years shes owned the dog that they were apart.

Melton said she had to take out a $100 loan to recover the dog, who was a little shaken but is doing well.

Shes good, she said. No scars.
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A La Valle man who was wanted after he allegedly escaped authorities in a high-speed chase last week has been captured and charged.

The Sauk County District Attorneys Office has charged 42-year-old Tracy D. Hoops with felony counts of fleeing an officer and a hit-and-run causing injury.

Sauk County Sheriff Chip Meister said Hoops turned himself in Friday after days of dialogue between he and investigators.

Investigators now say Hoops was driving a pickup truck that belonged to one of his employees at the time of the incident.

The chase allegedly started in Reedsburg after Hoops crashed the pickup truck into another vehicle in the Viking Village grocery store parking lot. An officer reported that he began to follow Hoops as he fled the scene and turned onto State Highway 33 at a speed of 50 mph without stopping.

According to the complaint, the officer tried to stop the truck, but it kept going. Police say Hoops blew through a stop sign, passed other vehicles at high speeds and then drove through a field.

Authorities then called off the chase due to safety concerns, but picked it up again after the truck was spotted in an area driveway. Hoops then allegedly drove through an electric horse fence before he crossed a field and got back onto the highway.

The criminal complaint states surveillance video of the grocery store shows Hoops truck smashing into a car. A passenger in the vehicle told an officer that his head, neck, and right leg hurt. He also had a 6-inch cut extending from above his right eye toward the side of his head.

The surveillance video also allowed authorities to get the license plate of the pickup truck. They interviewed the trucks owner, who was Hoops employee.

Hoops apparently recently had started a business called Wisconsin Signs and Lighting, and only has one bucket truck that can be used for projects.

The employee told authorities that when he takes the bucket truck, he allows his boss to use his pickup truck. And the employee said he had allowed Hoops to take the truck prior to the Nov. 7 incident.

Hoops turned himself in after he was spotted in a Brodhead bar.

If convicted of fleeing an officer, he could face up to 42 months in prison and $10,000 in fines. Hoops is due to appear in Sauk County Circuit Court on Nov. 21.
The Baraboo School Board initiated a plan to sell the districts former administrative building in downtown Baraboo during its meeting on Monday.

The boards Buildings, Ground and Transportation Committee recommended that district leaders seek legal advice before beginning a two-step process in selling the building. Maybe only one step if it works out, board President Kevin Vodak added.

After hearing from legal advisers, the board will entertain bids for the property located on the corner of Oak Street and Second Avenue. Because the district has not yet heard from an attorney, District Administrator Lori Mueller said it has yet to determine a price range.

Its something that we really need to know a lot more information and detail about before we move forward with any kind of communication, she said. So in terms of price, we have not yet had any conversation about that.

If no offers for the building are made, the board will hold an auction for the property.

While the district administration moved out due to poor air quality and a host of other expensive maintenance issues, the buildings new owner could qualify for tax credits to renovate the facilities, as it is included on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program provides state and federal tax credits to property owners who invest in the preservation of their buildings. Costs associated with work done on the inside and outside of the building could qualify for tax credits.

A timeline for the selling process has not yet been established, but Vodak hopes to begin immediately, as the district is still responsible for insuring and heating the building, and staff must stop in on a daily basis to ensure facilities are operating correctly. The district will also be responsible for snow removal in coming months, he added.

My hope is that we will get some advice from legal counsel as to what the timeline should be, Vodak said. The boards decision is to get out from underneath the building as soon as possible.

Those interested in purchasing the property should contact Mueller or Baraboo School District Director of Business Services Bob Avery with questions or to schedule a showing.

In other business, the board:

Approved the hiring of Jack Youg Middle School speech and language clinician Valerie Mahoney

Approved the hiring of long-term substitute Doug Francour as a JYMS sixth grade social studies teacher

Received notification of early student graduates for 2017

Heard an update on the districts mental health services from Director of Education and Pupil Services Dani Scott
Beaver Dam voters along with those in 55 other communities approved referendums in school districts across Wisconsin.

As a result, School Superintendent Steve Vessey said the Beaver Dam Unified School District is under pressure to begin the hiring process for the construction projects approved by voters.

There is a small collection of firms that can do the project that we need done, Vessey said.

The referendum asked for $48.9 million in improvements for the district, including a complete remodel inside Beaver Dam High School, except for the science wing that was recently remodeled. In addition there will be new, secure entrances added to all schools in the district.

Vessey said they are looking to complete the projects in mid August 2018.

There is a little bit of a cushion, but we are looking at doing a lot in a 15-month period, Vessey said.

I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to the community for our project, Vessey said. We will complete a project that the community will be proud of for many years to come.

Vessey said he has had a lengthy meeting with Plunkett Raysich Architects, the firm that also completed the last building project for the school district when classrooms were added to Prairie View Elementary School and the science wing of the high school was renovated.

However Vessey said it is important for the board to begin discussing hiring a construction manager and possible changes to the school year calendars right away in order to get the project underway. The board will meet in committees on Monday beginning at 5:30 p.m. to discuss the projects.

Vessey said there could possibly be changes to the second semester of this year and the 2017-18 school year.

We have to pick up as many student non-contact days that we can, Vessey said. Its for cost saving and we need every day we can get to complete the project.

The shift deferential for workers can make a big difference for the cost of the project, Vessey said. First shift workers are paid less than second shift ones.

We also told the public that wed only disrupt one school year, Vessey said. Its going to be tight.

The board of education is planning a special meeting Dec. 5 in order to hear presentations from construction managers.
JUNEAU  An 18-year-old Beaver Dam man pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of attempting to flee from an officer during the early hours of July 30.

If found guilty of the crime, Leighton Michael Finnestad, could face up to three and a half years in prison and a fine of $10,000.

Finnestad is currently released from jail on a $1,000 signature bond. He must maintain absolute sobriety and shall not go upon the premises of any establishment whose primary business activity involves the sale or distribution of alcoholic beverages. He shall not drive other than to school or work with a valid Wisconsin drivers license.

According to the criminal complaint, a Beaver Dam police officer was traveling on Madison Street on July 30 at 2:16 a.m. when he observed a pickup truck weaving within the lane of traffic and traveling 10 mph over the speed limit.

The officer turned on his emergency lights and the truck rapidly accelerated. The officer began to pursue the vehicle. According to the criminal complaint, the officer was traveling 50 mph down Madison Street when he was passing Lake Crest Drive and estimated the truck was going between 65 and 70 mph.

Finnestad stopped when he reached his driveway on Highway G. While the officer talked to Finnestad they could detect a strong order of intoxicants on his breath.

According to the criminal complaint, Finnestad said he did not stop for the officer because he was scared because he had been drinking. Finnestad estimated he had about five or six Busch Lights and admitted to smoking marijuana the day prior to the incident.

Officers performed a preliminary breathalyzer test which registered at .151.

A telephone scheduling conference is set for Dec. 21 at 8:15 a.m.
Though nationwide voter turnout in last weeks election was disappointing, Columbia County maintained its status as a region of above-average voting.

Columbia County Clerk Susan Moll spent Monday making the final count (known as a canvass) of Election Day ballots, totaling 29,913 ballots cast by 44,204 eligible voters, for roughly a 68 percent turnout.

There was no risk of overturned results in any races with one correction to be made: one provisional ballot from Caledonia that had been verified after the election. Turnout for Columbia County was also well within the margins of expectations, according to Moll.

Nationwide, voter turnout was at a 20-year low. Although 1.4 million more Americans voted this year than in 2012, turnout was 57 percent, according to the University of Florida-based United States Elections Project, with 2012 turnout reaching 58.6 percent, down from 2008s 40-year record high of 61.6 percent.

We do usually have very high turnout, said Town of Lodi Clerk April Goeske, where turnout was 79 percent. We had 32 percent in absentee and 100 in the last day.

Matching the national trend, Goeske saw record early voting this year, with 700 early ballots cast on Tuesday, compared with 500 in the previous election, which was up from 350 in 2008.

I actually called in extra people, Goeske said, explaining the overwhelming demand for early ballots. We still had 1,200 people go through on Election Day and we only have 24 parking spaces.

Meanwhile, on the countys side of the equation, early and absentee voting isnt a direct concern, as those ballots are tallied and passed on to Moll simply as votes for one or the other.

For us, said Moll, those are all the same on Election Day.

Well, 70 percent was projected by the state, and we were right on it, said City of Columbus Clerk Anne Donahue, who is careful to point out that there is no such thing as early voting, but that happens to be the shorthand that people have picked up for absentee and in-person absentee ballot voting. Counting their ballots among registered voters as of Oct. 20, absentee votes made up 17 percent of their precincts ballots.

I personally promoted it all over the place, said Donahue. The more people you can get to vote ahead of time the better.

As with other voting stations, she said its a challenge to move so many bodies through the building for an election. Not having that all on one day goes a long way to relieving congestion and preventing voters from being discouraged.

Although the changing election law in Wisconsin, such as voter ID requirements, has created inconveniences and extra work for clerks, according to Goeske, there has been a loosening of requirements for absentee voting.

You used to have to prove you couldnt leave the house, Goeske explained, saying that a doctors note would be require to proved immobility. Now, it is more likely to be a matter of her insistence that a voter doesnt need to go through so much trouble, seeing voters who struggle to get to the booth, or carrying an oxygen tank behind them, saying, I can just mail you a ballot.

A portion of the absenteeism is also a matter of part-time residency. We have a lot of snowbirds, said Goeske, pointing to the 50 to 60 ballots that are sent to Florida, Texas and Arizona, with another going to California.

Despite the additional measures added to the process, having finished her third presidential election in Lodi and having previously clerked in Dekorra, Goeske could not think of any cases of voter fraud until after the voter ID law had been passed, after which, she could think of three cases of voter fraud (voting at more than one poll station) in which charges were dropped.

Ive told (State Rep.) Keith Ripp, it aint broke. Dont fix it.

Even with the assistance of votes being cast ahead of time, Election Day can be almost overwhelming for a rural clerks office.

We registered 340 people on Election Day, said Donahue, thats the second most in the county, but it is Columbia County, not Dane County.

To get all 2,726 voters through required a crew of 27 or 28, election workers. Under some circumstances, she can get 16 and 17-year-olds working on Election Day who often bring extra enthusiasm to the room.

The election workers are so excited; they worry about law changes and its impressive how dedicated they are, said Donahue. Its the same everywhere, but my crew is the best.
The following companies are subsidiares of Tenet Healthcare: 45th Street MOB LLC, 601 N 30th Street I L.L.C., 601 N 30th Street II L.L.C., 601 N 30th Street III Inc., AHM Acquisition Co. Inc., AIG Holdings LLC, AIGB Global LLC, AIGB Group Inc., AIGB Holdings Inc., AIGB Management Services LLC, AMC/North Fulton Urgent Care #1 L.L.C., AMC/North Fulton Urgent Care #2 L.L.C., AMC/North Fulton Urgent Care #3 L.L.C., AMC/North Fulton Urgent Care #4 L.L.C., AMC/North Fulton Urgent Care #5 L.L.C., AMI Information Systems Group Inc., AMI/HTI Tarzana Encino Joint Venture, APN, ARC Worcester Center L.P., ASC Old Co. LP, ASC of New Jersey LLC, ASJH Joint Venture LLC, Abrazo Health Network EP Clinical Services LLC, Abrazo Surgical Outpatient Center LLC, Advanced Ambulatory Surgical Care L.P., Advanced Center for Surgery  Vero Beach LLC, Advanced Regional Surgery Center LLC, Advanced Surgery Center of Bethesda LLC, Advanced Surgery Center of Metairie LLC, Advanced Surgery Center of Northern Louisiana LLC, Advanced Surgery Center of Sarasota LLC, Advanced Surgery Center of Tampa LLC, Advanced Surgical Care of Lutz LLC, Advanced Surgical Care of St Louis LLC, Advanced Surgical Concepts LLC, Advantage Health Care Management Company LLC, Advantage Health Network Inc., AdventHealth Surgery Center Celebration LLC, AdventHealth Surgery Center Mills Park LLC, AdventHealth Surgery Center Wellswood LLC, AdventHealth Surgery Center Winter Garden LLC, AdventHealth Surgery Centers Central Florida LLC, AdventHealth Surgery Centers West Florida LLC, Alabama Cardiovascular Associates L.L.C., Alabama Digestive Health Endoscopy Center L.L.C., Alabama Hand and Sports Medicine L.L.C., Alamo Heights Surgicare L.P., Alliance Surgery Birmingham LLC, Alliance Surgery Inc., Alvarado Hospital Medical Center Inc., Ambulatory Surgical Associates LLC, Ambulatory Surgical Center of Somerville LLC, American Institute of Gastric Banding Ltd., American Institute of Gastric Banding Phoenix Limited Partnership, American Medical Inc., Amisub Inc., Amisub Inc., Amisub of California Inc., Amisub of North Carolina Inc., Amisub of South Carolina Inc., Amisub of Texas Inc., Anaheim Hills Medical Imaging L.L.C., Anaheim MRI Holding Inc., Anesthesia Partners of Gallatin LLC, Arizona Care Network  Next L.L.C., Arizona Health Partners LLC, Arizona Spine and Joint Hospital LLC, Ascension Saint Thomas Lebanon Surgery Center LLC, Asia Outsourcing US Inc., Aspen Healthcare, Atlanta Medical Center Inc., Atlanta Medical Center Interventional Neurology Associates L.L.C., Atlanta Medical Center Neurosurgical & Spine Specialists 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Brookwood Primary Care  Homewood L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Care  Inverness L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Care  Mountain Brook L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Care  Oak Mountain L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Care  Vestavia L.L.C., Brookwood Primary Network Care Inc., Brookwood Specialty Care  Endocrinology L.L.C., Brookwood Sports and Orthopedics L.L.C., Brookwood Womens Care L.L.C., Brookwood Womens Diagnostic Center LLC, Brookwood  Maternal Fetal Medicine L.L.C., Brownsville Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, C7 Technologies LLC, CGH GP Inc., CGH Hospital Ltd., CHIC/USP Surgery Centers LLC, CHN Holdings LLC, CHVI Tucson Holdings LLC, CML-Chicago Market Labs Inc., CRNAs of Michigan, CS/USP General Partner LLC, CS/USP Surgery Centers LP, Camp Creek Urgent Care L.L.C., Camp Lowell Surgery Center L.L.C., Cardiology Physicians Associates L.L.C., Cardiology Physicians Corporation L.L.C., Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery Associates L.L.C., Cardiovascular Clinical Excellence at Sierra Providence LLC, CareSpot of Austin LLC, CareSpot of Memphis LLC, Carmel Specialty Surgery Center LLC, Castle Rock Surgery Center LLC, Catawba-Piedmont Cardiothoracic Surgery L.L.C., Cedar Hill Primary Care L.L.C., Cedar Park Surgery Center L.L.P., Center for Advanced Research Excellence L.L.C., Center for the Urban Child Inc., Central Carolina Physicians  Sandhills L.L.C., Central Carolina-IMA L.L.C., Central Jersey Surgery Center LLC, Central Texas Corridor Hospital Company LLC, Central Valley Quality Alliance LLC, Central Virginia Surgi-Center L.P., Centura Ventures Surgery Centers LLC, Centura/USP Colorado Springs Surgery Centers L.L.C., Chalon Living Inc., Chandler Endoscopy Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Charlotte Endoscopic Surgery Center LLC, Chattanooga Pain Management Center LLC, Chesterfield Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Chico Surgery Center L.P., Clarksville Surgery Center LLC, Coast Healthcare Management LLC, Coast Surgery Center L.P., Coastal Carolina Medical Center, Coastal Carolina Medical Center Inc., Coastal Carolina Physician Practices LLC, Coastal Carolina Pro Fee Billing L.L.C., Colorado GI Centers LLC, Commonwealth Continental Health Care Inc., Community Connection Health Plan Inc., Community Hospital of Los Gatos Inc., Compass Surgical Partners Holdings of Asheville LLC, Compass Surgical Partners Holdings of Odessa LLC, Compass Surgical Partners Holdings of Raleigh LLC, Compass Surgical Partners Holdings of St. Petersburg LLC, Compass Surgical Partners Holdings of Tampa LLC, Compass Surgical Partners Holdings of Waco LLC, Compass Surgical Partners Holdings of Winston-Salem LLC, Conifer Care Continuum Solutions LLC, Conifer Ethics and Compliance Inc., Conifer Global Business Center Inc., Conifer Global Holdings Inc., Conifer Health Solutions LLC, Conifer Holdings Inc., Conifer Patient Communications LLC, Conifer Physician Services Holdings Inc., Conifer Physician Services Inc., Conifer Revenue Cycle Solutions LLC, Conifer Value-Based Care LLC, Conroe Surgery Center 2 LLC, Coral Ridge Outpatient Center LLC, Corpus Christi Surgicare Ltd., Covenant/USP Surgery Centers LLC, CreAtiv Management Company Inc., Creekwood Surgery Center L.P., Crown Point Surgery Center LLC, DH/USP SJOSC Investment Company L.L.C., DMC Detroit Receiving Hospital Premier Clinical Co-Management Services LLC, DMC Education & Research, DMC Harper University Hospital Premier Clinical Co-Management Services LLC, DMC Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital Premier Clinical Management Services LLC, DMC Imaging L.L.C., DeTar/USP Surgery Center LLC, Delray Beach ASC LLC, Delray Medical Center Inc., Delray Medical Physician Services L.L.C., Denville Surgery Center LLC, Des Peres Physician Network LLC, Desert Regional Medical Center Inc., Desert Ridge Outpatient Surgery LLC, Desoto Surgicare Partners Ltd., Destin Surgery Center LLC, Detroit Education & Research, DigitalMed Inc., Dignity/Abrazo Health Network LLC, Dignity/USP Phoenix Surgery Centers II LLC, Doctors Hospital of Manteca Inc., Doctors Medical Center Neurosciences Clinical Co-Management LLC, Doctors Medical Center Orthopedics Clinical Co-Management LLC, Doctors Medical Center of Modesto Inc., Doctors Outpatient Surgery Center of Jupiter L.L.C., EPHC Inc., EPIC ASC LLC, East Atlanta Endoscopy Centers LLC, East Cobb Urgent Care LLC, East Cooper Coastal Family Physicians L.L.C., East Cooper Community Hospital Inc., East Cooper Hyperbarics L.L.C., East Cooper OB/GYN L.L.C., East Cooper Physician Network LLC, East Cooper Primary Care Physicians L.L.C., East West Surgery Center L.P., Eastgate Building Center L.L.C., El Mirador Surgery Center L.L.C., El Paso Center for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy LLC, El Paso Day Surgery LLC, El Paso Urology Surgery Center Curie LLC, Emanate/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Emanuel Medical Center, Emerus BHS/SA NW Military LLC, Emerus BHS/SA Southside LLC, Emerus/BHS SA Hausman LLC, Emerus/BHS SA Kelly LLC, Emerus/BHS SA LLC, Emerus/BHS SA Overlook Parkway LLC, Emerus/BHS SA Schertz LLC, Emerus/BHS SA Thousand Oaks LLC, Emerus/BHS SA Westover Hills LLC, Encinitas Endoscopy Center LLC, Endoscopy Consultants LLC, Enterprise Research Solutions LLC, European Surgical Partners Ltd., Eye Center of Nashville UAP LLC, Eye Surgery Center of Nashville LLC, FMC Medical Inc., FMCC Network Contracting L.L.C., FREH Real Estate L.L.C., FRS Imaging Services L.L.C., First Choice Physician Partners, Flatirons Surgery Center LLC, Fort Bend Clinical Services Inc., Fort Worth Hospital Real Estate LP, Foundation Bariatric Hospital of San Antonio LLC, Foundation San Antonio Borrower Sub LLC, Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center, Fountain Valley Surgery Center LLC, Franklin Endo UAP LLC, Franklin Endoscopy Center LLC, Frontenac Ambulatory Surgery & Spine Care Center L.P., Frye Regional Medical Center Inc., FryeCare Boone L.L.C., FryeCare Morganton L.L.C., FryeCare Physicians L.L.C., FryeCare Valdese L.L.C., FryeCare Watauga L.L.C., FryeCare Womens Services L.L.C., GAB Endoscopy Center LLC, GCSA Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, GIA/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Gainesville Endoscopy ASC LLC, Gainesville Endoscopy Center LLC, Gamma Surgery Center LLC, Gardendale Surgical Associates LLC, Gastric Health Institute L.L.C., Georgia Endoscopy Center LLC, Georgia Gifts From Grace L.L.C., Georgia Musculoskeletal Network Inc., Georgia North Fulton Healthcare Associates L.L.C., Georgia Northside Ear Nose and Throat L.L.C., Georgia Physicians of Cardiology L.L.C., Georgia Spectrum Neurosurgical Specialists L.L.C., Glen Echo Surgery Center LLC, Golden Ridge ASC LLC, Good Samaritan Medical Center Inc., Good Samaritan Surgery L.L.C., Graystone Family Healthcare  Tenet North Carolina L.L.C., Great Lakes Surgical Suites LLC, Greater Dallas Healthcare Enterprises, Greater Northwest Houston Enterprises, Greenville Physicians Surgery Center LLP, Greenwood ASC LLC, Greystone Internal Medicine  Brookwood L.L.C., Gulf Coast Community Hospital Inc., HC Hialeah Holdings Inc., HCH Tucson Holdings LLC, HCN EP Horizon City LLC, HCN EP Lee Trevino LLC, HCN EP Northeast LLC, HCN EP Sunland Park LLC, HCN Emerus El Paso LLC, HCN Emerus Management Sub LLC, HCN Emerus Texas LLC, HCN Laboratories Inc., HCN Physicians Inc., HCN Surgery Center Holdings Inc., HDMC Holdings L.L.C., HKRI Holdings LLC, HMHP/USP Surgery Centers LLC, HNMC Inc., HNW GP Inc., HNW LP Inc., HSRM International Inc., HSS Palm Beach Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, HSS/USP Surgery Center LLC, Hagerstown Surgery Center LLC, Harbor Heights Surgery Center LLC, Hardeeville Medical Group L.L.C., Hardeeville Primary Care L.L.C., Harlingen Physician Network Inc., Harper-Hutzel AHP Services Inc., Harvard Park Surgery Center LLC, Haymarket Surgery Center LLC, Health & Wellness Surgery Center L.P., Health Horizons of Kansas City Inc., Health Horizons of Murfreesboro Inc., Health Horizons/Piedmont Joint Venture LLC, Health Services CFMC Inc., Health Services HNMC Inc., Health Services Network Care Inc., Health Services Network 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L.L.C., North Fulton Primary Care - Windward Parkway L.L.C., North Fulton Primary Care - Wylie Bridge L.L.C., North Fulton Primary Care Associates L.L.C., North Fulton Pulmonary Specialists L.L.C., North Fulton Womens Consultants L.L.C., North Haven Surgery Center LLC, North Miami Medical Center Ltd., North Shore Same Day Surgery L.L.C., North Shore Surgical Suites LLC, NorthPointe Surgical Suites LLC, NorthShore/USP Surgery Centers II L.L.C., Northridge Surgery Center L.P., Northwest Georgia Orthopaedic Surgery Center LLC, Northwest Regional ASC LLC, Northwest Regional Surgery Center LLC, Northwest Surgery Center Ltd., Novant Health/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Novant/UVA/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Okatie Surgical Partners L.L.C., Old Tesson Surgery Center L.P., Olive Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Olive Branch Urgent Care #1 LLC, Ophthalmology Anesthesia Services LLC, Ophthalmology Surgery Center of Orlando LLC, Optimum Spine Center LLC, OrNda Healthcorp, OrNda Hospital Corporation, Orlando Health/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., OrthoArizona Surgery Center Gilbert LLC, OrthoLink ASC Corporation, OrthoLink Physicians Corporation, OrthoLink Radiology Services Corporation, OrthoLink/ Georgia ASC Inc., OrthoLink/New Mexico ASC Inc., Orthopedic Associates of the Lowcountry L.L.C., Oxford Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, PAHS/USP Surgery Centers LLC, PDN L.L.C., PHPS Inc., PHPS-CHM Acquisition Inc., PM CyFair Land Partners LLC, PMC Physician Network L.L.C., PSS Patient Solution Services LLC, Pacific Endo-Surgical Center L.P., Pacific Endoscopy and Surgery Center LLC, Paley Institute Global LLC, Palm Beach Gardens Community Hospital Inc., Palm Beach International Surgery Center LLC, Park Plaza Hospital Billing Center L.L.C., ParkCreek ASC LLC, Parkwest Surgery Center L.P., Patient Partners LLC, Peak Gastroenterology ASC LLC, Pediatric Surgery Center  Odessa LLC, Pediatric Surgery Centers LLC, Physician Performance Network L.L.C., Physician Performance Network of Arizona LLC, Physician Performance Network of South Carolina LLC, Physician Performance Network of Tucson LLC, Physicians Performance Network of Houston, Physicians Performance Network of North Texas, Physicians Surgery Center of Tempe LLC, Physicians Surgery Center of Chattanooga L.L.C., Physicians Surgery Center of Knoxville LLC, Piccard Surgery Center LLC, Piedmont ASC LLC, Piedmont Behavioral Medicine Associates LLC, Piedmont Cardiovascular Physicians L.L.C., Piedmont Carolina OB/GYN of York County L.L.C., Piedmont Carolina Vascular Surgery L.L.C., Piedmont East Urgent Care Center L.L.C., Piedmont Express Care at Sutton Road L.L.C., Piedmont Family Practice at Baxter Village L.L.C., Piedmont Family Practice at Rock Hill L.L.C., Piedmont Family Practice at Tega Cay L.L.C., Piedmont General Surgery Associates L.L.C., Piedmont Internal Medicine at Baxter Village L.L.C., Piedmont Physician Network LLC, Piedmont Pulmonology L.L.C., Piedmont Surgical Specialists L.L.C., Piedmont Urgent Care Center at Baxter Village L.L.C., Piedmont Urgent Care and Industrial Health Centers Inc., Piedmont/Carolinas Radiation Therapy LLC, Placentia-Linda Hospital Inc., Pleasanton Diagnostic Imaging Inc., Point of Rocks Surgery Center LLC, Porter Musculoskeletal Surgery Center LLC, Potomac View Surgery Center LLC, Practice Partners Management L.P., Premier ACO Physicians Network LLC, Premier ASC LLC, Premier Adult and Childrens Surgery Center LLC, Premier Endoscopy ASC LLC, Premier Health Plan Services Inc., Premier Medical Specialists L.L.C., Prince William Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Professional Anesthesia Services LLC, Pros Temporary Staffing Inc., Providence/UCLA/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Providence/USP Santa Clarita GP LLC, Providence/USP South Bay Surgery Centers L.L.C., Providence/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., Pueblo Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, R.H.S.C. El Paso Inc., RE Plano Med Inc., RHC Parkway Inc., RLC LLC, Reading Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Reading Endoscopy Center LLC, Reagan Street Surgery Center LLC, Red Cedar Surgery Center LLC, Redmond Surgery Center LLC, Republic Health Corporation of Rockwall County, Resolute Health Physicians Network Inc., Resolute Hospital Company LLC, Resurgens Surgery Center LLC, Rheumatology Associates of Atlanta Medical Center L.L.C., Rio Grande Valley Indigent Health Care Corporation, Riva Road Surgery Center LLC, River North Same Day Surgery L.L.C., Riverside Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Rock Bridge Surgical Institute L.L.C., Rock Hill Surgery Center LLC, Rockville Surgical Suites LLC, Rocky Mountain Endoscopy Centers LLC, Roswell Surgery Center L.L.C., SCNRE LLC, SFMP Inc., SFMPE - Crittenden L.L.C., SL-HLC Inc., SLH Physicians L.L.C., SLH Vista Inc., SLPA ACO LLC, SLUH Anesthesia Physicians L.L.C., SMSJ Imaging Company LLC, SMSJ Tucson Holdings LLC, SRRMC Management Inc., SSI Holdings Inc., Safety Harbor ASC Company LLC, Saint Francis Cardiology Associates L.L.C., Saint Francis Cardiovascular Surgery L.L.C., Saint Francis Center for Surgical Weight Loss L.L.C., Saint Francis Hospital Billing Center L.L.C., Saint Francis Hospital Medicare ACO LLC, Saint Francis Hospital Pro Fee Billing L.L.C., Saint Francis Hospital-Bartlett Inc., Saint Francis Medical Partners East L.L.C., Saint Francis Medical Partners General Surgery L.L.C., Saint Francis Physician Network LLC, Saint Francis Quality Alliance LLC, Saint Francis Surgery Center L.L.C., Saint Francis Surgical Associates L.L.C., Saint Francis-Arkansas Physician Network LLC, Saint Francis-Bartlett Physician Network LLC, Saint Thomas Campus Surgicare L.P., Saint Thomas Surgery Center New Salem LLC, Saint Thomas/USP Surgery Centers II L.L.C., Saint Thomas/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., Saint Thomas/USP  Baptist Plaza L.L.C., Saint Vincent Physician Services Inc., Salmon Surgery Center LLC, Same Day Management L.L.C., Same Day Surgery L.L.C., San Antonio Endoscopy L.P., San Fernando Valley Surgery Center L.P., San Gabriel Valley Surgical Center L.P., San Ramon ASC L. P., San Ramon Ambulatory Care LLC, San Ramon Network Joint Venture LLC, San Ramon Regional Medical Center LLC, Santa Barbara Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Santa Clarita Surgery Center L.P., Savannah Endoscopy Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Schertz Surgery Center LLC, Scottsdale Endoscopy ASC LLC, Scripps/USP Surgery Centers 2 LLC, Seaside Surgery Center LLC, Shelby Baptist Affinity LLC, Shelby Baptist Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Shore Outpatient Surgicenter L.L.C., Shoreline Real Estate Partnership LLP, Shoreline Surgery Center LLP, Sierra Providence Health Network Inc., Sierra Providence Healthcare Enterprises, Sierra Vista Hospital Inc., Sierra Vista Surgery Center LLC, Silver Cross Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Silver Cross/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Sinai-Grace Premier Clinical Management Services LLC, Solantic Development LLC, Solantic Holdings Corporation, South Carolina East Cooper Surgical Specialists L.L.C., South Carolina Health Services LLC, South Carolina SeWee Family Medicine L.L.C., South County Outpatient Endoscopy Services L.P., South Denver Musculoskeletal Surgical Partners LLC, South Florida Ambulatory Surgical Center LLC, South Fulton Health Care Centers Inc., South Plains Endoscopy Associates LLC, SouthCare Physicians Group Neurology L.L.C., SouthCare Physicians Group Obstetrics & Gynecology L.L.C., Southeast Ohio Surgical Suites LLC, Southern Orthopedics and Sports Medicine L.L.C., Southern States Physician Operations Inc., Southwest Childrens Hospital LLC, Southwest Endoscopy LLC, Southwestern Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Spalding Regional Medical Center Inc., Spalding Regional OB/GYN L.L.C., Spalding Regional Physician Services L.L.C., Specialty Surgicenters Inc., Springfield Service Holding Corporation, St. Augustine Endoscopy Center LLC, St. Christophers Pediatric Urgent Care Center - Allentown L.L.C, St. Josephs Hospital Surgical Co-Management LLC, St. Josephs Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, St. Louis Physician Alliance LLC, St. Louis Surgical Center LC, St. Louis Urology Center LLC, St. Lukes/USP Surgery Centers LLC, St. Marys Hospital Cardiovascular Co-Management LLC, St. Marys Hospital Surgical Co-Management LLC, St. Marys Levee Company LLC, St. Marys Medical Center Inc., St. Vincent Health/USP LLC, St. Vincent/USP Surgery Centers LLC, Suburban Endoscopy Center LLC, Summit View Surgery Center LLC, Sun View Imaging L.L.C., SurgCenter Camelback LLC, SurgCenter Clearwater LLC, SurgCenter Development, SurgCenter Northeast LLC, SurgCenter Pinellas LLC, SurgCenter Tucson LLC, SurgCenter at Paradise Valley LLC, SurgCenter of Deer Valley LLC, SurgCenter of Glen Burnie LLC, SurgCenter of Greater Dallas LLC, SurgCenter of Greater Jacksonville LLC, SurgCenter of Northern Baltimore LLC, SurgCenter of Palm Beach Gardens LLC, SurgCenter of Pine Ridge LLC, SurgCenter of Silver Spring LLC, SurgCenter of Southern Maryland LLC, SurgCenter of St. Lucie LLC, SurgCenter of White Marsh LLC, SurgCenter of the Potomac LLC, Surgery Affiliate of El Paso LLC, Surgery Center at Mount Pleasant LLC, Surgery Center at University Park LLC, Surgery Center of Columbia L.P., Surgery Center of Coral Gables LLC, Surgery Center of Okeechobee LLC, Surgery Center of Pembroke Pines L.L.C., Surgery Center of Peoria L.L.C., Surgery Center of Santa Barbara LLC, Surgery Center of Scottsdale LLC, Surgery Centers of America II L.L.C., Surgery Centre of SW Florida LLC, Surgical & Bariatric Associates of Atlanta Medical Center L.L.C., Surgical Center Development #3 LLC, Surgical Center Development #4 LLC, Surgical Clinical Excellence at Desert Regional LLC, Surgical Elite of Avondale L.L.C., Surgical Health Partners LLC, Surgical Institute Management LLC, Surgical Institute of Reading LLC, Surgicare of Miramar L.L.C., Surginet Inc., Surgis Inc., Surgis Management Services Inc., Surgis of Chico Inc., Surgis of Phoenix Inc., Surgis of Redding Inc., Surgis of Victoria Inc., Sutton Road Pediatrics L.L.C., Sylvan Grove Hospital Inc., T1 Security LLC, TENN SM LLC, TFPS IV L.L.C., TH Healthcare Ltd., TH International Services Florida LLC, TLC ASC LLC, TOPS Specialty Hospital Ltd., TOSCA ASC Holdings LLC, TPR Practice Management LLC, TPS VI of PA L.L.C., TSPE LLC, Tamarac Surgery Center LLC, Tampa Bay Joint and Spine LLC, Tempe New Day Surgery Center LP, Templeton Imaging Inc., Tenet Business Services Corporation, Tenet California Inc., Tenet Central Carolina Physicians Inc., Tenet EKG Inc., Tenet El Paso Ltd., Tenet Employment Inc., Tenet Finance Corp., Tenet Florida Inc., Tenet Florida Physician Services II L.L.C., Tenet Florida Physician Services III L.L.C., Tenet Florida Physician Services L.L.C., Tenet Fort Mill Inc., Tenet Global Business Center Inc., Tenet HealthSystem Bucks County L.L.C., Tenet HealthSystem Graduate L.L.C., Tenet HealthSystem Hahnemann L.L.C., Tenet HealthSystem Medical Inc., Tenet HealthSystem Nacogdoches ASC GP Inc., Tenet HealthSystem Philadelphia Inc., Tenet HealthSystem Roxborough LLC, Tenet HealthSystem St. Christophers Hospital for Children L.L.C., Tenet Hilton Head Heart L.L.C., Tenet Hospitals Limited, Tenet Network Management Inc., Tenet Patient Safety Organization LLC, Tenet Physician Resources LLC, Tenet Physician Services - Hilton Head Inc., Tenet Rehab Piedmont Inc., Tenet Relocation Services L.L.C., Tenet SC East Cooper Hospitalists L.L.C., Tenet South Carolina Gastrointestinal Surgical Specialists L.L.C., Tenet South Carolina Island Medical L.L.C., Tenet South Carolina Lowcountry OB/GYN L.L.C., Tenet South Carolina Mt. Pleasant OB/GYN L.L.C., Tenet Unifour Urgent Care Center L.L.C., Tenet Ventures Inc., TenetCare Frisco Inc., Terre Haute Surgical Center LLC, Teton Outpatient Services LLC, Texan Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Texas Orthopedics Surgery Center LLC, Texas Regional Medical in Sunnyvale, The 6300 West Roosevelt Partnership, The Healthcare Insurance Corporation, The Healthcare Underwriting Company a Risk Retention Group, The Huron Corporation, The Old Bridge Surgery Center LLC, The Outpatient Center LLC, The Southeastern Spine Institute Ambulatory Surgery Center L.L.C., The Surgery Center at Jensen Beach LLC, The Tresanti Surgical Center LLC, Theda Oaks Gastroenterology & Endoscopy Center LLC, Three Springs ASC LLC, Timonium Surgery Center LLC, Titan Health Corporation, Titan Health of Chattanooga Inc., Titan Health of Hershey Inc., Titan Health of Mount Laurel LLC, Titan Health of North Haven Inc., Titan Health of Pittsburgh Inc., Titan Health of Pleasant Hills Inc., Titan Health of Princeton Inc., Titan Health of Sacramento Inc., Titan Health of Saginaw Inc., Titan Health of Titusville Inc., Titan Health of West Penn Inc., Titan Health of Westminster Inc., Titan Management Corporation, Titusville Center for Surgical Excellence LLC, Treasure Coast ASC LLC, Trinity Health of New England/USP Surgery Centers L.L.C., True Medical Weight Loss L.P., True Medical Wellness LP, True Results Georgia Inc., True Results HoldCo LLC, True Results Missouri LLC, Tucson Digestive Institute LLC, Tucson Hospital Holdings Inc., Tucson Physician Group Holdings LLC, Turlock Imaging Services LLC, Turlock Land Company LLC, Twin Cities Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Twin Cities Community Hospital Inc., UAP Lebanon Endo LLC, UAP Nashville Endoscopy LLC, UAP Scopes LLC, UAP of Arizona Inc., UAP of California Inc., UAP of Missouri Inc., UAP of New Jersey Inc., UAP of Oklahoma Inc., UAP of Tennessee Inc., UAP of Texas Inc., UCC Tucson Holdings LLC, UMC Surgery Center Lubbock LLC, UMC-USP Surgery Centers LLC, USC/Norris Cancer Hospital, USP 12th Ave Real Estate Inc., USP Acquisition Corporation, USP Alexandria Inc., USP Assurance Company, USP Athens Inc., USP Atlanta Inc., USP Austin Inc., USP Bariatric LLC, USP Beaumont Inc., USP Bergen Inc., USP Bloomington Inc., USP Bridgeton Inc., USP Cedar Park Inc., USP Chesterfield Inc., USP Chicago Inc., USP Cincinnati Inc., USP Coast Inc., USP Columbia Inc., USP Connecticut Inc., USP Corpus Christi Inc., USP Creve Coeur Inc., USP Denver Inc., USP Des Peres Inc., USP Destin Inc., USP Domestic Holdings Inc., USP Effingham Inc., USP Encinitas Endoscopy Inc., USP Fenton Inc., USP Festus Inc., USP Florissant Inc., USP Fort Lauderdale Inc., USP Fort Worth Hospital Real Estate Inc., USP Fredericksburg Inc., USP Fresno Inc., USP Frontenac Inc., USP Gateway Inc., USP HMH Surgery Center at Shore LLC, USP Harbour View Inc., USP Houston Inc., USP Indiana Inc., USP International Holdings Inc., USP Jacksonville Inc., USP Jersey City Inc., USP Kansas City Inc., USP Knoxville Inc., USP Little Rock Inc., USP Long Island Inc., USP Louisiana Inc., USP Lubbock Inc., USP Maryland Inc., USP Mason Ridge Inc., USP Mattis Inc., USP Michigan Inc., USP Midland Inc., USP Midland Real Estate Inc., USP Midwest Inc., USP Mission Hills Inc., USP Montana Inc., USP Morris Inc., USP Mt. Vernon Inc., USP Nevada Holdings LLC, USP Nevada Inc., USP New Hampshire Inc., USP New Jersey Inc., USP Newport News Inc., USP North Carolina Inc., USP North Kansas City Inc., USP North Texas Inc., USP Northwest Arkansas Inc., USP OKC Inc., USP OKC Manager Inc., USP Office Parkway Inc., USP Ohio RE Inc., USP Oklahoma Inc., USP Olive Inc., USP Orlando Inc., USP Philadelphia Inc., USP Phoenix Inc., USP Portland Inc., USP Reading Inc., USP Richmond II Inc., USP Richmond Inc., USP Sacramento Inc., USP San Antonio Inc., USP Santa Barbara Surgery Centers Inc., USP Securities Corporation , USP Silver Cross Inc., USP Siouxland Inc., USP Somerset Inc., USP South Carolina Inc., USP Southlake RE Inc., USP St. Louis Inc., USP St. Louis Urology Inc., USP St. Peters Inc., USP Sunset Hills Inc., USP TJ STL Inc., USP Tennessee Inc., USP Texas Air L.L.C., USP Texas L.P., USP Torrance Inc., USP Tucson Inc., USP Turnersville Inc., USP Virginia Beach Inc., USP Washington Inc., USP Waxahachie Management L.L.C., USP Webster Groves Inc., USP West Covina Inc., USP Westwood Inc., USP Winter Park Inc., USP Wisconsin Inc., USP-HMH Surgery Center at Central Jersey LLC, USP/Carondelet Tucson Surgery Centers LLC, USP/SOS Joint Venture LLC, USPI Group Holdings Inc., USPI Holding Company Inc.1, USPI Holdings Inc., USPI Physician Strategy Group LLC, USPI San Diego Inc., USPI Stockton Inc., USPI Surgical Services Inc., Underwood Surgery Center LLC, United Anesthesia Partners Inc., United Real Estate Development Inc., United Real Estate Holdings Inc., United Surgical Partners Holdings Inc., United Surgical Partners International, United Surgical Partners International Inc., Universal Medical Care Center L.L.C., University Surgery Center Ltd., Upper Bay Surgery Center LLC, Utica/USP Tulsa L.L.C., VB Brownsville LTACH LLC, VBOA ASC GP LLC, VBOA ASC Partners L.L.C., VHM Services Inc., VHS Acquisition Corporation, VHS Acquisition Partnership Number 1 L.P, VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 1 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 11 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 12 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 3 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 4 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 5 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 6 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 7 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 8 Inc., VHS Acquisition Subsidiary Number 9 Inc., VHS Arizona Heart Institute Inc., VHS Brownsville Hospital Company LLC, VHS Chicago Market Procurement LLC, VHS Childrens Hospital of Michigan Inc., VHS Detroit Businesses Inc., VHS Detroit Receiving Hospital Inc., VHS Detroit Ventures Inc., VHS Harlingen Hospital Company LLC, VHS Harper-Hutzel Hospital Inc., VHS Holding Company Inc., VHS Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital Inc., VHS Imaging Centers Inc., VHS New England Holding Company I Inc., VHS Outpatient Clinics Inc., VHS Phoenix Health Plan Inc., VHS Physicians of Michigan, VHS Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan Inc., VHS San Antonio Imaging Partners L.P., VHS San Antonio Partners LLC, VHS Sinai-Grace Hospital Inc., VHS University Laboratories Inc., VHS Valley Health System LLC, VHS Valley Holdings LLC, VHS Valley Management Company Inc., VHS West Suburban Medical Center Inc., VHS Westlake Hospital Inc., VHS of Anaheim Inc., VHS of Arrowhead Inc., VHS of Huntington Beach Inc., VHS of Illinois Inc., VHS of Michigan Inc., VHS of Michigan Staffing Inc., VHS of Orange County Inc., VHS of Phoenix Inc., VHS of South Phoenix Inc., Valley Baptist Lab Services LLC, Valley Baptist Physician Performance Network, Valley Baptist Realty Company LLC, Valley Baptist Surgery Center LLC, Valley Baptist Surgery Center Real Estate LLC, Valley Baptist Wellness Center LLC, Valley Health Care Network, Vanguard Health Financial Company LLC, Vanguard Health Holding Company I LLC, Vanguard Health Holding Company II LLC, Vanguard Health Management Inc., Vanguard Health Systems, Vanguard Health Systems Inc., Vanguard Holding Company I Inc., Vanguard Holding Company II Inc., Vanguard Medical Specialists LLC, Vanguard Physician Services LLC, Ventana Surgical Center LLC, Veroscan Inc., Victoria Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., WHASA L.C., Walker Baptist Affinity LLC, Walker Street Imaging Care Inc., Warner Park Surgery Center LLC, Watermark Physician Services Inc., Webster Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Wellington Endo LLC, Wellstar/USP Joint Venture I LLC, Wellstar/USP Joint Venture II LLC, West Boca Health Services L.L.C., West Boca Medical Center Inc., West Bozeman Surgery Center LLC, West Palm Healthcare Real Estate Inc., West Suburban Radiation Therapy Center LLC, Westgate Surgery Center LLC, Westlake Hospital LLC, Westlawn Surgery Center LLC, Westminster Surgery Center LLC, Westminster Surgery Centers LLC, White Fence Surgical Suites LLC, Wilmington Endoscopy Center LLC, Wilshire Rental Corp., Windsor Mill Surgery Center LLC, Winter Haven Ambulatory Surgical Center L.L.C., Wisconsin Specialty Surgery Center LLC, and Wymark Surgery Center LLC.

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S&P 500 3,856.10 DOW 32,653.20 QQQ 275.11 The 9 Essential Pages Your Ecommerce Website Must Include Buy Alert For $2 Coin (Ad) Its Still Not Too Late To Get Into Energy Stocks Strong Q3 Driving Growth At S&P 500 Component Citizens Financial Buy Alert For $2 Coin (Ad) Online Lender SoFi Jumps 14% On Better-Than-Expected Q3 Results Intuitive Surgical Stock is Both a Legacy and Next-Gen Play Buy Alert For $2 Coin (Ad) Why American Water Works May Not Want a Fed Pivot President: Moldova will defy Russian pressure, stay pro-West

S&P 500 3,856.10 DOW 32,653.20 QQQ 275.11 The 9 Essential Pages Your Ecommerce Website Must Include Buy Alert For $2 Coin (Ad) Its Still Not Too Late To Get Into Energy Stocks Strong Q3 Driving Growth At S&P 500 Component Citizens Financial Buy Alert For $2 Coin (Ad) Online Lender SoFi Jumps 14% On Better-Than-Expected Q3 Results Intuitive Surgical Stock is Both a Legacy and Next-Gen Play Buy Alert For $2 Coin (Ad) Why American Water Works May Not Want a Fed Pivot President: Moldova will defy Russian pressure, stay pro-West
This is a current list of the top 250 companies by market capitalization on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Learn more .

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is one of the largest, and most recognizable, stock exchanges in the world. The NYSE is in New York City, New York at 11 Wall Street. The NYSE has been in existence since the earliest days of the United States becoming a nation, in 1792 and is primarily made up of blue-chip companies with large market capitalizations. In fact, many of the stocks that make up the Dow Jones Composite Index (i.e. The Dow) are listed on the NYSE.

This article gives a brief history of the New York Stock Exchange. In addition, it covers topics such as what kind of stocks trade on the exchange, what are the listing requirements, how trading is performed, and what the daily price movement of the NYSE tells investors about investor sentiment.

What Were the Origins of the NYSE?

Today, the New York Stock Exchange is known as the center of the financial universe. However, the exchanges origin is far more humble. On May 17, 1792, 24 stockbrokers signed the Buttonwood Agreement creating a centralized exchange to help provide order to the securities market in what was still a young nation. The "Buttonwood Agreement comes from the tree of the same name under which the founders signed the agreement.

An initial benefit of the exchange was how it removed the need for auctioneers when trading commodities like wheat and tobacco and to set a commission rate. The exchange initially focused on government bonds.

However, the exchange had no formal home. Business was usually conducted informally in the local coffeehouses. In 1817, the exchange changed its name to the New York Stock & Exchange Board which later became the New York Stock Exchange. At this time, the exchange adopted a constitution that set the rules for trading. A group of stockbrokers met twice a day at 40 Wall Street to trade 30 stocks and bonds.

Over time, the exchange moved became the financial hub of the country and moved to its current location in 1865.

What Kind of Stocks Trade on the NYSE?

As of June 2022, the NYSE includes approximately 2,400 companies with a market capitalization of over $28.2 trillion. Although the NYSE trades stocks of all market capitalizations, its best known for trading the stocks of large cap companies. These have the benefit of being mature companies in mature industries. And many of these companies reward shareholders with dividends.

However, that also means that many of these companies are better suited for value investors as opposed to growth investors. In bear markets this stability can be a benefit for investors as these stocks tend to perform less bad than more volatile stocks. But in a bull market, these stocks are not likely to provide investors with the growth that they look for.

An interesting fact about how the NYSE and NASDAQ operate is that the companies with the five largest market caps on the NYSE are also listed on the NASDAQ exchange.

What Are the Listing Requirements For the NYSE?

The NYSE has strict guidelines that govern the types of companies that can list on the exchange. Here are the major requirements that all companies must meet:

The company must have at least 2,200 shareholders

The company must trade over 100,000 shares per month

The company must have a market valuation of over $100 million

The company must generate more than $75 million in annual revenue

However, there is at least one advantage of having such stringent requirements. That is the companies that meet the requirements generally find it easier to get more investors funds when they hold their initial public offering (IPO).

Once a company begins trading on the NYSE, it must continue to meet these requirements. If it doesnt it can be delisted. In addition to these requirements, the stock must continue to trade above $1. If the price of a stock drops below $1 for more than 29 consecutive trading days, the stock receives an Initial Price Violation Notice.

At that point, the company has 10 days to provide the exchange with a plan for bringing their shares above $1.

How are Trades Executed on the NYSE?

For over a century, the floor of the NYSE was the place for investors to be. This meant trades were conducted by traders who ran buy and sell orders across the trading floor looking to broker a deal for their clients. But with the birth of the NASDAQ exchange in 1971, the New York Stock Exchange began conducting electronic trading.

However, the NYSE continues to conduct trades in an auction style. Brokers purchase stocks on behalf of their clients or firms. Every order features a broker who will enter the order electronically and a specialist who serves as the market maker for that stock. The specialist posts bid and ask prices and manages the actual execution of the trades. And there are still a handful of stockbrokers who still traffic buy and sell orders physically on the floor of the exchange.

How Does the NYSE Signal Investor Sentiment?

Like its counterpart, the NASDAQ, the NYSE measures the risk appetite of investors. When the NYSE is moving higher over a length of time, it signals that a risk on environment. Conversely when the NYSE moves lower over a significant period, it signals that investors are moving to a risk off position.

Some Final Thoughts on the NYSE

Financial news networks plan their programming schedule around the opening and closing bell of the New York Stock Exchange. Its still considered a distinguished honor when individuals or groups are invited to ring the opening bell. In fact, Warren Buffett is attributed with saying that in the short term, the stock market acts like a voting machine. A fact that many U.S. presidents will attest to.

The NYSE is the oldest and most recognizable of all the stock exchanges. It also has the most stringent requirements for inclusion. And those requirements must be maintained even after a stock begins publicly trading on the exchange.

Although the NYSE still has a small in-person Trading Floor, much of the trading is done electronically to provide traders with the speed to execute trades.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company provides solutions that allow customers to capture, analyze, and act upon data seamlessly in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Japan. The company offers general purpose servers for multi-workload computing and workload-optimized servers; HPE ProLiant rack and tower servers; HPE BladeSystem and HPE Synergy; and solutions for secondary workloads and traditional tape, storage networking, and disk products, such as HPE Modular Storage Arrays and HPE XP. It also offers HPE Apollo and Cray products; and HPE Superdome Flex, HPE Nonstop, HPE Integrity, and HPE Edgeline products. In addition, the company provides HPE Aruba product portfolio that includes wired and wireless local area network hardware products, such as Wi-Fi access points, switches, routers, and sensors; HPE Aruba software and services comprising cloud-based management, network management, network access control, analytics and assurance, and location; and professional and support services, as well as as-a-service and consumption models for the intelligent edge portfolio of products. Further, it offers various leasing, financing, IT consumption, and utility programs and asset management services for customers to facilitate technology deployment models and the acquisition of complete IT solutions, including hardware, software, and services from Hewlett Packard Enterprise and others. Additionally, the company invests in communications and media solutions. It has a partnership with Striim, Inc. to offer high performance and mission-critical solutions with real-time analytics. It serves commercial and large enterprise groups, such as business and public sector enterprises; and through various partners comprising resellers, distribution partners, original equipment manufacturers, independent software vendors, systems integrators, and advisory firms. Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company was founded in 1939 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
W&M prepares to mark 50th anniversary of African-American residential students

Breaking barriers Left to right: Janet Brown Strafer, Karen Ely, Lynn Briley were the first African-American students to live at William & Mary. Photo taken in 2011 by Ameya Jammi '12 Photo - of - Hide Caption

When Karen Ely, Lynn Briley and Janet Brown arrived at William & Mary as freshmen, they didnt realize they were making history. The three members of the Class of 1971 were the universitys first female African-American undergraduates and its first African-American residential students.

Next fall, William & Mary will begin a yearlong commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Ely, Briley and Browns arrival, celebrating their place in the history of African-Americans at the university and recognizing those who came before and after them.

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The thing that makes this momentous is that it marks a time when the College actually opened its doors totally to African-American students, and that I think is a huge celebration for both the women and the College itself, said Jacquelyn McLendon, emerita professor of English.

McLendon is leading the committee that is planning the commemoration. About 20 faculty, administrators and students are involved as well as Board of Visitors member Warren W. Buck III M.S. '70, Ph.D. '76, D.Sc. '13 and the three alumnae being celebrated.

As a professor who taught here for 20-some years, I feel privileged to be with these women on this committee because we can talk about exactly what their experiences were, and I think they know that I feel they made it possible for me to be here and for others like me to be here, said McLendon.

Although planning is ongoing, the committee is looking to mark the commemoration in all of the universitys major events throughout the 2017-18 academic year, including Convocation, Charter Day and Commencement. The committee is also considering a symposium, speaker series, classes on topics related to the anniversary and special programming with historical interpreters from Colonial Williamsburg.

The W&M community has also been invited to help prepare for the commemoration by donating photos and other memorabilia related to African-American students at the university. The items may be used online or in Swem Library exhibits and will later be included in the librarys archives. People interested in contributing photos or memorabilia may contact the anniversary committee or McLendon at 757-221-1975 for details.

The 50th anniversary will kick off one year after another significant event in William & Marys history: the dedication of the first buildings on campus named for African-Americans: Lemon and Hardy Halls. The two residence halls were renamed in the spring on recommendation from the Task Force on Race and Race Relations and dedicated on Oct. 15.

This anniversary is a significant milestone for William & Mary, one that merits the kind of effort the university is putting into the commemoration year, said McLendon. I had similar thoughts when the Lemon Project started, that it was an important sign of the times, that we are trying to move in positive directions in terms of race relations  Its pretty clear that this anniversary is something William & Mary should celebrate since it marks the historically important moment of its official desegregation.

The commemoration will precede another major celebration: the 100anniversary of women at W&M, which will be celebrated throughout in 2018-19.




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To Spot Customer Support Problems, Become Your Own Customers

Customer engagement is front and center on many businesses priority lists today. Putting it on a list, however, doesnt make it happen. It doesnt help customers that you pay lip service to a great customer experience. It wont even help if you hire an expensive consultant to measure your customer support. The best possible way to improve the customer experience is to look for the biggest roadblocks  customers biggest aggravations  and eliminate them.

Too many companies look in the wrong places for answers to lackluster customer support, according to a recent article by Steve DiGioia writing for Business2Community.

Stop looking at your flow charts or profit and loss statements, he wrote. They dont tell you what or where the issues are, only the revenue lost because of your mistakes.

One of the best ways to find the barriers to a great customer experience is to speak with customers and the contact center agents who speak with customers all day, every day. Another novel approach is to actually become the customer by interacting with your companys contact center and self-service technologies. Pick up the phone or log on, and chances are good youll be able to spot the barriers yourself in a hurry.

Get out of your office and into the field, wrote DiGioia. Face the same scenarios as any other cash-paying customer. How many touch-points do your customers experience during a transaction? And better yet, where does the first touch point start? Think of yourself as a first time customer of any business.

The difference between a great customer experience and a poor one is often measured by the ease of the journey. How easily are your customers finding support? Do they have to wait on hold? Are they being transferred multiple times? Do agents have the right answers at their fingertips? Are self-service solutions such as IVRs sending them around in circles?

There are a number of common problems when it comes to the customer experience. Most often, its because of poor scheduling. There simply arent enough agents to pick up calls in a timely way. Agents who do handle calls are harried, burned out apathetic toward their jobs. Even if theyre engaged employees, if they dont have the time and the right tools to help customers, customers wont be happy. Unhappy customers lead to unhappy agents (and vice versa).

Scheduling and workforce management rooted in the past  in spreadsheets or outdated software  are at the core of many barriers to a great customer experience. To adequately meet call and contact volume, the contact center must be staffed to the right levels at all times of day. Often, this means changing variables on-the-fly: something thats difficult with outdated software and impossible with spreadsheets. Todays cloud-based workforce management solutions can improve adherence and ensure that customer support is right-staffed at every moment of the day.

Customers spend more if the perceived benefit of owning your product or service is higher than what another business offers, wrote DiGioia.

If your competitors are offering customers a better customer journey, guess where that leaves you?

Edited by Alicia Young
Bellefonte buyer to complete plant

15 November 2016

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Nuclear Development LLC yesterday bought at auction the partially-completed Bellefonte nuclear power plant from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) for $111 million. The private company intends to invest up to $13 billion to complete construction of the nuclear plant.

Bellefonte (Image: TVA)

TVA announced in May that it would sell the 1400 acre (578 hectare) property, near Hollywood, Alabama, after declaring the site surplus to its requirements. It announced in July that the site, with two partially-built pressurized water reactors (PWRs) plus infrastructure including switchyards, office buildings, warehouses, cooling towers, water pumping stations and railroad spurs, would be sold at auction to qualified bidders. TVA set a minimum price of $36.4 million for the site.

The auction process was managed on behalf of TVA by Concentric Energy Advisors Inc, which marketed the property to more than 500 potential buyers. Of these, 11 expressed an interest and signed confidentiality agreements for further discussions. Three bidders completed letters of intent which included financial qualifications and a plan of their intended use of the property.

Nuclear Development bid against Jackson Holdings of Alabama LLC, representing investors wanting to use equipment from the unfinished reactor for a nuclear plant in India, the Times Free Press reported. The third pre-qualified bidder, Nevada-based Phoenix Energy, had intended to use the site to produce electricity using technology based on electromagnetic induction energy fields but was unable to put the necessary financing in place in time and did not participate in the auction.

Franklin Haney, who established Nuclear Development in 2002, thanked TVA for a "fair and open" bidding process and acknowledged the support of congressional delegations from Alabama and Tennessee for their continued support of nuclear development. "I appreciate TVA's confidence in our proposal and I am excited to carry forward the investments TVA has already made in Bellefonte Nuclear Plant for the benefit of North Alabama and the surrounding communities. This is truly a historic day for the TVA region," he said.

Nuclear Development said it intends to invest up to an additional $13 billion to complete construction of Bellefonte, starting in 2017. The company has up to two years to close on the property and is required to make a minimum $25 million investment in the property during the five-year period following closing. Until closing, the Bellefonte site will be maintained by TVA.

TVA purchased Bellefonte in 1974 and began work to build two Babcock & Wilcox PWRs. Construction was suspended in 1988, when unit 1 was about 90% complete and unit 2 58% complete. Since then, many of the units' components have been transferred or sold, while others would need to be upgraded or replaced, so the levels of completion are now substantially lower - 55%, according to Nuclear Development.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission reinstated the construction permits for the units in 2009. TVA decided in 2011 that it would complete Bellefonte unit 1 after the completion of Watts Bar 2. The company subsequently decided Bellefonte was no longer needed to meet future baseload power needs. Watts Bar 2 entered commercial operation last month.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

Related topics
Oil industries are a major income earner for countries with oil fields. These industries export oil to different countries around the world. Since most world economies are reliant on carbon energy forms, petroleum, and petroleum products fetch good prices earning the countries revenue and providing employment to citizens and expatriates. The largest oil company in the world is the Saudi Arabia-based Saudi Aramco. In 2017, it reported a revenue of $465.49 billion US dollars.

Unfortunately, in their exploration and daily business, these oil companies leave a negative impact on the environment, especially from the release of gasses that are responsible for global warming and ultimately climate change. Petroleum is critical to industries, and it is highly vital to maintaining and running industrial civilization as it is today. The world is consuming 30 billion barrels of oil annually, with the developed countries leading. In 2007, the US alone consumed 25% of the oil produced in that year.

The Five Biggest Oil Companies In The World

Saudi Aramco

Saudi Aramco is the world's largest oil company. Its headquarters are located in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The company is state-owned. It was founded in 1933 as the California-Arabian Standard Oil Company and renamed in 1988 as the Saudi Aramco. It has the largest oil reserves in the world and earns a revenue of around 465 billion US dollars a year. The company produces other products such as petroleum, natural gas, and petrochemicals. The company has a worldwide presence for exploration and distribution.

Sinopec

Sinopec is a state-owned Chinese oil company in Beijing. It is the second-largest oil company in the world with annual revenue of 455.499 billion dollars. Sinopec also deals in oil and gas exploration, production of petrochemicals, and sales and distribution services. The company expands its assets by buying other petroleum company shares as well as establishing drills in unexplored African territories. The company has been criticized for using damaging methods in the exploration of oil in Gabons Loango National Park. The activities of this company in the protected areas threaten the well-being of the wildlife living there. Sinopec has also been responsible for massive pollution of water bodies.

China National Petroleum Corporation

The Corporation is a state-owned organization established in 1988 with headquarters in Beijing. The company is ranked third in our list of biggest oil companies in the world with a revenue of 428.62 billion dollars. It is a major employer of more than one million people. The company is involved in the refining, production of natural gas and petrochemicals, exploration of oil fields and marketing of its products. The company has branches and investments in other countries both in Asia and Africa and shares in other oil companies around the world. The company has been held responsible for the pollution of water and air through leaks and destruction of the environment through drilling in the process of exploration

ExxonMobil

ExxonMobil is an American oil company with headquarters in Texas. It ranks fourth among the biggest oil companies in the world by revenue generated. The company was founded in 1999 through the merger of Exxon (formerly Standard Oil Company of New Jersey) and Mobil (formerly the Standard Oil Company of New York) and has a revenue of 268.9 billion dollars. ExxonMobil deals with crude oil, natural gas, petrochemicals, and other oil products. The company is criticized for its slow response to environmental pollution including the cleaning up of oil spills.

Environmental Effects Of Oil

Some of the oil companies have been responsible for environmental pollution through by-products and oil spills. The oil industry is the largest source of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), the chemicals responsible for smog and ground-level ozone. Combustion of fossil fuels emits greenhouse gasses and other pollutants such as heavy metals.
Chief Constable: Police Will Hit Low Level Drug Dealers in Wrexham  Asks Councillors To Play Their Part

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Nov 15th, 2016

A consultation meeting on high level crime plans took the form of a direct Q&A session with the Chief Constable over local drug problems.

Last night Arfon Jones, the North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) and North Wales Polices Chief Constable Mark Polin held an open meeting at Wrexham Glyndwr University over the Police and Crime Plan for North Wales.

The agenda was largely bypassed with the ongoing drug and antisocial behaviour issues in certain parts of Wrexham dominating the discussion, with several very angry current and ex-councillors and some local residents raising the issue.

Councillor I David Bithell, local member for the Stansty ward raised a point he has made previously in the Guildhall regarding the lack of a dedicated drugs squad in Wrexham to tackle what he called the escalating drugs problem in the area.

Chief Constable Polin gave detail of the priority crime team in Wrexham where resources are allocated depending if it is deemed a threat is significant, which has to be balanced across the entire resources of the force.

North Wales Police resources could be cut further, with financial information disclosed of the previous five years of cuts totally 27m with around 4.5m more certainly due to come, with the direct impact on the frontline of reduced PCSOs and therefore coverage on the beat.

The meeting was presented with a pack of slides demonstrating how policing is now focussed towards non-street crime, with cybercrime being an example of high tech investment by the force with more crime online than on the streets.

Interesting slide on a typical day in North Wales pic.twitter.com/7QFscUf4DB  Wrexham.com (@wrexham) November 14, 2016

In the context of the local anti social behaviour and drugs related issues there was a stark contrast between what the Chief Constable and PCC had as priorities and those in the audience felt they should be.

Councillor Phil Wynn spoke of how he was fully supportive of the child protection work by North Wales Police and the diminishing resources and demands placed on the force, but was clear that antisocial behaviour and drugs were the issue of the day.

Councillors Steve Wilson and Phil Wynn spoke of the issues mentioned last week in Rhosddu, referring to the PCCs predecessor who had told them little fish drugs offences were of no interest to him and how that needed to change with the new(ish) PCC.

PCC Jones said as a local person he saw the issues on a day-to-day basis, observing: One agency we have not talked about that is responsible for dishing out the needles in the town is the health board. There should be a system in place where if you are dishing the needles out there should be a place where they can be collected, or used safely.

Chief Constable Polin commented: We will not arrest our way out of this. This requires a joint response. It is not the polices job, it is not your job or kids job to collect needles but it should be someones job. There seems to be no coming together over the issues, that is unacceptable.

Councillor Malcolm King spoke in detail and at length over drug issues and their impact, calling MPs and AMs spineless for not recognising there has to be some kind of management of this, rather than just treating often really pathetic or sad people as criminals.

Councillor King added: I have a ward full of people in despair as all they see is blatant drug dealing. You would not have to have any detective skills higher than a five year old to see it. Daddy, I am only five but why are there thirty people an hour calling of a Friday evening at that house? This does not need any policing skills whatsoever to work out what is going on.

A meeting at Wrexham Councils own Crown Buildings was referenced with staff members saying they had reported drug use and dealing many times with the feedback apparently given of if we arrest them they will just move on somewhere else. Later the meeting was told only one report, relating to alcohol, had been received.

A dispute over the reporting of crimes took place, with Councillor King and others stating that reports were being made of crimes, sometimes involving detailed logging by concerned resident.

Chief Constable Polin requested more intelligence to be fed to the police, and invited logs and reports to be shared. Later in the meeting one audience member related how they had tried to call police via the 101 number, yet after 20 minutes of no reply had given up.

Councillor King suggested a more hands on approach inviting police to observe properties saying you would have to be completely braindead not to see what is going on, adding: It cannot be due to lack of intelligence, there are hundreds of drug offences taking place in my ward everyday right in front of everybodys faces. Public confidence is rock bottom.

Chief Constable Polin asked the on the whole Councillor based audience to encourage their communities to report crimes to the police. He said: I get your point Malcolm that you are seeing it, but you are probably more attuned to it as it is on your doorstep. Whatever you can do to convey information to us will be appreciated.

Councillor King replied saying people with close relationships with police had kept logs, phone through details and pass information, noting: It is not acceptable to say the information is not getting through, I know it is.

Chief Constable Polin invited Councillor King to liaise with the towns Inspector to ensure logs and information were being passed over. Councillor King said he had been doing such things over the past years.

He added: Some of the major drug dealers, that everybody knows who they are, are still doing exactly the same thing. This is after I have said who it is, they know their names and address. The only conclusion I can come to is it is a too lower of a priority for the police to deal with it.

Councillor Powell accused Chief Constable Polin of smoke and mirrors with his presentation saying various areas of concern were being dealt with by other agencies such as the National Crime Agency.

Councillor Powell also called the policing model dated, saying it used a 1970s model of resource of deployment: You as Chief Constable need to give Wrexham the resources it needs. The deployment of Officers is a 60s / 70s model, and we are not there anymore.

Chief Constable Polin fired back strongly, stating it was not smoke and mirrors with a detailed explanation on how North Wales Police deal with crime at a high level, which despite being serious and specialised is not of a level to warrant NCA involvement.

Chief Constable Polin also firmly disputed the claim of a 1970s approach to policing, adding Wrexham gets more resources than the western area of the force.

So far Councillors asking questions, well absolutely hammering lack of action on drugs in Wrexham more like. Strong stuff. (The Qs that is)  Wrexham.com (@wrexham) November 14, 2016

After several questions from Wrexham Councillors Chief Constable Polin said: I am getting a bit tired of Councillors blaming the police for issues, and referring them to our 101 system, when it seems to me you are not equipped, or not prepared to raise those concerns with your own body and you ought to start turning your attention to doing so.

Because if you take some of the representations and concerns you are expressing here with the appropriate agency, bearing in mind we cant enforce our way out of it, it would be some of your local authority officers.

The PCC added that Wrexham Council could play their part by exercising their powers over antisocial behaviour an looking to evict anti-social tenants or those who deal drugs. He said: If they behave antisocially or criminally, then the Council have got powers to evict them.

Residents stories were relayed from Rhosddu and other areas of Wrexham, including one audience member saying police were in his view a soft touch after he saw PCSOs not crossing the road to investigate an obvious drug deal.

Another told of how a resident had to give up employment to make sure they could safely take their children to school.

The PCC was heckled when he said the issues were certainly being taken on board and would be looked at, with a shout of Stop looking, take action!.

Councillor Brian Cameron spoke of wanting more of a joined up approach, pointing out that the issues related from Rhosddu and Caia were not limited to that area alone. He said: It is right across the borough. It needs a coordinated approach to how it is dealt with.

Speaking of how previously public meetings helped highlight and then deal with problems he added: When people are together they speak, they point the fingers and told people what was going on. It is about having more public meetings, working together you will see some results.

Chief Constable Polin concluded saying he would ensure that North Wales Police would review their contribution to the Councillors action plan (our report on that meeting is here) as he did not wish to be silent on the matter.

He said: From that though I would want to know the local authority are playing their part too. We will also have to work out how we will get significant buy in from other partner agencies, this should not be a finger pointing exercise, but they ought to be in the room.

Chief Constable Polin also said that police would be taking a look at the intelligence picture with a view to taking more direct action, although did point out that if the intelligence flow was not there to enable such action he would be looking for help to unblock that blockage.

I will takeaway the fact of what I am hearing, and what we heard last week, we are going to have to consider what else we can do to hit some of the low level drug dealers that are not being hit, certainly in your eyes.

Police & Crime Commissioner Details Fix Room Policy

This morning the public relations company employed by the office of the PCC circulated a release giving further details to one solution offered by the PCC last night based on a model of a scheme in Glasgow.

The release read: Used in some European cities, the safer consumption facility and treatment service was recommended by the Glasgow City Alcohol and Drug Partnership. It will involve NHS staff but the location of the centre and its cost are still to be established, although advocates say analysis of other units have demonstrated their cost effectiveness from a societal perspective.

Similar schemes operate in 10 other countries, including Australia, Germany, France, Holland and Switzerland.

The PCC added: At the moment, all youre getting is the authorities treating the symptoms of substance abuse and drug addiction rather than the underlying causes. Drug addiction should be treated as a public health issue rather than as a criminal matter

The problem we have in Wrexham is that all the services are concentrated on the edge of a residential area, so the problems are arising out of people seeking advice and services. Clearly, one of the issues for the people of Rhosddu, and I well understand their concerns, is the amount of discarded needles everywhere.

If we had what we call a fix centre, where they could go and safely inject or take their drugs, then that problem would disappear overnight.

We should do something like they do in Glasgow and set up a fix room where addicts can go and they can inject the substances. The facility would offer additional wrap around services on the same premises such as health care, counselling, and housing and welfare advice Something else we need to look at is heroin assisted treatment which is a tried and tested system in this country. Heroin has been prescribed in the UK since 1926. Its nothing new.

Heroin-assisted treatment (HAT) would be available for the most chaotic users, who have exhausted other options such as methadone or rehab. The heroin would be prescribed in the same way a physician would prescribe methadone, which is actually more addictive than heroin. It is medicinal heroin, so it is clean and users do not face the risk of taking a contaminated drug, like they would if they bought it on the street. The rooms would also provide clean injecting equipment.

The other benefit of this approach is that it would address the problem of open low-level dealing on the streets of Wrexham because prescribing heroin would take it away from criminal elements.

Possibly coincidental timing, or a public show of a crackdown starting there were two related tweets from North Wales Police accounts this morning:

Foot patrol this morning from 08:30 in the Rhosddu area of Wrexham, park all clear, no PSPO breaches, tickets stayed dry! @NWPWrexhamTown  Rees Ackland (@NWPPCSOAckland) November 15, 2016
On Monday morning, Swedens deputy chief prosecutor Ingred Isgren arrived at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London to question WikiLeaks founder and editor Julian Assange.

Isgren interviewed Assange in relation to bogus minor rape allegations. The interrogation is expected to last up to three days. This is the first time Swedish prosecutors have questioned Assange regarding the allegations, despite having every opportunity to do so since December 2010.

Swedish director of public prosecutions Marianne Ny insisted for years that Assange return to Sweden to be questioned even though the Swedish authorities have interviewed dozens of people in the UK over the last five yearseven transferring an entire Stockholm court to Rwanda for war crimes proceedings in 2012.

Ny maintained, with no evidence, that having to conduct the questioning of Assange outside of Sweden would, as her spokeswoman said recently, affect the quality of the interview.

There is nothing impartial in what Assanges Swedish prosecutors are up to. The Guardian noted yesterday, Sources close to the Swedish investigation told the Guardian that a further reason for Nys insistence on interviewing Assange in Sweden was she was confident that she could secure an indictment and would therefore be able to arrest and charge Assange immediately.

Speaking to the BBC, Assanges lawyer Jennifer Robinson said were he to go to Sweden, he risked, as the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) also pointed out, losing his Ecuadorean asylum status. She added, Sweden refused to provide assurances against onward extradition to the United States.

Assange correctly fears that once in Sweden, he would be extradited to the US where a grand jury, empanelled by the Obama administration in 2010, is ready to bring a sealed indictment against him.

Assanges persecution originates in the response of the Obama administration to the publication by WikiLeaks in 2010 of hundreds of thousands of secret documents relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan leaked by Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning. Pressure was put on US allies, including Sweden, which had been a centre of WikiLeaks operations, to do whatever they could to counteract Assanges activities.

The British state is intimately involved in the frame-up of Assange and has instructed police to arrest him the moment he sets foot outside the Ecuadorean Embassy.

More than six years have passed since Assange was in Sweden, during a trip in which the offences are alleged to have been committed. At the time, Assange freely presented himself to the police and was found to have nothing to answer for. A leading prosecutor threw out the allegations as unsound before Swedish authorities resuscitated them later, in 2010.

In December 2010, Assange was detained in London under an arbitrary European Arrest Warrant (EAW). He has been in detention ever sincein prison and then under house arrest. For the last four years, Assange has remained in the Ecuadorean Embassy, which granted him diplomatic asylum in June 2012, after he was denied his basic democratic rights at the hands of the British legal system. In the embassy, Assange is confined to a tiny room and has no access to sunlight, with his health declining as a result. He has been denied access to basic health care.

Assange suffers this intolerable situation despite, to this day, never having been charged by Sweden with a single crime. Indeed, he has been incarcerated for so long that last year Sweden was forced to drop three of four of the allegations because a five-year statute of limitations expired.

Under the provisions of international legal assistance and the agreement reached by Sweden and Ecuador, the questioning session is being attended by Isgren and Swedish police inspector Cecilia Redell. However, the interrogation is being conducted by an Ecuadorean prosecutor who is asking Assange questions already submitted by Sweden. Isgren and Redell are allowed to ask for clarification of Assanges responses. They will not be allowed any follow-up questions. It is reported that, subject to Assanges agreement, the investigators intend to take a DNA sample.

According to reports, Assanges Swedish lawyer, Per Samuelson, who was not allowed to be present at the interrogation, had concerns about the interview having to be translated into Swedish, saying this could lead to misunderstandings. He added that the interview seems to be the only way to bring the case forward and we demand that the pre-investigation is dropped immediately thereafter.

Assanges answers will be transcribed and sent to the Swedish authorities. The Press Association said a statement on behalf of the Swedish prosecutors noted that the investigation would remain confidential. It reported, Therefore, the prosecutors cannot provide information concerning details of the investigation after the interview.

The Swedish authorities, in league with those in Britain and the United States, are blatantly flouting international law in their vindictive pursuit of Assange. In May, a Swedish court reaffirmed the EAW and explicitly rejected the conclusion UNWGAD that Assange has been arbitrarily detained, in violation of international human rights conventions.

In September, the Swedish Appeal Court upheld the EAW against Assange.

So vindictive are the Swedish authorities towards Assange that last month he was even denied the right to attend the funeral of WikiLeaks director Gavin MacFadyen. MacFadyen, a US journalist, died in London on October 22. Assange described the decision as callous.

The US Democratic Party has been at the forefront of attacks on WikiLeaks and Assange, even claiming that he is an ally of the Russian regime of Vladimir Putin and a stooge of President-elect Donald Trump.

Assange and WikiLeaks are being slandered in order to conceal the devastating indictment of the Democrats contained in WikiLeaks release of thousands of internal Democratic National Committee (DNC) e-mails. These exposed the methods that the Democratic Party utilises to raise funds, dole out privileges and cover up its dirty dealings.

The camp of defeated Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton sought to deflect any questions regarding the support and assurances she gave to Wall Street bankers or the corrupt operations of her campaign, as revealed in the e-mail, by claiming, with no evidence whatsoever, that the material released by WikiLeaks had been hacked by the Russian government and therefore could not be trusted.

In October, in a blatant attempt to silence WikiLeaks, Assange had his Internet connection in the embassy cut off. The Foreign Ministry of Ecuador confirmed WikiLeaks charge that Ecuador had ordered the severing of Assanges Internet connection, under pressure from the US government.
The victory of Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election marks a turning point in American and world politics. The degeneration of democracy in the United States, under the impact of its protracted economic decline, staggering levels of social inequality and ever sharpening class antagonisms, has enabled the elevation of a fascistic demagogue to the highest office in the country.

An array of political, media and academic apologists for Hillary Clintona warmonger, personification of the Washington establishment and servant of Wall Streetare attempting to blame her defeat on white racism, anti-immigrant xenophobia and sexism. Such ignorant and self-serving claims are false to the core. Trumps victory is the result, above all, of a spectacular collapse in support for the Democratic Party. Clinton received some 10 million fewer votes than Obama did in 2008yet he, as president for two terms, repudiated all of his fraudulent rhetoric about hope and change and presided over trillions of dollars in handouts to the banks, continuous war abroad and massive attacks on working class jobs, wages, education and health care.

Bernie Sanders, who postured as a socialist alternative during the Democratic Party primaries, proved he was part of the establishment by endorsing Clinton.

Millions of alienated workers and young people responded to the choice between Clinton and Trump by deciding to vote for neither. Trump, while winning increased support in several impoverished working class and rural areas of the US, received fewer votes than the Republican candidate in 2012 and lost the popular vote to Clinton by as many as two million votes. The billionaire won due to the intricacies of the anti-democratic electoral college system, which actually elects the US president.

The US election result will dramatically escalate all the tendencies that have developed since the 2008 breakdown in the world capitalist economy, and that threaten to trigger a third world war. Having claimed the White House with the support of barely one in four American voters, Trump will seek to implement his openly stated agenda of pro-business, America First nationalism. He will head a regime dedicated to tax cuts for the corporations and the wealthy, cutbacks to what remains of public education and social programs, trade war against US rivals and a further expansion of the American military machine. His administration will seek to divide working class opposition on the basis of anti-immigrant chauvinism and other reactionary nostrums.

The working class of every country faces a political environment that parallels the situation in the United States.

This public meeting, which has been organised in Auckland by the Socialist Equality Group (New Zealand), and in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane by the Socialist Equality Party (Australia), will address and clarify the immense political questions raised by Trumps victory. It will review the organisations, ideologies and programs that bear responsibility for the profound crisis of leadership in the working class. It will advance the socialist and internationalist perspective necessary to prevent a descent into a 1930s-style Depression and a new world war.

We urge all those workers and young people who are concerned about these issues, and keen to discuss them, to attend the meeting in your city and promote it as widely as possible in your workplace, university, school or community.

Details:

Auckland



Sunday November 27, 2.30pm

Grey Lynn Library Hall

474 Great North Road

Grey Lynn

Auckland

Tickets: $5, $3 concession



Melbourne



Sunday December 4, 2.30pm

5 Blackwood St

North Melbourne

Tickets: $5, $3 concession



Brisbane



Saturday December 10, 3pm

Woolloongabba Senior Citizens Centre

22 Qualtrough St Woolloongabba

Tickets: $5, $3 concession



Sydney



Sunday December 11, 2pm

Ashfield Civic Centre

260 Liverpool Rd, Ashfield

Tickets: $7, $5 concession
Cease-fire violations in eastern Ukraine have been consistently increasing in the recent period, according to monitors with the Organization for Security and Co-operation (OSCE). On November 8 alone, the organization reported that 1,450 explosions and almost 200 projectiles (including 122 that were rocket-assisted) were recorded in the Donetsk province, the center of a pro-Russian separatist movement. Cease-fire violations have continued in neighboring Luhansk province as well. Several Ukrainian soldiers were killed while fighting in Donetsk in October, said the countrys minister of Defense.

Earlier in the month, separatist leader Arseny Pavlov was assassinated in eastern Ukraine after a bomb was set off in the hallway of a building in which he resided in the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic. Pavlov led Sparta Battalion, which had been fighting the NATO-backed Kiev-forces since 2014.

Pavlov had survived several previous attempts on his life, including in June of 2016, when a car bomb exploded as he was leaving a trauma center. A Russian citizen by birth, Pavlov was infamous for a recording released in April 2015 in which he bragged about killing 15 prisoners of war from Ukrainian government forces.

His assassination has escalated tensions in the region, where a peace accord known as Minsk II is supposed to be in effect. The head of the Donetsk Peoples Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, told reporters, As I understand, [Ukrainian President] Petro Poroshenko violated the ceasefire and declared war on us. The Ukrainian government claims that Pavlov was killed by those within his inner-circle or a rival separatist militia over control of the black market in separatist-controlled areas.

The assassination took place just as both the Donetsk Peoples Republic and Luhansk Peoples Republic were preparing to hold local elections. The contests, which were scheduled to take place on November 6, have been denounced by Kiev as illegal and a violation of the Minsk II protocols. They were ultimately halted by DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko a week prior to their scheduled date, most likely under pressure from Russia.

The Kiev regimes opposition to any sort of democratic local elections in eastern Ukraine stems from its fear that they would cement the regions status as an independent entity. The issue of the elections was a main point of conflict in talks between Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who met in Berlin along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande for over five hours last week.

During the talks Poroshenko reportedly shouted angrily at Putin over Putins insistence that the elections go ahead on November 6. No serious agreements to end the war were made, and further talks are scheduled to be held later in November. A roadmap for peace in Ukraine is planned to be released by the end of this month.

Meanwhile, social and economic conditions in the rest of the country continue to deteriorate. The countrys $17.5 billion worth of loan agreements with the IMF have entailed the imposition of a harsh regime of austerity and severe price hikes for essential items such as gas, electricity, water and food. As a result, 24.3 percent of the country now lives in poverty according to the UN Development Program. Over 5 million Ukrainians must rely on state subsidies to pay their heating bills, subsidies which will continue to be cut as the country tries to meet IMF-stipulated budget limits.

Facing these conditions, tens of thousands of Ukrainians throughout the country are choosing to uproot their lives and leave. In addition to the already 1.7 million displaced by the war, over 100,000 Ukrainians left the country between January and August of this year.

Recent polling by the research group Rating showed that 30 percent of Ukrainians want to leave the country permanently to live abroad and 40 percent want to leave for work. Among the main groups wishing to leave the country include residents from western and central regions, men, young people, and those with a level of education and income.

The main reasons for wishing to leave the country are firstly hope for better living conditions and secondly to secure a better future for their children.
European Union (EU) foreign ministers gathered Sunday night and Monday in Brussels for their first meeting after the election of Donald Trump as US president, amid broad uncertainty over what the new presidents foreign policy will be. There is deep concern in European ruling circles, moreover, since Trump denounced the NATO alliance as superfluous during the campaign and demanded Europe pay more for NATO defence.

The Brussels meeting highlighted major conflicts between EU policy and Trumps statements during the election campaign on international issues, as well as growing calls, spearheaded by Berlin and top EU officials, for an aggressive EU foreign policy independent of the United States.

On Monday, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini called the EU a superpower, announcing that it had agreed upon an Implementation Plan on Security and Defence for a global EU foreign and military policy. She said the Implementation Plan comes a year after France invoked European solidarity after the terrorist attacks in Paris, and less than four months after the launching of the so-called EU Global Strategya paper arguing that the EU must become an aggressive world power, capable of intervening militarily and waging war independently of NATO and the United States.

This is no time for theoretical or abstract discussions on European defence. [The Plan] is about doing concrete things, as of tomorrow, together, Mogherini stressed.

The EUs new Implementation Plan calls for building a command structure and air, land and sea forces capable of waging large-scale combat. It states that the Common European Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) must be able to undertake rapid and decisive action and requires credible, deployable, interoperable, sustainable and multi-functional civilian and military capabilities. The Plan is to be presented to EU heads of state and government at the next European Council in December.

The EU foreign ministers also adopted specific resolutions directly conflicting with Trumps stated positions.

While Trump has called for cancelling the Iran nuclear deal, the EU foreign ministers declared their resolute commitment to the agreement. Beyond its significance in terms of preventing war with Iran, the EU ministers demands pointed to conflicts with the United States over access to Iranian markets. They called for the lifting of nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions, previously imposed by Washington, and the continued issuing of export licenses by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control for goods bound for Iran, a major EU export market.

EU foreign ministers also adopted a resolution tightening export controls on torture goods, declaring, The aim is to prevent EU exports from contributing to human rights violations in third countries.

One prominent effect of such regulations has been to block EU chemical exports to the United States for use in mixing poisons to execute death row inmates. This repeatedly led US authorities to resort to unproven chemical cocktails, resulting in barbaric, excruciating executions widely seen in the United States, in Europe, and across the world as gross violations of basic democratic rights.

Geostrategic, economic, and political contradictions in relations between US and European capitalism that have existed since the Stalinist dissolution of the USSR in 1991 and the end of the Cold War are reasserting themselves with enormous force.

These contradictions have already led to extremely sharp conflicts. The EUs demands for a multipolar world and increasing EU commercial penetration of Iran and Iraq at US expense, in the 1990s and early 2000s, were followed soon after by the unilateral, illegal US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Faced with German and French opposition, Washington tried to divide Europe, with US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissing Germany and France as Old Europe and calling a New Europe of pro-Iraq war, Eastern European states to come to the fore.

Inter-imperialist rivalries between Washington and the EU over access to oil, markets, and strategic advantage are even deeper today, however, after nearly a decade of an intense global economic crisis and threats of war between Iran, Russia, or even China and the United States. European officials were virtually unanimous in calling for a major European military escalation in response.

To be sure, they still largely call for a continued US military presence in Europe, fearing that a sudden, total withdrawal of US forces ordered by Trump could leave them vastly outnumbered by Russian forces. NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg penned a column in the Guardian, titled Now is not the time for the US to abandon NATOnor should its European allies go it alone, to make this point.

The unmistakable implication of calls for independent European military policies, however, is that European militaries could ultimately find themselves fighting wars opposed by the United States, or even fighting the United States outright.

We are in an uncertain world, and it has not started with the election of Mr Trump, declared French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault. But Europe must not wait for others decisions, it must defend its own intereststhat is to say, the interest of Europeansand at the same time reaffirming its strategic role on the global level.

Belgian Foreign minister Didier Reynders said Trumps election was a possibility for the EU to go further. We need to enhance our capacity in defence and security. The EU needs to find a way to have its voice heard in the search for political solutions...and ensure that its not simply a conversation between Washington and Moscow, so that we can have the EU really at the table.

The drive towards an ever more integrated European military union is being pushed above all by Berlin, however. Last weekend, German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen described both the British vote to leave the European Union and Trumps victory as a chance for Europe.

Writing in the liberal German daily Der Tagesspiegel, she stated: We Europeans know NATO cant deal with all aspects of our security. We have to take more responsibility for the problems in our immediate environment We Europeans have to set the course: we have to coordinate our instruments, we have to become more efficient with our resources and take faster decisions. And we need new capabilitiesabove all for our security and defence policy.

The German ruling class is using Trumps election as a pretext to promote the return of German militarism and assert its geostrategic and economic interests in Europe and internationally. Immediately after the election, the German Foreign Office published a statement by its Coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation, Mr Jurgen Hardt, on the outcome of the US election.

It stated, The need for us Europeans, and for Germany in particular, to assume greater responsibility and contribute even more with regard to all instruments of foreign and security policy will further increase during the Trump Presidency. Global developments will continue to provide the issues that will shape our cooperation in the coming months. This includes stabilising the situation in Syria and Iraq, implementing the Minsk agreement in Ukraine, and conducting relations with Russia.

While German imperialism is making its bid for world power, it also faces deep divisions within Europe itself, highlighted by Britains exit from the EU this summer.

Inter-European tensions were again on display in Brussels, where the British and French foreign ministers snubbed the Sunday night meeting called for by Berlin. British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson mocked the meeting as a whinge-o-rama, while Whitehall sources dismissed it as huffing and puffing designed to allow EU officials to posture as opponents of Trump.
Following the US elections, the prospect of an administration headed by Republican Party candidate Donald Trump, a fascistic billionaire, is the subject of widespread discussion among workers, young people and students in Australia and New Zealand.

There is a sense that the election marks a turning point, not only in the US, but internationally. Many who spoke to the WSWS noted the similarities between the increasingly crisis-ridden character of US politics and developments in Australia. The Socialist Equality Party is holding public meetings in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Auckland, New Zealand, to discuss the significance of Trumps election and elaborate an alternative for the working class.



The Australian political and media establishment has responded to the result by voicing nervousness over the foreign policy implications of a Trump administration, because of their post-World War II dependence on the US alliance. At the same time, the outcome has been invoked by a host of media pundits and representatives of the major parties in an attempt to push official politics further to the right by depicting ordinary working class people as xenophobic and hostile to immigrants.

Rachel, who studies social work in Melbourne, said she was opposed to both Trump and Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton. Look at the terrible things Clinton has doneand the cover ups, she said. Why did they [the Democratic Party] choose her? She says what she believes someone wants to hear. I was very disgusted to read about the WikiLeaks exposure of the secret speeches to Goldman Sachs.

Rachel commented on the mounting social crisis in the US. People are afraid, they are angry and sick of being treated like they dont mean anything. People have lost their houses. Look at Detroitits a bare city. There is nothing there.

Rachel said there were parallels with the situation in Australia. Were getting like that now, she said. My husband works full time, and yet were really struggling.

The destruction of welfare here is really full on, compared with when I started studying four years ago. Now everything is going up, like housing, bills. Its impossible to survive. Ive noticed since the Rudd and Gillard Labor governments how Labor helped make the cuts just as much as the Liberals. Historically Labor was meant to be there for the working class, for the people who need a voicebut theyre just as bad.

Rachel denounced Bernie Sanders, who won mass support by claiming to be a democratic socialist, before promoting Clintons candidacy. As for Sanders, and what he did, turning to Hillary Clinton, I was quite shocked by that. I didnt understand it at all. I believe 100 percent he got paid to do that.

In Dandenong, a working class suburb of Melbourne, Slava, a pensioner from the former Yugoslavia, commented: I think there was a lot of cheating from his [Trumps] side. Because hes so rich, hes owning the world, and I dont think hes suitable to be a president at all. I hope they kick him out. He promised so many things. People are falling for that because they need jobs and a better life.

I didnt like Obama either. Theres a lot of war. Do you think Trumps going to send his kids to fight the war? If there was not war in other countries then America and the rest of the world would be much better. Theyre remembering World War I but theyre forgetting whats happening today. I hate war. It was in my country too and I hate it.

Slava compared the outcome to the referendum earlier this year on Britain leaving the European Union. I think its like Brexit, she said. After the vote people are going to realise that they have big problems. In Britain people went to protest saying they dont want to leave Europe. The same thing is going to happen in America.

In Sydneys western suburbs, Flavio, a 21-year-old from Germany on a working holiday, said: The election of Trump is the worst thing that could happen for the world and the United States. Hes like the blonde version of Hitler. I think people who dont have jobs, poor white people, are being told to be hostile to coloured and Asian people. Like the Germans did against the Jews in the 1930s. I compare those times with now.

Flavio said Germanys turn to remilitarisation was the worst way. Other countries will increase their military as well. Im totally against war. Internationalism is perfect. We need to work together. We shouldnt think in borders anymore.

I have doubts about my future. Someone could do something very quickjust with one push of a button. The whole beautiful life could go. When I think about Trump, I just shake my head.

Clare, a law and arts student at Western Sydney University, said: I dont think there was a real choice between Clinton and Trump. I preferred Bernie Sanders but that was wishful thinking. I liked his policies. He talked about the lack of jobs and the decline in living standards of the middle class. I support raising the minimum wage for Americans and focusing on the types of issues Sanders promoted, rather than the extremist views promoted by Trump, such as his accusations that the Chinese are taking all the jobs.

In Newcastle, Rebecca said she hated both candidates. Some of things Trump said and his policies are just awful. My children are half Indian and they have Muslim relatives over in America who are scared to go out on the street.

Rebecca said social conditions in America are bad enough as it is, and it is going to get worse. The people we know in America have to work full time and rely on relatives for babysitting, just to get minimum wage. One works as a cleaner in a hotel and the other works in fast food. They are the same age as me, 40, and they cannot get ahead.

Trumps slogan of make America great again appealed to people in those horrible conditions because they think he will make things better. People think they are going to get help, but they are not. It was all lies.

Mitch, a young father, said he found Trumps election a complete shock. He said Trumps election reveals faults in the two-party system, especially the Democratic Party. Instead of backing Bernie Sanders they supported Clinton because they figured they would have a better chance at getting a women elected than a socialist.

Mitch spoke out against the racial and gender politics of the Democratic Party and the denunciations of a reactionary white working class. He commented: The claims of white male privilege are ridiculous. The people who voted for Trump werent privileged, they have awful lives. People talk about this election being a whitewash and the last stand of the white man. It is not about that. The people who voted for Trump were not rich guys, they barely made minimum wage.

Shelly, a young woman who works at a pathology clinic in Newcastle, said: The reason Trump got elected was that there is a lot of poor people in Middle America who are hard done by, arent being listened to and are being ignored by the left. The left focused on the cities and making things better for immigrants and people of colour because that is what they see. But in rural America people are struggling. The industries never recovered from the recession. They are angry and hurt. Trump tapped into that and is using it to his advantage.

Shelly said she was a Bernie supporter and I think that it was very sad that they abandoned Bernie for Hillary. I think that she was agreed upon ages ago. They wanted to have a black president, then a female president to seem really progressive and keep their power.

In Auckland, New Zealand, Maxi, a secondary school student, said the election result was really bad. As soon as Trump won, there were Americans who started leaving, moving to Canada and New Zealand as well. I dont like Trump, hes not a good man.

There have already been marches in Seattle against Trump. Its going to escalate even more. I sympathise with those people who oppose him. I dont think anythings going to get better any time soon.

Her friend Mackenzie added: Hes racist. Ive seen videos of black people being kicked out of his rallies, and he said he liked the old days where you could throw them out and they had no rights.

Commenting on the low vote for both candidates, Mackenzie denounced Clinton, saying: None is better than the other. Theyre both liars. She deleted emails and hid stuff from people. She agreed that the wars carried out by the Obama administration had played a role in Clintons defeat. There could be a World War III, she said.
In a press conference Monday, his first since the 2016 elections, President Barack Obama defended his incoming Republican successor, Donald Trump, and dismissed concerns that a Trump administration marks a radical threat to the democratic rights of the American people.

Trump would not be able to carry out any rapid changes, let alone fulfill the most extreme desires of his supporters, Obama argued, because the American government is not a speedboat, its an ocean liner. Moreover, he claimed, I dont think he is ideological. I think ultimately hes pragmatic in that way.

Obamas solicitude for Trump resurfaced on several occasions, as he declared, I think its important to give him the room and the space to make proper decisions on a new administration, adding that Trump might well listen to his critics. I think its important for us to let him make his decisions, he said.

Throughout the session with the press, which lasted nearly 90 minutes, Obama exuded a combination of complacency about the outcome of the elections and indifference to the consequences for working people, and even for his own political supporters.

This was so remarkable and pronounced that at one point ABC correspondent Martha Raddatz asked, with a note of surprise in her voice, Is there anything that concerns you about a Trump administration?

This followed Obamas response to the question from CNN journalist Athena Jones, who cited his denunciations of Trump as unqualified to be president, then followed up with a question about the hostility in the Trump camp to racial minorities. She asked Obama to comment specifically on the selection of Stephen Bannon, former CEO of the ultra-right news outlet Breitbart.com, as chief strategist and White House counselor, effectively coequal with Trumps new chief of staff, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus.

Obama simply refused to comment on the Bannon appointment, saying, [I]t would not be appropriate for me to comment on every appointment that the President-elect starts making if I want to be consistent with the notion that were going to try to facilitate a smooth transition.

The first African-American president has nothing to say about his successor filling one of the two leading positions on his staff with a white supremacist! This was in keeping with Obamas posture throughout the press conference, as he dismissed concerns that the incoming Trump administration represented a threat to the democratic rights of the American people.

Obama continued: Look, the people have spoken. Donald Trump will be the next President, the 45th President of the United States. And it will be up to him to set up a team that he thinks will serve him well and reflect his policies. And those who didnt vote for him have to recognize that thats how democracy works. Thats how this system operates.

This declaration evades the issue entirely. Trump won a majority in the Electoral College, thanks to a series of narrow victories in states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida. But he trails in the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by nearly one million votes, a deficit that is likely to increase as final vote counting is completed in California.

Obama could have suggested that, given Trumps losing the popular vote, he lacked a genuine mandate from the voters and should proceed cautiously in implementing his policies, and only after taking into consideration the views of those who voted against him. He did nothing of the kind.

Instead, he focused most of his remarks on praising his own record and the performance of his administration on a wide array of issues. Trump would have the benefit, he suggested, of taking office in a country enormously improved from the crisis-stricken America of January 2009.

Although he acknowledged, obviously there are people out there who are feeling deeply disaffected; otherwise, we wouldnt have had the results that we had in the election, Obama painted a picture of America in which such discontent should affect only a small minority.

[I]f you look at the basic indicators of where the country is right now, the unemployment rate is as low as its been in eight, nine years, he said. Incomes and wages have both gone up over the last year faster than they have in a decade or two. Weve got historically low uninsured rates. The financial systems are stable. The stock market is hovering around its all-time high, and 401(k)s have been restored. The housing market has recovered.

The assembled journalists apparently shared Obamas indifference and complacency. None asked him to square his claims of across-the-board success for his administrations policies with the collapse of the electoral fortunes of the Democratic Party under his leadership. Since Obama became president in January 2009, the Democrats have lost control of the Senate, lost a net 63 seats in the House of Representatives, lost a net 900 seats in state legislatures, while seeing the number of Democratic governors fall from 29 to 16 out of 50 states, and the number of state legislatures under full Democratic control fall from 27 to only 5.

Trump suggested Sunday night, during his nationally televised interview on the CBS program 60 Minutes, that he might carry out his threat to prosecute Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for alleged crimes involving the mishandling of classified data while she was Secretary of State under Obama. But no journalist asked Obama for his reaction, or whether he was prepared to pardon Clinton preemptively in order to block a politically motivated prosecution by Trump.

Obama never even mentioned Clintons name in the course of the press conference, although he did make one disparaging comment about her campaign, claiming that he had won elections in the state of Iowa by diligent campaigning in small towns and rural areas. The clear implication was that Clinton had failed because she did not follow this example.

While conceding certain organizational mistakes by the Democratic Party, Obama placed the main responsibility for the victory of Trump on the American people, namely, those voters who did not go to the polls. Hopefully its a reminder that elections matter and voting counts, he said. And so I dont know how many times we have to relearn this lesson, because we ended up having 43 percent of the country not voting who were eligible to vote. But it makes a difference.

That 100 million Americans did not vote because they are disgusted with both corporate-controlled parties, and disappointed by the wretched record of the president who promised hope and change, is a closed book to Obama and the Democrats.

Nor is Clinton the only individual Obama is prepared to consign to the tender mercies of Donald Trump. Asked directly if he was prepared to take any action to protect the three-quarters of a million undocumented immigrants who have registered with the government under Obamas DACA program, who are now vulnerable to mass roundup under the Trump administration, Obama said only that he would urge the President-elect and the incoming administration to think long and hard before they are endangering that status of what for all practical purposes are American kids.

Obama suggested that the incoming Trump administration would be compelled by the sheer complexity of the challenges to moderate its policies. He claimed, this office has a way of waking you up. And those aspects of his positions or predispositions that dont match up with reality he will find shaken up pretty quick, because reality has a way of asserting itself. And some of his gifts that obviously allowed him to execute one of the biggest political upsets in history, those are ones that hopefully he will put to good use on behalf of all the American people.

This imbecile theory would make the political gifts of a fascistic billionaire the instrument for improving the conditions of life for working people in America. The word prostration doesnt do justice to the collapse of any opposition by the Democratic Party to the ultra-right takeover of the US government, which next January will include not only the White House and both houses of Congress, but the Supreme Court as well, once Trump nominates and the Republican Senate confirms an ultra-right successor to the late and unlamented Antonin Scalia.

Obama spoke in this way at what may well be his final press conference in order to perform one last service to the American ruling elite. Recognizing that the victory of Trump means a fundamental reorientation by the ruling class, towards the prosecution of an all-out assault on working people using the most ruthless methods possible, Obama is doing his part in chloroforming popular consciousness.

While the Trump administration is assembling an ultra-right cadre to carry out the dismantling of economic and environmental regulations, halt enforcement of civil rights, voting rights and restraints on police brutality, slash taxes for the wealthy, and pour trillions into building up the military-intelligence apparatus, Obama preaches complacency.

And Obamas services are appreciated. Trumps campaign manager Kellyanne Conway hailed the comments of leading Democrats and contrasted them to the anti-Trump protests around the country. Folks should do what President Obama, Secretary Clinton and others are doing, frankly, she said. I heard Senator [Bernie] Sanders this morning, which is to support this new president-elect and his mission to unify the country and to implement his 100-day plan.
The announcement by President-elect Donald Trump that he is appointing Breitbart News head Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist, and the absence of any significant opposition from the Democratic Party, has vast political significance. A man with direct ties to fascist, racist and white supremacist organizations will be the right-hand man of the president, with immense power to determine government policy.

Trump's rise to power signals a drastic political realignment within the American ruling class. The outcome last Tuesday was the product, in the words of Obama, of an intramural scrimmage within the ruling class. Out of this conflict, a new extreme right and fundamentally anti-democratic political orientation has been determined.

Trump decided he could go ahead with the appointment of Bannon because he knows that the Democratic Party has no interest in defending the most basic democratic rights. The groveling response to his election from leading Democratsfrom Obama and Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warrenhas led him to conclude that he can go ever further in the construction of an ultra-right government of extreme political reaction.

The level of indifference, complacency and collaboration from within the Democratic Party was exemplified in Obamas press conference on Monday, the first since Trumps election.

Obama refused to comment when asked about the appointment of Bannon, saying that it was up to him [Trump] to assemble a team and that it was important for us to let him make his decisions. Obama went on to praise his cordial discussion with the president-elect and said that the American people must reconcile themselves to a Trump presidency. His own task, Obama added, was to be as helpful as I can to him in going forward and building on the progress we made.

The response of the Democrats to the election of Trump is even more remarkable given the circumstances of the election itself. For the second time in sixteen years, an election in the United States has not been determined by the popular vote, but the Electoral College. This outcome, which before the theft of the election in 2000 had not occurred for 112 years, has evoked no objection from the Democrats.

At his press conference, Obama said nothing about the fact that Trump lost the popular vote by as many as two million votes, or that the two most economically significant states in the country voted against him by wide margins. He did not note that after all votes are counted, Trump will have likely received fewer votes than Mitt Romney did in 2012, when he lost to Obama. He did not suggest that because of this, the incoming president does not have a popular mandate to carry out the right-wing measures he is planning.

In recent days, Trump has begun to outline the political trajectory of his administration. In an interview on 60 minutes Sunday, he pledged to round up and detain two million, it could even be three million immigrants. The Supreme Court will be stacked with extreme-right, pro-life judges who would overturn the right to abortion and Trump left open the possibility of launching a criminal investigation into his former opponent in the elections, Democrat Hillary Clinton.

None of this provokes an ounce of protest from the Democratic Party. All that the Democrats are now concerned about is ensuring an orderly transition of power. But a transition to where?

While Trump represents something new in American politics, he is not entirely a break from the past. With his election, the ruling class is accelerating the implementation of an extremely anti-democratic orientation that has been underway for more than a quarter century.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the ideologists of the American ruling class proclaimed the end of history. Capitalism had triumphed, which would bring with it, so it was claimed, a period of peace and the expansion of liberal democracy. What in fact emerged was twenty-five years of unending war, deepening economic crisis, historically unprecedented levels of social inequality and the destruction of the most basic forms of democratic rule.

In December 2000, in advance of the Supreme Court decision in Bush v. Gore that halted the recount of votes in Florida and handed the election to George W. Bush, the WSWS wrote that the outcome would reveal how far the American ruling class is prepared to go in breaking with traditional bourgeois-democratic and constitutional norms. The Democratic Partys refusal to stop what amounted to a political coupthe theft of an electiondemonstrated that there was no significant constituency within the ruling class for the defense of democratic rights.

Everything that has happened since has proved this fact. Less than a year after coming to power, the Bush administration seized on the attacks of September 11, 2001 to launch a war on terrorin fact, a political justification for endless war abroad and the destruction of democratic rights within the United States.

Since his election in 2008, Obama has escalated the attack on democratic forms of rule. In policy doctrines and executive actions, the Obama White House asserted the presidential power to assassinate US citizens without charge. The torturers and war criminals of the Bush administration went unpunished, while the power of the military-intelligence-police apparatus has grown enormously.

Much of what was going on, in part behind the scenes, under Obama will take on a much more direct form under Trump. A form of American authoritarianism is emergingwhich will be directed at the increasingly violent suppression of working-class struggle.

With the election of Trump, the ruling class is sharpening the knives and preparing to use them. At the same time, Trumps economic nationalism, far from marking a retreat from militarist violence, is the antechamber to World War III. Facing a protracted global crisis, the American ruling class will seek to maintain its position of world domination through ever more naked aggression.

Efforts are underway to minimize the significance of what has happened. The corrupt American media is adapting itself to the new ultra-right regime. The New York Times, after campaigning for Clinton throughout the election, has issued a groveling apology for its coverage. Its columnists, who previously berated anyone who did not back the Democratic Party campaign, now counsel that it is necessary to give Trump time to see what he will do.

All such soporific phrases are exercises in cowardice and deceit.

The fundamental lesson that must be drawn is that opposition to political reaction, war and inequality cannot be waged within, through, or in alliance with, any faction of the Democratic Party. While Trump represents an alliance of Wall Street with fascistic forces, the Democratic Party is a political alliance of Wall Street and privileged, complacent and selfish sections of the upper middle class.

The Democrats are far more fearful about the consequences of stirring up opposition in the working class than they are about any tactical differences with Trump. They are aware of the enormous level of popular opposition that exists, directed at both political parties, and are desperate to prevent any avenue for this opposition to find political expression. Not a single significant Democratic Party official has openly declared their solidarity with the protests over Trumps election or expressed sympathy for the demonstrators, let alone joined them.

While Trumps electoral victory marks a major shift to the right by the American ruling class, millions of workers and youth are moving in a different political direction. Trump was able to exploit social anger due to the political bankruptcy of the Democratic Party, under conditions of a general collapse of voter turnout and deep hostility to the entire political establishment. However, the vast majority of those who voted for Trump did not vote for an extreme-right regime, and as the character of his administration becomes clear, social and political opposition will grow.

The Socialist Equality Party and its candidates, Jerry White and Niles Niemuth, participated in the 2016 election to lay the political foundations for a socialist movement of the working class. The fundamental purpose of our campaign was to build a leadership in the working class to prepare for the struggles to come, regardless of whether Trump or Clinton was in the White House.

The election of Trump underscores the urgent necessity of this task. Opposition to the Trump administration and the policies that it will pursue must be developed and organized throughout the country. All workers and youth looking for a way to fight must draw the necessary conclusions from the 2016 elections and join and build the Socialist Equality Party and the International Youth and Students for Social Equality.
The responses of the right-wing government and the liberal opposition in Poland to the US election have revealed sharp differences within the countrys ruling elites over foreign policy. Like other right-wing governments and movements in Europe, the ultra-nationalist ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) has welcomed the election of the right-wing businessman, whereas the countrys liberal press reacted to the news of Donald Trump becoming the 45th US president with disbelief and panic.

The stark contrast in the reaction of the two bourgeois camps has brought to the fore the differences between the liberals around the Civic Platform (PO) and the ruling conservative PiS. Under both the government of the PO and the PiS, Poland has been a key ally of Washington in Europe and has stood at the forefront of the NATO military build-up against Russia.

However, the establishment around the PO wishes to see Poland tied to the Franco-German alliance within the EU, in addition to maintaining close cooperation with Washington. By contrast, the bourgeois layers gathering behind PiS believe they could profit more from aligning themselves only with the US and trying to exploit the crisis within the EU, particularly following the Brexit vote, to strengthen Polands position in opposition to Berlins increasing hegemony in the EU.

While individual pro-PiS commentators voiced concern over a possible rapprochement between Washington and Moscow under Trump, the tenor of politicians of the PiS and pro-government media outlets has been to endorse Trump and hope for an even closer military cooperation between the US and Poland.

Polish President Andrzej Duda rushed to congratulate the US president-elect by tweeting My warmest congratulations to Donald Trump. I am confident US-PL bonds will remain as close & strong as ever. Hopefully even stronger. Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz, who maintains close ties to various fascistic organizations, said similarly: Polish-American relations will not only continue to be very good, they will be even better.

The Polish minister of foreign affairs, Witold Waszczykowski, stated on Polish national television that he had accepted the news with hopes for the US to correct its foreign policy by becoming even more explicit and determined. When asked what he thought of Trumps statement that under his leadership America would not necessarily come to the aid of a NATO ally (like Poland) under attack, he said: Poland does not need to be afraid. Trump has met with the Polish community in the United States several times and has noticed the role of Poland in protecting the flank of NATO. His criticism of NATO will not affect Poland. Well want to get a confirmation that the allied decisions regarding our national security will be implemented.

The pro-PiS daily Gazeta Polska ridiculed the hysteria of the liberal media worldwide, comparing the victory of Trump to that of PiS in the 2015 elections. They use scare tactics against Trump the same way they used them against PiS, the newspaper journalists declared, expressing their hope for allegedly pro-Polish Newt Gingrich to join Trumps cabinet. If the Republicans want to appeal to the subsequent generations of their electorate, they will have to abandon their centrist policies and turn more sharply to the right, they demanded. For these mouthpieces of the authoritarian PiS, the Republican Party under George W. Bush, which waged endless imperialistic wars and attacks on the democratic rights of US citizens, was not right enough.

The conservative Rzeczpospolita announced Hillary Clintons failure to be the defeat of Western elites and wrote that if Trump succeeds, America will come out of this stronger than ever before  we need to keep our fingers crossed for the new president.

In stark contrast to the reaction of the government and its media, liberal commentators have reacted with shock and dismay to Trumps election.

Like significant sections of the ruling elites in Europe, the Polish liberal bourgeoisie is also concerned about the growing political instability in the United States, its single most important partner in the foreign arena. Thus, Polityka featured an article headlined The Divided United States of America, in which the long battle for the White House has exposed the state of permanent chaos of the American system of rule as well as deep animosities between the opposing political camps.

However, the central fear of Polands liberal opposition is that the policies of a Trump administration will serve to further isolate Poland in Europe, and endanger the countrys national interest and war preparations against Russia. In contrast to PiS, the PO government had pursued a course in which it combined close cooperation with the US with an attempt to form an alliance with both Berlin and Paris. Under the PiS government, relations between Warsaw on the one hand, and Brussels and Berlin on the other, have significantly deteriorated.

In the run-up to the elections, liberal outlets that are close to Polands main opposition party Civic Platform (PO), such as Newsweek Polska and Polityka , had joined the anti-Russian campaign of the Democratic Party against Trump, warning that the Republican candidate would represent a Kremlin stooge in the White House, endorsing full-heartedly the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

Following the elections, the pro-PO newspaper Wyborcza, warned its readers that Putin will propose a new Yalta to Trump. At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, US president Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin agreed on a division of Europe into spheres of influence, with Central and Eastern Europe being assigned to the Soviet sphere.

For the Polish bourgeoisie, the conference has historically formed an important reference point for the whipping up of anti-communism, but also the fear that its imperialist allies in the West might strike a deal with the Kremlin at the expense of the interests of the Eastern European bourgeoisie. Fanning those fears, Wyborcza wrote: Trumps victory is the worst news since the war in Iraq, maybe even since Yalta. The liberal Polityka declared: Trump has won and Russia has reasons to be happy.

Just days before the elections, the front page of Newsweek Polska, which is close to the opposition party PO, featured a photo collage of a half-face Donald Trump, half-face the leader of the conservative PiS, Jarosaw Kaczynski. The cover posed the question: Has the world gone mad? Of the election results, the weekly wrote, This is not good news for NATO and Europe. Further, Newsweek Polska wrote: The victory of Trump is a gigantic success for Kaczynski and PiS, but only on the level of internal party politics. This success, however, comes at a price of geopolitical catastrophe for Poland and the entire region. Even if, in response to Trumps victory, the core of Europe will quickly begin to integrate, we are not part of it anymore.

Liberal pro-EU politicians have seized on the elections as a case in point for a turn back towards Europe. Thus, the former minister of foreign affairs, Radek Sikorski (PO), tweeted: With USA likely going introvert and transactional, the European Union is more precious than ever. Needs leadership in reform more than ever. Sikorski urged the PiS government to re-evaluate its foreign and domestic policy before its too late, arguing: The victory of Trump will give wings to European nationalists, but it can bury the European Union. The new president will not be interested in Poland, and thats bad news.

The most cowardly, vassal-like response to the new representative of the American ruling class came from the discredited former president of Poland and former Solidarity leader, Lech Waesa. Waesa, who had just recently declared his official loyalty to PO, asked the EU for help in removing the democratically elected PiS government from power and for EU sanctions on Poland.

In a move that traced the shift of the Democratic Party from viciously attacking Trump to endorsing him as president-elect, Waesa, who just days before the elections declared Trump to be unfit for office and a threat, sent his cordial greetings to the US president-elect. Posting a picture of the two of them, Waesa wrote on Facebook:

I am glad that Mr. Trump remembers our conversation that took place in his club in Florida back in 2010. Apparently after our meeting he thought: If it was possible for a worker to overthrow communism and become the president of Poland, why a millionaire could not become a president of the United States? As you can see, my story was an inspiration for him to act. As you all know I always root for changes if they lead to something positive.  I keep my fingers crossed for the success of the reforms in America.
In the wake of last Tuesdays election results, thousands of people have been involved in a series of protests in the city of Portland, Oregon, with the protests reaching their fifth consecutive day on Sunday.

The first four nights, protestors congregated in Pioneer Square to listen to speakers, after which they marched through the streets shouting chants such as Not my president, No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA, and The people united will never be divided.

The protests have continued despite statements by leading Democratic politicians including President Obama, Hillary Clinton and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders pledging to work loyally with a Trump administration.

On Wednesday and Thursday nights, marchers took over several city blocks as they crossed the Morrison Bridge and the Hawthorne Bridge from Pioneer Square to the Moda Center on the east side of the Willamette River. Hundreds blocked bridges and interstate highways, bringing public transportation and vehicle traffic to a halt.

The protests attracted broad layers of the population with a strong presence of students and young people. The crowd overwhelmingly rejected the reactionary positions promoted by Trump during his campaign, calling attention to the US-Mexico border wall as well as his verbal attacks on gays, women and Muslims.

The protests have been largely peaceful; however, the Portland police have been deployed in force using the acts of vandalism by small bands of self-declared anarchists as a pretext. The police used flash-bang grenades and pepper spray against the protesters on Thursday and used rubber bullets and tear gas on Friday.

Thursday night, police arrested 25 after announcing that what had, up till then, been a peaceful protest was now a riot. Police ordered protesters to leave the area at 8 p.m., and responded with rubber pepper ballsa less lethal projectile, containing a chili pepper dust. A total of 113 people have been arrested so far.

On Saturday night, Portland Democratic mayor Charlie Hales and Police Chief Mike Marshman issued warnings to the protesters as a whole, declaring the protests unlawful and once again deployed police against protesters, including large numbers of heavily militarized police.

The protests reflected the heavy influence of various pseudo-left groups that sought to channel the genuine opposition and outrage of workers and young people behind the Democratic Party. As in many other cities, they blamed Trumps triumph on an alleged resurfacing of racist and sexist tendencies among the white working class.

The main organizers of the protests are behind the local group Portlands Resistance (PR), a liberal outfit in the orbit of the Democratic Party. The group has offered a list of demandsan end to police brutality, clean air and water, open and accountable electionsdirected to the very political structure responsible for these regressive policies.

The politics of PR are focused on pushing the Democratic Party to the left. Its spokesman, Gregory McKelvey, revealed this perspective in an interview with the Oregonian newspaper, saying, I think protesting is one of those angles [of change]theres nothing more patriotic than using your first amendment right to push for change. He states that, with enough support for these demands, Portland can become a beacon of light for the rest of the nation.

In fact, Democratic Party politicians have dominated Oregon state and local governments for decades, a period in which inequality, poverty, hunger and homelessness have become entrenched. Oregon has one of the highest rates of inequality in the nation. Homelessness has exploded, with spontaneous tent cities popping up on public sidewalks and under freeways. Figures from the citys web sitenot updated since June of 2015show 4,000 homeless individuals on any given night with another 12,000 doubling up. Hunger is endemic, with nearly 20 percent of Oregons population on food stamps. Meanwhile, Oregons corporate tax rate is the lowest in the nation, with both corporate giants Nike and Intel receiving special tax cuts from former Democratic governor Ted Kulongoski in 2013.

No tendency outside of the Socialist Equality Party and the International Youth and Students for Social (IYSSE) Equality offered a cohesive political perspective. SEP and IYSSE supporters explained that Trumps election was not the product of a racist white working class, but reflected the political bankruptcy of the Democratic Party. Clintons appeal was not directed to the working class, but to wealthier layers of the upper middle class based on race and gender issues. Clinton lost because millions of workersblack, white and immigrantwere disgusted with the Clinton campaign, which advanced a program of war, while not concealing its subservience to Wall Street.

The Portland chapter of the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) attended every night of the protests to distribute flyers for the upcoming public meeting (see below) on November 15th with speaker Joseph Santolan from the Socialist Equality Party.

The World Socialist Web Site spoke with rally attendees at Waterfront Park on Sunday. An estimated 500 to 600 participated. While mostly young people were in attendance, a cross-section of societyworkers, middle class and studentswere present. A number expressed illusions in the campaign of self-proclaimed democratic socialist Sanders, who sought to channel opposition to the right-wing Clinton campaign back into support for the Democrats.

Meredith Jordan, an unemployed graduate student in environmental science, referring to Trumps anti-climate change position, said, With Trump in office, there will be no science whatsoever. I was shocked and very surprised at his election. I was living in an echo chamber of my friends and community that he was unelectable.

Mikaela Rodriguez is a first-year medical resident at Oregon Health Science University. I was shocked and stunned and in disbelief at Trumps election. I was working the night shift, glancing at the TV monitor, watching state after state go red. I felt that Bernie [Sanders] better reflected our values. I was a lot more politically involved when I was younger, but Bushs second term hit me hard.

Ashley Wagar and her friend Ellisa told the WSWS, Im here because the world is watching what we do here. Trumps election is obviously a global issue and we have to show the world that our protest is not just a bunch of liberal sore losers as the right says. It isnt a small matter, we are part of a much larger issue.

The WSWS also spoke with a group of young people, most in high school. Lloyd said, I have been at every protest every night. I was unable to vote even though I will be personally affected by Trump and the Trump presidency. Hugo added, They are upset with the political system, but it is terribly complicated, the Electoral College of faceless voters determines the president. It is not the decision of the popular vote.

The Electoral College was designed to protect the slave states, and these states are holding the rest of the nation hostage. Also, ID laws are used to prevent the poor, people of color and trans people from being able to vote.

Socialist Equality Party/IYSSE Public meeting:

The Trump Presidency and the Danger of World War

Tuesday, November 15, 7:30 p.m.

Portland State University

Smith Memorial Union, Room 238

1825 SW Broadway
This past Saturday, thousands of protesters took to the streets in California cities and throughout the United States.

In San Diego, members of the Socialist Equality Party and International Youth and Students for Social Equality spoke to workers and young people attending anti-Trump protests in that city. California is home to a massive working class that includes millions of immigrants, often the lowest paid section of workers.

In this video, workers and students speak on the legacy of Obamas policies on immigration and Obamacare, as well as the reactionary campaigns of Clinton and Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

Workers and young people interviewed advanced a variety of views, with some expressing confusion about the Democratic Party and its role.

Protesters speak at anti-Trump march in San Diego
Another mass protest occurred in Seoul on Saturday as the streets were filled with hundreds of thousands of people denouncing President Park Geun-hye and demanding she resign. It was the largest demonstration since June 1987, when military dictator Chun Doo-hwan was forced to allow open presidential elections at the end of his term in office.

All factions of the South Korean political establishment are maneuvering to find a way to get Park out of office in order to head off the deep-seated social discontent that is the root cause of the mass opposition to President Park.

While no formal charges have been levelled against Park, she has been accused of allowing a personal confidante, Choi Soon-sil, to decide policy matters. Choi, who held no actual position in the government, ran a suspected slush fund for Park.

Protest organizers estimate there were one million people at Gwanghwamun Square, while the more conservative police estimate was 260,000. Many held signs reading or chanted, Step down Park Geun-hye! and You are surrounded! Park Geun-hye, come out and surrender!

The protests have remained peaceful though upwards of 25,000 police officers were stationed alongside water cannons and walls of police buses to prevent marchers from moving toward Cheongwadae, the presidential residence.

Like previous protests, a wide range of people participated, from students in school uniforms to parents with their young children, retirees and an estimated 150,000 unionised workers. Foreign workers have had a presence at each of the protests, an indication of the international character of Seoul and the broad impact that the scandal has had on non-Korean workers.

Tens of thousands also gathered in cities around the country, including 35,000 in Busan, 10,000 in Gwangju, and 5,000 in Jeju. Park is expected to make a third public address on the matter soon.

Another demonstration in Seoul is planned for November 26. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, the countrys largest union federations, have threatened a general strike if Park does not resign.

Student Lee Hyeon-a, 16, told the Korea Herald on Saturday: I am participating in a rally for the first time. I am taking this opportunity to take more interest in politics so that my voice matters in the society.

Lee Gi-beom, a 20-year-old student at Kwangwoon University, stated: I feel this may be similar to the democratic uprising in the 1980s. A historic moment. This scandal has just reinforced the fact that the government is incompetent. It has definitely raised anger among youth.

The anger felt by people throughout South Korea, and in Korean communities abroad where protests have occurred, is understandable. But the scandal surrounding Park is not the result of incompetence or even corruption itself. It is the South Korean ruling class response to the deepening economic crisis. Neither the ruling Saenuri Party nor the opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK or Democratic Party), the Peoples Party, or minor Justice Party have any answers to declining economic conditions and rising unemployment.

Saturdays rally was organized by approximately 1,500 civic groups, many with ties to the MPK, whose leadership took part in the rally. If President Park continues to ignore the peoples demands and orders, the Democratic Party will stage a full-blown campaign for the ousting of the administration, said MPK leader Choo Mi-ae. Presidential hopefuls in next years election, Moon Jae-in and Seoul mayor Park Won-soon, were also present.

Investigators in the Choi Soon-sil case expect to question Park on Tuesday or Wednesday and will ask about her involvement in pressuring corporations to donate money to Mir and K-Sports, two nonprofits run by Choi. Park has been accused of using the money as a slush fund for her retirement. An Jong-beom, a former presidential secretary, told prosecutors the two foundations were set up on the presidents direct orders. Park has been summoned as a witness, not a suspect.

On Sunday, 80 Saenuri lawmakers and leaders, led by the partys anti-Park faction, called for the disbanding of the party as a way of deflecting public anger from the conservatives. Parties in South Korea are often renamed or reorganized in the wake of scandals, protests or electoral debacles.

Kim Mu-seong, a leading conservative who is opposed to Park, called for impeachment, saying: The reason why it is so hard to address the problem is because the president is standing at the center of a constitutional violation, as opposed to protecting the constitution. The peoples cries yesterday were their judgment on the president.

Impeachment requires two-thirds approval of the National Assembly. While the opposition controls 165 seats out of 300, at least 30 Saenuri lawmakers would be needed.

Some within the MPK have called for Parks resignation, but the party has not formally demanded Parks impeachment. For all the bluster at Saturdays demonstration, the opposition previously sought to provide Park with a way out that left her as president. Last week, the MPK demanded Park accept a so-called neutral cabinet, with a prime minister selected by the National Assembly. The president would lose a great deal of power, but remain in office.

Many from both the conservatives and opposition have also demanded that Park leave the Saenuri Party.

Now, however, the MPK is calling for a plan to provide Park with a peaceful means of resignation. The Peoples Party and Justice Party have been more forceful in calling for Parks removal and are demanding Parks impeachment. The Justice Party postures as a left-wing alternative to the MPK.

The deep-seated popular anger against Park is not the result of one scandal. Parks administration has dealt with a series of issues since she came to office, all of which have generated hostility toward her. These include the involvement of South Koreas intelligence agency, the National Intelligence Service, in the election that brought her to office; the mishandling of the sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014, killing mostly high school students; attacks on political parties and unions; labor casualization; deployment of a US anti-ballistic missile system; and mass layoffs in the ship building and shipping industries.

None of the issues facing the working class or youth in South Korea will be solved if Park steps down or is removed from office. All the opposition parties, as well as the anti-Park faction in the ruling party, are diverting the widespread discontent in the hope of shoring up their own support bases ahead of next years presidential election.

Regardless of who wins the election, the winner will continue to push through the demands of big business and Washington.
By PTI: Bettiah (Bihar), Nov 14 (PTI) The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) today seized 3.4 kg charas, estimated to be worth Rs 34 lakh in the international market, from Kathia-Mathia village under Sikta police station of West Champaran district, police said.

An SSB team seized the contraband from a place near pillar number 406/13 in the village.

The smuggler, who was on a motorcycle, fled from the spot after seeing the SSB jawans, police said.

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The SSB handed over the seized contraband and the motorcycle to the police. PTI CORR AR NN RC

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While Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra's big Hollywood debut films are to hit the screens one after the other in 2017, we take a look back at Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's film career in the West and what went wrong with it.

By Devarsi Ghosh: 2017 will see two of Bollywood's most successful exports, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra, make their Hollywood debuts. And what debuts they are!

On the one hand, Deepika Padukone is starring in the prominent, stylish role of Serena Unger in xXx: Return of Xander Cage, the third film in the blockbuster xXx franchise. On the other hand, is Priyanka Chopra, who is playing the primary antagonist Victoria Leeds in Baywatch, based on the hit television series of the same name. Where Deepika is starring opposite international superstar Vin Diesel, Priyanka is playing the baddie in a film which stars Diesel's Fast and Furious co-star Dwayne Johnson.

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INDIA TODAY EXCLUSIVE: Dhoom 2 to ADHM, Aishwarya opens up on doing racy, hot scenes in films

ALSO WATCH: My Ae Dil Hai Mushkil character got a great response from women, says Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

ALSO READ: Big B finally opens up on daughter-in-law Aishwarya's performance in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil

ALSO WATCH: Top 10 songs featuring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan



In the months prior to the release of Return of Xander Cage, Deepika has been making headlines, mostly for her chemistry with Vin Diesel and how beautiful she looks in the film. Priyanka, on her part, has had tremendous global visibility ever since she began starring in the American TV series Quantico. On top of that, after being one of the 2016 Academy Awards hosts and appearing on Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers's talk shows, Priyanka is now a big, big name internationally.







But where would Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone really be on the global map had there been no Aishwarya Rai Bachchan?



When Aishwarya Rai Bachchan became Miss World in 1994, the actor foresaw what she could achieve with her beauty, smarts, talent and personality. After getting a break in none other than Mani Ratnam's ground-breaking political saga Iruvar, Aishwarya began rising in stature and fame, from film to film.

After scoring a big Bollywood hit with 1999's Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Aishwarya starred in the critically acclaimed Taal followed by 2000's Shah Rukh Khan-starrers Josh and Mohabbatein. Around that time, she was also involved in a romantic relationship with Salman Khan which, obviously, made headlines in its own right. Ash had reached the pinnacle of stardom in Bollywood, but what more could she do to expand and/or consolidate this stardom?

Well, whenever a new star gets too big for Bollywood, the tabloid media goes ga ga over his or her Hollywood potential.

As expected, after experimenting in 'arthouse cinema' with Rituparno Ghosh (Chokher Bali and Raincoat) and starring in films that did not do justice to her brains or beauty (Albela, Hum Kisise Kum Nahin) for three years, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan finally had her Hollywood debut with 2004's Bride and Prejudice.



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What could wrong? Aishwarya was India's darling and London-based Punjabi filmmaker Gurinder Chadha was fresh off the success of her 2002 film Bend It Like Beckham which had made $76.6 million from a $6 million budget. On paper, it was a masterstroke.

Except that Bride and Prejudice had a sloppy screenplay and it appealed to a certain section of NRIs in UK and US, more than the international community itself. Unlike Deepika and Priyanka's debut vehicles which are completely Hollywood in style, feel and look through and through, Aishwarya's feature film debut in the West was essentially a Bollywood film, made with Western actors, in the West. Consequently, the international community was not much flattered.

Aishwarya's next few stints in the West were as follows:

2006's The Mistress of Spices directed by Gurinder's husband Paul Mayeda Berges. Critical and commercial flop.

2007's Provoked directed by US-based Indian filmmaker Jag Mundhra. Mixed reviews. Commercial flop.

2007's The Last Legion directed by Doug Lefler, starring Colin Farrell no less. Flop.

2009's much-publicised The Pink Panther 2 starring Steve Martin, Jean Reno, Andy Garcia, among others. A flop.

Now, barring the last two films, Aishwarya never really got any serious attention from the West, as one can see. And Aishwarya wasn't bad in any of these films. She was adequate and did her part in all her films, and particularly in Provoked, she was splendid. Then, what really went wrong?



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For one, the West began taking Indian actors seriously after the success of Slumdog Millionaire, which starred Indian actors Anil Kapoor and Irrfan. Suddenly, the West was not looking to fit Indian actors into stereotypical roles any longer. Irrfan got cast in prominent roles in big Hollywood films like The Amazing Spider-Man, Jurassic World and Inferno. Slumdog Millionaire's Dev Patel and Life of Pi's Suraj Sharma began getting lead roles in prestige projects as well.

To top that, the social media blitzkrieg around Priyanka and Deepika, in the age of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TMZ, did wonders for these two actors. Such a marketing juggernaut was absent at the time of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. So, regardless of how much Aishwarya would appear at Cannes every year to represent Loreal, at the end of the day, she was being seen just as a model, a pretty face. Not as a performer or an actor Hollywood studios could invest their money in.





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Last but not the least, Aishwarya's mistakes in the West (such as doing small, inconsequential films with lacklustre scripts and/or without backing of major studios) have made the new generation of Indian actors learn from them. They are now looking to make it big in Hollywood, and are smarter. In this regard, Irrfan has been an inspiration. The National Award-winning actor never sold himself short in the West and waited with patience for good projects. Unlike an Amitabh Bachchan in a blink-and-miss cameo in The Great Gatsby.

Now with Ae Dil Hai Mushkil's resounding success, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan can, perhaps, take a second stab as a top actor in Indian cinema. And maybe, even in Hollywood?





(The writer tweets as @devarsighosh .)

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A Pasco councilman has renewed efforts to have the city take a stand on protecting religious freedom, in light of the ongoing legal action inv
The site for Yakima Housing Authoritys proposed housing facility for homeless veterans, a former Marine Corps Reserve armory, is photographed on Tahoma Avenue in Yakima, Wash., Monday, July 11, 2016. (SHAWN GUST/Yakima Herald-Republic)
A family heirloom stolen from a Moxee home nearly four years ago has resurfaced in Chicago, and its elated owner is planning her first visit t
By PTI: From Shirish Pradhan

Kathmandu, Nov 15 (PTI) American explorer Sean Burch has set a new world record by making the most first ascents of previously unclimbed mountains in Nepal.

Burch, who worked with local indigenous Nepalese from Humla district to stimulate income generation and promote tourism in the country, made 31 first ascents in 21 days climbing in previously unexplored, mountain regions within the Kangnun Himal, Chandi Himal, Changla Himal and Valley regions of western Nepal.

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Burch spent 12 to 16 hours a day climbing, battled severe winds, high altitude, snowstorms, trench foot, frostbite, and extreme hypothermia and a helicopter evacuation was made by the American Embassy in Kathmandu due to an unplanned overnight bivouac in sub-freezing temperatures, according to a press release.

Due to severe weather conditions and failing communication with his logistic team, he was forced to survive overnight on the side of a mountain without food and shelter.

The 31 mountains ranged in height from 16,000 to over 19,000ft.

"21st century exploration does exist, and its here in Nepal," said Burch, who was named Honorary Goodwill Ambassador to Nepals Tourism Year in 2011 by the government for his humanitarian efforts within the country.

"I wanted to help with the recovery and revival of the tourism sector, to send a positive message to the world that Nepal is safe and open for tourists, Burch said.

"I also wanted to document uncharted mountains high enough to be unspoiled and away from humans in order to show climate change as it occurs in real-time," he said.

In addition to his efforts to promote tourism in Nepal, Burch is in partnership with The Nepal Trust, to raise awareness for the development of women and child health in Humla.

Burch currently holds 7 World Records within fitness and adventure.

Burch is the creator and founder of Hyperfitness, a wellness program.

He is author of the highly acclaimed book, Hyperfitness: 12 Weeks to Conquering Your Inner Everest and Getting into the Best Shape of Your Life.

He is the winner of National Geographic Channels Ultimate Survival Alaska Show and many other record holder. PTI SBP KJ AKJ KJ

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Barronelle Stutzman, the owner of Arlenes Flowers in Richland, Wash., was found guilty of discrimination under Washington law after she refused to provide flowers for a gay couples wedding, citing her religious beliefs. Shes appealing the ruling. Her case is an example of the growing national clash between gay marriage and religious liberties. (BOB BRAWDY/Tri-City Herald)
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President Barack Obama gave a not-so-subtle wake-up call to President-elect Donald Trump. In a dispassionate advice, Obama said that White House had its own way of waking one up and if Trump did not control his temper, he would be shaken up.

By Reuters: President-elect Donald Trump is in for a quick wake-up call and will have to adjust his temperament when he confronts the realities of his new job on January 20, President Barack Obama said on Monday.

In a news conference at the White House, Obama said the freewheeling Trump could not be as outspoken as he was during the long and bitter campaign that ended last week with the Republican's surprise win over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

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Subdued and carefully choosing his words, Obama gave what appeared to be dispassionate advice to his successor free of much of the partisan rancor that marked the election campaign.

"This office has a way of waking you up," Obama said. "Those aspects of his positions or predispositions that don't match up with reality, he will find shaken up pretty quick because reality has a way of asserting itself."

ALSO READ | Awkward: President-elect Donald Trump and Barack Obama meet and internet captions the photos

ALSO READ | Obama on Trump victory: We are now all rooting for his success

ALSO READ | Why is America, a first-world country, still using paper ballots for the US Presidential Elections?

YOU CAN SAY ANYTHING IN CAMPAIGN, BUT AS A PRESIDENT YOU HAVE TO BE CAREFUL: OBAMA

The two men met in the Oval Office last week to begin the transition of power. Obama said on Monday he believed Trump would be pragmatic in office and not approach the country's problems from an ideological perspective.

"There are going to be certain elements of his temperament that will not serve him well, unless he recognizes them and corrects them," Obama said.

"Because when you're a candidate and you say something that is inaccurate or controversial it has less impact than it does when you're president of the United States. Everybody around the world is paying attention. Markets move," he said.

Obama declined to wade into a controversy over Trump's appointment of right-wing firebrand Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist, saying it would "not be appropriate" for him to comment on Trump's appointments.

But Obama, who criticized Trump's temperament during the campaign, said it was important for Trump to send signals of unity after the hard-fought campaign. He said the political gifts that allowed the Republican to upset Clinton would be put to good use in the White House.

"I've been encouraged by his statements on election night about the need for unity, his interest in being president for all people," Obama said. "In an election like this that was so hotly contested and so divided, gestures matter."

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ALSO READ | Watch: Trump lies about how Obama treated one of his supporters

ALSO READ | Hillary Clinton delivers a presidential speech, says Trump will be our president GIULIANI TO BE STATE SECRETARY?

The president-elect, a businessman who has never held public office, and his transition team are working on picking members of his Cabinet and the heads of federal agencies.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has emerged as a leading candidate for secretary of state, a source familiar with the process said. John Bolton, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, is also being considered for the job of the nation's top diplomat, the source added.

Giuliani became one of Trump's closest advisers during the campaign, functioning as his most vocal defender on cable news programs and introducing him at many rallies. Giuliani has also been mentioned as a possible attorney general or homeland security secretary.

A Trump transition team official denied media reports on Monday that Trump was seeking security clearance for three of his children and his son-in-law.

Such clearance would allow Trump to discuss matters of national security with his daughter Ivanka, sons Eric and Donald Jr. and son-in-law Jared Kushner. Federal law prohibits him from hiring family members to serve in his administration, but all four played key advisory roles through the campaign.

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Trump has insisted that to avoid conflicts of interest, his children would run his sprawling business operations once he assumed the presidency.

ALSO READ | Suspense over Trump's foreign policy, mood upbeat over India-US relations

ALSO READ | H-1B visa issue may cause friction between India-US ties under Trump

ANGER OVER BANNON'S APPOINTMENT

Democrats, civil rights groups and even some Republicans slammed Trump for choosing Bannon as a key aide, saying it would elevate the white nationalist movement into the top levels of the White House.

Making his first appointments since last week's upset win, Trump picked Bannon as his chief strategist and counselor, and Washington insider Reince Priebus as his chief of staff on Sunday, saying the two would share the task of steering his administration as "equal partners."

The choice of Priebus was seen as a conciliatory signal of Trump's willingness to work with Congress. But critics blasted the selection of Bannon, who spearheaded a shift of the Breitbart News website into a forum for the "alt-right," a loose online group of neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites.

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"There should be no sugarcoating the truth here: Donald Trump just invited a white nationalist into the highest reaches of the government," said Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, who called on Trump to rescind the choice.

The Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said Bannon's appointment sent "an alarming signal that President-elect Trump remains committed to the hateful and divisive vision that defined his campaign."

Even some conservatives and Republicans voiced dismay on Bannon. Evan McMullin, who ran as a conservative independent presidential candidate, wondered on Twitter if any national Republican leaders would condemn the pick of "anti-Semite" Bannon.

John Weaver, a top strategist for Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich, tweeted that the "racist, fascist extreme right is represented footsteps from the Oval Office. Be very vigilant America." Kasich was one of 16 Republican presidential hopefuls Trump defeated in the party primaries.

ALSO READ | Pakistanis worried President Donald Trump may favour India

ALSO READ | What President Donald Trump could mean for Modi and India BANNON HAS SUPPORTERS TOO

Priebus defended Bannon on Monday, calling him a wise and well-educated former naval officer and saying he had not encountered the sort of extremist or racist views that critics are assailing.

"He was a force for good on the campaign," Priebus said on Fox News, adding they were in agreement on "almost everything" in terms of advising the president-elect.

Kellyanne Conway, Trump's former campaign manager and a senior adviser, told reporters in New York she was offended by the reaction to Bannon, describing him as a "brilliant tactician."

Police in New York on Monday were investigating two cases involving swastikas drawn or painted in public spaces, as civil rights activists said there had been a surge in hate crimes following last week's election.

Local media reported hundreds of students walked out of a high school to protest Trump on Monday in Silver Spring, Maryland, and students gathered at the University of Washington in Seattle to protest Trump.

Watch the video here:

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What do they really know? The Arab worlds finest experts and most senior commentators sat down over the weekend to explain US President-elect Donald Trumps future conduct on Middle Eastern affairs . Some took it one step further and offered him advice: What to do with ISIS, how to handle Syrian President Bashar Assad. They prepared scenarios on Arab oil affairs and mapped the enemies versus the good guys.

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There was one motif which repeated itself in dozens of articles: By a majority of votes, the commentators insist that Trump will not keep his promise to move the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Another motif which quite a few commentators stressed was the smile on Abdel Fattah al-Sisis face when he learned of the election results.

Syrian President Bashar Assad. Believes the new US president wont find the time and wont have any interest in dealing with him (Photo: AP)

The Egyptian president broke a world record: He is the first leader who got hold of Trump the moment after he won. Egyptian officials reported that it was a good conversation and that the Egyptian president invited the American president-elect to Cairo. But we should pay attention to the fact that Trump did not use the opportunity to respond in kind and invite al-Sisi to Washington. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the other hand, says he has already been invited.

There is a huge gap between the Egyptian streets indifference towards the US election results and al-Sisis smile. For Trump, he will remain the fantastic guy, as he defined him during their meeting in New York, and there was good chemistry also. This means that Washington will stop nagging Cairo on human rights issues. On the other hand, it doesnt say anything about the extent of the Trump administrations involvement in helping the Egyptian regime survive.

The Arab world did not expect Trump to win the elections, although it hated the outgoing Democratic regimes conduct. Hillary Clinton, President Barack Obamas secretary of state, was blamed for the push that led to the overthrow of four Arab tyrants, Americas allies: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia, Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen and Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. Washington was accused of having no clue on how to run a state in the Arab world, and Obama was portrayed as coveting Iraq and Irans oil wells at the expense of the alliance with Saudi Arabia.

In the meantime, Iran has already sent its foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, to threaten Trump. We have other ways to preserve the nuclear agreement, announced the person who headed the Iranian negotiating team. Other ways are a code name for the trouble Iran could give the person who referred to the nuclear agreement as the worst deal ever negotiated and swore to deal with the document which was signed by the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain, Germany and the European Union.

Bashar Assad, on his part, is probably satisfied. He estimates that the new American president wont find the time and wont have any interest in dealing with him. First of all, because of his declaration that the war on ISIS is more important, and second, because he is expected to team up with Russian President Vladimir Putin. If that happens, Assads problem will be taken care of. Indeed, the Syrian rebels are already showing signs of pressure.

On the Israeli side, the Trump era opens a window of opportunities, at least until mid-January. During this period, Netanyahu will be able to ride on his image in the Arab world as a leader with an open door to the new president  as they both see eye-to-eye on the threats and the interests.

On the American side, Trumps promise in his victory speech  to restore Americas greatness  should be taken seriously. This is actually where we can find a thick hint regarding the new list of priorities: America first, and the others can stand in line. The conflict with the Palestinians will be put in the fridge, Trump will help al-Sisi remain "the fantastic guy, and the Saudis can go looking for him.

Who really lost big time? The women in the Arab world. Clintons defeat catches them in the middle of a journey. Trump wont try to upgrade their status. Behind the veil and without one, they have no one to turn to and no one to trust.
The United States on Monday described as "troubling" the Regulations Bill supported by a ministerial committee allowing residents in the West Bank to remain in their homes and said it hoped the law does not pass.

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"We are deeply concerned about the advancement of legislation that would allow for the legalization of illegal Israeli outposts located on private Palestinian land," State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau told a briefing.

Avichai Mandelblit (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

If the law were enacted it could pave the way for the legalization of dozens of illegal outposts deep in the West Bank, she said, adding: "This would represent an unprecedented and troubling step that's inconsistent with prior Israeli legal opinion and also break longstanding policy of not building on private Palestinian land," Trudeau said.

The US believes settlements endangered prospects for a two-state solution and Israeli-Palestinian peace, she said. "We hope it doesn't become law," Trudeau added.

Elizabeth Trudeau on Amona

X

The ministerial committee defied Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and voted on Sunday to back the bill, which will be debated by parliament on Wednesday and is still some distance from becoming law.

Israel's State Attorney, Avichai Mandelblit, has called the bill legally flawed in its current form, saying that it contravened private property rights legislation and did not tally with Israel's international law commitments.
Once its the Left and once its the Right. They dont like the High Courts rulings. The Left didnt like the decision to evict the Bedouins from al-Araqib . It has been trying to violate the decision again and again. It has gone to the area and built homes or sheds there. It has organized petitions. And to hell with the rule of law. Ideology is much more important than obeying a judicial decision.

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It doesnt matter if the Left has learned from the Right or if the Right has learned from the Left. Its the same result. Radical right-wing activists, not necessarily the residents of Amona, are discussing how to take a similar path. They can receive advice from the Lefts rights organizations, which are helping violate the law. They are already familiar with the tricks. They speak highly of ideology, while crushing the law in their actions.

Amona. An ongoing affair of circumventing and violating the law (Photo: Tomeriko)

Nonetheless, woe to us if the State of Israel is run by the enemies of the rule of law. The High Court wasnt rightist when it decided to evacuate al-Araqib despite the Lefts protests, and the High Court isnt leftist when it decides to evacuate Amona despite the Rights protests. There is only one thing which is worse than a bad High Court decision: Failure to obey the ruling. This is what the political groups, both from the left and from the right, are trying to do. The decision made by the court on Monday against a delay, another delay, in the implementation of judicial decisions is a red stop sign, and its a good thing it has been placed.

It should be mentioned that Amona is an ongoing affair of circumventing the law and violating the law. Step by step, again and again. There was no good faith there to begin with. The community was established on private land. The settlers were well aware of that. Demolition orders were issued at a very early stage, more than a decade ago. They were not implemented. The law was crushed.

Since then, for more than a decade, the community of Amona has gone in and out of the High Court many times. Different panels have accepted petitions asking to postpone the evacuation. But enough is enough. The High Court must draw a red line.

It should be clarified that the High Court rulings on Amona have nothing to do with the legal debate, which is also political, between Talia Sassons report on illegal outposts and late Supreme Court Justice Edmund Levys Report on the Legal Status of Building in Judea and Samaria, which is as legal and as political. The establishment of a community without a permit and against demolition orders would have received a similar response had it been a community within the Green Line.

Bedouin communities built on private lands have occasionally received repeated evacuation delays. But the regulation of the Bedouin settlement is part of a much more complicated process. After all, the High Court has ruled time and again against unjustified Bedouin ownership claims, and has also approved forcible evacuations, like in the al-Araqib case.

This is a critical hour. The ball is in the Israeli governments court. It has implemented court rulings in the Bedouin sector despite the Lefts protest. It must implement the ruling on Amona despite the Rights protest.
NAIROBI- An international human rights group says the Kenyan government is coercing refugees to return to Somalia where they risk getting killed or wounded in an ongoing conflict, ahead of a deadline to close the world's largest refugee camp.

Some of the refugees have been living in Dadaab camp in eastern Kenya for more than two decades after Somalia descended into chaos following the 1991 ouster of longtime dictator Said Barre by warlords who then turned on each other.

Kenya's government announced in May that Dadaab, which hosts more than 280,000 Somali refugees, will be closed at the end of this month, citing security concerns.
WASHINGTON- The U.S. approach to Asia faces a major overhaul when Donald Trump takes office, but what will take its place? A new report warns of a leadership vacuum and even a nuclear arms race if the U.S. withdraws from a region threatened by a provocative North Korea.

But authors of the Asia Foundation report provided to The Associated Press ahead of its publication Tuesday also say in some parts of the region there's hope that a shift from President Barack Obama's signature foreign policy could be for the good.

Despite the major diplomatic capital invested by Obama in reaching out to Asia in the past eight years, his so-called "pivot" policy has yielded only modest gains in countering the rise of an assertive China. There's been a slight increase in the U.S. military presence in the region; a political opening in former pariah state Myanmar; and better relations with old enemy Vietnam.
BEIRUT- An air strike hit a hospital in the rebel-held Syrian village of Awaijel, west of Aleppo killing at least one person in the early hours of Tuesday, a day after attacks on two other hospitals in the region, a war monitor said.

Jets hit Awaijel's Baghdad hospital with rockets, injuring medical staff and patients, including some who had just moved there from a hospital hit in nearby Kafrnaha on Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The attack put the hospital in Awaijel out of service, it added.

The Observatory is a Britain-based monitor of Syria's five-and-a-half-year civil war that publishes reports based on its network of contacts across Syria.
Deputy Minister for Regional Cooperation Ayoob Kara once again raised the ire of Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials recently, when he discussed in an official statement details of a matter that is under gag order.

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"Kara's words regarding the earthquake in Italy being punishment for the UNESCO vote against the Israeli connection to Jerusalem, and his damaging publication from today, prove that he is conducting himself with irresponsibility that is causing diplomatic damage and a risk to human lives. The prime minister must call him to order," said a senior government official.

Deputy minister Ayoob Kara. "I'm a public figure before I am a government man."

Deputy Minister Kara responded, saying, "I didn't know there was a gag order. I don't need to know. I'm a public figure. People contact me, I have to take care of them. When I heard there was a gag order the morning after we sent out the statement  we immediately issued a correction and I said reach out to the censor. What, every civilian who contacts me, I have to check if there's a gag order? I am a public representative who is serving the public. I don't need to check up on court orders. I'm a public figure before I am a government man."

In a later response, Kara wrote, "The origins of the affair in question are civilian. Kara operated responsibly as a public representative in light of human circumstances presented to him, (and did so) with humanitarian concerns only. The publication was due to requests by those involved in the matter, and at the time of the publication there was no gag order. Any attempts to besmirch Kara is a figment of the imagination of reporters and anonymous 'state' sources."
Representative Keith Ellison, the first Muslim to be elected to the US Congress, has emerged as the frontrunner to become chairperson of the Democratic National Committee (DNC)  the party's governing body, responsible for coordinating its political strategy. Whoever is elected as DNC chair will have the tough task of guiding the party through its recovery following the painful loss it suffered in the 2016 elections.

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Ellison, a representative of Minnesota's fifth district in the US House of Representatives since 2007, has already gathered the support of three party leaders: Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who lost a close presidential primary race to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, and influential Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. He has yet to officially declare his candidacy for the position, but has stated that he will announce his intentions soon.

Rep. Keith Ellison. First Muslim-American elected to Congress. (Photo: AP)

Ellison, 53, grew up catholic but converted to Islam while in college, at age 19. His ex-wife was not a Muslim, but their four children were raised Muslim. He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2006, starting his term in early 2007.

Ellison has visited Israel in the past, as part of a US delegation, even meeting then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. He has advocated for the removal of the blockade on Gaza for humanitarian reasons, but has also defended Israel's right to defend its citizens from the threat of Hamas rocket fire.

"My friend Keith Ellison is a terrific leader and a strong progressive who knows how to get things done. Now is the time for new thinking and a fresh start at the DNC. Now is the time for Keith," said Reid, who will be retiring at the end of his current term in early January 2017.
Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov has recently arrived at the shores of Syria accompanied by its companion vessels. The ships are in the area as a deterrent measure, but also in order to collect intelligence via electronic means. As a response, the Israeli Navy has upgraded its cyber warfare capabilities, placing special crews onto its missile boats.

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"The (fight) isn't just with the possibility of infiltration into your systems  you need to ensure that if there is an infiltration, the infiltrator won't be able to cause damage or collect critical intelligence and will be identified quickly," said an IDF cyber warfare official.

Russia's Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier. (Photo: AFP)

Cyber warfare has taken a larger and larger part in Israeli defense exports in recent years. The International Defense Cooperation Directorate of the Israel Ministry of Defense (SIBAT) has designated 2017 as the year of Israeli defense industry cyber exports.

"We have identified specific needs in over 20 countries where SIBAT has close ties. We are concentrating efforts in order to connect the great ability of the Israeli cyber industry to the needs of our friends in the world," said SIBAT head Michel Ben-Baruch.

Israel is home to about 300 companies who deal in cyber warfare exports. Israeli military industry firms have been acquiring many of the smaller companies and absorbing them in order to increase their capacity in the field. Among their works, encouraged by SIBAT, is the construction of cyber war rooms for foreign clients.

SIBAT is a central partner in the Hls & Cyber 2016 conference that was set to open Tuesday in Tel Aviv. The conference was to be attended by defense delegations from dozens of countries, who have come to take in Israeli technology.

According to SIBAT, the biggest in-demand products are related to cyber-protection of weapons systems and control systems, the establishment of CERT (Computer Emergency Readiness Team) centers, strategic infrastructure defense, training equipment, cyber crime, and advanced cyber services.
The BJP high command has instructed all its partymen to stay away from Gali Janardhan Reddy's daughter's wedding.

By India Today Web Desk: As part of its campaign against black money, the BJP high command has instructed all its partymen to stay away from its leader and mining scam accused Gali Janardhan Reddy's daughter's lavish wedding in Bengaluru.

The BJP feels its image may get dented if it associates itself with the big, fat wedding, which comes amid the chaos and politics over the government's demonetisation scheme. Many Karnataka ministers and city VVIPs have also expressed their regrets over not attending the wedding.

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ALSO READ | Karnataka: Here is all you need to know about the big fat Reddy wedding during demonetisation



The invites to the big fat wedding scheduled on November 16 were sent on LCD devices. Helium balloons with photos of the Reddy family hover over the Bangalore Palace grounds, the venue of the wedding, which is likely to be attended by 50,000 people.

A host of Bollywood and Kannada stars including Shah Rukh Khan and Katrina Kaif are expected to perform at the wedding. Photos of the bride-to-be Brahmani decked in kilos of gold and diamond have been circulating on social media for a while.

Reddy, a former BJP minister and one of the richest politicians in Karnataka, is one of the main accused in the Bellary illegal mining scam.



ALSO READ | Big fat Reddy wedding: Outrageously fancy arrangements, Rs 500 crore budget and the ancient city of Hampi



--- ENDS ---
Arab media has published pictures of the massive amounts of Hezbollah forces in Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on the show of force, as did various Hezbollah media outlets.

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The Shia terror group didnt officially publish any of the pictures.

Lebanese media outlets are struggling to understand the message Hezbollah is trying to send with these pictures, especially since the pictures werent published by the terror group itself.

Hezbollah tracked vehicles

Meanwhile, commentators on various social media sites are claiming that some of the materiel  including tracked vehicles - seen in the pictures are US made and taken from the Lebanese military.

The Syrian rebels were having a field day over the pictures, claiming that this was just further confirmation that Hezbollah are the ones who are really in charge in Syria, while the anti-Hezbollah March 14 coalition came out against the pictures, with one of the coalition leaders tweeting that the pictures shatter all hope to restore the dignity and the image of the state.

Hezbollah tanks and APCs on display

Hezbollah has flagrantly shown off its military forces in occupied Syria, and has taken advantage of the political cover it has received following the new Presidents inauguration and the governments seal of approval, the official said. What will this strong president say to the Lebanese people regarding this armed militia which has turned into an army, is participating in the occupation of Syria, and is taking part in the massacre of the Syrian nation?

Various other news sources affiliated with Hezbollah, such as al-Safir, welcomed the pictures of the forces in the Qusayr area, located on the border with Lebanon.

Any future campaign will not be limited to Lebanese territory  a firm message to Israel and the terrorists, the newspaper wrote.

Hezbollah heavy weapons on display

The newspaper noted that this is Hezbollahs first show of force outside of Lebanon, and the first time it is showing off its tracked vehicles.

The US State Department said it is investigating the incident.

Ynetnews military affairs analyst Ron Ben Yishai notes that the forces being shown off before the cameras are part of Hezbollahs armored division which was established exactly a year ago. Amongst the equipment shown are T-72 tanks M-113 armored personnel carriers (APCs)  the latter also in use by the IDF.

Hezbollah ATVs with Kornet missiles mounted on them

It seems that the Lebanese military were the original recipients of the APCs.

A quick response motorcycle unit was also on display.

Hezbollah also showed of European made military grade all terrain vehicles with Kornet anti-tank missiles attached to them, along with other light tanks. Hezbollah is known to currently be in possession of 130,000 missiles, and has greatly increased its capabilities after receiving weapons from the Syrian military.

The purpose of the show of force was to prove that the terror organization is able to incorporate its armored division with anti-tank missiles  an ability which usually only national militaries have. This is proof that Hezbollah is a hybrid army, meaning it is a guerrilla group which can blend into the civilian population, while at the same time has the ability to carry out armored division style attacks.
The surprising results in the US presidential election create both concerns and new opportunities for Israel. The most tangible opportunity has to do with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but not necessarily in the manner t it was perceived and declared by the Israeli Right.

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Since 1993, the American administration has supported the two-state solution. For those of us who have forgotten, it was supported both by Republican George W. Bush's administration and by the two Democratic administrations which preceded and succeeded it.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. If we waste the next four years, we may regret it in the future (Photo: Amos Ben Gershom, GPO)

This solution is based on four assumptions. One, the solution to the conflict should be geographically restricted to the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Two, the solution requires the establishment of a Palestinian state with full sovereignty. Three, the border between Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines. Four, the West Bank and Gaza must constitute a single diplomatic entity.

These four assumptions create very limited room for negotiations. The Clinton Parameters (Bills, not Hillarys), as they were presented in late 2000, are the practical translation of these assumptions. Anyone who tries in the future to return to negotiations based on these parameters will reach a similar to identical plan.

But who says these assumptions are four cornerstones we cannot do without? If we free ourselves from them and try to look into the entire range of possible solutions, we will find that some of the other solutions have an outstanding advantage over the only known solution.

Among the other solutions, we can talk about a regional solution with land swaps between four playersEgypt, Jordan, Israel and Palestineor about the creation of a federation between Jordan and the West Bank, or about a functional and not necessarily territorial division between us and the Palestinians. And yes, even Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennetts plan to annex C Area and establish Palestinian autonomy in the rest of the area.

We should remember that until 1992, both the Likud and the Labor Party completely ruled out the two-state idea. In the past 24 years, a different plan could not even be considered, as three American presidents and six American secretaries of state rushed to declare shortly after taking office that they were committed to the two-state solution. US President-elect Donald Trump will likely not make such a declaration, and neither will the person he selects as his secretary of state.

The Israeli government has two options: It can either determine that there is no solution to the conflict and that it should therefore continue managing it, or it could launch a dialogue with the new administration which would examine the entire range of possibilities, without being committed to the four aforementioned assumptions.

In the short run, the first approach may have an advantage, as the Trump administration wont pressure Israel to reach an agreement and will likely be more lenient regarding the settlements.

In the long run, this approach could be revealed as a mistake. First of all, if and when the Palestinian side realizes that there is no diplomatic hope of any kind, it will strengthen both Hamas in the West Bank and other radical elements. From there, the road to a third intifada could be short. Second, and more importantly, the Trump administration could actually be attentive to other and better solutions. If we waste the next four years, we may regret it in the future.
President-elect Donald Trump assisted the Israeli government to establish infrastructure for new communities for Israelis being evacuated from the settlements in the Sinai in the1980s and from Gaza in 2005, Yedioth Ahronoth has learned.

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Sinai was evacuated as part of a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt which Gush Katif in Gaza was done so at the behest of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in a unilateral withdrawal.

According to various estimations, Trumps financial donations amounted to millions of shekels.

President-elect Donald Trump

The high costs of evacuating Gush Katif which stood at 10 billion shekels caused the Israeli government to seek assistance from the Jewish National Fund and other Jewish donations. We issued an appeal to all Keren Kayemeth leIsrael (KKL) and JNF offices worldwide, explained Effie Stenzler, former chairman of the Jewish National Fund.

"KKL-USA sought donations in the US and one of them was sought from Trump, who is considered to be an avowed supporter of Israel, and he donated money toward the establishment of infrastructure in new communities, Stenzler said. The funds were used to build greenhouses, to construct houses and to pave access roads.

Donald Trump appears on the name of donors in Moshav Dekel

It also turns out that the tycoon-turned-politician contributed some of his wealth in 1980 toward evacuating settlements in the Sinai and his name appears on a list of donors in the Hevel Shalom region which absorbed the evacuees from Sinai and Gaza.

According to the Yaron Solomon, the director of the Settlement Department of the Agricultural Union, some of the evacuees chose to establish three communities through this union which included Dekel, Talmei Yosef and Yevul.

As is customary, the KKL engraved the names of the donors on a special plaque of gratitude in the center of a moshav in Dekel.
BRUSSELS - NATO's chief said on Tuesday that Russia's seizure of Crimea remained a major sticking point, sounding a note of caution a day after U.S. president-elect Donald Trump agreed to boost cooperation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The U.S.-led military alliance wanted to keep talking to Moscow, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said before talks with EU defence ministers in Brussels.

But Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea was an unacceptable breach of Ukraine's sovereignty, he added.

His message was echoed by German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen who said she was also concerned about Russia's military activities in eastern Ukraine and Syria. "It is ... important not to forget our principles," she added.
According to a new report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Israel is the world's top per-capita consumer of sugar. The report states that Israelis take in an average of 170 grams of sugar per person per day; Malaysia comes in second at 160 grams, then Brazil (155 grams), and the United States (142 grams).

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The figures show that Israel places second in the percentage of its calories that come from sugars: About 16 percent.





Israelis consume 170 grams of sugar per day on average - the most in the world. (Photo: Shutterstock)

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a person's daily sugar intake shouldn't exceed about 8 spoons, or 32 grams for men, and six spoons , or 24 grams, for women. Excessive sugar consumption can lead to dizziness, headaches, addiction, damadge to the pancreas, high cholesterol, obesity, and diabetes, among other disorders.

Last week, newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth wrote about an initiative that would require marking unhealthy food products as such. Many if not most of these would likely be processed foodstuffs  which often have a high sugar content.

Minister of Health Yaakov Litzman responded, saying, "These are very concerning figures that demand taking drastic measures out of public responsibility. The regulation committee in food matters is, these days, working on finding implementable and effective solutions. The Ministry of Health is determined to wipe out the phenomena and bring a dramatic change in sugar consumption in order to preserve public health and prevent disease."
PARIS - France said on Tuesday an Israeli bill supported by a ministerial committee allowing settlers in the occupied West Bank to remain in homes built on private Palestinian land was of a matter of deep concern and jeopardized a two-state solution.

"This proposed law, if it were adopted, would once again jeopardize a two-state solution and would contribute in worsening tensions on the ground. France is deeply concerned by it," Foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said in a daily briefing.

The ministerial committee defied Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and voted on Sunday to back the bill, which will be debated by parliament on Wednesday and is still some distance from becoming law.
LONDON- Thousands of British prison officers have walked off the job to protest rising violence behind bars.

Members of the Prison Officers Association protested Tuesday by stopping work, though they said they would respond to emergencies.

Prison guards are barred from striking and the government asked the High Court to rule the protest unlawful.

Prison staff say government cuts have made their job more dangerous and worsened conditions for prisoners.
Jordan has issued a harsh response against the approval by Israeli ministers on Sunday evening of a bill to ban mosque muezzins from announcing prayer times via loudspeakers in the streets.

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The Jordanian head of Al-Aqsa Mosque Affairs and the Ministry of Religious Endowments, Abdullah Al Awadi, said on Tuesday afternoon to the official Jordanian news agency that the bill, even if passed, will have no bearing on the mosques practices.

Every decision taken by the Israeli occupation which touch on the holy sites in Jerusalem such as, among other things, the muezzins bill, is an invalid decision and isnt recognized, he declared.

Photo: AFP

Awadi also cited international law as the overriding factor in the matter. In accordance with international law, the occupier cannot make any historic changes in the city that it occupies and it is required to leave things as they are, he continued. This proves that any Israeli decision on Jerusalem is null and void.

In a separate interview with the Jordanian newspaper, Awadi described the move as a serious escalation of aggressive policies from the right-wing Israeli government against the Palestinian people. He also claimed that this was not the first attempt to silence the muezzins but rather this is part of an ongoing effort.

He concluded by calling on the Jordanian government to act against any attempt to restrict the traditional practices of Islam and promised that any such attempt would be defied.

All the decisions that are taken by the Zionist entity dont touch Jordan. The muezzins will continue to sound their calls as always without fear of these decisions, he assured. It is the Jordanian governments responsibility to act against any threat of a weapon that could be used against the muezzins in Jerusalem.

The bill has also drawn local criticism, and a demonstration against the it is planned for Wednesday in Tel Aviv-Jaffa at 18:00.
France said on Tuesday an Israeli bill supported by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation allowing settlers in the occupied West Bank to remain in homes built on private Palestinian land was of a matter of deep concern and jeopardized a two-state solution.

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If approved, the bill-turned-law would legalize outposts that have been built outside the demarcated village border would legalize the outpost of Amona and nine houses inthe settlement of Ofra, which are currently under threat of evacuation. Such a move would possibly infringe upon land that would be transferred over to the Palestinians under a two-state solution.

"This proposed law, if it were adopted, would once again jeopardize a two-state solution and would contribute in worsening tensions on the ground. France is deeply concerned by it," Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Romain Nadal said in a daily briefing.





Netanyahu (L) and Mandelblit (Photo: Mark Israel Salem)

Israel's Attorney-General, Avihai Mandelblit, has called the bill legally flawed in its current form, saying that it contravened private property rights legislation and did not tally with Israel's international law commitments.

"Settlements, under all its forms, are illegal with respect to international law. We call on Israel to respect its international obligations," Nadal said.

Egypt has also expressed "deep concern" Tuesday by a bill approved two days ago by the Israeli government, paving the way for the legalization of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi (Photo: AFP)

The text, which provides for legalization of outposts built on private Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, was adopted by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation but has yet to pass three readings of the Knesset.

"The continuation of Israeli settlement, which has accelerated steadily and systematically, and the adoption of measures to legalize, reduce the chances of success of the two-state solution," the Egyptian Foreign Ministry in a statement.

Egypt also believes that this policy "undermines efforts for a resumption of the peace process", whereas in the past, the President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had repeatedly stressed the need to "break the deadlock" between Palestinians and Israelis.

Egypt has repeatedly played a mediating role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 1979 after becoming the first Arab countryand one of only two to date with Jordanto sign an agreement peace with Israel. Relations between the two countries, however, remain a sensitive issue in public opinion and the Egyptian media.

In May, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi stated he was willing to help revive the peace process between Palestinians and Israelis with an initiative of his own , which Netanyahu has expressed an interest in pursuing
US Secretary of State John Kerry said Yemen's Shiite rebels have agreed to a cease-fire for their war-torn country, starting Thursday.

However, Kerry says the rebels' agreement was conditional on the government also agreeing to it. He says the rebels, known as Houthis, told him they are willing to participate in a unity government, to be formed by the end of the year.

President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi's government promptly rejected the cease-fire initiative. Kerry spoke on Tuesday after holding meetings with Houthis in Oman, a traditional Mideast broker.
Many economists say one reason why India is able to withstand frequent global crises in economy is because of the huge parallel economy of black money, the UP CM said.

By India Today Web Desk: In a bizarre statement, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today said black money saves the Indian economy in times of global recession.

"I am opposed to black money. I do not want it. But many economists say one reason why India is able to withstand frequent global crises in economy is because of the huge parallel economy of black money," Yadav told reporters.

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Also read | Demonetising 500, 1000 rupee notes has ended terror-funding, stone-pelting in Kashmir: Parrikar



REMARK COMES IN WAKE OF DEMONETISATION MOVE



Coming in the middle of a massive crisis over the government's demonetisation scheme to check the flow of black money, the young Samajwadi Party leader's comments are surely going to ruffle a lot of feathers.

The Opposition is in a huddle, a day before Parliament's winter session which is expected to be stormy following the decision to declare Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes illegal, resulting in huge queues at banks and ATMs for a week now.

Watch the video here:



Also read | PM Modi to chair all-party meet on demonetisation; Congress calls it a mere 'note-change' policy



--- ENDS ---
Russia launched new strikes in Syria on Tuesday involving carrier-borne jets and long-range missiles as opposition activists on the ground reported that the first airstrikes in nearly a month struck the besieged, rebel-held parts of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.

According to activists, between four and 10 people were killed in the strikes on Aleppo, raising concerns of a return to daily deadly bombardment in Syria's largest city.

The Russian blitz began hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President-elect Donald Trump discussed Syria over the phone and agreed on the need to combine efforts in the fight against what the Kremlin called their No. 1 enemy"international terrorism and extremism."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to address the closing plenary of the Jewish Federations of North America's 2016 General Assembly (GA) in Washington via satellite on Tuesday at 7pm Israel time.

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X Netanyahu addresses 2016 GA

The annual GA assembles both representatives from Jewish federations across the continent and other Jewish leaders and philanthropists. This year, speakers included US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Rabbi Lord Prof. Jonathan Sacks, and US civil-rights activist and Medal of Freedom laureate Rep. John Lewis.
Athletes and eco-activists swam across the Dead Sea on Tuesday, the first people to thrash their way over a body of water so salty that drinking from it is tantamount to poisoning.

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The Dead Sea swimmers (Photo: Ran Tsabari)

The swimmers crossed from Jordan to Israel to raise awareness of what they said was an environmental disaster that has shrunk the Dead Sea's surface by one third of its size over the last 30 years. Environmental group EcoPeace Middle East, one of the organizers of the 15-km swim, said it had receded by about 25 metres over the above-mentioned period.

The swimmers wore snorkels and face masks to stop the wateraround 10 times saltier than a regular seafrom touching their eyes or entering their lungs during the seven-hour crawl.

Photo: Ran Tsabari

A medical team accompanied the 28 swimmers, because ingestion of Dead Sea water can be fatal if not treated immediately.

"This was unlike anything I've ever done," said Kim Chambers, 39, a renowned open-water swimmer from New Zealand.

She said the few drops of water that touched her eyes felt like acid. Additionally, crossing through such extremely salty and buoyant water made it challenging to swim.

"The swim took incredible teamwork. We had unprecedented diplomatic support from Israel and Jordan to make it happen. That's what's needed to bring attention to an issue that needs attention right now," she said.

The sea, which is mentioned in the Bible, sits at the lowest point on Earth.

EcoPeace middle East blames Israeli and Jordanian mining, creating evaporation ponds from which minerals are extracted, and the diversion by Israel, Jordan and Syria of Jordan River water that flows into the lake.

EcoPeace Middle East, whose membership includes Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinians, said the event was aimed at highlighting the Dead Sea's plight and urge government action to save the natural wonder, which is also a popular tourist site.

"We see the life-threatening challenge of the swim as parallel to the challenges facing the Dead Sea," Gidon Bromberg, Israeli director of EcoPeace Middle East, said in a statement.

The Dead Sea, about 425 metres below sea level, is bordered by Israel, Jordan and the West Bank.

Many visitors come for the therapeutic properties associated with its mineral-rich waters and mud, and resort hotels have been built along the Israeli and Jordanian shores to accomodate them.
Britain has no overall strategy for leaving the European Union and splits in Prime Minister Theresa May's cabinet could delay a clear negotiating position for six months, according to a leaked Deloitte memo that the government dismissed as having no credibility.

The document was written by consultants at Deloitte and leaked to The Times newspaper, which said it had been prepared for the government department that supports the prime minister and her cabinet, something disputed by both Downing Street and Deloitte, which said it was not commissioned by the government. It casts Britain's top team in a chaotic light: May is trying to control key Brexit questions herself while her senior ministers are divided and the civil service is in turmoil.

"The Prime Minister is rapidly acquiring the reputation of drawing in decisions and details to settle matters herself, which is unlikely to be sustainable," according to the document, dated Nov. 7 and published by The Times.
An air strike targeting Islamist militants has killed at least seven people near the southwestern Libyan city of Sabha, a local official and media reports said on Tuesday.

Gunmen later seized the remains of the suspected militants from a morgue, said the official, who did not want to be identified for fear of reprisals.

There were conflicting reports about whether the suspected militants were linked to al Qaeda or ISIS, both of which have a presence in Libya's south.
Israel appointed 53-year-old Eitan Na'eh on Tuesday as the ambassador to Turkey, the first appointment since the reconciliation agreement was signed in June.

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Na'eh has specialized in Turkish affairs during his career and served in Ankara in 1991 as second and then first secretary for political affairs. Currently Na'eh serves as deputy ambassador to Britain and has also served as ambassador to Azerbaijan and as a policy advisor in the Prime Minister's Office.

Na'eh's appointment fulfills a clause of the controversial reconciliation deal that ended a six-year diplomatic crisis between the two countries. The deal was ratified by the Turkish parliament in August.

Eitan Na'eh

"The decision to exchange the ambassadors is a positive sign of the determination of both sides to move ahead," said Dr. Gallia Lindenstrauss, Research Fellow at the Institute for National and Security Studies (INSS) and Turkish foreign policy specialist, to Tazpit Press Service (TPS).

"Turkey and Israel are determined to continue with the normalization process. There was indeed some delay due to the failed coup attempt in Turkey on July 15th, but it was not substantial," she stated.

Diplomatic relations had been strained since the Israeli Navy raided the Mavi Marmara in 2010 to prevent the ship from violating the naval blockade enforced by both Israel and Egypt around Gaza. Ten Turkish citizens were killed and dozens were wounded, triggering the worst diplomatic crisis between the countries in decades. Ankara was led to recall its ambassador from Tel Aviv and expel Israel's ambassador from Turkey.

The deal paves the way for the return of mutual ambassadorial delegations, along with future cooperation to exploit natural gas reserves in the eastern Mediterranean. In October, Energy and Water Resources Minister Yuval Steinitz visited Ankara and met his Turkish counterpart Berat Albayrak to discuss the idea of building a pipeline to supply Turkey with Israeli natural gas.

According to Lindenstrauss, however, several obstacles to the pipeline remain, including lingering mistrust between Israel and Turkey and a similar deal between Russia and Turkey. Lindenstrauss said it is not clear that the project will materialize, but added that there are still positive developments on both sides.

Similarly and in accordance with the deal, Turkey has sent several humanitarian aid shipments to the Gaza Strip controlled by Israel through the Ashdod port, and Turkey lifted its veto on Israeli cooperation in a recent NATO drill in Montenegro.

"What is still lacking from Israel's perspective is the withdrawal of the Turkish court cases against Israeli officers" involved in the Marmara incident, explained Lindenstrauss.

"Israel's exports to Turkey have dropped substantially in the last two years, but while part of the reason is the drop in energy prices, it is also the result of the diplomatic crisis in recent years, a trend which will now hopefully be reversed," she concluded.

Article reprinted with permission from TPS
Russia launched coordinated missile strikes against rebels in Syria on Tuesday and Moscow for the first time used its only aircraft carrier in combat, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said.

Shoigu said a frigate had fired cruise missiles, jets from the Admiral Kuznetsov, Russia's sole aircraft carrier, had been involved in action, and missiles had been loosed from a mobile land-based missile system inside Syria.

In Washington, Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesperson, said he was aware of the announcement, but was still looking into the strikes. "From a pure military perspective, Russia already has significant capabilities inside Syria," Davis said. "Anything that they bring in from the outside, if it's aircraft carriers or if it's cruise missiles launching from ships or if it's long-range strike bombers flying in from Russia, those are done for show," Davis added.
Sexual assault strips away a persons humanity. It violates their most essential and basic human right  the right to control their own body, to feel safe in their own skin. And far too often the victim blames themselves for something that shouldnt ever be considered their fault by anyone.

Ever. By anyone.

Green Dot is a national program adopted by the Air Force, which not only aims to shift that perception, but to give people real tools they can use when they find themselves in a bystander situation.

The Green Dot training here Nov. 6 began with Staff Sgt. Lacey Matthews, 403rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron crew chief, telling her personal story. She stood under dim lights in an auditorium and described what it felt like to be in a relationship with someone who was physically and sexually abusive. How even though she had a bystander living in the house, that person did nothing to stop the violence. How she decided to get help, escape the abuse and create a better life for herself.

She said she tells her story so people can understand that sexual abuse and domestic violence are damaging and happen to real people. She also tells her story to give hope to those who may not be able to see a way out because theyre where she used to be.

When she was finished telling her story Staff Sgt. Kayla Kappel, 403rd Financial Management Office technician, joined her at the front of the room so they could teach the audience how to help prevent situations like the one Matthews had been in.

They showed a photograph of an old zombie movie in which the actor watches red dots appear more and more frequently on a map as an infection spreads across the country. Then, Matthews and Kappel pulled up a map that represented an imaginary Air Force Base and watched similar red dots spread. Each of those red dots represented a case of sexual assault, domestic violence or stalking.

But then they started covering those red dots with green dots. Those reactive green dots represented bystanders who stepped in and intervened, stopping the situation from happening.

The only way sexual violence will be reduced is when the green dots begin to overcome the red dots, Matthews said.

There are three barriers to intervening  personal, relationship and organizational. A personal barrier might be having a shy personality or being afraid of the situation. A relationship barrier might be wanting to avoid damaging a friendship or being related to someone who is being abused. An organizational barrier bight be that the person is a supervisor or someone who is higher ranking.

Kappel said that many people might not know they have barriers until they are put into a bystander situation. She also said, There are ways around your barriers.

Not everyone wants to or can be direct when they are in a potentially violent situation. Thats why delegation and distraction are two more ways to intervene in a negative situation. For example, if someones barrier to intervening is that theyre too shy, they could delegate by asking someone else to intervene. They could also use distraction to diffuse a situation by knocking over someones drink or bumping into them.

Intervention is part of the reactive green dots. Proactive green dots, on the other hand, stop red dots before they start. They take the stance that violence is not OK and everyone is expected to do their part. For example, a simple proactive green dot could be to make a post on social media that links to the official Green Dot website.

Its a few people doing one small thing, not one person doing one big thing, Matthews said.

One proactive green dot at the 403rd Wing was the Green Dot 5K here Nov. 5. This event helped spread awareness of the Green Dot program as well as support the Gulf Coast Womens Center for Nonviolence, a local resource and haven for anyone in the lower six counties of Mississippi who is a victim of sexual assault or domestic violence as well as the surviving family members of homicide victims.

Stacey Myers, Gulf Coast Womens Shelter for Nonviolence, said that its important for people to understand, this really happens and there are things you can do to help.

The biggest thing I took away from Green Dot training is spreading awareness and letting everyone know about the program so we can save lives and change lives, Senior Airman LaToya Lee, 403rd Judge Advocate General Office paralegal, said.

The Green Dot program is like a lighter -- anyone can pick it up and spark a fire. And if enough people do, the fire will spread and the culture will change.

The important thing is not what you do, but that you do something, Matthews said.

For more information about Green Dot visit https://www.livethegreendot.com/ and for more information about the Gulf Coast Womens Center for Nonviolence visit www.gcwcfn.org.
Pune builder Nikhil Rane, who was shot at on November 23, 2009 and succumbed to injuries at a nearby hospital later where he was admitted.

By Vidya : Bombay High Court today slammed the callous approach of the judiciary and the implementation of its orders by the executive in a Pune builder murder case. Division bench of Justice VM Kanade and Justice Nutan Sardessai was hearing a petition filed by Ashwini Rane, wife of Pune builder Nikhil Rane, who was shot at on November 23, 2009 and succumbed to injuries at a nearby hospital later where he was admitted. Pune police had arrested members of the notorious Ashwin Naik gang in the case.

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Ashwini had filed a petition, asking for the case to be transferred to CBI and the high court had ordered the transfer in 2011. However, the petition was considered at a larger level after that to look into the quality of investigation.

FIVE YEARS BUT NO BREAKTHROUGH: JUSTICE KANADE



Justice Kanade today said, "Five years have gone by since the petition first came up for hearing. It has been so many months that no one even remembers what had happened during the last hearing." He also pointed out that the police was busy in bandobast duties.

Also read: Bombay High Court slams BMC over Deonar dumping ground issue

Kanade said, "The police are not trained to investigate cases. Investigation is done by constables who are metric pass. They note down confession and collect evidence."



CBI has been investigating the Rane case, but no chargesheet has been filed by them so far. Justice Kanade said, "The point is in such cases what is to be done when the police comes to a dead end. CBI had tracked down Rajeev Gandhi's murderers but now the agency does not even have proper infrastructure. Advanced technology is not available."

He also asked what the status of activist Narendra Dhabolkar murder case was. He was told that it was still being investigated.

POLICE THEMSELVES NEED PROTECTION



Justice Kanade rued the fact that the 2006 Supreme Court order of separating policing from investigation had not been done. He said, "Earlier, a single constable with lathi was enough to deter criminals, but those days are gone now. These days, police themselves need police protection. One of our constables died recently."

Also read: Bombay High Court orders demolition of scam-tainted Adarsh apartments



The state public prosecutor in the case sought two-weeks' time to get a reply filed. Justice Kanade said that it had been five years since the petition had been filed. He also asked the petitioners to give suggestions on what could be done in such cases.

--- ENDS ---

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The high court is currently hearing a bunch of appeals by the 11 convicts, who were sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court in 2008.

By Vidya : The Bombay High Court today rejected the intervention application of Bilkis Bano, who was gangraped and her family was murdered in the aftermath of the Godhra riots in 2002.

The court is currently hearing a bunch of appeals by the 11 convicts, who were sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court in 2008. It is also simultaneously hearing the CBI's petition for enhancement of the sentence of the convicts in the case.

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While the court has not stated reasons for rejecting the application, Bano's lawyer Vijay Hiremath said that he will speak to Bano and decide on the next course of action. He said it is unlikely that Bano will appeal against the court's decision.

Bano had to show the court the provisions under which she should be heard. "The prosecution has done a good job so we will let it be," Bano's lawyer said.

ALSO READ: Maharashtra backs CBI's demand for capital punishment in Bilkis Bano's gangrape case



PROSECUTION's ARGUMENTS



During the course of the hearing, Bano's lawyer had filed an intervention application seeking to be heard before the court passes a final judgement in the case.

The convicts' lawyer opposed the intervention application citing two provisions. One, no legal provision allows her to personally intervene in the case when the sessions court in Bombay already passed the judgment in 2008.

ALSO READ: Bilkis Bano's lawyers to show provisions on why she can be heard by Bombay High Court

Second, the lawyer said that since Bano has not filed appeal against acquittal of some accused in the case nor did she seek enhanced compensation, she cannot be now allowed to address the court.

CBI's advocate Hiten Venegaonkar however said that if allowed to participate in the hearing, Bano must bring in additional information pertaining to the case, something that may have been omitted by the prosecution during the hearing.

He also said that in cases like these where "grievous crimes had been committed" the courts must consider granting a hearing to the victim or the complainant in the "interest of justice".

ALSO READ: Gujarat riots: 12 found guilty in Bilkis Bano case

ALSO READ: HC asks Bilkis Bano to convert intervention plea into appeal



--- ENDS ---
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Marty McFly's self-lacing Nikes in Back to the Future Part II inspired a UCF scientist who has developed filaments that harvest and store the sun's energy -- and can be woven into textiles.

The breakthrough would essentially turn jackets and other clothing into wearable, solar-powered batteries that never need to be plugged in. It could one day revolutionize wearable technology, helping everyone from soldiers who now carry heavy loads of batteries to a texting-addicted teen who could charge his smartphone by simply slipping it in a pocket.

"That movie was the motivation," Associate Professor Jayan Thomas, a nanotechnology scientist at the University of Central Florida's NanoScience Technology Center, said of the film released in 1989. "If you can develop self-charging clothes or textiles, you can realize those cinematic fantasies - that's the cool thing."

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The research was published Nov. 11 in the academic journal Nature Communications.

Thomas already has been lauded for earlier ground-breaking research. Last year, he received an R&D 100 Award - given to the top inventions of the year worldwide - for his development of a cable that can not only transmit energy like a normal cable but also store energy like a battery. He's also working on semi-transparent solar cells that can be applied to windows, allowing some light to pass through while also harvesting solar power.

His new work builds on that research.

"The idea came to me: We make energy-storage devices and we make solar cells in the labs. Why not combine these two devices together?" Thomas said.

Thomas, who holds joint appointments in the College of Optics & Photonics and the Department of Materials Science & Engineering, set out to do just that.

Taking it further, he envisioned technology that could enable wearable tech. His research team developed filaments in the form of copper ribbons that are thin, flexible and lightweight. The ribbons have a solar cell on one side and energy-storing layers on the other.

Though more comfortable with advanced nanotechnology, Thomas and his team then bought a small, tabletop loom. After another UCF scientists taught them to use it, they wove the ribbons into a square of yarn.

The proof-of-concept shows that the filaments could be laced throughout jackets or other outwear to harvest and store energy to power phones, personal health sensors and other tech gadgets. It's an advancement that overcomes the main shortcoming of solar cells: The energy they produce must flow into the power grid or be stored in a battery that limits their portability.

"A major application could be with our military," Thomas said. "When you think about our soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan, they're walking in the sun. Some of them are carrying more than 30 pounds of batteries on their bodies. It is hard for the military to deliver batteries to these soldiers in this hostile environment. A garment like this can harvest and store energy at the same time if sunlight is available."

There are a host of other potential uses, including electric cars that could generate and store energy whenever they're in the sun.

"That's the future. What we've done is demonstrate that it can be made," Thomas said. "It's going to be very useful for the general public and the military and many other applications."

Provided by UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA
Yuma News

Yuma, Arizona - The Yuma Police Department is continuing our efforts to raise money for the Law Enforcement Torch Run (LETR) for Special Olympics by kicking off another Tip-A-Cop event. The event will be held at Famous Daves Restaurant, 1501 S. Yuma Palms Pkwy, on Friday, December 16th from 11:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.

The Special Olympics is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering individuals with intellectual disabilities. LETR helps bring awareness to Special Olympics and obtain donations for the athletes. The money and awareness we raise will help the athletes grow and continue to have opportunities to make new friends, learn new skills and discover their independence while participating in the many events Special Olympics offers.

For many athletes, The Special Olympics is a path to empowerment, self-esteem, competence, acceptance, joy and friendship, which is a unique opportunity these athletes with intellectual disabilities may not gain anywhere else.

The Special Olympics offers children and adults with intellectual disabilities training and competition in 30 Olympic-type summer and winter sports. The Special Olympics currently serve over 2.5 million people in more than 200 programs in 165 countries.

Yuma Police Department employees and other law enforcement officers will be at the restaurant as celebrity waiters and to receive TIPS for Special Olympics. Your donation is tax deductible. Please join us at Famous Daves Restaurant, meet your local law enforcement officers and Special Olympics athletes.
Our directory features more than 18 million business listings from across the entire US. However, if we're missing your business, add your business by clicking on Add Your Business.
"It may be 6 months before there is a view on priorities/negotiation strategy as the political situation in the UK and the EU evolves," said the document, titled "Brexit Update".

Britain has no overall strategy for leaving the European Union according to a leaked government memo (Image: Reuters)

By Reuters: Britain has no overall strategy for leaving the European Union and splits in Prime Minister Theresa May's cabinet could delay a clear negotiating position for six months, according to a memo for the government that was leaked to The Times newspaper.

GOVERNMENT DIVIDED OVER BREXIT DETAILS

The document, prepared by consultancy firm Deloitte for the government department that supports the prime minister and her cabinet, casts Britain's top team in a chaotic light: May is trying to control key Brexit questions herself while her senior ministers are divided and the civil service is in turmoil.

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"The Prime Minister is rapidly acquiring the reputation of drawing in decisions and details to settle matters herself - which is unlikely to be sustainable," according to the document, dated Nov. 7 and published by The Times.

"It may be 6 months before there is a view on priorities/negotiation strategy as the political situation in the UK and the EU evolves," said the document, titled "Brexit Update".

May's spokeswoman said the Deloitte memo was unsolicited, had nothing to do with the government and had no credence. Deloitte declined immediate comment.

"It was not commissioned by the government," May's spokeswoman told reporters. "It does seem as though this is a firm touting for business now aided by the media."

But such a disorderly portrayal of the government underscores both the extent of the turmoil unleashed by the June 23 vote to leave the EU and the uncertainties ahead as May tries to pull Britain out of the world's biggest trading bloc.

Like the Brexit vote, Donald Trump's victory in the United States has underscored how swiftly assumptions are being turned upside down, pushing governments, investors and chief executives into the unknown.

The pound fell as much as 1.3 percent to 87.07 pence per euro EURGBP=D4 following the memo leak before recovering to 86.92 pence. It also lost more than half a percent to $1.2417. GBP=D4



NO COMMON STRATEGY

The memo said no common strategy had emerged, partly as a result of splits within the government and partly due to the evolving political situation in the rest of the EU where both France and Germany face major elections in 2017.

May's cabinet is split, with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Trade Minister Liam Fox and Brexit Minister David Davis - who all campaigned to leave the EU - on one side and finance minister Philip Hammond and Business Secretary Greg Clark - who wanted to remain - on the other, according to the memo.

May's priority, it said, is survival and keeping her ruling Conservative Party together, rather than business or economic considerations.

"Industry has 2 unpleasant realizations - first, that the Government's priority remains its political survival, not the economy," the memo said.

"Second, that there will be no clear economic-Brexit strategy any time soon because it is being developed on a case-by-case basis as specific decisions are forced on Government."

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The document also said that "major players" in industry were likely to "point a gun at government's head" to secure assurances similar to that given to car-maker Nissan that it would not suffer from Brexit.

"The public stance of Government is orientated primarily to its own supporters, with industry in particular barely being on the radar screen - yet," it said.

Government departments were working on more than 500 Brexit-related projects and might require an additional 30,000 civil servants, it said.

If the Supreme Court forces the government to give lawmakers a say on triggering the formal talks to leave the bloc, some ministers might be happy to see more radical Brexit options watered down, the memo said.

May has promised to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which kicks off two years of talks with Brussels, by the end of March but she has so far given little away about her plans for Britain's future relationship with the bloc.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that Britain must be clear about its aims for Brexit by the end of March.

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ALSO READ:

UK Brexit campaigner Farage overtakes UK PM May to meet Trump

UK government preparing new bill to trigger Brexit: Reports

--- ENDS ---
Attica: US President Barack Obama will arrive in Athens on Tuesday, the first stop on a final foreign trip that will aim to reassure worried Europeans following Donald Trump`s surprise presidential election victory.

The 44th president of the United States had likely imagined his farewell visit to Europe -- coming after eight years in power -- in different circumstances.

But Trump`s defeat of Hillary Clinton last week will be on everybody`s minds as the future of several key global deals -- on issues such as Iran`s nuclear programme and the environment -- looks uncertain.

During a press conference in Washington on Monday, Obama tried to reassure worried allies, stressing that dismantling or unravelling such agreements was not easy.

After travelling to Greece, Obama will head to Germany to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and British and Italian prime ministers Theresa May and Matteo Renzi.

He will conclude his trip with a stop in Peru for a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Among the leaders he is expected to meet there is President Xi Jinping of China.

Obama on Wednesday will visit the Parthenon in Athens, then deliver a speech -- sure to have considerable resonance, given the recent US elections -- on the challenges of globalisation.

The question of Greek debt, which is choking the economy, and the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have arrived in Greece fleeing conflict in the Middle East will be the focus of talks during Obama`s first visit to the country.

Shortly after his arrival in Athens, where thousands of police officers have been deployed amid tight security in the capital, Obama will hold a joint press conference with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras."It`s a symbolic and rare visit that recognises Greek efforts to manage its debt and to stabilise the country," government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said.

According to Greek Finance Minister Euclide Tsakalotos, the election of Trump could strengthen Greece`s position against its creditors.

"We live in an uncertain world and this could help Greece. Because the European Union and the eurozone must show that they can resolve their problems among themselves," he told German newspaper TAZ.

Subjected to tough austerity measures, Greece is struggling to emerge from recession despite a recent upturn in its finances.

"In order for the reforms to be sustainable, people need hope," Obama said in an interview with Greek daily Kathimerini.

He promised to continue urging Greece`s creditors to "take the necessary measures, particularly in regard to debt relief, so it can return to robust economic growth".

Obama will also highlight "the compassion and the generosity" that the Greek people have shown to refugees and migrants landing on their shores.

Rights group Amnesty International called on him to take advantage of the visit "to draw attention to the appalling conditions suffered by the tens of thousands of refugees trapped in Greece", and to demand wealthy nations assume responsibility.

Civil servants, communists, far-left groups and anarchists all plan to hold demonstrations as Obama swings through the Greek capital.
New York: Donald Trump told New Jersey Governor Chris Christie just months after he launched his presidential campaign in June 2015 that he did not expect to stay in the race past October of that year, a new book claims.

Trump told Christie, who at that point was also running for president, that he "didn't expect to make it past October" and would endorse Christie when he dropped out, an unnamed Christie adviser said, according to a new book out by several members of CNN's political team.

"I think they always had an understanding that the first one out would probably endorse the other," the adviser was quoted as saying in the book, "Unprecedented: The Election that Changed Everything" that is scheduled to be released on December six.

During the throes of the Republican primary, Trump and Christie had a common enemy: Marco Rubio. After Christie's endorsement, Trump would praise Christie for his takedown of Rubio during the Republican debate right before the New Hampshire primary.

Christie mercilessly mocked Rubio when he repeated a talking point again and again to criticise President Barack Obama.

During the Republican primary, Christie and Trump -- who have known each other through New York-area politics -- were not as harsh toward each other as were other pairs of rivals.

Christie, though, did criticise Trump by calling on voters to get serious and not treat the election as a game, and Trump at one point alleged that Christie knew about his now-convicted aides' plans to close down the George Washington Bridge.

Christie has since become one of President-elect Trump's most stalwart defenders, and he is currently under consideration for a number of high-profile cabinet posts, CNN reported.

But on Friday, Christie was layered over as chair of Trump's transition team, with Trump's vice president, Mike Pence, now in charge of assembling the Trump administration.

The relationship between two outsized personalities will continue to unfold in the months ahead, the report said.
Peshawar: Over 900 families displaced due to military operations against terrorists in the restive tribal region in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday returned to their homes after nearly two years.

A spokesman for Frontier Corps (FC) said the rehablitation of Temporary Displaced Persons (TDPs) of Lower Orakzai agency was carried out.

The families who belonged to Bizote, Utman khel and Feroz khel tribes returned to their homes

The army had launched Zarb-e-Azb in June 2014 to flush out militant bases in northwestern tribal areas.
If the Canadian Prime Minister can embrace our culture, why can't we?

By India Today Web Desk: Gurur Nanak Dev ji once said, before becoming a Muslim, a Sikh, a Hindu or a Christian, Let's become a human first.

The Canadian Prime Minister has taken his advice seriously, it seems. As should the rest of us.

Justin Trudeau is known to celebrate all Indian festivals with equal fervour as Canadian festivals. He lit the diya on Diwali inside the parliament; he wished (in Hindi) people through on the occasion.

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Now, Trudeau has released a message for his Sikh conuntrymen, and Sikhs all over the world, on the occasion of Guru Nanak Dev ji's birth anniversary.

The Canadian PM's Facebook page had him talk about Guru Nanak Dev ji's teachings, and how the rest of humanity can follow them too. His post read, "Today, Sikhs in Canada and around the world celebrate the birth of Guru Nanak Dev Ji. To mark this happy occasion, Sikh families and loved ones celebrate and reflect on the teachings of the founder of Sikhism.

Let us be inspired by his teachings of equality, unity, selflessness, service, and social justice. In meeting with Sikhs across the country, I see these teachings upheld to this day.

On behalf of our family, Sophie and I invite all Canadians to reflect on the significant contributions of the Sikh community to our national fabric, and wish all those celebrating the birth of Guru Nanak Dev Ji a peaceful and joyous day."

It's high time Indian ministers learn to embrace different cultures and religions the same way. If Justin Trudeau can do it sitting in Canada, what's our problem?

--- ENDS ---
Yangon: Myanmar`s security forces have killed almost 70 people since taking control of northern Rakhine state last month, the army said, adding that media reports of widespread destruction in the area were "false news".

Troops have poured into a strip of land along the border with Bangladesh, an area largely home to the Muslim Rohingya minority, since deadly raids on police border posts on October 9.

Clashes escalated over the weekend when troops killed more than 30 people in two days of fighting that saw the military use helicopter gunships for the first time.

A hunt for the attackers has seen a total of "69 Bengalis (Rohingya) killed and 234 arrested" between October 9 and November 14, according to a Facebook post by the army chief`s office late Monday.

"Seven soldiers, including one commanding officer... and 10 police sacrificed their lives", it added.

Myanmar`s army has tightly-controlled information about their operations in the region and denies reports from activists that troops are killing civilians, raping women and torching homes.

Heavy restrictions on access to the area has made it difficult for foreign journalists and independent observers to verify the government reports or allegations of army abuse.

The army chief`s office also hit out at figures from Human Rights Watch, which released satellite images they said showed more than 400 razed buildings in three Rohingya villages where clashes have taken place.

The army statement said only 227 buildings had been burnt down and accused Rohingya "terrorist arsonists" of setting fire to houses in a bid to discredit the military.

The statement, titled "Countering false news released by some news agencies in connection with area combing in Maungtaw area, Rakhine state," said army "officials are carrying out further scrutiny" of media reports.

The swell of violence in Rakhine has posed the biggest challenge so far to Aung San Suu Kyi`s government and raised questions over her civilian administration`s ability to control the army.

Rakhine has sizzled with religious tension since violence between the majority Buddhist population and the Muslim Rohingya left more than 100 dead and pushed more than 100,000 into squalid displacement camps in 2012.

Suu Kyi has faced global censure from rights groups for failing to come out in strong defence of a minority that the UN has labelled as one of the world`s most persecuted peoples.
Kathmandu: Nepal Premier Prachanda has telephoned Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought an arrangement so that Nepalese holding a huge stock of banned high denomination Indian bank notes could swap them with legal currency in the country.

During his five-minute telephonic conversation with Modi, Prachanda told him that Nepalese have quite a big stock of Indian bank notes of 500 and 1,000 denominations that have now been pulled out of circulation.

Hundreds of thousands of Nepalese, who earn a living by working as daily-wage labourers in India, visit the neighbouring country seeking medical treatment or rely on Indian markets to purchase daily essentials, are said to be holding big chunk of scrapped Indian bank notes, Kathmandu Post reported.

Also, those visiting India as pilgrims and those engaged in cross-border trade are said to have a big stock of now-useless Indian bank notes.

Some of these people, according to the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, may lose their entire savings if the now-obsolete notes are not replaced with legal bills.

"Considering this, India should make an arrangement so that Nepalese can exchange the banned notes here in Nepal," a statement posted on Prachanda's personal website quoted the premier as saying.

In response, Modi said he would immediately resolve the issue and would also ask Finance Minister to hold talks with Nepalese counterpart.

Following the Indian government's surprise decision, the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the central bank, also banned the use of those bank notes in Nepal from last Wednesday.

The NRB has said IRs 33.6 million in the denominations of 500 and 1,000 is within the financial system in Nepal, the report said.

The figure includes cash parked at vaults of banks, financial institutions and NRB.

But actual stock of banned Indian bank notes is expected to be much more because Nepalese were previously allowed to carry Indian 500 and 1,000-rupee bank notes worth up to IRs25,000, it said.

Also, those residing in areas bordering India usually stash Indian notes of larger denominations as they have to frequent Indian markets to buy goods.

The Indian government has said people who have accounts in Indian banks need not worry as the financial institutions will provide them the currency exchange facility. But many Nepalese who own the banned notes do not have accounts in Indian banks.

Against this backdrop, the Ministry of Finance wrote to the Indian Finance Ministry on Thursday requesting that arrangements be made so that Nepalese holding banned Indian notes could replace them with legal tenders here in Nepal.



NRB too wrote a letter to the Reserve Bank of India, seeking exchange facility for Nepalese holding banned Indian notes here in Nepal.
Colombo: Sri Lankan government today said it has launched a probe into the alleged involvement of army with a terror gang that has unleashed violence in Tamil-dominated Jaffna, the epicentre of the civil war which ended in 2009.

Deputy Defence Minister Ruwan Wijewardene told Parliament that a former army man was among those arrested in connection with the latest wave of violence to hit Jaffna.

"Among those arrested for involvement with this group was an ex-army man. He had left the army and worked with the group. It may be some ex-military men are involved. We are investigating," Wijewardena said.

He was replying to a question by Opposition JVP in the light of a government spokesman Rajith Senaratne's statement that the gang, known as Aava group, was a creation of former defence ministry chief Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

The Opposition has alleged that Gotabhaya created the group with the involvement of elements from the army in the northern district.

Law and Order Minister Sagala Ratnayaka said 38 of the 62 identified members of the group were now in custody. Thirty two of them are facing judicial action and the group is not a terrorist outfit, he said.

"They have money and roam around in modern motorcycles," Ratnayake said, adding that they wield swords.

He claimed the group got their first sword from a person who arrived from India and later swords were made locally.

Terrified Jaffna residents, who have previously suffered harassment from the Sinhalese-dominated military during and after the 30-year separatist war, have complained of intimidation by the group.

Last month, two Tamil students were shot dead by police and protests by the residents have raised tensions in the region.

The new government of President Maithripala Sirisena came to power on promise of reconciliation after the end of the war and has tried to restrict the involvement of military in day-to-day life of the Tamil-dominated region. But some allege that government troops still maintain large presence in the region.
Karachi: Some survivors of the terrorist attack at the Shah Noorani shrine in Kuzdar district of Balochistan have claimed that the suicide bomber, who attacked the shrine, was a woman.

Until now, the suicide bomber was being reported a teenage boy.

Also, the attack was claimed by the Middle East-based terrorist group Islamic State, while Balochistan Home Minister has said that the sectarian extremist group Lashkar-e-Jangvi Al Alami and not Da`ish or its affiliate Jundullah was behind the deadly bombing.

"She was a young woman. She was repeatedly saying, `aaj tum sab maro gey` (today, you`ll all die). She was also abusing the saint," The Express Tribune quoted a survivor Kazi Rashid as saying.

"She was quarreling with everyone. And then she blew herself up in the middle of devotees performing dhamaal (devotional dance) in the shrine`s courtyard," said Rashid, who along with his and his brother`s family had gone to pay respects to the saint and to seek his blessings.

Another survivor Sameer Ahmed said, "The bomber was woman. She was sitting among women devotees in the hall where dhamaal session was in progress. Later she blew herself up."

Ahmed recalls that the woman, who he claims was the bomber, was making menacing gestures and hurling warnings at devotees.Gul Khatoon, who also survived the attack, described the bomber as a woman.

"She was hot-tempered, quarrelling with everyone. She was repeatedly saying, `aaj bohat burra honay wala hai sab kay sath` (today the worst is going to happen to all of you) and then she blew herself up," she recalls.Meanwhile, the investigators have said that the bomber was a teenage boy, possibly 16 to 18 years of age.

They have found the severed head of the bomber which has been sent for forensic analysis.The shrine Khalifa (caretaker), Dost Muhammad, said that the bomber had a small beard and long flowing hair.
Guwahati: Assam boy Abhisekh Saharia received the National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement from President Pranab Mukherjee on the occasion of Children's Day at Rashtrapati Bhawan yesterday.

Saharia, a Class XI student of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Khanapara here, was awarded the Inspire Award Certificate for innovation in Science Pursuit by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development for his innovative project of designing and preparing an infrared blind aid kit, an official release said here today.

Saharia received a silver medal, a cash prize of Rs 10,000 and book voucher worth Rs 3000 for his exceptional achievement in the field of innovation.

The President gave away the awards to children for their outstanding achievements and to individuals and institutions for contributing to child development and child welfare.

The National Child Awards for Exceptional Achievement gives recognition to children with exceptional abilities in fields such as academics, culture, arts, sports, music etc, the release added.
Patna: Apparently hitting out at the BJP-led government at the Centre for spending a lot of money on advertisements, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday said "unlike them" he follows words of Mahatma Gandhi that "we are trustee of public exchequer and not owner".

He also highlighted ill effects of social media as practised today.

"I follow words of Mahatma Gandhi that we are trustee of public money and not owner and hence do not go for exuberant government financed advertisement campaign like them," he said, addressing a function after launching a programme to provide free electricity connection to nearly 50 lakh households in the state.

"We probably have lowest expenditure on government sponsored advertisements in the country," Kumar said.

The CM also holds charge of Information and Public Relations Department.

In an oblique attack at the BJP-led NDA government, Kumar, who is also JD(U) national president, said "they" go for massive publicity campaign by spending a lot on "highlighting themselves".

Kumar said instead of spending a lot on advertisements from public money he travels across the state and makes people aware of the programmes launched for them.

He also came down heavily on "miscampaign" on social media which have yielded devastating effects.

"Britain exited from European Union due to such campaign on social media," he said to drive home the point.

He further said that recently a prominent private TV channel beamed a news item on the basis of social media about somebody feeding food to some Air force officials at a service flight who were deprived of cash in the wake of demonetisation of Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes. But, when the concerned person (who fed the Air force officials) was interviewed, he denied doing it.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear a plea filed by Delhi University Professor Nandini Sundar, who has been named as an accused in the alleged murder of a tribal person in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh.

The Chhattisgarh government on last Friday assured the Supreme Court that it will not arrest Sundar, in connection with the alleged murder of a tribal person in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh.

The state government told this to the apex court division bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur and also comprising Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel while replying to the plea filed by Sundar.

While telling the court that no coercive action would be taken against Sundar, Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the state would submit to the court its report in a sealed cover before the next date of hearing on November 15.

Earlier, refuting charges of murder Nandini Sundar said it was part of the state police`s vendetta against all researchers, journalists, lawyers and activists who have been critical of their fake encounters and mass gang-rapes, adding that she would take up the matter legally.

"It`s part of the Chhattisgarh Police`s vendetta against all researchers, journalists, lawyers, activists who have been critical of their fake encounters, their mass gang-rapes of women and the complete lawlessness of the police. This FIR against us is absurd. We haven`t even been to the area for five months. We will be taking it up legally," Sundar told ANI.

Sundar and 10 others have been booked for the murder of a tribal in Sukma.

Sundar has been named in a complaint by the wife of Shamnath Baghel, who was killed by Maoists last Friday in his village in Maoist-hit Bastar. Baghel had been leading a campaign against Maoist activities since April and had recently formed the "Tangiya (axe) group".

Baghel and other villagers had in May lodged a complaint against Sundar and others for allegedly inciting tribals against the police.
New Delhi: Delhi Police's Crime Branch that has been tasked with investigating the case of missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed will be retracing the whole sequence of the incident.

The case was last week transferred from South District to Crime Branch in order to have a "fresh look" at the case. The team, which is investigating the matter, has started from scratch and is re-looking at all the clues and evidence.

"We are examining each and every fact thoroughly again with a fresh mind and look. We will be retracing the whole sequence right from the beginning and scanning every clue that might have been missed out, and to have a fresh perspective," Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav said.

"If there is a lead, we will send teams wherever required," he said.

The officer said they will leave no stone unturned to trace Najeeb, who went missing on October 15 following an on-campus scuffle allegedly with the members of ABVP the night before.

"We are going through the whole range of people who might provide clues. We are working very hard. We will go in great depth to find out what happened," Yadav claimed.

However, Najeeb's younger brother Mujeeb claimed that the Crime Branch team hasn't contacted them till now.

"We know that the case has been transferred to the Crime Branch. We haven't been contacted by them as of now and we don't know who is the officer investigating the case," he said.

Last month, an SIT was formed to trace the missing student following the instruction of the Union Home Minister to Delhi Police Commissioner Alok Kumar Verma.

The SIT, headed by Additional DCP-II(South) Manishi Chandra, failed to gain any actionable clues in the matter.

The team was reconstructing Najeeb's personality after a doctor at VIMHANS, told police that the student was suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder and depression.

Following this, the psychiatric angle had gained prominence in the probe. The team was also mulling seeking help from psychiatrists from AIIMS or RML to chalk out a plan for investigation in the case.

However, the Crime Branch team is investigating all probable angles, without focusing on any one perspective, sources said.

While the case was being investigated by the SIT, teams were sent to Darbhanga in Bihar and Nepal after they got leads hinting Najeeb being there, but they could not find him.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear the appeal filed by the December 16 Nirbhaya gang-rape convicts, who have challenged their death sentence by the Delhi High Court.

The death sentence of four of the convicts - Akshay, Vinay Sharma, Pawan and Mukesh - was upheld by the Delhi High Court.

In the last hearing on November 7, the top court` amicus curiae in the case, Raju Ramachandran, had asked the apex court to set aside the death penalty awarded to the accused.

In his written submissions, the senior advocate listed six fundamental errors committed by the trial court while awarding death sentences, including not taking the mitigating circumstances of the accused persons into consideration and not hearing them in person on their punishment.

Amicus curiae refers to someone who is not a party to the case but volunteers to offer information on a point of law or some other aspect of the case to assist the court in deciding a matter before it.

The top court had on April 4 begun final hearing of the convicts` appeal almost two years after staying their execution.

Two of the four death-row convicts had written to Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justice Deepak Misra, stating that they do not approve of the defence counsel appointed by the court to argue their case before the top court as they had given statements against them to the media in the past.

The trial court had in September 2013 awarded death sentences to the convicts.

Six months later, the Delhi High Court upheld their conviction and sentence.

All the convicts moved the apex court in 2014, which stayed their execution.

Six people, including a juvenile, had brutally assaulted the woman in a moving bus in South Delhi.

Later, the accused threw out the victim and her male friend at an isolated spot.

She died in a Singapore hospital on December 29, 2012, triggering nation-wide protests that resulted in giving more teeth to laws related to rape and other forms of sexual harassment.
Attica: US President Barack Obama flew into Athens on his final foreign trip to Europe Wednesday, seeking to calm the nerves of allies concerned by Donald Trump`s surprise presidential election victory.

With Europeans worried by Trump`s downplaying of the importance of the NATO alliance, Obama pointedly told Greek daily Kathimerini before his visit that Washington had to resist the "urge" of isolationism.

"Our best chance for progress is to resist the urge to turn inward and instead reinvigorate our shared values and work together," Obama said.

Speaking to reporters on the eve of the trip, Obama cautioned his brash successor Trump that he faces a reality check if he tries to enact some of his more controversial campaign promises.

"This office has a way of waking you up," said the outgoing president.

The fourth president to travel to Greece, Obama will visit the Acropolis before delivering a much-awaited speech on the challenges of globalisation.

He will then hold talks later Tuesday with Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

Security was tight in central Athens, with thousands of police officers on the streets and traffic to be affected for several hours.

On Wednesday, Obama travels to Germany, where he will speak to the French and British leaders, in addition to close ally Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Obama concludes his trip with a stop in Peru for a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) where he is expected to meet President Xi Jinping of China.Athenians on Tuesday had mixed feelings about the president`s visit, which has precipitated a major security clampdown.

"We live in the hope that it will bring something positive for Greece and the region," said Spyros, a 30-year-old civil servant. Ekaterini Tsarmoutzi, a private employee, said Obama "was nice as a person, but above all he is an American."

Many Greeks are suspicious of the United States after they helped install a repressive dictatorship in the country in the late sixties.

Greek trade unions, leftist and anarchist parties have called for protests in Athens on Tuesday to denounce "imperialist" US involvement in wars in the Middle East.

In turn, police have banned protests in areas of the capital where Obama will hold his meetings.

The boosted police measures also come after assailants threw a grenade at the French embassy in Athens last week, slightly wounding an officer on duty.

Christina Artinou, a concierge, wondered about the possible benefits of having an outgoing president visit.

"As he`s on the way out, he`s unlikely to be of much help now. Why did he not come sooner?" she said.

Meanwhile, Greek leaders are anxious for a new US pledge to help alleviate the country`s enormous public debt, a measure actively sought by the International Monetary Fund but opposed by leading European lender Germany.

Greek government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos on Tuesday said Obama`s visit would "contribute to promoting a fair and viable solution on the Greek debt."

Obama is also expected to address Europe`s challenge in accommodating hundreds of thousands of refugees who have arrived on the continent fleeing conflict in the Middle East.
"People are dying, with your 'kadak chai' giving them ulcers on empty stomachs," said Captain Amarinder Singh.

By Manjeet Sehgal: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Kadak Chai' remark has irked the Congress who today said his strong tea was killing people who were running from pillar to post to withdraw their hard earned money.

Criticising the Prime Minister for his 'Chaai Waala' background and that he is known for brewing a strong tea, former Punjab Cief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh said that Modi's response to the shortage of currency was 'inhumane' as the demonetisation of currency notes of higher value was 'unplanned' and is killing people. He said that several people have been killed during the past ten days in many parts of the country including Punjab.

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"People are dying, with your 'kadak chai' giving them ulcers on empty stomachs," said Captain Amarinder Singh, amid reports that a man had died due to delay in arranging new notes to pay at the private hospital in Jalandhar where he was rushed for medical treatment on Monday.

Captain said that similar reports of people dying, as a result of failure to receive timely medical help in the absence of new currency, have also been coming in from other parts of the country, the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president pointed out, adding that in one case, at least, a man had died of heart attack while waiting in a queue to exchange his old money for new notes.

Questioning the demonetisation move, Captain Amarinder asked him how the deaths of innocent people will help curb the corruption and check the flow of black money into the country.

"The demonetisation move would backfire on him and his government if not immediately reviewed," warning the Prime Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh said.

Captain Amarinder Singh also accused the Prime Minister of taking refuge in 'histrionics' and 'falsehoods' to cover up his failure in managing the demonetisation programme.

"Notwithstanding Modi's claims to the contrary, it was the poor of the country who were suffering the most as a result of the move," Captain Amarinder Singh said.

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Berlin: German police on Tuesday raided 200 sites across 10 states in a probe against an Islamist group suspected of inciting hate.

The group called The True Religion (Die wahre Religion) has now also been banned by Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, said a ministry spokeswoman.

She said the sweeping raids in 10 states including North Rhine-Westphalia in the west, Hamburg in the north and Baden-Wuerttemberg in the south-west began at dawn.

The group is suspected of propagating hate, she said, adding that many people who have travelled to Syria had contact with it.

The group is also known for its controversial programme called "Lies!" which distributes copies of the Koran in German. But experts say the translation is a particular strict version from the original Arabic text.

"The message to the radical Islamist scene is clear: we do not tolerate fanatics who try to radicalise young people and send them to jihad," said Peter Beuth, the interior minister for Hesse state, where the raids also took place.

"By banning this organisation, a major source of radicalisation has been eradicated nationwide. Those who spread hate messages can`t hide behind freedom of religion, the Interior Ministry has underlined this with the ban today," he added.
Berlin: The German government has banned a prominent conservative Islamic group and raided some 190 sites in connection with it across 10 federal states.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere on Monday ordered the prohibition of The True Religion group -- which abides by the ultra-conservative Salafist school of Sunni Islam -- on the grounds that it was unconstitutional and that some members were suspected of having links to the Islamic State terror (IS) group, Efe news reported.

A statement released by the Interior Ministry said that "at least 140 young people who had been involved in the organisation had later travelled to Iraq and Syria".

It added that The True Religion group supported totalitarian ideologies, defended armed jihad and undertook jihadi recruitment drives for people wishing to travel to Iraq and Syria.

Hundreds of police agents were mobilised to raid some 190 houses, offices and Islamic centres including mosques, in connection with Salafist group in such regions as Berlin, Bavaria, Hamburg, Bremen and Lower Saxony.

The True Religion movement is led by Ibrahim Abou-Nagie, a Palestine-born preacher who became well known in parts of Germany for handing out free copies of the Koran in some of the country`s major cities.

German intelligence services estimated that the country was home to around 9,200 followers of radical Islam -- 1,200 of whom were considered potentially dangerous and capable of committing attacks in the name of religion.

Further, it was estimated by officials that around 870 people had left Germany to travel to Syria and Iraq in order to join the ranks of the IS.
New Delhi: After its sudden demonetisation move, the Narendra Modi government's next crackdown may be on benami transactions and illegal gold buying.

Prime Minister Modi, who has refused to roll back the demonetisation move and promised to take more stern measures in the days to come, intends to end conversion of black money into gold.

Giving an indication in this regard, PM Modi said in Goa recently that the next step in his war on black money and corruption would be a crackdown on benami properties.

Modi on Sunday received a standing ovation from audiences in Goa and Karnataka as he justified his governments demonetisation efforts, which have been severely criticised for mismanagement.

PM Modi's speech in Goa were his first since last Tuesday when he addressed the nation to declare that the old series Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 would be illegal tender.

Earlier at the foundation stone laying ceremony of a greenfield airport at the Mopa plateau in Goa, the PM said, This (demonetisation) isnt the end. This isnt a full stop, I declare.

He said demonetisation was a secret operation by his government that took 10 months to plan by a small and trusted group of people.

In over an hour long speech where Modi was overcome by emotion more than once, Modi said bureaucrats in Delhi have benami flats in Goa. He said his government has passed a law that has enabled it to crackdown on such properties.

Parliament passed the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016, in the Monsoon Session earlier this year. The amended law prescribes seven-year rigorous imprisonment for those dealing in black money in the real estate sector and also confiscation of benami properties.

The PM, digressing a little from the issue of black money, also indicated that a war wasnt a probability.

The PM said his crackdown on black money would lead to housing for the poor, education of their children and cheaper medicines for the elderly. He said Indias demographic dividend, where 65 per cent of the population, or over 800 million people, were below 35 years of age and needed opportunities.

Meanwhile, the top government sources said that Modi government's crackdown on benami property will be launched early next year while a massive scheme to empower rural poor facing distress was on the drawing board.

The mega rural package  the details of which are not yet clear  may be announced at an appropriate time to cheer the electorate before the 2019 General Elections.

The Modi government is also likely to give a big push to the infrastructure sector which it hopes will put the economy back on the fast track.
Delhi: Ahead of Parliament's Winter Session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday attended an all-party meet.

Along with PM Modi, other senior leaders, like Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh, were present in the meeting.

Congress, NCP, BSP, SP, AAP among others attended the meet.

Meanwhile, earlier today, the Congress today discussed its strategy for the Winter Session starting tomorrow, where it is likely to forcefully take on the government on implementation of demonetisation and other issues.

Congress has given notices for adjournment, short duration discussions and calling attention motion on various issues including demonetisation, surgical strikes and government's policy towards Pakistan, a senior party leader said, as per PTI.

Among other issues on which Congress has sought discussion are OROP, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and plight of farmers, besides proposed merger of Railway and Union budgets.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi along with top party leaders AK Antony, Ahmed Patel, Gulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, Anand Sharma, Jairam Ramesh and Satyavrat Chaturvedi attended the meeting.

(With Agency inputs)
Delhi: Ahead of Parliament's Winter Session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday that all parties should show support on issues of black money and corruption in national interest.

After an all-party meet today evening, Union Minister Ananth Kumar quoted PM Modi as saying, "PM said that all parties should show support in Winter session in national interest. PM urged all parties to cooperate inside as also outside Parliament on issues of black money and corruption."

He added, "PM also said that discussion should be done on possibility of holding Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha elections together."

"A crucial problem is how to make political funding transparent. How to implement state funding of elections. Let all political parties debate it and come to a conclusion. Let's remove the question mark which exists against those in public life. Polls happen separately. Let there be one election, simultaneous elections," PM said, as per Kumar.

Kumar also said that government was ready for discussion on all issues.

The government is willing to discuss all issues and answer the questions raised by the Opposition, PM Modi was quoted as saying. He hoped for a fruitful session as he recalled the passage of the GST Bill in the last session with the cooperation of all parties.

On the other hand, Congress' Ghulam Nabi Azad said, "Opposition will be united, come what may, and will raise issues together," as per ANI.

Azad told reporters that Opposition parties, including TMC, SP, BSP, JD(U), RJD and others, are "united" and will remain so. Any government's move to break the unity will not succeed, he said.

Also Read - Demonetisation: No VIPs here, even PM Modi's mother queues up to exchange notes in Gandhinagar

Meanwhile, yesterday, PM Modi had got support from his own partymen at the BJP parliamentary party meeting which had discussed the steps taken by him to curb corruption and black money.

Also, after an NDA meet yesterday, Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu had told reporters that there was no rethink on rendering the high-value currency notes illegal, saying government's crusade against black money and corruption would be carried to its logical conclusion.

PM Modi is believed to have ruled out any rethink on the demonetisation move.

(With Agency inputs)
New Delhi: Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday rejected allegations that the demonetisation move was leaked to certain people.

"The allegation of selective leak of demonetisation is absurd. No leak was made to anybody. Utmost secrecy was kept during the entire exercise," Naidu said here.

Some opposition leaders have accused the government of leaking the November 8 announcement to spike the 500 and 1,000 rupee notes in advance to certain individuals.

"Certain hardships faced by people are being blown out of proportion," the minister said.

Naidu, who is also the Information and Broadcasting minister, said the government was ready to face Parliament in the winter session that starts on Wednesday.

The decision to demonetise Rs 500 and 1,000 notes was not sudden, he said, but well thought out.

"This is a war against corruption and black money," Naidu reiterated. People with vested interests were "spreading rumours to create panic in society", he said.
Udhampur: Chief of Army Staff General Dalbir Singh on Tuesday visited the Northern Command headquarters here to review the security situation and exhorted the troops to be alert against any enemy inimical designs and be aggressive in their approach.

The General interacted with the Formation Commanders and reviewed the situation along the Line of Control (LoC) as well as internal security situation in the Command theatre.

The Army Chief commended the soldiers for boldly responding to ceasefire violations along the LoC.

He also lauded the synergy and co-operation among the Northern Command, Air Force, Paramilitary Forces, Civil Administration and Central Police Organisations operating in the region.
New Delhi: Army chief Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag will today visit Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir, the headquarters of Northern Command, to take stock of operational preparedness along the border in the wake of heightened tension in Indo-Pak ties.

The visit comes a day after Pakistan said that the Indian army killed seven of its soldiers in shelling.

Army sources said Gen Suhag, who left the national capital in the morning, will be briefed in detail about the situation by Northern Command Chief Lt Gen D S Hooda and other top commanders.

The firing at the LoC has intensified ever since the surgical strike of September 29.

Both sides have used artillery guns in the recent past, officially the first time since the ceasefire was announced in 2003.
Itanagar: With barely two days remaining for campaigning to end for bye-election to Hayuliang Assembly constituency in remote Anjaw district of Arunachal Pradesh, the heat and dust of electioneering is gaining momentum with both the women candidates trying their best to woo voters.

North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) candidate Dasanglu Pul, the youngest among the three wives of former Chief Minister Kalikho Pul, contesting on a BJP ticket, is locking horn with Independent candidate Yompi Kri.

Addressing an election rally at Hayuliang yesterday, Chief Minister Pema Khandu appealed to the people to vote for Dasanglu as a mark of respect to the former chief minister.

While assuring the people of his government's all-out support for the overall development of the border district, he also promised to review road compensation rate, promote large cardamom cultivation and shift the present firing range of the Army at Cherang to elsewhere, an official communiqu? said.

State BJP president Tapir Gao, Home Minister Kumar Waii also made pleas to the voters to support Dasanglu for the development of the district bordering China, it added.

The constituency with a total electorate of 11,003, including 5,508 female voters, has 81 polling stations of which three--Kibitho, Aphumna and Taflagam--are situated near the International Border with China.

The highest numbers of electors are in Hayuliang polling station with 955 voters while Malogam polling station has only two.

The seat had fallen vacant after Pul committed suicide on August 9 this year.

The counting of votes will take place on November 22.
Ahmedabad: Launching a fierce attack on the Congress, especially on Rahul Gandhi, amid the demonetisation debate, BJP chief Amit Shah on Tuesday alleged that the leaders of that party had accumulated Rs. 12 lakh crore during the UPA rule through "corrupt" means, which he said was turned into "paper scrap" overnight by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Setting the tone for the Winter Session of Parliament, scheduled to begin on Wednesday, he claimed that Congress was unhappy with the withdrawal of the high-value currency notes as its "fortune" was reduced to "paper scrap" by PM Modi's move.

Shah also mocked the Congress vice-president for "going to a bank in a Rs. 4 crore car to exchange Rs. 4,000".

"During their 10-year rule, the Sonia-Manmohan government did one scam every month, be it 2G, CWG, coal allocation, Adarsh Society, aircraft purchase and many other. With such large-scale corruption, Congress leaders accumulated Rs. 12 lakh crore which is equal to the size of three Union budgets," the BJP chief said.

"They parked this huge amount of money in their houses, godowns and at their friends' places thinking that it was safe. But, (PM) Modi turned it into paper scrap by announcing demonetisation on November 8. This has taken away all the charm from the faces of the Congressmen," he said.

Shah was addressing party workers and citizens at Bharuch in Gujarat where he inaugurated the Bharuch District Cooperative Bank building.

The BJP president was also unsparing in his attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party's Mulayam Singh Yadav, claiming that everyone was in "deep trouble" due to the demonetisation move, but no one was ready to reveal the reason behind their discontent.

Shah's comments came on a day when the Congress-led opposition closed ranks to pin down the government on the demonetisation issue in Parliament.

"The situation is like a flood which sweeps away everything. Now, Congress leaders, Kejriwal, Mamata and Mulayam Singh have joined hands to save themselves from this flood. I am sure that those present here are not worried at all because we do not have black money. Only those who have black money are worried," he said.

Taking a dig at Rahul Gandhi who had criticised the Prime Minister for demonetisation, Shah said, "Rahul baba went to withdraw Rs. 4,000 in a Rs. 4 crore car. Do you think these people ever need Rs. 4,000 cash? Rahul baba talks about the poor. I want to tell him that if he and his party were so concerned, then the Congress leaders should not have stashed away the Rs. 12 lakh crore."

Acknowledging that the cash crunch was causing hardships to the common man, the BJP chief said they will "benefit in the long run".
'We prefer it if customers give us change, but we do take Rs 500 and Rs 1000 as we can just deposit it in the bank and customers need medicines. We cannot deny them that', said a chemist.

By Shalini Lobo: A big notice that says 'Please pay in small notes or cards' is splashed across the counter of medical stores near the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital in the national capital, but the shopkeeper and staff still keep taking in 500 and 1000 rupee notes. Customers run to the counters with their Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes scrunched in their hands as they hand over the prescriptions to the chemists.

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'The hospital pharmacy does not accept our cash. They say they have trouble giving us change so they ask us to come outside to buy medicines', said Janaki, a lady waiting to buy medicines.

Also read:Currency ban: Government sets cash deposit limit on Jan-Dhan accounts at Rs 50,000

'We prefer it if customers give us change, but we do take Rs 500 and Rs 1000 as we can just deposit it in the bank and customers need medicines. We cannot deny them that', said a chemist.

'They look at us as money changers. That shouldn't be the case. However, we look at the prescription and if those are important medicines, we give them the medicines despite the notes they hand over to us', said Sandeep Kumar, a chemist.

Also read:



Demonetisation: PM appeals people to tolerate inconvenience for 50 days, says his fight is for honesty

While many patients and others complain about the inconvenience, the current move by the government has fallen on them, they also smile talking about the chemists who are helping them now.

Also read:Leading by example: PM's mother Heeraben Modi visits Gandhinagar bank to exchange old notes

'We are glad there a people like these who understand our needs. I can't buy milk for my child as the shopkeeper does not accept old notes. I have run out of Rs 100 and when I tried paying with a Rs 2000 note, he did not have change. But this shopkeeper was a nice man', said Lata.

Also read:Looking for cash? Here is easy way to find working ATMs near you



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New Delhi: Senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday ridiculed the Centre's demonetisation move, asking if banks doling out cash to citizens was "proof" that 'achhe din' have arrived.

In a series of tweets, the senior Congress leader also took a dig at the Modi government on the way it was implementing the scheme, remarking that "millions of working people standing in queue. Long live Productivity".

1. Millions of working people standing in queue. Long live Productivity  P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) November 15, 2016

Apparently taking a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had said that the poor are getting sound sleep while rich are buying sleeping pills, he remarked tongue-in-cheek, "Thousands of 'rich' and 'corrupt' persons standing in queue. The poor are cheering from their homes!".

2. Thousands of "rich" and "corrupt" persons standing in queue. The poor are cheering from their homes!  P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) November 15, 2016

"Banks are doling out cash to citizens. That is proof that "Achhe Din" have arrived!", he added referring to Modi poll slogan.

3. Banks are doling out cash to citizens. That is proof that "Achhe Din" have arrived!  P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) November 15, 2016

The former finance minister had earlier said that the Congress supports steps to check black money but putting people to "inconvenience and harassment" will be counter-productive.

Chidambaram had said that a "non-monetised" economy exists in India all of which can't be black money.
New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Tuesday decided to declare Islamic preacher Zakir Naik's NGO 'Islamic Research Foundation' an outlawed organisation.

The ban on Naik's NGO has been enforced under Unlawful Activity Prevention Act (UAPA).

The decision has been taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Cabinet approved a proposal to declare Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) as an 'unlawful association' under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for five years, a Home Ministry official said.

A formal notification will be issued by the Home Ministry soon.

The move comes after investigation by the Home Ministry found the NGO was allegedly having dubious links with Peace TV, an international Islamic channel, accused of propagating terrorism, the official said.

According to the Home Ministry, Naik, who heads the IRF, has allegedly made many provocative speeches and engaged in terror propaganda.

Maharashtra Police has also registered criminal cases against Naik for his alleged involvement in radicalisation of youths and luring them into terror activities, officials said.

Naik also transferred IRF's foreign funds to Peace TV for making "objectionable" programmes. Most of the programmes, which were made in India, contained alleged hate speeches of Naik, who had reportedly "urged all Muslims to be terrorists" through Peace TV, they claimed.

An educational trust run by Naik have already been prevented from receiving foreign funds and agencies are looking into their activities.

He came under the scanner of the security agencies after Bangladeshi newspaper 'Daily Star' reported that one of the perpetrators of the July 1 terror attack in Dhaka, Rohan Imtiaz, ran propaganda on Facebook last year quoting Naik.

The Islamic orator is banned in the UK and Canada for his hate speech aimed against other religions. He is among 16 banned Islamic scholars in Malaysia.

He is popular in Bangladesh through his Peace TV, although his preachings often demean other religions and even other Muslim sects. The Mumbai-based preacher who is abroad, has not returned to India ever since the controversy came to light.

Meanwhile, Naik's lawyer Mubin Solkar asserted that so far they have not received any such notification, adding that under the law, if any organisation is to be banned, the notification has to be published in the government gazette and then a copy of that has to be served on the concerned organisation.

"So far we have not been served with any such kind of notification under section 3 of the UAPA. We are clear that this ban is not justified at all and it is an illegal ban because the provisions of UAPA have been wrongly invoked in this case. According to us, it is a clear misuse of provisions of UAPA," Solkar said.

The move came after different investigations found Naik to be involved in utilising funds meant for his NGOs for alleged radicalisation of youths and "inspiring" them into terror activities, official sources said.

IRF Educational Trust, promoted by the controversial Islamic preacher was earlier put under prior permission category, thus preventing it from receiving foreign funds without getting nod from the central government.
New Delhi: Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday rejected allegations that the demonetisation move was leaked to certain people.

"The allegation of selective leak of demonetisation is absurd. No leak was made to anybody. Utmost secrecy was kept during the entire exercise," Naidu said here.

Some opposition leaders have accused the government of leaking the November 8 announcement to spike the 500 and 1,000 rupee notes in advance to certain individuals.

"Certain hardships faced by people are being blown out of proportion," the minister said.

Naidu, who is also the Information and Broadcasting minister, said the government was ready to face Parliament in the winter session that starts on Wednesday.

The decision to demonetise Rs 500 and 1,000 notes was not sudden, he said, but well thought out.

"This is a war against corruption and black money," Naidu reiterated. People with vested interests were "spreading rumours to create panic in society", he said.
Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's move to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes will cripple Naxal activities, as per a media report.

India Today quoted assessment by highly-placed intelligence and police officials as saying that in Naxal strongholds of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha, insurgents have buried their finances in Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 bills deep in thick forests.

Now the security forces have stepped up vigil on getting information that guerrillas might attempt to dig their expired cash holdings.

"Authorities have stepped-up monitoring of all entry points to the forests where Naxals could have dumped their funds," according to intelligence officials.

A senior police official was quoted as saying by the media house, "If the Maoists are in possession of even a fraction of the amount estimated by security agencies, they will be hit badly."

As per Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis 2013 study, Naxals' extortion revenue stands at Rs 140 crore per year. However, intelligence officials believe that they could have buried as high as Rs 7,500 crore underground at this point in time.

Security officials say that only top committee leaders of Maoists know exact location of cash dumps.

They may now ask some of their trusted tribals to take the money out, Chhattisgarh police believe, the report said.
Kathmandu: Nepal Premier Prachanda has telephoned Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought an arrangement so that Nepalese holding a huge stock of banned high denomination Indian bank notes could swap them with legal currency in the country.

During his five-minute telephonic conversation with Modi, Prachanda told him that Nepalese have quite a big stock of Indian bank notes of 500 and 1,000 denominations that have now been pulled out of circulation.

Hundreds of thousands of Nepalese, who earn a living by working as daily-wage labourers in India, visit the neighbouring country seeking medical treatment or rely on Indian markets to purchase daily essentials, are said to be holding big chunk of scrapped Indian bank notes, Kathmandu Post reported.

Also, those visiting India as pilgrims and those engaged in cross-border trade are said to have a big stock of now-useless Indian bank notes.

Some of these people, according to the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, may lose their entire savings if the now-obsolete notes are not replaced with legal bills.

"Considering this, India should make an arrangement so that Nepalese can exchange the banned notes here in Nepal," a statement posted on Prachanda's personal website quoted the premier as saying.

In response, Modi said he would immediately resolve the issue and would also ask Finance Minister to hold talks with Nepalese counterpart.

Following the Indian government's surprise decision, the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the central bank, also banned the use of those bank notes in Nepal from last Wednesday.

The NRB has said IRs 33.6 million in the denominations of 500 and 1,000 is within the financial system in Nepal, the report said.

The figure includes cash parked at vaults of banks, financial institutions and NRB.

But actual stock of banned Indian bank notes is expected to be much more because Nepalese were previously allowed to carry Indian 500 and 1,000-rupee bank notes worth up to IRs25,000, it said.

Also, those residing in areas bordering India usually stash Indian notes of larger denominations as they have to frequent Indian markets to buy goods.

The Indian government has said people who have accounts in Indian banks need not worry as the financial institutions will provide them the currency exchange facility. But many Nepalese who own the banned notes do not have accounts in Indian banks.

Against this backdrop, the Ministry of Finance wrote to the Indian Finance Ministry on Thursday requesting that arrangements be made so that Nepalese holding banned Indian notes could replace them with legal tenders here in Nepal.

NRB too wrote a letter to the Reserve Bank of India, seeking exchange facility for Nepalese holding banned Indian notes here in Nepal.
Ahmedabad: On a day when the Opposition is trying to corner the Prime Minister over the winding queues outside banks and ATMs, Narendra Modi's 90-year-old mother Heeraben also queued up at a bank in Gandhinagar to exchange old currency.

Escorted by relatives, 94-year-old Heeraba walked into a branch of Oriental Bank of Commerce with 9 notes of Rs 500 to exchange them for Rs 4500 in new notes.

After clearing the formalities, she was handed two Rs 2000 notes and five notes of Rs 100.

Heeraben lives in Gandhinagar with PM Modi's brother Pankaj Modi in Gandhinagar. Pankaj works at the Gujarat secretariat.

Other members of PM Modi's family also live normal lives despite their Narendra Bhai becoming the Prime Minister of the country.

Infact, it was only in May this year that Heeraben made her first visit to Delhi to spend some time with her son.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had yesterday appealed to the country to support him for 50 days and patiently cooperate in the demonetisation drive.
New Delhi: Intensifying the crackdown on laundering of illicit wealth, tax authorities on Tuesday impounded CCTV footage of a number of jewellery stores to zero in people who invested their money in gold purchases after the government's announcement of demonetisation of Rs 500 notes and Rs 1,000 notes on November 08.

The Excise Intelligence Department personnel have sought the footage from various other jewellery stores.

The Enforcement Directorate and the Directorate General of Central Excise intelligence (DGCEI) have now joined the income tax department in the crackdown.

According to news agency ANI, the Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax department are monitoring people who are investing their money in gold purchases and foreign currency.

Both the agencies are probing into accounts held by farmers in which a huge amount has been deposited suddenly, the agency quoted sources as saying.

The Income Tax department has sent around 600 notices to jewellers across 25 cities asking them to detail daily sales between November 7 and 10.

Teams of DGCEI officials are also visiting major jewellery stores and their manufacturing units to serve notices seeking these details, sources said.

Jewellers in major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Bhopal, Vijayawada, Nashik and Lucknow are initially under the scrutiny of the DGCEI officials, they said, adding that this exercise can later be extended to other cities too.

After the government banned old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, gold and bullion are said to be favoured route for laundering of ill-gotten wealth.

Gold was sold as high as Rs 50,000 per 10 grammes last week against the market price of Rs 31,000, as gold and bullion was said to be used to convert the debunked currency.

A 20-40 percent haircut in the value of the defunct currency was also being resorted to launder black money.

"PAN is mandatory for jewellery sale of over Rs 2 lakh. We are keeping a watch on jewellers to see if they are breaking their sales into parts of less than Rs 2 lakh," CBDT chairman Sushil Chandra had told reporters on Monday.

Necessary action and penalty, he had said, would be initiated wherever violations are found.

The government is reportedly also looking at asking jewellers to deposit old high-value currency notes by a set date to prevent money laundering. Also, there are fears that jewellers could show backdated cash sales.

While jewellers and diamond traders usually show bills every week while depositing cash generated through sales, very high-value deals in cash are often split into smaller amounts or stolen PAN number is cited on bills.

Industry insiders say the modus operandi is to use unaccounted gold stock against receipt of demonetised currencies at a heavily discounted rate.

Jewellers stayed open into the early hours soon after the Tuesday night announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw old 500 and 1000 rupee notes in the nation's biggest crackdown on black money, corruption and counterfeit currency.

As much as 250-kg gold was reportedly sold in Mumbai within a few hours of the announcement.

The Finance Ministry has ordered all its revenue intelligence agencies to join the crackdown on jewellers and hawala operators besides tracking the movement of demonetised currency notes.

(With PTI inputs)
New Delhi: India and Israel on Tuesday said the international community must act with with resolve against terror networks and states that harbour them and agreed to boost cooperation to combat the forces of extremism and radicalisation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who held talks with visiting Israeli President Reuven Rivlin here, said that engagement between India and Israel was multi-dimensional and wide-ranging.

He said the two leaders deeply value their strong and growing partnership to secure their societies.

"Our people are constantly threatened by forces of terrorism and extremism. We recognize that terrorism is a global challenge, knows no boundaries and has extensive links with other forms of organized crime," Modi said in a joint briefing with the Israel president.

Without naming Pakistan, Modi said "Regrettably, one of the countries of its origin and spread is in India's neighbourhood."

"We agreed that the international community must act with resolve and determination against terror networks and states that harbour them. Failure to act and silence of speech only encourages the terrorists," he said.

In his remarks, Rivlin said India and Israel stand together in defending their people and values against the threat of terror.

"Nothing can justify terror. Terror is terror," he said.

"Israel and India are threatened by terror because we uphold the values of freedom. We stand together in defending our people and values," Rivlin said.

He also invited Modi to visit Israel.

Earlier in the day, Rivlin was accorded a ceremonial reception at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Rivlin arrived in India on Monday on a week-long state visit -- the first by an Israeli President in nearly 20 years.

Rivlin will visit Taj Mahal in Agra on Wednesday and also visit a water treatment plant in Sikandra. He is also scheduled to visit Chandigarh.

In his remarks, Modi said the two countries agreed to broadbase their growing defence partnership.

"We agreed that the international community must act with resolve and determination against terror networks and states that harbour them. Failure to act and silence of speech only encourages the terrorists. We agreed to intensify our cooperation to combat the forces of extremism and radicalisation that threaten all peace-loving nations," he said.

He said the two countries also prioritised practical and specific engagement such as in the cyber domain.

Modi said Israeli companies can scale up their tie-ups with flagship schemes of Make in India, Digital India, Skill India and Smart Cities as the current trajectory of the Indian economy offered promising opportunities for them.

He also said that the growing number of Indian students, going to study in Israel and the vice versa, can be an important bridge in the bilateral partnership.

"Two and a half decades of our friendship has brought rich dividends for both our nations. It has also strengthened voices of peace, stability and democracy globally," said Modi, pointing to the two countries celebrating 25 years of full diplomatic relations next year.


Delhi: Israel President Reuven Rivlin, who arrived here yesterday on an eight-day official visit to India, will hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday - the focus of which is likely to be on agricultural cooperation between the two sides.

India and Israel enjoy excellent relations marked by strong ties in the areas of economy and commerce, science and technology, research and innovation, culture and tourism, education etc.

During his visit from November 14-21, President Rivlin will be meeting his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee, who will also host a banquet in his honour. Later, Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will call on the visiting dignitary.

At 10 a.m., the visiting President will receive a Ceremonial Reception at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, and he will visit Rajghat 10.25 am for wreath laying at the Memorial of Mahatma Gandhi.

The meeting between President Rivlin and Prime Minister Modi will take place at 11.30 am, at the Hyderabad House, which will be followed by the signing of agreements and press statement at 12.30 pm.

Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari will call on President Rivlin at 4 pm at Hotel Taj Palace, while the visiting President will call on his Indian counterpart at the Rashtrapati Bhawan 7.30 pm, which will be followed by a banquet hosted by President Mukherjee at 8 pm.

President Rivlin will be visiting the Taj Mahal at 11 am on Wednesday, followed by a visit to Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam Water Treatment Plant at Sikandra at 12 in the noon.

He will return here at 3.45 pm President Rivlin, who is visiting India on an invitation of President Mukherjee, is expected to meet business leaders of both India and Israel. He will also be visiting `Centre of Excellence` in agriculture in Karnal and will participate in Agro Tech - 2016 on Thursday.
Mumbai: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Tuesday warned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal that he risked being sued for defaming their leader Sharad Pawar.

The NCP asked Kejriwal to refrain from making "irrational and baseless" allegations such as calling Pawar a black market trader.

"Kejriwal is not a rational person; his statements are not mature statements. He makes allegations without bothering about consequences that is why he faces prosecution. Also, in this case, he has no business to take the name of Sharad Pawar. We can sue him and he will find it difficult," NCP leader Majid Memon told ANI.

"But we have no time to waste on this man because we know that he has been talking loose and unsubstantiated baseless and rash students. So he should correct himself before anybody teaches him a lesson," he added.

Kejriwal yesterday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for talking about ending corruption despite having close relations with NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

"Yesterday, PM Modi took blessings of Sharad Pawar to fight against black money, no irony can be bigger than that," said Kejriwal.
India has already witnessed a steep rise in financial frauds over the past few years, and with more users and high-value transactions, such attacks on payment gateways and digital crime are bound to escalate.

By Shashank Shekhar: While the nation's nascent digital economy has received a big push from cash losing currency in India, cyber criminals too have sensed an opportunity.

According to experts, as the volume of online transaction has increased manifold, concerns over credit and debit card cloning have also gone up.

India has already witnessed a steep rise in financial frauds over the past few years, and with more users and high-value transactions, such attacks on payment gateways and digital crime are bound to escalate

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INFORMATION MISUSED BY CYBER CROOKS

"As there is a currency crisis, people are using their credit/debit cards at every possible place, but most are not aware of what to check before making online payments and what details they need to keep secret. A large section of technologically unaware people are now forced to use technology which will be misused by cyber crooks," warned Deep Shankar, a cyber crime expert who works with the state police in cyber investigation.

MALICIOUS APP CAN TRACK THE MOVES A USER MAKES

Another cyber expert, Kislay Choudhary, has already noticed a spurt in financial fraud. He said that so far, only the educated and technologically sound section of the populace was using digital modes of payment. But due to demonetisation, the poorer and rural sections have been forced to do online transactions, putting them at greater risk.

"Many fake bank links promoting currency exchange are doing rounds on social media. There are a couple of mobile wallets available for free download which are not secure, and even some malicious app can track the moves a user makes," Choudhary said.

DIGITAL PAYMENT SECTOR REGISTERS UNPRECEDENTED RISE

Even the police believe that the intensity of cyber attacks and the number of financial frauds targeting new users will shoot up. "This is a transition phase where lots of new users will turn towards digital transactions. Cyber criminals will create fake websites, clone cards and create malicious apps to steal money," Triveni Singh, a cyber crime investigator and additional superintendent of police with the Uttar Pradesh special task force, told Mail Today

According to a study by ASSOCHAM-RNCOS, the digital payment sector might register unprecedented rise. It says that the volume of digital transaction in India is likely to witness an exponential compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 90 per cent to reach 153 billion by 2022 as against 3 billion in 2016.

HIGH AWARENESS REQUIRED

Cyber investigators say that high awareness is required as India is marching towards plastic money. "Since cash holdings in bank accounts have grown manifold, it is likely that criminals would attempt to siphon them off at one go. Multiple mobile applications having digital wallet details are a cause for worry too. There are many rogue apps which pose a huge threat to digital transactions through mobiles," explained Prashant Mali, a cybersecurity expert. At present, the mobile banking segment contributes the largest share of 49 per cent in the Indian mobile payment market with over 386 million transactions worth Rs 4,000 billion in 2016.

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Also Read: Insurers to hike premium for cyber security covers

DIGITAL PAYMENTS SEEN HUGE SURGE IN TRANSACTIONS

With demonetisation, digital payment platforms have seen a huge surge in transactions as well as downloads in the last few days. Acknowledging the threat their new customers possess, leading companies claim to have high-tech security features in compliance with RBI guidelines.

"FreeCharge has various security features built into its wallet, which makes them extremely secure. Its usage is growing by leaps and bounds and given that lakhs of new users are joining in recent days, we are taking steps to create awareness for convenient and safe usage," said a FreeCharge spokesperson.

FOLLOW RBI SECURITY GUIDELINES

"We follow RBI security guidelines and have put in place a fraud investigation team which not only monitors suspicious activities but also calls up customers to alert them," said a MobiKwik spokesperson.

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Also Read: Microsoft opens cyber security centre in India, wants to help cops nab cyber criminals

--- ENDS ---
Srinagar: Finally, Kashmir unrest is almost laid to rest.

This was made possible because of historic demonetisation move by PM Narendra Modi.

Taking the nation by surprise, PM Narendra Modi on Nov 8 had announced the demonetisation of Rs 1000 and Rs 500

notes, making these notes invalid in a major assault on black money, fake currency and corruption.

This move showed its positive impact on incidents of stone-pelting in Kashmir.

The stone-pelting incidents have been reduced drastically in unrest-hit Kashmir after the demonetisation move.

How is Kashmir seeing a sharp decline in stone-pelting cases?

According to police, no incidents of stone-pelting were reported from anywhere in the past few days.

Officials say a major reason behind the sudden decline in violence was that the money channels of inciting violence have

been sealed, according to a report in Deccan Herald.

After the Rs 500 and Rs 1000 were banned, the business of stone- pelting is almost over, a police official said.

Experts say that Kashmir will remain largely calm in the coming days as miscreants will run short of money from Pakistan.

Reportedly, Pakistan was pumping in money into Kashmir through various hawala channels to create unrest and violence in

the Valley.

After PM Narendra Modi's demonetisation move, the Pakistan-backed Kashmiri separatists are clueless, their funders are

speechless and as eventually the stone-pelters are jobless. And, finally, peace returned to Kashmir.
New Delhi: Hitting out at Pakistan for the "origin and spread" of terrorism, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said India and Israel have agreed on the need for the international community to act with resolve against terror networks and states that harbour them.

"We recognise that terrorism is a global challenge, knows no boundaries and has extensive links with other forms of organised crimes.

"Regrettably, one of the countries of its origin and spread is in india`s neighbourhood," said Modi in his media statement after holding talks with visiting Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.

"We agreed that the international community must act with resolve and determination against terror networks and states that harbour them," added Modi.
New Delhi: Visiting Israel President Reuven Rivlin received a ceremonial welcome at the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday.

Rivlin was warmly welcomed by President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The visiting dignitary then inspected a guard of honour.

Later, speaking to the media, Rivlin said, Very honoured and pleased to be the guest of President Mukherjee, privileged to be here in your great country India.

Rivlin is the first Israeli President to visit India in nearly two decades.

President Rivlin will hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister later today on areas of mutual cooperation.

Yesterday, on his arrival in India, President Rivlin said that his visit was a chance to not only build on the relations between the two countries but also look at ways to further stretch boundaries of cooperation.

President Rivlin also pledged complete support to India in its fight against terror.

Terror is terror is terror, whoever carries it out and whoever are its victims. And we all have the duty to condemn in our words, and fight with our deeds against this terrible evil, asserted the President, whose country is one of the biggest suppliers of defence equipment to India and is cooperating with it in a major way in dealing with terrorism.

The Israeli President also acknowledged differences with India on the Palestinian issue but spoke warmly about the growing Indo- Israeli ties as the two countries prepare to celebrate 25 years of establishment of full diplomatic ties between them next year.
Mumbai: The Shiv Sena has warned Prime Minister Narendra Modi to roll back the demonetisation scheme, or be at the receiving end of an angered public, which has been massively inconvenienced by this tectonic scheme.When told that the Prime Minister had firmly ruled out any possibility of a roll back, Shiv

When told that the Prime Minister had firmly ruled out any possibility of a rollback, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut asserted, "Then the government can face a roll back themselves. The Shiv Sena fully stands in support of the fight against corruption, but if there is so much anger among the masses, then something must be wrong."

Raut further said the scheme has proven costly for the common man, while the rich are not being caught.

"Not a single one of them (the rich) has been caught, nor are they standing in long queues. This is not about siding with the opposition, but about being with the masses when they need us. All political parties must join hands and call for a roll back of the scheme," Raut said.

However, calling on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to pay no heed to the opposition, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ordered the government to go full steam ahead with the demonetisation drive.

The Prime Minister was chairing the BJP Parliamentary Party executive meeting.

He said the opposition is working overtime to sabotage the demonetisation process, even as the nation has welcomed the step.

The Prime Minister`s assertion comes in the wake of the all-out attack launched by the opposition today, as the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) joined forces in tearing down the scheme of demonetisation.

Earlier today, Mayawati asserted that people, who were expecting good days, are now facing bad days because of the government`s strange decision to ban high denomination notes.

Attempting to reach out to the poor and middle class ahead of next year`s Assembly polls, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said that small- and medium-businesses have shut down courtesy demonetisation.

"In the name of demonetisation, the common people are being made to suffer. Modi ji has brought miseries and pain for the poor which is extremely wrong. I would like to ask why people of the nation are being troubled like this," said Mayawati.

"The economic affairs of the nation has been hampered by this decision, crores of small and medium scale businesses have been shut in the wake of demonetisation. Its seems like a country wide shutdown is being observed. The people, who were expecting `achhe din`, are now facing `bure din` and people of the nation want freedom from all this," she added.

On the other hand, holding the Prime Minister responsible for the present cash crunch, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the Centre was unprepared in dealing with the crisis.

"Today (Monday), the Centre announced that Indian Air Force will be used to carry and distribute currency notes, it shows that government did not have any game plane to tackle the crisis, government was unprepared in executing its plan, it shows that the government is in a precarious situation," Kejriwal said.He said that despite Prime Minister

He said that despite Prime Minister Modi`s claim that the demonitisation drive would bring sleepless nights to the rich, the aam aadmi (common man), instead, are having sleepless nights standing outside the ATMs.

Branding the Prime Minister as a "habitual abuser", the Congress said that arrogance of power should not surpass the problems faced by people.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala lashed out at the Prime Minister and said that it has become his "character and style" to taunt others.

"The Prime Minister is a habitual abuser himself. We respect the Prime Minister and the office he holds. Whatever abuses he may heap, which he continues to do every day on the leaders of the opposition parties, let him mock the entire country. The Prime Minister mocks the entire nation. The other day, he was sitting in Japan and mocked everybody who was getting married, who were not able to arrange their marriages. Such has become the character and style of this minister," Surjewala said.

Prime Minister Modi, who has drawn sharp flak from a united opposition post his decision to scrap 500 and 1,000 rupee currency notes, urged all to support his decision and bless him in his war against black or undeclared money.

"There are some political parties that are worried about currency ban. Those against me are strong people. But I will not be scared of them. I will not leave the path of truth and integrity. Some people never say anything on your face, but behind your back, they poke other people to oppose and go against you," he added while addressing a mega rally in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh on Monday.
New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday chaired a meeting at 10, Janpath here to discuss the strategy ahead of the winter session of the Parliament which begins on Wednesday.

Congress will take up the issue of demonetisation during the parliament session to corner the government.

It will also oppose the Goods and Services Tax (GST) if four slabs of taxation up to 28 percent are introduced.

After skipping the Congress Working Committee meet on November 7, due to health reasons, Sonia Gandhi chaired Tuesday`s meet attended by party Vice President Rahul Gandhi and other senior Congress leaders.
Jammu: Schools located in border areas of Jammu and Kashmir which were ordered to shut after Pakistani shelling reopened on Tuesday, officials said.

Authorities shut down 174 schools in villages close to the International Border in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts a fortnight back for the safety of children.

Pakistani forces have been shelling and firing at defence and civilian areas on the International Border and the Line of Control (LoC) since the Indian Army launched a surgical strike on terror launch pads in Pakistan-administered Kashmir in September.

The border skirmishes have affected the normal functioning of nearly 420 schools in the border areas.

After gradual reduction in firing, authorities have started efforts to resume normal functioning of the schools.
Srinagar: The annual Class 12 board examinations in the Kashmir Valley will kick off Tuesday at nearly 480 examination centres set up for more than 45,000 candidates.

As per reports, all arrangements have been put in place for the smooth conduct of the examinations.

In the meantime, the Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to reopen the schools in border areas - which were closed in the wake of heavy Pakistani shelling last week - from today.

The government took the decision considering the improvement in situation in border areas.
Allahabad: The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by one of the accused in the Dadri lynching case seeking transfer of the case to the CBI.

A Division Bench comprising Justices Ramesh Sinha and Rekha Dikshit dismissed the petition of Sanjay Singh who had alleged that the Uttar Pradesh police were not investigating the case in a fair and impartial manner and had, so far, not placed before the trial court the report of a forensic lab at Mathura which had established that the meat seized from the house of Mohd Akhlaq was "of cow or its progeny".

Akhlaq (55) was beaten to death in September, 2015 by a mob which had barged into his house infuriated over a rumour that his family had slaughtered a cow and consumed its meat.

Akhlaq's son Danish was also severely beaten up by the mob.

The high court dismissed the petition following the submission of Additional Advocate General Imran Ullah that the petitioner's allegations were "wrong" since the police have already filed charge sheet in the matter and the report of the forensic lab has already been filed before the trial court.
Bijnor: All the four persons were killed when their speeding car lost control and hit a roadside tree in Najibabad area, police said here today.

The mishap took place last evening on Najibabad-Kotdwara road, killing-- Ram Gopal, Kapil, Tarun, and Prashant-- residents of village Pureni under Nagina Police Station on the spot.

They had gone to visit Siddhabali temple at Kotdwar yesterday morning and on their return journey in the evening their car met with the accident, police said.

According to the SHO Najibabad Tejendra Yadav, the victims were friends and except Prashant all were married.

Their identity cards being in their pockets, the police informed their family members who reached the mortuary at Kotdwar Hospital last night.
New Delhi: Campaign strategist Prashant Kishor is out of Congress' mission to reclaim Uttar Pradesh, a report claimed on Monday.

As per a report in The Economic Times, the state leadership of Congress in UP has joined ranks to express inability to work with him.

The differences between Kishor and UP Congress had been simmering for a while now. The matter took a turn for the worse after Kishor met Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, adding to speculation that he is looking at ditching the Congress for SP.

The ET report added that Kishor will now largely focus on Punjab and may be roped in at the last leg of the campaign in UP.

Most members of Kishor's team have also come back to Delhi from Lucknow.

The newspaper claims that Kishor was insisting that the campaign in UP should be Priyanka centric and even threatened to resign if she was not brought in for statewide campaigning.
By PTI: From K J M Varma

Beijing, Nov 15 (PTI) The Chinese military has conferred the title of "revolutionary martyr" on Yu Xu, the first lady pilot and a member of the air force aerobatics team, who was killed in a training accident over the weekend.

Yu, the first Chinese woman to fly the J-10 fighter jet, died in the accident during a routine flight on Saturday.

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Born in 1986 in Chongzhou in southwest Chinas Sichuan Province, Yu joined the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force in September 2005, and had flown four types of aircraft.

She was one of the pilots selected to fly over Tiananmen Square during the 2009 National Day parade and had flown the J-10 in air shows at home and abroad, according to Air Force spokesman Shen Jinke.

From country girl to Chinas first female J-10 pilot, Yu devoted her most precious years to the building of a strong army, Shen said.

Yus death has sadden the country, with people across China mourning her in various ways. About 10 million people laid virtual wreaths at an online mourning hall set up for her, state-run Xinhua news agency reported today. PTI KJV ZH

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Tripoli: An air strike targeting Islamist militants has killed at least seven people near the southwestern Libyan city of Sabha, a local official and media reports said on Tuesday.

Gunmen later seized the remains of the suspected militants from a morgue, said the official, who did not want to be identified for fear of reprisals.

The early morning strike hit three houses in Gardah, northwest of Sabha, destroying two of them and damaging the third, said the official.

It was not clear who carried out the strike, and military officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Forces on both sides of conflict-ridden Libya`s east-west political divide have used warplanes to strike militant targets.

The United States has also conducted air strikes on Islamist militants in Libya, but a U.S. defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said its forces did not carry out the latest strike.

There were conflicting reports about whether the suspected militants were linked to al Qaeda or Islamic State, both of which have a presence in Libya`s south.

Libyan news website Press Solidarity said the main target was a militant called Abdulrahman Belhaj Hesnawi, also known as Abu Talha al-Libi, though several reports said he was not among the dead.

The local official, from Gardah, said some of those killed were Libyan and some were foreign, and it was not known whether they included Hesnawi. "After one or two hours a group of gunmen went to a local hospital in Adri, 35 km (22 miles) from Gardah, and they seized the remains of the bodies," he said.

The United States has been conducting air strikes on Islamic State in the group`s former bastion of Sirte, 500 km (310 miles) north of Gardah, since Aug. 1, and had previously launched several strikes against militant targets elsewhere in the vast North African country.

France has acknowledged flying intelligence and surveillance flights over Libya.

Some Islamic State militants who were based in Sirte fled south into the desert when a campaign to oust them from the city began six months ago, according to Libyan officials.
Abuja: Fourteen million people in northeast Nigeria urgently need humanitarian assistance and 75,000 children risk dying in "a few months", the United Nations warned Tuesday.

Boko Haram jihadists have laid waste to the country`s northeast since taking up arms against the government in 2009, displacing millions.

UN humanitarian coordinator Peter Lundberg said the crisis was unfolding at "high speed."

"Currently our assessment is that 14 million people are identified as in need of humanitarian assistance," Lundberg told reporters in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

Out of the 14 million people who need aid, 400,000 children are in critical need of assistance, while 75,000 could die "in (the) few months ahead of us," Lundberg said.

The UN hopes to target half of the 14 million people -- a population bigger than Belgium -- with the Nigerian government working to reach the rest.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has reclaimed territory from the Islamists but the insurgency has taken a brutal toll, with over 20,000 people dead, 2.6 million displaced from their homes, and famine taking root.
Sydney: Australia`s prime minister said on Monday resettlement to the United States of many of the 1,200 asylum seekers held in detention camps in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific island of Nauru would begin after President-elect Donald Trump`s inauguration in January.

Whether Trump honours the deal Australia reached with the outgoing Obama administration, and announced earlier this month, will provide an early test of Trump`s anti-immigration stance.

Campaigning for the presidency, Trump had started by advocating a blanket ban on Muslims entering the United States but later adjusted his stance to propose that the ban should apply to people from nations that had been "compromised by terrorism".

Australia`s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Sunday that the United States had agreed to take a "substantial" number of those held on Manus Island and Nauru.

Many of them are Muslims who have fled conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Under Australia`s tough border security laws, asylum seekers intercepted trying to reach the country by boat are sent for processing at the camps on Papua New Guinea`s Manus island and Nauru.

The resettlement deal with the United States came after Turnbull`s government agreed in September to accept people from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador as part of Australia`s annual intake of 18,750 asylum seekers, to support a resettlement plan for Central Americans drawn up by Washington.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, Elizabeth Trudeau, declined to provide details when asked about Turnbull`s comments but said the United States had a longstanding programme of accepting refugees referred for resettlement by the U.N. refugee agency and would determine the size of in consultation with that agency.

The programme would not change refugee resettlement projections for 2017, she said.

There was no immediate comment from Trump`s transition team.

Turnbull said the first refugees to be resettled in the United States would not come before the Jan. 20 inaugurations of President-elect Trump.

"The process will continue for some months. The United States won`t be short-cutting their security or health checks," said Turnbull.

Analysts said the timing could prove awkward for Turnbull.

"It looks pretty clear that the resettlement deal was done as a quid pro quo after Australia agreed to resettle Central American refugees," said Peter Chen, professor of political science, University of Sydney.

"But by holding off and starting the process in the expectation that Hillary Clinton would win the U.S. presidency, it gives Trump the ability to reject the deal."

Over the weekend, Trump said his administration would deport up to 3 million immigrants in the country illegally who have criminal records.

While campaigning, Trump said he would deport 11 million illegal immigrants.

Should Trump veto the deal with Australia, the detainees would be left with the choice of returning to their home countries or remaining in Nauru or Papua New Guinea.

A veto would force Turnbull to search for another country willing to take them while facing growing outrage both at home and internationally over the treatment of the refugees.

Turnbull said he remained confident that the new U.S. administration would stand by the deal, stressing that it didn`t require any increase in the United States` annual intake of asylum seekers.
Damascus: Syria`s Bashar al-Assad said in an interview aired on Tuesday that Donald Trump will be a "natural ally" if the US president-elect fulfils his pledge to fight "terrorists".

"We cannot tell anything about what he`s going to do, but if... he is going to fight the terrorists, of course we are going to be ally, natural ally in that regard with the Russian, with the Iranian, with many other countries," the Syrian president told Portugal`s RTP state television.

Asked about Trump`s campaign comments suggesting the United States should focus more on fighting the Islamic State group, Assad said he would welcome such a move but was cautious.

"I would say this is promising, but can he deliver?" said Assad, who was speaking in English. Can he go in that regard? What about the countervailing forces within the administration, the mainstream media that were against him? How can he deal with it?" said the Syrian leader.

"That`s why for us it`s still dubious whether he can do or live up to his promises or not. That`s why we are very cautious in judging him, especially as he wasn`t in a political position before," said Assad.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal last week, Trump said "I`ve had an opposite view of many people regarding Syria".

He also said that if the United States attacks Assad "we end up fighting Russia", an ally of the Syrian regime.

Assad also accused the United States of interfering in the affairs of other countries.

"They think that they are the police of the world. They think they are the judge of the world. They`re not," he said.
Beijing: China's leading locomotive maker on Tuesday said it has made it's first bulk export of eight-inch transistor chips to India for upgrading the transformers of 100 electric locomotives to make the electric trains more energy-efficient.

CRRC Zhuzhou Institute Co. Ltd, a state-run locomotive maker based in Zhuzhou City in central China's Hunan province, said that it exported eight-inch insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) chips to India.

The China-made chips are currently used on the 7,200-kilowatt electric locomotives that power it's high-speed trains.

IGBT chips will be used for upgrading the transformers of 100 locomotives in India to make the electric trains more energy-efficient.

The company built the world's second eight-inch chip production line in 2014, which has reached annual output of 120,000 chips and one million IGBT modules.

The IGBT chip is a key technology of modern electric appliances. It can be used in everything from high-speed rail to the aerospace and aviation industries.

The Chinese locomotive maker expects the chips to have huge export potential.

In August this year, CRRC had set up its first USD 63.4 million joint venture plant in India to repair and manufacture railway locomotive engines.

CRRC said in August that it was the first foreign company to set up assembly line of rail transportation equipment in India after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the 'Made in India'.

The joint venture, named CRRC Pioneer (India) Electric Co.Ltd, is housed in Bavo Industrial District located between New Delhi and Bombay.

The plant was set up with an investment USD 63.4 million and the Chinese side holds 51 per cent of the share. The India plant will repair and manufacture railway locomotive engines.

It will also provide technology support to India's rail system, and supply electric transmission systems to oil drilling, wind power generation and mining equipment making in India, the report said.

This is China's first major investment in Indian Railways after the two worked out a multi-pronged collaboration about Chinese participation in the modernisation of Indian railway systems.

While Indian Railway engineers are getting trained in China in heavy hauling, China is also cooperating with India to set up a railway university similar to the one it developed.

Besides the high-speed train, India and China have agreed to cooperate to identify the technical inputs required to increase speed on the existing railway line from Chennai to Mysore via Bangalore.

China is also conducting feasibility study to build high speed railway line between Chennai and New Delhi.

Japan has bagged the first bullet train project to build high-speed rail line between Ahmedabad and Mumbai.
Beijing: Chinese state-run media lauded Donald Trump Tuesday after a phone call between him and President Xi Jinping, saying that the president-elect`s emergence could mark a "reshaping" of Sino-American relations.

The pair spoke Monday, when Xi said that the two powers needed to co-operate and Trump`s office said the leaders "established a clear sense of mutual respect for one another".

On the campaign trail Trump frequently demonetised Beijing, but questions have been asked whether his conduct in the White House will match his promises as a candidate.

Monday`s conversation was "diplomatically impeccable and has bolstered optimism over bilateral relations in the next four years", China`s frequently nationalistic Global Times newspaper said in an editorial.

Barack Obama, whose foreign policy pivot to Asia alarmed Beijing, was "profoundly affected" by the Cold War-shaped outlook of American elites, the paper said, but Trump`s views "have not been kidnapped by Washington`s political elites".

"Trump is probably the very American leader who will make strides in reshaping major-power relations in a pragmatic manner," it added, saying his ideology and experience "match well with the new era".

It was a sharp contrast to the same newspaper`s editorial the day before, which baldly warned the incoming president not to follow through on campaign-trail promises to levy steep tariffs on Chinese-made goods or Beijing would take a "tit-for-tat approach" and target US autos, aircraft, soybeans, and iPhones.

But the president-elect`s ambiguous and sometimes contradictory views on key questions on the relationship between the world`s two largest economies, including trade, the South China Sea and North Korea, have cast a pall of uncertainty over how he will manage it.

While campaigning, Trump went as far as calling the Asian giant America`s "enemy", accused it of artificially lowering its currency to boost exports, threatened to impose tariffs of 45 percent, and pledged to stand up to a country he says views the US as a pushover.

But he also indicated he is not interested in getting involved in far-off squabbles, and decried the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade deal, which encompasses several other

Asian countries and has been seen as an effort to bolster US influence, for costing American jobs.

TPP has been signed by the US but not ratified by the Senate, where its chances are seen as poor.

Tuesdm.ay`s editorial in the government-published China Daily newspaper called the Xi-Trump chat "propitious", noting that Beijing is "understandably relieved that the exclusive, economically inefficient, politically antagonising TPP is looking ever less likely to materialise".

nstead, Washington should consider joining the China-backed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a free trade area encompassing the Southeast Asian grouping ASEAN, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Something of a mirror image to the TPP, it includes six of the putative Washington-led grouping`s 12 members.
Washington: President-elect Donald Trump has sought top security clearance for his three children, according to media reports here which said it could bring up potential conflicts of interest within the incoming administration.

The Trump team has asked the White House to explore the possibility of getting his children -- Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr and his daughter Ivanka Trump along with her husband Jared Kushner -- the top secret security clearances, CBS news, and CNN said.

Logistically, the children would need to be designated by the current White House as national security advisers to their father to receive top secret clearances.

However, once Trump becomes president, he would be able to put in the request himself.

Eric, Donald Jr, and Ivanka are currently on the presidential transition team.

CNN said the top security clearance could be a potential conflict between classified information and their business interest.

The report was strongly refuted by the presidential transition team.

A transition team official said the 70-year-old President-elect "did not request" that this step be taken and the Trump children have "not started filling out paperwork" for such clearances.

"That's not something I'm expecting right now," the transition official said on condition of anonymity.
Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump are not due to meet before Trump assumes office on Jan. 20, 2017, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.

The two men spoke by phone on Monday night and agreed to work together towards "constructive cooperation", including on fighting terrorism.

Trump had previously spoken of wanting to meet Putin, possibly before his inauguration.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call on Tuesday that no agreement to meet up before Jan. 20 had been reached during their first phone call since Trump won the U.S. election.

He also said that the two men had not discussed the Ukraine crisis or the status of Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Washington: US President-elect Donald Trump wants to name billionaire investor Wilbur Ross as Commerce Secretary.

Ross, 78, is famed for restructuring failed companies, and he is also a trusted economic adviser to Team Trump.

New York investor Carl Icahn appeared to confirm the news on Tuesday that his fat cat pal is the leading candidate for the job, New York Post reported.

"Spoke to @realDonaldTrump. Steve Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross are being considered for Treasury and Commerce. Both would be great choices," Icahn tweeted.

"Both are good friends of mine but, more importantly, they are two of the smartest people I know," he added.

Mnuchin, a veteran Wall Street insider and Goldman Sachs vet, was the finance chair of Trump`s campaign.

In August, Ross agreed to reimburse investors $11.8 million and pay a fine of $2.3 million to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission probe into the company`s misappropriation of fees.

Investors in W.L. Ross` fund were wrongly assessed the fees from 2001-2011, the SEC found.

Ross was, according to its fund agreements, supposed to take 50 per cent of the fees it charged its companies and give it to fund investors to offset their fund management fees, but did not do so, the SEC found.

Ross did not admit any liability. It had self-reported the issue to the SEC.
Rome: Italy's coastguard said today that 15 people had been rescued from a sinking rubber dinghy off Libya, amid fears dozens more may have drowned.

The coastguard would only confirm that a merchant ship had gone to the aid of the stricken dinghy yesterday and that 15 people had been rescued, before being transferred to the Diciotti, a coastguard vessel.

"They are now being taken to Catania (in Sicily) and for the moment we cannot confirm any other news or numbers," a coastguard spokesman said.

It would be extremely unusual, if not unheard of, for traffickers to set off from Libya with as few as 15 people on the kind of vessel which is typically crammed with between 100 and 150 migrants.

Fears of a new major tragedy mounted as harrowing testimony emerged from another of the five rescues coordinated by the coastguard yesterday.
By PTI: From Tuhin Dutta

Marrakech, Nov 14 (PTI) Amid reports that the US under Donald Trumps presidency could withdraw from the Paris pact, the countrys top climate envoy today expressed confidence that despite a change of government in America a durable global effort to counter climate change will be sustained.

Terming the Paris agreement as "durable, inclusive and ambitious", US special envoy for climate change Jonathan Pershing said the deal protects the economic growth and the environment while providing nationally determined flexibility and accommodating different national circumstances.

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"It was a global effort that made the agreement (Paris) possible. And the passion and dedication that drove it is in evidence throughout COP22. Heads of States can and will change but I am confident that we can and we will sustain a durable international effort to counter climate change," he said.

Pershing said soon the US will see a transition to a new Presidential administration and in the coming weeks personnel from the transition team are expected to arrive at the State Department and begin planning the "shape and thrust" of American diplomacy for the next four years.

"At this time, I do not have information about when that process will start or who will play a role in it and I cannot speak for President-elects team or on their outlook on international climate policy," he said.

"What I do know, however, is that the power of the movement and the enormous momentum created in Paris and built throughout the year since, parties are deeply invested in seeing this work bear real fruit," Pershing said.

He said with the agreement having entered into force, it is no longer a question of whether to accelerate its implementation but rather a question of when and how.

"I also know that markets are moving and countries are following. Prices for renewable energy are continuing their dramatic fall. Banks and finance agencies are doing the needed work to allow private finance to move to meet growing demand for low carbon solutions," Pershing said.

"Major economies like China have begun the substantial work of translating their pre-Paris goals into operational policies on the ground. We (US) are installing for economic reasons not policies that favour one source over the other but economically driven programmes," he said.

"We need new action going forward. We need to find strategies that protect our economic development while decarbonising our system. We will release our strategy on Wednesday to suggest some sense of the trajectories that address this goal," he added.

US top climate envoy said President Barack Obamas administration has made climate change "a top priority" and has made significant strides to cut carbon pollution.

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"The continued global momentum we have seen since Paris has been reflected in the successes of last several weeks, including most particularly, the Paris Agreement passing the threshold needed to enter into force," Pershing said.

"This context and momentum are hugely consequential and their importance should not be ignored. It reflects global demand for action and movement to follow through," he said. PTI TDS ASK ASK

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Tehran: Iran`s missile programme is "non-negotiable" and tests will continue, foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said on Tuesday, following criticism from European Union diplomats.

"Iran`s defence capabilities cannot be compromised and are under no circumstance negotiable," he told state television IRIB.

"Missile tests are conducted within the framework of Iran`s defence policies."

A meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday urged Tehran to refrain from ballistic missile testing.

Iran`s military has carried out a number of missile tests in recent months, which the United States and European governments have said are a breach of its commitments under last year`s nuclear deal.

Western powers say the missiles are capable of carrying nuclear warheads and therefore go against the deal, under which Iran agreed to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for a lifting of global sanctions.

The EU foreign ministers called on all sides to respect the agreement -- reflecting concerns over US president-elect Donald Trump`s vow to ditch it.

Ghasemi welcomed the EU`s "interest and determination to develop ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran and the renewed emphasis on the commitment of this union in the full implementation by all sides" of the nuclear deal.

The EU has been pushing to open an office in Tehran amid a surge in interest from European companies hoping to resume trade ties.

But there has been push-back from Iranian conservatives, who say the office would be used to press human rights issues, and Ghasemi said last week it was "unlikely such an office would be opened... in the short term".

The head of Iran`s Human Rights Council, which falls under the hardline judiciary, said last month: "If this office is used for following up trade issues, there is no problem. But they have said that following the opening of this office, they want to have close contacts with human rights defenders and NGOs."

So they should know that the judiciary will definitely not allow such a den of corruption to be established inside Iran," he said, according to the ISNA news agency.
Nimrud: Iraqi forces have retaken the ancient city of Nimrud, but it has been heavily damaged by the Islamic State group, an journalist who visited the site on Tuesday said.

Statues lie shattered, a reconstructed palace is wrecked and the remains of a ziggurat -- once one of the tallest structures left from the ancient world at some 50 metres (yards) high -- has been reduced to a fraction of its height, the AFP journalist said.

Iraqi forces announced that Nimrud, which was founded in the 13th century and became the capital of the Assyrian empire, was recaptured on Sunday as part of the massive operation to retake Mosul, the last IS-held city in the country.

IS overran Nimrud along with swathes of other territory in 2014, but Iraqi forces have since regained much of the territory they lost to the jihadists.

In April last year, IS released a video of its fighters destroying monuments there before planting explosives around the site and blowing it up.

In the video, militants with sledgehammers and power tools broke artefacts before rigging the site with large barrels of what appeared to be explosives.

IS said it attacked Nimrud as well as other ancient sites, including Syria's Palmyra and Iraq's Hatra, to eliminate idols that are forbidden by its extreme interpretation of Islam.

But that has not stopped IS from looting and selling allegedly forbidden artefacts to fund its operations.

UNESCO has condemned the destruction of Nimrud as a war crime.

Iraqi forces announced the start of the operation to retake Mosul on October 17, and have closed in on the city from the north, east and south.

The elite Counter-Terrorism Service has recaptured a series of areas inside eastern Mosul, and is still battling the jihadists in the city.

Meanwhile, interior ministry forces have advanced on Mosul from the south, and are nearing the airport on the city's southern outskirts.

Iraqi forces have gained significant ground from IS in the four weeks since the operation began, but there are still weeks if not months of tough fighting ahead.
Jerusalem: Israel nominated a new ambassador to Turkey on Tuesday, its first since the two countries normalised ties after the 2010 crisis triggered by Israel's deadly storming of a Gaza-bound ship.

Eitan Naeh was formally selected by a government committee, said foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon.

He said the timeline for him being confirmed was not yet determined.

Naeh, the current deputy head of mission at the Israeli embassy in London, will become his country's first ambassador to Turkey since Israeli commandos raided a Gaza-bound ship of activists in 2010.

The raid killed 10 Turks and prompted Ankara to expel the Israeli ambassador.

The two sides finally agreed in June to end the bitter six-year rift after long-running secret talks in third countries with Israel offering USD 20 million in compensation, an apology over the raid and permission for Turkish aid to reach Gaza.

The normalisation agreement had been urged by the United States, which is keen to see its NATO ally, overwhelmingly Muslim Turkey, resume its previously tight relationship with Israel.
New York: New York City police sought to reassure residents and tourists on Monday that they would be safe attending the city`s Thanksgiving Day parade despite the militant group Islamic State calling on its followers to attack the event with trucks.

The largest U.S. city has prepared for such attacks in the past and will be prepared again, John Miller, deputy police commissioner for counter-terrorism, said at a news conference.

"Come to the Thanksgiving Day parade. Have a good time. Bring your family. I always go. I always bring mine," he said.

The holiday celebration, featuring enormous balloons shaped like cartoon characters high above Manhattan, is scheduled to be broadcast nationwide the morning of Nov. 24.

Islamic State, in the latest edition of its online magazine Rumiyah, suggested that readers use motor vehicles to kill and injure people.

The article was accompanied by photos of rented moving trucks and of the Macy`s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which the magazine called "an excellent target."

"What you see is the psychological warfare of printing materials that indicate, `Be afraid, be very afraid.` We never accede to that," Miller said.

New York police speak regularly with companies that rent trucks, and they use vehicles to block certain roads at large gatherings such as the Thanksgiving Day parade, Miller said.

Security authorities have been on alert for truck attacks since Bastille Day this year, when a delivery man plowed a refrigerator truck into a crowd of revelers in Nice, France, killing 84 people and injuring hundreds more.

Islamic State, which controls swathes of Iraq and Syria and seeks to inspire attacks by others abroad, claimed responsibility for the July 14 attack.
Lahore: A pre-Partition gurudwara in Nankana Sahib, the birthplace of Sikhism's founder Guru Nanak, has been reopened in Pakistan's Punjab province.

"Gurudwara Kiyara Sahib which was closed over 75 years ago has finally been reopened for the yatris," Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) spokesman Amer Hashmi told PTI today.

He said thousands of Sikhs gathered in Nankana Sahib to attend the festivities on the 548th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak visited Kiyara Sahib yesterday when it was reopened by ETPB chairman Siddiqul Farooq.

Farooq also laid a foundation stone of a memorial of Bhai Mardana, a close associate of Guru Nanak, in Nankana Sahib.

He said Gurudwara Kiyara Sahib has been reopened on the wish of Sikh 'yatris'.

He said on November 19, Angetha Sahib at Darbar Sahib Kartarpur will be reopened and the groundbreaking ceremony for the Baba Guru Nanak University in Nankana Sahib is scheduled for January.

Yesterday the main event of Palki was held in Gurudwara Janamasthan Nankana Sahib, 80 kms from Lahore, in which more than 15,000 people mostly Sikh pilgrims from India (2,100), US, Canada, Britain and other European countries participated.

Indian?Sikhs will also visit other gurudwaras in Punjab province before their departure for home?on November 21.
Marrakech: United Nations Secretary General Ban ki-Moon on Tuesday said he is confident that US President-elect Donald Trump would distance himself from his election rhetoric against the Paris Climate Change Agreement, saying "now it has become unstoppable".

"As you may know, last week I spoke to President-elect, Mr. Trump and I brought up many issues, peace and security issues, including the issue of climate change. I remain very optimistic about our effort to combat climate change," Ban told reporters here.

Terming it historic, he said the Paris agreement, now ratified by 109 countries, has come into force in record time.

"Never in the history of the United Nations, any convention, agreement or treaty has entered into force in such a short period of time. And it also has the highest number of member statesaso it has established a lot of records, in fact.

"The global unity around climate change once seemed to be unthinkable but now it has become unstoppable," said an optimistic Secretary General, who is going to demit office in just one-and a-half months after a 10-year-long tenure.

"I am too much optimistic about the Paris agreement continuation," Ban told this IANS correspondent to a query on the sidelines of the media briefings.

The global business community is now fully on board and moving forward to decarbonise and lessen their carbon footprint, said Ban, who is here attend the high-level segment of the 22nd Conference of Parties (COP22) conference - his last UN climate conference as Secretary General.

According to him, every member of the United Nations has signed on to the Paris agreement. "Delegations were not forced to sign. They signed on because they believe that it`s in the interest of their own country, and it`s in the interest of the whole world and planet Earth."

He said now the Paris agreement has come into force and that he would discuss the impact of climate change with Trump more in detail personally.

"I raised this issue and I am looking forward to another meeting in person with him (Trump) and will discuss on all matters of our common concern, including climate change."

In reply to another question, Ban said: "I think most of all the countries, 193 now, they have signed and more than 75 percent of global greenhouse emissions accounted for by 109 countries (that ratified). So it is wholehearted commitment...as President of the US, I am sure that he (Trump) will understand this."

Tracing the US President-elect roots as a smart businessman, the Secretary General said: "However, my sense is that as a very successful business person in the past, before being elected, I believe that he understands that there are market forces already at work on this issue and that we need to harness these forces for the good of the planet."

Batting for the continuation of the climate initiatives by the next UN Secretary General too, he said more than 3,000 scientists around the world have repeatedly issued assessment reports that climate change has been happening.

"We don`t have plan B because there is no planet B. We have to work very hard, very seriously and urgently. This what I am telling, not as only Secretary-General, but as one the citizens of this world," he added.
New York: Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani has emerged as a "serious" contender to become the next US secretary of state, a top aide to President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday, amid reports of intense infighting over key posts in the new administration.

Trump -- the 70-year-old Republican billionaire who takes office in just nine weeks -- was to meet with Vice President-elect Mike Pence later Tuesday in New York to discuss the next round of cabinet appointments.

Giuliani, a member of Trump`s inner circle, had been considered a leading candidate for attorney general, but at a public forum in Washington on Monday, he said he would not be heading the Justice Department.

"His name has been mentioned in a serious way in connection with secretary of state, a job that he`s qualified for and a job that he would do exceedingly well," Kellyanne Conway, Trump`s campaign manager, said Tuesday on Fox News.

The 72-year-old Giuliani was mayor of New York on 9/11, and his decisive leadership after the World Trade Center`s twin towers were toppled in the September 2001 attacks made him a national hero.

A crime-fighting former prosecutor who cleaned up New York and lifted its fortunes, Giuliani made a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 but withdrew after learning he had prostate cancer.

Former UN ambassador John Bolton, a neo-conservative hawk and former undersecretary of state, also was reported to be in the running for the top diplomatic post.

"John would be a very good choice," Giuliani said at the forum sponsored by The Wall Street Journal.

Asked if there were anybody better, Giuliani quipped: "Maybe me, I don`t know."

Bolton made no mention of his chances in an interview Tuesday with Fox News but seemed like he was auditioning for it, weighing in heavily on US relations with Moscow the day after Trump called Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"I think one of the reasons that Putin is very casual about expanding Russian influence, taking advantage of America in Eastern Europe and the Middle East is that he sees, quite correctly, Barack Obama as an exceedingly weak leader," he said.

"I think Trump is going to be the opposite."

Bolton was a controversial choice for UN envoy in 2005, having once said if the UN headquarters lost 10 floors, "it wouldn`t make a bit of difference."Also in the mix for a top job is Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, an early Trump supporter who is reported to be under consideration possibly for attorney general, secretary of defense or head of the Department of Homeland Security.

Sessions has been a fierce advocate for restrictions on immigration, but was once rejected for a federal judgeship after officials testified he made racist remarks, The New York Times reported.

Trump`s first appointments included anti-establishment firebrand Steve Bannon as chief strategist, a pick who has come under fire from Democrats and other critics who see the onetime Breitbart chief as a darling of white supremacists.

The appointments process has been tumultuous by all accounts. One source cited by CNN described the intense lobbying as a "knife fight."

Trump and Pence will "be reviewing a number of names" for cabinet positions, Jason Miller, a transition communications adviser, told reporters gathered at Trump Tower.

Miller gave few details on the new people under consideration.

"You can`t believe everything you read. I don`t want to play the speculation game as far as names," Miller said.

He added: "There will be non-traditional names, a number of people who have had wide-ranging success in a number of different fields... People will be excited when they see the type of leaders the president-elect brings into this administration."

Trump appears to be torn between a campaign promise to shake up Washington and the need to build a cabinet with political experience and connections with Congress.

On Sunday, he named Reince Priebus, a mainstream Republican operative who backed Trump as chairman of the Republican National Committee, as his White House chief of staff.

Also expected to find a spot on Trump`s governing team is retired general Michael Flynn, a possible national security advisor pick.Separately, Pence said that he plans to complete his term as Indiana governor even as he helps with the transition of power in Washington, the Indianapolis Star reported.

Pence made the remarks at a cabinet meeting in Indianapolis, an event at which he welcomed the new state governor, who takes over on January 9, 11 days before Pence takes office in Washington, the newspaper reported.

CBS and CNN also reported that the transition team is seeking top security clearances for Trump`s adult children.

Trump however did not request that this step be taken, and the Trump children have not started filling out paperwork for such clearances, a transition official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"That`s not something I`m expecting right now," the official said.
San Francisco: Demonstrations protesting the US presidential election victory of Republican Donald Trump entered their second week on Monday, with thousands of students chanting phrases like "Not My President" after walking out of classes across the country.

The latest protests came as critics slammed Trump`s selection of right-wing firebrand Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist, with many fearing the move could lift the white nationalist movement into the top levels of the White House.

The Los Angeles Unified School District estimated that 4,000 students walked out of classes across the city in protest of the president-elect, who campaigned on deporting undocumented immigrants and building a wall between the United States and Mexico.

Officials with Seattle Public Schools said about 5,000 students walked out of 20 high schools and middle schools on Monday. That figure represented about 10 percent of the district`s student body, according to schools spokesman Luke Duecy.

Authorities in Portland, Oregon, Montgomery County, Maryland, and the San Francisco Bay Area said hundreds of young people marched in protest as well.

Tens of thousands of people have marched in cities from New York to Los Angeles in largely peaceful rallies since Trump`s upset victory last Tuesday over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Trump secured enough votes in the 538-member Electoral College to win the presidency despite trailing Clinton in the popular vote.

But there have been sporadic bouts of destruction.

Demonstrators in Oakland, California, last week threw objects at police in riot gear and smashed storefront windows.

More than 100 people had been arrested following days of protest in Portland, Oregon, police said on Monday.

Protesters in that city over the weekend blocked traffic and threw objects at police dressed in riot gear who responded with pepper spray and flash-bang devices.

Civil rights groups and police have monitored violence against U.S. minorities since Trump`s win, citing reports of attacks on women in Islamic head scarves, of racist graffiti and of bullying of immigrant children.

Trump has called for peace and unity and denounced white supremacist groups that supported him.

He said on Sunday he was "so saddened" to hear about racial slurs and personal threats made against African-Americans, Latinos and gay people by some of his supporters.

"I say, `Stop it.` If it - if it helps," Trump told CBS` "60 Minutes" in an interview.
Abuja: The United Nations warned on Tuesday that 75,000 Nigerian children risk dying in "a few months" as hunger grips the country`s ravaged northeast in the wake of the Boko Haram insurgency.

Boko Haram jihadists have laid waste to the impoverished region since taking up arms against the government in 2009, displacing millions and disrupting farming and trade.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has reclaimed territory from the Islamists but the insurgency has taken a brutal toll, with over 20,000 people dead, 2.6 million displaced from their homes, and famine taking root.

UN humanitarian coordinator Peter Lundberg said the crisis was unfolding at "high speed."

"Currently our assessment is that 14 million people are identified as in need of humanitarian assistance," by 2017, Lundberg told reporters in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

Out of them, 400,000 children are in critical need of assistance, while 75,000 could die "in (the) few months ahead of us," Lundberg said.



The UN hopes to target half of the 14 million people -- a population bigger than Belgium -- with the Nigerian government working to reach the rest.

But Lundberg said that the UN did not have enough money to avert the crisis and called on international partners, the private sector and Nigerian philanthropists to "join hands" to tackle the problem.

"We need to reach out to the private sector, to the philanthropists in Nigeria," Lundberg said.

"We will ask international partners to step in because we can only solve this situation if we actually join hands."Maiduguri, the capital of northeast Borno state and birthplace of Boko Haram, has doubled in size to two million people as a result of people seeking refuge in camps for internally displaced people.

Despite the World Food Programme warning of "famine-like conditions", the UN has not declared a "level three" emergency, the classification for the most severe crisis that would draw more attention and desperately needed funds to Nigeria.

"The humanitarian response hasn`t scaled up adequately to meet a growing demand for food, particularly in the more remote camps in the northeast," Roddy Barclay, intelligence analyst at consultancy firm Africa Practice.

Nigerian vigilante and security sources told AFP in September that at least 10 people were starving to death daily in a camp for IDPs near the Borno capital.

There is also the ongoing issue of insecurity. Despite the recent military gains, Boko Haram still prowls the northeast region and stages attacks and suicide bombings.

"The Nigerian army has scored notable military successes in containing Boko Haram. But that`s not to say they have stabilised the region entirely," Barclay said.

"Movement in remote zones remains high risk and the focus remains overwhelmingly on furthering military gains rather than addressing the very real socio-economic impact of the crisis."Those zones include the shared borders of Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad in the Lake Chad Basin, said Ryan Cummings, director at intelligence firm Signal Risk.

"The scale of the humanitarian disaster in northeast Nigeria has been grossly underestimated," Cummings said.

"There`s an estimated one million people still living in communities inaccessible because of the ongoing insecurity."

Now the fear is that Boko Haram will try to capitalise on the failure of the Nigerian government -- and the international community -- to save the hungry.

"There are many claims that resources allocated to IDP camps are being misdirected into avenues of corruption, so aid is not reaching the people," Cummings said.

Boko Haram could prey on that anger, he said, warning that "they could potentially end up being recruited back to Boko Haram."
The Hague: International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutors said that there were preliminary grounds to believe that US military forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan.

In a report published on Monday evening, the prosecutors said that after a thorough inspection, the US forces were found to have committed war crimes through torture and other types of abuse at secret detention camps, Efe news reported.

According to the ICC, these detention centres were run by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and war crimes took place "mostly between 2003-2004" although "in some cases continued until 2014".

The crimes would have been committed in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan although Kandahar and Helmand seem to be the most affected provinces, the report said.

The report added that "members of the US military appear to have subjected at least 61 detained persons to torture" and that CIA officials allegedly tortured another 27 detainees.

The ICC prosecutors said they also have good reason to believe that the Taliban and its allies, belonging to the Haqqani Network, have also committed "crimes against humanity and war crimes", while war crimes and torture would also have been carried out by the Afghan government, particularly by thr National Directorate for Security intelligence agency and the Afghan National Police.

The ICC prosecution office said it will decide whether to carry out a full investigation into the Afghan issue and, according to the results, could press charges against individuals and even issue arrest warrants.

The ICC was established in 2003 to prosecute serious war crimes and crimes against humanity, but the US under former President George W. Bush was strongly opposed to the establishment of the court, of which the US is not a member.


By PTI: From Lalit K Jha

Washington, Nov 15 (PTI) Outgoing US President Barack Obama has expressed regret that he could not close the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention center during his eight years in office due to the hurdles posed by the Congress.

"With respect to Guantanamo, it is true that I have not been able to close the darn thing because of the congressional restrictions that have been placed on us," Obama, 55, told reporters at a White House news conference.

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"What is also true is we have greatly reduced the population. You now have significantly less than a hundred people there. There are some additional transfers that may be taking place over the next two months," he said.

"There is a group of very dangerous people that we have strong evidence of having been guilty of committing terrorist acts against the United States. But because of the nature of the evidence, in some cases, that evidence being compromised, its very difficult to put them before a typical Article III court," he added.

The group has always been the biggest challenge for the US, he said.

"My strong belief and preference is that we would be much better off closing Gitmo, moving them to a different facility that was clearly governed by US jurisdiction. Wed do it a lot cheaper and just as safely," he said.

"Congress disagrees with me, and I gather that the President-elect does, as well. We will continue to explore options for doing that," Obama said.

"Keep in mind that its not just a matter of what Im willing to do. One of the things you discover about being President is that there are all these rules and norms and laws, and you got to pay attention to them. The people who work for you are also subject to those rules and norms. Thats a piece of advice that I gave to the incoming President," he said.

Obama said he was very proud of the fact that he is leaving the administration without any major scandal.

"Weve made mistakes, there have been screw-ups, but I will put the ethics of this administration and our track record in terms of just abiding by the rules and norms, and keeping trust with the American people - I will put this administration against any administration in history," he asserted.

"The reason is because we listened to the lawyers. We had a strong White House Counsels Office. We had a strong Ethics Office. We had people in every agency whose job it was to remind people, this is how youre supposed to do things.

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"It doesnt mean everybody always did everything exactly the way its supposed to - because we got 2 million people working in the federal government, if youre including the military, and so we had to just try to institutionalise this as much as we could. And that takes a lot of work," Obama said. PTI LKJ MRJ

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Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev on Tuesday over allegations he extorted a $2 million bribe from top oil producer Rosneft, a case which could expose fault lines in the Russian leader`s inner circle.

Ulyukayev, a 60-year-old technocrat whose ministry oversees a politically-charged sale of state assets, is the highest-ranking Russian official to be detained while in office since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

His case sets up a potential standoff between Rosneft boss and Putin ally Igor Sechin and those in the government who have resisted Rosneft`s ambitions to acquire more state assets at a time when low oil prices and Western sanctions are biting.

Such infighting risks triggering potentially destabilising clan infighting in the run-up to a presidential election in 2018 when Putin is widely expected to run for a fourth term.

Ulyukayev, who a Moscow court ruled should be put under house arrest for two months until Jan. 15, faces up to 15 years in jail if found guilty.

Wearing a blue suit, Ulyukayev told a Moscow court he did not accept his guilt. It was in his own interests to cooperate with the investigation as he valued his reputation, he said.

The Investigative Committee, the state agency that investigates major crimes, said Ulyukayev had extorted the bribe in exchange for approving Rosneft`s $5 billion purchase of a stake in mid-sized oil producer Bashneft .

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Putin had dismissed Uylukaev after losing trust in him, but said the arrest had nothing to do with the Bashneft deal.

In a twist reminiscent of the Soviet era, Ulyukayev`s detention was announced in the early hours of the morning, with state TV and pro-Kremlin politicians calling it part of the fight against corruption.

Investigators praised Rosneft for tipping them off about Ulyukayev`s alleged wrongdoing early so they were able to catch him "red-handed" in what law enforcement sources told Russian media was a carefully planned sting operation.

His phones had been tapped and his electronic communications monitored, the same sources said. Ulyukayev`s lawyer, Timofei Gridnev, told Reuters his client had been detained at Rosneft`s Moscow offices.

Investigators said Ulyukayev had threatened to use his position to cause problems for Rosneft unless it paid him.

They said they were not challenging the legality of Rosneft`s purchase of the Bashneft stake or investigating it.

Putin was informed about the case when the investigation was first launched, Peskov told reporters. "These are serious allegations," Peskov said. "Only a court can deliver a verdict."

Previous high-profile prosecutions during Putin`s rule have been a cover for settling commercial or political scores, according to people involved in those cases. The Kremlin and law enforcement agencies deny that, saying they only target criminals.

Rosneft`s acquisition of Bashneft last month was the focus of a major turf war between rival Kremlin camps, sources close to the deal and in the government have told Reuters.

Sechin lobbied hard for the green light to buy Bashneft, but the deal was fiercely opposed by economic liberals in the government, some with ties to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who believed Bashneft should go to private investors.

Ulyukayev initially opposed Rosneft buying Bashneft, one of the most lucrative state assets to be privatised in years, but eventually signed off on the deal.

A 19.5 percent state-owned stake in Rosneft is up for privatisation next. Rosneft is poised to buy the stake itself to sell on to investors later.

Sources told Reuters last week that Rosneft`s parent holding company may help Rosneft with funds for the deal. One state company helping another conduct a privatisation is likely to be controversial among some members of the government.

Christopher Granville, managing director at TS Lombard Research, said Ulyukayev`s detention might be linked to that.

"It must be because of what is happening next," Granville told Reuters. "To prevent any obstructions to what influential people want to happen next. Im talking of course of the next phase of the privatisation of Rosneft."

Alexander Shokhin, head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and briefly economy minister himself in the 1990s, said he was sceptical about the accusations against Ulyukayev.

There had been a widespread consensus that the Bashneft stake had been sold to Rosneft for a market price, so it was strange that a bribe would be given for a valuation that everyone agreed on anyway, he said.

In a country where bribes have sometimes totalled many tens of millions of dollars, there was also surprise in some quarters at the relatively small size of the alleged payment.

Medvedev and Putin spoke about the detention, Medvedev`s office said, adding: "The prime minister believes that the most painstaking investigation of this case is required."

A Rosneft spokesman, Mikhail Leontyev, was quoted as saying by the TASS news agency that the company saw no risk to the Bashneft deal. "The deal is absolutely above board," he said.

The minister has been in his job since June 2013. He is not part of Putin`s inner circle, which is dominated by people who favour a commanding role for the state in the economy, but neither is he a part of the rival camp of economic liberals.

Ulyukayev is close to Andrei Kostin, the influential head of Russia`s second-biggest lender, state-owned VTB , and chairs VTB`s supervisory board.
Moscow: The Kremlin says President Vladimir Putin has warned German Chancellor Angela Merkel that Ukraine could siphon off gas intended for European consumers in the coming winter.

Putin warned Merkel in today's call that the risk of Ukraine's "unsanctioned draw-off" of the Russian gas supplied to European consumers via a transit pipeline could increase during what is forecast to be a cold winter.

The Kremlin said the EU and Russia will continue discussions.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Past gas disputes between Russia and Ukraine have led to cutoffs.

One standoff in 2009 caused serious disruptions in winter supplies to EU countries.

Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and its support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine brought relations between the two ex-Soviet neighbors to the verge of full rupture.
LIVE-2 Inning |02-6

ZIMBABWE VS NETHERLANDS

ZIM 117 VS 25/1 NED

Netherlands need 93 runs in 90 balls at 6.2 rpo
By PTI: New Delhi, Nov 15 (PTI) Delhi Polices Crime Branch that has been tasked with investigating the case of missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed will be retracing the whole sequence of the incident.

The case was last week transferred from South District to Crime Branch in order to have a "fresh look" at the case. The team, which is investigating the matter, has started from scratch and is re-looking at all the clues and evidence.

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"We are examining each and every fact thoroughly again with a fresh mind and look. We will be retracing the whole sequence right from the beginning and scanning every clue that might have been missed out, and to have a fresh perspective," Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav said.

"If there is a lead, we will send teams wherever required," he said.

The officer said they will leave no stone unturned to trace Najeeb, who went missing on October 15 following an on-campus scuffle allegedly with the members of ABVP the night before.

"We are going through the whole range of people who might provide clues. We are working very hard. We will go in great depth to find out what happened," Yadav claimed.

However, Najeebs younger brother Mujeeb claimed that the Crime Branch team hasnt contacted them till now.

"We know that the case has been transferred to the Crime Branch. We havent been contacted by them as of now and we dont know who is the officer investigating the case," he said.

Last month, an SIT was formed to trace the missing student following the instruction of the Union Home Minister to Delhi Police Commissioner Alok Kumar Verma.

The SIT, headed by Additional DCP-II(South) Manishi Chandra, failed to gain any actionable clues in the matter.

The team was reconstructing Najeebs personality after a doctor at VIMHANS, told police that the student was suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder and depression.

Following this, the psychiatric angle had gained prominence in the probe. The team was also mulling seeking help from psychiatrists from AIIMS or RML to chalk out a plan for investigation in the case.

However, the Crime Branch team is investigating all probable angles, without focusing on any one perspective, sources said.

While the case was being investigated by the SIT, teams were sent to Darbhanga in Bihar and Nepal after they got leads hinting Najeeb being there, but they could not find him. PTI SLB DIP

--- ENDS ---
The Finance Ministry announced that an upper limit of Rs 50,000 has been set for cash deposits to Jan-Dhan accounts as these are being used to deposit unaccounted cash. The source of deposits of above Rs 50,000 into these accounts will be verified.

By Indo-Asian News Service: With reports of Jan-Dhan accounts being used by other people to deposit their unaccounted cash, the Finance Ministry today set an upper limit of Rs 50,000 for deposits into these accounts.

"Some people are using Jan-Dhan accounts to deposit black money. Up to Rs 50,000 can be deposited in Jan-Dhan accounts," Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said.

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The decision was taken after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a second review meeting on Monday night on demonetisation with officials of the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Das said the legitimate Jan-Dhan account holders would not be put to any kind of difficulty. However, the source of deposits of above Rs 50,000 into these accounts will be verified, he added.

ALSO READ | Leading by example: PM's mother Heeraben Modi visits Gandhinagar bank to exchange old notes

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CLOSE WATCH ON DEPOSITS IN JAN-DHAN ACCOUNTS

"A close watch is being kept on them (deposits in Jan-Dhan accounts)," he said.

Das said, "Jan-Dhan account holders should not allow other people to use their accounts to convert their black money into white. Banks have been advised to keep a close watch on cash movement."

For other accounts, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had earlier said that the administration will not bother to make inquiry into small deposits of Rs 1.5-2 lakh.

At the review meet, it was also decided that bank counters will use indelible ink from today on wards in major cities to prevent people from making more than the permissible number of times cash withdrawal.

ALSO READ | Indelible ink to stop people from hoarding cash, creating panic

ALSO READ | #CashChaos LIVE: Going to bank? Get ready to be inked

At the moment, the daily withdrawal limit from ATMs is Rs 2,500, and exchange of old notes from bank counters is Rs 4,500. This apart, the upper limit for weekly withdrawal from bank accounts stands at Rs 24,000.

Also Read:Demonetisation: Mamata Banerjee likely to lead anti-Modi brigade in Delhi

Demonetisation: PM appeals people to tolerate inconvenience for 50 days, says his fight is for honesty

Demonetisation: ATMs remain shut today, malls worst hit over weekend

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Modi: The rich need pills to go to sleep after demonetisation move

Local vendors using e-wallet, mobile payment options in wake of cash crunch

SBI brings cheer during cash chaos: ATMs to dispense Rs 50, 20 notes soon



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The Paris pact sets out the objective of limiting average global warming to two degrees Celsius over pre-Industrial Revolution levels

Donald Trump loomed large over climate talks on Tuesday where UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged nations to redouble their planet-rescue efforts and voiced hope the US would not pull out of its commitments.

Elected to the White House a week ago, Trump had previously called global warming a "hoax" perpetrated by China, and threatened to "cancel" the hard-fought Paris Agreement concluded a year ago.

But Ban said he had spoken to the businessman turned president-elect, and was "optimistic" Trump "will hear and understand the seriousness and urgency of addressing climate change".

"As the president of the US I am sure he will understand this, he will listen, he will vary his campaign remarks," the outgoing UN secretary general told journalists.

"I am sure he will make a good, wise decision."

Gathered in Marrakesh since last Monday, representatives from the UN climate body's 197 parties have started thrashing out a roadmap for putting the agreement into action.

But climate change denier Trump's ascension to the US presidency has been uppermost on the minds of delegates and negotiators.

Many fear that withdrawal by the United States, a champion of the deal under President Barack Obama, would shatter the political goodwill built up over years of negotiations, and put the very goals of the deal at risk.

Ban joined some 80 heads of state and government for the "high-level segment" of the annual UN climate meeting -- the first since last year's adoption of the Paris Agreement to stave off calamitous global warming.

Among the leaders was Sudan's Omar al-Bashir, for whom the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur.

Ban, who welcomed heads of state on the red carpet, was not there to receive Bashir.

- Gambling with the future -

But the real shadow on the gathering was Trump.

President Francois Hollande of France, which hosted last year's UN climate conference, stressed that the United States "must respect the commitments it has undertaken".

Story continues

"It is not only their duty, it is in their interest as well as (the interest of) all people," he told conference delegates.

The Paris pact sets out the objective of limiting average global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels by cutting planet-heating greenhouse gases from burning coal, oil, and gas.

Ban underlined that no country, "however resourceful or powerful" was immune from the impacts of climate change -- rising seas, worsening storms and droughts, spreading diseases and conflict over ever-scarcer resources.

"My sense is that as a very successful business person in the past... I believe that he (Trump) understands that there are market forces already at work on this issue."

Ban was attending the 22nd Conference of Parties (COP22 for short) of the UN's climate convention -- his last before his term ends in December.

While waiting for Trump to make his position clear, many are looking to the rest of the world to strongly restate their commitment to the Paris Agreement, with or without the US.

To date, 110 parties have officially ratified the pact, which entered into force on November 4 after crossing the threshold of at least 55 ratifications by countries representing at least 55 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.

They included the US, which represents about 14 percent of emissions. But Trump can withdraw Washington from the deal.

On Tuesday, Ban called for the elimination of fossil fuel subsidies, estimated to exceed $500 billion (465 billion euros) a year, to ease the transition to clean energy.

To bolster the Paris agreement, nations have made non-binding pledges to curb fossil fuel use, but these, collectively, "will not get us out of the danger zone", said Ban.

Last year was the warmest on record, and 2016 seems on course to be hotter still.

"Today more than 150 million people live on land that could be submerged or suffer chronic flooding within this century, possibly causing massive waves of migration and instability," said Ban.

"We have no right to gamble with the fate of future generations or imperil the survival of other species that share our planet."
Seven out of 10 directors at the board meeting of Tata Global Beverages, the maker of Tata Tea and Coffee, voted for removal of Mistry as chairman of the company, TGBL said in a regulatory filing.

Cyrus Mistry was abruptly sacked as the chairman of Tata group's holding company and replaced by Ishaat Hussain.

By Press Trust of India: In a major escalation of boardroom brawl at the Tata Group, Cyrus Mistry was today voted out as chairman by the board of the Tata Global Beverages, the second listed firm of USD 103-billion Group to remove him.

Seven out of 10 directors at the board meeting of Tata Global Beverages, the maker of Tata Tea and Coffee, voted for removal of Mistry as chairman of the company, TGBL said in a regulatory filing.

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Last week, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) said Mistry, who was abruptly sacked as the chairman of Tata group's holding company, has been removed and replaced by Ishaat Hussain in the interim.

Tata Global Beverages Ltd (TGBL) said Harish Bhat, a non-executive director of the company, has been appointed chairman of the company.

Bhat is believed to be a confidant of Ratan Tata, who was brought back from retirement as interim chairman of Tata Sons after Mistry was shown the door.

ALSO READ: Tata Sons has stooped to new low in their public statements, says Cyrus Mistry

Since taking over, the 78-year-old Tata has begun tightening his grip over the conglomerate.

Even after his removal as chairman of Tata Sons, Mistry continues to head several listed companies ranging from Tata Motors to Tata Steel and Tata Power.

Tata Sons has asked Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Chemicals and Indian Hotels Co Ltd (IHCL) to call extraordinary general meeting of shareholders to remove Mistry from the board.

"The board of directors of the company considered the continuance of Cyrus P Mistry as chairman of the company at its board meeting held on November 15, 2016," TGBL said in the regulatory filing.

"After extensive deliberations, and keeping in view the long-term interest and alignment of all stakeholders and stability of the company, the board of directors resolved to replace Cyrus P Mistry as chairman of the Company, by a majority vote, with 7 out of the 10 Directors present at the board meeting, voting in favour of the resolution."

ALSO READ: Tata Sons asks Tata Motors to call shareholder meeting to remove Cyrus Mistry, Nusli Wadia

The TGBL board has 10 members, excluding ousted chairman Mistry. It includes six independent directors -- Darius Pandole, V Leeladhar, Mallika Srinivasan, Analjit Singh, Ranjana Kumar and Ireena Vittal.

The other four are Harish Bhat, who has been today appointed chairman of the company, Managing Director and CEO Ajoy K Misra, Non-executive Director S Santhanakrishnan and Executive Director L Krishnakumar.

Among independent directors, Pandole is a partner at private equity (PE) fund New Silk Route (NSR) while Leeladhar is former CMD of Vijaya Bank and Union Bank of India.

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Mallika Srinivasan is the Chairman and CEO of Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited. Analjit Singh is Chairman of Max India and Ranjana Kumar is former vigilance commissioner of the Central Vigilance Commission.

Ireena Vittal is former partner with McKinsey & Co.

On November 5, seven independent directors of Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) had strongly backed Mistry. Tata Chemicals independent directors had also come out in support of Mistry.

Last week, taking Mistry head on, Tata Sons sought his removal as well as that of the group's friend-turned-foe Nusli N Wadia from the board of three prime listed Tata group companies -- Tata Motors, Tata Chemicals and Tata Steel.

Tata Sons, which holds 26.51 per cent stake in Tata Motors, has asked the manufacturer of Jaguar Land Rover to convene an extra-ordinary general meeting of the company to consider its resolution seeking removal of Mistry and Wadia.

The latest moves are seen as attempts by Ratan Tata, who was brought in as interim head after sudden removal of Mistry, to seize back control of India's largest conglomerate.

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ALSO READ: Independent directors of Tata Chemicals stand by Cyrus Mistry

--- ENDS ---
French "rogue trader" Jerome Kerviel waits before the start of his appeal trial at Versailles courthouse, outside Paris, on September 23, 2016

French tax authorities are seeking to recover 2.2 billion euros of tax breaks given to Societe Generale following massive losses due to "rogue trader" Jerome Kerviel's recklessness, Les Echos newspaper said on Monday.

In September an appeals court in Versailles, west of Paris, decided that the French banking giant was mostly to blame for ex-trader Kerviel losing 4.9 billion euros ($5.3 billion) due to "woefully inadequate" internal checks.

The company had been awarded tax breaks by the French state but the government said in September it would review that in light of the ruling which held the bank overwhelmingly responsible.

Societe Generale had been awarded the tax breaks in 2009 and 2010 as part of a scheme aimed at protecting businesses facing huge losses or being victims of fraud.

Les Echos said the taxman had "launched a procedure to recover all or part of the tax break from which Societe Generale benefited".

Both the tax authorities and Societe Generale declined to comment on the report.

In September, the Versailles appeals court reduced a previous order for Kerviel to repay the 4.9 billion euro loss to Societe Generale to just one million euros.
Google and Facebook moved Tuesday to cut off advertising revenue to fake news sites, after a wave of criticism over the role misinformation played in the US presidential election.

The move by the two tech giants aims to choke off funds to an industry fueled by bogus, often sensational "news" circulating online and seen as a potential influence on public opinion.

A Google statement to AFP said new policies "will start prohibiting Google ads from being placed on misrepresentative content, just as we disallow misrepresentation in our ads policies."

The shift will mean Google restricts ads "on pages that misrepresent, misstate, or conceal information about the publisher, the publisher's content, or the primary purpose of the web property," the statement said.

Google chief executive Sundar Pichai said the company receives billions of queries daily and admitted errors had been made.

"There have been a couple of incidences where it has been pointed out and we didn't get it right.

"And so it is a learning moment for us and we will definitely work to fix it," he said in a BBC interview.

Pichai said there should be "no situation where fake news gets distributed" and committed to making improvements.

"I don't think we should debate it as much as work hard to make sure we drive news to its more trusted sources, have more fact checking and make our algorithms work better, absolutely," he said.

On Monday, internet users searching on Google were delivered a bogus report saying Republican Donald Trump had won the popular vote in addition to the electoral college.

The numbers on a blog called 70News -- contradicting official results tallied so far by states -- said Trump received 62.9 million votes to 62.2 million for Hillary Clinton.

The blog urged those petitioning for the electoral college to switch their votes to reflect popular will to scrap their effort.

- Explicit ban -

Facebook is implementing a similar policy, a spokesman said.

"In accordance with the Audience Network Policy, we do not integrate or display ads in apps or sites containing content that is illegal, misleading or deceptive, which includes fake news," a Facebook statement said.

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"While implied, we have updated the policy to explicitly clarify that this applies to fake news."

One report said Facebook had developed a tool to weed out fake news but did not deploy it before the US election, fearing a backlash from conservatives after a controversy over its handling of "trending topics." Facebook denied the report.

Some critics have gone so far as to blame Facebook for enabling Trump's victory, saying it did not do enough to curb bogus news that appeared to help rally his supporters.

Stories that went viral in the run-up to the vote included such headlines as "Hillary Clinton Calling for Civil War If Trump Is Elected" and "Pope Francis Shocks World, Endorses Donald Trump for President."

The prevalence of fake news has prompted calls for Facebook to consider itself a "media" company rather than a neutral platform, a move which would require it to make editorial judgments on articles.

Facebook executives have repeatedly rejected this idea, but since the election have pledged to work harder to filter out hoaxes and misinformation.

In a weekend post, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg dismissed the notion that fake news helped sway the election, and said that "more than 99 percent of what people see is authentic."

Still, he said that "we don't want any hoaxes on Facebook" and pledged to do more to curb fake news without censoring content.

"Identifying the 'truth' is complicated," he said.

"While some hoaxes can be completely debunked, a greater amount of content, including from mainstream sources, often gets the basic idea right but some details wrong or omitted."

Ken Paulson, a former USA Today editor who is dean at the media school of Middle Tennessee State University, said Facebook and other platforms should not be required to filter out news but that it would be good for business.

"My hunch is that most of Facebook's loyal customers would welcome a cleaning up of the town square," he said.
Russian Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev was the highest ranking official to be detained over suspected corruption since President Vladimir Putin took power in 2000 and vowed to clamp down on endemic graft

A Moscow court on Tuesday ordered Russian Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev to be put under house arrest on suspicion he took a two-million-dollar bribe in a deal involving state-controlled oil giant Rosneft.

Judge Artur Karpov told Moscow's Basmanny Court that the 60-year-old minister would be confined to his residence in the southwest of the capital for the next two months.
Russian Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev was the highest ranking official to be detained over suspected corruption since President Vladimir Putin took power in 2000 and vowed to clamp down on endemic graft

Russia on Tuesday put Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev under house arrest for two months over suspicions he pocketed a two-million-dollar payoff during a deal involving state-controlled oil giant Rosneft.

Ulyukayev was the highest ranking official detained over suspected corruption since President Vladimir Putin took power in 2000 and his arrest sparked speculation over whether the probe is linked to an internal power struggle.

Judge Artur Karpov told Moscow's Basmanny district court that the 60-year-old minister would be confined to his residence in the southwest of the Russian capital until January 15 during the ongoing investigation.

Russia's Investigative Committee said Ulyukayev had "illegally demanded" payment to approve acquisition by Rosneft of a majority stake in Russian oil company Bashneft from the state, a $5.2-billion deal completed last month.

Investigators accused Ulyukayev of "threatening (and) using his ministerial powers to create obstacles to the company's activities in the future".

The committee said earlier Tuesday that the FSB security service, the KGB's successor, detained Ulyukayev after a sting operation Monday as he was receiving the alleged bribe.

Investigators did not say who handed the alleged bribe to Ulyukayev.

Former MP Gennady Gudkov, a staunch Kremlin critic who once served in the KGB, said the move was the result of a high-level internal power struggle.

"What we are seeing today is not a fight against corruption," Gudkov wrote in an op-ed published on the website of Ekho Moskvy radio station.

"It is a fierce internal fight for influence, financial flows and positions."

- House arrest -

Police ushered Ulyukayev, without handcuffs and wearing a suit and tie, into the courtroom on Tuesday afternoon, according to an AFP correspondent at the scene.

He refused to answer reporters' questions. He told the court that he was ready to cooperate with investigators but had yet to testify, Russian news agencies reported.

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"I am determined to cooperate with the investigation as much as possible since my reputation and good name can only be restored by finding out the truth in this case," he was quoted as saying.

At least two people have given testimony to investigators incriminating Ulyukayev, local media reported.

The large-scale bribe-taking charge could see him face a jail term of between eight and 15 years.

The eventual sale of the 50.07-percent stake in Russia's sixth-largest oil producer came after months of wrangling that has seen Rosneft -- headed by Igor Sechin, a powerful Putin ally -- face down opposition from some in the government.

Ulyukayev originally opposed the sale but later endorsed it after Putin said it could help fill state coffers.

Investigators have said that the acquisition itself of the Bashneft shares was not subject to a criminal investigation.

- 'Very serious accusation' -

Ulyukayev has headed the ministry of economic development since 2013. He was tasked with pulling Russia out of the protracted economic crisis, sparked in late 2014 by falling oil prices and Western sanctions over Moscow's actions in Ukraine.

RIA Novosti agency cited a law enforcement source as saying that Ulyukayev was detained as part of a "sting operation" after investigators received "serious evidence" from "tapping his conversations and the conversations of his associates".

A Rosneft spokesman declined comment but said that it acquired the Bashneft stake "in accordance with Russian law on the basis of the best commercial offer made to the operating bank".

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had been informed of the start of the operation that led to Ulyukayev's detention.

"This is a very serious accusation that requires very serious proof. In any case only a court can decide," Peskov told Interfax news agency.

He later told reporters that Russia's fight against corruption was "systematic and not selective".

- Elites in 'shock' -

Ulyukayev's overnight detention has sent shockwaves through the Russian elite, which had appeared immune to criminal prosecution.

Putin's critics insist the Russian leader oversees widespread corruption as his close allies have amassed vast fortunes during his time in power.

In another recent high-profile corruption case, the acting head of an anti-graft agency at the interior ministry was arrested in September for taking bribes after police found more than $120 million in cash during a raid of his Moscow flat.

Ulyukayev's detention is "a shock for the whole establishment," sociologist Olga Kryshtanovskaya, who studies Russian elites, told AFP.

"A person of that level has never been arrested here on suspicion of a criminal offence," she said.
SEC Chair Mary Jo White, pictured in June 2016, becomes the first major political appointee to head for the exit when President Barack Obama leaves office

The chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Mary Jo White, will step down in January, three years before the end of her term, the SEC announced Monday.

White becomes the first major political appointee to head for the exit when President Barack Obama leaves office, following Donald Trump's upset victory last week in the race for the White House.

Trump has signaled a coming shift in the enforcement of securities and financial regulations.

The SEC statement did not address the reasons for White's early departure. She said that during her reign the agency succeeded in protecting investors as well improving oversight in areas such as asset management and corporate disclosures.

"I am very proud of our three consecutive years of record enforcement actions, dozens of fundamental reforms through our rulemakings that have strengthened investor protections and market stability," White said.

A former federal prosecutor, White took over leadership of the SEC in April 2013 after a lengthy career as a powerful white-collar criminal defense attorney, having represented major corporations that went on to face SEC scrutiny under her leadership of the agency.

She took charge of the regulator as the dust was still settling from the 2008 global financial crisis and with ire among lawmakers at perceived government leniency toward large financial institutions near its zenith.

White's connections, including the fact her husband is a corporate attorney, required her to recuse herself from multiple matters that came before the SEC, according to media reports. They also attracted the suspicions of reform-minded critics, who saw White as too close to the industry she was meant to hold to account.

Firebrand Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has campaigned for greater accountability on Wall Street, last month called for White's resignation and accused her of undermining the Obama administration's priorities for corporate accountability.

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In a statement late Monday, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew praised White as a champion of fair and secure markets.

"Under Mary Jo's stewardship, the SEC has reduced risks to our financial stability and recognized that it must adapt to new trends in markets to provide effective oversight," said Lew.

However Public Citizen, a consumer rights advocacy group, said White had failed the public by styming regulation, reducing corporate transparency and "slow-walking" the rulemaking process under the landmark 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation.

"Mary Jo White was a disappointing chair," the group said in a statement.
European Union Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici said that income inequality and flagging economic growth, terrorist attacks and war in the Middle East had undermined the value of Europe in many voters' eyes

Donald Trump's capture of the White House should serve as warning to policymakers responding to similar populism in Europe, European Economic and Financial Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said Monday.

"We need to turn this painful awakening into a political wake-up call," Moscovici said in an address at Harvard University, adding that discontented voters on both sides of the Atlantic now distrusted the state institutions built to serve them.

Moscovici said that income inequality and flagging economic growth, terrorist attacks and war in the Middle East had undermined the value of Europe in many voters' eyes, while the gulf separating them from political elites had widened.

"We have a huge lesson to learn from last week's election here in the US. The fact is that a growing part of our populations can no longer relate to the existing systems," he said.

"These people consider themselves the losers of globalization. We should not misunderstand the meaning of their vote. Even if driven by anger, it is completely rational."

Moscovici called for a "more political Europe" which could counter what he called populist narratives.

"Europe needs to be able to prove to all parts of its population, who are feeling the effects of globalization in very different ways depending on where they live and what their skills are, that it is still able to offer them protection," he said.
By PTI: Chandigarh, Nov 15 (PTI) Punjab Congress Legislature Party chief Charanjit Singh Channi today said the decision of the Parkash Singh Badal government to de-notify the land acquired for the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal project was only "half-measure". "It (de-notification of SYL canal project land) is half- measure...the real issue is restoring ownership rights over Sutlej, Beas and Ravi waters back to the state," he said here. He said the de-notification was nothing but continuation of the same method resorted to earlier that was stayed by the Supreme Court.

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Earlier today, the Punjab Cabinet decided to denotify the land acquired for the SYL canal project with immediate effect and return it to its owners free of charge.

"The Badal government has only tried to buy time till election through this half-measure that would again invite legal intervention with Punjab gaining nothing. The state government had earlier too adopted the legislation to return land to the farmers," he said. Channi slammed the Badal Government for not having any agenda for the Special Assembly Session convened tomorrow. "None of the members (MLAs) have been given any genda,... Everybody has been kept in complete dark about the session," he said.

A special session of the Punjab Assembly has been convened in the wake of the Supreme Court declaring as "unconstitutional" the 2004 law enacted by the state government to terminate the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal water sharing agreement with neighbouring states. If the SAD and BJP were true to the people of Punjab on SYL they should fall in line with the Congress legislatures and resign rather than calling and attending the Special Session, he said. The CLP chief alleged that the Centre would not allow any relief to Punjab even through judiciary as the two other states- Haryana and Rajasthan- are BJP ruled. "At one level, the present verdict is political", he alleged.

Channi challenged chief minister Parkash Singh Badal to end Akali Dals alliance with the BJP in case the CM was really sincere in protecting the interests of Punjab. "Badal does not want to confront the BJP government for vested family interests," he alleged. PTI VJ RCJ

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 When I was studying in Istanbul, I traveled around Turkey a lot  I wanted to get to know the country as much as I could. Many times, I was surprised at how the locals are spending their free time  they play games together, spend time in the nature with their family, friends, or alone. Whats important, they do it sober.

The political situation in Turkey is rather complicated. During my four months in Istanbul, there were several protests against the government, and almost every time they were brutally dispersed. Despite this fact, the Turkish people remain warm and family-centered. They know how to relax and be happy about life just like children.
By Devika Krishna Kumar

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices jumped 6 percent on Tuesday, with U.S. crude notching its biggest daily percentage gain in seven months, on renewed expectations that OPEC will agree later this month to reduce a global supply glut.

OPEC secretary-general Mohammed Barkindo will travel to member nations, including Iran and Venezuela, over the next several days to discuss the deal ahead of the group's meeting in Vienna on Nov. 30.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to an outline of the deal in September but with two weeks to go before the next meeting, disagreements persist among OPEC members and non-OPEC Russia on the exact details of the deal.

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih is expected to travel to the Qatari capital, Doha, this week for meetings with oil-producing countries, including Russia, on the sidelines of an energy forum, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Traders and analysts also said last ditch efforts by OPEC to reconcile triggered a wave of short covering that helped to boost prices.

"There were a lot of new speculative shorts in the market because of the growing scepticism that they would be able to clinch a deal," said Andrew Lebow, senior partner at Commodity Research Group in Darien, Connecticut, adding that those shorts got squeezed as a deal seemed more likely.

"You add to that some increased optimism over an OPEC deal and you get a $2 a move."

U.S. crude (CLc1) ended the session $2.49 higher at $45.81 per barrel, a 5.8 percent gain, its biggest daily percentage increase since early April.

Brent (LCOc1) futures settled at $46.95 a barrel, up $2.52, or 5.7 percent, its biggest percentage gain since Sept. 28.

Both benchmarks also rebounded from three-month lows on Monday.

Prices pared some gains in post-settlement trade after data from industry group American Petroleum Institute (API) showed U.S. crude inventories rose 3.6 million barrels in the week to Nov. 11, versus analysts expectations of a 1.5 million-barrel build.

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The U.S. Department of Energy report is due at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT) on Wednesday.

News of an attack on a major oil pipeline in Nigeria, the Nembe Creek Trunk Line in the southern Niger Delta, gave an additional push to prices.

Oil markets have not yet fully determined the effects of a Donald Trump victory in the U.S. presidential elections, analysts have said.

The Financial Times reported that Saudi Arabia warned Trump that the incoming president will risk the health of his country's economy if he acts on his election promises to block oil imports.

From a technical point of view, there was some buying in U.S. crude above the 200-day moving average, said Tony Headrick, an energy market analyst at CHS Hedging LLC.

"The extent of today's move is, I think, based in part on technicals."

(Additional reporting by Christopher Johnson in London and Mark Tay in Singapore; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Adrian Croft)
By Barbara Lewis LONDON (Reuters) - Rio Tinto called a board meeting on Monday to discuss payments of $10.5 million made to a consultant on its project to develop the world's largest untapped iron ore reserves in Guinea, industry sources said. Rio said last week it had alerted Australian, UK and U.S. authorities after becoming aware on Aug. 29 of emails from 2011 that referred to payments to a consultant providing advisory services on its Simandou project in Guinea. Spokesmen for the mining company said on Monday they could not comment beyond last week's statement because a legal investigation was underway. In an internal email sent at the weekend, Rio Tinto CEO Jean-Sebastien Jacques said he was aware many people in the company were "shell-shocked" by the news. He said he had launched an investigation the day he found out there was an issue and that now it was in the hands of external authorities it could take "several years". "We are committed to making sure we are not in the same situation again. As you know, over the last five years we have done a lot to strengthen our systems and controls," he said in the email, seen by Reuters. Jacques took over as CEO at the start of July from Sam Walsh, who has a track record in iron ore. Jacques has earned kudos for his Oyu Tolgoi project in Mongolia which will be the world's biggest copper mine when completed. The Simandou project has huge potential, but Jacques has voiced frustration over the difficulty of funding the massive infrastructure required to develop the mine. At the end of October, Rio announced it was selling its Simandou stake to its partner Chinalco, which has declined comment on the investigation. Rio's share rose on the news it had found a way out of Simandou and the rally has continued despite the uncertainty of a lengthy legal investigation. So far this year, Rio shares have gained nearly 60 percent. The company announced the payments and suspended one senior executive on Nov. 9, the day of the U.S. presidential election won by Republican candidate Donald Trump. Any negative impact on Rio's shares from the investigation was wiped out by a strong rally in mining stocks, driven by Trump's promises of major infrastructure projects which are likely to boost demand for raw materials. Anti-corruption campaigners asked why the payments had not been questioned earlier. "The issue is that the rules are tight and should have been picked up at the time," Peter Van Veen, business integrity director at Transparency International, said. Frances Hudson, a director at Standard Life, which holds Rio shares, said the investigation could drag and it was not yet clear whether there would be any financial fallout. "The risk of punitive action remains but price movements in the meantime will be determined by other factors," she said. (Additional reporting by Simon Jessop and Kirstin Ridley; editing by David Clarke)
By Nina Chestney and Alister Doyle MARRAKESH, Morocco (Reuters) - France and the United Nations on Tuesday stepped up warnings to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump about the risks of quitting a 2015 global plan to combat climate change, saying a historic shift from fossil fuels is unstoppable. French President Francois Hollande, addressing almost 200 nations meeting in Morocco on ways to slow global warming, said that inaction would be "disastrous for future generations and it would be dangerous for peace". Both he and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Trump, who has called man-made global warming a hoax, to drop a campaign pledge to cancel the global 2015 Paris Agreement that aims to shift from fossil fuels to cleaner energies. "The United States, the largest economic power in the world, the second largest greenhouse gas emitter, must respect the commitments it has undertaken," Hollande said to applause. The agreement was "irreversible", he said. In such U.N. meetings, it is very rare for leaders to single out others for even veiled criticism. Both Hollande and Ban were among the architects of the Paris Agreement. "What was once unthinkable has become unstoppable," Ban said at a news conference of the Paris deal, agreed by almost 200 governments last year after two decades of tortuous negotiations. The accord formally entered into force on Nov. 4 after a record swift ratification. Ban said Trump, as a "very successful business person", would understand that market forces were driving the world economy towards cleaner energies such as wind and solar power, which are becoming cheaper, and away from fossil fuels. "I am sure he will make a fast and wise decision" on the Paris Agreement, Ban said, saying he had spoken to Trump by telephone after his victory and planned to meet him. Ban, who has made climate change a core part of his 10-year U.N. stewardship ending this year, said climate change was having severe impacts from the Arctic to Antarctica and that 2016 is on track to be the warmest year on record. Trump has said he wants to boost the U.S. coal, oil and shale industries, abandoning President Barack Obama's plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. KERRY TO SPEAK The Paris accord, aiming to phase out net greenhouse gas emissions this century, was driven by increased scientific certainty that man-made emissions drive heat waves, floods and rising sea levels. Ban said that companies including General Mills and Kellogg , states such as California and cities such as Nashville and Las Vegas were working to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. Trump's victory has overshadowed the Nov. 7-18 Marrakesh meeting, which had opened with congratulations after the entry into force of the agreement on Nov. 4. It now has formal backing from 110 nations including the United States. Dozens of nations, from Chile to Liberia, reaffirmed support for the Paris Agreement at the talks, with many saying they were already suffering from rising temperatures. Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said that OPEC's biggest producer was "committed to meeting the worlds energy needs via the gradual transition towards a more environmentally sustainable future." "It's a matter of life and death," Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe said of tackling climate change, accusing rich nations of often ignoring the needs of the poor. "Let's not squander the Paris Agreement through old bad habits," he said. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will be among those addressing the conference on Wednesday. Trump's victory has lifted shares in coal producers, while knocking renewable energies. Shares in coal producer Peabody, in bankruptcy proceedings,[BTUUQ.PK] have surged 63 percent since the election, and shares in Arch Coal in the United States were up 19 percent. By contrast, the S&P Global Clean Energy Index has fallen to around its lowest level since June. Shares in Denmark's Vestas, the world's biggest wind turbine maker, are down 6 percent from the U.S. election day on Nov. 8. Benjamin Sporton, chief executive of the World Coal Association, told Reuters that although Trump would "make life a little bit better for coal in the United States" it would not solve many underlying problems. "The fundamental pressure is from the low prices of shale gas and that means that there will be a lot of challenges to the expansion of coal," he said. A source on Trump's transition team said the president-elect is seeking ways of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement within a year, by-passing a theoretical four-year wait. Delegates in Marrakesh say that U.S. withdrawal could dent other nations' willingness to work with Trump on other issues he cares about, such as immigration, trade or terrorism. (Reporting By Aziz El Yaakoubi, Nina Chestney and Megan Rowling; Writing by Alister Doyle; Editing by Richard Balmforth and Robin Pomeroy)
Research

Report: IT Professionals Worldwide Say Its Still Early for AR Adoption

Despite growing consumer awareness and popularity of augmented reality, IT professionals across industries worldwide are still unconvinced that its benefits outweigh the risks, according to a new study from ISACA. The global business technology and cybersecurity association recently published a report of findings from its annual IT Risk/Reward Barometer survey, which asked nearly 6,600 business and technology professionals across 140 countries about the risks and rewards of AR, and how organizations and individuals are beginning to use it, according to the ISACA website.

Only 21 percent of the respondents believe the benefits of AR outweigh the risks. In the United States, IT professionals said that security concerns (18 percent) and insufficient ROI (18 percent) are the biggest barriers to AR adoption, followed by insufficient budgets (13 percent). Across all countries, about eight in 10 IT professionals think that organizations should be concerned about the privacy risks of AR, such as virtual graffiti attacks. These attacks use AR-enhanced Internet of Things devices to virtually deface buildings, landmarks, signage or other workplace surfaces with negative, unauthorized imagery, and then share with others, according to the report. The survey found that few organizations (less than 7 percent in the U.S.) have programs in place that monitor comments from virtual graffiti apps.

In addition, the report offers the consumer perspective from five countries  the United States, United Kingdom, India, Singapore and China. Overall, consumers are more optimistic about AR than IT professionals. Most Americans, for example, see the value in the range of potential applications of AR that was presented, according to the report. The report cites a recent analysis from a financial firm that estimates AR and VR (virtual reality) hardware and software markets will grow to $80 billion by 2025 in the U.S.  with education to grow to $700 million.

The study also examines the progress of consumer adoption of Internet of Things technologies, revealing that a majority of consumers own at least one IoT device. Approximately 71 percent of U.S. respondents own at least one IoT device, which is lower than India (85 percent), Singapore (81 percent), Australia (77 percent) and the United Kingdom (73 percent). Smart TVs are the most commonly owned device for all five countries (45 percent of U.S. respondents own one). U.S. consumers also own wireless fitness trackers (26 percent of respondents) and Internet-connected cameras (22 percent).

For more information, view the full report on the ISACA site.
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MONDAY, Nov. 14, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- There may be yet another reason to try and get a good night's sleep: New research ties poor sleep to a higher odds for a dangerous irregular heartbeat.

The condition in question is called atrial fibrillation, a common heart arrhythmia that is strongly tied to an increased risk for clotting and strokes.

Now, two studies suggest that trouble getting your Zzzs may raise the risk for atrial fibrillation.

One cardiologist who reviewed the studies said the theory may have merit.

While neither study could prove cause-and-effect, changes in a person's physiology by a "disturbed sleep cycle may be the mechanism for development and recurrence of atrial fibrillation," said Dr. Jianqing Li. She's a cardiologist at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y.

In one study, a team led by Dr. Gregory Marcus of the University of California, San Francisco, tracked data from millions of patients to assess the link between poor sleep and atrial fibrillation.

The researchers found that disrupted sleep, including insomnia, was independently associated with the arrhythmia. They also found that people who woke frequently at night had about a 26 percent higher risk of atrial fibrillation than those who didn't wake up a lot. And, people diagnosed with insomnia had a 29 percent higher risk of developing the condition than those who slept well.

In a separate analysis, the same team of researchers found that people who have less of the sleep phase knows as the rapid-eye movement (REM) phase, compared to other sleep phases, are also at increased risk for atrial fibrillation.

The studies were to be presented Monday at the American Heart Association's annual meeting, in New Orleans.

The reasons why poor sleep may increase the risk of atrial fibrillation are unknown, Marcus said.

Still, "even without a clear understanding of the responsible mechanisms, we believe these findings suggest that strategies to enhance sleep quality, such as incorporating known techniques to improve sleep hygiene, may help prevent this important arrhythmia," Marcus said in a heart association news release.

It's known that poor sleep is connected with heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, obesity and stroke, he noted.

Dr. Paul Maccaro is an electrophysiologist at Huntington Hospital in Huntington, N.Y. He stressed that the studies couldn't prove that poor sleep caused atrial fibrillation, but the findings are intriguing.

"All of us have experienced a bad night's sleep, and suffered consequences the next day. We feel tired, sluggish and less productive," Maccaro said.

"Both of these presentations increase our understanding of the triggers of atrial fibrillation and provide new insight into potential strategies to reduce this arrhythmia," he said. "They also suggest new avenues of research that may shed light on the causality of atrial fibrillation."

In the meantime, Maccaro said, "I believe no one would argue with the advice to get a good night sleep."

Experts note that findings presented at medical meetings are typically considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The National Sleep Foundation has more about sleep and heart health.
Deepika and Katrina have hardly shared a warm equation. And the many twists and turns of late have only made them colder to each other.

By India Today Web Desk: Deepika Padukone and Katrina Kaif's supposed rivalry goes way back in time. The divas are not just arch rivals professionally, but these two leading ladies of Bollywood have an ex in common too - Ranbir Kapoor. Ranbir cheated on Deepika with Katrina years ago, and Chikni Chameli's insecurity about Ranbir-Deepika's friendship turned out to be one of the major reasons behind their break-up earlier this year.

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ALSO READ: Katrina gives Tamasha success bash a miss. Is Deepika the reason?

ALSO READ: Deepika-Katrina rivalry peaks with role opposite Shah Rukh in Aanand L Rai's next



With too many twists and turns in their relationship and the ever-changing equation, Deepika and Katrina have been famous for sharing ice-cold vibes all along. And things got even colder when the two divas yet again nailed the art of avoiding each other at a recently-held awards function.

According to a report in DNA, Deepika and Katrina shared the same roof at the Golden Rose Awards. While Deepika was among the first ones to reach the awards night, Katrina made a late-night entry and also made a quick exit.

During her brief appearance at the gathering, Katrina decided to maintain an arm's distance from Deepika. And her gesture was reciprocated in every way possible by the Tamasha actor. The report also suggests that Deepika's face went all pale as soon as she spotted Katrina at the awards night. In fact, they refused to even sit in the same row.

Interestingly, Deepika partied with Ranbir a day before the awards night. And she was in no mood to be cordial with Katrina, Ranbir's ex-girlfriend, the very next day.

Deepika and Katrina have been at loggerheads with each other for quite some time. And with each passing day, the air between the two is getting chillier. This is not the first time the two have carefully avoided running into each other. Several times in the past too, Padukone and Kaif have ensured they don't face each other even accidentally.

Katrina skips Tamasha success bash

Even when things weren't this sour between Ranbir and Katrina, the Jagga Jasoos actor was never in the mood to be at the same place as Deepika. While Bollywood's biggest stars graced the success bash of Deepika and Ranbir-starrer Tamasha last year, Katrina was nowhere to be seen. And Katrina and Ranbir were in a relationship back then. Deepika and Katrina have never been seen together in public after Ranbir started dating Katrina, and the two maintained that at the success bash as well.

Katrina and Deepika snub each other at the gym

Katrina avoided the Tamasha success bash, and is continuing with the tradition even after her break-up. According to a report in DNA, Deepika and Katrina go out of their way to avoid each other every day at their gym. Since both the actors work out at Yasmeen Karachiwala's gym, in order to avoid any awkwardness, they ensure that they don't land up at the gym at the same time.

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ALSO WATCH | Katrina talks about her break-up with Ranbir Kapoor :



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We are excited to share with you that a joint effort by Nanjing University, Alibaba Group, and Databricks set a new world record in CloudSort, a well-established third-party benchmark. We together architected the most efficient way to sort 100 TB of data, using only $144.22 USD worth of cloud resources, 3X more cost-efficient than the previous world record. Through this benchmark, Databricks, along with our partners, demonstrated that the most efficient way to process data is to use Apache Spark in the cloud.

This adds to the 2014 GraySort record we won, and validates two major technological trends we believe in:

Open source software is the future of software evolution, and Spark continues to be the most efficient engine for data processing. Cloud computing is becoming the most cost-efficient and enabling architecture to deploy big data applications.

In the remainder of the blog post, we will explain the significance of the two benchmarks (CloudSort and GraySort), our records, and how they inspired major improvements in Spark such as Project Tungsten.

GraySort Benchmark

It is easy to take for granted the incredible amount of computing power available today. As a beacon, the Sort Benchmark is a constant reminder of the journey taken and work accomplished by pioneers in computer systems of how we got here.

Started in 1985 by Turing Award winner Jim Gray, the benchmark measures the advances in computer software and hardware systems, and it is one of the most challenging benchmarks for computer systems. Participants in the past typically built specialized software and even hardware (e.g. special network topology) to maximize their chances of winning.

The original benchmark, called Datamation Sort, in 1985 required competing systems to sort 100 MB of data as fast as possible, regardless of the hardware resources used. 100 MB fits easily in the smallest USB stick you can find today, but back in 1985, it was a big challenge. The 1985 winning entry took 980 seconds. By 2001, this number was reduced to 0.44 seconds! To make the benchmark challenging, Datamation Sort was deprecated and a new TeraSort benchmark was created in 1998, changing the data size to 1TB.

In 2009, the 100 TB GraySort benchmark was created in honor of Jim Gray. Yahoo won the 2013 record using a 2100-node Hadoop cluster, sorting 100 TB of data in 72 minutes.

In 2014, our team at Databricks entered the competition using a distributed program built on top of Spark. Our system sorted 100 TB of data in 23 minutes, using only 207 machines on EC2. That is to say, Spark sorted the same data 3X faster using 10X fewer resources than the 2013 Hadoop entry. In addition to winning the benchmark, we also sorted 1 PB of data in 4 hours using a similar setup and achieved near linear scalability.

This 2014 win set a milestone: it was the first time a combination of open source software and cloud computing won the benchmark. In the past, only well-funded organizations could compete in the sort benchmark, because participants would need to acquire a sizable, costly cluster. But with the rise of the public cloud, anybody can leverage the elasticity and accomplish what was once only possible in a handful of companies.

CloudSort Benchmark

The GraySort Benchmark measures the time it takes to sort 100 TB of data regardless of the hardware resources used. A well designed sorting system is relatively linearly scalable. Once an organization creates a linearly scalable system, the chance of winning then depends to a large degree on the amount of money the organization is willing to spend in acquiring hardware resources.

To mitigate this, the benchmark committee in 2014 created a new category called CloudSort. Unlike the GraySort which picks the winner based purely on time, CloudSort favors the entry with the lowest cost, measured by public cloud pricing. This benchmark effectively measures the efficiency, i.e. ratio of performance to cost, of the cloud architecture (combination of software stack, hardware stack, and tuning).

The spirit of the CloudSort is that it should be accessible enough that everyone can play at all scales, and let the best system win. In its inception year, the research team from the University of California, San Diego built a specialized sorting program called TritonSort and sorted 100 TB of data on Amazon EC2 for only $451. The system was so efficient that no one was able to challenge it even a year later.

That finally changed this week when our joint effort beat it and set the new CloudSort record.

A New Cloud Record

Databricks, together with Nanjing University and Alibaba, formed a team called NADSort to compete this year. NADSort ran on 394 ecs.n1.large nodes on the AliCloud, each equipped with an Intel Haswell E5-2680 v3 processor, 8 GB of memory, and 4x135 GB SSD Cloud Disk. The sorting program was based on Databricks 2014 GraySort record-setting entry and adapted for better efficiency. You can find the details of NADSort in this technical report.

In the previous record for CloudSort, it cost nearly five dollars ($4.51) per terabyte, to sort 100 terabytes of data. Our optimizations and the cloud have reduced the per terabyte cost by two-thirds, and our new record stands at $1.44 per terabyte!

What made this cost efficiency improvement possible?

Cost-effectiveness of cloud computing: Increased competition among major cloud providers has lowered the cost of resources, making deploying applications in the cloud economically feasible and scalable. In addition, cloud computing also enables use cases that were simply not possible before with on-demand resources and elasticity.

Increased competition among major cloud providers has lowered the cost of resources, making deploying applications in the cloud economically feasible and scalable. In addition, cloud computing also enables use cases that were simply not possible before with on-demand resources and elasticity. Efficiency of software: We have invested heavily in performance optimizations, with some of the most significant changes in the last two years. Innovations such as Project Tungsten, Catalyst, and whole-stage code generation, have benefited Apache Spark enormously, improving all aspects of the stack. In addition to the general improvements in Spark, our collaborators have also worked on improving shuffle specifically for the AliCloud environment.

We have invested heavily in performance optimizations, with some of the most significant changes in the last two years. Innovations such as Project Tungsten, Catalyst, and whole-stage code generation, have benefited Apache Spark enormously, improving all aspects of the stack. In addition to the general improvements in Spark, our collaborators have also worked on improving shuffle specifically for the AliCloud environment. Expertise in optimizing Spark and cloud-native architecture: As the team that started the Spark research project at UC Berkeley that later became Apache Spark, we continue to lead the way in execution optimization. In addition, we have developed deep expertise in operating and tuning cloud-native data architecture by operating tens of thousands of clusters at once for our customers and users. The expertise we developed in building the most efficient cloud architecture for data processing enabled us to push the boundary of cost-efficiency in addition to the innovations from providers.

Significance of Sorting in Distributed Data Processing

You might ask: whats the significance of sorting, and why would we sort so much data?

At the core of sorting is the shuffle operation, which moves data across all machines. Shuffle underpins almost all distributed data processing workloads. For example, a SQL query joining two disparate data sources uses shuffle to move tuples that should be joined together onto the same machine, and collaborative filtering algorithms such as ALS rely on shuffle to send user/product ratings and weights across the network.

Most data pipelines start with a large amount of raw data, but as the pipeline progresses, the amount of data is reduced due to filtering out irrelevant data or more compact representation of intermediate data. A SQL query on 100 TB of raw input data most likely only shuffles a tiny fraction of the 100 TB across the network, and the query optimizer can be smart to reduce the amount of data scanned. This pattern is also reflected in the naming of MapReduce itself.

We evaluate Spark using a lot of different benchmarks, e.g. TPC-H, TPC-DS. The sort benchmark, however, is by far the most challenging due to the way it stresses the execution path. Sorting 100 TB of input data requires shuffling 100 TB of data across the network. We cant hide behind clever tricks such as data skipping or query optimizations to reduce the scale.

The above attributes make sorting a metric we frequently refer to when we seek to measure and improve Spark.

The optimizations we did for our 2014 GraySort record have led to important improvements to Spark itself in the last 2 years: Netty-based network module to improve network throughput, off-heap memory management to remove GC, Project Tungsten to improve CPU efficiency. We have learned more with our 2016 CloudSort record, and we will apply those learnings to our development on Spark and the Databricks platform.

The achievements of two world records in two years leave us humbled, yet they validate the technology trends weve invested in heavily: Spark and cloud computing. These achievements are also testament to the engineering prowess we posses. To leverage this expertise and get the best performance out of Spark in the cloud, sign up for a Databricks account to build your data platform.

Last but not least, we would like to thank Qian Wang, Rong Gu, Yihua Huang from Nanjing University, Wei Wu, Jun Song, Junluan Xia from Alibaba for pushing forward state-of-the-art with us. We also thank the benchmark committee members Chris Nyberg, Mehul Shah, and Naga Govindaraju for their support. It was certainly fun to work together and compete!
Patients who undergo a laparoscopic appendectomy can go home the same day of an operation with similar complications to spending a night in the hospital

CHICAGO (November 15, 2016): Patients with acute appendicitis who undergo laparoscopic appendectomy (surgical remove of the appendix) do not experience higher rates of postoperative complications or costly readmissions when sent home on the same day of their operations compared with patients hospitalized overnight, according to study results published online as an "article in press" on the Journal of the American College of Surgeons website ahead of print publication.



Each year, more than 250,000 appendectomies are performed in the United States for acute appendicitis.1,2 Increasingly, more of these patients are being sent home directly from the recovery room, avoiding an overnight hospital stay.



"Advances in early recognition and treatment of the disease process and minimally invasive techniques have allowed for some of the inflammatory response and the trauma from surgical treatment to be lessened and recovery to be faster; as a result, patients can get back to their lives much sooner," said study principal investigator Armen Aboulian, MD, FACS, a colorectal surgeon at Kaiser Permanente, Woodland Hills, Calif. "Now up to 60 percent of non-perforated acute appendicitis patients at Kaiser Permanente are treated without an overnight stay," Dr. Aboulian said.



This decision is made at the discretion of the surgeon and treatment team. But the question has remained as to whether patients with a same-day discharge are more likely to return with complications and be readmitted.



To find out, researchers analyzed the medical records of 12,703 patients who underwent a laparoscopic appendectomy for non-perforated appendicitis at 14 Southern California Region Kaiser Permanente medical centers between 2010 and 2014. The cohort was composed of 6,710 patients who were discharged on the same day of their procedure and 5,993 patients who were hospitalized overnight.



The Procedural and Anesthesia Scoring System is used for all patients who are discharged directly from the recovery room after any operation in all Southern California Kaiser Permanente Medical Centers. To be released, patients must have a score that is greater than 12; those with a score of 12 or less remain in the hospital at the same level of care.



For the study, researchers compared the patients discharged on the day of an operation with those hospitalized overnight. They found that the group discharged on the same day of an operation had similar return rates to emergency rooms or urgent care centers and an overall lower rate of readmission within 30 days when compared with those who were hospitalized overnight (2.2 percent versus 3.1 percent).



In both groups, postoperative rates of visits to the emergency room or radiology department for diagnostic or therapeutic imaging studies were statistically similar. Postoperative general surgery department visits were slightly higher in the hospitalized group (85 percent versus 81 percent). Factors such as older age, serious health problems, and a later procedure time (most surgeons would not discharge their patients from the recovery room late at night) increased the rate of overnight admissions.



"In general, recovery at home is preferred by most patients and sleeping in your own bed has benefits that are difficult to measure," Dr. Aboulian said. "At the same time, the goal of the study is not to rush the patients home, but rather, the importance of this study lies in the confirmation that discharge from the recovery room is safe and surgeons across the nation may consider it directly from the recovery room in the appropriate setting."



In addition, the study, which is the largest one on this issue to date, showed that same day discharge translates into an average direct cost savings of $348 per case within the Kaiser Permanente system. Recent studies have garnered attention that focus on non-operative management of acute appendicitis, using antibiotics as the main mode of treatment. Often, those studies involve a brief hospitalization followed by discharge on antibiotics, Dr. Aboulian said. One of the main advantages of antibiotic treatment alone is the cost savings. However, if patients are sent home from the recovery room without an overnight stay, there could potentially be up to an annual health care savings of $921,500,000 in the United States.



"This study is significant because it demonstrates that patients may be treated safely with surgery and discharged on the same day as the operation," Dr. Aboulian said. "Two hundred years ago, the diagnosis of appendicitis had more than a 60 percent mortality rate. Now these patients are treated and don't even have to spend the night in the hospital. Medical treatment for this disorder has come a long way."



###

Other study participants include Andrew Scott, MD; Shant Shekherdimian, MD, MPH, FASC; Joshua D. Rouch, MD; Greg D. Sacks MD, PhD; Aaron J. Dawes, MD, PhD; Wendy Y. Lui, MD, FACS; Letitia Bridges, MD, FACS; Tracy Heisler, MD, FACS; Steven R. Crain, MD, FACS; and Mang-King W Cheung, PhD.



Note: "FACS" designates that a surgeon is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.

Citation: Same Day Discharge in Laparoscopic Acute Non-Perforated Appendectomy. Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

1 Cross W, Chandru Kowdley G. Laparoscopic appendectomy for acute appendicitis: a safe same-day surgery procedure? Am Surg. 2013;79(8):802-5.

2 Frazee RC, Abernathy SW, Davis M, Hendricks JC, Isbell TV, Regner JL, et al. Outpatient laparoscopic appendectomy should be the standard of care for uncomplicated appendicitis. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2014;76(1):79-82.

About the American College of Surgeons

The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and improve the quality of care for surgical patients. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has more than 80,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world. For more information, visit http://www.facs.org (.)
MCLEAN, VA--(Marketwired - Nov 15, 2016) - Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) has formed a partnership with Next Step Network, Inc., a Louisville, Kentucky-based non-profit housing intermediary, to implement a consumer education curriculum for buyers of manufactured homes. This initiative is intended to foster new relationships with active participants in the manufactured housing industry -- including mortgage lenders -- at the national and local levels.

"The average manufactured home costs $71,300," said Danny Gardner, Freddie Mac's vice president of affordable lending and access to credit. "That's why it's a crucial source of housing stock for people with very limited incomes, as well as those in underserved markets and rural areas."

The partnership with Next Step will provide educational information to prospective buyers of manufactured homes in Kentucky -- including information about the availability of down payment assistance programs and credit rebuilding services -- via housing counseling agencies.

"We hope one of the outcomes of our educational initiative is an uptick in the number of 'mortgage ready' borrowers in Kentucky," Gardner noted.

"We believe factory-built homes are one possible solution to our country's growing affordable housing crisis," said Stacey Epperson, president and founder of Next Step, which is focused on advancing the use of factory-built housing. "Our mission is putting sustainable homeownership within reach of everyone while transforming the manufactured housing industry through consumer education, affordability and energy efficiency."

The curriculum will be offered through eHome America, an online homebuyer education platform.

"We're pleased to participate in this pilot, and we're excited about the enhancements to our online education curriculum to meet the needs of all homebuyers," said Milt Sharp, president and national administrator of eHome America.

With potential increases in loan production on the horizon, Freddie Mac looks forward to seeing more lenders originating energy-efficient, real property loans for manufactured homes.

Story continues

This announcement was made today at the annual I'M HOME conference sponsored by the Corporation for Enterprise Development, a national nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. that's dedicated to expanding economic opportunity for low-income families and communities in the U.S.

News Facts:

Manufactured housing is the largest source of unsubsidized affordable housing in the U.S.

With the limited supply of homes under $200,000, manufactured housing provides crucial housing stock for very low-, low- and moderate-income borrowers, borrowers in underserved markets, and rural areas.

Manufactured housing accounts for six percent of all occupied housing. In 112 U.S. counties -- predominately in Southern and Western states -- over one-third of homes are manufactured housing, according to a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) white paper titled "Manufactured-housing consumer finance in the United States."

The average price of a manufactured home is $71,300, while the average price of a site-built home is $353,600 in the U.S., according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

About Next Step

Next Step Network mobilizes a national network of nonprofits to provide affordable housing tailored to the needs of communities that they serve. Their system -- Manufactured Housing Done Right -- connects responsible financing, comprehensive homebuyer education and delivery of high-quality, ENERGY STAR manufactured homes at scale, creating a model that brings more value to the customer. Learn more at NextStepUS.org or @nextstepUS.

About eHome America

eHome America is an interactive, web-based online education program for prospective homebuyers that is linked to local nonprofit HUD-approved housing counseling agencies. The program was developed in 2009 by Community Ventures Corporation, a nonprofit agency based in Lexington, Kentucky. Community Ventures Corporation is a HUD-approved counseling agency and a member of the national NeighborWorks Network. Learn more at www.ehomeamerica.org.

About Freddie Mac

Freddie Mac was established by Congress in 1970 to provide liquidity, stability and affordability to the nation's residential mortgage markets. Freddie Mac supports communities across the nation by providing mortgage capital to lenders. Today Freddie Mac is making home possible for approximately one in four home borrowers and is the largest source of financing for multifamily housing. Additional information is available at FreddieMac.com, Twitter @FreddieMac and Freddie Mac's blog.
DALLAS - 15 November 2016 - YPO, the premier chief executive leadership organization in the world, hosted a live Twitter chat with two prominent German business leaders discussing the unique advantages that Berlin offers as a thriving hub for startups, entrepreneurs and innovation, and the secrets to startup success.

Featured guests Dominik Matyka (@dominikmatyka) and Ralph Eric Kunz (@RalphEKunz), both members of the YPO Berlin Chapter, discussed how to ensure success for an early startup and offered tips to improve the odds of success. Matyka is Partner at Calvary VC, a leading (pre)seed fund, and Kunz is Managing Director at Catagonia, a venture capital firm investing in mobile internet, social network apps, location and Internet-based services.

The hour-long, interactive, question-and-answer session began with a discussion about Germany and why the country is so attractive for entrepreneurs and venture capitalists alike. Given that the city Berlin alone is home to more than 2,500 startups that have attracted EURO2.1 billion from VCs in the past two years, both business leaders noted the unique opportunities that Germany provides.

"Berlin is the place where young people can prove themselves better than in any major city in the world. It is a place where establishment is seen as boring and innovation as thrilling. Berlin itself is a startup that had to start fresh in 1989. I would say that it has now arrived in 'growth phase,'" said Kunz.

Matyka added that what attracts entrepreneurs are, "Top educated people, good infrastructure, a working and growing economy, and deep networks, especially in Berlin. There is a growing VC base - Berlin is faster than any other city in Germany! Competition is also harder; if you make it here, you make it everywhere."

More than 50 percent of all new businesses fail within five years, and in fact, 25 percent of new business don't make it past year one. Although founders of a previously successful business have a 30% better chance of success with their next venture, entrepreneurs are more likely to be successful if they have failed before. As an investor, choosing which startups have the best chance of success is critical, and often complicated.

"Understand the value that the company intends to create for each stakeholder and whether it is unique," said Kunz. "In the end, there is always a bit of trial and error." Matyka added, "Don't invest in companies you do not entirely understand. Screen the leadership team, as experience, education and entrepreneurial behavior are good indicators for success."

This year has seen the Internet-of-Things (IoT) is emerging as the next technology mega-trend, mobile enterprise deployments have opened up a host of new opportunities and challenges for companies, governments and consumers and cognitive systems and machine learning completely change the way we interact with technology. As most entrepreneurs and business leaders around the world are looking ahead and mapping their product and business development plans for 2017, Matkya and Kunz reflected on a few of the most interesting trends within the startup ecosystem in 2016.

Kunz said, "Money is moving away from AdTech and commerce into AI (artificial intelligence), bots, mobility and FinTech." Matkya added, "Some other of the latest trends include VR/AR (virtual reality/augmented reality), industrialized analytics, re-imagining core platforms, autonomic platforms and new marketplace approaches."

"Combine the assets of German Mittelstand world leaders with the digital startup capabilities of Berlin, and participate in the transformation of major German industries, including automotive and IoT," advised Kunz.

What are the most important pieces of advice for a first-time startup founder in 2016? The chat concluded with the two business leaders sharing their advice for first-time founders and chief executives.

"Try to understand what the secret sauce is in the industries you are looking at," advised Kunz. "Don't analyze too long, but get started if you feel you are on to something. Many times you recalibrate on the way."

"Talk and listen to people - customers, venture capitalists, fellow entrepreneurs, etc. - and validate your ideas." said Matkya.

Search #YPOLeadership on Twitter to view the full discussion with @YPO .

ABOUT YPO

The premier leadership organization of chief executives in the world.

YPO is the global platform for chief executives to engage, learn and grow. YPO members harness the knowledge, influence and trust of the world's most influential and innovative business leaders to inspire business, personal, family and community impact.

Today, YPO empowers more than 24,000 members in more than 130 countries, diversified among industries and types of businesses. Altogether, YPO member-run companies employ more than 15 million people and generate USD6 trillion in annual revenues.

Leadership. Learning. Lifelong. For more information, visit ypo.org.
French English

IRVINE, CA, and HERSTAL, BELGIUM - November 15, 2016 - 7:00 AM CET - MDxHealth SA (the "Company") (Euronext Brussels: MDXH) announced today, in conformity with Article 15 of the Belgian Act of May 2, 2007 on the publication of significant shareholdings in issuers which shares are admitted to trading on a regulated market, that further to the capital increases that were completed on November 7, 2016 in relation to the capital raising that was launched on November 2, 2016, and on November 10, 2016 resulting from the exercise of 49,000 outstanding warrants, its share capital has increased from EUR 36,111,083.86 to EUR 39,761,328.75, and its number of issued and outstanding shares has increased from 45,269,633 to 49,845,595 ordinary shares, through the issuance of a total of 4,575,962 new shares.

The Company was informed by the following shareholders that they still hold shares in excess of 10% of the outstanding shares of the Company:

Biovest Comm. VA, the investment company controlled by Mr. Rudi Marien, has informed the Company that it subscribed for new shares in the capital raise of November 7, 2016, and that it now owns 13.26% of the outstanding shares of MDxHealth.

Valiance Asset Management Ltd has informed the Company that it subscribed for new shares in the capital raise of November 7, 2016, and that it now controls 12.79% of the outstanding shares of MDxHealth.

Alycho NV, the investment vehicle controlled by Mr. Marc Coucke, fell below the minimum statutory threshold of 3% of the outstanding shares of MDxHealth on November, 2016.

As per November, 2016, following the recent capital increases, MDxHealth had $ 32.4 million in cash and cash equivalents.

In addition to the outstanding shares, the total number of outstanding warrants on the date of this press release amounts to 2,165,688 warrants which (if exercised) would entitle their holders to 2,165,688 shares with voting rights.

About MDxHealth

MDxHealth is a multinational healthcare company that provides actionable molecular diagnostic information to personalize the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The company's tests are based on proprietary gene methylation (epigenetic) and other molecular technologies and assist physicians with the diagnosis of cancer, prognosis of recurrence risk, and prediction of response to a specific therapy. For more information visit mdxhealth.com and follow us on Twitter at: twitter.com/mdxhealth.

For more information:







Dr. Jan Groen, CEO

MDxHealth

US: +1 949 812 6979

BE: +32 4 364 20 70

info@mdxhealth.com















Jonathan Birt, Chris Welsh, Hendrik Thys (PR & IR)

Consilium Strategic Communications

UK: +44 20 3709 5701

US: +1 917 322 2571 (Rx Communications Group LLC)

mdxhealth@consilium-comms.com





Important information

The MDxHealth logo, MDxHealth, ConfirmMDx, SelectMDx, AssureMDx and PredictMDx are trademarks or registered trademarks of MDxHealth SA. All other trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners.

This press release contains forward-looking statements and estimates with respect to the anticipated future performance of MDxHealth and the market in which it operates. Such statements and estimates are based on various assumptions and assessments of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which were deemed reasonable but may not prove to be correct. Actual events are difficult to predict, may depend upon factors that are beyond the Company's control, and may turn out to be materially different. No representations are made as to the accuracy or fairness of such forward-looking statements and estimates. Furthermore, forward-looking statements and estimates only speak as of the date of the publication of this document. MDxHealth expressly disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements in this release to reflect any change in its expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based unless required by law or regulation.
By PTI: Hyderabad, Nov 15 (PTI) Senior officials from Delaware and other states in the US today expressed interest in working with Telangana in skill development and other areas.

They also discussed the opportunities for investment and business in Telangana with state IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao, a government release said.

Rao explained the states industrial policy to the visiting delegation.

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Telangana topped the rankings in Ease of Doing Business and Hyderabad is home to several top IT companies, he said.

Rao enquired about the steps for infrastructure development in urban areas and sought investments into the sector, the release said. PTI SJR NP ASV BAS

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English German

Basel, Switzerland, November 15, 2016 - Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. (SIX: BSLN) announces that it has launched its antifungal Cresemba (isavuconazole) in France and that it has sponsored a symposium on current challenges and recent opportunities in the treatment of invasive mold infections. The event was held on November 10, 2016 in Paris, France, and was co-chaired by Professor Elie Azoulay, Medical Intensive Care, Saint-Louis Teaching Hospital, Paris; Professor Jean-Pierre Gangneux, Laboratory of Parasitology and Mycology, University Hospital Rennes, and Professor Olivier Lortholary, Department of Infectious Diseases, Necker - Enfants Malades Hospital, Paris.

David Veitch, Basilea's Chief Commercial Officer, commented: "We are excited to have launched Cresemba in France. The symposium provided an opportunity both for clinicians to discuss important clinical data and to share their experiences in the management of patients with potentially life-threatening invasive mold infections. Cresemba addresses an important medical need for these patients."

Isavuconazole was approved by the European Commission in October 2015 for the treatment of adults with invasive aspergillosis and the treatment of adults with mucormycosis for whom amphotericin B is inappropriate. Invasive aspergillosis and mucormycosis are life-threatening fungal infections that often affect immunocompromised patients, such as patients with cancer and after transplantation. Invasive aspergillosis is often fatal. Mucormycosis (also known as zygomycosis) is a rapidly progressive invasive fungal infection, often affecting the nose and sinuses with high mortality.

Professor Raoul Herbrecht, Department of Oncology and Hematology, Hautepierre University Hospital Strasbourg, stated: "There is a significant medical need in invasive aspergillosis and mucormycosis. They can cause severe morbidity and rapid deterioration in a patient's condition and may be associated with mortality rates approaching 100% if untreated or if effective treatment is delayed. Isavuconazole's safety and tolerability profile can be beneficial for highly vulnerable patients with invasive mold infections, as for instance patients with comorbidities or the need for long-term use, or high-risk patients receiving concomitant medications such as immunosuppressants."

Professor Jean-Pierre Gangneux added: "There are gaps in the spectrum of various currently available antifungal drugs. Isavuconazole is characterized by a broad spectrum with activity against filamentous fungi such as Aspergillus spp. and Mucorales."

About Cresemba (isavuconazole)



Isavuconazole is an intravenous (i.v.) and oral azole antifungal and the active agent of the prodrug isavuconazonium sulfate. It is approved in the United States for patients 18 years of age and older in the treatment of invasive aspergillosis and invasive mucormycosis.1 In Europe, isavuconazole received marketing authorization for the treatment of adult patients with invasive aspergillosis and for the treatment of adult patients with mucormycosis for whom amphotericin B is inappropriate.2 Isavuconazole has orphan drug designation for the approved indications in Europe and the US. Basilea is marketing isavuconazole as Cresemba in Germany, Italy, the UK, France and Austria and is seeking national pricing and reimbursement in additional EU countries. In the US, the drug is marketed by Basilea's license partner Astellas Pharma US. Outside the US and the EU, isavuconazole is currently not approved for commercial use. The European marketing authorization is valid in all 28 European Union (EU) member states, as well as in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

About the isavuconazole invasive aspergillosis and mucormycosis studies



The approval of Cresemba is based on results from the isavuconazole development program. The safety and efficacy profile of isavuconazole in adult patients with invasive aspergillosis was demonstrated based on data from two phase 3 clinical studies: SECURE, a randomized, double-blind, active-control study in 516 patients (intent-to-treat population, ITT) with invasive aspergillosis, and VITAL, an open-label non-comparative 146-patient study (ITT) of isavuconazole in the treatment of invasive aspergillosis patients with renal impairment, or invasive fungal disease (IFD) caused by emerging molds, yeasts or dimorphic fungi, including invasive mucormycosis.

In the SECURE study, isavuconazole was non-inferior to voriconazole based on the primary endpoint of all-cause mortality at Day 42 in the intent-to-treat population. All-cause mortality through Day 42 was 19% in the isavuconazole treatment group and 20% in the voriconazole treatment group.3

In the SECURE study, similar rates of non-fatal adverse events were observed for isavuconazole and the comparator, voriconazole. Further, the percentage of study drug-related adverse events in invasive aspergillosis patients was 42% for isavuconazole and 60% for voriconazole. In addition, the percentage of treatment-emergent adverse events in the system organ classes of hepatobiliary disorders was 9% for isavuconazole versus 16% for voriconazole; skin or subcutaneous tissue disorders was 33% for isavuconazole versus 42% for voriconazole; and eye disorders was 15% for isavuconazole versus 27% for voriconazole.3

The safety and efficacy profile of isavuconazole in patients with mucormycosis was demonstrated based on data from the VITAL study, which included a subpopulation of 37 patients with proven or probable mucormycosis, of whom 21 received isavuconazole as primary treatment for their infection. All-cause mortality at Day 42 was 38% which is similar to mortality rates reported in literature for the treatment of mucormycosis. In this trial the rate of overall response against mucormycosis at the end of therapy was 31%, with an additional 29% exhibiting a stable response. For patients receiving isavuconazole as primary therapy, this number was 32%, with an additional 32% having stable disease.4 The efficacy of isavuconazole for the treatment of mucormycosis has not been evaluated in concurrent, controlled clinical trials.

The most frequent adverse events for patients treated with isavuconazole in clinical phase 3 studies were nausea (26%), vomiting (25%), diarrhea (22%), headache (17%), elevated liver chemistry tests (17%), hypokalemia (14%), constipation (13%), dyspnea (12%), cough (12%), peripheral edema (11%), and back pain (10%).

About Basilea



Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. is a biopharmaceutical company developing products that address increasing resistance and non-response to current treatment options in the therapeutic areas of bacterial infections, fungal infections and cancer. The company uses the integrated research, development and commercial operations of its subsidiary Basilea Pharmaceutica International Ltd. to discover, develop and commercialize innovative pharmaceutical products to meet the medical needs of patients with serious and potentially life-threatening conditions. Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland and listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (SIX: BSLN). Additional information can be found at Basilea's website www.basilea.com.

Disclaimer



This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

For further information, please contact:

Peer Nils Schroder, PhD

Head Public Relations & Corporate Communications

+41 61 606 1102

media_relations@basilea.com

investor_relations@basilea.com

This press release can be downloaded from www.basilea.com.

References
RIGA, Latvia, Nov. 15, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- X Infotech (www.x-infotech.com), a global provider of software solutions for identity documents and payment smart cards, announces today the first details of its business conferences & expo events Cards&Mobile 2017 (May 30, 2017) and Secure Identification 2017 (May 31  June 1, 2017), traditionally taking place in Riga, Latvia for the 7th consecutive year.



These conferences hosted by X Infotech are well-known across Europe & CIS, and have been steadily growing from year to year, gathering worlds leading experts who address the issue of how individuals, economies and societies are influenced by technology developments in citizen identity and digital payments.

Cards&Mobile 2017

Cards&Mobile 2017 (www.cardsandmobile.lv) will be held on 30 May 2017 and feature cutting-edge technologies in financial smart cards and digital payments. The event will bring influential experts from banks, financial organizations and service providers to network, learn and discover new trends in banking biometrics, mobile money, Know Your Customer approach and multi-application cards.

Secure Identification 2017

Secure Identification 2017 (www.secureidentification.lv) is a two-day conference scheduled on 31 May  1 June 2017, aiming to connect dozens of governments with international organizations and solution providers from Europe and Central Asia. In 2016, 60% of delegates represented government organizations from more than 35 countries.

Secure Identification 2017 is a lot more than a conference/expo - it is also a closed networking platform for those who are in to explore emerging trends and best-practices in digital identity, biometrics, ID documents and border management.

Are you interested in attending?

Delegates are welcome to participate as speakers, exhibitors, sponsors, media partners or visitors. The call for speakers, as well as the early-bird sponsors registration have been announced. More information available on www.cardsandmobile.lv and www.secureidentification.lv

About X Infotech

X Infotech (www.x-infotech.com) is a global provider and integrator of software solutions for identity documents and smart cards. The company helps governments, local document producers, banks and financial institutions to implement eID and smart card programs, providing the IT infrastructure and empowering them to take full and autonomous control of their projects and businesses.

Headquartered in Europe, X Infotech boasts of having 100% projects successfully implemented in 45+ countries, including LatAm and Africa.
AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 15, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Iris Plans, an innovator in Advance Care Planning (ACP) for people with serious medical conditions, has teamed with University of Utah Health Plans (UUHP) to improve quality of care and member experience while lowering cost. Iris Plans is delighted to launch this partnership with such an innovative partner recognized for its leadership in high quality care, said Steve Wardle, CEO of Iris Plans. University of Utah Health Care, UUHPs parent, was recently ranked as the number one health system in the nation for Quality and Accountability by Vizient, after seven years in the top 10 of this prestigious ranking.



We are strong believers in the value of Advance Care Planning, and are delighted to extend this much-needed support to our members who need it most, stated Dr. Russell Vinik, Chief Medical Officer for UUHP. Having offered ACP directly to our members around Salt Lake City, we are well-aware of the benefits, but the need is tremendous, and the Iris Plans virtual service will allow us to serve a much larger and more diversified population.

Iris Plans connects its healthcare professionals with people living with serious medical conditions, along with their family or loved ones through a secure video conference platform. Iris Plans specially-trained facilitators provide disease education, resolve conflicts, and help people document what future healthcare decisions are best aligned with their goals and preferences. These documents are then sent to the family and doctors offices to ensure people receive the care they want.

This partnership represents a significant milestone for Iris Plans, added Wardle, and we look forward to helping UUHP further enhance their leadership in bringing high quality care to its members.

ABOUT IRIS PLANS

Iris Plans is a tech-enabled service that provides Advance Care Planning (ACP), or healthcare planning, to people with serious medical conditions. ACPs proven benefits include a 25% reduction in cost for patients with serious chronic illness, better care, improved health for family members, and higher satisfaction. Iris Plans uses targeted technology and algorithms to help our strategic partners, predominately health insurers and healthcare providers, identify people who will benefit most from ACP, and deliver the service anytime, anywhere.

ABOUT UNIVERSITY OF UTAH HEALTH PLANS

University of Utah Health Plans (UUHP) began in 1998 and now serves over 155,000 members through the administration of medical, mental health, and pharmacy benefits for both self-funded and fully-insured employer groups as well as government programs including Medicare and Medicaid. Being integrated with University of Utah Health Care, UUHP is uniquely positioned to bring greater value, better cost-efficiency, and an increased patient focus to members and clients.

Please find Iris Plans on social media:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/iris-plans

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/irisplans

Twitter: https://twitter.com/irisplans
English Latvian

Olaine, 2016-11-15 15:00 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

October 2016, consolidated sales Sales, thsnd. EUR Changes to October 2015 Share in total sales Russia 4 210 94% 41% Latvia 2 340 9% 23% Ukraine 1 113 -39% 11% Belarus 547 -24% 5% The Netherlands 360 NA 4% Kazakhstan 340 -4% 3% Uzbekistan 300 220% 3% Germany 280 NA 3% Kyrgyzstan 112 71% 1% Georgia 98 NA 1% Other 477 -53% 5% Total 10 177 22% 100%

Sales of pharmacy chain of SIA Latvijas aptieka during October 2016 were 1.62 million euros, which represents an increase by 1% compared to the same period one year ago. Sixty-four pharmacies were operating during this period. Sales of Latvian green pharma company Silvanols during October 2016 were 0.53 million euro, which represents an increase by 36% compared to sales this company made during October 2015. During this period, SIA Silvanols sold its products to eight European countries and with assistance from AS Olainfarm also to Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. Sales of elastic materials producer SIA Tonus Elast during October 2016 were 0.87 million euros, the company was making its sales to 16 countries in three continents.

According to preliminary results, in ten months of 2016, consolidated sales of AS Olainfarm reached 88.69 million euros, which represents an increase by 9% compared to the same period of 2015. The most rapid sales increase during this ten months period was achieved in Uzbekistan, where sales grew by 85%. Sales to Ukraine grew by 25%, sales to Turkmenistan and the UK each grew by 24%. The major sales markets during ten months were Russia, Latvia, Ukraine and Belarus.

10 months of 2016, consolidated sales Sales, thousand EUR Changes to 10 months of 2015 Share in total sales Russia 27 199 1% 31% Latvia 21 540 14% 24% Ukraine 13 263 25% 15% Belarus 6 862 16% 8% Kazakhstan 2 364 12% 3% Uzbekistan 2 080 85% 2% The Netherlands 1 999 -60% 2% UK 1 921 23% 2% Poland 1 098 3% 1% Turkmenistan 1 067 23% 1% Other 9 299 22% 10% Total 88 692 9% 100%

Sales of pharmacy chain of SIA Latvijas aptieka in ten months were 15.5 million euros, which represents an increase by 12% compared to ten months of last year. Sales of SIA Silvanols in ten months were 4.21 million euros, which represents an increase by 28% compared to the same period of 2015, when Silvanols sales were 3.3 million euros. SIA Silvanols made its sales to thirteen European countries and with assistance of AS Olainfarm also to Albania, Kosovo, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Lithuania and Russia. Sales of SIA Tonus Elast in five months was 3.53 million euros, its products were sold to 30 countries in four continents.

According to preliminary unconsolidated results, sales of AS Olainfarm in October 2016 were 8.02 million euros, which represents an increase by 11% compared to the same period of tha last year. The biggest sales increase was achieved in Uzbekistan, where it grew by 220%. Sales to Russia grew by 77%, but sales to Kyrgyzstan grew by 35%. During October 2016, significant shipments were also made to the Netherlands and Germany. The biggest sales markets were Russia, Ukraine, Latvia and Belarus. During October 2016, products of AS Olainfarm were sold to 22 countries of Europe and Asia.

October 2016, unconsolidated sales Sales, thsnd. EUR Changes to October 2015 Share in total sales Russia 3 849 77% 48% Ukraine 1 095 -40% 14% Latvia 1 088 1% 14% Belarus 522 -27% 7% The Netherlands 360 NA 4% Uzbekistan 300 220% 4% Germany 279 NA 3% Kazakhstan 143 -60% 2% Kyrgyzstan 89 35% 1% Lithuania 72 3% 1% Other 221 -75% 3% Total 8 018 11% 100%

According to preliminary unconsolidated results, sales of AS Olainfarm in ten months of 2016 was 74.09 million euros, which represents an increase by 4% compared to ten months of 2015. The most rapid sales increase during this ten months period was achieved in Uzbekistan, where sales grew by 85%. Sales to Lithuania grew by 25%, Sales to Ukraine grew by 24%, but sales to Turkmenistan grew by 23%. The biggest sales markets of AS Olainfarm in ten months of 2016 were Russia, Ukraine, Latvia and Belarus. In total during this period, products of AS Olainfarm were sold to 41 countries in four continents.

10 months of 2016, unconsolidated sales Sales, thousand EUR Changes to 10 months of 2015 Share in total sales Russia 26 436 -1% 36% Ukraine 13 126 24% 18% Latvia 11 005 7% 15% Belarus 6 815 16% 9% Uzbekistan 2 080 85% 3% The Netherlands 1 999 -60% 3% Kazakhstan 1 870 -11% 3% UK 1 815 16% 2% Turkmenistan 1 067 23% 1% Lithuania 890 25% 1% Other 6 989 5% 9% Total 74 092 4% 100%

AGM of AS Olainfarm held on June 7, this year approved operating plan of the Company and the Group, providing that Companys sales in 2016 will reach 86 million euros, while Groups sales will reach 100 million euros. According to these preliminary sales numbers, in ten months of 2016 eighty-six percent of planned annual Companys sales and 89% percent of planned annual Groups sales have been attained.

JSC Olainfarm is one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in Latvia with more than 40 years of experience in production of medication and chemical and pharmaceutical products. A basic principle of company's operations is to produce reliable and effective top quality products for Latvia and the rest of the world. Products made by the Group are being exported to more than 35 countries of the world, including the Baltics, Russia, other CIS, Europe, Asia, North America and Australia.
CHANDLER, Ariz., Nov. 15, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OnTrac, a logistics company specializing in contracting regional shipping services in the Western United States, received multiple awards at the Arizona Corporate Excellence event hosted by the Phoenix Business Journal on Wednesday, November 2nd at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts. Phoenix Business Journal Editor in Chief Ilana Lowery and CliftonLarsonAllen LLP Managing Principal of the Phoenix Office Chad Kunze presented OnTrac with the distinguishable honor of the 8th Fastest Growing Company and the 11th ranked Privately Held Company. The event brought together 300 business leaders from the top 25 fastest growing companies and the top 50 privately held companies within the state of Arizona among numerous business sectors, like transportation, construction, technology and health care.

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/bb3af148-fea8-40a8-be92-12ac90b103dd

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1e085343-e82e-4ef2-a3d6-f685be4fe24a

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ef4a962d-f2be-4663-9e7d-e3e639185292

OnTrac is showing tremendous growth year-over-year not only in Arizona, but throughout the eight-state footprint. During the past year, OnTrac has added 1.1 million square feet of additional warehouse space. Arizona attributes to 278,000 additional square feet of the total company growth. Proving to be a mecca for ecommerce warehouses and booming food delivery companies, Arizona is also a strong market for OnTrac ground and sunrise delivery. Earlier this year, OnTrac opened a new facility in Tucson to expand overnight delivery capabilities to Southern Arizona customers. Currently, OnTrac is preparing for the opening of a second facility in Phoenix in the New Year to cover quick deliveries to the western side of the state.

Company growth was a large part of the criteria used for the Fastest Growing Company. A growth score formula is used, which is based on absolute dollar revenue growth as well as percentage revenue growth over a two-year period. The criteria used for the Fastest Growing Company and the top Privately Held Company was based on FYE 2015 revenue. The ACE awards focus on developing a sense of knowledge-sharing and community among private companies in Arizona and provide a means for executives at all levels to expand their networks.

CliftonLarsonAllen LLP Managing Principal of the Phoenix Office Chad Kunze said, To find the top companies in Arizona for the Arizona Corporate Excellence (ACE) awards is a very involved five-month process. The various sponsors of the ACE Awards focus our attention on getting to know the companies, their business strategies, and plans for the future. Its a very exciting program to be a part of and to see the successes of each company year after year. The concluding awards event is a fun way to celebrate the companies and to bring Arizonas finest together for one night.

All photography was taken by Jim Poulin of the Phoenix Business Journal.

About OnTrac

OnTrac is a parcel logistics company with operations throughout the Western United States, arranging overnight delivery at ground rates to more than 60 million consumers. OnTrac was founded in 1991, and has grown to become a top choice for e-commerce and companies looking to speed up delivery without the cost of express shipping. In 2014, OnTrac launched DirectPost, and became the first regional carrier to offer a USPS Package Consolidation Service. OnTrac is a SmartWay Transport Partner, a USPS Workshare Partner, and is integrated with over thirty different multi-carrier software providers. OnTrac is comprised of three divisions based on service offerings; overnight, messenger, and international. For more information on overnight services, call 800.334.5000 or visit ontrac.com. For more information on messenger services, call 888.334.5001 or visit ontracmessenger.com. For more information on international services, call 800.628.4868 or visit ontracinternational.com.
Lithuanian English

Elektrenai, Lithuania, 2016-11-15 16:08 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB (legal entity code 302648707, registered at Elektrines g. 21, Elektrenai, hereinafter  the Company) announces its preliminary unaudited financial indicators for the period of JanuarySeptember 2016:

According to preliminary unaudited data, in JanuarySeptember 2016 the Companys sales revenue was EUR 100.88 million, which is 40.0% smaller than in JanuarySeptember 2015 (EUR 168.06 million).

was EUR 100.88 million, which is 40.0% smaller than in JanuarySeptember 2015 (EUR 168.06 million). Preliminary unaudited profit before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation ( EBITDA ) of the Company for JanuarySeptember 2016 was EUR 31.60 million (the one-off effect of sale of a part of business activities is not evaluated), which is 19.4% less than for the period of JanuarySeptember 2015 (EUR 39.19 million). According to preliminary data, EBITDA margin for the period of JanuarySeptember 2016 is 31%, which is 8.2 p. p. higher than for the period of JanuarySeptember 2015.

) of the Company for JanuarySeptember 2016 was EUR 31.60 million (the one-off effect of sale of a part of business activities is not evaluated), which is 19.4% less than for the period of JanuarySeptember 2015 (EUR 39.19 million). According to preliminary data, EBITDA margin for the period of JanuarySeptember 2016 is 31%, which is 8.2 p. p. higher than for the period of JanuarySeptember 2015. Preliminary unaudited net profit of the Company earned in JanuarySeptember 2016 was EUR 22.01 million, which is 16.8% less than for the period of JanuarySeptember 2015. Net profit in JanuarySeptember 2015 was EUR 26.46 million.

Electrical energy production capacity operated by the Company in Elektrenai this year operates without the quotas of the electrical energy production. Under these circumstances, in January-September 2016 in Elektrenai there was produced three times less electrical energy than in January-September 2015 (respectively 0.308 TWh and 0.953 TWh), the Company received less regulated operating income, but the combined cycle unit played a crucial role in the whole system  it was activated when the market price of electricity was the highest, the Unite was able to contribute to ensuring the stability of the electricity prices. Therefore, in contrast to 2015, when the Unit was operating almost continuously from the middle of April until October, in 2016 this facility was often turned on in the morning and turned off in the evening. During January-September 2016, the Unit was turned on even 45 times (in 2015, throughout the year - only 14 times). Despite such frequent turning on, the Unit operated reliably, and during January-September 2016, the Company was able to quite significantly reduce the electrical energy production costs.

Kruonis Pumped Storage Hydroelectric Plant produced 0.411 TWh of electrical energy in January-September 2016  this is 15.5 percent less than in January-September 2015, when this power plant produced 0.487 TWh of electrical energy, but it operated more profitable. At that time, Kaunas Algirdas Brazauskas' Hydroelectric Power Plant produced one-fifth (21.6 percent) more electrical energy in January-September 2016 than in January-September 2015 (respectively 0.257 TWh and 0.212 TWh) due to the higher freshwater discharge by Nemunas than last year.

In total 0.977 TWh of the electrical energy was produced by the power plants operated by the Company during January-September 2016. In January-September 2015, in all power plants of the Company the total electrical energy amounted to 1.652 TWh.

In January-September 2016, the Company was able to significantly reduce operating costs: optimizing operations and eliminating the old inefficient equipment reduce repair and maintenance costs. Also in January-September 2016, the relatively bigger part of dismantling work on the old electrical energy production equipment was carried out by the Companys employees who were specifically brought together into the clearing-up work group. In 2015, the contractors were often invoked for this purpose.

The Company's preliminary profit variables show a significant influence which still is made by the decisions of the National Commission for Energy Control and Prices (NCC). On 17 October 2016, the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania, by the order not subject to appeal, overturned the NCCs decision by which the Company was recognised as having a significant impact on the Company in the electrical energy production market, but the court decision has not yet started. In the results of January-September 2016 the influence of the NCC decision is still significantly reflected. By this decision, Kruonis PSHP and Kaunas HPP commercial activity profit share (according to preliminary estimates in January-September 2016 it was EUR 10.2 million) was directed to covering the Company's fixed costs incurred by carrying out the regulated activities in providing the services that meet the public interests. In total, excluding the verification of the impact of this and other decision made by the NCC regarding the Companys activity in 2010-2012, the Company's EBITDA in January-September 2016, according to the preliminary estimates, would be EUR 13.0 million higher (the influence of these factors in January-September 2015 amounted to EUR 10.7 million).

The factor that had a favorable impact on the Companys net result in January-September 2016  the sale of the part of the wholesale electricity trading business, for which, if all the conditions provided in the contract are implemented, the Company may receive EUR 21.1 million until 2019. In addition, as a result of a significant decrease in the market price of greenhouse gas emission allowances during JanuarySeptember 2016, the Company recognised the loss amounting EUR 6.8 million incurred due to the change in the value of emission allowances and the right to receive emission allowances as accounted for.

The Companys interim consolidated financial statements and interim report for JanuarySeptember 2016 will be published on 30 November 2016.
TEMPE, Ariz., Nov. 15, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - VisualVault, a SaaS-based Business Process Automation (BPA)/ Enterprise Content Management (ECM) software company, signed a business partner agreement with Intelidata, who is headquartered in Santiago, Chile. Intelidata is a Business Process Outsourcing technology company with offices and enterprise level clients throughout Latin America. This agreement will give Intelidata the ability to sell and use VisualVault with their clients for the automation of high volume document and data processing applications.

"We are extremely pleased that Intelidata has selected VisualVault as their preferred partner for the automation of high volume content and data applications.", commented Steve Leichtman, CEO of VisualVault. "This is another important step in our commitment towards global expansion of our partner program."

Intelidata has a strong base of clients they service in the Customer Communication Management and Enterprise Content Management markets; many of which are large global companies. This partnership supports VisualVault's strategic goal of working with global partners to focus on the solution's strength of automating high-value document and data processes.

"VisualVault offers us an advanced SaaS-based solution to manage the exceptionally large volume of content and provide advanced automation capabilities such as workflow and Intelligent Forms for our clients," said Hector Raffo, Director of Intelidata. "We have found VisualVault extremely scalable and easy to deploy and a very supportive partner who is committed to our success."

About VisualVault

Founded in 2009, VisualVault is a private, Arizona-based, Business Process Automation (BPA)/Enterprise Content Management (ECM) company specializing in the automation of data and document intensive processes at an enterprise level. The VisualVault platform is a cloud-based application that includes Intelligent Forms (i-Forms) which automate and validate both structured and unstructured data. These i-Forms streamline manual data entry and routing processes to boost overall productivity and accelerate business results.

VisualVault enables its clients to search and present content in a contextual manner configured for their specific business requirements, improving adoption through flexibility and ease of use. VisualVault's integrated platform standardizes user data so it may be accessed, viewed and used across an enterprise providing users with live dashboards for end-to-end reporting, analysis and decision making. VisualVault's mission is transforming our client's processes quickly and cost-effectively, without replacing expensive core legacy systems, by streamlining their data and document intensive processes with our uniquely configured software that is delivered as a service.

About Intelidata

Intelidata is a private company, based in Santiago de Chile with offices in Argentina, Colombia and Peru. It was founded in 2008. It is primary focused in providing Managed Services and Implementation Services for Customer Communication Management (CCM), covering from processes like cleaning and preparation of data to generation, delivery and archiving of multi-channel communications.

Press Contact:

Jason Hatch

VisualVault

Phone: 480-308-4400 x225

jason.hatch(at)visualvault(dot)com

This article was originally distributed on PRWeb. For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://www.prweb.com/releases/2016/11/prweb13848676.htm
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Kejriwal, who has been vocal against the revamping of the currency, tabled a resolution opposing demonetisation on the floor of the Assembly for discussion.

By India Today Web Desk: In line with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's stand against Centre's demonetisation process, the State Assembly too denounced it today. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) enjoys a brute majority in the Delhi Assembly, having 67 out of 70 MLAs.

Kejriwal, who has been vocal against the revamping of the currency, tabled a resolution opposing demonetisation on the floor of the Assembly for discussion.

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ALSO READ | Currency ban: Government sets cash deposit limit on Jan-Dhan accounts at Rs 50,000



Demanding rollback of the scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes, the Delhi CM has alleged that the process has helped the BJP. He accused the ruling party of leaking the information much in advance so that traders, corporate houses and people associated with it could convert their money from black to white.

He also said the jewelers who had sold golden ornaments by accepting the banned high value notes just after the scheme was announced on November 8, were hand in glove with the BJP. He alleged that these traders would get their money converted into the new notes through the back channel.

Kejriwal has also alleged that touts have become active in the country with the scrapped currency being sold at a lesser value.



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While the Prime Minister said that his decision has helped the poor sleep peacefully even as the rich are rushing to chemists to buy sleeping pills, on ground the reality seems to suggest otherwise.

Queues such as these are being witnessed everyday across the country. (Photo: PTI)

By India Today Web Desk: A week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes illegal, at least 25 deaths have been reported across the country in the wake of panic and chaos following the demonetisation decision.

While the Prime Minister said that his decision has helped the poor sleep peacefully even as the rich are rushing to chemists to buy sleeping pills, on ground the reality seems to suggest otherwise.

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In majority of the 25 cases reported by The Huffington Post, it is the underprivileged who took a beating. Most thought that all the hard-earned money that they had collected over time was now useless after the government's new currency revamp scheme.

ALSO READ: Demonetisation may hit Rabi crop as farmers have no cash to prepare for sowing season



We bring you 10 such stories:

1) Lack of money hit a family in Mahua Mafi village in Uttar Pradesh. An eight-year-old died after her father was unable to pay for the petrol while rushing her to a hospital. Since the man was carrying a Rs 1,000 note, the petrol pump attendant refused to take it.

Source: PTI Source: PTI

2) In Surat, a 50-year-old woman killed herself as she could not buy ration to feed her two children. The local shopkeeper refused to accept the old notes, reported The Huffington Post.

ALSO WATCH



3) Tirtharaji, a washerwoman, allegedly died of shock in Captainganj tehsil of Kushinagar district in Uttar Pradesh after being told that the old notes were no longer valid. She had saved Rs 2,000 and had recently got it exchanged for two Rs 1,000 notes.

ALSO READ: Demonetisation: Mamata Banerjee likely to lead anti-Modi brigade in Delhi



4) In yet another incident from Uttar Pradesh, doctors at a hospital in Mainpuri allegedly stopped the treatment of a one-year-old boy, suffering from high fever, after the family ran out of Rs 100 notes. The boy's father tried paying the treatment cost in old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes but the doctors refused. The boy died soon after.

5) In Hyderabad, a 55-year-old woman committed suicide after she got to know that her Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes are redundant following the new government order. The woman, a farmer in Shanigapuram village of Telangana, thought her money was just a piece of paper with no value and hanged herself.

Source: Reuters

6) In West Bengal, a man killed his wife allegedly for returning home from the ATM empty-handed. According to The Huffington Post report, the man felt she should have waited longer in the queue.

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ALSO READ: Demonetisation: Kerala church opens collection box to help people with no money



7) A 45-year-old man died of a heart attack in Kaimur district of Bihar as he feared his daughter's would-be in-laws may no longer accept his old currency notes in dowry. He had saved Rs 35,000 for his daughter's wedding.

8) A 45-year-old man fell from the second floor of a building housing a bank branch while filling the deposit slip and died. It was his second visit to the bank to deposit Rs 5 lakh. The incident occurred in Thalassery, Kerala.

ALSO READ: Demonetisation: PM appeals people to tolerate inconvenience for 50 days, says his fight is for honesty



9) A farmer committed suicide in Rajgarh, Chhattisgarh, after he was not able to exchange Rs 3,000 in old currency notes at the bank. He had visited the bank thrice and was in dire need of the money which he wanted to send to his children in Tamil Nadu.

10) A child died at the Kailash Hospital in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, after the hospital allegedly refused to accept a deposit of Rs 10,000 in old currency notes. The hospital, which is owned by Union Culture and Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma, denied the charge.

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ALSO READ: Chennai: No change for tea, this woman's shop has few customers after demonetisation

ALSO READ: Demonetisation: ATMs remain shut today, malls worst hit over weekend

ALSO WATCH



--- ENDS ---
Most villagers don't use ATM cards or cheques for transaction. The cash crunch has hit them hard.

By Manjeet Sehgal: The currency crunch has badly hit the villages in Punjab, where ATMs and bank branches are already scarce.

Most villagers have bank accounts but few use ATM card or cheques for transaction. Those who have a wedding in their family are spending sleepless nights. Farmers who are preparing for the next crop season have little money to buy seeds and fertiliser.

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WEDDINGS WITHOUT CELEBRATION

The marriage celebrations in several villages in Punjab have taken a hit. Papinder Singh's daughter is set to get married today but the house does not wear a festive look. After the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, Singh has no money to arrange for music and sweets at the wedding.

ALSO READ: 'Bold' demonetising alone won't stop corruption, says Chinese media

ALSO READ: 25 deaths in a week: PM Modi's demonetisation drive takes a toll on aam aadmi



Singh recently went to the bank to deposit all the money that he had withdrawn from his account for the wedding. In return, he got a meagre sum of Rs 10,000. The bride-to-be's father now fears that most guests may give his daughter banned currency notes as shagun.

ALSO WATCH



"I am getting married today but the celebrations are missing. The government's decision is good but it led to chaos," said the bride-to-be Navpreet Kaur.

In the same village, Balwinder Singh too is getting married today. He has no money to pay the caterer and the local DJ. He may also have to miss out on the customary 'ghodi' as no one is ready to accept the old notes.

ALSO READ: Benami property is next target after black money, says PM Modi

"Government's move to demonetise currency may help curb black money menace and corruption but it has also hit the poor who are being made to suffer for no fault," the groom-to-be said.

FARMING COMES TO A STANDSTILL

Mehar Singh, a 52-year-old farmer, is not able to pay wages to the labourers workers on his field. Besides wages, he also needs money to buy fuel for the tractor.

"I had never dreamt that I will not be able to my own money. Narendra Modi cannot understand the difficulties faced by a common man. My work has come to a standstill. Labourers have refused to work as I don't have money to pay them," Singh said.

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ALSO READ: Demonetisation: Maharashtra allows farmers to transport vegetables free in state transport buses

ALSO READ: Demonetisation may hit Rabi crop as farmers have no cash to prepare for sowing season

CATTLE MARKET HIT

The business of cattle breeding has also taken after the Prime Minister announced Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes illegal.

Mrig Singh is not able to sell his buffaloes in the market as prospective buyers do not have money.

While it remains to be seen if the demonetisation decision brings in the desired change, it has thrown the life of the aam aadmi off the track.

ALSO READ: Rs 2,000 won't be withdrawn, printing on it not wrong: Social media rumours busted

ALSO READ: Black money saves Indian economy: Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav

ALSO WATCH



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Laxminarayana, a retired government employee who was standing in queue at the Andhra Bank branch in West Marredpally, Secunderabad on Tuesday, collapsed suddenly.

By Ashish Pandey: A 78-year-old man died after suffering a cardiac arrest while standing in a queue in front of Andhra Bank, in Hyderabad.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Laxminarayana, a retired government employee who was standing in queue at the Andhra Bank branch in West Marredpally, Secunderabad on Tuesday, collapsed suddenly. Other customers who were also present at the bank to withdraw or deposit their Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes assisted him and helped move him to a nearby hospital.

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However Laxminaraya lost his life on route to the hospital. Laxminarayana's family however refused to lodge any complaint with the police and left to their ancestral place in Anantapur of Andhra Pradesh for his last rites.

SERIOUS CONCERN

After the Modi government demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes, there have been long queues outside every bank as people aim to get the banned notes replaced with the new legal tender. There have been several reports of disabled and old people being forced stand in these queues for hours as they need to deposit the cash before the government's deadline of 30th November.

ALSO READ:

Midnight queues, violence, banks refusing to cooperate: 7 points that sum up currency crisis

India Goes to ATMs: Long, angry queues; cops called in few places



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By PTI: Kathmandu, Nov 15 (PTI) Nepal Premier Prachanda has telephoned Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought an arrangement so that Nepalese holding a huge stock of banned high denomination Indian bank notes could swap them with legal currency in the country.

During his five-minute telephonic conversation with Modi, Prachanda told him that Nepalese have quite a big stock of Indian bank notes of 500 and 1,000 denominations that have now been pulled out of circulation.

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Hundreds of thousands of Nepalese, who earn a living by working as daily-wage labourers in India, visit the neighbouring country seeking medical treatment or rely on Indian markets to purchase daily essentials, are said to be holding big chunk of scrapped Indian bank notes, Kathmandu Post reported.

Also, those visiting India as pilgrims and those engaged in cross-border trade are said to have a big stock of now-useless Indian bank notes.

Some of these people, according to the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, may lose their entire savings if the now-obsolete notes are not replaced with legal bills.

"Considering this, India should make an arrangement so that Nepalese can exchange the banned notes here in Nepal," a statement posted on Prachandas personal website quoted the premier as saying.

In response, Modi said he would immediately resolve the issue and would also ask Finance Minister to hold talks with Nepalese counterpart.

Following the Indian governments surprise decision, the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the central bank, also banned the use of those bank notes in Nepal from last Wednesday.

The NRB has said IRs 33.6 million in the denominations of 500 and 1,000 is within the financial system in Nepal, the report said.

The figure includes cash parked at vaults of banks, financial institutions and NRB.

But actual stock of banned Indian bank notes is expected to be much more because Nepalese were previously allowed to carry Indian 500 and 1,000-rupee bank notes worth up to IRs25,000, it said.

Also, those residing in areas bordering India usually stash Indian notes of larger denominations as they have to frequent Indian markets to buy goods.

The Indian government has said people who have accounts in Indian banks need not worry as the financial institutions will provide them the currency exchange facility. But many Nepalese who own the banned notes do not have accounts in Indian banks.

Against this backdrop, the Ministry of Finance wrote to the Indian Finance Ministry on Thursday requesting that arrangements be made so that Nepalese holding banned Indian notes could replace them with legal tenders here in Nepal.

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NRB too wrote a letter to the Reserve Bank of India, seeking exchange facility for Nepalese holding banned Indian notes here in Nepal. (more) PTI NSA AKJ NSA

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Modi had gone all out in his Goa rally to convince people of the political and economic sagacity behind the move.

By Rajat Rai: In his second rally after the demonetisation move, Prime Minister Narendra Modi received a grand reception at Ghazipur district, adjoining his own constituency of Varanasi, in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh on Monday.

Modi had gone all out in his Goa rally to convince people of the political and economic sagacity behind the move. Turning the heat on the Congress once again, Modi said that the common man 'is now having a sound sleep'.

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When I used to sell tea on the railway station, the poor used to ask me for kadak chai. I used to wonder why they prefer it. One day, a labourer told me that it is like a power booster and enables us to work for hours," Modi said.

PLEDGE TO FULFIL YOUR DREAMS

Congress kewal chawanni band kar paai lekin humne jo kiya hai, ameer log neend ki goli kha kar so rahe hain (Congress could only ban 25 paisa. But with what we have done, the rich need sleeping pills to go to sleep)," Modi said.

"I have intentionally chosen this date (November 14) to pay my tribute to Jawaharlal Nehru, No matter how your family abused me and accused me, but I have taken a pledge to fulfil your dreams," Modi added.

"Aap ko aisi shraddhanjali kisi ne nahi di hogi. (None would have paid you the tribute that we are paying," Modi further said as the crowd applauded.

Also Read: PM Modi reviews currency availability, upholds decisions for smoother cash dispensation



DEALT A DENT IN THE TRADITIONAL VOTE BANKS

According to political observers, Modi might have dealt a dent in the traditional vote banks of regional behemoths SP and BSP. And if popular response is anything to go by, this deeply caste-ridden but politically active district in Purvanchal seemed to support the contention.

Modi has done a great job. We are happy that those who have looted the nation so far are now begging for Rs 100 notes. We might not get their money, but we will reap the benefits," said 33-year-old Jaiprakash Singh of Revtipur village of the district, who belongs to the OBC Koeri caste of vegetable growers.

Also Read: Politicians who have amassed wealth for seven generations are ganging up against PM Modi: Sushil Modi

MODI ATTACKS MAYAWATI

Modi also attacked BSP supremo Mayawati saying "Wo (Mayawati) noton ki mala aise pehnti thi ki unka chehra nahi dikhta tha. (She used to wear garlands of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in such a way that her face was not visible)," Modi said.

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Later in the evening, Mayawati reacted sharply to Modi's remarks. "Sitting on such a prestigious chair, he should not issue such statements. These people are not able to digest the fact that a Dalit's daughter is garlanded with notes," she said.

Also Read: PM Modi's demonetisation is anti-farmer, alleges Mayawati

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Since it could be a little difficult to tell the right from the rumour, here are some false information you should ignore.

By India Today Web Desk: Like cash crunch and ATM crisis were not enough, rumour mongers are busy feeding social media with false information regarding PM Modi's demonetisation policy. Last week we brought you a list of rumours you should turn a deaf ear to.

Read here: Rs 2,000 won't be withdrawn, printing on it not wrong: Social media rumours busted

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But with time, this list has only become longer.

Since it could be a little difficult to tell the right from rumour, here are a few you should ignore and discourage from being spread around:

1. TRANSPORTERS ARE GOING ON STRIKE

Here's one that is scaring mothers to death. A viral WhatsApp/Facebook post claims that transporters are going on a strike against the demonetisation policy from tomorrow, due to which markets will run dry.

Reports confirm that there is no such strike coming up. So, chill.

Source: Twitter



2. CASH CRUNCH DRIVING PEOPLE TO LOOT MALLS

We are talking about cash crisis, people, not zombie apocalypse. Things are bad, we understand, but hasn't crossed that bridge yet.

A video clip of people looting a mall in Delhi is being spread around with the claim that the looting was triggered by demonetisation troubles. But reports assure that so is not the truth.

Delhi Police clarified that the mall in question is "a self-catering mall where card holding members take along the stocks they need". So, what the video shows is probably coordination gone wrong, not rampage looting.

Here's what the Delhi Police said about it:



3. SALT PRICES ARE RISING

Although some big news channels covered this, the report about a huge salt crisis having hit the country is untrue. Unlike what the report claims, salt price per kilogram is not increasing to Rs 400.

If you have trust issues and can't take our word for it, here's what Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman has to say:

1. No shortage in the supply of edible salt.Baseless rumors being spread. Salt Commissioner& Jt.Secretary Shri Raghavendra monitoring .... Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) November 11, 2016



4. 200% PENALTY CHARGE ON CASH DEPOSITED NOW

There are no reports of 200 per cent tax being applied on bank deposits above Rs 2.5 lakh. An OpIndia report debunks the rumour saying that "to reach this stage where you have to pay 90% + as taxes, you need to go through a lot of stuff."



5. CROWDS PROTESTING AGAINST DEMONETISATION

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Granted, there is much contempt and disapproval for the demonetisation policy among public. While some are applauding this move against black money, others are sulking about the harassement of standing in queues outside banks and ATMs.

But there is no solid proof that these viral pictures of crowds are actually of people protesting against the demonetisation policy. They are possibly just snaps of the queues outside ATMs and banks.

"4.5k calls as people took to violence" @PTI_News "Many calls but none reported violence" @DelhiPolice Is media adding to rumours? pic.twitter.com/vmBvGUswPS Manak Gupta (@manakgupta) November 13, 2016



The moral of this article is, look before you leap, think before you believe, and close your eyes before you sleep.

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Holey Artisan Bakery, where 22 people including 17 foreigners were killed during a siege by Islamist militants on July 1, was under police custody till mow.

By Sahidul Hasan Khokon: Dhaka Metropolitan Police have handed over the Holey Artisan Bakery to its owner four months and eleven days after the terror attack in Gulshan.

Holey Artisan Bakery, where 22 people including 17 foreigners, were killed during a siege by Islamist militants on July 1, was under police custody till mow. Police was in surveillance constantly at the main entrance.

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Deputy Commissioner (media) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police DMP Masudur Rahman said that the building where the terror attack took place in Gulshan, was handed over to its owner around 4:15 pm on Sunday.

One of two owners of Holey Artisan, Sadat Mehedi, said the police has already handed over the restaurant to them. He said he will turn the building into a home for his family and a new place has been taken in Gulshan for the eatery. Holey Artisan will reopen in the new place.

Holey Artisan Bakery was kept under police custody since the terror attack for the inspection and investigation of the local and foreign investigation agencies. The site was visited by investigation teams several times. Evidences have also been collected in the case. The premise of the restaurant and the debris at ground and first floor of the building were kept untouched.

Earlier, following the court order, police handed over half a dozen cars that were trapped inside the main entrance of the Holey Artisan Bakery.

ALSO READ:

Zakir Naik's organisation IRF banned for 5 years



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Facebook users slammed the social networking site for removing the photograph of a Swedish firefighter who had severe burns on his face.

By India Today Web Desk: Facebook removed the photograph of a Swedish firefighter who had severe burns on his face and people were furious about it.

The social networking site issued an apology after removing Lasse Gustavson's photograph twice.

Gustavson's friend Bjorn Lindeblad had posted the picture to celebrate the former firefighter's 60th birthday but the Facebook monitors removed it every time Lindeblad posted it.

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Also read: Happy Birthday Facebook: 12 tips that will make you 'like' the site more



Lindeblad then reported the problem to Facebook saying that the removal of the photo was "very 1984" (possible reference to George Orwell's novel about government surveillance). "A few Swedish people with severe burn damage contacted me and explained that it is common practice at Facebook to treat photos of people with serious burn damage the same way you treat photos with sexist or rasist content"(sic), wrote the friend to Facebook.

Photo: Facebook/Bjorn Lindeblad

Calling it a "despicable policy", Lindeblad asked Facebook to reconsider and told them that the people were protesting. But the image was restored only after 10,000 people shared the third post by Lindeblad which now has more than 31,000 shares.

Also read: Error or terror: Deleting posts, banning accounts, is Facebook acting as a Censor Board on Kashmir?



After the widespread backlash, Facebook apologised for "accidentally removing something" and "it was a mistake".

Photo: Facebook/Bjorn Lindeblad

Lasse Gusatvson is a Swedish firefighter who survived an industrial fire in the line of duty.

Also read: This man fooled over 2 lakh Facebook users with his predictions



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Google WiFi is a wireless router system designed to work either as a single device or as a group of routers spread throughout a space to provide a stronger signal around your home.

Introduced in October, Google WiFi is expected to go up for pre-order soon and ship in December. You can currently join a waitlist for Google WiFi at the Google Store.

But ahead of launch, Google has posted a video showing how to set up its router. And today Google WiFi showed up at the FCC website.

The FCC documents dont provide any new details, but they do confirm that the router doesnt just support WiFi. Other wireless protocols have also been tested, including Bluetooth LE and 802.15.4 ZigBee, a protocol for smart home and IoT products including smart light bulbs, outlets, door locks, and other devices that can be connected to the internet through a gateway.

The setup guide, meanwhile, shows that you set up Google WiFi by connecting a power cable and plugging the router into your modem with an Ethernet cable. Then you can configure the router using a smartphone app by scanning a QR code for your router with your phone.

You can also use the app to configure a multi-device setup. Additional units should be placed about two rooms away from one another, and they dont need to be plugged into your modem, since theyll pick up and strengthen your internet signal from the first router.

A single Google WiFi router will sell for $129, and Google will sell 3-packs for $299.
By PTI: New Delhi, Nov 15 (PTI) A Festival of India began today in Oman to showcase the countrys diverse culture.

The event will witness classical and folk dances, music shows, Indian cuisine fest and exhibition on Islamic art calligraphy, among others, an official release here said.

The festival, which will come to an end on March 24 next year, will be held in four cities -- Muscat, Sur, Sohar and Salalah, it added. PTI MP SMN

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Researchers at mobile security firm Kryptowire have discovered software running on some smartphones that sends sensitive data to a server in China without clearly making that clear to users.

One of the phone makers with affected models is Florida-based Blu Products, maker of the popular BLU R1 HD smartphone that Amazon sold for as little as $50 until recently (the phone is no longer available from the Amazon Prime Exclusive Phones page).

After BLU was notified, the company pushed out a software update to phones including the BLU R1 HD. But if youre wondering how this came to happen in the first place, the New York Times did some digging.

In a nutshell, a Chinese company called Adups creates software that allows phone makers to update firmware on a smartphone remotely. One of the companys clients wanted the ability to see call logs, text message content, and location information, and contact lists, allegedly in order to identify junk messages.

The software was not suppose to be installed on phones sold in the United States, and according to the New York Times, Google has told Adups that phones which ship with the Play Store and other Google apps should not include that monitoring feature. That should include most Android phones sold in the US, Europe, and most other parts of the globe but not Android phones shipped in China, where Google apps are not available.

While its good to know that BLU has addressed a problem that it says affected about 120,000 smartphones, its unclear how many phones from other manufacturers also include the spyware feature. I suspect folks whove been using affected devices for the past few months may also be less than pleased by the assertion that their text messages arent being sent to a Chinese server anymore.

Update: BLU CEO Sammy Ohev-Zion tells PC Magazine that the company is pulling the plug on Adups and only shipping phones using Googles own firmware-updating system from now on.
 The easiest way for people to provide their inputs is through our online survey at NVTATransAction.org.

 Thousands of people have already completed the online survey. We have extended the deadline because of the overwhelming response. But to stay on schedule, the survey must close on Nov. 28 .

 This is the most extensive public engagement effort we have ever attempted, because it is so important to us.

 We will also be repeating our Benchmark Survey in December (the previous survey was in October 2015) to understand how Northern Virginians perceptions about transportation have changed since we started the TransAction process. Well share those results early in 2017.

 Also in early 2017, the authority will be taking action on how our FY2018-23 Six Year Program will be developed. We call this our SYP Framework. This Framework will update and enhance the project selection methodology we have used in the past. We see a great opportunity to streamline the overall process, because we can combine several analytical steps that were conducted separately in the past. This will save resources and make it much easier for the public to understand. Transparency is always job #1 for us.

 The technical approach we are using to develop TransAction will consider the possibility that, for reasons mostly beyond our control, 2040 may look very different from what we expect today. Self-driving cars, shared mobility services such as Uber/Lyft, and other opportunities enabled by new technologies could have a big impact on how we travel. They may make congestion and transit crowding better or worse its too soon to be sure.

 However, we will assess the robustness of the TransAction recommendations in case any of these alternate futures come to fruition.

 We will release a draft TransAction plan in spring 2017, when there will be more opportunity for the public and our stakeholders to weigh in.

 Over the summer, we will enhance the draft plan based on this feedback and adopt the final plan in October 2017. We will adopt the FY2018-23 Six Year Program perhaps six months after that.

 Once again, complete the online survey NOW or by Nov. 28 at NVTATransAction.org. We will share some initial public engagement results in early December.




Actually, it was the Sunday after, maybe 30 years ago. I went to a small college in central Massachusetts and had to arrange to drive back to school from DC on that Sunday (I know, bad decision!). My sister went to another small college up north and our parents had given us a clunker to share for trips to and from. I can't remember why my sister didn't make the trip back but I had found another student at my college from the DMV and we agreed to drive back together in the clunker. We didn't know each other AT ALL, and she was a year or two behind me. There was something about the long stretches of road, the darkness, the stillness but we talked nonstop for the nearly 10 hour drive. I come from a large family and she had one sibling. Both of them were adopted. She opened up about the experience, when she first understood what that meant and her conflicted stance about finding her birth parents. The cruel things kids said in school to her and her brother when they found out. The pain of being given a "draw your family tree" assignment and not knowing what to do. Well, her mother helped her draw two entwined trees. Her birth family tree was devoid of names but as lush and beautiful as her parents' tree. I'll never forget this: "I finally came to realize I had two mothers who loved me. One enough to give me away and one enough to adopt me." All these years later, I'm still struck by the power of that realization. I've seen her once or twice at reunions but we never stayed in touch.
Head of Algerian government has said that his country is ready to settle its disputes with neighboring Morocco in a bid to boost Arab Maghreb Union which is lagging behind other regional blocs.

In an interview carried out by Al Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal, who will visit Saudi Arabia Nov.15-16, describes Morocco as a brotherly country, saying Algiers is ready to settle its differences with Rabat to give a new impetus to Arab Maghreb Union (UMA).

The Head of the Algerian government recognizes the existence of divergences between the two neighbors, saying that his country prefers a global approach addressing all issues through a direct dialogue so that the two countries can turn their attention to UMA invigoration, fulfilling the wishes of the two brotherly peoples.

Such remarks made on the eve of the trip of the Algerian official to Saudi Arabia come after a visit of paid last April to Riyadh by an advisor to President Bouteflika, seem to suggest that the Moroccan-Algerian relations will be at the center talks of Mr Sellal with Saudi officials.

Riyadh has offered many times a mediation between Rabat and Algiers to defuse the crisis and disagreements between the two neighboring countries over the Sahara issue.

For the Algerian Prime minister, this issue is in the hands of the United Nations and in the process of political negotiations between Morocco and polisario. Algeria supports this process and hopes that these talks will be concluded as soon as possible and crowned with a final and just solution to this conflict, said Mr. Sellal.

Algeria, which is hit by an unprecedented economic and financial crisis due to the fall in oil prices, has renewed contacts with Saudi Arabia, after a diplomatic crisis due to Algiers stand on the Syrian conflict and its refusal to include Lebanese Hezbollah in the list of terrorist organizations.

According to some analysts, Algeria is reaching to Saudi Arabia seeking assistance to overcome economic and financial crisis, but such rapprochement could also have positive impact on Algerian-Moroccan relations. It is fair to say that only time will tell whether Algiers flip-flap move will yield positive results.
By Smbat Grigoryan

YEREVAN.  According to official data, individuals remittances from Russia to Armenia have totaled $6395 million, from January to September. Even though this amount seems impressive at first glance, the matter is the dynamics of this indicator.

Even though Armenias economy is long dependent on transfer of funds from abroad and their consequences, there is a more noteworthy fact here.

The remittance outflow from Armenia to Russia has increased. Although this increase may not seem so great at first glance, against the backdrop of the huge drop in remittances from Russia, however, this has led to the worsening of the ratio between the inflow and outflow of transmittals.

As a result, Armenias respective positive balance with Russia fell by 2.5 times.

And the negative balance reduced by more than twice in the past two years, and it no longer reaches $1 billion.

Armenias foreign trade imbalance, however, is double the positive balance in remittances.

And the problem gets deeper with the reduction in the currency inflow from other sources.
YEREVAN.  The reaction in Azerbaijan ever since the Iskander missile systems display in Armenia attests to many things, military analyst Arkadi Grigoryan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

It is apparent that they [i.e. the Azerbaijanis] are attempting to prove to themselves and to others that Armenia does not possess this system, noted the analyst. [And] all reliable and unreliable sources are used [by Azerbaijan] for this.

The permanent publications on this topic, and the searches for any references about the Iskanders, bespeak the major concern within Azerbaijani government structures.

And on the other hand, the tone of these publications attests [to the fact] that they [i.e. the Azerbaijani authorities] are attempting to reassure the [Azerbaijani] public that their fears are unfounded.
State Department: US will contribute to Armenia-Azerbaijan talks

Turkey parliament approves extending mandate of countrys military in occupied Aghdam of Karabakh

Sweden to reach NATO's defense spending goal of 2% of GDP by 2026

Lebanon raises electricity price for first time since 1990s

Lavrov and Cavusoglu discuss situation over 'grain deal'

Turkey not satisfied with Sweden's promises

Azerbaijan claims to have 'exposed' Azerbaijanis who acted 'under control of Iranian secret service'

Taliban sets up female Interior Ministry unit in Afghanistan to disperse protests

U.S. concerned about Iran's 'threats' against Saudi Arabia

Lebanon is facing a power vacuum, left without a president

Gas exports from Iran to Armenia to double

In first 9 months about $1.7 billion is transferred to Armenia

Baerbock and Scholz disagree on China

Delegations of Ukraine, Turkey and UN temporarily suspend movement of ships in framework of Black Sea grain deal

Qatar Energy Minister calls EU proposal to limit gas prices hypocritical

Jamshidi: Any capturing of further territories is occupation

Putin: Kiev must give real guarantees of strict compliance with the Istanbul agreements

Putin and Erdogan discuss results of meeting of Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders in Sochi

Blinken goes to Germany to meet with G-7 colleagues

Iranist: Cooperation between Yerevan and Tehran will prevent further Turkish activism

U.S. military conducts field weapons inspections in Ukraine

Defense Ministers of Russia and Turkey once again discuss suspension of 'grain deal'

Armenian President and ICRC representatives discuss Armenian captives held in Azerbaijan

Aliyev's aide visits Nakhchivan

Berlin urges Serbia to choose between EU and Russia

Armenian Deputy Prime Minister and USAID representatives discuss bilateral cooperation

Erdogan: Turkey continues to make necessary initiatives on grain deal

Macron promises Ukraine to survive winter and strengthen air defense

The Collins British Dictionary chooses main word of 2022

Medvedev: Western countries are pushing the world into a global war

Deputy Minister: 50,5 bln AMD will be allocated to North-South transport corridor construction in 2023

Georgia begins preparations for multinational exercise Agile Spirit 2023

Armenia and Iran discuss bilateral energy cooperation

Paruyr Hovhannisyan receives Erin Elizabeth McKee

Dollar, euro drop in Armenia

Erdogan plans talks with Putin and Zelenskyy in coming days

Head of Armenian State Revenue Committee: In 2022, the state budget will lack about AMD 84.8 billion

Russia's richest billionaires will become $83.4 billion richer in 2022

Expert: expansion of relations between Tehran, Yerevan may prevent corridor creation

Governor of Armenias Gegharkunik briefs EU mission on condition of settlements affected by Azerbaijan shelling (PHOTOS)

Russia and Iran to sign deal on free trade zone with EEU

Armenia National Assembly opposition factions representatives meet with visiting European Parliament members

Hearings on South Caucasus to be held in US Senate

Central Bank chief: High activity in Armenia economy is maintained in third quarter of 2022

OPEC Secretary General: Europe and U.S. are heading for economic recession

Pashinyan briefs Raisi about talks in Sochi and their results

Ardshinbank and Mastercard offer to pay with Apple Pay and get cashback

Nine people arrested in India after mass deaths in bridge collapse

CSTO meeting on Armenia-Azerbaijan border situation to be held on November 23 in Yerevan

Zas: CSTO working towards proposals regarding situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Ameriabank: At the Vanguard of Armenia's Banking Sector

Clinton sues Trump to recover $1 million from him

Lukashenko: Armenia turned down proposed settlement plan

Raisi: Iran-Armenia trade can be increased to $3bn

Zas discusses Baku-Yerevan conflict in Minsk

Raisi: Foreigners interference will deepen problems of Caucasus

State Security Service conducts operation in Azerbaijani Ministry of Culture

Iran expands sanctions on U.S.

Cavusoglu discusses relations with Azerbaijan with his Iranian counterpart

European gas price falls to $1,246 per 1,000 cubic meters in October

Legislature vice-speaker thanks visiting European Parliament lawmakers for supporting Armenia

Armenia revenue committee chief: No initiative to ban import of Turkish goods

Economy minister: Authorities plan to increase number of tourists in Armenia to 2.5mn annually by 2026

Armenia official: Our border checkpoints are ready to receive Azerbaijanis

Flight restrictions extended at 11 airports in south and center of Russia until November 9

Sergey Kopirkin: Unblocking of communications must be based on respect for countries sovereignty

Storm Nalgae in the Philippines leaves 110 people killed

Lukashenko on Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict: Why did they engage EU? Why are they engaging CSTO there?

Ambassador: Russia justifies itself as Armenias ally

Kopirkin: September battles between Armenia, Azerbaijan were stopped by Russia militarys efforts

Gold price remains stable

Death toll in Seoul stampede rises to 156

Armenian PM and Iranian President hold talks in Tehran

Kopirkin: Karabakh status issue should be left to next generations

14 people injured in Chicago Halloween night shooting

Armenias Pashinyan arrives in Iran

Armenia economy minister: Government predicts 7% economic growth in 2023

Turkish and Ukraine defense ministers discuss situation with grain deal

Copper prices are rising

Russia envoy to Armenia: Many common paradigms being broken in South Caucasus

Israel holds fifth parliamentary elections since 2019

Lavrov: Over past decades we managed to lay solid foundations for strategic partnership, alliance with Armenia

Oil goes up in price

Primakov Readings international forum kicks off in Yerevan

One person killed in Toronto shooting

Armenias Pashinyan heads for Iran

Newspaper: Armenia premier sends intelligence to Artsakh on day of rally

Putin on choosing Turkey as Russia natural gas supply junction: Erdogan is man of his word

Russia, Turkey FMs discuss South Caucasus

Kremlin: Armenia, Azerbaijan confirmed their interest in Russia mediation

Armenia PM concludes visit to Russias Sochi

Putin: Europe will not be able to exclude Russia from Yerevan-Baku relations normalization process

Putin on extending mandate of Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh: It will depend on other matters

Putin: No Armenia-Azerbaijan peace treaty yet

IMF forecasts $1 trillion unforeseen profit for oil exporter

Lavrov and Cavusoglu discuss recent developments in Caucasus

Seoul and Warsaw sign key agreements on nuclear energy development in Poland

Statement by leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan on results of meeting in Sochi

Saudi Arabia and UAE defend OPEC decision

Putin: Russia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan agree on joint statement
YEREVAN.  Representatives of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Armenia (RA) on Monday met, at Zvartnots International Airport of capital city Yerevan, renowned Russian journalist Dmitry Kiselyov, who is the mouthpiece of Kremlin, reported Hraparak newspaper.

He has arrived in Armenia this time with an important mission. Against the backdrop of the tension at the [Armenian-Azerbaijani] border, the Azerbaijani military exercises, he today [i.e. Tuesday] will interview [President] Serzh Sargsyan [of Armenia].

The matter[, however,] is not only listening to the RA Presidents view on geopolitical issues, but also keeping parity, since Kiselyov had recently interviewed [Azerbaijan President Ilham] Aliyev, who, along with other exotic ideas, had not ruled out Azerbaijans membership in the EAEU [i.e. the Eurasian Economic Union, in which Armenia is a member]of course in light of the return of territories [to Azerbaijan], and he had promised Karabakh an autonomous republic status under the light of Azerbaijan.

Russia is testing its and Kiselyovs projectiles during these days of [Donald] Trumps election [as US President] and the changing game, wrote Hraparak.
STEPANAKERT.  The adversary violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between the Karabakh and Azerbaijani opposing forces more than 75 times, from late Monday night to early Tuesday morning.

During this time the Azerbaijani armed forces fired around 1,300 shots toward the Armenian position-holders, and by way of various caliber weapons, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR/Artsakh) Defense Army informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

In addition, the adversary fired seven shells from mortars on the NKR Defense Army combat positions that are located in northerly and northeasterly directions, and one shell from a grenade launcher, in a northerly direction of the line of contact.

But the NKR Defense Army vanguard units are in command of the operational and tactical situation, and they continue confidently carrying out their military watch.
YEREVAN.  The Hayastan All-Armenian Funds 17th annual Pan- European Phoneathon, led by the funds French affiliate and with the participation of its affiliates in Germany and Switzerland, will take place from Wednesday to Sunday, mobilizing Armenian communities throughout the three countries.

Proceeds from the large-scale fundraising campaign will be used to rebuild Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) communities that have sustained heavy damage as a result of the four-day war in early April, to provide assistance to the Syrian-Armenian community, and to support the continued growth of agricultural-development projects in Armenias Tavush Province.

The Hayastan All-Armenian Funds affiliate in Greece will have its own phoneathon, which will be held on Saturday and Sunday in Athens. Proceeds from this campaign will be contributed to the construction of the kindergarten of Karin Tak, a village in Artsakhs Shushi Region. The kindergarten-construction project, now underway, is slated to be completed in summer 2017.

Valerie Toranian, editor-in- chief of the French magazine Revue des Deux Mondes, and journalist and entertainer Nikos Aliagas will serve as the godmother and the godfather of the Pan-European Phoneathon, respectively, making appeals for unity and support throughout the five days of the event.

In the course of the Pan-European Phoneathon, more than 600 volunteers stationed in Paris, Marseille, Toulouse, and Lyon will make calls to Armenian households, businesses, and organizations, to request their support of far-reaching projects that will benefit Armenia and Artsakh, as well as Armenians in Syria.

Last year, the Pan-European Phoneathon raised a total of over 1.3 million euros, which was used for various agricultural projects in Tavush, the construction of multifunctional community centers in Artsakh, and assistance to war-affected Syrian Armenians and Iraqi Armenians.

Armenian communities in Europe have held phoneathons for the past 16 years, consistently expanding their donor bases and fundraising totals.

Fund phoneathons are also held annually in South America, through the funds Argentinean and Brazilian affiliates. The Brazilian-Armenian communitys phoneathon, the Hayastan All-Armenian Funds last major fundraising event for 2016, will be held during November 26-27.

A testament to the growing stature of these phoneathons  whether in Europe, South America, or elsewhere  is the fact that their volunteer corps continue to draw the participation of numerous non-Armenian individuals.
Having worked at one of Italy's few three-Michelin star restaurants La Pergola, Chef Francesco Francavilla brings the magic of his cooking to Mumbai's Vetro.

By Moeena Halim: He's cooked in the tiny kitchen of Hollywood biggie Bruce Willis' temporary villa in Rome as well as the high-pressure kitchen at Rome's three-Michelin star La Pergola. But for the past seven months, Chef Francesco Francavilla has taken over the kitchen at The Oberoi's Vetro, where he has been serving some of the finest Italian food in the city.

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His herb-crusted lamb loin is a great example of Francavilla's love for tradition, and his endeavour to modernize the food he serves. The perfectly cooked pink meat is dotted with bright green, placed carefully on a black stone plate decorated with swirls of delicate sauces interrupted only by colourful rice crispies and grilled artichokes that add texture and flavour respectively.

Chef Francesco Francavilla is quite an experienced chef. Photo: Vetro, The Oberoi

Francavilla, who has worked in Malta, the Caribbean, Germany apart from his native Rome, Italy, usually travels with his sous chef and his team. This time, the one thing he brings with him to the Mumbai kitchen is his sense of discipline and demand for pin drop silence during work hours. It is something he inherited from Chef Heinz Beck at La Pergola.

"You're not allowed to speak in his kitchen. After all you have 50-60 guests who're willing to spend 300 euros on their meals. You've got to make sure you churn out fantastic dishes and that means the chefs mustn't be disturbed. And if you do, then you have to start cleaning the floors, or have Chef screaming at you in front of everyone. Now I'm the one shouting," he says with a laugh.

Vetro at The Oberoi, Mumbai, has been ranked as the best European resaurant in the city. Photo: Vetro, The Oberoi

Francavilla also left behind a legacy of his own at La Pergola. One of his recipes, a carpaccio of prawn with carbonara sauce and dried San Daniele ham made it to the menu at the Michelin-starred restaurant. "We were 22 cooks, and I was the only one whose dish made it to the menu. You have to come to work two or three hours early if you want to try your own dishes, then you go to the chef with the dish. Most of the time he tosses it in the trash quite ruthlessly, just like Gordon Ramsay on television," laughs the chef.

Also read: Chef Vicky Ratnani is putting veggies into the spotlight at his Mumbai restaurant



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The pressures of a professional kitchen are a starkly different from the relative quiet that comes with being a personal chef; especially when your client is the easy-going Bruce Willis. "He wanted only classic Italian dishes like tiramisu or amatricianna. He was friendly and very soft-spoken; he would sometimes come into the kitchen and say hello," reveals the chef. His only complaint: the actor ate very small portions.

Born and raised in Rome, Francavilla grew up eating the freshest fish his father would catch from the Mediterranean Sea. "My father loved fishing and hunting. So fresh fish and pheasants were common meals," he recalls.

The egg souffle is a light and delicate dish. Photo: Vetro, The Oberoi

Ask him what he loves cooking most, and he admits it is not a specialty of Rome but of northern Italy--risottos. "Making a perfect risotto is considered an art in Italy. My sous chef, who is from north Italy, trained me to make it the right way," says Francavilla.

From the influential Chef Marco deVita, Francavilla learnt the modern techniques made so popular by Ferran Adria. His kitchen at Vetro, whose menu he has revamped by 80 per cent and was awarded best European restaurant in the city, is equipped to cook sous vide style as well as go molecular every so often. While he prefers to cook all his meats vacuum sealed, he is still wary of using too many chemicals.



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YEREVAN.  Four main themes will be discussed at the Business Innovation Forum 2016, said Hayk Chobanyan, Deputy Director of the Union of Information Technology Enterprises (UITE) of Armenia, at a press conference on Tuesday.

As per Chobanyan, these topics are: Innovative Products and Services, Business Process Development through Innovation, Knowledge Innovation and Development, and Strategy toward Innovative Economy.

Business processes are very important, added the UITE executive. Business education should be highlighted. Everything must be done to prepare specialist that master educated business ideas.

Hayk Chobanyan added that knowledge innovation and development will perhaps be one of the key topics at this event.

The fourth annual Business Innovation Forum will be convened on Friday and Saturday in Dilijan, Armenia.

The event will bring together experts and representatives from local and international companies of good standing.
YEREVAN. - Armenian Minister of Agriculture Ignati Arakelyan on Tuesday received the delegation received by Vassilis Maragos, director of the European Commission Directorate-General for Neighbourhood Policy Division for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Eastern Partnership.

The meeting aimed to discuss the prospects for the further cooperation in the area of agriculture.

The European Union provides great support to the development of the agriculture area in Armenia, which is highly appreciated by the Armenian Government. Nevertheless, there are still many issues in the area, for solving which we expect your support, Minister Arakelyan said, welcoming the guests.

Head of delegation Vassilis Maragos, for his part, informed that the EU is going to continue the support in the area of agriculture, adding that it is necessary to ascertain the directions, where the Armenian side finds it more appropriate to cooperate, proceeding from the current priorities and issues of the countrys agricultural sphere.

Among the priority issues in the agrarian sphere, Minister Ignati Arakelyan specifically singled out re-loaning of agriculture, cooperation development, as well as issues on the improvement of subsidy programs and procurement process in the area of processing.

The Minister also attached importance to the development of cattle breeding, which will contribute to the increase in the volume of goods and farmers incomes.

The delegation members assured that the presented proposals will be studied in detail and be included in the future joint programs if possible. The Armenian side will also be provided consultation services, if necessary.

During the meeting, the sides also discussed other issues of mutual interest.
By PTI: Mumbai, Nov 15 (PTI) With the government setting an ambitious target of 160 GW of solar and wind capacities by 2022, green bonds can be a potential option to support the funding needs, a recent report said.

Green bond is a debt instrument used to raise funds from investors and the proceeds are used only towards financing green projects.

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According to a report released jointly by Assocham and Crisil, to meet the renewable energy target, there is a need to look at innovative channels for financing and banking alone would not be able to support the huge requirements.

"Green bonds could be a potential option to support these funding needs. These proceeds could either be used for funding the capital expenditure of green projects such as renewable energy projects or refinancing existing loans of eligible green projects of the issuer," the report said.

The report also noted that while the green bonds are relatively nascent in the Indian context with only few of the renewable energy independent power producers issuing these bonds, globally first green bond was issued in 2007.

"Though the initial issuances remained small, they have gained lot of prominence in the past couple of years due to increasing appetite and commitment of investors in making climate-responsible investments," it said.

India, with an installed capacity of 306 GW, has the fifth largest power generation portfolio in the world and the current renewable energy contribution to this portfolio stands at 45.6 GW as of September 30, 2016.

The countrys total installed wind and solar power capacities stand at 28 GW and 8.5 GW, respectively, as on September 30.

"Given that green bonds would facilitate attracting a category of investors which are environment friendly and demand investments in green/sustainable financial instruments, these could be a good option to part fund the huge investment needs of the renewable energy sector," the report said. PTI PSK HV SSM ARS BAL

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YEREVAN. - The Armenian armed forces are fully in control of the situation at the frontline.

Chief of the General Staff of Armenian Armed Forces, Movses Hakobyan, said the aforementioned in the telebridge organized on Tuesday for the Armenian peacekeepers and their families participating in peacemaking operations in Kosovo and Afghanistan.

We are watching the military exercises held by Azerbaijan, making corresponding conclusions. The situation at the frontline is the same as during these 24 years. The situation is controllable. There is nothing extraordinary.
YEREVAN. - The Armenian people were and remain strong by their intellect, hand and heart.

Deputy Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly (NA) Eduard Sharmazanov, who is also the Spokesperson for the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), stated the aforementioned in the NA Tuesday.

In his words, it would be advisable to some of the neighbors of Armenia to understand this. The recognition of the need to defend the homeland, where Armenians have lived from time immemorial, give firmness to the nation. I can advise my Azerbaijani colleagues to read Khorenatsi or Shirakatsi. And if they dont want to read Armenian authors, let them read Strabo, Pliny the Elder and Cassius Dio. In their works they can see that Artsakh (the historical name of Karabakh) has always been part of Armenia, Sharmazanov said.
By India Today Web Desk: Accessorising your dress is one thing; dead rodents as add-ons to a dress you've spent a considerable amount on is quite another.

That's what happened with a woman from Manhattan, Cailey Fiesel, who found a dead rat sewn into the hem of her brand new Zara dress.

Fiesel had bought the dress from Zara's Greenwich (Connecticut) store last July, and hanged them in the closet after her purchase, reports nydailynews.com. The 24-year-old wore the black dress for the first time in August 2016, to her workplace.

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"While at work, she started to notice a disturbingly pungent odor and was unable to identify the source," said the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit. "Despite getting up from her desk and walking around, she was unable to escape this odor."

"As the day went on, Ms Fiesel started to notice what felt like a loose string from her dress rubbing against her leg," and "without giving it much thought she reached down with her hand to try and locate the piece of string that was rubbing against her."

"To her utter shock and disbelief, as she ran her hand over the hem of the dress she felt an unusual bulge and suddenly realized that it was not a string that was rubbing against her leg but was instead a leg rubbing against her leg. The leg of a dead rodent that is," court papers claim.

Picture courtesy: Facebook/Sparkle Diva's Blog Picture courtesy: Facebook/Sparkle Diva's Blog

"Ms Fiesel jumped out of her chair in shock, people surrounded her desk to see what the commotion was while Ms. Fiesel was paralyzed with fear, she then ran to remove the dress," it added. "After removing the dress she found that a dead rodent was sewn into the hem of the dress."

"It's disturbing," said Adam Deutsch, who's representing Fiesel. "It clearly comes from a lack of oversight in terms of what they're putting on their shelves."

Zara gave a statement to Daily News, saying, it's "aware of the suit, and we are investigating the matter further."

"Zara USA has stringent health and safety standards, and we are committed to ensuring that all of our products meet these rigorous requirements," a Zara spokesman also said.

"As a result of Zara's negligence in manufacturing and selling a dress to Ms. Fiesel with a dead rodent inside, Ms Fiesel has sustained significant personal injuries and emotional distress," the suit says. "She formed a large rash that was diagnosed as a rodent born disease."

Zara, Fiesel claims, had, "manufactured, distributed, delivered, supplied, inspected, and/or sold the dress, which was unfit for its intended purpose and unreasonably hazardous, causing personal injury to the plaintiff."\

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She also maintains the company "breached its duty to exercise reasonable care in designing, manufacturing, inspecting, distributing, delivering, supplying, inspecting, and/or selling its products by negligently releasing into the marketplace a product that was defective by containing disease causing rodents."

Better check all your hems before paying for that dress then!

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The European Union along with the GIZ (German Society for International Cooperation) has launched a new program aimed at supporting the Armenian SME, which is part of the EUs Support to SME development in Armenia program.

The representative of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Ludovic Ciechanowski, told the aforementioned to reporters Tuesday.

According to him, this program will contribute to the development of innovation eco-system in Armenia and approach the innovations from the business standpoint.

In the framework of the program, two commissioners will arrive in Armenia this week to hold non-official ministerial meetings. One of the commissioners is the representative of the agency, which carries out research work in the European Commission and is responsible for Horizon 2020, the representative said.

In his words, the aim of the EU is to bring the research institute closer to business in Armenia. Ciechanowski also added that earlier it was mentioned that the research institutes in Armenia dont cooperate with the business sector. Thus, the Support to SME development in Armenia program will contribute to the introduction of innovation in business.

The program is funded by the EU and implemented by GIZ Private Sector Development South Caucasus program.
The Centre will share the draft model GST law with the states today as it prepares for the rollout of GST from April 1 next year, CBEC Chairman Najib Shah said.

By PTI: The Centre will share the draft model GST law with the states today as it prepares for the rollout of Goods and Services Tax (GST) from April 1 next year, CBEC Chairman Najib Shah said.

The Centre is also working on multiple options apart from horizontal and vertical divisions for deciding on jurisdiction over tax assessees, he said. "We are very hopeful of GST implementation from April 1, 2017. We will share the model GST law with the states which has been redrafted after taking into account the comments of stakeholders," Shah said while inaugurating the CBEC pavilion at the IITF.

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COMPENSATION LAW TO BE SHARED WITH STATES ON NOV 16



He said the compensation law will be shared with the states on November 16, detailing the procedure for making good revenue loss of states in the first five years of the GST rollout. The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has taken up Goods and Services Tax as the theme for its IITF pavilion and it tries to educate people about the new taxation regime, which is expected to roll out from April next year. The GST will subsume excise, service tax, VAT and other local levies and will help in the smooth movement of goods and services across the country.

Also read: GST slabs finalised: Lowest fixed at 5%, high 28%; more tax on colas, pan masala

The Centre and states have already decided on four-tier GST rates -- 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent -- but is yet to decide on the issue of cross empowerment to avoid dual control.

Differences arose with the states demanding control over 11 lakh service tax assessees, and the Centre proposing to do away with the states having exclusive control over all dealers up to an annual revenue threshold of Rs 1.5 crore -- an issue which was settled in the first meeting of the GST Council.

WHAT ARE HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL DIVISIONS?



The Council has arrived at an option of two proposals -- horizontal division and vertical division.

Also read: Increase GST rate from 26 per cent to 40 per cent on all tobacco products, health experts urge Govt

Horizontal division would mean taxpayers would be divided both for administrative and audit purposes based on a cut-off turnover. Those with a turnover over Rs 1.5 crore would be administered both by the Centre and states, while those with below Rs 1.5 crore would be administered solely by the states. Under the vertical division, taxpayers could be divided in a ratio which would balance the interest of the Centre and the state, both with respect to revenue and spread of numbers.

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Ending the kinds of offshore abuses revealed by the Panama Papers scandal requires a global solution led by the United States and Europe, a report released today by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Swiss anti-corruption expert Mark Pieth says.

The 25-page report, Overcoming the Shadow Economy, argues that, as economic leaders, the U.S. and the European Union have an obligation to force financial centers to comply with global transparency standards.

The U.S. and EU have shown they have the tools to stem the flow of dirty money in the fight against terrorism, but have failed to use these same anti-money-laundering tools as forcefully in the fight against financial corruption and tax dodging, the report says.

Secrecy has to be attacked globally  offshore and onshore, the report says. There can be no places to hide.

The new report is an outgrowth of the pairs initial work on a study committee appointed by the Panamanian government in response to a series of news stories by ICIJ and more than 100 media partners. The media partnerships Panama Papers investigation revealed the inner workings of Mossack Fonseca, a law firm headquartered in Panama that has helped create offshore structures used by world leaders, wealthy individuals, drug lords and financial fraudsters.

Stiglitz and Pieth resigned from the Panamanian government committee in August, saying that government officials had refused to assure the panel it had full independence to investigate and make its findings public. The government blamed their resignations over internal differences on the committee.

Stiglitz, a professor at New Yorks Columbia University, said in an interview Monday that he and Pieth decided to go forward with their own report because they believe its important to articulate the global solutions to the challenges posed by the shadow economy.

Stiglitz said they wanted to address growing concerns about not only Panama but also about other secrecy havens and big nations, such as the U.S., that play a significant role in the offshore system. American banks, for example, have paid out large settlements over allegations by U.S. authorities that they failed to stem the flow of drug money and other illicit funds laundered through shell companies and offshore accounts.

In a globalized world, if there is any pocket of secrecy, funds will flow through that pocket, their report says. That is why the system of transparency has to be global. The U.S. and EU are key in tipping the balance toward transparency, but this will only be the starting point: each country must play its role as a global citizen in order to shut down the shadow economy.

Among the reports recommendations:

Every country should establish a searchable public registry that identifies the directors and actual owners of all companies, trusts and foundations incorporated within its borders.

Governments should hand out stiff punishments to lawyers and other middlemen who knowingly register a corporation or trust whose primary purpose is to evade or avoid taxes or to engage in money laundering.

Governments should discourage money laundering through real estate by requiring the disclosure of the real owners for all large real estate cash transactions.

Pieth and Stiglitz say that the U.S. and EU have the power to force other nations to embrace these and other reforms by simply threatening to cut off access to their financial systems. The pair writes that theres a widely shared perspective that secrecy havens only exist because the U.S. and Europe have looked the other way.  These major players have yet to pull the trigger, partly due to the delay in putting their own houses in order.

The full report can be read here.

Stiglitz is due to speak with the EU's PANA Committee, which was convened to investigate financial secrecy in the wake of the Panama Papers, on Wednesday.
Faraday Future

AP Photo/John Locher

A man walks by a sign at an event for Faraday Future, Wednesday, April 13, 2016, in North Las Vegas, Nev.

Faraday Futures progress on a $1 billion factory appears to be grinding to a halt in North Las Vegas, Nevada.

The secretive, Chinese-backed automotive startup said it would build its future electric, autonomous vehicles at the plant, after holding a groundbreaking ceremony there in April.

Since then, Faraday Future has apparently hit some speed bumps  including falling behind on millions of dollars in escrow payments meant to cover costs for the plant.

AECOM, the contractor overseeing the project, said it may resume construction in early 2017, according to a statement obtained by Jalopnik on Monday.

The project was expected to create 4,500 jobs in the economically depressed region minutes from the Las Vegas Strip.

In an email to Business Insider last month, a Faraday Future spokesperson said business between the startup and AECOM was strong and that it was committed to building [the] factory of the future in North Las Vegas.

In that same statement, the company asserted that both companies were working diligently to resolve the overdue payment.

Faraday Future groundbreaking 1

Bryan Logan/Business Insider

A rendering of Faraday Futures manufacturing facility.

An editorial in the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Monday suggests that little progress has been made in that endeavor: Weve expressed concerns from the beginning that Faraday didnt have the funds to undertake or complete this project, Nevada state treasurer Dan Schwartz was cited in the newspaper. Within the last several weeks, our concerns remain unabated.

Though some Nevada state officials emphatically supported the Faraday Future project, Schwartz was one of its earliest skeptics.

The companys primary investor, Jia Yueting, sent a letter to employees earlier this month saying We sped blindly ahead  our cash demand ballooned. We got overextended in our global strategy. At the same time, our capital and resources were in fact limited, Bloomberg reported.

Story continues

Jia is the chairman of Beijing-based tech company, LeEco, which made a splashy US debut in late October.

Faraday Future has been teasing its upcoming production vehicle over the last several months. Its expected make its official debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

NOW WATCH: Everything we know about the Tesla Model 3





The post Faraday Futures $1 billion electric-car factory in Nevada appears to be on hold appeared first on Business Insider.
Given the robust demand for homes, Chinas sky-high prices can be maintained provided the government curtails new demand, according to four Harvard University scholars.

Despite having shot up in recent years, Chinas home prices could still be sustainable.

Given the robust demand for homes, Chinas sky-high prices can be maintained provided the government curtails new demand, according to four Harvard University scholars (quoted in a Bloomberg report).

Led by Edward Glaeser, the scholars noted that home prices are resilient partly because buyers are not in any major debt. Investing for the long term, said buyers are unlikely to dispose of their homes or have them repossessed, despite a drop in prices.

Leveraged developers also enjoy good relationships with state banks; as such, their loans can be restructured even if pressured, they said in an October working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Chinas central bank is walking a tightrope as it struggles to address skyrocketing home prices. Last week, it vowed to curb asset bubbles, while ensuring enough liquidity to support a growth target of at least 6.5 percent. Controlling new home supply risks undermining plans to urbanise 100 million Chinese rural citizens by 2020.

There does appear to be a feasible path towards price stability, said the scholars. The demand for urbanisation in China is so large that if the government acts to sharply restrict new supply, it can probably maintain prices at close to current market levels. If the government buys up excess inventory, perhaps to convert it to social housing as it has started to do in 2015, it can further bolster softening prices.

The stability path, however, comes with significant social costs. China will lose the increased productivity that comes with residents moving from rural areas to cities, and construction employment will drop. Furthermore, a clampdown on new home supply would see local governments losing the financial autonomy they have achieved from land taxes and sales, they said.

From 2003 to 2014, 100 billion sq ft of residential property was built in China, amounting to approximately 74 sq ft per person, while the average price of a 90 sq m home in Beijing and Shanghai this year is about 25 times the average household income. The stock of vacant homes nationwide stands at around 20 billion sq ft, 2.5 times the size of New York City.

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The scholars noted that the building spree was especially rampant in second- and third-tier cities. In fact, the inventory of homes in third-tier cities soared to 3.45 billion sq ft in 2015, from 940 million sq ft in 2011.

In many respects, China looks like a classic housing bubble, they said. Prices have soared. New construction is enormous. Vacancies are large and pervasive. It is tempting to view these events from afar and conclude that a price drop is imminent.

However, they believe such a scenario is far from certain.

Cheryl Marie Tay, Senior Journalist at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this or other stories, email cheryl@propertyguru.com.sg
(Bloomberg) -- Malaysia Airlines Bhd. is considering ordering as many as 25 widebody aircraft as the nations flag carrier, recovering from two fatal air crashes in 2014, looks to meet growing travel demand.

The airline will replace 15 of its aging planes and add 10 to fuel growth, Chief Executive Officer Peter Bellew said in an interview in Singapore Tuesday. It may look at Airbus Group SEs A330s and A350s, and Boeing Co.s 787s, with a decision due by the middle to end of next year, he said.

I am short of widebody aircraft, said Bellew. Besides the current Kuala Lumpur-London flights, we wont do other long-haul routes until 2020, 2021 because the aircraft will be available at the right price, at the right time and at the right configuration.

Bellew, who became Malaysia Airs third chief executive officer in two years in July, is tasked with the job of restoring confidence in the carrier that lost two planes two years ago -- one that vanished over the Indian Ocean and another that was shot down over Ukraine. The airline is likely to become profitable in 2018 before it relists its shares in the first quarter of the following year, Bellew said.

Fully owned by Khazanah Nasional Bhd. after being taken private in 2014, Malaysia Air has cut long-haul flights and eliminated about 6,000 jobs as part of its restructuring.

After scrapping some European routes, it signed a code-share deal last year with Dubai-based Emirates for longer-haul destinations, eschewing its traditional model of linking Europe and Australia via Southeast Asia. The Asian carrier flies to London from Kuala Lumpur using the Airbus A380s and plans to replace them with A350s in April 2018, Bellew said.

To read about Malaysia Airlines plans for its A380s, click here

To claw back some of its lost business, Malaysia Air has been offering promotions on its business and economy cabins to lure passengers, Bellew said in a separate interview with Bloomberg Televisions Haslinda Amin. With round-trip tickets between Kuala Lumpur and London for as low as $450, the airline now has a market share of about 60 percent on its London flights, compared with about 45 percent in May, Bellew said.

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The competition is very intense on direct routes to Europe, Bellew said. But I think there will be a place in the future for Malaysia Airlines to look at direct long haul services back to Europe.

Malaysia Air ordered 25 Boeing 737 Max 8 jets, worth $2.75 billion at list price in July with options for 25 more to compete against a slew of budget carriers in the region.

The carrier doesnt have enough planes to meet the unprecedented opportunity in China, Bellew said. If 12 percent of the mainland Chinese get passports in 10 years, as per a government target, that would translate to 150 million more potential tourists flying to Malaysia, he said.

The global mega trend in tourism is in China, Bellew said.

--With assistance from Karolina Miziolek and Anand Menon To contact the reporter on this story: Kyunghee Park in Singapore at kpark3@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anand Krishnamoorthy at anandk@bloomberg.net, Sam Nagarajan, Shamim Adam

2016 Bloomberg L.P.
Friend of the mag Rich Armitage (@richibobs on Instagram) has just sent through these jaw dropping photos of an lost Malaysian skatepark in the forests of Shah Alam. Stumbling across an overgrown skatepark in the midst of a forest trek in Selangor must be a surreal experience but luckily Rich had his camera to hand, coming back with evidence that it wasnt just a hallucination caused by four wheeled withdrawal.

Peep some video footage of it being skated by Malaysian ripper Arina Rahman here.

I randomly came across this in the middle of a forest on a trip to Malaysia back in September, I couldnt believe it, there was a vert ramp with a roll in, a smaller ramp and a bowl behind.

Seemingly not much distance lies between the area it was found in and Shah Alams still-used concrete park, so a patching up trip is ripe for the taking

*Since this post, Amirul Syakirin Zaidun offered up a further glimpse in this short film about DC Malaysias Arina Rahman which he posted up in our Facebook comments section;
By PTI: Kochi, Nov 14 (PTI) Kerala High Court today rejected the anticipatory bail application of a local CPI(M) leader, who has been named as an accused in a criminal case, and directed him to surrender.

Justice P Ubaid asked petitioner Zakir Hussain, who has been booked on the charge of threatening a man over a business deal, to surrender before the investigating officer within a week. The Judge directed the police to produce Hussain before the magistrate court after interrogation and said the magistrate should consider his bail application in accordance with law. Hussain, whose whereabouts were not known since registration of the criminal case against him, had moved the high court after a sessions court dismissed his anticipatory bail application. A case under non-bailable section has been registered by police on a complaint sent to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan by victim Jube Poulose of Ernakulam here. In his complaint, Poulose had alleged that he was forcibly taken to a place by a gang, where Hussain threatened him with dire consequences over the business deal. CPI(M) has removed Hussain from the post of partys Kalamassery Area Secretary. However, he has been retained as member of the partys district committee. PTI COR TGB VS RT KK

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Mobile Computing

It's About the Learning, Not the Technology  Until it Breaks

Providing technical support for a large fleet of devices that travel between school and home is no simple task. Jeff Mao, who helped lead the nation's first statewide 1-to-1 learning program, discusses the importance of updating support models and other ways to stay dynamic and prepared.

Managing and supporting technology is a lot like managing and caring for people. When people get sick, for example, a doctor can see symptoms but only extrapolate from those symptoms the cause. Technology is much the same. We can't always say why things wont work, but we know the symptoms. We can troubleshoot (poke, prod, run some tests, even ask our computers questions out loud) to try to extrapolate the cause, but usually we treat the symptoms.

So, how do we deal with the challenge of managing the "health" of our school or district's technology? We often attempt to control as many variables as we can to reduce the likelihood of encountering problems. But is this the wisest approach? We could lock up kids in hermetically sealed, sterile, and padded environments to ensure they grow up safe and healthy. But I think most of us would agree this won't lead to a child growing up to be a happy and healthy adult.

Also, it takes time, energy and money to provide such an environment. Sometimes, we focus too strongly on our efforts to provide a stable, secure and safe computing platform and lose sight of our primary goal: providing a computing platform to enrich, empower and facilitate teaching and learning.

As technologies have evolved and improved, it is critical that technology support models also evolve. For example, in a traditional 1-to-1 computing program, a common baseline position for a deployment is that individual users can't install new software or update existing software. One of the root rationales is that doing so makes it too easy for the user to render the computer inoperable and compromise the system's stability. While this remains true in some instances, modern mobile platforms increasingly have core operating systems that isolate individual applications from each other, thereby reducing or eliminating the software conflicts that were so common on earlier platforms.

Additionally, we are seeing mobile and cloud-based platforms that reduce the strain on data storage and backup. Data is automatically written to servers that are physically locked away in a protected network operations center and is in the hands of very skilled and well-staffed companies. It also is typically offered to schools at no cost. So with that in mind, does the device and who controls it really matter anymore?

Yes, it matters. There are other concerns, like privacy, and how we manage those concerns can change.

For instance, in my previous role, I oversaw Maine's statewide 1-to-1 program. We worked with our vendor partner to create a singular safe and secure software configuration for the program. Users could not alter primary system configurations or software, and that provided us with a stable, consistent platform for the entire state.

This afforded us many advantages, but with it also came challenges. Operating system updates were impossible to do midyear. It took months and a multitude of staff hours to develop the master software configuration to ensure stability. Application versions had to be locked down months prior to the school year.

In 2013, for the 11th year of the program, we introduced a new fleet of devices that included a mobile device management (MDM) solution. For the first time, we were able to empower every student and teacher to be the administrative user of their own devices. That fall, new versions of the operating system were released. In the past, we couldn't install those updates  nor updated software that required the update  until the following school year. With all users as administrators, the overwhelming majority of the approximately 80,000 laptops and tablets were upgraded by their individual users within a couple weeks. Techs who initially feared the loss of control realized they would no longer need to spend days, if not weeks, of their summers installing new software on each individual device.

Providing a technology platform that enriches, empowers and facilitates teaching and learning is not simple. There is no single answer. Focus on that goal, and try not to get overwhelmed by the tangible objectives necessary to achieve it. Ask questions and challenge assumptions, because the technology world is dynamic and always changing. How we manage and support the technology should be dynamic and always changing as well.

Examine your device-management assumptions. Look at how these assumptions affect technical support routines and your time. Are your assumptions fundamentally the same as they were three, five, or seven years ago? If so, it's time to make new ones. If you don't routinely get home on time for dinner because you're overwhelmed with work, stop and take a step back (and a critical look) at your device-management assumptions. You may discover that you can improve productivity by leveraging new MDM solutions and, at the same time, distribute some of the work and responsibility to the users.
Broadband

San Diego USD, Cox Business Partnership Connects 92 Additional Schools

San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) in California is providing fast and reliable Internet to an additional 92 schools.

The district partnered with Cox Business to roll out 54 miles of fiber to deliver a 175-Gb/s WAN (wide area network). The project, which typically takes two years to implement, was completed in just 11 months and plans to launch at the end of November, according to a report from a local news organization and other sources.

Following the launch, a total of 189 K12 schools in SDUSD will be connected, serving approximately 130,000 students and teachers in Californias second largest school district. SDUSD recently launched a 1-to-1 Chromebook program and the new network infrastructure will enable digital learning.

San Diego Unified students already have access to some of the best technology in education today, but as anyone who has ever left their cell phone service area knows, the best technology is only as good as the internet service that connects you to the world, said Cindy Marten, superintendent of SDUSD, in a Patch report. Thanks to this partnership with Cox Business, our students will have access to enterprise class WiFi service, allowing them to collaborate with their teachers and peers in amazing new ways.
STEM

Destination Imagination, Berkeley Life Sciences Partner on STEAM Ed

Destination Imagination (DI) and Berkeley Life Sciences have partnered in an effort to promote science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) education.

Destination Imagination is a nonprofit organization that seeks to advance STEAM concepts and social entrepreneurship through its challenge program for students in K-12 and higher ed. Berkeley Life Sciences is a company that focuses "on insurance solutions for the life science industry," according to a news release.

As part of the new partnership, Berkeley Life Sciences has launched a new company-wide initiative encouraging employees to volunteer their time with DI-related activities, including mentoring local student teams or working at the Global Finals. The company may also offer students who pass through the DI program internship opportunities.

"When we learned more about how DI is helping to teach students many of the key skills necessary to successfully support our customers, skills such as creative thinking, respect for others and their ideas and collaborative problem solving, we were eager to partner with them," said Jill Wadlund, president of Berkley Life Sciences, in a prepared statement. "Their efforts very much align with our organization's ongoing commitment to learning new skills and enhancing our knowledge base. We are excited about the positive impact and important contribution our employees will be making through their support of DI initiatives."
Broadband

Free Service Lets Districts Compare Their Bandwidth and Costs with Other Districts

Compared to 10 other comparably sized school districts in California, the one in Nevada City pays more for its Internet and gets less. While the three-school district pays $175 per month for 1.5 megabits per second (Mbps), Maxwell Unified in Colusa pays $149 for 500 Mbps. El Centro Elementary pays $54 for 12 Mbps. On the wide area network (WAN) side, the district pays $1,379 for 100 Mbps of bandwidth compared to $405 for 16 gigabits per second (Gbps) at Chico Unified and $1,232 for Sonoma Valley Unified's 3 Gbps.

Those comparisons were generated through a new online tool introduced by EducationSuperHighway (ESH). Compare & Connect K-12 is intended to provide price transparency to help schools and districts get more bandwidth for their broadband budgets. The organization behind the tool is a non-profit that focuses on upgrading the Internet access available in public schools. Its work is funded by Mark Zuckerberg's Startup: Education and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Compare & Connect K-12 uses 2015 and 2016 data pulled from the Federal Communications Commission's E-rate program application data coupled with a painstaking confirmation process that involved direct communication between the organization's team of analysts, data experts and developers and 5,500 E-rate applicants, district leaders, technology directors, state partners and E-rate consultants. The cost information doesn't reflect E-rate discounts, since they're intended to show the total cost of providing bandwidth for educational purposes, not what the school district pays. In cases where state or school district people identified broadband services not applied for through E-rate, those services were added to the dataset "to provide a holistic view of the network architecture for a given school district."

"We built Compare & Connect K-12 to create transparency around the bandwidth school districts buy," a FAQ on the website explained. "We believe data transparency is critical for two reasons: 1) It creates informed buyers at the state and school district level who, as a result of transparency, can negotiate more effectively to increase bandwidth for their students; and 2) It helps track progress towards bandwidth targets that will enable all students to take advantage of digital learning."

Comparisons on the site can be done across school districts or by broadband services. Results can be filtered by type of service, speed, type of connection, state and service provider. The comparison tool also provides a visual image showing how much bandwidth the district can expect to need in the future compared to what it currently has. That calculation is based on the FCC's 2018 1 Mbps-per-student bandwidth recommendation.

ESH already claims victory in its efforts to help schools negotiate better deals. For example, Great Falls Public Schools in Montana used the beta version of the tool to compare the price it was paying for its bandwidth against that of neighboring school districts. Armed with that information, the district was able to negotiate within its long-term contract with its existing provider and get 330 percent more bandwidth for an additional 8 percent increase in monthly cost.

"Compare & Connect K-12 gave us unprecedented insight into other school districts' cost to bandwidth ratios, which helped us discover that we could get much more bandwidth at nearly the same cost," said Tom Hering, the district's director of IT, in a press release. "We leveraged this data to upgrade our bandwidth to 1,000 Mbps, enabling more digital learning opportunities in the classroom to better prepare our students for today's increasingly technology-centric world."

The organization also expects service providers to use the program to identify potential customers for their broadband upgrade services.

"Armed with the knowledge of the services that other school districts can obtain with similar budgets, we've seen technology directors significantly increase their bandwidth, usually without an increase in cost, enabling school districts to make the most of their budgets," noted Evan Marwell, CEO of ESH. "Every student deserves equal access to reliable high-speed Internet access for digital learning, and Compare & Connect K-12 is helping school districts get one step closer to achieving that goal."

Compare & Connect K-12 is available online with or without registration at compareandconnectk12.org.
By PTI: Varanasi

Allahabad, Nov 15 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court today resumed hearing on a petition challenging the election of Narendra Modi from the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat even as his counsel rubbished the petitioners allegations that "undue influence" was put on the electorate who were appealed to vote in his favour "in the name of Hindu religion".

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Appearing on behalf of Prime Minister Modi, senior Supreme Court lawyer and BJP leader Satya Pal Jain assailed the contention made by the petitioner -- Congress MLA Ajay Rai who contested against Modi -- that since the respondent (Modi) had been declared as the "Prime Ministerial candidate" beforehand, this had subjected the people to "undue influence".

Jain, who is also Additional Solicitor General of India, argued that "undue influence" on voters could have been "only through threat or persuasion and the petitioner has failed to provide any evidence that such means were used".

"Moreover, it was not Modi himself who had declared himself as the Prime Ministerial candidate. It was a policy decision taken by his party and in a parliamentary democracy every political party has the right to declare any person of its choice as its leader," Jain said.

Jain also repudiated Rais contention that the people had been appealed to vote in the name of Hindu religion with the use of slogans like "Har Har Modi" and references to "Maa Ganga".

"The Supreme Court has itself held that Hinduism is not a religion but a way of life. Slogans like these were mostly raised by the supporters and not the candidate himself. Moreover, the use of slogans never led to any situation that may have led to violation of the Representation of the People Act or the Model Code of Conduct," Jain, who is also a member of the BJP national executive and a former MP from Chandigarh, said.

Jain also sought to refute the allegation that the expenses involved in Modis election from Varanasi had far exceeded the limit fixed by the Election Commission and pointed out that "the candidate had furnished full details of his poll expenditure with the Returning Officer within 30 days of the declaration of results".

As the working hours came to a close, Justice Vikram Nath ordered that hearing on the petition will continue tomorrow. PTI NAC SMN SMN

--- ENDS ---
john bolton

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky issued a warning shot to President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday, urging him not to select John Bolton as his secretary of state.

Trump is rumored to be considering the official from George W. Bush's administration for the position; he is also reportedly considering Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor. Bolton is a prominent proponent of the Iraq War.

Paul slammed Bolton in an op-ed article published by Rare, calling him a "menace" who "never learned and never will."

"Bolton is a longtime member of the failed Washington elite that Trump vowed to oppose, hell-bent on repeating virtually every foreign policy mistake the US has made in the last 15 years  particularly those Trump promised to avoid as president," Paul wrote.

He continued:

"All nuance is lost on the man. The fact that Russia has had a base in Syria for 50 years doesn't deter Bolton from calling for all out, no holds barred war in Syria. Bolton criticized the current administration for offering only a tepid war. For Bolton, only a hot-blooded war to create democracy across the globe is demanded."

Paul noted that Bolton was a vocal proponent of the Iraq War and as recently as last year publicly maintained his support for the US invasion.

"I still think the decision to overthrow Saddam was correct," Bolton told the Washington Examiner in May 2015.

In his op-ed article, Paul praised Trump for opposing the Iraq War "early"  though there is no evidence Trump did so before the war started  and argued that Bolton's appointment to the position would ensure Trump's campaign promises to change "our disastrous foreign policy" would be broken.

NOW WATCH: Animated map shows how drastically split different demographics are this election





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TIC Mag publie la Tribune libre de la Camerounaise Rebecca Enonchong, fondatrice et directrice generale de AppsTech.

Elle raconte son experience avec la societe MTN Cameroon qui a traine de payer les prestations realisees par son entreprise en 2003, soit depuis 13 ans. A cause des mesententes. Au terme de compromis non respectes et de longues batailles judiciaires, elle obtient finalement gain de cause, malgre les suggestions des avocats de MTN Cameroon qui lui demandaient dabandonner laffaire. AppsTech reussit au finish a bloquer ses 2,5 millions de dollars des comptes bancaires de MTN Cameroon. Mais les dommages enregistres par sa structure sont plus eleves que cela, estime-t-elle.

Dapres la CEO dAppsTech, en 17 ans dactivite et avec des clients dans plus de 50 pays dans le monde, elle a rencontre uniquement deux conflits juridiques avec des clients. Et tous ces deux clients sont malheureusement bases au Cameroun, son pays dorigine. En octobre 2016, elle ecrit une tribune libre pour raconter cette experience avec MTN Cameroon. Aujourdhui, elle envisage decrire un livre au sujet de cette affaire afin de sensibiliser et motiver davantage les jeunes entrepreneurs africains de ne jamais abandonner.  Never give up! One day, one day 

 It has just been a few days. Already, our bailiff, our lawyers are feeling the pressure. You see, as usual, MTN* portrays itself as the victim. I have heard the song so many times. Crooked AppsTech which has seized their bank accounts even though MTN has paid them everything. We are used to it and we are ready for it. You see, it is said that justice delayed is justice denied but in truth justice delayed is still justice and I intend to ensure that my company, AppsTech, finally gets the justice it deserves.

In 2002, while AppsTech was the epitome of the American dream, building a global clientele??story here, MTN Cameroon invited us to bid for a big project implementation. The RFP process, including very extensive due diligence, took almost a year. We were the best. We beat our competition, all huge multinationals and after meeting our clients, our bankers and our staff in three countries, MTN signed a contract.

Our American dream turned into an African nightmare. For MTN, the signed contract was nothing more than a piece of paper. They respected nothing. None of it. Nada. Nearly every single article in the contract was breached by them. MTN would do what it wanted to, when it wanted to and how it wanted to and pay what it felt like paying, when it felt like paying. Yes, we heard for Africans, we have already given you a lot of money.  as if it were charity.

Our very best engineers, most Black African, traveled from the US, France and worked tirelessly to deliver a state-of-the art system, the first of its kind in the region. They did so under extremely difficult, sometimes impossible conditions. Racist insults, sabotage, withholding of key project materials were all fair game. Overcoming all obstacles, our team completed the core project in the fall of 2003, many months late. The system worked without a hitch from day one. Congratulations abounded. Yet, as we attempted to complete the final phase of an auxiliary system, our efforts were thwarted. In fact, in the very last days, our team was summarily removed from the apartments MTN lodged them in, the project vehicles taken from them by MTN in the middle of the night, and their mobile phones suspended. The one member of our team that was spared this treatment was the one that was illegally recruited by MTN despite the fact that it was a violation of our contract, and despite our protests. Our entrance to MTN was blocked and well of course, our outstanding invoices, over $3.2 million, went unpaid.

For months, we wrote to MTN Cameroon management and to the board of directors. My September 2004 letter to Cyril Ramaphosa, then Chairman of MTN. Finally, after a few meetings in March of 2004, MTN agreed that it owed the money. However, because of the amount, we made some concessions as to how the funds would be paid. Basically, we would provide a few additional services and MTN would pay half immediately and the rest over time. In apparent good faith, they did indeed begin to make a few of the smaller payments while their lawyer was drafting an agreement.

#ArrogantBastard.

Then on April 8, 2004, a date that for me was the defining moment in this matter and showed MTNs true colors, their lawyer comes to my office in Douala unannounced. He stated that he had been told to draft an agreement but refused. He told his client not to pay. In a conversation that I will never forget, this young and up and coming lawyer looked me in the eye and said:

Becky, youre a smart girl. Just let it go. There is nothing that you can do. We are the best litigators in the country and if you attempt to go after MTN we will destroy you.

Toadd insult to injury, he admired our office and said that I could come help him decorate the new law chambers he would soon be moving to. Its telling that after being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees for this case, this same law firm later sued MTN for $6 million more.

A few days later, I received an official letter from MTN saying that no amicable arrangement was possible.

I wont go into every single of the legal proceedings, but we did eventually go to court (in Cameroon, yes I know but we had no choice), filing two separate procedures. One for the unpaid contractual invoices and a separate one for damages related to all of the other contractual breaches. In May 2005, the court awarded us $2.5 million for the unpaid invoices. The case for damages, in which we were claiming $16-$18 million was still pending.

So to be clear, in addition to NOT paying $3 million that was due for work we had performed, MTN had caused us a lot of damage through other contract breaches and belligerent behavior, for which we also sought redress in a separate case.

The case for damages was more complicated. How do you assess the damages to our reputation? How do you calculate the revenue lost from missed opportunities? How do you quantify mistreatment of the staff, recruiting, and all of the other contract violations? What value to be attributed to the sabotage? How much was the delay in payment worth? We knew that it would take more time, especially since no judge really understood the technology business.

So in late 2005, we settled the case for the damages in which we were claiming $16-$18 million for $1 million. In exchange, we would withdraw the case from court and agree not to file additional lawsuits. This would cover legal fees and taxes but not much more. However, the judgment for the invoice was already final it was not part of the negotiation and it was not included in the agreement. In fact, the then CEO and the legal adviser insisted that they would pay it immediately. Our main issue is just getting out of court, they said. Days, then weeks, then months went by and the excuses were multiplying. Then tragedy struck, MTNs CEO and legal adviser both perish in a Kenya Airways crash.

We waited a respectable amount of time before contacting the new CEO. But letter after letter was ignored. Finally, we wrote to him and said that we would execute our judgment if we didnt hear back from him. We didnt hear anything and we did what we had to do.

For three years, MTN used every trick in the book and finally, the funds that had been blocked through our execution of the judgment were released. This is the execution of the judgment and not the judgment itself. So we will keep executing.

In the end, this is money we worked for. It is money that we earned through our blood sweat and tears. I dont even want to imagine what AppsTech would be today as a company had MTN simply paid its invoice back in 2003 when it was due. The loss is so great. It is so profound. It is so lasting and significant in all of its implications not just for us, but for an ecosystem we have been so busy building since 2000.

Yes, MTN will use its normal political influence and other methods to do what it has always done: Try to get out of paying what it owes. Better to pay lawyers and lobbyists right?

I tell all the startup entrepreneurs I meet to never give up. I am following my own advice. One day, one day, we will have justice. 

___

PS This is a very short summary of what this case is about. I have written hundreds of pages on the entire story that I might publish as a series of blogs or as a book. MTN is Africas largest mobile phone company.

Rebecca Enonchong is an African Tech Entrepreneur. Founder & CEO @AppsTech. Board member @ActivSpaces @VC4Africa cofounder @CameroonAngels @ABANAngels

Tribune libre initialement publiee sur Medium le 24 octobre 2016.
SANTA FE  A lawsuit over a teachers alleged improper contact with a female student at an elementary school has ended with Espanola Public Schools agreeing to a $3.2 million settlement payment  and the district itself, not its insurers, may be on the hook for most of the money.

The New Mexico Public Schools Insurance Authority, to which school districts pay premiums, will cover $750,000 of the settlement reached in October. But a private insurer which covers additional losses up to $4,250,000 for NMPSIAs clients has served notice that it is denying coverage in this case.

Selective Insurance is denying coverage on the grounds that the Espanola Schools knew, or should have known, about potential pending claims and failed to disclose these potential claims before Selective Insurance issued its policy, says an Aug. 10 letter to both Espanola and Santa Fe public schools officials from NMPSIA claims specialist Marc Bernstein.

The Santa Fe school district was originally a defendant because Gary Gregor, the teacher accused of improper behavior with girls, worked in Santa Fe before he was hired in Espanola. But the judge in the federal court lawsuit dismissed Santa Fe from the litigation. The case has raised questions about how Gregor moved among districts after facing repeated accusations, starting in Utah before he was hired on in New Mexico.

Gregor, fired by Espanola schools in 2010, was accused in the suit of twice asking a fourth-grade girl to spend the night at his home, giving the girl gifts like candy and teddy bears and touching her private parts. The suit alleged a principal failed to report complaints about Gregor.

Cammie Nichols, plaintiffs attorney in the suit, said Monday that the girls family came to her law firm only after police investigated Gregor in 2009, turned information over to the district attorneys office and nothing was happening, so they became very, very frustrated.

Selective Insurance and NMPSIA are now in arbitration over coverage for the portion of the settlement payment above $750,000. If the arbitration proceedings go Selectives way, that would leave about $2.5 million unpaid. If that happens, one option is going after the Espanola School District for the money, said Sammy Quintana, executive director of NMPSIA.

The Espanola district also faces a new suit filed Oct. 10 by Nichols for another former Gregor student, based on essentially the same set of facts. No comment was available from Espanola school officials Monday.

The letter from Bernstein notes the potential for more lawsuits involving Gregor and says that another insurance company  Genesis Insurance, which provides coverage of between $5 million and $10 million  may also deny coverage on its policy limit of $10 million. Even if Genesis accepts the claim, the damages may exceed all limits for this alleged perpetrator, Gary Gregor, Bernsteins letter concludes.

The suit targeted Santa Fe schools for giving Gregor a neutral reference despite allegations of inappropriate behavior with minors that surfaced before he resigned from SFPS in 2004.
Until President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in and officially assumes office, flights are going to be restricted over New York because the incoming 45th president will continue living in Trump Tower.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday that it was announcing temporary flight restrictions over part of New York until Jan. 21, a day after Trump is set to take the oath of office. These restrictions, which officials say were imposed at the request of the Secret Service, kicked in Monday afternoon.

Generally, the airspace above New York and other major cities already have restrictions. In New York, stricter flight limitations are imposed during major events such as the U.N. General Assembly, which was held earlier this fall, and New Years Eve, said Laura Brown, a spokeswoman for the FAA.

The Monday announcement, known as a notice to airmen, said the agency was imposing temporary flight restrictions for VIP movement.

According to the notice, flights are restricted below 3,000 feet above ground level in an area that covers a large swath of Manhattan, as well as parts of Queens along the East River. There were some exceptions, including for any planes heading to or from the New York area airports, law enforcement-related flights and any military aircraft supporting the Secret Service.

Another VIP restriction was announced in Indiana, where Vice President-elect Mike Pence is still living as he serves out his term as the states governor.

During the transition period between election and inauguration, different presidents have used their time in various ways. Former President Ronald Reagan spent much of his time in California, and President Barack Obama largely stayed away from Washington.

Trump has spoken to advisers about how many nights each week he will spend at the White House vs. his home at Trump Tower, according to a New York Times report over the weekend.

A spokeswoman for Trump did not respond to a request for comment.

The notice on Monday replaced one issued last week because of what the FAA called a realignment of geographical restriction. The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, a nonprofit aviation group, said it had asked for a change after the first notice restricted access to the popular Hudson River corridor. In a posting Monday, the group said the new notice allows pilots to access that corridor  used by sightseeing flights, among other things  while maintaining security for Trump.

trump-faa
FOX LAKE, Ill.  For the first time since she was indicted early this year, defense attorneys have filed a motion to dismiss all charges against Melodie Gliniewicz in connection with alleged misuse of funds belonging to the former Fox Lake Police Explorers Post.

A date for a hearing on the motion is expected to be set in Lake County Circuit Court on Tuesday by Judge James Booras.

The motion builds on a previously denied bid to dismiss some of the charges faced by the widow of former Fox Lake Police Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz. Authorities said Charles Gliniewicz committed suicide and tried to stage it to look like a homicide in September 2015 when evidence of the alleged theft of Explorer funds was being uncovered.

The new motion raises constitutional arguments, including vagueness, against the way the charges were applied to Melodie Gliniewicz, as well as excerpts from investigative reports that defense attorneys say back their claims that she was not involved in the misuse of Explorer funds.

Gliniewicz was indicted in January by a grand jury on felony charges of misuse of charitable funds, money laundering and conspiracy tied to allegations that more than $10,000 of Fox Lake Explorer program funds was misused by her late husband, and that she was involved in the alleged thefts.

A copy of the motion, along with a brief statement that Melodie Gliniewicz is still requesting that her and her familys privacy be respected, was sent out Monday as a press release by several attorneys and firms representing her.

One section of the lengthy motion claims that her late husband did not give her any access to or control over the Explorers account until March 27, 2015, roughly six months before his death, when he set up a new Explorers checking account and included her for the first time as a signatory.

The motion states that the relevant transactions cited as misuse of funds in several of the charges against Melodie Gliniewicz occurred between September 2009 through September 2015, the vast majority of the period being before she was a signatory and therefore had no checks or debit card connected to the account. The transactions during that time period included, in part, 238 purchases at Starbucks, 453 meal purchases at restaurants and 93 charges at the Fox Lake Movie Theater, the motion says.

Several managers from those establishments who were interviewed as part of the investigations said they saw Charles Gliniewicz regularly, but Melodie Gliniewicz rarely or not at all, according to the motion.

The motion also states that Charles Gliniewicz had deposited thousands of dollars of his own personal salary and savings into the Explorer account, co-mingling funds making and it unclear which funds involved were actually charity funds and making the charges that Melodie Gliniewicz misused charitable funds even more ambiguous.

An earlier, less extensive version of the motion, which sought to dismiss only some of the charges against Gliniewicz, was denied earlier this year by Judge Victoria Rossetti, who has since recused herself from the case.

Defense attorneys announced that they would refile the motion in amended form after the case was reassigned to Booras.

Gliniewicz has pleaded not guilty to the charges and remains free from custody after posting a $5,000 bond. If convicted of the charges against her, Gliniewicz could receive as many as seven years in prison or a probationary sentence, according to officials.



2016 Chicago Tribune

Visit the Chicago Tribune at www.chicagotribune.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

-

ARCHIVE PHOTO on Tribune News Service (for help with images, contact 312-222-4194): Melodie Gliniewicz

_____
JERUSALEM  An Israeli government bill to legalize unauthorized settlement construction in the West Bank was widely criticized Monday, the day after a parliamentary committee endorsed the legislation.

The proposal is designed to sidestep recent Israeli Supreme Court rulings calling for the razing of unauthorized hilltop settlements built on privately owned Palestinian land.

The bill would empower Israel to expropriate the property and offer compensation to Palestinian owners, allowing Israeli settlers to have homes retroactively legalized. The bill has yet to be introduced in parliament, but endorsement by the committee is expected to improve its chance for passage.

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee, said the legislation would violate international law.

Israels escalation of its illegal settlement enterprise and continued theft of Palestinian land and resources, as well as the flagrant violations of Palestinian rights and freedoms, are the essence of its dangerous and destructive polices, Ashrawi said in a statement.

Isaac Herzog, leader of the Israeli parliamentary opposition, called the proposal a virus that threatens Israels democracy and legal system.

Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who came out against the proposal before it was adopted by the committee, also reportedly said it would violate international law.

The committee is expected to push for passage in parliament before of a court-imposed Dec. 25 deadline to evacuate the Amona settlement, where 40 Israeli families live a few miles northeast of the Palestinian city of Ramallah.

Amid the uproar over the bill, Israels Supreme Court on Monday rejected an Israeli government request for a seven-month postponement of the deadline for the evacuation of Amona.

Domestic and international critics of the Israeli policy have said efforts to preserve the West Bank settlements is a sign that the right-wing government seeks to expand them to block the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state.

State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said the U.S. is deeply concerned by the bill and warned that it would enable the legalization of dozens of illegal outposts deep in the West Bank.

Israel needs to decide whether it wants to build more settlements or prefers to advance the two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, she said.

Israeli settlers and their allies argue that residents of Amona were allowed to establish homes in the hilltop settlements with the help of government officials and should be allowed to remain in their homes. They say thousands of homes in Israeli settlements throughout the West Bank could face similar evacuation orders because they were built on private Palestinian land.

Remove the sword of expulsion and transfer from Amona residents, Avichai Boaron, a resident of Amona leading the lobbying campaign for legalization, said at a news conference. Help the hundreds of thousands whose future is hazy  pass the bill immediately, he said.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett, a leader of the pro-settlement Jewish Home party, said the bill seeks to ensure that Israeli settlers wont be treated like second-class citizens and live under threat of evacuation.



(Mitnick is a special correspondent. Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Washington contributed to this report.)



2016 Los Angeles Times

Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

_____
SANTA FE  Gov. Susana Martinez will meet with Vice President-elect Mike Pence while in Orlando, Fla., for political meetings this week, an aide said Monday.

Martinez and Pence, who is also the outgoing governor of Indiana, have worked together for several years as members of the Republican Governors Association, a deep-pocketed national group thats been led by Martinez since November 2015.

During an August campaign rally in Albuquerque, Pence described Martinez as having done a great job for New Mexico, though his running mate, President-elect Donald Trump, criticized her job performance during a May rally of his own.

Meanwhile, Martinezs tenure as RGA chairwoman is expected to end at this weeks meeting. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, currently the RGAs vice chairman, is expected to take over the groups reins. RGA leadership terms generally last for one year.

The governor traveled to Florida yesterday and is scheduled to return to New Mexico on Thursday, according to a spokesman. The RGA will cover her traveling expenses.
Heeraben's visit to the bank came on the seventh day since the government declared old Rs 500, Rs 1000 currency notes illegal, a decision that has triggered a massive chaos all over the country.

By India Today Web Desk: Leading by example, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 97-year-old mother Heeraben visited a bank in Gujarat's Gandhinagar just like other citizens to exchange her currency notes.

Accompanied by relatives, Hiraben, who was in a wheelchair, came to an Oriental Bank of Commerce branch at Raisan village this morning and got notes worth Rs 4500 exchanged. She came to the bank with Rs 500 notes, got the mandatory form filled, put her thumb impression on the form and exchanged her money.

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Heeraben's visit to the bank came on the seventh day since the government declared old Rs 500, Rs 1000 currency notes illegal, a decision that has triggered a massive chaos all over the country.

News agency IANS said Heeraben exchanged demonetised currency for Rs 4500 at the bank in the Gujarat capital. She was given a new Rs 2,000 note, five bills of Rs 100 and two bundles of Rs 10 each containing 100 notes each.

Wearing a white cotton sari, she later showed a new 2000 rupee note to the journalists and photographers, who had mobbed her.

SIMPLE LIFE



Hiraba lives with Prime Minister Modi's younger brother Pankaj Modi in Raisan on the outskirts of Gandhinagar. The PM had visited his mother on September 17 this year to take her blessings on his 66th birthday.

Hiraba is known to lead a very simple life and travels in public transport.Last time when she visited Gandhinagar civil hospitalfor a regular check-up, she was seen going in an autorickshaw.

Modi had on November 8 announced scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes to curb black money menace.



PEOPLE INCONVENIENCED



The Modi government's decision to demonetise 500 and 1000 rupee notes has evoked mixed responses. While some have hailed the decision, others have criticised the move for the inconvenience it has subjected the common man to.

This after people, especially those on daily wages, have been struggling to get their money exchanged despite standing in long queues at the banks and ATMs.

Last week, the BJP had attacked Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for visiting a bank, calling it a photo op.



#Correction PM Modi's mother Heeraben Modi reaches a bank in Gandhinagar (Gujarat) to exchange currency #DeMonetisation pic.twitter.com/9vtSdTn187 ANI (@ANI_news) November 15, 2016

Watch the video here:







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SANTA FE  Mayor Javier Gonzales Monday re-affirmed Santa Fes status as pro-immigrant city, as other mayors around the country have done since Donald Trumps win in the presidential election.

We proudly stand by our policy of human rights for all immigrants, Gonzales said in a statement. It has benefited our people, made us a safer, more cooperative community, and strengthened our economy, and we have no intention to reverse course or be bullied into abandoning our values. The Santa Fe police operate under a policy against asking about immigration status when arresting someone or during other interactions with the public.

The mayor, a Democrat and former chairman of the state Democratic Party, referred to an unspecified salvo from Trump and the Republican Congress.

Trump has promised to build a wall at the Mexican border and pledged to toughen federal immigration laws and deport millions of people in the country illegally or who have been convicted of crimes. He also has called for canceling all federal funding for pro-immigrant sanctuary cities.

Santa Fe receives about $6.1 million federal funds annually, a city spokesman said.

This threat is intended to divide us against each other, Gonzales said. It is one of the first, but it wont be the last we see out of this administration, which based on its own words intends to persecute and attack not only immigrants but women, Muslims, people of color, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and more.

We cannot and will not give in to the temptation to let anger, hatred, and division win out over decency, common ground and collaboration for the greater good, Gonzales added. Regardless of what may come, we value every member of the Santa Fe community and we will fight for them.
MOSUL, Iraq  Yasser Mahmoud carried a white flag, along with a small supply of rice, bread and water, as he returned to this city under siege.

The 35-year-old photographer had talked with friends whod fled to camps for the displaced, and he found their stories of long lines for food and supplies alarming.

If you need to do anything, you have to wait in a line, he said of the camps, which have expanded and multiplied since troops entered the city early this month.

So as Mosul empties  more than 49,000 have fled the city of 1.2 million since the offensive began last month  another stream of people skirts the gunfire, mortar blasts and suicide attacks as residents trudge to neighboring villages for supplies and medicine, then wade back into the mayhem, carrying white flags and shopping bags as they head home.

Staying is risky. Islamic State militants have executed 40 civilians in the city, hanging victims bodies on electrical poles, according to the United Nations. The army has advanced several neighborhoods beyond Zahra in east Mosul, but moved forward only about half a mile this weekend, according to special forces commanders.

A mass grave recently discovered by Iraqi troops south of the city contained more than 100 bodies, one of several Islamic State killing grounds, U.N. spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said at a briefing in Geneva last week.

Shamdasani said militants are reportedly stockpiling large amounts of ammonia and sulfur in the city, placing them among civilians for possible use as chemical weapons. Attackers with explosives belts are being deployed in the alleyways of Old Mosul, she said, and women have been abducted and distributed to fighters or told they will be used to accompany militant convoys.

Mosul taxi driver Abdul Monhan Faris, 26, was in his garage having breakfast Thursday when a mortar struck, killing him. Faraz Munther helped soldiers remove his friends body from Zahra.

Our neighborhood is free, but we have mortars coming from Qadisiya and Tahrir, he said, referring to adjacent areas of east Mosul.

Yasser Mahmoud was among those unwilling or unable to abandon their homes in the face of such perilous urban warfare.

Two weeks ago, Islamic State fighters attacked his house to the west of Zahra in the early morning, breaking down the door, searching his photo studio, raiding the refrigerator and camping out. When they left, Mahmoud went into hiding in Zahra, leaving behind his wife and two children, ages 10 and 6.

His wife doesnt have a cellphone or internet access  both banned by the Islamic State  so Mahmoud put aside any thought of fleeing. Instead, he waits.

I still dont know anything about my family, he said. If I did, I might go.

Ahmed Hassan and his friends also joined the risky caravan to a grocery store from east Mosul. Bearded but wearing Reebok track pants and Nike sweatshirts  outlawed brands on the streets of Mosul under Islamic State  they returned home with a single jar of tahini, all they could find on the bare market shelves.

Despite food shortages in the city, Hassan, 30, was reluctant to flee with his three children, ages 3, 2 and 1.

I dont want to take my family to the camps, he said. They wont be able to stand it.

But if the violence continues, he said, they may reconsider.

Its been 11 days since our neighborhood was freed, and theyre still mortaring, said Hishan Mohammed, 24, a barber.

The mortar and sniper attacks have shaken the already-chaotic lives of those who live in Mosul. Shops and street markets were still shuttered in Zahra on Saturday. But many left their gated row houses with children in tow to visit neighbors and shop in nearby villages.

Hosam Gadban, 35, left the city with his six children for two days last week, squatting in an abandoned home just east of the city in the village of Gogjali. But without electricity or running water, Gadban said, it was horrible. He cant imagine all of them living in a tent and has no intention of leaving, even after their front window was struck by bullets and their house hit by mortar rounds Saturday.

I prefer to die here in my home, he said.

His 11-year-old daughter, Iman, wanted to leave.

Im scared. I want to go to a safe place, she said.

Faraj Saraj, 33, caught a ride out of east Mosul in a Humvee, in search of medicine with his 10-year-old daughter, Nasreen. She had been sick to her stomach, a frequent problem since Islamic State stopped treating the tap water, he said.

The sheep trader found help at an Iraqi army field clinic at the edge of Mosul. Soldiers greeted Nasreen, handing her medicine that she clutched close to her pink plaid dress.

Other families passed them on their way out of the city. But Saraj said he was not ready to give up on Mosul.

We are worried about going to the camps, he said. Its been overcrowded. It will be a while before they let us back in.

If they did leave, he said, it would be difficult to get permission to return to Mosul once their neighborhood near Zahra is retaken by troops.

And so, as gunfire crackled, he led his ill daughter back around a dirt barrier at the edge of the city on the treacherous trek home.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

Iraqi troops try to help civilians who want to stay and those bent on leaving, Lt. Col. Mohammed Tamimi said from his command post in an abandoned house in Zahra. They help transport those fleeing, but also ensure those staying have ample food and water, he said.

We are not forcing people to stay, but if they want help, we are offering it, he said.

Other commanders said the presence of civilians in embattled neighborhoods has complicated the fight to wrest Mosul from the Islamic State.

While some residents pass along helpful information to the troops, others aid and shelter the militants, said Lt. Col. Ali Hussein Fadil.

Some families will open their doors for fighters to move, he said. One woman was seen baking bread on the roof of a house this week as Islamic State snipers inside her home fired at the army.

Because of the civilians, our advances slowed, said Capt. Mohammed Ibrahim, hovering near patients at the field clinic.

A small crowd of families who had fled was herded into a nearby abandoned house to await transport to a camp for the displaced. Some said they feared being imprisoned at the camps, where the newly arrived are screened and kept behind barbed wire fences.

Samir Sabri had never left Mosul before his grocery run last week.

Two hours later, he and a friend returned carrying plastic bags of chicken, rice, tomatoes and cigarettes  forbidden under the Islamic State. Our families are there, so we are going back, said Sabri, 36.



2016 Los Angeles Times

Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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PHOTOS (for help with images, contact 312-222-4194): IRAQ-MOSUL-CIVILIANS

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SANTA FE  A leader of an anti-Trump protest in downtown Santa Fe Saturday made an initial court appearance Monday after spending two nights in jail, while the officer he allegedly assaulted told a judge he was undergoing physical therapy for an injured shoulder.

Police say activist Sergio Muterperl, 30, caused an officer to fall down nine steps after he was chased into a business complex on the Plaza.

But Muterperls lawyer says he had been unfairly singled out for the charge of pedestrian in roadway for being a leader of the rally on the Plaza and subsequent march through downtown streets. News organizations estimated the crowd at 200 people, but a police report said it was larger.

We were standing on the Plaza together, not in the street, and about 7 to 10 feet away there was a line of five police officers, and one of them said, Lets get him,' attorney Mariel Nanasi told the Journal. It was just a demonstration of force that was just not necessary. They werent looking to arrest him for a petty offense of standing on a sidewalk on a Saturday afternoon.

Muterperl faces one count of aggravated assault on a peace officer, a fourth-degree felony, along with the pedestrian on a roadway charge and a second misdemeanor count for resisting or obstructing police.

He was approved for release Monday from the Santa Fe County jail on a $2,500 cash or surety bond. Two other men, 20-year-old Travis Barnes and 18-year-old Morgan Cook, also had been jail since Saturday for misdemeanor arrests during the protest. A 51-year-old woman was cited for exposing her breasts.

According to a criminal complaint, Muterperl was leading a demonstration by about 400 people while in the middle of the street near the Plaza and fled when he and the other two suspects were approached by officers Andrew Gonzales and Alejandro Arroyo. Muterperl entered the Santa Fe Arcade and ran toward the south end of the building when he was grabbed by Arroyo, the report states. Muterperl then forcibly pulled away from Officer Arroyo grasped (sic) that caused both of them falling down (sic) nine steps staircase (sic), says the complaint.

Arroyo landed on his back and Muterperl landed on top of him, causing injury to Arroyos right shoulder, according to the report. A second officer also was sent to the hospital for treatment.

Arroyo told Magistrate Court Judge Donna Bevacqua-Young Monday that he has doctors appointments and is undergoing physical therapy for his injured shoulder. I hurt my shoulder pretty good, Arroyo said. It kind of impedes me from doing my job with a shoulder injury.

Nanasi, Muterperls attorney, said she didnt see the physical altercation between Muterperl and Arroyo, but said, There were people who have pictures or video and were eye witnesses, and they tell a different story than the police officer.

The Journal requested lapel camera video and written reports from the incident Monday, but SFPD spokesman Greg Gurule said they werent ready for release.

A prosecutor at Mondays hearing brought up a previous case against Muterperl. Santa Fe Public Schools fired him as a teaching assistant in June after he was charged with two counts of criminal sexual penetration of a minor, three counts of sexual contact of a minor and two counts of enticement of a child.

Those charges were dropped without prejudice in October in Magistrate Court, but a clerk at the Santa Fe District Attorneys Office said Monday that eight counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and two counts of enticement of a child against Muterperl will be presented to a grand jury soon, which could lead to District Court indictments.

We know of nothing actually pending and it was improper for the prosecutor to mention the alleged criminal investigation, Nanasi said Monday. Even if the leader (of the protest) was a felon, which none of them were, does she/he not have First Amendment rights? Including an alleged investigation, that clearly did not impact the judge, does nothing more than smear my clients reputation without any basis.
Millions of low-income Americans on Medicaid could lose their health coverage if President-elect Donald Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress follow through on GOP proposals to cut spending in the state-federal insurance program.

The biggest risk for Medicaid beneficiaries comes from pledges by Trump and other Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which provided federal funding to states to expand Medicaid eligibility starting in 2014. Thirty-one states and Washington, D.C., did so, adding 15.7 million people to the program, according to the government. About 73 million are now enrolled in Medicaid  about half are children.

New Mexico was one of 32 states to expand Medicaid under the ACA, adding 300,000 residents to the rolls. There are now about 900,000 New Mexicans insured under the program.

Reducing the number of people in Medicaid while ensuring that only the most needy  such as children and pregnant women  remain eligible will be a goal for Trump and the new Congress, said Brian Blase, senior research fellow at the conservative Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Virginia.

If we do not have fewer people in Medicaid in four years, then we have not reformed health policy in a good direction, he said.

But there are obstacles to the Republicans plans. Medicaid, one of President Lyndon Johnsons Great Society domestic programs that was created in 1965, is the nations main health insurance program for low-income people.

Overhauling it is politically difficult because of the potential harm to recipients as well as the financial consequences to states, hospitals, doctors and other health providers, who might not get paid for their services if patients dont have coverage. Total Medicaid spending was $532 billion in fiscal 2015, with about 62 percent funded by the federal government.

One major change endorsed by both Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., would transform Medicaid from an entitlement program into a block grant program.

Heres the difference. In an entitlement program, coverage is guaranteed for everyone whos eligible. The federal governments commitment to help states cover costs is open-ended. The states obligation is to cover certain groups of people and to provide specific benefits. Children and pregnant women who meet specific income criteria must be covered, for example.

That formula would change if federal funds flow to states through block grants. States would have more flexibility to run their Medicaid programs as they wish  including cutting benefits and eligibility. And proponents say it would allow the federal government to spend less on Medicaid and make states responsible for covering costs beyond their federal allotments.

Turning Medicaid into a block grant program has been discussed for more than 25 years, but the idea has always met resistance from some states, health providers, health care advocates and Democrats. Even with a Republican majority in Congress and Trump in the White House, the plan would still face an uphill legislative battle.

The federal government rarely shifts power to the states and not all states want to be at increased financial risk for the program.

Medicaid block grants face a very uncertain future, said Joel Cantor, director of the Center for State Health Policy at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Another option to redefine Medicaid funding, similar to a block grant, is known as a per capita cap. States would be given a set amount of money per enrollee, which would increase each year but critics fear likely not keep up with rising health expenses. That method would help states better deal with growing enrollment because funding would rise, too.

Even without help from Congress, Trumps administration could change Medicaid using the executive branchs power to approve states requests for waivers from federal rules. That could allow Trump to approve changes proposed by Republican governors that the Obama administration has rejected, including work requirements for Medicaid enrollees and monthly premiums and other cost-sharing.

Trump could also end some waivers that expanded Medicaid and sent billions in new federal funding to some states that transformed care.

Any congressional changes to Medicaid next year would likely include negotiations about the Childrens Health Insurance Program, another federal-state program that provides coverage to youngsters whose families are slightly over the Medicaid eligibility. The program expires if not reauthorized by Sept. 30, 2017. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, about 8 million children get coverage through CHIP, which has had Republican and Democratic support.

After Trump is in office, he may find its harder than he realized to repeal Obamacare and tinker with Medicaid because cutting off coverage for millions of people could bring plenty of political fallout, said Joan Alker, executive director of the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University.

Republican Gov. Matt Bevin of Kentucky took a similar tack last year, she observed, running against Obamacare and vowing in his campaign to eliminate the expansion. He has since proposed major changes to Medicaid, but he has not yet moved to kill the expansion.

Still, Alker said Trumps win puts the block grant idea front and center in January. And an agreement to do it could give states flexibility to make cuts in federally required benefits, such as health screenings for infants and children.

I would be very concerned about what could happen, Alker said.
Miami Herald

MIAMI  Derek Auguste, a former Army sergeant, is used to following instructions. So by the time yoga instructor Molly Birkholm finished her relaxation session, he was at ease.

Auguste was one of 40 or so military veterans and community members practicing yoga and relaxation techniques at Warrior Wednesday, a monthly forum hosted by United Way of Miami-Dade as part of its Mission United veterans support group.

So far, topics have included transitioning back into civilian society and employment. The October session was devoted to mindfulness, a meditative technique that focuses on the present moment, through yoga.

Anything that can help me deal with my anxiety is worth learning how to apply, Auguste said.

Birkholm, co-founder of Warriors at Ease  a yoga practice intended to help veterans deal with stress, trauma and combat injuries  led the group through a meditation session and Q&A discussion. Civilians and veterans alike found themselves dealing with common issues: busy minds and restless nights.

The noise in my head just wouldnt shut up, said one participant after the session. Heads around the room nodded.

According to Mission United vice chair Tomas Erban, finding mutual ground through shared experiences is the goal. He said he wants the forums to help active-duty members and military veterans re-acclimate to civilian life through interacting with community members.

I was very impressed with the level of honesty, Erban said of previous sessions. It (gives) the veterans a chance to get together and discuss different issues that impact them.

Auguste, who served in Iraq and Haiti, said the sessions have helped him deal with the sense of isolation he felt after leaving the military.

I felt alone a lot of the times. I thought I was going through it by myself.

Now, he says, he has learned there is a community for him.

The thing that heals all of us is community, Birkholm said during her yoga session. This community needs each other. This is yoga as well.

After the session, Auguste said he felt more rested and less burdened.

Brian Lynch, Mission Uniteds director and a former major in the U.S. Marine Corps, said he plans on continuing the Warrior Wednesdays each month. The next session will feature Amishi Jha, a University of Miami associate professor of psychology who has done a lot of work with veterans and mindfulness training.

Its inspiring and refreshing to see so many people in Miami come around for their veterans, Lynch said.
Were all used to seeing everything ranked  a news magazine has made a name for itself producing rankings of everything from universities to hospitals. It seems every other day we see New Mexico ranking at the bottom of many lists: the latest Ive seen was our bottom rank in high school graduation rate. I like to think that wed rank very highly in happiness; its a beautiful fall day as I write this, with golden leaves falling from the trees, cranes flying overhead and the mountains looking their best in our clear blue skies.

I havent seen state rankings of happiness, but various measures of countries happiness exist; the United Nations uses the following measures to come up with a composite score: healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on, perceived freedom to make life choices, freedom from corruption, and prevalence of generosity. Of 156 countries ranked on this scale, the US comes in 17th; not bad, really. The usual suspects, the Nordic countries, Switzerland and the Netherlands, top the list. Several war- and disease-torn African countries sit woefully at the bottom.

The idea of gross national happiness came from the little Asian country of Bhutan, which ranks low in per capita income. But its government considers Gross National Happiness important and works ceaselessly to increase it. They do well  the bicycle-riding Crown Prince leads the effort.

Recently, my wife and I hosted Paula Francis, who is making an 8,000-mile walking route around the United States to promote the concept here, the National Happiness Walk. Working with a charitable organization, Gross National Happiness USA (GNHUSA), Paula has now walked through 19 states on her way from Vermont to California, then back to Vermont across the northern states. She does this in stages; leg 10 will take her from Santa Fe and Albuquerque on to Los Angeles by early December. She interviews people she meets along the way, looking to find what contributes to and what impedes happiness in their lives.

GNHUSAs website, gnhusa.org, enumerates a number of reasons the US isnt in the top ten for GNH: about half of all Americans live in low-income situations and/or in poverty, the U.S. infant mortality rate places us 48th in the world (of 193 countries), one in eighty-eight Americans is behind bars, and roughly seven in ten Americans take a prescription drug.

Paulas walk publicizes the importance of happiness as a true national product. Of course, the dimensions of happiness vary from one person to another, and not everyone would agree with the UNs formulation of its concept of the term. Some people are made happy by a beautiful painting, a fancy meal or a luxurious resort, while I like to think that giving to others is a vital part of true contentment. Gen. Colin and Alma Powells Americas Promise (americaspromise.org) includes generosity to others in its five basic tenets for happy, successful children: Caring Adults, Safe Places, A Healthy Start, Effective Education, and Opportunities to Help Others. Smart charities, like Albuquerques Roadrunner Food Bank, make caring accessible to children. My grandchildren love going there to sort food to be given to the less fortunate; Roadrunner makes it clear that their efforts are appreciated.

Being happy is easier for those of us who have a modicum of secure access to food, shelter, stimulating activities. We owe it to all New Mexican children to be able to provide that security that underpins happiness.

Lack of the above five promises is an underlying cause of many ill effects, which are measured in each odd-numbered year by the New Mexico Youth Risk and Resilience Survey (YRRS, at youthrisk.org); results of the 2015 survey are just out. High school students across the state are surveyed for factors that put them at risk, as well as those that may help them avoid ill effects of risk factors. To some degree, these two sets of factors might be restated as habits that inhibit and that promote happiness.

Perhaps it is lack of the five promises that leads New Mexico teens to take risks in misguided searches for happiness: in overeating without exercising, in early sexual activity or in drugs (2.8 percent use heroin and 25 percent use marijuana, 26 percent are current alcohol users and 33 percent use cigarettes or e-cigarettes).

Child poverty, so common in the U.S. and especially in New Mexico, is all too often associated with violence within families, with substance abuse and loss of a parent through incarceration or divorce. This makes compensating, or resiliency-promoting, attributes especially important. YRRS notes that 91 percent of adolescents believe their parents are interested in their homework, that 95 percent of parents believe in their childrens chances of success, and a similar 95 percent of these kids believe their parents are aware of their whereabouts and their companions. I hope theyre right. School attributes, like teachers who listen and believe in their students, are also important; YRRS finds both family and school attributes to be associated with positive behaviors and ability to withstand reverses.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are equally enshrined in our Declaration of Independence. In this rancorous political season, its easy to forget the importance of each of them. Paula Francis would remind us that happiness is not the least important of the three.

Lance Chilton is an Albuquerque pediatrician. He welcomes your comments and questions at lancekathy@gmail.com.
DEMING  A brisk morning last Thursday wasnt enough to stop local pilot Robert Benavidez from helping a 92-year-old veteran reach cloud nine.

Army veteran Florentino Pacheco was honored at the Deming Municipal Airport with a flight around Deming in a small Cessna 182 propeller aircraft. Pacheco is a WWII and Korean War veteran who was also honored for his service at the annual Veterans Day ceremony Friday at Veterans Park.

Pacheco was a member of the 101st Airborne Division, better known as the Screaming Eagles. Following WWII, he transferred to the National Guard and became interested in flying. He obtained his pilots license and flew planes over New Mexico through the 1950s, but had not flown since. Riding in Benavidezs Cessna marked his first time flying in a propeller plane in many years.

It was a little rough up there, Pacheco said with a laugh.

Those Cessna 180s are really light. I didnt go that high, just maybe 300 or 400 feet.

Pacheco was ecstatic to return to the air after a long absence in a familiar aircraft. The Cessna 182 is a 1957 model with most of the original gauges and instruments still functioning and intact.

During the 30-minute flight, Benavidez flew Pacheco and his daughter Mary Frances Leupold around Deming and near the Florida Mountains before landing.

Leupold had organized the flight for her father and traveled from Farmington for the ceremonies on Veterans Day. Pacheco said he had a great time during the flight and was excited for Fridays ceremony.

Everything, you have to take it as it comes, Pacheco said. You cant go too far ahead  something else might come up.

During the Veterans Day ceremony hosted by members of the American Legion, Bataan Post 4, and the American Legion Auxiliary, Unit 4, Pacheco was the honorary senior veteran of the event.

Pachecos brothers Sammy and Albert also served in the armed forces and were decorated for their services, contributing to a family history deeply rooted in Deming, and for their service to the people of the county.
ABQ BioParks silvery minnow program is releasing 54,000 of the endangered fish into the Rio Grande this year, 40,000 fewer than last year.

Fewer fish were needed because natural breeding in the river was fairly successful this year, said Kathy Lang, curator of the BioParks Aquatic Conservation Facility.

Lang said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requests releases of specific numbers of fish based on population data collected by its employees.

Once a month they get information  We are seeing lots of fish, or Were not seeing lots of fish,' Lang said.

She credited a prolonged high flow of water released in May from northern New Mexico reservoirs for helping silvery minnows spawn and hatch.

Water released from the reservoirs supplemented the spring runoff in an effort to cue spawning. The water release was a collaborative project of U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the Office of the State Engineer and the Interstate Stream Commission, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, the Rio Chama Watershed Partnership, and the Rio Grande Compact Commission.

It seems as though it was successful, Lang said. The good news is that there are many areas of the middle Rio Grande that do not need (minnow) supplementation this year.

But some areas do. The BioPark program released 10,000 silvery minnow Oct. 25 in the river at Santa Ana Pueblo and 31,000 of the endangered fish Monday at the southern boundary of the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge. Lang said another 13,000-14,000 minnows will be released later this month at points of the Rio Grande south of Albuquerque.

The silvery minnow is a 2- to 4-inch-long fish that was at one time the most common species in the Rio Grande. But by 1994, the population had declined to the point that it was placed on the endangered species list.

The BioParks Aquatic Conservation Facility is one of three in New Mexico working together to raise the endangered fish. Lang said the others are the Southwestern Native Aquatic Resources and Recovery Center in Dexter, operated by the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Los Lunas Silvery Minnow Refugium, operated by the state.

Since it opened in 2003, the BioParks facility has released more than 700,000 silvery minnows, including those being released this year. Staffed by three full-time employees and three seasonal workers, the facility is funded by the city and grants from the Middle Rio Grande Endangered Species Collaborative Program and the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority.

Each spring, facility staff collect minnow eggs from the Rio Grande to hatch in tanks at the BioPark and breed more minnows from previously collected fish. Lang said that before release, each of the minnows is tagged by injecting it with a dab of color  green is the BioParks facilitys color this year  to indicate what facility released the fish and what year it was put into the river.

Lang said that tagging also helps the Fish and Wildlife Service monitor how long minnow are surviving in different parts of the river.
Carlos Ventura Garcia fell in love with a 17-year-old student while he was an educational assistant at Valley High School, according to his attorney.

On Monday, Garcia, 32, admitted having sex with the teen in 2013 and pleaded guilty to two fourth-degree felony counts of criminal sexual penetration of a child. He will serve three years on probation and was issued a conditional discharge.

At the end of 36 months, state District Court Judge David Williams said, the case will be dismissed.

Garcias attorney Nicole Moss said her client went on to marry the student, though their relationship ultimately fell apart.

They fell in love, Moss said, and they started dating and, as a result of that, they did engage in sexual intercourse at least twice while he was an educational assistant and she was a student at the school.

The teens grandmother reported the relationship, according to a criminal complaint. Garcia said he and the teen met in a ceramics class and became involved after his wife left him. He said they never had sex on school grounds, but kissed in a hallway, according to the complaint.

It was just pure love, you know, Garcia said in court. It wasnt any bad intentions.

Williams described Garcias situation as a tragic story, as he explained that the law holds that people under a certain age arent capable of informed consent. If Garcias conditional discharge is revoked, Williams said, he will have to register as a sex offender for 10 years. I have hope, I have confidence, actually, that youll negotiate through this successfully, Williams said of the conditional discharge.
A woman called police Monday saying early that morning her son had broken into her southeast Albuquerque home, and she awoke to find him crying, covered in blood and saying he had done something real bad, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.

He said he had cut the guys throat and put his body in the closet.

The woman told police her son, London Word, 29, said the homicide occurred at an apartment in the 500 block of Mesilla SE. When officers went there, they found 31-year-old Lucas Bazan dead in the closet, according to the complaint.

There was a massive amount of blood in the bedroom and bloody footprints leaving the room toward the front door.

Officers found Word a couple of miles away in his blue 2003 Jaguar, according to the complaint.

He told them Bazan, whom he knew as Quagmire, agreed to let him stay at his house in exchange for methamphetamine.

Word said he had returned to the apartment Sunday and gave Bazan $20 worth of meth, but Bazan thought there should be more and accused him of holding out.

Word said Bazan armed himself with two steak knives and threatened him, before running into the bedroom. Word said he chased him into the room and the two fought.

He said he was able to get one of the knives and he stabbed Bazan several times and slit his throat, according to the complaint. He said he stashed the body in the closet and pushed a couch over to block the door.

Then Word went to tell his mother goodbye.

Word is charged with homicide and tampering with evidence. A spokesman with the Albuquerque Police Department said Word had several arrests dating back to 2008 and court records show he has prior convictions for residential burglary, battery upon a peace officer, aggravated battery and being a fugitive from justice.

At his initial court appearance Tuesday, a judge set Words bail at $100,000, cash only.

Bazans younger brother, Zachariah Bazan, said he and a cousin and a friend went to Words first appearance and didnt see any of Words family there.

Zachariah Bazan said when he first heard there was crime tape around his brothers apartment he thought maybe he had overdosed. He quickly found out he had been killed.

He was never an addict, Zachariah Bazan said. He had some bad falls, and was hanging out with the wrong crowd, but he was trying to get his life together.
In the early 1970s," writes Shivshankar Menon, "an Indian could see China in one of two ways: as an underground Maoist guerrilla or as a diplomat. I chose the easier course." Menon intended to return from diplomatic service to pursue a PhD on ancient Indian and Chinese kingship, but ended up advising India's present leaders rather than studying those of the past. A glittering career culminated as foreign secretary and then national security advisor in eight out of the last ten years of the Congress government. But Choices: Inside the Making of Indian Foreign Policy shows that he never lost his intellectual curiosity, an instinct to see all sides of a situation, and a cool detachment from the passions of government.

The book's structure is simple. Menon describes five different decision points in Indian foreign policy, spanning over two decades. These are the 1993 border agreement with China, the 2005 civil nuclear initiative with the United States, the choice of restraint after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, New Delhi's hands-off policy as Sri Lanka crushed the Tamil Tigers in 2009, and, finally, India's pledge not to use nuclear weapons first. Menon's personal view flashes through on occasion, with accounts of late-night trips to foreign capitals, but he resists the memoirist's characteristic urge to place himself centre stage. Instead, these junctures serve as windows into the "private, esoteric, and remote art" of diplomacy. They illustrate the trade-offs inherent in international politics, and reveal deep-seated 'predilections' that will continue to shape India's approach to the world as a great power.

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Each chapter is studded with insights. In 1992, Prime Minister Narasimha Rao tasked Menon, then joint secretary, with briefing Opposition leaders on the boundary agreement being negotiated with China. In these fractious political times, such bipartisan intimacy stands out. "During these conversations," acknowledges Menon, "I learned a great deal and got ideas for the negotiation." It was Vajpayee, from the Opposition, who made the suggestion of "equal and mutual security" that became a key element of the eventual agreement. This first chapter is also a superb primer on the evolution of the India-China frontier, often misunderstood in the press. "In almost all the contested areas" along the India-China Line of Actual Control (LAC), we learn, "India's forces are more frequent visitors than the PLA".

In his section on the India-US nuclear deal, Menon recounts a small private dinner at the White House in September 2008, when then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when India would order American reactors. "Bush cut her off immediately," discloses Menon, "and said this was not about reactor sales but about much bigger things." Menon himself is unequivocal: "The rise of China was one of the major spurs." Indeed, China is the thread that, more than anything, runs through this book. Menon recounts assurances from Sri Lanka's defence secretary that China would not be permitted to establish a permanent military presence on the island-"an aircraft carrier parked 14 miles off the Indian coast"-and that Colombo would look to India for its military and intelligence needs. These assurances crumbled in 2014.

The chapter on Indian nuclear weapons speaks of a "huge and largely secret effort" to bolster Indian nuclear deterrence. Alas, Menon furnishes few details. "The purpose of nuclear weapons," he scolds, "is to deter our adversaries, not our own people or scholars." But there are two potentially important revelations. Scholars have always thought that India's nuclear doctrine shifted from 'punitive' retaliation (in a 1999 draft) to 'massive' retaliation (in a 2003 cabinet statement), deliberately foreclosing the option of a proportional response to, say, Pakistan's use of smaller, tactical nuclear weapons.

But Menon muddies the waters. He argues that proportional nuclear response was "not the preferred posture in the initial stages of the weapons programme", implying that it might later have become so. Indeed, he declares, "the doctrine speaks of punitive retaliation". Either Menon has made a mistake, which seems improbable, or he is hinting that the actual doctrine-which is classified-is more flexible than the government's 2003 statement has led us all to believe. A second important point is Menon's suggestion that India "might find it useful to strike first" if, for instance, "an adversary's launch was imminent". Coming from the pen of a former national security advisor, it is clear that Pakistan will take this to be evidence that India's NFU (no first-use) pledge is, as they have always insisted, a sham.

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On Pakistan, Menon sets out an exceptionally thoughtful assessment of India's options. He believes that restraint was the right course in 2008-but only as a tactical move. "By not attacking Pakistan," he writes, "India was free to pursue all legal and covert means," including nebulous "asymmetric measures?on the ground". Perhaps this is an allusion to actions such as Operation Ginger in 2011, in which Indian soldiers reportedly decapitated three Pakistan counterparts. "Deterring the state sponsors of terrorism," argues Menon, "requires some unpredictability of response and a conviction in the minds of terrorists and their state sponsors that retaliation will occur." His successor, Ajit Doval, might have penned these same words. But Menon has been caustic about this government's approach, noting that past "covert operations were not announced to the country", as with September's surgical strikes, "because the primary goal was to pacify the LoC [and] not to manage public opinion at home". The implication, perhaps, is that some of those legal and covert means may become harder in the glare of publicity.

What, if anything, ties together these five disparate cases? One conclusion is that personality matters. Prime ministers Rao, Vajpayee and Singh were crucial actors, whose decisions reverberated long after their tenure. Whether Rao's pragmatism on the LAC with China or Vajpayee's Washington tilt, they lay down a path that their successors were inclined-if not obliged-to follow for years and decades to come. Perhaps the decision to go public with surgical strikes will play a similar role, powerfully shaping the options for future Indian governments, for better or worse.

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A second lesson is "audacity in conception", matched by "caution in implementation". Indian leaders can make big decisions, but they play out slowly. "India has serious capacity issues in the implementation of foreign policy," laments Menon, "and lacks the institutional depth to see policy through." One example is India's effort to engage each member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) during negotiations in 2008, requiring "colossal effort and considerable disruption" to the machinery of Indian diplomacy. Menon allows himself a romantic indulgence here, evoking Max Weber's iron cage. "As practice and precedent continue to accumulate, thence to harden into bureaucratic carapace, and as foreign and security policymaking in India becomes more institutionalised, opportunities for radical change, individual initiative, and innovation will diminish," he writes. Future Indian diplomats will be smaller cogs in a larger-if smoother-machine.

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Menon's book is not without a few problems. His chapter on nuclear doctrine is a good survey, but its arguments are confusing and unsatisfying. "There would be little incentive, once Pakistan had taken hostilities to the nuclear level, for India to limit its response," he says. This, argues Menon, is because "India would hardly risk giving Pakistan the chance to carry out a massive nuclear strike after the Indian response". This logic is deeply flawed. True, a limited Indian response risks allowing Pakistan to hit back with everything-but a massive Indian response guarantees this outcome. If India could track and destroy almost all of Pakistan's nuclear weapons, perhaps this would be worth attempting. But India cannot, and so this approach ensures the loss of India's major cities. Fatalism does not make for sound nuclear strategy.

Notwithstanding these quibbles over nuclear theology, Menon has written a book that is judicious, wise, and compelling-all in a slender 136 pages. If there is a serious complaint, it is that concluding pages are bursting at the intellectual seams. In three consecutive paragraphs alone, Menon manages to cram in his thoughts on the global order, India's unique location at the world's economic crossroads, the institutional barriers to India projecting military force abroad, and a dazzling comparison between the continental system faced by Bismarck in the nineteenth century and India's more complex task today. Choices is one of the most important works published on contemporary Indian foreign policy for many years, but one hopes it is not the author's last word on the subject.

Shashank Joshi is a senior fellow of the Royal United Services Institute, London, and author of Indian Power Projection: Ambition, Arms and Influence



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BEIRUT  Russia on Tuesday announced the start of what it said was a major offensive targeting extremist militant groups in Syrias northwestern province of Idlib and central province of Homs.

Today we began a large operation to inflict massive fire damage on positions of Islamic State and al-Nusra in the provinces of Idlib and Homs, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in comments carried by the Interfax news agency.

A Russian aircraft carrier off Syrias Mediterranean coast, the Admiral Kuznetsov, has been involved in the offensive, Shoigu told a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Idlib province is mostly held by a rebel coalition that includes Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly called the al-Nusra Front, a powerful extremist group with ties to al-Qaeda.

Four towns in the province were hit by strikes, an official with the Nour al-Din al-Zenki rebel group said.

In the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, about 20 kilometres from Idlib province, activists reported that Russian-designed planes were bombing rebel-held held eastern parts of the city.

At least 14 strikes have hit eastern Aleppo so far, killing four people, among them two children, Ibrahim al-Haj of the Syrian aid group White Helmets told dpa.

An independent monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, confirmed that several airstrikes hit eastern parts of the city on Tuesday.

Russia has been conducting a bombing campaign against militant groups in Syria for more than a year in support of the Syrian government, a longtime ally. The Syrian government also uses Russian-designed warplanes to conduct bombing runs.

The observatory said it could not immediately determine whether the strikes in Aleppo province had been carried out by Russian or Syrian planes.

Russia said over the past two weeks that it had been observing a unilateral ceasefire in Aleppo to enable civilians and moderate opposition groups to leave eastern parts of the city controlled by the UN-designated terrorist organization Jabhat Fatah al-Sham.

An estimated 250,000 to 300,000 people are under siege in eastern Aleppo, where residents report declining or damaged supplies of necessities including food, water, electricity and medicine.

Syrian government forces stepped up attacks in Aleppo last week, recapturing rebel-held areas on the western outskirts and attempting to move towards eastern areas.

Pro-Syrian regime media have been reporting over the past few days that a large-scale aerial and ground offensive was to be launched on eastern Aleppo, calling on civilians and fighters to leave the city.

The observatory said three hospitals have been hit in airstrikes in the past 24 hours in rebel-held areas on Aleppos western outskirts.

One hospital was struck overnight in the village of Awijel, while two hospitals were hit in the nearby villages of Kfar Naha and Atarib earlier Monday.



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The states largest electric utility, Public Service Company of New Mexico, said it would lay off 30 managers and staff members as part of an effort to reduce costs.

PNM currently employs about 1,500 people in New Mexico. The eliminated positions account for 2 percent of the companys workforce here.

Over the past year, PNM has implemented a series of measures to increase efficiencies and reduce costs, said PNM spokesman Pahl Shipley in a statement. We are constantly evaluating how we do things, and we examine best practices across our industry, which is responding to rapidly evolving technology, changing customer needs, increasing regulation, and other factors.

Shipley told the Journal that the recent rate case, in which regulators allowed PNM a much smaller customer rate hike than what the company requested, was one of many factors that contributed to the layoffs. The primary factors, according to Shipley, were the weak economy and lack of load growth.

In its third-quarter call with investors last month, PNM attributed a drop in net earnings to several factors, including decreased load from industrial customers. Though they would not single out the company by name, PNM described a customer consistent with the profile of the Intel plant in Rio Rancho, saying the industrial load drop was primarily due to decreased electricity usage from that customer.

Intel began laying off an unknown number of employees at the plant earlier this year as part of a plan to reduce its global workforce by 11 percent.

In the statement, Shipley said despite the layoffs, PNM plans to continue meeting our commitment to serve our customers with reliable, affordable, and environmentally responsible energy.
ABILENE, Texas  A Christian university in Texas says some students no longer attend the school after images were posted online of a white student in blackface exclaiming: Im a strong black woman.

A student wearing an Abilene Christian University shirt and shorts is seen with her face covered in black. She also applies some oversized red lips. Others are heard laughing in the background.

University President Phil Schubert has apologized for the posting and says the school doesnt tolerate harassment

The university said via Twitter that administrators met Monday with those involved and that they are no longer enrolled. Its not clear how many students were involved or whether they were expelled or left the school on their own.

Abilene is about 150 miles west of Fort Worth.
DALLAS  A North Texas Muslims group is unnerved this week after it was threatened and taunted late last week  and it believes its because Donald Trump won the Nov. 8 election.

Alia Salem, executive director of the Center for American-Islamic Relations DFW, told FOX 4 that people wearing masks on motorcycles and pickup trucks circled CAIRs Dallas office on Friday. Salem said they were waving flags, flipping them off and shouting expletives.

The next day, Salem said the group was targeted again during a community meeting on race relations at a coffee shop when someone called and asked if it was where the terrorists are meeting, Salem told FOX 4.

In August, a Watauga man called a nearby mosque and threatened to cut the heads off everyone in the mosque, according to Watauga police. After the suspect, James Nicholas Smithey, 36, was arrested, Salem and other local religious leaders held a news conference at the Masjid Al-Sahaabah mosque and expressed worry about rising anti-Muslim sentiment in the country.

Salem said then that a pattern of discrimination was particularly in response to recent rhetoric from elected officials and people who are running for office of the president of the United States.

During his campaign, Trump pledged that he would ban all Muslims temporarily from entering the country if he won, but later suggested he may ban people from countries linked to terrorism instead of using religion as a criteria.

The weekend before the election, Salem posted a video on social media saying that the FBI was targeting Muslims around the country and in North Texas for interviews about an alleged terrorism threat for the day before the election. She urged Muslim residents to decline to do interviews without a lawyer, and she worried that it would keep some Muslims from voting on Election Day.

The unintended consequence of this is voter suppression, Salem said.
DALLAS  Fliers telling white women not to date black men have been found on the campus of a Dallas university.

Southern Methodist University said in a statement Tuesday that the fliers were found at a residence hall and were reported to university officials.

The fliers were discovered Sunday and are titled Why White Women Shouldnt Date Black Men. The fliers include several incendiary claims including calling black men abusive and saying biracial children lack intelligence.

The same leaflet was also found this week at the University of Oklahoma and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and in September at the University of Michigan.

Southern Methodist University condemned the message as hateful and says theres no justification for hostility toward others.
PHOENIX  The county official who took the blame for hours-long lines that plagued this years presidential primary in Arizona was dumped from office amid widespread frustration among voters over the bungled election.

Republican Helen Purcell conceded on Tuesday to Democrat Adrian Fontes in the Maricopa County recorders race. The county was still tallying ballots but she was nearly 13,000 votes behind when she acknowledged the loss.

Purcell, 81, was first elected in 1988 and never before challenged for re-election while serving seven four-year terms as county recorder. Her decision to cut the number of polling places for the March election caused voters to wait more than five hours to cast their ballots. Purcell and Secretary of State Michele Reagan were blamed for the foul-up, but Purcell became the most public face for the decision.

I made bad decisions based on the information I had, obviously, or we wouldnt have had long lines, Purcell told The Associated Press days after the March election.

Her sudden fall in the public eye made her a target, and she barely survived the August primary election, beating back a Republican challenger by just 202 votes. She wasnt so lucky in the general election.

Fontes is an attorney in private practice and a former prosecutor who served in the U.S. Marine Corps. He is making his first foray into politics and will take office in January. He promised to push a statewide referendum to make county recorders a non-partisan office to eliminate politics from the election process. He also said he would work with all groups to help boost voter registration and election participation and to avoid long election lines by properly determining the number of needed polling places.

Fontes issued a statement Tuesday thanking Purcell for her years of service and for running an honorable campaign. He said he plans to run the recorders office free of political bias.

My job  this job  is to call balls and strikes with integrity, with accountability and with a full-throttle effort to make sure every eligible citizen is able to register and to vote, Fontes said.

Maricopa County had 200 polling places in the 2012 presidential primary, but Purcell cut that number to just 60 in March, thinking large numbers of people would vote by mail. High voter turnout and the fact that independents who can vote in all other Arizona primaries showed up to vote in the closed presidential primary led to long lines.

Purcell issued a statement Tuesday congratulating Fontes and thanking her staff and voters who turned out for the Nov. 8 election.

It has been the pleasure and privilege of a lifetime, and one I will never take for granted  just as I hope you will never take for granted this awesome and truly American responsibility of participating in the electoral process, Purcell said.
CHARLOTTE, N.C.  Two Charlotte teenagers have been charged with attempted first degree murder in a hatchet attack last week on a transgender woman.

Destiny Dagraca and Dajion Tanner, both 18, are also charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon, felony conspiracy and first-degree kidnapping, according to jail records.

A third suspect, a 15-year-old minor, also is being held in connection with the Nov. 7 daylight beating. In addition, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police report lists a fourth suspect, but the status of this person remained unclear.

The victim, Ralayzia Taylor, 24, said she was chased, stomped, beaten and cut by a group of males and at a female near Clanton Park in southwest Charlotte.

She said one of the men chopped down on her with the hatchet or ax (the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police report uses both descriptions), leaving deep wounds on her back that took two dozen stitches to close.

Taylor said her attackers also repeatedly called her a faggot. She thinks she was a random robbery target. But she believes she underwent a savage 10-minute beating because she is gay and transgender.

Taylor says she had been in Charlotte for about a year. She said she left her native Cincinnati due to family conflicts over her decision to transition from a man to a woman. Her dream, she says, is to one day live in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Federal statutes define a hate crime as any offense committed due to gender, sexual orientation and gender identify, among other factors.

As of Tuesday, the assault on Taylor had not been designated as such. Charlotte FBI spokeswoman Shelley Lynch said the bureau is aware of the incident and working with CMPD, but is not formally investigating the case at this point.

A check of public records indicates that Dagraca had no previous criminal record. Tanner, however, has been arrested at least five times, according to Mecklenburg jail records. Past charges include two counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon. At the time of the alleged assault on Taylor, Tanner was serving two years probation from a July conviction for common law robbery.

Taylor said she was taking a late morning walk in Clanton Park when she stopped at a bench to smoke a Newport and charge her cell phone. Two males walked past.

I ignored them the first time because I dont bother anyone, Taylor said. But then I saw them turn around. They stopped and looked at me. I said, Something is going on. So I unplugged my phone and started to leave.

Taylor says the pair broke into a brisk walk, then a run as she fled through a wooded area. As she stepped over a low fence into a yard, Taylor said she dropped her cellphone. When she reached to get it, a fist crashed into her face, she said.

The beating began. She said she tried to cover up but was stomped and punched. She says she tried to keep her attackers hands from getting into her pockets where she kept about $10. They retaliated by slicing up her hands with her own pocket knife, she said.

Ax or hatchet? Taylor says shes not sure. Its what they use to chop down a freaking tree, she said, adding that her attackers used it several times on her.

She said she called for help, but a man working on his car nearby just watched.

The beating stopped, Taylor said, when the female who had taken part in the attack called off her companions.

Shes already bloody enough, Taylor says she remembers the female saying.

Taylor said she fled to a nearby recreation center where she said she collapsed after pounding on the door.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

In 2015, hate crimes based on sexual orientation in North Carolina rose 61 percent  from 23 to 37  far outpacing the national average increase of 3.5 percent, according to FBI statistics released Monday. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police reported nine crimes based on sexual orientation in 2015 compared with five the year before.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

Taylor, who said by phone that shes recovering at her mothers home in Cincinnati, said shes too frightened to live in Charlotte again, though she still dreams of Myrtle Beach.

If her attackers have trials, Taylor said she will be there to testify.

I dont want to show my face to any of them, she said. But Im scared for any other transgender person they might come across.



(Charlotte Observer researcher Maria David and Gavin Off contributed to this report.)



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WASHINGTON  Senate Democrats embraced their role as the loyal opposition to Donald Trump, with several using the chambers first post-election session to criticize the president-elect for fomenting divisions in U.S. society.

The Democrats have said they are willing to work with Trump on areas of common ground. But Minority Leader Harry Reid used floor remarks Tuesday to assail the billionaire developer for sparking a wave of hate crimes.

We have responsibility to be a voice of millions of Americans sitting at home, afraid that theyre not welcome anymore in Donald Trumps America, said Reid, who is due to retire before Trump is sworn in.

Reid took to the floor to criticize Trump in the run-up to the election.

Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Reids rhetoric was not appropriate on the Senate floor, and expressed hope the discussion would return to policy.

This is the United States Senate for heavens sake, Cornyn said.

Reid also called on Trump to step forward and take responsibility for statements he made on the campaign trail that are now stoking fear in groups of Americans.

Rather than healing these wounds, Trumps actions have deepened them, Reid said.

Reid decried Trumps appointment of Stephen Bannon as Trumps chief strategist and senior counselor, a position that does not require Senate confirmation. Bannon ran the conservative site Breitbart News, and Democrats have criticized Bannon as someone who has supported white nationalist, anti-feminist and anti-Semitic views. Reid himself labeled Bannon a white supremacist.

The first thing (Trump) should do is rescind his appointment of Steve Bannon, Reid said. Rescind it. Dont do it.

Earlier Thursday, four Democratic senators and one newly elected senator stood next to a poster with Fire Bannon in large white letters, urging the president-elect to dismiss his new aide.

We call on him to change course, said Sen. Jeff Merkley, R-Ore. Merkley led Democratic Sens. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Edward Markey of Massachusetts, Mazie Hirono of Hawai, and Sen.-elect Chris Van Hollen of Maryland in condemning Bannon.

Van Hollen said Democrats are willing to work with the Trump administration on economic issues, particularly modernizing infrastructure. But he said if Trump attempts to roll back the clock on social justice issues, We will fight them to the very end.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., also joined on a call with reporters to criticize Trump for hiring lobbyists in his transition team after Trump pledged to drain the swamp and limit the influence of special interests.

While Congress does not have influence over the hirings, Sanders said he and Whitehouse want to ensure the American people are aware when Trump is reneging on some of is campaign promises.

Sanders vowed that in area after area after area he will be reminding people of what Trump said on the campaign trail.

We are going to do everything possible to hold him accountable, Sanders said.



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The state is sponsoring job fairs for veterans in 18 communities around New Mexico on Thursday.

All events are open to the general public but are focused on hiring veterans, transitioning service members, military spouses, and their families, according to a news release from the Department of Workforce Solutions.

In Albuquerque, the job fair will be at the Albuquerque Convention Center from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mini-workshops on career and job search topics will be offered throughout the day.

Also in Albuquerque, the Hire Veterans Employment Workshop will be at New Mexico Workforce Connection, 501 Mountain Road NE from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs

Bern, 15.11.2016 - Relations between Switzerland and Slovenia are excellent and very constructive. Our challenge is to maintain and develop them further in the future, stated Federal Councillor Didier Burkhalter during one of several meetings in Ljubljana on 15 November 2016. The two countries commitment and developments in relations with the European Union will be key to achieving this goal. Mr Burkhalter met with Minister of Foreign Affairs Karl Erjavec, Prime Minister Miro Cerar and the Speaker of Slovenias National Assembly, Milan Brglez.

Switzerland and Slovenia enjoy good relations, which are based on a range of cooperation programmes whose future has to be reassessed.

Switzerlands programme of cooperation with the new EU member states has facilitated the development of projects in Slovenia in various priority areas pertaining to the economy, research, social affairs, civil society and the environment. This programme has been completed in Slovenia, its goals having been achieved.

A real need for cooperation remains, however, particularly in the areas of vocational education and training and the economy. Mr Burkhalter explained to the Slovenian authorities that the potential launch of a new programme would also depend on how overall relations between Switzerland and the EU develop. Two questions in particular remain open: a solution to the issue of the free movement of persons, which is under debate by the Swiss Parliament, and Switzerlands full association to the EUs Horizon 2020 programme from 2017 on. Demonstrable progress on both fronts is in both countries interest.

During his meetings with the Slovenian authorities, Mr Burkhalter also discussed other major areas of cooperation.

Cooperation in the area of migration could also be extended. For example, in 2015 a team of experts from the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit helped Slovenia improve capacities at facilities for migrants. Cooperation in policing was also underscored, in particular with a view to countering the activities of criminal networks involved in migration flows.

Cooperation in the Alpine region could also be strengthened. For example, Switzerland and Slovenia are working together within the framework of the Alpine Convention and the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region, as well as on a research project on prehistoric pile dwellings in the Alpine region within the framework of the UNESCO World Heritage. Switzerland will lead the group coordinating the project in 2017 and 2018.

Mr Burkhalter also emphasised Switzerlands willingness to step up multilateral cooperation and discussed, in particular, the prevention of violent extremism, human rights, cooperation within the UN, and the importance of International Geneva in addressing major issues of topical concern. Switzerlands candidacy for the Security Council during the 2023-24 period was also discussed, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Erjavec announced that Slovenia would support Switzerlands candidacy. The two foreign ministers also spoke about their countries commitment to the worldwide abolition of the death penalty which, they agreed, is no solution in the fight against violence.

During this meeting, Mr Burkhalter also addressed security issues. Slovenia, which gained independence 25 years ago, supports a panel on water and peace launched by Switzerland, which will publish a report in 2017 explaining how water can become a driver for international cooperation and trust building. The two states decided today to step up bilateral cooperation in this area. The two foreign ministers also exchanged views on questions relating to the European security order in light of the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and the upcoming transition to a new administration in the United States. They agreed that a well-structured dialogue in the OSCE could make an important contribution to building confidence and that the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting at the beginning of December in Hamburg should lay the groundwork for such a dialogue.

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By PTI: New Delhi, Nov 15 (PTI) Reflecting rapid upswing in ties, India and Israel today decided to "broad-base" their already close defence partnership and agreed to intensify cooperation in combating radicalism and extremism while calling for tough global action against terror networks and States harbouring them.

In wide-ranging talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, the two sides also resolved to deepen their overall engagement including in key areas of trade and investment, agriculture, water resources, education and research.

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The two sides also inked two pacts to strengthen cooperation in agriculture and water resources management.

In a media statement after the talks, Modi made a veiled attack on Pakistan, saying one of the countries in Indias neighbourhood has been supporting terrorism, adding he and Rivlin agreed to intensify bilateral cooperation in combating terror.

"We recognise that terrorism is a global challenge, knows no boundaries and has extensive links with other forms of organized crime. Regrettably, one of the countries of its origin and spread is in Indias neighbourhood," Modi said.

On his part, Rivlin, the first Israeli President to visit India in nearly 20 years, said both India and Israel were threatened by terrorism as the two countries uphold values of freedom and that nothing can justify terror. He said India and Israel will be together in fighting the menace.

Referring to growing collaboration between the two countries, particularly in the defence sector, Rivlin said his country is ready to "make in India and make with India".

The Prime Minister said both the countries agreed that the international community must act with "resolve and determination" against terror networks and States that harbour them.

"Failure to act and silence of speech only encourages the terrorists. We agreed to intensify our cooperation to combat the forces of extremism and radicalisation that threaten all peace loving nations," he said.

Noting that Rivlins visit has given a "crucial push" to efforts to build "new pillars" in ties, Modi said both sides noted the strength of the growing defence partnership and agreed on the need to make it "more broad-based" through production and manufacturing partnerships.

India is Israels largest buyer of military hardware and the latter has been supplying various weapons systems, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles over the last few years but the transactions have largely remained behind the curtains. MORE PTI MPB SK

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We can help you make sense of the agribusiness industry, extending from chemicals and fertilizers used as inputs into agriculture, to the commodities, food and by-products that are an output to farming, with policy and regulation applied at every step of the value chain.
Tech and government investment specialist Veritas Capital has made another deal in the wake of its weighty $10.65bn Fund VIII close from earlier this month with the buyout of analytics provider Verisk's energy business.
By PTI: From Tuhin Dutta

Marrakech, Nov 14 (PTI) India wants a broad outline or roadmap for the implementation of the Paris agreement to be finalised at the crucial climate change conference here, Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave said today.

The Environment Minister, who arrived here to attend the high-level segment of the ongoing Conference of Parties (CoP22) which begins tomorrow, said India will push the world for adopting a low carbon lifestyle during discussions.

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Asked about Indias stand on pressure from civil society groups on governments to put an end to coal usage especially with the countrys heavy dependence on it, Dave said a decision cannot be reached by becoming an activist but one has to think "holistically".

"Whatever goals were fixed in Paris, the countries need to make route maps of that (here). Off course it will be for the post 2020 period. But if we do not talk and decide about it today (in Marrakech) how will such big nations form their policies," Dave said.

"If the Marrakech conference makes even a broad outline of it, it will be a big achievement for us and for the world as we will at least finalise the routes of the Paris agreement. We can do the detailing in the next two years. But major goals should be finalised. These are the expectations," he said on the sidelines of an event at the India Pavilion here.

The CoP22 started on November 7 and will go on till November 18 as nations continue their work on strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, with the central focus on enhancing ambition, promoting implementation and providing support.

Before the start of the conference, the Environment Ministry had said India will push the agenda of sustainable lifestyle at the global climate conference apart from focussing on the issue of mobilising finances, which has been its "overriding" concern, to tackle climate change.

Dave said India will push the issue of following a low carbon lifestyle during the summit which all nations including developed and developing countries need to follow and asserted that unless all the countries do this, talks will not yield results.

He also referred to the example of Delhi where he said despite pollution levels being high, people continue to burst crackers.

"We will push for low carbon lifestyles. We had taken it up in pre-CoP meetings as well. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in Paris also talked about it (that countries need to decrease carbon emissions)," Dave said.

"...Its like that Delhi situation, you are bursting crackers even in marriage processions but you know breathing has become a problem then how it will work. Everybody (nations) has to decrease (emissions)," Dave said.

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"We want to bring this issue to the notice of both developed as well as developing countries. All (countries) have to contribute," he said. MORE PTI TDS ASK ASK

--- ENDS ---
By Press Trust of India: A 15-year-old Indian-origin boy hanged himself to death allegedly after being bullied in a school in the city of Leicester in the East Midlands region of England.

Brandon Singh Rayat died in August but his mother, Mina Rayat, decided to speak out on Monday at the start of National Anti-Bullying Week.



"I begged doctors to hospitalise him because it was all too much. I told them he wanted to kill himself," she told 'Leicester Mercury' newspaper.

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"Although Brandon received help, he was never detained. His anxiety got worse so that it became a complete phobia. He wouldn't leave the house in case he bumped into anyone from school," the 44-year-old added.

ALSO READ: Sikh-American who wrote book on bullying forced to remove turban at US airport



DRINKING BLEACH, SLASHING WRIST



A full inquest into Brandon's death will take place in January. He was found hanging in his bedroom with a scarf on August 9, after several failed suicide attempts including drinking bleach as well as slashing his wrists.

ALSO WATCH



The teenager became suicidal after his schoolmates started calling him a "paedo" and a "faggot" as part of prolonged cyber attacks. He stopped attending Judgemeadow Community College in Leicester last November.

ALSO READ: French woman who live-streamed her suicide on Periscope was a rape victim



Mina, a hair and beauty therapist who lives with her 41-year-old husband Raj, a shop worker, said: "We feel totally let down, by both the school and by the doctors. Those boys who were his friends once have killed him. They have taken his life away and they have ruined our lives. There is a hole left in our hearts and there was no need for it. He deserved better

treatment. I wouldn't want any other parent to go through what I've been through."

DON'T TOLERATE BULLYING: SCHOOL

James McKenna, principal of Judgemeadow Community College, said: "The whole school was extremely saddened by Brandon's death, and our thoughts remain with his family. It wouldn't be appropriate to comment in detail in advance of the coroner's inquest, but we can say that Judgemeadow takes the welfare of its pupils very seriously and does not tolerate bullying in any form."

ALSO READ: Committing suicide not easy, Amity student wrote to his parents



A spokesperson for Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, which runs mental health services, said: "We were deeply saddened by the tragic death of Brandon Rayat, and extend our sincere sympathies to the family once again. We met with the family immediately after Brandon's death, and their comments are reflected in the robust serious incident investigation which we have carried out."



The report will be shared with the family in preparation for the inquest in January. "It would be inappropriate for us to comment further until that inquest has taken place. In the meanwhile, we remain committed to offering appropriate support to the family at this difficult time," the spokesperson said.

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ALSO READ: Delhi: Depressed over an affair, 21-year-old commits suicide

ALSO READ: Hyderabad: Asked to stop talking to boyfriend, 15-year-old commits suicide





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The shooting of Jagga Jasoos still continues as exes Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif are brought together in Mumbai to shoot the last leg of the film.

By India Today Web Desk: Seems like the exes just cannot avoid each other. When Katrina Kaif was asked on Vogue BFFs, what she would do if were to get stuck in an elevator with Ranbir Kapoor, she replied, "Oh God! Kill Myself!"

Now, their upcoming Jagga Jasoos, whose shooting simply does not seem to end, is bringing them together again. According to a report in Mumbai Mirror, Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif were spotted on a bus together at Film City, Mumbai.

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ALSO READ: Ranbir-Katrina avoid each other at Big B, Anil's Diwali bash

ALSO READ: Ranbir to co-produce Anurag Basu's Life in a Metro sequel

ALSO READ: Rumours of being with Ranbir are funny and ridiculous, says Shruti Haasan



ALSO WATCH: Ranbir-Katrina spotted on a romantic getaway!





The couple had split in January this year but the two have had to encounter each other time and again, the most recent being Amitabh Bachchan and Anil Kapoor's Diwali bash at their respective houses. In both the star-studded parties, Ranbir and Katrina made an effort to avoid each other.

Infact, the actors, while shooting Jagga Jasoos at Chandivali Studio in February, went out of the way to avoid each other. They reportedly timed their entries and exits so as to not bump into each other. As soon as director Anurag Basu would okay the shot, Ranbir and Katrina would immediately go back to their vanity vans without engaging any furtuer.

Reportedly, Jagga Jasoos's last schedule was supposed to be shot at Morocco but that plan has been shelved. So, the Mumbai studio is supposedly being passed off as a foreign location. The bus ride continued as Ranbir and Katrina acted professionally in front of the cameras even though they are not together anymore.

Directed by Barfi! and Life in a... Metro director Anurag Basu, Jagga Jasoos is releasing in theatres on April 7 next year.

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The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into a charity after a trustee had 3,500 in cash seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act while attempting to leave the country.

The regulator opened an inquiry in October into Save the Needy, a London-based aid charity, and also made an order to prevent funds being withdrawn from its bank accounts.

The regulator had previously investigated the charity in 2015 and given it an action plan to improve. But in July the regulator was told that Ports Officers had seized funds from one of the trustees because they were not satisfied those funds would be used for a legitimate purpose. A hearing at Bedfordshire Magistrates Court permitted the cash to be held for six months.

The Commission said in a statement that these funds are currently being detained by the police pending further investigation.

In response to the cash seizure, the Commission obtained the charitys bank statements and identified a high number of cash withdrawals, the statement said. The Commission has serious concerns about these withdrawals and whether funds withdrawn can be accounted for.

The inquiry will examine whether charity funds have been applied properly, and whether trustees have followed charity law.
We adamantly oppose this pipeline going through our farm, says a letter signed by Francis and Janice Goebel, as there are no guarantees it will never have leaks or other environmental problems. This only benefits ETP, or Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline, and not me, my wife or any public purpose.

Before the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota began its months-long, public standoff with Energy Transfer Partners and the Morton County Sheriffs department over the Dakota Access Pipeline, saying that the project put their water supply at risk and that they weren't properly consulted, landowners, environmental scientists, and agricultural experts in Iowa voiced similar concerns about the project.

The Goebel family, like other Iowa landowners in the path of the Dakota Access Pipeline, wrote letters to the Iowa Utilities Board in July 2015 urging the agency to reject necessary permits there for the project. Our century-plus-old farm was taken care of for four generations and I will do my best to keep it that way, they wrote in their objection.

Some of the landowners describe being threatened by Energy Transfer Partners with eminent domain, even before the Iowa Utilities Board granted its approval for the pipeline. The piece of land on my farm which Bakken wishes to condemn has been in our family for over 80 years, Herman Rook wrote to the Iowa Utilities Board.

Iowas soil is an irreplaceable resource that should not be subject to irreversible damage from the construction of a pipeline and potential spills after the pipeline would be in use...Use of eminent domain for a pipeline is unfair, says another letter, signed by Catherine Scott. And Iowan farmers Sandra Renegar and Candace Chesney, whose land is also in the path of the pipeline, wrote to the state utility agency that they had been given no information about the project and wouldnt have unless we had shown initiative to seek it ourselves.

Researchers and scientists give warning

Several months later, in October 2015, the Iowa Utilities Board held a hearing to determine whether they should grant the permits to Energy Transfer Partners. Testimony from experts in land and the environment suggests that the local farmers' concerns werent unfounded.

Dr. Erwin Klaas, an ecology professor at Iowa State University who used to work for the United States Department of Interior and then served on his countys soil conversation district, told the Iowa Utilities Board that pipeline construction will immediately and directly affect more than 6,200 acres of land in Iowa, most of it prime agricultural land.

Klaas also told the board, according to hearing transcripts, that construction will remove three soil horizons that will be impossible to restore to its original productivity." The temperature of the oil in the pipeline may prevent farmers' soil from freezing, he added,which would subject the land to erosion.

Dr. James Hansen, the prominent climate scientist formerly at NASA and currently at Columbia University, who once described the Keystone Pipeline XL Pipeline as game over for the planet, testified in his home state that the impacts of this pipeline would spread much further than the borders of Iowa.

While Hansens research has already suggested that humans have pumped too much carbon into the atmosphere to prevent climate change, he testified to the Iowa Utilities Board that much of the damage can still be stopped: Restoration of our climate system, and thus, protection of our childrens future, is still possible if we act with reason, courage, and no further delay."

Short on details

The immediate environmental impacts of the pipeline construction on Iowan land, according to the experts who testified against it last year, are also unclear because Energy Transfer Partners studies were short on details, they said. Dr. John Doershuk, Iowas State Archaeologist, said that Energy Transfer Partners never consulted with him before seeking permits for the project, and he described their archeological investigations on the route as woefully inadequate.

Doershuk, as well as Hansen, Klaas and six other experts provided their testimony against the Dakota Access Pipeline on behalf of Sierra Clubs Iowa chapter, which unsuccessfully organized a campaign to stop the project.

In June of this year, despite the objections from landowners and experts, the Iowa Utilities Board gave Energy Transfer Partners the go-ahead to begin pipeline construction on all state land outside the jurisdiction of the US Army Corps of Engineers, which regulates most of the pipeline's route and has already granted approval for much of the project. The utilities board was not swayed by the expert opinions testifying on Sierra Clubs behalf. No, just the opposite, Wily Taylor, the Chair of Sierra Clubs Iowa chapter, tells ConsumerAffairs.

Pipeline gains ground

By September, Energy Transfer Partners announced that the entire Dakota Access Pipeline project was already 60 percent complete. The 1,172 mile pipeline is supposed to transfer crude oil from North Dakotas Bakken oil fields to Illinois, and is crossing South Dakota and Iowa along the way.

I am proud of our work on Dakota Access, CEO Kelcy Warren said in a letter to shareholders at the time, as controversies at the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota began attracting national attention. We have designed the state-of-the-art Dakota Access pipeline as a safer and more efficient method of transporting crude oil than the alternatives being used today, namely rail and truck. (Spokespeople for the Energy Transfer Partners have not returned a recent interview request).

To be sure, reports and studies do suggest that transporting crude oil via pipeline is safer than rail or truck, where accidents can create lethal explosions. But environmentalists say that pipeline leaks are not uncommon and have more long-lasting consequences.

Although an explosion from a rail car is more dramatic, the damage is much less severe and is more restrictive in terms of area, Pam Mackey-Taylor of Sierra Club Iowa tells ConsumerAffairs. Regardless, Sierra Club's goal is to curb fossil fuel dependency all-together, they say, rather than propose alternative methods to transport oil.

Feds threaten protesters with eviction

On December 4, military veterans plan to arrive at the protest camps in North Dakota to defend the water protectors, as the protesters on the reservation call themselves. The Army Corps of Engineers, coincidentally or not, announced last week that they would evacuate the main protest camp on December 5 and set up a free speech zone further from the construction area.

But the federal agencies that have allowed the pipeline to cross through four states have also lent some timid approval to the protesters in recent months. The Corps of Engineers announced on November 14 that they would temporarily halt planned pipeline construction under Lake Oahe, a source of water for the Sioux and now the site of intense protests.

That follows an announcement President Barack Obama made this year that he would ask Energy Transfer Partners to "voluntarily" halt construction on federal land near Lake Oahe, which connects to the Missouri River through the Oahe Dam.

Whether Energy Transfer Partners has followed that request is unclear. The Corps only says that they expect the pipeline company to follow all federal laws. The pipeline company has not been granted the easement that is required before any horizontal drilling beneath USACE [United States Army Corps of Engineers]-managed federal lands at Lake Oahe can begin, Corps spokesperson Moira Kelley tells ConsumerAffairs via email.

The easement necessary for the pipeline to cross USACE-managed federal land at Lake Oahe is currently under review. We expect all parties involved to adhere to federal law. There is no timeline for this review period. A determination is expected in the near future.
Scientists are now able to better track the giant ice sheets movements

Scientists say the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica may be melting faster than in past years, raising concerns about the consequences if it shrinks faster than expected.

Its actually nicknamed the doomsday glacier because of what could happen if it began to rapidly add water to the ocean. In a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience, researchers suggest the massive ice sheet could begin melting twice as fast as in the past.

To make their projections, the scienti...
Karishma Tanna now has 1 million followers on social media site, Instagram. Yeah, we said WOW too.

By India Today Web Desk: TV and film actress Karishma Tanna is on cloud nine these days. And no, it is not because of the praises that she has been receiving thanks to her smashing performances on dance reality show Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa Season 9.

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The good-looking actress recently reached 1 million followers on Instagram. Obviously, she was extremely happy about it, and she took to the social media site to express her gratitude to fans for all their love and support.

Karishma posted a video and even shared a sweet message with her one million followers.

Also read:Karishma Tanna is all set to make a comeback on TV, as a naagin



"To all my Fans, thank you for your time and your love and your positive energy. It lifts my spirit and it means the world to me that I mean anything to you, so thank you Guys!! #ktians #happy #onemillionfollowers #feelingblessed #proudmoment #happiness #thankyou #love #support."

Now, that is super-sweet.



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Congress has returned to Washington, D.C., for the final days of the 114th Congress with 1 significant priority: to pass a funding resolution to keep the government operating beyond Dec. 9.

Currently the House is scheduled to be in session for 16 days, and the Senate for 20, but it is likely that the session will last as long as there is must-pass work to be done.

This week, CUNA will also be monitoring a House Financial Services subcommittee hearing titled Modernizing Appraisals: A Regulatory Review and the Future of the Industry.

Also in Washington, D.C. this week, new members of Congress will arrive for orientation, and party caucuses will hold leadership elections.
Walk through any major U.S. city and youre likely to encounter those unmistakable golden arches, or that green, crowned siren, on what seems like every street corner. Youll also stroll past many national banks, whose thousands of branches offer convenience most think is unmatched by credit unions.

In reality, though, credit union members often have just as much access to in-person support as megabank customers, in addition to often better rates and lower fees than at national banks.

The reason? Shared branching.

What is shared branching?

About 1,800 of the countrys 7,000 credit unions belong to the CO-OP Financial Services shared branch network. Members have access to over 5,000 shared branches with locations in all 50 states.
Republicans may not be very happy with the terms of the student loan repayment program proposed by President-elect Donald Trump, but students may be a lot happier with it than with any existing program.

The Washington Post reported that at a Columbus, Ohio rally in October, Trump said that the terms of his program would allow borrowers to get on with their lives.

Payments would be tied to income and capped at 12.5 percenthigher than the current Revised Pay as You Earn (REPAYE), which caps payments at 10% of borrowers incomesbut forgives remaining debt after 15 years. REPAYEs debt forgiveness doesnt begin until after 20 years of payment.

We would cap repayment for an affordable portion of the borrowers income, 12.5%, wed cap it. That gives you a lot to play with and a lot to do, Trump was quoted saying.
Talking Points:

USD/JPY Technical Strategy: 200-DMA Now Treated As Support In Blast-Off Move

USD/JPY Touches Five-Month Highs, Momentum Expected To Continue

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will meet with US President-elect Donald Trump Thursday

In the Post-Election G10FX World, the Japanese JPY is the weakest currency as measured by a 200-MA on a four-hour chart. Meanwhile, the US Dollar has become a new gauge of uncertainty in a world that has thrived off USD weakness. USD weakness tends to indicate higher commodity prices, international credit demand, and demand for risky assets that had driven much of the global demand in emerging market debt markets.

Access Our Free Q4 Trading Guides That Focus On Tradeable Themes Here

A fascinating piece of work by the head of research at the Bank of International settlements, Hyun Song Shin showed the USD per the DXY is in the works of communicating more about the global uncertainty than the CBOE VIX. Much of his argument centered around the boost higher in USD aligning as a barometer for leverage demanded across the world, which is a predictor of global growth given the large amount of global dollar-denominated liabilities that the BIS has recently tallied north of $3T.

While JPY strength should always be considered in times of global macro stress, the USD strength could continue to keep this strong/weak trade trending higher. The USD is currently second to the British Pound as above the 200-MA on an H4 chart, whereas the JPY & EUR are the two weakest by the same measure as of Tuesday, November 15, 2016:

One technical development that we alerted you to was how USD/JPY had multiple rejections of 99/101 zone. The strong bounces off this level seemed to be indicative of either intervention from Japan to sell the JPY or unwillingness for institutions to hold long JPY positions against the USD below 101. Either way, the sharp move higher in US Yields that has helped fuel the USD rally that continues to persist with US/JPY 10Yr Spread near its widest level in a year at -222.5. While there is an expectation that this move will retrace somewhat, the trend may be shifting higher as we look at the charts.

D1 USD/JPY Chart: USD/JPY Has Broken Months Worth of Resistance in the Last Week

Chart Created by Tyler Yell, CMT, Courtesy of TradingView

Price Action in USD/JPY has seen price pull higher from previously mentioned resistance at the 200-DMA as well as the post-Brexit high of 107.49. Given the sharp rise in yields and the US/JPY sovereign spread widening that we mentioned above, we encouraged traders to be on the watch for USD/JPY rush in or fear of missing out trade that could keep USD/JPY bid. Tuesdays high above 109 seemed to signal the FOMO trade in play.

Register For a Free Price Target Webinar Hosted by Tyler Yell, CMT on Tuesday, 3 pm EST

One indicator that weve long-watched that kept our bias consistently lower has broken. The Andrews pitchfork above is drawn off of key pivots that are made from the 2015 high, August 24 low and the lower high in November. This Pitchfork has done an outstanding job of framing price action and keeping our focus lower, but the time appears to have changed. This weeks price action has taken us aggressively through the channel that has framed price action and could be indicative of a larger trend shift that could take us to the ~115/6 if not higher over the coming months.

Last weeks sharp moves are being treated as part a bottoming process. The Bullish view that Im holding has been validated. This view will remain if the price holds on a closing basis above the 200-DMA at 106.47.

Shorter-Term USD/JPY Technical Levels: November 15, 2016

For those interested in shorter-term levels of focus than the ones above, these levels signal important potential pivot levels over the next 48-hours.

T.Y.
Providence, RI --- James Grieg Arthur will receive the 2017 AMS Leroy P. Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement "for his fundamental contributions to number theory and harmonic analysis, and in particular for his proof of the Arthur-Selberg trace formula." Arthur is a University Professor and holds the Ted Mossman Chair in Mathematics at the University of Toronto.

James G. Arthur has made deep and lasting contributions to mathematics. The pinnacle of his work is the Arthur-Selberg trace formula, which elucidates profound connections between properties of numbers on the one hand, and geometric shapes on the other. Building on the pioneering work of Atle Selberg from the 1950s, Arthur created a whole mathematical framework and introduced many major tools. The Arthur-Selberg trace formula is developed in 16 long and difficult research papers that Arthur published between 1974 and 1988. His work on the trace formula, which continues to this day, stands at the center of a highly active research area to which many mathematicians the world over are contributing.

This work fits into a larger effort known as the Langlands Program, which Arthur's doctoral advisor, Robert P. Langlands, inaugurated in the late 1960s and expanded in the 1970s. The Langlands Program posits a series of deep and far-reaching connections among several parts of mathematics that seem, at first glance, to be unrelated. The program has inspired an enormous amount of mathematical research, in which James G. Arthur has been one of the central figures. His work has had and will continue to have an enormous impact on several branches of mathematics.

Today, at the age of 72, Arthur continues to produce research at the highest level. Because his area of research is often considered to be among the most technically forbidding in mathematics, Arthur has worked hard to make the area more accessible by producing high-quality expository works, which have in turn stimulated more interest and new work. An example is his article "Harmonic Analysis and Group Representations," which appeared in the January 2000 issue of the Notices of the AMS.

Arthur has a strong commitment to education. This can be seen, for example, in remarks he presented as AMS president, on the occasion of the awarding of the 2005 Abel Prize to mathematician Peter D. Lax. In his remarks, Arthur noted the stimulation such prizes provide to research at the highest levels. The prize "is of enormous benefit for other reasons as well," he said. "The effective teaching of mathematics is essential for the future well-being of society. Talented students need to be encouraged to pursue the subject. It is equally important that young men and women see the teaching of mathematics as an honourable calling. Public recognition [of Abel Laureates] resonates the world over [and] becomes a source of pride and inspiration for students and teachers alike." The full text of his remarks appeared in the August 2005 issue of the Notices of the AMS.

Over the course of his career, Arthur has received many honors. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Science, a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of the AMS. He received the Canada Gold Medal in Science and Engineering in 1999, an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Ottawa in 2002, and the Wolf Prize in Mathematics in 2015. He has given several addresses at International Congresses of Mathematicians, including a Plenary Lecture at the 2014 Congress and a Plenary Lecture at the first Mathematical Congress of the Americas in 2013.

Arthur's dedication to cultivating and supporting scholarship and research has led to his appointment to several senior administrative roles internationally. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the International Mathematics Union (1991-1998) and the Academic Trustee for Mathematics on the Board of Trustees of the Institute for Advanced Study (1997-2007). He also served as president of the AMS from 2005-2007. One of his lasting legacies as AMS president is the establishment of the AMS Einstein Public Lecture in Mathematics, delivered annually by an outstanding mathematician with a flair for communicating with the general public.

Presented annually, the AMS Steele Prize is one of the highest distinctions in mathematics. The prize will be awarded Thursday, January 5, 2017, at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Atlanta.

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Find out more about AMS prizes and awards at http://www.ams.org/profession/prizes-awards/prizes.
Researchers at The Australian National University (ANU) have found a new way to fabricate high efficiency semi-transparent perovskite solar cells in a breakthrough that could lead to more efficient and cheaper solar electricity.

Dr Tom White from the ANU Research School of Engineering said the new fabrication method significantly improved the performance of perovskite solar cells, which can combine with conventional silicon solar cells to produce more efficient solar electricity.

He said perovskite solar cells were extremely good at making electricity from visible light - blue, green and red - while conventional silicon solar cells were more efficient at converting infrared light into electricity.

"The prospect of adding a few additional processing steps at the end of a silicon cell production line to make perovskite cells is very exciting and could boost solar efficiency from 25 per cent to 30 per cent," Dr White said.

"By combining these two cells, the perovskite cell and the silicon cell, we are able to make much better use of the solar energy and achieve higher efficiencies than either cell on its own."

While perovskite cells can improve efficiency, they are not yet stable enough to be used on rooftops. Dr White said the new fabrication technique could help develop more reliable perovskite cells.

The new fabrication method involves adding a small amount of the element indium into one of the cell layers during fabrication. That could increase the cell's power output by as much as 25 per cent.

"We have been able to achieve a record efficiency of 16.6 per cent for a semi-transparent perovskite cell, and 24.5 per cent for a perovskite-silicon tandem, which is one of the highest efficiencies reported for this type of cell," said Dr White.

Dr White said the research placed ANU in a small group of labs around the world with the capability to improve silicon solar cell efficiency using perovskites.

The development builds on the state-of-the-art silicon cell research at ANU and is part of a $12.2 million "High-efficiency silicon/perovskite solar cells" project led by University of New South Wales and supported by $3.6 million of funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.

Research partners include Monash University, Arizona State University, Suntech R&D Australia Pty Ltd and Trina Solar.

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The research is published in Advanced Energy Materials: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aenm.201601768/abstract.

Images are available from cloudstor: https://cloudstor.aarnet.edu.au/plus/index.php/s/foXF6owiuDjeYVy.
The enforcement of prohibition - a ban on the production, supply, possession, and use of some drugs for non-medical purposes - causes huge harm, and doctors should lead calls for drug policy reform, argues The BMJ today.

Editor in chief, Dr Fiona Godlee, and features and debates editor, Richard Hurley, say prohibition laws, colloquially known as the "war on drugs," cost at least $100bn annually but have failed to curb either supply or demand, reduce addiction, minimise harm, cut violence, and reduce profits for organised crime.

Far from diminishing over time, drug use has grown substantially worldwide - exacting a tragic toll on individuals and societies.

In 2014 a quarter of a billion adults - one in 20 worldwide - may have taken an illegal drug such as cannabis, cocaine, or heroin, while a quarter of UK 15 year olds may have taken illegal preparations of unknown quality and potency.

Calls for reform come as no surprise, then, and at a UN general assembly in April, many countries asked for health and human right to be prioritised over punitive responses.

Some have already removed criminal penalties for personal drug possession, explain Godlee and Hurley. For instance, Portugal replaced criminal sanctions for drug use with civil penalties and health interventions 15 years ago.

The UK's new Psychoactive Substances Act criminalises the supply but not use of synthetic drugs, while some US states like California have legal cannabis markets, and the Netherlands has tolerated regulated cannabis sales for decades.

A recent international evidence review concluded that governments should decriminalise minor drug offences, strengthen health and social sector alternatives to criminal sanctions, move cautiously, where possible, towards regulated drug markets, and scientifically evaluate the outcomes to build pragmatic and rational policy.

"Health should be at the centre of this debate, and so, therefore, should healthcare professionals," they write. "Change is coming, and doctors should use their authority to lead calls for pragmatic reform informed by science and ethics."

Ruth Dreifuss, former President of Switzerland and chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, says the need for more effective and humane drug policies is more urgent now than ever.

She argues for a pragmatic approach to drug policy reform, starting with the recognition that the idealised notion of a "society without drugs" is an unattainable fantasy. Reforms must then prioritise issues of public health, social integration, and security, while strictly respecting human rights and due judicial process, she writes.

Decriminalisation can and must go further, she adds. In its upcoming report, the Global Commission calls for governments to regulate all illicit drugs. This would curb a massive revenue stream for organised crime, worth an estimated US$320bn.

Parliamentarians Baroness Molly Meacher and Nick Clegg MP say UK drug policy has been irrational for 55 years - and this is the right time to establish a wider review of drug policy.

They urge the government to reschedule cannabis for medical use and to review policy on heroin assisted treatment, which has already shown positive results in Switzerland, such as a decline in drug use and crime, and improvements in health and rehabilitation.

They also call for an end to criminal sanctions for the personal possession and use of all drugs. "British politicians should seriously consider introducing a version of the Portuguese model in the UK, involving a significant transfer of resources from criminal justice to treatment services," they write.

They point out that steps towards decriminalisation in the UK have already begun, with the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016, and say changes to drug prohibition "could be good for the UK."

Few UK medical organisations have a position on the issue, but this summer, the British Medical Association (BMA) voted for a move to prioritise treatment over punishment of individual drug users at its Annual Representative Meeting.

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Editorial: The war on drugs has failed: doctors should lead calls for drug policy reform

Observations: Non-violent drug users should face no penalty - a call from the Global Commission on Drug Policy

Analysis: How changes to drug prohibition could be good for the UK - an essay by Molly Meacher and Nick Clegg

About BMJ

BMJ is a healthcare knowledge provider that aims to advance healthcare worldwide by sharing knowledge and expertise to improve experiences, outcomes and value. For a full list of BMJ products and services, please visit bmj.com
(Boston)--Researchers have identified a new pathway and with it a protein, BRD4, necessary for breast cancer cells to spread.

The findings, which appear in the journal Cancer Research, may provide a new target to suppress breast cancer metastasis.

Triple-negative breast cancer is considered the worst subgroup of breast cancer. It is highly aggressive and responds poorly to the current therapeutic tools resulting in a dismal prognosis for patients. Furthermore, the lack of identified targets has limited the development of new drug strategies.

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) used breast cancer cell lines that present the clinical characteristics of an aggressive breast cancer subtype (clinically described as a triple-negative breast cancer). They then used an experimental design to model cancer cell metastasis. By suppressing the expression of the protein BRD4 in these cell lines, they observed that their dissemination capabilities were blocked, indicating that BRD4 drives breast cancer dissemination. In addition, they conducted a screening analysis of human breast tumors and found that tumors with a high expression of BRD4 were more likely to metastasize.

"The current treatment options for a triple-negative cancer are unacceptably limited. It is crucial to identify new therapeutic targets to tackle challenging cancer types, including triple negative breast cancer. BDR4 targeting represents an innovative strategy to ablate breast cancer metastasis," explained lead investigator Guillaume Andrieu, PhD, a post-doctoral research associate at Boston University School of Medicine.

Although obesity per se is not thought of as a carcinogen, the abnormal, inflamed microenvironments found in obesity are critical for progression, invasion and metastasis of triple negative breast cancer. "Bromodomain and ExtraTerminal domain (BET) proteins, which include BRD2, BRD3 and BRD4, are known to regulate production of inflammatory mediators. Our study proposes that BRD4 couples inflammation to breast cancer dissemination. Thus, small molecules that block BET proteins possess anti-inflammatory properties that can be useful for therapy," he added.

Although these findings primarily focus on breast cancer and metastasis, the researchers plan to expand their results to the treatment of prostate cancer, which they believe has similar pathways involved in its metastasis.

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Funding for this study was provided by the National Cancer Institute.
NEW YORK NY (November 14, 2016)--Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have demonstrated that vision loss associated with a form of retinitis pigmentosa (RP) can be slowed dramatically by reprogramming the metabolism of photoreceptors, or light sensors, in the retina. The study, conducted in mice, represents a novel approach to the treatment of RP, in which the therapy aims to correct downstream metabolic aberrations of the disease rather than the underlying genetic defect.

The findings were published online today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

"Although gene therapy has shown promise in RP, it is complicated by the fact that defects in 67 genes have been linked to the disorder, and each genetic defect would require a different therapy," said study leader Stephen H. Tsang, MD, PhD, the Laszlo Z. Bito Associate Professor of Ophthalmology, Pathology and Cell Biology, and the Institute of Human Nutrition. "Our study shows that precision metabolic reprogramming can improve the survival and function of affected rods and cones in at least one type of RP. Since many, if not most, forms of the disorder have the same metabolic error, precision reprogramming could conceivably be applied to a wide range of RP patients."

RP, an inherited form of vision loss, is caused by genetic defects that lead to the breakdown and loss of rods, the photoreceptors in the retina that enable peripheral and night vision. Over time, the deterioration of rods compromises the function of cones, the color-sensing photoreceptors. People with RP start to experience vision loss in childhood, and many are blind by the time they reach adulthood. Currently, there is no cure or effective treatment for RP, which affects about 1 in 4,000 people worldwide.

Rods are among the most metabolically active cells in the body. They are particularly active during periods of darkness, when they burn glucose to release energy. In an earlier paper, Dr. Tsang and his colleagues theorized that rods deteriorate in RP, in part, because they lose the daytime's ability to use glucose to rebuild the rods' outer segment (the light-absorbing portion of the photoreceptor). "We hypothesized that diseased rods could be rescued by reprogramming sugar metabolism," said Dr. Tsang.

Dr. Tsang tested this hypothesis in mice with a mutation in the Pde6 gene that disrupts rod metabolism, leading to an RP-like disorder. The mice were treated so that their rods could not express Sirt6, a gene that inhibits sugar metabolism.

Examination of photoreceptors with electroretinography showed that the mice had significantly greater measures of rod and cone health than untreated controls. Overall, the metabolomes (all of the metabolites found in an organism) of the treated mice had accumulated the molecules needed to build the outer segment. In addition, both rods and cones survived longer in the treated mice than in the controls.

While the treatment significantly prolonged survival of the diseased rods and cones, it did not prevent their eventual death. "Our next challenge is to figure out how to extend the therapeutic effect of Sirt6 inhibition," said Dr. Tsang.

"Although the treatment that was used in the mice cannot be applied directly to humans, several known Sirt6 inhibitors could be evaluated for clinical use," according to Vinit B. Mahajan, MD, PhD, a contributing researcher from the University of Iowa. The inhibitors include enzyme blockers called thiomyristoyl peptides, a common plant pigment known as quercetin, and vitexin, a substance derived from the English Hawthorn tree.

Dr. Tsang noted, "Further studies are needed to explore the exciting possibility that precision metabolic reprogramming may be used to treat other forms of RP and retinal degeneration."

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The study is titled, "Reprogramming Sirtuin-6 Attenuates Retinal Degeneration." The other contributors are: Lijuan Zhang (CUMC, the Edward S Harkness Eye Institute, and the Shanxi Eye Hospital, affiliated with Shanxi Medical University, Xinghualing, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China), Jianhai Du (University of Washington, Seattle, WA), Sally Justus (CUMC and the Edward S Harkness Eye Institute), Chun-Wei Hsu (CUMC and the Edward S Harkness Eye Institute), Luis Bonet-Ponce (National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD), Wen-Hsuan Wu (CUMC and the Edward S Harkness Eye Institute), Yi-Ting Tsai (CUMC and the Edward S Harkness Eye Institute), Wei-Pu Wu (CUMC and the Edward S Harkness Eye Institute), Yading Jia (Shanxi Eye Hospital), Jimmy K. Duong (CUMC), Chyuan-Sheng Lin (CUMC), Shuang Wang (CUMC), and James B. Hurley (University of Washington).

The study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (5P30EY019007, R01EY018213, R01EY024698, 1R01EY026682, and R21AG050437), The National Cancer Institute Core (5P30CA013696), the Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) Physician-Scientist Award, unrestricted funds from RPB, the Tistou and Charlotte Kerstan Foundation, the Schneeweiss Stem Cell Fund, New York State (C029572), the Foundation Fighting Blindness New York Regional Research Center Grant (C-NY05-0705-0312), Jonas Family Fund, and the Gebroe Family Foundation.

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Columbia University Medical Center provides international leadership in basic, preclinical, and clinical research; medical and health sciences education; and patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, public health professionals, dentists, and nurses at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Mailman School of Public Health, the College of Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. Columbia University Medical Center is home to the largest medical research enterprise in New York City and State and one of the largest faculty medical practices in the Northeast. The campus that Columbia University Medical Center shares with its hospital partner, NewYork-Presbyterian, is now called the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. For more information, visit cumc.columbia.edu or columbiadoctors.org.
A 'Kit Kat thief' stole a guy's chocolate leaving a note saying he loves it. The thief, by the way, apologised and said he was hungry.

By India Today Web Desk:

Hershey has come to the rescue of a college student who had his Kit Kat bar brazenly stolen.

According to an Associated Press report, Kansas State University student Hunter Jobbins tells The Wichita Eagle newspaper that he left his car unlocked with a Kit Kat in the cup holder before going into his dorm building.

advertisement

When Jobbins came back, instead of the candy bar in the cup holder, he found a note. The thief had left a note saying, "I love Kit Kats so I checked your door and it was unlocked. Did not take anything other than the Kit Kat. I am sorry and hungry [sic]".



Jobbins' picture of the note went viral on Twitter.



Left my car for maybe 15 minutes in front of the dorms and I come back to this. College man pic.twitter.com/KlDx5BtXLX Hunter Jobbins (@jabbins) October 30, 2016

Hershey was quick to respond by sending a representative to the campus with 6,500 Kit Kat bars.

Jobbins had so many Kit Kats that his car was stuffed with the bars and handed them out around campus last week.

--- ENDS ---
November 15, 2016 - New York, NY - Linda P. Fried, Dean and DeLamar Professor at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, will receive the 2016 Inserm International Prize, a scientific honor presented annually by the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research [Inserm], France's equivalent of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The Prize will be presented along with five other Inserm awards at a December 8 ceremony held at College de France in Paris.

"Throughout my career, my interest in the science of healthy aging has been guided by a belief that science and society, working in concert, can optimize our innate capacity for good health," Fried said. "I am grateful to Inserm for this honor and for the light it will shine on this body of scientific breakthroughs. My collaborators and I believe that such science can be the basis for the opportunities of our now-longer lives. Science offers enormous potential to build health for older people around the world and create the foundations to benefit all of us.

Worldwide, the number of people aged 65 or older will almost triple by 2050, climbing from about 524 million in 2010 to nearly 1.5 billion. Fried, who has actively collaborated with global leaders to help realize the potential of large older populations, recently led an international summit on aging and health in Shanghai. The most populous nation on earth will be home to as many as 330 million people over age 60 by 2050. In designing the summit, Fried included representation from global academia, government, and private industry, all of which will be called upon to meet the demands of this demographic transformation. .

John W. Rowe, Julius B. Richmond Professor of Health Policy and Aging Health Policy and Management at Columbia, suggested Inserm's selection marks a milestone for those within public health who study aging. "The importance of the Inserm Prize relates to its truly international scope and its focus not on a particular discovery but on a scholar's systematic body of work in an important area," he said. "Recognition of Linda Fried's research has special significance as it shows that research on aging, long neglected, has come of age."

A highly regarded figure in international public health, Fried has dedicated her career to interventions that equip societies to transition to a world in which greater longevity benefits people of all ages. Her research creating the science of frailty, defining frailty as a clinical syndrome and illuminating its causes, consequences and the potential for preventing it has had great impact. Fried's scientific discoveries have transformed science as well as medical care and public health globally, and catalyzed greater interest in helping older populations thrive.

Fried was cited by publisher Thompson Reuters in 2014 as among the top one percent of influential scientific minds of the prior decade. She is also the designer and co-founder of Experience Corps, a program that places senior volunteers in public schools in cities in the United States and around the world. Serving in both tutoring and mentoring roles, Experience Corps' older volunteers help enrich students' academic achievements while bolstering their own health through continued activity and community interaction. In a randomized, controlled trial, Fried successfully demonstrated Experience Corps' success preventing physical disability and cognitive decline among older adults, while raising child literacy.

Before coming to Columbia in 2008 Fried founded the Johns Hopkins Center on Aging and Health, directed the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, and held joint appointments at Hopkins' schools of medicine, nursing, and public health.

Prior winners of the International Prize include Chen Zhu, China's former Minister of Health, Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institutes of Drug Abuse, and Harvey Alter, whose work led to the discovery of hepatitis-C. Last year, the Prize was awarded to Peter Piot, who is currently Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The 2008 winner, Tomas Lindahl, former Director of Clare Hall Laboratories at Cancer Research in the United Kingdom, went on to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2015.

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Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health

Founded in 1922, Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health pursues an agenda of research, education, and service to address the critical and complex public health issues affecting New Yorkers, the nation and the world. The Mailman School is the third largest recipient of NIH grants among schools of public health. Its over 450 multi-disciplinary faculty members work in more than 100 countries around the world, addressing such issues as preventing infectious and chronic diseases, environmental health, maternal and child health, health policy, climate change & health, and public health preparedness. It is a leader in public health education with over 1,300 graduate students from more than 40 nations pursuing a variety of master's and doctoral degree programs. The Mailman School is also home to numerous world-renowned research centers including ICAP (formerly the International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs) and the Center for Infection and Immunity. For more information, please visit http://www.mailman.columbia.edu.
New York -- Researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health found that an important explanation for declining rates of global adolescent fertility is rising national wealth and expenditures on education. Income inequalities were associated with higher adolescent birth rates, and slower rates of decline in adolescent birth rates. Results are published online in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

"Declines in global adolescent birth rates were profoundly and independently shaped by national income, income inequalities, and expenditures on education," said John Santelli, MD, Chair and Professor of Population and Family Health at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Co-authors included Xiaoyu Song and Samantha Garbers from Columbia, Vinit Sharma of the United Nations Population Fund, and Russell Viner of University College London.

The study is the most comprehensive to date of these social determinants and their relationship to trends in global adolescent childbearing. It adds support to the growing body of evidence that suggests narrowing income inequality and increasing education opportunities can improve health and well-being for young people.

The findings parallel previous research on social and education influences on adolescent health reviewed earlier this year by the Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing. Drs. Santelli and Viner were members of the Commission.

Using data from the World Bank, the researchers examined the national income (per capita GDP), income inequality within nations (the Gini Index), and national expenditures on education as a percentage of GDP and their association with adolescent birth rates and rates of decline in adolescent birth rates among 142 nations over the period 1990-2012.

The median adolescent birth rate among nations fell 40 percent from 72.4 per 1,000 in 1990 to 43.6 per 1,000 in 2012.

Adolescent birth rates in 2012 varied more than 200-fold among the 142 nations examined. By region, the highest rates were found in Sub- Saharan Africa and the lowest rates were in Europe and Central Asia and other high-income nations. The U.S. still has among the highest rates of adolescent birth among high income countries, despite a decline of 51 percent between 1990 and 2012 -- the period of time for this study.

Adolescent birth rates were based on the number of births per 1,000 adolescent women (15-19 years). GDP in current U.S. dollars was used as the indicator of wealth. The Gini Index (range 0-100), the most commonly used measure of national income inequality was also used for this study. A Gini score of 0 corresponds with perfect equality (where everyone has the same income) and a score of 100 corresponds with perfect inequality (i.e., one person has all the income). Thus, a higher national Gini Index score indicates greater income inequality within a nation.

While inequalities showed little change over time, regions with lower income inequalities had more rapid rates of decline in adolescent birth rates. The largest regional declines over the 22-year time period occurred in South Asia (70 percent), Europe/Central Asia (63 percent), and the Middle East/North Africa (53 percent)--"regions with lower income inequality," noted Dr. Santelli.

"We hypothesized that GDP, Gini, and educational expenditures would be independently associated with national rates of adolescent births and trends in these rates. They were." said Dr. Santelli.

"Reducing poverty and income inequalities and increasing investments in education should be essential components of national policies to prevent adolescent childbearing," said Dr. Santelli.

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This study is supported by Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.

Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health

Founded in 1922, Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health pursues an agenda of research, education, and service to address the critical and complex public health issues affecting New Yorkers, the nation and the world. The Mailman School is the third largest recipient of NIH grants among schools of public health. Its over 450 multi-disciplinary faculty members work in more than 100 countries around the world, addressing such issues as preventing infectious and chronic diseases, environmental health, maternal and child health, health policy, climate change & health, and public health preparedness. It is a leader in public health education with over 1,300 graduate students from more than 40 nations pursuing a variety of master's and doctoral degree programs. The Mailman School is also home to numerous world-renowned research centers including ICAP (formerly the International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs) and the Center for Infection and Immunity. For more information, please visit http://www.mailman.columbia.edu.
Salt Lake City, UT / Norwich, UK -- November 15, 2016 -- The Earlham Institute (EI) has been recognised in the annual HPCwire Readers' and Editors' Choice Awards for their high-performance computing bread wheat genome project, presented at the leading supercomputing event SC16 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Awarded for 'Editors' Choice - Best Use of HPC Application in Life Sciences' the Earlham Institute (previously TGAC) has been accoladed for its research analysing the highly-complex wheat genome, using the SGI UV 300 - SGI's largest instance for life sciences.

EI uses state-of-the-art HPC platforms and bioinformatics software in response to the pressing global issue of food security. With one of the largest SGI UV 2000 instances worldwide (boasting 20TB of shared RAM) and the latest SGI UV 300 platform (including 32TB of NVMe SSD technology), EI crop researchers are able to assemble some of the largest and most complex genomes to date, including the 17Gb bread wheat genome, in a matter of weeks, compared to months for more traditional distributed-memory HPC systems.

Currently, the staple crop faces unprecedented problems, including rising demand due to major population increases and urban mobility, global climate change, rising energy costs and land, water and nutrient limitations. With an estimated yearly production of 750 million tons, finding and implementing these solutions for wheat is a top priority for governments and scientists worldwide.

Head of Scientific Computing at EI Dr Tim Stitt on the prestigious award, said: "It's fantastic to be recognised for our data-intensive computing capability in a public forum from such a popular publication in the HPC community. To win this award ahead of other great entries spanning the worldwide HPC community is a tremendous achievement for our relatively small research institute in Norfolk, UK. This will definitely motivate our HPC team, and our partners such as SGI, to continue to push the boundaries of data-intensive computing in tackling the tremendous challenges around large and complex genome analysis to advance global food security and sustainability.

SGI Chief Operating Officer, Cassio Conceicao, added: "SGI is truly delighted that EI has won such a prestigious award in this increasingly competitive and fast growing sector of genomics applied research. This Editor's award for 'Best Use of HPC Application in Life Sciences' provides compelling testimony to the outstanding research effort and capabilities on display at the research institute. We remain a proud partner to EI, having now provided several generations of large shared memory SGI UV architectures to help enable the Institute to tackle some of the world's largest sustainability challenges--specifically food production. Congratulations!"

Winners were revealed at the HPCwire booth at the SC16 event, and on the HPCwire website, located at http://www.HPCwire.com.

The coveted annual HPCwire Readers' and Editors' Choice Awards are determined through a nomination and voting process with the global HPCwire community, as well as selections from the HPCwire editors. The awards are an annual feature of the publication and constitute prestigious recognition from the HPC community. These awards are revealed each year to kick off the annual supercomputing conference, which showcases high-performance computing, networking, storage, and data analysis.

"From thought leaders to end users, the HPCwire readership reaches and engages every corner of the high-performance computing community," said Tom Tabor, CEO of Tabor Communications, publisher of HPCwire. "Receiving their recognition signifies community support across the entire HPC space as well as the breadth of industries it serves. We are proud to recognise these efforts and make the voices of our readers heard, and our congratulations go out to all the winners."

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Notes to Editors

1) For press queries at Earlham Institute, please contact:

Hayley London

Marcomms Officer, Earlham Institute (EI)

+44 (0)1603 450107

Hayley.London@earlham.ac.uk

2) Comment from Dr Matt Clark, Head of Technology Development at EI, and Scientific lead on EI's BBSRC funded wheat genomics project, on the complexity and size of the wheat genome: "Wheat is one of the most important crops in the world and production must keep up with population increases to avoid famine. Climate change and emerging diseases threaten current yields, actually increasing yields is a further challenge. New optimised wheat varieties could solve these problems, and wheat breeders are increasingly looking to use the wheat genome to help them modernise breeding techniques.

"Yet, the wheat genome is one of the most challenging in biology, over five times larger than human, as it actually contains three genomes; one each from the three very similar grass species that came together to make the bread wheat. Wheat contains many more genes than a human, but they are hidden among a sea of repetitive sequences which occur hundreds and thousands of times. Finding the genes, and assigning them to the correct original genome in the right order is like sorting needles and straws into the three original haystacks before they were mixed together. Fortunately, new sequencing and computational advances at Earlham Institute now make this possible, allowing wheat researchers and breeders to use the wheat genome sequence."

2) More information on these awards can be found at the HPCwire website (http://www.HPCwire.com) or on Twitter through the following hashtag: #HPCwireAwards.

3) Accompanying images and descriptions can be accessed here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/p1ffnoex7idiv35/AACEBnkCpc5NzxVI-enLvI9La?dl=0

4) About Earlham Institute (EI)

The Earlham Institute (EI) is a world-leading research institute focusing on the development of genomics and computational biology. EI is based within the Norwich Research Park and is one of eight institutes that receive strategic funding from Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council (BBSRC) - 6.45M in 2015/2016 - as well as support from other research funders. EI operates a National Capability to promote the application of genomics and bioinformatics to advance bioscience research and innovation.

EI offers a state of the art DNA sequencing facility, unique by its operation of multiple complementary technologies for data generation. The Institute is a UK hub for innovative bioinformatics through research, analysis and interpretation of multiple, complex data sets. It hosts one of the largest computing hardware facilities dedicated to life science research in Europe. It is also actively involved in developing novel platforms to provide access to computational tools and processing capacity for multiple academic and industrial users and promoting applications of computational Bioscience. Additionally, the Institute offers a training programme through courses and workshops, and an outreach programme targeting key stakeholders, and wider public audiences through dialogue and science communication activities. http://www.earlham.ac.uk / @EarlhamInst

5) About HPCwire

HPCwire is the #1 news and information resource covering the fastest computers in the world and the people who run them. With a legacy dating back to 1986, HPCwire has enjoyed a legacy of world-class editorial and journalism, making it the news source of choice selected by science, technology and business professionals interested in high performance and data-intensive computing. Visit HPCwire at http://www.hpcwire.com.
A bilingual support group addressing the psychological and educational needs of patients with lupus and their families is a valuable resource to help them cope, according to a study at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS).

The research, "Evaluating the Charla de Lupus (Lupus Chat) Program's Teen, Young Adult and Parent Support Group: Reaching the Hispanic/Latino Community through a Family Model of Support" was presented at the American College of Rheumatology/Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals annual meeting on November 13 in Washington, DC.

"Lupus is a chronic autoimmune illness that not only affects a person medically, but also mentally and emotionally," said Melissa Flores, MPH, LMSW, program coordinator of Charla in the Department of Social Work Programs at Hospital for Special Surgery. "People with lupus may experience debilitating symptoms such as extreme fatigue, joint pain, and skin rashes. Additionally, there are often psychosocial challenges, such as feelings of isolation, adjusting to medications with difficult side effects, and coping with the invisible, unpredictable nature of the illness."

Research shows that chronic illnesses such as lupus have a wide-ranging impact on the family. HSS started Charla to offer help and strategies to patients and their loved ones for managing the disease. "Lupus disproportionately affects women of color," Flores explains. "Our program strives to address health disparities by serving African American and Hispanic/Latino communities through our family model of support and our bilingual/bicultural programming."

The free monthly, hospital-based program provides support and education to teens and young adults under age 30, as well as their loved ones. Conducted in English and Spanish, each two-hour session consists of a presentation by an expert on a subject of interest to patients, a workshop or an open discussion. Topics include medications, nutrition, research and doctor-patient communication.

Flores and colleagues set out to determine how much the sessions helped participants and their families, with particular interest in the impact on Hispanic/Latino group members. A 16-item survey in English and Spanish was distributed after seven group meetings between 2015 and 2016.

A total of 148 surveys were handed out, including questions on overall satisfaction, knowledge, coping and disease management. Separate analyses were conducted for teens and young adults versus their parents/caregivers. Responses were also classified by ethnicity.

A total of 141 surveys were returned, which represented 95% of those who had received the questionnaire. Fifty percent of the respondents were teens/young adults and half were family members. Seventy-three percent were female. More than half of the respondents (68%) were Hispanic/Latino, 29% were African American, 28% were another race, 23% were White and 13% were Asian.

The answers to open-ended questions showed substantial improvements in knowledge and coping strategies in areas such as explaining lupus to others and communicating with doctors.

Additional survey results:

99% of all respondents reported overall satisfaction with the program

94% agreed that the program increased their knowledge of lupus-related issues

88% agreed that the groups helped them to cope

90% agreed that they could apply what they had learned to manage lupus

95% agreed that the program met their expectations

98% agreed that the presenter was clear and informative

96% agreed that they would recommend the program

While overall ratings were high, the survey indicated that the meetings were particularly beneficial to Hispanics/Latinos. A higher percentage of Hispanics/Latinos indicated that the program increased their knowledge of lupus, helped them with disease management and coping, and met their expectations.

"Our results demonstrate the value of the group and our success in engaging patients with lupus. The evaluation also underscores the relevance of the family model of support when serving a diverse group of chronically ill teens and young adults and their caregivers," Flores said.

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Study Title: "Evaluating the Charla De Lupus (Lupus Chat) Program's Teen, Young Adult and Parent Support Group: Reaching the Hispanic/Latino Community through a Family Model of Support"

Authors: Melissa T. Flores1, Jillian A. Rose2, Priscilla Toral1, Roberta Horton1, Dariana M. Pichardo1, Lillian Mendez1 and Lisa F. Imundo3, 1Social Work Programs, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY, 2Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY, 3Assoociate Professor of Pediatrics in Medicine - Rheumatology, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY

About Hospital for Special Surgery

Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) is the world's largest academic medical center focused on musculoskeletal health. HSS is nationally ranked No. 1 in orthopedics and No. 2 in rheumatology by U.S. News & World Report (2016-2017), and is the first hospital in New York State to receive Magnet Recognition for Excellence in Nursing Service from the American Nurses Credentialing Center four consecutive times. HSS has one of the lowest infection rates in the country. HSS is an affiliate of Weill Cornell Medical College and as such all Hospital for Special Surgery medical staff are faculty of Weill Cornell. The hospital's research division is internationally recognized as a leader in the investigation of musculoskeletal and autoimmune diseases. Hospital for Special Surgery is located in New York City and online at http://www.hss.edu.
Ferroptosis is a recently discovered form of cell death, which is still only partially understood. Scientists at the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen have now identified an enzyme that plays a key role in generating the signal that initiates cell death. Their findings, published in two articles in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, could now give new impetus to research into the fields of cancer, neurodegeneration and other degenerative diseases.

The term ferroptosis was first coined in 2012. It is derived from the Greek word ptosis, meaning "a fall", and ferrum, the Latin word for iron, and describes a form of regulated necrotic cell death in which iron appears to play an important role. "The individual mechanisms involved in this type of cell death remain only partly understood, and our findings make an important contribution towards a better understanding of ferroptotic cell death," says study leader Dr. Marcus Conrad, who is heading a research group at the Institute of Developmental Genetics at the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen.

Along with his team and colleagues from the University of Pittsburgh, he was able to show that ACSL4*, an enzyme involved in the metabolism of fatty acids, plays a central role in ferroptosis. In order for the lethal mechanism to be triggered, a certain amount of specific oxidized lipid molecules must be present in membranes. "Acsl4 is critically involved in shaping the cellular lipid composition by storing more poly-unsaturated long-chain fatty acids in cellular membranes, thereby providing the starting materials for the generation of the lethal lipid signals driving ferroptosis" explains PhD student Sebastian Doll, first author of one of the two studies. "Previously it was assumed that iron-dependent lipid oxidation occurs randomly; however, our data now demonstrate that ACSL4 centrally contributes to the formation of oxidized lipid death signals in ferroptosis."

Potential applications for the treatment of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases

Although the term 'cell death' is generally viewed as an adverse event and thus has a rather negative image, it has been shown - particularly in the context of cancer - that the selective destruction of aberrant cells is vital for the human body. The scientists therefore examined the role of ACSL4 in this context. They showed that a subset of breast cancer cells (i.e. triple negative breast cancer cells) that do not produce ACSL4 are extremely resistant to ferroptosis, while those that express the enzyme respond very sensitively to ferroptosis induction. "This is a highly interesting finding given the fact that the presence of ACSL4 determines whether or not cells can embark on the ferroptosis pathway" explains Dr. Jose Pedro Friedmann Angeli, who was centrally involved in both studies. It is thus well conceivable, he says, that the molecule could be used as a biomarker in cancer patient stratification.

The researchers also provided the first molecular approach for targeting ACSL4 in the signalling pathway. In a model experiment using thiazolidinediones, a class of active compounds commonly used in the treatment of diabetes, they succeeded in slowing down the process of ferroptosis.

"Our intriguing insights that the ACSL4 enzyme plays a substantial role in the process of cell death provide novel cues for yet-unrecognized therapeutic approaches towards inhibiting ferroptosis in degenerative diseases or inducing ferroptosis in certain tumor diseases," says study leader Dr. Conrad. In particular, tumors that are otherwise very difficult to treat with standard chemotherapy might be amenable for ferroptosis therapy, the researchers say.

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Further information

* Acyl-CoA is a group of coenzymes involved in the metabolism of fatty acids. ACSL4 stands for Acyl-CoA synthetase long-chain family member 4.

Background: Up until now ferroptosis is only partially understood. However, the importance of cellular suicide has already been impressively documented by research concerning apoptosis, the first identified cell death pathway, which has been explored by far more comprehensively throughout the last decades than ferroptosis. Moreover, ferroptosis appears to play a key role in cancer and in cell demise in response to oxidative stress (e.g. in neurons). Previously, only a few essential molecules, such as glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4), have been implicated in the ferroptotic process.

Original publications:

Doll, S. et al. (2016): Acsl4 Dictates Ferroptosis Sensitivity by Shaping Cellular Lipid Composition. Nature Chemical Biology, doi: 10.1038/nchembio.2239 http://www.nature.com/nchembio/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nchembio.2239.html

Kagan, VE. et al. (2016): Oxidized Arachidonic and Adrenic PEs Navigate Cells to Ferroptosis. Nature Chemical Biology, doi: 10.1038/nchembio.2238 http://www.nature.com/nchembio/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nchembio.2238.html

The Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen, the German Research Center for Environmental Health, pursues the goal of developing personalized medical approaches for the prevention and therapy of major common diseases such as diabetes and lung diseases. To achieve this, it investigates the interaction of genetics, environmental factors and lifestyle. The Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen is headquartered in Neuherberg in the north of Munich and has about 2,300 staff members. It is a member of the Helmholtz Association, a community of 18 scientific-technical and medical-biological research centers with a total of about 37,000 staff members. http://www.helmholtz-muenchen.de/en

Rising life expectancy is causing an increase in age-related, but also sociological and environmental, influences on the genes. The Institute of Developmental Genetics (IDG) examines these changes in genetic material. In the Mouse Genetics group, genetic animal models are developed to investigate various diseases. These models are analyzed in the Disease Modelling research group in order to identify gene functions and cell processes and evaluate the influence of the environment and aging processes. The group focuses on the examination of neurological and psychiatric diseases. http://www.helmholtz-muenchen.de/idg

The Institute of Human Genetics (IHG) at the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen and the Technical University of Munich: The Institute is concerned with identifying genes associated with disease and characterizing their functions. The main aim of the research projects is to develop disease-related genetic variation in humans and mice as well as to develop chromosome analysis techniques and new methods for dealing with specific issues in the sphere of pre- and post-natal diagnostics and tumor cytogenetics. http://www.helmholtz-muenchen.de/ihg

The research objective of the Institute of Experimental Genetics (IEG) is to elucidate the causes and pathogenesis of human diseases. Due to its prominent role in interdisciplinary and international consortia, the IEG is a global leader in the systemic study of mouse models for human diseases and the elucidation of involved genes. The main focus is on metabolic diseases such as diabetes. The IEG is part of the Helmholtz Diabetes Center (HDC). http://www.helmholtz-muenchen.de/ieg

The Institute of Pathology (PATH) contributes to the identification and characterization of molecular mechanisms and pathways, which are relevant for disease development and progression. We endeavor to understand the interplay between environment and genetic, and to identify novel targets for therapeutic intervention. http://www.helmholtz-muenchen.de/path

Contact for the media: Department of Communication, Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen - German Research Center for Environmental Health, Ingolstadter Landstr. 1, 85764 Neuherberg - Tel. +49 89 3187 2238 - Fax: +49 89 3187 3324 - E-mail: presse@helmholtz-muenchen.de

Scientific Contact at Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen: Dr. Marcus Conrad, Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen - German Research Center for Environmental Health, Institute of Developmental Genetics, Ingolstadter Landstr. 1, 85764 Neuherberg - Tel. +49 89 3187 4608, E-mail: marcus.conrad@helmholtz-muenchen.de
Hypertension is a leading risk factor for dementia and other disorders associated with cognitive decline. Blood flow to the brain is tightly controlled by several mechanisms that malfunction when blood pressure is abnormally high. Better understanding of how these mechanisms become disrupted in individuals with hypertension may help identify preventative therapies to reduce their risk of developing dementia. This week in the JCI, a team led by Costantino Iadecola at Weill Cornell Medical College found that hypertension activates immune cells in the brain called perivascular macrophages, leading to increased oxidative stress in the brain's blood vessels that is linked to dementia. They determined that when angiotensin II, a hormone linked to high blood pressure, activates the macrophages, it causes increases in oxidative stress that are linked to disruptions in blood flow as well as cognitive dysfunction. Selectively removing these immune cells from the brain reduced damage to blood vessels and reduced signs of cognitive decline in mouse models of hypertension. These findings suggest that targeting activators of perivascular macrophages is a potential approach for preventing dementia in individuals with high blood pressure.

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TITLE: Perivascular macrophages mediate the neurovascular and cognitive dysfunction of hypertension

AUTHOR CONTACT:

Costantino Iadecola

Weill Cornell Medical College

coi2001@med.cornell.edu

View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/86950?key=75af32a50441ea7e2ff4

ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY

TITLE: Macrophages come to mind as keys to cognitive decline

AUTHOR CONTACT:

David G. Harrison

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

david.g.harrison@vanderbilt.edu

View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/91277?key=fffb0f05d12309c3c993
OAKLAND, Calif., Nov. 15, 2016 - Kaiser Permanente researchers have received a major new grant from the National Institutes of Health to study how exposures to environmental chemicals during pregnancy may influence the risk of obesity and neurodevelopmental disorders in children.

Twenty percent of U.S. children are now considered obese and 15 percent have developmental impairments in physical, learning, language, or behavior areas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"This research will explore how in-womb exposure to chemicals in the environment affects normal growth and development by changing the metabolism of glucose and thyroid hormones, both of which regulate infant growth and neurodevelopment," said Assiamira Ferrara, MD, PhD, principal investigator of the new study and associate director of women's and children's health at the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research.

The new Kaiser Permanente study is part of the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes research program, known as ECHO. It will use existing research study cohort populations around the nation to investigate how exposure to a range of environmental factors in early development -- from conception through early childhood -- influences the health of children and adolescents. The proposed seven-year study will launch with $3.25 million in initial NIH funding over the first two years, with an estimated total cost of $24 million. The ECHO program encompasses a total of $144 million in NIH grants.

"Every baby should have the best opportunity to remain healthy and thrive throughout childhood," said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD. "ECHO will help us better understand the factors that contribute to optimal health in children."

Kaiser Permanente investigators will focus on in utero exposures to endocrine-disrupting chemicals -- including perfluoroalkyl substances (or PFAs), polybrominated ethers (PBDEs), and organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs) -- which are found in many common household and personal products, plastics and furniture.

"Several of these types of chemicals are persistent in the environment and can be measured in human tissue such as blood and urine," said Lisa A. Croen, PhD, co-principal investigator and director of Kaiser Permanente's Autism Research Program.

Researchers will ask women who participated in two existing Kaiser Permanente pregnancy cohorts -- the Pregnancy and Environment Lifestyle Study (funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and led by Dr. Ferrara) and the Kaiser Permanente Research Bank Pregnancy Cohort (funded by Kaiser Permanente and led by Croen) -- to join the study, along with their young children.

"The new study would not have been possible without years of previous groundwork at the Division of Research and the resources of the Kaiser Permanente Research Bank, as well as the support of clinicians throughout Kaiser Permanente in Northern California," said Tracy A. Lieu, MD, MPH, director of the Division of Research.

Dr. Ferrara noted that this research could lead to policy changes to protect children from environmental exposures in the future. "Since the use of environmental chemicals is potentially modifiable, results from the study may help to inform national environmental and public health agencies regarding policies to further regulate the production of these chemicals and inform the public regarding the restriction of their use," she said.

Concerned about increasing levels of potentially harmful chemicals in the environment, Kaiser Permanente earlier this year advanced its longstanding environmental-stewardship commitment by announcing new and ambitious goals for the year 2025 that include, among other things, aiming to increase its purchase of products and materials that meet environmental standards to 50 percent.

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Co-investigators of the study include Stacey Alexeeff, PhD, Lyndsay Ammon Avalos, PhD, MPH, Monique M. Hedderson, PhD, Lawrence H. Kushi, ScD, and Charles P. Quesenberry, PhD, of the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research.

About the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research

The Kaiser Permanente Division of Research conducts, publishes and disseminates epidemiologic and health services research to improve the health and medical care of Kaiser Permanente members and society at large. It seeks to understand the determinants of illness and well-being, and to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of health care. Currently, DOR's 550-plus staff is working on more than 250 epidemiological and health services research projects. For more information, visit http://www.dor.kaiser.org or follow us @KPDOR.

About Kaiser Permanente Research Bank

The Kaiser Permanente Research Bank is a core resource within Kaiser Permanente that collects and stores high-quality biospecimens and data from the electronic health record to enable translational research in genomics and related areas with the end goal of advancing knowledge for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of disease that benefits its members. The KP Research Bank's goal is to advance research innovation and contribute to personalized medicine. Using this resource, Kaiser Permanente investigators and external collaborators are conducting research on factors that influence health and disease. Enrollment of Kaiser Permanente members into the KP Research Bank involves providing informed consent, filling out a survey and donating a small sample of blood. Participation is completely voluntary and doesn't affect one's health coverage. Learn more at kp.org/researchbank.

About Kaiser Permanente

Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America's leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, Kaiser Permanente has a mission to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve more than 10.6 million members in eight states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to: kp.org/share.
Which parts of a person's face do you look at when you listen them speak? Lip movements affect the perception of voice information from the ears when listening to someone speak, but native Japanese speakers are mostly unaffected by that part of the face. Recent research from Japan has revealed a clear difference in the brain network activation between two groups of people, native English speakers and native Japanese speakers, during face-to-face vocal communication.

It is known that visual speech information, such as lip movement, affects the perception of voice information from the ears when speaking to someone face-to-face. For example, lip movement can help a person to hear better under noisy conditions. On the contrary, dubbed movie content, where the lip movement conflicts with a speaker's voice, gives a listener the illusion of hearing another sound. This illusion is called the "McGurk effect."

According to an analysis of previous behavioral studies, native Japanese speakers are not influenced by visual lip movements as much as native English speakers. To examine this phenomenon further, researchers from Kumamoto University measured and analyzed gaze patterns, brain waves, and reaction times for speech identification between two groups of 20 native Japanese speakers and 20 native English speakers.

The difference was clear. When natural speech is paired with lip movement, native English speakers focus their gaze on a speaker's lips before the emergence of any sound. The gaze of native Japanese speakers, however, is not as fixed. Furthermore, native English speakers were able to understand speech faster by combining the audio and visual cues, whereas native Japanese speakers showed delayed speech understanding when lip motion was in view.

"Native English speakers attempt to narrow down candidates for incoming sounds by using information from the lips which start moving a few hundreds of milliseconds before vocalizations begin. Native Japanese speakers, on the other hand, place their emphasis only on hearing, and visual information seems to require extra processing," explained Kumamoto University's Professor Kaoru Sekiyama, who lead the research.

Kumamoto University researchers then teamed up with researchers from Sapporo Medical University and Japan's Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR) to measure and analyze brain activation patterns using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Their goal was to elucidate differences in brain activity between the two languages.

The functional connectivity in the brain between the area that deals with hearing and the area that deals with visual motion information, the primary auditory and middle temporal areas respectively, was stronger in native English speakers than in native Japanese speakers. This result strongly suggests that auditory and visual information are associated with each other at an early stage of information processing in an English speaker's brain, whereas the association is made at a later stage in a Japanese speaker's brain. The functional connectivity between auditory and visual information, and the manner in which the two types of information are processed together was shown to be clearly different between the two different language speakers.

"It has been said that video materials produce better results when studying a foreign language. However, it has also been reported that video materials do not have a very positive effect for native Japanese speakers," said Professor Sekiyama. "It may be that there are unique ways in which Japanese people process audio information, which are related to what we have shown in our recent research, that are behind this phenomenon."

These findings were published in the nature.com journal Scientific Reports on August 11th and October 13th, 2016.

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[References]

J. Shinozaki, N. Hiroe, M. Sato, T. Nagamine, K. Sekiyama et al, "Impact of language on functional connectivity for audiovisual speech integration," Sci. Rep., vol. 6, no. August, p. 31388, Aug. 2016. DOI: 10.1038/srep31388.

S. Hisanaga, K. Sekiyama, T. Igasaki, and N. Murayama, "Language/Culture Modulates Brain and Gaze Processes in Audiovisual Speech Perception," Sci. Rep., vol. 6, p. 35265, Oct. 2016. DOI: 10.1038/srep35265.
New Rochelle, NY, November 15, 2016--Gene therapy to repair damaged heart muscle is most likely to succeed if it can be injected at the site of ischemia where there is viable myocardium with reduced contractile ability, and a new technique that combines imaging and electroanatomical mapping does just that. A study of this novel approach that shows increased blood flow in treated areas in patients with refractory angina is published in Human Gene Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Human Gene Therapy website until December 15, 2016.

Seppo Yla-Herttuala, Kuopio University Hospital and University of Eastern Finland (Kuo-pio, Finland), together with coauthors Antti Kivela, Antti Hedman, and Juha Hartikainen, and Antti Saraste and Juhani Knuuti, from Turku University Hospital, Finland, describe their method for targeted cardiac gene transfer in the article entitled "Intramyocardial Gene Therapy Directed to Hibernating Heart Muscle Using a Combination of Electromechanical Mapping and Positron Emission Tomography."

The researchers use a combination of electromechanical mapping with a NOGA system and positron emission tomography (PET) radiowater perfusion imaging to create 2-dimensional bull's eye maps that guide the injection of the gene therapy into the heart muscle. They tar-get a site that has suffered ischemic damage, but is viable as shown by reduced contractile ability, to achieve the best possible outcome.

"Dr. Yla-Herttualla's milestone clinical trial results demonstrate how gene therapy for heart disease can be rendered much more specific," says Editor-in-Chief Terence R. Flotte, MD, Celia and Isaac Haidak Professor of Medical Education and Dean, Provost, and Executive Deputy Chancellor, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA.

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About the Journal

Human Gene Therapy, the Official Journal of the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, British Society for Gene and Cell Therapy, French Society of Cell and Gene Therapy, German Society of Gene Therapy, and five other gene therapy societies, is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly in print and online. Led by Editor-in-Chief Terence R. Flotte, MD, Celia and Isaac Haidak Professor of Medical Education and Dean, Provost, and Executive Deputy Chancellor, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Human Gene Therapy presents reports on the transfer and expression of genes in mammals, including humans. Related topics include improvements in vector development, delivery systems, and animal models, particularly in the areas of cancer, heart disease, viral disease, genetic disease, and neurological disease, as well as ethical, legal, and regulatory issues related to the gene transfer in humans. Its companion journals, Human Gene Therapy Methods, published bimonthly, focuses on the application of gene therapy to product testing and development, and Human Gene Therapy Clinical Development, published quarterly, features data relevant to the regulatory review and commercial development of cell and gene therapy products. Tables of contents for all three publications and a free sample issue may be viewed on the Human Gene Therapy website.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, Tissue Engineering, Stem Cells and Development, and Cellular Reprogramming. Its biotechnology trade magazine, GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.
WOODS HOLE, Mass. -- While scientists and policy experts debate the impacts of global warming, the Earth's soil is releasing roughly nine times more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than all human activities combined. This huge carbon flux from soil -- due to the natural respiration of soil microbes and plant roots -- begs one of the central questions in climate change science. As the global climate warms, will soil respiration rates increase, adding even more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and accelerating climate change?

Previous experimental studies of this question have not produced a consensus, prompting Marine Biological Laboratory scientists Joanna Carey, Jianwu Tang and colleagues to synthesize the data from 27 studies across nine biomes, from the desert to the Arctic. Their analysis is published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This represents the largest dataset to date of soil respiration response to experimental warming.

One prediction from this synthesis is that rising global temperatures result in regionally variable responses in soil respiration, with colder climates being considerably more responsive. "Consistently across all biomes, we found that soil respiration increased with soil temperature up to about 25 C (77 F)," says Carey, a postdoctoral scientist in the MBL Ecosystems Center. Above the 25 C threshold, respiration rates decreased with further increases in soil temperature.

"That means the Arctic latitudes, where soil temperatures rarely, if ever, reach 25 C , will continue to be most responsive to climate warming. Because there is so much carbon stored in frozen soils of the Arctic, this has really serious repercussions for future climate change," Carey says.

The team also found that soil microbes in experimental warming studies showed no sign of adaptation -- meaning a muted respiration response to rising temperatures -- in all of the biomes studied, except desert and boreal forest. This indicates that "soils will typically respond strongly to increasing temperature by releasing more carbon dioxide," says Tang, lead investigator of the study.

To understand how global carbon in soils will respond to climate change, the authors stress, more data are needed from under- and non-represented regions, especially the Arctic and the tropics.

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Other MBL scientists who contributed to this study include Mary Heskel, Jerry Melillo, Edward B. Rastetter, and Gaius R. Shaver.

Citation:

Carey, Joanna A. et al (2016) Temperature response of soil respiration largely unaltered with experimental warming. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1605365113

The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is dedicated to scientific discovery - exploring fundamental biology, understanding marine biodiversity and the environment, and informing the human condition through research and education. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution and an affiliate of the University of Chicago.
From jhalmuri and phuchka, to kochuri and rolls, you'll want to do more than just snack on these goodies.

By Shreya Goswami: From the moment you land up in Kolkata, whether it's through the Dum Dum airport or Howrah station, there are two tings that happen inevitably--your nose goes into shock, and your palate loses control. Your senses are assaulted by so many delicious smells, and yet, your sight can only just take in the teeming crowds.

This is a city of contradictions and confusion. It looks like everybody is out on the streets, going somewhere. And still, all the food stalls are surrounded by people gulping down some delicacy or the other. If you're a foodie, you'll be constantly salivating in Kolkata, no matter where you are.

The street-side stalls in Kolkata serve up some of the best dishes you'll ever eat. Picture courtesy: Instagram/_discover_recover

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Why? The simplest reason is that Kolkata is a city of foodies (yes, even more than Delhi). To cater to the hundreds of people roaming the roads to get their next food fix, there's a huge diversity of street food in this city. Of course, you already know that, don't you?

Kolkata is famous for its street food. That's a given now. But do you know exactly where to get the best of these varieties? Do you even know all of the options available, apart from the now iconic phuchka and jhalmuri? No? Here's everything you need to know about Kolkata's street food.

Also read: Food diary: A non-Bengali foodie's journey through Kolkata's delicacies



Phuchka



Picture courtesy: Instagram/anvesha_r Picture courtesy: Instagram/anvesha_r

Let's get the obvious out of the way first. Phuchka isn't just the Bengali version of golgappas, it's something more. The filling is mashed, spicier, and has a special roasted spice mix, along with chopped coriander. The water is definitely tangier, and can make your mouth water just with its smell. You can find the best versions in Vivekananda Park, Gariahat, College Street, Southern Avenue and Triangular Park areas.

Jhalmuri



Picture courtesy: Instagram/jatin_guliani86

Again, this is not your ordinary bhelpuri. The puffed rice is tossed with mustard oil, crunchy mixture, peanuts, chopped onions, tomatoes and chillies. With the garnish of chopped or sliced coconuts, this crunchy street food stands out. You can get really tasty varieties almost everywhere, but do try the ones sold in New Alipore.

Telebhaja



Picture courtesy: Instagram/ricster111

Literally meaning 'fried in oil', telebhaja comes in as many varieties as there are vegetables in the market. The brinjal beguni and the onion peyaji are for beginners. You need to try the bhaja made from capsicum, stuffed chillies, pumpkin flowers, and pumpkin. Where to find it? Just walk along any street long enough, and you'll spot more telebhaja stalls than your tummy can take.

Rolls



Picture courtesy: Instagram/qaliossi

Nobody can execute rolls like Bengalis--and this is a statement you'll never question if you taste the rolls sold in Kolkata. They're also cheaper here than in other cities, and you get value for money. Try out roll stalls in Triangular Park and New Alipore, but don't miss out on the ones at Nizam's, Bedouin Rolls, Aminia, and of course, Arsalan. Seriously, don't.

Kochuri



Picture courtesy: Instagram/an_indian_accent

Of course kochuri was brought to Kolkata by its huge North Indian immigrants. But the city has made the dish its own, and it's a breakfast favourite for all office-goers in the city. The dish is so popular, that most vendors sell out by mid-morning. So if you want to taste fresh Kolkata kochuris, you'll have to have them for breakfast. Almost every sweet shop sells them, but you must try the ones at Putiram in College Street.

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Ghugni



Picture courtesy: Instagram/jenn_evelyn

Now this one is almost as iconic as the North Indian chole. Spicy, and topped with chopped onions and chillies, ghugni is made with 'matar dal'. It's nutritious, and the perfect appetizer. Pair it with some telebhaja, and you'll find yourself in a foodie's heaven. Take a walk around Gariahat or Esplanade for the best versions.

Mughlai Parantha



Picture courtesy: Instagram/mellownspicy

If you're a non-vegetarian, and you haven't heard of this dish, your life has been a waste. This super-parantha is made with so many amazing things that you just can't miss it--a thin rolled-out dough is placed on the tawa, stuffed with eggs (chicken or duck) and keema (chicken or mutton), and folded gently to create rectangular parcels of joy. The best in the city is made at Anadi Cabin in Esplanade.



Also read: A chef guides us through Mumbai's street food and the top 10 places to find them



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Chowmein



Picture courtesy: Facebook/Kolkata Kati

Ask any college student in Kolkata, and they'll explain how chowmein is their staple. Sold for cheap and in substantial quantities, Kolkata's chowmein can beat your average Maggi any day. It's Indianised, and then a further Bengali tadka is added. So it's spicy, tangy, and totally delicious. And moreover, the stalls that sell this dish are everywhere. So just walk out, and get some Kolkata special chowmein.

Sweets



Picture courtesy: Instagram/roymroy

Now everyone knows that Kolkata is famous for these. But did you know that most Bengalis just walk into the sweet shops at any time of the day, and just pop some sweets in their mouths? Yes, it's true. Most of these sweets are steamed, so if you're hungry and tired, nothing fills your tummy and gets you going than a couple of sweets. Try the sandesh, lengchas, rasgullas, rajbhogs or kheerkadams at these famous places--Balaram Mullick, Nakur Chandra Nandy, K.C. Das, Girish Chandra Dey, and Sen Mahashay.

Cha



Picture courtesy: Instagram/rupsachak

There's one thing in this world that ties together all the street food varieties mentioned before--tea, or as Bengalis call it, cha. And you'll get more varieties of tea on Kolkata's streets than on the menu of most cafes! There's the normal milk tea, lebu cha or lemon tea, raw cha or black tea, and masala cha. Call it a colonial hangover, or just simple appreciation of a well-brewed cuppa, but Bengalis love their tea. And you'll be missing out on a great experience if you don't try some of this tea.

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So, it's just not enough to go sight-seeing around Kolkata. If you're taking a trip to the City of Joy, you might as well make it a foodie's journey, and make your tummy very, very happy with the best street food on offer.



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AUGUSTA, Ga. (Nov. 15, 2016) - The Sexual Medicine Society of North America has renamed its Lifetime Achievement Award to honor Dr. Ronald W. Lewis, urologist and expert in sexual dysfunction at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.

Lewis, a pioneer in the treatment of male sexual dysfunction, also is the first recipient of the newly renamed award, which recognizes great contributions in the field of sexual medicine.

Lewis helped establish the not-for-profit society in 1994 to promote, encourage and support the highest standards of practice, research, education and ethics in the study of the anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology, diagnosis and treatment of human sexual function and dysfunction. He was president of the society in 2010-11 and chairs its Publication Committee. He also received the society's Distinguished Service Award in 2007.

"He cultivated many leading physician scientists in the field of sexual medicine across the world. His contributions to our society are beyond measure," said Dr. Run Wang, the society's current president. Lewis was honored at the society's 2016 Annual Fall Scientific Meeting.

Lewis also has served as president of the International Society for Sexual Medicine, co-chairs that group's History Committee and received its Special Service Award in 2012. He is a member of the Male Health Task Force of the American Urological Association and chairs the Ethics Committee of the American Society of Andrology. Lewis joined the MCG faculty in 1994, and he received the medical school's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.

He is a 1968 graduate of Tulane University School of Medicine, completed a urology residency at Naval Regional Medical Center in Oakland, California, and a National Institutes of Health fellowship in training the urologist in basic science research back at Tulane.

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20% of patients infected with MRSA are dying from systemic infections

Antimicrobial resistance infections are projected to cause more deaths than cancer by 2050 if not addressed urgently.

Tuesday, 15 Nov., 2016: Microbiologists have identified how MRSA may be more effectively treated by modern-day antibiotics, if old-fashioned penicillin is also used. The team from the National University of Ireland Galway and the University of Liverpool have shown that, although penicillin does not kill the bacteria, it does weaken their virulence, making it easier for our immune system and other antibiotics to eradicate the infection. The research findings, funded by the Health Research Board and the Medical Research Council, are published today (15 November 2016) in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

MRSA infection is caused by a type of Staphylococcal bacteria that has become resistant to many of the antibiotics used to treat ordinary infections. This results in significant morbidity and mortality with up to 20% of patients infected with MRSA dying from systemic infections.

Professor James O'Gara of the National University of Ireland Galway comments: "Our findings explain the anti-virulence mechanism of penicillin-type antibiotics and support the re-introduction of these drugs as an adjunct therapeutic for MRSA infections. MRSA can be extremely virulent, which is part of the challenge in treating it. Our laboratory research shows that when exposed to penicillin, the bacteria switches off its toxin genes and instead concentrates on thickening its cell wall to resist the antibiotic. Our immune systems can then take advantage of this compromised state to destroy the bacteria."

This new treatment strategy for MRSA infections has the potential to change the current clinical guidelines for treatment of patients with MRSA infections in both hospital and community settings. A recent randomised controlled trial in Australia involving 60 patients led by Menzies School of Health Research showed that the beta-lactam antibiotic flucloxacillin in combination with vancomycin significantly reduced the duration of MRSA sepsis from 3 days to 1.9 days.

"The clinical findings in Australia are very important and now we have the key laboratory data that help explain why the combination of two antibiotics is better than one. The beauty of this approach is that penicillin type antibiotics are not only widely available and safe, but can potentially and more easily be included in clinical practice without the need for long and expensive clinical trials needed for new drugs," added Professor O'Gara.

Graham Love, Chief Executive at the Health Research Board commented: "This research demonstrates the potential payback having a vibrant health research programme. It clearly has the potential to change clinical practice and improve outcomes for patients."

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the greatest current threats to human health. The recent report commissioned by the UK Government, concluding that AMR infections will cause more deaths than cancer by 2050 if not addressed urgently.

Study co-lead Professor Aras Kadioglu at the Institute of Infection & Global Health, University of Liverpool added that: "Although aggressive hospital infection control initiatives appear to be having a positive impact on hospital-acquired MRSA rates in some developed countries, the global burden still remains unacceptably high. Infections caused by community associated MRSA strains and strains that are currently methicillin sensitive are increasing at a worrying speed. Given the escalating antimicrobial resistance crisis, it is imperative to identify new therapeutic strategies and to re-evaluate how current antimicrobial drugs are used, as such our data are timely and highly important."

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Abstract: http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/jiw461? ijkey=XElqGdBnz0CwYq3&keytype=ref

Full Text: http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/jiw461?ijkey=XElqGdBnz0CwYq3&keytype=ref

PDF:http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/jiw461?ijkey=XElqGdBnz0CwYq3&keytype=ref

Image caption: New research shows that the virulence of MRSA can be weakened using old-fashioned penicillin, allowing the immune system a better chance to eradicate the infection. The new research is published today by a team from the National University of Ireland Galway and the University of Liverpool in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. Image courtesy NUI Galway. REPRO FREE.

For further information contact Ruth Hynes, Press and Information Executive, NUI Galway on 091 495695 or ruth.hynes@nuigalway.ie

About NUI Galway

The University was established in the heart of Galway City, on the west coast of Ireland, in 1845. Since then it has advanced knowledge teaching and learning, through research and innovation, and community engagement.

Over 18,000 students study at NUI Galway, where 2,600 staff provide the very best in research-led education.

NUI Galway's teaching and research is recognised through its consistent rise in international rankings. The University is placed in the Top 250 of both the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2016/2017 and the QS World University Rankings 2016/17.

With an extensive network of industry, community and academic collaborators around the world, NUI Galway researchers are tackling some of the most pressing issues of our times. Internationally renowned research centres based here include The National Centre for Biomedical Engineering and Science, CURAM Centre for Research in Medical Devices, Insight Centre for Data Analytics, Moore Institute, Institute for Life Course and Society and The Ryan Institute for Environmental, Marine and Energy.

NUI Galway has been listed as one of the most beautiful universities in Europe according to Business Insider. For more information visit http://www.nuigalway.ie or view all NUI Galway news here.

*The University's official title is National University of Ireland Galway. Please note that the only official abbreviation is NUI Galway.

The University of Liverpool

The University of Liverpool is one of the UK's leading research institutions with an annual turnover of 465 million, including 89 million for research. Liverpool is ranked in the top 1% of higher education institutions worldwide and is a member of the Russell Group. Visit http://www.liv.ac.uk or follow us on twitter at:

http://www.twitter.com/livuninews
PORTLAND, Ore. - Cholesterol-lowering drugs help prevent heart attacks and strokes in adults with cardiovascular risk factors such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes and smoking, but have not yet had a heart attack or stroke, according to a large-scale analysis of clinical trial data led by the OHSU Pacific Northwest Evidence-Based Practice Center.

Drugs that lower fat levels in the blood, called statins, were effective in reducing risk of death, heart attacks and strokes, across a broad range of patient groups. The benefits were largest in people at highest risk for heart attacks and strokes. But, those at lower risk also realized some preventive benefits. In addition, the drugs did not prove to have significant harmful effects. Compared with a placebo, statins were not associated with increased risk of muscle pain or myopathy, cognitive decline or liver damage. Overall, there was no increased risk of diabetes with statins, though one trial that used a high dose of statins found an increased risk. One trial found an increased risk of cataract surgery.

The analysis which was commissioned by the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) and published on Nov. 13 in JAMA was intended to evaluate the benefits and harms of statins in preventing cardiovascular disease in adults. It reviewed results from 19 clinical trials involving 71,344 adults ages 40 to 75 with a mean age of 51 to 66 years old. The trials compared statin therapy with placebo in individuals who had not previously had a heart attack or stroke, but had known risk factors such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes or they smoked. The trials included in the systematic data review followed study participants for six months to six years.

The analysis concluded that statin therapy decreased risk of death overall by 14 percent and risk of death from cardiovascular disease by 31 percent. It reduced the risk of stroke by 29 percent and heart attack by 36 percent.

"We found that all groups studied experienced a decrease in risk of suffering a heart attack, stroke, or death, and those at highest risk benefitted the most from cholesterol-lowering drugs," said the study's lead author, Roger Chou, M.D., director of the OHSU Pacific Northwest Evidence-Based Practice Center and a professor of general internal medicine, geriatrics, medical informatics and clinical epidemiology in the OHSU School of Medicine. "The majority of the trials used fixed, moderate doses of statins. The number of trials analyzed, including data from the recent HOPE 3 trial with 12,705 participants, provides much needed insight into the value of statin therapy in preventing a first heart attack or stroke, and associated deaths."

Cardiovascular disease can lead to heart attacks and strokes and is a leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for 1 of every 3 deaths among adults. It is a challenging disease to treat as it can be "silent" until a heart attack or stroke occurs, potentially resulting in sudden death or serious and lasting health consequences.

High cholesterol is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease and statin drugs help prevent the formation of cholesterol. These drugs are most effective at lowering LDL, or "bad" cholesterol, but can also help lower triglycerides (blood fats) and raise HDL, or "good," cholesterol. However, statins are also thought to reduce risk of heart attacks and strokes by stabilizing cholesterol plaques in the blood vessels, and are effective even in persons without highly elevated cholesterol levels.

The USPSTF commissioned this review to inform the development of recommendations on statin therapy for the prevention of cardiovascular disease in adults ages 40 years and older who have not had a prior heart attack or stroke.

Additional studies are needed to understand the effects of statins in people without risk factors for cardiovascular disease and to compare the effects of receiving a fixed dose of statins or a dose that is adjusted to reach a target cholesterol level. In addition, more research is required to definitively determine if statin use increases a patient's risk of developing diabetes or cataracts and whether higher doses of statins are associated with more benefits and/or more side effects.

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In addition to Chou, OHSU researchers who contributed to the study were: Tracy Dana, M.L.S.; Ian Blazina, M.P.H.; Monica Daeges, B.A.; and Thomas L. Jeanne, M.D. No conflicts of interest were reported by any of the authors.

About OHSU

Oregon Health & Science University is a nationally prominent research university and Oregon's only public academic health center. It serves patients throughout the region with a Level 1 trauma center and nationally recognized Doernbecher Children's Hospital. OHSU operates dental, medical, nursing and pharmacy schools that rank high both in research funding and in meeting the university's social mission. OHSU's Knight Cancer Institute helped pioneer personalized medicine through a discovery that identified how to shut down cells that enable cancer to grow without harming healthy ones. OHSU Brain Institute scientists are nationally recognized for discoveries that have led to a better understanding of Alzheimer's disease and new treatments for Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and stroke. OHSU's Casey Eye Institute is a global leader in ophthalmic imaging, and in clinical trials related to eye disease.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The violent and sexual media you consume during the day may infiltrate your dreams at night, new research suggests.

People who reported consuming violent media within 90 minutes of bedtime were 13 times more likely to have a violent dream that night, the study found. Those viewing sexual media were six times more likely to have a sex-related dream.

The study of more than 1,000 Turkish residents also found that the more violent media content they reported consuming on a regular basis, the more often they said they had violent dreams in general.

The same link was found between sexual media content and sexual dreams, although the connection wasn't as strong.

"The media we consume can have an impact on us even when we're sleeping," said Brad Bushman, co-author of the study and professor of communication and psychology at The Ohio State University.

"We knew our violent and sexual media consumption had an impact on our waking lives. Now we have evidence of how it may influence our dreams."

The study is published online in the journal Dreaming. Bushman conducted the study with Jan Van den Bulck, a professor of communication studies at the University of Michigan; and Yakup Cetin of Fatih University and Omer Terzi of Yildiz Technical University, both in Turkey.

The study involved 1,287 people aged 10 to 60 who completed a survey about their media consumption and their dreams. About half the sample were students at schools in Istanbul. The remainder were adults recruited from social networking sites that discussed media.

All participants were asked whether they had viewed any violent or sexual media content within 90 minutes of going to bed the night before the study, and whether they had any violent or sexual dreams that night.

Slightly less than half of participants (45 percent) reported consuming violent media before bed that night, whereas slightly less than one-quarter reported exposure to sexual media content.

Whether they had consumed violent or sexual media content was not associated with whether they dreamed that night, findings showed.

But the fact that violent and sexual media use was related to a huge increase in related dreams showed the power media may have on our sleeping lives, Bushman said.

"The magnitude of the increase in violent and sexual dreams linked to media consumption was surprising," he said.

The study also aimed to examine how overall media use was linked to dream content.

Participants were asked the number of hours they spent consuming media (including TV, internet, DVDs, movies, video games and music) on any devices on weekdays and on weekends.

Next, they were asked to rate whether the media they consumed contained violence and whether it contained sex on a scale of 1 (never) to 5 (always).

They were then asked whether they dreamed and whether their dreams included violent content and sexual content. Again, they rated how often on a scale of 1 to 5.

Overall, 67 percent of participants said they dreamed at least sometimes.

More than 80 percent of participants said they were exposed to violent media content at least sometimes, whereas about half said they were exposed to sexual media content at least sometimes.

About 80 percent of those surveyed said they had violent dreams sometimes, whereas slightly less than half said they had sexual dreams sometimes.

The researchers found that overall media use was a significant predictor of more frequent dreaming, as was the frequency of exposure to violent media.

So who had the most frequent violent dreams overall? Results showed that exposure to violent media was the stronger predictor, although people who reported more overall media exposure and more sexual media exposure also reported somewhat more violent dreams.

As for sexual dreams, those who reported the most also tended to have consumed more sexual media. But the link between sexual media and sexual dreams wasn't as strong as that between violent media and violent dreams.

"Whether we looked at overall media use or media intake for just one day, the result was the same: The media we consume is linked to what we dream about," Van den Bulck said.

The results can't reveal the direction of causality between dreams and media use, Bushman noted.

"It is at least possible that people who have more violent or more sexual dreams are more likely to seek out that content during the day. Another possibility is that causality may go both ways, or that some other factor is related to both media consumption and dream content.

"But I do believe that the most plausible explanation is that the media we consume influences our dreams," Bushman said.

Cetin said the results may be at least somewhat different for people in other countries, noting previous research has shown that media use and dream associations differ for people of varied cultural background.

The results suggest one obvious recommendation for those who are troubled by their violent or sexual dreams, according to Bushman.

"It would be good to avoid media with violent and sexual content, especially right before bed."

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Contact: Brad Bushman, 614-688-8779; Bushman.20@osu.edu

Written by Jeff Grabmeier, 614-292-8457; Grabmeier.1@osu.edu
COLUMBUS, Ohio--For the first time, researchers have created light-emitting diodes (LEDs) on lightweight flexible metal foil.

Engineers at The Ohio State University are developing the foil based LEDs for portable ultraviolet (UV) lights that soldiers and others can use to purify drinking water and sterilize medical equipment.

In the journal Applied Physics Letters, the researchers describe how they designed the LEDs to shine in the high-energy "deep" end of the UV spectrum. The university will license the technology to industry for further development.

Deep UV light is already used by the military, humanitarian organizations and industry for applications ranging from detection of biological agents to curing plastics, explained Roberto Myers, associate professor of materials science and engineering at Ohio State.

The problem is that conventional deep-UV lamps are too heavy to easily carry around.

"Right now, if you want to make deep ultraviolet light, you've got to use mercury lamps," said Myers, who is also an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering. "Mercury is toxic and the lamps are bulky and electrically inefficient. LEDs, on the other hand, are really efficient, so if we could make UV LEDs that are safe and portable and cheap, we could make safe drinking water wherever we need it."

He noted that other research groups have fabricated deep-UV LEDs at the laboratory scale, but only by using extremely pure, rigid single-crystal semiconductors as substrates--a strategy that imposes an enormous cost barrier for industry.

Foil-based nanotechnology could enable large-scale production of a lighter, cheaper and more environmentally friendly deep-UV LED. But Myers and materials science doctoral student Brelon J. May hope that their technology will do something more: turn a niche research field known as nanophotonics into a viable industry.

"People always said that nanophotonics will never be commercially important, because you can't scale them up. Well, now we can. We can make a sheet of them if we want," Myers said. "That means we can consider nanophotonics for large-scale manufacturing."

In part, this new development relies on a well-established semiconductor growth technique known as molecular beam epitaxy, in which vaporized elemental materials settle on a surface and self-organize into layers or nanostructures. The Ohio State researchers used this technique to grow a carpet of tightly packed aluminum gallium nitride wires on pieces of metal foil such as titanium and tantalum.

The individual wires measure about 200 nanometers tall and about 20-50 nanometers in diameter--thousands of times narrower than a human hair and invisible to the naked eye.

In laboratory tests, the nanowires grown on metal foils lit up nearly as brightly as those manufactured on the more expensive and less flexible single-crystal silicon.

The researchers are working to make the nanowire LEDs even brighter, and will next try to grow the wires on foils made from more common metals, including steel and aluminum.

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This research was funded by the Army Research Office and the National Science Foundation. Study co-author A.T.M. Golam Sarwar earned his doctoral degree in the course of this work at Ohio State, and is now at Intel.

Contact: Roberto Myers, (614) 292-8439; Myers.1079@osu.edu

Written by Pam Frost Gorder, (614) 292-9475; Gorder.1@osu.edu
SAGE Publishing announces a new agreement allowing access to a selection of SAGE textbooks through the award-winning eBook platform and social annotation tool Perusall. Perusall allows students and instructors to annotate digital texts together, connect with other classmates, and respond to questions directly on the text before coming to class, enabling students to come to class better prepared.

"Blending premium content and innovative technology to support student success is core to our mission at SAGE Publishing," commented Michele Sordi, Sr. Vice President and Head of U.S. College. "We are committed to finding new ways to engage students, transforming the traditional textbook reading experience to an interactive learning experience."

"We're thrilled to be offering SAGE Publishing's titles on the Perusall platform for classes everywhere (see perusall.com)," commented Gary King, Co-founder of Perusall and Weatherhead University Professor at Harvard University. "SAGE's cutting-edge content and Perusall's cutting-edge technology work together to ensure that each student learns more and all students come to class prepared."

Based on extensive research developed by researchers at Harvard University, the platform allows students to annotate readings and asynchronously respond to each other's comments and questions. It then uses data analytics from these interactions to generate:

Optimal student groupings and personalized guidance

Grades for student engagement

Motivators such as positive feedback to help students to stay on track

"Student Confusion Reports" for professors - one-page summaries of concepts and passages students had trouble with or most engaged with, along with selected examples of the best annotations.

Sordi continued, "By encouraging rich discussions before entering the classroom, instructors can extend teaching opportunities and make more effective use of class time. We are excited to be partnering with Perusall to enhance the value of SAGE content with the power of collaboration and social learning. "

More information about the partnership and a full list of titles offered through SAGE is available here.

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Sara Miller McCune founded SAGE Publishing in 1965 to support the dissemination of usable knowledge and educate a global community. SAGE is a leading international provider of innovative, high-quality content publishing more than 1,000 journals and over 800 new books each year, spanning a wide range of subject areas. Our growing selection of library products includes archives, data, case studies and video. SAGE remains majority owned by our founder and after her lifetime will become owned by a charitable trust that secures the company's continued independence. Principal offices are located in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington DC and Melbourne. http://www.sagepublishing.com

Contact: Camille Gamboa camille.gamboa@sagepub.com / Tel: 805-410-7441

Tiffany Medina tiffany.medina@sagepub.com / Tel: 805-410-7612
The IPERION CH Project allows researchers to harness the most appropriate technology to carry out their projects independently of their work centers

Just as astrophysicists and physicists depend on telescopes and particle accelerators which are often shared by several countries to carry out observations and experiments, researchers into cultural heritage are about to share a network of facilities and equipment located across Europe in order to advance their research projects into preservation and restoration. This is the main aim of the IPERION CH project, an initiative made up of 11 European Union countries, among them Spain, through the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), plus the United States. Its ultimate goal is to set up a single infrastructure across Europe for the scientific research of cultural heritage.

"To give two examples, one researcher may need to determine the authenticity of a painting which has been stored in a museum's vaults for many years, whilst another might need access to a particle accelerator to understand the deterioration of a nugget of pre-Colombian gold. IPERION CH makes research much easier, given that its aim is to encourage a new culture of cross-disciplinary exchange and co-operation between cultural heritage scientists" explains CSIC researcher Emilio Cano from Spain's National Metallurgical Research Centre.

The project brings together research centres, museum laboratories, and universities from each participating country. It seeks to establish a network with a plan containing sustainable activities, and which includes access to a full spectrum of high quality scientific instruments which are specially adapted to the study of cultural heritage.

The initiative builds upon the experience and knowledge acquired by the consortium of partners whilst setting up the latest European Framework Programmes, namely Eu-ARTECH y CHARISMA, which laid the foundations for transnational access to scientific infrastructures for the preservation of cultural heritage.

In order to create a stable infrastructure to follow on from THE IPERION CH project, in 2016, the ESFRI (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures) roadmap was submitted as E-RISH (European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science). E-RISH was approved in March 2016 and is now it taking the first steps to setting up the mechanisms of the scientific, administrative and political aspects of a robust infrastructure.

A 'unique' resource

"By volume, significance and variety, Europe's cultural heritage one of the most important worldwide. As well as allowing us to understand our past in order to understand the present, it is a unique resource, not only in terms of social development and improving quality of life, but also from an economic viewpoint. Yet it is a fragile and irreplaceable resource which requires continual research to guarantee its preservation, promotion and valuation" notes Cano.

According to the members of the initiative, many cultural properties like The Alhambra or The Colosseum, are delicate, unique and irreplaceable. They are impossible to move and share characteristics that necessitate the development of specific infrastructures which come with the support and knowledge of specialists in cultural heritage. IPERION CH tackles these needs through its three platforms.

Firstly, MOLAB is offering the use of innovative scientific equipment, as well as the scientific research staff to visit and study objects in situ which would otherwise be damaged if moved. Secondly, FIXLAB will allow the use of large scale scientific facilities along with the full support of its staff and development instruments which are specific to cultural heritage.

Finally, ARCHLAB makes available a huge amount of scientific data, technical and restoration reports- as well as individual and unique archived examples from some of the leading museums and preservation institutes from across Europe- available to the scientific community. The majority of these written works, have never been made public and are difficult to gain access to.

23 partners from 12 countries (11 of them European, plus the United States) comprise the IPERION CH consortium which is an initiative under the European Commission's Horizon 2020 programme.

Research groups from the Europe's top scientific councils (CNR, CNRS and CSIC) are highlighted, as are universities and research centres, first-rate museums such as The British Museum and The National Gallery in the UK, or Denmark's National Gallery. Also included are some centres for the conservation of cultural heritage such as Belgium's KIK-IRPA, Italy's Opificio delle Pietre Dure, in Florence, the Rathglen Laboratory from the Museums of Berlin, or The Getty Conservation Institute in the United States.

As for Spain, apart from CSIC, other participants in the initiative include the Prado Museum, as well as collaboration from the Spanish Institute for Cultural Heritage which belongs to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport.

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A year after the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine and other institutions identified 14 individuals previously unknown to have had the disease in a Sierra Leone village that was an Ebola hot spot.

These individuals had antibodies to the virus, suggesting they had been infected at one time. Yet 12 of these individuals said they had had no symptoms during the time of active transmission in the village.

The research confirms previous suspicions that the Ebola virus does not uniformly cause severe disease, and that people may be infected without showing signs of illness, said Gene Richardson, MD, a former fellow in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine at Stanford who is now a PhD candidate in anthropology at the university. The findings also suggest that the epidemic was more widespread than previously believed. Based on the results of the study, the researchers calculated the prevalence of minimally symptomatic infection to be 25 percent.

"The study corroborates previous evidence that Ebola is like most other viruses in that it causes a spectrum of manifestations, including minimally symptomatic infection," Richardson said. "It provides important evidence on that front. It also means a significant portion of transmission events may have gone undetected during the outbreak. This shows there was a lot more human-to-human transmission than we thought."

The study will be published online Nov. 15 in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. The study also will be presented Nov. 14 at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene's annual meeting in Atlanta. Richardson is lead author of the study, and Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, a Harvard professor and director of Partners In Health, is the senior author.

Testing individuals

The research was done in the rural village of Sukudu in Sierra Leone, a country where Richardson and his colleagues cared for hundreds of patients in Ebola treatment units managed by Partners In Health.

The village, with about 900 residents, had been one of three major hot spots in the Kono District, in the eastern part of the country, during the heat of the Ebola crisis between November 2014 and February 2015. There were 34 reported cases of Ebola in the village, including 28 deaths.

More than 28,000 cases of Ebola infection were reported in Africa during the epidemic, the largest and longest in history. More than 11,000 people are estimated to have died because of the disease.

In the aftermath, Richardson and his colleagues decided to go back to the village to try to determine whether the Ebola infection could be minimally symptomatic, as previous studies have suggested. He worked with a local physician and two community health workers in gathering data for the study, a process that was approved by the local village chief.

They used a test known as the ELISA assay, a technique that can detect the presence of an antibody. They first made sure the test was accurate by comparing results from 30 Ebola survivors in Sukudu with those of 132 people in other villages where the virus had not been reported.

Richardson said the test proved to be a reasonable measure of viral antibodies. The researchers then recruited 187 men, women and children from Sukudu who had likely been exposed to Ebola, either because they were living in the same household or had shared a public toilet with a person confirmed to have had the disease.

Of these, 14 were found to be carrying antibodies to Ebola, suggesting they had been infected at some point, though they had not been included in the original count. Twelve of them said they had had no symptoms of the disease, which typically causes fever, unexplained bleeding, headache, muscle pain, rash, vomiting, diarrhea, breathing problems and difficulty swallowing. Two recalled having had a fever at the time of the outbreak, the scientists reported.

Public health efforts not entirely effective

In combining the initial reports of 34 infections with the 14 newly identified cases, the researchers calculated the prevalence of minimally symptomatic infection in the village to have been 25 percent.

Richardson said it is unknown if an asymptomatic individual is capable of transmitting the virus. Because these individuals did not have an active case of the disease, "They were not passing it along in the usual way, through vomiting or diarrhea," he said. "It's unclear if they can pass it along it sexually."

The virus has been shown to hide out for months in semen, even after symptoms have subsided, with some published cases of survivors transmitting the virus through sexual contact.

Richardson said the study indicates that public health efforts to prevent infection and contain the virus during the epidemic were not entirely effective.

"It reminds us that we need to do a much, much better job in future epidemics," Richardson said.

He and his colleagues are now working in other villages in Sierra Leone where public health surveillance was poor during the epidemic, testing and interviewing individuals to get a better handle on the true number of people affected during the crisis.

"We expect to find a lot more undocumented survivors, so we can begin to answer the question of what was the true burden of disease," he said.

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Other Stanford co-authors of the paper are Michele Barry, MD, director of the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health, and James Holland Jones, PhD, associate professor of Earth systems science.

Researchers from Partners In Health, Brigham and Women's Hospital, UC-San Francisco, the Kono District Ebola Response Centre and the Kono District Health Management Team in Sierra Leone also co-authored the study.

The study was funded by the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health.

The Stanford University School of Medicine consistently ranks among the nation's top medical schools, integrating research, medical education, patient care and community service. For more news about the school, please visit http://med.stanford.edu/school.html. The medical school is part of Stanford Medicine, which includes Stanford Health Care and Stanford Children's Health. For information about all three, please visit http://med.stanford.edu.

Print media contact: Ruthann Richter (650) 725-8047 (richter1@stanford.edu)

Broadcast media contact: Margarita Gallardo at (650) 723-7897 (mjgallardo@stanford.edu)
COLLEGE STATION - There's a war raging on a tiny battlefield and the outcome could well touch millions of people worldwide threatened by Zika and related viruses. The key ally unlocking the mystery surrounding this conflict is the long-dreaded yellow fever virus.

Dr. Kevin Myles, Glady "Hazitha" Samuel and Dr. Zach Adelman are Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists at Texas A&M University, College Station, who published "Yellow fever virus capsid protein is a potent suppressor of RNA silencing that binds double-stranded RNA."

The paper appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Go to http://bit.ly/2eYsyIQ.

The mystery has been how these viruses get around the insect's immune response, and the answer is the virus makes a protein that suppresses the immune response, Myles said.

"When mosquitoes are infected with these viruses, there's a signal that lets the mosquito's cells know that they are infected, resulting in targeting of the virus by the mosquito's immune response.

"Something similar occurs in our bodies when we're infected with these viruses; there are signals our cells detect that let our immune system know all is not well," he said.

The AgriLife Research team found a protein that is produced by yellow fever virus, as well as Zika virus, West Nile virus and dengue virus, that suppresses the immune response of the mosquito.

"While the mosquito doesn't want the virus in its body any more than we want it in ours, and is trying to get rid of it, the virus isn't defenseless," Myles said. "It's fighting back and deploying its own countermeasures. Basically this is what's known as an evolutionary arms race. The survival of this group of viruses depends on their ability to stay one step ahead of the mosquito's immune response."

Now that the scientists know this, there are a couple of options. By using gene drive, a method targeting specific genes, they could go in and tip the scale in the mosquito's favor. Alternatively, they could give the nod to the virus. In the latter, the virus would actually make the mosquito sick preventing transmission to humans.

"It will also be interesting to see if this protein interferes with the human immune response," Myles said. "Certainly similar types of proteins have been found in other viruses that are not transmitted by mosquitoes but do infect people, influenza viruses for example.

"If it does interfere with our immune response, it could become a target for vaccine development, not only for Zika virus, but possibly other viruses as well.

"More research is needed before we reach that point though, but as ironic as it may seem, we are using the yellow fever virus, once arguably the most feared pestilence in the Western Hemisphere, to help us defeat the Zika virus and quite possibly others as well."

Myles and his colleague Dr. Zach Adelman joined the department of entomology at Texas A&M on Aug.1. The scientists were previously at Virginia Tech and now lead AgriLife Research's efforts to stop Zika.

Myles is working to understand the basic biology of how viruses such as Zika replicate in mosquitoes, and Adelman's projects involve creating mosquitoes resistant to viruses such as Zika.

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For more information, contact Myles at 979-458-3110, mylesk@tamu.edu .
NEW ORLEANS--Early screening for a genetic variant that predisposes people of South Asian descent to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (an enlarged heart) could help reduce the incidence of sudden cardiac death in this population, says a University of Cincinnati College of Medicine heart researcher.

The South Asian population, encompassing about 1.8 billion people globally and 1 percent of the U.S. population or 4 million people, is more likely to carry a genetic variant of myosin binding protein C, cardiac (MYBPC3), which organizes heart muscle structure and plays a role in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, says Sakthivel Sadayappan, PhD, professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Health and Disease.

That variant was discovered by Sadayappan and a team of researchers, at Max-Planck-Institute in Germany, in 2001.

"If you have Type 2 diabetes, or if you have hypertension and if you also have this genetic variant you have greater chances of having severe heart disease," says Sadayappan, director of the Heart Branch of the UC Heart, Lung and Vascular Institute.

In the U.S., Sadayappan and his research team have screened 1,928 individuals and found that 118 people carry the genetic variant (MYBPC3). He says 4 to 5 percent of South Asians (individuals with Indian, Pakistani, Nepali, Bangladeshi, Afghan and Sri Lankan descent) carry the generic variant of MYBPC3. "The normal protein, MYBPC3, regulates how much force the heart muscle can generate; it controls the speed of heart and we call it a heart break protein," he explains.

Sadayappan will present the research poster titled, "A Polymorphic MYBPC3 Variant as a Major Risk Factor of Cardiomyopathy in South Asian Descendants," at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, held Nov. 12-16, 2017, in New Orleans.

A related article, "Recent Advances in the Molecular Genetics of Familial Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy in South Asian Descendants" was published in the October edition of the journal Frontiers in Physiology. Co-authors in that publication include Jessica Kraker, a UC cardiology research assistant; Shiv Kumar Viswanathan, PhD, postdoctoral fellow at UC; and Ralph Knoell, MD, PhD, Karolinska Institute and AstraZeneca, Sweden.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy occurs when cells enlarge in the heart and the walls of the heart ventricles thicken, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). Blood flow may be blocked to and from the ventricle as a result leading to a condition called obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the AHA reports.

Sadayappan says a thickened and stiff ventricle can reduce the compliance of heart muscle, decrease preload (the heart's preparation to squeeze blood through the ventricle) and lead to diastolic heart failure. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy affects individuals from various ethnic backgrounds, though rates are higher among South Asians, and has garnered attention notably because several young athletes with the condition have died following rigorous physical performance, says Sadayappan.

"Often patients don't know what is happening inside their chest," explains Sadayappan. "You typically go to the hospital only when you have symptoms or issues. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is one of the causes for sudden cardiac death and it has been directly linked to the death of certain athletes."

Sadayappan says identifying individuals with the hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is crucial and that his work targeting South Asians has spanned his 23-year career which began as a postdoc studying in Germany, continued as a faculty member at Loyola University in Chicago and is ongoing at the UC Heart, Lung and Vascular Institute.

Sadayappan says he and his team of researchers have collected genetic samples from South Asians in cities across the United States. When MYBPC3 has been discovered in individuals they are brought in for electrocardiograms and other cardiac tests and connected with physicians for medical care.

Richard Becker, MD, director of the UC Heart, Lung and Vascular Institute, says that once a diagnosis for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is made, physicians can utilize medicines to help the heart relax and be a more efficient pump. In specialized cases, individuals at high risk may require an implantable cardioverter defibrillator as a means to prevent sudden cardiac death.

"It's really important to make a diagnosis," says Becker. "If there is a family history of heart disease or sudden cardiac death, that might be a red flag, but there can be spontaneous gene mutations where a person without a family history will develop hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. They may have symptoms of fatigue, shortness of breath, light-headedness and loss of consciousness. Clinicians evaluating even young people must be aware of this possibility.

"What we are learning in the past year and Dr. Sadayappan is a part of this is there are different manifestations according to race and ethnicity and the genes responsible for this syndrome of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy which can differ in African-Americans, South Asians and other populations. The gene mutation is unique, the clinical presentation is unique and the natural history of the disease is unique. There are lots of variations of a theme."

Becker says Sadayappan's work advances the Precision Medicine Initiative announced by President Barack Obama in 2015. Precision medicine is an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in environment, lifestyle and genes for each person, according to the National Institutes of Health website.

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The American Heart Association is currently funding Sadayappan's work as part of Cardiovascular Genome to Phenome project (15CVGPSD27020012). Funding also comes from the National Institutes of Health grant R01Hl130356.
The Kollywood actor said that Modi had taken a daring decision for the betterment of the country.

By Pramod Madhav: Kollywood star Vijay, who keeps mum on most issues, took the initiative to applaud Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to demonetise greater denominations to curb fake and black currency.

He said that Modi had taken a daring decision for the betterment of the country.

But he insisted that caution could have been exercised to implement the decision that would have eased the inconvenience people have had to face.

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Also read: PM Modi to chair all-party meet on demonetisation; Congress calls it a mere 'note-change' policy



DEMONETISATION DEATHS SADDENING



Vijay said, "I felt extremely sad after coming to know about an old lady who died after hearing that the money she had gathered had lost its value. Also a baby at the hospital died because the authorities there didn't accept the currency of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes".

He asked why should 80 per cent of the people suffer because of the middling of a small percentage of people.

Also read: Modi: The rich need pills to go to sleep after demonetisation move

He wished that the government take appropriate action and save people from distress.

--- ENDS ---
The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus announced today that it is a Grand Challenges Explorations winner, an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Kathryn Colborn, PhD, assistant research professor at the CU School of Medicine and senior investigator with the Center for Global Health at the Colorado School of Public Health, will pursue an innovative global health and development research project titled "Development of an automated early warning system for malaria transmission using machine learning."

Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE) supports innovative thinkers worldwide to explore ideas that can break the mold in how we solve persistent global health and development challenges. Colborn's project is one of more than 55 Grand Challenges Explorations Round 17 grants announced today by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

To receive funding, Colborn and other Grand Challenges Explorations winners demonstrated in a two-page online application a bold idea in one of six critical global heath and development topic areas. The foundation will be accepting applications for the next GCE round in February 2017.

Using data from Mozambique, Colborn, in collaboration with her husband, James, seeks to show how novel statistical models and online tools can change the way people are surveying, predicting and responding to areas of high malaria transmission. It focuses on innovations in malaria elimination analytics, specifically the training of algorithms using supervised learning, an advanced computing task, on demographic health surveys and satellite data. The methods will be disseminated through GitHub, a code repository and version control system, and can be made available for free to anyone in the world.

"Ideally, the malaria analytics tools we develop would be used by Mozambique's Ministry of Health to predict future monthly case rates and to help in their prevention planning," Colborn said.

At CU Anschutz, scientists engage in high-profile studies that contribute new information about the nature and treatment of disease to the rest of the world.

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About Grand Challenges Explorations

Grand Challenges Explorations is a US$100 million initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Launched in 2008, over 1228 projects in more than 65 countries have received Grand Challenges Explorations grants. The grant program is open to anyone from any discipline and from any organization. The initiative uses an agile, accelerated grant-making process with short two-page online applications and no preliminary data required. Initial grants of US$100,000 are awarded two times a year. Successful projects have the opportunity to receive a follow-on grant of up to US$1 million.

The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is the only comprehensive academic health sciences center in Colorado, the largest academic health center in the Rocky Mountain region and one of the newest education, research and patient care facilities in the world. Home to 21,000 employees, more than 4,000 degree-seeking students and two nationally recognized hospitals that handle 1.7 million patient visits each year, CU Anschutz trains the health sciences workforce of the future and fuels the economy. CU Anschutz features schools of medicine, pharmacy, dental medicine and public health, a college of nursing and a graduate school. All interconnected, these organizations collaboratively improve the quality of patient care they deliver, research they conduct, and health professionals they train.
There is a conception that bullied children with few friends can find new ones online. "Our research doesn't support that idea at all," says Ylva Bjereld, PhD student at the Department of social work, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. On the contrary, a new study reports that bullied children are excluded from new communication forums that have developed as a result of the digital transformation.

Along with fellow researchers from Sweden, Iceland and Finland, Ylva Bjereld has studied the use of text messaging, telephone communication and Internet -- so-called technology mediated communication (TMC) -- among children in the Nordic countries during 2001-2010. The researchers also studied the use of TMC among bullied children. Approximately 66 000 children ages 11, 13 and 15, were included in the study.

The result of the study shows that 81 per cent of the children used TMC with friends more than three days a week in 2010; an increase by 11 percentage points compared to 2001. However, among bullied children with either few or no friends at all, there had been no increase in use of TMC during the time period.

"They were left at the same levels of use as in 2001. This is remarkable considering the vast development that have occurred in the last ten years as far social media and the use of cell phones," Ylva Bjereld says.

The result indicates that bullied children have an even more vulnerable life situation than before.

"It used to be that these children could find breathing space during off-school hours. Now, they continue to be excluded from friendships even after school hours but in new digital forums. This is especially concerning since such a big part of children's every day lives is spent online participating in social networks," Ylva Bjereld says.

The study also reports that bullied children, who had several friends despite being bullied, had increased their use of TMC somewhat during the time period.

"Previous research on bullying victimization shows that bullied children suffer from mental health problems more frequently than other children. When being included in the use of TMC with friends, these children are able to both strengthen their current friendships and developing new ones. This could potentially protect them from developing mental illness problems.

One of Ylva Bjereld's conclusions is that in order for the most vulnerable group of bullied children to be included in TMC, continued work and efforts against bullying in general are required.

"We already know that bullied children are a vulnerable group in society. Now that we also know that they are excluded from new communication forums that allow children to meet new friends, we need to pay extra attention to this group," she says.

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About the study

The study Time trends of technology mediated communication with friends among bullied and not bullied children in four Nordic countries between 2001-2010 is based on data obtained from the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children survey conducted in Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Sweden. The study is published in scientific journal Child care health and development (doi:10.1111/cch.12409).

In addition to Ylva Bjereld, the study has the following co-authors:

Kristian Daneback, Professor in social work, Department of social work, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Petra Lofgren, PhD, HBSC, Ostersund, Sweden; scientific leader at the Swedish Institute of Public Health, Sweden

Jorma Tynjala, PhD, Department of health sciences, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland; HBSC, Ostersund, Sweden

Thoroddur Bjarnasson, PhD, Department of social sciences, University of Akyreyri, Iceland

Raili Valimaa, PhD, Department of health sciences, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland

Max Petzold, Professor in health metrics, Centre for applied biostatistics at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden

For additional information, please contact:

Ylva Bjereld

phone: 46-707-208717

email: ylva.bjereld@socwork.gu.se
Land-use practices on tropical oceanic islands can have large impacts on reef ecosystems, even in the absence of rivers and streams. Land-based pollutants, such as fertilizers and chemicals in wastewater, infiltrate into the groundwaters beneath land and eventually exit into nearshore ecosystems as submarine groundwater discharge (SGD)--seeping into the coastal zone beneath the ocean's surface. In a study published recently in PLOS ONE, University of Hawai'i at Manoa (UHM) scientists used a combination of field experiments and chemical analysis of water and algae to show that the quality of coastal groundwater plays a major role in determining the health of nearshore ecosystems in Hawai'i.

Various sources of pollution, such as agriculture or sewage treatment facilities, have identifiable chemical signatures, particularly the isotopes of nitrogen in the nutrients they contain. This study assessed groundwater quality, coastal water quality and reef health across six different bays on Maui with various potential sources of pollution. By comparing the nitrogen isotope signature of algae tissues and potential pollution, the research group traced nutrients in the algae back to their land-based sources.

This study is the first to show the extent of the impact of wastewater injection wells at Kahului Wastewater Reclamation Facility, Maui's highest-volume sewage treatment plant, on Kahului Bay. In addition to relatively high nutrient levels in marine surface waters in Kahului Bay, shallow areas were almost entirely dominated by a thick fleshy mat of colonial zoanthids, a phenomenon not reported anywhere else in the state. A concurrent companion study to this work, led by James Bishop at the UHM Department of Geology and Geophysics, found that water collected from beach sands, which represents coastal groundwater, next to the Kahului Wastewater Reclamation Facility contained up to 75% treated wastewater--highlighting the impact of wastewater in this area.

"Our timely study builds on previous research from UH scientists and recent federal court rulings that show that treated wastewater is illegally discharged to the ocean from injection wells at the Lahaina Wastewater Reclamation facility via SGD to Kahekili Beach Park on West Maui," said Daniel Amato, lead author and recent graduate of the UHM College of Natural Sciences. "This is not an isolated or unique occurrence."

Reefs adjacent to large areas of sugarcane agriculture were the most impacted of all the sites in this study. At Ku'au and Ma'alaea Bays, coastal waters contained nearly 100 times more nitrogen than less impacted locations due to fertilizer-enriched SGD. These high levels of nutrients were reflected in the tissues of common macroalgae and measures of reef community structure. A few species of macroalgae dominated intertidal and subtidal surfaces at Ku'au and Ma'alaea Bays. In contrast, areas where coastal groundwater nutrient levels were relatively low, researchers observed much greater diversity and corals were generally present, indicating a healthier, potentially more robust, ecosystem.

This study suggests that contaminated groundwater may present a chronic risk to nearshore marine ecosystems throughout the main Hawaiian Islands. These results are especially significant for coastal managers and lawmakers who will influence the future of land-use policy in Hawai'i. Of particular future interest is the possible benefit gained in health of our reefs by the reduction in Maui's sugarcane production. Reducing groundwater pollution could result in future increases in reef health and decreases in the occurrence of nuisance algal blooms for impacted areas.

"The long-term goal of this research group is to bridge the disciplines of hydrology, geochemistry and marine biology to help answer pressing questions regarding the source and impact of nutrient pollution in Hawaiian coastal waters," said Craig Glenn, Henrietta Dulaiova and Celia Smith, the collaborating principal investigators and co-authors of the Hawai'i Sea Grant project.

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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- A study of the genomes of 25 individuals who lived 1,000 to 6,000 years ago on the north coast of present-day British Columbia, and 25 of their descendants who still live in the region today, opens a new window on the catastrophic consequences of European colonization for indigenous peoples in that part of the world.

The study is reported in the journal Nature Communications.

"This is the first genome-wide study - where we have population-level data, not just a few individuals - that spans 6,000 years," said University of Illinois anthropology professor Ripan Malhi, who co-led the new research with former graduate student John Lindo (now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago) and Pennsylvania State University biology professor Michael DeGiorgio.

The research team included members and representatives of the Canadian aboriginal communities of the Lax Kw'alaams and Metlakatla First Nation, Coast Tsimshian people whose oral histories indicate they have lived in the region for millennia. A previous study by Malhi and representatives of these First Nations showed a direct maternal link between ancient individuals buried in the region and the indigenous people living there today, an ancestry long claimed by the Metlakatla First Nation, one of the groups that participated in the study.

The new study confirms the previous findings by analyzing the exome, the entire collection of genes that contribute to a person's traits.

"Oral traditions and archaeological evidence to date have shown that there has been continuous aboriginal occupation of this region for more than 9,000 years. This study adds another layer of scientific data linking the actual ancestral human remains to their modern descendants through their DNA over a span of 6,000 years," said Barbara Petzelt, an author of the study and a liaison to the Metlakatla community. "It's exciting to see how this tool of DNA science adds to the larger picture of Coast Tsimshian pre- and post-contact history - without the taint of historic European observer bias."

In the new study, the team found that variants of an immune-related gene that were beneficial to many of those living in the region before European contact proved disadvantageous once the Europeans arrived.

The human leukocyte antigen gene family, known as HLA, contributes to the body's ability to recognize and respond to pathogens. The gene identified in the study belongs to the HLA-DQ subfamily, which "has been associated with a variety of colonization-era infectious diseases, including measles and tuberculosis, and with the adaptive immune response to the vaccinia virus, which is an attenuated form of smallpox," the authors wrote.

The genomes of a majority of the ancient individuals contained alleles, or variants, of the HLA-DQ gene that differed from the variants that today are common in their descendants, the researchers found.

Statistical analyses revealed that the ancient variants were under "positive selection" before European contact. This means that those variants helped the native peoples survive and thrive in northwest North America.

However, those same HLA-DQ alleles suffered a dramatic decline in the indigenous population about the time the Europeans arrived, the researchers found.

"The modern individuals show a marked decrease in the frequency of the associated alleles," the researchers wrote.

"One of the alleles is 64 percent less common today than it was before European contact, which is a dramatic decline," Lindo said.

Further analyses pointed to a steep population decline among the ancestors of modern Coast Tsimshian, a "reduction in effective population size of 57 percent," the researchers reported. This dramatic die-off occurred roughly 175 years ago, about the time that European diseases were sweeping through native groups in that part of North America.

"First Nations history mainly consists of oral stories passed from generation to generation. Our oral history tells of the deaths of a large percentage of our population by diseases from the European settlers.

Smallpox, for our area, was particularly catastrophic," said Joycelynn Mitchell, a Metlakatla co-author on the study. "We are pleased to have scientific evidence that corroborates our oral history. As technology continues to advance, we expect that science will continue to agree with the stories of our ancestors."

The researchers tested several other hypotheses that might explain the dramatic decline of those ancient alleles.

"The only scenario compatible with this stark change in diversity is negative selection, suggesting that previously advantageous HLA-gene variants became disadvantageous, possibly contributing to the population decline that occurred upon European contact," DeGiorgio said.

"We knew the history of this group through archaeological evidence, oral histories and written histories," Malhi said. "And now we also know it through genomic data."

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Malhi is an affiliate of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at Illinois.

The National Science Foundation, the U. of I. Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and the Eberly College of Science at Pennsylvania State University supported this research.

Editor's notes:

To reach Ripan Malhi, call 217-265-0721; email malhi@illinois.edu.

To reach John Lindo, email jlindo@uchicago.edu.

To reach Michael DeGiorgio, call 814-867-5366; email mxd60@psu.edu.

To reach Joycelynn Mitchell, email jmitchell@metlakatla.ca.

To reach Barbara Petzelt, email metlch@metlakatla.ca.

The paper "A time transect of exomes from a Native American population before and after European contact" is available to members of the media from the U. of I. News Bureau

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/NCOMMS13175
People's attitudes to childcare are shaped by the perceived level and effectiveness of the service, new research led by the University of Kent has shown.

Expanding childcare provision can create a 'virtuous cycle' for public support, while rolling back on childcare can lead to a corresponding decrease in support.

The research, which was led by Dr Heejung Chung of Kent's School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, looked at data from 22 European countries. Results showed that, generally, parents across Europe were supportive of public childcare provision.

But the researchers found that existing structures of childcare provision were consistently related to parents' support for childcare. Irrespective of subjective considerations, such as self-interest and political attitudes, the study found that a 'vicious and virtuous cycle' existed in the relationship between policy provision and support.

The findings showed that, at a national level, the larger the current public provision, and the more positively people assess it, the greater the support. Thus, governments' further investment in wider provision of good quality childcare has the potential to drive up assessment, then support and later demand for public childcare.

The researchers concluded that there may be different mechanisms at play in explaining public support for welfare provision in 'newer' areas such as childcare and work-life balance, as distinct from what are perceived as 'old' areas such as unemployment and old age.

European parents' attitudes towards public childcare provision. The role of current provisions, interests and ideologies (Heejung Chung and Bart Meuleman, University of Leuven) is published in the journal European Societies. See: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14616696.2016.1235218

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For interview requests contact Martin Herrema at the University of Kent Press Office.

Tel: 01227 823581/01634 888879

Email: M.J.Herrema@kent.ac.uk

News releases can also be found at http://www.kent.ac.uk/news

University of Kent on Twitter: http://twitter.com/UniKent

Notes to editors

1. Established in 1965, the University of Kent - the UK's European university - now has almost 20,000 students across campuses or study centres at Canterbury, Medway, Tonbridge, Brussels, Paris, Athens and Rome.

It has been ranked: 23rd in the Guardian University Guide 2016; 23rd in the Times and Sunday Times University Guide 2016; and 22nd in the Complete University Guide 2015.

In the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2015-16, Kent is in the top 10% of the world's leading universities for international outlook and 66th in its table of the most international universities in the world. The THE also ranked the University as 20th in its 'Table of Tables' 2016.

Kent is ranked 17th in the UK for research intensity (REF 2014). It has world-leading research in all subjects and 97% of its research is deemed by the REF to be of international quality.

In the National Student Survey 2016, Kent achieved the fourth highest score for overall student satisfaction, out of all publicly funded, multi-faculty universities.

Along with the universities of East Anglia and Essex, Kent is a member of the Eastern Arc Research Consortium (http://www.kent.ac.uk/about/partnerships/eastern-arc.html).

The University is worth 0.7 billion to the economy of the south east and supports more than 7,800 jobs in the region. Student off-campus spend contributes 293.3m and 2,532 full-time-equivalent jobs to those totals.

In 2014, Kent received its second Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education.
University of Leicester research in collaboration with the University of California Los Angeles uses internet searches to show how long-term memories are coded in the brain

Associations are a key memory mechanism - to remember personal experiences like meeting a person in a place, we create associations between the concepts involved

Team used internet search engines such as Google and Bing for establishing degree of association between concepts and how these associations are encoded by neurons in memory areas

Research reveals the neural mechanism underlying 'the memory web', as neurons showed a long term coding of meaningful associations

A new study by researchers from the Centre for Systems Neuroscience at the University of Leicester, in collaboration with the University of California Los Angeles, has helped to untangle 'the memory web' by shedding light on how neurons in memory-related areas provide a long-term coding of associations between concepts.

The team also used internet search engines such as Google and Bing for exploring a much larger database of associations between concepts and then explored more comprehensively how neurons represent the intricate web of associations and memories.

The research, which is published in the journal Nature Communications, shows that these neurons fire to relatively few concepts, which tend to be largely related.

Senior author Professor Rodrigo Quian Quiroga from the Centre for Systems Neuroscience at the University of Leicester explained: "We have previously proposed that these neurons -- the 'Jennifer Aniston' neurons -- are the building blocks of memory.

"They represent concepts and the links between them. In fact, these concepts and their associations are the skeleton of the memories we store. In line with this view, we tend to remember concepts and forget countless number of details. Not surprisingly, such details are not even encoded by these neurons."

First author Emanuela De Falco, who is currently finishing her PhD at the University of Leicester, added: "I am really glad I had the chance to do my PhD in such a fascinating area of research, having the opportunity to record directly from neurons of patients and integrating results obtained with these neural recordings with behavioural and web-based results. I found it incredibly interesting to see how, after thousands of web searches, the web metric was actually able to tell us something about the neurons we recorded."

The team showed sets of pictures -- about 100 per experiment -- to patients implanted with clinical electrodes for clinical reasons, which allowed them to study how dozens of simultaneously recorded neurons in awake and behaving human subjects responded to the presented pictures.

The team then asked subjects how much they related a subset -- about 10-20 -- of these pictures with each other and defined a degree of association for all the pictures presented based on internet searches.

They found that whenever neurons fire to more than one concept, these tend to be related both according to the subjects' scores and the internet searches.

Professor Quiroga added: "Interestingly, the patients were not performing a memory task, they were just passively watching pictures. So, the coding of associations is not contingent to the performance of a task - in which case, it could be argued that neurons temporarily encode such associations and then do something else - but it rather represents a long-term memory storage."

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The study, 'Long-term coding of personal and universal associations underlying the memory web in the human brain', which also involved Matias Ison at Leicester and Itzhak Fried at UCLA was funded by the Human Frontiers Science Programme and is published in the journal Nature Communications.

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13408

Images of 'the memory web' and Professor Rodrigo Quian Quiroga and Emanuela De Falco available at: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/uw1v4kik2z340y8/AADlOoPVPucPP4qRf9qa1rCoa?dl=0
The University of Plymouth is looking to expand its work supporting farmers and families in rural Kenya after receiving a second grant from Comic Relief.

In 2014, the University became the first higher education institution to gain funding from the organisation when it received more than 535,000 to work with the Farm Shop Trust to develop a sustainable and commercially viable supply chain for agricultural inputs across its network.

Now it has received a second award -- taking the funding total to more than 1.2million -- to continue to project, which will enable it to increase the number of shops up and running across the country.

When the partnership was launched, a pilot of 10 farm shops were already up and running in Kenya's Central, Rift Valley and Eastern provinces.

Just over two years later that has risen to 77, with the aim being to double that number again so that around 150 shops - benefitting 56,000 farmers and the wider community -- are in operation by the end of 2018.

The project is led by the Futures Entrepreneurship Centre, part of the Plymouth Business School, in collaboration with Newcastle University, Duchy College's Rural Business School and the Farm Shop Trust.

Dr Hilary Duckett, Director of the Plymouth Business School, said: "It is a credit to all those involved in this project that the funds have been extended for a further two years. With the support of the research team and students, it has already seen the number of franchises extended, positively benefitting tens of thousands of the world's poorest people. We are now looking at ways to optimise the systems for evaluation and examine the entrepreneurial leadership orientations of the franchisees, as well as exploring the impact of gender on their experiences."

Dr Robert Newbery, who launched the project while based in Plymouth and is now Senior Lecturer in Enterprise and Innovation at Newcastle University, added: "Since we started work in Kenya, the opening of new shops has had a noticeable impact on areas including education, health and wellbeing, youth unemployment and poverty levels. Overall the project has been really interesting and as a social innovation it is taking off. We are starting to see some competing business models, which is a welcome sign that this approach is being incorporated into the local entrepreneurial ecosystem."

Dr Stephen Roderick, an agricultural scientist at Duchy College's Rural Business School, has also been involved in the project since its inception. He said: "What has particularly impressed me during the first phase of the project has been the commitment of the Farm Shop support team and the quality of support and advice they offer the shop franchisees and their farmer customers. I am very much looking forward to helping the team continue this excellent service as the number of shops increases, as well as playing a role in monitoring the impact this is having on the rural communities they serve."

The Farm Shop trust is an innovative rural distribution network, revolutionising smallholder farming with the basic inputs these households need to escape poverty. It was established by accomplished social entrepreneurs Farouk Jiwa and Madison Ayer, whose previous venture - Honey Care Africa - earned global praise from the Prince of Wales Business Trust, the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and others.

Its shops provide a blend of high-quality agricultural inputs, qualified advisory and information services, and structured opportunities for farmers to learn about cutting-edge technologies. Since it began working with the University of Plymouth, franchisees have seen average sales increase from around $600 a month to more than $3,000 a month.

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NEW ORLEANS, LA -When an adult gets an annual physical, physicians commonly check the levels of fat cells, known as triglycerides, in their blood stream. Triglycerides are a type of fat, or lipid, which are consumed when you eat, and are normally stored in fat tissue to be used later as an energy source. However, some people accumulate fat in the blood that should otherwise be stored in the fat tissue, causing high triglycerides. Extremely high triglycerides can lead to inflammation of the pancreas - pancreatitis - and moderate elevations are associated with higher risk for heart disease such as atherosclerosis.

Today at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2016, Richard Dunbar, MD, an assistant professor of Translational Medicine and Medical Genetics in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, will present early data from a study which evaluated the use of a new injectable biologic drug therapy for reducing triglyceride levels.

"In this study, we tested a new approach for lowering triglycerides using an injectable drug that inhibits a specific protein which enables high triglycerides - Angiopoietin-like 3 (ANGPTL3). As expected, suppressing AngPTL3 resulted in a profound drop in triglyceride levels, as compared to a placebo," said Dunbar. "Encouragingly, the kinds of drops we saw appear to push beyond the boundaries of what is usually experienced with current oral medications."

Researchers conducted this phase I, first-in-human, placebo-controlled, double-blind study to test the safety and efficacy of the injectable biologic drug, Evinacumab, an investigational monoclonal antibody specifically engineered to inhibit ANGPTL3. Results from 41 participants, 32 of whom received Evinacumab and nine the placebo, showed the biologic therapy was well-tolerated by participants with only mild adverse events being reported, including headaches in seven participants. Triglyceride levels were monitored for at least five months following the injection, with the maximum reduction seen on day four. Six doses were tested, and in the top three dose-groups, triglycerides were lowered by 64 to 73 percent.

"Current medications such as fibrates or prescription fish oils effectively lower triglycerides, but leave much to be desired, each only lowering levels by 20 to 50 percent," Dunbar said. "Validating a drug that lowers triglycerides well beyond that range would undoubtedly take us to the next level, particularly since it could be combined with current oral medications for those patients with extraordinarily high triglycerides who often can't achieve safe levels with our usual medications. A similar approach has been taken for lowering certain cholesterol with the advent of PCSK9 inhibitors, which utilize a similar monoclonal antibody mechanism."

Dose-dependent reductions in cholesterol were also observed, most notably cholesterol from low-density lipoproteins (LDL), which is thought to contribute significantly to atherosclerosis - plaque buildup and the narrowing of the heart's arteries. Curiously, the drug also lowered cholesterol from high-density lipoproteins (HDL) - the "good" cholesterol - consistent with the drug's mechanism targeting the AngPTL3 protein.

"Though the preliminary results give us a lot of hope that we could significantly improve triglyceride management, there is still a lot of work to be done to validate this approach," Dunbar said. "If all goes well and if this therapy makes it into clinical practice, the implications of this research are twofold. In the short term, profoundly lowering triglycerides may render hospital admissions less frequent in patients prone to pancreatitis, while long term, lowering triglycerides and associated cholesterol could also help reduce the risk of certain heart disease."

While the team notes it is gratifying to see more attention being paid to triglycerides, the 'other' bad lipid, and that these early results are promising, more research is needed in order to evaluate the safety and efficacy across a larger patient population, particularly with multiple doses.

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This study was funded by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which also provided the biologic.

This study will be presented on Monday, November 14, 2016 at 2:30 PM (CST) in room 211-213.

Editor's note: Dunbar has consulted for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which helped to design the study protocol.

Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania(founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $5.3 billion enterprise.

The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top five medical schools in the United States for the past 17 years, according to U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $409 million awarded in the 2014 fiscal year.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center -- which are recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report -- Chester County Hospital; Lancaster General Health; Penn Wissahickon Hospice; and Pennsylvania Hospital -- the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional affiliated inpatient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region include Chestnut Hill Hospital and Good Shepherd Penn Partners, a partnership between Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network and Penn Medicine.

Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2014, Penn Medicine provided $771 million to benefit our community.
Professor Neil Hyatt, Research Chair in Radioactive Waste Management, calls for UK plutonium policy to be re-examined to allow swift immobilisation of UK's civil plutonium stockpile to maximise safety, security and affordability for UK taxpayers.

Plutonium was once envisaged as the fuel for a fleet of fast breeder reactors, but the reactor development programme was shelved in 1994. Since then, plutonium, recovered by reprocessing of nuclear fuel, has continued to stockpile at the Sellafield site.

At the end of reprocessing operations in 2020, the UK civil plutonium stocks will exceed 140 tonnes - the largest stockpile of plutonium under civil safeguards in the world. Several influential reports have highlighted security concerns associated with indefinite storage of this material.

Current Government policy is to reuse the UK's plutonium as so-called MOX (Mixed Oxide) fuel in a fleet of new light water reactors. However, an analysis of the troubled US MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility, conducted by Professor Neil Hyatt, Director of Sheffield's Immobilisation Science Laboratory, has identified issues that may also be problematic for a potential new UK MOX fuel production plant.

The USA has all but abandoned completion of its MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility, a cornerstone of the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement between the USA and Russia, signed in 2010, to eliminate 34 tons of weapons grade plutonium. This lead to Russia suspending implementation of the agreement in October 2016.

Writing in the journal Energy Policy, Professor Neil Hyatt argues "The heavily over budget and delayed US MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility is based on the same reference design as a potential UK plant. So there is an urgent need to review the design basis assumptions and cost data for a UK MOX fuel fabrication plant, in the light of the US experience".

Professor Hyatt adds "In addition, no owner of a future new nuclear reactor in the UK has yet given a commitment to accept MOX fuel and the commercial appetite is expected to remain weak. For example, the Generic Design Assessment for the Hinkley Point C reactors explicitly excluded consideration of MOX fuels".

The study concludes Government policy should be changed to commit to immobilising plutonium which is suitable for reuse as MOX fuel, in the event that a MOX fuel fabrication plant is no longer considered a viable proposition.

Professor Hyatt argues that the UK needs to learn the lessons of the US plutonium disposition programme, which was wedded, exclusively, to plutonium reuse in MOX fuel fabrication: "There are significant cost and technical uncertainties in both the MOX reuse and immobilisation and disposal options. We can only mitigate these uncertainties by making a commitment to promptly immobilising all plutonium which is not reused as fuel and developing the necessary technology".

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The more you drink, the greater your risk of prostate cancer: Study

Alcohol is known to be a risk factor for breast cancer and at least seven types of cancers of the digestive system. It's also suggested that alcohol may increase the risk of cancers of the skin, pancreas and prostate. But some unresolved questions still remain in the underlying science.

A new collaborative study done by researchers at the Centre for Addictions Research of BC (CARBC) at the University of Victoria and Australia's National Drug Research Institute (NDRI) at Curtin University provides new evidence of a significant relationship between alcohol consumption and the risk of prostate cancer. The article appears in BMC Cancer, a peer-reviewed online journal.

Part of the problem with most previous studies comes from what scientists call "abstainer bias." This is the common practice of lumping together former drinkers -- including people who may have previously drank heavily, but quit or cut down due to failing health -- with those who have abstained from drinking alcohol for their whole lives. This practice can disguise the association between alcohol intake and health problems like prostate cancer by making drinkers "look good" in comparison with a group containing unhealthy former drinkers.

The research team identified all previously published studies on alcohol and prostate cancer (340) and found 27 that attempted to measure the risk at different levels of consumption. Controlling for abstainer bias in their analysis of all 27 studies, they found a statistically significant dose-response relationship between amount of alcohol consumed and risk of prostate cancer among current drinkers.

In other words, the more you drink, the greater your risk of prostate cancer.

Even at low-volume drinking (up to two drinks per day), men had an eight per cent greater risk of prostate cancer compared to lifetime abstainers. But when the researchers examined only those six studies that were originally free of abstainer bias, the risk for low volume drinkers rose to 23 per cent.

Given the high prevalence of prostate cancer, especially in the developed world, the public health implications of these findings are significant. It is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men in Canada, Australia and Britain, and is the fifth most common cause of cancer death in men worldwide.

This new study contributes to the strengthening evidence that alcohol consumption is a risk factor for prostate cancer. Alcohols contribution to prostate cancer will need to be factored in to future estimates of the global burden of disease, said UVics CARBC director and co-author Dr. Tim Stockwell.

This month is "Movember," a campaign that originated in Australia to raise funds and awareness of prostate and testicular cancer and men's health in general. The week of Nov.16 - 22 is National Alcohol Awareness Week in the UK and National Addictions Awareness Week in Canada.

"These findings highlight the need for better methods in research on alcohol and health," says report co-author Dr. Tanya Chikritzhs. "Past and future studies that demonstrate protection from disease due to low-level drinking should be treated with caution."

###

Study co-authors include Dr. Jinhui Zhao and Audra Roemer (MSc research assistant) from the University of Victoria.

Media contacts:

Tim Stockwell

Director, Centre for Addictions Research of BC, University of Victoria

250-472-5445

timstock@uvic.ca

Tanya Chikritzhs

Professor, National Drug Research Institute

T.N.Chikritzhs@curtin.edu.au

Suzanne Ahearne

University Communications + Marketing

250-721-6139

sahearne@uvic.ca
It's the seventh day of long queues at the banks and ATMs following the government's decision to declare Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes illegal.

By India Today Web Desk: A day before Parliament's winter session, set to be stormy in the wake of the demonetisation drive, the Opposition is holding its strategy meetings and making statements indicating their intent to corner the government.



The main Opposition party, the Congress, held a meeting today chaired by its president Sonia Gandhi at their headquarters in New Delhi. Meanwhile, it's the seventh day of long queues at the banks and ATMs following the government's decision to declare Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes illegal.

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Here are the LIVE updates:



- The Supreme Court today asked the Centre to explain the steps it has taken or will take to deal with the chaos outside banks and ATMs following the demonetisation move.



- Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal calls for an immediate roll back of the demonetisation decision which has led to cash chaos across the country.

- Desperate attempt to start a 'black mechanism' with indelible ink, shows this government distrusts the common people: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.



#Demonetisation step was taken to check the misuse of this high value notes by sponsors of terror and black money holders: Venkaiah Naidu pic.twitter.com/aRr2NnAYjS&; ANI (@ANI_news) November 15, 2016

Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das addresses media: Highlights

- To stop people from hoarding cash, banks will use indelible ink marks, similar to those used in elections, on cash counters. Indelible ink mark concept to start today in major cities.

- Lot of stories in social media; reports of certain institutions going on strike; there is no such thing; please don't believe it.



- To ease pressure on banks, a task force has been set up to look after shifting and storing of old notes.

- Have enough stock of salts, no reason for temporary surge in price or shortage; supply of essential commodities being closely monitored.

- Have received reports that many people are trying to convert black money into white by organising groups of people and sending them to exchange money.



Reason for long queues at banks and ATMs is that the same ppl keep coming again & again at diff places:Economic Affairs Secy Shaktikanta Das pic.twitter.com/rNmbKyxiZ5&; ANI (@ANI_news) November 15, 2016

- Have been trying to analyse reasons for long queues,it has come to notice that same people are coming again at same places.



PM Modi's mother Hiraben Modi reaches a bank in Gujarat's Gandhinagar to exchange currency.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi today chaired a meeting at 10, Janpath to discuss the strategy ahead of the winter session of the Parliament. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, senior party leaders present at the meeting.

Delhi: Congress strategy meeting underway (earlier visuals of leaders arriving) pic.twitter.com/Fa2pdbQxPW ANI (@ANI_news) November 15, 2016

Black economy is only 6% Cash, rest wired. Counterfeit currency 0.025% of total currency. So what is the Demonetisation move targeting, tweets CPM's Sitaram Yechury.

2300 crore notes needed to maintain current levels. RBI currently printing 40 lakh Rs 500 notes a day. So how will all be well in 50 days, asks Yechury.



Iss sarkar ne janata ko dukh diya, pareshaani di hai: UP CM Akhilesh Yadav on Govt's demonetisation decision pic.twitter.com/yuFaFhB88t&; ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) November 15, 2016

Banks reopen today after a day's holiday as huge crowds forming long queues are expected to return to withdraw cash.

ATMs will start giving Rs 2000 denomination notes apart from smaller notes like Rs 20 and 50 from today.



We are not going to withdraw this decision: Union Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal on demonetisation move pic.twitter.com/wDIHqbYiuD&; ANI (@ANI_news) November 15, 2016

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--- ENDS ---
Children's knowledge and use of race and gender labels have been well-explored by researchers, but how kids think about their own identities in those contexts, especially before adolescence, is less clear.

A new study from the University of Washington provides a rare glimpse into how children perceive their social identities in middle childhood. The research found that children age 7 to 12 rate gender as more important than race -- and that their perceptions of both are woven together with personal and societal influences.

"Kids are thinking about race and gender, and not just in terms of being able to identify with these social categories, but also what they mean and why they matter," said lead author Leoandra Onnie Rogers, a former postdoctoral fellow at the UW's Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS) who is now an assistant professor of psychology at Northwestern University.

Andrew Meltzoff, co-director of I-LABS and co-author on the paper, said, "Children are bombarded by messages about race, gender and social stereotypes. These implicit and explicit messages rapidly influence their self-concepts and aspirations.

"We were able to catch a glimpse of how culture influences children at a tender time in their lives. Kids talk about race and gender in different ways as early as age 7."

Published online last month in the journal Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, the research involved interviews with 222 children in grades two through six at three racially diverse public schools in Tacoma, Washington. None of the schools had more than 50 percent of one racial group, and more than 75 percent of students were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.

The children were first shown cards with different identity labels -- boy, girl, son, daughter, student, Asian, Hispanic, Black, White and athlete -- and asked to place each card in a "me" pile if the card described them or in a "not me" pile if it did not.

Children were then asked to rank the "me" cards by importance, and then to separately rate how important racial and gender identities were to them on a three-point scale -- either "not much," "a little bit" or "a lot." The rankings were done separately so children could rate race and gender as equally important.

The children were then asked two open-ended questions -- "what does it mean to be a (boy/girl)"? and "what does it mean to be (Black/White/Mixed)"? All 222 responses to each question were then sorted into five broad categories that reflect the wider meaning behind these responses, including physical appearance, inequality and group difference, equality or sameness, family, and pride and positive traits. The codes were not mutually exclusive, so a single response might reference multiple topics.

The responses, which Rogers collected over the course of a year spent in the schools, found that:

Of the five social identities represented in the "me/not me" test (gender, race, family, student and athlete), family - being a son or daughter - was on average the most important to children

Being a student was ranked second, followed by gender, then athlete

Race was most consistently selected last, as the least important identity

Black and Mixed-Race children ranked race as more important than White children

In response to the open-ended questions, Black and Mixed-Race children mentioned racial pride much more often than White children did

Family identity was more important to girls than boys

Boys ranked being an athlete higher than girls did, and Black boys ranked it significantly higher than did all other children

The meanings children ascribed to gender identity tended to emphasize inequality and group differences, while meanings of race emphasized physical appearance and equality

There was no difference between boys and girls about how important gender was, but girls mentioned physical appearance as part of their gender identity much more often than boys

Girls made up 77 percent of the references to physical appearance when defining what gender means (for example, "I think [being a girl] means glam. Like looking glamorous and pretty for everyone.")

About half of Black and Mixed-Race children ranked race as "a lot" or a "little" important, while 89 percent of White children considered race a "not important" part of their identity. That gap is telling, Rogers said, particularly given that the schools involved are highly diverse.

"In some ways, it suggests that White kids and kids of color are navigating very different worlds when it comes to race and they're thinking about race in very different terms," said Rogers. "Most White kids would say [race] is not important, it doesn't matter, but kids of color would say, 'Yes, race does matter to me.'"

In the open-ended question about racial identity, 42 percent of responses that defined the meaning of race through values of equality or humanism came from White children (for example, "I believe race doesn't matter at all. It just matters about who you are."). By contrast, just one-quarter of Black and Mixed-Race children mentioned equality when talking about race.

While the emphasis on equity among White children may seem encouraging, Rogers said some White children interviewed were reluctant to broach the subject of race. When asked what it meant to be White, she recalled, one White third-grader refused to talk about it.

"The idea that talking about race is taboo was prevalent," she said. "Surprisingly, that is not uncommon in diverse schools. The narrative of multiculturalism is really stressed in such a way that everybody's the same and differences are minimized."

"That typically derives from the good motivation of encouraging kids to treat each other respect and not allowing discrimination to occur," Rogers said. "But it might also communicate racial silence, that race is something that's not OK to talk about."

By contrast, she said, it makes sense that children view gender as more important than race, since gender differences are openly discussed and accepted and celebrated in the broader society, for better or worse.

"Kids are sorted by girls and boys all the time," she said. "It would be egregious to do such a thing based on race today. There is a way we premeditate gender divisions and accept them as fact. Some kids push back on that, but it means there is a space to talk about it, that it's not a taboo conversation."

The research dovetails with two online training modules developed by Rogers and the I-LABS team focused on how children learn about race and how parents and teachers can talk with them about race in a helpful way. The modules are free and come with discussion guides intended to facilitate personal reflections and group conversations.

"As parents, we teach values through the conversations we have with our children," Meltzoff said. "We're hoping that these modules can help enrich parent-child talk about socially sensitive issues."

Overall, Rogers said, the study reinforces the need to better understand how multiple factors, from school culture to societal stereotypes, influence the formation of children's social identities.

"The issue is not that we're different. It's in the hierarchy and the value that's placed on those differences," Rogers said. "We really need more data and understanding of which messages promote social justice and equity, and which promote blindness, avoidance and silence."

###

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation (SMA-1303753) and the Spencer Foundation/National Academy of Education.

For more information, contact Rogers at onnie.rogers@northwestern.edu or 847-467-1331.
New Delhi : The National Human Rights Commission had sought explanation from the Communist government ruling Kerala, regarding the spree of violence being unleashed in the district of Kannur after LDF assumed power in the state. The Commission has also sought to know the details of those attacks indulged in by CPM leaders inside police stations, along with the spate of attacks unleashed in Kannur. The matter is being looked into, following a grievance submitted by Shine P Sasidaran, general secretary of All India Malayali Sangh.

The commission has taken specific note of the spate of violence unleashed in Kerala Chief Ministers native village Pinarayi. According to reports, over 80 karyakartas of BJP and RSS have been subjected to various kinds of extreme physical assaults. Most of them continue to be under treatment. There are grievances of over 150 houses being subject to wrecking. The report also states that police cases have been registered against over 200 Marxist goons. The Commission has entailed details of violence from the union home secretary, state home secretary, DGP, district collector of Kannur.

Hindu activists of RSS root and workers and leaders of BJP and other Hindu organisations are the main victim of Communist Terror in Kerala. Jihadi outfits and pro-Jihadi elements withing Communist party are also attacking Hindus jointly with the anti-Hindu communist goons as established in cases relating such attacks on Hindus there.

Source : Struggle for Hindu Existence
Asmita Dwivedi | HENB | Vidisha : Local Administration imposed curfew in Vidisha town on Sunday following arson, stone pelting and sporadic communal clashes after a Bajrang Dal activists was allegedly stabbed to death by some Jihadi elements.

A local bandh was observed at Baksariya and around Vidisha locality on Sunday protesting the murder of Hindu activist and normalcy in life yet to return even in Monday as the reports came in.

The 23-year-old Hindu activist and Bajrangdal office bearer Deepak Kushwah allegedly died of stab wounds by Muslim goons at Baksariya. He was said to be attacked by a group of jihadis around 3 pm on Saturday. Deepak was stabbed several times with sharpened knife as told.

External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj represents Vidisha Lok Sabha constituency in Lok Sabha.

The administration has deployed heavy additional police force and a contingent of Rapid Action Force (RAF) as a precautionary measure in the area. Police in the neighbouring districts, including Bhopal have been asked to remain on standby to dash to Vidisha if required.

On Sunday, violence erupted when the dead body of Deepak was being taken home for his funeral. Agitated Bajrang Dal supporters set afire three thatched houses in a slum belonging to the community of the main accused jihadi gang comprising Kallu, Tippu, Naved, Saddam, Nadeem and Afjal. Reported that the agitated Hindu protesters also set afire two trucks and a jeep and indulged in stone pelting. At least three persons sustained injuries in the stone pelting. Vehicles of Fire Brigade of Vidisha Nagar Palika were also damaged by unruly mobs.

Police took Kallu, Tippu, Naved, Saddam, Nadeem and Afjal in remand after charged IPC 302 (Punishment for murder) and booked some other person viz. Uvesh, Ikbal, Kishwar, Ajay, Hasim, Imran and Shanu under IPC 147 (Punishment for rioting), IPC 148 (Rioting, armed with deadly weapon) and IPC 294 (Obscene acts and songs), as per source report.

The brother of the murdered Hindu youth, Rakesh told HENB, there was an attack by the same jihadi gang on Deepak just three days before the murder. The matter of attack was reported to the police but they took no action. The murder could have been averted if the gang was taken to custody after the allegation made earlier.

According to police Deepak Kushwah was also allegedly involved in five criminal cases and had an old enmity with his attackers. About four days ago they had a clash but police failed to take action. Of the 13 accused, 11 have been arrested.

Had police taken action on time the incident of Saturday would have been avoided, said former Member of Parliament and Congress leader Pratapbhanu Sharma.

Locals say the immediate reason for the clash was sale of liquor but the genesis of tension between two communities can be traced to a row between two sides on construction of shops at the idgah and saffron brigades demand for action against Rajya Sabha MP Chaudhary Munabbar Saleem after his personal assistant was arrested on espionage charges recently.

Saleem is an MP from Uttar Pradesh elected on a Samajwadi Party but lives in Vidisha. He is considered close to SP leader Mohd Azam Khan.

Curfew was imposed in the city after arson and stone pelting. It had a communal angle too. As many as 11 people were arrested since yesterday. Now, the situation is under control, collector of Vidisha Anil Suchari told the media.

Curfew was imposed in Kotwali area of the Vidisha town after the restrictions failed to quell the violence. Authorities earlier prohibited any gathering of four or more persons, slapping orders under Section 144 of the CrPc, when the situation in the town worsened following stone pelting by Bajrang Dal members. Many persons, among them several policemen, were injured in the incident.

Meanwhile, North Bhopal MLA Arif Aqueel appealed to people to maintain peace in town in the wake of the communal tension.

The victims of arson should make a representation to the competent authority for compensation, said Mr. Aqueel who is the lone Muslim legislator in MP.

Source : Hindu Existence
Ukraine will retaliate Poland for the "Volhynia Massacre"

by AndrewRoyce Tue, Nov 15, 2016 2:10AM
Foreign Minister Charlie Flanagan has pledged to underline the country's commitment to the European Union during a visit to the Middle East.

Mr Flanagan is in Abu Dhabi for the second day of his three-day tour of the Gulf, leading an Enterprise Ireland trade mission.

He said: "My visit is timely as it offers an opportunity to bring clear messages to important partners in the Gulf about Ireland's position in the wake of the UK vote to leave the European Union.

"I made clear that Ireland will remain a strong and active member of the Union."

The Minister is expected to meet with the UAE's minister for foreign affairs, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and with the country's education minister, Hussain Ibrahim al Hammadi.

He will also meet with Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

On Saturday, in Riyadh, he held a series of bilateral meetings to discuss a range of issues including the stalled Middle East peace process and the humanitarian impact of conflicts in Yemen and Syria.

"These are issues of concern to the Irish people," added Mr Flanagan.

"With the minister of state for education, I had an opportunity to discuss the possibility of increasing the number of Saudi students coming to study in Ireland's universities and institutes of technology around the country."

He also took part in a number of commercial events to support Irish companies.

"I welcome the opportunity to see first-rate Irish companies at work, and to support them in their efforts to secure new business and so support jobs at home," said the Minister.
A Dublin man who as a teenager sexually abused his younger sister has been jailed for six years.

Brian Butler, now aged 31, began abusing his sister when he was 14 years old and continued until he was 17.

His sister was aged between nine and 12 years old at the time.

His sister, who has waived her right to anonymity, told the court that her family had been completely torn apart and destroyed by the abuse.

She told the court she felt as if her brother was treated as the victim and she still feels this.

Butler, of Moyclare Close, Baldoyle, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to sexual assault and oral rape of Leanne Butler at their family home on dates between January 2000 and December 2002.

The court heard that during this time Butler committed a litany of offences on his sister.

The abuse came to light after his sister told a friend. Her family were informed and social services became involved. Butler attended specialised therapeutic services for child sex offenders and a formal complaint was not made to gardai until 2013. His sister also attended for counselling.

Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy said a letter of apology written some years ago when Butler was in counselling had been handed into court but noted it referred only to a period of six months.

He said that Ms Butler had given harrowing evidence in relation to her childhood which had undoubtedly been blighted by the abuse and caused significant long term problems for her.

He noted that she had hopes for the future and that she said she was worth more than what her brother did to her.

Mr Justice McCarthy noted the work Butler had carried out in therapy and that he suffered from depression. He noted that Butler had in part contributed his behaviour to his state of mind.

Mr Justice McCarthy imposed a six year sentence and ordered four years post release supervision to include participation in offence focused work and a victim awareness program.

In her victim impact statement Leanne Butler, now aged 26 years old, said she had been a happy child without a care in the world and that Butler had been her favourite person - my big brother and protector.

She said that had all changed one day and she had been left paralysed in fear, confusion and pain.

She said the weeks after the first incident had been filled with confusion. I felt bad like I had been bold, she said. She said that she felt disgusting.

Little did I know it would be a regular occurrence over the next two years, she continued.

She said she felt trapped as she had not said anything the first time it happened and her brother was good to her during the day. She said she began to understand what was happening as time went on, mainly from reading her sister's magazines.

She described her home as nothing short of a war zone and she felt blamed for what had happened to her. She said she felt as if her brother was treated as the victim and that she had been left alone with him even after the offences came to light.

She said the impact of the sexual abuse on her had been devastating, profound and far reaching.

The complainant said she had a good relationship with her mother as a child but that now her family had been destroyed by the abuse and completely torn apart.

She said at one stage she felt as if she would be better off dead but decided to live and knew she had to face up to happened.

The woman said although her brother was young when he abused her, the abuse had gone on for two years and she could not accept he did not know what he was doing was wrong.

Defence counsel, Sean Gillane SC, asked the court to take into account that since the offences, Butler had served a very long unofficial probation period in a sense and had shown himself to be a law abiding citizen who was capable of a day's work.

He said Butler had co-operated with the garda investigation and it was clear from the word go that he accepted he carried out sexual wrongdoing.

Mr Gillane said that Butler had acknowledged his wrongdoing, even as a child, and thrown himself into therapeutic work with the specialised services where he developed insight into what he had done.

Mr Gillane urged the court to be as lenient as possible.
A Chinese national has pleaded guilty to manslaughter for killing a man outside his internet cafe in Dublin city centre.

The plea was accepted by the State and a sentencing hearing is scheduled for December 5.
At a meeting of the Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures Advisory Council Meeting in Dublin yesterday, stakeholders were also told to consider the ramifications of any limits on free movement between north and south for young people and whether Brexit might compromise all-island co-operation in areas including child cardiac treatment.

While the British government has said it will not trigger discussions on its exit from the EU until next March, the government here has already begun scoping out areas of concern, with Childrens Minister Katherine Zappone saying those efforts are intensifying.

Ms Zappone referred to a meeting with Health Minister Simon Harris and their northern counterparts in Armagh last week, when some potential complications arising from Brexit were discussed.

In terms of child protection there are concerns about the Brussels regulation which governs placement of children in out-of-State services such as secure care, said Ms Zappone.

Another issue is the placement of children from Northern Ireland in care in Ireland, including residential and relative foster care.

In the wider health area we are seeing huge developments in terms of cross-border and all-island co-operation, including child cardiac treatment  how do we safeguard that?

Ms Zappone said concerns had been expressed, both north and south of the border, about EU funding of youth services.

EU Peace funding is currently accepting applications from projects North and South for 80m, she said.

Many in the sector are questioning if this will be the last round of funding.

The meeting was attended by groups including Barnardos, the ISPCC, and the Childrens Rights Alliance.

Ms Zappone said she hoped to hold a more high profile and larger gathering in the new year and said she was open to the suggestion of forming a task-focused working group within the council if that helped to debate key issues.

Separately, Ms Zappone said she is very committed to accepting migrant children from Syria and other countries, adding that she has full confidence that we will find a way of supporting lone children who come here.

I was very pleased we passed the motion where we will accept up to 200 children from France that were in the jungle which has now been disbanded, she said.

We are very committed to that. My department is going to be meeting with the Tanaistes department within the next week or so to take a look at the implications of all that.

It is important that Tusla, with its current resources, has already accepted and received approximately 104 lone children this year, 59 that they have placed within foster families.

Ms Zappone said the 450 children currently in care and without a social worker is an issue which is going to be tackled.
A quick check by Mail Today across the national capital region revealed that hundreds of such small vendors and businesses have switched to mobile and online payment services that are now expected to more than double their annual growth.

By Mail Today Bureau: Tea sellers, vegetable vendors and neighbourhood grocery stores are unzipping their e-wallets at a time when digital money is king after the government last week banned Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, sweeping away 86% of India's total currency in circulation.

A quick check by Mail Today across the national capital region revealed that hundreds of such small vendors and businesses have switched to mobile and online payment services that are now expected to more than double their annual growth. While a number of payment gateways, such as Paytm and Freecharge, are already in big demand, wholesale retailer Metro Cash & Carry is working on tying up with digital wallets to offer payment options to small traders and kirana shop owners.

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PAYMENT THROUGH E-WALLETS

Nandu Gupta from Saharsa in Bihar, who runs a tea stall in Noida's Sector 16-A, has prominently displayed his phone number for customers to pay through ewallets. "I have nothing to hide," he said.

"What I accepted in notes can now be paid online. All the more, I don't have to deal with hassles of loose change. I wish my wholesaler can accept the same way. He has flatly refused and I am looking for another."

The demand is being fuelled by the fact that India is one of the fastest-growing markets for smartphones in the world and is expected to become the second largest market by next year, replacing the United States.

Bela Jain, a resident of Rajendra Nagar colony in central Delhi, paid her istriwala (presser) online on Monday.

"I found it very strange when he asked me to pay him through Paytm. Thanks to him I had to download the app, but which I now am using for many purposes," she said.

BJP PROMOTING THE USE OF MOBILE PAYMENT SYSTEMS

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made financial inclusion one of his highest priorities, particularly in the countryside. To jump start the effort, the BJP-led government is promoting the use of mobile payment systems.

Laxman Kachi, a tea seller, has also started using an e-wallet service since the past couple of days.

"Two days ago, one of my customer told me about an e-wallet service and advised me on its usage. He helped me to download the app and later helped me to register as a merchant," said Kachi. He has been able to mop up Rs 700 using the digital wallet service.



DOCTORS ACCEPTING CONSULTATION FEES THROUGH MOBILE PAYMENT

To beat the acute cash crush, even doctors are accepting consultation fee through mobile payment, though reports are mixed about their enthusiasm for such transactions. Many, therefore, gave consultations for the fee to be paid at a later date when new currency notes would be readily available.

Doctors also told Mail Today that patient rush at OPDs across several private hospitals too had taken a hit. But, to help the patients, doctors have started accepting payments via online options.

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"Patients do not have enough cash to pay consultation fees. We are accepting payments through Paytm, cheque as well as Real-Time Gross Settlement Systems (RTGs) and other online transaction systems. We are not taking money from those who do not have any means to pay, and they can give it later," said Dr Vikas Maurya, senior pulmonologist at west Delhi's BLK Super Speciality Hospital.

The father of a patient at the Capital's Sir Ganga Ram Hospital paid his son's consultation fee with digital money. "I didn't have enough cash and my son needed urgent treatment. Therefore, I paid the money on Paytm," said Nand Kumar from Faridabad, who had come to the hospital after his six-year-old son's fractured arm.

Also Read: Metro Cash & Carry to introduce mobile payment option

GROCERY SHOPS, MILK BOOTHS,PARKING FACILITIES HAVE GONE CASHLESS

Grocery shops and milk booths too have gone cashless. Mother Dairy booths are using digital payment services to avoid the hassle of providing loose change. "People come to us with Rs 500 notes. It was getting very difficult to return change so we started accepting ewallets," said a Mother Dairy booth manager in east Delhi's Patparganj area.

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Even parking facilities at tony malls in areas such as Vasant Kunj, Saket and even Noida and Ghaziabad have started accepting plastic money.

Gaurav Kumar, who owns a women's clothing store at Shankar Market in Connaught Place, has now started taking money through online wallets. "For the last few days, we were not able to sell the garments due to which we lost many of our customers. After the installation of Paytm, we are able to sell things and customers are satisfied too."

Also Read: Mobile wallet cos register manifold increase in transactions

--- ENDS ---
The apparent breakthrough in the case occured last night as more than 100 people took part in a candlelit vigil outside Globe House, the direct provision centre in Sligo where Amjad Rosstami, 44, is staying.

Sources close to the Department of Justice said that the threat of deportation had been lifted , and Mr Rosstami, who came to Ireland from Britain, was now free to apply for asylum in this country . He had feared that, if sent back to the UK, he would be deported to Iran.

Mr Rosstamis condition deteriorated rapidly since the weekend, when he stopped taking liquids, and fears for his safety were growing.

Last night, supporters said Mr Rosstami would not call off the hunger strike until he gets confirmation in writing that the threat of deportation has been lifted. Department officials were due to make contact with him last night.

This man has children. He is on hunger strike as a last resort, said Tara Baoth Mooney, who was part of the vigil at Globe House.

Earlier, Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald was urged to review the case.

Campaigners for Mr Rosstami say he has been on hunger strike for more than 35 days, since he received a deportation order from the Minister for Justice last month.

This deportation order almost certainly [will] see him returned to Iran, where he is convinced that he will be killed, as well as endangering his family. As a result, he has said that he would rather die here in Ireland than be killed in Iran, a petition by campaigners claims.

The Department of Justice said Mr Rosstami is in receipt of legal and medical assistance.

The Department of Justice and Equality, staff at Globe House, medical professionals, legal professionals, and other on-the-ground service providers linked with Globe House have provided a series of medical and legal supports and assistance to the resident of Globe House in view of their concern for the persons health and wellbeing, a statement from the department read.
Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin issued the warning amid growing unease over US plans to slash corporate tax rates in a bid to lure some of the 700 Irish-based companies back to America and ongoing concern over the potential Brexit impact.

Speaking as Finance Minister Michael Noonan began a week-long trip to Washington DC and Silicon Valley in California to hold high-level talks with the US treasury, IMF, World Bank and leading Irish-based firms, Mr Martin said the reality is the world economic market has now changed.

While saying now is not the time to panic, he argued Ireland must become hard-headed in its attempts to compete with other nations, adding that if the country does not act quickly Ireland will be facing a perfect storm of financial unrest.

Ireland as a country depends on trade, we depend on a liberal trade environment across the world, we sell most of what we make here, and an isolationist-type approach in America will not help Ireland, a protectionist approach will not help.

Michael Noonan

The [US] taxation issue is a serious issue, theres no point pretending it isnt. Theyre quite entitled to reduce their tax rates, theyre talking about bringing it down to 15%, Britain is talking about 20%.

When you take that and throw in Brexit, I think we have a perfect storm coming our way which means we need to re-assess our industrial strategy and prepare, Mr Martin told RTE Radios Today with Sean O Rourke programme.

The Fianna Fail leader said that while there has been evidence of some moderation from Mr Trump since his election last week, he still believes the new US president will follow through on his instincts on world financial matters.

He said this is likely to include a negative approach to free trade agreements such as NAFTA and TTIP which Mr Martin said, alongside the likelihood of Britain following suit when it leaves the EU, should be of particular concern for this country and other open economies.

The comments came as Transport Minister Shane Ross admitted Ireland is facing a very uncertain economic future over the same issues and the reality is we dont know whats going to happen.

The situation is very uncertain at the moment and we dont know whats going to happen. Donald Trump has made soundings which would be difficult for Ireland if he carries out what he says he will do.

Michael Noonan, I think, is absolutely right to be out in the US today re-assuring the multinationals it is a great country to come to, it is a wonderful country to be in. Weve got to indulge ourselves, to go ahead with a diplomatic initiative to make sure companies dont move.

It [the economic situation] is uncertain, but I dont think its in any way a critical situation for us. Im confident they [companies] will come and stay and keep coming. But at the moment Donald Trump is making the sort of noises that merit a response, he said.
The developers have now been given until January 31 next to finish the internal designs, finalise the costings, and brief councillors on a definitive timeline.

Council chief executive Ann Doherty moved to reassure councillors last night that the project is still on track despite the looming second anniversary of the sanctioning of 20m in state-aid to get the project off the ground.

BAM and Live Nation won a competitive bid in December 2014 for state funding  12m from Government and 8m from Cork City Council  to build a 6,000-seat events centre on the former Beamish and Crawford brewery site on South Main St as part of its 150m Brewery Quarter regeneration of the entire site.

But despite a sod-turning by Taoiseach Enda Kenny last February, work on the buildings internal design is ongoing, final detailed costs have yet to be agreed, some contracts have yet to be signed, and construction has yet to start.

While demolition started on site last month, an archaeological dig still has to take place before construction can start, fuelling fears that construction could be months off.

SoHo publican Sean McCarthy, who helped spearhead the Support Brewery Quarter group of city centre business people, led calls last week for a public statement on the status of the project.

Ms Doherty told councillors last night that following her last update in August as the developers started the internal design process, she was conscious that councillors may have had an expectation that there would have been further developments in October.

This process was originally to be completed by the end of October, however it has taken longer than expected and has not been completed to date, she said.

We met with the developers during October to monitor progress and established that the professional teams are continuing to work on this design phase and I am satisfied that good progress is being made in this regard.

But she said it is likely that it will be early in the new year before she will be in a position to brief councillors on the outcome of the process.

She said the unique multi-functional nature of the facility  an events centre, a conference centre and a concert venue  is why the design work is taking so long.

She said a large team is working on the designs, that the developer is anxious to break ground as soon as possible, but that he will only start when the design is right.

However, Cllr Terry Shannon (FF) said people have lost confidence in the entire process.

Its dragging on, and dragging on. The developers should come before council and brief us  were a huge stakeholder in this project, he said.

Independent Cllr Mick Finn said he is baffled that two years on from the announcement of public funding, councillors still have not been briefed by the developers.

FF Cllr Tim Brosnan said he has always believed that the facility, on this site, is a non-runner.
A PRODUCER who also works as a director on other films; an ungranted rider (a celeb backstage request) from an actor of several decades standing; and a teenage lead actor who made suggestions about how a scene should be played.

You might assume the film I Am Not A Serial Killer was born from diva-esque tantrums, on-set scuffles and blazing rows over creative differences.

Well, the producer has nothing but praise for the director; the director says he worked with a great bunch of people; the actors are hailed as great fun and very professional  or even shy.

Director, Billy OBrien, says Christopher Lloyd did have one demand for the duration of the filming in northern Minnesota: He wanted it in his contract that he gets to go to a gym every day. Hes no prima donna but hes 78 now and very physical and he needs to hang onto his fitness.

However, even this modest request couldnt be granted: We were filming in the midwest in a town equivalent to Buttevant (where OBrien is from) so there wasnt one.

The film, which is based on Dan Wells book of the same name, stars Max Records as John, a clinically-diagnosed sociopath teen who is genuinely worried he might turn out to hurt someone.

Producer, Nick Ryan, whos originally from Dublin, has plenty of praise for Records, who caught his eye with his role as a 10-year-old in Where the Wild Things Are: Hes a brilliant kid. He was always our first choice. And luckily by the time this film was ready he was the right age for this, says Ryan.

OBrien notes that Max had a quiet confidence and he even made well- received suggestions to Christopher Lloyd about how to play certain scenes.

Lloyd is perhaps best known for his roles as Emmett Doc Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, and he also played Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and Uncle Fester in The Addams Family (1991).

As in Back to the Future he plays the role of older, odd guy who befriends a teenager but in a much darker film here. Lloyds Crowley is Johns neighbour and friend in a bleak, snow-filled town where bad things happen.

OBrien laughs that theres a Coen Brothers feel to the setting: Its soaked in Americana  theres a Fargo feel to it  as if the Coen Brothers made a supernatural thriller.

Theres plenty dark humour in the film, which has been well-received elsewhere  when we spoke, OBrien was just off the plane from Trieste where it screened at the Science+ Fiction Film Festival. The film premiered in the US in March and began touring Europe from July: I watched it with 750 people and guest of honour Rutger Hauer so that was fun. Though I reckon I could never be in a band on tour  its exhausting.

Cork-born director Billy OBrien.

OBrien is looking forward to showing it to an Irish audience at Cork Film Festival  but his own children, Brendan and Ebba, aged 9 and nearly 6, who already help him out with some camerawork, will have to wait a few years to see it.

Actress, Laura Fraser, who played a blacksmith who tends to Heath Ledger in A Knights Tale, earned much praise for her role as the extremely jittery, chamomile tea-drinking Lydia Rodarte-Quayle in Breaking Bad  in this film she runs the towns funeral home.

Lydia is great  shes so good that you get a surprise when you cut and she switches back to her pure Glaswegian accent, notes OBrien.

Both OBrien and Ryan are looking forward to catching up with family and friends while theyre at the Film Festival in Cork but theyve both got an eye on plenty future projects too.

OBrien is already planning a movie involving puppets and Irish myths and legends, as well as a musical film featuring cannibals.
First Mining Finance Corp. (TSX.V: FF / OTCQX:FFMGF) ("First Mining" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has commenced a diamond drilling program at its 100%-owned Pickle Crow Gold Project ("Pickle Crow"), located in northwestern Ontario, Canada.

The drill program at Pickle Crow will be comprised of up to eight drill holes totaling approximately 1,100 metres. This drilling campaign will target both the Core Mine trend and the western extension of the Core Mine trend. The program will cover a wide area of the property and will focus on identifying new high-grade vein gold mineralization.

Patrick Donnelly, President of First Mining stated, "We are excited to have initiated our first drill program at Pickle Crow as we expect it will provide us with a greater understanding of the extent of mineralization at the project. We believe the western extension of the Core Mine trend at Pickle Crow has a high likelihood of hosting high-grade, vein-type gold mineralization outside of the Core Mine trend. With drilling at our Springpole Gold Project well underway, and with drill programs planned for our other mineral properties in the coming months, this is an exciting time for First Mining as we take the initial steps toward enhancing the value of the assets we have accumulated over the past year and a half."

About Pickle Crow Project

The Pickle Crow Gold Project was a high-grade operating gold mine until the 1960s. First Mining acquired the project through its acquisition of PC Gold Inc. in November 2015. The project, which covers an area of over 14,700 hectares, is located in northwestern Ontario, approximately 400 kilometres north of Thunder Bay and approximately 11 kilometres east of the Township of Pickle Lake. It hosts an NI 43-101 compliant Inferred Resource of 10.15 Mt grading 3.9 g/t Au and containing 1.26 million ounces of gold (Au).

Dr. Chris Osterman, P.Geo., CEO of First Mining, is the "qualified person" for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects and has reviewed and approved the technical disclosure contained in this press release.

About First Mining Finance

First Mining is a mineral property holding company whose principal business activity is to acquire high quality mineral assets with a focus in the Americas. The Company currently holds a portfolio of 25 mineral assets in Canada, Mexico and the United States with a focus on gold. Ultimately, the goal is to continue to increase its portfolio of mineral assets through acquisitions that are expected to be comprised of gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc and nickel.

Source: First Mining Finance
Satori Resources Inc. (TSX.V: BUD) ("Satori" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. William Ansley as President and Chief Executive Officer, and as a director of the Company.

Mr. Ansley is a Chartered Professional Accountant with over 12 years of mining experience and was a member of two teams that placed 6 mines into production over an 8 year period in Sudbury and Timmins, Ontario.

Formerly, Mr. Ansley held the positions of Director of Business Development for FNX Mining Company Inc., and Vice President of Corporate Planning and Strategy for Lake Shore Gold Corp. Most recently, Mr. Ansley was Chief Operating Officer of Mineral Streams Inc., which was acquired by AuRico Metals Inc. in September 2015.

Mr. Reid will continue to serve the Company in the capacity of Executive Chair of the board of directors.

Bruce Reid would like to welcome Mr. Ansley to the position of President and Chief Executive Ofiicer. "This is a welcome opportunity for Satori to bring on board a new individual who will help the Company focus on its current assets while looking to expand the asset base. As a significant shareholder of the Company I look forward to working closely with Will to see Satori reach its full potential."

Mr. Ansley states, "I am excited about the opportunity to work with Bruce Reid and the other Satori directors on advancing the Tartan Lake Gold Mine Project. The asset is a former producing gold mine with historical recovered grades of approximately 6 grams per tonne, has certain key infrastructure in place, including on-site power, and is located in Flin Flon, Manitoba, a world class mining camp. In addition to the known Main gold zone, the land package boasts 2,670 hectares of the prolific Flin Flon Greenstone belt hosting numerous gold occurances worthy of exploration."

The Company also intends to complete a private placement offering of 1,000,000 common shares, subscribed solely by Mr. Ansley, at $0.10 per share for net proceeds of $100,000. The private placement is subject to TSX Venture Exchange and regulatory approval.

Satori has also granted 500,000 incentive stock options to Mr. Ansley. The stock options have an exercise price of $0.10 per share and are exercisable in tranches for a period of up to five years.

ABOUT SATORI RESOURCES INC.

Satori is a Toronto-based mineral exploration and development company whose primary property is the Tartan Lake Gold Mine Project (100% interest), located in the prolific Flin Flon Greenstone Belt, Manitoba. The Tatran Lake Gold Mine produced 48,000 ounces of gold from 1987-1989 at approximately 6 grams per tonne gold (recovered). The Project hosts a 440 tonne/day gold concentrator, largely intact, related infrastructure, and a decline providing access to developed mining blocks within the Main and South Zones to a vertical depth of 320 metres. For further information, please visit www.satoriresources.ca.

Source: Satori Resources
American Lithium Corp. (TSX.V: LI / OTCQB:LIACF) ("American Lithium" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce that it will acquire 41,860 acres of prospective lithium brine and clay exploration land, located in Clayton Valley, Nevada.

Clayton Valley Land Acquisition

This new acreage totals over 41,860 acres in three separate property packages, all of which is deemed prospective for lithium brines and/or lithium clay potential. This new acreage compliments the Company's current land holding of 1,078 net acres in Clayton Valley, and the Company's highly prospective 18,552 acre land holdings in Fish Lake Nevada.

Mike Kobler, American Lithium's Chief Operating Officer, commented: "We are delighted with this singular largest acquisition of lithium claims in the Clayton Valley in recent years. Limited by geographical factors, with this acquisition, all of the prospective land within this closed sedimentary basin has been fully staked and registered by several major landholders. We look forward to taking advantage of the exponentially growing lithium market by offering our shareholders access to the largest, unencumbered and highly prospective exploratory project in the heart of North America's only established lithium producing basin."

In consideration for the Clayton Valley claim blocks, the Company will issue 11,500,000 common shares on closing (the "Consideration Shares"). Upon issuance, the Consideration Shares will be subject to escrow and will be released quarterly in equal tranches commencing on February 1st, 2017 and extending through to February 1st, 2018. Transfer or resale of the Consideration Shares will be prohibited during such time as they are subject to escrow.

The vendors of the claim blocks will also be eligible to receive a further 4,000,000 bonus shares, contingent on the completion of certain milestones in the development of the Company and the claim blocks. These milestones include the Company having completed further debt or equity financings for proceeds of not less than $10,000,000, the Company reaching a market capitalization of $150,000,000, the Company having received a resource estimate demonstrating 500,000 tonnes of lithium within the claim blocks, and the Company having completed a preliminary economic assessment on the properties comprising the claim blocks.

Completion of the acquisition remains subject to a number of conditions, including the negotiation of definitive documentation, the completion of a $3,000,000 financing, the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange and such other closing conditions as are customary in transactions of this nature. There can be no assurance that such conditions will be satisfied and that the transaction will be completed as disclosed.

Michael Collins, P.Geo. is the Company's designated Qualified Person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101, and has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this news release.

About American Lithium Corp.

American Lithium Corp. is actively engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of lithium deposits within mining-friendly jurisdictions throughout the Americas. American Lithium holds options to acquire Nevada lithium brine claims totaling 22,332 acres (9,038 ha), including 18,552 contiguous acres (7,508 ha) in Fish Lake Valley, Esmeralda County; 2,240 acre (907 ha) San Emidio Project in Washoe County; and the 1,540 acre (623 ha) Clayton-Valley-1 Project. The Company's Fish Lake Valley lithium brine properties are located approximately 38 kilometers from Albemarle's Silver Peak, the largest lithium operation in the U.S. American Lithium is listed on the TSXV under the trading symbol "Li". For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.americanlithiumcorp.com or call 1-604-689-7422.

Source: American Lithium
Santacruz Silver Mining Ltd. (TSX.V: SCZ) (the "Company" or "Santacruz") announces the results of its resource estimate for the Panuco silver deposit located in Zacatecas, Mexico. The Panuco deposit is situated within Santacruz's Veta Grande project area and is located approximately five kilometers north of the Company's Veta Grande Mine and mineral processing facility. The deposit is accessed by paved road and is characterized by modest relief at an average elevation of 2300 meters above mean sea level. The Veta Grande project consists of 184 mining concessions covering an area of 8,944 hectares (22,101 acres) in the Zacatecas Mining District, Mexico.

The Veta Grande project is divided into two concession groups, described as the Veta Grande properties, and the Zacatecas properties (collectively "Veta Grande project"). The Panuco deposit is situated within the northwest quadrant of the Zacatecas properties and centered on concession title 233300 (Panuco). The property is subject to the Company's completion of a purchase contract for US$1.5M with Minera Cordilleras (subsidiary of Golden Minerals Company see press release dated May 4, 2016). The previous operator was Minera Cordilleras.

Highlights of the mineral resource estimate are as follows:

Inferred mineral resource of 16,342,456 AgEq ounces grading 192.40 g/t AgEq;

Panuco resource sits outside of currently mined areas of the Veta Grande and La Cantera vein systems and is the first indication of mineral resource growth potential in the Veta Grande project area;

resource sits outside of currently mined areas of the and vein systems and is the first indication of mineral resource growth potential in the project area; The veins are open along strike and down dip, providing numerous drill targets to further clarify resource potential;

Drill program recommended to continue to explore and expand the resource base;

The Panuco deposit is a low sulfidation (silver-gold, lead-zinc) vein system comprised of three vein structures: Panuco Central vein, Panuco NW vein and Tres Cruces vein. The mineral resource estimate encompasses all three vein structures and includes mineralization defined by trenching and drilling over a strike distance of 2.4 km.

The resource estimate was conducted on the analytical database generated from 1,869 chip samples from 183 surface trenches and 2,607 core samples from 75-drill holes totaling 23,444 meters. The surface channel samples and core drilling were completed by Minera Cordilleras between 2009 and 2011, inclusive. The resource estimate was carried out according to National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum standards by Gary Giroux, P.Eng. of Giroux Consultants, a professional engineer and qualified person. The effective date of the resource estimate is October 5, 2016.

Based upon a 100 gram per tonne ("g/t") silver equivalent ("AgEq") cut-off, the resource is as follows:

(tonnes) AgEq (g/t) Ag (g/t) Au (g/t) Pb (%) Zn (%) AgEq Oz Inferred 2,642,000 192.40 181.0 0.17 0.02 0.04 16,342,456

Arturo Prestamo, President and CEO, remarked, "We are very pleased with the results of the first resource estimate to come out of our land package in the Zacatecas Mining District. We believe the Panuco resource estimate is just the first indication of the significant potential that exists in this region. Further work aimed at expanding the resources in the area will occur in conjunction with production at the Veta Grande Mine."

Mineral Resources:

Three dimensional solids were built from cross sections to constrain the three mineralized veins, namely the Panuco Central vein, the Panuco NW vein and the Tres Cruces vein. A block model with blocks 20 m along strike, 5 m across strike and 5 m in the vertical was superimposed over the mineralized solids. Grades for gold, silver, lead and zinc were interpolated into blocks containing some percentage of veins by Ordinary Kriging. Each vein was estimated separately using only composites from that vein. Due to the sparsity of drill hole data both drill hole and surface trench composites were used. Capping of assay data was applied. An average specific gravity of 2.74 was applied to the vein portions of blocks while a value of 2.68 was assigned to the waste portions.

The density of the data for all three veins and insufficient data to establish semivariograms for the Panuco NW and Tres Cruces veins has led to classifying all estimated blocks as Inferred. The tables below summarize results of the resource estimate and provide a range over various cut-off grades:

Resource classed as Inferred within Mineralized Solids:

Cut-off AgEq (g/t) Tonnes > Cut-off (tonnes) Ag (g/t) Au (g/t) Pb (%) Zn (%) AgEq (g/t) AgEq Ozs. 70.0 3,647,000 152.2 0.16 0.02 0.04 163.16 19,130,877 75.0 3,558,000 154.5 0.16 0.02 0.04 165.43 18,924,371 80.0 3,406,000 158.2 0.16 0.02 0.04 169.32 18,541,667 90.0 3,034,000 168.4 0.17 0.02 0.04 179.82 17,540,302 100.0 2,642,000 181.0 0.17 0.02 0.04 192.40 16,342,456 115.0 2,221,000 197.4 0.17 0.02 0.04 208.80 14,909,873 125.0 2,065,000 204.0 0.17 0.02 0.04 215.52 14,308,840 140.0 1,741,000 219.1 0.18 0.02 0.04 231.25 12,944,138 150.0 1,477,000 234.1 0.19 0.02 0.04 246.84 11,721,502 175.0 1,103,000 262.0 0.21 0.02 0.03 275.61 9,773,714

An economic study or similar study has not been completed for the Panuco deposit and an economic cut-off value is unknown. The authors are of the opinion that based on the mineralization characteristics, grade, location and other factors described in this report the Panuco deposit has similarities to the Veta Grande vein system, which is located five km south of the Panuco deposit. The Veta Grande Mine is currently operating at a cut-off value of 100 g/t Ag. Metallurgy has not been completed at this stage for the Panuco deposit. Recoveries are based on actual recoveries from the Veta Grande mineral processing facility which is currently processing material from the nearby Veta Grande and La Cantara vein systems.

The metal prices used in the silver equivalent estimate are listed below.

Gold price $1100/oz Recovery of 70 % Factor = Au *Rec*Price/31.1035 = 24.76 Silver price $17/oz Recovery of 79.2 % Factor = Ag *Rec*Price/31.1035 = 0.43 Lead price $0.80/lb Recovery of 84.2 % Factor = Pb% * 22.046223 * Rec * Price = 14.85 Zinc price $0.80/lb Recovery of 82.2 % Factor = Zn% * 22.046223 * Rec * Price = 14.50 GMV = (Au *Rec*Price/31.1035) + (Pb% * 22.0462 * Rec * Price) + (Ag * Rec * Price/31.1035) + (Zn% * 22.0462 * Rec * Price) AgEq = GMV / Ag Factor = GMV / 0.43

Data Verification

Van Phu Bui, P.Geo. of ARC Geoscience Group("ARC") conducted a site visit to the Panuco deposit on August 16th to 18th, 2016. Mineralized drill core intersections, specific gravity, drill hole collar locations, drill hole database and assays, geological mapping and historical surface workings, and surface sampling in trench and outcrop were independently verified against digital data supplied by Santacruz. Gary Giroux, P.Eng. of Giroux Consultants has not visited the Panuco deposit but has relied on the geological data and information verified by ARC.

Sampling and Laboratory

Half-core samples and chip samples from surface trenches were submitted to ALS Chemex in Zacatecas, Mexico, and were assayed at ALS Chemex in Vancouver, Canada. ALS Chemex, now ALS Mineral, is an ISO accredited and certified laboratory service. All samples were prepared by crushing 70% to <2 mm (CRU-31). The fines are rifle split and further pulverized 85% to <75 microns (PUL-31). Pulps were then analyzed by 33 element four acid ICP-AES (0.25 g by ME-ICP61) and fire assay with an AA finish for gold (50g by Au-AA24). Samples with gold results above 10 g/t using Au-AA24 were rerun using fire assay with a gravimetric finish (50g by Au-GRA22). Samples with silver above 100 g/t using ME-ICP61 were rerun using fire assay with gravimetric finish (30g by Ag-GRA21). Over-limit for copper, lead and zinc using ME-ICP61 were rerun by an aqua regia digestion with an ICP-AES finish (ME-OG62).

Qualified Persons

All technical information included in this statement has been reviewed and approved by Van Phu Bui, P.Geo. of ARC Geoscience Group and Gary Giroux, P.Eng. of Giroux Consultants ltd.,who are both independent of the Company and each of which is a qualified person, pursuant to the meaning of such terms in NI 43-101.

About Santacruz Silver Mining Ltd.

Santacruz is a Mexican focused silver company with two producing silver mines (Rosario and Veta Grande); an advanced-stage project (San Felipe) and three exploration properties including the Gavilanes property, El Gachi property, and Zacatecas properties. The Company is managed by a technical team of professionals with proven track records in developing, operating and discovering silver mines in Mexico. Our corporate objective is to become a mid-tier silver producer.

Source: Santacruz Silver Mining
Canadian Zinc Corporation (TSX: CZN / OTCQB: CZICF) ("the Company" or "Canadian Zinc") reports its results for the three and nine month periods ended September 30, 2016.

This press release should be read in conjunction with CZN's Management's Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) and interim Financial Statements for the period ended September 30, 2016, which are available on the Company's website at www.canadianzinc.com, or under the Company's profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

Financial Results

For the three and nine month periods ended September 30, 2016, the Company reported a net loss and comprehensive loss of $1,708,000 and $3,351,000 respectively, compared to a net loss and comprehensive loss of $1,778,000 and $8,213,000 for the same periods ended September 30, 2015.

For the three and nine month periods ended September 30, 2016, the Company expensed $758,000 and $1,451,000 respectively on its exploration and evaluation programs at Prairie Creek compared to $1,208,000 and $6,935,000 respectively for the three and nine month periods ended September 30, 2015. The Company was completing an underground diamond drilling program at Prairie Creek in the comparable periods of 2015 with no similar programs of comparable costs in the three and nine month periods ending September 30, 2016.

For the three and nine month periods ended September 30, 2016, the Company expensed $80,000 and $191,000 respectively on its exploration and evaluation properties in central Newfoundland compared to $81,000 and $229,000 respectively for the comparative periods.

The Company completed an underwritten public offering in July, 2016 and raised gross proceeds of $10.2 million from the issue of 40,800,000 common shares. Net proceeds from the offering were $9,249,000 after costs.

At September 30, 2016, the Company had a positive working capital balance of $9,245,000 including cash and cash equivalents of $3,483,000 and short term investments of $6,025,000.

Prairie Creek Project

On September 30, 2016, the Company re-filed the Prairie Creek 2016 Technical Report, originally filed with SEDAR on May 12, 2016, to correct an overstatement of the gross smelter revenue in the life-of-mine economic model included in its 2016 Preliminary Feasibility Study.

All other inputs into the economic model and all technical aspects of the 2016 Preliminary Feasibility Study remain unchanged, including all mineral resource and reserve estimates, mining plans and production rates and estimates of capital and operating costs and assumptions on concentrate treatment charges and penalties.

The revised base case economic model continues to indicate a robust project at consensus forecasts for the long-term prices of lead and zinc and there remains good potential for additional project optimization, enhanced economics and further extending the life of the Prairie Creek Mine.

The revised financial results remain strongly positive and indicate a pre-tax undiscounted cumulative cash flow of $710 million at metal prices of US$1.00/lb for zinc and lead and US$19/oz for silver. The revised financial model yields a pre-tax NPV of $284 million at an 8% discount rate, with an IRR of 23%, and a post-tax NPV of $155 million, with a post-tax IRR of 18%.

Highlights of the 2016 Prairie Creek Prefeasibility Study ("PFS")

(All costs are in Canadian dollars unless indicated otherwise, g=gram, tpd=tonnes per day, dmt=dry metric tonnes, LOM=life of mine, CDN=Canadian, US=United States).

Post-tax Net Present Value, using an 8% discount, of $155 million, with a post-tax internal rate of return of 18%, based on base case metal price forecasts of US$1.00 per pound for both zinc and lead and US$19.00 per ounce of silver, for the LOM production at an exchange rate of $1.25CDN:$1.00US.

Average EBITDA of $64 million per year and cumulative EBITDA of $1.0 billion over the LOM.

17 year mine life based exclusively on a defined mineral reserve of 7.6 million tonnes, grading 8.9% zinc and 8.3% lead, with 128 g/t silver, including a defined Mineral Reserve in the Main Quartz Vein of 5.2 million tonnes, grading 9.4% zinc, 10.4% lead and 160 g/t silver.

Average annual production of 60,000 dmt of zinc concentrate and 55,000 dmt of lead concentrate containing 86 million pounds of zinc, 82 million pounds of lead and 1.7 million ounces of silver.

Pre-production capital cost is estimated to be $216 million of which $59 million will be incurred in year 1 and $157 million in year 2, with an additional contingency of $28 million.

Average LOM cash operating costs per tonne of ore mined (before transportation costs) are estimated at $165 per tonne.

The 2016 PFS does not take into consideration the Inferred Resources of 7.0 million tonnes of 11.3% zinc, 7.7% lead and 166 g/t silver, which is currently too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them, but could have the potential to more than double the presently considered mine life. The Prairie Creek orebody continues open-ended at increasing depths to the north.

Recommendations for Optimization

The 2016 PFS included a number of recommendations for further optimization and potentially enhanced economics identified in the 2016 PFS including:

Complete environmental assessment and permitting of the all season access road.

A front-end engineering and design phase to complete detailed engineering and issued for construction drawings to definitive feasibility study levels to obtain fixed pricing from construction contractors.

Additional mill studies to further optimize the mill circuit capacity to increase both ore throughput and metal recoveries.

Further metallurgical tests to optimize the process flowsheet, particularly reagent regimes, including variability tests on the samples from various mineralization zones and ore types.

Further study of on-site or off-site processes to reduce deleterious components of concentrates, thereby reducing smelter penalties.

Studies to optimize the mine operation by automation and adoption of advanced technology.

Additional underground paste backfill strength studies.

Additional hydrology studies to better design, size and cost water management facilities.

Early completion of site clearance construction, engineering and mine development programs to accelerate start-up times. This would include preliminary earthworks on the water storage pond, waste rock pile, building foundations, portal construction and upgrades of existing infrastructure in tandem with detailed engineering of new structures.

Prairie Creek Permitting Update

In April 2014, the Company submitted an application to the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board and to Parks Canada for Land Use Permits to permit the possible future upgrade of the current winter access road to all season use. The application is now undergoing environmental assessment before the Mackenzie Valley Review Board ("MVRB").

Technical Sessions took place in Yellowknife from June 13, 2016 to June 16, 2016. The purpose of the Technical Session was for all parties and regulators to discuss issues face-to-face in order to gain a better understanding of the all season road project and its potential environmental impacts.

Additional Technical Sessions on cultural impacts were also held in the local communities of Nahanni Butte and Fort Simpson on July 4 and 5, 2016. The purpose of these sessions was to gather information from land and resource users in the two Dehcho communities about the potential impacts and to discuss possible mitigations of the proposed all season road. The Company submitted comments on the cultural impact reports.

The June Technical Sessions generated a list of commitments and undertakings. In July 2016, CZN completed a field work program along the road corridor to gather additional base line data on vegetation, wildlife and stream crossings that were deemed necessary to respond to some of the undertakings. On August 18, 2016, Canadian Zinc completed submitting its responses to the undertakings from the June Technical Session. Canadian Zinc was subsequently asked to submit some additional information and did so on September 6, 2016.

In September 2016, the Company received the second round of Information Requests from parties registered in the regulatory process. CZN submitted its responses to the second round of Information Requests on October 24, 2016.

The environmental assessment regulatory process has now entered a risk assessment and report stage, which will be followed by public hearings, now expected to take place in the first quarter of 2017, and completion is expected in the second quarter of 2017.

Newfoundland Properties

Canadian Zinc owns an extensive land package in central Newfoundland that includes three major Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide ("VMS") properties, each with defined deposits, which are being explored by Canadian Zinc.

Central Milling Collaboration Project

In 2015, the Company entered into a collaboration agreement with Buchans Minerals Corporation ("Buchans Minerals"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Minco Plc (AIM: MIO), whereby the two Companies share research data on their respective central Newfoundland Zn-Pb-Cu-Ag-Au deposits. The intent and objective of the research is to determine the technical and economic viability of developing the companies' deposits into producing operations by utilizing a central milling facility. The concept is based on the potential that collectively, the satellite deposits can be economically mined, pre-concentrated, trucked and then milled simultaneously or sequentially through a central mill.

The metallurgical test program, completed by Thibault & Associates Inc. of Fredericton, New Brunswick, was based on an assessment of pre-concentrating the ore prior to flotation using Dense Media Separation ("DMS") technology and the development of a process relative to the metallurgical characteristics of five deposits under development.

The preliminary test results confirm that selective zinc, lead and copper concentrates at marketable grades can be produced using a common flotation flowsheet. The positive results from the metallurgical test program strongly support the development of the sequential flotation technology for processing of the deposits using a centralized processing facility.

The metallurgical test programs are being followed-up with a Process Simulation and Cost Assessment model to evaluate and identify the key factors impacting the operating economics of a centralized processing concept for the production of the base metal concentrates from the various base metal deposits in central Newfoundland.

The research programs are scheduled to be completed in December, 2016.

Planned Exploration in Newfoundland

Following the financing completed in July 2016, the Company allocated $1.67 million in flow-through funds for further exploration in central Newfoundland. Most of this will be spent on the South Tally Pond and Tulks South properties.

Canadian Zinc is undertaking ground geophysical surveys including magnetics, gravity, electromagnetics ("EM") and borehole EM on a number of high priority Cu-Pb-Zn-Ag-Au target areas on its South Tally Pond and Tulks South properties.

The ground geophysical surveys are aimed at defining priority drill targets in each of the areas and are expected to be completed by the end of November. A winter drill program will be undertaken to further explore selected priority targets.

Outlook

Canadian Zinc's focus for the remainder of 2016 and into 2017 will be to continue to advance the Prairie Creek Mine towards production.

The updated 2016 Pre-Feasibility Study indicates a robust project at consensus forecasts for the long term prices of lead and zinc and there is good potential for additional project optimization, enhanced economics and further extending the mine life.

The 2016 PFS identified a number of project opportunities that, if implemented, could yield economic, operational and environmental benefits. The Prairie Creek Mineral Resource should support a substantial increase in mining/milling rates and a high-level assessment is envisaged for substantially increasing the mill capacity.

One recommendation from the 2016 PFS is the creation of a composite bulk sample, collected from recent underground drilling, on which to carry out Locked Cycle Tests for better definition of the milling process, recoveries and reagent consumption. Another is that further metallurgical variability tests be carried out from different zones of mineralization. Some of these recommended mill capacity and metallurgical testing studies have been initiated, along with the ongoing environmental assessment and permitting of the proposed all season road. The Company expects both initiatives will continue over the balance of the year.

The long term outlook for lead and zinc remains very positive and, supported by the results of the 2016 PFS, Canadian Zinc will continue to evaluate all alternatives and possibilities for raising the senior financing necessary to complete the development and construction and put the Prairie Creek Mine into production. The Company is evaluating the scope, cost and duration of completing a definitive feasibility study which could be required to support bank debt or other senior financing.

About Canadian Zinc

Canadian Zinc is a TSX-listed exploration and development company trading under the symbol "CZN". The Company's key project is the 100%-owned Prairie Creek Project, a fully permitted, advanced-staged zinc-lead-silver property, located in the Northwest Territories. Canadian Zinc also owns an extensive land package in central Newfoundland that it is exploring for copper-lead-zinc-silver-gold deposits.

Source: Canadian Zinc
TORONTO, Nov. 15, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Seabridge Gold (TSX:SEA) (NYSE:SA) today announced that results from the final three core holes drilled this year at Deep Kerr successfully filled in the gaps required to support a southern extension of the deposit. The five holes completed in 2016 are expected to expand the known resource about 500 meters along strike to the south at grades consistent with the deposits inferred resource. The shape and orientation of the extension are expected to expand the block cave designs in the proposed mine plan. Deep Kerr is located on Seabridges 100%-owned KSM Project in northwestern British Columbia, Canada.

Over the past three years, Seabridges exploration programs have successfully targeted higher grade zones beneath KSMs near-surface porphyry deposits, resulting in the discovery of Deep Kerr and the Iron Cap Lower Zone, two copper-rich deposits that have added more than one billion tonnes of inferred resources to the project at a higher average grade. The Deep Kerr deposit contains an inferred resource of 1.61 billion tonnes grading 0.31 g/T gold, 0.43% copper and 1.8 g/T silver (16.0 million ounces of gold, 15.2 billion pounds of copper and 93 million ounces of silver). In the three years since its discovery, Deep Kerr has taken its place among the worlds largest undeveloped gold-copper deposits.

Drill hole results described here are daughter holes from the original drill collars on holes K-16-51 and 52 (reported August 30, 2016). Hole K-16-51A was steered to the south of K-16-51 and provided an intersection of the Deep Kerr deposit about 200 meters south of, and slightly above, the original drill hole. Hole K-16-52A was steered to cut the target zone directly below the original hole. Hole K-16-52B was drilled to intersect the zone below, and north from, K-16-52. Results from these drill holes continue to show that Deep Kerr is a robust and extensive copper-gold deposit with a north-south strike extent approaching 2.0 kilometers and more than 1.5 kilometers of vertical continuity.

Seabridge Chairman and CEO Rudi Fronk commented that these drill results should contribute to another increase in the Deep Kerr inferred resource estimate. This years drill program was carefully designed to optimize the prospective mine plan at Deep Kerr and thereby improve the KSM projects potential economics. The mineralized intervals encountered in this years drilling are effectively oriented for efficient extraction and should support an expanded rate of daily production. Overall, Deep Kerr is once again demonstrating that it has very few equals for size and grade.

The following table summarizes the drill hole intersections for K-16-51A. K-16-52A and K-16-52B.

Drill Hole ID Total Depth From (meters) To

(meters) Interval

(meters) Gold

(g/T) Copper

% Silver

(g/T) K-16-51A 1696.0 including 858.3 983.4 125.1 0.47 0.34 2.7 1129.4 1171.1 41.7 0.55 0.61 2.6 1210.3

1210.3 1378.6

1284.2 168.3

73.9 0.35

0.38 0.52

0.71 2.4

2.2 K-16-52A 1746.3 1379.7 1531.1 151.4 0.21 0.35 1.1 1575.2

1644.1 1666.1

1657.0 90.9

12.9 0.38

1.08 0.31

0.12 4.1

5.3 including K-16-52B 1716.9 including 1367.1 1430.5 63.4 0.23 0.35 1.3 1481.3

1613.6 1716.9

1711.7 235.6

98.1 0.32

0.34 0.53

0.78 2.0

2.9

Drill holes were oriented using historical information and were designed to intercept the mineralized target at right angles to the strike of the zone. The orientation will be refined with additional drilling but current information indicates the intervals listed above approximate the true thickness of the mineralized zones.

Exploration activities by Seabridge at the KSM Project are conducted under the supervision of William E. Threlkeld, Registered Professional Geologist, Senior Vice President of the Company and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Threlkeld has reviewed and approved this news release. An ongoing and rigorous quality control/quality assurance protocol is employed in all Seabridge drilling campaigns. This program includes blank and reference standards, and in addition all copper assays that exceed 0.25% Cu are re-analyzed using ore grade analytical techniques. Cross-check analyses are conducted at a second external laboratory on at least 10% of the drill samples. Samples are assayed at ALS Chemex Laboratory, Vancouver, B.C., using fire assay atomic adsorption methods for gold and ICP methods for other elements.

Seabridge holds a 100% interest in several North American gold projects. The Companys principal assets are the KSM Project and Iskut Project located near Stewart, British Columbia, Canada and the Courageous Lake gold project located in Canadas Northwest Territories. For a full breakdown of Seabridges mineral reserves and mineral resources by category please visit the Companys website at http://www.seabridgegold.net/resources.php.
PM Modi's mother Heeraben, who was in a wheelchair, came to an Oriental Bank of Commerce branch to exchange Rs 4,500.

By India Today Web Desk: It has been a week since Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the demonetisation campaign to fight black money menace, but the chaos and confusion surrounding the sudden decision refuses to die.

Several norms have been eased to control the panic among people over depositing old notes and collecting new currency.



OPPOSITION UP IN ARMS

Meanwhile, the Congress-led opposition is all set to corner the Modi government in the winter session of the Parliament, commencing on November 16, on the demonetisation scheme.

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The opposition parties will be focusing on how the people are facing difficulties due to the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes by the Modi government.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday spoke to Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi and CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury and mooted the idea of a united fight against the demonetisation.

Demonetisation could be a a mega scam: Rahul

Flaying the Centre for the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday that "it was based on one person's thinking and could turn out be a mega scam".

"The big black money players have been allowed to go scot free by the Prime Minister.. People like (Vijay) Mallya and Lalit Modi are sitting abroad," Gandhi said, speaking to mediaperons here late on Tuesday night.

He claimed that most economists with whom he discussed the issue said the demonetisation decision of November 8 was not thought out properly and was based on "one persons' thinking."



ALL-PARTY MEET

Later in the evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also chaired all-party meet which was attended by various leaders.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today in the all-party meet said that all the political parties should discuss matters in national interest. Union Minister Ananth Kumar after the meet said, "PM said in all-party meeting that all parties should show support in Winter Session in national interest. He also said that discussion should be done on possibility of holding Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha elections together."



GET INKED AT BANKS

The government today announced that it will now use indelible ink, as is used during the elections, to prevent people from making more withdrawals than the permissible limit. The step comes after the government received several reports that the same people are queuing up repeatedly to collect cash.

Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das, at a press briefing, said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a second review meeting on demonetisation with officials of the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to ascertain why there were long queues at the banks.

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READ MORE: Indelible ink at banks to stop people from hoarding cash, creating panic

PM's MOTHER AT THE BANK

Leading by example, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 97-year-old mother Heeraben visited a bank in Gujarat's Gandhinagar just like other citizens to exchange her currency notes.

ALSO WATCH



Accompanied by relatives, Heeraben, who was in a wheelchair, came to an Oriental Bank of Commerce branch at Raisan village today morning and got notes worth Rs 4,500 exchanged. She came to the bank with Rs 500 notes, got the mandatory form filled, put her thumb impression on the form and exchanged her money.

Heeraben's visit to the bank came on the seventh day since the government declared old Rs 500, Rs 1000 currency notes illegal, a decision that has triggered a massive chaos all over the country.

READ MORE: Leading by example: PM's mother Heeraben Modi visits Gandhinagar bank to exchange old notes

NO STAY ON DEMONETISATION

The Supreme Court today refused to stay the Centre's notification demonetising Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes.

"We will not be granting any stay," a bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and D Y Chandrachud said. The remarks were made after some advocates insisted on a stay.

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However, the apex court has asked the Narendra Modi government to file an affidavit giving details of steps taken to ease inconvenience faced by citizens. During the hearing, the Chief Justice said the objective seems to be laudable "but there is some inconvenience also to the public at large".

The Supreme Court agreed with Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi's contention that there will be "some collateral damage in a surgical strike against black money".

READ MORE: Supreme Court refuses to stay demonetisation notification For more: Demonetisation: Congress, TMC to chalk out plan to corner Modi government in Parliament

ALSO WATCH



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Melania Trump will be refreshing as First Lady and Michelle Obama is an ape in heels, wrote a West Virginia official in a Facebook post and internet lost its cool.

By India Today Web Desk: After Donald Trump was elected as the 45th president of the United States of America, a nonprofit group's director in West Virginia expressed her happiness on Facebook but came under fire.

"It will be refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady in the White House. I'm tired of seeing an ape in heels", wrote Clay County Development Corporation Director Pamela Taylor.

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Clay County Mayor Beverly Whaling commented on the post writing "just made my day Pam".

Also read: Apply cold water to burn: 10 times Michelle Obama trolled Trump without even naming him



The two officials have been slammed for passing racist remarks about First Lady Michelle Obama and an online petition signed by 75,657 supporters asked authorities to fire both the officials.

Pamela Taylor was removed from the position of the corporation's director after her post went viral.

She reportedly said that the public response had become a "hate crime against me" and she is planning to file a lawsuit against people who have threatened her and her children.

Also read: What is this viral Mannequin Challenge that got FLOTUS Michelle Obama trending?



Clay Mayor Whaling defended herself saying her comment was not intended to be racist at all. "I was referring to my day being made for change in the White House! I am truly sorry for any hard feeling this may have caused! Those who know me know that I'm not of any way racist!", she told Washington Post.

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Like Cotton Twines, directed by Leila Djansi, will be screened at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI).

The film is the centerpiece film of the festival and will screen on November 23 in Goa.

Like Cotton Twines is about a 14 year-old Ghanaian girl who is supposed to become a slave to the gods as part of an appeasement of her father's sins.

She then meets an African-American volunteer who is teaching in her village

The film has already been screened at the Savannah Film Festival and the Urbanworld Film Festival.

You can watch the trailer below:



By: Jeffrey Owuraku Sarpong/citifmonline.com/Ghana
A new picture of Sensational Gospel artiste, Piesie Esther, selling sachet water in the market, has taken social media by storm and fans have begun to ask loads of questions as to what has gone wrong?

In the picture, is the musician carrying a pan with a young girl standing close to her in the market.

The main reasons surrounding the picture are unknown to some fans who arent friends of the musician on social media but have seen the picture circulating on the various social media platforms with different captions.

Others are of the view that, the musician now sells sachet water, as some fans of hers have captioned it on their timeline. But hold on!

The picture was actually uploaded by Piesie Esther on all her social media platforms and she expressed how fulfilling it was for her to help an admirer sell all her sachet water in the market, during a radio interview she had with Accra FM at Madina Market.

So today at Madina Market during my interview with Nana Romeo of Accra 100.5FM, this little kid fan of mine here, who sells pure water walked close to me, and told me she loves me so much. I got touched and I helped her sell all her water at the market. What A Mighty God We Serve!!! Piesie Esther captioned on facebook.


The Ghana National Music Composers Publishers (GNMCP) in Kumasi has declared its support for the 2016 flagbearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo.

The association which is made up of over 120 music producers, composers and publishers believe that Nana Addo is the best and stands to serve the best interest of Ghanaians than any other party in the country.

The association stated that Nana Akufo-Addo's campaign message of transforming Ghana and ending poverty are credible and attainable, hence their decision to offer him their massive support.

Speaking at a press conference in Kumasi last week, the spokesperson for the association, A.F Samuel, mentioned that the members of association have declared their support for Nana Addo because they believe in his policies as well as his vision.

A.F Samuel who is confident that Ghanaians would make the right choice and choose the path of progress added that the NPP is the only party that would save the country from its collapse state.

According to him, since this NDC government came to power, there has been so much hardship and Ghanaians are complaining about its bad economic policies.

He said many Ghanaians today face unprecedented precarious economic hardships which have consequently led to job losses and high unemployment rate, poor health, high utility bills, among others.

A.F Samuel hinted that the ruling government's harsh economic policies have collapsed Ghanaian businesses, including the music industry, forcing a number of music producers to close down their shops.

The spokesperson who expressed disappointment in the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) called on Ghanaians to vote them out come December 7.

He also called on all to join them to campaign for the NPP to win power and bring relief to the suffering masses.

By George Clifford Owusu


All is set for the launch of the MUSIGA Academy on Thursday, November 17 at the National Film & Television Institute (NAFTI).

The academy is a result of collaboration between the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) and NAFTI to provide competence-based training for professionals in the music industry.

The academy is offering training in 10 modules. Participants will be taken through core modules such as using ICT for career development, copyright and publishing, survey of music in Ghana, music theory and musicianship.

They will then have the option of specialising in studio specialisation, music business management, traditional instruments specialisation, Western instruments specialisation, centre stage grooming and singing and songwriting, arrangement and composition.

According to the MUSIGA President Bice Osei Kuffour, the academy project has become necessary to enhance the skills of industry players. He mentioned that the MUSIGA decided on the range of modules to ensure that the needs of all industry practitioners along the music production value chain are addressed.

He called on musicians who are interested in upgrading their skills to register for the academy which will be held at NAFTI.

On his part, the Rector of NAFTI, Prof Linus Abraham, stated that the academy's project is a result of NAFTI's desire to work closely with the creative arts to provide skills that are relevant to the arts.

He indicated that the academy will form the basis for the Music Production Department of NAFTI.

The MUSIGA Academy is sponsored by the Skills Development Fund (SDF) of the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) under the supervision of the School of Performing Arts of the University of Ghana, Legon. In all, 120 participants will be trained for free.
Kinshasa (AFP) - Congolese President Joseph Kabila on Tuesday defied calls to step down when his term ends next month and vowed during remarks to lawmakers to defend his government against violent overthrow.

His defiant speech to parliament came as criticism grows following a controversial deal between the government and fringe opposition groups that effectively extends the president's term in office and delays elections until late 2017.

The deal agreed last month followed a "national dialogue" that was aimed at calming soaring political tensions but was largely boycotted by leading opposition figures.

"The deal currently represents the only roadmap put in place by the Congolese themselves," said Kabila during the speech to parliamentarians in the capital Kinshasa.

As part of the deal, Augustin Matata resigned as prime minister Monday to make way for an opposition figure to take his place.

The main dissident coalition "Rassemblement" (Gathering) -- which has rallied around veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi -- has rejected the deal and stepped up its calls for Kabila to leave office by December 19 when his term ends.

'Fragile and difficult'

"The disinterest shown by some parties... is totally unacceptable," said Kabila.

"The DRC cannot be taken hostage by the fringe of the political class," he said as he called on the "Rassemblement" bloc to "come and sign the deal".

Congolese President Joseph Kabila (C) gave a defiant speech to parliament defending his decision to stay in power

He added that he was ready to defend against any attempt to take over the country by force, pledging that elections would be organised in the coming months.

"'Rassemblement' want to ensure the constitution is respected and are open to the idea of talks that could lead to a political compromise which is the only alternative to the current crisis," said opposition lawmaker Delly Sessanga.

"We should not be trying to one-up each other and play the situation which everyone recognises is both fragile and difficult," added the "Rassemblement" supporter.

The country has been in a state of crisis since disputed elections in 2011 returned Kabila to office for a second term.

A 2006 constitutional provision limits the presidency to two terms.

Violent anti-Kabila protests on September 19 and 20 triggered by the political instability claimed 53 lives, according to the UN.

Kabila took power in 2001, 10 days after the assassination of his father, the then-president, Laurent Kabila.

Joseph Kabila was first elected to a five-year term as president in 2006. He then won a hotly-disputed election against Tshisekedi in 2011.
Algiers (AFP) - Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika returned home Tuesday from a trip to France where he underwent medical checks, his office said.

Bouteflika suffered a stroke in 2013, weakening his mobility and forcing him to work from his residence in Zeralda, west of Algiers.

The 79-year-old flew to the southeastern French city of Grenoble on November 7 and returned to Algiers on Tuesday "at the end of a private visit during which he undertook periodic medical checks," the presidency said.

The statement, carried by the APS news agency, gave no further details about the results of the medical examinations.

In April this year, Bouteflika also underwent "routine medical checks" in Switzerland, the APS news agency reported at the time, again citing a presidency statement.

There are regular rumours in Algeria about the state of the president's health, with opposition leaders quick to evoke the idea of a "power vacuum".

Bouteflika has led Algeria for the past 17 years.

In 2014, his decision to seek a fourth mandate sparked criticism from those who questioned his ability to rule.
The National Democratic Party (NDP) says it has given the Electoral Commission (EC) Chairperson, Charlotte Osei, 48 hours to rescind the decision of disqualifying its presidential candidate, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings.

The party's Communications Director, Owusu Bempah, told Joy News Monday, the party will 'spill the beans' about Charlotte Osei if she fails to abide by the ultimatum.

The warning follows stunning announcement by the EC that it had disqualified 13 presidential candidates including the NDP from contesting in the December 7 polls.

The Commission at a press conference explained it is unable to accept Mrs. Rawlings nomination because the number of subscribers to her forms did not meet the requirements of Regulation 7 (2) (b) of CI 94.

It said "one subscriber on page 89 of her nomination forms is not a validly registered voter and illegally registered twice and so is on the Exclusion list of multiple voters"

The biggest shock however was the disqualification of Progressive People's Party (PPP) Presidential candidate, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, seen as the kingmaker in the general election.

The commission said One subscriber Richard Aseda (Asida on the Voters Register), with Voter ID no 7812003957) endorsed the forms in two different districts (pages 21 and 39).

His forms did not meet the requirements of Regulation 7 (2) (b) of CI 94.

The subscriber was found to be on the Voters Register in one district thereby disqualifying his second subscription and reducing the total number of subscribers to below the minimum required by the Law.

The same subscriber (Richard Aseda (Asida) endorsed the form with different signatures in both portions of the nomination form. This raises questions as to the legitimacy of one or both signatures.

We will refer the matter of the possible forgery of the signature(s) to the Ghana Police Service and the Attorney General for investigation and prosecution in line with the following sections of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29):

Section 211: Perjury

Section 248: making false declaration etc. for office or voting;

Section 251: Deceiving a public officer

Section 256: Corruption, Intimidation and personation in respect of election.

But shocked by the unprecedented move, the NDP, PPP say they are yet to be officially informed of the disqualification.

PPP General Secretary Murtala Mohammed said it was only fair for the EC to have given the party the right to be heard on the matter.

"We can suspect unfairness...this is a civil matter, you need to be fair", he expressed disappointment.

Mr Bempah said Charlotte Osei must bow her head in shame for doing the bidding of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC).

He questioned the nationality of Charlotte Osei and fumed that the party will not allow "aliens to decide who our next president should be".

"We live to see" he fumed at the second disqualification of the NDP candidate whose forms were also rejected in the 2012 general elections.

General Secretary of the Peoples National Convention (PNC) whose candidate Dr Edward Mahama was also disqualified revealed the party will challenge the EC's decision.

Story by Ghana|myjoyonline.com
10.10.2016 LISTEN

Accra, Oct. 10, GNA - The Electoral Commission (EC) said it was unable to accept Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, National Democratic Party (NDP) nomination.

This was because the number of subscribers to her forms did not meet the requirements of Regulation 7 (2) (b) of CI 94.

Mrs Charlotte Osei, EC Chairman has stated in Accra that the Commission noticed that one subscriber on page 89 of her nomination forms is not a validly registered voter and illegally registered twice and so is the exclusion list of multiple voters.

Details are: Salifu Abdulai, District: Nanumba South, Voter ID no: 6617004814 (28.3.2012); Voter ID no: 2126900022 (04.8.2014).

The Commission said key criteria for presidential candidates: Forms must be signed by candidate; Forms must be signed by two registered voters in every district (432 valid endorsements required).

One voter cannot endorse more than one presidential candidate; Vice President nominee must be named and must meet constitutional requirements for the office of Vice President.

Properly filled forms must be delivered to the Returning Officer on or before the date appointed for receipt of nominations and forms should be submitted in quadruplicates.

The forms should include properly attested statutory declarations stating that candidate has provided accurate details to the Commission, has met all the requirements and is qualified for the office of President.

Other criteria are that four pictures in accordance with dimensions and specifications in the law; Payment of filing fees as determined by the Commission.

The Commission may disqualify a candidate if one of these requirements is not met.

The nomination form is not properly signed by the candidate; the statutory declaration is not properly executed; filing fees not presented in requested mode or amount.

Others are: Less than two registered voters per district sign the nomination forms; the nomination forms are not properly signed by all the subscribing voters; and the candidate or the designated vice president nominee does not meet the legal requirements of the nominated office.

Prior to the close of nominations on the September 29 and September 30 September, candidates whose nomination forms had obvious errors and who submitted early enough, were called by the officers of the Commission and given the opportunity to correct obvious errors or omissions on their nomination forms.

The Commission said the Law permits such corrections only within the nomination period hence our earlier call on candidates to submit as early as possible.

Following the receipt of nomination forms last week, and the payment of filing fees earlier today, the EC is now in a position to announce candidates whose nominations have been accepted by the Commission having met the requirements.

GNA
The offensive, racist Facebook post was written after Donald Trump's surprise win in the US Elections.

By India Today Web Desk: There aren't two ways about Michelle Obama being a fantastic, poised and gorgeous woman. But not for Pamela Ramsey Taylor and Beverly Whaling, whose racist, social media banter has offended thousands of people.

One of the most influential First Ladies to have ever existed, Michelle has referred to as an "ape in heels" by Clay County Development Corporation director, Pamela Ramsey Taylor who in a Facebook post--following Donald Trump's election win--wrote, "It will be refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady in the White House. I'm tired of seeing a Ape in heels."





A screen grab of Pamela's Facebook post. Picture courtesy: Facebook/Celeste DuMas Reinhard

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Also Read: From bob to bangs: US First Lady Michelle Obama's changing hairstyles

"Just made my day Pam," Beverly Whaling, Clay Mayor, commented on the said post.

Also Read: After Hillary, Michelle wears purple for her first official meeting with Melania Trump

The move obviously, angered many who termed the exchange as racist, undignified and offensive. Before being deleted, the post was shared on social media extensively.





The stunning Michelle Obama being herself. Photo: Reuters The stunning Michelle Obama being herself. Photo: Reuters

Power couple? Hell yes. Photo: Reuters

Also Read: Michelle Obama's latest magazine cover is also her most fabulous yet

According to Associated Press, "The Facebook pages of Taylor and Whaling couldn't be found Monday. A call to the Clay County Development Corp. went unanswered and Whaling didn't immediately return a telephone message."





Michelle, the epitome of grace and elegance. Photo: Reuters

The report also goes on to mention an "online petition" that "seeks to remove Whaling and Taylor,"--with Pamela already being removed from her post.



Meanwhile, Taylor tried to clear the air by telling Washington Post, "I was referring to my day being made for change in the White House! I am truly sorry for any hard feeling this may have caused! Those who know me know that I'm not of any way racist!"





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15.11.2016 LISTEN

There are many traditional healing mechanisms in Africa that seem weird and obnoxious to the westernised elites. Among such is the use of clay known in Ghana as hyile or ayilo in traditional healing mechanisms. Growing up in Ghana gave me the opportunity to observe and practice some traditions without understanding the sciences behind them. Despite the absence of scientific explanations, these practices worked effectively. My curious mind would ask many questions about some African traditions at school and the same answer was fired in my direction, superstitious believe! I was brainwashed by school and church to see everything African as superstitious and demonic till age 18. I asked myself, are there deeper explanations the teachers really didnt know to my questions? I began searching for answers on my own

The ancients used hyile in enema therapy, aura cleansing , detoxification, facial and other external therapies. Though the ancients were technologically handicapped, but their accurate qualitative and quantitative application of hyile in healing sicknesses is still mind blowing. Traditional priests paint themselves with hyile and request for talcum (clay) powder or charcoal to be sprinkled on them during their channeling or trance moments. There are many types of clay (serpentine, kaolin, smectite, talc, bentonite, etc) but who taught them hyile is the real deal?

I acknowledge Dr Yendaw, geotechnical lecturer at UMaT, for his tutorials on clays. That lecture, was the prerequisite for understanding the medicinal properties of hyile. I must admit, I never liked the man's handout; his handout was scraggy but extremely technical. This made it difficult to skip sentences if one wanted to pass his exams! That handout cured my hypersomnia (laughs).

Bentonite/montmorillonite is the technical name for hyile/ayilo. It is hygroscopic clay which is characterized by an octahedral sheet of aluminum atoms being infixed between two tetrahedral layers of silicon atoms (Ozcan, 2004). It has net negative electric charge due to the isomorphic substitution and is balanced by the cations such as Na+ and Ca2+ located between the layers and surrounding the edges (Onal,2007); sodium bentonite and calcium bentonite exist. These properties to my surprise are what our ancestors knew even before the Europeans could navigate their way to this part of the world.

The human body has seven main energy centres which are called chakras; crown, third eye, throat, heart, solar plexus, sacral, and root chakras! These centres are associated with various body organs. The food we eat and our activities either cleanse or toxify these body organs and block the energy centres which affect our physical and spiritual wellness. Our ancestors knew these and institutionalised some practices into traditions for physical and spiritual growth of their societies. Today we are going to learn the traditional use of clay and its association with the third eye chakra.

The third eye is associated with the pineal gland (eye of Horus) and the left eye; the pineal is what Rene Descartes termed it as the principal seat of the soul. It secretes melatonin and Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) a.k.a. the spirit molecule. The Third Eye chakra is the center of psychic power and higher intuition. You receive guidance, channeling and tune into your Godself; enables you to experience telepathy and astral travel, anonymous. The powers that be in their quest to suppress and control humanity have been feeding us with chemicals that calcify the pineal gland and block our third eye chakra. I call these chemicals, spiritual depressants that keep us in the zombie world! The synthetic halides (fluorine, chlorine, etc), mercury, etc attack our pineal gland directly and calcify it to take away our Godself. These chemicals are present in toothpastes (monoflourophosphates), waters (chlorine) and foods we consume.

Our traditional healers recommended intake of bentonite clay through eating or enema because it could cleanse waste(metals, halides etc) from our system. Have you asked why traditional priests decorated their bodies( mostly left eye and forehead) with bentonite clay? The bentonite adsorbed all harmful chemicals that could block the third eye chakra and prevent telepathy and intuition. Before the advent of talcum powders (type 2 clay), bentonite powder was sprinkled on the traditional priests when they were in trance and busily channeling energies. Bentonite also has great cation exchange capacity, bonding capacity and strong tendency to react with organic compounds (Odom, 1984) natural bentonite is waste water treatment whereby it is used to remove heavy metallic ions such as cadmium, plumbum , copper and zinc (Al-Qunaibit et al.,2005). They applied bentonite so it could cleanse the pineal and left eye for vision, dreams, see spirits (energies), etc. It wasnt superstition but advanced biology and metaphysics which my teachers were brainwashed to condemn outright without investigations!.

Natural bentonite, when hydrated with water, is alkaline with pH of 8 to 10 (Shen, 2001). The optimum blood PH range from 7.35-7.40 to stay healthy. However, calculated amount of bentonite can be eaten to raise acidic blood to alkaline blood. Bentonite clay (hyile/ayilo) can be taken in the morning and evening for its cleansing mechanism to decalcify your pineal gland for telepathic abilities and other abilities discussed above. Knowledge is the only energy that separate the slaves from the slave masters. Let us emancipate ourselves and others by staying tuned as I bring to you the magnetic and solar techniques in activating your third eye (pineal gland) in my next article.

Kwasi Boadu Ntiamoah

Email: [email protected]
Ghana Society for the Physically Disabled fears dependency cost will continue to rise if urgent steps are not taken to control it.

President of the Society, John Mefful, blames illiteracy and unemployment among members for the trend.

He spoke at a meeting in Kumasi organised by Centre for Disability Rights Advocates and Ghana Society for Physically Disabled.

Mr Mefful says members have suffered rejection and marginalisation for far too long.

He believes enhanced skills training for persons with disability is needed to address the challenge.

Majority of people with disability are struggling in abject illiteracy and poverty, he noted.

This dependency is a huge cost to the Society and the country at large. This dependency will rise as much as 90 percent, he fears.

Mr Mefful also touched on elections at the programme, dubbed Disability call for Peace.

He told political party leadership and supporters to exercise self-control in the midst of provocation to ensure peaceful polls.

A pastor, Joel Oppong Boateng, entreated Ministers of the Word to be measured in their proclamations in order not to trigger violence.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is willing submit its members for questioning following the clashes between its supporters and that of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) at the Nima residence of the NPP flagbearer, Nana Akufo-Addo.

Speaking on Eyewitness News, the Acting General Secretary of the opposition NPP, John Boadu, said, we will readily submit to the authority of the state which we have done over the years.

At a press conference on Sunday after the clashes, Mr. Boadu had accused the Nima Divisional Police command of failing to intervene when NDC members besieged the residence of the NPP flagbearer.

He said the police did not come in to prevent the NDC supporters from attempting to forcefully invade the premises of the NPP leader.

According to Mr. Boadu, the perceived bias on the part of the police made the NPP supporters hostile towards them, for which the members were not ready to cooperate with investigations.

He admitted that, the reaction of the NPP supporters left a lot to be desired, but noted that we shouldn't get to the point that we will have that kind of feeling that gives the impression to the ordinary person that the police is not fair in what it is doing.

Mr. Boadu assured that, the NPP would be law abiding and cooperate with invetigations; but warned that his party would resist discrimination from the police.

We will also not sit by for us to be discriminated against; so if they want to act; they must be seen to be acting in all issues of incitement in this country.

I don't think that the New Patriotic Party members are people who are not ready to submit to the law at all; but if it seems openly that we are being discriminated against, it will get to a point that nobody can contain it anymore, he said.



By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer for the 2016 elections, Nana Akufo-Addo, has urged party supporters not to be complacent by work hard to ensure victory on December 7.

Nana Akufo-Addo, who is seeking to unseat the National Democratic Congress' President John Mahama in his third attempt, told supporters to go out in their numbers to vote for the party in the upcoming polls.

Addressing a rally at Atebubu in Brong Ahafio Region as he wrapped up his tour of the region on Sunday [November 13], he said, even though there were clear indications the party will win the elections, its supporters must not be complacent; but must be focused and work hard to ensure he becomes victorious.

On 7th of December, everybody has to go and vote. If you want change, you have to vote for the change. Everybody knows the wind of change is blowing everywhere we go. But I beg you, nobody should think that it is a done deal. We need everybody to vote, he said.

He told the party supporters that the governing NDC had led the country into economic difficulties that has made the cost of living in Ghana unbearable.

According to him, the NPP was the country's best bet to deliver her from all the poor conditions caused by the Mahama-led administration.

He said the only way Ghanaians can be guaranteed of better standards of living and development, is for them to vote for the NPP in the upcoming elections.

'Nana Akufo-Addo in the Eastern Region'

Meanwhile, Nana Akufo Addo is expected to commence a four-day tour of the Eastern Region on Tuesday [November 15], to canvass more votes for the party ahead of the elections.

It will be the second time the he is visiting the region as part of his campaign.



By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
The Next Einstein Forum (NEF) ( http://NEF.org )  Africas global forum for science in Africa  today launches its second call for applications for its NEF Fellows Programme. The new class will join 15 of Africas top young scientists, the NEFs first Fellows Class, and will present their research and innovations at the NEF Global Gathering 2018, to be held in Kigali, Rwanda, in March 2018.

The NEF, an African Institute for Mathematical Science (AIMS) initiative in partnership with the Robert Bosch Stiftung, is a global platform that connects science, society and policy in Africa and the rest of the world  with the goal to leverage science for human development globally. In March of this year, the NEF, in partnership with the Government of Senegal, hosted the NEF Global Gathering 2016, the first global forum for science on African soil with more than 1000 participants from research, academia, government, the private sector and civil society fields to discuss how science and technology can solve global challenges.

After a successful NEF Global Gathering 2016, we are excited to launch the process to recruit the next class of Africas most brilliant young scientists. The first class, through their compelling presentations during the NEF Global Gathering in Dakar, demonstrated to the world that Africa is a source of cutting-edge research, life changing innovations and scientific leadership. The NEF Fellows are changing perceptions, breaking barriers and inviting global collaboration that is necessary for Africas and the worlds development trajectory. We are so confident that this year we have expanded the number of NEF Fellows from fifteen to twenty spots, said Mr. Thierry Zomahoun, NEF Chair and President and CEO of AIMS.

Application to the NEF Fellows programme is open to Africans from around the world - including those who currently reside in the Diaspora - in all fields of science, including the social sciences, humanities and technology fields. Applicants must be under 42 years, hold a PhD and demonstrate a strong track record of research/findings that have a global impact.

Dr. Ingrid Wuenning Tschol, Senior Vice-President Strategy of the Robert Bosch Stiftung, which has partnered with AIMS to create the NEF, said: As we saw in Senegal, the NEF Fellows are excellent representatives of their fields. They are doing brilliant research, mentoring the next generation of African scientists and they are showing the potential of Africa to the rest of the world, but also to the African leaders. As we open the new call for applications, we hope to ignite greater collaboration among scientists on the continent and globally. We also believe that strengthening research on the African continent will have sustained positive impact for the world. We encourage all who qualify to apply to the NEF Fellows programme.

In addition to attending and presenting at the NEF Global Gathering 2018, NEF Fellows will participate in research tours and visiting scientist weeks with partners. NEF Fellows will be facilitated in speaking and publishing globally and supported in their research. The tenure of the NEF Fellows runs until 30 June 2019.

The applications to the NEF Fellows programme will run from 15 November 2016 to 27 January 2017 and applications can be accessed at http://NEF.org/nef-fellows. The selected NEF Fellows will be announced in June 2017. To meet some of the current NEF Fellows, watch the video.
Marrakesh (Morocco) (AFP) - A week after climate change denier Donald Trump's election to the White House, world leaders will on Tuesday address a key UN meeting in Marrakesh to keep a climate rescue plan on track.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon, King Mohammed of conference host Morocco, and France's President Francois Hollande will open a "high-level" segment of the annual UN forum -- the first since last year's adoption of the Paris Agreement to stave off calamitous global warming.

This will be followed by speeches from nearly 60 heads of state and government from mainly African countries, but also some from Europe and several island states.

"We expect of the heads of state to reiterate their commitment (to the deal)... and send a strong message to Trump and the rest of the world," Celia Gautier of the Climate Action Network, a grouping of NGOs, told AFP on Monday.

The election of Trump, who has called climate change a "hoax" and has threatened to "cancel" the Paris pact, has been uppermost on the minds of many delegates and negotiators gathered since last Monday to thrash out a roadmap for putting the agreement into action.

Morocco's Princess Lalla Hasna arrives at the UN World Climate Change Conference in Marrakesh, on November 14, 2016

The hard-fought deal set an objective of limiting average global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels by cutting planet-heating greenhouse gases from burning coal, oil, and gas.

Many fear that withdrawal by the United States, a champion of the deal under Barack Obama, would shatter the political goodwill built up over years of negotiations, and put the very planet-saving goals of the deal at risk.

While waiting for news from Washington, many now look to the rest of the world to strongly restate their commitment to the pact -- with or without the US.

All eyes will be on Marrakesh, where 39 kings and presidents and 18 prime ministers are scheduled to address the 22nd Conference of Parties (COP22 for short) of the UN's climate convention, which gathers 196 nations and the EU bloc.

Call to action

To date, 109 of the 197 parties have officially ratified the Paris Agreement, which entered into force on November 4 after crossing the threshold of 55 ratifications by countries representing 55 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.

Among the speakers at the UN climate meeting in Marrakesh is Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, for whom the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur

They included the United States, which represents about 14 percent of global emissions, and China which accounts for 25 percent.

Beijing's climate envoy Xie Zhenhua stressed Monday that tackling climate was a "common and shared responsibility".

"International cooperation is a must for us to address climate change," he said in Marrakesh.

In Marrakesh, developing nations have been pushing for stronger finance commitments from the developed world, particularly for infrastructure to help them better cope with climate change-induced harms.

Scientists say warming over 2 C will yield dangerous sea level rise, harsher storms and droughts, disease spread and conflict over ever-scarcer resources.

"Now, more than ever, governments meeting in Marrakesh must commit to action to protect millions of vulnerable people from climate change," said Oxfam, which fights for poor people's interests at the climate talks.

Among the speakers on Tuesday's agenda is Sudan's Omar al-Bashir, for whom the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur.

Approached for comment, the UNFCCC said by email on Monday Bashir was invited by Morocco, which is not a party to the court's founding Rome Statute.

"If even al-Bashir can contribute to the global climate effort, then President-elect Donald Trump will have no excuse," commented climate activist Mohamed Adow of ChristianAid.
15.11.2016 LISTEN

Accra, November 14, 2016  Delta Air Lines is celebrating five successful years of its intern programme in Africa. The scheme offers a 12-month contract to post-graduate students in Lagos, Nigeria; Accra, Ghana; Dakar, Senegal; and Nairobi, Kenya, to gain hands-on knowledge and experience of working for a multi-national company.

The programme underscores Deltas commitment to Africa, by helping young people from underprivileged backgrounds acquire the skills they need to get ahead in business. The interns work alongside the Delta sales team in each country, before attending a Delta conference in the Unites States. Of the 19 people who have completed the scheme, two are still employed at Delta and the rest have gone on to find managerial positions in a range of industries, become teachers or are furthering their studies.

Its often difficult for graduates to get a break in the corporate world so offering opportunities like our intern programme can give them a real step up the ladder as well as learn about the complex nature of working for a global company, said Bobby Bryan, Deltas Sales Manager for East and West Africa. Some of our past interns have gone on to gain executive jobs in the public and private sectors. Im very proud of their achievements and am pleased Delta has been able to play a part in their success.

Of the interns in Dakar, Donat Tending has gone on to work at the Spanish Embassy, while Arthur Mills, who interned in Deltas Accra office from 2011-2012, now works as a Foreign Service Officer at the Ghanaian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Meanwhile, Mumbe Muthama from Nairobi was hired permanently by Delta.

When I started as an intern, I never thought I would have the opportunity to work for Delta after my contract ended, said Mumbe Muthama, a former intern and now Sales Executive in Nairobi. I learnt a lot during the scheme, which has helped me in my career at Delta, such as relationship management, client servicing and sales promotion skills. I feel privileged and proud to still be here three years later.

This December, Delta will celebrate 10 years of flying to Africa. The airline flies daily to four points in Africa; Accra, Ghana, Dakar, Senegal, Johannesburg, South Africa and Lagos, Nigeria. It also has sales offices in a number of additional markets, including Kenya and Uganda.
The Obuasi Municipal Assembly, realizing the need to enforce the disability law, has taken steps to make public facilities in the municipality disability friendly. In the light of this, the Assembly has recommended for the construction of ramps and rims within the Assembly premises and other public places to make them accessible to persons with disability.

This was contained in an executive meetings report delivered by the Municipal Chief Executive for Obuasi, Honorable Richard Ofori Agyeman Boadi at the First Ordinary Meeting of the Second Session of the Sixth Assembly in Obuasi on Thursday, 10th November, 2016.

Honorable Ofori Agyeman Boadi appealed to Assembly members to consult traditional leaders within their jurisdiction concerning their (Assembly members) activities, He said, the traditional leaders are stakeholders and development partners hence should not be sidelined.

At the end of the two (2) day General Assembly meeting, was revealed that the Assembly will no execute new projects in the ensuring year, however, all ongoing projects would be rolled over from the previous year to be completed in 2017. The total revenue budgeted for the year 2017 is GH12,995,782.19; comprising GH2,971,257.19 Internal Generated Fund (I.G.F) and GH10,007,825.00 as Government of Ghana Transfers (Grants).

During the year under reviews, it was evidenced that transfers such as Urban Development Grant (U.D.G) and stool lands revenue increased considerably whiles releases from Government of Ghana (G.O.G) and District Assembly Common Fund (D.A.C.F) drastically feel short. After a painstakingly deliberation and analysis of the trend of releases, the composite budget was reduced from GH 12,147,475.03.

The Assembly has also resolved to strictly regulate the activities of sachet water producers in the municipality. This is in relation to concerns that most of the sachet water producers are not licensed hence affecting the quality of water they produce. With this, the Assembly intends to inspect the production sites of sachet water producers and close down those without permit.

On crime and the general security situation in the municipality, the General Assembly described the recent Gang attacks and killings and the violent demonstrations by small scale miners as very worrying. The Municipal Police Commander was tasked to fast track investigations to bring the perpetrators to book. In related development, the Municipal Security Council (M.U.S.E.C) has in response to various crimes at night clubs, pubs and bars reviewed the operational time for their activities to 11:00pm.

The M.U.S.E.C believes this will curb the surge in crimes which has its roots in those night clubs.
The world politics is fast changing to the disadvantage of the third world countries. The citizens of the third world countries residing in the developed Western countries are for the recent years seen in the eyes of most of the citizens of the host countries as human parasites living voraciously off their generosity. Subsequently, they have been turning against them by voting into government right-wing parties and persons.

These presidential or parliamentary candidates and political parties that campaign on populist ideas of xenophobia, racism and all sorts of ills against immigrants and how drastically they would deal with them if elected, are indeed getting elected.

Look at the British voting for Brexit, thus, voting in their majority to leave the European Union simply for the fact that there are too many immigrants from Eastern Europe and other third world countries in their country. The Leavers campaigned to quit the European Union. Their objective was, and it is still, to kick out the numerous immigrants from their country or to reduce their presence in their country.

They blame immigrants for taking their jobs, putting pressure on their hospitals, schools and housing. The Leavers did win the 23 June 2016 referendum.

Barely after the declaration of the referendum result going in favour of the Leavers as against the Remainers (those who wanted to continue to remain in the European Union despite the huge number of immigrants in the UK), when we witnessed a spate of overt public anger against immigrants. One Polish immigrant was fatally wounded as a result.

In America, the then Republican presidential-candidate Donald Trump who campaigned against immigrants, threatening to repatriate all illegal immigrants in the US to their various countries of origin and also build a wall between the US and Mexico if elected, has indeed been elected the President of the United States of America.

In France, Marie Le Pen, the leader of the far-right Front National party has her popularity in the polls soaring. She is very hopeful to win the 2017 French presidential election. She campaigns on right-wing nationalist ideologies (fascism) and hates immigrants to the core. If she wins the election which can be a possibility looking at the trend of the current Western countries politics and election results, the immigrants in France are in for trouble.

Like her father, she does not believe in any immigrant possessing a French passport as a true French and would not mind revoking their acquired French nationalities to send them back to their countries of origin.

Same problem is cooking in Germany with Angela Merkel likely to suffer losses or lose the elections next year.

If you are a black person, no matter what your current nationality in the Whitemans land is, you can be British, French, American, Canadian etc., your skin colour gives you away. In the street, you are simply seen as an African or a foreigner, pure and simply.

Again, is it not said, If the back of your teeth is bitter it is there that you lick? By this, I mean to say there is no place like home hence we have to build our own country so that if we happened to be thrown out of these foreign countries that are fast getting fed-up with immigrants, we could return home.

In say, Ghana, if you are a Ghanaian, nobody will throw you out because you will be in your own country where you may have nowhere else to go.

We therefore have the obligation to construct our country which no one can do it better than ourselves.

Subsequently, we have to campaign for, and elect credible, visionary, dedicated, incorruptible, dynamic, honest, respectful and knowledgeable people to lead us.

We do not have to vote to elect corrupt, myopic, nepotistic and less intelligent people to lead the country. This is because the current direction of world politics has no room for complacency, wastage and ruinous acts of corruption.

We shall be doing ourselves the greatest disfavour should we not learn from the changing world situations to adjust accordingly.

Finally, I call on all Ghanaian electorates to campaign and vote for Nana Akufo Addo and the NPP without falling for the NDC and President Mahamas lies.

The days of going to the Whitemans land with a bowl in hand begging for alms to develop our nation or to fill our pockets is almost over.

VOTE NANA AKUFO ADDO AND NPP TO DEVELOP GHANA FOR US.

Rockson Adofo
15.11.2016 LISTEN

When I arrived in Babensi II village last July, the whole community was desperately expecting Greenpeace and its partners to provide them with answers and solutions to get their land back. For three years now, many of them have been deprived of their farms and crops, taken by SG Sustainable Oils Cameroon (SGSOC) palm oil plantation by false promises and without proper consultation or informed consent. The market of Babensi II remains almost empty since then.

In Nguti, 23 kilometers away, the same scenario repeated. Dozens of farmers gathered in the community hall to tell us about their fear that SGSOC will seize their farms. In a deeply emotional speech, Susan Tah Agbo explained that she noticed that trees had been marked in the forest, showing the land that SGSOC had demarcated, an area that includes numerous villagers farms. It happened after several officials from the company came to Nguti to explain their development plans. During the meeting, the community asked for a 5 kilometers buffer zone beyond their farms. A demand that was not respected.

It was not the first time we were meeting with these farmers, who have suffered the consequences of land grabbing for over seven years, since SGSOC settled in this area. You might have heard about it when it was still owned by the US based company Herakles Farms.Since they withdrew from the project early 2015, this palm oil plantation has been operated by SGSOC, which holds a concession of approximately 20 000 hectares.

As its provisional land lease is about to expire this November, the communities expectations have never been that high, and they strongly hope that the government will stop the project.

To demonstrate their determination, 244 farmers (231 from Nguti and 13 from Babensi II) filed two collective complaints to the Court of First Instance in Bangem (South-West Province of Cameroon) last 27 September for trespass to land. Their hearing will take place on 9 November. Greenpeace welcomes this move as a first step to giving justice to these communities. To support their outcry, we launch together with our partners a petition to ask the Cameroonian government not to renew nor extend this lease.

Not only did SGSOC allegedly use bribery and intimidations toward communities, but they also lied to dozens of workers. They were fired without notice and compensation whereas their contracts were running for several months. As SGSOC representatives didnt show up during a conciliation meeting at the Labor office of Mundemba organised last 14 September with 45 former employees, the case will escalate to the court of appeal in Buea.

SGSOC also promised to bring a host of benefits to communities that ceded land for the plantation. However, when I traveled there last July, people told me that, despite all the promises and rhetoric, SGSOC hasnt contributed to local schools, provided access to medical facilities for workers or supplied electricity to the communities. The roads are still in an unacceptable condition.

I grew up in a forest area, so I am strongly aware of how important it is for communities living around it. They need land to farm and they need money from non-timber forest products to eat, send their children to school, university and more. How can such a project that is grabbing the land of communities and destroying the forest be sustainable? The Cameroonian government should ensure that the project is implemented to develop its economy and respect local communities and the environment. SGSOC plantation does none of these.

This company has not shown any good will during its three years provisional land lease. One can imagine what damage they could do if its lease is extended or renewed.

We as Cameroonians, as Africans, we have a responsibility to protect our resources, to make sure that our heritage is not stolen or destroyed.

These communities need us!

Please take action here to ask the Cameroonian government to take the right decision by stopping this land grab and forest destruction project.

By Sylvie Djacbou Deugoue, Forest campaigner, Greenpeace Africa
Here are a few cities that got a little help from the banks in form of mobile ATMs.

By India Today Web Desk: Bringing some relief to people in these post-demonetisation days, banks are rolling mobile ATMs into the streets in some cities. From Delhi to Bengaluru, some cities have been lucky enough to access this help.

Also read: Demonetisation rumours still on: Beware of these 5 false information on social media



Here are the cities that got this little help from the banks:

advertisement

Bengaluru

A Canara Bank ATM bus came to peoples' rescue in Bengaluru's MG Road after the bank's general manager learned that the ATMs there had run out of cash.

"I was taking a stroll in the evening on MG Road and found that most of the ATMs were running out of cash. So, I got our mobile ATM, which serves Bengaluru Rural customers, pressed into service," Canara Bank General Manager (Circle Office) M M Chiniwar told Deccan Herald.





Delhi

A Punjab National Bank ATM van rolled by the Pragati Maidan in Delhi earlier today. PNB deployed a mobile ATM outside AIIMS in Delhi last Saturday as well, "so that family members of patients find it a little convenient to exchange cash".



A Dena Bank mobile ATM was spotted in Worli Sea Front on Sunday.



Dena Bank has stationed Mobile ATM (mobile vehicle) at Worli Sea face from 8:30am onwards. This is getting good response from people pic.twitter.com/yxzPHvwxHr prashant parab (@manas0191) November 12, 2016

Mobile ATMs is said to have been sent out to remote areas as well, since the demonetisation policy was declared last week. A TOI report said a PNB mobile ATM en route Morna village was chased by people near Noida Sector 35, as they were "desperate" for cash.

While the intention behind these mobile ATMs is clearly good, it is doing little to provide much help. Problem is, there aren't enough ATM vans on the streets to shorten the queues outside banks and ATMs.

--- ENDS ---
Access bank has extended its Initial Public Offer (IPO) period by two weeks.

The bank has extended the closing period for the offer from November 11, 2016 to November 25, 2016.

A statement from the bank on the extension said, The Securities and Exchange Commission has granted the Bank an extension to its Initial Public Offer (IPO) period.

The offer seeks to raise 104 million cedis to meet the bank's increased operational expenditure.

It is unclear what reasons accounted for the extension of the offer period but some industry watchers believe the general slow performance of the stock market may have affected the performance of the offer.

Access bank becomes the first Nigerian Bank to list on the Ghana Stock Exchange if its IPO is successful.

The move also comes after calls by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for multinationals to list on the domestic bourse and improve Ghana's capital market.

Some stock market analysts earlier predicted that more companies are likely to list on the Ghana Stock Exchange to meet the recapitalization requirement by the Bank of Ghana.

An Associate, Equity Trading at UMB Capital, Kofi Kyei tells Citi Business News one of the influences of Access bank's listing will involve attracting other commercial banks to list on the Ghana Stock Exchange to meet the new regulatory requirement for commercial banks.

The bank of Ghana's decision to review the minimum capital requirement for banks from the 120 million to 500 million cedis, we expect a lot of such transactions not only the floating of shares but also mergers and acquisitions just to keep the banks within the regulatory requirements, he stated.

Access bank's 4 cedis per share price will be the third highest among the banks listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) if its bid to list is successful.

The highest is Standard Chartered bank at 14 cedis 10 pesewas followed by Ecobank Ghana at 6 cedis 82 pesewas.

Responding to whether or not the 4 cedis share price is on the high side, a stock analyst, Nana Agyeman Gyamfi described the price as fair though he admitted that the banking stocks have generally not been performing well.

In my view, looking at their fundamentals, the 4 cedi share price is not that bad and that compares favourably with other banks I will say probably looking at the bank's performance, the 4 cedis is a fair price for investors, he opined.



By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
The results of the US Presidential election 2016 took the public, and many pollsters and pundits by surprise; they were stunned, I was too. Though the media had informed us that the race was close, it reported that Hilary Clinton had about 70% chance of winning and was far ahead in the electoral votes. The actual results proved otherwise. Clinton won the popular votes, but Trump won the electoral votes and therefore won the election. It was the biggest upset in US Presidential election history. Why and how did he win?

Donald Trump was not the best candidate; he was not the most experienced and the most qualified. He did not win any of the debates and did not look presidential either when he debated Hilary. But he was different, he represented change, and the American people wanted change.

Voting data show that over 50% of those who voted for him were White men, without college degree and with income over $50,000. Most were rural dwellers, older citizens, 45 & over, conservatives and most were dissatisfied with the establishment, the system of operation of the government. Most disliked the way their tax dollars were spent and have fear of terrorism, crimes and immigration. The fear of the possibility of losing what they owned, and the feeling of loss of their countrys greatness, created the need for change. Trump tapped into that disillusionment, dissatisfaction, mistrust and fear, and formulated a running theme to make America Great Again. He called Americans to get up to take their country back. With this message, he easily defeated some of the heavy weights of the Republican Party for the nomination.

He was not an impressive speaker or a great communicator. In fact, he had problem articulating the issues. But in the debates and in public appearances, he was an average Joe. He was different, a non -politician. He did not mince his words. He said what was on his mind, said it the way he felt, no sugar coating it like a politician. He blamed the politicians for not showing good leadership, making bad trade deals, forgetting America, selling the country short. He criticized Obamacare, he blamed the government for wasting money caring for others and allowing criminals into the country. He preached populist nationalism.

We saw Trump in the debates with Clinton. He did poorly, did not address the issues and did not look presidential. Hilary won the debates. But regardless how well she talked and how hard she campaigned, Trump kept closing in. Regardless how the press predicted his loss, he surprised most of us and won. He won 279 electoral votes, Clinton has 228 votes. He won all the Red states as expected. Moreover, he captured most of the swing states, including Ohio and Florida. He won Pennsylvania and Michigan, states which have never voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1988.

The election was not about qualifications. It was not about money either. Indeed, Trump campaign spent 50% less of what the Clinton camp spent. What happened was a social phenomenon. On the one hand was the group with fear, needing a messiah, one who was different and bold. They were mostly of rural America, older citizens and with higher income. On the other hand, were the poor, urban Americans, those who felt neglected, those finding it hard to make ends meet, other Americans, the marginalized women, the union workers, the laborers, the African-Americans, the Hispanics and the immigrants saw Hilary Clinton as a person who cares and who would make conditions better for all Americans. This created a divided social class and ideology leading to the election. One group grew larger and over took the other in the election.

Neither Trump nor Clinton was well liked in the election. They had unfavorable rating. But one had to win. Trumps message got across well to most electorates, particularly his supporters and sympathizers in the swing states. Had he lost, he probably would have, with his resources and national exposure, become a crusader spreading his message, creating a movement  and he would have had thousands of followers!

Will Trump Become a Good President? Trumps lack of political office experience should not mean that he will become an ineffective leader. A president has many talented people around him/her. They write the presidents speeches and advice on matters, giving the president options to choose from. The president has the last saying on issues from the executive branch. His cabinets run the various departments or agencies. The president is the commander-in-chief.

Trump will have tremendous power to do what he wants. With a Republican control of Congress, states governorship, and an expected Republican dominated Supreme Court, he can easily carryout his domestic and foreign policy agenda. Many Republicans see him to be the second coming of Ronald Reagan to re-energize conservatism and populist agenda and to implement a go-touch foreign policy, though he is seemed as a fan of President Vladimir Putin. Trump has said that if elected, he would deport undocumented foreigners and build a wall on the US-Mexican border to stop criminals and rapists from entering America. He preyed on the fear of one group and vowed to prevent Muslims from coming to the US. He could stop Obama go-easy approach on immigrants and implement tougher reforms. But to succeed as a good president, he must put campaign rhetoric aside and bring people together to create a greater America.

Being a president of America is powerful; you are the leader of the free world as some Americans say. But the position is also stressful. In college we did a study on US presidency, looking at the tremendous responsibilities of the office. We found out that the president ages faster in the first or second term. Trump is 70 years old. He will become the oldest US president, older than Reagan. By the end of his first and or second term, he would look older physically than if he were in private life. One good exercise is to look at a picture of Obama before and after the presidency. I say this to indicate that the office, beside its power and glory, is very stressful and difficult. But Trump will have the help at his disposal for a successful presidency.

Determining Factors

In my early article concerning the election, I stated some factors that could impact the election, three of which I want to discuss. The first factor is major event or unexpected information (October Surprise). Friday, one week to the last weekend of the election, FBI Director James Comey stated that the agency would look into Hilary Clintons emails relative to new information. This created a major concern, making Hilary to lose votes and making the race to get tighter in the final days. The statement increased more doubts of Hilary of not forthcoming with the truth. The directors action was viewed by some observers as political and was criticized. Although he later tried to clear the doubt, the damage was already made.

The second factor is turnout. The voting data of groups show surprising information. The number of votes by women, African-Americans, Hispanics for Clinton was less compared to that in 2012. In order words, their turnout in 2016 was low unexpectedly. Although Clinton got more votes from the groups than Trump did, their low number harmed Clinton particularly in the swing states. The Hispanics votes for example, should have increased considering the growing rate of this population as the major minority group in the US. Hilary received 65% of the Hispanic votes, while Trump got 29%. In 2012, Obama received 70%, Mitt Romney, 25%. While Hilarys number decreased from that of Obama, Trumps votes increased from Romneys.

Ironically, Trump spoke of this group, particularly Mexican -Americans, negatively calling them rapists in the campaign, but it did not move them to come out to vote in large number for Hilary. Of more surprising fact was that trade union members voted less for Clinton than in 2012 for Obama, while non-union workers voted more for Trump than for Clinton. The low turnout for Hilary could be due to poor ground work. The ground game which the Obama campaign utilized in 2012 took about four years prior in making, involving mobilization of the various groups. For detail, see How Obama Won, published 2012. As I said in my article on this passed election, the candidate with the largest turnout in the swing states would stand a better chance to win. Trump did better in the swing states, among white-working-class, and in the rural areas, where the battle was won.

The third factor is religion. Angelical or evangelical Christians played a critical role in Trumps win. As Religion News Service (RNS) reported, Christians who described themselves as evangelical and born-again gave Trump 81 percent of their votes, up 3 percentage point from their support of Mitt Romney. Clinton received 16% of their votes, a vast difference. This group was also instrumental in 2004 election, as indicated in previous article.

US-Liberia Relations

What does the election of Trump mean to US-Liberia relations? I stated sometime ago that the US foreign policy can be divided into two parts, namely constant and variable. With the former, the relation is often based on historical ties and does not change. For instance, US is committed to defending and supporting Israel. That is a policy that every American president must maintain. The latter is created by an administration and can change by another administration. For example, Jimmy Carter formulated a foreign policy centered on human rights, while Reagan was specifically about breaking- down the Soviet Union and focusing on Eastern Europe.

US relations with Liberia go back to the founding of Liberia in the early 1800s, when ex-slaves from America landed on the land now called Liberia. The first Liberian constitution was written by an American and the flag is similar to that of the US except that Liberian flag has a lone star. US has given millions of dollars in aid and in other assistance, though Liberia is one of the poorest countries in the world.

Liberia is now 169 years old as an independent nation. During the cold war, Liberia was a strategic and important ally of the US, but now her importance has diminished greatly. Economically, the country does not have an industrial base or a major exporting economy worthy of US vital interest. The prices of her key commodities, iron ores and rubbers, have fallen drastically on the world market.

Although an oil exploration effort started some years ago, the established managing entity, National Oil Company of Liberia, has run into bankruptcy. Today, United States is one of the major aid donors to Liberia. Liberia heavily depends on the US and many Liberians own homes and other properties in America. US will always support Liberia, but how much and to what extend? The Obama administration is quite aware of Liberia and her issues.

When Trump won the election, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf stated her disappointment on BBC for Hilary Clintons loss. She said, We are extremely saddened by the missed opportunity on the part of the people of the United States to join smaller democracies in ending the marginalization of women. She added the concern that whether Trump would have an African agenda. We can only hope that he will do so in due could, she ended. Some Liberians commented that the expression was unfortunate, that the president should have at first congratulated Trump and then call for continued relation between the two countries, noting their long bilateral and historical ties. Other African heads of state, including Kenyas Uhuru Kenyatta, South Africas Jacob Zuma and Nigerias Muhammadu Buhari, have expressed congratulatory messages to Trump.

Dispute the criticism, madam Sirleafs reaction was generally natural, though she should have been more diplomatic: Hilary is her close friend. Hilary attended her second inauguration and is a strong supporter and admirer of Sirleaf, as the first female president in Africa. Sirleaf was not the only world leader who reacted negatively. Angela Merkel of Germany and Nicola Sturgeon of Scotland also expressed concerns.

Had Hilary won, it would have helped Sirleaf Vice President Joseph Boakai in the upcoming presidential election in Liberia 2017. She would have introduced the VP to Clinton for Hilarys blessing. In 1943, Liberian president Edwin Barclay introduced Associate Justice William Tubman to US President Franklin Roosevelt as his (Barclay) successor. President Tubman ruled Liberia for over 25 years. He was also influential in African politics, a founding member of OAU, Organization of African Unity in 1963. As an older and a US supported president, emerging African leaders looked up to Tubman and sought his advice. He led the Monrovia Group, which took a conservative approach to OAU.

President Sirleaf would not have the opportunity to take the vice president to Hilary. Meanwhile, the opposition parties in Liberia are trying to form a coalition to stop the ruling Unity Party from succeeding itself to a third term. They want to follow the model or example of Nigerian opposition parties in that countrys recent presidential election. The Unity Party seems to be concerned of the coming change in Washington.

Beside possible party interest resulting Sirleafs disappointment, some critics of the administration pointed out that she did so primarily because Hilary would not be able to protect her from possible persecution, when she leaves office, for her alleged role in the Liberian civil war.

Trump promised to make changes. If he implements his promised immigration reforms, thousands of Liberians and other Africans in the US would be forced to leave. There are many Liberians on the TPS (Temporary Protected Status) program, which allows them to stay in America temporally because of the civil war. Obama recently renewed the program, but it is scheduled to expire next year. Their return to Liberia would add to the already high unemployment rate in the country.

Permanent Africans residing in the US are concerned of Trumps win. Famous Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka has said that he would leave upon Trumps inauguration. Some Liberians and probably other Africans view Trumps intended immigration move favorably, pointing out that Liberians temporally in the US need to return to help develop Liberia and that Americans develop America, Liberians and other Africans in the Diasporas need to return to develop the mother land.

Additional individuals have commented that the election of Trump would be good for Africa, indicating the corruption of some African leaders. These leaders would not get cooperation from Trump, because he would be critical of their ways and behaviors. Business would not be as usual, according to comments.

On corruption, Toril Krua has stated that some African leaders have taken development funds and have gotten rich while their people live in abject poverty. On Liberia, he wrote, Spending American taxpayers money for projects in poverty stricken Liberia makes no sense when the beggars salaries and benefits are far higher than the donors salaries. Some African leaders are worry of what Trump presidency could mean to their corruptive and human rights abuse practices at home.

How It Could Work

Usually the president-elect is constantly briefed on national and international issues. Trump will replace key policy advisors, department heads, and ambassadors of the Obama administration. This means that Linda Greenfield, a US Secretary of State and a close friend of Sirleaf, will leave. Trumps people will be in charge and would run things.

Sirleaf however can mend the fence and develop a working relation with Trump. Through her PR advisors on K Street, Washington, DC, she can build a personal relation with Trump. Her ambassador in Washington can also help. It would take about three to six months to build such relation. But Trump would always be Trump, though with diplomacy. However, President Sirleaf does not have time on her hands. She will leave power in January 2018.

By this time, Trump transition team has set up an office in Washington, DC to coordinate affairs with the Obama administration. In addition to Trump personal choices for key appointments, the team will recommend names of individuals for consideration for appointment. As done internationally in other administrations, ambassadorial posts are generally reserved for individual contributors to the campaign. The ambassadors are personal representatives of the president and will have direct communication with the president and with the secretary of state pertaining to the host countries. The desk officers at the State Department for each country will handle program and development matters.

The transition office with be flooded with correspondence, resumes, and other matters addressed to Trump. Issues regarding foreign affairs will be handled by a section of the office. The section may be divided into parts, including African Affairs, Asian Affairs and European Affairs. It will compile a brief on each country within the areas for policy consideration or for other concerns.

When I worked with the Bill Clinton first transition team, we handled international communications, entailing congratulatory statements from other countries and issues of concerned from individuals and entities expressed for Bill Clintons attention. Their views, as I observed, were that Clinton as a young leader would bring change in US foreign policy and relations.

Building Bridges and Uniting the Nation

On the home front, Trump has lots of work cut out for him. First, he will have to mend fences with the Republican establishment, with the Democrats and with the American people, particularly those whom he offended during the campaign. He has to be the president for all Americans. Talking and acting tough publically is one thing, but ruling a nation is another. You have to listen and act fairly and justly. You have to be a leader, a father and not a bully and a businessman. Diplomacy, caring, firmness, fairness and integrity should be the corner stone. He must unite.

Trump made many promises and the American people would be expecting much from him. He has to deliver. If he fails, the people would not forgive him. He and the Republican Party would pay. He would be voted out in the next presidential election should he run for a second term. The test would be in the mid-term election two years from now when Congress will be out for election.

I think this was one of the exciting and surprising elections in US history. Professor Allan Lichtman deserves congratulations for his brilliant analysis and prediction of Trumps victory.

Dagbayonoh Kiah Nyanfore II, a US resident since 1966, is a Liberian national. He can be reached at [email protected]
Amb. George Manneh Weah

15.11.2016 LISTEN

Former UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, former Peace Ambassador of the Republic of Liberia, and Chairman of the Governing Council of the Coalition for Democratic Change, Amb. George Manneh Weah would like to congratulate president-elect, Donald J. Trump on behalf of the Coalition for Democratic Change for his victory as the 45th president-elect of the United States of America.

Amb. Weah further extends his sincerest commendation to the campaign team of President-elect, Donald J. Trump for carrying such a vigorous effort that led to their ultimate victory. Moreover, Amb. Weah applauds president-elect, Donald J. Trump for defying all odds and ultimately prevailing as the 45th president-elect; of the United States of Americaa country he describes as a true ally to Liberia and champion of democracy.

In furtherance of his gratitude, Amb. Weah also thanks the American people for electing the leader of their choice; and exhibiting true democracy amid a tough and challenging electoral process. Amb. Weah asserts that in a time when the world was watching to see one of the champions of true democracy, the United States of America, exercise the very tenets of democracy they have introduced to other nations around the globe, the Americans did not disappoint as they proved to the rest of the world why they are a true role model and one of the prime architects of modern democracy.

Moreover, Amb. Weah acknowledges that none of this would have been possible without the outstanding leadership of President Obama and his administration. Amb. Weah expresses great gratitude to the Obama administration for undertaking such a feat in conducting a free and fair election and paving the way for a smooth transition of power. This is an exemplary act he hopes other nations can emulate, as it serves as a hallmark in maintaining lasting peace around the world.

In continuation of his gratitude, Amb. Weah further thanks president Obama and his administration for fostering the longstanding partnership between the great people of America and his beloved country Liberiaa tradition he has no doubt that the incoming administration of president-elect, Donald J. Trump will continue. He further appreciates the American people for being there for the Liberian people when they were in a dire state of agony and peril during the Ebola epidemic that destroyed the lives of thousands of Liberians.

Recognizing the immense role of former Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, in putting up a very competitive race, Amb. Weah would also like to commend former Secretary of State Clinton for her resolve and tenacity during a hard fought electoral process. He congratulates her for gracefully accepting the result of the election and exhibiting the characteristics of a true patriot. He further describes her as a great stateswoman with an impeccable record of service to her country and a role model to many women across the globe.

In the spirit of oneness, true nationalism and patriotism, as America leads the way in promoting peace, fostering democracy, and being a voice for human rights, social justice, and stability around the world, we, the Coalition for Democratic Change, and the Liberian people wish America and its people well as they embark on a new journey. God bless America.
Representatives of qualified presidential candidates in the 2016 general election will today [Tuesday] converge to monitor the printing of ballot papers for the presidential candidates and testament of polls form.

The commission last month started the printing of the parliamentary ballots, but withheld the presidential due to various lawsuits by some political parties.

But speaking to Citi News, the acting General Secretary of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Boadu said, to ensure transparency, the parties will be present to monitor the process.

Over the years we have never witnessed the printing of pink sheets or blue sheets or statement of polls, both parliamentary and presidential. We all know the kind of difficulty we had in court where the Electoral Commission was finding it difficult to know the number of statement of polls that they printed.

It was so embarrassing and I do not think that we have to go through that again so we wrote to the Electoral Commission requesting that we should be allowed to have access. They have granted that request and asked that we bring two agents to monitor the exercise.

Parliamentary ballot: NDC, NPP pick number 3 and 5 spots

Last month, seven (7) political parties were present a t the Electoral Commission (EC) to ballot for their spots on the parliamentary ballot paper.

The governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the opposition NPP picked the third and fifth spot respectively on the parliamentary ballot for the parliamentary elections.

The NDC and the NPP also picked the third and fifth spot respectively on the presidential ballot last week for the upcoming presidential elections.



By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

Follow @EfeAnsah
The Igbos, one of the main ethnic groups in Nigeria, are known to have a rich culture and remarkable history. While modernization has ensured the erosion of certain aspects of their culture, much of its history has been preserved, including relics from the past which reveal its heritage. Jumia Travel, Africas No.1 Online Hotel Booking Portal, lists 5 of the places where the culture and history of these people who dominate the eastern part of Nigeria can be discovered.

lgbo-Ukwu Museum

The Igbo-Ukwu museum is in Ngo village, Igbo-Ukwu, Amabara state. The town, Igbo-Ukwu is of great historical and cultural significance in Igbo land as it is notable for bronze artifacts from a very sophisticated bronze metal-working culture centuries before other known bronzes of the region. It is in recognition of this that the Federal Government in Nigeria granted approval for the hosting of an annual National New Yam Festival in Igbo- Ukwu to promote the culture and tradition of Ndigbo and new yam festival. The festival takes place at National Yam House built by the Federal Government in Igbo- Ukwu since 2005.

The Igbo-Ukwu bronze treasures were accidentally discovered by a worker who was hired to dig a cistern by Mr. Isaiah Anozie during dry season in 1939 . Subsequent archaeological excavations of the area led by Professor Thurstan Shaw led to the discovery of other sites , making a total of three sites: Igbo Isaiah (a shrine), Igbo Richard (a burial chamber), and Igbo Jonah (a cache).

Among the recovered object include aritual Pottery Vessel,Scabbard, Pendant with rams head, Human face with scarification,Bronze bowl and apear  shaped bowl. While some of these artefact have been exported and some lost, the Museum plays a significant role in preserve the remaining Igbo ukwu pieces, indigenous productions, which are vital in discerning the ancient history of not only Igbos, but of the human existence within ancient Africa. lgbo-Ukwu Museum has remained an attraction to tourists mostly because of its bronze artifacts. It is great place to visit as the bronze pieces are a sight to behold.

The Long JuJu Shrine of Arochukwu

Arochukwu is the third largest town in Abia State (after Aba and Umuahia) in southeastern Nigeria and is a famous tourist destination as the cave of the famous long juju oracle is a particular attraction. It is originally, a religious centre with a well-laid down administrative structure headed by a Chief Priest. The cave is believed to hold the long metal pipe through which the gods speak to the people, and was used to judge the perpetrators of crimes in the old time. A dark kilometre-long series of tunnels, some deeply mysterious features of the shrine include the Throne of Judgement, where Chukwu would decide on the fate of a person, the Tunnel of Disappearance, and the Red River, which would turn coloured when a person was killed.

What makes this shrine, also known as Ibinu Ukpabi, a spectacular historical site in the region is the role it played in the slave trade era and thus the impact it made in Nigerias history.In the 15th Century, when the slave trade was introduced, West African middlemen used it to their advantage, as the condemned were no longer killed inside the shrine, but secretly sold on into slavery. The mystic Long-Juju shrine, the slave routes and other relics of the slave trade era have become important tourist attractions in the area as a result of what they represent in Nigerias history.

Mbari Cultural Centres

Mbari is a traditional arts and crafts center retained by the Imo State council for Arts and Culture. Situated at Ikenegbu in Central Owerri, Mbari, it is an open air museum that houses monumental arts depicting the culture, tradition and history of the Igbo people. Sometimes referred to as the house of gods, it is a huge tourist attraction. Although Mbari is a monumental art sacrifice to "ALA" the earth goodness, it also shelters artistic representations - artefacts as well as sculptures- which tell of the prevalent social life of the Igbos and images of other prominent deities that inhabit the traditional Igbo cosmic system.

These deities include Amadioha (the god of thunder), Ogwugwu (the god of the forest), Nwaorie (the goddess of Nwaorie River), Ahiajoku (the god of harvest), etc. Closely attached to each deity are images of animals such as monkeys, tortoise, rams, snakes and owls, believed to represent errand spirits or mystical messengers of the deities. There are also images of Ikoro, the Igbo traditional instrument for communicating messages; unfamiliar creatures such as the ostrich (Enyi Nnunu); a certain tall figure representing Alakuko, allegedly the tallest man in Igboland; Onye afo toro, a man whose stomach became bloated because he committed an abomination against Ala, etc Contrary to general assumption, Mbari is neither a centre for idol worship nor an idol in itself. It is an art form that has its origin very deep in Igbo cultural and religious beliefs and practices. The Mabari cultural centre is a three dimensional cultural facility, made up of the Mbari House, Mbari Museum Kitchen and an amphitheatre, and definitely a must-see location.

National War Museum Amafor Isingwu Umuahia

National War Museum Amafor Isingwu Umuahia is a museum set up to exhibit relics used during Nigerias Civil war of 1967. The museum has the largest collection of the Nigerian civil war weapons that are no longer in used. The weapons are from both the Nigerian military and the defunct Biafra. Commissioned in 1985, the museum is located at Ebite Amafor in Isingwu Autonomous Community in the Umuahia North Local Government Area. The museums location was chosen because it was where the bunker housing the famous shortwave radio the Voice of Biafra was transmitted from.

It has three galleries featuring items on the traditional warfare, armed forces and Nigerian civil war weapons. War relics in the museum include weapons used during the pre-colonial civil disturbances, warfare materials used during communal and inter-tribal wars and those of the Nigerian civil war. The Museum Complex opens at 10am and closes at 6pm daily with a gate fee of N100. For those who did not experience the civil war, they may not get a mental picture of how it occurred without visiting the museum. And for those who did, they could relive the period by visiting the museum. It is a perfect way to gain firsthand knowledge of the civil war, a huge part of Nigerias history. It is certainly a place to go.

Mungo Park House

Mungo Park House, also known as National Museum Asaba, is tucked behind the Delta State High Court and the state Library Board complex along Nnebisi Road, Asaba, Delta state Nigeria. Although named after Mungo Park, the man who discovered River Niger, theprominent colonial vestige of pre-fabricated wooden storey building was never owned or visited by Mungo Park. The house was constructed by the Royal Niger Company (RNC) in 1886 and served as the first British administrative headquarters in the country and invariably the first government house in Nigeria.

The Mungo Park House offers education on Nigerias rich historical background (mainly that of trade and investment in pre-colonial era) and journey to civilization. Although some parts of the building are slowly dilapidating due to the elements (weather corrosion), it is definitely a place to visit. The museum is also just a few blocks from the popular Grand Hotel, Asaba.
Former President Jerry John Rawlings has sued the publishers of Africawatch magazines, General Media Strategies, its editor Steve Mallory, plus four other defendants for defamation after the magazine recently run a story claiming he has developed Parkinsons.

The US-based magazine back in May ran the shocking story about the medical condition of the President, claiming the former military leader had developed the debilitating condition which was gradually sapping his energy.

The suit was filed in the Accra High Court by lawyers for the former President, claiming the publication brought his reputation into question and was malicious as there was no attempt for verification before it was published.

The suit also noted that numerous attempts to get Africawatch to retract the publication has not been successful.

Plaintiff states that the said publication was injurious to his reputation as he and his immediate family and his team of staff were inundated with calls from friends and family members all over the country and abroad and harassed by the media following the outbreak of the said story. the suit read.

That as an international statesman whose services were sought on the continent and abroad the said publication had the effect of projecting him as unwell and unfit for his much sought after international engagements.

Plaintiff says that he is in good health and is fit to and does perform all his usual activities like driving, flying among others and that the said publication of the Defendants may cause him to be denied the rights and privileges of a fit pilot including being denied admission into private flying clubs as he may be seen as being unfit.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com
New Patriotic Party (NPP) flag bearer for the December 7 polls, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has reacted to the attack on his private residence by supporters of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), assuring that he and his party members would not be intimidated by the Mahama-led administration.

Let the president and his army of propaganda warriors be assured that they would not succeed in their intimidation and deliberate propaganda mongering against the NPP and I. We shall continue to believe in Ghana. We will muster the necessary courage to defend democratic Ghana and continue in our peaceful quest to win power in 2016 and bring back hope and opportunities to the people of Ghana, irrespective of their politics, creed, ethnicity, region, religion, age, gender or social status, Nana Akufo-Addo said in a statement in Accra yesterday, condemning the violent attack on his Nima private residence by NDC thugs.

The attack has attracted condemnations from the international community, with strong warning of drastic actions against political actors at the centre of the mayhem. Keep-Fit Ploy

The Onyaa Crescent home of Nana Akufo-Addo at the Nima Residential Area, Accra, became a 'battlefield' Sunday morning when the property was attacked by NDC supporters who were embarking on a keep-fit exercise.

In their own announcement released by the Greater Accra Regional NDC ahead of the walk dubbed, 'Greater Accra NDC Walk for Victory' scheduled for November 13 at 5:30 am, the NDC said it was starting from La T-Junction through La township, to Osu Oxford Street, Danquah Circle, Police Headquarters, Nima Traffic Light through Nima township to the Kawukudi Park, with President John Mahama as the special guest of honour.

The president indeed attended the event at Kawukudi where he said nobody could force power sharing on him, with Ghanaians wondering where that one was also coming from.

It however, came as a surprise when the NDC activists said they were using the Nima Police Station area where Nana Akufo-Addo's residence is located, as a converging point, according to the NPP.

Hurling Bottles

It was in the process that hundreds of the NDC T-shirt-clad youth reportedly started hurling bottles of alcoholic beverages and stones into the house without any provocation.

Their bid to invade the house was said to have been aborted by two private security men at the gate who reportedly fired warning shots into the air.

Nana Akufo-Addo was in the Brong-Ahafo Region campaigning towards the December 7 polls at the time of the incident.

Police spokesperson, Supt Cephas Arthur, even worsened the matter when he claimed a bodyguard of the NPP aimed a gun at one of the police officers in the ensuing melee; and appeared to defend the NDC's action.

A Deputy Minister of Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, was on TV3 justifying the attacks by claiming that Nana Akufo-Addo was stockpiling arms in his house ahead of the elections.

Premeditated Attack

The NPP has said utterances and actions of the NDC as a party showed clearly that the attack on Nana Akufo-Addo's residence was premeditated.

The party posited, For instance, when the NDC issued a statement to condemn the attack, they created the impression that it was Nana Akufo-Addo's bodyguards that started the melee.

NDC Defence

A statement by Joyce Bawa-Mogtari, campaign spokesperson for President Mahama's re-election bid, said, The sad developments were occasioned by an unprovoked attack followed by sporadic gunshots by identified hooligans from the Nima residence of Nana Akufo-Addo, and thankfully without any reactions whatsoever from our party supporters, have now been twisted by the opposition party and their media partners, Citi FM and Joy FM.

She said records showed that 'thugs' from Nana Akufo-Addo's residence were wielding various types of weapons and firing them, adding, No NDC supporter and participant in Sunday's health walk wanted to enter, let alone attack the Nima residence.

Nana's Statement

In reaction, Nana Akufo-Addo has indicated in a statement that his tour of the country had showed clearly that President Mahama and his NDC were desperate to remain in office and that the ruling party would do anything to attain its goal.

One would, ordinarily, have treated it as a one-off spectacle, in spite of the nature of the attack. However, my four-day tour of the Brong-Ahafo Region has revealed a rather disturbing trend, leading up to this year's elections.

In Sankore, on Thursday, October 10, I witnessed at firsthand, the open brutalization of NPP members. Prior to my visit, two NPP members had been brutally murdered by NDC thugs. The scars of intimidation and assault by thugs recruited by Eric Opoku, MP for the constituency and Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, are still evident. In Asutifi South  a few kilometres away  another Minister in President Mahama's government, Collins Dauda, MP, is also perpetrating violence against his own constituents. Ghanaians heard on the radio comments made by the brother of Collins Dauda to the effect that he kills people on a daily basis, Nana Addo lamented.

Nana Akufo-Addo said, Unfortunately, these savage attacks against our party activists have gone unpunished, with the perpetrators of these acts walking free.

Police Accused

According to Nana, We have protested the apparently selective manner in which the law is being applied against those perceived to be political opponents of the current government. The police have looked on unconcerned, and the president of the land has not, on a single occasion, condemned any of these brutal acts by his ministers.

Nana Akufo-Addo asked rhetorically, Is it then a surprise that NDC foot soldiers have become emboldened to extend these attacks to all parts of the country?

He said the peace of the nation, as well as the consolidation of our democratic governance is not negotiable for the NPP. We urge all political parties and Ghanaians committed to promoting peace and deepening our democracy to work with us in securing these ends.

Nana Addo charged, Ghanaian democrats, no matter their party affiliation, should stand shoulder-to-shoulder to defend and promote the aims of our democratic Republic; that also include standing up against the bully.

By William Yaw Owusu
President Jacob Zuma will on Tuesday, 15 November 2016, visit victims of recent devastating floods in Alexandra Township, in Johannesburg, including the family of three year-old Everite Chauke who went missing tragically due to recent heavy floods.

The details of the visit to Alexandra are as follows:

Date: Tuesday, 15 November 2016

Time: 12h00

Venue: Stjwetla Informal Settlement, Alexandra Township, Johannesburg

Members of the media wishing to attend the event are requested to send their details to Proffesor Ndawonde on 079 891 2782 or [email protected]
Two tractors were donated by Exim Bank to two farmers in this years Farmers Day celebration.

The event, which was held at Kitampo in the Brong Ahafo Region saw 39-year-old Ariku Martin Akudugu from the upper east region who was the first runner-up for this years best Farmer pick up a brand new tractor.

Mr. Samuel Abiyaga from Bulsa North who won National Lives Stock Farmer of the year also got a new tractor donated by Exim Bank Ghana.

Exim Bank has been a key stake donor in supporting farmers and the celebration of farmers day over the years.

In an interview, Acting CEO of Exim bank, DR Osei Baffour, said Exim Bank, formerly EDAIF, his its focus on agriculture and agro-processing hence the need to reward farmers during the annual celebration.

Dr. Baffour also noted that Exim Gank Ghana will remain committed to its usual support to farmers.

He said the theme for this years Farmers Day celebration, Agriculture; A Business Response to Economic Growth is in line with the promise of a mandate of Exim Bank.

This according to the Chief executive means an even better and wider scope of support for farmers and other areas of their mandate on entrepreneurial initiatives, technical as well as advisory services for farmers aimed at changing perceptions on farming.

In a related development, Dr. Baffour noted the Exim Bank is not coming to compete with commercial banks but to fill those gaps that are left by commercial banks, hence will not be taking deposits from customers.

This means Exim Bank can borrow from donors and other agencies that have an interest in the businesses that they do.

Dr. Barfour thanked organizers of this year's program.

This years farmers day marks the 32nd celebrations of Farmer's Day in the history of Ghana.

In an address, President John Dramani Mahama emphasized and encouraged all farmers to practice farming as a business, saying that farming is a business and must be approached in a business manner

The president also announced that cabinet had approved the establishments of Farmer's Service Centres. This he said will be done in all districts across Ghana beginning with fifty to provide services including ploughing, hallowing and harvesting among others to farmers who need supports.

He encouraged supporting agencies in agriculture to continue their support in collaboration with governments to help improve the countrys agricultural challenges and also make Ghana an agriculture export country in the sub-region.

According to the president, supporting agencies and programs like EDAIF, now Exim has Sponsored Rice Project and the Rice sector Support program (RSSP) has helped increase Rice production to over sixty percent 60%.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com
The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has dismissed the Electoral Commission's claims that the party approved the logo the EC used on the 2016 parliamentary ballot sheets,

Confusion broke out at the Ashanti Regional office of the EC on Monday, after the NPP refused to accept the parliamentary ballot papers sent there for the upcoming polls.

According to the party, its logo on the printed ballot did not have the party's initials as the other parties had.

But the EC subsequently issued a statement stating that it did not commit an error since other parties including the NPP were part of all processes as far as the printing of ballot papers was concerned.

During the printing process, not only did the party have its representatives at the printing houses at all material times, high ranking officers of the party visited the printing houses regularly to monitor the process. At no point did they raise any objections about the NPP's logo as it was being printed.

The NPP has however issued another statement, denying the ECs assertion that the NPP approved the removal of party initials from the parliamentary notice of poll.

At no point did NPP supervisors at the printing houses express satisfaction/approval over the removal of Party initials from the Parliamentary Notice of Poll and ballot sheets as is being suggested by the Electoral Commission.

RE: CLARIFICATION: POLITICAL PARTY LOGO ON BALLOT SHEETS.

We refer to the statement issued by the Electoral Commission on the evening of Monday, 14th of November 2016 in an apparent response to concerns expressed by some members of the NPP over the omission of the partys initials beneath its symbol on the Parliamentary ballot sheets and wish to point out the obvious distortions and untruths therein.

1. The Electoral Commission printed Parliamentary Notices of Polls with different inscriptions in the blue portion of the NPP logo/symbol.

2. Whilst for instance the Notice of Poll in the Asante Akyem Nouth Constituency had in the blue portion of the NPP symbol MOTTO: DEVELOPMENT IN FREEDOM, another one for Kwadaso had  NPP: DEVELOPMENT IN FREEDOM. But both had NPP written beneath the symbol and all of these are public and copies can be verified.

3. The NPP supervisors quickly drew the Commissions attention at the printing houses to correct this anomaly. In doing this correction, the NPP initials beneath the symbol was also removed.

4. We again noticed that and quickly asked for it to be reinstated, only to be informed by the Commissions supervisors that it was too late for the initials to be included.

5. The Commission further took the position that it had not erred in removing the NPP initials placed beneath the symbol since the NPP official logo/symbol had no such initials included in it.

6. It however made a surprise turn around in bringing the NPP initial back on the Presidential Notice of Poll and ballot sheets.

7. At no point did NPP supervisors at the printing houses express satisfaction/approval over the removal of Party initials from the Parliamentary Notice of Poll and ballot sheets as is being suggested by the Electoral Commission.

We urge party members/supporters and voters in general to remain calm and focused on the Great Elephant symbol. 3y3 Osono.

Election Directorate,

NPP.



By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Heeraben Modi, Prime Minister Modi's 97-year-old mother, today stood in a queue outside a bank in Gujarat to exchange the scrapped notes.

By India Today Web Desk: Narendra Modi's nonagenarian mother today joined a queue outside an Oriental Bank of Commerce branch in Gandhinagar to exchange her Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, which were declared illegal by her Prime Minister son through a televised announcement, sending shock waves across the country.

It's been a long week since. The extraordinary decision, intended to check black money, created massive chaos and confusion as people rushed to the ATMs and banks, which soon ran out of cash.

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Nearly 25 people have died so far in a week in various incidents linked to the demonetisation programme, forcing the government to take remedial measures like increasing limits of withdrawals or extending dates until which the old currency could be used.

But it didn't change much on the ground.

ALSO READ | Leading by example: PM's mother Heeraben Modi visits Gandhinagar bank to exchange old notes

ALSO READ | #CashChaos LIVE: Surgical strike or carpet bombing, but people are suffering, says Supreme Court

POLITICS OVER DEMONETISATION

As anger on the streets grew, the politics over the controversial decision to demonetise old currency notes intensified with most Opposition leaders accusing the government of being insensitive to the inconvenience and suffering caused to the people.

In a major photo-op, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi queued up outside a State Bank of India branch at Parliament street on Friday "to withdraw Rs 4000". He used the visit to display his anger as well as his solidarity with the people.

As far as optics in politics are concerned, the Congress leader, by queuing up like a common citizen, was able to register what was one of the strongest protests against the demonetisation scheme.

ALSO READ | Indelible ink at banks to stop people from hoarding cash, creating panic

ALSO READ | Black money saves Indian economy: Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav

UNTIL TODAY

A wheel-chair bound Hiraben's modest - and visually powerful - act of visiting a bank, despite being the mother of India's most powerful man has stolen Rahul's thunder. It has also given the BJP a strong moral counter to the Congress charge of the government being anti-poor.

Despite many on Twitter asking why Hiraben's visit should also not be called a photo-op, it is a fact that her visit on the eve of Parliament's winter session has made the face-off over demonetisation a lot more intense.

Also Read:

Benami property is next target after black money, says PM Modi

Demonetising 500, 1000 rupee notes has ended terror-funding, stone-pelting in Kashmir: Parrikar

25 deaths in a week: PM Modi's demonetisation drive takes a toll on aam aadmi

PM Modi to chair all-party meet on demonetisation; Congress calls it a mere 'note-change' policy



--- ENDS ---

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15.11.2016 LISTEN

Perception is as powerful as the truth and it works magic on the Brain so when perception materializes into reality you can imagine how quick the Body will accept it as a confirmation of the perceived truth.

Electoral Commission of Ghana is the only Body mandated to organize elections and declare the president of Ghana and no matter how Bad you hate the chairperson there is nothing you can do about it. I have therefore been against the fact that people keep insulting her and accusing her of Bais simply because that wont remove her from the Chair moreover if after you have denigerated her and she declares you the winner how credible would you want us to take that declaration.

Looking at how close the 2012 election was should tell us how polarized we have become as a nation you will therefore expect whoever assumes that Chair to be circumspect in whatever he or she does since the least oversight could denegrate into Chaos.

When this new EC Chair assumed office the First Party that accused her was the NPP to the extent that One of their sitting MPs Kennedy Agyepong said unprintable words about her which some of us felt was irresponsible and unnecesary but he came back to casualy apologize.

Now when the parties presented their forms for vetting there was this perception that she wanted some particular parties out so when the final list was publised and those perceived parties were eliminated it only confirmed that perception people had and it took the Supreme Court to make her reconsider her entrenched Position and reminded her of the fact that nobody is above the law.

In Elections the ballot paper is the most important tool and any miscomunication on it could cost any political Party dearly since most of the voters are illiterates thanks to the politicians. They therefore have to take their time in educating them on how and where to thumbprint on the sheet. Some even create terms and songs like Hi5, John 3:16, Esuruho and Asi3ho just to make sure their supporters get it right when they enter the ballot Box.

Logos therefore play a major role in such exercise so when NPP complained about their logo have been tempered with and that their initials had been omitted I felt very dissapointed in the EC since that only confirmed or materialized the perception of Bais.

Take a closer look at the samples online and you would realize that the only clear logo is that of the NDC in fact the umbrella stands tall and it is just too obvious to miss even though the Resolution for Computer and print out differ. If you look at the NPP logo the elephant is not outstanding which i will not blame the EC but the Party BUT the initials being omitted!! the EC must take the full blame.

The explanation that the Party endorsed mediocrity therefore you followed suit is a complete sign of incompetence.

Avoidable mistakes like writing PPP reciepts and mixing Words and Figures should not be tolerated.

Elections is no childs play and therefore suspicions and misconceptions play a major role we therefore dont need an EC that will confirm those suspicions since it will only lead us into chaos considering the tension in this years elections. No human being or Institution is perfect BUT lets all work hard to attain some perceived Perfection.

Lets all go out on the 7th of December and cast our vote peacefully with an EC doing its work deligently since the only country we have is Ghana.

Long Live Ghana, Long Live EC and Long Live All Our Political Parties.
15.11.2016 LISTEN

The ballot papers without the NPP initials (left) and the notice of poll which has the initials (right)

THE BALLOT papers for the parliamentary election in the Ashanti Region do not capture the initials of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

However, the initials of the other political parties, including the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), were boldly captured on the ballot papers, printed by the Electoral Commission (EC).

The incident had angered the Ashanti Regional NPP Chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako aka Wontumi, who has urged the EC to withdraw the ballot papers and print new ones that would capture the NPP's initials.

He has also appealed to the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the National Chief Imam, the Peace Council and the various missions in the country to intervene so that the EC does the right thing to ensure peace.

Ballot Papers

All the ballot papers have the pictures and names of the various contestants. The initials and logos of the various political parties were also boldly captured so as to make easy identification for voters.

The NPP leadership believes the omission is a calculated attempt by the EC to let the party lose votes in the region.

NPP

Wontumi stated that he sensed something fishy in the omission of the NPP's initials on the ballot papers. He said he suspects that the EC intentionally did that to reduce the NPP's votes.

He recollected that the notice of polls, which was also printed by the EC earlier, has the initials of the NPP boldly captured on it, noting that he is surprised the party's initials had been dropped from the ballot papers.

Without mincing words, he said the NPP would not allow the ballot papers to be used for the impending parliamentary polls on December 7, and has tasked the EC to immediately replace them with proper ballot papers that would have the party's initials.

According to him, the NPP suffered several injustices at the hands of the EC during the 2012 elections, which the party controversially lost, noting that the NPP had learnt its lessons and so the EC could not take them for a ride again.

FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi
Management of Access Bank Ghana Limited is reeling under pressure to pay the severance packages of some 66 employees it sacked under reported bizarre circumstances.

It follows a ruling by the National Labour Commission (NLC) against the bank after almost five years of litigation.

Issues

The 66 former employees of the bank, who worked for the defunct Intercontinental Bank Ghana (IBG) Limited, were sacked when they reportedly refused to sign absorption letters which contained terms different from the existing ones before the merger of IBG and Access Bank. This included writing a credit test as part of conditions for their re-engagement by Access Bank.

Obviously unhappy with the new terms, the affected staff, through their lawyer, demanded negotiations over their severance package with management of the bank.

Not only did the bank refuse to negotiate with the staff, the management was said to have denied the staff access to their offices to work, citing their refusal to sign the absorption letters.

Subsequently, the ex-staff were issued with letters with the heading, 'Resignation,' in which the bank stated that they (staff) were deemed to have resigned due to their refusal to sign the letters.

Ruling

On Thursday, November 10, 2016, the NLC consequently directed the management of Access Bank to pay severance package to the ex-staff in accordance with Section 65 of the Labour Act (Act 651).

To date some of the staff who took this action, have still not secured employment.

During the course of the case, a number of the petitioners alleged that Access Bank consistently wrote poor references to their new employers anytime they secured jobs.

Some of them also claim to have suffered poor credit ratings reports from the Credit Reference Bureau as their outstanding staff loans had been reported by the bank as default loans.

Several attempts were made by the Access Bank to obtain an out-of-court settlement but the bank pulled out abruptly to the surprise of the ex-staff.

At a point, the NLC had to write to the bank's lawyers, warning them against the several requests for adjournments.

Effect

With this ruling, the affected workers can now move on with their careers.

Indeed, it is the expectation of the ex-workers that the bank would fulfill payment of the redundancy award as directed by the NLC.

There are about other suits pending at the law courts against Access Bank, all of which were occasioned by the merger with IBG in 2012, BUSINESS GUIDE has learnt.

Sources said that lawyers for the bank yesterday rushed to the NLC to raise issues with the ruling and its likely effect on the Initial Public Offer (IPO) which could be extended for another two weeks.

By Charles Takyi-Boadu




Baring any hitches, public service workers will embark on a strike action today to put pressure on the government to pay their mandatory monthly deductions under the Tier 2 Pension Scheme.

It emerged that the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government has not paid the mandatory 5% Tier Two monthly deductions since the scheme commenced in April 2016.

According to the workers, the government is hampering the smooth operation of the 2nd Tier Occupational Pension Schemes in the public sector which has put the pensions of workers in danger.

Twelve labour unions that have vowed to be part of this nationwide strike today include the Health Service Workers Union (HSWU), Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GRNA), Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Ghana Physician Assistants Association (GPAA), Ghana Hospital and Pharmacists Association (GHOSPA), Ghana Association of Certified Registered Anesthetists (GACRA), Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Teachers and Educational Workers' Union (TEWU) of TUC, National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT) and the Civil and Local Government Staff Association, Ghana (CLOGSAG).

Dr. Isaac Bampoe-Addo, who is the Chairman of the Forum of Public Sector Labour Unions and doubles as Executive Secretary of CLOGSAG, yesterday, said Our demand was that the second tier should be transferred to our custodian banks but as we speak now, nothing has been done.

If it's transferred tomorrow, then we do not have a problem but if not then we will have a meeting on the 15th to decide the way forward.

He said, The communique that was issued was very clear that if by 15th nothing happens then we are going to lay down our tools. What we are saying is that the money should be transferred to our custodian banks. We started this fight two years ago.

Later, the National Labour Commission (NLC) said it had not received any formal notification from the unions on the intended industrial action and said it would be illegal to go on strike.

On October 26, the workers vowed to start a strike action from today if the NDC government failed to comply with the statutory obligation by paying the money into the custodian banks that were nominated by the government even against the wish of the workers.

Mahama's Directive

At the behest of President John Mahama, the leadership of the various workers group met the Attorney General and the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations in May 2015 to settle the case out-of-court which was initiated by the government against the workers over the Tier 2 scheme.

In what turned out to be consent judgement, the government, as the employer, agreed to ensure that effective April 1, 2016, it would transfer the 5% Tier 2 monthly deductions made by the Controller and Accountant General and pay directly to the pension custodian banks duly appointed by the government itself.

It was also agreed that the National Pension Regulatory Authority (NPRA) shall ensure that the transfer of funds currently held in the Temporary Pension Fund Account (TPFA) at the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to custodian banks of the four schemes was completed by July 2, 2016.

The government again promised to reimburse the defendant workers reasonable expenses incurred in setting up their trusts and schemes, as well as any reasonable legal fees incurred in the course of the litigation of the suit.

Dr. Bampoe-Addo said, The delay in transferring the 5% Tier 2 monthly deductions to custodian banks nominated by the government itself is worrying.

He said the leadership of the workers had made efforts to get the audited TPFA.

As we speak, we don't know how much has accrued. The deafening silence on the part of the government concerning the transfer of funds is clearly in contravention of the court judgement.

The workers rubbished the recent directive by Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Haruna Iddrissu to the Controller and Accountant General to release the funds to various custodian banks, saying that the President and Minister of Finance have the power to instruct the Controller.

It's a ploy. When they got intelligence that we were going to expose them, they quickly got the minister to issue the directive to the Controller.

By William Yaw Owusu


The presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, will today start the second phase of his 'Arise For Change' tour of the Eastern Region, which is stronghold of the party after visiting the BrongAhafo Region.

The 2016 NPP presidential candidate will embark on the tour from Tuesday, November 15 to Saturday, November 19, 2016.

He is expected to visit 19 constituencies, including Ayensuano, Akuapem North, Okere, Lower Manya, Asuogyaman, Mpreaso, Afram Plains North and South, New Juaben North and South, Fantweakwa South, Abuakwa North, Achiase, AkimOda, AkimSwedru, Akwatia and Asene Manso Akroso.

The NPP flagbearer would meet the chiefs, Zongo communities, clergy, business executives, regional executives, constituency executives and NPP aspirants and defeated parliamentary candidates.

Nana Akufo-Addo, as part of his tour, would also propagate the policies of the NPP and urge Ghanaians to vote for him and the NPP to revive the country's economy to improve the lives of Ghanaians.

Party supporters in the region, according to reports, are feverishly preparing to give Nana Addo a rousing welcome.

The party's paraphernalia have been displayed at the NPP's offices.

Several jingles are also being played on various radio stations across the region.

From Daniel Bampoe, Koforidua


The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, yesterday dismissed the case brought against Electoral Commission (EC) over the counting of the ballots in the special voting.

The seven-member panel of judges, presided over by Justice William Atuguba, said the case of the plaintiffs-Dr. Amoako Tuffuor, Benjamin Arthur and Adreba Abrefa Damoa, was in contravention of the provisions of the 1992 constitution.

He said the fear of the plaintiffs, who prayed the court for an order to count ballots papers in the special voting, was unfounded.

Judgement

Justice Atuguba stated that counting the votes would jeopardize the secrecy of the ballot, as well as that of the voters involved.

The court opined that none of the parties in the case was able to cite an instance in the world whereby special votes were counted.

He said the constitution did not also contemplate fractional declaration of results.

The court accordingly dismissed the suit.

Meanwhile, Justice Atuguba told Dr Amoako Tuffuor that had served his country well although the judgement did not go his favour.

He jokingly disclosed that he would have given Dr Amoako Tuffuor a national award if he had the power to do so.

Atuguba on the media

Justices Atuguba said the media, as the fourth estate of the realm, is very important in every democratic state and should take their work seriously.

Justice Atuguba noted that failure by the media to play their role was an indication that the public, who the media represent, would be misled.

Making reference to misreporting of court proceedings, he argued that they have a special place in the constitution, for me I like them; I think they are very, very, important.

Touching on the rationale behind the seizure of mobile phones of journalists in the court yesterday, he said, I am sorry they can't bring their phones here, if they improve they will bring them here.

Justice Jones Dotse, another member of the panel, chided the EC for failing to come to court at the last sitting.

He contended that the Commission was a constitutional body with so many directors, some of whom, could be appointed to represent them in court in such cases of national interest.

Justice Dotse was of the view that the EC ought to make its presence felt in court.

The court criticized the EC for persistently failing to appear before court over matters of national interest.

The court became incensed when it became apparent that there was nobody to represent the Commission at the last hearing.

However, Amadu Sulley, Deputy Chairman of the EC in-charge of Operation, said the Commission was sorry for its absence and that it was overtaken by events.

He assured the court that the incident would never be repeated.

Egbert Fabille Jnr, lawyer for the plaintiffs, who was prompted by Wilberforce Asare, the Dean of the Judicial Press Corps, apologized on behalf of the journalists over concerns raised by Justice Atuguba.

Dr. Tuffuor Speaks

Speaking to journalists after the ruling, Dr. Tuffuor disclosed that you must count the number of people who come there to vote and let's have a national result of the numbers that vote on that day.

He said in any case I am not here to litigate because we have to do so, we have basic issues we must understand to protect the forthcoming elections.

Dr. Tuffuor further stated that I am pleading with everybody, please let's take it easy, the court has made a decision we must accept, we may not agree with it, we must respect it and be extremely vigilant.

There are a lot of disgruntled NDC peopleThere are individuals from several angles who talk about special voting. I am not going to give anybody out but we brought it to court, we were judged on its merits, and I think we must accept the verdict, he stated.

By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson

[email protected]




The spokesperson for Ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor has debunked rumours that the former head of state is dead in South Africa.

Frank Agyekum, the special aide to the former president, speaking to DAILY GUIDE, denied the speculation and described it as totally false. Mr Kufuor is active and strong staying with his family; he is not dead. He attended Dr Duncan Williams' mothers funeral over the weekend and hasnt been rushed outside the country for any medical treatment, he stressed.

An online portal  meganews360.com  on Monday published that the former president was dead in Johannesburg, South Africa, following a surgical operation on his spine.

The news post was trending wide like fire on the social media, which prompted the attention of the former head of state to rubbish it.

According to the online portal, a team of Joburg doctors were said to have conducted a second surgical operation on Mr Kufuor's spine; but unfortunately, he passed away just after 45 minutes of the surgery.

It further claimed that though it's obvious to provisionally attribute his sudden demise to the spinal problem, doctors have assured the public that they will soon release autopsy report to ascertain the real cause.

An autopsy will fully confirm the cause of his death, but the best guess at the moment is the spinal problem. Today is a sad day, Mr Kufuor's death has come as a big shock to his party members and the entire Ghanaian Community, as Ghana is just on the verge of undergoing electoral exercise, the online portal posted.

However, Mr. Frank Agyekum, who described the report as very unfortunate, urged the public to discard the rumours.

BY Daniel Bampoe


My spiritualist revealed to me that madam wanted to kill me for rituals, so I killed her, were the words of a 26-year-old Burkinabe national arrested for allegedly killing his madam at Abelemkpe in Accra.

Madam Lucy Tawiah Peprah, 72-year-old educationist and former headmistress of St Monica's Training College, was reportedly butchered by Osman Yakubu, her night security man, last Saturday.

The police apprehended Osman Yakubu with one Benjamin Semabia, 65-year-old driver of the deceased woman, to assist in investigations.

Two machetes and a pair of scissors allegedly used in perpetrating the act were retrieved by the police from Yakubu at the time of his arrest.

Facts

The Tesano District Police Commander, DSP Edward Tetteh, who briefed DAILY GUIDE, said police on Saturday, November 12, 2016, received a distress call at about 10pm that a watchman had butchered his madam at Abelemkpe.

According to DSP Edward Tetteh, when the police got to the scene, the suspect had barricaded himself in the room of the deceased person and was with the dead body.

He said the police broke into it and arrested Osman Yakubu, who had armed himself with two machetes and a pair of scissors.

A close examination on the body revealed that Mrs Lucy Peprah was stabbed.

There were deep cuts in her head, arms and face while she lay half naked in a pool of blood, he posited.

Findings

Preliminary investigations revealed that Osman Yakubu had been working with the woman for the past one-and-a-half years.

On that fateful day, at about 9pm, Osman was said to have armed himself with the afore-mentioned weapons and proceeded to the room of his madam, who lived in a one-storey building apartment at Abelemkpe.

Michael Abiasa, the cook in the house, first spotted Osman Yakubu with the machetes and when he questioned him (Yakubu), the suspect allegedly attacked him and so he fell on the ground unconscious.

Raymond Achianku, a day security man around, reportedly heard of the screaming and came out to save his colleague, but he was also assaulted by Osman Yakubu.

Madam Lucy Tawiah Peprah, also director of Solid Foundation School and philanthropist, had then returned from the bathroom and was preparing to go to bed.

The suspect was said to have sneaked into her room and without any questions, butchered her mercilessly.

The police said a taxi driver, identified as Ronnie Djanison, heard of the screaming from outside and entered the house to assist, but he was also allegedly attacked by the suspect.

At the police station Yakubu told the police that he was told by a spiritualist that his madam wanted to use him for rituals and that he would die before Sunday; and that was the reason why he killed her.

He also alleged that he committed the act with the consent of Semabia.

By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey

([email protected])


15.11.2016 LISTEN

By Pascal kafuAbotsi

([email protected])..

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addos security detail, yesterday morning foiled a planned attack on him by some alleged overzealous gun toting members of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), who, during a health walk, veered off their agreed route to the Nima residence of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flag bearer.

Eyewitness accounts say when the health walkers got there, they made efforts to enter the house but were prevented by the security personnel at post.

Infuriated, the NDC members began to do the unthinkable, which included the tearing of campaign posters on the walls of the house.

And without provocation, some heavily built young men, said to be wielding guns, fired warning shots sporadically, while others pelted stones and broken bottles into the house of Nana Akufo Addo, causing some damage.

Sensing danger, the presidential candidates security men thought it wise to disperse the NDC hooligans with warning shots, but that was met with a strong resistance, as they turned the stone and broken bottles attack on the guards.

The situation compelled some NPP supporters, who were around at the time of the incident, to send information across.

Within a short period, party men and women had massed up at the spot. That was at a time the Nima Police had called for reinforcement, because the crowd was beyond their control.

Angry supporters of the NPP were reported to have booed the police for looking on whilst the NDC supporters defaced posters of the NPP Presidential candidate on the wall of the house.

One of them was heard on Accra-based Joy FM saying: I was at home when I had a call from my colleague that some NDC guys were throwing stones into our Flagbearers house so I rushed here. We are ready, we will not allow them to come and mess up our flagbearers house.

Meanwhile, the NPP, after condemning the violent attack, has accused one of the three jailed Accra-based Montie FM panelists, Godwin Ako Gunn, of being the brain behind the occurrence.

A statement signed by the partys Director of Communications, Nana Akomea and copied to The Chronicle revealed that yesterday morning, a large crowd of NDC supporters led by one Ako Gunn, one of the Muntie 3, who was recently pardoned by President Mahama after being jailed for threatening to rape and murder the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, massed up in front of the home of Nana Addo and violently attacked the security detail outside the presidential candidates house.

Apart from the behaviour of the NDC supporters being a threat to the integrity of the countrys democracy, Nana Akomea also believed the motive of the act was not in doubt, as it was clear the NDC supporters were purposely at Nana Addos residence to assault NPP supporters and create an environment of fear within Ghana 24 days to the election.

This action was premeditated and unquestionably violent. Amassing NDC supporters outside of the NPP Flagbearer's house is part of a broad range of calculated, violent, and provocative acts designed to bait the NPP into responding in similar fashion, he observed, while calling on the National Peace Council, the Christian Council and all Civil Society Organizations to make their voices heard in the condemnation of the violent act.
MARRAKECH, MOROCCO (November 15, 2016)  Today at the international climate negotiations in Marrakech, Morocco, developing and developed countries launch a new partnership, dedicated to deliver on the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change and related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The NDC Partnership is a new coalition of developing and developed countries and international institutions working together to ensure countries receive the technical and financial support they need to achieve ambitious climate and related sustainable development goals as fast and effectively as possible.

National climate plans, or NDCs, are at the heart of the Paris Agreement, said Dr. Hakima El Haite, Climate Champion and Minister Delegate in Charge of the Environment, Ministry of Energy, Mines Water and the Environment, Morocco. Launching at COP22, the NDC Partnership comes at an opportune time to accelerate climate action worldwide.

This Partnership is a vital, collaborative platform for helping countries embed their NDCs into all sectors and all levels of decision-making. Through the NDC Partnership, we will also engage more of the private sector, encourage South-South cooperation and make donors more responsive to countries needs. The NDC Partnership is exactly the sort of smart, action-oriented initiative that we need to deliver on the promise of the Paris Agreement.

The global initiative will host a launch event at the U.N. climate negotiations in Marrakech, featuring ministers and other high-level representatives from many countries and institutions, including Climate Champions Hakima El Haite and Laurence Tubiana. At the event a diverse range of countries will announce they are joining the Partnership.

Germany will align its international climate finance  2.7 billion from budgetary resources alone last year  to the Partnership and aims to further increase this support to 4 billion by 2020.

The time for climate action is now, said Dr. Gerd Muller, German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development. The intention behind the NDC Partnership is that we can best tackle climate change and support climate adaptation by pooling our strengths and our knowledge. If we try to go it alone in limiting global warming, we will fail. If we support each other in a real partnership, we will succeed.

The implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) is now the urgent topic on the agenda for the international climate community, says Barbara Hendricks, German Environment Minister. The NDC Partnership will play a vital role in coordinating and aligning efforts to support developing countries in achieving their domestic climate actions. Im convinced that the only chance we have to limit warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius and keep 1.5 degrees Celsius goal in reach is if all parties swiftly and transparently turn their national climate plans into action and work towards more ambition.

Driving national climate action while accelerating economic development requires smart policies, smart politics and access to modern finance, knowledge and technology. This new dynamic partnership is designed to help. Whether boosting investments in clean technology, unlocking climate finance, or shining a light on best practices, this global coalition will help deliver support to countries when and where they need it, said Dr. Andrew Steer, President and CEO, World Resources Institute. The Paris Agreement has prompted a huge influx of technical assistance to accelerate the transition to a zero-carbon economy, but these programs demand greater coordination to make them efficient, ambitious and effective. The NDC Partnership will help connect the dots, ensuring these efforts are more impactful together than they would be on their own.

The NDC Partnership enhances cooperation among nations so that developing countries have more effective access to the technical knowledge and financial support necessary to deliver on their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to address climate change and deliver on related sustainable development goals. There are many initiatives already underway focused on supporting national climate action. The Partnership aims to better align these international and in-country efforts and to improve understanding of existing resources, and will gradually expand capacity to respond to countries evolving needs.

The reality is that developing countries will not reach their development goals if climate change is not addressed. We can and must work to accelerate climate and development action in tandem. That is what the NDC Partnership is all about, and that is why we are very happy to be involved, said H.E. Vo Tuan Nhan, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment of Viet Nam.

This partnership will help countries, technical experts, private investors, and multilateral institutions work faster and more coherently, in addressing climate and development challenges, said Laura Tuck World Bank Group Vice President, Sustainable Development. It will also ensure that countries have access to the solutions that best suit their needs, and the knowledge and skills to put them into action. We look forward to being an active member of the Partnership and contributing to its success.

The NDC Partnership takes a three-pronged approach to driving ambitious climate action guided by country demand and priorities:

Create and disseminate insightful knowledge products that raise awareness of and enhance access to existing support initiatives, tools and resources, including finance. Facilitate technical assistance and capacity building at national, regional and global levels by fostering greater collaboration between environment and development agencies. Facilitate enhanced financial support of existing and new country-specific, bilateral and international NDC support programs.

The Partnership is initially co-chaired by the governments of Morocco and Germany. Membership is open to all countries and relevant international institutions. Membership is defined by support for the Partnerships guiding principles that will help orient the Partnerships work and that of its members. World Resources Institute hosts the support unit for the NDC Partnership.

In conjunction with todays launch, the NDC Partnership unveiled the NDC Funding & Initiatives Navigator , the worlds most comprehensive online database of climate finance and support initiatives. Developed in collaboration the UNFCCC, the government of Morocco and the German agency GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit), the NDC Funding & Initiatives Navigator enables recipient countries to identify funds and initiatives that can accelerate climate and development action.

A better understanding of available support will also help donors make their programs more responsive and effective. As of today, the NDC Funding & Initiatives Navigator covers over 300 bilateral and multilateral funds and support initiatives relevant to implementing NDCs, spanning across 17 sectors.
By PTI: The Indian central bank earlier responded saying the NRB?s

The Indian central bank earlier responded saying the NRB?s message has been conveyed to the Indian Finance Ministry.

Indian central bank governor Urjit Patel told the same thing to Nepali central bank governor Chiranjibi Nepal during the conversation between the two, a senior NRB official said on condition of anonymity.

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This was an indication concrete results may not be achieved by holding talks at the central bank level, as the Reserve Bank of India cannot make any move without getting an instruction from the Indian Finance Ministry, the report said.

This, many said, called for the need to hold talks at higher level.

Earlier, former finance ministers Ram Sharan Mahat and Surendra Pandey had also told Parliament that interventions need to be made at the top Indian government level to reap favourable results.

The urgency was shown by almost everyone to deal with the issue as the Indian government has set a deadline of December 30 to deposit the scrapped notes at banks. PTI NSA AKJ NSA

--- ENDS ---
An Accra High Court has dismissed an interlocutory injunction application filed against the government on its plans to cede part of the operations of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to a private company.

According to the ruling delivered by Justice Norvice Aryene, the plaintiff lacked capacity in bringing the suit to court as they failed to show how the privatization will affect him personally.

The plaintiff, Saaka Salia, who is also member of the opposition New Patriotic Party's (NPP) communications team sued the Millennium Development Authority(MiDA), arguing that it is not fit to participate as an adviser in the concession arrangement for the ECG because its conduct breached Ghana's laws after it authored and circulated a draft tariff methodology.

Mr. Salia's writ asserted that, the PURC, not MiDA is the body with exclusive mandate by law to provide guidelines for determining tariffs and levels of tariffs, and in doing so in the manner prescribed by Act 538.

But the Justice Aryene dismissed the case emphasizing that Mr. Salia lacked the capacity in bringing the suit to court as he failed to show how the privatization affected him.

MiDA described suit as incompetent

Speaking to Citi Business News earlier, the Chief Executive Officer of MiDA, Ing. Owura Safo described the suit as incompetent, false and lacking merit.

According to him, the allegations set in the suit were false, since MiDA has undergone all the necessary requirements and legal procedures needed to bring the Ghana Power Compact II into force.

The Power Compact II

Under the Power Compact, six projects will be implemented to address the root causes of the unavailability and unreliability of power in Ghana

The Government of Ghana signed the Ghana Power Compact with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), an independent United States government agency, on the sidelines of the US Africa Leaders' Summit in Washington on August 5, 2014.

The Compact would provide Ghana with a grant sum of four hundred and ninety eight million, two hundred thousand United States Dollars.

By: Fred Tettey Djabanor/ Lawrence Segbefia/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
The High Level Session of the UN Climate Change Conference officially opened on Tuesday 15th November, 2016 at the ongoing COP22, Marrakech, Morocco.

Major world leaders have gathered here to execute the Africa climate plan of action owing to the Paris Agreement of COP21.

A press conference by the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon and UNFCCC President Madam Patricia Espinosa, opened the session on Tuesday.

More Updates Soon.....


FBNBank Ghana has partnered eTranzact, an electronic transaction switching and payment processing platform, to provide the bank's customers with a simple, secure and convenient way of paying bills for various services.

This partnership is also, among others, meant to enhance customers' experience through convenient banking service.

The eTranzact platform provides FBNBank Ghana with the ability to support the collection of bills for and on behalf of service providers such as ECG, DStv, GOtv, Surfline, Vodafone, AMA, MTN, WAEC and Medview Airline at any of the bank's branches across the country.

Beyond this, FBNBank Ghana will also be able to monitor all details of payments online, providing absolute security on all transactions.

This means payments of subscriptions, utility bills and school fees can be conveniently managed by the bank at all its branches.

According to the Managing Director/CEO of FBNBank Ghana, Gbenga Odeyemi, FBNBank Ghana thrives on mutually rewarding partnerships, and we are excited to have partnered eTranzact in facilitating our customers' access to more products and services, while also delivering on our defined brand promise and customer experience.

He explained that FBNBank Ghana is fully committed to its vision of understanding and supporting our customers' busy and modern lives and eTranzact platform is one of the most important solutions tailored to make their lives easier as we become a one stop shop for the payment of utility and other bills.

Mr. Odeyemi also stated that the strategic partnership will also provide both FBNBank Ghana and eTranzact the opportunity to create shared value through combined risk, funding and resource contributions by way of coordination, cooperation and collaboration for the purpose of customer satisfaction.

We aim to become the bank of first choice in Ghana with the provision of products and services that meet the diverse needs of our customers.

We will continue to leverage evolving technologies in bringing secure, fast and convenient financial services closer to our customers in line with the bank's digital banking strategy, Odeyemi added.
President Dramani Mahama yesterday officially opened the 74 million Euros three-tier Kwame Nkrumah Interchange in Accra.

The three-tier interchange, which was jointly financed by the Governments of Ghana and Brazil, comprises a flyover from the State Housing Corporation head office to La Paloma on the Ring Road; the Akasanoma flyover, the Nsawam flyover and a bridge over the Odaw River.

The ultramodern Kwame Nkrumah Interchange, which was constructed by Brazillian Company Gueiroz Galvao Construction, has changed the landscape of one of the busiest business centers in Ghana, and is expected to ensure free flow of traffic in the area.

President Mahama, addressing dignitaries and thousands of NDC supporters who thronged the venue, said the flyover, which is the longest and highest in West Africa, will immensely benefit over 200,000 motorists who ply the Circle route daily.

This is the longest flyover and the highest in West Africaplease note I said flyover, the longest bridge is in Lagos, Nigeria but the longest and highest flyover is in Accra, Ghana.

President Mahama said the project would open up the country to citizens from neighbouring countries to boost trade, as well as reduce the time Ghanaians spend in commuting to work.

He said prior to the construction of the new Kwame Nkrumah Interchange, congestion at Circle caused a loss of $100 million annually to the Ghanaian economy.

Lack of traffic flow at Circle resulted in an estimated loss of about $100 million per annum to our national economy, he said.

Apart from the three-tier interchange, the President Mahama said other roads, including the Ring Road East to the Feo Oyo Intersection on the Ring Road West, had been rehabilitated.

According to him, the roads have been asphalted with pedestrian walkways and bicycle paths also provided.

He said the construction of the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange created thousands of jobs and would do more in the coming days.

President Mahama lauded former Presidents John Kufuor and Jerry John Rawlings for improving roads in the country to ease traffic.

The President cut the sod in October 2013 for the construction of the three-tier Kwame Nkrumah Interchange.

By Cephas Larbi

[email protected]
15.11.2016 LISTEN

Naaba Abdulai, younger brother of Collins Dauda, Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, has reportedly threatened to deal with the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) maverick Kennedy Agyapong, if he sets foot in the Asutifi South constituency.

According to Naaba Abdulai, Kennedy Agyapong threatened to let the NPP's Invisible Forces attack him on December 7. In an interview with Kwabena Prah Junior on Agyenkwa FM's Agyenkwa Dawuro, which later went viral on social media, Naaba Abdulai swore to beat the Assin Central Member of Parliament (MP) mercilessly, if he ever steps foot in the area, describing him as a mad man who rants unnecessarily.

Who is Kennedy Agyapong to threaten me with death? We have been involved in the act of killing before he was born. We have ended the lives of several people, and I will finish anybody who harbours bad intention towards me before his time, he warned.

The Chronicle is disturbed at the alleged conduct of Naaba, because the MP for the Asutifi North Constituency, also in the Brong Ahafo Region, Joseph Benhazin Dahah, during the recently held limited voter registration exercise, alleged that Naaba Abdulai and his cohorts subjected him to severe beatings at the Ntrotroso polling station, where he had gone to observe the on-going exercise.

The MP told Joy News; I was there chatting with my party agents and asking them how the exercise was going, when these people (thug) drove in, saying when they got out of the car, Mr. Dauda's brother pointed at him and directed the men to beat him up.

He was the first person to slap me; then the men beat me till my legs could no longer support my body, causing me to fall down on the ground; one of them pulled out a knife on me.

The MP narrated that it was a certain boy who came around and pushed that guy (holding the knife) before I could stand up and run, and lodged a complaint at the Sunyani police station, where he was given medical forms to attend hospital.

This year's election is not the first, and would certainly, not be the last election to be held in Ghana, and that is why we are disturbed with the threat coming from the minister's brother, as though the election is a do and die affair.

But instead of condemning it, Mr. Asiedu Nketiah, NDC General Secretary, is rather supporting it.

Asiedu Nketia told Accra-based Neat FM that The boy was threatened, and he replied. What do you expect from a young man in the village who has been threatened (with death)?

To ensure that nobody takes the law into his own hands to cause confusion in the country, The Chronicle is calling on the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr. John Kudalor, to call the young man to order, since his party General Secretary has declined to do so.

The young man is clearly trying to take the law into his own hands, and the police must not allow this to happen. The fact that the Naaba is the young brother of Collins Dauda does not mean that he is above the laws of the country.

He must be reined in before he sets this country ablaze. If Kennedy Agyapong had threatened to kill him, as he was alleging, the best thing to do was to report him (Agyapong) to the police for the law to take its course, instead of going on air to make such comments.

People like Naaba seem to have underrated the power of radio, which has the potential to wreck havoc on a nation if its usage is abused.

A stitch in time, they say, saves nine.


Victims of war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious violations deserve to have their day in court, Amnesty International said as it urged states to work to strengthen, rather than withdraw from, the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The call comes on the eve of the 15th Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the Rome Statute  the ICCs founding treaty  taking place from 16 to 24 November in The Hague, Netherlands.

Rather than choosing to abandon what is in many cases the only avenue towards justice for millions of vulnerable victims of crimes under international law, states must engage in good faith with the International Criminal Court. They must use their collective power to challenge the double standards, shameful failures and politicization of justice by the UN Security Council, said Netsanet Belay, Amnesty Internationals Research and Advocacy Director for Africa.

This session must not be dominated by the cynical political decisions of a small number of governments to leave the Court. Instead, its supporters must focus on making the system stronger.

While there are legitimate concerns around the near-exclusive focus on Africa of the ICCs investigations and prosecutions, there are strong indications that the ICC Prosecutor is seeking to address this imbalance and expand its work to other regions. But this will require the support and resources of the Assembly, particularly from states in the global South.

Efforts by the United Nations Security Council to politicize the work of the Court by referring some situations but not others is also a major problem.

All 124 member states of the Assembly should work together to confront these double standards.

Amnesty International has made several recommendations ahead of the upcoming ASP session, aimed at strengthening the Court and its ability to deliver justice to victims.

These include calls on states parties to:

Affirm their support for the ICC and for South Africa, Gambia and Burundi to reconsider their decisions to withdraw from the Court;

Call on permanent members of the UN Security Council to refrain from using their veto power to block referrals to the Prosecutor of the ICC of situations involving war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide;

Support the approval of sufficient resources so that the ICC can expand its investigations in 2017;

Develop better systems to ensure the cooperation of governments with the Court, particularly in arresting and surrendering suspects;

Ensure that any amendments to the Courts legal framework achieve the highest standards of fairness for the accused while respecting the rights of victims and witnesses.

Amnesty Internationals appeal comes as the Court faces a backlash in some parts of Africa, with Burundi, South Africa andGambia taking steps in October to withdraw their membership.

However, many African states parties have recently made statements affirming their continued support to the Court, including Botswana, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Nigeria, Cote dIvoire, and Senegal. Tanzania has called for constructive dialogue rather than withdrawal.

Many other African states parties, including Mali, Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic also continue to cooperate with the Court with respect to ongoing situations and cases, and Gabon has recently referred the situation in the country to the ICC.

Background

Since it was adopted in 1998, so far there are 124 states parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court  34 of which are in Africa.

Amnesty International has issued seven priority recommendations to the 15th Assembly of State Parties to the ICC.

The organization is campaigning for the UN Security Council to adopt a code of conduct agreeing to voluntarily refrain from using the veto to block Security Council action in situations of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Johannesburg (AFP) - Two white men in South Africa have been charged with assault after an online video emerged showing them pushing a black man into a coffin and threatening to burn him alive, a court official said Tuesday.

The pair are due in court on Wednesday in the northeastern town of Middelburg charged with assault and intent to cause grievous bodily harm, according to the court's clerk.

The footage was apparently shot on a mobile phone by one of the two white men involved in the incident.

The 20-second clip shows one white man shoving the black man, who makes distressed noises, into the wooden coffin and trying to force down the lid.

"Do you want to speak? Come, come. We want to throw the petrol on," said one of the men, speaking Afrikaans, according to the News24 website.

They are also accused of threatening to put a snake in the coffin.

The video, which is undated, has spread rapidly across social media.

It was allegedly taken at a farm close to Middelburg town in Mpumalanga.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) opposition party said that it would rally outside Middelburg magistrates court on Wednesday to protest the alleged assault and racism in South Africa.

"The two white men... beat up a black man, Victor Rethabile Mlotshwa, and put him in a coffin," the EFF said in a statement.

"These white racists then took a video and put it up on social media for amusement.

"This humiliation can be based on nothing else but his blackness, which means it is in actual fact a humiliation of black people as a whole."

Racial controversies have erupted regularly on social media in recent years in South Africa, which is still beset by deep-rooted inequality 22 years after the end of white-minority apartheid rule.
HFC Bank has affirmed its commitment to support Small and Medium Enterprises in the oil and gas sector in the area of financing of projects.

Accessing funds for the execution of sub-contracts in the upstream oil and gas sector has been a major challenge for local businesses in particular since the commencement of production in the country.

This phenomenon is reportedly militating against the local content agenda.

Some industry analysts have attributed the financing gap to what is said to be the high-risk nature of the sector.

The Petroleum Commission is prevailing on Ghanaian businesses to reposition and take advantage of especially new opportunities in the sector.

The Commission s ays it has instituted adequate measures to further enhance local content and participation in the oil and gas industry.

According to the CEO, Theophilus Ahwireng more strategies are being implemented to maximize the benefits to Ghanaians especially with the two additional fields coming on stream.

Speaking with JOY BUSINESS at the just-ended Local Content Conference and Exhibition, he emphasized it is up to local businesses to exploit the new prospects.

But speaking with JOY BUSINESS Managing Director Robert Le Hunt said his company stands ready to assist SMEs with financing to enable them to execute contracts in the sector.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Joy Business |Kuuku Abban
A careful research conducted by the National Diabetes Association (NDA) has revealed that not less than four million Ghanaians are currently suffering from diabetes.

According to NDA, three out of every nine people are suffering from the life threatening condition across the country, resulting in over 5, 000 deaths every year.

Nevertheless, the most outrageous revelation about the statistics from the non-communicable disease (NCD) is that 90 percent do not know they have diabetes.

Only 10 percent of the cases are diagnosed early for proper medical care.

The revelation came as Ghana joined the rest of the world to mark this year's World Diabetes Day commemorated on November 14.

This year's celebration, themed 'Eyes ON Diabetes', is dedicated to raising diabetes awareness, scaling up diabetes prevention, strengthening care and enhance surveillance.

Elizabeth Esi Denyoh, President of the National Diabetes Association, who read out the statistics yesterday at the commemoration of the day at Ada, mentioned that diabetes is a chronic condition which can result in other health complications such as cardiovascular disease, kidney failure, damage of limb (amputations), stroke, impotence and eye disease that can lead to blindness.

She warned that diabetes is no respecter of persons, which all must consider, as a matter of urgency, since it affects every individual irrespective of their background.

According to her, The fact that diabetes affects more than three million Ghanaian means it must be taken as a national emergency and given all the needed attention.

The president of NDA urged the Ministry of Health (MoH) to intensify it education on diabetes and also introduce keep-fit clubs in schools to encourage regular exercise to fight it since children are now most affected.

Minister of Health Alex Segbefia, giving his keynote speech, expressed worry that younger people and adolescent are now being diagnosed with diabetes.

According to him, 70 percent diabetes cases are only detected after the death of the person.

The minister further promised to strengthen vigilance in collaboration with the Food and Drug Authority (FDA) to monitor the importation of fake drugs into the market, assuring them of considering the concern of Sin Tax (that is taxes on fizzy drinks, sweets, cigarettes and alcohol which increases diabetes in the country).

He advised Ghanaians to adopt a healthy approach to fighting diabetes by engaging in regular exercise, check sugar level regularly, live a healthy lifestyle and go for regular check-ups at health facilities.

From Vincent Kubi & Jamila Akweley Okertchiri, Ada
Prof. Ransford Gyampo, CES Director and Ambassador William Hanna, Head of European Union

The Centre for European Studies, University of Ghana, in collaboration with the European Union (EU), last week organised an information session to sensitize over 400 students from the College of Humanities of the University of Ghana on the educational opportunities within the European Union (EU), especially the Erasmus Mundus Programme.

Director for the Centre for European Studies, Professor Ransford Gyampo and the Head of the European Union in Ghana, Ambassador William Hanna, as well as other EU officials and Erasmus Mundus alumni, took turns to sensitize the students on the educational programme and opportunities.

The educational and sensitization seminar was targeted at students who want to undertake internships and further education with full scholarships in Europe.

Erasmus+ is the European Union (EU) programme, which supports projects, partnerships, events and mobility in the areas of education, training, youth and sports.

It's managed by the European Commission, the EUs executive body, the Education, Audio-visual, and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), a series of National Agencies in Programme countries, and a series of national offices in some partner countries.

The Director of the Centre for European Studies, Professor Gyampo, introduced the programme to the students and stressed the need for students to take advantage and participate in it.

He noted that the programme would enable students gain the needed experience through internships and enjoy the benefits of fully funded graduate and post-graduate educational opportunities in Europe.

He assured students and the university community of other fruitful collaborations with the EU and European countries for the benefit of students.

Ambassador William Hanna, explaining the Erasmus+ programme, observed that it aims at contributing to the Europe 2020 strategy for growth, jobs, social equity and inclusion, as well as the aims of ET2020, the EUs strategic framework for education and training.

Specifically, it will help tackle issues such as reducing unemployment, especially among young people, the promotion of adult learning, especially for new skills and skills required by the labour market, encouraging young people to take part in European democracy, supporting innovation, cooperation and reform, reducing early school leaving and promoting cooperation and mobility with the EUs partner countries, he stated.

Ambassador Hanna noted that more than 20 Ghanaian students participated in the Erasmus+ programme last year.

They include students from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), University of Ghana and University of Cape Coast.

They went to Norway, Spain, Italy and France.


By PTI: From Lalit K Jha

Washington, Nov 15 (PTI) Outgoing US President Barack Obama has cautioned his successor Donald Trump against undoing of international decisions like the Iranian nuclear deal and the Paris climate change agreement, saying a great deal of effort has gone into signing the landmark agreements.

"These international agreements, the tradition has been that you carry them forward across administrations, particularly if, once you actually examine them, it turns out that they are doing good for us and binding other countries into behaviour that will help us," Obama, 55, told reporters at a White House news conference.

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He said the Iranian nuclear deal was good example of the "gap between" some of the rhetoric in this town, not unique to the president-elect, and the reality.

"I think there was a really robust debate about the merits of the Iran deal before it was completed. I actually was pretty proud of how our democracy processed that. It was a serious debate. I think people of good will were on both sides of the issue. Ultimately, we were able to persuade members of Congress and the public, at least enough of them, to support it," he said.

"At the time, the main argument against it was, Iran wouldnt abide by the deal. That they would cheat. We now have over a year of evidence that they have abided by the agreement. Thats not just my opinion. Its not just people in my administration. Thats the opinion of Israeli military and intelligence officers who are part of a government that vehemently opposed the deal," he said.

About Paris Climate deal, Obama said there had been a lot of talk about the possibility of undoing this international agreement.

"Now, youve got 200 countries that have signed up for this thing, and the good news is that what weve been able to show over the last five, six, eight years is that its possible to grow the economy really fast and possible to bring down carbon emissions as well," he said.

"What the Paris agreement now does is say to China and India and other countries that are potentially polluting, come on board. Lets work together so you guys do the same thing. And the biggest threat, when it comes to climate change and pollution, isnt going to come from us because we only have 300 million people. Its going to come from China with over 1 billion people and India with over 1 billion people," he said.

"If they are pursuing the same kinds of strategies that we did before we became more aware of the environment, then our kids will be choked off. Do I think that the new administration will make some changes? Absolutely," Obama said.

To unravel a deal thats working and preventing Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon would be hard to explain, particularly if the alternative were to have them free from any obligations and go ahead and pursue a weapon, he said. (MORE) PTI LKJ MRJ

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The Mile 7 District Police Command has apprehended a 61-year-old woman, who has allegedly been using fake cheques to defraud traders.

Gladys Mawuko Zee often orders for food items and detergents in large quantities from the traders to be supplied to her shop and issues postdated fake SG-SSB cheques to the suppliers to withdraw the money at a later date, according to police reports.

Mawuko Zee used this modus operandi to defraud two victims to the tune of GH25,256 and bolted but she was later arrested by the police upon tip-off.

Confirming the story to DAILY GUIDE, Superintendent Ussif Tanko, the Mile 7 District Police Commander, said Madam Gladys was apprehended on Saturday, November 12, 2016 upon a tip-off by the police.

The complainant reported to the police on Friday, November 11 that Madam Gladys had visited his shop at Adabraka and purchased 100 cartons of bulldog energy drink valued at GH7,500.

She issued two SG-SSB cheques with face value of GH3,000 and GH4,500 to the complainant and asked him to withdraw the money on Monday, November 14, and 15 2016 respectively.

The complainant said he immediately took the cheques to the bank to verify if they were genuine but he was told they were not.

The suspect immediately reported the matter to the police which led to her arrest.

Preliminary investigations revealed that Gladys used the same modus operandi to defraud one Antwi Boasiako, who sells detergents, to the tune of GH17,756.

The Police uncovered that Gladys was part of a syndicate that has been using that to defraud unsuspecting victims.

What they do is to hire a store for a week or two and then order for the items from the victims and issue the fake cheques. By the time, the victim will detect that the cheque issued is fake, the suspect would have relocated the items to another location and bolted, the police stated.

The suspect is in police custody assisting in investigations.

He called on traders to be wary of the new schemes of the fraudsters.

( [email protected] )

By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey


15.11.2016 LISTEN

The 2016 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, says he remains unfazed by the lies, fabrications and propaganda which will be churned out by operatives of the Mahama government, with 24 days to the conduct of the December 7 election.

Addressing a mammoth night rally at Drobo, in the Jaman South constituency, on Saturday, November 12, 2016, the 3rd day of his tour of the Brong-Ahafo Region, Nana Akufo-Addo stated that knowing full well they have lost the election, they are going to resort to lies, propaganda and fabrications against my person.

Nonetheless, the NPP flagbearer stated that I remain unfazed by all of these. I have not stolen anyone's money, neither have I killed anyone. I don't really care what they are going to say about me.

In addition to the vile campaign that will be waged against his person, Nana Akufo-Addo revealed that the NDC propaganda machinery has been put in overdrive, with the aim of setting tribe against tribe, and telling Ghanaians that the NPP hates Northerners, even though my running mate is from the North.

They will say the NPP will drive Muslims, Northerners and residents in Zongo communities away from Ghana. All these are not true. They are nothing, but pure lies.

Nana Akufo-Addo, thus, urged Ghanaians not to pay heed to the politics of division and tribalism, which has become the NDC's stock in trade, stressing that we are all one people in Ghana. Whether you are Mamprusi, Dagarti, Frafra, Ashanti, Ewe, Ga, Fante, Kwahu, Akyem, Nzema, or Ahanta, we are one people, we're all Ghanaians. Let us use our energies to push Ghana forward and stop the divisive talk and reactionary politics.

He also appealed to the Ghanaian electorate to vote into office a competent government whose preoccupation will be to improve on the standards of living of the Ghanaian, explaining that President Mahama, over the last eight years, has amply demonstrated that he cannot do the job, the reason why we are all suffering in Ghana.

In spite of President Mahama's abysmal performance in office, Nana Akufo-Addo noted that the real reason for the President's determination to stay in office is because of the perquisites and benefits of office for himself, his family and close associates.

For that reason, the NPP flagbearer indicated that President Mahama will say and do any and everything to hang onto power.

The recent, partial restoration of the nurses training allowances, in spite of the President's avowed decision not to restore them over the last three years, according to Nana Akufo-Addo, is an example of President Mahama's desperation to hang onto power.

Because the elections are drawing near, he has restored them, the NPP flagbearer said.

Again, with a few days to the elections, the NPP flagbearer has revealed that after imposing undue hardship on Ghanaians through high prices of petroleum products, I have learnt that President Mahama is set to reduce prices of petroleum products through the reduction of the petroleum levy.

These, Nana Akufo-Addo described, are small petty tricks to deceive the people of Ghana. This is not serious statesmanship or governance of our nation. This is not the way we want to see our country develop. We want the truth to prevail at all times.
LUANDA, Angola, 15 November 2016,-/African Media Agency (AMA)/- AccorHotels first international hotel operator and the Angolan group AAA Activos LDA, inaugurated Wednesday, 9th of November the ibis Styles IU Talatona, in the presence of the Minister of Hospitality and Tourism, the Governor of Luanda province and the highest Country authorities.

This opening is part of the partnership with AAA Activos LDA, which plans to open 50 hotels under management contracts, or 6,084 rooms, ranging from economic to luxury segment.

Paulino Baptista, Minister of Hospitality and Tourism of Angola, said: "The opening of this hotel marks an important milestone in the hospitality and tourism sector, as it symbolizes the entry of one of the largest hotel chains in the world in our country, thus placing Angola on the international tourist route. [...] The French hotel chain AccorHotels is one of the most prestigious hotels in the world of hospitality, and its presence in the country will contribute greatly to the improvement of services in the sector, to increase the competitiveness in the hotel market and to improve the brand image of the country, particularly at this early stage of development. "

"The ibis Styles IU will become the reference of Talatona" said Higino Carneiro, Governor of the province of Luanda.

Jean-Jacques Dessors, CEO of AccorHotels Middle East and Africa said "On behalf of AccorHotels, we thank AAA for the trust it has placed in us. It is a great day for AccorHotels to see the exclusive partnership with the Angolan group AAA ACTIVOS LDA come to fruition. Angola will soon play a key role in the African market for hospitality and tourism. Angola has the means to become a major tourist destination and our 50 hotels will stimulate national and international tourism. "

Antoine Guego, COO of AccorHotels Africa and Indian Ocean, added "The opening of this first hotel ibis Styles Talatona is the cornerstone of the development of AccorHotels in Angola"

Carlos Manuel de Sao Vicente, Founder and Owner of AAA, stressed that this cooperation with AccorHotels was a unique alliance in the Angolan hotel sector "This is an investment of national dimension and international scope"

ibis Styles IU Luanda Talatona

ibis Styles IU Luanda Talatona is ideally located south of Luanda, near the Avennida Shopping Mall, Talatona Convention Centre and the International Exhibition Centre which hosts many cultural events. The airport and the city center are easily accessible from the hotel.

The ibis Styles IU Luanda offers all the brand standards with unique personalities and multiple designs of the business entity of AccorHotels group. The hotel features modern architecture emphasizing comfort and well-being. It boasts 60 rooms, 2 meeting rooms, one restaurant and one large reception room. The rooms are equipped with king size beds, a digital TV, mini-bar, safe, telephone, internet and air conditioning.

50 hotels in the strategic locations of Angola

Will be open soon, respectively on 28th of November 2016 and 15th December 2016 Talatona hotels ibis Styles IU Viana and Cacuaco. Both hotels have 180 rooms. During the first quarter of 2017, ibis Styles IU will open in the provincial capitals of Angola, constituting a national network of hotels for structuring the Angolan economy.

Eventually, 27 hotels will be grouped under the economic brand ibis Styles, 22 under the brand Mercure Grand Hotel and 1 under the luxury Sofitel brand.

The Group's commitment in Angola, which has 25 million inhabitants of which 40% are actively working, also involves the training of 3000 employees hired locally. The Group has partnered with the School of Hospitaliy and Tourism of Lisbon to set up a hospitality school within a hotel and provide the necessary training to the teams on site.

"The transmission of knowledge is open to a wide range of jobs in the hotel, from room service to hotel management positions. By 2018, our ambition is to prepare the new generation of Angolan managers who will be able to manage future locations." Said Antoine Guego.
The Newly constructed Nkrumah circle

15.11.2016 LISTEN

May the records reflect that 14th November, 2016 was a national party in Accra.

The ruling NDC celebrated the inauguration of the newly constructed Kwame Nkrumah Interchange.

It was big and by far the largest public party this year. It had every feature of a successful party except food. But there was enough music, dancing and women. A lot of them.

There was a reason to celebrate- the old Kwame Nkrumah Circle has become an interchange.

Unfortunately, when all was said and done, on my way home, I witnessed an accident involving a young man, who had fell from the top of sound systems at the back of a pickup onto the streets.

The car had left. The accident victim was just helpless. Pedestrians ignored him. I was saddened seeing the victim in excruciating pain. I kept driving on. But my mind stayed with the boy.

This boy could be my brother. It did not make any difference, for he was my compatriot. What was most painful, he was ending his life out of the joy that his president has given him an interchange that will ease traffic to work; it will enable food from the villages to reach the market without going bad. He was celebrating the joy that taxes have been used in a venture that profit everybody. Some things are truly worth dying for.

Maybe not in the manner this NDC supporter went  falling from the back of a pickup.

But it is worth dying for the prosperity of this country.

We must die resisting oppressors' rule. We must die upholding the dignity and self worth of the Ghanaian.

We must die insisting on the right attitudes, not just from our government and leaders but everybody.

We must die making Ghana proud abroad.

We must die building a nation of prosperity and living inheritance for our children.

Finally we must die putting the unemployed to work through such massive projects as the circle interchange, which demonstrates that leadership is about work. Nothing else matters.

Akyena Brantuo Benjamin

[email protected]
MTN, Ghanas leading telecommunications services provider, has received an Engineering Business Management award in recognition of its 4G LTE project execution at the Engineering Excellence Awards 2016.

The event was organized by the Ghana Institute of Engineers to recognize valuable contributions and extraordinary performance in all aspects of the engineering profession. MTN Ghana received the award for successfully rolling out an operational 4G LTE network to customers of MTN in Ghana in record time. Upon acquisition of the 4G LTE license in December 2015, MTN successfully had the soft launch of the 4G LTE in March 2015 and launched fully in June.

MTN commercially launched its 4G LTE services on 21st June in all 10 regions of Ghana after it acquired the 4G LTE 800MHz spectrum license in December 2015. This year, MTN has spent $96 million on network and information systems including the rollout of the 4G network. The launch of 4G LTE technology by MTN makes it the first mobile telecommunications operator in Ghana to offer 4G service. MTN customers can access 4G LTE on their mobile phones as well as mifi devices, dongles and many more devices. Since launch, MTN has deployed 474 sites in all ten regional capitals and some district capitals in Ghana.

Speaking on the award, the Chief Technical Officer of MTN Ghana, Mohammed Rufai, said, MTN embarked on the 4G LTE project to create a distinct customer experience and provide superior data services to its customers. The project is also in line with our vision to lead the delivery of a bold new digital world. We are glad the investments are contributing to improved data speed for businesses and customers.

MTN Ghana will continue to make significant investments in our network to provide enhanced coverage and customer experience as well as create unlimited opportunities for our over 18 million customers, he added.

MTN has the widest, most robust 2G, 3G and 4G coverage across Ghana, thanks to its investment strategy and a dedicated technical Team. MTN has since 2006 invested over $2.5 billion into network and information systems to improve coverage and enhance capacity. The company has also invested in the West African Cable System (WACS) which changed the face of MTNs service delivery in the country.

MTN Ghana also pioneered implementation of High Speed Packet Access (HSPA+) mobile broadband systems in the 900 MHz band (UMTS900) in Africa, in order to make quality data available to many rural communities. Significant investments have also been made in deploying an advanced IP/MPLS (Internet Protocol/ Multi-Protocol Label Switching) network to increase transmission speed, improve network redundancy and capacity, thereby positioning the company for unrivalled network quality and efficiency.

The Engineering Excellence Awards (EEA) is a prestigious event with an increasingly significant interest from members and the public. It recognizes the valuable contributions that individuals and organizations make to inspire their continued involvement and those of others, and to promote the key role of the engineering profession in public life.
The Electoral Commission (EC) says it has started printing ballot for the presidential election and is expecting to issue the notice of poll before the close of business Tuesday.

When Joy News visited the Commissions headquarters in Accra, the printed notice of poll were being loaded onto trucks for further distribution across the country.

"The notice of poll for the presidential election is ready and we have started dispatching them to the regions. The parliamentary has been ready for a long time and it has even been posted around the constituencies," the Deputy Communication Director of the Commission, Yussif Ayuba told Joy News.

A Constitutional Instrument (C.I. 94) governing the conduct of the 2016 elections states that the notice of poll must be issued not less than 30 days before the election.

The notice of poll is a poster that has the pictures of the various candidates showing their positions, their party symbol as well as a place for thumb printing.

In essence, it is a dummy of the ballot paper which is displayed for the purposes of public education.

Sometime last week, the EC gave the parliamentary election notice of poll but delayed with that for the presidential election because of some legal issues to settle with the presidential candidates.

The Commission balloted for presidential candidates last week Thursday, after the Supreme Court ruling ordered it to allow disqualified candidates to correct errors and to extend the period for the receipt of nomination to the close of day Tuesday, November 8.

The extension was to enable disqualified presidential hopefuls to correct errors on their nomination forms.

Joy News checks revealed that the Electoral Commission is printing the presidential ballots for election 2016 with 21 days to go for the upcoming polls.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Abubakar Ibrahim
The engineers behind the construction of Kwame Nkrumah Interchange say the project did not cost more than the 74 million Euros Parliament approved.

Assistant Chief Resident Engineer for the project, Philip Ansah, said the project was given to the Brazilian contractor as a fixed sum contract which was not subject to change.

A fixed sum contract is a type of construction contract that provides for a price which normally is not subject to any adjustment unless certain provisions such as contract change and economic pricing are included in the agreement.

We didnt overrun the budget...unless we did something out of scope then the contractor may go back to the contract and call for a change in the price, he told Kojo Yankson, host of Joy FMs Super Morning Show Tuesday.

The Monday commissioning of the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange by President John Mahama has been lauded as one of the best things the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) has done.

President John Mahama has said the project would save the nation $100 million lost through delays when workers commute on that stretch of road to and from work.

He indicated the project created over 1,000 direct and indirect jobs and would do more now that it has been commissioned.

However, hours after the project was opened for motorists, there is a simmering debate in the country over the cost of the project.

Sections of Ghanaians are demanding the actual cost of the project. They allege government has a history of inflating projects and cite the cost of refurbishing the Ridge Hospital, now Greater Accra Regional Hospital by $142 million.

They believe more has been spent on the project than the 74 million Euros Ghanas legislature approved for the project, hence their call for the disclosure of the full cost.

But Mr Ansah said the contractor would have notified them had he over spent the money earmarked for the interchange.

The Brazilian contractors in collaboration with the local engineers stayed within the budget, he said.

The Kwame Nkrumah Interchange which is said to be the longest flyover in West Africa has will not undergo any major renovation until after 20 years, he said.

The bridge is designed for 60 years, but in between, there would be maintenance, he added.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Austin Brakopowers | Email: [email protected]
Municipal Chief Executive for Obuasi has accused AngloGold Ashanti of dabbling in local politics.

Kwasi Ofori Agyeman Boadi's outburst follows the emergence of billboards with NPP and AGA logos across the mining town.

The billboards, bear inscriptions, 'Vote for NPP to Save AGA' and 'Obuasi will Rise Again' has NPP logo on the left and AGA logo on the right

Mr. Ofori Boadi is also NDC parliamentary candidate for Obuasi East.

He says the erection of the billboards along streets of Obuasi has the potential to erode government's gains in its quest to woo investors to reactivate the dormant mine.

In Obuasi, you will see AngloGold logo together with NPP logo on display all over. I have personally complained to the company that it is not good for the image of the company. It will not help us to secure investment and up till now, I dont see anything that the company is doing to stop this activity that is going on, he complained.

That notwithstanding, he says government will continue to partner AngloGold Ashanti in seeking for investors.

AngloGold Ashanti however has denied engaging in politics.

Officials say their attention has been drawn to the billboards reportedly erected on the orders of MP for Obuasi East, Kwaku Kwarteng. .

Senior Manager in charge of Sustainability at Obuasi Mine, Nana Ampofo Bekoe told Nhyira FM AGA has nothing to do with partisan-politics.

It is unfortunate that anybody at all will think in that direction. AGA has nothing to do with any campaign whatsoever of any political party. AGA has nothing to do with any political party . AGA cannot, and will not get involved in any party political campaigns.

According to Nana Ampofo, the company has been in touch with the MP who has promised to remove the billboards Saturday.

We expressed our disquiet and our worry about the billboards and obviously we didnt want people to think along the lines that youve just mentioned; we are not getting involved in party politics. We expressed that concern to the MP.

The MP has agreed to remove them. The MP called yesterday and hes affirmed and promised that by Saturday, all these billboards would have been removed, Nana Ampofo revealed.

-Myjoyonline
15.11.2016 LISTEN

By Emmanuel Akli..

The $3.2 million judgment debt, which was awarded to Accra based businessman, Mr Anane Agyei Forson and his foreign partners, ISOFOTON SA, which was challenged by the former Attorney General, Martin Amidu has now become contentious issue between the businessman and his lawyer  Thaddeus Sory.

Documents available to The Chronicle indicate that Anane Agyei Forson has written a petition to the General Legal Council accusing Mr Sory of trying to hide a judgement delivered by the Supreme Court, which ordered the state of Ghana to pay him and ISOFOTON SA an amount of $USD3.2 million after Martin Amidu failed to convince the court not to award him the cost.

In the course of the case, I became sick and remained sick for a whole year. Nevertheless, I followed the case and heard through the news media that the matter has been dealt with in court and final judgement delivered on 23rd December 2014 in favour of ISOFOTON and myself. However, every attempt to get Mr. Thaddeus Sory to provide me with a copy of the final judgement has proven futile.

I have also been prevented from seeing the Chief Justice after several failed attempts to obtain copies of the judgement from the Registrar of the Supreme Court, Forson alleges in his petition.

Mr Thaddeus Sory has, however, denied the accusation, describing Anane Agyei Forson as someone who has been afflicted by a quixotic fascination and that he has never handled any case at the Supreme Court that awarded $3.2 million as judgement to the petitioner.

But despite this explanation, the petitioner still insists that the court has delivered judgement in his favour and that his counsel was trying to hide from him.

The following is Anane Agyei Forson's petition, which was dated May 30, 2016.;

I wish to bring before you, the matter concerning the pending payment of compensation by the state to ISOFOTON SA, hoping you will use your good office to facilitate the final resolution of all outstanding issues in respect to that.

I am Anane Agyei Forson, the representative of ISOFOTON SA, the company which brought legal claims against the Republic of Ghana for failing to comply with the terms of a contract between the two. The state settled and agreed to compensate the company for unlawful abrogation of the contract.

Mr. Martin Almisi Amidu, a private citizen, sued the Attorney General, ISOFOTON and myself, challenging the legal basis for the settlement agreement the State entered into with ISOFOTON SA.

He contended that ISOFOTON's contract with the State did not go through parliament and therefore not a valid contract, the abrogation of which should give rise to judgment debt payment to ISOFOTON.

The Supreme Court should as such render the original contract null and void and stop the Republic of Ghana from paying any compensation to ISOFOTON.

ISOFOTON did not agree with Mr. Martin Alamisi Amidu's argument and as attorney and Local representation of ISOFOTON I hired the legal services of [email protected] to defend our interest. The appeal, I believe, resulted in a judgement awarding USD3.2 Million.

In the course of the case I became sick and remained sick for a whole year. Nevertheless, I followed the case and heard through the news media that the matter has been dealt with in court and final judgement delivered on 23rd December 2014 in favour of ISOFOTON and myself. However, every attempt to get Mr. Thaddeus Sory to provide me with a copy of the final judgement has proven futile. I have also been prevented from seeing the Chief Justice after several failed attempts to obtain copies of the judgement from the Registrar of the Supreme Court.

I find the conducts of Mr. Sory and the Supreme Court Registrar very disappointing, to say the least. I am pleading with you to use your good office to help me in resolving this matter. It is my hope that you are able to contact the Chief Justice to ascertain the outcome of the case, especially since her Ladyship happened to have chaired the panel that sat on this particular case. Thank you for the gift of your attention.

In a letter dated July 11, 2016 and addressed to the General Legal Council Thaddeus Sory also wrote:

RE: COMPLAINT OF ANANE FORSON AGAINST LAWYER THADDEUS SORY

1.0 I acknowledge receipt of your letter dated the 8th day of July, 2016 on the above subject.

2.0 I say right from the outset that neither ISOFOTON nor Mr. Anane Agyei Forson engaged me personally or the law office in which I work (SORY @ LAW) to recover any money from the state for him (Mr. Anane Agyei Forson) or ISOFOTON.

3.0 Mr. Anane Agyei Forson engaged my office (SORY @ LAW) to defend ISOFOTON and himself in respect of a suit brought by the Attorney-General against ISOFOTON to recover the sums paid to ISOFOTON by the state after the Supreme Court had held in Writ No JI/23/2012 dated the 21st day of June 2013 (reported in (2013-2014) I SCGLR 167) that the state recover from ISOFOTON the sum of three hundred and twenty five thousand, four hundred and seventy two United State Dollars ($325,472.00).

4.0 At all times material to the time when Mr. Anane Agyei Forson engaged our office, therefore, monies had already been paid to Mr. Anane Agyei Forson by the state. I did not know when those monies were paid and I was never privy to the circumstances under which the monies sought to be recovered were paid to ISOFOTON.

5.0 Accordingly, it is hereby emphasized that in the case in which the Supreme Court held in Writ No J1/23/2012 dated the 21st day of June 2013 (reported in (2013-2014) 1 SCGLR 167) that the state recover from ISOFOTON the sum of three hundred and twenty five thousand, four hundred and seventy two United State Dollars (325,472.00) neither SORY @ LAW nor myself personally was involved in the conduct of the case.

6.0 The Supreme Court having ordered that the monies paid to ISOFOTON be recovered from ISOFOTON by the state, Mr. Anane Agyei then engaged our office to defend the suit which was initiated in the High Court. The High Court gave judgment in favour of the state for the recovery of the money from ISOFOTON the result being that we successfully invoked the supervisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to quash the judgment, which case is reported as Republic v High Court (Fast Track Division) Accra; Ex Parte Forson (Attorney-General-Interested Party) reported in (2013-2014) 1 SCGLR 690.

7.0 Having successfully conducted the case about which I have explained at paragraph 6.0 above, Mr. Anane Agyei Forson then approached us (SORY @ LAW) to prosecute on behalf of ISOFOTON a review application brought by the Honourable Martin Amidu praying the Supreme Court to review its decision in Writ No J1/23/212 dated the 21st day of June 2013 (reported in (2013-2014) 1 SCGLR 167).

8.0 The review application was successfully argued by our late Carl Adongo the judgment of which is reported as; Amidu (No 4) v Attorney-General, ISOFOTON SA & Forson (No 2) in the (2013-2014) 1 SCGLR 662.

9.0 I am therefore not aware of any case in which judgment
The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), is reportedly plotting to cause mayhem in the Volta region during the December elections.

This is according to a deputy General Secretary of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) who says his party has intercepted a document from the NPP that outlines the plan.

He said the planned activity was part of the party's grand plan to reduce the voting numbers of the NDC in the region.

Speaking at a press conference in Ho on Tuesday, Mr Anyidoho said, the leaked document confirms the NPP is aware it has no chance in winning votes in the region.

This document, exposes the NPP's passive admission that it has no chance of getting significant votes in the Volta Region, yet, their plan is to create confession to reduce the votes of the NDC in the region, he said.

He further accused the flagbearer of the NPP, Nana Akufo-Addo of destroying his party with his division tactics.

He told the press that, there is no pain in saying the fact, that Nana Akufo-Addo has seriously destroyed the NPP that President Kufour bequeathed to him.

'Anyidoho's claims are false'

Meanwhile, a Volta Regional Minister under the erstwhile Kufour administration, Kofi Dzamesi debunked the allegations by Mr. Anyidoho describing it as 'a big lie'.

He said the NPP was determined to reduce the votes of the NDC in the region but not by foul means.

Mr Kofi Dzamesi in an interview on the Citi Prime News cautioned the NDC to desist from creating problems.

He said the NDC has consistently spread false rumors aimed at causing disaffection towards the NPP.

Anytime it is due for election, they [NDC] try to create a problem in the Volta region as if there is going to be some war or a big problem if the NDC does not win. But this time, I want to assure everybody in this country that the people in the Volta Region know of all the tricks and bad things the NDC has been doing to them.

He further said he was confident the people in the Volta Region will reject the NDC this year and vote for the NPP to guarantee their acquisition of job under Nana Akufo-Addo's 1-district, 1-factory policy.

'Volta Region votes massively for NDC'

The Volta Region has in all of Ghana's democratic elections voted massively for the NDC, earning it the NDC world bank' label by some social commentators but the NPP has said it will break the record this year with an operation to win at least 3 parliamentary seats in the area and at least 30 per cent of the presidential votes there.



By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

Follow @jnyabor
Pakistan today violated the ceasefire in Pallanwala sector of Akhnoor in Jammu and Kashmir.

Photo for representational purpose only.

By India Today Web Desk: Pakistan today violated the ceasefire in Pallanwala sector of Akhnoor in Jammu and Kashmir.

Several villages and Indian posts were targeted.





#FLASH: Ceasefire violation by Pakistan in Pallanwala sector of Akhnoor (J&K). More details awaited. ANI (@ANI_news) November 15, 2016



Watch the video here:

Also read: Army foils infiltration bid in Rampur sector, one terrorist gunned down



--- ENDS ---

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There is this segment on a BBC Africa Channel called the Resident Presidents. It is about two hilarious characters who try to take the lighter side of issues. Presidents Olushambles and Kibarkingmad's satirical take on issues have won my heart and keeps me yearning for more after each episode.

In one of their episodes, these two characters argued about God. One of the characters argued that God is a dictator and doesn't want a competitor that is why after creating the world he didnt institute a democratic regime for people to vote either to approve his kingship or otherwise and has lorded himself on both the heaven and earth.

Although their conversation may have sounded blasphemous to the religious zealots, it presented some truth. Man would have instigated a coup against God if ordinary mortals wielded that power to either vote for or against His Kingship.

That leads me to what I want to say. President John Mhama inaugurated the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange, the highest flyover in West Africa which comes as a welcome news to many commuters who ply their daily activities within the Central Business District of Accra and other surroundings.

The commentary in the aftermath of the inaguration on social media however was as usaul a mixed bag. While others praised the government for the magnificient project, others felt it was a waste of tax payers money arguing that the cost was inflated.

I regard the latter commentaries as political rhetorics. Just the usual things members sympathetic to the main opposition party do to court public disaffection for ongoing government projects.

But after a second look, I realised some seasoned journalists and people who I do vouch their objectivity including my own Manasseh Azure Awuni joined the fray and started casting innuendos and sneer at the project.

Manasseh wrote on his facebook wall: "I thank God I know Dubai. And I felt ashamed of my country when I visited Nairobi, Kenya. I kept complaining to Mabel Aku Baneseh how disappointed I was that my capital city could not compare with that of another African country. Thanks to an interchange and a dancing fountain amidst slums, Ghana is now equal to Dubai. Ignorance is, indeed, bliss.

How did we get here? Okay, I am sure whoever made an attempt to compare the project as turning Ghana to Dubai said so in a metaphorical sense. It is only a drunkard who will try to make that comparison. But should that undermine the strategic importance of the project and the relief it would bring to road users?

Instead of acknowledging some of progress we make as a nation, we have turned ourselves to angelic quantity surveyors, attacking and criticising every good without any shred of evidence.

People including Captain Smart of Adom FM, founding member of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Nyaho Nyaho Tamakloe and others admit that the current government's infrastructural expansion drive is massive and readily exhumes the memory of Ghanas first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah.

Let me digress a bit. At the university, I studied courses including Classics which mainly talks about Greek mythology and I often wondered the relevance of Greek mythology to a 21st century student who should be studying how to go to the moon or develop a software application.

But I was wrong, history helps us to make retrospective evaluations of past events and try to connect the dots to the present so that we can make sense of the future.

Back to the subject, it is common to hear some Ghanaians say Ghana would have developed into a first class modern economy if the Nkrumah government had not been overthrown.

The truth is that, Nkrumah was no angel. In fact, history tells us that Nkrumah was a dictator par excellence!

Even though, some historians argue that Nkrumahs iron grip on power was as a result of the exigencies at the time, it does not still erase the fact that Nkrumah instituted many policies that made Ghanaians at the time see him as evil despite the massive infrastucture he undertook.

If for nothing at all, he instituted the Preventive Detention Act, Avoidance of Discrimination Act, a one party system, all in an attempt to silence his critics and hold firm to power.

He dole out 10 million pounds of Ghanas hard earn money to his friend, Ahmed Sekou Toure of Guinea, while my grandparents drunk from guinea-worm-infested wells.

Nkrumah also built the defunct Nkrumah Idealogical Institute (which was later converted into the University of Education, Winneba) and spent tax payers money to educate other African nationals including Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, the late Patrice Lumumba of Congo and host of others.

On top of that, they received monthly stipends and other benefits while there was no electricty at my Village at Bawku not to talk about a school.

Nkrumahs government was not also immune to corruption. In fact, people like Krobo Adusei and others were accused of corrupt practices and that made the wisemen rise up and overthrow the CPP on February 24, 1966.

In fact some of his critics say thatthere was virtually no external or domestic debt and Ghanas population was only 6.5 million after indepndence but our external reserve position deteriorated significantly between 1957 (when net reserves stood at $269 million) and 1966 when they stood at (-$39 million).

With all guns blazing, we were poised to get the tyrant out. We overthrew him. He miserably went to went on exile in Guinea where he was made co-president and later died of cancer.

After many years, our appetite to get Nkrumah back or someone with his charisma and attributes keep growing. We curse those who overthrew Nkrumah and curse the Alimighty Himself for giving us only corrupt leaders.

Ghanaians and even the foreign conspirators call him a hero and give him accolades and posthumous awards including making him Africas Man of the Millennium. What has changed? What happened to all the evils he committed? Does this connote the saying that a prophet is not valued at his time?

Despite how we regret as Ghanaians for overthrowing Nkrumah, I would stil bet with my last dime that if Nkrumah resurrects from his grave and made President of Ghana, his tenure in office would not last beyond one term in office.

It would not be foreign conspirators who would overthrow him this time around but the so-called educated people who have read all the history books sitting at the Balme Libray!

It is not a curse, it is in our bloodstream like cancerous and continue to replay in our body politics. We over concentrate on the negatives, so much so that, we cant even acknowledge the good works.

We have all well rehearsed slogans like 'coruption', 'incompetence', 'Mahama must go', 'The economy is hard' Bla bla bla. And have conveniently overlooked the gains the government has made.

As the sages aptly put it, you can't have your cake and eat it. Inasmuch as Nkrumahs governement committed some crimes, the long term benefits of the seed they sowed like the Akosombo Dams, the Tema Motorway, Job 600 building, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Tema Harbour, University of Cape Coast and the numerous projects still serve as.

Many economies around the world have seen challenging times. Countries like Singapore, China and the rest prospered through sacrifices and hard work. Democracy requires that we put governance under scrutiny but we ought to be measured in our criticism so that we dont end up letting down the morale of a government that's trying hard to lessen the suffering of its people.

I have always wondered, If President Mahama had turned Ghana into a first class city like New York within his first tenure in office, would Nana Addo concede not to contest him?

The politicians will play politics, it's the only way they see themselves coming back to or retaining power. And it's for the citizens to criticise when their governments fail at their mandate and praise where the government is doing well. Without this balance, I'm afraid the second coming of Nkrumah will still see that government overthrown.

Abdul-Karim Mohammed Awaf

Journalist

(0278147167)
This periodical seeks to deconstruct governance with a view to bringing it to the full understanding of my unlettered Mum and those in her category, who are being manipulated by the cunning politicians.

Apparently, a lot of unsuspecting voters have been brainwashed by the unprincipled and manipulating politicians to believe that all that an elected government has to do for its citizens is to provide social infrastructures and amenities.

Obviously, such a notion is specious. For good governance indeed goes beyond the provision of infrastructural projects.

To be quite honest, good governance also involves the implementation of expedient policies with a view to stabilising the socio-economic standards of living.

Of course, the provision of infrastructural projects is an important aspect in the nation building. However, any serious and a committed government would not only focus on putting up more meaningful and meaningless projects, but would rather focus on both infrastructural projects and the implementation of pragmatic policies that will propel the economy.

What my Mum and her mates should remember is that we elect a government to oversee our national affairs. And, we, in turn, are obliged to pay taxes to the elected government to run the country.

Besides, the government has our unflinching support to go for loans if required, to support the management of the country.

In hindsight, we (the citizens) pay for all the expenses pertaining to the management of the country.

It was against that background that I was in agreement with President Mahama for suggesting somewhere in 2008 that it is an exercise in mediocrity for any government to take delight in infrastructural projects because every government undertakes such projects.

Somehow, President Mahama meant to suggest that every lousy government could easily undertake that role of governance. By inference, the erection of infrastructural projects is as easy as ABC.

To be blunt, and rightly so, since my Mum and her comrades have been paying taxes to Mahama and his NDC government over the years, they are not under any obligation to be thankful to Mahama and his NDC government for providing them with social amenities and infrastructural projects such as public toilets, schools, roads, water, electricity etc.

Indeed, the Nkrumah Circle Interchange project was made possible through the taxes from the hard working Ghanaians and all the numerous loans they will pay at a later date.

Obviously, my Mum may wonder why, she, and her comrades will have to pay the massive loans that have been contracted by Mahama and his government at a later date.

Well, my explanation to my Mum and her colleagues is that they are obliged to repay the loans because they own Ghana. So they will repay the gargantuan loans through the extra taxes Mahama and his NDC government will add to their existing taxes.

I would also like to maintain that in order for Mahama to get enough revenues to repay the huge loans, he could increase the taxes on fuel, electricity, water and many others. Take, for example, in recent times, you have been paying huge utility bills.

It is also worth informing my Mum and her comrades that President Kufuor left a total debt of around 9.5 billion Ghana Cedis in 2009. However, our total debt has ballooned to around 110 billion Ghana Cedis as of September 2016.

This means that Mahama and his NDC government have added more than 100 billion Cedis within a short space of seven and half years.

This is the reason why I would like to remind my Mum and her colleagues not to show any appreciation to Mahama and his NDC government for the Circle Interchange project. For if anything at all, Mahama put up the project with your own taxes and the gargantuan loans he contracted.

In fact, my Mum and her compatriots should know that if anything at all, it is rather Mahama and his non-performing appointees who are reaping huge benefits from their taxes.

On top of their big pay cheques, Mahama and his lousy appointees often misappropriate your taxes, for they dont tell you exactly how much they have been spending on all those infrastructural projects.

So, Mum, it is rather Mahama and his non-performing appointees who should be appreciative that you dont often hold them to account for their existential incompetence and corruption.

As a matter of fact, Mum, you are not under any obligation to vote for Mahama based on the provision of so-called infrastructural projects such as the Circle Interchange, because you rather paid for the project.

In fact, what you would need is a government who will take bold and pragmatic steps to fix the ailing economy. I will therefore recommend a government who will reduce all forms of taxes, including taxes on electricity, water, fuel, gas, kerosene and many others. Mum, indeed, stiff tax paying economy is never a thriving one.

K. Badu, UK.
The Member of Parliament for New Juaben South, Hon. Mark Asibey Yeboah, failed to appear at a parliamentary debate which was organized by the Eastern Regional Branch of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), at Appenteng Hall in Koforidua.

The debate, which is being organized by the NCCE all over the country, aimed at deepening and involving the citizenry in active participation of democracy was not well attended.

Naomi Owusu Sekyere, the CPP parliamentary candidate, and Ransford Owusu Boakye, the NDC parliamentary candidate for New Juaben South Constituency, took part in the parliamentary debate, while their opponents from the other side, Nana Oboadie of the PNC, and the incumbent MP, Mark Asibey Yeboah of the NPP, were missing in action.

In an interview with Citi News on why the MP and the PNC candidates did not show up, Mr. Paul Narh Lawer, the Municipal Director of the NCCE, said, we have been in contact with the NPP secretariat all along; but they called us this morning to inform us that an order from above says they (NPP) should not participate in any NCCE programme.

He added that So I told my people that we should hold on and hope they come; but as you can see, the MP and his followers did not show up. The PNC candidate assured us he will be coming; but its unfortunate we lost contact with him and we do not know why he also failed to honour our invitation

The NDC parliamentary candidate for New Juaben South, Ransford Owusu Boakye, who was disappointed about the incumbent MPs absence, said the MP is not accessible to the people, and that is the reason why he will lose the election.

dav

I do not know why and how Mark Asibey Yeboah did not come for the debate, I cannot talk for him; but I wished he came because most of the questions asked today was directed to him, he should have come to give answers to the people

Ransford Owusu Boakye further stated that I have said it several times on different platforms that Asibey is not accessible to the people of New Juaben South, how can you vote for someone to represent you in parliament and when you need him it becomes difficult for you to see him because he lives in Accra now.

Ransford Owusu, who is also the Eastern Regional Organizer of the NDC, was however optimistic about his chances in the December 7 e lection, also blamed the low attendance on lack of publicity

He said this is a good programme, but the NCCE did not do well with the publicity, however I can boldly say without any shadow of doubt, that Assibey will lose this election because hes not accessible, he only becomes accessible during elections and the people of New Juaben have realized it so am the peoples choice and am going to be accessible to them.

dav

On the issue of low patronage by the public, Mr. Paul Lawer, said he was rather happy they recorded an incident free debate as compared to other areas like Suhum where they could not even organize due to unrest between the NPP and the NDC.

He said I wont blame it on someone or a section of the people sabotaging our event as it is being rumored, is not always that you can organize a perfect program but am happy we did not record any violence

The debate which was moderated by the Chairman of the Regional peace council Rt Rev Prof Twum Baah was happy with the out come of the debate and congratulated the two participants for the respectful manner in which they addressed issues.



By: Neil Nii Amatey Kanarku/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Accra, November 2016, Algerias bid to foster new commercial links across West Africa and take advantage of the opportunities emerging in key markets, including Ghana, is expected to be a topic of discussion at a transcontinental forum to be held in Algiers at the beginning of December.

The global publishing firm Oxford Business Group (OBG) will be a key partner at the African Investments and Business Forum, which takes place from December 3rd  5th at the International Conference Centre. The event, which is supported by the Algerian government and the Algerian Business Leaders Forum (FCE), will bring together more than 2000 industry and public sector representatives from across the continent, including several government leaders.

Ali Haddad, the president of the Forum of Business Leaders, Algeria, will be among the speakers at the conference.

Brahim Benabdeslem, vice-president of the FCE, said the forum would provide an important platform for collective sharing and co-development. He also welcomed the meetings location.

Algeria wishes to play a central role in building adhesion among countries across the continent and will strive to push the African continent toward being a global economic powerhouse, he said.

Algeria has already begun the process of diversifying its economy and moving up the value chain, in a bid to reduce the countrys financial dependence on oil and gas. The country has also managed to counter a drop in revenues by rationalising its fiscal and monetary policies, while maintaining its plans for investing in both infrastructure, and social and human development. The countrys long-term strategy for broadening the economic base includes driving up investment from countries throughout sub-Saharan Africa and building on trade partnerships.

Africas future will be, in part, determined by the pace of economic and social development within each individual country, including the rate of technological progress.

The African Investments and Business Forum will provide business leaders and public sector representatives with an unparalleled opportunity to explore and reflect on the key issues currently affecting economic development throughout the continent. It will also provide a platform for participants to discuss the African Unions strategies for boosting intra-African trade.

The conference will focus on the five areas that have been identified as pivotal for producing a lasting collective dynamic, namely: agriculture; energy; finance; digital development; and human capital.

These are the key elements that will shape the programme of this event and drive the new inter-African dynamic, as well as an economic vision that is balanced, coherent and inclusive, Toufik Lerari, president of Jil'FCE, said.

With a focus on seeking out African solutions to African problems, the Algiers event is a significant step towards collective autonomy. It will provide business leaders keen to contribute to the continents economic development with the means to learn more about the opportunities available to them.

Many of the themes explored at the forum will be analysed in detail in The Report: Algeria 2016, OBGs forthcoming report on the country. OBGs publication will highlight the need to pivot towards Sub-Saharan Africa. It will also chart the diversification of the Algerian economy; the shift towards the development of industry and value-added activities; agricultures key role; and the growing emphasis on exports, including the recognition of Algerian products abroad. The publication will be a vital guide to the many facets of the country, including its macroeconomics, infrastructure, banking and other sectoral developments.
A 10-year old girl has been left bedridden after police officers pursuing robbers fired a bullet straight into her forehead.

Dorothy Appiah, a student of Humble Way Mission at Sowutuom in Accra was running back into the school after rattling sounds of gunshot shattered the serene atmosphere in the community she was hit.

Like frightened birds, the children who had closed from school made a dash to the classrooms in response to the beckoning call of frightened teachers.

A bullet is faster than the legs of a 10-girl old hit her.

She could not make the final lap running into the outstretched arms of her teacher, when the bullet sunk her into the ground.

Several miles away, her father Edward Asare, a taxi driver and mechanic, was looking for the next customer when he received devastating news.

Daddy, Mummy (as Dorothy is fondly called) has been shot and she is dead, his older son told him. The news had the psychological equivalence of the gun shot in his daughters skull, as the shocked father switched off his phone in denial.

His daughter was sent to the Princess Marie Louis hospital. Everyone believed she was dead.

Doctors at the 37 Military hospital concluded however that she had lapsed into a coma.

It was too dangerous to retrieve the bullet without damaging her brains. It took five days before surgery could be conducted to remove the rounded metal that has rounded up Dorothys once-bustling life.

She is partially paralysed. This girl cannot move her left arm, she cannot write, she cannot do anything. For five months now, she is still at home unable to go to school, Joy News Maxwell Agbagba narrated the story on Joy FMs Super Morning Show Tuesday.

Her fathers face is drained of a fathers joy. She cannot move and when she speaks, she sounds illogical, he said.

The distraught man told myjoyonline.com, his daughter was at one-time, the 4th most brilliant student in her school.

Dorothy Appiahs hospital bill has breached GHC20,000. The Police have helped with personal contribution of officers to the tune of GHC600.

Trips to the police administration for further assistance have yielded nothing.

The family, friends and fathers life savings have been sunk into taking care of a child who has shown no sign of full recovery.

Even the teachers and the school have had to contribute money to help Dorothy whose dream is to become a nurse.

With the pressing financial demands, the option of a lawsuit has proven too expensive to contemplate.

-Myjoyonline
The United States Embassy in Ghana, has urged the leadership of political parties to call their members to order following recent eruption of partisan clashes.

In a statement, the US warned that persons found culpable of inciting political violence ahead of the polls, would face some form of sanctions as violence has no place in the conduct of elections.

This warning follows a clash over the weekend between some supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), in front of the Nima residence the NPP Flagbearer, Nana Akufo-Addo, during a health walk organized by the NDC.

The government of the United States does not support a particular candidate or a particular party. We support democracy. We will continue to work with the freely elected government of Ghana, just as we always have, the statement concluded.

Find below the full statement

Accra, GHANA  The United States condemns all political violence in Ghana, especially any violent acts directed at political candidates, their homes or families. While campaigns can be vigorous and sometimes contentious, violence has no place in the electoral process.

In the period leading up to and following Ghana's elections on December 7, we call on all actors to remain peaceful and respect the democratic process. We encourage all parties to make it clear to their constituents that any violence or attempts to use intimidation to disrupt the democratic process is unacceptable. The United States will consider all options to hold responsible those who incite political violence, including denying or revoking visas.

The United States applauds Ghana's tradition of peaceful, democratic elections. The international community is working with the Electoral Commission, National and Regional Peace Councils, NGOs, civil society organizations, the media, the police and others to support Ghana's efforts to hold credible and nonviolent presidential elections. We urge all to participate peacefully in the democratic processbefore, during and after Election Day.

The government of the United States does not support a particular candidate or a particular party. We support democracy. We will continue to work with the freely elected government of Ghana, just as we always have.

 Adomonline
Ho, Nov 15, GNA - Only nine candidates out of the 118 contesting the 2016 parliamentary elections in the Volta Region are women.

The female aspirants have filed from eight constituencies; Keta, Ketu North, Ho West, North Dayi, Hohoe, Kpando, Afadjato South and Krachie West, out of the 26.

The figure represents 7.6 per cent, a decline in the number of women who filed to contest the 2012 parliamentary elections in the Region.

In that year, (2012) eleven women out of 125 candidates contested eight seats, with four winning.

Nana Kugbeadzor Bakateyi II, Chief Executive, Global Action for Women Empowerment, expressed disappointment in the decline in the number of women contesting seats in the Region despite several consultations by her outfit.

She said a good number of women failed to win their primaries and blamed it on the lack of commitment from political parties to 'support and push' women into parliament.

Nana Bakateyi said her NGO was engaging electorate, especially women in the Region to encourage them to vote for female parliamentary candidates.

'Women don't vote for women, so we are asking all women to vote for female candidates this year for more balanced parliamentary debates. This is because we, women understand our issues better,' she stated.

GNA
Accra, Nov. 15, GNA - The United States condemns all political violence in Ghana, especially any violent acts directed at political candidates, their homes or families, a statement issued by the US Embassy in Accra has said.

'While campaigns can be vigorous and sometimes contentious, violence has no place in the electoral process', the statement which was copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Monday further indicated.

It called on all political actors to remain peaceful and respect the democratic process in the period leading up to, and following the general election on December 7.

'We encourage all parties to make it clear to their constituents that any violence or attempts to use intimidation to disrupt the democratic process is unacceptable. The United States will consider all options to hold responsible those who incite political violence, including denying or revoking visas', the statement said.

The United States applauds Ghana's tradition of peaceful, democratic elections, it said, adding that 'The international community is working with the Electoral Commission, National and Regional Peace Councils, NGOs, civil society organizations, the media, the police and others to support Ghana's efforts to hold credible and nonviolent presidential elections'.

According to the statement, the government of the United States does not support a particular candidate or a particular party, but rather supports democracy. 'We will continue to work with the freely elected government of Ghana, just as we always have', it stated. GNA
By Samuel Akapule

Navrongo (UE), Nov 15, GNA - Taking bribes and committing one's self to vote for a particular party or person, has been cited as one of the major factors that account for the high numbers of rejected ballots during election periods.

The Municipal Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) in-charge of the Kassena-Nankana Municipal, Mr Paul Kwame Ganvu, said this at a workshop on the theme, 'Empowering women as agents of peace towards 2016 general elections', held at Navrongo in the Upper East Region.

The event, which was organized by the Our Lady of Mercy Community Services (OLAM) and sponsored by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa(OSIWA)- Senegal, was aimed at exposing members of the Kaana Manga Women Association and Queen Mothers to the electoral laws to empower them to advocate for peace in the upcoming general election.

According to the Municipal Director, because some people take multiple bribes from the Presidential and Parliamentary aspirants, and commit themselves to vote for those parties, some voters vote for all the candidates on the ballot sheets instead of voting for one candidate for fear for being punished by the gods.

He entreated the stakeholders to educate the electorate in their respective communities that such acts were unlawful and against the electoral rules of Ghana and anybody caught would be dealt with.

Mr Ganvu said it was against the electoral laws to embark upon political campaign on the voting day, and urged the women to educate their constituents.

He also urged them to desist from distracting the electoral officers from their duties during the voting.

He said political tolerance was necessary in any democratic dispensation because it promoted mutual respect among the political parties.

He encouraged the people to participate effectively in the political process without fear and intimidation, as well as help to promote peaceful co-existent and freedom of liberty.

Mr Emmanuel Atiiga, the Project Director of OLAM, asked the women to take up the role of ensuring that they helped to protect and preserve the peace the country.

The President of the Kaana Manga Women Association, Madam Victoria Asuliwono, on behalf of the group, pledged that they would embark on a house to house campaign, to educate their communities to ensure that marred the peace process.

She said the radio programmes on peace and reproductive health by the group would continue unabated

'We shall also use platforms such as the market places, outdooring, the mosque and the church to preach on the need for peace before, during and after the election,' she assured. GNA
By Linda Baah

Accra, Nov. 15, GNA - The Nkabom Association, a non-governmental organisation in Accra, has marked its fifth Anniversary on the theme: 'Place Your Hearts in the Hands of God'.

The Anniversary, which took place over the weekend, was aimed at raising funds to support the needy in addressing their basic problems.

Ms Madinatu Yunus, the Obeyeyie Zongo Queen Mother, said the organisation had helped the Obeyeyie Community by providing two boreholes, which had contributed to addressing water shortage issues, one of the numerous challenges confronting the people.

The Queenmother also said the Nkabom Association had also contributed immensely towards addressing other social problems, which included marital and domestic challenges.

'The Association has donated items to orphanages and has also provided financial support to people during marriage ceremonies, naming ceremonies and funerals,' she said.

The Queenmother, therefore, appealed to stakeholders and the Government to assist the Association because it had the community at heart.

In an interview with the GNA, Mr. Ibrahim Zakari, the Vice Chairman of the Association, recalled that the organisation had participated in communal labour, and clean-up exercises towards promoting good health in many communities.

Mr. Zakari also said the Association over the past five years had remained committed to educating the youth on social issues such as teenage pregnancy, drug abuse and other juvenile delinquencies.

Mohammed Amin Abdul Mumin Osman, the Imam of the Community, urged the youth to work towards ensuring a conflict-free 2016 Elections.

Mr Mumin Osman said: 'When there is peace, there is development and when there is no peace and unity, there is no development as chaos would destroy lives and property.'

The Anniversary launch was made colourful with jazz musical concert displayed by the Obeyeyie Zongo Youth.

GNA
The Army Chief exhorted the troops to be alert against enemy inimical designs and be aggressive in their approach.

By Manjeet Negi: The Chief of Army Staff, General Dalbir Singh has asked troops to be alert against any inimical activity, in wake of heightened tension in Indo-Pak ties. General Dalbir Singh visited the Headquarters of the Northern Command at Udhampur today.

AGGRESSIVE RESPONSE

The Army Chief exhorted the troops to be alert against enemy inimical designs and be aggressive in their approach amidst reports of damages to the Indian side as Pakistan claims to have launched an offensive in various sectors, targetting civilian areas as well.

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The General interacted with the Formation Commanders and reviewed the situation along the Line of Control as well as internal security situation in the Command center. Army Chief commended the soldiers for boldly responding to ceasefire violations along the Line of Control. He also lauded the synergy and co-operation between the Northern Command, Air Force, Paramilitary Forces, Civil Administration and Central Police Organisations operating in the region.

7 Pakistani soldiers were killed at LoC in Bhimber sector after unprovoked Ceasefire violation by Pakistan Army in Sunderbani and Pallanwala Sectors from was given a befitting response by Indian troops.



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--- ENDS ---
(From Kester Kenn Klomegah, Moscow Bureau Chief)

Moscow (Russia), Nov. 15, GNA - Russian President Vladimir Putin recently reiterated some aspects of Russia's foreign policy agenda with Africa when he received letters of credence from new ambassadors, including six from Africa, who had arrived in the country to begin their duty tour.

The six new African ambassadors are from Burundi, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Mali and Somalia. The credentials ceremony which formally marks the official beginning of the Ambassadors' duties in the Russian Federation, usually takes place twice a year. The previous ceremony was held on April 20. The ceremony.

While delivering his speech at the ceremony, President Putin said Russia was ready to restore cooperation that included developing investment and deepening trade, as well as increasing humanitarian assistance to African countries.

"I hope that your efforts to develop relations between the countries you represent and Russia will help to activate political dialogue, strengthen trade and economic ties, and expand humanitarian contacts," he stated.

With Burundi, Putin pointed out that Russia's relations with the Republic of Burundi had always been friendly and would be discussing several cooperative projects in the oil and gas sector and in mining. Russia also wished for an early restoration of internal political stability and national accord in Burundi, he added.

The President said Russia also sought to develop ties with the Federal Republic of Somalia, noting significantly the government's efforts to achieve national reconciliation and harmony and to rebuild the economy and social sectors.

"We support political dialogue with the Republic of Chad, all the more so as your country currently holds the African Union presidency. We look forward to President Idriss Deby's visit to Russia and are preparing for this occasion with concrete agreements in trade, the economy and humanitarian areas," the Russian leader told the Ambassador of the Republic of Chad, Mbatna Bandjang, at the ceremony.

He indicated that Russia had been cooperating with the Islamic Republic of the Gambia based on the principles of friendship and mutual respect, and as a result valued the Gambian partners' desire to expand bilateral ties in all different areas.

On Equitorial Guinea, President Putin said Russia had had excellent relationship with that country. "In developing our friendly relations with the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, we place great importance on cooperation on geological exploration, extraction and processing of hydrocarbons, including the development of offshore fields," he asserted.

With Mali, President Putin noted, 'We are developing partner relations with the Republic of Mali in the political, trade, economic, cultural and other areas. In June this year, Russia supported the UN Security Council resolution to extend the mandate of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali'.

Obviously, the Kremlin's long term goals include developing all-sided cooperation with African countries but those goals have run into pitfalls. Policy experts have suggested that Kremlin has to substantiate its African policy agenda with consistency, activeness and support, and enhance participation in the economic development of Africa. At the same time, Russia needs to look at simplifying access to its market for African countries.

Quite recently, President Putin said at the VTB Capital's Russia Calling Forum, that many countries had been "stepping up their activities on the African continent", but added that Russia could not cooperate with Africa "as it was in the Soviet period, for political reasons."

In his opinion, cooperation with African countries may be developed on a bilateral basis as well as on a multilateral basis, through the framework of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and the Republic of South Africa) in particular.

He noted further that the Russian authorities would support companies from that country aiming to work on the African continent. But so far, Russia has not publicly pledged any funds toward implementing its business projects and other policy objectives in Africa.

It is now known that China has offered $60 billion, Japan $32 billion, and India $25 billion, while some investment funds have also come from the United States and European Union, all towards Africa's development.

GNA
By Florence Afriyie Mensah, GNA

Kumasi, Nov 15, GNA - The Convention People's Party (CPP) has been campaigning on education, pledging to focus priority on E-learning and teachers' motivation, if given the mandate to govern the nation.

Mr. Emmanuel Gallo, the Ashanti Regional Chairman, said it would go the extra mile to make sure that there was maximum exploitation of information and communication technology (ICT) to transform the education system.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Kumasi said helping more students to pursue academic programmes through distance learning was the way forward as the universities struggled with lecturers.

He boasted of his party having the best plan to develop the country's education to drive its development.

Mr. Gallo spoke of establishing regional campuses of all state universities to expand access to students.

He gave the assurance that a CPP-led government would adequately motivate the teacher - improve their working conditions to inspire them to give it their all to enhance students' performance.

It would additionally strengthen the counselling units of the Ghana Education Service (GES) and provide adequate space for effective teaching and learning in the schools.

He also spoke of aligning academic programmes with the real needs of industry to deal with the rising joblessness among the youth.

Mr. Gallo said the polytechnics, vocational and technical training institutions were going to the linked up with industry - to generate new ideas to grow businesses.

He promised that the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) would be provided with the needed funding and resources to carry out its mandate to give stronger push to the industrial growth of the country.

The CPP government under Mr. Ivor Kobina Greenstreet, he said would live up to expectation and appealed to the people to vote massively for the party on December 07.

GNA
By Christopher Arko, GNA

Kaleo (U/W), Nov.15 GNA - Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur has said the New Patriotic Party (NPP), as a private sector oriented party, lacks ideas on development.

He said the NPP, unlike the National Democratic Congress (NDC), instead of consulting the people to find out what they wanted, would prefer to sit in Accra and decide for them.

Vice President Amissah-Arthur said this when he addressed hundreds of NDC supporters and the chiefs and people of the Kaleo Traditional Area at Kaleo in the Nadowli/Kaleo District of the Upper West Region.

The event is the first of the Vice President's campaign tour of the Upper West Region.

Vice President Amissah-Arthur is accompanied by Alhaji Sulemana Amin, Upper West Regional Minister, Ms Barbara Serwah Asamoah, Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mrs Betty Mould Iddrisu, Vice Chairperson of the NDC, and Mr Yaw Boateng Gyan, former National Organiser of the NDC among others.

Vice President Amissah-Arthur earlier called on Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu, founding member of the NDC and former Minister of Defence at his Wa residence.

He said the NDC as development oriented party would usually go to the people and find out what they wanted before they deliver to them.

He called on Ghanaians not to do anything to disturb the peace that the country is enjoying.

'The NDC as a party believes in peace since it is important for national development,' he said.

Vice President Amissah-Arthur urged the electorate in the area to vote for Mr Alban Bagbin as Member of Parliament for Nadowli/Kaleo and avoid voting 'skirt and blouse'.

He noted that Mr Bagbin is a valuable member of the NDC who must be sent back to Parliament to continue to bring development to the area.

He said the people of the Nadowli/Kaleo Constituency had given the NDC a very good material for Ghana.

Vice President Amissah-Arthur said Mr Bagbin led the NDC from minority to majority in Parliament and from one victory to another.

The Gyilli-Naa, Badienaang Sanyellah II, noted that God had already endorsed President John Dramani Mahama for the December 7 elections.

He said the Kaleo Traditional Area had witnessed a lot of development projects under the NDC Administration.

The Gyilli-Naa, however, appealed to government to de-silt the dams in the area to enable the farmers to get water for their farming activities.

He urged the Government to fast track the road construction works in the area as well as extend electricity to underserved communities.

He called for peaceful elections in the December polls adding that Ghanaians need to sustain the peace of the country.

Vice President Amissah-Arthur also addressed NDC supporters at mini rallies in Loggu and Bulenga in the Wa East Constituency.

He introduced Mr Alban Bagbin and Dr Henry Seidu Daanaa the NDC parliamentary candidates for Nadowli/Kaleo and Wa East constituencies respectively to the people.

GNA
Investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, has dared High Court Judge, Justice Paul Derry, to face him with the panel of judges selected by the Chief Justice, rather than resorting to the International Human Rights Court in Abuja to seek redress.

The embattled high court judge took to the courts and subsequently to the International Human Rights Courts, praying it, to among other things cite Anas Aremeyaw for invading the privacy and a breach of ethical standards in journalism.

Speaking at the Distinguished Lecture Series organised by the Department of Communications Studies of Central University Miotso Campus, on the topic, Putting the pieces together: The aftermath of the judiciary expose, the ace Journalist defended his line of wok which hinged on Naming, Shaming and Jailing.

He noted that following the expose that led to the interdiction of more than thirty high court and lower court judges , he is facing about seventy two lawsuits which according to him, '' has challenged me for greater things to happen and the impact of my work is what matters.

There has been concerns about his work with many who have been indicted citing unprofessionalism and breach of journalistic ethics.

However, according to him, his style of journalism is rather saving the country from the hands of people who otherwise would have milked the state coffers dry.

He added that the way forward lies on us because at least we know that judges are great people but we also know that they can be questioned when they go wrong.

Ten years from today if the judiciary gets back to the position it was, all of us must be blamed. If we all keep a constant eye we all will have a problem free or minimized corrupt judiciary, he said.

Speaking on the side lines of the Public Lecture, the President of Central University, Professor Kwesi Yankah lauded the efforts of Anas Aremeyaw for changing the face of journalism not only in Ghana but also on the continent and also for keeping a check on corruption in Ghana.

Fresh lawsuit at Ecowas court

Three embattled Ghanaian judges have filed a suit at the court of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for alleged violations of their human rights in Ghana.

Justice Paul Dery, Justice Mustapha Habib Logoh and Justice Gilbert Ayisi Addo, in a joint suit, named the Ghana Government, the Chief Justice of Ghana, the Ghana Judicial Council and the Attorney General of Ghana as the first, second, third and fourth respondents, respectively.

By the suit, the three justices are seeking the enforcement of their human rights which have been allegedly violated by the Ghana Government.

They are among other things seeking an order from the court to direct the Ghana Government to pay with interest full salaries and allowances which it unlawfully suspended since January, 2016  arising out of a petition by Tiger Eye PI/Anas Aremeyaw Anas' for their removal from office.



By: Lorrencia Nkrumah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Paris (AFP) - Nicolas Sarkozy's links with the late Moamer Kadhafi came under fresh scrutiny Tuesday after a businessman admitted delivering three cash-stuffed suitcases from the Libyan leader toward the Frenchman's first presidential bid.

In an interview with the Mediapart investigative news site, Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine said he had made three trips from Tripoli to Paris in late 2006 and early 2007 with cash for Sarkozy's campaign.

Each time he carried a suitcase containing between 1.5 and 2.0 million euros in 200-euro and 500-euro notes, Takieddine told the site in a video interview, saying he was given the money by Kadhafi's military intelligence chief Abdallah Senussi.

Sarkozy, who is bidding to recapture the presidency in next year's election, has for years been dogged by allegations that he accepted millions from Kadhafi during his successful 2007 run for the top office.

During questioning in a separate case, Takieddine accused Sarkozy of having been in Kadhafi's pocket in 2006-07 but he had never previously claimed to be the bagman.

The allegations against Sarkozy first emerged in March 2011, when the French leader was campaigning for the NATO-led military intervention that helped overthrow Kadhafi.

"Sarkozy must first give back the money he took from Libya to finance his electoral campaign," Kadhafi's son Seif al-Islam, who is now in jail in Libya, demanded.

Ziad Takieddine claims he made three trips from Tripoli to Paris in late 2006 and early 2007 with cash for Nicolas Sarkozy's election campaign

A year later, as Sarkozy was campaigning for a second term, Mediapart published a document signed by former Libyan intelligence boss Musa Kusa referring to an agreement for 50 million euros ($54 million at current rates) in backing from Tripoli.

Sarkozy, who lost his 2012 re-election bid, vigorously denied the allegations, claiming the document was a fake.

Takieddine's video testimony comes five days before Sarkozy goes up against former prime minister Alain Juppe and other rivals in a primary to choose the candidate of the French right in next year's presidential vote.

'Mafia state'

The first round of the two-stage primary takes place on Sunday.

Takieddine said he delivered the cash directly to the interior ministry, which Sarkozy headed at the time.

He said he was received on the first two occasions by Claude Gueant, Sarkozy's then cabinet chief whom he later made his interior minister.

David Cameron (right) and Nicholas Sarkozy spearheaded the NATO-led campaign to oust Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi in 2011

The businessman, who said he wanted to tell all about "the mafia state in which we are living", said he set down the cases in Gueant's office but did not discuss the contents with him.

On the third occasion, he was received by Sarkozy himself in an apartment on the first floor of the ministry, he claimed.

After setting down the case, he said Sarkozy spoke to him briefly about a group of Bulgarian health workers imprisoned in Libya whose liberation Sarkozy negotiated later that year.

But he studiously avoided the topic of the briefcase.

In 2012, Senussi, who is also imprisoned in Libya, told investigators he "personally supervised" the handover of 5.0 million euros towards Sarkozy's campaign.

But despite several other such former high-ranking members of Kadhafi's regime making similar claims, French investigators have yet to find any evidence of illegal campaign funding, according to AFP's sources.

Sarkozy has brushed off the allegations as the claims of vindictive Libyan regime members, furious with him for leading the intervention that ended Kadhafi's 41-year rule.

The 61-year-old right-winger, who is trailing presidential frontrunner Juppe in opinion polls, is embroiled in several scandals.

He has been charged with influence peddling in a separate affair and with illegal financing of his 2012 campaign. Sarkozy has accused the judiciary of trying to stymie his comeback ambitions.
Some supporters of the opposition New Patriotic Party on Tuesday clashed with some demonstrators demanding an apology from the flagbearer of the NPP, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo over what they call "derogatory statements" made by some NPP Members of Parliament against Krobos.

The clashes occurred after NPP supporters and some constituency executives went to the Palace of the Paramount Chief of Manya Krobo to engage him in a meeting reported to be part of preparations toward the courtesy call on the Chief by Nana Akufo Addo while the demonstrators were also at the palace to present their petition to the Chief.

According to Starr FMs Eastern regional correspondent Kojo Ansah, the NPP supporters physically prevented the leaders of the demonstrators from presenting their petition to the Chief while their executives were in a meeting with him.

This sparked confusion among the two groups but police personnel swiftly intervened to restore calm, directing the leaders of the demonstrators to later send a delegation to present their petition.

The Convener of the group Evans Srenyame Tetteh told Ansah that "we are a peace loving group, you realize that some of the NPP guys took over the palace with intention of blocking us from seeing the paramount chief, we will not want to have clashes with them, we have resolved that we are sending a delegation that will be protected by the police to present the petition to the traditional council."

Hundreds of Krobo residents on Tuesday staged a massive demonstration demanding that the NPP presidential candidate render an unqualified apology to Krobos on behalf of the NPP members over their "series of derogatory statement made by Hon. Samuel Atta Akyea, Hon. Kennedy Agyapong and some high ranking members of the NPP against people of Krobo.

According to the Krobo Youth Network, organizers of the demonstration, Hon. Atta Akyea in February stated in an interview with the media that Krobos do not deserve a university adding that, Hon. Kennedy Agyapong and some leaders of NPP are reported to have insulted Krobo women describing them as prostitutes who only need Hotels in the area.

The demonstrators, clad in red headgear, red arm and hand bands, hoisted placards with several inscriptions conveying their sentiments.

A petition signed by the Evans Srenyame Tetteh and Ebenezer Kwasi Kpabitey, convener and organizer respectively to the Paramount Chief of Manya Krobo, Nene Sackitey stated that "Your Highness, you will recall that somewhere in February 2016 this year, the Parliament of Ghana passed the Eastern region University bill into Law.

The said bill sited the main campus of the proposed University at Somanya with Satelite Campuses in other parts of the country, Atta Akyea (MP,Abuakwa South) launched a scathing attack on this noble idea. He went further to state that "krobos do not deserve a university.

This did not go down well with us as a group and to all krobo's in general. We have since called on him and the leadership of NPP to apologise to us but to no avail".

The statement further stated that, "as Nana Addo visits Krobo land today, we appeal to your Royal Highness to seek this apology on behalf of Krobo land."

The group added "we want to use the medium to remind Nana Akufo-Addo and his NPP that Krobos are not aliens in Eastern region and will thus not tolerate such irresponsible statements in the future".

The group warned that they will react differently should the flagbearer of NPP fail to apologize.

"We are today marching peacefully in protest of Nana and his NPP's irresponsibility but we may react differently if they fail to apologize to all Krobos in general."
Former First Vice Chairman of the NPP, Mr. Fred Oware believes the Volta Region will be better off under an Akufo-Addo led New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration.

According to Mr. Oware, Volta Region will under an NPP government, undergo massive economic growth and infrastructural development which will lead to the creation of jobs, establishment of factories, and strengthening human resource capacity through affordable education.

Mr. Oware made the observation when he accompanied a delegation of the Volta Regional Executives of the NPP, to pay a courtesy call on former President and founder of the opposition NDC, Flt.Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, at his residence in Accra.

The visit which was headed by the Volta regional Chairman of the NPP, Mr. John Peter Amewu, was to afford the Regional executives convey their concerns about the up-coming elections to the former President, especially the practice of foreign nationals from neighbouring countries taking part in Ghanas electoral process, as well as the NPPs economic agenda for the Volta Region.

Touching on the NPPs economic plans for the region, Mr. Oware stressed that an Akufo-Addo led NPP government will be committed to strengthening and implementing the many social intervention policies initiated by the Kufuor administration, in the region, to further reduce poverty. He further assured of the Volta Regions immense benefit from the NPPs free SHS policy which will further develop their human resource capacity to prepare them for the regions economic boom.

He said the NPP over the years had implemented policies such as the NHIS, LEAP, School Feeding programme, and the FCUBE Capitation grant among others, which has benefitted many Ghanaians including residents of the Volta region; adding that the next NPP administration will establish a factory in each district of the Volta region and support each constituency with an additional annual budget of $1million as some of its measures to generate economic growth.

Mr. Oware assured President Rawlings, that as an elder statesman and a native of the region, his advice and guidance will be sought by the next NPP government in the execution of development programmes in the region.

On the NPPs quest to protect the sanctity of the ballot in the region, Volta Regional Chairman of the Party, Mr. John Peter Amewu said the Party was implementing a programme termed Operation Eagle Eye which is a carefully thought-out mutual capacity-building exercise between the people of the Ghana-Togo border, to create immense awareness of ones voting rights and democratic franchise. He said the programme has been well received by nationals and traditional rulers on both side of the Ghana-Togo border.

On his part, former President Rawlings thanked the NPP delegation for their visit and assured them of his support in ensuring that the 7th December elections was not only violent-free, but also free from foreign dilution.
Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo has said the current difficulties faced by Ghanaians require a competent leader like her husband Nana Akufo-Addo to fix them.

Campaigning in the Ablekuma Central and Ayawaso North constituencies in the Greater Accra region, she said the electorate can trust the former Foreign Affairs Minister since he also has the men and women to rule the nation effectively.

Mrs. Akufo-Addo noted change is inevitable come December 7.

Accompanied by the parliamentary candidate of Ablekuma Central constituency, Ebenezer Nii Narh Nartey, Mrs Akufo-Addo, called on the chief of Samara-line Chief Issu Something where she assured them that the NPP has no business in deporting them.

My husband has always fought for individual rights and freedoms and will never infringe on the human rights of anyone. Again, be assured that Nana Addo who is committed to improving the lives of all Ghanaians, regardless of tribe, religion, gender or class, will be a father for all, Mrs. Akufo-Addo said.

At the Sukura and Zongo markets in Ablekuma Central, Mrs Akufo-Addo, interacted with market women, stressing Nana Addo and the NPP will fix the economy and make the business environment better for their businesses to thrive.

You know that as women we are the major beneficiaries of an improved NHIS, free maternal healthcare and free quality SHS, so on December 7, vote for these social interventions for you and your children; vote for Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP, she emphasised.

Mrs Akufo-Addo also met drivers at the Kaneshie-Dansoman and Takoradi stations.

She stated: My husband is a man of peace and someone you can trust. Don't believe those who say the Zongo Development fund is a mere campaign talk. He means it, so give him the opportunity to prove to you, he is a man of his words.

-Starrfmonline
15.11.2016 LISTEN

Traders in the Western Region have expressed gratitude to President John Dramani Mahama and the Chief Executive Officer of Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Mrs. Sedina Tamakloe Attionu for supporting them financially.

They said the assistance would empower them to expand their businesses and improve their livelihood.

The traders made this commendation when MASLOC through the intervention of President Mahama disbursed loans totalling GHc 36,800 to them in 11 constituencies of the Region.

The amount was given to 37 groups made up of 924 beneficiaries.

They said they had never thought that such an opportunity would come their way, since there were equally millions of Ghanaians who were looking for the MASLOC intervention.

The traders pledged their commitment to follow all the regulations attached to the loan facilities.

Mrs Attionu, the Chief Executive Officer of MASLOC, said women played a vital role towards the development of the economy adding that President Mahama in a number of occasions had made it clear to Ghanaians that, he would do everything possible to support Ghanaian women to be self-reliant.

Mrs Attionu entreated the traders to make judicious use of the loan facilities so that they could pay back on schedule for others to also benefit.

She warned that MASLOC loans were not gifts but rather, a revolving fund that went round through their effort in paying back for other traders to benefit.

Mr Daniel Axim, the operations Manager of MASLOC, disclosed that it was only the outfit of MASLOC that could provide traders with as low as two per cent interest.

MASLOC loans are in line with government's efforts to reduce poverty and empower women in their communities across the country.

The fund over the years has established itself as a microfinance institution that disburses micro and small loans to the identified poor in the various sectors of the Ghanaian economy.

MASLOC have also provided business advisory services, training and capacity building for small and medium scale enterprises as well as collaborating institutions, to equip them with the required skills and knowledge in managing their businesses efficiently and effectively.

Source: GNA


President John Mahama said if the Nima Police had been better briefed, Sunday's clash between supporters of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patriotic Party (NPP) would not have happened.

He said contrary to reports, the NDC supporters were merely passing through the area which is close to the residence of the NPP flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo when the scuffle broke out.

Only last Sunday, we almost had a clash which was unfortunate, if any of those firearms had been fired and someone had dropped dead it would have been a completely different story, he said.

President Mahama made these remarks when he addressed Business owners and leaders in Accra, Tuesday.

The clash between supporters of the NDC and the NPP has pushed issues about the security of the December 7 polls to the fore.

Many are hoping the polls would be devoid of violence as has been promised by the various stakeholders' in the general elections.

Functionaries of the NPP and NDC have given different accounts about the true cause of the incident.

NPP has accused the NDC of first starting the violence. The NDC through the John Mahama 2016 Campaign has also blamed the NPP.

With 22 days to the presidential and parliamentary elections, many security experts have cautioned the security apparatus to prioritize flash points in the country in order to stop possible conflict situations.

United States Ambassador to Ghana, Robert Jackson and United Kingdom High Commissioner, Jon Benjamin have both waded into the issue, warning their Embassies will deny or revoke visas of those who instigate violence in the country ahead of the elections.

The Ghana Police Service has instituted an investigation into circumstances that led to the incident in order to charge the perpetrators.

But the President said the police should have mapped out strategies to avert the violence by anticipating the situation from the beginning.

I think that the police at Nima should have been better briefed knowing that this group was passing through, he said.

He said the incident must send a signal to the security operatives to put in place appropriate safeguards to ensure that such a thing does not happen.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Austin Brakopowers | Email: [email protected]
The Opposition has slammed the Government's decision, with Mamata Banerjee calling the move draconian while Congress saying it has no new security features.

By India Today Web Desk: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair an all-party meet today over the issue of demonetisation of Rs 500, Rs 1000 currency notes that has united various Opposition parties against the government.

The inconvenience that people have had to face in the past one week, since this decision was announced by the prime minister on November 8, has got political parties opposing the move to protest in one voice. While Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee had described the move as draconian, the Congress has slammed the government's decision calling it a 'mere note-change' policy that has 'no new security features'

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"If the earlier Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes will be replaced by new Rs 500/Rs 1,000/Rs 2,000 notes, how is it demonetisation? Is not a mere note change policy?" said Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala.

Also read: Amit Shah: All queries from Opposition on demonetisation will be answered in Parliament



"New notes have no new security features. There is no new water mark or security thread or fibre or latent image. Under these circumstances, how are these notes more secure than the previous withdrawn currency? "The prime minister mocks the entire nation, but he must realise the arrogance of power shouldn't surpass the problems faced by people. The prime minister cannot mock Indians facing insurmountable difficulties nor can use his traditional 'jumlas' to deflect the truth," he said.

OPPOSITION MEET

Opposition leaders are also meeting today to discuss demonetisation. While joining hands in opposing the demonetisation of high-value currency notes, the Opposition parties planned to hold another meeting to chalk out their strategy for Parliament's winter session, starting on Wednesday.

On Monday, leaders of the Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Janata Dal-United (JD-U), Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and the YSR Congress met in the room allotted to Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad.

"All parties denounced the manner in which the demonetisation was enforced. We are not against fighting black money, but this action has affected the farmers and daily wage earners," said CPI leader D Raja.

Also read: Demonetisation: Mamata to arrive in Delhi tomorrow, likely to lead anti-Modi brigade



West Bengal CM seems to be gearing up to weave a new political design on the issue of demonetisation. The West Bengal CM is seen as one leading the charge against the Narendra Modi government. She is also expected to arrive in Delhi today. She is likely to meet President Pranab Mukherjee tomorrow and discuss the issue of demonetisation.

Meanwhile, banks will reopen today after a day's holiday.

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Also read: Demonetisation, Day 6: PM reviews currency availability, upholds decisions for smoother cash dispensation

--- ENDS ---
Rome (AFP) - Around 100 people were missing, feared drowned, in the Mediterranean after a migrant dinghy capsized off Libya on Tuesday, according to NGO rescue teams helping with the search for survivors.

German NGO Jugend Rettet said in a tweet that 23 survivors had been rescued by an oil tanker and that "the crews are searching for survivors in the water and recovering dead bodies".

The survivors and four recovered corpses were transferred from the tanker to the Acquarius, a boat operated by another charity group, SOS Mediterranee.

A survivor told one of the organisation's staff that the dinghy had begun to sink at 6.00 a.m., four hours before the tanker arrived.

"We were 122 on the boat, no children under 15, but there were 10 women travelling with us and only one survived," the survivor was quoted as saying.

"We waited in the water, taking any floating thing to remain afloat, but most of the people drowned, including my little brother. He was 15.

"At 10 the tanker came and rescued us. I want to call home to tell them that my brother died."

The latest tragedy in the Mediterranean came the day after another incident in which it is feared dozens may have drowned after the sinking of another dinghy, from which there were only 15 survivors.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said the decision by the Electoral Commission (EC) to print results forms (Form Eight) popularly referred as Pink Sheets without serial numbers is illegal.

NPP Director of Elections, Martin Agyei Mensah Korsah said they were told about the decision when some party representatives paid a visit to Aero Vote, the company in charge of the printing.

He said one Commander Cedar who works with the company conducted the NPP representatives around the building and showed them a copy of the pink sheet without the serial number.

This act, Mr Mensah Korsah believes contradicts the directives in the Constitutional Instrument (C.I.94), the law governing the 2016 election.

If you are providing a pink sheet without serial numbers, what it means is that it leave them open to abuse, he told Evans Mensah, host of Joy FMs Top Story programme Tuesday.

The EC has commenced printing of the Notice of polls as well as other auxiliary documents for the presidential election.

Aero Vote, the company that won the $8.5 million contract, has been liaising with agents of political parties and the Commission to ensure standard is adhered to.

Per the Public Elections Regulations, 2016 (C.I.94) Form Eight, or the Pink Sheet for both presidential and parliamentary results should have unique serial numbers affix at the top.

Refresh the page for more...

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Austin Brakopowers | Email: [email protected]


Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo has said the current difficulties faced by Ghanaians require a competent leader like her husband Nana Akufo-Addo to fix them.

Campaigning in the Ablekuma Central and Ayawaso North constituencies in the Greater Accra region, she said the electorate can trust the former Foreign Affairs Minister since he also has the men and women to rule the nation effectively.

Mrs. Akufo-Addo noted change is inevitable come December 7.

Accompanied by the parliamentary candidate of Ablekuma Central constituency, Ebenezer Nii Narh Nartey, Mrs Akufo-Addo, called on the chief of Samara-line Chief Issu Something where she assured them that the NPP has no business in deporting them.

My husband has always fought for individual rights and freedoms and will never infringe on the human rights of anyone. Again, be assured that Nana Addo who is committed to improving the lives of all Ghanaians, regardless of tribe, religion, gender or class, will be a father for all, Mrs. Akufo-Addo said.

At the Sukura and Zongo markets in Ablekuma Central, Mrs Akufo-Addo, interacted with market women, stressing Nana Addo and the NPP will fix the economy and make the business environment better for their businesses to thrive.

You know that as women we are the major beneficiaries of an improved NHIS, free maternal healthcare and free quality SHS, so on December 7, vote for these social interventions for you and your children; vote for Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP, she emphasised.

Mrs Akufo-Addo also met drivers at the Kaneshie-Dansoman and Takoradi stations.

She stated: My husband is a man of peace and someone you can trust. Don't believe those who say the Zongo Development fund is a mere campaign talk. He means it, so give him the opportunity to prove to you, he is a man of his words.

-Starrfmonline


Reverend Dr Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong, the General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana has called on political parties to consider a 'productive policy' for the council in future.

According to him, the council is worried about the lack of attention given to issues affecting churches in the country by political parties in their 2016 manifestos ahead of the 7 December polls.

Speaking on NEAT FM's morning show 'Ghana Montie', Rev Opuni-Frimpong noted that, the Christian Council of Ghana has play a major role in the development of the country  yet political parties always sideline them in their missions and visions for the country.

We have contributed significantly towards the development of the country. Most schools, hospitals and universities in the country belong to the churches. At least political parties must consider us in their manifestos because we are helping this country he lamented

He told host Kwasi Aboagye that  The relationship between the council and government is fading out gradually. We must also have our share of the national cake. Political parties must have us in their plans.

He added: Of course, we are aware of the Zongo Development Fund, SADA and others. While we recommend all of them for stating these things, we feel that there are other deprived communities that must be responded to and again because of the significant contribution that the churches and the other religious bodies contribute, at least our concerns should not be ignored.

-Peacefmonline
The Electoral Commission (EC) yesterday (Monday) dismissed reports that it printed a wrong logo for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) on the parliamentary ballot sheets.

A statement by the Commission Monday signed by Eric Dzakpasu said it worked closely with representatives of the various political parties on the acceptable logo before printing them on the Notice of Polls and ballot sheets.

For the Parliamentary Notice of Polls and Ballot Sheets, the New Patriotic Party specifically indicated their satisfaction with the logo as processed for printing, the statement said.

Meanwhile, NPP Ashanti Regional Chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako has refused to accept the parliamentary ballot printed by the EC citing the absence of the party's abbreviation.

RE: CLARIFICATION: POLITICAL PARTY LOGO ON BALLOT SHEETS.

However, minutes after the issuance of the Electoral Commissions statement, the NPP Election Directorate issued a rejoinder.

NPPs Director of Elections, Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah spoke in an interview with Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FMs kokrokoo to clarify the issue on Tuesday morning.

Read below the rejoinder:

We refer to the statement issued by the Electoral Commission on the evening of Monday, 14th of November 2016 in an apparent response to concerns expressed by some members of the NPP over the omission of the partys initials beneath its symbol on the Parliamentary ballot sheets and wish to point out the obvious distortions and untruths therein.

1. The Electoral Commission printed Parliamentary Notices of Polls with different inscriptions in the blue portion of the NPP logo/symbol.

2. Whilst for instance the Notice of Poll in the Asante Akyem North Constituency had in the blue portion of the NPP symbol MOTTO: DEVELOPMENT IN FREEDOM, another one for Kwadaso had  NPP: DEVELOPMENT IN FREEDOM. But both had NPP written beneath the symbol and all of these are public and copies can be verified.

3. The NPP supervisors quickly drew the Commissions attention at the printing houses to correct this anomaly. In doing this correction, the NPP initials beneath the symbol was also removed.

4. We again noticed that and quickly asked for it to be reinstated, only to be informed by the Commissions supervisors that it was too late for the initials to be included.

5. The Commission further took the position that it had not errerd in removing the NPP initials placed beneath the symbol since the NPP official logo/symbol had no such initials included in it.

6. It however made a surprise turn around in bringing the NPP initial back on the Presidential Notice of Poll and ballot sheets.

7. At no point did NPP supervisors at the printing houses express satisfaction/approval over the removal of Party initials from the Parliamentary Notice of Poll and ballot sheets as is being suggested by the Electoral Commission.

We urge party members/supporters and voters in general to remain calm and focused on the Great Elephant symbol. 3y3 Osono.

Election Directorate, NPP.

-Peacefmonline
The campaign team of President John Dramani Mahama for the 2016 election has slammed supporters of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, 2016 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), for allegedly firing gunshots at NDC supporters who were involved in a health walk around the residence of the NPP leader.

Read the full details of a press release, signed by Joyce Bawah Mogtari, Spokesperson for the campaign team, and dropped in Accra yesterday:

The John Mahama 2016 Campaign notes with sadness the developments of today, Sunday November 13, 2016, during a well-patronised health walk, organised by the Greater Accra Regional Branch of our great party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The sad developments, which were occasioned by an unprovoked attack, followed by sporadic gunshots by identified hooligans from the Nima residence of Nana Akufo-Addo, and thankfully without any reactions whatsoever from our party supporters, have now been twisted by the opposition party and their media partners, Citi FM and Joy FM.

Records available, including photographs posted to the website of Starr FM, www.starrfmonline.com, confirm that it is the identified thugs from Nana Addo's residence that were wielding various types of weapons and firing them.

The rush to issue statements, and together with their media partners, circulate a false claim that supporters of the NDC wanted to attack the residence of the NPP flagbearer, is clearly a failed attempt to hoodwink the public and the international community, after photographs of their gun-wielding thugs appeared on both social and new media platforms.

No NDC supporter and participant in Sunday's health walk wanted to enter, let alone, attack the Nima residence. It is also instructive to state that the police had cordoned off the property.

We dare Joy FM and Citi FM to provide the evidence they gathered that our supporters did anything close to what they reported.

The NDC and its candidate will continue to conduct a peaceful, calm and issue-based campaign. We challenge Nana Addo to disarm the thousands of young people called Invincible Forces he has recruited and trained, and whose principal mission is to always cause mayhem and violence.

The available photographs from his residence should be a cause for worry to all peace-loving Ghanaians and others interested in the political stability of our country.

This morning's health walk, which started from the La Trade Fair Centre and went through various principals streets of Accra, and also through Nima and Maamobi, confirmed the growing brand appeal, peoples recognition and appreciation of the achievements, and the overwhelming conformation that President John Dramani Mahama is the peoples' choice and will win the 2016 presidential election convincingly.

We encourage all political parties to take a step back, and always look at the future of this country when taking decisions. Concocting stories and using a biased media to spread them across the globe does the country no good.
15.11.2016 LISTEN

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, 2016 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has expressed sadness over the attack on his residence by some disgruntled members of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC).

In a statement signed by the NPP flagbearer and released in Accra yesterday, Nana Addo said Sunday, November 14, 2016, was a sad day in our nation's history.

Below is the full text of the press statement:

On that day, the Ghanaian people saw a most unbecoming sight, the home of the leader of Ghana's biggest opposition party being attacked by supporters of the ruling National Democratic Congress government.

One would, ordinarily, have treated it as a one-off spectacle, in spite of the nature of the attack. However, my four-day tour of the Brong Ahafo Region has revealed a rather disturbing trend, leading up to this year's elections.

In Sankore, on Thursday, October 10, I witnessed, at firsthand, the open brutalisation of NPP members. Prior to my visit, two NPP members had been brutally murdered by NDC thugs.

The scars of intimidation and assault by thugs recruited by Hon. Eric Opoku, MP for the constituency and Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, are still evident. In Asutifi South, a few kilometres away, another Minister in President Mahama's government, Hon. Collins Dauda, MP, is also perpetrating violence against his own constituents. Ghanaians heard on the radio, comments made by the brother of Hon. Collins Dauda, to the effect that he kills people on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, these savage attacks against our party activists have gone unpunished, with the perpetrators of these acts walking free. We have protested the apparently selective manner in which the law is being applied against those perceived to be political opponents of the current government. The police have looked on unconcerned, and the President of the land has not, on a single occasion, condemned any of these brutal acts by his ministers.

Is it then a surprise that NDC footsoldiers have become emboldened to extend these attacks to all parts of the country?

For us, in the NPP, the peace of the nation, as well as the consolidation of our democratic governance, is not negotiable. We urge all political parties, and Ghanaians committed to promoting peace and deepening our democracy, to work with us in securing these ends. Ghanaian democrats, no matter their party affiliation, should stand shoulder to shoulder to defend and promote the aims of our democratic Republic that also include standing up against the bully.

Let the President and his army of propaganda warriors be assured that they would not succeed in their intimidation and deliberate propaganda mongering against the NPP and I.

We shall continue to believe in Ghana. We will muster the necessary courage to defend democratic Ghana, and continue in our peaceful quest to win power in 2016, and bring back hope and opportunities to the people of Ghana, irrespective of their politics, creed, ethnicity, region, religion, age, gender or social status.
15.11.2016 LISTEN

From Issah Alhassan, Kumasi..

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Manhyia South, Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh, has alleged that the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and its presidential candidate, President John Dramani Mahama, are sharing monies whose identity is not known.

The NPP MP alleges that the ruling party, in a desperate attempt to clinch on to power, has resorted to the wanton dissipation of cash that cannot be accounted for.

Speaking to journalists after leading a mammoth crowd to embark on a Keep Fit Walk For Change, the Manhyia South dared the ruling party to declare the source of funds it has been sharing to the public.

Dr. Opoku Prempeh, therefore, warned the public not to fall prey to the antics of the ruling party with a few weeks to the polls.

According to him, bribing the good conscience of voters seems to be the only option available to President Mahama and his NDC government, because they have failed in the last eight years to justify the trust reposed in them by the populace.

He said Ghanaians were geared up for change, and that nothing can stop the NPP from winning the December 7 polls.

The Keep Fit Walk forms part of campaign activities lined up by the Manhyia South NPP to canvass votes for Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the parliamentary candidate.

Meanwhile, the MP has begun another round of house-to-house campaign to interact with the people.

Akufo-Addo condemns attacks on his residence, urges calm

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, 2016 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has expressed sadness over the attack on his residence by some disgruntled members of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC).

In a statement signed by the NPP flagbearer and released in Accra yesterday, Nana Addo said Sunday, November 14, 2016, was a sad day in our nation's history.

Below is the full text of the press statement:

On that day, the Ghanaian people saw a most unbecoming sight, the home of the leader of Ghana's biggest opposition party being attacked by supporters of the ruling National Democratic Congress government.

One would, ordinarily, have treated it as a one-off spectacle, in spite of the nature of the attack. However, my four-day tour of the Brong Ahafo Region has revealed a rather disturbing trend, leading up to this year's elections.

In Sankore, on Thursday, October 10, I witnessed, at firsthand, the open brutalisation of NPP members. Prior to my visit, two NPP members had been brutally murdered by NDC thugs.

The scars of intimidation and assault by thugs recruited by Hon. Eric Opoku, MP for the constituency and Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, are still evident. In Asutifi South, a few kilometres away, another Minister in President Mahama's government, Hon. Collins Dauda, MP, is also perpetrating violence against his own constituents. Ghanaians heard on the radio, comments made by the brother of Hon. Collins Dauda, to the effect that he kills people on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, these savage attacks against our party activists have gone unpunished, with the perpetrators of these acts walking free. We have protested the apparently selective manner in which the law is being applied against those perceived to be political opponents of the current government. The police have looked on unconcerned, and the President of the land has not, on a single occasion, condemned any of these brutal acts by his ministers.

Is it then a surprise that NDC footsoldiers have become emboldened to extend these attacks to all parts of the country?

For us, in the NPP, the peace of the nation, as well as the consolidation of our democratic governance, is not negotiable. We urge all political parties, and Ghanaians committed to promoting peace and deepening our democracy, to work with us in securing these ends. Ghanaian democrats, no matter their party affiliation, should stand shoulder to shoulder to defend and promote the aims of our democratic Republic that also include standing up against the bully.

Let the President and his army of propaganda warriors be assured that they would not succeed in their intimidation and deliberate propaganda mongering against the NPP and I.

We shall continue to believe in Ghana. We will muster the necessary courage to defend democratic Ghana, and continue in our peaceful quest to win power in 2016, and bring back hope and opportunities to the people of Ghana, irrespective of their politics, creed, ethnicity, region, religion, age, gender or social status.
Some Residents of Krobo Odumase in the Eastern Region have demanded that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Flagbearer, Nana Akufo-Addo, compel the NPP MP for Abuakwa South, Samuel Atta-Akyea, to apologise to them for comments deemed offensive to Krobo land.

Mr. Atta-Akyea is reported to made some derogatory remarks on government's plans to build the Eastern Region University in the area.

This led to the scores of residents marching in protest to demand an apology from the Abuakwa South MP today [Tuesday].

According to the protesters, Mr. Atta-Akyea on the floor of Parliament kicked against the establishment of the university and called on Nana Akufo-Addo, who is visiting the area to call him to order.

A spokesperson of the demonstrators, Evans Tetteh, recalled Mr. Atta-Akyea's comments saying, Krobo land does not deserve a university and if a university is supposed to be built, it is supposed to build in Akyem land. This statement did not go down well with us as a group.

This demonstration is a peaceful march trying to prompt the tradition council of the said statement made by Atta-Akyea and we are calling on the traditional council that when Nana Akufo-Addo pays a courtesy call on our paramount, they should draw his attention to the statement made by honorable Atta-Akyea and the need for him to apologise to this group and Krobo and in general.

So if Atta-Akyea fails to apologise, if Nana Akufo-Addo fails to do the right thing, we will meet as a group and we will decide the way forward, Mr. Tetteh stated.



By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana
The Vice Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has described the John Mahama-led National Democratic Congress government as the most corrupt government in the history of Ghana.

Speaking at a campaign in Bongo in the Upper East Region, Dr. Bawumia also accused President Mahama of not being honest with Ghanaians.

John Mahamas government is the most corrupt government in the history of Ghana, there is no question about that; dollar for dollar, cedi for cedi, this is the most corrupt government. And he has the audacity to come to the north to tell the northerners to vote for him again because he is your brother. Why does your government steal from northerners if they care about northerners and why do they want us to give them an opportunity to steal more from the very northerners they say you are trying to protect. Lets face it; John Mahamas government is a disgrace to northerners, he said.

He said the only way such trend could be reversed is by voting against the NDC and giving the NPP the chance to govern Ghana.

Northerners were always a proud people, we value our integrity, we dont have money but we have pride. We are seen as honest people, this is the way our fathers worked. Honesty was the guiding principle of the northern elite of those days and northerners as a whole. We were honest and we valued our integrity. Today the people of Ghana are viewing us very differently and therefore it is time to restore the pride of northerners and the way to restore that pride is to get rid of this John Mahama corrupt government. That is the only we are going to restore that pride, he added.

The NPP vice presidential candidate also observed that the NDC government has had a lot of revenue at its disposal yet has little to show for it

According to him, the NPP with GHc20 billion provided Ghanaians with many social intervention polices but the NDC government with billions of Ghana cedis has collapsed the laudable policies and have plunged Ghanaians into a ditch.

NPP used GH20 billion to govern Ghana with many social intervention polices; NHIS, Youth Employment, Metro mass transit, Nurses and teacher trainee allowances etc but NDC John Mahama government has at its disposal GHC248 billion yet everything in Ghana is wahala. NHIS wahala, free maternal health wahala, freed ing grants wahala, Nurses and teachers allowance wahala, Capitation grants wahala, he added.



By: Frederick Awuni/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin arrived in New Delhi today on his six-day visit to India.

By India Today Web Desk: India is committed to enhancing ties with Israel, our partnership is multi-dimensional, PM Modi said today after welcoming Israeli President Reuven Rivlin in New Delhi on his six-day visit to the country.

Building Defence ties and enhancing people-to-people relations are important for our partnership, Modi added.

JOINT STATEMENT

Issuing a Joint Statement with Rivlin, the Prime Minister said, "India and Israel have agreed that the international community must act with resolve against terror networks and state that harbour them."



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Also read: Manohar Parrikar scraps major rifles deal with Israeli firm over corruption tone



In an indirect reference to Pakistan, Modi said that it was regrettable that one of the countries behind the origin and spread of terrorism was in India's neighbourhood.



Would encourage private sector holders to use this opportunity to build business ties between the two nations (India and Israel): PM Modi pic.twitter.com/WGARsxbjrr ANI (@ANI_news) November 15, 2016

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said Israel and India were threatened by terror because the two countries upheld the values of freedom.

Growing number of Indian students going to study in Israel will be an important bridge in building our partnership, Modi said.



Growing number of Indian students going to study in Israel will be an important bridge in building our partnership: PM Modi ANI (@ANI_news) November 15, 2016

As we approach the 25-year-milestone in establishment of diplomatic relations, we are committed to advancing our engagement on several fronts, Modi said.

Rivlin thanked Modi for the hospitality shown to him on his arrival in India.



Thank you from the bottom of my heart, you have truly made us feel at home in your beautiful country: Israel President Reuven Rivlin pic.twitter.com/4G6LaWDi72 ANI (@ANI_news) November 15, 2016

--- ENDS ---
The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) says it appreciates the valuable contribution of traditional rulers towards environmental conservation.

It said that efforts by traditional rulers were very important to agriculture productivity, biodiversity and crop production and must be commended.

Dr Albert Brown Gaisie, the Chief Fire Officer gave the commendation when he paid a courtesy call on the Overlord of the Waala Traditional Area, Naa Seidu Fuseini Pelpuo IV during his three-day visit to the Upper West Region.

The Chief Fire Officer congratulated the Wa Naa for the support he gave to the Regional Command, saying through such relationship he had come to learn about all the efforts he had been putting in place to help reduce the incidence of fire especially bush burning in the traditional area.

Dr Gaisie hinted that the GNFS would soon be launching the Home Fire Certification Project and expressed the hope that it would help reduce the incidence of fire to ensure the safety of lives and property at home.

Naa Fuseini Pelpuo thanked the Chief Fire Officer for his visit, pointing out that the good work of the service in the region had saved a number of lives and property.

The Overlord of the Waala Traditional Area installed Dr Gaisie as Boon Naa (Chief of Fire) in recognition of the good works the service was doing for Ghana.

The Chief Fire Officer also paid a courtesy call on Dr Musheibu Mohammed Alfa, Deputy Regional Minister, and inaugurated the Regional Headquarters building of the GNFS.

He also cut sod for the construction of a canteen and gym complex. GNA
15.11.2016 LISTEN

From Sebastian R. Freiku, Kumasi..

A former law student of the University of London, Mr. Chancellor Oppong Kyekyeku Kohl has filed a motion on notice at the Supreme Court, to have a smuggled document expunged from the record of appeal before the Court of Appeal.

Mr. Kohl, a plaintiff/Appellant/respondent in a suit against the Attorney General, last Monday November 7, 2016 filed the motion and the Supreme Court is billed to hear the matter on November 17, 2016 and expunge the said smuggled document from the records accordingly.

The petitioner's concern borders on alleged smuggling of written response of the defendant into the record of proceedings before the Court of Appeal through the back door, belatedly two days before judgment was to be given.

Before this action, Mr. Kohl had petitioned the Chief Justice and the Judicial Service to caution the Registrar of the Court of Appeal to avoid the traps of legalizing illegality in the performance of his duty.

In a petition dated September 14, 2016, Mr. Chancellor Oppong Kyekyeku Kohl, the petitioner, appealed to the Judicial Service through its Secretary and copied to the Chief Justice calling on them (CJ and Judicial Service) to ensure that the said written response by the defendant through the back door, is expunged from the record of proceedings for dispassionate resolution of the issue.

He said, he had to pay a whooping sum of GHc5,410 (duly receipted) for the compilation of record of proceedings from the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court, just as he paid for the compilation of records of proceedings from the High Court to the Court of Appeal.

According to him, he has a genuine case against the defendant (Attorney General), hence his financial commitment to pursue the issue to its logical conclusion.

Mr. Kohl, a former law student of the University of London, reminded the Registrar of the Court of Appeal that by trying to incorporate the said defendant's written response, of which the panel of judges was not aware during the trial of the case, he (the Registrar) was trying to legalize illegality which he would not allow, because it would be cheating and unfair.

As a registrar, you are expected not to enmesh yourself in such illegalities and demanded to know why the content of the defendant's written response and defendant's motion for extension of time, which were not granted, should be part of the record of proceedings when the matter is set for hearing at the Supreme Court, he said.

He also drew the attention of the Court of Appeal to a written submission that there had been an admission of the commission of the torts against him in the earlier suit by the agents of the defendant by smuggling their defence into court proceedings unawares.

He stated that the Court of Appeal is not an inferior court to be allowed to set a bad precedence by inserting a process which was not served on him in its record of proceedings.

Once a copy of the said written response by the defendant was not served on him, it is regarded as alien document and a foreign matter.

In another petition dated August 22, 2016 to the Registrar and copied to the Registrar of the Supreme Court and the Attorney General as a follow up to an earlier one of August 8, 2016 to the Court of Appeal Registrar, the plaintiff indicated that the defendant failed to file his written response but judgment was entered in his favour.

He is strengthened by an order of a Court of Appeal Judge, Justice Saeed Kwaku Gyan, sitting as a single judge, who cautioned the Registrar not to list cases whose process for hearing had not been served on plaintiff at a time the case had already been adjourned for judgment to be delivered.

By the order of Justice Gyan, the said judgment in the defendants' favour is a nullity, since both the application for extension of time and written response filed two days before the judgment were not served on the plaintiff.

He was compelled to go to the Supreme Court to have the said smuggled document expunged from the record of appeal following the seeming apathy and unwillingness of the Chief Justice, the Judicial Secretary and the Registrar of the Court of Appeal to respond or act on Kohl's letters.

At the time of filing this report, the Registrar of the Court of Appeal simply mentioned as Mr. Raphael had not responded to the concerns of the petitioner in writing.

The plaintiff went to an Accra High Court to seek an order for the payment of 254,000 pounds by the Government of Ghana to the plaintiff as the total compensation allegedly paid by the British authorities to the Ghana High Commission in London in November, 2003, for onward transmission to him, but the Government of Ghana refused to pay, in spite of persistent demand.

The plaintiff also sought the delivery of a First Class University of London LLB degree certificate which the University of London claimed to have delivered to the Ghana High Commission to be given to the plaintiff.

The said compensation was as a result of Mr. Kohl's victory at Snaresbrook Crown Court in London on March 25, 2003, when the University of London, where he was an internal student, could not dispute the fact that all the last answers of the five papers that he wrote in the final year were not credited to his marks and the court ordered for his LLB certificate to be released to him. But the court gave judgment against Mr. Kohl on March 25, 2014.
President John Dramani Mahama has said government would continue to take tough and bold decisions to help stabilize the economy and to create a better environment for businesses to thrive.

Addressing the quarterly Ghana Investment Promotion Centre breakfast meeting of Chief Executive Officers of various companies, President Mahama said a strong and resilient economy was key to the success of businesses.

The Presidential Breakfast Meeting with the Ghanaian Business Community afforded both parties the opportunity to have intimate dialogue and to discuss pertinent issues relating to the private sector.

He said an unstable economy and business atmosphere was dangerous for the private sector as the uncertainty made planning and decision-making difficult, and this did not augur well for the sustainable growth of businesses.

In a speech that touched on areas of government's focus such as electricity supply, macro-economic stability and socio-economic development, President Mahama said efforts to stabilise the economy was showing all the right signals.

He said government was working to bring down the deficit, halt the depreciation of the cedi to make it more predictable for the business community to plan and to reduce the debt to GDP ratio, which is on the decline.

President Mahama said government target is to bring the public debt to GDP ratio to 40 per cent by 2021 from the current level of about 67 per cent while the wage bill would be brought down to about 49 per cent of total revenue.

In this direction, he said, government had put a cap on commercial and non-concessionary borrowing in line with the debt management strategy.

On the power crisis, President Mahama said he understood the impact of the crisis on the business community and their contributions to the country's revenue as far as the payment of taxes was concerned.

He said while the power situation had improved considerably in line with the investments into the sector, the adjustment in the power sector would soon launch Ghana into an era of over generation, necessitating the need to sell to neighbouring countries or to expand local demand to absorb the increased capacity.

President Mahama said government would continue to explore various off-grid options for communities to boost generation capacity.

Mr Carl Nelson, Chief Operation Officer GIPC, in his welcome address, said the quarterly Breakfast seminar series are organized to develop dynamic and innovative solutions for the challenges encountered to further enhance government policies.

He said the event has been a great platform for business leaders to network with their peers and at the same time it was geared towards influencing government policy formulation at the highest level.

Source: GNA


From William Nlanjerbor Jalulah, Saboba..

The woes of Mr. Joseph Bukari Nikpe, Member of Parliament (MP) for Saboba Constituency in the Northern Region on the ticket of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), seem to be far from over, barely three weeks to the December 7 polls, as cracks in the party keep deepening.

The development is of concern to the rank and file of the NDC some of who fear could cause the MP to lose the seat. The incumbent MP faces stiff opposition from Mr. Charles Binipom Bintin, a former Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, and Mr. Joseph Amuzu Ngmangnag, former Northern Regional Vice-Chairman of the NDC, who resigned to contest as an independent candidate.

The woes of the NDC in that constituency begun during the vetting of the party's parliamentary aspirants in 2015, when the Vetting Committee disqualified Mr. Amuzu.

The disqualified aspirant and his sympathisers took offence and accused the incumbent MP of masterminding his disqualification. An accusation the MP has denied.

A planned demonstration by Mr. Amuzu and his supporters was foiled by the police, who claimed the ground was not safe for a demonstration.

Mr. Amuzu tried everything possible to get a hearing to take part in the primaries, but all to no avail. He, therefore, resigned as the Regional Vice-Chairman to contest as an independent candidate.

Prior to his resignation, the party's Disciplinary Committee had accused the Constituency Chairman, Nkunabon Robert, of mooting Mr. Amuzu's candidature, and subsequently suspended him.

Checks by The Chronicle in the constituency have revealed that the suspended Chairman has thrown his weight behind the independent candidate, but still campaigning for President John Mahama.

What has worsened the situation is the directive by the General Secretary of the NDC, John Aseidu Nketia, that all who are contesting as independent candidates are barred from campaigning for the President and the NDC, or using the name or symbol of the party to campaign.

Amuzu and his supporters, who were campaigning for Mr. Mahama, have decided to stop and rather make friends with the NPP's Nana Addo.

Saboba had been traditional seat for the NDC until 2004, when Charles Bintin snatched the seat from the NDC. He, however, lost it to the incumbent MP in 2008.

Mr. Jigur Victor, a spokesperson for the independent candidate, has told The Chronicle Mr. Amuzu was very instrumental in the victory of Mr. Nipke in 2012, and will make sure he brings him back home.

As it is now, the three giants are battling it out in a race that seems unpredictable.

Because, while the choice of Nikpe will be based largely on his performance as the MP for the past eight years, Amuzu will count on the support he is drawing from the camps of Nikpe and Charles to snatch the seat.

Charles Bintin, on the other hand, is seeking to take advantage of the glaring division in the NDC for his return to parliament.

Sandwiched by the two candidates, with one coming from within his party, Mr. Nikpe, just like anybody else who would have found themselves in his shoes, should have every cause to worry, especially when his party Chairman and Treasurer do not back his candidature.

The breakaway Amuzu. Will the majority of the electorate understand, believe and accept him and choose him over Nikpe and Charles? What about Charles? Has he been able to convinced the electorate to trust him to be the kind of MP they want?

Meanwhile, there is a forth force; CPP's Abdul Aziz Issah. He is a new entrant and so little is known about him. But certainly, the mandate is the people's.

Our checks have shown that constituents, who are dissatisfied with the works of former MP Charles Bintin and incumbent MP Joseph Nikpe, will prefer to cast their votes for Amuzu. However, whether those votes will be enough to send him to parliament is a matter to be determined on December 7.
15.11.2016 LISTEN

Accra, Nov. 15, GNA - The Right Reverend Dr Bishop Daniel Sylvanus Mensah Torto, Anglican Bishop of Accra on Tuesday asked the Electoral Commission (EC) to ensure justice for all political parties to ensure fairness in the December 7 elections.

He said justice for all players in the general election would make it clear for the electorate to accept the verdict of voters.

'Justice should not be denied anybody to affect the elections. The EC is part of the peace process hence the need for fairness and equality,' he said in an interview with the Ghana News Agency.

'Individuals seek fair and impartial treatment that is not based on skin colour, gender or sexual orientation. Justice can help individuals receive equal treatment. For that reason, however it is easy for justice to become an ambiguous concept for individuals from different cultures,' he said.

Bishop Torto said: 'The Anglican Church is calling on all to uphold justice and work together to secure the peace and security of the nation.'

He said peace for the elections should not be misconstrued as the absence of war since words could be as cutting as knife and piercing as arrows.

'Lies and defamation of character can be destructive. Politicians and the media in particular have often resorted to being economical with the truth and in the process inflaming passions and tarnishing the image of innocent persons.

He said even as the political parties went about their campaigning 'let us continue to pray that each and all, especially the leadership, would be imbued with such right vision, sense of purpose and mission as will secure peace, security and unity.

'Ghanaians should end day with thoughts of peace; begin each day with thoughts of peace; continue thinking thoughts of peace throughout each precious day: and happiness will be ours,' he said.

GNA
Accra, Nov. 15, GNA - Mr Adams Fushieni, the Africa Parliamentary Capacity Development Officer of the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), a non-governmental organisation, has advised the electorate to vote on merit in the December 7 polls to facilitate national development.

He said partisan politics remained the bane of national development and until the electorate changed their mindset and voted on merit the country would not experience any meaningful development.

Mr Fushieni gave the advice when he spoke at the opening session of a national training course on oil, gas and mining for selected journalists in Accra.

The 14-day course core (B) is a follow-up to the regional training course core 'A' which was held in Tanzania for 24 African journalists selected from Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda from October 16-29, this year.

Being organised by the NRGI, in collaboration with Penplusbytes, the International Institute of ICT Journalism, the training programmes are aimed at empowering participants to tell the true story in the extractive sector.

Mr Fushieni expressed discomfort that the two major political parties - the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patriotic Party (NPP) had no concrete policy direction to facilitate accelerated national development.

'This is because they know that the electorates would definitely vote on political party lines,' he said, and called for a long term development plan that would provide a pathway to sustainable development.

Mr Kwami Ahiabenu II, the Executive Director of Penplusbytes, said strong comparative analysis between Ghana, Uganda and Tanzania in the extractive industry would help the countries to shape their fiscal regimes, regulations, policy guidelines and local content provisions especially in the oil and gas sector.

GNA
Accra, Nov. 15, GNA - The Ghana National Tailors and Dressmakers and the National Beauticians and Hairdressers Associations are to benefit from the two million fund provided by President John Dramani Mahama towards the support of the creative arts sector.

The funds are being disbursed through the Culture Forum to members and trade associations under the sector.

Mrs Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, speaking at a special conference held for the two Associations expressed the hope that their executives would send the expected proposals to access the funds.

She said the industry was one of the most important sectors for the socio-economic development of the country and unfortunately it has not been given the recognition it deserves 'most probably, because we all take the creative arts industry for granted'.

The Minister said the industry has been identified as a powerful engine for growth and trade development, especially in developing countries, according to the United Nations Creative Economy Report, 2008.

She said the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation has advised developing countries, which wished to harness their creative industry as a potential engine for economic growth to formulate carefully-crafted policies and strategies.

Mrs Ofosu-Adjare said government understands the creative arts industry and believes in its ability to contribute meaningfully to Ghana's development and well-being of its people.

Madam Sedina Attionu Tamakloe, the Chief Executive Officer for Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), said over 300,000 people have benefitted from the loan scheme, since its inception.

She said MASLOC was ready to grant members of the two associations loans to improve on their businesses and urged the leadership of the Associations to form smaller groups to enable officials to assess their businesses for loans.

'MASLOC also organises financial training for beneficiaries of their loan scheme,' he said.

She expressed the hope that the leadership of the Associations will take the expected steps to access the loan for its members.

Mrs Joyce Lamptey, the National President of the National Beauticians and Hairdressers, commended the Minister for the recognition given to the two Associations.

She also thanked COVET and government for their support in the training of their members on skill development.

She said so far, the leadership of the Association has trained 10, 000 apprentices, who are gainfully employed.

GNA
By Iddi Yire, GNA

Accra, Nov. 15, GNA - The Women's Situation Room (WSR), a women's peace building mechanism that mitigates conflict before, during and after elections in Africa has been replicated in Ghana.

It is a non-partisan and neutral process that mobilises women in collaboration with the youth to engage stakeholders to support the women's call for peaceful elections as a peace and security measure in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325.

The UNSCR 1325 reaffirms the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace negotiations, peace-building, peacekeeping, humanitarian response and in post-conflict reconstruction and stresses the importance of their equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security.

Resolution 1325 urges all actors to increase the participation of women and incorporate gender perspectives in all United Nations peace and security efforts.

It also calls on all parties to conflict to take special measures to protect women and girls from gender-based violence, particularly, rape and other forms of sexual abuse, in situations of armed conflict.

The WSR process is currently being replicated in all 10 regions of Ghana by the Women and Youth Coordinating hubs, who continue to engage key stakeholders and the public, while mounting a robust awareness raising campaign for peaceful elections in December.

The eminent members of WSR - Ghana include Ms Adwoa Pokua Bame, the National Co-ordinator; Professor Akua Kuenyehia, a former Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Ghana; Ms Afia Yakubu, peace and security campaigner; Mrs Sabina Ofori-Boateng, a retired civil servant; Naa Koteitsoo Afrasomanso I, Queenmother of Koteiman; Madam Gertrude Oforiwa Fefome, Global Advocacy Adviser; and Professor Ama Atta Aidoo, a remarkable writer.

Others are Prof Henrietta Joy Abena Nyarko Mensah-Bonsu, an educationist and the Director for the Legon Centre for International Affairs and Diplomacy (LCIAD), University of Ghana; the Reverend Dr Joyce R. Aryee, a pastor; and Ms Angela Bannerman, General Secretary, Young Women Christian Association, the Convener and host of the WSR Ghana Secretariat.

Counsellor Yvette Chesson-Wureh of Liberia, the initiator the WSR, in her remarks at the launch in Accra, said as part of the essential activities in replicating the WSR in Ghana, the convener of the process were introducing the Ghana Early Warning and Early Response Mechanism for the December 7 General Election.

She said politicians must not be allowed to continue to use the youth to create violence for their own selfish gains; stating that in the event of an outbreak of violence and conflicts, women and children suffered most.

She said the WSR initiative, which started in Liberia, had gradually expanded to Senegal, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and now Ghana.

She tasked the Ghana team of eminent women to ensure the success of the project.

Ms Bame said WSR-Ghana's Early Warning and Response Mechanism had been initiated by the training and deployment of 120 Focal Persons (women and men including youth) to key flash areas across the 10 regions.

She said WSR - Ghana had identified 96 flashpoints in the country, and that the early warning component comprised their focal persons; monitoring and reporting on threats and incidents of violence in their respective flashpoints.

The National Coordinator said the reports received so far had been centred around low grade conflicts between supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC); the two leading political parties in Ghana.

She explained that the Early Response was the Eminent Women Mediators engaging the police on resolving reports received in real time and using their clout to access leaders of political parties to intervene and resolve incidents as and when they were reported.

Ms Bame said they were currently introducing the WSR concept to key stakeholders and opening lines of communication to ensure effective collaboration before, during and after the polls.

She announced that as part of its advocacy campaign, the WSR-Ghana would hold a series of week-long activities throughout the country.

She said WSR - Ghana would on Wednesday, November 16, hold a day's inter-party Dialogue Forum in Accra for Women Organisers from the six main political parties contesting this year's presidential election - NPP, NDC, Progressive People's Party (PPP), Convention People's Party (CPP), National Democratic Party (NDP) and the People's National Convention (PNC).

She said they would be holding a 1000 Women's Peace March for the NPP and the NDC, in all 10 regions on Thursday, November 17; to be followed by the formal launch of WSR - Ghana, the same day at the forecourt of Parliament in Accra.

GNA
By Godwill Arthur-Mensah, GNA

Takoradi, Nov. 15, GNA - Ghanaians have been asked to use the social media positively to promote peace, unity and harmony in the country, instead of disseminating falsehood that creates fear and panic in the society.

Mr Kumi Nkansah, the Social Media Manager of YFM, made the request in Takoradi at the Second Edition of YFM's Election Dialogues dubbed: 'Vote on Issues.'

It was aimed at sensitising the electorate to vote for political parties and candidates that have policies and programmes that would accelerate national development.

The event was organised by YFM, a local radio station, in collaboration with the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition, Global Media Alliance and Happy FM and funded by STAR-Ghana.

Mr Nkansah encouraged Ghanaians to use the social media to disseminate important information such as the C.I 94, the legislation governing this year's elections, as well as the political parties' manifestoes, instead of promoting hate speech.

He advised the electorate to desist from using their smart phones to take photographs of their ballot papers indicating, which particular candidate or political party they voted for and post them on the social media because it was an electoral offence punishable by law.

Mr Nkansah said the social media was a powerful tool that could either impact the electoral process positively or negatively and, therefore, encouraged Ghanaians to rather use it to advocate development in their communities.

Mr Samuel Harrison Cudjoe, a Research Officer at the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition, entreated the electorate to refrain from taking gifts from politicians in a bid to vote for them.

He said they should rather vote for those that had the right policies and plans to enhance their livelihoods to transform the economy for the better.

He warned the youth to desist any form of electoral fraud or violence such as stuffing of the ballot box with foreign materials and snatching the ballot box since culprits would be arrested and prosecuted.

He charged the Election Management Body which is constitutionally mandated to supervise and conduct the elections to ensure a level playing ground to ensure free and fair polls so that all the interest groups would accept the outcome of the elections.

The function was attended by Mr. Joseph Cudjoe the incumbent New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for Effia Constituency, as well as Mr. Michael Otoo, the National Democratic Congress parliamentary candidate for Effia and Mr. Daniel Essuman, the Progressive People's Party parliamentary candidate for Sekondi.

GNA
By PTI: New Delhi, Nov 15 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi will tomorrow attend a function on the occasion of National Press Day during which Press Council of India (PCI) and will confer excellence in journalism awards, including Raja Ram Mohan Roy Award to veteran journalist S Nihal Singh.

Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, Minister of State for I&B Rajayvardhan Singh Rathore will also attend the event which also coincides with Golden Jubilee of PCI.

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Renjith John of Deepika Daily (Kerala) has bagged the award of Rural Journalism and Development Reporting, while in the same category Special Mention Certificate has been jointly given to freelancer Arvind Kumar Singh and X Xavier Selvakumar of Danamilar (Coimbatore), PCI Chairman C K Prasad said.

While no entry could qualify for the Investigative Journalism, T P Dhanesh of Malayalam Manorama (Kerala) and Pritam Bandyopadhyay (Asian Age-New Delhi) have been jointly selected in the Single News Picture Category for Photo Journalism and Vijay Verma of The Press Trust of India (PTI) got the Special Mention Certificate in the same category.

Renuka Puri of Indian Express has won the award in the category of Photo Journalism (Photo Feature), while Baiju Poulose of Malayalam Manorama (Kerala) has been chosen for main award in the category of Best Newspapers Art: Covering Cartoons, Caricatures and Illustrations and in the same category Rohit Jose (Malayalam Manorama) has been chosen for Special Mention Certificate.

Delegation from a number of countries like Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka will also attend the function, while Afghanistan and Bhutan are expected to be represented by their embassies since they do not have press/media council, Prasad said.

However, Pakistan is likely to skip the function amid the tension between the two nations.

"We had send the invitation in July...but we are not sure about its participation," Prasad said. PTI MP RG

--- ENDS ---
Governor Ayodele Fayose is undoubtedly one of the most fearless and controversial politicians we have in Nigeria.

He never misses an opportunity to criticize President Muhammdu Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The governor is not afraid of speaking his mind as we have seen him issue very controversial statements against the president over and over again.

As he celebrates his 56th birthday today, November 15, Legit.ng brings you some of Fayoses most controversial quotes which shows he is not afraid of anybody, not even the no-nonsense President Buhari.

READ ALSO: Fayose spends 56th birthday fasting and praying for Nigeria

1. Buhari-led government is one chance

APC is a government of one chance. Everything Ive predicted would happen in Nigeria are happening, some have happened.

Buhari cant take Nigeria out of the woods. Food security is better than general security, hence my stomach Infrastructure policy. Ekiti will be in economic bondages until 2036 because of debts collected by former Governor Kayode Fayemi, so my hands are tied.

2. Buhari lacks ideas to lead the country, the right president is yet to come

Unfortunately, Buhari cannot find a solution to hunger, unemployment, depressed economy and insecurity in the country because he is bereft of ideas. Nigerians should brace to change the change because the right president is yet to come. What we have now is an aberration."

3. Buhari is a dictator like Obasanjo

If you look and search the style of Buharis administration and compare it with that of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, who ruled the country between 1999 and 2007, the two administrations have a resemblance of military dictatorship.

4. Buharis dictatorship will end one day

If Buhari likes, let him relocate all DSS men in Nigeria with the entire ammunition in their armory to Ekiti, the will of Ekiti people can never be broken. They will only try, and like they have always done, they will fail because dictatorship has never triumphed over the people.

Even Buharis dictatorship between 1984 and 1985 ended one day and Nigerians will also outlive his present dictatorship.

READ ALSO: Fayose @ 56: PDP sends heart warming message

5. Buhari should be held responsible if anything happens to Col Sambo Dasuki

President Buhari seized late Chief Obafemi Awolowo international passport and prevented him from travelling abroad for medicare in 1985, thereby leading to his (Awolowo) untimely death of 1987. Buhari also hounded former Bayelsa State Governor, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha to death all in the name of fighting perceived political opponents.

Therefore, it has become necessary to raise the alarm that nothing must happen to Dasuki. The fate that befell Awolowo in 1985 must not be allowed to befall Sambo Dasuki in 2015 and Nigerians must rise against this Buharis dictatorship and his instrument of oppression, Lawal Daura.

6. Buharis age is affecting him

Those promoting Buhari for 2019 should stop. I have told Nigerians that Buhari does not have the capacity now to govern Nigeria. What capacity will he display in seven years time? Currently as it stands, the president is challenged by age.

7. God is angry with Buhari

"The way this government is taking people down, God is angry. God isnt happy. Go to Rivers, they kill people. Go to Akwa Ibom, they kill people. Go to Bayelsa, they kill people, incarcerate innocent people. God is angry with Buhari. You cant continue to take the blood of the innocent.

8. Buhari should stop complaining

Nigerians are not begging for too much; what they wanted is to change their fortunes for better. President Buhari must stop complaining. He must address this recession that is killing Nigerians.

9. I cannot be intimidated to shut up

Poor man is suffering under the watch of Buhari. You are fighting corruption, people are hungry, is it only corruption you have come to fight? People will not eat again.

No act of intimidation and harassment will shut my mouth. I will continue to talk about national issues.

10. Buhari is not a saint

Somebody from Ekiti gave President Buhari N1.5b for campaign, but today he is being seen as a saint. When you want to campaign or do marriage, people will give you money and my own cant be an exemption. I am not afraid of incarceration or death.

11. Buhari is Nigeria's major problem

Our President, through his actions and inactions is destroying everything that makes Nigeria a country and well-meaning Nigerians must stand-up to be counted in the crusade to save the country from going under. Which foreign investor will invest his money in a country of dishonest people? Who made investors to leave Nigeria if not President Buhari, who created atmosphere of economic and political instability in the country by his acts of nepotism and vindictiveness?

Hope his boldness does not land him in trouble.

Happy Birthday Governor Fayose!

Source: Legit.ng
By PTI: Photo: PTI11_15_2016_000062B

Ahmedabad, Nov 15 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modis 97-year-old mother Hiraba today visited a bank at her village near Gandhinagar, and exchanged her old notes as she lent her support to the demonetisation move, saying "whatever has happened is for good".

Accompanied by relatives, Hiraba came to a branch of Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) at Raisan village this morning, and got notes worth Rs 4,500 exchanged.

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She visited the bank with Rs 500 notes, got the mandatory form filled, put her thumb impression on the form and exchanged her money.

After receiving a new note of Rs 2,000, she displayed it in front of media persons, who virtually mobbed her as they sought her reaction on the demonetisation move, which has led to millions standing in queues infront of banks and ATMs to exchange old currency notes or withdraw cash.

"Whatever has happened is for good," she said, lending support to the move by his son to demonetise high value notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.

Hiraba lives with Modis younger brother Pankaj in Raisan on the outskirts of Gandhinagar.

An official of OBC said the Prime Ministers mother came to the bank like any other citizen, waited outside in the line for senior citizens and went inside when her turn came.

"She does not have an account with our bank, but as per the governments announcement, a citizen can go to any bank branch and get notes exchanged. Hence, we exchanged her notes," he said.

The PM had visited his mother on September 17 to take her blessings on his 66th birthday.

Hiraba is known to lead a simple life and travels in public transport. Last time, when she visited Gandhinagar Civil Hospital for a regular medical check-up, she was seen going in an autorickshaw.

Modi had on November 8 in a surprise move announced scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes to curb black money menace. PTI PD GK RSY SRY

--- ENDS ---
Officials say that work of bulldozing most of the buildings under its redevelopment plan will start immediately after the India International Trade fair concludes, which would be November 27.

By Mail Today Bureau: This could be your last chance to see Pragati Maidan, as it stands right now, at the ongoing India International Trade Fair (IITF).

The iconic set of exhibition halls, created by legendary architect Raj Rewal and hailed as India's brightest 'modern heritage,' will be demolished soon. Inspite of protests by heritage conservationists and enthusiasts, the India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) authorities are going ahead with the process of replacing the structure with new state-of-the-art buildings.

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MAIDANS TO BE RAZED ON NOVEMBER 27

A tender had been floated for architects to submit their designs for the new facilities. Now, officials say that work of bulldozing most of the buildings under its redevelopment plan will start immediately after the fair concludes, which would be November 27.

LC Goyal, chairman and managing director of ITPO said all halls, with the exception of halls 7-12, will be pulled down to make way for 1.5 lakh sq m of exhibition space and a convention hall. These will be able to accommodate up to 8,000 people at a time.

PRAGATI MAIDAN FIRST SPACE FRAME

Pragati Maidan was the first large span 'space frame' in reinforced concrete in the world. Designs like 'Space frame' at that time were made in glass and steel. However, since India lacked that quality of steel, concrete was used.



DELHI PAVILION UNVEILED

Meanwhile, the 'Delhi Pavilion' was unveiled at the India International Trade Fair (IITF) here on Monday by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. It boasted of having the theme of 'Digital Delhi,' showcasing government's various digital initiatives.

These included online VAT registration, Swachh Delhi App, online sanction for building plans and introduction of medicine vending machines. The AAP government's ambitious project - 'Mohalla Clinics' was also at the centre of attraction at the pavilion which also showcased reduction in power bills, free water upto 700 litres, smart school classes and Car-Free Day.

Sisodia, who was accompanied by Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain and environment minister Imran Hussain, visited stalls of different departments installed at the pavilion. The Delhi government said that it is planning to switch over to e-governance completely, which primarily means governance by application of information and communication technology.

NO TANGIBLE RESULTS FROM IITF

At the same time, cursing the 'demonetisation' move by the central government, Sisodia said, "The India International Trade Fair has no significance this time and will not yield any tangible results as the trading community is reeling under severe cash crunch."

"It is a sad event from the point of view of trade. When there is no trade, what is the significance of the fair then? We are following a mere custom to participate in it," the deputy chief minister said.

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Also Read: Say goodbye to Pragati Maidan: Know all about its revamp plan

--- ENDS ---
NCR Corporation India, with a market share of 47 per cent and almost 1 lakh ATM machines from Kashmir to Kanyakumari in India is the leading player.

By Virendrasingh Ghunawat: From the Finance Minister to the bankers - all of them are requesting the citizens of India to have patience till the entire ATM networks get recalibrated. The central government is working on a massive task which could take 3 weeks or 50 days. But the reasons for not having enough ATMs with complete calibration are more. Excluding the RBI Governor, no top bankers were in the loop while discussion and strategising of demonetisation secret plan, so as the ATM manufacturers.

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NCR Corporation India, with a market share of 47 per cent and almost 1 lakh ATM machines from Kashmir to Kanyakumari in India, is the leading player. Navroj Dastur, managing director, NCR Corporation India Ltd, in an exclusive interview with IndiaToday.in, explained what exactly the recalibration means in real terms (from common man perspective) and why it could take at least a month to normalise the ATM network in India.Q:

What does recalibration mean?



A: We have currency cassettes in ATM machines, which hold different denominations and different currencies. Depending on the size of currency, the cassette has to be adjusted on both top and inside. The current one cassette is configured to hold the larger size currency. The new release is smaller one, so we have to readjust these. We have to readjust the software as well, so that currency gets dispensed correctly. Inside these cassettes, we have to undo the screws, adjust it, put back in the machine, put the values inside the machine and start dispensing the money.

Q: Why is it taking so long?

A: The prime reason is that our engineers have to go out physically and do the recalibration on each and every ATM. The currency notes have been changed and that is why we are doing this recalibration.

Q: What is the problem?

A: The challenges are the logistics. We have 2.2 lakh ATMs across the country. Someone has to go out and physically do the changes on every ATM machines. That is why it is going to take time.

ALSO READ:



Supreme Court refuses to stay demonetisation notification



PM Modi to chair all-party meet on demonetisation; Congress calls it a mere 'note-change' policy



--- ENDS ---
Boko Haram insurgents have killed yet another top Nigerian Army commander B.U. Umar, Premium Times reports.

Army sources said the Lieutenant-Colonel and commanding officer of 114 TF battalion of the Nigerian Army was ambushed on Monday, November 14 morning and killed between Bita and Piridang.

READ ALSO: GOOD NEWS: Nigerian troops in major breakthrough in Niger Delta

His vehicle stepped on an improvised explosive device, but he was not hurt, a source told PREMIUM TIMES.

He came out to assess the damage on the vehicle and Boko Haram opened fire and killed him in the process.

The soldiers were said to be on their way to Yola in Adamawa state from Bita in Borno when they were ambushed.

Premium Times says the full casualty scale from the attack is not yet clear.

READ ALSO: Breaking: Avengers hit 3 pipelines, warn there is doom ahead

Umar recently took over the command of the 114 battalion just about three weeks ago.

The Army has however denied knowledge of the occurrence through its spokesperson Sani Usman, who said he was unaware of Lt. Col. Umars death.

Meanwhile, the Defence Headquarters has dismissed reports that ransom was paid for the release of the 21 Chibok girls freed by the Boko Haram.

The defence spokesperson Rabe Abubakar, reacting to reports alleging that ransom was paid by the government in exchange for the recently released of 21 of the abducted Chibok girls, described the story as unsubstantiated.

Source: Legit.ng
- Nollywood has being thrown into mourning again as actress Kudirat Ajimati is dead

- The well endowed actress was based in Abeokuta from where she featured in Yoruba movies

- Her remains has being buried according to Islamic rite on Tuesday, November 15, 2016

- She is survived by an aged mother

Late actress Kudirat Ajimati

Abeokuta based actress Kudirat Ajimati is dead.

The Yoruba actress known for playing motherly roles colleague got wind of her death in the early morning of Tuesday, November 15, 2016.

The news of her death was announced on social media by the association Theatre Arts and Movie Pictures Practitioners Association of Nigeria (TAMPAN),Ogun State chapter which she belonged to.

READ ALSO: Mercy Johnson reveals shocking secret about Nollywood

The post reads:

It saddens our association, Theatre Arts and Movie Pictures Practitioners Association of Nigeria (TAMPAN),Ogun State Chapter, to announce the untimely death of our beloved sister/colleague Kudirat Ajimat popularly known and called Ajimat.

The news of her death got to us this morning as a shocker but we dont have the power to stop God from doing what is right in HIS sight. Ajimat, we will seriously miss u and ur friendly lifestyle! Rest in Peace!

The actress who was well endowed behind is known to always flaunt her backside in movies. She was mostly paired as Mr Latin's wife in movies.

READ ALSO: Nigerian government to invest in Nollywood

Legit.ng spoke exclusively with the chairman of TAMPAN in Ogun state Pastor Ajidara. He revealed that the association heard the news on Tuesday morning and that the deceased has been buried according to Islamic injuction. He also hinted that her burial was hasty as she still has an aged mother. Some of the movies she has featured in include Adigun Oga Oga, Bata Wahala among others.

Watch Kudirat Ajimati below in Mr Latin movie Adigun Oga Oga:

Source: Legit.ng
- Lagos is set to benefit from its recognition as an oil producing state

- The state will receive its 13 per cent derivation which is giving to oil states

- Governor Akinwunmi Abbode said it will soon be the oil and gas hub of the nation

Lagos state is expected to become richer than it is as it gets its first 13 per cent oil derivation fund from the federal government in December.

The Punch reports that this was disclosed by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode at the annual international conference and exhibition of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists on Tuesday, November 15.

READ ALSO: FG finds new oil wells in Lagos, approves 4 for the state

Lagos was officially declared an oil-producing state when Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum Company Limited commenced crude oil production on the Aje field.

Governor Akinwunmi Ambode

The fund Lagos will be receiving is in accordance to the entitlement of oil-producing state as they receive 13 per cent derivation from the federation account.

Mr. Wale Olowu who represented the governor at the event said after the states exportation of oil, it will receive its due in December.

I am pleased to announce that the first export from the Aje oil field has happened. That is not the big deal; the big deal is that Lagos State is anxiously awaiting its first derivation in December. So, in December, we will be collecting our first derivation.

We cannot wait to see a lot of oil and gas come under the soil of Lagos because it will help us in the area of employment; it will help us in the area of electricity generation, which we want to do off-grid anyway, and it will also help us in making sure that our revenue continues to be diversified.

The governor said there was plan to make the state the oil and gas hub of the nation.

We reassure all of you stakeholders in the industry of our commitment to provide a safe and secure environment for exploration activities that is consistent with global best practice.

The state was also closely monitoring and getting ready to massively support other Oil Prospecting Licences in Lagos to make sure they can quickly transform to Oil Mining Leases.

READ ALSO: Oil rich in Bida Basin - Niger state to Buhari

We also want the development of the oil and gas industry in Lagos. We didnt plan it originally. But now that we are seeing the evolution, we are doing everything possible to bring them together because on our west coast, we have found oil.

On the east coast, we already have Dangote refinery that is the largest in Africa and one of the largest in the world, and then in our centrals, we have the banks that can finance, the oil tank farms and then we have the seaport for export.

This new income for Lagos is expected to make the state richer as its internally-generated revenue is more than 32 Nigerian state combined and it's 150 per cent higher than its federal allocation

Source: Legit.ng
By PTI: Kozhikode, Nov 15 (PTI) Unaccounted cash to the tune of Rs 61.98 lakh, mostly in the scrapped Rs 1,000 denomination, was seized from a passenger at the bus stand here and the man taken into custody, police said.

The seizure was made by a police team led by Nadakkav Sub-Inspector Gopakumar during a routine check when 45-year old Rasheed from Ernakulam district, who arrived here by a bus, came out of the KSRTC bus stand at 4.30 am, they said.

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Bundles of Rs 1,000 notes were found in his baggage following which he was taken to the Nadakkav police station.

Police said there were 61 bundles of Rs 1,000 notes besides some other denomination, including Rs 50, amounting to Rs 61,98,100.

The passenger could not provide any supporting document to account for the cash, police said, adding the seized notes have been sent to bank for verifying their genuineness after which further action would be taken. PTI KV VS IKA

--- ENDS ---
Nigerians have condemned the country's military over the demise of another top soldier who was killed by Boko Haram terrorists in Bita on their way to Yola in Adamawa state.

The soldier, identified as Lieutenant Colonel BU Umar, had about three weeks ago, taken over the 114 battalion which he was leading until he met his end.

The Army has already denied knowledge of the occurrence through its spokesperson Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman, who said he was unaware of Lt Col Umars death.

But Nigerians are livid as the demise of the young Colonel is coming only weeks after the exit of Abu Ali, another top army commander who was killed in an ambush by the terrorists.

President Buhari has been blamed for paying ransom to Boko Haram terrorists to secure the release of Chibok girls.

Some Nigerians are of the opinion that the Nigerian army are the ones killing their soldiers, while some believe that the lives of the soldiers are not as valuable to the Nigerian government following the reports that the Islamist sect bought more sophisticated weapons with money they got from Chibok girls ransom.

Idris Yusuf Idris, one of those who commented on the story after it was published on the social media, wrote: "Hhhhhhmmmm pls naij news,point of correction,don't say boko haram killed another top army commander,instead,just say,army kill another commander,i don't know wot kind of dirty politics is being played in nigeria."

Political science graduate, Philip Chinedu Onwuegbule, was also livid when he saw the report, claimed that it is only in Nigeria that politics is being played with human lives as he cited the US elections where there was no report of a life being lost even when the person whom many expected to win, lost the polls.

"Is only in Nigeria I discover that they can play politics with human life, look at the election in USA no single life was lost. I thought buhari said he will end bokoharam yet boko is killing them. Thank God Biafra is here, we are different from them," he wrote.

Junior Chukwuka believes that Nigeria is not worth dying for as he expressed his sympathy for the soldiers who were recently killed by the insurgents.

Abuja-based Alfred Joshua said: "It is all because buhari gave them $150m in exchange for 29 fake chibok girls that they, boko haram, were able to purchase sophisticated weapons. Now they giving the output of buhari's input. Let them KILL more... na their father dey throne" while Iyke Henry who lives in Ghana blasted: "A reasonable president doesn't negotiate with terrorists but this old man swap #3.8 billion naira and 4 boko haram bomb makers in prison with 21 girls so what do you expect, he has reduce no of soldiers fighting boko haram sending them to Niger Delta, buhari doesn't have sense of reason."

Self employed Oyeleke Oyeniyi Idris affirmed that the federal government has been telling lies to Nigeria about her many victories against the insurgents.

Some soldiers clashed with the insurgents in the north-eastern part of the country

He wrote: "Wot Is D Essence Of D Nuisance Noise Dat Govt Is Making Dat They Ar Winning War Against Boko Haram While D Terrorist Ar Killing Nigeria Army One By One. Dis Govt Is Full Of Lies Like Lie Muhammed."

Alfa Abdullahi, a senior registrar at the Aminu Kano teaching hospital, Kano state, was quite different with his comment as he believes that the Nigerian army should look inward and change tactics so as to be able to win the war against the die-hard terror group.

According to him: "This is a very big set back on this war. There is need to look inward and change tactics."

Recently, Ibrahim Usman, one of the wounded Nigerian soldiers during the battle against Boko Haram terrorists, urged Nigerians to treat them the same way they are treating Chibok girls.

Usman was admitted to military hospital, Maimalari Cantonment, about three weeks ago after he was badly wounded in fight against Boko Haram terrorists.

The man said his both legs were broken after a vehicle conveying him and 9 fellow soldiers to Monguno in Borno north hit a mine planted by the terrorists.

He said: We need Nigerians to take care of us. Like this my injury, broken legs, they suppose to take me to a specialist hospital or abroad for a good treatment."

Source: Legit.ng
OSHA's online newsletter provides the latest news about enforcement actions, rulemaking, outreach activities, compliance assistance, and training and educational resources.
Like many liberals, since Tuesday night I have drunkenly swerved across the five lanes of grief in mourning the loss of a country that apparently never existedto the rights delight, if Twitter is any indication. In two of these stages, Anger and Bargaining, the Electoral College has featured prominently.

As I come to grips with 11/9s grim outcome, my anger sprays in many directions: Trump voters, of course; Stein and Johnson voters; non-voters; Comey; the media; and our old nemesis, the Electoral College.

I wasnt old enough to vote for Al Gore, but even at 16 I knew the Electoral College was a stupid way to pick a President. I wrote a paper about it for my AP Government class, which probably holds up better than anything else I penned in adolescence. After all, my thesis has been vindicated twice since then in historically awful fashion.

As of this writing, Hillary leads the popular vote by almost one million votes. Experts estimate that when all the early and absentee votes are counted, she will win this (meaningless!) tally by more than two million votes and 1.7 percentage points. She will likely receive the third-most votes ever, behind Obama in 2008 and Obama in 2012. (I realize our population grows every year. But still.)

Millions more votesand a loss. As a democracy, how do we justify this system?

In two of the past five elections, the candidate who received the most votes from the American people did not win the Presidency. Since the turn of the 21st Century, our general election has failed us 40% of the time. And given the razor-thin divide in the past five elections, it most likely will continue to fail us.

Just think, I texted my friend during Hillarys heartbreaking concession Wednesday morning, if not for the Electoral College, wed be watching a victory speech right now.

In the wake of Gores crushing loss in 2000 (the last time this happened), Senator-Elect Hillary Clinton said:

We are a very different country than we were 200 years ago. I believe strongly that in a democracy, we should respect the will of the people and to me, that means its time to do away with the Electoral College and move to the popular election of our president.

Christ, that hurts to read. Clinton supported an Electoral College reform bill cosponsored by Republican Ray LaHood and Democrat Michael McNulty. Obviously that measure did not advance.

In 2012, while under the mistaken impression that Mitt Romney would win the popular vote but lose the election, Donald J. Trump tweeted, The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy. Incredibly, Trump reiterated that stance in his 60 Minutes interview Sunday night. On this issue and this issue alone, the President-Elect and I agree.

The Bargaining stage of my grief has taken the form of a Change.org petition calling for Electoral College electors to vote for Clinton even if their state went to Trump. One in Texas hinted he would go that route before backtracking. (Two in Washington may actually go faithless even though theyre supposed to vote Hillary, which would throw salt on Americas gaping, potentially fatal wound.)

This is a very nice thoughtthat the Electoral College got us into this mess, and it can get us out. Plus, Trump is exactly the kind of unqualified, unhinged demagogue from which the College should rescue us by acting as an eleventh hour failsafe.

But despite amassing more than four million signatures, the petition wont do any good. Hill Dawg would have to flip 20+ electors to keep Trump from hitting 270a towering order given that electors fall in line 99% of the time. Even if that happened, the vote would then go to our right-leaning Congress. They would object, of course, at which point, The House and Senate would withdraw to their respective chambers to consider the merits of any objections according the procedure set out under 3 U.S.C. section 15.

Im a little rusty on 3 U.S.C. section 15, but my hunch is that even if the Electoral College rebelled (which would be one hell of a statement, if nothing else), Congress would put Trump in The White House. (Not that he will live there full time!) So, as much as it pains me to write this, a Trump presidency is nigh. As Rachel Maddow reminded us on 11/9, this is not a terrible, terrible dream. We havent died and gone to hellour ideals have.

The irony, as others have noted, is that all along Trump said the election was rigged, and he was right. It just turns out that it was rigged in his favor. He will lose the popular vote by at least a million votes, but because of 110,000 votes in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, he will lead the free world. Trumps nauseating ascension is symptomatic of a broken system that does not weigh each vote equally.

Based on the number of electoral votes and the size of the state population, a Wyoming voter has four times the power of a New York voter. By another metricwhich factors in swing states versus states that consistently go one wayvoters in Arizona, Iowa, Ohio, Nevada, New Hampshire, and North Carolina carry the most weight (along with red states like Alaska and South Dakota, which presumably land in the top five for their small populations).

One popular argument in favor of the Electoral College is that if we count only on the popular vote, candidates will spend all their time and energy in the most populous places, snubbing flyover states and small towns. But the candidates will narrow their focuses regardless of how we count the votes. The way it works now, the 12 or so swing states get all the attention because they decide every election. How is that fair to someone in a solid red state like Nebraska or Alabama? Or a reliably blue one like New York or California?

Now more than ever, I think most Americans would agree that One Person, One Vote should be a cornerstone of our democracy. (Only 32 percent of Americans are proud to call Trump President. Forty-two percent are afraid, and 34 percent are devastatedwhich sounds low here in my little liberal echo chamber.) So how do we go about abolishing the Electoral College, as Hillary and Trump and Eric Holder have advocated?

This is where things get tricky. Ridding ourselves of this outdated system (see also: voting on a Tuesday) would require a Constitutional amendment, which would require three quarters of Congress voting in favor of the move. Considering that the College has delivered the Republicans to The White House in two of the past five elections, its hard to imagine them getting onboard. (If the Electoral College ever works in favor of a Democrat, on the other hand)

Instead, our best shot is probably state legislation that ensures each states electors will vote for the candidate who won the popular vote regardless of the state tally/electoral map. The Baltimore Sun explains:

Ten states plus Washington, D.C., have enacted legislation that could lead to a system that leaves the Electoral College intact but ensures that it deliver the presidency to the popular vote winner. This national compact stipulates that as soon as states comprising a majority of the Electoral College270 votessign on, each will award its electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote.

So far, 11 jurisdictions that have enacted National Popular Vote laws, totaling 165 electoral votes105 shy of 270. Only blue states have signed on, but the measure has been considered in red states like Oklahoma, Georgia, Missouri, Arkansas, and Arizona, and in swing states like Colorado and Nevada. Those states alone wouldnt be enough to get to 270, but if you threw Texas and North Carolina (whose Senate voted in favor of the law in 2007) into the mix, for example, that would do it.

By all means, sign the Change.org petition: it wont work, but millions of signatures send a loud and powerful message (Not My President). The best thing you can do, though, is call and write your state legislators to demand that they enact National Popular Vote laws.

Clinton got robbed: theres nothing we can do about that. But we can try to make sure it never happens again. We can fight for a true democracy. We must.
One page written in English by Veera is dated six months before he was killed.However questions has arisen that if he already complained to cops, than why did the cops not act on his complaint.

By Saurabh Vaktania: In a shocking revelation in RTI activist Bhupendra Veera's murder case, months before he was shot dead, he had written to police that there are people who were after his life. India today has accessed the letter(attached with the mail).One page written in English by Veera is dated six months before he was killed. The letter turned to be an important link to the accused after the murder. However questions has arisen that if he already complained to cops, than why did the cops not act on his complaint.

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LETTER

The letter with subject, 'apprehension of threat to my life and property by razzak and his sons.' The letter is dated in the month of April. He had written this letter to the Zonal DCP.

TIMELINE OF EVENTS



RTI activist Bhupendra Vira was shot dead on October 15 in the head when he was watching TV . Vira's wife Ranjana was present in the house when the murder was committed, yet she didn't hear a thing. The incident had happened between 9.15-10 pm, when Vira had returned home and he changed his clothes and sat on the plastic chair in front of the TV and was watching a pravachan (religious lecture). When Ranjana was in the bathroom and came out a few moments later, a local passing by had seen him bleeding and alerted her. Ranjana found him breathing. Vira was then rushed to the VN Desai hospital, but doctors declared him dead on arrival. Vira's family only came to know that he was shot, when the police reached the hospital and found out that the wound from where he was bleeding was a bullet injury.

CAUSE FOR MURDER

While investigating the matter, the Vakola police had discovered that there was an ongoing dispute between ex corporator of the area from congress party and Vira after Razzak had forcefully taken over his godown in the chandu mill compound. The Vakola police had arrested Razzak and his son Amjad in the matter and the case was then transferred to the crime branch after which Amjad had confessed to killing Vira with his gun. The father-son duo are in judicial custody at present.

Also Read: Mumbai: 61-year-old RTI activist, linked to AAP, shot dead

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With a patchwork of meandering cobblestone streets, tranquil canals and its surprisingly small town vibe for a 160-square-mile city, Venice is the epitome of a typical European city. Once the most prosperous city in the world, Venices gilded past is still visible in its ornate architecture dating to medieval times. From the more touristy attractions to sights off the beaten path, heres what to see and do for a well-rounded tour of this enchanting city.

Dominating Venices central St. Marks square, St. Marks Basilica, which was once the personal chapel of the Doge (the elected chief of state), is impossible to miss. Inside youll find dazzling marble floors and domed ceilings, which are adorned with intricate mosaics. On the second floor youll find St. Marks Museum, where you can view illustrated manuscripts, fragments of ancient mosaics and detailed tapestries. While on the second floor, step out onto the balcony for a vast view of St. Marks Square and the Grand Canal just beyond.

Located next to St. Marks Basilica, youll find the sprawling Doges Palace, the opulent former residence of the Doge. Built in the 14th century, the Doges Palace was turned into a museum in 1923. The palace is a massive structure, so be sure to have the museum map handy as you make your way through the various rooms, including the Doges apartments, institutional chambers, Museo dellOpera and prisons. If you want to avoid the crowds, the palace is open at night during summer weekends, providing a more leisurely visit and gorgeous nighttime views of the palace all lit up.

During your visit, take special note of one of the most famous sights of the palacethe Bridge of Sighs, connecting the New Prison to the interrogation rooms. According to legend, the bridge is where prisoners would get their last glimpse of freedom before their confinement, and sighed upon this final view.

Now that youve had a taste of the old Venice, head to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection to enjoy a more modern side of the city. Nestled on the Grand Canal in the Dorsoduro neighborhood, the museum is a collection of art that once privately belonged to Peggy Guggenheim, an American heiress and eventual resident of Venice. Here youll find modern art pieces from artists like Pablo Picasso and Wassily Kandinsky. Take a moment to view art from the museums permanent collection, such as Jackson Pollocks The Moon Woman or Georges Braques The Clarinet, before checking out the rotating exhibitions.

With all this winding and traipsing, youll definitely work up an appetite. Make your way to Cantina Do Spade, near the famous landmark Rialto Bridge, to rest your feet and have a meal. One of the oldest restaurants in Venice, Cantina Do Spade was first mentioned in a 15th century travel guide. The menu features hallmarks of traditional Venetian cuisine, with seafood dishes such as salted cod and vegetables like tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. Settle back and enjoy a meal of black cuttlefish with polenta, mixed vegetables and white wine.

No trip to Italy is complete without gelato, and Venice has no shortage of options. To get your fix, carve out some time for Suso Gelatoteca, east of the Rialto Bridge. Popular for its unique flavor pairings, Suso Gelatoteca boasts creative scoops like tango (yogurt and mango), and classics like the opera (hazelnuts and chocolate) and menta ciok (mint chocolate). Suso Gelatoteca is popular, so be sure to get there earlier in the day to beat the inevitable long lines.

Since the early Middle Ages, vendors have hawked their wares of fresh seafood and produce at the Rialto Market. Located right by the Rialto Bridge, the market serves as a temporary home to Venetian caught seafood marked Nostrano ranging from squid, soft shell crabs and sardines; and local produce including vibrant red tomatoes and baby artichokes. If youre not in the market for any groceries, simply watch the localsand chefsas they haggle over food, much of which they cook the day of purchasing. Since many of the merchants close up shop by midday, be sure to arrive early.

Al Pesador has more traditional Venetian dishes and optimal views of the sunset over the Grand Canal. Located north of the Rialto Bridge, Al Pesador boasts a rustic cave-like interior. But if you want to take advantage of the view, make sure to get an outdoor seat when you arrive. The menus ingredients are bought fresh from the nearby Rialto Market, and youll be able to tell as you dine on a meal of lobster spaghetti finished off with a savory tiramisu.

Head to the relatively quiet Cannaregio neighborhood to escape the more crowded sections of the city. Here you can take a breather and enjoy a self-guided walking tour. In the central area of the neighborhood, youll find the former Venetian Ghetto, where the citys Jewish population was once forced to live. Head south to find the Ponte delle Guglie, nicknamed the Bridge of Spires for the spires on each end of the bridge, which spans the Cannaregio Canal. Then make your way south and along the Grand Canal toward Ca dOro, a Gothic style palace built in 1428. The architecture of the palace itself is a work of art, but you can also head inside to enjoy the medieval art collection of the Baron Giorgio Franchetti.

Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty

Now that youve taken in some of the major sights of Venice, take the waterbus out to Murano, which is well-known for its glass making. Often mistaken as one single island, Murano is actually a small group of islands linked by a picturesque network of bridges. Begin your visit at the Murano Glass Museum, where you can take in exhibitions of various glassworks. Next, watch a free glass blowing demonstration and peruse the vast selection of glassware at the Vecchia Murano Glass Factory.

Dylan Hill is a freelance writer currently based in Los Angeles.
Start 2017 with a bright future while experiencing the Northern Lights of Alaska. The Aurora Winter Train in Alaska is departing on an overnight New Years Eve journey to end 2016 with a bang.

The train will leave Anchorage on December 31 and spend one night in Fairbanks, which is known for its aurora borealis displays.

If you arent able to make the New Years Eve trip, trains will also leave from Anchorage on December 27 and January 3.

The starting price of the trip is $395 per person, double occupancy, according to the LA Times, and includes one train ride from Anchorage to Fairbanks, one night in a hotel in Fairbanks and a return flight to Anchorage.

If you need more than one night to gaze upon the lights a three-night/four-day option is available starting at $989. The package includes one night in Anchorage, two nights in Fairbanks, a one-way train ride, a one-way flight and a flight seeing tour north of the Arctic Circle.

The departure dates for the three-night trip gaze upon the shimmering sights are set for September 30 to April 28.

Lauren Spiler is a freelance journalist based in Athens, Georgia. Most call her Spiler.
2016 WSOP Circuit Rozvadov: Mihai Croitoru Leads Final 8 Players

November 15, 2016 Yori Epskamp Senior Content Manager

After three full days of poker, just eight players remain in the WSOP Circuit 1,650 Main Event at King's Casino in Rozvadov. Romania's Mihai Croitoru has bagged the overnight chip lead with 6,925,000. After winning a big coinflip with pocket queens versus ace-king with 16 players left, Croitoru put his foot on the gas pedal to secure the end-of-day chip lead.

Ivan Banic sits in second with 6,035,000. Banic got propelled to a monster stack after winning pocket jacks against Oriol Fernandez's pocket deuces. Marco Topic is a distant third with 3,175,000 in chips, famous local player Yehuda "Chikkita" Cohen is the short stack with 800,000.

All eight remaining players are guaranteed at least 25,102 for their major accomplishment, but their focus will no doubt be on the first-place prize of 232,241.

Seat Player Country Chip Count 1 Marco Topic Germany 3,175,000 2 Ivan Banic Croatia 6,035,000 3 Yehuda Cohen Germany 800,000 4 Michal Kadziela Poland 2,315,000 5 Mihai Croitoru Romania 6,925,000 6 Stefan Drabert Germany 1,450,000 7 Henning Wendlandt Austria 2,750,000 8 Georgios Vrakas Germany 2,220,000

Day 3 started off with 46 out of the 851 entries remaining. After just one level of play, the field was already whittled down to 36. In the second level of the day, Jan Bendik was the first to go. The Slovakian EPT12 Grand Final winner got unlucky with ace-king versus the ace-queen of Marco Topic. A queen on the flop sent Bendik packing in the early stages of the day.

* Photos by Tomas Stacha, King's Casino Rozvadov

Jonas Lauck was the next to go. The German WCOOP Main Event champion shoved nine-eight into ace-queen and failed to improve. Valeri Bakhturidze held the Georgian honor high in this tournament. With a massive rail watching his every move, Bakhturidze eventually shoved jack-nine into ace-five, but didn't get any help. The last of the many Georgians finished in 33rd place.

At the final three tables, Fernandez, who topped the leaderboard throughout the day, was sent to the rail after a big clash with Banic. Fernandez four-bet shoved pocket deuces for over 40 big blinds, but Banic made the call with pocket jacks to eliminate the young Spaniard.

Ronald van de Linde's deep run in this tournament ended in 19th place. Van de Linde is a key figure in getting a lot of Dutch poker players to come over to Rozvadov. It looked like karma was on the hard worker's side, but an unfortunate all-in situation with ace-king against ten-eight suited spelled his demise.

Start-of-the-day chipleader Han Kuo fell in 18th place. It was a setup for Kuo, who couldn't get away from ace-king versus pocket aces. He was soon joined by the likes of Martin Bartos, Ignacio Molina and Alexander Lahkov.

Martin Dragun saw a great tournament come to an unfortunate end in 12th place. Against Marco Topic, Dragun first lost ace-king against ace-jack, then ran pocket nines into Topic's pocket aces to bust out.

The unofficial final table bubble boy was Marek Tatar, who ran ace-eight into Georgios Vrakas' ace-queen. With nine players remaining, one more player had to go before the day would come to an end. It was Moussa Khanafer who had to settle for the ungrateful ninth place. Khanafer lost a coin flip situation with pocket eights against ace-queen and became the last casualty of the day.

The final table is set for Tuesday at 2 p.m. local time. Blinds are in the final stages of the 30,000/60,000 level, with an ante of 10,000. A live stream with hole cards will be broadcast on a 30-minute delay. Follow PokerNews.com throughout the day for updates as we crown a brand new gold WSOP Circuit ring winner.

Position Prize 1 232,241 2 144,551 3 103,441 4 80,037 5 63,059 6 49,356 7 36,502 8 25,102

* Photo: Tomas Stacha, King's Poker Room Rozvadov

Sharelines Mihai Croitoru leads the WSOP Circuit Rozvadov Main Event Final Table!
Dan Wagner Wins the 2016 Seneca Fall Poker Classic Main Event for $64,882

November 14, 2016 Marty Derbyshire

West Seneca, New York's Dan Wagner took down the2016 Seneca Fall Poker Classic Main Event inside the Niagara Falls Poker Room at the Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino Monday.

The 29-year-old professional poker player won his way into the event making the final table of a $200 tournament at the Fall Classic Warm-Up here in October and essentially freerolled his way to a $64,882 victory.

The event drew 300 entries and reentries over two starting flights, creating a $264,810 prize pool that paid the top 27. They played down to a final nine on Sunday with Wagner building a massive chip lead heading into the final table.

Final Table Results

Place Player Prize 1 Dan Wagner $64,882 2 Cameron Bartolotta $40,781 3 Veerab Zakarian $29,394 4 Mark Allott $21,714 5 Nicholas Potwora $16,153 6 Jay Clark $12,181 7 Sean Gomez $9,533 8 Peter Bogulski $7,415 9 Brian Bowen $5,958

Before Monday, Wagner was a perennial bridesmaid at Seneca Niagara, and although he is among the area's top earning pros, this was his first big win after final table appearances in the 2016 Western New York Poker Challenge and 2015 Summer Slam Main Events over the past 18 months.

Wagner went wire-to-wire at the final table, steamrolling his way to the win.

Cameron Bartolotta doubled through Veerab Zakarian to start the day before Brian Bowen took ninth, losing a race with tens for all his chips.

Wagner busted Peter Bogulski and Sean Gomez in quick succession before Jay Clark sent his short stack over to Nicholas Potwora, bowing out sixth. Wagner got all those chips winning a race against Potwora's sevens to send him home fifth, then took a massive lead into three-handed play when Bartolotta busted Mark Allott in fourth.

Zakarian became the next victim of Wagner's domination, taking third after getting it in with a dominated ace, and although Bartolotta put up a fine fight, he ran a big ace into Wagner's queens and could not improve, taking second place less than a half hour into heads-up play.

In the end, Wagner got the monkey off his back, another big score for the record books and his winner photo on the cover of an upcoming issue of CardPlayer Magazine.

PokerNews expects to return to Seneca Niagara for the 2017 Western New York Poker Challenge in the spring.
BNP Paribas REIM SGR p.A., on behalf of the Celio fund, bought a logistic complex in Montichiari (Brescia), concluding the third acquisition operation since the constitution of the Fund, after the ones of Roncello and Colleferro. Launched in 2014, Celio is a closed real estate fund reserved to institutional investors

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For more than 100 years, we have been providing products and services that focus on solutions for our Members and improving lives. As Victorias largest member organisation, we advocate on issues that are important to our Members and we care.

Were bigger than you think, meaning your work has the potential to go far and wide. From refining our member experience to driving social impact, RACV is a place where you can make a difference for our people, customers and Members.

We are a unique organisation where you can shape your own experience  well help take you where you want to go.

Within an environment that inspires, youll help shape our future.
RACV Business Insurance can help to protect your business, your customers and your income from accident, injury, theft, or financial loss due to interruption.

No one knows your business needs like you. RACV Business Insurance automatically includes Public and Products Liability, then you can choose from additional covers that you might need to tailor the package to your business.

Find out what can be covered by selecting which type of insurance is most suited to your business.
There are three types of excess.

Basic excess

This is how much you pay when making a claim, including claims for fusion cover and portable items (if you've added them to your policy). Choosing a higher basic excess can reduce your premium.

Your basic excess can be $100, $200, $300, $500, $750, $1,000, $2,000, $3,000, $4,000 or $5,000. If you're aged 50 or older, you can choose a $0 excess, instead of $100.

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If you choose to add Accidental Damage cover and make a claim, you'll pay a $300 excess instead of your basic excess.

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Megastar Chiranjeevi was snapped with diva Kajal Aggarwal while shooting for a song sequence in Croatia, Europe.

By India Today Web Desk: Tollywood megastar Chiranjeevi, who is making his comeback with Khaidi No 150, was clicked by the shutterbugs while shooting for a song sequence with co-star Kajal Aggarwal.

While the shooting of the film is progressing at a rapid pace, the team recently left for Europe, where two songs will be shot in Slovenia and Croatia.



WATCH: Shraavya Reddy lashes out at a person who asked her breast size



ALSO READ: Demonetisation: Director Ameer criticises PM Modi and Rajinikanth



Kajal Aggarwal took to Twitter and shared the picture.



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Interestingly, the makers of Khaidi No 150 have roped in Raai Laxmi, who will be shaking a leg with Chiranjeevi. The song is also touted to be a fast-paced number.



Khaidi No 150, which marks Chiranjeevi 150th film, is the Telugu remake of Tamil blockbuster Kaththi, which had Ilayathalapathy Vijay in the lead.



Though the original version had no such item number, director VV Vinayak felt it could be added as a special treat to Chiranjeevi's fans.

Actor-choreographer Prabhudheva, who is basking in the success of his Devi (L), has been roped in to compose a song for the film.

Jointly produced by Ram Charan and Lyca Productions, the film has music by Devi Sri Prasad and scheduled for a worldwide release on January 13, 2017.

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An International Driving Permit (IDP) is a document that validates and translates your Australian driving licence for foreign countries.

It also conveniently functions as a form of I.D. when youre overseas, so you dont have to worry about lugging your passport around. Your identification details are even communicated in nine different languages to make it easily legible in foreign countries.

RACV is the exclusive provider of International Driving Permits in Victoria. Its simple to apply, just fill in our online application and youll typically receive your IDP by post within 10 days. If you need an IDP in a hurry, head to your nearest RACV Retail Store where youll be issued with your permit instantly.
The BMW G310Rs launch in India has been delayed. Earlier, BMW Motorrad had confirmed that the launch will take place by March 2017. But that is not happening. Instead of launching the G310R, BMW Motorrad will open India innings by launching their big bikes next month.

Speaking about the India-spec G310R, it has now been showcased at the 2017 Bangkok Motor Show, which is currently underway. Seen in dual tone Black and White colour, the new G310R is the most affordable BMW motorcycle ever. It is manufactured by TVS Motors in India.

Compared to the Europe-spec G310R, which debuted last year, the India-spec variant comes with longer side indicators, new tail light, handle bar grip is new, exhaust cover at the end gets more steel finish. Even the ECU mapping is different.

The most affordable Bimmer has entered production at a new assembly line within TVS Motor Cos Hosur premises. Initially, it will be exported to markets in Europe. The company is looking to have adequate inventory before opening bookings in the local market.

The street fighter is expected to receive huge orders in the domestic market and the German giant apparently prefers to delay the launch until it is able to commence deliveries seamlessly rather than opening the order books earlier and let the waiting period escalate to several months. Deliveries in Europe are expected to commence any time now.

The BMW G 310 R is priced lower than the made-in-India KTM Duke 390 in Europe. If the brand could manage a similar positioning in India, it would garner immense response from the market. The motorcycle targets brand-conscious urban motorcycle enthusiasts.

As per the cooperation agreement with TVS, the platform will also spawn a TVS derivative which was previewed by the Akula 310 concept at the Auto Expo.
Cells are often likened to computers, running an operating system that receives signals, processes their input, and responds, according to programming, with cellular output. Yet untangling computer-like pathways in cells is anything but simple, say Denise Montell, professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Aviv Regev, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Broad Institute. However, both are eager to try and will outline their latest efforts at the "Logic of Signaling" symposium at the 2016 ASCB Annual Meeting.

"My lab is understanding how cells maintain and build normal tissues. We're studying cellular behaviors that underlie normal behavior and tumor metastasis, a great unsolved question in cancer," Montell said. Her lab recently discovered that cells can bounce back from the brink of apoptotic cell death. "This wasn't known before so now we're looking at how cells do it, when do they do it, under what circumstances, and what does it mean," Montell said.

To track these near-death experiences in cells the Montell lab generated a genetically coded sensor in Drosophila. The researchers expected the mechanism to be a stress response, but they found that it was normal during development. "It makes sense retrospectively," Montell explained, pointing to neuronal development as an example. "You produce way more neurons that you need, and the neurons compete for trophic factors. If a group of cells are competing for trophic factors, then one cell starts to die, but if it gets more trophic factor, it could bounce back."

Montell recently moved her lab to University of California, Santa Barbara, after 25 years in Baltimore where she rose from postdoc at the Carnegie Institution to professor at Johns Hopkins University. From Santa Barbara, Montell said, "I feel like I've gone back to college, teaching undergrads for the first time, and being in a basic science department the move has been really rejuvenating. And I can't complain about the weather and the view out the window."

Based in Cambridge, MA, Regev is investigating how cell circuits transform signals into cellular responses. "Cells constantly receive signals and decide how to act. They convey to other molecules that convey to other molecules, and so on you can view it like a computer circuit," Regev said. Her lab wants to understand how these circuits work. Lately they're doing "a lot of work to develop computational and experimental methods for single-cell RNA profiling to understand the ways in which cells differ from each other in physiologically meaningful ways," she said.

Recently Regev's lab used single-cell RNA profiling in T-cells. They wanted to understand more about T-cell exhaustion, a dysfunction T-cell state during cancer or viral infection when the T-cell stimulated with antigen can no longer respond. Her lab found a genetic program that controls the full-blown exhaustion, Regev said. This could be useful for targeting exhausted T-cells in therapies.

Regev says that she didn't plan to become a biologist. Her undergraduate education was interdisciplinary although she was originally drawn to computer science and math. But when she took a class in genetics. "I thought it was very fascinating that you could learn so much about biology without knowing the molecular details. It was about inference, that's how genetics historically worked. It occurred to me that it was similar to computational systems," Regev said. As for what they'll be talking about precisely at the 2016 ASCB meeting, neither can say yet, other than they expect to present the latest from their labs. "I hope some of what I will talk about we haven't uncovered yet," Montell said. "People will have to come to the talk. I usually talk about unpublished things," Regev noted.
A Mayo Clinic study is shedding light on why some rheumatoid arthritis patients respond poorly when treated with tumor necrosis factor inhibitors, part of a class of drugs called biologics. It comes down to proteins: specifically, a protein in the body that drives inflammation in the disease, the research found. The discovery is an important step toward better personalizing rheumatoid arthritis treatment, helping to avoid trial and error when prescribing medications. The findings were presented at the American College of Rheumatology annual meeting in San Francisco.

Researchers found that patients with a higher amount or higher proportion of an inflammatory protein called type 1 interferon beta compared with another inflammatory protein, type 1 interferon alpha, do not respond as well to tumor necrosis factor inhibitors as others. They looked at white blood cells called monocytes, a major cell type involved in rheumatoid arthritis, and found that those cells behaved differently in one group than in the other.

The discovery paves the way for a more personalized approach to treatment in rheumatoid arthritis based on the biology of a particular patient's disease.

"Investigating these pathways may identify other targets for therapy or other markers that predict treatment response," says first author Theresa Wampler Muskardin, M.D., a rheumatologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "It will help rheumatologists find the right drug for each patient and spare patients medications that won't work for them."

The Rheumatology Research Foundation funded the study. Mayo rheumatologist Timothy Niewold, M.D., was the study's senior author.

In other studies presented at the meeting, Mayo Clinic researchers found:

 Sarcoidosis, the growth of tiny clusters of inflammatory cells called granulomas, carries a higher risk of heart disease and venous thromboembolism. Researchers also found there is seasonal variation in the incidence of sarcoidosis: Rates are consistently lower in autumn. Physicians believe that sarcoidosis may be triggered by the body's immune response to environmental factors, such as something inhaled from the air.

 The risk of coronary artery disease among patients with polymyalgia rheumatica is 70 percent higher than it is among others.

 Heart and circulatory abnormalities are common in Takayasu's arteritis, a form of vasculitis in which large blood vessels become inflamed.

Mayo rheumatologists and cardiologists formed the Mayo Clinic Cardio-Rheumatology Clinic to research and pioneer better prevention, detection and treatment of heart disease and other cardiovascular problems in patients with rheumatic diseases.
In a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Saint Louis University researchers report new information about conditions that can cause Earth's tectonic plates to sink.

John Encarnacion, Ph.D., professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at SLU, and Timothy Keenan, a graduate student, are experts in tectonics and hard rock geology, and use geochemistry and geochronology coupled with field observations to study tectonic plate movement.

"A plate, by definition, has a rigidity to it. It is stiff and behaves as a unit. We are on the North American Plate and so we're moving roughly westward together about an inch a year," Encarnacion said. "But when I think about what causes most plates to move, I think about a wet towel in a pool. Most plates are moving because they are sinking into Earth like a towel laid down on a pool will start to sink dragging the rest of the towel down into the water."

Plates move, on average, an inch or two a year. The fastest plate moves at about four inches a year and the slowest isn't moving much at all. Plate motions are the main cause of earthquakes, and seismologists and geologists study the details of plate motions to make more accurate predictions of their likelihood.

"Whenever scientists can show how something that is unexpected might have actually happened, it helps to paint a more accurate picture of how Earth behaves," Encarnacion said. "And a more accurate picture of large-scale Earth processes can help us better understand earthquakes and volcanoes, as well as the origin and locations of mineral deposits, many of which are the effects and products of large-scale plate motions."

Plate movement affects our lives in other ways, too: It recently was reported that Australia needs to redraw its maps due to plate motion. Australia is moving relatively quickly northwards, and so over many decades it has traveled several feet, causing GPS locations to be significantly misaligned.

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Subduction, the process by which tectonic plates sink into Earth's mantle, is a fundamental tectonic process on earth, and yet the question of where and how new subduction zones form remains a matter of debate. Subduction is the main reason tectonic plates move.

The SLU geologists' research takes them out into the field to study rocks and sample them before taking them back to the lab to be studied in more detail.

Their work involves geological mapping: looking at rocks, identifying them, plotting them on a map and figuring out how they formed and what has happened to them after they form. Researchers date rock samples and look at their chemistry to learn about the specific conditions where an ancient rock formed, such as if a volcanic rock formed in a volcanic island like Hawaii or on the deep ocean floor.

In this study, Keenan and Encarnacion traveled to the Philippines to study plates in that region. They found that a divergent plate boundary, where two plates move apart, was forcefully and rapidly turned into a convergent boundary where one plate eventually began subducting.

This is surprising because although the plate material at a divergent boundary is weak, it is also buoyant and resists subduction. The research findings suggest that buoyant but weak plate material at a divergent boundary can be forced to converge until eventually older and denser plate material enters the nascent subduction zone, which then becomes self-sustaining.

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"We think that the subduction zone we studied was actually forced to start because of the collision of India with Asia. India was once separated from Asia, but it slowly drifted northwards eventually colliding with Asia. The collision pushed out large chunks of Asia to the southeast. That push, we think, pushed all the way out into the ocean and triggered the start of a new subduction zone."

Their finding supports a new model for how plates can begin to sink: "Places where plates move apart can be pushed together to start subduction."

The SLU researchers now want to learn if their model applies to other tectonic plates.

"How common was this forced initiation of a subduction zone that we think happened in the Philippines?" Encarnacion said. "I would like to see work on other ancient subduction zones to see whether our model applies to them as well."

Other researchers on the study include Robert Buchwaldt, Dan Fernandez, James Mattinson, Christine Rasoazanamparany, and P. Benjamin Luetkemeyer.

Saint Louis University's Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, combines strong classroom and field-based instruction with internationally recognized research across a broad spectrum of the physical sciences, including seismology, hydrology, geochemistry, meteorology, environmental science, and the study of modern and ancient climate change. Students also have the opportunity to work directly with faculty on their research and pursue internships through a growing network of contacts in the public and private sector.

Research centers include the Earthquake Center, the Cooperative Institute for Precipitation Systems, the Global Geodynamics Program, the Center for Environmental Sciences, and Quantum WeatherTM. The fusion of academic programs with world-class research provides students with an unparalleled opportunity to explore their interests and prepare for a wide variety of careers after graduation.
Prenatal exposure to a mother's stress contributes to anxiety and cognitive problems that persist into adulthood, a phenomenon that could be explained by lasting -- and potentially damaging -- changes in the microbiome, according to new research in mice.

When pregnant mice were exposed to stress in the study, it appeared to change the makeup of the bacteria in both their guts and placentas, as well as in the intestinal tracts of their female offspring, researchers at The Ohio State University found. And those microbial changes lasted into adulthood.

On top of that, the mice with stressed mothers struggled in tests aimed at gauging anxiety and cognitive health compared with female offspring of mice that were not stressed during pregnancy. And markers of inflammation increased in the placenta, the fetal brain and the adult brain of the offspring while a supportive protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) decreased.

"More and more, doctors and researchers are understanding that naturally occurring bacteria are not just a silent presence in our body, but that they contribute to our health," said Tamar Gur, the lead researcher and assistant professor of psychiatry & behavioral health, neuroscience and obstetrics & gynecology at Ohio State.

"These mice were more anxious, they spent more time in dark, closed spaces and they had a harder time learning cognitive tasks even though they were never stressed after birth." Gur presented the study on Nov. 14 in San Diego at Neuroscience 2016, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.

Previous studies have found associations between maternal stress in both animals and people to later mental health and behavioral problems in their offspring. This study could begin to explain what's at play in that relationship.

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"We already understand that prenatal stress can be bad for offspring, but the mystery is how," said Gur, a psychiatrist who is a member of Ohio State Wexner Medical Center's Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research.

Gur said microbes from a mother's gastrointestinal and reproductive tracts are the first to colonize in a developing fetus (and in newborns). That makes the bacteria an interesting potential explanation of why and how stress before an animal or person is born could prompt mental illness that can last a lifetime.

This study is pointing to alterations in the microbes that live in the placenta and outlines changes found in the placentas of fetal mice that had stressed mothers.

Gur and her colleagues found significant microbial changes to the placentas of the female offspring of stressed mice. They also found alterations in inflammation and growth factors in the placenta, pointing to changes in how the microbes were influencing important dynamics before birth.

And in the female offspring of the stressed mice, the researchers found a lower ability to learn and higher anxiety-like behavior compared to the offspring of non-stressed mother mice. Gur said the team found interesting changes in the male offspring as well, but the details of that part of the study are still in the works.

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Gur said she wants to know more about the links between the brain and the bacteria that live in the gut, and she and her colleagues have plans to expand their investigation to pregnant women and their babies. Perhaps one day the work will lead to knowledge about how probiotics could help mitigate the effects of stress and the downstream repercussions, but it's too soon now to say if they would have any impact, she said.

The stressed mother mice underwent two hours per day for seven days of restraint meant to induce stress. For comparison, the researchers left another group of pregnant mice undisturbed during gestation. Gut bacteria were assessed using fecal samples from the mice.

Gur stressed that the message here is not that mothers are to blame should their children suffer mental illness later in life. Rather, she said, this scientific development presents an opportunity to talk more about the importance of mental health in general and during pregnancy.

"As a psychiatrist who treats pregnant women, if you're stressed, anxious or depressed, I think pregnancy is a prime time for intervention," Gur said. "And what's good for mom is good for the baby."

The study was supported by the March of Dimes and the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation. Other researchers who worked on the study were Michael T. Bailey, Lena Shay, Sydney Fisher, Adidti Vadodkar and Vanessa Varaljay.
Nature is full of parasites -- organisms that flourish and proliferate at the expense of another species. Surprisingly, these same competing roles of parasite and host can be found in the microscopic molecular world of the cell. A new study by two Illinois researchers has demonstrated that dynamic elements within the human genome interact with each other in a way that strongly resembles the patterns seen in populations of predators and prey.

The findings, published in Physical Review Letters by physicists Chi Xue and Nigel Goldenfeld, are an important step toward understanding the complex ways that genomes change over the lifetime of individual organisms, and how they evolve over generations.

"These are genes that are active and are doing genome editing in real time in living cells, and this is a start of trying to really understand them in much more detail than has been done before," said Goldenfeld, who leads the Biocomplexity research theme at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Universal Biology (IGB). "This is helping us understand the evolution of complexity and the evolution of genomes."

The study was supported by Center for the Physics of Living Cells, a Physics Frontiers Center at Illinois supported by the National Science Foundation, and the NASA Astrobiology Institute for Universal Biology at Illinois, which Goldenfeld directs.

Goldenfeld and Xue embarked on this work because of their interest in transposons, small regions of DNA that can move themselves from one part of the genome to another during the lifetime of a cell -- a capability that has earned them the name "jumping genes." Collectively, various types of transposons make up almost half of the human genome. When they move around, they may create mutations in or alter the activity of a functional gene; transposons can therefore create new genetic profiles in a population for natural selection to act on, in either a positive or negative way.

The Illinois researchers wanted to learn more about how evolution works on this level, the level of whole organisms, by looking at the metaphorical ecosystem of the human genome. In this view, the physical structure of the DNA that makes up the genome acts like an environment, in which two types of transposons, long interspersed nuclear elements (LINEs) and short interspersed nuclear elements (SINEs), have a competitive relationship with one another. In order to replicate, SINEs steal the molecular machinery that LINEs use to copy themselves, somewhat like a cuckoo bird tricks other birds into raising her chicks for her while abandoning their own.

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With help from Oleg Simakov, a researcher at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Xue and Goldenfeld focused on the biology of L1 elements and Alu elements, respectively common types of LINEs and SINEs in the human genome.

The researchers adopted methods from modern statistical physics and modeled the interaction between Alu and L1 elements mathematically as a stochastic process -- a process created from chance interactions. This method has been successfully applied in ecology to describe predator-prey interactions; Xue and Goldenfeld simulated the movements of transposons within the human genome with the same mathematical method. Their models included a detailed accounting for how Alu elements steal the molecular machinery L1 elements use to copy themselves.

Xue and Goldenfeld's results predicted that populations of LINE and SINE elements in the genome are expected to oscillate the way those of, for example, wolves and rabbits might.

"We realized that the transposons' interaction actually was pretty much like the predator-prey interaction in ecology," said Xue. "We came up with the idea, why don't we apply the same idea of predator-prey dynamics . . .we expected to see the oscillations we see in the predator-prey model. So we first did the simulation and we saw the oscillations we expected, and we got really excited."

In other words, too many SINEs and the LINEs start to suffer, and soon there are not enough for all the SINEs to exploit. SINEs start to suffer, and the LINEs make a come-back. Xue and Goldenfeld's model made the surprising prediction that these oscillations occur over a timescale that is longer than the human lifespan -- waves of Alu elements and L1 elements pushing and pulling at each other in slow motion across generations of the human genomes that carry them.

"The most enlightening aspect of the study for me was the fact that we could really compute the timescales, and see that it is possible that we could observe these things," said Goldenfeld. "We have a prediction for what happens in single cells, and we may be able to actually do an experiment to observe these things, though the period is longer than the lifetime of a single cell."

In a related study, Goldenfeld's laboratory has collaborated with the laboratory of fellow physicist and IGB Biocomplexity research theme member Thomas Kuhlman to visualize the movements of transposons within the genomes of living cells. Using this type of innovative technology, and by studying the history of molecular evolution in other species, Goldenfeld and Xue hope to test some of the predictions made by their model and continue to gain insight into the dynamic world of the genome.
Many communities would be better off investing in electric vehicles that run on batteries instead of hydrogen fuel cells, in part because the hydrogen infrastructure provides few additional energy benefits for the community besides clean transportation.

That's according to a study in the November issue of the journal Energy by scientists at Stanford University and the Technical University of Munich (TUM). They compared cars that run on batteries versus hydrogen fuel cells in a hypothetical future where the cost of electric vehicles is more affordable.

"We looked at how large-scale adoption of electric vehicles would affect total energy use in a community, for buildings as well as transportation," said lead author Markus Felgenhauer, a doctoral candidate at TUM and former visiting scholar at the Stanford Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP). "We found that investing in all-electric battery vehicles is a more economical choice for reducing carbon dioxide emissions, primarily due to their lower cost and significantly higher energy efficiency."

"Studies such as these are needed to identify the lowest cost and most efficient pathways to deep decarbonization of the global energy system," added study co-author Sally Benson, a professor of energy resources engineering at Stanford and director of GCEP.

Batteries vs. fuel cells

Electric vehicles come in two flavors: plug-in cars with rechargeable batteries, and fuel cell vehicles that convert hydrogen gas into clean electricity.

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Unlike gasoline-powered cars, battery and fuel cell vehicles emit zero carbon when driven. But deploying them at scale will require a costly new infrastructure for charging batteries or delivering hydrogen fuel.

A key question for policymakers is, which transportation technology cuts total emissions at the lowest cost -- batteries or fuel cells? Beyond transportation, could hydrogen technology also provide clean energy for heating and lighting buildings, as some research suggests?

The new study is the first to address both questions.

The researchers focused on California, a leader in electric vehicle transportation. Statewide, battery electric cars are growing in popularity. But only a few manufacturers have begun offering fuel cell vehicles. To encourage wider adoption, the state has awarded more than $92 million for a network of 50 hydrogen-refueling stations by 2017.

Currently, neither energy source is entirely emissions free. Some people charge their battery electric cars by plugging into the power grid, which delivers electricity generated largely from carbon-emitting fossil fuels.

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Likewise, most hydrogen fuel is derived from natural gas through an industrial process that emits carbon dioxide as a byproduct. An alternative device, called an electrolyzer, uses solar-generated electricity to split water into clean hydrogen and oxygen, but the technique is very energy intensive and expensive.

Future scenarios

In the study, the researchers created future scenarios for the Town of Los Altos Hills, a sunny, affluent community of about 8,000 residents located in Santa Clara County just a few miles from the Stanford campus.

"Los Altos Hills is distinguished by an unusually high solar-generation capacity in the county with the highest share of electric vehicles in the state," said Felgenhauer.

The scenarios focused on 10 to 20 years in the future, when battery and fuel cell vehicles are expected to be in much wider use, and when solar power and electrolyzers are cost competitive with the electric grid.

One scenario for the year 2035 assumed that electric vehicles would constitute 38 percent of the town's vehicle fleet. It also assumed that fuel cell vehicles would be powered by locally produced hydrogen made with the cheapest available electricity, be it solar generated or obtained from the grid.

Data about Los Altos Hills was fed to a computational model developed by study co-author Thomas Hamacher, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at TUM.

"We provided data on the amount of energy Los Altos Hills needs throughout the day, as well as financial data on the cost of building new energy infrastructures," said study coauthor Matthew Pellow, a former GCEP postdoctoral scholar now with the Electric Power Research Institute. "We included the cost of making solar panels, electrolyzers, batteries and everything else. Then we told the model, given our scenario for 2035, tell us the most economical way to meet the total energy demand of the community."

To compare each scenario's costs to its climate benefits, the researchers also calculated the carbon dioxide emissions produced in each case.

The researchers also assessed the potential benefits of using the hydrogen infrastructure to store clean energy for use on demand. During daylight hours, electrolyzers can produce hydrogen from surplus solar power that would otherwise go to waste. That hydrogen can be stored and converted into renewable electricity, or used as a clean alternative to natural gas to heat and light buildings.

Results

The results were definitive.

"In terms of overall costs, we found that battery electric vehicles are better than fuel cell vehicles for reducing emissions," Felgenhauer said. "The analysis showed that to be cost competitive, fuel cell vehicles would have to be priced much lower than battery vehicles. However, fuel cell vehicles are likely to be significantly more expensive than battery vehicles for the foreseeable future. Another supposed benefit of hydrogen -- storing surplus solar energy -- didn't pan out in our analysis either. We found that in 2035, only a small amount of solar hydrogen storage would be used for heating and lighting buildings."

While the study focused on one Bay Area town, the results are relevant for many bedroom communities with ample sunlight across California, according to the authors. They hope to analyze larger networks of communities in future studies and examine other factors that could influence consumers' choices when deciding whether to buy a battery or fuel cell car.

"Our goal is to provide objective, data-driven analysis to help inform policymakers in California and elsewhere about which technology pathway is likely to be more cost-effective in combating climate change," Pellow said.
Microbiologists have identified how MRSA may be more effectively treated by modern-day antibiotics, if old-fashioned penicillin is also used. The team from the National University of Ireland Galway and the University of Liverpool have shown that, although penicillin does not kill the bacteria, it does weaken their virulence, making it easier for our immune system and other antibiotics to eradicate the infection. The research findings, funded by the Health Research Board and the Medical Research Council, are published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

MRSA infection is caused by a type of Staphylococcal bacteria that has become resistant to many of the antibiotics used to treat ordinary infections. This results in significant morbidity and mortality with up to 20% of patients infected with MRSA dying from systemic infections.

Professor James O'Gara of the National University of Ireland Galway comments: "Our findings explain the anti-virulence mechanism of penicillin-type antibiotics and support the re-introduction of these drugs as an adjunct therapeutic for MRSA infections. MRSA can be extremely virulent, which is part of the challenge in treating it. Our laboratory research shows that when exposed to penicillin, the bacteria switches off its toxin genes and instead concentrates on thickening its cell wall to resist the antibiotic. Our immune systems can then take advantage of this compromised state to destroy the bacteria."

This new treatment strategy for MRSA infections has the potential to change the current clinical guidelines for treatment of patients with MRSA infections in both hospital and community settings. A recent randomised controlled trial in Australia involving 60 patients led by Menzies School of Health Research showed that the beta-lactam antibiotic flucloxacillin in combination with vancomycin significantly reduced the duration of MRSA sepsis from 3 days to 1.9 days.

"The clinical findings in Australia are very important and now we have the key laboratory data that help explain why the combination of two antibiotics is better than one. The beauty of this approach is that penicillin type antibiotics are not only widely available and safe, but can potentially and more easily be included in clinical practice without the need for long and expensive clinical trials needed for new drugs," added Professor O'Gara.

Graham Love, Chief Executive at the Health Research Board commented: "This research demonstrates the potential payback having a vibrant health research programme. It clearly has the potential to change clinical practice and improve outcomes for patients."

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the greatest current threats to human health. The recent report commissioned by the UK Government, concluding that AMR infections will cause more deaths than cancer by 2050 if not addressed urgently.

Study co-lead Professor Aras Kadioglu at the Institute of Infection & Global Health, University of Liverpool added that: "Although aggressive hospital infection control initiatives appear to be having a positive impact on hospital-acquired MRSA rates in some developed countries, the global burden still remains unacceptably high. Infections caused by community associated MRSA strains and strains that are currently methicillin sensitive are increasing at a worrying speed. Given the escalating antimicrobial resistance crisis, it is imperative to identify new therapeutic strategies and to re-evaluate how current antimicrobial drugs are used, as such our data are timely and highly important."
Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have developed a technology that could improve the efficiency of photovoltaic cells by nearly 70 percent. The breakthrough could be a key for overcoming current technological limitations to harnessing solar power to meet the world's energy consumption demands.

The study was conducted at the Excitonics Lab, headed by Professor Carmel Rotschild, in the Technion Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, with assistance from the Grand Technion Energy Program and the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute at the Technion, and as part of the lab's European Research Council (ERC) RC project on new thermodynamic tools for solar cells.

Photovoltaic cells optimally utilize a very narrow range of the solar spectrum -- the broad light supplied by the sun. Radiation not within this narrow range merely warms these cells, and is not utilized. This energy loss limits the maximum efficiency of current solar cells to around 30%.

In a paper recently published in Nature Communications, the Technion researchers describe how their technology is based on an intermediate process that occurs between sunlight and the photovoltaic cell. The photoluminescence material they created absorbs the radiation from the sun, and converts the heat and light from the sun into an "ideal" radiation, which illuminates the photovoltaic cell and enables higher conversion efficiency. As a result, the device's efficiency is increased from 30% to 50%.

The inspiration for the technology comes from optical refrigeration, where the absorbed light is re-emitted at higher energy, thereby cooling the emitter. The Technion technology works similarly, but with sunlight.

"Solar radiation, on its way to the photovoltaic cells, hits a dedicated material that we developed for this purpose, and the material is heated by the unused part of the spectrum," says graduate student Assaf Manor, who led the study as part of his PhD work. "In addition, the solar radiation in the optimal spectrum is absorbed and re-emitted at a blue-shifted spectrum. This radiation is then harvested by the solar cell, and both the heat and the light are converted to electricity."
The Bombay High Court asked the CBI why it could reveal the statement of witness no 11 in the Sheena Bora murder case, and asked them to reply on Thursday.

By Vidya : The Sheena Bora murder case is back in news.

The Bombay High Court asked the CBI why it could not reveal the statement of witness 11 in the Sheena Bora case and ordered them to argue on this issue on Thursday.

Peter Mukerjea had filed a writ petition in the Bombay High Court against the order of the special CBI court.

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Mukerjea's lawyers had asked for the statement which the CBI had not handed over to them before the beginning of the trial. The special CBI court, however, ordered that the statement was a secret document and will only be given to them after charges are framed.

Peter Mukerjea, on the other hand, said they can't make their arguments until they have all the evidence, and filed a writ petition against the special court's order in the Bombay High Court.



Meanwhile, the special CBI court proceedings on the Sheena Bora case began today.

The CBI, appearing in the special court, said that they will not be able to start arguing for charge framing till arguments in the High Court are not finished.



Also Read:

Rahul Mukerjea 'misses' Sheena Bora 'this Diwali', blames Indrani for murder

Sheena Bora: Indrani kept Peter Mukerjea posted about murder plot, says CBI chargesheet

Sheena Bora murder: Why CBI believes that it has ample proof against Peter Mukerjea



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Its high time would-be poachers learn a lesson from court penalties  and give up trying to poach trout, especially from protected spawning streams.

This is the message from Fish & Game officers.

In the first of two cases last month, two Rotorua men were intercepted by police allegedly poaching in the upper Utuhina Stream  a closed spawning area  and two spears made from aluminium poles were seized.

Fish & Game officer Anthony van Dorp says the end of the poles had been fashioned into points, and the spears were seized without incident.

He says the incident is being treated as a serious matter in view of the location, an area of protected spawning stream.

The pair have now been summonsed to appear in court.

The spawning streams are closed to fishing for good reason  so that as many trout can spawn successfully as possible.

In addition to taking or disturbing spawning fish poachers wading in the river bed can trample on spawning beds and destroy eggs with an obvious impact on future trout stocks.

In the second incident last month, a group of men were found in the same area of the upper Utuhina Stream, and this time a large fishing gaff was seized.

Charges have been laid against two men over the matter.

Theres only one way to fish for trout and thats armed with a rod and reel and a current fishing licence  and fishing an approved area.

If youre caught with a rough and ready spear or similar in a spawning stream there is no defence  and youll likely face serious charges.

Anthony says its pleasing to see the courts are continuing to take a strong line on people who are involved in trout poaching.

Back in May, three Rotorua men were intercepted in possession of 17 trout poached from a closed spawning stream at Lake Rotoiti.

They trio appeared in court late last month and pleaded guilty to possession of illegally taken trout.

Judge Snell sentenced them each to 100 hours of community work which sends a clear message that even being in possession of poached trout, especially from spawning streams, is a matter taken seriously both by Fish & Game officers and the courts.

Anthony says officers have also dealt with a number of people found fishing without a licence recently.

In one case, the angler made a false claim that they did have a licence.

The message here is quite clear; if you want to fish for trout get a licence, fish legally  that is using permitted methods  and in areas which are open to anglers to fish in  not protected spawning waters which hold the future of our trout fisheries.
Nearly eight years after his term as President of the United States ended, George W. Bush is now embarking on what may be his most important role since - as the proud parent of an adorable rescue pup.

Guy And Wild Shark Have Been Best Friends For Decades

Last Tuesday, while the country was voting in a new commander in chief, Bush and wife Laura decided to drop by the SPCA of Texas , in Dallas, to thank the shelter staff "for their great work" - and, of course, to snuggle awhile with some of the adoptable pets there.

It's unclear if they had been initially planning on adopting a companion of their own that day, but that's what they did. Evidently, during the visit the former first family quickly became smitten with one needy puppy in particular - and decided to give him a forever home with them.

The name they chose for their furry new family member? Freddy Bush.

"We already love him, and even our cats Bob and Bernadette are finding Freddy's charm futile to resist," Bush wrote in a post online.
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/pugandcat/" target="_blank">Finn Paus</a><span></span><span></span></p>

Ever since the day they met, Bandito the pug and Luigi the cat have been the very best of friends.

A cat and a pug might not sound like a typical duo, but these two brothers just make sense, and are always together. "They just clicked," Finn Paus, the pair's dad, told The Dodo. "Together they eat, sleep, fight, snore, dart and chase each other around constantly, every day!"

Not only are these guys an unlikely duo, they also do some unlikely things together - like, for instance, hiking miles and miles across Spain together. When Paus's parents passed away, he and his partner Seb Smetham realized how short life was, and wanted to do something meaningful with their time. And so they packed up Luigi and Bandito into a dog trolley, grabbed some camping gear and set off on a trip that lasted 46 days and over 400 miles.

Dodo Shows Odd Couples Kitten Isn't Sure About His Pittie Brother  At First

"The walk across Spain was a life changer for us," Paus said. "After the walk we never went home. We bought an old builder's van and found a new place to live!" Now the adorable group goes hiking and camping together all the time, and in total, they've hiked over 900 miles.

Cats and pugs aren't exactly known for being active, but Bandito and Luigi love hiking anywhere and everywhere with their dads - especially since they barely have to do any walking at all. When they're not riding in their awesome set of wheels ...

... they're perched happily on their dads' shoulders instead, and get to see the world all while exerting practically no energy at all. A pretty sweet deal.

Luigi and Bandito have done and seen so much more than the average cat and pug, like building a snowman ...

... seeing a rainbow ...

... and, of course, just being active in general.

Bandito and Luigi even have a children's book about their adventures coming out soon, and their dads couldn't be prouder. While the pair loves hiking with their dads, really, they just love being together. As long as they have each other, they're down to do anything.
Media businesses everywhere are scrambling for new ideas to boost their increasingly fragmented and distracted audience.

Sky Bridges, chief operating officer of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, thinks hes found one.

This is absolutely the last great opportunity for cable and satellite networks to launch a service that will reach a never-served market, he said recently, barely keeping his enthusiasm in check.

The excitement comes from the networks expansion plans. APTN expects to begin providing what Bridges says is the first indigenous-centred broadcasts to Americans as early as next year.

The need  and market  is obvious, said Bridges from Toronto.

If you look at the landscape of what has been happening, in Canada and the U.S., there is a thriving culture. There is no doubt the market down there would embrace a network that is serving them directly.

You have a system that caters to all kinds of groups in the United States  from diverse Asian groups, to African-American to Hispanic, yet the first peoples of that nation dont have a channel that they can consume and have news being told through their lens.

The U.S. has at least 17 million people claiming full or part indigenous heritage.

Market research conducted by APTN suggests 70 per cent of Native Americans felt unrepresented in cable offerings. About 90 per cent felt an indigenous network should be launched and a large percentage of those who left cable and satellite systems said they would rejoin if it were.

We were showing overwhelmingly that that particular market feels they are underserved, Bridges said. We call them never-served.

There isnt a national broadcaster that speaks to them in terms of the content theyre looking for.

Enter APTN.

Since its start in 1999, the network has grown to offer a nightly national news broadcast, a weekly investigative show, childrens programming, cultural offerings, drama and live-event broadcasts. It produces nearly half of its own shows and is available in 10 million Canadian homes on basic cable.

Re-broadcasting those shows on a U.S. network  tentatively entitled the All Nations Network  makes cultural and business sense, said Bridges.

At the beginning, that network will lean on a lot of the content from APTN. Its about being cost-effective.

The plan is that ANN will eventually produce about 80 per cent of its own content, including news and current affairs. Events such as the Standing Rock protests in the Dakotas, where Sioux bands have spearheaded pipeline protests, highlight the need for indigenous news broadcasts, Bridges said.

Whats happening in Standing Rock is indicative of whats happening in other places as well. A new service like ANN would bring more in-depth coverage and continuous coverage.

Modern, lightweight technology makes it feasible to easily set up new bureaus wherever theyre needed, Bridges said.

The network is negotiating with potential U.S. distributors for their signal. Canadian channels are required to offer APTN on basic service, but the Americans have to be sold on it.

Were in negotiations. Im confident its going to launch, but it takes time. Were in dialogue.

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A Canadian company known for making socks and plain T-shirts said Monday it has signed a deal to buy some assets from one of retails most provocative and troubled brands  American Apparel.

Gildan Activewear Inc. has offered to pay $66 million (U.S.) for the intellectual property rights and some manufacturing and warehouse assets belonging to American Apparel, which filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. on Monday. Gildans offer has to be approved by U.S. bankruptcy court.

It was the second time in as many years that the retailer, founded in Montreal by Dov Charney in 1989, sought court protection as it struggled to remain competitive in a changing retail landscape.

American Apparel, known for its risque advertising and provocative clothing aimed at teens, was once a high-flyer in the apparel industry.

I have great sorrow that the company has arrived in this place, said Dov Charney, in an interview with the Star on Monday.

Charney was fired from the company in 2014  something he claims was the result of a company coup, and that has been reported to have been the result in part, of sexual harassment complaints against Charney, which he denies.

This was a great company, and it emerged from a basement in Westmount, in Quebec, in front of Westmount Park, said Charney, who has founded a new wholesale business in Los Angeles.

I am the product of the Canadian culture and I brought that to this business and paid my workers well. Since my firing, 5,000 jobs have been lost, he said.

The chain now operates roughly 227 stores worldwide, including about 30 in Canada.

Charney grew American Apparel in Los Angeles, refusing to move offshore, instead offering his employees living wages and benefits.

The deal with Gildan includes manufacturing, distribution and wholesale facilities in Los Angeles

Gildan did not bid on the retail operations, and would not say whether it would continue to employ the people working at the Los Angeles facilities it has agreed to purchase.

We cant really say more specifically about the employees  theyre part of this bankruptcy process, said spokesperson Garry Bell.

Inherently, we recognize the value of the American Apparel brand comes from a strong heritage of Made in the USA, and at this time we envision maintaining that focus.

He added that while the process of evaluating the assets is underway it is not complete, and Gildan has maintained the right to withdraw its offer based on the outcome of that assessment.

Gildan Activewear, also founded in Montreal, manufactures and markets T-shirts, fleece, sport shirts, underwear, socks, hosiery and shape wear under a variety of company-owned brands and has the exclusive U.S. sock licence for the Under Armour brand.

The company recently reported sales of $715 million in the third quarter, ended Oct. 2, up six per cent compared to the same quarter last year.

We speculate that Gildan may maintain production of some higher-value-added signature products in Los Angeles, while shifting some products to facilities in Central America or Mexico, said analyst Keith Howlett of Desjardins Capital Markets, in a note to investors following the announcement.

The American Apparel brand would, in our view, accelerate Gildans growth in the fashion basics segment of the U.S. print wear market and offer good potential in selected international markets.

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By PTI: Panaji, Nov 15 (PTI) An ethnography museum in South Goa had a surprise visitor, when Congress president Sonia Gandhi walked-in without much security and prior information.

Gandhi walked into Goa Chitra, in South Goas Benaulim village, about 40-km from here, last evening at around 4 PM and spent around 40 minutes there, founder of the museum, Victor Hugo Gomes said.

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She was on a private visit to Goa.

"Yesterday morning, security staff of a starred hotel came to purchase the entry tickets and said that some special guest is going to visit. They never told that she is going to come," he told PTI today.

Gomes said she was taken around by a guide who explained her about various artifacts put up on display at the museum.

"She took interest in all the artifacts and was there for around 40 minutes.She saw the entire place and also inquired whether this is government or private initiative," he said.

Gomes said that there was no "VVIP fanfare" around her during her visit.

"That is the kind of respect a cultural centre should get," he added.

A restorer by profession, Gomes, said during recently held BRICS several heads of the State came to the Benaulim village (which hosted the event) but none visited the museum.

"I am very happy that Sonia Gandhi showed interest in such cultural centre," he said, recalling how former Union minister Kumari Selja too had paid the visit to the museum in the past without airing about her VVIP status. PTI RPS KRK SMJ SMJ

--- ENDS ---
Apple Inc. is weighing an expansion into digital glasses, a risky but potentially lucrative area of wearable computing, according to people familiar with the matter.

While still in an exploration phase, the device would connect wirelessly to iPhones, show images and other information in the wearers field of vision and may use augmented reality (AR), the people said. They asked not to be identified speaking about a secret project.

Apple has talked about its glasses project with potential suppliers, according to people familiar with those discussions. The company has ordered small quantities of near-eye displays from one supplier for testing, the people said. Apple hasnt ordered enough components so far to indicate imminent mass production, one of the people added.

Should Apple ultimately decide to proceed with the device, it would be introduced in 2018 at the earliest, another person said. The Cupertino, California-based company tests many different products and is known to pivot, pause or cancel projects without disclosing them. Apple spokesperson Trudy Muller declined to comment.

Chief executive officer Tim Cook is under pressure to deliver new products amid slowing sales of the iPhone, which accounts for two-thirds of Apples revenue. In July, he expressed enthusiasm for augmented reality after the rise of Pokemon Go, a location-based game that uses the technology. AR, as it is known, adds images and other digital information to peoples view of the real world. Virtual reality completely surrounds them with a computer-generated environment.

The glasses may be Apples first hardware product targeted directly at AR, one of the people said. Cook has beefed up AR capabilities through acquisitions. In 2013, Apple bought PrimeSense, which developed motion-sensing technology in Microsoft Corp.s Kinect gaming system. Purchases of software startups in the field, Metaio Inc. and Flyby Media Inc., followed in 2015 and 2016.

AR can be really great, and we have been and continue to invest a lot in this, Cook said in a July 26 conference call with analysts. We are high on AR for the long run. We think there are great things for customers and a great commercial opportunity.

Apple has AR patents for things like street view in mapping apps. It was also awarded patents for smart glasses that make use of full-fledged virtual reality. Apple is unlikely to leverage VR in a mass-consumer product, Cook suggested in October.

"I cant imagine everyone in here getting in an enclosed VR experience while youre sitting in here with me, but I could imagine everyone in here in an AR experience right now," he said during an onstage discussion in Utah.

Apples challenge is fitting all the technology needed into a useful pair of internet-connected glasses that are small and sleek enough for regular people to wear. Googles attempt to develop internet-connected eye wear flopped in part because its tiny battery ran out quickly. Google Glass, as it was called, also suffered a privacy backlash and poor public perception of its external design.

After that disappointment, technology companies largely turned their immediate focus to VR and away from AR. Google recently introduced a VR headset alongside its Pixel smartphone, and Facebook Inc.s Oculus VR unit has teamed up with Samsung Electronics Co. on a similar headset. Microsoft has the most public AR offering. Its HoloLens product shows holographic images in a users field of vision.

Apples effort may be more difficult because the chips, batteries and other components that will be available in a year or two may still not be small enough and powerful enough to build slim glasses capable of handling compelling AR experiences.

However, given time, technical challenges may play to Apples strengths. The company specializes in turning technology that others have struggled with into easy-to-use devices for the masses. For example, Apple simplified fingerprint technology into an unlocking mechanism for the iPhone and took touch screens mainstream with the original iPhone.

Augmented reality is going to take a while, because there are some really hard technology challenges there, but it will happen in a big way, and we will wonder when it does, how we ever lived without it, Cook said last month. Like we wonder how we lived without our phone today."

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WESTPORT, CONN.Newmans Own was having trouble getting the word out about its philanthropy.

The brand has All Profits to Charity inscribed across every label on its popular salad dressings, tomato sauces and microwaveable popcorn  a pledge that has amounted to more than $485 million (U.S.) donated since 1982.

But some wondered if consumers were simply being distracted by the movie star Paul Newmans dazzling smile.

They might see it the first time, but the second or third time they only see Pauls face, said Bruce Bruemmer, vice-president of marketing for Newmans Own. The All Profits to Charity is lost.

Well, the grin is not going anywhere. But Newmans Own is making more of a show of its record of magnanimity, rolling out a marketing initiative aimed at millennials who might not recognize the famous face of the brand and might have little to no knowledge of its altruistic story.

The new promotional effort is an unusual step for a no-frills company that has tried to avoid the spotlight, its celebrity co-founder notwithstanding. But it follows a growing pattern among large corporations to highlight their philanthropic work to appeal to a younger audience. Millennials especially have demonstrated a propensity to favour companies with a generous mission.

What were doing is not new, said Robert Forrester, chief executive of the Newmans Own Foundation and a longtime friend of Newman, who died in 2008. This is in our DNA.

Newmans Own worked with the production company Narrative Content Group to produce videos that highlight a few of the 600 charities the company works with each year. Three of the videos were released this week on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

Newmans Own is also rewording and repositioning the All Profits to Charity banner that typically frames Newmans face. The new label, which is expected to start appearing in stores in December, will be more prominently located on the products. The wording has also changed to 100 Percent to Charity, which Newmans Own feels is a slight but significant clarification to consumers.

Its definitive, Bruemmer said. Its unambiguous.

We give it all away. That makes a big difference, he added.

Newmans Owns charitable endeavour remains unchanged. It gives all proceeds to people or organizations in need. That was Newmans original concept.

Paul had two founding values: Quality would always trump the bottom line, Forrester said. And if we ever have any money, wed give it away.

The foundation, which is funded entirely through sales of Newmans Own products and does not accept donations, gave away $260.8 million before Newmans death and $224.4 million since then, or about $28 million annually since 2008.

But only a third of Newmans Own customers said they realized the company gave away its profits, according to Bruemmer. That figure was even lower among millennials, he said; only 12 per cent acknowledged they knew how much of Newmans Owns profits were donated.

Forrester said those numbers surprised him, until he took another look at the label and realized that the banner did not stand out.

A lot of people, particularly older generations, just understood this is what Newmans Own always did, Forrester said. It was this younger consumer that, frankly, we were overlooking.

This did not surprise Jason Dorsey, a researcher at the Center for Generational Kinetics, a consulting group based in Austin, Texas, that specializes in millennial marketing. He thinks young buyers were having a hard time connecting with the Newmans Own story, partly because many of them are too young to be aware of the entertainer.

This is a perfect example of a great model that is not positioned well for the generation theyre trying to influence, Dorsey said in a telephone interview.

Dorseys research shows that millennials are more likely to come back to a product if they believe it has a social conscience. Brands have certainly noticed. Joel Babbit, founder and chief executive of Narrative Content Group, which counts AT&T, Coca-Cola and Delta among its clients, said it was becoming more common for companies to highlight philanthropic works in their marketing strategy.

Still, when Newmans Own called and said it needed a campaign to highlight its goodwill, he was a bit surprised.

It was surprising that millennials werent aware of it to the degree they should be, Babbit said.

The videos are not typical promotional ads, because they do not mention anything about Newmans Own products. Instead, they highlight its partnerships, such as those with organizations that provide guide dogs to blind veterans and a school for girls in Kenya.

These partnerships are recognized throughout Newmans Owns new headquarters in Westport, a couple of miles down the road from where it resided for more than 30 years. The offices are bright and airy, filled with reclaimed wood and adorned with gifts from the charities it supports, such as a bubble gum statue of a puma made at the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, a free summer camp for children with serious illnesses (the gum was softened using hair dryers, not by chewing).

Forrester said he was encouraged when millennial buyers used three words to describe what Newmans Own meant to them: trust, authenticity and consistency.

When asked what his old friend might say about the companys new advertising initiative, Forrester guessed that Newman would react in the understated manner he normally used to convey his appreciation for a job well done: Good start. Lets go have a beer.

Thatd be it, Forrester added. That was Paul.

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CALGARYOil and gas companies are opening their wallets, emboldened by lower oilfield costs, a favourable new Alberta royalty regime and optimism that commodity prices will at least stabilize next year.

Producers that can afford to spend more are signalling a willingness to do so in budget announcements this fall. Thats despite a forecast issued last week by the Paris-based International Energy Agency of more supply and little demand growth in 2017, suggesting continued poor global oil prices.

On Monday, benchmark New York crude oil prices dropped to a three-month low of $43.32 (U.S.) per barrel. Although they recovered Tuesday, they remained well below mid-2014 levels of over $100 (U.S.) per barrel.

If youre optimistic for 2017 pricing being higher and you have a new lower cost structure, thats where youre seeing some of the capital expenditure increases going forward, said AltaCorp Capital energy analyst Thomas Matthews on Tuesday.

Now youre seeing the guys that can make money in those plays spending more money in those plays.

The list of companies spending more this year includes giant Canadian Natural Resources, which increased its 2016 capital spending budget by $700 million to do more conventional drilling in Alberta in the last months of the year.

Mid-sized companies that have announced budget increases for 2017 include Crescent Point Energy, Whitecap Resources, Enerplus, Kelt Exploration and Painted Pony Petroleum  the five budgets together add up to half a billion dollars more spending in 2017 than what they initially planned in 2016.

We have positioned Whitecap to be defensive when required with the ability to be more offensive when the environment presents itself, Whitecap CEO Grant Fagerheim said in an email.

Although we certainly have some prevailing headwinds at this time, we are quite constructive on the energy space going forward.

Matthews said while some companies with healthy balance sheets will spend more, many others remain capital constrained on the sidelines, which makes it difficult to say whether overall Canadian production and drilling will show a net increase.

The budgets announced so far are usually described as preliminary, he said, adding producers plan to spend more in the second half of the year when the commodity price picture might be clearer.

He said most of the oil producers are counting on average oil prices of between $50 (U.S.) and $55 per barrel and will likely cut back if prices remain in the $40s for too long.

In its recent spending announcement, Kelt Exploration said it was already drilling wells to take advantage of better terms under the Alberta governments new royalty framework announced in July. The new rules officially take effect Jan. 1 but the government has allowed early applications for new wells to be drilled this year.

Alberta Energy said earlier this month that it had approved applications for 129 new wells under its new royalty regime.

The Petroleum Services Association of Canada has forecast 4,175 wells to be drilled in Canada next year, up about six per cent over 2016, but 63 per cent lower than the number drilled in 2014.

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Twitter said Tuesday its beginning to roll out new tools that it says will aid users who are being harassed online by others.

"The amount of abuse, bullying, and harassment weve seen across the Internet has risen sharply over the past few years. These behaviours inhibit people from participating on Twitter, or anywhere," the company wrote in a blog post. "Abusive conduct removes the chance to see and share all perspectives around an issue, which we believe is critical to moving us all forward."

In response, the company said it is rolling out a more powerful mute feature, which had already existed, but will now also affect the notifications section of the app. This allow users to silence conversations and also select words, hashtags and key phrases that harassers can use to deluge a user's feed.

The company is also rolling out a new user reporting structure, which it hopes will aid users in quickly reporting abuse that violates the company's hateful conduct policy, which covers abuse based on race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease.

The company says it has also trained its support staff to better handle these issues.

The 140-character message-based social network has long come under fire for not doing enough to help users who are besieged by trolls, with many high-profile users and celebrities quitting when they feel overwhelmed by negative attacks.

Over the summer, Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones publicly abandoned Twitter after becoming the target of sexist and racist abuse on the service. She has since returned.

Twitter admits that the company's real-time, public nature has made it difficult to deal with abuse, and these moves represent a beefing up of existing tools, as opposed to a radical new approach.

"We dont expect these announcements to suddenly remove abusive conduct from Twitter. No single action by us would do that. Instead we commit to rapidly improving Twitter based on everything we observe and learn," said the company's post.

Some critics are already unsure that the new tools will have much effect. For one thing, the notification mute doesn't actually stop the conversation, but just hides it from the targeted user.

Aimee Morrison, associate chair, Graduate Studies at University of Waterloo, who studies social networks, applauds the notification blocking tools and the training of supports staff, but says the changes don't go far enough.

"Its good that Twitter is acknowledging that people feel abusive behaviour when its happening in their notifications . . . when that turns into a mob action, or a hate action, that can feel really invasive, she said. With the new tools, users dont have to see that happening.

"What it doesn't address is that everybody else on the Internet can continue to see those conversations, she said. So it's like your reputation is being trashed, but you don't see it, and that is not sufficient."

Morrison likes the fact that Twitter has now enabled bystander reporting.

Previously, only the victim of harassment could report issues, and along with improved education of support staff, that might lead to quicker resolution of some issues.

"The bigger issue here is that the company has seen this as a reporting problem, as opposed to a community problem," said Morrison.

Many analysts have pointed out that this is a larger problem that Twitter faces when it tries to tackle abuse: while the company wants to be a place for free and open dialogue, it has taken a fairly hands off approach to these issues. But with user growth basically stagnant, any changes that greatly effect how people use the service could mean that more people might stop using it.

The abuse issue has directly affected the company's business. Recently, there was a lot of speculation about the company being acquired, causing its share price to rise. But some suitors, Disney in particular, reportedly decided against buying Twitter, in part due to the user abuse issue, and how it could have potentially tarnished its brand.

Twitter has also come under fire this week, as there were voter suppression tactics used on the service leading up to the U.S. election, and a reported uptick in alt-right hate speech after Donald Trump became the president-elect.

With files from The Associated Press

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BLOOMBERGBank of England Governor Mark Carney urged financial services firms to not make any rash decisions on moving operations out of the U.K. as a European Central Bank official revealed many have already been in touch on the matter.

Theyre making contingency plans, those contingency plans are in various stages of readiness and degree and specificity, Carney told lawmakers at a Parliamentary hearing in London on Tuesday.

It is very early days. So planning makes sense; action, in most cases, in general, is precipitous.

Banks are bracing for the loss of their right to sell services freely around the EU from London and are set to start the process of moving jobs within weeks of the government triggering Brexit, which is scheduled to happen by the end of March next year. British Bankers Association head Anthony Browne said last month that banks hands are quivering over the relocate button.

The ECBs Single Supervisory Mechanism, which began overseeing the currency blocs largest lenders two years ago, is preparing to deal with an influx of requests from banks in the U.K., the vice-chair of the central banks supervisory board said Tuesday.

We have already many banks asking for interviews and meetings so that they can identify where are our pressure points and where our methods differ from U.K. supervisors, Sabine Lautenschlaeger said in Frankfurt. For sure we are preparing.

A spokeswoman for the ECB declined to say how many banks have requested meetings or inquired about a banking license.

Carney, a former managing director at Goldman Sachs, and former Governor of the Bank of Canada, said firms should hold off until they have a better sense of the shape of the U.K.s future trading relationship. He said a long transition period after the end of the two-year Brexit renegotiation is in everyones interests.

That really informs what businesses need to do today or six months from now, the governor said. Because, you transition, you restructure, during that restructuring window. You dont need to do it in advance, in anticipation of what agreement the government ends up striking.

If it looks like the U.K. is heading for a so-called hard Brexit then banks may have to accelerate their contingency planning, Carney said.

If the time to exit is measured in 18 months or less and the degree of exit is viewed as considerable then a number of those firms would take decisions, thats the best guidance I can give.

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Award-winning stage and screen actress Janet Wright, the frank-talking and resilient comedy star best known for her portrayal of the long-suffering matriarch on Corner Gas, died Monday in Vancouver at the age of 71.

No cause of death was released. Her death was confirmed by CTV, which aired the long-running sitcom.

The gravelly-voiced performer starred as Emma Leroy on the beloved hit Canadian series, which ended its six-season run in 2009 and returned with a big-screen adaptation in 2014.

Wrights character was the wife of Oscar Leroy, played by Eric Peterson, and mother to the character played by series creator Brent Butt.

Butt called her strong and true and incredibly talented, noting her infectious humour, professionalism and directness made the cast enjoy the work more.

You never had to say, I wonder what Janets thinking. You just never had to think that, and we all loved her for it. She was one of the truest people Ive ever met, said Butt.

There was part of that attitude that reminded me of my mom in real life. If she didnt like something she would let you know, like, This is stupid.

Peterson, who had known Wright for 50 years, said she was an incredibly, wonderfully complex woman of tremendous strength and intelligence and a wonderful actress.

She knew a lot about the art of acting and the art of theatre as a director, Peterson said.

The wonderful thing about her as an actress  especially in something like Corner Gas  she brought so much to that part as only Janet could. Even the simplest line, she thoroughly thought it through. She seemed to be able to give a straightforward line that was redolent with meaning. Often my character was the brunt of that redolent meaning too.

Im just very sad. Were the same age. Ones reminded how short life is.

Other Corner Gas cast members took to social media to express their condolences.

Actor Fred Ewanuick, who played Hank Yarbo, posted on his Twitter account: We lost a member of our family. It hurts. I love you Janet.

And Tara Spencer-Nairn, who played Dog River police department Const. Karen Pelly, tweeted: Today we lost a warrior woman with a big beautiful heart and soul. My heart has shattered in pieces. I love you Janet.

Born in England on March 8, 1945, Wright and her family relocated to Canada and eventually settled in Saskatoon.

Her family discovered a passion for local theatre and Wright joined her sister Susan as co-founder of Saskatoons Persephone Theatre in 1974.

While she eventually moved away from Saskatoon to pursue other acting roles, Wright never forgot her theatre roots, said Del Surjik, Persephones artistic director.

In 2014, she returned to direct its season opener Hedda Gabbler.

Wright endured two horrific personal tragedies that gave her a strong resolve throughout her career, said her colleagues.

Her sister Susan, along with her parents Jack and Ruth, died in a house fire in 1991 in Stratford, Ont.

And 13 years later, Wrights daughter, Rachel Davis, was killed outside of a nightclub in Vancouvers Gastown area. Davis, 23, was leaving the club at the time and intervened to protect a teen boy from being assaulted by a group of men.

She was one of those people that, for whatever reason, she took a beating in a number of ways, said Butt. The type of beating that would crush a lot of people and she found a way to (keep going).

It was like it was OK, to be crushed, but being crushed doesnt mean you have to stop, being crushed doesnt mean youre beaten. She just pushed through.

Surjik remembered Wright for her ability to be upfront and outspoken with her friends and colleagues.

You cant help but laugh with her while she does it, he said.

Shed do it with a smile and a wink. (And) made every bit of it an exercise in comic delivery.

Agent Alicia Jeffery said Wright found inspiration in the theatre, acting and directing whenever she had the chance. The actress also dedicated her time to mentoring younger actors and trying to connect them with the right people to get their careers in motion.

If she didnt feel it from her gut, she wouldnt do it, said Jeffery. Thats why her parts were infused with that kind of devastating honesty.

Wright performed at virtually every major theatre company in Canada.

She had been affiliated with the Vancouver Arts Club Theater since the early 1970s, and also directed for many major theatre companies across Canada, including productions at Ontarios Stratford Festival. She was a member of the company for seven seasons and made her debut alongside her sisters in the 1991 production of Les Belles Soeurs.

Janet was an artist on an uncompromising search for the truth in all its unvarnished beauty, said Stratford Festival artistic director Antoni Cimolino, who directed Wright as Ma Joad in the 2011 production of The Grapes of Wrath.

She was a profoundly talented actress, director and champion for the importance of the arts. I will never forget her passion and forever be inspired by her commitment to our work.

She won the best actress Genie Award in 1992 for Bordertown Cafe, and won the best supporting actress in a dramatic program or miniseries award in 2003 for Betrayed.

Her film credits include The Perfect Storm, opposite George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg, and TV appearances on series Dark Angel, The King of Kensington and The Beachcombers.

Butt said Wrights health had been frail in recent years, noting her mobility was limited when they shot the Corner Gas film.

We had her on a scooter, you see it in the movie, her character, we wrote it in that shes riding a scooter, he said. But she was there every day and nailed her lines and did an amazing job, despite everything.

Every one of us in the cast  every one of us in the cast  you hear it a lot but we all truly loved her.

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A Liberal MP is apologizing for calling himself an engineer during last years federal election campaign despite not being licensed as one at the time.

Majid Jowhari, MP for Richmond Hill, These words were unscripted, were incorrect, and on reflection were potentially misleading, he stated. I did not intend to mislead anyone. I regret these statements and sincerely apologize for my actions.

Jowhari holds a Bachelor of Technology degree in industrial engineering from Ryerson University. He was licensed as a professional engineer from April 1995 to December 1999, according to Professional Engineers Ontario, the provincial regulatory body.

Jowhari said in his apology that his licence was cancelled in 1999 for non-payment.

When I gave up my licence as a professional engineer, I also gave up the privilege of calling myself an engineer and a professional engineer,  Jowhari stated.

The Professional Engineers Act restricts those who are not licensed engineers from using those terms to describe themselves.

Professional Engineers Ontario registrar Gerard McDonald said the regulatory body contacted Jowhari in February 2015 after members of the Richmond Hill riding noticed he had been calling himself an engineer prior to the federal election campaign. Jowhari said there had been reference to him being an engineer in one of his pamphlets.

We had advised him that he should not be holding himself out as a professional engineer or an engineer because he was no longer a member of the association, McDonald said. We usually start off by warning individuals when theyve done something wrong and in most cases, people will take corrective action. Unfortunately, this persisted and thats why we got to this case.

After the regulatory body was again notified by a person living in the riding that Jowhari had touted himself as an engineer during the candidates forum, it charged him under the Professional Engineers Act.

People who are practicing engineering, who are holding themselves out as engineers and selling their services to the public, the public have a right to know whether or not indeed they are licensed, McDonald said. You can say Im educated as an engineer, but you cannot say I am an engineer.

Jowhari went on to defeat Tory Michael Parsa in the October 2015 election, drawing 46.9 per cent of the vote to Parsas 43.3.

Professional Engineers Ontario withdrew the charges after Jowhari agreed at a pre-hearing conference last month to publicly apologize and donate to the Ontario Professional Engineers Foundation for Education. Jowhari has donated $5,000, according to his apology, as a show of respect and support for engineering in Ontario and Canada.

This experience has taught me a valuable lesson about the need for precision at all times when addressing my engineering education and credentials, Jowhari stated.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus trip to Cuba brings back memories of when his father visited the Caribbean island back in January 1976.

Back then, the Cold War was still underway and the elder Trudeau was criticized for giving credibility to a Communist regime that had the support of Moscow.

This time around, its hard to imagine the situation will be that politically charged.

For starters, this visit is for just 24 hours, a third of his fathers visit.

Also, American President Barack Obama has already loosened long-standing economic sanctions against Cuba and restored diplomatic relations.

Here are five things about Pierre Trudeaus visit to Cuba in January 1976:

1. A diplomatic first

That trip was truly historic.

It made Pierre Elliott Trudeau the first Western leader to make a visit to Fidel Castros Cuba.

2. Not just the sun was warm

The elder Trudeau was cheered by more than 250,000 people as he stood alongside Castro in an open car that cruised through Havana.

The crowds were cheering the political gesture, not the car, which was described by The Star as a bulky Russian-built copy of an old Cadillac.

The warmth of the welcome was an indication that Premier Fidel Castro has pulled out all the stops to turn Trudeaus visit into a diplomatic triumph for Cuba, The Stars Bruce Garvey wrote.

That warm spirit extended to when they later gave their speeches.

Long live Prime Minister Fidel Castro! Trudeau shouted.

Castro gushed back in his public address: We will never forget that in the most difficult years of the revolution, when almost every single country and state joined the blockade, only two countries in this hemisphere maintained relations with us Mexico and Canada.

3. Tight security

Castro wore a handgun throughout the visit, as was his custom.

Trudeau wore an ascot, as was his custom.

At one point, Canadian aides clashed with Cuban security trying to catch up with fast-moving Trudeau.

Later, the Cubans hastily explained they feared a CIA-attempt on Trudeaus life to embarrass Cuba. Castro is obsessed with security since United States Senate hearings revealed the CIA had planned to assassinate him, The Star reported.

4. Trudeau criticized and was criticized

Trudeau questioned Castro for Cubas intervention in the Angolan civil war, saying it violated the countrys stated policy on non-intervention.

Meanwhile, Trudeau came under fire from critics, who thought his visit was anti-American.

Trudeau wasnt flustered by the bluster.

I have visited other countries before which werent particularly American lovers and this didnt affect our policy, Trudeau told reporters.

He said that during his trip he had gone out of his way to stress that there were no anti-American overtones on Canadas part.

5. Michel Trudeau melted the leaders heart

Trudeau was accompanied on the trip by his wife Margaret and three-month old, Michel, their youngest son.

Castro gushed over the baby, cooing and holding him warmly.

When Michel died in an avalanche in 1998, Castro made the trip to Montreal for his funeral. There he hugged a tearful Justin Trudeau, then 27.

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This guy Trudeau, he really has a feel for ordinary people. There he was at the Ritz-Carlton on Monday, flanked by three ministers, meeting with the presidents of two banks, senior executives at a half-dozen others and CEOs from every one of the countrys largest pension funds.

That was the warm-up. After lunch he was around the corner at the Shangri-La, a guest of Larry Fink from New Yorks humongous BlackRock investment firm, pitching Canada as an investment destination to some of the deepest pockets on the planet. This time fully nine of his cabinet ministers were on hand. There must have been tumbleweed blowing through the government side of the House of Commons during question period in Ottawa.

Around the table were all your favourite emissaries from global capital. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, with $360 billion (U.S.) in assets. Norways Norges Bank, which may be the worlds largest sovereign wealth fund, though its hard to tell and the Norwegians hope to keep it that way. The Olayan Group from Saudi Arabia, with assets somewhere north of $100 billion. Singapores Temasek Holdings, closer to $200 billion. The Qatar Investment Authority. The Lansforsakringar, which is Swedish for If you have to ask, you cant afford it.

Somebody once asked the gangster Willie Sutton why he robbed banks. He replied, Because thats where the money is. A comparable philosophy has had Trudeaus staff preparing these meetings for months.

Trudeau has made few changes to the tax structure he inherited from Stephen Harper, which was delivering the lowest government revenue as a share of GDP since John Diefenbaker was prime minister. But he has made substantial changes to Ottawas spending habits  hes doing more of it  and he would like to spend a lot more still. The result is deficits, but they will be much larger if Trudeau cant find something to plug the gap between Diefenbaker revenues and Trudeau ambition. The hope is that these men and women who sit atop the worlds largest pension funds and investment portfolios will come to view Canada as a good place to store their plugs.

Details of the days events are sketchy. Except for a news conference from the prime minister after the second meeting, the whole day happened behind closed doors and surrounded by heavy security. I sent out emails to several participants in the morning meetings and collected a string of polite No comments. A member of Trudeaus communications staff introduced me to a nice PR person from BlackRock, whose first words to me were I may disappoint you. Easy to find out, I said. Can I talk to Mark Wiseman, the former CPP Investment Board president whos now running investments for BlackRock? Were not doing interviews today, the nice person from BlackRock said. Hey, youre right, that is disappointing.

Might as well kill some time. Outside the Shangri-La on University Ave., theres a steel sculpture by Chinese artist Zhang Huan called Rising. Next to it Zhang has placed an artists statement, written in the voice of the sculpture itself. I believe this heaven is Shangri-La, sincerity creates good aura, I believe I will be here for a long time. Inside, Trudeau was making more or less the same pitch to the assembled zillionaires.

Brexit and the rise of populist parties in Europe  and the election of the Republican candidate last Tuesday  make for a lot of instability, Trudeau told reporters, summing up his pitch to investors. Meanwhile in Canada, Trudeau has just signed a big trade deal with Europe, and citizens actually understand that diversity is strength, and stability was a Canadian asset before he came along and will remain so after hes gone. Our offer is really based on long-term stability, he said, much more than four years.

The novelty of it all, and the long trains of zeros and commas following all these visitors around, has generated a very large amount of skepticism among the relatively few Canadians whove been following this project so far. How will the investors generate returns? Toll roads? Jacked-up hydro rates? What kind of bargain is it if Canadians pay for all this fancy new stuff through their daily out-of-pocket expenses, rather than through their taxes?

Nearby, at Nathan Phillips Square, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union was staging a protest of the whole business. When people find out how much of their money private contractors are skimming off the top, they dont want anything to do with it, Smokey Thomas, the OPSEU president, said in a news release.

Guess it depends which people you ask. Hugh OReilly, the CEO of OPSEUs pension fund, was in the Ritz meeting Trudeau. This business of luring billions from Qatar and Norway to pay for a shiny new Canada will be Trudeaus triumph or his downfall, or maybe a bit of both. But while we wait to find out which, it is fascinating to watch.

Paul Wells is a national affairs writer. His column usually appears Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

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Correction  Oct. 29: 2018: A previous version of this article stated that according to police charges filed in court, Mike Bullard was allegedly spotted at the home of Cynthia Mulligan on Oct. 12 and Oct 16, 2016, despite a court order to stay away. In fact, while the charges filed against Bullard at that time refer to his failing to comply with conditions to abstain from communicating with Mulligan or go within 100 metres of her home, the charges do not state that he was at her home and those allegations were not raised in any subsequent court proceedings. The criminal harassment charge against Bullard was dismissed at the preliminary inquiry on June 1, 2018; and on June 8, 2018, Bullard pleaded guilty to one count of making harassing phone calls. He also pleaded guilty to two breaches of a court order - one of which required him to have no contact, direct or indirect, with Mulligan. As was subsequently reported in the Star, Bullard was discharged from court with a clean criminal record and six months of probation.

Popular Toronto radio host Mike Bullard has been charged with criminal harassment in connection with the alleged stalking of a television reporter he had dated.

The five charges  criminal harassment, obstruction of justice and breaching conditions to stay away from the woman  were laid in three batches between September and November. The first set of charges led to Bullard losing his job at Bell Media. The former standup comedian and television talk show personality has been host of Beyond the Mic With Mike Bullard on Newstalk 1010 since 2010.

In an interview Monday, Bullard said the charges stem from a bad breakup and it is a very personal thing between me and her. Bullard is due in court Wednesday to receive additional disclosure from the Crown attorney assigned to the case.

I phoned her twice after we broke up, said Bullard, 59, during the interview. Told by the Star that the charges relate to allegations of hundreds of text messages and calls of a harassing nature and visiting her home in violation of a court order, Bullard said. OK, maybe I called her three or four times.

Arthur Stern, Bullards lawyer, said his client is facing a very private, personal matter and is dealing with serious personal issues. Stern said Bullard is receiving counselling . He asked the press to show his client the type of sensitivity he needs to deal with his personal issues, which he is doing in the best interests of everyone.

The target of the alleged harassment was City TV journalist Cynthia Mulligan. Mulligan, a Gemini-nominated local news reporter, is travelling on assignment overseas and could not be reached for comment. In 2010 she spoke prominently on television and in a widely read blog, Kicking Cancer, about her battle with breast cancer.

Bullard and Mulligan dated for about seven months beginning in 2015 and Mulligan broke off the relationship in June. Over the summer, Bullard allegedly texted and called Mulligan and refused to stop. According to the first charge laid against Bullard, Mulligan feared for her personal safety as a result of Bullards actions.

In late summer, Mulligan made a complaint to Toronto police. Detectives from 55 Division contacted Bullard and asked him to stop. When the behaviour allegedly continued, police laid the first set of charges on Sept. 21.

Shortly after that, Bell Media removed Bullard from his job on Newstalk 1010. A popular host, occasionally resorting to vulgar comments on social media, Bullard had a loyal fan following who have taken to Twitter wondering why he left so abruptly.

Where is Mike Bullard? one person tweeted. Miss him. He is the best. Bring him back pls.

Another tweeted, Why will NewsTalk 1010 not say what happened to Mike Bullard?? As a fan, I should at least know why he is not (sic) longer on at noon!

According to the police charges filed in court, Bullards pattern of harassment continued. Police again warned him to keep his distance from Mulligan and laid a second set of charges on Oct. 26.

Police laid a third charge against Bullard on Nov. 7, alleging obstruction of justice, stating that he contacted Mulligan in October indirectly in an attempt to have the complaint withdrawn.

A spokesperson for Newstalk 1010 and Bell Media would not say if Bullard was fired or resigned. I can confirm Mike departed 1010 on Oct. 5, said Scott Henderson. Mikes show had been part of the Newstalk 1010 lineup since 2010, when the station was owned by Astral Media. Bell Media acquired Astral and its media properties including Newstalk 1010 in July 2014.

Prior to being on 1010, Bullard was the host of two television talk shows, Open Mike with Mike Bullard on CTV and The Mike Bullard Show on Global.

In 1999, the Stars Rita Zekas reported on his meteoric rise (TV Guides national poll ranked him as Canadas favourite talk show host), noting that he had quit university to work at Bell Telephone, then joined the Peel Region police force, but quit because they wouldnt allow him to moonlight in comedy clubs. He returned to Bell and worked his way up to associate director of corporate investigation before taking on comedy full-time.

In his interview with the Star on Monday, Bullard said the charges, and losing his job, have hit him hard and added: I have nothing.

Im going through hell right now. Its something I didnt do, Bullard said.

Sources say there have been discussions about resolving the case with a peace bond, including conditions that Bullard stay away from Mulligan. If a peace bond were agreed to, there would be no trial and no finding of guilt.

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By PTI: Colombo, Nov 15 (PTI) Sri Lankan government today said it has launched a probe into the alleged involvement of army with a terror gang that has unleashed violence in Tamil-dominated Jaffna, the epicentre of the civil war which ended in 2009.

Deputy Defence Minister Ruwan Wijewardene told Parliament that a former army man was among those arrested in connection with the latest wave of violence to hit Jaffna.

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"Among those arrested for involvement with this group was an ex-army man. He had left the army and worked with the group. It may be some ex-military men are involved. We are investigating," Wijewardena said.

He was replying to a question by Opposition JVP in the light of a government spokesman Rajith Senaratnes statement that the gang, known as Aava group, was a creation of former defence ministry chief Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

The Opposition has alleged that Gotabhaya created the group with the involvement of elements from the army in the northern district.

Law and Order Minister Sagala Ratnayaka said 38 of the 62 identified members of the group were now in custody. Thirty two of them are facing judicial action and the group is not a terrorist outfit, he said.

"They have money and roam around in modern motorcycles," Ratnayake said, adding that they wield swords.

He claimed the group got their first sword from a person who arrived from India and later swords were made locally.

Terrified Jaffna residents, who have previously suffered harassment from the Sinhalese-dominated military during and after the 30-year separatist war, have complained of intimidation by the group.

Last month, two Tamil students were shot dead by police and protests by the residents have raised tensions in the region.

The new government of President Maithripala Sirisena came to power on promise of reconciliation after the end of the war and has tried to restrict the involvement of military in day-to-day life of the Tamil-dominated region. But some allege that government troops still maintain large presence in the region. PTI CORR ABH AKJ AMS

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Toronto city staff and police are investigating after signs targeting white people sick of being blamed for all the worlds problems and urging them to join the alt-right were spotted in the city on Monday.

Kevin Kerr said his family caregiver was walking his children to school through Stan Wadlow Park in East York on Monday morning when they came across the poster.

Hey, white person, the sign read. Tired of political correctness? Wondering why only white countries have to become multicultural? Figured out that diversity only means less white people?

The poster lists websites associated with the alt-right, a movement associated with promotion of white identity and white supremacy.

I was absolutely floored, Kerr said. He tweeted photo of the poster, saying he was disgusted by racists empowered by (Donald Trump).

The signs were quickly denounced on social media by many, while others questioned whether the poster was racist, in some cases citing free speech.

Ward 31 councilor Janet Davis was notified of the sign and said city staff would be removing the posters.

This hate is unacceptable in our city, Davis tweeted. Staff are removing the posters immediately and investigating who is responsible.

Nate Erskine-Smith, the member of parliament for Beaches-East York, also condemned the sign.

We are better than this. Ignorant, unacceptable and #NotMyCanada, he tweeted.

Toronto Police spokesperson Victor Kwong said police have received many reports about the signs and have taken them down.

This report will be furthered to see whether or not it is a crime or not, Kwong said. Were looking into it.

Similar signs were spotted in different areas across the city. One poster listing groups associated with the alt-right movement was spotted at 1 Yonge St. Another poster showing a photo of a young boy reaching for his fathers hand as he stands in line in a military uniform with the caption they didnt fight and die for you to hand the west away was seen in Bennington Heights, according to a Facebook post.

Marilyn Mayo, a research fellow at the Anti-Defamation Leagues Center on Extremism, described the alt-right movement as a loose network of people who promote white identity, and reject mainstream conservatism in favour of a politics that embraces either implicit or explicit racism or white supremacy. She is not surprised it has appeared in Canada.

People feel emboldened right now to promote their white supremacist view. They feel that the movement has been embraced and is getting into the mainstream, Mayo said.

They were more of a fringe movement, but theyve received a lot of attention this year because of their support of Donald Trump.

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The York Region school board has work to do when it comes to dealing with complaints of racism and Islamophobia, as well as issues of transparency around trustee travel, Education Minister Mitzie Hunter said after taking the rare step of meeting with top officials there.

Hunter told the Star her meeting last Thursday with the director and chair focused on some of the matters that were raised by concerned parents and community members and even board staff and elected officials.

For me, its very important  I take very seriously any student that does not feel safe in our schools for any reason. Id heard those concerns, and I wanted to ensure that the board was carrying out appropriate responses.

She called the meeting an initial conversation that we had around the issues; Im satisfied that we have a common understanding that more work needs to be done when it comes to transparency, when it comes to ensuring that equity and inclusion are an important part of what the York Region District School Board does.

Hunter met with director of education J. Philip Parappally and chair Anna DeBartolo after numerous Star stories over the past year detailed how the board handled incidents of racism as well as questionable Facebook postings about Muslims by a Markham elementary school principal.

While we wont go into details, our board always welcomes the opportunity to have a conversation with the minister, board spokesperson Licinio Miguelo said via email Monday.

The principal, Ghada Sadaka, issued a public apology the same day Hunter met with board officials. Posted on the directors page, Sadaka acknowledged sharing inappropriate posts on social media that were discriminatory and promised to create an open and inclusive school community.

Parappally wrote that the board should use the incident as an opportunity to learn and grow.

The Star has also reported on overseas trips taken by trustees with few details provided to the board. Two trustees travelled to Finland on the taxpayers dime for a second and even a third time, with no clear purpose. Then, Parappally and DeBartolo jetted off to Holland, a trip board insiders say was kept under wraps.

A recent letter signed by 141 community members as well as the Ontario Federation of Labour urged Hunter to probe whats going on at the board, once considered the model board in the province.

The letter also mentions what a number of York staffers have told the Star, about a growing culture of fear within the board ranks.

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Before the end of Honest Eds, or the Annex as we know it: a party.

Torontos most famous department store will soon be host to Toronto For Everyone, a three-day community festival running Feb. 23-26, 2017.

Honest Eds is one of our most inclusive spaces in the city; a business that led with community-first and we resonate with that, said Adil Dhalla, executive producer of TO4E.

The Centre for Social Innovation (CSI), a non-profit, co-working space that is throwing the party, jumped on the chance to create a once in a lifetime opportunity for city-building, said Dhalla.

Honoring the past, creating free and accessible community space for the present and marking the beginning of what will be a hard transition for the Annex, TO4E hopes to cast a vision forward for a city that would make inclusivity its greatest asset and export.

Artists in every discipline are invited to participate by proposing projects that will animate the prized, 1.8-hectare location on Bloor and Bathurst Sts., on the market at a reported $100 million.

Workshops, panel discussions, presentations, cocktails and dancing will take place over the three days of TO4E. A week-long residency prior to the big bash will see artists of every stripe re-imagining the famous bargain emporium from the inside out.

The public experience will build the city we want within the Honest Eds space, explained Dhalla. The CSI has taken a sweeping approach to designing the experience, too, by appointing an inclusivity committee to ensure that no one is left out.

We want to walk our talk, said Dhalla. This committee is just one way to ensure that we foster a deep sense of belonging and say (all Torontonians) are a part of this.

Besides, TO4E is something that Ed himself would have championed.

In many ways, his boisterous business style defines an attitude of entrepreneurship and development in Toronto that is slipping away.

None of us own anything, Ed famously said. Were only caretakers. I have two million bosses who keep me straight. If I dont satisfy the people of Toronto, Im in trouble.

While the building may go, its spirit can carry on in the future of Toronto, Dhalla thinks. Its our moment to show the world that this is what makes us uniquely great and what were willing to share . . . . Its such a unique moment for the city: We dont lose iconic landmarks that often.

Honest Eds was sold to Vancouver-based Westbank Properties, Canadas leading luxury residential and mixed-use real estate development company, in 2013. They plan to reimagine Mirvish Village with a market, 1,100 rental apartments and public park.

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Its more than just a rebrand.

One of the largest charities in this country, Heart & Stroke is dropping the Foundation of Canada from their name, launching a new website, transforming their logo and also revamping their research, donation and core focus strategies  all in the name of healthy living and an effort to become more personal to Canadians.

The reinvention of the Heart & Stroke has taken place with hopes that it will re-ignite the passion for what we do in Canadians, so they get behind and support us so we can do this very important work, said Diego Marchese, interim CEO and VP of Heart & Stroke, who has been with the organization for 23 of its 60 years.

While the foundation has made gains over the past decade  including substantive work against the tobacco industry and research like the Escape Trial, which found a way to reduce stroke-related deaths by 50 per cent  there is still a prevailing attitude that cardiac arrest and stroke is a disease of white males and this is not the case, said Marchese.

This is about all Canadians. Our emergent priorities focus on children at a very early age  on women  who are still not diagnosed and treated in the same way as men, which is unacceptable  and on supporting our indigenous populations, whose rates of heart disease are much higher than the general population.

Another reason for the change is that the days of Canadians just handing over their money for research is over, he added. Donors today have different expectations on how charities report on their work and prove its impact.

Plus, its a competitive landscape: there are 86,000 registered in the country for donors to choose from, according to Imagine Canada, an organization that supports charities and non-profit.

Charities need to adapt to the changes taking place in society if they want to remain relevant, agreed Imagine Canada CEO Bruce McDonald.

The demographic that is moving into retirement has traditionally been the backbone of volunteering and giving, he said. Add to this an influx of new immigrants, growing urbanization and new technologies, and a macro trend emerges across the country: services that need to change.

Making an impact with younger donor demographics, cultivating new relationships with targeted groups and organizational alliances  like the recent merging of Canadian Breast Cancer with the Canadian Cancer Society  are the transformations McDonald says hes seeing across the sector.

But no matter how a charity changes to roll with the times, McDonald said, What were learning is that for Canadian charities to maintain the privileged place of trust they have in society is to practice transparency around all parts of their organization and what impact those programs have in their communities.

Canadians usually only have one question: How much do you spend on administration, overhead and fundraising?

Demonstrating impact is something that Dr. Krishan Mehta, the President of the Association of Fundraising Professionals of the greater Toronto chapter, says preoccupies contemporary Canadian charities today.

People dont just write cheques in good faith and trust that charities will use that money properly, he said. Its becoming about communicating (with donors) over time. Not just Thanks for your donation, but In the next few months wed like to tell you what we did with that money.

The other radical new way that organizations like Heart & Stroke are moving forward in fund-finding is through Social Impact Bonds  a pay-for-success model where investors put up the money for programming up front and the Public Health Agency of Canada will pay them back if it works.

Funding and engaging with research work is more than a brand refresh  it can be revolutionary, said Marchese.

What is happening in these labs are medical breakthroughs.

Heart, stroke and Canadian charity by the numbers:

One Canadian will die from heart disease or stroke every 7 minutes.

72%  Percentage of Canadians who said they were more likely to trust charities that have achieved third-party accreditation, according to a new survey from Imagine Canada.

58%  Percentage of Canadians who investigate how a charity is operated before getting involved.

50%  Percentage of Canadians who think charities are well-managed.

70%  Percentage of Canadians who made a charitable donation in the past year.

$5 Billion  Estimated amount of donations Canadians are expected to give to charity this holiday season.

2M  Number of Canadians who are employed in the charitable and non-profit sector.

13M  Number of Canadians who volunteer in the charitable and non-profit sector.

With files from Laurie Monsebraaten and Imagine Canada.

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Two men from Quebec are facing a slew of charges in Toronto following a human trafficking investigation.

The incident, which involved a 25-year-old woman, also from Quebec, began in Montreal, but the alleged traffickers also took her to Ottawa and then Toronto.

While in Montreal, police say the woman met 24-year-old Sifeddine Bilachi through another man, 25-year-old Nacim Hamouni.

Bilachi promised to take care of her, and offered her a better life together, police said.

Both Bilachi and Hamouni allegedly convinced the woman to work in the sex trade and posted her services online.

Police say the woman worked almost every night, and turned over all the money to the men, who demanded she give them her earnings.

The men used deception and false promises to exercise control over the womans actions and forced her to comply with their demands with threats of assault, Toronto police said in a release.

On Nov. 6, the woman refused to work as an escort.

Bilachi allegedly stole her cell phone, so she was not able to get in touch with her family. Police say he then assaulted and choked her.

Hospital staff reported her injuries to police.

Both men were stopped later that day near Long Sault, Ont., by the Ontario Provincial Police, while fleeing to Quebec.

The men are facing a combined total of 15 charges for offences including trafficking in person by recruiting, advertising another persons sexual services, assault, and material benefit from sexual services.

Const. Victor Kwong said Toronto police are investigating the incident because it was reported in the city, and are not aware of any other charges the men may be facing outside of Toronto.

The men appeared in court on Nov. 8.

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WASHINGTONFormer New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani emerged as the favourite to serve as secretary of state in Donald Trumps incoming administration, a senior Trump official said as the president-elect narrowed down his Cabinet picks.

The official said there was no real competition for the job and that it was Giulianis if he wanted it. The official was not authorized to speak on the record and requested anonymity.

Giuliani, a top Trump adviser, said Monday night at a Washington event sponsored by the Wall Street Journal that he wont be attorney general in Trumps administration  a job for which the former federal prosecutor had been seen as a top contender even before Trumps election.

Giuliani said he thought John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, would be a very good choice for secretary of state. But asked if there was anyone better, he replied with a mischievous smile: Maybe me, I dont know.

Trump was also considering Monday whether to inject new diversity into the GOP by recommending a woman to lead the Republican Party and an openly gay man to represent the United States at the United Nations.

The moves, among dozens under consideration from his transition team, follow an intense and extended backlash from Trumps decision on Sunday to appoint Steve Bannon, a man celebrated by the white nationalist movement, to serve as his chief strategist and senior adviser.

After winning the presidency but losing the popular vote, President-elect Trump must try to bring Americans together  not continue to fan the flames of division and bigotry, said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. She called Bannons appointment an alarming signal that Trump remains committed to the hateful and divisive vision that defined his campaign.

His inauguration just 66 days away, however, Trump focused on building his team and speaking to foreign leaders. He remained sequestered in Trump Tower in New York.

Inexperienced on the international stage, the Republican president-elect spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone. His transition office said in a readout that he is very much looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the people of Russia. Trump has spoken in recent days with the leaders of China, Mexico, South Korea and Canada.

At the same time, Trump was considering tapping Richard Grenell as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He would be the first openly gay person to fill a Cabinet-level foreign policy post. Grenell, known in part for aggressive criticism of rivals on Twitter, previously served as U.S. spokesman at the UN under President George W. Bush.

Trump was also weighing whether to select Michigan GOP chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel, a niece of chief Trump critic and 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney. She would be the second woman ever to lead the Republican National Committee  and the first in four decades.

Ill be interested in whatever Mr. Trump wants, McDaniel told The Associated Press on Monday, adding that she was planning to seek the Michigan GOP chairmanship again.

Appointing McDaniel to run the GOPs political arm could be an effort to help the party heal the anger after a campaign in which Trump demeaned women. The appointment of Grenell, who has openly supported same-sex marriage, could begin to ease concerns by the gay community about Vice-President-elect Mike Pences opposition to same-sex marriage during his time as Indiana governor.

The personnel moves under consideration were confirmed by people with direct knowledge of Trumps thinking who were not authorized to publicly disclose private discussions. They stressed that the decisions were not final.

Internal deliberations about staffing come a day after Trump made overtures to warring Republican circles by appointing Bannon and RNC Chairman Reince Priebus as his White House chief of staff.

The former media executive led a website that appealed to the so-called alt-right  a movement often associated with efforts on the far right to preserve white identity, oppose multiculturalism and defend Western values.

Priebus on Monday defended the media mogul, saying the two made an effective pair as they steered Trump past Democrat Hillary Clinton and toward the presidency. He sought to distance Bannon from the incendiary headlines on his website, saying they were written by unspecified others.

Together, weve been able to manage a lot of the decision making in regard to the campaign, Priebus told NBCs Today. Its worked very, very well.

President Barack Obama avoided any direct criticism of Trumps personnel moves during an afternoon news conference, suggesting that the new president deserves room to staff up.

Its important for us to let him make his decisions, Obama said. The American people will judge over the course of the next couple of years whether they like what they see.

The outgoing president encouraged Trump, however, to embrace a unifying tone.

Its really important to try to send some signals of unity and to reach out to minority groups or women or others that were concerned about the tenor of the campaign, Obama said. And I think thats something he will  he will want to do.

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MOSUL, IRAQExplosions and gunfire rattled parts of eastern Mosul and Daesh militants fired mortars from apartment windows Tuesday as Iraqi special forces waged fierce urban combat in the countrys second-largest city.

Hundreds of civilians filled the streets clamouring for food and cigarettes in recently retaken neighbourhoods where supplies were running low. Some of the troops handed over their own rations.

Iraqi forces say they have largely cleared the neighbourhoods of Zahra and Qadisiya in eastern Mosul after pushing into the area Nov. 4. The operation to retake the militant-held city began Oct. 17 and troops made swift progress before their advances slowed once they pushed into more densely populated areas.

Iraqi forces moving in from the south have maintained slow progress and remain more than 20 kilometres from central Mosul.

This morning, we have like 1,000 people from the civilians, who escape from this area to safer area, said Ali Tahseen, a special forces solider in eastern Mosul.

Mosul has been under the tight control of the extremists for more than two years and is still home to some one million civilians. Aid groups have warned of a humanitarian crisis if hundreds of thousands are forced from their homes during the military operation.

This is a problem for us because the food we have is not enough for them and were waiting for more food to be sent from the government, said Maj. Salam al-Obeidi. Now the Iraqi soldier is giving his food to the civilians.

Residents gathered on the streets to exchange news. A long line grew outside a shop selling cigarettes, where people argued and bought dozens of packs each now that the extremists and their smoking bans were gone.

Before, it was prohibited, cigarettes are prohibited, said one resident, Hani Hamed, laughing happily. Now we are free to smoke, so they are buying lots of cigarettes.

Near the northeastern Zahra district, explosions and gunfire erupted as the special forces advanced. Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, militants fired mortar rounds on the troops from apartment windows in the al-Samah neighbourhood, wounding at least seven civilians when the shells landed in the streets below.

The army set up a field clinic with seven beds in a dust-swept open area to treat wounded troops and civilians. Teaming up with foreign volunteers, Iraqi medics administered first aid before sending the wounded to the hospital.

There was heavy shooting near us. ISIS were there, said Musenna Abdulla, who fled Mosul on foot. They are not afraid of God, they destroyed us. And the last thing they did is they came to our house and set up a mortar position near our house and started shooting. We told them that there are civilians, but they didnt care.

Warplanes from the U.S.-led coalition flew at low altitude while columns of smoke rose over the city.

In Qadisiya, a district that the special forces repeatedly have declared to be cleared, Daesh fighters launched a fierce counterattack Monday, said Maj. Gen. Sami al-Aridi. Two dozen men in suicide vests charged the front lines in a three-hour battle that killed 20 militants and severely wounded a special forces soldier.

The Iraqi armed forces do not release casualty figures, but field medics have noted dozens of killed and wounded since the battle for Mosul began.

At a news conference, Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Saad Maan said the military has driven Daesh out from over a third of the eastern half of the city, which is divided by the Tigris River.

More than a third of this side has been liberated, Maan told reporters at the Qayara airbase, a main port of entry south of the city for forces. Iraqi forces, however, appear to have a fragile hold on much of that territory and have repeatedly suffered heavy casualties from heavy Daesh counterattacks.

Col. John Dorrian, a spokesman for the U.S.-led forces supporting the operation, said at the same news conference that airstrikes had destroyed 59 suicide car bombs and over 80 tunnels.

We will continue to strike the enemy for as long as it takes for the Iraqi flag to be raised over Mosul and every other corner of this country, he said, adding that the coalition had conducted over 4,000 strikes with warplanes and artillery since the campaign began.

Smoke from oil wells and a chemical plant torched by Daesh militants near Mosul has forced over 1,500 people to seek treatment for respiratory problems, the UN said.

The fires have spewed toxic smoke for 25 to 60 days, affecting 14 towns, the UN humanitarian affairs co-ordination office said. There could be serious mid- and long-term effects on health, the environment, agriculture and livelihoods, it added.

In late October, Daesh shelled and set fire to the al-Mishraq Sulphur Gas Factory south of Mosul, and the toxic fumes killed at least four people, the UN said, comparing the attack to the use of chemical weapons.

Nearby oil wells set ablaze by Daesh have been burning uncontrollably since June.

In Baghdad, meanwhile, bombings in and around the city killed at least 14 people Tuesday and wounded more than 50, Iraqi officials said.

The attacks targeted outdoor markets, Shiite pilgrims and Sunni tribal fighters who oppose the Islamic State, police said. The casualty figures were confirmed by medical authorities, who along with the other officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release information.

No group claimed responsibility immediately for the attacks, but they bore the hallmarks of Daesh, which has taken credit for similar bombings. The extremists repeatedly target Iraqs Shiite majority and security forces.

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High school students led the charge Monday as protests against president-elect Donald Trump rolled into a sixth day.

Hundreds of teens, many not even old enough to vote, exited classrooms on both coasts, carting signs and chanting slogans against a man they say poses a threat to their future. The students are part of a protest movement that has seen tens of thousands taking to the streets in U.S. cities large and small after Tuesdays election. Mondays protests happened in Los Angeles, Denver, Portland, Ore., and Silver Spring, Md., among others.

Hundreds of students from about a dozen Oakland high schools walked out on their classes and took to the streets.

We hope to get our rights and just get our freedom. We want less racism, stop the violence, all of that, said 14-year-old Salvador Briseno, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

While most protesters acknowledge they cant change the fact that Trump beat Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the electoral vote count, they say they want to make a statement that the Republicans barbed campaign comments against women, Muslims, immigrants and beyond arent acceptable and Trumps policies have not earned a national mandate. Clinton still leads Trump 48 per cent to 47 per cent in the popular vote.

In Los Angeles, students converged Monday on Mariachi Plaza, a gathering spot for the citys iconic musicians, and marched to City Hall. The walkout was part of a planned demonstration in the Los Angeles Area School District, KTLA reported.

Although it has been nearly a week since the presidential election, many students remain concerned about the outcome and want their voices to be heard, Superintendent Michelle King said in a statement released by the district Monday morning, KTLA said. These are important conversations that need to take place. We want our students to know they are not alone.

The students carried signs with message such as Be Kind Not Racist, We Reject the President Elect and Bridges Not Walls. Many of the youths were Latino, and some lifted aloft Mexican and American flags as they trekked down the street. Some protest signs were in Spanish.

A few students had a rejoinder for those charging that the younger generation, many loyal to Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primaries, bears responsibility for Trumps stunning upset. Dont Blame Millennials or the 3rd Party Vote; Blame the DNC, one sign read.

United Teachers Los Angeles union applauded the walkout, saying the union stands proudly with the students, KLTA reported. We believe students should join their communities in expressing themselves through peaceful protests, the union said in a statement.

In Silver Spring, Md., a northern suburb of the nations capital, youths from five high schools walked out en masse Monday morning for a student-led march. About 500 students, some chanting we reject the president-elect, blocked traffic on a busy downtown boulevard on their journey to Veterans Plaza. School officials said no teachers were involved in organizing the protest.

We want the children to realize what their political power is and how to utilize their voices, said pastor Jeffrey Thames, who joined the protest at one point. Other passersby offered words of encouragement.

In Portland, Ore., hundreds of students from at least three schools also staged a walkout and march to City Hall. The protesters caused some disruptions for shoppers and merchants when they headed to a shopping mall.

While most of the anti-Trump protests have been peaceful, Portland has had a turbulent week with nightly demonstrations that have turned violent and led to at least 100 arrests. On Saturday, protesters blocked streets and tossed bottles and other projectiles at police officers.

More on thestar.com:

Mexico braces for possible wave of deportations under a Trump presidency

Rudy Giuliani emerges as top pick for Trumps secretary of state

Despite show of unity, Trumps spending plans could spark a GOP clash

Trumps win sparked spike in open hate, harassment  but how long will it last?

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MEXICO CITYMexico is starting to seriously contemplate the possibility that millions of its migrants could be deported, and the picture is not pretty.

Under proposals put forward by president-elect Donald Trump, Mexico could see millions of people streaming back with no jobs available; the country might lose some of the billions of dollars in remittances sent home annually; and some jobless deportees could swell the ranks of drug cartels, sparking more violence.

Gov. Hector Astudillo of the southern state of Guerrero considered the possible scenario over the weekend. At least a million Guerrero residents live in the United States, many without proper documents, and the state is already reeling from drug gang violence and poverty.

Of course Guerrero is not in any condition to receive the million or more than one million migrants in the U.S., Astudillo said. On the contrary, they have been an important mainstay in supporting the economy of Guerrero.

Migrants sent home almost $25 billion in remittances to Mexico in 2015, and experts say most of that went to support the most basic needs of the poorest Mexicans. Trump has suggested he might somehow seize the funds of those immigrants who are not deported to pay for a border wall.

Mexico already has a shortfall of 800,000 new jobs for youths who join the labour force each year, let alone returning migrants, said Alejandra Barrales, head of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party. We need to close ranks and create (job) opportunities, not just for people who might be deported, but for the 1.2 million young people who join the labour market each year.

The federal government announced an emergency program this week aimed at encouraging business to hire returning migrants, but Mexico City teacher Armando Osorio doubted that would be enough, given the governments poor track record on job creation. These people have no moral authority to say they will receive their countrymen with open arms, he said. They are the ones who are mainly responsible for the forced exodus of millions of Mexicans who dont have enough to eat.

Even if Trump seems to be walking back the idea of mass deportations, the prospect still remains frightening for people in Mexico.

On Sunday, that what we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, a lot of these people  probably two million, it could be three million  and getting them out of our country.Trump said in an interviewed on the news program 60 Minutes that what we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, a lot of these people  probably two million, it could be three million  and getting them out of our country.

Central Americas violent gangs, known as maras, emerged in the 1980s when migrants who had fled El Salvadors civil war were deported by the U.S. after committing crimes as members of street gangs in Los Angeles. The deportees took their criminal know-how back with them and started new gangs.

The U.S. government in 2012 estimated about 1.9 million immigrants were criminals and could face deportation. The Migration Policy Institute, a Washington think-tank, estimated 820,000 of those are in the United States illegally.

Mike Vigil, former chief of international operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said at least some deportees will likely embrace drug trafficking, using already established U.S. connections to increase the amount of heroin and other drugs sent across the border. Even deporting only the felons would backfire by causing more violence in Mexico and Central America, he said.

Whats going to happen is that these individuals are going to return back to Mexico and they have no jobs, so they are going to feed the ranks of the cartels there, said Vigil, author of the book Metal Coffins: The Blood Alliance Cartel.

That would lead to more violence, kidnappings in Mexico, and these areas (of Central America), which would cause a tsunami of undocumented immigrants coming into the United States, probably much more so than what he could actually deport, Vigil said.

There are cases of deported migrants assuming leadership positions in the regions gangs, such as Martin Estrada Luna, a high school dropout from Washington state with a rap sheet of petty crimes such as burglary. Two years after he was sent back to Mexico in 2009, he had transformed himself into a drug baron known as El Kilo, leader of a ruthless cell of the Zetas gang who masterminded the mass killings of more than 250 people.

While millions of migrants in the United States illegally could ultimately face deportation, the process to find and deport all of them likely wont happen rapidly.

Once in office, Trump could move to have immigration agents quickly start arresting people already under orders to leave for being in the U.S. illegally. There were about 88,000 people in that category as of 2015.

But for immigrants with no criminal history, the wait for a judges final deportation order could take years. There are about 521,000 cases pending in federal immigration courts currently, according to public data obtained by Transaction Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

Even in Mexico, many believe Trump will have to moderate his plans.

Political reality will make it clear that many of the proposals against Mexicans are simply not feasible, neither the deportation of all undocumented migrants, nor the construction of the wall, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico City wrote in an editorial.

More on thestar.com:

U.S. mayors of sanctuary cities say theyll fight Trumps immigration plans

Rudy Giuliani emerges as top pick for Trumps secretary of state

Despite show of unity, Trumps spending plans could spark a GOP clash

Trumps win sparked spike in open hate, harassment  but how long will it last?

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ATHENS, GREECEDrawing a broad lesson from the election of Donald Trump, President Barack Obama said Tuesday that world leaders need to pay attention to peoples very real fears of economic dislocation and inequality in the midst of globalization.

The more aggressively and effectively we deal with those issues, the less those fears may channel themselves into counterproductive approaches that can pit people against each other, Obama said as he opened the last foreign tour of his presidency.

Obama, in a joint news conference with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, said that both Trumps election and the British vote to leave the European Union reflected the need to deal with peoples fears that their children wont do as well as they have.

Sometimes people just feel as if we want to try something and see if we can shake things up, Obama said.

The president seemed skeptical that the new prescriptions being offered would satisfy the frustrations and anger evident in election. And he played a bit of defence, saying that his agenda over past eight years had dealt with economic issues head on and the countrys indisputably better off.

Obama added pointedly that some of the rhetoric seen in the elections was pretty troubling and not necessarily connected to the facts.

Tsipras, for his part, said he had refrained from rushing to criticizing Trump as some other European leaders had done, saying that the Republicans aggressive manner as a candidate might be different as president. He predicted that in the near future not much is going to change in the relations between the EU, Greece and the United States of America.

Tsipras added that it was one thing to criticize Trump during the campaign and another thing now Trump will be a major player in the world.

Obamas visit sparked large protests in central Athens, prompting Greek riot police to use tear gas and stun grenades to disperse about 3,000 left-wing marchers after they tried to enter an area declared off-limits to demonstrators. No injuries or arrests were reported.

The violence broke out as youths in motorcycle helmets and gas masks, armed with wooden clubs and petrol bombs, tried to break a police cordon. Rioters retired to the Athens Polytechnic university complex in the city centre, site of a 1973 student uprising, and engaged in running street fights with police.

The last sitting president to visit Greece was Bill Clinton in 1999. His visit, during the height of U.S. intervention in the wars ensuing from the breakup of Yugoslavia, was marked with extensive violent demonstrations.

Well removed from Tuesday nights violence, Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos played host at an evening dinner for Obama at the presidential mansion. In brief remarks, Obama quoted Pericles and offered a toast: To the virtues and values that unite us across a broad sea, may the Greeks and Americans always be there for each other, as partners, as compatriots, brothers, sisters  stin ygeia sas, cheers.

The president earlier offered the Greeks reassuring words about the U.S. commitment to NATO, saying Democratic and Republican administrations alike recognize the importance of the alliance to the trans-Atlantic relationship.

Obama told Pavlopoulos at a morning meeting that a strong NATO is of utmost importance and would provide significant continuity even as we see a transition in government in the United States.

Pavlopoulos, for his part, thanked Obama for U.S. support of the Greek people in a time of social and economic crisis, and said he was confident that Trump will continue on the same path.

Trumps election has generated significant unease in Europe because of his tough talk during the campaign suggesting the U.S. might pull out of the NATO alliance if other countries dont pay more.

Obamas reassurances reflect an attempt to ease the deep concerns about Trump and the future of Americas treaty alliances. Yet they may be greeted with skepticism: For months throughout the campaign, Obama repeatedly assured world leaders in public and private that Trump would not be elected, only to see him emerge victorious from last weeks election.

In his meeting with Tsipras, Obama offered a welcome message of support for the Greeks as they struggle with both economic woes and a huge influx of refugees. Obama pledged to keep pressing his view that austerity alone cannot deliver prosperity and that it is going to be important both with respect to debt relief and other accommodative strategies to help the Greek people in this period of adjustment.

On Wednesday, he is scheduled to tour the Acropolis and give a major speech about democracy and globalization before flying on to Berlin. From Germany, Obama will travel to Peru for an Asian economic summit before returning to Washington on Saturday.

Obama said he was looking forward to visiting the Acropolis because if you come to Greece youve got to do a little bit of sightseeing.

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The Supreme Court agreed with Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi's contention that there will be "some collateral damage in a surgical strike against black money".

By Anusha Soni:

In a jolt to Opposition party leaders such as Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee, the Supreme Court has refused to stay the Centre's notification demonetising Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes.



"We will not be granting any stay," a bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and D Y Chandrachud said. The remarks were made after some advocates insisted on a stay.

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However, the apex court has asked the Narendra Modi Government at the Centre to file an affidavit giving details of steps taken to ease inconvenience faced by citizens. During the hearing, the Chief Justice said the objective seems to be laudable "but there is some inconvenience also to the public at large."

The bench also observed that this will be a blow to terror operations as they are funded by black money.

COLLATERAL DAMAGE

Four different petitions were filed by different lawyers but Senior Congress leader and advocate Kapil Sibbal appearing on the behalf of the petitioners argued that there are only two lakh ATM machines in the country which is insufficient to address the needs of over 130 crore people.

"It's a surgical strike on the common man. You should have surgical strike on black money not on common people," said Sibbal addressing the bench. Sibbal further said that the govt move to demonitise through notification is illegal and unconstitutional. The government has no express authority under law.

The Supreme Court agreed with Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi's contention that there will be "some collateral damage in a surgical strike against black money".

The apex court, without issuing any notice to the Centre, posted the matter for further hearing on November 25.

At the outset, the Centre which had filed a caveat in the matter, sought dismissal of the petitions challenging demonetisation on several grounds including that they were "misconceived". Attorney General (AG) Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Centre, outlined the idea behind demonetisation and said large number of fake currency has been used to finance terrorism in various parts of the country including in Jammu and Kashmir and northeastern states.

SECRECY KEY TO THE SCHEME

He also said there were as many as 24 crore bank accounts including 22 crore opened under the 'Jan Dhan Scheme' and the Centre was hopeful to "ramp up" the outflow of the cash to banks, post offices and two lakh ATMs across the country. "Two lakh ATM machines could not have been deliberated in advance to be in tune with new notes as the cash would have been out of the banks," Rohatgi said, adding that "secrecy is the key to such actions".

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Rohatgi said there were approximately one lakh branches of various banks and two lakh ATMs besides the post offices across the country to dispense cash to common people and the restriction on withdrawal is there to ensure that the money be paid to maximum number of people.

He summed up the submission contending that there was no legal basis for opposing the Centre's move to demonetise the higher denomination currency notes aimed at "catching big fish" which the previous governments failed to do in last 50 years.

"The attack is on those who have stashed huge amount of currency," he said, adding that the surgical strike of this nature has to be carried out in complete secrecy and it was not possible to come out with Rs 10 lakh crore of currency in one go as there was a need for recalibration of ATM machines across the country.



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Vijay on demonetisation: 80 per cent people suffer because of 20 per cent

PM Modi to chair all-party meet on demonetisation; Congress calls it a mere 'note-change' policy





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When Donald Trump descended the gilded elevators of Trump Tower to announce his candidacy, like many I assumed hed go the way of previous celebrity candidates turned political flame-outs. In those early days, I boldly likened Trumps audacity to play way out of his league to the 2007 presidential race when Law & Order actor Fred Thompson topped national polls only to be kicked out of the race after six months.

But while mocking Trump and relying on polls and common sense to prevail, like many, I missed Americas reckoning.

To borrow the House Stark motto, with the rise in Trumps popularity, a winter was coming.

As Trumps campaign of hate was being peddled across America, I married a wonderful Alabama-bred Muslim. We decided Id leave Vancouver to join him in Florida while he completed his residency.

The U.S. had always been appealing. I pictured fast-paced cities full of life and a chance to use my experience as a lawyer to take on the complicated yet exciting American legal system. I found comfort knowing Id raise a family in a diverse country with values similar to Canada.

In March I entered the U.S. as a Muslim female, Pakistani-born, Canadian-raised, U.S.-green card hopeful. The words of Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore reverberated in my mind. This, I hoped, would be a place where the head was held high and the mind is without fear.

And, boy, in our early months was it easy to blend and befriend.

After all, my skin was not much darker than our perennially tanned Floridian neighbours. And despite being a practicing Muslim, my outward appearance did not betray my religious proclivities, so it was easy to move through Floridas public spaces compared to hijabi friends who told stories of stares and glares.

Sure, sometimes I got the classic question: Where are you from? But I never had to give the full truth (Pakistan-born, Saudi Arabia-raised, Canadian immigrant). Being Canadian meant we always found middle ground  a lighthearted debate on which side of Niagara Falls is better or our shockingly good looking prime minister.

The Trump election was on my radar in bits and bytes but mostly operating in a parallel Fox News-outrage dimension. We made friends, took road trips, and visited Floridas many festivals celebrating everything from peanuts to underwater music.

We met Trump supporters from all walks of life.

There were the young betrayed by an economy that never really recovered standing next to the older, conservative folks pledged to their party till their dying day. At a gas station, we shared a laugh with folks driving a truck with Confederate flag decals. We asked a positively drunk 20-something grocery shopping after a mid-afternoon Trump rally why, why, why?

Almost everyone described Trump as a necessity, not a choice.

The violent rallies, the racist speech, the calls for division were not why these people were being driven to the polls for Trump. These were everyday people who needed America to be great again so their lives could be great again.

But just days post-election, as I sit to write this, I can no longer tap into those shared moments of humanity.

Just an hour after Trumps victory speech, I felt numb. My Canadian passport, heavy in my hands, was not my shield but a sword that betrayed my birthplace as Pakistan. I imagined my skin turning many shades darker on the spot as I avoided eye contact with everyone on a flight home from Chicago.

Texts of concern were already flooding in.

Dont take a cab alone, Move back to Canada, Dont carry your book of Islamic prayers openly onto the plane.

A friend in D.C. wrote, Im afraid and scared. In Trumps world I stand against the wall at the train station.

An Iranian friend wept and shared stories of nightmares, fear for her family, and vandalism to her business. That same night a friend mentioned an acquaintance who called 911 midelection because a male neighbour kept pounding at her door.

My first article, at the start of my career, was called Islam on Trial. Six years later, I continue to wield my words as Islam and its adherents remain on trial.

I must confess I am fatigued but I cannot afford to be. Because this year I chose America as my future childs home and mine. I can now only muster up the little dignity left in the wake of the election and embrace my choice of countrys choice of leader and, in turn, pray that he too accepts me.

Maria Kari is a freelance writer and lawyer. Her work frequently appears in a variety of publications including The Nation, NPR, Salon.com, The Diplomat, and Pakistan's Dawn News.

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Don't let it happen here, Editorial Nov. 10

So, according to Kellie Leitch the American people threw out the elites and it is an exciting message that should be delivered to Canadians. But they also gave total governing power to a Republican president.

It is a pity that a Canadian running for the leadership of a major party does not know the difference between the elites and the greeds. With this kind of the thinking, and its promotion, Im afraid it will happen here.

Keith Parkinson, Cambridge

I was not aware that the Order of the Bucket of Deplorables has a northern chapter. However, if Kellie Leitch aspires to be its Canadian president, I am more than willing to sign her nomination papers.

Paul A. Wilson, Toronto

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British American Tobacco (BTI) stock held steady in early London trading on Tuesday after speculation that Reynolds (RAI) will reject its suitor's takeover offer kept shares near a five-month low.

The London-headquartered maker of Lucky Strike cigarettes is attempting to buy the 57.8% of Reynolds that it does not already own. In late October it offered $47 billion for the target, with $20 billion in cash and the remaining $27 billion in BAT shares.

Bloomberg news reported late on Monday that the target, which makes Camel and Newport cigarettes, has already rejected the offer as being too low.

British American Tobacco stock was up by 0.3%, to 4,310.0 pence ($53.87), on Tuesday morning in London but is still down by double digit numbers since the announcement in late October.

The rejection is unsurprising. Around 60% of BAT's offer is comprised of shares and the share-exchange ratio for the transaction was set using Oct. 20 closing prices.

Since then BAT's stock price has declined by nearly 12%, from its pre announcement level of 4,800.0 pence, meaning that the consideration due to be received by Reynolds investors is now lower.

But the merger is unlikely to fall at the first hurdle. Strategic benefits, synergies and the fact that BAT already owns 42.2% of the target will encourage BAT to sweeten its offer.

At the moment BAT's largest market is Japan, where it earns around 12.5% of its 13 billion of revenues according to Factset estimates, while it is also heavily reliant on emerging markets including Brazil, Russia and Mexico.

The planned merger will reorient BAT away from developing economies, which are low-margin and increasingly competitive, and toward developed markets. It will also see the world's second-largest tobacco firm by revenue combined with the fifth largest, to create a global cigarette giant that is dominant in both international markets as well as the U.S.

Jonathan Leinster, a tobacco analyst at Berenberg, said: "The U.S. market has, following Reynolds American's acquisition of Lorillard, become far more stable in terms of pricing and, crucially, is one where BAT's major international rival (Philip Morris International) is not present."

The combined entity will have more than $10 billion of U.S. revenue, making it the group's largest market, as well as a leading position in so-called next-generation products including electronic cigarettes. BAT management estimates that synergies could be worth as much as $400 million a year.

"Macros are supportive, pricing potential is significant (affordability levels similar to Russia), and also a large margin opportunity still," said Jefferies analyst Owen Bennett of the U.S. market.

Any deal between Reynolds and BAT could prompt further consolidation in the sector, potentially including Imperial Brands (IMBBY) and Philip Morris International. (PM)
Former U.S. senator and N.J. attorney general Jeffrey S. Chiesa was appointed on Monday to oversee Atlantic City's financial recovery as the state begins to implement the city's takeover.

An attorney at Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi PC, Chiesa, a Republican who served as N.J. Gov. Chris Christie's chief counsel and the state's 59th attorney general from 2012 to 2013, was hired by Local Government Services Director Timothy Cunningham to help tackle Atlantic City's more than $100 million structural deficit, according to a statement released by the N.J. Department of Community Affairs (DCA).

"I am committed to improving essential government and community services for the people of Atlantic City," Chiesa said in a statement. "I will listen to the people and work hand in hand with local stakeholders to create solutions that will prevent waste and relieve generations of taxpayers from the burden of long-term debt. We will put Atlantic City back on the path to fiscal stability."

Chiesa's immediate plans include negotiating payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreements with Atlantic City casinos, which are struggling to stay afloat due to declining gambling revenue, the DCA statement said.

Atlantic City once was the gambling hub of the East Coast after casinos were legalized in New Jersey in 1976. However, in recent years, Pennsylvania and New York legalized gambling, increasing competition and attributing to the closure of five of Atlantic City's 12 casinos since 2014.

The closing of certain of Atlantic City casinos, including Showboat and Revel, resulted in a municipal tax revenue fall of 70% to $6 billion from $21 billion since 2010, putting the city in about $500 million worth of debt. In 2015, the city had a budget shortfall of $101 million and a $47 million deficit in its school district.

Chiesa's preliminary recovery plans include ensuring debt services to the county and the Atlantic City school district are met on time while he pursues financing options to reduce the city's delinquent obligations, according to the DCA.

On Nov. 9, the state's Local Finance Board voted 5-0 to approve a five-year state takeover of Atlantic City after the DCA rejected the city's proposed recovery plan. Cunningham was elected to assume the powers of the city's governing party including the rights to sell the city's assets, negotiate union contacts and dismiss workers. Cunningham was not given the right to declare bankruptcy.

On Nov. 1, DCA Commissioner Charles Richman rejected Atlantic City's proposed recovery plan, arguing that it did not provide a balanced budget for 2017 and included several financial shortfalls totaling about $106 million.

The office of Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian, a Republican, revised and submitted an amended version of its recovery plan on Nov. 3 which was not accepted. There was a Nov. 1 deadline for the DCA to approve a recovery plan for the city.

"Senator Chiesa brings important insights and management experience from years of service in both the public and private sectors, which makes him an excellent candidate to oversee the responsible management of Atlantic City's finances," Richman said in a statement.
Editors' pick: Originally published Nov. 15.

Corrects amount of IBM's cash and marketable securities to $10 billion in the U.S. and overseas from $61 billion.

IBM's (IBM) Virginia Rometty told Donald Trump that her company will support the efforts of a Trump administration and Congress to pass tax reform early in 2017, in an open letter to him published on Tuesday afternoon.

The 59-year-old chief executive penned a letter to the president-elect congratulating him on his victory and laying out ideas she believes "will help achieve the aspiration [he] articulated and that can advance a national agenda in a time of profound change." She outlined her thoughts on a litany of issues, ranging from job creation to healthcare, tax reform and veterans, offering up her suggestions as "ways we can work together to achieve prosperity that is broadly shared in our society."

Many of the issues addressed by Rometty's line up with IBM's stated positions on a variety of political issues.

"IBM supports your proposal to make American's tax system more competitive," she wrote. Trump has proposed reducing the business tax rate to 15% from 35% and enacting a repatriation holiday for corporations holding assets abroad to bring them back to the United States at a 10% rate.

"Many billions of dollars of American companies' earnings do not come home because of an outdated and punitive tax system. Your tax reform proposal will free up capital that companies of all sizes can reinvest in their U.S. operations, training and education programs for their employees, and research and development programs."

IBM has about $10 billion in total cash and marketable securities combined in the U.S. and overseas as of September and does not break out how much of that amount is held abroad.

Rometty called for "new collar" jobs, citing vocational education as a viable area about which she believes her company and Trump agree. IBM has pushed for six-year public high schools that combine traditional education with community college, mentoring and real-world experience. They have opened 100 such schools across the country.

Trump on the campaign trail did not provide an enormous amount of detail on his plans for education. He has adopted traditional Republican talking points like school choice and has suggested he would seek to eliminate the Department of Education.

His campaign website promises he will "ensure that the opportunity to attend a two-year or four-year college or to pursue a trade or skill through vocational educational "will be easier to access, pay for, and finish."

Rometty also outlined her thoughts on healthcare, reiterating a number of ideas IBM put forth in 2009 on reforms it says will help America save over $900 billion over the course of a decade. The suggestions include the use of data analytics to reduce fraudulent Medicare claims, improving the exchange of information among providers and leveraging government purchasing power to lower drug costs.

One issue to go unmentioned in Rometty's letter is trade, or, more specifically, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. IBM strongly supports the deal, while Trump spoke out vehemently against it over the course of his campaign.

Many expect Trump to drop out of the agreement in the early days of his administration.

IBM was among a number of companies Trump hit on the campaign trail for shipping jobs overseas. He accused the company of laying off 500 workers in Minneapolis and moving their jobs to India at a Minnesota rally just a day before the election. He made similar attacks against Ford (F) , Apple (AAPL) and General Motors (GM) , among others.

IBM spent $4.6 million on federal lobbying in 2015 -- lower than some other tech giants -- and does not have a super PAC. According to its corporate policies, it does not make any contributions to political parties, candidates or PACs. Federal Election Commission filings do not show donation records for Rometty.

According to campaign finance tracker OpenSecrets, IBM employees made more than $700,000 in political contributions during the 2016 election cycle. The company's lobbying expenses have hit $3.2 million this year.
A wild tigress T-83 from Ranthambore National Park, popularly called 'Lightning', fell into an open well in Khawa village, near Ranthambore. What followed was a dramatic rescue mission by the forest officials and the villagers.

By India Today Web Desk: The Rajasthan Forest Department dramatically rescued a wild tigress T-83 on Monday near the Ranthambore National Park.

The T-83 from Ranthambore, popularly called the 'Lightning', fell into an open well on Monday morning in Khawa village in Rajasthan, just a km from the Ranthambore National Park.

The villagers immediately informed the forest officials, who in turn, reached the area in no time. The police and the people from the NGO Tiger Watch also reached the spot.

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In a tough and a dramatic mission and with the support of the villagers, the tigress was rescued by around 9.30 in the morning.

A rope, net, cage and other equipment required for the rescue was provided by the NGO Tiger Watch. The forest officials made a forest guard go down the well and tranquilize the T-83 tigress. She was then brought up and sent to the Ranthambore National Park.

The forest guard going in the well; Photo: Facebook post by Shashank Saraswat





The forest guard bringing back the tigress; Photo: Facebook post by Shashank Saraswat The forest guard bringing back the tigress; Photo: Facebook post by Shashank Saraswat

UNMANAGEABLE CROWD POSED DIFFICULTY IN RESCUE

The mission, however, was not free from hurdles.

It was reported that within minutes of the starting of the rescue mission, the crowd started gathering around the well. And in no time, the well was surrounded by so many tourists who were running around to just videotape or photograph the whole mission that it made it difficult for the officials and villagers to carry out the rescue mission.

The crowd kept swelling around the well; Photo: Facebook post by Shashank Saraswat

The police said that the crowd became unmanageable and that they might take action against buses and hotels who told the tourists about the mission and brought them to the spot.

The Ranthambore park seems to be running short of space and probably the T-83 is finding it difficult to adjust. Some reports suggest that the forest department will be shifting the tigress soon to a new area of the Ranthambore National Park.

Watch the video here:











Also Read:

Odisha shocker: Poached and electrocuted tiger found buried in pit

International Tiger Day: Not many reasons to be happy for the big cats



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Derwent London plc owns 83 buildings in a commercial real estate portfolio predominantly in central London valued at 5.4 billion (including joint ventures) as at 30 June 2020, making it the largest London-focused real estate investment trust (REIT). Our experienced team has a long track record of creating value throughout the property cycle by regenerating our buildings via development or refurbishment, effective asset management and capital recycling. We typically acquire central London properties off-market with low capital values and modest rents in improving locations, most of which are either in the West End or the Tech Belt. We capitalise on the unique qualities of each of our properties - taking a fresh approach to the regeneration of every building with a focus on anticipating tenant requirements and an emphasis on design. Reflecting and supporting our long-term success, the business has a strong balance sheet with modest leverage, a robust income stream and flexible financing. As part of our commitment to lead the industry in mitigating climate change, in October 2019, Derwent London became the first UK REIT to sign a Green Revolving Credit Facility. At the same time, we also launched our Green Finance Framework and signed the Better Buildings Partnership's climate change commitment. The Group is a member of the 'RE100' which recognises Derwent London as an influential company, committed to 100% renewable power by purchasing renewable energy, a key step in becoming a net zero carbon business. Derwent London is one of only a few property companies worldwide to have science-based carbon targets validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Landmark schemes in our 5.6 million sq ft portfolio include 80 Charlotte Street W1, Brunel Building W2, White Collar Factory EC1, Angel Building EC1, 1-2 Stephen Street W1, Horseferry House SW1 and Tea Building E1. In 2019, the Group won several awards including EG Offices Company of the Year, the CoStar West End Deal of the Year for Brunel Building, Westminster Business Council's Best Achievement in Sustainability award and topped the real estate sector and was placed ninth overall in the Management Today 2019 awards for 'Britain's Most Admired Companies'. In 2013 the Company launched a voluntary Community Fund and has to date supported over 100 community projects in the West End and the Tech Belt. The Company is a public limited company, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange and incorporated and domiciled in the UK. The address of its registered office is 25 Savile Row, London,
Duke Energy Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy company in the United States. It operates through three segments: Electric Utilities and Infrastructure, Gas Utilities and Infrastructure, and Commercial Renewables. The Electric Utilities and Infrastructure segment generates, transmits, distributes, and sells electricity in the Carolinas, Florida, and the Midwest; and uses coal, hydroelectric, natural gas, oil, renewable generation, and nuclear fuel to generate electricity. It also engages in the wholesale of electricity to municipalities, electric cooperative utilities, and load-serving entities. This segment serves approximately 8.2 million customers in 6 states in the Southeast and Midwest regions of the United States covering a service territory of approximately 91,000 square miles; and owns approximately 50,259 megawatts (MW) of generation capacity. The Gas Utilities and Infrastructure segment distributes natural gas to residential, commercial, industrial, and power generation natural gas customers; and owns, operates, and invests in pipeline transmission and natural gas storage facilities. It has approximately 1.6 million customers, including 1.1 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, as well as 550,000 customers in southwestern Ohio and northern Kentucky. The Commercial Renewables segment acquires, owns, develops, builds, and operates wind and solar renewable generation projects, including nonregulated renewable energy and energy storage services to utilities, electric cooperatives, municipalities, and corporate customers. It has 23 wind, 178 solar, and 2 battery storage facilities, as well as 71 fuel cell locations with a capacity of 3,554 MW across 22 states. The company was formerly known as Duke Energy Holding Corp. and changed its name to Duke Energy Corporation in April 2005. The company was founded in 1904 and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.
By PTI: From Lalit K Jha

Washington, Nov 15 (PTI) US President-elect Donald Trump is in final stages of giving shape to his Cabinet and announcements in this regard could be made anytime this week, his aides indicated today.

The vice president-elect Mike Pence, who also heads presidential transition team, is arriving in New York today to hold meetings with Trump.

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"Theyll be reviewing a number of names," Jason Miller, a transition communication advisor said.

"If the Vice President-elect is getting together with the President-elect to discuss names, then I would say that it?s serious, obviously," Miller said.

Meanwhile, the American media was abuzz with speculations on potential Cabinet picks of Trump.

The former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani along with the former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton was speculated to be in the race for being the Secretary of State.

Other potential Cabinet picks being talked about are Senator Jeff Sessions, Senator Bob Corker and Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker to the US House of Representative.

However, Miller cautioned against finalising any names as of now.

"You cant believe everything you read. I dont want to play the speculation game as far as names," he said.

"Theres a thorough, detailed process that the Vice President-elect and the transition team are going through and the President-elect will make the decision and let us know," he said.

Sessions was seen entering the Trump Towers fuelling the speculation about his role in the Trump Cabinet.

"Im a huge fan of Senator Sessions and the President-elect will be lucky to have him in any capacity," Miller said.

There were also reports that Laura Ingraham is under consideration for WhiteHousePress Secretary.

"Youre going to see a number of different names that are ultimately becoming a part of the President-elect?s administration.

"There will be non-traditional names, a number of people who have had wide-ranging success in a number of different fields; wide-ranging success in business...People will be excited when they see the type of leaders the President-elect brings into this administration," Miller said.

The Trump Campaign Manager Kellyanne Conway also said that Cabinet appointments announcement are likely this week.

"Possibly (this week). Narrowing it down," she said in response to a question.

"I think well get moreclarity on the senior team and the cabinet," she added. PTI LKJ NSA

--- ENDS ---
GameStop Corp. is a specialty retailer founded in 1999 and headquartered in Grapevine, Texas. The company was originally known as GSC Holdings Corp. but later changed its name following its IPO. Originally a brand of then dominant Babbages, Gamestop altered the way video games were distributed and it is now the world's largest retailer of video games and video game accessories. The company went public in 2004 and operated 4,573 stores at the start of 2022. Brands under the company umbrella include Gamestop, EB Games, and Micromania as well as 50 pop-culture-themed Zing Pop locations.

Gamestop Corp. provides video games and entertainment products through its global network of e-commerce properties and stores. The company sells new and pre-owned gaming platforms and accessories like controllers, headsets, memory cards, and gaming software as well as in-game products like digital currency, downloadable content, and games. The company also sells new and used memorabilia and collectibles. Genres include TV, movie, comic book, and game characters as well as many other items from pop culture. GameStop Corp. also operates Game Informer, a magazine and website dedicated to the gaming industry including reviews, updates, and new developments in technologies.

Game enthusiasts enjoy two primary benefits of using Gamestop. The first is access to the full range of games and gaming accessories. The second is the ability to sell or trade their old equipment and games for fair prices. All old equipment is refurbished to a like-new state before resale.

In 2021 Gamestop announced it was entering the world of cryptocurrency. The company revealed plans to build an NFT (non-fungible token) platform for listing, selling, and holding digital or digitized artwork and collectibles. The beta version launched in 2022 and has so far seen great success with an average daily volume exceeding $1 million. The NFT marketplace also featured Web3.0 games in which characters and in-game items are held forever on the blockchain. As of September 2022, the most successful retailer on the NFT marketplace was Gamestop Presents, a collaboration of cover art from Game Informer Magazine. Sales at the time were just under 168 ETH or about $221,500.00.

GameStop began a slide in 2016 following a series of bad investments that included a foray into the world of mobile phones. The slide came to an end in late 2021 when shareholders using the Reddit thread Wallstreet Bets orchestrated a short-squeeze and brought on the age of meme stocks.
UNICEF/UNI190222/Bindra

BANGUI/DAKAR, 15 November 2016  As the fragile recovery continues, more than 850,000 people in Central African Republic  half of them children  are still on the move, either internally displaced or refugees in neighbouring countries, UNICEF said today.



Insecurity in the aftermath of the conflict has prevented most of the 920,000 people displaced in early 2014 from returning home. Today, 383,000 people remain displaced inside the country while 468,000 have sought refuge in Cameroon, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Congo  with Cameroon hosting more than half of these refugees.



When children return to their communities as security improves, they will need to have schools and clinics to come to, said Christine Muhigana, UNICEFs Deputy Director for West and Central Africa. Access to quality health and education is the cornerstone of any recovery, and the foundation for a peaceful future.



Violence and widespread displacement have made children especially vulnerable to health risks, exploitation and abuse, leaving more than 1/3 out of school and 41 per cent children under five suffering from chronic malnutrition. An estimated 6,000 to 10,000 have been recruited into armed groups since 2013.



The country is in a better place now, said Christine Muhigana, UNICEFs Deputy Director for West and Central Africa. But this is still one of the worlds most dangerous countries for children, and renewed violence threatens to undermine signs of progress.



Most recently, repeated flare ups of violence have forced several non-governmental organisations to significantly scale down their interventions in parts of the country, slowing the progress of the national recovery plan. An attack on the Kaga Bandoro camp for internally displaced people last month left 37 civilians dead, including educators participating in a UNICEF-supported programme.



Aid officials are meeting in Brussels on 17 of November to report on the recovery progress and seek funding to continue their programmes. Leaders from the Central African Republic will make the case for a USD 3 billion aid package to global donors, including the European Union, the World Bank, and the United Nations.



UNICEF calls on Central African leaders and global donors to put children first in the recovery plan by prioritizing basic social services like health and education for the most vulnerable, noting that only a balanced recovery plan with equity as the guiding principle can lay the foundation for a peaceful future.



Economic inequality played a major role in the initial eruption of violence and conflict in 2102. Ethnic tensions and disparities in opportunities between urban and rural populations fueled a resentment that still endures. The issues of justice, protection and the fight against corruption are key to building a country that protects its citizens and enforces the rule of law.

Working with the government and partners, UNICEF is strengthening the education system by training more than 1,300 teachers and building or repairing 172 schools in 2016 with funding from the European Union and the Global Partnership for Education. Existing projects are set to expand in order to bolster primary health care, improve access to clean water and offer psychosocial support for children whove experienced violence.



Efforts to reach every child in the Central African Republic are limited by significant funding restrictions. Of the $55.6 million required in 2016 to provide basic services to children in the country, only $20.4 million has been received, leaving many projects under resourced and reduced in effectiveness.

###



Download broadcast quality multimedia content.
Mary Jo White, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, on Monday announced that she would step down two years before the end of her term, clearing the way for President-elect Donald Trump to reshape the way Wall Street is regulated.

The resignation creates a massive opportunity for Trump early in his term to make changes to investor protections and other Wall Street regulations, part of what is widely expected to be a broad effort by the new administration to scale back what Republicans consider cumbersome federal rules that slow economic growth.

In the long-term, it is going to be a big tilt towards free markets, said Edward Mills, a policy analyst at investment bank FBR Capital Markets.

Trump and his advisers have taken aim at President Obamas main regulatory response to the 2008 financial crisis  the Dodd-Frank Act, which tightened oversight of the financial industry. The most visible target is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the watchdog agency that has pursued stricter rules governing debt collection, payday loans and overdraft fees.

But Trump and his advisers have also targeted a broad swath of consumer issues over the course of his campaign, from rules for online privacy to conflicts of interest among financial planners. Beyond the SEC, he could also dramatically alter the ideological landscapes at key agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission, whose top officials are nearing the end of their terms.

Consumer advocates say they are bracing for a fight. Public Citizen has warned that it is prepared to sue over moves that it deems questionable. The American Civil Liberties Union was flooded with donations after it posted an ad bearing Trumps image and the terse challenge See you in court. And U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) recently hired a litigation director and is beefing up its state and local field operations.

Weve always been at DEFCON 2, and now were going to DEFCON 1, said Ed Mierzwinski, director of the consumer program and senior fellow at U.S. PIRG. Defense is a lot of work.

After the 2008 severe economic downturn, lawmakers and regulators across the government undertook the largest wave of reforms aimed at safeguarding American consumers since the Great Depression. The efforts were intended to curtail predatory lending, enhance transparency within the industry and level the playing field for ordinary households dealing with complex financial products.

But the movement has generated massive costs across the banking sector. A recent report by the conservative American Action Forum estimated that complying with the law has cost the industry $36 billion and 73 million hours in paperwork.

More importantly, Republicans have blamed the Dodd-Frank Act for impeding economic growth and dampening innovation. In addition, lenders wary of running afoul of new laws have curtailed credit to those with blemished financial histories.

If we want strong economic growth and more freedom, we must empower Americans, not Washington bureaucrats, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said this summer when he released a blueprint for undoing Dodd-Frank.

On the campaign trail, Trump made a blanket promise to overhaul the governments entire regulatory code and halt the approval of new rules not compelled by Congress or public safety. He said Dodd-Frank should be dismantled but did not detail how.

For consumers, the centerpiece of the legislation is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which recently notched a major victory when it fined Wells Fargo $100 million for allegedly opening fake accounts for its customers. Consumer advocates say the upheaval could threaten significant new rules for payday lenders, auto title loans and debt collectors. The bureau has also proposed banning whats called mandatory arbitration clauses that limit class-action lawsuits from consumers.

In June, Trump met with Hensarling to discuss the lawmakers plan for disbanding Dodd-Frank and reorganizing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to a Hensarling aide. His plan calls for restructuring the agency so that it would be led by a five-member commission instead of a single director and changing the way it is funded.

But even if Trump does nothing, the agency still could face significant change. Last month, a federal appeals court ruled that the agency must be restructured so that the director can be removed at will. And no matter what happens, Director Richard Cordrays term ends in 2018, allowing Trump to pick his successor.

We dont want to go back to a system that led us into the mortgage crisis, said Lauren Saunders, associate director at the National Consumer Law Center. I hope we have all learned from our mistakes.

Consumer advocates are also worried about the SEC, which has two commissioner positions open. The SEC tightened oversight of asset managers and other Wall Street firms following the financial crisis and is working on rules to promote more disclosures about executive pay. It is also reviewing the exploding use of exchange-traded funds, a popular and relatively new financial product that many people use to invest in stocks.

The SEC is one of the central cops on the beat in the financial markets, making sure that ordinary investors are treated fairly, said Marcus Stanley, policy director at Americans for Financial Reform. If the SEC is weakened, it is ordinary consumers that will get hurt the most.

At the Federal Trade Commission, Chairwoman Edith Ramirezs term expired last year, but she has remained amid Senate gridlock in confirming new appointments. Only three seats at the agencys five-member commission are filled, and Trump could name the lone Republican, Maureen Ohlhausen, as chairwoman. If he fills the vacant seats as well, the GOP would enjoy a majority.

His choices will help determine how the Federal Trade Commission will steer investigations on topics including data security and antitrust issues and its approach on enforcement. Democratic Commissioner Terrell McSweeny says that who Trump appoints will speak volumes about the direction of the agency.

The Federal Communications Commission faces a similar predicament. Though Chairman Tom Wheelers term does not end for two years, Trump can appoint a new chairman within the five-member commission that leads the agency, tilting the balance of power.

One big question is whether he would appoint officials to pull back new privacy rules passed by the Federal Communications Commission last month that force Internet providers to give consumers a say in how their most sensitive personal data is used and shared. Wheeler and the agencys two other liberal commissioners pushed the policies through over stiff Republican opposition.

And last week, the agency fired a warning shot at AT&T over its practice of letting wireless customers stream as much DirecTV (which it owns) as they want on their mobile devices without counting against data limits. Regulators questions about the tactic, known as zero-rating, are likely to become moot if the Trump administration rolls back the regulations that allow the agency to probe the practice.

Still, the letter to AT&T is a sign that Wheeler intends to push forward with his agenda in the next several months.

Wheeler is going to keep working as long as hes being paid by the American people to do this job, said Gene Kimmelman, president of the consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge.

Consumer advocates said that rolling back regulatory safeguards enacted since the financial crisis would undermine Trumps appeal to the working-class voters who helped sweep him into the Oval Office. Public Citizen President Robert Weissman said his group plans to highlight any discrepancies that may emerge between Trumps rhetoric during the campaign and his policies once in office.

So far, he said, Trumps appointment of lobbyists and Wall Street bankers to his transition team has not been encouraging.

There are no illusions on our side about what were looking at, and were gearing up, Weissman said.

Brian Fung, Andrea Peterson and Jonnelle Marte contributed to this report.
Paulo Coelhos author bio tells us that he has flirted with death, escaped madness, dallied with drugs, withstood torture, experimented with magic and alchemy, studied philosophy and religion, read voraciously, lost and recovered his faith, and experienced the pain and pleasure of love. In searching for his own place in the world, he has discovered answers for the challenges that everyone faces.

What are you murmuring? Is it Thank heaven? Or is it What a schmuck?

I would argue that the whole world divides neatly along that schism and that the Thank heaven crowd is far and away the vaster. As Coelhos publisher reminds us, his books have sold more than 200 million copies and have made him the most translated living author in the world. (God has conceded that title, apparently.) In the face of so much affirmation, it would take a black and gnarled soul indeed to dissent, but I am that soul, and I do dissent. I glimpse, in every Coelho exhortation, a hard lacquer of self-regard and New Age snake oil: No heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream, he told us in The Alchemist (1988). Its the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary; only wise men are able to understand them. . . . The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.

Coelhos soda fountain of wisdom never runs dry. But if its true that when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it, then why hasnt the universe made him a good novelist? His last book, Adultery (2014), offered proof positive that the oracular fairy-tale voice of The Alchemist is ill-suited to complex grown-ups in modern settings. So its perhaps to be expected that his latest effort, The Spy, should bridge the gap between reality and fable by making a heroine of Mata Hari, who straddles both realms.

The legend of Margaretha Zelle (her actual name) was already subsuming her actual life by the time a firing squad took her down in 1917. A Greta Garbo film, arriving 14 years later, painted her as a sphinx fatale who brought men to their knees and held Europe in her dominatrix grip. Subsequent research has etched a less glamorous, more sympathetic portrait: a self-created exotic dancer and courtesan who, under the unique transboundary pressures of World War I, became Earths least effectual double agent and whose prosecution was nothing less than a PR coup engineered by the French government.

Credit Coelho, then, for giving Mata her belated due and for using the ancient but still sturdy narrative device of the eleventh-hour confession. In The Spy, Mata, not knowing she is about to die, pens a long letter to her lawyer, outlining the stations on her road to doom: a semi-privileged upbringing in conservative, Calvinist Holland, followed by an abusive marriage to an army officer in the Dutch East Indies, followed by a headlong plunge into the glittering lights of Paris.

Mata reinvents herself. Mata gathers and discards lovers. Mata, in the course of performing Javan dances, drops trou for the aristos. (For those who wonder how that last part worked: When I got to the sixth veil, I went over to the Shiva statue, simulated an orgasm, and cast myself to the ground while removing the seventh and final veil.)

Where does she learn to dance? Why does she abandon her daughter to her unstable husband? Why does she lie about her origins? Why does she choose that cockamamie stage name (Indonesian, reportedly, for eye of the day)? None of those questions will be answered in this slim volume, which devotes an entire chapter to the contents of Matas trunks (3 waistcoats; 2 long-sleeved jackets; 3 combs) but leaves out her truly inspired final gesture of blowing a kiss to her executioners.

Coelho does spare a moment or two for contemporary historical figures such as Dreyfus. (But nowadays they swear the poor guy is innocent, and all because of that damn writer, Zola.) But his main concern is to retrofit his heroine into a feminist martyr, an emancipated and independent woman in a world ruled by men . . . fearlessly paying the price she had to pay.

Unfortunately, the Mata Hari who emerges from these underrealized pages is not fearless but clueless, not emancipated but incoherent  and, finally, no more plausible or interesting for the Coelho aphorisms that keep tumbling off her scented lips: When we dont know where life is taking us, we are never lost. . . . Though at the moment I am a prisoner, my spirit remains free. . . . The true sin is living so far removed from absolute harmony.

Youll find more agency, sensuality and mystery in just one of Greta Garbos spider-lashed gazes. Which is to say that, long before Coelhos Mata offers her services to the Germans, she has committed the unpardonable treason of being a bore.

Louis Bayard is the author, most recently, of Lucky Strikes.
Speaker of the House Paul D. Ryan is all smiles before a meeting with fellow legislators Tuesday. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Paul D. Ryan, speaker of the House of Representatives, will keep his job next year, after fellow Republican lawmakers unanimously nominated him Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, the Wisconsin congressman told members of his party that he has the support of President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence.

Whether Ryan would remain in the majoritys leadership post had been uncertain. He and Trump exchanged harsh words during the presidential campaign, and Ryan refused to strongly support Trump. The two met last week, and Ryan pledged to work with the next president.

A group of House Republicans voiced concerns this week over whether Ryan would support their conservative positions.

House Democrats have delayed a vote until November 30 on whether Representative Nancy Pelosi will continue to be minority leader.

In the Senate, where Republicans also have the majority, Republicans and Democrats were to meet Wednesday to pick their leadership teams.


Cathy Mousseau, a Midwestern Methodist, frequently goes on early-morning nature walks. She stops to look at a variety of birds on the trail. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

For a few bleary seconds after she woke up, everything felt the same. Same bed, same house, same town, same Cathy Mousseau, a Midwestern Methodist trying to live a life of love and kindness as another day began. Then she remembered.

Its true, she said to herself.

The president of the United States would be Donald Trump, who had called Mexicans rapists, proposed banning Muslims from entering the United States and spoken of grabbing womens crotches.

Now it was the morning after, and Cathy looked outside, her eyes still red from crying. A glorious sunny day. Gold leaves drifting down on the green lawns of Wheaton, Ill. She poured some coffee and scrolled through her phone. She sent a message to a Muslim friend and a gay friend saying that she loved them. She wrote to her 20-year-old son, Jack, that life would go on. She read a post from her 17-year-old daughter, Allie  Im still with her  and cried again. Her husband, Jeff, came downstairs.

Are you going to watch her concession speech? he asked.

I dont know, said Cathy, who was trying to resist the feeling that it was not just Hillary Clinton conceding the election but Cathy herself being asked to concede that love and kindness and everything she felt her life was about was lost in this new America of Wednesday morning. Part of her wanted to turn away. But she turned on the TV, and began listening.



Cathy gives a hug to her friend, Marc Bernard, the owner of Rustic Road Farm, as she comforts him about the election results and brings him a loaf of bread she baked. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

She had always seen America the way she saw herself: not without sin but always trying to be better, kinder and more generous.

She was brought up in Racine, Wis., by parents of Armenian background. Her father ran a hair salon, and when Cathy worked the cash register as a teenager, she learned that he did not charge the blind woman who got her hair done every week. Her mother mostly stayed home, and as Cathy got older, she came to appreciate how her mother always forgave her, understood her, and how she would always come outside to wave goodbye after her daughter visited  waving until Cathy could no longer see her in the rearview mirror.

Cathy figured this was a childhood of unconditional love. And it was some version of this life that she tried to replicate with her husband  my sweet husband, Cathy still called him after 20 years of marriage  most of it spent in the same house on a wide street of sprawling oaks here in Wheaton, where Jeff worked as a vice president of sales for a carpet-cleaning company, and Cathy worked as a fundraiser for nonprofits, and on a Saturday morning 10 days before the election, they were heading to the farmers market.

Are we going to drop off that stuff? Jeff asked, referring to the bag of shoes by the door, which they were giving to a local resource center for struggling families and refugees from Iraq, Burma, Sudan and elsewhere settling in the area.

Yeah, put it in my car, and oh, you know what? We should take some food over there, said Cathy, grabbing some cans of beans from her pantry before they headed off.

This was regular Mousseau life. They donated shoes and worried later whether they had forgotten to put in the new sole inserts. They prayed before dinner, watched Nova on PBS, and took vacations to presidential libraries. On their refrigerator were photos of African girls whose schooling they funded, and in a kitchen cabinet were extra keys to their neighbors houses. They were regulars at church, the 9 a.m. service, right side, seven oak pews from the front, because being close helped Cathy focus.

Share your bread with the hungry . . . for when we do these things our life shall break forth like the dawn, the pastor had said nine days before the election, and this was exactly what Cathy believed, although she in no way thought herself exceptional.

She considered her family to be of the regular sort found all over America, the kind who werent necessarily Democrat or Republican but had long discussions such as the one they had the week before the election:

We talk about tolerance, but Id say lets get to a place where we value people and appreciate people and have more empathy, said Cathy one afternoon.

Yeah, tolerate sounds more like when you take your medicine, said Jeff, and Cathy said that as a Christian, youre always in a position of trying.



Cathy sits in the sanctuary at Gary United Methodist Church. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

And so it was that five days before the election, Cathy drove to an early-voting center and cast her ballot for Hillary Clinton, who was raised in nearby Park Ridge and in her speeches often cited a Methodist creed: Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.

Beautiful day, said the voting clerk when Cathy checked in.

So beautiful, said Cathy, who felt slightly troubled at the sight of Trumps name on the ballot, but not troubled enough to believe that he could possibly win.

I have faith, she said, walking back to her car in the warm fall sun. I know some reasons why people are supporting him, and I think I understand. Maybe some are coming from broken places where life hasnt been so good. But I think his character is at the heart of it, and I think in their heart of hearts, people will have a question about his character in the end.

This is what Cathy believed as she went about her life in the days before the election. She believed this as she dropped off her library books at the community college. She believed it when she brought some winter hats to her church for a Christmas clothing drive and saw the boxes already full of donations. And she believed it as she drove through Wheaton, where fresh fall mums were clustered on corners and a Make a Difference Day banner was fluttering in front of city hall, and, in the days before the election, where the mayor said, I wonder how we are going to feel about ourselves after this.

Cathy had those worries, too. But she was sure which way her country would go, right up until Tuesday, when she and Jeff had a glass of red wine with dinner and turned on PBS in the background.

Wow, look at Florida, Jeff said.

They moved into the living room, and Jeff turned up the volume as a reporter talked about Trump holding his own in Georgia and North Carolina.

Those are some of the states hardest hit by the recession, Cathy said, looking concerned.

Now New Hampshire was wavering. Allie came home from her evening play rehearsal.

Her mom asked her, Missy, have you been following it?

Like everyone, Allie said, sitting on the floor and spreading out her homework, which included a college essay about a church mission trip to Guatemala, in which she wrote about how she came to understand what it feels like to be an outsider, albeit a privileged one, displaying an empathy and sensitivity that made her mother proud.

North Carolina was lost.

Can you believe it? Cathy said.

Pennsylvania and Ohio were falling to Trump.

Here I am in my little bubble, Cathy said to herself.

Wisconsin.

Wisconsin?! said Jeff, who was also from Racine, and now CNN was showing the Empire State Building with a huge smiling image of Trump projected on it.

My gosh, Cathy gasped. I just dont believe my nation is voting for that.

She began checking her Facebook page, worrying about her Muslim friend, who had just posted something that Cathy read out loud.

I will pray until the last moment  God bless America, and Cathy tried not to cry.

She went over and hugged Allie, and as the returns kept coming in, Cathy and Jeff were quiet.



From left, Jeff, Allie and Cathy taste a loaf of pumpkin bread that Cathy made earlier in the day. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

The next day, Allie went to school with a stomachache that Cathy knew was emotional, and after she finished watching the concession speech, she sent her daughter a quote from it about girls being able to do anything they wanted. Allie sent her mom a heart. Cathys phone rang.

Hey Kim, hows it going? she said to one of her best friends.

Yep, she said.

Yep. Its getting a little better each hour, she said, wishing that to be true.

In cities across the country, protests against Trump were beginning to break out, and there were reports of hate crimes and racial harassment spiking. Cathy turned off the television.

On the kitchen counter was a fundraising letter she needed to work on, and a thick envelope that was one of Allies first college acceptances. She checked her phone. A Methodist bishop had sent out a message: We must pray and work for the healing of the nation and the world . . . we must start in our own families and communities.

Cathy tried to start her day, the same as ever. She took a shower, got in her car and headed over to an elementary school to help set up for a fundraising breakfast. She stopped to pick up some donated food.

And here are your two large fruit trays, said the Chick-fil-A worker.

Oh, thank you! Cathy said in her sweetest possible tone.

Driving along, she noticed two young women wearing hijabs walking in the bright sunshine.

Im glad they dont feel afraid, Cathy said. I dont think they should be afraid.

She arrived at the school, walked into the library and looked around at the low shelves of cellophane-wrapped books and the tiny pastel chairs and construction-paper signs from a mock election between two book characters named President Squid and Bad Kitty. She inhaled.

I love the book smell, said Cathy, who thought that what she was going through was like the stages of grief. Maybe she was in shock or denial. She wondered whether she would ever reach acceptance.

Her fellow volunteers arrived, women shed known for years from church or her kids schools or some volunteer stint, and they draped table cloths and arranged fall leaf centerpieces in silence.

My emotions are everywhere, one of them finally said.

You know Clinton won in Wheaton, right? said Cathy, who had looked up the results.

Thank you for sharing that  thats comforting, the volunteer said.

I was thinking maybe I was in an echo chamber, and maybe we were just a little unaware, said Cathy, and then the women were quiet again, and Cathy was arranging flowers in little vases.



Cathy, 51, talks to her husband and church members at an annual nonprofit fundraising pancake breakfast. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

In these days after, she was thinking so many things. She wondered whether she really knew these fellow Americans who had voted for Trump, even the ones who were her neighbors. She wondered about herself. She knew her worst characteristics. She could be arrogant. She thought about what her pastor had said one Sunday, a parable about a Pharisee who did good works but lacked humility. Am I the Pharisee? Cathy wondered. Had she let that get in the way of listening more? Had she tried hard enough, been good enough? She worried about people who might now feel outcast. She put the vases on the tables. Her friend counted chairs.

Okay, Cathy said, looking it over, and the next morning, the Student Excellence Foundation breakfast was packed with chamber of commerce members, the local bank president, the mayor and others who talked over coffee about grants for science projects and remodeling the old library and how good it felt to be doing good. They spoke of anything except what had happened the day before.

This was great, someone said to Cathy as the event came to a close.

Its so good things like this are happening, someone else said as Cathy thanked them.

This was reassuring, said another resident, and this was how Cathy was trying to feel, too, and so later, she decided to attend a going-away party for a friend.

She headed for downtown Wheaton, past houses where the decorations were changing from Halloween to Thanksgiving. She parked and went inside the plain brick building that was the Peoples Resource Center, which everyone seemed to agree represented the very best of what a town could be, and where Cathy had spent many hours working.

Neighbor-to-neighbor help, was the slogan, and inside was a food pantry that was always full, and racks were always crammed with donated shirts and coats and shoes including the ones that the Mousseaus had dropped off. On any given day dozens of volunteers worked doing literacy or job training for struggling county residents that often included newly arrived refugees, many of whom, Cathy knew, were asking questions on this day about what a Trump future might mean.

Hiya, Cathy, said one of the volunteers.

Hiya, Joe, said Cathy, walking down a hallway plastered with photos of the smiling faces of refugees and their handwritten thank-you notes. Cathy looked at them.

Just beyond was the room where everyone was gathering for the goodbye party. A big goodbye cake was in the middle. And when Cathys friend came in, the volunteers and people just learning English sang Happy Trails.

This is really hard, Cathys friend said, beginning her farewell speech. She paused to keep her composure. I think each of you are here because we have shared values. We believe in dignity, respect, creativity, integrity, and then we work from those values and then we have a miracle.

Cathy nodded.

What we are doing here is creating Martin Luther Kings beloved community, right here, all of us, she said, looking around the room.

We must try to contribute joy to the world  we must try, she said, and when she finished everyone clapped for a long time.

Cathy gave her friend a hug and whispered thank you so much, and then she hurried out to her car. She had to get home. It was late afternoon, and as she walked quickly along the sidewalk, she started crying and found it difficult to stop.



Cathy looks out the window as she washes dishes in her kitchen. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

Sometimes, Cathy liked to take long walks in the woods near her house to clear her head, and early one morning she headed out. In Chappaqua, N.Y., Hillary Clinton happened to be out for a hike, too. In Washington, Trump was figuring out who would be in his Cabinet. In cities across the country, protests were carrying on.

In her own way, Cathy was trying to decide how to respond, and what she decided was to do what she always did. She would try to be better. She would try to listen more, care more, and be loving and kind to everyone, including people who voted for Trump. She would try.

Later, that evening, she put on an apron her mother made. She checked the squash in the oven, and put the shish kebabs on the grill

Allie! she called up the stairs to her daughter. You still want to eat early?

Yeah! Allie called back.

Cathy checked the kebabs and Jeff came down and began setting the table.

I saw Trump was at the White House today, he said, putting out the plates.

I think we cant spend our whole four years talking about that, Cathy said, tearing the lettuce.

It is kind of interesting, Jeff said, putting out the napkins, but what Cathy wanted to talk about now was her own life, her own family, her own town, which she was sure was the same as it was before the election. She had just received an email from her Muslim friend, saying she was heartened by all the support and love we as a community have been receiving.

No act of kindness is too small, she wrote.

I love that, Cathy said now. No act of kindness is too small.



Cathy looks at a post she put on Facebook about the need to make others feel loved and valued in the community after the election results. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

She thought about that. She was feeling stronger and stronger. In the days to come, she would write on her Facebook page: This is not as simple as good people of America vs. the bad people of America . . . we need to recognize that, understand that better and not feel afraid of our neighbors, friends, and fellow Americans.

Right now, though, she was thinking about Allie, whose play was opening tonight, and who came downstairs in her full theatrical makeup, ready for dinner, and picked up a binder she had left on the counter.

Someone spilled something on my binder, Allie said, trying to clean it.

Inside was a poem for speech team about mental illness and homelessness, which she prefaced by writing that her hope was to find sympathy for those we know nothing about. When she had rehearsed it for her mother, Cathy had cried.

Okay, were good, Jeff said now, bringing the kebabs to the table.

Where do you want to sit, Missy? Cathy said.

I dont care, I can sit at the head of the table, Allie said, and sat down.

Jeff sat down, and Cathy sat down.

Allie, how about you do the prayer tonight? Cathy said, and they bowed their heads.


Some of Donald Trumps most passionate GOP detractors  including Sens. Lindsey Graham, left, and Ben Sasse  are now taking a more optimistic tone. (Charles Ommanney/The Washington Post; Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via AP)

Ten months ago, Doug Heye was one of the Beltway Republicans doing their best to warn the party against getting into bed with Donald Trump  a man, he wrote in an op-ed, who would cause greater instability throughout the world at a time when the world looks to America for leadership.

The emperor doesnt have any clothes, the veteran Capitol Hill spokesman later declared on MSNBC. Theres no part of a Trump candidacy that I dont see as being a disaster for Republicans.

And now?

Well, there actually have been a number of positive signs, Heye said in a phone interview just days after Trumps surprise victory. There was that gracious acceptance speech, Heye noted. Plus, that seemingly stable meeting with President Obama. And the fact that they took down the Muslim ban from the website was heartening to me, he added.

Uh, Doug. You know, the Trump team put that proposal right back up on its site hours later.

Oh, I didnt realize that, Heye said. But the fact that it even got deleted is heartening to me.

If establishment Republicans are going through the stages of grief, it appears theyve reached the bargaining stage. All over town, erstwhile critics  who once described Trump as a betrayer of conservative values and an agent of chaos  are now, at least publicly, grasping for signs that maybe he wont be so bad after all.

Perhaps, they say, conservatives will finally get some quality judges on the Supreme Court? Maybe Trump will focus more on unraveling Obamacare than on deporting 11 million people living in this country illegally or registering Muslims into a database? Maybe now that hes president, they say, Trump will finally pivot to acting presidential?

So many tea leaves floating around this week. You can just pick and choose the ones you like.

[Obama in state of denial as Democrats work through the stages of grief]

That seems to be the new approach of Sen. Lindsey Graham  one of Trumps fiercest Republican critics during the campaign. When Trump announced Sunday that Steve Bannon, the former chief executive of the website Breitbart  a favorite periodical of white supremacists, known for taking aim at blacks, women, Muslims and Jews  would serve as his chief White House strategist, the senator from South Carolina responded only to the other half of the days news:

Congrats to @realDonaldTrump for outstanding choice of @Reince [Priebus] to be Chief of Staff, tweeted Graham, about the appointment of the Republican National Committee chair. This shows me he is serious about governing.

Wishful thinking has become our new national pastime, and because no one really knows what a Trump presidency will look like, its possible for everyone to hold out hope.

Elected Democrats are looking to the possibility of an infrastructure bill as a silver lining, while liberal commentators such as Nicholas Kristof ask readers to give President-elect Trump a chance.

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), the capitals most enduring GOP Never Trumper, is crossing his fingers that the president might work at ending cronyism. Super-lobbyist Trent Lott, the former Senate majority leader, has offered up his swamp-draining services.

[As GOPs anti-Trump, Sasse picked a big fight. What would it mean to win?]

This past week has reinforced that a President-elect Trump has the capacity to rise above the campaign mudslinging, said Lotts former spokesman, Ron Bonjean, now a PR strategist who does not count himself as a skeptical Republican. Ive always believed that if he can bring in a team around him of solid people and get away from the late-night Twitter accounts, this could be okay.

As it happened, Bonjean uttered these optimistic thoughts to a reporter after Trump issued a tweet blaming post-election demonstrations on professional protesters supposedly incited by the media but before his most recent Twitter rant about how the New York Times is supposedly failing. (Its doing quite well, actually.)

Erick Erickson, a conservative pundit who served as an outspoken critic of Trump from the right, is pushing back against what he sees as a lot of crying wolf about the president-elect. So he says hes giving Trump the benefit of the doubt. Even about controversial decisions such as hiring Bannon.

If Obama got [Valerie] Jarrett, Trump can have Bannon, he wrote for the Resurgent. And when the alt-right goes marching through Washington or people start trying to round up Jews because of it, then we can raise the issue and provide shelter to those in need. But there is no guarantee that will happen.

(No guarantee. Whew.)

Heye maintained that he doesnt see his role or his stance changing all that much from before the election: If Trump does something good, hell compliment him for it, he said. If Trump reverts to his campaign behavior, hell call him out.

I never really called myself a Never Trump person, he said. I just said Im not voting for the guy.

Somehow, though, amid the rubble, a dwindling number of unwavering Trump skeptics on the right still live and breathe.

Winning the election doesnt change my opinion about him, said Ben Howe, an editor at the conservative website RedState. Ive said from the beginning that he is a sociopath, that he is unstable and dangerous, that his views on nuclear proliferation are dangerous and that he will put people in positions to influence him that are dangerous. So far, he hasnt done anything to convince me otherwise.

Howe said hes not surprised that so many people have traded in their skepticism for optimism. He realizes that some people believe it is their patriotic duty to show their support for the president and that others are just so tired of the chaos of the campaign that they are desperate to make things seem normal again.

And he understands that some critics believe they owe the unpredictable businessman the benefit of the doubt. He just doesnt see it that way.

Its a lot of pretending like this is an innocent-until-proven-guilty type of situation, Howe said. The problem is, the campaign was the trial. Ive seen the evidence, and Ive made a decision based on that.

There is, however, one possibility that Howe wont rule out.

The only thing Im open to now is that I could be wrong, he said. Im fine being wrong. Being wrong would be great.
On U.S. News & World Reports Best Cruises Lines rankings, Celebrity Cruises earned gold for being the best for your wallet and for Mediterranean itineraries, a first for the company. (Kostas Tsironis/Bloomberg)

Picking a cruise line can be as challenging as choosing a soul mate. Which one gets you and shares your (vacation) values? Which one indulges your diva style or, conversely, doesnt max out your credit cards? Which one likes your kids and your kids like back?

To help make the perfect match, U.S. News & World Report released its ranking of best cruise lines. The survey judged 15 major cruise lines in six critical categories: destination (Caribbean, Mediterranean), demographics (families, couples) and budget (affordability, luxury). The publication evaluates the cruise lines only once a year; it updates its ship rankings throughout the year.

Three cruise lines dominated the top spots. Celebrity Cruises earned gold for being the best for your wallet and for Mediterranean itineraries, a first for the company. Disney Cruise Line upheld its four-year winning streak in the families and Caribbean departments. And Crystal Cruises kept its crown for luxury and couples.

[Despite the Caribbean countrys name, Turks and Caicos is not a duo like Batman and Robin]

In addition to the numerical listings, the experts shared the thinking behind their selections  character profiles, if you will. In Best Cruise Lines for the Money, the reviewers described Celebrity this way: With only nine ships in the fleet, Celebrity offers the floating-city experience of larger ships while maintaining the service standard and intimacy of smaller lines. And you cant beat the affordable rates, which can be as little as $100 per person per night. Royal Caribbean, the second-place winner, earned praise because having the ability to accommodate thousands of guests per ship allows the company to keep rates low. Cruisers, they noted for that entry, can find trips for less than $150 per person per night. Plus, the price tag covers most of the onboard frills and thrills.

Even the cruise lines on the bottom rungs garnered some positive attention. For the Caribbean, MSC Cruises took 13th place, but dont let the unlucky number dissuade you from booking an island cruise: MSC doesnt tout as many Caribbean itineraries as other lines on this ranking  just two of its ships, the MSC Divina and MSC Poesia, are sailing to the region in 2017  but its routes stop in popular ports of call like Jamaica, the Bahamas and Trinidad & Tobago.

To compile its rankings, the publication culled scores from experts (the reports editors), travelers (as found on Cruiseline.com) and health records (based on the Vessel Sanitation Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

Heres a look at the rankings:

For the Money

1. Celebrity Cruises

2. Royal Caribbean International

3. Norwegian Cruise Line

For Luxury

1. Crystal Cruises

2. Regent Seven Seas

3. Oceania Cruises

For Families

1. Disney Cruise Line

2. Royal Caribbean International

3. Carnival Cruise Lines

For Couples

1. Crystal Cruises

2. Regent Seven Seas Cruises

3. Azamara Club Cruises

In the Mediterranean

1. Celebrity Cruises

2. Regent Seven Seas Cruises

3. Oceania Cruises

In the Caribbean

1. Disney Cruise Line

2. Celebrity Cruises

3. Crystal Cruises

For the full report, see travel.usnews.com/cruises.

More from Travel:

Toy animals come to life on a factory tour of the Vermont Teddy Bear Company

England takes first place  and three more spots  in ranking of Europe hotels

Still finding kicks on Route 66
The two leaders spoke over phone and discussed issues including shared threats, strategic economic issues and the US-Russia relationship.

By PTI: US President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin today spoke over phone for the first time and agreed on the need for jointly working to normalise "extremely unsatisfactory state" of ties between the two nations.

Putin "called to offer his congratulations on winning a historic election," according to a Trump statement. The two leaders discussed issues including shared threats, strategic economic issues and the US-Russia relationship.

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PUTIN CONGRATULATES TRUMP



The Russian President was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Trump last Wednesday, sending him a telegram about an hour after he had emerged the victor, but the two have not met nor had they spoken previously.

"President-elect Trump told President Putin that he is looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the people of Russia," a statement by Trump's transition team said.

ALSO READ: Trump elected 45th US President, says it's time to renew American dream

EXTREMELY UNSATISFACTORY RELATION



According to the Kremlin, Trump and Putin agreed on "the extremely unsatisfactory" state of relations between the two countries and "declared the need for active joint work to normalise them."

ALSO WATCH



The two leaders said they would work to "bring them (bilateral ties) to the framework of constructive cooperation".

Citing the Russian leader, the Kremlin statement added that this new relationship will be based "on the principles of equality, mutual respect and respective non-involvement in the other party's domestic affairs".

ALSO READ: Lesser known Donald Trump facts: At 13, parents wanted him to behave

FIGHTING TERROR TOGETHER



The statement said that Putin and Trump agreed on combating "global enemy number one" -- international terrorism and extremism.

Officials are now working to arrange a personal meeting between the two leaders, the statement said.

During the US presidential campaign, senior American security officials accused Russia of hacking the computers at the Democratic National Committee headquarters and releasing emails that proved embarrassing to Hillary Clinton campaign. Putin denied any state role in the hacking.

ALSO READ: Congrats President elect Donald Trump: Barack Obama makes the call

THE COLD WAR HISTORY



Relations between the two countries have soured in recent years, despite President Barack Obama starting his eight years in office by calling for a "reset" with one of the US long-term rivals.

While Russia and the US have managed to work together on issues like North Korea and Iran, they have openly clashed on Syria.

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Obama has also condemned Russia's intervention on the side of pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine, while Russia's decision to grant whistleblower Edward Snowden asylum infuriated Washington.

ALSO READ: Donald trumps Hillary Clinton. Says he will be President of all Americans, rebuild

ALSO READ: President-elect Donald Trump: Will work for a dollar in salary and no vacations



--- ENDS ---
Students from high schools throughout Washington gathered at the Trump International Hotel on Nov. 15 to protest Donald Trumps election. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

The election of Donald Trump has Democratic cities from Washington to Los Angeles vowing to protect undocumented residents from being deported, even at the risk of losing millions of dollars in federal funding.

As many as 400 places across the country could be affected by Trumps campaign promise to deny federal funds to what some call sanctuary cities and counties, jurisdictions that have broken with some aspect of federal deportation policy.

In most cases, the sanctuary label means a refusal to cooperate with federal authorities seeking to deport undocumented immigrants who have been arrested for local violations  often by not honoring requests to hold such inmates beyond their scheduled release dates.

But the term could also apply to jurisdictions that prohibit their agencies from denying services to people who are in the country illegally, inquiring about immigration status or alerting federal authorities to suspected illegal immigration.

That puts the District, Prince Georges County, Baltimore and several other jurisdictions in the region on the potential hit list.

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

[Not all sanctuary jurisdictions are liberal]

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and the mayors of Chicago, New York and Los Angeles say they will stand by their policies, arguing that to have local authorities crack down on illegal immigration would destroy the trust in police that law enforcement relies on and would wreak havoc on schools, hospitals and other community institutions.

We know that our neighborhoods are safer and stronger when no one is afraid to call on our government for help, and when our police can focus on protecting and serving, Bowser said this week.

Trump pledged during his campaign to withhold federal funds from sanctuary cities and counties  part of a set of promises to deport illegal immigrants and build a wall along the Mexican border to prevent others from coming into the country.

Although Trump offered some specifics about his deportation plans in an interview Sunday night on CBSs 60 Minutes, saying he would target those who have criminal records or are drug dealers, gang members, the president-elect has not clarified which sanctuary cities he would seek to punish or how he would attempt to do it.

Conservative groups say punitive measures against local governments that refuse to hand over those immigrants to federal authorities are crucial, even if it means hurting local schools, community development projects or other services.

They can attach any set of criteria to any aspect of federal funding to try to incentivize cooperation with immigration, Dan Stein, president of the Federation for Immigration Reform, said about the Republican-controlled Congress. They could withhold money for highways, for education, for all kinds of things.

Sanctuary laws received national attention in July 2015 after an illegal immigrant with prior deportations and a criminal history pleaded not guilty to murdering a woman at a San Francisco pier. President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to cut federal funding to sanctuary cities. Here's what they are. (Jayne W. Orenstein and Osman Malik/The Washington Post)

[Uncertainty, acrimony surface in Trumps transition effort]

However, with 48 Democrats expected to be in the Senate, passing such legislation could be challenging.

Several bills seeking to withhold federal funds from sanctuary cities have failed in recent years  including one last year that sponsored by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) that focused on two law-enforcement grant programs and Community Development Block Grants that provide money for affordable housing, infrastructure and anti-poverty programs.

Until we end all dangerous and illegal sanctuary city policies . . . the obvious first step is to withhold federal funding from those cities refusing to comply with federal immigration laws, Vitter said Tuesday.

Such a move would be difficult, said Alan Berube, a senior fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program of the Brookings Institution.

Unwinding all those federal-local fiscal relationships is a very complicated, legislative, rulemaking, multiyear task that you cannot achieve by executive order alone, Berube said. That doesnt mean the president-elect might not try to do that, but hell likely face a bunch of lawsuits if he does.

Jessica Vaughan, director of policy for the Center for Immigration Studies, said a possible template for future legislation lies in a Justice Department review already underway. It threatens to withhold law enforcement grant money from 10 sanctuary jurisdictions, including New York, Chicago, California and Connecticut, if they dont change their policies.

The review, launched earlier this year by the Obama administration, so far involved sending letters to those jurisdictions asking them to certify that theyre in compliance with a federal law that requires local governments to share information about undocumented immigrants.

In many cases, the affected grants expire in 2017 and may not be renewed if the policies dont change, officials said.

At its most fundamental level, this is a law enforcement issue, Vaughan said. If there are jurisdictions that want to cling to their sanctuary policies no matter what, I think the federal government ought to look to litigation to try to compel them to change their policy.

While several local jurisdictions  including Fairfax and Arlington counties  say they cooperate fully with federal immigration authorities, others that do not are gearing up for the possibility of a confrontation with the Trump administration.

[On Ivy League campuses, sudden demand for sanctuary policies]

At an emotional news conference Tuesday, Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) said his government is prepared to lose federal funds by not assisting immigration officials with investigations unless there is a warrant or federal court order requiring cooperation.

This is about doing what is right, Leggett said. So from my perspective, if Im faced with the choice of having to lose some federal dollars and run the risk of having our citizens treated in an undignified way, disrespected and hauled off to jail and separated from their families, then Ill have to lose the dollars.

In Takoma Park, Md., just outside the District, officials are notifying residents that they do not plan to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. Since 1985, the city of 17,000 people has prohibited police and other employees from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. It also allows non-U.S. citizens to vote in its local elections.

Mayor Kate Stewart said the city council is discussing what to do if it loses about $90,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant money. Some wealthier residents have volunteered to chip in to replace any lost federal funds.

There are already residents who are willing to step up to help our community, Stewart said. Thats what kind of community we have.

Bill Turque contributed to this report.
THE DISTRICT

Shooting victim dies of his wounds

A man was fatally wounded Monday night in Southeast Washington, D.C. police said.

They said Willie Washington, 23, of Southeast died after being shot around 11:10 p.m. in the 4300 block of Third Street SE.

 Peter Hermann

MARYLAND

Added federal charges in school porn case

A former elementary school volunteer accused of producing child pornography involving children as young as 9 has been indicted on two additional sex charges by a federal grand jury.

Deonte Carraway, 23, of Glenarden now faces 15 federal counts of sexual exploitation of a minor to produce child pornography, in addition to 270 Prince Georges County charges.The added federal charges involve no new victims.

 Lynh Bui

Man is fatally shot in Bladensburg

A Cheverly man was fatally shot Monday night, according to Prince Georges County police.

They said Karl Sellers Jr., 28, was found about 10:30 p.m. in the 5000 block of 57th Avenue in Bladensburg.

 Lynh Bui

VIRGINIA

A fugitive no longer; police nab errant emu

An emu on the lam was picked up Tuesday morning after escaping from a Haymarket farm, Prince William County police said.

The jailbird appeared well behaved and was taken into custody without incident, authorities said.

 Justin Wm. Moyer

THE Region

Federal agents stop suspect in Metro fight

A U.S. Border Patrol agent and a deputy U.S. marshal, both off duty, joined to stop a suspect Monday after a fight broke out in a Metro train, authorities said.

When the suspect, who apparently had a knife, got off a Yellow Line train at Braddock Road, the two ordered him to the ground and held him for transit police, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said. They said he was charged with possession of cocaine and attempted malicious wounding.

The agent had been on her way home.

As quoted by the agency, she described her role in time-honored law enforcement fashion: I was just doing my job, she said. This is what we train for every day.

 Martin Weil
More than 2,000 D.C. middle school and high school students joined nationwide protests on Tuesday, following the election of Donald Trump on Nov. 8. (Ashleigh Joplin/The Washington Post)

More than 2,000 D.C. middle school and high school students joined nationwide protests on Tuesday, following the election of Donald Trump on Nov. 8. (Ashleigh Joplin/The Washington Post)

The students poured out of class, then crammed into Metro stations throughout the city. They crowded downtown streets carrying signs, marching and chanting until they arrived at the Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Many couldnt vote in this election, but they wanted to put a voice to their frustrations.

More than 2,000 D.C. middle school and high school students ditched classes Tuesday afternoon to protest the election of Donald Trump, telling the president-elect that, despite his campaigns divisive rhetoric, their diverse student bodies would remain united.

This isnt an anti-Donald Trump rally, said Jordan Johnson, a 17-year-old senior at McKinley Technology Education Campus in Northeast Washington. Were coming out here to display unity, despite all thats happened these past few years.

Wilson High School students in Northwest organized the protest, which ultimately attracted students from schools throughout the city. Students from Dunbar High, Eastern High, D.C. International School, BASIS, Columbia Heights Education Campus and more joined, marching from Trumps hotel to the Capitol to the Supreme Court, closing the eastbound lanes of Pennsylvania Avenue along the way. Some of the participants then marched down Independence Avenue to the Mall, eventually landing at the Washington Monument and White House.

[In elections wake, racist incidents have schools on edge]

Students from around D.C. gather at the Trump Hotel in Washington. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

Students said they know that their protests wont change the outcome of the election, but they said they want to make their demands heard in the nations seat of power.

We want him to have a sneak peek of what we want, said Kimberly Manalang, a 17-year-old senior at Wilson.

Because they couldnt vote, the students want President-elect Trump to know that they are engaged, and maybe even help change some of his opinions.

We are a diverse school and accepting environment, and we feel the Trump administration is going to try and divide us, said Pearl Strand, a 17-year-old Wilson senior. We are protesting to show we are united.

Johan Ramirez, 16, a Columbia Heights senior, said he was surprised at the robust turnout: I see people really care. These are big issues.

The students chanted and rallied about climate change, reproductive rights, tolerance and immigration. Love trumps hate, they screamed, followed by our bodies, our choice. Some rejected Trump as their president, and others chanted No KKK, no racist U.S.A. Teenage girls wore shirts that said Nasty Woman and other, more explicit shirts, such as one that read: P---y grabs back, a reference to an incendiary remark Trump made in a leaked 2005 recording during which he made vulgar comments about pursuing women.

One student managed to climb atop a 20-foot-tall statue of Benjamin Franklin in front of the newly opened Trump hotel. The protest was peaceful, and D.C. police, who were aware of the protest beforehand and provided an escort while students marched, said they made no arrests.

1 of 9 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  High school students in Md. protest Trumps election View Photos The walkout began at Montgomery Blair High, and students from other schools soon joined in. Caption The walkout began at Montgomery Blair High, and students from other schools soon joined in. High school students lock arms as they march in downtown Silver Spring after leaving their schools in Montgomery County, Md., on Monday. The students marched to the Civic Center in Silver Spring as a form of peaceful protest. Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

The anti-Trump sentiment in the District after the election is no surprise: In the nations capital the Republican got 11,000 votes, or 4 percent of total ballots cast, his lowest share anywhere in the United States.

[President Trump, dont count on a visit from the Welcome Wagon]

The students in Washington joined others across the country who have protested since Trumps surprise victory in the Nov. 8 election. Most of the student protests have been centered in areas where Democrat Hillary Clinton won at the polls, including in states on both coasts, in major cities and on college campuses nationwide.

[High school students in Montgomery County protest Trumps election]

The D.C. students protest came a day after hundreds of students at a Maryland high school in Montgomery County walked out of their classes and into the streets to protest Trumps election. That march initially involved students at Montgomery Blair High School but gained strength as peers from nearby schools joined them throughout the day. George Washington University students also participated in an anti-bigotry rally Tuesday in front of the White House, demanding that their school issue statements vowing to protect minority students and reproductive health care on campus.

D.C. officials had been aware of the planned high school protest since this past weekend, with students using social media to spread information about the event. Kimberly Martin, Wilsons principal, sent an email to the school community Monday morning emphasizing that the protest was not a sanctioned school event and that students who miss class would receive unexcused absences.

But Martin wrote that school administrators and teachers defend students rights to peaceful protest and self expression.

Wilson Social Studies teachers, and many other teachers, empower students to be inquisitive, informed, and engaged citizens who use critical thinking, inquiry and literacy to prepare for college, careers, and civic life, Martin wrote in the email. However, students will be reminded to follow their regular class schedule, as we cannot ensure the safety of any student that chooses to leave the school before dismissal.

[Trump just laid out a pretty radical student debt plan]

Some charter schools not only allowed their students to attend but also had teachers and administrators accompany them to the protest.

Tim Shaw, an eighth-grade humanities teacher at Capital City Public Charter Middle School, said civic engagement is an important component of the schools curriculum; the school encouraged students to attend the rally if they had parental permission.

Once we heard about it, we really wanted to get our students to participate in peaceful public assembly. Its a human right, Shaw said. We are really trying to teach students how to be involved and participate in the democratic process.

Hasinatu Camara, 72, cried as she watched the young students protesting in front of the Trump hotel. The D.C. native said watching the students Tuesday reminded her of when she was young in the 1960s, witnessing the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee compel change through protest during the civil rights movement.

But the color line is not here anymore like it was back then, she said. When I watched SNCC  they were young, and they were fearless. They were led by people like Stokely Carmichael and Marion Barry. These could be Marion Barrys grandkids.

T. Rees Shapiro contributed to this report.
Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders elevated the issue of college affordability with campaign proposals to make public higher education free for the vast majority of American families, but those prospects have faded with the election of Donald Trump.

Trump policy adviser Sam Clovis made it clear during the campaign that the Republican would not support free public higher education, calling the idea absurd in an interview with Inside Higher Ed. And with congressional Republicans calling for the federal government to dial back its role in education, the chances of a federal-state partnership to lower the cost of college appear slim.

Proponents of debt-free college, nevertheless, remain convinced that the movement still has legs. They say underlying concerns about skyrocketing student debt and price barriers in higher education are as relevant as ever. And even without federal support, they say, theres enough momentum at the state level to keep the movement alive.

We woke up Wednesday morning and the anxiety around college prices, around student debt didnt go away, said Mark Huelsman, a senior policy analyst at the left-leaning think tank Demos who helped build the framework for the debt-free-college initiative. The movement and the energy around meaningfully addressing college affordability doesnt go away. The tactics just shift.

[Trump just laid out a pretty radical student debt plan]

Though Trump has largely been silent on higher-education policy, late in the campaign he promised to work with Congress to ensure universities, especially those with hefty endowments, are making a good-faith effort to reduce the cost of college and student debt in exchange for federal tax breaks and funding. Exactly what that would entail is unclear; Trumps transition team, which did not respond to requests for comment, has been silent on the issue.

Clovis has argued that there is no need for the federal government to partner with states to make community college free, a plan heralded by President Obama, because two-year schools are already affordable.

[Trumps win leaves Obamas higher-education initiatives in doubt]

There are at least 85 initiatives at the municipal and state level aiming to cover the cost of tuition at community colleges, according to the Upjohn Institute. Tennessee, Oregon and Minnesota have free community-college programs, with Tennessees model getting praise from Obama as a viable path for reducing higher-education costs.

All we can do is go to the places where the conditions are friendly and see how this model works to the best of our ability, said Sara Goldrick-Rab, a professor of higher-education policy and sociology at Temple University. And then when there are more-favorable conditions at the federal level, hopefully well have evidence and the case will be strengthened.

State legislatures have been paying greater attention to college costs as local employers demand some form of postsecondary education. Workforce development anchors proposals making their way through solidly red states such as Mississippi and Oklahoma. At least eight other states with varying political leanings are considering legislation, while dozens of cities are taking it upon themselves to establish programs, said Celeste Carruthers, an associate professor at the University of Tennessee.

These programs are gaining popularity at the state level and would be hard to walk back even if there is no support at the federal level, she said. It is difficult to imagine how this patchwork of very different programs would have coalesced under one federal movement.

Even as the idea of debt-free college gained national attention during the presidential campaign, it created division within higher education. Policy experts bristled at the idea of subsidizing the education of wealthy students and pointed out that tuition is just one of many expenses contributing to higher college costs. Others said public universities simply do not have the capacity to absorb the additional students who would be enticed to enroll and worried that covering tuition for everyone would be a waste of scarce resources. Clintons higher-education plan called for a $450 billion investment.

It wasnt a policy that was really ready for prime time at the federal level, said Matthew Chingos, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute. There were too many unanswered questions about whether this was the best use of limited public resources. If were going to make college free, that means doing less for low-income people.

Leaders at private universities also took issue with the idea of the federal government giving public colleges and universities an advantage in enrolling students. Small liberal-arts schools fighting against waning enrollment and tuition revenue were especially vocal in their dissent.

Susan West Engelkemeyer, president of Nichols College in Massachusetts, wrote in The Washington Post that she had major concerns about the impact free public college would have on private schools such as hers, and she encouraged lawmakers to consider alternatives. She said the federal government could instead double the investment in the Pell grant program, a federal financial aid program aimed at families making less than $60,000 a year. Pouring more money into that effort could knock out a substantial amount of the cost of college, she said.

We could increase Pell 10 times and be under Clintons estimated costs, she said. There are ways that we can approach this that are more rational, less disruptive for small privates that are tuition driven and public institutions that rely on out-of-state tuition for their budget.

Pell plays a critical role in the tuition-free proposals in the states, as many of them would cover tuition after the federal grant is applied. While Senate Republicans have backed efforts to expand Pell funding, their colleagues in the House have stymied legislation that would make the grant available throughout the academic year. That not only leaves the prospects for an expansion up in the air but also calls into question whether the existing funding levels will continue in the next administration.
Nathan Leonard, left, a transgender high school student from Watertown, S.D., and Scout Brown, also from Watertown, stand outside the South Dakota State Capitol in Pierre on Feb. 23. (Jay Pickthorn/Associated Press)

Peter and Sarah Tchoryk want you to know that their child  who they thought was their daughter, but who insisted he is their son  was anxious and despairing until he started living as a boy, with a haircut and a new name.

Louis and Ea Porter want you to know how shocked they were when their teenager came out as transgender, how deeply frightened they were for their childs safety after they went on national television to advocate for other young transgender people.

And Joanne Lee wants you to know what it feels like to have lost her transgender son to suicide, how it feels to live with her deep regret over not telling him that she loved him as he was and that she would protect him no matter what.

I had an endless amount of love, but I didnt speak up or stand up for him, Lee said. I didnt understand his immeasurable pain.

They are a few of more than a dozen parents who have joined with the Human Rights Campaign, the nations largest LGBT rights organization, to advocate for transgender people at a time when transgender rights are at the center of the nations culture wars.

[Gavin Grimm just wanted to use the bathroom. He didnt think the nation would debate it.]

During the past year, more than a dozen states considered bills that would restrict transgender students access to bathrooms at school, directly contradicting an Obama administration directive to schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms that match their gender identity. That directive  and the nations school policies regarding transgender access to bathrooms and locker rooms  are the subject of a case that is now with the Supreme Court.

[Supreme Court takes up school bathroom rules for transgender students]

The new Parents for Transgender Equality Council is an effort to harness the power of personal stories to change peoples minds, and to replace hazy generalities about transgender people with individual children who are fiercely loved by their families.

I just want to be able to say to our children when they leave home, Have a good day, and Ill see you when you get back,  said Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), the grandfather of a transgender girl, who spoke at a gathering in D.C. on Monday to announce the council.

[Transgender students bathroom access at front of LGBT rights battle]

The parents group has been in the works for some time as a way to counter a wave of what the Human Rights Campaign describes as anti-transgender legislation. Advocates point to South Dakota, where Gov. Dennis Daugaard (R) vetoed a bathroom bill just days after he met with transgender youth, citing it as an example of how personal stories can make a difference.

[South Dakota governor vetoes bathroom bill]

Parents said the results of last weeks presidential election have increased their intensity and resolve in the fight to protect their children.

The Republican Party, which will now control the presidency and both chambers of Congress, rejects President Obamas push for transgender students bathroom access as illegal and dangerous in its official platform.

Opponents of the administrations guidance say it creates a safety risk and violates the privacy of children who shouldnt have to share bathrooms and locker rooms with people of the opposite biological sex, regardless of their gender identity.

But the members of the new parent council say that refusing to acknowledge a childs gender identity endangers that childs life. Rates of suicide and depression among transgender people are notoriously high, but a recent University of Washington study showed that transgender youth who are supported by family members have far lower rates of anxiety and depression than had been recorded in other studies.

I would like to remind the people who were elected, we also are your constituents, said Debi Jackson, the mother of a transgender girl named Avery. Please help us guarantee that our child has the same rights as everyone else.

Tchoryk and several other parents described feeling devastated by an election that ushered into power many leaders, at the state and national levels, who have resolved to challenge the Obama administrations effort to protect transgender children under Title IX, a federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex.

That was my first thought, said Vanessa Ford, the mother of a transgender girl, who called Obamas guidance a massive thing that would be easy for President-elect Donald Trump to unilaterally undo. But Ford, a member of the council along with her husband, JR Ford, said she doesnt want transgender children and their families to believe that they are doomed.

There is a lot of hope, and there are a lot of people fighting, she said.

[Parents of transgender child: Our magnetic 5-year-old is not a threat]

Jackson said her daughter was so miserable before she transitioned that she tried to kill herself at age 4, unbuckling her seat belt and reaching for the car door latch as the family hurtled down a highway.

We do not have a right as a person or a society to impose our own views of gender on someone else, she said.

The members of the parent council hail from across the country. They are of different faiths and races. But they all say that anyone who believes that being transgender is a choice or a delusion must meet their children, who are insistent and persistent about their gender identity.

Im convinced if people could get to know a transgender kid and their family, Peter Tchoryk said, the fear and insecurities . . . would go away. He said his sons anxiety and tantrums eased after he and his wife acknowledged that he wasnt just a tomboy, but a boy.

I understand if you dont have a transgender kid this may be very tough for you to wrap your head around, Tchoryk said.
A student discovered a racial slur on the wall of a boys restroom at a Maryland elementary school last week and told a teacher, but officials said the teacher did not take immediate action to report the incident.

The principal at Sligo Creek Elementary School in Montgomery County said in a letter sent to parents Monday that a teacher failed to report the graffiti slur to the schools main office and that a building service worker cleaned it away Thursday evening.

Administrators learned of the slur Monday morning, apparently from concerned parents.

We are very saddened by this incident, Principal Diantha Swift wrote in the letter. It is offensive. This type of behavior will not be tolerated.

Swift said the school would use this as a teachable moment and would continue to focus on a rigorous instructional program in a caring environment to develop responsible citizens.

Montgomery County school district officials said they are investigating, including trying to determine the exact wording of the slur.

Before the school alerted parents Monday, one mother raised the issue in a parents email group, writing that her son was among the children who discovered the graffiti and that it read: Kill Kill Kill Blacks.

Other parents from the Silver Spring school weighed in quickly, describing the act as unacceptable, questioning the delay in taking action and saying they would get involved to help.

I think its appalling, and I think the schools reaction to it is underwhelming, to say the least, Simone Cote, a parent of two children at the school, said in an interview. Its more than a racial slur, its a hate crime.

Cote said she thinks its important to be clear with students that such behavior will not be tolerated and will be met with severe consequences, while also ensuring that teachers and staff members are trained on how to address such issues immediately.

Everybody should be on the same page and know what to do in situations like this, she said.

Donne Settles Allen, who has two African American sons in the schools language-immersion program, said she was disgusted when she read about the graffiti and thinks its more important than ever for parents to honestly talk about race and racism.

I always felt very welcome at the school, and that feeling immediately dissipated, she said, describing it as very painful for me to trust the school environment if stronger efforts are not made to educate children about racism.

Montgomery County police were called in to investigate Monday. Were looking at it as a hate-based incident, said Montgomery County Police Capt. Paul Starks. Were taking it seriously.

School district officials said the teacher who failed to report the graffiti forgot about it on the day it happened and emailed school administrators Saturday.

Officials said they could not discuss any possible action against the teacher, which would be considered a confidential personnel matter. The building services worker also did not report the graffiti after discovering it and cleaning it up, they said.

Derek Turner, a spokesman for the 159,000-student Montgomery County school system, said the district is looking into an uptick in hate-inspired vandalism in recent weeks.

[Middle school administrators find swastikas in a boys bathroom]

Administrators at Westland Middle School in Bethesda last week found numerous images of a swastika drawn on a boys bathroom wall, the second recent incident at Westland.

In October, swastikas were spray-painted on sidewalks, a telephone pole and a school banner outside Burning Tree Elementary School in Bethesda. It is unclear if they are related to the Westland incident.

Montgomery County Schools Superintendent Jack Smith called the trend disturbing and unacceptable in a statement Tuesday, adding that the acts violate school policy and the law and are simply wrong. Smith said students who commit such offenses will be disciplined to the fullest extent possible.

Smith said that district officials are working with police as they investigate and that while Montgomery schools respect the right to free speech, administrators wont tolerate hate-based speech or behavior in school communities.
President Barack Obama meets with President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House on Nov. 10. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

My dad, who is 92, often talks about the racial progress that has occurred during his lifetime. The stories are always uplifting but sometimes come with sobering caveats.

I remember when the first black policeman was hired in Shreveport, in 1954, said Dad, referring to the city in Louisiana where I was born three years earlier. But he wasnt allowed to arrest white people.

Or: After World War II, black people started making enough money to buy cars in large numbers. But the police started harassing them the way they harassed black pedestrians.

Dad was born in Dermott, Ark., in 1924  a time when racism in America was worse than it had been since the Civil War. Historian Rayford Logan described the period from the end of Reconstruction in 1877 until well into the 20th century as the nadir of American race relations.

In Dads view, the outcome of the recent presidential election was just a variation on a historic theme. Political gains made by blacks during Reconstruction  including the election of a black governor in Louisiana and two black U.S. senators from Mississippi  had been lost in a bloody backlash by the Ku Klux Klan and other white terrorists.

Now Barack Obama, the nations first black president, has been succeeded by Donald Trump, a white populist who has vowed to turn back the clock on Obamas most progressive accomplishments.

[Obamas legacy is on the line with Trumps win]

Dad had certainly seen his share of politicians who used race to stir up fear and resentment among white voters. William M. Willie Rainach, for instance, an arch-racist who served as a Louisiana state senator from 1940 to 1960 and led the states massive resistance movement against racial desegregation.

Every time Rainach ran for office, he talked about [the n-word] this and [the n-word] that, creating a frenzy among poor whites, Dad recalled. Efforts to suppress the black vote intensified  as they did during the latest presidential campaign. But instead of being required to produce voter IDs, black people back then had to pay a poll tax, show proof of good conduct and pass a literacy tests.

One such test required the prospective voter to interpret a randomly selected clause from either the U.S. or state constitution. A white registrar would determine if the answer was correct.

I have an uncle  my mothers brother, also 92  who was born in Saluda County, S.C. He recalls another common voter suppression tactic.

If you tried to vote, your house could be shot up in a Ku Klux Klan drive-by, as ours was, he said.

Listening to both men, I am awed by what they and millions of others managed to accomplish despite the virulent racism of their day. To be sure, many others were not so fortunate. But it is a modern day miracle that so many of them survived and thrived.

In Earle, there were no high schools for blacks. Dad had to leave for St. Louis and live with an aunt while getting his high school diploma. After working several low paying jobs, he was able to attend Tuskegee Institute, now a university, where he met my mother. Both came to Shreveport to take jobs at a newly built high school for blacks. He was a high school journalism teacher; she taught typing and shorthand. Dad also started his own business  a printing and photography company  which he ran for 40 years.

In Saluda, my uncle had to walk 14 miles to school, round trip, because blacks were not allowed to ride school buses with whites. And there were no buses for blacks. But he persevered, earning a high school diploma and also attending Tuskegee. He became a veterinarian and maintained a successful practice in Detroit before retiring.

Along with hard work and help from family and friends, both of them say several presidents didnt hinder their achievement.

Some, they say, made a positive difference. Civil rights laws championed from Franklin Roosevelt to Lyndon Johnson cracked open many a door. But there was a caveat: Blacks still had to work twice as hard to get half as much.

Other presidents were not so admired. Both Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan used modern day versions of the Willie Rainach racial dog whistle to win white votes. The election of Obama gave them hope that a more enlightened nation was emerging.

Instead, they got Donald Trump.

When it comes to civil rights for black people, its always been three steps forward, Dad said, adding the caveat and two steps back.

To read previous columns, go to washingtonpost.com/milloy.
The resignation of three veteran Democrats from the Maryland Senate has triggered jockeying for their seats in the State House, and could rekindle a debate about whether to use such openings to boost the careers of political insiders or bring in new leadership.

Candidates have been lining up for weeks  and, in some cases, since Marylands primary last April  in anticipation of the departures of Sens. Jamie Raskin (D-Montgomery), who was elected to Congress last week; Catherine Pugh (D-Baltimore City), who won the race to be mayor of Baltimore; and Sen. Ulysses Currie (D-Prince Georges), who is stepping down because his health is declining.

Each vacancy will be filled by the affected jurisdictions Democratic Central Committee, which often holds a public forum featuring potential candidates before making a recommendation to Gov. Larry Hogan (R) on whom to appoint.

We were getting calls right after the primary about Raskins seat, said Darryl Anderson, chair of the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee. I think that list is going to change daily. Its going to be a very tough decision because there are some great candidates.

Democratic Dels. David Moon and William C. Smith Jr., who were elected in 2014 and who both served in District 20 with Raskin, are considered the front-runners. Community activist Debbie Spielberg and Howard University business professor Darian Unger also have expressed interest. Anderson said he has heard the names of three other possible candidates as well: former county council member Valerie Ervin; Will Jawando, who competed with Raskin and others in the congressional primary; and former delegate Bill Bronrott.

Those interested in the seat can appear at a forum Thursday night at the Silver Spring Civic Center. The county Central Committee will make its decision on Dec. 7. If either Moon or Smith are selected, the committee will then have to decide who should fill that open delegate seat.

In January, the central committee tapped Del. Craig J. Zucker (D-Montgomery), to fill a seat vacated by retiring Sen. Karen S. Montgomery. Former delegate Herman Taylor, who had also expressed interest, accused the committee of lining up behind Zucker, who had the backing of party leaders, and not fully considering him as a candidate.

In an email to Democratic officials this weekend, Anderson said that in filling the Raskin vacancy, the committee would give priority to someone who would not run for a full term in 2018. The message, he said, was intended to show people that the committee wanted to keep the 2018 contest as wide open as possible.

The Central Committee has been getting a lot of heat in the last couple of years about, sort of moving people from within the system, rather than hearing from outside people, he said. Were trying to get over that perception that a determination has been made.

But other Democratic leaders in the county pushed back against that position  and Anderson sent a revised email on Sunday removing the language.

It should have said some members count that as a priority, he said in an interview.

Raskin, Currie and Pugh held key roles in the 47-member Senate, where Democrats hold a large majority. Pugh was majority leader and a member of the Finance Committee; Raskin was chair of the Executive Nominations Committee and Currie served on the Budget and Taxation Committee.

In Prince Georges, a current delegate and a former delegate are mounting aggressive campaigns for the District 25 seat Currie has held for the past 30 years.

Melony G. Griffith, who spent 16 years in the House of Delegates but gave up her seat to challenge Currie in 2014, said she plans to formally submit her name to the Prince Georges County Democratic Central Committee on Dec. 1. Griffith won 40 percent of the vote two years ago. Del. Darryl Barnes (D-Prince Georges), who was elected to his House seat in 2014, also wants the seat, and Curries wife, Shirley, has been mentioned as a potential replacement as well.

In District 40 in Baltimore, first-term lawmaker Del. Antonio L. Hayes (D-Baltimore City) has been mentioned as a potential candidate to fill Pughs seat.

Pugh, who served as the Senate majority leader, spent 11 years in Annapolis. A former member of the Baltimore City Council, she was appointed in 2005 to fill a vacant seat in the House of Delegates, then ran successfully for Senate in 2006.
An Islamic State flag is seen at the front line of fighting between Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Islamist militants in Rashad on Sept. 11, 2014. (JM LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images)

A Fairfax County man who authorities said had celebrated attacks by the Islamic State pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal crime that could send him to prison for 10 years.

But 25-year-old Yusuf Wehelie admitted only to illegal gun possession and was never charged with any crimes related to terrorism.

An undercover FBI agent paid Wehelie to transport four machine guns from Maryland to Virginia, according to court documents and testimony. Wehelie could not legally possess a gun because of a 2011 burglary conviction.

While the case centers on gun possession, authorities at an earlier hearing focused on what they described as Wehelies dangerous statements about the Islamic State.

FBI agent Richard Gaylord testified at that hearing that Wehelie had said he would love to jihad. Watching a video in which a member of the Islamic State breaks someones neck, Gaylord said, Wehelie laughed.

Gaylord said that Wehelie told undercover agents that he would like to join the group abroad or, if he could not, try to attack a military recruitment station in the United States with explosives.

He said he liked that they would kill hundreds of people and be proud of it, Gaylord testified.

Defense attorney Nina Ginsberg said that in later recorded conversations, Wehelie disavowed the statements he had made in support of the Islamic State and cut off communication with the undercover agents.

Wehelie gained national attention six years ago when he and his older brother were detained in Egypt by U.S. authorities after a trip to Yemen.

Wehelie said he was first cleared by FBI agents and then taken to a local police station where he was beaten before being allowed to leave the country. His brother Yahya was told he was on a no-fly list and stranded in Egypt for two months before being allowed to return home.

The brothers were born in the United States to Somali immigrants. While Yahya Wehelie was stranded in Egypt, his parents told reporters that they condemned Islamic extremism and had another son who served in Iraq with the U.S. Army and family members who worked at the Department of Homeland Security. Both Yahya and Yusuf Wehelie said at the time that they had no connection to radical groups.

In the gun case, the undercover FBI agent met Yusuf Wehelie during a cigarette-trafficking operation last winter, according to testimony and court documents, and began calling and texting him frequently.

In January, he bought Wehelie a Samsung Galaxy phone. The agent asked Wehelie whether he would be comfortable carrying a weapon to transport large amounts of cash. Wehelie then allegedly asked the agent for help buying a revolver that he would share with his cousin. About a month later, the agent paid Wehelie $300 to move the machine guns, which had been rendered inoperable.

Defense attorney Cadence Mertz argued at Wehelies last hearing that her client drifted into fantasies because of personal issues.

Hes been smoking too much pot, and hes had a really difficult time trying to get a job because of his felony conviction, Mertz said. She said he needed treatment for substance abuse and mental-health issues.

Several other suspected Islamic State supporters have been charged with gun offenses rather than terrorism-related crimes In July, Daniel Seth Franey, 33, of Montesano, Wash., pleaded guilty to handling firearms in front of an undercover agent. In September, Khalil Abu-Rayyan of Dearborn Heights, Mich., pleaded guilty to buying a gun illegally. Both were targeted because of sympathetic comments about the Islamic State and mass murder, but neither was prosecuted as a terrorism supporter.

The maximum sentence for felony gun possession is 10 years in prison. Ginsberg said sentencing guidelines suggest a term of four to five years, but she plans to argue before the Feb. 3 sentencing that Wehelies criminal history is overstated in that calculation.

Ginsberg and Wehelies family declined to comment on the plea.
An inmate waiting in a cell at D.C. Superior Court was sexually assaulted Friday by another defendant in an attack that was partly captured on security cameras and lasted 12 minutes, according to court records.

Prosecutors charged Jerome M. Holliway, 36, of the District with first-degree sexual abuse in the incident.

According to court charging documents, a witness in another cell told officers that Holliway choked and punched his 27-year-old cellmate. The witness said Holliway forced the other man to perform oral sex and then anal sex, according to the documents.

The documents said the video shows that Holliway, with his pants down, leaps on his cellmate and then drags the other man, who was then naked, to the front of the cell. The witness described Holliway as the big dude when recounting the attack to investigators.

When marshals arrived, Holliway was fully dressed and sitting on a bench in the cell, the documents state. The other man was naked and curled in a fetal position on the floor. He was taken to a hospital. The Washington Post generally does not identify victims of sexual assault.

Holliway told investigators that the sex was consensual, according to the documents.

David Neumann, a spokesman with the U.S. Marshals Service, said his office was conducting an internal review. He said that the alleged attack is being investigated by D.C. police and that officials also have notified the Justice Departments Office of the Inspector General and the FBI.

The USMS takes allegations of sexual abuse of prisoners in USMS care and custody very seriously, Neumann said in a statement. Since the incident is under investigation, we will not be able to comment further at this time.

Neumann declined to say how often marshals are required to check on inmates who are waiting in holding cells or whether protocols were followed in this case.

We wont talk about staffing or their locations, he said of the marshals.

In a statement, D.C. Superior Court spokeswoman Leah H. Gurowitz also declined to release additional details because of the ongoing investigation.

The safety and security of all people who come to the courthouse and court facilities are a top concern of the D.C. Superior Court, Gurowitz said.

The 27-year-olds court-appointed attorney, Gloria Henderson, declined to comment on the case but said, I cant imagine hes doing that well, having been raped.

Hendersons client was at the courthouse Friday for a mental-competence examination after an arrest for assault with a dangerous weapon. He had been charged after he allegedly cut a liquor-store employee with a box cutter during an altercation this month.

Holliway was in court Friday for an alleged parole violation. In 2009, he was sentenced to seven years in prison and put on three years of supervised probation for simple assault and obstruction of justice, according to court records.

Last month, Holliway was arrested for allegedly threatening a woman at an apartment in the 3900 block of R Street SE. Authorities said that with that arrest, he had violated the terms of his parole.

As part of the recent misdemeanor case, Holliway was ordered to undergo a mental evaluation.

Before the alleged attack Friday, both defendants had appeared before a judge and were waiting in the cellblock to be transported back to D.C. jail, according to the documents.

Holliway is scheduled to appear in court Nov. 29 before Judge Lynn Leibovitz in the sexual assault case. The D.C. Public Defender Service, which represents Holliway, did not return a call for comment.
Brig K Somashankar was heading the 12 Brigade in Uri on September 18 as four terrorists entered deep inside the brigade headquarters area undetected and killed 15 soldiers by burning them alive leaving a number of them injured.

By Ajit Kumar Dubey: In a move that has raised eyebrows in military circles, the Army has given a plum posting to a brigadier under whose watch 19 soldiers were killed by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Uri sector two months ago.

Brig K Somashankar was heading the 12 Brigade in Uri on September 18 when the Indian Army witnessed the biggest ever massacre of its troops as four terrorists entered deep inside the brigade headquarters area undetected and created mayhem, killing 15 soldiers on the spot by burning them alive and leaving scores injured.

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NIA, ARMY PROBING LOOPHOLES

The attack took place despite intelligence agencies giving specific input of a Pakistani Army team attacking Uri on September 15 and led to government forces responding with a surgical strike on Pakistani terrorist launch pads on September 28.

The NIA and Army are both probing the loopholes and the terrorist attack on the Uri brigade

UR BRIGADE COMMANDER GIVEN COVETED POST

The brigadier, who was removed from command of the Uri brigade, also known as the Kalapahar brigade, on October 2, has now been given a coveted posting in a peace location at Ranchi.

"The officer has now been posted as the commander of the 61 Infantry Brigade under the Indian Army's most potent fighting force-the One Strike Corps, which would be responsible for cutting Pakistan into half in case of a war," Army sources told Mail Today.

ARMY TRADITION: HOLDING OFFICERS ACCOUNTABLE

When asked about his appointment, Brig Somashankar said his posting as the 61 Brigade commander was an "internal matter of the Army" and "not illegal in any way".

Army officials Mail Today spoke to say the reinstatement of the brigadier is legally permissible but as per tradition officers under whose command security lapses take place are shown the door and removed from leadership roles.

One of the biggest examples of such cases is that of Air Marshal Vinod Bhatia, who flew his transport plane towards Pakistan along the LoC and had to pay for it by losing the chance to head the Indian Air Force right after the Kargil war.

Recently, a brigadier dealing with sensitive missile units had to quit the Army after his orderly, or sahayak, was found to be leaking his official documents.

A colonel-rank officer of a military intelligence unit is currently attached to the Nabha-based 1 Armoured Division due to administrative lapses as a clerk of his unit was accused of stealing information.

A serving major general-rank officer has also been sidelined in the force as under his command of Rashtriya Rifle's Victor Force, jawans had fired on a small car as the youth driving it refused to stop at a check post. This had become the basis of denial of promotion to him.



MOVE AFTER DEFENCE MINISTER VISITED LOCATION

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Army sources said Brig Somashankar had been shifted out of the sensitive brigade till the investigations into the case were being done by the NIA and Army were on and replaced by a young officer from the 28 Mountain Division.

The move had come after Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had suggested that security lapses had led to the incident soon after visiting the location. After the brigadier was shunted out of the Uri brigade, Parrikar had stated in an interview that the decision was taken by the Chief of Army Staff Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag "because he must have found some lapses or he wants to investigate some apparent lapses into the terrorists entering an Army camp."

Also Read: Manohar Parrikar in Uri today, first visit since Army's surgical strikes



NOT THE FIRST TIME

The Army, which traditionally has been known for accountability, does not seem to be following tradition recently as it had first sidestepped an officer under whom around 10 troops travelling in a convoy were killed in Srinagar in broad daylight a couple of years ago and later gave him command of another unit in the Assam Rifles.

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The Army's official spokesperson did not comment on the issue as Monday was a holiday. Mail Today had sent a detailed questionnaire on the issue to the official public relations officer

EARLIER POSTING IN MILITARY SECRETARY BRANCH

Before his elevation to the rank of Brigadier Somashankar-a Jat Regiment officer, was posted in the Army Headquarters' Military Secretary Branch, which deals with promotions and postings of all officers.

Also Read: India disappointed at EUs response to Uri attack







--- ENDS ---
Authorities say Luis F. Ore of Sterling followed two young girls into the bathroom at a burger joint and sexually assaulted them. He is a registered sex offender, authorities said. (Loudoun County Sheriffs Office)

Two young girls went into a bathroom at a burger restaurant in Loudoun County where, according to authorities, they were sexually assaulted by a worker who is a registered sex offender.

The Loudoun County Sheriffs Office said the incident happened about 8 p.m. Sunday at the Elevation Burger in the 20600 block of Easthampton Plaza in Ashburn.

Officials said Luis F. Ore, a 20-year-old Sterling resident, followed the girls into the bathroom and held them against their will and sexually assaulted them. The girls ages were not released to protect their identities, the sheriffs office said in a statement.

Ore is listed on the Virginia sex-offender registry. In 2012, he was convicted on multiple charges, including sexual battery and abduction for immoral purposes. The victim is listed as a minor.

In an emailed statement, a spokesman for Elevation Burger said, The Elevation Burger family was deeply saddened to learn of the incident at its Ashburn location, which is a franchise location.

We send our most heartfelt concern to the individuals and their families involved.

The statement went on, Our customers and communities are our priority and without equivocation, the arrested employee was immediately terminated.

Marc Mesmer, the spokesman, did not say what Ores job was at the restaurant.

The company also said that it is looking into the internal process for which he was hired and that it is cooperating with the criminal investigation.
Friends and family gathered to mourn three young children from a Silver Spring family that were killed on Nov. 11, in a traffic incident in South Carolina as they traveled to a wedding. (WUSA9)

Friends and family gathered to mourn three young children from a Silver Spring family that were killed on Nov. 11, in a traffic incident in South Carolina as they traveled to a wedding. (WUSA9)

Three young children in a Silver Spring family were killed Friday, along with a family friend, in a traffic incident in South Carolina as they traveled to a wedding.

The crash occurred about 4 a.m. on Interstate 95 in Colleton County, according to the South Carolina Highway Patrol.

The three children were identified as Leah Harley, 5, and her brothers, Nicholas, 6, and Devin Jr., 7. The two boys were to have birthdays this month, relatives said. Devin Jr., known as DJ, would have turned 8 on Friday.

The name of the fourth person killed was not available Monday.

The three children attended Arcola Elementary School in the Silver Spring area of Montgomery County, according to the schools principal, Emmanuel Jean-Philippe. He was unstinting in his praise of them.

They were model Arcola students, he told a reporter Monday night.

The Harleys were exactly the type of students we try to develop, he said, and were models for other students.

The youngest child was in kindergarten, and her brothers were in first and second grade. They were well loved by their peers and community, Jean-Philippe said.

He said a vigil was held in their honor Monday night at the school.

An aunt of the children endorsed the principals description.

They were beautiful children, said Maria Torres, the type everyone would want as their sons and daughter.

The Highway Patrol said the crash occurred in the southbound lanes of the highway. In a brief account, police said a 2017 Freightliner tractor-trailer ran into the back of a 2001 Ford Taurus.

The driver of Taurus was identified as Nancy Torres, 27. Relatives said Monday night that she was the childrens mother.

Relatives said Torres was severely injured  a GoFundMe page said she was fighting for her life. The crowdfunding page is intended to raise money to bury the children and to pay for medical care for Torres and her husband, Devin Harley, who apparently was in the front seat with Torres when the crash occurred.

He was injured, but relatives said he appeared to be recovering.

All four of those killed were in the back seat, officials said.

They left home Thursday night, said Maria Torres, the aunt. It was the eve of the three-day Veterans Day weekend.

They were headed to Savannah, Ga., for the wedding of a family friend, another relative said. The county where the crash occurred is in the southeastern part of South Carolina, just west of Charleston.

Maria Torres said the truck, an 18-wheeler, went on top of them.

The Highway Patrol said the crash remained under investigation.
Former Virgina Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) waits at a traffic light afer leaving federal court in Richmond at the conclusion of the second day of his trial on public corruption charges in July 2014. (Norm Shafer/For the Washington Post)

Former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell, who recently emerged from a long legal saga a free but tarnished man, will join the faculty at the evangelical university founded by televangelist Pat Robertson.

McDonnell (R) will serve as a distinguished professor at Regent Universitys Robertson School of Government starting in January, the Virginia Beach-based school announced Tuesday. He also will help establish the Governors Center for Federalism and Civility, which is intended to help states understand their role in a federal society, Regent said.

McDonnell, who was a prosecutor, state delegate and state attorney general before becoming governor, earned a law degree and a masters degree in public policy from Regent in 1989.

A masters thesis he wrote at Regent surfaced during his 2009 bid for governor, becoming a flash point in the race because it criticized working women and gay people as detrimental to society. McDonnell, who had tried to play down social issues during the race, tamped down the furor by saying his views had evolved, and he went on to a 17-point victory over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds.

[From the archives: Va. candidate McDonnell says views changed since he wrote thesis]

We are delighted to welcome Governor McDonnell back to Regent University, Robertson said in a written statement. As we train students to serve in government, law and other disciplines, McDonnell will bring his extensive public service experience as an Army officer, prosecutor, state legislator, attorney general and governor.

McDonnell was a popular governor and rising GOP star when a gifts scandal blew up in his final year in office. Shortly after leaving the Executive Mansion in January 2014, he and first lady Maureen McDonnell were charged with federal corruption for accepting more than $175,000 in luxury gifts, vacations and sweetheart loans from Richmond businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr., whod sought their help promoting his nutritional supplement.

Prosecutors contended that the McDonnells connected Williams with state officials, let him throw a luncheon at the governors mansion to help launch the product and allowed him to shape the guest list at a mansion reception meant for health-care leaders.

The McDonnells asserted that Williams got no special treatment, only the routine political courtesies extended to any political donor. The state never included the tablets on its employee health plan or conducted university clinical trials as Williams had sought.

A federal jury in Richmond convicted the couple of corruption in September 2014, but attorneys for the former governor took the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and won. In June, the high court threw out his conviction, ruling that jurors had been wrongly instructed on the meaning of an official act  the thing McDonnell was said to have performed for Williams  and therefore deserved at least a retrial.

The ruling set a higher bar for prosecuting public corruption, saying explicitly that setting up meetings or arranging events for benefactors did not, on its own, constitute the quo of a corrupt quid pro quo deal. In September, the Justice Department decided not to seek a retrial of McDonnell or his wife under that standard.

[Prosecutors will drop cases against former Va. governor Robert McDonnell, wife]

McDonnell referred to his legal ordeal in the statement released by Regent.

During my painful journey through the justice system after I left the Governors office, I came to the realization that politics and polls are much less important than people and policies, McDonnell said. Im eager to engage with Regent students and faculty in and out of the classroom, and I hope that my experiences can inspire others to consider careers in public service.
GEORGIA

Jury convicts father who left boy in hot car

A Georgia man whose toddler son died in a hot car was found guilty of both malice and felony murder on Monday by a jury tasked with weighing a month of dueling testimony over whether the childs father left him to perish on purpose or made a fatal mistake.

Justin Ross Harris, 35, who showed little emotion as the verdict was read, had been on trial since Oct. 3 in the death of his son, Cooper.

The 22-month-old boy died after being left for hours in the back of Harriss SUV on June 18, 2014. Harris said he forgot to drop his son off at day care that morning and drove straight to his job as a Web developer for Home Depot, not realizing Cooper was still in his car seat.

Soon afterward, investigators found evidence that Harris was having sexual relationships  both online banter and in-person affairs  with numerous women, including a prostitute and a teenager. Prosecutors charged Harris with malice murder, saying he intentionally killed his son in order to escape the responsibilities of family life.

Harris was also charged with felony murder, which required no proof of intent to kill  just that Cooper died as a result of his father committing the felony of cruelty to children. Malice murder carries a prison term of life with or without parole.

 Associated Press

CALIFORNIA

Suspect arrested in execution of officer

A man shot and killed a deputy in what police termed an execution, then stole a car and drove 150 miles to a small central California town where he was arrested after trying to steal a purse from a woman, who fought back and called authorities.

Stanislaus County Sheriffs Deputy Dennis Wallace, 53, was shot twice in the head Sunday morning as he checked on a report of a suspicious van parked near a fishing access spot outside the city of Hughson, about 10 miles southeast of Modesto. He was the fifth California law enforcement officer to die in the line of duty over the past five weeks.

Wallace was alone when he came across the van. A dispatcher told him the vehicle was stolen, so he asked for backup. Another deputy found Wallace a short time later.

The suspect, identified as David Machado, 37, fled in the van and carjacked a white Kia sedan in the nearby city of Keyes, police said. Machado was arrested later.

While on the run, Machado committed an armed robbery in the town of Lindsay, about 150 miles south of where the shooting occurred, Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson said. Then, shortly after noon, he tried to steal a womans purse at a convenience store. The woman fought Machado and called police. He ran away but was caught by officers a short time later.

 Associated Press
By PTI: Mumbai, Nov 15 (PTI) Vodafone today said it is hopeful of a "fair decision" by the government on the penalty suggested by TRAI for allegedly denying network connectivity to Reliance Jio, as it has provided ports capable to support as many as 50 million subscribers to the new entrant.

"We have done our duty and obligation as a responsible operator. We have given E1 (ports) equivalent of 50 million subscribers, as per their demand. It is way ahead of their current subscriber base," Vodafone India Managing Director and CEO Sunil Sood told PTI.

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He was referring to the ongoing points of interconnect dispute between the incumbent operators and Reliance Jio.

Sood said Jio appeared to be having "problem" in executing or activating the capacity offered by Vodafone.

"We dont want to go into the why or what... that needs to be investigated as to why it is happening," he said.

TRAI has recommended a penalty of Rs 1,050 crore each on Vodafone and Airtel and Rs 950 crore on Idea Cellular for denying interconnect to the new entrant.

Emphasising that the company had given adequate ports as per its obligation, Sood said Vodafone has expressed its views to TRAI and the Department of Telecom and is "hopeful of fair decision from various government bodies."

On the competitive pressure arising from entry of Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Jio, Sood said Vodafone believes the price itself will not be a long-term differentiator.

Asked if Vodafone will consider across-the-board free outgoing calls - to match Jios freebies - Sood declined to give a direct response saying he would not like to comment on what the company will do in future.

"But we have been competitive and gained market share. We continue to focus on improving Vodafone experience," he said.

He pointed out that the revenue market share of the company has grown 0.6 per cent in the September quarter over the preceding June quarter, and added that it has received only 12,000 mobile number portability requests since April on a subscriber base of 200 million.

"Any new competitor puts competitive pressure on industry...at the end customer gains," he added. PTI MBI AA NRB BJ BAS

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Donald Trump has said he wants to bind the wounds of division. He will prove that he can be president for all Americans, not just those who voted for him.

Lets say we take the president-elect at his word, though his decision to make alt-right leader Stephen K. Bannon a senior strategist does not bode well. If he wants to bring the nation together, theres an easy, relatively painless, puzzlingly overlooked strategy for doing so: reorder his policy priorities and begin with the things that are most appealing to liberals. (Yes, there are a few.)

Prioritizing promises with bipartisan appeal, rather than base-pleasing red meat such as mass deportation, would allow Trump to defang Democratic opposition; make inroads with many of the demographic groups he has alienated (including women); and demonstrate his independence from the standard Republican establishment agenda.

Take, for example, what might be called the Ivanka plank of the Trump platform.

With his daughter Ivankas influence, Trump has pledged to finally remove the United States from the two-member club of countries that do not guarantee paid maternity leave. (Right now its us and Papua New Guinea.) His plan would require six weeks of paid leave to new mothers.

Early on the morning of Nov. 9, Republican President-elect Donald Trump addressed supporters in New York, declaring victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton. Here are key moments from that speech. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

Trump also promised to make child care and eldercare more affordable, through tax breaks.

His plans promoting equal pay for equal work have not yet been fleshed out. But his daughter and trusted adviser has repeatedly assured voters that he is committed to this end as well.

These policy positions were initially greeted with cynicism and surprise. They are, after all, traditionally the purview of Democratic candidates, not Republicans. But their seepage into a Republican candidates agenda seemed inevitable, given how popular they are.

Poll after poll after poll after poll finds that Americans overwhelmingly favor paid parental leave. A Public Religion Research Institute survey from last fall found that 82 percent of Americans believe companies should grant full-time employees paid leave for the birth or adoption of a child. This includes 89 percent of Democrats and an astonishing 75 percent of Republicans.

For comparison, another recent PRRI poll found that only 29 percent of Republicans want to identify and deport immigrants living in the United States illegally. Yet Trump has declared mass deportation to be among his first orders of business when he gets to the White House, while he has said nothing recently about paid family leave.

To be sure, there is disagreement about the best way to implement these ideas, and many of Trumps policy details fall short. Trump appears to offer paid leave to birth mothers only, ignoring fathers, adoptive parents and those caring for elderly relatives; among other problems, this risks making women of fertility age disproportionately expensive (and thus less attractive) to hire. His child-care tax breaks, as currently construed, would primarily benefit the wealthy.

He has also punted on questions of how hed pay for either plan, instead citing unrealistic economic growth projections and elimination of improper payments in the unemployment insurance system.

So there are some splinters in the Ivanka plank. But Trumps interest in these issues is a good start. And if hes truly dedicated to good policy, as he claims, his team can easily find thoughtful, off-the-shelf legislative templates that achieve the same ends more effectively.

Despite an unusually divisive campaign, Trump pledged support for several other policies that could rally Democrats.

Consider his promise to end the carried interest loophole, which allows a small share of ultrawealthy individuals (including managers at private equity and venture capital funds) to pay lower taxes on the fruits of their labor. This feature of the tax code affects few people, but it is widely reviled, and both Democrats and Republicans support its elimination.

Infrastructure investment  featured prominently in Trumps campaign, and then again in his victory speech  also has potential to unite his supporters and opponents.

Putting these types of goals at the top of the pile would have enormous upside, and little downside, for the new president. They do not require Trump to cede any ground, because they are policies he has pushed all along. They are unlikely to annoy his most committed fans. Setting America on the path toward paid family leave would also make it increasingly awkward for Democrats to continue demonizing him.

To be sure, none of the policies Ive mentioned are priorities for Republican congressional leaders. Given the blowback Trump faces for relying on so many establishment types to run his transition team, though, this may be a feature, not a bug.

As an added bonus, this plan would allow Trump to claim one of the greatest presidential achievements possible: proving that sometimes good policy can also be good politics.
Since Donald Trump won the White House without winning the popular vote, cries have risen that the electoral college should be abolished. Millions have signed an online petition urging electors to choose Hillary Clinton despite their states vote for Trump. This is a wrongheaded path for dissent. The electoral college shouldnt be abolished. It enshrines an important principle  protection of the rights of a minority  in our Constitution. A popular majority unhappy with the presidential results should make its weight felt not by taking to the streets but by taking back electoral politics  relearning what it means to win elections for state legislatures, governorships and Congress.

Its worth understanding the origins of the electoral college to see how it came to enshrine this principle in our political institutions. When delegates to the Constitutional Convention assembled in Philadelphia in 1787, they began with an elaborate debate on whether the government founded in 1776 had grounded its authority in the people as a whole or in the power of 13 independent state governments. The question was whether the new government had arisen to embrace a single national people or had been erected as merely a treaty among 13 nations, with distinguishable identities and cultures.

President Obama said during a news conference Monday that it's "healthy" for the Democratic Party to go through reflection. "When your team loses, everyone gets deflated," Obama said. (The Washington Post)

The men who met and argued in Philadelphia were not able to resolve the question. They compromised. They determined that one chamber of Congress (the House of Representatives) would be grounded in the people as a whole, while the second (the Senate) would rest on the authority of the state governments. The House would consist of delegations from each state sized in proportion to the population. The Senate, in contrast, would provide equal representation to each state  two delegates each, regardless of population. This design, which arose from the need to compromise, was also an expression of principle: the importance of protecting minority interests from being trampled by the majority.

The electoral college reflects the same desire. It was organized to include as its number of electors the combination of the number of senators and members of the House. It, too, has the protection of a minority interest built into its structure. Originally, the electoral college protected the interests of the smaller Northeastern states: Now the protection of minority interest works in favor of the less populous states of the nations midsection. For the first half of the 20th century, this interest worked in favor of the Southern states and served as a roadblock to civil rights protections for African Americans. But as with most of our political institutions, the fact that they have sometimes been used against the cause of justice does not mean that they might not at another moment be used for that cause. Democracies that aspire to embodying not only popular sovereignty but also justice must have structures for protecting minority interests. Anyone who cares to defend the interests of minorities should pause before calling for the abolition of the electoral college.

But what about the notion, now spreading widely, that the electoral college was intended to dilute African American influence?

This argument doesnt get the history right. Southern states demanded popular representation, and wanted to include enslaved people in the census count that would determine the size of their congressional delegation, in order to maximize their political power. Thats what gave us the House (albeit with a decision to count each enslaved person as three-fifths of a person). This left the small Northern states feeling threatened, so they wanted equality among the states. That gave us the Senate. The Northern states were motivated by a desire to dilute Southern power, not to minimize African American influence, which in 1787 was nil. The irony is that the only reason California has as many electoral votes as it does now is because Southern states sought to gain political advantage from their population of enslaved people.

While the electoral college is weighted to overemphasize the voice of less populous states, popular majorities have many other avenues for pursuing power  a fact that Republicans have used to their advantage and that Democrats have too often ignored. Over the past 15 years, and the past eight especially, the Republican Party has obliterated the Democratic Party at the state level: in state legislatures, governorships and Congress. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Republicans will now hold 33 governorships, 31 secretaries of state, 69 of 99 legislative majorities and, of course, majorities in both houses of Congress.

This is not an accident. The Republican Party has been working hard and was buoyed by the tea party revolt, a revolution that took not to the streets but to electoral politics. Remember those crazy town halls about the health-care law in the summer of 2009? Tea partyers turned out in droves when members of Congress came home to see their constituents. Anyone who looked likely to be supporting the health-care legislation was treated to an especially unpleasant dose of constituent dissent. That was the beginning of the tea party drive to turn Democrats and moderate Republicans out of office and resulted in the evisceration of the Democrats congressional majority in 2010.

By contrast, since Occupy Wall Street in 2011, Democrats and the left have devoted the greater part of their political energies to street protests, petition drives and efforts to shame public officials into changing their stances on particular issues. Activists seem to have forgotten that real levers of power exist to be grasped in all the small elections that take place all over the country year after year. Democrats are already wringing their hands over the difficulty of making inroads in Congress in 2018, and its true that they may not get where they want by then. But then again, when Barack Obama swept in a Democratic Congress in 2008, no one expected that all would be lost by 2010.

If Democrats want to see things move in a different direction, all they need is their own blue tea party movement. But this requires capturing the energy in the streets and redirecting it to the nuts-and-bolts work of winning elections at the state level. That will be the only effective basis for rebuilding power and momentum at the federal level as well. But it surely doesnt have to take a generation. Thats what weve learned from the incredible distance weve traveled between 2008 and the present.
Regarding the Nov. 12 Metro article New fiscal problems for Fairfax schools:

Before my fellow Fairfax County voters congratulate themselves too much for being on the side of compassion and keeping the commonwealth of Virginia on the blue side of the electoral debate, they need to take a good look in the mirror. The Me Generation is alive and well in Fairfax County. We had an opportunity to help our teachers and school system deal with a significant budget shortfall, yet we decided to save the extra $2 on our $50 restaurant bill.

So now our teachers will continue to have among the lowest salaries in the region and some of the largest class sizes. Perhaps our teachers should start teaching at a commensurate level. We all know that wont happen because our teachers are proud of the jobs they do. We will, however, get that commensurate level of education for our children, as our best teachers will start looking elsewhere for work.

So to the 290,000 fellow citizens who voted against the meals tax, I hope that $2 is worth it.

Ross Pickford, Springfield
Upon reading the Nov. 10 Metro article AU students protest Trumps victory , I was disheartened to learn that this type of protest, involving flag-burning and incendiary language, is happening on college campuses. The United States has a tradition of coming together after an election, the losers pledging to support the winners. Its one of the wonderful things that distinguish our country from places in which democracy is not valued and respected.

If Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton had won and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trumps supporters had acted like these college students are acting, what an uproar there would have been. Mr. Trump unfortunately brought out the worst in some of his supporters, but are we going to allow him to bring out the worst in the rest of us? I hope not. He will be our president, like it or not, and we need to do what we can to help him be successful.

Deborah Friese, Bethesda

The Nov. 12 front-page article Vitriol only intensifies after bitter election reported that Carl P. Paladino, President-elect Donald Trumps New York campaign co-chairman, called for peaceful protesters to stand down. He said they protest only because of what the media tells them. Others point to a lack of protests when President Obama was elected to object to the protests. By opposing everything Mr. Obama tried to do  no matter what the consequences to Americans  Republicans never stopped protesting.

It should be noted that Mr. Obama didnt run on a platform of anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant racial bias or misogyny or encourage violence against protesters at his rallies. The protesters do know what they are protesting.

Mr. Paladino and his ilk have poisoned the minds of our young people and scared others. Blind fear of others and of losing position in society fuels racism and hatred. The sophistic and hypocritical arguments against those who disagree with their hatred and fear may work with some Trump supporters, but not with those who think for themselves.

The protesters know what Mr. Trump said and what Mr. Paladino stands for, and they wont listen to the ridiculous calls to stand down  thankfully for the real America. Those of us who can fight the hatred will never stop. You cant stop progress and what is good in humanity. We wont let you.

I want to give Mr. Trump a chance, as most Americans do, but the protesters have a valid point to make.

Bruce Hiler, Arlington
Donald Trump, second from left, with Eric Trump, Melania Trump, Tiffany Trump and Ivanka Trump during the grand opening of the Trump International Hotel in Washington on Oct. 26. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press)

Richard Painter, a professor of law at the University of Minnesota, was the chief White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2007. Norman Eisen, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, was the chief White House ethics lawyer for President Obama from 2009 to 2011.

Donald Trump must urgently rethink his plan to allow his children to run his businesses. As drastic as it may seem to him, he should instead put all his conflict-generating assets in a true blind trust run by an independent trustee. The good of his own administration, and that of the country, demand nothing less.

As former ethics counsels to Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, we dealt extensively with blind trusts in the White House. More than most, we recognize that asking Trump to put his vast holdings in one of these entities is no small thing. Making a total break with his complex U.S. and international interests would be a difficult and expensive sacrifice on his part.

Every president for the past four decades has used some combination of a blind trust or widely diversified, publicly traded holdings to ensure that their decisions are conflict-free. A blind trust is defined by federal law as one in which a federal official selects an independent trustee (with no familial ties) who sells the officials known assets and purchases investments unknown to the official. That is what makes it blind.

The president-elect and his spokespeople have instead suggested that he will allow his children to guide his enterprises while he retains all or most of the ownership interest. This arrangement has two major flaws. First, Trump will know what is in the trust. (He cannot put Trump Tower in a blind trust and then forget that he owns it.) Second, he knows the people who will be managing the assets; he is their father. This is the opposite of a blind trust. It is a demand that the American people blindly trust Trump and his family.

Heres what he should do instead.

First, Trump should appoint an independent, professional trustee to take charge of liquidating and converting to cash Trump business holdings through an initial public offering or leveraged buyout.

Second, the proceeds of the IPO or buyout should be turned over to the trustee to be managed. The trustee can then invest these assets on Trumps behalf. The trustee would report to Trump regularly on the value of the trust but not on what is in it. Some of the proceeds of the sale of the businesses could also be invested in U.S. treasury bonds, mutual funds and other widely diversified assets that do not create conflicts of interest with the duties of the presidency.

The Posts Robert Costa and Paul Farhi discuss the appointments by President-elect Donald Trump of Stephen K. Bannon as chief strategist and senior counselor and Reince Priebus as chief of staff. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

Third, while Trumps children and their spouses are dealing with any Trump business matters, he should ask them to step away from the transition team and the White House, and to not advise him or be involved in any U.S. government affairs.

Trump ally Rudolph W. Giuliani has argued that it would not be fair to cut the Trump children out of the family businesses. We understand. So if the Trump children end up having a continuing role in any of the Trump businesses, including after the sale, the new president should establish an ethics firewall. He should pledge not to discuss the businesses with his kids or anyone else involved. As an extra safeguard, contacts about the Trump businesses should be prohibited between all other administration officials and people involved in the businesses, including the Trump children. Except for personal communication with the president or first lady, such telephone calls and emails should be routed to White House counsel to make sure that the firewall is not breached.

The alternative approach apparently being contemplated  Trump maintaining an interest in his businesses and letting his children manage that interest  risks making his transition and his presidency the most conflicted in modern history. To take only a few examples:

Every time Trump makes a decision as president-elect or president, or someone who works for him makes a decision, critics will allege that it is intended to benefit the Trump businesses. This includes decisions about regulation of the financial sector and the potential dismantling of the Dodd-Frank banking law, as the Trump Organization, like most real estate empires, is heavily indebted to banks and other lenders.

Every time an officer or employee of the Trump businesses discusses the possibility of favorable or unfavorable action by the U.S. government toward a person or entity dealing with the Trump businesses, that person could be accused of soliciting a bribe or extorting money on Trumps behalf.

Every time any foreign government or company controlled by a foreign government does business with a Trump entity, the president could be accused of accepting a payment in violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution, creating a constitutional crisis that could even result in threats of impeachment.

Every time any private party sees an opening for litigation against a Trump business entity, that person, perhaps in collusion with the presidents political opponents, could file suit, perhaps even against Trump personally, embroiling the presidency in litigation.

We hope the president-elect will drain the swamp, as he has pledged. Setting up a true blind trust would reassure the voters that the decisions he makes are not influenced by his personal financial interests, or those of his business empire or his family. Otherwise he risks flooding the swamp instead.
Donald Trumps stunning victory has left millions in dread and moved thousands into the streets. Fear has spread among immigrants and Muslims. The 20 million who have received health insurance under Obamacare worry about Trumps vow to repeal it. The media speculates about what he might do: Will he really tear up the Iran nuclear deal or order the CIA to start torturing people again? But it is Trumps denial of catastrophic climate change  he has repeatedly said he considers it a hoax  and his vow to reverse all of the progress made under President Obama to address it that pose some of the most chilling and potentially irreversible threats.

Voters heard little about climate change in the endless election campaign. The contrast between the two candidates was night and day, with Hillary Clinton promising to expand on Obamas climate initiatives and Trump vowing to repeal them. Yet not one question was posed about climate change in the presidential debates. The media gave more airtime to the size of Trumps hands than to the scope of his climate delusion.

Yet the stakes are huge. Climate change isnt a distant concern; it is a clear and present danger. Mr. Trump may not believe that, but the generals in the Pentagon have no doubts. A Pentagon report says that climate change is an urgent and growing threat to our national security. In January, Pentagon officials were instructed to include climate change in every decision, from readying troops for battle to testing weapons.

As environmentalist Bill McKibben pointed out last week, climate change is already here. The worlds global warming  and the melting of the Arctic ice caps  are now occurring at a much faster rate than scientists previously predicted. Most of the summer sea ice in the Arctic has melted. Thats enough heat, McKibben reports, that record-warm water swept across the Pacific this spring, killing vast swaths of coral. Thats enough heat to already cause steady increases in droughts and shocking downpours and floods in wet areas. It has already begun to raise the levels of the ocean. Scientists now suggest that, even with the Paris climate talks, we are on a trajectory to increase the Earths temperature 3.5 degrees Celsius or more. If we do that, many cities around the world will be underwater.

Under Obama, the United States played a leading role in getting China  and eventually India  to join the 2015 Paris agreement, with countries pledging carbon reduction commitments needed to keep the world from warming more than 2 degrees Celsius. Many scientists believe that goal is not enough, but meeting even that level will require dramatic and immediate action. One-hundred-and-nine countries responsible for nearly eighty percent of greenhouse-gas emissions have now ratified the agreement, enacting it into international law. The United States represents about 20 percent of the pledged reductions of world greenhouse-gas emissions. Much of this will come from Obamas Clean Power Plan, designed to enforce Environmental Protection Agency standards on carbon emissions, calling on the states to reduce power plant emissions by 32 percent by 2030.

In the campaign, Trump announced that he would seek to repeal the Clean Power Plan and withdraw from the Paris agreement. He has also pledged to go forward with the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, to slash investment in climate research and development in renewable energy and efficiency innovation, to open up leasing of oil, gas and coal on federal lands onshore and offshore and to revive coal. He has named Myron Ebell, a notorious climate-change denier and head of a think tank funded in part by the coal industry, to head his EPA and energy transition team. Conservative Republicans who dominate the majority in Congress have railed against Obamas plans. Oil and coal barons  think the Koch Brothers, among the richest people in the world  wield big money and deep pockets on the Republican right.

There are limits on what Trump can do. The stock price of bankrupt Peabody Energy coal company rose upon Trumps election, but coal is virtually dead, unable to compete in price with natural gas, production of which Trump plans to expand. More dangerous are reports that hell move to loosen regulation of gas pipelines. Methane leaks from pipelines are a far more potent contributor to global warming than even carbon emissions.

Elections do have consequences  often ones not intended by voters. Americans elected George W. Bush, who called for a more modest U.S. role in the world and got the president who drove the disastrous invasion of Iraq. A minority of Americans voted for Trump, largely because they wanted change  but few had any idea of the calamitous consequences that will follow if he carries through his know- nothing stance on climate change.

Trumps efforts will be and must be resisted. 2014 saw the Peoples Climate March  billed as the largest demonstration on climate ever in New York City. Another protest is being planned for Washington next spring. Civil disobedience helped stall the building of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, and those protests will surely ramp up. The divestment campaign has removed trillions from oil industry investments and will continue to spread. Other countries will invest in renewable energy and efficiency innovations, winning global markets and jobs that the United States will forfeit. In this country, California and New York and other states will continue to push toward renewable energy and require higher efficiency and mileage stands, forcing manufacturers to respond. Democrats in the Senate and House will fight a long, rearguard action to limit the damage.

But time is not on our side, or on the side of civilization. McKibben noted that the real contest isnt between Democrats and Republicans or Clinton and Trump, but between human beings and physics, and physics is not prone to compromise. If we dont move quickly, very quickly, then any progress will be too late. We cant afford to drift for four or eight years; we cant afford to stall what little momentum has been created. Trump may think that it will be easy to reverse Obamas climate measures. He is about to find out that millions of concerned citizens here and abroad will use every nonviolent means possible to stop him from accelerating the worst crisis humans have ever faced. That isnt about politics; it is about survival.

Read more from Katrina vanden Heuvels archive or follow her on Twitter.
By India Today Web Desk: Few days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetisation move, Telugu actor Shraavya Reddy went live on Facebook and voiced her opinion on the same.

Speaking about demonetisation, Shraavya Reddy asked her followers to co-operate with the government.



ALSO READ: Vijay on demonetisation: 80 per cent people suffer because of 20 per cent

ALSO READ: Aamir on Modi's demonetisation move- Focus on national interest, ignore short-term impact



ALSO READ: Demonetisation: Director Ameer criticises PM Modi and Rajinikanth

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However, there was one particular person who asked her her 'size', which saw Shraavya Reddy lashing out at him.

Responding to the person, she said, "Come on yaar, why do you guys see my body when I am telling something very important. India is going down man. F**k that. Yes, I am using vulgar language but you are using and a lot of people are seeing your comments. I am not showing my body. Don't praise my breasts. Yes, I have amazing breasts. What's your problem? Will your mother not have? Every girl has breasts."

An irritated Shraavya urged her followers to focus on the issue at hand, demonetisation, instead of concentrating on her 'size'. She said, "First take the information, man. Come on! It's enough. I have already replied to a lot of people on my page whoever comments on my breasts. This is not what I am talking about right now."

Here's the video:





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ALONG-STANDING practice of the modern White House is a division of labor between a chief of staff, whos in charge of making the administrative trains run on time, and a political adviser, who counsels the president on the electoral consequences of his policies. In that sense, theres nothing particularly new about President-elect Donald Trumps decision to set up two lines of authority beneath him, one headed by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus as chief of staff, the other by erstwhile campaign chief Stephen K. Bannon as chief strategist and senior counselor.

What is extraordinary, and not in a good way, is the nature of the latter choice. Mr. Bannon is a leading figure on the euphemistically titled alt-right, a previously obscure element on the far fringe of conservatism  until Mr. Trumps campaign energized and mainstreamed it. On its flagship website, Breitbart News, which Mr. Bannon dominates, the alt-right portrays itself as a middle-class uprising against a corrupt global elite. The movement can be more accurately described as deeply reactionary, rooted in a kind of white chauvinism, with disturbing overtones of anti-Semitism, visible in such Breitbart headlines as Bill Kristol: Republican Spoiler, Renegade Jew, or articles such as a recent attack on Post columnist Anne Applebaum as a Polish, Jewish, American elitist.

Mr. Bannons appointment sends a highly negative signal to all those Americans who did not support Mr. Trump for president but have been willing to give him the benefit of the doubt in deference to the legitimacy of his election. That is to say, his response to the impulse toward unity of the disappointed half of the United States has been to rub their noses in defeat by elevating a figure they understandably consider threatening.

Mr. Bannon may find himself unwelcome even in what remains of Republican establishment circles, given his extreme ideology and past attempts to foment GOP rebellions in the House of Representatives against Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.) and his predecessor, John A. Boehner (Ohio). Republican leaders have welcomed the appointment of Mr. Priebus on the assumption that he can steer Mr. Trump toward mainstream policies and help restrain Mr. Bannon. Perhaps he will. On the other hand, neither Mr. Priebus nor most leading Republicans have proved able to check Mr. Trumps worst impulses, to the extent they have been interested in doing so; over the past year, Mr. Priebus seemed more interested in playing an enabling, apologetic role for Mr. Trump. Greater strength than that will be needed to resist the forces of intolerance whose representatives are now moving into the White House.
DEMOCRATS ARE licking their wounds, arguing about what or whom to blame and opening a fight over who should next lead the party. Thats normal after losing the presidency, both chambers of Congress and all but 15 governorships. They also are beginning to argue about what the party should stand for. That, too, is normal  and potentially healthy. The country will be better off if it has a vibrant, left-of-center party making the case for progressive views.

But what does it mean to be progressive? We dont propose to lay out an agenda here  this is a debate that will and should go on for months, hopefully drawing on new ideas and up-and-coming leaders, and we expect to return to it often. We would, though, like to suggest that in some key areas, the people who are defining themselves as the progressive wing of the Democratic Party  identified with Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)  are embracing principles that are not genuinely progressive.

Specifically: They want to enlarge government entitlements and hand out the benefits as broadly as possible  free college, free health care, expanded Social Security  regardless of need or available resources. They emphasize redistribution over growth. And their ostensible protection of American workers leaves no room to consider the welfare of poor people elsewhere in the world. On all three counts, we think that the higher moral ground and the smarter policy lie elsewhere.

Take free college, a key plank of Mr. Sanderss presidential campaign. Generally two arguments are offered for making such a benefit universal. One is political: If everyone gets a benefit, everyone will press Congress or state legislatures to keep funding it. The other is moral: This is something society should do. We dont make the wealthy pay tuition for high school; why should college be any different?

Our answer  we would argue, the progressive answer  is that there are people in society with far greater needs than that upper-middle-class family in Fairfax County that would be relieved of its tuition burden at the College of William & Mary if Mr. Sanders got his wish. In an era of constrained resources, is the nation serious about helping the left-behinds in small-town America, whose plight President-elect Donald Trump supposedly championed? How about the mothers and children who remain trapped in multi-generational poverty in our biggest cities? Government programs should benefit those who most need the hand up.

The same is true of Social Security. You can expand benefits for everyone, as Ms. Warren favors. Prosperous retirees who live mostly off their well-padded 401(k)s will appreciate what to them will feel like a small bonus, if they notice it. But spreading wealth that way will make it harder to find the resources for the vulnerable elderly who truly depend on Social Security.

Here we pause for a moment of preventive self-defense, because the fiscal argument is easy to caricature. When we say that resources are constrained, we are not arguing that the budget has to be balanced tomorrow. We are not arguing against investments in infrastructure, education and research  all of which we favor.

But demographics  the aging of the population  cannot be wished away. In the 1960s, about five taxpayers were helping to support each Social Security recipient, and the economy was growing about 6 percent annually. Today there are fewer than three workers for each pensioner, and the growth rate even following the 2008 recession has averaged about 2 percent . On current trends, 10 years from now the federal government will be spending almost all its money on Medicare, Social Security and other entitlements and on interest payments on the debt, leaving less and less for schools, housing and job training. There is nothing progressive about that.

That is one reason we say that economic growth is also a progressive goal. Its not a sufficient goal; growth must be shared, not vacuumed up by the top 1 percent. Its not in conflict with the goal of redistribution; theres reason to think that inequality can retard growth. But over the course of U.S. history, economic growth has been key to the rising prosperity of all Americans.

What does that mean for policy? Can government spur growth, and if so, how? That is a fraught debate. At a minimum, though, a progressive should favor growth, think twice before vilifying business as a whole and consider the effect on jobs when advocating additional regulations.

Finally, when true progressives think about trade and the world, they ought to keep in mind a statistic that President Obama cited in his final address to the U.N. General Assembly: The share of people living in extreme poverty in the world fell over the past quarter-century from 40 percent to under 10 percent. Thats an astounding achievement for human progress, unique in world history, taking place even as global population grew  and mostly thanks to the globalization of the economy. That trend is good for Americans, economically, because it gives them markets to sell into. But the decrease in human misery also should be celebrated for its own sake.

We understand the political challenges underlying these arguments. Mr. Trump campaigned on proposals that would grow the federal debt far more than any Democrats program, and his benefits would be targeted  to the wealthy. His proposals on trade would be far more destructive. In opposing every government program and regulation as a job-killer  including, wrongly, Obamacare  the Republicans make a rational discussion of trade-offs almost impossible.

If they attempt to govern on the basis of these proposals, why should Democrats, in the minority, be any more responsible? Far easier to claim to be standing up for the American worker by bashing China or Mexico, declaring that every problem can be solved by soaking the rich and promising government benefits to every voting family.

But if Democrats hope to deserve electoral gains in 2018 and beyond, they will need to do more than oppose Mr. Trump while outdoing him in undeliverable promises. They will need a constructive, 21st-century version of progressivism  one that embraces growth, fairness and opportunity for everyone.
The people chose Hillary Clinton. But its the electoral vote that counts, not the popular vote, so Donald Trump will be president. And no, Im not over it.

No one should be over it. No one should pretend that Trump will be a normal president. No one should forget the bigotry and racism of his campaign, the naked appeals to white grievance, the stigmatizing of Mexicans and Muslims. No one should forget the jaw-dropping ignorance he showed about government policy both foreign and domestic. No one should forget the vile misogyny. No one should forget the mendacity, the vulgarity, the ugliness, the insanity. None of this should ever be normalized in our politics.

The big protests that have followed Trumps election should be no surprise. You cant spend all those months trashing our nations values and then expect everyone to join you in a group hug. Trump made the bed in which he now must lie.

How did the unthinkable happen? Is Trump, like Brexit, part of some world-sweeping populist wave? Are the Rust Belt hinterlands in open rebellion? Was Clinton just a spectacularly flawed candidate? Did FBI Director James B. Comey boost Trump over the top? Did too many anti-Trump voters stay home out of complacency?

There is evidence to support all of those theories. But the urgent question isnt why?  its what now?

Nationwide protests have gripped many cities for days following the presidential election as thousands march against Donald Trump's victory. Trump tweeted to condemn "professional protesters, incited by the media." (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

If a normal Republican had been elected, I could say the polite and socially acceptable thing, something like I didnt support So-and-So, but he will be my president, too, and I wish him success. But I cannot wish Trump success in rounding up and deporting millions of people or banning Muslims from entering the country or reinstituting torture as an instrument of U.S. policy. In these and other divisive, cruel, unwise initiatives, I wish him failure.

I do hope he succeeds in avoiding some kind of amateurish foreign policy blunder that puts American lives or vital national interests at risk. And let me be clear that I am not questioning his legitimacy as president. When the results are certified and the electoral college casts its votes, Trump will be the nations duly chosen leader, ridiculous though that may be.

But he has not earned our trust or hope. Rather, he has earned the demonstrations that have erupted in cities across the country. He has earned relentless scrutiny by journalists, whom he shamelessly made into scapegoats during the campaign, and he has earned the constant vigilance of the public he now must serve.

There have been more than 200 reports since the election of harassment and hate crimes, mostly directed at minorities, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. During an interview broadcast Sunday on 60 Minutes, Trump addressed his supporters: I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: Stop it.

That would have been a better start had he not also sought to minimize the incidents, saying there had been a very small amount of them; and had he not also claimed the media was somehow applying a double standard in reporting on the protests.

The most troubling post-election development thus far was Trumps appointment of campaign chief executive Stephen K. Bannon  a prominent figure in the racist, xenophobic alt-right movement  as chief strategist and senior adviser. A spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the move signals that white supremacists will be represented at the highest levels in Trumps White House.

On 60 Minutes, Trump hinted that he might moonwalk away from some of his most radical promises on immigration, the issue that made him stand out from the crowd of Republican contenders. He said he will still build a wall on the Mexican border, but there could be some fencing instead of an actual wall in places. And he said that were going to make a determination about the fate of millions of undocumented immigrants who have not committed crimes  sounding as if he knows his pledge to carry out mass deportation cannot be fulfilled.

1 of 75 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Protests swell across U.S. in wake of Trump victory View Photos Vigils and protests flare up as opponents of President-elect Donald Trump express dismay with the election results, underscoring the difficult task he faces in uniting a fractured country. Caption Vigils and protests flare up among opponents of the president-elect. Nov. 20. 2016 People participate in an anti-hate rally at a Brooklyn park named in memory of Beastie Boys band member Adam Yauch after it was defaced with swastikas. Spencer Platt/Getty Images Wait 1 second to continue.

He also backed away from the idea of having a special prosecutor reinvestigate Clinton over her emails. Theyre good people, I dont want to hurt them, he said of Bill and Hillary Clinton.

If Trump is beginning to confront reality on some fronts, thats a first step  in a thousand-mile journey toward credibility and respect. But appointing Bannon is a big step backward. We must watch Trump, and judge him, every single inch of the way.

Read more from Eugene Robinsons archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. You can also join him Tuesdays at 1 p.m. for a live Q&A.
Why is this man smiling?

President Obamas chosen successor suffered a devastating loss last week to a man who made a primary campaign issue of Obamas disastrous management of the country. The Democratic Party is in a shambles, outnumbered in state legislatures, governors mansions, the House and the Senate. Conservative control of the Supreme Court seems likely for another generation. Obamas legacy is in tatters, as his trade policy, his foreign policy and his beloved Obamacare are set to be dismantled.

And yet when Obama entered the White House briefing room for a post-election news conference Monday afternoon, everything was, if not awesome, then pretty darned good. We are indisputably in a stronger position today than we were when I came in eight years ago, he began. Jobs have been growing for 73 straight months, incomes are rising, poverty is falling, the uninsured rate is at the lowest level on record, carbon emissions have come down without impinging on our growth . . .

The happy talk kept coming:

Unemployment rate is as low as it has been in eight, nine years, incomes and wages have both gone up over the last year faster than they have in a decade or two. . . . The financial systems are stable. The stock market is hovering around its all-time high and 401(k)s have been restored. The housing market has recovered. . . . We are seeing significant progress in Iraq . . . Our alliances are in strong shape. . . . And gas is two bucks a gallon.

President Obama said during a news conference Monday that "of course, I've got concerns" about the election of President-elect Donald Trump. "He and I differ on a whole bunch of issues," Obama said. (Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)

Its all true enough. But Obamas post-election remarks seemed utterly at odds with the national mood. Half the country is exultant because Donald Trump has promised to undo everything Obama has done over the past eight years. The other half of the country is alarmed that a new age of bigotry and inwardness has seized the country. And heres the outgoing president, reciting what a fine job he has done.

This has been Obamas pattern. At times when passion is called for, hes cerebral and philosophical and taking the long view  so long that it frustrates those living in the present. A week after an election has left his supporters reeling, Obamas focus seemed to be squarely on his own legacy.

He didnt mention Hillary Clintons name once in his news conference, and he went out of his way to praise Trump. On a day when the country was digesting the news that Trump has named as his top White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon, a man who has boasted of his ties to the racist alt-right, Obama was generous to the carnival barker who led the campaign questioning his American birth.

Of the Bannon appointment, Obama said it would not be appropriate for me to comment, and those who didnt vote for him have to recognize that thats how democracy works.

Of Trump himself, Obama noted his gifts that obviously allowed him to execute one of the biggest political upsets in history. He praised Trump as gregarious and pragmatic, a man who favors a vigorous debate and was impressive during the campaign. That connection that he was able to make with his supporters, Obama said, was powerful stuff.

Obamas above-the-fray response to the election result may well be that of a man who believes his approach will be vindicated by history. It may well be, but that is of little comfort now. As Obama retires to a life of speaking fees and good works, he sounded less concerned about what will happen next than with what he had achieved  including a mention, for those who forgot, that he won the Iowa caucuses in 2008.

He took a bow for his smartest, hardest-working staff, his good decisions, the absence of significant scandal during his tenure. And he speculated that Trump would ultimately find it wise to leave intact the key achievements of his administration: Obamacare, the Iran nuclear deal, the Paris climate accord, trade and immigration.

1 of 22 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  What President-elect Donald Trump did on his trip to Washington View Photos Trump arrives at the White House for a meeting with Obama and on Capitol Hill to meet with Republican congressional leaders. Caption Trump arrives at the White House for a meeting with Obama and on Capitol Hill to meet with Republican congressional leaders. Nov. 10, 2016 President Obama talks with President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

The deep disenchantment among white, blue-collar voters that propelled Trump won only a passing mention. Obviously there are people out there who are feeling deeply disaffected, the president said with his cool detachment.

In an election this close  Clinton, lets not forget, won the popular vote  any factor could have made the difference: being a candidate of the establishment in a time of change, resistance to a woman as president and backlash against the first black president, and FBI Director James B. Comeys last-minute intervention in the election.

But millions of Americans are justifiably anxious about their economic well-being. And if Clinton and Obama had limited the build-on-success theme during the campaign in favor of a more populist vision and policies, they really would have had something to smile about this week.

Twitter: @Milbank

Read more from Dana Milbanks archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) has put his name forward as a candidate for chairman of the Democratic National Committee. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Democrats scrambled on Monday to assess the damage after Hillary Clintons loss, marking the start of a season of jockeying within the party over who will be its next leader.

On a conference call with supporters late Monday, President Obama congratulated Clinton on a history-making race, but he called on his party to assess what went wrong and retool at a grass-roots level.

We have better ideas, but they have to be heard for us to actually translate those ideas into votes and ultimately into action, Obama said.

Meanwhile, Clinton addressed congressional lawmakers on a separate conference call, acknowledging the impact of her loss.

No one is sorrier than me, Clinton said, according to a Democrat on the call. Heartbreaks dont heal overnight, and this one wont.

Clinton noted that the election is one that should be studied, and she urged lawmakers to fight for the partys values harder than ever. She said she is grateful that in the end our vision for America earned more votes.

Yet, Democrats this week are beginning to strategize about how to regroup in the new Trump era, which has left them locked out of the White House and out of power in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Calls for new leadership and ideas have prompted several Democrats to put their names forward to lead the party.

On Monday, the countrys first Muslim lawmaker and a prominent liberal voice in the House, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), announced that he would run for chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

[Keith Ellison makes DNC bid official, rolls out 40 endorsements]

In a show of strength, Ellison rolled out 40 endorsements, including Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) and Reids expected successor, Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.).

Also endorsing Ellison on Monday were Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn.), Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (Ariz.) and Rep. G.K. Butterfield (N.C.).

Democrats win when we harness the power of everyday people and fight for the issues they care about, Ellison said in a statement. It is not enough for Democrats to ask for voters support every two years. We must be with them through every lost paycheck, every tuition hike, and every time they are the victim of a hate crime. When voters know what Democrats stand for, we can improve the lives of all Americans.

Ellison was one of the first and few sitting lawmakers who endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) over Clinton in the Democratic primary. And he was also one of the Democrats who recognized early on that Donald Trump posed a potentially formidable challenge in this election.

Trump showed unexpected strength in industrial Midwestern states, where he lost by fewer than two percentage points to Clinton. That represented a sea change and a narrow miss for Democrats, especially when compared with Mitt Romneys nearly eight-point loss to Obama in the 2012 presidential election.

We must champion the challenges of working families and give voters a reason to show up at the polls in 2018 and beyond, Ellison said.

In a news conference on Monday, Obama also acknowledged that Clintons loss marked the erosion of Democratic support in parts of the country that he had won, in part because her campaign believed that the path to victory would not go through predominantly white and working-class corners of the electoral map that helped win Trump the White House.

[Meeting the press for first time since Trumps win, Obama says new president-elect is committed to NATO]

Obama named Iowa as a state he won not because the demographics dictated it but because he spent time campaigning in small towns and counties where he was the underdog.

Theres some counties maybe I won, that people didnt expect, because people had a chance to see you and listen to you and get a sense of who you stood for and who you were fighting for, Obama said.

Several other Democrats have put their names forward to lead the party, including former Maryland governor Martin OMalley, South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison and the DNCs national finance chairman, Henry R. Munoz III, and former DNC chair and Vermont governor Howard Dean.

On Monday morning during an appearance on MSNBCs Morning Joe, Dean emphasized that the job is one that should require a full-time commitment, a long-standing criticism of the last full-time DNC chair, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), who served in the position while also holding a congressional seat.

You cannot do this job if its not full-time. Period, Dean said.
Bernie Sanders signs copies Of "Our Revolution: A Future To Believe In" on Nov. 14 at Barnes & Noble in New York. (Theo Wargo/Getty Images)

As dusk neared, Alyssa Goldstein remained planted in the lawn chair she had set up on a busy Manhattan sidewalk shortly after 9 a.m., joining a queue of strangers who by now felt like friends.

In a few more hours, Goldstein would get what she was waiting for, and she had no doubt that it would be worth it, particularly now: a few moments with Bernie Sanders, who was coming to Barnes & Noble to promote his new book.

I think especially after this week, you know, people had a mental breakdown, said Goldstein, 39, who owns a mobile dog-grooming service. Seeing Bernie again gives us hope.

In the wake of Republican Donald Trumps stunning presidential victory, the book tour begun Monday night by Sanders, an unabashedly liberal senator from Vermont who lost the Democratic primary, has become something more. For 600 of his fans, some of whom waited in line for 12 hours here, it served as a catharsis.

[Whats next for Democrats? For starters, a battle for the soul of their party.]

For nearly a week now, many of them have been reeling, wondering what will happen in Washington and what it will mean for the revolution Sanders pushed. On Monday, he urged his supporters to become more involved politically, not less.

They were taken inside in groups, led up an escalator and steered past the cafe, where they waited in another line that led to a beige curtain blocking the view of store patrons. After a chance for a photo and a few words with Sanders behind the curtain, some emerged in tears.

Goldstein, who described the senator as insanely gracious, said she was doing her best not to cry before leaving the store.

Others expressed their emotions in different ways. I feel crazy, like I just took a hit of drugs or something! yelled one perhaps 30-something woman, who declined to be interviewed as she headed down the escalator.

Some were wearing light-blue Bernie T-shirts from his upstart presidential campaign. One woman sported a button reading, Talk Bernie To Me. A college student was clad in a Bernie onesie decorated with dozens of images of the senators head.

All, it seemed, were still trying to make sense of a general election somehow lost by Democrat Hillary Clinton  one that many of them said they thought Sanders could have won if only he had been the partys nominee.

[Democrats begin period of soul searching, jockeying after Clinton loss]

I think it was a terrible mistake, said Josh Youngerman, 25, a political activist and actor from Brooklyn, who argued that Sanders would have been the stronger candidate against Trump.

With his message of economic populism, Sanders connected better than Clinton in some of the Rust Belt states that she lost, including Michigan and Wisconsin, he said.

Youngerman said he had volunteered for Sanderss campaign in five states and logged more than 400 hours working phone banks for him  yet never met the senator before Monday night.

It helps. It helps, for sure, he said, quickly changing his tone. But still, its pretty devastating. We have a fascist for a president.

It is really emotional, Kayla Ichikawa of Queens said after she and her husband had their picture taken with Sanders behind the curtain.

Before Sanderss primary bid, Ichikawa, 24, said she felt jaded by politics. Sanders gave her hope.

[Sanders says Democrats should pound away on winning issues to regain favor with voters]

It was already hard when he lost the primary, and then Hillary lost, too, she said.

A public school teacher in Brooklyn, Ichikawa said shes worried that Trump will seek to deport her students who are undocumented immigrants.

Sanders, who during his campaign was more comfortable talking about policy than posing for pictures, said he feels an enormous sense of obligation to help his supporters get through this stretch.

These are hard times, he said in an interview before posing for photos for two hours. The answer is not despair. The answer is not to give up. The answer is to become involved.

Trumps victory has changed both the tone of the book tour and Sanderss upcoming role in Washington. The book, titled Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In, is part campaign memoir but also very heavy on his policy prescriptions for the future.

I like the book, Sanders said. Needless to say, Im prejudiced. But I suspect . . . the reviews will not be great. Theres no gossip in it. Theres no juicy stuff in it. I know that. On the other hand, I think we need to take a very, very hard look at where we are as a country, where we have to go, and thats what the book does.

Anticipating a Clinton presidency, Sanders and other liberal lawmakers were preparing to push her to join with them on an array of initiatives, including tuition-free education at public colleges and universities. Now theyre preparing to spend far more time playing defense.

That has not diminished interest in what Sanders has to say. A representative of the publisher, St. Martins Press, said there has been an uptick in demand for the book since the Nov. 8 election.

There are 17 stops on the book tour, which includes a variety of events. Some are meet-and-greets, like the one here on Monday night, but some more substantive discussions are scheduled.

In Washington on Wednesday, for example, Sanders is planning to talk about the future of the Democratic Party in a sold-out event at a 1,500-seat auditorium at George Washington University.

A lot of the people who will be coming out are deeply worried about the future of this country, Sanders said. In some cases, theyre literally worried about their own lives and what this might be for them and their families. Its very personal. So I think the seriousness of the moment has been intensified.

Without a Democratic president, Sanderss voice is likely to be among those amplified. That was evident Monday during a string of New York media appearances, including stops at The View and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

Colbert asked Sanders if he saw overlap in the anger between the crowds he drew and those who supported Trump. Sanders allowed that there was some but said he cant imagine that many of his supporters voted for the Republican nominee, citing offensive things he had said about women, Latinos, Muslims and other groups.

Above and beyond the incredible bigotry of the Trump campaign, what he did is he tapped into a lot of pain and anxiety and angst the American people are feeling, which is very rarely reported in the media or understood by the public, Sanders said.

Before the shows taping began, Colbert visited with his audience and told them he thought Sanders was the perfect person to explain what had happened.

I cant think of anybody Id rather have on the show, he said. I think thats the leader of the opposition now, Bernie Sanders.

Whether that proves true or not, Monday night showed that the loyalty of many Sanders fans has not diminished.

Tyler Brady began waiting in line at 4 a.m. for his chance to pose with Sanders for a photo. He was able to leave the scene long enough to attend an international politics lecture at New York University while others held his spot, he said, but otherwise he waited on the sidewalk all day.

Its one of those meet-your-heroes moments, he said.

Brady, 18, grew up in Scranton, Pa., the kind of town where blue-collar workers tipped the scales for Trump last week. But Bradys politics are different, partly as the result of the 75-year-old senator, whom the teenager said introduced him to the idea of democratic socialism.

Hopefully he makes a 2020 run, Brady said. One can only hope.
Here's what you need to know about the man who went from Breitbart News chairman to Donald Trump's campaign CEO before his appointment as chief White House strategist and senior counselor. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

Here's what you need to know about the man who went from Breitbart News chairman to Donald Trump's campaign CEO before his appointment as chief White House strategist and senior counselor. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

President-elect Donald Trumps new chief strategist and senior counselor, Stephen K. Bannon, has been called a racist, an anti-Semite and a white nationalist. And thats just since Sunday, when Trump announced that he would be giving Bannon, the former head of the far-right website Breitbart News, a central White House role.

Its true that Bannon has attracted legions of followers who describe themselves as white supremacists. Its less clear whether Bannons own actions and words prove that he is one, too.

Bannon describes himself as a leader of the alt-right, a loose term describing a far-right ideology that includes opposition to immigration and globalism.

Bannon declined to comment on the record, but there is little evidence that the nationalism question  occasionally litigated in the campaign  slowed his path to a job that requires no Senate confirmation.

Shortly after joining Trumps campaign in August, Bannon said in a revealing interview with Mother Jones that, possibly, there were some people that are white nationalists that are attracted to some of the philosophies of the alt-right. That, he said, could no more define alt-right than the presence of extremists on the left could identify their movement.

The Posts Robert Costa and Paul Farhi discuss the appointments by President-elect Donald Trump of Stephen K. Bannon as chief strategist and senior counselor and Reince Priebus as chief of staff. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

But by and large, the alt-right is not racist, he said.

If you look at the identity movements over there in Europe, I think a lot of [them] are really Polish identity or German identity, not racial identity, said Bannon. Its more identity toward a nation-state or their people as a nation.

Under the sites founder, the late Andrew Breitbart, accusations of racism were dismissed as cultural Marxism.

Yet some of the highest praise for Bannons appointment came from white nationalists and white supremacists. According to SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors far-right and far-left activity on the Internet, a trove of comments celebrating the news have posted on Stormfront, a website for the White Nationalist Community, including this one from a reader called Pheonix1993:

Stephen Bannon: racist, anti-homo, anti-immigrant, anti-jewish, anti-establishment. Declared war on (((Paul Ryan))) Sounds perfect. The man who will have Trumps ear more than anyone else. Being anti-jewish is not illegal.

Additionally, the white nationalist writer Richard Spencer posted this late Sunday on Twitter: Bannon will answer directly to Trump and focus on the big picture, and not get lost in the weeds. Bannon is not a chief of staff, which requires a golden retriever personality. Hell be freed up to chart Trumps macro trajectory.

[Trump, Putin agree in phone call to improve unsatisfactory relations ]

1 of 75 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Protests swell across U.S. in wake of Trump victory View Photos Vigils and protests flare up as opponents of President-elect Donald Trump express dismay with the election results, underscoring the difficult task he faces in uniting a fractured country. Caption Vigils and protests flare up among opponents of the president-elect. Nov. 20. 2016 People participate in an anti-hate rally at a Brooklyn park named in memory of Beastie Boys band member Adam Yauch after it was defaced with swastikas. Spencer Platt/Getty Images Wait 1 second to continue.

Under Bannons leadership, Breitbart became an anti-globalist news site clearly aligned with the European far right. It attracts self-described white supremacists with such headlines as Bill Kristol: Republican spoiler, renegade Jew. It offers a steady stream of opinion essays, such as one by Milo Yiannopoulos in March describing anti-Semitic caricatures as the long hair and rock n roll of 2016.

Direct evidence of racist or anti-Semitic statements by Bannon is harder to find. According to a 2007 court statement, Bannons ex-wife accused him of not wanting their twin daughters attending a California private school because its student body included too many Jews.

The scrutiny will only intensify.

Bannon left Breitbart in August to become chief executive of Trumps presidential campaign. Until then, he had never been part of any political campaign. Little of what he did made sense to political reporters looking for the normal tokens of a winning effort  not the Mississippi rally with Brexit leader Nigel Farage, not the surprise news conference with Bill Clintons accusers.

Trump has gone from 2012 GOP style loss to a 2008 GOP style loss, wrote Republican pollster Matthew Dowd on Oct. 10.

The rhetoric that Bannon is feeding Trump makes it increasingly likely that Trump will lose in a landslide, wrote the New Yorkers Ryan Lizza on Oct. 16.

A few weeks, an FBI letter and tens of thousands of WikiLeaked emails later, Bannon is poised to be Trumps chief strategist and senior counselor. Democrats have laced into him, but Republicans, taking the lead of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, have not mentioned Bannon at all, not even to point out that many Breitbart staffers are Jewish.

And there is talk of more Breitbart reporters joining Bannon at the White House, in roles that do not require Senate confirmation.

Since 2012, when Bannon became Breitbarts chief executive, the site has defied doubts about what it could be without its charismatic founder and survived several tumultuous scraps with former staffers. The latest, just nine months ago, was telling of how Breitbart and Bannon viewed the media. After a Trump victory speech, Michelle Fields, then a reporter for Breitbart, was shoved out of the way by Trumps then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Within a week, she was gone; within a few months, Breitbart was running pieces about her being unable to defend her story.

From the outside, the moves looked chaotic. But chat logs published by BuzzFeed found Breitbart staffers agreeing that the scuffle looked bad but that going to war over it would reflect poorly on a greater cause. That cause was the Trump campaign. Bannon had joked a year before he was hired that he was effectively Trumps campaign manager because the Republican front-runner was a nationalist. He identified Breitbart as a home for the alt-right for the same reason.

In Europe, the far right has dealt with the same sort of media coverage as Bannon. Accusations of racism were constant; internal power struggles were seen as proof of the whole project falling apart. But Breitbart, which launched a London branch in early 2014, had seen this before. The sites editor, Raheem Kassam, became chief of staff to Brexit leader Farage as his United Kingdom Independence Party surged.

[Trumps win may be just the beginning of a global populist wave]

The Brexit vote this summer was seen, at Breitbart, as nationalisms great validation. In an analysis by Allum Bokhari and Yiannopoulos, two of the sites U.K. writers, the failure of the Remain campaign in Britain  one that united most of both of the countrys major parties and most of its experts  proved that the masses wanted a revolt against globalism. Warnings about what the wrong vote would do to markets, or that it would make people think of voters as racists, meant less than nothing to the anti-globalism working class.

They think about political sovereignty, independence and national pride, Bokhari and Yiannopoulos wrote. Elites sneer at these concerns as the foolish, provincial preoccupations of low-information voters, yet they are deeply embedded in human nature, particularly in the search for belonging.

In America, too, Breitbart was the place for news on the revolt against the globalists. European far-right politicians like Geert Wilders and the Le Pens earned regular write-ups. A typical headline: Marion Marechal-Le Pen: Either We Kill Islamism or It Kills Us. Their politics were seen as necessary because of the litany of migrant crimes screaming across Breitbart, such as this headline: Previously-Deported Illegal Alien Caught on Camera Destroying Trump Signs While at Work. 

Coverage like that turned Breitbart into a powerhouse; according to the New York Times, it earned more Facebook impressions on election night than Fox News or CNN. More importantly, Bannon helped shape a Trump message that won the condemnation of the Anti-Defamation League  and helped him in swing states. Trumps closing ad, a two-minute edit of a speech he had given attacking the global financial powers, struck the ADL as hitting anti-Semitic themes. In the wider media, it was seen as stirring and populist.

I played the clip for like five different people and I said, Is that anti-Semitic? said MSNBCs Joe Scarborough last week. No. There are dog whistles, but . . . play that ad to 100 Americans in middle America, 99 of them will go, Thats cool. 

Further on the political fringe, Bannon and Breitbart were credited with honing Trumps message against globalism, and unleashing his say-anything approach to talking about terrorism and immigrant crime. Alex Jones, a Texas-based online host who has attacked globalists and called the 9/11 attacks an inside job, told viewers this week that Trump had thanked him for his coverage. On Joness online show, after the election, sometime-Trump adviser Roger Stone suggested that Bannon become Trumps chief of staff to keep the momentum of the campaign going.

I think he has the big picture viewpoint that Trump needs, Stone said. He knows exactly who the bad guys are. He knows exactly who those who won this victory are.
"Where in the world would people be exposed to such an objectionable treatment for being happy, for celebrating your friend's birthday?"

By India Today Web Desk: In what has the potential of leaving you both, disturbed and horrified, an Iranian women recently opened up about being treated to at least 80 lashes on her back. Why? Well, she committed the 'crime' of attending a party with male guests.

Former journalist, Masih Alinejad--whose Facebook page, bats for the long overdue freedom Iranian women deserve--shared the 28-year-old, anonymous woman's story on social media.





The post was shared on former journalist, Masih Alinejad's popular Facebook page, My Stealthy Freedom. Picture courtesy: Instagram/Masih Alinejad

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Reportedly, the women committed the above-mentioned 'crime' two years ago when she attended a party in the Iranian city of Mashhad.

Alinejad's Facebook post--that is a part of her #NoToLashes social media movement--describes the incident in detail and mentions how after initially being arrested for consuming alcohol, the woman in question was asked to strip and subsequently, whipped 80 times in a row.

Also Read: WATCH: Shraavya Reddy lashes out at a person who asked her breast size

"I will never forget the moment when the security forces stormed the house. Without even showing us any warrant, they raced into the house and they were all males. We were first [forcibly] taken to the police station in the neighbourhood. Afterwards, they took us to a clinic to test how much alcohol we had consumed. Then, we were driven off to a horrid place run by female officers where their treatment of us was actually worse than how males were treated," the post has the woman as saying.



Also Read: At 16, she received 40 lashes for wearing a miniskirt, at 35 her swimwear brand celebrates freedom



She also mentions how the female officers asked her to strip and taunted her for being dressed 'inappropriately.'

"When I objected by telling her that I was not feeling comfortable with the idea of taking off my clothes in front of her, she responded with a belittling tone: 'Really? You do not seem to be uncomfortable to remove your clothes in front of guys'."

After being detained for two days and "signing the required papers" the woman was summoned two years later for the final verdict: "80 lashes for having consumed alcohol and having gone to a place to participate in sinful (haram) activities."|



What subsequently turns into a vivid description of the lashing, ends with the woman questioning the legitimacy of the entire incident.



"Outside of the prison, a dear friend was waiting and she was shedding tears for me. As I saw her, I wanted to scream, not out of pain, but because of the insults that I suffered at the hands of those agents. The nasty words that they uttered during the entire ordeal are indescribable. What is more shocking is that this is happening to me in my own country. Where in the world would people be exposed to such an objectionable treatment for being happy, for celebrating your friend's birthday?"



Read the full post right here.





--- ENDS ---

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Anti-Trump and pro-Trump signs compete outside Trump Tower in New York. Demonstrations have continued in cities across the country in protest of Donald Trumps rhetoric and personnel choices. (Jewel Samad/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)

President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed in a telephone conversation Monday that relations between their countries were unsatisfactory and vowed to work together to improve them, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Moscow said the two men discussed combining efforts in the fight against terrorism, talked about a settlement for the crisis in Syria and agreed that their aides would begin working on a face-to-face meeting between them.

Trumps office later said that Putin had called to offer his congratulations and that they had discussed shared threats and challenges, strategic economic issues and the long-term relationship between the two nations.

On Tuesday, a Kremlin spokesman said that Putin and Trump had not discussed the Russian annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 or the rebellion by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The overall tone of the conversation corresponded with the tone of statements already made during [Trumps] election campaign concerning Russian-American relations, the spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told journalists.

During his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump repeatedly vowed to "drain the swamp" in D.C. and rid the federal government of political elites and lobbyists. But just days into his transition to president, Trump seems to be doing the opposite. (Deirdra O'Regan/The Washington Post)

During the campaign, Trump said that he would look at recognizing Crimea as a part of Russia. The United States and the European Union issued sanctions on Russia over Crimea, and broadened them as a result of Moscows involvement in eastern Ukraine.

The president-elect spoke admiringly of Putin during the campaign, praising him as a stronger leader than President Obama and saying the two countries should join together to fight terrorists, particularly the Islamic State in Syria.

Those views put Trump at odds with many GOP defense hawks, who have praised his promise to increase military spending but are uniformly suspicious of Moscow and have denounced Russian actions in Eastern Europe, Ukraine and Syria. The offer of cooperation could also immerse Trump in a deep controversy with the Pentagon, where military and civilian leaders have strongly opposed collaboration with Russia, particularly in Syria.

U.S. intelligence officials have also expressed concern, noting that the Kremlin is believed to have been involved with hacking the email accounts of prominent Democrats, in hopes of injecting chaos into the U.S. electoral process and perhaps swaying the outcome of the vote.

Trumps conversations with Putin and other world leaders came as protests continued for a sixth straight day in major cities and on college campuses over last weeks election results, in which Trump won the electoral college but lost the popular vote to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

[Trump called these foreign leaders the day after the election]

He also faced escalating criticism over his appointment of former Breitbart News head Stephen K. Bannon as chief strategist at the White House. Bannon has been denounced by a chorus of advocacy groups, commentators and congressional Democrats as a proponent of racist, anti-Semitic and misogynistic views.

Bringing Steve Bannon into the White House is an alarming signal that President-elect Trump remains committed to the hateful and divisive vision that defined his campaign, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said in a statement. There must be no sugarcoating the reality that a white nationalist has been named chief strategist for the Trump Administration. Trump allies have dismissed the accusation.

Obama, in his first news conference since the election, declined to comment on Bannon and sought to reassure the country and the international community that Trump is committed to governing in a more realistic and pragmatic fashion than he displayed on the campaign trail. Obama said Trump pledged in their conversation last week to maintain U.S. strategic relationships, including the NATO alliance.

At the same time, Obama urged the president-elect to reach out to groups representing minorities and women, many of whom have felt slighted by his candidacy.

One of the great things about the United States is that when it comes to world affairs, the president, obviously, is the leader of the executive branch, the commander in chief, the spokesperson for the nation, but the influence and the work that we have is the result not just of the president. It is the result of countless interactions and arrangements and relationships, Obama said. . . . And there is enormous continuity beneath the day-to-day news that makes us that indispensable nation when it comes to maintaining order and promoting prosperity around the world. That will continue.

Trump has signaled in numerous ways that he will not hew to many of the norms of past presidents, from declining to release his tax returns to relying on his family as key advisers. Previously, he has said he would avoid conflicts of interest as president by turning his business over to his children.

[Trumps win may just be the beginning of a global populist wave]

Since his victory last week, Trump has received congratulatory calls from a number of foreign leaders, including some he sharply criticized during the presidential race, such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Sunday night, after he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trumps office said that he believes the two leaders will have one of the strongest relationships for both countries moving forward.

Trumps relationship with Russia may be one of his trickiest to navigate.

Although the statement released by his office contained few details and did not mention Syria or other specific issues, it said Trump told Putin that he is very much looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the People of Russia.

In addition to praising Putin, Trump has indicated that closer relations with Russia would keep the Kremlin from establishing tighter ties with China. He has appeared to absolve Russia from responsibility for intervention in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea, and during the campaign repeatedly questioned the relevance of NATO, which has charged Moscow with engaging in provocative air and sea actions on the alliances eastern flank.

Giving Putin a free pass on those issues would run directly counter to the Russia policy of the Obama administration, which has, among other things, called for an international war-crimes investigation of Russias actions in Syria. It could also undermine current European negotiations with Moscow over Ukraine, as well as support for U.S. and European Union sanctions.

Russia is interested not only in getting the sanctions removed but also in obtaining equal status as a player in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Moscow is the primary supporter, along with Iran, of President Bashar al-Assad. In September 2015, one year after the United States began bombing Islamic State targets in Syria, Putin ordered Russian jets into operation against terrorist targets there.

Most Russian airstrikes, however, have targeted U.S.-backed opposition forces fighting against Assad and, according to the United Nations, have killed hundreds of civilians. The United States and its European allies have called for an international investigation of Russia for war crimes.

Obama administration offers to coordinate U.S. counterterrorism strikes against the Islamic State in Syria with Russia, if the Russians would stop bombing opposition and civilian targets, have repeatedly failed to stop the carnage. Any cooperation with Russia would also put the United States on the side of Iran, whose activities in the region Trump has vowed to stop.

Also controversial was Trumps decision Sunday to name Bannon as chief strategist, a move condemned by the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, Capitol Hill Democrats and some Republican Trump critics.

Trumps staff brushed off the criticism Monday, saying Bannon is a former naval officer and Goldman Sachs executive who has been a measured voice behind the scenes at the campaign.

Thats not the Steve Bannon that I know, and Ive spent a lot of time with him, Trumps new chief of staff, Reince Priebus, said on MSNBC, responding to allegations of racism, misogyny and anti-Semitism. . . . He was a force for good on the campaign at every level that I saw, all the time.

Kellyanne Conway, who worked closely with Bannon as Trumps campaign manager, also defended him. Hes been the general of this campaign, she told reporters as she arrived Monday at Trump Tower in Manhattan to meet with the president-elect.

Asked whether Bannon needed to explain his connections to the alt-right movement, which includes many white nationalists and white supremacists, Conway said: Im personally offended that you think I would manage a campaign where that would be one of the going philosophies. It was not  56 million-plus Americans or so saw something else. . . . You should really focus on the will of the people, which was to elect Donald Trump the president.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) sought to calm the fears many Americans still hold about Trumps election.

There is a lot of hysteria and hyperbole, Ryan said during an interview Monday with his hometown radio station, 1380 Big AM in Janesville, Wis. I would tell people to just relax  things are going to be fine.

Jerry Markon, Juliet Eilperin, Greg Jaffe, Andrew Roth and David Filipov contributed to this report.
President-elect Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, visit the Lincoln Memorial before the Make America Great Again concert.

Jan. 19, 2017 President-elect Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, visit the Lincoln Memorial before the Make America Great Again concert. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post

He has been holding interviews and meetings as he prepares to enter the White House.

He has been holding interviews and meeting with Congress and the president as he prepares to transition into the White House.

He has been holding interviews and meeting with Congress and the president as he prepares to transition into the White House.

Heres what president-elect Donald Trump has been doing after the election

Heres what president-elect Donald Trump has been doing after the election

President-elect Donald Trump, who clashed with leading Republicans throughout his campaign, faced growing tumult in his national security transition team on Monday as key members of his own party appeared to question his views and personnel choices.

Former congressman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), a respected voice on national security thought to be a leading candidate to run the CIA, was among those pushed out of the team over the past two days, two individuals with direct knowledge said, in a series of moves that have added to the anxiety across the upper ranks of U.S. intelligence agencies.

The changes came as Trump met Tuesday with incoming Vice President Mike Pence to discuss Cabinet and top White House personnel choices. Pence last week replaced New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) as head of Trumps overall transition efforts, and Christies associates  who had been Trumps link to the GOP mainstream for months  now find themselves losing influence.

[Its not just the Cabinet: Trumps transition team needs to find nearly 4,000 appointees]

A number of Christie allies have been told they were no longer in line for top posts, according to several people familiar with the transition, who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak candidly.

The Posts Robert Costa and Paul Farhi discuss the appointments by President-elect Donald Trump of Stephen K. Bannon as chief strategist and senior counselor and Reince Priebus as chief of staff. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

Also on Tuesday, perhaps the most influential Republican on national security matters, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), weighed in on Trumps efforts to work with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying any efforts to reset relations with Russia are unacceptable.

McCain, the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman who had a difficult relationship with Trump during the campaign, issued a statement blasting Putin as a former KGB agent who has plunged his country into tyranny, murdered his political opponents, invaded his neighbors, threatened Americas allies and attempted to undermine Americas elections.

A former U.S. official with ties to the Trump team described the ousters of Rogers and others as a bloodletting of anybody that associated in any way on the transition with Christie, and said that the departures were engineered by two Trump loyalists who have taken control of who will get national security posts in the administration: retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Rogers had no prior significant ties to Christie but had been recruited to join the Trump team as an adviser by the New Jersey governor. At least three other Christie associates were also pushed aside, former officials said, apparently in retaliation for Christies role as a U.S. prosecutor in sending Kushners father to prison.

Rogers departure adds to the list of positions for which the Trump team is struggling to find suitable candidates, and came as Eliot Cohen, a leading voice of opposition to Trump among former GOP national security officials during the campaign, blasted Trumps transition team for its treatment of perceived foes.

Now operating below Pence on the transition team, the people said, are advisers who are close to Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)  himself a top Trump associate known for his hardline views on immigration  and former Breitbart News head Stephen K. Bannon. Bannons recent appointment as chief White House strategist was denounced by advocacy groups and Democrats, who accuse him of racist, anti-Semitic and misogynist views.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday, in his first speech on the Senate floor speech since Trumps victory, that the president-elect should retract Bannons appointment, calling the latter a champion of white supremacy whose hiring undermines Trumps call for national unity following the election.

1 of 22 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  What President-elect Donald Trump did on his trip to Washington View Photos Trump arrives at the White House for a meeting with Obama and on Capitol Hill to meet with Republican congressional leaders. Caption Trump arrives at the White House for a meeting with Obama and on Capitol Hill to meet with Republican congressional leaders. Nov. 10, 2016 President Obama talks with President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

By placing a champion of white supremacy a step away from the Oval Office, what message does Trump send? Reid said.

I say to Donald Trump, take responsibility. Rise to the dignity of the office of the president of the United States instead of hiding behind your Twitter account. ... Show America that racism, bullying and bigotry have no place in your White House.

Inside Trump Tower in Manhattan, where the president-elect is planning his government, the shift is seen as a clear signal that Trump will govern more in line with the populist, hardline campaign he ran, the people said.

In another surprising development on Tuesday, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who has been a confidant to Trump since the end of the Republican primaries, is unlikely to join the administration but will remain an informal adviser.

The way Im leaning is to work from the outside and not from the inside, Carson said in an interview. I want to have the freedom to work on many issues and not be pigeonholed into one particular area.

Carson, who is Trumps most high-profile African American supporter, has been under consideration for several positions in Trumps Cabinet, including secretary of health and human services.

Adding to the uncertainty, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani appeared to take himself out of the running for attorney general. Giuliani, a former U.S. attorney and a top Trump adviser, had been considered a leading candidate for the prestigious post.

I wont be attorney general, Giuliani said Monday at a Wall Street Journal event.

Cohen, meanwhile, drew widespread attention for his tweet.

After exchange w Trump transition team, changed my recommendation: stay away. Theyre angry, arrogant, screaming you LOST! Will be ugly, tweeted Cohen, who served from 2007 to 2009 as counselor to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He was a driving force behind an open letter last spring  eventually signed by 122 Republican national security leaders  who opposed Trumps candidacy.

Cohen, who last week had urged career officials to serve in Trumps administration, said in an interview that a longtime friend and senior transition team official had asked him to submit names of possible national security appointees. After he suggested several people, Cohen said, his friend emailed him back in terms he described as very weird, very disturbing.

It was accusations that you guys are trying to insinuate yourselves into the administrationall of YOU LOST.it became clear to me that they view jobs as lollipops, things you give out to good boys and girls, said Cohen, who would not identify his friend.

Cohen also said the transition official was completely dismissive of concerns raised about Trumps appointment of Bannon, who Trumps advisors have strongly defended.

His friends email conveyed the feeling that were so glad to see the bicoastal elites get theirs, added Cohen, who described the response as unhinged.

Trump transition officials had no immediate comment Tuesday, but Jason Miller, a senior transition communication adviser, told reporters Monday night that Trump and Pence know the urgency of filling key positions.

Obviously, inauguration day is not getting further away. And people need to get going. This is an absolute top priority understood by the president-elect and the vice president-elect, Miller said.

Some political observers were also stunned to hear that Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, an adviser to Trump, was being considered as a candidate for agriculture secretary in the new administration. Miller was widely criticized for recently calling Hillary Clinton a ct on Twitter. He later placed blame for the tweet on a third-party vendor who he said would be removed from his campaign staff.

As for the president-elect, Trump jumped back on Twitter on Tuesday morning to argue about his expected loss of the popular vote to Hillary Clinton. Trump was known for his incendiary tweets during the campaign, but has tweeted only sporadically since his victory.

If the election were based on total popular vote I would have campaigned in N.Y., Florida and California and won even bigger and more easily, Trump wrote at his personal account, @realDonaldTrump.

Six minutes later, Trump changed his tone and defended the electoral college, where his victory was secured. The system is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different! he wrote.

Amid the widespread uncertainty, coordination between Trumps transition team and the Obama White House is now on hold until Trumps team signs a key document, the Associated Press reported. The document, a memorandum of understanding smoothing interaction between the two teams, has yet to be signed by Pence, who recently replaced Christie as head of Trumps transition planning.

White House spokeswoman Brandi Hoffine said the Obama administration is working with Trump advisers to get the document signed.

Some of Trumps biggest campaign fundraisers and super PAC donors were rewarded Tuesday with seats on his presidential inaugural committee, which will be headed by investor Thomas Barrack Jr., a Trump business associate who hosted the candidates first fundraiser in May. Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam  who together gave at least $11.2 million to his campaign and allied super PACs, making them Trumps biggest donors -- were named as finance vice-chairs.

Other major financial backers on the committee include New York financier Lew Eisenberg, who headed the Republican National Committees joint fundraising effort with the campaign; Wisconsin billionaire Diane Hendricks, who gave at least $1.9 million to support Trump; and Laurie J. Perlmutter, the wife of Marvel Entertainment chief executive Isaac Perlmutter, who gave $5 million to a pro-Trump super PAC days before the election.

Other major campaign fundraisers were also give slots, including New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, Dallas executive Roy Bailey, Florida lobbyist Brian Ballard, New York financier Anthony Scaramucci, Florida developer Mel Sembler, Dallas investor Ray Washburne and former RNC finance chairman Ron Weiser. Casino mogul Steve Wynn, who declined to say during the campaign which candidate he was backing, also secured a spot.

The cascading developments followed a telephone call Monday between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which they agreed that relations between their countries were unsatisfactory and vowed to work together to improve them, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Moscow said the two men discussed combining efforts in the fight against terrorism, talked about a settlement for the crisis in Syria and agreed that their aides would begin working on a face-to-face meeting between them.

Trumps office later said that Putin had called to offer his congratulations and that they had discussed shared threats and challenges, strategic economic issues and the long-term relationship between the two nations.

The president-elect spoke admiringly of Putin during the campaign, praising him as a stronger leader than President Obama and saying the two countries should join together to fight terrorists, particularly the Islamic State in Syria.

Those views put Trump at odds with many GOP defense hawks, who are uniformly suspicious of Moscow and have denounced Russian actions in Eastern Europe, Ukraine and Syria. The offer of cooperation could also immerse Trump in a deep controversy with the Pentagon, where military and civilian leaders have strongly opposed collaboration with Russia, particularly in Syria.

Protests, meanwhile, continued for a sixth straight day in major cities and on college campuses over last weeks election results, in which Trump won the electoral college but lost the popular vote to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Andrew Roth in Moscow, Jenna Johnson in New York City and Robert Costa, Elise Viebeck and Jose DelReal in Washington contributed to this report.
When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called President-elect Donald Trump shortly after his victory, he mentioned that he would be passing through New York this week on his way to the APEC summit and suggested a meeting. That would be awesome, Trump immediately responded, according to people briefed on the conversation.

Its happening. Abe will see Trump on Thursday in New York, making him one of the first world leaders to meet with the next American president.

There is much to discuss  not least the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that Abe just pushed through his parliament and that Trump has vowed to scrap, and the U.S. military bases in Japan that Trump wants more money for.

Id like to frankly exchange views on a variety of issues and to express my views on matters like free trade . . . the economy, foreign policy and security in general, Abe told a parliamentary panel Monday in Tokyo. But Abe, who could be in power through 2020, also said he would use this meeting to build a trusting relationship.

Indeed, dont expect them to get into the nitty-gritty, analysts say.

The point of this meeting is to develop trust and chemistry on a personal level, to reassure people in both countries that everything is fine, said Michael Green of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who worked in the George W. Bush administration and has strong ties to Abes team.

Rather than talking substance about trade deals or the countries 70-year-old security alliance, Abe should concentrate on building a personal relationship with Trump, Green said.

They already have plenty in common.

For one, Trump sets a tone that Abe, a strong nationalist in his own right, will be comfortable with, Green said. Trump promised to make America great again, while Abe is set on turning Japan back into a beautiful country. For another, they both have a bromance going on with Vladimir Putin, the unequivocally nationalist Russian leader whom Trump has praised and whom Abe will welcome to Japan next month.

[ Asia doesnt think Trump is serious about ripping up trade agreements ]

There are jitters in both Japan and South Korea over what Trump might do as president. On the campaign trail, he repeatedly said that Japan and South Korea were not paying enough for their defense and that he would make them pay more  perhaps even all  of the costs of hosting American military bases.

Since his victory, the Japanese government has been taking a wait-and-see approach. Trump said various things during his campaign, but I will not presuppose what he will do as president, Tomomi Inada, Japans defense minister, said Friday. However, she added that Japan is already paying its fair share toward base costs.

Analysts here are less guarded, hoping that Trump will temper his position once he appoints staff and starts receiving policy briefings.

We dont really know whether Trump means what he said during the campaign, said Akira Sato, a ruling-party lawmaker who served as vice minister of defense until last year. Hes a businessman, so its possible that hed not be so knowledgeable about security issues.

Japan allocated $1.9 billion in its last budget for the American bases, which house almost 50,000 U.S. personnel, although its total contribution, including other costs like civilian salaries, is more than double that.

South Korea, which has about 28,500 American troops, pays almost $900 million, or 40 percent of the total cost, for the bases it hosts.

The installations serve as forward operating bases for the U.S. military in the Asia-Pacific region, helping to contain a nuclear-armed North Korea and, increasingly, a more muscular China.

[ Donald Trump says U.S. is bankrolling Asian allies defense. Thats not true. ]

Analysts say that its possible that the U.S. government under Trump will charge its allies more for the cost of the military bases, but almost all agree that Trump is unlikely to order them closed.

Japan shouldnt take his remarks at face value, said Masashi Nishihara, president of the Research Institute of Peace and Security in Tokyo, adding that Trump said all sorts of wild things on the campaign trail.

Having American forces in Japan is not only good for Japan but also for the U.S., which needs to keep an eye on North Korea, China and the Indian Ocean, Nishihara said.

Abe, who made a similar point in parliament Monday, will be able to set this explanation process in motion during Thursdays meeting, Nishihara said.

But a more immediate issue to tackle will be Russia.

Trump has made his admiration for Putin clear, saying in an NBC forum in September that he has been a leader far more than our president has been, and Abe has also been pursuing closer ties with the Russian president.

Putin will travel to Japan in mid-December, visiting a hot-spring resort with Abe in his home prefecture, then holding a day of meetings in Tokyo. Putin is said to be particularly eager to see Japanese companies invest in Russias Far East and has requested meetings with big-business representatives.

Abe will want to know how far and how fast Trump wants to move to reset the relationship with Putin, so that he can be as well-positioned as possible during Putins coming visit, said Sheila Smith, a Japan expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.

[ Japan and South Korea bewildered at Trumps suggestion they build nukes ]

This will be an entirely different scenario for Tokyo. While the government here is hoping that Trump was just speaking off the cuff about reviewing the terms of their security alliance, Abe will probably be hoping that the incoming president was speaking the truth when it comes to relations with Russia.

Japan has been somewhat reluctantly going along with the international community when it comes to punishing Russia for its annexation of Crimea and actions in Ukraine.

But at the same time, Abe has been actively been pursuing closer ties with Putin and is hoping to forge a deal next month that would resolve a territorial dispute going back to World War II over a group of four islands known to Russia as the Kurils and Japan as the Northern Territories.

Abe is promoting a deal in which they would have two islands each, enabling Japan and Russia to sign a peace treaty to officially end the war, local media have reported.

Sato, the former vice defense minister, said that, overall, Japan probably doesnt need to worry as much as it has been about what a President Trump will do: He seems like a realist and has been successful in the business world, so he will most likely make good judgments.

Yuki Oda contributed to this report.

Read more:

There are already dozens of books in Japan about Trumps presidency

Did Trump really suggest that China should invade North Korea?

Donald Trump is instantly captivating. At least thats what they say in Japan.

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
Terming it as 'unlawful,' the Union Cabinet today decided to ban Islamic preacher Zakir Naik's organisation IRF for 5 years.

By Kamaljit Kaur Sandhu: Government today banned controversial preacher Zakir Naik's NGO 'Islamic Research Foundation' for five years terming it illegal. The ban has been enforced under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and was approved at a meeting of the Union Cabinet.

Naik's "objectionable and subversive" speeches, criminal cases filed against him,"dubious" links with Peace TV that allegedly features "communal" and "pro-jihad" were among the reasons cited by the Centre.

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Top sources in the Home Ministry told India today there was a strong case based on inputs and material shared by Maharashtra government and the central intelligence agencies. Multiple agencies including state police, NIA and Intelligence Bureau (IB) in recent months scanned hours of tapes to look for evidence against Naik and his NGO.

There are FIRs against Naik and other IRF members under Section 153A and 153B of IPC in 2 police stations of Mumbai, 1 in Kerala and two in Sindhudurg.

Large money transfers have been detected from UK-based charity IRF International, run by Naik to Harmony Media.

As per the cabinet note proposing action against IRF, which incorporated legal opinion favouring a ban on the NGO for disturbing communal harmony and attempting forced conversions, Naik has been promoting enmity between religious groups and inspiring Muslim youth in India and abroad to commit terrorist acts.

"Such divisive ideology is against India's pluralistic and secular social fabric and it may be viewed as causing disaffection against India and thereby making it an unlawful activity," states the draft cabinet note. "If urgent steps are not taken, there is a possibility of more youth being motivated and radicalised to commit terrorist acts,".

Naik has been under the scanner of the security agencies after Bangladeshi newspaper 'Daily Star' reported that one of the perpetrators of the July 1 terror attack in Dhaka, Rohan Imtiaz, ran propaganda on Facebook last year quoting Naik.

Several ISIS Indian recruits also confessed before NIA that Naik deeply influenced them.



Zakir Naik to India Today: I back Modi's quest to improve relations between Hindus, Muslims



--- ENDS ---
European and NATO defense officials cautioned President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday about his warming relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that they welcome dialogue but that the United States should not abandon its allies in a bid for improved ties with Moscow.

The warnings came hours after Trump and Putin spoke by telephone and vowed to work toward better relations, which have sunk to Cold War-era lows after Russias 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

Trump frequently praised Putin on the campaign trail, saying he is a stronger leader than President Obama. The Republican said during the campaign that if he were elected, he would reboot relations with the Kremlin to facilitate cooperation on a host of global challenges and would look at recognizing Crimea as part of Russia, a step that would legitimize a military takeover that most of the world says was illegal. The Kremlin said both teams were working on setting up a face-to-face meeting.

Although Putin did not officially back a candidate in the election, Kremlin-controlled media effusively praised Trump and belittled Democrat Hillary Clinton, who Putin believes backed demonstrators who protested his rule in 2011 and 2012.

[Inside Trumps financial ties to Russia and his unusual flattery of Vladimir Putin]

The Monday conversation between Trump and Putin did not touch on some of the thorniest issues facing Russia and the West, such as Crimea and the conflict in eastern Ukraine, a Kremlin spokesman said Tuesday. A day earlier, Moscow said the two had discussed a settlement for the crisis in Syria and the prospect of joint efforts in the fight against global terrorism, notably the Islamic State.

Some European officials privately raised their eyebrows at Tuesdays clarification from the Kremlin, saying they feared that it meant Trump was giving a green light to the annexation of Crimea.

European nations, led by Germany, have pushed hard against Trumps rhetoric on Russia, and German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said Tuesday that the president-elect should be cautious in his dealings with Putin.

It is always good for us to remain in dialogue with Russia, von der Leyen told reporters ahead of a meeting of European Union defense ministers in Brussels. But for us its also important that we not forget our principles. That means that international laws should not be broken.

Trumps election has sparked fears among European nations that they will need to be more self-reliant on security matters, not only because the future U.S. leader pushed the issue on the campaign trail but also because some nations are wary of depending on security guarantees from a leader they see as having dangerously authoritarian tendencies. E.U. defense and foreign ministers met this week to put the finishing touches on efforts to bolster European defense initiatives that would give them more capabilities separate from the United States. The efforts were underway before the U.S. election, but they took on new urgency after Trumps surprise victory.

[Divisions emerge in Europe on whether to do deals with Trump ]

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization  of which the United States is the most dominant member  also has been shaken by the election, with front-line countries such as Poland and the Baltic states struggling to divine Trumps policy intentions. During the campaign, Trump said he would not automatically adhere to U.S. security guarantees in Europe and would look into rolling back sanctions on Russia that were imposed after the Crimea annexation.

Many far-right parties in Europe are celebrating the presidential victory of Donald Trump. (Jason Aldag,Ishaan Tharoor/The Washington Post)

It is a very normal thing that President-elect Trump speaks to world leaders, including, of course, the leader of Russia, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday. He said he was certain that Trump would live up to U.S. commitments.

But Stoltenberg warned against abandoning countries that have taken hits from Russia in recent years.

We think it is important to respect the territorial integrity and the sovereignty of all nations, including Ukraine, he said.

David Filipov in Moscow contributed to this report.

Read more:

Putin wants revenge and respect, and hacking the U.S. is his way of getting it

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
The Middle East is bracing for an incoming American president who seems intent on radically reordering the regional balance of power, heralding new uncertainty and perhaps new turmoil for a part of the world already engulfed in multiple wars.

So vague and contradictory were many of the pronouncements made by President-elect Donald Trump on the campaign trail that governments and analysts are puzzling out which ones he meant and how he would be able to implement them all.

According to the more consistent of his statements, and conversations his advisers have had with analysts and officials, however, Trump will seek to bring about a significant recalibration of the existing order in the Middle East  in favor of Russia, away from Shiite Iran and to the benefit of Turkey and the Sunni Arab states of the Persian Gulf.

Some of his declared goals are not so very different from Obama administration policies that were set aside or unfulfilled because they proved too difficult to accomplish  such as the failed push to cooperate with Russia against terrorist groups in Syria and the expectation that Arab states will do more, and pay more, for regional security.

[Its going to be Trumps world, and not everybody likes it]

President Obama said the Iran deal is an example of the gap between rhetoric and reality during a news conference Monday, Nov. 14. (The Washington Post)

Others mark a major departure, notably the threats to renege on the Iran nuclear deal, President Obamas signature foreign policy achievement, and suggestions that Trump will cut support for Syrian rebels and align the United States with the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

The blitz launched against Syrian rebel-held territory on Tuesday by a newly assembled Russian flotilla in the eastern Mediterranean offered a taste of what may lie ahead. The attacks came hours after Trump spoke on the phone for the first time with Russian President Vladimir Putin about ways to improve U.S.-Russian ties, including a settlement for the crisis in Syria that will likely free up Russia to crush the rebellion against Assads rule.

Yet other positions are hard to reconcile, such as Trumps promises to do more to fight the Islamic State while also pledging to further disengage the United States from adventures abroad. Will Trump be an isolationist, continuing the risk-averse instincts of Obama? Or an interventionist, more in the mold of George W. Bush, whose global war on terrorism took the United States into wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?

He will be a bit of both but radically different, too, predicts Theodore Karasik, a senior adviser with Washington-based Gulf State Analytics, who has discussed the future of the region with Trumps advisers in recent months. Trumps chief priority, he said, will be to fight the Islamic State, while outsourcing the rest of the regions security to Russia and to Arab states.

There is the potential for a chaos factor, he said. But the idea now is to shake up the arrangement of nation-states in the region in order to move forward and allow them to police themselves.

[Top Trump adviser says Israeli settlements are not an obstacle to peace]

Words like moderate and democracy wont feature in a Trump administrations Middle East vocabulary, he added. We are now engaged in realpolitik.

Many far-right parties in Europe are celebrating the presidential victory of Donald J. Trump. (Jason Aldag,Ishaan Tharoor/The Washington Post)

For the regions strongmen, most of whom had fraught relations with the Obama administration, that is welcome news. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi have hailed Trumps election as a chance to reset their badly frayed relationships with Washington.

Saudi Arabia and the Sunni Arab states in the Persian Gulf region, despite initial reservations regarding his views on Muslims, are mostly relieved to have a Republican back in the White House and are hoping Trump will be tougher on Iran than his predecessor was, analysts in the region say.

Certainly, we are not expecting Mr. Trump to be worse than Mr. Obama was, said Abdullah al-Shamri, a former Saudi diplomat and analyst. Most members of the royal family, he said, are happy with the result. We are closer to Republicans psychologically.

Assads government is exulting over Trumps election because of his pledges to join forces with Russia against the Islamic State and Syrian rebels, according to Bassam Abu Abdullah, a professor at Damascus University who supports Assad. The expectation in Damascus now is that Washington will sever support for Syrian rebels, join in bombing them alongside Russia and perhaps restore diplomatic relations with Assad, he said.

Absolutely this is good for Syria, he said. This means the U.S. will not be looking for regime change.

Even Syrian rebels, who appear set to be big losers, are finding solace in the wide range of opinions expressed by his associates, said Bassam Barabandi, who works with the Syrian opposition in Washington and has met with Trump advisers. The prospect of collaborating with Russia is anathema to many Republicans, as was expressed in a statement by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Tuesday calling any attempt to reset relations an unacceptable price for a great nation.

Much will depend, Barabandi said, on whom Trump chooses for positions in his administration. Some members of his inner circle have been hawkish on Russia and others on Syria, including Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who is heading Trumps transition team and who proposed a no-fly zone in Syria, and Stephen Hadley, who has advocated using cruise missiles to rein in Assad.

Though Trump has disparaged Syrian rebels as worse than the people, the Syrian opposition is hoping to bring him around to the current administrations view that the moderate Syrian opposition serves to counter the influence of extremists in areas Assad no longer governs, he said.

The war on terror is very important to Trump, he said. I dont feel his foreign policy will be very different from Obamas. He is not interventionist. He is very much like Obama but in a different way. Obama has his own philosophy. Trump is a businessman, and hes looking for where he can save money.

[After Trumps victory, the world is left to wonder: What happened to America?]

Implementing all of these goals and satisfying all of these expectations without unleashing new conflicts and perhaps embroiling the United States even more deeply in the regions rivalries will, however, be a challenge.

Iran is Assads closest ally in the war against Syrian rebels and provides the bulk of the ground forces confronting the anti-Assad rebellion. Assads army is depleted, Russia does not have troops on the ground, and it would be the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, Iranian-backed Shiite militias and Lebanons Hezbollah who would move into any areas reconquered by the regime, said Andrew Tabler of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

So, he asked, how does a Trump administration that wants to curtail Iranian influence also align itself more closely with Russia and Assad without empowering Iran?

I dont see how you do it, Tabler said. Its in the cauldron of contradictions in his statements that I dont see being resolved.

Taking a tougher line with Iran could also further inflame tensions across the region, emboldening chief rival Saudi Arabia and prompting pushback against U.S. interests from Iran and its many regional proxies. That would put at risk U.S. troops deployed against the Islamic State in Iraq, in proximity to the Iranian-backed Shiite militias responsible for many of the bombings that killed American troops before the U.S. withdrawal in 2011.

Anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose Iraqi militia once fought U.S. troops, issued a veiled warning to that effect last week. He declared eternal hostility toward Trump, condemned the president-elects attitude toward Muslims and urged him to abide by existing U.S. international commitments.

He does not know that his radicalism will in turn result in radicalism, Sadr cautioned in a statement. If the United States changes its policies, he added, we will not be silent, and we will resist it as before.

Likewise, Turkish expectations that a Trump administration will reverse the Obama administrations reliance on Syrian Kurds to fight the Islamic State may lift some obstacles in the war but throw up new ones, because Syrian Kurds control most of the front line against the militants in Syria.

Reconciling all of these conflicting goals is not impossible, said Imad Salamey of the Lebanese American University in Beirut. Trump might bring about reconciliation between Turkey and the Kurds, he said. And a Trump administration that stood up to Iranian military expansionism, in Syria, Yemen and Bahrain, could persuade Saudi Arabia to acquiesce to Assad in Syria and bring about a broader regional reconciliation.

Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and commentator, described that as wishful thinking, at odds with Trumps apparent determination to ally more closely with Russia.

When his advisers show him the map, will he realize supporting Putin means supporting the Iranian agenda? And this is what Saudi Arabia is concerned about, to stop Iranian hegemony, he said.

Perhaps the biggest losers, however, will be the ordinary people who have been agitating for more democracy in the region.

For us, Trumps election feels like a winter wind, said Ahmed Saleh, an engineer who joined in the 2011 uprising in Egypt. How can you hope for freedom when the most powerful man in the world doesnt believe in our democracy?

Hugh Naylor and Louisa Loveluck in Beirut; Mustafa Salim, Loveday Morris and William Booth in Irbil, Iraq; and Zakaria Zakaria in Istanbul contributed to this report.

Read more

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Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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Imad shows a bullet wound on his left leg that he says he suffered during an Islamic State mass execution he escaped. (Alice Martins/For The Washington Post)

Blindfolded and bound, his knees pressing into the dirt, Imad resigned himself to what seemed inevitable: He was going to die.

Islamic State gunmen had driven him and about 90 other former Iraqi police and army officers to a remote industrial area on the edge of Hamam al-Alil, 10 miles south of Mosul, after rounding them up from their villages last month.

Iraqi security forces were approaching, and the militants were losing their grip on the area.

Packed into two pickup trucks and a bus, the men were told they were being taken to see their families, but they were instead slated for execution.

Imads truck was the first to be unloaded, and he was the first in line. A militant took him by the arm.

He walked about 10 yards.

He was ordered to kneel down.

I thought, This is it, its over,  he said as he recounted his ordeal from his home in the village of Safiya. Weve lived under the rule of Islamic State for more than two years, and we know that nobody survives such things.

The gunmen opened fire.

Imads account of what happened that day provides a rare firsthand view of the brutality that has become a notorious hallmark of the Islamic States rule.

The militants have steadily lost ground since Iraqi forces began their offensive to recapture Mosul a month ago, breaking into the city from the east and capturing towns and villages to the south.

Increasingly cornered, they have fought to hold their last remaining stronghold in Iraq any way they can. They have held civilians as human shields and dispatched hundreds of car bombs.

Inside the city and other areas on the outskirts under their control, they have also lashed out with mass arrests and summary executions.

Those who served in the police and army have borne the brunt of recent mass killings, whether they were accused of collaborating with the advancing forces or simply attacked out of vengeance.



An Iraqi federal police officer examines human remains at a mass grave of Islamic State victims near Hamam al-Alil. (Marko Drobnjakovic/AP)

The United Nations reported last week that the Islamic State had abducted 295 former members of the Iraqi security forces from areas around Mosul. It also said that 50 former police officers were executed in Hamam al-Alil last month. Imad said nearly double that number were killed at the place he was taken, which is near a cement factory northwest of the town.

Iraqi police forces said Monday that they found a mass grave at that location containing about 100 bodies, corroborating Imads account. Police spokesman Ammar al-Jazairi said they are thought to be the bodies of former police officers rounded up after the Mosul operation began.

That followed the discovery of another mass grave at a bombed-out agricultural college near the town after it was retaken by security forces this month. Iraqi security officials have also estimated that grave contains around 100 bodies.

In the days after Iraqi security forces began their offensive last month, Islamic State militants rounded up entire villages farther south, forcing families to retreat to Mosul with them. Thousands arrived in Imads village of Safiya, on their way north to Hamam al-Alil.





There were rumors that former police and army officers were being targeted for execution. When the Islamic State seized Mosul and surrounding towns and cities 2 1 / 2 years ago, police and army officers were allowed to stay in their territory if they repented through a process known as towba.

But they were still viewed with suspicion, Imad said. That worsened as the militants control began to crumble.

Imad had served on the police force for seven years.

He was at home with his wife and child when the militants announced over loudspeakers attached to vehicles that all men and boys 15 and older should gather at the mosque. They said anyone who disobeyed would be killed, said Imad, who spoke on the condition that his last name not be published because his wife and child are still in Islamic State territory.

The Islamic State was breathing its last breath, so I decided to run, he said.

He took off but was caught by the militants about 100 yards from his home and taken to where the men were gathered.

Former police and army officers were separated from the rest, loaded into trucks and cars and driven north to Hamam al-Alil. Civilians, including Imads wife and baby, were marched on foot.

Imad was held in a house with more than 200 others from his village and communities around it. Those who had left the security forces before the Islamic State took control in 2014 were released, as were those who had worked as security guards for infrastructure such as oil facilities.

Around 90 remained.



A man helps Iraqi federal police officers break through a wall as they inspect a former prison used by Islamic State militants in Hamam al-Alil. (Marko Drobnjakovic/AP)

The militants filmed each one, forcing them to give their names and the positions they once held in the security forces.

They were blindfolded and their hands were bound. A prisoner asked one of the captors a question. Imad didnt hear it, but he heard the response.

You are going to hell, the militant replied. Thats when Imad knew for sure the fate that awaited them.

They were loaded into trucks and driven for half an hour along a dirt road.

It was dark by the time they reached the spot near the cement factory.

I thought of my wife and son and how Id never see them again, he said.

When the gunmen opened fire, he felt a bullet hit his leg.

I got shot, but I didnt know how many times, he said. I felt things hitting my back.

He fell forward into the dirt and pretended to be dead. He heard a commotion as someone from one of the other trucks tried to escape. The gunmen were distracted.

They were screaming and shouting, he said. As soon as I heard that, I saw my chance.

His hands had been only loosely bound with rope. He pulled them apart, tore off his blindfold and ran. It was only then that he realized he had been only lightly injured, a bullet grazing his leg. His back had been hit by stones kicked up by the bullets.

It was dark. Maybe they werent that focused, he said. It seems they were just shooting randomly.

A steep bank prevented the militants from chasing him in their vehicles. He walked all night before reaching an area controlled by security forces.

Some 22 former officers from his village died that day.

As for me, Ive seen death, and I feel reborn, he said. He worries about life under Iraqi forces, who he said damaged property in the village as they retook it.

Still, nothing will compare to the brutality of life under the Islamic State, he said: Those people are monsters, killers. They dont have any humanity.

Iraqi security forces said last week that they had discovered a mass grave containing about 100 decapitated corpses near the town of Hamam al-Alil, which was seized from the Islamic State. ( Reuters)

Aaso Ameen Shwan in Safiya and Mustafa Salim in Irbil contributed

to this report.





Read more

Iraq has never seen this kind of fighting in its battles with ISIS

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In first big wave, Iraqis flee Mosul and crowd into camps

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
Sen. John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, sent his first shot across the bow of President-elect Donald Trumps national security plans Tuesday, saying that any attempt to reset relations with Russia is unacceptable.

With the U.S. presidential transition underway, Vladimir Putin has said in recent days that he wants to improve relations with the United States, McCain (R-Ariz.) said in a statement released by his office.

We should place as much faith in such statements as any other made by a former KGB agent who has plunged his country into tyranny, murdered his political opponents, invaded his neighbors, threatened Americas allies and attempted to undermine Americas elections, he said.

[U.S. accuses Russia of barbarism and war crimes in Syria]

Sen. John McCain has repeatedly come under attack from GOP nominee Donald Trump. Here are just a few of their rocky moments. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

McCain gave tepid support to Trump after the Republican nominating convention, then withdrew it in October after the leak of a 2005 recording revealing Trump making demeaning remarks about women, and then declined to speak about him as he headed toward his own reelection last week.

His comments about Russia followed a telephone call between Trump and Putin on Monday and came amid reports of upheaval in the national security transition.

In their conversation, the Kremlin said, Putin and Trump agreed that U.S.-Russia relations are unsatisfactory and vowed to work together to improve them. Trumps office later said that they had discussed shared threats and challenges, and the long-term relationship between them.

In his statement, McCain pointed out that Russia, in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, resumed large-scale bombardment Tuesday in Syria.

[Russian warplanes from Mediterranean carrier join Syria attacks]

The Obama administrations last attempt at resetting relations with Russia culminated in Putins invasion of Ukraine and military intervention in the Middle East, McCain said. At the very least, the price of another reset would be complicity in Putin and Assads butchery of the Syrian people.

That is an unacceptable price for a great nation. When America has been at its greatest, it is when we have stood on the side [of] those fighting tyranny, McCain added. That is where we must stand again.

Read more:

President-elect Donald Trump is about to learn the nations deep secrets

Obama warns against a crude sort of nationalism taking root in the U.S.

Adviser on national security leaves Trump transition team
Eight years after his electrifying speech here wooed a continent into re-embracing U.S. power, President Obama lands in Berlin on Wednesday to bid a bittersweet farewell to the one woman who might preserve his overseas legacy:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

U.S. allies in Europe fear the dawning of Donald Trumps presidency could signal sharp shifts ahead in Washingtons stance on security, climate change, free trade, Russia and the Middle East. Obama, on his final foreign tour, will seek to assuage those concerns in exit meetings here with the leaders of Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Spain.

Trumps victory is set to usher into the White House a worldview very different from the liberal democratic consensus that was the cornerstone of Obamas partnership with Europe. With Britain disengaging after its vote to leave the European Union and other regional leaders mired in domestic battles, Obamas exit is set to leave Merkel as the worlds most influential standard-bearer of those principles.

Many far-right parties in Europe are celebrating the presidential victory of Donald Trump. (Jason Aldag,Ishaan Tharoor/The Washington Post)

Speaking to reporters Tuesday in Athens, Obama acknowledged that populist movements, many with dark undertones, have been gaining ground across the globe.

Obviously theres something being tapped into, a suspicion of globalization, a desire to rein in its excesses, a suspicion of elites and governing institutions that people feel may not be responsive to their immediate needs, he said. And that sometimes gets wrapped up in issues of ethnic identity or religious identity or cultural identity. And that can be a volatile mix. Its important to recognize, though, that those trends have always been there.

A more inclusive world vision, the president added, will win the day in the long term.

Some see the levelheaded Merkel emerging as a possible counterpoint on the world stage to the steady global march of personality-based populism, including in the United States.

German officials are calculating that Trump may dial back his staunchest campaign pledges. But if he does not, it would be difficult not only for Merkel but for all the European Union states and partners to work with him, said Jurgen Hardt, a close Merkel ally and her partys point man on transatlantic affairs.

Before the surprise result in the U.S. presidential election, Obamas last official visit to Germany  the sixth of his presidency  was seen as a way to boost Merkel ahead of national elections next year. He was paying back a leader whom Ben Rhodes, the White House deputy national security adviser, described as the presidents closest partner over the course of his entire presidency.

But now Obamas visit marks a more consequential moment. No other world leader so closely matches Obamas ideology of tireless diplomacy with an emphasis on human rights, tolerance and equality. Sharing similar temperaments, Merkel and Obama forged a friendship that helped broker several major agreements  including the deal on Irans nuclear program and sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Obama has been able to fashion a consensus with Berlin, and then Chancellor Merkel has been able to work the issue within the E.U., Charles A. Kupchan, the National Security Councils senior director for European affairs, said in an interview. It turns out to be a very effective vehicle for building a transatlantic consensus.

[Meet the international odd couple: Barack Obama and Angela Merkel]

But with that partnership drawing to a close, it is unclear what might replace it. Merkel is famously pragmatic and is likely to forge some kind of a working relationship with Trump. But she already has signaled her caution, issuing a carefully worded statement of congratulations after the elections that seemed to double as a warning.

Germany and America are bound by common values  democracy, freedom, as well as respect for the rule of law and the dignity of each and every person, regardless of their origin, skin color, creed, gender, sexual orientation, or political views, she said. It is based on these values that I wish to offer close cooperation, both with me personally and between our countries governments.

Trepidation

When Obama was first elected  and even before, when he drew a massive crowd in Berlin  he was hailed here as a healer of transatlantic relations that had been deeply tested during the presidency of George W. Bush. The Germans became some of Obamas fiercest supporters, with his popularity ratings in Germany almost always higher than they ever were at home.

Trumps election has had the opposite effect  provoking a sense of trepidation, even betrayal, that may factor into Merkels dealings with the president-elect.

I dont understand how America could have done this, said Judith Schuelhle, 33, a university researcher who joined an anti-Trump protest at Berlins Brandenburg Gate this past weekend.

Trumps election for me means that America can no longer be the leader of the free world, she said. Because Trump doesnt speak for a free world. He speaks for everything we dont stand for  anti-women, anti-equality, for hate.

Merkel has not declared her candidacy for a fourth term next year, but some of her close allies suggest she will. Nonetheless, she is facing her own populist challenge amid a backlash against her open-door policy for refugees. If she runs again and wins, as many here still expect, history suggests she and Trump may find difficulties ahead.

An all-business pragmatist, consensus builder and trained physicist, Merkel eschews sentimentality and is known especially to distrust charismatic leaders. She was initially skeptical of Obama, too.

When he visited Berlin in 2008 as a candidate, Merkel reacted with bewilderment to Obamas request to speak in front of the Brandenburg Gate  a request she promptly denied. Observers describe her as uneasy with Obamas Yes we can campaign  the notion of one man affecting change. It was anathema to a woman who grew up in communist East Germany, leery of political one-man shows.

Even after Obamas election, austerity-loving Merkel bristled at his administrations spend-to-save economic rescue plan during the Great Recession. In a leaked 2009 communique to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from her confidant Sidney Blumenthal, the latter described Merkels profound belief that the Obama administration is on a disastrous economic path.

Obama and Merkel are like oil and water, he wrote.

Yet Obama managed to win her over, observers say, in part because he had no choice.

Europes decider

During his eight years in office, Merkel grew into her job as chancellor, becoming the ballast that kept Europe afloat as it stumbled from crisis to crisis. Under her leadership, Germany rose to the zenith of its post-World War II power  distancing itself every year from the dark days of the Nazis by leading the effort to combat global warming and taking in nearly 1 million migrants and refugees. She became the continents decider  and a leader ever more important to U.S. policy in Europe.

Germany became pivotal during the Obama [administration] and under Merkel, said Josef Janning, head of the Berlin office of the European Council on Foreign Relations. Without German acceptance, nothing happens in the E.U. anymore. The White House read that, and understood that France and Britain have their own interests around the world. But if you get Germany on your side, you get the E.U.

In 2013, Obama and Merkel faced their greatest test, when revelations emerged of U.S. spying on the chancellor. Germany expelled the CIA station chief. But in phone conversations with Obama, she seemed to couch the response as political expedience and nothing too personal. Privately, observers say, she was eager for the scandal to blow over so Washington and Berlin could move on.

Over time, their relationship was helped, many say, because the two share similar traits. They are cautious leaders, sometime to the point of seeming academic. Although she took hits at home and abroad, history would prove the German chancellor right, Obama has said, when it comes to her humanitarian stance during the refugee crisis.

Speaking to reporters Friday, Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser, made it clear that from the presidents perspective, no other leader rivals Merkel.

Theyve worked together on almost every issue. Theyve developed a deep mutual respect, I think, and close friendship as well, he said. So he wanted to see Chancellor Merkel one more time to thank her for her partnership and leadership.

Read more:

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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Russias Admiral Kuznetsov carrier is pictured in the Barents Sea in 2014. (Associated Press)

With a hail of missile strikes, Russian forces announced a major offensive Tuesday against rebel-held areas in Syria. As the assault unfolded, activists in the crucial city of Aleppo said that their skies were filled with government warplanes and that bombs were raining down.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that it had used its sole aircraft carrier  ordered last week to the Mediterranean Sea in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad  for the first time and that missiles had also been fired from a land-based system inside Syria as well as another Russian warship off the coast.

Activists said the Russian targets appeared to include eastern Aleppo, one of the last urban bastions of factions opposing Assad. But Moscow denied involvement in the attacks on the city, saying it has been nearly a month since Russian forces launched strikes there.

The divided city has become the epicenter of the battle for Syria. The governments recapture of Aleppo could hasten the fall of remaining rebel strongholds across the country.

Russias assault kicked off just hours after Putin and President-elect Donald Trump, speaking by phone, agreed to combine efforts in Syria to defeat what Moscow has said is its enemy in the fight: international terrorism and extremism.

The Obama administration has been aiding what it sees as moderate opponents of Assad while continuing the fight against al-Qaedas Syrian affiliate, which in some places has been battling alongside the rebels.

Russia describes all rebel groups as terrorists, and Trumps blanket statements about joining Russia have been seen in Moscow as tacitly supporting this view.

[Aleppos elders fear they will die alone]

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said massive strikes were waged against positions of the Islamic State and an al-Qaeda-linked militant group in Idlib and Homs provinces. The regions are north of Damascus and include rebel-held zones but do not cover Aleppo.

Shoigu told Putin in a meeting in the Russian city of Sochi that Su-33 jets were launched from the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov and that the frigate Admiral Grigorivch launched cruise missile strikes.

Shoigu said the attacks targeted industrial sites used by rebel forces to make toxic substances used as a serious means of mass destruction. The Russian claims could not be independently verified.

In August, a team of international inspectors determined that the Syrian government and Islamic State militants were responsible for chemical attacks carried out in 2014 and 2015. Syria denied the findings and, in turn, has claimed that rebel forces and other militants have waged chemical attacks.

The United States condemned the renewed attacks and said they had struck civilian targets. The most recent reported attacks are on five hospitals and one mobile clinic in Syria. We believe its a violation of international law, State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said Tuesday in Washington.

In Aleppo, civilians and rebel fighters said missiles and barrel bombs struck targets across at least five neighborhoods in the citys rebel-held east, an area controlled by anti-Assad fighters. The White Helmets civilian rescue group said it documented more than 100 attacks, some involving cluster munitions.

[A cease-fire gave Aleppo a respite from war. It was brief.]

The military balance in Aleppo has become a bellwether for the state of Syrias war.

When rebel forces captured the citys eastern districts in 2012, they appeared ascendant, boasting that a march on Damascus would be next. Four years later, the area they control lies in ruins, and opposition fighters have been outgunned by Russian, Syrian and Iranian firepower.

Images shared on social media from east Aleppo on Tuesday showed men and children searching for survivors in the wreckage of a shattered building. The casualty count was not immediately clear.

Syrian state television said the strikes hit what it called terrorist strongholds and supply depots. But residents said many of the bombs struck homes. The claims also could not be independently verified.

In the city of Homs, the assault appeared to have involved incendiary weapons. Photographs from al-Waer  an area of the city where the Syrian government is trying to force rebels to surrender  seemed to show several charred bodies.

Russia has promised an all-out offensive to retake Aleppo, giving fighters and civilians a sunset deadline earlier this month to leave rebel-held districts. For 15 days, the city had waited, watching as warplanes streaked overhead, only to drop their loads on the western countryside instead.

But by midday Tuesday, the attacks resumed.

You could hear airstrikes all over the city, said Amir Ragab, 54. Weve had so many false rumors and promises about this final assault  I can only live day by day and put my faith in God.

Some spoke of terror, others of exhaustion. Sending photographs of smoke billowing above Aleppos skyline, the head of the local White Helmets branch, Ammar al-

Selmo, said his workers were unable to reach many of the wounded while the attacks continued.

Maybe it is better with bombing, he said. Then at least you die quickly.

Filipov reported from Moscow. Heba Habib in Stockholm contributed to this report.

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A high-profile corruption case shook Russias establishment and appeared to shed light on a power struggle within President Vladimir Putins inner circle on Tuesday, after authorities detained the countrys economic development minister on suspicion that he demanded and accepted a $2 million bribe over a controversial privatization deal.

Alexei Ulyukayev became the highest-ranking official to be charged with corruption during Putins tenure as Russias leader, and the first national minister to be arrested while in office since Joseph Stalins dreaded security chief Lavrenti Beria was detained in the Kremlin in 1953 after the Soviet dictators death.

Some Putin critics saw Ulyukayevs arrest as a tactic by the Russian leader to keep his senior lieutenants in check.

The arrest of such a loyal and important official as Ulyukayev is a powerful act of intimidation, first of all, for the benefit of officials, Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of the liberal Yabloko party, said in a Facebook post. Everyone should know: Anything can happen to you at any moment; thats the main message.

Authorities on Tuesday said that Russias Federal Security Service had been listening to Ulyukayevs phone conversations for months, and Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters that the Russian president had been aware of the investigation all along. These are very serious accusations, and only a court can pass a verdict, Peskov said, according to news agencies.

Russias Investigative Committee, the state agency that looks into major crimes, said Ulyukayev was caught in the act of receiving the $2 million bribe in exchange for signing off on the $5 billion acquisition last month by the state-run oil giant Rosneft of a 50 percent stake in a smaller state-owned company, Bashneft.

[Opinion: Russia may be wounded, but it can still bite]

The sale was reported in the Russian media to have caused dissension between rival factions in the Kremlin. Rosnefts top official, Igor Sechin, a Putin confidant, pushed for the right to purchase Bashneft. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev headed a second group that believed Bashneft should be sold to private investors, not a state-owned company.

Ulyukayev, 60, a minister in Putins cabinet since 2013 who has been overseeing the sale of state assets, initially opposed the Bashneft deal on the grounds that a state-owned company purchasing a state-owned company is not privatization.

He eventually signed off on the sale, which was pushed by Putin as a way to close the countrys budget deficit, which is widening in the face of low oil prices.

According to the Investigative Committee, Ulyukayev demanded a bribe from a Rosneft representative in return for a positive appraisal of the deal.

The defendant threatened to create impediments for the companys future operations by use of his official capacities, said Svetlana Petrenko, spokeswoman for the Investigative Committee. Ulyukayev could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted. After a court hearing Tuesday, he was placed under house arrest.

Russias political leadership lined up to cheer the arrest as a sign that top officials in a country long associated with official corruption can no longer operate outside the law with impunity.

[Trump and Putin look to reset relations]

Vyacheslav Volodin, a former Putin aide and now the speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament, said the arrest means that there are no untouchable people in Russia.

Others took the case as a sign of political tension.

Gleb Pavlovsky, a former Putin strategist, pointed out how odd it was that Putin apparently knew that the minister was under investigation for months but let him stay in office instead of firing him.

This proves that things are very bad at the top, Pavlovsky told TV Dozhd. Very bad.

Others pointed to the oddities surrounding the investigation.

The Investigative Committee emphasized that although Ulyukayev was arrested on charges of taking money to facilitate a deal, the deal itself had been completed legally and was not subject to investigation.

The man whom Ulyukayev is alleged to have strong-armed, Sechin, is perhaps one of the most powerful people in Russia and someone who has Putins ear. No special investigation would have been needed for that. Sechin could have just told his boss that he was being shaken down.

One would have to be crazy to extort a bribe from he most influential person in the country, said Alexander Shokhin, who served with Ulyukayev in the earliest post-Soviet Russian governments, which sought to privatize state-owned companies to kick-start a transition to a market economy, a process that was marred by widespread corruption among Kremlin insiders.

Shokhin, who heads Russias biggest business lobbying group, also pointed out how odd it was that Ulyukayev would have asked for a bribe when the company sold at market price.

If Aleksei Ulyukaev had been charged with hitting an old babushka while driving his Mercedes G-Class at high speed at night in Moscow, it wouldve looked more plausible, Shokhin told the Meduza news agency.

Many in Russias political ranks hold old reformers such as Shokhin and Ulyukayev responsible for selling out Russia to the West after the Cold War.

That sentiment pervaded the comments by lawmaker Nikolai Kovalyov, a former head of the Federal Security Service, who referred to verses Ulyukayev wrote in 2011 for his son: Go my son, go from here; On this globe you will find many places; where one step forward does not mean 500 steps back; Where they dont say everything backward all the time.

I am not surprised by the arrest, Kovalyov said. I expected something of this kind to happen when I read his verses calling on his son to leave Russia.

Editors note: An earlier version of this story misidentified the speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, and his former position in the Putin administration. This version has been corrected.

Natalya Abbakumova contributed to this report.

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Jia Jingyuan, sister of Jia Jinglong, speaks to journalists on the outskirts of Shijiazhuang, China. (Nomaan Merchant/AP)

The execution of a Chinese villager on Tuesday was taken as a message to the country: Ordinary people cant take the law into their own hands, and the Communist Party is not going to be swayed by a public outcry.

Jia Jinglong had been busy preparing his wedding in 2013 when Chinas merciless development machine mangled his plans.

Just 18 days before the ceremony, a wrecking crew came to demolish the family home where he had planned to hold the ceremony, according to the Associated Press. He was beaten senseless, and his fiancee left him.

Two years later, Jia decided to exact revenge, modifying a nail gun to kill the local party chief he believed was responsible.

On Tuesday, he was executed in the northern city of Shijiazhuang, the official state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

Jia, who worked on construction sites, had become a popular symbol of the injustice faced by many poor people in China and their powerlessness to resist rapacious development and corrupt local officials.

Because he confessed his crime , many people said he should be spared the death penalty; even state-run news media had urged leniency.

A Chinese court found Jia guilty and ordered him to be put to death, a verdict approved last month by the Supreme Peoples Court.

Twelve Chinese legal experts from academia and law firms wrote an impassioned letter asking the court to reconsider, arguing that it had ignored the corruption of local officials and Jias confession, and had rushed to judgment without giving his defense proper time to prepare his case.

Corrupt village governance, they argued, often sparks grass-roots grievances and rage.

The reason that the case received so much attention is because of how deeply felt the yearnings are for property rights and equal protection under the law by Chinas vulnerable groups, they wrote, according to a translation by the China Change website.

The last-ditch appeal for clemency fell on deaf ears, and state news organizations changed their tune this week to back the courts decision.

The Peoples Daily, a Communist Party newspaper, warned that the judiciary should not bow to public pressure, adding that there was nothing wrong with expressing opinions on the case in private but that doing so in public was different.

William Nee, a China researcher at Amnesty International in Hong Kong, said the government seemed to have been rethinking the decision to execute Jia a few weeks ago but ultimately decided it could not bow to public pressure expressed over the Internet.

Clearly, the Chinese authorities are incredibly worried about the potential for citizens to mobilize public opinion in sensitive cases and put pressure on the government to make social change, he said in an email.

China is the worlds top executioner, experts say, and although the number of executions is thought to be declining, the extent of the death penaltys use is considered a state secret.

Luna Lin contributed to this report.

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The International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) is founding the Socialist Equality Party as its section in France. The SEP fights to win workers in France to the program of world socialist revolution advanced by the ICFI, based on the unbroken continuity of its defense of Trotskyism and the heritage of classical Marxism. It is confident that, amid the escalating world crisis of capitalism and its impact on the French political establishment, this program will win growing support.

A quarter century ago, as the Stalinist bureaucracy liquidated the USSR, apologists for capitalism claimed that the supposed end of the communist danger ensured peace, prosperity, and democracy. What capitalism has, instead, accomplished over the last 25 years is to remind workers internationally why their class brothers and sisters in Russia were compelled to overthrow the system a century ago in the October 1917 Revolution, led by the Bolshevik Party.

The global economic collapse triggered by the 2008 Wall Street crash and the initial revolutionary response of the world proletariatthe mass uprisings of 2011 in Egypt and Tunisiavastly accelerated the imperialist powers drive to re-divide the world. A rising tide of imperialist war that surrounds Europe, from the Middle East and Africa to Eastern Europe and Asia, threatens to explode into a new world war.

At home, European capitalism has repudiated the pacifist and reformist guise it adopted during the Cold War in order to counter the political and ideological challenge posed by the existence of the USSR. The European Union (EU) ruthlessly imposes its austerity diktat across the continent, tearing up social rights while handing out trillion-euro bailouts to the banks and setting up the legal and surveillance infrastructure of a police state. The basic purpose of this police surveillance infrastructure is to violently repress workers protests against austerity.

The political situation in France is characterized by a vast contradiction. The revolutionary traditions of the French proletariat were a key contributor to the birth and development of Marxian socialism nearly two centuries ago. The October Revolution found powerful support in the French working class, and the main revolutionary struggles of the proletariat in 20th century France were, themselves, key strategic experiences of the international working class. Yet today, as world capitalism staggers under the weight of the escalating war drive and the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression, no political tendency in France outside of the ICFI sets as its aim the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism by the working class and the building of socialism.

Instead, the forces that have dominated left politics since 1968 are bitterly hostile to socialism and the working class. Popular anger is erupting against the reactionary agenda of war, austerity and attacks on democratic rights, pursued by the Socialist Party (PS) and its political satellites over an entire historical epoch. It is ever clearer that the founding of the PS in 1969, the decades-long collapse of the Stalinist French Communist Party (PCF), and the domination of official far left politics by figures from the post-1968 student movement, have left workers totally disenfranchised.

As Hollande himself told a meeting of London bankers during his election campaign in 2012, Today there are no more communists in France. The left liberalized the economy and opened markets to finance and privatization. There is nothing to fear.

For decades, the PS and its allies sought to redefine left politics in line with the lifestyle concerns of affluent sections of the middle class. They promoted not opposition to imperialism, but support for its humanitarian wars; not class struggle, but social dialogue between the trade union bureaucracy and big business; not international workers solidarity, but Islamophobia and nationalism. To the extent that these forces are allowed to posture as representatives of socialism, they only drive angry and desperate voters behind the neo-fascist National Front (FN).

But the class struggle brooks no interruption. The existing parties are political tools of the ruling class, so the critical task is the building of a revolutionary alternative for the working class. The SEP is fighting to develop as the mass vanguard party of the working class, basing itself on the continuity of the ICFIs struggle for Trotskyism against social democracy, Stalinism and petty-bourgeois anti-Marxism.

The ruling class has been unable to eradicate all memory of Trotsky and Trotskyism in France. These are imperishably associated with opposition to Stalinisms betrayal of the revolutionary opportunities in 20th century France: the 1936 general strike, the liberation from Nazi occupation in 1944, and the 1968 general strike.

The SEP is aware, however, that simply declaring itself to be Trotskyist will not win over the masses of workers and youth, or make clear the content of the SEPs program. For 45 years, Trotskyism has been falsely associated in France with the descendants of petty-bourgeois renegades from Trotskyism, who operate on the periphery or within the PS. The ICFI has not had a French section since 1971, when Pierre Lamberts Internationalist Communist Organization (OCItoday the Independent Democratic Workers PartyPOID) split with the Socialist Labour League (SLL) in Britain, then the ICFIs leading section. The OCI joined an international milieu of petty-bourgeois groupsincluding, in France, the Revolutionary Communist League (LCRtoday the New Anticapitalist PartyNPA) and Workers Struggle (LO)against which the ICFI had been founded in 1953. That such parties offer no alternative to the PS was recently underscored by the role of their Greek ally, Syriza. After forming a government in Greece last year, Syriza slavishly implemented the EUs austerity diktat.

The SEP fights to clarify advanced workers on the irreconcilable opposition between the ICFIs Trotskyist struggle for proletarian internationalism and these pseudo-left parties. The SEPs attitude to them is implacably hostile. It does not consider any of these organizations to be Trotskyist or organizations that can be pressured to adopt Trotskyist policies. It rejects with contempt their accusations that the SEP is sectarian, by which they mean that it struggles for political principles. The SEP bases its opposition to them on the historical and political lessons of the decades of revolutionary struggle conducted by the ICFI and its forebears.

The PCF and the bankruptcy of Stalinism

From the end of World War II to the 1968 general strike, the leading party in the French working class was the Communist Party of France (PCF). It used its close ties to the Kremlin and its emergence to the leadership of the armed resistance movement against the Nazi Occupation during World War II, to posture as the inheritor of the October Revolution in France. It exploited this prestige to promote a nationalist outlook and betray the great revolutionary opportunities in 20th century France. Over the last half-century, it has been discredited by its betrayal of the 1968 general strike, its support for and participation in PS governments, and its backing for the Kremlins restoration of capitalism in the USSR. Its record has vindicated Trotskys critique of Stalinism as a counterrevolutionary and anti-Marxist reaction to the perspective of world socialist revolution.

In 1935, the Stalinized Third International adopted the strategy of supporting bourgeois parties in Popular Front alliances, consciously abandoning the struggle for socialist revolution outside the USSR. This strategy, which flowed from the Soviet bureaucracys repudiation of international revolution and its adoption of the theory of socialism in one country in the USSR, directly violated a cardinal principle of Marxism: the need to establish the political independence of the working class from the bourgeoisie. It produced terrible defeats internationally. In Spain, a Popular Front government suppressed workers uprisings and led the Spanish Republic to defeat in the struggle against the fascist rebellion of Generalissimo Francisco Franco. The French Popular Front government rode out the 1936 general strike, which the Stalinists sold out for concessions agreed with French business federations, and crushed the strike wave that continued until 1938.

Shortly after the 1936 French general strike, Stalin launched the Moscow Trials, which framed the surviving Old Bolshevik leaders of the October Revolution as terrorists and fascists. The trials paved the way for the Great Purges and the political genocide of Marxists inside the Communist International, which culminated in the assassination of Trotsky. As the Communist Party in France isolated the strikes that followed the 1936 general strike and allowed the state to crush them, it savagely denounced Trotsky and attacked his supporters. Its top leadership published slanders against Trotsky and the Old Bolsheviks in the PCF daily LHumanite, and helped organize the GPUs assassination of Trotskyists internationally.

Stalinism blocked the European proletariats last chance to avert the devastation and mass slaughter of World War II through social revolution. It paved the way in France for the coming to power of the fascist Vichy regime, as the bourgeoisie went over to defeatism after the Nazi invasion in 1940. The National Assembly voted full powers to Marshal Philippe Petain, who oversaw collaboration with the Nazis. The PCF was forced underground after it approved the Stalin-Hitler non-aggression pact in 1939.

In line with the Kremlins counterrevolutionary policy of splitting the world, with US and British imperialism, into spheres of influence during World War II, the PCF betrayed the revolutionary opportunity provided by the liberation of France from Nazi occupation. It used its dominant role in the French Resistance to help General Charles de Gaulle, together with US and British authorities, set up a capitalist Fourth Republic and cover up the crimes of European fascism. Adopting de Gaulles misleading claim that France resisted, and blocking the legal pursuit of the collaborationists, the PCF disbanded factory committees into co-management bodies controlled by the bosses, dissolved Resistance militias into de Gaulles army, and contributed ministers to de Gaulles government. It allowed colonial wars to proceed, notably in Indochina and then Algeria and proved to be a pillar of stability in every crisis of the Fourth Republic, selling out the mass insurrectionary strikes of 1947 and the general strike of 1953. On this basis, it enjoyed broad support among intellectuals, who sought to give their theorizing a left or even Marxist coloration, but who opposed a socialist revolution.

The false identification of the October Revolution with the PCF ultimately had fatal consequences for the French workers movement as it emerged from the Liberation. Millions of workers flocked to the unions and the PCF, under conditions where capitalism had been deeply discredited by the crimes of fascism. However, they were joining organizations poisoned by a nationalist outlook, whose false claims to represent revolution were based on historical lies: the cover-up of the crimes of fascism in France, the PCFs unbending defense of the Moscow Trials, and the denial of the role of Trotskyism as the continuation of the October Revolution.

The Algerian war of 19541962 soon exposed the reactionary role of the political establishment of the Fourth Republic, of which the PCF was an integral part. When Premier Guy Mollet, of the social democratic French Section of the Workers International (SFIO), asked for war credits and special powers, the PCF voted for them. It then failed to oppose an aborted coup against Mollet, which returned de Gaulle to power in 1958 and led to the founding of the Fifth Republic. Frances resort to mass torture and the murder of hundreds of thousands of Algerians exposed the post-war regime. The methods of the French paratroopers and security forces in Algeria recalled those used, just over a decade before, by the fascist authorities in France. Moreover, as anti-war protests met with deadly repression, Paris prefect and former Vichy official Maurice Papon oversaw a bloody massacre of the October 17, 1961 protest of Algerians, called by the National Liberation Front (FLN).

The eruption of the MayJune 1968 general strike in France was a high point in a wave of working class struggles internationally that shattered the post-war capitalist equilibrium and, in France, undermined the PCF and the de Gaulle regime. A bloody police assault on student protesters at the Sorbonne triggered a mass response in the proletariat. Over ten million workers went on strike, as red flags were raised over factories across the country, and the French economy ground to a halt. When de Gaulle made an urgent trip to visit his generals in Baden-Baden, he found that troops under their command could not be relied upon to march on Paris to crush the protests.

The international working class demonstrated its immense revolutionary potential. From 1968 to 1975, mass workers struggles, anti-colonial uprisings and youth protests spread throughout the world. The collapse of dictatorships in Spain, Portugal and Greece, the resignation of US President Richard Nixon, and Washingtons defeat in the Vietnam War, amid mass strikes and protests in the United States, shook global capitalism to its foundations.

The main obstacle to socialist revolution was the crisis of revolutionary leadership in the working class. In 1968 in France, the PCF and CGT again blocked a struggle for power by the working class, propping up the de Gaulle government, negotiating wage concessions in the Grenelle Accords, and, over the course of several weeks, organizing a return to work. While the PCF managed to halt a revolution, it undermined illusions that it was a revolutionary party.

The rise of the Socialist Party

What emerged from the discrediting of the PCF by the events of 1968 was not, however, a mass revolutionary party in the working class, but the PS. Founded at congresses held in 1969 and 1971 at Alfortville and Epinay, from the very beginning it was not a socialist party, but a party of finance capital. Nor was it a new version of the SFIO. Launching such a party would, in itself, have been a reactionary initiative, as the SFIO was a staunch servant of the bourgeoisie: it supported World War I and opposed the October Revolution; most of its deputies voted for Petain in 1940; and it waged war in Algeria. However, the PS was a far broader coalition.

The PS was designed as an electoral vehicle for Francois Mitterrand, a former Vichy official and justice minister in the Mollet government, who had maintained close ties to leaders of the Vichy police, such as Rene Bousquet, who collaborated in the Holocaust. It included a rump of the SFIO; Mitterrands Convention of Republican Institutions, which incorporated forces from the old Radical Party tied to Vichy; social-Catholic forces, such as the supporters of Esprit magazine; and left intellectuals, ex-Stalinists and ex-Trotskyists from the United Socialist Party (PSU). The PS was a bourgeois party recruited mainly from the state machine, the media and academia. It was compelled to present itself as socialist, however, under conditions of an upsurge of protest among workers and youth, in which the PCF and the Trotskyist movement retained influence.

Its goal, as Mitterrand later explained to approving US officials, was to destroy the PCFs electoral base, become the main left party, and take power. It posed as socialist by criticizing the PCF and the historical crimes of Stalinism revealed in the 1960s and 1970s. These criticisms were not made from the standpoint of the working class, based on Trotskys defense of Soviet democracy against the Stalinist bureaucracy, or a Trotskyist critique of the PCFs counterrevolutionary role. Rather, the PS promoted anti-communism and illusions in bourgeois democracy.

The PS exploited the rightward shift of the PCF, which had been staggered by the 1968 general strike. The PCF reacted to the revolutionary struggles of 19681975 by signing a Common Program with the PS and the bourgeois Radical Left Movement in 1972, and renouncing the dictatorship of the proletariat in 1976, amid the Euro-communist turn. The Common Program, while it wrapped itself in the aura of the social concessions temporarily granted by the Popular Front in 1936, set the stage not for social gains, but for an entire epoch of social war on the working class.

Above all, the PS relied on the war on Marxism waged by broad sections of the French intelligentsia. The left intelligentsia, which had largely moved from the PCF to Maoism after the Algerian war and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchevs Secret Speech admitting Stalins crimes, went even further to the right after the 1968 general strike. Terrified by their brush with social revolution, they abandoned their flirtation with Marxism under the aegis of the PCF, mounting, instead, a media and political campaign in support of the PS.

Various forces, from the new philosophers led by Bernard Henri-Levy, to the post-structuralist Michel Foucault and the historian of the 1789 Revolution, Francois Furet, attacked totalitarianism and presented it as the inevitable result of social revolution. While the concept of totalitarianism made a reactionary amalgam between communism, Stalinism and fascism, the target of this campaign was neither fascism nor the crimes of Stalin. It did not attack ex-Vichy officials in France, such as Bousquet and Mitterrand, or the Kremlins political genocide against Marxism. Rather, these forces attacked communism and Marxism, based on a right-wing critique of the anti-democratic policies of the Kremlin. They promoted pro-free market dissidents targeted for repression by the Kremlin, such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Silent on the crimes of imperialism and hostile to a struggle of the Soviet working class to overthrow the Stalinist bureaucracy, they built the theoretical framework for left support for anticommunism, capitalist restoration in the USSR, and, later, for humanitarian wars waged by imperialism against ex-colonial countries, whose leaders were also presented as totalitarian.

They also attacked the struggle for workers power, advocating self-management instead. Initially linked to a failed attempt by workers to take over and operate the bankrupt Lip watch-making plant, calls for self-management took on a broad, anti-Marxist content. PSU leader Michel Rocard noted that the concept was ambiguous, but had the advantage that it is accompanied by a rejection of the type of regime that the USSR imposes. More bluntly, Esprit warned that social struggle based on the principles of socialism produces a totalitarian state, and instead hailed self-management as the castration of the desire for power.

This set the stage for Mitterrand to come to power in 1981, with PCF support. Exploiting mass discontent with the impact of the 1970s economic crisis and the austerity policies of conservative President Valery Giscard dEstaing, Mitterrand promised to nationalize key firms and boost purchasing power. Once in power, however, he soon repudiated his program. Faced with a predictable flight of capital from France, he refused to impose capital controls, instead proclaiming an austerity turn, slashing social spending and jobs.

Mitterrands betrayals of the PSs election promises produced shock, anger and disillusionment among workers. Ultimately, however, since no party in France fought for a politically independent, revolutionary policy against the PS, this opposition found no organized expression. In this surreal situation, as the class gulf between workers and the privileged forces in the student movement and the state bureaucracy became ever more enormous, the labor movement began to disintegrate. The trade unions collapsed, with strike activity and union membership plummeting, and the unions emerging as a corporate police force, financed overwhelmingly by business. The radicalized petty-bourgeoisie set up a variety of organizations controlled by the PS and its political allies, such as SOS-Racism and the student unions. These have served to monitor the population and, when required, stage limited protests as a safety valve for discontent.

The crisis of the Trotskyist movement in France and the OCIs split with the ICFI

If the party that came to dominate in France after 1968 was the PS, a party that attacked the PCF from the right, this was, above all, due to the crisis of the Trotskyist movement and the betrayal of the OCI, which blocked the emergence of an alternative on the left. The OCI broke with the ICFI and adopted the perspective of the Union of the Left, seeking a political and electoral alliance with the PS and the PCF. While it claimed this perspective would produce a united front of workers organizations, it in fact produced an anti-working class regroupment, dominated by the PS, a bourgeois party.

This was a flagrant repudiation of the struggle for the political independence of the working class and the struggle against bourgeois influences within the Trotskyist movement itself, which was at the heart of the work of Trotsky and the ICFI. By adopting the Union of the Left perspective, the OCI helped create the political framework of left bourgeois governments in France over the last half-century, joining a broad petty-bourgeois milieu oriented to the PS.

This has included the Workers Struggle (LO) group, founded in 1956 as the syndicalist organization Voix Ouvriere, and renamed LO in 1968. It included members of a group active in the 1930s and 1940s led by David Barta. The Barta group claimed loyalty to Trotskyism, but refused to join the FI on the anti-Marxist grounds that the working class would struggle only on a national basis, and that the FI was therefore a petty-bourgeois organization. While the Barta group mounted joint actions with the FI, fighting for the Renault strike that triggered the 1947 mass strikes, it maintained close ties to anarcho-syndicalist circles. The LO has been presented as Trotskyist by the media and the political elite in the presidential campaigns of its candidate Arlette Laguiller, but it is a reliable satellite of the PS. LOs nationalist and anarcho-syndicalist orientation underlies its role in covering up union betrayals of workers struggles, inciting anti-Muslim hatreds by backing bans on the veil and the burqa, and tacitly supporting French imperialisms foreign policy.

The ICFI was founded in 1953 in direct struggle against the Pabloite revisionist tendency in the Fourth International (FI) from which the LCR/NPA descends. This tendency emerged within the FIs International Secretariat in Paris, led by Michel Pablo and Ernest Mandel, who initially expelled the majority of the French section for opposing their political line. The ICFI intervened to defend Trotskyism against Pablo and Mandel, who insisted that the FI liquidate itself into the Stalinist and bourgeois nationalist parties that had emerged in the leadership of the mass labor movements and anti-colonial uprisings after World War II. The Pabloites predicted that war-revolution, fought between the Stalinist and imperialist regimes, would replace revolution through the independent mobilization of the working class, as in Russia in October 1917; victorious war-revolutions would produce dictatorships, like the Stalinist regimes in China and Eastern Europe, lasting for centuries, from which socialism would develop in the distant future.

History soon invalidated the predictions of Pablo and Mandel. Less than four decades later, the Stalinist regimes in the USSR, China and Eastern Europe had restored capitalism, and nationalist regimes in the ex-colonial countries had thrown themselves open to imperialist finance capital.

Well before then, events demonstrated the counterrevolutionary role of Pabloism. The ICFIs split with the Pabloites occurred only months after the PCFs sell-out of the 1953 general strike, to which the Pabloites had adapted themselves. The bankruptcy of the Algerian bourgeois regime, which had emerged from the war in 1962, also exposed the Pabloite perspective of orienting to the bourgeoisie in the colonial countries. Unlike the OCI, which unsuccessfully tried to develop an Algerian Trotskyist movement via discussions with elements in the Algerian National Movement of Messali Hadj, the Pabloites did not even attempt to develop a movement in Algeria. Rather, they printed counterfeit money and helped arm the National Liberation Front (FLN), for whom Pablo briefly served as an advisor, before leaving the country after the Boumediene coup.

The ICFI opposed Pabloism, which adapted to the prevailing Stalinist and bourgeois nationalist forces, explaining that it constituted a petty-bourgeois attack on Marxism. By reducing politics to the conflict between imperialist and Stalinist governments, Pabloism consigned the international working class, the central force in classical Marxism, to irrelevance. Moreover, it adopted many views with large currency in the French bourgeoisie. Pabloisms virulent opposition to the continued independent existence of the Trotskyist movement conformed to widely disseminated petty-bourgeois prejudices against the central political instrument of Marxism: the revolutionary proletarian party.

While the majority of the French section opposed Pabloism, it gradually adopted a skeptical attitude to the history of the ICFI and the Trotskyist movement. At the 1966 Third Congress of the ICFI, it brought with it a delegation from Voix Ouvriere and began advocating reconstructing the Fourth International. The formulation reconstructing meant a centrist reorientation away from the intransigence that characterized the ICFIs struggle against Pabloism, and a move toward the broader layer of petty-bourgeois satellites of the social democracy and PCF.

In 1968, the OCI sought to orient student protests to the workers and called a key strike at the Sud Aviation plant in Nantes that helped trigger the general strike. However, it adopted a syndicalist line, calling only for the formation of a central strike committee, regrouping all trade unions and workers parties. The British SLL correctly criticized the OCI for not calling for the PCF and the Stalinist General Confederation of Labor (CGT) to take power, in order to raise the issue of state power with the workers, expose the PCFs counterrevolutionary policy, and place itself in a position to fight for political leadership of the working class. The OCIs increasingly centrist and skeptical orientation had fatal consequences when the upsurge of radicalism after 1968 produced a sudden influx of new members to the party, primarily drawn from student youth.

In 1971, the SLL and the majority of the sections of the ICFI announced a split with the OCI. The SLLs criticisms of the OCIs opportunism were amply justified. This was exemplified in the career of Lionel Jospin, who went from covertly being a member of the OCI and the PS simultaneously, to becoming a top Mitterrand aide and, later, the prime minister of France. Nevertheless, the SLL failed to carry out the split with the necessary clarification of political issues. Nor did it seek to win forces from within the OCI or build a party in France. The premature split, which preempted a discussion of essential political issues, effectively liquidated Trotskyism in France as an organized political tendency over an entire historic epoch, and proved to have serious political consequences for the SLL, itself, in Britain.

During the 1971 split, the OCI defended its syndicalist line in 1968 and its orientation to the PS. It claimed that the SLLs call for a PCF-CGT government would have meant splitting the working class, isolating the social democratic trade unions where the OCI had support, and cutting across a United Front of workers organizations. Its positions not only disregarded the fact that in 1968 the vast majority of militant workers looked to the PCF, not social democratic unions, for a revolutionary policy, it also falsified the class character of the PS, which is a bourgeois party.

The OCIs entry into a lasting political alliance with the PS was a fundamental repudiation of the perspective of the ICFI. Abandoning the struggle for Trotskyism and the political independence of the working class, the OCI converted itself into a bourgeois party. It adopted the Union of the Left perspective, which proved to be the political framework within which the PS exerted its dominant role, starting with the Mitterrand presidency in 1981. The OCI sent its members into the PS, functioning as a faction of the PS and the union bureaucracies. It played this role not only in France, but also used its influence to set up anti-working class parties internationally, most egregiously in Latin America, where it helped establish the Workers Party (PT) in Brazil. In dissolving themselves politically into such bourgeois parties, the Lambertistes were not trying to win forces to Trotskyism, but to make themselves available to provide political cover for the policies of the French, Brazilian and international bourgeoisie.

The ICFIs split with the WRP

After its unclarified split with the OCI in 1971, the SLL began to adopt similar policies in Britain. Renaming itself the Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP), it grew on the basis of popular opposition to the Conservative government of Edward Heath, but began to downplay the ICFIs struggle against Pabloism. When the Labour Party returned to power in 1974 and the WRP struggled to continue its growth among workers, it sought support elsewhere behind the backs of the rest of the ICFIin ties with Third World nationalists and factions of the union bureaucracy and political establishment.

In 1982, opposition inside the ICFI to the degeneration of the WRP culminated in the formulation of political and theoretical criticisms of the WRPs political line by David North, the national secretary of the Workers League, the American party in solidarity with the ICFI. In 1985, after a factional crisis exploded inside the WRP, the ICFI suspended the WRP as its British section and re-admitted those members of the British section who accepted the ICFIs international authority and perspective. The ICFI published a comprehensive exposure of the WRP, How the WRP Betrayed Trotskyism, and David Norths The Heritage We Defend, defending the ICFIs history of struggle for Trotskyism against a vitriolic attack from WRP General Secretary Michael Banda. These documents established how the ICFI defended Trotskyism against the WRPs adaptation to the Labour and trade union bureaucracies and its embrace of bourgeois nationalism.

The ICFI mounted a powerful political offensive against petty-bourgeois revisionism as the objective conflict between the working class and the old, nationally-oriented bureaucracies of the labor movement, and the petty-bourgeois parties that oriented to them, grew to unprecedented levels. There were union sell-outs of major strikes internationally, including the 1981 PATCO strike in the United States and the 198485 British miners strike in Europe and, above all, the announcement of the perestroika free-market reforms by the Soviet regime of Premier Mikhail Gorbachev.

The lead-up to the restoration of capitalism in the USSR made clear the class gulf separating the ICFI from rightward-moving petty-bourgeois groups like the LCR and OCI. In line with the major imperialist governments, they hailed perestroika as a democratic reform by the bureaucracy. The ICFI, alone, based itself on Trotskys warning that the Stalinist bureaucracy would ultimately move to restore capitalism in the USSR, and warned that Gorbachevs reforms would lead to the restoration of capitalism if the Soviet workers did not overthrow the bureaucracy.

The restoration of capitalism in China and Eastern Europe, and finally the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, marked a historical and political watershed. Trotskys warnings about the counterrevolutionary role of Stalinism, made over a half-century before, were totally vindicated. The European Stalinist parties, which had steadily lost support after 1968, collapsed. Ignoring the industrial and economic disintegration that occurred in the capitalist post-Soviet republics and the rise of a gangster oligarchy, reactionaries declared that this collapse marked the end of history and the final triumph of capitalism.

In opposition to these forces, the ICFI insisted that the restoration of capitalism, while undoubtedly a blow to the international working class, did not spell the end of the epoch of imperialist war and world socialist revolution, which had opened nearly a century before. The dissolution of the USSR had not resolved the fundamental contradictions of capitalism identified by Marxism. Indeed, the same economic processes and geo-strategic conflicts that had undermined the USSR, and pushed the Stalinist regime to restore capitalism, were also undermining the world imperialist system.

The ICFI pointed to the development of economic globalization and transnational corporations that organize international supply chains in a ruthless struggle for maximum profit. These processes made it impossible to pursue economic policy or bargain for wages and conditions on a national level. The ex-colonial bourgeoisies national development strategies, the union bureaucracies nationally-based bargaining, and Stalinisms autarkic orientation, had all been rendered obsolete. Instead, they all functioned ever-more nakedly as labor contractors, competing to slash workers pay and conditions in order to offer the greatest profit to international finance capital.

The intensified social crisis went hand in hand with a rising crisis of the global imperialist order. The processes of globalization, and the resulting redistribution of economic power, undermined not only workers living standards, but also the objective basis of US world hegemony. Despite US imperialisms insane dreams that the disappearance of its superpower rival would allow it to compensate for its relative economic decline by resorting to military force, its attempts to conquer or militarily dominate the Middle East and Central Asia led only to disaster. It was impossible to return to the old, nationally-based forms of economic life. Yet the globalization of capitalism brought all the contradictions, which in previous decades had exploded into world wars and revolutions, to a fever pitch. This was and remains the objective basis for world socialist revolution.

The key issue facing the international working class, however, was the crisis of revolutionary leadership and of political and historical perspective. The ICFI fought to articulate the basis for the development of socialist consciousness in the new epoch, and to bring socialist consciousness into the working class. It worked tirelessly to refute the academic representatives of the post-Soviet school of historical falsification, who denounced Trotsky and insisted that there was no socialist alternative to Stalinism and the dissolution of the USSR.

In 1995, the ICFIs national sections, previously organized as leagues, reorganized themselves as Socialist Equality parties. Underlying this initiative was a change in the conception of the ICFIs relationship to the working class. The ICFI insisted that the turn to openly anti-worker policies by the old, nationally-based organizations, and the disintegration of their base in the working class, made it impossible to fight to reorient the working class by placing demands on these organizations and winning the workers inside them. The SEP (US) explained: All over the world, the working class is confronted with the fact that the trade unions, parties and even states which it created in an earlier period have been transformed into the direct instruments of imperialism. The days are over when the labor bureaucracies mediated the class struggle and played the role of buffer between the classes We cannot resolve the crisis of working class leadership by demanding that others provide that leadership. If there is to be a new party, then we must build it.

In 1998, the ICFI launched the World Socialist Web Site as an online socialist daily. Through the WSWS, the ICFIs sections collectively articulate a common political line and offer analysis, perspective and leadership to the struggles of the world working class. In the course of more than 18 years of continuous daily publication, the WSWS has established itself as the worlds most widely read socialist web site.

The ICFIs struggle against the pseudo-left in France

The ICFIs intense political and theoretical work has formed the basis for its intervention in France. The 1990s and 2000s saw significant class struggles and social protests in France: strikes against pension cuts, including the mass 1995 rail strike, and youth protests against the First Job Contract (CPE) reform. During this period, in response to the collapse of the PCF, layers of workers sought to orient to a Trotskyist alternative. They were blocked, however, by the reactionary role of the LCR, LO and OCI. Having supported capitalist restoration in the USSR, these parties developed closer ties with the desiccated Stalinist and social democratic parties in Europe, and integrated themselves more deeply into the media, academia, and trade union bureaucracies. While posing as left, they supported imperialist war, social austerity and attacks on democratic rights.

The period since the 2002 presidential election crisis demonstrates their bankruptcy. That year, PS candidate Lionel Jospin was eliminated in the first round and protests erupted against a runoff between the conservative Jacques Chirac and FN candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen. The LCR, LO and Workers Party (PTthe ex-OCI) had collectively won three million votes. That same year, international anti-war protests erupted against the illegal US invasion of Iraq, which was ultimately launched in 2003. The LCR, LO and PT proved capable however, only of squandering this opportunity.

The ICFI issued an open letter to the three parties, proposing a campaign for an active boycott of the runoff. Without hiding its political differences with them, the ICFI explained that an active boycott, mobilizing workers in struggle, would best prepare the working class to oppose the policies Chirac would pursue. These parties did not bother to respond, however, simply aligning themselves with the campaign of the PS for a vote for Chirac, supposedly to block neo-fascism from coming to power.

Over the next fourteen years, they followed Chirac and the PS as the ruling elite turned toward neo-fascism and waged a series of neo-colonial wars. Even as the French state dropped its initial opposition to the Iraq war, these supposedly far left organizations backed racist anti-Muslim laws against the veil and the burqa. They turned even further to the right after the 2008 financial crash and the initial response of the international proletariatthe 2011 revolutionary uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. When their Greek co-thinkers in Syriza came to power last year, the far left supported Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras as he continued imposing EU austerity measures against the people. They supported as democratic revolutions not only NATOs wars in Libya and Syria, but a fascist-led putsch in Kiev that installed a far-right, pro-NATO regime in Ukraine that threatens to provoke all-out war with Russia. Such policies have placed the world on the brink of nuclear war and economic collapse.

The ICFI has classified these forces as the pseudo-left, a tendency based in upper layers of the middle classes and rooted in the degeneration of the post-1968 student movement. They are anti-Marxist, hostile to the working class and to class struggle, and supportive of imperialist war, austerity and police state measures. They will produce only disaster for the working class. At the same time, the explosive discontent building up in the working class with the PS and its pseudo-left allies lays the objective political foundation for the development of the SEP as the mass Trotskyist party.

Seventy-eight years ago, the Fourth International issued its founding Transitional Program and warned, two years before World War II, of the death agony of capitalism. Once again, capitalism faces an insoluble historical crisis, as all the imperialist powersstaggered by the economic crisis and the implications of the terminal crisis of US hegemonyturn to war and dictatorship. The war danger, grotesque levels of social inequality, and attacks on democratic rights predominate worldwide. As the EUs austerity policies lay bare its reactionary character and neo-fascism rises across Europe, world war threatens to break out from the wars in the Middle East, NATO conflicts with Russia in Eastern Europe, and the US pivot to Asia aimed at isolating China. The turn, now as in 1938, is to the international working class and the struggle for socialism.

In its 2014 resolution titled Socialism and the Struggle against Imperialist War, the ICFI wrote: Another imperialist bloodbath is not only possible; it is inevitable unless the international working class intervenes on the basis of a revolutionary Marxist program However, the same contradictions driving imperialism to the brink provide the objective impulse for social revolution. It added, The building of the Fourth International, under the leadership of the International Committee, is the central strategic question. It is the only conceivable means through which the working class can be unified internationally The task of the ICFI now is to work for the development of sections in new countries and areas of the world.

On the basis of this perspective and history, the SEP (France) lays out the following principles that will guide its political work.

Principles of the Socialist Equality Party (France)

Internationalism and the struggle for World Socialist Revolution

Accepting the political authority of the ICFI, the SEP seeks to win workers in France to the program of world socialist revolution, led by the ICFI. This revolution signifies the entry of masses of people into conscious political struggle and portends the end of mankinds social organization into classes and, thus, of the exploitation of human beings by other human beings. Its task within France is to mobilize the working class to take political power and establish a workers state, pursuing socialist policies, as part of the United Socialist States of Europe.

Workers power cannot be established by electing socialists to the structures of the bourgeois state. New organs of participatory democracy, created in the course of mass revolutionary struggles, in order to genuinely represent the working-class majority of the population, must be developed as the foundations of the workers state. Such a state, as it introduces measures essential for the socialist transformation of economic life, would actively promote a vast expansion of democratic, working-class control over decision-making processes. Such changes are possible only in the context of a mass mobilization of the working class, imbued with socialist consciousness. This creates the objective preconditions for the development of a truly democratic, egalitarian and socialist society.

This final objective can be realized only through an international struggle to unify the workers of all countries and create a world federation of workers states, democratically overseeing the use and expansion of the productive forces, created under globally-integrated capitalism, to meet humanitys social needs. As Trotsky wrote, explaining his theory of permanent revolution, The socialist revolution begins on the national arena, it unfolds on the international arena, and is completed on the world arena. Thus, the socialist revolution becomes a permanent revolution in a newer and broader sense of the word: it attains completion only in the final victory of the new society on our entire planet.

The SEP fights to raise workers political horizons beyond the borders of France, and to explain that workers struggles in France are inextricably linked to an emerging process of world socialist revolution, requiring an internationalist strategy and perspective. The SEP fights all attempts to divide the working class through discrimination along lines of race, ethnicity, language, religion, gender or sexual orientation. The SEP defends the right of all refugees and immigrants to live, work, and study in their country of choice, with full citizenship rights. It bases its policies on the unification of the international working class in revolutionary struggle.

The abolition of class society is the task of an entire epoch. The SEPs principles are therefore based on the history of this entire epoch: on Trotskys struggle against Stalinisms betrayal of the October Revolution, rooted in the substitution of nationalism for internationalism by the Soviet bureaucracy, and on the unbroken international continuity of the ICFIs struggle for Trotskyism.

The crisis of capitalism

Capitalism, and the imperialist world system that develops on its economic foundations, are the main causes of poverty, exploitation, violence and human suffering. The bloody history of the 20th centuryincluding two world wars, innumerable local wars, and fascist dictatorships across Europeconstitutes an unanswerable indictment of capitalism.

The vast productive forces and technological advances of modern society are sufficient to guarantee a high standard of living to the entire population of the world. Yet capitalist society cannot resolve any of its economic, social, ecological or cultural problems. Instead, living conditions are falling for broad masses of people, amid the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Social inequality is attaining grotesque proportions; a few dozen multi-billionaires own more wealth than the bottom 50 percent of the worlds population, and the richest 1 percent own as much as the rest of the world.

Human culture, deprived of perspective and hope for the future, is again threatened with the barbarism of fascism and war. The solution to this crisis lies not in the reform of capitalism, for it is beyond reform, but in its overthrow. As feudalism gave way to capitalism, so capitalism must give way to socialism.

The struggle against imperialist war

The crisis of capitalism finds its most violent expression in the spread of imperialist wars of plunder and inter-imperialist rivalries, which again threaten humanity with world war. These conflicts arise from the fundamental contradictions of capitalism, analyzed by Lenin and Trotsky a century ago: between global economy and the nation-state system, and between the social character of productive processes and the private ownership of the means of production. While the means of production operate globally, controlled by transnational corporations, capitalism remains rooted in a system of nation-states that serves as a base of operations from which each countrys capitalist class pursues its global interests. The uncontrollable drive of the imperialist powers to seize markets, vital resources, access to cheap labor, spheres of influence and strategic advantage leads inevitably to war.

France is an imperialist power, pursuing its predatory economic and military interests through war and interventions internationally. In the 19th century, it established an empire of tens of millions of colonial slaves across Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Today, as it seeks to reconquer spheres of influence, it is joining in a surge of wars waged by the imperialist powers from the Middle East and Africa to Russia and China, which threatens to unleash a new world war.

The SEP condemns the wars waged by France and all the other imperialist powers, and rejects the fraudulent pretexts, advanced by the imperialists and their pseudo-left apologists, that these interventions are struggles for human rights or against terrorism. It recognizes the basic right of people to defend themselves and their countries against neo-colonial invaders. This principled position does not lessen the SEPs opposition to violent acts against innocent civilians in occupied countries or around the world. Such reactionary acts, which can legitimately be defined as terrorist, enrage and disorient the public, deepen ethnic and sectarian tensions, and undermine the struggle for the international unity of the proletariat in revolutionary strugglethe only basis upon which countries can be liberated from imperialist domination. Terrorist attacks play into the hands of the imperialist ruling elites, which use them to legitimize the resort to war.

The SEP encourages and supports the widest protests against imperialist war. It stresses, however, that since the causes of war are embedded in the structure of capitalist society and its political division into nation-states, the struggle against imperialist war can be successful only to the extent that it mobilizes the working class on the basis of an international revolutionary strategy. As the ICFI has written in its statement, Socialism and the Fight against War:

* The struggle against war must be based on the working class, the great revolutionary force in society, uniting behind it all progressive elements in the population.

* The new anti-war movement must be anti-capitalist and socialist, since there can be no serious struggle against war except in the fight to end the dictatorship of finance capital and the economic system that is the fundamental cause of militarism and war.

* The new anti-war movement must therefore, of necessity, be completely and unequivocally independent of, and hostile to, all political parties and organizations of the capitalist class.

* The new anti-war movement must, above all, be international, mobilizing the vast power of the working class in a unified global struggle against imperialism. The permanent war of the bourgeoisie must be answered with the perspective of permanent revolution by the working class, the strategic goal of which is the abolition of the nation-state system and the establishment of a world socialist federation. This will make possible the rational, planned development of global resources and, on this basis, the eradication of poverty and the raising of human culture to new heights.

Defense of democratic rights

The SEP advances and defends all of the democratic rights won over more than two centuries of revolutionary struggle against Frances feudal and then capitalist aristocracies. These rights have, however, been drastically eroded, particularly since the dissolution of the USSR, the 2008 economic crisis and Frances decision to fully join the so-called war on terror.

The rehabilitation of far-right forces in Europe, the preparation for the use of the French army against domestic opposition, and mass electronic spying on the people by French and international intelligence agencies, testify to the advanced state of decay of bourgeois democracy. The PS and the pseudo-left, which denounce Marxism and revolution as threats to democracy, have proven to be supporters of police state measures. The danger to democracy comes from the policies of the bourgeoisie and the crisis of capitalism, a historically doomed social system.

The defense of democratic rights is inseparably linked to the struggle for socialism: as there can be no socialism without democracy, there will be no democracy without socialism. The decay of democracy, in France and all the countries with bourgeois democratic traditions, can be fought only in opposition to the entire political establishment through an independent political mobilization of the working class on the basis of a socialist program.

The struggle for the political independence of the working class

The struggle for power requires the unconditional political independence of the working class from the parties, political representatives, theoreticians and agents of the capitalist class. The repeated betrayals of revolutionary opportunities in France by Stalinism and the pseudo-left provide classic illustrations of the tragic consequences of a situation where the proletariat is straitjacketed by debilitating alliances with parties representing other class forces. In France, this signifies first and foremost unwavering opposition to the Socialist Party and its various Stalinist and pseudo-left satellites, and a rejection of the lie that these forces represent a lesser evil compared to other bourgeois parties.

The SEPs opposition to this bankrupt political establishment does not imply, however, any obligation to provide support to whatever parties and organizations emerge in opposition to it. The SEP evaluates such tendencies not based on their episodic positions on individual issues, but on their history, program, perspective, social basis and class orientation.

The SEP upholds the fundamental interests of the working class based on a scientific, Marxist understanding of the law-governed nature of capitalism and the political dynamics of class society. This places the SEP in irreconcilable opposition to opportunist politics, which sacrifices the long-term interests of the working class in the pursuit of short-term tactical gains. Opportunism is not, however, simply the product of intellectual and theoretical errors. It is rooted in material forces in capitalist society, and develops within the workers movement as an expression of class forces hostile to the proletariat. Manifestations of opportunism, such as that of Stalin, which developed in the Bolshevik party in the 1920s, that of Pablo and Mandel, which developed inside the Fourth International in the 1950s, and the OCIs adaptation to the PS in the 1970s, can be traced to the influence of bourgeois and petty-bourgeois forces on the working class. The struggle against such influences is not a distraction from building the party, but rather the highest point at which the fight for Marxism in the working class is engaged.

The SEP defends the classical Marxist conception, developed by Lenin in the building of the Bolshevik Party and carried forth by Trotskys struggle to build the Fourth International, that revolutionary socialist consciousness does not develop spontaneously in the working class. This consciousness requires scientific insight into the laws of historical development and of capitalism. This understanding must be introduced into the working class, and that is the principal task of the Marxist movement. Denigration of the struggle for revolutionary consciousness is the stock-in-trade of reactionary academics and political opportunists.

The betrayal of the trade unions

The SEP calls for workers to break with the trade unions. It insists that workers struggles can be victorious only if they are organized independently of the unions and based on a revolutionary socialist perspective for a broad mobilization of the working class in political struggle against capitalism. It encourages at every point the formation of new, independent organizations, such as factory and workplace committees, that truly represent the interests of rank-and-file workers and are subject to their democratic control.

The SEP fights for a scientific understanding of the role of the trade unions. Already in the early days of the union movement in Britain, Marx criticized the unions, which negotiate the conditions of the exploitation of the working class under capitalism within a given country, rather than seeking the overthrow of capitalism internationally. Instead of the conservative motto a fair days wage for a fair days work, they ought to inscribe on their banner the revolutionary watchword: Abolition of the wages system! Marx wrote.

The experiences of the 20th century confirmed the generally counterrevolutionary role of the union bureaucracy, including in France, where the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) union played a key role, with the PCF, in suppressing revolutionary opportunities in 1936, 1945, 1953 and 1968. Nonetheless, to the extent that broad masses of militant workers sought to struggle through the unions, the Trotskyist movement correctly sought to intervene inside them. This distinguished the ICFI from innumerable petty-bourgeois left groups that denounced the politics of the unions as an excuse to abstain from the struggle to reach the workers.

The advent of globalization in the period since 1968, and the collapse of the unions working-class membership, transformed these organizations. From organizations that defended workers short-term interests through nationally-based bargaining on wages and conditions, they turned into privileged bureaucracies that defend the corporations global competitiveness by planning cuts to wages and jobs. In France, while they supervised symbolic protest strikes tailored to the political needs of the ruling elite, they oversaw a drastic reduction in strike activity. Nonetheless, despite the collapse of their dues base, social cuts, mass layoffs and plant closures, the revenues of the unions have continued to rise, thanks to billions of euros in legal or semi-legal funding from corporations and the state. They are no longer workers organizations, but empty shells funded by the ruling class, in which workers are trapped and controlled by petty-bourgeois functionaries tied to the police and intelligence agencies. They function today as an industrial police force directed against the working class.

For a Leninist vanguard party in the working class

The entire history of the 20th century shows that revolution cannot triumph unless the working class is led by a revolutionary party. This underlies the ferocious hostility, within the reactionary petty-bourgeois milieu of the pseudo-left, to the building of a Marxist vanguard party in the working class. The SEP encourages broad struggle by the working class and welcomes every true victory. It fundamentally opposes, however, syndicalist conceptions that the organization of militant struggles can replace a worked-out revolutionary strategy for the working class, led by a Marxist party.

The SEP upholds the essential revolutionary socialist principle: tell the workers the truth. It bases its program and its political work on a scientific and objective assessment of political reality and fights to develop socialist consciousness in the masses by bringing its Marxist perspective to the most advanced layers of workers and youth. It rejects the insidious claim that Marxists must take the prevailing level of mass consciousnessor rather, what petty-bourgeois philistines imagine it to beas their point of departure. The first responsibility of the party, Trotsky explained, is to give a clear, honest picture of the objective situation, of the historic tasks which flow from this situation, irrespective of whether or not the workers are today ripe for this. Our tasks dont depend on the mentality of the workers. The task is to develop the mentality of the workers. That is what the program should formulate and present before the advanced workers.

The revolutionary struggle of the working class requires organization, and organization is impossible without discipline. The discipline required for revolutionary struggle cannot be imposed from above, however; it must develop on the basis of an agreement, freely arrived at, on principles and program. This conception finds expression in the organizational structure of the SEP, which is based on the principles of democratic centralism. In the formulation of policy and tactics, the fullest democracy must prevail within the party. No restraints, other than those indicated in the partys constitution, are placed on internal discussion of the SEPs policies and activities. Leaders are democratically elected by the membership, and are subject to criticism and control. But if the formulation of policy requires the broadest discussion and open and honest criticism, its implementation requires the strictest discipline. Decisions arrived at democratically within the party are binding on all members. Those who object to this essential element of centralism, or who see in the demand for discipline a violation of their personal freedom, are not revolutionary socialists but anarchistic individuals who do not understand the implications or the demands of the class struggle.

The defense of Marxism

A central task of the SEP is the defense of the historical and theoretical tradition of Marxism. Nearly a century ago, on the 50th anniversary of the Paris Commune, Trotsky wrote, More than any other proletariat has the French made sacrifices for the revolution. But also more than any other has it been duped. Many times has the bourgeoisie dazzled it with all the colors of republicanism, of radicalism, of socialism, so as always to fasten upon it the fetters of capitalism. By means of its agents, its lawyers and its journalists, the bourgeoisie has put forward a whole mass of democratic, parliamentary, autonomist formulae which are nothing but impediments on the feet of the proletariat, hampering its forward movement. It must be added that over the last century, this work of political and theoretical mystification has continued on an even more massive scale.

The SEP bases its activity on an analysis of the objective laws of history and society. Rooted in materialism, Marxism insists on the primacy of matter over consciousness. The ideal is nothing else than the material world, Marx wrote, reflected by the human mind, and translated into forms of thought. The materialism of Marxism is dialectical, in that it regards the material world and its reflections in thought not as a collection of fixed, internally undifferentiated objects and concepts, but as a complex of processes in constant motion and interaction, with antagonistic and divergent tendencies. This conception provided the theoretical basis for the development by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels of scientific socialism, based on an objective understanding of class conflict and exploitation in capitalist society and of the revolutionary role of the working class.

Despite the socialistic sentiments that animated masses of workers in France during the 20th century, these conceptions did not prevail in sections of the middle class intelligentsia that professed loyalty to Marxism. The collapse of the pseudo-left parties in the current epoch of capitalist crisis, imperialist war, and revolutionary struggles of the working class has proven the bankruptcy of all these anti-Marxist theories and the parties that drew inspiration from them. The SEP fights for a renaissance of classical Marxism to provide the theoretical basis for the development of a Trotskyist movement in the working class.

The SEP defends the historical legacy of Leon Trotsky and the Trotskyist movement against the attacks and falsifications from its bourgeois and petty-bourgeois opponents. These attackswhether by descendants of Cold War anti-communist or Stalinist ideologists, or pseudo-left forces that seek to cover their anti-Trotskyist policies with fraudulent claims that there are many Trotskyismsall aim to block the development of socialist consciousness in the working class. They deny that the struggle of Trotsky, carried forward by the ICFI, is the continuation of the struggle of the Marxist movement as the revolutionary alternative to capitalism.
Havent had a chance to check all of Tuesdays Hollywood headlines? Here are three celeb stories everyone is buzzing about:

1. In the wake of attacks on minorities across the country following the election, Shameless star Emmy Rossum revealed that she was targeted with anti-Semitic remarks from Donald Trump supporters online after expressing disappointment with the 2016 election results.

Rossum, who is of Jewish descent, was a Hillary Clinton supporter and vocalized her disappointment with Trumps win on Twitter. She immediately became the target of anti-Semitic attacks with one user threatening to send her and her ilk to the gas chamber and including horrible hashtags like #siegheil.

2. Model and activist Ashley Graham was honored at Glamours Women of the Year 2016 awards in Los Angeles and was presented with her very own Barbie doll. The doll is part of the Sheroes capsule collection that celebrates female empowerment and cultural diversity. Which other female celebrities have their own Barbie doll?

3. Speaking of Glamours Women of the Year awards, Amber Heard made a rare public appearance at the event. Watch the video above to find out what happened when she hit the stage.

Another female star who claims to be all about female empowerment is Ariel Winter. Take look at the racy photos the Modern Actress actress posted from her recent vacation in Mexico:


Finding Dory (Photo: 2016 DisneyPixar)

Oh, to be a fish with short-term memory loss. Thats the idea behind this 2016 undersea sequel to writer-director Andrew Stantons Oscar-winning Finding Nemo. On Nov. 15, Disney-Pixar will release its Ultimate Collectors Edition Blu-ray and DVD of Finding Dory, featuring Ellen DeGeneres as the voice of the forgetful blue tang, who embarks on a quest to find her family, along with old pals Marlin (Albert Brooks) and Nemo (Hayden Rolence). Last week, we caught up with Stanton, the longtime animator and vice-president of creative at Pixar to talk about Dory, democracy, and why he doesnt believe in talking down to the Disney set.

Is it true that you always envisioned Dory as a tragic character?

Yeah. I knew, as a writer, that she had a past that she didnt know about. She was built around the needs of Marlin from the first movie. I needed somebody who would be incredibly kind and supportive and help him across the ocean. I read goldfish have a memory of three seconds, and that just cracked me up. But when I thought about the practical application of that  thats a cross to bear. That would drive other fish crazy. So, she must have this vestige of feeling of abandonment again and again. She started to slowly sense that it must be her fault. To me, thats what made her so friendly. It was her armor: If Im extra-nice to you, it may tip the scales and ensure you wont ditch me. I didnt put that on the surface, but I always made her happy and made you laugh all the way through Nemo, yet 50 minutes in, she starts crying and saying, Please dont leave me.

Why did you decide to make Dory the star of her own movie?

I didnt do it because I thought there would be a great sequel or that the franchise needed it. I did it because I had this character [who] hadnt found her home yet. She still had that internal flaw where she was punishing herself unnecessarily  and I hated that. I realized I left that unaddressed.

Something Disney-Pixar does really well is take important, universal, difficult themes and talk to kids about them in a way thats entertaining. Your 2008 film WALL-E, for instance, conveyed some serious messages about the environment.

I think we have an advantage in animation. The movies we make are for any age; we dont dumb [them] down or consider just the younger crowd. We kind of make them for ourselves, but because animation tends to lead into fantasy, it allows you to cloak difficult subject matters. If you think about Nemo, theres a murder and a kidnapping. But because its nature and because its fish, it allows you this medicinal message with a sugar-coating.

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Andrew Stanton at the premiere on June 8 (Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

Considering the fallout of this election, do you envision ever sugar-coating some grain of truth about our country divided?

Yeah, I wouldnt be surprised. All these life events tend to seep in, and the next four years will affect our lives in one way or another. It will not surprise me if indirectly or directly that inspires one of the filmmakers here.

Lets talk about the home-media package for Finding Dory. In terms of bonus features, what are you most proud to share with viewers?

I always love the bonus material because we put such love and care into it. Were so sick of how you make an animated film. One of my personal favorites: I finally got [composer] Thomas Newman to sit down and really talk about how he composes music. We have a relationship  its our third film working together  and hes one of my heroes. To get him to sit down and deconstruct something was just, selfishly, a real treat.

I also have to ask about Toy Story and what we can expect on the horizon as far as a Toy Story 4?

Well, nobodys harder on us [about] making a great Toy Story movie than we are. We know what it feels like to hit the bulls-eye. And thats part of the reason weve delayed it, so that we can really nail it. I know theres a lot of concern about why a fourth? But the truth is, we always had the intention of continuing.

What are you most excited about as far as what youre working on personally?

Im going to branch out, doing some stuff probably in the live-action world again. Ive been doing animation for so long that its fun to try to some shorter things. Im not getting any younger, and it takes four years every time to do an animated picture, so instead of doing one thing in four years, Im excited to do four things in one year.

Youre originally from the small seaside town of Rockport, Massachusetts. Is that partly why youre so ocean-loving?

Thats not partly, thats fully where it all comes from. Up until I was 18, every day I heard the ocean, saw the ocean, smelled the ocean. I was seven or eight when Jaws came out. Jaws was filmed on Marthas Vineyard, but it looked just like where I grew up. None of us went in the ocean that summer.

Watch the Finding Dory cast play What Would Dory Do?




LOS CABOS, Mexico  Building the multi-partner co-production structure which is proving a hallmark of breakout international hits from Latin America, Paris-based Manny Films and Buenos Aires Haddock Films have joined Madrids Tornasol Films and Montevideo-based Salado to produce Alvaro Brechners anticipated Memorias del calabozo.

Also written by Brechner, Memorias del calabozo, was one of six projects presented at the inaugural Los Cabos Film Investors Summit on Friday. It won the Arte International Prize at the 2016 Berlin Co-Production Market.

The now four-way co-production reunites Tornasol and Haddock, which joined forces for Juan Jose Campanellas Academy Award winner The Secret in Their Eyes.

Memorias del Calabozo also marks Manny Films latest Latino co-production after Pablo Fendriks 2014 El Ardor, starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Alicia Braga, and David Pablos Netflix pick-up The Chosen Ones, produced by Pablo Cruz at Canana and selected for Cannes 2015 Un Certain Regard.

More than anything else, however, it also underscores one competitive asset of Latin American narrative drama, whether film or TV fiction. Time and again, at Los Cabos first Film Investors Summit, panelists stressed the need for writers and directors to be original.

A directors vision needs to be singular, interesting, and unique so that it will stand stand out in a marketplace flooded with a lot of ordinary or mediocre films, said Bec Smith, a literary agent at UTA.

Many, maybe most of the projects pitched at Los Cabos were based on true facts. Latin American history is so extraordinary, for good and bad, that its creative industries have a huge well of remarkable, unforgettable narratives to draw on. They just  and its no small challenge  have to coney their emotion, and their sense.

A humanist survival drama, the true-fact based Memorias del calabozo begins in September 1973 as Uruguays falls under military dictatorship and nine captured Tupamaro guerrilla members are subjected to a solitary confinement which will last 12 years. One, Jose Mugica, spent two years confined to the bottom of one emptied horses water trough.

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Mujica went on to become a legendary president of Uruguay between 2010 and 2015, who dove to work in a battered car, refused to live in the presidential palace and was one major reason why The Economist chose Uruguay as its Country of the Year in 2013.

But rather than a political drama, Brechner has construe what a chronicle of a remarkable feat of physical and, above all, psychological resilience.

Star of The Fury of a Patient Man and May God Save Us, two standout big fest plays this late summer, Alvaro de la Torre, regarded as one of the finest Spanish actors of his generation, will play Jose Mujica. Chino Darin (Death in Buenos Aires, The Queen of Spain) co-stars. Memorias de un calabozo is based on the same-titled memoirs of Mauricio Rosencof and Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro, the other central figures of the film.

My goal is to make a film which transcends historical events to tell the existential struggle of three men who cling to their spirit so as to maintain their humanity and hope, said director Brechner, whose first two features, Bad Day to Go Fishing and Mr. Kaplan were both Uruguays Academy Award entries

He added: Even in the darkest moments, the struggle and resistance of an individual for dignity should never be under-estimated.

Memorias del calabozo is based on a true-life figure and describes, describes a human journey, the creation of something positive in such negative context, added Tornasols Mariela Besuievsky.

Shooting in Spain, Uruguay and Argentina, it is scheduled to go into production February to March 2017.

Related stories

San Sebastian: Tornasol, Salado Team for Brechner's 'Memorias'

Alvaro Brechner: 'Mr. Kaplan,' Dignity, 'Scarecrow,' a Phrase His Grandfather Once Used

Film Review: 'Mr. Kaplan'
At a screening of their 1996 film Flirting with Disaster at the AFI Fest on Friday, director David O. Russell gave Lily Tomlin a bouquet of roses. Russell and Tomlin were there to talk about the independent comedy on its 20th anniversary year. But Russells flowery gesture may have struck some audience members as a tacit apology for the blow-up that occurred during the shooting of a different Russell film, I Heart Huckabees. In 2007, a video of Russell screaming and swearing at Tomlin during the shooting of 2004s Huckabees was leaked online, exposing a tense working relationship. But judging from Friday nights panel, the actress and director have reconciled, and are able to look back fondly on their first film together.

I was so blessed to get a comic icon like Lily Tomlin to be in [Flirting with Disaster], Russell told the audience (via Indiewire, a co-sponsor of the screening). The film, an ensemble comedy about a new father (Ben Stiller) who goes to great lengths to track down his birth parents (Tomlin and Alan Alda), was only Russells second feature film. Fourteen years later, he received his first Best Director Oscar nomination for The Fighter (2011), followed by nominations for Silver Linings Playbook (2012) and American Hustle (2013). At the time, however, he was a quirky newcomer who appealed to Tomlin with his sense of humor.

When I read the script, I laughed every time, she said of Flirting. It was just so hilarious.

During the conversation (moderated by Mad Men creator Matt Weiner), Russell praised Tomlins contribution to one of the films best sequences: A dinner scene at which Tomlins character reveals her drug-dealer past, as well as the butterfly tattoo on her thigh.

That tattoo [idea] was completely Lilys, Russell said. It just happened in the middle of the scene, and its perfectly timed.

David O. Russell and Lily Tomlin reunited at #AFIFEST last night for a 20th anniv #FlirtingWithDisaster conversation. #davidorussell #lilytomlin #hollywood A photo posted by American Film Institute (@americanfilminstitute) on Nov 12, 2016 at 1:01pm PST

Tomlin and Russell have both previously stated that their much-publicized feud is water under the bridge. Lily Tomlin and I love each other, and would work together tomorrow, Huckabee told the New York Times Magazine in 2013, while refuting his reputation as a difficult director. Speaking to Moveline in 2011, Tomlin said that the leaked video just captured a tense moment with a man who is like family to her. If you have a big fight in your family, usually its treated that way on the set. We dont want to misbehave; believe me, its embarrassing. Its humiliating, you know? she explained. But I adore David. I adore him as a talent. A lot of my friends said, Well, you wont work with him again. I said, Of course I would!
The Medicare program was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 30, 1965. Former President Harry S. Truman and his wife were the first beneficiaries. Medicare continues to cover hospital and doctor's visits for older Americans, and now it includes many types of preventive care and prescription drugs. Here are 10 important things you should know about Medicare.

What's covered. Medicare Part A covers hospital care and some types of home health care. Medicare Part B is medical insurance that pays for doctor's office visits and outpatient services. Medicare Part C or Medicare Advantage Plans are an alternative to original Medicare provided by private insurance companies, often with extra coverage restrictions. Medicare Part D covers prescription drugs, typically in exchange for an additional premium.

[See: Medicare Out-of-Pocket Costs You Should Expect to Pay.]

How much you are paying in. Most workers pay 1.45 percent of their earnings into the Medicare system, and employers match that amount. Self-employed workers contribute 2.9 percent of their income. Earnings that exceed $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples trigger an additional 0.9 percent tax.

The enrollment deadlines. You can enroll in Medicare during the seven-month period that begins three months before the month you turn 65. Coverage can start as early as the month of your 65th birthday. If you don't sign up during this initial enrollment period, you could be charged higher premiums for the rest of your life. "If they sign up later than 65 for Medicare, they are going to pay late penalties," says Tanya Feke, a medical doctor and author of "Medicare Essentials: A Physician Insider Explains the Fine Print." "Someone who is working and has health insurance through their employer, they may be able to delay signing up for Medicare without penalties." If you postpone signing up for Medicare due to group health insurance through your current employer, sign up for Medicare within eight months of leaving the job or the coverage ending to avoid the penalty.

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Premium amounts. Most people don't pay a premium for Medicare Part A. The standard Medicare Part B premium is $134 in 2017, but it is primarily new enrollees and those who haven't yet claimed Social Security who pay this amount. Most Social Security recipients will pay $109 per month for Medicare Part B in 2017 because Medicare premiums are prevented by law from increasing faster than Social Security payments for existing beneficiaries. Premium costs are also higher for retirees with a modified adjusted gross income above $85,000 for individuals and $170,000 for couples. Medicare Part D premiums vary depending on the plan you select.

Other out-of-pocket costs. There's a $183 Medicare Part B deductible in 2017, after which you will be charged 20 percent of the Medicare-approved amount for most services with no annual limit on out-of-pocket costs. Medicare Part A has a $1,316 deductible if you are hospitalized, and additional costs apply if your hospital stay exceeds 60 days. "Medicare Part A and Part B pays a portion, but you are responsible for a portion of that bill," says Ronald Kahan, a medical doctor and author of "Medicare Demystified: A Physician Helps Save You Time, Money, and Frustration."

[Read: Medicare Enrollment Deadlines You Shouldn't Miss.]

Free services. Medicare beneficiaries qualify for a free wellness doctor's office visit once every 12 months. Many preventive care services such as flu shots and mammograms also don't have any cost-sharing requirements. However, if a problem is discovered during a wellness visit or additional tests are required, it may trigger other out-of-pocket costs.

Prescription drug coverage. Retirees get to choose between an average of 22 Medicare Part D prescription drug plans in their area, each with different premiums, covered medications and cost-sharing requirements. Prescription drug plans are allowed to change their covered medications and costs each year. "Every year the insurance companies change their formularies, which is the drugs they cover and how much they charge for those drugs," says Joseph Matthews, an attorney and author of "Social Security, Medicare & Government Pensions: Get the Most Out of Your Retirement & Medical Benefits." "Each year you have to figure out if the D plan that you have is still the best one for you, both in terms of cost and coverage." You can shop around for a new Medicare Part D plan once a year during the open enrollment period from Oct. 15 to Dec. 7, and consider switching if you can find a plan that better meets your needs.

How to supplement Medicare. A Medigap plan can be used to cover traditional Medicare's out-of-pocket costs. "You can minimize deductibles and copays if you sign up for a Medigap policy," says Sudipto Banerjee, a research associate at the Employee Benefit Research Institute. You can first purchase a Medigap policy during the six-month period that begins when you're 65 or older and enrolled in Medicare Part B. After this period ends you could be charged significantly higher premiums or even denied supplemental coverage.

What's not covered. Medicare typically doesn't cover eyeglasses, contact lenses, hearing aids or dental care. Medicare also won't pay for more than 100 days of long-term care such as nursing home stays or assisted living.

[See: 10 Medical Services Medicare Doesn't Cover.]

Almost all older Americans use it. In 1966, 19 million people enrolled in the program. That number has gradually increased each year to 55.5 million people in 2015. The program continues to provide valuable health insurance to most Americans ages 65 and older, regardless of their health status.

Emily Brandon is the author of "Pensionless: The 10-Step Solution for a Stress-Free Retirement."





More From US News & World Report


These 11 companies are currently donating their proceeds to charities

If you love to shop, then you probably get a little shopping high every time you see something new and exciting out there. But what about the feeling that you not only got a new product you love, but you helped someone else in return? Well, with these companies donating their proceeds to charity, you can achieve that ultimate benefit of retail + charity = doing some good.

As the holiday season is upon us, you may also be looking for different ideas for Christmas gifts. Purchasing a present from a company that also gives back is kind of the epitome of the holiday spirit. Not only were you generous in giving a gift, but your present has an even bigger impact!

Whether its attire, accessories, household products, or food, check out these 11 companies who will do good with your purchase.

1. The Elephant Pants

This clothing company donates 10 percent of their proceeds to the African Wildlife Foundation to help fight elephant poaching and so far, they have donated over $100,000. These breezy, beautiful pants allow you to be fashionable and help the elephants.

2. Newmans Own

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Created by Hollywood icon Paul Newman, you can enjoy delicious salsa and pizza knowing that all of the profits will be going to Newmans Own Foundation.

3. Roma Boots

Not only does Roma Boots follow the model of one-for-one where they donate a pair of boots to a child in need for every purchase (like TOMS does), it also donates 10 percent of proceeds from their rain boots to educational initiatives around the world.

4. Love Bottle

Get a gorgeous water bottle made of glass. Youll not only help the environment by cutting back on plastic, but Love Bottle donates 5 percent of each bottle to Global Water, a nonprofit that helps bring safe, clean drinking water to rural villages in developing countries.

5. Feed

Your purchase of a FEED bag, shirt, scarf, or jewelry helps in the fight against hunger through their model of giving, which includes donating school meals and supporting mother-child nutrition programs. How much the company gives depends on what you buy  for example, if you purchase this versatile Go-To bag, they will provide 40 school meals to children around the world.

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6. HALF UNITED

HALF UNITED also helps to fight hunger with their jewelry and shirts. With every purchase, theyll donate seven meals to children in need in places like the U.S., Fiji, Cambodia, Liberia, Nepal, and Haiti.

7. Gravy + Grace

Even buying home decor and accessories can help fight hunger through the company Gravy + Grace, which states that every time you purchase something from their store, they will make a donation to help someone else get the food they need.

8. ONEHOPE

Enjoy your wine knowing that the purchase helped someone else with ONEHOPE. Each bottle helps different charitable organizations  for example, the purchase of every four Rainbow Glitter Edition Brut Sparkling Wine bottles will help fund The Trevor Projects lifeline  a suicide hotline for LGBTQ youth. Other bottles range in prices from reasonable to expensive and can help provide medical care to local Napa farmers, fund cancer research, and support veteran resources.

9. GreaterGood

You can buy clothing, toys, jewelry, accessories, and pet products through the GreaterGood to help donate to causes like hunger, breast cancer, animals, veterans, autism, Alzheimers, diabetes, literacy, and the rainforest. This travel mug is perfect for a cat lover not just because of its design, but because purchasing it provides the money to pay for 28 bowls of animal food. (But you can also change which organization you want to contribute at checkout.)

10. LUSH

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If you buy LUSHs Charity Pot, a hand and body lotion, 100 percent of the proceeds (minus taxes) goes to supporting humanitarian, environmental, and animal rights causes locally and around the world. The cosmetics company also has a charitable soap.

11. Amazig Leather

sefrouclutch

Amazigs profits go to support educational initiatives among the people who makes these gorgeous leather goods in Morocco. And theyre not as pricey as youd expect!

So whether youre shopping for yourself or for someone else, consider buying from these generous companies.

The post These 11 companies are currently donating their proceeds to charities appeared first on HelloGiggles.
The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College, The Short List: Grad School and The Short List: Online Programs to find data that matter to you in your college or graduate school search.

For many graduates, college conjures memories of meeting friends, bonding with roommates and late-night studying in campus dorms. But whether a student has these on-campus living experiences depends largely on where they pursue their degree.

Among the 276 ranked National Universities that reported these data to U.S. News in an annual survey, an average of 39 percent of students lived on campus in fall 2015. But the average among the 11 schools with the most students in campus housing was much higher : 90 percent.

[Discover the benefits and drawbacks of living at home during college.]

Nine of the 11 colleges on the list rank in the top 15 National Universities in U.S. News' 2017 Best Colleges rankings. Among them, five are Ivy League schools: Harvard University, Princeton University, Columbia University, Dartmouth College and Yale University.

At Harvard University -- topping the list with 99 percent of undergrads living on campus -- residence life is a key part of the student experience, though a few commuters and visiting undergrads don't live on campus, according to the school's online Student Handbook. Housing is guaranteed to students all four years.

Princeton University, second on the list, similarly guarantees all undergrads housing. While first-year students and sophomores must live in one of the university's six residential colleges, juniors and seniors can live off campus, though the school warns that nearby options are in short supply and often have high rent.

[Explore how to furnish a college dorm on a budget.]

At the other end of the spectrum are two California public universities: California State University--Fullerton, where 2 percent of undergrads live on campus, and California State University--Fresno with 5 percent. The latter had 21,482 undergrads enrolled in fall 2015, but has just one on-campus housing option -- University Courtyard, which hold s up to 1,100 students.

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Below are the 11 National Universities that had the highest percentage of undergraduates living on campus during fall 2015. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.

Don't see your school on this list? Access the U.S. News College Compass to find data on housing, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.

U.S. News surveyed more than 1,800 colleges and universities for our 2016 survey of undergraduate programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News' data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Colleges rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News' rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs. The housing data above are correct as of Nov. 15, 2016.

Jordan Friedman is an online education editor at U.S. News. You can follow him on Twitter or email him at jfriedman@usnews.com.


Donald Trumps first day as president-elect spurred racism and vitriol across America, and the entirety of the worldwide web. A week later, assaults and intimidation against minorities have only worsened, despite the real estate billionaire demanding his supporters put an immediate end to the violence.

"I am so saddened to hear that," Trump said Sunday in an interview on "60 Minutes" in which CBS Leslie Stahl apparently informed the next president of the rise in hate crimes after his Election Day victory. "And I say, 'Stop it.' If it -- if it helps, I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: 'Stop it.'"

For minorities across the United States, the effects of Trump's support from the alt-right and white nationalists has been felt in real-time. Hate crimes across the United States increased by six percent since last year, according to a comprehensive review the F.B.I. released Monday. The biggest surge in hate crimes impacted Muslim Americans, who saw a 67 percent rise in reported crimes since 2014. At least 5,818 hate crimes were reported in 2015 alone, with 257 reported crimes against Muslims. Most recently, at least 300 acts of intimidation or harassment have been reported since Election Day, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Below are just 20 horrific acts of violence and intimidation carried out against minorities in the days since Trump's victory.

1. "Make America White Again" vandalism was found on a public recreation site in New York:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered an immediate investigation into the graffiti, which included a swastika symbol.

2. A Muslim high school student in Virginia was targeted for her appearance:

"I've been a victim of racism since the 9/11 attacks, but I can honestly say that since Trump started his campaign, I've encountered discrimination at a much larger rate," Numa Rehmani, who was born in Pakistan, told International Business Times. " The alarming number of his voters that support him for racist, sexist, xenophobic, and homophobic reasons, still needs to be addressed. I believe that we can fight hate with overwhelming amounts of love and compassion. Violence will never be the answer, so we have to channel our anger and frustration towards something that spreads the power of love."

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3. Racist, pro-Trump graffiti was painted on a high school bathroom in Minnesota:

Maple Grove Senior high schools bathroom displayed vandalism demanding minorities "Go back to Africa" with hashtags including #WhitesOnly and #WhiteAmerica.

4. Anti-Black Lives Matter graffiti appeared in North Carolina:

Crews were forced to remove vandalism near sidewalks in North Carolina the Thursday after the presidential election that read: "Black Lives dont matter and neither does your votes."

5. Middle school students targeted minorities with taunting chants in Michigan:

The students began shouting "build that wall!" toward minority-students during a lunch period at a middle school.

6. A Trump supporter vandalized a car parked in a driveway with racist vitriol in Tennessee:

The victim posted a video on Twitter showing his cars front windshield with the word "n-----" written in graffiti along with "TRUMP."

7. White students chanted racist, anti-Semitic cries during school hours in Pennsylvania:

New York Daily News' Shaun King reported a group of white students began the chant "Cotton Picker, You're a N------, Heil Hitler."

8. A Muslim woman was physically assaulted in New York City:

A passenger attempted to remove the womans hijab while shouting she "take that disgusting piece of cloth off."

9. A Muslim prayer room at New York University was vandalized by Trump supporters immediately after the election:

Though the graffiti found on the entrance of the religious service room in NYU only read "TRUMP!" the signage was seen as intimidation by Muslims across the college campus.

10. A Muslim student was threatened with a knife near her school in Illinois:

"Unless Donald Trump takes extreme and considerable measures to curb the Islamophobia he inflamed, I don't think the rate of anti-Muslim violence and hate crimes will dwindle down anytime soon," Sarah A. Harvard, whose friend had a knife pulled on her on her way to school, told IBT.

11. Intimidation against Muslims prompted women to go without a hijab:

Muslim women have stopped wearing their hijabs out of fear of retaliation.

12. Students charged through a college campus screaming racial epithets in North Carolina:

A number of students "charged" through the south campus of Wake Forest University screaming racial slurs including the "n" word immediately after the presidential election outcome was announced.

13. A pro-KKK message appeared on a wall at a school in Florida:

The vulgar message read: "Yall black people better start picking," and "Go Trump 2016."

14. Trump supporters hurled offensive rhetoric toward Chinese-American citizen in New York:

The rally was celebrating Trumps presidential victory when supporters shouted at the American citizen to return to her country, calling her a "chink."

15. Trump supporters intimidated minority students at Babson College in Massachusetts:

Two Trump supporters and Babson College students parked outside of housing for students of African descent after chanting pro-Trump remarks across the campus, spitting at a student who asked them to leave the site.

16. Kindergarten students taunted their Mexican peers in Utah:

The children were claiming to have voted for Trump and informing a Hispanic student hed be deported, according to a father dropping off his son to school.

17. A man at the DMV office hurled insults toward Hispanic woman waiting in line in California:

The Trump supporter said he was glad the real estate magnate was elected as the next president before shouting for the woman in front of him to "get the hell out of here and go back to your country."

18. A black veteran had his meal taken after being targeted by a Trump supporter in Texas:

The Trump supporter told management at Chilis the American veteran didnt deserve his free meal on Veterans Day since he was "not a real soldier."

19. Reporters received anti-Semitic and unusual threats in wake of the election:

New York Times Maggie Haberman had her home address posted online just before pages of anti-Semitism propaganda and threatening warnings against her religion were found in her mailbox.

20. Minorities saw a surge in anti-immigrant rhetoric immediately after Trumps win:

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Many investors like to look for momentum in stocks, but this can be very tough to define. There is great debate regarding which metrics are the best to focus on in this regard, and which are not really quality indicators of future performance. Fortunately, with our new style score system we have identified the key statistics to pay close attention to and thus which stocks might be the best for momentum investors in the near term.



This method discovered several great candidates for momentum-oriented investors, but today lets focus in on MGM Resorts International MGM as this stock is looking especially impressive right now. And while there are numerous ways in which this company could be a great choice, we have highlighted three of the most vital reasons for MGMs status as a solid momentum stock below:



Longer Term Price Change for MGM Resorts



While any stock can see a spike in price, it takes a real winner to consistently outperform the market. That is why looking at longer term price metricssuch as performance over the past three months or year-- and comparing these to an industry at large can be very useful.



And in the case of MGM, the results are quite impressive. The company has beaten out the industry at large over the past 12 weeks by a margin of 14.4% to 0.9% while it has also outperformed when looking at the past year, putting up a gain of 22.2%. Clearly, MGM is riding a bit of a hot streak and is worth a closer look by investors.



MGM RESORTS INT Price



MGM RESORTS INT Price | MGM RESORTS INT Quote

Quarter EPS Estimate Change for MGM Resorts Stock



While looking at price performance or full year earnings can be essential to understanding a momentum stock, you shouldnt forget about the current quarter EPS and the trend in estimates there. This change can signal how a stock might perform in the next earnings season which is obviously vital for momentum investors.



Right now, MGM is seeing a nice trend over the past month when it comes to this quarters earnings estimate projections. In the time frame, EPS estimates for MGM Resorts have gone up by 48.8% compared to an industry average move of -1.6%, suggesting that not only is MGM heading in the right direction, but it is seeing an increase relative to the industry too.



MGM Earnings Estimate Revisions Moving in the Right Direction



While the great momentum factors outlined in the preceding paragraphs might be enough for some investors, we should also take into account broad earnings estimate revision trends. A nice path here can really help to show us a promising stock, and we have actually been seeing that with MGM as of late too.



Over the past two months, 5 earnings estimates have gone higher compared to no downward revisions for the full year, while we are also seeing 7 upward revisions with no downward revisions for the next year time frame too. These revisions have helped to boost the consensus estimate as two months ago MGM was expected to post earnings of 66 cents/share for the full year, though today it looks to have EPS of $1.23 for the full year now, representing a solid increase which is something that should definitely be welcomed news to would-be investors.



Bottom Line



Given these factors, investors shouldnt be surprised to note that we have MGM as a security with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and a Momentum Score of A. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.



So if you are looking for a fresh pick that has potential to move in the right direction, definitely keep MGM on your short list as this looks be a stock that is very well-positioned to soar in the near term.



Zacks Best Private Investment Ideas



While we are happy to share many articles like this on the website, our best recommendations and most in-depth research are not available to the public.



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Welcome to bidos, Portugal, a charming town that has a rich history dating back all the way to the Middle Ages. Once a bustling port and gateway to the Atlantic, bidos is perfect for a day trip from Lisbonthere is plenty to see, from the winding alleyways of the walled city to the famous Castle of bidos. To enter the city, travelers pass through the main gates, Porta da Villa, which feature traditional azulejo tiling depicting the Passion of Christ.

Wander the stone streets of the grand walled city and take in the stunning views of the castle, which dates back to the eighth century, and now operates as a boutique hotel (pousada). If you are planning a trip to Portugal, be sure to include this historical town on your itinerary.

Watch the video above and discover the best of bidos, Portugal.

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Immediately after winning a closely fought election on Nov 9, Donald Trump outlined his priorities as President. Promising to step up economic growth he promised to build the U.S. into the strongest economy in the world. Trump shied away from several of his more divisive campaign promises and instead chose to mention one unifying issue alone.

Trump pledged to rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals. The emphasis on building up infrastructure second to none puts the spotlight squarely on stocks related to the sector. This may be a good time to add some of the better options from this area to your portfolios.

Glaring Deficit Lingers

The state of U.S. infrastructure has been a matter of concern for some time now. According to a study published by the American Society of Civil Engineers in May, GDP could decline by nearly $4 trillion during 2016-25 if the glaring infrastructure gap is not addressed immediately. The poor condition of bridges, roads, waterways and airports would result in that amount of losses in lower sales, higher costs and lower incomes.

According to the report, the economy could also suffer job losses of up to 2.5 million if infrastructure spending is not stepped up. In 2015, domestic public capital investment, inclusive of infrastructure, was merely 3.4% of GDP, per figures released by the Presidents Council of Economic Advisors. At $611 billion, this amounts to only 0.5% of GDP after accounting for depreciation.

Massive Impetus to Infrastructure

Both Democratic nominee Hilary Clinton and President elect Trump had been demanding a hike in infrastructure investment while on the campaign trail. Trumps infrastructure proposals quote National Association of Manufacturers data which estimate that a ten year funding gap of nearly $1 trillion exists.

The President elect plans to spend this amount on improving infrastructure. According to the Trump plan, such spending would be financed by private investors. These investments would be made in lieu of tax credits, which would make up around 82% of the total amount of equity invested. Lost revenue would be recovered through a higher quantum of income taxes paid by construction workers and business taxes levied on contractors.

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Is Trumps Plan Feasible?

While Trumps plan would entail no additional costs to the exchequer, critics of the plan believe that it is flawed. Some experts and industry insiders believe that privately funded projects need to deliver decent profits. This means that private investors would be more interested in investing in toll roads, water systems and airports. Routine maintenance, such as repaving roads, would seem less attractive.

However, a combination of public and private investment could do the trick. Advances in technology have made publicprivate partnerships an increasingly favored option. This has resulted in the creation of smart cities and higher funding for smart transportation projects. While Trumps original plan will have Republican support, any increase in infrastructure investment will be broadly supported by Democrats as well. Trump has shown his pragmatic side since being elected and it is likely that he will do so on this crucial issue as well.

Our Choices

Fresh emphasis on infrastructure has been driving up the sectors stocks post the election of Donald Trump. Given the President elects strong emphasis in this direction, stocks from this sector are likely to chalk up gains in the future as well.

Picking stocks gaining from this infrastructure push is a smart option at this point. However, picking winning stocks may prove to be difficult.

This is where our VGM score comes in. Here V stands for Value, G for Growth and M for Momentum and the score is a weighted combination of these three scores. Such a score allows you to eliminate the negative aspects of stocks and select winners. However, it is important to keep in mind that each Style Score will carry a different weight while arriving at a VGM score.

Willdan Group, Inc. WLDN is a provider of professional technical and consulting services to utilities, private industry, and public agencies at all levels of government.

Willdan Group has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and a VGM Score of A. The company has expected earnings growth of 82.7% for the current year. Its earnings estimate for the current year has improved by 11.8% over the last 30 days.

Gibraltar Industries Inc. ROCK manufactures and distributes products to the industrial and buildings market. The company prepares complex designing components for elevated highways and bridges.

Gibraltar Industries has a VGM Score of B. The company has expected earnings growth of 45% for the current year. Its earnings estimate for the current year has improved by 9.7% over the last 30 days. The stock has a Zacks Rank #1. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

MasTec, Inc. MTZ is a leading infrastructure construction company operating throughout the U.S. The company engages in the building, installation, maintenance and upgrade of energy, communication and utility infrastructure.

MasTec has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and a VGM Score of A. The company has expected earnings growth of more than 100% for the current year. Its earnings estimate for the current year has improved by 7.6% over the last 30 days.

Comfort Systems USA Inc. FIX is a provider of comprehensive heating, ventilation and air conditioning installation, maintenance, repair and replacement services.

Comfort Systems has a Zacks Rank #2 and a VGM Score of B. The company has expected earnings growth of 33.9% for the current year. Its earnings estimate for the current year has improved by 0.9% over the last 30 days.

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Investing in an individual retirement account is an effective way to supplement savings in a 401(k) or another employer-sponsored plan. According to a 2015 TIAA-CREF IRA survey, 18 percent of Americans save in an IRA and 56 percent of those who don't have one said they would consider including an IRA in their retirement plans.

While traditional and Roth IRAs are relatively well-known, there's a third option that retirement savers should be aware of: the self-directed IRA.

Self-directed IRAs, in a nutshell, put you in control of your investment choices. In addition to stocks, mutual funds and bonds, you can invest in real estate, precious metals, energy and other alternative investments.

"The primary advantage of saving for retirement in a self-directed IRA is that you're able to invest in the kinds of investments you have specific knowledge of or expertise in," says Mark Goldstein, president of SAFE-Money Alliance in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

That freedom, paired with the potential for tax-deductible contributions and tax-deferred earnings makes self-directed IRAs an appealing choice for investors whose focus lies on creating lasting wealth. That doesn't mean, however, that a self-directed IRA is right for everyone.

[See: 7 Reasons to Invest in an IRA.]

Before adding one of these accounts to your portfolio, it's important to understand what makes a self-directed IRA different and how it can impact your retirement outlook.

Your investing style matters. Every investor has a distinct personality when it comes to how they manage their investments and that can't be ignored when the question of a self-directed IRA is on the table.

Kirk Chisholm, a wealth manager and principal at Innovative Advisory Group in Lexington, Massachusetts, says self-directed IRAs are best suited to investors who are meticulous about managing their accounts and prefer a do-it-yourself approach.

"Investing in traditional assets can be as easy as pushing a button on your computer, while alternative assets can be much more paperwork intensive," Chisholm says.

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Beyond that, investors must be aware of the specific rules that go along with investing in a self-directed IRA. For example, you can't use a self-directed IRA to invest in things like collectibles, antiques or rare coins.

David Hryck, a tax attorney and partner at New York-based Reed Smith, recommends that investors educate themselves on how self-directed IRAs operate before diving in.

"A self-directed IRA gives you far more responsibility and forces you to really understand how to invest properly," Hryck says.

Your investment goals and risk tolerance also come into play. Even if you have no trepidation about guiding your own investment choices, a self-directed IRA may still miss the mark if it doesn't align with what you hope to accomplish or requires you to assume more risk than you'd like.

"Self-directed IRAs are ideal for people looking for portfolio diversification in areas they're familiar with, outside of the typical choices," Goldstein says.

[See: 8 Ways to Profit From Donald Trump's Infrastructure Plans.]

He points out that experienced investors may feel that the risk involved in investing in assets they understand may be considerably less than the risk of investing exclusively in a conventional IRA. The opposite may be true for someone with a shorter history of investing.

Your choice of investments can also influence your perspective on including a self-directed IRA in your portfolio.

For example, let's say you're interested in generating steady cash flow through a rental property. If you were to purchase a property directly, any rental income received each month would go right back into your pocket. When you invest in a rental home using a self-directed IRA, on the other hand, the rental income must be funneled back into the IRA.

If your long-term goal is increasing your nest egg in a tax-advantaged way, then the self-directed IRA might make more sense. On the other hand, if you need an additional income stream right now, you'd likely be better off investing in real estate outside of your retirement accounts.

Look at the bigger tax picture. Self-directed IRAs can offer some tax benefits but there are some potential pitfalls investors need to be aware of.

"The primary advantage (of a self-directed IRA) is deferred taxation on growth," says Colby Winslow, a certified financial planner with WaterOak Advisors in Orlando, Florida.

Another advantage of using a self-directed IRA is the ability to hold investments that would typically be held as taxable assets. When taxes can be deferred, the tax that would have been paid can be reinvested to earn growth on those savings.

At the same time, investors need to be aware of how investing in a traditional self-directed IRA can affect their tax situation.

"The money coming out of the self-directed IRA will be taxable upon withdrawal," says Jimmy Lee, CEO of Las Vegas-based Wealth Consulting Group.

For an investor who ends up in a higher tax bracket at retirement, distributions from a traditional IRA can lead to a higher tax bill. Another host of issues can crop up once you reach age 70.5.

"If someone purchases fairly illiquid assets and they're expected to take required minimum distributions, they may be forced to sell assets within the IRA to free up enough cash to transfer out," Winslow says.

Failing to take required minimum distributions can trigger a substantial tax penalty, equal to 50 percent of the amount you're required to withdraw. That could add significantly to your tax burden so you need to have a plan for managing illiquid assets before RMDs kick in.

Choose your custodian carefully. The custodian holds the assets in your self-directed IRA for you and it's important to carefully vet your options. If you need a starting point, Lee encourages investors to consider the size of the custodian, since that can be an indication of the firm's stability.

Jaime Raskulinecz, founder and CEO of Next Generation Trust Services in Roseland, New Jersey, says it's also important to look at the services a prospective custodian provides.

While a custodian for a self-directed IRA won't offer direct investment advice, Raskulinecz says they should be able to answer questions about your plan, efficiently manage the paperwork and reporting and regularly review your account to ensure that you're not engaging in prohibited transactions that fall outside of IRS guidelines.

Chisholm reminds investors to consider whether a self-directed IRA custodian accepts the type of assets you're considering investing in. Lastly, he cautions against choosing a custodian without thoroughly reviewing the fees.

[See: 13 Ways to Take the Emotions Out of Investing.]

"Each company's fee schedule caters to a certain type of investor," Chisholm says, and ultimately, you should be looking for one that best fits your investment strategy.

Rebecca Lake has been writing about investing, finance and small business for nearly a decade. Her work has been featured on The Huffington Post, Fox Business and Investopedia. Follow her on Twitter @seemomwrite.
A straight-A student allegedly stabbed five other students and himself in a locker room at a Utah high school Tuesday, police said.

The 16-year-old was reportedly in a locker room among other teens at Mountain View High School, just prior to gym class at about 8 a.m., when the attack began.

Read: Cops: Two 15-Year-Old Girls Found Dead at High School in Apparent Murder-Suicide Shooting

Five students were stabbed before the alleged attacker turned the three-inch blade on himself, police said.

Staff members approached the sophomore student and boxed him into a small area until a school resource police officer arrived on the scene, according to reports.

Orem Police Chief Gary Giles said the officer Tased the student before taking him into custody.

The teen reportedly stabbed his victims in the upper neck and torso area.

All five victims were transported to the hospital with injuries ranging from critical to fair, according to reports. The teen was also hospitalized.

The school was placed on lockdown for up to an hour after the incident.

Police said they are not sure what led to the attack.

I personally still havent heard anything about an initial fight or anything like that. So at this point we are still trying to sort through the witness statements, said Giles.

Students seemed traumatized in interviews after the ordeal.

I saw three kids running towards the office with a bunch of blood, student Karen Martinez told AP News. It was awful honestly. It was so terrifying. I didn't know any of the kids but still it was like an awful feeling to see all those kids getting hurt.'

Read: 6-Year-Old Jacob Hall Dies After Being Wounded in Townville Elementary Shooting

District Spokeswoman Kimberly Bird said the student had been home-schooled prior to the present school year and had no disciplinary record.

Counselors and social workers were made available at the school to speak with students.

Watch: Counselor Talks 14-Year-Old Student Out of Using Gun He Brought to Middle School

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She may be the first lady of the United States but that does not make her immune to racist barbs. While there have been calls for Michelle Obama to run for president in 2020, there have also been a slew of racist comments, mostly by Republicans, targeted at her.

The latest incident involved the director of a nonprofit group and the mayor of a small West Virginia town who are under fire after posting racist comments about Obama, calling her an ape in heels. Since President Barack Obama first announced his bid for presidency in 2007, his wife has been on the receiving end of multiple racist and sexist attacks. Here are five instances of Republicans comparing the first lady to a primate.

1. Pamela Ramsey Taylor, the director of Clay County Development Corp. near Charleston, wrote about Melania Trump becoming first lady after Donald Trump won the election. On her Facebook page, Taylor said: It will be so refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady back in the White House. Im tired of seeing a Ape in heels [sic].

The post was picked up by local news stations which also reported the towns mayor, Beverly Whaling, replied to the post: Just made my day Pam. Both women apologized for the remarks since but an online petition calling for them to step down from their respective posts garnered over 84,000 signatures. Taylor has since been removed from her post.

My comment was not intended to be racist at all, Whaling told the Washington Post. I was referring to my day being made for change in the White House! I am truly sorry for any hard feeling this may have caused! Those who know me know that Im not of any way racist! Again, I would like to apologize for this getting out of hand!

2. In October this year, Dan Johnson, a GOP candidate for Kentuckys state legislature, posted pictures of President Obama and the first lady with ape-like features. Johnson, a Lousiana bishop, also captioned a picture of a baby chimpanzee as being a picture of the president when he was a child.

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It wasnt meant to be racist. I can tell you that. My historys good there. I can see how people would be offended in that. I wasnt trying to offend anybody, but, I think Facebooks entertaining, he reportedly said.

Kentucky Republican Party Chairman Mac Brown was quick to distance himself from Johnsons comments, calling the posts outrageous and added they have no place in todays political discourse.

Obamas

Photo: REUTERS/YURI GRIPAS

3. West York, Pennsylvania, Mayor Charles Wasko was under scrutiny in September this year for a June post in which he said a picture of a monkey was actually a picture of Michelle Obama. He also captioned a picture of a wagon of orangutans as moving day at the White House.

When local media reached out to Wasko about the posts, he reportedly described the response to them as b-------. West York Council President Shawn Mauck told CNN the mayors actions were absolutely deplorable.

4. Patrick Rushing, mayor of Airway Heights, Washington, was asked to stepped down for calling the first lady Gorilla face on Facebook. Gorilla face Michelle, can't disagree with that. The woman is not attractive except to monkey man Barack. Check out them ears. LOL, the mayor posted in July, 2015.

He refused to resign, saying: I made a mistake. I owned up to my mistake. If I do resign thats admitting Im a racist and Im not.

Its just playful back and forth banter that my friends and I do, he added.

5. In 2011, a GOP activist from South Carolina said a gorilla which escaped from a zoo was Michelle Obamas ancestor.

Rusty DePass, also a former chairman of the state election commission, commented on a Facebook post on the animals escape from Columbias Riverbanks Zoo saying, Im sure its just one of Michelles ancestors  probably harmless.

He admitted later he was referring to the first lady and apologized for his comment: I am as sorry as I can be if I offended anyone. The comment was clearly in jest.

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London is a headline city signed up to the Covenant of Mayors.

Cities are home to over half the worlds population and produce around 75% of its carbon emissions, but theyre leading the way in the global fight against climate change.

The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement demanded that by 2020 cities reduce their emissions by 20% compared to 1990 levels. But the Covenant of Mayors, a project headed jointly by the European Union and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, set a more ambitious target of 27%. And theyre well on the way to meeting that, according to a new report by the European Commissions Joint Research Center.

The cities have already seen a 23% overall reduction, with the building sector performing the bestdropping its emissions 27%.

The long-term goal is 40% reductions by 2030. To meet that, cities will have to target reducing emissions due to transport, a sector that has only dropped its emissions by 7% since 1990, according to the report.

The encouraging numbers came amid a bleak atmosphere for climate activists in the US, given president-elect Donald Trumps appointment of climate denier Myron Ebell to lead the administrations Environmental Protection Agency transition. And renowned social scientist Benjamin Barber believes American cities hold the way to protecting the future.

Cities have a very large role to play, he said in a recent interview. Most greenhouse gas emissions come from cities and cities also control about 80% of GDP. They can do a lot to combat climate change, whether or not Trump undermines the COP21 agreement.

The signatories to the Covenant of Mayors have a combined population of 213 millionaround 8% of the worlds population. Most of the cities involved are in Europe and Central Asia.

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Theres something appealing about visiting a place that has been virtually off-limits to Americans for more than half a century. Thats part of the reason Travel + Leisure named Cuba its Destination of the Year in 2015, and nearly half of Americans are now interested in traveling to the island, according to a recent survey by Allianz.

It has gotten much easier to visit Cuba since President Obama relaxed travel restrictions on Americans visiting the country as part of a push that began in December 2014 to normalize relations between the two countries, with a steady stream of small steps in that direction taking place over the last two years.

Related: 10 Top Countries for Americans Working and Living Abroad

However, the election of Donald Trump has thrown that rapprochement into question, as the president-elect has promised to cancel Obamas one-sided Cuban deal, made by executive order, if we do not get the deal that we want and the deal that people living in Cuba and here deserve, including protecting religious and political freedom. Trump may change the rules on travel to the island nation, so the situation may change in the next few years (or even months).

Also, Congress has yet to remove the embargo against Cuba, so there are some legal requirements that travelers still have to meet. Until any major changes come along, heres what you need to know for a trip to Cuba:

Related: Top Republican Pledges to Maintain Cuba Trade Embargo

1. The rules are relaxed, but youll still face some restrictions. As of now, Americans still arent allowed to visit Cuba for a pure leisure vacation, so dont plan to spend your entire time relaxing on the beaches. Youll need a stated reason for the trip that falls into one of 12 approved categories, including visiting relatives, education and religious activities; the category with the most leeway is the people-to-people trips. This year, the government changed the rules to allow anyone to create their own people to people excursions. (Prior to that chat change, you had to take a trip with an approved tour operator.)



Whether you go it alone or travel with an organized group, youll need to have a full-time scheduled itinerary, and must hold onto your receipts for five years to prove that you followed the rules while you were there. You cant just go and lay around on the beach, says Peggy Goldman, founder of Friendly Planet Travel. Thats still illegal.

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2. Flights are cheap and easy. Previously you were able to get to Cuba only on a chartered plane or by connecting from another country, but now several commercial airlines offer service to the island. Starting this month, JetBlue will begin operating flights directly to Havana at highly competitive rates  $54 one-way from Florida, and $99 one-way from New York. Being able to book a flight directly to Havana takes away one of the major hurdles of traveling to Cuba, because the charter process was a total mess, says Chad Olin, president of Cuba Candela.

Related: Cuba by the Numbers  What You Need to Know

3. Hotel booking is complicated. None of the online travel agencies like Orbitz or Expedia currently list hotels in Cuba, so youll need to book via a company that specializes in Cuban travel. Plus, there arent enough hotel rooms to meet rising demand. The entire island only has about 60,000 rooms, many of which dont meet basic American standards. There is a limited number of hotels and an even more limited number of hotels that youd want to stay in, says Jean Warneke, co-owner and manager of JB Journeys.

Especially during the busy season, from December to March, you may have better luck renting at a bed and breakfast or a casa particular  a room or house from a local resident. Thousands of these are now listed on Airbnb.

4. Cash is king, but it will cost you. The ATM networks in Cuba are sparse and most merchants dont take credit cards, even though new regulations now allow them to. For the foreseeable future, U.S. travelers must plan on this being a cash-only experience, says travel writer and Cuba expert Christopher Baker. Bring significantly more cash than you believe you will spend to tide you through any unforeseen emergency.

Your best bet is to bring American money and exchange it when you get to Cuba, even though youll have to pay a 13 percent fee for the service. There are two different currencies on the island, but in most cases youll stick with the Cuban convertible peso.

Related: 10 American Companies Hopping on the Cuba Bandwagon

5. Youll need insurance. The Cuban government requires that American travelers have an insurance policy on their trip, including a separate health insurance plan, which youd want anyway since American insurance coverage doesnt apply there. Before you start shopping around, see whether youve already got adequate coverage. Many travel packages to Cuba include insurance, for example, and JetBlue flights include the minimum required coverage as well.

6. Prepare to unplug. Internet connectivity is rare and unreliable in Cuba. Even if your hotel does offer Wi-Fi for a fee, connectivity may be spotty. Dont plan on being able to get online at your hotel or elsewhere. You can buy an internet card, which will give you access to public Wi-Fi spots for about $2 per hour, but youll need to log in for each session, and the lines to get a card can be hours long.

Limited access also means you may need to do some additional legwork and planning ahead before you land, since you probably wont be able to make new plans or research activities online while youre there.

Related: Cubas Economy Is Going to Need More Than Just U.S. Investment

7. Pack carefully. The availability of basic supplies that youd find at a convenience store in the U.S. is limited, so you should bring everything you might need from home. There are no stores, so simple things [like] shampoo or aspirin are very difficult to find, says Louis Nevaer, author of The Best of Havana 2016.

8. Theres no longer a limit on souvenirs. In October, the Obama administration eliminated the $400 limit on the value of goods that Americans can bring back from a trip to Cuba. As long as youre keeping the items for personal use and not reselling them, you can stock up on as much rum and cigars as you can carry. However, keep an eye out for fakes imported from other countries and sold as authentic Cuban products.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
8point3 Energy Partners LP CAFD has signed an agreement to acquire a 34% interest in First Solar Inc.s FSLR 300-megawatt (MW) Stateline solar project located in San Bernardino County.



Details of the Transaction



8point3 Energy will purchase the project for $329.5 million. The transaction is dependent on customary closing conditions and is expected to close on Dec 1, 2016.



The partnership will finance the stake purchase through a combination of cash on hand, a promissory note and borrowings under its existing credit facility.



The stake purchase in the solar project is expected to generate about $32 million in average annual pre-tax cash flow.



The Stateline solar project, the majority of which is owned by Southern Company SO, started operating in Aug 2016. Power generated by the project is purchased by Southern California Edison, a unit of Edison International EIX, under a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA).



8point3 Energys Take on the Deal



8point3 Energy is a limited partnership formed by two major solar companies  First Solar and SunPower Corporation SPWR  in a bid to own and operate a portfolio of select solar energy generation assets primarily in the U.S. The sponsors of the partnership intermittently drop down assets to the partnership.



The CEO of 8point3 Energy, Chuck Boynton, believes the recent acquisition is in line with its long-term strategy of acquiring high-quality solar projects from its sponsors. With the addition of First Solar's 34% minority interest in Stateline project, 8point3 Energys diversified portfolio will hold interests in 937 MW of solar projects.

8POINT3 ENERGY Price

8POINT3 ENERGY Price | 8POINT3 ENERGY Quote

Scope of Alternate Energy



Regulations pertaining to pollution control are becoming increasingly stringent, making it crucial for utilities to spend more on emission control infrastructure. Meanwhile, because of their clean-burning nature, investment in the alternate energy space could prove to be profitable. In particular, solar energy, which presently contributes to only 1% of the total electricity generation in the U.S., represents ample scope of improvement in the days to come.



Zacks Rank



8point3 Energy currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.



Zacks Best Private Investment Ideas



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By Michael Holden LONDON (Reuters) - The man accused of murdering MP Jo Cox in June was heard saying "this is for Britain" during an attack that was motivated by politics or ideology, a London jury was told at the opening of his trial on Monday. Thomas Mair, 53, is charged with Cox' murder, which took place a week before Britain's referendum on EU membership and led to the suspension of campaigning for several days. A plea of not guilty was recorded on his behalf at an earlier hearing after he stayed silent when asked to enter his plea. Cox, a 41-year-old mother of two young children, was shot and stabbed on the street in the town of Birstall, part of her electoral district in northern England, as she arrived for an advice session with local residents at a library. Mair was arrested nearby shortly after the killing. He said words to the effect of "it's me" and described himself to police as a political activist, prosecutor Richard Whittam told London's Old Bailey court. Police later found publications at Mair's home about white supremacists, Nazi Germany, shootings and assassinations. He had also accessed websites on topics such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Waffen SS in the days and weeks before the killing. "Thomas Mair clearly held views that provided him with a motive, utterly misplaced of course, to kill. He killed her because she was an MP who did not share his views," Whittam said, adding that Mair had researched Cox on the Internet. A former aid worker before she was elected to parliament, Cox was an ardent supporter of staying in the EU. She was shot three times and stabbed 15 times in what Whittam described as a "dynamic, fast-moving and shocking" scene. He told the court several witnesses reported hearing gun shots and seeing Mair wielding what one of them described as a large steak knife with a jagged blade. He was heard repeating the words "Britain first". Whittam said Cox's aide Fazila Aswat, who was with Cox at the time of the murder, had heard him say "Britain first, this is for Britain, Britain will always come first". "DEATH TO TRAITORS" Whittam did not draw a direct link between the referendum and the murder, nor did he elaborate on the meaning of "Britain first" or Mair's other words. Mair, a Birstall resident, is also charged with causing grievous bodily harm to 77-year-old Bernard Carter-Kenny, who tried to help Cox during the attack, and possession of a firearm and a dagger. Carter-Kenny risked his own life and was stabbed with the same knife Mair used to attack Cox, Whittam said. A few days before the murder, Mair had looked up Cox's Twitter page as well as a Wikipedia entry on Ian Gow, the last British member of parliament to have been killed before Cox. Gow was killed in 1990 by the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which was fighting for Northern Ireland to split from the United Kingdom and become part of the Republic of Ireland. An IRA bomb exploded under Gow's car at his home. Balding with a grey goatee beard and wearing a dark blue suit and black tie, Mair sat silently in the dock flanked by three security guards as Whittam delivered his statement. At the first court hearing shortly after his arrest, Mair had said his name was "death to traitors, freedom for Britain". The case, due to last two weeks, is being treated as a terrorism matter. (Writing by Estelle Shirbon; editing by Stephen Addison)
Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar roundly refused to apologise over war crime allegations in an audio message to AFP, even as his group attempts to rebrand from a radical, misogynistic movement to a mainstream political force.

A landmark accord signed with Hezb-i-Islami (HIG) in September is Afghanistan's first peace agreement since the Taliban launched their insurgency in 2001, and paves the way for Hekmatyar's political comeback after nearly two decades in hiding.

The deal grants Hekmatyar -- accused of killing thousands in Kabul during the 1992-1996 civil war -- legal immunity from past crimes, sparking revulsion from human rights groups. But Hekmatyar shrugged off such criticism.

"Those who have committed crimes or have been charged by a reputable court should apologise. Not those upon whom war is imposed, who have resisted the invaders, defended themselves and defended the country," Hekmatyar said, his voice a relaxed drawl.

The audio file from Hekmatyar, a former Afghan prime minister and one of the most controversial figures in the country's modern history, was in response to questions AFP sent him through his son, Habiburrahman.

The clip was delivered last week by Mohammad Karim Amin, Hekmatyar's chief negotiator.

It came as HIG is scrambling to repair Hekmatyar's public image as a murderous warlord, with Karim holding daily meetings with civil society activists and women's groups in a luxury hotel in Kabul that sometimes last up to 18 hours a day.

More significantly, Hekmatyar has sought to project himself as a "peacemaker" with the Taliban, a more powerful insurgent group that has repeatedly rebuffed government calls for talks.

"HIG can act as a drive belt linking the Taliban and the government," Karim said after Hekmatyar called for Taliban reconciliation during the signing ceremony of his peace deal in September.

Karim said dozens of low-level Taliban commanders have reached out to him, but a Western official in Kabul said Hekmatyar's largely dormant group was trying to punch above its weight.

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"The government hopes to use the HIG deal as an opening for further Taliban negotiations, but I'm not convinced the Taliban leadership considers Hekmatyar as a serious influence on their decision-making," he said.

- No room for women -

HIG, whose followers were once accused of throwing acid at women, has also sought to brush aside its reputation for misogyny.

"I don't see any considerable women's groups that have opposed the peace agreement," Hekmatyar said.

"But if you mean a few women who gathered in front of media cameras in a small park in Kabul carrying four or five banners, is this even worth mentioning?"

Hekmatyar was referring to activists who protested in Kabul in September, holding placards portraying him with blood spilling from his mouth and a rocket piercing his nose. It read: "We cannot forgive the executioner of Kabul."

"During the talks I told HIG delegates 'if you are pro women's rights, why are there no women in your delegation?'" said Habiba Sarobi, the only female representative in the negotiation process.

"Their representative smiled and said: 'We have a large number of women supporters but this room is small'."

Women's rights activist Shukriya Jalazay added that HIG should display the courage to apologise for its past, but it was crucial for the peace deal to succeed.

"If this process fails, what hope is there for peace talks with other insurgent groups such as the Taliban to succeed?" she said.

- Call for US withdrawal -

HIG has hinted that the peace deal was at risk of unravelling if the US does not withdraw troops from Afghanistan, a longstanding demand that was a sticking point in the negotiations.

"The US could not win the war with 150,000 foreign troops and nearly 300,000 Afghan troops. They should know this bloody war has had no achievements," Hekmatyar said.

He added that fighters in his fractious group were committed to preventing ceasefire violations, but Karim said "the government doesn't trust what their own men might do" to jettison the deal.

Even after the agreement, intelligence officers have randomly swooped to detain HIG loyalists visiting him in his Kabul hotel, Karim said.

Hekmatyar's return to Kabul -- and to mainstream politics -- is contingent partially on his removal from US and UN terror blacklists. The United States designated him a "global terrorist" in 2003.

"My return to Kabul will happen when the government paves the way for it," Hekmatyar said.

HIG has been "pushing hard" to get the delisting started in meetings with foreign diplomats, the Western official told AFP. "But it's a slow process and there is a lot of frustration," he added.

Habiburrahman drew parallels between his father and Nelson Mandela, noting that even the Nobel Prize winner and former South African president was on the US terrorism watch list as late as 2008.

"The Americans must realise lots of good people are on their list," he said.
Aftershocks from Mondays earthquake continued to roil New Zealand on Tuesday, with the countrys national earthquake service Geonet recording 313 quakes in 13 hours.

A state of emergency has been declared in the South Islands Canterbury region, where as many as a thousand tourists and residents have been stranded in the coastal town of Kaikoura. Heavy rain combined with earthquakes have left the town cut off.

The New Zealand Herald reported that as many as 100,000 landslides were caused in the Northern Canterbury and southern Marlborough regions.

In the heart of Wellington, the countrys capital, an eight-story office building appears to be on the verge of collapse, and the surrounding area has been evacuated. Other buildings appear to have been affected.

Theres only a church in between the building and parliament. Its swaying  its a minor movement but its enough that its visible, Nick Shewring, a local business owner told TIME

Flooding has also affected the greater Wellington area. The weather here in Wellington is yet another complicating factor to the aftermath of the earthquakes that took place, said Prime Minister John Key in a statement issued around midday on Tuesday.

Geonet has issued a forecast for the next 30 days, saying that continued but dwindling aftershocks are almost certain. There is a small chance (7 percent) of an earthquake stronger than Mondays 7.5 tremblor.

The agency also issued a reminder for people in coastal areas to evacuate immediately if they feel a long or strong earthquake.

Meanwhile, scientists have debunked a trending theory that the quakes were connected to this weeks supermoon  thought to be the brightest, largest moon in 60 years due to its proximity to the earth.
Net revenues up 10% in the quarter on record sales for the Company, led by the Bucha Live Kombucha brand, up 40.2%

EBITDA reached $446,205 despite numerous one-time, non-recurring investments totalling more than $175,000

Signed agreement to take over the sales, marketing and distribution of Marley Beverage Company bringing additional scale and relevance

DENVER, CO / ACCESSWIRE / November 15, 2016 / New Age Beverages Corporation (NBEV) the Colorado-based owner of the XingTea, XingEnergy, Aspen Pure, and the Bucha Live Kombucha brands today announced earnings for its third quarter ended September 30, 2016, with gross revenues achieving $15,765,898, net revenues increasing $13,482,012 a 10% increase versus prior year, and EBITDA reaching $446,205 vs. $202,527, an increase of 120%. On October 24th, New Age completed an agreement to take over the sales, marketing and distribution of the Marley Beverage Company, adding penetration into the RTD Coffee category and Relaxation Beverage segments with brands representing close to $10 million in annual revenue.

NBEV reported consolidated profit and loss results for the first time this quarter since the acquisition and merger of XingTea/New Age Beverages and Bucha, Inc. on June 30, 2016. Reported in the Company's quarterly filing are fully consolidated results for the third quarter, but for the nine month period ending September 30, 2015, the results include 3 months of the combined company, and six months of the Bucha, Inc. standalone company demonstrating the significant transformation that the acquisition and subsequent merger represents.

For the three-month period ending September 30, 2016, gross revenues reached $15,765,898. Less discounts, returns, and billbacks, net revenues reached $13,482,012 vs. $611,014 in the prior year, reflective of the significant impact of the acquisition of XingTea/New Age. On an apples to apples basis, Q3 revenue compares to $12,312,370 in the prior year quarter ended September 30, 2015, an increase of 10%.

Gross profit reached $2,952,548 vs. $152,141 in the third quarter of the 2015. Positively impacting gross profit was improved cost of goods sold from increased scale production and lower freight costs that decreased from 11.2% of net sales in the third quarter last year, to 4.5% in the third quarter this year, an improvement of 6.7 basis points.

Operating expenses were also substantially reduced with personnel expenses down 2 basis points versus prior year apples to apples to 12.2% of net sales. Total expenses were held flat with prior year on an absolute basis and achieved a 1.7 basis point decrease versus prior year.

EBITDA was $446,205 for the quarter vs. $202,527 on proforma basis in the prior year, an increase of 120%. Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP), when removing the expenses associated with the acquisition of Xing/New Age and numerous other one-time/non-recurring expenses of an estimated $175,000 was $621,205.

The agreement to consolidate the sales, marketing, and distribution forces of the Marley Beverage Company into New Age Beverages was completed on October 24th. The respective organizations decided to combine their commercial arms to increase the scale, relevance, and effectiveness of the combined group. With the agreement, the sales footprint for both companies essentially doubles, the portfolio of brands in growth categories substantially increases, and the revenues of the two companies now reaches approximately $70 million. The agreement is not an acquisition and both companies will continue to operate as separate financial entities, but the companies are working closely to accelerate growth, utilize the infrastructure and capabilities of New Age, and leverage their combined customer and distributor relationships throughout the US.

Brent Willis, Chief Executive of New Age Beverage Corporation commented, "I am so proud of the new organization and the key leaders for the performance in Q3. Achieving 10% real revenue growth from simple good execution is an outstanding result, and is even more commendable of an accomplishment in the midst of an organizational integration and a number of changes and new ways of working. Momentum is a good thing in companies. We saw a start of it at the end of Q2, and now we see it increasing in Q3 both at the top and bottom lines. Now with the addition of the Marley Beverage Company brands in Q4 and an even stronger and more focused national sales force, we expect to accelerate our progress to becoming the world's largest healthy functional beverage company."

About New Age Beverages Corporation (NBEV)

New Age Beverages Corporation is a Colorado-based, healthy functional beverage company originally founded in 2003 and re-created via the combination of XingTea, Aspen Pure Artesian Water, Bucha Live Kombucha, and New Age Beverages in June 2016. In October 2016, the Company added the Marley One Drop RTD Coffee, and Marley Mellow Mood Relaxation Drinks brands to the portfolio. The Company trades under the newly issued symbol NBEV on the OTC exchange. The Company competes in the fast growing healthy functional beverage segments including Ready to Drink (RTD) Tea, RTD Coffee, Kombucha, Energy Drinks, Relaxation Drinks and Functional Waters with the Brands XingTea, Bucha Live Kombucha, XingEnergy, Marley One Drop, Marley Mellow Mood, and Aspen Pure. The brands are sold in 46 states within the US and in more than 10 countries internationally across all channels via direct and store door distribution systems. The company operates the websites www.mybucha.com, www.xingtea.com, www.aspenpure.com, and www.drinkmarley.com.

Safe Harbor Disclosure

This press release contains forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements are any statement reflecting management's current expectations regarding future results of operations, economic performance, financial condition and achievements of the Company including statements regarding New Age Beverage's expectation to see continued growth. The forward-looking statements are based on the assumption that operating performance and results will continue in line with historical results. Management believes these assumptions to be reasonable but there is no assurance that they will prove to be accurate. Forward-looking statements, specifically those concerning future performance are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. New Age Beverages competes in a rapidly growing and transforming industry, and other factors disclosed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission might affect the Company's operations. Unless required by applicable law, nBev undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements.

For investor inquiries about New Age Beverages Corporation please contact:

Amato and Partners, LLC

Investor Relations Counsel

admin@amatoandpartners.com

Websites: www.mybucha.com

www.xingtea.com

www.aspenpure.com

www.drinkmarley.com

SOURCE: New Age Beverages Corporation
By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Canada's natural resources minister said on Tuesday it was important that Canadian oil exports reach Asia, as the Liberal government prepares to decide whether to approve Kinder Morgan Inc's plans to more than double the capacity of a pipeline to the Pacific.

Ottawa must decide by Dec. 19 on the company's proposal to build a second pipeline adjacent to the existing Trans Mountain line from the Alberta oil sands to the west coast, where the oil could be loaded on tankers and shipped to lucrative Asian refining markets.

Environmentalists and aboriginal activists strongly oppose the project and have reacted angrily to what they have said were indications the Liberals would approve it.

Oil companies seeking relief from transport bottlenecks could be helped if U.S. President-elect Donald Trump fulfils a promise to give a permit for TransCanada Corp's Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to Texas.

But when pressed on a possible Keystone approval, Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr told reporters: "It doesn't get oil to export markets in Asia, and it's a goal of the government of Canada to expand its export markets."

Kinder Morgan Canada President Ian Anderson, asked about Carr's comments, told reporters in Kamloops, British Columbia, that they were "consistent with what producers have been saying for some time, and it's definitely the market we are trying to serve."

Carr added the government's position had long been that Canada did not want to rely too much on one market. The United States takes virtually all Canada's energy exports.

The Liberal government said last week it would toughen its response to oil spills at sea, a move some environmentalists saw as a clear signal Ottawa would approve the Trans Mountain expansion.

The pipeline runs from Alberta to British Columbia. The government of British Columbia has laid down five conditions which must be met before it allows pipelines to be built on its territory. One of the demands is that the federal government upgrade its ability to tackle oil spills.

(Additional reporting by Nia Williams in Kamloops, British Columbia; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Machines are capable of understanding speech, recognizing faces and driving cars safely, making recent technological advancements seem impressively powerful. But if the field of artificial intelligence is going to make the transformative leap into building human-like machines, itll first have to master the way babies learn.

Relatively recently in AI theres been a shift from thinking about designing systems that can do the sort of things that adults can do, to realizing if you want to have systems that are as flexible and powerful and do the kinds of things that adults do, you need to have systems that can learn the way babies and children do, developmental psychologist Alison Gopnik, a researcher at the University of California at Berkeley, told International Business Times. If you compare what computers can do now to what they could do 10 years ago, theyve certainly made a lot of progress, but if you compare them to what a four year old can do, theres still a pretty enormous gap.

Babies and children construct theories about the world around them using the same approach scientists use to construct scientific theories. They explore and test their environment and the people in it with a systematic and experimental effort that is crucial to learning.

Gopnik recently worked with a team of researchers to demonstrate how children as young as 15 months old can learn cause-effect relationships using statistical data better than older children. Babies and young children may be better learners because their brains are more flexible or plastic; they are less tainted by pre-existing knowledge, which allows them to be more open-minded. Brains are not unchanging, but rather modify with every learning experience.

By combining expertise from developmental psychologists and computational scientists, humans may be able to unlock how the brains of the best learners in the world work and translate that computational power into a machine. Currently, AI requires mass amounts of data to extract patterns and conclusions. But babies, who have comparatively little data about the world around them, use a statistical evaluation called Bayesian learning. That is, an interpretation isn't based on the known frequency of an outcome  information that babies don't have  but instead on inferring the probability based on current knowledge, which adjusts continually as new information is received.

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The amazing thing about babies is they can see something once or hear a new word for the first time and they already have a good idea of what that new word could mean and how they could use that new word, says Gopnik. So these kind of Bayesian approaches have been good in explaining why children are so good at learning even when they dont even have much data.

Babies use the probabilistic model to create a variety of hypotheses by combining probabilities and possibilities to draw conclusions. As the brain matures, it becomes more specialized in order to execute complex functions and as a result, becomes less agile and increasingly difficult to alter over time. Older learners develop biased perspectives as they learn more about the world and strengthen certain neural connections, which hamper their ability to form out-of-the-box hypotheses and abstract theories based on little information. This is where babies and children under the age of five thrive.

The tradeoff is, the more you know, the harder it is to consider new possibilities, Gopnik said. The more you know, the more you tend to rely on what you know and not be open to something new. From an evolutionary perspective, the whole point of babies is that they dont know as much so they're better as learning something new.

Every second of a baby's first few years of life, 700 new neural connections are formed, making a flexible brain integral to processing a rapid accumulation of information from environmental and social interactions. Plasticity early in life makes it easier to build the brains architecture from the ground up than to rewire the circuitry in adulthood. Bayesian learning has proven to be such a powerful tool in childhood development that computer scientists are now using models to design intelligent learning machines.

The Bayesian math is trying to capture how babies learn, computational cognitive scientist Joshua Tenenbaum, a professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, told IBT. He is currently collaborating with Gopnik to further research in their hybridized field of computers and psychology. They come into the world prepared with basic building blocks to help them understand some of the most complex concepts. Then they have learning mechanisms that take those initial building blocks and try to make inferences from sparse data and create causal theories.

The human brain, no matter what stage of development, is designed to take in the physical world through a range of sensory systems: visual, auditory, smell, taste, touch, spatial orientation and balance. When a person is presented with limited data, the brain fills in the blank, a phenomenon in the neural structure known as degeneracy. Babies brains are especially adroit at processing information despite lacking one or more senses.

Children are learning like scientists in order to understand the world, says Tenenbaum.  That includes forming theories, doing experiments, playing around and seeing what they might discover, actively thinking of what are the right ways to test out their theories or reacting to something they didnt expect, and trying to figure out what went wrong and what went right.

Taking Baby Steps

Tenenbaum and a team of researchers from New York University and the University of Toronto collaborated to design AI software capable of capturing new knowledge in a more efficient and sophisticated way. In December 2015, their findings, published in the journal Science, revealed machine-learning algorithms for creating computers that come close to processing information the way we do.

The new AI program can recognize a handwritten character just about as accurately as a human can after seeing just one example. Using a Bayesian program learning framework, the software is able to generate a unique program for every handwritten character its seen at least once before. But its when the machine is confronted with an unfamiliar character that the algorithms unique capabilities come into play. It switches from searching through its data to find a match, to employing a probabilistic program to test its hypothesis by combining parts and subparts of characters it has already seen before to create a new character  just how babies learn rich concepts from limited data when theyre confronted with a character or object theyve never seen before.

However, the software is still incapable of mimicking the way children learn autonomously by forming original hypotheses. The monumental shift in AI potential will take place when researchers are able to design software that is capable of original hypotheses and authentic goals, like generating the desire to recognize the handwritten characters instead of following instructions from a researcher. Without self-driven goals, AI systems limit their potential to function autonomously.

Continuously learning with more and more data is what any AI system wants to do, says Tenenbaum. But learning autonomously is trickier. Theres always a human who sets up the whole thing, how much and what kind of data to give them. But babies make the choices for themselves. Its still an open challenge for AI to be much more autonomous structuring its own learning processes. Current AI systems dont have any goals at all, and they cant be in charge of their own learning if they dont really have any goals. When a robot is instructed to pick up a box, its very tempting to look at that robot and say its doing what humans are doing. But they dont have the sophisticated level of thinking that children do.

Tenenbaum and his colleagues employed deep learning algorithms modeled on a virtual network of neurons. It produces a very rough imitation of the way the human brain works. When a machine processes an object, it searches its massive data set for the pixels to match up with the machine in order to make an identification. Humans, on the other hand, rely on higher forms of cognitive function in order to interpret the contents of an object.

Were trying to write computer programs, which are like the software of the brain, which we would normally call the mind. The mind is the software and it runs on the brains hardware and we try to build levels at the software level. Neural networks in AI are computer programs at a software level.

In 2013, the National Science Foundation awarded MIT a five-year, $25 million grant to establish the Center for Brains, Minds and Machines. Scientists and engineers across different fields work together to learn how the brain performs complex computations in the hopes of building intelligent machines that more closely resemble human intelligence.

Its only recently weve built the math and the computational models that can do this, says Tenenbaum. Were going to need a lot more resources, smarts, companies, knowhow, and companies interests as well as faster computers probably. We might need to wait or rely on other engineering progress before we can capture the intelligence of even very young children.

Building The First Babys Brain

University of Aucklands Bioengineering Institute in New Zealand is working to close the gap between brain and machine with an animated and interactive baby. Mark Sagar, the director and founder of the Institutes Laboratory for Animate Technologies and a multi-Academy Award winner for his animation work in Avatar and King Kong , spends his days in the lab playing peek-a-boo with a blonde baby on a 3D computer screen known as BabyX  a live system that learns, thinks, and creates its own facial expressions and reactions on its own.

Sagar began his career by building medical simulations of body parts at MIT, where he worked on bringing digital faces to life, and has used those skills to develop BabyX. The animated artificial intelligence is able to mimic his facial expressions, read simple words aloud, recognize objects, and play the classic videogame Pong, making it smarter every day. BabyX is not only Sagars brain child, but is also modeled after his own daughter Francesca at different ages.

To construct BabyX, Sagar scanned his daughter at 6 months, 18 months and 24 months old, which is then uploaded onto their system. He chose to replicate his daughters behaviors, facial expressions, and sounds through the animated technology as a metaphor for the infancy of artificial intelligence. Sagar affectionately refers to BabyX as she and explains how she functions using fiber optic cables, which are driven by her simulated neural activity  like a spinal cord connected to a brain. Because it is an interactive avatar with artificial intelligence, BabyX has the ability to learn and retain information, unlike systems before it.

In our case we are not developing artificial intelligence in the way that most people are looking at it, Sagar told IBT. There are many contested theories in neuroscience and cognitive science and current knowledge probably represents the tip of the iceberg. The most difficult part  but also one of the most deeply interesting parts  about biologically inspired approaches is how higher levels of cognition might emerge from the interaction of processes operating at different scales.

Sagar and his team tested BabyX against human interaction. BabyX is able to process human emotions, understand the meaning behind their actions and respond according to what shes learned from past human interactions with Sagar. Behind BabyXs on-screen face is a live simulation of a brain, giving it the ability to cue the facial simulation to blink and smile back at its audience. Sagar believes the face is key to developing effectual interactive artificial intelligence because it mirrors the brain and reveals the inner workings of the conscious mind. A simple smile, for example, is the result of a complex and interwoven system of connections within the brain.

BabyX learns through association between the users actions and Babys actions, says Sagar. In one form of learning, babbling causes BabyX to explore her motor space, moving her face or arms. If the user responds similarly, then neurons representing BabyXs actions begin to associate with neurons responding to the users action through a process called Hebbian learning. Neurons that fire together, wire together.

After the process is repeated, the new neural connections begin to create a map inside of BabyXs simulated brain that matches its actions to the users actions, setting up the stage for higher forms of imitation. The human brain works much the same way. By completing an action, the brain forms new connections which are strengthened by repetition.

Ultimately the simulated baby learns to develop a response on its own using the information her brain processed from the environment. BabyX is essentially learning through ever-improving code.

BabyXs learning abilities run on biologically plausible learning models, which are algorithms that mimic and translate how the human brain processes information and releases chemical reactions in the brain like dopamine or oxytocin levels. When she doesnt understand a word or action, BabyX expresses confusion, but when she reads a word correctly she giggles with joy and signals a higher release of the happy hormone dopamine. Each algorithm controls the neural systems that enable her to imitate, develop a reward system, and learn new information through interaction and demonstration.

I wanted to explore how biologically based computational models of behavior, emotion and cognition could be integrated for animation, especially focused on the face, says Sagar. The face is a nexus for so many aspects of human experience. Exploring the fundamentals of learning and mental development may be critical to our future interaction with, and use of, more complex and autonomous technology.

Because the face is a primary means for communication, Sagar hopes his baby will lay the foundation for future health and education applications, such as programs designed to interact with children with autism or other social impairments. A system that views a humans emotions, processes them, and understands how they feel: that's the goal that drives AI research  to build a brain that can think on its own, just as we do from our earliest days.

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BEIRUT (Reuters) - An air strike hit a hospital in the rebel-held Syrian village of Awaijel, west of Aleppo killing at least one person in the early hours of Tuesday, a day after attacks on two other hospitals in the region, a war monitor said. Jets hit Awaijel's Baghdad hospital with rockets, injuring medical staff and patients, including some who had just moved there from a hospital hit in nearby Kafrnaha on Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The attack put the hospital in Awaijel out of service, it added. The Observatory is a Britain-based monitor of Syria's five-and-a-half-year civil war that publishes reports based on its network of contacts across Syria. An air campaign by Syria's military backed by Russia's air force has intensified in the villages and small towns of Aleppo and Idlib provinces in recent days, the Observatory reported, after a foiled rebel offensive in the west of the city. Syria's civil war pits President Bashar al-Assad backed by Russia, Iran and Shi'ite militias against mostly Sunni rebels seeking to oust him, including groups backed by Turkey, the United States and Gulf Arab monarchies. Western countries and human rights activists have accused the air forces of Damascus and Moscow of repeatedly targeting hospitals, bread lines and other civilian infrastructure in territory controlled by the rebels. They both deny doing so and say their air campaign is directed against military targets belonging to the rebels, whom they describe as terrorists. (Reporting By Angus McDowall)
Airstrikes resumed on the besieged neighborhoods of east Aleppo on November 15 after weeks of truce, killing at least three people, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Barrels bombs were dropped over Hanano, Babn Nayrab, Qadi Askar and Qaterji in east Aleppo city, the observatory reported.

The strikes were also reported by local media.

This video was shared by an opposition media group and is described as showing the moment of a strike over Qadi Asker area in east Aleppo. Credit: Thiqa News via Storyful
Airstrikes hit three hospitals in Aleppo province between November 14 and the early hours of November 15, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

The strikes were also reported the Local Coordinating Committees, which monitor the conflict in Syria. The committees report blamed Russian warplanes for the strikes, but this cannot be confirmed independently.

According to the Syrian Observatory, the strikes hit hospitals in Awijal, in Kfrnaha, and in Atareb.

This video was shared by an opposition media group and is described as showing the destruction after warplanes hit the Baghdad hospital in Awijal. Credit: RFS Media Office via Storyful
As Part of the Recent Expansion, Alpha Connect is Looking to Hire Over 100 New Employees

PHOENIX, AZ / ACCESSWIRE / November 15, 2016 / The founders of Alpha Connect, a company that offers reliable customer support and business services for a variety of other businesses, are pleased to announce that they have just expanded. The company recently opened a new location located at 4100 East Broadway Road in Phoenix, Arizona, and the founders are hoping to hire over 100 new people as soon as they can to help fill the positions in the new space.

To learn more about Alpha Connect and the top-quality services that they provide, please visit http://alphaconnect.com/.

As a company spokesperson noted, Alpha Connect is hiring up to 50 people a week; prospective candidates can visit the company's site to learn more about the positions and, if they are interested, apply for a job with the company.

Clients who have worked with Alpha Connect will not be surprised that the company is experiencing such steady and positive growth. Alpha Connect is one of the fastest growing companies in Arizona, the spokesperson said, and they pride themselves on offering state-of-the-art customer service solutions.

"Our highly effective and experienced customer service representatives offer their knowledge, skills, compassion and understanding to work with customers to address any issue they may have," the spokesperson said, adding that their team fully understands and appreciates the value of building long lasting customer relationships and doing so in a seamless and cost-effective manner.

"Our tools, resources and technology offer extensive capacity, management and oversight. This allows us to provide excellent quality service and performance at a reasonable cost."

One of the many reasons that Alpha Connect is growing so rapidly is their friendly and dedicated account management team. Every employee who works there strives to fulfill their clients' needs as quickly and efficiently as they can.

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In addition to working with other service providers including fulfillment centers and credit card processing providers, the spokesperson noted that Alpha Connect has what it takes to coordinate quickly and efficiently with providers on either an overflow basis or as part of a designated network of call centers.

About Alpha Connect:

Alpha Connect specializes in providing world class domestic customer support and business services for a variety of specialty businesses. For more information, please check out the Alpha Connect company website here: http://alphaconnect.com/.

Alpha Connect

4502 E University Dr

Phoenix, AZ 85034

Contact:

Nicole de Vera

admin@rocketfactor.com

602-586-1368

SOURCE: Alpha Connect
AMC has inked a co-production deal with BBC Worldwide North America for the eight-part drama McMafia, which will star James Norton and be set in the international world of organized crime.

Also Tuesday, BBC America greenlit the original series Killing Eve, a dark thriller from Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

In McMafia, Norton will play the lead character, Alex Godman, who is drawn deeper and deeper into the criminal world. The drama is co-produced by AMC, BBC and Cuba Pictures (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, London Road), in association with Twickenham Studios.

Additional casting for McMafia includes David Strathairn as an Israeli businessman, Juliet Rylance as Godman's girlfriend, Aleksey Serebryakov and Faye Marsay. The series is created and written by Hossein Amini (Drive, Snow White and the Huntsman) and James Watkins, who will direct all eight episodes.

The drama follows Godman, the English-raised son of Russian exiles with a mafia history, who has spent his life attempting to avoid his criminal past as he runs a legitimate business, only to find his family's past returning to threaten his life and those he loves. Godman is soon embroiled in a world of international criminals, money launderers, corrupt politicians and ruthless intelligence agencies.

"McMafia is simply one of those shows that comes along at exactly the right moment," Joel Stillerman, president of original programming and development for AMC and SundanceTV, said in a statement. The show's writing team, led by Amini and Watkins, also includes David Farr (The Night Manager), Peter Harness (Doctor Who, Wallander, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell) and Laurence Coriat (Wonderland, Me Without You).

McMafia is inspired by Misha Glenny's 2008 best-selling book of the same name; production is set to take place in London. "Misha Glenny's book reminds us that underneath the headlines of today what we used to think of as organized crime is something completely different. It's a global operation, with tentacles in every corner of our world," Stillerman added.

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Elsewhere, BBC America gave the go-ahead for Killing Eve, a drama about a psychopathic assassin and the woman charged with hunting her down. Waller-Bridge is the showrunner and an executive producer on the eight-parter produced by Sid Gentle Films and based on the novellas by Luke Jennings.

"Killing Eve is a brilliantly fresh take on the cat and mouse thriller from Phoebe Waller-Bridge, a major new talent in television," Sarah Barnett, BBC America president, said in a statement. Killing Eve will debut in 2018.

Read more: James Norton Nabs Lead in Hossein Amini's 'McMafia' Crime Drama for BBC
Make America shop again: I fell into a downward spiral of post-election materialism  and came out on the other side

Let me tell you first that I am normally a very prudent shopper.

I was thrown into a 24-hour melodramatic despair after the election results rolled in.

I worked from home because I knew that I would lose my marbles if I had to interact with people. I watched every single episode of The Crown on Netflix (drama featuring a strong female lead). Im doing Whole 30, so I shot-gunned 65 cans of LaCroix Pamplemousse instead of the Titos vodka I really needed.

I felt REALLY down on myself.

So then I shopped.

First, I upgraded to an iPhone 7 with approximately 3 billion more megabytes than I need. (Shout out to the guy at the East Austin AT&T store who talked me into a bunch of ancillary account add-ons when I wasnt paying attention because I was worrying about the future of our Supreme Court  YOLO!)

Before my new, dumb phone had even synced up with my cloud, I had already made it to the Lush store to pick up face scrub I saw in a YouTube video at 4 a.m. after Hillary lost.

Of course, I didnt stop there. I also threw lotion and hair treatments into my basket. Its all made in Canada! They seemed like really cool people in that moment and I wanted to support them AND buy face lotion that smells like Creamsicles (Cosmetic Lad  check it out, highly recommend).

Then I blacked out and bought cowboy boots. Not like $1,200 Rick Perry custom cowboy boots, but expensive boots nonetheless. If I am going to live in a country where someone can brag about assaulting women and THEN become president, I really need to make myself look harder than I am, right? Im originally from ATLANTA and now I have freakin cowboy boots.

Then I went to Anthropologie. And I cant even go into details there but just know I have way more candles today than I did on November 8th. It smells really incredible in my dungeon of sorrow, aka apartment.

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Republican presidential elect Donald Trump meets with

My best friend texted me that she was at a UNIQLO because shopping was the only thing that could make her feel better.

Clarity suddenly arrived. Maybe this was a stage of grief I have never experienced  but it seems more likely that I was channeling my anger and sadness into consumerism.

I was gobbling up all the stuff I could. Spending money was making me feel better. Scrubbing my face with lavender/almond sand stuff while imagining all the Ralph Lauren pantsuits H.R.C could have worn in her first term was making me feel better.

But none of that was making this country better. So I redirected my money.

A photo posted by Planned Parenthood Action (@ppact) on Nov 12, 2016 at 12:27pm PST

Instead of ordering stationary  I dont even write letters  I donated to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Then when I felt like I needed to pick up a few things at Whole Foods (Whole Paycheck, amirite?) I signed up for a membership to the Sierra Club. I compiled a list of organizations I am going to contribute to in light of the election results  groups that defend womens rights, LBGTQ rights, African Americans, Muslim Americans, immigrant families, and our environment. My sisters and I have even agreed to donate instead of swapping Christmas presents this year.

#NoDAPL A photo posted by SierraClub (@sierraclub) on Nov 5, 2016 at 8:22am PDT

Donating money to causes I care about is helpful  and I realize donating money is a privilege for those who have money to give. But giving money is not enough. I am pledging to DO MORE.

I am pledging to DO MORE. I want to channel Michelle Obama-levels of strength and be a champion for and an activist on behalf of all the people and things that are being threatened by the new administration. I am going to sign up and show up. Im going to have the tough conversations that many of us avoided last year (Hellooooo, Thanksgiving dinner).

623042886

For many people, my words here come too late. Now, however, the only way is forward. In the immortal words of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Please never stop believing that fighting for whats right is worth it. Tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, I am going to pull myself up by my bootstraps (I have new boots now!) and be a change-maker.

Frannie Shellman lives, pins, and sometimes tweets in Austin, Texas

The post Make America shop again: I fell into a downward spiral of post-election materialism  and came out on the other side appeared first on HelloGiggles.
On Nov 14, American Tower Corporation AMT was upgraded by a notch to a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Revenue from Wireless Operators

Wireless operators have been actively participating in the FCC's spectrum auction (600 Mhz) to drive investments in 5G networks. Notably, Verizon Communications Inc. VZ plans to launch 5G network next year while carriers like AT&T Inc. T and T-Mobile US Inc. TMUS have hinted at a launch before 2020. We believe that increased investment in 5G will boost demand for tower and cell sites of American Towers, thereby driving its top line in the days ahead.

International Portfolio

AmericanTower has been specifically focusing on India. Last year, the company acquired a controlling interest in Viom Networks Ltd. which increased the tower count in India. The acquisition will help build stronger ties with mobile network operators such as Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Tata, Reliance and Aircel. Additionally, American Tower announced a joint venture called ATC Europe with Dutch Pension Fund manager PGGM. The venture will focus on the growth opportunities of telecom real estate in Europe. With the advent of new technologies, especially 5G and Internet of Things (IoT), Europe has drawn the attention of American Tower as its mature market offers high margins.

A Word of Caution

Customer concentration is very high for American Tower and the top four customers account for majority of the revenues. Any loss or consolidation among these wireless carriers will have a significant material impact on the companys top line.

Threat from Alternative Technologies

A large number of carriers are experimenting with alternative technologies like Voice Over WiFi (VoWiFi). The technology allows users to make and receive calls on Wi-Fi networks as they would on standard cellular networks. Such a feature is useful in areas with strong Wi-Fi but low cellular signal strength. Sprint also plans to use microwave technology instead of the traditional tower backhaul system to reduce dependency and save operating costs. Additionally, AT&T announced its project AirGig that aims to deploy 5G Internet through existing power lines and towers.

Story continues

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Although we may choose to leave, we are all products from where we came.

In Sunday nights episode of Parts Unknown, Anthony Bourdain focused less on place and more on person. The person in question was Masa Takayama, a Michelin-starred sushi chef with restaurants in New York and Las Vegas.

Takayama rose to prominence after moving to the United States, quickly becoming known for his innovative and creative combinations in sushi. He uses ingredients like foie gras and risotto in conjunction with time-honored Japanese technique to create completely unique (and incredibly expensive) dishes.

He went from being an apprentice in Japan to a sushi legend. Meet Masa Takayama on #PartsUnknown tonight at 9p ET/PT. pic.twitter.com/lCsV7XAXTp CNN (@CNN) November 13, 2016

After high school, Takayama left his provincial hometown of Nasushiobara to study at the famous Ginza Sushi-ko in Tokyo. The lengthy course is rigorous, demanding and far from glamorous; Apprentices must spend two years working in the kitchengenerally starting washing dishesbefore they are even allowed to touch the rice.

Once they have mastered the rice, apprentices may then move on to slicing the fish. They will start making nigiri, to serve guests at the bar. Eventually, the sushi chef will teach them how to assemble the perfect sushi. The entire education takes at least seven years and many do not finish.

Takayama took Bourdain back to Ginza Sushi-ko to relive his glory days, where it was revealed that Takayamas creative impulses extend far beyond the kitchen. Throughout the episode, he is pictured as a man of many talents: working with artisans to create the dishware for his restaurant, playing the saxophone and even beating a high schooler in a Kendo (Japanese fencing) competition.

This week on Parts Unknown, Anthony Bourdain visits one of the world's most famous sushi restaurants. https://t.co/mrIO12QKZe pic.twitter.com/2KwzymuPZT CNN (@CNN) November 13, 2016

While still in high school, Takayama and his friends would make bonfires, cook fresh fish and talk. They recreated this and reminisced on their youths. During that time, Takayama would tell his friends that he was going to leave and go to America. He eventually did, making a successful career for himself.

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However, it would be incorrect to say that Takayama looks back to his country and his hometown. For the renowned sushi chef, tradition is present in every innovation. His two homes and two livesa revered master chef in New York City and a boy who grew up delivering sashimi on his bicycle in Japanare one and the same.

We all come from someplace, Bourdain commented in the episode. Even though Takayama left Japan, its traditions have never left him.

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Hong Kong (AFP) - A Hong Kong court on Tuesday ruled to disqualify two pro-independence lawmakers from parliament, a week after Beijing said it would not allow the pair to be sworn into office as fears grow of the city's liberties coming under threat.

Baggio Leung and Yau Wai-ching, who deliberately misread their oaths of office, inserted expletives and draped themselves with "Hong Kong is not China" flags during a swearing-in ceremony last month, said they would appeal the decision.

"Mr. Leung and Ms. Yau have been disqualified from assuming and have vacated the office of a member of the Legislative Council," judge Thomas Au said in a written judgement.

"The oaths purportedly taken by Mr. Leung and Ms. Yau on October 12 2016... are invalid and void and have no legal effect," Au said.

Au also said the way the democratically elected pair took their oaths showed "clearly that they did not truthfully and faithfully intend to commit themselves to uphold and abide by" the city's constitution.

Leung said they would appeal the ruling.

"The judgement simply reflects that elections in Hong Kong are meaningless and the result... can be easily overturned by the government," said Leung.

"We will go forward and appeal to the Court of Final Appeal if that is where we have to go to see justice served."

Yau had earlier told a media scrum outside the courthouse that the ruling did not come as a surprise.

"The government has used so many small acts to suppress the courts and the courts had so much pressure and came up with such a decision," she said.

Links to the pair's biographies were no longer accessible on the Legislative Council (Legco) website Tuesday evening.

- Zero tolerance -

The High Court's decision was preempted by Beijing's ruling last week, which said that any oath taker who does not follow the prescribed wording of the oath, "or takes the oath in a manner which is not sincere or not solemn", should be disqualified.

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That move was slammed by pro-democracy activists and legal experts as a massive blow to Hong Kong's judicial independence and sparked demonstrations by both pro-Beijing and pro-independence groups.

"With or without (Beijing's) interpretation, the court would reach the same conclusion," Au said in the ruling.

However, political analyst Willy Lam said Beijing's interpretation would likely prevent pro-independence figures from running in future elections.

"The electoral commission now has full rights to disqualify like-minded people," Lam, a professor at the Chinese University, told AFP.

Ahead of the court ruling, the city's chief executive called for zero tolerance in dealing with activists pushing for independence from China.

"Members of the Hong Kong independence (movement) cannot appear in the political system," Leung Chung-ying said, describing the group as a small minority.

The unpopular leader on Tuesday said he welcomed the ruling and was mulling the next step, while Legco's president said it was up to Hong Kong's government to arrange a by-election to fill the seats.

Hong Kong was handed back to China by Britain in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" deal which protects its freedoms for 50 years, but there are growing concerns those liberties are disappearing.
Yahoo Celebrity

With the final season of "Dead to Me" dropping on Netflix on Nov. 17, Applegate said, "This is the first time anyones going to see me the way I am. I put on 40 pounds; I cant walk without a cane. I want people to know that I am very aware of all of that."
Hundreds of left-wing anti-imperialism demonstrators protesting the visit of US President Barack Obama were met by riot police and Greek emergency responders in Athens, Greece, on November 15, after they set several small fires.

The march, organized by the All-Workers Militant Front, was in protest of demands from the US they say are anti-worker and will bring new wage and pension cuts, so as to safeguard the profits of their multinationals,

according to the groups statement.

The protest took place on November 15 despite government bans on protests and rallies during Obamas visit. Credit: Twitter/@toolnikc via Storyful
Ariel Winter is back at it. Literally. The 18-year-old Modern Family star has proclaimed 2016 as the Year of the Ass.

This weekend, Winter put her behind on display while on a quick getaway to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, with friends. Naturally, she took to Instagram and Snapchat to show off her derriere. But this isnt the first time the young actress has shared snaps of her booty on social media. For Halloween, she donned a sexy bunny costume and got over 190 thousand likes. She also looked amazing as a blonde when she did a Marilyn Monroe-inspired photo shoot. And often gets cheeky in her extra tiny Daisy Dukes.

Though Winter has been criticized for her risque Instagram posts, she has no intention of toning down her sexy style.

Everybody is so hyped up on the fact that I post photos where my butts out, she told ET in August. Its a butt. Everyone has a butt. Im not going to fight with someone on my Instagram that tells me they dont like my outfit or I should put my butt away, she explained. Im sorry you think I should put my butt away, but just unfollow me.

Winter underwent breast reduction surgery in 2015, where she went from a size 32F to 34D. With over 2.6 million followers on Instagram, she always encourages her fans to love their bodies. In June, she posted an empowering message that said, Embrace all that you are. Dont let those outside voices become your inner voice. #thisismybody #mychoice #loveyourcurves.

Embrace all that you are. Don't let those outside voices become your inner voice #mychoice #loveyourcurves pic.twitter.com/KgIJq1WQQe  Ariel Winter (@arielwinter1) June 23, 2016

Another celeb who is all about loving yourself is Demi Lovato. Get the scoop on Demis new beau below:
Around 200 Rohingya Muslims fleeing a surge in violence after security forces took control of Myanmar's Rakhine state last month are stranded at the Bangladesh border, community leaders said Tuesday.

Bangladeshi border guards pushed back the Rohingya -- mostly women and children -- to the Myanmar side on Monday, community leaders told AFP.

"We heard they are 200 in number. They are mostly women and children who were only seeking a safe place to stay. They have no homes to go back," one of the Rohingya leaders told AFP from a refugee camp in Bangladesh's Teknaf border town.

A border guard spokesman put the figure at closer to 80.

Nearly 70 people have died in clashes with security forces since the Myanmar army swooped into Rakhine state, an area along the border with Bangladesh that is home to the Muslim Rohingya minority.

Violence escalated over the weekend, with troops killing more than 30 people in two days of fighting, according to the Myanmar army.

Activists say the actual toll could be much higher, accusing troops of killing civilians, raping women and torching homes -- allegations the army denies.

Authorities have heavily restricted access to the area, making it difficult to independently verify government reports or accusations of army abuse.

The stranded Rohingya crossed the Naf River -- which divides the two countries -- by boats in the early hours of Monday and were immediately sent back by Bangladeshi border guards.

"We have stopped and pushed back around 80 Rohingya people yesterday (Monday)," border guard spokesman, Major Abu Russell Siddique, told AFP.

He said the Rohingya who were pushed back were economic migrants "looking for work and treatment", and denied the community leaders' claim that they were victims of recent violence in Rakhine.

Another border guard commander told AFP that Monday's group was the largest number of Rohingya pushed back since violence erupted in early October.

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Nineteen-year-old Mohammad Towhid told AFP by phone that he also crossed in the early hours of Monday, but managed to avoid the border guards.

"They (Myanmar army) shot dead my sister before my eyes. I hid underneath heaps of cow dung during the attack. As the night fell, I rushed to the border," Towhid said, speaking from a Teknaf refugee camp.

"I left my mother alone at home. I don't know whether she survived or not," he said, adding that troops had torched hundreds of Rohingya homes.

The UN has labelled the Rohingya as one of the world's most persecuted peoples.

They are branded as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh by Myanmar's majority Buddhist population despite their long roots in the country, where they face apartheid-like restrictions on movement and are denied citizenship.

But the Bangladeshi government also refuses to register the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees living on its side of the border.
Two patients, who each lost all of their hair 10 years ago due to a medical condition, recently regrew some of their hair after taking an arthritis drug, according to a new report of the cases.

The patients, one man and one woman, suffered from alopecia universalis, a condition in which people lose all of the hair on their entire body because their immune system attacks hair follicles. There is currently no effective treatment for the condition. The patients' doctors tried treating them with multiple other drugs, but nothing worked.

However, after the patients took the arthritis drug, called tofacitinib, every day for two months, some hair regrew on their scalp, eyebrows and under the arms, according to the report. The patients were followed for nine months while they took the drug, and they did not experience any serious side effects, the researchers said.

The researchers said in their study that they hope that these cases will prompt a study to determine whether tofacitinib is a safe and effective treatment for alopecia universalis. "Successful treatment can improve patients' lives dramatically, as it did for our patients," the researchers, from Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil, wrote in the Nov. 15 issue of the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. [4 Common Skin Woes, and How to Fix Them]

Although the hair-loss condition is not life-threatening, it is important to develop effective treatments because the condition can have a negative effect on a patient's mental health. "Hair loss really affects your self-esteem," said Dr. Doris Day, a dermatologist at Lenox Hill Hospital, in New York, who was not involved with the study. "I have patients who are near suicidal because of hair loss," Day said.

Day also recently used tofacitinib to treat a patient with alopecia universalis, and saw similar results, she said.

But there is concern that long-term treatment with tofacitinib could cause harmful side effects, the researchers said. The drug is known to cause side effects that include an increased risk of serious infections as well as tears in the stomach and intestines, according to Pfizer, the company that makes tofacitinib, which is sold under the brand name Xeljanz.

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The findings add to those of a study published in September, which tested tofacitinib as a treatment for 66 people with hair loss due to alopecia areata, an immune-system condition in which the hair falls out in patches. (Alopecia universalis is the most advanced form of alopecia areata.) In that study, half of the people regrew some hair, and one-third saw more than 50 percent of the hair on their scalp grow back. However, that study lasted only three months.

Currently, it's not clear exactly why people with alopecia universalis lose the ability to grow hair. But by studying how tofacitinib works to reverse hair loss, researchers may better understand the condition itself and be able to develop new treatments with fewer side effects, Day said.

"The more we understand about the different pathways, about what makes hair grow and what makes hair not grow, we can come up with better, more refined treatments that are hopefully safer and more reliably effective," Day said.

Original article on Live Science.

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Ashley Graham is one of the most prominent plus-size models in the industry  maybe the most. Shes landed coveted campaigns like the SI cover spread, launched her own clothing line, and continuously acts as a vocal advocate for body awareness and acceptance. Graham has even more to celebrate, as Barbie just honored the model by creating a new doll in her likeness, which was unveiled at the 2016 Glamour Woman of the Year Live summit in Los Angeles.



The new doll not only shows how much of an impact Graham and other plus-size models have made on society, but it also signifies Barbies effort to incorporate all body types in its line of products.

Ashley Graham is a trailblazer who inspires every woman  and girl  to see the beauty in herself, said Lisa McKnight, general manager of Barbie, in a press release. This year Barbie has evolved to be more inclusive by adding three new body shapes into the line and we hope our relationship with Ashley will further make an impact.

The company apparently approached Graham after seeing an interview in which she expressed her approval of the companys introduction of new body types, including curvy, tall, and petite, earlier this year.

The doll, which was created in Ashley Grahams likeness, was unveiled at the Glamour Women of the Year 2016 Live Summit. (Photo: Getty Images)

When designing the doll, Graham not only had creative control over the outfit in which the figurine was adorned  a look the models worn in the past featuring a sparkly Opening Ceremony dress, a Sonia Rykiel cropped jean jacket, and spiky Pierre Hardy boots  but she also weighed in on the physical attributes of the doll. She had to have her thighs touch. No ands, ifs or buts about it. And I asked for cellulite but obviously plastic and cellulite dont go hand in hand, she told the Hollywood Reporter.

It was important that the Barbie resembled me as much as possible. The thighs touching were one way to show young girls that its OK for your thighs to touch, despite society saying that a thigh gap is more beautiful.

The doll is the latest in Barbies collection of Sheroes  a line created to honor female heroes that inspire and empower others. A number of other notable figures, including Zendaya, Gabby Douglas, Eva Chen, and Misty Copeland, have had dolls created in their likeness for the collection.

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Graham hopes this doll will help expose little girls to more than just one perfect body type and instill acceptance within them at a young age. Would I have looked at my body differently if I were playing with Barbies that looked like me? Would I have accepted my thighs and my round arms and my round stomach a little bit more? Probably, she told THR on how a plus-size doll could have impacted her growing up. I think its absolutely incredible that an iconic image in the fashion world, like Barbie, is keeping up with the times and following along with body diversity in such a big way.

The model was clearly pleased with the result, as she proudly showed off her new doll in a video on her Instagram page.

Come on @Barbie, let's go party!!! ????Thank you to my new and incredible @Mattel family for this honor! #beautybeyondsize #barbie #curvybarbie A video posted by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@theashleygraham) on Nov 14, 2016 at 4:48pm PST

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.
Damascus (Syria) (AFP) - Syria's Bashar al-Assad said in an interview aired on Tuesday that Donald Trump will be a "natural ally" if the US president-elect fulfils his pledge to fight "terrorists".

In his first reaction to Trump's election victory last week, the Syrian president struck a note of caution and said he was unsure the American billionaire would be able to keep his word and step up the fight against jihadists.

"We cannot tell anything about what he's going to do, but if... he is going to fight the terrorists, of course we are going to be ally, natural ally in that regard with the Russian, with the Iranian, with many other countries," he told Portugal's RTP state television.

Asked about Trump's campaign comments suggesting the United States should focus more on fighting the Islamic State (IS) group, Assad said he would welcome such a move but was cautious.

"I would say this is promising, but can he deliver?" said Assad, who was speaking in English.

"Can he go in that regard? What about the countervailing forces within the administration, the mainstream media that were against him? How can he deal with it?" he said.

"That's why for us it's still dubious whether he can do or live up to his promises or not.

"That's why we are very cautious in judging him, especially as he wasn't in a political position before," said Assad.

The United States leads an international coalition that is conducting air strikes against IS jihadists in Syria and neighbouring Iraq, and also backs rebels fighting the Assad regime.

In an interview with The New York Times on March 26, Trump said he thought "the approach of fighting Assad and ISIS (IS) simultaneously was madness, and idiocy".

"You can't be fighting two people that are fighting each other, and fighting them together. You have to pick one or the other," said Trump.

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And during campaigning, Trump also pledged to improve America's ties with Assad's main backer, Russia.

- 'Police of the world' -

After his election victory, Trump told The Wall Street Journal: "I've had an opposite view of many people regarding Syria".

He also said that if the United States attacks Assad "we end up fighting Russia".

In his interview with RTP, Assad accused the United States of interfering in the affairs of other countries.

"They think that they are the police of the world. They think they are the judge of the world. They're not," he said.

Asked to give his assessment of the next UN chief, Antonio Guterres of Portugal, Assad insisted the "United Nations is not the secretary-general" even if the role is "important".

"The United Nations is the states within this organisation, and to be frank, most of the people say only the five permanent members" of the UN Security Council, said Assad.

"This is the United Nations because they have the veto, they can do whatever they want and they can refuse whatever they want.

"If you ask me 'what do you expect from such a new official in that important position,' I would say I need two things: the first one is to be objective... the second one... is not to turn his office into a part or branch of the State Department of the United States.

"That's what we expect now," said Assad.

The Syrian president went on to criticise his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, describing him as a "sick person".

"He's (a) megalomaniac... He's out of touch with the reality," said Assad.

Turkey has embarked on an ambitious operation inside Syria dubbed "Euphrates Shield" to support Syrian opposition fighters in a bid to remove IS fighters from its border and stop the advance of Syrian Kurdish militia.

The conflict in Syria has killed more than 300,000 people since it started in March 2011 with anti-regime protests.

Syria's main opposition has urged Trump to protect civilians and help end the bloodshed in the country.
London (AFP) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's questioning at the Ecuadoran embassy in London over a longstanding rape allegation ended on Tuesday, Swedish prosecutors said.

The results of the questioning by an Ecuadoran prosecutor, which began on Monday, will not be provided immediately on the grounds of confidentiality, the Swedish prosecutor's office said in a statement.

"After this report, the prosecutors will take a view on the continuation of the investigation," it added.

Swedish prosecutor Ingrid Isgren, Ecuador's ambassador to Britain, Carlos Ortiz, and an Ecuadoran lawyer representing Assange were all present as the former hacker was grilled with questions provided by Swedish officials.

However, Assange's Swedish lawyer Per Samuelsson was not allowed to attend, a ruling that he will "contest", he told AFP Tuesday.

The 45-year-old Assange sought refuge in Ecuador's embassy in London's upmarket Knightsbridge neighbourhood in June 2012, fleeing allegations of rape and sexual assault in Sweden dating back to 2010.

Assange has denied the claims and called them politically motivated.

The former computer hacker, an Australian national, refused to travel to Sweden for questioning, saying he feared he would then be extradited to the United States over WikiLeaks' release of 500,000 secret military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

- Supporters hold vigil -

A first hearing scheduled for October with Ecuadoran prosecutor Toainga Wilson was postponed at Assange's request, citing "his rights to the protection and defence of his person," according to Ecuadoran prosecutors.

Swedish prosecutors dropped their sexual assault probe into Assange last year after the five-year statute of limitations expired.

But they still want to question him about the 2010 rape allegation, which carries a 10-year statute of limitations.

Assange insists the sexual encounters in question were consensual and his lawyer Samuelsson told Sweden's TT news agency on Monday that he was "very hopeful" his client would clear his name.

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"For the first time since August 2010, Mr. Assange was finally able to give his statement in relation to this allegation," he added.

"He has done so in part to ensure the Swedish authorities have no further excuse not to discontinue their preliminary investigation," WikiLeaks later said in a statement, adding that Assange fully cooperated with the process.

But Elisabeth Fritz, the lawyer for Assange's alleged victim, said: "My client has been waiting six years for justice... It is time for this to go to trial."

She added in a statement: "We are expecting that the prosecutor will announce charges after this questioning and that these charges lead to a trial in a Swedish court."

Assange's supporters camped outside the embassy for the two-day questioning, and earlier waved banners reading "Free Assange" and "You Won't Stop WikiLeaks".

The website's public profile dwindled while its mastermind remained confined to the embassy, but recently returned to prominence with the leak of tens of thousands of emails from the US Democratic Party and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign in the final weeks of the race for the White House.

Assange denied influencing the shock election result and rejected claims he had links with Russia.
PARIS, Nov 15 (Reuters) - European regional aircraft maker ATR said on Tuesday it had won a firm order for 12 72-600 turboprop airplanes from Synergy Aerospace, its second order from the Latin American airline holding company in as many days.

The aircraft will be operated by the group's new subsidiary in Argentina, Avian Lineas Aereas, branded as Avianca Argentina, ATR said in a statement.

Synergy Aerospace also placed options for a further six aircraft, it added.

ATR is a joint venture between Airbus Group and Italian aerospace company Leonardo. It competes for turboprop sales with Canada's Bombardier.

On Monday, the Synergy group, which controls Latin American airline Avianca, announced a separate order for eight ATR turboprop planes as it disclosed plans to invest up to $100 million for a 49 percent stake in Mexican airline Aeromar.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher; editing by Laurence Frost)
Americas allies were deeply shocked by Donald Trumps election. Hillary Clinton was a known quantity, and they expected her to win comfortably. Most importantly, she would provide continuity  not only in the sense of building on President Barack Obamas policies but also, and much more fundamentally, as someone committed to the institutions and practices of the international order that the United States did so much to create and sustain after World War II.

With his attacks on free trade, and over-regard for strongmen such as Vladimir Putin, Trump offered a nightmare vision of everything they feared. His attitudes toward women and race challenged cherished beliefs and shared values. His public statements were bold, apparently often unscripted and occasionally contradictory. There was no past experience in public office by which to set expectations. No coherent statement of political philosophy to study for guidance. No memories of overseas visits intended to get to know allies and their concerns.

No matter, they thought, he was too extreme to be elected.

Now that Trump has been elected, foreign governments do not have the option afforded his domestic opponents of keeping their distance and preparing for the next election. They have no choice but to send him their congratulations and arrange their first meetings. They also must look for reasons why, despite the evidence of the campaign, that this is a man with whom they can do business. He is, after all, not the first leader to come into office with only a passing acquaintance with the multitude of foreign-policy questions facing his country, so perhaps they have an opportunity to explain to him why it is all going to be far more difficult than he assumed. The situation is hardly optimal, however. He is the most powerful man in the world, yet few have any idea of what he will actually do after the inauguration, and the clues he has left can only be viewed with the greatest apprehension.

Relationships matter in foreign policy. Trump may surprise American allies with his charm and apparent interest in their views. Yet they will still be wary of making public declarations of esteem. They know that many among their own populations are deeply alarmed by Trump and wish their governments to constrain rather than encourage him. While Obama was wildly popular (at least in Europe) as representing the best of America, Trump, with his bombast and crudity, is seen to represent the worst. There is no stardust to rub off on alliance leaders when it is time for photo shoots with the new president. As things stand, Trump will get a more rapturous reception on the streets of Moscow than of Berlin. There is also a fear, again largely in Europe, that Trumps election may encourage local nationalists, who have become more of a presence over the past few years and who could yet make breakthroughs in France and Italy.

Essentially, U.S. allies must hope that President Trump will be very different from Candidate Trump and, for the moment, talk and act as if this is the case. They will be searching for evidence that his past flip-flopping will continue, with a swing now to moderation and reasonableness. They will be scrutinizing his first public remarks and appointments to key cabinet posts. Will reassuring faces sit in the top positions on the National Security Council, State Department, and Pentagon? Might it be the case that, whatever his current intentions, he will become a prisoner of the national security bureaucracy, living by what Obama called the Washington playbook and doing what he is told for a quiet life? Might it even be the case (as many conservative Republicans have long suspected) that he is something of a closet moderate? Is it not likely that he will be preoccupied with his dealings with Congress, as his promise of big infrastructure spending and other deficit-expanding programs proves out of tune with his partys desire for some fiscal discipline?

The challenge for the allies will be to accept that this is a man who has reached power by denouncing much that they hold dear. They will also have to recognize that they will be obliged to make their own concessions. Their priority must be to avoid massive disruption to the international order. Will he accept the agreements reached by his predecessors, for example on climate change and Irans nuclear program, or will he tear them up?

The first open question is trade. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) was already in trouble before the election and must now be assumed dead. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has been signed but has yet to be ratified. It is hard to see how this will happen now, despite the anguish this will cause the 11 other signatories to the deal and the wry smiles that will result in Beijing, against which the agreement was directed in key respects. At the same time, he has also threatened tariffs on China, though Beijing has made clear the extent of the retaliation the United States could expect if the new president embarks on a trade war. Although we can assume that the era of continued reduction of tariffs and removal of other barriers to trade may be coming to an end, the most pressing question is whether existing trade agreements and the World Trade Organization are now under threat, as the United States takes unilateral action to protect particular industries. In these circumstances, and in light of his disobliging remarks about Mexico, can NAFTA survive? If he acts more cautiously, then it will not be because of the entreaties of allies to follow the economic logic of the division of labor and comparative advantage but because the big U.S. exporters will have explained the effect his actions would have on American jobs.

Second on the agenda is the formal alliances. The question is not whether they will be formally abandoned but whether they will be drained of all meaning as the United States fails to back allies when crises develop. In the Asia-Pacific region, there are already major concerns. Will Japan feel supported if China starts to push harder on the contested islands that have been claimed by both countries? This is a region that has benefitted enormously from open trade in recent decades and that looks to the United States to keep the peace. A U.S. president who has no sympathy for their predicament and sees no reason why Americans should take risks on their behalf leaves them deeply insecure.

Then there is the question of Americas relationship with its NATO allies  which bears, in turn, on the question of Trumps intent to develop a partnership with Russian President Vladimir Putin. That intent is quite astonishing and may even do some good, given recent paranoia in Moscow and the speed with which relations have been deteriorating. But Putin, having already invested in Trump (some would say he was instrumental in his election victory), will now expect to be repaid in some fashion. He will likely request that Trump offer support to the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, recognition of Russias annexation of Crimea and the lifting of related sanctions, and the reduction of U.S. support for Ukraine.

Trump may recognize that there are risks in building a partnership with Russia on the basis of such concessions. If he provides lots of concessions without gaining anything in return, he could lose face, and public standing, in the United States. (Trump will have to recognize that there is still an anti-Russian majority in the Senate.) And even on Trumps terms, U.S. interests with Russia do not overlap completely. His plan to remove all environmental restrictions on U.S. energy companies will push energy prices down, to the further detriment of the Russian economy. Trump has also been hawkish against Iran, especially on its nuclear deal with the Obama administration, but Tehran has been an ally of Russias in Syria.

Trump will also find that any suggestion that he is ready to substantially appease Putin will aggravate anxieties in NATO countries, especially those geographically close to Russia. He no doubt will respond by noting their reluctance to fund their own defense. Indeed, he will not be the first senior American figure to do so. There is no reason why the Europeans should not do more. Germany, France, the U.K., and Italy each have bigger GDPs than Russia. If they do commit to increased defense spending, it might impress Trump, as he could claim a victory in getting the allies to up their game. But their real motivation for spending more would be the fear that they can no longer rely on the Americans. Underlying every decision in European capitals will be the anxiety that without U.S. leadership Europe will become even less politically cohesive and that local divisions will be aggravated.

There appears to be a real risk in the European Union that the set of arrangements that has long served the continent well may be starting to unravel. This cant be solely attributed to Trump. It is more that his victory has thrown into sharp relief not only their insecurities and frailties but also their failures. The idea of the West as a dynamic and benign force in international affairs has lost its credibility, and its political class is now treated with suspicion. There are reasons for populist mistrust, including the lingering impact of the 2008 financial crisis and the belief that ordinary people suffered while those responsible survived unscathed; the consequential struggles of the eurozone; the aura of failure surrounding the interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan; the continuing threat of Islamist terrorism; and the tensions caused by mass migration. Ambitions have been scaled back in the face of constant, wearying demands for humanitarian action and disappointment with efforts to promote good governance and democracy. In other circumstances, Americas traditional allies would have handled the challenge posed by Trump with greater self-confidence.

It will take time before the world has clarity on how it will now respond. It is often the case that clarity comes not as a result of the steady development of policy but because of events  the unexpected crisis that tests the new administration while it is still coming together and demands high-risk decisions of lasting importance. These may be crises of national security, but they are as likely to be economic crises, where the nationalist instincts of Donald Trump may work against the wider needs of the international community. A Trump White House, especially if it is led by an inexperienced team, may be tempted during a crisis to make apparently symbolic gestures without causing serious upset that nonetheless have serious unintended consequences.

If crises can be avoided, the emphasis for U.S. allies should be on patience. After all, it will take much of the next year before all the new administrations key posts are filled with political appointees and are confirmed. Over time, Washingtons bureaucracy may get the new president under control so that he learns not to make impromptu commitments and waits until he has been properly advised on the implications of alternative policies. Candidate Trump proposed a series of radical and disruptive initiatives, but, as with his predecessors, President Trump will discover that he is more constrained than he imagined. On this optimistic view, there will be more continuity than currently expected.

We shall see. From the early days of the postwar order, allies have worried about the possibility of an American president with Trumps worldview. The only hopeful way of thinking about what awaits is as a test. If the global order can survive Trump, it may be that it can survive anything.

Photo credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
Los Angeles (AFP) - Attorneys representing plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against Donald Trump's now-defunct university denounced a request by the president-elect's lawyers to delay the trial and excuse him from testifying in person.

In a motion filed in San Diego's federal court, the attorneys said a request made at the weekend for the November 28 trial to be delayed until after the inauguration in January was no more than a tactic by the defense to postpone the case indefinitely.

"Each of defendants' 'modest' requests to delay this trial has been just a prelude to another request," attorney Jason Forge wrote in the motion.

He added that the plaintiffs in the six-year-old lawsuit, one of whom is nearly 75 years old, "cannot afford any further delays."

"This trial, like so many Trump University student-victims' credit card bills, is past due," Forge wrote.

He also rejected a request by Trump's attorney Daniel Petrocelli that the president-elect be excused from testifying live or in person at the trial.

The class action suit alleges that Trump University fleeced students by tricking them with aggressive marketing that amounted to fraud.

Students paid as much as $35,000 to enroll, believing they would make it big in real estate after being taught by experts hand-picked by Trump, the suit says.

In a motion filed late Saturday, Petrocelli said his client was willing to be questioned by both sides in a videotaped deposition that could be played during the trial.

Forge, however, said there was no need for Trump to be questioned any further in the case given that he has already provided more than 10 hours of video-recorded sworn testimony.

He noted that if, as Petrocelli said, Trump was available to provide additional videotaped testimony before the trial starts, there was no reason he could not take the stand in person.

"Since Trump has complete control over when he makes what decision, he can simply shift his schedule one day, testify, and then pick up with the transition process right where he left off," the motion states.

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Petrocelli, however, insisted in a response motion filed Monday that a continuance was necessary "to allow the president-elect to focus on the enormous responsibility of transitioning to the most demanding and important office in our government."

The lawyer indicated during a hearing in the case last Thursday that he was open to settling the matter out of court.

US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel told both sides that another judge had offered to step in and work with them on a possible settlement.

Trump repeatedly hit out against the Indiana-born Curiel during his run for the White House. He claimed that the jurist's Mexican heritage would stand in the way of a fair trial given Trump's controversial stand on illegal immigration and his vow to build a wall along the US-Mexico border.

It was not clear when Curiel would rule on the latest motions submitted by both sides in the case.
Gunshot wounds to the back and abdomen killed Keith Lamont Scott, the 43-year-old North Carolina man shot by police while suffering from a traumatic brain injury in September, according to an autopsy released Monday by the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiners Office.

The shooting in Charlotte on Sept. 20 was captured on video by his wife, Rakeyia Scott, and unleashed two nights of street violence and weeks of protests in the city after his family claimed he was unarmed, the Charlotte Observer reported. There were conflicting accounts over whether Keith Lamont Scott had a gun and if officers should have used lethal force after being told by Rakeyia Scott about her husbands traumatic brain injury.

Police said they approached Keith Walter Scott, who was waiting in his parked car for his son to arrive home from school, when they saw him rolling a marijuana blunt inside. They say they were forced to act once they saw Keith Lamont Scott hold up a handgun. Officer Brentley Vinson, who is black, claimed he fired four shots at Keith Lamont Scott after he made a threatening gesture toward him with the gun and did not comply with officers commands to drop it.

In Rakeyia Scotts video, officers can be heard repeatedly yelling at her husband to "drop the gun and Rakeyia Scotts responding, He doesn't have a gun. He has a TBI (traumatic brain injury.) He's not going to do anything to you guys. He just took his medicine."

In a press conference on Sept. 24, Charlotte Police Chief Kerr Putney said while body and dash-cam released by The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, showed no absolute, definitive visual evidence" that Keith Lamont Scott had a gun in his hand, he maintained that evidence found at the scene proved Vinsons account. The department released photos of a pistol and the ankle holster it found at the scene that contained traces of Keith Lamont Scotts DNA, according to local reports.

Rakeyia Scott told CBS' This Morning her husband had been under the influence of up to 11 different medications treating his multiple sicknesses, including his traumatic brain injury, when he was approached by police.

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He takes them, and you have to give it time to kick in, she said. If you start a conversation with him, hes not going to remember the conversation. You have to wait for the medicine to kick in.

RTSPAG6

Photo: Reuters

Police officers were more likely to kill someone if they had a mental health condition, a 2015 Washington Post investigation concluded. The analysis found that about 9 in 10 of the mentally troubled people were armed, usually with guns but also with knives or other sharp objects. But the analysis also found that most of them died at the hands of police officers who had not been trained to deal with the mentally ill, the Washington Post reported.

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A father loving his baby in a chest harness.

I was clueless the first time my baby made me feel high.

My wife and I were headed out the door on a beautiful summer day, and I was carrying our then 2-month-old daughter in a harness, her squishy baby belly pressing against my chest while she grew heavy with sleep.

Suddenly, as I stepped into the shade of our tree-lined street, it hit me: an incredibly warm, melty glow of euphoria. It began in my heart and rushed through every appendage, leaving me giddy yet deeply at peace  and on the verge of tears. Everything seemed to slow down. I almost stopped to catch my breath.

It was powerful, and it was weird. Yet at the time I wrote it off as internalizing a nice moment: My wife and I had started a family, I was a dad, and it felt amazing.

But my next moment of ooey-gooey euphoria couldn't have been less sentimental.

The weather was hot and muggy. I was sweaty, frazzled, and running late. Into the harness my daughter went  bawling. There it was again, though, washing over me again after a few minutes of carrying her, and this time even more strongly.

"I feel high and my baby is the drug," I thought.

Strong feelings of bonding and love are well-known to me. I've shared plenty with family and friends throughout my life, most recently when I cuddle my wife or (with apologies to my wife) our dog. That close contact can trigger a satisfying, heartfelt glow.

I've also felt the euphoria of getting drunk and have, on a few rare occasions, experimented with marijuana and felt its mood-boosting effects. And when my dentist yanked out my wisdom teeth, he prescribed me hydrocodone (also known as Vicodin)  an opiate pain reliever that made me feel happy, floaty, and disconnected.

The feeling my daughter uniquely and almost instantly triggers is one apart from all of the above. While not as powerful as a drug, it isn't a far cry, either. The "baby high," as I call it, hits me like a freight train from Rainbow Happy Land. Every time.

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It enhances my experience of living in the moment while engaging a grab-bag of pleasurable senses, each of which is far stronger than any feel-good buzz I have ever gotten from social interaction. And apparently it lacks side effects  no sad comedown, no aloofness, no confusion, no irritability.

baby harness dad

I enjoy it so much that I started carrying our daughter around in the harness as often as I could, including while vacuuming the apartment. (Pro tip: This is a great way to get fussy infants to fall asleep.)

And I occasionally got testy with my wife when she insisted  for perfectly valid reasons  that we put our daughter in the stroller instead of the harness.

This might seem unsurprising and obvious: "A parent who loves the feeling of holding his baby close? And craves it? Duh."

But no parents I've met openly mentioned this euphoric surge. Why does it happen  even when I'm in a terrible mood? Why haven't I felt it until now? Do all parents feel it? And how does it work, exactly?

After speaking with experts and trawling for relevant scientific studies, I learned the baby high is real, but that no simple explanations exist.

I found some alluring clues, though.

For one, babies can subtly hack the biochemistry of their parents, even before they're born. (At least with biological parents  we don't know enough about the changes that may occur in non-biological parents to make any conclusions yet.) Such changes may tune the brain's deeply rooted pleasure center to reward parenting behaviors.

"Nature's goal is to get you addicted to the baby," Maia Szalavitz, a science journalist who co-authored a book about the science of bonding, called "Born for Love", told Business Insider. "Addiction, in fact, is what happens when this [reward] system gets attached to a drug rather than a person." (Szalavitz has also written extensively about her own experiences with addiction and recently authored a book on the topic, called "Unbroken Brain".)

I also learned the baby high may be more of a spectrum.

"It's like a drug and calms me," said one relative and mother, who said she feels it as strongly as I do, in an email. "This is also similar to what women feel when they are breast-feeding."

Conversely, my wife only sort of feels it. A subtle and warm "gushy" feeling bubbles up when she's breastfeeding, and a slightly stronger one when our daughter falls asleep in her arms. But she said neither sensation seems worth writing home about.

Other parents don't seem to feel it at all. At a recent family party, I described the sensation to one dad, who was carrying his toddler-age daughter  he said he had no idea what I was talking about. And a mom wrote, "[U]uuhhh no?" in response to my open query on Twitter:

Parents: Does carrying your baby (e.g. BabyBjorn) make you feel high  i.e. a "lock-and-key" euphoria? Like you just smoked something?  Dave Mosher (@DaveMosher) October 31, 2016

I even asked a couple of brain researchers with kids if they've ever felt it. "[M]uch as I would love to experience what you describe, I have not," James K. Rilling, a father of two who studies the neuroscience of social behavior at Emory University, told Business Insider in an email.

Scientists have no doubt the baby high exists, though, even if they know little about it.

"There are not a ton of studies on this," Heather Caldwell, a hormone biologist at Kent State University who studies how biochemistry regulates behavior, told Busines Insider. "Maybe you hung out with kids before and you didn't get that feeling. There's something special about fatherhood, though maybe not for all men. We don't really know yet."

Here's what we do know about the baby high, how it might work, and a surprising if not controversial reason we may understand it so poorly.

An ancient and powerful reward system

brain structures cross section anatomy shutterstock_305272955

Every emotion or feeling we experience originates in the brain.

Some of these affective experiences manifest in the mind's outermost "thinking" layers, called the neocortex. While standing on a mountaintop, you might pause to consider how lucky you are not to be working, then feel elated at your freedom. Or we may trigger our own stress and grief when we ponder a coworker's recent silence toward us, deciding it's hostility or cold disregard.

Then there are more deeply rooted, automatic, and instinctive experiences. It feels good to laugh or have sore muscles massaged. It hurts to get cut, pricked, or punched. The slither of a snake (or what we think is a snake) out of the corner of our eyes makes us fearful and alert.

The baby high may have more in common with the latter, since parenting instincts are so reflexive in mammals.

During a key experiment in the 1990s, for example, researchers damaged the neocortex of female hamsters after birth but spared deeper brain structures. Surprisingly, these hamsters could still breed and effectively parent their offspring.

However, when the researchers damaged a more central brain region called the limbic system, which is the source of emotions and pleasure (among other things), the hamsters' maternal behaviors  like nest-building, picking up pups, and nursing  never developed.

dopamine

One of the limbic system's most crucial parts is a reward pathway called the mesolimbic dopamine system. Its core function is to cherry-pick activities (like eating, having sex, or playing with kids), and make them feel rewarding. It also drives neurons to grow to motivate us to feel those good sensations again, plus avoid any bad ones.

A key to making it all work is dopamine. The chemical tells individual neurons to fire off a signal or not, influencing other brain signals and pathways, and essentially serves as a traffic cop of motivation, emotion, and social behavior.

There's a powerful partner to dopamine, though: opioids. These pain-relieving chemicals are also made by the limbic system, and alone can cause feelings of relaxation, calm, and satiation with their own receptors, Szalavitz said. But they also trigger the release of dopamine.

Our minds don't make enough natural opioids to overdose us, either alone or with dopamine, which is in contrast to heroin, oxycodone, fentanyl, and other opioid drugs that a user can control the dosage of.

"Having too much dopamine in the wrong place can make you psychotic. Illicit drugs that dump loads of dopamine (or strongly inhibit its reuptake, which is similar to dumping loads of dopamine) include cocaine and methamphetamines," Dr. Emily Deans wrote at Psychology Today. "Therefore high amounts of dopamine can cause euphoria, aggression and intense sexual feelings."

Which might partly explain the nature of the baby high.

"There are lots of social situations that are very rewarding, including food. But there are some new dads that have the same pathways activated as drugs," Caldwell says.

This is why a few scientists I spoke with think holding my daughter releases a lot of natural opioids in my brain; that'd explain why it feels so good and satisfying. But a lot of dopamine may be released, too, which would explain the warm-and-mushy euphoria (because it feels so rewarding)  and why I want to hold my baby all the time.

But why don't all of my friends and family members feel it while holding my daughter? And conversely: Why, after holding a small army of nieces and nephews, am I only now able to experience the baby high?

Part of the answer may be that pregnancy and, more importantly, caring for babies full-time, hacks the biochemistry and brains of parents.

Pregnancy seems to rub off on expectant dads

Pregnant acroyoga

Hormonal changes during pregnancy are often talked about only in the context of women. But if you're an expectant father living with your pregnant partner, your hormone levels are almost certainly changing, too.

Scientists don't yet know how this works, only that it happens.

Moms might give off airborne molecules called pheromones that spur changes in the biochemistry of dads. Or the extra empathy and attention fathers (hopefully) pay toward their partners might change their hormone levels. Or significant dips or boosts in sexual activity. Or the shared stress of trying to make way for a new family member. Or some mix of the above.

And while hormones don't directly cause people to feel or behave a certain way, they do grease the wheels for certain experiences and motivations. This is why some scientists think male hormonal changes associated with a pregnancy might help prepare men for fatherhood (and in my case, contribute to the strong buzz I feel while holding my baby).

Moms see very dramatic hormonal changes during pregnancy, primarily in estrogen, a female sex hormone that helps grow the uterus and powers maternal behaviors, and progesterone, which helps grow the breasts and softens ligaments, including those of the cervix. Levels of each can skyrocket more than 20, 30, or 40 times before a baby is born.

While hormonal changes in dads are much smaller, they're nothing to sneeze at.

For example, a 2001 study compared the hormone levels of Canadian fathers-to-be to those of single men. Researchers found that an expectant dad's levels of testosterone, which helps regulate sex drive and metabolism in men, was about 1/3 lower than average. And about 2/3 of dads had higher levels of estrogen, compared with 1/2 of single men in the study.

A more recent 2014 study of a few dozen men and their expectant partners also saw the testosterone dip, but instead saw estrogen levels in dads fall just before birth. (Hormone levels fluctuate often, so this wasn't totally unexpected.) It also found a correlation in changing progesterone levels between men and their partners.

Expecting fathers also tend to see a boost in a hormone called prolactin.

"It's mostly associated with women for milk production," Caldwell said. "But it does come up in dads right before their partner gives birth. We don't know what it's doing in men, though your behaviors can also change your hormones." (One study suggests higher prolactin levels helps dads be more attentive to infant cries.)

But nothing really compares to the effect that newborn babies can have on parents.

Babies hack our brains

newborn baby parents ann price photography

Things get really nuts once a baby arrives, chemically speaking, and this may further "prime" my reflexive baby high.

The hormones in mom that helped keep her pregnancy going (like estrogen and progesterone) suddenly plummet, while others related to maternal behaviors (like prolactin) rise dramatically. These shifts prime mom's brain for significant changes and, as researchers are increasingly discovering, dads too. (Also like moms, rapid hormonal changes in dads can raise the risk for postpartum depression.)

Vasopressin in mammalian fathers is one example. While there's hardly any research yet on the hormone in human dads, findings elsewhere in the animal kingdom are strong and suggestive that it works in a similar way in people.

Just look at prairie voles and marmosets. Along with humans, they're among the 5% share of all mammals that biparent, or when both mom and dad tend to care for their offspring. (Dad is always out of the picture in the other 95% of mammalian species.)

In both prairie voles and marmosets, vasopressin jumps after offspring are born and is correlated with nurturing behaviors.

prairie voles

A 1994 study, for instance, showed that injecting vasopressin into single male prairie voles made them act just like dads. Instead of ignoring a litter of pups, the bachelor voles cuddled, groomed, and protected the pups. (Male voles injected with a saline solution didn't show any daddy-like tendencies.)

Likewise in marmosets, receptors for vasopressin in experienced dads were far more numerous compared to non-dads. This suggests there's a lot of the hormone floating around in their brains, possibly helping to explain their paternal instincts.

A similar trend likely exists in human fathers, to the point some researchers think elevated levels of vasopressin in dads helps explain why they tend to be more tactile and stimulatory with infants as opposed to soothing and comforting (as is more typical with moms).

"I think of vasopressin as something that promotes the animal being active, brave, and investigating things," Karen Bales, a behavioral neuroscientist at the University of California at Davis, told Susan Kuchinskas at the Huffington Post.

Dads also see a boost in the hormone oxytocin after birth, even though it's a bigger player in moms. The hormone first surges in women during birth, helping coax their breasts to produce milk. Oxytocin levels also go up in mom and baby each time they breastfeed.

While not really a "cuddle chemical", as is often written, the hormone does seem important in weaving the social tapestry of people and their children. (But context is important; oxytocin plays a bewildering number of roles in animals, and possibly some nefarious ones in humans.)

family dad kids baby playing grass home shutterstock_113090740

"Oxytocin can facilitate a bond between mother and infant, and it may also play a role in fathers," Caldwell said.

In dads, playing with or simply gazing at kids raises oxytocin levels of everyone involved.

And, as it turns out, increased levels of vasopressin and oxytocin lubricate the brain's reward system  and feelings of pleasure  for social interaction.

"Babies can elicit oxytocin release and we know that the oxytocin system interacts with the dopamine reward system," Rilling said. "Excess dopamine (as with cocaine use) can lead to euphoria, so perhaps oxytocin-mediated dopamine release is responsible for the feeling you describe."

Szalavitz said "when you get [oxytocin] increase plus opioids and dopamine in some sequence, you get bonded to whoever you associate with that. This is why tons of [oxytocin] is released at orgasm."

Caldwell agreed, though she noted the "full sequence" of events with a baby high is a mystery. "How it does that, we just don't know," she said.

We're also left without an explanation as to why some parents don't feel it, or do so in different ways or to a different extent.

So there's undoubtedly much more to the story.

Getting a true answer will be difficult  and possibly controversial

opioid treatment

Unfortunately, clearly and logically explaining the basis of any behavior, emotion, or sensation is never simple, no matter how primal the human experience in question may seem.

That's because the brain is involved, and  as an astoundingly complex network of 100 billion cells and their 100 trillion connections  the organ does not easily loose its secrets.

Even if our minds could tell us how they work, they are ultra-idiosyncratic when it comes to affective experience. This is because whether you personally feel something and the way that you feel it, Szalavitz said, "depends to some degree on how you were parented and early life stress."

So while my quest to understand the nature of a powerful, lock-and-key euphoria I call the "baby high" might seem silly, researchers told me the mystery does intersect with two gravely important and possibly interconnected issues facing our society today.

One relates to addiction and its close siblings, depression and suicide.

oxycodone

Our brain's reward system is a gift that drives natural pleasures and motivations, like cuddling, raising kids and baby highs. But for nearly 2 million Americans with a prescription opioid drug disorder  also called the opioid epidemic  it has also become a trap with few meaningful treatment options.

"The reason people get addicted to opioids is because they carry the message of social bonding," Jaak Panksepp, a neuroscientist who studies psychiatric disorders and behavior, told Business Insider. "Too much psychological pain, too much social loss, we've argued for a long time, has fueled opioid addiction. It is people self-medicating themselves for depression and psychological pain."

Our culture's stigma against addiction since the 1970s, says Panksepp, hadn't made it easy to investigate solutions, nor has a dearth of government funding. That includes his team's most recent study of a withdrawal-free antidepressant opioid, called buprenorphine (which is normally prescribed to help treat heroin addictions).

Despite the study's potential to show buprenorphine "could become the first fast-acting anti-suicide drug," as Business Insider previously reported, Szalavitz said "Panksepp was rejected by major journals when he tried to publish [...] because [the manuscript] compared mother love to heroin."

The other hot-button issue, says Caldwell, is getting lawmakers and employers to understand the importance of family bonding and attachment  something which feeds into the aforementioned issue.

"We should spend more time in this country focusing on family leave," Caldwell said, and she doesn't just mean mom.

"There's more and more evidence that there's big value to having fathers form strong bonds with their children," she said. "And that requires something important: Spending time with their children."

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By Cameron French TORONTO (Reuters) - Bain Capital, the U.S. private equity firm, has bought a majority stake in Canada Goose Inc, a family-owned company which had been seeking an investor to help it meet demand for its high-end cold-weather gear. The two companies did not disclose the purchase price or the size of the majority stake bought by Bain, but said in a statement on Tuesday that Canada Goose Chief Executive Dani Reiss will remain in his position and maintain a "significant" stake in the company. Reiss's grandfather founded the company in 1957, and his family were the company's shareholders prior to the Bain deal. As part of the deal, the other family members will sell their shares, leaving Reiss as the sole non-Bain shareholder. In an interview, he would not specify the size of his remaining holding, but said it would be above 10 percent. Canada Goose has built a name on its pricey fur-lined parkas and other winter items, which the company boasts are manufactured in Canada, in spite of higher manufacturing costs than in other locations. In April, the company hired investment bank Canaccord Genuity to find a partner to bring additional equity into the company, with Reiss saying at the time that a minority partner was preferred. Bain's majority offer won out among others due in part to the firm's ability to help Canada Goose grow globally, particularly in Asia, Reiss said. "We felt they were the strongest partner," he said. He said Bain will have board representation, but that Reiss and the Canada Goose management will continue to run the company and continue to manufacture within Canada. "Our partners in Bain are 100 percent behind us in that manufacturing philosophy," he said. Canada Goose has annual sales of roughly C$200 million ($188.32 million), an industry source told Reuters earlier this year. Canaccord Genuity served as financial advisor on the deal. The market for specialized outdoor clothing is expanding rapidly, with both sportswear companies and financial investors keen to gain a share in the business. (Editing by Leslie Adler and Andrew Hay)
The long-delayed trial of two Uighur men accused of bombing a Bangkok shrine finally kicked off Tuesday as a military court allowed Beijing to supply translators for the suspects despite their objections.

Yusufu Mieraili and Bilal Mohammed are accused of planting a bomb in a Hindu shrine in Bangkok's commercial heart in August 2015 that left 20 dead, mostly ethnic Chinese tourists.

The blast came weeks after Thailand's junta forcibly repatriated 109 Uighurs to China, where rights activists say the Muslim minority faces cultural and religious repression.

The timing prompted speculation that the attack was part of a revenge plot against a country that had been a key transit hub for Uighurs as Thailand's military leaders grew closer to Beijing.

Thai authorities have rejected that theory saying the attackers were part of a people-smuggling network angered by a recent crackdown, a motive most analysts say is simply not compelling.

The trial for the two men, who have been held in military prison for over a year, was delayed several times as the court struggled to find a suitable interpreter and rejected one provided by the defence.

The hearing finally started Tuesday after judges accepted two interpreters provided by the Chinese embassy and waved off objections from the defendants.

"I do not want translators from China because China does not respect Uighurs," Mohammed said through one of the interpreters.

"I want a translator who can speak Uighur from America, Canada, Australia or other countries," added Mieraili.

- 'Real concerns' -

Uighurs, a Turkic minority, hail from China's westernmost province, Xinjiang.

The decision to use translators provided by the Chinese embassy is controversial because Uighurs have fled the region for years alleging they are the victims of state-sponsored persecution and assimilation policies that favour China's ethnic Han majority.

Beijing has also vowed to pursue Uighurs who flee abroad.

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But a military judge on Tuesday rejected the defendants' concerns saying that the interpreters were "appropriate as they only do translation" and "speak the same language as the defendants".

Sam Zarifi, Asia director for the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), which is monitoring the trial, said the appointments raised fresh doubts about the prospect of justice in a case being handled by an army tribunal.

"The current translators raise real concerns about the impartiality of the process," he told AFP, calling for the case to be moved to civilian court.

The first witness called by the prosecution on Tuesday was a police officer who was among the earliest to arrive on the scene after the bomb tore through the shrine, scattering debris and body parts.

"There were many deaths and injuries, both Thais and foreigners," police lieutenant colonel Somkiart Ploytabtim recalled.

Thailand's junta has been criticised for a murky investigation that appeared to wind down shortly after the arrest of the two men, leaving more than a dozen named suspects -- including alleged masterminds -- still at large.

Police and army officials also made confusing and often contradictory statements during the investigation.

The trial is expected to last until early 2018 with the court only sitting for a few days each month.

Prosecutors accuse Mohammed of placing the bomb inside a backpack at the shrine and say Mieraili was involved in transporting the device.
DHAKA (Reuters) - A court in Bangladesh on Tuesday indicted seven members of a banned Islamist group in the killing of a Japanese man last year, a prosecutor said. Kunio Hoshi, 65, was gunned down by motorcycle-borne gunmen while on his way to visit a grass farm project in the northern district of Rangpur, less than a week after an Italian aid worker was similarly killed in Dhakas diplomatic quarter. The men were members of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh group, and the court indicted them for the murder of the Japanese man, public prosecutor Rathish Chandra Bhowmik told reporters. "The court fixed Jan. 4 for recording witnesses in the case," he said. Five of the men pleaded not guilty in court, while two others are on the run. Police believe the group, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, carried out a July 1 attack on a cafe in which 22 people were killed, mostly foreigners, before security forces ended a 12-hour siege, killing five gunmen. Islamic State and al Qaeda have claimed a series of killings of liberals and members of religious minorities in Bangladesh in the past year. Islamic State also claimed responsibility for the cafe attack but the government has dismissed suggestions the group has a presence in Bangladesh. While authorities blame the violence on domestic militants, security experts say the scale and sophistication of the cafe attack suggested links to a trans-national network. (Reporting by Ruma Paul; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
By Bill Trott WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White supremacists and neo-Nazis have rarely, if ever, in recent history been so enthusiastic about a presidential appointment as Donald Trump's choice of Steve Bannon to be his chief White House strategist. Before he took over as chief executive of Trump's campaign in August and led it to victory last week, Bannon headed Breitbart News, a website and voice for the alt-right movement, a loose right-wing confederation that includes hardcore nationalists, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites. Five days after Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton, Trump rewarded Bannon, 62, a former Goldman Sachs banker and a Navy veteran, by appointing him senior counselor and chief strategist - jobs not subject to U.S. Senate confirmation. Democrats, rights activists and minority groups were outraged and said Trump, himself accused of racism and misogyny during the campaign, had just flung open the White House doors to hatemongers. Many urged him to reconsider. "Bringing Steve Bannon into the White House is an alarming signal that President-elect Trump remains committed to the hateful and divisive vision that defined his campaign," House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement on Monday. "There must be no sugar-coating the reality that a white nationalist has been named chief strategist for the Trump administration," Pelosi said. The Southern Poverty Law Center, the Anti-Defamation League and the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations (CAIR) also denounced Bannon. NAZI, KKK SUPPORT Bannon, who grew up in a Democratic family, has a reputation of trying to tear down a Republican Party establishment that he deemed too soft and too entrenched. As a senior adviser to the Republican Trump, Bannon will be expected by far-right groups to champion their views and make sure that Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, keeps such campaign promises as building a wall on the southern U.S. border, cracking down on Muslims entering the country and restricting the influx of Syrian war refugees. "Perhaps 'The Donald' is for real, Rocky Suhayda, chairman of the American Nazi Party, told CNN. David Duke, a longtime leader of Ku Klux Klan movements, and Richard Spencer, a white nationalist who runs the National Policy Institute, were among the leading alt-right figures to praise Bannon's appointment. In remarks published in the New York Times on Tuesday, Bannon ascribed his interest in populism and American nationalism to a desire to curb what he views as the corrosive effects of globalization. He rejected what he called the "ethno-nationalist" tendencies of some in the movement. "It's not that some people on the margins, as in any movement, aren't bad guys - racists, anti-Semites. But that's irrelevant," he told the Times. Political commentator Armstrong Willliams, a close associate of former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson, said Bannon was "one of the finest and most honorable people I've ever met" and not bigoted in any way. The Trump campaign had been struggling to manage Trump's unconventional candidacy when Bannon took over. He stayed behind the scenes and devised the strategy for the final days of the campaign that kept Trump on message and enabled him to upset Clinton in crucial states such as Michigan. It was Bannon and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, who invited three women who accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault to attend a presidential debate in hopes of unnerving Hillary Clinton. Bannon, looking typically unkempt with mussed hair and stubbly chin, grinned from the back of the room as Trump and the women held their pre-debate news conference. "Bannon is a legitimately sinister figure," Ben Shapiro, who had been editor-in-chief of Breitbart under Bannon, wrote in August on the dailywire.com conservative news website which he founded. "He is a vindictive, nasty figure ... He will attempt to ruin anyone who impedes his unending ambition and he will use anyone bigger than he is - for example, Donald Trump - to get where he wants to go," Shapiro wrote. ANTI-SEMITISM ACCUSATIONS While Bannon was at Breitbart, it had stories with headlines such as "Birth control makes women unattractive and crazy," "Political correctness protects Muslim rape culture" and "Hoist it high and proud: The Confederate flag proclaims a glorious heritage." The site's pro-Trump agenda featured speculative stories questioning Hillary Clinton's health and accusing her close aide Huma Abedin of being a Saudi spy. Bannon was charged with domestic violence and battery in 1996 after his then-wife, Mary Louise Piccard, said he grabbed her by the throat and arm during an argument. The case was dropped when she did not appear in court. In 2007 Piccard said in court documents Bannon did not like the school the girls attended because it had too many "whiny brat" Jewish students. Bannon had a varied and profitable career before joining Breitbart. He earned degrees from Virginia Tech, Georgetown University and Harvard Business School and served four years in the Navy. It was his Navy experience, he said, that led him to shed his family's Democratic allegiance and become an admirer of Republican Ronald Reagan. He was at Goldman Sachs before starting his own investment firm, which specialized in media. Through negotiating a studio sale, he obtained a stake in the royalties for the popular television show "Seinfeld," a money-making powerhouse in syndication. He was an executive producer of the feature movies "Titus" and "The Indian Runner" before producing, directing or writing conservative-oriented documentaries such as "Clinton Cash" about the Clinton Foundation, "Generation Zero" about the global economic crisis of 2008-2009 and "The Undefeated" on former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. (Reporting by Bill Trott; Additional reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Howard Goller)
Barack and Michelle Obama look exactly like they did at their 90s wedding and awww

Barack and Michelle Obama have been married for 24 years this October.

In 1989, Michelle Robinson was assigned to mentor summer associate Barack Obama at the Chicago law firm Sidley & Austin.

(She was his boss!! Michelle Obama for President? Sadly, no.



)

Shortly after their first meeting, they went on their first date.

We spent the whole day together, Michelle told the Washington Post. The date sounds like a microcosm of the two would come to represent for all Americans: stewards of the arts and community, enthusiasts of lifes finer pleasures, and passionate about social justice.

They lunched in the courtyard of the Art Institute of Chicago, toured the museum, had a drink on the 99th floor of the John Hancock building, and saw Spike Lees Do the Right Thing. The rounded out the night with a long walk down Michigan Avenue.

He showed all the sides, she said in a video. He was hip. Cutting edge. Cultural. Sensitive

Now, entering their 25th year of marriage, Barack and Michelle Obama still looks almost exactly like they did at their wedding.

barack and michelle obama on their wedding day (1992) pic.twitter.com/pVlh20y8Bt  dead boyfriend (@unsmokabIe) November 11, 2016

Strong as individuals, solid as a couple.

We take their apparent respect for each other, support of each others passions and career aspirations, and love of family to be signs that LOVE is more than a four letter word. Its the road to eternal life.

From our family to yours, happy New Year! May 2016 be filled with happiness and joy. A photo posted by First Lady Michelle Obama (@michelleobama) on Jan 1, 2016 at 1:46pm PST

We think theyve been drinking from the fountain of youth.

And were pretty sure that just means smiling a lot, laughing a lot, remaining positive, and saying I Love You, as often as possible.

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55 years young and that smile still gets me every single day. Happy birthday, Barack. I love you. -mo A photo posted by First Lady Michelle Obama (@michelleobama) on Aug 4, 2016 at 7:34am PDT

So, drink! And be young!

The post Barack and Michelle Obama look exactly like they did at their 90s wedding and awww appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Barbara Boxer is retiring at the end of the current term, but that isnt stopping her from introducing one last big bill. Californias junior U.S. senator will introduce long-shot legislation today to abolish the Electoral College, which would leave the choosing of a president to the popular vote.

In my lifetime, I have seen two elections where the winner of the general election did not win the popular vote, Boxer said in a statement. When all the ballots are counted, Hillary Clinton will have won the popular vote by a margin that could exceed 2 million votes, and she is on track to have received more votes than any other presidential candidate in history except Barack Obama.  The Electoral College is an outdated, undemocratic system that does not reflect our modern society, and it needs to change immediately. Every American should be guaranteed that their vote counts. Check out the latest state-by-state popular-vote count below.

RelatedElectoral College Tally: Most States Called As Donald Trump Wins Presidency

Boxers legislation would require a 28th amendment to the U.S. Constitution  the first since 1992, the year before she took office. Three-fourths of the states would need to ratify the bill within seven years after its passage in Congress.

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When you reach 65, you face an important milestone: You are now eligible for Medicare.

Contrary to popular belief, Medicare is not free, and it's important to understand the ins and outs of Medicare before you sign up. Making the wrong choices can be expensive.

Even if you've been on Medicare for years, you may want to re-evaluate your options annually to make sure you've got the right plan. The annual open enrollment period, during which you can switch Medicare plans, runs Oct. 15 through Dec. 7.

[Read: Medicare Enrollment Deadlines You Shouldn't Miss.]

"I think everyone should consider switching," says Lita Epstein, author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Social Security and Medicare." "Plans change, benefits change and the premiums change."

It's especially important to re-evaluate your options if you have a Medicare Part D drug plan or a Medicare Advantage plan because those plans can change significantly from year to year, dropping and adding drugs and doctors or changing copays and deductibles. "Even if they're completely happy with their plan, they have to look because things change," says Diane J. Omdahl, founder and Medicare expert at 65 Incorporated, which helps people choose Medicare coverage.

Medicare plans are actually broken into multiple parts:

-- Part A covers hospital care, skilled nursing, hospice and some home health care. If you or your spouse has at least 10 years of Social Security work history, this part is free. If you don't have that work history, it can be up to $413 per month. Your premium amount is determined by how many Social Security work credits you have.

-- Part B covers doctor visits, preventive care, outpatient care and hospitals, and some home health care. In 2017, this part will average $109 a month for most Medicare beneficiaries whose incomes are $85,000 a year or less ($170,000 for a couple) and up to $428.60 for those whose annual income exceeds $214,000 ($428,000 for a couple). About 30 percent of beneficiaries will pay $134 per month, up from $121.80 in 2016. Most people find they need a Medigap plan in addition to parts A and B.

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-- Part C is also known as a Medicare Advantage plan. It substitutes for parts A and B and, in most cases, Part D, the drug plan. Premiums range from zero dollars to more than $100 a month, varying by location and coverage. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the average premium in 2017 will be $31.40, down slightly from 2016.

-- Part D covers prescription drugs. Premiums are about $15 to $50 per month, with the average in 2017 expected to be $34 per month, up about $1.50 from the previous year.

The first big decision Medicare beneficiaries must make is whether to go with traditional Medicare (parts A, B and D) or a Medicare Advantage plan (Part C). Medicare Advantage plans have lower premiums, but they usually require members to get their care only from network doctors and hospitals. Both options have deductibles, copays and coinsurance, where you pay a percentage of the bill. "They look at their lives, they look at their health, they look at their pocketbooks, and they chose the parts they want," Omdahl says.

Those who choose traditional Medicare usually add a Medigap policy, which is a supplemental policy that covers what Medicare doesn't. There are 10 types of Medigap policies, offered by private insurers or via groups such as AARP, and costs vary considerably, based on gender, age, health, whether you smoke, location and company.

"You can go through your life with just A and B, but the out-of-pocket costs will get you," Omdahl says. The reason is Medicare lacks a maximum for out-of-pocket costs. But with a Medigap policy, most of those costs are covered.

[See: 10 Medical Services Medicare Doesn't Cover.]

About 32 percent of Americans are expected to choose Medicare Advantage plans next year, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Those plans, a combination of HMOs and PPOs, have an out-of-pocket limit, and the average out-of-pocket limit was $5,223 in 2016, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Customers tend to pay more in copays and coinsurance than they do with traditional Medicare, plus have access to fewer doctors and hospitals. Some of the plans include vision, dental and hearing coverage, which is not covered by traditional Medicare, but those services are offered from a limited network of providers. "If you're healthy and you're younger ... it can be cheaper," Epstein says. "If you absolutely can't afford to take a Medigap supplement, a Medicare Advantage plan is going to be the best option."

Her advice to those who can afford it, however, is to choose traditional Medicare with a supplement because that option offers greater access to top specialists and doesn't require the insurance company to approve specific treatments. "Managed health care is going to be managed by the insurance company," she says.

"It's very, very important that you look at those copays and compare them," Epstein says. "By the time you figure in one hospitalization, it's about the same," she says of the total cost of traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans.

No matter what your retirement age, you become eligible for Medicare when you turn 65 and you can sign up the three months before your birthday, your birth month and the three months after. If you don't sign up during this seven-month period, even if you're still working, you may face a long-term penalty. "They cannot wait until the last minute because of the backlog at Social Security," Omdahl says.

She warns those signing up for Medicare to pay attention or they may be enrolled in a plan they don't want. Insurance companies are allowed to sign current customers up for their Medicare Advantage plan unless they specifically say they don't want the plan. To opt out, they have to respond to a letter from their current carrier, which can easily get lost in all the ads for new Medicare members.

"Anybody turning 65 will tell you that your mailbox is not big enough for all the insurance mail that you get," Omdahl says. This practice, called "seamless conversion," has existed for a while, but more insurance companies appear to be using it, she says.

If you start with traditional Medicare and a Medigap supplement, your supplement rate is not based on your health record. But if you start with a Medicare Advantage plan and then switch to traditional Medicare later, the company offering the supplemental coverage will base your premium on your health history and may even deny coverage. "It's a real risk because everybody's going to get something as they get older," Epstein says.

[See: Medicare Out-of-Pocket Costs You Should Expect to Pay.]

Americans who are very low income may be eligible for extra help with Medicare premiums and health care costs. Beneficiaries in this financial situation can find additional guidance from Medicare.gov.

The system is complex, and most people should seek help when choosing a plan. The U.S. News Best Medicare Plans site can help you navigate the options and get the right medical coverage, and you can also find information at Medicare.gov and AARP.org. If you're considering several Medicare Advantage plans, call the company that offers each one to verify that the coverage is what you think it is.

You can find ratings of Medicare Advantage plans from the National Committee for Quality Assurance. You can also get phone or in-person help from your State Health Insurance Assistance Programs. Those agencies often maintain office hours at senior centers or other locations. U.S. News also highlights the Best Medicare Advantage Plans and Best Medicare Part D Plans.

Teresa Mears writes about personal finance, real estate and retirement for U.S. News and other publications. She's also written for MSN Money, The Miami Herald, The New York Times and The Boston Globe. She publishes Living on the Cheap and Miami on the Cheap. Follow her on Twitter @TeresaMears.
Brussels (AFP) - Several thousand Belgian military personnel on Tuesday marched in the streets of Brussels over a rise in the pension age, at times clashing with police.

Authorities said 8,500 off-duty soldiers protested in the historic centre of the city, with riot police firing water cannon after receiving projectiles of smoke bombs and firecrackers from the protestors.

For the past year, Belgian military personnel have worked around the clock guarding government and EU buildings with Brussels under high alert after the deadly terror attacks in Paris in November 2015 and Brussels last March.

The government last month announced an increase in the pension age for soldiers to at least 63 years old from the current 56.

The protest landed on the King's Feast, an official holiday for soldiers who are banned from striking in Belgium.
Berlin (AFP) - From sculptors to actors and filmmakers, Berlin has become a magnet for Syrian artists fleeing their country's brutal violence to a place where they can express themselves without fear.

While Beirut and Paris have long been the destinations of choice for Arab artists, the German capital has in recent years earned a reputation as a more adventurous, progressive alternative for exiled creators.

As well as offering affordable spaces to live and work, Berlin is "the city of anarchy and rock", says Ziad Adwan, an actor and director who arrived two years ago after spells in jail back home.

Once divided by its infamous wall, reunification energised Berlin as young people who grew up yearning to escape the stifling former East Germany met West German peers who had moved to the city for its special status that exempted them from military service.

The combination produced an open-minded atmosphere -- and an uninhibited party culture -- that continues to lure artists from all over the world.

Syrians have proved to be no exception.

"The Berlin cultural scene has certainly taken on a new tone," says Syrian Ali Kaaf, who has lived in Berlin for the past 16 years and teaches at the well-regarded Weissensee fine arts school.

He helps around 20 refugee students each semester to find places in art schools, put together portfolios or recreate those lost in the chaos of their escape and arduous journey to Europe.

- 'Just like Damascus' -

Once the essentials of life -- having a place to sleep and food to eat -- are out of the way, many of the new arrivals find themselves among familiar faces.

"Some of my students from the Damascus drama school where I used to teach now live in refugee homes," says Adwan.

"It's just like Damascus here," agrees photographer and journalist Doha Hassan, who has found old friends and acquaintances from the Syrian capital among her 600,000 compatriots who have fled to Germany since the war broke out in 2011.

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Still, Egyptian Basma El-Husseiny says that "it can be very hard for those who have just arrived to find their way" to resuming their studies or exhibiting works in German institutions.

An activist with two decades of experience in the arts, she founded the charity Action for Hope that helps refugee artists through the thicket of German bureaucracy.

Meanwhile, Adwan and German publisher Mario Muenster have come together to produce an English-language magazine, A Syrious Look, aimed at linking up the new Syrian diaspora with young German artists.

- Out in the open -

What refugee artists have to express is often marked by the war within Syria's borders -- and by their own experiences on the long road to escape that conflict.

Under Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the ruling Baath Party ideology was forced on art schools, and some artists say the institutions were also riddled with corruption.

"Artists used to use symbols" to criticise the powerful for fear of the censors, Adwan says. "Today, they can just try things out openly."

One of the works by artist Sulafa Hijazi shows a woman's naked body, supine and legs splayed as she gives birth to a rifle.

Another illustration features a skull-topped sewing machine stitching red thread into a camouflage uniform.

Some creatives have gone through subtler transformations.

"I used to write dark, depressing pieces," muses Rasha Abbas, a writer who won a grant from a foundation in Stuttgart.

"It seems strange but since I'm here, my writing is full of humour," she says, a smile playing across her face framed by waves of dark hair.

Some comfort on the path into an unknown future is the fact that they are living in a city, Berlin, which has had to reinvent itself from scratch.

"Damascus today is how Berlin was at the end of the war," Muenster says.

"No one can imagine that Damascus could be a capital of culture in 50 years, but no one could have imagined that for Berlin in 1945."
Stephen Colbert welcomed Bernie Sanders to The Late Show on Tuesday night, telling the Vermont senator he was the person Colbert had most wanted to chat with since the election.

After walking out to an enthusiastic crowd - who chanted "Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!" - Sanders immediately fell solemn when the CBS host asked how he was doing, now living in a president-elect Donald Trump world.

"It's been a tough week," said Sanders.

Saying it's easy to condemn and harder to convince, Colbert asked Sanders if he thought there was crossover anger between his supporters and Trump's. While Hillary Clinton is currently winning the popular vote, the 2016 election saw the highest third-party vote total in 16 years, according to the Wall Street Journal - a reflection of voter dissatisfaction with both major-party candidates.

"Above and beyond the incredible bigotry of the Trump campaign, what he did is he tapped into a lot of pain and anxiety, and angst the American people are feeling," Sanders said, adding that it's rarely reported in the media or understood by the punditry. He then spoke of the millions of disenfranchised Americans, from senior citizens to single mothers and college graduates, who are dealing with low bank accounts and bleak futures. "That is the reality of America we do not talk about. I talked about it as much as I could, and Trump talked about it."

Read more: Jon Stewart Goes to His Post-Election Happy Place on 'Full Frontal'

He continued. "At the end of the campaign, Trump was posing as a 'hero of the working-class America.' I happen not to believe him, I hope I'm wrong and that he does follow through on some of his ideas of creating jobs and raising wages."

About the anti-Trump protests sweeping the nation, Sanders said the demonstrations are an exercise of constitutional rights, but what remains most important now is: Where do we go from here?

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"This is our reality," he said, pausing to announce, to cheers, how Clinton ended up with 2 million more votes than Trump. "So don't see this as a massive success for Trump." Adding that Trump will be entering the White House as the "least popular candidate" in history, Sanders said the job now is to create an effective opposition.

"The truth is, Democrats should not be losing to a candidate who insults so many people, who wants to give huge tax breaks to the top two-tenths of 1 percent and who rejects climate change," he said. "How are we losing these elections? Something is fundamentally wrong and what I'm trying to do right now is to bring about structural changes in the Democratic party so that it becomes a grass-roots party."

Sanders, who last visited Late Show when he was running against Clinton in the Democratic primaries, also touted his new book, Our Revolution (out Nov. 15).

"Now more than ever, Our Revolution," said Sanders to cheers when Colbert asked if he would change the headline after the results.

We updated your book cover for you, @BernieSanders #LSSC pic.twitter.com/lodJn9MaOI

- The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) November 15, 2016

He then told Colbert that the Democratic party cannot continue to be run by the "liberal elite."

"The party has got to transform itself to be a party that opens the door, that feels the pain of working-class people, of the middle class, of low-income, of young people," he said. "[One] that brings people into the party."

Read more: Stephen Colbert Jokes About Donald Trump Receiving Trojan Horse From Putin in Recut '60 Minutes' Interview

Espousing that Trump's beliefs are the "minority," he stressed that people now need to get involved in the political process: "When millions of people stand up and fight back, we will not be denied."

Colbert closed by asking Sanders his opinion on both the best- and worst-case scenarios of Trump's presidency. For the best, Sanders said Trump is not an ideologue. For the worst, he told Colbert he couldn't keep his answer light, even though he was speaking on late-night TV.

With Republicans poised to control the White House and Supreme Court, in addition to the House and the Senate, Sanders warns against the GOP changing the rules so the "billionaire businessmen" control elections and work "more vigorously for voter suppression."

"This country is not an oligarchy, it's a democracy," he said. "You're not going to split us up by attacking our Muslim friends or our gay friends or women, or anybody else. We're going to stand together and fight for a government and an economy that works for all of us."

On Thursday, only two days after Election Day, the 75-year-old senator said he wouldn't rule out a run in 2020.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont stopped by The Late Show With Stephen Colbert to discuss Americas future now that Donald Trump is going to be president. Bernie had some positive things to say about Trump, but when Stephen asked him for a worst-case scenario, Bernies predictions were grim.

The senator went on to explain how a Republican-controlled Senate, House of Representatives, White House, and possibly Supreme Court could change the rules to make it easier for Republicans to continue winning elections. For example, Bernie said, They will move forward more vigorously in voter suppression. Making it harder for poor people, for old people, for people of color to actually vote. He also said that the GOP could do away with campaign finance laws, making it even easier for extremely wealthy people and corporations to influence elections.

It wasnt all bad news, though: Bernie also let people know what they can do now, saying, What you do is get involved heavily into the political process. When millions of people stand up and fight back, we will not be denied.

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. on CBS.

Watch Stephen Colbert break down Trumps possible cabinet members:

Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram  or leave your comments below. And check out our host, Cynthia LuCiette, on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
Bernie Sanders may have lost the Democratic presidential primary to Hillary Clinton, but in the wake of the election of Republican Donald Trump the Vermont senator is looking pretty prescient. A self-described Democratic Socialist, Sanders ran for the Democratic nomination on a platform specifically geared toward the working class and those who feel theyve been left behind as economic changes have disproportionately benefited the wealthy and privileged.

Trump won, in part, because he was able to convince many of those voters that he was on their side, and according to Sanders that means its time for a thorough overhaul of the Democratic Party and its message.

Related: Here's How to Make the Electoral College Work Again

With a new book called Our Revolution just out, Sanders is making the rounds of radio and television outlets promoting his vision. But he is also taking action by wading into the ongoing discussion about the future of the party -- specifically by supporting young, new leadership at the Democratic National Committee.

Over the years, the Democratic Party has become a party more concerned with raising money from wealthy individuals than they have been about bringing working people into the party and taking on the billionaire class, taking on Wall Street, taking on the drug companies or the insurance companies, Sanders said in an interview with the BBC.

And the Democratic Party has not been strong in standing up for the needs of working families and I think people are saying well, Democrats havent done it for us let me try this guy Trump and well see how he does. I am working right now to find and support new leadership for the Democratic Party and an entire new process by which we welcome working people and young people into the party.

Sanders push for change comes at a time when Democratic lawmakers, who will be virtually powerless in Congress next year, have shown little interest in changing their own leadership. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, of California, is expected to retain her post, and New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, long expected to succeed retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, appears set to do just that.

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Related: How a Surprising Twist in the Latino Vote Gave Florida to Trump

But Sanders is focusing on a major shake-up of the partys organizing committee by backing Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison to chair the DNC -- an organization that, hacked emails last summer revealed, had covertly put its thumb on the scales during the primary, to the benefit of Hillary Clinton. An African American and a Muslim with a very liberal political orientation, Ellison would be a dramatic departure from the type of centrist typically elected to the post.

I think it's time for a fundamental reassessment, Sanders said in a separate interview with National Public Radio. I think what that reassessment has got to entail is to understand that we cannot have a party that will win, if we continue to become dependent on big money interests and campaign fundraisers all over this country.

At the same time that the Democrats are reorienting themselves with the electorate, Sanders said, they need to be diligent in opposition to many of the policies Trump has proposed, even as they remain willing to work with him on others.

What we will hold him accountable for is that he went to the American people and he said, You know what? I am going to be a champion of the American working class. Im worried that your wages are too low, that you dont have enough jobs, that unemployment in minorities communities is too high, Sanders told the BBC.

Related: Trumps Kids Are on His Transition Team: A Serious Conflict of Interest?

Well, were going to hold him accountable and we are going to develop policies, that I hope he will support, which address the fact that the middle class in this country is in decline, that we have massive levels of income and wealth inequality, that, in fact, youth unemployment in minority communities is outrageously high. So, I look forward to working with him if he is going to be honest and consistent with his campaign rhetoric on improving the economy for working families, were going to oppose him vigorously in terms of his bigotry.

On Trumps other priorities, he said, We have got to rally millions of people to stand together to say that were not going to be deporting millions of Latinos from this country, people who have in some cases lived here for years. Aint going to happen. Were not going to allow it to happen.

Were not going to allow women to be insulted and attacked and have their rights taken away from them, rights they have fought for. The right to choose, the right to control their own bodies. Were not going to allow Trump and his friends to take those rights away that women have struggled for literally for centuries.

When it was pointed out that Democrats will have little leverage in those fights -- Trump has the White House, Republicans hold both houses of Congress, and Trumps next selection for the Supreme Court will likely tip the majority to the courts conservative wing -- Sanders said he recognized that it would not be easy.

The only way that we can stop it is to bring millions of people together to make it clear to Trump and his allies that they will pay a very, very heavy political price if they go forward in policies that the American people dont want. Our job is to oppose him vigorously.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Bernie Sanders advised those who object to Donald Trumps political views to fight back during an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on Monday.

The former presidential candidate reminded viewers that Trump won the election but lost the popular vote, saying, the vast majority of the American people are on our side. Trumps views are a minority.

What you do now is get heavily involved in the political process, he said. When millions of people stand up and fight back, we will not be denied.

Also Read: Democrats Believe Facebook Contributed to Hillary Clinton's Loss To Donald Trump

Sanders comments came after days of protests in cities across the country by those who were upset by the outcome of last weeks presidential election. Large, mostly peaceful gatherings were reported in cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Boston, Seattle, Portland and Atlanta.

The Vermont senator also had advice for the Democratic party following their surprise loss: The Democrats cannot continue to be run  the Democratic party  by what I call the liberal elite, he said.

Also Read: How Steve Bannon Made a Fortune Off of 'Seinfeld'

The party has got to transform itself to be a party which  first of all, opens the door. That is the party that feels the pain of working class people, of middle class, of low income people, of young people  That brings people into the party, Sanders continued.

Elsewhere in the episode, Colbert mocked the president-elects lengthy 60 Minutes interview from Sunday, comparing Trumps relationship to Russias Vladimir Putin to the story of the Trojan Horse from Greek mythology.

Watch that clip below.

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Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders made an appearance on CBSs The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Monday evening, his first guest interview with Colbert since President-elect Donald Trump was announced last week as the U.S. presidential winner. Sanders met with Colbert to promote his new book, Our Revolution, which debuts Tuesday.

Now that the results of the election are in, any thoughts about changing the title of the book? Colbert quipped, not wasting any time.

Now, more than ever, Our Revolution Sanders, who lost to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, responded. The initial exchange set the tone for the 5-minute late-night television spot.

Sanders spoke to his sense of optimism despite the end of his campaign and discussed his hopes for the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party cannot be continued to run by, what I call, a liberal elite, Sanders said.

The former Democratic presidential candidate went on to clarify that the party needs to transform itself to be one that opens the door, to the working and middle classes and young people.

Trumps views are a minority. People do not think we should give tax breaks to billionaires  they do believe we should raise the minimum wage and have pay equity for women, he said.

Sanders urged people to become more involved in the political process, moving forward. Stand together and fight for a government and an economy that works for all of us, he said. When millions of people stand up and fight back, we will not be denied.

Sanders said in an op-ed piece last week in the New York Times that he would keep "an open mind to see what ideas Mr. Trump offers" and expressed an interest in seeing how the two could work together in the future.

"He would do well to heed the views of progressives," Sanders wrote of Trump. "If the president-elect is serious about pursuing policies that improve the lives of working families, I'm going to present some very real opportunities for him to earn my support."

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Senator Bernie Sanders stopped by The Late Show on Monday to discuss what led to Hillary Clintons loss in the 2016 presidential election, and to share his vision for the future.

Sitting across from Stephen Colbert, the 75-year-old Vermont senator discussed similarities between his campaign and Donald Trumps, his vision for an overhaul of the Democratic party, and above all, how people can still influence the President-elect.

So our job, right now, and this is terribly important at this moment what you do now is get heavily involved in the political process, Sanders said. When millions of people stand up and fight back we will not be denied.

He closed by arguing for solidarity. Youre not going to split us up by attacking our Muslim friends or our gay friends or women or anybody else. Were going to stand together and fight for a government and an economy that works for all of us, he said echoing talking points from his campaign.

Watch the two clips of the interview below.

Sanders book Our Revolution was released Tuesday.
UPDATED with video: The Democratic party cannot continue to be run by the liberal elites, Bernie Sanders told Stephen Colbert on The Late Show, after what he called a tough week. The return of Bernie was a big hit with Colberts crowd, whod likewise been put through the wringer last week; at one point in a two-segment interview they began chanting, Bernie! Bernie! Bernie! [You can see the second segment below].

The Vermont senator agreed with Colbert there was a common thread between his Democratic bid for the White House and that of our now incoming POTUS Donald Trump.

Above and beyond incredible bigotry of the Trump campaign, what he did is he tapped into a lot of pain and anxiety and angst the American people are feeling, which is rarely reported in the media, or understood by the punditry, Sanders scolded.

The fact is there are millions of people in this country whose life expectancy is lower than their parents, they are living in despair. They are turning to alcohol, drugs and suicide because they see no future for themselves. Youve got 60-year-old workers today who are facing retirement with zero savings, Sanders said, reiterating his campaign talk.

At the end of the campaign, Trump was posing as a hero of the working class of America. I happen not to believe him, Sanders said. I hope Im wrong, and he does follow through on some of his ideas about creating jobs sand raising wages.

Going forward, the Democratic party has got to position itself better as a feeler of pain for the working class, Sanders said. The vast majority of the American people are on our side, he added, insisting Trumps views are a minority. People do not think we should give tax breaks to billionaires.

They do believe we should raise the minimum wage and have pay equity for women. They do believe we should make public colleges and universities tuition free. So our job, right now, and this is terribly important at this moment.What you do now is get heavily involved in the political process. When millions of people stand up and fight back we will not be denied.

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Here is the second segment of the Sanders interview:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyTwoBIo8kQ&w=620&h=340]

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Which cruise is right for you?

According to the Cruise Lines International Association, the largest cruise industry trade organization in the world, a rising number of travelers are choosing cruise vacations. The association predicted that 24 million people would take their vacations to the sea in 2016, and that number is only expected to increase in 2017. As demand heightens, so do travelers' cruising choices. To help you wade through the options and determine which cruise line best caters to your needs and budget, U.S. News evaluated 15 top ocean liners, using health scores and expert and passenger ratings, among other factors. Read on to find out which cruise lines came out on top.

Best Cruise Lines for the Money

Celebrity Cruises debuts as the No. 1 Best Cruise Line for the Money in 2017. Though its fleet is smaller than some of its competitors, Celebrity's ships offer personalized service and an average ship capacity of fewer than 2,700 passengers. Plus, the line offers big-ship amenities, such as outdoor movie screens and children's programming, while keeping rates as low as $100 per person, per night. Royal Caribbean International comes in at No. 2 and Norwegian Cruise Line ranks No. 3 on the Best Cruise Lines for the Money list.

Best Cruise Lines for Families

For the fourth consecutive year, Disney Cruise Line tops the list of Best Cruise Lines for Families. The line's character deck parties and specialized kids clubs are sure to please the younger crowd, while exclusive adults-only areas give parents a place to unwind after a day of activities. Other family favorites include the No. 2-ranked Royal Caribbean International and the No. 3-ranked Carnival Cruise Lines.

Best Cruise Lines for Couples

If you're hoping to sail away with your sweetheart, look no further than Crystal Cruises, which is this year's No. 1 Best Cruise Line for Couples. Twosomes can take advantage of all-inclusive stateroom amenities, such as feather beds, Frette terry cloth robes and complimentary wine and spirits. Plus, you can up the romance factor by splurging on couples spa treatments and specialty private dining. Other high-ranking cruise lines for romance include Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises, which rank as the No. 2 and No. 3 Best Cruise Lines for Couples, respectively.

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Best Cruise Lines in the Caribbean

Disney Cruise Line also claims the Best Cruises Line in the Caribbean title. Not only does Disney travel to more than 15 Caribbean destinations, its ships also sail to its own private island -- Castaway Cay in the Bahamas. Cruisers can choose from itineraries to other popular ports of call in places such as Cozumel, Mexico, Jamaica and Puerto Rico, as well as lesser-known islands, including Grenada and Curacao. Celebrity Cruises takes the No. 2 spot and Crystal Cruises sails in at No. 3 on the Best Cruise Lines in the Caribbean ranking for 2017.

Best Cruise Lines in the Mediterranean

Celebrity Cruises is the No. 1 Best Cruise Line in the Mediterranean for 2017. The line's mid-size ships sail to beloved European destinations, including Santorini, Greece, and Naples, Italy. After exploring popular Mediterranean ports of call, cruisers can dine at upscale eateries, which offer everything from French fare to juicy steaks, before retiring to their accommodations. Regent Seven Seas Cruises takes the No. 2 spot and Oceania Cruises claims the No. 3 spot on the Best Cruise Lines in the Mediterranean ranking for 2017.

Best Luxury Cruise Lines

Those looking to indulge should consider booking a vacation with the No. 1 Best Luxury Cruise Line, Crystal Cruises. Crystal provides a nearly 1-to-1 passenger-to-crew ratio, which means travelers can expect personalized service. Plus, more than half of the staterooms on the line's two ocean-going ships offer private verandas. What's more, those staying in penthouse suites receive personal butler service. Other luxurious lines include Regent Seven Seas Cruises, which takes the No. 2 spot, and Oceania Cruises, which claims the No. 3 spot on the Best Luxury Cruise Lines list.

Gwen Shearman is an editor/analyst for the Travel section at U.S. News. You can follow her on Twitter, connect with her on LinkedIn or email her at gshearman@usnews.com.
When Dave Chappelle referenced an event he'd attended at the White House in his momentous SNL monologue, he was talking about BET Presents Love & Happiness: An Obama Celebration. The concert special, hosted by Terrence J and Regina Hall, premieres tonight (Nov. 15) on BET at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

During the concert, which features a star-studded lineup boasting the likes of Common, Janelle Monae, The Roots and Usher, President Obama gave a shout-out to guest Chappelle. Thanking BET for taping the musical celebration, the president quipped to the comedian, "You got your block party. I've got my block party" - a reference to Chappelle's 2005 film, Dave Chappelle's Block Party.

Show highlights include Common and Yolanda Adams teaming up on his Academy Award-winning song "Glory," Bell Biv DeVoe spiriting the audience to its feet with the 1990 classic "Poison," Leslie Odom Jr. saluting President Obama with a Hamilton-esque rap and The Roots, De La Soul, Common and Jill Scott joining forces for a special Philadelphia meets New York-meets-Chicago moment. On hand to share thoughts on President Obama's legacy were actors Jesse Williams, Angela Bassett, Samuel L. Jackson and Bradley Cooper.
Photo credit: Getty

From Seventeen

A Snapchat account posing as the head of recruitment for a modeling agency is sending messages to teen girls and asking for photos of their bodies, the Belfast Telegraph reported.

A handful of young women in the United Kingdom reported receiving snaps from a person who went by the name Louise and said she worked at ACA Models, a modeling agency in Northern Ireland. The messages included:

"The reason I have added you, is because after looking at least one of your Instagram photos we have decided that you are suitable to model for our agency."

"We are offering between 450 and 55,000 a shoot depending on who we put you forward for." (That's $560 to $68,527.)

"In terms of different types of modelling we literally do every single type you could think of. Obviously the more you are interested in the better chance you have of getting jobs."

"This is a one-off opportunity and we are looking for 30 new models. This is purely based on a first come, first served basis."

"If you are interested, then please give me a message asap."

"Bear in mind the reason why we have added you to our company Snapchat account is because we are interested in you as well."

When girls responded, the Telegraph reported, "Louise" would reply asking for photos. If girls sent photos of their faces, she would ask for photos of their bodies.

If 'ACAmodels1' add you on snapchat DO NOT ACCEPT! This is some creep with no life. Obviously not the real @ACAmodels !!! pic.twitter.com/lry2pZSiMA - Leanne McDowell (@LeanneMcDowell_) November 13, 2016

If this sounds fishy to you, well, that's because it is fishy. The real ACA Models started received messages on Facebook asking if it was recruiting models on Snapchat. In response, the company posted a note on Facebook warning that "Louise" was not affiliated with ACA Models and that her messages were a scam.

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"We do not send out requests for people to join on any social media platform," the company wrote.

On Facebook, the company also notes that girls who receive the fraudulent messages should report them to the police.

Hannah Orenstein is a writer at Seventeen.com. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

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Bill OReilly exploded on live TV as he came to the defense of Fox News Tuesday morning, saying it is open season on the network.

Read: Megyn Kelly Speaks Out About Donald Trump's Anger, Roger Ailes' Come Ons With Dr. Phil

Ive had enough of it! The O'Reilly Factor host told CBS This Morning. It's a good place to work, all right? We do good work! We do honest work!

The former Inside Edition host vented his frustration after anchor Norah ODonnell asked if he had read his colleague Megyn Kellys new book, Settle For More.

Meanwhile, Kelly has been making the rounds on morning TV, promoting her new book in which she says she was sexually harassed by former Fox News honcho Roger Ailes. Ailes denies the allegations.

And O'Reilly says it's time to put the Ailes scandal to rest.

I'm not interested in litigating something that is finished that makes my network look bad, okay? Im not interested in making my network look bad at all. That doesn't interest me one bit, he said.

ODonnell was stunned by the sudden outburst and began fanning herself with papers on her desk. OReilly began to ebb the situation by saying he's known ODonnell for a long time and that she is Irish so she understands his temper. She said she was feeling the Irish heat.

OReilly said Kellys book does not interest him and it arrives as she is negotiating her Fox contract. Rumor has it that she wants to be on equal footing with him.

She danced around the topic on Good Morning America Tuesday morning, saying she "can easily stay at Fox. I can go anywhere I want.

Kelly told GMA that she was figuring out whether she would stay at the network or not.

Fox and Friends co-anchor Ainsley Earhardt spoke about the Kelly situation to Inside Edition, saying: We have moved on as a channel. The Murdochs have been extremely supportive of me and my career. I have had nothing but good experiences and sexual harassment is not tolerated."

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Read: Megyn Kelly Claims Ex-Fox News Boss Roger Ailes Offered to Boost Her Career for 'Sexual Favors'

In Kelly's new book, she writes that she was upset when O'Reilly refused to cancel an interview with Trump after the president-elect attacked her on Twitter.

"I watched as O'Reilly apologized to Trump, extolled the virtues of forgiveness and asked Trump to consider turning the other cheek. I felt a surge of anger and a surge of tears," she wrote.

Earhardt said she was sorry to hear that, adding, I wish her well. I wish everyone at Fox well.

Earhardt has a new childrens book out called Take Heart, My Child: A Mother's Dream, which is inspired by notes her dad wrote her as a child.

Watch: In Bizarre Interview, Newt Gingrich Tells Megyn Kelly: 'You Are Fascinated by Sex'

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By Richard Valdmanis BOSTON (Reuters) - Billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer, who has spent more than $140 million on fighting climate change, said on Tuesday he will spend whatever it takes to fight President-elect Donald Trump's pro-drilling and anti-regulation agenda. The former hedge fund manager from California is putting together a strategy that will "engage voters and citizens to fight back" once Trump takes the White House in January, he told Reuters in an interview. However, he stressed he was not planning to fight Trump through the courts. Instead, he would focus on "trying to present an opposite point of view and trying to get that point of view expressed, and communicated to citizens." Steyers pledge to fight Trump suggests an intensifying battle for U.S. public opinion on global climate change, an issue that has already divided many Americans, lawmakers, and companies between those who consider it a major global threat and those who doubt its existence. Other U.S. environmental groups are also preparing to resist Trumps agenda, with some vowing street protests and more established organizations that helped draft some of President Barack Obamas environmental regulations preparing to defend them in court. We have always been willing to do whatever is necessary," Steyer said, when asked how much money he was willing to spend to oppose Trump's agenda. Trump campaigned on a promise to drastically reduce environmental regulation and ease permitting for infrastructure, moves he said would breathe life into an oil and gas industry ailing from low prices, without harming U.S. air and water quality. He has also called climate change a hoax and has promised to cancel the Paris Climate Accord between nearly 200 nations to slow global warming, a deal he said would cost the U.S. economy trillions of dollars and put it at a disadvantage. While the approach has cheered the industry, it has sent shockwaves through the environmental movement, which is confronting the prospect of losing all progress it made during the Obama administration. Steyer, who had endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, called Trump's policies dangerous. Every single one of these things, whether it was getting rid of Paris or cutting back the EPA, we think are extremely dangerous to the security of every American," Steyer said. "We think it is based on willful ignorance of the facts and flies in the face of the realities facing the world. ARCTIC DRILLING Steyer's main political vehicle, NextGen Climate, on Tuesday called on the Obama administration to defy Trump's pro-drilling agenda by issuing an order permanently blocking all new drilling in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump has also promised to ask Canadian oil pipeline company, TransCanada Corp, to resubmit its application to build a pipeline into the United States that would link Alberta's vast oil sands to American refineries and ports on the Gulf Coast. The project, Keystone XL, had been rejected by the Obama administration after years of mass protests and lobbying by environmental organizations. Steyer said the project may no longer make sense since a slump in oil prices has reduced the profitability of oil sands production. Steyer, who four years ago left the hedge fund firm he co-founded to devote himself full-time to environmental activism, said young voter turnout in areas where NextGen focused its mobilization efforts during the 2016 campaign was up more than 20 percent from the last presidential election in 2012. "Did we get the president we want, absolutely not. Did we get a majority of clean energy supporters in the senate, no," Steyer said. "But in terms of what we did, and the strategy we took, we wouldnt do anything differently." NextGen poured nearly $69 million into its elections related programs during the presidential campaign, according to federal records compiled by OpenSecrets.org, slightly lower than the $74 million it spent during the mid-term congressional elections in 2014, when only two of the six candidates it supported won. (Reporting by Richard Valdmanis, editing by Ross Colvin)
Why are people still wearing blackface? (Photo: Snapchat)

It seems one student at Abilene Christian University in Texas has been skipping Bible study class, perhaps to watch old minstrel shows instead? According to the New York Daily News, a video of a female student in blackface was uploaded to Snapchat, sparking a backlash. The footage shows the student with black makeup on her face and a pair of big, red, fake lips, with the caption, this is why black lives matter exists.

Im a strong black woman, the student said as her cohorts laugh in the background.

The university has issued a statement denouncing the video and saying the students involved have been expelled. I cannot emphasize strongly enough that this kind of hurtful behavior has no place on our campus or on behalf of [Abilene Christian University]. Whether on social media or in person, we must hold ourselves to high standards of accountability for what we publish or say, University President Phil Schubert wrote. We must and can do better as we work together to build an inclusive, diverse campus community in which each person is respected and loved.

The university describes its culture as a values-based educational experience that is uniquely equipped to educate the next generation of Christian leaders  men and women ready to apply their faith to their field of study and their chosen vocation. The Bible, the guide for many Christians, includes several verses on how we should treat one another. It says in John 13:31: A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. Ridiculing people of color for their mere existence doesnt seem in line with the kind of Christian values the University champions.

This notion of loving one another seems to have escaped this particular student and another at a religious-affiliated college. At Xavier University, a Jesuit Catholic university in Cincinnati, a student hopped on Snapchat to post a photo of herself in blackface to mock Black Lives Matter. Who needs white when black lives matter? she captioned the image. Soon after, a lynching scene in which a skeleton dressed in a dashiki hanging from a noose with a Trump-Pence flag next to it appeared on campus.

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At the University of Central Arkansas, Sigma Tau Gamma member Charles Brock Denton dressed up as Bill Cosby and added blackface. Denton said in an apology, I am the farthest thing from discrimination [sic]. As a matter of fact, I fight for equality every day. I have been writing a book for two years on what it really means to be a good person  I am by no means better than anybody else. Social media has corrupted society in regard to heated controversial topics such as this. Perhaps in the research for that book, he failed to read up on the history of blackface, why it is so offensive and counterproductive to the very equality he says he is fighting for every day.

At Kansas State University, Paige Shoemaker decided to have a little fun with her LOreal clay facial mask, and Snapchatted a photo of herself and her brunette cohort with the caption, Feels good to finally be a nigga. Of course, Shoemaker and her homie issued an apology, saying, Ask anyone who knows us, we are the most accepting and least racist people. We know that we will ride up and learn from this mistake. We will be better  We know what we did was wrong.

With the many controversies of blackface on the Internet, it seems strange that college students, especially those who have been learning about United States history since elementary school, would continue to do it. How many expulsions and social media backlashes do people need to understand that this is unacceptable?

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TORONTO (Reuters) - Bank of Montreal said on Tuesday it had been named the first and only Canadian bank approved by the People's Bank of China to quote the Canadian dollar against the yuan as a market maker in the China Foreign Exchange Trade System. The approval was granted to BMO Capital Markets, the lender's investment and corporate banking arm, and came into effect on Monday. "The launch of direct trading between CAD and CNY promotes the use of Chinese and Canadian currencies in cross border trade and investment settlement," C.J. Gavsie, MD & Co-Head, Global Fixed Income, Currencies & Commodities & China Capital Markets at BMO Capital Markets, said in a statement. On Friday, the operator of China's forex trading platform said it would establish a direct trading pair between its yuan currency and the Canadian dollar in the interbank foreign exchange market from Nov. 14. Bank of Montreal said on Tuesday it also expects the move to spur bilateral trade. In September, Canada and China agreed to launch exploratory discussions for a possible Canada-China Free Trade Agreement. Last year, North America's first yuan hub was launched in Toronto to foster increased trade and investment activity with China, already Canada's second-largest trading partner. Activity at the hub has fallen short of the heightened levels expected at its launch and local banks should be doing more to spur growth, an Industrial and Commercial Bank of China executive said in April. (Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by David Gregorio)
(Reuters) - Boeing Co (BA.N), the world's biggest planemaker, said on Tuesday that it would cut 500 jobs over four years and shut two plants as it revamps its defence and space unit.

The company, which is shutting plants in El Paso, Texas and Newington, Virginia, said some jobs in Huntington Beach plant would move to El Segundo, Long Beach, and Seal Beach in Southern California.

Boeing also said many positions in Kent, Washington will move to nearby Tukwila.

The company said about 1,600 positions will move to Los Angeles County, California; 500 to St. Louis, Missouri and about 400 to Huntsville, Alabama as part of the consolidation. (http://bit.ly/2fuDKh2)

The changes related to job cuts and the consolidation were not material, a Boeing spokesman told Reuters.

The company also said it would create a new global operations group that would include its defence units in Australia, Saudi Arabia, and UK. The unit will he headed by David Pitchforth, managing director of the company's UK defence unit.

Boeing's defence, space and security business, which had about 48,000 employees as of Oct. 27, accounted for 31.4 percent of the company's total revenue of $23.9 billion in the latest quarter.

(Reporting by Ankit Ajmera and Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)
(Adds detail from United conference call, analyst comment)

By Alwyn Scott and Ankit Ajmera

SEATTLE/BANGALORE, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Boeing Co shares fell on Tuesday after United Continental Holdings said it will defer jetliner orders worth nearly $5 billion as part of a cost-saving drive.

The airline's decision affects Boeing's 737 jet, one of its biggest moneymakers, and raised some fears that Boeing may not lift 737 production as planned and could miss financial targets. The world's biggest plane maker said United's move would have no impact on production.

United, the No. 3 U.S. airline by passengers, said it will convert orders for 61 Boeing 737-700 planes due to be delivered in the next two years into the newer 737 MAX model, but that it was still deciding on which size MAX planes to order and when they would be delivered, creating uncertainty for Boeing investors.

United also will convert orders for four 737-700s to larger 737-800s due for delivery in 2017.

Boeing shares fell 1.8 percent in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange and were last down 1.6 percent at $147.56. United shares rose 3.4 percent to $65.08.

"We don't know when are they (the MAXs) going to come but they are going to come as 737 MAX, most likely MAX 8 or 9s," United Chief Financial Officer Andrew Levy said on a conference call with analysts.

"The reason we are doing this primarily is because we just don't need these airplanes right now."

BOEING STICKS TO PLAN

Boeing said United's move would not alter its planned increases in 737 production rates and stressed it continues to have orders for more 737s than it can produce. Boeing will keep the 737-700s on its books until United finalizes the MAX order.

United's orders "will switch over to MAXs on the order book when (the order is) finalized," Boeing spokesman Doug Alder said. Boeing's 737 order backlog of 4,321 airplanes "gives us the flexibility to meet those needs."

Boeing affirmed recent comments by Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg that 737 output will rise to 57 a month in 2019 from 42 a month currently with interim steps to 47 and 52 a month.

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"Importantly, even at the 57 per month rate, we continue to be oversold," Muilenburg had said on Oct. 26.

Some analysts said United's decision would only reduce the number of oversold jets, with no impact on output.

But others worried that converting 61 current-generation orders to MAX orders implied a production delay. Boeing's factory is phasing out current generation 737s as it switches to the MAX, which is due to enter service next year.

"It looks like 737 output will not grow as planned," said Richard Aboulafia, aerospace analyst at the Teal Group in Virginia. Boeing is already cutting production of the 777, its other cash cow, and 787 output is due to remain steady.

Hitting 52 a month "seems to be a slam dunk," Russ Solomon, analyst at Moody's Investors Service, said of Boeing's rate increases. But reaching 57 a month "remains more of a question mark."

He said Boeing is supposed to begin generating more cash from 787 production starting next year. Moody's was not altering its rating on Boeing.

"They actually have a bit of a 'rich' problem" on 737s, Solomon said. "They probably cannot deliver all of the planes they have committed to near term." (Reporting by Alwyn Scott; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Tom Brown)
Breaking: Making a Murderers Brendan Dassey will be released from prison

After spending nine years in prison for his part in the murder of Teresa Halbach, a judge has ordered Making a Murderers Brendan Dassey to be released from prison. Dasseys conviction was overturned back in September. An investigation determined that he was coerced into confessing his involvement in Halbachs murder.

For many who watched Making a Murderer, the coercion was very apparent and incredibly frustrating to watch.

After he was named as a suspect in the murder, Dassey spent an entire two days under interrogation. He was only 16 years old at the time. He wasnt granted a lawyer, parent supervision or access to any adult who would be able to help him deal with such a terrifying and stressful ordeal.

During the interrogation, Dassey admitted to being a co-conspirator in Halbachs rape and ultimate death. He later recanted his confession in a letter to the judge.

He was six months shy of turning 18, but was tried and sentenced as an adult.

A photo posted by Making a Murderer (@makingamurderernetflix) on Feb 16, 2016 at 1:07pm PST

U.S. District Judge William Duffin has issued the release order, but it looks like he wont be released right away.

Its not going to happen today, but we are very hopeful we will have Brendan home by Thanksgiving, if not sooner, Dasseys lawyer Steven Drizin said.

According to USA Today, Duffin outlined restrictions that Dassey wont be able to violate, or else hell be sent back to prison. He cant violate any laws and he has to appear for all court dates. He also must register as a sex offender and must allow probation officers into his home. And he cant have contact with Steven Avery or Halbachs family.

Its all so sad and so unfortunate, we just hope all the families involved have been able to find some sort of peace throughout the media circus.

The post Breaking: Making a Murderers Brendan Dassey will be released from prison appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Moscow (AFP) - A leader of France's far-right National Front said Tuesday that she welcomed reported plans by ultra-conservative US website Breitbart News to expand in France and support the party's presidential campaign.

Breitbart News, whose anti-elite, anti-immigration agenda has made it popular with fringe groups and white supremacists, is credited with helping propel Donald Trump to the White House.

Trump named the executive chairman of the platform, Steve Bannon, as the CEO of his campaign in August and then chief strategist in the White House at the weekend.

Marion Marechal-Le Pen, whose aunt Marine is the leader of the National Front (FN) and its presidential candidate, told AFP on Tuesday that she would be happy to work with Breitbart if they came to France.

"All alternative media are generally positive. Donald Trump is the demonstration of that... they're among the useful tools," the 26-year-old parliamentarian told AFP on a visit to Moscow.

She said there had been no talks with Breitbart, but the FN has had "some small contacts for some time" with the Trump campaign.

Bannon called Marechal-Le Pen a "rising star" in an interview with French website radio-londres.fr in July and said the news group was hoping to open a Paris bureau, or start a French version.

Breitbart editor-in-chief Alexander Marlow told The New York Times that the site's expansion would be linked to elections next year in Germany and France, where Breitbart intends to support Marine Le Pen.

"There's an under-served readership" in Europe, Marlow was quoted as saying in an article published on Sunday. "It's the same readers who had been ignored in Britain and had been ignored in the United States."

Marine Le Pen is expected to win around 30 percent of votes in the first round of presidential elections in May next year, according to polls.

She would then face a second-round run-off against a rival candidate, most likely from the centre-right, which she is expected to lose.

Story continues

Le Pen has worked hard to try to make the FN more acceptable to mainstream voters, shedding its overtly anti-Semitic and racist image under the party's former leader, her father Jean-Marie.

Her platform remains focused on restricting immigration, fighting against Islamic fundamentalism and withdrawing France from the European Union.

She welcomed Trump's stunning victory last week, saying his rise signalled the "building of a new world."

Marechal-Le Pen was speaking at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations during a trip to Russia, which has courted the FN and other populist anti-EU parties in Europe.

The National Front seeks closer ties between the West and the Kremlin and supported President Vladimir Putin after his annexation of Crimea in Ukraine in 2014.

Marechal-Le Pen said Russia was a historic friend to France on Tuesday and that most French people "did not understand the government's anti-Russian stance," according to her Twitter account.
London (AFP) - The British government insisted Wednesday that it has a plan for Brexit, after a leaked memo prepared by a consultancy firm warned it could take another six months to agree its negotiating strategy.

The memo, produced by Deloitte on its own initiative, also said civil servants are struggling to cope with more than 500 Brexit-related projects and an extra 30,000 extra staff may be needed to handle the workload.

Published on the front page of The Times newspaper, the memo highlighted splits in Prime Minister Theresa May's cabinet over the best way to implement the June referendum vote to leave the European Union.

Even though May intends to begin formal negotiations with Brussels by the end of March, and despite lengthy debate among officials, it said there was "no common strategy".

May's spokeswoman dismissed the memo, however, saying it was drawn up by an analyst with no preferential access to the government for a firm "touting for business".

"We don't recognise any of the claims made in the unsolicited memo prepared for an accountancy firm seeking to do business with government," she told reporters.

The government has so far refused to outline what it wants from the negotiations with the EU, saying it will not give a "running commentary".

Expressing frustration at the widespread media coverage the memo has received, May's spokeswoman insisted on Tuesday: "We do have a plan."

This involved creating the new Department for Exiting the European Union, which has a staff of 200 people, to "lead and coordinate these negotiations", she said.

The government was working through "all the various elements of our membership of European Union, issue by issue" and talking to the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

She said that would create a "body of evidence, forming then the decisions on what our negotiating objective should be," she said.

Story continues

The memo suggests that although each government department has developed plans to cope with Brexit, "this falls considerably short of having a 'government plan for Brexit' because it has no prioritisation and no link to the overall negotiation strategy".

It criticises the personal approach of May, a former interior minister who became prime minister after the referendum, accusing her of "drawing in decisions and details to settle matters herself".

In a statement, Deloitte confirmed the memo was not commissioned by the government and was intended "primarily for internal audiences".

"This work was conducted without access to No.10 or input from any other government departments," it said.

The memo also suggests big businesses are expected to "point a gun at the government's head" after the government assured carmaker Nissan that it would not lose out on investment after Brexit.
Britain's Royal Television Society has appointed Tom Mockridge, the CEO of U.K. cable giant Virgin Media, chair of its board of trustees.

His appointment is effective immediately. He succeeds ITN CEO John Hardie, who has reached the end of his term.

Virgin Media is owned by John Malone's Liberty Global. Mockridge previously worked for News Corp in various senior roles across the world. He started his career as a newspaper journalist in his native New Zealand, then worked in Australia.

Read more: Warner, NBCUniversal Executives Discuss Brexit at London TV Conference

In 1991 he joined News Corp, where he held positions in its TV operations across Australia, Asia and New Zealand and Europe. Among other roles, he served as deputy chairman of both BSkyB and Sky Deutschland.

The Royal Television Society also named a new vice chair, Simon Pitts, managing director of online, pay TV, interactive and technology at ITV. He tales over from Tim Davie, CEO of BBC Worldwide.

The organization said it is also searching for a new president to replace recently appointed ITV chairman Peter Bazalgette, who is stepping down after six years.

Said Mockridge: "I am delighted to join the Royal Television Society, champion of the global success story that is U.K. television. Together with new vice chair Simon Pitts, the board and RTS members, I look forward to supporting the growth of U.K. television, at home and internationally."

Theresa Wise, CEO of the RTS, said: "Tom has a strong record for managing and chairing media companies and extensive industry knowledge."

Read more: NBCUniversal CEO Calls Presidential Debate "Nerve-Racking," Lauds Moderator Lester Holt
DailyFX.com -

Talking Points

- PM Theresa May says that the UK can lead in transforming the modern world

- British Pound edges lower as leaked memo says that Brexit is fraught and challenging.

- UK looking for an off-the-shelf Brexit solution.

During a speech to the Lord Mayors Banquet, UK Prime Minister Theresa May said that the country should grasp the opportunities ahead and set a template for other countries to follow. Her positive speech however was undermined later when a leaked memo prepared for the Cabinet Office  seen by the BBC and The Times - said that the country still had no common exit strategy. According to the BBC, the government said it didnt recognize the claims made in the memo. According to the memo, preparations for Brexit will take another six months and may need an additional 30,000 extra staff to cope with the sheer volume of paperwork.

Prime Minister May hopes to trigger Article 50, starting the two-year process for leaving the European Union, by the end of March, a tight deadline if the memo is proved correct. The government is currently appealing a High Court ruling that Brexit needs to go through parliament before Article 50 can be triggered. The appeal is to be heard December 5  8 in the UK Supreme Court. Should the UK Supreme Court confirm the High Court ruling, it would further solidify the notion that a soft Brexit is the most likely outcome.

Mays speech at Monday nights Lord Mayors Banquet highlighted the UK PMs drive for free markets and free trade, an important area of discussion ahead of Brexit talks. After pointing out that the UK would continue to lead the way in pressing for an ambitious EU trade agenda while the UK remained members of the EU, the PM highlighted her vision for the future.

We will use the freedoms that come from negotiating with partners directly, to be flexible, to set our own rules and forge new and dynamic trading agreements that work for the whole UK, adding that, That is also why, in our negotiations on leaving the European Union, we are not trying to replicate the deal that any other country has with the EU. And we are not going for an off-the-shelf solution.

Story continues

Chart 1: EUR/GBP 4-hour Chart (September 28 to November 15)

British Pound Falters on Concerns that UK Brexit Plans are Incomplete

The British Pound slipped lower against a firm US Dollar to $1.2455 and fell just over one cent against the Euro. The US Dollar Index (DXY) continued to trade a fraction below 100, after hitting a nine month high on Monday.

Read more: Europe Slowly Coming Back into Focus as Traders Balance Trump & Fed Hike

--- Written by Nick Cawley, DailyFX Research

To contact Nick, email nick.cawley@ig.com



original source

DailyFX provides forex news and technical analysis on the trends that influence the global currency markets.

Learn forex trading with a free practice account and trading charts from FXCM.
London (AFP) - A British court ordered thousands of prison officers back to work on Tuesday, saying there had been incidents in prisons during their industrial action and calling the situation "very concerning".

Union leaders had called the 24-hour work stoppage saying the prison system was "in meltdown" but the government said the action was "unlawful" because guards are not allowed to go on strike.

The protest caused disruption in courts -- halting the high-profile murder trial in London of the man accused of killing MP Jo Cox -- after talks between union bosses and the government broke down.

Britain's largest prisons union, the Prison Officers Association (POA), directed its members to take part in the action over what it described as the "volatile and dangerous state of prisons".

But Justice Minister Liz Truss told MPs in the House of Commons: "The union's position is unnecessary and unlawful and it will make the situation in our prisons more dangerous."

The High Court later ruled against the union.

"A number of incidents have occurred in prisons today and the situation is very concerning indeed," read the ruling, which ordered the officers to return to work "forthwith".

Joe Simpson, assistant general secretary of the POA, said 10,000 members around the country were participating in the stoppage, but insisted it was "not a strike".

The union has around 30,000 members and there are around 85,000 prisoners in Britain.

Incidents of violence, self harm and deaths in custody have been "steadily rising", reaching "totally unacceptable" levels, he told AFP.

The protest comes after a series of recent incidents at British prisons including a riot involving up to 200 inmates, the fatal stabbing of an inmate, and the escape of two other prisoners.

The POA blamed the problems on "chronic staff shortages and impoverished regimes".

Story continues

"The continued surge in violence and unprecedented levels of suicide and acts of self harm, coupled with the recent murder and escapes demonstrate that the service is in meltdown," the union said in a statement.

Standing outside Pentonville prison in London, union member Dave Todd, said: "Our main concerns today are rises in violence... It's just not manageable any more".

Union members "have been suffering violence, physical violence, verbal violence, levelled at them".

Contacted by AFP following the court ruling, the POA said it was not changing its instruction to protesting prison officers.

A justice ministry spokesman said the government had addressed union concerns, including with an additional 2,500 frontline officers.
Paris (AFP) - Burundi's brutal regime has set the small central African country on a "descent into hell", a prominent human rights group said Tuesday, warning of the risk of genocide.

"Since April 2015, when large popular protests broke out against the decision of President Pierre Nkurunziza to seek a third term, Burundi has been in violent political crisis," the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) said.

"We must stop this descent into hell," said FIDH president Dimitris Christopoulos. "Let us act before it is too late."

In a 200-page report, the FIDH documented how state-sponsored violence and opposing rebel groups have perpetuated a cycle of violence.

"The crackdown by the security services and the (ruling party's youth wing) Imbonerakure... aims primarily at retaining power through any and all means," the report said.

More than 1,000 people have died and up to 800 are missing, said the report titled "Repression and Genocidal Dynamics in Burundi".

Some 8,000 are being held for political reasons and more than 300,000 people have fled the country, it added.

The FIDH, along with leading Burundian rights group the ITEKA League, spent two years investigating rights abuses in the country.

"All the criteria and conditions for the perpetrating of genocide are in place," the report said, listing "ideology, intent, security institutions... identifying populations to be eliminated, and the using of historical justifications."

Burundi suffered a brutal civil war from 1993 until 2006 between majority Hutus and minority Tutsis, which claimed an estimated 300,000 lives.

A failed coup in May 2015 was the "breaking point" after which the authorities adopted a "logic of systematic repression", the report said.

After Nkurunziza's re-election in July 2015, the repression deepened, it said, citing targeted killings and massive arbitrary detentions.

Story continues

In addition, ethnic Hutus in power "have sought to turn a political crisis into an ethnic one, equating 'opponents' and 'rebels' with Tutsis," the report warned.

Anschaire Nikoyagize, the now exiled president of the rights group, ITEKA League, said in a statement: "The crimes of the regime have become systematic... Crimes against humanity are occurring and there is a risk of genocide."

- 'Admission of guilt' -

Burundian government spokesman Willy Nyamitwe said FIDH was just engaging in "mud slinging and fabricating lies," adding that "there is no genocide in Burundi and neither any risk of it.

"This is yet another attack on the part of these so-called international organisations in the pay of those who want to destabilise the country," he said.

Burundi has become increasingly isolated from the international community, notably by withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The move came after ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said she was mulling a full investigation into allegations of murder, torture, rape and forced disappearances -- in what Bujumbura described as a "plot to do harm to Burundi".

The FIDH labelled Burundi's decision to quit the court as "an admission of guilt" by Nkurunziza's regime.

The ICC, created in 2002, is often accused of bias against Africa and has struggled with a lack of cooperation, including from the United States, which has signed the court's treaty but never ratified it.

Two other African countries, South Africa and the Gambia, have followed Burundi's lead and announced plans to withdraw from the court in recent weeks.
Ottawa (AFP) - Canada's attorney general announced Tuesday a move to repeal legislation used to effectively prosecute gay youths who engage in anal sex, calling it "discriminatory."

Section 159 of the Criminal Code makes anal sex involving youths who are above the age of consent but not yet 18 punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

It was quashed as unconstitutional by lower courts in the 1990s but continued to be used to prosecute dozens of people in recent years, according to government statistics cited by rights group Egale.

"This section of the criminal code is discriminatory," Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould told a press conference.

"Our society has evolved over the past few decades and our criminal justice system needs to evolve as well," she said.

Also on Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed a special advisor on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues.

MP Randy Boissonnault is expected to consult with the LBGT community on a formal apology for decades of persecution and discriminations.

The initiatives are part of the Trudeau administration's efforts to normalize and promote LGBT rights both domestically and abroad -- including supporting violence-prevention programs and advocacy efforts, and combatting homophobia in schools.

In May, the government introduced legislation shielding transgender people from discrimination and hate speech.

The bill bans discrimination by "gender identity" under the Canadian Human Rights Act, alongside race, religion, age, sex and sexual orientation.

Two months later, Trudeau became the first sitting prime minister to march in a gay pride parade in Toronto.
By Helen Reid and Marc Jones LONDON (Reuters) - Canada aims to hold joint talks with the United States and Mexico over their trade agreements, which U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to scrap, the Canadian finance minister said on Tuesday. "We have an enormous stake in the success of our relationship with the U.S. and with Mexico: our supply chains are intertwined, we've developed a very successful economic unit over the course of the last twenty years," Bill Morneau said at the London School of Economics. "We will work with the U.S., and this would go with any U.S. administration, in order to show the benefit of that relationship," he said. "We expect Mexico will be part of that discussion." Mexico, the United States and Canada trade under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), formed in 1994. Trump has threatened to scrap or renegotiate NAFTA to get a "better deal" from Mexico and Canada. Exports account for about a third of Canada's GDP. Of these, about three-quarters go to the United States and many Canadian companies are dependent on American imports. A study by Export Development Canada estimates exports to the United States could drop by as much as 5 percent if a 10 percent tariff were imposed. "Working together is the right thing to do and well get to a conclusion that is mutually advantageous," Morneau said. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said on Tuesday his country would need to show "enormous pragmatism" in its dealings with Trump's government to try and find common ground on trade and immigration. On economic policy, Morneau said Western economies had been too focused on monetary policy to stimulate growth, but that had largely run out of steam. Canada said this month it would set up an infrastructure bank with access to C$35 billion ($26 billion) to help fund major projects and the country is also seeking private investors. "We brought in a point of view that using fiscal policy for long-term investments was the right way to go to enhance our growth," Morneau said. Trump plans a similar fiscal policy, with $1 trillion of infrastructure spending, relying on investment from the private sector. Morneau also said Canada would press on with carbon pricing, a plan which is seen at risk from Trump's resistance to measures to tackle climate change. Last month Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that carbon emissions would cost C$10 a tonne in 2018, rising by C$10 a year and reaching C$50 in 2022. "Our focus right now is a pan-Canadian approach to carbon pricing ... I believe we will be able to make progress on that in the near term," Morneau said. (Reporting by Helen Reid; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
By Cameron French TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's largest capital markets regulator is pushing for an amendment to the country's Criminal Code that would allow investigators to use wiretaps to investigate insider trading. Such a step would give Canadian investigators a tool that their U.S. counterparts already have, and one that Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) Chairman Howard Wetston said on Thursday is needed to successfully prosecute a crime where proving intent is key. The OSC is the largest and most influential of Canada's provincial and territorial securities regulators, and has jurisdiction over the Toronto Stock Exchange. "In my opinion, we are missing a key tool that would assist in more effectively enforcing provisions against insider trading," he said in a speech to a Toronto business audience. "Wiretaps would allow us to obtain direct evidence of the intention - I underline intention - to engage in illegal insider trading and tipping," he said. Tipping refers to the practice of passing along sensitive information that could then be used for trading. The wiretapping would not be done by the regulator itself, but rather by provincial and federal police that work with regulators to investigate white collar crimes. Wetston said the OSC has been in early-stage talks with police about the issue. Making the change would require lawmakers to add insider trading and tipping to the list of offenses that can be investigated with wiretaps. Canadian regulators have long battled a reputation for being too soft on white collar crime due to cases such as the Bre-X gold salting fraud in the 1990s, which cost investors billions. Nobody was charged with fraud in the cause, and the lone figure who was charged with insider trading was acquitted. More recently, regulators were criticized for their oversight of Sino-Forest Corp, one of several North American-listed companies with Chinese operations whose accounting disclosure practices came under scrutiny. The OSC has tried to turn that reputation around in recent years by beefing up technology and hiring more enforcement staff. Last year it launched the Joint Serious Offences Team (JSOT), an partnership of the OSC and police aimed at targeting fraud, market manipulation and other such offenses. (Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson; and Peter Galloway)
* PM contrasts Canada's openness with nationalism elsewhere

* Canada courting sovereign wealth, private equity funds

* Norges, QIA, Temasek attended event with Trudeau (Adds further comments from PM Trudeau)

By Matt Scuffham

TORONTO, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Canada is not worried about competing with the United States to draw private investment in infrastructure, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday, adding that the country's long-term stability is attractive to investors.

Canada's government said this month it would set up an infrastructure bank and give it access to C$35 billion ($26 billion) to help fund major projects. It is also engaged in a charm offensive to attract private investors.

However, it faces competition from the United States with President-elect Donald Trump planning $1 trillion of infrastructure spending, relying entirely on investment from the private sector.

"I'm not worried about competing," Trudeau said. "What I'm worried about is highlighting and putting forward the best possible understanding for people of the ease of doing business in Canada, the long-term growth potential here in Canada, the extraordinarily positive and educated workforce."

Trudeau said, in conversations with international investors, he had contrasted the mindset of Canadians with rising nationalism elsewhere.

"People are curious to try and understand in a world where there's a lot of anxiety and populism - whether it's Brexit, the nationalists in Europe or even the election of the Republican candidate in the United States," Trudeau said.

"They are interested in knowing why Canada remains more open, remains more positive towards refugees and immigration. It's our reasonableness, and thoughtfulness in our approach to politics that seems to them (international investors) a good predictor of long-term stability for this country," he added.

Canada's government wants to attract $4 to $5 in private funding for every $1 coming from the public purse and is speaking to sovereign wealth funds and global private equity firms as well as domestic pension funds.

Story continues

Attendees at Monday's event, which was organised by the Canadian government in collaboration with U.S. investment firm BlackRock, included Norway's Norges, which runs one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, the Qatar Investment Authority and Singapore sovereign investor Temasek.

Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau have also expressed a desire to attract investment from Canada's biggest pension plans such as the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), the Caisse de depot du Quebec and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.

The Canadian pension funds, among the world's 10 biggest infrastructure investors, have welcomed the new infrastructure bank and expressed a desire to invest more in Canadian infrastructure having previously been more active overseas.

($1 = 1.3546 Canadian dollars) (Additional reporting by David Ljungren; Editing by James Dalgleish and Cynthia Osterman)
* Trudeau met private investors on Monday

* Canada courting sovereign wealth, private equity funds

* Norges, QIA, Temasek attended event with Trudeau

* PM says not worried about competing with U.S.

(Adds comments from Canada PM Trudeau)

By Matt Scuffham and David Ljunggren

TORONTO, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Canada is not worried about competing with the United States to attract private investment in infrastructure, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters after meeting prospective investors on Monday.

Canada's government said this month it would set up an infrastructure bank and give it access to C$35 billion ($26 billion) to help fund major infrastructure projects and is engaged in a charm offensive to attract private investors.

However, it faces competition from the United States with President-elect Donald Trump planning $1 trillion of infrastructure spending, relying entirely on investment from the private sector.

"I'm not worried about competing, what I'm worried about is highlighting and putting forward the best possible understanding for people of just the ease of doing business in Canada, the long-term growth potential here in Canada, the extraordinarily positive and educated workforce," Trudeau said.

Canada's government wants to attract $4 to $5 in private funding for every $1 coming from the public purse and is speaking to sovereign wealth funds and global private equity firms as well as domestic pension funds.

Attendees at Monday's event, which was organised by the Canadian government in collaboration with U.S. investment firm BlackRock, included Norway's Norges, which runs one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, the Qatar Investment Authority and Singapore sovereign investor Temasek.

Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau have also expressed a desire to attract investment from Canada's biggest pension plans such as the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), the Caisse de depot du Quebec and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.

Story continues

A significant proportion of the projects the bank hopes to fund will be built from scratch, known as "greenfield" investments, rather than "brownfield" investments which have already been built.

The Canadian pension funds, among the world's 10 biggest infrastructure investors, have invested more in projects overseas than in their domestic market.

That is partly because they have preferred to invest in existing infrastructure which has established revenue streams and does not carry construction risk. However, that stance is changing as investors seek alternatives to government bonds and volatile equity markets.

Last week, CPPIB's Chief Executive Mark Machin said the fund would be open to investing in greenfield projects through the infrastructure bank.

Meanwhile, the Caisse, Quebec's public pension fund, is planning to build a new 67-km public transit system in Montreal, investing C$3 billion and supplementing that with C$2.5 billion from the public purse.

($1 = 1.3546 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Matt Scuffham; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and James Dalgleish)
By Matt Scuffham TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada is not worried about competing with the United States to draw private investment in infrastructure, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday, adding that the country's long-term stability is attractive to investors. Canada's government said this month it would set up an infrastructure bank and give it access to C$35 billion ($26 billion) to help fund major projects. It is also engaged in a charm offensive to attract private investors. However, it faces competition from the United States with President-elect Donald Trump planning $1 trillion of infrastructure spending, relying entirely on investment from the private sector. "I'm not worried about competing," Trudeau said. "What I'm worried about is highlighting and putting forward the best possible understanding for people of the ease of doing business in Canada, the long-term growth potential here in Canada, the extraordinarily positive and educated workforce." Trudeau said, in conversations with international investors, he had contrasted the mindset of Canadians with rising nationalism elsewhere. "People are curious to try and understand in a world where there's a lot of anxiety and populism - whether its Brexit, the nationalists in Europe or even the election of the Republican candidate in the United States," Trudeau said. "They are interested in knowing why Canada remains more open, remains more positive towards refugees and immigration. Its our reasonableness, and thoughtfulness in our approach to politics that seems to them (international investors) a good predictor of long-term stability for this country," he added. Canada's government wants to attract $4 to $5 in private funding for every $1 coming from the public purse and is speaking to sovereign wealth funds and global private equity firms as well as domestic pension funds. Attendees at Monday's event, which was organized by the Canadian government in collaboration with U.S. investment firm BlackRock, included Norway's Norges, which runs one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, the Qatar Investment Authority and Singapore sovereign investor Temasek. Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau have also expressed a desire to attract investment from Canada's biggest pension plans such as the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), the Caisse de depot du Quebec and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. The Canadian pension funds, among the world's 10 biggest infrastructure investors, have welcomed the new infrastructure bank and expressed a desire to invest more in Canadian infrastructure having previously been more active overseas. (Additional reporting by David Ljungren; Editing by James Dalgleish and Cynthia Osterman)
A Canadian judge has apologized for his lapse of judgement after he wore a hat reading Make America Great Again, Donald Trumps campaign slogan, in court.

Ontario judge Bernd Zabel told the Hamilton TV station CHCH that he sincerely regrets his decision to open court on Nov. 9the day after the electionwearing the hat. I wish to apologize for my misguided attempt to mark a moment in history by humor in the courtroom, following the surprising result in the United States election, he said.

He added that the gesture was not intended to be a political statement or an endorsement of the views and comments of President-elect Trump. I acknowledge that wearing the hat is a breach of the principals of judicial office and was a lapse in judgement that I sincerely regret, he said.

Over the weekend, a city councillor in Hamilton released a statement saying he thought the judge should step down or be removed from the bench.

My thoughts on Justice Zabel's incredibly poor judgment and disrespect for the Ontario Court of Justice: @TheSpec @mollyhayes pic.twitter.com/F0thuzN0zu  Matthew Green (@MGreenWard3) November 12, 2016

His actions are an embarrassment to the City of Hamilton, the Judiciary and the Canadian Legal system as a whole, Coun. Matthew Green wrote. If I was a person convicted by this man Id be quickly filing for appeal.
LONDON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said on Tuesday he would not consider a further extension of his time in charge of the British central bank, which is now due to end in June 2019.

"I will leave June 30, 2019," Carney said in response to a question during a regular meeting with lawmakers in parliament.

The Canadian said on Oct. 31 that he will stay in his job for an extra year to help smooth Britain's departure from the European Union, but he will depart two years short of a full term.

Carney came under heavy criticism from pro-Brexit politicians for warning before June's EU membership referendum of the economic risks of voting to leave the bloc.

Some British media have speculated that Carney might stay on beyond June 2019 if the government fails to conclude its exit from the EU by that date.

(Reporting by David Milliken; Writing by William Schomberg; editing by Stephen Addison)
By David Milliken and William Schomberg LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said verbal attacks by politicians on central banks, such as criticism by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump of the U.S. Federal Reserve, were a "massive blame-deflection exercise". Carney has faced political heat in Britain for the BoE's low interest rates while Trump, during the U.S. presidential election campaign, accused the Federal Reserve of keeping rates low due to pressure from the Obama administration. "The President-elect has voiced some views on the Fed and the stance of monetary policy," Carney said in response to questions from members of Britain's parliament on Tuesday. Carney said it was "very important" to explain that the causes of ultra-low interest rates in Britain and other rich countries went far beyond decisions made by central bankers "An excessive focus on monetary policy in many respects is a massive blame-deflection exercise," he told a committee in parliament. Carney has previously said interest rates are low because they reflect weaker demand and investment, a trend that has been developing worldwide since the 1980s due to factors such as globalisation, the impact of technology and ageing populations. Reversing this long-run trend was not in the BoE's power, Carney said on Tuesday, and he called on governments to step up. "We could be stuck in this trap, and I use that word advisedly, for decades ... if we don't see major structural reforms," he told lawmakers. The BoE cut interest rates to a record low of 0.25 percent in August to help the British economy cope with the impact of the decision by voters to leave the European Union in June. "I WILL LEAVE JUNE 30, 2019" Carney reiterated on Tuesday that the central bank had a neutral stance on future interest rate moves. Weak October inflation figures were a blip and the BoE intended to tolerate an overshoot of its 2 percent inflation target as the economy digested sterling's sharp fall since June's Brexit vote, he said. Carney also said he would not consider a further extension of his time in charge of the British central bank, which is now due to end in June 2019. "I will leave June 30, 2019," Carney said in response to a question during a regular meeting with lawmakers in parliament. The Canadian said on Oct. 31 that he will stay in his job for an extra year, on top of the five he originally planned to stay in London, to help smooth Britain's departure from the EU, but he will depart two years short of a full term. Carney came under heavy criticism from pro-Brexit politicians for warning before June's EU membership referendum of the economic risks of voting to leave the bloc. Some British media have speculated that Carney might stay on beyond June 2019 if the government fails to conclude its exit from the EU by that date. Carney said his decision to extend his time at the BoE by only one year had nothing to do with criticisms made by Prime Minister Theresa May of the "bad side effects" of low rates. Asked about the impact of Brexit on Britain's banking sector, he said banks may start to relocate operations from Britain 18 months before it leaves the EU if a 'hard Brexit' with poor access to EU markets looked likely. (Additional reporting by Costas Pitas, Kate Holton, Estelle Shirbon and Adela Suliman; Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Stephen Addison and Hugh Lawson)
Casey Affleck had a special plus-one with him at the Manchester By the Sea premiere in Los Angeles on Monday night.

The actor was accompanied by his girlfriend, actress Floriana Lima. While Affleck walked the carpet alone, Lima, who appears on the CW series Supergirl, joined him at the afterparty, where they sweetly showed their affection.

Affleck, 41, and Lima, 33, were spotted holding hands and chatting closely as they mingled with fellow partygoers.

The two have been linked romantically since October, when they were first spotted locking lips during a romantic beach day in Malibu. Theyve stepped out together numerous times since then.

Affleck split from wife Summer Phoenix in March after nearly 10 years of marriage.

Aside from Lima, Ben Affleck also attended the premiere on Monday to support his younger brother.

Manchester By the Sea follows Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) as he becomes the guardian of his nephew following his brothers death.

Affleck said it was a challenge to play such a dynamic and oftentimes dark role, adding that he constantly pushed himself to stay in the mindset of his character.

Whenever it starts to feel easy, it makes me feel like Im not doing all that I can do, he said. Its a great piece of material, and there are some really hard scenes in there. The first time I read it, I knew there would be a lot of challenging aspects to the performance. I was pretty focused the whole time and was very wary if we started having too much fun, then it might ruin the mood.

Both Affleck and his costar Michelle Williams are receiving Oscar buzz for their noteworthy performances in the film.

Manchester By the Sea hits theaters Nov. 18.

Reporting by RAHA LEWIS


Tracee Ellis Ross The events host wore a Fendi dress that perfectly expressed on the outside how she was feeling on the inside. I decided I was going to wear something that made me look as vulnerable as I feel, she said of her Fendi nightie and an underwire-free bra. (Photo: Getty Images)

"We all thought we would be standing here under very different circumstances," Tracee Ellis Ross admitted as she took the stage on Monday night in Hollywood to host Glamour magazine's annual Women of the Year Awards, which the magazine has held every year since 2003 to honor extraordinary and inspirational women from a variety of fields, including entertainment, business, sports, music, science, medicine, education, and politics. "I decided I was going to wear something that made me look as vulnerable as I feel," the actress addressed the crowd in the wake of Tuesday's presidential election. For Ross, that was a Fendi "nightie" and an underwire-free bra.

Constance Wu also wore her political affiliation as she arrived at the event in a safety-pin necklace from EF Collection with an "I'm with her" charm. "I'm still with her!" she proudly exclaimed, adding that she wore the symbolic piece of jewelry because "there is a lot of anxiety around communities of color and various religious backgrounds and people with disabilities. And I think anything that you can do to show a small sign of solidarity and kinship with those people and with yourself is important." Anna Wintour, who introduced award recipient Miuccia Prada, revealed that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was also on her mind. "Hillary's loss is not easy to forget but neither are her successes. She brought us so close that we could touch the glass above us, even if America could not yet break it," she noted. And while introducing Glamour's first Man of the Year, Bono, Amy Poehler opted for some comedic postelection relief. "I think it's going to be hard to give another one of these awards next year because frankly there is no one better deserving than Bono. And also, we are going to spend the next four years watching white men congratulate themselves, so these will be filled up," she joked.

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Bono referred to this past Tuesday as "the first election not suitable for children. NC-17!" He also took a moment to read off some funny tweets from the women of America kindly reminding him how ridiculous it was for him to be awarded "man of the year" at a female-oriented show. "This is actually my favorite, and it really hurts," he said, with a laugh. Sure, Glamour named Bono Woman of the Year, but in their defense, the transition lenses do make him look like a 75-year-old lady from Miami." And before leaving the stage, the U2 frontman challenged President-elect Donald Trump to work harder to respect females. "I say to the president-elect: Look across to women. Make equality a priority. It is the only way forward. The train is leaving the station. Be on it or be under it," he proclaimed.

Later in the evening, the ballroom became engulfed in silence when ISIS sex-slavery survivor Nadia Murad took the podium, along with a translator, to inform the crowd about the horrors of the militant group. "I do this because I want their crimes to be exposed to the world," she said in a heartfelt speech. "We have to stop the terrorism!" Lena Dunham later introduced Stanford law professor Michele Dauber, who read an acceptance speech from Emily Doe and used the opportunity to touch on her own sexual assault past. "When I was assaulted, I lived with the guilt that I had been out, wasted in a party dress and feared that I was as inconsequential as I had been made to feel when I woke up on the floor," Dunham said. "Ten years later, having publicly disclosed my assault and facing the backlash so many survivors do, I still needed healing." A teary-eyed-Dunham then went "off script" to bring light to the fact that most of the attacks throughout the election came from Breitbart News, where Steve Bannon has just been selected as counsel to the president-elect." (As the former head of Breitbart News, Bannon told Mother Jones last summer that Breitbart was now "the platform for the alt-right," a loosely organized group of mostly young men who believe in white supremacy, oppose feminism and multiculturalism, and delight in harassing vulnerable groups by spewing shocking insults on social media.)

On a lighter note, Simone Biles told the young girls out there during her acceptance speech to endure. "Put effort into everything you have, and do it with a passion. And write down your goals because I think it's very important," she quipped. Zendaya blew a kiss to the women of the world, while Ashley Graham reminded her fellow females to stop being so hard on themselves. "This is for the girl who got into a bikini for the first time this year, the mother who just had a child and she's embracing her stretch marks on her stomach. For that girl who said, 'No. I'm not going to lose weight for you, boyfriend.' And for the woman who can actually look in the mirror and say 'I love you' and mean it," she said, of her award. And her advice to America's youth? Don't let your body hold you back. "I let my body hold me back for so long. Don't let your body insecurities hold you back from doing anything that you want to do!" she exclaimed.

The last award went to current Glamour magazine cover star Gwen Stefani, who won over the audience by opening up about what got her through her recent divorce: "Blake Shelton for kissing me back to life!" she cooed. "Thank you so much!" she cheered, as she pointed to her boyfriend, who was beaming in the audience. The songstress also expressed her extreme gratitude for being able to pull herself out of the depths of despair of Gavin Rossdale's affair. "A year and a half ago I was in a pool of tears. I was so disappointed and I was so low that I didn't think that there was any way that I could pick myself back up. But I just remembered that God gave me a gift that I just wanted to use my gift again so badly," she revealed. "I started pouring my heart into music, and music has saved my life."

The evening ended with a stage full of celebrities  Adam Scott, Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, Shonda Rhimes, Chelsea Handler, and Elizabeth Banks  paying homage to Clinton's recent achievements. "We thank you for your composure, your compassion, and your grace. And for always looking so darn fierce in those pantsuits!" exclaimed Banks. "If we couldn't honor Hillary Clinton with the presidency, then we need to honor her by not only bridging the gap between men and women but bridging the gap between women and women," Handler added. The crowd wildly applauded.

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By Nelson Renteria NUEVA OCOTEPEQUE, Honduras (Reuters) - The Central American nations of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador on Tuesday launched a joint security system to combat gangs and drug smuggling, as well as curtail migration and lower murders in one of the world's most violent regions. The initiative will allow police and soldiers from each country to undertake coordinated actions to attack gangs, drug trafficking and people smuggling, officials said. The three impoverished countries have each contributed to a sharp rise in the number of Central American migrants heading north to the United States in recent years, a flow U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to stop. "What we are installing is the perfecting of shields along our borders," Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez said at an event in the western city of Nueva Ocotepeque, accompanied by Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales and Salvadoran President Salvador Sanchez Ceren. "We're conscious of the fact that this war against crime, which we're winning, has, and is going to have, effects and repercussions, but we can't go backwards." The joint security force is part of the so-called "Alliance for Prosperity" plan, which aims to regenerate the region with support from Washington, creating jobs and infrastructure. That plan, whose fate is unclear after Trump's surprise election last week, was hatched after a sharp rise in Central American child migrants bound for the United States sparked a crisis for outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama in 2014. Last year, as part of the plan, the U.S. Congress approved a first payment of $750 million for the three countries, but it has so far yet to materialize, Guatemala's foreign minister, Carlos Raul Morales, told Reuters. Trump has said he will deport up to 3 million people living illegally in the United States, and crack down on immigration by building a border wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. Morales said he had spoken with migrants in the United States and understood their "logical fears," but added it was too early to fully gauge what Trump will do as president. Honduran president Hernandez said he would meet U.S. lawmakers from both parties to defend the Alliance for Prosperity. "In the case of President-elect Trump, I think he has identified a clear objective: they don't want migrants there, just as we don't want our people to go," Hernandez said. (Additional reporting by Sofia Menchu and Enrique Pretel; Editing by Alistair Bell)
The Board of Directors of the Center for Public Integrity today announced the resignation of the Centers Chief Executive Officer, Peter Bale.

Mr. Bale, previously vice president and general manager of digital operations at CNN International, had been based in London for the three years prior to his move stateside. He is resigning to pursue other international media opportunities.

Bales tenure at the Center, the global nonprofit investigative journalism organization, began January, 2015, soon after the Center had won its first Pulitzer Prize for an investigative series called Breathless and Burdened. His second year at the Center was highlighted by important investigations into opioid addiction and links to drug company lobbying (Politics of Pain) and Science for Sale, an investigation into the dangerous consequences of corporate-funded research in academic scientific papers. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a division of the Center for Public Integrity, coordinated and published its 2016 block-buster international expose called Panama Papers also under Bales leadership.

The Center is a powerhouse of much-needed investigative journalism in the United States with its focus on money and politics. Its work has never been more widely read or published by partners across the US media landscape, particularly in this remarkable election year, said Bale. I admire the staff of the Center and appreciate the chance to work with the board and the philanthropic groups which back this vital journalism."

Scott Siegler, co-chairman of the Board of Directors, said: Peter has begun the digital transformation of the Center in a most challenging journalistic environment. We are very grateful to him for his strength and vision. He brought international experience and a digital mindset to the Center and we wish him well in his future endeavors.

The Board of Directors has appointed John Dunbar, the Centers politics chief and deputy executive editor to succeed Bale as Chief Executive Officer. Dunbar has won numerous journalism accolades including a George Polk award. He is a nonprofit veteran who has also proved to be an able fundraiser.

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Said Dunbar: I believe in the Center and I am deeply honored to be asked to take the helm. I can assure our readers, our staff, our publishing partners and our funders that we will continue to produce outstanding investigative journalism. This is an excellent time to be in the nonprofit journalism business. The best is truly yet to come."

This story is part of Inside Publici. Stories were working on, the impact of our investigations, news about our fundraising efforts, and other issues that shape our work. Click here to read more stories in this topic.

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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.
By Renita D. Young

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Monday reaffirmed Chicago's status as a haven for immigrants fearing deportation for entering the United States illegally, a day after President-elect Donald Trump vowed to expel as many as 3 million immigrants who he said have criminal records.

Emanuel's words of reassurance to undocumented immigrants in the country's third-largest municipality followed similar pledges last week from the mayors of New York and Los Angeles to maintain their designations as "sanctuary cities."

You are safe in Chicago. You are secure in Chicago. And you are supported in Chicago," Emanuel said at a news conference at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Childrens Hospital of Chicago. "This is a city of inclusion."

The sanctuaries movement has been embraced in nearly 40 U.S. cities where local police have made it a policy to refrain from checking the immigration status of individuals under arrest and sharing that information with federal authorities who could act to deport them.

The movement came to greater national attention under the Democratic administration of President Barack Obama who was criticized by Republicans for tolerating sanctuaries even as his administration moved to step up deportations of immigrants with criminal records.

It has taken on a new sense of urgency after Trump, a Republican, promised during his campaign to expand deportations and to withhold federal funds from cities that shield people in the country illegally.

In a nationally televised interview Sunday, Trump said he would immediately deport or incarcerate 2 million to 3 million illegal immigrants who he said are convicted criminals, street gang members or drug dealers. By comparison, roughly 2 million people have been deported during Obama's eight years in office.

Emanuel, a former White House chief of staff under Obama, said undocumented immigrants in Chicago would also continue to have access to public services, including education and city-funded healthcare.

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He was joined by civic and business leaders who support the sanctuary movement and two state lawmakers spearheading a bill to allow undocumented students to apply for financial aid at public four-year colleges if they meet certain requirements.

The City Council is soon expected to approve Emanuels plan for a municipal identification card that would benefit undocumented immigrants, the homeless and others who find it difficult to obtain a government ID.

Lurie Children's Hospital chief Patrick Magoon said Trump's immigration stance was causing tremendous anxiety, citing data showing calls to suicide prevention and crisis hotlines statewide have doubled since Trump was elected.

(Removes repeat of headline in first paragraph.)

(Editing by Steve Gorman and Andrew Hay)
A second case of Zika has surfaced in China, according to reports. A 56-year-old man, who recently returned to Hong Kong after traveling by himself to New York, Central America and areas in the Caribbean, was confirmed Monday to be suffering from Zika. The unidentified man was in stable condition at Hong Kongs North District Hospital.

The man had been in New York and Central America between Oct. 13 and Nov. 8, after which he reportedly traveled to the Caribbean islands of Antigua and Barbuda, St. Maarten and Anguilla. He returned to Hong Kong from New York on Thursday, and two days later he was admitted to North District Hospital after suffering from fever, rash and diarrhea. The man recalled being bitten by mosquitos during his stay in the Caribbean, and lab results later confirmed he was positive for Zika.

Officials said the man had not traveled much throughout China since his return aside from his home in Yan Shau Wai in San Tin and a trip to Sheung Shui on Saturday. However, a spokesperson from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said authorities would take extra measures to sterilize places visited by the patient to avoid further transmission, South China Morning Post reported.

The first person in China infected with Zika was reported when a 38-year-old woman returned to the country suffering from symptoms of joint pain and red eyes in late August. The woman came back to China following a trip to Saint-Barthelemy in the Caribbean.

The U.S. and several countries in South America and the Caribbean have the highest amount of reported Zika cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control. In the U.S., 139 cases of Zika acquired by local mosquitoes have been documented while there have been more than 31,000 locally acquired mosquito-borne cases of Zika documented in U.S. territories including American Samoa, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. More than 4,000 cases involving Americans who were infected with Zika while traveling to countries in South and Central America and the Caribbean were documented between January 2015 and Nov. 9.

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By Cameron French TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce said it was seeking acquisitions valued at more than C$1 billion ($948.72 million) as it tries to boost the amount of profit it generates from wealth management. "Much of the growth that we are planning will come from the U.S. and will be focused on asset management, private wealth management and private banking," Chief Executive Officer Gerry McCaughey said on Wednesday. The bank is also targeting acquisitions in Canada, he told the Scotiabank financials summit in Toronto. CIBC is focusing on wealth management because it offers steady fee-based income and requires very little capital to run, which is appealing under new global Basel III rules that force banks to hold more capital on their balance sheets. The shift toward larger deals comes as CIBC plans to increase the percentage of overall profit it derives from its wealth management unit to more than 15 percent from the current level of 11 percent, McCaughey said. "As we have worked through the universe of potential acquisitions, it has become clear that choices improve as we expand the size of the universe under consideration," he said. "We are now open to considering acquisitions in excess of C$1 billion that would accelerate how fast we get to 15 percent." CIBC, Canada's fifth-largest lender, is the least internationally focused of Canada's big five banks. It bills itself as the lowest-risk player of the group. While rivals like Bank of Nova Scotia and Toronto-Dominion have aggressively sought assets in Latin America and the United States, CIBC has limited itself to smaller targets, largely in wealth management. The largest deal of the last few years was its C$848 million acquisition of 41 percent of American Century investments in 2011. Most recently, it said in April that it would acquire wealth firm Atlantic Private Wealth Management for US$210 million. Last week, CIBC reported stronger-than-expected quarterly results because of higher retail banking and wealth management income. Its shares were down 2 Canadian cents at C$82.08 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. ($1 = 1.0541 Canadian dollars) (Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
Smart Cities

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Cisco recently announced that it's launching a cloud service for smart city solutions, according to VentureBeat.

The service will be used in Kansas City, Missouri; Copenhagen, Denmark; Adelaide, Australia; and Jaipur, India, and is designed to help city officials take more effective actions based on data gathered from connected devices around the cities.

The cloud service collects and analyzes data from third-party sensors, street cameras, and other devices. The conclusions from the data gathered and brought into Ciscos cloud will help city leaders make stronger decisions that will bring down costs, enhance revenues, and increase operational efficiency.

The data are securely shared, breaking down government silos that had previously been a major barrier to helping city leaders make accurate decisions based on data from smart city solutions. Further, this means that workers accessing data can make faster and more efficient decisions. For example, a traffic agency can now use third-party applications and an open API to view the data it collected as well as data other agencies collected.

Cisco may look to market this cloud service to US cities to take advantage of a number of initiatives in the country where this service could be used. The White Houses initiative on smart cities, announced last year, allocated around $160 million for municipalities to research and deploy smart city solutions, much of which is only being utilized now. With the US currently lagging Europe and much of Latin America in terms of smart city adoption, Cisco could market this cloud to cities looking to take advantage of the White Houses program and catch up with their competitors around the world.

Smart cities are cities that leverage IoT devices like sensors, smart lights, and smart meters to gather data that can be analyzed to gain new insights regarding their infrastructure, population, and public services.

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Few cities around the world have actually grown into truly "smart" cities  most are still in the early phases of implementing some of these IoT devices, and have yet to data processing and analysis tools that can turn vast troves of data from millions of devices into a real-time view of a city's activity and operations.

The smart cities segment has enormous potential as a market for IoT solutions, but it is also an inherently slow-moving market. Smart cities development faces many barriers around the world including tight municipal budgets, sluggish technology procurement guidelines for public agencies, privacy and cybersecurity concerns, and a pressing need for more IT staff at municipal agencies. Taking the time to deploy new, futuristic technologies can also be a luxury that many municipal agencies charged with the day-to-day running of a metropolis cant afford.

However, many cities are starting to address these challenges, and smart city development around the world is accelerating.

BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on smart cities that contrasts the development of smart cities in different regions of the world. It examines the unique factors that are driving the growth of smart cities in different parts of the world. It also identifies important barriers that still need to be overcome in different markets. Furthermore, the report details some of the most common types of smart city projects in different regions, such as smart parking and transportation, smart energy and sustainability projects, and smart public safety initiatives. Finally, it delves into some examples of these projects.

Here are some key points from the report:

Smart cities projects around the world are being shaped by local and regional socio-economic needs. This has led cities in different parts of the world to use similar IoT technologies for a wide array of different use cases.

In the EU, environmental sustainability goals are driving cities to rapidly implement IoT technologies in an effort to reduce fossil fuel emissions.

Cities in Central and South America are using sensors and other smart cities solutions to reduce road congestion and make their infrastructure more reliable in the face of extreme weather events like hurricanes and tropical storms.

North American cities lag behind their EU counterparts in implementing smart cities solutions because of resource constraints, but are also finding ways to use IoT technologies to do more with less.

Although smart city development in Africa is extremely nascent, new networking technologies like Low Power Wide Area Networks and the next-generation 5G networks will help provide the connectivity to get more smart cities projects off the ground on the continent.

Asian countries are set to become the market leaders in smart city adoption, but still face challenges in training the IT talent to help municipal authorities manage smart cities projects.

In full, the report:

Details the different types of smart cities technologies and applications that have become most prevalent in different markets around the world.

Provides examples of some of the top smart city projects in different regions that address transportation, energy, crime, and other issues.

Explains how unique social, political, and economic factors are impacting smart city development in different regions.

Details factors that could help jumpstart smart city development in the Americas, Africa, and other parts of the world that have lagged behind comparable markets.

Explains the unique barriers to smart city development in different parts of the world, such as data privacy concerns in Europe and lack of support from the federal government in the US.

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





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In a novel twist on letting the fox guard the hen house, Republican President-elect Donald Trump has turned to a renowned climate change denier to help reorganize and possibly lead the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Climate Change Crisis Trump Refuses to Acknowledge

Trump, who once dismissed global warming as a hoax, has rejected a large body of scientific research pointing to an environmental catastrophe in the making unless world leaders make good on their carbon-reduction pledges over the coming decade.

His choice to supervise the transition at the EPA and possibly lead the agency in a diametrically opposite direction from current policy is Myron Ebell, a senior official of the Libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute and a Washington fixture who for decades has stubbornly challenged climate change science.

Although he holds degrees from Colorado College and the London School of Economics, Ebell is not a trained scientist but instead is a quick study who has made a name for himself by taking a contrarian view to the latest scientific pronouncements.

On Twitter, he proudly calls himself #1 enemy of climate change alarmism. Ebell has acknowledged in the past that, all things being equal, if you add C02 to the atmosphere, youll get a little warming. But as he quickly added during a 2007 interview with Vanity Fair, the warming has been very modest and well within the range of natural variability.

Related: Obama: This May Be The Last Generation That Can Stop Climate Change

The unflappable Ebell also chairs something called the Cooler Head Coalition, which consists of about 25 non-profit groups in the U.S. and overseas that question global warming and the threat of sea elevation, as well as the need for aggressive carbon emission reduction policies that they complain would stunt economic growth.

The Washington Post reported that Ebell has long argued for opening up more federal lands to oil and gas exploration, logging and coal mining while shifting responsibility for permitting that action from the federal government to the states. He is an avowed opponent of what he calls energy rationing, or minimizing the exploitation of domestic energy sources that could spur the economy. Over the years, his conservative think tank based in Northern Virginia received millions of dollars in funding from ExxonMobil and other energy companies.

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Ebell isnt afraid to take anyone on. When Pope Francis last year wrote in an encyclical the urgent challenge to protect the worlds natural resources, The Post noted, Ebell responded that The Vatican seems to have forgotten to consider the effects that energy-rationing policies to reduce emissions will also have on poor people in poor countries.

Related: Obama Warns of Costly Public Health Crisis Spurred by Climate Change

Patrick J. Michaels, a climatologist and director of the Center for the Study of Science at the Libertarian Cato Institute, insists that Ebell is not a true climate change denier  or somebody who actually believes that man-made emissions have virtually nothing to do with the historic ups and down of global temperature.

Instead, he said, Ebell espouses a luke-warm model, meaning that humans have some influence on climate, but its far less than the computer models indicate, Michaels said.

Michaels said in an interview on Monday that Ebell has been around a long time and he knows the way that Washington works, and hes quite conservative. In many ways, hes tailor made to help return the EPA to a bygone era during the administration of Republican President George W. Bush who filled the ranks of his environmental and interior agencies with arch conservatives and former energy industry officials and lobbyists.

During the GOP presidential primary season, Trump threatened to dismantle the EPA and scrap many of its unnecessary rules, including restrictions imposed on coal, gas and oil production. Trump subsequently backed away from his promise to shutter the EPA.

Related: Obama and Critics Battle Over Climate Change Costs

But there is little doubt he will do what he can to torpedo Obamas signature Clean Power Plan, a highly controversial policy unveiled in August 2015, designed to reduce carbon emissions from coal and gas-fired power plants by 2030 by a third. And the Republican President-elect is almost certain to withdraw this country from the first ever international comprehensive climate change agreement that the U.S. and 194 other countries ratified in Paris last December.

The Clean Power Plan is currently tied up in a federal court challenge that was brought by two dozen states, electric utilities and mining companies. On February 9, the Supreme Court stayed implementation of the Clean Power Plan pending judicial review by the lower courts. The Obama is challenging the adverse, 5 to 4, High Court ruling. But a new Trump EPA and Justice Department would have no interest in pursuing the matter.

Meanwhile, the Paris accord is hanging by a thread as world leaders and environmentalist wait to see precisely how Trumps victory will alter the U.S. governments commitment, both in meeting a long-term target for reducing its carbon emissions and providing economic assistance to other countries to help them meet their goals.

I dont know exactly how thats going to shake out, Michaels said yesterday although he is certain the new Trump environmental policies will spell the death knell for both the Clean Power Plan and the international agreement.

Related: Cities Face Costly Projects to Cope with Climate Change

I would hope that the policies the EPA will pursue would be predicated upon the notion that probably the luke-warm model is the most realistic one, he said.

Nathan Hultman, a former Obama administration environmental official and non-resident scholar at the Brookings Institution, wrote late last month that the window for action to keep a lid on climate change is closing very quickly, but is not yet closed.

For reference, he wrote, the world is now at about one degree of warming above pre-industrial levels, and, despite some recent slowing in the rate of change, our global economy is still producing large amounts of [greenhouse gas emissions] per year.

The next administration should build on the policy framework our country has already laid out and encourage continued and accelerating emissions reductions, Hultman wrote hopefully.

But that was before Trumps surprising defeat of Democrat Hillary Clinton, a major advocate of reducing carbon emissions.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
There will be no more negotiation between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The new tentative peace deal reached between the two parties last weekend is, in fact, the final draft, chief government negotiator Humberto de la Calle said Tuesday.

According to Bogota, the new agreement adopts the vast majority of an estimated 500 proposed changes offered by factions that rejected the referendum when it was voted down Oct. 2. Much of the opposition focused on what critics called leniency toward the rebels in the original agreement. The new deal restricts those who have confessed to war crimes to certain rural sections of the country for five to eight years.

President Juan Manuel Santos, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to bring an end to the 52-year conflict just days after the earlier deal was voted down, is not legally required to hold a second referendum for this second deal. Tuesdays government statement suggests he will instead have it ratified by Congress.

And, indeed, Colprensa news agency has reported Congress will begin to debate the process of ratification and implementation of the peace deal on Wednesday. Senate President Mauricio Lizcano, a member of Santoss U Party, said his coalition intends to bring the final deal to a congressional vote.

Photo credit: GUILLERMO LEGARIA/AFP/Getty Images
Bogota (AFP) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos will travel to the United States Wednesday for medical exams after follow-up tests for a 2012 case of prostate cancer came back abnormal, he said.

Santos, this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner for his efforts to reach a peace deal with leftist rebels, announced the trip in a brief statement as he left a clinic in Bogota where he has undergone regular check-ups since having surgery to remove a small prostate tumor four years ago.

"This news comes as a surprise to my family and me. I remain confident that the result of these new tests will be positive," he said.

"I will travel tomorrow to the United States, the exam will be Thursday and I will be back Friday."

The health scare comes as Santos is struggling on multiple fronts to end a half-century conflict in Colombia that has claimed more than 260,000 lives.

His government is negotiating with both the opposition and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to save a peace deal that voters rejected in a referendum last month.

Santos's opponents argued the historic deal was too soft on the leftist guerrillas.

The government is also seeking to revive planned talks with a smaller rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), that fizzled before they began.

The clinic treating Santos, the Santa Fe Foundation, said a routine exam had detected an increase in Prostate-Specific Antigen, a blood test used to screen for prostate cancer.

It said doctors had recommended further testing at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore with "a technology not yet available" in Colombia.

Doctors gave Santos a clean bill of health after his 2012 prostate surgery, which he underwent with local anesthetic. He remained in power throughout, even while under the knife.

Santos, who won election in 2010, was re-elected in 2014 in a vote widely seen as a referendum on the peace process.

The negotiations have since gotten bogged down in messy politics.

But despite the setback suffered when voters rejected the initial peace deal, Santos got a big boost from the international community when the Nobel committee awarded him the peace prize five days later, on October 7.
By Kenny Katombe KINSHASA, (Reuters) - Congolese President Joseph Kabila warned against foreign "interference" in the country's political crisis on Tuesday, in an address to parliament in which he also promised elections, without saying when they would be held. Kabila appeared to be reacting to remarks by some U.N. Security Council diplomats, who visited Congo at the weekend to push for a peaceful transition of power. They were hoping to avert widespread violence when the president's mandate runs out on Dec. 19. Their visit aimed to break the deadlock over elections, which have been repeatedly delayed and are now not expected until 2018. Some officials raised concerns when Kabila declined to answer directly questions about whether he would try to change the constitution so he could run again. Congo's prime minister and cabinet resigned on Monday as part of an agreement that extends Kabila's tenure and should pave the way for a new cabinet, with posts for some of those opposition figures who agreed to the election delay. The main opposition bloc, however, has rejected it. "The Congolese have shown that they can responsibly resolve their differences," Kabila told lawmakers, to applause that filled the room. "I warn against and denounce all interference in Congolese affairs. Our country ... has a right to have its sovereignty respected, and we will never give that up." But pressure on Kabila has come as much from inside Congo as from outside. More than 50 people were killed when security forces clashed with protesters calling for the president to step down in September. Many fear that the political impasse will lead to more chaos and bloodshed in the vast Central African nation, where millions died in regional conflicts between 1998 and 2003. Kabila blamed the violence squarely on his opponents. "No political agenda will justify violence, still less the loss of human life," he said. "Trying to take power by the blood of the Congolese people is morally condemnable." Kabila's critics say his aim is to change the constitution, which limits him to two terms in office, in order to secure a third. In his speech, he reiterated what he told Security Council officials over the weekend -- that the constitution, which currently bars him from running again, will be respected. In talks with them, though, he raised the possibility of the Congolese people changing the constitution, "if they so desire", apparently leaving the door open for a referendum to lift term limits, as several other African leaders have done. "In some months, the electoral register will be ready and the election will be held," Kabila said, without giving a date. (Writing by Tim Cocks, editing by Larry King)
By Kenny and Katombe KINSHASA - KINSHASA, Nov 15 (Reuters) -Congolese President Joseph Kabila warned against foreign "interference" in the country's political crisis on Tuesday, in an address to parliament in which he also promised elections, without saying when they would be held. Kabila appeared to be reacting to remarks by some U.N. Security Council diplomats, who visited Congo at the weekend to push for a peaceful transition of power. They were hoping to avert widespread violence when the president's mandate runs out on Dec. 19. Their visit aimed to break the deadlock over elections, which have been repeatedly delayed and are now not expected until 2018. Some officials raised concerns when Kabila declined to answer directly questions about whether he would try to change the constitution so he could run again. Congo's prime minister and cabinet resigned on Monday aspart of an agreement that extends Kabila's tenure and should pave the way for a new cabinet, with posts for some of those opposition figures who agreed to the election delay. The mainopposition bloc, however, has rejected it. "The Congolese have shown that they can responsibly resolvetheir differences," Kabila told lawmakers, to applause that filled the room. "I warn against and denounce all interference in Congoleseaffairs. Our country ... has a right to have its sovereigntyrespected, and we will never give that up." But pressure on Kabila has come as much from inside Congo as from outside. More than 50 people were killed when security forces clashed with protesters calling for the president to step down in September. Many fear that the political impasse will lead to more chaos and bloodshed in the vast Central African nation, where millions died in regional conflicts between 1998 and 2003. Kabila blamed the violence squarely on his opponents. "No political agenda will justify violence, still less theloss of human life," he said. "Trying to take power by the bloodof the Congolese people is morally condemnable." Kabila's critics say his aim is to change the constitution,which limits him to two terms in office, in order to secure athird. In his speech, he reiterated what he told SecurityCouncil officials over the weekend -- that the constitution,which currently bars him from running again, will be respected. In talks with them, though, he raised the possibility of the Congolese people changing the constitution, "if they so desire", apparently leaving the door open for a referendum to lift term limits, as several other African leaders have done. "In some months, the electoral register will be ready and the election will be held," Kabila said, without giving a date. (Writing by Tim Cocks, editing by Larry King)
By Aaron Ross

KINSHASA, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Congo state miner Gecamines signed over its royalty rights at one of the country's largest copper mines in January last year to an offshore company owned by Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler, according to a copy of the contract obtained by Global Witness and reviewed by Reuters.

The London-based advocacy group said in a statement on Tuesday that the lost royalties from the Kamoto Copper Co (KCC) project could cost heavily indebted Gecamines up to $880 million by 2030, about a fifth of Congo's annual budget.

"It's troubling that the state miner Gecamines has signed away rights to potentially huge flows of cash that should go towards building Congo's future," Global Witness said.

Gertler's Fleurette Group, which holds a minority stake in KCC alongside its majority shareholder, Glencore, and Gecamines, confirmed in a statement that Africa Horizons Investment Ltd (AHIL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Fleurette, bought the rights from Gecamines but did not say for how much.

However, its statement called Global Witness's report "damaging and defamatory", saying Fleurette stands to lose money from the transaction owing to a fall in copper prices and KCC's suspension of production in September 2015, both unforeseen events that occurred after the deal was signed in January.

"Global Witness is showing either a total lack of understanding of even the most basic business and valuation principles, or a brazen attempt to manipulate data to suit a pre-determined narrative," a Fleurette spokesman said.

The Fleurette spokesman said the royalty rights acquired by AHIL expire in early 2019 - not in 2030, as Global Witness assumes in its calculation - pointing to a provision in the original 2008 accord between KCC, Gecamines and a Glencore subsidiary under which KCC's payments of the royalties owed to Gecamines could stop in March 2019.

Global Witness said Fleurette "has not been able to show that the agreement will definitely end by 2019," and called on it to publish the full terms of the deal with Gecamines.

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Gecamines' chairman and interim director-general, who both signed the deal, did not respond to requests for comment.

In a statement on the AHIL transaction, Glencore said: "KCC acted in accordance with the instructions it received from Gecamines and was not involved in the discussions between AHIL and Gecamines."

Campaign groups have repeatedly accused Gertler of exploiting his friendship with Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila to acquire mining assets at bargain rates before selling them at a mark-up - charges he denies.

Reuters was unable to determine if Gertler's friendship with Kabila has played a role in his ability to procure mining rights in Congo. The minister of mines said only that he was unaware of the Global Witness report.

The Congolese government has repeatedly denied that their relationship gives Gertler privileged access.

CONTROVERSIAL DEALS

It was not clear in the contract whether Gecamines received any compensation for ceding the royalty rights to AHIL, whose address in the contract is listed in the Cayman Islands, although Fleurette said it did pay an unspecified amount.

Glencore suspended production at KCC, the third-largest copper mine in Africa's largest producer of the metal, in response to a global downturn in prices. It says it expects to resume production in early 2018.

As a result, Fleurette said, it expects to lose a significant amount of money on the deal.

Global Witness stood by its calculation of the value of the deal, saying it was based on information on the website of the Toronto Stock Exchange, where KCC is listed.

"This shows projected potential royalty payments for the life of the mine as totalling $1.596bn. Royalties are paid to the state at a rate of 2 per cent and to Gecamines at a rate of 2.5 per cent. Gecamines' share of the total royalties amounts to approximately 55.6 per cent of $1.596bn, or $887m," it said.

Gertler has been at the centre of several controversial Gecamines sales before. According to the Africa Progress Panel, headed by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Congo lost out on $1.36 billion in potential revenue between 2010 and 2012 in five mining deals involving Gertler.

He denied any wrongdoing in those deals.

U.S. authorities, which reached a $412 million settlement in September with the hedge fund Och-Ziff Capital Management LLC for its role in bribing African officials, said in the case that "an infamous Israeli businessman with close ties to government officials" paid over $100 million in bribes to Congolese officials from 2005 to 2012. A source close to the case at the time identified him as Gertler.

Fleurette group declined to comment on the case.

Gertler has long denied paying bribes and says his investments have contributed to Congo's economic development.

(Editing by Tim Cocks/Ruth Pitchford)
Conor McGregors stock soared to new heights when he became the first fighter in UFC history to hold titles in separate weight classes simultaneously when he knocked out Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205.

Already a wanted man by fellow UFC fighters, the target on the brash Irishmans back has grown exponentially. The UFC featherweight and lightweight champion has plenty of options when he returns to the cage to defend either title. But if he wants to add a third world title to his collection, UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley is more than open to granting McGregor the opportunity.

Woodley, who is coming off a majority draw at UFC 205 against Stephen Wonderboy Thompson, may be forced into an immediate rematch. But there is money to be made if McGregor wants a crack at his title. The two engaged in a brief war of words over the weekend and Woodley is ready to revisit that challenge.

Im gonna talk to my management team and were gonna see whats next for me, Woodley said at the post-fight press conference. I dont know if Mr. McGregor wants to go for a third belt. It looked like he was talking a little noise in the back so well see. Well see what happens.

Woodley isnt quite sure that McGregor will be up for the challenge because of the size differential, even though McGregor did face Nate Diaz at 170 in a pair of fights earlier this year. Woodley is noticeably bigger than McGregor and figures hed be in a no-win situation if he opted to fight him. Still, if Notorious wants it, he can get it.

If he wants the fight, we can sign it right now, he said. Im good on the fight. I just dont think its a good idea for him to fight me.

Speaking of Nate Diaz, he also would like another shot at McGregor. And after UFC 205, Nate showed up at McGregors post-fight celebration at Marquee in NYC with his brother Nick Diaz. Although no words were exchanged, you have to assume that Diaz is looking to take that lightweight title off of McGregors hands at the rubber match.

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But perhaps the most interesting individual who wants a piece of McGregor isnt a fighter at all. WWE vice president of talent and part-time pro wrestler Paul Triple H Levesque was present at UFC 205 and spoke to The Telegraph about the possibility of bringing McGregor to the WWE.

He could come over, hes got it all, man  hes got the personality, the skills, the talk, Triple H said. Hes an entertainer, for sure.

With McGregor seemingly prepared for a standoff with the UFC in regards to owning a stake in the company, a door could be open for McGregor to participate in the WWE in a similar fashion that Floyd Mayweather did when he had a match with The Big Show at WrestleMania 24 in 2008.

He could do just as well as Floyd Mayweather when he fought the Big Show, Triple H said. That really worked. Conor could do it for sure.

The WWE has already set their sights on Ronda Rousey, who recently said that her MMA career could be coming to a close soon. And with McGregors crossover appeal, its possible that the Irishman could show up in some form at next years WrestleMania.
An Ohio man was interrogated by federal officials last week after allegedly tweeting threats to President-elect Donald Trump.

As it was becoming clear that Trump would be the winner of early Wednesday, authorities said Zachary Benson of Cleveland posted that he wanted to "bomb every one of your voting booths and your general areas."

Read: Trump Begins to Assemble Squad as Giuliani, John Bolton, Laura Ingraham Being Considered for Cabinet Roles

"My life goal is to assassinate Trump. Don't care if I serve infinite sentences. That man deserves to decease existing," Benson wrote, according to a criminal complaint that was unsealed Monday.

According to the criminal complaint, Benson apologized and told members of the U.S. Secret Service that he realized he'd gone too far when he woke up later Wednesday and then deleted the tweets.

Benson said he was "just frustrated thinking about how President-elect Trump's policies" could affect his job, according to the complaint.

Benson turned himself in Thursday and made his first appearance in front of a judge on Monday. He's charged with making a threat to a successor to the presidency.

Read: Oprah Admits Twitter 'Mistake' Following Pro-Trump Tweet Over His Meeting With Obama

A message left with Benson's attorney by InsideEdition.com was not immediately returned.

Benson's case is among dozens of examples of unrest that have made headlines since Donald Trump surprised the world with his victory over Hillary Clinton after a campaign that was often characterized as Islamophobic, misogynistic and anti-immigrant.

Watch: Mom Investigated After Viral Video Shows Her 'Kicking Son Out' Over 'Voting' for Trump

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The Doctors discuss the tragic death of model Katie May, who reportedly died following a visit to her chiropractor. Should you be worried about your next adjustment being your last?

According to the late models death certificate, her cause of death was reportedly a result of neck manipulation by chiropractor. Katies vertebral artery was torn and the blood flow to her brain was cut off. The death was ruled accidental.

Watch: Cat Bites That Kill?

Chiropractor Dr. Chett Mallett joins the panel to discuss the safety of visiting your chiropractor. Dr. Mallet offers his condolences to Katies family and explains that this type of incident is very rare. He says there are millions of chiropractic procedures done daily that never result in anything like what happened to Katie. He notes that like any type of care, not everything is a 100 percent safe.

So should you be worried about neck manipulation leading to a stroke or possible death?

Its literally 1 in 10 million or more, theres no real serious conclusive evidence there are so many factors involved. Considering there are 800,000 strokes a year  and not by chiropractors  its hard to tell [if] its lifestyle or other events that have happened, but we do try to minimize our risks, he tells The Doctors. Ive been practicing for 20 years and never had any a problem with any of my patients in that respect.

Watch: Can Bounce Houses be Deadly?

ER physician Dr. Travis Stork notes that unfortunately when receiving care, there will always be a wide range of skill sets among doctors, levels of care will differ and sometimes accidents happen.
Caracas (AFP) - Venezuela's high court ordered the opposition on Tuesday to drop plans for a political trial against President Nicolas Maduro, whose rivals blame him for food shortages in the volatile country.

The opposition majority in the legislature had vowed to stage a kind of impeachment trial against Maduro, who has resisted its other efforts to remove him from office.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday responded with the latest in a series of judgments overruling the National Assembly legislature.

It said in the ruling that it "is ordering the deputies in the National Assembly to desist from continuing with the planned political trial."

It ruled that the notion of a political or impeachment trial does not exist in the Venezuelan constitution.

Moments after the ruling, Maduro welcomed it, on air during his new salsa radio show.

"Excellent. Venezuela's constitutional and institutional system is working very, very, just so very well, and fluidly so," the president said.

The center right-dominated opposition says the socialist president controls the court and electoral authorities through his allies.

It said Tuesday's ruling itself was unconstitutional.

"It is absolutely null," said the opposition speaker of the assembly, Henry Ramos Allup, on Twitter.

The court "can give orders to its team of lackeys, but not the National Assembly elected by the people."

Authorities have blocked the opposition's drive for a referendum on removing Maduro from power. The court has systematically overruled the assembly since the opposition majority took its seats there in January.

The opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) coalition launched Vatican-backed negotiations with the government this month in a bid to ease the crisis.

But Maduro has refused to discuss holding any kind of vote on his fate before scheduled elections in 2018.

The opposition suspended planned street protests pending the talks. But analysts warn unrest in the streets could grow if the talks yield no progress.

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The MUD blames his economic management for the crisis, sparked by falling prices for Venezuela's essential oil exports.

Maduro says the crisis is the result of a US-backed capitalist conspiracy.

Shortages of food, medicine and basic supplies have sparked riots and looting over recent months.
By Sumeet Chatterjee

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) has hired former RBS (RBS.L) banker Rick Meng as head of China onshore private banking, according to an internal memo, as the Swiss private bank looks to tap the wealth management business in the world's second-largest economy.

Credit Suisse will compete with Goldman Sachs (GS.N) and UBS (UBSG.S) on advising wealthy Chinese clients.

Others including British lender Standard Chartered (STAN.L) and the private banking unit of Singapore's second-biggest bank, OCBC (OCBC.SI), have said they would consider starting onshore wealth management in China as the country continues to open up.

Regulatory restrictions and a less developed capital market have restricted some global banks in setting up a private banking presence in one of the world's fastest growing centres for millionaires.

An offshore business remains the preferred route of many international wealth management firms who want to tap into the millionaires spawned by China's booming technology sector and its surging stock market.

Meng's hiring is part of Credit Suisse's strategy to develop its China onshore wealth management business by leveraging its existing Shanghai branch and Hong Kong private banking platform, said a memo to bank staff issued on Tuesday and seen by Reuters.

The bank uses its Shanghai branch in China for investment banking operations including fixed-income business, and it will use the same office for launching its onshore wealth management business.

Credit Suisse Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam said in April that the investment bank was seeking to expand in China and would invest further in a country where it had been "underweight".

The bank's Chinese securities joint venture earlier this month started offering broking services to onshore and foreign investors, as China's gradual opening up of markets lures overseas investors.

It is also planning to boost stake in that joint venture to the maximum permissible 49 percent, up from about 33 percent now, sources told Reuters in June.

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Besides the securities joint ventures, Credit Suisse has a presence in China through other financial services businesses, including corporate and investment banking, and asset management services.

The bank's onshore wealth management business will seek to tap ultra-high networth clients in China, and would use its securities and asset management joint ventures to expand the business, said a person with direct knowledge of the plans.

The person declined to be identified as he was not authorised to talk to the media. A spokeswoman for Credit Suisse confirmed the content of the memo but declined to give more details.

(Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Stephen Coates and Kim Coghill)
Credit unions have long given savers more banking choices. The recent news of the Wells Fargo & Co. (ticker: WFC) scandal, in which employees created fake bank accounts, highlights the need to have more choices.

Banking customers fed up with the big banks like Wells Fargo can find many reasons to move their money to credit unions. In addition to better customer service, you'll likely receive better rates. In a recent study of deposit rates, credit unions were shown to have higher rates than banks on checking accounts, savings accounts and CDs. Savers have sometimes stayed with their banks because they're unaware of important facts about credit unions. They don't realize that credit unions can be just as safe, accessible and convenient as banks.

[See: 8 Ways to Profit From Donald Trump's Infrastructure Plans.]

Partnerships of credit unions and brokerage firms. When you think of moving your money from banks to credit unions, you probably think of the money you have in checking accounts and savings accounts. However, it's now common for people to have investments at the brokerage arms of their banks.

Banks are not the only ones offering this. Many credit unions have started offering their members investment products and services. Typically, the credit union contracts with a brokerage firm to provide members with investment products and services.

It's important that people realize that these investment products are not deposit accounts. Opening an investment account through your bank or credit union doesn't make it a deposit account. Both banks and credit unions are careful to point out that such investments are not federally insured and involve investment risks.

Both banks and credit unions see an advantage to be the hub of all of your financial needs. From their side, it creates more opportunity to grow revenue. From the side of the customer or member, it can make things more convenient. However, investing through your bank or credit union may not be your best option. Before you decide to move your investment money to a credit union, several issues should be considered.

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Financial advisors. First, it's important to understand the type of investment services that you need. The beginner investor may be looking for a financial advisor who will not only put together a plan, but will also help manage the investments. Several brokerage firms specialize in partnering with banks and credit unions to offer these services. One of the large firms is LPL Financial, which has contracts with more than 600 banks and credit unions. Another large firm, CUSO Financial Services, works with more than 185 credit unions to offer credit union members customized investment solutions.

[See: 9 Stocks to Buy for the Aging Baby Boomer Market.]

Self-manage investing. Many investors do not want planning help or investment management. They may just want to set up a low-cost brokerage account at a company like Fidelity or TD Ameritrade. Some credit unions have contracted with brokerage firms that specialize in low-cost online investing. Two examples are SaveDaily and BestVest.

SaveDaily contracts with not only credit unions but other financial institutions in offering low cost mutual fund investing. SaveDaily is designed to appeal to those with small savings. There is no minimum investment amount and no maximum number of transactions. SaveDaily charges a low flat monthly fee.

BestVest also targets those with small savings, but unlike SaveDaily, it functions more like a typical online discount broker. It sets itself apart from companies like Charles Schwab and E-Trade by having no minimum balance requirements and no monthly inactivity fees. BestVest also markets its convenience for credit union members. When you trade with BestVest, your sale proceeds will be deposited directly into your credit union checking account. If you purchase a security, BestVest will debit your checking account to pay for your investment.

Multiple investing services at one credit union. Some credit unions have contracted with multiple brokerage firms to cover more of their members' needs. For example, the eighth-largest credit union in the nation, Alliant Credit Union, contracts with both LPL Financial and SaveDaily. For members who prefer to work with financial consultants, LPL Financial offers a full-service investment program with financial consultants. For members who prefer to self-manage their investments, SaveDaily provides online investment tools that allow Alliant members to choose from over 125 mutual funds.

Patelco Credit Union, the sixth-largest credit union in California, also contracts with SaveDaily. Its program is called InvestDaily, and Patelco markets the program as an easy and inexpensive way to buy and sell mutual funds online. For members who want more help with investing, Patelco partnered with CUSO Financial Services to offer full-service advisory and online trading.

Visions Federal Credit Union, the sixth-largest credit union in New York, offers members discount brokerage services with BestVest. Financial planning and investing are offered through LPL Financial.

[See: 6 Strategies To Avoid Working in Retirement.]

Cost versus convenience. You won't find brokerage and investment services at all credit unions. They're more likely to be found at the larger credit unions that are competing with banks and brokerages to be your primary financial service provider. Combining both your banking and investing under one credit union can add convenience. However, with so many brokerage choices on the internet, you may find lower cost options by opening an account directly at a discount brokerage firm. As you evaluate the choices, don't forget to consider the investment services that several credit unions offer.

Ken Tumin is the founding editor of The Bank Deals Blog at DepositAccounts.com, where he has been covering bank deals and deposit investment strategies since 2005. His insights are gleaned from DepositAccounts' patented rate-tracking technology and its community of fervent savers, along with his own decades of experience in investing in bank-offered savings products.
(Reuters) - Croatia ended Northern Ireland's three-year unbeaten home run with a comfortable 3-0 win thanks to goals from Mario Mandzukic, Duje Cop and Andrej Kramaric in their friendly on Tuesday. Croatia went ahead against Michael O'Neill's second-string Irish side after nine minutes when striker Mandzukic reacted quickest to head the ball past stranded keeper Alan Mannus. It was the first goal the Irish, who had not lost at home in 11 games, had conceded at Windsor Park in six matches. The last time they went down at home was to Portugal in September 2013. Croatia added a second after 35 minutes through Cop after Matej Mitrovic flicked the ball on from a corner and Kramaric smashed the ball home from distance for their third. (Writing by Ken Ferris, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
This years readers choice winner for Travel + Leisures Destination of the Year is Santa Fe, New Mexico, which earned 65 percent of the vote in an online survey. In second, with 14 percent of the vote, is Slovenia. In third place was Norway.

Steeped in the history of the American West, Santa Fe has long captured the imagination of artists and freethinkers, with its pueblo-style architecture and rugged landscapes. But a growing alternative arts scene  driven by the citys outre creative class  is giving newfound edge to the southwestern town.

This cultural renaissance is perhaps no more apparent than in the citys Siler Road District, where a peppering of small theater companies, live-work spaces for artists, and The Meow Wolf art complex have sprung up alongside auto-repair garages and metal shops. Meow Wolfs House of Eternal Return  an immersive, 22,000-square-foot art installation featuring secret rooms and interactive light displays  is arguably the neighborhoods hottest attraction.

Across the town in the citys Railyard District, the artist-led rebirth has given way to new galleries, restaurants, shops, independent art-movie houses (including the George R.R. Martin-owned Jean Cocteau Cinema), and a popular farmers market. SITE Santa Fe, the nonprofit contemporary-art center widely credited with catalyzing the neighborhoods transformation 21 years ago, made headlines again this fall when it debuted a reimagined facility (complete with a pleated metallic facade and 1500 square-feet of gallery space) designed by New York City-based SHoP Architects.

The citys red-hot art scene is matched only by its fiery cuisine, renowned for its smoky red and green chiles grown in the southern part of the state. At Cafe Pasqual, a Santa Fe institution for more 40 years, locals and tourists endure long waits to sample mouth-watering Mexican eats like chile bison cheeseburgers quesadillas with long-simmered angus beef and chile de arbol sala. If your palette cant endure any more heat, check out Paper Dosa, where chef Paulraj Karuppasamy and his wife, Nellie Tischler, dish up South Indian cuisine and their eponymous specialty, a thin crepe made from a fermented rice-and-lentil batter.

Nestled at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo range, where it is surrounded by 1.5 million acres of unspoiled national forest, Santa Fe makes a great jumping-off point for exploring the areas mountainous terrains and stark desert landscapes. Wed recommend a hike through the Nambe Lake Recreation Area, just 25 miles outside the city, and home to the gushing Nambe Falls, one of the most spectacular natural waterfalls in the southwest. Considering Santa Fe enjoys some 320 days of sunshine per year, theres really no excuse for not hitting the great outdoors.

Read about Travel + Leisures editors pick for the 2017 Destination of the Year: Canada.
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Cyrus Mistry said the decision by the board of Tata Global Beverages to remove him as chairman of the company, announced earlier on Tuesday, was "inaccurate and illegal."

Mistry also compared his removal from Tata Global Beverages, which co-owns and runs the Starbucks chain of coffee stores in India, to his ouster last month from Tata Sons, the holding company for the Tata conglomerate.

His ouster from Tata Sons has sparked a bitter feud between the Tata group and Mistry over the past few weeks.

"The Tatas continue to demonstrate the lack of respect for due process of law," a statement from Mistry's office said.

The statement added Tata Global Beverages' decision was "inaccurate and illegal," calling it "a repeat of exactly the same illegal acts done by Tata Sons Ltd on October 24."

(Reporting by Aditi Shah)
K104 FM and the Dallas personal injury lawyers of 1-800-Car-Wreck team up to give away turkeys on November 18th, 2017

DALLAS, TX / ACCESSWIRE / November 15, 2016 / Dallas Personal Injury Lawyer Attorney Amy Witherite with 1-800-Car-Wreck along with DeDe from K104, DeDe in the Morning are teaming up again.

1-800-Car-Wreck makes it a top priority to give back to the community at all times of the year and the holidays will be even more spectacular for some of K104's lucky fans!

LOCATION

November 18th from 6-10 a.m. DeDe & Attorney Amy Witherite from Eberstein & Witherite, LLP will be live giving away the best part of the holiday dinner, the TURKEY! Join the K104 personalities including DeDe, Lady Jade, Michael Shawn and Gary Saunders at the Fiesta located at:

2225 W Ledbetter Dr. Dallas, TX 75224

About Eberstein Witherite LLP/1-800-CAR-WRECK

The Dallas car wreck attorneys of Eberstein & Witherite, LLP can help those with questions pertaining to car accident injuries understand their legal rights. With offices in Dallas, Fort Worth, and Houston, the attorneys are also highly regarded for their continuous community service projects that benefit the numerous Texas communities serviced by the firm. Says Amy Witherite, founding partner of the firm "it has long been our view that quality legal advocacy encompasses various types of support for communities that we as legal professionals work with." Individuals seeking more information about the upcoming turkey giveaway can visit http://www.1800carwreck.tv

To request legal assistance from the Dallas law firm for a car wreck or other personal injury matter please call 1-800-CAR-WRECK at any time.

Media Contact

Lucy Tiseo

Eberstein & Witherite, LLP 1800 Car Wreck Lawyers

Phone: 800-779-6665

Email: lucy.tiseo@ewlawyers.com

Connect with Eberstein & Witherite on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+

Source: http://www.dallastexaspersonalinjurylawyers.com/news/dallas-personal-injury-lawyers-1-800-car-wreck-pledges-10k-dede-mornings-turkey-giveaway-2017-event

SOURCE: Eberstein & Witherite, LLP via Submit Press Release 123
Dana Walden and Gary Newman are the Chairmen and CEOs of Fox Television Group, overseeing a consortium of media and content creation companies which includes the broadcast network Fox Broadcasting Company (FBC); the broadcast and cable production studios 20th Century Fox Television (TCFTV) and Fox 21 Television Studios; the licensing division, Fox Consumer Products; and syndication supplier of off-network programming, Twentieth Television. Their recent projects include Empire, This is Us, Speechless, The Last Man on Earth, Grease: Live as well as The X-Files. Their upcoming projects include Star from Lee Daniels and a new take on the classic 24 franchise, 24: Legacy.

Susanne Daniels is the global head of original content for YouTube where she oversees original programming that provides subscribers with access to exclusive content through YouTube Red, featuring stars that became famous on the media platform. Current programming includes Scare PewDiePie, Dance Camp, A Trip to Unicorn Island, Lazer Team and an upcoming Lionsgate-produced series based on the Step Up franchise. Prior to joining YouTube, Daniels held the position of president of programming at MTV, the WB and Lifetime.

Randy Falco is president and CEO of Univision Communications Inc., overseeing a media portfolio that reaches an estimated 89 million average monthly unduplicated monthly media consumers, and includes 17 broadcast, cable and digital networks and partnerships; 126 local television and radio stations; an array of online and mobile apps and products and content creation facilities across the United States. Falco has received numerous recognitions including 10 Emmy awards for Olympics coverage, a Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame induction and a recipient of the Frank Stanton Award, the Ballet Hispanico Gala Honor, Museum of Moving Image Honor, the MALDEF Legacy Leader Award, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) Board of Trustees Award, and the Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) Champion Award, among many others.

Josh Sapan is the president and CEO for AMC Networks Inc., overseeing television networks AMC, IFC, SundanceTV, WE tv, and BBC America (operated through a joint venture with BBC Worldwide); feature film labels IFC Films and Sundance Selects; and AMC Networks International, the companys international programming and distribution division. Under Sapans leadership, AMC Networks has created some of the most popular, acclaimed, and awarded television series and films, including AMCs The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead, Preacher, Better Call Saul, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad; SundanceTVs Rectify and Top of the Lake; IFCs Portlandia; and IFC Films Boyhood. Sapan is on the Executives Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) and serves on numerous boards, including the American Film Institute, The Paley Center for Media, The Cable Center, the Museum of the Moving Image, People for the American Way and WNYC Radio.

Eva Longoria is a Golden Globe-nominated, Screen Actors Guild and ALMA Award-winning actress, director, producer and activist, and Desperate Housewives alum. She filmed Academy Award winner Jamie Foxxs directorial debut film All-Star Weekend, and stars alongside Academy Award nominee Demian Bichir in the Lionsgate feature film Lowriders as well as the BBC miniseries Decline and Fall, with the latter two premiering Spring 2017. Additionally, Longoria is the executive producer of Devious Maids, Lifetimes hit one-hour dramedy, and recently directed episodes of the Golden Globe nominated Jane the Virgin and Emmy Award nominated Black-ish. In addition to founding The Eva Longoria Foundation, she is also co-founder of Evas Heroes which enriches the lives of adolescents with developmental disabilities; and is the national spokesperson for Padres Contra el Cancer, a nonprofit committed to improving the quality of life for children with cancer.
Earlier this year, when Zuffa sold the UFC to WME-IMG for $4.2 billion dollars, well above the original $2 million dollar price the company had been purchased for 15 years ago, it became clear those at the top of the company were going to add a tremendous amount of wealth to their bottom lines.

Among those who benefited most from the sale was stakeholder and UFC president Dana White. Yet, throughout the sale process and the massive success the UFC has achieved, White insists he is not motivated by the money.

Speaking to Jim Rome for SiriusXM Rush, White expressed his feelings that the windfall from the sale has not changed him in any way, and its more about the business of building the UFC product that drives him.

Im telling you, I dont even think about (the money from the sale). You know what I bought since (the sale)? I didnt buy anything. I bought nothing. I definitely havent been on vacation. You know what I mean? Im not running around, thinking about my money. Im running around thinking about whats next, White told Rome.

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I had to jump on New York. The New York card wasnt even done yet. I was so messed up that I didnt get New York done until the day before the press conference. (That's) when I finished getting that all together. Then, after I got that done, I had to start focusing on the office and what was going on in there, and the changes and the things that were going to happen. I dont ever sit back and go, You know, Ive got this money, let somebody else do it.

White clarified that he was initially befuddled primarily because his working relationship with UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta was coming to an end due to the sale.

To be honest with you, my life was perfect, said White. Before this whole thing happened, Lorenzo and I had this perfect working relationship, where he did the stuff he liked, and I did the stuff I liked. We were together every day; we had a blast. Even take the worst day ever at the UFC, and we still had fun in there doing what we were doing.

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And its true, very much for me, its not about the money. Its about the ride. Its about doing great things. Id already made more money than I ever thought Id make in my life. There are some guys  and Im not this guy  there are some guys who are so driven by Ive got to make a billion. I want to be on the Forbes list. Im not that guy.

When pressed by Rome and company again about money being a motivator, White reiterated that money didn't drive him. He is very much motivated by continuing to build the UFC.

Im never going to be that guy, White said. Thats not me. Im not about the money. I dont care about the money. Im about this. Im about Saturday night. You know what I mean? Im about making big fights. It has nothing to do with money.

Dont get me wrong, I love that we broke the gate record at MSG  thats the (expletive) that Im in it for. I like breaking records. I like making big fights. I like people going crazy over the fights we build. Im in it for that. Im not in it for the money.

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COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish toy maker Lego A/S said on Tuesday its chief financial officer John Goodwin will leave the post after four years with the company.

Goodwin will leave Lego at the end of June 2017, and the process for appointing a successor is underway, it said.

"Through his strong strategic mindset and relentless focus on executional excellence, John has been a key enabler for us in managing the incredible growth we have experienced over the past years," CEO Jorgen Vig Knudstorp said in a statement.

The company has increased sales by an average of more than 15 percent per year in the last 12 years, and the company has overtaken My Little Pony producer Hasbro (HAS.O) to become the world's second-largest toy maker.

(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, editing by Louise Heavens)
One of the biggest movies of the year was Deadpool, starring Ryan Reynolds. But despite its success, Reynolds recently told GQ that the movie led him to have a nervous breakdown.

After they wrapped shooting, Reynolds said: I had a little bit of a nervous breakdown. I literally had the shakes. I went to go see a doctor because I felt like I was suffering from a neurological problem or something.

The doctor diagnosed it as anxiety, and Reynolds told the magazine it was due to pressure around the movies expectations.

He said: I was banging the loudest drum for Deadpool. I wasnt just trying to open it; I was trying to make a cultural phenomenon.

Despite his anxiety, and unlike Reynoldss previous stab at superhero fame in Green Lantern, Deadpool ended up being a critical and commercial hit  earning $132 million in its first weekend.

If you need more Ryan in your life, celebrate Ryan Goslings recent birthday below:
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark's foreign minister Kristian Jensen hopes to reach a deal with the European Commission within weeks that allows the country to remain within the European Union's cross-border police organisation Europol, he said on Twitter. Danish broadcaster TV2 earlier reported that Jensen expected to close the deal within two weeks. He said on Twitter that he only "hoped" to close the deal within "some weeks". Danes last December rejected a government proposal for new laws needed to keep the country inside the European police agency. (Reporting by Teis Jensen; editing by John Stonestreet)
By Keith Coffman

DENVER (Reuters) - A Denver man who spent 28 years in prison for rape after he was convicted in part because the victim said his name came to her in a dream was found not guilty at his retrial on Monday.

Clarence Moses-EL, 60, whose 1988 conviction and 48-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting and beating a female neighbor was tossed out last year, always claimed he was misidentified as the attacker.

Jurors spent four hours deliberating his fate before returning not guilty verdicts on first-degree sexual assault, second-degree assault and burglary charges following a week-long trial in Denver District Court, prosecutors and defense lawyers said.

Moses-EL had exhausted all appeals of his conviction until 2012 when another inmate wrote him a letter, saying he had consensual sex with the woman and then had beaten her.

Defense lawyers argued that the new evidence combined with shifting stories from the victim, who initially identified three different men as the culprit before testifying that Moses-EL's name came to her in a dream, merited overturning his conviction.

In addition, DNA evidence that might have cleared Moses-EL was mistakenly destroyed by Denver Police, the defense said.

Denver District Court Judge Kandace Gerdes agreed to set aside the conviction last year, ruling that "the newly discovered evidence and the totality of the circumstances is sufficient on salient points to allow a jury to probably return a verdict of acquittal."

The Denver District Attorney's Office decided to retry Moses-EL, who was free on bond, despite an outcry from some in the community that they were prosecuting a factually innocent man.

Prosecutors said at the time of Gerdes' reversal that the original jury believed the victim's testimony enough to convict Moses-EL, and that the dream identification was just some of the evidence amassed against him.

They also said the other inmate's confession was fabricated and was later retracted. That inmate refused to testify at the retrial.

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Denver prosecutor Bonnie Benedetti said in a statement that prosecutors believed that they put the right man on trial.

"It was the right thing to allow a jury - not public opinion - to make the decision in this case," she said.

One of Moses-EL's attorneys, Eric Klein, told Reuters that while his client was adjusting to life on the outside while on bond awaiting trial, he "wasn't free until today."

"The (victims) dream turned into a 29-year nightmare for Mr. Moses-EL," Klein said.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman; editing by Dan Whitcomb, G Crosse)
Probably more than any other successful candidate in recent memory, president-elect Donald Trump will enter the White House owing little if anything to Wall Street and the big banks.

He certainly was not the candidate of the financial community. That was Hillary Clinton, who collected more than $78 million in finance sector-related donations for her campaign and hundreds of thousands in speaking fees from the Street before she ran.

Yes, Trump had some support from big names on the Street. They included John Paulson, the investor who cleaned up when he bet against the housing market; hedge fund investor Anthony Scaramucci, the founder of SkyBridge Capital; and Steve Mnuchin, the former Goldman Sachs partner and Trump campaign finance chief who, according to Bloomberg Politics, is the transition teams choice for Treasury Secretary.

Related: Anti-Hate Groups Erupt Over Trumps Latest Hire

Trump also got major financial backing from Robert Mercer, the billionaire co-CEO of Renaissance Technologies and the moneybags behind conservative think tanks, political action committees, lobbying groups and the far-right news organization Breitbart. But Renaissance is a fabulously successful quant hedge fund relying on computers and sophisticated mathematics and is not part of the Wall Street establishment.

Talking about Wall Street on the campaign trail, Trump often sounded as though he had more in common with Democratic insurgent Bernie Sanders than Republicans like House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

In August, on the CBS news show Face the Nation, Trump told moderator John Dickenson that hedge fund managers are getting away with murder.

"They're paying nothing, and it's ridiculous. I want to save the middle class," Trump said. The hedge-fund guys didn't build this country. These are guys that shift paper around and they get lucky. They're making a tremendous amount of money  they have to pay taxes."

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In an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, Trump said: I have guys that are friends of mine, they make a fortune. They're hedge fund guys. They move around paper. Look, at least I build things  And half the time, it's luck more than talent, OK? They pay peanuts.

Like Clinton, Trump said he wanted the profits of hedge-fund managers taxed as ordinary income instead of as carried interest, which is taxed at the lower capital-gains rate.

Related: Trump Preparing Plan to Dismantle Obama's Wall Street Reform Law

Now that the election has been won, Trump seems to be taking a different tack and moving toward positions that will benefit the financial community, in some cases to the possible detriment of the middle-class and working-class voters who helped put him in office.

On the stump, Trump talked frequently about getting rid of Dodd-Frank, the post-financial-crisis legislation of 2010 aimed at reining in the big banks, and he reiterated his intention to dismantle it as recently as Nov. 11. Trump told the paper: We have to get rid of [Dodd-Frank] or make it smaller ... Banks are unable to lend. Its made our country noncompetitive. Its slowed down growth.

Reuters and The Wall Street Journal say that instead of a wholesale repeal, Trump may focus on softening the law, and that could include rolling back at least two provisions Wall Street finds especially troubling. One allows the Financial Stability Oversight Council to designate nonbanks as essentially too big to fail and thus subject to stiffer regulation; the other gives regulators the authority to take over a financial firm in trouble and liquidate it, the Journal says.

Also in jeopardy is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a creation of Dodd-Frank that has been a target of Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill since it began operating in the summer of 2011. While Trump and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who first proposed the CFPB in 2007 when she was a Harvard Law School professor, went head to head during the campaign, the president-elect didnt talk directly about trying to dismantle the agency, which has cracked down on payday lenders and credit card abuses.

In its biggest victory to date, the CFPB was one of two agencies involved in the investigation spearheaded by the Los Angeles City Attorneys Office that brought the Wells Fargo scandal to light and forced the bank to pay $185 million in fines for opening credit-card and bank accounts without their clients permission.

Related: $270 Million in Wall Street Money Is Sloshing Through This Election

But there has been no indication that Trump will resist the efforts of Republicans on Capitol Hill -- led by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, who is reportedly also on the short list for Treasury Secretary -- to gain more control over the CFPB. Some changes to the agency already looked inevitable because in October a federal appeals court ruled that the agency is unconstitutionally structured.

Perhaps even more exciting to Wall Street than reining in the CFPB is the prospect of a weaker Securities & Exchange Commission. SEC Chair Mary Jo White announced yesterday that she will be stepping down, and Paul Atkins, a former SEC commissioner whom The New York Times calls an advocate of deregulatory policies, will lead Trumps search for a successor.

The incoming administrations efforts to loosen restrictions on big banks could also include slowing down or backing away from implementation of so-called Basel IV, global standards for how capital requirements for large financial institutions are determined. Bloomberg says that softening the strict rules the U.S. has pushed for since the financial crisis could save the banks billions.

The platform the Republican Party wrote at the convention in July called for the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall law, which restricted the behavior of big banks and was dismantled during the Clinton administration. But that curious plank was never supported by Trump, The Wall Street Journal says.

What he did say when he was running for office was that he didnt want to take money from Wall Street or special interests if there was any hint of a quid pro quo.

It has to be no strings attached, Trump said, and he largely stuck to that.

For Wall Street and the big banks, it could be the best of all outcomes. Without having to cough up significant campaign donations, they could wind up with plenty of influence and reforms they wanted anyway.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank has shaken up some of its senior ranks in its US investment bank.

The firm has promoted Michael Santini to vice chairman of Americas corporate finance and John Anos to cohead of global industrials alongside Richard Sheppard.

That's according to two memos from Mark Fedorcik, head of the corporate and investment bank in the Americas.

"In order to further develop our Americas Corporate Finance franchise, we recognize the need to have more senior investment bankers who can actively meet with clients and strengthen our strategic dialogue at the C-suite and Board level," Fedorcik wrote.

Santini had previously been cohead of cohead of global industrials, while Anos had been cohead of the Americas natural resources group. Greg Sommer, who was cohead of Americas NRG with Anos, is taking over as sole head of Americas NRG, according to one of the memos.

Michael Santini

Santini joined Deutsche Bank in 2009 after 15 years at Merrill Lynch. He has worked with Danaher Corp., General Electric, and Marriott, according to one memo. Santini, who is a member of the Americas Management Group, will also join the corporate and investment bank's Americas Executive Committee.

Anos joined Deutsche Bank in 1997. He also heads Chemicals and Metals & Mining in the Americas.

Deutsche Bank is separating the leadership of the chemicals and metals & mining franchise from the energy and power business within the Americas, but the natural resources team remains combined at the global level. Khaled Fathallah continues to lead NRG in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, while Yongzhi Jiang leads the team in Asia-Pacific.

NOW WATCH: Richard Branson: Entrepreneurs need to fill the gap where government is lacking





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Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton beat billionaire Donald Trump in the general election's popular vote by a considerable margin. But that fact is still up for debate  at least, according to Google.

The Democratic nominee reportedly garnered at least 61,324,576 votes as of Tuesday, or 47.9 percent of the total vote, compared to Trumps 60,526,852, or 47.2 percent. The gap between those numbers could grow even bigger as left-leaning counties continue to send in the last of their ballots, giving Clinton upwards of a 2 million-vote lead. Still, Trump secured more than the 270 Electoral College votes required to take the White House without receiving the majority of votes from individual Americans, scoring 290 to Clintons 232.

But if you missed last week's presidential election entirely and simply searched "who won the popular vote?" on Google, the first page of results would yield starkly different answers.

A right-wing WordPress site titled 70News.com managed to land itself at the top of Google's election results in the wake of the contest, reporting Trump received the majority of votes instead of his opponent. The site called for the shutdown of a "loony petition" on Change.org urging the Electoral College to vote in line with the majority of the country. It has features on "Hillarys Health" and "Religion," which argues the Republican president-elect is a prophetic entity who has come to save the White House.

Though Google does not remove search results save for malware or illegal content, the search engine took responsibility for the circulation of the unfounded reports.

"The goal of Search is to provide the most relevant and useful results for our users. In this case we clearly didnt get it right," a Google spokesperson told International Business Times in an email. "We are continually working to improve our algorithms."

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Trumps first official days as president-elect have seen a bevy of protesters and activists demanding the real estate magnate be kept out of the White House. Some demonstrations have been motivated by Clinton's popular vote victory.

One week after the election, 70News.com remains on the front page of Googles search results, along with similar headlines like "Hillary did NOT win the popular vote  Trump won landslide by the numbers" and YesImRight.coms "No LiberalsHillary did NOT win the popular vote."

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The Portugal Opera House Queen Elizabeth II taking in a show at the Portugal Opera in 1957. The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

If youre looking to brush up on your history or add a few facts to your weekly trivia memory bank, head to Portugal. The land has been settled since Roman times, and since the country itself dates back to the Early Middle Agesand has the castles to prove itits a stunning backdrop for all of your vacation activities.

On top of its famed Moorish architecture, Portugal is also home to a staggering number of fishing villagesmany of which have morphed into fashionable seaside resort regions in the past few decades. You can still expect a hint of coastal charm, but not long ago Portugals sandy shores were more likely to be filled with beached fishing boats than swimsuit-clad visitors.

If youre looking for a break in your day, or just a quick blast to the past, look no further: Weve compiled a few of our favorite shots of old-school Portugal to help fuel your nostalgia and wanderlust alike. Many of the photos ahead also feature a royal visitor: Queen Elizabeth II, who visited the country in February of 1957. The Queen took the vacation with her husband, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, in Portugal after a four-month separation due to work responsibilities. The royal pair visited the Portugal Opera, small fishing villages, and various palaces while in the regionan itinerary worth repeating for anyone paying a visit.

Were in love with present-day Portugal, but we wish we could have experienced the cultural charm of the country in the 1940s and 1950s. Do the next best thing and settle into a mental vacationyou deserve it.
A general practitioner has pleaded guilty to the illegal sale of cough syrup containing codeine to drug abusers.

Tan Gek Young, who runs the Meridian Polyclinic and Surgery in Bedok North, admitted to 12 charges of the unlicensed sales in the State Courts on Tuesday (15 November).

The 61-year-old also pleaded guilty to two charges of failing to keep proper records for the supply of cough syrup and one charge for supplying a medical product not listed on the general sale list.

The sale of codeine is controlled under the Poisons Act due to its addictive and potentially fatal nature.

Reading from the statement of facts, Amal Nasibah Salim, prosecuting counsel for Health Sciences Authority, said that between July 2014 and June 2015, Tan bought significant amounts of cough syrup containing codeine for the purpose of selling it for profit.

The cough syrup was repackaged into 90ml bottles and 3.8-litre canisters, which were then sold to abusers on multiple occasions. Trusted abusers were allowed to buy the canisters, Amal said.

Tan earned total profit estimated at up to almost $750,000 from the sales, Amal added. He sold the bottles for $25-$30 each, compared with $15 each for genuine patients, and the canisters for $1,000 to $1,100 each.

Tan agreed to have 40 other related charges to be taken into consideration. He sold or supplied cough syrup totalling around 2,318 litres  or the equivalent of about 1,545 1.5-litre drink bottles.

For the illegal sale of cough syrup and failure to keep proper records, Tan faces two years jail or a fine of up to $10,000, or both, for each charge. For the single charge of supplying an unlisted medical product, he faces two years jail or a fine of up to $5,000, or both.

Wearing a pink shirt and maroon tie, Tan did not show any emotion during the hearing but appeared distressed after it ended.

This was not the first time that Tan had committed similar offences.

In 2010, Tan was fined $5,000 after he pleaded guilty to 22 charges involving inappropriate drug prescriptions  five of which involved cough mixtures containing codeine.

The Singapore Medical Council suspended Tan from practice for a period of six months as a result of the charges in 2010. Its disciplinary committee censured Tan, describing his systematic failure to conduct himself professionally as a doctor.

Tans case is adjourned to 23 December for the court to hear submissions and mitigation before he is sentenced.


Despite a popular petition on the Change.org website about how the nations 538 electors should vote on December 19, there seems to be little chance of the tactic changing the recent presidential elections outcome.

richard johnson 536

Richard Mentor Johnson, who survived faithless electors in 1837

As of Monday afternoon, more than 4.3 million people signed an online petition to make Hillary Clinton President on December 19 by calling on electors in the Electoral College to ignore their commitments to vote for Donald Trump.

For now, Trump has 290 votes in the Electoral College, compared with 228 for Clinton. The vote counting continues in two states: Michigan and New Hampshire. But Trump only needed 270 votes to clinch the election, which he received early on November 9.

Regardless of what happens on December 19, Republican candidate Trump will become the elected President on January 6, 2017, unless some vastly unforeseen event prevents Congress from counting the Electoral College votes during a joint meeting of Congress, or the President-elect is unable to take his oath on Friday, January 20, 2017.

In the end, the House and Senate must agree on any changes made to the Electoral College vote during the in-person Electoral College voting that takes place on December 19 at 50 state capitals and in the District of Columbia. When the official vote certificates are opened by Congress on January 6, the Constitution allows challenges to faithless electors who switch their votes, as long as one member of the House and one member of the Senate agree on the same challenge. If a challenge is upheld, the faithless electors vote is discarded.

Given that the Republicans control the House and the Senate in the next Congress, an unlikely possible outcome would be that enough faithless electors put Trumps tally below the 270 votes needed to win the Electoral College vote. In that case, the majority of House and Senate Republicans would invalidate those faithless votes, triggering a run-off contingent election in the House and Senate that Trump and Mike Pence would win.

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Here is how the Constitutional process works:

1. On December 13, each state Governor must have a certificate of ascertainment finished. That document lists the names of the electors for each presidential and vice presidential candidate, and the number of votes received by each candidate.

2. On December 19, electors gather in each state and the federal district to cast their votes. Any disputes within the states about electors must settled by December 13. At each Electoral College voting sessions, the electors cast their committed votes for president and vice president. In 82 cases since 1787, electors at meetings became faithless electors when they voted for another candidate on their own.

3. At this point, each state Electoral College sends a certificate of vote to the Vice President of the United States Joe Biden, acting as president of the Senate. The certificates must be received by December 28 in Washington. The Office of the Federal Register determines the certificates are sealed and legitimate documents.

4. On January 6, 2017, Biden opens the joint session held in the House of Representatives at 1 p.m. Two sets of tellers open the sealed vote certificates in alphabetical order by state, and the results are read into the congressional records. After the results are announced, Biden then asks if there are objections from any member of Congress. Each objection must be made in writing and signed by one House and one Senate member.

5. If there are objections, the House and Senate meet separately, with a two-hour limit on the meetings. Each member can only speak for a maximum of five minutes. When the joint session resumes, the results of the meetings are announced. Both the Senate and the House must agree to reject an Electoral College vote or votes.

Under the 12th Amendment, if there is no majority winner in the Electoral College, the House picks the President and the Senate picks the Vice President in contingent elections. The top three Electoral College vote getters for President are put up for the vote in the House; the top two Vice Presidential candidates are voted on in the Senate.

There has been one election that was influenced by the faithless elector scenario. In 1836, while Martin Van Buren won the presidential election outright, nearly two dozen faithless electors refused to vote for Van Burens vice presidential running mate, Richard Mentor Johnson. On February 9, 1837, Congress opened the vote certificates and confirmed that 23 electors in Virginia voted for another candidate, William Smith of Alabama. Johnson defeated the second-place finisher, Francis Granger, in the Senate run-off election.

Scott Bomboy is the editor in chief of the National Constitution Center.

Election Resources on Constitution Daily

When the Supreme Court ruled to allow American flag burning

Close election causes another Electoral College debate

Explaining how recounts and contested presidential elections work
(NEW YORK)  Sequestered in his Manhattan high-rise, Donald Trump was huddling Tuesday with Vice President-elect Mike Pence as he moved closer to filing out his Cabinet, including top national security posts. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has emerged as the favorite to serve as secretary of state, a senior Trump official said.

Although Giuliani has little foreign policy experience, the official said there was no real competition for the job as the nations top diplomat. However, a second official cautioned that John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, remained in contention for the key post. Both officials requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the process by name.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker also expressed interest in the State Department post and said his team has had some conversations with Trump officials. However, the Tennessee Republican told MSNBC there were others who were more central to Trumps presidential campaign for the post.

Even as Trump narrowed in on top appointments, there were signs of tumult within his transition team. Former Rep. Mike Rogers, a well-respected Republican voice on national security, announced his resignation from the transition team on Tuesday, a move likely to rattle GOP officials who worry about Trumps lack of foreign policy credentials.

Trump had already rejiggered his transition team after winning the election, putting Pence in charge and demoting New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

The switch has slowed Trumps ability to coordinate with the White House. Pence has yet to sign a memorandum of understanding facilitating interactions between transition officials and Obama administration officials, effectively pausing those efforts. Christie had previously signed the document, but its no longer valid given Pences promotion. And Pentagon officials say they have yet to hear from the transition team.

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Trump spokesman Jason Miller said the president-elect and Pence were meeting Tuesday to review a number of names for the incoming administration.

If the vice president-elect is getting together with the president elect to discuss names, I would say its getting serious, Miller said.

Giuliani, 72, would be an out-of-box choice to serve as secretary of State. A former mayor, federal prosecutor and top Trump adviser, Giuliani is known for his hard-line law-and-order views. Bolton has years of U.S. foreign policy experience, but he has also raised eyebrows with some of his hawkish stances, including a 2015 New York Times op-ed in which he advocated bombing Iran to halt the countrys development of nuclear weapons.

A spokeswoman for Giuliani did not immediately respond to a request for comment about his interest in the job. But during an appearance in Washington late Monday, Giuliani said that Bolton would be a very good choice to serve as secretary of state. Asked if there was anyone better, Giuliani replied: Maybe me, I dont know.

The New York billionaire also was considering tapping Richard Grenell as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, a move that would bring some experience and diversity to his nascent administration. Grenell, who served as U.S. spokesman at the U.N. under President George W. Bush, would be the first openly gay person to fill a Cabinet-level foreign policy post.

The transition planning comes amid an intense and extended backlash from Trumps decision on Sunday to appoint Steve Bannon, a man celebrated by the white nationalist movement, to serve as his chief strategist and senior adviser.

After winning the presidency but losing the popular vote, President-elect Trump must try to bring Americans together  not continue to fan the flames of division and bigotry, said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. Echoing concerns from officials in both parties, she called Bannons appointment an alarming signal that Trump remains committed to the hateful and divisive vision that defined his campaign.

Until joining Trumps campaign this summer, Bannon led a website that appealed to the so-called alt-right  a movement often associated with efforts on the far right to preserve white identity, oppose multiculturalism and defend Western values.

Meanwhile, Trump, who has no foreign policy experience, spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone on Monday.

His transition office said in a readout that Trump is very much looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the people of Russia. Trump has spoken in recent days with the leaders of China, Mexico, South Korea and Canada.

Trump is also weighing whether to select Michigan GOP chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel, a niece of chief Trump critic and 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney. She would be the second woman ever to lead the Republican National Committee  and the first in four decades.

Ill be interested in whatever Mr. Trump wants, McDaniel told The Associated Press.

Associated Press writers Julie Pace, Josh Lederman and Robert Burns contributed to this report.

Peoples and Colvin reported from Washington.
French President Francois Hollande is urging President-elect Donald Trump and his government to respect the irreversible Paris Agreement on climate change that has been signed by more than 190 countries.

Speaking at a U.N. climate conference in Marrakech, Morocco, Hollande praised U.S. President Obama for his role in getting the landmark pact adopted in Paris in 2015 and said France would lead discussions with Trump to ensure the deal remains in place.

The United States, the most powerful economy in the world, the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, must respect the commitments that were made, Hollande said, the Associated Press reports. Its not simply their duty, its in their interest.

During Trumps presidential campaign, he said he would scrap much existing environmental regulation and bring back the ailing coal industry. He pledged to cancel the Paris deal, saying it put the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage economically, especially to large developing nations like China that were less constrained on carbon emissions.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon weighed in on the mounting international opposition to Trumps stance on climate change, saying he hoped Trump would shift his position and understand the problems seriousness and urgency. As president of the United States, Im sure that he will understand this, he will listen and he will evaluate his campaign remarks, he told reporters.

A number of other world leaders have also expressed hope that Trump will reconsider his pledge to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, including, significantly, China. The countrys foreign ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, said China would like to continue working with all countries, including the U.S., in the global fight against climate change.
Donald Trumps name will soon be permanently removed from three New York City apartment buildings where it has been emblazoned in giant, gold letters for more than a decade.

Equity Residential, which owns 140, 160 and 180 Trump Place in Manhattans Upper West Side said Tuesday that it will start pulling Trumps name from signage in an attempt to appeal to renters, according to the Guardian.

We are in the process of rebranding the buildings using their street addresses as the property names, Equity Residential spokesman Marty McKenna told the newspaper. The goal is to assume a more neutral building identity that will appeal to all current and future renters.

The change comes after some of the buildings residents started an online petition to dump the Trump name after the real estate mogul leaped into the presidential election. The petition, which has garnered nearly 600 supporters, says residents are embarrassed to live in buildings that bear Trumps name following his incendiary comments on the campaign trail about women and some minorities.

Trump developed the three buildings in the 1990s, according to the Guardian. In October, McKenna told Bloomberg News that the company has a contractual obligation regarding the use of the name while addressing outrage among residents. Its unclear what has changed in the contract. McKenna did not immediately return a request for comment.

Trump Place will now adopt the formal street address of Riverside Boulevard, according to the Guardian.
National security adviser Mike Rogers leaves in Stalinesque purge as talks at Trump Tower continue amid uncertainty over role of president-elects children

Donald Trumps transition to the White House appeared to be in disarray on Tuesday after the abrupt departure of a top national security adviser and amid continuing questions over the role of his three children and son-in-law.

Former Republican congressman Mike Rogers stepped down from the president-elects transition team without explanation, but one report attributed it to a Stalinesque purge.

Late on Tuesday, Trump attempted to paint a less chaotic picture, tweeting that the transition process was very organized. He also wrote that only he knew who the finalists were  seemingly an attempt to liken the process to his reality TV show The Apprentice.

Very organized process taking place as I decide on Cabinet and many other positions. I am the only one who knows who the finalists are!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 16, 2016

A week after his election, Trump and Vice-President-elect Mike Pence were huddled at Trump Tower in New York to work on key appointments as the US Senate was due to resume business in a still shellshocked Washington.

Rogers chaired the House intelligence committee and is a former army officer and FBI special agent. He said he was proud of the work his team had done to produce policy and personnel guidance on the complex national security challenges facing our great country.

Related: Loyalists and rivals tipped for powerful roles in Trump's cabinet

The departure offered the latest clue that the transition is going to be every bit as bumpy as feared. Last week the president-elect ditched the head of the team, New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who is mired in political scandal, and replaced him with Pence.

NBC News quoted a source as saying Rogers was the victim of a Stalinesque purge of people close to Christie. Two sources close to the situation described an atmosphere of sniping and backbiting as Trump loyalists position themselves for key jobs, the network reported.

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Some Republicans who previously ostracised Trump are returning to the fold but not always with success. Eliot Cohen, a senior state department official under George W Bush, launched a stinging attack on the transition effort. He tweeted:



After exchange [with] Trump transition team, changed my recommendation: stay away. Theyre angry, arrogant, screaming you LOST! Will be ugly.

A few days ago, Cohen had encouraged the suspicious Republican foreign policy establishment to rally around the president-elect.

Adding to the sense of chaos, both the state department and Pentagon said they were yet to hear from the incoming administration, while rumours swirled over whether Trumps children  Donald Jr, Eric, and Ivanka, and her husband Jared Kushner  would seek top security clearances. Kushner was said to have been instrumental in the departures of Christie and Rogers.

Barack Obama told reporters at the White House on Monday that he believed Trump was a pragmatist, not an ideologue, and reiterated his commitment to a smooth handover. But the Associated Press reported that coordination between Trumps transition team and White House staff is on hold until Trumps team signs a memorandum of understanding.

Speculation over cabinet appointments intensified on Tuesday. Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon and former Republican candidate for president tipped to be health secretary, has dropped out of the running. I want to have the freedom to work on many issues and not be pigeonholed into one particular area, Carson, who is Trumps most prominent African American supporter, told the Washington Post.

The New York Times reported that former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, an old friend of Trump, is the frontrunner for the prize job of secretary of state. He has no foreign policy experience beyond strong advocacy for the war on terror following the 11 September 2001 terror attacks, which gave him global prominence.

Related: Samantha Bee on Trump's cabinet list: 'Deplorables, zealots and extremists'

But the political action committee Correct the Record argued that Giuliani, 72, had a long history of business ties to enemies of America. He was reportedly paid to advocate on behalf of an Iranian dissident group while it was listed by the state department as a foreign terrorist organisation and worked for a law firm whose clients included Saddam Hussein, terrorist Abu Nidal and an oil company controlled by the then Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez. All these are potential red flags if he goes before the Senate for confirmation.

Trumps children will take over the running of his business while he is in the White House, raising the prospect of a conflict of interest. Responding to claims that they are already exploiting his new status for commercial ends, the former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer tweeted: Free advice: Stop it. Dont do this. The presidency is bigger than the family business. Just stop it.



Trump, a tycoon, reality TV star and political novice, has a long history of pitting rivals against one another, both in business and during his election campaign. He has appointed Steve Bannon as chief strategist and Reince Priebus as chief of staff, an unprecedented arrangement that threatens to create competing centers of power.



The inclusion of Bannon, executive chairman of the far-right Breitbart News, provoked a furious backlash from progressives. The House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi, said: There must be no sugarcoating the reality that a white nationalist has been named chief strategist for the Trump administration.

Departing US Senate minority leader Harry Reid on Tuesday called on the president to rescind Bannons appointment, which he said has only deepened the countrys divisions since the election.

By placing a champion of white supremacists a step away from the Oval Office, what message does Trump send to the young girl who woke up Wednesday morning in Rhode Island afraid to be a woman of color in America? Reid said, speaking on the Senate floor.

Reid had previously lashed out at the businessman in a powerful statement last week that referred to the president-elect as a sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fueled his campaign with bigotry and hate.

In response to his criticism, Kellyanne Conway, Trumps former campaign manager and current transition team adviser, appeared to threaten legal action against Reid and warned that the Democrat should be very careful in his criticism of the president-elect.



But on Tuesday Paul Ryan, the House speaker who is attempting to overcome past disagreements with Trump, refused to condemn the appointment. The president is going to be judged on his results, he told reporters. [Bannon] is a person who helped him win an incredible victory and an incredible campaign.

Ryan promised that Trump and a unified Republican Congress would mean that a better way, better days lie ahead for our country. He pledged to work hand in glove with the incoming administration.

The House speaker was on course to be re-elected by Republicans on Tuesday afternoon but House Democrats postponed leadership elections that had been scheduled for Thursday until 30 November amid signs of discontent with Pelosi.

Ongoing vote counts show Democrat Hillary Clinton pulling away from Trump in the popular vote, although he won the electoral college vote. Trump tweeted on Tuesday: If the election were based on total popular vote I would have campaigned in N.Y., Florida and California and won even bigger and more easily.

Despite previously labelling the electoral college a disaster, he tweeted that it was actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different!

Trumps inauguration will take place in Washington on 20 January.

Additional reporting by Lauren Gambino
NEW YORK  Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion nationwide, could be in jeopardy under Donald Trumps presidency. If a reconfigured high court did overturn it, the likely outcome would be a patchwork map: some states protecting abortion access, others enacting tough bans, and many struggling over what new limits they might impose.

Trump, who will have at least one Supreme Court vacancy to fill, has pledged to appoint pro-life justices who potentially would be open to weakening or reversing Roe. With one seat vacant, the high court now has a 5-3 majority supporting abortion rights, and thus one of those five would need to vacate his or her seat to give the court an anti-abortion majority.

Trump broached that possibility in an interview aired Sunday night on CBS 60 Minutes, suggesting that a reversal of Roe would return the matter to the states, leaving it up to their legislatures to decide the future of abortion access.

Asked about the likelihood that some women would face abortion bans in their states, Trump replied, Well, theyll perhaps have to go, theyll have to go to another state.

Supporters of abortion rights concurred with that analysis.

If Roe were overturned, we would likely return to a patchwork quilt of laws, which would force women onto the road even more than at present, said Dr. David Grimes, a North Carolina obstetrician-gynecologist.

Grimes was alluding to the fact that many states under Republican control already have forced closure of some abortion clinics, confronting some women with the need for long-distance travel in order to obtain an abortion. While affluent women might be able to afford such travel, it can be an insurmountable burden for some low-income women.

Is that the world we want, where womens ability to get the care she needs depends on her ability to go to another state? asked Jennifer Dalven, director of the American Civil Liberties Unions Reproductive Freedom Project.

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Anti-abortion leader Clark Forsythe, acting president and senior counsel for Americans United For Life, predicted that the states would break into three basic categories if Roe were overturned: Perhaps a dozen states would continue to make abortion widely accessible, another dozen or so would ban virtually all abortions unless the mothers life were at stake, and roughly two-dozen more states would thrash out their response with debate among the public and in the legislatures. Forsythe suggested that some of those states might allow abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy, while restricting or banning later abortions.

Among the states likely to maintain full access to abortion are those on the Pacific Coast and in the Northeast. South-central and southeastern states would be among those likely to impose bans, potentially leaving women in a huge, contiguous chunk of the United States with no nearby access to abortion providers.

For many women, its not possible to traverse across multiple state lines, said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights. This could have tragic consequences.

She said one consequence might be an increase in the number of women seeking to self-induce an abortion.

Florida, compared to other Southern states, has a large number of abortion clinics  more than 70, according to the most recent count by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group which supports abortion rights.

Laura Goodhue, executive director of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, said the state legislature has been increasingly hostile to abortion rights, yet she was uncertain what would happen if Roe were overturned.

A majority of Floridians support access to abortion, and dont want to see it go away, she said.

In the decades since the Roe decision, several states have kept or added anti-abortion laws that could take effect immediately if the ruling were overturned.

Among them is Wisconsin. Nicole Safar, director of government relations for the states Planned Parenthood affiliate, said a statute has been on the books since 1849 making it a felony for a doctor to perform an abortion in Wisconsin. Abortion is likely to remain legal in neighboring Illinois, but Safar said even that trip might be out of reach for many low-income women in Wisconsin.

Illinois is and should remain an oasis for abortion care, but we cant be complacent about that, said Brigid Leahy, director of public policy for Planned Parenthood in Illinois. I dont think our legislature is poised to pass a ban should Roe be overturned. But things can always change.

Vicki Saporta, president of the National Abortion Federation, said a reconfigured Supreme Court might address an abortion case by leaving some aspects of Roe in place, but chipping away at it to allow a broader range of restrictions.

Its not so easy to overturn Roe, she said. Women in this country would not stand for it.

Anti-abortion leader Marjorie Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony List also predicted that a chipping away of Roe might be more likely than its total reversal. She said Congress was likely to pass a ban on most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, and states would feel more emboldened in passing tough anti-abortion laws.

Roe is already in shambles, she said.

Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, said Roes eventual demise would mean even brighter prospects for state anti-abortion legislation.

Our state affiliates have been working to pass laws, but they run up against Roe, she said. If Roe were overturned, it would allow us to fight in each state.

Professor Michael New, an abortion opponent who teaches economics at Ave Maria University in Florida, said he would welcome a reversal of Roe even if abortion policy in many states remained unchanged.

It would restart a serious debate about sanctity of life issues in the United States, he wrote in an email. This is a debate that pro-lifers welcome.
The next president is a New York native born to a Scottish immigrant and a self-made businessman. Donald Trump also might be the son of a KKK supporter.

Donald Trump, who has vowed to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, was born to Mary MacLeod, a Scotswoman from the village of Tong located on the Isle of Lewis. She settled in New York City in the 1930s, traveling from her village to the states several times prior to making it her home. During those trips via ship, her occupation was listed as a domestic or as a maid.

Trumps mother met his father at a dance, and the two eventually fell in love and married in 1936, settling into a residence in Jamaica, Queens. In his 1997 book, The Art of the Comeback, Trump explained his admiration when it came to his mother. Part of the problem Ive had with women has been in having to compare them to my incredible mother, Mary Trump, he wrote. My mother is smart as hell, he stated in the book. Mary Trump died on Aug. 7, 2000 in her Jamaica, Queens home.

Fred Trump was born in 1905 in New York. He started out as a builder and created a construction company while in high school. He soon was selling single family homes.

In 1927, the patriarch was arrested in Queens, New York, after a Klu Klux Klan riot, the Washington Post reported. A fight erupted during the riot involving 1,000 Klansmen in white robes. Out of the seven men who were arrested, one of them was Fred Trump. The man was taken into custody after refusing to disperse from a parade when ordered to do so."

During an interview with the New York Times, when questioned about his fathers arrest, Trump denied the claims. Because my father, there were no charges against him, I dont know about the other people involved. But there were zero charges against him. So assuming it was him  I dont even think it was him, I never even heard about it. So its really not fair to mention. It never happened, he told the reporter.

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Stanley Leibowitz, Fred Trumps former manager, has said the real estate mogul did not rent to black tenants. He recalled that during his time working for Fred Trump there once was a black applicant who applied for an apartment and should have been approved.

I asked him, What do you want me to do with this application? He said, You know I dont rent to n-----s. Put it in your desk drawer. Donald was alongside of him. He was maybe 16, 17 years old at the time. He was learning the business of his father. He was right at his side," Leibowitz told the New York Daily News.

Donald Trump has denied that his family's real estate business practiced discriminatory policies when renting out apartments. Frank Trump died on June 25, 1999.

Related Articles
- The International Olympic Committee (IOC) have backed Craig Reedie's reelection as World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) president despite tensions over the handling of the Russian doping affair. "The IOC is not putting forward another candidate," an IOC source revealed, guaranteeing that the 75-year-old Scot will be reelected for another three-year term during Sunday's meeting of the WADA Foundation Board in Glasgow. Reedie, also an IOC vice-president, was first elected as WADA president in 2013. Founded in 1999, WADA's aim is to harmonise anti-doping regulations between governments and sporting organisations. In recent months relations have deteriorated so badly that it was feared the IOC, which provides half of WADA's $27 million (25.2m euros) annual budget, might sideline the regulator and set up a new organisation which it could control more closely.

AFP
Hobart (Australia) (AFP) - South African captain Faf du Plessis on Tuesday urged his victorious team to keep their foot on Australia's throat and go after a series whitewash in next week's final Adelaide Test.

The Proteas are on the verge of an unprecedented Test series clean sweep in Australia after crushing the home side by an innings and 80 runs before lunch on the fourth day of the second Test in Hobart.

That clinched the South Africans a third consecutive Test series Down Under stretching back to 2008, and they have the chance of cleaning up all three Tests in the day-night game at Adelaide Oval from November 24.

As far as du Plessis is concerned there will be no easing up on the demoralised Australians.

"Thats the mission for us now. We want to do that very badly," he told reporters after his team effectively beat the Australians in under three days following Sunday's entire wash-out.

"The same with the ODIs (5-0 series win in South Africa in October), we wont just rest on our laurels and be happy with 2-1 or even 2-0.

"Weve got Australia in a position where theyre under pressure and wont let that go. Its hard enough to get them in this position so well do everything we can to keep them there."

- Confidence booster -

Du Plessis, who replaced the injured AB de Villiers as skipper for the Tests in Australia, rated the series win as the highlight of his playing career.

"I didnt expect it to happen (so quickly). To get eight wickets for 32 runs is one of those sessions we will always remember as a team that won us a series," he said.

"That ranks right at the top. To come here and do what weve done is right up there certainly in my career."

The trailblazing series success will act as a spur for younger players watching at home, he added.

"We know how hard it is. Even guys like Dale (Steyn) and Hashim (Amla), they know how hard it is coming here.

"I suppose the younger guys that are looking from back home right now can see that its possible, coming here and to an extent dominating an Australian team, which gives us as a country a lot of confidence when we go and travel.

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"But its extremely special for us, we know that this is something that well remember forever as a team and thats exactly what we came here to do. We want to create memories as a team together. Weve done it a few times now but its not done yet."

Du Plessis, said a major part of the Proteas success was keeping the clamps on Australia's senior players David Warner and Steve Smith.

"If you can put a lot of pressure on them you know that the younger and the more inexperienced players in the team wont have the same punch as they would have," he said.

"Weve just made sure those guys have been relatively quiet in the series. Even guys like Mitchell Starc who is a fantastic bowler.

"We were really good at making sure we stopped that."
(Updates with details, quotes)

AMSTERDAM, Nov 15 (Reuters) - The Dutch economy grew 2.4 percent year-on-year in the third quarter and unemployment fell sharply in welcome news for Prime Minister Mark Rutte's government, which trails the far-right Freedom Party four months before a parliamentary election.

Unemployment declined to 5.9 percent from 6.3 percent in the second quarter, the largest quarter-on-quarter decline in a decade, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) said.

The economy grew 0.7 percent from the previous quarter. That compares with a revised 0.7 percent growth in the second quarter of 2016, and 2.3 percent year on year. The agency described growth as "steady", with 10 consecutive quarters of growth.

The economy is benefiting from a strong recovery in housing prices, which is boosting consumer confidence and spending, as well as a continuing large trade surplus.

"Apart from a dip in February and March of this year, the mood among consumers has been positive for almost two years," CBS chief economist Peter Hein van Mulligen said.

He said consumer confidence, especially willingness to make major purchases, rose in October to its highest level since 2007. The housing boom was contributing to both declining unemployment and strong growth in investment, he said.

Campaigning for the March elections is due to begin shortly after the winter holidays, with most polls currently showing Rutte's conservative VVD Party trailing the far-right Freedom party of populist lawmaker Geert Wilders.

(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Dwayne Johnson and Lin-Manuel Miranda at the Moana premiere in Los Angeles (Photo: Twitter/Disney News Latino)

Dwayne Johnson, Peoples new Sexiest Man Alive, has a message to all his admirers: Youre welcome. Thats the tongue-in-cheek title of the song that Johnsons character, the demi-god Maui, sings in Disneys new animated film Moana (in theaters on Nov. 23). In celebration of the films Los Angeles premiere (and, perhaps, of his Sexiest Man title), the actor sang a duet of Youre Welcome on the red carpet last night with songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda. Check it out below.

Watching the video, its apparent that for Johnson  a multi-talented star whos obviously game for anything  performing a musical number isnt entirely in his comfort zone. (Thankfully, he had Hamilton star and creator Miranda to give him a boost.) In an interview with E! News, the actor agreed that singing for the film was intimidating.

Related: Moana Directors on Creating the Films World  and How Little Mermaid Almost Got Sunk

Ive sung in the past, and in Polynesian culture, we sing, we dance, we play ukulele or guitar, things like that  but not to this level, said Johnson. Its Disney, and theres music involved. In a way, its a musical. Theres a lot of pressureBut I had the best time  really, the best time.

Watch a clip of Dwayne Johnson singing Youre Welcome' in Moana.

He added that Miranda really helped him channel his inner Broadway star. He sent me the song and I tried it, but it wasnt until after we were done with the session  it was like six hours  that I understoodthese are really challenging lyrics in how theyre put together, and where you go with it rhythmically and intonation. He goes, I want you to know: Feel good about yourself,  Johnson recalled. Because again, I never did it, all right? It was my first shot at this. He goes, I want you to know, youre real good. This is hard. You nailed it. I was like, Thank you so much. 

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Related: Moana Review: The Vibrant, Delightful New Animated Musical Sets Sail

This summer, Johnson shared a video of himself and Miranda having an impromptu duet of Gaston from Beauty and the Beast.

Moana: Watch a trailer:
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has been named People's Sexiest Man Alive.

The WWE star-turned-actor - who has starred in San Andreas, Central Intelligence and the Fast and the Furious films - nabbed the annual title this year, just as his latest film, Disney's animated film Moana, hits theaters this month.

Still up at 4am trainin' hard & takin' care of my babies.. sexily;).

Thank U @people & all the fans. Grateful for the luv! #SexiestManAlive pic.twitter.com/e8O2orOBJR- Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) November 15, 2016

The cover was revealed on Ellen in an episode airing Tuesday.

"What this means is I still have to drive in my pickup truck and change Jasmine's diapers, but I'm the sexiest man alive," he said to Ellen DeGeneres, laughing.

Johnson's new title is also notable because he's the second man of color to be named Sexiest Man Alive in the annual tradition's 31 years. Denzel Washington was previously the only minority to have held the title in 1996.

Recent honorees include David Beckham, Adam Levine, Channing Tatum, Bradley Cooper, Ryan Reynolds and Johnny Depp. A 29-year-old Mel Gibson was the first man to hold the title back in 1985.

Watch the videos below.
An unexpected move to vote on a proposal to restore earmarks to the federal appropriations process has conservative groups on Capitol Hill scrambling to drum up resistance before the incoming members of the House of Representatives take a vote on the chambers rules for the next Congress.

After taking over the House of Representatives in 2010, Republicans did away with earmarks, which direct spending to specific projects that a member of Congress wants to see implemented. Over the years, they had become synonymous with shady deals and waste as Congressmen used them to channel money to their own districts, often resulting in public buildings or facilities with their names on them.

Related: Whos Going to Pay for Trumps Huge Infrastructure Plans?

The proposal that will be voted on Wednesday would not fully restore earmarks, according to The Daily Signal, a website published by the conservative group Heritage Action for America, which obtained a copy. It would only allow members of Congress to direct funding through a limited set of federal agencies, including the Defense Department, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Homeland Security. State and local governments could also receive directed funds. However, it would bar the use of public funds for things like parks and recreation facilities.

The authors of the proposal are three Republican members of the House: John Culberson of Texas, Mike Rogers of Alabama and Tom Rooney of Florida.

Any attempt to roll back the longstanding ban on congressional earmarksthe lubricant that empowers politicians to cut bad dealswould amount to a rebuke of those voters, said Michael Needham, chief executive of Heritage Action for America, to The Daily Signal. Americans deserve an honest, transparent government that is working for everyone, not simply doling out favors to a well connected few.

David McIntosh, president of the conservative Club for Growth, said, Earmarks represent the worst of inside-the-beltway gamesmanship, by enticing Members to vote for big-government bills with the lure of getting tax dollars for big projects back in their districts. Voters believed that Republicans would drain the swamp, not redirect it for their own benefit. Any effort to restore this kind of cronyism should be flatly rejected.

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Related: Why Wall Street and Liberals Are Bullish on Trumps Stimulus Plans

In a statement, Jenny Beth Martin, president of the group Tea Party Patriots, said, Any member of Congress who votes to bring back old-school, backroom, pork-barrel spending through earmarks is putting himself or herself firmly against the American people who just elected Donald Trump president, as he campaigned emphatically on the issue of draining the swamp in Washington.

The problem for Martin and the folks at Heritage and the Club for Growth is that figuring out who did and did not support the proposal will be difficult if not impossible. Lawmakers are voting by secret ballot on Wednesday.

The argument against earmarks is that they can be used to bribe lawmakers into taking bad votes, or that they carry a whiff of corruption.

However, they have their supporters as well. Many have attributed the remarkable dysfunction in Congress, and particularly the House, in recent years to the elimination of earmarks. They gave leaders in the House of Representatives an effective way to both punish and reward members of their own party.

Related: Here's What Could Scuttle Trumps Big Spending Plans

In the years since earmarks were eliminated, this argument goes, low-ranking members have felt free to buck leadership on a regular basis because there isnt much of a price that an angry House Speaker can extract.

Others argue that earmarks have a place in the appropriations process because members of Congress know their individual districts far better than bureaucrats in Washington, and therefore have more insight into where federal dollars might do the most good.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
A comprehensive approach

Guaranteeing the right to abortion isnt enough. We know that economic, cultural, religious, and systemic barriers prevent many people from accessing abortion care even where its legal and available.

Our solution: We work across institutions and communities to build sustainable abortion ecosystems. In such an ecosystem, people have the information they need to make decisions about reproductive health, theres community and health-system support for human rights and abortion access, and laws and policies support full bodily autonomy.
Given that food and drink go hand in hand with celebrations, it's difficult to know how to eat healthier during the holidays. But if youre hosting a party or preparing meals, one of your jobs is to make sure your guests don't leave suffering from unwanted aftereffects, such as feeling stuffed on rich goodiesor worse, feeling sick. The secret to better morning afters is to make smart choices when planning and prepping the food you serve. Here, experts show you how to eat healthier over the holidays.

Make the Right Grocery Buys

Serving a delicious, healthy holiday meal begins at the grocery store, but the choices can be confusing. The trick is to know which food labels are meaningful.

Look for meat labels that matter. Whether your menu calls for turkey, beef, or pork, consider buying meat thats organic or raised without antibiotics. Experts (including 90 percent of the doctors surveyed in a Consumer Reports poll) are concerned about using antibiotics for disease prevention or growth promotion in animals because it contributes to antibiotic resistance. Organic practices also call for only organic feed and no growth hormones.

Pick the best produce. Organic? Conventional? Local? The right choices will be based on availability and your personal preferences, concerns for the environment, and your budget. Local produce can be healthier; nutrients may degrade if the trip to the store takes too long. Even in colder parts of the country, locally grown apples, sweet potatoes, and winter squash are available during the holiday season. Organic produce is grown without the use of most pesticides or chemical fertilizers and isn't genetically engineered. Washing conventional fruits and vegetables in running water and rubbing them hard will reduce pesticide residue (you dont need special washes), as will peeling. Still, some pesticides can remain on surfaces and some are systemicthey get into the produce flesh and cant be washed away.

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Spice it up right. Sodium is used as a preservative in many canned and packaged foods, says Lauri Wright, Ph.D., R.D., an assistant professor of nutrition at the University of South Florida. So they have much more than if it was added just for taste. Look for low-sodium products; they contain 140 mg or less per serving. To avoid added sugars, use canned fruit packed in its own juice (no sugar added) and consider making cranberry sauce by boiling fresh or frozen berries with just enough orange juice and sugar to take the acidic edge off.

Prepare It All Safely

In the frenzy of meal prep, we often neglect the basic rules of kitchen safety. This is especially true during the holidays, when you have several people in the kitchen, says Shelley Feist, executive director at the Partnership for Food Safety Education. Consider these reminders:

Plan ahead. I always recommend cleaning out the refrigerator and freezer before you shop, because youre going to need all that room, says Marianne H. Gravely, M.S., a food-safety specialist with the Department of Agricultures Meat and Poultry Hotline. Keep raw meat and poultry separate from other foods in your shopping cart, grocery bags, and fridge.

Thaw in the fridge. Food-poisoning bacteria grow rapidly at room temperature, and in 2 hours they can reach dangerous levels and develop toxins that cant be killed with cooking, Gravely warns. It takes one day of thawing for every 5 pounds of turkey. Keep it in a shallow roasting pan with sides high enough to contain any juices that might leak out.

Dont rinse the bird. A Drexel University study found that rinsing poultry caused bacteria from the surface to splatter all over.

Clean carefully. Cross contamination goes beyond rookie mistakes such as using the same plate for raw and cooked meat and forgetting to wash your hands before you start food prep. For example, a Kansas State University study found that kitchen towels were the most contaminated with bacteria of all the surfaces tested. Thats because people often use them to wipe the counter or dry their hands after rinsing them (as opposed to using soap and water). And using your cell phone or tablet can be an unexpected source of contamination. Every time you touch something during food prep is an opportunity to introduce contaminants into your food, Feist says. So if you take a call, wash your hands again after you set the phone down.

Get meat up to temp. To kill bacteria that may be present, cook beef and pork roasts and fresh ham to 145 F. For turkey, that magic number is 165 F. Test turkeys temperature in three areasthe breast, the thickest part of the thigh, and the wing, Gravely says. Its also safer not to stuff the bird (and stuffing extends cooking time), but if you do, make sure the stuffing reaches 165 F before you take the turkey out of the oven.

Enjoy those leftovers. Be sure your fridge is set to just below 40 F (use a refrigerator thermometer to check). Get leftovers into the fridge or freezer within 2 hours of cooking. Pack food in small, shallow containers (to cool it more quickly). Never store turkey on the carcass because it will take too long for all of the meat to chill.

Serve It Up Smartly

No one wants to feel like theyre depriving themselves, especially at the holidays, says Lisa R. Young, Ph.D., R.D., an adjunct professor of nutrition at New York University. But you can feed everyone well without putting them (or yourself) into a food coma. You dont need to think about eating less, Young says. Just think about balance.

Downsize your dishes. When using a 9- to 10-inch-diameter plate, people typically serve themselves 20 percent less than they do on an oversized plate, says Brian Wansink, Ph.D., director of Cornell Universitys Food and Brand Lab and author of Slim by Design (William Morrow, 2014). And replacing large serving spoons with regular-sized kitchen spoons results in a 14 percent reduction. Youre going to take two or three spoonfuls of stuffing, regardless of spoon size, Wansink says.

Rethink what goes on the table. Serving everything family style is undoubtedly more festive, but research has shown that it also results in people eating about 20 percent more than they would if they had to get uprather than just reach forfor seconds. One solution: Load the table with serving bowls of the healthiest foods in your feast and place the more indulgent ones at least a few feet away.

Focus on the foods you love the most. Theres a lot of pressure at the holidays to eat everything. But dont feel you have to load up on your sisters special casserole unless you love it. Sample a small amount and be sure to rave about it. If you're going to indulge, do so with the foods you wait all year for.

Editor's Note: This article also appeared in the November 2016 issue of Consumer Reports On Health.





More from Consumer Reports:

Top pick tires for 2016

Best used cars for $25,000 and less

7 best mattresses for couples





Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this website. Copyright  2006-2016 Consumers Union of U.S.
Edward Snowden has warned that President-elect Donald Trump could reverse the U.S. governments pledges to limit domestic surveillance, which could lead to increased spying within the country.

Snowden, who has been stranded in Moscow since he disclosed classified information about the National Security Agencys widespread surveillance in 2013, made the comments during a teleconference hosted by Buenos Aires Universitys law school, Reuters reports.

Although the federal government has pledged not to engage in indiscriminate domestic surveillance following Snowdens revelations three years ago, Snowden said he questioned whether Trumps government who have a very different set of values and can govern in the dark may reverse this policy. This is kind of the challenge that were facing today in the United States with the result of the last election, Snowden added.

When Snowden, who is charged in the U.S. with violations of the Espionage Act, was asked whether he thought Trumps election might increase his chances of being pardoned by the government, he simply responded: Who knows?

[Reuters]
Cairo (AFP) - An Egyptian appeals court on Tuesday overturned a death sentence handed down against ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in one of four trials since his 2013 overthrow.

The decision is a first victory for the 65-year-old who has been convicted and sentenced in all cases against him since being toppled by then army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi following mass street protests.

Since 2013 his Muslim Brotherhood movement has since been blacklisted and subjected to a crackdown that has killed hundreds of his supporters and jailed thousands.

Morsi has been wearing the red uniform reserved for prisoners on death row after being condemned to death in June last year over a 2011 prison break.

"He'll take off the red uniform," one of his lawyers, Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsud, said on Tuesday.

Egypt's first freely elected civilian president, Morsi came to power after the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak.

The Court of Cassation on Tuesday ordered that Morsi be retried on the charges of taking part in prison breaks and violence against policemen during the 2011 revolt, a judicial official said.

Five co-defendants, including the supreme guide of the Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, who also received death sentences in the same case, will be retried too.

Nearly 100 others who were tried in absentia are unaffected by the appeals ruling.

"The initial verdict was marked by judicial flaws so we were expecting this decision from the Court of Cassation," Abdel Maqsud said.

Last month, the same appeals court upheld a 20-year jail sentence handed down against Morsi in April in a separate trial on charges of ordering the use of deadly force against protesters during his year in power.

Morsi has also been sentenced to life in prison in two other trials, both of which his legal team has appealed.

The Court of Cassation is to issue a verdict on Tuesday next week in the appeal against a life sentence on charges of spying for Iran, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

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And the same court will from November 27 review Morsi's appeal against the same sentence in another case in which he was found guilty of stealing documents relating to national security and handing them over to Qatar, a longstanding supporter of the Brotherhood.

Morsi is being held at the Borg el-Arab prison near the northern city of Alexandria.

Hundreds of his supporters have been sentenced to death in speedy mass trials that have been condemned by the United Nations and human rights groups.

Some sentences have been overturned by the Court of Cassation on appeal.

Islamist militants have waged an insurgency that has killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since Morsi's ouster.

A judge in one of Morsi's trials earlier this month escaped unharmed when a car bomb exploded in Cairo.

And in September, militants detonated a car bomb as the country's deputy state prosecutor was passing. He was unharmed.
Cairo (AFP) - Egypt's parliament approved a draft law to regulate the activities of non-governmental organisations, in a move expected to trigger new fears of an intensified crackdown on civil society.

The text submitted by more than 200 parliamentarians was sent to the Council of State, the parliament's website said, referring to the legal body which examines and amends legislation before it is ratified by the assembly.

Since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, authorities have cracked down on all sorts of opposition, including human rights organisations.

The draft bill calls jail terms of up to five years and fines of up to one million Egyptian pounds ($63,300, 59,000 euros) for violations of the law, according to the heads of two NGOs who have seen the text.

"The organisations will not be able to carry out their activities without the prior authorisation of the administrative authorities," said Adel Ramadan, who heads the legal department of the watchdog Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.

If the draft bill becomes law, "NGOs will not be able to carry out a study or a survey without a permit from the state," he said.

"And another permit will be needed in order to publish the study or the survey," he said, adding that he also feared for the fate of charities whose work is far removed from politics.

Foreign NGOs will also have to pay up to 300,000 Egyptian pounds in order to have a presence in Egypt and apply for a permit which they will have to renew when it expires.

The draft bill stipulates the creation of a "national authority" comprising representatives of the security services, intelligence and the army, who will oversee foreign funds and the activities of foreign NGOs.

"These are associations that help the government," Mona Gaballah, an MP for the liberal Free Egyptians Party, said.

"But this is a law for the national security of Egypt, put in place because questionable organisations with suspicious funding also exist."

Story continues

Mohamed Zaree, head of the Egypt programme at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, said: "This is my worst nightmare, when I see such draft bills."

"They are closing the door on all organisations or associations which would have liked to deal with human rights in the future."

Human rights groups have repeatedly accused the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of violations, including forced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and illegal detentions.

Egyptian and foreign NGOs operating in the country are governed by a stiff law which allows the government to supervise their activities and finances.

In September a court froze the assets of five prominent human rights defenders and three NGOs, who had been under investigation for allegedly receiving foreign funds in a case dating from 2011.
(CAIRO)  An Egyptian court on Tuesday struck down the death sentence passed by a lower tribunal against an ousted Islamist president for his part in a mass prison break during the countrys 2011 uprising.

The ruling by the Court of Cassation means that former President Mohammed Morsi would be given a new trial, along with five other leaders of his now-banned Muslim Brotherhood group, whose death sentences in the same case were also quashed.

The court also struck down life sentences passed in the same case against 21 Brotherhood members.

Morsi, Egypts first freely elected president, is implicated in four lengthy trials pertaining to different cases against him, including the 2011 prison break during the uprising against his predecessor, Egyptian autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

For the prison break, Morsi had received the only death sentence so far.

Last month, a court upheld a 20-year sentence for Morsi on charges arising from the killing of protesters in December 2012. It was the first final verdict against Morsi, who was ousted by the military in 2013 after just one year in office.

Morsi is also appealing life sentences he received in the two remaining cases against him  one on espionage charges related to Qatar and the other on suspicion of conspiring with the militant Palestinian Hamas group that runs the Gaza Strip. Those appeal proceedings are pending.

Morsis son, Osama, who is also one of his defense lawyers, welcomed the cancellation of the death sentence. I am optimistic but I also dont expect much from politicized judiciary, he said.

He said his father has been in solitary confinement since 2013 and has been banned from any family visits or visits from lawyers.

He lives in complete isolation, the younger Morsi said of his father.
New York City police are hunting for eight robbery suspects they say assaulted a dollar store employee on Saturday, November 12. The suspects are seen in surveillance video assaulting the employee with shopping baskets when he tried to stop them.

Police said the incident was reported at a Family Dollar store on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, and the suspects took nine tower speakers before assaulting the 24-year-old employee. Credit: New York Police Department via Storyful
SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - Voluntary rescue worker Jazmin Hernandez has vivid memories of the day she responded to an emergency call involving a policeman shot dead by gang members in an El Salvadoran slum. It was the first time the 16-year-old had seen violence up-close in her home country, where a turf war between the notorious gangs Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) has pushed murder rates to record levels. "When we arrived he was still alive, but we couldn't do anything and he died because he had so many bullets in his body," she said. In 2015, El Salvador registered a record 103 homicides per 100,000 habitants, making it one of the most dangerous countries in the world outside a war zone. But for many young people who have few chances to distance themselves from rivalries between so-called maras in their schools and neighborhoods, a civil-society organization called the Comandos de Salvamento, or Rescue Corps, has been a refuge. Jhonny Ramos, a volunteer coordinator who is paid by the group, said that about 2,000 youths now respond to traffic accidents, natural disasters and violent crimes in a country where emergency services personnel have been overwhelmed by crises. The volunteers, who are trained in first-aid, gunshot wound care and evacuation techniques, often spend long shifts sleeping on small cots and responding to emergency calls. With 32 bases around the country, the organization founded 56 years ago has also helped to take many youth off the country's crime-ridden streets and offering them opportunities to work as yellow-clad outreach workers. But their work is not without risk. In April, suspected gang members stormed a Rescue Corps base in the central city of Quezaltepeque, about 13 miles (21 km) northwest of San Salvador, peppering a 14-year-old volunteer with bullets. The victim, Erick Beltran, died of his wounds, becoming the first Rescue Corps volunteer to be killed on duty a long history that saw the organization on the streets during El Salvador's civil war. "These are things that happen if you save the life of someone who is against a gang or mara," Ramos said. (Reporting by Nelson Renteria, writing by Natalie Schachar, editing by G Crosse)
From Esquire

My eldest is one of those people with a gift for problem-solving. (Which, god knows, he gets from his mother.) This is not merely in the McGyver sense of getting things done, either, although he's good at that, too. He's the kind of person who can walk into a room, get an immediate sense of the actors and forces involved in a problem, and put together a solution that manages to keep all parties at least content that they made the best deal possible under the circumstances. So, when he proposed a plan to pry the Republic out of the mess into which it wandered a week ago Tuesday, I felt compelled to pass it along.

There is a lot of wishful thinking and candle-lighting being done in prayerful hope that the Electoral College will avert the pending catastrophe. So, what the hell. It's our turn now. Let us put all purely political considerations aside for the moment, although I admit they're considerable, and just propose that, in its deliberations, the EC vote to award the presidency to Hillary Rodham Clinton and the vice-presidency to Mike Pence.

[contentlinks align="center" textonly="false" numbered="false" headline="Related%20Story" customtitles="This%20Petition%20Would%20Justify%20All%20Trump's%20Rigged%20Election%20Talk%20" customimages="" content="article.50594"]

I am assured by lawyers that I trust that there is no constitutional bar to this solution. Indeed, as one prominent constitutional lawyer pointed out, it's closer to what Alexander Hamilton had in mind when he argued for the EC in Federalist 68 as a roadblock to prevent the presidency from falling into the hands of the unqualified, the crooked, or the vulgar talking yams.

"Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States"

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The balance of power in Washington would change very little. The congressional majorities would remain the same. A Democratic president would have the veto, but a Republican vice-president would have the tie-breaking vote in the Senate. (I suspect Pence would have a more active role in that body than most Veeps would but, hey, at least it would distract him from thinking about what people might be doing with their naughty bits.) And, for those of you who care about such things, it would force the parties to govern together or perish. If Pence doesn't like the policies of the administration, he can leave in 2018 and run against the president in the 2020 election when, with any luck at all, the madness that produced our current situation will have passed and we can have normal politics again.

[contentlinks align="center" textonly="false" numbered="false" headline="Related%20Story" customtitles="GOP%20Plans%20to%20Gut%20Medicare%20and%20Blame%20Obama%20for%20It" customimages="" content="article.50589"]

Now, as for those political considerations that we put aside for the moment, they would be explosive. The Trump loyalists would go absolutely out of their minds. The arrangement would depend vitally on some substantial political courage, particularly on the part of the Republicans, but you can't tell me that, secretly, in their heart of hearts, there aren't some who would celebrate any chance to let this cup pass from them. Out in the country, I hope, there would be some comfort in the fact that the presidency would pass to the person who got the most votes.

(Added bonus: the backlash might be so ferocious as to force an end to the Electoral College once and for all.)

This will not happen, of course. That much political courage doesn't exist anywhere in the system these days. The kick-em-in-the-nuts-and-run crowd is driving the train. Governing is hard. Governing when you have contempt for the process itself is a self-evident disaster.

Click here to respond to this post on the official Esquire Politics Facebook page.

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* PermaKat Eleonora Rosati received the 2022 Adepi Award

* PermaKat Eleonora Rosati listed as one of the World Intellectual Property Review's "Influential Women in IP" of 2020.

* PermaKat Eleonora Rosati listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2018.

* IPKat founder and Blogmeister Emeritus Jeremy Phillips listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2005, 2011, 2013, and 2014.

* Recommended by the European Patent Office as reading material for candidates for the European Qualifying Examinations, 2013.

* Listed as "Top Legal Blog" in The Times Online, March 2011.

2010 ABA Journal 100. * One of the only two non-US blogs listed in the Blawg100.

* Court Reporter Top Copyright Blog award winner, November 2010.

* Number 1 in the 2010 Top Copyright Blog list compiled by the Copyright Litigation Blog, July 2010.

* Selected by the United States Library of Congress for inclusion in its historic collections of Internet materials related to Legal Blawgs as of 2010.

* Top Patent Blog poll 2009: 3rd out of 50 in the "Favourite Patent Blog" poll and 2nd out of 50 in the "Most-read" poll.

Blog of the Year, 20 August 2008. * ComputerWeekly IT Law and Governance, 20 August 2008.
(Refiles to correct spelling in paragraph 16)

By Alexandria Sage

LOS ANGELES, Nov 14 (Reuters) - A lot of strange things can be found in Los Angeles, but a battery-powered Jaguar sport utility vehicle is something new even for Southern California.

The all-electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV, a preview of a vehicle Jaguar intends to start selling within two years, highlights how technology, regulation, shifting consumer tastes and cheap gas are converging to force automakers out of their traditional lanes.

Show visitors this week will also see the largest-ever Mini car offered by Germany's BMW AG and a bevy of trucks and SUVs that Detroit automakers General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV will promote in luxury electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc 's home state.

FCA's Italian Alfa Romeo brand will also feature a new SUV, as will Germany's Volkswagen AG, which is trying to rebuild its image in California after the scandal over its cheating on diesel emissions tests.

With a mandate that zero-emission vehicles make up 15 percent of automakers' California sales by 2025, the state is driving carmakers to roll out carbon-free vehicles in an environment of uncertain future demand. At the same time, cheap gasoline is propelling a shift among U.S. consumers toward larger vehicles, particularly SUVs.

The move by Jaguar is a response to those conflicting pressures, executives said.

Recent company research indicated one quarter of Jaguar drivers would consider a battery-powered vehicle.

"There's no doubt the market is shifting," said Joe Eberhardt, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover North America. "There are differing views of how rapidly that shift is happening and to what degree. We want to be prepared."

Twenty percent of Jaguar's North American sales come from California. The brand is owned by India's Tata Motors.

"It's a very fluid time in the industry and I don't think there is a right or wrong or specific answer to what the next 10 years will be," Eberhardt told Reuters. "Which means we have to be flexible enough...to see what direction the market will take."

Story continues

Jaguar has enjoyed strong U.S. sales of its 2017 F-PACE SUV, helping drive a 93 percent rise in year-over-year U.S. Jaguar sales from January until October. Until the F-Pace debuted this year, Jaguar had sold only sedans and coupes, leaving the SUV business to Tata's Land Rover brand.

The electric platform of Jaguar's new SUV available in 2018, with its 90kWh lithium-ion battery pack and targeted range of 220 miles, had to be built from the ground up.

Co-development with Tata Motors, itself working on electric and hybrid vehicles, was not feasible given the differences between market segments and needs, Eberhardt said.

The I-PACE targets the same wealthy, environmentally aware consumers now driving Tesla's Model X SUV. But Eberhardt said Jaguar's vehicle will be "a much lower price point" than the most premium Model X offering, which fully loaded can cost about $130,000.

Other luxury carmakers from Audi to BMW and Mercedes-Benz have announced, but not yet launched all-electric SUVs, and Eberhardt said he believed Jaguar would beat them to market.

"Out of the established car makers, we really are the first. Which has advantages but on the other hand it's uncharted territory." (Reporting By Alexandria Sage; Editing by Joe White and Andrew Hay)
From Cosmopolitan

In the weeks leading up to the election, a media and pollster chorus went something like this: Women will save us from Donald Trump.

The Access Hollywood tape of Trump telling Billy Bush he grabs women "by the pussy"; the 15 women who came forward to accuse Trump of sexual assault; Trump calling Hillary Clinton a nasty woman during the third debate. All this, after 18 months of demeaning remarks about women and a host of minority groups along with an apparent lifetime of misogynistic behavior, led to an assumption that women would go to the polls in droves to squash the man who belittles them.

Feminists felt further buttressed by the fact that defeating Trump would also mean shattering the ultimate glass ceiling. Women who had read Lean In and converge on Facebook in groups like Pantsuit Nation, now 3.6 million members strong, were confident that determined American women would triumph over angry white men, upon whom Trumps candidacy seemed to hinge.

Then came D-day, and the crumbling of these, and many other, pre-election falsehoods. According to initial exit polls, Trump got 53 percent of white womens votes; Clinton got 45 percent. Women of colors strong support of Clinton - 94 percent of black women voted for her along with 68 percent of Latina women - tipped the women's vote in her favor, with a 12-point advantage among all female voters, but it wasn't enough to win her the election. It may be that by the time all votes are counted, fewer women voted for Clinton than Obama four years ago.

It was not illogical to believe that, in 2016, the vast majority of female voters would choose a woman over a misogynist. Feminism has had a seismic comeback in recent years. Thanks to people like Beyonce, who stumped for Clinton alongside her husband Jay Z, its cool to be a feminist. Issues that directly affect women, such as paid family leave and equal pay for equal work, were election cycle talking points for both parties. And Clintons place on that DNC stage in July as history's first female presidential nominee from a major party - and the fact that she won the popular vote - was a direct result of generations of successful feminist organizing.

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But believing that this would translate into victory for Hillary Clinton was where we went wrong. Believing that feminisms rise was being felt with equal passion across all earning brackets was partially responsible for the myth of the inevitable Clinton victory. The reality is that for legions of women, other parts of their identity rank higher than their gender. The election underscored that our fourth wave feminist movement remains, to many women, a privileged space. The current wave, which grapples with the intersection of gender and race, equal pay for equal work, a sexual harassment-free workplace, and sexual assault-free college campuses, is an improvement on earlier waves, which centered on securing rights for white women. But the Clinton brand of feminism - the pantsuit-wearer who leans in for a raise or for whom boardroom gender parity is of paramount importance - is alienating to large swaths of the population for whom those issues arent even on the table. Many of these women, for example, earn just as much as the men around them, because their jobs pay the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

The women of color in this group voted for Clinton anyway. But turnout among Democrats was lower in 2016 than it was in 2012. Given that the Democrats are responsible for mass incarceration, welfare reform that hurt many low-income women, and watered-down immigration rights, lack of enthusiasm for the party and its presidential candidate is understandable. Feminists were not significant allies in these battles, and so Clintons feminist cred seemed to have done little to heighten engagement from this community.

It was white women, especially the working class, who turned away from Clinton, even though Clintons policies arguably would have been more beneficial to the working class than Trump's. Some of it was probably straightforward: It was the woman who worked at the coal plants shut down by the EPA, who would rather take her chance on the guy who says hell punish the regulators and bring back her job. Or the woman whose husband was laid off from factory jobs. (Sixty-two percent of women without a college degree voted for Trump.)

But as Joan C, Williams, a law professor at University of California, Hastings, writes in her insightful analysis of the election, one little-known element of [the class culture] gap is that the white working class resents professionals but admires the rich. Hillary Clinton, she says, epitomizes the dorky arrogance and smugness of the professional elite. Support for Trump, she argues, wasnt based on a rational calculation - it was rooted in a culture in which a straight-talking successful businessman is more appealing than someone like Clinton.

Many of us in blue counties, who could hardly fathom that feminism would not carry Clinton to victory, are still scratching our heads, blind to the movement's most severe failings. That may be because we have only a surface understanding the lives of red state voters who pushed Trump over the finish line. The media is partly to blame for this. Coverage focused on Trumps most vocal and volatile supporters who spew hate-filled remarks on a dime, instead of the tens of millions who were not propelled by Trumps bigotry and sexism, but were not willing to reject it either. While interviews with the people wearing Trump that B*tch T-shirts make for entertaining Daily Show skits, they cease to be instructive. Rare reporting - such as BuzzFeeds look at the mild-mannered Ivanka voter or the work of Pro Publicas Alec MacGillis, who routinely talked to Trump supporters calmly, in their homes - went beyond the monotonous, sensationalist write-ups of Trump rallies. Some major publications, including the New York Times, have since admitted they failed to get at the roots of the anti-establishment sentiment churning in our nations rural areas - evidenced not only in Trumps victory but also in Bernie Sanders's unexpected popularity.

While we in the media self-reflect, feminists should take stock too. My suggestion: humility and solidarity. Check out what history teaches us about life under an autocrat and then roll up your sleeves. Now is the time to be an ally to anyone more vulnerable than you, by supporting - not leading - resistance movements. We who are white, cis-gender, U.S. citizens, or straight are in a position to help those in danger under a Trump administration. We should not lose sight of traditional feminist issues such as access to abortion, but its not the moment to be myopic. If Republicans ramp up deportations or further curtail voting rights, protest. If Trump establishes a Muslim immigrant registry, denounce it. When his supporters intimidate or attack people based on their race or dress or gender identity, do something. Then donate to organizations that are doing more than you can.

White feminists have an extra job. We should be the ones to reach out to other white women. We ought to learn whats going on in the life of a woman that leads her to vote for a man who brags about sexual assault and figure out how to organize on the issues that matter to her. We must also confront our white sisters on their racism. Every vote for Trump was an acceptance of bigotry. As Samantha Bee said in her post-election rage, directed at white folks: If Muslims have to take responsibility for every member of their community, so do we. Its not the responsibility of people of color to help white people unlearn racism - its ours. Feminists should be leaders in this effort.

Perhaps, over time, more women of all classes and backgrounds will feel like mainstream feminism is theirs, and not just the domain of those in pantsuits. At the very least, by engaging, we wont be as shocked by the limitations of our movement as we were last Tuesday.

That night, my brother, whos also a journalist, was in Cuba. While I bit my nails in my living room, he was on the streets of Havana, asking for predictions. Cubans have very little access to internet or American TV, and no one he spoke with was watching the real numbers roll in, sealing Democrats' fate. Yet most people he interviewed called it. Trump will win, he was told again and again, because he reaches the common man. He sounds more like the average American.

Everyone here - the data whiz kids, the pollsters, the media, and feminists - banked on women making a different calculation when they stepped into the ballot box. We were wrong.

Follow Jean on Twitter.

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Pro-Trump trolls are tweeting anti-Semitic hatred at Emmy Rossum. The Shameless star, who supported Hillary Clinton during the election, denounced Trumps appointment of Steve Bannon, an alt-right commentator with connections to white nationalism, as his Chief Strategist, which triggered the attacks on Rossum.

No matter WHO you voted for, I dont care, THIS is not okay. You will be seeing a train shortly pic.twitter.com/cvQP6Fegz4  Emmy Rossum (@emmyrossum) November 14, 2016

Rossums mother is Jewish and most of the vilification has been of an anti-Semitic nature with others chiming in with Nazi propaganda and chants.

There has been a rash of similar incidents around the country since the election with violence directed at people of color, an altercation with the stars of Silicon Valley when they refused to discuss politics with Trump supporters in a Los Angeles bar, and volumes of hate speech being posted online.

The president-elect had a simple message to put an end to the hate, violence and to start the healing process in our country, I say, Stop it. If it  if it helps, I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: Stop it.'

Only time will tell if his message does anything to dissuade these fervent and loathsome supporters from continuing their campaign of hatred.

Wanda Sykes Booed For Calling Trump Sexist, Racist, Homophobic

Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram or leave your comments below. And check out our host, Khail Anonymous, on Twitter.
On Steve Harvey, The Original Kings of Comedy reunited for the first time since Bernie Mac's funeral in 2008, and Bernie's widow, Rhonda, was in the audience for a very special surprise. "Rhonda, I know you and Bernie were high school sweethearts," Steve Harvey said. "So, we got something to show you." A live video feed showed Mike Epps in Chicago, at the high school Rhonda and Bernie attended, where it was announced that the school's auditorium was renamed Bernie Mac Auditorium. Understandably emotional, Rhonda spoke about the overwhelming love for her late husband. "I am so touched. I am so honored, and I'm always amazed at just the outpouring of love that people still have for him, Rhonda said. "And, it just warms my heart that they remember him and love him the way they do. Thank you all so much." In the powerful moment, the comedy kings were also overcome with emotion, and that wasn't the last surprise for Bernie's family. "This is from the City of Chicago," Harvey explained. "It's actually a proclamation that says in recognition of Bernie's remarkable life and legacy, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has proclaimed today, November 14th, to be Bernie Mac Day in Chicago" Later in the show, Harvey reflected, "The Kings of Comedy set a benchmark and a precedent that allowed me to hold my head up and say, man, God gave me the life of my dreams. I'm one of the top stand-ups in the country, but I wasn't that by myself, though, I was that because of four men."
On Steve Harvey, the Original Kings of Comedy reunited for the first time since Bernie Macs funeral in 2008, and Bernies widow, Rhonda, was in the audience for a very special surprise.

Rhonda, I know you and Bernie were high school sweethearts, Steve Harvey said. So, we got something to show you.

A live video feed showed Mike Epps in Chicago, at the high school Rhonda and Bernie attended, where it was announced that the schools auditorium was renamed Bernie Mac Auditorium. Understandably emotional, Rhonda spoke about the overwhelming love for her late husband.

I am so touched. I am so honored, and Im always amazed at just the outpouring of love that people still have for him, Rhonda said. And it just warms my heart that they remember him and love him the way they do. Thank you all so much.

In the powerful moment, the comedy kings were also overcome with emotion, and that wasnt the last surprise for Bernies family.

This is from the city of Chicago, Harvey said. Its actually a proclamation that says in recognition of Bernies remarkable life and legacy, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has proclaimed today, Nov. 14, to be Bernie Mac Day in Chicago

Later in the show, Harvey reflected: The Kings of Comedy set a benchmark and a precedent that allowed me to hold my head up and say, man, God gave me the life of my dreams. Im one of the top standups in the country, but I wasnt that by myself, though  I was that because of four men.

Watch Lebron James send a special message to Steve Harvey:

Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram  or leave your comments below. And check out our host, Cynthia LuCiette, on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
Ankara (AFP) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday accused Western media of sympathising with the failed coup aimed at ousting him from power, as he officially opened a new Ankara-backed English language news channel.

Erdogan said in a speech at his presidential palace to mark the formal opening of the TRT World channel that there were writers in Western media sympathetic to the US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen who Ankara blames for the July 15 coup.

"If the coup had been successful... then foreign media would have mobilised their cameras and pens to legitimise the coup," Erdogan said.

He said those foreign media who are now criticising Turkey over freedom of expression "would have given their screens over to the junta".

But with the defeat of the coup, "The headlines they prepared were good for nothing."

The Turkish strongman said his country had had "bitter experience" over the last three years and was "well aware" how foreign media had behaved during the 2013 protests against his rule.

He added there were writers in Western media who saw July's coup plotters as the "last hope" for Turkey and a prominent place had been given to sympathisers of Gulen and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

His comments came as Turkey has been vehemently criticised over the crackdown in the wake of the coup, including the arrests of journalists.

TRT World started broadcasting in March last year but the ceremony at the presidential palace was touted by state media as marking its formal launch.

Citing what he said was an African proverb, Erdogan said that if lions did not write their own stories then people would have to listen to the stories of the hunters.

Describing the channel as Turkey's "window on the world", he said he did not want TRT World to be an "official bulletin" but would tell "the truths of our nation through the best television".

Story continues

TRT World, broadcasting in English round the clock, is part of the network of Turkey's state run television TRT.

In recent years, several regional powers have opened their own English-language TV channels -- such as RT in Russia and Press TV in Iran -- to challenge the perceived monopoly of the likes of CNN and the BBC.

Turkey has repeatedly complained that its side of the story is overlooked in Western reporting in the conflicts in Syria or its southeast.
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Global subscriptions for smartphones will almost double by 2022, helping mobile data traffic to eightfold, telecoms network gear maker Ericsson predicted on Tuesday.

The Swedish company said it expected there will be 6.8 billion smartphone subscriptions globally by the end of 2022, up from 3.9 billion in 2016.

In its previous forecast from June this year, Ericsson had said it expected 6.3 billion smartphone subscriptions by the end of 2021.

Ulf Ewaldsson, head of strategy and technology at Ericsson, said the biggest change from its previous report was the jump in 5G subscribers to 550 million in 2022 from 150 million in 2021.

"We predict that 25 percent of those will be in North America and 10 percent in Asia," Ewaldsson told Reuters.

The first 5G networks will be launched at the end of 2017 and Ericsson plans to sell 5G equipment on a "larger scale" in 2018, Ewaldsson said.

Ericsson said mobile data traffic continues to grow, driven by an increase in smartphone subscriptions and data volume per subscription, fueled primarily by more viewing of video content.

Ericsson plans to boost efficiency and technology to deal with an expected increase of mobile data traffic of around 40 to 50 percent per year despite roughly flat infrastructure investments by telecom operators, Ewaldsson said.

(Reporting by Olof Swahnberg and Helena Soderpalm, editing by Mia Shanley)
San Francisco (AFP) - US cosmetics maker Estee Lauder snapped up the beauty products brand Too Faced, beloved by the younger demographic, for $1.45 billion in its biggest acquisition to date.

The deal aims to "strengthen the company's leadership position in the fast-growing prestige makeup category globally, increase the company's consumer reach in the specialty-multi channel, and win with millennials -- all in strong alignment with the company's strategy," Estee Lauder said in a statement, released on Monday.

The company, which has catered heavily toward older women, was impressed with the brand loyalty Too Faced has generated, and was willing to pay the price to lock in its growth strategy.

Like many younger women, fast-growing Too Faced is extremely active on social media.

It uses edgy names for products, such as "better than sex" mascara, and quirky packaging. It has a massive following on Instagram, and offers makeup tutorials on YouTube

Too Faced has had sales of $279 million this year, up 70 percent in one year.

Other big players in the cosmetics market have been rolling out similar strategies. Among them, France's L'Oreal has been picking up hot brands such as Urban Decay, NYX and IT Cosmetics.
If you cannot find the AmeriKat, try checking

under a blanket...

Evidence that a presentation/publication was not picked up in other publications/conferences may indicate that the information is not CGK.

Publications/presentations closer to the priority date may be less likely to constitute CGK.

Presentations which were not identified as a highlight of a conference may be less likely to constitute CGK.

The number of relevant skilled people attending such presentations at a conference may be relevant in assessing whether information conveyed in that session is CGK.

Evidence that a paper is interesting to the expert is not evidence that the contents of a paper has become generally known by the bulk of the wider community of medicinal chemists with an interest in anti-HCV research.

If a patentee's expert report (especially its first) is silent in respect of various publications upon which it later relies as constituting CGK, this may well be a factor that the Court takes into account when rejecting that such matters in fact constitute CGK.

"But first it is worth restating that a finding of insufficiency, like a finding of obviousness, involves an assessment and the weighing of a number of factors. In these circumstances and absent an error of principle, an appellate court will be very cautious in differing from the judge's evaluation: see SmithKline Beecham's Patent [2006] RPC 323 at [38] per Lord Hoffmann; Halliburton Energy Services Inc v Smith International (North Sea) Ltd and anor [2006] EWCA Civ 1715 at [24] to [25] per Jacob LJ"

"that in some circumstances:the skilled person may reasonably be expected to carry out a literature search in order to implement aspects of the teaching of a specification. Whether that is so or whether the fact that such a search is necessary suggests that the teaching of the specification is insufficient will depend upon all the circumstances including the nature and purpose of the search that is required."





as well as other events of perhaps more international significance. This has meant that she has watched helplessly as interesting patent decisions from the Patents Court and Court of Appeal have been handed down without the time to report on them. Thankfully, GuestKat Eibhlin Vardy will soon be reporting on the Court of Appeal's decision in Napp v Dr Reddy where the Court upheld Mr Justice Arnold's construction (see the first instance report by wonderful Kat friend Amy Crouch here ). Mr Justice Arnold is on a bit of a winning streak it seems, as last week in [2016] EWCA 1089 the Court of Appeal consisting of Lord Justices Kitchin (giving the lead judgment), Floyd and Patten upheld his decision back in December 2014 (see Kat Darren's post here ). He has now been upheld three times in the past six weeks.Idenix is the patentee of EP (UK) 1 523 489 which claims a family of nucleoside analogues for treating hepatitis C and otherinfections (a hep C vaccine - "HCV"). Once the patent granted, Idenix claimed that Gilead infringed the patent by making and selling sofosbuvir, marketed under the brand name Sovaldi. Gilead denied infringement and counterclaimed for revocation on the grounds of lack of novelty over Gilead's own International Patent Application, lack of inventive step, insufficiency and added matter.To cut through the verbiage, the AmeriKat has summarized, in tabular format, the position at first instance, as argued on appeal and held by the Court of Appeal in relation to the most interesting arguments (in her opinion) (click to enlarge):Let's get to the point. There are really only three things you need to practically take away from this decision:Its still a low threshold. However, at paragraph 167, the Court re-affirmed that sufficiency, like obviousness, is subject to a higher threshold for appellate interference of the trial judge's decision:The Court of Appeal confirmed that a skilled person may conduct literature searches when going about implementing the invention. At paragraph 173, Lord Justice Kitchin stated that he had "no doubt":It may be the fervor of the past week that has the AmeriKat slightly distracted, but is she starting to detect a discernible trend in recent Court of Appeal decisions that the Court is becoming increasingly reluctant to interfere with the trial judge's decision in patent cases? She would like to conduct a poll, but we now all know what good those are...
By Foo Yun Chee

(Reuters) - German container shipping line Hapag-Lloyd (HLAG.DE) is set to secure EU antitrust approval for its merger with United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) after the latter agreed to pull out from some vessel sharing agreements, two people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

The combined company, valued at about 7 to 8 billion euros ($7.5-$8.6 billion), would be the world's fifth largest shipping company, with access to the Asia to Europe trade route and trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific routes.

The shipping companies offered the concessions last month in a bid to fend of the European Commission's concerns but did not provide details. Kuwait-based UASC is owned by Gulf Arab states with Qatar holding a majority stake.

Commission spokesman Ricardo Cardoso declined to comment.

"We dont know anything about this, this is completely new information to us," Hapag-Lloyd spokesman Nils Haupt said after consulting with the company's lawyers. UASC was not immediately reachable outside office hours.

The container shipping industry has seen a series of mergers in recent years as companies combine their forces to deal with the worst slump in five decades caused by over-capacity and weak global economic growth.

Companies are also seeking alliances to pool trips and save costs. Hapag-Lloyd in May announced a new alliance with five Asian competitors.

($1 = 0.9321 euros)

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee, additional reporting by Andrew Torchia in Dubai and Tina Bellon in Frankfurt; Editing by Adrian Croft)
LONDON (Reuters) - The head of Europe's drugs regulator is braced for disruption following Britain's vote to leave the European Union (EU) and said he feared losing expert staff if, as widely expected, the regulator is forced to decamp from London.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) approves treatments for all EU countries from its headquarters among global banks in London's Canary Wharf. It is the largest EU body in Britain.

"My concern is to lose experts, to lose staff," Executive Director Guido Rasi told an industry conference on Tuesday.

Most industry watchers believe Britain's decision to leave the EU will mean Europe's equivalent of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is forced to move to a city within the EU, although there has been no official announcement on this.

EU countries including Spain, France, Poland, Italy, Sweden, Denmark and Ireland have already offered to host the EMA instead of Britain and the tussle over its future location is expected to form part of complex political horse-trading.

The European Banking Authority is also based in London.

"I'm flattered that so many different nations want us but my concern is workability," Rasi told the Pharma Integrates conference.

The EMA employs nearly 900 people, many of whom have made a long-term home in London, since the agency has been based here for the past two decades, he said.

Losing Britain could also leave a big hole in the EMA's scientific capability, since British experts are among the biggest contributors to its drug assessment system.

Rasi said the EMA had set up a task force to address the challenges arising following the Brexit vote but noted that the decision on if and when the agency would move was up to European politicians.

Irish Health Minister Simon Harris, announcing Dublin as a candidate to house the EMA last month, said it appeared inevitable that the EMA would have to relocate from London to another EU member state.

Housing the industry regulator is viewed as a valuable prize for European cities, since it will lead to an injection of a skilled workforce and potentially attract companies.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler and Ludwig Burger; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
LONDON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Euro zone government bond yields fell 3-6 basis points (bps) across the board, ending a six-week sell-off, at least for the time being.

The yield on Germany's 10-year bond, the benchmark for the region, fell 4 bps by 0737 GMT to 0.30 percent.

Italian government bonds, which bore the brunt of Monday's losses, were among the day's biggest gainers: the yield on Italy's 10-year bonds fell 5.5 bps to 1.97 percent. That is almost 20 bps below Monday's high of 2.16 percent, according to Tradeweb prices.

Whether the trend lasts may depend on Italian economic data due out later on Tuesday, said DZ Bank strategist Daniel Lenz.

"Italian GDP figures are key today - if they undershoot expectations then the recovery (in government bonds) could be very short-lived," he said.

(Reporting by Abhinav Ramnarayan, editing by Nigel Stephenson)
jobs spectacles

Apple founder Steve Jobs and Microsoft founder Bill Gates had a complicated relationship.

They started their companies around the same time, and had a lot of similar ideas. Both believed normal people would want personal computers. Both saw the potential of the research conducted by Xerox's research lab, which invented the graphical user interface and the mouse. Both had tremendous egos and sharp tongues.

But Jobs had few kind words for his rival. Jealousy over Microsoft's success in the 1990s probably played a part, but there was also a fundamental difference in temperament. Jobs considered himself an artist, and valued design and user experience above pure technology. He understood the power of well-designed marketing  something a lot of engineers scorn. He knew engineering and technology, but was an aesthete first.

Gates was an inventor, an engineer, and a relentlessly brilliant businessperson. But Jobs thought Gates was a boring person with "no taste," who "never invented anything" and "shamelessly ripped off other people's ideas," as he said in various interviews.

Fast forward to today, and there's an almost identical battle brewing between the two companies poised to dominate social media: Facebook and Snapchat.

Where's the fun?

Facebook is the unstoppable giant of social media, like Microsoft with the personal computer. Nearly two billion people use it every month.

Mark Zuckerberg has an engineer's soul, and his most underrated success is creating a culture at Facebook where engineers have a lot of freedom and responsibility  they're allowed to experiment, move fast and break things.

Zuckerberg is also a clever businessperson, snapping up would-be competitors like Instagram and WhatsApp (he tried to buy Snapchat but Spiegel rebuffed him). He has also made the right technical pivots  his second most-underrated decision was backing Facebook's mobile strategy away from the doomed HTML5 "standard" and toward dedicated mobile apps before it was too late. He also made measured plays for adjacent markets, like messaging and virtual reality.

Story continues

But Facebook isn't very fun.

People use Facebook because everybody else uses Facebook. It's the default way to stay in touch with far-flung friends and relatives.

But when's the last time it delighted you, or even made you smile? It's a utility  like Windows was in 1998.

Snapchat on the other hand, is all about fun.

Some serious grown-up tech people like me may look at Snapchat and think, "Disappearing pictures with silly filters on them? Who cares?"

But my kids love Snapchat because it's not too serious. There's no pressure to impress your friends with cool pictures and a lot of engagement, like there is on Instagram. There's no pressure to show off how fabulous your life is. It's just silly, ephemeral, fun.

Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel's true genius shows through in the way he's rolled out the company's camera-glasses, Spectacles. While there was an initial planned story on the product, there was no big press event  no dog and pony show. No review units sent to favored tech journalists. Not even a press release.

Instead, the company built a silly-looking vending machine and dropped it into the street near its Venice, CA headquarters, right outside Snapchat's first beach-front office.

Look at this: Balloons. A big eye. Bright colors.

This is fun! Like Steve Jobs product keynotes used to be fun.

Snapbot

And people lined up around the block for them.

The next logical marketing-department-tested move would've been to drop the vending machine in some tech hipster center, like the Mission district in San Francisco or Williamsburg in Brooklyn.

Instead, the Spectacles vending machine showed up in one of the most beautiful, natural places in the world, Big Sur, halfway up the California coast between LA to San Francisco. People had to drive hundreds of miles to get them:

Next up...no, not San Francisco or New York. Instead, the vending machine showed up in front of a giant wooden whale on a lake near Tulsa, Oklahoma. Once again, people lined up to buy them:

The line for @Spectacles isn't as long as I feared. pic.twitter.com/EZrbYahrZW  Richard Mitchell (@TheRichardM) November 15, 2016

A perfect combination of unpredictability and fun. Now everybody's scanning the Snapbot map every day for the chance to line up and pay $130 for a pair of sunglasses that takes digital images to share with their friends.

When's the last time anybody lined up for anything from Facebook?

True to history, Facebook is even beginning to carbon-copy Snapchat features. It has built Snapchat-like features at least a half dozen times. Most recently, Zuckerberg apparently told employees that "the camera is the composer"  just as Snapchat turned itself into Snap, Inc., and rebranded itself to "the camera company."

The analogy isn't perfect  Snapchat started after Facebook was well established, while Microsoft and Apple started together, and it's doubtful Snapchat will ever have to turn to Facebook for emergency funding as Apple did to Microsoft, especially since Facebook's biggest rival, Google, is now an investor. (As my analogy gets more and more tortured, I suppose Google could be IBM?)

But regardless of how it ends, Spiegel vs Zuckerberg is shaping up to be a tech battle for the ages.

NOW WATCH: Here's how Donald Trump can function on barely any sleep  and why you shouldn't copy him





More From Business Insider


The ex-wife of a Georgia man convicted of murdering their 22-month-old son, who died after being left for hours in his dads hot car, has spoken out about the verdict, saying "justice" will never bring back her boy.

After Justin Ross Harris was found guilty Monday on all counts in the death of her son Cooper Harris, Leanna Taylor took to social media to rail against society and the judgement she has faced since the toddlers death.

For those of you who want to know if I am ok. The answer is no. I have not been ok since the moment I was told my son was dead. I have not been ok since the moment my life was put on this path that has led to Ross being found guilty of maliciously murdering our child, Taylor wrote in a Facebook post obtained by WXIA-TV.

So now you may be saying justice has been served. And you are allowed your right to that opinion, she continued. But guess what, you can convict every parent that this has ever happened to, and I can promise you 2 things...#1 it will never bring our children back and #2 it will not prevent this from happening in the future.

Little Cooper Harris died on June 18, 2014, when his father  her husband at the time  left him in his SUV outside his office for nearly seven hours.

Read: Sordid Details Emerge From Sex Life of Man Charged With Killing His Toddler Son in Hot Car

Harris spent the day at The Home Depot corporate headquarters where he worked, claiming to only realize he left his son in his back car seat when he left work for the day to go to a movie.

Witnesses said Harris appeared distraught and was screaming, but detectives testified the father seemed too calm when answering questions after his sons death.

Though a jury found her husband guilty of malice murder, which means Harris must have shown conscious intent to cause death or great bodily harm to Cooper, Taylor appeared in her post to point to a different reason for her sons death.

Story continues

Next summer, as this begins to happen over and over again, ask yourself, 'what can be done?!' The problem is not the parent! The problem is a society that refuses to believe this can happen to them! Wake up! Accept it! And by accepting it you will be protecting your child! she wrote.

She also spoke out against critics who may judge her and her actions, writing: I don't care what your opinion is in my situation. I don't care what your opinion is of me! It does not matter! Your opinion will never bring back my son.

Taylor had also been actively investigated in the case, police testified during the trial, saying that though they believed her behavior to be odd as well, but she never faced charges.

Read: Cop's 3-Year-Old Daughter Dies After Girl Is Left in Hot Police Cruiser for 4 Hours

No evidence has come forward to bring us up to a level of probable cause that you need to arrest Leanna [Taylor] Harris, Cobb County police detective Phil Stoddard testified. We never reached that point.

After being told her son had died, Taylor had allegedly appeared unemotional and did not ask to see her little boys body, behavior that Stoddard testified believed to be "strange."

She also allegedly asked Harris, Did you say too much? Stoddard said in court.

Harris attorneys argued that Stoddard was looking for a conspiracy, but that Taylor had nothing to do with the death of her son.

Though Taylor testified that her ex-husband destroyed my life, she took the stand in his defense, saying her ex-husband was an involved father.

So called justice will never bring back my son. Nothing will ever take that pain away, she wrote on Facebook. And nothing will ever feel worse than living with the knowledge that his pain and his death could have been prevented. Be the wise parent, and accept that this can happen. And you will never have to walk the path that my family has had to walk. And I pray YOU never have to walk this path.

Harris faces life in prison. He will be sentenced at a later date.

Watch: Teen Reminds Drivers to 'Look Before You Lock' to Prevent Hot Car Deaths

Related Articles:
Matt Damon has been touting the upcoming all-female heist comedy, Ocean's Eight, for months, but it turns out the Oscar winner might actually have a role in the film.

Speaking with ET's Carly Steel at the premiere of Manchester By The Sea at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California, on Monday, Damon  who starred as pickpocket Linus Caldwell alongside Brad Pitt and George Clooney in Ocean's Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen  revealed that he's going to be shooting a cameo.

"I'm doing a little bit in the movie," Damon shared. "I haven't read it yet, but the cast is phenomenal and I'm excited to see what those women do with it. It's going to be fun."

WATCH: Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett Kick Off Filming 'Ocean's Eight' in the Fiercest Outfits -- See the Pics!

Ocean's Eight, which is set in the same universe as Damon's Las Vegas heist trilogy, is set to star Anne Hathaway, Sandra Bullock, Helena Bonham Carter, Cate Blanchett, Sarah Paulson, Rihanna, Mindy Kaling and rapper Awkwafina.

Damon had nothing but praise for the new take on the franchise when he spoke with ET Canada back in September, when he said that the star-studded female cast is "going to kick ass."

WATCH: Rihanna Begins Filming 'Ocean's Eight' in Massive Dreadlocks -- See the Pic!

As for Manchester by the Sea, Damon couldn't help but heap praise on star and frequent collaborator Casey Affleck.

"We clash in a really good way creatively," explained Damon, who's been friends with Affleck since childhood and served as a producer on his latest film. "He just cares so much. He takes every moment so personally and seriously and that's why he's one of the best actors in the world and I'm really, really proud of him. I couldn't be happier for what he did in this movie."

Manchester by the Sea, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, hits theaters Nov. 18.

WATCH: Matt Damon Says All-Female 'Ocean's Eight' Is 'Going to Be Awesome'

Related Articles
(Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) is negotiating with Chad over a record $74 billion fine the U.S. oil company was told to pay by a court in the central African nation over unpaid royalties, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

Exxon has appealed the Oct. 5 court ruling, but the appeals court hearing has been delayed because of the talks, Bloomberg reported, citing a lawyer for Exxon. (http://bloom.bg/2fRpf5n)

Exxon declined to comment.

The court decision fined a consortium led by Exxon over 44 trillion CFA francs ($73.44 billion) - nearly four times BP's Deepwater Horizon settlement and roughly seven times Chad's annual gross domestic product. [nL5N1CC52Q]

The consortium, which includes Malaysian state oil firm Petronas (PETRA.UL) and Chadian oil company SNT, were found to owe the country nearly 484 billion CFA francs ($808 million) in royalties, according to the court judgment.

It did not explain why the penalty amounted to more than 90 times that amount.

The unpaid royalties stem from a dispute over fees, sources in the Chadian Finance Ministry have told Reuters. The Finance Ministry, they said, is seeking a 2 percent royalty fee from the consortium, a rate the defendants have said is higher than the agreed level.

Petronas and SNT could not immediately be reached for comment.

(Reporting by Vishaka George in Bengaluru and Ernest Scheyder in Houston; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar and Sandra Maler)
Output at the fields west of the Karoun River, near Irans border with Iraq, which produced some 65,000 barrels per day in 2013, rose to about 250,000 barrels. The Oil Ministrys News Service, Shana, reported Sunday that Mohsen Ghamsari, director for international affairs at the National Iranian Oil Compay, said in September that

President Hassan Rouhani, cited at a ceremony to formally open the project, said that Iran expected to reach that output target by the end of the year.

Saudi Press Agency reported on Sunday that Khalid Al-Falih, Saudi Arabias Energy Minister, said OPEC must agree to implement a proposed cut in crude production for OPEC countries. OPEC members meet on November 30 to discuss limiting the groups output to a range of 32.5 million to 33 million barrels a day, compared with 33.64 million in October. That target has become harder to reach as several members boosted output.

Last week, OPEC reported that Iran raised its monthly output to the highest since international sanctions were lifted in January. An exemption was negotiated at a meeting in Algiers in September, to compensate for the production capacity lost when international sanctions targeted its oil industry. Iran has nearly recovered that capacity, and plans to further increase output with the help of foreign investment.

Rouhani said, Oil production west of Karoun must reach one million barrels per day, referring to the North Azadegan, Yadavaran and Yaran fields. This is a realistic goal, and we need investment and technology.

Although the details have not been made public, Iran has approved a new oil contract model to lure foreign investors. Frances Total SA became the first international oil company to sign a deal under the new energy contracts, after the reached an initial agreement to develop a natural gas field in Iran last week.




Uproxx / Getty

Denzel Washington has never endorsed Donald Trump. In fact, he actively raised funds for Hillary Clinton. Despite that fact, dozens of media outlets, and millions of people, have seen stories stating that Washington was all in on Trump. This is more than exaggeration or packaging. The story is fake, from headline to footer.

Fake news has been at the center of debate over the last few days, as many believed it helped sway the election. Mark Zuckerberg has strongly denied Facebook could ever influence something so huge, but his own employees disagree with him and are formulating guidelines for vetting websites  which they plan to bring to management. Despite Facebooks professed lack of concern, the company is joining Google in removing ads from fake news sites. Which means this is probably being treated like a much bigger issue internally than we realize.

Still, thats only half of the equation. Weve already discussed the importance of piercing filter bubbles  aggregations of links and posts that cater solely to your beliefs and interests  but its also important to grasp how fake news, whether through malice or incompetence, spreads, and how it aggregates on Facebook and other sites. Heres a step-by-step guide to how it works, and how to spot it.

Step 1: The Kernel Of Truth

The words that article puts in Denzel Washingtons mouth are completely real, theyre just not said by Denzel Washington. Theyre said instead by Charles Evers, former Mississippi politician and brother of Medgar Evers, a civil rights leader assassinated by white nationalists in 1963.

How To Spot It: Simply copy-and-paste any quote you find thats questionable into a search engine and see what comes up. If you do this with Evers, youll find the original New York Post interview as the second link. The first is a Snopes page debunking the article were analyzing.

Step 2: Deny and Obfuscate

We all learn the basics of journalism in high school: Who, what, why, where, and how. If you look closely at the many Denzel articles, which are virtually identical, youll notice that they open with the quote from Evers, a fabrication that Washington endorses Trump, and then quote from a Parade interview that ran nearly twenty years ago where Washington discusses his faith. Again, the kernel is there: Washington is, indeed, a devout Christian raised by a Pentecostal minister, and has been very open about his faith from the beginning of his career.

Story continues

But again, he didnt endorse Trump.

How To Spot It: Never trust an unsourced claim on the internet. Heres a screengrab of one of many, many articles attempting to use Washingtons faith as a tool to put words in his mouth:

Uproxx

Notice the total lack of links. This is often a sign of a fake news site: If theyre not offering anything to back up a controversial or shocking statement, its likely because they dont have anything.

Step 3: Bury The Truth

It should, in theory at least, be fairly simple to find the truth with a simple search. Thats why many fake news sites steal articles from each other, because it helps them bury what actually happened. Consider this, when we typed in Denzel Obama into Google and Bing:







There are credible results in there: Notice Bings top result is a debunking by the Washington Post, and a Snopes article taking apart this article is also among the top results. But line after line after line is a copy-paste-rewrite of this article, in both an attempt to draw eyeballs and an attempt to bury the debunkings that inevitably follow.

How To Spot It: Consider the sources. Have you ever heard of these sites? Do they have a clear partisan agenda in their name? What else comes up when you look at the source? Does it feel legit, or like it was assembled by a chatbot?

Step 4: Wait For Facebook To Take Over

One thing to remember is sites like this specialize in telling people what they most want to hear. Sure, you can buy Facebook likes by the bushel, but in most cases, these sites rely on social media to spread the page. To Facebooks credit, the same Denzel Obama search term we use brings up one link, debunking that claim, but thats not something many of those 10,000 Like-ers will ever bother to research.

How To Spot It: Facebook has been doing a better job of inserting relevant links underneath articles like this, but you really need to apply all the steps weve listed above. While Facebook may be pulling ads from sites like this, unless they begin filtering out fake news entirely, its going to be up to us to vet our information.

The misuse and abuse of the internet is always going to be with us. Theres simply no way to stop it, short of turning into a digital dictatorship. Preventing the spread of fake news and the hate it can produce is a job we all have to pitch in to do. When we see fake news, we need to call it out as such, source a link for the truth, and tell our friends. We cant expect algorithms and those who profit from fake news to serve the public good. Its our responsibility, and we need to claim it.
Wes Wilbur, 21, went to Hamilton College in New York expecting to major in psychology and minor in economics, but after a couple of classes, he realized that psychology wasn't right for him.

"My sophomore year , I had no idea what I wanted to do," the Connecticut native said.

Like Wilbur, many students enter college without a clear track in mind or change majors once they get there. Reports vary, but estimates suggest that more than 50 percent of students start out as undecided or change their majors. And while enrolling as an undeclared major can give students the opportunity to explore a variety of different career options -- students at Hamilton College can't declare a major until the second semester of their sophomore year -- indecision can lead to more time in college and extra student debt.

Undecided students should be diligent about using campus resources to find a career path and graduate on time to limit their financial burden, experts say.

[Learn how undecided majors can vet colleges.]

"You may want to go to graduate school later on," says Joseph Orsolini, president of College Aid Planners, a consulting organization in Illinois that helps families navigate paying for college. "It's best to conserve as much money early on as you're figuring all of that out in the process."

He encourages students to get their degree "on the cheap at a solid school" and wait until grad school to spend money on a brand name.

In-state, public schools are generally the cheapest four-year options, but private schools can be less expensive for students who receive aid.

"Students shouldn't be afraid of the higher-priced school, because if they are eligible for financial aid they can bring their expected family contribution down," says Jodi Okun, founder of College Financial Aid Advisors, a California-based consultancy that guides families through the financial aid process. "They may not have to pay that full ticket price."



Story continues

[Learn about paying for private colleges as a low-income student.]

Attending community college is one way to save money, earn core credits and learn about career options before transferring to a four-year university, experts say.

But community college isn't the right fit for everyone. Undecided students who want the complete four-year experience should look for colleges and universities that offer a wide variety of programs to reduce the chances of losing credits if they need to transfer, Orsolini says.

Prospective students should also apply to schools that can help them graduate on time.

Since some majors require a specific course load, or can be more difficult to get in and out of like nursing or engineering, declaring a major sooner can help students save money in the long run, experts say.

An extra year of college can cost students an estimated $18,598 at a public school or $26,815 at a private college, according to a NerdWallet Inc. study released earlier this year.

[Follow these five tips to avoid an extra year of college.]

As students weigh options, they should pay attention to graduation rates and look at what specific resources colleges offer to help students pick a major and graduate. Those resources can include supplemental or required courses like freshman seminars that introduce students to a variety of career options, campus events that highlight programs and majors offered by the school, personality assessments that help students pinpoint their interests and narrow down their choices and a strong and accessible advising department.

Unsure of what track to pursue, Wilbur took advantage of one of Hamilton's noncredit courses designed to help students discover their passions and choose a major that fits their interests.

"It kind of just focused everything for me," he says. "It was really interesting and got me excited about life after college." Wilbur will graduate with a degree in economics in May and plans to work in money management.

Trying to fund your education? Get tips and more in the U.S. News Paying for College center.

Briana Boyington is an education digital producer at U.S. News. You can follow her on Twitter or email her at bboyington@usnews.com.
Fireworks artist Cai Guo-Qiang first met Wendi Murdoch in 2002 at the Royal Academy in London during one of his explosion events called "Money Net." Both New Yorkers, they kept in touch, with Murdoch attending his openings and purchasing some of his nonexplosive works. "When my studio staff proposed a documentary film, we immediately went to Wendi, who assembled the team and the director," Cai says of the origins of the Netflix film Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang, directed by Kevin Macdonald and produced by Murdoch, with Bennett Miller executive producing.

The son of a painter and calligrapher, Cai came of age during the artistic awakening in China following the death of Mao in 1976. He appeared in two martial arts movies and studied theater in Shanghai before decamping for Japan, where he developed the process that would lead to the massive explosive events he's known for today, like "Footprints of History" for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and "Mystery Circle" at L.A.'s MOCA Geffen in 2012.

Wen-You Cai/Netflix

The climax of the film centers on "Sky Ladder," a 1,650-foot ladder made of explosives suspended from a balloon. It combusts in an upward path, illuminating one fiery rung at a time. Since 1994, Cai has gone through several fizzled attempts - in cities from Shanghai to L.A. - to realize the work, which the 58-year-old artist dedicated to his 100-year-old grandmother. She wasn't able to attend when "Sky Ladder" finally rose above Huiyu Island Harbour in Quanzhou, China. But thanks to technology that didn't exist when Cai first conceived the work in the 1990s, she still was able to see it.

Read more: Oscars: 10 Doc Shorts That Go to Great Lengths

Over 20 years and hundreds of thousands of your own money, you never gave up on "Sky Ladder." How does it feel now that it's done?

First, it was beautiful. The sound was majestic, and overall it was quite moving. Secondly, I was able to dedicate this work to my grandma, even though two days before the realization of the piece I had to come to terms with the fact that she was too frail to see it in person. I was so grateful she was able to see it from an iPad. My mother and my wife's parents were able to see it in person. It was important for me, after doing pieces all over the world, to be able to bring one piece and present it to my family in person.

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In the film, filmmaker Zhang Yimou says that in some ways the '80s was a freer time for Chinese artists.

Back in the '80s we had a dream, a pursuit, more of a spiritual pursuit of something better and higher. And now we face restraints to freedom not only from political censorship but also from an overly commercialized climate. Even though the market for art is larger than ever before, and the capital available is also more, the power in the artwork and its ability to say something deeper about humanity, or offer philosophical or political reflection, is, in general, weaker.

Cai Studio/Netflix

What about the 2008 Beijing Olympics? Artist Ai Weiwei has criticized it as a success for the government at the expense of common citizens.

The artworks I contributed helped the people and the country become more international, more modern and more artistic. Even though back then not all of my concepts and goals were realized, I insisted and I persisted in going on this difficult and slow process of offering my contributions. I've always emphasized the individual values, voice and creativity, which in itself is political.

This story first appeared in a November standalone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
New York's Museum of Modern Art is hosting, for the first time in the United States, an exhibition entirely dedicated to the work of the French avant-garde artist Francis Picabia.

Featuring over 200 works from the artist, the exhibition "Francis Picabia: Our Heads Are Round so Our Thoughts Can Change Direction" aims to "advance the understanding of Picabia's relentless shape-shifting, and how his persistent questioning of the meaning and purpose of art ensured his iconoclastic legacy's lasting influence."

Francis Picabia: an elusive artist

Usually classed as one of the leading figures of Dadaism, Picabia (1879-1953) is nonetheless a difficult artist to categorize. The breadth of his work ranges from Impressionism, Abstraction and pseudo-Classicism, to Realism and Art Informel. Not simply an artist involved in multiple movements, Picabia also worked in a variety of media, such as painting, poetry, typography, performance and film.

Picabia at the MoMA

The upcoming exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art will feature work dating from the first decade of the 20th century into the early 1950s. Despite the artist himself resisting being defined by his painting, given his work in a vast range of art forms, Picabia's influence in this medium will be documented through around 125 paintings, as well as his contributions to journals and publishing, screenwriting and theater work.

The exhibition claims to be the first of its kind in the US, since a retrospective in the 1970s effectively ignored the latter stages of the artist's career. "Our Heads are Round so Our Thoughts Can Change Direction" is the latest in a series of shows dedicated to Dadaist artists, including the MoMA's earlier "Dadaglobe Reconstructed" which finished in mid-September, 2016.

Francis Picabia will be showing on Floor 6 of the MoMA, New York, from November 21, 2016, through March 19, 2017.
(The following statement was released by the rating agency) Link to Fitch Ratings' Report: Malaysian Islamic Banks Dashboard 1H16 www.fitchratings.com">www.fitchratings.com/site/re/890233">https://www.fitchratings.com">www.fitchratings.com/site/re/890233 SINGAPORE, November 15 (Fitch) The strong expansion of Malaysian Islamic finance, which pushed Islamic loan share to 27.9% of system loans at end-1H16, is likely to continue, although at a more modest pace, says Fitch Ratings in a new report. Malaysia continues to lead the global Islamic finance industry in terms of regulation, standardisation and sukuk issuance, representing more than half of the world's issuances at end-1H16. Islamic banks in Malaysia have access to a sharia liquidity facility from the central bank, an active Islamic capital market, interbank money market and secondary market. The Islamic banking system's gross impaired loan ratio rose slightly to 1.34% at end-1H16, but remained better than the conventional banking system's ratio of 1.74%. The Islamic banking system's core equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio of 13.0% was marginally lower than the 13.4% of the aggregate banking system. Fitch believes a shift in appetite for investment accounts versus Islamic deposits largely reflects the higher yield offered by investment accounts. Fitch has not seen customer migration from Islamic banks to conventional banks or a significant change in Islamic banks' risk profiles. The full report, Malaysian Islamic Banks Dashboard 1H16, is available at www.fitchratings.com">www.fitchratings.com or by clicking the link above. Contact: Wee Siang Ng Senior Director +65 6796 7230 Fitch Ratings Singapore Pte Ltd One Raffles Quay South Tower #22-11 Singapore 048583 Bashar Al Natoor Global Head of Islamic Finance +971 4 424 1242 Media Relations: Peter Fitzpatrick, London, Tel: +44 20 3530 1103, Email: peter.fitzpatrick@fitchratings.com; Leslie Tan, Singapore, Tel: +65 67 96 7234, Email: leslie.tan@fitchratings.com. Additional information is available on www.fitchratings.com">www.fitchratings.com ALL FITCH CREDIT RATINGS ARE SUBJECT TO CERTAIN LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS. PLEASE READ THESE LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS BY FOLLOWING THIS LINK: HTTPS://WWW.FITCHRATINGS.COM/UNDERSTANDINGCREDITRATINGS. IN ADDITION, RATING DEFINITIONS AND THE TERMS OF USE OF SUCH RATINGS ARE AVAILABLE ON THE AGENCY'S PUBLIC WEB SITE AT WWW.FITCHRATINGS.COM. PUBLISHED RATINGS, CRITERIA, AND METHODOLOGIES ARE AVAILABLE FROM THIS SITE AT ALL TIMES. FITCH'S CODE OF CONDUCT, CONFIDENTIALITY, CONFLICTS OF INTEREST, AFFILIATE FIREWALL, COMPLIANCE, AND OTHER RELEVANT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES ARE ALSO AVAILABLE FROM THE CODE OF CONDUCT SECTION OF THIS SITE. FITCH MAY HAVE PROVIDED ANOTHER PERMISSIBLE SERVICE TO THE RATED ENTITY OR ITS RELATED THIRD PARTIES. DETAILS OF THIS SERVICE FOR RATINGS FOR WHICH THE LEAD ANALYST IS BASED IN AN EU-REGISTERED ENTITY CAN BE FOUND ON THE ENTITY SUMMARY PAGE FOR THIS ISSUER ON THE FITCH WEBSITE. Copyright  2016 by Fitch Ratings, Inc., Fitch Ratings Ltd. and its subsidiaries. 33 Whitehall Street, NY, NY 10004. Telephone: 1-800-753-4824, (212) 908-0500. Fax: (212) 480-4435. Reproduction or retransmission in whole or in part is prohibited except by permission. All rights reserved. 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Fitch receives fees from issuers, insurers, guarantors, other obligors, and underwriters for rating securities. Such fees generally vary from US$1,000 to US$750,000 (or the applicable currency equivalent) per issue. In certain cases, Fitch will rate all or a number of issues issued by a particular issuer, or insured or guaranteed by a particular insurer or guarantor, for a single annual fee. Such fees are expected to vary from US$10,000 to US$1,500,000 (or the applicable currency equivalent). The assignment, publication, or dissemination of a rating by Fitch shall not constitute a consent by Fitch to use its name as an expert in connection with any registration statement filed under the United States securities laws, the Financial Services and Markets Act of 2000 of the United Kingdom, or the securities laws of any particular jurisdiction. 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Los Angeles (AFP) - Ford Motor Company still plans to relocate some production to Mexico despite the election of Donald Trump, who denounced the move and has threatened to impose hefty tariffs on car imports.

"We look forward to working with the new administration. Our plan is to move our Focus down to Mexico to make room for two very exciting products that will be coming down to the Michigan Center," Ford CEO Mark Fields told reporters Tuesday.

Speaking at the opening of the Los Angeles auto show, Fields said a 35 percent import duty on cars produced in Mexico, which Trump threatened during the campaign, would hurt the US economy.

"A tariff like that would be imposed on the entire auto sector that could have a major impact on the US economy," he said.

"I continue to think that the right policies will prevail because we continue to share the same objective which is a healthy and vibrant US economy."

Asked by AFP about the consequences of renegotiating or pulling out of free trade agreements such as NAFTA -- something Trump has pledged to do -- Fields said Ford remains "a big supporter of free and fair trade" but added: "We'll see how things play out."

His remarks echoed those made by BMW chief Harald Krueger in the wake of the real estate tycoon's surprise election last week.

Fields said of Trump, "We look forward to working with him to consolidate the US economy."

Ford will continue to advocate for policies on currency manipulation and fuel standards that are "in line with market realities," as well as tax reform and "the safe adoption of autonomous cars."

During the bitter campaign for the White house, Trump criticized American companies for relocating production abroad. Computer giant Apple has been one of his main targets.

Ford in early April unveiled a $1.6 billion investment in a new facility in Mexico, where the workforce is very cheap compared to the United States. The plant will be operational in 2018.

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Car companies that move US factories offshore have become a frequent target of politicians and local elected officials, not least because General Motors and Chrysler -- although not Ford -- were saved from bankruptcy in 2009 with a government bailout.

Jessica Caldwell, an analyst at the Edmunds.com automotive website, the most immediate challenge created by a Trump administration, even more so than the renegotiation of international trade agreements, is to question government subsidies on electric cars.

Trump, who has denied the existence of climate change in the past, suggested during his campaign that he would close the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and his government may decide to eliminate federal incentives for the purchase green cars.

"The big concern now is the government subsidies for green cars," she says, adding that the manufacturers have spent tens of millions of dollars to reduce gasoline consumption and polluting emissions.
After enduring years in prison already, Maryam has been denied access to medical care because of the letter. It was written as an official complaint to launch investigations into the 1988 massacre in Iran. In the letter, Maryam demanded that the indictment of the victims and those who were executed in the 1980s be made available and published.

In 1988, during the space of just a few months, more than 30,000 victims were executed without a fair trial in Iran, Maryams family members among them. She lost three brothers and her sister during the massacre. Her youngest brother was only 17, arrested for the crime of distributing a newspaper, belonging to PMOI/MEK. Her brother endured a devastating fate  he was sentenced to three years in solitary confinement in prison, before his execution in 1988, among many other Iranians who lost their loved ones that summer.

Many of those who were executed in 1988, including my sister and brother, had already been sentenced to prison terms, Maryam writes. They had been tried in courts that lasted a few minutes without due process and their crimes were at most reading or distributing newspaper (published by the PMOI/MEK ) or participating in peaceful demonstrations.

Maryam herself was arrested in December 2009. The authorities did not inform her family of her whereabouts, leaving them in the dark. She was trialed at the Revolutionary Court in Tehran several months later, where she was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for enmity against God. The infamous Judge Salavati proclaimed to Maryam that she was sentenced because of your siblings.

One of her brothers, Alireza Akbari Monfared, was executed only 10 days after his trial and imprisonment. In his commemoration ceremony on the seventh night of his death, Maryam writes, the regime agents raided our house and arrested a number of people and transferred them to Evin prison and the Joint Committee detention. Among those arrested were my mother and my sister, Roghiyeh Akbari Monfared.

In her letter, Maryam appealed to the fact that her family members should have been treated as Prisoners of War (POW) since the PMOI (MEK) were in a state of war against the Islamic Republic at the time of their execution. Executing a POW goes against the Geneva Conventions and sharia law, making these crimes as unlawful as they are inhumane.

Amnesty International have demanded Maryams immediate and unconditional release. The organisation also appealed against the harassment of families like Maryams who had family members executed during the 1988 massacre, stating that the Iranian regime should stop the harassment and persecution of families of the victims of 1988 mass executions and respect their rights to truth, justice, and reparation, including by conducting a thorough, effective and independent investigation and bringing to justice those responsible in fair proceedings without recourse to the death penalty.

Family members and supporters of PMOI/MEK in several cities, including Tehran, Shahrekord, Tabriz and Mashhad, have also pledged their support for Maryam and demanded her immediate release. We the families of MEK/PMOI martyrs in Mashhad demand immediate and unconditional release of Maryam Akbari Monfared and call on all international human rights bodies and activists and all freedom-loving people across the world to support us in our legitimate demands for the release of all political prisoners particularly Maryam Akbari Monfared, their statement read.

The 1988 Massacre are still fresh in the memory of many Iranians, and many families are forced to live shattered lives since then. All the pressure that put on us is now imposed on our families and is affecting their lives, Maryam wrote in her letter: Some families have torn apart after all the sufferings and many others are suffering from various physical and mental illnesses. Some of them are forced to fled the country and migrate to other countries and many others live [in isolation] in the corner of their privacy. The arrest and detention of our loved ones were like kidnapping. We were not informed about the time of their trial or their whereabouts.

Maryam was due for a retrial, following her request and new Iranian laws, but the Supreme Court have held her case for months with no further information. Her fate remains uncertain, and she is well aware of the fact, having released the letter regardless of the consequences in a brave and bold move.

Now that I am writing this letter, I do not know after releasing the letter what fate awaits me, Maryam concludes her statement. But with the knowledge of all possible consequences, I demand clarification on how the 1988 massacre of political prisoners, especially my sisters and my brother, was carried out.
PARIS (Reuters) - French former prime minister Francois Fillon has gained ground among conservative Les Republicains supporters and is poised to beat hitherto favorite Alain Juppe to the party's presidential nomination, according to a poll published on Tuesday. Juppe, the mayor of Bordeaux, remains in pole position for the first-round primary vote on Nov 20, although his support has fallen seven percentage points to 33 percent, according to the Opinionway poll for Atlantico. But Fillon, now tied with former president Nicolas Sarkozy for the first round, would pick up more votes to beat Juppe if he progresses to the second, the survey suggested. A series of recent polls have shown growing support for the Paris lawmaker. Opinionway contacted a sample of 828 voters who firmly intended to vote in the Les Republicains primaries. The French presidential election takes place, also in two rounds, in April and May. (Reporting by Laurence Frost; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
PARIS (Reuters) - The French government will ask parliament for a second extension to the state of emergency imposed in the wake of the November 2015 attacks in Paris, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Tuesday. Speaking to lawmakers, Valls said France's upcoming elections and its backing for the Western coalition fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria meant that the threat of further atrocities could not be ignored. "France must also be lucid about the threat," Valls said. "That's why we will be proposing an extension of the state of emergency to parliament." The state of emergency was last extended for six months at the end of July. Valls did not say how much longer he planned to extend it for. (Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau; Writing by Laurence Frost; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls is seeking another extension to the state of emergency put in place after a series of deadly terrorist attacks struck Paris a year ago, Reuters reported.

Valls told lawmakers Tuesday that France's 2017 elections and involvement in the United States-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group has made the country a target for terrorist attacks, especially those by the militant organization also known as ISIS. He said he would ask parliament for an extension of the state of emergency due to the ongoing security concerns. He did not specify the length.

"France must also be lucid about the threat," Valls said.

The state of emergency was originally imposed after ISIS militants coordinated a series of shooting and suicide bomb attacks that killed 130 in Paris on Nov. 13, 2015. The designation was scheduled to last six months but was extended this past July, when an ISIS-inspired truck driver plowed his vehicle into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in Nice and killed 86 people.

The extra security measures provided by the state of emergency allow authorities more power to conduct searches and place suspects under house arrest. For example, France conducted dozens of raids and arrested 23 people the day after the Paris attacks, according to the New York Times.

Valls argued that the country was not ready to drop these increased security precautions yet, referencing how he was personally affected by last year's events.

"As head of government and as a French citizen I too am permanently marked by what we experienced," he told BBC News Sunday.

National security has been a major topic of debate within French politics for the last year. Polls have shown current socialist President Francois Hollande to be the least popular president in France's history, and he has been frequently criticized for his management of terrorist threats. France's right-wing movement, on the other hand, has experienced a surge of support.

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(Adds details on Putnam's financial performance)

By Tim McLaughlin

BOSTON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Putnam Investments plans to cut about 115 jobs, or nearly 8 percent of its workforce, the mutual fund manager's parent company said on Tuesday.

Investors have pulled billions of dollars out of Putnam's actively managed mutual funds this year amid a broader industry shift toward passively managed index funds and exchange-traded funds.

With headquarters in Boston, Putnam is the U.S.-based asset manager for Canada's Great-West Lifeco Inc.

Most of the cuts will be made in Putnam's operations and technology areas, according to a statement from Great-West Lifeco. A small number of investment management professionals also will be leaving, it said.

In the third quarter, Putnam's fee income tumbled 19 percent to $176 million, outpacing a 5 percent drop in operating expenses, according to Great-West's financial statements. Putnam's operations posted an operating loss of $5 million.

At the end of the third quarter, Putnam's mutual funds had $72.3 billion in assets under management, compared with $78.7 billion in the year-earlier period.

(Reporting by Tim McLaughlin; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Bill Rigby)
Actresses Phylicia Rashad and Debbie Allen attend the opening night of Ma Raineys Black Bottom at Mark Taper Forum. (Photo: Getty Images)

Double trouble! Not that you needed further proof that Debbie Allen and Phylicia Rashad are the cutest sisters around, but here it is anyway. The acting/dancing/directing siblings have been showcasing their fun-filled lives and sisterly love on Instagram a lot lately.

Five months ago, Allen posted a tribute to Rashad for her 68th birthday. Happy birthday to my big sister. Love you Lish! she captioned a throwback black-and-white snap of the twosome striking a sassy dancing pose and sporting some pretty serious earrings.

Happy Birthday to my big sister! Love you Lish!???????????? A photo posted by Debbie Allen (@therealdebbieallen) on Jun 19, 2016 at 10:07am PDT

Three months later, Allen, 66, followed this up with a shot of the duo at the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles to promote August Wilsons play Ma Raineys Black Bottom, which Rashad directed. Everyone run to go see Ma Rainey @ctgla! Rashads younger sister, frequent Greys Anatomy director herself, gushed. Its amazing! Kudos Lish! Upping the cuteness factor was the fact that Rashad went in all white while Allen wore all black. Its unclear whether they coordinated this opposites-attract look, but we like to think it wasnt an accident.

Everyone run to go see Ma Rainey at @ctgla! It's amazing! Kudos Lish!???????????????? #MaRaineyCTG A photo posted by Debbie Allen (@therealdebbieallen) on Sep 12, 2016 at 8:52am PDT

A few weeks later, they fan-girled over another celeb: Tom Hanks. The sisters were visiting the National Museum of African American History and Culture. In the elevator with @tomhanks! Allen shared beside a selfie of the trio. No one seemed to be ready for the shot, which only made it that much more endearing. Its also worth noting that, yet again, the ladies were both rocking some pretty impressive jewelry, this time in the form of large-and-in-charge necklaces.

In the elevator with @tomhanks!???????????? @nmaahc #APeoplesJourney A photo posted by Debbie Allen (@therealdebbieallen) on Sep 23, 2016 at 5:53pm PDT

But its their two most-recent video posts that are, by far, the standout evidence of their awesomeness. In the first video clip, the ladies playfully declare, We travelin! as they make their way through the Charlotte airport en route to New York City. Were traveling through the Charlotte airport, named after Queen Charlotte, Phylicia explains before adding, The black queen. Allen adds, These people dont know whos who!

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We travelin honey! ???? with Phylicia Rashad  A video posted by Debbie Allen (@therealdebbieallen) on Nov 13, 2016 at 1:51pm PST

Well, they hopefully know now! The next day the sisters posted a follow-up video showing what they got up to once they arrived in the Big Apple.

Now we are getting dressed to go induct Miss Phylicia into the Theater Hall of Fame, Allen explains in a video of the two beauties that showed them dressed up and glammed out. She deserves it. Darling, youre so beautiful, she adds before planting a sweet kiss on Rashads cheek. Thank you for being here to present it to me, Rashad replies with that slightly imperious look weve come to know and love.

Tonight in NY ???? A video posted by Debbie Allen (@therealdebbieallen) on Nov 14, 2016 at 4:37pm PST

And thank you both for showing us what true sisterhood is all about: statement jewelry, having fun in airports, and appreciating what you have.
By Alwyn Scott

SEATTLE (Reuters) - General Electric Co (GE.N) has signed up U.S. energy utility Exelon Corp (EXC.N) to use its full software set to analyze and manage power plants in 48 states, the largest GE deployment in the power sector so far, the companies said on Tuesday.

The Exelon deal, aimed at wringing greater efficiency from the business of generating electricity, marks another advance in GE's effort to lift annual digital technology revenue to $14 billion in 2020 from $5 billion in 2015, across its many industrial products.

It also is one of the three largest sales of GE's Predix industrial operating system so far. Exelon has nuclear, wind and fossil fuel-powered plants. The companies did not disclose the value of Exelon's five-year contract with GE.

In initial uses, GE's technology has increased power plant efficiency by 3 percent and reliability by 5 percent, while cutting operating and maintenance costs 25 percent, said Steve Bolze, chief executive of GE Power.

Exelon's deployment is nearly six times larger than the previous largest GE deal, signed last month with the New York Power Authority and covering 16 power plants in New York state that generate about 5,600 megawatts.

Chicago-based Exelon will use GE's Predix software and applications across its 91 power plants, which produce 32,700 megawatts and supply more than 10 million customers, the companies said.

Exelon will also use GE software that analyzes the company's business performance and profitability, something NYPA didn't choose, GE said. GE and Exelon also agreed to work together on new Predix-based software applications.

GE's power business accounts for 40 percent of GE's digital revenue, said Bolze. About $400 million a year is produced by GE Power's software business, and that revenue is growing by 50 percent a year, he added.

Exelon's agreement follows four pilot projects over the past year and is GE's "first and largest IoT (internet of things) enterprise-wide deployment of Predix full-suite offerings anywhere in the world," Bolze said.

(Reporting by Alwyn Scott; Editing by Bill Rigby)
EDEN PRAIRIE, MN / ACCESSWIRE / November 15, 2016 / ECA Marketing announced its recent hire of Mark Eide, who will join the ECA Marketing team as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer working from our office in Eden Prairie, MN. Within these roles, Eide will assist agent producers with annuity suitability review, provide general compliance consulting, create and implement policies and procedures and provide advertising review.

Eide came to ECA Marketing as an industry leader in suitability procedures. Prior to accepting the roles as General Counsel, Mark maintained a private law practice where he focused on consulting for SEC exams and investment advisory compliance programs and representation of registered representatives at FINRA arbitrations. Before private practice, Mark held a series of compliance and operational positions at several major Broker Dealers and Registered Investment Advisors including the position of Chief Compliance Officer at one of the largest independent retail Broker Dealers and federally registered Investment Advisors in the United States.

In additional to his prior experience, Mark has been a member or leader of major securities compliance roundtables and has been a national speaker and panelist on the topics of ERISA and general securities compliance. Mark has a degree in Finance from St. Cloud State University and Juris Doctorate from Hamline University School of Law. While in law school, Mark was a two-time national moot court competitor on the topic of civil rights.

Joe Spillman, President of ECA Marketing says, "I am excited to welcome Mark to our team here at ECA Marketing. His compliance and legal experience is wonderful but to find someone with such a great understanding of sales and marketing in the insurance and financial services world made him a perfect fit for ECA. As our company works hard to create new and unique marketing and sales initiatives for our producers we believe Mark's skillset will not only help ensure compliance requirements are met, but also preserve our business friendly nature."

ECA Marketing has roots dating back to 1985. Since 2006, ECA Marketing has produced over $10 Billion in Fixed Annuity and Target Life Premium. Joe Spillman became president of ECA Marketing in December 2011. He started as a marketing consultant in 1999. ECA Mission is to create quality sales platforms and systems for producers to help them write more business and select the best products to fit within that system. ECA is dedicated to giving superior service, as well as devoted to developing and attaining industry tools specifically designed to help our producers save time and effort by offering valuable insurance resources.

Contact ECA Marketing, Inc.:

Stephanie Dahl

800-356-4189

stephanie@ecamarketing.com

7800 Equitable Drive, Suite 200 Eden Prairie, Minnesota 55344

SOURCE: ECA Marketing, Inc.
BERLIN (Reuters) - The head of Germany's domestic spy agency on Tuesday rejected as "completely unjustified" Turkey's accusation that Germany is harboring militants tied to the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). "That accusation is completely unjustified. We have been working for many years to ensure that the PKK in Germany poses no danger to Germany or Turkey," Hans-Georg Maassen told Reuters in an interview late on Tuesday. He said Germany had a good exchange of information with Turkey and that generally the countries worked well together on that issue. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Tuesday said there were outstanding legal cases against 4,500 PKK members in Germany, but only three suspects had been sent back to Turkey so far. Asked if ties between the intelligence services of Germany and Turkey had deteriorated after Turkey's failed July 15 military coup, Maassen said only that cooperation was often difficult because of the different priorities set by the Turkish intelligence services. However, he said cooperation was working well in regard to combating Islamic State, given a clear understanding of the dangers that the militant jihadist group posed. More than 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK took up arms for autonomy in southeast Turkey in 1984. It is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Andreas Rinke and Thorsten Severin; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
By Sabine Siebold and Tulay Karadeniz ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey is "fed up" with European Union condescension in talks over its application to join the bloc, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday, reflecting Ankara's exasperation with EU criticism over human rights. Cavusoglu's blunt comments, made as visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier looked on, also highlighted Turkey's frustration with the fact that, after 11 years of negotiations, its prospects of joining the EU look more remote than ever. "We are truly fed up of these statements degrading Turkey. The criteria are clear but there are double standards and a two-faced approach. This is what we don't like," Cavusoglu told a joint news conference. The EU is treading a fine line in relations with Turkey: it needs Ankara's continued help in curbing a huge flow of refugees and migrants, especially from Syria, but is alarmed by Turkey's crackdown on opponents since the failure of a coup attempt in July. Referring to an issue that could spell the end of Turkey's accession bid, Cavusoglu said that the Turkish people would decide whether or not to reinstate the death penalty. Steinmeier said he had expressed concern about mass arrests and the treatment of the media since the failed coup, but also that Germany supported its NATO partner in fighting terrorism. "Turkey's actions against opposition lawmakers and civil society, newspapers, radio and TV stations and countless teachers and bureaucrats do not conform to our constitutional standards, and they have long gone beyond the search for those responsible for the failed July 15 putsch," he told reporters. More than 110,000 people have been sacked or suspended in the crackdown that followed the putsch, and some 36,000 arrested. Media outlets have also been shut down. In Berlin, the head of Germany's domestic spy agency on Tuesday rejected as "completely unjustified" Turkey's charge that Germany is harbouring militants tied to the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). "That accusation is completely unjustified. We have been working for many years to ensure that the PKK in Germany poses no danger to Germany or Turkey," Hans-Georg Maassen told Reuters in an interview late on Tuesday. Earlier on Tuesday Cavusoglu said there were outstanding legal cases against 4,500 PKK members in Germany, but only three suspects had been sent back to Turkey so far. More than 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK began its armed struggle in 1984 for autonomy for mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey. It is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. "SADDENED AND DISTURBED" At one point during Tuesday's awkward news conference in Ankara, a microphone was switched off as a German journalist tried to ask a question. "No freedom of media here, that's why," Cavusoglu joked caustically, in English. Turkey has agreed to help control the flood of migrants into Europe in return for visa-free travel for Turks to Europe. But Brussels first wants Ankara to modify anti-terrorism laws that it says are too broad. Turkey has repeatedly refused to change the laws, saying they are necessary to combat its multiple security threats. "It cannot be expected for us to stop our fight against terror or take a step back," Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told members of his ruling AK Party in parliament on Tuesday. "EU ambassadors cannot decide how the law will work in Turkey." The bitter rhetoric from Turkey has increased since the release of a highly critical EU report last week that made clear its prospects of joining the 28-nation bloc have become more distant. "The latest report published by the EU has both saddened and disturbed us," Yildirim said. Despite the problems, Steinmeier said he was against the EU breaking off accession talks with Turkey. Alluding to the tense atmosphere, he thanked Cavusoglu for "a conversation today that was not very easy", but which he said had been open and honest. (Additional reporting by Ercan Gurses, Ece Toksabay and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Writing by Madeline Chambers and David Dolan; Editing by Daren Butler and Gareth Jones)
German music publishers are taken aback after a Berlin court ruled on Monday that top collection society GEMA can no longer distribute a share of authors' royalties to its music publishers. The court ruled that publishers are required to return all such payments made since 2010, and, as the payments distributed by GEMA to publishers normally account for 20 percent or more of revenues, the judgement could have considerable economic repercussions for them. What's more, they face demands for reimbursements for the last seven years.

Speaking to Billboard, Prof. Dr. Rolf Budde, the president of the German Music Publishers Association DMV today said: "German music publishers are shocked by the judgement and highly alarmed and fear for their own survival."

The decision is the result of a claim brought by two musicians, Bruno Kramm and Stefan Ackermann, who are GEMA members. The plaintiffs argued that they were entitled to claim both the author and publishing shares as the rights of utilization had been contributed to GEMA solely by the copyright holders. The court ruled that the copyright holders had first assigned their rights to GEMA under contractual arrangements, meaning that the publishers could not derive any rights under the artists' copyrights. The court based its ruling on the fact that the existing publishing contracts do not include any clear provisions on the publisher's share.

Budde told Billboard, "Because this case involves an agreement between the copyright holders and the music publishers, the judges should have interpreted the contracts in accordance with the general rules and identified the parties' true intentions."

"We consider this decision to be wrong," explained GEMA CEO Dr. Harald Heker. "Regrettably, the court only focused on the party contributing the rights. However, depending on the wording of the publishing contract, this may also place the copyright holder at a disadvantage. What is more crucial, however, is the fact that there has been an agreement between the authors and the publishers for decades that both parties should benefit economically from income arising from the grant of rights."

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Added Heker, "If the copyright holder wishes to recompense the publisher for its publishing activities, this share is legitimate."

Prof. Monika Grutters, the German federal government's officer for culture and media, declared in a statement: "It is now a question of averting harm from cultural diversity and creativity in Germany. The successful and mutually accepted partnership between authors and publishers in joint collection societies is one of the proven constants of cultural policy in Germany. I hope that we can quickly come to an agreement at the EU level."

Publishers immediately called for a legislative solution to address the problem. "The established system and partnership that has been in the interests of copyright holders, music publishers and GEMA alike for decades must be preserved," said Budde. "GEMA does not generally distribute any contribution to the music publishers but only when the copyright holder and the publisher provide for this in the publishing contract."
According to the article, Mr Obamas and Mr Trumps rivals Hillary Clintons word view included the belief that strengthening the position and assertiveness of the USA internationally, could actually contribute to tension, instability and outright conflict. From this belief stemmed the idea that dedicating resources to defence schemes and national security, would create more problems and little solution.

Most of the international challenges that call for immediate attention from Mr Trump are based within the Middle East  he is faced with rapidly spreading Radical Islam and terrorist groups; ISIS are challenging the boundaries set in place following World War I, namely in Iraq and Syria; there is danger of upheaval from Kurds who wish to declare a Kurdistan. Yemen has completely fallen apart as a country.

Closer to Europe, in Turkey, the president Recep Tayyip Erdogan is forcing the country to turn from a secular constitution, establishing his own concept of a caliphate. And Russia now has a high influence within the Middle East  much more prominent than at any point since the 1970s.

These are just some of the problems in the Middle East. Mr Trump is also faced with the continuous challenge from Taliban and the Al Qaeda, specifically in Afghanistan.

While Mr Obama enhanced the dealings of Iran by his policies, Mr Trump should make defeating ISIS his goal, but avoid benefiting Iran by his actions, as the country remains a state supporter of terrorism, exhibiting questionable behaviour internationally.

Thanks to the USA-Iran Nuclear Deal, Iran has become more unstable. Named as one of the top state supporters of terrorism in the report that was released by the USA State Department, Iran is benefiting from unfrozen assets and renewed trade and investment, especially from Europe, and its behaviour has only become worse since the deal was signed.

Since the deal, Irans behaviour has been causing upheaval in the international oil market too. Saudi Arabia, Irans rival Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) producer, has called for help from OPEC to stabilise the oil market. Iran has pumped 250,000 barrels each day from the area near the Karoun River, compared to 65,000 barrels that it was producing in 2013, according to a report by Shana, Oil Ministrys news service. Mohsen Ghamsari said in September, that Iran was expected to reach this high target only by the end of the year.

Khalid Al-Falih, The Energy Minister for Saudi Arabia, called on OPEC to implement a proposed cut in crude production for OPEC countries, according to a recent report by the Saudi Press Agency. OPEC members are scheduled to meet on November 30 to discuss plans on how to limit the oil output from the group.

As an immediate first step, Mr Trump should abrogate the Iran nuclear deal in his first days in office which will require determination and ample amounts of diplomacy.
Ankara (AFP) - Germany's foreign minister on Tuesday said it was up to Turkey to decide whether to advance its bid on joining the European Union, as he voiced Berlin's "serious concern" at the crackdown after the failed July 15 coup.

The purge, which has seen over 35,000 people arrested and journalists as well as some MPs put in jail, has raised questions over the future of Turkey's accession effort, which dates back to the 1960s.

But German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after talks with Ankara with Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu that he did not support halting accession talks with Turkey.

"The question of whether Turkey goes closer to, or further away, from Europe is not a decision for Europe or the European capitals but should be made in Turkey," Steinmeier told reporters.

"I am for a better relationship," he added.

Relations between Berlin and Ankara have been strained this year.

Recently Steinmeier criticised Turkey's widening purge in response to the coup bid, saying it should not be used as an excuse to muzzle the opposition.

Steinmeier said his talks with Cavusoglu had "not been easy" and admitted the pair had expressed "divergent views" about the crackdown in Turkey.

But he insisted that Ankara should not see criticism from Berlin as "being lectured or disrespect for its sovereignty", saying it was in the interest of long-term relations between the two sides.

The comments came a day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the EU to decide by the end of the year on the membership bid, threatening to otherwise call a referendum on the process.

"We do not deserve this (EU criticism), so if we make a decision... we will ask our people and our people will decide," said Cavusoglu, echoing Erdogan.

Steinmeier, who later met the president, said he was "to say the least irritated" by repeated criticism from Erdogan accusing Germany of harbouring wanted Kurdish militants.

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- 'Tired of EU two-facedness' -

Formal talks for Ankara to join the union began in 2005 but since then it has been a slow process with only 16 out of 35 chapters opened.

The aftermath of the failed putsch further strained the relationship, with Brussels repeatedly expressing concern over the magnitude of the crackdown.

At an EU foreign ministers' meeting on Monday, Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz even said Vienna opposed opening more negotiation chapters in the stalled Turkish accession process.

But all other ministers in the 28-member bloc backed keeping dialogue open.

Last week, a Turkey progress report from the EU said Turkey was slipping backwards on democracy, rights and the rule of law after the coup bid.

Cavusoglu hit back at the criticism, saying that he was tired of what he described as "two-facedness and double standards" from the European Union.

"We are fed up, we really are fed up with this condescending attitude," he said.

Cavusoglu condemned those who wanted to end Ankara's EU negotiations or even expel Turkey from NATO.

"Who are you to throw Turkey out? You do not have the power to decide this. There needs to be consensus here," Cavusoglu said.
Berlin (AFP) - Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel intends to stand for a fourth term in next September's elections, a close political ally said Tuesday.

"She will run for the post of chancellor," Norbert Roettgen, a senior member of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, told US television channel CNN.

"She is absolutely determined, positioned and ready to contribute to reinforcing the international liberal order," he said.

Merkel -- leader of Europe's biggest economy since 2005 -- has suffered a rocky year, marked by a string of electoral defeats and deep criticism even from within her own camp over her decision to let hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants into Germany.

Yet the shock election of US populist Donald Trump to the White House has forced greater responsibility for defending Western values and interests onto her shoulders, analysts say, with some even crowning her the new "leader of the free world".

"The chancellor is one of the cornerstones of the political concept of the West as an actor on the world stage. So she will run, she will act like a responsible leader," Roettgen said.

But he downplayed the "leader of the free world" label, telling CNN: "We cannot consider the German chancellor as the last person standing... It would be impossible to count on one person. We need the West, and the West is indispensable."

German media have reported that Merkel, who had been widely expected to seek re-election despite her downturn in political fortunes, could confirm her intention to run again with the CDU's governing bodies this Sunday.
- By Vitaliy Katsenelson





It was 1986. I was a junior high school student in Soviet Russia. In political information (propaganda) class, the teacher told us that the HIV virus was killing millions of people in the U.S. Though she didn't say it explicitly, she made it sound like HIV was a just punishment for the U.S.'s flawed economic and political system. When asked if this virus could be cured, she said that because it constantly mutated it was incurable. (And in fact, HIV reproduces 12 million times daily.) Once you get sick, it's a death sentence, she told us. I still remember the chilling and morbid certainty in her voice.





For a very long time, she was right.

Fast-forward to 2016. Thanks to the once-a-day miracle drugs Truvada and Atripla from Gilead Sciences (GILD), a biotech company in Northern California, AIDS is not a death sentence anymore. Today, people infected with the HIV virus can expect to live an almost normal lifespan. Their lifestyle and energy level will not be different from a healthy person's. If they continue to follow the regimen, they will not spread the virus. Gilead's drugs completely eradicate the virus from the bloodstream (though it still hides in bone marrow and lymph nodes). This treatment has very few side effects; its recently introduced cousin Genvoya extends Gilead's patents until 2029 and has even fewer side effects.

But Gilead's miracles did not stop with treating HIV. In 2011 the company did the unthinkable -- it paid $11 billion for Pharmasset, a Princeton, New Jersey-based 80-employee company that had no sales and only one drug in phase 2 trials. Maybe it was luck, maybe it was skill or maybe it was both, but this acquisition paid off. The drug, Sovaldi, and its successor, Harvoni, were approved, and today they do the incredible: They cure hepatitis C, a virus that attacks the liver.

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It is easy, exciting and uplifting to talk about how Gilead has saved millions of lives. But I have to admit I found myself to be slightly conflicted as a capitalist investor and human being when it came to analyzing the company.

Financial analysis forces you to appreciate business qualities such as recurrence of revenue and market growth. For instance, Sovaldi and Harvoni are very effective oral treatments -- you are done taking them after 12 to 24 weeks. From a business perspective the hep C market is relatively small: 3 million people in the U.S., 2.6 million in Western Europe, 1.6 million in Japan and as many as 200 million in the rest of the world. In the developed countries hep C is not growing. That's good, right? As a human being -- a father, husband and son -- I want to say hallelujah. But to an analyst hep C treatment doesn't look like a great business, because with every cured soul, potential revenue and the market shrink by exactly one customer.

HIV, on the other hand, is a dream of a business -- the market is growing about 5 percent a year in developed countries (HIV is more easily transmitted than hep C); and once patients start taking HIV medicine, they'll be taking it for the rest of their life. It feels almost like a software-as-a-service (SaaS) business: stable, with growing and highly recurring revenue. I feel slightly disgusted with myself as I write this. It's very easy when you do this analysis to look at people as revenue streams, but unfortunately, as analysts that is what we have to do.

It gets worse. This analysis forces us to put a price tag on human life; and the price tag will be different depending on if you live in the U.S., Western Europe, China or Pakistan. Harvoni is an expensive drug -- a treatment course in the U.S. runs $50,000, in Western Europe $30,000, and in Pakistan and other so-called mid-income countries the cure runs $3,000 to $7,000. Poor countries in Africa receive it almost free (similar to AIDS medicine).

How does Gilead come up with these prices? The cost to develop and manufacture an HIV drug is not materially different from that for a hep C drug. The HIV and hep C markets are both relatively small, especially compared with the heart disease or impotence markets. Therefore the price per patient has to be large enough to entice companies to develop drugs for these limited markets. The cost of alternative treatments is another way to analyze the fairness or appropriateness of drug pricing. Many people infected with hep C will at some point suffer liver failure from cirrhosis or cancer; they will require hospitalization and face a painful, miserable death without dialysis or a transplant -- all of which could add up to $2 million. Gilead's Harvoni cures hep C in 95 percent of patients. From that perspective, $50,000 is a steal.

Gilead's acquisition of Pharmasset will go into the corporate annals as one of the best deals ever -- in 2015, Harvoni and Sovaldi generated close to $20 billion in sales.

A certain Democratic socialist presidential candidate would say that this is an obscene amount of money, the bulk of which will go to investors, not to research. He'd be right -- Gilead spends about $3.2 billion on R&D a year. Its drugs have gross margins of 90 percent, and the company is insanely (Donald Trump would say "huuugely") profitable.

And this is where the capitalist in me comes out. Drug discovery is not unlike playing a lottery where billions of dollars are poured into the black hole known as R&D, with very few drugs emerging into the light of day (and profitability). The government stepping in to decide that a company is making too much money might feel good for a year or maybe two -- until we need new medicines and discover that biotech and pharma companies are buying fewer lottery tickets (that is, cutting their R&D) because the winning pot was arbitrarily reduced by a well-meaning Democratic socialist.

I was going to title this article "Buy Hep C and Get HIV for Free," but a smart friend told me that might not be such a great idea. He's probably right, but essentially, at current depressed valuations -- Gilead trades at seven times 2016 earnings -- that is how the numbers work out.

If Gilead's hep C drugs treat 70 percent of patients in developed markets and 5 to 20 percent in developing markets, they will generate more than $140 billion in aftertax profits over the next decade: over $100 a share aftertax (today's share price is less than $90). I am not assuming 100 percent market share for two reasons: Not everyone will be treated (some people infected are yet to be diagnosed), and there are competitive products on the market from AbbVie and Merck. However, these products, though cheaper, have significant side effects. Unless patients are paying for the medicine out of pocket (a very rare occurrence), their doctors don't care about drug costs and will prescribe the best one available (with fewer side effects), which happens to be Harvoni. Gilead's hep C patents extend to the end of the next decade -- and hep C in developed markets will be cured well before then.

The rest of Gilead's business (about a third) comes from HIV and other drugs. On a standalone basis, without its hep C medicines, these drugs would generate about $3 to $3.50 of earnings per share after all corporate expenses (including R&D), equating to roughly $45 to $50 of value. Gilead has a net cash balance sheet, and it is using its enormous cash flows to buy back stock and pay a dividend.

In 1986, when I was a 13-year-old kid, life was simpler. The world was black-and-white (socialism was good; capitalism was bad). As an adult I began to see and appreciate the complexity of the world. A lot of economic phenomena come in multiple shades of gray, and because of capitalism and risk-taking companies like Gilead, the world is a safer and less scary place.





Vitaliy N. Katsenelson, CFA, is Chief Investment Officer at Investment Management Associates in Denver, Colo. He is the author of Active Value Investing (Wiley) and The Little Book of Sideways Markets (Wiley). His books were translated into eight languages. Forbes Magazine called him "The new Benjamin Graham."

To subscribe to Vitaliy's articles, click here. You can read his articles on ContratianEdge.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.






Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel (Credit: Netflix)

Where the Gilmore Girls lead, we will follow! Its been nine long years since super mother-daughter duo Lorelai and Rory Gilmore drank all the coffee in Stars Hollow, gorged on junk food and Chinese takeout, fell in and out of love, and dropped every pop culture reference imaginable in their rapid-fire banter. Now the Gilmores are back to drink even more coffee, talk even faster, and charm us more than ever in Netflixs continuation of the series, which premieres Nov. 25.

Related: Ken Tucker Reviews Gilmore Girls: A Year in The Life

In four 90-minute episodes, titled Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall, Lorelai (Lauren Graham), Rory (Alexis Bledel), and grandmother Emily (Kelly Bishop) all face big changes in their lives. To get ready for the revival, were highlighting all the things we love about the show with our official Return to Stars Hollow coverage, from the wacky supporting characters to the insanely clever dialogue to the girls complicated love lives. Check back here every day until Nov. 25 to obsess with us over all things Gilmore.

       

Brew up a big batch (or few) of coffee and pull out the doughnuts, candy, pizza, and Chinese food! The Gilmore Girls are back!

The beloved dramedy returns nine years after its broadcast series finale for a six-hour revival on Netflix. And that means more rapid-fire banter, more winking pop cultural references, more zany small-town antics, more romance, more laughter, more tears, and of course  lots more coffee.

Heres everything you need to know about Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life:

When, Where, and How Do I Watch?

All four 90-minute episodes (or as creator Amy Sherman-Palladino prefers to call them, minimovies) will be available to stream on Netflix in the U.S. at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time on Friday, Nov. 25, aka the day after Thanksgiving.

The four episodes are titled Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall (a nod to the shows theme song Where You Lead by Carole King).

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Whos Back for the Revival?

Alexis Bledel, Scott Patterson, Kelly Bishop, and Lauren Graham (Credit: Netflix)

Original series stars Lauren Graham (Lorelai), Alexis Bledel (Rory), Kelly Bishop (Emily), Scott Patterson (Luke), Keiko Agena (Lane), Liza Weil (Paris), David Sutcliffe (Christopher), and Melissa McCarthy (Sookie) all reprise their roles.

All three of Rorys boyfriends are also back: Jared Padalecki as Dean, Milo Ventimiglia as Jess, and Matt Czuchry as Logan.

Milo Ventimiglia and Scott Patterson (Credit: Netflix)

And Stars Hollow will be bursting with the usual lovable townspeople, including: Sean Gunn (Kirk), Yanic Truesdale (Michel), Todd Lowe (Zach), Jackson Douglas (Jackson), Sally Struthers (Babette), Liz Torres (Miss Patty), Michael Winters (Taylor), Emily Kuroda (Mrs. Kim), Sebastian Bach (Gil), Rose Abdoo (Gypsy), Mike Gandolfi (Andrew), Rini Bell (Lulu), Grant-Lee Phillips (Troubadour), and Carole King (Sophie).

Other familiar faces include Danny Strong (Doyle), Gregg Henry (Mitchum Huntzberger), Tanc Sade (Finn), Alan Loayza (Colin), Vanessa Marano (April), Dakin Matthews (Headmaster Charleston), Chris Eigeman (Jason aka Digger), and Paul Anka the dog.

Whos NOT Coming Back?

Make of it what you will, but these cast members will not be returning: Scott Cohen (Max Medina), Kathleen Wilhoite (Liz), Wayne Wilcox (Marty), Devon Sorvari (Honor Huntzberger), and Nicolette Collier (Gigi).

And of course, sadly, the great Edward Herrmann passed away in 2014 and will not be reprising his role as Gilmore patriarch Richard. But he will make an impact on the revival.

Related: 26 of the Greatest Gilmore Girls Guests

Whos New?

The revival features small roles or cameos by Sutton Foster (she starred in Sherman-Palladinos series Bunheads), Mae Whitman (who played Grahams daughter in Parenthood), Christian Borle (Smash), Stacey Oristano (Friday Night Lights), and Dan Bucatinsky (Scandal).

Whats It All About?

The first episode, Winter, picks up four months after Richards death, though it will feature a memorial for him. At that point, all three Gilmore girls  Lorelai, Rory, and Emily  will face major life changes.

Kelly Bishop, Lauren Graham, and Alexis Bledel (Credit: Netflix)

As seen in the trailer, Rory is a journalist, but struggling with her career and living a bit aimlessly. Lorelai is still running the Dragonfly Inn and in a relationship with Luke but seems to be at a crossroads. And Emily is trying to figure out what her life looks like now that Richard is gone.

Whats Lorelais Deal?

As previously mentioned, Lorelai is with Luke, but they arent married  yet. Rumors are flying that the revival features a wedding, but even if true, it might not be for L&L.

The trailer hints that Lorelai undergoes a midlife crisis. We might start to see a whole new Lorelai. In the trailer, shes seen hiking (what?!) and talking to a therapist (whoa!).

I thought I knew exactly what I wanted, and where I was going, but lately, I dont know, things seem hazier, she muses. Uh-oh, does that spell trouble for her relationship with Luke?

Scott Patterson and Lauren Graham (Credit: Netflix)

But one relationship that might improve is the bond with her mother, Emily. As Graham told TV Line, The healing that happens between Lorelai and Emily is such a long time coming. And because Richards absence is such a big part of our story, it really meant a lot to me to grow their relationship a little bit.

Whats the Deal With Rory? And Who Does She End Up With?

Rory is reportedly single and dating, but the inclusion of all three of her exes is eyebrow-raising. She is clearly on friendly terms with Jess in the trailer, but her relationships with Dean and Logan are unknown. It is interesting that quite a few characters tied to Logan  the Life & Death Brigade crowd and his father  will make appearances.

But Rorys journey in A Year in the Life isnt all about romance. Sherman-Palladino insisted to Time, Its a small part of who Rory is. Rory didnt spend her days thinking, Who am I going to end up with? Rory was much more concerned about How do I get that interview at the New York Times?

Alexis Bledel (Credit: Netflix)

Rory is living a nomadic life as she deals with upheaval in the journalism business. She moves back home from New York for a while, joking in a clip shown at EWs Popfest, Lena Dunhams just going to have to get along without me.

Whats Emilys Deal?

Richards death is a huge turning point for Emily, as she puts together the pieces of her life without him.

She has different adventures, some of them are funny, some of them are sad, Bishop told People. Shes just kind of plodding along trying to find herself, how she does it now, what it means.

Alexis Bledel and Kelly Bishop (Credit: Netflix)

Apparently, as seen in the trailer, it means commissioning an oversized portrait of Richard, cleaning house, and wearing jeans  jeans!

Whats Happening in Stars Hollow?

The town is putting on Stars Hollow: The Musical, and guest stars Foster and Borle (both Tony winners) will take part in that.

Liz Torres, Sally Struthers, Alexis Bledel, and Lauren Graham (Credit: Netflix)

There are reportedly two town meetings (one of which is glimpsed in the trailer), and an international food fair (a photo shows Lane and Rory manning a Korean food stall).

Emily Kuroda, Keiko Agena, and Alexis Bledel (Credit: Netflix)

What Are Those Four Words?

Ah, the infamous last four words. Back in 2006, Sherman-Palladino revealed she had long planned the end of Gilmore Girls and that it involved four words. Then, due to contractual issues, she was ousted as showrunner for the seventh and final season. And fans didnt get the four words.

Now, the revival will put a bow on that outstanding issue. Fall will end with those four words. All anyone knows for sure about them is that they are spoken by Lorelai and Rory. Sherman-Palladino has pleaded with fans not to skip ahead to the ending to hear the words, nor spoil them for anyone else online.

Alexis Bledel and Lauren Graham (Credit: Netflix)

I do think that its going to mean a lot more if youve taken the journey, and its going to mean a lot less if you just flip to the last page, Sherman-Palladino told journalists last summer. That being said, what can I do? I would hope that people would want to take the whole trip. Its a fun trip. Its worth it. Theres peanuts.

Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life premieres Nov. 25 on Netflix.
Connecticut police are looking for a man they suspect may have abandoned his 5-year-old daughter in a New York bus terminal after killing the childs mother, according to multiple reports.

Police found the girl on the second-floor concourse of the Port Authority Bus Terminal Monday morning and took her to the police station where they determined that her father allegedly left her in the station, NBC New York reports.

Officials are now looking for 32-year-old Elmer Gomez Ruono, who Stamford police say is seen on surveillance video leaving the bus terminal at 8:30 a.m.  90 minutes before the girl was found at around 10 a.m., NBC reports.

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

The little girl pointed investigators to her Courtland Avenue home in Stamford, where police arrived to find the childs mother dead, Stamford Police Capt. Richard Conklin told the Stamford Advocate.

Officials told reporters that the girl was unharmed and is now in the custody of New York Citys children services.

Conklin said Ruono was seen on the surveillance footage entering the terminal with the little girl; Lt. Tom Barcello told the publication that Ruono is a person of interest in the investigation. Barcello added that the situation is being considered a murder investigation although the womans death has not yet been officially ruled a homicide.

Now, as investigators search for the man, officials are working to piece together the circumstances surrounding the womans death, according to the Advocate.

We know very, very little because they only moved here within the last day or two from New Jersey, Conklin told the publication. We are struggling to come up to speed on this very rapidly.

The girl and her mother had recently moved to Stamford from Flemington, New Jersey, over the weekend, both NBC and WREG reports. Police said the girls parents had recently separated and Ruono is believed to be the girls father.

Police said, Ruono is about five-foot-eight, 140lbs with long black hair, and a medium build and complexion, WREG reports.
A 5-year-old girl who was reportedly abandoned at New Yorks Port Authority Bus Terminal told police where she lived, and that's where they made a tragic discovery.

An officer approached the crying girl Monday morning after commuters told authorities she had been alone for an extended period of time. The child reportedly told them her father had instructed her to wait there until he returned  but he never did.

Read: Husband of Missing Jogger Passes Polygraph: 'No Involvement with the 'Disappearance of His Wife' Cops Say

The girl then told authorities she lived in Connecticut, and when they arrived at her home, they found the childs mother dead in a third floor apartment, police said.

The girls father, and womans husband, Elmer Gomez Ruono, 32, was caught on surveillance at the station with his daughter, and police are now looking for him.

Lt. Tom Barcello told the Stamford Advocate that Ruono is a person of interest and that police are considering it a murder investigation.

Although the identity of the childs mother was not released, it was reported that she was a Guatemalan native in her 30s who had just moved to the apartment with her daughter and Ruono from New Jersey days ago.

Capt. Richard Conklin also told the paper there was some sort of celebration happening at the residence on Sunday night but early Monday, it became a crime scene.

According to police, there were signs of a struggle near the body but the cause of death has not been determined.

Read: 'Hot Car Dad' Found Guilty of Murder After Leaving 22-Month-Old Son in SUV for 7 Hours

We know very, very little because they only moved here within the last day or two from New Jersey, Conklin said. We are struggling to come up to speed on this very rapidly.

Guono is described as 5-foot-8 and about 140 pounds. He has long black hair, with a medium build and medium complexion, police said.

Story continues

Watch: Former Cop on Trial for Murder After Wife's Death Initially Deemed Suicide

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By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has emerged as a leading candidate to be U.S. secretary of state for President-elect Donald Trump, a source familiar with the situation said on Monday.

The source said John Bolton, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, was also under consideration to head the State Department.

Giuliani, 72, was one of Trump's most vocal and high-profile supporters on the campaign trail, introducing him frequently at rallies with slashing attacks against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

He was New York's mayor during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and led the city during the crisis after the destruction of the World Trade Center twin towers, working closely with then-President George W. Bush.

Giuliani was an early supporter of Trump, has been his friend for many years, and defended him vigorously through the various controversies that ensnared the New York businessman.

His rhetoric was notable for repeatedly accusing Clinton of having violated laws through her handling of classified information on a private email server while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.

"If Rudy wants it, he'll get it," former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich told "The Kelly File" on Fox News.

Gingrich, who has also been mentioned as possibly having a role in the Trump administration, said he thought Giuliani might have been interested in being nominated instead as the U.S. attorney general or secretary of homeland security.

However, he said Giuliani would do a fabulous job as Trump's secretary of state.

"He's already known worldwide," Gingrich said.

Bolton, 67, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, was U.N. ambassador to the United Nations from August 2005 to December 2006 during the Bush administration.

Before that he was under secretary of state for arms control and international security. He has frequently provided foreign policy advice to Republican presidential candidates.

Story continues

Trump is working on choosing the people he wants to place in his Cabinet for when he takes over the presidency on Jan. 20.

In a sign that Trump might be getting closer to some decisions, his spokesman Jason Miller said Trump would meet Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who is in charge of Trump's transition effort, at Trump Tower in New York on Tuesday.

Miller said Trump and Pence would be "reviewing a number of names for key jobs."

"If the vice president-elect is getting together with the president-elect to discuss names, then I would say that its serious, obviously," he said.

U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, a possible pick for defense secretary, was seen entering Trump Tower on Monday.

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Paul Tait)
Feminist icon Gloria Steinem joined Annie Leibovitz at a press preview for a new exhibit of the renowned artists photographs in New York City on Tuesday, offering a bit of salve to Hillary Clinton supporters still licking their wounds.

The popular vote  two million more people  voted for Hillary Clinton than voted for Donald Trump, remember that. And its also true that all of the issues that we consider human rights issues have majority support, Steinem told the crowd who had gathered to glimpse WOMEN: New Portraits, commissioned by UBS, during a pop-up exhibit hung in a former womens prison in Manhattan.

But Steinem, who admitted, I am concerned, I am worried, about the Trump administration, also issued a challenge. I think what has been revealed to us is a truth that we must now deal with: Never again is anybody going to say post-feminist or post-racist, because we understand there is something like a third of the country that is still locked into these old hierarchies.

Leibovitz, who has been touring her new collection of images around the country, from Mexico City to Singapore, introduced her exhibit by noting, This is not the way we imagined this week would turn out, but mark my words, this is still a celebration. Its a somber, sobering, emotional celebration. There is much to talk about. Her shows have been staged in spaces that would eventually have another life, including a World War II airport hangar in San Francisco and a historic house in Mexico City. And the former prison, built as a YMCA for sailors in 1931 and serving as the Bayview Correctional Facility for women from the 1970s until 2012, is slated to be transformed into the Womens Building  a space for nonprofits working to improve the lives of women and girls  over the next few years.

Welcome to a place of freedom that was formerly a place of limits and difficulty and discrimination, Steinem said, speaking in the prisons former gymnasium that was filled with Leibovitzs old and new photographs of women including Joan Didion, Sheryl Sandberg, Katie Ledecky, Lena Dunham, Jane Goodall, Patti Smith, Anna Wintour, and Hillary Clinton. This is a very symbolic building and the timing worked in order to have [it be] this enormous symbol of what women can do when they are free.

Lets keep in touch! Follow Yahoo Beauty on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Sheikh al-Islam did not specify which countries are producing missiles, but hinted that Iraq is among those countries, stressing Khomeinis slogan, The road to Jerusalem passes through Karbala. Sheikh al-Islam served as Irans ambassador to Syria be-tween 1998 and 2003, before becoming advisor on Arab affairs, and later on advisor to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Iran deployed a number of missiles at several areas so that Israel wont consider attacking Iran, according to Sheikh al-Islam.

Recently, an agency belonging to the Revolutionary Guard confirmed that Houthis used Iranian-made missiles, during a time when Irans foreign minister denied that Tehran armed Houthis. The Secretary General of the Hezbollah troops confirmed that they obtained weapons, including missiles, directly from Iran.

Manufacturing and producing Iranian missiles is not limited to Syria. It includes areas surrounding Israel, Sheikh al-Islam said and added that Iran has disseminated the technology of missile production in the region, referring to south of Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, and linked transporting missile production outside Iran to the difficulty in moving equipment and spare parts for missiles produced in neighboring countries.

Irans armed Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri said last Thursday, that the mas-termind of the Iranian missile program, Hassan Tehrani, has managed to establish a factory for the production of Iranian missiles in Aleppo. According to Bagheri, e Hez-bollah used some missiles produced in Aleppo during July war in 2006. Bagheri was killed in the bombing of missiles factory in the suburb of Tehran in November 2011.

General Hassan Firouzabadi, former chief of staff, revealed that Iranian armed forces have experimented with the ballistic missile, Imad, according to the orders of Irans Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Firouzabadi told Tasnim news agency that no missiles are tested without the prior approval of the General Commander of the Armed Forces, who is Ali Khamenei, according to Irans constitution. After ballistic missiles are pro-duced, Firouzabadi explained, permission is required from Khamenei to experiment and do maneuvers, and Khamenei decides when to do so.

The White House threatened Tehran with economic sanctions after its second missile maneuver in November 2015, but the sanctions were delayed due to disapproval by Republicans.

In response to the White House, Iranian President Hassan Rohani ordered the de-fense minister to to enhance the missile defense program and increase the produc-tion of rockets. Last July, the United Nations Secretary-General called Irans testsinconsistent with the spirit of the nuclear deal, but he refrained from going so far as to say these experiments represent a breach of Security Council resolution 2231.

Following the nuclear deal, Resolution 2231 was issued by the Security Council. It stated that sanctions would be lifted in exchange for Iran accepting to halt uranium en-richment.

In Iran, the ballistic missile Imad angered the supporters of the nuclear deal, saying the missile tests is an attempt to derail the nuclear deal. Meanwhile, Revolutionary Guards commanders continue to disregard Resolution 2231.

On Sunday, 13 November, Al Arabiya also reported that the advisor to the Iranian for-eign affairs minister, Hussein Sheikh al-Islam, said Iranian missiles are not only manu-factured in Syria but in other countries in the region as well, adding thatIran expanded its missiles production outside its borders due to the increasing Israeli threats in the region.

Without revealing much about the production of the missiles, he said Iraq is one of the countries where they are are produced.

These statements were made just two days after the Iranian chief of staff stated that manufacturing ballistic missiles has been carried out in Aleppo during the past few years.

Although an agency affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards recently acknowledged that Houthi militias have used Iranian missiles, Mohammed Javad Zarif, the Iranian Foreign Minister, has denied these statements.

In the meantime, the Iranian Opposition outside Iran called on the UN Security Council to impose strict sanctions on Mahan Air and confirmed that it is owned by the Revolu-tionary Guards. The opposition said that the airliner transfers weapons, equipment and Revolutionary Guards members to Syria. in what it calls a flagrant violation of the UN Security Council resolutions.
It previously posted a $23m net loss.

Amidst weaker palm product output, Golden Agri-Resources (GAR) managed to deliver better results in 3Q and 9M ending September buoyed by its integrated business model and the appreciation of crude palm oil (CPO) market prices.

For the nine-month period of 2016, revenue of GAR increased to US$5.1b (S$7.21b).

EBITDA and net profit, meanwhile, registered at US$393m (S$555m) and US$353m (S$499m), respectively. It suffered a US$16m (S$23m) net loss during 3Q2015.

Third quarter EBITDA and net profit recovered to US$165m (S233m) and US$220m (S$310m) respectively.

Net profit was also lifted by the deferred tax income arising from the increase in tax depreciable value of its plantation assets. For future tax benefit, GAR revalued some of its plantation assets in Indonesia resulting in substantial deferred tax income contributing to its current bottom line.

The net tax impact recorded from this revaluation was US$242m (S$342m) in the nine-month period of 2016 including US$111m (S$157m) in the third quarter.







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Sundar Pichai

LONDON  Google CEO Sundar Pichai described the recent US election as a "challenging democratic process" that was "deeply divided" in a talk at Google's London office on Tuesday evening.

The comments on the election came after an audience member asked Pichai in a question and answer session what his biggest challenge is.

Pichai said that the election had been an "important moment" for the US, and stressed that it was vital that the country undergoes a "smooth transition" of power and moves beyond the "rhetoric" of the political campaigns.

Pichai spoke in London to announce that Google will begin work on a new UK headquarters in 2018, and it plans to create 3,000 jobs in the UK by 2020.

Google London HQ aerial

Pichai began his talk introducing the office by again mentioning the recent US election, saying that it had highlighted the challenges of inequality and people feeling marginalized. Google couldn't solve those problems on its own, he said, and it will be a "long and difficult" problem to solve.

One audience member asked Pichai about the threat to internet freedom from oppressive governments. Pichai said that "people want to close off parts of the internet". He said that "I wish I could run an A/B test on the world to show how the open and connected way [of using the internet] is far better than the other way."

NOW WATCH: Scientists have discovered why American honey bees are turning into zombies





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Jia Li

Google has poached Snapchat's Jia Li, one of the highest-ranking women at the company as its head of research, to lead its news Google Cloud Machine Learning group.

Li was touted as one of the two new leaders of the group during a press briefing at Google's San Francisco headquarters, according to Danny Sullivan of MarketingLand who posted a picture of the presentation. A Google spokesperson confirmed that Li would be joining the company full-time to co-lead the group with Fei-Fei Li.

At Snapchat (now known as Snap Inc.), Jia Li's research team was charged with developing new ways to innovate and surprise users within the app. For example, in April, the app took emojifying your life one step further when it made it easy to attach an emoji to an object (say a smiley face onto a cat) and then have that emoji stick with it as it moves around.

The moving emojis are just one example of Li's work. She is also well-known for her work in computer vision and had joined Snapchat in early 2015 after spending three years leading the Visual Computing and Learning Group at Yahoo Labs.

Snap Inc. declined to comment on her departure.

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By Cameron French TORONTO (Reuters) - With Blackberry Ltd shedding staff in its hometown of Waterloo, Ontario, other tech companies, including Google Inc's Motorola Mobility unit, are moving to take advantage of a growing pool of local talent. Motorola Mobility said on Thursday it plans to set up a new hub in Waterloo, located about an hour's drive west of Toronto. "We have a small space right now and we're looking to grow considerably," said Derek Phillips, engineering director for Motorola Canada. He declined to specify the number of new hires expected, but said the company was seeking computer science and engineering talent. Google acquired Motorola Mobility last year in a $12.5 billion deal that gave it ownership of a large portfolio of communications patents. It has since moved to revamp the company's money-losing mobile phone business. Google separately has its existing Canadian development headquarters in Waterloo, which boasts an in-office slide. The company is one of hundreds of tech players with a presence the city, attracted in part by graduates of the University of Waterloo's highly ranked computer science, engineering and technology programs. The vast majority of local technology companies are small startups looking to make a splash such as the one BlackBerry, then called Research in Motion, made after it pioneered pocket email in the 1990s. But times have changed for BlackBerry, which said on Friday that it would cut about 4,500 workers, more than a third of its global workforce, and post a quarterly loss of nearly $1 billion. The job cuts are expected to strike a blow to the city and regional economy, given the knock-on-effect on retailers, the property market and local service providers. The latest layoffs follow other cuts over the past three years as Blackberry bled market share to competitors such as Apple Inc and phones that use Google's Android operating system. On Monday, BlackBerry said it agreed to sell itself for $4.7 billion to a consortium led by its biggest shareholder, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. It is unclear if the sale, if it goes through, will result in further job cuts. START UPS HIRING Phillips did not link Motorola's expansion to BlackBerry's troubles, but said the local talent pool was key to the area's appeal. "The goal is to try to get just as many people who are interested to come out and hire as many people as we can. I think as long as we can find really good people, we will find a way to hire them," he said. The hiring is not expected to come close to replacing the hole left by the BlackBerry cuts. But members of the local technology community noted that Motorola is not the only one looking to expand in the region. Mobile payments company Square Inc plans to establish a permanent office in the area in 2014, spokeswoman Lindsay Wiese told Reuters. Avvey Peters, head of external relations at Communitech, a non-profit that bills itself as a regional hub for the tech sector, said she knew of about 1,000 job vacancies in the industry. She estimates the sector employs about 30,000 people. "Certainly everybody's watching. Everybody's feeling for individuals who either have been laid off or are going to be," she added. "The local ecosystem created BlackBerry, not the other way around." (Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson. and Andre Grenon)
(Recasts to reflect new measures by Facebook)

By Julia Love and Kristina Cooke

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's Google and Facebook Inc on Monday announced measures aimed at halting the spread of "fake news" on the internet by targeting how some purveyors of phony content make money: advertising.

Google said it is working on a policy change to prevent websites that misrepresent content from using its AdSense advertising network, while Facebook updated its advertising policies to spell out that its ban on deceptive and misleading content applies to fake news.

The shifts comes as Google, Facebook and Twitter Inc face a backlash over the role they played in the U.S. presidential election by allowing the spread of false and often malicious information that might have swayed voters toward Republican candidate Donald Trump.

The issue has provoked a fierce debate within Facebook especially, with Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg insisting twice in recent days that the site had no role in influencing the election.

Facebook's steps are limited to its ad policies, and do not target fake news sites shared by users on their news feeds.

"We do not integrate or display ads in apps or sites containing content that is illegal, misleading or deceptive, which includes fake news," Facebook said in a statement, adding that it will continue to vet publishers to ensure compliance.

Google's move similarly does not address the issue of fake news or hoaxes appearing in Google search results. That happened in the last few days, when a search for 'final election count' for a time took users to a fake news story saying Trump won the popular vote. Votes are still being counted, with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton showing a slight lead.

Nor does Google suggest that the company has moved to a mechanism for rating the accuracy of particular articles.

Rather, the change is aimed at assuring that publishers on the network are legitimate and eliminating financial incentives that appear to have driven the production of much fake news.

Story continues

"Moving forward, we will restrict ad serving on pages that misrepresent, misstate, or conceal information about the publisher, the publisher's content, or the primary purpose of the web property," Google said in a statement.

The company did not detail how it would implement or enforce the new policy.

MACEDONIA NEWS

AdSense, which allows advertisers to place text ads on the millions of websites that are part of Google's network, is a major source of money for many publishers.

A report in BuzzFeed News last month showed how tiny publishers in Macedonia were creating websites with fake news - much of it denigrating Clinton - which were widely shared on Facebook.

That sharing in turn led people to click on links which brought them to the Macedonian websites, which could then make money on the traffic via Google's AdSense.

Facebook has been widely blamed for allowing the spread of online misinformation, most of it pro-Trump, but Zuckerberg has rejected the notion that Facebook influenced the outcome of the election or that fake news is a major problem on the service.

"Of all the content on Facebook, more than 99 percent of what people see is authentic," he wrote in a blog post on Saturday. "Only a very small amount is fake news and hoaxes."

Google has long had rules for its AdSense program, barring ads from appearing next to pornography or violent content. Work on the policy update announced on Monday began before the election, a Google spokeswoman said.

The company uses a combination of humans and artificial intelligence to review sites that apply to be a part of AdSense, and sites continue to be monitored after they are accepted, a former Google employee who worked on ad systems said. Google's artificial intelligence systems learn from sites that have been removed from the program, speeding the removal of similar sites.

The issue of fake news is critical for Google from a business standpoint, as many advertisers do not want their brands to be touted alongside dubious content. Google must constantly hone its systems to try to stay one step ahead of unscrupulous publishers, the former employee said.

Google has not said whether it believes its search algorithms, or its separate system for ranking results in the Google News service, also need to be modified to cope with the fake news issue.

Fil Menczer, a professor of informatics and computing at Indiana University who has studied the spread of misinformation on social media, said Google's move with AdSense was a positive step.

"One of the incentives for a good portion of fake news is money," he said. "This could cut the income that creates the incentive to create the fake news sites."

However, he cautioned that detecting fake news sites was not easy. "What if it is a site with some real information and some fake news? It requires specialized knowledge and having humans (do it) doesn't scale," he said.

(Reporting by Julia Love and Kristina Cooke; Editing by Jonathan Weber, Bill Rigby and Edwina Gibbs)
By Julia Love and Kristina Cooke SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's Google and Facebook Inc on Monday announced measures aimed at halting the spread of "fake news" on the internet by targeting how some purveyors of phony content make money: advertising. Google said it is working on a policy change to prevent websites that misrepresent content from using its AdSense advertising network, while Facebook updated its advertising policies to spell out that its ban on deceptive and misleading content applies to fake news. The shifts comes as Google, Facebook and Twitter Inc face a backlash over the role they played in the U.S. presidential election by allowing the spread of false and often malicious information that might have swayed voters toward Republican candidate Donald Trump. The issue has provoked a fierce debate within Facebook especially, with Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg insisting twice in recent days that the site had no role in influencing the election. Facebook's steps are limited to its ad policies, and do not target fake news sites shared by users on their news feeds. "We do not integrate or display ads in apps or sites containing content that is illegal, misleading or deceptive, which includes fake news," Facebook said in a statement, adding that it will continue to vet publishers to ensure compliance. Google's move similarly does not address the issue of fake news or hoaxes appearing in Google search results. That happened in the last few days, when a search for 'final election count' for a time took users to a fake news story saying Trump won the popular vote. Votes are still being counted, with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton showing a slight lead. Nor does Google suggest that the company has moved to a mechanism for rating the accuracy of particular articles. Rather, the change is aimed at assuring that publishers on the network are legitimate and eliminating financial incentives that appear to have driven the production of much fake news. "Moving forward, we will restrict ad serving on pages that misrepresent, misstate, or conceal information about the publisher, the publisher's content, or the primary purpose of the web property," Google said in a statement. The company did not detail how it would implement or enforce the new policy. MACEDONIA NEWS AdSense, which allows advertisers to place text ads on the millions of websites that are part of Google's network, is a major source of money for many publishers. A report in BuzzFeed News last month showed how tiny publishers in Macedonia were creating websites with fake news - much of it denigrating Clinton - which were widely shared on Facebook. That sharing in turn led people to click on links which brought them to the Macedonian websites, which could then make money on the traffic via Google's AdSense. Facebook has been widely blamed for allowing the spread of online misinformation, most of it pro-Trump, but Zuckerberg has rejected the notion that Facebook influenced the outcome of the election or that fake news is a major problem on the service. "Of all the content on Facebook, more than 99 percent of what people see is authentic," he wrote in a blog post on Saturday. "Only a very small amount is fake news and hoaxes." Google has long had rules for its AdSense program, barring ads from appearing next to pornography or violent content. Work on the policy update announced on Monday began before the election, a Google spokeswoman said. The company uses a combination of humans and artificial intelligence to review sites that apply to be a part of AdSense, and sites continue to be monitored after they are accepted, a former Google employee who worked on ad systems said. Google's artificial intelligence systems learn from sites that have been removed from the program, speeding the removal of similar sites. The issue of fake news is critical for Google from a business standpoint, as many advertisers do not want their brands to be touted alongside dubious content. Google must constantly hone its systems to try to stay one step ahead of unscrupulous publishers, the former employee said. Google has not said whether it believes its search algorithms, or its separate system for ranking results in the Google News service, also need to be modified to cope with the fake news issue. Fil Menczer, a professor of informatics and computing at Indiana University who has studied the spread of misinformation on social media, said Google's move with AdSense was a positive step. "One of the incentives for a good portion of fake news is money," he said. "This could cut the income that creates the incentive to create the fake news sites." However, he cautioned that detecting fake news sites was not easy. "What if it is a site with some real information and some fake news? It requires specialized knowledge and having humans (do it) doesn't scale," he said. (Reporting by Julia Love and Kristina Cooke; Editing by Jonathan Weber, Bill Rigby and Edwina Gibbs)
US Ad Blockers

This story was delivered to BI Intelligence "Digital Media Briefing" subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here.

Open-source web browsers Opera and Brave may boast built-in ad blocking capabilities, but Google Chrome won't be following suit.

Darin Fisher, vice president of Chrome engineering, told CNET last week that Google is instead focused on helping publishers and advertisers create ads that supplement  rather than detract from  the browsing experience.

A native ad blocker for Chrome would cut against Google's business interests. Alphabet, Google's parent, generated $19.8 billion in advertising revenue in Q3 2016, accounting for 88% of the companys total. And since Chrome commanded 55% of the browser market in October, introducing giving its users a seamless way to block ads would only serve to inhibit the company's own top-line growth.

Instead, Google is leading the Coalition for Better Ads to rid the web of bad ads. Advertising trade associations, advertisers, publishers and agency groups have joined the coalition in a bid to create and implement standards for user-friendly ads, and drive awareness for these standards throughout the internet media industry. Two out of three 18- to 24-year-old US internet consumers use ad blockers, according to a recent report by Anatomy.

As suggested above, some of Chrome's competitors are going the other direction:

Opera built an ad blocker into its web browser. This browser accounts for 1.38% of all browsers as of last month, based on Net Applications statistics. The companys decision to integrate an ad blocker into its browser would be comparable to Google Chrome doing the same, albeit on a smaller scale, since Opera also earns most of its revenue from ads.

Brave automatically blocks ads and trackers. The browser was cofounded by ex-Mozilla CEO and JavaScript creator Brendan Eich. It comes with a built-in Bitcoin-based micropayments system, and encourages users make small payments to websites on a monthly basis. The company closed a $4.5 million round in August.

Story continues

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 President Obama is ignoring Irans latest violations, and the UN and IAEA reports as well.

In fact, the administration, and State Department spokesman Mark Toner, are defending Iran on this issue, and appear willing to give critical concessions to Iran in the next round of talks in Baghdad this week.

In other words, Iranian leaders would be capable of more freely continuing their nuclear ambition without probing from the IAEA or the international community.

Iran has not yet allowed the IAEA probes of various high-profile Iranian sites. The International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano is investigating whether Tehran has secretly worked on developing nuclear weapons.

Although the nuclear agreement heavily favors Iran and the main UN Security Council sanctions against Iran have already been lifted, Tehran continues to cheat and violate the terms of this weak nuclear pact.

Turning a blind eye to Irans violations will only further empower and embolden Tehran to pursue its nuclear and hegemonic ambitions; ignore UN resolutions and international laws; scuttle US foreign policy objectives, and damage security interests.

One of the terms of the JCPOA accord,which Iran never signed, and so never had any legal legitimacy, is that Iran should restrict the amount of specific nuclear materials it possesses during the nuclear deal.

As reported by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran violated the nuclear deal by holding more heavy water than it is supposed to have. Heavy water is used to produce nuclear weapons.

This is the second time Iran violated the terms with no consequences. In February 2016, it exceeded its threshold for heavy water. In a previous article, other violations and reports of Irans recent cheating and breaches of the nuclear agreement are laid out, Dr. Rafizadeh, says.

U.S. President Barack Obama is ignoring the latest violations, and the UN and IAEA reports. In fact, State Department spokesman Mark Toner, is defending Iran on this issue, saying that Iran didnt try to hide the fact, and Is offloading the surplus soon. Dr. Rafizadeh says they appear willing to give critical concessions to Iran in the next round of talks in Baghdad this week.

Meanwhile, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano is investigating whether Tehran has secretly worked on developing nuclear weapons.

The head of the UN nuclear agency, Amano, pointed out that I really think this is the right time to reach agreement. However, the IAEA and President Obama appear more than willing to close this investigation.

But, closing the investigation means that there would be no monitoring of Irans nuclear research and development, or of Irans nuclear facilities, which have long been suspected of being used to develop nuclear weapons. In other words, Iranian leaders would be capable of more freely continuing their nuclear ambitions without probing from the IAEA or the international community, says Dr. Rafizadeh.

Dr. Rafizadeh says that The closure of this case will also strengthen the hold on power of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the senior cadre of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Irans intelligence agencies, and that, This is all happening while Iran has not yet allowed the IAEA probes of various high-profile Iranian sites, including the Parchin military complex southeast of Tehran, where the agency believes Iran in 2003 ran explosive tests needed to set off a nuclear charge. The suspected blasts took place inside a pressure chamber. Iran has never said whether the chamber existed, but describes Parchin as a conventional military site. Iran, however, has blocked IAEA inspection requests for more than four years. A deal on Parchin could give Iran some leverage going into the Baghdad talks.

In addition, Dr. Rafizadeh worries that the success of this mission in closing the investigation means that Irans position will be significantly strengthened against the six world powers (known as P5+1: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States; plus Germany) in the next round of meetings, in Baghdad.

Irans top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, said after arriving in Baghdad late Monday, We had an agreement in Istanbul. That is the basis for the beginning of a new cooperation. We hope that the talks in Baghdad will be a kind of dialogue that will give shape to such cooperation.

Such an agreement means that despite Irans significant clandestine nuclear activities and violations, the world powers would be announcing the nonsense that Irans nuclear program is officially a civilian, not a military one, and that Irans nuclear program is built for supplying power and medical applications, not developing nuclear weapons, writes Dr. Rafizadeh, and further, More importantly, it is unfathomable that despite significant evidence of Irans clandestine activities over the last decade, and despite many revelations of Irans secret nuclear activities which were not detected by the IAEA, the IAEA and world powers, in addition to giving more concessions to Tehran, appear willing to reach a fictional agreement that Iran never even desired to develop nuclear weapons.

An agreement in Baghdad means the remaining sanctions on some sectors of Irans oil industry and Iranian high-level officials will be lifted. This allows Iran to easily to use the international banking system and there will be no restrictions on, or investigations of, Irans high-profile officials who are (or were) engaged in nuclear or non-nuclear violations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned against concessions, saying that the P5+1 should make clear and unequivocal demands that Iran halt all of its nuclear activities. Speaking at a conference in Jerusalem, he added, Iran wants to destroy Israel and it is developing nuclear weapons to fulfill that goal Against this malicious intention, leading world powers need to display determination and not weakness. They should not make any concessions to Iran.

Dr. Rafizadeh warns, Although the nuclear agreement heavily favors Iran, and the main UN Security Council sanctions against Iran have already been lifted, Tehran continues to cheat and violate the terms of this weak nuclear pact. Turning a blind eye  by President Obama and other organizations and powers  to Irans violations will only further empower and embolden Tehran and its Revolutionary Guards to pursue their nuclear and hegemonic ambitions; ignore UN resolutions and international laws; scuttle US foreign policy objectives, and damage security interests.
ATHENS (Reuters) - Riot police fired teargas on Tuesday at protesters demonstrating just a few kilometers (miles) from the presidential mansion where Greek leaders were hosting a state banquet for visiting U.S. President Barack Obama. About 7,000 people, among them many hooded protesters and members of the Communist-affiliated group PAME, marched through the streets of central Athens holding banners reading "Unwanted!" The police clashed with the protesters after they tried to break through cordon lines to reach the parliament building and the U.S. embassy. Some demonstrators threw two petrol bombs at police before dispersing into nearby streets close to Athens's main Syntagma Square. In a separate protest in the northern city of Thessaloniki, protesters burned a U.S. flag. The visit comes only two days before the anniversary of a bloody 1973 student revolt that helped topple the 1967-1974 military junta which was backed by the U.S. government. Obama, who will be succeeded in January by Donald Trump, arrived in Greece on Tuesday on his last foreign tour as president of the United States. (Reporting by Renee Maltezou; Editing by Gareth Jones)
(Reuters) - A new species of frog, whose groin flashes orange to scare away predators, has been discovered in Australia. When biologist Simon Clulow spotted the frog's unusual marble pattern on its belly, he knew it could be a previously unknown species, a find made all the more unusual as it was not in a remote habitat but on land close to an airport. "Nowadays many new discoveries are based primarily on genetics, that is, the frogs look similar to other known species but when we analyze them in the lab we find they differ genetically," said Clulow, of the University of Newcastle, Australia. "It's almost unheard-of to pick up a vertebrate in the field and know instantly, based on appearance alone, that it is a new species." The species, found at Oyster Cove near Newcastle Airport in New South Wales, has been dubbed uperoleia mahonyi, or "Mahony's Toadlet", in honor of Clulow's mentor, frog expert and conservationist Professor Michael Mahony. Although a frog rather than a toad, the word "toadlet" was added because the glands on its back look like those found on some toads in Europe and the Americas. "They are highly secretive. Individuals remain well camouflaged and hidden under grass, leaves and sand," Clulow said, adding that the best way to find them is by following their mating call, an audible "squelch" of less than a second. When confronted by predators, the frog extends its legs and flashes its orange groin, which Clulow believes briefly startles predators, allowing it to escape. His findings, with co-authors, is published in peer-reviewed journal Zootaxa. (Reporting by Reuters Television; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
The US election has transformed a farewell presidential visit from a chance for cautious optimism into a trip that is full of foreboding and uncertainty

Barack Obamas three-day visit to Europe this week, the last of his presidency, is inevitably overshadowed by the capture of the White House by the man whose victory he tried but failed to prevent. Donald Trumps values, or lack of them, are in stark contrast to those that have tied the two continents since 1945. His campaign pledges have shaken Europes confidence to the core. His victory has turned a trip that was originally intended to showcase Mr Obamas foreign policy legacy into a US damage limitation exercise.

The choice of a first stop in Greece, birthplace of democracy, was originally intended to convey strong symbolism, as well as to express support for the kind of debt relief that Alexis Tsiprass government has long been asking for. Mr Obamas aides have indicated that Wednesdays speech in Athens will focus on democratic governance and the need for more inclusive growth in the face of globalisation and its inequalities. The president may now have to add a new section about the challenges that confront American democracy too.

That Mr Trumps first contact with a foreign politician was with Nigel Farage has not calmed European fears. Mr Obama will not be meeting any of the continents far-right politicians who, like Mr Farage, have applauded the rise of Mr Trump as a vindication of their own views. But the threat from leaders like Hungarys Viktor Orban or challengers like Frances Marine Le Pen looms over this visit nevertheless. Mr Obama is determined to calm Europes tendency to panic and adopt separate approaches to common problems. In Berlin, after talks with Chancellor Merkel  whom he has called my closest partner in the past eight years  he will meet Theresa May, Francois Hollande, Italys prime minister Matteo Renzi, and Spains Mariano Rajoy. Much is required of all of them at such a serious moment.

Mr Obama has come to argue that there will be more continuity than disruption in the US-Europe relationship. From his first conversation with Mr Trump, he has drawn the conclusion that his successor has great interest in maintaining our core strategic relationships and that there will be no weakening of US resolve in upholding alliances that are vital. So far, however, Mr Trump has not quite said as much himself, in public at least. There are far more questions than answers about the evolution of US foreign policy. These uncertainties are felt acutely in Europe, not least because of Russias new assertiveness and the glee with which it has welcomed Mr Trumps election.

Speculation that the transatlantic community is on the verge of destruction may be exaggerated. But Mr Obama will need more than eloquence to reassure Europeans. It was a striking coincidence that, as Air Force One landed in Greece on Tuesday, news came of Russias intensified offensive in Syria. Greece is the country to which thousands of Syrians escaped in 2015, an event that upended European politics and has shaken its institutions, not least in the Brexit vote.

Mr Obamas messages this week about democracy and the need for a strong, integrated and united Europe are necessary and serious. They echo the speech he gave earlier this year in Hanover. You can be confident that your greatest ally and friend, the United States of America, stands with you, shoulder to shoulder, now and for ever, he said then. But it is Mr Trump who will dispose now, not Mr Obama.

Europes problems are many, complex and evolving. Some have been caused by external shocks. Others are self-inflicted, not least in Greece. Mr Obama is right to highlight that finding a path to economic growth remains vital, and Greece is a good place to say it. But the words he confidently pronounced in April about the bond between America and the people of Europe now seem fragile and contingent. Mr Obamas grace cannot disguise the fact that this farewell tour to Europe carries with it more foreboding than optimism.
Paris (AFP) - Notoriously obsessive taskmaster Pep Guardiola got the most out of Lionel Messi when they were together at Barcelona by banning the world's best player from having sex after midnight.

That was the claim by Samir Nasri, who was shipped off by the now Manchester City boss on loan to Sevilla for allegedly being overweight.

Nasri, who is now flourishing in Spain, revealed just how far Guardiola goes to get his players in peak condition for a match.

"He tells his players that if they want to have sex, keep it before midnight because you need a good night's sleep," the City outcast told French television channel L'Equipe.

"He claims he said it to Messi and that after that he didn't get injured anymore," the former France international said.

"(Robert) Lewandowski was on the bench (at Bayern) and he was made to understand too."
From Popular Mechanics

You'd be forgiven if you've never heard of Liberland. Until 2015, the country didn't exist. In fact, the 2.7-square mile patch of land that now makes up Liberland was owned by no one as a result of weird border swapping between Croatia and Serbia after the Yugoslav civil war in the 90s. That is until president Vit Jedlicka planted a flag on the unclaimed territory. But despite this bold gesture of independence, Jedlicka has one big problem-he can't enter his own country.

According to the BBC, Jedlicka wants Liberland to be a utopia for Libertarians. With no gun control, no compulsory taxes, and a currency based completely on Bitcoin, it's the sort of micro-government that Croatia and Serbia would rather not have in their backyard. As the BBC reports, Croatia began arresting anyone trying to enter the borders defining Liberland and Jedlicka was prevented from entering Croatia and his self-proclaimed country.

Although Jedlicka's idea for a free state in the Balkans feels somewhat farfetched, he believes that such a nation could economically stimulate the depressed region. Jedlicka also has no shortage of potential future citizens. Having already received 250,000 applicants, the country even has a written constitution available to read on its website.

Of course, Liberland could be a short-lived dream. If Croatia and Serbia eventually resolve their border disputes, Liberland will have to evacuate the Danube entirely.

Be sure to read the whole story of this up-and-coming micro-state over at the BBC.

Source: BBC

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PARIS (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will have little choice but to adopt a softer line on trade than the one he has flagged during his campaign, although flare-ups with some partners are likely, former WTO chief Pascal Lamy said.

With financial markets wondering whether Britain will opt for a hard or soft Brexit, Lamy said that there was a similar scenario for trade under a Trump presidency.

"If I look at Trump and trade, the big question is whether soft Trump or hard Trump. I think there are elements on both sides," Lamy, who headed the World Trade Organisation from 2005 to 2013, told Reuters in an interview.

"Overall if I had to bet I would bet more on soft Trump," he added, noting that stock market gains since Trump's election suggested investors were making a similar calculation.

Lamy, now an honorary president of the pro-EU Delors Institute, said in an interview that a Republican-dominated Congress would help ensure the Trump administration would not do anything bad for U.S. companies.

"And what he said he would do during the campaign would definitely hurt business" given U.S. firms' reliance on global supply chains, he said.

During the raucous campaign, Trump fueled concerns among many of the United States' trading partners with promises to roll back the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and hike tariffs on Chinese goods.

Lamy said that in reality there was little room for maneuver on U.S. tariffs as they were already at the upper limits of ceilings allowed by WTO rules, as is the case for many developed countries.

While Washington could take the "nuclear option" of leaving the WTO, Lamy said that was unlikely because the United States' trade partners would then be free to slap any tariff they pleased on U.S. exports.

Under the soft Trump scenario, Washington was more likely to use measures like the anti-dumping duties that are allowed under WTO rules, Lamy said.

"My expectation with soft Trump is for more trade defense, at least for the moment, testing the limits of WTO rules and then well see whether there is litigation and disputes in the WTO in one year or two years from now," he said.

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As for NAFTA, Lamy said that the 1994 free-trade agreement was probably ripe for a review anyway and that some tweaking may be in order.

While there was no prospect for short-term progress on already stalled free-trade talks between the United States and the European Union, the issue would inevitably come back in the long term, albeit perhaps in a different form, Lamy said.

(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Andrew Callus and Hugh Lawson)
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid delivered a scathing rebuke of Donald Trump on the Senate floor Tuesday. In his speech, Reid accused Trump of inspiring a surge in racially motivated harassment and slammed the president-elect for naming an incendiary media figure his top adviser.

Reid called upon Trump to rescind his appointment of Steve Bannon, the controversial former Breitbart News executive whom Reid said is a champion of racial division. Bannons presence, a mere step from the Oval Office, would make it impossible to take Trumps efforts to heal the U.S. seriously, Reid said.

I say to Donald Trump, take responsibility, rise to the dignity of the office  the president of the United States  instead of hiding behind your Twitter account, and show America that racism, bullying and bigotry have no place in the White House or America, the outgoing Nevada senator said on the Senate floor.

Reid said he has never seen anything like this moment in his five decades in American politics, and pointed to the fact that Trump lost the popular vote to Clinton despite winning the Electoral College.

His election sparked a wave of hate crimes across America. This is a simple statement of fact. But it raises a critical question for us as a country, as a nation: How do we respond to the election of Donald Trump? Reid asked.

Reid also released a biting statement Friday criticizing Trump as a sexual predator, among other things. The comments drew a strong response from Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, calling them an absolute embarrassment. On Tuesday, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, gave his own floor speech following Reids, blasting the Democratic leaders tirade.

Surely hes entitled to his opinion, but he does nothing to contribute to the healing of our country after a very polarizing, hotly contested election by continuing to pile on the president-elect and his team, Cornyn said, according to RealClearPolitics.

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For his part, Reid said Democrats would take a pragmatic approach to working with Trump. He cited Trumps plan to rebuild deteriorated infrastructure as a place of potential bipartisan cooperation.

But he argued that Democrats also have the responsibility to represent millions of Americans who now feel unwelcome in Trumps United States. He said that Trumps aggressive behavior and boasting about sexual misconduct should not be normalized for young people.

We have a responsibility to say that it is not normal for the KKK, the Ku Klux Klan, to celebrate the election of a president they view as a champion with a victory parade, Reid said. They have one scheduled.

Outside the Senate chamber, he said, workers could be heard building the platform upon which Trump will stand on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, when he will wield the most powerful microphone in the world.

In his Senate speech, Reid told stories about people he said were affected by the rise in discrimination incited by Trumps presidential bid. He pointed to his Pakistani-American physician of Muslim faith, as well as Latino and African-American schoolchildren who have dealt with racist bullying in the past week.

Many of our fellow Americans believe that Trumps election validates the kind of bullying, aggressive behavior Trump modeled on a daily basis, he said. How do we teach our children that bragging about sexual assault is abhorrent, if we rush into the arms of a man who dismisses it as locker room talk?

Reid said the bulk of the responsibility for making Americans feel welcome lies at the feet of the very man who has inspired their fears in the first place, but that his actions have only deepened, rather than healed, these wounds. He then turned to Bannon.

In his first official act, he appointed a man seen as a champion of white supremacy to the No. 1 strategist in the White House, Reid said.

Quoting CNN, he said that white nationalist leaders, including former KKK imperial wizard David Duke, are praising Trump for hiring Bannon as his chief strategist. Reid also brought up court documents in which Bannon is reported to have made flagrantly anti-Semitic statements.

By placing a champion of white supremacists a step away from the Oval Office, what message does Trump send to the young girl who woke up Wednesday morning in Rhode Island afraid to be a woman of color in America? Its not a message of healing. If Trump is serious about seeking unity, the first thing he should do is rescind his appointment of Steve Bannon.
Last week, the second-place finisher in the presidential election won the White House, for the fifth time in 58 tries. One obvious response is that the undemocratic Electoral College massively distorts voter preferences and should be abolished. I agree; Ive supported the National Popular Vote for many years, a state compact that would make the candidate with the most support president every time. But Lady Gagas efforts notwithstanding, reforms to the Electoral College are unlikely, simply because it got Donald Trump elected, and his party controls legislating in Congress and most states.

So we should try to understand how this deviation occurred between the will of the people and the outcome of the election. While there are many theories, one doesnt get discussed enough in our political or cultural debates. Its known as regional inequality.

Related: Is the Country on the Wrong Track? Why That's a Stupid Question

This election was a unique event, even among Electoral College catastrophes. In 1824, Andrew Jackson led John Quincy Adams in both the popular vote and Electoral College; a corrupt bargain installed Adams because neither candidate won a majority of electoral votes. In 1876 and 2000, the Electoral College margin was razor thin and contested through recounts.

Even 1888, an election with a seemingly wide disparity between the Electoral College and the popular vote, wasnt that far off. Benjamin Harrison won New Yorks 36 electoral votes and Indianas 15 electoral votes by less than 1 percent as part of a 233-168 victory (even though Grover Cleveland received 94,350 more popular votes out of 11.3 million cast). Moving 7,500 New York votes from Harrison to Cleveland would have given the Democrat the win.

This years margins were bigger. As of this weekend, Hillary Clinton has collected 630,000 more votes than Trump, but lost the Electoral College in a relative landslide (Michigan and New Hampshire have not been called, but if they follow current trends, Trump will win 306-232). With millions more votes to be counted, a majority of them in coastal states Clinton won, the popular vote lead is likely to grow, and the difference made even larger.

Story continues

Related: So You Voted  Now Heres How You Really Change America

Trump relied on a series of razor-thin victories in large Rust Belt states  Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania  all of which had margins of around 1 percent. He also engineered Republican pickups in Ohio and Iowa, and almost took Minnesota. This regional strength accounts for the Electoral College/popular vote split.

You could explain this with an 1888-style racial theory. Back then, Grover Cleveland won almost all his electoral votes in the solid Democratic South, an expected consequence shortly after the Civil War and Reconstruction. Similarly, last week whiter Midwest counties broke for a candidate who demonized various ethnicities and attracted white supremacists. Or you can explain Trumps win by looking at distressed factory towns with scant opportunity that swung to him.

But regional inequality actually combines both theories. As Phillip Longman described last year in a brilliant article, since the 1980s, a few areas have been pulling away from their counterparts. Places like Washington, New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles have generated much higher incomes per capita than everyone else. Not only do most large U.S. corporations call these cities home, but its also where most economic dynamism takes place.

Related: 4 Reasons Trumps Economic Policies Would Be a Disaster

Younger firms (around for less than five years) have been consistently in decline since the 1980s. A wave of mergers put corporations that were once pillars of Midwest communities under the control of big conglomerates on the coasts. Banks are dominated by a few mega-corporations instead of locally controlled. Chain stores far outnumber small, local retail businesses. Successful high-tech firms, driven by patent monopolies, cluster in a few hubs that have the talent needed for their staffs. Venture capital-funded startups, a remaining source of innovation, are heavily concentrated in big cities; over three-quarters are located in one of the nations 10 largest metro areas. One reason: Young entrepreneurs want to be close to the mega-firms that might eventually buy them out.

Through market concentration, money flows from one area of the country to the other. We see that in statistics showing that inequality between firms has soared; the victors are getting all the spoils, and they all live together.

Low geographic mobility means that populations lag behind in flowing to where these new jobs are located. So Michigan and Pennsylvania and Ohio retain most of their electoral votes, but for most residents the wealth has evaporated. Service-sector workers there have jobs, but the real profits go elsewhere, to executives and investors.

Related: Five Things Trump Wants to Do That Liberals Would Love

Because of this, not everyone in the country experiences the economy the same way. You can throw out statistics showing aggregate gains in income and employment, but they are much more strongly felt in the few regions doing well than the ones falling behind. Indeed, Clinton did well where the economy is prospering and the legacy of the Obama economy is strong, while Trump gained in areas with weaker job growth and lower average earnings, and where jobs are under the greatest threat of outsourcing.

These wealthy metro regions are strongly correlated with multiculturalism, also a function of regional inequality. An economically booming area with available jobs is simply more attractive to a recent immigrant. Whiter regions in decay, without proximity to many immigrants, have angry residents willing to believe that the help their areas need flows instead to undocumented workers. Its not true, but its a salve in a time of despair. Witness the strength of Trumps support in areas that have the fewest undocumented workers. Racism can flourish in towns in decay.

Thirty-five years of utter failure to rein in concentrated corporate power has created a few winners and lots of losers, and left communities on the outside desperate to vote for any help, whether that message comes from the left or the right. These trends have simmered since 1980, and the Great Recession confirmed them. Its not just economics; these regions feel powerless and forgotten socially because monopolies are in control. Until we get more regional balance to our economy and our culture, the Electoral College will always shift toward the change agent, regardless of who more Americans vote for.

Related: Tough Reality Check for Trump's Pledge of Better Heartland Jobs

Having pinpointed the problem, its obviously much harder to fix. Like everything else, Trump hasnt fully explained his antitrust policy. He promised to block the AT&T/Time Warner merger and investigate Amazon, but that was likely tied up in personal animus for the press (Time Warner owns CNN, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post). And the legion of conservative lobbyists running Trumps transition may have no problem with further consolidation. His top hire on tech policy used to work for Verizon, the telecom giant.

If Trump wanted to follow through on restoring the industrial Midwest, hed probably have to break the monopoly power concentrated on the coasts. Over time that would smooth economic performance across the country and make depressed areas more hospitable to everyone regardless of race. So keeping that promise might actually make impossible the likelihood that a Trump could ever win the Electoral College again.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
From Esquire

Well, now this is interesting. From The Street:

At the group's inaugural meeting, the Muslim and Jewish participants met for two hours to get to know one another, discuss the Council's mission, and identify and agree on a domestic policy agenda. Among the Council's initial action items are: The Council will highlight the contributions of Muslims and Jews to American society, and aim to celebrate their contributions in the best traditions of American democracy; the Council will develop a coordinated strategy to address anti-Muslim bigotry and anti-Semitism in the U.S; the Council will work to protect and expand the rights of religious minorities in the U.S., as enshrined in the Constitution, so they may practice their faiths in full freedom and security.

I may be overthinking this, but it sounds to me like folks are getting D'd up against the possibility of a very, ahem, raucous period in our history. I find this very encouraging. You take that where you can find it these days.

Click here to respond to this post on the official Esquire Politics Facebook page.

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From Esquire

Sunday night, Donald Trump gave his first official interview since becoming president-elect of the United States. As he said across from Lesley Stahl, it seemed he had cooled his boiling blood, enjoyed a somber moment of reflection, and realized he might actually have to make a few decisions regarding this country's future. Who knew.

In the interview, the two covered social issues like gay marriage and abortion rights. Understandably, it's difficult to track where the president-elect stands on such issues. He might not even know himself. But here's a guide, the best we know:

Gay Marriage

Trump is "fine" with gay marriage, calling his opinion "irrelevant." As far as he's concerned, 2015's Supreme Court ruling "settled" the issue. On other LGBT issues he's a"friend of the gay community," taking no stance. Trump's VP, Mike Pence, advocated for gay conversion therapy.

Abortion Rights

Trump, once in favor of abortion rights, is now a "pro-life" president-elect. Sunday, he said he would appoint Supreme Court justices that would overturn Roe v. Wade, kicking abortion rights back to the states and effectively denying not only necessary abortions, but healthcare, STI-screening, and birth control to millions of American women.

Climate Change

Mr. War on Coal does not believe climate change exists, despite 2016 tracking to be the hottest year on record ever. He is threatening to pull out of the Paris Agreement.

Free Press

If Steve Bannon's existence is any indication-it is-Trump's presidency will not be marked by transparency with the press. Trump also promised to open up libel laws to better target the media, and he openly distrusts trusted news outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Healthcare

Trump will repeal Obamacare and replace it with "something better." Don't worry, the repealing and replacing will happen simultaneously, and Trump likes Obamacare's "pre-existing conditions" benefits. It's the "something better" that's dubious: vouchers, maybe?

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Legal Weed

Probably safe. Trump has bigger fish, like women's healthcare, to wrangle, gut, and fry.

[contentlinks align="center" textonly="false" numbered="false" headline="Related%20Story" customtitles="Trump's%20Cabinet%20Just%20Keeps%20Getting%20Worse" customimages="" content="article.50659"]

This is just Trump, though. Check out his cabinet. Mike Pence is a human rights bulldozer. A man who does not believe in climate change is overseeing the EPA. Ben Carson has a role, somehow. Shockingly, that's were the brains of the Trump operation are, and there they will remain for the next four years.

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HHGregg has more than 200 stores scattered across 20 states, though of course you can also buy from the chain online. The , Indianapolis-based company usually has a lot of Black Friday TV deals, and this year is no exceptionthough the overall number is down from a year ago.

HHGregg stores are closed on Thanksgiving but open at 7 a.m. on Black Friday. You can start buying online just after midnight early Friday morning. Plus, there will also be some early doorbusters that you can shop now for as long as supplies last.

Here's our breakdown of the HHGregg Black Friday ad for TVs. In terms of brands/models and prices, it reminds us a lot of the Best Buy Black Friday ad.



Doorbuster TV Specials

Bigger Sets

 Vizio E70U-D3 70-inch 4K smart TV, $1,200. This is only $100 less than you can buy it right now on Vizio's website. We tested this set, and it's in our TV ratings.

 Samsung UN70KU6300 70-inch 4K smart TV, $1,300. You can get this TV for $1,300 right now at P.C. Richard & Son, and elsewhere for about $100 more. It's one of the popular KU6300-series models that are ubiquitous this time of year, in various screen sizes.

 Haier 65UF2505 65-inch 4K smart TV, $550. This is a great deal on a 4K set this size, though it is from a lesser-known TV brand. But we've seen this set for $500 to $600 at BJ's Wholesale Club and P.C. Richard & Son.

 LG 65UH6030 65-inch 4K smart UHD TV, $800. This TV was listed as a Best Buy Black Friday special at the same price, and it's also selling for that right now at Walmart. But HHGregg is throwing in a free Blu-ray player to sweeten the deal.

 Seiki SE60FYPIT 60-inch 1080p TV, $400. Another low price for 60-inch set, though this one is a 1080p model. We don't know anything about this set.

 Samsung UN55KU6290 55-inch 4K smart TV, $550. This TV usually sells for about $750 to $800. This appears to be a seasonal model that arrived just in time for Black Friday sales.

 LG 55UH6030 55-inch 4K smart UHD TV, $500. It's this price at BJ's right now, and is listed as one of Kohl's Black Friday sales at the same price. But like its bigger sibling mentioned above, you'll also get a free Blu-ray at HHGregg.



Story continues

 ProScan PLDED5515A 55-inch 4K TV, $300. This TV usually sells for as much as $550, though you can buy it right now at HHGregg for $380.

 Samsung UN50KU6300 50-inch 4K smart TV, $400. This set sells now for $570 to $600. It's a model we testedit did welland it's in our TV ratings.



 Samsung UN50J5200 50-inch1080p smart TV, $350. It's another model we've tested, and it usually sells for about $430.

Here are some additional HHGregg Black Friday deals in other screen sizes:

 ProScan PLDED4018A 40-inch 1080p TV, $130. A very low price for a 40-inch set, though we don't know much about this brand and the TV isn't available elsewhere.

 Samsung UN40H5003 40-inch 1080p smart TV, $220. This set is usually $280.

 LG 43UH6030 43-inch 4K smart UHD TV, $300. It's about $450 at a lot of places right now, but Walmart has it for $360. It's $300 in Black Friday ads from both Best Buy and Dell.

Higher-End Models

The HHGregg Black Friday sale has deals on three Sony XBR-X850D sets. The largest is the 75-inch XBR-75X850D, which is priced at $2,450, down from usually about $3,000. The 65-inch Sony XBR-65X850D is $1,400, about $200 cheaper than usual; the 55-inch Sony XBR-55X850D model is $900, or $100 less than its price right now. The two smaller models, which are tested and in our TV ratings, are the same price in Best Buy's Black Friday ad.

OLED TVs

The HHGregg Black Friday ad has two of LG's 2016 4K OLED TVs, both in its C6P series. (These sets are similar to the LG OLED B6C models, except they have flat rather than curved screens and no 3D.) Prices, though lower than they were earlier, are pretty much the regular selling prices for these sets right now. For example, the 65-inch LG OLED65C6P is $3,000, and the 55-inch LG OLED55C6P is $2,000. These TVs are at this price right now at Best Buy, Crutchfield, and P.C. Richard. These OLED sets are among the best TVs we tested this year.

Samsungs KS8000 and KS8500 Sets

The HHGregg Black Friday ad also has a few models in Samsung's upper-tier SUHD TVs this year, which have HDR and quantum dots for a wider range of colors. The 65-inch Samsung UN65KS8000 is $1,500, the 60-inch Samsung UN60KS8000 is $1,200, and the 55-inch Samsung UN55KS8000 is $1,000. Again, these prices are within a few dollars of what's available at Best Buy this Black Friday.

There are two KS8500-series sets: The 65-inch Samsung UN65KS8500 is $1,600, and the 55-inch Samsung UN55KS8500 is $1,100. The main difference between the KS8000- and KS8500-series sets is that the latter has a curved rather than a flat screen.





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LONDON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Bank of England Governor Mark Carney answered questions from the House of Commons Treasury Committee on Tuesday. He appeared alongside Deputy Governor Minouche Shafik and Monetary Policy Committee members Michael Saunders and Ian McCafferty.

Below are highlights of the session.

MARK CARNEY

WE COULD BE STUCK IN LOW INTEREST RATE TRAP FOR DECADES IF WE DO NOT SEE MAJOR STRUCTURAL REFORM

The challenge is how to get those equilibrium (interest) rates up and that is not going to happen because of the stance of monetary policy. We could be stuck in this trap, and I use that word advisedly, for decades ... if we don't see major structural reforms.

UK GOING THROUGH A SLOW MOTION SLOWDOWN

Business investment has been soft, it's just been a little less soft than we had expected.

The degree of uncertainty in the very short term has been a bit lower and financial conditions have been a bit better, I would argue that for both of those that's not entirely unrelated to what we did in August.

In terms of the overall reaction of the economy, this is more of a slow motion slow down than a sharp adjustment.

FALL IN STERLING WILL PLAY PART IN NECESSARY REDUCTION OF UKS LARGE CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICIT

The UK economy has ... had a large external inbalance and that large external inblance as represented by a large current account deficit needed to be righted over time. The exchange rate is part of that adjustment mechanism.

UNCLEAR IF DECISION TO LEAVE EU MEANS SUSTAINABLE LEVEL OF CURRENT ACCOUNT HAS FALLEN

It is extremely difficult to estimate what is a sustainable level of a current account. One of the questions is whether the future relationship with Europe and the rest of the world means that that sustainable level of the current account has gone down.

6 PCT OF GDP UNLIKELY TO BE SUSTAINABLE LEVEL OF CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICIT

It is unlikely to be but these things can move quite slowly.

For a large advanced economy a 6 percent current account deficit is very large and historically when economies have started to approach that level, even the United States, there has been a downward adjustment in the current account.

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POTENTIAL FOR CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICIT TO HALVE OVER NEXT THREE YEARS

We see the potential for the current account deficit to halve, almost halve, over the course of the next three years, to get to 3, 3.5 percent of GDP.

OCT INFLATION DATA CONSISTENT WITH FIRST STAGE OF WEAKER STERLING PASS THROUGH INTO CONSUMER PRICES

Inflation is going up. The pass through from a 20 percent fall in the trade weighted level of sterling is going to come, it's going to build towards the end of this year into 2017 and in our expectation, be above 2 percent by the middle of 2017 and stay there for a while because of that pass through.

INEVITABLY SOME OF BIG FALL IN STERLING WILL BE PASSED THROUGH TO CONSUMERS

In my view this is one of the most competitive, if not the most competitive and innovative, retail sectors in the world and so what they (retailers) are doing now is trying to figure out how to take out other costs and absorb as much as possible but inevitably some of this big move will be passed through and that is reflected in our forecast.

HIGH BAR FOR CHANGING ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT BREXIT OUTCOME, TRADE DEALS RARELY FINALISED UNTIL LAST MINUTE

I think there is a pretty high bar, my personal view, for changing the assumption that we have in the medium term about what type of arrangements we're going to get, because this will be a negotiation. And trade negotiations ... they're never agreed until everything's agreed, and everything isn't agreed until one second before midnight.

TOO SOON FOR FINANCIAL SECTOR IN GENERAL TO TAKE DECISIONS ABOUT BREXIT CONTINGENCY PLANS

It's too soon, I would stress, certainly for the financial sector in general to be taking decisions about a process that has not yet begun.

FINANCIAL SERVICES FIRMS MAY TRIGGER CONTINGENCY PLANS WHEN TIME TO EU EXIT IS 18 MONTHS AND "DEGREE OF EXIT IS CONSIDERABLE"

If the time to exit is measured in 18 months or less and the degree of exit is viewed as considerable then a number of those firms would take decisions, that's the best guidance I can give.

VERY FEW CONTINGENCY PLANS BEING IMPLEMENTED NOW

My general characterisation would be they (firms) are making contingency plans, those contingency plans are at various stages of readiness and degree and specificity. Very few of them are actually implementing those contingency plans.

PLANNING MAKES SENSE, IN MOST CASES ACTION WOULD BE PRECIPITOUS

I would stress to those firms that it is very early days so planning makes sense, action is in most cases, I would say in general, is precipitous.

ABOUT 45 PCT OF BUSINESSES FEELING IMPACT OF BREXIT ON INVESTMENT PLANS

For little more than half the businesses in the UK, this is a non issue, they're not adjusting based on the twists and turns of the Brexit process. For about 45 percent or so of the businesses this is an issue and this is having some impact on their investment plans. About half of those, it's having a notable impact on their plans.

NO SENSE YET OF WHETHER THERE WILL BE A TRANSITION PERIOD BETWEEN END OF ARTICLE 40 PROCESS AND FINAL BREXIT SETTLEMENT

Our view is that it is early days. Article 50 has not yet been triggered, the objectives have not yet been set out. Nor has there been any sense yet - consistent with those last two statements - of whether there will be a transition period after exit, at end of the Article 50 statement to the end state.

USUALLY THERE IS A 4-7 YEAR TRANSITION PERIOD BETWEEN AGREEING AND FULLY IMPLEMENTING TRADE DEALS

When there's a trade deal, the shortest transition period I've ever seen in a trade deal is two years, which was the Swiss-EU deal on insurance. Normally it's in the range of four to seven years.

IF THERE IS TRANSITION PERIOD AFTER EU EXIT, BUSINESSES WOULD NOT NEED TO RESTRUCTURE NOW

And if that is part of the agreement or the intent, which I would stress would be in the interest of those remaining in the European Union - not least in the financial sector, it would be in their interest to have some transition - then that really informs what businesses need to do today or six months from now. Because you transition, you restructure during that restructuring window. You don't need to do it in advance, in anticipation of what agreement the government ends up striking.

STERLING MOVE SUGGESTS MARKETS EXPECT SLOWER UK GROWTH AND REDUCED OPENNESS

What we have seen in terms of the direction and scale of the move in sterling has been consistent with an expectation of a reduced degree of openness and a slower pace of growth than has been the reaction of consumers, for example.

BRITISH CONSUMERS MORE UPBEAT THAN MARKETS

Quite reasonably the British consumer sees high degree of job security right now, wages growing roughly at the same rate as they were at the start of the year, credit that is widely available and cheap or competitive and the consequence of that is that they are continuing to consume.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MARKETS' AND CONSUMERS' VIEWS WILL HAVE TO BE RESOLVED

At some point there will be a resolution of that difference either through revised expectation of financial markets or adjustment in consumer behaviour.

BOE CAN PROVIDE TECHNOCRATIC SUPPORT FOR BREXIT IF NEEDED

We are available for technocratic support for all aspects of departments of government if they need it as part of this process. We provide that as needed.

BEYOND MPC'S ROLE TO PROVIDE DETAILED ANALYSIS OF POTENTIAL OUTCOMES ON TRADE DEALS, IMMIGRATION RESTRICTIONS

The proper role for the MPC is to make its best forecast of the economy over the next three years ... and to identify material risks to that forecast. It is beyond the horizon of our remit to provide detailed analysis of those outcomes (potential future trade deals, restrictions on immigration, etc).

BOE IN CLOSE CONTACT WITH ECB, NATIONAL EU CENTRAL BANKS, TO PLAN CONTINGENCIES

We are in close and continual contact with our ECB counterparts, with the other national central banks, the other financial stability authorities on the continent, because we have, separately and jointly, a technocratic responsibility to promote financial stability so we have to plan for contingencies.

NEUTRAL STANCE ON MONETARY POLICY, RISKS ON BOTH SIDES

What we have now is a neutral bias so we've got to a position where we think the stance, the unanimous view of members of the MPC is that the stance on monetary policy is appropriate, we're still in a position of uncertainty there's reasons why the economy could turn out stronger, inflation higher or the opposite, there's risks on both sides so rates could go up they could go down - so it's a neutral bias, we're about as explicit as that.

NOT ACTIVELY CONSIDERING EXPANDING QE PROGRAMMES

For the avoidance of doubt, we have a balanced risk assessment, neutral bias to monetary policy we're not in active consideration of expanding programmes. We just took a decision and the view, my personal view and the view of the rest of the MPC, was that the stance of the policy is appropriate.

NO FORWARD GUIDANCE ON FUTURE PATH OF MONETARY POLICY

At the moment there is not guidance on the future path of policy. I would leave it as simply as that.

FORWARD GUIDANCE WAS PARTLY INTENDED TO INFORM THE PUBLIC

At crucial points that is true and when the recovery just began, 2013, after the worst recession since the Great Depression ... I felt it was important to provide context to the general public that just because the economy was starting to grow, and unemployment was falling, we weren't going to instantly raise interest rates.

ROOT CAUSES OF LOW GLOBAL INTEREST RATES MUCH MORE FUNDAMENTAL THAN MONETARY POLICY STANCE

I think it is very important to distinguish between the stance of monetary policy and the reasons why global interest rates are low, the reasons why inequality have increased across major economies. The last two are caused by much more fundamental factors and an excessive focus on monetary policy in many respects is a massive blame deflection exercise.

TRUMP HAS VOICED VIEWS ON FED'S MONETARY POLICY STANCE, BOE HAS BROADER SUITE OF TASKS SO DIFFERENT DEBATE HERE

The President-elect has voiced some views on the Fed and the stance of monetary policy. I think the issues around structural change are broader, the responsibilities of the Bank of England are much broader, macro-prudential policy is a broader suite of tasks. So I think this is a different debate here.

BOE REMIT COULD BE REVIEWED ON PERIODIC BASIS

I think that there is merit in reviewing the remit (of BOE) on a periodic basis.

PERIODICITY OF BOE REMIT REVIEW SHOULD BE SET UP FRONT

It's a good idea in my view to do this periodically but have the periodicity set up front so it's not necessarily a product of the current stance of monetary policy.

DO NOT SEE GROUP THINK AS A PROBLEM ON THE MPC

This is quite a robust structure, it is individual accountability. There are quite different views on the committee about what is driving the economy. Everything we do is now ... transcripted.

MY INTENTION IS TO PROVIDE CONTINUITY THROUGH ARTICLE 50 PROCESS

What has changed is the vote to leave and the Article 50 process ... My intention is to try to provide as much continuity as possible through that process, it's a hugely important process, we have to get it right, the bank has to be supportive and I want to help that as much as possible.

EXTENDED TERM OUT OF SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY

I added the year out of a sense of responsibility to try to provide additional continuity.

WILL LEAVE POST ON JUNE 30, 2019

I will leave June 30th 2019.

WILL NOT FURTHER EXTEND TERM

There is a practical reality, which is I'll be separated from my family for that extra period of extension so there are limits, reasonable limits to what that would be.

FAR BIGGER ISSUES THAN MY TIMETABLE CREATING UNCERTAINTY

Carney: I don't think it (the issue of how long he will stay at BOE) has added to uncertainty. There are far bigger issues that are adding to uncertainty in the global and UK economies.

Committee chair: There may be.

Carney: There are.

PRIME MINISTER'S SPEECH DID NOT AFFECT DECISION ON TERM

Committee chair: Did the prime minister's party conference speech and her apparent criticism of central banks, to which you felt the need to respond, have any bearing on this decision?

Carney: No, no.

MPC MEMBER MICHAEL SAUNDERS

ON INFLATION TARGET AND WHAT BOE WILL TOLERATE

Saunders: Obviously if we thought we were in a position in which inflation was going to rise above target and stay above target for an extended period, a really extended period, that is not something which we would be happy with.

Question: Would a 4 percent inflation rate be outside his level of tolerance?

Saunders: It would depend what else is going on ... The remit requires us to consider the trade-offs, so we have to take into account a range of things, it will never be just the headline inflation rate.

I think it is possible that we might (tolerate a 4 percent inflation rate), it is also possible that we might not.

DEPUTY GOVERNOR MINOUCHE SHAFIK

ON BOE CORPORATE BOND PURCHASE PROGRAMME

I think actually we're quite pleased because we've watched what's happened to spreads both of firms that are eligible for corporate bond purchases by the Bank of England and those that are not eligible, and they've actually moved together so there doesn't seem to be any evidence that it has benefitted some more than others. In fact, it seems to have lowered spreads in a much more widespread way so that is a reassuring sign.

Since we announced the corporate bond scheme we've actually seen a substantial increase in the sterling corporate bond market and that market has been revived.

It is good to have a local bond market in terms of financial stability.

It is useful for many firms to be able to borrow in their local currency.

(Reporting by Kate Holton and Adela Suliman, editing by Estelle Shirbon)
Marrakech (Morocco) (AFP) - President Francois Hollande on Tuesday proposed extending France's year-old state of emergency to May, to cover the next presidential election.

Speaking on the sidelines of UN climate talks in Morocco, Hollande said he wanted to prolong the emergency measures in place since the November 2015 Paris attacks, which had been due to expire in January.

France's two-round presidential election takes place on April 23 and May 7.

"I want to extend the state of emergency until the presidential election," he said in an interview with France 24, RFI and TV5Monde in Marrakesh.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said his government was going to ask parliament for a new extension beyond January.

The state of emergency was introduced on the night of the November 13, 2015 Paris attacks and extended for six months in late July.

Tuesday's extension announcement came days after France marked the first anniversary of the jihadist attacks which left 130 people dead.

Hollande, who has the lowest popularity ratings of any post-war president, has said he will not decide until early December whether to seek re-election.

The election is currently forecast to end in a second-round runoff pitting a centre-right candidate -- likely former prime minister Alain Juppe, 71 -- against 48-year-old far-right National Front (FN) leader Marine Le Pen.
PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande said on Tuesday he did not believe U.S. President-elect Donald Trump would scrap a deal between major powers and Iran over Tehran's nuclear program. "This accord gives us all security ... could the U.S. with Donald Trump put into question this accord? I don't think so," Hollande told France 24 television. "There is a principle of reality and this deal gives us guarantees. The absence of an accord would be very serious," he said. (Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
hurricane matthew damage fix repair

Typically when reporting quarterly earnings, executives for companies cite weather as a negative for their business. Warm weather in the winter hurts cold weather apparel sales, wet weather in the summer hurts paint sales, and so on.

Home Depot, however, had the opposite reaction to Hurricane Matthew. According to the company's quarterly earnings call Hurricane Matthew  which brought damage and flooding to Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas  actually was a huge benefit to the company's performance in the third quarter.

"As [CEO] Craig [Menear] mentioned our vendor partners, supply chains, and supply teams rallied to support our customers impacted by Hurricane Matthew and the flooding in Louisiana," said Ted Decker, executive vice president for merchandising at Home Depot.

"Through strong collaboration, we were able to get products to our communities in their time of need. We estimate the impact of storm-related sales to be approximately $100 million."

This makes sense, as people needed to repair their homes after the storm, but it still pales in comparison to the roughly $6 billion in damage and the 26 lives lost in the US due to Hurricane Matthew.

Additionally, Home Depot noted that a substantial amount of the bump came from the flooding in Louisiana.

It's unclear whether the boost for Home Depot came from direct spending by consumers or government clean up operations buying from the retailer.

Home Depot beat on both sales and earnings in its quarterly results, partly due to the improved housing market, but also from the surge in activity caused by the bad weather.

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Home Depot Inc. (HD) reported its fiscal third-quarter financial results on Tuesday before the markets opened. The company said that it had $1.60 in earnings per share (EPS) and $23.15 billion in revenue. The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters had called for $1.58 in EPS and revenue of $23.05 billion. In the same period of last year, the specialty retailer posted EPS of $1.36 and $21.82 billion in revenue.

Comparable store sales for the third quarter of fiscal 2016 were positive 5.5%, and comp sales for U.S. stores were positive 5.9%.

In terms of guidance for the 2016 full year, the company expects to see sales up 6.3% and comparable sales up roughly 4.9%, with EPS up 15.9% to $6.33. The consensus estimates are $6.33 in EPS and $94.16 billion in revenue.

ALSO READ: The Worst Companies to Work For

At the end of the third quarter, the Company operated a total of 2,276 retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico.

On the books, Home Depot cash and cash equivalents totaled $3.59 billion at the end of the quarter, up from $3.04 billion in the same period from last year.

Craig Menear, chairman, CEO and president of Home Depot, commented:

We experienced balanced sales growth in the quarter driven by an increase in both ticket and transactions, and our continued focus on productivity drove double-digit earnings-per-share growth. I would like to thank our associates and suppliers for their hard work and dedication to our customers throughout the quarter, and particularly in the face of Hurricane Matthew and the flooding in Louisiana.

ALSO READ: The Net Worth of American Presidents: Washington to Trump

Shares of Home Depot closed Monday at $127.67, with a consensus analyst price target of $147.88 and a 52-week trading range of $109.62 to $139.00. Following the release of the report, the stock was up over 1% at $129.15 in early trading indications Tuesday.

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Joshua Wong addressing reporters in Hong Kong in October. Photo: AFP/Anthony Wallace

Hong Kong student activist Joshua Wong will be among the speakers at a forthcoming conference in Singapore, albeit remotely.

The 20-year-old secretary general of the Demosisto political party will address the audience via Skype at the event, titled Civil Disobedience and Social Movements, on 26 November.

Its organised by the Community Action Network (CAN), a Singapore-based non-governmental organisation concerned with freedom of expression, and civil and political rights.

Speaking to Yahoo Singapore, CAN spokesman Jolovan Wham said, Joshua Wong and his colleagues are at the forefront of an important democratic movement in Hong Kong. It would be good to hear his thoughts about the situation there and the lessons we can learn from the movement in Hong Kong.

Asked if the organisers anticipated any possible issues with Singapore authorities, Wham said, This is going to be an indoor event, and hes not going to be physically present, so I think we should be fine.

He added, We dont want to waste the air ticket and get him deported. I think hes also sick and tired of being deported.

In October, Wong was detained overnight at a Bangkok airport and eventually deported back to Hong Kong. He had been due to speak at Chulalongkorn University, but was placed by Thai authorities on a travel blacklist at Beijings request.

In May 2015, Wong was also refused entry to Kuala Lumpur, after being invited to take part in academic talks on democracy in China.

The firebrand activist shot to fame as one of the main leaders of Occupy Central, the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests in 2014, which drew tens of thousands onto the streets.

Email queries to Wong had not been answered by press time.
By Cameron French TORONTO (Reuters) - Investors looking at Element Financial and its 175-percent stock surge in just over two years could think they've missed the boat, but Chief Executive Officer Steven Hudson insists the upstart Canadian equipment financing company has plenty of upside. Element, positioned to exploit a sector largely abandoned by big banks in the wake of the financial crisis, will seek acquisitions in the United States and Europe, could eventually issue a dividend, and plans rapid asset and receivable growth from its C$3.3 billion ($3.02 billion) at the end of 2013. "If you look to the end of 24 months (from now), we think the company is fully built with approximated C$9 to C$11 billion of assets," Hudson told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. "In the vendor finance market that'll make you in the top 3 and that's where we want to play." Shares of Element, which provides financing to companies that buy cars and truck fleets, helicopters, rail-cars and other equipment, closed at C$13.77 on Wednesday, up nearly three-fold from where they debuted on the Toronto Stock Exchange in December 2011. Over the past two years, the company has become a darling of analysts, with eight of eight surveyed rating the stock a "buy" according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. "We believe the shares are attractively valued with potential acquisitions likely to add further valuation upside," RBC analyst Geoffrey Kwan said in a note on Monday. SECOND ACT The company represents a second act in the equipment finance business for Hudson. He built Newcourt Credit Group, one of the world's largest non-bank lenders in the 1990s, only to see it hit hard after the 1998 Russian debt crisis prompted its short-term financing strategy to dry up. The company's value plunged and it was bought by CIT Group in 1999, while Hudson left the company. After about a decade outside the sector, during which he served as chief executive officer for hair restoration company Hair Club for Men, Hudson jumped back in with Element as he saw the equipment finance industry largely abandoned by larger players as they downsized following the financial crisis. "You're seeing significant demand for new equipment as the North American economy re-equips itself," he said. This time around, Hudson says he is taking a more conservative approach, although the company has been anything but quiet, announcing several deals including an alliance with Trinity Industries to provide lease financing for up to US$2 billion worth of railcars over the next two years. Hudson said he has his eye on building the company's scale in the United States, mentioning the auto fleet leasing business of U.S. company PHH Corp as a potential acquisition target. He also has interest in expanding the helicopter leasing business to the North Sea oil field, and envisions launching a dividend, though likely not for another two years, when he expects the company's torrid growth to ease. "When we do it we'd like to implement a meaningful dividend. Not a 1 or 2 percent yield, but a 3-5 percent yield," he said. "But in the short term over the next 2 years our growth is so significant it's better for our shareholders that we reinvest the capital into the businesses." ($1 = 1.0939 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Cameron French.; Editing by Andrew Hay)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan was unanimously nominated on Tuesday by his fellow Republicans for re-election as speaker in the new Congress next year, the House Republican Conference said on Twitter.

Ryan, who faced no challengers for the post from within Republican ranks, was nominated during a closed-door meeting of all Republican lawmakers in the House. He will face an election in January, when all members of the new House, both Democrats and Republicans, vote on a new speaker.

Republicans kept their majorities in both the House and Senate in the Nov. 8 elections in which voters elected Republican Donald Trump to the White House over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

"It is a tremendous honor to be nominated by my colleagues to serve as speaker of the House," Ryan said on Twitter. "Now it's time to go big."

Republicans also re-elected three other lawmakers to leadership positions: House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, House Republican Whip Steve Scalise, and the chairwoman of the Republican conference, Cathy McMorris Rodgers.

(Reporting by Susan Cornwell and Susan Heavey; Editing by Mohammad Zargham and Lisa Shumaker)
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Opponents of the Dakota Access pipeline are taking to the streets in every U.S. state and in cities as far away as Tokyo and Auckland.

Around 35,000 people are expected to join in 300 actions on Tuesday to demand that the Obama administration reject the final leg of the 1,170-mile pipeline.

SEE ALSO: Dakota Access pipeline builders are 'enthusiastic' about Trump presidency

The controversial segment would run beneath Lake Oahe, a reservoir on the Missouri River near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. Native American activists and their allies say the pipeline crossing would threaten the region's water supplies and damage sacred sites.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gave opponents of the pipeline some good news this week when it called for further analysis of the disputed portion, a move that delays construction.

Protesters in Milwaukee join the National Day of Solidarity with Standing Rock and against the Dakota Access pipeline outside the Wells Fargo Bank, Nov.15, 2016.

Image: Rick Wood/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via AP

"We are standing up and fighting for the water, and asking for people to be aware of what's at risk," Eryn Wise of the International Indigenous Youth Council told Mashable.

Wise was in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to join a demonstration in front of the Corps headquarters. She traveled from Sacred Stone Camp, the first of three encampments near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, where thousands of people are gathered to block the pipeline crossing under Lake Oahe.

"We do not consider ourselves to be protesters or these to be protests; we consider these protections and we are the protectors," said Wise, who is from the Jicarilla Apache and Laguna Pueblo tribes in New Mexico.

The $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline would carry shale oil from North Dakota through South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois. About 84 percent of the project is already completed, according to Energy Transfer Partners, the pipeline's operator.

The Texas company can't finish the pipeline until the Corps gives it approval to drill on and under federal land near Lake Oahe.

Story continues

The agency issued such a permit in late July for a crossing about half a mile upstream of the Standing Rock reservation. But two days later, the tribe filed a complaint accusing the Corps of failing to properly consult the tribe on questions of environmental impact and historical preservation as is required by law.

A federal judge ruled on Sept. 9 that the Corps did comply with the law. However, that same day, the Obama administration said the Corps would not approve construction for the disputed portion until the agency could revisit its previous decisions.

Milwaukee protesters join the National Day of Solidarity with Standing Rock outside the Wells Fargo Bank, Nov.15, 2016.

Image: APRick Wood/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via AP

That brings us to this week.

On Monday, the Corps said it completed its two-month review of the pipeline crossing and determined that "additional discussion and analysis" with tribal leaders were warranted given the Great Sioux Nation's historic "dispossessions of lands" and the lake's importance to the tribe.

In response, Energy Transfer Partners filed a suit asking a judge to give the company the legal right-of-way to finish the pipeline.

Environmental groups said they applauded the Corps' decision. But they urged the Obama administration to go further and reject the pipeline crossing altogether

"There is no safe route for this pipeline to proceed," said Cathy Collentine, a senior representative of Sierra Club's Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign.

"There's no way to cross this body of water safely where it's not going to impact the tribe's drinking water supply," she told Mashable.

Demonstrators link arms in Bismarck, North Dakota, after marching to the state Capitol building, Nov. 14, 2016.

Image: APMike McCleary/The Bismarck Tribune via AP

Energy Transfer Partners has said the pipeline will include advanced safety designs and will not disrupt culturally significant or sacred sites along the route.

"We reiterate our commitment to protect all cultural resources along with the environmental, and the safety of all those in the area as we move toward the completion of the pipeline," Kelcy Warren, CEO of Energy Transfer Pipelines, told investors on a Nov. 10 earnings call.

Warren said he was "enthusiastic" about the election of President-elect Donald Trump last week. The first-time officeholder has vowed to ramp up oil, natural gas and coal projects while crimping federal protections for clean air and water.

Dakota Access pipeline opponents demonstrate in Philadelphia, Nov. 15, 2016.

Image: AP photo/matt rourke

But it's less clear what Trump could do for the Dakota Access pipeline if the Obama administration blocks the final segment through Lake Oahe.

Chris Reagen, an attorney with Haynes and Boone, a law firm that represents many oil and gas companies, said Trump wouldn't have legal authority to bypass the regulatory process and give his own rubber stamp of approval. Such a move would invite years of litigation.

"We've got this complicated regulatory framework governing pipelines," Reagen told Mashable.

"It's a dangerous precedent to make each project subject to the discretion of the executive, or political opinion," he said.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Chris Reagen's last name.
Washington (AFP) - Hundreds of students in Washington ditched school Tuesday to protest against US President-elect Donald Trump, marching through the heart of the US capital before descending on the White House.

They joined youth across the country who have staged similar walkouts since Trump's shock victory on November 8, carrying signs with messages like "spread love," "my black is beautiful" and "make America gay again."

The young protesters marched across the Mall, the grassy esplanade that runs from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial.

Anna, a 17-year-old immigrant from El Salvador, said she was "uncertain about my future."

"I'm worried that when this man gets into office we won't be safe on the streets anymore."

Trump has pledged to end Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy protecting youth like Anna who arrived in the country illegally as children.

But the president-elect has not indicated whether ending the program would result in the deportation of those already enrolled.

"Even if we don't make a difference, we'll know that we fought to the end," she said.

Wearing a shirt with the phrase "Nasty Woman" -- a nod to Trump's "such a nasty woman" dig aimed at Clinton during the final presidential debate -- Nell called Trump "an extremely dangerous man in an extremely powerful position."

"There's so much anger and frustration because it's not fair -- almost everyone here who's protesting can't vote," the 13-year-old said.

"This is their way of showing that there needs to be a change and that things aren't right."

- 'Get out of my swamp' -

Eva, 16, said the protests gave hope for the future.

"You're looking at it," she said, motioning to the hundreds of rallying students as they marched toward the White House, Trump's future residence. She hoisted a poster that said "Get out of my swamp" -- a reference to Trump's vow to drain Washington of corruption.

Story continues

She said candidates in the next election need "to do a better job of actually talking to people who are disaffected, who are upset.

"There needs to be more work in small towns."

Hundreds of high school students also demonstrated in New York Tuesday morning outside Trump Tower, protesting in the pouring rain as the president-elect huddled inside with Vice president-elect Mike Pence to nail down cabinet appointments.

"No Ku Klux Klan, no fascists, no racists" the students shouted in turn, alternating their cries with: "Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here."

Some in the crowd shouted "My body my choice," giving voice to concerns about reverses on women's rights to abortion under Trump, who has vowed to put pro-life justices on the nation's high court.

Trump Tower -- where dozens of police stood guard -- has been the focus of protests every day since the New York billionaire's election.
(Recast with details on cabinet search, analyst comments)

By Jennifer Ablan and David Lawder

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Longtime Donald Trump supporter and activist investor Carl Icahn confirmed on Tuesday that the president-elect is looking at Wall Street veteran Steven Mnuchin as his choice for treasury secretary and billionaire Wilbur Ross for commerce secretary.

"Spoke to @realDonaldTrump. Steve Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross are being considered for Treasury and Commerce. Both would be great choices," Icahn wrote on Twitter. (http://bit.ly/2f1fbaP)

Icahn, a close ally of Trump who was often praised by the Republican during the presidential campaign for his business acumen, also tweeted that both Mnuchin and Ross were friends and "two of the smartest people I know."

Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs partner and Trump's campaign finance manager, has been considered a front-runner for the Treasury post for much of the past week since Trump's stunning election victory.

Mnuchin's inclusion in Trump's campaign team was questioned at the time by Stephen Bannon, now Trump's chief White House strategist. In an interview on Breitbart News, Bannon asked Trump whether the then presidential candidate was "selling out to Wall Street".

The list to head the Treasury Department has also included JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon and Republican Representative Jeb Hensarling, chairman of the powerful House Financial Services Committee. Hensarling has said he would prefer to focus on a revamp of financial regulation, while Dimon, a lifelong Democrat, has denied interest in the job in the past.

Ross, a billionaire investor, is a part of Trump's economic advisory team. Calls to Ross were not immediately returned.

INTO THE TOWER

Mnuchin walked through the Trump Tower lobby in Manhattan on Tuesday morning. He would not comment on personnel decisions but said the Trump team is "making sure we get the biggest tax bill passed, the biggest tax changes since Reagan. So a lot of exciting things in the first 100 days of the Trump presidency."

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With Republicans retaining majorities in Congress, Trump will have a clearer shot at enacting major tax cut and reform legislation and rolling back the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial regulation law passed in the wake of the financial crisis.

The new treasury secretary would play a key role in crafting such legislation, as well as managing potential new debt issuance of as much as $1 trillion if Congress agrees to Trump's proposed infrastructure spending program.

With such high stakes, Wall Street is more focused on the selection of the next treasury chief than it was during President Barack Obama's choices for the post.

"This time will be different," Gregory Peters, senior investment officer at Prudential Fixed Income, said Tuesday at the Reuters Global Investment Outlook Summit in New York. "That role takes on greater importance."

Unlike current Secretary Jacob Lew, who is viewed investors to have taken a lower profile focused largely on international issues over the past year, the next Treasury secretary is expected to be a featured player in articulating and executing the Trump administration's new economic policies and initiatives.

A figure such as Mnuchin, with Wall Street experience, might be seen as better equipped to manage the relationship between Treasury and the banks that facilitate U.S. debt issuance.

The last Wall Street insider to serve in the post was Henry Paulson, the former Goldman Sachs CEO appointed by George W. Bush and whose term was dominated by the bank bailouts of the 2008 financial crisis.

Mnuchin, whose father was also a Goldman Sachs partner, worked at the investment bank for nearly two decades starting in the mid-1980s, a time when Wall Street was developing major financial innovations including new securitization techniques and collateralized debt obligations -- instruments that would later contribute to the financial crisis.

In 2009, he led a group of investors that purchased the assets of failed California-based mortgage lender IndyMac, for $1.55 billion that included a loss-sharing deal with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. After rehabilitating the operation and rebranding it as OneWest Bank, they sold it in 2014 for $3.4 billion to CIT Group Inc for $3.4 billion.

(Additional reporting by Emily Stephenson and Richard Leong in New York; Editing by David Chance and Alistair Bell)
IRVINE, CA / ACCESSWIRE / November 15, 2016 / Khang & Khang LLP (the "Firm") announces a class action lawsuit against Pilgrim's Pride Corporation ("Pilgrim's Pride" or the "Company") (PPC). Investors who purchased or otherwise acquired shares between February 21, 2014 and October 6, 2016 inclusive (the "Class Period"), are encouraged to contact the Firm in advance of the December 19, 2016 lead plaintiff motion deadline.

If you purchased Pilgrim's Pride shares during the Class Period, please contact Joon M. Khang, Esquire, of Khang & Khang, 18101 Von Karman Avenue, 3rd Floor, Irvine, CA 92612, by telephone: (949) 419-3834, or via 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.

The complaint alleges that Pilgrim's Pride made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: the Company systematically colluded with several of its industry peers to fix prices in the market for broiler chickens; that the foregoing conduct constituted a violation of federal antitrust laws; that Pilgrim's Pride's revenues during the class period were the result of illegal conduct; that as a result of the above, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. On October 7, 2016, Pivotal Research downgraded its peer company Tyson Foods, Inc. from "buy" to "sell," due to fears of a class action against Tyson Foods, Pilgrim's Pride other peers over price collusion in the broiler-chicken market. Allegedly, in 2008, Tyson Foods, Pilgrim's Pride, and several other companies conspired by sharing proprietary data and reducing production to support prices. When this information emerged to the public, the stock price of Pilgrim's Pride decreased, thus causing investors harm.

If you wish to learn more about this lawsuit at no charge to you, or if you have questions concerning this notice or your rights, please contact Joon M. Khang, a prominent litigator for almost two decades, by telephone: (949) 419-3834, or via e-mail at joon@khanglaw.com.

Story continues

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
LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / November 15, 2016 / Lundin Law PC , a shareholder rights firm, announces a class action lawsuit against Adeptus Health Inc. ("Adeptus Health" or the "Company") (ADPT) on behalf of purchasers of Adeptus Health securities pursuant and/or traceable to the Company's secondary public offering (the "SPO") on or about July 31, 2015, or purchasers of common shares between April 23, 2015 and November 16, 2015, inclusive (the "Class Period"). Investors, who purchased or otherwise acquired shares during the SPO or the Class Period, are encouraged to contact the firm prior to the December 27, 2016 lead plaintiff motion deadline.

To participate in this class action lawsuit, click here. You can also call Brian Lundin, Esquire, of Lundin Law PC, at 888-713-1033, or e-mail him at brian@lundinlawpc.com.

No class has been certified in the above action yet. Until a class is certified, you are not considered represented by an attorney. You may also choose to do nothing and be an absent class member.

The complaint alleges that through the Class Period, Adeptus Health made material false and/or misleading information and/or failed to disclose: that the Company engaged in widespread predatory billing practices, particularly with respect to lower acuity level patients; that Adeptus Health's predatory billing practices subjected the Company to numerous known but undisclosed risks, such as financial risks, reputational risks, risks associated with improper financial reporting, civil or criminal sanctions, and even exclusion from federal and state healthcare programs; that the Company's financial statements were not prepared in conformity with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles; that contrary to the Company's representations about its practice of referring lower acuity patients to urgent care facilities, Adeptus Health routinely treated lower acuity patients and excessively billed them for services; and that as a result of the above, Adeptus Health lacked a reasonable basis for its statements about its business and future financial prospects at all relevant times. On November 17, 2015, KUSA, an NBC-affiliated television station located in Denver, Colorado, aired an investigative report about the predatory billing practices at Adeptus Health's Colorado First Choice emergency rooms. When this information emerged to the public, the stock price of Adeptus Health fell, thus causing investors harm.

Lundin Law PC was founded by Brian Lundin, a securities litigator based in Los Angeles dedicated to upholding shareholders' rights.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.

Contact:

Lundin Law PC

Brian Lundin, Esq.

Telephone: 888-713-1033

Facsimile: 888-713-1125

brian@lundinlawpc.com

http://lundinlawpc.com/

SOURCE: Lundin Law PC
IRVINE, CA / ACCESSWIRE / November 14, 2016 / Khang & Khang LLP (the "Firm") announces a class action lawsuit against Impax Laboratories Inc. ("Impax" or the "Company") (IPXL). Investors, who purchased or otherwise acquired shares between February 25, 2014 and November 3, 2016 inclusive (the "Class Period"), are encouraged to contact the Firm in advance of the January 9, 2017 lead plaintiff motion deadline.

If you purchased shares of Impax during the Class Period, 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. Until certification occurs, you are not represented by an attorney. You may choose to take no action and remain a passive class member.

The complaint alleges that Impax made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose: that the Company was engaged in conduct that would trigger investigations of possible collusion of generic drug pricing by the antitrust division of the U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") and the Connecticut Attorney General; that the DOJ investigation and the underlying conduct would likely result in criminal charges against Impax for collusion of generic drug pricing; that the Company lacked effective internal controls over financial reporting; and that as a result of the above, Impax's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. When this information was disclosed, shares of Impax declined in value, which caused investors harm.

If you wish to learn more about this lawsuit at no charge, or if you have questions concerning 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 some jurisdictions.

Contacts

Joon M. Khang, Esq.

Telephone: 949-419-3834

Facsimile: 949-225-4474

joon@khanglaw.com

SOURCE: Khang & Khang LLP
LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / November 15, 2016 / Lundin Law PC, a shareholder rights firm, announces the filing of a class action lawsuit against Impax Laboratories, Inc. ("Impax" or the "Company") (IPXL) concerning possible violations of federal securities laws between February 25, 2014 and November 3, 2016 inclusive (the "Class Period"). Investors who purchased or otherwise acquired shares during the Class Period should contact the firm prior to the January 9, 2017 lead plaintiff motion deadline.

To participate in this class action lawsuit, click here. You can also call Brian Lundin, Esquire, of Lundin Law PC, at 888-713-1033, or e-mail him at brian@lundinlawpc.com.

No class has been certified in the above action yet. Until a class is certified, you are not considered represented by an attorney. You may also choose to do nothing and be an absent class member.

The complaint alleges that during the Class Period, Impax made false and/ misleading statements and/or failed to disclose: that the Company was engaged in conduct that would trigger investigations of possible collusion of generic drug pricing by the antitrust division of the U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") and the Connecticut Attorney General; that the DOJ investigation and the underlying conduct would likely result in criminal charges against Impax for collusion of generic drug pricing; that the Company lacked effective internal controls over financial reporting; and that as a result of the above, Impax's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

Lundin Law PC was founded by Brian Lundin, a securities litigator based in Los Angeles dedicated to upholding shareholders' rights.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.

Contact:

Lundin Law PC

Brian Lundin, Esq.

Telephone: 888-713-1033

Facsimile: 888-713-1125

brian@lundinlawpc.com

http://lundinlawpc.com/

SOURCE: Lundin Law PC
While much of the world attempts to decipher the implications of a Donald Trump presidency, India Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said he expects to have good relations with the president-elect.

Much has been made of Trumps comments during his campaign about Russia and China. Yet one of the most delicate situations Trump will be inheriting when he arrives at the White House on Jan. 20 is the increased tension between India and Pakistan.

Since an Indian army base in the disputed region of Kashmir was attacked on Sept. 18, killing 19, the two sides have engaged in ongoing deadly fire across the Line of Control that divides the territory. The neighboring countries have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since becoming independent states in 1947.

Commenting shortly after the violence erupted in September, President Barack Obamas administration outlined its concern about cross-border terrorism and Pakistans efforts to combat it. And it appears India is confident of having the next U.S. president in its corner.

Speaking at a dinner with political leaders on Monday, Modi, who called Trump following his election win, said he had a good relationship with Trump and that there was no reason to expect a dramatic change in relations between the U.S. and India, according to The Times of India.

Trump has made similar suggestions himself. At a Republican Hindu Coalition event last month, the man who went on to beat Hillary Clinton in a shock election result a week ago said that the U.S. and India would be best friends. He later added: There isn't going to be any relationship more important to us.

However, on the same day, when speaking to the English-language Indian daily the Hindustan Times, he offered to play more of a mediating role in a dispute he described as a very, very hot tinderbox.

If it was necessary I would do that, he said. If we could get India and Pakistan getting along, I would be honored to do that. That would be a tremendous achievement I think if they wanted me to, I would love to be the mediator or arbitrator.

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Even before taking up the presidency, Trump has connections to India. Two luxury residential projects, in the city of Mumbai and Pune, will be branded as Trump Towers, with Trump set to receive royalties on sales. Both of the groups running the projects have links to political figures in India.

In July, the Trump Organization, through Donald Trump Jr., declared it was planning an even larger development expansion in India.

With both India and Pakistan having vast nuclear weapon arsenals, the dispute provides ample cause for concern and a delicate balancing act. In addition, the United States has sought to rely on Pakistan to help combat terrorism in the region, which has led to past tension between the two. Notably, relations were strained following a U.S. attack that killed Osama Bin Laden in a hideout just a few hundred yards from Pakistans top military academy, prompting suggestions that Pakistani intelligence officials were aware of the Al Qaeda leaders presence.

Throughout his campaign, Trump promised to take a much tougher stance against terrorism at home, including calling for a ban on Muslims entering the country and for mosques to be placed under surveillance. Those stances helped win him the support and close to $1 million in donations from Indian-American industrialist Shalabh Kumar.

And Kumar, who founded the Republican Hindu Coalition that hosted a campaign event for Trump last month, is confident the president-elect will forge a close bond with his Indian counterpart. Kumar even called Trump's election a "second Diwali," in reference to the Hindu festival.

"I have no doubt that the Trump and Modi governments will be the best friends and the two leaders will be unparalleled friends in the history of world leadership," Kumar said at an event following the election.

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intel car

Intel just announced it will invest more than $250 million to make autonomous driving a reality.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said at the Los Angeles Auto Show on Tuesday that the company will target over $250 million in investments to advance the development of self-driving car tech. Intel wrote in a press release that the investment will be geared toward advancing tech related to connectivity, communication, deep learning, and cybersecurity for cars.

Krzanich said at the LA event that the industry will need to prepare for a data deluge where a single car uses more than 4,000 GB of data each day as it relies on self-driving tech like sensors, cameras, and lidar.

Intel is currently working with BMW and Mobileye, a former supplier for Tesla's Autopilot, to build a self-driving car by 2021. Intel is involved in 30 vehicle programs on the road currently and is looking to increase that number to 49 by 2020.

NOW WATCH: China just showcased the world's most human-like robots, and they show how close were coming to Westworld reality





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Forty internet companies, including the biggest names on the web, sent their wish-list to president-elect Donald Trump Monday, providing a road map for the next four years.

The Internet Association congratulated Trump and listed stronger encryption and overhauling government surveillance among its top concerns. The group also recommended leaving U.S. liability regulations governing the broad usage of copyrighted works in place and promoted treaties that facilitate the free flow of information.

We look forward to working closely with the Trump administration, along with Republicans and Democrats in Congress, to implement policies that promote innovation and cement the internets role as a driver of economic and social progress for future generations, Internet Association President and CEO Michael Beckerman said in a statement.

Mondays overture may amount to damage control. During the summer, 145 tech leaders warned Trump would be a disaster for innovation.

Trump was against the federal governments decision to give the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to an international nonprofit, saying the internet should remain under U.S. control, end of story, and called the current administrations push for net neutrality a top-down power grab.

Analysts have said they expect the Trump administration to turn more toward telecommunications providers and away from internet companies, Morning Consult reported.

The association represents tech giants like Google, Facebook and Amazon, as well as startups like Airbnb and Uber.

Though it did not endorse any candidate during the presidential campaign, many of the biggest players contributed to Democrat Hillary Clintons effort, and the association has endorsed the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the 12-nation trade agreement Trump decried during the campaign.

Immigration is another issue on which the industry is likely to clash with the new administration. The tech industry has promoted looser rules for high-skilled immigrants, Bloomberg noted. Trump has made contradictory statements on the H-1B visa program, which software companies use to bring in foreign workers. He has suggested boosting pay for H-1B visa holders to encourage companies to give entry-level jobs to those already in the United States rather than flying in new people.

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Trump indicated in a New York Times interview during the summer that cybersecurity is one of his major concerns but has indicated hes not sympathetic to privacy concerns.

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By Dominic Evans and John Davison BAGHDAD/QAYYARA, Iraq (Reuters) - Islamic State has summarily killed 21 civilians in Mosul it accused of collaborating with U.S.-backed security forces, which said their offensive to recapture the city from the jihadists had made further advances. The killings, reported on Tuesday by a medical source, indicate that the ultra-hardline group has maintained its ability to police Mosul, more than four weeks after the start of the offensive on the northern Iraqi city. The campaign that began on Oct. 17 is the biggest military operation in Iraq in more than a decade of turmoil unleashed by the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. Counter terrorism forces breached Islamic State defenses in the east of the city two weeks ago but have faced resistance from the militants who have deployed suicide car bombs, snipers and waves of counter-attacks. They have been fighting in a dozen of the roughly 50 neighborhoods on the eastern side of the city, which is divided in two by the Tigris river running through the center. Interior Ministry spokesman Saad Maan said on Tuesday that Iraqi forces in the east of the city, which also include part of a tank division, had dislodged Islamic State fighters from a third of the eastern side of the city. He was speaking at a joint news conference with Iraqi officials and officers from the Western coalition which is backing them with air strikes and soldiers on the ground, who are officially designated as advisers. Australian Brigadier-General Roger Noble, asked about Maan's comments, said: "The way I'd describe it is they're well into the city on the eastern side". "We haven't had out the measuring stick and done the percentages," he told Reuters at the Qayyara military base south of Mosul which is the main base of the military campaign. "Once you get into the city and the enemy being the way they are, with civilians, it's a difficult fight, but fundamentally it's on track," he said. Iraqi officials say the militants have used the city's more than 1 million remaining residents as human shields, firing from rooftops of inhabited houses and using a network of tunnels to launch ambushes in the midst of residential areas. SWIFTER KILLINGS While the presence of civilians has slowed the advance, Iraqi officials say some of their operations have been assisted by information provided by residents about Islamic State military positions in the city. Trying to stop the flow of any information out of Mosul, the militants have cracked down on communications, banning the use of mobile phones and also confiscating satellite dishes to prevent people from seeing the progress made by Iraqi forces. Most of those killed in the last three days were accused of cooperating with the Iraqi army, said the medical source who saw the list of 21 names and was briefed on the charges they faced. The city's forensic medical department was notified of the killings, the source said, but this time no bodies emerged - unlike last week when 20 corpses were strung up across the city in a public warning against helping the army. The militants who have ruled Mosul since they swept through northern Iraq two years ago have imposed a ruthless authority across the city, crushing dissent, killing opponents and forcing people to follow their strict interpretation of Islamic law. Residents say most victims are disposed of in mass graves outside Mosul because the militants deem their opponents apostates unworthy of religious funerals. Families only learn the fate of relatives from lists delivered to medics at the morgue. Before the offensive started, people detained by Islamic State in Mosul were investigated for months. Now they were held for as little as two weeks before being released or killed - either shot, their throats slit, or put to death by other methods, the source said. "HUNDREDS KILLED" ON SOUTHERN FRONT The accelerated killings come as Iraqi counter terrorism forces are battling to expand their foothold in the city's eastern neighborhoods. Iraqi military estimates put the number of Islamic State fighters in the city at 5,000 to 6,000. Facing them is a 100,000-strong coalition of Iraqi government forces, Kurdish fighters and Shi'ite paramilitary units, which has all but surrounded the city. Maan, the interior ministry spokesman, said so far 955 insurgents had been killed and 108 captured on the southern frontlines alone. He did not give a toll for the campaign overall - either for security forces, civilians or Islamic State fighters. In an online statement, Islamic State said it killed 412 Iraqi government and Kurdish fighters during the fourth week of the battle. On the southern front, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday that Iraqi soldiers, militiamen and civilians had mutilated the bodies of Islamic State militants. It said the bodies of at least five Islamic State fighters were mutilated and one militant had been executed after surrendering on Oct. 3 when the military and Sunni Muslim tribal fighters repelled an attack on Qayyara. With air and ground support from a U.S.-led coalition, Iraqi government forces are trying to consolidate gains made in the east of the city, which they entered at the end of October. They are yet to enter the northern or southern neighborhoods of Mosul. Kurdish Peshmerga fighters are supporting them on the eastern and northern fronts while the Iranian-backed Shi'ite paramilitary are batting Islamic State west of the city. More than 56,000 people have been displaced because of the fighting from villages and towns around the city to government-held areas, according to U.N. estimates. The figure does not include the tens of thousands of people rounded up in villages around Mosul and forced to accompany Islamic State fighters to cover their retreat towards the city. (editing by Giles Elgood)
Nimrud (Iraq) (AFP) - Iraqi forces have retaken the ancient city of Nimrud, but it has been heavily damaged by the Islamic State group, an AFP journalist who visited the site on Tuesday said.

Statues lie shattered, a reconstructed palace is wrecked and the remains of a ziggurat -- once one of the tallest structures left from the ancient world at some 50 metres (yards) high -- has been reduced to a fraction of its height.

Iraqi forces announced that Nimrud, which was founded in the 13th century and became the capital of the Assyrian empire, was recaptured on Sunday as part of the massive operation to retake Mosul, the last IS-held city in the country.

IS overran Nimrud along with swathes of other territory in 2014, but Iraqi forces have since regained much of the territory they lost to the jihadists.

In April last year, IS released a video of its fighters destroying monuments there before planting explosives around the site and blowing it up.

In the video, militants with sledgehammers and power tools broke artefacts before rigging the site with large barrels of what appeared to be explosives.

IS said it attacked Nimrud as well as other ancient sites, including Syria's Palmyra and Iraq's Hatra, to eliminate idols that are forbidden by its extreme interpretation of Islam.

But that has not stopped IS from looting and selling allegedly forbidden artefacts to fund its operations.

UNESCO has condemned the destruction of Nimrud as a war crime.

Iraqi forces announced the start of the operation to retake Mosul on October 17, and have closed in on the city from the north, east and south.

The elite Counter-Terrorism Service has recaptured a series of areas inside eastern Mosul, and is still battling the jihadists in the city.

Meanwhile, interior ministry forces have advanced on Mosul from the south, and are nearing the airport on the city's southern outskirts.

Iraqi forces have gained significant ground from IS in the four weeks since the operation began, but there are still weeks if not months of tough fighting ahead.
Irwin Winkler will be honored with the Producers Guild of America's 2017 David O. Selznick Achievement Award for his work in motion pictures. The award will be presented at the 28th annual Producers Guild Awards on Jan. 28 at the Beverly Hilton.

Winkler, who's received four best picture Oscars nominations, won the Academy Award for producing 1976's Rocky. His extensive credits range from They Shoot Horses, Don't They? to Raging Bull, The Right Stuff and Goodfellas to last year's Creed. His next film is Martin Scorsese's Silence, which Paramount Pictures will release Dec. 23.

"Irwin Winkler's movies have come to define Hollywood storytelling, and the gallery of iconic characters and classic scenes from his work remains a touchstone for all motion picture producers. It's an honor to give Irwin this award this season, as he continues to release some of the most vital work of his storied career," PGA Awards chairs Donald De Line and Amy Pascal said in announcing the honor.

Winkler issued a statement, saying, "I am honored to receive what is truly the trifecta of recognition: from the legacy of David O. Selznick, from the institution of the Producers Guild of America, and from my esteemed colleagues."

Read more: Irwin Winkler Says 'Creed' Sequel in the Works, Slams Warner Bros. Over 'Goodfellas' Accounting
Hyper-extremism in groups like the Islamic State is eroding religious diversity around the world as the groups attempt to impose their will on those with differing beliefs, creating an explosion in the number of refugees worldwide as people attempt to escape intolerance, Aid to the Church in Need warned Tuesday in its biennial report.

In the Religious Freedom in the World report, the international Vatican-sponsored charity said the growth of the refugee community, now numbering an estimated 65.3 million, threatens the socio-religious fabric of the countries that have taken in those displaced, prompting the growth of right-wing populist groups along with discrimination and violence against religious minorities.

ISIS has flaunted its brutality, often using videos of beheadings as a terror and recruiting tool. The report, which defines hyper-extremism as a process of heightened radicalization, noted violent attacks have occurred in 20 percent of countries spanning the globe.

A similar U.S. State Department report issued earlier found the legal code in many countries imposes harsh penalties for blasphemy and apostasy, undermining human rights and inciting mob violence against the accused, many of them victimized by false charges. It accused ISIS and Boko Haram of genocide.

Tuesdays report found religious freedom has deteriorated in 11 of the 23 worst-offending countries, with no change noted in 38 others. Only in three countries  Bhutan, Egypt and Qatar  did the climate improve. Among the worst-offending countries were Syria, Iraq, North Korea and China, the report said.

In parts of the Middle East, including Syria and Iraq, this hyper-extremism is eliminating all forms of religious diversity and is threatening to do so in parts of Africa and the Asian sub-continent, the report said. The intention is to replace pluralism with a religious mono-culture.

The report said extremist groups target all those who disagree with their fundamentalist beliefs, including moderate Muslims, with the internet and social media playing a key role in radicalizing youths and intolerance.

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[There is a] rise of intolerance towards almost every group, not just Muslims and Jews, Marie-Claude Lalonde, national director of Aid to the Church in Need Canada, told the Catholic Register. Christians feel discomfort. They could also become the target.

We have to be careful to see whats going on and watch the trend.

The report noted in Canada, not only has there been an increase in the number of anti-Muslim incidents but in anti-Jewish incidents as well. More than a dozen violent attacks on Muslims, including vandalism at mosques, were reported. Bnai Brith Canada reported 19 cases of anti-Jewish attacks, a 28 percent increase over the previous year.

Unlike years past in which governments instigated or turned a blind eye to religious persecution, mostly fundamentalists and militants are responsible for the current wave in more than half the worst-offending countries.

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Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel nominated a new ambassador to Turkey Tuesday, its first since the two countries normalised ties after the 2010 crisis triggered by Israel's deadly storming of a Gaza-bound ship.

Eitan Naeh was formally selected by a government committee, said foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon.

He said the timeline for him being confirmed was not yet determined.

Naeh, the current deputy head of mission at the Israeli embassy in London, will become his country's first ambassador to Turkey since Israeli commandos raided a Gaza-bound ship of activists in 2010.

The raid killed 10 Turks and prompted Ankara to expel the Israeli ambassador.

The two sides finally agreed in June to end the bitter six-year rift after long-running secret talks in third countries with Israel offering $20 million in compensation, an apology over the raid and permission for Turkish aid to reach Gaza.

The normalisation agreement had been urged by the United States, which is keen to see its NATO ally, overwhelmingly Muslim Turkey, resume its previously tight relationship with Israel.
Israels political scene reacted with surprising enthusiasm to Donald Trumps shocking election last week. While the celebration from the Israeli right wing was to be expected, even figures on the center left have praised the president-elect. Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog, a man whose recent record as leader of the opposition would make even Hillary Clinton look like a political winner, announced on Facebook that the United States has elected a leader who taught the pundits and sceptics that we are now in an new era of change and of replacing the old governing elites!

Other Israeli politicians were quick to follow. The most interesting of these, perhaps, was Education Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the right-wing Jewish Home Party, who called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take advantage of the rare opportunity to immediately declare that Israel is stepping back from its support of the two-state solution. This is the president-elects vision, as it was declared during the campaign, said Bennett, whose party represents the settlers interests in both the government and the Knesset. This should be our policy  simple, direct, and clear. The era of the Palestinian state is over.

Other right-wing politicians were in a state of near-ecstasy over Trumps promise to finally move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a commitment made but never acted upon by many of his Republican predecessors. Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said that Trump was in a position to make history by going forward with the move. Trumps new Israeli enthusiasts conveniently ignored media reports of both his evident character flaws and deep anti-Semitic and racist support during the last months of the election.

Netanyahu reacted with much more caution. A longtime follower of U.S. politics with deep connections to the GOP hierarchy  he is sometimes described as the Republican senator from Jerusalem  the Israeli premier refused to predict who would win the election when asked to do so during the summer, when Clinton seemed to be enjoying a comfortable lead. Netanyahu was quick to call Trump after his victory  becoming one of the first foreign leaders to do so  but not much was published about their conversation. Its true that some of Trumps statements during the campaign seemed to be drawn from the Israeli governments talking points  but Netanyahu, a four-time winner of Israeli elections, is experienced enough to know the difference between campaign commitments and the complicated reality of the Oval Office.

There are already signs that Trump may be adapting to that complicated reality. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal over the weekend, he expressed hope that he could mediate a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, referring to it as the ultimate deal. While Bennett may be disappointed that Trump did not come out with a full-throated attack on the idea of a Palestinian state, it is unlikely that Netanyahu was surprised.

The Israeli premier is far more concerned with improving U.S.-Israeli coordination regarding Iran  both Netanyahu and Trump blasted the Obama administration over the nuclear deal  and winning Trumps cooperation in blocking pro-Palestinian initiatives and resolutions at the United Nations Security Council.

But perhaps the most pressing strategic question for Israel has to do with Russias military presence in Syria. Moscows deployment of two air force squadrons and sophisticated anti-aircraft systems in northern Syria has significantly limited Israels offensive capabilities on its northern front. Israeli officials consider it crucial to be able to operate the air force over Syria in order to attack convoys smuggling weapons to Hezbollah and to deter potential attacks on the home front.

Netanyahu made a point of meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin four times in less than a year in order to prevent escalation. But if Trump spearheads a reconciliation with Putin, this would be a huge achievement for Syrian President Bashar al-Assads regime  and definitely not good news for Israel, considering Assads alliance with both Iran and Hezbollah.

The Middle East is now one giant minefield, where every American move will have great implications. Israeli officials have privately expressed disappointment with the lack of a serious U.S. response to Russias brutal air campaign in the Syrian city of Aleppo, seeing any victory for the Iranian alliance as bad for Israel. They are hoping Trump will show a tougher stance toward Iranian actions in the region more broadly, and that he will improve Washingtons relationship with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisis regime, which has become one of Israels key regional allies.

A different source of concern has to do with U.S. security aid to Israel. In September, the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding promising Israel an unprecedented $38 billion of military assistance during the next decade. It is, again, hard to say where Trump stands on this matter. Despite his proclaimed support for Israel, the president-elect also said during his campaign that he thought Israel should pay for U.S. aid.

Trumps foreign policy, of course, is still a mystery. It is safe to bet that analysts in the Israeli National Security Council and Foreign Ministry are scratching their heads trying to figure out his administrations intentions. On Friday, Haaretz reported that the Foreign Ministry believed Trump would be less engaged in the Middle East than President Barack Obama. A few hours later, Trump gave the opposite impression in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. Israels right-wing back-benchers are euphoric over the U.S. election results, but presumably its prime minister knows better. The road ahead is yet unclear.

Photo credit: JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images
A senior Israeli Cabinet minister said Monday the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States could usher in a new era of U.S.-Israeli relations that could lead to the abandonment of the two-state solution to resolve the Palestinian conflict.

Education Minister Naftali Bennet, who leads the right-wing Jewish Home party, told members of the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem now is the time to seize the opportunity to reset the structure across the Middle East. He encouraged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to communicate Israels goals clearly, Reuters reported.

"The combination of changes in the United States, in Europe and in the region provide Israel with a unique opportunity to reset and rethink everything," Bennett said. "We have a chance to reset the structure across the Middle East. We have to seize that opportunity and act on it."

The two-state solution has been a cornerstone of the Middle East peace process since 1974. It envisions an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel to resolve the conflict born with the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948. Mainstream Palestinian leaders have expressed interest in the concept since 1982 but disputes remain over borders and the status of Jerusalem, among other issues.

"Trump's victory is an opportunity for Israel to immediately retract the notion of a Palestinian state," said Bennet, who has been an advocate of settlement construction and annexation of the West Bank. "The era of a Palestinian state is over."

U.S. President Barack Obama said during a news conference Monday Trump is coming into office with fewer ideological stances than some other politicians, but ultimately he is pragmatic.

Opportunities and threats come and go. Seizing the opportunity is the secret, Bennet said, citing the upheaval in the Arab and Muslim world, and the changes in Europe and the United States.

Netanyahu has voiced support for a negotiated settlement and demilitarized Palestinian state but opposes a return to pre-1967 borders. He also demands the Palestinians recognize Israels right to exist in any agreement.

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The latest round of peace talks collapsed in 2014.

Bennet noted a half-million Israelis have made their homes in the West Bank since Israels capture of the territory in the 1967 Six Day War, the Jerusalem Post reported.

U.S. Jews disagree that continued settlement construction makes Israel more secure with only 17 percent supporting the concept and 44 percent saying its detrimental, Foreign Policy noted. A Pew Research Center study indicated in 2013 only 38 percent of U.S. Jews felt Israel was making a sincere effort to make peace.

A Gallup poll in February indicated 62 percent of Americans are more sympathetic to Israelis than Palestinians, with more Republicans than Democrats feeling that way. But on the issue of Palestinian statehood, the majority of Americans favor the two-state solution.

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JERUSALEM, Nov 15 (Reuters) -

* Shufersal, Israel's largest supermarket chain, said on Tuesday net profit and revenue were up in the third quarter, boosted by strong online sales and continued promotion of its private label products.

* The company posted net profit of 51 million shekels ($13 million), up from 47 million shekels a year earlier. Revenue rose to 3.1 billion shekels from 3 billion shekels.

* The company said it launched a "Shufersal Baby" brand of baby formula in partnership with U.S. drug company Perrigo .

* Same store sales in the quarter rose 3.3 percent.

* Shufersal is controlled by holding company Discount Investment Corp.

* ($1 = 3.8455 shekels) (Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch)
By Gavin Jones ROME (Reuters) - Opinion polls are making increasingly grim reading for Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi less than three weeks ahead of a referendum on constitutional reform on which he has staked his political future. Of 32 polls published by 11 different pollsters since Oct. 21, every one has the 'No' camp ahead, and generally by a widening margin. In three polls published on Monday the lead for 'No' ranged from five points, according to IPR Marketing, to seven points, according to Tecne, with EMG Acqua in the middle at 6 points. These results exclude undecided voters, which are estimated at 25.9 percent by EMG Acqua and 16.5 percent by Tecne. The most worrying aspect for Renzi is that as the number of undecided voters declines, the lead for 'No' appears to be rising. Bookmakers also hold out little hope for the 41-year-old premier, with Ladbrokes estimating a roughly 75 percent probability of a win for 'No.' The surveys are so one-way that attention is turning to what Renzi will do if he loses the vote on his plan to drastically reduce the role of the upper house Senate and take powers back from regional governments. At the start of the campaign he repeatedly said he would resign in the case of defeat. He then declined to confirm that, saying discussion of his own future deflected attention from the merits of the reform, but in the last few days he has once more began hinting that he will not try to hang on in power if he loses. However, most pollsters continue to say the outcome of the Dec. 4. ballot remains uncertain. They point out that opinion polls already proved notoriously wrong in the June referendum in which Britons chose to leave the European Union and most recently when Americans elected republican Donald Trump to the presidency on Nov. 8. REASONS FOR CAUTION Moreover, in Italy's case there are some specific reasons for caution. One is that the polls show that the 'No' vote is strongest in the south of the country, where turnout is normally lowest. "It may be that a significant number of those in the south who say they are going to vote 'No' will end up staying at home," said Federico Benini, head of the Winpoll agency. Some 4.2 million Italian ex-pats who are eligible to vote but are not included in opinion polls could also come to Renzi's rescue. Benini forecast that of those that cast a ballot, up to 80 percent will back 'Yes' because they follow Italian politics less closely, tend to be less anti-Renzi and see it as broadly positive that the country is trying to reform. However, he also said he expected only about 30 percent of Italians abroad to vote, meaning they will only be vital if 'Yes' is less than one point behind among domestic voters. Another factor that could save Renzi is the wording of the question on the ballot sheet, which has been the subject of bitter dispute and legal cases because it mentions the more popular aspects of the reform but not the less positive ones. Pollster Nicola Piepoli said as many as 8 percent of voter with little interest in politics could head to the polling stations without having previously made up their minds, and these may be swayed by what is written on the ballot sheet. Pollster Renato Mannheimer said it was too soon to say whether Trump's surprise election will affect Italian voters. However, six out of seven polls published since the U.S. election have shown the 'No' lead widening compared with the previous survey by the same pollster. Moreover, in a Winpoll survey published on Saturday, 52 percent of Italians said they believed Trump's victory would favor 'No', compared with 42 percent who thought it would have no impact, and just 6 percent who said it would help 'Yes'. The final polls will be issued on Friday, as Italian law prohibits their publication in the 15 days before an election or referendum. (Reporting By Gavin Jones; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
ROME (Reuters) - Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi cast doubt on Tuesday on the prospects of the man he has indicated as a likely heir to head the divided center-right, saying he had spoiled his chances by clashing with an ally. Berlusconi, 80, who underwent major heart surgery in June, had tapped Stefano Parisi, a former business chief and government adviser, as his candidate to relaunch Italy's splintered conservative forces. Center-right parties are campaigning for a 'no' vote in a December referendum on Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's constitutional reform drive, hoping defeat will force him to resign and open the way for national elections. Parisi staged a rally on Saturday against the reform, where he also took a swipe at Matteo Salvini, leader of the anti-immigrant Northern League, which has historically been close to Berlusconi's Forza Italia (Go Italy!) party. "Parisi is trying to have a role within the center right, but given his conflict with Salvini, I don't think he can have this role," Berlusconi said on state radio RAI. Polls show if Berlusconi's Forza Italia and the Northern League united with other conservatives behind one leader they could hope to compete with Renzi's center-left Democratic Party (PD) and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement. Parisi won Salvini's backing for a closely run - but ultimately unsuccessfully - campaign for mayor in Milan in June. But this week he branded the Northern League "Lepenists and populists", referring to the leader of France's National Front, Marine Le Pen. "These are absolutely not definitive ruptures, they are personal disputes," said Berlusconi, who was expelled from the Senate and banned from office following a conviction for tax fraud in 2013. Renzi said on Tuesday he had little desire to stay on as premier if Italians reject his constitutional changes. All of the last 32 opinion polls by 11 different pollsters have shown Renzi losing next month. (Reporting by Isla Binnie; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
From ELLE

Donald Trump's third wife, Melania, is set to become the next first lady of the United States in January. But his first wife, Ivana, is hoping to get a cushy new job out of the deal, too. In an interview with the New York Post, Ivana said she's planning on asking Donald to appoint her ambassador to the Czech Republic.

Ivana, now 67, was born in what was then known as Czechoslovakia before immigrating to Canada first and then the United States. "[That] is where I'm from and my language and everybody knows me," she said. Ivana also touted her global celebrity as an asset in diplomacy. "I'm quite known all around the world. Not only in America," she said. "I have written three books, and they were translated in 40 countries in 25 languages. I'm known by the name Ivana. I really did not need the name Trump."

Though there has been no response from either Donald or their three children, Ivanka, Eric, and Donald Jr., Ivana did have some predictions about what a Trump administration will look like. She predicted that Donald will never give up life at the Trump Tower, and will likely want to keep his own plane rather than ride in Air Force One."

"Donald is like a good French wine. He doesn't like to be moved and traveled," she said. "The last 18 months, he traveled as much as he ever has in his life. Thank God he has his private plane, but still, it was brutal. It's not going to get any better; it will get worse in the White House."

And even if Ivana doesn't get the diplomatic post she wants, she still said she's grateful the campaign is over so the press will stop prying into her personal life. And she's glad she's not first lady, for the logistics headache alone. "I don't have envy for Melania [because she has] to start to pack the clothes and everything," she said.

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Ivanka Trump has come under fire for peddling a bracelet she wore during her familys 60 Minutes interview, her father's first since winning the election.

Read: Trump Begins to Assemble Squad: Giuliani, John Bolton, Laura Ingraham Considered for Cabinet

Right after the segment aired Sunday, someone on Ivankas staff sent out a press release promoting the $10,800 bracelet with the headline: "Style Alert.

A New York Times article about possible conflicts of interest noted: Even Ivanka Trump turned her appearance on Sunday on 60 Minutes  with her father  into a marketing opportunity."

A spokesperson for Trumps eldest daughter blamed the press release on a a well-intentioned marketing employee at one of our companies who was following customary protocol, and who, like many of us, is still making adjustments post-election.

"We are proactively discussing new policies and procedures with all of our partners going forward.

Meanwhile, the fashion world has its eye on first-lady-to-be Melania Trump as a Vanity Fair article speculates whether "Melania will pose a challenge for the fashion world" due to her husband's politics.

Read: Ivanka Trump Won't Take Role in Dad's Administration: 'I'm Going to Be a Daughter'

Designer Jeremy Scott told the magazine: "Im going to give Melania the benefit of the doubt. She looks good in clothes. She wears them well, shes got a good figure. I dont know if it will have the same meaning for people. What I love about Michelle [Obama] is her personality. Her beauty is so much more about who she is and what she does. Obviously [Melania] looks great, but I cant divorce it from who she is. I dont know Melania. We dont know Melania.

While questions remain about whether the fashion world would boycott the Trumps, a Times story contends, not one designer said they would not dress Mrs. Trump if she asked.

Story continues

Watch: Megyn Kelly Speaks Out About Donald Trump's Anger, Roger Ailes' Come Ons With Dr. Phil

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Solar company JA Solar Holdings Company Ltd. JASO is set to release third-quarter results before the opening bell on Nov 17.

Last quarter, the company posted a negative 49.15% earnings surprise. However, JA Solar was able to beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two of the trailing four quarters, with an average positive surprise of 35.83%.

Lets see how things are shaping up prior to this announcement.

JA SOLAR HOLDGS Price and EPS Surprise

JA SOLAR HOLDGS Price and EPS Surprise | JA SOLAR HOLDGS Quote

Factors at Play

JA Solar caters to a geographically diverse customer base, spanning across Germany, Italy, the U.S., Spain, India, Korea, China and Japan. As the company entered the third quarter, a slowdown was observed in the Chinese market.

In fact, management provided a conservative outlook for the second half of 2016 for JA Solars business. This was primarily because of the anticipation of a temporary slowdown in demand within the domestic market. In particular, the company apprehends a 38% decline in China for the third quarter.

On the contrary, a substantial uptick is expected in the markets of Japan and India, which in turn is expected to boost JA Solars third-quarter business from Asia Pacific. Also, the U.S. market is expected to deliver an improvement of 14%, while 7--8% growth is anticipated in the European market.

The company expects shipments of 1.21.3 gigawatts (GW) of cells and modules for the third quarter, all being external sales. Operating expenses are likely to decline slightly on a sequential basis. The company also estimates shipments of about 50 megawatts (MW) to its downstream projects for the second half of 2016.

However, apart from the anti-dumping policies in the U.S. and Europe, JA Solar has to face cut-throat competition from domestic peers. The fierce competition between Chinese solar companies often hurts the business margins of most firms. Moreover, high product costs continue to impact the stock and are expected to hamper third-quarter results as well.

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The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the companys revenues is pegged at $586 million for the third quarter. This reflects a decline of 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. Meanwhile, our estimate for the bottom line stands at 3 cents, reflecting a 95.6% drop.

Earnings Whispers



Our proven model does not conclusively show that JA Solar is likely to beat earnings this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. But that is not the case here, as you will see below.

Zacks ESP: JA Solar has an Earnings ESP of 0.00%. This is because both the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate stand at 3 cents. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before theyre reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: JA Solar carries a Zacks Rank #3, which increases the predictive power of ESP. However, the companys 0.00% ESP makes surprise prediction difficult.



Note that we caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or #5 (Sell-rated stocks) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.



Peer Release

SolarCity Corp. SCTY posted an adjusted loss of $2.27 per share in the third quarter of 2016, narrower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of $2.35. The companys total revenue of $200.6 million in the quarter, exceeded the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $168 million by 19.4%. This largest U.S. rooftop solar installer currently holds a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Stocks to Consider

Here are a few stocks in the Solar space worth considering on the basis of our model which shows that they have the right combination to pull off a beat:

Canadian Solar Inc. CSIQ has an Earnings ESP of +144.83% and a Zacks Rank #3. The company is scheduled to release third-quarter results on Nov 21.

Trina Solar Limited TSL has an Earnings ESP of +118.75% and a Zacks Rank #3. It is expected to report earnings on Nov 28.

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By Nobuhiro Kubo and Linda Sieg TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan on Tuesday approved a plan for its troops in South Sudan on U.N. peacekeeping operations to conduct rescue missions, amid critics' concerns the move risks embroiling Japanese soldiers in their first overseas fighting since World War Two. The new mandate, which will apply to troops to be dispatched to South Sudan from Nov. 20, is in line with security legislation enacted last year to expand the overseas role of Japan's Self-Defense Forces (SDF), as the military is known. "South Sudan cannot assure its peace and stability on its own and for that very reason, a U.N. peacekeeping operation is being conducted," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday. "The SDF ... is carrying out activities that only it can do in a tough environment." The Japanese troops are in South Sudan primarily to help build infrastructure in the war-torn country, but under the new mission will be allowed to respond to urgent calls from U.N. staff and non-governmental organization (NGO) personnel. Defence Minister Tomomi Inada has said the government does not envision Japanese troops rescuing other foreign troops. The government also plans to assign the troops another new role made possible by the new legislation, to defend U.N. peacekeepers' camps jointly with troops from other nations. Opponents of the move fear the mission will ensnare Japanese troops in fighting for the first time since World War Two. "Security is a concern. If it weren't dangerous, why would they need to carry guns?" said Kiro Chikazawa, a Tokyo civil servant who took part in a small protest near Abe's office. Other critics say the deployment violates conditions for peacekeeping operations set in line with Japan's pacifist constitution. "It goes without saying that the operation must be executed within the confines of the constitution and pertinent Japanese laws," said an October editorial by the Asahi newspaper. "But now, South Sudan is effectively in a state of civil war," the paper added. "Such being the case, we must opposed the assignment of rush-and rescue operations to the SDF." A civil conflict erupted in South Sudan in December 2013, but President Salva Kiir and his rival, former vice president Riek Macharsigned, a peace deal in 2015 that was meant to halt the fighting. The agreement failed to stick. Machar has since left the country and sporadic clashes have continued. (Reporting by Linda Sieg; Editing by Michael Perry)
A Japanese city on Tuesday reopened a busy street that collapsed into a giant sinkhole, with the efforts of workers who toiled around the clock for a week drawing praise on social media.

The gigantic sinkhole, measuring around 30 metres (98 feet) wide and 15 metres deep, appeared last Tuesday in a bustling business district in the southwestern city of Fukuoka, swallowing part of a five-lane street.

The sinkhole, apparently triggered by subway construction in the area, had exposed the support columns of nearby buildings at a traffic intersection.

Japanese workers toiled continuously for a week, dumping huge amounts of wet cement and sand into the gaping hole and fixing electricity, gas and water lines that had stopped following the accident.

The street reopened at 5 am Tuesday (2000 GMT Monday), Fukuoka Mayor Soichiro Takashima said in a statement, exactly a week after the ground began sinking.

"We're very sorry for causing great trouble," Takashima said, noting that a ban on access to surrounding buildings was lifted.

Miraculously, no one was hurt in the accident in Fukuoka, the biggest city on the southernmost main island of Kyushu.

Many on social media expressed amazement at the quick recovery.

"I'm surprised the road reopened in a week!," one Twitter user said.

"Impressive. That was fast," said another.
Nov 15 (Reuters) - JD.com Inc, China's second largest e-commerce firm, said on Tuesday its third-quarter revenue grew 38 percent from a year ago, slightly exceeding expectations.

JD.com said revenues for the three months ended September were 60.7 billion yuan ($8.86 billion), beating average estimates of 60.2 billion yuan, according to a survey of 15 analysts by Thomson Reuters.

JD.com in August forecast third quarter revenues of 59-61 billion yuan, amid concerns that China's retail sector would be hit by a slowing economy.

The company's net loss for the quarter expanded to 807.9 million yuan from 534.9 million yuan a year earlier.

JD.com saw a net loss of 0.64 yuan ($0.10) per American Depository Share in the third quarter, compared to a loss of 0.39 yuan a year earlier.

The company recorded 158.8 billion yuan in gross merchandise value (GMV) for the third quarter, up 43 percent from the same period in 2015. ($1 = 6.8486 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Cate Cadell; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
After bringing his music back to the trap for his recently released album Trap or Die 3, Jeezy visited Larry King Now to speak on several controversial topics affecting the hip-hop community. The Atlanta rapper touched on various topics including the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement, homophobia in hip-hop and his thoughts on Barack Obama.

Despite Obama's presence in the White House, Jeezy explained how African-Americans have struggled in America. "It's almost like nobody cares for no black men or black lives, and it's just like you've gotta put that statement in the air because we have to believe that ourselves," he told Larry King.

As police brutality continues to sting the black community, more and more African-Americans are growing weary of their everyday battles with the men in blue. Jeezy noted how instrumental social media has been in providing awareness for the ongoing crisis. "I think it's been going on. I really think that social media has made it -- or given it -- more awareness lately because social media's so fast, you see these things."

Later, Jeezy applauded the success of Young M.A., an openly gay rapper, for breaking barriers when asked about homophobia in hip-hop and his thoughts on why the genre hasn't fully embraced the idea of bringing in more gay rappers. "I guess culture-wise it just doesn't match with it -- what hip-hop represents. You know, hip-hop is about being tough and just really being dominant and just being individual with it."

Watch his full interview with Larry King below.
Jenna Dewan Tatum channeled Cleopatra at Glamours Women of the Year Awards on Monday night. (Photo: Getty Images)

Its not every day that Jenna Dewan Tatum wears her hair in something other than her signature beach-waved lob, so when she hits the red carpet, its always exciting to see how her glam team will do her look. However, while we always love her glamorous awards-show style, it was Tatums latest public appearance that was especially eye-catching. The reason? Well, her hair and makeup look wasnt resembling something off the runways, but rather looked more like a well-known historical figures.

Tatum attended this years Glamour magazine Women of the Year Awards Monday night with an exaggerated smoky eye and her hair parted down the center and flat-ironed stick-straight. One look at her and youll notice that she was giving off major Cleopatra vibes. See for yourself, below:

Tonight @jennaldewan @jenatkinhair @bradgoreski @patrickta ???? A photo posted by Patrick Ta (@patrickta) on Nov 14, 2016 at 7:02pm PST

The makeup look, done by celebrity makeup artist Patrick Ta, showed off a slight cat eye along Tatums dark-rimmed eyes. That, along with her pin-straight hair created by the Kardashians go-to hairstylist, Jen Atkin, made it almost impossible to miss Tatums resemblance to the queen of Egypt.

This is sooooo stunning, commented one viewer on Tas Instagram post debuting the look, with another fan writing, That hair!!!! Wow.

So, could the Egyptian goddess look be making a comeback? Considering the positive responses Tatums style got on social media, we have a feeling it is. To re-create the look yourself, simply divide your hair into a strict center part and straighten it sans added volume or texture. For the makeup, first use a dark shadow to smoke out the eyes and deepen the crease. Then use a black eyeliner like the Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Perversion ($20) to line the eyes, blending with a brush along the edges to soften the look.

Lets keep in touch! Follow Yahoo Beauty on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Justin Bieber and Usher appear to be headed for a big victory in a lawsuit that alleges they are song thieves. On Monday, a Virginia magistrate judge released a report that recommends the two music stars be granted summary judgment over claims of committing copyright infringement to create their hit, "Somebody to Love," which was released off of Bieber's My World 2.0 album.

The case, brought by Devin "the Dude" Copeland, is perhaps most notable for being a rare instance when after initially being dismissed, appeals court judges took a listen of the songs at issue and decided the choruses were similar enough to move the case forward.

Copeland successfully revived his lawsuit, which then went back to a federal court for fact-finding, but he may end up falling short once again.

That's because U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas Miller reviews the various depositions and expert reports and concludes that Copeland has failed to demonstrate defendants had access to his own work before creating "Somebody to Love." Additionally, the lawsuit may be doomed because of Copeland's inability to show striking similarity between the two works.

Copeland had various, evolving theories how the defendants accessed his own song, also titled "Somebody to Love." His allegations mostly entailed playing the song at various showcases and having it land in the hands of music executives who were allegedly intermediaries between him and the defendants. The problem, as spelled out in Miller's report, is that the gathered evidence established that songwriter Heather Bright and a production trio known as The Stereotypes finished their version on Nov. 19, 2009, and a lack of evidence that someone affiliated with the alleged infringers was given Copeland's music prior to that date.

Judge Miller rejects arguments that "ambiguity in the factual record allows for an inference of timely access," pointing to at least six individuals who made statements in depositions that didn't correspond to Copeland's theorized timeline. Copeland suggested a conspiracy to commit perjury, but Miller responds that "the law does not permit an inference of access based on this type of pure speculation particularly when it would contradict the sworn testimony of multiple witnesses."

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As to the question of whether the songs had sufficient common elements to be strikingly similar, Copeland pointed to what the Fourth Circuit had to say in its ruling.

"But this argument ignores the procedural posture of the case during that appeal, the extensive evidentiary record now before this court on summary judgment, and the well-established case law requiring striking similarity to be evaluated considering the entire evidentiary record," writes Miller. "While the court uses the phrase strikingly similar in describing one aspect of their comparison, it was not evaluating striking similarity of the type necessary to negate independent creation."

The appeals court had revived the case in 2015 with a conclusion that the wrong intrinsic similarity test was being applied and that the choruses could be shown to largely match up.

Here, Miller acknowledges that the two songs share some elements, including the lyric and rhythm associated with the chorus or hook, but leans on a report from the defendants' musicologist for the proposition that some of those elements are too generic to be conferred copyright protection.

"The report documented the phrase 'somebody to love' has been used as a song title in more than 130 licensed musical works," he writes. (Queen had one of them.)

The same lack of originality was deemed true for the similar rhythmic patterns. Copeland's arguments to the contrary were undercut when the judge rejected the testimony of his own expert for failing to apply the legal tests necessary to show extrinsic similarity.

As a result, the magistrate judge is now recommending that the district judge grant defendants' motion for summary judgment and dismiss the case. A result to the contrary would be highly surprising. Here's the full report.

The defendants were represented by Stephen Noona at Kaufman & Canoles as well as Jeremiah Reynolds and Greg Korn at Kinsella Weitzman.
From Harper's BAZAAR

Just Back FromNorthern Italy

Trip Duration: 4 days

Flight Plan: I took a late night flight out of New York that had me stopping over in Frankfurt on my way to Bologna, a short car ride away from my first stop: Modena. I spent one night in Modena, one night in Trivero and my last two nights in Milan.

Where I Stayed: I spent my first night at the Hotel Canalgrande in Modena, followed by one night Hotel Bucaneve Bielmonte in Trivero and the Excelsior Hotel Gallia, a Luxury Collection Hotel in Milan. Although I must admit, of the three hotels I spent the night in, Hotel Canalgrande was by far my favorite. Situated right in the heart of the quaint Italian city, the elevated decor made up of marble, ancient murals and gilded chandeliers transported me back in time and made me feel like I was staying in my own private art museum. One walk outside to the courtyard has you surrounded by orange hued walls and fruit trees where you can enjoy either a cappuccino or an aperitivo as you bask in the sun.

Photo credit: Courtesy Hotel Canalgrande

Photo credit: Courtesy Hotel Canalgrande

Best Thing I Ate: Being a superstar chef in Modena is no small feat; it's home to the top rated restaurant in the world, Osteria Francescana, and has been credited as a hub for Italian cuisine in both its traditional and updated interpretations. Luca Marchini stands as one of the most well revered chefs in the region, whose work epitomizes the cuisine of Modena's past and reinterprets it for the present and future. During my visit, we went to his Michelin-starred Ristorante Erba del Re, where we took a cooking class at the school he's opened next to the restaurant for everyone from aspiring chefs to the person attempting to gain a larger understanding of Modena's historic cuisine. While slow-roasted chicken and decadent mushroom risotto were all standouts on the menu, my favorite dish was by far the simplest: local Parmigiano Reggiano that melted in your mouth and went perfectly with a little Prosecco before our meal.

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Photo credit: Roberto Carrer

Photo credit: Roberto Carrer

Best Hang Out Spot: During my day sightseeing in Milan, I spent a couple of hours walking around Sempione Park. Made up of sprawling greens situated against Castello Sforzesco, a stunning medieval castle, I felt like I was in the Central Park of Italy's fashion capital, watching the bikers, runners and picnic-goers enjoy the fall colors and brisk Italian air. For a leisurely daytime activity and the perfect place to people watch, a bench and a book within the sights of Sempione is all you need.

Best Daytime Activity: On my morning spent up in the mountains of Trivero, I decided to take advantage of the gorgeous landscape that has yet to be hit with snow and hike. Known for its ski runs and sweeping views, the peak at the top of Oasi Zegna truly took my breath away as I sat amongst the expansive Italian mountains. It was such a treat to take in these views with the fall foliage as their backdropin autumn, the winding mountain roads and trails are stunningly saturated with color rather than with the crisp whites and blues of the winter season.

Photo credit: Angelo Giovinazzo

Best Night Out: Dinner at Ristorante Ceresio 7 in Milan. Started by the DSquared2 duo, this uber-chic restaurant boasts craft cocktails and a modern take on quintessential Italian cuisine. Think mushrooms and Parmigiano with raspberries and almond puree and their version of spaghetti 'carbonara' with turmeric and scallop ragout. Dimly lit wood tables are surrounded by walls of Basquiat and other ecclectic pieces of art for a setting the fashion crowd flocks to. After dinner drinks outside by the pool are a must where you can take in picturesque views of downtown Milan.

Photo credit: Courtesy Ceresio 7

Trip Highlight: Upon our arrival in Trivero, we visited Casa Zegna, which houses the offices and silk production factories for Ermenegildo Zegna and (exclusively) for other brands like Tom Ford and Maserati. Watching the entire process of silk making from rough wool being spun into luxurious fabrics was absolutely fascinating and I never expected it to be such a timely processapparently, it takes months at a time to create a single piece of silk. It was also interesting to see two industries like fashion and luxury cars come together, all paying homage to their Italian heritage and striving for the most elevated form of product they can create.

Photo credit: Roberto Carrer

Photo credit: Roberto Carrer

Could not Leave Home Without: A great pair of walking boots for cobblestone streets, a sleek jumpsuit that can seamlessly take you from day to night, a roomy cross-body bag for toting around travel essentials and super hydrating lip balm for a smooth pout in-flight and beyond.

Photo credit: Courtesy

From top, clockwise: Diane von Furstenberg jumpsuit, $836, matchesfashion.com; Frends headphones, $170, net-a-porter.com; Jack Black lip balm, $8, sephora.com; Hillier Bartley bag, $1,432, matachesfashion.com; Acne Studios boots, $560, net-a-porter.com;

Most Inspiring Aspect: There is something about the charming Italian streets that you can't help but feel inspired by. From peach-toned walls covered in sprawling ivy to astounding churches that give an ode to another age, meandering your way around each corner and taking in all of the intricate moldings and details of the architecture breathes a certain life into you that one simply can't find elsewhere.

Photo credit: @losheff

Why Northern Italy? With picturesque cities boasting the best of Italian food and fashion and mountain escapes beckoning on the outskirts, Northern Italy is a splendid region just calling to be explored. Try something unexpected when your initial thought was to go back to the romantic Amalfi Coast or spend the weekend lounging on Lake Como. If you're looking for something equally as enchanting yet unexpected, Northern Italy is for you. From Modena to Milan, this is truly the land of fast cars and slow food.

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[November 14, 2016] Abaco Systems Honored with Two Gold Awards by Military & Aerospace Electronics 2016 Innovators Awards Program

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Abaco Systems announced today that its compact, rugged RES3000 Ethernet switch and AXIS Advanced Integrated Software Environment were both recognized with Gold Awards by the judges of the annual Military & Aerospace Electronics Innovators Awards program. The judging panel consisted of a panel of senior third-party expert professionals. The RES3000 family of fully managed Layer2/3+ VICTORY switch-compliant Ethernet switches is characterized by its extremely small size and weight, low power consumption and affordability, coupled with advanced port density. It is driven by Abaco's unique OpenWare switch management environment which provides users with ultimate flexibility in configuration, monitoring, switching control, addressing and routing options. AXIS is a complete development environment designed to minimize the cost, risk and time-to-deployment of multi-processor and multi-board military embedded computing applications. It provides a complete set of powerful, flexible, intuitive tools and libraries that support the entire development process, from design through debugging, optimization and testing. Applications developed with AXIS are both scalable and portable. "We are delighted to have received this recognition from the judges of the Military & Aerospace Electronics InnovatorsAwards program," said Mrinal Iyengar, Vice President, Product Management at Abaco. "We pride ourselves on our ability to innovate in ways that bring real value to our customers, and that helps our customers succeed, and the RES3000 and AXIS are examples of that innovation in action."



"This prestigious program allows Military & Aerospace Electronics to celebrate and recognize the most innovative products and services in the military electronics industry," said Alan Bergstein, publisher of Military & Aerospace Electronics. "Our 2016 Honorees are an outstanding example of companies who are making an impact." The Innovators Awards are judged based on the following criteria:

Innovation

Value to the User

Sustainability

Meeting a Defined Need

Collaboration

Impact The 2016 Military & Aerospace Electronics Innovators Awards Honorees are featured in the November Issue of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine as well as on www.militaryaerospace.com. About Military & Aerospace Electronics Published since 1990, Military & Aerospace Electronics delivers time-sensitive news, in-depth analyses, case studies, and real-world applications of new products, industry opinion, and the latest trends in the use of mil-spec, rugged and commercial of-the-shelf components. The Military & Aerospace Electronics brand includes the magazine, website (www.militaryaerospace.com), email newsletters and webcasts. About The Military & Aerospace Electronics 2016 Innovators Awards program The Military & Aerospace Electronics Innovation Awards celebrates the most innovative applications of aerospace and defense electronics technology products and systems. Awards are presented to organizations that demonstrate excellence in the use of a product or system. Submissions are accepted from designers and integrators, and users of military and aerospace electronics systems. About Abaco Systems Abaco Systems is a global leader in open architecture computing and electronic systems for aerospace, defense and industrial applications. Spun out of General Electric in 2015, we deliver and support open modular solutions developed to upgrade and enhance the growing data, analytics, communications and sensor processing capabilities of our target applications. This, together with our 700+ professionals' unwavering focus on our customers' success, reduces program cost and risk, allows technology insertion with affordable readiness and enables platforms to successfully reach deployment sooner and with a lower total cost of ownership. With an active presence in a significant number of national asset platforms on land, sea and in the air, Abaco Systems is trusted where it matters most. www.abaco.com Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/438854LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/abaco-systems-honored-with-two-gold-awards-by-military--aerospace-electronics-2016-innovators-awards-program-300362305.html SOURCE Abaco Systems

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From Esquire

After nearly a decade behind bars, a judge has ordered Brendan Dassey-whose 2007 homicide conviction was the subject of Netflix's Making a Murderer-be released from prison.

Dassey, who was 16 at the time of the murder, was serving a life sentence after giving a videotaped confession to the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach-which he said he committed with his uncle. Dassey later recanted this confession, which his lawyers argued was coerced by law enforcement. In August, a judge overturned the conviction in a court order that cited Dassey's age, intellectual deficits, and the absence of supportive adult as to what rendered his confession involuntary.

"The investigators repeatedly claimed to already know what happened on October 31 and assured Dassey that he had nothing to worry about," Judge William E. Duffin wrote in a 91-page court order. "These repeated false promises, when considered in conjunction with all relevant factors, most especially Dassey's age, intellectual deficits, and the absence of a supportive adult, rendered Dassey's confession involuntary under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments."

Though the Wisconsin attorney general had delayed Dassey's release by appealing the overturned conviction, Milwaukee local news reports that a judge has ordered the now-26-year-old's release from prison.

"It is therefore ordered that Dassey's motion for release...is granted," the court order reads. It's not clear if Dassey will walk free immediately or if his release could again be delayed if the State of Wisconsin appeals the order.

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Batman can handle almost anything - but as the Justice League Dark trailer shows, he needs a little help when it comes to the supernatural.

Batman calls upon John Constantine (who has a Doctor Strange-esque vibe going on in this movie), to help him combat demons invading the world, which are forcing law-abiding citizens to comment crimes.

Justice League Dark is following in the footsteps of Batman: The Killing Joke by bringing another R-rated film to the DC animated universe. (The latter caused a fair amount of controversy when it premiered over the summer at San Diego Comic-Con.)

The animated take on Justice League Dark is coming ahead of a live-action adaptation of the supernatural team from director Doug Liman.

Read more: 'Justice League Dark': The History (and Prehistory) of DC's Supernatural Spinoff

Nov. 16: 11:45 a.m. Updated with the home entertainment release dates.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to visit Cuba on Tuesday, 40 years after his father became the first leader of a NATO country to visit the Caribbean nation following its communist revolution.

Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, are heading to Cuba where, according to Canadian government officials talking to Toronto Star, the prime minister will reinforce trade links between the two countries and lay emphasis on his countrys respectful engagement with Cuba in the face of uncertainty thrown up by the United States electing Donald Trump as president.

Under President Barack Obama, the U.S. reestablished relations with Cuba after decades of animosity. The administration announced the loosening of economic sanctions and restoration of diplomatic relations. However, with Trumps election, there may be an about-turn on the countrys position.

Trump has sent mixed signals on Cuba through his presidential campaign. While he accepted Obamas move earlier in his campaign, the construction mogul later said he would keep the embargo in place and close the recently reopened U.S. embassy in Havana.

His election has led to a degree of panic within Cuba and the country is relaunching its military exercises hours after Trudeaus arrival in Havana. The Cuban army issued warnings to locals over the expected movement of troops, planes and explosions around the country, the Canadian Press reported.

The best way to stay on the ground is to keep on having a strong relationship with Cuba no matter who the U.S. president was, said a Canadian official, denying that Trumps election sparked any change in Ottawas approach towards Havana. It has nothing to do with the presidential election. We will continue to be present in Cuba and we will continue to deepen our cultural and our economic ties.

After Pierre Elliott Trudeaus visit and a brief one by Jean Chretien in 1998, the 44-year-old is the third Canadian prime minister to visit the island nation. In his address, Trudeau is expected to show solidarity with Cubas civil society groups and deliver a message on human rights, ranging from pluralism, womens rights and those of other marginalized sections of society like the LGBT community.

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Whether its specific to election and multi-party elections, I think hell talk about the importance of strong governance and structures, the officials reportedly said, refraining from using the word democracy.

The Canadian leader will meet Cuban President Raul Castro along with social workers, students and Canadian business people during his visit to the country. The officials added that if Cuban leader Fidel Castros health permits, Trudeau will also make an effort to meet his fathers old friend, who was an honorary pallbearer at his funeral in 2000.

fidel castro canada

Photo: REUTERS/Jim Young

After Cuba, Trudeau will also travel to Argentina and Peru for the meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders.

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Kaley Cuoco is very passionate about pit bull adoption, as well as dog adoption in general.

Just recently, the actress shared an adorable photo of a pit bull named Ariel who is looking for her permanent home. In the post, Cuoco gushed over Ariel and shared some information about the dog. Ariel, who is between 2 and 3 years old, loves snuggling and running. She is also very fond of eating dog cookies. Cuoco dubbed her the sweetest dog on Earth after spending an entire day with Ariel.

Cuoco has been teaming up with Paw Works, an animal rescue center in Southern California. According to the shelters official Instagram account, they have helped save 2,000 animals in just a span of two years.

The Big Bang Theory actress also encouraged her three million followers to contact the shelter immediately if anyone is interested in adopting Ariel. She added that she will cover the adoption fee just to make sure that the pit bull will find its rightful owner.

Meanwhile, Cuocos love for dogs has also caused her to make some poor decisions. On July 4, the actress shared a snap (via E! News) of her three dogs sitting on the American flag as they celebrated Independence Day. Immediately after she posted the photo, fans and critics of Cuoco started slamming the actress for allegedly disrespecting the flag. She immediately deleted the photo and posted a lengthy explanation saying that it wasnt intentional. Yesterday I made a mistake by posting the picture that was taken of my sweet dogs posing on an American flag. I sincerely apologize to anyone that has been offended by my previous post. This no way reflects my feelings toward what the American flag represents, she wrote.

She ended the lengthy message by saying that being a public figure isnt easy because everything she does is magnified, especially on social media. I am not perfect, she reminded everyone.

Kaley Cuoco

Photo: VALERIE MACON/AFP/Getty Images

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Donald Trumps campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said on Tuesday that Steve Bannonthe former head of Breitbart News who Trump has named his chief White House strategist and senior adviseris not as scary as many critics have said.

The appointment of Bannonwho has given voice to racist, sexist, anti-Semitic and nationalist views through Breitbarthas been met with widespread criticism. Asked about the backlash in a TODAY show interview on Tuesday, Conway praised Bannons influence on Trumps campaign.

I promise you hes not as scary, and he is as brilliant a tacticianand our campaign general, frankly, on the fieldas everyone is also saying, she said. I know him well, I worked hand-in-glove with him. I feel that these charges are very unfair.

Bannon has begun reaching out to top Republicans on Capitol Hill in an effort to build relationships with lawmakers, Politico reported. Meanwhile, Democrats and anti-discrimination groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center, have condemned Trumps pick.

I get a lot of credit for managing this campaign, and thats nice, but we were a very solid teamfocused, cohesive and frankly very much in agreement with the strategy, and he was a big part of that, Conway said of Bannon. This man believes in President-elect Trumps vision, and he is there to support his vision.
CARACAS (Reuters) - Three opposition lawmakers at the center of a dispute between Venezuela's congress and its top court stepped down on Tuesday following an agreement meant to ease a political standoff between the opposition and President Nicolas Maduro. Lawmakers Julio Ygarza, Nirma Guarulla and Romel Guzamana submitted their resignations in writing to congress on Tuesday. The lawmakers, two from the Amazonas jungle state and one who represents indigenous groups, were key to handing the opposition a super majority in December 2015's legislative elections. But a Supreme Court order banned them on allegations of fraud in January. The National Assembly defied the government by reinstating them in July, leading authorities to declare congress illegitimate and setting up a power clash with the socialist government. In Vatican-backed talks between the opposition and the government over the weekend, the two sides agreed the lawmakers would resign to trigger fresh elections for the three seats. "This is a vote of confidence in the dialogue," opposition lawmaker Angel Alvarado told Reuters during Tuesday's congressional session. "Now (the government) has to call elections." Hardline opposition party Popular Will and some opposition activists are angry over the deal, fearing the promise of elections will not be kept and that dialogue gives unpopular Maduro a respite. Maduro, whom the opposition has been seeking to remove in a recall referendum, cheered the removal of the lawmakers. "The process begins for the National Assembly to respect the Supreme Court, respect the Constitution, meaning that there will be elections in Amazonas (state) very soon," he said during his salsa radio show. The opposition took a major hit last month when the country's electoral board all but ended hopes for a recall referendum against Maduro. (Reporting by Eyanir Chinea and Corina Pons; Writing by Girish Gupta; Editing by Alexandra Ulmer and Cynthia Osterman)
The results of a new report show that workers across Asia, Canada, the US and Mexico are the biggest workaholics and the most vacation-deprived employees in the world.

The results of the latest Expedia Vacation Deprivation report show that little has changed since the travel website launched the report more than a dozen years ago.

As in years past, while South Koreans are entitled to 15 days of holidays a year, the average taken is eight -- the least among the 28 countries surveyed.

Workers in North America don't fare much better when it comes to striking a work-life balance: Though Americans received 15 vacation days in the past year, the average taken was 12.

That translates to 375 million paid vacations lost in 2016.

We've been looking at vacation and work-life balance for more than a decade now and while many of the employed adults we survey agree that regular vacations are important for their general health and wellbeing, there are still plenty who have trouble maintaining the important balance between work and life, said John Morrey, vice-president and general manager of Expedia.com in a statement.

The biggest reasons for not using up all their vacations? Nine percent of North American respondents said they worry taking their full allotment of holidays will be perceived negatively by their employer, while 14 percent of Americans reported feeling high levels of guilt.

At the other end of the spectrum, workers in Spain, Finland, Brazil, the United Arab Emirates and France are entitled to 30 days of vacation a year and take them all.

Still, despite enjoying the biggest number of holidays, an eyebrow-raising 68 percent of respondents in Spain and the United Arab Emirates, along with nearly half (47 percent) of French workers said they felt vacation-deprived.

In fact, French respondents said in an ideal world, they'd like an additional 10 days of vacation to make it a round 40 days. The vices they're most willing to give up in exchange for another two weeks are alcohol and social media, followed by TV and coffee.

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Meanwhile, when it comes to disconnecting while on holiday, workers in Hong Kong, India, the UAE and South Korea are most likely to check their email at least once a day.

Swedes and Danes are least likely to mix work with pleasure and succeed in refraining from logging on to their work email.

For vacation-deprived Americans, more holidays was the second most popular work incentive, following flexible work hours and the ability to work from home.

Here are the most workaholic countries of 2016 and the corresponding number of vacation days taken over the last year:



South Korea: 8 days

USA, Thailand, Mexico, Malaysia: 12

Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong: 14

Australia, India: 15

Here are the countries that enjoy the most holidays:

France, Brazil, Finland, Spain, United Arab Emirates: 30 days

Germany: 28

Italy, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, UK: 25
South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries said Tuesday it will split its non-shipbuilding businesses into separate companies to improve management efficiency as the country's shipyards undergo massive restructuring.

South Korean shipbuilders including Hyundai Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine have struggled with mounting losses as global demand slows and competition from Chinese rivals intensifies.

The government and creditor banks -- including the state-run Korea Development Bank -- in recent months have urged intense restructuring efforts including mass job cuts.

Under the plan approved at a board meeting on Tuesday, Hyundai will operate six separate companies to spin off the non-core equipment and construction sectors from its core businesses, including shipbuilding, offshore and industrial plants, the company said in a statement.

Its non-core divisions range from construction equipment, green energy to robotics and account for 13 percent of sales.

The shipbuilder said the spin-off was part of its restructuring plan submitted to creditors.

"There was inefficiency because our management was centred on shipbuilding and it was difficult for businesses that record smaller sales to secure individual competitiveness," it said.

The nation's so-called "Big Three" shipbuilders including Hyundai, Daewoo and Samsung Heavy Industries racked up collective losses of 8.5 trillion won ($7.2 billion) last year.

They were hailed as a major driver of the country's export-reliant economy -- Asia's fourth-largest -- before being forced since last year to shed thousands of jobs and assets to stay afloat.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, best known for his very hardline immigration stances, could be President-elect Donald Trump's choice for attorney general. Kobach helped formulate Trump's controversial plan to build a wall along the United States' southern border and crafted an Arizona law that made it a crime to be in the country illegally and allowed Hispanic people to be asked to "show their papers."

Phil Kerpen, president of the conservative group American Commitment, tweeted Tuesday that credible sources told him Kobach was the likely choice. But Bryan Lowry, a reporter at Kansas.com, tweeted that a Kobach representative said it was "just chatter" at the moment, signaling nothing was definite just yet.

Kobach is a controversial figure, in large part for his very tough stances on immigration. Kobach has indicated that Trump's immigration stances will immediately shift away from President Barack Obama's efforts to extend rights to undocumented immigrants. Trump has said he would deport between 2 and 3 million undocumented immigrants with criminal convictions. Kobach suggested this week that Trump would also deport undocumented immigrants who are arrested but not convicted.

"The most extreme criminals are deported while criminal arrestees not yet convicted are turned loose," he said to Fox News. [Under the new proposal,] criminal arrestees will be deported, there will be immediate improvement in safety for all Americans."

Kobach further suggested that undocumented immigrants would be pushed out of the country after they were not given a "free pass."

"The jobs are going to dry up, the welfare benefits are going to dry up, and a lot of people who may not be criminal illegal aliens may decide, hey, it's getting hard to disobey federal law, and may leave on their own," he said.

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Trump has apparently moved away from moderate Republicans during his transition into the presidency, instead opting for those who were loyal to him during the campaign. Mike Rogers, a former Michigan congressman who headed the House of Representatives intelligence committee, recently announced he was leaving the team. Rogers, well-respected by establishment GOP officials, was seemingly a part of purge of officials tied to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was demoted four days ago from his position leading the transition team, according to a Reuters report.

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[November 14, 2016] AMAX to Showcase [SMART]DC Data Center Manager at SC16

FREMONT, Calif., Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- AMAX, a leading manufacturer of dynamic Data Center and Cloud Computing solutions, today announced it is showcasing its [SMART]DC Data Center Manager, the premier out-of-band DCIM solution for the modern day heterogeneous data center, at the SC16 (booth #3769) on November 14th -17th, 2016 at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City. AMAX [SMART] DC Data Center Manager is the premier out-of-band DCIM solution for the modern day heterogeneous data center. Built on a robust and field proven software platform, the suite seamlessly manages legacy and white-box platforms using a single pane of glass, whether through a user-friendly GUI, command line or integration into existing software via API. It empowers data centers to achieve cost savings through better efficiency. As today's enterprises continue to adopt cloud services and process data at an unprecedented rate, the increasing demand for computer resources requires more effective means of resource management. [SMART]DC was developed to empower companies with the insight and control to achieve three major objectives- achieve significant cost savings through more efficient use of IT, data center space, and facilties resources; better and more easily monitor, manage, and operate large-scale resources within their data centers; and scale with the highest energy and operational efficiency utilizing advances in data analytics and software-defined policies.



[SMART] DC Data Center Manager is featuring policy-based power/resource management and advanced analytics that will empower data center operators to make data-driven decisions, optimizing operations and achieving up to 30% in power savings. "We've seen more and more companies incorporating HPC practices and solutions into the data center," said Julia Shih, VP of Business Development, AMAX. "[SMART]DC Data Center Manager was developed to allow companies maximum flexibility and ease to manage all data center computer resources, no matter what their infrastructure consists of, while achieving significant CAPEX and OPEX savings by running as efficiently as possible."

AMAX will also showcase its comprehensive line of platforms for Deep/Machine Learning and HPC workloads which can be configured as standalone solutions or into clusters. AMAX's Deep Learning Platforms series features workstations and high-performance rack-mountable servers powered by NVIDIA GPUs. The product line includes DL-E200 and DL-E400, AMAX's award-winning ultra-powerful Deep Learning Workstations, as well as deep learning servers housing up to 8GPUs per system. To learn more about AMAX's Deep Learning and HPC solutions as well as the AMAX SMART] DC Data Center Manager, please visit AMAX SC16 booth# 3769 or www.amax.com. About AMAX AMAX is an award-winning global provider of cutting-edge Cloud, Data Center, HPC and next generation computing technologies designed towards highest efficiency and optimal performance. As a full-service technology partner, AMAX tailors both solutions and programs to meet specific customer requirements. Whether you are a Fortune 1000 company seeking significant cost savings through better efficiency for your global data centers, or you're a software startup seeking an experienced manufacturing partner to design and launch your flagship product, AMAX is your trusted solutions provider, delivering the results you need to meet your specific metrics for success. To learn more, please visit www.amax.com. This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/amax-to-showcase-smartdc-data-center-manager-at-sc16-300362463.html SOURCE AMAX

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"Owen developed such a rich, internal world, and I bring the audience into that world," filmmaker Roger Ross Williams told The Hollywood Reporter during the Documentary Oscar Roundtable while discussing his film, Life, Animated, about a boy who learned how to communicate through the medium of Disney's classic films.

Disney allowed Williams to use footage from classic films, to re-cut and in some cases re-draw scenes from its animation. "I had to go in to the studio with all the heads of every department of Disney: legal, animation, marketing. And I had to take them on a journey through the film," said Williams. "By the time I finished, they were in tears."

More roundtables featuring actors and actresses, screenwriters, songwriters, directors, composers and producers will continue throughout February in print and online. Tune in to new episodes of Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter starting Jan. 15 on Sundance TV, and look for clips at THR.com/topic/roundtables with full episodes on THR.com after broadcast.
donald trump

President-elect Donald Trump has alienated many of the nation's most senior national security officials and veteran foreign policy experts, leaving him with an apparent shortage of qualified Republicans willing to serve in his administration.

Trump's transition team  many of whom are relative political outsiders who apparently didn't realize that President Barack Obama's entire West Wing staff would have to be replaced  are reportedly scrambling to fill the transition team and make other political appointments before Inauguration Day.

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Reuters noted that Trump "will eventually need to fill roughly 4,000 open positions."

A sampling of the troubles: Mike Rogers, a former FBI agent and Michigan representative who chaired the House Intelligence Committee, was leading Trump's national security transition team before he abruptly left, Bloomberg reported. He was one of the few political insiders on Trump's team.

Some staff members on the National Security Council, meanwhile, are thinking of quitting before Trump even enters the White House, The Daily Beast reported last week.

And at least 100 GOP national security leaders  most of whom served in previous Republican administrations and would be among the most highly qualified Republicans to advise Trump on foreign policy  effectively ruled themselves out after signing open letters in March and August saying he was "hateful," "dishonest," "dangerous," "erratic," and generally unfit for the presidency.

Trump has consistently brushed off criticism from establishment figures. He dismissed the August letter as the "failed Washington elite looking to hold onto their power," thanking them for "coming forward so everyone in the country knows who deserves the blame for making the world such a dangerous place."

donald trump steve bannon

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But the letters were a preview of the animosity between Trump and veteran policy advisers that has made it difficult for him to find qualified personnel  especially given his notoriously vengeful nature.

Eric Edelman, a former US ambassador to Turkey who signed the August letter, told Business Insider on Monday that he was never willing to serve in a Trump administration.

But he said he wouldn't be surprised if "people like me" were blacklisted by Trump and his aides for speaking out against him during his campaign.

"They just won an unexpected victory. They were reviled by people like me, and now they are exulting in their success," said Edelman, who has served in senior positions at the State Department, Defense Department, and White House. "That is politics and, as the saying goes, it ain't beanbag."

Paul Rosenzweig, a former senior official at the Department of Homeland Security under George W. Bush, put it even more bluntly in an interview with The Daily Beast.

"Everybody who has signed a Never Trump letter or indicated an anti-Trump attitude is not going to get a job," he said. "And that's most of the Republican foreign policy, national security, intelligence, homeland security, and Department of Justice experience."

U.S. President Barack Obama (R) meets with President-elect Donald Trump to discuss transition plans in the White House Oval Office in Washington, U.S., November 10, 2016. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Peter Feaver, who served on the National Security Council under presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, said that when he and his peers signed the letter in August they understood they were moving their names from the "available to be considered" list to the "very unlikely to be considered" list.

"While every administration reaches beyond its narrow base of hardcore supporters to build out its staff, it would be very rare for an administration to hire people who actively spoke out against the president-elect during the campaign," Feaver, who now teaches political science and public policy at Duke University, told Business Insider.

"Fortunately, there are many very capable people who did not sign or speak out and so should not be on any blacklist," he added.

According to The Daily Beast, however, many of the people being vetted by Trump's transition team with respect to national security have field experience from serving in the military but have never navigated the politics of Washington's intelligence community.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, meanwhile, are among Trump's top picks for secretary of state. Bolton  generally more of a foreign policy hawk than Trump, based on the views Trump espoused on the campaign trail  served for less than two years and has long been highly critical of the UN.

Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump

Giuliani, who was mayor during the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, joined the Iraq Study Group when it was formed in 2006 as a bipartisan assessment of the situation there. But he missed all of the meetings and was later replaced. He has also said he is "not sure" that waterboarding is torture, even though the practice has been banned under US law.

"It depends on how it's done," the former mayor said at a town hall meeting in 2007, when he was running for president. "It depends on the circumstances. It depends on who does it."

Minutes later, he said that "America should not allow torture" but "should engage in aggressive questioning of Islamic terrorists."

The Republican national security officials who denounced Trump in their letters mentioned his generally favorable stance on torture as a major reason they could not support his candidacy. Stephen Biddle, an adjunct senior fellow for defense policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Business Insider last week that there would likely be "serious civil-military tensions over issues like torture that raise legal and ethical questions" in a Trump administration.

Many national security veterans are prepared  and even proud  to not be associated with a Trump White House.

Eliot Cohen, a former State Department officer and Defense Department official who signed the August letter, also said it would not surprise him "in the slightest" if Trump had effectively blacklisted those in the national security community who had spoken out against him.

"If its true, I'll wear it as a badge of honor, though," Cohen told Business Insider on Monday. "And you can quote me on that."

Cohen wrote last week that rather than move to Canada, Americans dismayed by a Trump administration should maintain "constant vigilance" over the US's free institutions and "say yes" if they're asked to work for him.

But by Tuesday morning, he'd changed his mind.

"After exchange [with] Trump transition team, changed my recommendation: Stay away," Cohen tweeted. "They're angry, arrogant, screaming 'you LOST!' Will be ugly."

The Trump transition team didn't respond to a request for comment on this story.

NOW WATCH: MICHAEL MOORE: These are Obama's biggest failures and accomplishments





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SEOUL (Reuters) - Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin is being questioned by South Korean prosecutors over the country's political scandal, broadcaster YTN reported on Tuesday. The report, if true, would make him the latest head of a South Korean conglomerate to be grilled by investigators looking into whether President Park Geun-hye put improper pressure on business tycoons to raise funds for two foundations. A Lotte Group spokesman said he could not confirm the report. A prosecution official was not immediately available for comment. (Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin and Ju-min Park; Editing by Stephen Coates)
- By James Li





Lou Simpson (Trades, Portfolio), manager of SQ Advisors LLC, eliminated his positions in Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. (VRX) and U.S. Bancorp (USB) during the third quarter. With the proceeds from these two transactions, Simpson invested in Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (AXTA) and Sensata Technologies Holding N. V. (ST). These transactions align with the guru's investing strategy of investing in understandable companies.





Brief investor introduction

Before he managed a $4 billion portfolio of company stocks, Simpson worked as chief investment officer for Geico, a subsidiary of Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio)'s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK-A) (BRK-B). Simpson generally outperformed the Standard & Poor's 500 index benchmark: the guru averaged an annual return of 20.3% from 1980 to 2004. The Berkshire Hathaway CEO lauded Simpson's returns, claiming that the SQ Advisors manager should be inducted to the Investment Hall of Fame.

While Simpson generally shared investing ideas with Buffett, the SQ Advisors manager generates long-term capital appreciation through an "eclectic" investing approach involving conversations with competitors and top management instead of Wall Street-generated research. Simpson peruses company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of his deep company research.

Guru takes stake in two growing companies

Simpson purchased 5,286,522 shares of Axalta Coating Systems, resulting in a portfolio increase of 5.95%. The specialty chemicals company averaged $28 per share during the third quarter.

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Even though the company has a modest financial strength rank of 4, Axalta Coating has strong Piotroski F-scores and operating margins. During the past two years, the company's operating margin increased quarter over quarter. Additionally, Axalta Coating's minimum F-score is a high 7 out of 9.

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The management of Axalta Coating discussed the company's strong performance in its third-quarter 10-Q filing with the SEC. The "leading global manufacturer" of high performance coating systems reported net income of $71.2 million during the first nine months of 2016, outperforming the net income for the first nine months of 2015 by about $12 million. The increases in net income were likely due to a net sales growth of 2.5% during the third quarter.

The company's third-quarter earnings report further details the company's strong performance: even though the company reported a net loss of $10.7 million, the company's constant currency net sales increased 4.4% compared to the prior year's third-quarter net sales. CEO Charles W. Shaver lauded the company's strong top line and adjusted EBITDA performance, primarily due to strong operating profitability and business developments.

As the company expects high growth potential, several gurus invested in Axalta Coating. Chris Davis (Trades, Portfolio) and Barrow, Hanley, Mewhinney & Strauss both took a stake in the chemical company, with the latter purchasing 2,603,030 shares. Additionally, Diamond Hill Capital (Trades, Portfolio) added 154.24% to its stake.

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Simpson also invested in 2,284,420 shares of Sensata Technologies, increasing his portfolio by 3.53%. The computer hardware company averaged $37.77 per share during the third quarter and currently trades slightly below its Peter Lynch earnings line.

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Like Axalta Coating, Sensata Technologies also has a financial strength rank of 4. However, the industrial technology company has a profitability rank of 8, suggesting high and sustainable profitability in the short term. Sensata's operating margin and return on equity outperform 88% and 94% of global scientific and technological instruments companies respectively. Additionally, the company's return on invested capital outperforms its WACC, suggesting value creation.

Sensata's board of directors further discussed the company's strong third-quarter in the 10-Q SEC filing: total net revenues increased 8.6% from third-quarter 2015 to third-quarter 2016. The Sensing Solutions division revenues climbed over 36% while the Performance Sensing division revenues increased a modest 1.4%. Market stabilization in Europe and China mainly led to strong revenue growth in Sensing Solutions.

As the company presents high value potential, Glenn Greenburg also invested in Sensata Technologies. The portfolio manager at Brave Warrior Advisors LLC purchased 3,085,374 shares, increasing his portfolio 5.79%.

Guru exits from underperforming Valeant and regional U.S. bank

The manager at SQ Advisors eliminated his position in U.S. Bancorp and Valeant Pharmaceuticals. The former averaged $42.48 per share while the latter averaged $25.88 per share.

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U.S. Bancorp has a poor Piotroski F-score of 3, suggesting a weak business operation. Although its profitability ranks 7 out of 10, the regional U.S. bank currently trades near a 10-year high and has a price-to-sales ratio near a five-year high. Additionally, U.S. Bancorp's three-year earnings per share growth underperforms 61% of regional U.S. banks.

With a financial strength rank of 3, Valeant Pharmaceuticals has a weaker financial outlook than does U.S. Bancorp. The company has negative operating margins and returns, underperforming over 75% of global specialty drug manufacturers.

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Valeant reported a loss per share of $3.49 based on generally accepted accounting principles, which underperformed the loss per share for the previous two quarters. Likely due to declining product sales in their existing businesses, the pharmaceutical company's total revenues dropped 11% from third quarter 2015 to third quarter 2016. Goodwill impairment charges of $1.05 billion during the quarter most likely resulted in the weak earnings performance.

After Valeant's third-quarter earnings report came out Nov. 8, the company's stock price dropped to $14.98 per share. Valeant traded at $17.55 per share as of Nov. 14, which is still significantly lower than its price on Nov. 1.

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Both Diamond Hill Capital (Trades, Portfolio) and Ruane Cuniff trimmed their position in Valeant during the third quarter.

See also

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Premium members have access to all real-time stock picks and over 150 guru's portfolios. Additionally, the premium membership gives access to all value screeners, including the All-in-One Guru Screener that offers over 150 filters.

The premium plus membership gives further access, including backtesting for up to 10 years, the Manual of Stocks for all U.S. companies, and over 4000 institutional 13F and 13D filings. Please refer to the membership levels page for all member benefits. If you are not a member, we invite you to a free seven-day trial.

Disclosure: The author has no position in the stocks mentioned in this article.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.






[November 14, 2016] NetComm Wireless announces new engineering group structure and SVP Engineering appointment

SYDNEY, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- NetComm Wireless Limited (ASX: NTC) today announced the appointment of Mr Sergio Berriz to the newly created position of Senior Vice President Engineering, reporting to the Company's Managing Director & CEO David Stewart. This appointment reflects the restructure of the Company's engineering activities into two key areas to support the rapid growth of the business: Product development execution: activities that deliver products to customers.

Future technologies: activities that identify, review, evaluate, design and introduce future technologies. Mr Berriz will lead all elements of the Company's product development execution activities. These include hardware platform development and software development with overall responsibility for all active project engineering activities encompassing engineering groups in Australia (Sydney and Melbourne) and the United States (Sunrise, Florida). The Company's Chief Technology Officer, Steve Collins will focus his efforts on future technologies and play a significant role in positioning the Company as a global communications technology leader. Mr Berriz brings 32 years of product management, design enginering, product development and high-volume mass production design experience to the role. He will initially undertake his role in Florida prior to relocating to Sydney in early January 2017.



Prior to joining NetComm Wireless earlier this year as Director of Engineering in Florida, Mr Berriz held senior engineering execution roles in the USA with Research in Motion (Blackberry) for 9 years, Freescale Semiconductor for 8 years and Motorola for over 15 years. Commenting on Mr Berriz's elevation and the renewed focus of its engineering team, NetComm Wireless Managing Director & CEO David Stewart said:

"NetComm Wireless made the strategic decision to target growth opportunities and build new revenue with a focus on the expansion of R&D resources. With the rapid growth of our engineering team it has become necessary to further invest in the strategic direction of our technology. Sergio brings a wealth of leadership experience at scale and deep technical understanding that complements our existing engineering capabilities. "We are confident that our new engineering structure will optimise efficiency and performance and strategically position NetComm Wireless at the forefront of global communications solutions." Mr Berriz said: "Having spent over 30 years in the telecommunications industry with companies at the forefront of innovation, I was thrilled to join NetComm Wireless earlier this year. The Company is at the forefront of engineering led innovation within the global telecommunications industry. In my new role, I look forward to working with a highly talented team of hardware, software and RF engineers committed to developing real world solutions for customers across FTTdp, Fixed Wireless and wireless M2M." About NetComm Wireless NetComm Wireless Limited (ASX: NTC) is a leading developer of Fixed Wireless broadband, wireless Machine-to-Machine (M2M)/Industrial IoT and Fibre and Cable to the distribution point (FTTdp / CTTdp) technologies that underpin an increasingly connected world. Employing our Listen. Innovate. Solve. approach, we provide solutions for the unique requirements of leading telecommunications carriers, core network providers, system integrators, government and enterprise customers worldwide. For over 35 years, NetComm Wireless has engineered new generations of world first data communication products and is now a globally recognised communications technology innovator. Headquartered in Sydney (Australia), NetComm Wireless has offices in the US, Europe/UK, New Zealand and Japan. For more information, visit www.netcommwireless.com. Logo - http://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20150324/8521501794LOGO



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FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) management board member Karl Ulrich Garnadt, responsible for the carrier's low cost unit Eurowings, will step down next year, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

Garnadt has been at Lufthansa since 1979, recently heading the group's cargo arm and its German airlines division before taking on responsibility for Eurowings at board level this year.

Garnadt turns 60 in January and he said he was stepping down because Lufthansa has a rule that board members must leave when they reach that age.

"This rule of course applies to me too," he said in a statement posted by the airline on Twitter.

The departure comes as Eurowings expands rapidly, taking on planes from Air Berlin and integrating Brussels Airlines as part of plans to become Europe's third largest point-to-point carrier.

The news was first reported by German daily Handelsblatt.

(Reporting by Peter Maushagen; Writing by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Maria Sheahan)
Paris (AFP) - Former French economy minister Emmanuel Macron is set to announce his candidacy for next year's presidential election on Wednesday after floating the idea for months, reports said.

The 38-year-old former investment banker has barely concealed his ambition to occupy the Elysee Palace since he quit the unpopular Socialist government in August.

Macron, a business-friendly former protege of President Francois Hollande, will aim to exploit the deep divisions in the French left in his presidential run.

He has announced a press conference on Wednesday morning in a Paris suburb, with French media BFM and RTL saying he will finally put an end to speculation about his intentions.

A source in Macron's team told AFP last week that Macron would announce his candidacy in the coming weeks.

Hollande, who has the lowest popularity ratings of any post-war president, has said he will not decide until early December whether to seek re-election.

Macron has never held elected office but in April founded his own political movement, En Marche ("On the Move"), saying he wanted to promote "new ideas... neither of the right nor the left".

En Marche now has more than 96,000 members and has already received 2.7 million euros ($2.9 million) in donations.

The election is currently forecast to end in a second-round runoff pitting a centre-right candidate -- likely former prime minister Alain Juppe, 71 -- against 48-year-old far-right National Front (FN) leader Marine Le Pen.

With primaries still to be contested on both left and right, Macron's chances are hard to evaluate but 38 percent of respondents to a poll published on Tuesday said he would make a good president.

They rated Juppe with 56 percent, former prime minister Francois Fillon with 38 percent -- tied with Macron -- and current Prime Minister Manuel Valls with 37 percent.

Hollande scored 17 percent, while his arch-rival, the right-wing former president Nicolas Sarkozy, had 27 percent, the same as Le Pen.

The two-round presidential election will be held on April 23 and May 7.
Categories Makeup

We already know that millennials will play a huge role in the future of our country, but as were learning, their influence is affecting every other aspect of the world, including the beauty industry. Today, Estee Lauder Cosmetics, Inc. made the largest brand acquisition in their 70-year history by purchasing Too Faced for $1.45 billion and the brand credits their generational impact for the buy. John Demsey, executive group president at Estee Lauder, tells WWD that 85 percent of their customers are millennials and part of generation Z.

If you thought the Estee Lauder brand skewed slightly older, thats what attracted them to Too Faced in the first place, as a means to reach a younger consumer. As Glamglow, Smashbox and Becca (among other Instagram favorites) are also under its umbrella, the company wont have to worry about cannibalizing brands in their makeup portfolio against each other. With Too Faced products constantly reigning top-selling spots in retailers like Sephora and Ulta, the brand is sure to fit right in at Estee Lauder Cosmetics, Inc.

So, what does this mean for the future of your makeup bag? A lot, actually! With the new onslaught of Lauder funds and resources behind the young cosmetics company, this can mean a slew of new products and perhaps even standalone stores. Co-founder of Too Faced, Jerrod Blandino, told WWD, we are going to continue to dominate the color category, spinning skin care ingredients into the color cosmetics arena, but looking forward to skin care, fragrancethere are so many different places that we can go now because we have the support and resources. He also adds of the cruelty-free cosmetics company, we will not be animal testing, we will not be going into China, we will not be made to fold into a corporate culture that we do not have.
Moscow (AFP) - The detention of Russian economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev Tuesday on suspicion of taking a $2 million bribe is the latest high-level corruption scandal in Russia involving top officials in recent years.

- Three governors in a year -

In June this year, Nikita Belykh, the liberal-leaning governor of the central Russian Kirov region, was arrested in a restaurant in Moscow, allegedly in the act of accepting a bribe of 400,000 euros ($430,800).

Investigators published photos of Belykh sitting in a darkened room at a table piled with stacks of 100-euro notes.

Belykh was the third Russian governor to be arrested on suspicions of corruption in just over a year.

In March 2015, the governor of the far eastern gas hub of Sakhalin, Alexander Khoroshavin, was arrested on suspicion of taking a massive bribe and is now in jail pending trial.

Investigators said they searched Khoroshavin's properties both on the island of Sakhalin and in Moscow and confiscated large sums of money in rubles and foreign currency as well as jewellery, costly watches and mobile phones.

In September 2015, the governor of the remote northwestern region of Komi, Vyacheslav Gaizer, was arrested and charged with leading a criminal organisation and committing fraud.

All three are now awaiting trial in Moscow's notoriously harsh Lefortovo jail.

Also on Tuesday, two deputy governors in the coal-rich region of Kemerovo were detained as investigators launched a probe into possible extortion of a coalmine stake worth one billion rubles ($15.3 million).

- Defence officials -

Investigators have also turned up corruption in Russia's vast armed forces, although this has not resulted in serious punishment.

Anatoly Serdyukov was fired from his post as defence minister in 2012 over his alleged role in a multi-million-dollar illegal property scam. He only ever faced a minor charge, however, and his case was subsequently closed.

In May 2015, a former senior defence official Yevgeniya Vasilyeva -- reportedly romantically involved with Serdyukov -- was sentenced to five years in prison for defrauding the state of 328 million rubles ($5 million at the current exchange rate), as part of the same probe.

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However, she was pardoned after around three months.

Later in August 2015, the former commander of Russia's land forces, Vladimir Chirkin, was sentenced to five years in jail for taking a bribe.

One of the most senior Russian military officers ever to be convicted of corruption, he was found guilty of taking a bribe of 450,000 rubles (at the time $20,000) to help an officer receive a service flat.

However months later, a military tribunal on appeal reduced his charge to a less serious one and ruled he could pay a fine of 90,000 rubles instead of going to jail.

- Customs head -

In July, the customs chief Andrei Belyaninov -- a former KGB agent who served in East Germany in the 1980s along with Putin -- was targeted in a probe into the alleged smuggling of high-end liquor.

Media released images of investigators rifling through shoeboxes stuffed with cash in his luxury villa equipped with a swimming pool and works of art. Belyaninov was not charged but he tendered his resignation.

- Anti-corruption chief -

In September, the acting head of an anti-graft agency at the Russian interior ministry, Dmitry Zakharchenko, was himself busted in a corruption probe.

He was charged with abuse of power, obstructing the investigation and taking an exceptionally large bribe -- which he denies -- after police found banknotes worth more than $120 million stored in boxes and plastic bags during a raid on his Moscow flat.
[November 15, 2016] Synack Launches First Ever Crowd Security Intelligence Solution for Government, Announces IRS Contract

Synack, winner of the government's largest crowdsourced vulnerability discovery contract through the Department of Defense's "Hack the Pentagon" program, today is launching Synack Government. Synack is already Fortune 500 companies' top choice for crowdsourced security testing, and this new line of business responds to mounting demand from federal, state, and local agencies for a government-dedicated solution. Synack is now officially unveiling a tailored solution, Crowd Security Intelligence Federal, to provide an adversarial perspective on the security of agencies' sensitive, mission-critical IT assets. Today, Synack is also announcing the work they have been doing with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) under a $2M contract to pioneer a model that proactively protects sensitive government and taxpayer data on the irs.gov domain. Honing the experience from these momentous wins with the IRS, DoD, and other state agencies, Crowd Security Intelligence Federal combines the human ingenuity and world-class talent of the Synack Red Team with the scalability of Hydra, the company's advanced vulnerability intelligence platform. The solution offers all of the vetting and tracking features that are a standard part of Synack's core product, with the added management features that the government's sensitive IT assets require. With responsibility for processing $3 trillion in tax collections each year, the IRS proactively sought out innovative crowdsourced security providers that could offer an adversrial perspective on their IT assets to provide the most secure environment possible, without introducing any risk for the American taxpayers. Ultimately, after a thorough market review and trial of Synack, the IRS awarded the $2M contract to Synack on a sole source basis, affirming that no other vendor could satisfy the IRS's requirements.



Synack Government's hacker-powered approach enables government agencies to scale quickly to find and fix vulnerabilities before adversaries exploit them. Unlike bug bounty programs, Synack's unique model consists of the most rigorous vetting and tracking in the industry, ensuring the customer has continuous visibility and management over all Synack Red Team activities. This transparency was a key differentiator for the IRS. "We are excited to see vital government bodies, like the IRS and DoD, move even more quickly than many enterprises to implement our innovative crowdsourced security approach," said Jay Kaplan, CEO and Co-Founder of Synack. "As attackers and threats become more savvy, federal agencies are recognizing that advanced security is paramount. We're rolling out our Synack Government solution to protect some of the most sensitive transactional data and mission-critical IT assets in the country."

Synack kicks off its launch in Washington, D.C. talking about crowdsourced security at CyberCon 2016, where Mark Kuhr, CTO and co-founder of Synack, will address the growing number of government agencies looking to adopt this innovative approach to reducing their security risk. Synack Government is being launched on the heels of recent initiatives driven by the U.S. government, including its largest cyber security budget request ever ($19 billion in FY17) and proposal for the $3.1 billion IT Modernization Fund, which are highlighting the need for inventive, yet proven security solutions. For more information on Synack Government visit www.synack.com/government. About Synack Based in Redwood City, California, Synack is a security company revolutionizing how enterprises view cybersecurity: through a hacker's eyes. Synack's private, managed crowdsourced security solution arms clients with hundreds of the world's most skilled, highly vetted ethical hackers who provide a truly adversarial perspective of clients' IT environments. Synack's confidential client base is comprised of some of the largest F500/G500 enterprise organizations across banking and financial services, healthcare, consumer goods and retail, manufacturing, technology and the U.S. Federal Government. All engagements are conducted by Synack's vetted skilled professionals and are treated with absolute privacy. Synack was founded in 2013 by former NSA security experts Jay Kaplan, CEO, and Dr. Mark Kuhr, CTO. For more information, please visit https://www.synack.com/Government/. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115005554/en/

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A Colorado man who spent nearly half his life in prison for a rape he did not commit has been acquitted after prosecutors decided to put him on trial for a second time.

Clarence Moses-EL, 60, was freed in December when a judge overturned his 1988 rape and assault conviction, as another man in prison had confessed to the crime, the Associated Press reported.

Though the judge found that Moses-EL would likely be acquitted if his case went to trial again, the Denver District Attorneys office tried him again for the crime.

The prosecutors decision was met with considerable pushback, as activists asked officials to cancel the trial.

"He has shown his worthiness, the charges were never true. They were never true," said Tammy Garrett-Williams, an NAACP representative, told KDVR at the time.

The Denver Post also called for the case to be dropped, saying in an editorial, Let him enjoy the freedom that was taken from him decades ago. The case is weak with little more evidence than a dream.

Moses-EL was arrested in connection to the 1987 rape and severe beating of a woman, who reportedly told authorities she had dreamed that he was behind the crime.

Read: Man Exonerated After 25 Years in Prison: 'I Told Y'all I Didn't Do This'

But the victim had never before fingered Moses-EL, having given police three possible names  L.C., Earl and Darnell  as those who could have been responsible.

Moses-EL had maintained his innocence the entire time, having won a legal bid for DNA testing on the evidence to clear his name. But police had reportedly destroyed the evidence from the crime scene in 1995, saying they had received no notice from prosecutors to hold onto it.

It wasnt until 2006 that the DNA of L.C. Jackson, a neighbor of Moses-EL, was matched to a sexual assault that occurred in 1992, not far from the 1987 rape.

Seven years later, police said that Jackson told them that he had consensual sex with the victim of the 1987 rape and then beat her.

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Moses-EL was freed in December of last year, as Judge Kandace Gerdes vacated his conviction and granted him a new trial  though she said he would likely be acquitted.

Read: After 33 Years in Prison, Ex-Sailor Freed By New DNA Evidence

I didnt commit this crime and its going to be proven, Moses-EL told ThisIsNotJustice.org after prosecutors announced they would try the case again.

Jurors began deliberations Thursday before issuing their not guilty verdict Monday, leaving Moses-EL beaming and holding back tears, the AP reported.

Prosecutors said Jackson, who is in prison for two other rapes, has not been charged in this case and is not a suspect. Authorities challenged the credibility of Jacksons confession and stood by the victim, saying she was very disappointed with the verdict.

Saying he holds no grudges, Moses-EL said outside court he hopes his case will help improve the criminal justice system.

You don't know how much freedom really means until you have it taken away from you, and especially if it's taken away from you for something you didn't do, he said.

Watch: Why Seven Innocent People Volunteered to Attend Prison for 60 Days

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From Popular Mechanics

One of the many causes people have cited for Donald Trump's surprise victory in the week since the election is Facebook. Specifically, that the fake news and memes circulating on the social network influenced the electorate to a huge degree. While not quite accepting the claim that Facebook influenced the election, founder Mark Zuckerberg has announced the company will take steps to combat the fake and hoax news stories that appear on the site.

Two-thirds of American Facebook users get news on the site, which amounts to 44 percent of the general population of the United States. The company has come under fire for news feeds rife with fake stories, ranging from an imagined endorsement of Donald Trump by musician Kurt Cobain in 1993 to the surgeon general warning Americans about playing drinking games during the presidential debates. An October report by Buzzfeed News showed that hyper-partisan Facebook groups played an active role in disseminating the false information.

In a note on Facebook, Zuckerberg said that "more than 99% of what people see is authentic," but that the site has "already launched work enabling our community to flag hoaxes and fake news, and there is more we can do here." He did not cite any specific statistics backing up his claim about authentic news, but when pushed on in the comments to his post he responded that the "stat I mentioned is across the whole system. Depending on which pages you personally follow and who your friends are, you may see more or less. The power of Facebook is that you control what you see by who you choose to connect with."

According to Gizmodo, an anonymous source with "direct knowledge of the company's decision-making" says that the company "absolutely" has the power to shut down fake news site, but "there was a lot of fear about upsetting conservatives." That was especially true after reports that the company's valued Trending Topics had an anti-conservative bias. Zuckerberg did not offer any specifics on the company's plans to challenge fake news.

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Elsewhere in the comments on his post, Zuckerberg reiterated his stance that Facebook is a blank platform above all else, challenging the idea that the site should consider itself a media company or anything else. The Aquila drone project, for example, "does not make it an aerospace company." The company cares "deeply about all these things. We are a technology company because the main thing we do across many products is engineer and build technology to enable all these things."

Source: USA Today

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ABC has given a green light to Marvels The Inhumans, a live-action TV series from Marvel Television. It will premiere on the network in fall 2017.

This is the other shoe to drop after Disney this spring pulled a planned Inhumans feature film from its July 12, 2019 release date. Several movies in the series has been planned, and the first one had a script by Joe Robert Cole (Black Panther). Originally, Inhumans was part of Marvels 3.0 phase, with the studio delving even deeper into their vaults to launch more of their niche superheros on the big screen. The Inhumans TV series is said not to be related to the movie, tackling an entirely different story.

As part of TV series deal unveiled today, the first two episodes of the superhero series will debut on Imax screens exclusively for two weeks ahead of the fall premiere on the broadcast network, which will feature some additional content not included in the two hours exhibited in theaters. ABC, Imax and Marvel TV plan to create a joint marketing and promotion plan; the move marks the giant-screen exhibitors first time as a financing participant in a TV pilot and series.

The series will be produced by Marvel TV and ABC Studios and filmed with Imax digital cameras. No writer is announced yet for the TV series, which will not be introduced as a spinoff from Marvels Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The Inhumans are a race of superhumans with diverse and singularly unique powers, first introduced in Marvel Comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1965. The TV series will explore the never-before-told epic adventure of Black Bolt and the royal family.

This unprecedented alliance represents a bold, innovative approach to launching great TV content for a worldwide audience, said Ben Sherwood, co-chairman, Disney Media Networks and president, Disney-ABC Television Group. It highlights Disney-ABCs unrelenting commitment to finding new and creative ways to showcasing our very best programming and increasing global engagement and reach.

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ABC currently has one Marvel series on the air, Marvels Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Carter ended its run last spring after two seasons. Additionally, Marvel has the six series on Netflix as well as the upcoming X-Men offshoot Legion on FX, Runaways on Hulu and Cloak and Dagger at Freeform.

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High school students from Silver Spring, Maryland, who marched in protest on Monday, November 14, say a man in a truck spit on them and pulled out a gun.

Photos circulated on Twitter of the driver, including one where he clearly is holding a gun. The photo uploader later posted a video of the incident where he took the photos from. The gun can be seen at the very end of the video.

Montgomery Blair High School students, among others from the area, staged a protest against the election of Donald Trump on Monday. The photos show the vehicle has a Trump sticker on it.

A second video from the scene shows the incident as a truck pulls out of a McDonalds parking lot and drives across the road, cutting through the stream of Montgomery Blair High School students. It appears the truck narrowly misses the students, and thats when students surround the vehicle.

The subject is too far away from the camera to see the interaction between students and the driver, but it is the same vehicle that appears in the photos showing the driver with a gun. In the video, one student is seen hitting the side of the vehicle before students disperse.

A screen capture of a Facebook post allegedly from the driver also is circulating in social media. Storyful has not been able to verify the Facebook post.

A Montgomery County Police Department spokesperson told Storyful detectives are investigating the incident and attempting to speak to all those involved. Credit: Twitter/bimbobrian via Storyful
Looks like there was a little bit of cute foreshadowing on Meghan Markle's part when it comes to her relationship with Prince Harry!

The 35-year-old actress had a rapid-fire Q & A with Hello! magazine in a recently unearthed video from October 2015, and at one point, the interviewer asks her to choose between Prince William and Prince Harry.

Though Meghan was a little shy, she does end up choosing her future beau, Harry. Watch at the 1:00 mark.

WATCH: Prince Harry's Girlfriend Meghan Markle Spotted Bringing Groceries Back to Kensington Palace in London

Meanwhile, it's business as usual for 32-year-old Harry after he confirmed he's dating the gorgeous Suits star earlier this month. On Tuesday, he met with staff from Naz -- an organization which provides support and advice for various minority communities -- working to support the sexual health and HIV/AIDS needs of minority communities in London.

"Thank you @NazProjectLdn for sharing your fantastic work to promote sexual health and HIV support services in London!" Kensington Palace tweeted.

Prince Harry meets @NazProjectLdn staff and supporters working to support the sexual health and HIV/AIDS needs of BAME communities in London pic.twitter.com/PQz732JfyO  Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) November 15, 2016

Prince Harry meets members of the Joyful Noise Choir @NazProjectLdn, an inclusive and inspirational collective of people, living with HIV pic.twitter.com/NG6afpkuS2  Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) November 15, 2016

And Meghan and Harry's relationship is showing no signs of slowing down. Last Thursday, Meghan was spotted bringing back grocery bags from Whole Foods to Harry's home in Kensington Palace in London, where she's been presumably staying with him.

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WATCH: 13 Things to Know About Meghan Markle

ET spoke exclusively to former royal chef Darren McGrady earlier this month, who speculated that Harry's late mother, Princess Diana, would have been "thrilled" with Meghan.

"The Princess -- having seen Meghan's track record and the sort of work that she does and that she is interested in fashion -- they'd have so much to talk about," McGrady told ET. "Princess Diana would be thrilled that she could talk to Meghan about fashion. We know that Meghan also does a lot of charity work and that would be a big bonus, too, in getting the Princess' approval. We also know that she is beautiful, and of course, who wouldn't want a beautiful bride for their son?"

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Megyn Kelly's new memoir, Settle for More, doesn't hold back on details of her high-profile feud with President-elect Donald Trump and the storm of allegations surrounding her old boss and former Fox News chief Roger Ailes. Here, THR lists 13 blockbuster revelations from the book that's released Nov. 15.

Trump's Fawning Behavior

In 2015, six months before he announced his candidacy, Kelly says that Trump began reaching out to her - "often." He mailed her a copy of a New York Times Magazine cover profile with the note "Great article considering the source." [Trump denied sending the note, but Kelly includes photographic proof in the book.]

Defaced Head Shots

Kelly says that last summer Trump supporters began returning their signed head shots of Kelly, "writing the word TRAITOR across the picture."

Advancement for Sexual Favors?

Ailes, alleges Kelly, "made sexual comments to me, offers of professional advancement in exchange for sexual favors, and eventually, physical attempts to be with me - every single one of which I rejected."

Read more: Megyn Kelly Is Having Her Moment

Garrett Surprised

In 2006, Kelly told her then-office-mate Major Garrett, now at CBS News, about the alleged harassment, and said he "was stunned and had never heard of Roger behaving that way."

Ailes "Just Smitten"

Kelly says she reported the alleged harassment to a supervisor, whom she does not name. "That person," she writes, "vouched for Roger's character, suggested he was likely just smitten, and recommended that I try to avoid him (which I hadn't realized was actually an option). To this day, I don't know if this person pressed the matter further up the line at Fox." She insists that no one ever contacted her.

Hit Pieces

Kelly was approached several times to defend Ailes publicly. When she refused, she writes, "he engineered hit pieces about me online, which cited 'Fox News insiders,' to suggest that I was being 'selfish' for not defending him or looking to improve 'my brand' by having a 'feminist moment.' " When Kelly got her own show in 2013, Bill O'Reilly warned her "that prime-time cable news is a snake pit, and I would have to gird myself for acrimony."

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Trump Goes Ballistic

A week before the Aug. 6, 2015, primary debate, Kelly reported on a Daily Beast story about divorce proceedings between Donald Trump and Ivana Trump in which Ivana testified that he raped her. A few days later, Trump demanded Kelly call him. When she reiterated that he did not "control the editorial content of The Kelly File," he "snapped." "That's IT!" he shouted. "You're a disgrace! You should be ashamed of yourself. You should be ashamed of yourself!"

Read more: Megyn Kelly on Donald Trump Feud: I "Will Not Apologize for Doing Good Journalism"

Debate Questions Leaked to Trump?

Kelly has said that she does not think that anyone leaked her infamous debate question to Trump, but she writes: "The day before the [Aug. 6] debate, Trump called Bill Sammon [the Fox News exec in charge of the debate], clearly anxious about the debate and me in particular. He said he had 'heard' that my first question was a very pointed question directed at him. How could he have known that? I wondered."

Ugly Messages

After the debate, Kelly would return to work after a preplanned 10-day vacation to "find a litany of voice mailscalling me a 'c - ,' 'bitch,' and 'f - ing whore.' "

Cohen Far From Gutted

When Michael Cohen, Trump's attorney, retweeted a Trump supporter who said "we can gut her," Kelly became "alarmed." Fox News executives called Cohen, who did not back down. "[Fox News co-president Bill] Shine, exasperated by Cohen's indifference, tried to explain it in terms Cohen might understand: 'If Megyn Kelly is killed, it's not going to help your candidate.' "

Perhaps Ailes will "Lose Interest"

Kelly writes that "early on," she was "still hoping" the alleged harassment "would end without confrontation. Perhaps he'll lose interest, I thought. Perhaps he'll get the hint. I was also bewildered that he would take such risks with someone he barely knew. I am an attorney. How could he be so reckless?"

Read more: On 'Live,' Megyn Kelly Talks Election, Assures Rattled Nation: "It All Winds Up OK"

Attempts to Plant Kisses

In January 2006, Kelly alleges, Ailes "crossed a new line - trying to grab me repeatedly and kiss me on the lips," she writes. "I dodged the first two attempts, pushed him away, and immediately went to leave. His office was large and it took me a beat to get to the door, which was closed. As I walked away from him he followed me and asked me an ominous question: 'When is your contract up?' And then, for the third time, he tired to kiss me. I dodged him again and walked out - upset, rattled and angry."

Another Female Anchor Says Relationship with Ailes "Strictly Professional"

After Ailes' alleged harassment in early 2006, Kelly called Willis Goldsmith, then the partner in charge of employment law at her old firm, Jones Day. Goldsmith tried to raise the issue with a female anchor who had been at Fox News longer. "She said she and Roger has always had a strictly professional relationship," writes Kelly.

This story appeared in the Nov. 25 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Tuesday for globalization to be framed in multilateral agreements rather than see countries adopt protectionist measures, in a thinly veiled warning to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

In his campaign, Trump argued that international trade agreements had hurt U.S. workers and the country's competitiveness. He has promised to "get tough" with China and withdraw from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, which is still not finalized.

Merkel, having last week offered to work with Trump on the basis of democratic values, used a speech to set out the case for strengthening international cooperation in the field of trade and avoiding a slide into protectionism.

"We are at the moment in a situation in the European Union, in our country and worldwide where there is an argument about how we want to shape globalization," Merkel told a meeting of Germany's BDA employers association.

"Globalization is happening. We can arrange it such that we strengthen multilateral instruments ... or such that we seal ourselves off and become protectionist."

"I am pleased that you, like me, are convinced that we must fashion globalization in a multilateral way," added Merkel.

She said she would make globalization a theme for debate during Germany's presidency of the G20 next year.

Merkel was the driving force in Europe behind the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), an ambitious trade deal between the European Union and United States).

That agreement, still in the negotiation phase, seems sure to die under Trump, whose protectionist promises, should they become reality, would hit few countries harder than Germany, whose economic strength depends heavily on the openness of the global trading system.

Looking ahead, Merkel said: "This dispute over openness or sealing ourselves off (in trade) will keep us very busy in the coming years."

(Reporting by Paul Carrel; Editing by Madeline Chambers and John Stonestreet)
(Adds stock market move, analyst comment)

MEXICO CITY, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Mexico's peso on Tuesday rallied for a second day, rebounding from a historic slump last week weakened by concerns U.S. President-elect Donald Trump could crimp cross-border trade.

The peso strengthened more than 2 percent to 20.2575 per dollar. Following Trump's election the currency hit a record low in its worst two-day slump since a 1995 devaluation.

The peso gained about 0.8 percent on Monday after Trump softened some of his campaign rhetoric that had been directed at Mexico.

But analysts expected the peso would continue to see volatile trading as investors try to decipher what policies Trump could enact as president.

"Investors seem more calm with the possibility that the Donald Trump administration could focus on increasing public spending, distancing itself from the protectionist rhetoric of the campaign," Gabriela Siller, an analyst at Mexican bank BASE, said in a client note.

"However, it is too soon to make conclusions about the policies of his administration in 2017," she added.

During his campaign, Trump vowed to revoke or modify the North American Free Trade Agreement, which encompasses Mexico, the United States and Canada. He also pledged to build a wall on the Mexican border to keep out illegal immigrants.

Last Thursday Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said Mexico aims to persuade Trump how beneficial NAFTA, which took effect in 1994, is for the region. About 80 percent of Mexico's exports go to the United States.

On Tuesday, Mexico's IPC stock index rose 1.7 percent, also advancing for the second day in a row after it slumped by the most in five years last week.

(Reporting by Michael O'Boyle Editing by W Simon)
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico will need to show "enormous pragmatism" in its dealings with Donald Trump's government, President Enrique Pena Nieto said on Tuesday, as his administration prepares to seek common ground on trade and immigration issues. Mexico is on tenterhooks awaiting the accession of Trump to the U.S. presidency because of his repeated threats on the campaign trail to impose tariffs on Mexican-made goods and seal the country off behind a massive border wall. Acknowledging that Trump's victory had generated some uncertainty, Pena Nieto reiterated his government would pursue dialogue with the next U.S. government to reach agreements. "We'll have to work with enormous pragmatism to agree what's useful and convenient for Mexico and for the whole of North America," he told a business summit in the central city of Puebla, Mexican headquarters of German carmaker Volkswagen . The Mexican president added that his government was committed to providing macroeconomic stability for investors, listing a flexible exchange rate, central bank independence and a solid banking system among the key planks of his pledge. Concern has been widespread among business leaders and officials in Mexico that Trump could follow through on threats to abandon the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) if he cannot renegotiate it in the United States' interests. Struck between the United States, Mexico and Canada, NAFTA took effect in 1994 and has been the cornerstone of Mexican international trade policy. Mexico sends four-fifths of its goods exports to the United States. Still, Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo believes Trump will not back out of NAFTA, and has said Mexico could add new chapters to the deal to update it. (Reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
(Adds quote from finance minister, background on trade)

MEXICO CITY, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Mexico has an array of tools to face down financial volatility in the wake of the U.S. presidential election, Finance Minister Jose Antonio Meade said on Monday, after Donald Trump's victory sent the peso currency into a tailspin.

The government can use a windfall stemming from the Mexican central bank's foreign exchange gains on the peso, as well as some 110 billion pesos ($5.3 billion) in its oil stabilization fund, to ensure public finances are stable, Meade said.

"And we're facing this situation with well-capitalized banks," Meade said at an event in the central city of Puebla.

Trump's win sparked fears because of threats he made in the campaign to dump the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) if he could not recast it in the United States' favor, sending the peso to a record low of more than 21 per dollar.

NAFTA is a pact between the United States, Canada and Mexico, which sends 80 percent of its goods exports to the U.S. market.

Meade also noted the Mexican government had refinanced its 2017 debt maturities, meaning it can cover its financing requirements for next year in the domestic market.

"Mexico's public debt ... is something we are revising and discussing with the market," the minister said.

Speaking earlier at the same event, Mexico's Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said he was sure Trump would not ditch NAFTA and noted that new chapters should be added to the trade deal to reflect economic changes over the past 20 years.

An updated NAFTA could cover e-commerce, protection of data and intellectual property in biotech medicine, promoting value chains at small- and medium-sized firms and taking a regional stand against unfair practices such as steel dumping, he added.

Mexico has in recent months slapped tariffs on Chinese steel imports, and one of Trump's top trade advisers, Dan DiMicco, former chief executive of U.S. steelmaker Nucor, has pointedly criticized China for dumping cheap steel on the world market.

Story continues

If Mexico and the United States were to align policies on such issues it would chime with trade experts arguing for the NAFTA partners to pursue a more regional approach to safeguarding the competitiveness of North America.

Guajardo himself spoke of the need to defend the NAFTA region in an interview with Reuters last week.

($1 = 20.6770 Mexican pesos) (Reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Simon Gardner and Jacqueline Wong)
Michelle Dockery, the British star best known as Lady Mary on Downton Abbey, has seen dark times this past year  and shes embraced them for her new role as a con artist in new TNT drama, Good Behavior.

The 34-year-old told reporters at Mondays series premiere in New York City that she just fell in love with her first role since Downton and couldnt put down Blake Crouchs book that forms the foundation for the show.

 an amazing character to play, she added. I was thrilled they had faith in me to do it.

Dockery, who lost her fiance John Dineen to cancer last December, earned praise from her costars for her professionalism in the aftermath of personal tragedy.

Shes amazing, said Juan Diego Botto, who plays Dockerys characters love interest. Shes the kind of actor if you had to choose just one kind of actor to work with for the rest of your life, that would be the kind of actor she is and shes very passionate about what she does.

Adds Crouch, who is co-producing the series, It was, like, the best experience in television that Ive had, working with Michelle, because she was so fearless going into this role.

I mean, the character of Letty Raines is this broken, damaged, resilient character, and Michelle was game to just go there and to go to these incredibly dark places and she brought out things in this character that I didnt even know were there.

Good Behavior premieres Tuesday at p.m. ET on TNT.9




First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden are giving their husbands bromance a run for its money.

On Monday evening, the duo hosted their final event for their Joining Forces initiative for military families, where they reflected on the project as well as the close partnership and friendship theyve developed over the years.

Vice President Joe Bidens wife spoke first, introducing the first lady as a champion for military families and a true role model, especially for young girls.

As a military mom, I am grateful for her service, Biden said. I love her. Were family.

Michelle seemed overwhelmed as she took the stage. Oh, my goodness. This wasnt supposed to be tearful, she said with a laugh.

RELATED VIDEO: First Lady Michelle Obama Gives Melania Trump a Tour of the White House as They Share an Excellent Conversation

The first lady was quick to return Bidens compliments, calling her a devoted partner in crime in the Joining Forces Initiative.

But Jill is much more than a partner, she added. She is one of my dearest friends. And, as Jill said, were family. This is my girl right here. We have laughed together. We have been silly together. We have cried a lot. Weve been there for each other as much as we can throughout this amazing journey. And Jill is not just brilliant, but she is kind. She is very funny. And she is one of the strongest people I know. I love and admire her with all my heart.

Obama promised that she and Biden will continue working on the initiative for the rest of our lives and said shes hopeful the next administration will continue their efforts.

Because this issue has nothing to do with whether you are a Democrat, a Republican or an independent, she said.  It is so much bigger than that. Its about supporting our American heroes. And its about standing up for who we are as a nation.




microsoft scott guthrie

Microsoft has announced a new partnership with OpenAI, the $1 billion artificial intelligence research nonprofit cofounded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Y Combinator President Sam Altman.

Under the terms of the partnership, OpenAI will use the Microsoft Azure cloud computing service as the "preferred" place to do its AI experiments. In return, Microsoft gets increased access to OpenAI's deep bench of robotics and experts, making Azure a better place for building AI-powered software.

"You want to get a good feedback loop going," says Microsoft Executive VP of Cloud and Enterprise Scott Guthrie. "That helps you ultimately build a better platform."

Artificial intelligence is going to be a big point of competition between Microsoft Azure, the leading Amazon Web Services, and the relative upstart Google Cloud over the months and years to come. As Guthrie says, "any application is ultimately going to weave in AI," and Microsoft wants to be the company that helps developers do the weaving.

That's where the OpenAI partnership becomes so important, Guthrie says.

Because we're still in the earliest days of artificial intelligence, he says, the biggest challenge is figuring out what exactly can be done with artificial intelligence. Guthrie calls this "understanding the art of the possible."

elon musk robots

With OpenAI, a research institution focused largely on just that, it's a natural collaboration as they work to "jointly build an even richer ecosystem around artificial intelligence" and "learn as fast as possible," Guthrie says.

Guthrie highlights the fact that Microsoft customers like ThyssenKrupp and Uber are already working with Azure and its artificial intelligence capabilities to power things like fixing elevators before they actually break or making sure your driver is actually your driver.

Combine that with Microsoft's expertise in serving large business customers and helping them build applications that can securely handle large amounts of data, and Guthrie believes Microsoft really stands out from the pack.

Story continues

"Combined, they help make Azure an even more differentiated platform," Guthrie says.

NOW WATCH: China just showcased the world's most human-like robots, and they show how close were coming to Westworld reality





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President-elect Donald Trump hasnt yet formally announced who will be in his cabinet, but several major outlets are reporting that Rudy Giuliani is a favorite for secretary of state.

That would put Giuliani in a position to approve arms transfers to countries that helped make him rich after he termed-out as mayor of New York and began working in the private sector nearly 15 years ago.

Before joining Trumps crusade to drain the swamp, Giuliani had a lucrative career as a lobbyist, lawyer and consultant in the private sector. He represented Purdue Pharma LP  which makes the painkiller OxyContin and has worked for law firms that represent the Venezuelan state oil company, the chewing tobacco lobby, and the casino industry.

He's also forged ties with some U.S. allies in the Middle East. His own security consulting business, Giuliani Partners, won a contract to help train the security forces of Qatar in 2005, and that same year Giuliani joined the Bracewell law firm in Houston  a longtime lobbyist for government of Saudi Arabia.

Giuliani has never revealed the value of those business relationships with the oil-rich Gulf States. But when he ran for president in 2008, financial disclosure forms showed that he earned over $4 million from Giuliani Partners that year, and pulled in another $1.2 million from his work at Bracewell.

In January 2016, Giuliani left what had become Bracewell & Giuliani to join the law firm Greenberg Traurig, a major lobbyist for the private prison industry. He's still at the helm of Giuiani Partners and its subsidiary Giuliani Security and Safety; the full client list for both companies has never been made public.

As secretary of state, Giuliani would likely be tasked with overseeing multi-billion dollar weapons transfers to former clients Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The secretary of state, through the assistant secretary for political-military affairs, must approve all foreign military sales  even those undertaken by a private defense contractor. In September, for example, the Obama administration signed off on a $4 billion sale of 72 Boeing F-15E Strike Eagles to Qatar, and a $1.2 billion deal to sell Abrams M1A1 tanks to Saudi Arabia.

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Giulianis former clients are likely to be on the receiving end of new arms deals under a Trump administration. During the election season, Trump pledged to outsource much of the U.S. campaign against the Islamic State group to U.S. allies in the region. Making good on that promise would require resupplying the major anti-ISIS powers in the Gulf: Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Giuliani would not be the first secretary of state to face potential conflicts of interests in foreign military transfers. As the top U.S. diplomat between 2008 and 2013, Hillary Clinton approved $165 billion in sales to 20 nations whose governments have given money to the Clinton Foundation, according to an International Business Times analysis.

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(Reuters) - Two Somali-American men in Minnesota were sentenced on Tuesday for conspiring to support the Islamic State militant group, according to local media.

Senior U.S. District Judge Michael Davis sentenced Hamza Ahmed, 21, to 15 years in prison, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper.

In November 2014, Ahmed was pulled off a plane scheduled to travel from New York to Turkey, which people who have fought for Islamic State have used as a gateway to Syria.

The militant group holds territory in Iraq and Syria and has sympathizers and recruits around the world who have carried out shootings and bombings of civilians.

Ahmed was indicted in February 2015 on charges of conspiring to support Islamic State and lying to federal agents investigating recruitment by militant groups, according to prosecutors.

He pleaded guilty in April, according to the Star Tribune.

"I want you to understand I am not completely changed," the newspaper quoted Ahmed as saying in court on Tuesday. "I'm in the process, but nobody changes overnight. I'm trying every day."

Hanad Mustafe Musse, 21, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, on Tuesday following Ahmed's sentencing, the local ABC affiliate, KSTP, reported.

Prosecutors accused Musse of trying to leave the United States twice to join the militant group, first in November 2014 in New York and again in April 2015 when he was arrested in Minnesota.

He pleaded guilty to the charges of attempting to support the Islamic State in September 2015.

Ahmed and Musse are part of a larger group of nine Somali-American men who are being sentenced in Minnesota this week for conspiring to support the Islamic State.

On Monday, three men were handed sentences ranging from time served to 10 years in prison.

The Minneapolis area is home to a large population of Somali expatriates. U.S. authorities have said dozens of young Somali-Americans have left the area since 2007 to join al Shabaab, an al Qaeda affiliate based in Somalia.

In 2014, FBI officials said they had begun tracking a trickle of Somali-Americans from the Minneapolis area to Syria in general and to Islamic State-held areas in particular.

(Reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin in Chicago; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and David Gregorio)
Michelle Sie Whitten grew up not knowing anyone with Down syndrome  until she had a daughter with the disorder.

Growing up in New Jersey, I had never met anybody with Down syndrome or even in a wheelchair. Then, when I was pregnant I got a pre-natal diagnosis, Whitten, president of the Global Down Syndrome Foundation, tells PEOPLE. I met a few kids with Down syndrome, and I was like, Alright, we can do this! Then we never looked back.

Whitten admits that because she didnt encounter people with Down syndrome growing up, she had a negative stereotype about what they were like.

The stereotype in my mind was a person with their tongue hanging out and a bad haircut, dressed in ill-fitting clothes, she says. There were terrible stereotypes in my mind, and I realized it was fabricated.

So when she was coming up with the idea for Globals annual fundraiser, she wanted to do something that would shatter stereotypes.

WATCH: Model with Down Syndrome Makes New York Fashion Week History!

I wanted to take people with Down syndrome and make them models, says Whitten. Not only are they not the stereotype, but theyre beautiful models, and were going to elevate them with Hollywood celebrities.

On Saturday, Global held its eighth annual Be Beautiful Be Yourself Fashion Show in Denver, and Hilary Swank, Queen Latifah, Peyton Manning and more stars walked the runway alongside models with Down syndrome.

For the participating models, the event can be life-changing.

We hear directly from them and we hear from their families that it is in many cases one of the best days of their life, says Whitten. People with Down syndrome are very empathetic, and they feel things  they feel that discrimination, or they feel that theyre being treated differently, and they do react to that.

What we hear from our models families is this radically changes their self-confidence and their self-image in a positive way, she continues. Suddenly theyre participating in that class in school more or theyre talking to friends at recess, or if theyre older, they feel like they can contribute to a conversation with other adult friends in a meaningful way. It is a fabulous experience.




Thanks to her, Calcuttans know what Chinese food made by Chinese people tastes like.

When most people look at Monica Liu, they see a smiling restaurant owner in Tangra, Kolkata. But this unassuming grandmother of nine is also known as the Don of Chinatown. Monica Liu owns and runs five authentic Chinese restaurants in Kolkata - Kim Ling & Beijing in Tangra, Tung Fong in Park Street, and branches of her restaurant Mandarin on Sarat Bose Road, and Lake Avenue. Shes been awarded the Best Woman Entrepreneur of the Year in 2003.

More From 101 India: The Last Of The Chinamen



But Kolkatas woman of steel comes fom humble beginnings. During the Indo-China war in 1962, when Monica was just a child, her entire family was arrested and taken to Deoli Camp, Rajasthan. Finally, it was when Monica and another young boy in the camp wrote a letter to the Home Minister, that their release orders were processed. Forgotten for five years in the camp, when the family finally returned to Kolkata, they had lost their home, their friends and almost everything else.

Starting a new life, Monicas mother would make momos to sell to make ends meet. It was from helping her mother every evening that Monicas journey began. Finally, in 1991, she opened Kim Ling, the familys first restaurant. When goons tried to intimidate the family into giving them free food, Monica responded in kind, eventually earning her the title Don of Tangra.

More From 101 India: The Chinese Kali Temple of Kolkata | 101 Heartland



101 Traces looks at the last of anything: ethnic communities, folk craftsmen, disappearing trades, forgotten people. It sketches portraits of these unique individuals, locked in a battle they cannot win: a battle against the future. Together, they represent the dying whispers of ancient heritage and traditional individuality. As India moves towards homogenized global pop culture, 101 Traces honors the people, the objects, and the skills that connect us to our ancient identity.
By Olivia Oran

Nov 14 (Reuters) - Senior Morgan Stanley executives collectively earned about $10.5 million over the past week by exercising options and selling shares, with most of them profiting from an election-fueled rally in bank stocks, according to securities filings.

The executives made the sales after shares of Morgan Stanley, which traded as low as $22 in the last 12 months, reversed course to become the best performing of the six largest U.S. banks so far this year, closing Monday at $39.35.

Executives at other large U.S. banks have not made similar trades, even after U.S. bank stocks helped push the Dow to all-time highs after Republican president-elect Donald Trump's surprise victory.

Morgan Stanley Chief Executive James Gorman earned $2.94 million as part of a transaction last Friday, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. Gorman sold 200,000 shares at a price of $37.70 and spent about $4.6 million to exercise 200,000 options at $22.98.

President Colm Kelleher netted $3.3 million in transactions on Thursday. He exercised 222,713 options at $22.98 and then sold 115,167 shares at $37.92 a piece and 64,127 shares at $38.71. Investment management head Dan Simkowitz also sold $2.3 million worth of stock on Thursday.

Chief Legal Officer Eric Grossman earned 475,206 by exercising options and selling stock on Friday.

Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Pruzan was the only one of the five executives to take profits before the election results. He sold $1.5 million worth of stock.

A Morgan Stanley spokesman declined to comment on the filings.

Shares of Morgan Stanley have soared 17 percent since the close of trading before Trump's victory, reaching their highest level in 16 months.

Trump has sided with leading conservatives in calling for the repeal of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act largely opposed by banks.

(Reporting by Olivia Oran in New York; Editing by Lauren Tara LaCapra and Andrew Hay)
By Alan Baldwin SAO PAULO, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Formula One served up plenty of excitement in Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix but some were counting their lucky stars that nobody was hurt. On a rainsoaked afternoon that saw the race twice stopped and re-started with the safety car deployed five times, there were also those who felt the sport had erred too far on the side of caution. But if there were some mocking comments on social media about the world's top drivers being unable to cope with rain, others breathed a sigh of relief. The crash that halted the race for the first time, Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari spinning on the pit straight on lap 20 to face cars hammering along in a wall of spray, was an incident of particular focus. "Esteban (Ocon) so very, very nearly had a head-on with Kimi and if that had happened we'd all be talking a different story," said Manor racing director Dave Ryan of his French rookie driver. Manor were previously Marussia, the team that suffered the sport's most recent tragedy when Ocon's compatriot Jules Bianchi suffered ultimately fatal head injuries in a crash in the rain at Suzuka in 2014. Spaniard Carlos Sainz, another rising talent who has had some big crashes already in his fledgling career with Toro Rosso, also felt he had been fortunate. "It's very easy from home to say 'Oh, these guys -- why aren't they racing? This isn't F1 anymore'," he told reporters. "From the inside, it's unbelievable how difficult it was, how dangerous it was. "Kimi spun completely in front of me, and I was just 10 metres from hitting him at 300kph. From 300 to zero, you can imagine the magnitude of the crash." The second stoppage confused even some drivers, who had been calling for the safety car to come in because they felt the conditions had improved enough to race. Race winner Lewis Hamilton, who led from start to finish for Mercedes, was one. Officials indicated later, however, that they thought it better to stop and wait for a window of good weather that allowed a real chance of racing. "You can understand them being prudent, thinking about the safety of the driver at all times," said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner. "The great thing is they did get it underway in the end and we saw a fantastic motor race." (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Nick Mulvenney)
(Photo: Mairah Teli Facebook)

A Georgia high school teacher received an anonymous note advising her to hang herself with her hijab.

Mairah Teli, a 24-year-old teacher at Dacula High School in Dacula, Ga., discovered the note in her classroom on Nov. 11.

Your headscarf isnt allowed anymore, the note, which was personally addressed to Teli, begins. Why dont you tie it around your neck and hang yourself with it on your neck instead of your head.

The note signs off with America! and includes a (poorly-sketched) drawing of the American flag.

Teli refused to be intimidated and posted the note on Facebook.

Im a high school teacher and sadly this anonymous note was put in my classroom today, Telis post begins. As a Muslim, I wear a headscarf as a practice of my faith. I want to share this to raise awareness about the reality and climate of our community. Spreading hate isnt going to make America great again.

The teacher ends her post with the hashtags: #DonaldsAmerica #NotIntimidated #HereToStay #LoveTrumpsHate

The post has garnered Teli support from across the globe, with thousands of likes and shares.

Mairah says shes not angry at the person who wrote the note, but its important to teach children how to disagree respectfully. (Photo: Mairah Teli Facebook)

Teli doesnt have proof as to who wrote the note, but she believes its a student. In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Teli says she feels children feel safe making racist and sexist comments because of Donald Trump.

This is just one of many acts of intimidation reported since Trumps victory in the U.S. presidential election. The president-elect has previously proposed a ban on all Muslims entering the United States, and just last week a Muslim civil rights group said it was monitoring reports of several incidents targeting Muslims in the U.S.

Teli, who is a native of California and grew up in Georgia, has since addressed her class about the incident and told them shed be happy to speak with them and answer questions about her hijab.

We are living in a time when there is a lot of disagreement, a lot of conflict, Telli said. Its important to teach them how to disagree (respectfully).

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In a second Facebook post published Tuesday, Teli thanks her supporters and says shes not angry at the person who wrote the note. She doesnt believe begrudging someone will result in anything positive. She staunchly concludes:

To whoever wrote this, know that despite what you have written to me, I still want for you all of the things that I want for myself. I pray that God blesses you with guidance and wisdom. 

School officials are currently investigating the incident.

What are your thoughts? Tweet us @YahooStyleCA.




By Antoni Slodkowski YANGON (Reuters) - Up to 69 members of what Myanmar's government has described as a Rohingya Muslim militant group and 17 members of the security forces have been killed in an escalation of fighting in ethnically divided Rakhine State, the army said on Tuesday. The death toll, announced in the state-owned Global New Light of Myanmar daily, was sharply higher than that reported by state media at the weekend, and came as former United Nations chief Kofi Annan, who chairs a commission on resolving Rakhine's problems, voiced concern at the upsurge in violence. The bloodshed is the most serious since hundreds were killed in communal clashes in Rakhine in 2012. It has exposed the tension between Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi's seven-month-old civilian administration and the army, which ruled for decades and retains key powers, including control of ministries responsible for security. "I wish to express my deep concern over the recent violence in northern Rakhine State, which is plunging the state into renewed instability and creating new displacement," said former UN Secretary General Annan in a statement. "All communities must renounce violence and I urge the security services to act in full compliance with the rule of law," he said. Members of the commission, set up by Suu Kyi in August, are in Rakhine for consultations with community members this week. Soldiers have poured into the area along Myanmar's frontier with Bangladesh, responding to coordinated attacks on three border posts on Oct. 9 that killed nine police officers. They have locked down the district, where the vast majority of residents are Rohingya Muslims, shutting out aid workers and independent observers, and conducted sweeps of villages. A series of skirmishes and attacks during the six days to Monday had led "to the death of 69 violent attackers and the arrest of 234", the military's True News Information Team said. Ten policemen and seven soldiers were also killed in the clashes, it added. The announcement takes to 102 the tally of deaths of suspected Rohingya Muslim attackers since Oct. 9, while the security forces' toll stands at 32, based on reports in state-owned media. HUMANITARIAN AID Myanmar's 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims are denied citizenship, with many of the country's majority Buddhists regarding them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The Rohingya face severe restrictions on travel and access to healthcare. Many were dependent on regular nutritional and medical aid long before the outbreak of fighting in October. Top diplomats from the UN, Britain, the United States and several other countries traveled to the area in early November and said the government had agreed to the restoration of humanitarian aid. But only 7,200 people from four villages have received food, while regular aid convoys to the area have not been restored, according to the UN's humanitarian agency. "While this limited access is welcome, thousands of people remain in need of humanitarian assistance with up to 15,000 people displaced in the area of security operations," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement. "Humanitarian services for more than 150,000 people have now been suspended for more than a month," it said. Residents and rights advocates have accused security forces of summary executions, rapes and setting fire to homes in the recent violence. The government and army reject the accusations, blaming the "violent attackers" for razing houses. Rohingya rights advocates have distributed online video images of what they said were civilian casualties of the attacks, urging the international community to investigate. Authorities have denied independent journalists access to the area, so Reuters has been unable to independently verify either the military accounts or the video clips. (Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Alex Richardson)
Heather Bresch Mylan

Mylan and the Department of Justice don't seem to be on the same page these days.

On October 7, Mylan said agreed to pay $465 million to the Department of Justice and other government agencies over the way it classified the EpiPen in the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program. In the past few months, lawmakers have been accusing Mylan of overcharging Medicaid.

Mylan repeated the figure when it reported third-quarter earnings on Nov. 9. During a conference call with analysts that day, the company said it is still working with the DOJ to finalize that settlement.

That settlement doesn't seem to be as concrete in the eyes of the DOJ. In a letter sent to Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the assistant attorney general said the DOJ would not be able to testify at an upcoming hearing because "it hasn't "agreed to any settlement with any potential party." The hearing had been scheduled for November 30.

Mylan may think it is close to a settlement, but the DOJ won't publicly back it up. To be fair, the DOJ won't back up anything Mylan is saying right now. It also won't even admit that it is looking into the matter, even though Mylan has said in SEC filings that it was subpoenaed back in November 2014.

Contacted by Business Insider, Mylan's spokeswoman repeated what it has said about working to finalize the settlement.

Naturally, this is frustrating lawmakers. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has already torched the DOJ over the figure reported by Mylan, arguing that it's lower than the law covering this kind of overcharging dictates.

Its hard to understand why the Justice Department wont testify about allegedly hundreds of millions of dollars in overcharges to the taxpayers," Grassley said in a statement. "Accountability requires getting answers about why the overcharges happened and what, if anything, is being done to make sure the taxpayers are repaid for their losses and to keep this from happening again.

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The back-and-forth over Medicaid classification isn't not the only legal matter Mylan's facing. The company's also under investigation generic price collusion, unrelated to the EpiPen. For the sake of keeping everything straight, here are all the subpoenas Mylan's disclosed, per its 10-Q.

What was disclosed in the third-quarter 10-Q

We learned that the DOJ subpoenaed Mylan back in November 2014 over the classification of the EpiPen in the case that's in the process of being settled. Mylan has also received a document request from the SEC about this classification issue and Mylan's communications with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.

Class action lawsuits on behalf of shareholders were filed in October 2016 , alleging that Mylan "made false or misleading statements and omissions of purportedly material fact" regarding the classification of the EpiPen under Medicaid. Mylan said the lawsuits are without merit.

Consumer class action lawsuits were also filed in August 2016 over the pricing and marketing of the EpiPen.

Mylan's also facing a shareholder lawsuit out of Israel as of October 13 2016 , also regarding EpiPen's classification under Medicaid. Mylan said this suit was also without merit.

State attorneys general have subpoenaed Mylan for pricing and marketing information regarding EpiPen.

Employees and one member of Mylan's senior management on September 8, 2016 received subpoenas from the Department of Justice relating to the the marketing pricing and sale of some of Mylan's generic products, as well as Mylan's communications with its competitors. This is related to the reports that the DOJ is looking into generic drug price fixing.

In September 2016, a class action case was filed in Pennsylvania regarding alleged price-fixing the cholesterol medication Pravastatin. Mylan noted that it intends to "deny liability."

Investigations that were in the second-quarter 10-Q as well

SEC investigation that started September 10, 2015 regarding "certain related party matters."

Mylan also received subpoenas in December 2015 from the Antitrust Division of the DOJ and the attorney general of Connecticut regarding the price and marketing of Doxycycline, an antibiotic.

NOW WATCH: Here's how much $100 is worth in every state





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The Ballyglass Coast Guard Unit in Ireland brought ashore a mysterious solar-powered houseboat found floating along the coast near Cross Beach in County Mayo on Sunday November 13. The vessel was reportedly built by an environmentalist in Canada.

A handwritten note was also found inside the boat which read: I, Rick Small, donate this structure to a homeless youth to give them a better life that Newfoundlanders choose not to do! No rent, no mortgage, no hydro. Credit: Seamus Butler via Storyful
By Robin Emmott and Philip Blenkinsop BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO's chief said on Tuesday that Russia's seizure of Crimea remained a major sticking point, sounding a note of caution a day after U.S. president-elect Donald Trump agreed to boost cooperation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The U.S.-led military alliance wanted to keep talking to Moscow, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said before talks with EU defense ministers in Brussels. But Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea was an unacceptable breach of Ukraine's sovereignty, he added. His message was echoed by German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen who said she was also concerned about Russia's military activities in eastern Ukraine and Syria. "It is ... important not to forget our principles," she added. Germany and other European powers have said they are concerned about what Trump's election win will mean for the United States' commitment to NATO. During campaign speeches, Trump had said Washington might not defend a NATO member who had not paid its contributions to the alliance and told ABC News in July he might recognize Crimea as Russian. "The message from NATO has been that we want dialogue with Russia," said Stoltenberg, whose country Norway borders Russia. "Russia is our biggest neighbor, Russia is there to stay and especially when tensions run high and especially when we face many different security challenges, it is important to have dialogue." Stoltenberg said he hoped NATO envoys and Russia's ambassador to NATO, Alexander Grushko, could meet in the NATO-Russia Council soon. But he said: "We will never respect or accept the violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine." The Kremlin says Crimea, where Moscow is building up its military presence, is Russian land and its status non-negotiable. In Putin's call with Trump both men agreed "to normalize relations and pursue constructive cooperation on the broadest possible range of issues," according to a statement from the Kremlin. The United States and the European Union imposed sanctions on Russia over Crimea in July 2014 and then tightened them in December 2014, banning EU citizens from buying or financing companies in Crimea, whose annexation has prompted the worst East-West stand-off since the Cold War. Russia hopes the United States under Trump will repeal those measures, potentially pressuring the European Union to do the same. Von der Leyen described the annexation of Crimea as "an open point". "We should also not forget that Russia bears a humanitarian responsibility in Aleppo, where 250,000 people are threatened with death from hunger," she added, referring to the northern Syrian city where Russian air strikes are backing government forces against rebels. (Reporting by Robin Emmott and Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
COSTA MESA, CA / ACCESSWIRE / November 15, 2016 / NEMUS Bioscience, Inc. (NMUS) announced that significant data concerning the IOP lowering effect of NB1111 and duration of action will be presented at the 2016 AAPS National Meeting being held in Denver, Colorado on Wednesday, November 16, 2016, at 8:30 a.m. (MST) by the company's research and commercialization partner, the University of Mississippi.

The abstract, "Effect of single versus multiple day regimen of 9 -THC-valine-hemisuccinate (THCVHS) on the intra-ocular pressure (IOP) lowering activity in normotensive rabbits" (abstract # 30W0830), reports data comparing the Nemus prodrug of tetrahydrocannabinol (THCVHS) also known as NB1111, to established glaucoma therapies of Pilocarpine and Timolol, as well as standard 9 -THC in both emulsion and solid lipid nanoparticle (SLN) eye drops. All studies were conducted in a normal, non-glaucomatous eye. A link to the abstract on the AAPS website can be found at https://annual.aapsmeeting.org/poster/member/66948.

The goals of the studies were to examine penetration and concentration of NB1111 in ocular tissues responsible for IOP regulation and to correlate that concentration to measurement of IOP. Additionally, the studies examined the effect on drug half-life by encapsulating NB1111 in a SLN with single- and multiple-day dosing for up to five days.

The data revealed:

NB1111 lowered IOP in a normal eye in a statistically significant manner with peak IOP decline of 32% versus 16% for Pilocarpine and 23% for Timolol (p< 0.05); prior experiments in a glaucomatous eye exhibited a 45% IOP reduction for NB1111

The experiments demonstrated that increased drug concentration of NB1111 in the ciliary body and retina/choroid plexus was correlated with a decline in IOP; these ocular organs help regulate IOP

Use of 9 - THC (parent molecule, non-prodrug), whether formulated in an emulsion or SLN eye drop solution, resulted in no significant tissue concentration nor decline in IOP

Formulation of NB1111 into an SLN produced a duration of activity that could be consistent with twice daily eye drop dosing in humans and successfully transported the drug into both the anterior and posterior compartments of the eye and was highly significant compared to both approved comparator drugs (p No safety issues were noted with the administration of NB1111 over five days dosing No free THC was detected in the peripheral circulation of the test animals after repeated dosing NB1111 using an assay with nanogram detection sensitivity



"These findings are critical to our understanding on how this novel prodrug of THC can reduce IOP so effectively," stated Soumyajit Majumdar, PhD, Professor of Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery and Associate Dean for Research in the School of Pharmacy at the university and lead scientist of the ophthalmic studies of NB1111. "As important as the ocular findings were in these studies, we were also pleased to see that the plasma THC levels in these animals, even those undergoing repeated ocular dosing, did not have detectable levels of THC. This is a key safety finding for this drug."

Dr. Mahmoud ElSohly, professor at the National Center for Natural Products Research at the University of Mississippi, commented: "Multiple experiments, including previously reported data, have clearly demonstrated a causal relationship between the drug's tissue concentration and IOP lowering in both normal and glaucomatous eyes. This unique prodrug technology has enhanced treatment concentrations in the eye and could signal a new therapeutic class for the management of glaucoma."

"NB1111 has performed above expectations in the ability to lower IOP in these animal models. We want to further explore the neuroprotective effects of cannabinoids upon the optic nerve and move the ophthalmology program into human testing. I am also happy to report that our colleagues at the University of Mississippi have been able to develop an early ocular formulation of our CBD analogue, and in doing so, expands our ocular program into a full-fledged ophthalmology platform that could address multiple eye diseases beyond glaucoma, including diseases of the retina," noted Brian Murphy, MD, MBA, Nemus CEO and Chief Medical Officer.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about the potential benefits of NB1111 and the timing of our near term, intermediate term and long term goals. Such statements and other statements in this press release that are not descriptions of historical facts are forward-looking statements that are based on management's current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, our business, operating results, financial condition and stock price could be materially negatively affected. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology including "goal," "focus," "aims," "believes," "can," could, "challenge," "predictable," "will," or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. We operate in a rapidly changing environment and new risks emerge from time to time. As a result, it is not possible for our management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements the Company may make. Risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially include, among others, uncertainty regarding the results of future testing and development efforts and other risks that are described in the Risk Factors section of NEMUS's most recent annual or quarterly report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as expressly required by law, NEMUS disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

ABOUT NEMUS BIOSCIENCE, INC.

The Company is a biopharmaceutical company, headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of cannabinoid-based therapeutics for significant unmet medical needs in global markets. Utilizing certain proprietary technology licensed from the University of Mississippi, NEMUS is working to develop novel ways to deliver cannabinoid-based drugs for specific indications, with the aim of optimizing the clinical effects of such drugs, while limiting the potential adverse events. NEMUS' strategy will explore the use of natural and synthetic compounds, alone or in combination. The Company is led by a highly qualified team of executives with decades of biopharmaceutical experience and significant background in early-stage drug development.

For more information, visit http://www.nemusbioscience.com.

CONTACTS:

NEMUS Investor Relations

PCG Advisory Group

Adam Holdsworth

Email: adamh@pcgadvisory.com

Phone: 646-862-4607

NEMUS Media Relations

Janet Vasquez

JV Public Relations

Email: jvasquez@jvprny.com

Phone: 212.645.5498

SOURCE: NEMUS Bioscience, Inc.
Several Americans are still coming to terms with President-elect Donald Trumps stunning victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 elections. The race, which polls predicted would end with the U.S. electing its first female president, resulted in Republicans taking over the White House and both chambers of Congress-- the Senate and the House of Representatives.

With several weeks left for Trumps inauguration, many in the country have already begun contemplating on the next presidential elections scheduled for 2020. Lists of potential contenders have been drafted, including a possible reelection run for Trump and Democrats are looking to reconnect with voters.

But Americans dont have to wait for the next presidential election to make their voices heard. Voters elect members for Congress every two years. The next midterm election is scheduled for 2018.

Every state elects two representatives to the Senate who serve a staggered six-year term. Members of the House are allotted based on the states population. While New York elects 27 members, Hawaii elects only two. An estimated one-third of Senate members and all members of the House are up for reelection in 2018. Hence, halfway through Trumps term as president voters will be heading to cast their ballots again.

voting

Photo: REUTERS/AARON JOSEFCZYK

The real estate mogul has remained vague about running for presidency again in 2020 at the close of his four-year term.

I look very much forward to being your president, and hopefully at the end of two years or three years or four years, or maybe even eight years, you will say, so many of you worked so hard for us but you will say that  you will say that that was something that you really were very proud to do, Trump said in his victory speech.

Trump, if he chooses to enter the race again, could face Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders who will be nearing 80 at the time. The former Democratic presidential nominee has not ruled out the possibility of running for presidency in the future.

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Meanwhile, a large number of people on social media have rallied behind current first lady Michelle Obama in the hopes that she would also consider entering the race in 2020. Another name doing the rounds is that of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who was touted as a possible vice presidential candidate before Clinton chose Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine.

However, according to Sanders, the party must break loose from its corporate establishment ties and, once again, become a grass-roots party of working people, the elderly and the poor before Democrats pick their new leader.

Writing in the New York Times, Sanders said Trump won the 2016 election because his campaign rhetoric successfully tapped into a very real and justified anger, an anger that many traditional Democrats feel.

We [Democrats] must open the doors of the party to welcome in the idealism and energy of young people and all Americans who are fighting for economic, social, racial and environmental justice. We must have the courage to take on the greed and power of Wall Street, the drug companies, the insurance companies and the fossil fuel industry, he wrote. We are the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. When we stand together and dont let demagogues divide us up by race, gender or national origin, there is nothing we cannot accomplish. We must go forward, not backward.

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Rome (AFP) - Around 100 people were missing, feared drowned, in the Mediterranean on Tuesday after a migrant dinghy capsized off Libya, according to rescue teams frantically searching for survivors in darkness and rough seas.

German NGO Jugend Rettet, whose boat was at the scene, said 23 survivors had been rescued by an oil tanker which was first to reach the stricken boat.

"The crews are searching for survivors in the water and recovering dead bodies," it added in a tweet.

The survivors and four recovered corpses were transferred from the tanker to the Acquarius, a boat operated by another charity group, SOS Mediterranee.

A survivor told one of that organisation's staff that the dinghy had begun to sink at 6:00 am, four hours before the tanker arrived.

"We were 122 on the boat, no children under 15, but there were 10 women travelling with us and only one survived," the survivor was quoted as saying.

"We waited in the water, taking any floating thing to remain afloat, but most of the people drowned, including my little brother. He was 15.

"At 10 the tanker came and rescued us. I want to call home to tell them that my brother died."

Attempts to find any survivors were continuing but were being hampered by very rough conditions and the chances of finding anyone alive appeared slim.

- Second disaster -

The latest tragedy in the Mediterranean came the day after another incident in which it is feared dozens may have drowned after the sinking of another dinghy, from which there were only 15 survivors.

UN refugee agency (UNHCR) officials said Tuesday that dozens of people likely perished before a merchant ship reached that dinghy, which was of a type that normally have had 100-150 passengers packed on board.

The survivors were Tuesday onboard Italian coastguard ship the Diciotti en route for the Sicilian port of Catania.

Exactly how many people died will not be known until it arrives but it would be unusual for traffickers to set sail from Libya with as few as 15 people onboard.

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The coastguard said a total of 298 people were rescued in three operations on Tuesday, taking the total rescued since Saturday to 2,600.

The coastguard confirmed the recovery of five corpses on Monday and SOS Mediterranee staff said they had seen another one floating in the water but had been unable to recover it.

The migrants rescued by the Aquarius included a large number of minors -- 24 on Monday, including three under five, and 47 on Tuesday.

One young boy who was plucked unconscious from the water on Monday was said to be in a stable condition on the Italian island of Lampedusa after being helicoptered off the rescue boat.

- Record death toll -

"He had inhaled fuel fumes and sea water but happily we got him in time," said Sarah Giles, one of the on-board doctors working for the Medecins Sans Frontieres charity.

"He was unconscious for two hours but we were able to stabilise him before he was evacuated."

Other survivors, the doctor said, were suffering from symptoms of extreme trauma, hypothermia and intoxication and burns caused by fuel fumes. Many were in a critical condition.

"Nobody should have to endure such conditions," said Mathias Menge, coordinator of the SOS Mediterranee rescue team.

"This latest tragedy underlines once more the dangers of the Mediterranean and the pressing need to maintain search and rescue operations throughout the winter."

The latest deaths add to a tally of 4,271 mostly African people who have died trying to cross the Mediterranean this year, according to the UN refugee agency.

This year is already the deadliest on record for migrants trying to reach Europe with uncertainty about the situation in conflict-torn Libya fuelling a higher volume of departures in difficult weather conditions at the onset of winter.
LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigerian militant group Niger Delta Avengers on Tuesday said that it had attacked the Nembe Creek Trunk Line pipeline in the southern Niger Delta. The group, which wants more energy wealth to go to the swampland region which is the source of most of Nigeria's oil, said it would continue attacking energy facilities until the "environment prevails for genuine dialogue and negotiations" to end a spate of attacks dating back to January. (Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram; editing by Jason Neely)
Lagos (AFP) - Thousands of residents of a Lagos waterfront community marched on the local governor's office Tuesday to protest the demolition of their homes, part of a growing drive to clear out shanties around Nigeria's commercial hub.

At least three people died last week in the fishing community of Otodo Gbame, after police moved in with no notice, setting fire and chasing some people into the Lagos lagoon, according to residents.

Some 2,000 of them including women and children trekked to state Governor Akinwumi Ambode's office Tuesday, barricading its doors and saying they planned to rally until their demands were met.

"We condemn the forced evictions of over 30,000 hard-working, law-abiding citizens from Otodo Gbame and thousands more from Ebute-Ikate on 9-11 November 2016," they said in a letter.

"We in particular condemn the use of fire, demolition in the middle of the night and the tragic loss of lives of persons who drowned when chased by police into the Lagos lagoon."

The government warned last month it would clear shanties from the sprawling city of 20 million people because of security concerns.

Such operations have occurred in the past, but have accelerated since the new governor arrived last year, and very regularly since the new warning.

The government believes kidnappers hid in shanties to abduct school children. Several school children have been kidnapped around the city's riverine communities in recent weeks.

Amnesty International urged the government to halt the demolitions, fearing thousands might be made homeless, but the government still went ahead with the exercise at Otodo Gbame.

The residents, carrying placards and chanting protest songs, accused the government of using the police and hoodlums to destroy their homes without any prior notice.

Contacted by AFP, the Lagos State authorities have refused to give any comment so far.

- 3 dead, 11 missing -

Megan Chapman of the Justice and Empowerment Initiatives (JEI) lobby group, which helped organise the rally told AFP that three corpses were recovered from the lagoon after the demolition, while 11 people were still missing.

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"The 11 missing people are presumed to be dead. We want government to halt the demolitions which have rendered thousands homeless," she said.

"Since November 11, evictees are facing a grave humanitarian disaster without shelter, access to clean water, food and other basic needs," said Sani Mohammed of the Nigerian Slum/Informal Settlement Federation.

"We are here to appeal to Governor Ambode to provide reliefs to those affected by the demolition and to compensate them for the loss of their homes," he said.

The protesters became unruly and angry when the governor failed to come out to address them.

They immediately set barricade at all entrances into the government house and vowed to continue the rally until their demands were met.

"Otodo is my ancestral home. My parents lived there for years before they died. I don't know where else to go," said Celestine Ahisu, a self-employed engineer and father of three children.

Beatrice Keyimon, 25-year-old fish seller told AFP she has been sleeping inside her canoe with her three children since she lost her home.

"We could not salvage anything. The area boys came like a thief in the night and set everywhere including our house ablaze," she lamented.
HELSINKI, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Nokia said on Tuesday it expects its primary addressable network equipment market to fall around 2 percent next year.

The Finnish company said in a statement it expects the operating margin for its networks business to be in a range of 8 to 10 percent in 2017, and sales to decline in line with the market.

For this year, the company has forecast a networks profit margin of 7 to 9 percent.

Nokia added that it targets to propose a dividend 0.17 euros per share for 2016, up from 0.16 from 2015.

(Reporting by Tuomas Forsell, editing by Jussi Rosendahl)
By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Banks in the three Nordic countries and the Netherlands sent a joint warning to the European Commission, underlining their concerns that new capital floor requirements may jeopardise economic growth.

The heads of the four countries' banking associations will hold a meeting Monday with European Commission vice presidents Valdis Dombrovskis and Jyrki Katainen.

"They will express their concerns about the serious threat Basel IV represents to European banks and to these banks' ability to support European growth," the Danish Bankers Association said in a statement.

A capital floor would mean European banks' costs for lending to financially weak clients and to financially stronger clients would be roughly the same, it said.

"The result would be a very large increase in capital requirements for banks in the Nordic region and the Netherlands, which on average have comparably low-risk portfolios," the statement said.

(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, editing by Louise Heavens)
DALLAS, TX / ACCESSWIRE / November 15, 2016 / North American Cannabis Holdings, Inc. (USMJ) recently announced entering into a Letter of Intent agreement with Alternet Systems, Inc. (ALYI). The agreement is a first step toward a more comprehensive contract in which the two Companies would combined resources to introduce a cannabis retail payment system.

Last week, North American Cannabis Holdings announced opening an office in California. The business development office had been in the works for some time in anticipation of California passing Proposition 64 legalizing recreational marijuana. A recent Forbes feature includes an estimate that the California marijuana market may grow to over $8 billion from its current $2 billion now that recreational marijuana is legal in the State.

In anticipation of a comprehensive contract between Alternet and North American Cannabis Holdings coming together by the end of the year, Alternet has been added to the new North American Cannabis business development office in California.

To learn more about North American Cannabis Holdings: growusmj.com.

Follow the Company on Twitter: US_HEMP

To learn more about Alternet Systems: alternetsystems.com

Follow the Company on Twitter: AlternetSystems

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), and as such, may involve risks and uncertainties. These forward looking statements relate to, amongst other things, current expectation of the business environment in which the company operates, potential future performance, projections of future performance and the perceived opportunities in the market. The company's actual performance, results and achievements may differ materially from the expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements as a result of a wide range of factors.

Story continues

USMJ Contact:

Steven Rash

Phone: +1-972-528-0162

Email: Info@growusmj.com

SOURCE: North American Cannabis Holdings, Inc.
The No. 1 foreign policy threat that may be awaiting President-elect Trump is North Korea's nuclear capability and its close ties with Iran. It's a high-stakes game of brinkmanship, with a whole new layer of uncertainty as the U.S. administration changes guard in the weeks ahead. Time will tell if Trump will pull out of the nuclear pact the United States signed last year with Iran, potentially freeing the Mideastern power to act on its ambitions.



According to military officials, the United States and South Korea remain on high alert after receiving reports that North Korea may test-fire an intermediate-range ballistic missile when Trump enters the White House in January. The missile test is said to be a warning that Pyongyang will not give up its nuclear- and missile-development programs.

The Musudan, or BM-35 missile, has an estimated range of 3,500 kilometers, which is enough to allow it to target the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, an island with key strategic assets for U.S. forces.

Though Western security analysts know very little for certain about the missile test expected, arms-control experts and North Korea watchers can agree one thing is likely: A small group of Iranian observers will be there to witness the latest demonstration of North Korean ballistic missile technology.

The cozy military relationship between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Iran no longer receives the attention it did two decades ago, when the two countries actively exchanged ballistic missile technology and know-how. But the relationship may be pulled back into focus as the next U.S. presidential administration attempts to manage a tenuous rapprochement with Tehran at the same time North Korea dials up its nuclear and ballistic missile provocations.

Little exists in the way of hard evidence suggesting the two countries are currently co-developing ballistic missiles or exchanging critical nuclear technologies, experts say. However, Iranian scientists and military officers have reportedly observed most of North Korea's major missile and nuclear tests over the past 20 years.

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Decades of previous cooperation between the two countries raises the specter that Iran  its economy and government coffers on the mend after years of devastating sanctions  could offer monetary assistance to the cash-strapped hermit kingdom in exchange for missile technology, or even assistance with its now-halted nuclear program at some point in the future.

"There's no really good evidence that they cooperate on nuclear issues," said Dr. Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey in California. "But given the scale of the cooperation we've seen on the missile side, would it shock me? No, it would not shock me."

Security ties between North Korea and Iran reach back at least as far as the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, when North Korea supplied Iran with hundreds of Soviet-designed Scud-B and Scud-C ballistic missiles during the latter half of the decade and into the early 1990s. Iran renamed its Scuds Shahab-1 and Shahab-2, respectively, and its engineers began tinkering with the technology under an indigenous ballistic missile technology program.

North Korea also supplied Iran with its own medium-range No-dong missile, a scaled-up adaptation of Scud technology with an estimated 1,500-kilometer  or roughly 930-mile  range first flown by North Korea in 1993. Iran dubbed its No-dong derivatives Shahab-3 and developed several variants that remain in Iran's arsenal, including one with a reported range of roughly 1,900 kilometers, or nearly 1,200 miles. (Pakistan also received Scud technology from North Korea around this time, renaming its missile variants Ghauri.)

In the latter half of the 1990s, the concrete ties between the various Scud-based ballistic missile technology programs of North Korea, Pakistan and Iran become less clear. "In a historical sense, the North Koreans provided a lot of liquid fuel missile technology and missiles to a lot of folks, including the Pakistanis and the Iranians," said Tom Karako, a senior fellow and director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The early Shahab missiles and the Ghauris in Pakistan were basically North Korean Scuds with different paint jobs  literally  transferred from North Korea to those countries. Later these countries got their own liquid- and solid-fueled technologies up and running on their own," he said.

In other words, from the late 1990s onward, Iran and North Korea continued to develop their ballistic missile technologies, though exactly how much co-development or technology exchange has occurred between the two remains unclear. "Pyongyang and Tehran may share test data on a limited basis and perhaps trade conceptual ideas," Michael Elleman, an expert on Iran's ballistic missile program and senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies' Middle East office, wrote in post 38 North, a North Korea analysis website hosted by the U.S. Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, in September. "But there is little evidence to indicate the two regimes are engaged in deep missile-related collaboration, or pursuing joint-development programs."

Not all experts agree strictly with that characterization, however. Lewis points to similarities not only between North Korean and Iranian Scud derivatives like the No-dong and Shahab but also similar design choices, incorporated into the two countries' space launch rockets and the migration of design concepts and components from one country to the other.

One such instance of technology transfer allegedly came to light earlier this year when North Korea tested a new rocket engine incorporating Iranian technology. In response, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned individuals associated with Iran's ballistic missile program, Lewis notes. "We know that there's a pretty robust collaboration," he said. "We see the cooperation right up until this day."

What exactly this means for the future of the U.S.-Iran nuclear accord and international efforts to curb North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile provocations is unclear. North Korea has conducted nine ballistic missile launches and two nuclear tests this year, but heightened tensions between the DPRK and its neighbors, as well as the United States, have taken a backseat to more outwardly visible national security issues, like the campaign against the Islamic State and Russian military provocations in Syria and Eastern Europe.

One of those ballistic missile tests of an extended-range No-dong missile took place just prior to the final U.S. presidential debate in October, but neither the test nor North Korea registered within the debate as a pressing national security issue.

"I think in the public consciousness, it has registered  I think people are more aware now than they were in the past  but in the political circles, it's not getting the attention it should," said Jenny Town, assistant director of the US-Korea Institute and managing editor of 38 North. "I think part of that is because there are no easy answers."

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Nor is there an abundance of smoking guns. "I think these days anything that looks like sanctions violations when it comes to North Korea is going to cause some kind of crackdown," Town said. But while it's relatively easy to flag the transport and exchange of whole missile systems or dual-use technologies, both Iran and North Korea are independently far enough along in their respective missile and nuclear programs that such wholesale movement of technologies and systems isn't necessary. Instead, whatever transfers may be taking place are likely of knowledge and data or of components and parts  pieces of the technology puzzle that are far more difficult to monitor.



Nonetheless, North Korea is drawing closer to developing working long-range intercontinental ballistic missile technology that could potentially reach the mainland United States, and its nuclear program continues to progress toward a miniaturized device capable of launching aboard land- or submarine-based ballistic missiles. In August, North Korea tested just such a submarine-launched missile for the first time. It also successfully tested its intermediate-range Musudan missile in June, though two subsequent tests in October failed. Some analysts have floated the idea that one or both of those subsequent failures may not have been Musudan missiles at all, but tests of a North Korean ICBM known as the KN-08.

Though North Korean long-range ICBM technology has yet to prove itself in tests, the technology continues to progress, raising the prospect that the isolated nation could offer the technology to one of its few friends in exchange for necessary missile expertise, nuclear know-how, cash or some combination of the three.

"What confidence do we have that North Korea, for the right amount of cash, wouldn't sell just about anything?" Karako said. "The answer to that is: just about none. There's just about nothing that they won't sell. I don't think we have any reason to be confident about the North Koreans being self-constrained."

That could push the Iran/North Korea military relationship back to the fore as Washington eases sanctions and economic constraints on one party while ratcheting up pressure on the other. While North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's father, Kim Jong Il, proved by comparison a more predictable and measured leader, the younger Kim has demonstrated a stubborn resolve to push ahead with efforts to develop a North Korean intercontinental nuclear missile capability.

"On the North Korean side, it's pretty disturbing, based just on their actions alone, on things we don't have to speculate about," Karako said. "This is something that could come to a head far sooner than anyone would like."

 By Clay Dillow, special to CNBC.com





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U.S. President Barack Obama arrives to address a news conference in the White House press briefing room in Washington, U.S., November 14, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

This week, President Barack Obama admitted that the US had essentially been muscled out of Syria by being relegated to a diplomatic role in the country.

"With respect to Syria, in Benghazi we had an international mandate," Obama said at a Monday news conference, comparing the situation in Syria to the 2011 intervention against Libyan Col. Muammar Gaddafi. "We had a UN Security resolution. We had a broad-based coalition, and we were able to carry out a support mission that achieved the initial goal of preventing Benghazi from being slaughtered fairly quickly."

In March 2011, US Air Force B-1 bombers took off from South Dakota, flew halfway around the world, and slammed Libya's air defenses. US Navy ships in the Mediterranean pounded targets with cruise missiles. Seven months later, Gaddafi was killed by Libyan rebels, and the intervention was complete.

The conflict exemplified the US's ability to crush foes militarily through coalition-building.

But Obama acknowledged on Monday that the US military no longer had that capability in Syria. "Syria is a much more messy situation, with proxies coming from every direction," Obama said, referring to Iran and Russia, which have inserted themselves into the conflict on behalf of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

In some ways, politics prohibit Obama from striking Assad the way he struck Gaddafi. Obama, as one expert on Iran and Yemen put it, has proved "phobic" of confronting Iran, a key backer of the Assad regime, because of the US pursuit of a nuclear deal with Iran.

Another reason Obama can't strike Assad the way he did Gaddafi is strategic. Russia has installed advanced missile defense and antiaircraft batteries in Syria. These present significant threats to the US military and greatly complicate the US's options.

libyan civil war tanks destroyed

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So with Russia's help, Assad's forces continue to pound rebel targets in Syria, even targeting civilian infrastructure like hospitals and schools. The international community has repeatedly accused Assad and Russia of war crimes at least on par with the abuses that spurred the US to strike Gaddafi.

"I wish that I could bring this to a halt immediately," Obama said of the suffering in Syria.

Lavrov Kerry

"We have made every effort to try to bring about a political resolution to this challenge," he said. "John Kerry has spent an infinite amount of time trying to negotiate with Russians and Iranians and Gulf states and other parties to try to end the killing there."

And here is Obama's acknowledgment that the US has run out of leverage in Syria: "But if what you're asking is do we have the capacity to carry out the same kinds of military actions in Syria that we did in Libya, the situation is obviously different.

"We don't have that option easily available to us."

But military solutions represent only a small portion of the US's options. The White House has attempted diplomatic solutions, lately between the US and Russia, time and time again.

"I recognize that that has not worked," Obama said of the diplomatic efforts. "And it is something that I continue to think about every day, and we continue to try to find some formula that would allow us to see that suffering end."

Indeed, the US's lack of credible military leverage must complicate the "formula" to get Russia, Syria, and Iran to act against their interests.

"You have a Syrian military that is committed to killing its people indiscriminately, as necessary, and it is supported by Russia that now have substantial military assets on the ground and are actively supporting that regime, and Iran actively supporting that regime," Obama said.

syria aleppo

But he made it clear that his priority wasn't with protecting the rebels or civilians under fire from a ruthless regime, as it was in Libya with Gaddafi, but rather it was with fighting ISIS, the international terrorist group also known as the Islamic State. "The situation is not the same as it was in Libya," Obama said, regarding the presence of ISIS in Syria.

The Obama administration's policy toward Syria has been inconsistent with previous US interventions. The suffering of the Syrian people and the brutality of the Assad regime, with even Assad's crossing of Obama's "red line" by using chemical weapons, didn't spur the US into action.

Earlier in the Syrian conflict, the US could have overthrown Assad much as it did Gaddafi, but that window has closed.

And now Obama has admitted that.

NOW WATCH: A global intelligence analyst explains what makes ISIS so strong





More From Business Insider


Athens (AFP) - US President Barack Obama issued a warning against "crude" nationalism as he kicked off his last foreign tour Tuesday with allied nations on edge after Donald Trump's shock election win.

Speaking in Greece, Obama called the NATO alliance "absolutely vital" to US interests and stressed a strong, unified Europe was good for America, in comments directed at nations jittery over Trump's campaign comments about transatlantic ties.

After a year of populist shocks, from Britain's vote to leave the EU to Trump's surprise win last week and the rise of anti-migrant movements in Europe, Obama cautioned against succumbing to divisive instincts.

"We are going to have to guard against a rise in a crude sort of nationalism or ethnic identity or tribalism that is built around an 'us' and a 'them'," Obama said in Athens.

"We know what happens when Europeans start dividing themselves up... the 20th century was a bloodbath," he said, adding that the United States was also painfully aware of the dangers of "(dividing) ourselves along lines of race or religion or ethnicity."

European governments, especially eastern countries close to Russia's orbit, have been shaken after Trump appeared to call into question Washington's near 70-year security guarantee by saying he would only help NATO allies if they paid their way.

Obama stressed that the transatlantic relationship was the "cornerstone of our mutual security as well as prosperity" and that was the case regardless of who was sitting in the Oval Office.

"Across Democratic and Republican administrations there is a recognition that the NATO alliance is absolutely vital," he said.

As Obama touched down in Athens, NATO head Jens Stoltenberg said he was confident Trump would "live up to all the commitments of the United States in the alliance -- because a strong NATO is important for Europe but it's also important for the United States."

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- Alternative to austerity -

Obama met Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras for talks and praised Greece for showing "extraordinary compassion" to hundreds of thousands of people arriving in Europe's migrant crisis.

More than 800,000 migrants passed through Greece in 2015, and the crisis-hit country has struggled to accommodate some 60,000 left stranded on its territory when Balkan states further north closed their borders earlier this year.

Greek leaders are anxious for a new US pledge to help alleviate the country's enormous public debt, a measure actively sought by the International Monetary Fund but opposed by leading European lender Germany.

Obama, who travels to Germany on Wednesday for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel and French and British leaders, said he would push for help for Greece.

"In my message to the rest of Europe I will continue to emphasise our view that austerity alone cannot deliver prosperity," Obama told Tsipras.

Even with structural reforms, he argued, "it is very difficult to imagine the kind of growth strategy that is needed, without some debt relief mechanism...(although) the politics of (doing) this are difficult."

- Mixed welcome for Obama -

Security was tight in central Athens, with thousands of police officers on the streets and an official ban on demonstrations in areas of the capital where Obama was to hold meetings during the two-day stay.

Some 2,500 people brandishing banners denouncing US "imperialism" and calling Obama "non grata", or not welcome, were turned away by police firing tear gas and stun grenades as they tried to breach barriers and head toward the city centre.

Many Greeks are suspicious of the United States after it helped install a repressive dictatorship in the country in the 1960s, and some trade unions, leftist and anarchist parties denounce US involvement in wars in the Middle East.

Several hundred of the protesters appeared to be from Greece's vocal anarchist movement, police told AFP.

The increased security for Obama's visit comes after assailants threw a grenade at the French embassy in Athens last week, slightly wounding an officer. A far-left group, the Organisation of Revolutionary Autodefence, claimed responsibility.

After Germany, Obama concludes his trip with a stop in Peru for a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) where he is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Washington (AFP) - US President Barack Obama headed across the Atlantic late Monday on his final foreign trip while in office -- a farewell tour of Europe and a summit with Asia-Pacific leaders to reassure concerned allies after Donald Trump's election.

Obama will first go to Greece, his first trip to the birthplace of democracy, where he will visit the Parthenon and hold talks with the country's leaders.

Security will be tight in central Athens, with thousands of police officers on the streets and traffic cut off for several hours.

Civil servants, communists, far-left groups and anarchists all plan to hold demonstrations as Obama swings through the Greek capital.

He then heads to Germany for key discussions with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, long one of his closest foreign partners.

He will also meet there with French President Francois Hollande, British Prime Minister Theresa May and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

The leaders plan to discuss the crises in Syria and Ukraine, as well as the fight against the Islamic State group.

In a pre-trip news conference, Obama told reporters he would "signal our solidarity with our closest allies and express our support for a strong, integrated and united Europe."

"It's essential to our national security and it's essential to global stability," he said.

"That's why the trans-Atlantic alliance and the NATO alliance have endured for decades under Democratic and Republican administrations," he added, seeking to allay fears that Trump will seek to sideline the alliance.

Obama also said he believes his successor has a "commitment to NATO."

The American president will conclude his trip with a stop in Peru for a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Among the leaders he is expected to meet there is President Xi Jinping of China.

"This is a time of great change in the world, but America's always been a pillar of strength and a beacon of hope to peoples around the globe. And that's what it must continue to be," Obama said.
Barack Obama

President Barack Obama said in a press conference Monday that when he traveled to Europe this week he would be able to deliver a message to US allies that President-elect Donald Trump remained committed to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Obama told reporters that Trump "expressed a great interest in maintaining our core strategic relationships" when the two spoke last week at the White House.

"I think that's one of the most important functions I can serve at this stage, during this trip, that there is no weakening of resolve when it comes to America's commitment to maintaining a strong and robust NATO relationship," Obama said. "And that there is a recognition that those alliances aren't just good for Europe, but they're good for the United States and vital for the world."

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg echoed Obama's comments on Tuesday, saying that he is "certain" Trump will live up to the US' commitments.

"President-elect Donald Trump stated during the election campaign that he is a big fan of NATO, and I am certain that he will be a president... who will live up to all the commitments of the United States in the alliance," Stoltenberg said in Brussels.

But Obama and Stoltenberg's characterizations of Trump's stance on NATO appears to contradict what Trump himself said during his campaign about the 28-member defense alliance.

Trump frequently questioned the value of NATO along the campaign trail, and he has postulated that the US should not be obligated to come to the defense of its NATO allies if they "aren't paying their bills."

Obama has also criticized some NATO members in the past for not paying their fair share. But he has never gone as far as to suggest, as Trump has, that the US disengage from the alliance completely because some of its members are not living up to various financial obligations.

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Trump's comments have worried European officials faced with a rapidly deteriorating relationship with Moscow. Russian officials warned over the summer that Europe could find itself in Russia's "crosshairs" if NATO didn't back down from plans to conduct war games in the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

"The newer members of NATO  and especially the Baltics  have reason to be very concerned," Stephen Biddle, an adjunct senior fellow for defense policy at the Council on Foreign Relations who is a professor of political science at George Washington University, told Business Insider last week.

"They're not rich enough or big enough to defend themselves against the Russians, and a Trump administration's willingness to help them is very unclear," he said.

It's more unclear given Trump's stated admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as his apparent desire to work more closely with Russia to fight terrorism once he takes office.

Putin has repeatedly characterized the US-led organization as an "aggressive" force whose aim is to isolate Russia from Europe  rhetoric that has grown more heated amid NATO's military exercises in the Baltic Sea. Russia has responded to those drills by transferring nuclear-capable missiles to Kaliningrad, which borders Poland and Lithuania.

Trump and Putin spoke by phone Monday, Trump's transition team said, in a call in which Trump said he was "very much looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the people of Russia."

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* Obama in Greece on last Europe trip as president

* Urges EU to rethink austerity

* Pledges to stand by Greece on debt, refugees

* Riot police, protesters clash in central Athens (Edits, adds clashes)

By Jeff Mason

ATHENS, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Barack Obama offered solidarity with Greece over its debt and migrant crises on Tuesday during his final trip to Europe as U.S. president before handing over power to Donald Trump.

Obama delighted his Greek hosts by supporting debt relief for the recession-battered country, which has seen its economy shrink by a quarter in just seven years, but riot police had to use teargas to quell anti-U.S. protesters in central Athens.

Greece hopes Obama will be able to persuade its foreign creditors to restructure some of its debt, which stands at nearly 180 percent of national output.

"We cannot simply look to austerity as a strategy," Obama said after talks with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

"Our argument has always been that when the economy contracted this fast, when unemployment is this high, that there also has to be a growth agenda to go with it and it is very difficult to imagine the kind of growth strategy that's needed without some debt relief mechanism," Obama said.

Athens signed up to a third economic bailout package of up to 86 billion euros ($93 billion) in mid-2015 but says it needs a long-term debt restructuring to exit the crisis - a message repeated on Tuesday by Tsipras, a leftist whose popularity is waning.

Obama, who said the United States would stand "shoulder to shoulder" with Greece, a NATO ally, was due to visit Germany on Wednesday, the main champion of economic austerity in Europe.

"YANKEES GO HOME!"

Leftist groups are angry that Obama, the first U.S. leader to visit Athens since Bill Clinton in 1999, is visiting just two days before the anniversary of a bloody 1973 student revolt that helped topple a Greek military junta backed by Washington.

The clashes, just a few km (miles) from where Greek leaders were hosting Obama at a state dinner, erupted after about 7,000 people, some of them hooded, marched through central Athens and tried to reach the parliament and the U.S. embassy.

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The protesters waved banners that read: "We don't need protectors!" and "Yankees go home!"

As well as its economic travails, Greece, a country of 11 million, has been grappling with a migrant crisis engulfing Europe. More than 60,000 people are stranded in Greece after their onwards journey into Europe was sealed off this year as borders were shut in the Balkans.

"It is important that we don't have any single country bear the entire burden of these challenges," Obama said.

Humanitarian organisations have called on Obama to press the need for a European response to the problem and to demand wealthier countries take in a bigger share of refugees.

Obama, who is in Athens until Wednesday afternoon, was staying at a luxury seaside resort on a peninsula south of Athens, less than 15 km (9 miles) from a disused airport that is temporarily housing hundreds of migrants and refugees.

Children played outside the abandoned terminal through washing lines strung with laundry. Some sat on a battered old sofa as Obama's motorcade sped past them.

"We want Obama to come and see us here, how we are living like prisoners," said Hatzi Naser, 42, from Afghanistan, still mired in conflict more than a decade after U.S. forces ousted the Taliban following the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

"He is the reason we are here, because of his army's war. We want him to come and see the filth we are living in." (Additional reporting by Lefteris Papadimas, Renee Maltezou, Karolina Tagaris, Michele Kambas; Writing By Michele Kambas and Karolina Tagaris; Editing by Gareth Jones)


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Athens (AFP) - US President Barack Obama on Tuesday praised Greece for showing "extraordinary compassion" to hundreds of thousands of migrants, many of them fleeing war, in what has become an enormous challenge for the entire European Union.

"I want to thank Greek people for their humanitarian response" and their "extraordinary compassion," Obama said in Athens as he began a final foreign trip to Europe.

Over a million people passed through Greece last year, and the crisis-hit country has struggled to accommmodate over 60,000 refugees left stranded on its territory when Balkan states farther north shuttered their borders earlier this year.

Even with EU funds and assistance, there is overcrowding in Greek camps and frequent brawls between rival ethnic groups.

Humanitarian agencies are now warning that conditions must urgently improve before cold weather sets in.
One week to the day since Donald Trumps historic election victory, President Obama warned Tuesday that the world must guard against the rise of crude nationalism and politicians who try to divide people along lines of race or religion.

I do believe, separate and apart from any particular election or movement, that we are going to have to guard against a rise in a crude sort of nationalism, or ethnic identity, or tribalism that is built around an us and a them, Obama said in Greece, the first stop of what he called his final foreign trip as president.

His comments came after the president-elect announced that he was naming Steve Bannon, a leading figure in the alt-right movement, as a senior White House adviser. Anti-discrimination groups slammed the hire, pointing to incendiary articles published by Breitbart News while Bannon was an executive at the right-wing news outlet.

Obama warned against drawing parallels between Trumps election, Britains vote to leave the European Union and the renewed attention being paid to Frances far-right National Front party, but he seemed to be referring to the Brexit referendum in his remarks about European cooperation.

We know what happens when Europeans start dividing themselves up, and emphasizing their differences, and seeing a competition between various countries in a zero-sum way, Obama continued. The 20th century was a bloodbath, and for all the frustrations and failures of the project to unify Europe, the last five decades have been periods of unprecedented peace, growth and prosperity in Europe.

In the United States, the president continued, We know what happens when we start dividing ourselves along lines of race or religion or ethnicity. Its dangerous  not just for the minority groups that are subjected to that kind of discrimination or, in some cases in the past, violence.

But he said embracing divisive politics means we then dont realize our potential as a country when were preventing blacks or Latinos or Asians, or gays or women, from fully participating in the project of building American life.

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President Obama in Athens, Greece. (Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

Obama concluded, My visions right, on that issue. And it may not always win the day in the short term in any particular political circumstance, but Im confident it will win the day over the long term.

The president acknowledged he was surprised by the election results on Tuesday and again emphasized that he feels a responsibility to ensure a smooth handover of power from his administration to Trumps incoming team. But he denied that the vote amounted to a rejection of his political vision.

Throughout my presidency, Im sure as a matter of convenience, I generally havent paid attention to the polls, he said. But since your question is directly related to the notion of a rejection of my worldview: Last I checked, a pretty healthy majority of the American people agree with my worldview on a whole bunch of things.

He appeared to be referring to his job approval ratings, which have climbed to a second-term high of just over 50 percent. Trump supporters have scoffed at those figures, arguing that the polls failed to predict the former reality show hosts historic victory.

Trying to explain the Republican victory, Obama said, At times of significant stress, people are going to be looking for something, and they dont always know exactly what it is that theyre looking for. And they may opt for change, even theyre not entirely confident what that change will bring.
Obamacare Architect and MIT Professor Jonathan Gruber wants to separate fact from fiction when it comes to healthcare. Despite wide media coverage of rising premiums, Gruber insists Obamacare has actually reduced costs.

Lets start with businesses, 150 million Americans get their insurance through their employer. The cost of employer-insurance today is $3,100 lower than it would have been, that was projected, before Obamacare, Gruber told the FOX Business Networks Maria Bartiromo.

On the other hand, for individuals, Gruber insisted insurance costs have not changed under Obamacare.

Individual insurance, which is paid by about seven million people, is exactly where it would have been, absent Obamacare. The press coverage has been completely misleading on this, Obamacare has actually saved people money.

Bartiromo then questioned why three major health insurance companies, Humana (NYSE:HUM), Aetna (NYSE:AET) and UnitedHealth (NYSE:UNH), are pulling out of the exchanges all together or scaling back offerings.

Theyve left the exchanges because this is a new and innovative insurance market for which they are not prepared said Gruber.

Bartiromo then pressed Gruber on reports insurance premiums are rising. Projections by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services notes average premiums will rise over 20% in 2017.

Gruber responded, Not for employers Maria, you keep mixing it up. Employers, most of your listeners have employer-sponsored insurance, their premiums are not going up 22%.

Many, including the nations small business owners, say rising healthcare costs are limiting plans to hire and therefore hurting the economy. Gruber disagrees.

Obamacare is irrelevant to economic growth, Gruber continued, There is no evidence at all that Obamacare has anything to do with economic growth.

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maharishi mahesh yogi

There was an utter media frenzy over The Beatles' journey to the Indian Himalayas in February 1968 to meet with their guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Several months prior, he had given each of them a mantra and taught them his technique known as Transcendental Meditation (TM).

As the world's biggest band went through a spiritual journey, the public watched every move, and for millions of Americans and Europeans, this was the first time they heard words like "karma," "guru," or "yoga," and the first time they saw Eastern meditation.

One of the people watching The Beatles was Ray Dalio, who would go on to found the world's largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates. Dalio, who was in college at the time, decided to try the technique in 1969. Because he had found its effects to be profoundly positive, he explained in Dr. Norman Rosenthal's 2011 book on TM, "Transcendence," he has meditated daily without fail. He would also go on to become the biggest proponent of TM on Wall Street, where it has taken off in the past few years.

The practice of TM is quite simple. It has entered a new wave of mainstream popularity, where doctors are prescribing it to their patients to lower blood pressure and stress levels  as approved by the American Heart Association  and investors are recommending it to each other to gain an edge.

It's due to a variety of factors: the scientific validation of TM, the mainstreaming of meditation in general, and the networking effect spreading across influential people. But, as Philip Goldberg argues in his 2012 book "American Veda," all of this dates back to The Beatles and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. After their '68 meeting, he writes, "Our understanding and practice of spirituality would never be the same."

TM can seem mysterious, and even cult-like to casual observers. To get a better idea of what it actually entails, I spent the past two months digging into its history and its ancient roots. I learned the practice in September at the David Lynch Foundation, a nonprofit cofounded by the film director in 2005 that teaches the technique for free to disadvantaged middle school and high school students, veterans with PTSD, and victims of domestic abuse. For the rest of us, instruction costs $960, but the foundation was willing to waive the fee. I have continued to practice it daily.

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maharishi mahesh yogi

The Maharishi's mission

In my four days of introductory TM training, I watched a couple videos of Maharishi  a title meaning "great seer" often used for shorthand when referring to him and learned that he based his technique on ancient Vedic knowledge.

Born in India as Mahesh Prasad Varma in 1918, he renounced his name and familial ties in typical Hindu monk fashion after graduating from Allahabad University in 1942 with a physics degree and traveling to Jyothir Math in the Indian Himalayas to study under and serve Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, the man he reverentially called Guru Dev.

Saraswati was the exalted leader of the city's monastery. When Maharishi spread TM, he made it clear that although he and his guru were Hindu monks, his practice was not tied to the Hindu faith.

I discussed this dynamic with Suhag Shukla, executive director of the Hindu American Foundation.

She pointed out that Hinduism is a word for a very broad set of beliefs with many different schools, and that it is not a dogmatic or proselytizing religion. And while she and her organization would prefer for millions of non-Hindu Americans to better acknowledge and appreciate the Hindu roots of many of their meditation and yoga practices, she clarified that when the Maharishi set out to spread a secularized version of something he learned as a Hindu, he wasn't necessarily compromising its effectiveness or being disingenuous about his motives.

Under Guru Dev, the Maharishi studied the Upanishads, the segments of the four ancient Sanskrit books of scripture known as the Vedas that focus on the self and its relationship to God. In Vedic traditions generally collected under the umbrella of Hinduism, there is one God; the many deities you may be familiar with, like Krishna, are, to put it simply, different manifestations of this one God.

In "The Bhagavad Gita," the ancient book that the Maharishi also studied, Krishna, representing the Supreme Being, says of meditation, "Wherever the mind wanders, restless and diffuse in its search for satisfaction without, lead it within; train it to rest in the Self. Abiding joy comes to those who still the mind. Freeing themselves from the taint of self-will, with their consciousness unified, they become one with Brahman [God]."

This idea of looking into one's self to achieve peace and connect with the unity of existence is still present in TM, albeit in scientific terms.

Guru Dev and Maharishi developed a close bond, but Guru Dev could not name Maharishi as his successor before he died because Maharishi was not born into the brahmin caste. He did, however, entrust Maharishi with the mission of spreading the practice of meditation. He was not to spread anything religious, but to create a more peaceful world. This came at a time in the 20th century when Indians were starting to gradually migrate west in greater numbers, and several gurus  including one of Steve Jobs' favorite spiritual writers, Paramhansa Yogananda  decided to share Indian philosophical traditions with a wider audience.

Maharishi took the meditation practice he learned from his teacher, called it Transcendental Deep Meditation (later shortened), and went on a tour that started in India in 1955 and went international in 1958.

He immediately began connecting with academics to study the potential health benefits of TM. Over the course of the past 50 years, there has been a wealth of peer-reviewed studies, many funded by the National Institutes of Health, that determine TM allows its practitioner to enter a state of "restful alertness" that lowers stress-inducing hormones, which in turn lowers blood pressure and decreases the propensity for anxiety.

The push to the mainstream

David Lynch Foundation director Bob Roth knew the Maharishi, who died in 2008, for many years and said that he was a man well-versed in both science and other global religions. It gave him the ability to naturally, and genuinely, adapt his message about the benefits of TM to whomever he was speaking to, whether they were Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, or atheist. And while Maharishi writes, as he does in his book "Science of Being and Art of Living" for example, using the spiritual vocabulary he was familiar with (with concepts like karma and "God consciousness"), he insisted on keeping TM non-denominational, with no requirement beyond learning the technique.

guru dev transcendental meditation

Roth was adamant about this point, to avoid having TM misconstrued as a religion in disguise. He noted as examples that he is Jewish, that my teacher Mario Orsatti is Catholic, and that the head of the TM organization  which is different from the DLF and which I'll get to in a moment  Tony Nader, is a Lebanese Christian.

That's not to say, however, that TM has always been accepted and understood. For example, a New Jersey state judge in 1979 ruled that it could not be taught in public schools because it was a religion, citing the puja ritual in the introductory lesson and its founding on ancient spirituality as proof.

The puja, which every TM teacher performs before that student's first lesson, is a tradition Hindus perform to show respect to their guru. In TM's case, the puja is performed to Guru Dev, an act that the Maharishi did not consider to be compromising to his practice's secularity, and an act of acknowledgement to his teacher that he believed essential to passing on his technique.

When Maharishi was entering the last stage of his life, he decided to consolidate his TM organization so that it could continue to spread meditation around the world without him. Founded in 2000, he named it the Global Country of World Peace  this is the organization Tony Nader oversees  and appointed "rajas" to oversee the spread of TM in different parts of the world.

Along with this title, derived from India's political rather than spiritual history, he also decided they would be dressed in symbolic white robes and golden crowns for ceremonial gatherings. If you look at any of the TM conspiracy websites out there, you'll always find these pictures. At one point in 2007, this costume choice led to a disastrous, publicized speech where Germany's raja was viciously booed offstage after repeatedly proclaiming that Germany would be "invincible" (a term Maharishi used in a spiritual sense to refer to a collective state of enlightenment) but that, in his poor presentation, made it sound like he was calling for the revival of the Third Reich.

"American Veda" author Philip Goldberg was a TM teacher from 1970-1977, and he said that even though he learned of Maharishi's decision to go with the costume choice many years after he stopped teaching TM, he was "shocked," and knew many fellow TM practitioners who agreed.

I brought this concern to Roth, telling him outright that it did indeed look cult-like. He said he fully understands that position, but he wanted to clarify that the costumes are used on rare occasions, and are not religious. He compared it to the use of strange-looking robes in graduation ceremonies.

David Lynch Foundation 2869 2

Over these past two months, I've spent several hours talking candidly about TM and its history with Roth and Orsatti.

Roth told me that he's seen all of the negative as well as positive coverage of TM over the years, and he thinks that with everything out there, people can see past attacks and take the actual technique of TM for what it is: a simple and effective form of stress relief.

As Orsatti told me: If practitioners want to implement meditation the same way the Maharishi did, into their spiritual lives, they can; if they do not believe in God or want to keep meditation separate from their spiritual beliefs, that works too. If they want to actively participate in the David Lynch Foundation's philanthropy or the TM organizations mission of spreading the practice to those who'd like to learn it, the option is open to them; if they want to learn the technique to add a productivity tool to their arsenal, that's great.

Despite all of his secondary ventures, including his university and his network of "rajas," the Maharishi's primary goal was to spread a technique that Indians had used for millennia as a way to be more at peace with the world, stripped of any baggage that came with it.

"I think where we are today is where Maharishi always wanted it to be  which is science-based, and evidence-based, and fits in with medicine and mainstream wellness programs," Roth said.

NOW WATCH: RICHARD BRANSON: We've just 'got to give Donald Trump and his team three months, six months'





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An Ohio woman accused of fatally stabbing and decapitating her 3-month-old daughter rejected a plea deal on Monday as she pursues an insanity defense, her attorney confirms to PEOPLE.

Deasia Watkins, 21, is charged with aggravated murder after she allegedly fractured her 3-year-old daughters arm, stabbed her repeatedly and severed her head from her body in March 2015, Hamilton County Coroner Lakshmi Sammarco said at a 2015 press conference.

Watkins lawyer, Norman Aubin, says the defense has evidence to support a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.

Its the best defense for her, he says.

According to Aubin, had she accepted the plea deal, Watkins would have been given a sentence of 15 years to life in prison, minus the approximately 19 months she has already served.

WCPO-TV reports that if the court finds Watkins not guilty by reason of insanity, shed be under the courts jurisdiction for life without parole.

Aubin says his client has been in a state mental hospital since her arrest last March.

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

Court documents obtained by NBC said Watkins had been diagnosed with postpartum psychosis and the childs father said she had been speaking of demons.

The baby was placed in the custody of Watkins aunt, the outlet reports. Prosecutors allege Watkins killed the baby at her aunts home while her aunt was sleeping even though Watkins was not supposed to be living in the home, according to NBC.

It was pretty horrific, Sammarco said. These are images that will be indelibly marked in my memory.




An Ohio State University student was arrested Monday after tackling a fellow student who was making a speech inside the student union protesting the election of Donald Trump.

According to the Lantern, Ohio States student newspaper, Shane Michael Stanton was charged with one count of misdemeanor assault and placed on indefinite suspension from the university. Stanton, 24, will make an initial court appearance on Tuesday morning, Franklin County Municipal Court records show.

In a video posted online by the paper, the anti-Trump demonstrator  identified as Timothy Adams  is seen addressing a crowd of about 100 protesters through a bullhorn from a staircase inside the building. A man in a striped sweater  later identified as Stanton  approached from behind, yelling you idiot before sending Adams flying down the flight of stairs.

Adams landed face-down and injured his left hand, court records show.

Stanton was held down by several protesters as police quickly intervened and led Stanton away from the building to chants of Shame!

As they were leaving, Adams stood up and asked, Can I finish my speech now? which was met by laughter and cheers, according to the Lantern.

The assault that occurred  thats what it was  in the Union tonight is completely unacceptable, Gerard Basalla, undergraduate student government president, told the paper. Every person on this campus has the right to feel safe and voice their opinion without fearing harm. We cant be having this.

We are especially outraged that violence was used today at the Ohio Union as an attempt to quell free speech, OSUs chapter of College Democrats said in a statement published on Facebook. Acts of violence such as this cannot be allowed to become normalized at OSU or anywhere in America.

Since Trumps stunning victory over Hillary Clinton in last weeks presidential election, anti-Trump protests have erupted around the country, some turning violent. Hundreds of demonstrators have been arrested. And there have been numerous incidents of vandalism and intimidation reported since Election Day, with racist graffiti appearing in schools and pro-Trump bullying directed at children and minorities.

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Ohio State University president Michael Drake sent an email to students and faculty over the weekend saying such threatening behavior would not be tolerated on campus.

We protect First Amendment rights actively, Drake wrote. But we do not under any circumstances tolerate intimidation or threats to students, faculty, staff or visitors to our campus.

Schools around the country are grappling with similar issues in the wake of the election.

At Michigan State, the student union will be offering healing spaces where students will have the opportunity to discuss how the campus community can come together after a long and divisive election season.

For some students who are international students or who hold certain religious beliefs or marginalized identities, its a pretty scary time, not just here at just MSU, but across the United States, Antonio Pee, MSU assistant director of residence education, told CBS Detroit.

At the University of Pennsylvania, a criminal investigation was launched after several black freshmen were added to a group text message that included multiple racial slurs and invitations for daily lynchings. The investigation concluded that the texts, sent via an app called GroupMe, were linked to an account at the University of Oklahoma. School officials there said one student had been suspended pending the outcome of their investigation.

We call on everyone to recognize that the events of the past few days are a tragic reminder of the overt and reprehensible racism that continues to exist within some segments of our society, Penn president Amy Gutmann said in a statement. We all need to unite together as a community and a society to oppose. We are deeply saddened that Penn students were the victims of this hate, to which absolutely nobody should be subjected.

In an interview with CBS 60 Minutes that aired Sunday, Trump was asked if he had a message for his supporters who have reportedly been harassing minorities since his election victory.

I would say, Dont do it, thats terrible, Trump said. I am so saddened to hear that. And I say, Stop it. If it  if it helps  I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: Stop it.
A student was arrested Monday after cops say he's the one seen in a shocking video ramming into a Trump protester, sending him down a set of stairs during a rally at Ohio State University.

Shane Stanton was arrested by police in Columbus on Monday. The 24-year-old is allegedly the man heard yelling, "you idiot!" before slamming his body into Timothy Adams.

Read: Oprah Admits Twitter 'Mistake' Following Pro-Trump Tweet Over His Meeting With Obama

Adams, who'd been addressing a crowd of protesters through a bullhorn, was smashed viciously to the ground. However, he sustained no serious injuries, according to campus newspaper The Lantern.

While Adams struggled to get up, the video appeared to show another protester emerge from the crowd and attack Stanton before other students and authorities intervened.

Stanton was arrested and faces indefinite suspension from the university, according to reports.

According to the OSU student directory, a student named Shane Michael Stanton is enrolled in the university's Sustainable Plant Systems program.

An email sent by InsideEdition.com to the student's school email address did not immediately receive a reply.

"The assault that occurred  thats what it was  in the Union tonight is completely unacceptable," Undergraduate Student Government president Gerard Basalla told the Lantern. Every person on this campus has the right to feel safe and voice their opinion without fearing harm. We cant be having this."

Read: Teacher Allegedly Threatens Black Students With Call to Trump 'to Get You Sent Back to Africa'

In one of several earlier messages from the university in response to reports of unrest nationwide following Trump's win, University President Michael Drake emphasized the school's commitment to preserving the right to free speech on campus.

We protect First Amendment rights actively, but we do not under any circumstances tolerate intimidation or threats to students, faculty, staff or visitors to our campus, Drake said.

Story continues

Watch: Donald Trump Demands His Supporters to Stop Attacking Minorities

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It was a week where both oil and gas prices finished sharply lower.

On the news front, European supermajor Royal Dutch Shell plc RDS.A pledged to invest $10 billion in Brazil over a five-year span, while U.S. biggie Chevron Corp. CVX and partners commenced production at the Mafumeira Sul development offshore Angola.

Overall, it was another dismal week for the sector. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures dived 5.4% to close at $43.41 per barrel, while natural gas prices ended down 5.3% to $2.619 per million Btu (MMBtu). (See the last Oil & Gas Stock Roundup here: EOG, Apache Wrap Up Q3 Energy Earnings Season.)

Oil prices sank to multi-month lows after reports showed that output by members of the OPEC cartel  whose associate nations supply around 40% of the world's crude  rose to an all-time high in Oct. At 33.64 million barrels a day, current production is way over OPECs target to limit volumes to a range of 32.5 million - 33 million barrels a day. Given the recent data sets, investors have started doubting whether OPEC will be able to rein in production as part of the plan reached in Sep.

Adding to the pessimism was the U.S. Energy Department's weekly inventory release, which showed a dramatic increase in domestic crude production.

Meanwhile, natural gas also turned sharply lower following a larger-than-anticipated inventory build that pushed the commoditys storage level to a new all-time high. The commodity was further hampered by a warmer-than-normal weather that translates into weak demand for the heating fuel.

Recap of the Weeks Most Important Stories

1. Europes largest oil company Royal Dutch Shell plc recently announced its plan to invest $10 billion in Brazil over a span of five years. The company intends to tap into the increased opportunities for foreign companies in the Brazilian oil industry with this move. Shell currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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Shell  the largest foreign investor in Brazil  plans to continue investing heavily in the country in order to double its global deep water production by the early 2020s. Shell plans to invest around $2 billion every year and it intends to fund the investment from the more than $30 billion in capital that it has already deployed in Brazil.

Following regulatory changes in Brazil, Shell seeks to expand its ultra deepwater oil exploration and production holdings in the country. Notably, the company already operates 5,500 energy stations in the nation and has acquired a large number of oil and gas assets via its takeover of BG Group this year. (Read more: Shell Announces Plan to Invest $10 Billion in Brazil.)

2. Chevron Corp., the second-largest U.S. oil producer, recently reported that it has started production at the Mafumeira Sul oil field along with Angolan state oil major  Sonangol. The initial production capacity of the field is 10,000 barrels per day.

The Mafumeira Sul oil field is estimated to produce 110,000 barrels per day or more, once fully developed. Located off the coast of Angola, the project is worth $5.6 billion and currently uses early production systems or EPS to produce 10,000 barrels of oil per day.

Sonangol has a 41% stake in the Mafumeira Sul oil project. Chevron, on the other hand, holds 39.2% interest. (Read more: Chevron Starts Production at Mafumeira Sul Field.)

3. U.S. independent ConocoPhillips COP recently announced plans to commence a multi-billion-dollar divestment program next year in order to survive price volatility.

The company intends to sell assets valued between $5 billion and $8 billion, mainly from its North American natural gas portfolio. Given that Brent crude is now trading at about $50 per barrel, these activities will facilitate the company to accomplish its priorities like a debt level of $20 billion, a 2030% payout of operating cash flows to shareholders as well as modest production growth to drive margin and cash flow expansion. According to the strategy for 2017, ConocoPhillips will announce a $3 billion share repurchase program.

Moreover, the company is expected to further trim its capital expenditures and costs in 2017 from the levels in 2016. Nonetheless, it will target a modest growth in production. ConocoPhillips now expects capex of about $5 billion next year, down 4% from the current years guidance of $5.2 billion. This also indicates more than 50% decrease from the 2015 capex and investments of $10.1 billion. (Read more: ConocoPhillips Plans Divestments Worth $8 Billion in 2017.)

4. Worlds largest publicly traded energy company ExxonMobil Corp. XOM and pipeline operator Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P. SXL recently announced their decision to form a strategic joint venture (JV) by combining their key crude oil midstream assets, mainly in the Permian basin of West Texas.

Per a statement, Permian Express Partners  the new JV  will comprise assets owned by both companies. Sunoco Logistics will be the majority owner and operator of the JV assets with a stake of 85%, while ExxonMobil will hold the remaining 15%.

Sunoco Logistics will contribute its Permian Express 1, Permian Express 2 and Permian Longview and Louisiana Access pipelines to the JV. ExxonMobil, on the other hand, will contribute a Texas-Louisiana pipeline as well as its Pegasus pipeline, which runs from Texas to Illinois. (Read more: Exxon & Sunoco Logistics to Merge Midstream Assets, Form JV.)

5. Brazil's state-run energy giant Petrobras PBR announced that its Oct production fell from its record output during Sep this year. During Oct, Petrobras total production came at 2.81 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (MMBOE/D), decreased 2.4% from 2.88 MMBOE/D during the prior quarter. It is to be noted that, Sep production of the company touched a new monthly record mark after crossing August 2016 figure of 2.72 MMBOE/D. Investors should know that out of total Oct production, 2.68 MMBOE/D output was generated from Brazil while remaining 0.12 MMBOE/D was from outside the country.

The Oct oil output in Brazil came at 2.19 million barrels per day (MMB/D), down 2% sequentially following production stoppages for maintenance of Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) units. However, Petrobras revealed that the output achieved still now signifies that the company is nearing its yearly oil production projection of 2.145 MMB/D in Brazil.

The Oct natural gas output in Brazil was recorded at 77.5 million cubic meter/day, decreased 4.5% from September output. Halt in production following maintenance works of FPSO vessels led to the underperformances. However, outside Brazil, natural gas production came at 9.7 million cubic meter/day, increased 2.2% sequentially following production restart in Hadrian South, in U.S.

Price Performance

The following table shows the price movement of some the major oil and gas players over the past week and during the last 6 months.

Company Last Week Last 6 Months XOM +2.66% -4.79% CVX +1.33% +4.20% COP +2.23% +0.11% OXY -3.92% -14.06% SLB +0.43% +6.36% RIG +7.04% +12.13% VLO +7.36% +13.39% TSO +6.80% +11.04%

Notwithstanding the past weeks decrease in oil prices, the reaction in energy stocks was positive. As a result, over the course of last week, The Energy Select Sector SPDR was up 1.64%. Consequently, investors witnessed buying in most market heavyweights. The best performer was downstream operator Valero Energy Corp. VLO whose stock price jumped 7.36%.

Longer-term, over the last 6 months, the sector tracker has gained 5.69%. Again, Valero Energy was one of the major beneficiaries during this period, experiencing a 13.39% price increase.

Whats Next in the Energy World?

With the Q3 earnings season now behind us, market participants will be again closely tracking the regular weekly releases i.e. the U.S. government data on oil and natural gas. Energy traders will also be focusing on the Baker Hughes data on rig count.

Where Do Zacks' Investment Ideas Come From?

You are welcome to download the full, up-to-the-minute list of 220 Zacks Rank #1 "Strong Buy" stocks free of charge. There is no better place to start your own stock search. Plus you can access the full list of must-avoid Zacks Rank #5 "Strong Sells" and other private research. See the stocks free >>



Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report



SUNOCO LOGISTIC (SXL): Free Stock Analysis Report



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Tom Steyer

Despite Hillary Clinton's upset loss to President-elect Donald Trump, billionaire Democratic investor Tom Steyer says he doesn't regret investing an estimated $75 million in the presidential race and a number of other campaigns and initiatives this year.

Steyer invested in several PACs and organizations. And he focused much of his time and effort into his super PAC, NextGen Climate, which supports candidates committed to slowing the effects of climate change.

In an interview with Business Insider immediately after the election last week, Steyer said that he was "surprised and disappointed" by the results. But he said NextGen plans to take time to pore over its voter-file data and data that's still trickling out of key battleground states before formulating a plan to succeed in 2018 and 2020.

"We're doubling down. We're getting the information and trying to come up with an effective plan," Steyer said. "We've got to sit here and figure out what is the right thing to do under the right circumstances."

He added, "Now our backs are to the wall, so we better have a lot more conversations."

After a slate of losses in the 2014 midterm elections, Steyer's group embraced a different tactic in 2016 to mobilize young voters  a strategy it considers vital to winning all future elections.

The group eschewed expensive TV advertisement campaigns, instead pumping millions into field work. That included extensive personal voter contacts, digital get-out-the-vote initiatives, and events like comedy shows and concerts where millennials could register to vote.

Steyer also pointed to NextGen's success in targeting millennial voters in battleground states  according to his figures, millennial voter turnout was "up about a quarter" in 10 of the 12 battleground targeted precincts in which the group focused its efforts.

"Maybe they should've turned over the campaign to us," Steyer said jokingly of the Clinton campaign. "The Democratic base over 35 years old did not show up in anything like the numbers that it did in '08 and '12. Millennials actually did show up, but that the Democratic base, it turns out, it wasn't the millennials that was everyone's concern. From our standpoint, where we were, what we did worked. The issue was we weren't every place."

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He continued:

"Will I ever ever regret that style of old-fashioned campaigning? No. Absolutely not. In the places where we were, what we wanted to happen happened. I had a bunch of my friends who aren't political call me up on Wednesday saying, 'Now we have to do something.' I said, 'Really?' Because we've been doing it full time so we wanted to avoid Tuesday, and now you're concerned?'"

Trump's win last week capped off a second round of disappointing election results for Steyer, who has invested heavily in the last two election cycles.

The organization invested over $60 million of Steyer's personal cash in 2014, the first election in which NextGen participated. But lower midterm turnout among reliable Democratic voters resulted in heavy Democratic losses  only three of the seven candidates the organization supported in Senate and gubernatorial races were victorious.

Still, the Democratic megadonor appears undeterred.

He pointed to the dozen state and local California ballot initiatives he backed financially as an area where his organization had significant success. The billionaire investor is considering a bid to run for governor in 2018, and said he didn't regret "working full time on behalf of the values" of Californians to pass initiatives such as a tobacco tax and a ban on plastic grocery bags.

"Do I feel bad about that? Never," Steyer said. "I never considered for a fraction of a second whether that's the right thing to do."

NOW WATCH: David Cay Johnston: 'Theres very good reason to believe Trumps been engaged in tax fraud'





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THE FILMMAKERS

As stylish and as sprightly as its subject, Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You serves as a heartfelt homage to the showrunner of such TV classics as All in the Family and The Jeffersons. What Lear did for TV in the '70s, the late Sidney Lumet did for cinema, directing socially incisive films such as Dog Day Afternoon - which he discussed in an interview (taped before his death in 2011) as part of director Nancy Buirski's profile By Sidney Lumet. Brian De Palma sat with filmmakers Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow for a similar interview in De Palma, an overview of the suspense auteur's career. Equally revered was writer-director Nora Ephron, whose life gets a heartfelt airing in Everything Is Copy, directed by her son, The New York Times reporter Jacob Bernstein, and featuring interviews with such Ephron collaborators as Meryl Streep. In contrast to these Hollywood tales is Cameraperson, cinematographer Kirsten Johnson's personal and poetic look at her work on docs in such places as Iraq and Darfur.

THE ARTISTS

Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures, HBO's bad-boy bio-doc on photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, is a lot like his artwork - simultaneously tasteful and profane. Tasteful, too, are the portraits of Greta Garbo, Muhammad Ali and Michael Jackson by photographer Harry Benson, renowned chronicler of The Beatles' 1964 U.S. tour and the subject of Harry Benson: Shoot First.

THE WRITERS

Tom Hanks and songwriter John Mayer are among those who take a stand for the typewriter in California Typewriters. Author: The J.T. LeRoy Story is about the hard-luck scribe adored by celebs and literati in the early aughts - until his memoirs were revealed to be pure fiction, all created by a woman named Laura Albert.

This story first appeared in a November standalone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.

Read more: Oscars: 3 Documentaries Take Aim at the Gun Debate
Barbara Boxer

Outgoing Sen. Barbara Boxer of California planned to introduce a bill Tuesday that would eliminate the Electoral College, following Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's electoral loss to President-elect Donald Trump but near-certain victory in the popular vote.

The legislation would amend the Constitution, requiring ratification by three-fourths of the states within seven years after passing through Congress to be enacted.

"In my lifetime, I have seen two elections where the winner of the general election did not win the popular vote," she said in a statement, noting Democrat Al Gore's electoral loss in 2000. "When all the ballots are counted, Hillary Clinton will have won the popular vote by a margin that could exceed 2 million votes, and she is on track to have received more votes than any other presidential candidate in history except Barack Obama."

"This is the only office in the land where you can get more votes and still lose the presidency," she continued. "The Electoral College is an outdated, undemocratic system that does not reflect our modern society, and it needs to change immediately. Every American should be guaranteed that their vote counts."

As of Tuesday, Clinton led Trump by roughly 900,000 votes, with some votes in Democratic strongholds still outstanding. Before Gore, there were only three times in which a presidential nominee lost while winning the popular vote. Those were Grover Cleveland in 1888, Samuel Tilden in 1876, and Andrew Jackson in 1824.

With Michigan yet to be called for either candidate, Trump leads Clinton by 290 to 232 in the Electoral College.

While he praised the Electoral College after winning, saying it puts more states into play, he tweeted in 2012 after Republican nominee Mitt Romney's loss that the system was a "disaster for democracy."

In her statement, Boxer said she agreed with that sentiment.

"I couldn't agree more," the California Democrat wrote. "One person, one vote!"

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However, Trump on Twitter Tuesday wrote that he would've campaigned differently had the Electoral College not been the determining factor in the election.

"If the election were based on total popular vote I would have campaigned in N.Y. Florida and California and won even bigger and more easily," Trump wrote, adding in a subsquent tweet, "The Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different!"

NOW WATCH: Trump says the electoral college 'is actually genius' after calling it a 'disaster for democracy' in 2012





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Despite President-elect Donald Trump calling climate change a Chinese hoax, his promises to increase offshore drilling for fossil fuels and increasing natural gas production, his appointment of a climate change denier to head the Environmental Protection Agency transition team and his plan to cancel the Paris Agreement on climate change, there may yet be hope for the climate deal that came into effect Nov. 4.

Speaking at the venue of the ongoing COP22 climate talks in Marrakech, Morocco, U.S. special envoy on climate change Dr. Jonathan Pershing said Tuesday: Heads of state can and will change but I am confident that we can and we will sustain a durable international effort to counter climate change.

Pershing, a State Department official, added: The Paris agreement protects economic growth and the environment, all while providing nationally determined flexibility to accommodate differing circumstances. It is durable, it is inclusive it is ambitious.

JonathanPershing

Photo: REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal

Since economic reasons are the primary ones being cited by Trump to undo the climate accord, it is not only Pershing but also President Barack Obama and former Vice President Al Gore who have pointed out how the deal doesnt harm the economy.

Obama said at a recent press conference in Washington, D.C.: The good news is that what weve been able to show over the last five, six, eight years is that its possible to grow the economy really fast and possible to bring down carbon emissions as well.

A day after Trumps election victory, Gore released a statement in which he expressed hope the president-elect would honor the countrys commitment to the deal, and added: The market forces driving the transition to a sustainable economy simply will not be slowed.  Today, without regard to last nights outcome, we must turn our focus to making the promises of the Paris Agreement a reality by embracing the forces that are already working to grow our economy and transform our energy future.

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However, Jason Miller, a spokesman for Trumps transition team, told the Wall Street Journal on Monday: As part of our pro-American energy plan, we said wed withdraw from the deal.

The U.S. contributes about 13 percent of global greenhouse emissions, and is the biggest polluter globally after China. There are a few different mechanisms it can use to go back on its climate commitments but none of them is simple or quick.

Meanwhile, China has said it remains committed to its pledge to peak its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 or earlier.

Also, in the event Trump decides to pull the U.S. out of the climate accord, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has proposed imposing a carbon tax on all U.S. products entering the EU.

The Paris climate accord aims to keep the rise in average global temperatures, compared to pre-industrial levels, below a catastrophic 2 degrees Celsius by the end of this century, and also expressed the hope to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius. However, that looks impossible now, with a 1.2 degree Celsius rise already estimated by the end of 2016. Partially affected by a strong El Nino, this year is set to be yet another hottest year on record, a title currently held by 2015. And the record temperatures seen last year are likely to be the norm by 2025, a recent report warned.

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House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday said Congress was working in sync with President-elect Donald Trump to ensure Republicans hit the ground running when the real-estate mogul is inaugurated as the 45th president in January.

Welcome to the dawn of a new unified Republican government, Ryan said at a press conference, following a meeting with the House Republican Conference.

Ryan added: This will be a government focused on turning President-elect Trumps victory into real progress for the American people.

House Speaker Paul Ryan: Welcome to the dawn of a new, unified Republican government." https://t.co/lo3Igp17Wz https://t.co/XiNsMk0SuP  CNN (@CNN) November 15, 2016

The Wisconsin Republican said he was speaking with Trump virtually every single day.

Ryan touted his Better Way policy agenda and said the House will move quickly to send its various components to the presidents desk.

NOW WATCH: TRUMP: Women who want abortions may have to 'go to another state'





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SPRINGFIELD -- The Illinois General Assemblys fall veto session started Tuesday much as its spring session wrapped up, with Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic leaders divided over a long-term budget solution and power giant Exelon pushing for an energy policy overhaul to prevent the closure of financially struggling nuclear plants.

With only five days remaining on the House calendar and four on the Senates, the chances are slim that either issue will be resolved during the scheduled veto session.

On the budget front, House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, said he believes a deal can be reached using the framework that produced other partial budget agreements during Rauners tenure, including a stopgap spending plan thats currently funding most state operations through Dec. 31.

Without action before Jan. 1, public universities, social service providers and others that were deprived of funding as the state went a year without a budget will be plunged back into uncertainty.

If you use the same framework, the odds are youll get a budget to finish off this fiscal year, youll be able to provide for a good level of funding for education, youll be able to provide for public safety, (and) youll be able to provide for the seniors and for the vulnerable in our society, Madigan said.

While he sidestepped questions about what that framework entails, Madigan has previously noted that the Democratic-controlled Legislature and the first-term Republican governor have reached budget agreements when Rauner has set aside his pro-business, union-weakening turnaround agenda.

On the heels of a long and bitter election season, Rauner and legislative leaders met Tuesday morning for the first time in months.

Following the half-hour meeting, Madigan complicated matters by announcing that hes appointing state Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, to be the chief negotiator for House Democrats on budget issues.

The announcement vexed the Republican legislative leaders, House Minority Leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs and Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno of Lemont, who said that was not what had been discussed behind closed doors in the governors office.

We listened to the speakers comments, and were frankly confused by them, Radogno said. To have another negotiating team come in was not what was agreed to.

Radogno said discussions need to take place among herself, Durkin, Madigan, Rauner and Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago.

Durkin said leaders need to use previous recommendations from bipartisan working groups of rank-and-file lawmakers as the basis for negotiating a complete, comprehensive budget, one that is balanced, and one thats fair to taxpayers (and) that has reforms.

We are not going to support any more stopgap budgets, Durkin said.

The leaders are scheduled to meet again Wednesday. Cullerton doesnt plan to appoint anyone else to negotiate on behalf of Senate Democrats, spokesman John Patterson said.

Meanwhile, Exelon has introduced what its calling the Future Energy Jobs Bill, an energy policy overhaul that it says is crucial to the future of its Clinton and Quad Cities nuclear plants. A previous version of the bill failed to advance in the spring, and the new version also includes measures to keep open Dynegy-owned coal-fired power plants in southern Illinois.

The legislation reflects the work of a broad group of stakeholders to achieve comprehensive energy legislation that is urgently needed to strengthen our economy and save and create tens of thousands of jobs, Exelon spokesman Paul Adams said in a prepared statement. As with any piece of major legislation, it will continue to evolve as stakeholders weigh in. But at its core, we know the bill will bring significant benefits to consumers and the environment in Illinois.

The company says the revamped proposal includes energy efficiency programs that would save $4 billion, policies to promote the growth of wind and solar energy, and $1 billion in funding for programs to assist low-income customers.

Opponents, however, are already labeling the bill the largest rate hike in U.S. history.
From Delish

Paula Deen's been cooking all morning, but she's still hours away from the first run-through of her new show, Sweet Home Savannah. She's not prepping recipes, though-she's feeding the crew: a pot of grits, ham, bacon, toasted bread with butter and homemade preserves, and eggs fried to order. Just because it's a jam-packed day doesn't mean the Queen of Butter's going to phone it in, apparently; she's right at home with a full house and an even fuller schedule.

"It's balls to the wall right now," is the first thing out of her mouth. "I don't know what to say. We've had my whole team at the house since Monday, so I got up this morning, cooked breakfast for everybody, got ready, and now we're getting ready to shoot for two hours. I'm juggling a lot of balls right now."

Deen's returning to her Dogwood home in Savannah, Georgia, where she filmed her original show years ago, to mark her TV comeback in a series (launching Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 6 p.m. on Evine). The production is unlike anything she's ever done before, and unlike any other cooking shows out there-period.

Photo credit: EVINE

It's Part Cooking, Part Sales, Part Anything Goes.

Deen's spent years doing the classic stand-and-stir cooking show-and if you're looking for that, you might as well watch her old episodes. First, it's airing on Evine, a shop-at-home network, and as a result, Deen will be doing more than whipping up classic Southern dishes (which ones, exactly, are still being decided). During the show, they'll be selling the products she's using, and also showing off other products in her line, which extends well beyond cookbooks and kitchen gadgets these days.

Second, it's all happening inside her house.

"The only thing that's kind of strange right now is that when you walk in the front door, there's a bunch of beds in the living room," she says. That's because she's doing a segment on her line of bedding-which is a thing-along with Deen-approved throw pillows, Peachy Clean dish scrubbers, cake stands, AirFryers, eyeglasses and even a Super Bowl-champion-sized simulated diamond ring.

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"News flash! I don't cook naked!"

You Could Buy the Shirt Off Her Back. No, Really.

The sales part doesn't end there. Even the clothes Deen wears will be for sale-something she says people have been asking her to do for years. "People would always ask, 'Where can I find that top?'" Deen says. "I had tried to get a clothing line up, and finally, the last company I worked with said, 'Sorry, we're not interested, because you're known in the kitchen.' I said, 'News flash! I don't cook naked!'"

She wound up launching a clothing line with Evine-a mix of floaty tunics, elastic-waist skinny pants and drapey cardigans-so the show becomes one more way to tie in all aspects of the Deen empire.

Photo credit: Evine

She Gave Her Kitchen a 'Nice Facelift'.

A few years ago, when Deen started filming her digital cooking shows, she made some alterations to her home kitchen. Essentially, this meant repainting the walls, trimming the countertop size, and adding bar stools along the island, so friends and family could sit with her while she cooks. This meant that when Evine came calling, she already had a set in place to film the show-even if she didn't originally plan for her kitchen to become a full-time studio.

"[My husband] Michael and I built that home right before we were married. That was going to be the home we lived in the rest of our life," Deen says. "Then, we started shooting [Paula's Home Cooking], you couldn't get into the kitchen without walking under ladders and around cameras. You could hardly get a bowl of cereal."

At that time, the couple decided to build another house nearby, and turn the house on Dogwood Avenue into a full-time studio for filming her shows.

"Just laughing, having a good time, shaking off all of the droppings that have fallen on you over the week-that's what we're going for [with this show]."

There's One Beloved Dish That *Could* Appear on the Show.

Deen hasn't finalized her recipe lineup just yet, though she suspects there will be at least a few Thanksgiving dishes featured over the next few weeks. She did confirm that her recipes will run the gamut, featuring a mix of old and new dishes. Many fans will be crossing their fingers that includes her Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding.

"Whether I'm in California, North Dakota, New York, Florida or Georgia, somebody's going to come up to me and say they love it," Deen says. "It's a no-cook banana pudding, and it's totally out of this world."

...And There's a Surprising Recipe She's Dying to Share.

While most people know Deen for her Southern cooking, one of Deen's favorite recipes she makes is Italian-and it involves a surprising hack for fork-tender meatballs.

"Meatballs often come out kind of dry and hard, and I'd tried every way to cook them-deep-frying them, cooking them in a saute pan on the stove, cooking them in the oven-but they always came out that way," she says. Then, one night, she decided to cook the meatballs in beef broth before adding them to the marinara. "Honey, that was the lightest, most delicious, most tender meatball I've ever eaten," she says. "It rivaled, to me, Rao in New York."

It's Totally Live, Which Means Anything Could Happen.

Every Tuesday, from 6-8 p.m. EST, people will get Deen unfiltered. "I've never had a script," she says. "What comes up comes out, you know? If I had a script, it'd be very distracting to me."

That sort of openness-particularly on live TV-could be unsettling for some networks, particularly in light of her 2013 deposition, where she admitted to using racial slurs in the past. Don't expect anything like that, though-Deen has since apologized multiple times for those words, telling the Today show that incident doesn't reflect who she is or how she views people of different races, religions and sexual orientations.

In this case, 'Deen unfiltered' is more along the lines of her talking about cooking, clothes, and home decor with friends, family and the show's salespeople-giving her honest opinion of what she thinks of products and recipes. It also means she won't feature any item she doesn't use-or stand behind.

Photo credit: Evine

"I've just been so blessed because America knows that I'm a truth teller, and I tell the truth," she says. "I think I really have gained their trust and I wouldn't do anything to jeopardize that."

Deen Wants the Show to Feel Like a Hangout Among Friends.

Though part of the two-hour-long show will involve selling products from her various lines, the comfort-food cook is making steps to ensure it's less of the "buy now!" vibe you'd expect from home sales network. For one thing, she's leaving the actual sales pitch to salespeople, who will host those portions. "I just tell people about the product and what I love about it," she explains.

And, for another, she's trying to keep the tone of the show conversational, like you're hanging out at a friend's house.

"It's a place where anyone who enjoys spending time with me can catch up with me," she says. "Just laughing, having a good time, shaking off all of the droppings that have fallen on you over the week-that's what we're going for."

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As president-elect Donald Trump begins his transition into the White House, a great deal of attention has centered on the complex decisions surrounding the transfer of power. Vice-president elect Mike Pence, a staunch conservative who has implemented or tried to implement controversial policy decisions during his time as Indiana's governor, replaced Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey as the leader of the transition team, strengthening speculation he will have a more prominent role in the administration than once thought.

Pence's political rise has been unconventional and mostly under the radar on the national scene. He started his political career began in 1988 after twice failing to defeat former U.S. House Representative Phil Sharp. While serving as president of the Indiana Policy Review, a Fort Wayne-based conservative think tank, Pence would begin hosting a statewide syndicated radio show in the early 1990s. He would later be elected to the House from 2001 to 2013 in Indiana's second district, which includes working-class cities like Elkhart. In 2012, he narrowly defeated Democrat John Gregg to succeed highly popular governor Mitch Daniels.

Throughout his time in public office, Pence's conservative credentials have remained clear. As governor, Pence received a 99 percent rating from the American Conservative Union and had just a 7 percent rating by American Civil Liberties Union as a congressman. In his own words, Pence described himself in 2010 as a Christian, a conservative and a Republican in that order.

With one Supreme Court appointment certain, many liberals and conservatives will be interested in knowing what type of influence Pence will wield within the administration on social issues. His anti-abortion stance and history of anti-LGBT policies have many worried that the Trump will restrict the rights of both women and the LGBT community.

Pence's ardent religious beliefs account for the rabid opposition to abortion that has guided much of his legislation. His quest to defund Planned Parenthood was pushed into high gear as a congressman in 2011 when he submitted an amendment to the House to significantly cut funding for the organization.

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If Planned Parenthood wants to be involved in providing counseling services and HIV testing, they ought not to be in the business of providing abortions, Pence told Politico in a 2011 interview. As long as they aspire to do that, Ill be after them.

Pence would keep his word. By 2014, just a year after he became governor, Indiana had slashed its funding to Planned Parenthood to half of its 2005 levels. Pence also signed a measure in March 2016 prohibiting abortions performed on the basis of a fetus race, disability or gender. The law allowed doctors who were found to have performed abortions on the basis of any of those characteristics to be held liable for wrongful death.

By enacting this legislation, we take an important step in protecting the unborn while still providing an exception for the life of the mother, Pence said in a statement. I sign this legislation with a prayer that God would continue to bless these precious children, mothers and families. The law was ultimately struck down by a federal judge.

Pence also has a contentious history with the LGBT community. He opposed the repeal of Dont Ask, Dont Tell, a controversial policy enacted by Bill Clinton in 1993 intended to keep the sexual orientation of military service members confidential.

We ought not to use the American military as a backdrop for social experimentation or debating domestic policy issues, he told CNN in 2010.

In 2015, Pence signed Indianas Religious Freedom Act into law, allowing business owners to deny service to any person if they felt that serving them would violate their religious beliefs. He later amended the law to say that business owners could not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, race, religion or disability, angering those who felt that it made the law insufficient and disappointing those who still felt it would allow for discrimination.

Accusations have been leveled at Pence for supporting conversion, or electroshock, therapy as a means of changing a persons sexual orientation, though he has never explicitly said that. The allegations likely come from Pences statements when he was running for Congress in 2000. During that time, his campaign website stated that Congress should only support a law providing funding for HIV/AIDS treatment after completion of an audit to ensure that federal dollars were no longer being given to organizations that celebrate and encourage the types of behaviors that facilitate the spreading of the HIV virus. Resources should be directed toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior.

Trump told "60 Minutes" on Sunday that he wouldnt seek to ban gay marriage as president. Its law, he said. It was settled in the Supreme Court. I mean, its done.

Despite the fact that Roe v. Wade is also the law of the land, Trump implied he wouldnt rule out changing it. If it ever were overturned, it would go back to the states.

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Activists tried to block Donald Trump with their votes  and now theyre trying to do it with their dollars.

In October, technology and media marketing specialist Shannon Coulter started the hashtag #GrabYourWallet, which encourages people to actively boycott businesses that carry Trump products. That hashtag underwent something of a revival this week, when users on Twitter began to circulate a continuously updating Google doc of businesses that do business with the Trump family, as well as their customer relations contacts.

SEE ALSO: You will be watched by Donald Trump

Our favorite stores, the stores that we are the loyal customers of, are profiting directly from a campaign that we consider to be hatefulthat we consider to be on the backs of people of color, of women, and of LGBTQ peopleand its not okay, Coulter explained on MSNBC in October.

#GrabYourWallet encourages consumers to boycott businesses who endorsed Trump or currently work with his properties. It also includes mainstream media publications, like People, who have been accused of trying to normalize Trump and his candidacy.

While Ivanka Trump has brushed aside the boycotting campaign, it is seeing real impact. According to FastCompany and data sourced from ShopRunner, Ivanka Trumps brand has seen a 54 percent drop in interest, or item views on select online retailers.

#IvankaTrump is as phony as #DonaldTrump. She has bad childcare policy at her company & makes her products #overseas. #GrabYourWallet  Sharon Carbine (@SharonCarbine) November 15, 2016

#GrabYourWallet is based in a Google Doc, and there are plans to build a website and an app around the list, according to Coulters comments in the #GrabYourWallet Facebook page.

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Heres an partial list of companies on the Google doc:

Companies with leaders that have endorsed Trump

Yuengling beer

NASCAR

MillerCoors

Jenny Craig

PayPal

UFC

Home Depot

Hobby Lobby

New Balance

Some major companies that do business with Trump family

6pm.com

Amazon

Belk.com

Bloomingdales

Bed, Bath & Beyond

Burlington Coat Factory

Dillards

DSW

HSN

Hudson Bay

Lord & Taylor

Macys

Marshalls

Neiman Marcus

Nordstrom

Overstock.com

TJ Maxx

Zappos

It may prove impossible for people to successfully boycott all these companies  but energy is high right now, and for many activists, anything is worth trying.

BONUS: These are the most shocking quotes to come out of Trumps 60 Minutes interview
The boho paradise of Comportathe seaside stomping ground of designers like Christian Louboutin and Philippe Starckhas long been one of Europes best-kept secrets. Just a 90-minute drive from Lisbon, the village sits at the foot of the Tria Peninsula, a sandy 10-mile strip of land between the Atlantic and the Sado River estuary.

Stay

Check in to Casas na Areia (villas from $600), a hideaway of four thatched-roof cabanas with beachy, minimalist furnishings. Or rent one of the sophisticated villas at Sublime Comporta (villas from $670), where a barn nestled amid cork trees and vineyards has been revamped into the towns most stylish digs (at least until the Aman arrives).

Eat

For dinner, order the exquisite grilled fish and squid-ink rice at Sal (entres $13$50), or dig in to fresh-caught seafood at O Dinis (Carvalhal Beach; entres $12$26).

Drink

Stop by cocktail stand Chilli Pepper Bar (Largo de So Joo) to toast your good fortune for getting to this gem of a Portugese town ahead of the curve.

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Nearly a month after The Piano Guys co-founder Jon Schmidt's daughter 21-year-old Annie Schmidt went missing in Oregon, it has been confirmed she died while hiking.

The younger Schmidt's body was found at the bottom of a cliff below Munra Point in the Columbia River Gorge. Her death was ruled accidental, caused by blunt force head injuries, the Multnomah County Medical Examiner's office told People.

Jon Schmidt posted a message to the Facebook group Remembering Annie Schmidt announcing that, according to a medical examiner, his daughters remains had been found.

"We just received word from the medical examiner that the remains found yesterday have been positively identified as Annie. The cause was determined accidental," he wrote. "You have lived this trial with us and we pray that this may bring a greater level of resolution and peace for all of us."

Later, in another post, he wrote, "We absolutely feel that it was a complete miracle that we found Annie. People literally came out of nowhere this week to provide the search effort with some of the best dogs and handlers in the country. We are 100% convinced that without this, Annie would never have been found. The people who have helped in this effort are angelic, their motivation absolutely selfless. The way it all came together, the timing, the weather everything was truly miraculous. Although our pain is deep, we are feeling so much gratitude this day for all of those who have helped us find our sweet Annie!"
Protesters marched in Bismarck, capital of North Dakota, on Monday, November 14, against the proposed construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Protesters rallied outside the North Dakota State Capitol, blocking access to the building, according to news reports. This video shows demonstrators marching whilst holdings signs that read Defend the sacred, Water is life, etc.

The Departments of the Interior and Army issued a joint statement on Monday deferring a decision on the pipeline construction plans to hold further talks with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, according to The Bismarck Tribune. The tribe said the construction would damage their cultural sites around the Lake Oahe and threaten their water supply. Credit: Instagram/sharifkouddous via Storyful
* Piraeus posts 31 mln euro profit, up 52 pct from Q2

* Cuts bad debt provisions by 9 pct

* Non-performing credit eases to 38.8 pct of loan book (Adds CEO comment, details)

By George Georgiopoulos

ATHENS, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Piraeus Bank, Greece's largest lender by assets cut its bad loan provisions during the summer months to improve its net profit by 52 percent over the previous quarter.

Greek banks still carry large problem loan portfolios after a deep, protracted recession pushed unemployment to record highs, making it hard for borrowers to service their debts.

Piraeus, which is 26.2 percent owned by the country's bank rescue fund HFSF after its recapitalisation late last year, said on Tuesday net profit was 31 million euros ($33 million) for July to September, up from 20 million euros.

Greek banks have about 109 billion euros of non-performing exposures (NPEs), which at 45 percent of their loan books is the second highest ratio in Europe after Cyprus. They face ambitious targets to cut the overhang by 40 percent by 2019.

They are also grappling with funding gaps after a deposit flight last year that led to capital controls in June 2015. They still depend on central bank funding to plug the hole.

Piraeus, with a current market value of 1.25 billion euros, said loan-loss provisions fell 9.0 percent to 242 million euros in the third quarter, from 265 million in the second.

"Active management of non-performing loans continues to yield significant positive results," CEO George Poulopoulos said in a statement. "On an annual basis, loans in arrears have declined by 2.2 billion euros or 8 percent."

Piraeus said non-performing loans (NPLs) dropped to 38.8 percent of its loan book at the end of September, from 39.2 percent in the second quarter.

A wider measure, Non Performing Exposures (NPEs) which include NPLs and restructured loans likely to turn bad, were reduced by 200 million euros quarter on quarter and by 1.1 billion euros year-on-year.

Net interest income rose one percent from the second quarter to 488 million euros, with the group's net interest margin improving to 2.92 from 2.89 percent in the second quarter. ($1 = 0.9310 euros) (Editing by Alexander Smith)
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African Paralympic gold medallist Oscar Pistorius has been moved to a prison better suited to his rehabilitation while serving a six year jail term for murdering his girlfriend, a prison service spokesman said on Monday. Pistorius has been moved to the Atteridgeville correctional centre, on the outskirts of the capital Pretoria, from the nearby Kgosi Mampuru remand centre. "The issue is about access to rehabilitation programmes," department for correctional services spokesman Manelisi Wolela said. "A remand detention facility has no rehabilitation programme because everyone there is assumed innocent and therefore cannot be subjected to rehabilitation programmes." The athlete, known as the Blade Runner for his carbon-fibre prosthetics, was treated for wrist injuries in August but prison services said he denied trying to kill himself. Pistorius was sentenced to six years in prison in July after being found guilty of murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on appeal last December. The track star originally received a five-year sentence for a manslaughter conviction, that was upgraded to murder on appeal. State prosecutors are challenging Pistorius' latest six year sentence, arguing it was too lenient as it was less than half the 15-years they sought. Pistorius says he shot dead Steenkamp by accident after mistaking her for an intruder in his house. (Reporting by Stella Mapenzauswa; Editing by Joe Brock)
MATTOON -- Lake Land College will abate its property tax on development in a new Shelbyville Enterprise Zone and in the existing Vandalia/Fayette County Enterprise Zone.

The Lake Land Board of Trustees voted Monday night to authorize property tax abatement for these two zones and heard an abatement request for a planned Douglas County Enterprise Zone. In addition, the board approve hiring Dustha Wahls as the college's new human resources director.

Regarding Shelbyville, Mayor Jeff Johnson attended last month's board meeting and talked about how his community's planned 15-year enterprise zone could offer incentives, such as property tax abatement, to promote economic development. He also attended Monday's board meeting.

The Lake Land board voted on Monday to temporarily abate property taxes for new commercial, industrial, and residential subdivision development in the Shelbyville and the Vandalia/Fayette County enterprise zones. Fayette officials hope to get a 15-year extension for their existing zone.

During Monday's meeting, the board also heard Tuscola Chamber & Economic Development Executive Director Brian Moody's request for property tax abatement for development in a new 15-year enterprise zone that is planned in Douglas County.

Moody said Douglas County wants to have an enterprise zone so it can better compete for economic development with other communities that have zones in place, including nearly all of the surrounding counties.

The cities of Arcola, Newman, Tuscola and Village Grove and the villages of Arthur and Atwood are also slated to take part in the Douglas County zone. Moody said most of Douglas County is part of the Parkland College district, but Lake Land's district does cover part of the Arthur area.

Organizers of the new Shelbyville and Douglas County enterprise zones and the Fayette County extension will need to apply to the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity for approval.

In other matters, the board approved the appointment of Dustha Wahls of Charleston to the position of director of human resources effective Jan. 1. The current director, Dawn Schlechte of Strasburg, will retire Dec. 31.

Currently, Wahls serves at the senior human resource generalist and college compliance coordinator at Lake Land. She joined the college in January following an 11-year tenure as the human resources director for the city of Charleston.

Wahls brings more than 17 years of experience to her position and has a bachelors in business with a concentration in human resources and a masters in business administration from Eastern Illinois University.
Italian fashion entrepreneur Ciro Paone is set to be honored at the upcoming edition of Pitti Immagine Uomo.

The founder of the luxury ready-to-wear and made-to-measure label Kiton will be the subject of a dedicated exhibition project, with fashion journalist Angelo Flaccavento at the helm as Artistic Director. The show has been named "Due o tre cose che so di Ciro" ("Two or three things I know about Ciro").

"We at Pitti Immagine have always found Ciro Paone to be representative of friendliness, elegance, vision, and courage," says Raffaello Napoleone, CEO of Pitti Immagine. "He represents the best in contemporary tailoring, and at the same time is one of the most enlightened entrepreneurs in Italian fashion: a history that starts in Naples, and from here, goes on to conquer the world."

The show will look at Paone's successful tastes, passions and career, which took off when he founded Kiton in Naples in 1956 alongside Antonio Carola. The brand, which went on to become a global menswear business, is known for its sharp suits, with various lines incorporating vintage fabrics and bespoke Neapolitan tailoring.

Paone is not the only big name to be honored at the 91st edition of the Italian menswear tradeshow -- British designer Paul Smith is set to launch his new PS by Paul Smith collection at the event as part of his role as 'Special Guest'. Designer Tim Coppens, who has been selected as 'Menswear Guest Designer', is set to use the opportunity as the European premiere of his Fall/Winter 2017 menswear collection, and Italian lifestyle label Golden Goose Deluxe Brand will be unveiling an installation at the Stazione Leopolda to celebrate 10 years in the sneaker industry.

Pitti Immagine Uomo runs January 10-13 2017 in Florence.
WARSAW (Reuters) - A Polish parliamentary inquiry plans to question European Council President Donald Tusk over an investment scam in which thousands of people lost money while he was prime minister, the head of the inquiry committee said. The announcement follows comments last month from Jaroslaw Kaczynski, head of the ruling eurosceptic Law and Justice (PiS) party, that Tusk might face charges in Poland. The Amber Gold Ponzi scheme - a type of fraud that relies on paying initial investors with money received from later ones - ran for over two years before collapsing in 2012. It resulted in hundreds of millions of zlotys in losses for over 10,000 depositors. Tusk, a former head of the center-right, pro-European Civic Platform party (PO), served as prime minister for about seven years before resigning in 2014 to take the top European Union job. PO was ousted in last year's elections by PiS, and Kaczynski wants to block his old opponent from being awarded a second term next year as chair of the EU's summit meetings. Asked if Tusk would be invited to testify in parliament, Malgorzata Wassermann, a PiS lawmaker who heads the inquiry committee, told state television late on Monday: "This is rather a done deal, this is obvious." Amber Gold promised fixed returns often exceeding 10 percent a year from an alleged purchase of gold, while at the same time pouring millions into a low-cost airline. It opened outlets in prestigious locations across Poland, including near the central bank and finance ministry. The company posted a huge billboard in central Warsaw advertising "a deposit in gold", despite an earlier warning to potential clients issued by the financial supervisor. A state report published in 2013 said Amber Gold's expansion was possible due to "mistakes and non-action" by some state institutions, which did not perform their duties properly. Wassermann said that Tusk would most likely testify before the parliamentary panel at the end of its proceedings to answer questions related to his indirect oversight of law enforcement and secret services through cabinet ministers. Tusk told Polish media in July that he was ready to confront PiS and defend his record. "I would like to come and say, you are lying, the truth looks completely different," he said. (Reporting by Marcin Goettig)
Police arrested 112 people in Portland, Oregon this weekend after demonstrations against the recent election of Republican Donald Trump in the citys downtown area turned violent. But at least 69 of them did not vote on Election Day  or were not even registered to vote in the state, according to an analysis by local station KGW.

KGW compared the names and ages of those arrested Saturday to Multnomah County Elections Division state voter logs and found that 34 of them did not cast a vote last Tuesday, and an additional 35 were not registered to vote. Only 25 of the arrested protesters voted, though KGW has yet to verify the remaining 17. The final suspect voted out of state.

The arrests took place after activists walked from the Pioneer Courthouse Square to City Hall in downtown Portland, where they threw objects at police officers and blocked train lines. Police in the area sprayed tear gas at the protesters in an effort to scatter the crowd, according to state newspaper The Oregonian.

Last week's general election saw a lower national voter turnout than both of the previous elections. The number of voters nationwide actually rose by 1.4 million from 2012, but the population grew. Only 57 percent of eligible voters ended up casting a ballot as compared with 58.2 percent in 2012 and 61.6 percent in 2008, according to Five Thirty Eight.

Though more than 2 million people in Oregon voted on Election Day and broke the states record, one in five eligible voters still did not cast a ballot. President Barack Obama touched on that subject Monday evening while speaking in the White Houses briefing room to address the press before traveling overseas.

Hopefully, its a reminder that elections matter. Voting counts, he said. I dont know how many times we have to relearn this lesson because we ended up having 43 percent of the country not voting.

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Photo: Reuters

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Meanwhile, the country continues to see protests against the president-elect. Large-scale demonstrations have occurred in major cities like New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Oregons unruly protests have garnered much attention thanks to Saturday's arrests and the shooting of a protester that same night. The shooting occurred during an altercation between an unidentified demonstrator and an armed man on Morrison Bridge in Portland. The protester survived.

Demonstrations in Oregon veered in a more peaceful direction following the arrests and shooting. Protesters gathered to hold a vigil for the shooting victim on Sunday.

Democrat Hillary Clinton won Oregon, taking of 51.7 percent of the state to Trumps 41.1 percent. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson took 4.8 percent of the vote, and Green Party nominee Jill Stein took 2.5 percent.

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In the aftermath of last weeks elections, many of those dismayed with the results took their frustrations into the streets, fashioned justice-minded movements on social media, and consoled themselves by tuning into various late-night shows, some of which broke from comedy to address national tensions.

But perhaps the most notable (and most concrete) action to follow the end of the divisive election season has been a surge in donations to various organizations whose agendas counter those proposed by President-elect Donald Trump. In recent days, groups that champion causes like civil liberties and womens health as well as focus on immigration rights and anti-discrimination initiatives have seen record responses to the election, in the form of contributions and volunteer applications.

Three days after the election, Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, said shed seen an unprecedented outpouring of support, with almost 80,000 donations having come in. As Cosmopolitan and others pointed out, many of those donations came with the added bonus of a mailable certificate that some sent to the office of Governor Mike Pence, Trumps VP-to-be, whose legislative initiatives in Indiana have targeted womens reproductive rights and LGBT people.

Recommended: TPPs Death Wont Help the American Middle Class

In response to Trumps proposed Muslim ban, which some surrogates now claim wasnt really a serious proposal, activists have turned their energies to aiding groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). According to Ibrahim Hooper, the groups communications director, CAIR had seen a spike in volunteer applications, receiving more than 500 of them, which Hooper characterized in a phone call as simply unprecedented. In response to Trumps proposed plan to withdraw the U.S. from the roster of 200 countries that signed the Paris Agreement, which will battle climate change, the Sierra Club had nearly quadrupled its monthly donation record by the end of last week, according to the Financial Times.

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For non-profit groups, donations often follow something of a countercyclical pattern: When they are on the opposition, and they are doing worse politically, the funds come rushing in. The American Civil Liberties Union, which issued a strongly-worded, widely-shared post-election statement against Trumps campaign promises to deport undocumented immigrants, reinstate the practice of torture, and limit free speech, saw its donation page crash on Wednesday morning after visitors to the page, the ACLU said increased by 7,000 percent. In a statement on Monday, the organization said that in just five days it has received roughly 120,000 donations totaling more than $7.2 million.

Recommended: Why Hillary Clinton Lost

Meanwhile, as protests carried on in a dozen American cities over the weekend, calls for pledging money to countless other groups continued unabated. During Sundays evening season finale of the HBO show Last Week Tonight, the shows host, John Oliver, took the extraordinary step of making explicit appeals for viewers to contribute to a number of groups that have already seen their donations spike over the course of the past week. If you don't believe man-made global warming is a silly issue, donate to the National Resources Defense Council, Oliver said. If you don't think refugees are a terrorist army in disguise, donate to the International Refugee Assistance Project.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which released an influential study on cyberhate last month and was critical of Trumps campaign advertising, also saw its coffers fill up. The day after the election we received a 50-fold increase in online donations, Jonathan Greenblatt, the organizations CEO, wrote in a statement, a level that continued through the end of the week. He added that nearly 70 percent of those who gave were first-time donors. And should Trumps incendiary campaign-trail proposals become actual policy, its easy to imagine that the ADL and others will have no trouble finding more eager donors.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
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LONDON  Britons kept their eyes on the skies on Monday evening for a glimpse of this glorious, rare, majestic supermoon that everyone's been banging on about.

But, perhaps in keeping with the British psyche, most were left disappointed as grey, cloudy skies obscured the celestial sight.

SEE ALSO: Sorry Britain, you probably won't see the supermoon today

Apparently there is a little more hope for a sighting on Tuesday night as the weather for areas north of the M4 is meant to be a little less cloudy.

The moon is meant to be similarly close again to the earth in 2034; that's not too long to wait, right?

In the meantime, read up on Mashable's guide to taking a supermoon pic that isn't a blobby mess, and enjoy Twitter's failed attempts at capturing a perfect pic.

This may be the best photo I've taken in my lifetime. I am in awe. #supermoon pic.twitter.com/jaPaIDO9Zp  Tim Johns (@timoncheese) November 14, 2016

A very cloudy "supermoon" evening at Cranfield pic.twitter.com/mbcA9fqVjD  CranfieldAstro (@CranfieldAstro) November 14, 2016

The super moon has disappeared behind a cloud :( but here's a pic of a super sky over the racecourse! #supermoonfail pic.twitter.com/KoWfLAngjn  Perth Racecourse (@PerthRacecourse) November 15, 2016

Look at that #supermoon. No, no not that over there that's a street light. The moon over there *points* #supermoonfail pic.twitter.com/N0pA4Fx3Og  Stephie B (@Stephie_B) November 15, 2016





Some didn't even attempt the photo.

The supermoon looks shit. It's actually smaller than the normal moon in Northampton  Trevor Rhodes (@Trev112) November 14, 2016

went owtside fert see supermoon an its just the same shit one wat weve always had. fuckkin piss take tbh xx  its Sandra hun xx (@SalfordSandra) November 14, 2016

The Supermoon was as good as any other shit we look at in the sky - cloudy.  David Bedwell (@DavidBedwell) November 15, 2016

And a meme went around that was more fun than the supermoon itself.

Is the #supermoon not turning out to be what you expected? Simply slap a tortilla wrap on your window for an authentic experience! pic.twitter.com/Djz7IZAUTh  Lis Hignett  (@LisaHignett) November 14, 2016

Make your own Supermoon. Stick a tortilla to the window. Sorted! pic.twitter.com/XB4QR6v85U  Paul Harper (@impaulharper) November 14, 2016

AMAZING shot of the #supermoon here in North Yorkshire !



*totally not a tortilla sellotaped to the window pic.twitter.com/BsUHe5MSL7  Mrs_Moons (@Mrs_Moons) November 14, 2016

BONUS: Watch a stunning timelapse of the rare supermoon lunar eclipse
(ATHENS, Greece)  Drawing a broad lesson from the election of Donald Trump, President Barack Obama said Tuesday that world leaders need to pay heed to peoples very real fears of economic dislocation and inequality in the midst of globalization.

The more aggressively and effectively we deal with those issues, the less those fears may channel themselves into counterproductive approaches that can pit people against each other, Obama said as he opened the last foreign tour of his presidency.

Obama, in a joint news conference with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, said that both Trumps election and the British vote to leave the European Union reflected the need to deal with peoples fears that their children wont do as well as they have.

Sometimes people just feel as if we want to try something and see if we can shake things up, Obama said.

The president seemed skeptical that the new prescriptions being offered would satisfy the frustrations and anger evident in both votes. And he played a bit of defense, saying that his agenda over past eight years had dealt with those issues head on and the countrys indisputably better off.

The president earlier opened his Greek visit by offering reassuring words in Greece about the U.S. commitment to NATO even as he prepares to hand off to a Donald Trump administration, saying Democratic and Republican administrations alike recognize the importance of the alliance to the trans-Atlantic relationship.

Obama told Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos that a strong NATO is of utmost importance and would provide significant continuity even as we see a transition in government in the United States.

Pavlopoulos, for his part, thanked Obama for U.S. support of the Greek people in a time of social and economic crisis, and said he was confident that Trump will continue on the same path.

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Trumps election has generated significant unease in Europe because of his tough talk during the campaign suggesting the U.S. might pull out of the NATO alliance if other countries dont pay more.

Obamas reassurances reflect an attempt to ease the deep concerns about Trump and the future of Americas treaty alliances. Yet they may be greeted with skepticism: For months throughout the campaign, Obama repeatedly assured world leaders in public and private that Trump would not be elected, only to see him emerge victorious from last weeks election.

Obama also met Tuesday with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, and offered a welcome message of support for the Greeks as they struggle with both economic woes and a huge influx of refugees. Obama pledged to keep pressing his view that austerity alone cannot deliver prosperity and that it is going to be important both with respect to debt relief and other accommodative strategies to help the Greek people in this period of adjustment.

Obama is making the first visit to Greece by a sitting U.S. president since Bill Clinton in 1999. Security was tight, with major roads shut down along Obamas motorcade route and a ban on public gatherings and demonstrations in swaths of central Athens and a southern suburb near a seaside luxury hotel where Obama was staying. Boats were also banned from sailing near the coastline at the hotels location.

More than 5,000 police were deployed in the capitals streets for the two-day visit. Left-wing and anarchist groups have planned protest demonstrations for Tuesday afternoon, while an armed anarchist group has called for attacks and clashes to disrupt Obamas visit. Clintons visit, which came during the height of U.S. intervention in the wars ensuing from the breakup of Yugoslavia, was marked with extensive violent demonstrations.

On Wednesday, Obama is scheduled to tour the Acropolis and give a major speech about democracy and globalization before flying on to Berlin. From Germany, Obama will travel to Peru for an Asian economic summit before returning to Washington on Saturday.

Obama said he was looking forward to visiting the Acropolis because if you come to Greece youve got to do a little bit of sightseeing.

Greeces government has hailed Obamas visit as being of huge importance for both Greece and Europe. The countrys left-led coalition government has been struggling to pull Greece out of six years of a vicious financial crisis that has devastated its economy and left more than a quarter of the workforce unemployed. Despite the U.S. election, the government has pinned its hopes on the U.S. president to help persuade some of the countrys more reluctant international creditors, such as Germany, to grant it significant debt relief.

Without a cut in its debt, Athens says, it cannot hope to recover economically  an argument also supported by the International Monetary Fund.

Greece has been relying on emergency loans from three consecutive multi-billion euro bailouts from other European Union countries using the euro currency, and the IMF, since 2010. While the United States has not been involved in Greeces bailout, Athens has long seen it as an ally that could apply pressure on creditors.

The U.S. has praised Greek efforts to overhaul its economy but has repeatedly stressed the country must continue with painful reforms. The countrys bailout funds are disbursed following reviews by international debt inspectors of mandated reforms.

The government will also be looking for recognition of the countrys role in Europes refugee crisis, which saw hundreds of thousands of refugees pass through Greece from Turkey on their way to the more prosperous countries of the European north, and for U.S. pressure on the rest of Europe to help shoulder the burden.
MATTOON -- Police officers are selling Cops for Kids T-shirts to help raise funds for their annual charitable program for children of impoverished families.

Sgt. John Hedges said the police officers will use the T-shirt proceeds and monetary donations to take approximately 65 children shopping for winter clothing, shoes and Christmas wish list gifts on Dec. 11. Application forms for children are available at the Mattoon Police Department, 1710 Wabash Ave.

Hedges said the idea for the first-ever Cops for Kids T-shirts was suggested by management at Don Sol Mexican Grill. He said Don Sol employees often wear the fundraising shirts of charitable causes that this restaurant supports.

The black Cops for Kids T-shirts are available in sizes ranging from small to various extra larges for $20 each at the police station.

Hedges said Don Sol and the Odd Fellow-Rebekah Home both recently held Cops for Kids fundraisers, adding that additional fundraisers are always appreciated. Hedges also said he and his fellow Cops for Kids organizer, Officer Alex Hesse, are available to speak to community groups.

Now that he has been promoted to sergeant, Hedges said he is preparing to turn over the responsibility of organizing Cops for Kids to Hesse. He said Hesse has already been bringing a lot of enthusiasm and fresh ideas to this role.

"I have always enjoyed serving the community. I grew up in Mattoon," Hesse said.

The Cops for Kids program serves children ages 4-12 primarily from the Mattoon school district. Hedges said they try to register children who are "slipping through the cracks" in life and are not signed up for other holiday charitable programs, such as the One Stop Community Christmas.

"Every application gets read," Hedges said.

Those who would like to donate to help Cops for Kids can contact Hedges at hedgesj@mattoonillinois.org or Hesse at hessea@mattoonillinois.org, or contact the police department at 217-235-5451.
Caracas (AFP) - Crisis talks in Venezuela last weekend left President Nicolas Maduro on top and the opposition floundering in its bid to remove him from power, analysts say.

Here are five cards the socialist president holds to trump the opposition during the Vatican-backed talks over the economic and political crisis.

- Block the vote -

The two sides vowed in a declaration on Saturday to find a "democratic, peaceful" way out of the crisis, tackle food shortages and discuss electoral reform.

But Maduro rejected his rivals' key demand for a vote on removing him before his term expires in 2019.

He has resisted pressure so far with the backing of the high court and electoral authorities, which the opposition says he controls.

"The MUD has been left in a very uncomfortable situation with regard to its voters, because the most essential issues are not mentioned" in Saturday's declaration, said Benigno Alarcon, a political scientist at Andres Bello university.

- Weakened opposition -

To sit at the negotiating table, the opposition suspended its threat of street protests and a political trial against Maduro.

The move brought to the surface divisions in the opposition MUD coalition. Half of the 30 groups that make up the coalition have boycotted the talks.

"As far as appearances are concerned, the government clearly won this round by a knockout," said Luis Vicente de Leon, head of polling firm Datanalisis.

"It managed to calm people, confirm its status as a negotiator with international involvement and accentuate the divisions in the opposition."

- International caution -

Alarcon said Maduro had successfully played for time. Staging the talks has staved off pressure from the international community.

Members of the Organization of American States have talked about sanctioning Venezuela. But while the dialogue is under way, "no one will call for that," Alarcon said.

Meanwhile, "the opposition finds itself in a difficult position given the fact that it is under immense pressure from the Vatican and international actors to continue talks," the Eurasia Group consultancy said.

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- Military allegiance -

With Maduro blocking their drive for a vote, Alarcon judged that the opposition "are going to have no choice but to return to a strategy of street protests and legislative pressure," which Maduro has so far resisted.

Eurasia judged that "the continuation of the dialogue bodes well for Maduro and reinforces our view that he will be able to remain in power until the end of his term, barring a more acute social explosion that brings masses to the streets."

Confrontation in the streets is a high-risk strategy for the opposition, since Maduro has the public support of the military high command.

MUD secretary general Jesus Torrealba admitted on Monday that "when it comes to resorting to violence, (Maduro) is in control."

- Debt cushion -

The opposition blames Maduro's economic policies and mismanagement for the crisis. He says it is a US-backed capitalist conspiracy.

Economic analysts have wondered whether the government will be toppled if it defaults on the billions of dollars of debt Venezuela owes to China and other foreign investors.

But last month PDVSA, the state firm that handles the oil exports on which the country relies, gained much-needed breathing room.

It restructured 39 percent of its debt in a bond swap.
The following are some stories in Russia's newspapers on Tuesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

VEDOMOSTI

www.vedomosti.ru

PepsiCo will build a large baby food factory next to the existing dairy plant of the company Wimm-Bill-Dann in the city of Timashevsk. The factory will become one of the 15 largest Russian processing companies, the daily reports. PepsiCo has owned Wimm-Bill-Dann since 2011.

The finance ministry of and central bank have proposed to tighten the rules for the external auditors and to introduce criminal liability for auditors as well as their compulsory rotation, the newspaper said.

VimpelCom Ltd is to launch Veon messenger, which will be available to more than 200 million clients, including in Russia, by the end of 2017, daily reports.

KOMMERSANT

www.kommersant.ru

The daily reports that Russia's central bank has hammered out a proposal to the shareholders and creditors of the bank Peresvet for its financial recovery. The main owner of Peresvet is the Russian Orthodox Church (49.7 percent) and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Russia (24.4 percent).

Two deputy governors of the Siberia's Kemerovo region became involved in a criminal case related to an extortion, daily reports.

NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA

www.ng.ru

According to a national agricultural census, which was carried out in the period from July 1 to Aug 15 2016 by the Russian Federal State Statistics Service, the number of agricultural organizations and farms have almost halved in 10 years. The massive consolidation of the farms is under way, which could lead to monopolization of the market, the daily said.

($1 = 65.5548 Rub) (Reporting by Margarita Popova; editing by Vladimir Soldatkin)
The Hong Kong High Court ruled on Tuesday that two pro-independence activists will not be allowed to serve as legislators despite their elections in early September, because they rejected Beijings sovereignty when they took their oaths of office.

The courts verdict was preempted a week ago by Beijing, which ruled against 25-year-old Yau Wai-ching and 30-year-old Sixtus Baggio Leung in a manner that many here decried as a violation of the semiautonomous territorys judicial autonomy.

The lawmakers were among a handful of young activists elected to Hong Kongs Legislative Council in recent elections.

On Oct. 12, when they were scheduled to give their oaths of office, instead of reciting the ordained pledge Yau and Leung declared their allegiance to the Hong Kong Nation and referred to mainland China as Shina, a Japanese term that was used as an epithet during Japans invasion of the mainland during World War II and has since been considered highly offensive by Chinese people.

The pair also unfurled banners that read Hong Kong Is Not China during their aborted inauguration.

Judge Thomas Au ruled Tuesday that neither Leung nor Yau had presented any positive case by way of submissions or evidence that they had meant to comply with the legislatures regulations governing oaths of office. He also pointed out that the purpose of Hong Kongs constitution, known as the Basic Law, was to establish the territory as an inalienable part of the Peoples Republic of China.

Yau said earlier that she was willing to take the oath properly on a second try if it meant she could take her seat.

However, rights lawyer Jonathan Man, who has been advising Leung, told reporters, The judge accepts the government argument, [which] said their first oath already equals declining to take oath.

Their actions of Yau and Leung have caused local uproar and provoked the fury of the Chinese state. A well-organized loyalist rally Sunday drew tens of thousands of people, and came just days after Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed to crush separatism.

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All activities that intend to divide the country will certainly be firmly opposed by all Chinese people, Xi said in reported remarks given at Beijings Great Hall of the People. We will never allow any one, any organization, any party to split off any tract of territory from China anytime, or in any way.

The pair announced their intention to appeal the courts ruling, even if we have to go all the way to the Court of Final Appeal, as Leung told reporters Tuesday night local time. Yau added that they had already written to the British government over Chinas brutal intervention in Hong Kongs judicial independence and autonomy

Of course we are not satisfied with the result, Leung said. This reflects two things: one, elections are meaningless, when the results can be easily overturned; two: what we thought were steady, well-established civilization, systems and the rule of law can turn out to be this fragile.

Yau insisted earlier in the day that she and Leung had both been democratically elected to the Legislative Council. If the court strips our seats in such a manner, I think everyone knows in their hearts what kind of a society this is, she told reporters at the High Courts doorstep after the judgment.

Shortly after the judgment was handed down, in a Facebook post, Leung called on his supporters to face this with calm. Quoting former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Leung said, It is perhaps the end of the beginning, adding that our only option is to fight for our civilization and system till the very end.

 With reporting by Kevin Lui / Hong Kong
Candidates who have shown support for Russia have won elections in the U.S., Bulgaria and Moldova in recent days as Moscow continues to expand its international sphere of influence.

Two socialist-backed, pro-Russian candidates, Rumen Radev of Bulgaria and Igor Dodon of Moldova, declared victory Sunday in their countries' respective presidential elections. Their victories followed an Election Day upset in which Donald Trump, who has expressed support for Russia's policies and praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, succeeded in securing the Electoral College vote Wednesday.

The trio of president-elects share more in common. All three campaigned on a platform accusing their pro-Western political elite of sabotaging the well-being of their respective nations. Radev, a former air force chief, vowed not to participate in the ruling party's "schemes" on the campaign trail. Dodon, who formerly served as deputy prime minister during the country's communist period, was propelled by the former government's mishandling and subsequent loss of $1 billion, about one-eighth of the country's GDP, in 2014 that plunged the nation into political turmoil. Trump often criticized former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's longtime political relationship with Washington.

Radev and Trump also portrayed themselves as hard on immigration and specifically against allowing entry to refugees. Radev claimed he would prevent Bulgaria from becoming a "migrant ghetto." Trump repeatedly raised security concerns about a "Trojan horse" of terrorists posing as migrants entering the U.S. and has said the presence of refugees could affect the country's "quality of life." Flyers warning of a potential "invasion of refugees" if Dodon's opponent Maia Sandu was elected surfaced in Moldova during the first round of its elections last month.

These recent victories could represent a significant gain in Russia's political capital. The year has been a particularly tense one for relations between Russia and the West. Since Russia's 2014 annexation of the former Ukrainian territory of Crimea and continued support for rebels in Eastern Ukraine, a number of European nations have become increasingly concerned about Russia's military expansion in the region. In recent months, NATO and Russia have experienced their largest military buildup since the Cold War.

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Trump, who has called NATO "obsolete" will take the reigns in January of the U.S., by far the international alliance's largest supporter. Radev said he would not pull out of either NATO or the E.U., but has consistently called for closer ties with Moscow. Moldova, not a part of NATO, may seek to join the Russian-sponsored Eurasian Customs Union in spite of the E.U. under Dodon.

Following each presidential victory, Putin offered his congratulations. The Russian president hoped for increased "bilateral political dialogue and expand constructive cooperation" in Bulgaria and, upon Dodon's victory, praised the new leader's "policy to achieve social and economic stability in the country and build balanced foreign policy priorities." Putin expressed the need to restore Russian-U.S. relations following Trump's election Wednesday.

"The president said he is confident that Moscow and Washington can establish a constructive dialogue based on the principles of equality, mutual respect, and genuine consideration for each others positions. This would be in the interests of both peoples and of the entire international community," according to a Kremlin press statement.

The final months of President Barack Obama's administration have seen a low point in the relationship between Russia and the U.S. Clinton, like Obama, took a hard line against Russia in her political speech, criticizing Moscow's involvement in conflicts in Ukraine and Syria. She also backed NATO's efforts to deter what she perceived as Russian aggression in Europe.

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Pro tip: Never do this one thing to your Thanksgiving turkey or it could make you sick

If youre prepping a Thanksgiving meal for family and friends this year, youve surely got a lot on your plate  and its not just those delicious side dishes. So heres one very important pro tip: Dont wash your turkey before cooking it.

We know, its counterintuitive. Tradition tells us to wash all poultry, including Thanksgiving turkey, prior to putting it in the oven, but trust us youre doing more harm than good by doing so, and it actually makes a ton of sense. Weve all done it thinking were rinsing away bacteria on raw poultry, but its really not such a good idea at all.

A photo posted by Janice Leung Hayes (@e_ting) on Nov 14, 2016 at 6:19pm PST

Common thinking is that washing off the bacteria makes for a safer and healthier Thanksgiving meal, but the United States Department of Agriculture says that rinsing the bird actually increases the chance of spreading bacteria as it splashes onto kitchen surfaces including the sink, faucet, and countertops.

All the way back in 2004, Fergus Clydesdale, head of the food science department at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, told The New York Times that cooking the turkey properly is more than enough precaution to kill illness causing bacteria. He said, The risk of cross-contamination through washing poultry is far greater than shoving it in the oven without washing it, which makes the risk almost zero.

A photo posted by ajjacob (@inspirationclothesline) on Nov 14, 2016 at 9:34pm PST

Another pro tip: make sure you adequately wash your hands when handling raw poultry. It should go without saying, but using soap and hot water and thoroughly washing hands, including underneath fingernails, is the best way to prevent cross-contamination of icky issues like salmonella from spreading.

Make sure that youre also properly sanitizing all surfaces including cutlery and cutting boards with hot, soapy water.

Story continues

A photo posted by AshleeMarie.com (@ashleemariecakes) on Nov 14, 2016 at 2:54pm PST

A little bit of prep goes a long way when celebrating Thanksgiving this year, and the only thing guests can complain about is their delicious turkey coma.

The post Pro tip: Never do this one thing to your Thanksgiving turkey or it could make you sick appeared first on HelloGiggles.
What its like to protest Donald Trump in NYC as a multiracial woman

I started crying at around 11:30 p.m.. I was inconsolable by one in the morning. And at three, when it became clear that Donald Trump was going to be my Commander in Chief, I went to bed in a haze  a balled up knot of uncertainty settling in my stomach and a wave of nausea overwhelming my body.

My mother and I went to vote together in New York City on November 8th, waiting in line for an hour and taking triumphant pictures of each other as we celebrated the impending victory of our first female president.

The mood of the line was festive  halfway into our wait, two women passed out celebratory Oreos, and another followed their example a few minutes later, handing out Kit-Kats and Reeses to thank everyone for making history. There was no way she could lose, we thought  we were worried about the Senate; the Presidential Election was safe.

Scripture tells us: Let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season, we shall reap, if we do not lose heart. A photo posted by Hillary Clinton (@hillaryclinton) on Nov 9, 2016 at 11:03am PST

We were all wrong. My mother went to bed at 11 p.m., saying she couldnt face the news.

Work on November 9th was somber  we sat at our cubicles in shock. I blinked back tears as I watched CNNs live coverage of Hillarys concession speech and Obamas statement on my computer. A co-worker asked, at 11 a.m., if it was too early to start drinking. Another fed us a cake she had stress-baked while watching the election results. We abandoned our usual healthy lunches in favor of comfort food: one co-worker bought herself Matzo ball soup; I ate Cheetos.

Trumps election left me antsy, anxious to do something, anything to help the millions of people who would be impacted by a possible rollback of civil liberties under President Trump. I exchanged a flurry of emails with my friends about Japanese internment, a rise in anti-Muslim hate-crimes, Hitler, and mass deportations, as the day went on. Donating to the ACLU didnt feel like enough.

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I left work at 3:30 p.m., and headed to an anti-Trump protest at the base of Trump International Hotel and Tower, hoping to find something that would excise, even if only for an evening, my loss of hope.

Tonight, women in New York took the pledge. Will you? Www.our100.org #our100 A photo posted by Ms. Foundation (@msfoundation) on Nov 9, 2016 at 4:04pm PST

#Im Still With Her

In the hours after the election result, a group of one hundred women of color  activists from the Working Families Party, the National Immigration Law Center, and the African-American Policy Forum  among other groups, published an open letter to the country that voted for Donald Trump. Activists were forming a circle around the USS Maine monument when I arrived at 4:30 p.m.. The mood was solemn at first  they held up signs declaring, Not My President, My Body, My Rights, Donald Trump Go Away, Racist, Sexist, Anti-Gay in silence.

My view of the Trump Sign on the building in front of us was blocked by a Ben and Jerrys stand offering free ice cream  I took it. The crowd began to grow as what had been a light drizzle turned into rain. It grew more densely packed as a circle of NYPD officers surrounded us, herding us closer together in an effort to leave at least part of the heavily trafficked plaza clear.

The crowd, men and women of all ages and races, men and women who had brought their babies and toddlers and children to witness this moment, piled up onto the steps of the monument and spread down the block into Central Park.

The double-decker tourist buses slowed down as the people on top took pictures. A group of restaurant workers, dressed in white, came to join us before work; high school students, too young to vote but angry about the outcome, arrived after school let out. A drum circle set up next to the Ben and Jerrys tent  to the beat of their music we chanted: Hey, Ho, Donald Trump Has Got to Go! Love Trumps Hate! Black Lives Matter! Pussy Grabs Back!

It was dark by now, and I could see the lighted windows of the Trump Hotel, and the silhouettes of dozens of people inside, lit by yellow light, standing by the floor to ceiling windows, watching the protest.

Love will still trump hate. It may just take longer than we expected. A photo posted by Sally Kohn (@sallykohn) on Nov 9, 2016 at 6:47am PST

As the chants gained energy and volume, I started talking to a couple standing next to me, Leslie, a 28-year-old lesbian, and Francis, 30, transgender. I asked them how they were feeling about the election and why they were at the protest.

Francis was dejected, telling me, I just came up from the subway and immediately started crying. Ive been crying since midnight last night. I asked Leslie what she was worried about in a Trump administration. She responded, Literally everything, I dont know how to pick one thing. Being queer, having a uterus, being politically vocal and left, Im scared of how many ways he could find to arrest people like my friends.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BMrEYgYFRd6/?tagged=our100

A man carrying a sign at the protest echoed Franciss and Leslies concerns. He described his election night: I was feeling bad, really really bad, phenomally bad. Once I realized Florida was lost, and North Carolina was trending bad, that was about when I lost hope, at around 10:30 or so.

When I asked him what he was worried about, he pointed immediately to foreign policy, telling me, Im concerned about his foreign policy, especially with respect to U.S. intervention in the Middle East.

As the crowd continued to chant, Hey, Ho, Donald Trump Has Got to Go, he said that he was the rally because he didnt know where else to be.

Protestors Gather Outside Trump Tower In New York City

John Lamparski/WireImage

At around 5:30 p.m., a group of speakers, all LGBT women and women of color, gathered on a platform to address the crowd. They began by asking us to take the #our100 pledge together, and we did, thousands of voice chanting back at them, My work will not end at the ballot box. In the #First100Hours and #First100days, I will stand with women of color leadership.

A video posted by Linda Sarsour (@lsarsour) on Nov 9, 2016 at 2:23pm PST

I will stand with women who are leading solutions that support a vision for Black lives, an end to violence against women and girls, power to make decisions about our bodies, health and reproduction, common sense immigration reform and an end to Islamophobia. I pledge to take action to pursue a democracy and economy where we all have an equal say, and an equal chance.

They spoke and they sang to inspire us, to remind us that, though we lost, the power of the people to enact a better future is limitless. Love still trumps hate, they said, though it might take a little longer than we expected.

Justice marches on. #Our100 A photo posted by Sally Kohn (@sallykohn) on Nov 9, 2016 at 2:22pm PST

I feel a lot lighter

The mood lightened after the speeches. The crowd began to sing, and I saw Francis and Leslie again, giving each other a hug and swaying to the beat of the music. I asked them how they felt after the rally. Leslie responded, I feel a lot lighter, I have a lot more faith in people, and in the power of organization. I felt very good to be in a group of people of all different colors and religions who are affected. They told me that they planned to keep fighting.

I felt a similar relief.

No one knows what Donald Trump will do in office. I wish him good luck. I want to believe that the office will change him, that he will appoint competent advisors who will enact policies that will really Make America Great. But if he doesnt change, and if he does actually try to enact the worst of what he promised on the campaign trail, I still have hope.

I have hope because I saw the beginnings of a movement: a group of people, in the thousands in New York, and in the hundreds of thousands in cities and college campuses across the country, who will respond to hate with love, who will stop him, who will hold him accountable, and who will continue to fight for the equitable policies I believe in.

A photo posted by Amanda Casper (@mander_casper) on Nov 10, 2016 at 8:33pm PST

In the words of a man walking to the subway next to the protest:

Theres hope, but it might take four years.

The post What its like to protest Donald Trump in NYC as a multiracial woman appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Activists marching in support of the Belgian military gathered in Brussels on November 15 to demonstrate against the governments plan to raise the retirement age for soldiers.

Unions said about 10,000 people turned out, but police put the figure at 8,120, local reports said.

Police used smoke bombs and water cannons to disperse the protesters, according to local reports and various social media posts. This video shows a peaceful protest in Brussels. Credit: Twitter/Deborah Apelmaen via Storyful
LONDON (Reuters) - Prudential (PRU.L) will start using BlackRock's (BLK.N) Aladdin platform within its 562 billion pound ($695.98 billion) asset management businesses, the British insurer said on Tuesday.

Prudential will use the Aladdin platform for its UK fund arm M&G Investments, Asian asset manager Eastspring, the Prudential Portfolio Management Group (PPMG), and U.S. asset manager PPM America, Prudential said in a statement.

BlackRock's Aladdin operating system is used by asset managers to help manage the risk in their portfolios and assist them in trading, data management and other operations. BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager.

"Aladdin... will make our asset managers more efficient and broaden their capabilities," Prudential chief executive Mike Wells said.

(Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; editing by Simon Jessop)
By Jonathan Stempel and Jennifer Ablan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gregory Peters, senior investment officer at Prudential Fixed Income, on Tuesday said the steep selloff in U.S. bonds following last week's surprise election of Donald Trump to the White House and the Republican sweep of Congress was overdone. "We're telling our clients and investors, let's take a deep breath," Peters, who helps oversee $681 billion of assets, said at the Reuters Global Investment Outlook Summit. "It was a snap reaction, and I don't necessarily believe it was a game changer." Peters had correctly predicted in June, shortly before British voters decided to leave the European Union, that "Brexit" would be a buying opportunity for U.S. securities despite the initial knee-jerk selloff in stocks. On Tuesday, he said the rally in U.S. stocks and plunge in U.S. bonds after the Nov. 8 U.S. election was more a reaction to the Republican Party's sweep of the White House and Congress than Trump's victory alone. Peters said the 10-year U.S. Treasury note was now probably near the high end of the 1.80 percent to 2.30 percent trading range he expects in the near term. The note yielded about 2.23 percent on Tuesday afternoon, up from 1.86 percent just before Trump was elected. Peters said the economic stimulus that may result from Trump's policies could extend the current credit cycle by one year, making it a good time to buy high-yield and investment-grade corporate bonds, especially in cyclical companies. This could dovetail with higher benchmark U.S. interest rates. Peters said it was "a given" that U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers would raise the federal funds rate in December, or else "investors would totally lose confidence in them." One or two more hikes could follow in 2017, he said. On the regulatory front, Peters said the environment was likely to become "less hostile" to business, and he does not expect a full repeal of the Dodd-Frank financial reforms. He stressed, however, that it remained too early to declare what policies would result. Peters said the Republican Party was still associated with lower spending and smaller government, with which some of Trump's spending proposals might appear incompatible. "I'm not convinced Donald Trump himself is a Republican, period, and I'm not convinced that the playbook looks the same today," he said. Peters said markets would watch closely for any unsparing rhetoric that Trump may use. Should Trump "slip up," Peters said an "outsized reaction" could occur, and that markets would focus in particular on potential changes in U.S. trade policies. "The U.S. can't just grow in isolation," he said. Last week's election also heightened perceptions about the risks of investing in Mexico, and sparked a slide in the nation's peso on concern about Trump's policies toward that country. Peters said "we're definitely poking around" Mexico at the margins, to decide how best to benefit from cheaper valuations resulting from the peso's decline, the increased return demanded for investing in government debt, and higher real yields. "That's interesting to me," he said. "If the U.S. wants to grow, Mexico typically gets carried along with it." Follow Reuters Summits on Twitter @Reuters_Summits (For more summit stories, see http://www.reuters.com/summit/investment17) (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel, Jennifer Ablan and Megan Davies in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Bernard Orr)
- By Mark Yu





Public Storage (PSA) delivered its third-quarter and nine-months results on Oct. 26. The $37 billion storage company delivered 7.72% sales growth to $1.9 billion nine months into 2016, with 10.8% profit growth to $831 million.

As a result, the company's share price closed -5.17% the following day while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index closed -0.3%.





(Annual filing)

Public Storage

Public Storage is a Maryland Real Estate Investment Trust organized in 1980 (3). The company has four business activities: self-storage operations, ancillary operations, investments in PS Business Parks (PSB) and in Shurgard Europe (7).

Self-storage operations

Self-storage operations can be further subdivided into U.S. and Europe self-storage businesses. Public Storage's self-storage operation often has the leading market share in its U.S. activity, as shown in the image below.

(Public Storage market share and NOI figures, annual filing)

U.S. operations contributed 74.3%, or $2.2 billion in fiscal 2015 sales while the EU operations contributed 7%. U.S. operations also has the highest net operating income (NOI) margin with 73.7% among all of Public Storage's segments while its EU business had 57.6% for fiscal 2015 (5). Together, U.S. and EU self-storage operations grew 9.1% in fiscal 2015.

Nine months into 2016, self-storage operations grew 7.79% to $1.79 billion with a gross profit margin (minus cost of operations) of 73%.

Ancillary operations

Public Storage had four ancillary businesses: merchandise, tenant reinsurance, third-party property management and European ancillary businesses (6).

In fiscal 2015, the segment contributed 5.8%, or $175 million, in total sales while growing 13.6% year on year. The segment also carried a NOI margin of 69.1% for the period.

Three quarters into 2016, ancillary operations grew 6.62% to $117 million compared to the same period last year with a gross profit margin of 65.4%.

Story continues

Same-store and nonsame-store figures

To better understand its operations, Public Storage also reports its figures in same-store and nonsame store groups of properties (8).

Same-store properties

In fiscal 2015, same-store properties that are owned by Public Storage for at least three years grew 6.5% to $1.97 billion and had a NOI margin of 74%. Nine months into 2016, same-store properties grew 5.84% to $1.6 billion and had 73.4% NOI margin.

Nonsame-store properties

In fiscal 2015, recently acquired or (re) developed properties delivered 33% sales growth to $263 million with a NOI margin of 70.7%. Three quarters into 2016, the segment grew 23.7% to $224.8 million with 70.6 NOI margin.

Overall, Public Storage had a five-year sales and profit growth averages of 7.66% and 14.3% (2).

Cash, debt and book value

As of Sept. 30, the storage company had $57.2 million in cash and $430.9 million in debt with a debt-equity ratio of 0.05. Public Storage also had 2.15%, or $212.5 million, out of its $9.87 billion assets in goodwill and intangibles while having a book value of $9.09 billion for the period.

Cash flow

(Cash flow, quarterly filing)

Public Storage grew its cash flow from operations by 12.8% to $1.48 billion. Capital expenditures were $252 million, leaving the company with $1.2 billion in free cash flow (9). Public Storage also allocated $257.7 million in acquisitions in the period.

About 160%, or $1.97 billion, of its free cash flow were used for preferred share redemption and dividends. Public Storage also issued preferred and common shares amounting to $812.3 million for the period while also issuing another $93.6 million in senior unsecured notes.

Valuations

Public Storage had a trailing 12-month price-earnings (P/E) multiple of 32.7 times (industry median: 15.5), price-book (P/B) multiple of 7.3 times (industry median: 1) and price-sales (P/S) ratio of 14.7 times (industry median: 7). The company also sponsors a trailing 12-month dividend yield of 3.26% and 107% payout ratio (1).

(Annual filing)

Market performance

Public Storage had a five-year total return of 14.4% while the broader index had 14.25% (2). Year to date, Public Storage underperformed the market greatly with -11%, compared to the index's 8%.

(Public Storage share price, Google Finance)

Conclusion

After suffering a poor year-to-date performance, it may be time to get on the REIT train. Also observed was that Public Storage's overall storage business was noticeably strong and growing despite broader challenges experienced in other sectors (energy).

However, payout ratio seemed inappropriately high in recent years, including its trailing 12-month payouts. But Public Storage carries a conservative balance sheet, which can probably provide cushion in down times.

Post-earnings announcement, FBR & Co. ranks Public Storage shares as market perform with a $225 price target. Historical five-year earnings multiple multiplied by its five-year profit growth average provided with a 20% margin gave me a value of $214 a share.

Nonetheless, traditional valuations compared to its peers did not indicate that Public Storage's shares are a buy right now.

In summary, Public Storage is a Hold with a target price of $220.

Notes

(1) GuruFocus data.

(2) Morningstar data.

(3) REIT.com:

A REIT, or Real Estate Investment Trust, is a company that owns or finances income-producing real estate. Modeled after mutual funds, REITs provide investors of all types regular income streams, diversification and long-term capital appreciation. REITs typically pay out all of their taxable income as dividends to shareholders. In turn, shareholders pay the income taxes on those dividends.

(4) Quarterly filing: the Same Store Facilities represent those facilities that have been owned and operated on a stabilized level of occupancy, revenues and cost of operations since Jan. 1, 2014.

(5) Investopedia: Net operating income (NOI) is a calculation used to analyze real estate investments that generate income. Net operating income equals all revenue from the property minus all reasonably necessary operating expenses.

(6) Annual filing:

Merchandise: mainly locks and boxes sold to self-storage customers.

Tenant reinsurance: reinsurance of policies sold to our self-storage customers by a third-party insurance company.

Third-party property management: fees we received for managing other owners' properties.

European ancillary businesses: sales of merchandise and insurance commissions received by Shurgard.







(7) Author: There are several business arrangements whereby Public Storage only gets a share of the total revenue per segment. This was not highlighted in this article.

For further clarification, please download and read Public Storage's recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing on this link: Public Storage SEC Filings.

(8) Annual filing, excluding European storage business operations.

Same stores are properties we have owned and stabilized for over three years. Nonsame stores consist of recently acquired, newly developed or redeveloped properties. Public Storage's same stores reflect organic growth, while the nonsame stores benefit from fill-up as the properties attain a stabilized level of occupancy and rental rates.

(9) Author: I added the items "Capital expenditures to maintain real estate facilities" and "Construction in process" in Public Storage's quarterly filing to determine the capital expenditure value.

Disclosure: I do not have shares in any of the companies mentioned.

Start a free seven-day trial of Premium Membership to GuruFocus.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.






Steve Bannon, left, and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. (Photos: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, Timothy D. Easley/AP)

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., jumped back into the national news cycle Tuesday  after several quiet months  by condemning some of President-elect Donald Trumps potential picks for top jobs.

But Paul also defended Trumps most controversial hire so far: Steve Bannon.

Paul told Yahoo News that criticism of Trumps decision to make the former Breitbart News CEO his chief counselor was sour grapes by people who lost.

When people lose, they look for a scapegoat or they try to caricature people, and I think [Bannon is] a human being, he said. I think theyre making him a scapegoat and a caricature of something they want to be their enemy, and I dont think any of its true.

Ive met him. I dont believe him to be a racist. I dont believe him to be someone who characterizes people on race, gender, religion, you name it, Paul said. I think he ought to be judged by how well he performs.

Paul, who unsuccessfully ran against Trump for the GOP nomination, criticized two people who are reportedly leading contenders to be Trumps secretary of state: former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton. The libertarian-oriented senator said earlier Tuesday that both potential picks are too willing to wage war in the Middle East.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. (Photo: Timothy D. Easley/AP)

But it is Bannons hiring that has drawn some of the strongest condemnation from Democrats and even some conservatives. On Tuesday, a group of Democratic senators including Senator-elect Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., held a press conference calling on Trump to fire Bannon.

Bannons website, Breitbart News, has for several years been a landing page for anti-Republican establishment sentiment, and has also attracted the attention and support of many in whats known as the alt-right, a loose coalition of forces that include some people with white nationalist sentiments.

Were the platform for the alt-right, Bannon said in July.

Former Breitbart editor-at-large Ben Shapiro wrote this week that under Bannon, famed Breitbart provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos had been pushing white ethno-nationalism as a legitimate response to political correctness. Shapiro added that Breitbarts comments sections have become a cesspool for white supremacist mememakers.

Story continues

Glenn Beck, a former Fox News star, said on his Monday radio show that Bannon is a terrifying man who wants to tear this system down and replace it with a new system.

And in fact, the more nuanced criticisms of Bannon have been that he is so animated by a driving desire to destroy the left that he is willing to resort to any measures to do so. In other words, he wants to use radical Jacobin means for conservative ends. Thats why he has reportedly called House Speaker Paul Ryan the enemy and has used Breitbart to assault the Republican establishment.

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. (Photo: Cliff Owen/AP)

Paul, however, said he was unbothered by that, and voiced some criticisms of Ryan himself.

Politics is a rough and tumble sport, and people who think, Oh, its so uncivil, need to go back and read about the fights between Jefferson and Adams. Really, its always been rough and tumble, Paul said. And to tell you the truth, Ive often said that I think Paul Ryans not part of the solution, in as far as the budget. The last two times we broke the sequester, they were at the behest of Paul Ryan. Hes voted for every debt ceiling increase in the last 20 years hes been up here.

So I like him personally but frankly he hasnt been part of the solution to the debt quagmire. I think hes been part of voting for most of the debt thats come forward in the last 20 years, the Kentucky senator said.

Ryan, Mitt Romneys vice presidential nominee in 2012, has long been seen as a conservative stalwart. He proposed back in 2009 a comprehensive system to overhaul Medicare and Medicaid, arguing that the massive entitlement systems are bankrupting the country and need to be changed in order to preserve them. Ryan is one of the few Republicans to propose such controversial measures in order to tackle the U.S. national debt.

But, in part because of Breitbarts incessant bashing of Ryan, he has come to be seen by many on the right as insufficiently conservative or not stridently enough opposed to President Obamas policies.

Ryan on Tuesday overlooked the many insults and criticisms from Bannon and Breitbart, and called Trumps adviser a person who helped [Trump] win an incredible victory.
Rand Paul

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky on Tuesday condemned two of President-elect Donald Trump's rumored candidates for secretary of state.

Paul, a Republican who made a failed bid for the White House in 2016, lambasted former UN Ambassador John Bolton and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani  both of whom have been reported to be top contenders for secretary of state.

After calling Bolton a "menace" in an op-ed earlier Tuesday, Paul told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that Bolton was "totally unfit" to be secretary of state.

"I couldn't vote for Bolton unless he repudiated his support for the Iraq War and repudiated his support for regime change throughout the Middle East, repudiated his call for immediately bombing Iran," Paul said. "I mean really, you want a diplomat in charge of diplomacy. You don't want a bomb-thrower.

"So no, John Bolton is totally unfit to be secretary of state, and I hope that the Trump administration will say, 'You know what, he does not represent what Donald Trump represents.'"

Bolton, who worked in George W. Bush's administration, is a vocal proponent of the Iraq War, which Trump routinely disavowed along the campaign trail, insisting that he was against it from the onset  although prior statements showed otherwise.

Moving on to Giuliani, Paul said it would be "a stiff, uphill climb" for him to vote for confirmation of the top Trump ally, citing his approval of the Iraq War and his ties to foreign governments. He said it was "worrisome" because "that was a big complaint of ours with Hillary Clinton."

"And the thing Donald Trump said over and over again was that he was opposed to the Iraq War, and he learned that lesson that regime change in the Middle East was not a good idea," Paul said. "And yet I don't see Giuliani coming out with statements like that. I certainly don't see John Bolton  I think both of them have been big cheerleaders for the Iraq War and for more intervention in the Middle East, so I hope Donald Trump will pick somebody consistent with what he said on the campaign trail: The Iraq War was a mistake. Regime change in the Middle East was a mistake."

Story continues

"Giuliani and Bolton are very similar," Paul said. "Bolton just has a more extensive cheerleading background with regard to war in the Middle East."

He added that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Bob Corker, and President of the Council on Foreign Relations Richard Haass would all be better for the job than Giuliani or Bolton.

Watch Paul's comments below:

.@RandPaul says John Bolton is totally unfit to be Secretary of State https://t.co/L1qVy8ry0c https://t.co/7XFEkLJhhR  CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) November 15, 2016

NOW WATCH: Trump says the electoral college 'is actually genius' after calling it a 'disaster for democracy' in 2012





More From Business Insider


MUMBAI (Reuters) - Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor N.S. Vishwanathan said on Tuesday that a deadline of March 2017 for banks to clean up stressed assets from their balance sheets still "stands," indicating the central bank would not be extending the timeline.

Vishwanathan, talking to reporters on the sidelines of a banking event, also said the incremental addition of stressed assets in banks was coming down.

The March 2017 deadline had been set by the previous RBI governor, Raghuram Rajan, but bankers and analysts had speculated whether the central bank under new Governor Urjit Patel would be open to extending it.

(Reporting by Suvashree Dey Choudhury; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath)
I have been in politics for five decades, and I have not seen anything like what we are seeing today in America.

The man who lost the popular vote by two million votes is now the president-elect. Let me repeat that: the man who lost the popular vote by two million votes or more is now the president-elect.

His election sparked a wave of hate crimes across the nation. This is a simple statement of fact.

But it raises a critical question for us as a country: how do we respond to the election of Donald Trump?

Democrats want to work with Trump when we can. I understand and respect that impulse because Democrats like to get things done. Its why many of us are in government  most of us, I think  in the first place.

For example, Democrats have been trying for decades, multiple decades, to get Republicans to invest in our deteriorated infrastructure. Its really in bad need of repair. Its an automatic job creator. Each time we tried to do something on infrastructure, Republicans obstructed.

If we can finally get Republicans to make the job-creating infrastructure investments we have been seeking for years, that will be a welcome development for the Senate and the country. If Trump wants to pursue policies that will help working people, Democrats will take a pragmatic approach.

Democrats have a responsibility to improve the lives of Americans. All lives. But we also have other responsibilities.

We have a responsibility to be the voice of the millions of Americans sitting at home afraid that they are not welcome anymore in Donald Trumps America.

We have a responsibility to prevent Trumps bullying, aggressive behavior from becoming normalized in the eyes of Americans  especially the millions of young people who are watching and wondering, for example, if sexual assault is now a laughing matter.

We have a responsibility to say that it is not normal for the KKK  the Ku Klux Klan  to celebrate the election of a president they view as their champion with a victory parade. They have one scheduled.

In other words, we have a responsibility to lead.

Outside this Senate chamber, workers can be heard hammering away on the platform for the inauguration ceremony. It will take several months to do it, but it will be done right.

In 65 days, Donald Trump will step onto that platform. For four years, he will wield the loudest and most powerful microphone in the world.

But even as those workers hammer away on Trumps platform, and even as we as leaders accept the results of this election, we must also give voice to those who are afraid.

Because there are many who are afraid. Indeed, a majority of Americans opposed Trump. Many of my Republican colleagues in this chamber opposed Trump.

And they were not alone: Trump will be the first president to take office having lost the popular vote by two million.

Every day for the past week, a majority of American voters have awakened to a difficult reality: not only did the man who lost the popular vote win the election, but his election sparked a rise in hate crimes and threats of violence.

Since Election Day, the Southern Poverty Law Center has reported hundreds of incidents of harassment and intimidation. At last count, 315. Overwhelmingly, the hateful acts are anti-Muslim, anti-Hispanic, anti-African American, anti-woman, anti-LGBT, anti-Semitic and anti-Asian.

I have heard these stories from friends and family.

My and my wifes Nevada physician is a Pakistani-American of Muslim faith. We think so much of him. Weve known each other for 35 years.

The day after the election, my friend was at a restaurant in Las Vegas having dinner when a Trump supporter approached his table in a threatening manner and asked where he was from.

My friend answered, Where are you from? The man said, Im local. My doctor friend said, So am I.

That same night, another friend of mine, also a Pakistani-American doctor was having dinner. A man walked up to him in the same manner and asked Where are you from? My friend said he was from Pakistan. The other man said, Why dont you go back.

One of my staffers has a daughter in middle school. Ive known that little girl since she was a little baby. The day after the election, the principal addressed the entire student body on the schools PA system because of two incidents that had occurred.

In one instance, a boy yelled at a Latina student, telling her that that he was glad she was going to be deported now that Trump was president.

Then, in another instance, a boy was sent home for yelling the most derogatory, hateful term at an African-American student. The boy justified himself by saying he could use that language now that Trump was president.

In Spokane, Washington, the Martin Luther King, Jr., Center was defaced with the same hateful word.

Those are only a few examples of what people close to me have related. But these kind of disturbing accounts have been heard across America.

I have here a compilation of these incidents. I also have an article here from NBC News which is headline: Hundreds of Hate Crimes Reported Since Election. I ask consent to enter them both into the record.

Those references made are awful. They are hateful. Theyre frightening. Theyre scary.

I invite any of my colleagues to read these horrible acts. I invite any senator  Democrat of Republican  to come to the floor of the Senate and defend any one of these examples of hate and prejudice.

I dont believe anyone in this chamber wants to defend the hateful acts that are being committed in President-Elect Trumps name.

They lead to one unavoidable conclusion: many of our fellow Americans believe that Trumps election validates the kind of bullying, aggressive behavior Trump modeled on a daily basis.

How can we teach our children that bragging about sexual assault is abhorrent if we rush into the arms of the man who dismissed it as locker room talk?

If we fail to hold Trump accountable, we all bear a measure of responsibility for normalizing his behavior.

Let me read you a letter. This was written by a seventh-grade student in Rhode Island, the day after the election:

Im extremely scared especially being a woman of color that the president of the country that I was born and live in, is making me feel unsafe when I usually dont feel unsafe. It even scarier because this man who is now the president of the United States of America has said such rude, ignorant and disrespectful things about women and all different types of people and is now in charge of our country. I want to feel safe in my country but I no longer can feel safe with someone like Donald Trump leading this country.

Our president is supposed to make our children feel safe. But on Wednesday, a seventh-grade girl awoke feeling frightened to be a woman of color in America because Donald Trump was president-elect.

If we ignore her voice and other voices, this seventh grader will be left to conclude that we, as a nation, find her fear acceptable. How do we show her that she does not have to be afraid?

The first step is facing reality.

No matter how hard the rest of us work, the main responsibility lies with the man who inspired the fear. President-elect Trump must act immediately to make Americans  like that seventh-grade girl  feel that they are welcome in his America.

Healing the wounds he inflicted will take more than words. Talk is cheap and Tweets are cheaper. Healing the wounds is going to take action. But so far, rather than healing these wounds, Trumps actions have deepened them.

In his first official act, Trump appointed a man who is seen as a champion of white supremacy as the #1 strategist in his White House. Number one  everybody else is under him.

According to CNN: white nationalist leaders are praising Donald Trumps decision to name [Stephen Bannon] as his chief strategist.

In the same article, white nationalist leaders say they see Bannon: as an advocate for policies they favor.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Bannon: was the main driver behind Breitbart becoming a white ethno-nationalist propaganda mill.

When asked to comment on Bannons hiring, KKK leader David Duke told CNN, quote: I think thats excellent.

A court filing stated that Bannon said: that he doesnt like Jews and that he doesnt like the way they raise their kids to be whiny brats and that he didnt want [his] girls to go to school with Jews.

By placing a champion of white supremacists a step away from the Oval Office, what message does Trump send to the young girl who woke up Wednesday afraid to be a woman of color in America?

It is not a message of healing.

If Trump is serious about seeking unity, the first thing he should do is rescind his appointment of Steve Bannon. Rescind it. Dont do it. Think about this. Dont do it. As long as a champion of racial division is a step away from the Oval Office, it will be impossible to take Trumps efforts to heal the nation seriously.

So I say to Donald Trump: take responsibility. Rise to the dignity of the office  president of the United States  instead of hiding behind your Twitter account.

And show America that racism, bullying and bigotry have no place in the White House or in America.
Chicago (AFP) - The operators of a North Dakota oil pipeline struck back at the US government Tuesday, asking a court to stop regulators from further delaying the contentious project opposed by Native Americans.

The move by Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics Partners came after the US Army Corps of Engineers on Monday effectively put the brakes on the four-state long Dakota Access Pipeline by calling for more analysis and discussion.

The companies responded by asking a federal district court in Washington, the US capital, to declare that they had the right to complete their project without the need for more approvals from regulators.

"The Dakota Access Pipeline has waited long enough," Kelcy Warren, chief executive of Energy Transfer Partners, said in a statement.

"It is time for the Courts to end this political interference and remove whatever legal cloud that may exist."

The decision by the Corps, whose permission is required for the pipeline to be built under the Missouri River and the man-made Lake Oahe in North Dakota, was a victory for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

The waterways are the tribe's drinking water source, and it has objected to building the 1,172-mile (1,886-kilometer) pipeline underneath the river and lake, for fear that it might leak.

"The Army continues to welcome any input that the Tribe believes is relevant to the proposed pipeline crossing," the Corps said.

- 'You are being heard' -

The tribe, which now believes it has the momentum in its battle against the companies, wants the pipeline's route altered away from lands near its reservation. It also claims those lands contain sacred historic artifacts.

"They are wrong and the lawsuit will not succeed," the tribe's chairman Dave Archambault said Tuesday in a statement responding to the companies' action.

He claimed that the pipeline's operators are in a rush to complete the project before the end of the year, or risk losing shipping contracts that would jeopardize its viability.

Story continues

"They made bad decisions and are now facing the consequences. The tide is turning against this project. We thank all of our water protectors who have raised their voices against it. You are being heard," Archambault said.

The conflict between the tribe and the oil pipeline company has galvanized North American native tribes and supporters, who have camped in the thousands near the construction site for months in order to block it.

Once-peaceful protests have in recent weeks also included clashes with law enforcement and pipeline workers, resulting in hundreds of arrests.

On Monday, protests spilled over to the North Dakota state capital Bismarck, where approximately 500 demonstrators converged in front of the capitol building, according to law enforcement.

There have been sympathetic protests nationwide, with celebrities, politicians, and environmental activists joining the cause.
By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, a former 2016 Republican presidential candidate who is an adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, has opted against accepting a Cabinet position in the Trump administration, his spokesman said on Tuesday.

Carson, a popular writer and speaker in conservative circles, has been a close adviser to Trump and is a vice chairman of Trump's transition team.

He has been mentioned as a possible secretary of health and human services or education.

Carson's business manager, Armstrong Williams, said Carson has made clear he has no experience in running a federal bureaucracy.

"Dr. Carson doesn't feel like that's the best way for him to serve the president-elect," Williams told Reuters.

He said Carson would remain a close adviser of Trump and a friend. "His life has not prepared him to be a Cabinet secretary," Williams said.

(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Alistair Bell)
By Martyn Herman LONDON (Reuters) - If Andy Murray was grateful to Marin Cilic for facilitating his rise to the summit this month it was not evident as he added the Croatian to his lengthening list of victims at the ATP World Tour Finals on Monday. It was Cilic's defeat of Novak Djokovic at the Paris Masters that opened the door for Murray to seize the number one ranking he had spent his whole career pursuing. Murray repaid the favour with a 6-3 6-2 win -- his 20th in succession -- although it was far from a drubbing as Cilic tried his utmost to ruin the Scot's homecoming. Four more performances like that at the O2 Arena this week should guarantee the 29-year-old will end 2016 leading the pack. Murray had lost his most recent meeting with Cilic, the Cincinnati Masters final in August, and on Wednesday he will face Japan's Kei Nishikori who stopped him in the U.S. Open quarter-finals -- Murray's last Tour level defeat. Nishikori had earlier beaten Swiss Stan Wawrinka 6-2 6-3 in the John McEnroe group -- although that match was as one-sided as the scoreline suggested with Wawrinka badly off key. Murray has been handed a tougher-looking group than Novak Djokovic, the man he deposed and who could still snatch back the top ranking, but he cleared the first hurdle in style in front of a near full house who welcomed him home like a returning hero. "It was a great reception," Murray, Britain's first ATP singles world number one, told reporters. "After a long kind of few months, it's nice to know that I'm going to be finishing the year playing in that sort of atmosphere. It helps you get up for the matches a bit more." Murray served four double faults in the early stages and came under a fierce assault by Cilic. But in his first match since officially taking over at the top, he showed all the attributes that have made him all but unbeatable since his French Open final loss to Djokovic. Even when Cilic cancelled out an early break Murray responded immediately to move 3-1 ahead. He conjured an ace to stave off a break point in the next game and eventually took a high-quality opener in 45 minutes. Cilic had chances again at the start of the second set but it was Murray who struck in the fifth game with a blistering forehand winner. Murray then put the hammer down. "A little bit unfortunate to go 6-3 6-2, it felt it was much, much closer in the first set, beginning of the second," Cilic, who will play Wawrinka on Wednesday, told reporters. Wawrinka will have to improve considerably. The U.S. Open champion sprayed more than 30 unforced errors against Nishikori in a disappointingly one-sided clash. Wawrinka tried to pump himself up at the start of the second set, delivering a couple of signature backhands, but he looked a shadow of the player who claimed a third grand slam title by beating Djokovic in New York in September. "I thought I could play at a better level today. I was expecting a good match. Didn't happen today," Wawrinka said. (Editing by Pritha Sarkar)
The Walpole Luxury Awards have presented BMW-owned Rolls-Royce with its 2016 "Best British Luxury Craftsmanship" award.

The award, accepted by CEO Torsten Muller-Otvos on behalf of the entire company, comes at a time when demand for premium automobiles, and competition within the luxury automotive segment has never been greater.

For proof look no further than McLaren deciding to offer a GT version of its 570S supercar dedicated to comfort rather than top speed, or Bentley launching its first long wheel-base six-seater Mulsanne flagship limousine.

Even at the comparatively mass-produced level, Jaguar, Land Rover and even Lotus now have dedicated divisions that exist solely to personalize their models to each client's exacting specifications.

But the most telling development is that of Mercedes-Benz's decision to resurrect the Maybach brand and to once again go toe-to-toe with the current Rolls-Royce line-up. It will be bringing its answer to the Rolls-Royce Dawn drophead -- the Mercedes-Maybach S 650 Cabriolet -- to the LA Auto Show on November 18.

Based on the same underpinnings of the company's flagship S Class Cabriolet, the car is expected to boast a turbocharged V12 engine, a bespoke interior and cutting-edge technology and be limited to just 300 individually numbered examples.

However, none of these competitors can truly lay claim to the Rolls-Royce crown yet, when it comes to craftsmanship, and Muller-Otvos used his acceptance speech to highlight the gulf he perceives that still exists between the company and the competition.

"Our success is borne of a profound understanding that patrons of true luxury seek to curate, commission and collect extraordinary objects, crafted to their exacting specifications at true global centers of excellence," said Muller-Otvos. "Rolls-Royce is the most celebrated luxury house in the world, built on the foundations of the skill and application of the world's finest craftspeople."

It's also notable that Rolls-Royce (along with Bentley and Bugatti) has decided to forego this year's LA Auto Show altogether, preferring to save its next new model -- widely anticipated to be the company's first ever SUV -- for the Geneva motor show in March 2017.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has emerged as the favorite to serve as secretary of state in Donald Trumps incoming administration, a senior Trump official said on Monday  another indication the president-elect is putting a prize on loyalty as he narrows down his Cabinet picks.

The official, who was not authorized to speak on the record and requested anonymity, said there was no real competition for the job and that it was Giulianis if he wanted it. But a second official cautioned that John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, remained in contention for the job.

Giuliani, 72, would be an out-of-box choice to lead the State Department. A former mayor, federal prosecutor and top Trump adviser, he lacks extensive foreign policy experience. Known for his hard-line law-and-order views and brusque manner, he would set a very different tone than previous holders of the job, including Trumps ex-rival Hillary Clinton, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice.

Bolton has years of federal government experience, but he has also raised eyebrows with some of his hawkish stances, including a 2015 op-ed in The New York Times in which he advocated bombing Iran to halt the countrys development of nuclear weapons.

A spokeswoman for Giuliani did not immediately respond to a request for comment about his interest in the job. But the former mayor said Monday night at a gathering of CEOs sponsored by the Wall Street Journal that he wont be attorney general in Trumps administration  a job for which hed long been seen as a top contender.

Asked about the secretary of state speculation, Trump said that Bolton would be a very good choice. But asked if there was anyone better, he replied with a mischievous smile: Maybe me, I dont know.

Trump was also considering Monday whether to inject new diversity into the GOP by recommending a woman to lead the Republican Party and an openly gay man to represent the United States at the United Nations.

Story continues

The moves, among dozens under consideration from his transition team, follow an intense and extended backlash from Trumps decision on Sunday to appoint Steve Bannon, a man celebrated by the white nationalist movement, to serve as his chief strategist and senior adviser.

After winning the presidency but losing the popular vote, President-elect Trump must try to bring Americans together  not continue to fan the flames of division and bigotry, said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. She called Bannons appointment an alarming signal that Trump remains committed to the hateful and divisive vision that defined his campaign.

His inauguration just 66 days away, however, Trump focused on building his team and speaking to foreign leaders. He remained sequestered in Trump Tower in New York.

Inexperienced on the international stage, the Republican president-elect spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone. His transition office said in a readout that he is very much looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the people of Russia. Trump has spoken in recent days with the leaders of China, Mexico, South Korea and Canada.

At the same time, Trump was considering tapping Richard Grenell as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He would be the first openly gay person to fill a Cabinet-level foreign policy post. Grenell, known in part for aggressive criticism of rivals on Twitter, previously served as U.S. spokesman at the U.N. under President George W. Bush.

Trump was also weighing whether to select Michigan GOP chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel, a niece of chief Trump critic and 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney. She would be the second woman ever to lead the Republican National Committee  and the first in four decades.

Ill be interested in whatever Mr. Trump wants, McDaniel told The Associated Press on Monday, adding that she was planning to seek the Michigan GOP chairmanship again.

Appointing McDaniel to run the GOPs political arm could be an effort to help the party heal the anger after a campaign in which Trump demeaned women. The appointment of Grenell, who has openly supported same-sex marriage, could begin to ease concerns by the gay community about Vice President-elect Mike Pences opposition to same-sex marriage during his time as Indiana governor.

The personnel moves under consideration were confirmed by people with direct knowledge of Trumps thinking who were not authorized to publicly disclose private discussions. They stressed that the decisions were not final.

Internal deliberations about staffing come a day after Trump made overtures to warring Republican circles by appointing Bannon and RNC Chairman Reince Priebus as his White House chief of staff.

The former media executive led a website that appealed to the so-called alt-right  a movement often associated with efforts on the far right to preserve white identity, oppose multiculturalism and defend Western values.

Priebus on Monday defended the media mogul, saying the two made an effective pair as they steered Trump past Democrat Hillary Clinton and toward the presidency. He sought to distance Bannon from the incendiary headlines on his website, saying they were written by unspecified others.

Together, weve been able to manage a lot of the decision making in regard to the campaign, Priebus told NBCs Today. Its worked very, very well.

President Barack Obama avoided any direct criticism of Trumps personnel moves during an afternoon news conference, suggesting that the new president deserves room to staff up.

Its important for us to let him make his decisions, Obama said. The American people will judge over the course of the next couple of years whether they like what they see.

___

Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, Ken Thomas in New York, Donna Cassata in Washington and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.
From Esquire

The Associated Press reports that Rudy Giuliani-you know, the guy who thinks that all those anti-Trump protests in the streets are a conspiracy-is the "favorite" to be secretary of state for the Trump administration.

BREAKING: AP source: Rudy Giuliani the favorite to be Trump's secretary of state. - The Associated Press (@AP) November 15, 2016

A senior Trump official, who spoke anonymously with the AP because the source "isn't authorized to speak on the record," said that there's "no real competition" for the position, and that it's Giuliani's "if he wants it."

That's right. Our new secretary of state may be a man who claims it's "genius" to avoid your taxes for 18 years (but not if you're poor), who giggles at the thought of pillaging Iraq's oil, and thinks that Hillary Clinton could be a founding member of ISIS, to say the least.

Oh, you know, along with Dr. Ben Carson as Secretary of Education and white supremacist Steve Bannon as chief strategist. This should be fun!

(H/T The Associated Press)

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Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani reportedly is the front-runner to be Donald Trumps secretary of state.

Giuliani, who was one of Trumps campaign surrogates and a strong defender of the real estate mogul, was competing with former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton for the job, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Other names mentioned for the post include Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

The Associated Press said Giuliani is the favorite.

The AP, quoting a senior Trump official, said the job is Giulianis if he wants it.

With vice president-elect Mike Pence at the head of Trumps transition team, filling administration posts is expected to quicken, the Journal said.

The New York Post said Giuliani has expressed interest in the job privately but downplayed any role he might play in the new administration in an interview Sunday on ABCs This Week.

Giuliani also has been mentioned as a possible candidate for attorney general and has said no one knows the Justice Department better than me.

Giuliani is in private law practice and travels the world to advise foreign governments on security issues.

rudy giuliani

Photo: Joshua Roberts/Reuters

Giuliani was mayor of New York when terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center towers, killing 2,752 people, and gained national acclaim for the way he handled the calamity. He was first elected in 1993 and served two terms, during which he focused on reducing serious crime and earning nearly as many enemies as admirers. Racial profiling became an essential tool for police who employed a stop-and-frisk policy that eventually was declared unconstitutional.

The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks restored Giulianis popularity as he coordinated rescue efforts credited with saving some 20,000 lives.

Story continues

"Tomorrow New York is going to be here," Giuliani said as he tried to reassure a shaken city. "And we're going to rebuild, and we're going to be stronger than we were before. ... I want the people of New York to be an example to the rest of the country, and the rest of the world, that terrorism can't stop us."

Giuliani was born in Brooklyn on May 28, 1944, into a large family made up mostly of police officers and firefighters. His father, Harold, worked for his brothers loan sharking business and was determined to keep his son away from the mob.

After graduating from New York University Law School, Giuliani clerked for a federal judge and later moved to Washington to work for the U.S. attorneys office. When he was 29, he was put in charge of police corruption cases.

Giuliani moved into private practice in 1977, and in 1981 returned to Washington to serve as associate attorney general, the No. 3 job at the Justice Department. Two years later, he was appointed U.S. attorney in Manhattan where he amassed 4,152 convictions in six years.

Giuliani ran for the Republican nomination for president in 2008 but started campaigning too late, waiting until the Florida primary because of the large contingent of New York retirees in the state. He finished a distant third.

Giuliani, like Trump, has been married three times. His current wife is Judith Nathan.

Giuliani is an outspoken supporter of Israel and expelled Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat from a U.N. concert at Lincoln Center in 1995.

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New York (AFP) - Rudy Giuliani guided New York through its darkest days after 9/11 as the Big Apple's mayor with his signature tough-guy style, but he hasn't held office in 15 years.

Now, the man once known as "America's Mayor" is reportedly atop the list of hopefuls to be the country's next secretary of state, in what would be a stunning political comeback to reward his loyalty to Donald Trump during a brutal presidential campaign.

The 72-year-old Giuliani's resolve during the aftermath of the worst terror strikes on US soil remains the crowning professional achievement for the Italian-American Brooklyn native, who tirelessly reassured a devastated city.

The image of a tough-talking, never-say-die champion of ordinary New Yorkers was one Giuliani first cultivated as a crime-fighting former federal prosecutor, dealing blows to the mob in the 1980s.

He burnished that credential during his two terms at city hall, when the murder rate plummeted and he offered his staunch support to the New York Police Department.

Giuliani thus became a law-and-order hero, and decided to try his luck on the national stage, vying for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.

Though he led in the polls early on, he withdrew from the race before it really began after learning he had prostate cancer.

Most of his policy prescriptions at the time sound a lot like what Trump promised on the campaign trail this time around: an end to illegal immigration, tax cuts, a reduction in the number of abortions, and cleaning up Washington.

At the time, he did not flinch about abandoning positions he had held in the past that were far less conservative -- another common thread with his potential new boss.

Giuliani had previously supported gay marriage, abortion rights and tougher gun controls. The onetime Democrat became an independent in the 1970s and then joined the Republican Party in the 1980s.

- 'Unconventional' pick -

Story continues

Born on May 28, 1944 in East Flatbush to first-generation Americans, Giuliani is the consummate New Yorker. He studied philosophy and law in the city, earning degrees from Manhattan College and New York University's law school.

When Trump -- himself a life-long New Yorker -- announced his bid for the US presidency, Giuliani immediately teamed up with the Manhattan property mogul.

The men attended each other's third marriages -- in 2002 for Giuliani, and in 2005 when Trump married Melania.

Giuliani, long off the Republican Party's national radar, didn't have much to lose in embracing Trump's outsider White House bid.

During the campaign, he was a top surrogate for Trump, appearing often on news programs to get out the Republican's message. But he also raised hackles with his sometimes incendiary comments about Democrats.

That loyalty is now on the verge of being rewarded -- with a top cabinet spot at the State Department, or perhaps elsewhere.

"It would be somewhat an unconventional appointment but this is obviously an unconventional candidate and an unconventional campaign," said Daniel DiSalvo, a professor of political science at the City College of New York-CUNY.

Though he is well versed on security and the US fight on extremism, he is less experienced in the world of diplomacy, for which his brash, no-holds-barred speaking style might not seem well-suited.

He certainly has fewer bona fides than current Secretary of State John Kerry or his predecessors Hillary Clinton (Trump's vanquished rival for the White House), Condoleezza Rice or Colin Powell, DiSalvo said.

And his nomination is not a done deal, with CNN reporting, citing a source familiar with Trump's transition talks, that Giuliani's business ties -- including lobbying for Citgo, the US subsidiary of Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA -- could complicate matters.

Giuliani did express a few opinions about foreign policy during the campaign and even before, most of them all in line with his usual firmness.

On Monday, at a forum hosted by The Wall Street Journal, he spoke about his vision, putting the fight against the Islamic State group atop his agenda -- a subject firmly in his wheelhouse -- and saying Russia was not a military threat to America.

Giuliani is an indefatigable champion of Israel, a hardliner with respect to the Palestinians, and a critic of the nuclear deal with Iran negotiated by the outgoing administration of President Barack Obama.

His relative inexperience on foreign policy and distance from the Republican party brass could paradoxically play to his advantage, DiSalvo said.

"Trump, in some ways, ran an insurgent campaign that opposed much of the current establishment of his party," he told AFP.

"So in that respect, when it comes to nominating people, he had to reach out beyond people who'd been close to power in the current national scene for the last few years."
By Luke Baker JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel should be concerned about the deepening disconnect between Russia's aims in the Middle East and its own goals, according to a senior Israeli official who held high-level meetings in Moscow last week. Avi Dichter, chairman of Israel's foreign affairs and defense committee and the former head of the Shin Bet intelligence agency, said Russia's views on Iran, Syria's Bashar al-Assad and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah were in sharp contrast to Israel's and a growing source of potential conflict. While he said Moscow appreciates the good ties it has with Israel and takes the diplomatic relationship seriously, it won't hesitate to impose actions that serve its interests on any countries in the Middle East, including Israel. "The gap between us and them is large and disturbing," Dichter said in summing up discussions with senior members of Russia's upper and lower houses of parliament, the deputy defense minister and the deputy head of national security. "Russia thinks and acts as a superpower and as such it often ignores Israeli interest when it doesn't coincide with the Russian interest," he said. Officials in Moscow did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Russia's relations with Israel. As Russia has become more deeply involved in the Syria conflict, fighting on behalf of Assad against Sunni militants, Israel has sought to keep lines of communication with Moscow open to avoid the risk of accidental confrontation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has visited President Vladimir Putin three times this year and they speak often. Israel's main concern is to be able to defend its borders against potential attack from Hezbollah, with which it fought a war in 2006, and which has a sizeable missile arsenal. Over the past two years, Israeli artillery and fighter jets have carried out several strikes against weapons convoys in southern Syria that Israel said were destined for Hezbollah. But Israel's freedom of movement in the area is now more restricted because of the presence of Russian jets and advanced anti-aircraft batteries that Moscow has put in place. IRAN From Israel's perspective, Iran is the greatest threat in the region and will do whatever it can to confront Israel either directly or through its proxies, Hezbollah and Assad. Russia, on the other hand, has no problem with any of those actors. "They view Hezbollah positively as the errand lackey of Iran in Syria and Lebanon, (and) they are backing the Shi'ite militia activity in Iraq and Syria," Dichter said of Moscow. "Russia does not view Iran and its proxies according to the level of threat they pose or broadcast towards Israel," he said. Moscow thinks Assad should stay in power, that Iran is a stabilizing force and that the nuclear deal the United States struck with Tehran was largely positive, Dichter said. Israel views on all accounts are entirely opposite. Under President Barack Obama, the United States has largely pulled back from the Middle East, allowing Russia to exert wider influence. It remains unclear how policy will shift under Donald Trump, but the president-elect has indicated he will align U.S. policy on Syria more closely with Russia's. Dichter said Moscow had "feelings of contempt" towards European countries that had avoided engagement in Syria, and rather than viewing the region as an area of temporary interest, Russia was making plans for the long term. "It did not return to the Middle East with military capabilities in the air and at sea only to 'show off' and then leave," Dichter concluded. "The new neighbor did not come here only to rent an apartment, he came here to build a villa." (Additional reporting by Christian Lowe and Tatiana Ustinova in Moscow; Writing by Luke Baker; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - Russia launched coordinated missile strikes against rebels in Syria on Tuesday and Moscow for the first time used its only aircraft carrier in combat, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said. Shoigu said a frigate had fired cruise missiles, jets from the Admiral Kuznetsov, Russia's sole aircraft carrier, had been involved in action, and missiles had been loosed from a mobile land-based missile system inside Syria. In Washington, Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said he was aware of the announcement, but was still looking into the strikes. "From a pure military perspective, Russia already has significant capabilities inside Syria," Davis said. "Anything that they bring in from the outside, if it's aircraft carriers or if it's cruise missiles launching from ships or if it's long-range strike bombers flying in from Russia, those are done for show," Davis added. Reporting to President Vladimir Putin in southern Russia, Shoigu said Russia had targeted sites associated with Islamic State and the Nusra Front, which has changed its name to Fateh al-Sham, in the Homs and Idlib provinces. "We carried out exhaustive advance research on all targets," said Shoigu. "We are talking about warehouses with ammunition, terrorist training centres ... and factories." Shoigu said the strikes would continue. He made no mention of Aleppo, where a civil defence official and a resident said air strikes had struck several districts in the rebel-held east of the city for the first time in weeks. Syrian state television said Syria's air force carried out strikes on Aleppo on Tuesday. Russia says its air force is for now honouring a unilateral moratorium on hitting rebel targets inside Aleppo. (Reporting by Denis Pinchuk in Sochi and Katya Golubkoba in Moscow; Additional reporting by Idrees Ali in Washington; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Jack Stubbs and James Dalgleish)
Moscow (AFP) - Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that jets from the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier deployed in the eastern Mediterranean had launched their first strikes on Syria.

"For the first time in our naval history, the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov started taking part in combat," Shoigu said at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea city of Sochi, according to televised footage.

"Today from this carrier, our Sukhoi-33 (bombers) began their operations", he said.

Russia has been carrying out a bombing campaign in Syria for the past year in support of its ally President Bashar al-Assad and deployed a naval contingent to back up its operation.

The Admiral Kuznetsov, Russia's sole aircraft carrier, arrived in the eastern Mediterranean off the Syrian coast as part of a flotilla of ships sent to reinforce Russia's military in the area.

The biggest naval deployment of recent years saw the flotilla sail from Russia's Arctic waters down through the North Sea and along the Channel.

This prompted NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg to warn the ships could be used to take part in air strikes in Syria and "increase human and civilian suffering."

During initial flights from Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, a Russian MiG crashed into the sea while attempting to land, the defence ministry said Monday.

The pilot ejected and was rescued unhurt, it said.

Shoigu said the "major operation" began at 0730 GMT Tuesday aiming to inflict heavy damage on "the Islamic State group and the Al-Nusra Front's positions in Idlib and Homs provinces."

Another ship in the flotilla, the frigate Admiral Grigorovich also fired Kalibr cruise missiles at Syrian targets, the minister said.

The operations targeted stores of ammunition and factories producing chemical warfare agents. "They will continue," Shoigu said.

The naval fleet is protected by S-400 and S-300 air defence systems that "cover the sea area practically to Cyprus" as well as by Bastion missile complexes on shore, the defence chief said.

"Today we are able to hit both sea and land targets across almost 350 kilometres (218 miles) of sea and almost 450 kilometres of land," Shoigu said.
In the wake of the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president, Russian mainstream media outlets, from TV to newspapers, have changed their rhetoric from anti-American to a more friendly approach.

Dmitry Kiselyov, a controversial host of TV talk show Vesti Nedeli (News of the Week) on state-controlled network Rossiya 1, who once said that Russia could turn Washington into "radioactive dust" and also compared Obama's policies in Ukraine with those of Adolph Hitler's during WWII, has taken a very different stance lately. "In Russia, people have congratulated each other on Trump's victory," Kiselyov said on his most recent show. "What does this signify? First of all, there is no anti-Americanism in Russia whatsoever."

News agency Regnum in an editorial called those who voted for Trump "true Americans" and praised the president-elect, comparing him with George Washington.

Alexander Dugin, a prominent pro-Kremlin political commentator, said on TV network Tsargrad that the Russians "have solidarity with the American people."

Meanwhile, Trump and President Vladimir Putin had their first-ever phone conversation Monday.

During the call, Putin said he was ready "to have a partner dialog with the new [U.S.] administration on the principles of equality, mutual respect and non-interference in each other's internal affairs," the Kremlin said on its website.

The two men agreed that the relations between Russia and the U.S. are currently "unsatisfactory" and spoke out in favor of "active collaboration for their normalizing and constructive interaction on a broad range of issues," it added.

Read more: Kremlin Calls Suggestions of Russian Interference in U.S. Election "Absurd"
From Popular Mechanics

The Russian carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, whose long voyage from Northern Russia to the coast of Syria was the subject of intense international scrutiny earlier this month, has lost a fighter plane on the very first day of combat operations. The unnamed pilot ejected and was picked up by Russian search and rescue forces.

US Naval Institute News says the downed fighter was part of the 100th Independent Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment and one of four MiG-29KUBR fighters onboard the Kuznetsov. The MiG-29KUBR is a two seat aircraft, but it appears there was only one crewman aboard when it went down.

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The fighter was on approach to land on the carrier and two kilometers away when there was a "technical fault." A search and rescue helicopter located the pilot and rescued him. According to The Aviationist, the MiG was accompanied by two other fighters, one of which went on to land on Kuznetsov and the second landed at a friendly airbase in Syria.

Photo credit: CC-BY-SA 3.0/Nockson

The loss of the MiG represents a six percent loss of airpower for the Kuzetsov, which was supposedly loaded with fifteen fighters of all types, including four MiG-29KUBRs, Su-33 air superiority fighters, and Su-25UTG ground attack aircraft. A U.S. Navy carrier, by contrast, carries 44 F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet fighters.

The loss of a fighter on the first day of operations is the latest embarrassment for the Kuznetsov task force, which was seen billowing black smoke on its voyage and was accompanied by a tugboat in case the carrier broke down. The ship was also denied entry in Spanish territory and Malta over concerns that it would contribute to the bombing of the Syrian city of Aleppo. Mig-29s were indeed allegedly seen over Aleppo the day the fighter crashed but it's not known if these were from Kuznetsov or were from the Russian Aerospace Forces based in Syria itself.

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From ELLE

The story of your/Taylor Swift's favorite couple Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds' first date has been well-reported: They tried to set the other up with a friend during a double date (apparently at Boston's O Ya restaurant) and then ended up being " just like fireworks"-as Reynolds put it-with each other.

They started dating, and then Reynolds had that other big moment: the one where he realized Blake Lively was the one. That happened in New York City, he told GQ, who asked him when he knew it was going to happen with Lively:

Probably after the sex. No, we were hanging out at this little restaurant in Tribeca that's open really late, and this song came on and I was just like, "Want to dance?" No one was in there, so it was just totally empty. And it was just one of those moments where halfway through the dance, it was like, "Oh, I think I just crossed a line." And then I walked her home. And, uh, you know, I don't really need to go into what happened after that.

Reynolds was asked if he remembered that pivotal song. "I do, but I'm not gonna say. You're shut out." Aw. Perhaps Blake Lively will tell us later...

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With Obamacare apparently under threat from the incoming Donald Trump administration, health insurance in Hollywood isnt a safe bet either  even for Annet Mahendru. The actress, who earned a Critics Choice nom for playing KGB operative Nina Krilova on the FX Cold War drama The Americans and also appeared on its now-canceled Tyrant, says she has lost her union health insurance after missing a payment while she was working out of town.

Mahendru took to Twitter tonight to express her displeasure with the actors union over her recent lack of health insurance:

dear @sagaftra thanks 4 denying 2 reinstate my health insurance cus I missed 1 pymnt while out of town on a job from which I pay your dues   Annet Mahendru (@AnnetMahendru) November 15, 2016

hey mom yeah doing really great here don't even have health insurance  Annet Mahendru (@AnnetMahendru) November 15, 2016

Although Mahendru has no health care at the moment, it appears that SAG-AFTRA already is on the case. Union spokeswoman Pam Greenwalt responded to a Deadline tweet tonight with this:

Hi @DeadlineDominic Thanks for raising this. I reached out to @AnnetMahendru and will connect her with P&H team https://t.co/oGSlk4INm0  Pam Greenwalt (@pamgreenwalt) November 15, 2016

Deadline was unable to reach Mahendru or her reps for comment.

After maintaining separate health care plans for SAG and AFTRA since the groups merger in 2012, SAG-AFTRA said in June that it will merge the plans at the beginning on 2017. The plans will allow more than 65,000 SAG-AFTRA participants and their dependents to combine covered earnings from all of the guilds contracts toward eligibility for coverage in a single plan. With medical through Anthem Blue Cross and dental via Delta Dental, the earnings requirement for Plan 1 will be $33,000, while the requirement for Plan II will be $17,000.

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The filibuster in the Senate has survived Barack Obama's presidency. Just barely. It might survive Donald Trump's presidency, too, but there's no guarantee.

For now, a minority of the Senate can still win by filibuster unless 60 senators vote (for "cloture") to defeat them. A filibuster, in practical terms, doesn't consist of senators making long speeches to shut down other business; all it requires, and all it has required for decades, is for the minority to let the majority know a cloture vote will be needed in order to move forward on something.

There are exceptions. Since 2013, executive-branch nominations and judicial nominations other than for the Supreme Court cannot be blocked by filibusters.

And, on legislation, a special bill called "reconciliation" can't be blocked by filibuster. The rules allow reconciliation only if it was enabled by a budget resolution passed by the House and Senate. There's no limit to how much can be stuffed into one reconciliation bill (in other words, it can be composed of many separate, unrelated bills all stitched together), but there is a limit (the "Byrd rule") about what kinds of measures can be included: Each provision must have a budgetary impact.

All of that may sound obscure and procedural, but it matters a lot. For example, it effectively makes Obamacare repeal subject to filibusters. A simple bill to repeal would certainly be filibustered and therefore would require 60 votes. And doing full repeal through reconciliation would -- unless the rules change -- be impossible, as conservative health-care expert Avik Roy explains.

So what about changing the rules?

There will probably be 52 Republican senators in the new 115th Congress. Assuming the vice president would break any tie in favor of change, it would take 50 of those 52 to do away with the filibuster.

It's by no means certain those votes are available.

For one thing, several senior Republicans, perhaps including John McCain and Lamar Alexander, may sincerely respect the traditions of the Senate and be reluctant to eliminate them. Moderate conservatives such as Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski might feel the current rules give them more leverage than a Senate with pure majority-party rule. Iconoclastic conservatives such as Jeff Flake, Mike Lee and Rand Paul might similarly be hesitant to empower the majority.

Cynical Republicans might, as Congress scholar Gregory Koger suggests, see some advantages in having some of their agenda obstructed by Democrats rather than being put in the position of having to pass some items. These Republicans might not think those items are good ideas or know that reaching internal Republican agreement on them might be too hard.

Far-sighted Republicans might worry about the longer-term consequences of giving a future Democratic majority, whenever that appears, the ability to whatever it wants.

And every senator has an incentive to keep the filibuster because it strengthens their individual leverage, even if it reduces the ability of their party to get things done. That's the main reason the filibuster exists in the first place.

It is much weaker in a partisan period, when many senators care more about the party platform than about specific benefits for their states, it still may matter. And the demands from the new White House to Get Things Done will be intense, bolstered by pressure from activists, industry and talk radio yakkers.

The Democrats will have some limited ability to affect what happens. If they blockade the Supreme Court vacancy, then Republicans would rapidly end the filibuster for those nominations.

Mostly it will be a decision Republicans make. They may be satisfied by enacting most of their agenda through one big reconciliation bill, even if it would leave fairly significant (and somewhat random) parts of it out. They may not.

Many Republicans are willing to bulldoze anything in their way to get what they want -- but for this (and many other things), it's not the "many Republicans" who matter. It's the few Republicans who may, or may not, be worried more about the long-term consequences of wrecking the institution than they are about some short-term political goal.
Nov 6, 2016; Santa Clara, CA, USA; New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees (9) high fives head coach Sean Payton on the sideline after Saints touchdown against the San Francisco 49ers during the fourth quarter at Levi's Stadium. The New Orleans Saints defeated the San Francisco 49ers 41-23. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

The New Orleans Saints could have made their playoff chances a lot easier if they simply found a way to win on Sunday. They basically had that game against the Denver Broncos, but they found a way to lose.

But this team isnt finished yet. Theyve still won four of their last six games. The defense has played better and is finally healthy. Obviously, theres a lot of work to do if they want to make the playoffs.

Even though that loss may have you think their playoff hopes are over, theres actually plenty of time to go.

The Dallas Cowboys, Seattle Seahawks, Detroit Lions and Atlanta Falcons lead their divisions and occupy the top four spots. Also, dont expect the Saints to win the division at this point. You need to be realistic.

The Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings and Philadelphia Eagles sit at 5-4. The Saints Week 2 loss to the New York Giants means the latter owns the tiebreaker. The Saints likely arent going to catch them at this point.

So lets assume five playoff spots are taken up. That leaves New Orleans on the outside looking in by one game. They do play the Lions in Week 13, so that could be a monumental game with playoff implications.

They are just one game out of the playoffs.

Minnesota has a brutal schedule. They have to play Arizona, Detroit, Dallas and Green Bay down the road.

Detroit has a home game against Minnesota, a trip to New Orleans before they visit the Giants, Cowboys and host the Packers to close out their final three weeks.

The Eagles visit Seattle, host Green Bay and visit Cincinnati. Theyll host Washington, visit Baltimore and close out with home games against the Giants and Cowboys.

So if the Saints can find their game again and go on a hot stretch, they could find themselves in the playoffs. The second wild card spot is wide open with anyones to win.

The post Saints playoff hopes far from over appeared first on Cover32.
Samantha Bee wasted no time skewering President-elect Donald Trumps prospective cabinet on Monday, first taking aim at chief strategist pick Steve Bannon.

Describing him as the milkshake that brings all the deplorables to the yard, the Full Frontal host knocked Trumps choice of alt-right-hand man. A co-founder of Breitbart News, Bannon has been accused of using his platform to mainstream the ideologies of white supremacists.

RELATEDDonald Trump on 60 Minutes: The 10 Most Surprising Revelations

Bee also skewered prominent Republicans, like current and former Speakers of the House Paul Ryan and Newt Gingrich, who in the days since Bannons name began circulating have both denied any knowledge of his affiliation with the alt-right movement. Ryan also said hed never heard of Bannon at all.

Bee surmised that Ryans alleged obliviousness was more about keeping the peace within his party, and less about standing up for whats right.

Later, Bee took a look at how the media wants to blame others for Trumps victory over Hillary Clinton. After calling out TVLine (!) for a commentary on how Jon Stewarts Daily Show exit might have impacted the election, Bee gave viewers a glimpse of how Stewart is coping in the days since the election.

Are you more or less nervous about Donald Trumps staff picks after watching Samantha Bees commentary?

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Paris (AFP) - Nicolas Sarkozy's links with the late Moamer Kadhafi came under fresh scrutiny Tuesday after a businessman admitted delivering three cash-stuffed suitcases from the Libyan leader toward the Frenchman's first presidential bid.

In an interview with the Mediapart investigative news site, Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine said he had made three trips from Tripoli to Paris in late 2006 and early 2007 with cash for Sarkozy's campaign.

Each time he carried a suitcase containing between 1.5 and 2.0 million euros in 200-euro and 500-euro notes, Takieddine told the site in a video interview, saying he was given the money by Kadhafi's military intelligence chief Abdallah Senussi.

Sarkozy, who is bidding to recapture the presidency in next year's election, has for years been dogged by allegations that he accepted millions from Kadhafi during his successful 2007 run for the top office.

During questioning in a separate case, Takieddine accused Sarkozy of having been in Kadhafi's pocket in 2006-07 but he had never previously claimed to be the bagman.

The allegations against Sarkozy first emerged in March 2011, when the French leader was campaigning for the NATO-led military intervention that helped overthrow Kadhafi.

"Sarkozy must first give back the money he took from Libya to finance his electoral campaign," Kadhafi's son Seif al-Islam, who is now in jail in Libya, demanded.

A year later, as Sarkozy was campaigning for a second term, Mediapart published a document signed by former Libyan intelligence boss Musa Kusa referring to an agreement for 50 million euros ($54 million at current rates) in backing from Tripoli.

Sarkozy, who lost his 2012 re-election bid, vigorously denied the allegations, claiming the document was a fake.

Takieddine's video testimony comes five days before Sarkozy goes up against former prime minister Alain Juppe and other rivals in a primary to choose the candidate of the French right in next year's presidential vote.

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- 'Mafia state' -

The first round of the two-stage primary takes place on Sunday.

Takieddine said he delivered the cash directly to the interior ministry, which Sarkozy headed at the time.

He said he was received on the first two occasions by Claude Gueant, Sarkozy's then cabinet chief whom he later made his interior minister.

The businessman, who said he wanted to tell all about "the mafia state in which we are living", said he set down the cases in Gueant's office but did not discuss the contents with him.

On the third occasion, he was received by Sarkozy himself in an apartment on the first floor of the ministry, he claimed.

After setting down the case, he said Sarkozy spoke to him briefly about a group of Bulgarian health workers imprisoned in Libya whose liberation Sarkozy negotiated later that year.

But he studiously avoided the topic of the briefcase.

In 2012, Senussi, who is also imprisoned in Libya, told investigators he "personally supervised" the handover of 5.0 million euros towards Sarkozy's campaign.

But despite several other such former high-ranking members of Kadhafi's regime making similar claims, French investigators have yet to find any evidence of illegal campaign funding, according to AFP's sources.

Sarkozy has brushed off the allegations as the claims of vindictive Libyan regime members, furious with him for leading the intervention that ended Kadhafi's 41-year rule.

The 61-year-old right-winger, who is trailing presidential frontrunner Juppe in opinion polls, is embroiled in several scandals.

He has been charged with influence peddling in a separate affair and with illegal financing of his 2012 campaign. Sarkozy has accused the judiciary of trying to stymie his comeback ambitions.
By Rania El Gamal

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabian and Russia energy ministers could meet in Qatar this week on the sidelines of a major energy forum, industry sources said on Tuesday as OPEC and non-OPEC members try again to clinch an oil output limiting deal.

In September, OPEC agreed at a meeting in Algeria on modest, preliminary, oil output cuts in the first such deal since 2008, with special conditions given to Libya, Nigeria and Iran, whose output has been hit by wars and sanctions.

The agreement is expected to be finalised at the next OPEC meeting on Nov. 30 in Vienna but with two weeks to go to the next gathering, disagreements persist among OPEC members and non-OPEC Russia on the exact details of the deal.

Oil prices have fallen towards $45 per barrel from over $53 per barrel in recent weeks after experts including the International Energy Agency said a failure by OPEC to reach a deal would mean the market might remain oversupplied for whole of 2017.

Russia's Energy Minister Alexander Novak was due in the Qatari capital, Doha, this week for the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), which unites 12 countries including OPEC members Algeria and Iran.

Even though Saudi Arabia is not a member of GECF, Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih was due to travel to Doha this week for meetings with peers on the sidelines of the forum, three sources familiar with the matter said.

Falih was expected to meet other energy ministers from OPEC and possibly Novak on Friday, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the meetings were not made public.

It was not immediately clear whether Falih would meet Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh, the sources said, as there was no confirmation from Tehran yet on whether Zanganeh would attend the gas forum.

Iran, which remains one of the main stumbling blocks to a final deal, has refused to cap production below 4 million barrels per day (bpd) as it seeks to regain market share lost under sanctions. Tehran said it pumped 3.92 million bpd in October.

Russia has said it prefers to freeze output while OPEC wants Moscow to contribute to cuts. Iraq has also signalled it wanted its production to be calculated according to its own estimates and not the estimates of OPEC.

(Writing by Rania El Gamal; Editing by Dale Hudson/Ruth Pitchford)
Travel + Leisure has named Portugal the 2016 Destination of the Year. And to celebrate, the countrys leading airline TAP Portugal is offering North America-based travelers 17 percent off flights in 2017.

Portugal has been called Europes best kept secret for years, TAP Portugals CEO Fernando Pinto said. It certainly sounds like the secret is out.

There is a lot to love about Portugal: the consistently pleasant weather, the dynamic arts scene, the terraced vineyards of the countrys Douro Valley. And 2017 is an excellent year to visit.

To get the discount, reservations must be made by Sunday, November 20 at 11:59 p.m.. Travel can be on any day in 2017; no blackout dates apply. Visit flytap.com and use the promotional code PORTUGAL17 to score the 17 percent savings.

This flight deal is good whether your destination is Portugal, or if youre only dropping in during the airlines popular stopover program. Whether youre headed to Marseille, Zurich, Stockholm, Vienna, Oslo, London, Barcelona, or any of TAPs other 45 European destinations, you can spend up to three nights in Lisbon or Porto for no additional cost.

We look forward to welcoming even more first-time and repeat visitors throughout the year, said Pinto.

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Cuc Phuong National Park (Vietnam) (AFP) - Pangolin Mi Bo has seen better days. He arrived at a rescue centre in Vietnam missing a paw after it was cut off in a snare trap.

The rest of his body is marked by red lacerations, and he will probably never regain enough strength to return to the wild.

But he is among the lucky ones.

Rescued from poachers, Mi Bo and dozens of other pangolins are being nursed back to health by Vietnamese conservationists fighting to save the scale-covered creatures from extinction.

The reclusive pangolin has become the most trafficked mammal on earth due to soaring demand in Asia for their scales for traditional medicine and their flesh, considered a delicacy.

An estimated one million of the animals, often called "scaly anteaters", have been plucked from Asian and African forests over the past decade, shunting them onto the list of species at the highest risk of extinction.

About the size of a small dog, pangolins are defenceless in the wild, curling up into a ball when they are scared, allowing poachers to easily scoop them up.

Their dire predicament will be on the agenda at a major wildlife conference opening in Hanoi on Thursday, which will be attended by Britain's Prince William -- a champion of better-known endangered species such as elephants and rhinos.

At the rescue centre in Vietnam, a team of staff and volunteers work late into the night to keep the latest batch of nearly 60 pangolins alive.

"They have a second life here, they're kind of born again," Nguyen Van Thai, director of Save Vietnam's Wildlife, said from the leafy rehabilitation centre in Cuc Phuong National Park southwest of the capital.

A previous group of rescued pangolins arrived barely alive after being stored on ice by poachers who thought it would keep them fresh.

Others have been stripped of scales or pumped full of fluids to make them look fatter to prospective buyers.

The sorry state of the animals leaves no shortage of work for veterinarian Lam Kim Hai, who treats up to 10 pangolins a day.

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"I feel at the same time sad and angry," the 24-year-old told AFP after treating Mi Bo for over an hour under a heat lamp.

- 'Delicious and nutritious' -

Although the pangolin trade is illegal in Vietnam and they are in the government's "red book" of endangered species, law enforcement remains weak.

Authorities have even been caught selling the endangered animals after seizing them from poachers, according to media reports.

With a booming traditional medicine industry, Vietnam remains both a destination and source country for illegally poached wildlife.

Pangolin flesh is also prized.

Like in China, their meat is steamed, boiled or grilled. It is eaten on special occasions or to grease business wheels, mostly among members of Vietnam's growing wealthy class willing to spend as much as $1,000 for each creature.

"I don't care if it's name is mentioned in the red book. Whenever I have guests or partners who want it, I absolutely have to obtain it for them," Vu Trong Phat, a 45-year-old real estate and construction boss, told AFP at a local pub.

At that price, nothing goes to waste. Customers often drink their blood, and their scales are used in special elixirs believed to cure anything from impotence to menstrual cramps to asthma and even cancer.

The scales have also been used as guitar plectrums.

"Pangolin meat is very delicious and nutritious and very good for your health," said government employee Nguyen Van Thinh, 56.

"Pangolin scales are... very good for heart and blood circulation diseases. Any woman who has no milk for her child can be cured just with a small quantity of the medicine," he told AFP at the pub.

He shares that belief with many others across Vietnam and China, though there is no scientific evidence for any of the supposed medical benefits of pangolin products.

Scientists don't know how many pangolins are left in the wild, since the nocturnal and notoriously shy animals are difficult to track.

But experts say the size of illegal pangolin hauls in Asia has grown in recent years -- in 2015, two tonnes of dead pangolins from Nigeria were found in a single seizure in Hong Kong.

- Brink of extinction -

With wild populations plummeting, some fear that traders may be seeking to set up breeding farms -- which conservationists fear are just a cover for black-market trafficking.

Pangolins are also difficult to keep alive in captivity and breeding farms would not necessarily boost their numbers.

"That is not a conservation solution, it's nothing we would support. It seems to be just kind of a way to aid and abet the (illegal) trade," John Baker, managing director of WildAid, told AFP from California.

The Hanoi conference follows a decision at a Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) summit in September to include pangolins on its "Appendix 1" -- the highest level of protection that outlaws all trade in animals facing possible extinction.

Thai, the 34-year-old director of Save Vietnam's Wildlife, said he has watched in dismay as pangolin numbers have fallen through the floor.

"It's really sad, it's like over 20 years later and there are no pangolins in this area. We need to take action," he said.
One of the many reasons the world of subatomic particles seems to alien to us denizens of the macroscopic realm is that events at the tiniest known level of reality take place within extremely minute periods of time  durations that are so small that from a human point of view, they may as well not even exist. The meaning and perception of time, therefore, vary widely depending on whether you are a human or a subatomic particle like an electron.

Now, for the first time, physicists have succeeded in recording an event within an atom with an accuracy of a trillionth of a billionth of a second, marking the smallest division of time ever recorded by humans.

The event? Photoinonization  or the photoelectric effect, which was discovered by Albert Einstein  in which an electron was seen exiting a helium atom after excitation by light.

If light hits the two electrons of a helium atom, you must be incredibly fast to observe what occurs, researchers from Germanys Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, said in a statement. Besides the ultra-short periods in which changes take place, quantum mechanics also comes into play. If a light particle (photon) hits the two electrons, either the entire energy of the photon can be absorbed by one of the electrons, or a division can take place. Regardless of the energy transfer, one electron leaves the helium atom.

Until now, physicists had only been able to observe what happens after an electron has already left an atom, and the events before that were shrouded in mystery. In this case, however, improvements in measurement methods allowed the researchers to measure events taking place at a rate of up to 850 zeptoseconds (1 zeptosecond = 10-21 seconds).

They did so by shining an attosecond-long (1 attosecond = 10-18 second), extremely ultraviolet light pulse on the helium atom to excite the electrons, and firing an infrared laser pulse  lasting about four femtoseconds (1 femtosecond = 10-15 seconds)  to detect the electron as soon as it left the atom.

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Depending on the exact electromagnetic field of this pulse at the time of detection, the electron was accelerated or decelerated, the researchers said. Through this change in speed, the physicists were able to measure photoemission with zeptosecond precision.

They discovered that it took between seven and twenty attoseconds from the time a photon interacted with the electrons to the time one of the electrons left the atom, and that this time varied depending on the electrons interaction with the nucleus and the other electron.

The observations, described in a study published in the journal Nature Physics, pave the way toward building a comprehensive understanding the quantum behavior of electrons  something that is still scarcely understood.

Many things are rooted in the interactions of individual electrons, but we handle them as a collective thing, Martin Schultze from the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, told New Scientist. If you really want to develop a microscopic understanding of atoms, on the most basic level, you need to understand how electrons deal with each other.

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EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Scotland's devolved parliament called on Tuesday for the British government to ring-fence its European Union single market membership even as Britain exits the bloc. Although the United Kingdom as a whole voted to leave the EU in a June referendum, Scotland voted to remain and says it therefore has a case for a separate deal with Brussels. The ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) tabled a motion in the Holyrood parliament hoping to attract cross-party support for protecting the advantages Scotland enjoys as part of the EU and to better argue its case in negotiations with the UK government in London as it charts Britain's path to exit. "Scotland is currently the most attractive region outside of London for overseas inward investment, and maintaining a pathway to the single market is a key factor for many international companies who choose to base themselves here," Economy Secretary Keith Brown said. But the motion was passed with just the support of the other pro-independence party, the Scottish Greens. Other political parties refused to back it because they fear the devolved government will use demands for a special deal for Scotland as a springboard for another plebiscite on Scottish independence. Scots rejected secession from the UK by a ten-point margin in 2014. "It's time for the SNP to accept that remaining in the UK is far more important to Scotland than being part of the European Union," said Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour's economy spokesperson. "Scottish Labour will oppose any attempts by the SNP to force another independence referendum."Scotland's trade with the rest of the UK is worth almost double what Scotland trades with the rest of the world. The effort to maintain free movement and single market membership has set the SNP on a collision course with Prime Minister Theresa May's government, which has indicated that curbing free movement of people from the European Union is a priority in Britain's planned negotiating stance. European leaders have indicated that accepting free movement of EU citizens is a requisite for single market membership. (Reporting by Elisabeth O'Leary; editing by Stephen Addison)
More than 200,000 Americans are serving in the military overseas, and they deserve some holiday cheer, too. If you're at home in the United States and want to send love to the people protecting your country, you have several options leading up to Christmas. Schools, churches and nonprofits are already organizing donation drives.

Everybody, I think, thinks about family more during the holidays than the rest of the year, and so to be without them is a little lonely feeling, Brig. Gen. Joe Jarrard told WTVM earlier this month. In this digital age that we live in, to me, Christmas cards are one of the things that still resonate and mean something, especially the men and women overseas.

Here are a few places you can send cards or good for military members this Christmas:

The American Red Cross will again host its Holidays for Heroes program, but, as in recent years, it's going local. Instead of sending cards to a national P.O. box, each local Red Cross chapter will have its own address. Identify your nearby office here and contact them for details.

If you're sending a card through the Red Cross, make sure you address it as "Dear Service Member, Veteran or Military Family Member," according to its website. And don't use glitter  though sparkly, the stuff can complicate some medical issues for wounded soldiers.

GettyImages-136088901

Photo: Getty Images

Facebook message Operation Christmas Cards for Troops Overseas to pledge a certain amount of cards and gifts by Nov. 21. They'll give you an address, and you'll send the package over by Dec. 9. Address cards to "any soldier" and include items like magazines and granola bars.

Send letters to A Million Thanks at 17853 Santiago Blvd., #107-355, Villa Park, CA 92861 or drop them off at these locations by Dec. 1 to have them mailed overseas by Christmas. The nonprofit encourages you to be kind, creative and positive in your messages.

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Military Missions is again running its Operation S.E.N.D. program this year. Drop off Christmas cards addressed to "Dear Friend" at the nonprofit's Kentucky office or send to Military Missions Inc., 3650 Boston Rd., Suite 146, Lexington, KY 40514.

The group will be assembling the Christmas care packages Nov. 30. Attend or drop off items like puzzle books, hack sacks, hot cocoa mix, trail mix, socks or lip balm. If you can't make it out, you can send Military Missions $10 to cover shipping costs through PayPal here.

Hugs For Soldiers will accept donations until Nov. 26 at its shipping address, Duluth First United Methodist Church, 3208 Duluth Highway 120, Duluth, GA 30096. Suggested items include microwave popcorn packs, beef jerky, gloves, sunflower seeds and coloring books. The organization will assemble care packages Dec. 3.

If you're reading this too late to donate, don't forget you can always purchase a gift through United Service Organizations' WishBook. Packages start at $15 and include an e-card. Send a service member a comfort food package or fund a phone call home.

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ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's top foreign policy official said on Tuesday he plans to attend the Heart of Asia conference in India and suggested the visit could be used to "defuse the tension" between the nuclear armed neighbours. Sartaj Aziz's trip to India would be the first by a senior Pakistani official since gunmen raided an army base in Indian-controlled Kashmir and killed 19 soldiers in September, an attack New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militants. The killing of Indian soldiers soured relations and led to a weeks of diplomatic quarrelling, with both Islamabad and New Delhi accusing opposing diplomats of spying and then expelling them. "Its a good opportunity to defuse the tension," Aziz, who is an adviser to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on foreign affairs, told the state-run PTV channel. Artillery duels and skirmishing have recently intensified along the disputed frontier running through the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. Pakistan on Monday said seven of its soldiers were killed by Indian shelling. Despite hinting at a possible detente, Aziz said there was no official meeting scheduled with Indian officials. "Its early to say. Depends upon the situation," he said. The Heart of Asia conference focusing on Afghanistan is due to be held in the first week of December in the northwestern Indian city of Amritsar, close to the Pakistani border. The conference will seek ways to help improve security and bring peace to Afghanistan, which has been mired in conflict since a U.S.-led coalition toppled the hardline Islamist Taliban government in 2001. Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have also been strained over the past year, with Kabul accusing Islamabad of harbouring the leaders of Taliban and seeking to meddle in Afghan affairs. Pakistan denies the charge. "Heart of Asia is for Afghanistan and Afghanistan is our priority," said Aziz. (Reporting by Drazen Jorgic; editing by Mark Heinrich)
Seth Meyers took the national news media to task for "bending over backward" to give Donald Trump a chance to undo "18 months of racist, bigoted, unhinged rhetoric."

"Many in the media are doing everything they can to delude themselves and the nation into thinking this is a normal situation," said Meyers. "That Trump's behavior and campaign promises don't pose a unique threat to fundamental American principles and norms. But fine. If they're so eager to see if Donald Trump, a 70-year-old billionaire, can suddenly change for the better, let's give him this fresh start and see if he can surprise us."

The Late Night host cut to the announcement that Breitbart's Steve Bannon is Trump's new chief strategist.

"Well, we gave him a chance," Meyers said. "Bye, chance, thank you for stopping by."

He criticized people referring to Bannon as a "controversial" choice. "He's not 'controversial,' he's a white nationalist and an anti-Semite. Don't talk about him like he's pineapple on pizza."

He continued, "Just to give you a sense of how extreme Breitbart is, the website recently 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."

When Paul Ryan responded to a question about all of the complaints against Bannon, he responded by saying he's never met him so he has no concerns.

"I never met John Wilkes Booth, but I let his past work inform my opinion of him," said Meyers.

He closed by commenting that Trump seems "completely unprepared for this job" and said it's surreal that Obama is now in charge of tutoring Trump.

Meyers compared the situation to "if a burglar broke into your house and you had to walk him around and show him where all the valuables were."

Read more: Jon Stewart Goes to His Post-Election Happy Place on 'Full Frontal'
IRVINE, CA / ACCESSWIRE / November 15, 2016 / Khang & Khang LLP (the "Firm") announces a class action lawsuit against Sanderson Farms, Inc. ("Sanderson Farms" or the "Company") (SAFM). Investors who purchased or otherwise acquired shares between December 17, 2013 and October 6, 2016 inclusive (the "Class Period"), are encouraged to contact the Firm in advance of the December 27, 2016 lead plaintiff motion deadline.

If you purchased shares of Sanderson Farms during the Class Period, please contact Joon M. Khang, Esquire, of Khang & Khang LLP, 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. Until certification occurs, you are not represented by an attorney. You may choose to take no action and remain a passive class member.

The complaint alleges that Sanderson Farms made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose material information. On September 2, 2016, some media outlets reported the filing of an antitrust class action lawsuit against Sanderson Farms and some of its peers for conspiring to manipulate the price of broiler-chickens. Allegedly, in 2008, Sanderson Farms along with Tyson Foods and several other companies conspired by sharing proprietary data and reducing production to support prices. On October 4, 2016, a group of consumers filed an antitrust class action complaint against Sanderson Farms and several of its industry peers for violations of the Sherman Act. On October 7, 2016, Pivotal Research downgraded peer company Tyson Foods from "buy" to "sell," due to fears over the class action against the Company and its peers, which it called powerfully convincing. When this information emerged to the public, shares of Sanderson Farms declined in value, causing investors harm.

If you wish to learn more about this lawsuit at no charge, 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.

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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
LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / November 15, 2016 / Lundin Law PC, a shareholder rights firm, announces an investigation against PAREXEL International Corporation ("PAREXEL" or the "Company") (PRXL) concerning possible violations of federal securities laws.

To get more information about this investigation, please contact Brian Lundin, Esquire, of Lundin Law PC, at 888-713-1033, or via email at brian@lundinlawpc.com.

The investigation focuses on an August 30, 2016 announcement in which PAREXEL disclosed that the Company was delaying the filing of its 2016 Annual Report on Form 10-K after receiving a report "of an incident of misappropriation of corporate funds by an employee in one of the Company's international operations."

Lundin Law PC was founded by Brian Lundin, a securities litigator based in Los Angeles dedicated to upholding shareholders' rights.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.

Contact:

Lundin Law PC

Brian Lundin, Esq.

Telephone: 888-713-1033

Facsimile: 888-713-1125

brian@lundinlawpc.com

http://lundinlawpc.com/

SOURCE: Lundin Law PC
(Photo: Dean Buscher/USA Network)

Shooter, based on the Bob Lee Swagger novels by Stephen Hunter and premiering Tuesday night on the USA network, has a lot going for it. Ryan Phillippe stars as super-marksman Swagger, and he does an even better job than Mark Wahlberg did at embodying this tough-but-sensitive character. (Wahlberg is an executive producer of the show.) The 2007 film was directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day), whos an executive producer on this show; the TV series has some tense, tight pacing. And the plot is based on Hunters Point of Impact, the first and one of the best of the Swagger series.

The story follows Swagger, an ex-Marine, as hes framed for an assassination attempt on the president. He escapes arrest and sets off trying to prove hes innocent and to uncover the truth about why hes been set up. Early on, there are some exciting scenes of Swaggers skill, and a couple of well-choreographed fight scenes, particularly one in the second episode, set in the tight confines of a prison cell. The supporting cast is solid, especially Omar Epps as a Secret Service man who served overseas with Swagger, and Shantel VanSanten as Swaggers wife, Julie.

As the series proceeds, however, it becomes less about Swagger and his action-heroism and more about an elaborate  and sometimes ludicrous  conspiracy plot involving the CIA, the Secret Service, and the FBI. Sometimes the dialogue is a tad florid. (Im gonna do what I do best. Im gonna hunt.) In general, the further Shooter strays from Phillippes character, the weaker the show becomes.

Shooter has had a difficult time making it to broadcast. It was set to premiere in July but was postponed twice due to real-life shooting incidents in Dallas and Baton Rouge. The show itself doesnt exploit or glorify gun violence, unless you think that any show featuring a gun does. Phillippe is good both as a serenely calm sniper and as a happily devoted husband and father. I guess I wish the shows narrative had the kind of stripped-down focus that Bob Lee Swagger brings to his shooting.

Shooter airs Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. on USA.
This is the first article in a six-part series about young people with siblings in prison.

Over 5 million kids in the United States currently have or have had a parent in prison. That works out to about one in 14 American childrena majority of whom are under age 10. Broken down by state, children with incarcerated parents can represent 3 to 13 percent of the population, according to A Shared Sentence, a report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The unusually intense stress that these children face has been well documented and studied. Thats mostly due to researchers emphasis on the parent-child relationship when analyzing incarcerated populationsand how little support is available for those left-behind children who are forced to stand by as their primary role models, caregivers, and providers are put behind bars.

But incarceration also affects a separate number of children who have been isolated from another profound relationship: They are the children with siblings in jail or prisonand much less is known about them. It isnt even clear how many of them there are.

One recent U.S.-based analysis of grief and coping among non-offending siblings, as the literature often refers to them, brands them as the most often overlooked family members of adjudicated youth. The studys author, sociologist Katie Heaton, detailed the levels of daily emotional stress siblings may experience, including bullying by other students who discovered their siblings imprisonment, adjusting to new household roles and routines, complex feelings of ambivalence related to their siblings safety, visiting their brother or sister, and having their sibling return home after an extended period away.

Heaton concluded that non-offending siblings suffer from disenfranchised grief:

Disenfranchised grief is a particularly difficult form of loss to overcome because the majority of cases involving this form of grief are the consequences of personal decisions of behaviors made. Such loss often creates a sense of shame or guilt within the individual or that persons family, making it difficult to openly mourn, discuss, or cope with the actions that have created the loss.

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Given the depth of these effects, why have the U.S. institutions that usually analyze the trends and impacts of the criminal-justice system paid so little attention to siblings as an analytical subject?

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I honestly dont know that we have an answer to that question, says Janet Lauritsen, a professor of criminology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis who has studied the issue. The siblings dont get much attention even in the offending literature. She explained that when data is collected, it tends to focus strictly on the adjudicated individual, not on the family. And even when researchers do conduct qualitative work, they lean heavily toward family dynamics that are based on parent-child relationships and usually dont interview siblings. Lauritsen says, its due to a lack of careful thought about how siblings might contribute or feel the pain of their siblings incarceration. The dearth of information may also be due to limited resources. Data-collection would require more money, more time, and larger teams in order to gather enough information on multiple generations in families to then be able to isolate the impact incarceration had just on siblings.

However, Lauritsen points out that since she undertook her initial research years ago, the makeup of the typical family may have changed significantly enough that searching for causal or correlative relationships might prove even more challenging today. Im not completely certain that there would still be as strong a sibling effect as there was 30 years ago, she explains. I say that because the family size has declined over time, and the complexity of sibling and stepsibling relationships has increased over time.

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In the 1970s, Lauritsen says, the family model that was assumed for research purposes meant a household with three children who grew up together. They even used that model if there was a divorce. Its a lot easier to study [siblings] effects on each other when theyre always together, not separated through new family configurations, new marriages, and divorces, Lauritsen says. Easier to study, but not reality: The average number of children per family has decreased, so there simply arent as many options for studying the effects of one siblings incarceration on the other. Additionally, today more American families23 percenthave just one child than at any other point in U.S. history.

Studies in the United Kingdom have attempted to put the focus on this largely invisible population in the criminal justice system. One analysis concluded that 80 percent of existing research on prisoners families have never asked about how [brothers and sisters] are coping following their siblings imprisonment. The study made two other significant conclusions regarding siblings of the incarcerated: They are at an increased risk of becoming offenders themselves (especially brothers), and they are at risk for considerably more physical and mental-health problems, like becoming withdrawn, displaying anger, and having low self-esteem.

Another British study by the sociologist Rosie Meek found, Sibling imprisonment had affected the school, social and family life of the participants  and many were preoccupied with worrying about the well-being of their older brother, both in prison and after release from custody. Whats more, older sibling offending was related to younger sibling offending in both brothers and sisters.

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That kind of sibling-to-sibling impact is serious. According to the National Center for Juvenile Justice and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Preventions report Juvenile Offenders and Victims, 1.6 million kids under the age of 18 were arrested in 2010, including those young people who were involved in 800, or 8 percent, of that years murders. Half of the youth offenders were taken into custody for simple assault, drug-abuse violations, larceny-theft, and disorderly conduct. Another large portion of kids were arrested for violating liquor laws, breaking curfew, loitering, vandalism, and simple assault. Whatever their crimes, all of them have one thing in common: They all left families behindand many times, that included the impressionable siblings who just lost a little brother or big sister to prison.

The good news is that those figures also represent the lowest youth crime rates in American history. From 2005 to 2014, youth arrests dropped by a staggering 51 percent, compared with just a 14 percent decrease for adults. Similarly, between 1997 and 2013, there was a 48 percent drop in the number of young people placed in corrections facilities, according to the Campaign for Youth Justice. Still, when 1.6 million kids are getting arrested each year, there could be another million siblings watching. What lessons will they absorb?

* * *

The British advocacy groups Connexions and Action for Prisoners Families provide a guidebook, Supporting Young People With a Prisoner in the Family, for social workers and others who work with kids impacted by the incarceration of a relative. The book notes that there is no typical reaction. Some children put the incarcerated siblings needs before their own or take on more responsibilities within the family, which can put them under considerable emotional strain and pressure. Other children become angry towards the prisoner for disrupting their lives and causing hurt to their families. Some children find themselves spiraling into unknown territoryfrightened by prison visits, guilt-ridden, or bullied. Some feel relief if the sibling was abusive.

Worse, some feel newly vulnerableperhaps losing a protector when their sibling went away. According to a Center for the Study of Social Policy report, Fight for Our Girls, the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention found that among those involved in the juvenile justice system, girls rate of sexual abuse is four times higher than boys, and their rate of complex trauma (five or more adverse childhood experiences) is almost twice as high. At those rates, every time a troubled girl is sentenced, many non-offending siblings are being left behind in an unsafe situation.

Having a sibling in jail or prison can also have severe financial consequences for a family. As it is, children who come from impoverished families are over-represented in the juvenile-justice system. The Annie E. Casey Foundation estimates that 65 percent of families with a member in prison or jail could not meet basic needs. That can be an especially harsh reality for a non-offending brother or sister who sees limited resources being diverted away from their needs and toward the child in custody.

The Juvenile Law Center analyzed juvenile-justice statutes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to understand the network of legal financial obligations encountered by youth and families going through the system. The center also conducted a national survey of families, lawyers, other professionals in the field, and adults who experienced the system as young people. Some of the fees they encountered include: costs for evaluating and testing the young person; child support paid to the state (called cost of care); health-care, mental-health care, and medication costs; GPS-monitoring costs; public-defender fees; and court expenses like transportation, prosecution, witness fees, and general-operations costs. In some states, even a family who has been declared indigent is responsible for these bills. Also, many of the costs are nonrefundable, even if the young person is found not responsible for any crimes. Unsurprisingly, the Juvenile Law Center concluded that such costs are burdensome, overwhelming, harmful, and can exacerbate the familys economic distress and push a young person further into the system.

To illustrate the point, the report includes a brief example from Alameda County, California, where the average juvenile-justice case will cost a family $2,000. For a single-parent family making federal minimum wage, even the average payment constitutes approximately two months salary, the report states. Even seemingly minimal payments may require families to choose between buying basic necessities, such as groceries, and paying fees. Add to this perfect storm of financial trouble the fact that children 10 to 14 years old who have an incarcerated member of the family are also at a 41 percent higher risk of having their first child before marriage, a Princeton University study concluded. (This revelation is particularly notable at a time when teen-pregnancy rates have plummeted.) For many non-offending siblings, life can quickly feel hopeless.

* * *

Sometimes siblings are asked to play a role in the implicated young persons court proceedings. A sibling, for example, could be an eyewitness to whatever the issue is, says attorney Tim Curry, director of training and technical assistance at the National Juvenile Defender Center, which focuses on defending youth in juvenile court, where children are prosecuted as children and not as adults. If the sibling has positive things to say towards the defense, they might be a defense witness. If the state believes that the sibling has information against their own sibling, they could force them to testify as a states witness against their own sibling. The Center deals primarily with status offenses, which are not considered crimes and which include truancy, curfew violations, underage drinking, smoking, and running away.

Not only do prosecutors have every right under state laws to subpoena a sibling and force him or her to testify against their own brother or sister; the parents have no say in whether or not they will allow the minor to testify. Theres no sibling equivalent for the parent-child privilege that some states have, which protects a parent from testifying against their own child. A child does have the same Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination that any other person would have in those circumstancesbut does a child always understand that or have adequate counsel to explain it to them?

In some cases, even if a child does not have materially significant information, she may be drawn into a confounding legal web. Kids are subpoenaed by the prosecution because they really are on a fishing expedition, Curry says. They want to know whats going on, so they subpoena the kids in and bring them into the office, and say, Well, if you talk to us before you go to court, we might be able to get this to go away. Kids go in without lawyers. They answer all these kinds of questions, and then whatever happens happens. Though prosecutors may simply be gathering evidence against the target child, for a sibling, that could be traumatic, says Curry. The state has every right to subpoena whoever they want. They could technically subpoena anybody at any age. Sometimes the non-offending sibling could even end up divulging incriminating information and being prosecuted, too.

The siblings dont get much attention even in the offending literature.

The defense team may also involve a sibling, either as a fact witness to testify about what happened to exonerate her brother or sister or to serve as a character witness to try to mitigate the prosecutions case. Character witnesses are really hard because they get super cross-examined by the prosecutor, Curry says. I personally, for example, would be hesitant to put a child character witness up there, just because I think its harder for them to withstand cross-examination.

But even if not required to do something as extreme as take the stand in court, siblings often play key roles in the investigations that help lawyers prepare for trial. Curry says that nine times out of 10, he asks siblings for information that would benefit the defense. Investigation is one of the hardest things for the defense, Curry says. You got an entire police force thats out talking to people that can investigate the states case. We have to figure out who will talk to us and who might know information, and family is often the first place we start.

* * *

The immediate and long-term impacts of the fragmented families, especially siblings, who are left behind when a young person is incarcerated are varied and profound. In The Sibling Effect, Jeffrey Kluger writes:

From the time were born, our brothers and sisters are our collaborators and co-conspirators, our role models and our cautionary tales. They are our scolds, protectors, goads, tormentors, playmates, counselors, sources of envy, objects of pride. They help us learn how to resolve conflicts and how not to; how to conduct friendships and when to walk away from them. Sisters teach brothers about the mysteries of girls; brothers teach sisters about the puzzle of boys. Bigger sibs learn to nurture by mentoring little ones; little sibs learn about wisdom by heeding the older ones.

On any given day, 54,000 juvenile offenders are not living with their families because they are instead in one of the 696 youth-detention facilities across the United States. In an average year, 17,800 of them are just awaiting their turn in court, according to the Campaign for Youth Justice. But those are just the youth in the juvenile-justice system. In the adult criminal-court system, another 200,000 young people are tried, sentenced, or incarcerated as adults. That results in an average of 4,000 to 5,000 children sent to adult jails every day.

And in the shadows, behind all of those statistics, are the left-behind siblingsmany of whom will experience incarceration as a kind of mutual sentence.

This is the first in a six-part series about young people with siblings in prison. Read part two here.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
By Paul McLeary with Adam Rawnsley

War comes back to Aleppo. For the first time in three weeks, Russian and Syrian warplanes unleashed a massive assault on the rebel-held eastern half of Aleppo on Tuesday.

Russias defense minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that the operation involves Su-33 fighters being flown from the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, which is sitting off the Syrian coast along with several other Russian warships loaded with cruise missiles. An activist in the city tells Reuters the aircraft are firing missiles, and helicopters are dropping barrel bombs on targets in and around Syrias largest city. The bombing runs mark the first time in its history that Russia has used an aircraft carrier in combat.

The plan for the Syrian government appears to be to force out the tens of thousands of civilians and rebels holding out in eastern Aleppo by literally reducing it to rubble.

Chinese carrier ready. The Kuznetsov strikes come on the same day that China says its own aircraft carrier is ready for combat. The surprise announcement on Tuesday came during a newspaper interview with a Chinese official who said the ship is constantly prepared to fight against enemies.

The Liaoning carrier, which had previously been described by Beijing as a platform for testing Chinese capabilities, has now formally been described as having a real combat capacity, the state-run Global Times said. A Chinese military officer, Senior Captain Li Dongyou, told the paper that as a military force, we are always prepared for war and our combat capacity also needs to be tested by warAt this moment, we are doing our best to promote our strength and use it to prevent war, and are prepared for actual combat at any time.

The ship was commissioned in 2013, and while China hasnt outlined how it would use the ship, it would be a major force projection capability underscoring Chinas claims in the South China Sea, claims challenged by the U.S. Navy and others.

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Trump and Putin talk. The strikes in Aleppo come a day after a phone call between President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which the two agreed on the absolutely unsatisfactory state of bilateral relations, according to a statement from the Kremlin. The pair also reportedly agreed to normalize relations and pursue constructive cooperation on the broadest possible range of issues.

During the presidential campaign, Trump and Putin often praised one another, and Trump repeatedly rejected the conclusion reached by U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies that Moscow was behind the theft of emails from the Democratic party and Hillary Clinton advisor John Podesta. At one point, Trump also called on Russia to hack Clintons email, an unprecedented move that invited a foreign power to become directly involved in an American election.

Obama in Europe, lots to talk about. President Barack Obama landed in Greece on Tuesday the kick off the last foreign trip of his presidency, and one of his top priorities will be to explain to shocked NATO allies what they might expect from a Trump administration. Trump repeatedly slammed of the NATO alliance on the campaign trail, demanding that NATO countries pay more to keep the U.S. in the alliance.

In a press conference Monday, Obama said hes going to rely heavily on his meeting with Trump last week to assuage Europes fears that Washington may pull out of the alliance. In my conversation with the president-elect, Obama said, he expressed a great interest in maintaining our core strategic relationships, so one of the messages I will be able to deliver is his commitment to NATO and the trans-Atlantic alliance. After Greece, Obama will head to Germany for meetings with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

EU is on the move. Alarmed by Trumps comments, the European Union has been moving quickly in recent weeks to shore up its defense posture in case Washington pulls out of NATO, or otherwise weakens the alliance. On Monday, EU defense and foreign ministers agreed to a plan that would allow it to send rapid response forces abroad for the first time. Europe needs to be able to act for its own security, French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said during a press conference Monday. This will allow Europe to take a step towards its strategic autonomy.

Good morning and as always, if you have any thoughts, announcements, tips, or national security-related events to share, please pass them along to SitRep HQ. Best way is to send them to: paul.mcleary@foreignpolicy.com or on Twitter: @paulmcleary or @arawnsley

Latin America

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) has sent a letter to President Obama alleging that the Islamic State is now active in Latin America and asking the administration to do more to address the threat, the Hill reports. Ernst points to what she says are increased jihadist chatter in Portuguese and Spanish as well as the little-known Ansar al-Khilafa  a Brazilian jihadist group  recent oath of allegiance to the Islamic State. She urged Obama to raise the issue of Islamic extremist groups with officials on his upcoming trip to Peru.

Latin America, a frequent afterthought in American foreign policy, is yet another area where pundits and observers are left wondering what the Trump administrations approach will be, according to Stars and Stripes. Immigration, particularly the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants, was a centerpiece of the Trump campaign along with building a wall along the border with Mexico. Still, with Trump seemingly backpedaling on claims to build the wall, many are unsure what will become of U.S. security aid to Mexico and U.S. Southern Commands security partnerships with Latin American countries.

Syria

Russias renewed air war over Syria is off to an inauspicious start. A Russian MiG-29K crashed into the Mediterranean shortly after taking off from the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier. The Guardian reports that Russias defense ministry confirmed the crash, saying that the pilot survived and safely ejected before his MiG went in the drink. The crash leaves the Kuznetsov down to three MiG-29Ks and another black eye for Russian naval capabilities following a long and somewhat comical journey for the carrier as it limped from Russia into the eastern Mediterranean.

Iran

Russia and Iran are talking about signing a $10 billion arms deal, the Daily Telegraph reports. Russian Duma member and security and defense committee chair Viktor Ozerov says the deal would cover armored vehicles, artillery systems, and aircraft. Under the terms of the nuclear agreement Iran signed with the U.S. and other powers, the United Nations Security Council lifted sanctions forbidding major arms sales to the Islamic Republic. A major weapons sale between Russia and Iran, however, would have to wait on Security Council approval under the terms of the agreement.

Torture

One of the architects of the CIAs torture program under President George W. Bush and one of its most vocal defenders since is calling for the agency to get back in the torture business. The Daily Beast spoke to Jose Rodriguez, whos been mentioned as a possible pick for a top CIA slot in the Trump administration. Rodriguez says the CIA needs to not only revive the program he lead, but come up with new, more extreme torture methods because they are well known to the enemy and we would have to come up with something else.

Pardons and commutations

With just weeks left in the Obama presidency, Chelsea Manning is waging a longshot bid to commute her sentence. Manning leaked millions of pages of diplomatic cables and Defense Department records to WikiLeaks while serving in the Army, earning a 35-year prison sentence for the act. In a statement, Manning said she accepted full and complete responsibility for the actions, which she now says were wrong. Her mental health has suffered greatly in prison amid numerous suicide attempts and long stretches in solitary confinement. Celebrities like R.E.M.s Michael and Sonic Youths Thurston Moore have voiced support for the commutation effort.

Drones

Iraqi forces report that the Islamic State once again has attempted to use an improvised, explosive-laden drone. Agence France Presse reports that an Islamic State drone dropped a small grenade on Iraqi troops. The attack didnt injure anyone, but it does highlight how the jihadist group is adapting commercial technology along with other militants. Over the past few months, Islamist extremists in Syria such Jund al-Aqsa and Hezbollah have both shown videos in which drones drop small munitions.

Photo Credit: OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP/Getty Images
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / November 15, 2016 / Snap Interactive, Inc. ("SNAP," the "Company," "we," "our" or "us") (STVI), a leading provider of video chat and online dating services, today announced that Judy F. Krandel has been appointed as the Company's Chief Financial Officer, effective yesterday. Ms. Krandel had been a member of the Company's board of directors until October 7, 2016.

Ms. Krandel replaces Alex Harrington, who had been serving as interim Chief Financial Officer and fulfilling the duties of principal financial officer and principal accounting officer since March 15, 2014. Mr. Harrington will continue to serve as the Chief Executive Officer of the Company.

Prior to joining Snap, Ms. Krandel served as a portfolio manager at the Juniper Investment Company, a small-cap hedge fund. She brings to SNAP more than 20 years of capital markets experience, principally as an equity analyst and portfolio manager focusing on small-cap stocks, with a strong concentration in consumer and technology. Throughout her career, she has worked closely with corporate management teams to help them develop strategic business plans, explore M&A and joint venture opportunities, raise capital and enhance their investor relations efforts.

"Over the course of her career, Judy has established a stellar reputation as a top small-cap investor. In that capacity, she's also served as a trusted advisor to many corporate management teams, helping them unlock shareholder value. As we integrate our company after our recent merger, we are pleased to add professionals of the highest caliber to our management team, who will help us build a leading social networking and dating company," said Alex Harrington, CEO of SNAP. "Judy's background as an investor and equity research analyst will be a great asset in helping the Company manage its strategic planning, capital markets approach and investor relations effort. She has also cultivated deep relationships with participants in the small and micro-cap ecosystem that we expect will help the Company achieve its strategic objectives, which include listing our common stock on a national securities exchange. We welcome Judy to our team and look forward to her contributions."

Story continues

"I am excited to join SNAP's executive team and help build it into a leader in the social networking and dating industry," said Ms. Krandel. "SNAP has the elements in place to be successful: It operates in a very dynamic industry, with leading-edge technology and a management team with the vision and experience to capitalize on the opportunity. I am looking forward to helping guide SNAP on a path to continued success."

Ms. Krandel joined Juniper in 2011 as Portfolio Manager for the Juniper Public Fund, a concentrated, value-oriented fund that focuses on small-cap equities. Before that, Ms. Krandel was a Portfolio Manager at Alpine Woods where she managed portions of two long/short equity hedge funds. Prior to that, she was a Portfolio Manager from 2001 to 2009 at First New York Securities, LLC, where her experience included founding and co-managing a domestic long/short small-cap hedge fund. Ms. Krandel has been engaged in public equity research and investing since 1992, starting with Fred Alger Management, followed by positions at Delaware Management and Kern Capital Management. Ms. Krandel received her B.S. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and her M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.

IR Contact:

IR@snap-interactive.com

About Snap Interactive, Inc.

Snap Interactive, Inc. is a leading provider of real-time, rich media, interactive social networking and dating applications with more than 250 million users around the world. The SNAP product portfolio includes Paltalk and Camfrog, which together host one of the world's largest collections of video-based communities, and FirstMet, a prominent interactive dating brand serving users 35 and older. The Company has a long history of technology innovation and holds 25 patents related to video conferencing and online gaming.

For more information, please visit http://www.snap-interactive.com.

The contents of our website is not part of this press release, and you should not consider the contents of this website in making an investment decision with respect to our common stock.

Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc. Apple, iTunes and iPhone are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. and App Store is a registered service mark of Apple Inc. Android and Google Play are registered trademarks of Google Inc. Paltalk, Camfrog, FirstMet and The Grade are trademarks of Snap Interactive, Inc.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements." Such statements may be preceded by the words "intends," "may," "will," "plans," "expects," "anticipates," "projects," "predicts," "estimates," "aims," "believes," "hopes," "potential" or similar words. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, are based on certain assumptions and are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control, and cannot be predicted or quantified and consequently, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, risks and uncertainties associated with general economic, industry and market sector conditions; the ability to effectively integrate the operations of the Company and Paltalk; the Company's ability to institute corporate governance standards or achieve compliance with national securities exchange listing requirements; the Company's future growth and the ability to obtain additional financing to implement the Company's growth strategy; the ability to increase or recognize revenue, decrease expenses and increase the number of active subscribers, new subscription transactions or monthly active users; the ability to enter into new advertising agreements; the ability to diversify new user acquisition channels or improve the conversion of users to paid subscribers; the ability to anticipate and respond to changing user and industry trends and preferences; the intense competition in the online dating marketplace; the ability to release new applications or derive revenue from new applications; and circumstances that could disrupt the functioning of the Company's applications. More detailed information about the Company and the risk factors that may affect the realization of forward-looking statements is set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including the Company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Investors and security holders are urged to read these documents free of charge on the SEC's web site at http://www.sec.gov.

All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement or statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which such statement was made, except to the extent required by applicable securities laws.

SOURCE: Snap Interactive, Inc.
Evan Spiegel

Snapchat's parent company, Snap Inc., has quietly filed paperwork for an initial public offering, setting the wheels in motion for what's expected to be the largest tech debut in years.

Snap, which is based in Venice Beach, California, confidentially filed its paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission before the presidential election, a person familiar with the matter told Business Insider.

Snap's IPO could come as early as March, but it could also occur in the second quarter of 2017, the person said. The company is seeking a valuation of $20 billion to $25 billion.

Some people think the offering could be even larger. Bloomberg has reported that Snap's IPO valuation could swell as high as $40 billion.

Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs will lead the deal, while JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank, Allen & Co., Barclays, and Credit Suisse will be joint bookrunners.

Revenue engine

Snapchat Spectacles filter

Snapchat has emerged as one of the most popular consumer internet services, challenging Facebook, Twitter, and Google for users and advertising dollars. With the tech IPO market stuck in the doldrums over the past year, investors are hoping Snap's offering could open the gates to more IPOs, including closely watched tech companies like Uber.

Snap has told investors that it expects to make $250 million to $350 million in advertising revenue this year. A recent eMarketer report predicted the company would near $1 billion in revenue in 2017  meaning an IPO that valued the company at $25 billion would be 25 times its projected revenue numbers.

It's not clear whether Snap is profitable, however, and the company is aggressively expanding into new businesses and markets that are likely to eat into margins.

Snap's main business is advertising in the Snapchat app, which has over 150 million daily users. But Snap recently rebranded itself as a camera company and started selling $130 camera-equipped sunglasses called Spectacles.

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The company most recently raised $1.81 billion in private funding in May, which pegged its valuation at $18 billion to $22 billion.

With annual revenue under $1 billion now, Snap was able to file its Form S-1 with the SEC confidentially under the JOBS Act. News of the filing was first reported by Reuters on Tuesday.

A Snap representative declined to comment when reached by Business Insider.

Know anything more about Snap's IPO filing or plans? This author can be discreetly reached via email at aheath@businessinsider.com or via "@alexeheath" on Telegram.

NOW WATCH: Snapchat will sell its new camera glasses through pop-up vending machines





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JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's main opposition party filed a criminal complaint on Tuesday accusing President Jacob Zuma of corruption, after an anti-graft agency released a report listing allegations of influence peddling in his government. The report, titled "State of Capture", stopped short of reaching conclusive findings against the president, some of his ministers and heads of state-owned companies. But it plunged Zuma into the latest crisis of his scandal-plagued presidency. "The DA will make sure Jacob Zuma, and all those who aid and abet him, are held accountable for their flagrant abuse of power to make themselves rich  at the expense of the poor and the jobless," said Mmusi Maimane, the leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA) party. He urged police to investigate. The affair has rattled markets in Africa's most industrialised economy, which faces possible ratings downgrades later this year, and given even more ammunition to the opposition to try to unseat Zuma. Zuma -- who survived a no-confidence vote in parliament on Thursday over the allegations of influence-peddling -- was studying the report and reserved the right to challenge it in court, the president's office said in a statement after the document was released on Nov. 2. The carefully worded report by Thuli Madonsela, who reached the end of her tenure as Public Protector on Oct. 14, stopped short of asserting that crimes had been committed and called for a judge to investigate the allegations. It focused on allegations that the brothers Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta influenced the appointment of ministers, and called for an investigation into whether Zuma, some of his cabinet members and some state companies acted improperly. Zuma, 74, denies providing special favours for wealthy friends, including the Guptas, who run a business empire from media to mining. They also deny wrongdoing. The chief executive of the state power utility, Brian Molefe, announced his resignation, a week after he was implicated in the anti-graft report. Molefe denied any wrongdoing but said he was leaving his post in the company's interest. (Reporting by James Macharia, editing by Larry King)
A South Carolina man is facing an ill treatment of animals charge after he allegedly set a pit bull puppy on fire in a church parking lot, police say.

Hykeem Golson, 21, apparently fled the scene after allegedly using accelerant and other materials to set the puppy on fire in the parking lot of Grace United Methodist Church on Saturday, Richland County Sheriffs Department officials announced in a statement.

Deputies discovered the puppy severely burned; deputies immediately rushed the puppy to an Animal Hospital  where the puppy succumbed to its wounds, police said in the statement, adding that the dog was eight to 10 weeks old.

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

Golson was arrested on Monday, according to the statement.

Officials said they identified Golson as a suspect after questioning witnesses and acquaintances.

Sheriff Leon Lott told ABC News 4 that Golson was arrested at Wellsprings Apartments and is now being held at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center. A spokeswoman for the facility tells PEOPLE Golson has not entered a plea and has not obtained an attorney. He is expected to appear in court Tuesday at 2 p.m.

Grace United Methodist Church will hold a Blessing of the Animals gathering on Saturday with proceeds benefiting the Pawmetto Lifeline.




Memphis Meats

The promise of lab-grown meat  made from pieces of lab-grown muscle tissue instead of living animals  has dangled in front of us for decades. Now it's actually happening.

A Bay Area-based startup called Memphis Meats has figured out how to make a real meatball in the lab using beef cells, no livestock required. Take a look:

At a demo day for the IndieBio accelerator program in February, Memphis Meats cofounder and CEO Uma Valeti laid out the three main problems he sees with today's meat industry: the demand for meat is growing faster than we can keep up with it, there are looming health risks like E.Coli and antibiotic resistance, and it takes takes 23 calories of grain to make one calorie of beef  an unsustainable amount.

The lab-grown meat process goes something like this, according to Valeti. Find ultra-high quality cows and pigs. Take meat cells from a pork shoulder or other cut of meat. Find the cells capable of self-renewal and cultivate them in a sterile environment. The cells are harvested early for tender cuts of meat, and harvested later for textured cuts.

Since lab-grown meat doesn't need to snack on grain to survive, the energy inputs can be significantly lower than with "real" meat. Memphis Meats claims it requires just three calories of energy input for one calorie of energy output.

There's also little risk of antibiotic contamination since the lab-grown meat is grown in a pathogen-free space. Take a look at the difference in antibiotic and bacteria contamination of Memphis Meats cuts of pork and beef compared to organic meat bought from the grocery store (Memphis Meats conducted the experiment, so take it with a grain of salt).

Memphis Meats

No one making lab-grown meat, including Memphis Meats, has gotten around the fact that they need to use fetal bovine serum, which comes from unborn calves, to start the cell culture process. That means lab-grown meat, as of now, still requires the use of real animals. But Valeti told the Wall Street Journal that he'll be able to replace the serum with something plant-based in the near future.

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The cost to make lab-grown meat has dropped dramatically recent years. When Mark Post, a researcher at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, created a burger made from lab-grown meat in 2013, it cost $325,000. In 2015, Post said that he'd been able to bring the price down to just over $11 for a burger.

Still, scaling up will be the main hurdle for Memphis Meats. People aren't going to want to pay a premium for an unfamiliar product like lab-grown meat, so the company will have to get the cost down to the price of normal beef (if not lower). Post has said he thinks it will be up to 30 years before lab-grown meat is commercially viable, but Memphis Meats clearly doesn't plan to wait that long.

The meatball is just a proof of concept, but the startup hopes to have a product in stores within the next half decade or so.

Memphis Meats is now raising money on Indiegogo to develop its product and bring it to market. At the time of writing, the company has raised nearly $13,000 with a month left.

This is the path Memphis Meats sees to market:

Memphis Meats

As for that name  the family of Memphis Meats' third cofounder, Will Clem, owns a chain of 43 barbecue restaurants based in Memphis. He's using family recipes to make the meatballs.

Considering that Mark Post's burger didn't earn rave reviews in the flavor department, it will be a boon to Memphis Meats having a flavor expert on the team. We'll find out in a few years whether those family recipes have paid off.

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Charter Communications on Tuesday announced the launch of its Spectrum brand in Lincoln.

Charter, which completed its purchase of Time Warner Cable earlier this year, has been steadily switching markets to Spectrum. In August, company officials said the switchover in Lincoln likely wouldn't happen until early next year.

According to Charter, Spectrum is Americas fastest-growing TV, Internet and voice provider. Among its features are Internet speeds starting at 60 megabits, much faster than Time Warner's lowest speeds. There are no data caps or modem fees, and customers are not required to sign contracts.

Wes Shirley, a Charter spokesman, said that people with a Time Warner plan that has an internet speed of 50 megabits will have that speed bumped up to 60. Some residential customers with speeds below 50 megabits may see a slight increase in speed. Cable and phone plans will not change unless customers choose to switch to a Spectrum plan.

Over the coming days and weeks, customers will begin to see the Spectrum brand on everything formerly Time Warner Cable, including box displays, bill statements and retail store signage, Shirley said.

Charter also plans to make all acquired Time Warner markets all-digital, although it has not said when that will occur in Lincoln. The company said it plans to add 20,000 jobs nationwide. It has not said how many people will be hired in Lincoln.

To change to a Spectrum plan or for more information, go to www.spectrum.com or call 1-855-70-Spectrum.
Stephen Colbert did a mock interview with Donald Trump as his cold open Monday, splicing together Trump's 60 Minutes interview answers with Colbert's questions.

In the new compilation, Colbert asks Trump about Putin sending him a large wooden horse and Trump responds by saying how big and enormous the horse is.

"Have you thought about looking inside the horse to see if there's anything in it before you open the gates and bring it in to America?" asked Colbert. "No," responded Trump.

The "interview" revealed that Trump only wants to be POTUS for 15 years max and that he hired a "coffee can with googly eyes glued on it" as energy secretary.

Colbert continued to talk about the new president-elect in his monologue.

"I converted my panic room into a 'let's give him a chance room,' " joked Colbert of his weekend activities, saying the only difference is the sign on the door.

He used an anagram to rename new chief-of-staff Reince Priebus as "Penis Rice-a-Roni" and teased the RNC chairman for not effectively reining Trump in during the campaign. He echoed the concern many people are having about Steve Bannon becoming chief strategist, describing Bannon's former website Breitbart as "the news your racist uncle gets sent to him from his racist uncle."

Colbert explained that Breitbart is an alt-right website with ties to white supremacy saying, "think about what's right, then think of the alternative to that." Sample headlines include: "Why Equality and Diversity Departments Should Only Hire Rich, Straight White Men," "Would You Rather Your Child Have Feminism or Cancer" and a headline glorifying the confederate flag.

He also mocked Trump's soft-spoken "Don't be afraid" answer in his 60 Minutes interview: "That's kind of serial killer talk. I don't remember any new president ever having to say that out loud."

Watch to see E.T. make an appearance in Colbert's monologue.

Read more: John Oliver Calls for Vigilance Against President-Elect Trump, a "Klan-backed Misogynist Internet Troll"
Bindi Irwin posted a touching tribute to her late father on Steve Irwin Day.

Celebrating Dads life and legacy with Steve Irwin Day this November 15th @australiazoo. Encouraging everyone to wear a touch of khaki on this amazing day to remember all that Dad did for our world, inspiring us all to love wildlife and wild places. Thank you, Bindi posted on Instagram, accompanied by a photo of Bindi with her father wearing matching khaki outfits.

Celebrating Dad's life and legacy with Steve Irwin Day this November 15th @australiazoo ???? Encouraging everyone to wear a touch of khaki on this amazing day to remember all that Dad did for our world, inspiring us all to love wildlife and wild places. Thank you. A photo posted by Bindi Irwin (@bindisueirwin) on Nov 14, 2016 at 12:27pm PST

Steve Irwin Day is an annual international event on Nov. 15 which honors the life of Steve Irwin, who died on Sept. 4, 2006 after a stingray attack.

See Video: 'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin's Best Friend Details His Tragic Death, Final Words

In 2014, Justin Lyons, Irwins underwater photographer and best friend, opened up about watching the famed Crocodile Hunters death by a stingrays barb through the chest. Lyons was filming Irwin for a special called Oceans Deadliest, and after eight days of filming crocodiles and other animals, the pair focused in on a ray  normally a very calm animal  which started to stab its tail rapidly and wildly.

I panned with the camera as the stingray swam away and I didnt know it had caused any damage, Lyons told an Australian TV station. It was only when I panned the camera back that I saw Steve standing in a huge pool of blood that I realized something had gone wrong.

See Video: Bindi Irwin on 'Dancing With the Stars' Win: It 'Has Changed My Life'

Throughout the day, 18-year-old Bindi shared three more photos of her father with the caption, Khaki and the happiest memories.

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Derek Hough, who was Bindis partner in their Dancing with the Stars victory last year, also posted a tribute to Irwin in light of the annual event, writing, Since its November 15th in Australia I wanted to wish everyone a wonderful Steve Irwin day. I was always a fan of his passion and love for the world. His legacy lives on. It was such an honor and privilege to get to know and work with his beautiful daughter, the Instagram post reads.

Such a special soul. Choreographing and creating with her, helping to tell her story will always be a highlight in my career. This image was taken at the end of our final dance which was a tribute to her super hero. Her Dad. Steve Irwin.

Related stories from TheWrap:

What's Next for Bindi Irwin After 'Dancing With the Stars' Win?

Bindi Irwin Crowned Winner of 'Dancing With the Stars' Season 21

Bindi Irwin Loses It After Emotional 'Dancing With the Stars' Tribute to Late Father (Video)
Model kids with famous parents are having a real moment in 2017. Dolce & Gabbana tapped the millennial boys club of Raff Law, Gabriel Kane and Presley Gerber to star in its latest campaign. Lourdes Lola Leon and Kenya Kinski-Jones were Stella McCartneys muses for the fragrance POP. And least we forget the three top models of the moment who descended from a famous family  Gigi, Bella and Anwar Hadid. Now, theres one more Hollywood offspring set to join this very exclusive squad  Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaws daughter Destry Allyn Spielberg.

Destry recently signed with DT Model Management, an agency that also represents a few other celebrity children including Dylan Penn and Ireland Baldwin. And already, the 19 year old isnt missing a beat, landing her first-ever photo shoot with photographer Raul Romo and posting some Polaroid shots on Instagram. In the spread shes posing in vintage Coca-Cola T-shirts and denim mini skirts, black slip dresses and big sweaters sans pants (lampshading has clearly become a models right of passage).

RELATED PHOTOS: Look Familiar? Model Kids with Famous Parents

Naturally were curious about the star were bound to be seeing everywhere in the coming months, so we scoured her Instagram to find out all we can. And we quickly learned shes been poised for supermodel stardom for years.

Shes already attending high-fashion events. Just weeks after the news of her modeling contract came out she attended a dinner for Jonathan Saunders, the new Chief Creative Officer of Diane von Furstenberg and the opening of Ralph Laurens latest store.





Shes already in-tune with celeb trends. The multicolor crochet bathing suit was the number one celeb fave of the summer.



She knows the hottest accessory to wear as a model is a nameplate necklace.



She had a senior prom dress that was as glamorous as red carpet dresses.



She knew how to pose for the camera ever since she was a baby.



And still knows how to work her best angles.

What do you think of Destrys new modeling contract? Share below.




Recent studies have found that teenagers who use e-cigarettes are more likely to start smoking tobacco cigarettes. But it turns out its not just whether teens vape that predicts whether they'll start smoking later: Frequent vaping or using flavored e-cigs is also associated with an elevated risk of becoming a regular cigarette smoker, two new studies show.

To find out if the frequency of vaping was tied to the risk of becoming a smoker, Adam Leventhal, Ph.D., director of the Health, Emotion and Addiction Laboratory at the University of Southern California, and his colleagues surveyed about 3,300 California 10th graders. The teens answered questions about whether they used e-cigarettes, and if so, how often. Six months later, the researchers followed up.

We found that the more you vape, the more likely you were to be a cigarette smoker six months later, and the more likely you were to be smoking multiple cigarettes per day, says Leventhal, whose study was published in JAMA.

The difference was stark. At the time of the follow-up, less than 1 percent of those who had never used e-cigs and only about 5 percent of those who were infrequent users (vaping just one or two days during that month) had become frequent cigarette smokers, which the study defined as people who had smoked at least three times in the past 30 days. In contrast, nearly 20 percent of the teens who had been vaping three or more days a month wereat the time of the follow-upfrequent cigarette smokers (defined as having at least two cigarettes on the days they smoked).

While its too early to generalize from a study of 3,300 California 10th graders, the results suggest that the frequency of vaping may be a key risk factor in a teens decision to take up smoking later.

The Trouble with Flavored E-Cigs

Experts have long suspected that flavored e-cigs may be especially attractive to young people. They're available in more than 7,000 flavors, with plenty of kid-friendly options like Candy Crush, Cotton Candy, and Gummy Bear.

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And now a new study published in the journal Pediatrics finds that middle and high school students who use flavored e-cigs say that they are more likely to try smoking traditional cigarettes than their peers who don't vape, or who vape using unflavored e-cigs. (The researchers did not follow up to see whether the students had gone from considering trying cigarettes to actually doing it.)

The results are based on data from roughly 21,500 middle and high school students nationwide, who participated in the 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey.

Those who used flavored e-cigs were nearly six times as likely to say they would try smoking tobacco cigarettes than those who didnt use e-cigs at all, and twice as likely to try smoking as those who used non-flavored e-cigs.

The study, led by Hongying Dai, Ph.D., a health researcher at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, revealed another worrying finding: The students who used flavored e-cigs perceived both e-cigs and regular cigarettes as less harmful than those who didn't vape or who only used unflavored e-cigs.

Gregory Conley, president of e-cigarette advocacy group the American Vaping Association, says, Teens are going to experiment. And, yes, some students who try e-cigs will end up being smokers." Conley adds that using e-cigarettes is a safer option than using tobacco cigarettes.

But Consumer Reports chief medical adviser Marvin M. Lipman, M.D. says there is reason for concern. Smoking-associated diseases are a leading cause of death, and these studies suggest that flavored e-cigsand their popularity with young peoplecould undo years of work educating people about the harms of tobacco products."



Mountain Dew, Cotton Candy, Wild Berry, and More

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of U.S. adolescents using e-cigs has skyrocketed from an estimated 780,000 in 2013 to more than 3 million in 2015. Evidence that vaping may offer a fruit-flavored pathway to a traditional smoking habit makes that trend all the more troubling.

The enormous range of flavors lures kids into using these products, Dai says. Later, her study shows, they may be more inclined to move onto to traditional cigarettes.

When kids first try tobacco, they actually dont like the bitterness, Dai says. Flavored e-cigs remove that natural barrier between kids and a nicotine fixand because the kids are curious, they want to try all of these different flavors.

Unlike regular cigarettes, e-cigs also come in a range of nicotine levels. But even low-nicotine e-cigs can contain enough of the addictive chemical to get teens hooked.

Kids brains are uniquely sensitive to nicotine and they can become addicted more easily, says Douglas Kamerow, M.D., M.P.H., a former assistant surgeon general and a professor of family medicine at Georgetown University.

Once they are addicted to nicotine, Dai says, teens may eventually try other products like cigars, hookahs, and cigarettes.

The bottom line is that we dont want kids smoking or vaping, Lipman says: "That's one reason sweet-flavored cigarettes are already not allowed."

Tobacco cigarettes are banned from containing flavoringsother than mentholbecause they appeal to kids," Lipman explains. "Studies like this provide even more evidence that the Food and Drug Administration should ban them from e-cigarette liquid, too."





More from Consumer Reports:

Top pick tires for 2016

Best used cars for $25,000 and less

7 best mattresses for couples





Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this website. Copyright  2006-2016 Consumers Union of U.S.
Rihanna Is Teaming Up With Manolo Blahnik Again [WWD]

Rihanna and Manolo Blahnik are back at it again, teaming up to create two more boot styles. WWD reports that the new three-piece collection, called "Savage," is inspired by classic Timberland boots. The first style is a stiletto lace-up bootie lined with fur; the second a camel knee-high style, also trimmed with fur, and the third a lace-up knee-high number. The collection is available online and at select Manolo Blahnik stores on Wednesday. (Blahnik does love a Timberland boot; fashion fans may recall his early 2000s Okla Mod boots, which were embraced by pop stars such as JLo, who wore them in the 2002 video, "Jenny From the Block." They also resembled Timbas.)

Willow Smith's Newest Sock Collection Is Here [Pret-a-Reporter Inbox]

Multihyphenate teen Willow Smith has channeled her notorious otherworldliness in her latest collection for Stance Socks, the San Clemente, Calif.-based sock retailer best known for its partnership with Rihanna. Whereas Smith's first collection was filled with abstract, mismatched patterns, her new capsule ($14-18) is darker both literally and figuratively. The three styles ("You Thought You Knew," "Step Into the Unknown" and "Earth vs Cosmo") are available now on Stance.com.

A photo posted by =GWEELOS= (@willowsmith) on Nov 14, 2016 at 9:57am PST

Sarah Jessica Parker Partners With Net-a-Porter [Pret-a-Reporter Inbox]

Shoe designing actress Sarah Jessica Parker has collaborated with Net-a-Porter on a 16-piece capsule footwear collection that'll be certain to liven up your holiday party ensemble. The collection of jewel-toned satin style (starting at $335 - quite a bit pricier than her SJP by Sarah Jessica Parker line, which can be found on Amazon) will hit the metaphorical internet shelves on Thursday. And because no SJP fashion story would be complete without a Carrie Bradshaw reference, we're sure that Manhattan's most-famous socialite herself would kill for these fuchsia kicks.

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Courtesy of Net-a-Porter

Marni and Yoox Announce Capsule [Pret-a-Reporter Inbox]

Italian fashion brand Marni and luxury retailer Yoox are teaming up on a holiday collection. The exclusive 20-piece capsule, which includes dresses, separates and outerwear in the brand's usual bold color palette of burnt orange, navy and dusty rose, is available online this month ($120 to $480).

Courtesy of HL Group

Chatsworth Announces "House Style: Five Centuries of Fashion at Chatsworth" Exhibition [Pret-a-Reporter Inbox]

Hamish Bowles, U.S. Vogue's international editor-at-large, has curated British estate Chatsworth House's largest fashion exhibition to date: House of Style: Five Centuries of Fashion at Chatsworth. The show, which opens March 25 and will run until Oct. 22, showcases the wardrobe of stylish historical figures - from Bess of Hardwick (16th century) to Adele Astaire, sister and dancing partner of Fred Astaire. Pieces from English brands including Erdem and Alexander McQueen also will be on display. Gucci is sponsoring; the brand shot its Cruise ad campaign starring British actress Vanessa Redgrave at the historic 16th century house in Derbyshire.
Maggie (Floriana Lima) will convince Alex (Chyler Leigh) to come out to her family in tonights episode of Supergirl.

In the Inside Supergirl featurette for Season 2, episode 6, Maggie explains to Alex why it is important for the latter to open up about her true sexuality to her family. Tell your family, Maggie tells Alex. This is the biggest that that has ever happened to you, and you shouldnt have to do it alone.

As confirmed by executive producer Andrew Kreisberg to E! News last week, Alex is coming out as gay to Kara (Melissa Benoist) in tonights episode, titled Changing. She's going to come out to her sister in episode 6, he said. It will not be smooth because nothing ever is and it would be boring if it was smooth. But it will be honest, I can say that.

In a recent interview with TVLine, Kreisberg revealed that there is going to be a small tiff between the sisters when Alex finally comes out to Kara. Alex and Kara have a little misunderstanding, actually, the exec producer teased.

According to Kreisberg, Kara is going to feel sad when she learns about Alexs self-discovery, and the latter will mistake the formers reaction for not being completely supportive. Unbeknownst to Alex, however, Karas sadness is born of guilt, not prejudice. At the end of the episode, when everything is said and done, Alexs coming out is only going to make the two closer than ever.

In the episode 6 featurette, Dr. Rudy Jones (William Mapother) also figures out how hes slowly becoming the Parasite. The [unknown] organism seems to be absorbing my red blood cells, rewriting my DNA into something new, Dr. Jones says in the clip. Were not two distinct beings any longer. Weve become one.

In the comics, Rudy Jones is the second character to become the Parasite. In the source material, Rudy was a janitor at the Pittsburgh branch of S.T.A.R. Labs who transformed into the Parasite after he was exposed to a strange form of radiation. Since then, his body has been in a constant state of hunger for energy, leaving him with no choice but to absorb other peoples life energy.

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Supergirl Season 2, episode 6 airs tonight at 8 p.m. EST on The CW.

Chyler Leigh as Alex and Melissa Benoist as Kara

Photo: The CW

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Melissa Benoist and Mehcad Brooks have nothing but praise for Kevin Smith, who recently finished directing the upcoming Season 2, episode 9 of Supergirl.

In an interview with Collider, Benoist said that Smith was so supportive and encouraging as a director. We work crazy long hours, and the energy that he brings is only positive, said the 28-year-old actress, who plays the titular role on the CW series.

You guys saw how many rounds of applause there were [when Smith was directing], Benoist told Collider and other news outlets who were invited to the shows Vancouver set earlier this month. Thats like a daily occurrence, all day, and I dont know how you keep that up. Hes wonderful.

Brooks said the same thing about Smiths directing style. He  brings this amazing energy to the set, the 36-year-old actor said of the filmmaker, who rose to prominence for his 1994 comedy film Clerks. Hes always applauding, laughing, clapping, yelling out things that are funny. He sort of makes the day go quicker.

Brooks, who plays James Olsen on the series, also explained why Smith is considered as everybodys favorite. Kevin is an actors director. Hes a crew director. Hes a lighting director. Hes a camera director. Hes everything, Brooks told Collider. And he makes you understand that it doesnt have to take eleventy billion hours to get the right thing, you know? And to make it look really good.

The episode Smith directed is titled Supergirl Lives, which is a nod to the canceled Superman Lives movie that he wrote back in 1996.

The synopsis for the episode is yet to be released, but Smith teased on Instagram four weeks ago that the installment is filled with deep-cuts characters from some of his favorite stories in the comics. Its pure comic book and science fiction fantasy, he wrote of the episodes script.

In a more recent Instagram post, Smith commended the whole cast and crew of Supergirl for making a fantastic episode. I know this not only because I was there watching when they did it, but also because Ive already peeped some of the scenes our editor Barbara [Gerard] cut together, he wrote on the social networking site, alongside a photo of the t-shirt he gave to all the cast and crew of the show. This thank you t-shirt is the least I can do for the folks who made me look like I might be good at my job.

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According to Collider, Supergirl Season 2, episode 6 wont air on The CW until January.

Melissa Benoist as Supergirl

Photo: The CW

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Former U.S. Sen. Jim Webb (Photo: Yuri Gripas/Reuters)

Former Democratic Sen. Jim Webbs name was floated as a possible choice for secretary of defense or state at a Tuesday foreign policy event in Washington, D.C.

Webb has not been mentioned by the Trump transition team as a possible choice, so it was not clear Tuesday if the move was an effort by allies to push his name into consideration.

Regardless, Webb would be a fascinating alternative for President-elect Trump for multiple reasons. First, he is highly qualified for a top post overseeing the Pentagon or the nations foreign policy. Hes a former Marine who was wounded in combat in the Vietnam War and awarded the Navy Cross and two Purple Hearts, and then went on to serve as assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs and secretary of the Navy under Ronald Reagan.

Some of Webbs foreign policy views also match Trumps. Trump was criticized for falsely saying he opposed the Iraq War from the beginning, but he did stake his candidacy on opposition to the war and excessive intervention. Webb is decidedly anti-interventionist as well. He opposed Bushs decision to invade Iraq well before the invasion took place in 2003. And he is currently a vociferous critic of the Obama administrations interventions in Libya and of its policy in Syria.

Webb won a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2006 based in large part on his opposition to the Iraq War. He decided in 2012 not to seek reelection, and mounted a brief and unsuccessful run for president in the Democratic primary this cycle. He withdrew in 2015, before the first contest.

Its common practice for modern presidents to have at least one high-profile member of the rival party in their administrations. In addition to keeping his predecessors defense secretary, President Obama appointed former Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., to secretary of defense and former Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., transportation secretary. And George W. Bush named Norman Mineta, a secretary of commerce under Bill Clinton, to be his transportation secretary.

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The two leading names being mentioned so far as a possible Trump secretary of state John Bolton and Rudy Giuliani  come from a far more hawkish, pro-interventionist wing of the GOP.

Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and top State Department official under Bush, is a foreign policy hawk who has supported regime change not only in Libya but also in Iran and Syria. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who has long been one of the GOPs most outspoken non-interventionist voices, said Tuesday he would oppose both Bolton and Giuliani. Paul told Yahoo News he would prefer to see Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker  whose name has also been mentioned  chosen as secretary of state, but that he would give serious consideration to Webb.

Another linkage between Webb and Trump is that Webbs opposition to foreign entanglements is based in part on his identification with the white working class, a key part of Trumps winning coalition.

Webbs is the voice of an intellectual, and deeply felt and earned populism, said Bill Kauffman, a writer for the American Conservative, the magazine that hosted the Tuesday event, in his introduction of Webb.

President-elect Donald Trump (Photo: CBS via Getty Images)

Kauffman lauded Webbs many career turns, including that of a novelist, calling him the best politician-novelist since Brand Whitlock, the early 20th-century realist and mayor of Toledo.

James Webb has explored, with gimlet eye and felicitous pen, the culture gap separating those who live and work and struggle and love in the forgotten America, people who are anything but deplorable, from the privileged few who run the elite institutions in this country and who send the young men and now young women of the forgotten America off to die in inscrutable and undeclared wars, Kauffman said.

Kauffman continued, saying of Webb: He spoke what now seems prophecy, when in Born Fighting, his history of the Scottish and Irish in America, Webb praised the Jacksonian populace of Appalachia, the Rust Belt, the South, and the broad Midwest as the greatest obstacles to what might be called the collectivist taming of America, symbolized by the edicts of political correctness. And for the last 50 years the left has been trying to do everything in its power to sue them, legislate against their interests, mock them in the media, isolate them as idiosyncratic, and publicly humiliate their traditions in order to make them, at best, irrelevant to Americas future growth.

Kaufmann paused, and with evident pleasure at the shocking results of last weeks presidential election, said, Theyre not so irrelevant now, are they?

Kauffman then floated Webb and retired Army Col. Andrew Bacevich, another outspoken opponent of the Iraq War.

If anybody happens to be looking for a secretary of state or a secretary of defense, the two best candidates are in this room today: Andrew Bacevich and James Webb, Kauffman said.

Webb himself said in his speech that the Democratic Party, unfortunately  moved away from working white people.

It made white working people their most convenient whipping posts, particularly white males, Webb said.

Webb also said that under Trump, the U.S. is now facing four years  where we are going to be divided, but in terms of our foreign policy, this is an opportunity to reshape our national strategy in a way that otherwise has not been possible. He said that since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the U.S. has not had a clear statement of national security interests, so its foreign policy has been in a state of drift.

He also provided a substantive critique of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which Trump has voiced reservations about.

NATO expansion has created new environment in terms of how it works, Webb said. Many new members are clearly protectorates rather than allies.

After Webbs speech, a number of questioners asked him about the current speculation over Trumps top appointments. One member of the audience said, without citing evidence, that there was an incredible rumor going around that Webb was actively being considered, and asked if Webb would serve if asked.

Webb did not acknowledge that part of the question. He focused on a mention by the questioner of his work in the U.S. Senate and spoke about legislation he helped pass.

However, Webb did have an opinion when asked about Bolton and Giuliani. He avoided commenting on their particular qualifications but cautioned against concluding that they were the only names under consideration.

Its premature to make a judgment on whos even going to be in this administration, Webb said.
LONDON (Reuters) - Prosecutors questioned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for a second day at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has been holed up for four years, in an investigation into allegations that he committed rape in Sweden in 2010. Assange, who enraged Washington by publishing a flood of secret U.S. diplomatic cables, fled to the embassy for fear that Sweden could end up sending him on to the United States where he could face a long prison term for leaking U.S. secrets. Swedish Chief Prosecutor Ingrid Isgren spent several hours at the embassy on Tuesday where she posed questions through an Ecuadorian prosecutor, before leaving without making comment. "The interview with Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London has ended," the Swedish Prosecution Authority said in a statement. "As the investigation is ongoing, it is subject to confidentiality." Assange, who has repeatedly denied the rape allegation, sought refuge in Ecuador's embassy in August 2012. He is wanted in Britain for breaching bail. In 2010, WikiLeaks published thousands of classified U.S. military and diplomatic documents in what became one of the largest information leaks in U.S. history. Assange made international headlines in early 2010 when WikiLeaks released classified U.S. military video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters that killed a dozen people in Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff. The results of the interview will later be reported from Ecuador to the Swedish prosecutors in a written statement. (Reporting by Neil Hall in London and Johan Ahlander in Stockholm; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
From Good Housekeeping

Deployment can be hard on the whole family, especially the children who miss out on having a parent around for an extended period of time. Air Force Maj. Steve Dillenburger didn't want his three-year-old son Sean to forget how much he loved him. So Dillenburger found a way to give Sean a kiss goodnight every night while he was deployed - by leaving him a jar of 190 Hershey's Kisses, one for each night, an idea he'd gotten from a colleague in the military.

"It was just something sweet at the end of the night and a reminder that (Steve) was thinking about him and loves him,'' Mary Ellen Dillenburger, Sean's mom, told TODAY.

Photo credit: Mary Ellen Dillenburger

Every night, Sean would eat a Hershey's kiss, brush his teeth and then go to bed with his dad on his mind. The jar of kisses even traveled with Sean on vacation to four states during his dad's deployment, from April 17 to Oct. 25, that way Sean never missed a kiss.

The jar of kisses also served as a countdown for Sean, for the day when he would get that real kiss goodnight, which he finally did on October 25, when his dad returned home to Annandale, Virginia after serving in Kuwait. "It was really sweet," Mary Ellen said. "I was excited to see my son run out there, so I kind of hung back a little bit and watched how excited and how happy he was to have daddy home finally."

We are so happy to see father and son reunited in this adorable video along with wife Mary Ellen and their one-year-old daughter Ann Marie, who was too young to eat her own Hershey's Kisses.

(h//t TODAY)

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By Nir Elias EIN GEDI, Israel, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Athletes and eco-activists swam across the Dead Sea on Tuesday, the first people to thrash their way over a body of water so salty that it poisons anyone who drinks it. The swimmers crossed from Jordan to Israel to raise awareness of what they said was an environmental disaster that has shrunk the inland lake's surface by a third in 30 years. The wore snorkels and face masks to stop the water - around 10 times saltier than the regular sea - from touching their eyes or entering their lungs during the seven-hour crawl. A medical team accompanied the 28 swimmers, because ingestion of Dead Sea water can be fatal if not treated immediately, organisers said. "This was unlike anything I've ever done," said Kim Chambers, 39, a renowned open-water swimmer from New Zealand. The few drops of water that touched her eyes felt like acid she said. The crossing through water so salty and buoyant that it won't let you sink was challenging. "The swim took incredible teamwork. We had unprecedented diplomatic support from Israel and Jordan to make it happen. That's what's needed to bring attention to an issue that needs attention right now," she said. The sea which is mentioned in the Bible sits at the lowest point on Earth. Environmental group EcoPeace Middle East, one of the organisers of the 15-km (9-mile) swim, said it had receded by about 25 metres (80 ft) over the past three decades alone. The group blames Israeli and Jordanian mining, creating evaporation ponds from which minerals are extracted, and the diversion by Israel, Jordan and Syria of Jordan River water that feeds into the lake. EcoPeace Middle East, whose members include Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinians, said the event was aimed at highlighting the Dead Sea's plight and to urge government action to save the natural wonder, a popular tourist attraction. "We see the life-threatening challenge of the swim as parallel to the challenges facing the Dead Sea," Gidon Bromberg, Israeli director of EcoPeace Middle East, said in a statement. The Dead Sea, about 425 metres (1,400 feet) below sea level, is bordered by Israel, Jordan and the occupied West Bank. Many visitors came for the therapeutic properties associated with its mineral-rich waters, and resort hotels have been built along the Israeli and Jordanian shores. (Additional reporting by Luke Baker; Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
A group of swimmers braved the sting of extremely salty waters to cross the Dead Sea from Jordan to Israel on Tuesday, a seven-hour challenge that organisers described as a first.

The swim organised by the EcoPeace charity was aimed at raising awareness for the iconic water body which has been receding by roughly a metre each year.

The 26 extreme swimmers from across the world, equipped with special masks due to the water's high salinity, took seven hours to make the crossing, organisers said.

The distance is only 17 kilometres (10.6 miles) and the mineral-rich lake was calm, but the high amount of salt in the water makes it nearly impossible to swim normally.

It has 10 times more salinity than the Mediterranean Sea, meaning bodies float to the top, and keeping under the water is difficult.

"It was tougher than we expected," said Samuel Moran, a 40-year-old Spaniard.

"The worst was the sun and the feeling of the salt on your skin that is very irritating. You feel like you are burning all the time," he said, adding he felt like quitting "many times".

The swimmers, the oldest of whom was 68, wore specially designed face masks as even a tiny amount of water in the mouth or eyes can cause agony.

Kim Chambers from New Zealand said she had swam extreme routes across the globe but this presented a unique test.

"Even just a few drops (of water) feels like acid burning in your eyes -- if you ingest it, either through your mouth or through your nose, it is potentially fatal."

The Dead Sea's coastline is shared by Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories and is the lowest point on earth, 400 metres below sea level.

But experts have warned it is on course to dry out by 2050.

Gidon Bromberg, EcoPeace Middle East co-director, said the event was "a global call to save this amazing sea".

"This is the lowest place on earth, these are the deepest saline waters on the globe, a unique composition, and sadly for the last 50 years they have been dramatically on the decline," he said.

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The swimmers came from across the globe, including New Zealand, South Africa and Israel. There were no Jordanians among them.

The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation it was the first ever swim across the sea.

- 'Potentially fatal' -

The Dead Sea's degradation started in the 1960s when Israel, Jordan and Syria began to divert water from the Jordan River, its main source, largely for irrigation.

The water level has dropped around 40 metres since its peak, said Yechieli Yoseph, a hydrogeologist with the Geological Survey of Israel.

Companies also take out water to use the minerals inside it for medical purposes, Yoseph added.

More than 4,000 sinkholes have also formed along the Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian coasts since the 1980s, according to Israeli research, with more than 400 per year in recent years.

"The Dead Sea is going down mostly because we have changed its water balance -- we meaning Israel, Jordan and Syria," said Yoseph.

"Of the water that used to come to the Dead Sea 90 percent of it or more is now being taken."

Standing on the shore after completing the swim, a clearly emotional Chambers said the swimmers had used the "power of swimming to show the world" the Dead Sea was in danger.

But Yoseph said the political climate between the countries involved made meaningful solutions difficult.

Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994 but relations between the two sides remain frosty, while Syria has descended into civil war.

Yoseph said Israel could potentially afford to stop taking water as it has advanced desalination methods but it was "not a possible decision" for water-sparse Jordan.

"There is no real solution. You can talk about restraining maybe but that is also very difficult."
Aleppo (Syria) (AFP) - Syria's regime and its ally Russia Tuesday launched a wide-ranging assault on rebels with renewed strikes on the besieged eastern neighbourhoods of Aleppo, sparking fury in Washington.

The United States strongly condemned Russia's renewed bombing campaign, warning that strikes on civilian targets break international law.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke of a "major operation" which saw the first missions carried out by warplanes taking off from the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier that arrived off Syria last week.

In Aleppo, Syrian government aircraft pounded the eastern neighbourhoods with air strikes and barrel bomb attacks, a monitor and AFP correspondent said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least five civilians were killed in the bombardment, the first of its kind since October 18.

An AFP correspondent in east Aleppo said strikes hit the Sakhur, Fardos and Masakan Hanano neighbourhoods while ambulances sped through the streets to evacuate the wounded.

Warplanes dropped flares to counter heat-seeking missiles, he said.

State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said Washington had received reports that the latest Russian and Syrian regime strikes had hit hospitals and clinics.

"We strongly condemn the resumption of air strikes in Syria by the Russians as well as the Syrian regime," she told reporters.

"The most recent reported attacks are on five hospitals and one mobile clinic in Syria. We believe it's a violation of international law."

UN member-states also overwhelmingly condemned escalating attacks against civilians in Aleppo and called for a ceasefire to pave the way to a settlement for Syria's five-year war.

The assault ended a period of relative respite for more than 250,000 people living in besieged eastern Aleppo.

On October 18, Moscow said it was halting its air strikes ahead of a short-lived truce and Syrian raids also subsided, with bombardment mostly confined to areas where clashes were taking place on the edges of the battered city.

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- Warning text messages -

The respite came after international criticism of a ferocious assault launched by Syrian and Russian forces on September 22 in a bid to recapture eastern Aleppo.

Civilians were among hundreds of people killed in the bombing campaign, which also destroyed infrastructure.

Moscow has organised several brief truces to encourage residents and surrendering rebels to leave east Aleppo, but few have gone.

No aid has entered eastern Aleppo since it was first surrounded by government troops in mid-July, and the UN said Thursday it was distributing its last remaining food rations in the rebel districts.

The UN's food agency, FAO, said a farming crisis across Syria had reduced food production to a record low and raised fears that people would be forced to flee famine.

On Sunday, east Aleppo residents received text messages from the army warning rebels to leave within 24 hours.

"After the end of this period, the planned strategic offensive will begin," the message said.

Once Syria's economic powerhouse, Aleppo has been ravaged by the war that has killed more than 300,000 people across the country since it started in March 2011 with anti-government protests.

Yasser Yusef, of the Nureddine al-Zinki rebel group, said the bombardment would lead to "massacres and crimes against humanity in northern Syria and particularly in Aleppo city and Idlib."

"Russia and the regime are trying to foil the efforts of the United Nations and the international community to reduce violence and protect civilians and deliver aid to civilians in all the besieged areas."

- Aircraft carrier -

As the strikes hit Aleppo, Moscow announced its Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier was now being used in its campaign to bolster President Bashar al-Assad.

"For the first time in our naval history, the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov started taking part in combat," Shoigu said.

"Today from this carrier, our Sukhoi-33 (bombers) began their operations."

Russia has been carrying out a bombing campaign in Syria for the past year and deployed a naval contingent to back up its operation.

The Admiral Kuznetsov, Russia's sole aircraft carrier, arrived in the eastern Mediterranean off the Syrian coast as part of a flotilla of ships sent to reinforce Russia's military in the area.

Shoigu said the operation aimed to inflict heavy damage on "the Islamic State group and the Al-Nusra Front's positions in Idlib and Homs provinces."

Al-Nusra Front is the old name of Al-Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate, now known as Fateh al-Sham Front.

An AFP correspondent in Idlib said strikes hit several parts of the rebel stronghold province, including Maaret al-Numan, Saraqib and Ariha.

Idlib is largely controlled by a powerful rebel alliance that includes Fateh al-Sham.

The assault is the first major military development since the presidential election of Donald Trump, who has suggested working more closely with Russia in Syria.
By Cameron French (Reuters) - Toronto-Dominion Bank agreed on Monday to buy about half of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce's Aeroplan Visa credit card portfolio in a deal that will see both banks issue the popular and lucrative rewards card. The agreement, which drove shares of Aeroplan loyalty program operator Aimia to a five-year high, averts a potential legal battle between the two banks and also eliminates uncertainty over the future of the card that could have seen customers flee to other banks. "It's safe to say that TD is the winner from this (of the two banks)," said Gavin Graham, chief strategy officer at Integris Pension Management Corp. TD, Canada's second-largest bank, will pay C$162.5 million ($157.59 million) to CIBC to acquire about 550,000 cardholder accounts, representing about C$3 billion in card balances and C$20 billion in annual retail spending, TD said. It will also become the card's primary issuer. CIBC, the country's No. 5 lender, will receive an additional payment from Aimia and will keep the remaining 630,000 Aeroplan accounts held by existing banking customers. It will also continue to issue the card under the 10-year deal. RESOLVES AEROPLAN BATTLE The deal resolves a months-long battle for control of the lucrative Aeroplan card, which allows customers to earn points that can be cashed in for flights on Air Canada and its partner airlines, as well as other goods. CIBC has been the card's main issuer for more than two decades, but lost that role earlier this year, after Aimia could not come to terms on an extension with CIBC and instead entered into a partnership with TD. CIBC had a right to match the terms of TD's deal, but said the deal was structured in a way that attempted to nullify that right. Last month, the banks said they were in talks for a compromise deal, although CIBC noted that if an agreement were not reached it retained its rights to exercise legal options. TD Chief Executive Ed Clark told Reuters that doing a deal allowed TD to acquire card customers upfront, rather than having to entice them to come to the bank and risk losing them to competitors. "There's kind of "jump ball" in the marketplace to see who's going to win those customers," said Clark. "(So) you've got to spend a lot of marketing dollars and try to win every one of those customers over, whereas here, they're automatically your customers." TD, which plans to launch five new Aeroplan cards in Canada and the United States, said the deal would contribute 10 Canadian cents per share to earnings next year on an adjusted basis and would contribute about 15 Canadian cents a share in 2015. TD has been bulking up its credit card business for the last several years and with this deal will unquestionably be the market leader in Canada. The business offers higher margins and return on equity than traditional lending, and TD's increased exposure comes as Canadian consumer loan growth slows amid a cooling housing market. Barclays Capital analyst John Aiken said the fact that TD would be acquiring customers rather than having to win them over was positive, but said the negative in the deal was that TD would not be the sole Aeroplan Visa issuer in Canada. "We do not believe that this was the original vision when TD initially pursued the contract with Aimia," he said in a note. CIBC RETAINS HALF For CIBC, analysts said the deal was a better outcome than the potential of losing the entire Aeroplan portfolio, which had seemed a possibility after TD reached its deal with Aimia. However, the bank said the agreement will trim its earnings by about 45 Canadian cents a share on an annual basis, the bank said. Last month, CIBC disclosed that the Aeroplan card portfolio generated 95 Canadian cents per share in profit over the 12 months ended July 31, or about 12 percent of the bank's overall profit during that period. Speaking on a conference call, CIBC CEO Gerry McCaughey deflected questions from analysts about why CIBC was unable to reach a deal with Aimia to extend its partnership before TD entered the picture. "The discussions that went on over the last very long period of time, as to our renewal on a unilateral basis with Aimia, are moot at this point," he said. In addition to maintaining half of the Aeroplan portfolio, CIBC plans to launch a new flight rewards card. Shares of TD were up 1.4 percent at C$91.14, while CIBC was up 1 percent at C$81.92. Aimia was up 6 percent at C$17.63, and earlier in the session touched its highest level since April 2008. (With additional reporting by Euan Rocha in Toronto and Krithika Krishnamurthy in Bangalore; editing by Andrew Hay)
By James Davey

LONDON (Reuters) - Tesco's sales are rising at the fastest pace for three years, industry data showed on Tuesday, signalling the recovery at Britain's biggest supermarket group is gathering pace.

Shares in the company climbed as much as 4 percent after market researcher Kantar Worldpanel said Tesco's sales grew by 2.2 percent year-on-year in the 12 weeks to Nov. 6, boosting its share of Britain's grocery market to 28.2 percent from 27.9 percent this time last year.

The stock has risen 43 percent so far this year, with the firm reporting three straight quarters of underlying sales growth in its main British market. Last month's Kantar report also showed Tesco growing its UK market share for the first time in five years.

In October, Tesco set tougher profitability targets too.

"Tesco's continued sales acceleration and it winning market share is the key feature this month, despite it having a declining share of retail space," said HSBC analyst David McCarthy, who on Monday upgraded his stance on Tesco to "buy".

Kantar highlighted that most of Tesco's gains came from its own-label products, both its cheaper "Farm Brands", launched in March to encourage shoppers to return from discounters Aldi and Lidl, and its more upmarket "Finest" range. It also noted more affluent shoppers returning to Tesco.

While Tesco's momentum continues to build, Aldi and Lidl saw their sales growth fall to the slowest rate since 2011, up 10.2 percent and up 6.1 percent respectively, Kantar said.

But Kantar noted the discounters are still attracting new shoppers, helped by continuing store openings.

Britain's other major supermarkets - Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons - saw sales declines of 0.7 percent, 5.0 percent and 2.4 percent respectively, though Morrisons' fall reflected the closure of some stores.

Overall, UK grocery sales increased 0.8 percent in the 12-week period.

DEFLATION CONTRACTS

Kantar also said deflation in Britain's supermarket sector weakened to 0.5 percent in the 12 weeks to Nov. 6 and predicted that after more than two years of deflation prices could start to rise in the coming months.

Story continues

"Were likely to see prices starting to creep up again in December, unless retailers choose Christmas to unleash a new round of price cuts," said Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel.

"Although it's tempting to link any potential price increases to Brexit and the devaluation of sterling, it's worth remembering that deflation has been easing since December last year, well before the (June) referendum."

Official data published on Tuesday showed UK consumer prices rose 0.9 percent in October compared with a year ago.

Market share and sales (percent)

12 wks to 12 wks to pct change

Nov. 6 2016 Nov 8 2015 in sales

Tesco 28.2 27.9 2.2

Sainsbury's 16.3 16.6 -0.7

Asda 15.5 16.4 -5.0

Morrisons 10.5 10.8 -2.4

Co-operative 6.4 6.3 2.2

Aldi 6.1 5.6 10.2

Waitrose 5.3 5.2 3.0

Lidl 4.6 4.4 6.1

Iceland 2.1 1.9 8.3

(Editing by Kate Holton and Mark Potter)
* Cuts 2006 adj EPS outlook to $5.10-$5.20 from $5.20-$5.40

* Cuts 2016 revenue outlook to $21.6-$21.9 bln from $22-$22.5 bln

* Company to step away from significant M&A for now

* Stock down 5 pct in New York (Releads with outlook, adds CEO, analyst comments, share reaction)

By Tova Cohen

TEL AVIV, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Teva Pharmaceutical Industries on Tuesday lowered its full-year earnings forecast, citing launch delays for some drugs that have been pushed back by a year or so.

Israel-based Teva reported stronger than expected third-quarter profit as sales were boosted by its $40.5 billion purchase of Allergan's generic drug business in August.

The world's biggest generic drugmaker forecast earnings per share (EPS) excluding one time items of $5.10-$5.20 in 2016 and revenue of $21.6-$21.9 billion. In August, it had estimated adjusted EPS of $5.20-$5.40 and revenue of $22-$22.5 billion.

"What has brought numbers lower are revenues from new launches," Siggi Olafsson, CEO of Teva's global generic medicines, told an analysts' conference call, noting the company had expected 3-4 more launches.

"They will come later in 2017 or 2018, they are not lost at all. This moves the growth curve."

Teva shares were down 5 percent at $39 in early trade in New York.

Teva Chief Executive Erez Vigodman said the company had spent a significant amount in the past year to acquire assets.

"Now it is time for Teva to step away for the foreseeable future from executing material ... deals and focus all of its energy on organic growth and extracting all of the deal-related synergies," Vigodman said.

He said the company was re-evaluating priorities in 2017.

"If there are projects that won't generate value I will terminate those projects," he said.

Wells Fargo analyst David Maris said: "We like this as we think companies benefit from pausing for a period after major deals to help consolidate the businesses." Maris rates Teva "outperform".

Teva earned $1.31 per share, excluding one-time items, in the third quarter, down from $1.35 a year earlier due to share offerings in December to finance the Allergan deal and shares issued to Allergan in August. Adjusted net income rose to $1.4 billion from $1.2 billion.

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Revenue rose 15 percent to $5.6 billion, primarily due to the inclusion of $887 million from Allergan. Excluding foreign exchange fluctuations, revenue increased 19 percent.

Teva was forecast to earn $1.28 excluding one-off items on revenue of $5.7 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Mizuho analyst Irina Koffler attributed the revenue miss to its speciality drugs business, which had revenue of $2.05 billion versus $2.06 billion forecast by analysts.

Global sales of its best-selling multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone slipped 2 percent to $1.1 billion. The drug is now facing competition after Sandoz, part of Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG, and Momenta Pharmaceuticals last year launched a once daily 20 mg version called Glatopa.

Teva said it would disclose its 2017 operating plan and forecast with fourth-quarter results in February.

Teva also made a $520 million provision to settle previously disclosed investigations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by the U.S. Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission. The provision relates to conduct in Russia, Mexico and the Ukraine during 2007-2013.

(Additional reporting by Steven Scheer. Editing by Jane Merriman)
The Kabuliwalas from Tagores story still live in Kolkata. A hundred years after Tagores Kabuliwala walked these streets with his bag of cashews and raisins, the community of Pathans have made a life for themselves in the citys bylanes. Named after the city of their origin, Kabul, the Kabuliwalas have integrated seamlessly with the city that they now call their adopted homeland. They get along famously with the Bengalis, the Marwadis, the Catholics and more that make up the melting pot that is Kolkatas culture.

More From 101 India: Monica Liu: The Don Of Chinatown | 101 Traces



Today, over a hundred Khan families live in what are called 'Khan kothis. The Pashtun people traditionally run family businesses selling almonds, pistachios, walnuts, fabrics, etc., a heritage passed down for generations. Many of the members of the earlier generation, however, did not care to pursue an education. This is changing, with the latest generation going to good schools in the city.

Do these people ever feel like returning to Pashtunistan? Not really, says Yasmin Nigar Khan, President of the All India Pakhtoon Jirga-e-Hind, and adopted great-granddaughter of Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan. The Pathans who came to Kolkata found happiness here. India is their home now, and they love their adopted homeland.

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101 Traces looks at the last of anything: ethnic communities, folk craftsmen, disappearing trades, forgotten people. It sketches portraits of these unique individuals, locked in a battle they cannot win: a battle against the future. Together, they represent the dying whispers of ancient heritage and traditional individuality. As India moves towards homogenized global pop culture, 101 Traces honors the people, the objects, and the skills that connect us to our ancient identity.
LONDON (Reuters) - Thousands of prison officers walked out on Tuesday in protest at rising levels of violence in jails, prompting the government to seek a court injunction to force them back to work. Prison officers in England and Wales are banned by law from taking strike action but up to 10,000 stopped work over concerns about the health and safety of staff and inmates. They began their 24-hour action at midnight and were only providing emergency cover during the walkout. Earlier this month, the government unveiled plans to reform prisons and improve safety, something Justice Secretary Liz Truss told parliament on Tuesday was her "number one priority". She condemned the "illegal" walkout, saying the action was putting more people at risk. The government later won an injunction at London's High Court over the action. "We have been clear that we expect prison officers to return to work with immediate effect," a Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said. Prisons Minister Sam Gyimah told Sky News they had made an "outstanding offer" to the Prison Officers' Association (POA) over pay, safety and staff retention and urged the union to return to negotiations. There have been several incidents in jails this year including an alleged murder while earlier this month prisoners took over parts of Bedford prison in central England before police and extra prison officers were drafted in to restore control. Last week, two prisoners escaped from a London jail after leaving mannequins in their beds to fool guards and using diamond-tipped cutting equipment to break out. They were later recaptured. "The POA has consistently raised the volatile and dangerous state of prisons, as chronic staff shortages and impoverished regimes have resulted in staff no longer being safe, a lack of discipline and prisoners taking control of areas," the POA said in a statement. Its action meant suspects in custody could not be brought to courts for ongoing cases, including Thomas Mair who went on trial on Monday for the alleged murder of opposition Labour Member of Parliament Jo Cox a week before June's European Union referendum. (Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Stephen Addison)
michael fulmer

Detroit Tigers pitcher Michael Fulmer was named AL Rookie of the Year on Monday after going 11-7 and posting a 3.06 ERA, 1.119 WHIP, and nearly eight strikeouts per-nine innings.

However, Fulmer isn't going to bask in the glory of the award for too long  he has work to do.

According to Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press, that work doesn't just include strengthening his skills on the mound, but also returning to his job as a plumber in the offseason.

Fulmer took up plumbing in 2015 when he began helping a good friend's uncle at his plumbing business Cyrus Wright Plumbing in Yukon, Oklahoma. When Larry Wright, Fulmer's boss, called Fulmer for help on a job, Fulmer accepted. He's continued the work since, telling Fenech, "Im still doing it, so its fun."

According to Fenech, Fulmer helps with some of the more physical work, like digging deep ditches and working jackhammers. Wright said it took Fulmer a little while to learn the tools and terminology, but has others learned the ins and outs of the job quickly.

Fulmer, whose rookie contract paid him $507,000 in 2016, says the physical work helps him prepare for offseason workouts.

"Its a different kind of workout. Digging out of 6-foot ditches all the time and shoveling quite a bit. So, its a different type of workout, and it helps before I start working out in the off-season."

Although Wright pays Fulmer for his help, he believes Fulmer works because it's in his nature. "It does surprise me, because I think its just the kind of guy he is as far as being humble, because he doesnt make near as much money working for me than what he does pitching. So, I think it just kind of keeps him grounded."

With the way his MLB career has begun, Fulmer doesn't need to continue plumbing in the offseason, but from the sounds of it, he doesn't plan to stop.

NOW WATCH: What Tom Brady eats to play pro football at 39 years old





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Center for Public Integrity veteran John Dunbar has taken over as the organizations new chief executive officer. Dunbar, 52, has worked at the Center for more than 12 years covering three separate stints. He first worked for the Center from 1999-2006, and during that time created the Well Connected project, an investigation of the political ties of the media and broadband industries. He came back briefly in 2009 to author the organizations landmark Whos Behind the Financial Meltdown? investigation. Since returning to the Center in 2011, Dunbar has coordinated the organizations ongoing probes into the role of money in state and federal politics and served as deputy executive editor. He was also the recipient of a George Polk Award for the Centers investigation into the subprime lending industry.

In addition to his Center service, Dunbar has covered media, technology and financial issues for the Associated Press; served as a project manager at the American University Investigative Reporting Workshop and worked as chief investigative reporter for the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville.

Ive known and worked with John Dunbar for nearly 20 years. He is a rock-solid, no-nonsense investigative reporter and editor, one of the very best Ive ever had the privilege to work with, said Center founder and long-time executive director Charles Lewis. I am delighted that he will be at the helm of the Center for Public Integrity, leading its immensely talented, award-winning staff forward.

In between the virtually non-stop meetings required as part of his new post, Dunbar sat down to answer a few questions:

As the new CEO of the Center for Public Integrity, where do you plan to focus the Centers reporting in the next year?

Now more than ever people need a credible news source. The award-winning investigative reporting weve done historically is very much in demand today. Were going to continue to hold government accountable. Studying the influence of money on government is still our bread and butter. Were going to extend that into all areas of our coverage.

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This story is part of Inside Publici. Stories were working on, the impact of our investigations, news about our fundraising efforts, and other issues that shape our work. Click here to read more stories in this topic.

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What does the outcome of the election mean for journalists?

The journalism community is confused. We read the election wrong by and large. I think theres going to be an intense curiosity in this group of apparently disaffected voters that until now we didnt even know existed. Meanwhile, we have a candidate who, to put it mildly, has some dramatically different ideas about the proper role of government. And were going to keep a close eye on the reality versus the rhetoric. Republicans have all three branches locked up. There could be a smorgasbord of new influences and policy changes, but thats yet to be seen because the party itself seems to be so fractured. The question will be whether theyll be able to govern  not just in terms of working with the Democrats  but working with themselves. Theres no question its a sea change. It will take us a while to figure out what the real impact is going to be  but as Washingtons premier investigative journalism organization, you can bet well be watching.

What does it mean for independent investigative journalism?

I think people are starved for credible information. I think they need and want a trusted source that doesnt take short cuts or just put out stuff to get clicks. Weve been that source for 26 years. I see a bright future ahead for the Center for those reasons.

How do nonprofit newsrooms differentiate themselves from the rest of the news industry?

We have time on our side. We dont face the same harsh deadlines as other news organizations, so what we do is in-depth and serious and trustworthy. We cant afford to get things wrong. Were not pressured by advertisers. We have no advertisers. And our journalism is in demand by traditional news outlets which are continuing to cut staff, but still have pages to fill. And that demand has grown dramatically over the years  so our journalism is now regularly appearing in mainstream outlets like The Washington Post, USA Today, NPR.org and NBCNews.com.

Youve been a journalist for over 25 years. Why do you do what you do?

It sounds trite, but Ive always been in this to look out for the little guy and little girl, the people who dont have lobbyists, the people whose voices arent heard. Its always been about a sense of justice for me, not fame or fortune. Certainly not fortune. The most inspiring story Ive read in memory was Chris Hambys "Breathless and Burdened" series, which won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. Ive never been so proud to work at the Center in my life. That series fulfilled every goal that a great piece of investigative journalism should. It spoke for people who had no voice. It righted wrongs. It fought the power. All the cliches, but in this case they happened to all be true. I was extremely inspired by that series.

This story is part of Inside Publici. Stories were working on, the impact of our investigations, news about our fundraising efforts, and other issues that shape our work. Click here to read more stories in this topic.

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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.
Tom Hanks is returning to his acting roots in Cleveland to help out the regions film and TV industry. On December 2, the two-time Oscar winner will take part in two events in the city: the first to discuss the importance of arts education and the other to benefit northeast Ohios film and TV production business. Both are sponsored by the Greater Cleveland Film Commission.

The commission is a nonprofit that receives no proceeds from the productions it attracts, relying on donations from sponsors and community partners. Since 2009, Ohio has seen more than $400 million in economic impact and created more than 1,700 full-time equivalent jobs thanks to media production.

Last spring, the state doubled its film tax credit to $40 million a year, and Cleveland film commissioner Ivan Schwartz said hes lobbying the state to double it again.

The fact that he would take time out of his incredibly busy schedule to come out to Cleveland to help us build the industry here is more than anybody could ask for, said Schwartz, who co-produced Band of Brothers and was the location manager on From the Earth to the Moon, both of which Hanks executive produced via his Playtone Productions.

Hanks will speak before 600 guests at the Intercontinental Hotel for a fundraiser that will be moderated by WKYC news anchor Russ Mitchell. As part of the trip, he also will speak at Cuyahoga Community College to high school and college students and educators from 38 schools throughout northeast Ohio about his career and how they might pursue their own careers in media.

Hanks got his start in show business in Cleveland. In 1977, he was an acting intern at the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival there when he was cast as Soldier #27 in a stage production of Hamlet.

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Tom Hardys long awaited Taboo will finally see the light of day at FX.

The eight-episode drama, first announced in November 2015, will debut on Tuesday, Jan. 10, at 10/9c.

RELATEDThe Strain Renewed for Fantastic Fourth and Final Season at FX

Per the official release:

Set in 1814, the FX/BBC One co-production follows James Keziah Delaney (played by Hardy), a man who has been to the ends of the Earth and comes back irrevocably changed. Believed to be long-dead, he returns home to London from Africa to inherit what is left of his fathers shipping empire and rebuild a life for himself. Alas, his fathers legacy is a poisoned chalice, and with enemies lurking in every dark corner, James must navigate increasingly complex territories to avoid his own death sentence. Jonathan Pryce (Game of Thrones) and Michael Kelly (House of Cards) co-star.

In addition to starring in Taboo, Hardy  best known to audiences for his roles in The Revenant, Peaky Blinders and Mad Max: Fury Road  is listed as a creator of the series, along with his father, Chips Hardy, and Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders). Hardy, Knight and Ridley Scott (The Man in the High Castle) serve as executive producers.

Feast your eyes on the series key art below (click to enlarge), then tell us if youll be tuning in for Taboo.

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ALISO VIEJO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / November 14, 2016 / When an expert in the financial services industry makes a product suggestion, the world tends to notice. Tony Amaradio, one of the nation's leading wealth management moguls, has explored one of the newer financial planning tools on the market, Dave Ramsey's EveryDollar, and notes it is a crucial tool for anyone who is looking to take a more proactive approach to their financial affairs. As a leader in money management, implementing new techniques for asset growth is something Tony heavily emphasizes. From budgeting on the go to creating a comprehensive retirement strategy, Amaradio values each feature offered by Ramsey's latest personal finance system.





The EveryDollar budget software is designed to be user friendly, and integrates tools that are helpful for everyone from a single college student to a family of five. Offered as an app for most mobile devices, it caters to those who have long forgotten about budgeting with pen and paper. It also meets a desperate need: with more than three quarters of Americans living paycheck to paycheck, Amaradio recognizes the state of financial emergency most of us are in. Many of us need to make a change, and the use of Dave Ramsey's EveryDollar software falls perfectly in line with the most sound budgeting advice you can find. It creates the ideal environment for Tony's guidelines; his methodology of creating wealth begins with a sound monetary foundation, and from there builds to create asset protection, diverse investment portfolios, and retirement funds.

As a philanthropist who places great value on Financial Stewardship, Tony Amaradio can further place his backing behind Ramsey's new product, as it teaches the correlation between tithing, faithful planning, and God's will in our monetary lives. This spiritual approach parallels the message communicated by Mr. Amaradio in his educational corporation Faithful with Finances. Here, Amaradio takes a faith based approach to eliminating personal debt, and strengthens people's resolve by communicating that its God's will for them to be debt free. With a wide variety of classes and tools available online, the EveryDollar program fits right into Faithful with Finances' wheelhouse.

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With over 35 years in the financial services industry, Tony Amaradio delivers what he has coined as "best in class" service to a wide range of clients. His career began shortly after graduating with an MBA in both finance and taxation. Amaradio's faculties were quickly noticed by a prominent Fortune 500 company, but he desired to forge his own path to success by taking a less traveled option. After receiving accolades in the financial services industry, he left to establish his own firm. Today, he speaks at events nationwide, and is known for his radio talk show "Market Talk". He and his wife Carin enjoy contributing their time to nonprofit organizations in the Southern California area, and have co-authored a book titled "Faithful With Much - Breaking Down The Barriers To Generous Giving".

Anthony Amaradio - Visionary & Strategic Philanthropist: http://anthonyamaradionews.com

Tony Amaradio - crunchbase: https://www.crunchbase.com/person/tony-amaradio#/entity

Erika - Faithful with Finances on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fwfinances/

Tony Amaradio - Select Portfolio Management, Inc. - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz0jAilnkPg

Contact Information

TonyAmaradio.com

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SOURCE: Tony Amaradio
Decades before they fell in love, Tony Bennett met his wife Susan Benedetto  while she was still in her mothers belly.

In his new book Just Getting Started, Bennett writes that his first encounter with Benedetto was when her mother was pregnant with her. He was 40 years old.

According to the book (out Tuesday) Benedettos parents, Marion and Dayl Crow, were dedicated Bennett fans. In 1966, they attended one of his shows in New York City. The Crows went backstage to pose for a picture with the twinkly-eyed, Italian-American vocalist.

As fate would have it, Marion was pregnant at the time with  Susan! writes Bennett. Its a photo we all laugh about, knowing the incredible turn of events that followed.

Benedettos parents raised her to the sound of songs like Bennetts I Left My Heart in San Francisco and The Way You Look Tonight. As a teenager, Benedetto became the president of Bennetts fan club in the San Francisco Bay Area in California, the book explains. Nineteen-year-old Benedetto finally met her future husband after requesting to meet him backstage after a show.

It tickled me that someone of her age was so devoted to my music, Bennett writes. I not only agreed to say hello to her backstage but asked her to be my date for the evening, and thats how it all really began, foreshadowed by a backstage photo taken in 1966!

Bennett had been married twice before and had four children. But that didnt stop him. He and Benedetto dated for 20 years before getting married in 2007. Though the ceremony was intimate, Benedetto was just happy to marry the man who continues to be her music icon.

Hes always romantic  every day, said Benedetto in an interview with PEOPLE.

According to Just Getting Started, the big age difference was never a point of contention for the couple.

I cant say that we didnt notice the age difference when we first met, writes Bennett. But I can say that after all of these years together, we dont notice it much now. Were compatible in all ways.

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Benedetto, a former public school teacher, worked with her husband to form the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in honor of Bennetts best friend, Frank Sinatra. They also co-founded the Exploring the Arts charity.

Shes brought balance and contentment into my life, writes Bennett of his wife. Her goodness and the peace at the center of her soul have helped me to think straight, live well, and, Im quite sure, live longer.




The state may need to spend hundreds of millions on fixing state prison problems, but there's been no indication the executive branch is willing to spend what's needed, a Nebraska state senator said Monday.

"We need to spend money, or we're going to turn some really bad guys out onto the streets, or some of our inmates or employees are going to be killed," said Sen. Paul Schumacher of Columbus.

Schumacher is a member of the Department of Correctional Services Investigative Committee that held an executive session Monday afternoon to discuss a draft of a report it will issue in December.

The report comes after months of hearings and questioning of prisons Director Scott Frakes and other administrators on issues including staffing and salaries, crowding, parole, mental health of inmates, restrictive housing and programming needed so inmates can be successful once they get out.

Schumacher said it became clear to senators, members of a previous Corrections investigative committee and this latest one, that budgetary constraints were the source of the problems that have festered in the prisons.

In 2006, the state started a program of large tax reductions or credits that have resulted today in having roughly $750 million less to spend on state agencies and their needs, he said. And continuing on that path, by 2024, the state would have $1.1 billion less, Schumacher said.

"So we have an emphasis on cutting taxes, in the face of increased need," he said. "And a lot of that need is generated by the idea that is very popular, that you just have to get tough on crime. And you do that by incarceration. And when you do that you generate more expenses."

It becomes a vicious cycle, he said. And it has come to a head.

While the Legislature can say it will spend the money in the prisons where it's needed, if the governor and his agencies won't spend it, problems don't get solved, or it takes years to solve them, Shumacher said.

That would be OK, he said, if the federal government and the potential of lawsuits being filed by ACLU of Nebraska, because of crowding, weren't breathing down the state's neck.

A federal court order could result in the release of people who should not be out on the streets, he said. Or crowding could trigger large scale property damage and death in a prison, such as happened in 2015 at Tecumseh State Correctional Institution.

As of June, the prisons were at 158 percent of design capacity, with the Community Corrections Center of Lincoln at 192 percent, the Diagnostic and Evaluation Center in Lincoln at 251 percent and Omaha Correctional Center at 194 percent.

"Frakes is an experienced, knowledgeable director who knows what has to be done but is constrained by the political dynamic," he said.

On prison staffing, which has been inadequate for years, Schumacher said a recent attempt to raise the salaries for workers in order to keep them from leaving fell short and won't solve the problem.

The state employees union recently accepted a proposed 4.4 percent average increase in salaries for eight job classifications in the department that will go into effect Nov. 28.

The early negotiations on pay -- there will be another in the spring -- did not address longevity pay and step raises that workers have signaled are needed. Lincoln Sen. Colby Coash urged the committee to put specific pay raises and other salary needs in the report.

The recent raises don't bring salaries up to comparable Corrections jobs paid by Lancaster and Douglas counties, Schumacher said.

"This all boils down to trying to delay the spending on this, which has been delayed now for nearly a decade, and only gets worse," he said.

Add to that, this need for spending millions to correct prison problems is intersecting with a projected shortfall in the state budget of close to $1 billion.

Schumacher said all the meetings by the committee and discussions of the report have only served to verify what senators have known for several years.

"Now we doubly know it," he said.
Nearly a week after the presidential election, television's most prominent executives gathered in support of universal health care.

More than 700 industry insiders - including Netflix's Ted Sarandos, Fox's Peter Rice and Showtime's David Nevins - turned out for the 40th anniversary of the Saban Community Clinic's gala at the Beverly Hilton. "It's cool because this event has kind of evolved to be the center of the TV business. It's great for the industry to come together and help some of our own," Sarandos told The Hollywood Reporter.

The annual dinner, which is put on by the free clinic in Los Angeles that serves low-income and uninsured patients, honored FX's John Landgraf and Showtime's Trisha Cardoso for their philanthropic leadership this year. Hosted by Archer's Aisha Tyler, the event drew a mix of stars (John Stamos, Danny DeVito, Ewan McGregor) and execs, including Turner's Kevin Reilly, Warner Bros.' Peter Roth and Lionsgate's Sandra Stern, along with writer-producers Chuck Lorre, Steve Levitan and Carlton Cuse.

The highlight of the evening was when Tyler went off-script midway through the dinner to talk candidly about the country's current political state. "Let's just talk about what's going on right now, shall we? What the f - ? This is who I'm sure we thought would be our president-elect," said the comedienne, referring to a 1997 clip of Hillary Clinton that had just played for the audience.

Amid the crowd's visible frustration, Tyler continued, "I don't care who you voted for. It doesn't matter because we're here now. So what do we do? What do we do with our feelings, our rage, our depression?" Acknowledging that some guests may, in fact, be thrilled with the election results, she joked of the overwhelming minority, "I will find you in the parking lot and we'll wrestle. We'll work it out."

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She then called on the crowd to take action. "We can't curl up in a ball as I did on Tuesday night and drink and weep softly into my 800-thread-count sheets while servants scurried about making me another martini. That's acceptable through maybe January 2017," she deadpanned to big laughs from the crowd, before hitting a more serious note.

"But really, you have to do something. Health care is at risk and this is not a concept anymore; this is a reality. We have a president who said he's going to dismantle Obamacare, which really didn't cover that many people anyway. But it was more people than were f - ing covered before it was in place," she said to more cheers from the audience, which managed to raise over $225,000 for the clinic during the course of the evening.

The evening briefly turned to election talk again when Baskets star and recent Emmy winner Louie Anderson took the stage for a quick standup set. "Does anyone know who won the election? I have really slow internet," he started out, later joking that even Anthony Weiner is "bummed out" by what Trump has said about women. When the crowd began to groan, he responded by chuckling, "Too much? Too soon?"

In typical fashion, Landgraf used his time at the podium to articulate the importance of the Saban Clinic and raise awareness about the many Americans who don't currently have access to health care - which in Los Angeles is around 3 million people, he noted. "I know all of us are worried tonight that the number of insured is going to begin climbing again under a new administration," said the FX chief, who was introduced by It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Danny DeVito.

"We can debate the economic challenges and the best mechanisms, political or economic, for providing healthcare for all Americans, and we'll all wait with trepidation to see how the recent political changes will affect healthcare equity in our country," he said, "but what at least I think should not be debated is the principle that all people deserve dignity and respect, and they also deserve access to health care as a basic human right."

Added Landgraf: "We give our time and our resources in the hope that one day the dream of universal health care will become a reality.  And on that day, America will be truly great."
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady on Tuesday said Republicans should defend free trade and the party should defend the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) in the new Congress. "Republicans are going to continue to support the freedom to trade," the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee said. When it comes to the controversial TPP, which president-elect Donald Trump has opposed, Brady said the plan was defensible. "Don't withdraw, renegotiate," he told a panel of the Wall Street Journal CEO Council. "There is plenty that levels the playing field. Renegotiate. Fix the problems that exist today. Let's find a way to move forward." (Reporting By Patrick Rucker and Howard Schneider)
By Cameron French TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto Mayor Rob Ford vowed on Tuesday he would stay away from drugs, alcohol and "bad company" as he tries to rebound from a drug scandal that prompted city council to strip away much of his power. Ford, who insists he is neither an alcoholic nor a drug addict, said he had not had a drink in three weeks. Asked on Toronto news channel CP24 if he had stopped drinking completely, he said: "Guaranteed. 100 percent." Ford made the comments one day after the city council voted to remove much of his power. Several of his key staff announced on Tuesday they would leave and begin working for the deputy mayor, who will take on more responsibility. Ford, who has admitted to smoking crack cocaine, buying illegal drugs and driving after drinking alcohol, also said he would not use drugs again and answered in the affirmative when asked if he would stay away from "bad company." While the scandal involving the mayor has largely swirled around his admission that he had smoked crack, he has also been the subject of a police investigation which photographed him in several meetings with his friend and part-time driver Sandro Lisi, who now faces drug and extortion charges. FEDERAL MINISTER CALLS FOR RESIGNATION Ford was elected in 2010 on a cost-cutting, low-tax platform, and he remains popular in some suburbs of Toronto. While Ford has faced much criticism from city politicians, members of Canada's Conservative federal government have until now been far less vocal. But on Tuesday one of the most powerful cabinet members, Employment Minister Jason Kenney, called for his resignation. "Mr. Ford has brought dishonor to public office, and the office of mayor and his city," he told reporters, while noting that this was a municipal and not a federal affair, and that this was his personal point of view. "I had wanted him to take a leave of absence, but unfortunately the situation has deteriorated to the point where I think he should resign," he said in French. TV BLITZ Ford's TV appearance was part of a two-day media blitz - which included CNN, NBC and Fox - apparently aimed at shifting the focus from the scandal to next year's municipal election, which Ford says he will contest. He did not respond to requests from Reuters for an interview. In a raucous meeting on Monday, the council voted to cut Ford's office budget and transfer leadership of the city's executive committee to Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly. That followed votes on Friday that suspended Ford's authority to dismiss the deputy mayor and the heads of council committees and removed his powers to act during emergencies. Ford, who called council's efforts a "coup d'etat", told CP24 he would fight the move in court. "They basically want to take over the government. It's illegal what they've done," he said. Kelly told reporters that 11 of Ford's 20 staff members opted to jump to the deputy mayor's office, including Ford's director of policy and his chief of staff, and that the city had already changed the locks on some of the office space previously occupied by the mayor's staff. The revelations about Ford began in May when two media outlets said they had seen video of him smoking from what appeared to be a crack pipe. The spotlight has increased since Ford admitted two weeks ago to having used crack. He has become a staple of late-night talk show jokes, while his behavior has prompted concern about his fitness to lead the city. In council on Monday, Ford stalked around the meeting room, getting into an angry verbal exchange with gallery spectators, some of whom shouted "Shame! Shame!" at him. In an added indignity, Canada's right-wing Sun News Network said it was cancelling a show featuring the mayor and his brother, city councilor Doug Ford, a day after its debut. (With additional reporting by Allison Martell in Toronto and Randall Palmer in Ottawa; Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson and Jim Loney)
By Cameron French TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto City Council asked embattled Mayor Rob Ford on Wednesday to take a break from his job to deal with "personal issues", which he admits include both buying illegal drugs and smoking crack cocaine. The nonbinding vote came on a day during which both Ford's opponents and his former allies interrogated the mayor on his suitability to lead Canada's largest city. Ford said he won't quit. "I am not an addict of any sort, so I am not quite sure why you are saying that I need help," Ford told councilors during an hour-long grilling. Speaking after the vote, he issued the latest in a string of apologies, and added: "I really effed up." Ford, elected in 2010 on a promise to end the City Hall "gravy train", admitted last week that he had smoked crack cocaine in "one of my drunken stupors". He insisted on Wednesday he has zero tolerance for drugs and gangs. But asked if he had bought illegal drugs in the past two years, he paused for several seconds and replied somberly: "Yes, I have." Councilors voted 37-5 in favor of a formal, but nonbinding, motion urging Ford to take a leave of absence, and also urged him to apologize for "misleading" Toronto residents. "There's no question that the residents of this city are opposed to the mayor's behavior. I am, you are, we are," Councilor Karen Stintz said. "Because of the mayor's behavior, I'm explaining to my nine-year old what crack cocaine is. Because of my mayor I'm explaining that it's not okay to lie and then apologize when you get caught." Council has no power to force the mayor to step down or take a break from his job unless he is convicted of a crime. Ford insists he has no plans to go, or to seek treatment. As the questions continued at council, hundreds of protesters gathered outside City Hall, many of them calling on Ford to step down. An Ipsos-Reid poll conducted for several TV and radio stations showed that 76 percent of Toronto voters think Ford should step down or take a leave of absence, while only 24 percent agreed with Ford's insistence on staying in his job. CRACK-SMOKING MAYOR The scandal of the crack-smoking mayor broke six months ago, when the Toronto Star newspaper and media blog Gawker said they had been shown a video of the mayor smoking crack, an allegation that Ford spent six months denying. Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair has since confirmed the video exists, and Ford admitted earlier this month that he had indeed smoked crack. The events brought back memories of the scandal that enveloped former Washington, D.C., mayor Marion Barry after he was filmed smoking crack in 1990. Ford's admission has made him the target of late night-talk show jokes and put the international media spotlight on Toronto, including extensive coverage of Wednesday's City Hall debate on U.S. networks. Asked on Wednesday if more embarrassing revelations could come, Ford said: "As far as I know... you don't know if people are videoing this or doing that. I don't know what's out there right now. But everything that I'm aware of is out there." Last week, the Star bought a separate video that showed Ford in an expletive-laden rant, making threats to unspecified persons and pounding his hands together. Ford apologized and admitted he was "extremely inebriated". But Ford may soon face more questions about his conduct. A Superior Court judge on Wednesday ordered the release of more details from a police investigation that resulted in drug-trafficking and extortion charges against Ford's friend and part-time driver Sandro Lisi. A heavily redacted 474-page file released two weeks ago showed police had had the mayor under close surveillance for months, and had recorded evidence of numerous meetings with Lisi. The judge ruled on Wednesday that some of the redacted portions should be made public. The police file includes a widely circulated photo of a grinning Ford with three young men, one of whom was shot dead in Toronto earlier this year. The other two have been charged in a massive Toronto drug and guns sweep known as "Project Traveler". Ford said on Wednesday he had not met the three men before the photo was taken. He also said that his lawyer had advised him not to speak to the police about their investigations. As if Ford's problems couldn't get worse, he also seems to have run afoul of Ford Motor Co over shirts the mayor was selling as part of a charity drive this week. The shirts feature the Ford oval corporate logo and the word "nation" under it. "Ford (Motor) did not grant permission for use of its logo. We view it as an unauthorized use of our trademark and have asked it to be stopped," Ford Motor Co spokesman Jay Cooney told Reuters. (Additional reporting by David Ljunggren and Louise Egan in Ottawa, and Deepa Seetharaman in Detroit; Editing by Janet Guttsman; and Peter Galloway)
By Cameron French TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's lawyer said on Friday his client was not smoking crack cocaine in a video that has been seen only by a few but has dominated Canadian headlines for months, and he urged the city's police to release the video to the public. His comments come a day after Toronto police said they had recovered a copy of a video that is "consistent" with one reportedly seen by journalists at the Toronto Star newspaper and by media blog Gawker earlier this year. Both the Star and Gawker said the video shows the mayor smoking what appears to be crack cocaine. Ford himself has denied the existence of the video and said he does not use crack cocaine. "All I can say is we'd love to see the video. I can't say what it shows because only a few have seen it ... Let the public see it," Ford's lawyer, Dennis Morris, told Reuters. He said he has not seen the video. Ford said on Thursday that he couldn't comment on the matter because the video is evidence in a separate case before the courts, adding that he would not quit his job as there was no reason for him to resign. Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair said on Thursday police had retrieved the video from a deleted hard drive recovered in a drug investigation. Blair would not describe what was happening on the video, but said it showed the mayor, and that he was "disappointed" by what he saw. Morris took issue with the police chief's comment, and noted that Blair did not describe the video's contents. "They had a video with the mayor, but you have to understand what (Blair) said. He didn't say he saw a video with the mayor smoking crack cocaine... he just said 'consistent' with those that have been previously reported in the press," he said. Ford's brother Doug, who is also a Toronto politician and often speaks for the mayor, also called for the video to be released to the public. "I'd like to see this video and let us judge for ourselves, let the people judge for themselves," he said in an interview with a local radio station. Asked about his brother's behavior, he said: "Rob's probably used bad judgment sometimes, but I'm just concerned politics are playing a big part in this." PAPERS CALL FOR RESIGNATION Mayor Ford, a right-wing politician elected on a cost-cutting platform in 2010, has kept the support of much of his suburban base and the backing of right-leaning media since the reports of the video surfaced in May. But the police confirmation of the existence of the video appears to be exacting a cost. Several city councillors on Thursday called for the mayor to step down or take a leave of absence, and all four major Toronto daily newspapers published editorials calling for Ford to resign, including the Toronto Sun tabloid, which may be the furthest right. Ford's approval rating has been mostly strong through the recent scandal, although a poll released this week - but before the police revelations - showed his support falling to 39 percent from 49 percent a month earlier. The Star and Gawker said they were shown the video, separately, by a man who wanted to sell it to them. Gawker raised funds to buy the video, but said it was unable to re-establish contact with the seller. Blair's comments offered the first police confirmation that the video exists. His comments followed Thursday's release of documents detailing police evidence gathered ahead of drug-trafficking charges laid early last month against Sandro Lisi, Ford's friend and part-time driver. Lisi posted bail after the drug arrest, but he was rearrested on Thursday on extortion charges related to what was allegedly his search for the video following the May reports of its existence. Lisi was released on bail on Friday. The partially redacted 474 pages of documents related to Lisi's arrest point to numerous meetings between Ford and Lisi, and show that Ford has been under police surveillance for months. "I think we can all feel comforted that the mayor (hasn't used) crack cocaine over the last six months since he's been followed day and night, virtually," Morris said. He said Ford still intends to run in next year's municipal election. (With additional reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson; and Peter Galloway)
By Cameron French TORONTO (Reuters) - More than 40 percent of Toronto voters still approve of the job Mayor Rob Ford has done and one-third of them would vote for him again, even after he admitted smoking crack cocaine and city council stripped him of much of his authority. A Forum Research survey of 1,049 Toronto voters released on Friday showed that 42 percent of respondents approve of the job Ford has been doing as mayor of Canada's largest city. That's down from 44 percent in a similar poll two weeks ago, but up from 39 percent in late October, just before Ford admitted he smoked crack cocaine while in office. Indeed, support for Ford, who has had much of his authority stripped by city council over the past week, is still comfortably in the 37-49 percent range that polls have shown over the past two years, Forum said. In early 2011, shortly after his election as mayor, Ford's approval rating was above 60 percent. The result suggests that Ford could still be competitive in next year's municipal election, as 33 percent of those polled said they would vote for him in October 2014. "I think he is going to be viable (in the next election)," Forum President Lorne Bozinoff said in an interview. "He probably needs about 43 percent to win, he has 33 coming out of the gate. He needs to pick up 10 percent among the swing voters." Ford swept to power in 2010 with a pledge to cut costs at city hall, winning 47 percent of the vote, with two left-leaning candidates splitting the rest. The poll shows Ford's support is greatly concentrated in the western suburb of Etobicoke, where he lives, and in Scarborough, to the east of the city center. His support is stronger among low income earners, and among those without post-secondary education. SCANDALS Ford's admission earlier this month that he smoked crack "in one of my drunken stupors" followed police revelations that they have been investigating the mayor as part of a drug probe. Ford has also admitted he bought illegal drugs and has driven after drinking. He has been lampooned on late-night TV for his erratic behavior, which includes an expletive-filled rant caught on camera. While Ford's core supporters remain loyal, the poll showed a strong majority of Torontonians believe he is not fit for office. Sixty percent said Ford should resign, and the same number said they approve of recent city council measures to shift much of his authority to Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly. Interestingly, that number exceeds the 58 percent who don't approve of the job he's doing, which means some who approve of his job performance also believe he should step down. Bozinoff said this suggested some voters are separating his performance on the job from the problems in his personal life. "It's not totally contradictory to say, 'yes he's done a good job until now, but it looks like he's got some personal problems, maybe he should resign and deal with them'," he said. Sixty-nine percent said they believe the mayor has a substance abuse problem, which Ford denies. Nineteen percent of those polled said they would like to see Ford as prime minister of Canada, a goal Ford mentioned in a television interview earlier this week. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a Conservative who takes pride in a tough law-and-order agenda, said on Thursday that the idea of Ford as prime minister was "not something I'm in favor of". (Reporting by Cameron French; Editing by Peter Galloway)
Stockholm (AFP) - Sweden on Tuesday announced that tough prosecutor Krister Petersson will relaunch the probe into the 1986 murder of prime minister Olof Palme, still a mystery three decades on despite countless leads.

Palme was gunned down in the street after leaving a Stockholm cinema with his wife, a killing that sent shockwaves through the tranquil Scandinavian nation.

The gunman ran off with the murder weapon, leaving the charismatic Social Democratic premier dying in a pool of blood on the pavement. Despite more than 10,000 people being questioned and 134 claiming responsibility for the crime, the case has never been solved.

Petersson, chief prosecutor notably for organised crime in Stockholm, has tackled several major cases over a 20-year career, including the 2003 murder of foreign minister Anna Lindh, who was stabbed to death in a department store by a man with psychiatric problems.

Petersson will take up the new job in February, Sweden's prosecution service said.

"I feel honoured and I accept the mission with a great amount of energy," he said in a statement. "It is an interesting and important task."

Along with the Lindh case, Petersson also handled the trial of John Ausonius, who shot 11 immigrants in the 1990s -- some of them using a laser target, earning him the nickname "Laser Man". One of his victims died, and Ausonius was sentenced to life in jail in 1994.

His new case is a daunting one, with the files collected over the last three decades already taking up 250 metres of shelf space.

By bizarre coincidence, the prosecutor shares an almost identical name with the man convicted of the murder in 1989 -- Christer Pettersson, a petty criminal and drug addict who was identified by Palme's widow Lisbet in a widely-criticised line-up.

He was freed months later by an appeals court which dismissed Lisbet's testimony on a technicality, and died in 2004. He had admitted the murder, before retracting his confession.
President-elect Donald Trump, in the week since winning a surprise victory to become the 45th president of the United States, has declared at least one political appointment that has done little to assuage onlookers who fear that the businessmans rhetoric and actions may stoke racial tensions at home and abroad. A founder of Human Rights Watch said over the weekend that Trump's campaign has encouraged anti-Semitism in Europe.

The Trump phenomenon and the phenomenon of xenophobic forces in this part of Europe, some of whom may go further politically than they have gone so far, are likely to contribute to anti-Semitism, Aryeh Neier, an American Jew born in Nazi Germany and president emeritus of the non-profit Open Society Foundations, a philanthropic group overseen by billionaire investor George Soros, said Sunday. Trump's victory will provide very specific encouragement to those who want to demonstrate xenophobia because the United States, which has portrayed itself as a leader in efforts to protect human rights, has elected somebody like Trump, he added.

Neier said the impact of Trumps rhetoric hasnt been contained stateside, where protests have erupted alongside hate crimes reportedly carried out by individuals emboldened by the election. European far-right groups have cheered the U.S. election results, including the leader of Frances National Front Party, Marine Le Pen, who wrote that Trump would set the American people free. Dutch anti-Islam campaigner Geert Wilders labeled Trumps victory as a revolution and said he hoped the same thing would happen in the Netherlands.

RTX2TON6

Photo: Reuters

Trumps victory last week followed a divisive general election in which his campaign was frequently accused of encouraging racist and xenophobic rhetoric while failing to condemn support from hate groups in the United States like the Ku Klux Klan, which endorsed Trump. Since then, Trump has appointed Steve Bannon as his chief strategist, a reassuring sign for white nationalists who say they see him as an advocate for policies they prefer. Bannon is the former head of Breitbart News, a far-right news agency.

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Breitbart itself has been called anti-Semitic by liberal news outlets, which note that the site called conservative commenter Bill Kristol a renegade Jew and called Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum a Polish, Jewish, American elitist scorned.

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When Jonathan and Marianella Jost, owners of the Cafe Con Amor coffee farm in Costa Rica, arrived in Seward earlier this month to visit Jonathans family, there was a gift waiting for them at the house -- their own coffee.

Specifically, it was a bag of beans roasted at Cultiva Labs, 2510 Randolph St.

Before this month, theyd never tasted Cultivas take on the honey-processed product theyd shipped to the states from Naranjo earlier this year. They were beyond pleased with the results.

It was a lot of fun to see that bag at Jonathans parents house, Marianella Jost said. Its kind of an end of a circle for us.

On Thursday, the couple visits Cultiva Labs at 6 p.m. to talk about that circle -- how the couple, who met while at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, moved to several college towns where Jonathan Jost led strength and conditioning programs before leaving Florida State University to move to Marianellas home country and grow not only coffee beans at Cafe Con Amor, but also as a collaborative effort with other farmers in the area and sell their product to coffee roasters in the U.S.

Jonathan Jost said theyll show a short video filmed in Costa Rica and discuss the seed-to-cup process that begins on their farm and ends in places like Cultiva. Theyll also discuss Farmers Project, an initiative the couple started to share the best farming practices and experiences in the industry with other Costa Rican coffee producers and to export their goods together to the U.S.

We started with three other farmers and (us), this first shipment, Marianella Jost said earlier this year during an interview about Cafe Con Amor for a story that ran in the Journal Star. I know for a fact that those three farmers now can vouch for us and have told other farmers: Hey, I was able to sell my coffee at a much better price and they did pay me. And they paid me on time, like they said they would. And I got to look at the pictures, look at the sacks with my farm logo. For them, you have no idea the pride to see their logo on those sacks.

Along with the conversation, there will, of course, be coffee available to sample.
President-elect Donald Trumps administration is starting to take shape. In a statement on Sunday, Trump announced that Reince Priebus, the chair of the Republican National Committee, will serve as White House chief of staff. Steve Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart News, a conservative website that has promoted white ethno-nationalism, will serve as chief strategist and senior counselor to the president.

Priebus literally presides over the GOP establishment; Bannon has numbered among its fiercest critics. But although in most administrations, the chief of staff runs the White House, the announcement went to some pains to present them as peers:

Bannon and Priebus will continue the effective leadership team they formed during the campaign, working as equal partners to transform the federal government.

Bannon has been a lightning-rod for criticism on both the right and the left. Ben Shapiro, who resigned from Breitbart in protest in March, wrote that he has no evidence that Bannons a racist or that hes an anti-Semite, but charged that Bannon has, perhaps opportunistically, openly embraced the racist and anti-Semitic alt-right. The racist, fascist extreme right is represented footsteps from the Oval Office. Be very vigilant America, John Weaver, a strategist to former GOP presidential candidate John Kasich, tweeted on Sunday. President-elect Trumps choice of Steve Bannon as his top aide signals that White Supremacists will be represented at the highest levels in Trumps White House, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said. The Anti-Defamation League responded by saying: It is a sad day when when a man who presided over the premier website of the alt-righta loose-knit group of white nationalists and unabashed anti-Semites and racistsis slated to be a senior member in the peoples house.

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Priebus, for his part, praised his new colleague as very, very smart, very temperate. He told Fox & Friends that Bannon was a force for good on the campaign, adding that he hadnt seen any of these things that people are crying out about.

Meanwhile, Trumps transition team is filling up both with the staff and advisers who powered his insurgent campaign built around anti-Washington populism, and party loyalists, political insiders, and monied elites.

On Friday, Trump announced that Vice President-elect Mike Pence would serve as the chairman of the transition team, a role formerly held by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who will now serve as a vice chairman. Pences close ties to conservatives on Capitol Hill may be one reason he was tapped for the role. The re-organization may also reflect the fact that Christies political star is in rapid decline amid continuing fallout from the Bridgegate scandal.

Former GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson, former House Republican Speaker Newt Gingrich, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, retired U.S. Army lieutenant general Michael Flynn, and Senator Jeff Sessions will also serve as vice chairs on the teams executive committee.

The Republican mega-donor Rebekah Mercer and the Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, both key supporters of Trumps campaign, have also been named to the transition team, along with Republican members of Congress Lou Barletta of Pennsylvania, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Chris Collins of New York, Tom Marino of Pennsylvania, and Devin Nunes of California. Steve Mnuchin has also been named as a member of the Trump transition teams executive committee. Mnuchin, an alum of Goldman Sachs, is reportedly under consideration to serve as treasury secretary.

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Some names in circulation are less conventional. The Hill reported on Saturday that conservative radio talk-show host Laura Ingraham is under consideration to serve as press secretary.

The makeup of the transition team has also raised questions over potential conflicts of interest. Donald Trump Jr., Eric, and Ivanka Trump have been appointed to the transition team, despite the fact that Trumps children are reportedly set to take over management of the Trump Organization. Citing government ethics experts, Reuters reported on Friday that giving over control to Trumps children would do virtually nothing to prevent potential conflicts of interest, since theres usually no daylight between ones personal interest and the interest of ones immediate family members.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has also been named to the transition teams executive committee, despite controversy surrounding her political ties to Trump. In September, The Washington Post reported:

Donald Trump paid the IRS a $2,500 penalty  after it was revealed that Trumps charitable foundation had violated tax laws by giving a political contribution to a campaign group connected to Floridas attorney general. The improper donation, a $25,000 gift from the Donald J. Trump Foundation, was made in 2013. At the time, Attorney General Pam Bondi was considering whether to investigate fraud allegations against Trump University. She decided not to pursue the case.

Trumps reliance on political insiders and elites to run his transition team might look as though Trump is reversing his campaign-trail promises to drain the swamp in Washington D.C. But at the same time, it might also be consistent with Trumps longstanding claim that people like himself who know the system intimately from the inside are in the best position to fix it.

There is no question, though, that Trump will be shaking up Washington. The Trump transition team already signals a dramatic break with President Obamas administration. Thats true whether you look to climate-change skeptic Myron Ebell, who is reportedly leading the transition plans for the Environmental Protection Agency, or to Bannon, whose appointment signals that the alt-right will now have a foothold inside the White House.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
President-elect Donald Trump will meet Vice President-elect Mike Pence at the Trump Tower in Manhattan on Tuesday to assess candidates for his cabinet-in-waiting. Trump has so far named GOP Chairman Reince Priebus as his chief of staff and Breitbart News executive chairman Stephen Bannon as chief strategist.

Transition communications adviser Jason Miller said Monday night Trump and Pence will review a number of names for cabinet and senior White House positions.

There has been a lot of work put in by both the Vice President-elect and a number of members of the transition team, he reportedly said. I dont want to put a finite timetable. Obviously, inauguration day is not getting further away. And people need to get going. This is an absolute top priority understood by the President-elect and the Vice President-elect.

The real estate mogul, during his campaign, repeatedly said he will surround himself with the best and smartest advisers. Trump is likely pick his cabinet from his circle of loyalists and the team is likely to be dominated by white males, Vox reported. Heres a list of potential candidates for Trumps cabinet.

1. Secretary of state:

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is reportedly the leading contender for the post. A senior Trump official told the Associated Press that the job is Giulianis if he wants it. Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton is also being considered for this position, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Others considered for the post include Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Rudy Giuliani

Photo: REUTERS/JOSHUA ROBERTS

2. Treasury secretary:

Trump is reportedly considering his campaigns finance chairman Steven Mnuchin for the post. Mnuchin, a Goldman Sachs alumnus, is currently chairman and chief executive of the private investment firm Dune Capital Management.

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According to the New York Times, other names mentioned for the position include Colony Capitals founder Thomas Barrack Jr., Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee Rep. Jeb Hensarling and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

3. Attorney general:

Guiliani is under consideration for this position as well, reports said. He once said no one knows the Justice Department better than me. Another Trump loyalist, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is also competing for the post. So is Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions.

Christie

Photo: REUTERS/BRIAN C. FRANK

4. Secretary of defense:

Sessions is under consideration for this position too, though he will have to beat former Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, former National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley and New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte to get the job.

Former Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn is also being considered for the post. He would, however, require a waiver from Congress if he were to take up the post. According to law, retired military officers have to wait seven years before becoming the civilian leader of the Pentagon.

5. Education secretary:

Trump has hinted in the past that he might do away with the Education Department or might reduce its role in his administration. But he has also hinted at who might lead the department  retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.

Another possible candidate is Williamson M. Evers, a research fellow focusing on education at the think tank Hoover Institution. Evers served as a senior adviser to then-Education Secretary Margaret Spellings during the George W. Bush administration.

Carson

Photo: REUTERS/MIKE BLAKE

6. Commerce secretary:

Trump is looking to hire someone from the business community for this position, Politico reported. One of Trumps economic advisers and billionaire investor Wilbus Ross is being considered for the post. So is Dan DiMicco, the former CEO of steelmaker Nucor Corp. DiMicco also advises Trump on trade.

Other names mentioned for the post include Christie, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

7. Interior secretary:

Two women are reportedly under consideration for this post, former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Another name mentioned for the job is Harold G. Hamm, CEO of the oil and gas company Continental Resources. Forrest Lucas, president of Lucas Oil Products, is also being considered for the post.

Palin

Photo: REUTERS/KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI

8. Health and human services secretary:

Carson is one of the top contenders for this post. Trump praised the retired neurosurgeon earlier at an anti-Obamacare rally, calling him a brilliant doctor. I hope that he will be very much involved in my administration in the coming years, he said.

Huckabee and Scott are also being considered for the job. So is former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. Jindal was also secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.

9. Director of national intelligence/CIA director:

According to CNN, the real estate mogul is considering three men for the job  former Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Pete Hoekstra, former FBI agent and ex-Chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Mike Rogers, as well as Giuliani.

10. Secretary of homeland security:

Sheriff of Wisconsins Milwaukee County David Clarke is a frontrunner for the post. Other names mentioned for the job include Christie, Giuliani and Sessions.

Departing Sheriff of Arizonas Maricopa County Joe Arpaio and Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Michael McCaul are also under consideration for the position.

Clarke

Photo: REUTERS/MIKE SEGAR

11. Environmental Protection Agency administrator:

Trump initially said he would dismantle the agency but later announced he would refocus the EPA on its core mission of ensuring clean air, and clean, safe drinking water for all Americans. Top contenders for this role include climate change denier and director at the Competitive Enterprise Institute Myron Ebell, Gryphon Investors partner Robert E. Grady and former Deputy EPA administrator Jeffrey R. Holmstead.

12. Agriculture secretary:

Trump has multiple options to fill this post, Politico reported. The real estate mogul could pick from the 70 leaders he has on his agriculture advisory committee. Secretary of Agriculture for Texas Sid Miller is under consideration for the post. Others include Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, former Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman, former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives Chuck Conner and former Gov. Perry.

Perry

Photo: REUTERS/MIKE SEGAR

13. Labor secretary:

The Trump campaign is reportedly looking to hire someone from the business community for this position as well. According to Politico and the New York Times, Victoria Lipnic, commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission since 2010, is under consideration for the job. Lipnic was previously assistant secretary of labor for employment standards from 2002 till 2009.

14. Energy secretary:

The Trump campaign is reportedly considering Grady, Hamm and James L. Connaughton, former environmental adviser during the George W. Bush administration and chief executive of Nautilus Data Technologies.

Hamm is the frontrunner for this job, according to Politico.

15. Veterans affairs secretary:

House Veterans Affairs Chairman Jeff Miller, an early Trump supporter who is retiring from the House, is under consideration for the position.

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Donald Trump

President-elect Donald Trump could reverse a historic policy change kicked off in 2013 allowing women to serve in direct combat roles, and that has advocates of the change worried.

"We are absolutely concerned," Kate Germano, a former Marine lieutenant colonel who now serves as COO of the Service Women's Action Network, told Business Insider.

SWAN and other groups have long lobbied for a change in the policy excluding women from certain direct combat roles, such as infantry and artillery. They won that fight in 2013, when then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered all military services to lift the ban on women in combat roles, giving them until January 2016 to fully integrate or ask for special exemptions.

Only the Corps asked for that exemption, which was overruled by Defense Secretary Ash Carter.

However, since Congress never passed a law on the issue, a Trump White House could just reverse the decision made by the Obama administration, or order exceptions to be made for certain services, such as the Marine Corps.

"It's our earnest hope" the next administration will look at quality of service members rather than gender, said Germano, though some things Trump has said on the campaign trail cast doubt on whether that will be the case.

two female marines

When asked in October by a former Army colonel what he would do about the "social engineering and political correctness" that had been imposed on the military, Trump seemed to agree that the military's acceptance of transgendered troops and women in combat roles was wrongheaded.

"You're right. We have a politically correct military, and it's getting more and more politically correct every day," Trump said. "And a lot of the great people in this room don't even understand how it's possible to do that. And that's through intelligence, not through ignorance  believe me  because some of the things that they're asking you to do and be politically correct about are ridiculous."

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Though he added: "I would say I would leave many of the decisions of some of the things you mentioned to the generals, the admirals, the people on top."

As it stands right now, there's at least one person in top leadership who seems to disagree with the policy change  Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford  who would be one of Trump's closest military advisors, as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Others in the Republican Party seem to be weighing in ahead of Trump's transition as well. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), a former Marine officer who has been floated as a potential pick for Defense Secretary, on Sunday called for a "counterrevolution" in the military.

It doesnt do anything to further our capacity as war fighters," Hunter told The Washington Times of women being placed in infantry roles. It doesnt do anything to make us more effective or efficient at getting the job done and killing our enemies and protecting our allies. Its just a distraction. Its not like there are thousands of women getting into the infantry now. It will never be that way.

Like Hunter and others, critics of the policy change have referred to it as "social engineering" within the military ranks. But Germano disagrees with that assessment, telling Business Insider it's not social engineering but instead, expanding the pool of qualified applicants who can do jobs within the military.

"We believe that women who are highly-qualified for the position and can do the job should have the opportunity to do the job," Germano said.

A reversal in policy wouldn't just affect women who had planned to go into combat roles in the future. Since the military has been slowly integrating them into the force, some women would have to be taken out of the roles they had trained for alongside men and put back into non-combat jobs.

army ranger female

In October, the Army graduated 10 new female infantry officers, many of whom are now going through follow-on training before they will be assigned to infantry units. Another woman, Capt. Kristen Griest, transferred to the infantry in April after she became one of the first women to graduate from the Army's Ranger School.

While the Marine Corps has graduated some enlisted females through its infantry training pipeline, no women have been able to graduate its infantry officer course, though more than 30 have tried.

If President-elect Trump decides to change the policy back, he would deal with pushback from the courts. A 2012 lawsuit filed by four female service members who claimed that being excluded from some roles was a violation of their constitutional rights is still ongoing.

The DoD tried to have the suit dismissed after the ban was lifted, but it still remains in litigation  in part because the next president could single-handedly deny those women those rights in the future.

"If we have a Republican president, we may well be in the same position we were when we filed this complaint, a categorical exclusion of all women from combat units," Steven Perry, an attorney for the four women, told a judge in federal court, according to the Military Times.

The Judge agreed with that assessment, and set the next court date for January 12  eight days before Trump is inaugurated as president.

Regardless of the final status of women in combat roles, it's clear that women have been involved in combat throughout the Global War on Terror. Two of the plaintiffs in the 2012 suit were wounded and awarded the Purple Heart medal, and many other women have served alongside male infantrymen in Iraq and Afghanistan on "female engagement teams."

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More From Business Insider


The Obama administration's move last year to integrate women into front-line combat roles may get reversed by the next Pentagon head selected by President-elect Donald Trump .

The Republican Party's 2016 official platform, drafted over the summer, seeks to exempt women from "direct ground combat units and infantry battalions."

Last month, Trump was asked about the women in combat issue at an event hosted by the Retired American Warriors in Virginia. In his response, Trump vowed to do "away with political correctness" in the U.S. military.

Yet on the same question of women in combat, the billionaire seemed more open to the idea in August 2015. During a television interview, he expressed support for the issue but added that he would consult with generals on the matter.

The Military Times over the weekend quoted the Center for Military Readiness President Elaine Donnelly, who runs a military advocacy group, as endorsing the "rolling back" of some of President Barack Obama's military personnel reforms.

"Right now the policy is that women can and will be assigned to ground combat units," Donnelly was quoted as saying. "That pronouncement can indeed be changed by a future secretary of defense."

Obama has been a strong supporter of the policy to allow women in combat roles and an advocate for other military personnel reforms. However, it's widely known there was some resistance within the Marines and other military branches for the changes.

A 1994 Pentagon policy preventing women from serving in combat was rescinded in 2013 by then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta , and ultimately led to the current DoD head Ash Carter making the historic change.

The decision whether to make changes in the military personnel rules ultimately will rest with the next defense secretary. The president-elect hasn't given any indication on who will get the job but there has been speculation it could include everyone from retired Lt. General Michael Flynn, a top Trump military adviser, or Republican Senator Jeff Sessions from Alabama.

The Washington Post reported Friday that another name under consideration for the defense post is Senator Kelly Ayotte, a Republican who earlier this year backed the idea of draft registration for women. Currently, all male citizens aged 17 to 25 are required to register for the draft, but the rule exempts women.
By Steve Holland and Mark Hosenball

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump jettisoned a respected national security expert from his transition team on Tuesday in a sign that he may be settling on loyalists such as former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and conservative hard-liners like former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton to staff his administration.

Mike Rogers, a former U.S. congressman from Michigan who had been mentioned as a possible pick for CIA director, was pushed out in part because Trump's advisers believed he did not pursue Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton aggressively enough when he headed the House of Representatives intelligence committee, a source familiar with the decision said.

Others characterized the sudden departure of Rogers as part a "purge" of relatively moderate Republicans who had staffed the transition team under New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who on Friday was abruptly replaced as head of the team by Vice President-elect Mike Pence.

Pence has not yet filled out paperwork required by law to work on the transition with Democratic President Barack Obama's outgoing administration, the White House said.

With fewer than 70 days until his Jan. 20 inauguration, the Republican president-elect has little time to settle on Cabinet members and other senior appointees. Trump, who had never previously run for office until his surprise victory over Clinton last week, will eventually need to fill roughly 4,000 open positions.

Trump's task is made more difficult by the fact that many of those who might normally staff a Republican administration denounced him during the campaign.

Two national security officials said Trump's operation had been slow to get up to speed and had not yet deeply engaged with security and intelligence agency personnel who were ready to start helping them out. Trump was due to receive his first formal national security briefing on Tuesday.

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Some current U.S. intelligence officials expressed worry that Rogers' departure would mean that Trump was leaning toward more confrontational figures to lead his foreign policy team.

In Congress, Rogers led an investigation into the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks by militants on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. The probe dismissed many of the conspiracy theories that had been circulated by critics of then-Secretary of State Clinton's role.

Trump's team viewed the investigation as a whitewash, according to one source familiar with the operation.

Giuliani and Bolton are being considered for secretary of state, according to sources close to Trump. Giuliani, New York's mayor at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by Islamist al Qaeda militants, is known as a hard-liner on national security matters. Bolton is also a foreign policy hawk who said last year the United States should bomb Iran to halt its nuclear program.

Retired Lieutenant General Mike Flynn, a leading candidate for Trump's national security adviser, has called for the United States to pull back from protecting long-time allies such as South Korea and Japan.

Pence and other top advisers, including Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions and Wall Street executive Steve Mnuchin, did not speak to reporters as they arrived at Trump's New York City apartment building on Tuesday.

Mnuchin is a leading candidate to serve as treasury secretary, according to sources close to Trump. Sessions, one of Trump's closest allies in Washington, might serve as secretary of defense or attorney general.

Some prominent Republican experts who might be tapped to fill out a Trump administration, meanwhile, told colleagues to steer clear.

"After exchange w Trump transition team, changed my recommendation: stay away. They're angry, arrogant, screaming 'you LOST!' Will be ugly," former State Department official Eliot Cohen wrote on Twitter.

TWO POSTS FILLED

Trump has filled two positions so far. His choice of Republican Party insider Reince Priebus to be White House chief of staff was heralded by Republican leaders as an indication he wants to work with the party in Congress. Republicans maintained their majority in both the Senate and House in last week's election, but a number of Republicans in Congress had opposed Trump's candidacy.

However, Trump's appointment of Steve Bannon as chief strategist was roundly criticized by Democrats, civil rights organizations and some Republicans. They denounced the former Breitbart News chief, whose website is a forum for the "alt-right," a loose grouping of neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites.

Neither Priebus nor Bannon need Senate confirmation for their posts, but Cabinet posts do, and some of Trump's possible picks could face a difficult time winning approval.

Republican U.S. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky said on CNN he could not vote to confirm Bolton unless he repudiated his support for the Iraq war and bombing of Iran. Paul, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination won by Trump, also said he was concerned by Giuliani's work on behalf of foreign governments.

Trump loyalist Ben Carson, who advised Trump after dropping his own presidential bid earlier this year, has opted against accepting a Cabinet position in his administration, his spokesman said.

Carson, a retired neurosurgeon with no government experience, had been mentioned as a possible head of the Education Department or Health and Human Services Department.

"His life has not prepared him to be a Cabinet secretary," said Armstrong Williams, Carson's business manager.

(Additional reporting by John Walcott, Ayesha Rascoe, Emily Stephenson, Patricia Zengerle, Warren Strobel, John Wolcott; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Frances Kerry and Will Dunham)
London (AFP) - After helping secure the shock vote for Brexit, UKIP leader Nigel Farage pulled off another coup by becoming the first British politician to meet Donald Trump, upsetting the establishment once again.

Long dismissed as a political outsider who had failed repeatedly to win a seat in the House of Commons, Farage stunned Britain and the world when he helped deliver the June vote to leave the European Union.

Five months later, Trump's victory has again propelled the UK Independence Party (UKIP) interim leader into the limelight.

Farage had campaigned for Trump, believing the Republican billionaire -- who many thought could never win -- had tapped into similar anger over globalisation and ruling elites as the anti-EU campaign in Britain.

When Trump won last week, Farage returned to the United States and on Saturday met the future leader of the free world at his headquarters in New York.

A photo of the two men -- Farage grinning broadly and Trump giving a thumbs up -- was widely published in Britain, with one headline reading: "The victory of the outsiders."

Farage has now offered to act as a conduit between the incoming US administration and British Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative government, suggesting that fences needed mending between the two sides.

But May's spokeswoman noted the premier had been invited to Washington during a phone call with Trump last week and pointedly said that there was no need for a "third person" in their relationship.

Conservative former foreign minister Malcolm Rifkind meanwhile said Farage's visit was about "celebrity politics" while Labour former foreign minister Margaret Beckett said: "It was not a diplomatic trip, it was an ego trip."

- 'Think out of the box' -

But some ministers are reportedly in favour of Farage's offer if it helps Britain build strong trade ties after Brexit, amid some unease about future relations with a US president who challenges the established liberal order.

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"We live in very unconventional times politically at the moment and we need to think out of the box," former Conservative defence minister Gerald Howarth told BBC radio, saying it was "worth talking to" Farage.

Professor Rob Ford, an expert in the radical right at Britain's University of Manchester, said Farage could well be a useful conduit into a Trump White House.

"There's a clear personal connection there, and Trump seems to be the kind of guy who values those kind of relationships," he told AFP.

However, Ford doubted if the offer of helping the government was serious.

"That was classic Farage. It enables him to show off his friendship and wind up the kind of people in the Conservative party who annoy him," he said.

- A good year -

Relations between UKIP and May's Conservatives have always been frosty, particularly as UKIP began wooing Tory voters.

Farage was excluded from the official Brexit campaign, but he steered the debate towards immigration, a winning strategy, despite accusations of racism.

Although he was educated privately and once worked as a commodities trader, Farage has carefully cultivated an image as an ordinary "everyman", honed over hours spent in the pub.

He promoted the idea that a vote for Brexit was a vote against the established order -- a message he took to Mississippi when he stumped for Trump in August.

By then, Farage had quit the leadership of UKIP, the party he co-founded in 1993 and for which he has been a member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 1999.

He said he wanted his life back, sparking a BBC television mockumentary that imagined him as a racist pub bore who spends his days watching and trying to appear on television.

Farage was forced to return as interim leader after UKIP descended into in-fighting, but the joke is no longer on him.

His ties with the incoming US administration are opening new doors, noted Ford, adding: "Apart from Donald Trump, it's hard to think of someone who has had a better year."
By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump planned to meet with Vice President-elect Mike Pence in New York on Tuesday to discuss key appointments as moderate Republican Mike Rogers was jettisoned from the transition team. The departure of Rogers, a former congressman who was chairman of the House of Representatives intelligence committee, indicated Trump may be leaning away from some establishment figures as Pence takes over the transition team. "Our work will provide a strong foundation for the new transition team leadership as they move into the post-election phase, which naturally is incorporating the campaign team in New York who drove President-elect Trump to an incredible victory last Tuesday," Rogers said in a statement. Rogers, who worked on the transition team led by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for six months, said he would continue to advise Trump. Pence took over the transition leadership from Christie last week. Trump and Pence will be "reviewing a number of names for key jobs" during the meeting at Trump Tower in New York as lists for the leadership positions begin to narrow, Trump spokesman Jason Miller said. "If the vice president-elect is getting together with the president-elect to discuss names, then I would say that it's serious, obviously," he said on Monday. Trump, a businessman who has never held public office, and the Pence-led transition team are working on picking members of his Cabinet and the heads of federal agencies. Tuesday's meeting comes as former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a longtime Trump friend and supporter, emerged as a leading candidate to be U.S. secretary of state. "Well, that's possible," Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway teased on Fox News on Tuesday, when asked about the Giuliani report. John Bolton, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, was also under consideration for the high-profile job, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Monday. Giuliani became one of Trump's closest advisers during the campaign, functioning as a vocal defender on cable news programs and introducing him at many rallies. Giuliani has also been mentioned as a possible attorney general or homeland security secretary. Trump's choice of Republican Party insider Reince Priebus to be White House chief of staff was heralded as an indication he wants to work with members of Congress, where a number of Republicans had opposed his candidacy. However, Trump's appointment of Steve Bannon as chief strategist was roundly criticized by members of both parties who denounced the former Breitbart News chief as having made the website a forum for the "alt-right," a confederation of neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites. Bannon has been calling Republicans in Congress to build relationships with lawmakers after years of thumbing his nose at establishment figures in the party, according to website Politico. People who received the calls, which included rank-and-file members as well as leaders, said the main message was that the Trump administration expects a very close relationship with Capitol Hill Republicans, Politico reported. (Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey in Washington; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
Japan's Shinzo Abe sat down Thursday with Donald Trump, becoming the first foreign leader to meet the US president-elect as he works to shape a cabinet that may include both staunch backers and former rivals.

The Japanese prime minister flew into New York to chat with the billionaire at his Manhattan skyscraper as Trump met with a steady stream of operatives from his Republican Party as he prepares to take office on January 20.

Officials from both sides confirmed the meeting at Trump Tower had begun.

Abe, a defense hawk who is in a strong political position at home, was likely to sound out Trump on issues from Asian security to trade.

Japan is one of Washington's closest allies but Trump alarmed Tokyo policymakers during the campaign by musing about pulling the thousands of US troops from the region and suggesting that officially pacifist Japan may need nuclear weapons.

Trump also vowed during the election to tear up the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a proposed vast trade pact backed by outgoing President Barack Obama and which Abe had made a top priority.

Trump's former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said Trump and incoming vice president Mike Pence looked forward to meeting the Japanese leader.

But she told CBS television: "Any deeper conversations about policy and the relationship between Japan and the United States will have to wait until after the inauguration."

Obama, who has refrained from overt criticism of his successor since the election, was wrapping his final visit to Europe in Berlin -- where some commentators saw him as passing the torch as the world's champion of liberal democracy to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Trump separately met with Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama and hinted that he would offer a prime position to the Republican, one of the earliest supporters of Trump's once longshot campaign who shares the 70-year-old billionaire's antipathy to immigration.

The tycoon in a statement said he was "unbelievably impressed" with Sessions but had not yet made decisions on his cabinet.

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- Victory lap for Trump -

MSNBC reported that Trump may also be considering one of his harshest Republican critics, Mitt Romney, as secretary of state. Trump was apparently set to meet with the former Massachusetts governor over the weekend.

"I think Mr Romney would be quite capable of doing a number of things," Sessions told reporters after his talks with Trump.

Romney, who lost to Obama in 2012, had described Trump as vulgar, dishonest and out of line with US values, rebuking the tycoon for proposals such as banning all foreign Muslims from the United States.

Earlier reports said that Trump may give the job of top diplomat to South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, an Indian American woman who would inject rare diversity into his team. Haley headed into Trump Tower on Thursday but did not speak to reporters.

Another name floated for the State Department has been former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, a combative longtime backer of Trump, who would likely face tough Senate scrutiny over his business dealings.

Trump also met 93-year-old Henry Kissinger, the apostle of realpolitik who guided foreign policy for presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, and with Ron Dermer, Israel's ambassador to the United States.

"Israel has no doubt that President-elect Trump is a true friend of Israel," Dermer said.

The real estate mogul will be the first US president since Dwight Eisenhower without experience in elective office and has faced early criticism for not going through the usual State Department channels for his first conversations with foreign leaders.

Trump pulled off the biggest upset in modern US political history through support from white working-class voters, defeating Hillary Clinton in a number of states that had given Obama comfortable victories including Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

George Gigicos, the campaign's advance team director, told reporters that Trump would head to some such states after next week's Thanksgiving holiday in his first post-election trip outside the New York area and Washington.

"We're working on a victory tour now. It will happen in the next couple of weeks," he told reporters.

- Democrats face internal challenge -

Transition officials said Trump would head Friday to his exclusive golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey.

The location would offer more seclusion and comes amid complaints by New Yorkers about the traffic closings and congestion in front of Trump Tower, situated on bustling Fifth Avenue.

Trump has drawn his biggest post-election outrage by appointing anti-establishment firebrand Stephen Bannon, who pushes white identity politics, as his chief strategist.

At least 169 House Democrats signed a letter demanding that Trump remove Bannon, saying the appointment of the onetime chairman of the far-right Breitbart website "directly undermines your ability to unite the country."

But top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi, meeting in Washington with Pence, said her party stood ready to work with Trump on areas of potential agreement such as improving child care access -- an issue the tycoon embraced during the campaign.

Pelosi, 76, a liberal from San Francisco who as House speaker was the highest-ranking woman in US history, has led House Democrats since 2002 with strong internal support.

But 43-year-old Representative Tim Ryan from industrial Ohio on Thursday announced he would challenge Pelosi, saying that the election showed that Democrats needed " to listen and bring a new voice into leadership."

"Keeping our leadership team completely unchanged will simply lead to more disappointment in future elections," Ryan said in a statement.
The Lincoln Police Department will join a nationwide "Click it or Ticket" enforcement next week, the department said.

Officers will be concentrating on areas throughout the city with high injury accident rates and will be placing emphasis on drivers not wearing a seat belt between Nov. 21-27, a news release said.

The Nebraska Office of Highway Safety is providing overtime funding for increased enforcement next week.

In 2015, Lincoln police issued 3,507 seat belt and child restraint violation citations. Those citations decreased from the 4,255 given in 2014.

"Our goal is to continue enforcement and education efforts to help increase Nebraska's statewide safety belt usage rates to 81.1 percent by December 31, 2017," the release said.
Athens (AFP) - US President Barack Obama will arrive in Athens on Tuesday, the first stop on a final foreign trip that will aim to reassure worried Europeans following Donald Trump's surprise presidential election victory.

The 44th president of the United States had likely imagined his farewell visit to Europe -- coming after eight years in power -- in different circumstances.

But Trump's defeat of Hillary Clinton last week will be on everybody's minds as the future of several key global deals -- on issues such as Iran's nuclear programme and the environment -- looks uncertain.

During a press conference in Washington on Monday, Obama tried to reassure worried allies, stressing that dismantling or unravelling such agreements was not easy.

After travelling to Greece, Obama will head to Germany to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and British and Italian prime ministers Theresa May and Matteo Renzi.

He will conclude his trip with a stop in Peru for a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Among the leaders he is expected to meet there is President Xi Jinping of China.

Obama on Wednesday will visit the Parthenon in Athens, then deliver a speech -- sure to have considerable resonance, given the recent US elections -- on the challenges of globalisation.

The question of Greek debt, which is choking the economy, and the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have arrived in Greece fleeing conflict in the Middle East will be the focus of talks during Obama's first visit to the country.

Shortly after his arrival in Athens, where thousands of police officers have been deployed amid tight security in the capital, Obama will hold a joint press conference with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

- 'An uncertain world' -

"It's a symbolic and rare visit that recognises Greek efforts to manage its debt and to stabilise the country," government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said.

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According to Greek Finance Minister Euclide Tsakalotos, the election of Trump could strengthen Greece's position against its creditors.

"We live in an uncertain world and this could help Greece. Because the European Union and the eurozone must show that they can resolve their problems among themselves," he told German newspaper TAZ.

Subjected to tough austerity measures, Greece is struggling to emerge from recession despite a recent upturn in its finances.

"In order for the reforms to be sustainable, people need hope," Obama said in an interview with Greek daily Kathimerini.

He promised to continue urging Greece's creditors to "take the necessary measures, particularly in regard to debt relief, so it can return to robust economic growth".

Obama will also highlight "the compassion and the generosity" that the Greek people have shown to refugees and migrants landing on their shores.

Rights group Amnesty International called on him to take advantage of the visit "to draw attention to the appalling conditions suffered by the tens of thousands of refugees trapped in Greece", and to demand wealthy nations assume responsibility.

Civil servants, communists, far-left groups and anarchists all plan to hold demonstrations as Obama swings through the Greek capital.
President-elect Donald Trump will be able to employ deadly drone strikes largely at his discretion if current guidelines remain in place. And President Barack Obama has no plans to change those rules before he leaves office, the Guardian reported Tuesday.

The next president will inherit the so-called drones "playbook" created by the Obama administration in 2013 that dictated policy on drone strikes, the president's main way of striking against terrorism. Since drone usage began under the administration of President George W. Bush, thousands of people have been killed through the targeted strikes from unmanned aircraft and many nations across the globe consider the standards the U.S. applies for drone strikes to be too secretive.

"Maybe on the left no one would believe that Trump has a steady hand, but Obama has normalized the idea that presidents get to have secret large-scale killing programs at their disposal," Naureen Shah of Amnesty International USA told the Guardian.

The Obama administration claimed that 2,436 people were killed in 473 counter-terrorism strikes between January 2009 and the end of last year. The strikes took place in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya. Of those killed, the administration claimed between 64 and 116 were civilians, Vox reported. Others have reported that the number is far higher. The nonprofit Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported that between 380 and 801 civilians were killed from the strikes.

Obama-administration ordered strikes have also killed American citizens in counter-terrorism efforts, some by accident, but others deliberately without giving them their right to a trial. And while all of this is allowed under Obama's "playbook," even those rules could be completely thrown out and reworked by Trump's administration.

Trump has taken a particularly hard-line stance on fighting terrorism, including deliberately killing civilian families of terrorists, bringing back waterboarding and putting American terrorism suspects on military trial in a Guantanamo Bay prison. Trump also said on the campaign trail he would "bomb the s--t" out of the so-called Islamic State group.

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By Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nancy Pelosi may face a challenge to her 14-year-old role as the leading Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives now that Republicans have captured the White House and maintained their grip on Congress. Representative Tim Ryan, 43, of Ohio, is weighing a run against Pelosi, 76, who is the House minority leader and former speaker of the House, said Ryan's spokesman Michael Zetts. The party vote for minority leader is scheduled for Thursday. "He is concerned that if changes aren't made we will be in the political wilderness for many years to come," Zetts said. It was unclear how much support Ryan might have. He has been in the House since 2003. Voters who elected Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton on Nov. 8 also gave Democrats a few more seats in the 435-member U.S. House of Representatives and the 100-member Senate, but Republicans held on to their majorities in both. Democrats had expected to do much better; some had predicted double-digit wins in the House. Pelosi, of California, faced calls from Representative Seth Moulton and other Democrats, dismayed by the election results, to postpone the party's leadership election until later in November while a reassessment is made. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, may have given some ammunition to Pelosi's detractors on Monday when he said, "I kind of like Pelosi staying around. As long as shes there, I think we stay in the majority." The new Congress convenes on Jan. 3; Trump will succeed President Barack Obama, a Democrat, on Jan. 20. In the U.S. Senate, New York's Chuck Schumer is expected to replace the retiring fellow Democrat Harry Reid as minority leader. In the Republican party, no one is challenging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Republicans are expected on Tuesday to nominate Paul Ryan to remain House speaker. Ryan would face an election in January, when all members of the new House, both Democrats and Republicans, vote on a new speaker. Before Trump's win, some Republican conservatives angered by Ryan's tepid support for Trump were talking about trying to block his re-election. Those threats have subsided but not vanished. An aide to New York Republican Representative Chris Collins said, "Congressman Collins fully believes Speaker Ryan is a slam dunk to be re-elected as speaker, and looks forward to working with him in the next Congress." Collins was Trump's first supporter in the House. Some conservative Republicans still have doubts. "Presently Speaker Ryan does not have my vote, but I will listen to his message tomorrow," Representative Tom Massie of Kentucky said in a statement. (Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Howard Goller)
Doha (AFP) - Donald Trump's election as US president will not harm Los Angeles' chances of winning the right to host the 2024 Summer Olympics, the city's mayor insisted on Tuesday.

Eric Garcetti was speaking to AFP ahead of the Association of National Olympic Committees' General Assembly, which begins in Doha on Tuesday.

"Our bid transcends politics," said Garcetti, when asked about the impact of Trump.

"Everyone knows the LA bid is quintessentially American."

He added that the bid had received the backing of Trump and Hillary Clinton during the recent presidential election.

There has been speculation that Trump's election victory could harm the chances of Los Angeles.

His remarks on policy issues during the campaign, especially regarding a potential ban on Muslims going to America and calling illegal Mexican immigrants rapists, could be particularly harmful to Los Angeles' bid outside the US.

During the two-day meeting, the three candidate cities for the 2024 games -- Budapest, Paris as well as Los Angeles -- will give a 30-minute presentation on their bids.

It will be the first detailed outline of each bid to ANOC members.

It is not yet known if the Los Angeles bidding team will address the recent presidential election in its presentation.

More than 1,000 delegates have gathered in Doha for the meeting.

Paris is seen as the favourite in a close-race for the bid to host the summer games.

The International Olympic Committee will make its final decision in September.

Los Angeles previously hosted the Olympics in 1932 and 1984.

If it wins, Los Angeles will be the first American city to host the Summer Olympics since Atlanta in 1996.
From Esquire

For a little while, anyway, here at the shebeen, we're going to be keeping the ol' weather-eye on the Trumpian hiring hall, because it's already been shown to be a repository of bad ideas and very strange specimens. For example, there is talk that Dr. Ben Carson will be named Secretary of Education, a cabinet department, you may remember, that every Republican presidential candidate for 20 years has said shouldn't exist at all. Dr. Ben, of course, is a creationist with some interesting theories in the field of Egyptology.

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More recently, Dr. Ben, crusader against the evils of "political correctness," has proposed that the federal government monitor the nation's universities for evidence of ideas of which Dr. Ben does not approve. From WaPo:

Dr. Ben Carson, currently running in second for the Republican presidential nomination, told NBC's Chuck Todd on Sunday that he supports a system under which the government would investigate allegations of "extreme bias" on college campuses. "The way that works," Carson explained, "is you invite the students at the universities to send in their complaints. And then you investigate." He later added, "It's not a violation of the 1st Amendment, because all I'm saying is taxpayer funding should not be used for propaganda. It shouldn't be."

There also is talk that the Department of Homeland Security will be entrusted to Sheriff David Clarke of Milwaukee, who already has said that the outbreak of protests against the election of Donald Trump is overdue to be crushed. It's possible that Clarke has muted his ravinerrhetoric because he's preoccupied with finding out how an inmate died of thirst, in 2016, in his jail.

Story continues

More, I am sure, to follow.

Click here to respond to this post on the official Esquire Politics Facebook page.

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Editors' pick: Originally published Nov. 15.

Many of the potential conflicts of interest entailed in Donald Trump's presidency can be seen in a single project: Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Trump has secured a 60-year lease for the Old Post Office building where the newly-opened hotel is housed from the U.S. General Services Administration, the head of which he will now be in charge of appointing. His Trump Organization has filed to receive major federal tax credits for developing the building, which would come through the IRS and Treasury Department, the leaders of which he will also select. For the project, he took out a $170 million loan from Deutsche Bank , one of the few entities still willing to lend him money. It faces the threat of a $14 billion penalty over mortgage-bond investigations from the Department of Justice, the head of which -- the Attorney General -- Trump will choose as well.

"We have landlord-tenant. We have taxpayer-tax collector. We have prosecutor-friend of the prosecuted. These are all of the conflicts that arise in just one relatively minor holding of President-elect Trump through the Trump Organization," said Paul S. Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group Common Cause. "We're looking at the potential of the greatest conflicts of interest of any White House of any president in this nation's history."

What Trump will do with his sprawling business ventures has raised red flags among observers regarding what appears to be an unparalleled potential for entanglements between the president-elect's financial ties and his governance obligations. He has sought to tamp down critics with assurances he will not be influenced, but many aren't buying it.

Trump consistently boasted of his wealth and private-sector success on his path to the presidency. His Trump Organization owns and controls over 500 entities in the U.S. and worldwide that engage in hundreds of transactions, deals and new enterprises every year, according to a letter from his lawyers. He claims to have a net worth of $10 billion, more than $3 billion of which is derived from his estimated value of his brand.

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The organization announced last week that it is "in the process of vetting various structures" for the immediate transfer of its management and portfolio to his children, Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric Trump, in an arrangement that "will comply with all applicable rules and regulations." Michael Cohen, an attorney for Trump and his company, in an interview called the new setup a "blind trust" -- a characterization experts say is inaccurate.

"The unequivocal answer is no, it is not a blind trust," said Meredith McGehee, strategic adviser at the Campaign Legal Center in Washington, D.C.

Trump's children have been named as part of his presidential transition team, already signaling cross-pollination between his business and political interests. A Trump official denied a report on Monday that the real estate magnate had asked the White House for permission to give his family top security clearance.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in an interview over the weekend said there would be a "wall" between Trump and his kids "with regard to government matters," but even if that were to be the case, it would still not be sufficient. Trump knows what is owned and controlled by the Trump Organization, and he cannot simply unknow it.

The creation of a true blind trust would require the sale of all of the Trump Organization's assets. The resulting sum of money would be placed into a trust account controlled by an independent manager, and Trump would remain unaware of where that money was being invested.

"They've given no indication that they'll be willing to do that," said Ryan.

Nor do they have to.

Presidents have followed the practice of placing assets in a blind trust traditionally, but there is no legal requirement for them to do so. (The vice president and members of Congress have no obligation to place their assets into a blind trust, either.)

If Trump stays on the path he is currently on, he stands to enmesh his public and private responsibilities in an unprecedented manner.

"For a candidate who ran on the promise of draining the swamp and cleaning up corruption in D.C., it would be a real disservice to his supporters and to America at large for him to run the most conflicted White House in the history of the nation," said Ryan.

A Trump Organization spokesperson declined to comment further on the matter.

Representative Elijah Cummings on Monday filed a letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz asking him to review Trump's financial arrangements.

Chaffetz told the Wall Street Journal he is "happy to look at any letter the Democrats send" but clarified he would need to see a connection between Trump's investments and the federal government. "There needs to be a federal nexus," he said. "His past business dealings didn't necessarily have a federal nexus."

Chaffetz has doggedly investigated Hillary Clinton and has indicated he plans to continue his probe despite her election loss.

Ryan said he remains doubtful the House Oversight Committee will take any real action on Trump, though he said it should.

"It's their job, but I wouldn't bet money on it," he said. "Because of the sheer size of Mr. Trump's private business dealings, nearly every political decision he makes as president can and will be questioned as a potential conflict of interest if he doesn't do something about this situation."

In an interview with "60 Minutes" aired Sunday, his first televised sit-down since the election, both Trump and his daughter Ivanka said what happens with their brand and business pales in comparison to the task of governing ahead. But watchdogs say it's not so simple.

"I hope that, like many other things, as he gets a better grasp of the issues that arise, he will give these things that he didn't think would be a problem a second look as the gravity of the position he is about to enter [sets in], as he fully begins to understand what it all means," said McGehee.

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donald trump tower office desk

Over the weekend, President-elect Donald Trump reaffirmed his intention to crack down on undocumented immigrants living in the US.

"What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers ... probably 2 million, it could be even 3 million  we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate," he said during an interview with "60 Minutes."

Trump has framed his deportation scheme as a way to restore to US citizens the jobs usurped by immigrants and as a means to secure the southern border, but demographics and recent history suggest that such a crackdown will only exacerbate the misery and instability that have driven the surge of migrants heading to the US in recent years.

Data suggest that the number of unauthorized immigrants who've been convicted of crimes in the US is actually far fewer than the 2 million to 3 million number cited by Trump.

So to hit that number would mean going beyond criminal immigrants or immigrants with criminal records to include those who've only been charged or who've only committed low-level offenses, which Trump transition team members have said they'd do.

Trump has also said he'd roll back Obama's programs offering temporary legal status to immigrants who entered the country illegally as children.

Mexico Central America migrant Honduras

Such immediate mass deportations would in all likelihood violate due process and appeal rights, and to reach that number of people would mean ensnaring immigrants who are not serious criminals or who have no real ties to the country to which they'd be sent.

Like previous groups of deportees who've been sent back to Central America and Mexico, with few roots in their new home and little in the way of support, there won't be much to prevent those people from slipping back into the stream of migrants who've headed to the US in recent years.

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"Over a decade ago, the US began sharing some information with its Salvadoran counterparts about the people that it was deporting to El Salvador. However, there were very few economic opportunities or programs to address the needs of the deportees," Mike Allison, a political science professor at the University of Scranton, told Business Insider.

"There is a bit more emphasis on speaking with deportees today, but there is limited assistance for those deported. There are no jobs," Allison said. "Many of those deported simply want to return to the US where they might have lived for several years or where their family lives. While they might stay in El Salvador to reconnect with friends and family, many of them try to return to the US rather quickly."

El Salvador police gangs

Such vulnerable people would not only tax the resources of governments in Latin America, particularly in Central America. (Nearly one-third of immigrants in the US in 2015 were from Mexico, El Salvador, and Guatemala.)

These people would also fall prey to criminal groups  transnational gangs like Barrio 18 or MS-13  that have turned northern Central America and parts of Mexico into war zones.

This wouldn't be the first time such a dynamic had taken shape.

In the 1990s, after the end of the civil wars in Central America  particularly the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala  US policy changed to expand the number of immigrants subject to deportation and made it harder for them to get relief from deportation.

Gang member face tattoo central america

The consequence of deporting many immigrants  a number of whom were already criminals  to countries emerging from a period of war with weak law enforcement and little economic development was the growth of groups like Barrio 18 and MS-13, both of which have their origins among immigrants in California who were deported.

"Minor street gangs existed during the late 1980s and 1990s in El Salvador. From what I understand, they were just nuisances or kids messing around," Allison said. "However, the deportations of thousands of young men during the 1990s did transform these gangs into more violent, sophisticated groups."

"Honduran and Guatemalan gangs were aided by deportations as well as the spread of gang influence from El Salvador," Allison added, noting that a variety of factors, including weak state institutions, lack of opportunities, and repressive policing strategies, fed a cycle of violence that continues in northern Central America now.

"So, in a way, deportations were extremely important to the emergence and expansion of criminal groups like the MS-13 and Barrio 18," Allison told Business Insider.

Homicides killings violence in Central America El Salvador Honduras Guatemala

The US's deportation policy created "an era of expansion for these gangs," Mike Vigil, the former chief of international operations for the US Drug Enforcement Administration, told Business Insider.

"And as a result of that, we have created a disaster in Central America ... where these gangs are fighting among each other, creating a massive migration of individuals into the United States," Vigil added.

The rapid expansion and brutal violence of these gangs and other criminal groups operating in northern Central America have been driving forces for the wave of migrants who've headed to the US over the last few years.

US border officials have reported an increase in migrants illegally entering the US this year (though current levels are still a far cry from the numbers apprehended at the border over the last several decades), and most of those people are Central Americans fleeing the conditions they face in their countries.

Central American immigrants

"In many poor and marginalized communities in all three countries, women and children are victims of extortion, abuse, rape, murder, and gang-related violence," the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) wrote in a report earlier this year.

"In many of these communities, citizens face explicit threats on their lives for reasons that may include bearing witness to a crime, attempting to leave a gang, or failing to pay an extortion fee or war tax," the report continued.

The hardline strategy Trump has proposed, unaccompanied by an effort to address the situation in Central America, would do little to improve and likely only worsen the conditions there.

Nor would such a strategy keep people from fleeing those conditions, Maureen Meyer, senior associate for Mexico and migrant rights at WOLA, told Vice.

"If you have people who are willing to cross the U.S. border and the desert at the risk of dying, the thought of trying to deter people doesnt really fit with reality," she said.

central america child migrants

A mass deportation of millions like Trump says he'll undertake would furnish Latin American criminal groups with more people to recruit, extort, or abuse.

These criminal groups and gangs already have a presence in the US. (Some, like MS-13, are believed to act as retail-level distributors on US streets for drug traffickers like Mexico's Sinaloa cartel.) They may use recent deportees, convicted criminals or not, to augment their links to communities in the US.

Trump's intention to send people back to Central America or Mexico would give rise to "a cause-and-effect situation, where it's going to increase violence," Vigil, author of of "Metal Coffins: The Blood Alliance Cartel," told Business Insider.

"And these individuals, coming from the United States, already have a base here," Vigil added. "They already know individuals here that they can use to funnel drugs ... thereby increasing the amount of drugs coming into the United States, the amount of violence coming into the United States."

Honduras

The deportation scheme Trump has promised to pursue would be logistically difficult to carry out, given the immense number of people to be rounded up.

And given the time it takes for cases to get through US immigration courts  some states have average wait times of over 1,000 days  it's unlikely that these removals would move at the pace Trump seems to suggest.

But given the conditions in the areas many of these people will be returned to, as well as the limited resources they will have to support themselves and that local authorities will have to deal with them, such a scheme promises to only reproduce the problem it claims to address.

"Trump, in essence, will deport 2 or 3 million individuals, and probably we will get 5 or 6 million undocumented immigrants coming into the United States," Vigil said.

"So it's a strategy that has not been well laid out ... and all it's going to do is cause even more issues than we currently have in the United States."

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An inmate who punched a correctional officer during the deadly May 2015 prison riot at Tecumseh State Correctional Institution pleaded no contest Tuesday to a reduced assault charge.

John Zalme, 70, entered the plea to misdemeanor assault in a deal with Johnson County prosecutors, who dropped a habitual criminal enhancement filed in the case.

If convicted, that enhancement would have added a minimum of 10 years to his prison sentence. Zalme has been in prison in Nebraska since 1977 on various assault and weapons charges and already had been labeled a habitual criminal seven times.

On Tuesday, a Johnson County district judge added one year to the 130 to 229 years he is serving.

In 1975, he was convicted of stabbing a fellow inmate and in 1981 he stabbed three penitentiary guards. In 1997, he killed an inmate by beating him and then starting him on fire. At the time, Zalme was serving his time in Oregon.

Most recently, he was charged with assault in the May 10 riot in Tecumseh.

Two inmates were killed during the rampage that night, presumably by fellow inmates, but no one has been charged in their deaths.
obama federal prison

Over his eight years in office, President Barack Obama has commuted the sentences of 944 federal prisoners through his clemency program  an initiative of unprecedented scale that has reduced more sentences than the efforts of the previous 11 presidents combined.

Most prisoners and criminal-justice reform advocates had already assumed Obama's clemency push would be a unique legacy, unlikely to be maintained as robustly regardless of who his successor was. But after President-elect Donald Trump's stunning election upset last Tuesday, a new sense of urgency and fear took hold of many of the 14,340 prisoners whose clemency petitions remain pending.

A coalition of prisoners, family members, and advocates have issued a renewed call to Obama to quicken the pace of the clemency application process, out of fear that Trump, who campaigned as a self-described "law and order" candidate, will refuse to pick up where his predecessor left off.

On Monday, Cut50, a group dedicated to reducing the US prison population by half, brought more than 70 clemency recipients and prisoners' family members to the White House for a two-day advocacy effort.

One of those family members is Ebony Underwood, whose father, William, has been waiting nearly 18 months for the White House to rule on his clemency petition. For the Underwoods, the 65 days remaining in Obama's term are critical, and the wait has been excruciating.

"This is literally our only hope," Underwood told Business Insider. "We've always felt like that. I don't believe that President-elect Trump will move forward with clemency in the way that President Obama has done."

cut50 clemencynow vigil dc

Underwood's father, a former music promoter and father of four, was convicted of drug conspiracy and given a mandatory life sentence with no possibility of parole in 1990. It was his only felony.

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Over the nearly three decades since the conviction, his family watched federal sentencing laws change and criminal-justice reform efforts gradually take shape. But such changes always bypassed William Underwood, who was left in a "legal limbo."

"We always saw glimpses of laws that were changing, but because of the lack of retroactivity in the law, there was just never any hope," Ebony Underwood said.

"To stay convicted all this time even after the laws have changed, when does punishment become abuse?"

Trump has offered criminal-justice experts little to interpret in terms of sentencing-reform policy, but he has previously disparaged the president's signature commutation efforts, once remarking that the nonviolent drug offenders released under Obama's initiative were "bad dudes."

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump (L) meets with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., November 10, 2016. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

It's the type of remark that worries Brittany Byrd, an attorney and campaign manager with Cut50 who represents inmates who have petitioned for clemency. Byrd said she had been fielding emails all week from frightened clients expressing fear for their futures.

"They're scared  they're hoping to beat the clock," Byrd told Business Insider. "One client told me that with each passing day he feels his heart getting tighter and tighter, because he just doesn't know what's going to happen. There's just nothing more urgent than freedom."

There is one potential solution Obama could turn to before he leaves office  and it has a precedent, according to Ames Grawert, a counsel in the Brennan Center's Justice Program.

The Obama administration could identify all federal prisoners whose sentences would be lessened if the Fair Sentencing Act were applied retroactively and expedite their clemency petitions.

Barring exceptional circumstances, Obama's Department of Justice could then recommend reduced sentences for every single prisoner who qualifies  an estimated 4,000 inmates.

A similar effort was undertaken in 1974, when President Gerald Ford established a "clemency board" to review conditional amnesty applications for prisoners who were convicted of draft evasion during the Vietnam War.

"Commuting these outdated, unfairly harsh federal drug sentences isn't something that President Obama should leave to the next administration," Grawert told Business Insider in an email Monday.

"It's one of the few significant and irreversible acts he can still take to help end mass incarceration."

NOW WATCH: OBAMA: Certain elements of Trump's temperament 'may not serve him well' in the White House





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For much of the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump openly suggested he would erase many of President Barack Obama's policies. So when it comes to sending a manned mission to Mars, a focal point behind Obamas space policy, what might we expect from the president-elect?

Based on his campaign comments, Trump appears to be on board with space exploration.

I will free NASA from the restriction of serving primarily as a logistical agency for low-Earth-orbit activities, Trump told a Florida rally in October. We will instead refocus on space exploration. Under a Trump administration, Florida and America will lead the way into the stars.

Some of Trump's staff have also echoed his comments about exploring space.

Space is the frontier on which American aspiration can become humankinds inspiration, two Trump advisers, former congressman Robert Walker and University of California at Irvine economics professor Peter Navarro, wrote in a Spacenews.com op-ed in October. The destiny of a free people lies in the stars. Donald Trump agrees.

Human exploration of our entire solar system by the end of this century should be NASAs focus and goal, Walker and Navarro added.

Those statements, experts have noted, wont necessarily translate into actual policy in a Trump administration, but they, alongside pro-space comments from Trump himself, may mean that NASA will continue to get the green light to branch out and explore other planets. At the same time, the agency may be pulled back from studying Earth science, which plays a crucial role in monitoring the impacts of climate change and global temperature changes (which Trump has denied are associated with human behavior).

"The public Trump statement has endorsed space exploration  but it could go either way," John Logsdon, a space policy expert, told National Geographic following the election. Other goals may be added, he said.

"I think that there will be momentum building to reinsert missions to the moon as part of the human exploration plan, while maintaining Mars as the horizon goal."

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For a Mars or moon landing, NASA funding may also be directed away from some common functions for the agency, including sending payloads to the International Space Station.

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Despite reports of a decline, real estate experts say Trump-branded properties are thrivingand some say they will grow even more after his historic win.

Take for example, Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago.

The building has already gone up a minimum of 25% to 75% of its value. And, I know in New York City, it went up about 200%, Chezi Rafaeli, a realtor at Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage tells FOXBusiness.com.

Rafaeli has sold over 200 apartments in Chicagos Trump Tower and says that since Trumps win, he has been receiving numerous calls internationally from people looking to buy.

Its a huge honor for them. Buyers from Russia, Asia, and Brazil have been calling me saying they are interested in Trump property, he adds. The property in my opinion will go up tremendously especially if he does well in office.

As far as his businesses go, President-elect Donald Trump told 60 Minutes Lesley Stahl that he doesnt care what happens to The Trump Organization now that hes going to be the 45th President of the United States.

Who cares? This is big league stuff. This is our country and our country is going bad. Were going to save our country. I dont care about hotel occupancy. Its peanuts compared to what were doing, Trump said.

According to a July study by residential real estate company Redfin, Trump-branded buildings did take a little bit of hit while he was campaigning. The website found that in the first five months of 2016, his buildings outside of Manhattanin places like Hollywood Beach, Florida; Las Vegas; Chicago and Hawaii lost a 7% price premium over the year before compared to non-Trump buildings.

Trump-branded products also suffered throughout his campaign. Landmark Groups luxury home decor brand Lifestyle, which is based in the Middle East, stopped selling Trump Home products in December 2015, when Trump made disparaging comments about Muslims. And Macys also dumped Trumps clothing line last year after he called most Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals.

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Trumps three eldest children, Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka are expected to take over the management of The Trump Organization as well as its portfolio of other businesses bearing their namesake, as Trump shifts his focus to the presidency.

This is a top priority at the Organization and the structure that is ultimately selected will comply with all applicable rules and regulations, a Trump Organization official told FOXBusiness.com.

Brad Thomas, an editor of the Forbes Real Estate Investor and author of The Trump Factor said its incalculable how much brand equity can now be generated post-election.

The moat for the business has become much wider, no other brand in the world enjoys such an advantage.

Thomas says to simplify it, you can compare Trump brand to Henry Ford, who also had very controversial political views.

More than 110 years after the companys founding, the Ford brand remains the strongest in the U.S. auto industry, with Henry Fords great-grandson at the helm. Like the Ford brand, the Trump brand can live on as an extension of the founders dominant and exacting personality. Because of the brands emphasis on quality and luxury, the brand narrative has the power to transform itself repeatedly in the years to come, he added.



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Matt Maloney grubhub ceo

GrubHub CEO Matt Maloney recently caused a stir over an email to employees expressing his opinions on the 2016 US presidential election.

As Matt Weinberger previously reported for Business Insider, Maloney wrote: "While demeaning, insulting and ridiculing minorities, immigrants and the physically/mentally disabled worked for Mr. Trump, I want to be clear that this behavior  and these views, have no place at GrubHub. Had he worked here, many of his comments would have resulted in his immediate termination."

The CEO followed up the email with a press release clarifying his views, noting that he "intended to advocate for inclusion and tolerance" not "ask for anyone to resign if they voted for Trump."

While some might have interpreted Maloney's initial email differently than how it was meant, it's actually not illegal in the United States for bosses to suggest that their employees vote for a particular candidate, or to terminate employees based on speech  with several important caveats.

This all started with the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision, which allowed companies to endorse and campaign for political candidates. This means that, in most cases, your boss can send out a mass email encouraging you to support a certain politician, according to Steven Greenhouse writing for The New York Times. However, as CBS News reports, states like Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia ban "businesses from posting notices saying that they will be shut down if a particular candidate is victorious at the ballot box."

Note that your boss can try to influence your vote, but they cannot ultimately force you to choose a certain candidate  voting is private, after all.

But what about the First Amendment? Well, as Sydney Ember at the New York Times reported last year, the Bill of Rights won't protect workers in the private sector from being fired over speech in or outside the workplace  it only protects you from the government infringing upon your speech, according to the blog of the law firm Parks, Chesin, and Walbert.

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In certain states like New York and California, bosses can only influence their workers' votes within limits and cannot discriminate based on employees' political activities or beliefs (unless it interferes with their work). Government workers tend to enjoy more free speech in the workplace.

According to the non-profit Workplace Fairness: "Political activity retaliation is not covered by the federal laws that generally prohibit retaliation based on race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, and disability for private employers, or by the laws protecting against retaliation on the basis of union or concerted activity."

According to a 2016 Harvard University study, 25% of 1,032 survey respondents claimed that their bosses have sent them politically focused messages. Unsurprisingly, most people weren't too happy about that, with 70% of participants saying that there should be limits on political campaigning at work.

Joe Weinlick, senior vice president at Beyond, a career network, says that good leaders shouldn't stifle opposing political speech in the workplace, as this could lead to a toxic work environment.

"Interestingly, though, this type of commentary  saying what you are thinking with no filter  is exactly what Trump does that upsets people," Weinlick told Business Insider. While Maloney may have "crossed the line" by sending an email that could be misinterpreted, he said, "he has since clarified his comments, and perhaps there is a lesson for all of us that in this age of hyper-connectedness we need to not only be careful about what we communicate, but also careful not to judge people solely by what we learn from social media."

No matter what, it's probably best to leave the politics outside the office whenever possible. As Rachel Gillett previously reported for Business Insider, "As an employee expressing yourself at work, you have fewer protections than you'd think  and if your boss doesn't like what they hear, you could get fired for it."

So tread with caution.

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ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey-backed rebels are nearing the Syrian city of al-Bab and the area will be cleared of Islamic State militants soon, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Tuesday. Yildirim made the comment to members of his ruling AK Party in parliament in a speech shown live on state broadcaster TRT Haber. The rebels were poised to begin an assault to drive Islamic State from al-Bab, two of their commanders said on Monday, a battle that could also prompt new fighting with Kurdish groups competing for the area. (Reporting by Ece Toksabay and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Writing by David Dolan; editing by John Stonestreet)
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's ruling AK Party is to set up a commission with a nationalist opposition party to discuss a draft of constitutional reforms, the minority MHP leader said on Tuesday, a move designed to give President Tayyip Erdogan more powers. Devlet Bahceli indicated last week that his MHP nationalists might support the reforms, and the extra votes in parliament would be enough to allow Erdogan to call a referendum. The MHP wants to see restoration of the death penalty as part of the package. Erdogan has said he would approve reinstating capital punishment - a move likely to end Turkey's EU accession process - if parliament passes the reforms. Speaking at his party's parliamentary group meeting, Bahceli said the MHP had received the AKP draft and was looking at it. Erdogan has long wanted an executive presidency, a Turkish version of the system in the United States or France, saying the country needs strong leadership. His opponents fear the change would mean growing authoritarianism. "We are conducting evaluations on the text very carefully," Bahceli said after the MHP met. "We then aim to swiftly bring to parliament the clauses on which we agree in the commission." "We will take part in the commission as long as it defends the views of the MHP," he said. The main opposition CHP and the pro-Kurdish HDP, the two biggest opposition parties, both oppose an executive presidency. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the government would call for a referendum on the executive presidency however much support it won in parliament. Some AK Party officials have said it could take place in the spring of 2017. Any constitutional change needs the support of at least 367 deputies in the 550-seat assembly to pass directly, and of 330 to go to a referendum. The AKP has 317 seats, and the MHP 40. (Reporting by Ercan Gurses; Writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Humeyra Pamuk and Louise Ireland)
AMMAN (Reuters) - Turkish-backed Syrian rebels said they took the town of Qabasin from Islamic State on Tuesday, removing the last major hurdle in their drive to capture the northern city of al Bab from the jihadists, rebels said. They said they took Qabasin, which lies several km northeast of al Bab, to set the stage for an onslaught on the last urban stronghold of IS in the northern Aleppo countryside. The latest in a string of advances by the rebels has effectively outmaneuvered Kurdish-dominated militias who have also have been gaining territory from IS in a drive from the east in hopes of reaching al Bab before their mainly Arab rivals. "We encountered little resistance and most of the Islamic State fighters had gone when we entered the town," Abu Bilal, a field commander from Ahrar al Sham rebel group in the vicinity of the area, said via Internet messaging. "This was their main line of defense (of al Bab) and now we are set to storm the city from several fronts. It's a battle that has already begun," he added. The capture of al Bab would be a significant victory for Turkey, which launched a major offensive last August to secure its border region against both the IS and Kurdish advances. Al Bab is located 30 km (19 miles) south of Syria's border with Turkey and the same distance from Aleppo, meaning its capture could also help rebels advance against pro-government forces besieging their comrades inside the city. Al Bab was a major economic hub for the militants and lies on a key crossroads for the region north of Aleppo. Rebels said most of its residents had already fled and only a few dozen militants had been dug in there. (Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; editing by Mark Heinrich)
Lyle Denniston, Constitution Dailys Supreme Court correspondent, looks at how the incoming Trump administration could affect the legal debate over transgender rights at a federal, state and local level.

With conservative advocacy groups pressing the new Donald Trump administration to reverse national policy that up to now has strongly favored transgender rights, this newest campaign for legal equality may have to shift its focus  to the states but with some continued emphasis on court cases, especially in the lower federal courts. The Supreme Court has yet to rule on the question, and a current case before it may or may not produce a definite ruling.

At this point, before the new government has taken over in Washington, the Obama administrations transgender rights initiatives remain in place. That policy has been implemented by a series of agency guideline promoting transgender equality in the workplace and in schools and colleges that receive federal financial aid.

In addition, an independent federal agency  the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission  has made a series of decisions that seek to bolster transgender rights in the nations public and private workplaces.

If the Trump administration decides to move to reverse direction on this social policy question, it could erase the administrations guidelines with little effort, and with no need to ask Congress to change federal law. That is because those guidelines are based upon a re-interpretation of existing civil rights law, specifically by treating bans on discrimination based on sex as applying also to discrimination based on gender identity  that is, the identity of being a transgender person (assigned one gender at birth, but later accepting ones self as of the opposite gender; across the nation, some 1.5 million people identity as transgender).

The federal guidelines have been based on the two main federal laws against sex bias  Title VII against discrimination on the job, and Title IX against discrimination in education programs partly funded by the federal government. The Labor Department also has relied upon the Occupational Safety and Health Act to promote the new equality at work.

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Those efforts are currently at least partly stalled, by a nationwide order issued by a federal trial judge in Texas in August, temporarily concluding that a group of 13 states challenging the policy will ultimately be able to prove that the government had no authority to adopt the guidelines interpreting Title VII, Title IX and the OSHA law to apply to bias against transgender people. (The government and the 13 states are still battling in the Texas federal court over an effort by the government to get the judge to cut back on the scope of the ban on enforcement.)

Title VII, though, is not only enforced by federal agencies within the Executive Branch. That also has been the law that the EEOC has applied to assure equal opportunity in the workplace based on gender identity. That would not be as easy for the new government to roll back, unless it can find a way to assert new control over that five-member commission. A majority of the members of the EEOC have more years to serve in their current terms, and probably could not be ousted without a major fight.

Under the law creating EEOC, they could be dismissed only for cause  that is, some serious failing in performing the work of the agency. A 1935 Supreme Court decision, in the case of Humphreys Executor v. United States, protected members of such independent commissions from being fired outright by the president.

If the agencies within the Obama administrations direct official family  the Cabinet  are forced out of the field of gender equality enforcement, that would not, by itself, put an end to the transgender rights movement as a political and cultural effort.

Those advocates could continue to pursue lawsuits in court, seeking to gain decisions interpreting federal guarantees of equality of the sexes as including equality for transgender people. A couple of lawsuits are going forward, for example, in North Carolina, challenging that states ban on transgender equality in state-operated restrooms and workplace showers and changing rooms. Those and similar lawsuits are based primarily upon federal sex bias law, but also could be pressed on equal protection guarantees under the Constitution, although transgender people have not been recognized as a group protected by those guarantees.

The new Trump administration could resist those efforts in the courts, but would not control the outcome.

The Supreme Courts view on whether sex bias also means transgender bias is not yet known, but it has agreed to examine that issue during its current term. It is doing so in a case in which a federal appeals court accepted the Obama administrations views of what Title IX means; the appeals court did not give its own interpretation of that laws ban on sex bias, choosing instead to defer to the government view.

If the Trump administration were to erase the guidelines on which the federal policy is currently based, the Supreme Court might not decide that case; rather, it could send that case back to the appeals court to weigh the governments new position, if there is one. The Justices do have the option, though, of deciding themselves what sex bias means in federal law, even if the new government were to reverse the policy.

The possibility that the Supreme Court might actually reach the issue of what Title IX means as to gender identity will also enhance the importance of who fills the seat on the court left vacant by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia  a seat that remains open, and perhaps will still be open when Donald Trump takes office.

Amid all of what it happening or may happen in the courts and within the administration, current and future, the transgender rights movement surely will continue to press for legal protection at the state and local government level. In fact, transgender rights appear to be more secure right now at the state and local level than at the federal level.

Currently, 19 states and Washington, D.C., protect transgender equality, and at least 225 local governments provide such protection. A group of 12 of those states and Washington, D.C., have filed a legal brief to support the federal governments position in the case moving forward in the federal trial court in Texas. Their brief commented that their shared experience demonstrates that protecting the civil rights of our transgender friends, relatives, classmates, and colleagues creates no public safety threat and imposes no meaningful finance burden.

The transgender rights movement, which has existed for more than a quarter of a century, has been making gains more steadily in recent years.

Legendary journalist Lyle Denniston is Constitution Dailys Supreme Court correspondent. Denniston has written for us as a contributor since June 2011 and he has covered the Supreme Court since 1958. His work also appears on lyldenlawnews.com.

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About 100 people marched through downtown Lincoln Tuesday, peacefully protesting the Dakota Access pipeline project.

They gathered outside the Robert V. Denney Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse and then walked to the Wells Fargo Building and on to Ninth and O streets before returning to the federal building.

"Obama, stop the violence," yelled a woman cloaked in an American flag leading the protesters.

This demonstration marked the second protest in Lincoln of the $3.8 billion pipeline designed to carry North Dakota oil through South Dakota and Iowa to a shipping point in Illinois.

A similar rally was held outside the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers office in Omaha and co-sponsored by Bold Nebraska, which worked to keep the Keystone XL pipeline from crossing Nebraska. Due in part to the group's efforts, President Barack Obama denied a permit TransCanada needed to build the pipeline across the U.S.-Canadian border.

The local Dakota Access rallies were among a host held Tuesday from California to Vermont.
Twitter has announced new measures to crack down on the hate speech and online abuse pervading its social media platform.

In the wake of a contentious election, the micro-blogging site has seen its criticism grow for failing to curb harassment and abusive language. Since Donald Trump's win, reports of racist attacks and hate speech on Twitter, as well as other social media platforms, have flooded news feeds.

Emmy Rossum, who is Jewish, became the latest Hollywood figure to experience the harassment when she received anti-Semitic threats from Trump supporters, chronicling the attacks on her Twitter feed.

The tech company was first pushed to assess its policies when trolling aimed at Saturday Night Live comedian Leslie Jones grew so offensive, she quit Twitter and was subsequently hacked.

"The amount of abuse, bullying, and harassment we've seen across the Internet has risen sharply over the past few years," says the San Francisco-based tech company in its Tuesday statement. It then references all abusive conduct as threatening to "human dignity, which we should all stand together to protect."

Admitting that Twitter being in public and in real time has posed a challenge when it comes to policing the abuse, the company says it took a step back to find a new approach and landed on three areas: controls, reporting and enforcement.

Read more: Emmy Rossum Says She Received Anti-Semitic Threats From Trump Supporters on Twitter

Under the new guidelines, Twitter is expanding its "mute" feature to apply to Notifications.

"We're enabling you to mute keywords, phrases, and even entire conversations you don't want to see notifications about, rolling out to everyone in the coming days," says the company.

The next change comes with Twitter's hateful conduct policy and its inability to prohibit users who target other users based on their race, ethnicity or gender identity, among other factors. Twitter said it is now providing users with a more direct way to report this type of content in real time, though it did not specify how in the statement.

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As for the enforcement category, the company said it retrained its support team and improved internal tools.

"We don't expect these announcements to suddenly remove abusive conduct from Twitter," the company concludes. "No single action by us would do that. Instead we commit to rapidly improving Twitter based on everything we observe and learn."

Read the full statement here.

Read more: Tinder Launches Transgender-Inclusive Update, Allowing Users to Select Personalized Gender Identity
BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's administration should consider supporting a Beijing-backed free trade deal in the Asia-Pacific, state media said on Tuesday, adding that China would be relieved to see a rival U.S.-led trade deal wither under Trump. During his election campaign, Trump took a protectionist stance on trade issues and labeled the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) championed by President Barack Obama a "disaster". There is now little chance of it coming up for vote in Washington before his inauguration in January. Obama had framed the TPP, which excludes China, as part of his "pivot to Asia" and as an effort to write Asia's trade rules before Beijing could. China had feared the United States would use the TPP to either force it to open markets by signing up or else to isolate it from other regional economies. "Of course, Beijing is understandably relieved that the exclusive, economically inefficient, politically antagonizing TPP is looking ever less likely to materialize by the day," the official English-language China Daily newspaper said in an editorial. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade talks, which are supported by Beijing but to which the United States is not party, are viewed by some observers as a competitor to U.S. economic leadership in the region. "The incoming administration should realize that the more open, inclusive Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership will turn out to be a far more efficient vehicle for advancing U.S. interests," the China Daily said. "Washington may want to take advantage of the nascent, evolving platform and become involved from the rule-making stage. U.S. influence in the Asia-Pacific will not abate if the Trump administration chooses to engage with the region constructively," the paper said. Such editorials in state-run media do not represent Chinese government policy but they are indicative of official thinking. RCEP groups the 10 members of the Association of South East Asian Nations plus China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand, but currently does not offer the same high level of free trade openings as the TPP. China has said it will seek support for another nascent Beijing-led trade framework, the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP), at a regional summit this month. Peru, which will host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting and is party to the TPP, has said that Pacific-rim countries can forge a new trade deal to replace the TPP that includes China and Russia but not the United States. (Reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
By Jonathan Saul LONDON (Reuters) - Global efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions will continue even after the election of climate change skeptic Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency and momentum is growing to cut ship pollution, the United Nations' shipping agency chief told Reuters. Trump has called global warming a hoax and has promised to quit the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Kitack Lim, Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), said in an interview this week: "I believe the main policy of the Paris agreement will be maintained ... I am rather optimistic." U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday action on climate change had become "unstoppable". Ban, at a meeting of 200 nations in Morocco to work out ways to implement the Paris agreement, expressed hopes that U.S. president-elect Trump would drop plans to quit a global accord aimed at weaning the world off fossil fuels. The shipping industry, like aviation, was excluded from any target cuts under the Paris deal, which set a goal of restricting the rise in global average temperature to less than 2 degrees Celsius. But last month, the UN's aviation agency ICAO approved an accord to curb aviation pollution which will set voluntary targets from 2021 to 2026 and become mandatory from 2027 for states with larger aviation industries. U.N. climate chief Patricia Espinosa said it hoped IMO parties could follow ICAO's example towards transformational change. Shipping now makes up around 2.2 percent of world emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and that share is forecast to rise dramatically if nothing is done to slow it. The London-based IMO says shipping is more complex than aviation as there are multiple sectors within the industry, including oil tankers and container ships. "It is not appropriate just to compare shipping and aviation - they have their own operational features," Lim said. But he said the IMO had made progress and adopted regulations, which came into force in 2013, where ships built after 2025 must be at least 30 percent more energy efficient. Lim said more than 1,900 vessels had already been built to meet the standards. In October, the IMO's Marine Environment Protection Committee agreed that ships must record and report their fuel oil consumption, an accord that will come into force in early 2018 with data collection set to start in 2019. The committee also set global rules to limit sulfur emissions from ships which will come in from 2020. And it established a "road map" towards the adoption of final CO2 reduction commitments in 2023. Environmental campaigners see this approach as too slow. But Lim said the IMO's action on sulfur emissions last month showed it can deliver. "It is not important whether we say we can make it in two or three years," Lim said. "What is more important is that we can establish a concrete plan which is not too far from now and how to implement that." (Additional reporting by Alister Doyle and Nina Chestney in Marrakesh. Editing by Jane Merriman)
By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White plans to step down around the same time President Barack Obama exits the Oval Office, the agency said on Monday.

White, a former federal prosecutor and Wall Street defense lawyer, said in a farewell interview with Reuters that she does not know what she will do next, though retirement is not an option.

Her departure will cap a nearly four-year tenure marked by regulatory and enforcement milestones and internal discord over Wall Street rules.

With White's departure, the SEC will be left with two commissioners, who often staunchly disagree with each other - Democrat Kara Stein and Republican Michael Piwowar.

Unless the U.S. Senate confirms Hester Peirce and Lisa Fairfax, the two pending SEC nominees during the lame duck session, the 10th floor that is home to the commissioners at the SEC's Washington headquarters could become a very lonely place come January.

Once White departs, Piwowar, as the sole Republican commissioner, will likely be designated by incoming President Donald Trump to serve as acting chairman until a permanent chairman is selected.

Former SEC Republican Commissioner Paul Atkins is heading Trump's transition team for independent financial regulatory agencies, including the SEC.

The names of a number of possible candidates have been floating around Washington, including Atkins; former Republican Commissioner Dan Gallagher; Ralph Ferrara, a securities attorney at Proskauer; and Anthony Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge Capital.

Peirce, a Republican who was nominated by Obama and previously served as counsel to Atkins at the SEC, is widely expected to be renominated by Trump.

Since White assumed her post as SEC chair in April 2013, she has presided over a record number of enforcement actions. They consisted of big cases and smaller matters, often referred to as "broken windows" cases -a reference to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's strategy of policing minor offenses to deter bigger ones.

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Among her most notable accomplishments were the institution of a policy requiring some companies to admit wrongdoing when they settle cases with the SEC, and new rules that upended money market mutual fund pricing and aim to reduce systemic risks by asset managers.

White, an independent, has often found herself caught in the crossfire between more partisan SEC commissioners who have not been able to agree on controversial rules.

As such, she has been unable to get some rules, such as a politically charged one requiring financial brokers to put their clients' first, across the finish line.

White has also drawn the ire of progressives, including Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who have criticized her for not being tougher on Wall Street and for refusing to push public companies to disclose their political spending.

Before she leaves, White said she will work to wrap up rules governing the U.S. derivatives market, among other things.

White's departure announcement comes less than month after Warren took the unusual step of asking President Obama to oust the SEC chair.

The SEC draws strength from being a bipartisan panel with a healthy diversity of opinions, but politics are checked at the door, White told Reuters.

"When you cross the threshold into the job as chairman or commissioner, then your mission is the SEC's mission," she said.

Unlike some of White's predecessors, who were tasked with restoring confidence in the SEC after the financial market collapse, White has not faced the same kinds of crisis management challenges.

Rather, she had to contend with completing a mountain of rules mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law and the JOBS Act, a 2012 law designed to help start-ups.

The changes she made in the enforcement division, including requiring corporate defendants in some cases to admit to their wrongdoing, will likely stand out as one of the most significant milestones of her tenure.

Since then, the SEC has done more than 70 settlements with admissions, and some other regulators have followed suit.

In its municipal bond fraud case against the City of Miami, White said the SEC's insistence on admissions helped send the case to trial, and the jury later handed the SEC a victory.

If she has one regret, she said, it is that the SEC has yet to harmonize disjointed rules governing financial advisers and stock brokers.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Linda Stern, Dan Grebler and Lisa Shumaker)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department strongly condemned Russia's resumption of air strikes in Syria on Tuesday and said it believed the targeting of hospitals and civilians in cities like Aleppo was a violation of international law. State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said the renewed bombing coincided with multiparty talks in Geneva between the United States, Russia and other countries seeking to achieve a cease-fire in the conflict and a road map toward a political settlement. "We strongly condemn the resumption of air strikes in Syria by the Russians as well as the Syrian regime," Trudeau told reporters at a State Department briefing. "The most recent reported attacks were on five hospitals and one mobile clinic in Syria. We believe it's a violation of international law." Trudeau said Russia had allowed no food or other aid into east Aleppo during its suspension of bombing. "It let eastern Aleppo residents starve while seeking praise from the international community for halting indiscriminate strikes for three weeks," she said. "Russia had an opportunity here to facilitate aid and food and medicine to these people who are under siege. It failed to do so," Trudeau said. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Writing by David Alexander; Editing by Bernard Orr)
By Nate Raymond

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two nephews of Venezuela's first lady on trial in New York for drug trafficking on Tuesday scored a significant concession from prosecutors, who revealed they were ripping up a cooperation agreement with a key witness the defense accused of lying.

The unusual development was disclosed by a prosecutor in Manhattan federal court during the trial of Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, nephews of Cilia Flores, the wife of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Prosecutors have accused the two men of trying to use one of Venezuela's airports to send hundreds of kilograms of cocaine to Honduras for trans-shipment to the United States. Both men have pleaded not guilty.

To back their claims, prosecutors had been relying on a paid informant working for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration who posed as a Mexican drug cartel member while meeting with the nephews in Venezuela.

But in the months after the nephews' November 2015 arrests in Haiti, U.S. authorities came to learn the informant, Jose Santos-Pena, and his son, another informant, had been lying to the DEA, while secretly engaging in their own drug deals.

Both Santos-Pena and his son subsequently pleaded guilty to narcotics charges and to lying to the government. Both are in jail. The cooperation deal that prosecutors said is "getting ripped up" would have helped the father avoid serving further prison time.

In court on Tuesday, though, Randall Jackson, a lawyer for Campo Flores, played a series of jailhouse phone recordings that he had said would show Santos-Pena was "continuing the orchestration of drug trafficking from prison."

The recordings also showed a third-party facilitated calls between Santos-Pena and his son. That was despite Santos-Pena on Monday saying he was not supposed to talk to his son about his testimony and had not spoken with him in jail.

Following that, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan Quigley reminded Santos-Pena that if he lied, his cooperation agreement could be voided.

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Quigley then asked if "you now understand your cooperation agreement is getting ripped up" and that he would not be receiving a favorable letter from prosecutors at sentencing.

"No sir," Santos-Pena said.

"You should," Quigley said.

It was unclear whether the issues with Santos-Pena, who earned over $1 million assisting authorities in various cases, would impact the case.

Prosecutors have relied on other evidence, including one other cooperating witness, covert recordings and electronic messages from the nephews.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by David Gregorio)
* May spokesman: memo was unsolicited work of Deloitte

* Leaked memo: Could take six months for Brexit strategy

* Says PM trying to keep party together, industry barely on radar

* Government departments demanding more staff for Brexit - memo

* Deloitte says note written without input from government (Adds government saying it has got a plan, statement from Deloitte)

By Guy Faulconbridge

LONDON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Britain has no overall strategy for leaving the European Union and splits in Prime Minister Theresa May's cabinet could delay a clear negotiating position for six months, according to a leaked Deloitte memo that the government dismissed as having no credibility.

The document was written by consultants at Deloitte and leaked to The Times newspaper, which said it had been prepared for the government department that supports the prime minister and her cabinet - something disputed by both Downing Street and Deloitte, which said it was not commissioned by the government.

It casts Britain's top team in a chaotic light: May is trying to control key Brexit questions herself while her senior ministers are divided and the civil service is in turmoil.

"The Prime Minister is rapidly acquiring the reputation of drawing in decisions and details to settle matters herself - which is unlikely to be sustainable," according to the document, dated Nov. 7 and published by The Times.

"It may be 6 months before there is a view on priorities/negotiation strategy as the political situation in the UK and the EU evolves," said the document, titled "Brexit Update".

May's spokeswoman said the Deloitte memo was unsolicited, had nothing to do with the government, had no credibility and was wrong because the government did have a Brexit plan.

"We do have a plan, so I dispute that wholeheartedly," May's spokeswoman told reporters. The spokeswoman suggested that Deloitte was touting for business with the report.

Deloitte said the note was intended primarily for internal audiences, was not commissioned by the government and was written without input from any government department. It was unclear if it meant internal Deloitte or government audiences.

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But such a disorderly portrayal of the government underscores both the extent of the turmoil unleashed by the June 23 vote to leave the EU and the uncertainties ahead as May tries to pull Britain out of the world's biggest trading bloc.

Like the Brexit vote, Donald Trump's victory in the United States has underscored how swiftly assumptions are being turned upside down, pushing governments, investors and chief executives into the unknown.

The pound fell as much as 1.3 percent to 87.07 pence per euro before recovering to 86.40 pence. It also lost more than half a percent to $1.2415.

'NO COMMON STRATEGY'

The memo said no common strategy had emerged, partly as a result of splits within the government and partly due to the evolving political situation in the rest of the EU where both France and Germany face major elections in 2017.

May's cabinet is split, with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Trade Minister Liam Fox and Brexit Minister David Davis - who all campaigned to leave the EU - on one side and finance minister Philip Hammond and Business Secretary Greg Clark - who wanted to remain - on the other, according to the memo.

May's priority, it said, is survival and keeping her ruling Conservative Party together, rather than business or economic considerations.

"Industry has 2 unpleasant realisations - first, that the Government's priority remains its political survival, not the economy," the memo said.

"Second, that there will be no clear economic-Brexit strategy any time soon because it is being developed on a case-by-case basis as specific decisions are forced on Government."

The document also said that "major players" in industry were likely to "point a gun at government's head" to secure assurances similar to that given to carmaker Nissan that it would not suffer from Brexit.

"The public stance of Government is orientated primarily to its own supporters, with industry in particular barely being on the radar screen - yet," it said.

Government departments were working on more than 500 Brexit-related projects and might require an additional 30,000 civil servants, it said.

If the Supreme Court forces the government to give lawmakers a say on triggering the formal talks to leave the bloc, some ministers might be happy to see more radical Brexit options watered down, the memo said.

May has promised to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which kicks off two years of talks with Brussels, by the end of March but she has so far given little away about her plans for Britain's future relationship with the bloc.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that Britain must be clear about its aims for Brexit by the end of March.

(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Pravin Char)
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor Ronnie Green is calling for civility in the "wake of what has been described as one of the most challenging national elections in our nation's history."

Green delivered the message in an email to students, staff, faculty and others on campus on Monday, less than a week after Donald J. Trump was elected president and as thousands of people across the country protest the results of the election.

During his campaign, the Republican candidate called for a ban of Muslims entering the U.S. from countries rife with terrorism, referred to Mexicans as "rapists" and was accused of sexually assaulting women.

As of Friday, the Southern Poverty Law Center has recorded 201 incidents of election-related harassment and intimidation since Nov. 8.

Most of those incidents took place at K-12 schools, the report found, followed by colleges and universities.

Green said UNL encourages "disagreements and alternative points of view" as part of its mission, but he added those disagreements should not "lead to harassment of individuals or groups on any basis."

"Unfortunately, in the past few days, we have been made aware that some in our community have felt unsafe or intimidated as a result of words and actions from others," he wrote.

UNL spokesman Steve Smith said Green's message was not a response to any specific incident but rather a statement to those across the university community that they are welcome on campus.

"Every student, faculty and staff member has a responsibility to help maintain a safe and respectful university community for all," Green wrote.

The first-year chancellor noted UNL will continue to be an inclusive and supportive environment for students from 136 countries and all 50 states.

"There is indeed no place like Nebraska, and I thank you in advance for sticking together through all kinds of weather," Green said. "You know how the rest goes."
By Kirstin Ridley and Steve Slater

LONDON (Reuters) - The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is pressing for a civil lawsuit against Barclays (BARC.L) by former senior investment banker Richard Boath to be heard in private to avoid prejudicing its investigation into the bank's 2008 emergency fundraising.

Boath, one of a number of former top Barclays executives questioned by the SFO in a criminal investigation over the bank's fundraising from Gulf investors during the credit crisis, is suing Barclays in a pay dispute, according to court listings.

The SFO said it had applied to the East London Employment Tribunal to either impose privacy on the proceedings or to ensure that Boath and Barclays' legal representatives do not refer to the contents of an SFO interview with Boath in open court when the case kicks off in earnest next week.

The SFO application is due to be discussed in court on Nov. 21. No further details were immediately available.

The agency has said it expects to decide whether to charge Barclays and former executives early next year in its criminal inquiry into the bank's financial arrangements with Qatar, that included a Barclays' loan to the Gulf state.

The investigation centers on commercial agreements between Barclays and Qatari investors as part of a capital raising to raise a total of about 12 billion pounds ($15 billion) at the height of the credit crisis.

Barclays' emergency fundraising, which allowed the bank to become one of the few British lenders to sidestep a state bailout, has also triggered a separate civil lawsuit by businesswoman Amanda Staveley.

Her private equity group PCP Capital Partners is claiming around $1 billion in damages for alleged fraudulent misrepresentation.

That case, which is due to come to trial in January 2018 if it is not settled, hinges on the terms that Qatari and Abu Dhabi investors received for participating in a cash call by Barclays to raise around 7 billion pounds in 2008.

Staveley, who put together a syndicate of Abu Dhabi investors in October 2008, has alleged in court documents that Barclays made an undisclosed $3 billion loan to Qatar shortly before completion of the October 2008 capital raising.

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Barclays said in 2013 that British authorities were investigating the bank and four current and former senior employees over the fundraising.

Sources familiar with the matter have said Boath, who was co-head of global finance in EMEA at the time of the capital raising, has been interviewed alongside former chief executives Bob Diamond and John Varley, former finance director Chris Lucas and former tax advisory boss Roger Jenkins among others.

Boath, most recently Barclays' chairman of the financial institutions group, left the bank in March. He has not publicly commented on the investigation.

Barclays declined to comment.

(Additional reporting by Alex Chambers; Editing by Adrian Croft)
By Kirstin Ridley and Steve Slater

LONDON (Reuters) - The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is pressing for a civil lawsuit against Barclays <BARC.L> by former senior investment banker Richard Boath to be heard in private to avoid prejudicing its investigation into the bank's 2008 emergency fundraising.

Boath, one of a number of former top Barclays executives questioned by the SFO in a criminal investigation over the bank's fundraising from Gulf investors during the credit crisis, is suing Barclays in a pay dispute, according to court listings.

The SFO said it had applied to the East London Employment Tribunal to either impose privacy on the proceedings or to ensure that Boath and Barclays' legal representatives do not refer to the contents of an SFO interview with Boath in open court when the case kicks off in earnest next week.

The SFO application is due to be discussed in court on Nov. 21. No further details were immediately available.

The agency has said it expects to decide whether to charge Barclays and former executives early next year in its criminal inquiry into the bank's financial arrangements with Qatar, that included a Barclays' loan to the Gulf state.

The investigation centers on commercial agreements between Barclays and Qatari investors as part of a capital raising to raise a total of about 12 billion pounds ($15 billion) at the height of the credit crisis.

Barclays' emergency fundraising, which allowed the bank to become one of the few British lenders to sidestep a state bailout, has also triggered a separate civil lawsuit by businesswoman Amanda Staveley.

Her private equity group PCP Capital Partners is claiming around $1 billion in damages for alleged fraudulent misrepresentation.

That case, which is due to come to trial in January 2018 if it is not settled, hinges on the terms that Qatari and Abu Dhabi investors received for participating in a cash call by Barclays to raise around 7 billion pounds in 2008.

Story continues

Staveley, who put together a syndicate of Abu Dhabi investors in October 2008, has alleged in court documents that Barclays made an undisclosed $3 billion loan to Qatar shortly before completion of the October 2008 capital raising.

Barclays said in 2013 that British authorities were investigating the bank and four current and former senior employees over the fundraising.

Sources familiar with the matter have said Boath, who was co-head of global finance in EMEA at the time of the capital raising, has been interviewed alongside former chief executives Bob Diamond and John Varley, former finance director Chris Lucas and former tax advisory boss Roger Jenkins among others.

Boath, most recently Barclays' chairman of the financial institutions group, left the bank in March. He has not publicly commented on the investigation.

Barclays declined to comment.

(Additional reporting by Alex Chambers; Editing by Adrian Croft)
Marrakesh (Morocco) (AFP) - Donald Trump loomed large over climate talks on Tuesday where UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged nations to redouble their planet-rescue efforts and voiced hope the US would not pull out of its commitments.

Elected to the White House a week ago, Trump had previously called global warming a "hoax" perpetrated by China, and threatened to "cancel" the hard-fought Paris Agreement concluded a year ago.

But Ban said he had spoken to the businessman turned president-elect, and was "optimistic" Trump "will hear and understand the seriousness and urgency of addressing climate change".

"As the president of the US I am sure he will understand this, he will listen, he will vary his campaign remarks," the outgoing UN secretary general told journalists.

"I am sure he will make a good, wise decision."

Gathered in Marrakesh since last Monday, representatives from the UN climate body's 197 parties have started thrashing out a roadmap for putting the agreement into action.

But climate change denier Trump's ascension to the US presidency has been uppermost on the minds of delegates and negotiators.

Many fear that withdrawal by the United States, a champion of the deal under President Barack Obama, would shatter the political goodwill built up over years of negotiations, and put the very goals of the deal at risk.

Ban joined some 80 heads of state and government for the "high-level segment" of the annual UN climate meeting -- the first since last year's adoption of the Paris Agreement to stave off calamitous global warming.

Among the leaders was Sudan's Omar al-Bashir, for whom the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur.

Ban, who welcomed heads of state on the red carpet, was not there to receive Bashir.

- Gambling with the future -

But the real shadow on the gathering was Trump.

President Francois Hollande of France, which hosted last year's UN climate conference, stressed that the United States "must respect the commitments it has undertaken".

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"It is not only their duty, it is in their interest as well as (the interest of) all people," he told conference delegates.

The Paris pact sets out the objective of limiting average global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels by cutting planet-heating greenhouse gases from burning coal, oil, and gas.

Ban underlined that no country, "however resourceful or powerful" was immune from the impacts of climate change -- rising seas, worsening storms and droughts, spreading diseases and conflict over ever-scarcer resources.

"My sense is that as a very successful business person in the past... I believe that he (Trump) understands that there are market forces already at work on this issue."

Ban was attending the 22nd Conference of Parties (COP22 for short) of the UN's climate convention -- his last before his term ends in December.

While waiting for Trump to make his position clear, many are looking to the rest of the world to strongly restate their commitment to the Paris Agreement, with or without the US.

To date, 110 parties have officially ratified the pact, which entered into force on November 4 after crossing the threshold of at least 55 ratifications by countries representing at least 55 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.

They included the US, which represents about 14 percent of emissions. But Trump can withdraw Washington from the deal.

On Tuesday, Ban called for the elimination of fossil fuel subsidies, estimated to exceed $500 billion (465 billion euros) a year, to ease the transition to clean energy.

To bolster the Paris agreement, nations have made non-binding pledges to curb fossil fuel use, but these, collectively, "will not get us out of the danger zone", said Ban.

Last year was the warmest on record, and 2016 seems on course to be hotter still.

"Today more than 150 million people live on land that could be submerged or suffer chronic flooding within this century, possibly causing massive waves of migration and instability," said Ban.

"We have no right to gamble with the fate of future generations or imperil the survival of other species that share our planet."
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - UN member states on Tuesday overwhelmingly condemned escalating attacks against civilians in Aleppo and called for a ceasefire to pave the way to a settlement of the five-year war in Syria.

A resolution drafted by Saudi Arabia, which is backing rebels fighting the Syrian government, was adopted by a vote of 116 to 15, with 49 abstentions, in the General Assembly's human rights committee.

Russia and Iran, Syria's allies in the war, were among the 15 who voted against the measure, which is expected to go to the full assembly next month.

The UN rights committee has voted every year to condemn Syria over the human rights crisis since the war began in March 2011.

Saudi Ambassador Abdallah Al-Mouallimi recited poetry about Aleppo and invoked the fate of Aylan Kurdi, the Syrian toddler whose lifeless body washed ashore in Turkey last year, as he appealed for support.

Syria's Ambassador Bashar Jaafari shot back, saying the "Saudi regime should be the last to talk about human rights" and defending his government for waging what he termed as a war against terrorism.

The resolution expresses outrage and grave concern at the violence in rebel-held east Aleppo and demands that humanitarian aid be delivered to all Syrians in need.

It deplores the attack on an aid convoy in rural Aleppo on September 19 and calls for the perpetrators to be held accountable.

Backed by Russia, Syria launched a fresh assault on rebel strongholds on Tuesday as diplomatic efforts to end the war remained deadlocked.

More than 300,000 people have died in the war that began with anti-government protests.

The committee also criticized Iran for its use of the death penalty in a resolution adopted by a vote of 85 to 35 with 63 abstentions.
UN member states on Tuesday condemned widespread human rights violations in North Korea and expressed concerns that funds needed to ease the dire humanitarian crisis are spent on Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs.

A resolution drafted by Japan and the European Union was adopted by a consensus vote in the General Assembly's committee on humanitarian affairs.

Following the vote, diplomats from China, Pyongyang's ally, Russia, Syria, Iran and Cuba took the floor to state they were disassociating themselves from the outcome.

The full General Assembly is expected to vote on the measure next month.

North Korea has conducted two nuclear tests this year and test-fired a series of missiles, even as 18 million North Koreans out of a total population of 25 million are facing food shortages, Japan's ambassador said.

"The authorities of the DPRK (North Korea), without regard to the plight of their own citizens, divert their limited resources to develop weapons of mass destruction," said Ambassador Koro Bessho.

"Such institutional decision itself is a human rights violation," he told the committee.

North Korean counsellor Ri Song Chol responded: "Japan should mind its own business."

Pyongyang "categorically rejects" the resolution, said the North Korean diplomat, describing it as one-sided and an "extreme manifestation of politicization."

The resolution for the third year encourages the Security Council to refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court for war crimes investigation.

Such a step appears unlikely, however, with China widely expected to use its veto to block such a measure.

The vote came as the United States and China were locked in negotiations on a new Security Council draft resolution to tighten sanctions on North Korea following Pyongyang's missile and nuclear tests.

The new sanctions are expected to target North Korean exports of coal to China among other measures, UN diplomats said.

The UN's new rights expert on North Korea, Argentine Tomas Quintana, is to travel to South Korea and Japan this week, his first visit to the region.
(Rewrites, adds executive, airline comments, updates shares)

By Jeffrey Dastin

Nov 15 (Reuters) - United Continental Holdings Inc took a leaf out of its low-cost competitors' playbook on Tuesday by unveiling a new low fare that limits customers to one carry-on bag that fits under a seat, part of a broader plan to boost profit over the next four years.

Chicago-based United is the first major U.S. carrier to make such a move for carry-ons, which it hopes will attract some new customers and push some of its regular flyers toward higher fares.

Combined with better flight connections and revamped pricing algorithms, the airline said at its investor day that it aims to add $4.8 billion to yearly operating income by 2020, excluding the effect of rising wages.

The new fare class, known as 'Basic Economy,' risks frustrating flyers who already feel burdened with airline travel restrictions and fees, but could push some customers - especially those with large luggage - toward higher-priced fares.

The No. 3 U.S. airline by passenger traffic will begin selling the no-frills fares in the first quarter of 2017 for travel starting in the second quarter. Prices will be comparable to low fares it now charges for the economy cabin, but with more restrictions.

United said Basic Economy customers would not be assigned seats until the day of departure, meaning people on the same ticket may be split apart.

"Flights do run pretty full today. You're probably going to get a middle seat," United's President Scott Kirby said in an interview.

CARRY-ON SCRAMBLE

Survey data indicated travelers and employees do not like scrambling to stow carry-ons when overhead bin space is limited, Kirby said. United believes the new fare creates more options for customers, and should not provoke a backlash.

Charlie Leocha, chairman of consumer advocacy group Travelers United, took a different view.

"This action clearly shows how airline consolidation is eliminating choice," he said in an email. A single carrier's decision now means more customers are impacted.

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Those who book Basic Economy on United will be barred from carrying on bags that can only fit in overhead bins, and they will not accrue miles toward elite status.

Fare initiatives will account for $1 billion of United's income target, as more customers pay to check bags or select higher fares that give them two "free" carry-ons. And airlines still have ample room to invent fare packages they can sell to customers, Kirby said.

"It is ridiculous that we will sell a seat for $49 and a seat next to it for $800, and we treat them exactly the same, just because they book later in the process. There's no other industry in the world I can think of that does something like that," he said.

United shares closed up nearly 5 percent. Part of the rise may be from billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc , which disclosed stakes in four U.S. airlines including United on Monday, boosting investor confidence in the sector.

LOW-COST RIVALS

United's announcement follows a similar decision by Delta Air Lines Inc in 2014 to sell more tickets that are cheap but prohibit itinerary changes and seat selection.

Delta and United are hoping to lure customers away from low-cost carriers with competitive prices and upsell them once they reveal the conditions of the ticket.

The practice of marketing cheap tickets that become expensive once add-ons like carry-on bags are included had helped companies like Spirit Airlines Inc and Frontier Airlines undercut their bigger rivals, until the likes of Delta borrowed from their playbook.

Frontier was lowest for customer satisfaction in J.D. Power's North American airline survey in 2016. Spirit was not included in the survey.

United's latest move appears to be the most restrictive yet for a large airline's basic economy fare, said Bob Mann, an airline industry analyst at R.W. Mann & Co.

Mann said United still had some way to go before it matched the profit of Delta, the No. 2 U.S. airline, whose margins are about twice those of United. American Airlines Group Inc , the biggest U.S. carrier, is expected to launch its basic economy product early next year.

It was unclear if the move by United would prompt similar bag limits from rivals. However, airlines have frequently copied each other, as when they added fees for checked luggage in the last decade.

Delta declined to comment on whether it would follow suit on carry-on bags. An American spokesman said the airline was in the process of evaluating its own basic economy offering.

In addition, United said it would defer 61 Boeing Co 737-700 planes originally due in the next two years to a date to be determined, reducing capital spending by $1.6 billion through 2018. It will convert those 61 orders to newer 737 MAX planes.

The company also said it would buy 24 E175 aircraft from Brazil's Embraer SA, instead of leasing the planes as previously planned.

(Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in New York, additional reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar, Ted Kerr and Bill Rigby)
university of virginia

Students and faculty at the University of Virginia have asked its president to avoid quoting Thomas Jefferson, arguing that he "was deeply involved in the racist history," of the school, The Richmond Time Dispatch reported on Monday.

Nearly 500 students and faculty signed a letter to university president Teresa Sullivan, denouncing an email she sent after the election that was meant to unify the campus.

The email included a quote from the nation's third president:

"[University of Virginia students] are not of ordinary significance only: they are exactly the persons who are to succeed to the government of our country, and to rule its future enmities, its friendships and fortunes," the quote read.

Sullivan rejected assertions that citing Jefferson, who was a slave owner, amounted to cosigning his views: Quoting Jefferson (or any historical figure) does not imply an endorsement of all the social structures and beliefs of his time, such as slavery and the exclusion of women and people of color from the university, Sullivan wrote in response to the letter.

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The collapse of American Apparel and Aeropostale are a sign that the teen clothing retailers have taken an awful beating. However, two others in the category that might of been crushed, American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (AEO) and Urban Outfitters Inc. (URBN), instead will sail into the holidays in good shape.

American Eagle Outfitters trades at just over $18, very close to the top of its 52-week range. At $39 a share, the same is true for Urban Outfitters. It is not clear why either has done so well, particularly since their failed rivals are not the only competition. Many would argue that the leader in the category is Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF), yet at $17 a share, it trades at the bottom of its 52-week range.

ALSO READ: The Worst Companies to Work For

In its most recently reported quarter, American Eagle's revenue rose a modest rose 3% to $823 million. Comparable store sales rose by the same percentage, but what was impressive was that this was on comparable store sales, which increased 11% in the same quarter a year ago. The trajectory over two years is amazing. And the per-share earnings rose from $0.17 to $0.23.

The increase at the top line for Urban Outfitters was also modest, but same-store sales and earnings were strong in its most recently reported quarter. The company owns three brands: Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Free People. Revenue across all of them grew from $867 million to $890 million. Same-store sales for the entire operation were up 1%, but they rose by 5% at the flagship brand. Urban Outfitters delivered at the bottom line with $0.66 per share, compared to $0.52 in the year-ago period.

Part of the success of the two companies may be discipline, including a lack of overbuilding. American Eagle has 1,000 stores and operates in the United States, Canada, China, the United Kingdom and Mexico. However, much of its activity overseas in based on online sales, which the company says brings in revenue from 81 countries.

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Urban Outfitters has about 600 stores across its brands, and more specialty stores that are much smaller and presumably less expensive to operate. It also prides itself on its online operations.

Each company may benefit from the age of its customers. Younger people tend to be more comfortable shopping from smartphones and tablets. This cuts the need for aggressive brick-and-mortar expansion.

While the holidays will be a test for the two niche retailers, there are no signs they will not pass and continue to impress with their performances.

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Military cooperation between the US and the Philippines is unchanged for now despite inflammatory statements from the Filipino president directed at US President Barack Obama, a top American commander said Tuesday.

Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte has voiced willingness to request the withdrawal of American troops from his country and has called the US president a "son of a bitch."

"Despite what he has said, there has been no change in anything with the Philippines," said Harry Harris, commander of the US Pacific Command, during an event in Washington.

Harris was slated to participate Tuesday in high-level meetings between the two countries to schedule joint military exercises for 2017 and after.

"I am optimistic," he said of the meetings, adding that thus far the exercises program has been on track.

Harris said there could be "a refocusing or a rescoping of some of the bigger exercises in 2017."

Until Duterte came to power in June, Manila was one of the United States' closest allies in Asia, and it was viewed as a vital link in the political "pivot" or "rebalancing" of US policy toward the Asia-Pacific region under Obama.

The Philippines had agreed to allow the United States to use five of its bases, and Harris said "that has not changed so far and I have no reason to believe it will change."

"We haven't been asked to remove US forces," he said, notably those operating against Muslim separatists in the southern island of Mindanao.

He also said the Philippines had not asked Washington to stop keeping surveillance planes at Clark Air Base on Luzon Island.

Late last month Duterte had announced his country's "separation" from the United States and called for an end within two years to the presence of "foreign military troops" -- a clear reference to American forces.

Duterte later struck a more conciliatory tone, saying there would be no "severance of ties" with Washington. He added that Manila would simply pursue a more independent line in foreign affairs while improving its ties with Beijing.
Washington (AFP) - US retail sales recorded solid growth in October, adding to September gains and showing an upswing in advance of last week's presidential elections, according to Commerce Department figures released Tuesday.

The advance estimate for the month put sales at $465.9 billion, an increase of 0.8 percent over September and 4.3 percent over the same month last year, the report showed. The analyst consensus forecast was for a more modest increase of 0.6 percent.

Sales were down slightly for furniture and home furnishings, department stores and restaurants but up sharply at gas stations. Retailers for building materials also saw sales rise.

Spending in the first 10 months of the year was up 2.9 percent over the same period in 2015.

Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the numbers were generally good news.

"Overall, our measure of core sales, which excludes gasoline, autos, food and building materials, rose 0.5 percent, the best performance since May," he wrote in a client note.

"In short, a solid report, signalling that pre-election spending was quite robust, but we just don't know how consumers will react to the election result."

The Commerce Department figures came as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that economic activity had stabilized in New York State in November.

The general business conditions index for the month rose eight points, moving into positive territory at 1.5, while new orders rose to 8.7 and shipments surged to 9.1.
WASHINGTON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. International Trade Commission said on Tuesday it had voted to investigate whether some electronic mobile devices from Chinese companies contain hardware and software components that infringe upon patents owned by Qualcomm Inc.

The panel, acting on a complaint by Qualcomm, said it would look at integrated circuits, cameras, systems-on-chips and other technology used by China-based companies Zhuhai Meizu Technology Co, Ltd; Zhuhai Meizu Telecom Equipment Co, Ltd; Dest Technology Limited and LGYD Limited. Overseas Electronics, Inc, of Chicago also was named as a respondent in the action.

Qualcomm has asked the commission to issue a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders against the companies.

.

(Reporting by David Alexander)
Throwing a music festival is harder than you think. Not only do you have to produce the event, build stages, book awesome acts, sell tickets, and provide quality space for great vendors, you've also got to cultivate a positive relationship with the community that hosts you on both a personal and civil government level.

According to a Denver Post report, Vertex Festival in Buena Vista, Colo., has not quite reached an equilibrium on all fronts. Madison House Presents, the same people behind Electric Forest in Michigan, has announced its latest festival will not return for a second installment in 2017, due to an inability to secure a three-year permit with the Chaffee County Commissioners in enough time to make worthwhile planning possible.

Vertex Festival astounded critics and fans with its August 2016 debut which drew about 8,000 fans to hear headlining performances from Alabama Shakes, Odesza, Anderson . Paak, and more. The festival was a success, though it also drew the ire of neighboring residents who complained of wall-shaking bass and inebriated attendees.

Despite these complaints, the Denver Post reports that talks with Madison House Presents and Chaffee County Commissioners have been "healthy," and things look positive for a 2018 Vertex Fest return. The suspension is more a move by Madison House to ensure the highest-quality event rather than rush a sophomore effort as permits are granted.

Billboard Dance has reached out to Madison House Presents for comment and will continue to follow the story as it updates.
Viacom International Media Networks has acquired Television Federal S.A., or Telefe, one of the major free-to-air channels in Argentina. The deal with Telefonica S.A. is for $345 million in cash, the companies said today in announcing the deal.

The announcement comes on Bob Bakishs first day as Viacoms acting CEO, although he played a big role in crafting the terms as head of VIMN. He vowed during Viacoms Q4 earnings call this month that he would continue to accelerate our evolution while building a long-term vision for our future, even as directors weigh a merger with CBS.

Telefe reaches 95% of all households in Argentina and has an estimated viewership share in 2016 of 33%. It also produces more than 3,000 hours of Spanish-language video content each year, and features a library of 33,000 hours of local content. It will join Viacoms pay-TV offerings in Argentina including MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and Paramount Channel.

Telefe is an outstanding broadcast and production business, and this acquisition will accelerate our growth strategy in Argentina, one of the most advanced and valuable media markets in Latin America, Bakish says. Viacom has an unrivalled track record of combining free and pay TV networks to deliver strong growth in high-value or high-growth markets, including in the UK and India. Working together with Telefes highly successful team, we can strengthen Telefes market-leading status in Argentina and expand its presence around the world using Viacoms extensive global network, potentially reaching hundreds of millions of Spanish speakers across Latin and North America, as well as in other markets.

Telefe is one of Argentinas five large broadcast channels. That makes it attractive, Barclays analyst Kannan Venkateshwar said early this month when word of a possible deal leaked. But he also noted that consumers are increasingly moving away from broadcast to cable networks. And he questioned why Viacom would deploy this capital at this point, given the much bigger strategic priorities that have to be addressed.

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Viacom and Spanish telecom giant Telefonica said Tuesday that Viacom has acquired Television Federal, known as Telefe, one of the main free-to-air channels in Argentina for $345 million in cash.

"The transaction adds one of Argentina's most popular television networks and biggest content producers to Viacom's fast-growing portfolio of international TV networks and digital properties," the companies said.

Viacom said the transaction is expected to be accretive to its fiscal year 2017 earnings.

Telefe reaches 95 percent of all households in Argentina, which has a population of 43 million, and has attracted approximately a 33 percent share of viewership year-to-date, Viacom said. The network produces more than 3,000 hours of Spanish-language video content each year, including seven of the top 10 programs currently airing locally. Its library consists of 33,000 hours of local content.

Viacom is buying the Telefe network in capital Buenos Aires; eight wholly owned channels in the interior of the country; Telefe Internacional, a pay TV channel seen throughout the Americas and distributed globally to 10 million subscribers in 17 countries; digital apps such as Mi Telefe (My Telefe) and Telefe Noticias (Telefe News); multi-channel network UPlay; and 12 production studios.

Read more: Viacom's Bob Bakish Says Paramount, MTV, Comedy Central Are Among Key Priorities

"By combining Telefe with Viacom's popular pay TV networks, which include MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and Paramount Channel, this deal further strengthens Viacom International Media Networks' position in Argentina and Latin America," Viacom said.

"Telefe is an outstanding broadcast and production business, and this acquisition will accelerate our growth strategy in Argentina, one of the most advanced and valuable media markets in Latin America," said Bob Bakish on his first day as acting president and CEO of Viacom.

Wall Street has mostly focused on another deal, namely a possible recombination of Viacom and CBS Corp., which the companies have been exploring. But the Argentina deal fits in with Bakish's experience as head of Viacom International Media Networks, which he has made a key growth business in recent years.

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"Viacom has an unrivaled track record of combining free and pay TV networks to deliver strong growth in high-value or high-growth markets, including in the U.K. and India," said Bakish. "Working together with Telefe's highly successful team, we can strengthen Telefe's market-leading status in Argentina and expand its presence around the world using Viacom's extensive global network, potentially reaching hundreds of millions of Spanish speakers across Latin and North America, as well as in other markets."

Telefe will be part of the portfolio of Pierluigi Gazzolo, president of VIMN Americas. "The acquisition builds on Viacom's long and successful track record of investment in Argentina, beginning with the launch of MTV in 1993," the company said. Viacom's portfolio in the market also includes 12 branded pay TV networks, including Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Comedy Central, Paramount Channel and VH1; authenticated TV Everywhere mobile apps, events and experiences; and consumer products. VIMN has maintained a local office in Buenos Aires since 1995.

Analysts, who have been looking for Bakish's first moves, commented on the deal in mostly positive terms.

"We estimate that Telefe generates approximately $200 million in annual revenue at a mid-teens operating margin, with the majority of that revenue coming from local-market advertising," wrote Guggenheim Partners analyst Michael Morris. "We see the acquisition strengthening Viacom's current linear offering in Argentina, the third-largest consumer market in Latin America, from a low-single digit market share to more than 30 percent. In addition, we expect the stronger market share to provide additional leverage in future pay TV carriage negotiations. Argentina currently has about 11 million multi-channel TV subscribers, according to SNL Kagan, growing at a 4 percent annual rate." He concluded: "We see today's action as a positive, albeit still modest, step forward for the business."

Jefferies analyst John Janedis said in a report: "While the deal gives Viacom incremental scale internationally, it also suggests the board is allowing Bakish to invest in the business as the recombination with CBS is evaluated." He added: "We view the deal positively and expect the asset to contribute more once Viacom can better leverage the content library/production to sell into other regions."

Read more: Viacom Names Bob Bakish Acting CEO
(Corrects headline and paragraph 1 to show that Viacom has already bought Telefe. Also removes incorrect Telefe RIC and adds Telefoncia RIC in paragraph 1)

Nov 15 (Reuters) - Viacom Inc, the owner of Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and MTV, said on Tuesday it would buy Argentine broadcaster Television Federal SA (Telefe) from telecom carrier Telefonica SA for $345 million in cash.

The deal to buy the Spanish-language broadcaster and producer is part of Viacom's plan to boost its presence in Argentina and Latin America.

Viacom's international media networks business has been a bright spot for the company, which has been struggling with declining ad revenue and ratings.

Bob Bakish, who headed Viacom's international business, took over as the company's interim chief executive on Tuesday, replacing Tom Dooley.

Viacom launched MTV in Argentina in 1993. The company has 12 pay-TV networks, including Nickelodeon, Nick Jr, Comedy Central, Paramount Channel and VH1, in the country.

Telefe reaches 95 percent of all households in Argentina, with about 26.8 million subscribers. The broadcaster will be led by Pierluigi Gazzolo, president of VIMN Americas.

Bloomberg first reported the deal earlier this month.

The deal, which is subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to add to Viacom's fiscal 2017 earnings.

UBS Investment Bank was Viacom's financial adviser, and M.& M. Bomchil and Shearman & Sterling served as its legal adviser.

Telefonica was advised by Citigroup and DLA Piper and A & F Allende Ferrante provided legal counsel.

(Reporting by Anya George Tharakan in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)
(Adds need for regulatory approval, details)

Nov 15 (Reuters) - Viacom Inc, the owner of Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and MTV, said on Tuesday it had bought Argentine broadcaster Television Federal SA (Telefe) from telecom carrier Telefonica SA for $345 million in cash.

The deal to buy the Spanish-language network and content producer is part of Viacom's plan to boost its presence in Argentina and Latin America.

Viacom said the brands and assets acquired with the purchase included Telefe Internacional, a pay TV channel seen throughout the Americas.

Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) has been a bright spot for the company, which has been struggling with declining ad revenue and ratings.

Bob Bakish, who headed Viacom's international business, was named the company's interim chief executive on Oct. 31, replacing Tom Dooley.

Viacom launched MTV in Argentina in 1993. The company has 12 pay-TV networks, including Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Comedy Central, Paramount Channel and VH1, in the country.

Telefe reaches 95 percent of all households in Argentina, with about 26.8 million subscribers. The broadcaster will be led by Pierluigi Gazzolo, president of VIMN Americas.

The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to add to Viacom's fiscal 2017 earnings.

Bloomberg first reported the deal earlier this month.

A spokesman for Argentina's national telecoms regulator, Enacom, said it would still have to approve the deal.

Enacom's board meets once a month and the spokesman said it was unlikely it would approve the deal at its next meeting on Thursday, meaning it would not be considered until December.

UBS Investment Bank was Viacom's financial adviser, and M.& M. Bomchil and Shearman & Sterling served as its legal adviser.

Telefonica was advised by Citigroup and DLA Piper and A & F Allende Ferrante provided legal counsel.

(Reporting by Anya George Tharakan in Bengaluru. Additional reporting by Eliana Raszewski in Buenos Aires; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Tom Brown)
(Reuters) - Viacom Inc (VIAB.O), the owner of Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and MTV, said on Tuesday it had bought Argentine broadcaster Television Federal SA (Telefe) from telecom carrier Telefonica SA (TEF.MC) for $345 million in cash.

The deal to buy the Spanish-language network and content producer is part of Viacom's plan to boost its presence in Argentina and Latin America.

Viacom said the brands and assets acquired with the purchase included Telefe Internacional, a pay TV channel seen throughout the Americas.

Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) has been a bright spot for the company, which has been struggling with declining ad revenue and ratings.

Bob Bakish, who headed Viacom's international business, was named the company's interim chief executive on Oct. 31, replacing Tom Dooley.

Viacom launched MTV in Argentina in 1993. The company has 12 pay-TV networks, including Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Comedy Central, Paramount Channel and VH1, in the country.

Telefe reaches 95 percent of all households in Argentina, with about 26.8 million subscribers. The broadcaster will be led by Pierluigi Gazzolo, president of VIMN Americas.

The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to add to Viacom's fiscal 2017 earnings.

Bloomberg first reported the deal earlier this month.

A spokesman for Argentina's national telecoms regulator, Enacom, said it would still have to approve the deal.

Enacom's board meets once a month and the spokesman said it was unlikely it would approve the deal at its next meeting on Thursday, meaning it would not be considered until December.

UBS Investment Bank was Viacom's financial adviser, and M.& M. Bomchil and Shearman & Sterling served as its legal adviser.

Telefonica was advised by Citigroup and DLA Piper and A & F Allende Ferrante provided legal counsel.

(Reporting by Anya George Tharakan in Bengaluru. Additional reporting by Eliana Raszewski in Buenos Aires; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Tom Brown)
To shoot Voyage of Time, Terrence Malick's documentary about the birth of the universe, cinematographer Paul Atkins had to go some places he'd never been to before - like the edge of a lava-spewing volcano in Hawaii.

"You had to helicopter into the erupted area," he says. "You're walking on a crusty surface, but right beneath that is 2,000-degree molten lava. If you stand in one location too long, it can literally melt the soles of your boots."

A veteran wildlife DP who has worked on projects for National Geographic, the BBC and Imax, Atkins met Malick in the late '90s at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival. They kept in touch and would talk about Voyage as Malick researched the idea. They also worked together on Malick's The Tree of Life, photographed by three-time Oscar-winning cinematographer Emmanuel "Chivo" Lubezki, with Atkins as second unit DP.

Read more: How Episodic TV Docs Are Muscling in on Oscar

Two versions of the film have been made. Voyage of Time: The Imax Experience is a 45-minute movie narrated by Brad Pitt, while the 90-minute Voyage of Time: Life's Journey was created for ordinary screens with narration by Cate Blanchett. To bring these visual journeys to life - from the Big Bang to the dinosaur age to our present world - Atkins began by reviewing photos, paintings and other images that Malick had assembled.

"He was striving to get something different," the cinematographer explains. "It was important to Terry that this movie not appear like a TV or BBC wildlife documentary."

Courtesy of Obscured Pictures/Greg Eliason

Atkins also drew inspiration from what he learned on The Tree of Life from Malick and Lubezki (with whom Atkins worked more recently as second unit DP on The Revenant). "They have a method they refer to as 'the dogma' that involves shooting in the backlight, shooting in deep focus with wide-angle lenses, so you get the feeling you are actually there. On the Imax screen, you can scan around the image and decide what to look at. That's what we wanted."

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Location work on Voyage involved stops in Iceland, Chile, Palau, Monterey Bay and around the U.S., including the California Redwoods. Back at the volcano, getting the wide-angle shot in deep focus "meant getting the lens as close as possible," says Atkins. "We held the shot until the last second and then ran across the lava field to a cooler area to reload. Then we realized the soles of our boots had peeled back and our socks were exposed. We duct-taped the soles back on so we could go out and shoot again."

This story first appeared in a November standalone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.

Read more: Documentary Roundtable: 'O.J.,' 'Weiner' Filmmakers and 4 More on Dealing With Death Onscreen and When to Turn the Camera Off
Washington (AFP) - German automaker Volkswagen and US environmental regulators have reached an agreement on the diesel-powered 3.0 liter cars also involved in the company's emissions scandal, according to a news report Tuesday.

Under the terms of the agreement, which still requires court approval, Volkswagen would fix 60,000 vehicles with affected 3.0 liter engines and repurchase 19,000 older models for which repairs would be too complex, Bloomberg reported, citing anonymous sources close to the negotiations.

The settlement would close another major chapter in the company's emissions cheating scandal. Volkswagen last month concluded a record-setting $15 billion settlement concerning 2.0 liter diesel cars.

However, this latest agreement with the US Environmental Protection Agency and California's Air Resources Board does not resolve legal actions brought by owners of 3.0 liter cars or by the Federal Trade Commission, according to the report.

A spokeswoman for Volkswagen told AFP the talks were confidential and the company could not comment ahead of a court hearing scheduled for the end of the month. The Environmental Protection Agency declined to comment.

Elizabeth Cabraser, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, emphasized that there had been no agreement involving owners and lessees of the affected 3.0-liter cars.

"While an agreement between the EPA and Volkswagen may address some of the environmental damage, it does not hold the company accountable for the harm caused to consumers," Cabraser said in a statement. "We will continue to pursue a fair resolution on their behalf."

Any agreement would have to give consumers the same benefits offered in October's 2.0-liter class action settlement, including the choice between buyback and repair, Cabraser said.

The company has found itself in a firestorm and seen sales plummet since admitting last year that it deliberately configured as many as 11 million diesel-powered cars sold worldwide with "defeat devices" that reduced harmful nitrogen oxide output during emissions testing but allowed the cars to produce as much as 40 times permissible amounts during actual driving.

The company continues to face a criminal investigation in the US.
By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) has reached an agreement with U.S. regulators for a mix of buybacks and fixes for 80,000 polluting Audi, Porsche and VW 3.0-liter vehicles, two sources briefed on the matter said Tuesday.

The agreement includes a buyback offer for about 20,000 older Audi and VW SUVs and a software fix for 60,000 newer Porsche, Audi and VW cars and SUVs, the sources said. A separate, more complex fix is expected to be offered for the older vehicles. Talks are ongoing between lawyers for the owners and Volkswagen over compensation for the owners ahead of a Nov. 30 court hearing.

The agreement is a major step towards Volkswagen resolving its outstanding diesel emission issues in the United States - after it reached a separate $10.03-billion buyback offer for 475,000 2.0-liter vehicles in June.

Volkswagen has already agreed to spend up to $16.5 billion to resolve U.S. diesel emissions cheating allegations, including the 2.0-liter buyback offer.

Audi said it is still working closely with regulators "to reach an agreement on an approved resolution" ahead of a Nov. 30 court hearing, but declined to comment on confidential talks.

Elizabeth Cabraser, the lead attorney for the owners, said in a statement that any agreement between owners and the company should offer all 3.0-liter owners a choice between a buyback or a fix if approved by regulators.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declined to comment Wednesday.

"While an agreement between the EPA and Volkswagen may address some of the environmental damage, it does not hold the company accountable for the harm caused to consumers. We will continue to pursue a fair resolution on their behalf," she said.

Details of a final settlement are still being worked out but Volkswagen is expected to save potentially billions by avoiding a buyback of all 3.0-liter vehicles.

Volkswagen is also expected to face billions in fines as part of a separate potential settlement with the Justice Department to resolve an ongoing criminal investigation and a civil suit alleging civil violations of the Clean Air Act. Volkswagen also faces legal action by at least 19 U.S. states.

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The 475,000 2.0-liter diesel vehicles have software that allowed them to evade emissions rules in testing and emit up to 40 times legally allowable emissions in onroad driving. The 3.0 litre vehicles have an undeclared auxiliary emissions system that allowed the vehicles to emit up to nine times allowable limits.

Court documents show that at least 60 percent of those owners have already signalled they plan to sell the vehicles back.

The 2.0 litre buyback offer includes compensation of $5,100 to $10,000 per vehicle beyond the vehicle's value. Volkswagen wants to offer significantly less compensation to 3.0-liter owners, the sources said.

Audi has also come under scrutiny over whether some gasoline vehicles have separate software that lowered carbon dioxide emissions by detecting whether a car's steering wheel was turned as it would be when driving on a road.

VW has been barred from selling diesel vehicles in the United States since 2015 and has said it has not decided whether it will resume U.S. diesel sales.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Nick Zieminski)
By Scott Malone BOSTON (Reuters) - A sling-shot, inflatable suits that kids can don and wear while crashing into each other and a hammer inspired by weapons in the movie "Warcraft" ranked among the 10 most hazardous toys on an annual list released on Tuesday by U.S. child safety advocates. The group World Against Toys Causing Harm Inc released its "10 Worst Toys of 2016" at the start of the U.S. holiday shopping season, saying it intends to call attention to playthings that may be more dangerous than parents realize. In addition to toy weapons and other playthings that could encourage children to launch projectiles at or crash into one another, the list includes a large stuffed elephant that the group warns could inadvertently suffocate an infant if left in a crib and a toy puppy with a 31-inch (79 cm) leash that could pose a strangulation hazard. "Although parents have a right to expect that toys they give to their children are safe, unsafe toys remain an ongoing problem," the group said in a statement. "Due to poor design, manufacturing and marketing practices, there are toys available for purchase today with the potential to lead to serious injury and even death," the statement added. The group called out the "Banzai Bump N'Bounce Body Bumpers," for warning on the packaging that users of its inflatable suits should don protective equipment such as helmets before running into one another. But it comes in a box that shows children wearing the suits without protective gear. It also said the "Warcraft Doomhammer" comes with no warnings "regarding potential impact injuries associated with foreseeable use of the heavy, rigid plastic battle hammer." The makers of those products did not respond to requests for comment. But the Toy Industry Association released a statement dismissing the group's concerns. "Year after year these lists have repeatedly shown to be full of false claims that needlessly frighten parents and caregivers," the group said. Other critics of the list, prepared by a child-safety advocate and a trial attorney, dismiss it as describing dangers that are either overblown or obvious. "There's nothing that has zero risk," said Lenore Skenazy, founder of the free-range kids movement and a contributor to the online commentary site Reason.com. "If you are a plaintiffs' attorney you want to make it seem like anything that ever happens to a child is someone else's fault. If there are no accidents, the world is your courtroom." (Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Alan Crosby and Dan Grebler)
Mayor of Clay, West Virginia, Beverly Whaling, appeared to agree with Pamela Ramsey Taylors Facebook post, leading to calls for her termination

A West Virginia county worker was fired after penning a racist Facebook post calling first lady Michelle Obama an ape in heels.

It will be refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady in the White House. Im tired of seeing a Ape in heels, posted Clay County Development Corporations then director Pamela Ramsey Taylor to Facebook following Donald Trumps presidential win last week.

Underneath Taylors post, Clays mayor, Beverly Whaling, voiced her approval: Just made my day Pam.

The racist post, now deleted from Facebook, caused an uproar, with thousands of horrified voters calling on the local mayor to be fired.

Ramsey, a well-known figure in town, was fired from her role as head of the government-funded non-profit organization.

A petition calling on Whaling to be terminated has had more than 121,000 signatures as of midday on Tuesday.

My comment was not intended to be racist at all, said Whaling in a statement to the Washington Post. I was referring to my day being made for change in the White House! I am truly sorry for any hard feeling this may have caused! Those who know me know that Im not of any way racist! Again, I would like to apologize for this getting out of hand!

Taylor apologized on Facebook, but both women have now deleted their accounts.

Taylor told local news station WSAZ-3 that the response  including death threats  to her racist comments have become a hate crime against me and she is looking to sue people who she says have slandered her.

Neither Taylor nor Whaling could be contacted for comment.



Clay is a county of 10,000 people about an hours drive from Charleston, the states capital . Donald Trump won 77% of the vote in Clay County.
An official in West Virginia lost her job on Monday after posting a racist Facebook message in which she referred to First Lady Michelle Obama as an ape in heels, PEOPLE can confirm.

Pamela Ramsey Taylor is no longer employed at the Clay County Development Corporation, a spokesperson for the company told PEOPLE on Tuesday. She previously worked as the director of the non-profit organization, which receives state and federal funds, WSAZ- TV reports.

Taylor reportedly published her message after Donald Trumps presidential election victory, writing, It will be refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady in the White House. Im tired of seeing a (sic) ape in heels.

Clay Mayor Beverly Whaling responded to the post, WSAZ-TV reported  saying, Just made my day Pam.

Neither the post nor the Facebook pages for Taylor and Whaling could be found on Tuesday. The original post was shared hundreds of times on social media before it was removed, the Associated Press reported.

An online petition calling for the terminations of both women had more than 106,000 signatures. Every grant and piece of paper Mrs. Taylor and Ms. Whaling have to fill out and sign promises equal opportunities and a racism free workplace, it says.

WSAZ-TV reported Taylors post was replaced with an apology before her account was deleted. She told the news station she also received threats of violence since the posting  claiming that while shes sorry for everything that has happened, she now believes the situation has turned into a hate crime against me.

Related Video: Women Are Getting IUDs After Trumps Election

Whaling did not respond to PEOPLEs request for comment, but she issued a statement defending herself to The Washington Post.

My comment was not intended to be racist at all, Whaling said. I was referring to my day being made for change in the White House! I am truly sorry for any hard feeling this may have caused! Those who know me know that Im not of any way racist!

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Again, I would like to apologize for this getting out of hand! she continued.

U.S. Census reports say African-Americans make up about 4 percent of West Virginias 1.8 million residents.




Congratulations to the voters in Hitchcock County for recalling County Assessor Marlene Bedore.

They helped restore the integrity of the state system for property taxation.

Thats something that can never be taken for granted.

The latest threat to the system came during the same week when the Omaha City Council voted to try to find a state senator who is willing to sponsor a bill to disband the Nebraska Tax Equalization and Review Commission, or add oversight by elected officials.

The commission is responsible for making sure that tax values are set fairly across the state on the basis of actual comparable sales.

Without the commission, or something like it, theres no assurance that same standards would be used across the state.

In Hitchcock County, for example, Bedore was accused of lowering valuations for people who supported her for election in 2014, and raising values for property owners who supported her opponent.

Last year state property tax administrator Ruth Sorenson issued a report finding that Bedore did not use proper valuation practices to ensure uniform and proportional property values. Hearings on the Revenue departments recommendation that her assessors certificate be suspended are scheduled for Thursday and Friday.

In Omaha the city councils attempt to persuade the Legislature to disband the equalization commission appears to be fueled by Omaha City Council President Ben Grays ire with the commissions decision to reduce tax values on homes in northeast Omaha.

Gray said the valuation decreases will depress sale prices for homes and discourage renovations by homeowners. What they did was a recipe for disaster in north Omaha. Thats unacceptable, Gray said.

The tax equalization commission, which is appointed by the governor, is certainly no stranger to controversy. The criticism by Gray is unusual only in that he is protesting valuation decreases. Usually those upset with its decisions are complaining about higher property tax values.

For the system to operate proper it is essential that tax values be accurate and fair no matter where the property is located.

Neither the state equalization commission or the local county assessor sets the tax rate. Thats done by elected officials, and they are the ones that should take the heat for tax rates.

The job of the assessor is to set tax valuations that properly reflect values according to the real estate market. The job of the state tax equalization commission is to double check the work of the local assessors across county lines.

Its imperative that property tax values be set professionally and accurately. Anything that jeopardizes the systems ability to achieve that goal  whether its a rogue assessor or weakening state oversight  should be rejected.
Cars, protests and Trump, heres whats On Our Radar for today.

The Los Angeles Auto Show opens today...Besides getting a sneak peek at the hottest new cars to hit the market, lots of eyes have been focusing on the U.S. motor industry and the future of trade and manufacturing. These are top priorities for Trump who has been a critic of some automakers and he's ready to shake things up when he takes his seat in the Oval Office.

Ford (NYSE:F) CEO Mark Fields responds to the companys critics in an interview with Jeff Flock at 12:20pm ET today.

Protests continue throughout the country in response to Donald Trumps victory. Minorities, college students and high school walk outs are planned today. 1996 GOP Presidential Nominee Bob Dole says they are all just a bunch of young punks but is there an end in sight?

Neil Cavuto is covering the latest with live reports at 12pm ET.

Trump continues to make news with his staff picks. Backlash is gaining steam against Steve Bannon, the alt-right Breitbart News chairman, now Trumps chief strategist. Other non-conventional frontrunners include Rudy Giuliani as Secretary of State, Richard Grenell for the United States ambassador to the United Nations and Michigan GOP chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel to take the lead of the RNC.

Lou Dobbs is keeping an eye on all the staff picks and sits down with Former Ambassador and rumored cabinet pick, John Bolton at 7pm ET.

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Pollsters, members of the media, the Democratic Party and even to some degree the Republican Party and many of its top leaders didnt believe GOP upstart Donald J. Trump had much of a chance to defeat former secretary of state and first lady Hillary Clinton last week. Most polls leading up to Election Day proclaimed Clinton the favorite, albeit by varying margins.

Instead, Trump defied the odds and not only pulled out a victory but resoundingly defeated Clinton in the Electoral College vote by 290-232. His final results could widen to as much as 306 electoral votes, a feat not even former Republican president George W. Bush exceeded in his two wins in 2000 and 2004. In fact, the race wasn't even near the tightest Electoral College finishes over the course of 58 presidential elections, or even among the most contested results. Here are the closest election results in U.S. history:

1796

John Adams 71, Thomas Jefferson 68, Thomas Pinckney 59

In the third-ever presidential election, Adams beat out Jefferson and four other candidates as the long-since defunct Federalist Party claimed the executive branchs highest office for the first time. Under the system of government at the time, Jefferson became vice president after he claimed the second-most electoral votes.

1800

Thomas Jefferson 73, Aaron Burr 73, John Adams 65

This is the election that eventually resulted in the creation of the 12th Amendment to the Constitution, and ushered away the practice of the runner-up taking the vice presidency as a consolation prize. With Jefferson and Burr both representing the Democratic-Republican Party, the rise of which and other parties unexpected by the countrys founders, the electorate used both of their votes on each candidate resulting in the tie. That led the House of Representatives to break the tie. About three and a half years later the amendment that provides the procedure for electing the president and vice president was ratified.

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1824

John Quincy Adams 84, Andrew Jackson 99

Adams is the first and only election winner who failed to snag a majority of the electoral votes, but Jackson was the only loser to claim a plurality of the Electoral College and not win. Jackson also won the popular vote by nearly 38,000. The House of Representatives eventually decided the election under the Twelfth Amendment, the only time its ever been used to determine the next commander-in-chief. Often referred to as the Corrupt Bargain, then-Speaker of the House Henry Clay created a coalition that selected Adams, who in turn named him secretary of state.

1876

Rutherford B. Hayes 185, Samuel J. Tilden 184

Similar to Trump vs. Clinton, the Democrat Tilden claimed the popular vote by more than 250,000 but won 17 states compared to the Republican Hayes 21. Tildens 184 electoral votes were also one shy of the required number to be president, unlike todays 270. It came down to Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina and Oregon for their then-20 combined electoral votes. The controversy would stretch on for months, and lead almost right up to Inauguration Day, which was scheduled for March 5, 1877.

Eventually, the election was decided not by votes, but a deal made between the parties called the Compromise of 1877. The deal essentially handed Hayes the 20 votes he needed to claim the Electoral College and in turn the Republicans agreed to pull all troops out of the South and end the Reconstruction Era a little over 12 years after the end of the Civil War.

2000

George W. Bush 271, Al Gore 266

One of the tightest races in terms of both the Electoral College and the popular vote, Bush would eventually claim Floridas then 25 electoral votes and win the election but not until the courts were involved by both candidates. A recount began in Florida, but Bush sued to hinder those recounts, while Gore also filed a suit to allow vote counters more time. Eventually, Floridas Supreme Court decided the recounts should continue and Bush challenged their conclusion in the U.S. Supreme Court. The court then sided with Bush.

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Run-D.M.C. might've spent one single chilling in a KFC, and Ice Cube may have prominently endorsed Burger King as his date-night dining establishment of choice, but no fast-food relationship in '80s hip-hop ran as deep as that of the Beastie Boys and White Castle.

Despite their later reluctance to have their music associated with any kind of advertising, the then-enfants terribles of New York rap-rock were more than happy to give their preferred cult-favorite burger chain a virtually unprecedented amount of real estate on their classic 1986 LP Licensed to Ill. The Beasties name-drop the restaurant on a staggering five of the blockbuster debut's 13 tracks: "I chill at White Castle, 'coz it's the best" ("The New Style"), "I can always make 'em smile / From White Castle to the Nile" ("Girls"), "Got the ladies of the '80s from here to White Castle" ("Hold it Now, Hit It"), "We went to White Castle and got thrown out" ("Slow Ride") and "We got determination, bass and highs / White Castle fries only come in one size." ("Slow and Low").

In celebration of the union between band and brand -- which celebrates a milestone anniversary today, as Licensed to Ill turns 30 -- Billboard talked to White Castle VP Jamie Richardson, a major music fan in mourning over the death of Leonard Cohen at the time of our Friday conversation ("He was one of the absolute greats"). Richardson discussed how and why the association between the two pop culture fixtures has remained strong over the years, expressed his wish to induct the Beasties into White Castle's own Cravers' Hall of Fame, and shouted out his favorite Castle-related reference on Licensed -- even if the lyric itself is no longer accurate.

Do you generally know how long White Castle's been cognizant of their connection with Licensed to Ill? Were they in touch with the Beastie Boys back in the mid-'80s?

There wasn't a lot of contact that I was aware of. I think it really genuinely happened pretty organically. And at the time, I think we might have been a little bit aware [of the references]... I remember being part of the new business pitch [when I started there] back in '93, and we were aware at that point, as the agency folks. And it was always just one of those fun things where we'd make lists of Celebrity Cravers, and back in the day, the standard bearers were, like, Frank Sinatra and Liz Taylor. So it covered the whole range.

But I do remember in those early days of putting those lists together, the Beastie Boys being on the list, as terms of fans of the brand. We opened our first Castle in New Jersey in 1929. We're still family-owned after all these years, so we're not franchised -- all the restaurants are company-owned. So that kind of leads to its own folklore too. Because people in the restaurants would say "Oh yeah, [the Beastie Boys] used to come in here! They used to come in this Castle!"

Kid Rock, actually, every year in Louisville -- I don't think he did this last year, but apparently three or four years in a row, they had this big fireworks thing. And Kid Rock goes to Castle No. 7 -- that's right on Broadway, downtown Louisville -- and says "I'll buy everybody all their food if I can get mine first." So he buys the place out. And it's become kind of a legend, but really, it's happened.

Do you know if there's ever been any kind of outreach between the brand and the group, trying to get some kind of official endorsement?

Y'know, they haven't. We've tried to do outreach, and boy, it would be awesome, if this [interview] kind of led to that. Because we want to honor them, and induct them into the Cravers' Hall of Fame.

We have one Rock and Roll Hall of Famer in the Cravers' Hall of Fame, Alice Cooper. We inducted Alice two years ago, and he came to our home office, and instead of Inside the Actor's Studio, we did Inside the Cravers' Studio. Same format. So we asked him what he wanted to hear if White Castle existed in heaven, what he'd want to hear when he reached the pearly gates. And he said, "Can I have some Pepcid AC?" It was awesome, man.

But we'd love to induct the band. We're small, we're not big like Mickey D's or these other places. We've done outreach to agents, but we get their names from, like, the IMDB database online -- send them an email and hope we hear back. So I'm sure there's probably better ways to go about it. But we would love to induct them into the Hall of Fame.

I guess the Beastie Boys have always been kind of protective about their image, and they've been pretty sparse over the years with endorsements in general.

And we respect that. That's the authenticity piece of it that, candidly, as a smaller kind of fighter place, like we are. We just want to serve our neighborhoods and communities.

Do you think it's become part of the White Castle brand over the years, that you have this unofficial spokesman that's been such a major fixture in youth culture?

I think we're really fortunate in that we get to be that oasis that attracts creative souls. And the Beastie Boys are certainly emblematic of that. And in the same year, a little bit before Licensed to Ill came out, The Smithereens had "White Castle Blues" out. And actually, I absolutely believe this -- this is my [Tri-State] triumvirate -- because you've got the Beastie Boys, The Smithereens, and then you've got Hayden Schlossberg and Jon Hurwitz, the screenplay writers who wrote Harold and Kumar [Go to White Castle], who grew up in New Jersey, going to White Castle there. There's a radiating center of something good there.

The thing of it is, I really do think that we attract people because we don't try to be something we're not, and at the heart of it, that's what art really is about. Being authentic and being true to your craft. That's what they've certainly done over the years.

Are you personally a fan of the Beastie Boys?

You know, I'm such a fan of White Castle, I honestly can say I became a fan of the Beastie Boys because of Licensed to Ill. And I'm still searching for it on vinyl. And the reason I became a fan, really candidly, is because I know the White Castle references were on there. So it was kind of like exploratory work. That was my introduction.

To me, the sadness is, without MCA that was a triumvirate, those three. And I respect that they're dedicated to his memory, and not trying to do something without him. I think that's pretty cool.

And do you think it's something that's still associated with White Castle to this day? Does it come up among the execs, or do fans reference the lyrics still?

Yeah, absolutely. The Beastie Boys references, it's not something that people talk about every day, but definitely if you look at our social media and other things, people know it, and they reference it. Fans of the Beastie Boys make the connection. And it's become emblematic, and I think there's something freedom-seeking in it. Because that album was really liberating, in that way. I think it was about that [feeling of] "Time for Me to Fly," post-REO [Speedwagon], in a totally different way.

And I think that's what we've represented for people. That transition from teenage years to young adulthood, whatever it is. Kids are taken to other chains to eat when they don't have a choice, and it's pre-packaged, and it's the kids' meal. When you come to our place, you can sit down and devour a crave case. You can go there after maybe it's been a later night, or swing by in the morning if it's a much later night. And I think that we give that permission, that's gonna be welcoming for whoever, whenever. And I think that as a result, people do associate the songs from the Beastie Boys with us.

The food is certainly where the physical nourishment comes from. But more importantly is the spiritual, emotional, whatever kind of nourishment you want to call, where there's that something that happens. We're not trying to be something we're not, and I think that's what great music, great art is about.

Do you have a favorite White Castle reference on the album?

The one that I love is "White Castle fries only come in one size," on "Slow and Low," because to me that's it. That's who we are. And since then, we've gotten different sizes for fries, [though] I don't think we feel like we've really been untrue to our ultimate calling -- we responded to our customers and gave 'em more sizes. But that to me is so emblematic of what's unique about us. We're marching to the beat of our drummer, and I think they captured that there.
President-elect Donald Trump 's world is about to get a lot bigger.

The Trump presidential transition effort was a hypothetical exercise until Wednesday, but now is the epicenter of an enormous effort to staff and manage a new administration from the Cabinet level all the way down. That makes the relatively obscure officials who have been toiling away on policy and governance issues during the campaign key gatekeepers in Trump's new Washington.

For many Republicans in Washington  especially those looking for jobs in the new administration  it hasn't been clear exactly who to call to get on board with the new team. On Thursday, CNBC obtained an organizational chart being used by members of the Trump transition team detailing officials and volunteers handling each policy issue area.



Entitled "Current Agency Action Team," the chart lists the Boston Consulting Group's Ron Nicol as director of agency action. Nicol's biography on the Boston Consulting Group website says he has worked on major business transformations for Fortune 50 companies, and that he "specializes in strategy development, organization transformation and delayering, customer discovery, merger and acquisition advice, and the development of major cost-reduction programs." According to the chart, Nicol oversees six key issue areas: defense, national security, economic issues, domestic issues, management/budget, and "Agency Transform. & Innovation."



Each of those issue areas has its own head, who will be key policy gatekeepers in Washington and who will be tasked with connecting with their current Obama administration counterparts to find out what's going on inside each agency. Defense, for example, is led by Keith Kellogg, a former vice president at Cubic Corporation who earlier served as assistant Army chief of staff for operations.



The economic team is headed by Bill Walton, according to the document, apparently the same Walton who is chairman of Rappahannock Ventures, and David Malpass, an economist and former Reagan administration treasury official.



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The economic team is divided into seven key areas, each with its own Trump team member. Treasury is run by Malpass and commerce is run by Ray Washburne, a Trump campaign fundraiser with ties to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. United States Trade Representative  an area of heightened importance given the prominence of Trump's pledge to overhaul the U.S. approach to trade negotiations  is handled by Dan DiMicco, the former Nucor CEO.



Handling "Independent Financial Agencies," presumably including the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as other financial regulators, is former SEC commissioner Paul Atkins, who is now the CEO of Patomak Global Partners.



Other key issue areas include national security, which is being led by former congressman Mike Rogers, and domestic issues, led by former Ohio official Ken Blackwell. Management/budget is being jointly handled by former Attorney General Ed Meese and Kay Coles James, a former director of the Office of Personnel Management.



Heading up the "Agency Transform. & Innovation" category are Beth Kaufman and Jonathan Beck.



The full chart is below:







CORRECTION: Keith Kellogg is a former vice president of Cubic Corporation.
In many developed nations, the corporal punishment of childrenthat is, spanking, whipping, caning and so onis illegal. America, where its even legal to spank a child at school in some states, has been something of a holdout, but a new study suggests that fewer mothers approve of using spanking as a disciplinary technique.

Georgetown University researchers analyzed data from the University of Chicagos General Social Survey and found that the percentage of mothers in middle-income families who reported spanking their kids dropped from 46% to 21% over a 23-year period.

The study, published Nov. 14 in the journal Pediatrics, also found that, across all socioeconomic groups, the number of moms with kids under 5 who reported using spanking was shrinking while the number of moms who approved of various forms of nonphysical punishment was growing. For example, the percentage of moms who endorsed time-outsremoving kids from the environments in which the bad behavior took placeincreased to 81% in 2011 from 41% in 1988.

Want TIME for you and TIME for KIDs? Get this special offer.

For many experts this lessening of physical punishment has been a long time coming. The American Academy of Pediatrics warned parents to avoid physically disciplining their children as far back 1998. That message has slowly been trickling through. And while it has long been the case that low income parents use spanking and other physical punishment more often than wealthier parents, that gap is narrowing, says the study, as the message about more effective disciplinary techniques seeps out.

The authors of the study believe the drop in spankings is part of a longer trend that started in the 1980s. It may be in response to social science research that suggests spanking is linked to negative outcomes for children like delinquency, antisocial behavior, psychological problems and substance abuse, says Rebecca Ryan, Associate Psychology Professor at the D.C.-based university and lead author of the study. There is also little evidence that spanking or other forms of physical discipline are effective in the long term at reducing unwanted child behaviors or encouraging children to internalize, to really believe in, parents rules.

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To replace physical punishment parents have started using gentler techniques, including timeouts and what are known as token economies, such as sticker charts, for good behavior. The AAP, pediatricians and the rise of the parenting genre in books have also probably played a role in phasing out spanking.

READ MORE: The Discipline Wars Among American Parents

Of course there are still plenty of parents who think that when they spare the rod, they spoil the child. The Georgetown study suggests that low income mothers are more likely to spank than other income levels, and indeed a quarter of them reported hitting their kid in the previous week. But as recently as 2013, a Harris Poll of more than 2000 parents found that the majority of parents of any wealth, gender or ethnicityexcept Pacific Islander or Asian agreed with the statement that it is sometimes necessary to give a kid a good hard spanking.

There is also a slight gender difference. Men are more likely to believe its OK to spank kids than women are, but the current study doesnt look at fathers attitudes. But researchers think women are changing their parenting habits more swiftly. Data from the GSS suggests that the decline in support for corporal punishment of children since the 1980s has been more pronounced among women than men, says Ryan. So, it stands to reason that the trends we found might be similarbut weakerfor fathers. Its hard to know.

Its also plausible that mothers have realized that many experts frown on spanking and so these moms decline to share their true views on the subject, or are ashamed of using it and thus are not candid. Ryan says that she would tell those who still think that spanking is an important parental tool what the AAP said in 1998: There are many nonphysical discipline strategies, like time outs, positive reinforcement of good behavior, and selective inattention, that have been shown to be more effective at curbing unwanted behavior and encouraging the internalization of parents values than spanking.
Why did Hillary Clinton lose last weeks presidential election? The candidate herself believes James Comey, the FBI director who notified Congress in an October 28 letter that he was reopening the inquiry into her private emails, was to blame. Her campaign, meanwhile, has cited a host of uncontrollable headwinds, asserting that her team did all they could in an unforeseeably difficult environment.

Many Democrats, however, are less forgiving of the campaign and its strategy. It may be true that the Comey letter shaved a crucial few points off Clintons vote in the home stretch. But critics believe a better campaign would have left her less exposed to a last-minute surprise. If not for a series of miscalculations, these critics contend, the Comey letter wouldnt have had the impact it didand she might be president-elect today.

I truly believe she was ahead two weeks out and had a catastrophic last two weeks, a senior operative for an uncoordinated pro-Clinton effort, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told me. But that she was even in a position to have been able to lose in the last two weeks was the result of a lot of forces laid in place before that.

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Everything becomes clear in hindsight, of course, and the Clinton team was hardly alone in thinking it had the election in the bagTrumps campaign thought so, too. But devastated Democrats have settled on a handful of decisions that, in retrospect, might have sealed her fate.

First, they contend, Clinton need not have wholly ceded white working-class voters to Trump, who won them by a larger margin than Ronald Reagan in his 1984 landslide. Meanwhile, she failed to get young people and minoritiesthe too-aptly-named Obama coalitionexcited about her candidacy. Both of those weaknesses, critics say, could be traced back to a message that emphasized social diversity over economic fairness. And the Clinton teams overweening confidence blinded it to her weaknesses.

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The postmortem debate over Clintons loss is more than just finger-pointingit has important implications for how the Democratic Party moves forward. Some partisans side with her team in blaming external forces, from events like the Comey letter to the medias coverage of the race. Others look at Clinton's lead going into the final weeks, in a nation where most voters view President Obama favorably, and conclude that she blew an eminently winnable race. (A Clinton campaign official disputed many of these critiques to me, but acknowledged that the widespread expectation she was going to win made it difficult for the campaign to see weaknesses. The official also conceded that Clintons campaign underestimated the electorates desire for change.)

Recommended: The Smell of Corruption Emanating From the Clinton Machine

How partisans decide to view Clintons lossas a fluke, as a tactical shortcoming, or as the product of deeper issueswill determine how they attempt to rebuild. For a party that finds itself decimated and powerless at almost every level, those are consequential conclusions indeed.

Explanation No. 1: The white working class. Trump galvanized white voters without college degrees, particularly in the Rust Belt; Clintons team calculated that this bloc was a lost cause and could be ignored in favor of focusing on her base and trying to persuade white-collar voters she was the less risky choice. Bill Clinton reportedly agitated for the campaign to pay more attention to the bubbas that had once been his base, only to be rebuffed by a campaign staff that believed his worldview was out of date.

Were these voters gettable? As Alec MacGillis reported, many blue-collar men voted for Barack Obama against John McCain and Mitt Romney because they thought he better related to their struggles. They did not think the same of Clinton, who spent the last eight years becoming synonymous with the global elite. The result was that, while Obama won union households by 18 points nationally, Clinton won them by just 8 points, and fared far worse in the midwestern states that decided the election. She lost rural voters by a 2-to-1 margin, again worse than Obama.

Obama, at his press conference Monday, argued against the idea that Democrats can afford to write off any group or region of voters, saying, We have to compete everywhere. We have to show up everywhere. We have to work at a grassroots level, something that's been a running thread in my career. He won states like Iowa, the president argued, because he competed hard for their votes.

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Clintons primary opponent echoed the theme: I come from the white working class, Bernie Sanders tweeted on Monday, and I am deeply humiliated that the Democratic Party cannot talk to the people where I came from.

Meanwhile, Clintons single-minded focus on Republican-leaning college-educated white women meant she was reliant on soft support from a group that would rather, all things being equal, vote for the Republican candidate. When fresh doubts arose about Clinton, that group was all too ready to fly the coop. One of Clintons strategies was to appeal to moderate Republican women by showing how disgusting Trump is, Joe Dinkin of the Working Families Party, a left-wing party that endorsed Sanders in the primaries but worked for Clinton in the general election, told me. But, he said, being a Republican voter means already having come to terms with voting for disgusting racists and sexists sometimes.

Explanation No. 2: The Obama coalition. While Clintons campaign was focused on television advertising aimed at suburban swing voters, there were ample warning signs that African American and Millennial voters werent inspired by her candidacy. Polls and focus groups showed young people disliked both candidates; in interviews, black voters were unenthused. But Clintons campaign assumed they would show up for her simply because they were afraid of Trump.

Instead, many of them refused to fall in line. Eight percent of African American voters under 30 chose a third-party candidate, as did 5 percent of Latinos under 30, according to an analysis of the election results by the Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher. These protest votes, he argued, were enough to seal Clintons fate, even though this years electorate was just as diverse as 2012s, and Trump did not do any better than Romney among young, minority voters.

Clinton, Belcher said, agreed with these voters on the issues they cared about, such as criminal justice and police brutality, but failed to reach them effectively. The campaign ignored warnings from Belcher and others, such as Florida Representative Alcee Hastings, that it wasnt doing enough to reach out to black voters in particular.

The larger issue for the Democratic Party is that the coalition of voters that elected Obama has never come out to vote for Democrats when Obama wasnt atop the ticket. These younger black and brown voters who supported Obama were more his voters than Dem voters, Belcher told me. They had a stronger allegiance to him than a party, though clearly Dem in issue orientation.

Explanation No. 3: The economic message. Bound up in both the above problems, critics contend, was a campaign message that focused more on social issues and embracing diversitystronger together, who we arethan on themes of economic justice. This [result] is the culmination of a long-term process that began quite a long time ago, of the Democratic Party walking away from working-class people and working-class issues over the years and becoming the party of the professional class, Thomas Frank, author of Listen, Liberal!, said on a broadcast of NPRs Diane Rehm Show on Monday. Franks book, which came out in March, urged the party to eschew corporatism and return to its economic-justice roots.

Clinton talked about taxing the rich, redistributing wealth, and creating various new benefits, like paid family leave. But she rarely talked about jobsa message that would have resonated with the working class of all races. Her America is already great message didnt carry far beyond the degree-rich elites who are indeed doing fine these days, particularly against Trumps message of right-wing economic populism. (The Clinton official contended that she campaigned vigorously on the economy and noted that, according to exit polls, Clinton won the majority of voters who said the economy was the most important issue.)

Clinton also chose temperament as the main line of attack about Trump, painting him as erratic, unqualified, and bigotedunfit, in her termsrather than as an out-of-touch rich guy who couldnt understand regular peoples struggles. In my own conversations with African American voters, they were often bothered less by Trumps racism, which struck them as nothing new, than by his having inherited wealth and never having had to earn his position. Clinton might have thought she was too privileged herself to pull off an attack on Trumps material circumstances, but she allowed Trump to cast himself as a workingmans candidate virtually unopposed.

Explanation No. 4: The machine. Clintons campaign was run by the field-organizing guru Robby Mook, based on the Obama model of data-driven field organizing. The campaign hierarchy brushed off as bedwetting allies qualms about the paint-by-numbers strategy. As a DNC staffer told U.S. News & World Report, They were too reliant on analytics and not enough on instinct and human intel from the ground. Political consultants tend to overestimate the effect of campaign tactics, and a good ground game is no substitute for a movements organic zeal.

The Clinton machines supposedly precise targeting may not have been all it was cracked up to be: Two former Sanders advisers contended in the Huffington Post that Clinton was unwittingly turning out Trump supporters based on their demographic profiles. And her teams focus on micro-messaging came at the expense of thematic unity. As another former Sanders adviser, Scott Goodstein, put it, No amount of digital savvy will take you across the finish line if you dont have a message that resonates.... The Clinton campaign too often chose gimmicks over real heartfelt messages.

Explanation No. 5: Arrogance. In one of his weirder and more imaginary riffs on the stump, Trump claimed that when Clinton came off the trail to supposedly prepare for the debates, she was actually sleeping, insinuating without evidence that she was lazy and frail. She wasnt either of those things, but it was true that, even late in the campaign, she kept a light schedule, holding fewer events than her rival. This worried senior Democrats, who told me she seemed to be taking winning for granted rather than fighting for it.

Read Related Notes

Clintons leisurely pace fed the perception that she thought she was marching to an inevitable coronation. Inevitability didnt work out too well for Clinton in 2008, and it didnt work this year, either.

This was not a resounding defeat for Clinton and the Democrats, of courseshe won the popular vote, and Trump received a smaller percentage of the vote than Romney did four years ago. But it exposed a wellspring of brewing discontent in the Democratic ranksissues that, in retrospect, Obamas victories and Republican dysfunction papered over for years. Now the question is how Democrats pick up the pieces.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
isis wooden tank fake decoy

On Monday, a Reuters report detailed how ISIS constructed fake tanks, Humvees, and even put beards on mannequins in an attempt to stifle the US-led military coalition's bombing campaign against the terror group.

While the idea seems clever in theory, there's a major reason it won't present too much of a challenge to the US and allies: thermal imaging.

Wooden tanks and Humvees, no matter how realistically they're built or deployed, don't emit heat as a real vehicle would. The drones that circle the skies above ISIS's havens in Iraq and Syria have no trouble toggling between thermal and other types of imaging.

Watch the clip:

Here you see a drone observing a moving vehicle, the target. The video pauses quickly to show a red box around the incoming bomb. By the trajectory of the bomb, we can tell it came from another plane.

The bomb obliterates the vehicle, and the drone, which observes in part to confirm the kill, toggles for a moment to thermal imaging.

The blast around the vehicle turns from gray to white as the camera displays heat instead of light. That's the problem ISIS's bearded mannequins can't overcome  they're cold.

However, decoys have long been used in war, and often to some effect. In World War II, both sides made extensive  and sometimes very effective  use of decoys. But that was before infrared imaging and advanced air forces took to the sky.

A tank made of wood that was used by Islamic State militants as a diversion tactic is seen in Bawiza, north of Mosul, Iraq November 13, 2016. REUTERS/Ari Jalal

More likely, the dummies would confuse the human intelligence of the US-led coalition against ISIS. Allies on the ground, like the Kurds or Iraqi forces, may scout locations, be fooled by the decoys, and report bad information back to the coalition. Additionally, analysts studying satellite and other traditional imaging may be fooled by the fakes.

It would take some time for the coalition to reconcile the difference between its satellite imagery, human intelligence, and thermal imaging from deployed drones, but it's not an insurmountable task.

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In fact, Baghdad-based US Air Force Col. John Dorrian told Reuters that the coalition has been on to ISIS's decoy game for some time.

"We call it tactical deception. Daesh (ISIS) has been doing it, and that's certainly a tactic that enemies like to use," he said. "It is actually not as troubling as a lot of the other things we've seen," like the time ISIS burned down a chemical plant to spread a cloud of choking, corrosive gases so large that it was visible from space.

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If you only read one thing: President Obama was a frequent and vocal critic of Donald Trump on the campaign trail, but now that Trump is President-elect, Obama is holding his fire. At a press conference Monday and on conference calls with Democrats, Obama urged patience for Trump, who he acknowledged is rapidly coming to terms with the enormity of the office hes soon to occupy. Obama sidestepped questions about his past criticism of Trump, Trumps policy agenda, and his hiring of Breitbarts Stephen Bannon.

The Democratic Partys soul-searching continues as it seeks its next chair. Among those who have thrown their name into the mix are the Muslim-American Rep. Keith Ellison, former DNC chair Howard Dean, South Carolina party chair Jaime Harrison and former Maryland Gov. Martin OMalley. Before it can select a person, the DNC has to decide what type of leadership it wantsa vocal spokesperson, an effective fundraiser, and/or an astute political operative and manager. Finding someone who meets all of those criteria is almost impossible, and the party will have to decide which is values more. It may look to the RNC for guidance, where the party relied on more technocratic leadership to return to victory.

How Trump is bringing the Alt-Right to the White House. Obama takes a shot at Clinton. And Big Business bets big on Trump.

Here are your must reads:

Must Reads

President Obama on Donald Trump: This Office Has a Way of Waking You Up

Obama urges time for his successor to govern [TIME]

Democrats First Big Decision Since the Election: Choosing a New Leader

A choice for the direction of a listless party [TIME]

How Donald Trump Is Bringing the Alt-Right to the White House

The former media mogul is Trumps link to the right-wing fringe [TIME]

Obama Suggests Clinton Didnt Work as Hard as He Did

I spent 87 days going to every small town and fair and fish fry and VFW hall, Obama said. [Politico]

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U.S. Businesses Bet on Which Trump Will Govern

Populist Donald Trump or traditional Republican? [Wall Street Journal]

Sound Off

Regardless of what experience or assumptions he brought to the office, this office has a way of waking you up  President Obama on his meeting with Donald Trump at a press conference Monday

I told my team you are allowed to mope for a week and a half, maybe two if you really need it.  Obama on a conference call with supporters

Bits and Bites

Short list emerges for RNC chair [Politico]

SEC Chair Mary Jo White Will Step Down at the End of the Obama Administration [Associated Press]

Floridas Stand Your Ground Law Linked to Homicide Increase [TIME]

Will Anti-Trump Marches Become a Movement? [TIME]

Ex-Intelligence Chairman Rogers Leaves Trump Transition Team [Bloomberg]

Steve Bannon Who? Washington Republicans Say They Dont Know Trump Strategist [BuzzFeed]

Trump and Putin speak by phone, say theyll work together to improve relations [Washington Post]

Latino groups argue Trumps immigration stance close to Obamas [Financial Times]

Trump advisers steamroll Christies transition [Politico]
If Russia is cracking down on corruption, apparently no one warned Alexei Ulyukayev. On Tuesday, Moscows anti-corruption Investigative Committee charged Ulyukayev, the governments economy minister, with attempting to take bribes to approve a major oil company acquisition deal. But as with many high-profile arrests in Russia, theres a lot more to the story beneath the state-run media headlines.

The Investigative Committee charged Ulyukayev with corruption after he threatened to create obstacles for one state-owned oil company, Rosneft, to acquire a 50 percent stake in another, Bashneft, unless he was paid a $2 million bribe. The Rosneft-Bashneft deal sparked a turf war between rivaling factions in Russia before Ulyukayevs arrest, one source told Reuters.

Ulyukayev and economic liberals close to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev initially opposed the acquisition. Meanwhile, Igor Sechin, CEO of Rosneft and close Putin ally, fiercely lobbied for it. In October, Sechins faction won the power struggle. The government hoped the $5 billion deal could help tackle Moscows burgeoning budget deficit amid a recession fueled by the global oil price glut and Western sanctions.

Some Kremlin watchers are already questioning Ulyukayevs guilt. Putin has a habit of consolidating power through high-profile arrests and prosecutions, as Mikhail Khodorkovsky (who, for the record, does not believe that Ulyukayev would solicit a bribe from Sechin) and Alexei Navalny know all too well. Ulyukayev could well be the latest in a long line of Russian power brokers to fall victim to Putins predilection for making a point through arrest.

Putins logic in arresting the loyal and high-ranking Ulyukayev was to demonstrate his power over all government officials. The overnight arrest of a minister lets everyone know that anything can happen at any time, Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of liberal opposition party Yabloko, told Russian radio station Ekho Moskvy.

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You would have to be crazy to threaten Rosneft and extract a $2 million bribe from Igor Sechin, one of the most influential people in this country, a month after the deal was given legal and political clearance, Alexander Shokhin, head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs said, told Business FM Radio.

It is unclear if the arrest is meant to pave the way for the next stage of the privatization of Rosneft, or if it is a behind-the-scenes admission that the Russian economy is hurting and not likely to soon get better, or its a power play for the position of prime minister, or even if its simply to keep government ministers on their proverbial toes.

What is clear is that the trial is taking place on Tuesday. Prosecutors have apparently asked for the economy minister to be kept under house arrest during the trial. Ulyukayev could face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty. He is the highest-ranking official the state has detained since the dissolution of the Soviet Union  and, per Moscow-based journalist Joshua Yaffa, the first serving minister to be arrested since Lavrentiy Beria in 1953.

Photo credit: VASILY MAXIMOV/AFP/Getty Images
Due to the antiquated, unfair Electoral College system of electing a President, America has just put the Ku Klux Klans candidate in the White House! This is despite this being the second election in 16 years where the winner of the popular vote did not win the electoral vote. This system was put in place in the 18th Century by the Founding Fathers to keep white, male landowners in control of elections.
Snapchat has reportedly filed for an IPO.

And the reason, all else considered, is simple: to pay shareholders.

Reuters reported late Tuesday that the social media platform  now known as Snap Inc.  has confidentially filed to go public in a deal that could value the company as high as $25 billion. Snaps debut could come as soon as March.

Recall that Facebook tried to buy the company for $3 billion back in 2013 and was famously turned down. If Snap debuts at a valuation eight times this amount, well, theres no debate over whether this was the right call.

Eventually, though, at a certain scale companies must find their way to public markets in order to accomplish the simple goal of paying shareholders. Or rather, the companys investors need to pay their shareholders.

At some point, all the private money, the financial sponsors, that are in [a private company], are going to have to bring their entities to public markets so that they can pay their shareholders, said Matt DeSalvo, head of US equities at Mizuho Securities.

DeSalvo noted, of course, that investors will pick their spots on when to go public, as private investment funds  whether its private equity or venture capital  have a certain window inside of which to return capital to their investors.

Additionally, companies could want to reward their own employees who have been paid with a considerable mix of cash and stock. When private companies raise money there is sometimes an ability for longer-term employees with vested options to cash out. But as companies get larger, the ability for a private fundraise to meet the liquidity needed to reward shareholding employees dwindles.

Ultimately, they all go public, DeSalvo said.

The only question, really, is when.

To date, 2016 has been a notably slow year for initial public offerings, with only 73 companies going public through the first three quarter of the year, the lowest since 2009, with proceeds totaling just $13.1 billion, according to data from FactSet.

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Source: FactSet

Following the election of Donald Trump, markets have been in rally mode and business optimism  at least as the Wall Street analyst community sees it  should improve from here.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, however, that Snap made its IPO filing before Trumps election and this outcome will not change its plans. From a sentiment standpoint it seems that, if anything, this event shouldve improved Snaps outlook. But either way.

Details on what exactly investors get for a slice of Snap will come in time once its financials are made public.

What we know now is that, as of late September Snapchat had 60 million daily users in the US and Canada. The company is also projected to bring in about $360 million in revenue this year, according to reports.

Snapchat, in many respects, is the advertising platform brands feel they must be on to reach a millennial audience. And a research report from RBC in October said about 50% of marketers had expressed interest in advertising on the platform.

Snapchat is mobile-first. And Snapchat offers users and advertisers something that isnt merely a Web-based facsimile of existing media  online news is just a newspaper online, streaming video is just TV online  it gives up to 10 seconds of someones time.

Then its gone.



Myles Udland is a writer at Yahoo Finance.

Read more from Myles here; follow him on Twitter @MylesUdland
"I wrote this song on the day of the election. Peace and revelations to all!" Willow Smith wrote on SoundCloud as she shared a new song, appropriately titled "November 9th."

Over restrained strums of an electric guitar, she purrs sentiments of optimism, singing, Baby girl, I know youre tired / Dont let the world put out your fire / Take my hand and you will see / Sadness and anger arent everything.

No stranger to protests and activism (she joined brother Jaden Smith to stand against the Dakota Access Pipeline earlier this month), Smith reassures those frightened by the current state of America that "supression and pain are not everything." Listen to "November 9th" below.

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Gwen Ifill was known in life for breaking down barriers in journalism for other women  particularly women of color  and in death she may help women further by raising awareness of endometrial cancer.

PBS announced Monday that Ifill, the 61-year-old co-anchor of PBS NewsHour, died following several months of cancer treatment. She was surrounded by loving family and many friends whom we ask that you keep in your thoughts and prayers.

The longtime journalist had worked for the Washington Post, the New York Times and NBC News, and moderated vice-presidential debates in 2004 and 2008, as well as one for the 2016 Democratic primary, CNN noted. That publication said Ifill had been battling endometrial cancer while covering this year's presidential election, after being diagnosed less than a year ago.

Endometrial cancer occurs in the lining of the uterus and is the most common cancer in the female reproductive organ, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center says. And within endometrial cancers, the National Cancer Institute explains, the most common types are those that start in the cells that produce mucus and other fluids. Uterine cancer in general is both common and, in many cases, curable, according to Memorial Sloan Kettering.

The Mayo Clinic says endometrial cancer can often be detected early on  increasing the chance for survival  because it frequently produces abnormal vaginal bleeding, which prompts women to see their doctors. That abnormal bleeding can be between periods or after menopause. Other symptoms include pelvic pain and an abnormal, watery or blood-tinged discharge from your vagina.

As it progresses, the cancer will spread from the uterus to the cervix, which is the passageway to the vagina, and then to other body parts nearby like the bladder. In the early stages, the Mayo Clinic explains, removing the uterus often cures the cancer, but beyond that treatments may include chemotherapy and radiation.

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While the cause of this cancer in women is not entirely understood, there are several risk factors for the disease. According to the Mayo Clinic, those include hormone imbalances, having more years of menstruation than the average woman, never having been pregnant and obesity. Getting older is also a risk factor, as endometrial cancer most affects postmenopausal women.

Ironically, some studies have suggested that smoking cigarettes decreases the risk of this type of cancer. Reuters has reported that postmenopausal women could experience this benefit, perhaps, because cigarette smoking exerts an anti-estrogen effect and endometrial cancer has been linked to exposure to estrogen. However, smoking cigarettes also increases the risk of developing several other cancers, so it may not be the most effective prophylactic.

This story was originally published on medicaldaily.com.

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Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdel Malek al-Mekhlafi rejected Tuesday a truce announcement made earlier that day by Secretary of State John Kerry and Houthi rebels, claiming Yemen's government was not included in the negotiations.

Kerry announced both the Saudi-led military coalition and Houthi militants, known officially as Ansar Allah, had agreed to a cessation of hostilities beginning Thursday. He said he reached the breakthrough after approaching regional actors the United Arab Emirates, a part of the Saudi-led military campaign, and Oman, which maintains a relationship with the Houthis.

Kerry said the Houthis had agreed to "abide by the terms of the April 10 cessation of hostilities beginning on Nov. 17, provided the other party implements the same commitment and thus far the Emiratis and the Saudis...they have both agreed to try to move forward with this," according to Reuters.

Mekhlafi, however, responded by saying the Yemeni government was not informed of the deal and would not respect it. In a tweet, he criticized Kerry and the U.S.' attempts to intervene without the consent of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi's government.

The conflict, which has devastated Yemen for over a year and a half and killed over 10,000 people, began in late 2014 when the Houthis, which represent Yemen's Zaidi Shiite minority, rebelled against Hadi's beleaguered government. The resulting chaos turned into civil war and in 2015 the Houthis forced Hadi to the capital of Sana'a to the southern city of Aden. In response, Saudi Arabia intervened on his behalf.

Saudi Arabia accuses the Houthi group of being an Iranian proxy power and routinely conducts airstrikes against it. These strikes, believed to be responsible for most of the war's casualties, have been the source of international criticism both by human rights groups and state allies such as the U.S. The resulting chaos has created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world and led to increased activity by Islamic extremist groups such Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the Islamic State group.

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The incomprehensible has happened. Donald Trump has been elected President.

No one is a harsher critic of Donald Trump than I am but, as I said when I was unhappy with George W. Bush, I want him to succeed because he's our president, and where he fails, the nation fails. Thanks go to the Journal Star for their front page editorial focused on unity and healing on the eve of the election ("Vote, then heal," Nov. 8).

I was convinced a huge post-election effort was going to be necessary to bring rebellious Trump supporters back into our democracy. Instead, it's going to be for others of us to digest and accept Trump's impossible victory.

Let's get behind him and see what he has ready to replace Obamacare, how he's going to strengthen our military without raising taxes and follow through on his other campaign promises. It's going to be put up or shut up time but lets give him, and our nation, a chance. Let's hope more careful and thoughtful heads, within his camp and from outside, will finally temper his more extreme tendencies.

Tom deShazo, Lincoln
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, urged Americans Monday to continue protesting the election of Donald Trump, citing the president-elect's recent comments about reversing the Supreme Court verdict in Roe v. Wade on abortion and the appointment of Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist.

In the wake of nationwide protests against the results of the 2016 presidential election, de Blasio insisted that those voicing their opposition to the president-elect were righteous in doing so. Trump has said he would immediately deport 3 million undocumented immigrants, limit abortion rights and stop Muslims from entering the country. Most recently, Trump named Banner, the former chairman of the right-wing news site Breitbart News, to his presidential cabinet.

An organization that's been closely linked to white supremacists is going to have a representative in the White House, De Blasio said Monday in an interview with local radio station Hot 97. We have to recognize that all over this country, the more disruption thats caused peacefully ... the more it will change the trajectory of things.

De Blasio, who backed Hillary Clinton in the presidential race, said immediately after the election he hoped to cope with a Trump presidency by implementing lessons of inclusion he learned growing up in New York. More recently, the mayor has vowed to act against any federal government plans to deport undocumented immigrants in New York City, according to the New York Daily News. The mayor also said he would not place a larger emphasis on stop and frisk police tactics that allow police to stop and question pedestrians on reasonable suspicion.

Trump has said stop and frisk policies under former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani did a great job of straightening out the city. Under the controversial law enforcement practice, up to 90 percent of people who were stopped by police were found not to have done anything wrong, the Washington Post reported. More than half of those detained and searched were black, and nearly a third were Latino, according to New York Civil Liberties Union data between 2002 and 2016.

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We need to hold Trump accountable for anything he does that encourages hate and division ... The more extreme he is, the more people fight back, the more it takes away his power, de Blasio said.

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By Lincoln Feast and Charlotte Greenfield WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand emergency services and defense personnel evacuated hundreds of tourists and residents from a small South Island town amid more strong aftershocks on Tuesday, a day after a powerful earthquake killed two people. The 7.8-magnitude tremor struck just after midnight on Sunday, destroying farm homesteads, sending glass and masonry toppling from buildings in the capital, Wellington, and cutting road and rail links throughout the northeast of the ruggedly beautiful South Island. As aftershocks continued to rattle the region, emergency services cordoned off streets in Wellington and evacuated several buildings due to fears one of them might collapse. Wellington Mayor Justin Lester said the vacant building appeared to have suffered structural damage when the land it was on subsided in the quake. A fire service official said a major structural beam had "snapped like a bone". The town of Kaikoura, a popular base for whale-watching about 150 km (90 miles) northeast of Christchurch, the South Island's main city, remained cut off by massive landslips. Four defense force helicopters flew in to the town on Tuesday morning and two Navy vessels were heading to the area carrying supplies and to assist with the evacuation, Air Commander Darryn Webb, acting commander of New Zealand joint forces, told TVNZ. "We're looking to do as many flights as we can out of Kaikoura today," he said. Around 400 of the 1,200 tourists stranded in the town were flown out on Tuesday, including 12 people with a variety of injuries, officials said. The Red Cross, which used defense force helicopters to bring in emergency generators, satellite communications and water bladders, said water in the town was running out. Mark Solomon, a leader of South Island indigenous Maori Ngai Tahu tribe, which has tourism and fisheries businesses around Kaikoura, said the local marae (Maori meeting place) had received 1,000 people since Monday morning. Many slept overnight in the communal hall or in vehicles outside. The tribe had fed them with crayfish, a delicacy for which the South Island town is famous. With no power, the tanks that hold the expensive crustaceans had stopped pumping. "Its better to use the food than throw it in the rubbish so we sent it up to the marae to feed people," Solomon told Reuters by phone. AFTERSHOCKS, WIND AND RAIN China chartered four helicopters to evacuate around 40 nationals from Kaikoura, mostly elderly and children, late on Monday, said Liu Lian, an official at the Chinese Consulate in Christchurch. One Chinese national had been treated for a minor head injury in Kaikoura's hospital, Liu said, and around 60 others would be evacuated on Tuesday. "They have been trapped in Kaikoura for a couple of days, some are maybe scared, they have some mental stress," Liu told Reuters. Many planned to continue journeys to other parts of New Zealand, Liu said. Other tourists also said they planned to continue their trips, and travel agencies said they hadn't noticed a drop off in bookings, easing concerns about a major hit to the sector, New Zealand's biggest export earner. Gale-force winds and rain were hampering recovery efforts, and hundreds of aftershocks continued to rock the region. A 5.4 tremor was among the bigger aftershocks and was felt strongly in Wellington. Finance Minister Bill English said the government was well positioned to deal with the expected repair bill of billions of dollars, with low debt and budget surpluses. "We are in about as good a shape as we could be to deal with this natural disaster," English told parliament. Civil Defence estimated 80,000-100,000 landslides had been caused by the quakes. New Zealand media reported that three cows filmed stranded on a small patch of grass surrounded by landslips near Kaikoura had been rescued by a farmer. Acting Civil Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee said New Zealand had accepted an offer of two U.S. Navy helicopters from the destroyer the USS Sampson, as well as an offer of help from the Japanese military. It was hoped an inland road to Kaikoura from the south could be reopened by the weekend, he said. Workers earlier began returning to office buildings in Wellington's business district, which was closed off on Monday while the risk to buildings was assessed. Several blocks were damaged, including the offices of Statistics New Zealand, which halted the release of economic data and said it would be months before it could use the building. An A-League soccer match scheduled for Saturday between the Wellington Phoenix and Australia's Melbourne Victory has been postponed because of damage to Wellington's 34,000-seat Westpac Stadium, officials said. New Zealand lies in the seismically active "Ring of Fire", a 40,000-km arc of volcanoes and oceanic trenches that encircles much of the Pacific Ocean. Christchurch is still recovering from a 6.3 magnitude quake in 2011 that killed 185 people. (Additional reporting by Swati Pandey and Nick Mulvenney in SYDNEY; Editing by Paul Tait)
The magnitude-7.8 earthquake that rattled New Zealand early Monday morning local time (Sunday morning EST), killing at least two people and stranding many others in the region, also had a strange side effect: eerie blue and green flashes of light in the sky during the shaking.

Only in recent years have seismologists taken reports of these so-called earthquake lights seriously. It turns out that researchers still don't fully understand the phenomenon, but they do have a few clues about where and why it occurs.

The strange light shows  which may appear as sizzling flames emanating from the ground, flashes of lightning, ghostly globes or blue and green shimmers  usually occur at rifts where huge chunks of Earth are pulling away from each other, according to a 2014 study published in the journal Seismological Research Letters. [Elves, Sprites & Blue Jets: Earth's Weirdest Lightning]

Also in 2014, researchers showed that shifting grains surrounding a fault may generate an electrical charge, though exactly why this happens is poorly understood.

Unexplained phenomenon

Observers have documented shimmering earthquake lights more than 60 times over the past several centuries. In 2009, for instance, before a major earthquake struck L'Aquila, Italy, bystanders reported what looked like flames sizzling from the sidewalk, and in Canada's Yukon Territory in the 1970s, ghostly green orbs that were floating in the sky were initially thought to be UFOs but were later determined to be tied to a nearby quake. But until recently, many researchers discounted these reports as hearsay.

"Earthquake lights are totally underreported," Friedemann Freund, a crystallographer (someone who studies the atomic structure of materials) at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, and San Jose State University, previously told Live Science. "They are often things that happen within a fraction of a second."

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But with the widespread availability of smartphones, these strange events are now being documented more frequently.

In 2014, Freund and his colleagues showed that 97 percent of earthquake lights documented since the 1600s occurred at faults that were within continental plates, rather than at subduction zones, where one plate is diving beneath another. They found that 85 percent of the incidents occurred where Earth buckles and creates a steep ravine or drop in the Earth. This fissure allows magmatic rocks that originate deep belowground to gradually migrate up toward the surface, where they discharge energy. Because of how the atoms in these rocks are organized, they may generate an electrical charge more easily, flow upward to the surface, ionize the air and generate the light show, the researchers speculated.

In this scenario, earthquake lights may not even be tied to earthquakes. Changes in stress at a fault can occur either due to a catastrophic rupture or because of a slower release over days, and both forms could generate an electrical charge that ionizes the air, according to the research.

"Crackpot physics"

In a separate study detailed at the 2014 American Physical Society meeting in Denver, researchers filled Tupperware containers with mixtures of plastic discs, glass particles and powders, such as flour, and watched what happened as they stuck and slipped past one another. These mixtures were meant to mimic the way grains of Earth move in an earthquake zone.

The researchers found that the mixtures reliably generated high voltages when tipped, even though they could not explain why.

"Except for the fact that we cannot get these voltages to go away, I would call this 'crackpot physics,'" Troy Shinbrot, an applied physicist at Rutgers University in New Jersey, previously told Live Science. "And even as it is  I wish I could hedge my bets, but the voltages are very repeatable, and we have so far failed to account for a spurious influence that might cause them."

Original article on Live Science.

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By Lincoln Feast and Charlotte Greenfield WELLINGTON (Reuters) - British backpackers Alan Hepper and Emily Gray-Upton were shaken from their beds and evacuated from their Wellington hostel when a huge earthquake rocked central New Zealand on Monday, but are continuing their holiday through the "Shaky Isles" regardless. Tourism operators say many other visitors are doing the same and bookings from overseas appear largely unaffected so far, easing concerns about a major hit to New Zealand's biggest export earner. "Everyone is just working out a way of continuing their time in New Zealand," said Hepper, 26, who is two weeks into a year-long trip around the world that includes a month in New Zealand. "It's all part of the experience." The pair now plan to fly to Nelson, avoiding the worst of the damage along the east coast of the South Island, where massive landslides blocked road and rail links after the 7.8 magnitude tremor. Australian travel firms Flight Centre and Contiki both said they had seen no immediate impact on bookings to New Zealand, with most people content to travel as planned and bypass affected areas. "A relatively large number of passengers traveling to New Zealand (from Australia) are visiting friends and relatives," said Haydn Long, a spokesman for Flight Centre Travel Group in Brisbane. "These people will generally travel as planned. This particular sector may, in fact, grow as people will sometimes want to go home to see their families and lend a hand." Australia is New Zealand's largest tourism market, providing almost 1.4 million visitors in the year to September, with China No. 2 at more than 400,000 and growing fast. Liu Lian, an official at the Chinese consulate in Christchurch who was handling the rescue operation, said the consulate had not yet heard of Chinese tourists cancelling trips to New Zealand. Christchurch is the South Island's largest city and was devastated by a 2011 quake that killed 185 people. "If there were any effect it is only temporary. Natural disasters are a possibility everywhere," he said. TOP EXPORT EARNER Drawn by the stunning scenery, made famous in the "Lord of the Rings" movies, international tourists contributed NZ$14.5 billion ($10.31 billion) to the New Zealand economy in the year to March, private-sector Tourism Industry Association (TIA) estimates. That was up almost 20 percent on the previous year, overtaking the dairy industry as the biggest export earner. Tourism New Zealand said it was too early to tell what impact the quake would have but expected visitors would be reviewing their plans in the short term. Christina Leung, senior economist at the New Zealand Institute for Economic Research think tank, said tourism tended to be hit harder by events such as earthquakes than other sectors. Though the damage so far did not look as bad as the 6.3 magnitude quake that hit Christchurch in 2011, tourisms central role in the economy meant that any fallout was a concern. Most of the impact from the Christchurch quake was due to damage to tourism infrastructure such as accommodation and other facilities, Leung told Reuters. "So to that extent, it really just depends how much damage has been sustained in these earthquakes. Its quite early days and from what I understand the impact will be more modest," Leung said. In the hardest-hit town of Kaikoura, stranded tourists were cared for by indigenous Maori, given shelter in large communal halls and fed crayfish, the town's famed local delicacy. "It will definitely have an impact because theres no way for tourists to get in or out of the town," said Mark Solomon, a leader of the Ngai Tahu tribe, which runs whale-watching operations among other businesses around Kaikoura. Backpacker Gray-Upton found the quake scary but said it was "just one of those things". "We've had the most amazing two weeks so far ... and I look forward to what the South Island brings." ($1 = 1.4061 New Zealand dollars) (Additional reporting by Colin Packham in SYDNEY; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Paul Tait)
Zara is a multibillion-dollar company with stores worldwide. (Photo: Getty Images)

In the latest disturbing lawsuit making waves on the Internet, a woman is suing fast-fashion retailer Zara because she allegedly found a dead rodent sewn into the hem of a black dress she purchased from the retailers Greenwich, Conn., store, according to the New York Daily News.

Cailey Fiesel bought the dress from the store last July but didnt wear it until the following month. According to the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit, Fiesel noticed a disturbingly pungent odor, on the dress, but didnt discover the cause of this odor until later in the day.

As the day went on, Fiesel started to notice what felt like a loose string from her dress rubbing against her leg, the suit says. Upon investigating the loose string, the woman came to a startling realization.

A woman is suing Spanish retailer Zara because she allegedly found a dead rodent sewn into a dress she bought from the retailer. (Photo: Court Papers)

To her utter shock and disbelief, as she ran her hand over the hem of the dress, she felt an unusual bulge and suddenly realized that it was not a string that was rubbing against her leg but was instead a leg rubbing against her leg, the court papers detail.

The lawsuit details that she immediately ran to the bathroom and discovered the source of discomfort was allegedly a dead rodent. Fiesel claims that she was afflicted with emotional distress from the ordeal and even developed a rash from wearing the dress that was diagnosed as a rodent-born disease.

Fiesel believes the Spanish retailer breached its duty to exercise reasonable care in designing, manufacturing, inspecting, distributing, delivering, supplying, inspecting, and/or selling its products by negligently releasing into the marketplace a product that was defective by containing disease-causing rodents, according to the suit. The young woman is suing for unspecified damages.

A spokesperson for Zara USA responded to the lawsuit: Zara USA is aware of the suit, and we are investigating the matter further. Zara USA has stringent health and safety standards, and we are committed to ensuring that all of our products meet these rigorous requirements.

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Researchers at Kryptowire recently discovered that some some disposable and prepaid Android phones house software that transmits sensitive user data, like text messages back to China. What makes this particular discovery unique is that the offending software isnt a piece of third-party malware but rather ships with the phone itself. In addition to text message data, researchers found that the software also transmits user location data, contact lists, call logs and more.

As it stands now, it remains unclear how many existing phones are affected by what effectively amounts to spyware masquerading as firmware. The code itself was created by a Chinese company called Shanghai Adups Technology Company whose software is said to run on more than 700 million phones, cars and other smart devices according to a report from The New York Times.

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One U.S.-based handset manufacturer, Blu Products, told the Times that 120,000 of its budget smartphones were affected, though the company has since taken steps to remove it via a software update.

As for the underlying purpose of the code, thats where things get a little bit convoluted. Shanghai Adups Technology Company said in a statement that the software at issue was never intended to reach smartphones in the United States. Whats more, the company claims that the software wasnt designed to spy on customers per se, but rather to monitor user behavior in a general sense.

The software was written at the request of an unidentified Chinese manufacturer that wanted the ability to store call logs, text messages and other data, according to the Adups document. Adups said the Chinese company used the data for customer support. Ms. Lim said the software was intended to help the Chinese client identify junk text messages and calls. She did not identify the company that requested it and said she did not know how many phones were affected. She said phone companies, not Adups, were responsible for disclosing privacy policies to users. Adups was just there to provide functionality that the phone distributor asked for, she said.

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Of course, you might want to take that explanation with a big grain of salt.

For what its worth, Google has reportedly told Adups to remove the offending software code from devices that house Googles suite of services.

Trending right now:

See the original version of this article on BGR.com
By Lauren Hirsch and Liana B. Baker (Reuters) - Snapchat has filed for an initial public offering, sources familiar with the situation said on Tuesday, which puts the messaging app a step closer to the biggest U.S. stock market debut since 2014. The Venice, California-based company could go public as soon as March and be valued at $20 billion to $25 billion, making it the largest IPO since Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's went public two years ago valued at $170.9 billion. It would be the largest U.S. technology IPO since Facebook Inc's debut in 2012 with a value of $81.2 billion. Snapchat filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the U.S. Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act. Companies with less than $1 billion in revenue can secretly file for an IPO, allowing them to quietly test investor appetite while keeping financials confidential. The filing was made before Republican Donald Trump's unexpected victory in the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 8 which has increased uncertainty in global markets, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> has hit record highs for four straight sessions. The sources asked not to be named because the information is private. A spokesman for Snap Inc, Snapchat's parent company, declined to comment. Reuters was first to report news of the confidential filing. BELLWETHER FOR 'DECACORNS' A Snapchat IPO is seen by many investors as a bellwether for many of the largest so-called "unicorns," private, venture-backed companies that are valued at more than $1 billion. Nicknamed "decacorns," these companies are valued in the tens of billions of dollars and include Snapchat, car-sharing company Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] and home-sharing company Airbnb. No decacorn has yet tested the public market, and it is unproven whether they can beat or even replicate such astronomic valuations with more scrutinizing public investors. The market for technology IPOs for this year has been rocky, with investors left skittish due to volatile technology stock performance and uneven returns from recent IPOs. Year to date, 123 U.S. technology companies have gone public, raising $7.1 billion, a 58 percent decline in proceeds and 20 percent drop in the number of offerings from this time last year. Snapchat started in 2012 as a free mobile app that allows users to send photos that vanish within seconds. It has more than 100 million active users, about 60 percent of whom are aged 13 to 24, making it an attractive way for advertisers to reach millennials. Awash in venture funding, the company raised $1.81 billion in May, which valued it at about $20 billion, media reports said at the time. But investors worry that Snapchat's advertising sales, which began last October, is the company's only significant revenue source. Snap in September starting describing itself as a camera company and earlier this month it debuted its $130 video-camera sunglasses. The glasses are equipped with a camera that connects wirelessly to a smartphone to take and send "snaps" - the company's terms for video and photo messages sent on its app. According to postings on Twitter, a line of more than 100 people quickly formed in front of a vending machine on a Venice, California, boardwalk where the glasses were being sold. The company's investors include General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital, T. Rowe Price and Lone Pine. Previous rounds included Fidelity Investment, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Yahoo Inc . Earlier this month, Alphabet Inc's venture capital arm CapitalG, earlier known as Google Capital, disclosed an investment in Snapchat by adding the social networking firm's logo to a page on its investment portfolio website. (Reporting by Lauren Hirsch in New York and Liana B. Baker in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Matthew Toole in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
Lazaro Spindola says he's trying to stay positive as Donald Trump prepares to assume the nation's highest office.

"I honestly believe he will not be able to fulfill many of his promises," Spindola, executive director of the Nebraska Latino American Commission, said Monday. "And they were brought up in the heat of the campaign, so hopefully that's as far as they will go."

Spindola's office has had "quite a lot" of contact with Nebraskans since Election Day, he said.

"It's a pretty high level of anxiety, mostly because of the dialogue that has been taking place during the election. I honestly wish there was a reason to dispel all of the concerns."

On Sunday, President-elect Trump told CBS' "60 Minutes" that he still plans to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Yet he appeared to dial back another immigration stance, saying his priority is to deport 2 million to 3 million immigrants he described as having criminal records.

Other undocumented immigrants are "terrific people," Trump said, and he will decide how to handle them once the border is secured. During the campaign, he had said he would deport all of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

Spindola said he has questions about Trump's plan to immediately deport immigrants convicted of crimes, because the law requires them to finish their criminal sentences first.

In addition, Trump is reportedly being advised on immigration by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who has "very well defined attitudes" on the subject, Spindola said.

Kobach helped defend a controversial ordinance in the city of Fremont which bans renting homes to immigrants living in the country illegally. He is widely known as a hard-liner on immigration.

Nebraskans have reached out to the Latino American Commission with concerns that they will be deported or lose their temporary legal status once Trump becomes president, Spindola said.

In response, he issued an open letter Monday pledging to keep a "watchful eye on potential threats and unjust treatment."

"The presidential election is the greatest example of democracy, and regardless of the outcome, everyone should be proud for participating in it and exercising the right to vote," Spindola wrote.

"Just keep in mind that those who are fighting for your rights have done so before the election and will continue afterward. You are not alone."

The letter was "just a way to calm things a little," Spindola said later. "There is a president-elect. Period. We don't really know how far some of the things might go. We certainly hope they will not."

Of greater worry to Adrian Sanchez, chairman of the Latino American Commission and vice chairman of the Latino caucus of the Nebraska Democratic Party, is the impact Trump might have on other Americans going forward.

"I think most of the concern comes from the president-elect's ripple effects  that his inflammatory rhetoric has ignited and possibly inspired a number of people to take aggressive action" against people who come from diverse backgrounds, he said.

Meanwhile, the state's Latinos witnessed several milestones this year: the election of Nebraska's second-ever Latino state senator, Tony Vargas, who is also the first to represent heavily-Latino South Omaha; Election Day victories by a handful of other Latino or Latina candidates in local races; and the election of Nebraska's first-ever Native American state senator, Tom Brewer.

Vargas doesn't agree with Trump on many issues, he said Monday. But he found hope in the number of people who took part in Tuesday's election from his district, where voter engagement is typically among the state's lowest.

Nebraska doesn't have to be a place of bigotry or racism, he said. "We can actually have elected officials that are going to be bridging some gaps."
Its been a rough few months for Samsung. With the Galaxy Note 7 explosions, replacements, more explosions, and subsequent recall, the company is now doing its best to wash the bad taste out of the publics mouth, but now a different Samsung smartphone has spontaneously combusted, and seriously injured its owner in the process.

Amarjit Mann, a 34-year-old man from Winnipeg, Manitoba, told the Winnipeg Sun that his Galaxy S7 began to feel warm while in his pocket as he was driving. Mann says he grabbed the phone from his jacket and thats when all hell broke loose.

CHECK IT OUT: Apple insider says demand is dwindling because the iPhone 7 is boring

I took it out and had it in my hands and it exploded right away, Mann said in an interview. When you see smoke, I was shocked. You cannot expect this thing. It was like a nightmare.

Manns hands absorbed the full force of the blast, and has second- and third-degree burns to show for it. After the phone burst into flames he attempted to throw it out his car window, which was open, but the melting phone stuck to his skin.

He says hes planning to file a lawsuit against Samsung for the incident, as well as potential loss of income due to being sidelined at his job. Mann works as a mechanic, and may be unable to perform his duties for up to four weeks.

Speaking with CTV, Samsung Canada said it will remain committed to working with any customer who has experience an issue with a Samsung product, but declined to comment on this specific incident before taking a look at Manns smartphone in person.

At the present time, there are no recalls or replacement programs for the Galaxy S7, and no formal recognition of any defect or other issue has been issued.

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Tech titans like Google, Amazon, Microsoft and IBM are vying for cloud dominance (AFP Photo/JOSH EDELSON)

Washington (AFP) - Google and Facebook moved Tuesday to cut off advertising revenue to fake news sites, after a wave of criticism over the role misinformation played in the US presidential election.

The move by the two tech giants aims to choke off funds to an industry fueled by bogus, often sensational "news" circulating online and seen as a potential influence on public opinion.

A Google statement to AFP said new policies "will start prohibiting Google ads from being placed on misrepresentative content, just as we disallow misrepresentation in our ads policies."

The shift will mean Google restricts ads "on pages that misrepresent, misstate, or conceal information about the publisher, the publisher's content, or the primary purpose of the web property," the statement said.

Google chief executive Sundar Pichai said the company receives billions of queries daily and admitted errors had been made.

"There have been a couple of incidences where it has been pointed out and we didn't get it right.

"And so it is a learning moment for us and we will definitely work to fix it," he said in a BBC interview.

Pichai said there should be "no situation where fake news gets distributed" and committed to making improvements.

"I don't think we should debate it as much as work hard to make sure we drive news to its more trusted sources, have more fact checking and make our algorithms work better, absolutely," he said.

On Monday, internet users searching on Google were delivered a bogus report saying Republican Donald Trump had won the popular vote in addition to the electoral college.

The numbers on a blog called 70News -- contradicting official results tallied so far by states -- said Trump received 62.9 million votes to 62.2 million for Hillary Clinton.

The blog urged those petitioning for the electoral college to switch their votes to reflect popular will to scrap their effort.

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- Explicit ban -

Facebook is implementing a similar policy, a spokesman said.

"In accordance with the Audience Network Policy, we do not integrate or display ads in apps or sites containing content that is illegal, misleading or deceptive, which includes fake news," a Facebook statement said.

"While implied, we have updated the policy to explicitly clarify that this applies to fake news."

One report said Facebook had developed a tool to weed out fake news but did not deploy it before the US election, fearing a backlash from conservatives after a controversy over its handling of "trending topics." Facebook denied the report.

Some critics have gone so far as to blame Facebook for enabling Trump's victory, saying it did not do enough to curb bogus news that appeared to help rally his supporters.

Stories that went viral in the run-up to the vote included such headlines as "Hillary Clinton Calling for Civil War If Trump Is Elected" and "Pope Francis Shocks World, Endorses Donald Trump for President."

The prevalence of fake news has prompted calls for Facebook to consider itself a "media" company rather than a neutral platform, a move which would require it to make editorial judgments on articles.

Facebook executives have repeatedly rejected this idea, but since the election have pledged to work harder to filter out hoaxes and misinformation.

In a weekend post, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg dismissed the notion that fake news helped sway the election, and said that "more than 99 percent of what people see is authentic."

Still, he said that "we don't want any hoaxes on Facebook" and pledged to do more to curb fake news without censoring content.

"Identifying the 'truth' is complicated," he said.

"While some hoaxes can be completely debunked, a greater amount of content, including from mainstream sources, often gets the basic idea right but some details wrong or omitted."

Ken Paulson, a former USA Today editor who is dean at the media school of Middle Tennessee State University, said Facebook and other platforms should not be required to filter out news but that it would be good for business.

"My hunch is that most of Facebook's loyal customers would welcome a cleaning up of the town square," he said.
Few people still take photos using film anymore, but somehow weve all got stacks and stacks of old Polaroids and 3x5s stuffed away in our attics or under our beds. And unfortunately, those photos are slowly fading away over time.

But Google (GOOG, GOOGL) has a way to save your precious pictures  yes, even those infamous shots from your spring break 96 trip to Cancun  with its new PhotoScan app. Available as a free download for Android and iOS, the app lets you scan your old photos using your smartphones camera  instantly creating digital copies that you can then save to the cloud.

What makes PhotoScan any different from just taking a picture of your photos with your phones camera, you ask? Well, a lot, actually. See, when you take a picture of a photo, you inevitably end up capturing glare from nearby light sources that obscures parts of the image. You can try moving the light or taking the picture at a different angle, but that glare will always be there.

Googles PhotoScan app is a snap to use.

PhotoScan, however, eliminates that glare entirely. So you end up with a near-perfect copy of your original picture. Google says the app does this by using machine-learning techniques that recognize and remove glare and even shadows from photos while keeping their original content. Thats the key here. There are already apps on the market like Heirloom that let you scan old photos, but none that I could find that can remove things like glare and shadows.

To use PhotoScan, you launch the app and line up the photo you want to scan in the on-screen viewfinder. Youll see a large circle in the center of the screen and four dots in the corners of your photo. Line up the circle with each of the dots, moving from one to the next, and the app will automatically capture your image.

It takes a few seconds for PhotoScan to work its magic, but when its finished you wont see any glare or even the surface where you were resting the original picture. Its all gone.

Googles PhotoScan app lets you save your old shots forever.

I used the PhotoScan at a small press event in New York and was genuinely impressed with how well it worked. To test the app, I purposely stood under a bright light and scanned a photo with a lot of glare. Once the image was processed, the glare and the table I was scanning the picture on were completely removed, leaving me with just the original photo.

Story continues

Google says that by making you scan your photo from four different positions, the camera can capture multiple images of your picture. The companys machine learning algorithm then lines up the four images to create a single photo and removes any overly bright pixels to kill the glare.

If, however, you dont like the way PhotoScan crops an image, you always have the option to manually adjust its borders on your own.

Google says scans will be clear enough to be reprinted, but promises that its working on an update to PhotoScan that will provide higher resolution scanning options for smartphones with high-end cameras like the companys Pixel handset and Apples iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.

Google Photos improved image editor offers enhanced editing tools.

PhotoScan isnt the only news Google released regarding its photo apps. Google Photos is also getting a handful of new features including a new auto enhance tool and advanced controls that let you adjust image properties such as hue, color saturation, warmth and skin tone.

Google also made some improvements to its Google Photos Movies feature. If youre unfamiliar, Movies is a section of Google Photos that automatically pulls together similar images and videos to create a short, personalized movie. Apple has a similar feature in its own Photos app called Memories. Now, however, Google is making movies a bit smarter, starting with the new Lullaby theme.

Designed for new parents, Lullaby finds photos and videos of your newborn with its eyes closed and sets them to soothing music to create a short clip of all of the videos and photos of your baby snoozing. If you dont like the video Photos creates, you can always go in and manually edit it on your own. Google says its working on similar themes for the holidays, pet owners and Earth Day.

Both the new editing tools and Movies are available in the latest version of Google Photos. PhotoScan is available for download today.

Daniel Howley is tech editor at Yahoo Finance

More from Dan:

Email Daniel at dhowley@yahoo-inc.com; follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley.
Over the last decade, Google Translate has gone from a mildly amusing diversion to an often-useful tool. With a massive update to 10 languages today, Google is stepping firmly onto the territory of professional translators, with a neural-net powered version of Translate thats far more fluent and readable.

DONT MISS: Apple insider says demand is dwindling because the iPhone 7 is boring

In a blog post today, Google announced that the new neural net version of Translate is rolling out to eight languages. You can now go to and from English and French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Turkish, which Google says covers a little more than a third of all translation queries.

The company announced Neural Machine Translation back in September. Compared to what came before, phrase-based translation, neural machine translation takes a very different approach:

Whereas Phrase-Based Machine Translation (PBMT) breaks an input sentence into words and phrases to be translated largely independently, Neural Machine Translation (NMT) considers the entire input sentence as a unit for translation. The advantage of this approach is that it requires fewer engineering design choices than previous Phrase-Based translation systems.

In a report published months ago, Google said that GNMT reduces translation errors by more than 55%-85% on several major language pairs measured on sampled sentences from Wikipedia and news websites with the help of bilingual human raters.

Today, the company is rolling out GNMT in the Translate app youre probably already familiar with, and the results are genuinely staggering. If youve used Google Translate to read a news article from a foreign newspaper before, youre probably used to the garbled sentences that come out, and having to work hard to understand the meaning.

I translated a few news reports from French to English using the new Translate, and the results are far more nuanced and readable. Google does a much better job of finding the word that fits better to make the phrase work, rather than using the directly literal translation. Apart from a few sentences that stand out, and the order of words on occasion, I wouldnt know that Im reading a translated article.

Story continues

Google says that with this update, Translate is improving more in a single leap than weve seen in the last ten years combined. From checking the results between two languages I understand, Id have to agree.

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By Nqobile Dludla JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Telkom SA, South Africa's biggest fixed-line phone company, will pay its first ever interim dividend after reporting higher revenue and profit, and will continue to invest in its mobile business to boost growth, it said on Tuesday. The company completed the turnaround phase of its strategy in June that includes cutting jobs, outsourcing services such as telephone directory printing and selling some properties. It is now focusing on growth. Telkom, 40 percent owned by the government, declared a maiden interim dividend of 131 cents per share. In 2015, it paid a full-year dividend for the first time since 2011. At 1355 GMT, its shares were up 7.1 percent at 63.96 rand. "It's a big step forward," said CEO Sipho Maseko. "It gives our shareholders a lot of certainty. It enables us to attract a lot of value and long-term shareholders." Maseko took the helm three years ago to help turn around a company struggling with record losses. Telkom said headline earning per share for the six months ended September rose 19.7 percent to 336 cents from 280.6 cents a year earlier. It has cut the workforce by 14.3 percent year-on-year to just over 12,000. The company, which launched its mobile phone business five years ago, said that division contributed to core profit (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) for the first time. "Our mobile business has been able to establish itself as a meaningful player in the market. We intend growing our scale in the mobile market through focusing on the post-paid and data market in which we are already making inroads," said Maseko. Telkom has been looking to boost its mobile business to offset the falling use of landlines. In 2015 it walked away from an acquisition of mobile firm Cell C after failing to agree a price. With a strong balance sheet, Maseko said when the time was right, Telkom would look to make some strategic acquisitions. The company increased capital expenditure by 55.8 percent to 3.6 billion rand in the half year to boost its mobile business and connect fibre networks to homes. "When Sipho Maseko came through with the new board led by Jabu Mabuza, the market believed them. He followed through with the strategy that he had in mind," said Momentum S.P. Reid Securities equity research analyst Sibonginkosi Nyanga. ($1 = 14.3059 rand) (Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by David Clarke and Mark Potter)
By Eric Auchard and Jussi Rosendahl BARCELONA/HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia said on Tuesday it was outperforming arch-rival Ericsson in a weak telecoms equipment market, but its shares fell as its dividend plans and profitability forecasts missed analysts' expectations. Telecoms network suppliers are struggling after demand for 4G mobile broadband equipment peaked last year, with upgrades to next-generation 5G equipment still years away. Nokia, which bought rival Alcatel-Lucent this year in a bid to cope, forecast at an investor meeting in Barcelona that its network equipment sales were likely to fall around 2 percent next year, in line with the broader market, and return to modest growth in 2018. It also predicted demand for network equipment among telecoms operators would grow on a compound annual basis by just 1.2 percent from 2016-2021. The Finnish company said the market was the toughest it had been for years but that it was faring better than bigger rival Ericsson, which in recent months has issued a dramatic profit warning and replaced its chief executive. "Nokia is not Ericsson. They are in crisis. We outperformed them in every area," Chief Executive Rajeev Suri said. With growth expected to be subdued through the end of the decade, Nokia is looking to keep investors on board with tight cost control, investments in new technology and returns to shareholders. Some analysts, however, were disappointed by Nokia's dividend and profitability targets, and its shares fell as much as 7.7 percent to a three-year low of 3.658 euros. "People were hoping for better," Societe Generale analyst Alexander Peterc said, noting Nokia had pared back share buybacks and planned to increase its dividend only modestly. "All these measures point to a company being highly focused on cash-conservation," he said. Peterc recently joined SocGen and has no formal rating on Nokia shares. Network equipment firms are also trying to entice investors with visions of future growth from 5G networks, which could start as early as 2018 but are only expected to go mainstream after 2020. Ericsson, Nokia and China's Huawei [HWT.UL] account for 90 percent of mobile network gear sales, but face growing competition from other network and software players. Ericsson released a new market forecast on Tuesday, predicting global mobile phone subscriptions would nearly double to 6.8 billion six years out, from 3.9 billion this year. It said it now expected 5G mobile subscribers to reach 550 million by 2022, three-and-a-half times higher than its previous estimate of 150 million forecast for 2021. TOUGH TIMES Nokia said cost cuts would help to boost its network unit's operating margin to 8-10 percent in 2017 from an estimated 7-9 percent in 2016, and to 10-15 percent in the long-term. It also said it planned a dividend of 0.17 euros per share for 2016. Analysts polled by Reuters last month had expected a 2017 margin of 10.5 percent and a dividend of 0.20 euros. Buying Franco-American Alcatel-Lucent expanded Nokia's business in fixed-line telecoms equipment and optical networks, which some analysts say has helped it to outperform Ericsson. But Nokia on Tuesday lifted its estimate for restructuring charges from Alcatel's integration by 500 million euros to about 1.7 billion euros. It is axing thousands of jobs as it seeks to cut 1.2 billion euros of annual costs by 2018. Setting out its forecasts, Nokia said it expected the network equipment market to decline in Europe, China and Latin America next year, while remaining flat in North America, Middle East, Africa and Asia, outside of China. "The mobile network market is (in) the toughest shape it has been in my lifetime," Chief Financial Officer Timo Ihamuotila told investors. Nokia forecast the network gear market would return to modest growth in 2018 fueled by a rebound in several regions, although demand would remain flat in Europe and fall over the next five years in Greater China. It said upside to its forecasts could come from new customers beyond telecoms operators, including big Internet players, automakers and industrial Internet companies. In the near term, it also sees fresh growth from equipping police and other emergency services with new 4G voice and video equipment. Once known for its mobile phones, Nokia sold the handset business to Microsoft in 2014, leaving it with the networks business and a portfolio of technology patents. (Additional reporting by Tuomas Forsell; Editing by Mark Potter)
The Landing community extends its thanks to the Williamsburg Village neighborhood and Williamsburg Hy-Vee for collaborating on the Oct. 6 Stuff the Bus" for the Food Bank of Lincoln. We were able to deliver 1,743 pounds of food and household items and $1,000 for the Food Bank. We are grateful to the generosity of the people of Lincoln and are happy to serve together to call attention to needs in our own area. Thanks to all for your partnership!
A number of 20-inch fresh evergreen wreaths with hand-tied red velveteen bows will be placed on veterans' graves Saturday, Dec. 17 in Wyuka Cemetery. There are over 1,500 military graves in Wyuka, represented by those who served in the Civil War, Spanish-American War, WWI and II, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Several local organizations are collecting donations to purchase the wreaths. They include UNL-AFROTC, Lincoln AFJROTC, Nebraska Wing 155th Civil Air Patrol, Air Force Association Chapter 187, Nebraska National Guard, and Wyuka Historical Foundation

The tradition of placing wreaths to honor our veterans during the holiday season began in 1992 when Morrill Worcester of his Worcester Wreath Company (Harrington, Maine) donated 5,000 wreaths to be placed at the headstones in an older section of Arlington National Cemetery.

Last year at over 1,000 locations nationwide, 24 off-shore cemeteries, and ships in the Seven Seas, wreaths were placed in respect for our veterans. Wyuka is the only cemetery in Lincoln which will participate in Wreaths Across America. The wreaths help us to remember the fallen, honor those who serve and their families, and teach our children the commitment and sacrifice men and women made to protect our freedoms. This will be Wyukas seventh year to show respect for our veterans.

Details:

 Wreaths are $15 each

 Donations are 501(c) (3) tax deductible

 Donations should be made payable to Wreaths Across America

 Send to Gerry Finnegan

Wreaths Across America

1201 O St. Suite 301; Lincoln NE 68508

 Donation deadline: Nov. 23

 If you choose to donate online: wreathsacrossamerica.org

Group ID NE0001

 For grave specific information or questions, contact:
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MOUNT PLEASANT  Racine Harley-Davidson was bought Tuesday by House of Harley-Davidson, an independent Milwaukee-area dealership with two other locations.

The purchase meant the retirement of Mark Ulinski, previous owner of Racine Harley-Davidson, 1155 Oakes Road, and a name change to House of Harley-Davidson.

The acquisition will also mean the advent of a learn-to-ride program and a Harley-Davidson rental program, the dealership announced.

We are proud to expand our territory, and we see tremendous growth opportunities in Racine County. We look forward to servicing the customers who love the Harley-Davidson brand in southeastern Wisconsin, stated Jeff Binkert, president of House of Harley-Davidson. He also congratulated Ulinski on his retirement.

House of Harley-Davidson has its flagship store in Greenfield and a satellite retail shop in Milwaukees Mitchell International airport, which sells only clothing.

With the purchase of the local dealership, it will bring the Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Riding Academy, a learn-to-ride program for new riders. Company spokeswoman Kristin Wacker said the course is 23 hours long and held over three to four days, either Tuesday-Thursday or Friday evening to Monday.

It is designed to prepare participants for both the state written and road tests, Wacker said. Students learn to ride on a Harley-Davidson Street 500. The riding practice will occur on a range in a location yet to be determined, but the goal is to have it close to the local dealership, she said.

Rentals should start next May, Wacker said, with a fleet of 2017 models. The usual minimum length is a half-day rental for $100, although she said weekend and weeklong rentals are common. House of Harley will work with other dealerships, so rental rides can end at those locations and need not be round trips, she noted.

Binkert and his team bought House of Harley-Davidson in August 2015. Since then, the dealership has expanded its community presence by hosting dozens of charitable events including those that honor veterans, law enforcement and public safety professionals, childrens charities and animal welfare organizations.
RACINE  A 20-year-old Racine man had no criminal record before a gun was reportedly forced into his hands on a frantic February night. But he will spend the next five years of his life behind bars for the role he played in the shootout and fiery Downtown car crash that followed.

Delvin Hoard  apparently the only person charged as of yet in the violent Feb. 6 incident  bowed his head and wept audibly on Monday as Racine County Judge Faye Flancher sentenced him to five years in prison and five years on extended supervision for firing a gun four times out of the sunroof of a car.

This is a tough case  I dont think anybody in this room is going to downplay the seriousness of this incident, said Hoards attorney, Noah Wishau, prior to Flanchers order. Im sure Your Honor has heard over the years a lot of people say he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I know Ive heard that a lot  however, I think this is a situation where that is exactly what happened  it was just happenstance that he was in that car that night.

Running gun battle

Happenstance or not, it was gravity of the incident itself that the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, the state, and later Flancher, argued was of primary concern.

Agents with the DOC who conducted the pre-sentence investigation noted Hoards relatively scant run-ins with the law. Save for an alcohol-related citation and an expulsion for getting into a fight, the agents reported Hoard had no criminal history. Nevertheless, the seriousness of the crime demanded a serious sentence, the agents argued; recommending he serve between five and six years in prison and four to six years on extended supervision.

The state stood by the DOCs recommendation, noting that the defendant had gotten into a car with known criminals.

The simple fact is we cant have people engaging in running gunbattles down Main Street, said Assistant Racine County District Attorney Robert Repischak.

Hoard, of the 1700 block of Center Street, was charged in March in connection with the shootout and chase, which reached speeds of 85 mph as people inside the two vehicles reportedly were shooting at each other. Hoard had been facing three counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety, but in August pleaded no contest to the single felony charge of discharging a firearm from a vehicle.

Hoard reportedly told police that he and the three other people that had been traveling in a silver Buick SUV that had gone to the LRC bar, 2405 Racine St., Mount Pleasant, that night and then to Popeyes restaurant at Ninth Street and Washington Avenue in Racine. It was on the way to Popeyes that the driver allegedly handed Hoard a .380-caliber semi-automatic handgun.

After arriving at the restaurant, the Buick became pinned in by a white sport utility vehicle, Hoard told police. Someone inside the SUV fired two shots at them near 10th Street and Washington Avenue and a chase and shootout ensued. Hoard told police that he only shot the gun because his driver was yelling at him to do something.

The chase ended when one of the vehicles crashed into the Haymarket Building at the northwest corner of Main and Fifth streets. The crash sent two men, ages 20 and 25, to All Saints Hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Sentencing

Delivering her sentence, Flancher said Hoard was lucky that no innocent bystanders were struck by the hail of bullets exchanged that night.

Sadly, Mr. Hoard, you jumped into Felony Court with both feet, Flancher said.

The five-year prison sentence itself seemed to fall upon the packed audience like lead. One supporter of Hoards rose up from his seat in disbelief. Hoards mother, Darlene Chattman, wailed so loudly that a bailiff instructed family members to remove her from the courtroom. Three family members and a friend who addressed the court prior to sentencing described Hoard as a promising, hardworking young man who had made a terrible mistake. They spoke of the work Hoard had done to graduate from high school, and his hopes of attending a university.

After the hearing, other family members wondered aloud why none of the other six people involved in the incident had been charged.

Asked about the situation, Racine County District Attorney Rich Chiapete said the case continues to be under investigation.
RACINE  A Racine man is facing charges for reportedly attempting to steal a womans medication on Nov. 3.

According to the criminal complaint:

Steven P. Berby, 20, of the 1800 block of Roosevelt Avenue, asked the victim for a ride to a store and back.

The two know each other and when they returned from the store, Berby allegedly demanded that the victim give him her Xanax, a medication used to treat anxiety and panic disorders. The victim refused to give up her medication and Berby reportedly attempted to wrestle away the handbag which contained the Xanax.

At one point during the altercation, Berby reached for his waistband and displayed a gun. Berby reportedly put the gun back in his waistband and exited the vehicle soon after.

A warrant was obtained by investigators from the Racine Police Department to search Berbys apartment. A SWAT team executed the search with investigators, who located Berby in the apartment.

Police found a semiautomatic .22-caliber handgun in the apartment.

Berby was charged on Monday with a felony charge for attempted armed robbery and a misdemeanor charge for bail jumping. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing at 8:30 a.m. Nov. 23 at the Racine County Law Enforcement Center, 717 Wisconsin Ave.

Berby remained in custody as of Monday at the Racine County Jail, online records showed.
RACINE  Four people were arrested Sunday in connection to a domestic violence call that led to one man being struck by a vehicle.

The incident occurred at about 3:20 p.m. in the 1500 block of Boyd Avenue. Police responded to a report of a man on the ground, who was struck by a vehicle. According to a criminal complaint, the incident started as a result of a dispute between a couple over $10 for gas money and later spilled into the street when family got involved.

According to the complaint:

The man, who was eventually hit by the SUV, reportedly asked a woman for $10 for gas money. When his request was denied, he went to the womans house in the 1500 block of Boyd Avenue and allegedly assaulted the woman multiple times.

Family and friends allegedly came to separate the two and, at one point, the man who was hit by the car was reportedly wielding a hammer. Daisheana E. Turner, the cousin of the victim who was struck, then got into her Ford Expedition and the man reportedly stood in the street in front of the vehicle.

Turner reportedly told police she just wanted to scare him, but ended up hitting him with her vehicle.

The man who was hit by a car was treated at Ascension All Saints Hospital for a head injury and was transported to the Racine County Jail upon release from the hospital for battery-domestic abuse.

Turner, of the 2400 block of 19th Street, was charged on Monday with a felony for first-degree reckless injury. She is scheduled for a preliminary hearing at 8:30 a.m.Nov. 23 at the Racine County Law Enforcement Center, 717 Wisconsin Ave.

Turner remained in custody as of Monday at the Racine County Jail, online records showed.

Two others were arrested in connection to the incident, according to Racine Police Sgt. Adam Malacara. The charges for the arrests were not available Monday.
MILWAUKEE  Seven students from St. Catherines High School attended a summit to discuss ways to better their own school environment. The Rev. Allen Alexander accompanied the students to the annual High School Youth Summit hosted by Divine Savior Holy Angels in Milwaukee.

The group spent the day examining some of the standard practices on campus regarding student inclusion and diversity and how things might be done better as well as participating in a service project.

The goals of the summit are to foster an environment of collaboration between Wisconsin high schools, offer and learn about possible solutions to common issues, and to make connections and learn about schools outside of the typical range.

Rachel Anderson, Molly Brown, Meghan Flynn, Luke Letsch, Annemarie Letsch, Molly OBrien and Brian Sharp, spent the first part of the day talking about community service, school spirit and school policies other schools use to engage students and the community.

This offered an opportunity for students from schools as far away as Madison an opportunity to see how other schools function and to bring those ideas back to the campus for discussion. OBrien described her day at the summit as being a great learning experience and she would definitely go back. Molly said, I learned so many ways to provide opportunities to show school spirit through different spirit weeks, fundraisers, and student versus teacher games. There are so many new things I would like to try.

After lunch, provided by the host, the students took turns making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a homeless shelter. Students from various schools immediately rolled up their sleeves and created an assembly line organized to get the job done efficiently.

In the end the students came back together with their chaperones for a recap. They revisited the topic that generated the most discussion previously and examined the ideas they thought could be solutions to challenges they face at St. Catherines High School.

Rachel Anderson said she really like the summit as well. My biggest takeaway was being able to discuss many different topics with other schools, which made me look at different ways we could make our school a better place.
AIC proposes cut in prices of urea, DAP

Agriculture Inputs Corporation (AIC) has proposed slashing prices of state-subsidised fertilisers  diammonium phosphate (DAP) and urea  by Rs2 and Rs4 per kg, respectively. However, the price of potash will remain unchanged.
CPN-UML demands time frame for endorsing motion

The main opposition CPN-UML has demanded a time frame to complete the impeachment of suspended chief of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority Lokman Singh Karki charging that the Legislature-Parliament had been lingering the process.
Dahal urges Modi to provide exchange facility to Nepalis

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has urged his Indian counterpart to make an arrangement so that Nepalis holding banned Indian bank notes could swap them with legal bills here in Nepal.
Gathabandhan gives 15 more days to govt

After promising to table a constitution amendment proposal by Tuesday, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal was scrambling to cobble things up amid growing pressure from the agitating forces, which have even warned of withdrawing support to the government and launching fresh protests.
Housing aid yet to reach needy in remote VDCs

The earthquake-affected families in seven VDCs of Okhaldhunga district have still not received the housing reconstruction aid from the National Reconstruction Authority.
KU VCs office vandalised

All Nepal National Independent Students Union-Revolutionary (ANNISU-R), a student wing of the ruling CPN (Maoist Centre), vandalised the office of the Vice-chancellor of Kathmandu University in Kavre on Monday.
Laudable but inadequate

National Human Rights Action Plan might not be enough to ensure rights at the local level
Lokmans aide claims innocence

Pramod Kumar Karki, chairperson of Agricultural Development Bank Limited, has denied obstructing the court proceedings in serving a summons to Lokman Singh Karki, who remains suspended as the chief of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA).
Look in the mirror

Politicians apathy towards public opinion puts our democratic dispensation at risk
Minister Thapa becomes target as govt draws flak

While the government decision to provide Rs 5 million to Nepali Congress leader and former minister for foreign affairs Sujata Koirala is drawing flak from several quarters, a fare share of criticism has been directed to Minister for Health Gagan Thapa.
Mukherjees visit

New Delhi should refrain from micro-managing Nepal, even if selfish Nepali leaders give the green light to do so
My water, your water

Good laws need to be made to avert possible conflicts between the states over water
Nepal committed to one-China policy

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that Nepal is always committed to one-China policy.
Number of students at US colleges sees rise in 2015-2016

The number of Nepali students going for higher studies in US colleges and universities jumped by 18.4 percent in 2015-2016, after six years of decline, according to a new report released on Monday.
Opposition MPs flay govt for paying Sujata for treatment

Lawmakers from the opposition parties came down heavily on the government against its decision to provide Rs5 million to Nepali Congress leader and former deputy prime minister Sujata Koirala for medical treatment.
Police shoot dead armed man in Rautahat

An armed person was killed in police firing at Inarwa-1 in Rautahat district on Monday morning.
Protests go on against LLRC proposals

People in several parts of the country have been protesting against the proposal of the Local Level Restructuring Committee (LLRC) saying that its technical committees and political leaders recommended local body restructuring without consulting with them.
Quake-displaced man starts brick making business

An earthquake displaced man in Nuwakot has invested the government provided reconstruction aid to start a brick making business.
RPP, RPP-N to unite on Nov 21

Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal and Rastriya Prajatantra Party have set November 21 as the date for their unification.
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Sam Ssebuliba

The chief of defense forces General Katumba Wamala has warned Army officers against using their positions and ranks to grab civilians land.

Appearing before parliaments Human rights committee, Gen Katumba said it has come to his notice that many high ranking officers in the army are terrorizing people by grabbing their land by force.

He explained that as an institution they are investigating the allegations and who ever will be found illegally acquiring land under such circumstances,will be brought to book
The Democratic Party has reiterated the call for electoral reforms and an ethical independent electoral body reflected both in words and personnel.

This follows lasts weeks USA presidential elections that portrayed high moral standards after Donald Trump emerged as winner despite him not being the preferred choice because Hillary Clinton won the popular vote.

Addressing Journalists at the party headquarters, the Party Publicist Secretary, Paul Kenneth Kakande says if the country had such a system and a national consensus in place, leaders would not have to educate the citizenry about patriotism.

The party also urged President Yoweri Museveni to emulate the US example where people still wanted Barrack Obama but he could not contest again because of the law for a peaceful regime change.

The Electoral commission of Uganda has always been appointed by the president and to the opposition; results out of it can never be free and fair because decisions are run by an invisible hand therefore not independent.
Elizabeth Muwombi

Members of the Inter party organization for Dialogue have met today to chart a way forward on issues affecting the country.

Among other issues discussed was the commitment to coalition, election of the Ugandan electoral commission, political party funding among others.

Addressing the press immediately after the meeting, FDC president Mugisha Muntu said there is need for president Museveni to separate his presidential powers from his political power as an NRM chairperson.

The Inter party organization for Dialogue chairperson who is also Democratic party secretary general Mathias Nsubuga explained that NRM did not attend the meeting because the secretary general and NRMs CEC Member, James Tweheyo were out of the country.
Moses Kyeyune

National female Youth MP Anne Adeke has asked parliament to order for the immediate re-opening of Makerere University.

Adeke raised the issue as a matter of national importance asking parliament to intervene as a matter of urgency.

President Museveni recently ordered for the closure of the university citing security reasons after students took to the streets in the wake of a sit down strike by teaching staff demanding payment of their arrears amounting to 39 billion shillings.

Adeke says that Makereres closure continues to not only affect students but various innocent stakeholders .

However, the Minister of state for Higher Education John Cyrstom Muyingo has informed parliament that the committee appointed by the president will help end the mess at the university .
Kim Pyong-il, right, was removed from North Korea's political scene after his power struggle with Kim Jong-il over selecting a successor to founding leader Kim Il-sung, left, in the 1970s. / Yonhap



By Hong Dam-young

North Koreans want Kim Jong-un's uncle, Kim Pyong-il, to replace Kim Jong-un and end his "reign of terror," according to Hong Kong-based magazine Yazhou Zhoukan.

The magazine said Kim Pyong-il  former leader Kim Jong-il's half-brother and also Kim Jong-un's uncle  was regarded by North Koreans at home and abroad as preferred candidate to take over the North Korean leadership, Yonhap news agency reported Monday.

The report said many North Koreans  frightened and dissatisfied with Kim Jong-un's brutal dictatorship  wanted a new leader, and Kim Pyong-il was the most mentioned candidate.

"The country's high-ranking officials are eyeing Kim Pyong-il as well, because they are threatened by the leader's executions of high-profile officers," the report said.

According to the report, Kim Pyong-il, in semi-exile as North Korean ambassador to the Czech Republic, is perceived as a suitable leader because of his decency and open-mindedness.

The report also said Kim Pyong-il's neither pro-China nor pro-U.S. diplomatic position would enable him to deal with both countries, which would try to take control of the North once its regime fell.

Even at the "North Korean Defector World Conference" in Seoul on April 29, the agenda included establishing a North Korean government-in-exile with Kim Pyong-il as its first head.

The North Korean regime removed Kim Pyong-il from its political scene by exiling him to Europe after his power struggle with Kim Jong-il over selecting a successor of founding leader Kim Il-sung in the 1970s.

For decades, he has served as ambassador to Hungary, Finland, Poland, and most recently, the Czech Republic.

He is still considered a threat to Kim Jong-un, who sent some party members to the Czech Republic to keep an eye on Kim Pyong-il in 2014.

"I heard that Kim Pyong-il resembled Kim Il-sung a lot  that's why Kim Jong-il was so jealous of him," a North Korean defector told The Korea Times in Seoul.

"But many North Koreans are not aware of his existence because of the country's efforts to hold back information."

Some said it was "unlikely" and "unrealistic" for North Koreans to hope Kim Pyong-il would take over from Kim Jong-un.

A North Korean defector familiar with the Kim family's inner circle said, "Hoping Kim Pyong-il will become the next leader is completely groundless, considering his background."

"He is the son of Kim Il-sung and his second wife' Kim Song-ae.

"There is no way Kim Pyong-il can overcome the high barriers of the pure bloodline of Kim's family."

Meanwhile, reports say Kim Jong-un has ordered about 64 public executions, mostly high-ranking officials.

They include former defense chief Hyon Yong-chol  reportedly blown to bits by an anti-aircraft gun after falling asleep at a meeting  and army chief Ri Yong-ho, reportedly executed in 2012.
By Jun Ji-hye



South Korea and Japan signed a provisional deal, Monday, to directly exchange military intelligence about North Korea only two weeks after they resumed discussions, according to the Ministry of National Defense.



The signing took place despite fierce objections from the opposition parties while public attention is centered on a massive political scandal involving President Park Geun-hye and her longtime confidant Choi Soon-sil.



The opposition parties vowed to submit a motion soon for the dismissal of Defense Minister Han Min-koo.



The provisional deal was signed at the third round of working-level talks held in Tokyo, during which the two countries held a final review of the content of the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA).



"The two sides signed a provisional deal after confirming that there was no differing opinion regarding the content of the GSOMIA," the ministry said in a release. "The two will from now on go through the relevant procedures before formally signing the deal."



In Seoul, the issue will be brought in a vice-ministerial meeting and the Cabinet meeting before the ministry seeks to obtain the presidential determination on whether to sign an official deal, the ministry noted.



Seoul's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already asked the Ministry of Government Legislation to examine the content.



Rep. Woo Sang-ho, floor leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, criticized the ministry, saying, "I want to ask if the ministry is sane when pushing to sign a deal at this time when the nation has been in chaos."



He pointed out that the members of the public have already been angry at President Park's unilateral decisions to manage state affairs and consequent failures, but the ministry is again unilaterally pushing for the signing.



Once the official deal is signed, the pact would allow Seoul and Tokyo to directly share and exchange intelligence on the North's military activities related to its nuclear and missile programs. Currently, the two indirectly exchange such intelligence through Washington under a trilateral sharing pact signed at the end of 2014.



Since reopening the talks Nov. 1 in Tokyo, the second round of discussions took place in Seoul, Nov. 9, during which the two sides reviewed content of the agreement created in 2012.



In 2012, the two sides were about to sign the agreement under the Lee Myung-bak administration. However, this fell through at the last minute due to fierce public criticism here over the government's alleged clandestine attempts to sign a sensitive agreement with the former colonial ruler.



The ministry is now facing criticism that it has apparently shifted its existing position that it needs to obtain understanding from the public and the National Assembly first to resume discussions with Japan. Defense Minister Han earlier said "conditions" need to become mature first to sign the deal.



The ministry had maintained this position, apparently wary of public resistance stemming from the bitter memory of Tokyo's 1910-1945 colonial rule and Japanese soldiers using Korean women as sex slaves.



However, Han told reporters Monday that his earlier comment did not mean that the national consensus was a precondition for the deal.



"There are a number of matters involving the issue including military necessity, political issues and relations with Japan," he said. "Among them, the ministry determined that military necessity must be a priority."



Han also said that pushing for the signing of the agreement now was unrelated to the ongoing political scandal.



Regarding opposition parties' move to dismiss him, Han said he will take the consequences.




By Gwynne Dyer



"In Turkey, we are progressively putting behind bars all people who take the liberty of voicing even the slightest criticism of the government," wrote author Orhan Pamuk, Turkey's first Nobel Prize winner. "Freedom of thought no longer exists. We are distancing ourselves at high speed from a state of law and heading towards a regime of terror" that is driven by "the most ferocious hatred."



Pamuk wrote those words in Istanbul, but they were not published in Turkey. He sent them to Italy's leading liberal daily, "Repubblica", because no Turkish paper would dare to publish them. Indeed, almost the entire senior editorial staff of Turkey's oldest mainstream daily, "Cumhuriyet", was arrested last weekend, allegedly for supporting both Kurdish rebels and the Islamic secret society controlled by exiled Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen.



This is rather like accusing the Wall Street Journal of supporting al-Qaeda and the Maduro regime in Venezuela. Cumhuriyet always defended Turkey's secular constitution from those who dreamed of creating an Islamic state (like the "Gulenists"), and it always condemned Kurdish separatists who resorted to violence.



But now its editorial staff is in jail, alongside 37,000 other people who have been arrested, often on equally implausible charges, since the attempted coup last July. (President Recep Tayyib Erdogan's government has amnestied 38,000 ordinary criminals to make room in the jails for the political prisoners.)



Erdogan's govenment holds the "Gulenists" responsible for the attempted military coup last July, and they probably were. But he is exploiting the "state of emergency" (which he has just extended for another three months) to suppress all possible centres of opposition to his rule. Whatever their real views, they are all are accused of being either pro-Gulenist or pro-terrorist.



The Gulenist menace has been inflated to preposterous proportions. Erdogan's deputy prime minister Nurettin Canikli, said in a recent interview with the BBC that members of the group have "practically had their brains removed. They've been hypnotised. They're like robots. Each one of them is a potential threat. They could commit all sorts of attacks, including suicide bombs."



"For 40 years this terror organisation has infiltrated the furthest corners of the country  ministries, all institutions and the private sector. It's not just the judiciary, courts, the police, the military. It includes education. In fact, education is the field that they have entered best," Canikli said. (Half of the 100,000 people who have been fired from government jobs worked in education.)



Erdogan now even blames the Gulenists for shooting down a Russian combat aircraft on the Syrian-Turkish border one year ago  although at the time he proudly claimed that it was done on his orders. He also forgets to mention that he and Fethullah Gulen were once close allies dedicated to the task of "Islamising" the Turkish public services.



Their shared objective was to ensure that most of the jobs in the government's grant  military officers, teachers, police, judges, the senior civil service  were held by pious Muslims. This was a huge task, since for almost a century these jobs had largely been the preserve of secular Turks who thought that religion had no business in politics.



The change was accomplished by giving Gulenist candidates the answers to entrance exams, by manipulating military and judicial appointments, or just by the naked exercise of political power, and by 2016 it was an accomplished fact.



But eventually Gulen and Erdogan had a catastrophic falling out  probably over which of them actually controlled these tens of thousands of deeply religious officials  and Erdogan belatedly realised that he had created a hostile force in the heart of his own government apparatus.



He showed as little foresight in his dealings with the Turkish Kurds. In an earlier, more responsible phase of his political career Erdogan actually engineed a ceasefire with the PKK, the main and most violent Kurdish separatist group. But when he lost an election last year and needed to win back the Turkish ultra-nationalist vote, he did it by breaking the ceasefire and re-starting the war against the Kurds.



His clandestine support for the Islamist fanatics of ISIS (now Islamic State) was equally foolish. In the end he came under such pressure from United States, from Russia, and from Saudi Arabia that he was compelled to break the link  and discovered that his erstwhile friends in Islamic State get very cross when they are spurned. Islamic State bombs now go off in Turkey all the time.



So he has alienated a lot of people, his plate is very full, and he urgently needs to thin out the number of his enemies. The failed July coup gave Erdogan an excuse for taking extreme action against them, and even against other domestic opponents who have always played by the democratic rules. He has seized the opportunity with both hands.



It is ugly and sad, for ten years ago Turkey seemed to be entering an era of stable democracy and growing prosperity. This tragedy was not bound to happen: one man's ruthless ambition has derailed an entire country's promising future. It's not clear when, or even if, it will get back on track.





Gwynne Dyer is an independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries. Contact gwynne763121476@aol.com.




By Shlomo Ben Ami



Peacemaking is always a divisive enterprise  so divisive, in fact, that it is often thwarted by politics within the antagonists' own camps. That is precisely what happened in Colombia recently, when voters narrowly rejected a laboriously negotiated peace accord between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).



Plebiscites and referenda may seem like the purest manifestation of democracy; in fact, they are a favorite tool of leaders who rely on deceit and mendacity. There is a reason why dictators and autocrats so often embrace them.



Unsurprisingly, Colombia's plebiscite  like the United Kingdom's Brexit referendum in June  was far from a triumph of democracy. With Hurricane Matthew preventing hundreds of thousands of people from voting in areas where polls indicated support for the deal, only 37% of Colombia's 34 million eligible voters turned out. In that context, the "No" camp's razor-thin margin of victory  just 0.4%  is even less compelling.



Yet the deal's opponents, led by former President Alvaro Uribe, expect to force President Juan Manuel Santos to head back to the negotiating table and produce a radically different kind of peace agreement with the FARC. Considering that the deal overseen by Santos emerged from a highly complex four-year-long process, that expectation is totally unreasonable.



No peace plan is perfect, and the Colombian accord was no exception. But, if a deal is negotiated well, the end result brings significantly more benefits than costs. And that would have been the case with the Colombian accord, which addresses a vast array of social and economic issues, including problems affecting indigenous communities, gender equality, gay rights, and the millions of people displaced by more than a half-century of fighting. The deal also included an historic land-reform program.



For Uribe and his opposition allies, the main objection to the deal concerns how it addresses the question of transitional justice. Negotiators decided that the unconditional application of justice would not be possible. The opposition decided that this was tantamount to impunity  and thus unacceptable.



But the government had made the right call. After all, it was a negotiation, not a surrender. In the transition from war to peace with an undefeated insurgent group, it is unreasonable to expect to be able to treat justice as a strictly legal matter; the political context must be taken into account.



Unfazed by reality, the opposition continues to demand that the guerillas be prosecuted for their crimes, while members of the Colombian armed forces who committed war crimes should be offered "judicial relief." They want the Special Tribunal for Transitional Justice to be dissolved, and the FARC leadership to be banned from participating in politics. They also demand that the interests of big landowners in the agreed rural reform be safeguarded, and argue that implementation of the agreement should be subordinate to the government's fiscal constraints.



To win support for their unreasonable demands, the No campaign focused unremittingly on the antipathy that Colombians (quite legitimately) feel toward the FARC. Uribe warned, dramatically, that the peace agreement would deliver Colombia to terrorism and "Castro-Chavismo."



Of course, opposition to supposed impunity is not the only reason Colombians voted against the peace deal. Some took issue with the socially progressive elements of the agreement. One key member of the No campaign, former Attorney General Alejandro Ordonez, insisted that the word "gender" be removed from the text. After the vote, he touted it as a victory for "the Colombia of the believers."



But opposition to impunity was probably not even the real motivation driving Uribe and other No campaign leaders. After all, some of those who are decrying impunity today, Uribe included, supported impunity for the M-19 left-wing guerrilla group in the 1980s. The difference today is that a presidential election will be held in 2018, and the campaign has already begun.



More than a drive for a different peace, the No campaign was a struggle for power. The Uribistas cannot possibly believe their preposterous claims about the peace deal, or think that there is any chance that the FARC will agree to the terms they have set out. But they do not want Santos to be able to claim credit for bringing peace to Colombia. If nothing else, this would mean that politicians could no longer use the excuse of armed conflict to justify their failure to address the country's colossal social and economic problems.



The consequences of these political machinations may be far-reaching. If peace becomes a matter of electoral politics, so will pretty much everything else  throwing Colombian democracy into a long period of political instability.



But time to secure a new deal is running out. When Santos made his peace overture, the FARC was still a cohesive organization with a unified leadership. Since the plebiscite, confusion has crept into its ranks, possibly presaging a breakup into uncontrollable rural militias and criminal gangs.



To pull Colombia's peace prospects out of limbo, the government should engage in intense negotiations with the FARC on points raised by the opposition. The result would, no doubt, fall short of the Uribistas' demands, but there are plenty of No voters who would be convinced. Indeed, the revised text might be enough to win approval  either in a new plebiscite or, preferably, in Congress. Such an approach could deliver peace, though it would not quell the opposition's obsessive challenge to Santos' legacy on the subject.



The peace deal negotiated by Santos would not have been possible without Uribe's record as president. By vigorously prosecuting the war against the FARC, he changed its course. The question he must now ask himself is whether he wants to go down in history for denying Colombia the peace it deserves.



Shlomo Ben-Ami, a former Israeli foreign minister, is Vice President of the Toledo International Center for Peace. He is the author of Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy. Copyright belongs to Project Syndicate.




Christian Assembly of God of Butler hosted its inaugural chili cookoff and bonfire Friday, Nov. 5. There were 12 entrants in the chili contest, with Trent Netherton of Fort Wayne winning with his white chicken chili recipe. He received a $25 gift card to Chilis Restaurant.

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WINONA, Minn.  It was estimated that more than 40,000 pets died in house fires in America in 2006.

One company is out to lower that number through raising awareness  and donating needed gear  in the Winona area and beyond.

When Invisible Fence employees discovered the number, Karla Toppen, owner of Invisible Fence Brands in the tri-state area, said it was necessary to take action to contribute to making that number decline.

So company started the Project Breathe program, with a goal of donating pet oxygen masks to as many fire departments across North America as possible.

Company representatives were in Winona Monday, to donate two pet oxygen masks to the Winona Fire Department, with hopes they never have to use them, but knowing in reality, down the road, they could save a pets life.

Since they started the program in 2006, Invisible Fence has donated more than 12,000 animal oxygen masks to fire departments across the United States and Canada, with more than 120 reports of the masks saving an animals life.

Toppen said the company has also recently donated oxygen masks to the Holmen Fire Department, and within six months the department used one of the masks to save a pet in a fire.

With help from Deb Finnegan and Suzie Ehlo from Pet Medical Center, firefighters on Monday learned how to apply the masks to dogs and cats, as well as other various tips when it comes to animal rescue.

After learning the different techniques there are to apply pet oxygen masks on animals of various sizes, the firefighters had their own chance to practice applying the masks.

Animal safety is important to us, Toppen said. We want to help and give fire departments the necessary equipment to save pets in emergencies like fires.
The La Crosse County Board approved its 2017 budget Tuesday morning but voted overwhelmingly against pulling $1 million from the fund balance to expand county highway work next year.

Board member Ray Ebert offered an amendment to the proposed budget that would have added $1 million in road funding to the budget, which already included a $375,000 increase in the tax levy for roads, and borrowing of $2.7 million for highways, $300,000 more than county administrator Steve OMalleys original proposal.

The need for more highway funding has been a hot topic the past few months, and its a statewide issue. In La Crosse County, almost $90 million in needed road projects have been identified. County Highway Commissioner Ron Chamberlain has noted that it would take $5 million a year for at least five years to avoid falling further behind on replacement and maintenance.

Ebert has been an opponent of borrowing for highway work, but he views the situation as so dire that he supported the $2.7 million in borrowing for next year (up to $2.8 million with bond issuance costs) and wanted to draw another $1 million from the fund balance to start to get caught up on road work.

Its a cycle I dont know how were going to break, Ebert said.

OMalleys proposed budget already pulls almost $2.8 million from the fund balance, about 2.5 times what is normally used. The county board has a policy of keeping the fund balance between 25 and 50 percent of operating expenses. At the end of 2015, the fund balance was at 57 percent, so OMalley suggested the board use some of that instead of borrowing for capital spending, including $682,000 for upgrades to the 911 telephone and radio system and $500,000 to purchase parking spaces in the Belle Square ramp.

OMalley recommended against drawing further from the fund balance, noting that Eberts amendment would take the fund balance down to 44 percent, possibly having a negative impact on the countys bond rating (Aa1, the second highest rating available).

Board member Maureen Freedland argued against Eberts amendment, suggesting it was a Band-Aid when what is needed is more funding from the state.

Eberts amendment was voted down 23-4, with only Ebert, Dan Ferries, Jerome Gundersen and Dan Hesse voting for it. Board members Laurence Berg and Tina Hundt Wehrs were absent.

An alternative proposal from board member Ralph Geary that would have drawn $300,000 from the fund balance for additional road work in 2017 also was voted down, 21-6, with Geary, Gundersen, Patrick Barlow, Keyla Rosa, Patrick Scheller and Tina Tryggestad voting for the Geary amendment.

Geary also proposed an amendment to the budget that would have pulled three new custodial positions from the budget.

For 15 years, the county has contracted for cleaning services for the administrative center and the Health and Human Services Building. With this budget, building cleaning would become a staff responsibility again, with the custodians also doing tasks not performed by the cleaning contractors, such as changing light bulbs, shoveling snow and doing minor repairs.

Changing from contracted to staff cleaning will cost about $65,000 more, but facilities director Jim Speropulos said the buildings will be better maintained with the in-house custodians.

Gearys move to go with the contractual cleaning and put the $65,000 savings into road work was voted down by a 21-5 vote, with Geary, Ferries, Gundersen, Hesse and Leon Pfaff voting in the minority.

Ebert also proposed pulling the $27,618 budgeted for the countys share of a part-time staff position that would coordinate a new regional blufflands protection program designed to expand and enhance recreational opportunities and preserve the scenic assets of La Crosse County as well as those in Minnesotas Houston and Winona counties.

According to county planner Charlie Handy, about 3,000 acres of bluffland has been protected so far, and the program aims to double that. The part-time position would transition into a non-county staffer once the regional coalition of government and nonprofit groups is up and running.

Board member Mike Giese argued that investment in bluffland protection will bring a tremendous payback in bringing more tourism dollars to the area as well as helping to attract and retain young people vital to the countys workforce.

After Gieses comments, Ebert said he was swayed and voted against his own amendment. So did the rest of the board.

The approved county budget keeps the tax rate flat at $3.89 per $1,000 in equalized property value, with the overall levy set at just under $33.7 million, rising by a little less than 3 percent.

The tax levy actually only accounts for about 21 percent of the total 2017 spending of just under $162 million, which is down about 4.3 percent from the 2016 budget.

Its a large budget affecting a lot of peoples lives throughout our community, OMalley said. Yet, he added, its probably one of the smaller items on most peoples property tax bills.

Lange salute

Dave Lange, La Crosse Countys corporation counsel since 2012 and a part of the countys legal team since 1988, took part in his last county board meeting Tuesday.

The countys legal department is involved in a wide array of issues, from child protection cases and negotiating contracts to drafting ordinances and advising the county board on all things legal.

I never sign a document unless it has been reviewed by Dave Lange, Tara Johnson, county board chairwoman, said Monday evening in a salute to the retiring Lange. You have kept me out of jail, and for that I am very grateful.

Lange said the county is in capable hands with his successor as corporation counsel, Megan DeVore. It has been an honor and a privilege to serve you and the county all this time.

In La Crosse County it would take $5 million a year for at least five years to avoid falling further behind on road replacement and maintenance.
A North Side staple is closing its doors after almost seven decades in La Crosse.

Maid-Rite owner Dick Beilke said the diner at 1119 Caledonia St. would close for the last time at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. Beilke bought the business 26 years ago from Bob Allen, who owned the La Crosse location, which first opened in 1947. Beilke informed his five employees of the decision to close on Monday.

The word got out, and the small dining room was filled Tuesday afternoon with customers looking to grab one last sandwich. According to the companys website, there is no other Maid-Rite within more than 50 miles after an Onalaska location closed its doors in 2010 after only a short time in business.

Almost all of the 30 or so seats were full Tuesday afternoon as Beilke, 84, spoke of his reasons for closing, which include his age, health reasons and some personal financial difficulties. A Chrysler employee for 25 years, Beilke moved to La Crosse and bought the local Maid-Rite after an early retirement from the auto manufacturer.

A farm kid, Beilke said he grew up on Maid-Rite sandwiches in the 1930s, with Beilke and his father stopping to eat the famous loose-meat sandwiches during weekend trips from their farm to visit his grandmother in Rockford, Ill. This was during the Great Depression, when the luxury of going out to eat wasnt a reality for most Americans.

You could get a Maid-Rite and a malt for a quarter, he said. That was pure living back then during the Depression.

Beilke said he has worked hard to keep the La Crosse Maid-Rite authentic to its roots, leaving many of the old fixtures in place and refusing to touch the recipes even as the Maid-Rite franchise, which is headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, has made changes to its menu. The La Crosse location still offered the classic Maid-Rite sandwiches, as well as breakfast and dinner options, such as chicken a la king.

The North Side is a real meat-and-potatoes area, he said. You cant get too fancy, and weve stayed with the basics.

A fan of the railroads, he personally selected local railway memorabilia to cover the walls of the cozy diner, which has a handful of booths and a counter surrounding the island where the special cut, grind and spice of meat is made and served to customers. The railroad anchored the North Side in the past, and he said many railroad company veterans are regulars at the diner.

When customers heard of the Maid-Rite closing, many offered to help, Beilke said, but he didnt feel right being in their debt. The future of the business is uncertain, he said, and he didnt know whether he would sell or if it would remain a Maid-Rite due to the contractual obligations the parent company would have to a potential new owner.

Beilke has worked with some of the restaurants employees for decades, and they have shared in each others triumphs and trials. Beilke hand-delivered a get-well card to one of his employees after heart surgery in 2007, and employees have worked there for decades, raising their kids on the North Side.

My God, its like a great big family, he said. Its amazing.

Angie LaFleur, a Holmen resident who grew up on the North Side, stopped Tuesday for one last lunch at the restaurant and to grab a five-pound takeout order of the Maid-Rite meat, which she would serve at Thanksgiving.

It will be tough losing one of the historic anchors to the neighborhood, she said, as everyone visited the restaurant and its neighbor, the Sweet Shop. Its where everyone came together to chat, share news or read the paper.

Lindsey Hartley, a French Island resident, and her friend Victoria Cunningham of Garnett, Kan., stopped by after they learned it was closing. Hartley grew up eating Maid-Rite sandwiches with her grandfather, who she had invited to come out one last time, while Cunningham was enjoying her first visit to one of the restaurants.

Hartley went to school just down the street from the restaurant, which was always a special treat for the family to visit. Cunningham said she was sad her first visit would also be her last, as you just dont see places like it in America anymore.
A judge Tuesday sentenced a La Crosse woman who sold methamphetamine while on bond for charges that accused her of being involved in a crystal meth distribution enterprise to five years in prison.

Kojoua Vu, 26, also will serve four years on extended supervision under the sentence imposed by La Crosse County Circuit Judge Scott Horne.

I hope you reflect and take advantage of treatment, La Crosse County Circuit Judge Scott Horne said, and then be prepared to succeed when youre released into the community.

Vu sold 3.5 grams of meth to a police informant on April 11 before authorities found more than half a pound of meth worth $15,000, more than $20,000 cash and synthetic urine used to pass drug tests in her apartment at 720 Oakland St. Her sister was also arrested at the apartment.

Vu posted a $5,000 cash bond on Feb. 16 after prosecutors charged her in the sophisticated drug trafficking enterprise, which involved the distribution of high-grade methamphetamine manufactured by Mexican drug cartels in La Crosse and surrounding counties.

Those involved moved hundreds of pounds of crystal meth throughout the region during a span of several years before police interrupted the network in October 2015. Several co-defendants brought pounds of meth each week from the Twin Cities to La Crosse, where Vu and others distributed it to surrounding counties, authorities said.

Vu pleaded no contest to possession with intent to deliver meth as party to the crime, while six other charges were dismissed but considered by the judge at sentencing.

As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors recommended she serve no more than five years in prison, arguing that she claimed to sell drugs to support her own habit simply to minimize her level of involvement in the drug ring.

I went to law school, and she had more than one-third of my annual salary on her person, assistant district attorney John Kellis said. Your honor, shes a for-profit dealer.

Vu told the judge she wasnt ready to accept her drug addiction upon her release from custody in February.

I went back to doing what I did before, she said. I was afraid of change. I didnt know who to go to.

Vu enrolled in programming and worked toward her GED while jailed. She asked for time served, telling the judge she now recognizes her drug dependency issues and knows how to get the resources she needs.
More than a dozen schools in Holmen, Onalaska and La Crosse will benefit from this years nearly $12,000 in Arts for All funding.

Viterbo University, with financial assistance from Macys and Ronald McDonald House Charities of Western Wisconsin and Southeastern Minnesota, provides the money to help area schools offset the costs of field trips to see performances at the university. The program allows teachers to apply for funding based on the number of students at their school qualifying for free and reduced-price lunch and will affect nearly 5,000 students.

Performances in this years Ronald McDonald Arts for Young America School Series include historical shows such as Everybodys Hero: The Jackie Robinson Story and Ellis, Island of Dreams, as well as popular childrens literature adapted into plays, such as Charlottes Web and The House at Pooh Corner. Ticket costs are $5 or $6 each for this series.

We found that sometimes even $5 or $6 is too much for some families, especially when they still have to pay transportation costs, Viterbo Fine Arts Center Director Michael Ranscht said. It is Viterbos goal to make sure that every child has the opportunity to experience the arts, regardless of his or her economic background.
With all ballots counted, state Sen. Jennifer Shilling retained a 56-vote lead over Republican challenger Dan Kapanke.

Each candidate picked up one vote when Vernon County election officials tallied two ballots of voters who needed extra time to bring in valid identification cards.

Officials in La Crosse County last week counted 10 provisional ballots  six for Kapanke and four for the incumbent.

That brings Shillings total to 43,570 to Kapankes 43,514 in a race that pitted the Senate minority leader against the man she unseated in a 2011 recall.

Independent Chip DeNure finished third with 2,087 vote. The 32nd District includes La Crosse, Crawford and parts of Vernon and Monroe counties.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission is preparing for a recount in the race, which Kapanke would have to ask for. Kapanke has three days to request one after all counties in the district file their canvass results with the commission.

County clerks said they are hoping no recount will be ordered until after the Thanksgiving holiday, as officials are only allowed one day off once the recount begins.

La Crosse County Clerk Ginny Dankmeyer said she expects it will take seven to eight days to count the more than 64,000 ballots cast. Dankmeyer estimates it could cost upwards of $5,000.

It would be the first county-wide recount since the 2011 Supreme Court race, which Justice David Prosser won by just 7,316 votes. That recount involved about 30,000 La Crosse County ballots and took nine days.

Based on previous recounts, Dankemeyer said she doesnt expect any dramatic changes to the totals.

But the process is tedious and labor intensive for clerks, canvassers and poll workers.

You cant just rush through it, said Vernon County Clerk Ron Hoff. Everybody wants it perfect.
La Crosse County prosecutors have filed felony theft charges against a woman accused of stealing a service dog from a North Side home and going on a crime spree.

According to reports, witnesses told police that a woman calling herself Paris entered a Hamilton Street residence on Oct. 26 and asked whether she could take the dog, Tootsie, to show her friends. A man there told her the dog didnt belong to him so he could not give permission. He went back to doing something else and when he turned around, the woman had left with the dog.

Later that evening, a woman told police that she was attacked outside a George Street bar by Makayla Anderson, who had a Chihuahua in her purse that she claimed to have stolen and was planning to sell.

That night, police responded to another call in which a man told police that Anderson and another woman kicked in his door and stole cash, lottery tickets, bedding and various pieces of home decor.

Anderson, 23, was arrested on a warrant Wednesday after police responded to a fight on Island Street; she registered 0.194 percent blood-alcohol concentration on a preliminary breath test, a violation of her bond in a previous case. When questioned in the jail, Anderson asked for an attorney before saying, She has her animal. I never stole that animal.

Anderson is charged with theft of a domestic animal, a felony; burglary; misdemeanor battery; misdemeanor theft and bail jumping.

According to the Coulee Region Humane Society, animal control officers recovered Tootsie Oct. 27 in the 1900 block of George Street. She was returned to her owner after receiving updated vaccines.

The dogs owner, Diana Melton, said Tootsie is a service dog who alerts her when she is about to suffer a seizure, and it was the first time in the five years shes owned the dog that they were apart.

Melton said she had to take out a $100 loan to recover the dog, who was a little shaken but is doing well.
Last week, Donald Trump was elected president. On Wednesday, a group of University of Wisconsin-La Crosse students found the n-word scrawled on their front door.

Those two things might not be related. Lord knows weve seen racism crop up at our local colleges before, without a timely connection to any national event. Maybe, just maybe, its a coincidence that our neighborhood racist decided that he just couldnt take living next to a person of color one more day without telling him or her to leave the day after the guy with a white supremacist fan club was named president-elect.

Its hard not to see those things as related, not when Trump campaigned on a promise to restore the United States to values held in the 1950s, which, if you recall, were not good for minorities. However, its theoretically possible; coincidences happen.

Its a lot harder to explain away as coincidence the second report from the UW-L Campus Climate office Wednesday, which shared on Facebook that a student who was speaking Spanish on campus was told, Didnt you hear that Trump was elected? You cant speak that anymore. Were building a wall. You should be taken back to your country.

There is indeed evidence that points to Trumps racism: He called a Latina beauty queen Miss Housekeeping, insinuated last year that many Mexicans are rapists, assumed an American-born judge would be biased because of his Mexican heritage, continued throughout the presidential campaign to insist all African-Americans live in inner cities, assumed one of his own supporters was a protester because of the color of his skin, and, by the way, still insists the Central Park Five are guilty even after they were exonerated by DNA.

Any one of those things in this far-from-comprehensive list should require a national apology and reflection on what they mean about his personal bias. Taken together, they are a pattern of unforgivable, immoral behavior, particularly since Trump both refuses to apologize and refuses to acknowledge he has any personal biases.

By electing him to be our next president, the United States has sent a signal throughout the country that racist behavior is acceptable, that it is not a moral failing bad enough to disqualify a person from the presidency. The repercussions will be felt at every level, in every community in America, including our own.

Reports are already piling up:

In San Marcos, Texas, fliers reading, Now that our man Trump is elected and Republicans own both the Senate and the House  time to organize tar & feather VIGILANTE SQUADS and go arrest and torture those deviant university leaders spouting off all this diversity garbage, were found at Texas State University.

In San Diego, Calif., a Muslim student was robbed by two men who invoked Trumps name on the San Diego State University campus.

In a Maple Grove, Minn., high school, messages including, #gobacktoafrica, #whitesonly and #whiteamerica were written on a bathroom wall Wednesday.

In La Crosse, Wis., students woke up to Go home, (n-word) on their door, and another was told he or she should be taken back to (his or her) country.

People keep saying that their vote for Trump doesnt make them racist, but it supports such policies as stop-and-frisk, building a wall to keep Mexicans out and banning Muslims from entering the country. It sends the message that open bigotry is not a deal-breaker, and both the marginalized and those who hate them heard it loud and clear.

Maybe all these economically insecure, anti-establishment voters Ive heard so much about really dont approve of his bigotry. Now is their chance to prove it.

Speak out against racism. Tell your neighbors that this is unacceptable behavior, that people of color belong in our community, contribute to our community and are valued by our community.

And if you choose not to decry this racist behavior, remember that your silence speaks volumes.
At least 590 people in Wisconsin cast provisional ballots in last weeks election because they didnt present a valid photo ID, the Wisconsin Elections Commission said Monday.

So far municipal clerks have reported issuing 717 provisional ballots in last weeks presidential election, the biggest election so far that the photo ID requirement was in place.

Most went to people who didnt have a valid ID at the polling place.

Its the first indication of how many people showed up at the polls and couldnt meet the states hotly disputed photo ID requirement. The number could increase as more clerks report their provisional ballot numbers to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

In 2012, when the photo ID requirement was on hold by court order, there were 132 provisional ballots cast  largely because a voter lacked the correct proof of residency. In the April presidential primary, when the photo ID was in effect, there were 434 provisional ballots cast, of which 343 were for people without a valid ID.

UW-Madison political science professor Ken Mayer, who is studying the effect of Wisconsins voter ID law on election participation, called the number of provisional ballots cast evidence of hard disenfranchisement and many times greater than the number of fraudulent ballots cast through voter impersonation.

These are people who will be unable to vote because of the voter ID requirement, Mayer said. We can argue about whether that number is big or large, but what that number should be is zero.

The provisional ballot allows voters who dont have an ID when they come to the polls to fill out a ballot, but its only counted if they can provide the ID to their local clerk by the Friday after Election Day.

Its not yet known how many of those ballots were ultimately counted. In the spring, 63 percent of the provisional ballots were rejected. In 2012, 58 percent were rejected.

Republicans have pushed the voter ID law as a way to prevent voter impersonation. Democrats say the laws are really intended to discourage low-income, student and older voters from voting.

There were more than 2.94 million votes cast in last weeks presidential election, making the number of provisional ballots a tiny fraction of the overall total. The statewide presidential election was decided by about 27,000 votes, so the provisional ballots alone wouldnt have changed the outcome.

Both Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell and City of Milwaukee Election Commission executive director Neil Albrecht said they believe the number of voters affected by photo ID is much higher and includes those who didnt come to the polls at all or left once asked for an ID.

I hear repeatedly from our election workers that once the process is explained, and voters become aware that their ballots will not be counted on Election Day, most voters leave, Albrecht said. For anyone to allege that these numbers in any way represent the (full) impact of photo ID on voting in the city of Milwaukee or in the state of Wisconsin would be an inaccuracy.

Gov. Scott Walker called the idea that voter ID suppressed voter turnout a load of crap in a radio interview last week.

Walker spokesman Tom Evenson said Monday provisional ballots were created as a safeguard for voters who show up on Election Day without proper ID and noted the state instituted overnight mailing to ensure those voters get temporary receipts to provide in time for their vote to count.

We have made voting easy while ensuring it is hard to cheat, Evenson said.

The total number of provisional ballots could grow as more municipalities report their numbers to the Elections Commission. Voters who cast provisional ballots were allowed to provide the necessary ID or residency documentation by last Friday.

About half of the states 1,854 municipalities have not reported their provisional ballot numbers yet, elections commission spokesman Reid Magney said. Of those that have reported, 165 municipalities, including Madison and Milwaukee, have reported having one or more provisional ballots.

We still have not heard from the majority of municipal clerks, Magney said. Were going to be reminding them this week.
Congressman Mark Pocan is among those calling for Donald Trump to walk back one of his first decisions as president-elect: picking Stephen Bannon, head of the alt-right website Breitbart News, as his chief strategist.

Bannons role in the forthcoming Trump administration was announced Sunday. Bannon has been the chief executive of Trumps campaign since August.

On Tuesday, Pocan, who represents south-central Wisconsin, joined a list of more than 100 congressional Democrats who are objecting. In a statement posted to his Twitter account, Pocan, D-Black Earth, said, Bannon has a long track record of anti-Semitism and sexism and is revered by white nationalists and the KKK.

He has built a career on spreading bigotry and hatred as the head of Breitbart News, Pocan said. Someone who stokes racism has no place in any administration and Trump should immediately withdraw his appointment.

Under Bannons tenure, Breitbart pushed a nationalist agenda and became one of the leading outlets of the so-called alt-right  a movement often associated with white supremacist ideas that oppose multiculturalism and defend Western values.

Headlines of stories published on the Breitbart website in recent months include: Hoist It High and Proud: The Confederate Flag Proclaims a Glorious Heritage, Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy and Europes Rape Epidemic: Western Women Will Be Sacrificed at the Altar of Mass Migration.

Prominent white nationalists in the U.S. have hailed Trumps selection of Bannon. In addition to the response from congressional Democrats, the pick has drawn criticism from activist groups including the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Congresswoman Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee, in a statement released Monday, called Bannon a hate peddler.

After learning of the appointment of Stephen Bannon  a prominent leader in the white nationalist and alt-right movements  as a senior counselor to the president, my darkest fears about the man who will soon lead our country were strongly reaffirmed, Moore said.

U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, himself a frequent subject of Breitbart articles clearly intended to target the Janesville Republican for his views on immigration and trade, thus far has defended Trumps choice of Bannon.

This is a person who helped (Trump) win an incredible victory, Ryan said of Bannon on Tuesday.

Trumps other top pick Sunday was Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus as his chief of staff. Republicans roundly praised that choice, while Democrats largely have not objected.

State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, when asked about Bannon during a Monday press conference, predicted Priebus would be the key person making the decisions along with the president.

I know nothing about Steve Bannon, Vos said. I dont read Breitbart News, so I really have no opinion.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
State Assembly Democrats have tapped Rep. Peter Barca to lead their caucus again in the 2017-18 session, in which theyll confront a Republican majority that grew larger still in last weeks election.

Barca, D-Kenosha, was not challenged for the post Tuesday, when Assembly Democrats met at the state Capitol for the first time since the Nov. 8 election.

Assembly Democrats expected to gain at least a few seats in the contest.

Instead, alongside a surprisingly strong showing by GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump  especially in the rural areas and small towns that have been Wisconsins political battlegrounds in recent elections  the GOP caucus returned all of its incumbents. It also gained one seat in the 92nd Assembly District, where Treig Pronschinske, R-Mondovi, beat Rep. Chris Danou, D-Trempealeau.

Assembly Republicans next year will have a 64-35 edge over Democrats in the Assembly, their largest majority since 1957. State Senate Republicans also gained at least one seat in the election.

Barca, addressing the caucus, didnt deny he was caught off-guard by the election results.

I thought there would be a Trump wave, Barca said. I just thought it would go in the opposite direction.

Rep. Steve Doyle, D-Onalaska, who was elected caucus vice chairman Tuesday, said the election showed Democrats have work to do connecting with voters outside their strongholds of Madison and Milwaukee.

We need to learn to talk to people in out-state Wisconsin, Doyle said.

Barca has led Assembly Democrats since 2011. Since then, their ranks have steadily diminished as Republican legislators and Gov. Scott Walker have reeled off a string of election victories  and used those majorities to pass sweeping legislation such as Act 10, voter ID and right-to-work.

Also Tuesday, Rep. Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton, was elected assistant minority leader, succeeding Rep. Katrina Shankland, D-Stevens Point, who did not seek the post again.

Rep. Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit, was elected Assembly Democrats caucus chairman, succeeding Rep. Andy Jorgensen, D-Milton, who did not seek re-election.

Rep. Beth Meyers, D-Bayfield, was re-elected caucus secretary, and Rep. Christine Sinicki, D-Milwaukee, was elected caucus sergeant-at-arms.
Boasting their most lopsided majority in six decades, state Assembly Republicans have re-elected Speaker Robin Vos and Majority Leader Jim Steineke to lead their caucus, while pledging bigger, bolder changes beyond those made in the last five years.

Vos, R-Rochester, the Assembly Speaker since 2013, was unanimously re-elected without a challenge Monday to lead a Republican majority that defied predictions to grow even larger in last weeks election.

Steineke, R-Kaukauna, was one of Wisconsins most prominent GOP voices against President-elect Donald Trump during the campaign. He was re-elected to his leadership post, fending off a challenge from Rep. Kevin Petersen, R-Waupaca.

Both votes came at the first caucus meeting of Assembly Republicans since the Nov. 8 general election.

Steineke hailed the Republican takeover of the federal governmentin the election, cemented by Trumps win. In a press conference, Steineke said he had a message for those who thought Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin were busy the last five years.

You havent seen anything yet, Steineke said. Theres bigger, bolder reforms coming.

Steineke did not offer specifics. Its likely that the now-GOP-controlled federal government will try to repeal President Barack Obamas health care law and make other changes next year that would force states to take action in response.

In recent months, Assembly Republicans have talked about taking action in 2017 to create a new kind of school voucher, shore up state road funding, end the University of Wisconsin System tuition freeze and provide all high school freshmen with a laptop or tablet. Other possibilities include new tax cuts and elimination of the prevailing wage requirements for workers who build roads or government buildings.

Assembly Democrats are set to meet Tuesday to pick their leaders. Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca of Kenosha said Monday he will seek that post again.

Due in part to Trumps strong showing  especially in the rural areas and small towns that have been battlegrounds in recent elections  the GOP caucus returned all its incumbents in the election. It gained one seat, in the 92nd Assembly District, where Treig Pronschinske, R-Mondovi, beat Rep. Chris Danou, D-Trempealeau.

That gives Republicans a 64-35 edge over Democrats in the Assembly  their largest majority since 1957, Vos told cheering lawmakers at Mondays meeting.

State Senate Republicans also grew their majority by at least one seat, to at least 20 seats. Republican Patrick Testin of Stevens Point ousted Democratic Sen. Julie Lassa, also of Stevens Point, in Senate District 24.

In District 32, Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse, is clinging to a 56-vote unofficial win over Republican Dan Kapanke, also of La Crosse. The election will be subject to a recount if Kapankes campaign requests it.

Other Assembly GOP leadership posts also were voted upon Monday, with a few new faces emerging.

Rep. Rob Brooks, R-Saukville, was elected assistant majority leader, succeeding Rep. Dan Knodl, R-Germantown. Knodl, in turn, was elected majority caucus chairman, succeeding outgoing Rep. John Murtha, R-Baldwin. Rep. Romaine Quinn, R-Rice Lake, was elected caucus vice chairman.

Those re-elected included: Rep. Tyler August, R-Lake Geneva, as Assembly speaker pro tempore, the chambers procedural chief; majority caucus secretary Jessie Rodriguez, R-Oak Creek; and majority caucus Sergeant At Arms Samantha Kerkman, R-Salem.

Vos did not indicate Monday which representatives he would appoint from his caucus to the Legislatures 16-member Joint Finance Committee, which leads the budgeting process.

Assembly Republicans on the panel the last two years were co-chairman John Nygren, R-Marinette; vice-co-chairman Dale Kooyenga, R-Brookfield; Amy Loudenbeck, R-Clinton; Michael Schraa, R-Oshkosh; Mary Czaja, R-Irma; and Dean Knudson, R-Hudson.

A successor for Knudson must be named because he did not seek re-election.

Vos Senate counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, made clear at last weeks Senate GOP leadership elections that he would re-appoint all six Senate Republicans to the joint finance panel.
DE SOTO  Ona Fay Wetterlin, 89, died Sunday, Nov. 13, 2016, at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center, La Crosse.

She was born in De Soto to Vista (West) and Verden Sallander. She was born a triplet with brother, Orville, and sister, Oleda. Ona attended grade school in De Soto and high school in Lansing, Iowa. She married Robert Wetterlin Aug. 21, 1948. Ona worked as a beautician, depot agent for SOO railroad, and as a store clerk. She and her husband returned to Victory when they retired. Ona belonged to the New Hope United Methodist Church. She was a member of the Womens Society and was always ready with a helping hand and will be missed by many who loved her.

She and Bob were blessed with three sons, Harold Jan, Thomas of Victory, Daniel Robert of Eau Claire; four grandchildren, Scott and Brian, Adam, and Samantha (David) Borgeson; three great-grandchildren, Morgan and Dawson Borgeson, and Eric Wetterlin; and sister-in-law, Kate Sallander. Their hearts were broken when Harold died at age 40.

She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Bob, June 9, 2011; son, Harold; brother, Orville; sister, Oleda; and brother-in-law, Harlow Lange.

A funeral service for Ona will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016, at the New Hope United Methodist Church, Route 82, Red Mound. Pastor Jim Aniol will officiate and burial will follow the service in the Victory Cemetery, County Rd. UU and Cemetery Rd., Victory, off State Hwy. 35. A luncheon afterwards will be back at the church in Red Mound. Friends may call during a visitation from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. prior to the service.

In lieu of flowers or plants, memorials may be directed to the New Hope United Methodist Church, Red Mound. Online condolences may be offered at www.vossfh.com. Vosseteig Funeral Homes, De Soto, is assisting the family.
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The election is over and the choice is clear: according to a highly unscientific poll, most young Americans would rather see a giant meteor wipe out the planet than see Donald Trump become president.On the rare chance that #GiantMeteor2016 does actually happen, NASA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency have already taken steps to prepare for the possibility. Last month, the two agencies held a joint exercise in El Segundo using the worst-case scenario of an asteroid hitting Southern California. In the exercise, it was too late to call on Ben Affleck and Bruce Willis, and thus played out the possibility of a mass evacuation of the region.

"It is critical to exercise these kinds of low-probability but high-consequence disaster scenarios," said FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate. "By working through our emergency response plans now, we will be better prepared if and when we need to respond to such an event."

In the simulation, the agencies worked on the (fictional) scenario that a 300 to 800-foot asteroid was just discovered, and there was a 2 percent chance that it would hit the United States on September 20, 2020just at the tail end of Trump's first term! The scenario continued, emphasizing that, by November of 2017, it was determined this hypothetical asteroid would hit the United States. The agencies were also tasked to work without the option of deflecting the asteroid, essentially rehearsing a mass evacuation of the Los Angeles region.

Although four years is a long, long time down the road, scientists say it's not enough advance warning to actually construct a spacecraft and send it to the asteroid to deflect it off its course, according to the New York Times. According to JPL, the agencies instead focused on "footprint models, population displacement estimates, [and] information on infrastructure that would be affected," as well as "considered ways to provide accurate, timely and useful information to the public. Also underscored were methods to refute rumors and false information that could emerge in the years leading up to the hypothetical impact."

While such extinction-level events have been the subject of Hollywood movies and the fanciful predictions of doomsayers, scientists basically say it's only a matter of time. NASA tracks over 650 such "near-Earth objects", and while none pose a threat in the next century, there's still plenty out there we have discovered yet. "We are not fully prepared, but we are on a trajectory to get much more so," said John Holdren, director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, back in September. Our friends at JPL are now testing a system named Scout to track and discover these near-Earth objects.

Every year we do have our share of close calls. But so far none have come to end it all. In February, NASA warned of a 100-foot asteroid that would buzz planet earth, and later discovered a tiny object named 2016 DY30 that came within 9,000 miles of our planet.
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The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, an organization that ostensibly works to provide "HIV prevention services, testing, and healthcare for HIV patients," has been getting awfully political lately. They recently backed the failed California Prop. 60, which would have required all adult performers in the state to wear condoms during sex. AHF also was the chief mover behind Proposition 61, the failed prescription drug ballot measure. And while it could be argued that condoms have something to do with HIV preventiondespite the fact that most of the performers it would have affected were firmly against the proposalit gets murkier when it comes to AHF's support of the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative, or the money they spent campaigning against transit proposal Measure M. As such, the Free Speech Coalition, an adult industry trade association, has filed a complaint with the Treasurer Inspector General for Tax Administration, accusing the nonprofit of spending an excessive sum of money on ballot measures that have nothing to do with their mission.According to a release from FSC, AHF has spent over $20 million on ballot measures in the state in the last four years. AHF receives funding via government grants and sales at their pharmacies. Their pharmacy sales total about $800 million each year, and they do not pay taxes on that money, according to The Real Deal. In addition to the organization's multiple condoms-in-porn proposals, AHF president and founder Michael Weinstein also wrote the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative, which Angelenos will likely get the opportunity to vote on in March 2017. If it were to pass, the NII would put a two-year moratorium on any projects in L.A. that would require a change to zoning rules, many of which are out of date. (Please see the half-built Target that has been languishing at the corner of Sunset and Western for months now due to the fact that it was too tall for outdated zoning rules.) AHF has thrown $1.5 million at the NII campaign.

FSC director Eric Paul Leue is one person who wants to know, "What does battling real estate developers have to do with providing healthcare to HIV patients?" He told The Real Deal:

AHF has spent millions of their tax exempt dollars on political and lobbying purposes in excess of the typical limit. It would not surprise us if they manipulate their filing status to further avoid paying taxes and avoid detection for their excess political spending. As a longstanding HIV/LGBT activist and advocate, I cannot sit by and continue to watch this ongoing disrespect of my community and tax laws.

LA Weekly asked Weinstein the same question Leue is pondering. Weinstein responded, "We're a corporate citizen. This is our international headquarters. Why not? Why are we being asked the question and not all the business groups and the people who want to build anything they want? Why is it somehow less valid for us to be concerned about what happens in a community that we've invested in?"

At one point in time, Leue, who was crowned Mr. LA Leather in 2014, appeared in advertisements partially paid for by AHF promoting HIV testing. However, he severed his ties with AHF after Weinstein called HIV prevention medication Truvada "a party drug."

FSC's complaint also accuses AHF of sending out mailers against their political opponents, including this one in which they accuse San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener of being in the pocket of pornographers for his opposition of Prop. 60.

Anti-#PrEP activist Michael Weinstein sent this despicable hit on me. He knows I fight 4 PrEP. If you care about PrEP pls fight back. #LGBT pic.twitter.com/PW3ebaZFHn  Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) November 4, 2016

Though nonprofits in California are not allowed to spend a substantial amount of money on lobbying, LA Weekly notes that because AHF takes in so much, the millions it has spent lobbying amounts to about 3 percent of its revenue. Arthur Rieman, an attorney with the Law Firm for Nonprofits, said that "insubstantial" amounts usually refers to 5 to 15 percent of a nonprofit's revenue. However, he also noted that the IRS or attorney general could crack down on a nonprofit that spent money on things that had little to do with their mission. Such a nonprofit could risk prosecution or losing its tax-exempt status.
Monday, November 14, 2016

The Illinois Administrator has filed an amended complaint in the case involving a would-be judge who prematurely donned the robe

1. From August 2011 to August 2016, Respondent was employed as a Law Clerk/Staff Attorney for Office of the Chief Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County. From August 2011 until May 2015, Respondent worked at the Daley Center Courthouse and was responsible for research and writing assignments given to her by Chief Judge Timothy Evans. In May 2015, Respondent was transferred to the Markham Courthouse in the Sixth Municipal District ("Markham"), where she maintained her position as Law Clerk/Staff Attorney and was responsible for research and writing assignments given to her by any of the judges at Markham. Judge Marjorie Laws ("Judge Laws"), the presiding judge in Markham, was Respondent's supervisor at Markham.

2. At no time has Respondent held the office of Judge or Associate Judge in Illinois pursuant to Article VI of the 1970 Illinois Constitution. As a result, at no time was Respondent authorized to act as a Judge or Associate Judge in a Circuit Court of this State of Illinois.

3. In March 2016, Respondent won the primary election for the office of judge in the Circuit Court of Cook County, First Judicial Subcircuit. Respondent is currently unopposed on the general election ballot for November 2016. Subsequent to winning the primary election, Respondent began observing judges at Markham during their court calls in preparation for the likely possibility that she would be elected to the office of judge in November 2016.

4. On August 11, 2016, Judge Valarie Turner ("Judge Turner") was assigned to Courtroom 098 in Markham ("Courtroom 098") for court calls scheduled to begin at 9:00 a.m., 10:30 a.m., and 1:00 p.m. On August 11, each of the three court calls involved traffic tickets that had been issued in the Village of Dolton. The Village of Dolton prosecutor working in Courtroom 098 that day was Luciano Panici, Jr. ("Panici, Jr.").

5. On August 11, 2016, at approximately 9:00 a.m., Respondent was seated in the witness box to the left of the judge's bench in Courtroom 098. Shortly thereafter, Judge Turner entered Courtroom 098 wearing her judicial robe, took the bench, and began the 9:00 a.m. call. Respondent remained seated in the witness box throughout the 9:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. calls, between which there was no recess.

6. At approximately 12:00 p.m., the court recessed for lunch. At that time, Judge Turner introduced Respondent to Panici, Jr. and asked, "Have you met Judge Crawford?" Respondent did not correct Judge Turner's statement that she was a judge. Panici, Jr. introduced himself to Respondent and left Courtroom 098.

7. Judge Turner's statement that Respondent was a judge in paragraph six, above, was false because Respondent was not a judge on August 11, 2016, nor has she ever been a judge.

8. Respondent knew that Judge Turner's statement in paragraph six, above, was false because she knew she was not a judge. Respondent's failure to correct Judge Turner's statement in paragraph six, above, was dishonest and misleading.

9. At approximately 1:00 p.m., Panici, Jr. returned to Courtroom 098 for the afternoon call beginning at 1:00 p.m. At that time, Officer Derrell White also arrived at Courtroom 098 for the afternoon call. Officer White sat in a chair in a row of chairs located to the left of and slightly behind the witness box. Respondent again sat in the witness box to the left of the judge's bench. Judge Turner began the afternoon call at approximately 1:00 p.m.

10. At some time near the end of the 1:00 p.m. call, Judge Turner announced to the people in Courtroom 098, "We're going to switch judges" and gave her judicial robe to Respondent. Respondent did not correct Judge Turner's reference to her as a judge and put on Judge Turner's robe in plain view of the people in Courtroom 098.

11. Judge Turner's reference to Respondent as a judge in paragraph ten, above, was false because Respondent was not a judge on August 11, 2016, nor has she ever been a judge.

12. At the time Judge Turner referred to Respondent as a judge in paragraph ten, above, Respondent knew Judge Turner's statement was false because she knew she was not a judge. Respondent's failure to correct Judge Turner's reference to her as a judge in front of the people in Courtroom 098 was dishonest and misleading.

13. After putting on Judge Turner's robe, Respondent sat down on the bench and began purporting to preside over at least three cases on the 1:00 p.m. call. Judge Turner stood behind Respondent.

14. As a result of Judge Turner's previous introduction of Respondent, at the time Respondent put on Judge Turner's robe and began purporting to preside over cases, Panici Jr. believed Respondent was a judge.

15. After Respondent had put on Judge Turner's robe and sat on the bench, the court clerk called the case of defendant Maliq Giles ("Giles"), ticket YE-334-458. At Giles' request, Respondent purported to continue the matter until October 26, 2016. Respondent reflected her purported decision by writing "MD 10-26-16" on the back of ticket YE-334-458.

16. After Giles' matter, the court clerk called the case of defendant Angel LaSalle ("LaSalle"), ticket YB-701-075. When LaSalle stepped up to the bench, Respondent said to LaSalle, "Officer is not in court." Panici, Jr. then made a motion to continue the matter. Respondent turned to Judge Turner and asked, "Can I deny his motion?" Judge Turner replied, "Yes, you can deny the motion" and Respondent purported to deny the motion. Panici, Jr. then made a motion to non-suit the matter, which Respondent purported to grant. Respondent then reflected her purported decision by writing "ONIC" (Officer Not In Court) and "MCNS" (Motion City Non-Suit) on the back of ticket YB-701-075.

17. At some point while Respondent was wearing Judge Turner's robe and seated on the bench, she called the case of defendant Kendrah Blackshear ("Blackshear"), ticket YE-250-620. Blackshear stepped up to the bench before Respondent and presented a valid driver's license. Panici, Jr. made a motion to non-suit the matter and Respondent purported to grant the motion.

18. At the time Blackshear stepped up in front of Respondent, described in paragraph 17, above, Blackshear believed Respondent was a judge as a result of the facts that Respondent was wearing a judicial robe, sitting behind the bench in the Judge's chair, and presiding over cases being called by the clerk.

19. After the 1:00 p.m. call concluded, Respondent returned Judge Turner's judicial robe to her. At that time, Officer White approached Respondent to congratulate her on her judgeship. Officer White asked Respondent if she would be assigned to Markham and Respondent replied that she was in Markham now but would probably be assigned downtown.

20. Respondent's statement to Officer White referenced in paragraph 19, above, was false and misleading because she was not a judge assigned to Markham on August 11, 2016.

21. Respondent knew that her statement to Officer White referenced in paragraph 19, above, was false and misleading because she knew she was not a judge assigned to Markham.

22. After being apprised of what had occurred, Judge Laws conducted an investigation of Respondent's conduct. As a result of that investigation, Judge Laws placed all three tickets referred to in paragraphs 15-17, above, back on the court's docket. On September 1, 2016, Judge Laws heard all three matters, tickets YE-334-458 (Giles), YB-701-075 (LaSalle), and YE-250-620 (Blackshear). Panici, Jr. was the prosecutor and motioned to non-suit each matter. Judge Laws granted the motions and dismissed the tickets nunc pro tunc to August 11, 2016.

The complaint also charges that the above-recited facts establish criminal conduct and making a false statement in the bar investigation.

30. On September 22, 2016, Respondent appeared at her counsel's office to give her sworn statement in relation to investigation number 2016IN03486. At that sworn statement, Respondent made the following statements regarding her conduct on August 11, 2016:

That putting on Judge Turner's robe did not mislead people in Courtroom 098 to think that she was, in fact, a judge; and That it was clear, based on how things were happening in Courtroom 098 on August 11, 2016, that Judge Turner was trying to teach Respondent.

31. Respondent's statements in paragraph 30, above, were false because Respondent knew that Judge Turner had introduced her as "Judge Crawford" to Panici, Jr. earlier that day and that Judge Turner announced to Courtroom 098 that they would be "switching judges," and that, therefore, the people in Courtroom 098 thought she was a judge.

32. At the time Respondent made the statements referred to in paragraph 30, above, she knew that her statements were false.

(Mike Frisch)

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2016/11/the-illinois-administrator-has-filed-an-amended-complaint-in-the-case.html
A former United States official says President-elect Donald Trump would take action against North Korea to destroy a standing missile armed with a nuclear weapon.

Christopher Hill formerly served as the U.S. ambassador to Iraq and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

Hill also led the U.S. team during the Six Party Talks on North Koreas nuclear activity under President George W. Bush.

The Six Party Talks involved North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States. However, all six nations have not met on the nuclear issue since 2009.

A new direction in North Korea policy

Hill was in Seoul to speak at a South Korean government conference on the chances for peace and unification on the Korean Peninsula. He sought to signal a change in U.S. policy.

So I think that North Korea needs to understand that there will be a new sheriff in town in Washington...

With his statement, Hill noted the president-elects willingness to take action against a possible North Korean threat. He also tried to reassure Americas allies that the U.S. government will honor its security agreements in Asia.

Not all those who attended the conference were in agreement.

Gareth Evans formerly served as Australias foreign minister. Evans said he is worried the American president-elect would act impulsively against an aggressive opponent. He also is concerned that such an action could start a wider conflict.

"Where is that going to take us, a preemptive military strike? I mean that is premised on the assumption that if the North Koreans have a nuclear weapon and have a missile delivery capability, the United States and everyone else is at real risk. But what on Earth is ever going to encourage the North Koreans to use such a missile in that situation?"

Evans said that, as a candidate, Trump had caused allies to question the U.S. commitment to defending them and securing peace in Asia.

North Korea has expanded its nuclear development program this year. The Norths government has tested two nuclear devices and many long- and medium-range missiles.

Experts say within five years, North Korea will be able to launch an intercontinental missile armed with a small nuclear warhead.

Hill also noted that moderate foreign policy specialists from the Republican Party are among those on Trumps national security transition team. He said they are placing importance on stability and continuity in North Korean policy.

During the election campaign, candidate Trump had criticized some U.S. allies for not providing enough support for defense efforts in Asia.

The South Korean Defense Ministry has said the division of defense costs is fair. A ministry spokesman also said that South Korea is unwilling to pay more for the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system.

As a presidential candidate, Trump voiced support for allies gaining possession of nuclear weapons. Later, he denied the statement.

Importance of alliances restated

After the election, the president-elect promised to continue American security commitments. He did so during phone calls with South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Abe is planning to meet with Trump later this month before a meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group in Lima, Peru.

Last week, the office of South Koreas president said Trump told Park, We are with you all the way and we will not waver.

Ambassador Hill says actions after the election show the importance of the U.S. alliances with Japan and South Korea in stopping North Korean threats and Chinas military power.

But I have no doubt, I have no doubt that the U.S. administration, the Trump administration, will be able to continue what is really on of our best relationships in the world...

Hill also said he opposed offering unconditional talks or engagement with the North. He said that the government of Kim Jong Un must first agree to halt its nuclear weapons program.

Hill admitted that getting Chinas assistance for new sanctions on North Korea will be difficult if trade relations with the United States worsen.

Trump has criticized Chinas trade policies and threatened import taxes on Chinese goods.

Im Mario Ritter.

Brian Padden reported this story for VOA News. Mario Ritter adapted his report for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

We want to know what you thing. Write your comments about this story below.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

impulsively  adv. to do something suddenly without careful thought

preemptive  adj. to take action to stop an unwanted act before that act takes place

intercontinental  adj. between two or more continents, able to travel the distance between continents

stability  n. the state of not changing easily or quickly, secure

engagement  n. a promise to stay or keep involved with someone or something

sanction - n. a measure designed to punish someone or something for failure to obey international rules

commitment  n. a promise to do something

reassure  v. to make someone less fearful or concerned
The next president of the United States, Donald Trump, has begun appointing members of his White House team.

The president-elect chose his top two advisers on Sunday. He is expected to name more appointments this week.

His first two choices demonstrate two very different styles of politics.

Trump chose the national chairman of the Republican Party, Reince Priebus, as his chief of staff. This position generally controls most operations at the White House. The chief of staff also helps set the president's daily activities and decides who gets to meet with him.

The 44-year-old Priebus has headed the Republican National Committee since 2011. His political skills helped elect Trump and resulted in Republicans keeping control of both houses of Congress after the elections last week.

Some observers say the choice of Priebus sends a message to party officials and congressional leaders that Trump is willing to keep ties with the Republican political establishment.

The other top White House job went to Stephen Bannon, whom Trump named as his chief strategist and senior adviser. Bannon served as the chief executive officer of Trumps election campaign.

In a statement, Trump called Priebus and Bannon qualified leaders who worked well together on our campaign and led us to a historic victory. He added: Now I will have them both with me in the White House as we work to make America great again.

Democratic Party activists, civil rights groups and even some Republicans quickly criticized the choice of Bannon.

Before joining the Trump campaign, Bannon led the Breitbart News website. Under his leadership, the website published stories supporting nationalist, anti-establishment positions. It also had many stories in support of Trump and others critical of Hillary Clinton, the Democrats presidential candidate.

Bannon once described the news site as a platform for what has been called the Alternative Right, or alt-right." The alt-right means a right-wing movement that publicizes  largely on the Internet  nationalist, racist and sexist ideas.

Breitbart News has been criticized for using news headlines with racist and sexist overtones. One story about a conservative commentator was called Republican spoiler, renegade Jew. Another headline read "Birth control makes women unattractive and crazy, while yet another asked, "Would you rather your child had feminism or cancer?"

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is one group condemning Bannons appointment. The ADLs director, Jonathan Greenblatt, called it a sad day when a man with Bannons history is chosen to be a senior member of the peoples house.

Greenblatt called on the president-elect to appoint and nominate Americans committed to the well-being of all of our country's people.

The leading Democrat in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said Bannon's appointment sent "an alarming signal that President-elect Trump remains committed to the hateful and divisive vision that defined his campaign.

John Weaver, an adviser for Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich, tweeted that the "racist, fascist extreme right is represented footsteps from the Oval Office. Be very vigilant, America," he wrote.

On Tuesday, Trump met with Vice President-elect Mike Pence in New York to discuss other appointments.

Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said his team is also making plans to choose a replacement for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia died in February 2016. Since his death, the high court has had eight members, instead of the usual nine.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for Learning English, based on reports from VOA News, 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.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

style  n. a way of doing things

strategist  n. someone skilled in planning

qualified  adj. having the skills and qualities necessary to perform a job

platform  n. a way to tell the public about your views and opinions

overtone  n. idea that seems to be expressed, but not directly stated

unattractive  adj. not beautiful or interesting

alarming  adj.  making someone feel frightened or worried

vision  n. the ability to see someone or something

fascist  adj.  extreme, harsh control or authority

vigilant  adj.  watching carefully for signs of problems or danger
When Donald Trump was a candidate for president, he criticized scientists who blamed pollution for rising temperatures on Earths surface.

Trump rejected scientific documentation of climate change, calling it a hoax or unreal. And he promised to pull out of the Paris Agreement on climate change. That agreement was the product of negotiations involving about 200 countries.

Trump won the presidential election in the United States. He will replace Barack Obama as president on January 20, 2017.

Government officials and scientists are in Morocco this month for climate talks. They worry that if Trump pulls out of the Paris agreement, as he promised, it will have a major effect on their work.

This is critical to protect our planet, safeguard the most vulnerable, and drive shared prosperity, said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He spoke at the opening of the conference in Marrakech.

Ban said he hopes Donald Trump will listen to scientists and understand the seriousness of climate change.

Trump has said he plans to pull back from Obamas climate change rules during his first 100 days in office. He said he wants to put American coal miners back to work and make the United States more energy independent.

Mike Duncan heads The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. The group opposes Obama administration climate change regulations.

Duncan told VOA that Trump can move the country away from costly rules that limited our access to affordable and reliable power.

Al Gore served as U.S. vice president during the administration of former President Bill Clinton. Gore has been warning for years that temperatures will continue rising if greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide are not reduced. And that means more deadly storms and natural disasters, and land falling into the sea, he said.

Gore released a statement after Trump won the presidential election.

President-elect Trump said he wanted to be a president for all Americans, Gore said. In that spirit, I hope that he will work with the overwhelming majority of us who believe that the climate crisis is the greatest threat we face as a nation.

Trumps election was likely to be a subject of discussion at the climate conference taking place in Marrakesh, Morocco. The meeting was called to discuss the next steps to move the Paris Agreement forward.

Secretary of State John Kerry was asked by a reporter how he felt, given that Trump has said he will cancel some U.S. climate change regulations.

Kerry told reporters that Trumps election makes the meeting in Morocco, in his words, perhaps even more important.

Im Bruce Alpert.

Henry Ridgwell reported on this story for VOANews.com. Bruce Alpert adapted this story and did additional reporting for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section and share your views on our Facebook Page. How important do think global warming is?

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

vulnerable - adj. easily hurt or harmed physically, mentally, or emotionally

prosperity - n. the state of being successful usually by making a lot of money

access - n. a way of getting near, at, or to something or someone

affordable - adj. to be able to pay for something

reliable - adj. able to be trusted to do or provide what is needed : able to be relied on

greenhouse - adj. relating to or caused by the warming of the Earth's atmosphere that is caused by air pollution

overwhelming - adj. very great in number, effect, or force
The memory of a beloved pet inspires one couple's fight against injustice.
Filmmaker Gauri Shinde's second directorial venture Dear Zindagi has been passed by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) with a U/A certificate and no cuts.

While the role of the CBFC is limited to certify, it has always been under the scanner for censoring films on grounds of obscenity, violence and possibilities of hurting religious or community sentiments. However, given the slice of life film that Dear Zindagi is, it was expected to be cleared by the Board without any cuts.

DNA reports that the film has indeed been passed with no cuts. It also quotes a source close to the film saying, "There is not a single cut, verbal or visual. The Board actually said it would be a crime to cut even one shot from the film. They also singled out Shah Rukh Khan as the A-list actor with the least censorial intervention required in his films."

Both the lead actors of the film, Khan and Alia Bhatt, encountered the CBFC's scissors in their last films. Khan's film Fan, directed by Manish Sharma, faced various cuts including six audio cuts and a video cut, according to a report by International Business Times. On the other hand, Bhatt's last outing Udta Punjab was the focal point of controversy when the CBFC passed the film with an `A' certificate and several cuts.

Shinde's directorial debut English Vinglish was as clean as it could get. Her husband, R Balki who is a co-producer of the film, has had a clean track record too. All his directorial ventures including the most recent one, Ki & Ka, were passed with no cuts. Though there were multiple kissing scenes involving the two lead actors in the film, the CBFC passed it, stating that intimacy between husband and wife is normal.

Dear Zindagi is slated to release on 25 November.
On the evening of 8 November 2016, Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a televised public address, announced that the highest denominations of the Indian Rupee  Rs 500 and 1,000 notes  would cease to be legal tenders starting midnight. A hugely momentous but polarising move that it was, the renewed monetary policy sent shockwaves across the gigantic consumerist economy of post-liberalisation India that is heavily dependent on cash transactions.

But, as stated by Modi in his hour-long speech, the decisive move is designed to curb the very real menace of corruption, black money, and terrorism. In a categorical-yet-measured reference, the prime minister also weighed in on the significance of the decision in suppressing the counterfeit notes racket in the country, run by "enemies from across the border".

By now, it is a well-established fact that India faces a serious threat from what is officially referred to as Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN). The fake notes find their way into the country through several entry points, the hot ones being the India-Nepal and West Bengal-Bangladesh border sectors. Although there exists no precise estimates for the scale of this counterfeit economy, the Ministry of Home Affairs states that up till September 2015, high quality FICN worth Rs 22.90 crore was seized and recovered. The fake money not only dilutes the strength of the national economy but also sponsors an expansive web of illegal non-state and anti-state actors, in the likes of arms suppliers, drug smugglers, and terror groups.

Will the demonetisation policy have an impact on this cancerous racket of fake currency? Yes

Will it permanently crush the FICN supply chain? No

The reason is simple: The largest share of the FICN that circulates in India is believed to be originating not from nondescript local presses inside the country, but from high-grade, state-owned minting factories in Pakistan. A mountain of evidence, made public by both domestic and international agencies including the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Financial Action Task Force (FATF), and Interpol have pointed fingers at the Government of Pakistan for creating and sustaining a transnational FICN racket that spans from West Asia to Southeast Asia.

In May 2011, the US government identified a serving officer of Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Major Iqbal, as the supplier of FICN to the infamous Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative David Coleman Headley. He, however, recently denied the allegations. Another key LeT operative arrested by India in 2013, Abdul Karim Tunda, confirmed that the entire FICN supply chain was run by the ISI.

A day after the demonetisation policy was made public, Kiren Rijiju, the Union minister of state for Home Affairs, stated that the the printing press in Karachi and Peshawar will now be jobless as a result of demonetisation. He wasn't entirely wrong in his brisk assumption, although it was at best myopic. Most of the FICN in circulation is indeed denominated in Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, and since counterfeiting notes is a capital-intensive business that requires significant investments, the introduction of a new series of notes will certainly draw the curtains on FICN factories in Pakistan for now.

However, it would only be sheer ignorance to believe that the FICN supply chain can be killed by introducing new notes, even with upgraded security features. There is no strong ground to believe that the production machinery cannot re-calibrate itself to the new design. There are more than one reasons to posit this.

The FICN production facilities run by Pakistani entities are more sophisticated and technically advanced than most of us would like to believe, particularly because they enjoy state patronage. This was categorically confirmed by a NIA forensic report deposed in front of the Parliaments Standing Committee on Finance in 2013, which stated that the FICN, bearing fundamental similarities with the Pakistani legal tender, have been printed on highly sophisticated machines involving huge capital investment.

The formidable level of technical depth achieved by state-sponsored FICN producers in Pakistan is well reflected in the narrowing gap of divergences between genuine and counterfeit notes that have been seized over the past few years. In fact, earlier this year, the Union Home Ministry had informed the Parliament that the increasing accuracy of fake notes had led to a 30 percent dip in FICN recovery over the past three years.

With such an impressive degree of operational sophistication, it is highly unlikely that the FICN production system would simply collapse in totality with the entry of a new series of Indian notes. This is even more so because the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) hasnt really clarified on whether the new series will have remarkably better security features than the outgoing one. Despite this, a large section of the Indian media created a brouhaha over how the new notes come with geo-satellite detection chips and state-of-the-art security features, rendering them impossible to fake. Besides the obvious antithesis that non-duplicable currency is quite a long shot for any country, a recent report in The Hindu quotes a senior government official stating that the new notes do not carry any new security features.

Why? Simply because the RBI did not have sufficient time to develop those.

If this is the case, then Pakistanss FICN factories will barely have any trouble re-configuring their minting templates to the new size and design.

In addition to the above, there is something far more worrying about the entire FICN production and supply process. Till this date, the RBI, through the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL), imports a bulk of the paper used in minting currency notes from European companies like Louisenthal (Germany), De la Rue (United Kingdom), Crane (Sweden,) and Arjo Wiggins (France and Netherlands). So does Pakistan.

In fact, in 2015, New Delhi barred Louisenthal from supplying currency paper to India for this very reason. Besides, India imports the OVI Intaglio security ink  a distinctive security component of every currency note  from SICPA, a Swiss company that manufactures high-performance security ink; and it is a known fact that SICPA also deals with Pakistan. Intriguingly enough, the company has a manufacturing unit in Sikkim, from which a five kilogram consignment of ink went missing during transit back in 2009.

If the RBI continues to import paper and security ink for the new notes from the same foreign companies as Pakistan, then the new series will remain as vulnerable to counterfeiting as the older ones. As of now, India does not have a full-capacity infrastructure for indigenously manufacturing all of its currency paper and most certainly, not the high-grade Intaglio ink.

However, last year, Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley did talk about indigenising the printing process as part of the 'Make in India' campaign. Indeed, an RBI-owned currency paper mill  known as the Bank Note Paper Mill India Private Limited (BNPMIPL)  began operations in Mysuru last year. According to a senior government official, all the new Rs 2,000 notes are being printed at this facility. But, we do not yet know if the same is true for the new Rs 500 notes, which would have to be produced in higher numbers than the Rs 2,000 notes.

What is perhaps most crucial is that Pakistans illegal export of FICN to India isnt merely a support line for shadow networks, but also a self-serving profit enterprise. The ISI is understood to be running its fake currency business on a significant profit margin of about 30 to 40 percent on the face value of each fake note. This naturally implies the existence of several other stakeholders  including but not limited to Dawood Ibrahims international criminal syndicate  who financially benefit from this dastardly trade, and wouldnt favour a cessation of their profits. In such a situation, introduction of new notes is hardly a potent disincentive for the producers and suppliers to pull their shutters down vis-a-vis easy adaptation to the new series.

There is no doubt that the invalidation of higher denomination notes will render the existing modules and stashes of FICN useless. An abrupt hault in operations is bound to cripple the core of a massive shadow economy run by international mafias, arms smugglers, drug dealers, and extremist groups. The MHA already claims that Kashmir is quieter after the demonetisation, indicating a suspension of the nefarious hawala operations to illegally move money. With the wholesale replacement of the Rs 1,000 note with a 2,000 note, the existing counterfeiting enterprise might even see its profit margins hunker down, since higher denominations are costlier to replicate.

From Multan to Malda, the subcutaneous economy of guns, drugs, and terror faces bleak prospects. The glaring question, however, is  for how long?

Not unlike hackers who ultimately succeed in crawling into upgraded operating systems by mutating their way through security updates, the sophisticated fake currency web is designed to survive structural disruptions  change of currency notes being one of them. Hence, the Indian government needs to do much more to permanently impair this hugely complex international trade, and in this case, regional cooperation is paramount.

Ironically, the surgical strike on financial terrorism (which was more of a carpet bombing campaign) can bear only limited dividends in the longer run as a standalone policy move  just like the Indian Armys cross-border adventure of late September.

The author is a researcher at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies in New Delhi
New Delhi: The Tata-Mistry battle is a rare chance to gain glory for one of the lesser known soldiers of India Inc. The independent directors. A lot of what will now happen in this long and winding boardroom drama will depend on how fiercely these gentlemen and ladies protect their turf and take the right calls. After Cyrus Mistry was sacked as Chairman of Tata Sons on October 24, the Tatas now want him removed as chairman from every group company too. The only hitch: independent directors on the boards of listed group companies who may or may not agree that such a decision would be in the best interests of each companys minority shareholders. In those instances where independent directors have not taken to the Tata view and voted for removing Mistry, the Tatas now want independent directors sacked from respective companies.

Not all independent directors on the boards of listed Tata companies agree with the Tatas and this is evident from the statements some have provided to the stock exchange recently. Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) said on November 4, that the board of independent directors of the company met before a meeting of the full board and expressed full confidence in the chairman, Cyrus Mistry.

Taking into account Board assessments and performance evaluations carried out over the years, the Independent Directors unanimously expressed their full confidence in the Chairman, Mr. Cyrus Mistry and praised the steps taken by him in providing strategic direction and leadership to the Company. After deliberations, the Independent Directors came to a view that being a listed Company, it was imperative for the Independent Directors to state their views to the investors and public at large, such that those who trade in securities of the company, make an informed decision.

Subsequently, independent directors of Tata Chemicals and Tata Motors have also expressed confidence in the decisions taken by the respective companies in the past, though they have not specifically supported Mistry by name.

The Tatas now plan to call an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) of each such listed company where Mistry has not been shown the door, to oust independent directors and seek shareholder nod for removing Mistry from Chairmanship. Amid this ongoing boardroom drama some key questions pertaining to independent directors arise.

1) Are independent directors on the board of any listed company meant to take orders from the controlling shareholder? In the present context, will independent directors on the board of Tata Groups listed companies be doing the right thing in listening to the Tatas instead of using their own counsel on removing Mistry? In several listed Tata group companies  including Tata Chemicals and Tata Motors - the tussle over independent directors is getting farcical. The Tatas want Mistry removed from the boards of all group companies and expect independent directors on the boards of all listed companies to obey their dictat. It is another matter that independent directors are expected to remain, well, independent in discharge of their duties. They should be working only towards the benefit of small shareholders in listed companies  they are not required to do the bidding of the majority shareholder in any company. In other words, independent directors on any of the Tata groups listed companies need to side with the Tatas in removing Mistry only if this action will help each listed companys minority shareholders.

2) Also, the Tatas reported intent to get Nusli Wadia  an independent director on the board of Tata Motors and some other group companies  removed may also fall afoul of corporate governance ethics. Institutional investor advisory firm IiAS has said in a note to the clients this morning that "allowing controlling shareholders to remove independent directors from the board undermines the integrity of the entire process and the institution of independent directors itself. It has listed out some mitigating circumstances though, under which their removal may be sought: when there is evidence of fraud and misconduct or when the director is being a disruptive force on the board.

3) Does such a precedent exist in the Indian markets? IiAS says it does. It says there have been instances in the past where minority shareholders have proposed resolutions seeking removal of independent directors, including in S. Kumars Nationwide and Ricoh India. These instances are on account of shareholder activism or alleged mismanagement/fraud. But a resolution being proposed by the controlling shareholder to remove an independent director is rare. One recent example is Indiabulls Housing Finance, where the new management sought to induct a new board by replacing the previous set of directors. In this case however, the management had argued its position by saying it needed greater expertise on the board.

In this story in Mint newspaper, proxy advisory firm Stakeholders Empowerment Services (SES) has asked the independent directors to explain their divergent views to remove all doubts about the subsequent events that have unfolded since the boardroom coup on 24 October. This was the day when Cyrus Mistry was removed from the chairmanship of Tata Sons. The note by SES also questions the manner in which Mistry was removed from his position as a chairman from the board of the Tata Group cash cow TCS.

And this one in Business Standard says advisory firms are themselves divided over what independent directors should do in cases such as the Tata-MIstry battle. Minority shareholders and institutional investors should vote against any move by primary shareholders to remove independent directors, the story quotes Shriram Subramanian, managing director, InGovern Research Services, as saying. Subramanian argues that Tata Sons, the primary shareholder in the group, has not given adequate information and reasons to all shareholders in the current situation.
Mumbai: The independent directors of Tata Motors gave board Chairman Cyrus Mistry a tacit nod on Monday, but stopped short of an outright endorsement, or picking sides in the power struggle within India's largest conglomerate.

In a vaguely worded release late on Monday, the independent directors of Tata Motors - owner of luxury automaker Jaguar Land Rover - backed Mistry's and company management's strategy saying that all decisions taken by the board of Tata Motors on strategy and operations had been "unanimous" and executed by the chairman and the management.

Mistry was ousted as chairman of Tata Sons, the holding firm that steers the $100 billion steel-to-software Tata empire, last month. Mistry has since been in a bitter public spat with Tata Sons and Tata family patriarch Ratan Tata, who has returned as interim chair of the group.

Tata Sons blamed Mistry's ouster on what it called a "breach of trust" and poor performance. Mistry in turn has faulted Tata Sons for poor governance structures and blamed Ratan Tata for many of the conglomerate's legacy issues. The independent directors of Tata Motors did not give Mistry a unanimous public endorsement though, and opted to avoid taking sides in the feud.

A source close to Tata Sons said that an independent director brought forward a resolution at the Tata Motors board meeting on Monday, seeking to endorse Mistry in a similar manner as two other Tata group company boards, Indian Hotels and Tata Chemicals, had done earlier this month.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the resolution was opposed by another independent director and the guarded statement that was later issued was a "compromise." The source admitted that the outcome however, was a setback for Tata Sons, which has already called for a number of special shareholder meetings to oust Mistry entirely from some of its group company boards.

Representatives for both Tata Sons and Cyrus Mistry were not immediately reachable for comment.

Mistry remains chair of several major Tata group companies including Tata Motors and Tata Steel. And despite his ouster as chair, Mistry remains a board member in Tata Sons, by virtue of his family's 18.41 percent stake in the holding firm. Tata Sons is roughly two-thirds controlled by Tata Trusts, a group of philanthropic foundations led by Ratan Tata.

The group last week axed Mistry as chair of Tata Consultancy Services, a company in which Tata Sons owns an over 70 percent stake. But it has struggled to get him out from other subsidiaries where it only owns minority stakes.

The Tata Motors board met on Monday primarily to discuss the automaker's quarterly results. The company posted a net profit of 8.48 billion rupees ($125 million) in the three months ended September 30. That compared with a net loss of 17.40 billion rupees in the same period last year.

Tata Global Beverages will be the next company in the Tata conglomerate to report results this week. The board of Tata Global Beverages, which co-owns and runs Starbucks coffee stores across India, is set to meet on Tuesday. Mistry is also chairman of the Tata Global Beverages board.
New Delhi: In a major escalation of boardroom brawl at the Tata Group, Cyrus Mistry was today voted out as chairman by the board of the Tata Global Beverages, the second listed firm of USD 103-billion Group to remove him.

Seven out of 10 directors at the board meeting of Tata Global Beverages, the maker of Tata Tea and Coffee, voted for removal of Mistry as chairman of the company, TGBL said in a regulatory filing.

Last week, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) said Mistry, who was abruptly sacked as the chairman of Tata group's holding company, has been removed and replaced by Ishaat Hussain in the interim.

Tata Global Beverages Ltd (TGBL) said Harish Bhat, a non-executive director of the company, has been appointed chairman of the company.

Bhat is believed to be a confidant of Ratan Tata, who was brought back from retirement as interim chairman of Tata Sons after Mistry was shown the door.

Since taking over, the 78-year-old Tata has begun tightening his grip over the conglomerate.

Even after his removal as chairman of Tata Sons, Mistry continues to head several listed companies ranging from Tata Motors to Tata Steel and Tata Power.

Tata Sons has asked Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Chemicals and Indian Hotels Co Ltd (IHCL) to call extraordinary general meeting of shareholders to remove Mistry

from the board.

"The board of directors of the company considered the continuance of Cyrus P Mistry as chairman of the company at its board meeting held on November 15, 2016," TGBL said in the regulatory filing.

"After extensive deliberations, and keeping in view the long-term interest and alignment of all stakeholders and stability of the company, the board of directors resolved to replace Cyrus P Mistry as chairman of the Company, by a majority vote, with 7 out of the 10 Directors present at the board meeting, voting in favour of the resolution."
Beijing: China, which has been blocking India's NSG bid, on Tuesday maintained its tough stand on the issue and called for a two-step "non-discriminatory" solution to admit non-NPT members into the 48-member elite grouping.

China's remarks came as the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) at its meeting in Vienna on 11 November discussed a formula acting on India's application to join it.

"We maintain that we should follow two-step approach. First, we should find out a solution that is applicable to all non-NPT members applications to the NSG through consultations and discussions," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a media briefing in Beijing outlining China's stand at the Vienna meeting.

The second step is to discuss specific non-NPT (Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty) members' admission into the NSG, he said.

"We believe that the solution should be non-discriminatory and applicable to all non-NPT members and it must not damage the core value of the NSG as well as the authority, effectiveness and integrity of the NPT," he said.

"We hope that we can enter into the second step after finishing the first step at an early date which is to talk about specific non-NPT members joining the NSG," he said.

China's stand for a non-discriminatory criteria is regarded significant as Pakistan, a close ally of Beijing too has applied for the NSG membership along with India. China, which has blocked earlier India's entry on the ground that India has not signed the NPT, has held two rounds of talks with India and Pakistan about their admission into the group.

India has secured the backing of the US and majority of the NSG members based on its non-proliferation record in comparison to Pakistan which faced serious allegations of nuclear proliferation in the past specially with regard to its nuclear scientist Dr AQ Khan.

Geng said at the Vienna meeting of the NSG, members talked about the technical, legal and political matters relating non-NPT members accession to the NSG.

He said this is the first time the group talked about entry of the new members.

Earlier a statement by the Chinese Foreign Ministry said, "It is the first time a discussion, not only since the Seoul Plenary, but also since the NSG's inception in 1975, for the Group to formally take up the issue of non-NPT states' participation in an open and transparent manner."

Geng said the discussion about the entry of new members is a "good start".

"We believe it is good start and we will continue to support the NSG in following through on the first step and explore the final solution at an early date," he said.

India has been maintaining that NPT membership was not essential for joining the NSG, as was the case with France.
Editor's note: This article was originally published on 15 November. It is being republished in light of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement on 16 December that digital transactions were recommended in 1971 by the Indira Gandhi government, but no subsequent government took it up.

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a televised address on 8 November, told the nation that the existing Rs 500 and 1,000 notes can no longer be used for transactions and they are now mere pieces of papers, he very well knew that a huge number of zero-balance accounts were going to witness sudden activity from the very next morning.

Modi is not Indira Gandhi and 2016 is not 1974 when TA Pai, then Union minister for heavy industry told Gandhi: "Currency has no complexion and it is neither white nor black." (Declassified black money files of prime ministers office, no 37 (465)/74 PMS). Unlike Gandhi, who in a letter dated 24 August, 1974, to all chief ministers, sought selective action against bigger people that could be publicised to counter the perception in the public mind and in Parliament, Modi and his officers were well prepared in advance to scrutinise the shades of unaccounted stash in the country, even if that meant severe criticism of his government.

Hours before Modis address to the nation, FINEX server, operated by Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU-IND) was upgraded and re-tested to analyse real-time Cash Transaction Reports (CTR) and Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) received from all the private and state-owned banks scattered across the country. The activities in zero-balance accounts following the prime minister's announcement is being immediately relayed by the banks to the FIU and various other agencies connected to the server to unearth potential hoarders and sophisticated network of black money operators. The collective effort of bank and intelligence officers is to analyse the volume and pattern of transactions if they are found to be inconsistent with the declared profile of an account holder.

A top government official said that as anticipated, a spurt in activities in Jan Dhan accounts  which are meant for weaker sections and low income groups  has been reported from Bihar, West Bengal, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh. Although the Finance Ministry had made it clear that junked currency notes of up to Rs 2.5 lakh in bank accounts will not be reported to the income tax, the surge in suspicious activities in the zero-balance and Jan Dhan accounts has come under the scanner of financial and intelligence agencies.

Explaining the logic behind massive banking data analysis launched by the agencies since Modi's decision to demonetise high-value currency notes, the official said, many hoarders are trying to convert black money by hiring bank accounts from small depositors for a monthly rent which is not only a criminal offence under sections 420 and 120 (B) of the Indian Penal Code, but it also attracts sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for introducing, layering and transferring black money through legitimate banking channels.

Those heaving a sigh of relief after using illegal means to turn black money into white will soon hear a knock on their doors, the official warned.

A government note reviewed by this writer for Firstpost reveals that FIU will also share bulk data with the domestic spy agency, Intelligence Bureau (IB), which has a strong team of officers to independently analyse and generate red-flag indicators for banks to freeze suspicious accounts instantly.

Information about the suspected accounts is being shared with the state governments. All the zero-balance and Jan Dhan accounts witnessing sudden and suspicious activities and included in CTRs and STRs will be recommended for freezing in the next couple of weeks, a source privy to the ongoing massive operation said adding that some deposits are also being monitored manually besides core banking software.

The government note suggests close monitoring of Card Payment Gateways (CPG), Real Time Gross Settlement Systems (RTGS) and National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) following intelligence inputs on November 11 that some black money enterprise is charging commission up to 40 percent to convert the unaccounted cash into legal tender through online transfers. Sudden transactions over a threshold of Rs 5 lakh to inactive bank accounts will be scrutinised by the banks, which are supposed to file a report specifying the nature and value of the transactions.

All escape routes choked

In June 1972, a Gujarat Congress leader, Somjibhai Damor, had asked Gandhi to allow the exchange of black money stashed by individuals with the new currency which he suggested should be transported to various banks and treasuries camouflaged as ballot papers. (Declassified black money files of prime ministers office, no 37 (465)/72 PMS). Damors hilarious idea was aimed at giving amnesty to racketeers considered to be close to the powers that were. Forty-four years later, Modi caught them unawares and vulnerable.

Besides, using CTRs and STRs to nab the culprits, the Modi government has also barricaded all the known passages through which hoarders may channelize unaccounted money without paying penalty under tax laws. Sources said the FIU and IB have also asked for daily bulk data from Money Transfer Service Schemes (MTSS) like Western Union, Money Gram and UAE exchange for detecting, examining and reporting suspicious transactions to the prosecuting authorities.

Modis intention is to also dismantle the intricate networks and modules peddling Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) into the financial system. With his game-changing move, Modi has forced the closure of sophisticated currency machines operating in Pakistan. The high quality FICN was subsequently smuggled into India by self-financed criminal networks in West Asia, South Asian regions and China using staging post countries like Nepal and Bangladesh via UAE, Malaysia, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

India has been raising the issue at various international forums for the last several years. The voluminous documents and dossiers handed over to UN Security Council and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body, had failed to garner desired response until Modi struck last week, rendering various modus operandi adopted by Pakistans ISI completely useless.

Although Gandhi, known for her strong leadership, could not nip the black money menace in the bud, she had told her finance minister YB Chavan in May 1971 that the problem of black money can only be tackled through some person who feels very strongly about it. (Declassified black money files of prime ministers office, no 37 (465)/71 PMS).

Is Modi the man she was hinting at?
Prime minister Narendra Modis surgical strike against black money seems to be very successful in Assam, where millions of rupees with Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination notes have been found in municipal roads and drains. Persons with large sums of unaccounted money stashed in personal safes opted for throwing the dirty cash away in fear of getting caught.

Asomiya Pratidin, the largest circulated regional daily in Assam reported on its front page that a huge amount of unclaimed money was found in the capital city of Guwahati, on last Monday.

The newspaper reported that a person going for a morning walk discovered a bag full of money in a drain at Ghoramara in Guwahati. The notes kept in a polythene bag were reported to be torn.

Hundreds of people gathered at the spot and got into the drain to see if any pieces of undamaged notes were still available. As per the report, a few persons managed to find undamaged notes.

The newspaper quoted police sources to have said that the torn notes were ascertained to be of Rs 30 lakh in value. All the notes were of old currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination.

The newspaper reported another incident quoting a witness from another place named Tongora in the city who said that a car threw two sacks in a rivulet on Sunday night, but a rickshaw puller collected the sacks early in the morning and went away. According to the witness, the sacks were full of currency notes.

Accoridng to The New Indian Express, police estimates of the total amount destroyed in Guwahati were around Rs 3.5 crore.

The incident of unclaimed notes being found in Guwahati, even as commoners in Assam struggle to get their hard earned money exchanged, underlines the success of the demonetisation move adopted by the NDA government in curbing black money.

Assam, where tax evasion turned into a business instead of crime during the entry tax and vat regime, has a long history with black money.

Most of the goods imported to the state were allegedly under invoiced to evade taxes. In recent times, the state saw a number of scams that attracted CBI and NIA enquiries, though hardly any cash was recovered during the process of enquiry.

Though it was alleged that nearly Rs 1,000 crore of government fund allotted for the development of North Cachar Hills district, was misappropriated in a scandal during the Congress regime, the amount of cash was not recovered.

It has been doubted that huge amounts of cash churned in these scandals still lie undiscovered in the state. Only two years ago a group of fishermen discovered a huge number of notes floating on the water of a lake named Silsako in Guwahati.

Though CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury, on Tuesday, said that the new currency policy is not going to hit terror economy stating that the transactions in this economy are wired, in reality, the largest chunk of money in the terror economy in North East India is extortion money. Hence, there is hardly any chance of this money being wired.

The money discovered in the drains of Guwahati has created much speculation of its source.
Pained by the insults that the friends and foes of Narendra Modi are heaping on each other over his move to flush out black money, I write two separate notes to them and beg for ceasefire.

First to the Prime Ministers friends:

If tweets were bullets and Facebook posts were poison-tipped arrows, half of Indians would have been dead by now. Neither your group nor the one that is rubbishing Modis move to flush out black money is in a mood to call truce.

It has been 96 hours since this cyber space dishum dishum began, and the ache in my head refuses to go away. My head feels as if two people are tugging my hair in opposite directions.

But a particular tweet nearly got me on Sunday. Even as I was reading it, mulling over the wisdom of it, I fell off my chair, got up after several minutes, shouted for water, gulped it down like a thirsty desert vagabond, got up, pinched my cheek to confirm I was awake, read it again and began to type these letters with a shaking finger.

Here is that tweet:

Inconvenience is only to the black money hoarders, corrupts and mafias. So anyone who claims inconvenience, now you know he/she is!  Dr. Subhash Chandra (@subhashchandra) November 12, 2016

Okay. To talk about the inconveniences caused by demonetisation, I must either be corrupt to the marrow of my bone or I must be moonlighting for a mafia establishment run on money as black as Singareni coal. To be honest, I am neither of that. Yet, I have been inconvenienced by the sudden scrapping of the Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes. The move was a bolt from the blue.

Let me tell you about my mother. On 4 November, four days before Modi announced the currency ban, I withdrew Rs 30,000 from her pension account and handed it to her in Visakhapatnam for her expenses. Then I travelled a thousand kilometres to make my living  to reiterate, not from a mafia.

On the night of 8 November, I remembered to my utter shock that Rs 28,500 of the money I gave my mother was in Rs 500s. You can imagine her inconvenience. And I am far away.

On 10 November, when ATMs  or at least some of them  were expected to open after a day of closure, I made a dash for eight of them close to where I lived. Six were shut like graves, with not a word of explanation as to why. Two had no money. I was inconvenienced. I went to banks, but the helpful souls at the counters threw up their empty hands before my turn came in the queues that spilled onto streets. I was inconvenienced.

I repeated this routine every day without result, till no three words of any alphabet created such mixed emotions of fear, hope and hate like A, T and M. Then finally on 13 November, I found an ATM with cash. I am lucky, and I feel sorry for those who arent.

Yet, I continue to be inconvenienced  mentally  by reports of small businessmen shutting shops for lack of customers, hospitals turning away patients who can pay only with scrapped notes and senior citizens collapsing like heaps of bones or even dying in cash queues.

In his 8 November speech, Modi led us to believe that the inconvenience would last no longer than 72 hours. But it still goes on. That leaves us with uncomfortable questions. Did the government underestimate the hassles that the move would cause the common man? Or did it overestimate its own efficiency? Why didnt it deal with this changeover on a war-footing?

Reports suggest that cash is available but distributing it to banks and ATMs is causing logistical nightmare. So why didnt the government get the NGOs, the police, the military and the paramilitary forces into the operation?

An important point of this letter is that there is a group of people which wholeheartedly backs the move to ferret out the black money but that, at the same time, gives expression to its inconveniences. Anecdotal evidence suggests that this group is even larger than the other two representing Modis friends and foes.

Telling me not to talk about my inconvenience is like kicking the meal plate away from me and then stuff a ball of gag into my mouth. That intensifies the inconvenience.

And that amounts to a bias on your part.

Give us a break.

Dispassionate citizens are looking for dependable information and unprejudiced debate.

-----------

To the foes of Narendra Modi:

You flummox me as much as the friends of Modi.

Like a railroad worm burrowing into an apple, a suspicion gnaws at my mind. Its that you are using demonetisation to indulge in demonisation of the man who is behind it all. You had closed your warped and dwarfed minds to the whole idea and were tweeting venom on Modi even before he had finished his 8 November announcement. From the start, you have been mulishly refusing to offer him even a tiny bit of a benefit of doubt that any civilised soul would extend to his worst enemy who professes good intentions.

The currency changeover caused inconvenience. It really did, in a big way. But to conform to your prejudices, you dwell on nothing but that, sometimes blowing the common mans hassles out of proportions and sometimes spreading falsehoods. You are refusing to even acknowledge the possibility that the whole thing might after all do some good which it might.

As you see it through your blinkered eyes, the sole purpose of demonetisation is to hassle honest citizens in the name of catching crooks. Its as if, according to you, Modi were a suicidal maniac who has hit upon an idea to harass his own voters, daring them to vote for him in elections three years from now. And its as if Modi was Tughlaq who woke up one fine morning and decreed to his minions: Change the currency!

Fundamentally, you not only question the very utility of demonetisation but even attribute sinister motives to him, not by way of a healthy debate but by pouring scorn on the man who promises to fight corruption and begs for a chance to do it.

And you brim with questions, which include:

Do crooks always stack up black money in pillow covers and under the bed? Isnt a good part of black money lying hidden in real estate, benami deals and gold? Are the troubles that people are being subjected to worth the effort? Cant the crooks divide their black loot into small portions of less than Rs 2.5 lakh and distribute it to flunkeys and relatives to legalise it without penalty?

There are indeed reputed economists who believe that demonetisation is not an option to eradicate black money or corruption. And its indeed a mighty good thing to ask questions in a democracy.

But there is a problem. Scarcely hidden behind your questions is a pre-determined eagerness to knock the bottom out of Modis boat. And you then brand anyone not toeing your school of thought as a Modi bhakt. As a matter of fact, you yourselves, strike us as either the acolytes of the Nehru dynasty or bhakts of Karl Marx who cannot have an opinion unless it runs contrary to that of Modi.

And that amounts to a bias on your part.

Give us a break.

Dispassionate citizens are looking for dependable information and unprejudiced debate.

(The author tweets @sprasadindia)
Kathmandu: Nepal Premier Prachanda has telephoned Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought an arrangement so that Nepalese holding a huge stock of banned high denomination Indian bank notes could swap them with legal currency in the country.

During his five-minute telephonic conversation with Modi, Prachanda told him that Nepalese have quite a big stock of Indian bank notes of 500 and 1,000 denominations that have now been pulled out of circulation.

Hundreds of thousands of Nepalese, who earn a living by working as daily-wage labourers in India, visit the neighbouring country seeking medical treatment or rely on Indian markets to purchase daily essentials, are said to

be holding big chunk of scrapped Indian bank notes, Kathmandu Post reported.

Also, those visiting India as pilgrims and those engaged in cross-border trade are said to have a big stock of now-useless Indian bank notes.

Some of these people, according to the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, may lose their entire savings if the now-obsolete notes are not replaced with legal bills.

"Considering this, India should make an arrangement so that Nepalese can exchange the banned notes here in Nepal," a statement posted on Prachanda's personal website quoted the premier as saying.

In response, Modi said he would immediately resolve the issue and would also ask Finance Minister to hold talks with Nepalese counterpart.

Following the Indian government's surprise decision, the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the central bank, also banned the use of those bank notes in Nepal from last Wednesday.

The NRB has said IRs 33.6 million in the denominations of 500 and 1,000 is within the financial system in Nepal, the report said.

The figure includes cash parked at vaults of banks, financial institutions and NRB.

But actual stock of banned Indian bank notes is expected to be much more because Nepalese were previously allowed to carry Indian 500 and 1,000-rupee bank notes worth up to IRs 25,000, it said.

Also, those residing in areas bordering India usually stash Indian notes of larger denominations as they have to frequent Indian markets to buy goods.

The Indian government has said people who have accounts in Indian banks need not worry as the financial institutions will provide them the currency exchange facility. But many Nepalese who own the banned notes do not have accounts in Indian banks.

Against this backdrop, the Ministry of Finance wrote to the Indian Finance Ministry on Thursday requesting that arrangements be made so that Nepalese holding banned Indian notes could replace them with legal tenders here in Nepal.

NRB too wrote a letter to the Reserve Bank of India, seeking exchange facility for Nepalese holding banned Indian

notes here in Nepal.

The Indian central bank earlier responded saying the NRBs message has been conveyed to the Indian Finance Ministry.

Indian central bank governor Urjit Patel told the same thing to Nepali central bank governor Chiranjibi Nepal during the conversation between the two, a senior NRB official said on condition of anonymity.

This was an indication concrete results may not be achieved by holding talks at the central bank level, as the Reserve Bank of India cannot make any move without getting an instruction from the Indian Finance Ministry, the report said.

This, many said, called for the need to hold talks at higher level.

Earlier, former finance ministers Ram Sharan Mahat and Surendra Pandey had also told Parliament that interventions need to be made at the top Indian government level to reap favourable results.

The urgency was shown by almost everyone to deal with the issue as the Indian government has set a deadline of 30 December to deposit the scrapped notes at banks.
New Delhi: A Congress-led opposition came together seeking to pin down the government on the demonetisation issue in the Winter Session of Parliament beginning on 12 November, but a consenses eluded on TMC's proposed march to Rashtrapati Bhawan for meeting the President.

The leaders will meet again tomorrow to finalize the strategy on the issue agreeing at the meeting to use "all parliamentary tools including a demand for constituting a joint parliamentary committee to go into the issue and hold the government to account.

On its part, TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said her party will go ahead with its plans to meet the President tomorrow. Representatives of the National Conference and AAP are likely to accompany the TMC delegation.

At a meeting of 13 opposition parties including arch rivals TMC and CPM, besides BSP, SP, JD-U and DMK, opposition leaders unanimously concluded that it was too early to visit the President on the issue which must first be raised adequately in parliamentary forums.

Various parties have separately given adjournment notices in Lok Sabha and for suspension of proceedings in Rajya Sabha to discuss the issue and highlight the plight of the common man.

"So far as the march is concerned, there was unanimous decision by everybody that the march tomorrow is too early. As an opposition party, we must have a march in due course of time, but not on the very first day. On first day of Parliament, we must hold a discussion inside the House.

"There was an overwhelming consensus that there is no need to rush to Rashtrapati Bhawan on the very first day before bringing this issue before Parliament," Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said after the meeting.

Azad said had the Parliament not been in session, the opposition would have gone to meet the President, but as the two Houses were meeting from tomorrow the issue should first be discussed and raised there.

He said whatever the opposition members demanded if those were not not fulfilled other options can be used.

Azad also sought to corner the government by alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had disclosed the move to his partymen and not adhered to the principle of confidentiality. He claimed it was a "big scam" which needed to be

probed.

CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said government will have to allow the common people to use old currency notes for all white transactions till the time alternative arrangements are made. He also dubbed the move as "Tughlaq raj" (dictatorship), while taking a dig at the Modi government.

He replied in the negative when asked if the TMC's proposal for a march to Rashtrapati Bhawan was taken up at the meeting.

His colleague Mohammed Salim alleged that there have been huge transactions in cash by leaders of BJP since April and termed it as a "currency scam" that needs to be probed.

"We will unearth this currency scam and taken on the government. Prime Minister's step of trying to help them is actually insulting the common man, including his mother who had to stand in the queue (to withdraw money)," Salim said.

Asked about the opposition's strategy for taking on the government on demonetisation, Salim said, "We will seek all alternative tools in a democracy, including a demand for constituting a joint parliamentary committee to go into the issue and hold the government to account".

Yechury earlier said, "We are not demanding withdrawal of the move, but it should not be rolled out in this manner. We will raise this issue tomorrow as crores of people are being put to trouble and inconvenience. We are told some 25 people have committed suicide. We are telling the government that till alternative arrangements are made, all white transactions be allowed in old currency."

Yechury said the Left governments in Kerala and Tripura have already written to the Centre for allowing the states to transact in old currency till 31 December.

He said government should do something so that the people get some relief and are not harassed.

JD-U's Sharad Yadav said leaders of all parties will again meet on Wednesday to further finetune their strategy on the issue.

Among those who attended the meeting included Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel, Mallikarjun Kharge and Anand Sharma, CPI-M's Mohammed Salim, P Karunakaran and Yechury, NCP's Tariq Anwar, RJD's Prem Chand Gupta and Jaiprakash Narain Yadav, CPI's D Raja and JD-U's Sharad Yadav.

Others present included TMC's Nadimul Haque, SP's Dharmendra yadav, BSP's Satish Chandra Misra, DMK's Kanimozhi and JMM's Sanjeev kumar, besides RSP's N K Premchandran.
New Delhi: The Finance Ministry on Tuesday dismissed as baseless rumours that some institutions were planning a strike against demonetisation and said technology teams will be set up to hasten the pace of recalibrating ATMs.

"Don't believe rumours spread on the social media about certain institutions going on strike," Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das told reporters.

"On zooming the (strike) picture on the social media, it was found to be from 2015," he added.

Das was briefing the media on the second review meeting on demonetisation held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with officials of the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday night.

To ease liquidity crunch, Das said, it was decided to constitute 'technology teams' to hasten the pace of recalibrating the ATMs for the new high-denomination notes.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said it will take 2-3 weeks to recalibrate the ATMs. All ATMs in India need to be calibrated afresh to disburse the newly-minted Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes as per their weight, dimensions, design and security features.

The technology teams have also been directed to popularise e-wallets among people, Das said.

Micro ATMs are also being deployed in banks across the country.

"Separate green channel is being created in banks across the country for micro ATMs," he said.

Among other measures, a task force has been formed to monitor stocking and transfer of old notes in other places, the senior officer said.

Assuring the people of enough cash availability with banks and post offices, Das said there was no reason for panic.
The tribal communities, which comprise 11 percent of the total population of Jammu and Kashmir have been hit the hardest by the demonetisation drive announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently. Most of the tribal community of Gujjar and Barkerwals live in the higher reaches and far-flung areas of the state, which remain cut off from the mainland for almost six months during winters.

Javaid Rahi, Chairperson of Tribal Research and Cultural Foundation, an NGO, which works for the welfare of the tribal population of the state, said 90 percent of the tribal people, out of the 14.95 lakh population, are uneducated, and only 10 percent of the people have bank accounts.

According to a survey conducted by Rahi's organisation, last year, all the transactions are on cash payments basis done by the community members throughout the state.

Their lives are completely dependent on a cash economy. They dont have any idea at least 90 percent of them have never used one. For example, if a Gujjar sells his 10 buffaloes, it means at least eight lakh rupees, but he is not going to deposit that money in banks. Instead, he will keep that money in cash wherever he goes, Rahi said.

Our people are nomads and they go from one place to another with their stock. And even those who have bank accounts live in mountains and higher areas, which are cut from the mainland for six months. Most of them would be having no idea about government decision, Rahi told Firstpost on phone.

In Poonch and Rajouri districts of Jammu region at least 131 villages still lack the proper road connectivity, were most of the tribals live these days, leave aside the concept of banking.

What about those people. Till the time you dont tell them in their own language, they will not even agree to change the notes of 500 and 1000. The central government should have immediately deployed people to inform these people. The loss is going to be heavy for these people, he added.

The government has set a deadline of 30 December for changing the higher denomination currency notes, but Rahi says, up to the time majority of his community members will come down to the plains, it will be too late. They will be hit hard by the decision because majority of them have no bank accounts.

Our people will be worst affected by this decision, Rahi added.

The Gujjars and Barkerwals are the third largest ethnic group, after Kashmiri-speaking Muslims and Dogra Hindus, in Jammu and Kashmir. Over the years they have emerged as a significant political entity and influence the winning prospect of at least 20 candidates in eight Assembly constituencies in the state.

A sizeable chunk of the community members migrate in September to the plains of the Jammu region after spending summers letting their livestock graze on the pastures in the valley. They arrive in April and return in October or November. Many of them come with horses and mules and earn a livelihood by ferrying pilgrims to Amarnath in Kashmir.

But, according to Rahi, 60 percent of the population lives in higher areas who remain disconnected for six months from the mainland.

Minister for Animal, Sheep Husbandry and Fisheries, Abdul Gani Kohli, the only Muslim candidate who won on a BJP ticket from Kalakote Assembly seat of Rajouri district, said the issue of the tribal population getting affected by the demonetisation drive is already under consideration.

Kohli who recently met Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a delegation of Gujjar (tribals) from Jammu and Kashmir to apprise him about their underdevelopment said that he would try to seek information from agencies concerned about how to inform the tribal communities of the state.

I assure you I will try to do whatever I can because they are my people and I have won because of them. I know they wont understand the government's decision easily but they will have to be informed, Kohli said.
Rajkot: Two persons were detained and cash worth Rs 2.5 crore in demonetised currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, was seized from their vehicle near Virpur town in the district, police said on Monday.

The cash was being transported in a mini truck, which was intercepted by police during a patrol late Sunday night.

"The currency notes were found concealed in ten packets, each containing Rs 25 lakh. All the cash was kept inside a box in the vehicle," Virpur taluka police station police sub-inspector Ghanshyamsinh Jadeja said.

The vehicle driver, Rajni Khunt, and his assistant Bavanji Patel, have been detained and being interrogated.

The owner of the cash, from where it was being transported and its destination, are being ascertained, police said.
Islamabad: Prime Minsiter Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday said Pakistan cannot be bullied by Indian "tactics" and its restraint should not be "misunderstood" as weakness, warning that his country was fully capable of defending against "any belligerence".

His remarks came a day after the Pakistan Army admitted that seven of its soldiers were killed in firing by Indian troops across the Line of Control (LoC) in Bhimber sector.

"Pakistan cannot be bullied by such tactics as we are fully capable of defending our soil against any belligerence," Sharif said while chairing a high-level meeting to review the situation along the LoC.

He said Pakistan was exercising "maximum restraint" in the face of Indian firing, which should not be "misunderstood as our weakness," The Express Tribune reported.

Expressing grief over the death of the seven soldiers, Sharif said deliberate escalation of tension along LoC by Indian forces is a threat to regional peace and security.

"It is also a futile attempt of the Indian authorities to divert the world's attention from the worst kind of atrocities they are committing" in Kashmir, he said in a statement.

He called on the United Nations to take notice of the ceasefire violations along the LoC. "Our armed forces do not initiate fire but will always respond in a befitting manner to any aggression," Sharif said.

On Monday, Army chief General Raheel Sharif ordered troops to "effectively" respond to firing by India across the LoC.

Earlier, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz briefed Nawaz Sharif on the increased firing and shelling by India.

He said the recent incidents of firing have led to 26 deaths and 107 injuries in complete violation of the 2003 ceasefire understanding and international law.

The premier was also briefed on Pak-US relations in the backdrop of recently held presidential elections in the US. Reaffirming to strengthen bilateral relations, Sharif said Pakistan and the US enjoy strong and strategic partnership spanning over a period of seven decades.

"Pakistan looks forward to closely work with the newly elected government for realisation of peace, security and prosperity in the region and beyond," he said.

Pakistan's National Security Adviser General Nasir Khan Janjua and other government officials were present during the meeting.
Braving the harsh winter chill, 19-year-old Fozia Ali left home two hours ahead of the exam, hoping to catch an early ride to the exam centre at Kothi Bagh Girls Higher Secondary School in Srinagar city.

With public transport not plying due to the separatist-sponsored strike, it was an arduous task for thousands of young boys and girls, who are writing their board exams, that began on Monday in Kashmir amid heightened security.

According to officials, over 94 percent students appeared for the Standard 12 exam, while the Standard 10 exams will start on Tuesday in which more than 50,000 boys and girls are expected to write their papers.

All of us (friends) decided to appear in this session. Who knows what will happen till March, Ali, a resident of Indra Nagar locality of Srinagar, said. The Jammu and Kashmir government will conduct the board exams in two sessions, in November and March.

Following five months of civilian unrest during which at least 30 schools were set on fire, huge contingents of police and paramilitary forces have been deployed in and around 484 centres for Standard 12 exams and 545 exam centres for Class 10 students.

Over hundred thousand students are appearing in the two exams amid heightened security and night watch run by the teaching and non-teaching staff to protect schools across the valley which have been targeted by arsonists in the last five months.

At least 30 people have been arrested in these cases, according to J&K police.

Officials said 30,213 of the 31,964 students appeared for the exam held across the valley. Surprisingly, south Kashmirs Anantnag district, which witnessed massive protests since Burhan Wani's killing, recorded one of the highest percentage of students who appeared for the exams.

Anantnag was one the worst affected districts in the ongoing unrest that has left at least 94 people dead and thousands injured. Officials said, 4,740 of the 4,926 students, appeared for the exams in the district. The percentage of students appearing for the exams was at 96.1 percent.

Another district that recorded a remarkably high attendance, is Kulgam. The district has been at the forefront of the unrest with the maximum number of civilians killed here in the last four months. Around 92.98 percent students turned up to write their paper.

The J&K government, led by Mehbooba Mufti, is facing severe criticism after the state's Education Minister, Naeem Akhtar, refused to postpone the annual board exams against the backdrop of the civilian unrest, saying: Examinations are neither being held by me nor because of me.

Despite Kashmir Valley going through one of the most prolonged periods of shutdown in the history of insurgency in the state, the state government announced the dates for the secondary and higher secondary exams last month. The government has, however, waived off some burden from the students by announcing 50 percent relaxation in syllabus.

Brisk polling in examination centres, Sofi Ahsan, a reporter wrote on his Facebook page, Given the excitement and happiness among students outside the examination centres, it seems the past four months of Naeem Akhtar have been forgiven.

At many exam centres in Srinagar, anxious parents accompanied their tense children. Many had carpooled to make the journey easier, while the less privileged ones, waited by the roadside, waving at the oncoming traffic, to take them to their destination.

The day, however, passed without any untoward incident, with most of the students walking out cheerfully from the examination centres. They described the question paper as average while others, perhaps due to lack of preparation, were seemingly stumped.

Nazish Bashir, a student of Kothi Bagh Government Girls Higher Secondary School in Srinagar, said that most of the students were not ready to sit for the exams earlier because they had neither gone to school in the last five months nor tuition centres.

The paper was easy. I used to study at home. Sometimes I would face difficulty but I consulted my brother. Despite sitting at home for the last four months, I managed to do very well today, Nazish told Firstpost.
If there is a single state that is falling into a real financial crisis because of the current drive of demoneitsation, it's Kerala.

The rest of India, despite the injuries, massive damages and impaired lives of millions of poor people, might limp back to normal later than sooner, but Kerala has a deeper problem: the cooperative banking system that holds more than RS 60,000 crore in deposits and has disbursed more than Rs 30,000 crore in loans has been paralysed because both the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Finance Ministry are suspicious of its dealings.

The cooperative banks, with different categories (state, district, primary etc) and hundreds of branches (at least 1,500) have been the lifeline of people in rural areas for decades, but with demonetisation, there is a literal freeze on their functioning because they are neither allowed to receive invalidated Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 rupee notes from their customers nor receive fresh cash from the RBI in exchange of its own reserve to continue daily operations. Unlike in the case of nationalised and private banks, its not a question of long queues or hassles, but a total collapse: weddings, funerals, education and even daily survival are affected. Reportedly, some banks are left with only a few thousand rupees in valid currency.

The RBI had initially allowed the cooperative banks to take deposits in old currency after the announcement of demonetisation, but no exchange of old notes. However, after four days, the RBI withdrew the permission because of the suspected risk of counterfeit currency and black money being laundered. The justification for this move was that these banks could create pre-dated fixed deposits and their staff are not trained in detecting counterfeit notes.

Both the fears, which incidentally are also raised by some of the BJP leaders in the state, are genuine because unconfirmed reports showed that immediately after the announcement of demonetisation, many of these banks took large sums of old cash and registered them as pre-dated fixed deposits. Since most of these banks are not computerised, this is indeed a possibility. A senior economist in the state said that at least Rs 2,500 crore could have been laundered in this way. Actual figures notwithstanding, obviously thats why the RBI asked them to stop. Although both the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Finance Minister Dr Thomas Issac personally travelled to Delhi and asked Arun Jaitely for help, the freeze wasnt lifted. And it's unlikely to happen.

The quantum of deposits in the cooperative banks has always been baffling because the 2012 credit survey showed a high level of indebtedness by people in rural areas. If the people in rural areas are in such debt, how can the banks, which serve the same areas, have so much in cash? Obviously, the inference is that the deposits are not by poor people, but by those with a lot of cash. Nobody, other than the banks, know the details of these deposits. No source of income is asked, no TDS filed, no PAN required and hence no reporting to the Income Tax Department. The interest that accrues from these accounts are also tax-free. Some, therefore call this the Swiss Banks of Kerala. There is certainly some merit in the argument that its a great mechanism for the rural moneybags to evade tax unless they come under the lens of the RBI.

Although the crisis is new, the suspicions are not. As early as 2008, there was a move to bring the cooperative banks under the purview of income tax. In 2013, an RBI money laundering probe found that cooperative banks, not just in Kerala, but across India, were involved in shady deals while in 2015, about 480 urban cooperative banks were under the RBI scanner for money laundering. In fact, in 2013, the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram himself had admitted that urban cooperative banks (UCB) were regularly used for money laundering. If the UCBs, which are governed by stricter RBI rules, can indulge in alleged illegality, the cooperative banks at lower levels can do much worse.

Instead of clearing the suspicions and allegations, the behaviour of the cooperative banks in Kerala has made them more suspicious. In 2009, a group of primary cooperative banks went to the Supreme Court when the the Income Tax Department asked them questions. Later, they, represented by political leaders met the then Finance Minister Pranab Kumar Mukherjee when

I-T Department issued notices asking them to file to returns.

Whats also unmissable in the impasse that both the cooperative banks and their customers face is politics. The cooperative bank system in most parts of Kerala is the lifeline of the CPM, especially in its strongholds such as Kannur. A lot of CPM family members are employed by these banks, hence the loudest protest is from the them. In fact, its leaders are livid and they accuse that this is a neoliberal ploy to destroy the age-old system and hand it over to the corporates.

As early as 2008, Sitaram Yechury, the present general secretary of CPM, was unequivocal that his party wouldnt allow any I-T imposition on cooperative banks. In 2011, President of the State Co-operative Bank in Kerala M Mehaboob, a CPM leader, was more frontal, when he said: "We cannot allow the I-T department to examine the accounts in co-operative banks. The I-T department has been targeting state co-operative sector with a malicious intent. He also said that the I-T move would upset its depositors and that more than 60 percent of deposits are from pensioners.

The Congress and its partner-parties are also minor beneficiaries and hence they also lend support to the CPM on the issue. They also have appealed to the Centre that the present crisis needs to be addressed immediately.

The party thats trying to cash in during this unfortunate situation is the BJP because of two reasons - one, it has no foothold on the sector and two, its a potent proxy attack on the CPM. Their demands, if met, will simply destroy the system and break some of the financial muscle of the party. Unfortunately, in its eagerness to score political points, its insensitive to the visible anxiety of about 1.5 crore customers.

The apprehensions of the RBI and the Finance Ministry cannot be glossed over either. Its indeed true that the cooperative banking system has been an integral life-partner for millions of people in rural Kerala and they were the pioneers of inclusive financing, decades ahead of the Prime Minister Narendra Modis Jan Dhan scheme, with the first such bank being set up a 100 years ago. Its indeed the common mans friendly neighbourhood bank for their small savings, chit-funds, agricultural loans, microcredit etc. Their growth in the state is certainly an indicator of the failure of the scheduled banks in early years.

However, if the same system is misused for laundering money and tax-evasion, it has to be stopped. By blocking any legal scrutiny, the CPM is helping money launderers to use poor people as human-shield. It has to proactively join hands with the RBI in locating the bad money and protecting the poor, instead of fielding the poor in the frontline to protect the rich. Ultimately, rule of law is applicable to everyone. Under Indian law, cooperative banks cannot be run as party villages, particularly when the state government had mooted the grand idea of merging them all into a unique Kerala Bank.
New Delhi: The government on Tuesday decided to declare an NGO promoted by controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik as an outlawed organisation under the anti-terror law for five years for its alleged terror activities.

The decision has been taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Cabinet approved a proposal to declare Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) as an 'unlawful association' under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for five years, a Home Ministry official said.

A formal notification will be issued by the Home Ministry soon.

The move comes after investigation by the Home Ministry found the NGO was allegedly having dubious links with Peace TV, an international Islamic channel, accused of propagating terrorism, the official said.

According to the Home Ministry, Naik, who heads the IRF, has allegedly made many provocative speeches and engaged in terror propaganda.

Maharashtra Police has also registered criminal cases against Naik for his alleged involvement in radicalisation of youths and luring them into terror activities, officials said.

Naik also transferred IRF's foreign funds to Peace TV for making "objectionable" programmes. Most of the programmes, which were made in India, contained alleged hate speeches of Naik, who had reportedly "urged all Muslims to be terrorists" through Peace TV, they claimed.

An educational trust run by Naik have already been prevented from receiving foreign funds and agencies are looking into their activities.

He came under the scanner of the security agencies after Bangladeshi newspaper 'Daily Star' reported that one of the perpetrators of the July 1 terror attack in Dhaka, Rohan Imtiaz, ran propaganda on Facebook last year quoting Naik.

The Islamic orator is banned in the UK and Canada for his hate speech aimed against other religions. He is among 16 banned Islamic scholars in Malaysia.

He is popular in Bangladesh through his Peace TV, although his preachings often demean other religions and even other Muslim sects. The Mumbai-based preacher who is abroad, has not returned to India ever since the controversy came to light.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Chhattisgarh government to give advanced notice of four weeks to social activist Nandini Sundar and others before proceeding against them in the case relating to the alleged murder of a tribal man in Naxal-affected areas of the state.

The apex court also took on record the assurance given by the state government that Sundar and others, who have been booked for the alleged murder, will not be arrested or interrogated as of now.

A bench of Justices M B Lokur and Adarsh Goel granted liberty to Sundar and others to approach the court if any notice of arrest or interrogation is served upon them. "ASG Tushar Mehta says that Nandini Sundar, Archana Prasad, Vineet Tiwari and others will not be arrested or interrogated. State government is directed to give four weeks advance notice before proceeding in the case. Liberty to petitioners to approach court after the notice is served," the bench said.

The bench, however, refused to entertain Sundar's plea that the state should first take permission from the court before arresting or interrogating her and other activists in the case. "No, they can't be stopped perpetually. If there is a crime, they need to proceed. It is their statutory right. They will first give you notice and then they can proceed," the bench said, adding that the activist can approach the court after the notice is served.

The bench also did not take on record ASG Mehta's statement, saying when a statement is already been made that they would not be arrested, then nothing else is required. "We don't need to look at everything. You have made a statement. Now it is on record. You will have to give advance notice. As and when you want to proceed, show us the material," the bench said. On 7 November, Delhi University Professor Sundar, JNU professor Archana Prasad and others were booked on charges of murder of a tribal villager in the insurgency-hit Sukma district of Chhattisgarh.
New Delhi: Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday chaired a meeting at 10, Janpath in New Delhi to discuss the strategy ahead of the winter session of the Parliament which begins on Wednesday.

Congress will take up the issue of demonetisation during the parliament session to corner the government.

It will also oppose the Goods and Services Tax (GST) if four slabs of taxation up to 28 percent are introduced.

After skipping the Congress Working Committee meet on 7 November, due to health reasons, Sonia Gandhi chaired Tuesday's meet attended by party Vice President Rahul Gandhi and other senior Congress leaders.
Chennai: Tamil Nadu Government on Monday requested the Centre to ask the Sri Lankan government to release over 100 fishing boats, which are still in custody of the island nation.

Recalling the detention of 158 fishing boats by Sri Lanka in 2014, Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao in a letter to Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, said that Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had repeatedly urged the Prime Minister to take necessary steps for the release of the boats.

The Tamil Nadu Government had 'unanimously' passed a resolution in December 2014, seeking early release of the boats, Rao said, adding that Sri Lankan courts had finally ordered their release in February 2015.

Stating that two salvage teams were formed towards the release of the boats, he said, "the salvage operation was carried out in two phases by 355 fishermen with 54 salvage boats."

Sixty four boats were salvaged with minor and major repairs and brought to India in March and April 2015.

"But due to prolonged berthing, 16 were damaged beyond retrieval," he said.

Despite repeated appeals by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, the Centre is yet to agree to bear the losses suffered by the Indian fishermen, he said.

As the fishermen association requested release of 105 boats still in Sri Lankan custody, he urged the Centre to suitably compensate them for their losses.

"The cost of each fishing boat is around Rs 25 lakh. I request you to impress upon the Government of Sri Lanka to secure the early release of 105 fishing boats, which are sustaining serious damages in Sri Lankan custody and return the boats in refurbished condition", he said.
Paris: Skygazers took to high-rise buildings, tourist landmarks and beaches worldwide on Monday to catch a glimpse of the closest "supermoon" to Earth in almost seven decades.

The unusually big and bright moon happens when the Earth's satellite rock is full at the same time as, or very near, perigee  its closest point to our planet on its monthly ellipsis-shaped orbit.

At a distance of 356,509 kilometres (221,524 miles), this is the closest it has been to Earth since 1948, creating what Nasa described as "an extra-supermoon".

The phenomenon was visible first in Asia, sending astronomy enthusiasts and photographers flocking to the best viewing spots, hoping the chronic pollution that blights many of the region's cities would not spoil the fun.

Sydney's eastern Bronte suburb became an unexpected magnet as thousands of people armed with picnic mats and cameras packed its small beach after a Facebook invite went viral.

Loud cheers went up among the crowd as the moon made brief appearances between heavy, grey clouds before disappearing.

"It's really nice," Aidan Millar-Powell told AFP of the festive community atmosphere at the beach. "People don't usually come together like this in Sydney for a natural phenomenon."

Tourists, office workers and couples crowded the Hong Kong waterfront as the supersised moon rose over the skyscrapers of the financial hub, while in the Chinese capital Beijing the moon climbed spectacularly over the city's skyline.

The supermoon was visible across much of India although residents of New Delhi, the world's most polluted capital, struggled to see it clearly through the toxic smog that has been shrouding the city in recent weeks.

In Thailand, astrologers were variously predicting the supermoon would bring disaster or great fortune.

The supermoon means a stronger high tide, something that gets surfers giddy with excitement, not only at the prospect of riding bigger waves, but doing so at night.

Astronomers say it can be hard to notice that the moon appears brighter than usual. Once it is high in the sky, it can also be hard to tell it is larger.

To get the best view, Pascal Descamps of the Paris Observatory advised choosing somewhere with a well-known landmark in the foreground for comparison.

Supermoons are actually quite common  there is one every 14 months on average.

"But some supermoons are more super than others," said Descamps.

After Asia it was the Middle East, Africa and Europe's turn to peer upwards, with eager moongazers on all continents heading to popular landmarks to see the supermoon up close  with mixed results.

In Athens, the hundreds gathered at the ancient Acropolis were treated to the sight of the massive orb rising between the monument's famous columns, bathing the site in its glow.

But thick clouds spoiled the show in several European capitals including London, Paris, Berlin and Rome.

Amateur photographers took up positions on London's Waterloo Bridge hoping to see the moon rise above St Paul's cathedral, but cloud had blanketed the sky all day and mobile apps were the only way to track the moon's progress.

In Poland, the great rivalry between Warsaw and the old royal capital Krakow reared its head as heavy clouds thwarted moongazers in the former. But in Krakow, further south, the massive moon rose victoriously above the clouds.

"I think the moon is more golden than usual  it doesn't have the usual cold silver colour," said Roman Kwiatkowski, a Krakow psychotherapist making use of his large balcony to enjoy the spectacle.

Parts of east Africa also had an excellent view, from Nairobi to Dar es Salaam.

Johannesburg got a storm instead, with one disgruntled Twitter user, @Runningflyhalf, renaming the phenomenon "supercloud".

But in Cape Town, thousands of people were rewarded for making the hour-long trudge up Lion's Head mountain with the sight of the huge moon reflecting off the glimmering bay below.

"I think it's well worth waiting another 34 years to see it," tourist guide Leslie Edgar, 30, told AFP. "I will do it again. It was spectacular."
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared demonetisation of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes as a measure to curb black money, BJP's Nagaland unit went vocal against its long-time ally in the state government Naga Peoples Front (NPF) alleging corruption in governance.

The BJP leadership in Nagaland placed a memorandum in the hands of the state's governor on 10 November alleging "misgovernance and misdeeds" by the state government, a move seen not only in tandem with the Prime Ministers war against black money but also in that with the present political circumstances in the state.

Sceptics raised questions as to what good will it bring to the party if the bitterness leads to a breakup with its ally NPF, and that too at a time when BJP has hardly any presence in the state with only four MLAs in a house of 60? Also, Nagaland being a Christian majority state, what better future does the saffron party can expect than enjoying power by remaining an ally in the NPF-led government, as it is doing now?

Though such questions do not sound entirely outlandish, the emerging political realities in the north-eastern states are enhancing BJP's sphere as a political liberty in a sustained manner which in turn has emboldened the party to take counter-intuitive political moves.

The partys success so far in providing the state of Assam with a corruption-free government has emitted positive vibes throughout the region. The move to jail Rakesh Pal, the controversial Chairman of Assam Public Service Commission for his alleged role in a job scam was a major image booster for the party.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowals success in maintaining his image as an Assamese leader rather than a Hindu leader so far has spread the message even in Christian majority states like Nagaland that there is a growing need to review the common perspective towards the BJP.

The last and the most important part was the central governments move to develop Assams transport infrastructure with a gigantic fund of Rs 1 lakh crore. This recent declaration made by Nitin Gadkari has raised enthusiasm levels in the region.

There are also some state-level factors that seemed to have influence BJPs Nagaland chapter to take this drastic step against NPF. The NPF-led Democratic Alliance of Nagaland government which has been ruling the state for a third consecutive term is facing strong anti-incumbency current against it. Even Governor PB Acharya expressed his displeasure over rampant corruption in all sectors.

A BJP leader in the state, on the condition of anonymity, told Firstpost that it is no longer in the interest of the party to continue the alliance with NPF. "But any decision, leading to the BJP pulling out from the government has to be taken by the central leadership. We do not want to be seen under the same light as the NPF, he said.

Mutual distrust, however, has been lurking behind the scene for a long time between both the allies. It could be sensed when a BJP MLA was suddenly sacked from the post of Parliamentary Secretary for his alleged anti-DAN activities on 28 October by Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang.

The rift that has led both the allies to a near-breaking point, has emerged at a time when the NPF itself is going through a phase of uncertainty on account of dissidence within the party. Earlier this year the party suspended Neiphiu Rio, Member of Parliament and former Chief Minister of Nagaland, alleging anti-party activities.

Rio was suspended on account of his role in the dissidence that shook the NPF government led by TR Zeliang at the beginning of 2016. But Zeliang was smart enough to knit an all-party government and continued to be in power.

Repeated effort to patch up the discord between Rio and Zeliang has failed. It is difficult to estimate where the party is heading, says a Naga intellectual.

Even though the NPF leadership has been claiming that there is no more dissidence left in the party, many in the state BJP feel that they are on a sinking boat.

Moreover, some of the leaders in the state BJP have been urging the national leadership to get in touch with the dissident group led by Rio and induct his faction of NPF MLAs in BJP and strengthen the partys prospect in the assembly election due in 2018.

It's the right time for us to take advantage of the rift and move ahead to form a BJP-led government in Nagaland, says the BJP leader.

BJP lacks the number of leaders to represent from various constituencies of the state, a situation it faced also in Assam before 2016 Assembly Election. The Nagaland BJP seeks to apply the same formula to win over Nagaland by inducting leaders from the ruling party, as it did in Assam.

Hence, it was not surprising to see the BJP going vocal against its ally that is fast losing its glitter. But, how does the party move ahead to meet its expected goal from now on will determine the partys future in the state.
The government stepped up its efforts to deal with the increasing crowd at banks and ATMs by announcing new steps to deal with the evolving situation.

Department of economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das today said banks will now start applying indelible ink on customers' fingers similar to the election system. This is being done to to prevent people from transacting multiple times at a branch.

He also reiterated that customers should not panic and reassured them that the government has enough cash with it.

Here are the highlights of the key announcements made today:

1) Customers who come to banks to withdraw or exchange or deposit cash will be marked with indelible ink to prevent them from making multiple transactions on the same day. The banks have been given operational instructions on how to differentiate between customers who come the next day and same day. This has been done to curb the queue at banks which have given rise to suspicion that some unscrupulous elements are trying to whiten their black money using third party help. This is severely restricting the facility to the who are needy.

2) Banks have been asked to keep a watch on the people who return to their branches. This is also expected to curb the misuse of the facility.

3) The government has taken steps to enhance the cash availability with banks and post offices to deal with increased demand.

4) Religious institutions have been told to deposit in their bank branches the smaller denomination notes they get as soon as possible. This will increase the availability of cash in the system.

5) In many cases, the Jan Dhan Yojana (JDY) accounts have been used to deposit huge amounts of money. This is under close scrutiny as this too points to misuse of such accounts by black money holders. The government has appealed to the JDY account holders to not allow such tax evaders to use their accounts. Das promised that legitimate money will never fall under scrutiny.

6) A task force has been set up to study shifting and storing of annulled notes collected at the banks and post offices.

7) A special task force has been set up to study the infusion of fake currencies in the system. Another high-level task force is also formed to study cash infusion.

8) The government has appealed to the public to not believe speculative stories of shortage of essential commodities like salt. "We have enough stock of salt, in fact in far excess of demand," said Das.

9) A coordination group, including senior representatives of banks, has been set up to monitor all the steps taken by the government.

10) To a question, Das also said he is not aware of any deaths in queues related to demonetisation. "I can't give a generalised reply to a generalised question," he said.
New Delhi: Hitting out at the Opposition, BJP on Tuesday said while Prime Minister Narendra Modi is working to curb black money and corruption with his demonetisation exercise, rival parties have "ganged up" against him.

Terming demonetisation as a 'surgical strike' on black money, BJP National Secretary Shrikant Sharma claimed that the general public is in the support of the move and now it has taken a shape of "people's movement".

He added that despite difficulties, the common man is supporting the decision.

On the other hand, opposition parties are indulging in "conspiracy" by spreading various rumours to derail this movement but the country is unitedly standing with Modi in his fight against black money and corruption, he alleged at a press conference.

"While Modi government is working day-night to remove black money and corruption from the system, these opposition parties have ganged up to remove him," Sharma said.

Taking on SP and BSP, he said on Tuesday, these "opportunist" political outfits are raising question marks on the success of demonetisation, "where were they when Congress looted the common man through various scams in their 10 years of misrule".

"Instead of pointing fingers, SP and BSP were supporting the Congress government at the Centre," he added.

Calling the decision historic, Sharma said it should also be seen as a step towards electoral reforms as it will clean the electoral system by removing the use of black money and elections will become cheaper.

In the long run, this will also regularise political funding in the country, he said.
Kolkata: Accusing the Modi government of turning the people of the country into beggars by the demonetisation move, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she would meet President Pranab Mukherjee on November 16 to discuss the issue, irrespective of whether other parties join her or not. "Tomorrow I am meeting the President on demonetisation issue. I will be meeting him with 40 of my MPs."

"I have spoken to various political parties. I have spoken to Rahul Gandhi, Nitish Kumar, Naveen Patnaik, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Arvind Kejriwal. If they want to join me, it is good. If not, then I will go alone with my MPs. National Conference leader Omar Abdullah is likely to join me," Banerjee told reporters at the airport here before leaving for New Delhi.

Asked about some political parties' comments that it was too early to meet the President on the issue, she said, "It is their choice. You need to call the doctor before the patient is dead. There is no use of calling a doctor after a patient has passed away. You need to meet the President right now. I want all political parties to meet the President," she said. "I am ready to stand behind. Let them (other political parties) take the front stage but they should meet the President," she said.

Banerjee's move to play a pivotal role in uniting the opposition against BJP has been throttled by CPI(M) with its general secretary Sitaram Yechury yesterday stating that the party will wait to see what position the government takes in the matter in Parliament on the issue and "who stands where".

She remarked, "There are thousands of areas where there are no proper banking or post office facilities. What will the people there do ? The people of this country have been turned into beggars due to demonetisation move."

Later, in a tweet, Banerjee charged the central government with pursuing discrimination in dealing with the demonetisation issue. "Old Rs 500/1,000 notes allowed in railways, petrol pumps. NHAI exempted. But no exemption for state sector agriculture, co-operatives. No exemption for patients in private hospitals, nursing homes or for non-prescription medicines. Why this discrimination ? The situation is serious. Very grim. People are suffering," she tweeted.
With frustration over the cash crunch mounting, Parliament looks set to witness a firestorm of protest on the issue of demonetisation when it meets for the Winter Session on Wednesday, with a joint opposition having readied itself to put the government on the mat. Asserting that the government has launched a "crusade" against corruption and black money by demonetisation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday sought Opposition's cooperation while his rivals called the decision ill-prepared and hasty which has caused "economic chaos".

Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad alleged the decision to invalidate Rs 1,000/500 currency notes was leaked in advance to some people, including BJP leaders, and called it probably the "biggest scam".

He, however, added that his party is not for its rollback.

In his concluding remarks at the all-party meeting on the eve of the Winter Session, Modi spoke in support of simultaneous Lok Sabha and state assemblies polls and that there should be state-funding of elections as he asked parties to debate the issue.

The government is willing to discuss all issues and answer the questions raised by the opposition, Modi said, hoping for a fruitful session as he recalled the passage of the GST Bill in the last session with the cooperation of all parties.

"We have launched a crusade against corruption, black money and fake currency, which is also behind cross-border terrorism. All parties should come together on this issue of national interest," he said.

Though Mamata Banerjee's TMC failed to build a consensus on her party's proposed to march to Rashtrapati Bhawan on Wednesday itself to protest demonetisation of high-value currency notes, 13 parties led by main opposition Congress resolved to vigorously raise the issue of hardship faced by the common people due to the exercise aimed at squeezing out black money from the system.

As ATMs struggled in disgorging cash and banks appeared crumbling under pressure due to demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 bills, a Congress-led opposition went into a huddle to devise ways to pin down the government on the issue.

About Mamata Banerjee deciding to go ahead with her proposed march to Rashtrapati Bhawan, Azad said, she had sought an appointment with the President as a Chief Minister. "She is within her right to go to the President alone, but when we go to him together, TMC will be a part of it."

Various parties have separately given adjournment notices in Lok Sabha and for suspension of proceedings in Rajya Sabha to discuss the issue and highlight the plight of the common man.

Meanwhile, the Delhi assembly passed a resolution demanding a roll back of the demonetisation exercise.

As the government came under attack, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said a revolutionary or transformative step may have initial hiccups, but it gives long-term gains.

He said the demonetisation of higher currency notes had to be implemented with all secrecy as otherwise the people would have "taken care of" their ill-gotten wealth.

"There is need for ending parallel economy. Our neighbour is hiding, abetting, funding and training terrorists. There is 20 lakh crore of rupees of counterfeit currency in India which is weakening our economy. There are also arm dealers, smugglers...," he said, addressing a legislators' workshop in Delhi on infrastructure in the states.

The move will also curb Maoist operations as they "thrive" on black money.

Hitting out at the opposition, BJP said while Prime Minister Narendra Modi was working to curb black money and corruption with his demonetisation exercise, rival parties had "ganged up" against him.

Terming demonetisation as a 'surgical strike' on black money, BJP National Secretary Shrikant Sharma claimed that the general public is in the support of the move and now it has taken a shape of "people's movement".

He added that despite difficulties, the common man is supporting the decision.

Mamata Banerjee, however, unleashed a tirade against the government on the issue, saying the people have been reduced to "beggars" after having to stand in long queues to withdraw their own hard earned money.

"Tomorrow I am meeting the President on demonetisation issue. I will be meeting him with 40 of my MPs. I have spoken to various political parties. I have spoken to Rahul Gandhi, Nitish Kumar, Naveen Patnaik, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Arvind Kejriwal.

"If they want to join me, it is good. If not, then I will go alone with my MPs. National Conference leader Omar Abdullah is likely to join me," Banerjee told reporters at Kolkata airport here before leaving for New Delhi.

Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram of Congress ridiculed the demonetisation move, saying banks doling out cash to citizens was "proof" that 'achhe din' have arrived.

In a series of tweets, the senior Congress leader also took a dig at the Modi government on the way it was implementing the scheme, remarking that "millions of working people standing in queue. Long live productivity".

Shiv Sena, an NDA constituent which has been targeting the Modi government on demonetisation, said party leader Uddhav Thackeray was in touch with Mamata Banerjee on the issue.

"Mamata Banerjee and Uddhav ji are in touch. This is not a political issue but something which concerns people. Shiv Sena will do whatever it can to ease the hardship of people," its Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said.

Desperate attempt to start a 'black mechanism' with indelible ink shows this govt distrusts the common people... 1/2 #DeMonetisation  Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) November 15, 2016

Also, there are by-elections on Nov 19. What will the EC say about this decision to put indelible on prospective voters? #DeMonetisation 2/2  Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) November 15, 2016

Old Rs 500/1000 notes allowed in railways, petrol pumps. NHAI exempted. But no exemption for state sector agriculture, co-operatives... 1/2  Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) November 15, 2016

The situation is serious. Very grim. People are suffering.We will meet the Hon. President tomorrow, no matter what #DeMonetisation  Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) November 15, 2016

In a sarcastic take on the emotional pitch of Modi over demonetisation, Shiv Sena said his decision to scrap high value currency notes would not put his life in danger unlike his predecessors Indira and Rajiv Gandhi who were assasinated while fighting for greater goals of the country.

Making an emotional appeal at a function in Goa on 13 November, Modi had said that there were certain forces up against him that may not let him live and destroy him completely due to his decision on demonetisation and asserted that he was ready to face any consequence but would not get bogged down even if he was burnt alive.

"PM Modi is under a security which is impregnable where even a mosquito cannot bite him. Lives have been sacrificed by those innumerable freedom fighters for the nation. (Former PM) Indira Gandhi had waged a war against Khalistani anti-nationals, for which she paid by sacrificing her life," the Sena said in an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana', edited by Raut.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, in a controversial take on demonetisation said economists were of the opinion that black money helped the Indian economy in times of global recession.

"I am very clear on this...black money should not be generated. Economic experts say the magnitude of the global economic crisis at times is not felt in India because of strong (parallel) economy of black money," he said in Lucknow.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar briefed the reporters about Modi's remarks.

Speaking about simultaneous polls, he said, "A crucial problem is how to make political funding transparent. How to implement state funding of elections. Let all political parties debate it and come to a conclusion. Let's remove the question mark which exists against those in public life. Polls happen separately. Let there be one election, simultaneous elections," he said, seeking a consensus on the issue.

Azad told reporters that opposition parties, including TMC, SP, BSP, JD(U), RJD and others, are "united" and will remain so. Any government's move to break the unity will not succeed, he said. "We are all against black money. The government has completely failed in bringing back black money parked overseas as BJP had promised before the Lok Sabha polls. Demonetisation move was ill-prepared and very hasty, causing economic chaos. People from Kashmir to Kanyakumari are suffering," he said, adding that some have died while standing in queues outside banks.

Alleging that the decision was "leaked" in advance to select people, he said it is a big scam, probably biggest in India. Parliament will have to think what kind of enquiry is required, he said.

He also wondered if the move was an economic "surgical strike" to kill the opposition ahead of state assembly polls and to benefit BJP. Though parties like TMC and AAP have sought rollback of the decision to declare Rs 1,000/500 notes invalid, Azad and Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress' leader in the Lok Sabha, insisted that their party is not for it.

Azad insisted that there is no division in opposition ranks and TMC will be "part and parcel" of its joint strategy. JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav said opposition parties were "disturbed and angry" the government had caused massive "inconvenience" to the common man with its unplanned action. "I proposed that opposition parties in Parliament make demand for a JPC probe into the matter. All opposition parties in one voice were in agreement that this unplanned and immature action of the government should be exposed...," he said in a statement.

After a long time all opposition parties have come together and it would be in the interest of the country to launch protests at various places either together or separately to disseminate information about the Centre's failures, he said.

During the meeting, BJD leader Bhartruhari Mahtab referred to massive participation of students in board exams in Kashmir, a development welcomed by leaders of various parties with thumping of table.

With inputs from PTI and IANS
New Delhi: Government is bracing itself for a stormy Winter Session of Parliament beginning on Wednesday with the Opposition presenting a united face in seeking to corner it over the demonetisation issue calling it a "currency scam" that needs to be probed.

The Opposition also has a string of other issues like the surgical strikes across LoC, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, One Rank One Pension (OROP) and the plight of farmers to rake up during the session that will last a month. A demand for constitution of a JPC to go into the demonetisation is also on the opposition agenda.

Ahead of the session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met opposition leaders and sought their cooperation in the fight against black money and corruption for which, he said, the demonetisation exercise was undertaken.

In his concluding remarks at an all-party meeting on the eve of the Winter Session, Modi spoke in support of simultaneous Lok Sabha and state assembly polls. He pitched for state-funding of elections and asked parties to debate the issue.

The government is willing to discuss all issues and answer the questions raised by the opposition, Modi said, hoping for a fruitful session as he recalled the passage of the GST Bill in the last session with the cooperation of all parties.

"We have launched a crusade against corruption, black money and fake currency, which is also behind cross-border terrorism. All parties should come together on this issue of national interest," he said.

However, an unrelenting opposition decided to step up its fight against the government during the session. Presenting a united face, arch rivals TMC and Left parties and SP and BSP, got together at a meeting convened by the main opposition Congress to formulate a joint strategy.

There were some reservations in the opposition over TMC's proposal for a march to Rashtrapati Bhawan tomorrow to petition the President against demonetisation.

The majority of the parties did not want to exhaust the option of going to the President on the very first day of the session and instead wanted to keep it for a later stage.

An unfazed TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, however, asserted that she would go ahead with around 40 of her MPs to the President.

Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad alleged the decision to invalidate Rs 1000/500 currency notes was leaked in advance to some people, including BJP leaders, and called it probably the "biggest scam".

He, however, added that his party is not for a rollback of the drive.

Perhaps for the first time since the Modi government came to power, a large section of the opposition led by the Congress has came together ahead of a session as its seeks to pin down the government on the demonetisation issue.

Congress, the Left parties and some others alleged that the demonetisation of Rs 500/1000 currency notes was a "big scam" and accused the Prime Minister of "leaking" information to BJP members in advance.

At a meeting of around 13 opposition parties including arch rivals TMC and CPM, besides BSP, SP, NCP, JD(U) and DMK, their leaders unanimously concluded that they will go all out to take on the government on the issue.

They, however, felt it was too early to approach the President and the matter may first be raised adequately in parliamentary forums.

The leaders will meet again tomorrow to finalize their strategy on the issue while agreeing at the meeting to use "all parliamentary tools including a demand for constituting a joint parliamentary committee to go into the issue and hold the government to account".

Various parties have separately given adjournment notices in Lok Sabha and for suspension of proceedings in Rajya Sabha to discuss the issue and highlight the plight of the common man.

"There was an overwhelming consensus that there is no need to rush to Rashtrapati Bhawan on the very first day before bringing this issue before Parliament," Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said after the meeting.

CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said government will have to allow the common people to use old currency notes for all white transactions till the time alternative arrangements are made. He also dubbed the move as "Tughlaq raj" (dictatorship), while taking a dig at the Modi government.

His colleague Mohammed Salim alleged that there have been huge transactions in cash by leaders of BJP since April and termed it as a "currency scam" that needs to be probed.

Asked about the opposition's strategy for taking on the government on demonetisation, Salim said, "We will seek all alternative tools in a democracy, including a demand for constituting a joint parliamentary committee to go into the issue and hold the government to account".

"We will unearth this currency scam and taken on the government. Prime Minister's step of trying to help them is actually insulting the common man, including his mother who had to stand in the queue (to withdraw money)," Salim said.

He said government should do something so that the people get some relief and are not harassed.

Earlier in the day, top Congress leaders discussed the strategy for the session, where it is likely to forcefully take on the government on the manner demonetisation was implemented and other issues.

At the all-party meeting, Modi, while speaking about simultaneous polls said, "A crucial problem is how to make political funding transparent. How to implement state funding of elections. Let all political parties debate it and come to a conclusion. Let's remove the question mark which exists against those in public life.

"Polls happen separately. Let there be one election, simultaneous elections," he said, seeking a consensus on the issue.
New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday tore into the demonetisation scheme, saying that it was in reality a move meant to bail out those with black money.

Congress spokesman Kapil Sibal launched a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of being out of sync with the woes of the common man now battling for cash.

Sibal said Modi's pledge that the situation caused by the 8 November spiking of 500 and 1,000 rupees notes will stabilise in 50 days cannot be believed because his earlier promises had also fallen flat.

"All this has nothing to do with battling black money or corruption," he told the media.

Saying Modi had "collaborated" with those who have black money, he said it were the poor who were facing the brunt of his decision that has resulted in serpentine queues outside banks and ATMs across the country.

Sibal said the demonetisation was aimed at wiping out the Non-Performing Assets of banks.

The Congress leader said Modi had no understanding of the plight of the ordinary men and women who were struggling to exchange or deposit the old currency or withdraw money from their accounts.

"He makes fun of people... It looks like he is far removed from ordinary people's problems."

Commenting on the Prime Minister's comment that he had sacrificed everything for the country, Sibal asked: "Which palace he was living in that he gave up? Which property did he donate to the public? What sacrifices did he do for the country?"

Sibal added: "Please understand the pain of the ordinary people. Stop your whims and fancies..."

He also hit out at the limits placed on bank withdrawals.

"What kind of law is this? The money is mine, the bank account is mine, it is taxable income... Why can't I withdraw it? It is not Modi's money."
The opposition in India is currently suffering from an ailment best described as the Currency Withdrawal Syndrome (CWS). It severely impacts rational thinking and the affected are known to suffer from violent fits of recurring rage followed by the habit of calling for frequent news conferences. No new information is disseminated from the exercise but regular rhetorical fulminations before the media help alleviate some of the pain.

There are several stages to the CWS disorder. When the prime minister dropped a nuclear warhead on the shadow economy on 8 November by outlawing higher denomination banknotes, the opposition went into a temporary shock. From Congress party to Aam Admi Party, from Bahujan Samaj Party to Trinamool Congress, from Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janada Dal to Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party, the entire spectrum of political opposition withdrew into a shell. Their spokespersons suddenly developed an acute allergy towards all microphones, cameras and TV studios. Ever irrepressible, even Arvind Kejriwal gave his vocal chords a rest.

To her credit, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee was an exception, training her guns early and demanding that Narendra Modi withdraw the "draconian decision". But most of the BJP's rivals were silent for the first couple of days. The move was part strategic, part borne out of fear.

The parties, at this stage, faced a dilemma. Beyond the mouthing of anodyne statements on the need to tackle black economy, they kept quiet because their mood calculators were still furiously busy gauging public opinion and economic fallout. What kind of impact would such a sweeping step have on people in medium to long term? Would chaos ensue? Or will people wholeheartedly back the strategy all through the way? What would this drastic step mean for the economy? In absence of a reference point, and as long as they were unsure of the direction of the wind, discretion remained the better part of valour. This was the very first stage of CWS.

The silence was also a result of fear. A fallout of the Prime Minister's high-profile war on graft has been the emergence of moral fault lines around black money. Quite apart from the economics, his rivals could sense that the immediate political fallout of this decision would be positive. Since corruption is an issue intrinsic to our body politic and a key figure in Modi's mandate, the initial euphoria was easily explained. It would have been political suicide for the politicians at this stage to criticise the Prime Minister and risk getting pushed beyond the moral boundary. Despite sensing a steep rise in Modi's popularity graph, his rivals were therefore loathe to take him on.

Silence, however, couldn't have remained a long-term strategy. It was evident that the Prime Minister's image as a non-nonsense administrator who is tough on terror and corruption was getting enhanced. With crucial Assembly polls lined up from early next year, letting such a narrative build was never an option.

Their angst at being squeezed to a corner of the political space and BJP running away with the positive PR triggered by the Modi's move eventually forced the splintered opposition to reach out to one another and present a united front. This was as much a matter of survival as a pressing need to check BJP's attempts to portray itself as knights of shining armour against corruption.

As a report in Tuesday's edition of The Telegraph points out, opposition leaders who had assembled for a meeting at Congress's behest felt that "the attempt to portray all non-BJP parties as corrupt and hoarders of black money was unacceptable."

"This false propaganda will not go unchallenged Corruption is fought by institutional mechanisms, not by theatrics," Anand Sharma was quoted, as saying by the newspaper.

Somebody should have reminded the senior Congress leader that had it not been for the systemic abuse of India's institutions under their watch, endemic corruption wouldn't have eaten away the fibre of our body politic and kept India languishing among the laggard nations in global corruption index.

Politics, however, has its own compulsions. With the public increasingly getting restive with a system that cannot possibly replace the 86 percent of outlawed currency notes in a matter of days, parties sensed a chance to come out of the self-imposed barrier and target the prime minister for inconveniencing the "common man" who turned into a favourites spiel as one by one leaders, on his behalf, took up the guns to target the prime minister.

With the Winter Session ahoy, battle lines have been drawn. The parties enjoy little popular support with the electorate still firmly behind the prime minister but this situation may quickly change. If normalcy stays elusive, people's patience will wear thin and forbearance will be tested. The calculation now is to stay united and wait for the opportune time to strike.
The idea of smearing ones finger with indelible ink on the customers making transactions in the bank has been imported from the Election Commission of India. It prevents voting again and again by the same person i.e. it eschews impersonation.

The diehard charlatan of course doesnt mind the pain inevitable in rubbing off the stubborn ink but he doesnt go to the extent of doing an Ekalviya act of Mahabarath fame. Ekalviya cut off his finger to please Guru Dhronacharya who wanted to put the upstart archer in his place so that he couldnt rival his favorite acolytes.

Banks which have been instructed to smear the same indelible ink on the finger of exchangers/ withdrawers/ depositors lest charlatans have a field day and thumb their nose at the solemnity of the ongoing demonetization scheme. The Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes are not legal tender from the night of 9 November 2016 but one of the reliefs given by the government is exchange of these disagreeable notes for the ones which are legal tender upto Rs 4,000 initially and now Rs 4,500. This exchange counter was meant to be accessed but once during the fortnight starting 10 November 2016 and ending 25 November 2016 but the intrepid among them have done several such errands both for themselves and for their benefactors and were planning to do more. But they have been stopped in their tracks.

The government has at last read the riot act to them. Hereafter they cannot run amok. The indelible ink hopefully would last till 25 November 2016. It, therefore, must be of good quality lest the intrepid ones do not scrape it off even masochistically. No one of course would do ekalviya act just for laundering Rs 4,500. May be plastic surgeons would rise to the challenge for a right price.

Both in bank withdrawal counters and ATMs there are frequent cash outs. One hopes there are no ink outs, if one may say so. One also hopes CCTV cameras are enabled to catch the inking act lest an intrepid exchanger is tempted to bribe his way out of the inking process. While tightening of the screws on exchangers and their proxies hasnt come a day too soon, the government is dissipating its amenities nay causing unnecessary trouble to withdrawers and depositors.

Why should a withdrawer who is often fobbed off with Rs 2,000 whereas he was promised Rs 10,000 initially but given freedom to withdraw pretty much she pleased subject to the weekly ceiling of Rs 24,000 be subjected to this ignominy and inconvenience. After all her account would show whether she has crossed the lakshman rekha. What can be controlled through accounts need not be controlled physically.

And likewise why cavil at the depositor of the demonetized notes when she has been given time up to 30 December 2016 to do so without any limit. Like an act of withdrawal, the act of deposit is also going to leave telltale, indelible mark in her accounts. Why inconvenience her needlessly?

It is common knowledge that when you try to catch everyone you end up catching none. Only exchange bristles with problems and possibilities. Ideally, exchange facility shouldnt have been offered in the first place. But having offered it, it needs to be tightly controlled lest charlatans have a field day and laugh all their ways to as many banks as possible.

The government seems to say it would use different inks (colors) but the moot question is why harass depositors and withdrawers at all. It also says it would smear the ink on depositors in such a way that the one entering the bank the next day is not stopped in her tracks. Is this possible? There could be heated arguments at the withdrawal counters on this score---about the age or vintageof the ink smeared, todays or yesterdays.

Leave the depositors and withdrawers alone please.
There are two aspects to the current debate on demonetisation. One, whether the chaos and the panic that set in among the average citizens (not hoarders of black money) after the prime minister declared the high denomination currency notes invalid for transaction could have been avoided, or minimised, with better planning and preparation?

It is possible that the government agencies could not assess the scale of hardship the common man would face after the prime ministers announcement. Why couldnt it be better planned? Why didnt the government (or the RBI) introduce the new Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes (or Rs 2000 notes, if you like), with improved security features a month or two before the demonetisation plan was announced?

Issuance of new notes with improved features is a recurrent feature adopted by the RBI from time to time. This time, too, it would have been taken for a routine upgradation of our currency notes, as has been the practice in the past. In that case, the ATMs would have functioned normally; the banks and post offices would have been well-stocked with currency stocks of all denominations. The common man would have been spared the agony of standing in the queue for ten hours to withdraw or exchange two thousand rupees from the bank.

In that case, the opposition parties could not have put the government on the mat on this score. But, clearly, the government agencies lacked the imagination. True, they did not have a precedent to fall back on. In 1978, the Morarji Desai government had demonetised the Rs 5000 and Rs 10,000 currency notes. But the common man then had very little to do with such high denomination notes (after all, the average monthly salary of a college teacher then was Rs 200, and the average labourer earned a daily wage of Rs 2). But when the average salary of a college lecturer now is Rs 1,00,000, and the average daily wage earner makes Rs 500 a day, the 500 and 1000 rupee notes are, at least, the urban Indias mainstay. That explains why the life in urban India, if not in rural areas, has gone haywire for people who have little to do with black money.

The second aspect of the demonetisation debate is the extent of its impact in eradicating black money.

The question is, is the Union governments decision to demonetise the Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes a virtual surgical strike on black money?

The government and the ruling party think so. If Narendra Modi-Amit Shah-Arun Jaitley are to be believed, the domestic black money has run out of steam after this bold and decisive and unprecedented action.

But if you ask Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee or Arvind Kejriwal, they would dismiss the demonetisation move as a closet operation to help the rich at the expense of the poor.

Where does the truth lie? As always in such political slugfest, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

It is true, as the opposition leaders argue, demonetisation of high-denomination currency notes does not automatically strike at the root of the black economy. It must be kept in mind that hoarders of black money do not just let it lie as bundles of cash under the bed or in the almirahs. That is both dangerous and counter-productive. It is dangerous because large piles of cash are bound to attract unwanted attention.

As a Hindustan Times report tells us: One of the reasons why tax evaders and corrupt public officials prefer not to stash cash could be the sheer logistics of it. Rs 1 crore in Rs 1,000 notes, if stashed evenly, occupies one square foot and weighs 13 kg. Rs 100 crore would weigh 1.3 tonnes and occupy an area the size of a three-wheeler goods carrier, making the movement of cash without detection difficult.

The Hindustan Times report goes on to say, quoting finance ministry sources, that ill-gotten wealth mostly enters the formal economic system through real estate and shell companies.

The Hindustan Times report corroborates this argument with its analysis of tax raids data since 2012-13. It finds that the amount of cash recovered is less than 6 percent of 'undisclosed income seized from tax evaders.

This report dispels the motivated propaganda  it could be borne out of ignorance as well  that black money has been wiped out in one fell swoop with the demonetisation scheme. Yes, six percent of the black economy has been taken care of. The government has to make decisive moves to unearth the rest 94 percent.

That is a huge challenge. It is because in India the black economy is not just a parallel economy dealing with drugs or arms (that would have made the task easier for the state to take on a handful of drug lords or arms dealers), it is mostly intertwined with the white economy. That is why it is a more challenging task to unravel the twisted knots  to separate the good from the evil, the white from the black.

If the Narendra Modi government is determined to strike at the roots of the black economy, it just has to take one bold decision  to make the names of the donors to the political parties public. The bulk of the contributions to the political parties is generated through black money. That explains why political parties of all hues, the Congress, the BJP, the SP and the BSP or name any other party, all have stubbornly resisted the proposal to bring them under the RTI.

These parties hide under the pretext that they submit the details of the contributions they receive to the Election Commission every year. But the political class as a whole has devised a mechanism to ensure that in all such submission, there is a loophole to hide relevant information  the loophole ensures that parties are duty-bound to submit only the names of donors who have paid Rs 20,000 or more. All parties routinely claim that the hundreds of crores of rupees they receive are an aggregation of small donations, all less than Rs 20,000 each. That is actually the black money that turns white through the political channel (political parties do not have to pay taxes on their income).

If Narendra Modi decides to choke this segment of the black money, that would be a decisive battle against corruption.

Will the prime minister rise to the occasion to wage the bigger battle against black money or will he remain content by waging little wars?
Mumbai: As banks opened after a day's recess, Mumbai and suburbs witnessed greater scramble for cash with people making a beeline before banks and ATMs to exchange old currency notes and withdraw cash for essential expenses.

The BJP-led government in Maharashtra decided to set up a cabinet sub-committee to recommend further measures to mitigate the hardships of the people due to demonetisation. "The cabinet meeting reviewed the situation arising out of the Centre's move to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes," an official in the Chief Minister's office said.

To the relief of the customers, the ATMs were found to be working better as compared to previous days. Pramod Harlalka, a sub-broker in stock market, managed to withdraw Rs 10,000 from a bank at Bhayander in neighbouring Thane district. He said, "It was really a soothing moment to find Rs 10,000. But the problem is that this is of notes of Rs 2,000 each. Now there is going to be another problem to use it. I am sceptical to use it for small payments, because there is scarcity of small denomination notes everywhere."

He said that a major public sector lender's statement to disburse Rs 20 and 50 notes was a welcome step, but it should be done immediately. In some localities, residents came forward to help those standing in queues by offering them tea and biscuits.

"I was on morning walk with my friends when we noticed dozens of people in a queue around 7 am outside a bank at Manish Nagar in Char Bangla. Perhaps, they left homes very early in the morning without having breakfast. So, with our friends, we arranged tea and biscuits for them," said N K Bhartiya, a local resident.

Meera Dubey, a homemaker from Santacruz, said, "Banks have now made proper arrangements for the people. Today there are separate lines for deposit and exchange. Also, senior citizens are being given due attention. It seems that banks have learnt few lessons from initial failures."

However, a senior citizen, Bal Kumund Mishra (73), was unhappy as his bank did not allow him to withdraw Rs 24,000, as per new circular issued by the RBI on Monday. "I was very much disappointed when bank officials informed me that I can get only Rs 10,000 though I showed them the copy of new circular. Bank people denied to give more than Rs 10,000," said Mishra, a Thane resident.

Another citizen, Om Prakash Joshi, while recounting his ordeal since last week, said, "My wife is admitted in Bethany hospital of Thane. Hospital management is not accepting cheque and insisting only for pay orders. Even medical stores are not accepting Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. I fail to understand what to do? These are the worst days of our life."

In the wake of the problems faced by citizens while exchanging demonetised currency, Maharashtra Police also set up grievance cells in all district and commissionerates. Police personnel are on their toes to prevent any law and order situation during exchange of old notes.

According to a senior police official, nearly 46 grievance cells have been set up, including one at the state police headquarters, he said. Police have issued contact numbers as well as WhatsApp numbers of every SP and CP office on which citizens will be able to complain about their grievance during exchanging currency at banks, ATM centres, petrol pumps and hospitals.

Police will forward the complaints to authorities concerned, the official added.
New Delhi: The demonetisation issue on Monday figured prominently at the all-party meeting convened by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan with all major opposition parties, including the Congress, wanting a debate on it in Parliament.

The cross-LoC surgical strikes, policy towards Pakistan, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, besides One Rank One Pension (Orop) and the plight of farmers were also among issues that were raised at the meeting with parties demanding discussion on them.

Major opposition parties, during the meeting which lasted over three hours, urged Mahajan to allow a debate on demonetisation on a priority so difficulties faced by the common man could be highlighted.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also attended a dinner hosted by the Speaker after the all-party meeting.

"Leaders of various parties have demanded discussion on demonetisation and the steps taken by the government to exchange the currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000."

"The situation in Jammu and Kashmir, holding of simultaneous elections to state assemblies and Lok Sabha, and state funding of polls also emerged as issues on which parties have demanded discussion," the Speaker said after the meeting.

She said 22 to 23 bills are likely to be introduced in the winter session which will have 22 sittings.

Mahajan also informed the representatives of various parties present that the Lok Sabha has taken a "second step" forward towards making the functioning of the House paperless.

She said while a copy each of big reports, including those of the CAG would be sent to party offices, the members would individually be sent reports online. Minimum copies of general and rail budgets would be printed. She informed that an e-portal has already been introduced for the purpose where all reports and questions are uploaded.

Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said his party would give notices for adjournment, short duration discussions and calling attention motion on various issues including demonetisation, surgical strikes and government's policy towards Pakistan.

Among other issues on which Congress has sought discussion include Orop, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and the alleged plight of farmers, besides proposed merger of Railway and Union budgets.

"The poor, salaried class, housewives, small traders and daily-wage earners are the worst sufferers of demonetisation move and their plight would be highlighted by the party," Kharge told reporters.

Leaders of various political parties, including Congress, BJD, Trinamool Congress, SP, SAD, Shiv Sena, LJP, RLSP and BJP were present at the meeting.

The Speaker sought their cooperation in smooth functioning of the House.
By now, it is pretty obvious that the Opposition is planning to lash out at the government over the demonetisation of high value currency notes in the Winter Session of the Parliament, which will begin on Thursday.

During an all-party meeting convened by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, major Opposition parties urged Mahajan to allow a debate on demonetisation on a priority so that difficulties faced by the common man could be highlighted.

However, apart from demonetisation, the Opposition will raise many other issues in the upcoming Winter Session.

The surgical strikes across the Line of Control (LoC), policy towards Pakistan, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme and the plight of farmers were also among issues that were raised at the meeting with parties demanding discussion on them.

"The situation in Jammu and Kashmir, holding of simultaneous elections to state assemblies and Lok Sabha, and state funding of polls also emerged as issues on which parties have demanded discussion," the Speaker said after the meeting.

"We will raise government's failures on all fronts, including black money and issues concerning farmers. There have been about 300 ceasefire violations in Jammu and Kashmir in the last one-and-a-half months which has resulted in soldiers being martyred and civilian deaths," Congress spokesperson Ajoy Kumar told IANS.

"Other issues we will be raising include alleged politicisation of Army's surgical strikes and communalisation of the entire system. On Goods and Services Tax concerns of states are not being taken into account," Revolutionary Socialist Party leader NK Premachandran further said, adding that demonetisation was a major issue for Left parties.

Congress also wants a discussion on the proposed merger of Railway and Union budgets.

The Speaker sought cooperation from the ruling party and the Opposition in the smooth functioning of the House.

Only time will tell how smooth the functioning of the Parliament really is.

It will also, thus, decide how many bills are passed and introduced during this session.

Mahajan said that 22 to 23 bills are likely to be introduced in the winter session which will have 22 sittings.

The government is keen on passage of pending Goods and Services Tax (GST) bills and its roll out from 1 April next year.

The pending bills for roll out of GST include Central Goods and Services Tax Bill to facilitate levy of tax on intra-state supply of goods or services, Integrated Goods and Services Tax Bill to facilitate levy of tax on inter-state supply of goods or services and The Goods and Services Tax (Compensation for Loss of Revenue) Bill to facilitate payment of compensation to states for loss of revenue arising on account of implementation of GST.

Apart from the three bills on GST, the other six bills listed for introduction, consideration and passing (according to PRS Legislative Research) are:

1. The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016 (Aims to constitute a National Surrogacy Board, State Surrogacy Boards and regulate surrogacy.)

2. The Divorce (Amendment) Bill, 2016 (Seeks to amend the Divorce Act, 1869 on issues of dissolution of marriage and mandatory period of separate residence.)

3. The Indian Institutes of Management Bill, 2016 (Seeks to declare IIMs institutions of national importance, thus enabling them to award degrees.)

4. The Collection of Statistics (Amendment) Bill, 2016 (Aims at extending jurisdiction of the 2008 Act to Jammu and Kashmir on statistical matters.)

5. The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2016 (Seeks to revise the list of STs in Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and Tripura.)

6. The Admiralty (Jurisdiction and Settlement of Maritime Claims) Bill, 2016 (Seeks to combine laws for jurisdiction, claims and arrests of vessels.)

There are also ten bills listed for consideration and passing.

They include:

1. The Maternity Benefits (Amendment) Bill, 2016 (Increases maternity leave to 26 weeks and grants leave to adopting and commissioning mothers. This bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha this year and is pending in the Lok Sabha.)

2. The Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2013 (Proposes to criminalise giving a bribe and modify the definition of taking a bribe, requires prior sanction before prosecuting former officials.)

3. The Mental Health Care Bill, 2013 (Replaces Mental Health Act, 1987 to protect the rights of the mentally ill. It was passed by the Rajya Sabha this year and is pending in Lok Sabha.)

4. The Whistle Blowers Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2015 (Specifies conditions in which corruption-linked disclosures cannot be made. It was passed by the Lok Sabha and is pending in the Rajya Sabha.)

5. The Consumer Protection Bill, 2015 (Replaces the 1986 Act and provides the redressal of consumer complaints.)

6. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 (Proposes that illegal immigrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan apply for Indian citizenship.)

7. The Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (Prevention and Control) Bill, 2014 (Seeks to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and prohobit discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS.)

8. The Employee's Compensation (Amendment) Bill, 2016 (Requires employer to inform employee of his or her right to compensation.)

9. The Factories (Amendment) Bill, 2016 (Increases the limit of overtime work hours, empowers central government to make rules on overtime hours. It was passed by the Lok Sabha and is pending in Rajya Sabha.)

10. The Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2016 (Vests the rights over enemy property in an office of the central government.)

With inputs from agencies
Yangon: Myanmar's security forces have killed almost 70 people since taking control of northern Rakhine state last month, the army said, adding that media reports of widespread destruction in the area were "false news".

Troops have poured into a strip of land along the border with Bangladesh, an area largely home to the Muslim Rohingya minority, since deadly raids on police border posts on 9 October.

Clashes escalated over the weekend when troops killed more than 30 people in two days of fighting that saw the military use helicopter gunships for the first time.

A hunt for the attackers has seen a total of "69 Bengalis (Rohingya) killed and 234 arrested" between 9 October and 14 November, according to a Facebook post by the army chief's office late Monday.

"Seven soldiers, including one commanding officer... and 10 police sacrificed their lives", it added.

Myanmar's army has tightly-controlled information about their operations in the region and denies reports from activists that troops are killing civilians, raping women and torching homes.

Heavy restrictions on access to the area has made it difficult for foreign journalists and independent observers to verify the government reports or allegations of army abuse.

The army chief's office also hit out at figures from Human Rights Watch, which released satellite images they said showed more than 400 razed buildings in three Rohingya villages where clashes have taken place.

The army statement said only 227 buildings had been burnt down and accused Rohingya "terrorist arsonists" of setting fire to houses in a bid to discredit the military.

The statement, titled "Countering false news released by some news agencies in connection with area combing in Maungtaw area, Rakhine state," said army "officials are carrying out further scrutiny" of media reports.

The swell of violence in Rakhine has posed the biggest challenge so far to Aung San Suu Kyi's government and raised questions over her civilian administration's ability to control the army.

Rakhine has sizzled with religious tension since violence between the majority Buddhist population and the Muslim Rohingya left more than 100 dead and pushed more than 100,000 into squalid displacement camps in 2012.

Suu Kyi has faced global censure from rights groups for failing to come out in strong defence of a minority that the UN has labelled as one of the world's most persecuted peoples.
By David Ljunggren

| OTTAWA

OTTAWA A Canadian airliner with 54 passengers on board had to swerve to avoid an unmanned flying object near Toronto early on Monday, slightly injuring two cabin crew, in the most serious case of its kind in Canada, officials said.The Porter Airlines Bombardier Q400 twin-prop plane, which took off from Ottawa, was at 9,000 feet (2,750 meters), descending into the city's Billy Bishop waterfront airport, when the pilots saw an unmanned aerial vehicle."Two crew members performed an evasive manoeuvre to avoid the unidentified object," said Genevieve Corbin, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB). Corbin said the object was most likely a drone.Two cabin crew suffered slight injuries during the incident, Porter said.

"The pilots' initial assessment was that it looked like a balloon. After debriefing, there is potential that the object was a drone," said Porter Airlines spokesman Brad Cicero.The plane landed at about 7:30 a.m. ET (1230 GMT). The TSB has now launched an investigation, the first time it has done so for such an incident, said Corbin.

In June, Canada's federal transport ministry launched a campaign intended to deter people from flying drones near airports or aircraft.There have been a rash of near misses between planes and unmanned aerial vehicles in the United States in recent years.

In April, police in Britain said a British Airways passenger aircraft collided with what was most likely a drone as it prepared to land at London's Heathrow Airport. The aircraft landed safely and no injuries were reported in the incident. (Additional reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal; Editing by Alan Crosby)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Washington: Former New York Mayor Rudy emerged as the favorite to serve as secretary of state in Donald Trump's incoming administration, a senior Trump official said as the president-elect narrowed down his Cabinet picks.

The official said there was no real competition for the job and that it was Giuliani's if he wanted it. The official was not authorized to speak on the record and requested anonymity.

Giuliani, a top Trump adviser, said Monday night at a Washington event sponsored by the Wall Street Journal that he "won't be attorney general" in Trump's administration  a job for which the former federal prosecutor had been seen as a top contender even before Trump's election.

Giuliani said he thought John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, "would be a very good choice" for secretary of state. But asked if there was anyone better, he replied with a mischievous smile: "Maybe me, I don't know."

Trump was also considering Monday whether to inject new diversity into the GOP by recommending a woman to lead the Republican Party and an openly gay man to represent the United States at the United Nations.

The moves, among dozens under consideration from his transition team, follow an intense and extended backlash from Trump's decision on Sunday to appoint Stephen Bannon, a man celebrated by the white nationalist movement, to serve as his chief strategist and senior adviser.

"After winning the presidency but losing the popular vote, President-elect Trump must try to bring Americans together  not continue to fan the flames of division and bigotry," said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. She called Bannon's appointment "an alarming signal" that Trump "remains committed to the hateful and divisive vision that defined his campaign."

His inauguration just 66 days away, however, Trump focused on building his team and speaking to foreign leaders. He remained sequestered in Trump Tower in New York.

Inexperienced on the international stage, the Republican president-elect spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone. His transition office said in a readout that "he is very much looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the people of Russia." Trump has spoken in recent days with the leaders of China, Mexico, South Korea and Canada.

At the same time, Trump was considering tapping Richard Grenell as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He would be the first openly gay person to fill a Cabinet-level foreign policy post. Grenell, known in part for aggressive criticism of rivals on Twitter, previously served as US spokesman at the UN under President George W Bush.

Trump was also weighing whether to select Michigan GOP chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel, a niece of chief Trump critic and 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney. She would be the second woman ever to lead the Republican National Committee  and the first in four decades.

"I'll be interested in whatever Mr. Trump wants," McDaniel told The Associated Press on Monday, adding that she was planning to seek the Michigan GOP chairmanship again.

Appointing McDaniel to run the GOP's political arm could be an effort to help the party heal the anger after a campaign in which Trump demeaned women. The appointment of Grenell, who has openly supported same-sex marriage, could begin to ease concerns by the gay community about Vice President-elect Mike Pence's opposition to same-sex marriage during his time as Indiana governor.

The personnel moves under consideration were confirmed by people with direct knowledge of Trump's thinking who were not authorized to publicly disclose private discussions. They stressed that the decisions were not final.

Internal deliberations about staffing come a day after Trump made overtures to warring Republican circles by appointing Bannon and RNC Chairman Reince Priebus as his White House chief of staff.

The former media executive led a website that appealed to the so-called "alt-right"  a movement often associated with efforts on the far right to preserve "white identity," oppose multiculturalism and defend "Western values."

Priebus on Monday defended the media mogul, saying the two made an effective pair as they steered Trump past Democrat Hillary Clinton and toward the presidency. He sought to distance Bannon from the incendiary headlines on his website, saying they were written by unspecified others.

"Together, we've been able to manage a lot of the decision making in regard to the campaign," Priebus told NBC's "Today." ''It's worked very, very well."

President Barack Obama avoided any direct criticism of Trump's personnel moves during an afternoon news conference, suggesting that the new president deserves "room to staff up."

"It's important for us to let him make his decisions," Obama said. "The American people will judge over the course of the next couple of years whether they like what they see."

The outgoing president encouraged Trump, however, to embrace a unifying tone.

"It's really important to try to send some signals of unity and to reach out to minority groups or women or others that were concerned about the tenor of the campaign," Obama said. "And I think that's something he will  he will want to do."
President-elect Donald Trump meets with running mate Mike Pence in New York on Tuesday to discuss cabinet appointments amid reports of intense infighting over choice posts.

One source described to CNN the fierce lobbying as a "knife fight."

Trump and Pence will "be reviewing a number of names" for cabinet positions, Jason Miller, a transition communications adviser, told reporters gathered at Trump Tower.

Trump appears to be torn between a campaign promise to shake up Washington and the need to build a cabinet with political experience and connections with Congress.

Possible candidates for secretary of state include hawkish former diplomat John Bolton and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, US media reported.

Retired General Michael Flynn is a possible national security adviser pick, while Republican Senator Jeff Sessions could be secretary of defense or attorney general, according to CNN.

CBS and CNN also reported that the transition team is seeking top security clearances for Trump's adult children.

Trump however did not request that this step be taken, and the Trump children have not started filling out paperwork for such clearances, a transition official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"That's not something I'm expecting right now," the official said.

Trump on Sunday tapped Steve Bannon, chairman of conservative news platform Breitbart, as his chief strategist, and Reince Priebus, the head of the Republican National Committee, as his chief of staff.

Miller gave few details on the new people under consideration.

"You cant believe everything you read. I dont want to play the speculation game as far as names," Miller said.

He added: "There will be non-traditional names, a number of people who have had wide-ranging success in a number of different fields... People will be excited when they see the type of leaders the president-elect brings into this administration."

Separately, Pence said that he plans to complete his term as Indiana governor even as he helps with the transition of power in Washington, the Indianapolis Star reported.

Pence made the remarks at a cabinet meeting in Indianapolis on Tuesday, an event at which he welcomed the new state governor, who takes over on 9 January, the newspaper reported.
President-Elect Donald Trump! You're still getting used to that, aren't you? Well, at least I am. It's not words that roll off the tongue easily.

With close to a year of canvassing for Americas top job, we've learned that the Trump cocktail can be a dangerous mix of jingoism, rhetoric, saber-rattling, and isolationist strategies (and thats only the foreign policy part). But yet, almost a week after the elections, the hangover just wont go away. Its here to stay, and perhaps a cure can be found, but 2020 is still a while away.

As Donald Trump gets ready to take the short flight south, leaving Trump Tower for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, its important to realistic assess what his foreign policy might look like, particularly in regard to India.

While the political cognoscenti is still trying to fathom Trump's inexplicable rise to the White House, many policy makers in the Harry S Truman building (the State Department Headquarters) are anxious on Trumps loosely worded foreign policy goals. The hard part is trying to decipher some iota of policy in all of Trumps bombast throughout his campaign trail. But the important thing to note here is that there is a difference between politics and policy. The former is more of rabble-rousing that has drawn in the crowds at rallies; while the latter will be a coherent plan forward based on a pragmatic outlook that best suits American interests.

While dossiers can be written in New Delhi with regards to Trumps opponents foreign policy, (the former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton), when it comes to Trump, foreign policy watchers find themselves scrapping the bottom of the barrel.

While there has been no overt mention of India, here is the precious little we can piece together. Trump, the businessman, has spoken fondly about India as a business destination, and has already made significant investments in Mumbai and Pune.

But Trump, the politician (a term he abhors), will not be dealing in real estate deals with the Lodha Group in Mumbai but will be talking strategic affairs with the Lutyens Delhi crowd. And he could come to view India in an entirely different prism.

This article that speaks about how New Delhi has traditionally benefitted from Republican administrations at the helm. But Trump is not your quintessential Republican, in fact, he is still looked at as a New York Liberal by many in the conservative establishment. The traditional Republican overview has one that has viewed outsourcing favourably as India has been looked at as a goldmine for American corporations. But Trump on the other hand, has referred to India, on the campaign trail as a country that is stealing American jobs. In his book, Time To Get Tough (released in 2011), Trump spoke about levying taxes on companies that outsource.

Another concern for India is the high quality immigrants that form the intellectual elite of the American service sector. Trump's hallmark through the process has been his no nonsense stance on immigration, which has largely been towards illegal immigration and undocumented migrants in the country. While this may not impact the NRI worker, Trumps dichotomy on the H-1B visa might.

Trump has been vociferous about scrapping the H-1B visa program that is the lifeline of many Indians working in the US as well as for many software companies that send hordes of employees stateside. But on the other hand, Trump has juxtaposed this by saying how important it was to retain high quality labour, and lamented on how high achieving Ivy League students are not able to stay on in the US and said their home countrys gain from their talent, was Americas loss.

However, where some in South Block might be optimistic, is Trumps bellicose approach towards China and Pakistan. Trump has vowed take a drill sergeant approach on terrorist organisations like the Islamic State and on countries that have been particularly soft on terrorism. New Delhi has often been vocal about Pakistans janus-faced approach in its war on terror, which they felt Washington has long overlooked due to their own strategic interests in Afghanistan. Trump seems to have echoed New Delhis sentiment questioning Pakistans legitimacy as a US ally.

Indias other friends like these neighbour in China, has been on Trumps radar right from the start of the Republican primaries. Despite having business links with China, Trumps whole campaign stump of Make America Great Again is predicated on companies not being able to Make in China. He wants to bring back a lot of the lost manufacturing jobs in America that made China the manufacturing capital of the world. He has accused China of being a currency manipulator and threatened to impose tariffs that many in Washington are afraid could start a trade war with China, which would be cataclysmic for the global economy. He has also spoken about his aversion to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP); a 12 country Asian free trade deal; which in some ways is ironic, since trade experts see the deal as a counterweight to Chinas growing influence in the region. The tough stance with China, could realign a traditional Republican belief of looking at India as a democratic burgeoning economic power to China.

Trump has expressed his admiration for strong world leaders, particularly Vladimir Putin, and while he hasnt mentioned much about Prime Minister Narendra Modi, one could assume, he would admire someone of the same ilk, a decisive figure. Modis overt gestures of strong Indo-US defense ties and his pro-business outlook would sit well with Trump. But while Modis signature Make In India campaign is about bringing manufacturing to India, Trumps Make in America is about keeping manufacturing in its fifty states.

Weve learned only too well that diplomacy is a fickle game, and many would expect Trump, a man synonymous with buildings to build on the strong foundations of the Indo-US partnerships. But America knows only too well, that buildings, no matter how tall, can easily be brought down.
Cairo: An Egyptian appeals court today cancelled the death sentence handed out to ousted President Mohamed Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohammed Badie and ordered a retrial in connection with a mass jail break during the country's 2011 uprising.

The Court of Cassation also cancelled life sentences for 21 others in the same case. Five co-defendants, including Badie, who received death sentences in June 2015, will be retried too.

Morsi and other Brotherhood leaders were sentenced to death in June 2015 for escaping from Wadi al-Natroun prison, damaging and setting fire to prison buildings, murder charges, looting weapons and allowing prisoners to break out of jails during the January 2011 revolution.

Morsi was sentenced to life in prison in two other trials. He was convicted of spying for Iran, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

In another case, Egypt's first freely elected civilian president was found guilty of stealing documents relating to national security and handing them to Qatar.

Morsi came to power after Egypt's long-time President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in 2011. He was toppled by the current President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi following mass street protests.
ATHENS Greek police fired teargas at protesters marching in Athens during a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday. About 7,000 people, among them may hooded protesters and members of the Communist affiliated group PAME, marched through the streets of central Athens holding banners reading "Unwanted!". Some of them threw two petrol bombs at police. Obama, who will be succeeded in January by Donald Trump, arrived in Greece on Tuesday on his last foreign tour as president of the United States.

He said he would continue to emphasise the United States' view that "austerity alone cannot deliver prosperity".

(Reporting by Michele Kambas; Writing by Renee Maltezou)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
By Thomas Escritt

| AMSTERDAM

AMSTERDAM Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in The Hague said on Monday there were preliminary grounds to believe U.S. forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan and at secret detention facilities elsewhere in 2003 and 2004.In a report, prosecutors said there was a "reasonable basis to believe" that U.S. forces had tortured prisoners in Afghanistan and at Central Intelligence Agency detention facilities elsewhere in 2003 and 2004."Members of US armed forces appear to have subjected at least 61 detained persons to torture," the prosecutors' office, wrote. It added that CIA officials appeared to have tortured another 27 detainees.The prosecutors' office, headed by Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, said it would decide imminently whether to pursue a full investigation.The results of a full investigation could potentially lead to charges being brought against individuals and the issuing of an arrest warrant. The ICC is a court of last resort, however, meaning it could only bring charges if domestic authorities were not dealing adequately with allegations.

Monday's finding marks a significant step forward in the court's decade-old examination of conflicts in Afghanistan and could draw a sharp response from a U.S. administration that is set to become less internationalist under President-elect Donald Trump."These alleged crimes were not the abuses of a few isolated individuals," the report said. "They appear to have been committed as part of approved interrogation techniques in an attempt to extract 'actionable intelligence.'"The United States occupied and patrolled large parts of Afghanistan during their hunt for the Taliban and al Qaeda forces behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Further crimes may have been committed at CIA facilities in Poland, Lithuania and Romania, prosecutors added, because individuals captured in Afghanistan were allegedly transferred to those sites.The report, covering all the many preliminary examinations being carried out by the court, found grounds to suspect all belligerents, including the Taliban and the Afghan government, had committed war crimes.

The ICC was set up in 2003 to prosecute the gravest war crimes and crimes against humanity. The United States, which under President George W. Bush was fiercely opposed to the court, is not a member, but Afghanistan, Lithuania, Poland and Romania all are, giving it jurisdiction over crimes committed on their territories.Under Bush, officials led by U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, now being cited as a potential member of Trump's cabinet, attacked the court and legislation was passed mandating U.S. forces to free any soldiers arrested on the court's authority.The U.S. Senate Intelligence committee released in 2014 excerpts from a report on the CIA's detention and interrogation programme from 2001 to 2006 that it said included torture of detainees. (Reporting By Thomas Escritt; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Washington: The Democratic Party is preparing to elect a new leader following the unexpected electoral defeat in 8 November of White House hopeful Hillary Clinton.

The interim chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) veteran political operative Donna Brazile, assumed the position temporarily following the resignation of Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schulz, criticised for influencing the primary process to help Clinton win over Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Efe news reported.

The election will take place on Thursday.

After losing not only the presidency but also many state legislatures while failing to regain control of the Senate, the Democrats need a new leader to design a winning strategy for the coming years.

Up to now, the name most mentioned is black African-American Congressman Keith Ellison, considered one of the party's more progressive elements and who has the support of Sanders, Senate minority leader Harry Reid and the influential Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

But bets are also on for several other Democrats who might be right for beginning a new era for their party.

Ray Buckley, current vice chair of the DNC, said last week that fellow Democrats have asked him to stand for the party's internal election, but though he knows the ins and outs of the organisation, he might well be seen as more of the same.

For his part, Howard Dean, who was the last full-time chairman of his party, has announced his intention to seek the position again, with the credentials of having been a player in the 2006 Democratic victory in the legislature and in the 2008 presidential election, when he was still head of the DNC.

The former Maryland governor who sought the party's presidential nomination, Martin O'Malley, said last Friday that he was seriously weighing his candidacy for leading the DNC, a fairly balanced choice for the party since he could appeal to white working class voters, who have turned their backs for now on the Democrats, and also minorities, with whom he has developed a close relationship.

Last on the shortlist is current Labour Secretary Thomas Perez, a progressive voice, Hispanic and with ties to President Barack Obama, but whose candidacy seems the least likely.
On 11 November, the Nuclear Suppliers Group met in Vienna to discuss the membership of the Non-Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) countries. As the meeting took place under the shadow of Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to Japan where the historic India-Japan civil nuclear energy deal was signed, the Indian media did not report or give even reasonable coverage to the meeting. Interestingly, the run-up to the 11 November 2016 meeting of the NSG had some media coverage. The June 2016 plenary meeting of the NSG had got massive coverage.

Besides, a section of the media discussed Defence Minister Manohar Parrikars personal statement on nuclear doctrine. The NSG secretariat and the website also did not tell much about the meeting. So, as usual, very limited information on the NSG meeting is available. The release of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, gave some idea of the action in the meeting.

Earlier in a conference of the European Union Consortium on Nonproliferation and Disarmament, the Argentinian ambassador Rafael Mariano Grossi, the outgoing chair of the NSG who has been appointed the facilitator by the current chair of the NSG, had this to say about the 11 November meeting.

"... what we are looking for is something which is of general application. We are not working on the basis of Country A or Country B or Country C. We are working on something that, if successful, it is a big if because it is a big issue and the problems are big. If successful, this is not something which is going to be for the benefit of Country A or for the benefit of Country B or for the benefit of Country C. It is, if I may put it like this, an attempt to address the challenge or the question put to the group by the existence of three non-NPT countries which actively aspire to become members of the NSG. This is as much as I think I could say," Grossi told the conference when a participant asked whether the 11 November meeting would complete a two-stage or two step process for deciding the membership of the non-NPT countries.

What the two-stage process meant was that in the first stage criteria or principles for the membership of the NPT would be decided and in the second stage, the individual countrys application for the membership will be decided. He told that there was nothing called a two-step or stage process designated by the NSG, but he admitted that in practice, something like this was happening.

So, what really happened on 11 November 2016 and what were the member countries or the participant governments of the NSG expecting to happen? Grossi informed that he had undertaken the consultation process as per the desire of the present chair and participating governments of the NSG to build a consensus about new members. Of course, India is a prime candidate whether spoken openly or not. Quite significantly, the consultation process of the facilitator has demonstrated a massive interest in all Participating Governments.

That the meeting of 11 November was convened to discuss membership of non-NPT countries has been endorsed by even China which is seen opposing Indias membership on technical grounds. It issued a press release informing that on 11 November, NSG met in Vienna "to discuss Technical, Legal and Political Aspects of Non-NPT States' Participation in the NSG, in accordance with the mandate adopted by the Seoul Plenary in June this year." The release noted that China along with several countries had submitted papers regarding the membership of the Non-NPT countries. It stated that Chinas participation was constructive and contributed its substantive inputs.

The Chinese government also observed that for the first time in the history of the NSG (ever since it had been formed in 1975), the issue of the membership of the non-NPT countries had been taken up in an open and transparent manner. It is not clear what China wants to convey. If it indicates openness and transparency regarding proceedings of the NSG meet, it may be debatable. If it means that for the first time the matter of non-NPT countries was taken, it is a distortion of the NSG history.

It is an open secret that the NSG was formed to bring a non-NPT country like France into a control framework. This fact can be endorsed not only by diplomats who had participated in the process of the formation of the NSG but also by available archival materials. Leave alone a number of articles in journals and newspapers and several books on the subject. In fact, available archival materials in the US and Canadian libraries also inform that a non-NPT country like India, which had conducted Peaceful Nuclear Explosion in 1974, was also considered for the NSG membership in the very beginning.

The outcome of the 11 November NSG meeting, if the Chinese press release is to be believed, remained inconclusive. For China, the convening of this meeting was necessary for taking the first step of the two-step process. The release further notes that China supports the continuation of this open and transparent inter-governmental process, in accordance with relevant rules of the Group, and to ensure a solid first step taken towards an early formula on the above issue, so that the Group can proceed to the second step of taking up country specific membership application by non-NPT states at an early date." The statement implies that even the first step of formulating principles is to be completed before considering any individual application.

The most intriguing part of the release reflecting the Chinese thinking is any formula worked out should be non-discriminatory and applicable to all non-NPT states; without prejudice to the core value of the NSG and the effectiveness, authority and integrity of the international non-proliferation regime with the NPT as its cornerstone; and without contradicting the customary international law in the field of non-proliferation."

It is a common knowledge that China is playing the Pakistani card to block Indias entry into the Group. Janes Group and the Kings College London published a report highlighting the dubious proliferation track record of Pakistan. Several reports on the Pakistani proliferation network are already in the public domain. The entire world knows what Pakistan is doing with non-proliferation norm and practices. In fact, about a year ago, an American Congress Committee discussed the idea of a 2008 India type waiver to Pakistan, and overwhelmingly, the committee rejected the idea. China knows it fully well that Pakistan needs more than the two-stage process for the NSG membership.

What is going to happen next? India is going to get the membership soon. The signal emitting from other member countries suggest that China is being forced to decide. Apparently, in the 11 November meeting, the leading countries of the NSG conveyed China the cost of resisting Indias membership. Before conveying this, seemingly, some of the countries, which in principle support Indias membership but had participated in the discussion led by China in the Seoul Plenary for evolving criteria for non-NPT members, were asked to join the consensus. Now it appears that there is a solid block minus China supporting Indias membership for the NSG. The idea was to isolate China completely.

The reading between the lines of the Chinese press release tips off that even China has started reconciling about membership of the NSG to a non-NPT country like India. It may take an extra meeting or two of the NSG to finalise Indias membership. India should continue its bilateral discussions with China and communicate that a cooperative, not confronting approach with India is the need of the hour for global and Asian governance.
Hundreds more Myanmar Rohingya flee to Bangladesh - aid workers | Reuters By Mohammad Nurul Islam and Wa Lone COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh/YANGON Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar crossed the border to Bangladesh over the weekend and on Monday, aid workers said, seeking shelter from escalating violence in the northwest that has killed at least 86 people and displaced some 30,000. An official from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations' migration agency, who did not want to be identified, said he had witnessed more than 500 people enter its camps in the hills near the border on Monday.Aid workers from other United Nations agencies and Reuters reporters in the IOM camps also reported seeing Rohingyas who said they had recently fled the fighting in Myanmar. The UN workers did not give specific numbers, but expressed concern about a sudden influx of people.The bloodshed is the most serious since hundreds were killed in communal clashes in the western Myanmar state of Rakhine in 2012, and is posing the biggest test yet for the eight-month-old administration of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.Soldiers have poured into the area along Myanmar's frontier with Bangladesh, responding to coordinated attacks on three border posts on Oct
Brussels, Belgium : Nato head Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday said he was sure Donald Trump would live up to all US commitments to the alliance, just days after urging the president-elect not to go it alone.

"President-elect Donald Trump stated during the election campaign that he is a big fan of Nato," Stoltenberg said in Brussels as he arrived for talks with EU defence ministers.

"And I am certain that he will be a president... who will live up to all the commitments of the United States in the alliance, because a strong Nato is important for Europe but it's also important for the United States."

Trump's upset election badly rattled nerves in Europe after he appeared to call into question Washington's near 70-year security guarantee by saying he would only help Nato allies if they paid their way.

He also appeared to be much more friendly towards Russia, praising President Vladimir Putin as a strong leader in marked contrast to a weak Barack Obama in Washington.

Asked about a telephone call between Trump and Putin on Monday in which the Kremlin said they agreed to improve relations, Stoltenberg denied this was cause for concern.

"First of of all, I think it is a very normal thing that president-elect Donald Trump speaks to world leaders, including of course the leader of Russia," he said.

"The message from Nato has been that we want dialogue with Russia ... Especially when tensions are high, especially when we face many different challenges, it is important."

Stoltenberg's upbeat tone came despite his stark warning in Britain's Observer newspaper on Sunday, in which he wrote that "going it alone is not an option... this is no time to question the partnership between Europe and the United States."

But the Nato chief noted Tuesday that the two sides were on the same page, saying Trump's call for the allies to increase defence spending was exactly what they were already doing.

"I absolutely agree with him; that has been the message from US leaders for many years," Stoltenberg said.

"The good thing is that we now see that Europeans are actually investing more in defence... therefore contributing to better burden sharing," he said.

Washington accounts for nearly 70 percent of Nato defence spending and has long urged its European allies to do more, stepping up the pressure after Russia's intervention in Ukraine.

The Ukraine crisis shook Nato out of years of complacency and defence cuts, with leaders agreeing to its biggest military build-up since the end of the Cold War based on a commitment to devote two percent of national output to defence.

The European Union  of whose 28 members 22 also belong to Nato  is also boosting military cooperation and on Monday approved a defence roadmap to boost the bloc's capabilities.

On Monday, US President Barack Obama said he was sure Trump would stand by US security commitments and that he would tell Europe there would be "no weakening" of the relationship.
By Lincoln Feast

| WELLINGTON

WELLINGTON New Zealand emergency services and defense personnel began evacuating hundreds of tourists and residents from the South Island town of Kaikoura on Tuesday, a day after a powerful earthquake hit the region, killing two people.The 7.8-magnitude tremor, which struck just after midnight on Sunday, destroyed historic farm homesteads, sent glass and masonry toppling from high rises in the capital Wellington and cut road and rail links throughout the northeast of the South Island. Kaikoura, a popular base for whale-watching about 150 km (90 miles) northeast of Christchurch and near the epicenter, was completely cut off by massive landslips.Four defense force helicopters were flying into the town on Tuesday morning and the Navy's multi-role vessel HMNZS Canterbury was heading to the area, Air Commander Darryn Webb, the acting commander of New Zealand joint forces, told TVNZ. "The priority today is the airlift operation," he said. "We're looking to do as many flights as we can out of Kaikoura today ... around about four flights, to move approximately 200 of those tourists and residents south."Around 1,200 tourists were stranded in the town, officials said.

Gale-force winds and rain were hampering recovery efforts, and hundreds of aftershocks continued to rock the region.Prime Minister John Key flew over Kaikoura on Monday and described the landslips in the mountainous area as "just horrendous". The repair bill was likely to run into billions of dollars, he said.Acting Civil Defense Minister Gerry Brownlee said restoring water supplies and getting food into Kaikoura were the main priorities, while clearing road access would take some time.

"The road north is going to be quite a challenge for quite some time," he said.Hundreds of homes remained without power and telecommunications, with huge cracks in roads, land slips and other damage to infrastructure making it hard to reach the worst-affected areas.Workers returned to office buildings in Wellington's business district, which was closed off on Monday while the city council assessed the risk to buildings, several of which were damaged by the tremor. Many businesses told staff to work from home.

Christchurch, the largest city on New Zealand's ruggedly beautiful South Island, is still recovering from the 6.3 quake in 2011 that killed 185 people. New Zealand's Geonet measured Monday's main quake at magnitude 7.5, while the U.S. Geological Survey put it at 7.8. Seismologists said the quake actually appeared to be two near simultaneous tremors which shook much of the country for around two minutes. New Zealand lies in the seismically active "Ring of Fire", a 40,000-km arc of volcanoes and oceanic trenches that encircles much of the Pacific Ocean. Around 90 percent of the world's earthquakes occur in this region. (Editing by Andrew Roche)

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Washington: The US has condemned the terrorist attack on a Sufi shrine in Pakistan on 12 November in Balochistan province that killed over 50 people while asserting that it would continue to work with its partners in Pakistan and across the region to combat the threat of terrorism.

"The United States condemns in the strongest terms the attack on Saturday on a Sufi shrine in Balochistan that killed 52 innocent worshippers and wounded over a hundred more. We extend our condolences to the victims and their families," state department spokeswoman, Elizabeth Trudeau, told reporters at her daily news conference.

"Attacks like this only deepen our shared resolve to defeat terrorism and end the targeting of religious minorities," she said. "We stand with the people of Pakistan at this difficult hour and remain committed to supporting religious freedom."

We'll continue to work with our partners in Pakistan and across the region to combat the threat of terrorism," Trudeau said. At least 52 people, including women and children were killed and more than 100 others injured in a suicide bombing on Saturday at a popular sufi shrine in Balochistan province, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State terror group.
Islamabad: Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday submitted in the Supreme Court the details of his assets which included a letter by a Qatari prince who provided funds for purchase of controversial properties in London, which are now owned by Sharif's children.

Sharif and his daughter Maryam submitted a 397-page document detailing their assets.

The most interesting document given to the court is the letter from Qatari prince Shaikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Hamad bin Abdullah bin Jassim bin Muhammed Al Thani, stating that he gave money to the premier's family for the purchase of flats in London.

Sharif's children's counsel Akram Sheikh submitted the letter addressed to the apex court.

It says that Sharif in 1980 invested 12 million Dirhams in the Al Thani company belonging to the Qatari prince's father.

"In the year 2006, the accounts in relation to the above investment were settled between Hussain Nawaz Sharif and Al Thani family, who then delivered the bearer shares of the companies...to a representative of Hussain Nawaz Sharif (Sharif's son)," the letter read.

The letter immediately got a terse response from one of the five judges hearing the case who observed that the letter contradicts Sharif's statement in parliament this year when he did not disclose the source of money or that he got it from a Qatari company.

The court is hearing five identical petitions by Imran Khan and others that Sharif's children were listed in Panama papers as having offshore companies used to acquire properties in London.

The petitioners asked the court to probe if the properties were purchased with legal money.

The court set 17 November for next hearing and also asked that Sharifs two sons  Hassan and Hussain should also submit the details of their assets.

Earlier, Imran's legal team submitted details to prove that Sharif laundered millions out of the country to build assets abroad which are now owned by his children.

The case could be make or break for Sharif who was elected third time Prime Minister in 2013.

The Qatari prince's letter may prove instrumental to dispel the charges by opposition that the London flats were bought with illegal money transferred by the Sharif family when he was ruling the country.
By Patrick Johnston

| SYDNEY

SYDNEY From Beijing to Berlin, star gazers around the world admired the supermoon - the largest, brightest full moon in nearly seven decades - as it made its way across the skies on Sunday and Monday.In Australia, some sky-watchers climbed to the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge to get a closer view of the moon as it ducked between the clouds over the city. Astronomers said it was closer to Earth than at any time since 1948. The supermoon, also known as a blood moon, was produced when the shadow of Earth cast a reddish glow on the moon, the result of a rare combination of an eclipse with the closest full moon of the year. For more than an hour on Sunday night and early on Monday morning, Earths shadow blanketed the full moon as the planet passed between the sun and the moon.The brilliant white glow of the moon slowly transformed into a dim red, a coloring caused by Earths atmosphere scattering sunlight into the shadow.

"I think the last time I can remember this sort of (activity) is when I was very small, when Hale-Bopp came. Back then my parents took me (to watch)," said Hsieh Wei-Ting, 36, who lined up with scores of people in Taipei to look at the moon through telescopes in the Taiwanese capital. "It was like climbing a mountain to look at the stars." In New York City, the Chrysler Building lit up when the supermoon set behind the Art Deco-style skyscraper, and photographers captured the moon rising over the U.S. Capitol dome in Washington D.C.In Boston, real estate agent Jamie Iacoi filmed video from his roof deck on Sunday.

"At one point, the planes were flying right through the middle of the moon. It was so cool to see in person," Iacoi said.Spectators lined up in France, Israel and Germany to watch the moon rise behind famous monuments like the Eiffel Tower, Dormition Abbey, and the Brandenburg Gate.

The full moon also shone over Jakarta in Indonesia and Thailand's Bangkok while in the Philippines, park-goers watched the spectacle in Manila.The next supermoon-lunar eclipse combination will not happen until 2033. (Reporting by Reuters TV; Writing by Patrick Johnston in Singapore and Melissa Fares in New York; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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By Roberta Rampton

| WASHINGTON

WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump is in for a quick wake-up call when he confronts the enormous responsibilities and realities of his new job on Jan. 20, President Barack Obama said with sympathy on Monday.In a news conference at the White House, Obama said the freewheeling Trump could not be as outspoken as he was during the long and bitter campaign that ended last week with the Republican's surprise win over Democrat Hillary Clinton. Subdued and carefully choosing his words, Obama gave what appeared to be dispassionate advice to his successor free of much of the partisan rancour that marked the election campaign."This office has a way of waking you up," Obama said. "Those aspects of his positions or predispositions that don't match up with reality, he will find shaken up pretty quick because reality has a way of asserting itself."The two men met in the Oval Office last week to begin the transition of power. Obama said on Monday he believed Trump would be pragmatic in office and not approach the country's problems from an ideological perspective."There are going to be certain elements of his temperament that will not serve him well, unless he recognises them and corrects them," said Obama.

"Because when you're a candidate and you say something that is inaccurate or controversial it has less impact than it does when you're president of the United States. Everybody around the world is paying attention. Markets move," he said. Obama declined to wade into a controversy over Trump's appointment of right-wing firebrand Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist, saying it would "not be appropriate" for him to comment on Trump's appointments. But Obama, who criticized Trump's temperament during the campaign, said it was important for Trump to send signals of unity after the hard-fought campaign. He said the political gifts that allowed the Republican to execute his upset of Clinton would be put to good use in the White House.

Democrats, civil rights groups and even some Republicans slammed Trump for choosing Bannon as a key aide, saying it would elevate the white nationalist movement into the top levels of the White House.Making his first appointments since last week's upset win, Trump picked Bannon as his chief strategist and counsellor, and Washington insider Reince Priebus as his chief of staff on Sunday, saying the two would share the task of steering his administration as "equal partners."The choice of Priebus was seen as a conciliatory signal of Trump's willingness to work with Congress after he takes office. But critics blasted the selection of Bannon, who spearheaded a shift of the Breitbart News website into a forum for the "alt-right," a loose online group of neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites.

"There should be no sugarcoating the truth here: Donald Trump just invited a white nationalist into the highest reaches of the government," said Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, who called on Trump to rescind the choice.Democrats and advocacy groups on the left called Bannon a promoter of racism and misogyny who is backed by the white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan."It is a sad day when a man who presided over the premier website of the alt-right- a loose-knit group of white nationalists and unabashed anti-Semites and racists - is slated to be a senior staff member in the peoples house'," said Jonathan Greenblatt, head of the Anti-Defamation League.The Democrats' leader in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said Bannon's appointment sent "an alarming signal that President-elect Trump remains committed to the hateful and divisive vision that defined his campaign." (Additional reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by John Whitesides; Editing by Frances Kerry and Alistair Bell)

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Washington: President-elect Donald Trump is in for a quick wake-up call and will have to adjust his temperament when he confronts the realities of his new job on 20 January, President Barack Obama said on Monday.

In a news conference at the White House, Obama said the freewheeling Trump could not be as outspoken as he was during the long and bitter campaign that ended last week with the Republican's surprise win over Democrat Hillary Clinton. Subdued and carefully choosing his words, Obama gave what appeared to be dispassionate advice to his successor free of much of the partisan rancour that marked the election campaign.

"This office has a way of waking you up," Obama said. "Those aspects of his positions or predispositions that don't match up with reality, he will find shaken up pretty quick because reality has a way of asserting itself."

The two men met in the Oval Office last week to begin the transition of power. Obama said on Monday he believed Trump would be pragmatic in office and not approach the country's problems from an ideological perspective. "There are going to be certain elements of his temperament that will not serve him well, unless he recognises them and corrects them," Obama said. "Because when you're a candidate and you say something that is inaccurate or controversial it has less impact than it does when you're president of the United States. Everybody around the world is paying attention. Markets move," he said.

Obama declined to wade into a controversy over Trump's appointment of right-wing firebrand Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist, saying it would "not be appropriate" for him to comment on Trump's appointments. But Obama, who criticized Trump's temperament during the campaign, said it was important for Trump to send signals of unity after the hard-fought campaign. He said the political gifts that allowed the Republican to execute his upset of Clinton would be put to good use in the White House."I've been encouraged by his statements on election night about the need for unity, his interest in being president for all people," Obama said. "In an election like this that was so hotly contested and so divided, gestures matter."

Anger on Bannon's appointment

Democrats, civil rights groups and even some Republicans slammed Trump for choosing Bannon as a key aide, saying it would elevate the white nationalist movement into the top levels of the White House. Making his first appointments since last week's upset win, Trump picked Bannon as his chief strategist and counsellor, and Washington insider Reince Priebus as his chief of staff on Sunday, saying the two would share the task of steering his administration as "equal partners."

The choice of Priebus was seen as a conciliatory signal of Trump's willingness to work with Congress. But critics blasted the selection of Bannon, who spearheaded a shift of the Breitbart News website into a forum for the "alt-right," a loose online group of neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites."There should be no sugarcoating the truth here: Donald Trump just invited a white nationalist into the highest reaches of the government," said Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, who called on Trump to rescind the choice.

Democrats and advocacy groups on the left called Bannon a promoter of racism and misogyny who is backed by the white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan. The Democrats' leader in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said Bannon's appointment sent "an alarming signal that President-elect Trump remains committed to the hateful and divisive vision that defined his campaign." Even some conservatives and Republicans voiced dismay on Bannon.

Evan McMullin, who ran as a conservative independent presidential candidate, wondered on Twitter if any national Republican leaders would condemn the pick of "anti-Semite" Bannon. John Weaver, a top strategist for Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich, tweeted that the "racist, fascist extreme right is represented footsteps from the Oval Office. Be very vigilant America." Kasich was one of 16 Republican presidential hopefuls Trump defeated in the party primaries. Priebus defended Bannon on Monday, calling him a wise and well-educated former naval officer and saying he had not encountered the sort of extremist or racist views that critics are assailing.

"He was a force for good on the campaign," Priebus said on Fox News, adding they were in agreement on "almost everything" in terms of advising the president-elect. Kellyanne Conway, Trump's former campaign manager and a senior adviser, told reporters in New York she was offended by the reaction to Bannon. She described him as a "brilliant tactician."

Fervent Trump backers counting on the wealthy real estate developer to keep his campaign promise to "drain the swamp" of business-as-usual Washington insiders may be disappointed he has named Priebus as chief of staff, a position that serves as gatekeeper and agenda-setter for the president.

Bannon, a former Goldman Sachs banker, over the past year led Breitbart News in a charge against the Republican Party establishment, including Priebus' friend Paul Ryan, the speaker of the US House of Representatives. Police in New York on Monday were investigating two cases involving swastikas drawn or painted in public spaces, as civil rights activists said there had been a surge in hate crimes following last week's election.

Local media reported hundreds of students walked out of a high school to protest Trump on Monday in Silver Spring, Maryland, and students gathered at the University of Washington in Seattle to protest Trump. The president-elect, a businessman who has never held public office, and his transition team are working on picking members of his Cabinet and the heads of federal agencies.

Among those reported to be under consideration for top posts are former US House Speaker Newt Gingrich, as a possible secretary of state or secretary of health and human services; Stephen Hadley, former national security adviser under President George W Bush, as a possible defence secretary; former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani as attorney general; and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as interior secretary.
By Sabine Siebold and Tulay Karadeniz

| ANKARA

ANKARA Turkey is "fed up" with European Union condescension in talks over its application to join the bloc, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday, reflecting Ankara's exasperation with EU criticism over human rights.Cavusoglu's blunt comments, made as visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier looked on, also highlighted Turkey's frustration with the fact that, after 11 years of negotiations, its prospects of joining the EU look more remote than ever."We are truly fed up of these statements degrading Turkey. The criteria are clear but there are double standards and a two-faced approach. This is what we don't like," Cavusoglu told a joint news conference.The EU is treading a fine line in relations with Turkey: it needs Ankara's continued help in curbing a huge flow of refugees and migrants, especially from Syria, but is alarmed by Turkey's crackdown on opponents since the failure of a coup attempt in July.Referring to an issue that could spell the end of Turkey's accession bid, Cavusoglu said that the Turkish people would decide whether or not to reinstate the death penalty.Steinmeier said he had expressed concern about mass arrests and the treatment of the media since the failed coup, but also that Germany supported its NATO partner in fighting terrorism."Turkey's actions against opposition lawmakers and civil society, newspapers, radio and TV stations and countless teachers and bureaucrats do not conform to our constitutional standards, and they have long gone beyond the search for those responsible for the failed July 15 putsch," he told reporters.

More than 110,000 people have been sacked or suspended in the crackdown that followed the putsch, and some 36,000 arrested. Media outlets have also been shut down.In Berlin, the head of Germany's domestic spy agency on Tuesday rejected as "completely unjustified" Turkey's charge that Germany is harbouring militants tied to the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)."That accusation is completely unjustified. We have been working for many years to ensure that the PKK in Germany poses no danger to Germany or Turkey," Hans-Georg Maassen told Reuters in an interview late on Tuesday.Earlier on Tuesday Cavusoglu said there were outstanding legal cases against 4,500 PKK members in Germany, but only three suspects had been sent back to Turkey so far.

More than 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK began its armed struggle in 1984 for autonomy for mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey. It is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. "SADDENED AND DISTURBED"

At one point during Tuesday's awkward news conference in Ankara, a microphone was switched off as a German journalist tried to ask a question. "No freedom of media here, that's why," Cavusoglu joked caustically, in English.

Turkey has agreed to help control the flood of migrants into Europe in return for visa-free travel for Turks to Europe. But Brussels first wants Ankara to modify anti-terrorism laws that it says are too broad.Turkey has repeatedly refused to change the laws, saying they are necessary to combat its multiple security threats. "It cannot be expected for us to stop our fight against terror or take a step back," Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told members of his ruling AK Party in parliament on Tuesday. "EU ambassadors cannot decide how the law will work in Turkey."The bitter rhetoric from Turkey has increased since the release of a highly critical EU report last week that made clear its prospects of joining the 28-nation bloc have become more distant. "The latest report published by the EU has both saddened and disturbed us," Yildirim said.Despite the problems, Steinmeier said he was against the EU breaking off accession talks with Turkey. Alluding to the tense atmosphere, he thanked Cavusoglu for "a conversation today that was not very easy", but which he said had been open and honest. (Additional reporting by Ercan Gurses, Ece Toksabay and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Writing by Madeline Chambers and David Dolan; Editing by Daren Butler and Gareth Jones)

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The Hague: International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutors said that there were preliminary grounds to believe that US military forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan.

In a report published on Monday evening, the prosecutors said that after a thorough inspection, the US forces were found to have committed war crimes through torture and other types of abuse at secret detention camps, Efe news reported.

According to the ICC, these detention centres were run by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and war crimes took place "mostly between 2003-2004" although "in some cases continued until 2014".

The crimes would have been committed in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan although Kandahar and Helmand seem to be the most affected provinces, the report said.

The report added that "members of the US military appear to have subjected at least 61 detained persons to torture" and that CIA officials allegedly tortured another 27 detainees.

The ICC prosecutors said they also have good reason to believe that the Taliban and its allies, belonging to the Haqqani Network, have also committed "crimes against humanity and war crimes", while war crimes and torture would also have been carried out by the Afghan government, particularly by the National Directorate for Security intelligence agency and the Afghan National Police.

The ICC prosecution office said it will decide whether to carry out a full investigation into the Afghan issue and, according to the results, could press charges against individuals and even issue arrest warrants.

The ICC was established in 2003 to prosecute serious war crimes and crimes against humanity, but the US under former President George W Bush was strongly opposed to the establishment of the court, of which the US is not a member.
Radisson Blu, the iconic hotel brand driven by innovation and design, announces the signing of the Radisson Blu Hotel, Brasov, Romania. This newly built hotel will be Carlson Rezidor's third hotel in Romania complementing the Radisson Blu Hotel, Bucharest (opened since 2008) and Park Inn by Radisson Bucharest Hotel & Residence (opened since 2015).

The building is located in the very center of Brasov on the north edge of the ancient and attractive old town, and in proximity to the retail commercial and administrative center. The property with 105 rooms is scheduled to welcome the first guests in spring of 2018. The hotel will feature an all-day-dining restaurant, specialty restaurant, 2 bars, meeting space, gym and spa making it an all-encompassing choice for events.

"

The new Radisson Blu hotel in Bra

s

ov, Romania is another strategic addition in Eastern Europe, where we plan to add Radisson Blu in key capital cities and popular tourist destinations. With another Radisson Blu Hotel and a Park Inn by Radisson Residence in Bucharest, we are offering our world-class guests a complete choice of business and leisure venues in Romania. We look forward to a long and successful business partnership with the Tresor Com SRL team, our partners, to bring Europe's largest upper upscale hotel brand to Bra

s

ov

." said Elie Younes, Executive Vice President & Chief Development Officer for the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group.

Mrs. Ramona Neamtu, representative of the group of investors from Tresor Com SRL said: "We are very proud and confident to partner with Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group as they are experienced in operating upscale and successful hotels. We want to bring Radisson Blu's well-known service excellence to this location to contribute the development of the local hotel market and the promotion of Brasov as an interesting destination worldwide."

Located in the heart of Romania, Brasov is sometimes called the Romanian Salzburg. The Gothic Quarter of the old city is truly impressive. A special place among the monuments of the city is the famous Biserica Neagra ("The Black Church"), one of the most spacious medieval churches in the Balkans. Brasov is in an ideal location to start exploring several tourist destinations including Transylvania, the Black Sea resorts, the monasteries in northern Moldavia, and the wooden churches of Maramures.

"The Radisson Blu Brasov will be the first international hotel brand from the city and a milestone in the service excellence for the local hotel market. It could be the turning point for the future development of the local hotel market", said the project consultant Mircea Draghici from EST Hospitality.

About Radisson Hotel Group

Radisson Hotel Group is one of the world's largest hotel groups with nine distinctive hotel brands, and more than 1,600 hotels in operation and under development in 120 countries. The Group's overarching brand promise is Every Moment Matters with a signature Yes I Can! service ethos.

The Radisson Hotel Group portfolio includes Radisson Collection, Radisson Blu, Radisson, Radisson RED, Radisson Individuals, Park Plaza, Park Inn by Radisson, Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, and prizeotel brought together under one commercial umbrella brand Radisson Hotels.

Radisson Rewards is our international rewards program that delivers unique and personalized ways to create memorable moments that matter to our guests. Radisson Rewards offers an exceptional experience for our guests, meeting planners, and travel agents at over 550 hotels in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.

Radisson Meetings provides tailored solutions for any event or meeting, including hybrid solutions placing guests and their needs at the heart of its offer. Radisson Meetings is built around three strong service commitments: Personal, Professional and Memorable, while delivering on the brilliant basics and being uniquely 100% Carbon Neutral.

The health and safety of guests and team members remain a top priority for Radisson Hotel Group. All properties across the Group's portfolio are subject to stringent health and safety requirements, as outlined in the Radisson Hotels Safety Protocol.

More than 100,000 team members work at Radisson Hotel Group and at the hotels licensed to operate in its systems. For more information, visit our corporate website. Or connect with Radisson Hotels on:

LinkedIn | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube

Lucie Cardona

Corporate Communications & PR Leader

Radisson Hotel Group
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Partners from Canada's northwest coast, from left, Barbara Petzelt, Harold Leighton, Bill Pahl, Wendy Pahl, Yvonne Ryan and Joycelynn Mitchell, collaborated with an international team of researchers on a genetic study of First Nations peoples -- both present day and ancient. Credit: Photo courtesy the Metlakatla First Nation

A study of the genomes of 25 individuals who lived 1,000 to 6,000 years ago on the north coast of present-day British Columbia, and 25 of their descendants who still live in the region today, opens a new window on the catastrophic consequences of European colonization for indigenous peoples in that part of the world.

The study is reported in the journal Nature Communications.

"This is the first genome-wide study - where we have population-level data, not just a few individuals - that spans 6,000 years," said University of Illinois anthropology professor Ripan Malhi, who co-led the new research with former graduate student John Lindo (now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago) and Pennsylvania State University biology professor Michael DeGiorgio.

The research team included members and representatives of the Canadian aboriginal communities of the Lax Kw'alaams and Metlakatla First Nation, Coast Tsimshian people whose oral histories indicate they have lived in the region for millennia. A previous study by Malhi and representatives of these First Nations showed a direct maternal link between ancient individuals buried in the region and the indigenous people living there today, an ancestry long claimed by the Metlakatla First Nation, one of the groups that participated in the study.

The new study confirms the previous findings by analyzing the exome, the entire collection of genes that contribute to a person's traits.

"Oral traditions and archaeological evidence to date have shown that there has been continuous aboriginal occupation of this region for more than 9,000 years. This study adds another layer of scientific data linking the actual ancestral human remains to their modern descendants through their DNA over a span of 6,000 years," said Barbara Petzelt, an author of the study and a liaison to the Metlakatla community. "It's exciting to see how this tool of DNA science adds to the larger picture of Coast Tsimshian pre- and post-contact history - without the taint of historic European observer bias."

In the new study, the team found that variants of an immune-related gene that were beneficial to many of those living in the region before European contact proved disadvantageous once the Europeans arrived.

The human leukocyte antigen gene family, known as HLA, contributes to the body's ability to recognize and respond to pathogens. The gene identified in the study belongs to the HLA-DQ subfamily, which "has been associated with a variety of colonization-era infectious diseases, including measles and tuberculosis, and with the adaptive immune response to the vaccinia virus, which is an attenuated form of smallpox," the authors wrote.

The genomes of a majority of the ancient individuals contained alleles, or variants, of the HLA-DQ gene that differed from the variants that today are common in their descendants, the researchers found.

Statistical analyses revealed that the ancient variants were under "positive selection" before European contact. This means that those variants helped the native peoples survive and thrive in northwest North America.

However, those same HLA-DQ alleles suffered a dramatic decline in the indigenous population about the time the Europeans arrived, the researchers found.

"The modern individuals show a marked decrease in the frequency of the associated alleles," the researchers wrote.

"One of the alleles is 64 percent less common today than it was before European contact, which is a dramatic decline," Lindo said.

Further analyses pointed to a steep population decline among the ancestors of modern Coast Tsimshian, a "reduction in effective population size of 57 percent," the researchers reported. This dramatic die-off occurred roughly 175 years ago, about the time that European diseases were sweeping through native groups in that part of North America.

"First Nations history mainly consists of oral stories passed from generation to generation. Our oral history tells of the deaths of a large percentage of our population by diseases from the European settlers.

Smallpox, for our area, was particularly catastrophic," said Joycelynn Mitchell, a Metlakatla co-author on the study. "We are pleased to have scientific evidence that corroborates our oral history. As technology continues to advance, we expect that science will continue to agree with the stories of our ancestors."

The researchers tested several other hypotheses that might explain the dramatic decline of those ancient alleles.

"The only scenario compatible with this stark change in diversity is negative selection, suggesting that previously advantageous HLA-gene variants became disadvantageous, possibly contributing to the population decline that occurred upon European contact," DeGiorgio said.

"We knew the history of this group through archaeological evidence, oral histories and written histories," Malhi said. "And now we also know it through genomic data."
Transgender people and gay activists from across Indonesia have defied a wave of hatred against sexual minorities to crown a Miss Transgender at a national pageant held in absolute secrecy.

A handful of journalists were notified just a few hours in advance of the location of the event, held in Jakarta, to prevent any attempts by Islamic hard-liners to shut down the pageant. And because of the risk of discovery and violence, organizers asked those present not to post anything on social media during the contest.

Qienabh Tappii, a 28-year-old representing Jakarta who wore a figure-hugging, iridescent metallic gown, triumphed over more than 30 other contestants Friday night to be crowned Miss Waria Indonesia 2016. She will represent Indonesia at an international pageant to be held in Thailand next year. Waria is the Indonesian word for transgender, a term for people whose sense of their gender is different from their sex at birth.

Im very happy, I feel like I want to cry, said Tappii, standing next to a 2-meter -tall gold and red trophy while cradling a smaller one.

Tonight is the beginning of my struggle for my rights as a waria, she said. I want waria to be accepted, appreciated and understood in our society, and to be equal with other Indonesians. I will work really hard to achieve it.

The successful staging of the pageant was an important morale boost and self-affirmation for a community that is increasingly under siege.

Indonesia, the worlds most populous Muslim nation, is often held up as practicing a moderate form of Islam. But that reputation for tolerance has been undermined in the past year as the media and religious and political leaders stoked prejudice against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, framing them as a threat to the nation.

It was in part a backlash against the worldwide advance of LGBT rights, and in particular the success of the gay marriage movement in the U.S. and the high-profile battles there over whether transgender people can use the public bathrooms of the gender they identify with.

Indonesias conservatives want to push LGBT people back into the margins of society and deny them legal rights. AP
A day after veteran director Marco Muller (Mueller) controversial resignation from the first edition of the International Film Festival and Awards, Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) head Helena de Senna Fernandes announced that she would assume the post of Acting Festival Director.

In a press conference yesterday, Fernandes clarified that the office had stated that Mullers resignation was due to ongoing differences of opinions and not personal reasons.

Fernandes described the incident as a critical period for the organization and cited her belief that it would be unfair to appoint a new director to assume such great responsibilities, especially with just a few weeks left before the festival.

I, as the chairperson of the festival organization, will also assume the duties of the acting festival director, Fernandes announced, saying she would face this very difficult period with the Secretariat.

Fernandes added that the Macau Films & Television Productions and Culture Association (MFTPA) is contemplating necessary actions for this non-compliance, hinting that legal charges may be filed against the renowned ex-director of the film festival.

I think at this stage, we will not say [] what constitutes these differences and opinions, because there will probably be other ensuing actions, so at this stage I dont think it is fair for us to comment, she said.

Alvin Chau, the MFTPA president, refused to comment and did not clarify whether a lawsuit would be filed against Muller.

There will be a possible follow up. At this stage, if we are entering into other possible litigation, we prefer not to say anything further, Fernandes noted.

She stressed that the contractual relationship is between MFTPA and the festival director. MGTO is not part of the contractual party.

The international media have also reported on the veteran directors sudden resignation, which may have already tarnished the image of the regions upcoming film festival.

Although the resignation was not a conducive act in terms of the entire organization, Fernandes said that a festival itself is definitely bigger than the sum of its parts. So at the end of the day, its teamwork.
New Zealand is planning to send in military helicopters and a navy ship to rescue about 1,000 tourists and hundreds of residents who remain stranded in the coastal town of Kaikoura after a powerful earthquake cut off train and vehicle access.

The magnitude-7.8 quake struck the South Island just after midnight. It left two people dead and triggered a small tsunami. It also brought down rocks and mud that swept across highways and cracked apart roads.

Home to about 2,000 residents, Kaikoura is a popular destination for travelers taking part in whale-watching expeditions or wanting a stopover with mountain views. But the quake knocked out water supplies and sewerage systems and left people with no easy way out.

From all directions, Kaikoura has essentially been isolated, Air Commodore Darryn Webb, the Acting Commander of New Zealands Joint Forces, told The Associated Press. Theres a real imperative to support the town because it cant support itself.

Webb said the military planned to begin using four NH90 helicopters today that could each transport about 18 people out of the town at a time. He said a ship was also leaving Auckland on Monday night that could potentially pick up hundreds of people if weather conditions allowed.

Were going to get as many people and belongings out as quickly as we can, Webb said.

He said the weather forecast wasnt looking great and the operation could take several days. He said that if needed, a C-130 military transport plane could drop fuel, water, food and other supplies to the town.

Elsewhere, strong aftershocks continued to shake New Zealand yesterday, rattling the nerves of exhausted residents. The country was largely spared the devastation it saw in 2011 when an earthquake struck the city of Christchurch and killed 185 people. That quake was one of New Zealands worst disasters, causing an estimated USD25 billion in damage.

Sundays quake [Macau time] caused damage in Wellington, the capital, and was also strongly felt in Christchurch. Residents said the shaking went on for about three minutes.

Police said one person died in Kaikoura and another in Mt. Lyford, a nearby ski resort. Several other people suffered minor injuries in Kaikoura, police spokeswoman Rachel Purdom said.

Prime Minister John Key flew over the destruction in Kaikoura by helicopter as aftershocks kicked up dust from the landslides below. Cars could be seen lying on their sides and parts of the road were clearly impassable.

Its just utter devastation, Key said.

He later toured the area and met with locals. He estimated the cleanup effort would run into the billions of dollars and said clearing the debris and blocked roads could take months.

Kaikoura resident Terry Thompson said he was out of town when the quake struck but managed to reach his wife on her cellphone before the phone died.

She said the glass exploded right out of the double ranch-slider, he said. The neighbors chimney was gone, there were breakages and things smashed everywhere.

Thompson said his wife helped a 93-year-old neighbor and a tourist into her car and drove to higher ground.

They stayed in the car all night but couldnt sleep, Thompson said. Theyre all very, very tired and concerned about the state of their property.

Video taken from a helicopter near Kaikoura showed three cows stranded on an island of grass in a paddock that had been ripped apart in the quake. The patch of grass was surrounded by deep ravines of collapsed earth, trapping the animals where they stood.

The quake temporarily knocked out New Zealands emergency call number, 111. In Wellington, it collapsed a ferry loading ramp, broke windows and caused items to fall from shelves. It also forced hundreds of tourists onto the streets as hotels were evacuated.

Australians Paul and Sandra Wardrop and their children, Alexander, 15, and William, 12, were on the 10th floor of the Park Hotel when the shaking began.

We felt that the building was going to collapse, Sandra Wardrop said. You could hear the sounds of the building shaking and see cracks appearing in the walls, in the plasterwork in the bedroom.

The family was among dozens of people who took shelter in the capitals parliamentary complex, which threw open its doors.

Police, meanwhile, stepped up their patrols after receiving several reports of burglaries in homes and businesses that had been evacuated due to the quake.

Authorities in Wellington told people who work in the citys central business district to stay home yesterday. Officials said some large buildings were showing signs of structural stress. The citys suburban rail network was shut while crews checked tracks, bridges and tunnels.

New Zealand, with a population of 4.7 million, sits on the Ring of Fire, an arc of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean where earthquakes are common.

The location of this quake largely helps explain why the damage was so minimal compared to the 2011 temblor, said Mark Quigley, associate professor of active tectonics at the University of Melbourne in Australia. The 2011 quake was located almost directly beneath Christchurch, meaning tens of thousands of people were exposed to the most violent shaking at the epicenter. Yesterdays quake was centered in a rural area that is home to just a few thousand people.

The quake was centered 93 kilometers northeast of Christchurch at a depth of 23 kilometers, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The USGS initially estimated it had a magnitude of 7.4 before revising it to 7.8. Nick Perry, Wellington, AP
The Court of Final Appeal (TUI) issued a statement yesterday about the upcoming trial of former Public Prosecutor General Ho Chio Meng, who has been accused of over 1,500 counts of various crimes.

The former MP head was arrested on February 27. The crimes levelled against Ho include 434 counts of unlawful participation in businesses, 56 counts of money laundering (plus 75 together with other suspects), 69 counts of abuse of power, and 19 counts of fraud involving large amounts of money.

The case also involves several others, some of whom include Hos relatives.

Macau Lawyers Association President Jorge Neto Valente previously told Radio Macau that it is unjust that Hos case has moved faster than others, describing the accusation as shocking.

According to Valente, it seemed as though Ho was only dedicated to committing crimes, which he doubted.

How is it possible to develop such a conspiracy theory and write 10,000 pages worth of a lawsuit accusing one person of more than 1,000 crimes? he asked.

The statement issued by TUI reacts to the concerns of some Macau lawyers over the fact that the trial of the former top judge was called too soon, given its complexity and the number of crimes involved.

TUI stated that trials involving arrested suspects have always [taken] priority.

Cases being judged by the Court of First Instance (TJB) are admissible provided the people under preventive arrest are judged within five months. However, TUI states that TJB has hundreds of trials to make, while TUI, at this moment, has only this one in first instance [sic].

TUI addresses another issue raised by Valente, who claimed that the defendants lawyer had 20 days to read the cases 10,000 pages and prepare a response document.

According to TUI, the process has been open to the defendant lawyers since September 6.

The process was consulted many times by several lawyers of the suspect. To date, the defendant or his lawyers never complained about the lack of access to the process.
Chinese President Xi Jinping reaffirmed the importance of relations with the United States in a phone conversation with President-

elect Donald Trump yesterday, opening communication with a politician who had been strongly critical of China during his campaign.

State media reported that Xi congratulated Trump on his election and said cooperation was the only correct choice for China and the U.S., the worlds two biggest economies.

At present, there is an important opportunity and huge potential in China-

U.S. cooperation, Xi told Trump, according to the reports.

Trumps office said in a statement early yesterday that Trump thanked Xi for his well-wishes on his election.

During the call, the leaders established a clear sense of mutual respect for one another and President-elect Trump stated that he believes the two leaders will have one of the strongest relationships for both countries moving forward, the statement said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the two sides have agreed to maintain close contact, build good relations and work toward a meeting between Xi and Trump as soon as possible.

What I want to point out is that China always maintains close communication with the U.S. side, including Mr. Trumps team, and we will carry on doing that, Geng said at a news conference.

Speaking Sunday during a visit to Turkey, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China would continue cooperation with President Barack Obamas outgoing administration to ensure a smooth transition of bilateral ties to the next U.S. administration. Xi and Obama are scheduled to meet at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru next week.

China is willing to push for greater progress in China-U.S. ties on the new starting point on the basis of the principles of non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation, Wang was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.

During the election campaign, Trump accused China of unfair trade practices and currency manipulation and threatened to slap a 45 percent import tariff on Chinese products. He said Chinas building of man-made islands in disputed waters in the South China Sea was a sign of its disrespect for America, and vowed to bulk up the U.S. military.

Despite that, Chinese state media and government-backed scholars largely favored Trump over his Democratic Party rival Hillary Clinton. As secretary of state, Clinton was seen as a chief proponent of the U.S. pivot to Asia that is viewed by Chinas leaders as an attempt to contain their countrys rise to global prominence.

Beijings rivalry with Washington largely boils down to economics, especially Chinas USD334 billion trade surplus with the U.S. and American accusations of unfair subsidies for exporters and the condoning of intellectual property theft.

The sides are also opposed over security in east Asia, particularly Chinas assertion of its territorial claims in the South China Sea. Beijing has closely aligned its foreign policy with Russia, putting it at odds with the U.S. over issues including the civil war in Syria and the deployment of U.S. anti-missile defenses in South Korea.

Aside from his criticisms of Beijing, Trump has touted his business dealings with Chinese companies, although he is not known at present to have any major investments in the country.

Trumps espousal of a more isolationist foreign policy could also benefit China by weakening U.S. support for longtime Asian allies such as South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. AP
TWIN FALLS  Standlee Hay Co. has broken into the top 100 private companies in Idaho.

During the Idaho Stateseman Top 100 Private Company luncheon Oct. 26, Standlee Hay was honored as the 52nd largest private company in Idaho  the highest ranked newcomer to the list. CEO and president Dusty Standlee accepted the highest newcomer award.

Standlee Hay is the only hay company and one of six agribusinesses in the state to make the 2016 list, the company reported in a statement.

I am extremely proud of all of the efforts of the entire organization, Standlee said. From our farms, to our manufacturing and distribution facilities and sales and administrative personnel, we are one team dedicated to providing consumers and their beloved animals the highest quality forage in the market.
TWIN FALLS  Drawn by local work force training and inexpensive land and labor, food and beverage processing companies are turning their attention to the Magic Valley, now more than ever.

A new study rolled out this year by The Boyd Company  an independent site selection consultant for corporations  lists Twin Falls in the top six North American regions for the food processing industry. The ranking considers operating costs for building a hypothetical 300,000 square-foot processing facility employing 500 workers.

As the federal government rolls out new mandates, companies are looking at Twin Falls for possible relocation, but the region competes with other food and beverage manufacturing hubs in the U.S. and Canada.

With a strong manufacturing cluster, work force training, government incentives and a low cost of living, Twin Falls has tools available to compete for company attraction.

Youre on the radar screen like never before, said John Boyd, President of New Jersey-based The Boyd Company. The region is one of the more attractive regions in North America, from an operating cost perspective.

The study took the following factors into account: total annual labor costs, utilities (electric, natural gas), amortization and property and sales tax costs. Amortization is paying off debt with a fixed repayment schedule.

Twin Falls annual operating costs, as presented in the study, would be $37.5 million for a food and beverage processing plant.

The region is $8 million less costly than San Francisco, the Bay Area, Boyd said.

Of the 24 food processing centers used in the study, San Francisco and the Bay Area ranked highest, while the eastern Ontario region in Canada ranked lowest, at $30.3 million.

Twin Falls and southern Idaho ranked second of all western U.S. regions, following the tri-cities in Washington state, with operating costs of $37.3 million.

Here are a few reasons why:

Land

Overall cost of real estate (in Twin Falls) is comparatively low, as compared to other regions of the country, said Nathan Murray, Twin Falls economic development director who also heads up the Urban Renewal Agency.

Not only that, but property taxes in south-central Idaho are among the lowest in the U.S., Boyd said.

Thats a very big arrow in the quiver of economic development specialists here in the region, he said.

Labor

In the hypothetical situation, annual labor costs for a food processing plant in Twin Falls would be about $32.9 million, far lower than most other regions in the study.

Roughly 60-70 percent of total operating costs are labor costs, Boyd said.

While labor costs have increased in recent years, it hasnt been enough to push Twin Falls out of the top 10.

But the No. 1 question companies ask Murray: Does Twin Falls have the work force they need, and how long will it take? Low unemployment raises concerns about a work force gap.

Thats a pinch that the whole state has been feeling, Murray said.

Fortunately, the College of Southern Idaho can help train a work force.

CSI has a great manufacturing work force training program, Boyd said. A lot of manufacturers in the region have good relations with that program.

Other incentives

Another tool in the belt of economic development is the Urban Renewal Agency, which helped Chobani and Clif Bar come to Twin Falls by paying for needed improvements.

Clif Bar received more than $25 million in tax-increment financing and investment by the city and the URA in infrastructure improvement. Similarly, the city and URA invested millions of dollars in infrastructure upgrades to accommodate Chobani.

Infrastructure, especially water and wastewater capacity, is a key factor for attracting food and beverage manufacturers, Boyd said.

State incentive programs are also helpful, Boyd said. And Murray believes the regions relationship with elected officials gives it an edge.

Chobanis factory in Twin Falls has had positive effects for the region, Murray said. The Greek yogurt manufacturer has been attributed to bringing Fabri-Kal to Burley, as one example.

Having companies here that are already proving a successful model is a draw for bringing other companies, he said.

Chobani announced plans for a $100 million expansion earlier this year.

Opportunities and challenges

As the FDA rolls out the Food Safety and Modernization Act, The Boyd Company projects it will spur an uptick of new greenfield relocation projects in the food and beverage processing industry.

The act, passed in 2011 by President Barack Obama, is the most extensive and far-reaching update of federal food safety laws since 1938, Boyd said. The aim is to focus more on preventing contamination instead of responding to it.

Companies may find it less expensive to start new buildings than renovate existing ones, even at the cost of relocation.

But other international factors come into play in deciding where a company relocates. While the U.S. has free trade agreements with 20 countries, Canada has free trade agreements with twice that many, Boyd said.

Its forcing them to look at Canada, Boyd said.

The Trans Pacific Partnership, which has been stalled in Congress, is expected to be ratified in Canada later this year. The agreement would connect the U.S. with 12 countries.

But given growing hostility with regards to TPP  president-elect Donald Trump has said he would not approve TPP as president  Canada holds an edge over the U.S. in company recruitment.

There are still opportunities Twin Falls could capitalize on. Reflecting on what the study means for Southern Idaho, Boyd said the region could be a lot more competitive in nutraceuticals.

Thats an industry southern Idaho should be targeting, in our judgement.

South-central Idaho is natural-resource rich, Murray said, with good transportation routes and an innate understanding of food and beverage manufacturing.

We already have a strong cluster of those types of businesses that gives us a kind of edge, Murray said.
TWIN FALLS  A dispute over a woman between an old boyfriend and a new boyfriend likely led to Saturdays murder-suicide, the county prosecutor said Monday.

Troy Anderson, 36, shot and killed Benjamin Day, 42, early Saturday at a Twin Falls home before shooting and killing himself.

Both Anderson and Day were armed, Twin Falls County Prosecutor Grant Loebs said, but he couldnt confirm whether Day fired his gun.

Its too early to know that, Loebs said.

Twin Falls County Coroner Gene Turley, who released the names of the men involved, said Anderson was the aggressor. A deputy coroner took the bodies to Boise for autopsies and returned them to Twin Falls on Monday afternoon.

The full autopsy results are not expected for about a month, but Turley said the initial findings didnt appear to reveal anything unexpected.

The murder-suicide happened shortly after midnight Saturday at 161 Juniper Street N., police said. Two children inside the home were unharmed, and officers who broke into a basement window to rescue the children witnessed Anderson shoot himself.

The prosecutor said it appeared Anderson was the ex-boyfriend in the relationship, but he didnt know if the woman at the center of the dispute was the same woman who was screaming outside the home and alerted police to the shooting.

Officers originally responded to 274 Teton Street for the report of a drunk man who fired a round at the ground and was pointing the weapon at people, police said. When officers arrived, they heard a woman screaming several blocks away near Juniper Street and Shoup Avenue, then heard several gunshots.

Its unclear if Anderson was the drunk man with the gun from the original report.

Im not sure anybody knows that, Loebs said.

The screaming woman outside the Juniper Street home told police two children were inside, and the officers devised a plan to break into a basement window and rescue the children.

As officers entered the basement bedroom, they were able to see up a short stairway and witnessed the suspect take his own life, police said in a statement.

Loebs said he didnt know how many officers went inside the home; Lt. Terry Thueson said police were only in the home a matter of moments before Anderson killed himself.

The prosecutors office would typically investigate such an incident to ensure police didnt make any mistakes, but Loebs said that might not happen with this case.

I dont think theres any indication that police were involved enough to look at anything, Loebs said, adding that no officers fired their guns.

After witnessing Anderson kill himself, officers discovered hed also shot and killed Day.

The children inside the home were not injured, Thueson said, and neither is believed to have witnessed the murder or suicide.
TWIN FALLS  Residents are invited to buy gifts for children around the world.

Donations are being accepted Tuesday through Monday for the Samaritans Purse project Operation Christmas Child at churches in Twin Falls and Ketchum. Twin Falls residents can donate shoe boxes filled with school supplies, hygiene items, notes of encouragement and toys that will be delivered to children around the world. The goal is to send out more than 6,500 shoe box gifts that would reach 12 million children, says a statement.

Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has delivered gift-filled shoe boxes to more than 124 million children in more than 150 countries and territories.

The shoe box gifts donated by Twin Falls volunteers at these drop-off locations will shine a light of hope to children living in poverty overseas, said Michael Ishmael, northwest regional director for Operation Christmas Child, in a statement. Anyone is welcome to pack a shoe box and help a child facing difficult circumstances to feel loved and not forgotten.
FORT BRAGG, N.C.  A military officer testified Monday that he saw another soldier shot in the head during the 2009 search for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, whos accused of endangering comrades by walking off his post in Afghanistan.

At the same hearing, an Army judge also agreed to delay Bergdahls trial by several months until May 15, 2017.

Prosecutors are arguing that two wounded soldiers injuries should be allowed as evidence to show Bergdahls disappearance effectively put other military members in harms way.

Bergdahl, who is from Hailey, is charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, the latter of which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

U.S. Air Force Maj. John Marx testified about a firefight that erupted as he and several others joined about 50 members of the Afghan National Army on a search for Bergdahl. They were attacked by enemy fighters near a town in Afghanistan on July 8, 2009.

Marx testified about fighting alongside U.S. Army National Guard Sgt. First Class Mark Allen, who was shot in the head during the firefight.

Prosecutors said Allen suffered a traumatic brain injury that left him in a wheel chair and unable to communicate. Another soldier had hand injuries and required surgery because of a rocket-propelled grenade.

Marx described the missions sole purpose as to search for Bergdahl. He testified he was beside Allen as bullets flew.

I looked at him, then I see a trickle of blood coming down his head, Marx testified. Asked where Allen was wounded, Marx pointed at his temples and said: Right through his head.

Marx testified that he later carried Allen to the medevac helicopter, describing it as probably one of the toughest things Ive ever done in my life.

Bergdahl, dressed in a white shirt and blue pants, appeared stoic as he listened.

Marx and two others involved in the firefight said they came from another part of Afghanistan to take part in a hastily planned search mission. Their group, patrolling on foot, had run out of water but couldnt get more supplies before they came under attack.

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Jason Walters testified that he ran toward Allen as rocket-propelled grenades exploded nearby with concussive force: Everything went black, and I saw stars.

He said he was later able to get on a radio and call for air support.

Jonathan Morita, a former Army specialist, was nearby when an unexploded RPG slammed into the rifle he was holding. He said the injury was comparable to having his hand smashed by a hammer.

I looked at it, and I thought: Thats going to hurt in the morning. I didnt feel it. Too much adrenaline, he said.

Walking out after his testimony, Morita glared at Bergdahl, but the defendant didnt appear to make eye contact.

Prosecutors have said evidence of the injuries will help them show that Bergdahl endangered his comrades, one of the elements of the misbehavior before the enemy charge.

Defense attorneys have argued that Bergdahl wasnt responsible for the injuries, writing in a motion earlier this year that: Allens injuries were directly caused by the Taliban, not by SGT Bergdahl.

More arguments on the matter are scheduled Tuesday. Asked after Mondays hearing whether evidence of the injuries belongs in the case, Bergdahls attorney Eugene Fidell said the defense would address the matter Tuesday.

Also Monday, Army Col. Jeffery Nance decided to push the trial back to May after prosecutors requested a delay. They cited the pace at which theyre able to get approval to give the defense classified evidence.

Defense attorneys told the judge theyre still awaiting software and computers to more quickly review sensitive material.

Nance expressed frustration, saying he would call military officials as witnesses at a December pretrial hearing if the issues arent resolved by then.
BOISE  Idahos Republican electoral college electors have been getting a lot of phone calls both from Idahoans and from other states who are trying to get them to change their vote, and some of the calls are crossing into what could reasonably be considered harassment, according to the Secretary of States office.

The callers are trying to convince the four electors to change their votes from Donald Trump, the Republican president-elect who won Idaho in a landslide and who also won the Electoral College nationwide even though more people nationally voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton.

While there is no federal requirement binding electors to their pledge, and while Idaho is one of 21 states that does not have state-level legislation to force an elector to comply, attempting to sway an electors commitment to their party through insults, vulgar language, or threats, simply lacks civility, Secretary of State Lawerence Denney, who oversees the states elections, said in a statement. These are people who have volunteered to represent our state and their party in a process that goes back to the founding of our nation. If the presidential election had been different, the presidential electors would be from a different party and would still deserve the same respect. They dont deserve to be mistreated by someone just because that person doesnt agree with the outcome of the election.

Electors are named by the parties before the election, and the four Republican electors who will be casting the states votes in the Electoral College are Melinda Smyser, a former state senator from Canyon County; Jennifer Locke, a precinct committeewoman from Kootenai County; Caleb Lakey; and Layne Bangerter, a longtime staffer for U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo who was Trumps state campaign director. All four of them were Trump delegates (or alternates in Lakeys case) at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. They will meet at noon on Dec. 19 to cast their votes for president and vice president.

Denney said some of the incidents he has been made aware of are disheartening and show a tremendous disrespect for the individuals tasked with casting Idahos electoral ballots, and asked anyone who wishes to share their opinions to do so respectfully. He also encouraged people to write or email the Secretary of States office, saying the correspondence would be shared with the electors prior to Dec. 19.

The Electoral College, where each state is represented by one elector for every member of Congress the state has, was laid out in the original U.S. Constitution, with the current process laid out in the Twelfth Amendment, passed in 1804. While the Electoral College was originally envisioned as an independent body that would make its own decision on who the best president would be, most states dropped the system in the early-to mid-1800s. Now, electors are pledged to vote for whomever a plurality of voters in the state choose.

Because every state in the country has at least two senators and one member of the U.S. House regardless of population, small states end up having a greater say per capita than large ones, making it possible for a presidential candidate to lose the popular vote but win the Electoral College. This years presidential election will be the fifth time in American history where the winning candidate won the Electoral College but definitely lost the popular vote. The last time before this was 16 years ago, when Republican George W. Bush won the presidency even though Democrat Al Gore got more votes.

In U.S. history, there have been 157 incidences of faithless electors, or electors voting not in accordance with how they were pledged, although none has changed the outcome of an election.
Interested in UFOs?

Nov. 3, Mychel Matthews, Hidden History reporter, authored an article, Flying saucers in the Magic Valley. This well-written piece has sparked interest in a group of people in the Twin Falls area and in Boise. For over six months, members of MUFON, experiencers, and others who have a serious interest in UFOs are engaged in working together to reestablish the two chapters of MUFON active in southern Idaho over 20 years ago. MUFON is the international non-profit group focused on the scientific investigation of aerial phenomenon for the benefit of mankind.

After reestablishing these two chapters, we would like to see those in Pocatello and in Northern Idaho form their own chapters. During the next few years, we hope to increase active membership, encourage members to become certified field investigators, and eventually have an Idaho director.

The Twin Falls MUFON chapter will meet the fourth Saturday of November at Tse Restaurant, on Blues Lakes Boulevard. Those interested in having lunch with members should meet us at noon; the meeting begins at 1 p.m.

Marcia Donner, Twin Falls

Penni Janes, Twin Falls

Jim Millard, Boise

Megan Millard, Boise
This appeared in Mondays Washington Post:

We dont agree with President-elect Donald Trump on much, but we happen to share his view that the Obama administration overreached in trying to rewrite immigration law unilaterally. Still, tough enforcement is one thing; gratuitous cruelty is another. Trump would be straying squarely into the second category if his immigration crackdown targets youngsters whom Obama has shielded from deportation since 2012.

Under that program, 750,000 undocumented immigrantsmainly teenagers and 20-somethings who grew up in America and graduated from U.S. high schoolshave received work permits and Social Security cards. Most have jobs; they pay taxes, open bank accounts and, for the most part, live productive, law-abiding lives.

It would serve no public policy purpose to pursue this cohort of young people, most of whom were brought to America as children by their parents, and are undocumented through no fault of their own. Half have relatives who are U.S. citizens; roughly a quarter have children who were born here.

To round them up, or threaten them with deportation, would mean hounding families who have lived here for well over a decade. Most of the youngsters are as culturally American as their U.S.-born neighbors; many are building careers that will contribute to their communities. They make no secret of their immigration status or whereabouts, having registered openly with the government under the Obama administrations program. For Trump to use that database to target them would be a mistake that would brand his new administration as callous and recast this country as America the Punitive.

Relatively few Americans would oppose Trumps pledge to deport undocumented criminals; thats also Obamas policy. Support might decrease if Trump expands the definition of criminal to include minor infractions. That would strip U.S. industries, particularly in the agricultural sector, of valuable workers who are not easily replaced. Opposition would grow further if he attempted to round up millions of migrants who are law-abiding in everything but immigration status; polls show most Americans would not favor such mass deportation.

And surely he would lose most of the country if he goes after the young valedictorians and veterans who in good faith came forward when Obama offered his first, tailored reprieve. Trumps victory grants him license for meaningful enforcement, not malice.
Lebanese based Hezbollah had a military parade inside Syria over to commemorate Martyrs Day but the some of the American military hardware that featured in the released pictures have raised eyebrows because Washington considers the group as a terrorist organization. The event held in al-Qusayr, province of Homs, was attended by the Head of the groups Executive Council Hashem Safieddine.

Among the hardware that was paraded are Soviet-made T72 tanks, Russian-made anti-tank missiles, anti-aircraft cannons, machine guns and off-road quad motorbikes. However, the American-manufactured M113 armoured personnel carriers that Hezbollah displayed has raised questions about how they were acquired. US has supplied it to the Lebanese Army as part of its military aid package but some analysts also highlighted that it could have been seized from the now-defunct Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army and Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria that is supported by the US.

Amer al-Nasser of the Legion of Homs, an Islamist rebel group, downplayed the significance of the parade saying that it was held in secret with the time and place undisclosed because of fears of being attacked. He claimed that the aim of the military parade was to raise morale among Hezbollah fighters after recent heavy losses suffered by the group.

Martyrs Day is celebrated every 11 November by the organization, marking the anniversary of a 1982 suicide bombing by 17-year-old Ahmad Qasir targeting an Israeli military headquarters in south Lebanons Tyre. This is the first time that is held in open air in a foreign country and the city of al-Qusayr is said to be a symbolic choice because it was the first to be liberated by the group together with the pro-Assad forces in the spring of 2013.
Iran and China signed a military agreement that would help to create a collective movement against terrorism and serve as an upgrade in long-term military and defense cooperation between them and in their joint military exercises. Signed by defense ministers General Hossein Dehqan and Chnag Wanquan of Iran and China respectively, the deal was described as a sign of increasing confidence and friendly ties in the cooperation between the two countries according to Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency.

Dehqan said enhancement of cooperation with China is a top priority in Tehrans defense diplomacy that also includes a broader exchange in equipment and technology as promised during President Xi Jinpings official visit to the country at the beginning of the year. He lamented that the region has been turned into a hotbed of conflict and insecurity due to foreign interference and disrespect for national sovereignty leading to a spread of terrorism around the world. The Iranian defense minister hinted that Tehran is eyeing honest and effective cooperation with other States to create a collective movement to deal with this threat and it is expecting that China has a very important role to play.

China has often maintained a neutral foreign policy in defense and political matters while pursuing its economic agenda but since the shift of attention of the outgoing Obama administration to the Pacific from the Middle East, Beijing has embarked on strengthening its military and political ties with countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Iran is reportedly interested in acquiring 150 of Chinas Chengdu J-10 fighters in a deal worth around $1 billion.

Observers have stated that the signing of the agreement is part of preparations to the incoming president-elect Donald Trump administration considering that he has promised, during his campaign, to sideline the Nuclear Agreement reached between Iran and the so-called P5+1 terming it as the stupidest deal of all time and a one-sided transaction where we are giving back $150billion to a terrorist state. Trump had also accused China of raping the US economy and had threatened to impose a 45% taxation of their imports.
Chicken will be the best-positioned protein due to its low price position in times of pressure on consumer spending power but rises in production costs and the long-term impact of COVID-19 threaten to disrupt the sector, according to Rabobank.
The village, with about 900 residents, had been one of three major hot spots in the Kono District, in the eastern part of the country, during the heat of the Ebola crisis between November 2014 and February 2015. There were 34 reported cases of Ebola in the village, including 28 deaths.

More than 28,000 cases of Ebola infection were reported in Africa during the epidemic, the largest and longest in history. More than 11,000 people are estimated to have died because of the disease.

In the aftermath, Richardson and his colleagues decided to go back to the village to try to determine whether the Ebola infection could be minimally symptomatic, as previous studies have suggested. He worked with a local physician and two community health workers in gathering data for the study, a process that was approved by the local village chief.

They used a test known as the ELISA assay, a technique that can detect the presence of an antibody. They first made sure the test was accurate by comparing results from 30 Ebola survivors in Sukudu with those of 132 people in other villages where the virus had not been reported.

Richardson said the test proved to be a reasonable measure of viral antibodies. The researchers then recruited 187 men, women and children from Sukudu who had likely been exposed to Ebola, either because they were living in the same household or had shared a public toilet with a person confirmed to have had the disease.

Of these, 14 were found to be carrying antibodies to Ebola, indicating they had been infected at some point, though they had not been included in the original count. Twelve of them said they had had no symptoms of the disease, which typically causes fever, unexplained bleeding, headache, muscle pain, rash, vomiting, diarrhea, breathing problems and difficulty swallowing. Two recalled having had a fever at the time of the outbreak, the scientists reported.

Public health efforts not entirely effective

In combining the initial reports of 34 infections with the 14 newly identified cases, the researchers calculated the prevalence of minimally symptomatic infection in the village to have been 25 percent.

Richardson said it is unknown if an asymptomatic individual is capable of transmitting the virus. Because these individuals did not have an active case of the disease, They were not passing it along in the usual way, through vomiting or diarrhea, he said. Its unclear if they can pass it along it sexually.

This shows there was a lot more human-to-human transmission than we thought.

The virus has been shown to hide out for months in semen, even after symptoms have subsided, with some published cases of survivors transmitting the virus through sexual contact.

Richardson said the study indicates that public health efforts to prevent infection and contain the virus during the epidemic were not entirely effective.

It reminds us that we need to do a much, much better job in future epidemics, Richardson said.

He and his colleagues are now working in other villages in Sierra Leone where public health surveillance was poor during the epidemic, testing and interviewing individuals to get a better handle on the true number of people affected during the crisis.

We expect to find a lot more undocumented survivors, so we can begin to answer the question of what was the true burden of disease, he said.

Other Stanford co-authors of the paper are Michele Barry, MD, director of the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health, and James Holland Jones, PhD, associate professor of Earth systems science and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.

Researchers from Partners in Health, Brigham and Womens Hospital, UC-San Francisco, the Kono District Ebola Response Centre and the Kono District Health Management Team in Sierra Leone also co-authored the study.

The study was funded by the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health.
Somalias President, Hassan Sheik Mohamud on Monday called on Somalis in the Diaspora and the international community to intervene for urgent humanitarian assistance for his country affected by a deadly drought.

I appeal to the Somali people, wherever they are all over the world to help and stand shoulder to shoulder with their suffering Somali people who lack food and water due to the drought in the country, Hassan Sheik Mohamud said in a statement released on Monday.

In his words, the government will also take an important part. The Gu season has passed without rains with earlier rainy seasons failing. So, the Somali people need to help one another and help their brothers and sisters with food and water, he said.

He further stated that the drought has widely affected the country, but some areas are worse than others.

The drought is everywhere but in particular the drought hardly hit the north western and North Eastern regions of Somalia, of Somaliland and Puntland, where many livestock have already been lost, with people starting dying, in areas the drought is very critical Hassan Sheik Mohamud added.

Drought and floods were recurrent in the Horn of Africa country, often blamed on the climate change, wars and political instability.

In September, aid agencies including UN-OCHA, reported in Mogadishu that five million Somalis  more than 40 per cent of the countrys population  did not have sufficient food.

The figure includes over 300,000 children under five, who were acutely malnourished.
The United Nations on Monday disclosed that Gambias withdrawal from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) will take effect on November 10th, 2017.

The government of the West African nation has announced last month that it was withdrawing from the ICC.

The move of The Gambia is warranted by the fact that the ICC, despite being called the International Criminal Court, is in fact an International Caucasian Court for the persecution and humiliation of people of colour, especially Africans.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, acting in his capacity as depository said The action shall take effect for the Gambia on 10 November, 2017 in accordance with article 127(1) which reads as follows:

A State Party may, by written notification addressed to the Secretary General of the United Nations, withdraw from this Statute. The withdrawal shall take effect one year after the date of receipt of the notification, unless the notification specifies a later date.

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, has repeatedly called on the court to investigate African migrant deaths on the Mediterranean. His countrys move came just days after South Africa also served notice that it was quitting the Hague-based tribunal.

The ICCs current chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, is Gambian and was as an adviser to Jammeh in the early years of his rule after he seized power in a coup in 1994.
The President of Guinea-Bissau, Jose Mario Vaz, on Monday announced the dismissal of his entire cabinet led by Prime Minister Baciro Ja.

According to a statement released by the presidency, the move follows a peace agreement that is taking place in neighbouring Guinea Conakry, as part of efforts to rescue the country from the current political crisis.

The implementation of the Conakry agreement entails the resignation of the government, Vaz was quoted.

This agreement does not provide for the unanimous choice of a prime minister, but by consensus, and this consensus has not been achieved, Vaz told reporters at the presidential palace.

The President noted that the dismissal will also pave way for the appointment of a new prime minister who will be in charge of forming an inclusive government to get the country out of the crisis.

No deadline has been set for the new appointment.

Guinea-Bissau has suffered multiple military coups since independence in 1974 and the army continues to play a heavy role in politics.

The chronic volatility has fanned poverty in this country of 1.6 million, which has few resources other than cashew nuts and fish and has attracted the attention of South American drug cartels that have turned it into a cocaine-trafficking hub.
Research by Rina Das Eiden has shown that maternal warmth and sensitivity in early childhood plays a strong role preventing substance use in adolescents. Credit: University at Buffalo

Research from the University at Buffalo Research Institute on Addictions suggests the approach to preventing alcohol and drug use by some adolescents should begin in early childhood.

"The children of parents with alcohol problems are at much greater risk for underage drinking and developing a substance use disorder," says the study's author, Rina Das Eiden, PhD, senior research scientist at RIA. "It's important to understand when and under what circumstances such problems develop, so we can craft interventions to steer this high-risk population away from substance use and its attendant problems."

Eiden examined different pathways to adolescent substance use, starting in infancy, for children of parents with alcohol use disorder (AUD), and found that maternal warmth and sensitivity in early childhood played a significant role.

"When mothers can be warm and sensitive during interactions with their toddlers, even under the stresses associated with their partners' alcohol problems, there is a lower likelihood of adolescent substance use," Eiden says.

Parents with AUD demonstrated lower rates of maternal sensitivity toward their toddlers, continuing into kindergarten age, Eiden found. As the children entered middle school (6th grade), their mothers were less likely to monitor peer groups and activities, leading to higher engagement with substance-using and delinquent peers and drinking in early adolescence (8th grade).

These children also displayed lower self-regulation, or the ability to behave according to rules without supervision, at preschool age, leading to problem behaviors from kindergarten age to early adolescence and higher alcohol and marijuana use in late adolescence.

The results have implications for both the timing and content of preventive interventions against substance use among adolescents of parents with AUD. Timing interventions in early childhood and before major developmental transitions, such as transition to school and moving from elementary to middle school, may be most beneficial.

For content, the most helpful interventions would be to encourage and support mothers in being warm and sensitive during interactions with their toddlers, and to keep a close eye their children's activities and peer groups during the transition from middle childhood to early adolescence.

"This attention also would promote children's self-regulation in the preschool years, which may lead to a decrease in problem behaviors from school age into adolescence," Eiden says.
The relationship between task performance and level of cognitive control. Credit: Amer, Campbell, Hasher/Trends in Cognitive Sciences 2016

As you age, you may find it more difficult to focus on certain tasks. But while distractions can be frustrating, they may not be as bad as we think. In a review published November 15 in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, researchers at the University of Toronto and Harvard University suggest that there may be some benefits to reduced focus, especially in people over 50. Using behavioral studies and neuroimaging evidence, the researchers discuss how being easily distracted can help adults with, for example, problem solving and learning new information.

"Different types of tasks benefit from a more broad focus of attention, and this is usually seen in tasks that involve thinking creatively or using information that was previously irrelevant," says first author Tarek Amer, a psychology Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto and a graduate student at the Rotman Research Institute. "The literature gives us the impression that older adults are essentially doomed as their cognitive abilities decrease, when, in reality, many older adults get along just fine in their day-to-day lives, and we think that shows that aging adults don't always need to have high cognitive control."

When people have high cognitive control, they are able to maintain their focused attention and ignore distractions to get things done. But Amer and his colleagues found that people with reduced cognitive control had an easier time thinking of creative solutions to problems, and they were better at noticing patterns in the world around them. These findings also indicated that older adults could outperform their younger counterparts on certain problem-solving tasks, as they were able to broaden their attention more easily. Additionally, people didn't require high levels of cognitive control for inherent, day-to-day tasks, like walking down the street or learning new information.

In order to explore the benefits of cognitive control, many lab-based behavioral experiments require participants to complete a specific set of tasks, limiting the role of distraction. But the researchers say these experiments have shortcomings, as they don't explore situations when distractions and reduced cognitive control could be helpful, making the conclusions fairly one sided.

"Many of the tasks that we study in classic cognitive psychology are tasks that require high cognitive control, but these assigned tasks might not accurately mirror what people do in the real world because they limit distractions," says co-author Lynn Hasher, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto and the Rotman Research Institute. "But a distraction in one setting can actually be useful information in another setting, and the more information you have, the better able you're going to be to address a current problem."

Amer and his colleagues hope to use this information to determine exactly what tasks can benefit from reduced control in order to better simulate these experiences in a lab. Although they also hope to expand the research beyond the aging population to examine how distractions can be beneficial for people with a range of cognitive impairments, for now they recognize that this understanding of cognitive control is a step closer to understanding the aging brain.

"There is a question about what really sustains performance in old age, and it's clear that working memory alone cannot provide us with the answer to that question," says Hasher. "But we think it's possible that studying reduced cognitive control can help us understand how older adults can still perform independently and successfully in their lives."
There is a conception that bullied children with few friends can find new ones online.

"Our research doesn't support that idea at all," says Ylva Bjereld, PhD student at the Department of social work, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

On the contrary, a new study reports that bullied children are excluded from new communication forums that have developed as a result of the digital transformation.

Along with fellow researchers from Sweden, Iceland and Finland, Ylva Bjereld has studied the use of text messaging, telephone communication and Internet - so-called technology mediated communication (TMC)  among children in the Nordic countries during 2001-2010. The researchers also studied the use of TMC among bullied children. Approximately 66 000 children ages 11, 13 and 15, were included in the study.

The result of the study shows that 81 per cent of the children used TMC with friends more than three days a week in 2010; an increase by 11 percentage points compared to 2001. However, among bullied children with either few or no friends at all, there had been no increase in use of TMC during the time period.

"They were left at the same levels of use as in 2001. This is remarkable considering the vast development that have occurred in the last ten years as far social media and the use of cell phones," Ylva Bjereld says.

The result indicates that bullied children have an even more vulnerable life situation than before.

"It used to be that these children could find breathing space during off-school hours. Now, they continue to be excluded from friendships even after school hours but in new digital forums. This is especially concerning since such a big part of children's every day lives is spent online participating in social networks," Ylva Bjereld says.

The study also reports that bullied children, who had several friends despite being bullied, had increased their use of TMC somewhat during the time period.

"Previous research on bullying victimization shows that bullied children suffer from mental health problems more frequently than other children. When being included in the use of TMC with friends, these children are able to both strengthen their current friendships and developing new ones. This could potentially protect them from developing mental illness problems.

One of Ylva Bjereld's conclusions is that in order for the most vulnerable group of bullied children to be included in TMC, continued work and efforts against bullying in general are required.

"We already know that bullied children are a vulnerable group in society. Now that we also know that they are excluded from new communication forums that allow children to meet new friends, we need to pay extra attention to this group," she says.

More information: Y. Bjereld et al. Time trends of technology mediated communication with friends among bullied and not bullied children in four Nordic countries between 2001 and 2010, Child: Care, Health and Development (2016). Y. Bjereld et al. Time trends of technology mediated communication with friends among bullied and not bullied children in four Nordic countries between 2001 and 2010,(2016). DOI: 10.1111/cch.12409
Credit: xiaphias/Wikipedia

The violent and sexual media you consume during the day may infiltrate your dreams at night, new research suggests.

People who reported consuming violent media within 90 minutes of bedtime were 13 times more likely to have a violent dream that night, the study found. Those viewing sexual media were six times more likely to have a sex-related dream.

The study of more than 1,000 Turkish residents also found that the more violent media content they reported consuming on a regular basis, the more often they said they had violent dreams in general.

The same link was found between sexual media content and sexual dreams, although the connection wasn't as strong.

"The media we consume can have an impact on us even when we're sleeping," said Brad Bushman, co-author of the study and professor of communication and psychology at The Ohio State University.

"We knew our violent and sexual media consumption had an impact on our waking lives. Now we have evidence of how it may influence our dreams."

The study is published online in the journal Dreaming. Bushman conducted the study with Jan Van den Bulck, a professor of communication studies at the University of Michigan; and Yakup Cetin of Fatih University and Omer Terzi of Yildiz Technical University, both in Turkey.

The study involved 1,287 people aged 10 to 60 who completed a survey about their media consumption and their dreams. About half the sample were students at schools in Istanbul. The remainder were adults recruited from social networking sites that discussed media.

All participants were asked whether they had viewed any violent or sexual media content within 90 minutes of going to bed the night before the study, and whether they had any violent or sexual dreams that night.

Slightly less than half of participants (45 percent) reported consuming violent media before bed that night, whereas slightly less than one-quarter reported exposure to sexual media content.

Whether they had consumed violent or sexual media content was not associated with whether they dreamed that night, findings showed.

But the fact that violent and sexual media use was related to a huge increase in related dreams showed the power media may have on our sleeping lives, Bushman said.

"The magnitude of the increase in violent and sexual dreams linked to media consumption was surprising," he said.

The study also aimed to examine how overall media use was linked to dream content.

Participants were asked the number of hours they spent consuming media (including TV, internet, DVDs, movies, video games and music) on any devices on weekdays and on weekends.

Next, they were asked to rate whether the media they consumed contained violence and whether it contained sex on a scale of 1 (never) to 5 (always).

They were then asked whether they dreamed and whether their dreams included violent content and sexual content. Again, they rated how often on a scale of 1 to 5.

Overall, 67 percent of participants said they dreamed at least sometimes.

More than 80 percent of participants said they were exposed to violent media content at least sometimes, whereas about half said they were exposed to sexual media content at least sometimes.

About 80 percent of those surveyed said they had violent dreams sometimes, whereas slightly less than half said they had sexual dreams sometimes.

The researchers found that overall media use was a significant predictor of more frequent dreaming, as was the frequency of exposure to violent media.

So who had the most frequent violent dreams overall? Results showed that exposure to violent media was the stronger predictor, although people who reported more overall media exposure and more sexual media exposure also reported somewhat more violent dreams.

As for sexual dreams, those who reported the most also tended to have consumed more sexual media. But the link between sexual media and sexual dreams wasn't as strong as that between violent media and violent dreams.

"Whether we looked at overall media use or media intake for just one day, the result was the same: The media we consume is linked to what we dream about," Van den Bulck said.

The results can't reveal the direction of causality between dreams and media use, Bushman noted.

"It is at least possible that people who have more violent or more sexual dreams are more likely to seek out that content during the day. Another possibility is that causality may go both ways, or that some other factor is related to both media consumption and dream content.

"But I do believe that the most plausible explanation is that the media we consume influences our dreams," Bushman said.

Cetin said the results may be at least somewhat different for people in other countries, noting previous research has shown that media use and dream associations differ for people of varied cultural background.

The results suggest one obvious recommendation for those who are troubled by their violent or sexual dreams, according to Bushman.

"It would be good to avoid media with violent and sexual content, especially right before bed."
Kumamoto University researchers assessed the McGurk effect between native English and Japanese speakers and found a major difference: English speakers "listen with their eyes" and Japanese speakers use only their ears. Audio-video & audio-only tests were performed in the first two experiments, and an audio-video test was performed in the third experiment. Credit: Dr. Kaoru Sekiyama

Which parts of a person's face do you look at when you listen them speak? Lip movements affect the perception of voice information from the ears when listening to someone speak, but native Japanese speakers are mostly unaffected by that part of the face. Recent research from Japan has revealed a clear difference in the brain network activation between two groups of people, native English speakers and native Japanese speakers, during face-to-face vocal communication.

It is known that visual speech information, such as lip movement, affects the perception of voice information from the ears when speaking to someone face-to-face. For example, lip movement can help a person to hear better under noisy conditions. On the contrary, dubbed movie content, where the lip movement conflicts with a speaker's voice, gives a listener the illusion of hearing another sound. This illusion is called the "McGurk effect."

According to an analysis of previous behavioral studies, native Japanese speakers are not influenced by visual lip movements as much as native English speakers. To examine this phenomenon further, researchers from Kumamoto University measured and analyzed gaze patterns, brain waves, and reaction times for speech identification between two groups of 20 native Japanese speakers and 20 native English speakers.

The difference was clear. When natural speech is paired with lip movement, native English speakers focus their gaze on a speaker's lips before the emergence of any sound. The gaze of native Japanese speakers, however, is not as fixed. Furthermore, native English speakers were able to understand speech faster by combining the audio and visual cues, whereas native Japanese speakers showed delayed speech understanding when lip motion was in view.

An analysis of eye fixation in the McGurk effect between native English speakers and native Japanese speakers showed that English speakers spent more time focusing on the mouth than any other part of the face. The mouth appeared to be a less important target for Japanese speakers. Credit: Dr. Kaoru Sekiyama

"Native English speakers attempt to narrow down candidates for incoming sounds by using information from the lips which start moving a few hundreds of milliseconds before vocalizations begin. Native Japanese speakers, on the other hand, place their emphasis only on hearing, and visual information seems to require extra processing," explained Kumamoto University's Professor Kaoru Sekiyama, who lead the research.

Kumamoto University researchers then teamed up with researchers from Sapporo Medical University and Japan's Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR) to measure and analyze brain activation patterns using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Their goal was to elucidate differences in brain activity between the two languages.

The functional connectivity in the brain between the area that deals with hearing and the area that deals with visual motion information, the primary auditory and middle temporal areas respectively, was stronger in native English speakers than in native Japanese speakers. This result strongly suggests that auditory and visual information are associated with each other at an early stage of information processing in an English speaker's brain, whereas the association is made at a later stage in a Japanese speaker's brain. The functional connectivity between auditory and visual information, and the manner in which the two types of information are processed together was shown to be clearly different between the two different language speakers.

"It has been said that video materials produce better results when studying a foreign language. However, it has also been reported that video materials do not have a very positive effect for native Japanese speakers," said Professor Sekiyama. "It may be that there are unique ways in which Japanese people process audio information, which are related to what we have shown in our recent research, that are behind this phenomenon."

These findings were published in the nature.com journal Scientific Reports on August 11th and October 13th, 2016.

More information: Satoko Hisanaga et al, Language/Culture Modulates Brain and Gaze Processes in Audiovisual Speech Perception, Scientific Reports (2016). Satoko Hisanaga et al, Language/Culture Modulates Brain and Gaze Processes in Audiovisual Speech Perception,(2016). DOI: 10.1038/srep35265 J. Shinozaki, N. Hiroe, M. Sato, T. Nagamine, K. Sekiyama et al, "Impact of language on functional connectivity for audiovisual speech integration," Sci. Rep., vol. 6, no. August, p. 31388, Aug. 2016. DOI: 10.1038/srep31388. Journal information: Scientific Reports
A research team led by Carnegie Mellon University used diffusion MRI to measure the local connectome of 699 brains from five data sets. The local connectome is the point-by-point connections along all of the white matter pathways in the brain, as opposed to the connections between brain regions. To create a fingerprint, they took the data from the diffusion MRI and reconstructed it to calculate the distribution of water diffusion along the cerebral white matter's fibers. Credit: Carnegie Mellon University

Using a new imaging technique, researchers have confirmed what scientists have always thought to be true: the structural connections in the brain are unique to each individual person.

The Carnegie Mellon University-led team used diffusion MRI to map the brain's structural connections and found each person's connections are so unique they could identify a person based on this brain "fingerprint" with nearly perfect accuracy. Published in PLOS Computational Biology, the results also show the brain's that distinctiveness changes over time, which could help researchers determine how factors such as disease, the environment and different experiences impact the brain.

The new, non-invasive diffusion MRI approach captures the brain's connections at a much closer level than ever before. For example, conventional approaches obtain a single estimate of the integrity of a single structural connection, or a white matter fiber. The new technique measures the integrity along each segment of the brain's biological wires, making it much more sensitive to unique patterns.

"The most exciting part is that we can apply this new method to existing data and reveal new information that is already sitting there unexplored. The higher specificity allows us to reliably study how genetic and environmental factors shape the human brain over time, thereby opening a gate to understand how the human brain functions or dysfunctions," said Fang-Cheng (Frank) Yeh, the study's first author and assistant professor of neurological surgery at the University of Pittsburgh. Yeh completed the research while at CMU as a postdoctoral fellow in psychology.

For the study, the researchers used diffusion MRI to measure the local connectome of 699 brains from five data sets. The local connectome is the point-by-point connections along all of the white matter pathways in the brain, as opposed to the connections between brain regions. To create a fingerprint, they took the data from the diffusion MRI and reconstructed it to calculate the distribution of water diffusion along the cerebral white matter's fibers.

The measurements revealed that the local connectome is highly unique to an individual and can be used as a personal marker for human identity. To test the uniqueness, the team ran more than 17,000 identification tests. With nearly 100 percent accuracy, they were able to tell whether two local connectomes, or brain "fingerprints," came from the same person or not.

Additionally, they discovered that identical twins only share about 12 percent of structural connectivity patterns and the brain's unique local connectome is sculpted over time, changing at an average rate of 13 percent every 100 days.

"This confirms something that we've always assumed in neurosciencethat connectivity patterns in your brain are unique to you," said CMU's Timothy Verstynen, assistant professor of psychology. "This means that many of your life experiences are somehow reflected in the connectivity of your brain. Thus we can start to look at how shared experiences, for example poverty or people who have the same patholoigical disease, are reflected in your brain connections, opening the door for potential new medical biomarkers for certain health concerns."

In addition to Yeh and Verstynen, the research team included CMU's Aarti Singh and Barnabas Poczos, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory's Jean M. Vettel, the University of California, Santa Barbara's Scott T. Grafton, the University of Pittsburgh's Kirk I. Erickson and Wen-Yih I. Tseng of the National Taiwan University. The Army Research Laboratory funded this research.

Developing a way to fingerprint the brain is one of the many brain research breakthroughs to happen at Carnegie Mellon. CMU has created some of the first cognitive tutors, helped to develop the Jeopardy-winning Watson, founded a groundbreaking doctoral program in neural computation, and is the birthplace of artificial intelligence and cognitive psychology. Building on its strengths in biology, computer science, psychology, statistics and engineering, CMU launched BrainHub, an initiative that focuses on how the structure and activity of the brain give rise to complex behaviors.
Georgia will support decision of American people

By Messenger Staff

Georgias Prime Minister, Giorgi Kvirikashvili, has stated that Georgia would support the decision of the American people as they go to the polls to elect the countrys 45th president.Kvirikashvili stated that no matter who wins the race between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, the future president would be the choice of the people, and this should be respected.Kvirikashvili stressed that America has been Georgias most important strategic partner and relations between the two would remain unchanged."In the past 25 years, the US support has proved vital in the process of maintaining our sovereignty and Georgia's independence. Today we are talking about the next 25 years of our partnership with the US, which is very important to us," Kvirikashvili said.US Ambassador to Georgia Ian Kelly also vowed that the USs foreign policy would remain the same regardless of the elections outcome.Tamar Chugoshvili, a member of the ruling Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia party and the future first deputy Parliament Speaker of Georgia, assessed the upcoming US elections as "very important and different from previous elections in the US."I believe that Georgia will remain an important country in our region for the US, no matter who is the president, and I believe our cooperation will further deepen in all directions, Chugoshvili said.The election is very important and matters for the whole world, and of course for Georgia.There are statements that nothing will change in the Georgia-US relations after the elections, but what may happen is entirely dependent on the future policy of the new president.Twenty percent of Georgias territory is currently occupied by Russia, but Mr. Trump never hides his positive attitudes to Russias President Vladimir Putin.Trump also says that Clinton, who frequently criticizes Putins foreign policy, would fail to hold constructive negotiations with the Russian President on a range of issues, if she becomes the first female President of the United States.Currently, Hillary Clinton enjoys a mild lead in the polls over her opponent, but polls can be misleading; The chaotic Brexit vote in the UK earlier this year is a vivid example.
The News in Brief

TI : We identified 70 cases when officials and their relatives were employed at the same or related agencies



Transparency International Georgia has released information about family members of officials who are employed in the same or related agencies.



Transparency International Georgia studied officials property declarations and identified instances where officials and their family members are employed at the same or related agencies. Most of the cases were revealed in local government bodies.



We found 70 such cases in various regions of Georgia.



Naturally, the cases do not necessarily imply that employment in the public service was carried out in violation of competition rules. However, given the shortcomings in Georgia's anti-corruption law, such a high number of these of cases indicates the existence of a systemic problem and the need for an effective response. At the same time, the study is based only on officials' property declarations and therefore cannot reflect the full extent of the problem, says the organization. (IPN)







Pankisi native, reportedly ISIS member, killed in Middle East



One more Pankisi native has been killed in the Middle East. Reports vary about where the 24 year old Mukhad Khangoshvili was killed.



According to Interpressnews, which relies on an unidentified source in Pankisi, it happened in Mosul, Iraq, where the Iraqi Army - aided by the US and other Western allies - is fighting to recapture Iraqs third largest city from ISIS.



Confirming that Khangoshvili was killed in Syria, the Pankisi based radio station Radio Way said he left Georgia on September 13 2013 and went to Syria to join ISIS.



According to Radio Way, Mukhmad served in the personal guard of ISISs former military commander Tarkhan Batirashvili, known as Omar Al-Shishani, who was confirmed dead by ISIS in July.



At least 22 young people from Georgia are reported to have died in Syria over the last few years. (DF watch)







Georgias Prime Minister announces Italy visit



Georgias Prime Minister, Giorgi Kvirikashvili, will visit Italy in January next year and he hopes the trip will stimulate "new economic and cultural relations between the two nations.



Kvirikashvili announced the details of his upcoming trip on November 7 at a press conference in Tbilisi with Italy's Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Paolo Gentiloni.



Gentiloni was in Tbilisi on an official visit and meeting with high level Georgian authorities.



After Gentiloni met with Kvirikashvili this afternoon, the pair said they had discussed a range of issues starting from Georgias Euro-Atlantic prospects to regional stability.



Both officials said that despite current close bilateral ties in many sectors, there was "huge potential" for Georgia and Italy to enhance relations in economic and tourism directions.



Your visit is very important. We take it as confirmation of Italys continued support for Georgia, Kvirikashvili told his guest.



We have very dynamic relations with Italy in the fields of culture, education and science and I believe very soon we will see successful joint projects in these directions, Kvirikashvili said at the press conference in reference to two deals signed today between the Foreign Ministry of Italy and Georgias Ministry of Education and between the governments of Italy and Georgia.



The deal penned between Italys Foreign Ministry and Georgias Ministry of Education envisaged cooperation regarding general education, while the second deal between the two countries governments concerned enhancing scientific-cultural cooperation.



For his part Gentiloni praised Georgias democratic reforms and constant efforts to become the part of the Euro-Atlantic space.



The Italian high official stressed his country supported Georgias Euro-Atlantic goals, as well as its visa liberalisation with the European Union.



Gentiloni also noted Italy's strong support for Georgias sovereignty and territorial integrity. (Agenda.ge)




@amysherman1

Sen. Dwight Bullard, who wants to run for Florida Democratic Party chair, is facing resistance from some Jewish Democrats after he was accused of meeting with a man linked to a terror group in Israel earlier this year.

Bullard says that the accusation lacked merit and that he is a supporter of the Jewish community.

Bullard is one of multiple candidates who are considering the state party position after Allison Tant announced Friday that she would not seek re-election in January. That could set off an intraparty fight about who would be the best person to lead the Democrats after it suffered crushing defeats including Hillary Clintons loss to Donald Trump in Florida.

The Bullard name is a longtime fixture in Miami-Dade politics because both of his parents served in the state Legislature. But he could face an uphill battle for state party chair due to his position on Israel.

A political committee for Florida Senate Republicans ran an ad this summer accusing Bullard of spending time with a "terrorist" during a trip to the Middle East.

NBC6 Miami reported that Bullard was photographed with a tour guide affiliated with the anti-Israel BDS movement, a pro-Palestinian group with ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, designated by the State Department as a terrorist group.

Bullard told the station the man was a "tour guide in old Jerusalem" and he "had no idea" of his political affiliations.

He told NBC6 that he is "pro-Israel, but I'm also pro-Palestine in that people can co-exist. ... My position is co-existence."

Bullard also faced heat for his vote in October 2015 against a bill that would ban the state of Florida from entering contracts with companies that boycott Israel. But when it reached the full Senate in January he voted for it and it passed unanimously.

A number of folks called me concerned over my committee vote, he told the Miami Herald. For the sake of not being the thorn in anyones side I decided to vote for it on the floor.

He told the Miami Herald that he shared the same concerns as the ACLU of Florida which wrote in a letter to Gov. Rick Scott that the bill is a clear violation of of long established First Amendment law. The ACLU urged Scott to veto the bill but he signed it into law.

Bullard told Colorlines, an online news site about race and culture, that boycotts are protected free speech: "We look back now in hindsight and say, '[Fighting] for the boycott and divestment movement against the South African government was the right thing to do.' How that is somehow different as it pertains to Palestinian rights is really inexplicable."

Fort Lauderdale lawyer Mike Moskowitz, who raised $1 million for Clinton and is a frequent contributor to Democrats, said he will actively work against Bullard if he runs for chair and will call activists and members of Congress to urge them to oppose Bullard.

I will discontinue all financial support if he becomes the chair; and will call around to all financial donors in the entire state and ask that they commit to do the same, he said.

Former state Sen. Steve Geller, who was elected to the Broward County Commission Nov. 8, said Jewish Democrats wont support Bullard.

I think he is just wrong on this issue, he said. Did the Republicans take it a little too far? Yes. Do I think Dwight is a terrorist? Not at all."

But Geller said that Bullard should have disassociated himself with the anti-Israel BDS group.

Geller and Moskowitz dont get to vote on the chair position -- that decision lies with state committeemen and women in January. But those who have a vote are likely to listen to input from prominent fundraisers and elected officials who could play a role in the 2018 races for governor and U.S. Senate. Committeemen and women in South Florida play a major role in selecting the chair because they get votes based on a formula that takes into account the number of registered Democrats in their county.

Bullard told the Miami Herald that he will seek re-election as county party chair Dec. 6th and then run for state chair.

He said that Jewish Democrats should not be swayed by the attack on him about his Middle East trip.

I would hope they would hear me out and not fall victim to a political smear campaign that has no merit, he said. I never met with a terrorist. Did I take a trip to Israel and the West Bank? Absolutely. The notion that I am anti-Israel and pro-terrorism, that was all orchestrated unfortunately by my opponent. Ive never been any of those things. I continue to be a strong supporting of the Jewish community.

Bullard lost his state senate race to Republican State Rep. Frank Artiles in a heavily Hispanic Miami-Dade district. The attack ad about Bullards trip to Israel was in Spanish.

Evan Ross, a member of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party and a political consultant who is Jewish, also raised concerns about Bullard.

Having a party chair who supports BDS and speaks out against Israels right to exist as a Jewish state would do irreparable harm to the relationship with the more than two-thirds of Jewish Floridians that consistently support Democrats, Ross said. We need a chair who will unite people at this critical time for our party, state and nation.

Democratic activists do not appear to have coalesced around any single candidate so far for chair and many of them have lost previous races including Annette Taddeo, who most recently lost a Miami-Dade primary for Congress; Alan Clendenin, who lost to Tant in 2013 and recently lost a bid for a Hillsborough County School Board seat and former state Sen. Dan Gelber who lost a race for attorney general against Pam Bondi in 2010.

Photo by the Associated Press


@PatriciaMazzei

The Republican National Committee acknowledged Monday its own predictive model ahead of last week's election had Donald Trump trailing Hillary Clinton by 2.8 percentage points in Florida.

But the GOP knew the presidential race was volatile. And its model told them which voters to go after as Election Day grew near.

"There was movement in those voters, very much, in the last few days," said Josh Kivett, the party's regional political director for the Southeast

So, relying on 1,773 paid staffers and trained organizers the party had built across the state over three years, Republicans dialed more voters and knocked on more doors, hoping to achieve some last-minute persuasion.

They did. Trump defeated Clinton by 1.2 percentage points and won the White House.

Now Republicans get to do a little gloating over how they did it -- especially given that the party was the one that stepped in given that Trump's campaign got an admittedly late start to the ground operation.

At the heart of the RNC's effort was community organizing -- the very work the GOP criticized President Barack Obama for doing as a young man.
@PatriciaMazzei

Cuban-American voters in Florida were about twice as likely to vote for Donald Trump than other Hispanics in the nation's largest swing state, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center.

The analysis, based on National Election Pool exit-poll data from last week's election, found 54 percent of Cuban-American voters backed Clinton, compared to 41 percent who favored Hillary Clinton. In contrast, non-Cuban Hispanics split for Clinton by 71-26 percent.

According to Pew, Clinton won Florida's non-Cuban Hispanics by 45 percentage points. She lost the state's Cuban Americans by 13 points.

The polling firm Latino Decision has cautioned against relying too much on exit-poll data when it comes to Hispanic voters, noting that the numbers released last Tuesday seemed to give Trump much more Latino support than pollsters could explain. Early exit-poll data showed between 52 and 54 percent of Florida Cuban Americans backing Trump.

During the campaign, one poll of Florida Hispanics found Cuban Americans evenly divided between Trump and Clinton. But then Trump made a significant push to win them over. Cuban Americans make up nearly three-quarters of Miami-Dade's registered Republicans.

In all, 35 percent of Florida Hispanics went for Trump -- down from 39 percent for Mitt Romney in 2012, Pew found.
via @learyreports

Florida's Brian Ballard and Mel Sembler will serve on the finance team for Donald Trump's inaugural, the transition announced this afternoon.

Both were on Trump's finance team, which helped raise money also for the RNC.

--ALEX LEARY, Tampa Bay Times
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For the first time in recent memory, two Bitterroot state legislators have been named majority leaders in both the state Senate and House.

Sen. Fred Thomas of Stevensville was elected majority leader in the Senate and Rep. Ron Ehli of Hamilton was named majority leader in the House Monday at the GOP caucus.

Rep. Theresa Manzella of Darby will serve as a majority whip.

Having served as a majority leader in the Senate before, Thomas said he knows that it comes with a lot of work and responsibility.

This position is about coordinating the agenda and running the Committee of the Whole, which is the Senate, when we debate bills and send them onto third reading.

Thomas said he was totally tickled that Ehli was elected to the post in the House.

It says a great deal about him, Thomas said. Hes a great leader. Hell do a fabulous job.

Thomas has served three terms in the Montana House and four in the Senate. This is the first time that hes seen legislators from the Bitterroot Valley selected at the same time to the prestigious posts.

Ehli said his focus will be bringing the party together.

I am all about being inclusive, Ehli said. Thats the one I said to the caucus. Theres been contention amongst different factions in the past. Everyone has a seat at the table. That was my message.

To the general public, Ehli said he wants people to know that the Republican House is strong.

We are unified, he said. We are united. We are preparing to bring a lot of good business to the people of Montana.
A Facebook post alleging a man was attacked in Missoula because of his support of Donald Trump has garnered thousands of shares and spread across social media.

Police say that although the man reported being the victim of a politically motivated attack, he does not wish to pursue any charges  a desire the man also expressed Monday evening to the Missoulian.

Michelle Mercer of Whitefish made the post Friday morning, writing that four men had attacked her friend for voting for who he thought had the best qualities to lead our country. She wrote that the incident occurred after he answered a question from a group of men about whom he voted for.

Ironic that Hillary claims to be against hate and violence and her supporters riot and cause violence. Please Share, the post concludes.

Attached are a pair of photos showing the alleged victim, one with a towel wrapped around his head and blood on his clothing, another showing a cut on his head.

On Monday, Mercer said that the man  a friend of hers  sent her the photos and she made the post after talking with him about the incident. Since it went up, the post has been shared more than 3,000 times, and Mercer said along with messages of support, she and the alleged victim have received hate mail.

Ive received ones saying, 'You deserve the same thing to happen to you if you support Trump,' she said. You cant fight or argue with these people; their mind is already made up.

The man about whom Mercer posted told the Missoulian on Monday that he had been downtown with his friend Jonathan Carter the night of the incident. The man, who asked that his name not be used, said the pair became separated at one of the bars they visited. As he was looking for Carter, the man said a group of men sitting at a table asked him the "odd question" of whether he supported Donald Trump. As he walked past, the man said he did.

He said when he left the bar to continue looking for Carter, the men were outside, and surrounded him as he walked away.

"At a certain point one of them throws their arm around my shoulder," he said. "Then one of them hit me in the genitals."

A second hit to the back of the head is that last "clear memory" the man said he had of the night. He said he came back to consciousness and was bleeding from his head.

He said he was found by a group of bystanders who eventually took him to the hospital.

The man said Carter, his friend, learned from other people who had seen the incident that he had been attacked, and that he believes the men Carter allegedly assaulted were the men who did it.

Because he can't prove what happened, the man said he decided he wouldn't be pursuing charges at this time.

Sgt. Travis Welsh, public information officer for the Missoula Police Department, said a man came to the station on Friday around 3 p.m. and reported to an officer that he'd been assaulted downtown the previous evening in the 100 block of Front Street West.

The man said he believed the attack was politically motivated, but told police he didnt want to pursue the matter further. Welsh said he did not know the nature of the alleged political motivation, and could not release the mans name.

In one of the responses to Mercers Facebook post, Jonathan Carter wrote that he was arrested Friday after defending the alleged victim, but added that he wasnt with him during the incident.

Welsh said around 1:45 a.m. Friday, an officer responded to reports of a man downtown punching random people. When the officer arrived at the intersection of Broadway and Ryman Street, a witness came up to the patrol car and pointed toward someone.

The officer saw a man, later identified as Carter, run up to another man and punch him in the head, knocking him to the ground, where he allegedly kicked the man repeatedly in the head, according to police accounts. Carter allegedly ran when the officer tried to arrest him, and was found on the north side of City Hall by another policeman responding to the foot chase.

Welsh said the arresting officer said four other men were also chasing Carter as he ran from police. Carter was charged with four misdemeanor counts of assault after three more alleged victims  including the friend of the man he allegedly knocked to the ground  told police Carter had attacked them. He is also charged with obstructing a peace officer.

In that whole report, I read the whole thing this morning, there is nothing that ties it to anything political, Welsh said.

According to Missoula Municipal Court, Carter pleaded not guilty to his charges on Monday. He did not return requests for comment Monday.
The body of a man found partially submerged on the banks of the Clark Fork River Saturday has been identified, but authorities are not releasing a name until his family has been notified.

Brenda Bassett, public information officer with the Missoula County Sheriffs Office, said the coroners report is still underway, and a cause and manner of death have not been determined. The body was discovered by an employee on break at the Taco John's on West Broadway.

Sgt. Travis Welsh with the Missoula Police Department, which is investigating the death, said they are waiting for the reports from the coroner and medical examiner before proceeding.

He said the man was a white male who appeared to be in his 50s, and did not appear to have been in the water for very long.
A fire crackled in the pit under the dark morning sky as Ernest Cut Finger lifted cedar, tobacco and sage up to the Creator.

"When we burn it, we offer that to him for what he gives us," said Cut Finger, a prayer warrior who lit and tended the sunrise prayer fire outside the Payne Family Native American Center at the University of Montana.

The beginning of the first annual "Community Resilience Week" came just days after an election that left half the country reeling and unsettled. President-elect Donald Trump defied the polls and, despite losing the popular vote, won a convincing Electoral College victory.

Resilience Week was planned well before the election and isn't related to any outcomes. But LeeAnn Bruised Head, of the Missoula Urban Indian Health Center, said Monday she was grateful the week's events would offer comfort to those seeking it.

"It's very timely, very needed," Bruised Head said.

About a dozen people stood in a circle around the fire early Monday morning to celebrate the physical, emotional and spiritual fortitude of humanity.

Patrick Weasel Head said he was wound tightly during the election, but he knows people have peace in their hearts and souls, an attribute he saw at a peace rally over the weekend. He invited the small group to forgive and forget and to pray with the braids of sweet grass Bruised Head provided.

"As the smoke rises, your prayers will rise as well," Weasel Head said.

Cut Finger and a couple of young boys carried enough logs to the fire pit to create a blaze that itself looked resilient. The supply looked as though it could fuel the fire all day, but one member of the group was looking for light elsewhere.

"I thought for sure we'd be able to see the moon, the super moon," said one participant.

A few patches of clear sky showed themselves, but the moon seemed to stay behind the clouds at least for some of the morning.

Resilience Week runs through Sunday, with a schedule posted online at resilientmissoula.org. The website identifies sponsors as the Missoula Senior Center, Trail 103.3, The Learning Center at Red Willow, and the Institute of Health and Humanities.
A friend set a bouquet of flowers at the front door of the Har Shalom synagogue this weekend.

One couple of another faith brought the worshipers an apple pie.

The gifts came one day after the synagogue requested police patrols upon hearing reports of anti-Semitic literature dropped elsewhere in Missoula.

The kindnesses came in addition to verbal attacks, racist rants, and minor physical assaults around Montana on the heels of a contentious presidential election that puts in the White House a leader who has made racist and sexist remarks.

When asked about such incidents around the country following his election, Donald Trump said in a "60 Minutes" interview that aired Sunday night that those reports saddened him. And directly addressing those responsible, he said, "Stop it."

Monday, the Southern Poverty Law Center noted that Richard Spencer, a white nationalist who based part-time in Whitefish, praised president-elect Trump's selection of Stephen Bannon, chairman of the hard-right Breitbart News, as chief strategist. The center said Bannon has a "long history of bigotry."

Trump's opponents also appear to be engaging in unsavory activity such as vulgar vandalism in Polson.

"In the weeks and months ahead, we will learn if the dark acts of the last few days become the norm or if they fade," said synagogue spiritual leader Laurie Franklin in a message to the congregation.

Political outsider and businessman Trump pulled in enough votes last week to claim the presidency come January, and hate watchdogs have reported spikes in activity since the Republican real estate mogul won. Peaceful rallies and vigils are advocating for calm in the sometimes violent-aftermath as well.

The Montana Human Rights Network anticipates the verbal and physical attacks fueled by bigotry will continue to a varied degree. Network co-director Rachel Carroll Rivas said Trump's interest in continuing the sorts of mass rallies that characterized his campaign could further perpetuate verbal abuse and action.

"I do not think the numbers are large," Rivas said of those supporting the white supremacist agenda. "I don't think that changes the intimidation factor."

The fliers that landed in Missoula cited the American Nazi Party; party leaders did not respond Monday to the Missoulian's emailed request for comment about the group's membership and activity in Montana.

***

The following comprise some of the reports of verbal abuse and minor physical assaults and activity since the election:

In Kalispell, the Montana Human Rights Network received a report that three juvenile males attacked a single woman holding a sign at a protest against Trump. The men allegedly tore the sign, threw the pieces at her, and pushed the victim, Rivas said.

A man in Missoula reported a physical attack Friday, according to the Missoula Police Department. Sgt. Travis Welsh said the man believed the assault that left him with minor injuries was politically motivated, but the man did not want to press charges. A post about the alleged incident was spread widely on social media.

In Great Falls, the bestselling author of "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" wrote a Facebook post about a family member's encounter. Jamie Ford, who is part Chinese, said the person told his family member to leave the country because Trump was elected.

In Billings, the co-owner of a coffee shop that was about to open wrote sexist and racist comments on his Facebook page. The Billings Gazette reported Larry Heafner left the following note under a video that showed black men assaulting a white man: "These f---ing monkeys would be hanging if I saw this s---," and later added, "You don't see white people doing this s---!"

A day or so after Lake County Republicans vacated their headquarters in Polson following last weeks election, vandals spray-painted vulgar language, anarchy signs, pictures and anti-Trump messages on the building. Its hard to believe something like that would happen in Polson, said Ron Tjaden, chairman of the Lake County Republican Central Committee. Especially when theres nothing there in the building. The vandalism was cleaned up Sunday.

Social media also lit up with reports that law enforcement could not verify. One unverified social media story that circulated in Missoula noted a Native American student at the University of Montana had been jumped and put in the hospital.

"Everybody is jumping to conclusions, and it's just kind of where we're at as a country," said Marty Ludemann, chief of the University of Montana campus police.

Monday, the University of Montana referred to the incident on its own Facebook page.

"At this time, the UM Police Department has not received a report of this incident," the post said. "Several UM officials are actively reaching out to the author of the post and to peer law enforcement agencies seeking additional information.

"If anyone has information regarding this incident, they are urged to contact the UMPD at 243-6131 so that it can be investigated. Information can be kept confidential."

Sgt. Welsh with the Missoula Police Department said he did not have information about the alleged attack on campus. Welsh also said investigators could not confirm the other incident widely spread on social media that showed a man with a head wound and jacket that looked bloody. [See related story.]

As interesting or worrisome news crops up on social media, Welsh said people should remember the stories aren't always accurate. He advised people to verify information before drawing conclusions.

"Things show up there that may or may not be accurate, and a lot of times, there's not a good way to find out," Welsh said. "But people take advantage of that sometimes, you know."

***

Franklin, at Har Shalom, said she believes most people respect the U.S. Constitution and the values enshrined in the Bill of Rights, such as the right to peacefully assemble and the right to worship freely.

"I think most people value these things, and we share them as common values," she said.

Franklin, rabbinic intern, also said she does not feel personally threatened by the anti-Semitic literature. However, she said the good news is that when the leaflets came to light, friends and strangers showed their support for the synagogue.

"That outpouring of support from people is a very beautiful thing, and it's a hopeful thing," Franklin said.

In the days ahead, Rivas said the network will be working on protecting people who are targeted. She also noted the population in Montana is predominantly white, and she called on white people to talk with each other and speak against hateful activity.

"There's been a lot of complacency during what many people called post-racial America during the presidency of Barack Obama, and clearly, it doesn't feel like that right now," Rivas said.
Many of our national forests are in dire condition and Congress must take urgent action to address this worsening crisis.

Catastrophic wildfires have once again wreaked havoc this year, leaving nearly 5 million acres burned, destroying hundreds of homes, unleashing untold amounts of carbon dioxide into the air and, most tragically, claiming several lives. These unacceptable outcomes are hardly new; they have been harsh realities for many years running. And with tens of millions of dead and damaged trees across many national forests, the problem will only grow worse.

As Forest Service professionals who dedicated our professional lives to protecting these forests, we have closely examined the science related to the causes and facilitators of catastrophic wildfire. The science overwhelmingly shows that excessive fuel loads, overly crowded tree stands, and trees weakened by drought, insects and diseases all contribute to the severity of wildfires. In our judgment, more active management to address these factors, including more responsible and timely harvesting, is unquestionably needed.

While the Forest Service is working to increase treatments on at-risk acres, we urge Congress to address the many barriers to achieving the level of management that is necessary. Funding for hazardous fuels reduction has grown considerably over the past decade, but more investments in reducing excessive fuels and improving the health of our forests is critical. And we strongly believe Congress should treat the worst catastrophic wildfires as natural disasters and be eligible for emergency funding. This reform is crucial to safeguarding funding for other national forest priorities.

In addition, Congress should reduce red tape and accelerate science-based forest restoration projects. We urge support for putting projects developed by diverse collaborative stakeholders on the fast track. And because many projects involving timber harvests have multiple benefits, such as enhancing habitat and increasing recreation, we also urge Congress to streamline such integrated management projects in the same fashion as projects designed specifically to reduce hazardous fuels and address insect and disease damage.

Further, we implore Congress to go a step further by discouraging obstructionist litigation that continues to slow too many forest restoration projects. Over the past decade a small number of groups have filed hundreds of lawsuits against projects in western national forests. There are roughly 30 active lawsuits impacting projects in Montana and California alone. Most of these lawsuits are against projects that were developed by diverse collaboratives.

Such chronic litigation undercuts the tireless work of collaborative participants and slows needed restoration work. It also forces the Forest Service to divert limited personnel to attend to the lawsuits, as well as bulletproof new projects with excessive, time-consuming analysis, both of which delay the development and implementation of new projects and result in large costs to taxpayers. We urge Congress to require courts to give maximum deference to the expertise of Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service specialists, and to make it harder for courts to halt forest restoration projects with an injunction.

We applaud recent actions by Montana Sen. Steve Daines and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein for working together in a bipartisan fashion to call for faster management tools and discouraging litigation by establishing a pilot arbitration program to resolve conflicts and carry out projects faster.

Finally, we urge Congress to promote new markets for wood products coming from our national forests. Wood has tremendous potential as a renewable source of energy, and new technologies allow for safe and reliable use of wood in tall structures. We encourage Congress to find responsible incentives to help ensure that the wood removed from our national forests is put to such sound, innovative uses.

These much-needed reforms will reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires and improve the environmental stewardship of our national forests. They will also create and protect forest jobs and enhance the economies of our forested communities. We urge Congress to enact these common-sense solutions before the final embers of this years devastating fire season are extinguished.
In a recent (Nov. 3) column, Leonard Pitts calls for destruction of the GOP (Republican Party), naively based on some offensive right-wing communication that he is unable to deal with.

His hateful rhetoric  like left unlivable, immoliated and nuked  is reminiscent of Hitler's antisemitic rants in Nazi Germany and should never be published.

The GOP that Pitts wants razed to the foundation is tens of millions of hardworking Americans who believe in smaller government, less regulation, lower taxes, more individual income, a balanced federal budget, secure borders and adherence to the U.S. Constitution, concepts apparently foreign to Pitts and his ilk. Are these the people he wants eliminated?

Most of the GOP is among the 53 percent of Americans who pay income taxes to provide services to the 47 percent who don't. As the recent election shows, the GOP is supported by the majority of Americans outside urban centers, ghettos and academia.

There are political crazies on both the right wing and left wing. Pitts is clearly in the latter group. Fortunately for him, his hate speech is protected by our Constitution, but it has no place in civil discourse, and does not deserve special consideration on a newspaper Opinion page.

Philip L. Barney,

Polson
STEVENSVILLE  The citys largest employer, Selway Corp., reduced its workforce significantly Monday through layoffs or reduced work hours.

Everybody was affected, said Selways operations manager Randy Osgood. It happened so quickly. I dont have the numbers at this point.

A downturn in natural resource industries, especially coal, has hit the steel fabrication company hard.

There has been a steady decline in those industries over the past eight years, Osgood said.

The company has looked to diversify its business. Last year, during a tour celebrating the companys 40th anniversary, Gov. Steve Bullock was shown work being completed on enormous structures that would be used to keep fish out of turbines at a Washington State dam. Others would help rebuild a 1.5-mile-long wharf in California, and haul coal on a conveyor between a new mine and power plants in North Dakota.

At that time in 2015, the companys goal was to add employees if the work continued to come in as anticipated.

Even with all those diversified operations, its just not been enough to offset the loss of work that weve experienced from the downturn in coal and other natural resources, Osgood said.

Osgood said the layoff is expected to be temporary. The hope is that people will be back to work after the first of the year.

We have a lot of work that we are currently bidding, he said. Certainly, the work is out there. We see this as a temporary situation. We plan to bring people back.

Selway Corp. typically employees between 120 and 150 people, Osgood said.

There have been layoffs in the past, but not to this extent, he said.

Its a very tough situation, he said. These are high-paying jobs from the bottom up. People make a good living here.
President-elect Donald J. Trump will not be sworn in for two more months, but as of next week, the big gold letters spelling out his name will be removed from three large apartment buildings on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, tenants were told on Tuesday.

Hundreds of tenants at the buildings at 140, 160 and 180 Riverside Boulevard, which contain a total of 1,325 apartments, signed a petition to Dump the TRUMP name, last month after Mr. Trumps provocative campaign statements had offended women, immigrants and liberals on the Upper West Side.

The buildings, between 66th and 69th Streets, along Riverside Boulevard, are owned not by Mr. Trump but by Equity Residential, a publicly traded company based in Chicago, which bought them in 2005 for $809 million.

Mr. Trump, a Republican, had been involved in the development known at various times as Riverside South and Trump Place. Equity Residential kept the name Trump Place on the exterior of the buildings and on their letterhead, signage and uniforms.
Copyright  2022 HT Digital Streams Ltd All Right Reserved
Elton John plans Bozeman, Missoula shows

Sir Elton is headed back to Montana for shows in Bozeman and Missoula next spring.

Elton John and His Band will perform March 7 at Brick Breeden Fieldhouse and March 8 at the Adams Center in Missoula.

The shows are part of an 11-city tour promoting his latest release, Wonderful Crazy Night and hits from his five-decade career.

Tickets for both shows go on sale on Friday, Nov. 18, at 10 a.m.

The shows are presented by AEG Live. Bozeman tickets are available at www.ticketswest.com or by phone at 1-800-325-7328.

Tickets for the Missoula show are available at www.griztix.com or 1-888-MONTANA.

Johns band features two longtime bandmates, Nigel Olsson, who was part of Johns original three-piece band, on drums; and Davey Johnson, who first recorded with John in 1971 and joined the band in 1972, on guitar.

John is one of the most successful artists of all time, with classic hits like Your Song, Crocodile Rock, Rocket Man, and Bennie and the Jets.

 The Billings Gazette

Investigation continues after body found in Clark Fork

The body of a man found partially submerged on the banks of the Clark Fork River Saturday has been identified, but authorities are not releasing a name until his family has been notified.

Brenda Bassett, public information officer with the Missoula County Sheriffs Office, said the coroners report is still underway, and a cause and manner of death have not been determined. The body was discovered by an employee on break at the Taco John's on West Broadway.

Sgt. Travis Welsh with the Missoula Police Department, which is investigating the death, said they are waiting for the reports from the coroner and medical examiner before proceeding.

He said the man was a white male who appeared to be in his 50s, and did not appear to have been in the water for very long.

 Missoulian

Accidental discharge of revolver claims life of Libby man

LIBBY  A Libby man was accidentally shot to death over the weekend while moving firearms out of his residence.

Lincoln County Undersheriff Brandon Huff said 56-year-old James Metts died when a revolver that was being moved discharged, striking Metts in the leg.

The bullet severed an artery and Metts, who was taken to Cabinet Peaks Medical Center, did not survive, Huff said.

The incident occurred at approximately 9:47 p.m. on Saturday. Huff said Metts was handling the firearm when it discharged. Other people in the residence called 911.

Both Lincoln County Sheriffs deputies and Libby Police responded to the report.

 Missoulian
In a state with a poor record for worker-related accidents, Montana Resources safety record stands out, say state insurance officials.

Montana ranks 40 percent higher than the nation in worker-related accidents, statistics show.

But MR has 2,687 days  and 5.6 million hours worked  with no accidents severe enough to cause workers lost time at the job.

The last time an MR worker had such an accident was more than seven years ago.

To combat the states poor safety trend, Montana State Fund, the state's largest workers' compensation insurance company, is distributing $35 million this month and for part of December back to policy holders across the state. In Butte-Silver Bow, the State Fund is returning $1.19 million to 608 companies. (See information box.)

MR received the third-largest dividend in B-SB. Butte Public School district is receiving the largest amount. Harrington Bottling Company is getting the second-largest amount. Because the Montana State Fund is a nonprofit insurance company that does not receive public funds, it is not required to disclose the amounts going to other employers, said Ethan Heverly, director of government and community relations for Montana State Fund.

Because of its safety record, Montana Resources is in the top 100 companies statewide for getting a dividend return, according to the insurance company.

MR received a check Tuesday for $58,164 at its office at 600 Shields Ave. The money comes from MRs premiums the company paid to the Montana State Fund in 2014.

Montana State Fund president Laurence Hubbard said that if companies state-wide improved their safety records to match the national average, the state could save $145 million in workers compensation.

MR safety manager Pete Steilman said MR stresses safety even if that means taking a little longer to get a job done. He said contractors often express surprise at that attitude.

But MR stresses caution and deliberation over speed because when an incident occurs, it has a ripple effect throughout the community, Steilman said.

I personally want to minimize that, Steilman said.

That means that ordinary workers are encouraged to stop and say something if they see another employee or a contractor working on a project in an unsafe manner. Taking corrective action at the mine doesnt have to come from the top.

So youre not just seeing it, youre feeling it, Steilman said.

Mike McGivern, MR vice president for human resources, said the culture has changed throughout heavy industry for improved safety over the years. Buttes mining past left behind a legacy of injuries and fatalities.

Even as recently as the 1970s, there was a get er done attitude in mining, McGivern said.

That took a toll, he said.
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Converting the touristy Chamber trolley into a pasty truck is one fine idea.

Buttes famous favorite mining food would be even more popular.

Thats the original, award-winning business plan Butte High student McCall Maciag presented to a crowd of 220 at the fourth annual Butte Local Development Corporation dinner at Fairmont last week.

I mean, who doesnt like a good ole Butte pasty? Maciag asked the audience to much applause.

Maciag was one of four students who read essays at the classy celebration. Other essays that tickled the business crowd were:

John Sullivan, second place  building The Anselmo Fun Land atop the Anselmo Mine  complete with zip line, bungee cord, food court and race track.

Madeline Staples, third place  opening a Butte-themed ice cream store, with flavors like Tap Er Lite turtle tracks, Never Sweat salted caramel and boozie offerings like St. Patricks Day Baileys and mint chocolate chip.

Danessa Coffey, fourth place  offering a mortuary service to bring restless souls home again to be buried in the Berkeley Pit. Puns run rampant in her essay.

What if you could be put to rest in the one place you love, the mines of Butte, America?, asked Coffey to guffaws.

It can't be said Butte-ites don't laugh at themselves.

The Butte Elevated Awards contest is BLDCs way of encouraging entrepreneurship as a possible career path.

Competing against 200 other essay entrants, Butte High peers, Maciag won $150 for first place.

So, there should be enough money here for her to launch her business, Mom and Dad, said BLDC Executive Director Pam Haxby-Cote, the dynamo behind the dinner, which drew twice as many local business folks across the spectrum than last year.

The Educator of the Year Award went to someone who told me she prefers to work behind the scenes."

But Butte School Superintendent Judy Jonart had to give a speech anyway.

Im humbled and surprised about the award, Jonart told the audience. We are a great community when we work together. Hopefully, some of the partnerships that weve established have made our district stand out among the best in the state.

In 2013, she led the charge in hooking up the district to the first-ever citywide fiber network in the state in partnership with the Montana Economic Revitalization and Development Institute.

After 30 years in education, Jonart said she is even more passionate about public education today.

Ive always felt that schools play an important role in economic development. Theres not a greater example of when schools work with private partnerships. Great things can happen.

Butte set the standard for faster internet, as Jonart, a former technology coordinator, led the way in that regard. Missoula County Public Schools now plan to build the first district-owned network in the state.

School board trustees nominated Jonart for the award. Yet she insists on keeping students in the forefront.

If true, effective leadership spawns similar leaders, then Buttes business future looks bright with local kids in the starting lineup.
Bob Mehrens, Butte Central High School physical education teacher, takes stock of the turkey stock donated by the Uptown Cafe to the annual Laverne Combo Thanksgiving Dinner during preparations on Monday in the school kitchen. Peg Boyle, countless other parents and students donate their time and energy to pull off the free dinner Tuesday at 5 p.m. for seniors and the home-bound. Boyle rounded up 34 turkeys and all the fixings cooked by school moms. Boyle has led the dinner for 25 years, but it started in 1972. Traditionally, students serve diners and deliver about 400 meals to the home-bound earlier in the day.
I suspect that many of us are still reeling from the gut-punch of this election cycle.

But, the question that kept gnawing at me as I watched the digital maps and talking heads dance across the flat screen, was how did we, as Americans, fall so low that we have now elected to this lands (and the worlds) highest, most powerful political office, a person who Atlantic Magazine described as the most ostentatiously unqualified major-party candidate in the 227-year history of the American presidency.

How did our political system produce two candidates that everybody loved to hate. How did we fail to see the parallel of pre-war Germany re-enacting itself in 2016 America?

I dont know the answer to these questions. Is it that campaigns for public office have become a theater of the absurd, funded by troughs of money from a select, powerful few who are accountable to no one? Probably.

Is it that the political parties are so imbued with and committed to demanding conformity to their platforms that they have completely lost track of what is needed by our collective whole? That has to be a big part. Is it that willful ignorance has become an art-form because we have marginalized and devalued education -- because we teach our children to regurgitate data, but not to think and retain knowledge? Yes, that too is likely.

Is it because we have allowed the theocrats and oligarchs bombast and rhetoric to drown out reasoned civil discussion and debate? No, doubt.

Might it be because we get our news from media that sensationalizes, instead dispassionately reporting, informing and analyzing? Yes, that also. Or, is it that we just dont respect each other  it being easier to slice and dice and stereotype We the People into neat little throw-away doggy bags? That, too, is a part.

Likely, all of these are factors. But, I think these are merely symptoms of the greater evil  the moral and spiritual lethargy that comes from taking for granted what we have and enjoy as nation.

To be sure, there are a great many of us that have nothing to take for granted. But, for the greater majority of the rest of us  the post-war beneficiaries of varying degrees of the good life, the American Dream  we have lost sight of the privation, the struggle, and the quest for excellence of our parents, our grandparents and theirs and theirs, that got us where we are today. We are secure; we have peace; we have resources; we have wealth; we have power; the lights go on every morning; we have water and food. And, these have always just been there. Gods largess to a deserving people, for those who believe in such nonsense.

It has become cliche that freedom isnt free. But, really, it isnt.

I believe that if we are to keep our Country from continuing to circle the drain of oblivion into which every world power has ultimately succumbed, then we must take back our national anima, our collective conscience. We need goals to use our wealth and power for national and global betterment  not just for individual gain.

We must reacquire our identity as Americans instead of being just different groups of warring individuals. We must elect statespersons to public office, instead of money-dependent, political hacks. We need leaders, not demigods. We must have vision, instead of myopia. Indeed, We the People must lead, instead of blindly following what the puppets of wealth and special interest dole out to us.

Have we ever been perfect? Certainly not. Have we ever been better? Most assuredly, we have. Can we survive another 227 years? That remains to be seen. It is really up to us.
Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.,

VS.

Todd A. Staley, Misty Staley, John Eldon Wunder, And Muscatine Adjustment Bureau

As a result of the judgment rendered in the above referenced court case, an execution was issued by the court to the Sheriff of this county. The execution ordered the sale of defendant(s) Real Estate Described Below. To satisfy the judgment. The property to be sold is

A part of Lot 54 of Terrace Heights Addition to the City of Muscatine, in Muscatine County, Iowa, as described as follows: Commencing at the Southeasterly Corner of said Lot; thence North 38 degrees West 133 feet to the most Northerly Corner of said Lot; thence Southwesterly along the Northwesterly line of said Lot a distance of 148 feet; thence Southerly in a straight line to a point on the South Line of said Lot, which is 192.7 feet West of the point of beginning; thence East 192.7 feet to the point of beginning.

Property Address: 843 Newell Ave., Muscatine, IA 52761

The described property will be offered for sale at public auction for cash only as follows:

Sale Date: 01/10/2017

Sale Time: 9:30 am

Place of Sale: Muscatine County Jail Lobby, 400 Walnut Street, Muscatine

Homestead: Defendant is advised that if the described real estate includes the homestead (which must not exceed 1/2 Acre if within a city or town plat, or, if rural, must not exceed 40 Acres), defendant must file a homestead plat with the Sheriff within ten (10) days after service of this notice, or the Sheriff will have it platted and charge the costs to this case.

This sale not subject to Redemption.

Property exemption: Certain money or property may be exempt. Contact your attorney promptly to review specific provisions of the law and file appropriate notice, if applicable.

Judgment Amount: $92,718.65

Costs: $6,918.56

Accruing Costs: Plus

Interest: $1,969.95

Sheriffs Fees: Pending

Date: 11/02/2016

Attorney:

C. Anthony Crnic

925 E. 4th St.

Waterloo, IA 50266

(319)234-2530

C.J. Ryan

Muscatine County Sheriff

Melissa Hurlbut

Civil Deputy
MUSCATINE, Iowa  Central Middle School celebrated Veterans Day without fanfare on Tuesday. Instead of holding a large gathering, which can be found elsewhere, Troy Kulland, a school counselor for Central Middle School, wanted to combine education with the celebration of veterans.

Kulland asked veterans through the American Legion and Veterans Affairs to speak to students at the school in social studies classes.

"What I have found when talking to these social studies teachers, these kids have no idea what a veteran is," he said.

Veterans were asked to talk about what branch of the military they were in, their rank, and some of their experiences with training and what life was like during the time they were in the military.

"Our veterans are more like a living history, they're like walking history," Kulland said.

Students were assigned to lead veterans to different classrooms, or to their free lunch during the middle of the day.

In an eighth grade social studies class, teacher Jeff Evans asked two Vietnam War veterans, Steve Comstock and John Pahl, questions that students had worked to prepare. He asked what the most important lesson was they learned during their time in the service.

"That I was capable of doing more than I thought I was," Pahl said.

Comstock said he remembered being in eighth grade, and being disappointed when he began to look for a job. Because his family was "on the poorer side of the tracks," many of the jobs in town were not available to him. Being in the military changed how he felt about himself.

"It wasn't a status of saying 'I'm better than you,' it was a status of saying 'I respect who I am and I will support who I am and I will support who you are,'" he said.

Students took notes and listened attentively. Kulland said many of the teachers planned lessons and assignments based on what they learned from the veterans who spoke.

Bridgette Bissll, and eighth grade student ambassador who helped lead veterans to their classrooms and make sure they had water and a place to sit, said she enjoyed hearing Comstock speak about how "You can be stronger than you think."

"I've been listening to these veterans' stories all day, I never get tired or bored of it," she said. "They're just so interesting and inspiring and it's just, it's very neat to hear."

Evans said the face-to-face opportunity to learn about history has been a good experience for his students.

"This is a lesson that we don't ever get with a textbook," he said.

Comstock and Pahl were both members of the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War, and said the event was one of the first times they were asked to tell their stories.

"To me it brings up a lot of memories and to be able to share them, and I realized the youth of today probably has very little awareness of Vietnam. And the Vietnam-era military was the forgotten military," Comstock said.

Pahl said he appreciated the opportunity to pass on advice to students, and tell them what life was like in the military.

"I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of interest they showed in what we had to tell them," he said.

Jen Watkins-Schoenig, the director of Muscatine County Veterans Affairs, said meeting veterans will hopefully teach children that what they have is a privilege, especially when the meet veterans who were drafted and had no choice.

"I think it's a good perspective of life and that you shouldn't take things for granted," she said.

Kulland said he hopes to continue the event, connecting students to veterans willing to talk about their past.

"Behind every veteran is a story," he said.
MUSCATINE, Iowa  The Muscatine County Board of Supervisors discussed a request by Muscatine Downtown Investors to continue using Harmony Lane for access to 3500 Harmony Court.

Supervisor Jeff Sorensen suggested the company be held accountable for any road damage. The board agreed the language should be added to the agreement before it would be approved.

"I don't see this as a big issue, as long as we address it," Supervisor Bob Howard said.

Planning and Zoning Administrator Eric Furnas suggested photos be taken and documentation recorded of the road's current condition to assist in addressing any possible issues in the future.

The agreement was scheduled to be discussed at the board's next meeting.

In other business, a total of three applications have been received for the Muscatine County Zoning Commission, from Clyde Evans, Laura Liegois, and Thomas Furlong.

Nancy Schreiber, the director of Administrative Services for the county, said to meet gender balance requirements, the person appointed should be male. The board will decide who to appoint to the commission at a later meeting.

Bette Schneider was appointed to serve on the Historic Preservation Commission, which Schreiber said will meet the gender balance requirements. According to the application, Schneider is a retired realtor and farmer who also led a 4-H group for 11 years.
MUSCATINE, Iowa  Artists from China visited Muscatine High School (MHS) Monday afternoon to share the music, sculpture, painting, and other art forms of their culture.

As part of the 2016 Muscatine Chinese Culture Week, the event was held in the commons area at the high school.

Dan Stein, the chair of the Muscatine China Initiatives Committee, Yu Aijing, the manager of the Beijing Cultural Investment and Development Group, and MHS Principal Jared Smith welcomed students, staff, and guests to the event.

"Muscatine students and citizens have such a great opportunity to learn about Chinese culture, and for the Chinese to learn more about the Midwest, Muscatine, and the United States," Stein said.

Stefani Li, of China Windows Group, served as a translator for the event, allowing the speakers to be heard in both languages.

Li Yang and Li Hui, musicians from China, played a song for Muscatine, as well as a traditional song, on the Guzheng and Erhu, both string instruments.

The Muscatine High School Choir, which traveled to China this summer, then sang a Christmas carol, and Love Keeps the Eternal Memory, a song about the relationship between China and Muscatine.

After the formal presentation and speakers had finished, students could visit different tables in the crowded room to try their hands at different Chinese art forms, or to watch as artists demonstrated.

"It's a great connection that we have here," Smith said.

Hannah Cole, a junior at MHS, said she was enjoying the once in a lifetime experience as she learned clay sculpture facial painting from artist Tong Xiufen.

"I think it's a great experience," she said.

Senior William Kelly has previously visited Beijing, and said he misses his time there, but enjoyed the opportunity to experience Chinese Art and Culture at MHS.

"I think this is pretty incredible," he said.

Daniel Wang, CEO of China Windows Group, has previously worked to sponsor students to spend time in China and was happy to be able to help more students learn about China.

"I'm so proud of my culture," he said.
MOUNT PLEASANT, Iowa  Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016 marks an important day in international history as Iowa Wesleyan University celebrates Commander Peggy Whitson (Class of 1981) on her launch to the International Space Station. This marks Commander Whitson's third mission aboard.

Iowa Wesleyan will be hosting a Launch Viewing Party in the International Room of the Chadwick Library beginning 1:30 p.m. with launch scheduled at 2:20 p.m. CT as they live stream this historic launch from Russia into space and wish Commander Whitson, along with the entire crew of Exhibition 50/51, much success and God's blessings.

The community is invited to attend this memorable event and to celebrate Iowan Peggy Whitson as she makes history. If you are unable to attend the event on campus, you may stream the launch at the following URL.

The crew will contribute to hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science aboard humanitys only microgravity laboratory. The crew is scheduled to return to Earth next spring.

Dr. Peggy Whitson graduated from Iowa Wesleyan in 1981 with a B.S. in Biology and Chemistry, Whitson went on to earn her Doctorate in Biochemistry from Rice University in 1985. She then continued her studies and started her career with Johnson Space Center and NASA.

Dr. Whitson is an Aviation Hall of Fame Inductee and 2011 Russian Medal of Merit for Space recipient. Whitsons accomplishments have earned innumerable awards and honors, immeasurable respect, and more than a few entries in the annals of history.

Dr. Whitson will become the first woman to command the space station twice. Her first tenure as commander was in 2007, when she became the first woman to hold this post. Whitson has an advanced degree in biochemistry, and prior to her selection as an astronaut candidate in 1996, she served in prominent medical science research and supervisory positions at NASA.

Still, this out of this world Iowan remains mindful of her deep dedication to inspiring others and encouraging them to follow their dreams. Somehow, she always finds the time to share her amazing journey through her Twitter feed @AstroPeggy, Facebook @NASAastronautPeggyWhitson as well as Tumblr.

Expedition 50/51 will launch from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Crew members include Dr. Whitson (Commander); Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency, and Oleg Novitskiy of the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos.
MUSCATINE, Iowa  Students at Jefferson Elementary School released almost 600 red balloons into the air with notes or photos about what education means to them on Monday, to kick off American Education Week.

Jefferson Elementary Principal Corry Spies said he hoped the balloon release would help highlight the great things taking place at Jefferson and across the Muscatine Community School District.

"So we wanted to take a moment to bring attention to the great things that students are accomplishing through the efforts of our fantastic staff and district employees," he said.

Attached to the end of each balloon's string was a piece of paper with colorful pictures, a word, or several words written by students.

"They have made some notes on a half sheet of paper with some important thoughts that they had about what opportunities education has provided for them or will provide for them, with attention to those who are helping them each day," Spies said.

The pieces of paper also included contact information so people can reach out to the school if they find one of the balloons.

Jerry Riibe, the superintendent for the Muscatine Community School District, had the idea for the balloon launch, Spies said. After Spies spoke to the excited students gathered next to the building, Riibe counted down.

"Three, two one," he said, and students released the balloons with a cheer.

Fifth grade student Makinley Hage said her paper had "Happy" written on it with "a bunch of smiley faces," because she felt happy about education.

"Education is fun and you get to have fun doing it and there's a ton of smiles that you get to see" she said.

Fifth grade student Cory Shank said his word was "School."

"Without school no one would get an education," he said.

Cambree Dohrmann, also in fifth grade, said her paper said "Dream," because if someone wants to be a teacher or a chef, they will need education to reach that dream.

"I wrote dream because your dream will be based off of your education," she said.
MUSCATINE, Iowa  The monthly meeting of the Muscatine Landlord Association will be a luncheon at noon on Monday, Nov. 21 at Pizza Ranch. This months speakers will be from the drug task force. Anyone owning rental property is invited to attend. Please call Steve Welk @ 563.506.9355 if you have questions.
MUSCATINE, Iowa  The City of Muscatine will host a public engagement meeting for the Riverfront Master Plan at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 16, at the Riverview Center, 110 Harbor Drive. This meeting will serve to kick off the planning process for the future of Riverside Park.

Ed Freer of Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc. will be in Muscatine to help guide the community through the process of strategic planning for the Riverfront Master Plan. The timing for this meeting is ideal as it will dovetail the Mississippi Drive Corridor Project plans. Citizens are invited to come together once again to express their ideas and opinions about the future of one of our key attractions: the Muscatine Riverfront.
MUSCATINE, Iowa  Stanley Consultants announces the retirement of several long-time employees; Pat Mullin, Steve Schebler, Nancy Shell, Larry Shell, and Brenda Degner.

Pat Mullin, P.E., Vice President and Senior Project Manager, designed and managed civil engineering projects around the world for 47 years. He joined the firm in 1968 as an engineering aide and for the next five decades held multiple positions including senior engineer, project manager, director of project management and director of professional relations. He was elected vice president in 1993 and received his Career Service Award in 2001. Mullin actively promoted the engineering profession through volunteer service to several engineering organizations. In 2005 he was named Mentor of the Year by the National Society of Professional Engineers.

Steve Schebler, P.E., Senior Vice President, was a powerhouse in the companys energy business. He joined in 1970 in the Operations/Power Group and for 46 years steadily climbed from mechanical engineer to chief mechanical to market leader to power business leader, and vice president to senior vice president. He was elected to the Board of Directors in 2012. Scheblers leadership and expertise were instrumental in building the companys world renown power generation services. He received his Career Service Award in 2007.

Larry Shell, P.E., Senior Project Manager, concluded his 41-year career as project manager for two generating units under construction in the Dominican Republic for the Dominican Corporation of State Electrical Companies (CDEEE). A fitting final project for an engineer who traveled to 49 states and 11 countries designing and managing a plethora of industrial and university utility projects, and electric generation and pollution control projects for electric utilities. He served as project manager on the design of three electric generating units for East Kentucky Power Cooperative. In appreciation of his service to the people of the Kentucky, the states Commonwealth named him a Kentucky Colonel. He was elected a vice president in 2005, and received his Career Service Award in 2007.

Nancy Shell, Mechanical Designer, worked in several different departments as an engineering technician and senior planning technician during her 27 years with the company. She served most recently in the Power Mechanical Department as a mechanical designer, assisting with power plant assessment studies and design projects. She was a very active member of the local chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), serving in many roles, including multiple terms as treasurer and president. While serving as newsletter editor of the organization the publication received a national award. In 2015 she received the Quad Cities Engineering and Science Councils (QCESC) Presidents Award of Merit for her contributions as treasurer of QCESC for five years.

Brenda Degner, Information Services Technician for the Help Desk Department, joined the company in 2007 as an associate information services technician after retiring from a 30-year career in teaching at the Louisa Muscatine Community School District. In 2012 she was promoted to information services technician. Degner personified the help in Help Desk, daily providing assistance and tackling all problems with a smile. She created and removed network and email accounts into archive, performed data backup into archive, and monitored day-to-day backups of the companys computer servers across the world.
WAPELLO, Iowa  A Wapello man was arrested on Tuesday in alleged connection with a fire that destroyed a hay bale clothed as a Minion, an animated character from the film "Despicable Me," in downtown Wapello.

Emmanuel Nunez Diaz, 21, was arrested at his residence on Tuesday, Nov. 15, in connection with a fire that took place in the early morning hours on Oct. 27, according to a press release from the Wapello Police Department.

In addition to destroying the hay bale Minion, the fire also damaged a city light pole, according to the press release.

Nunez Diaz has been charged with second-degree arson, a class C felony, and third-degree criminal mischief, an aggravated misdemeanor.

He was taken to the Louisa County Jail where he is being held on a $12,000 bond.

Emily Wenger of the Muscatine Journal
MUSCATINE, Iowa  Charlie Kimball, the first licensed driver with diabetes in the history of IndyCar, spoke to Muscatine residents about his life with Type 1 diabetes on Monday.

World Diabetes Day is Monday, Nov. 14, and Novo Nordisk sponsored Kimball to speak about how he has managed his diabetes while continuing to live his dream.

Kimball was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes nine years ago, and said although it has not always been easy he has managed to incorporate management strategies into his active lifestyle.

The main point he hopes those who listen to him speak will walk away remembering, is "You can still live your dreams," Kimball said.

"And yeah, it's not easy," he added. "There are times when it's very very hard, but at the same time it can still be extremely rewarding to achieve those goals and overcome the challenge of diabetes."

As he spoke to the crowd of people who attended the free event at Allsteel, Kimball recalled a time when he realized what his racing could mean to others with diabetes.

He had a disappointing race day, he said, when a child approached him. Instead of asking Kimball about why he had not done better or won the race, he asked how his blood sugar was.

"He didn't care if I was first or 21st, just the fact that I was out there competing was a victory for him," Kimball said.

Because his life with diabetes requires keeping track of insulin and blood sugar and how much food Kimball eats or exercise he has, he said that struggle has brought him positive experiences as well as negative.

"Having diabetes has really added balance to my life," he said.

Kimball said much of his management focuses on before the race, eating properly and preparing his body with insulin before dealing with the hot car, adrenaline, and exercise while driving at high speeds.

He also is prepared within the car, and said he has the option of drinking orange juice rather than water if his blood sugar becomes low. Next to his gauges, telling him the speed and allowing him to monitor the car's health, he can also see his blood sugar levels.

Allison Ryan, a senior at Muscatine High School, attended the event with her family. She was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in January of 2016.

Listening to Kimball talk was encouraging, her mom Gail Ryan said.

"I think it's cool to hear somebody who's been successful and been able to do what they love to do no matter what," Gail said.

Allison said she could identify with much of the shock and difficulty Kimball expressed when he told his story, but she plans to pursue her dream: elementary education.

"It's definitely cool to see someone like that," she said.

The event was organized by the Muscatine Diabetes Walk Project in conjunction with Blue Zones Project Muscatine and the Muscatine Hy-Vee Food Store.

The Muscatine Diabetes Walk Project, a charitable fund under the Community Foundation of Greater Muscatine, works to support, empower and encourage Muscatine County area residents living with diabetes to live long, healthy, happy, and productive lives.

Kim Seligman, the community lead for the Muscatine Diabetes Walk Project, said she hopes hearing Kimball speak will encourage others with diabetes to pursue their dreams, and to pass that inspiration on to others.

"I want them to be empowered, and to learn their story is just as important," she said.

For more information, contact Seligman at 563-260-2763 or email MuscatineDiabetesWalk@gmail.com.
Les blattes ou cafards (Blatta orientalis) sont des insectes qui appartiennent a la famille des Blattoptera. Ils se caracterisent par leur forme allongee, leurs ailes []
South Africas mobile data tariffs must come down, even if movements calling for price drops are not correctly comparing the countrys data prices to international benchmarks.

This is according to Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub, who spoke at Vodacoms interim results presentation for the six months ended 30 September 2016.

Data prices in South Africa will continue to come down, but the speed of their decrease will be based on how much investment operators have to put into their networks, he said.

If costs decline, then so can the price, added Joosub.

I think spectrum helps to alleviate that impasse.

The South African government recently revealed in a new National Integrated ICT Policy White Paper that it has no plans to allow mobile networks to be assigned more spectrum.

Instead, it wants to assign all available spectrum to a national wholesale open access network on which all operators will be able to offer services.

New ICT Policy admirable, but misguided

Joosub said they support the intention of the ICT Policy to bring broadband to more people and give smaller players access to spectrum.

However, he believes it is possible for the government to achieve its objectives without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Government could assign spectrum to existing players and hold some in reserve for a wholesale open access network.

If everyone is forced to contribute to the same network, it will destroy an element that has made mobile telecommunications services in South Africa such a success, he said.

We not only compete on price and services, we also compete on investment.

In addition to being part of the recipe for the success of South Africas mobile network infrastructure, the competition has helped create jobs.

Releasing spectrum to established network operators which want to make use of it will therefore help reinforce job creation and stimulate competition by encouraging investment.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been questioned by prosecutors at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, in the latest twist in a long-running legal battle over a rape allegation against him.

Assange, who denies the accusation, has been holed up in the embassy for more than four years.

Swedish prosecutor Ingrid Isgren entered the embassy building shortly before 10:00 GMT on Monday and stayed in the building for over four hours. The questioning was being led by an Ecuadorean prosecutor.

The prosecutor [Insgren] did not say anything as she went in or went out, but we know now that she spent four hours in the building, said Al Jazeeras Emma Hayward, reporting from the Ecuadoran embassy in London.

There was no word from Julian Assange about how that meeting went.

Assanges lawyer Per Samuelsson has said the questioning, which has been delayed in the past because of diplomatic disagreements between Ecuador and Sweden, could last several days.

I am very hopeful  Objectively, there is no doubt that everything happened as Assange said it did, Samuelsson told Swedens TT news agency.

Outside the embassy, a small group of protesters held banners reading Free Assange and You Wont Stop Wikileaks outside the embassy as the officials arrived.

Freedom Loving People of the World Say Thank You Ecuador! read another banner hung under the balcony from which Assange has sometimes addressed supporters.

A Swedish police inspector was also expected to attend the questioning and investigators planned to take a DNA sample from Assange, subject to his agreement.

Holed up

Assange, the creator of whistleblowing website Wikileaks, sought refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in June 2012 after Swedish prosecutors issued a European arrest warrant against him, over allegations of rape and sexual assault filed by two women who met Assange during a 2010 trip to Sweden.

He denied the claims, saying they were politically motivated, and insisting his sexual encounters with the two women were consensual.

He has refused to travel to Sweden for questioning, fearing he would be extradited to the United States over WikiLeaks release of 500,000 secret military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Swedish prosecutors dropped the sexual assault probe last year after the five-year statute of limitations expired.

But they still want to question him about the 2010 rape allegation, which carries a 10-year statute of limitations.

It was the first time Assange has been interviewed over the matter since initial questioning by Swedish police at the time of the allegation.

Assange, speaking through his lawyer, has said he welcomes the chance to clear his name and hopes the investigation will subsequently close.

In May, a Swedish court reaffirmed the arrest order , rejecting the finding of a UN working group that his confinement in the Ecuadorian embassy amounted to arbitrary detention .

Al Jazeera
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ISLAMABAD  Pakistani police arrested 10 alleged members of a criminal gang on Monday accused of flogging a transgender woman and posting a video of the abuse on social media, officials said.

The arrests were made in the eastern city of Sialkot after a video of the flogging was shared thousands of times on social media, said police official Iqbal Sindhu.

The video shows the gang leader pinning the woman face down on a bed with his foot and beating her with what appears to be a leather belt. At one point, while another gang member continues the flogging, the leader places his foot on the victim's neck and twists her arms.

Police chief Abid Khan said five of those arrested have been charged with torture and extortion, while the other five are under investigation.

The alleged gang leader, who identified himself as Jajja, told Dunya News that he was friends with the victim.

"I was punishing him because he didn't refrain from his bad habits, which I pointed out to him several times," he said in an interview conducted while he was in police custody.

Transgender people in Pakistan are social outcasts who are often forced into begging, dancing and prostitution to earn money. Fearing attacks, most either change their names or use only one name.

TransAction, a local transgender rights group, posted a video interview with another transgender woman who identified herself as Jolie and said she was present when the attack took place.

She said the gang members barged into a house where several transgender women were living, beating and torturing one of them for several hours and shaving the heads of others.

Sindhu, the police official, confirmed Jolie was present at the scene.
Napa Countys showdown over Walt Ranch, the poster child for controversial hillside vineyard development, is nearing its climax after a decade-long build-up.

County supervisors will judge a project targeted for hills along Highway 121 between Napa and Lake Berryessa. Theyll decide whether Walt Ranch meets county vineyard development and state environmental laws, as county staff says, or is the tree-destroying, wildlife-hurting, water-quality threat that opponents fear.

The Board of Supervisors will hold a hearing at 9 a.m. Friday at the county administration center, 1195 Third St. in downtown Napa. That hearing could continue on Nov. 22 and Dec. 6.

Anyone who fails to arrive early might find the Board of Supervisors chamber already packed, given both proponents and opponents are inviting supporters to attend. Latecomers could end up watching from televisions in the county administration building lobby or some other overflow location, though they could still address the Board during public comments.

Its an affair with Napa Valley wine world star power. Backing the project are Craig and Kathryn Hall of HALL Wines in St. Helena, the couple who have hosted both Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton for separate Democratic fundraisers over the past year.

Criticizing the project are various environmental and land use watchdog groups. Some opponents have held regular demonstrations outside of HALL Wines, with another demonstration scheduled at noon Friday outside the county administration building.

The project has shrunk since the Halls proposed it in 2007. The latest version calls for 209 acres of vineyards within 316 acres of graded areasincluding roads and other features  scattered across the 2,300-acre Walt Ranch. No winery is proposed. The original project was for 397 acres of vineyards within a 538-acre development area.

Planning, Building and Environmental Services Director David Morrison on Aug. 1 approved the county erosion control plan needed for the Walt Ranch project to proceed.

The project is consistent with zoning and the general plan, Morrison said at the time. Its consistent with the general plans future expectations in terms of the vision of the general plan. And it takes all appropriate steps to minimize environmental impacts.

Filing appeals to the Board of Supervisors over Morrisons decision are Living Rivers Council, Circle Oaks Water District and Circle Oaks Homeowners Association, Center for Biological Diversity and Napa Sierra Club.

Taken together, the appeals top 2,000 pages. County staff boils the objections down to 209 points, some repetitive, and in a 152-page document defends its positions.

Appellants say the project could hurt the foothill yellow-legged frog, the valley elderberry longhorn beetle, Contra Costa goldfield flowers and narrow-anthered California brodiaea plants. They say vineyard fencing will hamper wildlife movement.

The county responds that the environmental impact report includes the necessary analysis for species found on the Walt Ranch. For example, it says, the California longhorn elderberry beetle and not the valley elderberry longhorn beetle live there.

Wildlife corridors of at least 100 feet will be left between the deer fencing around vineyard blocks, the county response says.

Some appellants fear creating the vineyards will lead to sediments and pollutants such as pesticides washing away during heavy rains. These are sediments that could end up in the Napa River watershed streams and in Milliken Reservoir, a city of Napa drinking water source.

But the county holds to the environmental impact reports assertion that vineyard project erosion control steps would reduce erosion from the property by 44 percent.

Circle Oaks is a rural community of 179 homes in the hills adjacent to Walt Ranch. The Circle Oaks appeals say that well water use for new Walt Ranch vineyards could sap Circle Oaks well and spring water for 500 residents.

But the county disputes Circle Oaks claims that environmental impact reports groundwater section has numerous errors and requires vague and unenforceable safeguards for Circle Oaks water.

Opponents concentrate on the 20,000 or so oaks and other trees to be removed on the Walt Ranch. The county stresses the 221,429 trees that are to remain.

Supervisors will have to wade through all the various claims and counterclaims and weigh expert comments that are sometimes at odds. That looks to be a multi-meeting job.
Detectives have arrested a parolee suspected of killing a man in October, according to Fairfield police.

Vashawn Davis, a 24-year-old Fairfield man, was identified as a suspect by investigators and located by corrections officers today in Sacramento around 12 p.m.

Davis was transported to Solano County and booked into jail on suspicion of murder, as well as for violating the terms of his parole.

Investigators say Davis is suspected of fatally shooting Jonathan Cottonham, 26, Oct. 28 in the 500 block of Alaska Avenue. Cottonham was a resident of San Francisco.

Police say the case remains under investigation.
As a taxpayer in Napa County, I have a problem with the schools letting kids out to protest against president-elect Trump, particularly when they wrap themselves in a Mexican Flag or carry a sign that says F Trump.

I feel that if I am paying for their education they should be in school learning. They can protest on their own time.

One lesson that could have been taught is one of the great attributes of our system of government is the peaceful transfer of power which separates us from many other counties. The transfer of power was done by elections, not a military coup or at the end of a barrel as we saw in the attempt in Turkey not too long ago which left about 200 killed.

But maybe they dont bother to teach civics anymore. Yes, you may not like Trump and you have a right to free speech but with civil rights comes civil responsibility.

Harry Stover

Napa
A man found dead in the water Monday at a marina in South San Francisco has been identified as 60-year-old Anil Francis, according to the San Mateo County coroner's office.

Francis, a South San Francisco resident, was discovered at the Oyster Point Marina at about 3:45 p.m., according to South San Francisco police spokesman Cpl. Jason Pharr.

"We are investigating it as an accident. There is no evidence of foul play," Pharr said.

The coroner's office will determine the cause of death, but there were no obvious signs of trauma, Pharr said.

The public marina and park features 455 vessel berths, a boat launch ramp and a fishing pier.
On Nov. 6, the Rutherford Hall on St. Helena Highway rocked as community members celebrated the buildings 100th anniversary.

The restoration of the venerable building had come a long way since organizers began plotting the halls restoration back in 2009.

Outside, beside the re-shingled edifice, a large hand-painted mural of a birthday cake with the invitation 100 Years  Join Us! announced the successful efforts to revitalize the building. Beneath that mural well-wishers lined up with shovels and pitchforks to pose for photos in mock American Gothic portraits.

Meanwhile, inside there was music from local groups, Pickle Creek String Band, The Harmonizers and Trio Solea, warming up the crowd and loads of food for the crowd.

Peg Cann, a Rutherford Hall board member, was welcoming people at the door as old friends exchanged hugs and handshakes, sipped wine and stretched out at the dining tables in the halls warm glow. And though Rutherford Hall has had a lot of ups and downs in its 100 years, the smiles on party-goers reflected a pride in the ongoing efforts to restore it as a community resource.

In June 1914, Frank L. Hunt and a small group of family farmers came together in Yount Township to start a new Subordinate Grange then called Rutherford Grange #371. Within two years membership had grown to 165 members and a new hall on Highway 29 in Rutherford had been built.

The St. Helena Star noted the dedication of the Rutherford Grange Hall in June 1916 that included an extravagant Ball and Ceremony, dinner commencing at Midnight and partygoers dancing well into the night. AT the time, the Grange was a part of a political and social movement that was, according to historians, becoming essential to the success of American agriculture.

The original hall in Rutherford was a shingle-style Arts & Crafts structure. By the 1990s the hall had fallen on hard times and the local Grange organization  along with the building  were suffering.

Sometime in the 1960s, according to Cann, the exterior of the building was covered in stucco in an attempt to hold the hall together. According to Cann, the hall had a migrating wall, broken trusses and other problems that needed serious attention. Meanwhile, membership of the local Grange organization had plummeted to just four members.

The turnaround began with a June 2009 meeting to revitalize the organization and its 93-year-old building. In nine months, the Rutherford Hall membership grew to 64 people and continues to grow today, Cann said.

Today that north-facing exterior facade has been restored to its historically accurate Arts & Crafts shingle style and many of the needed repairs have been completed. But due to a dispute between the California and national Grange organizations over ownership of Grange properties, the building itself is currently referred to simply as the Rutherford Hall.
The St. Helena Chamber of Commerce is calling for nominations from the community for its annual Community Service awards.

Since 1971, the Chamber has recognized citizens and businesses for their outstanding contributions to the community. Honorees will be chosen from nominations submitted by the public in the following categories: Business of the Year, Citizen of the Year, Employee of the Year and Nonprofit of the Year.

Additionally, nominations are considered for Lifetime Achievement and/or Civic Pride. However, these categories are only honored when an extraordinary candidate meets the criteria.

Nomination forms and criteria can be obtained via the Chambers website at sthelena.com/chamber. The deadline for nominations is Dec. 1.
Neighbors who have fought the proposed Hunter subdivision are planning to file a federal lawsuit accusing the city of St. Helena of housing discrimination.

Citing two recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, the groups filed a claim with the city on Oct. 21 calling St. Helena a segregated city, with an affluent White west side and a diverse east side where most Hispanics, seniors, and members of other protected groups live largely in a concentrated area near the Napa River.

A letter accompanying the claim calls on the city to put an immediate moratorium on the construction of any multi-family and affordable housing on the east side, and require that all such housing be built on the west side until an appropriate balance is achieved.

Attorney and St. Helena resident David Bradshaw submitted the letter and the claim on behalf of St. Helena Residents For An Equitable General Plan, the McCorkle East Side Neighborhood Group, and the Protect The St. Helena Vineyard Riverwalk Community Group.

The city council discussed the claim in closed session last Thursday. City Attorney Tom Brown declined to comment on pending litigation.

A letter accompanying the claim accuses the city of housing discrimination against Hispanics, seniors and other protected classes. The letter claims that 98 percent of St. Helenas low-income, affordable and multi-family rental units are on the east side of town.

The concentration of multi-family and affordable units in the eastern-most part of St. Helena means that minorities and seniors  practically speaking  are restricted to one area of the city, Bradshaw said in a statement to the Star. Sad to say, this is an area with poor infrastructure, no public schools, no churches, few parks, inadequate community services, and little or no public transportation.

City policies, land use designations and zoning ordinances are responsible for the disparity between the east and west sides, the letter alleges. It states that the Low/Medium-Density Residential zoning designation thats been proposed in the draft General Plan virtually exempts the west side from multi-family rental units and other affordable housing.

The city continues to actively promote multi-family and affordable housing on the east side through the Brenkle Court project on McCorkle Avenue, which the city purchased and donated to Our Town St. Helena; the proposed Hunter project, which would include 36 affordable housing units; and the city-owned Adams Street property, where the city is considering development proposals that could include affordable housing.

The upcoming lawsuit will seek an order requiring the city to eliminate the proposed Low-Medium-Density designation and make other changes to the citys General Plan, zoning ordinances and land use policies to ensure fair housing in St. Helena, the letter states.

The timing of the federal lawsuit depends on what the city decides to do with our claim, Bradshaw told the Star.

Bradshaw said St. Helena Residents For An Equitable General Plan was recently incorporated, and we really do not know how many members there are in the other groups that support our claim.

We do know, however, that a large and growing group of neighbors on the east side is opposed to the Hunter project, the proposed extensions of Starr and Adams, and the citys failure to ensure that affordable housing is distributed equitably throughout the entire community, he said.

The 87-unit Hunter project is still in the environmental review phase. Planning Director Noah Housh said the city is awaiting updated information from the applicants civil engineer, so hes not sure when an updated Draft Environmental Impact Report will be released to the public.

The city faced a federal housing discrimination lawsuit in 2012, although that one alleged a critical shortage of affordable housing, not an overabundance of it in one area.

Former tenants of a substandard Pope Street property, along with several advocacy groups and the late attorney David Grabill, accused the city of failing to provide enough low- and moderate-income housing for workers. Settlement terms required the city to pay into its affordable housing trust fund, adopt policies favorable to affordable housing, and set period affordable housing targets through 2022.
The Robert Louis Stevenson Museum joined forces with the St. Helena Public Library to celebrate the birth of the famed Scottish author of Treasure Island for the annual Robert Louis Stevenson Week. And appropriately, the celebration ended with treasure maps, clues galore, prizes and even a visitation by a pirate.

Robert Louis Stevenson, who became an adopted Napa Valley celebrity after his honeymoon stay at the top of Mt. St. Helena in 1880, wrote his first successful novel Treasure Island in England, after leaving America. It became a classic and catapulted the author to international renown. The Robert Louis Stevenson Museum in St. Helena opened its doors in 1969 and moved to its present location beside the St. Helena Public Library a decade later.

The events of Robert Louis Stevenson Week began on Nov. 3 with an exhibition at the St. Helena Public Library with a reception and presentation. On Nov. 9, Mark Wiederanders, author of Stevensons Treasure, gave a reading in the museum. The following day, the library presented the 1950 Disney adventure movie Treasure Island. The annual RLSM Treasure Hunt was then held throughout St. Helena on Saturday, Nov. 12, followed by crafts and movies.

Rick Lovie of Napa, dressed as the pirate character Jack Sparrow from the Disney movie series Pirates of the Caribbean. Lovie met treasure hunters at the doors of the museum and passed out treasure maps to participants. He said that hed received much of his ornate costumes paraphernalia from a friend who had been a film-double for Johnny Depp, who starred in the film series. He said that he enjoyed the annual treasure hunt so much that this was his sixth or seventh year participating.

For Presley Hubschmidtt, the administrative assistant at the museum, this was her first year with the treasure hunt. She said the first five children who successfully followed the clues and completed the treasure hunt would receive a copy of either Treasure Island or The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Stevenson.
Decades before they became St. Helenans, Tony Holzhauer, Don Fraser and Peter Dahl shared a much deeper bond  one that theyre reminded of every Veterans Day.

Holzhauer, Fraser and Dahl were commissioned as Marines in 1956, after attending Basic School together in Quantico, Virginia. Last Friday they shared memories of their friendship and their service during a Veterans Day panel discussion at Rianda House Senior Activity Center.

The three old friends were joined by Dick Maher, who was commissioned one year earlier and who got to know the other three much later. The fact that they all now live in St. Helena is a lucky coincidence.

Our camaraderie goes beyond our ability to explain, Fraser said.

All four were commissioned as officers. Back then young men were likely to be drafted unless they were in the ROTC, which allowed them to become officers rather than enlisted men. Like many others, Dahl chose Option B.

After Basic School, Fraser and Dahl went down to Pensacola to become aviators and Holzhauer and Maher became ground officers. Dahl explained that while Fraser became a fighter pilot, Dahl stuck with helicopters, reasoning that you dont put a 90-knot brain in a 600-knot aircraft.

Their most harrowing stories involved not themselves but rather friends such as the late Bill Butler, who endured four years of torture and cruelty in the Hanoi Hilton after being shot down during the Vietnam War.

Butlers memories of his captivity inspired him to get involved in prison ministries back home, and even during his later years as a popular veterinarian in Calistoga, his wartime injuries left him in constant pain until he died in 2013, Holzhauer said.

Fraser spoke fondly of Harley Chapman, the first U.S. airman to get shot down over Hanoi. He spent seven and a half years in the Hanoi Hilton, including two years in solitary confinement.

Fraser said Chapman stayed physically fit through a daily regimen of running in place and vertical push-ups, his cell being too small for him to do horizontal ones. Chapman maintained his mental stamina by going back to college in his mind, trying to remember each class hed taken, day by day, Fraser said.

Fraser left the military in 1960. But I could have decided to stay in, and it could have been me who was shot down, he said. Instead, Fraser was there for his old friend when Chapman was released in 1973 and faced the difficult task of readjusting to civilian life.

Having been presumed dead during his years of captivity, Chapman came home to a wife who had remarried and a son he had never met, his wife having been pregnant with their child when he was shot down. Chapman eventually remarried and built a new life, and Fraser said the two still share a special bond.

The veterans stories about themselves were light and self-deprecating, like Holzhauers account of neglecting to pick up his uniform and arriving at Platoon Leaders Class in his civilian clothes.

They were ready to wash me out in the very first hour, he said sheepishly. I was addressed in such colorful terms that I forgot my first name very quickly.  I learned how to do push-ups while apologizing to the lawn.

Maher recalled falling asleep on a rifle range, having partied late into the previous night. He awakened to a kick in the ass from a major who chewed him out in memorably obscene terms that Maher never forgot.

The Marines serious side returned when asked whether national service should be compulsory for young Americans, as it is in Israel. All four strongly agreed that it should, even if it involves the Peace Corps or an updated version of the Civilian Conservation Corps rather than military service.

Dahl went one step further, saying the country should consider reinstituting the draft.
Multiple fires continue to burn in North Georgia and Tennessee, creating significant smoky conditions for much of North and Central Georgia. Any time there is a northerly wind, we can anticipate smoky conditions in the area.

As these conditions continue, the National Weather Service will issue special weather statements. The Georgia Environmental Protection Division will issue air quality alerts. Pay attention to wind directions and weather conditions.

The Georgia Department of Public Health has issued an alert urging people, especially individuals with chronic heart and lung diseases, to protect themselves from smoke of the wildfires. According to the alert, people with existing respiratory conditions, young children and elderly people are especially susceptible to health effects from this smoke

Additional information can be obtained from the following links
Louise Adler, professor emeritus of educational leadership, center, with the first graduating class of Ed.D. students. The program's founding faculty members and alumni will be recognized at Education Week.

Cal State Fullertons College of Education presents Education Week Nov. 15-17, featuring activities for future teachers, panel discussions and a celebration of the 10-year anniversary of the doctoral program in educational leadership. All events are open to students, faculty and staff members and the public.

Highlights Include:

Tuesday, Nov. 15

11 a.m.- 1 p.m.  Future Teacher Festival, Titan Walk, featuring information about the College of Educations teacher preparation programs, services and resources.

5-9 p.m.  Education Week Boot Camp, Titan Student Union, activities for future teachers to gain insights from educational professionals, including preparing for teacher interviews, a resume clinic and career opportunities with local school districts.

7-7:45 p.m.  First-Year Teaching panel discussion and Q&A, Titan Student Union, with College of Education alumni who have taught for one year.

Wednesday, Nov. 16

Noon-1 p.m.  C-REAL Symposium, Titan Student Union, a panel discussion on global education with visiting Chinese scholars and moderated by Ding-Jo Currie and Marc Ecker, educational leadership faculty members.

6-8 p.m.  Ed.D 10th Anniversary Celebration, Titan Student Union, commemorating a decade of success of the doctoral program in education leadership.

6:25-6:45 p.m. College of Education Dean Lisa Kirtman will deliver remarks, followed by recognition of educational leadership faculty members, including founding members of the Ed.D. program and alumni.

6:45-7:30 p.m.  10 Years of Impact: Transformative Leadership Linking Theory to Practice Ed.D. alumni and faculty panel discussion, Titan Student Union

7:30-8 p.m.  Reception and Networking



Thursday, Nov. 17

11 a.m.-1 p.m.  Center for Careers in Teaching Open House, Education- Classroom Building, Room 379

For more information, visit the College of Education or call 657-278-3411.
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The California Academy of Sciences has awarded its highest honor, the Fellows Medal, to Sandra Faber, professor emerita of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz. This award is given to especially prominent scientists who have made outstanding contributions to their scientific fields.

In addition, two UC Santa Cruz professors are among the 10 new fellows elected to the California Academy of Sciences in 2016. They are Karen Holl, professor of environmental studies, and Erika Zavaleta, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.

Academy fellows are distinguished scientists who have made notable contributions to one or more of the natural sciences. They are nominated by their colleagues and appointed by the board of trustees to govern the academy. Induction of new fellows and presentation of the Fellows Medal take place at the academy's meeting on November 15. Faber, who is currently out of the country, will give an acceptance speech by pre-recorded video.

Faber is known for her pioneering research on the formation and evolution of galaxies, distant galaxy clusters, and the large-scale structure of the universe. She helped create the CANDELS project, the largest survey of the universe undertaken by the Hubble Space Telescope. This incredibly rich database provides unique material for studying every aspect of galaxy evolution, from mass assembly to star-formation. Faber's multifaceted projectsincluding the DEEP2 survey of 50,000 distant galaxiesoften include the participation of her former students. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and American Philosophical Society, Faber has received many awards and honors in recognition of her accomplishments, including the National Medal of Science. She joined the UCSC faculty in 1972.

Holl is the faculty director of the Kenneth S. Norris Center for Natural History at UC Santa Cruz. Her research focuses on understanding how local and landscape-scale processes impact ecosystem recovery from human disturbance, and how this information can help restore damaged ecosystems. She conducts research in Latin American rainforests and in chaparral, grassland, and riparian systems in California. Selected as an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow in 2008, Holl is a dedicated science communicator and teacher committed to lending her expertise to the next generation of scientists. She received her Ph.D. from Virginia Tech and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University before joining the UCSC faculty in 1995.

Zavaleta is the founder and faculty leader for the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program at UC Santa Cruz. Her research group studies the drivers and consequences of changing biological diversity and climate, and the role of ecology in guiding effective conservation and climate change adaptation practice. Ecosystems of California (UC Press, 2016), a new comprehensive reference of California's ecological abundance coedited by Zavaleta, is nominated for a 2017 American Publishers PROSE Award. She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees at Stanford University.

The California Academy of Sciences, based in San Franciscos Golden Gate Park, is a renowned scientific and educational institution dedicated to exploring, explaining, and sustaining life on Earth.
UF joins society for diversity in academia

The University of Florida has become the 13th college to join a national honor society that amplifies diversity in graduate education.

The Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society creates a community for students and postdocs who have traditionally been underrepresented in academia. Founded in 2005 by Yale University and Howard University, the organization has over 500 student members.

Graduate students are going to have the greatest impact on our world, said Tyisha J. Hathorn, director of UFs Office of Graduate Minority Programs. They are our thinkers, our creators.

The society is named after Edward A. Bouchet, the first African American doctoral student in the U.S. Bouchet was a member of Phi Beta Kappa at Yale before earning his doctorate in physics in 1876.

He was only the 6th U.S. citizen to get a Ph. D in the Western hemisphere, said Henry Frierson, dean of the UF graduate school. For the University of Florida to be involved also points out the commitment that we have for diversity and the type and caliber of Ph. D students that we have.

UF was inducted into the Bouchet Society during an annual conference held around Bouchets birthday in September. Faculty and staff traveled to Howard University in Washington D.C. for the induction.

The UF chapter will accept applications from doctoral candidates in the spring. Members will work as ambassadors to promote diversity across campus. They will also be able to present their research during the Bouchet Societys spring conference at Yale University.

It helps our students to be linked to other graduate societies in the country, Hathorn said.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Leaders Week started off here, with its Business Advisory Council (Abac) meeting promising free trade "with or without" the US support. US President-elect Donald Trump had earlier stated his intention to renegotiate or leave the free trade agreements in which the US is a party. While the US President Barack Obama had decided not to push for approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) ratification, which marked the start of the Apec meetings. In response to this challenge, Apec's organisers reiterated their faith in trade liberalization in the meet that started on Monday here, Efe news reported. The chairman of the Abac, Juan Francisco Raffo, said that although Apec was "very concerned" about Trump policies but it reaffirmed it would continue to focus on trade liberalization and free trade agreements. Raffo said if someone did not like the idea, they would be left out. "If the US repudiates the Trans-Pacific agreement or any other agreements, we only have to move forward with less people," Raffo told Efe. He appreciated Chinese intention to pursue trade liberalisation agreements and called it "good news". At the Apec 2016 that started in the Peruvian capital, business meetings, talks between experts and state ministers, as well as a dialogue between Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and the leaders attending the summit, were scheduled. Among others, the participation of Barack Obama, at his last Apec summit, as well as Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, were expected. The Apec is the world's largest trade association and consists of 21 Pacific Rim member economies and accounts for 54 per cent of global GDP, 50.3 per cent of exports and represents a population of 2.85 billion people. --IANS in/ ( 298 Words) 2016-11-15-08:42:08 (IANS)
Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan, who will next be seen on screen in "Kaabil", says filming the movie was a beautiful journey for him. Hrithik on Tuesday was here at the DLF Mall Of India to unveil the new collection of the Swiss luxury time piece brand Rado's Lightness Collection. He believes in the brand's philosophy that "if you can imagine, you can do it". "This is something I have based my life on. That if I can see it in my mind, then I can do it. It was even more amazing that I applied this when I played a blind man in 'Kaabil'. It was a beautiful journey and I hope you all watch the film," he said. The 42-year-old actor hopes the audience can feel the character as deeply as he did while playing it on camera. "I hope when you see the movie, you will also feel what I was feeling in the film," said Hrithik, who features in the Sanjay Gupta directorial with Yami Gautam. Talking about the film, Hrithik said: "It is about a man, who against all odds, finds the strength inside him to make his life the way he wants it to be." Produced by Hrithik's father Rakesh Roshan under their home banner FilmKraft Productions, "Kaabil" will release on January 26 next year. --IANS dc/rb/bg ( 234 Words) 2016-11-15-18:02:06 (IANS)
The restaurant has collaborated with the government of Nagaland and is promoting home talent from the region. This is being done as a part of the initiative 'Music Task Force', read a statement.

Polar Lights will be doing a special opening act for the Rock & Roll Tribute show by Atul Ahuja at Hard Rock Cafe, Gurugram on November 24. Paper Sky will be doing a special opening act for the band - Fernandes Fusion at Hard Rock Cafe, Hyderabad on Thursday.

Hard Rock Cafe, in association with Indi.com, will identify and provide a platform to aspiring musicians to grab the spotlight through the Rock2Road challenge.

Since the onset of its journey in India, the cafe has been host to bands like Hoobastank, The Aristocrats, Switchfoot, Saving Abel, Puddle of Mudd, Outlandish, The Vamps and artists like Armin Van Burren, Paul Van Dyke, Bob Sinclar and Jay Sean.

--IANS sug/rb/bg

( 179 Words)

2016-11-15-18:22:06 (IANS)
The much awaited Cherry Blossom Festival, India''s first ever kick-started today in the city with Chief Minister Mukul Sangma launching the festival here in Meghalaya. The four day festival is organised by the Meghalaya government in association with the Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development (IBSD) to promote Meghalaya as a favoured tourist destination to many a domestic and international tourists. Hailing the maiden Cherry Blossom Festival to have ever been organised in the country, Dr Sangma said that the festival is a humble yet wonderful initiative while also stating that the festival represents one added flavour that does justice to the beauty of our wonderful Meghalaya. Showing his deep appreciation for the organic look that the festival wears, Dr.Sangma said the festival is beautifully conceptualised while expressing that he shares his sense of optimism as the State celebrates the country''s first ever festival of this kind. Recalling the recent accolade of Meghalaya bagging the pole position in being the First amongst States (Small States) on Environment of the States Conclave held at New Delhi, the Chief Minister took the occasion to applaud all the stakeholders including the public, for being instrumental in realising the feat that the State has achieved. He also stressed that the Government is trying to convince the people to connect livelihood with nature conservation and that with the unique, exclusive resources in our own backyard, the government shall continue to strive towards achieving sustainable livelihood and prosperity for the people of the state. The chief minister emphasised that the Cherry Blossom Festival is one component that compliments the other attractions of the state also stating further that the festival would help facilitate the branding of the state to the outside world. IBSD Director Dinabandhu Sahoo, who conceptualized the Cherry Blossom festival in India, said the event would set the stage for 2017, which has been declared by the UN as International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development. "This festival would create a number of opportunities for the people of Meghalaya," he said emphasising that collaborations should be developed with Japan so that more international tourists can visit the north-eastern states. The chief minister visited stalls put up for exhibition and sale by various Government Departments and those put up by other groups and agencies and also planted Cherry saplings at the venue of the festival. A rendition of the famous Song "We are the World" by the Serenity Choir, cultural dances performed by Khasi, Garo and Jaintia troupes from among others were the added attractions of the inaugural event of the festival. It may be mentioned that the four-day festival, held across different venues in the capital city, in addition to the exhibition cum sale and food stalls, would also witness Drawing and Painting competition, Food fest, Story - telling sessions, archery, traditional and western music shows from among other attractions. UNI RRK BM -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0214-1022834.Xml
Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samithi (KVVES), the traders' premier body, today announced to call off their indefinite stir from tomorrow. The stir was planned to protest shortage of currency in the wake of demonetisation process launched by the Centre. The decision to call off the stir was taken after getting 'assurance', KVVES president T Naziruddin said. An assurance was also received that traders in the state won't be harassed, he added.UNI PCH RSA SNU 1149 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0329-1021742.Xml
Expecting firework during the winter session of Parliament beginning tomorrow, with the opposition planning to put the government in dock over several issues, including the demonetisation policy, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre has convened an all-party meeting on Tuesday to seek cooperation of leaders to ensure smooth functioning of both Houses. During the month-long session of Parliament, the Congress has sought suspension of business on day one to discuss the demonetisation issue. Leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday said Congress MPs would raise the demonetisation issue under rules 56 and 193 during the Winter Session. Deputy leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma has already given a notice for the suspension of business under rule 267 of the Rajya Sabha for a discussion on the same issue, while leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad has given a notice under rule 267 for discussion on the issue of Kashmir unrest. On Monday, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had held a meeting with floor leaders of all parties to discuss ways to ensure smooth functioning of the House. Expressing hope that there will be a healthy discussion on various issues during the winter session, Mahajan said members of various parties have demanded a discussion on several issues, including demonetisation of high value notes. (ANI)
Thousands of Manipuris celebrated "Maha Raas", a festival celebrating the love life of Lord Krishna. The festival is celebrated every year on the full moon night of "Kartik Purnima" in the Hindu month "Kartik" to mark Krishna's love for Radha. Girls in their traditional dresses danced round the idols of Lord Krishna and Radha. Dressed as "gopies", they sang devotional songs throughout the night at a local temple. The Maha Raas celebration started in Tripura more than two century ago in the Radha-Madhav Jews Temple. Prior to partition, the devotees from far Syllhet and Comilla, in present Bangladesh, used to come and participate in the night-long festival. The celebration started after a Maharani of the Manikya dynasty of Tripura, daughter of Manipur's Maharaja Bhagya Chandra, brought the idol of Radha-Govind from there and established a Radhamadhav temple here. Tripura had a cultural and traditional bond with the Manipur kingdom that started more than 350 years back through matrimonial alliances. In fact, Bhakti cult was also in progress in Tripura along with the Manipuri culture during Maharaja Krishna Chandra Manikya's reign in the late 18th century. Today the festival is totally sponsored by the state government as per the treaty between the Manikya dynasty and Union Government during the time of merger of Tripura with the Indian union. This is the 218th year of celebration of Raas, a festival of particularly the Hindu Manipuris. However, today both Bengalis and even the state's tribal population forgetting their religious and cultural identities participate in the night-long celebration said to be a platform of communal harmony. Raas is a symbol of love and communal harmony. Forgetting all differences, the people of all communities gather here to celebrate the festival. Ajoy Saha, a non-Manipuri visitor, said: "We enjoy here every year. Though we are non-Manipuris but the people from various communities take part in this festival and celebrate. We wait for the raas festival throughout the year so that we can take part in it." Abhiram Singha, one of the organizers, said: "Here the girls act as living gopies of Radha-Krishna. In the earlier days, such big temple was not there but still the people from Bangladesh and other parts used to take part in the whole night programme." Neera Sinha, a participating dancer, said: "We call this 'maha-raas' and every year we celebrate this on the full moon night. On maha-rass, we dance as gopies and really enjoy this right." Nipa pala is celebrated as invocation to Raas where pung (traditional drums) and kartals (small metallic musical instruments) are played. The Radha Govindas' Raas dance is a classical form of dance and symbolizes the rich history and tradition of the Manipuri community. It was Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, who adopted the dance from the palace to Shantiniketan. (ANI)
On credible information, Gopalapuram police arrested S Naresh Kumar (30) of Borabanda , Minde Kiran (37) of Banjara Hills, Ms Ch Ratna Prabha (43) of Kothapet at Secunderabad Railway station yesterday when they were trying to sale the banned Turkey currency by stating that the value of the currency is Rs 10 crore and asked the public to give Rs 84 lakh, police said today.

Efforts are underway to apprehend the absconding accused Naveen Kumar.

Police appealed to public not to exchange any foreign currency as well Indian currency of 500 and 1000 with unknown persons, which may cause severe loss and implicate in criminal cases. If the accused repeated same type of offences, provisions of PD Act may invoke against them, police added.UNI VV CS 1314

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Japanese Encephalitis, Dengue, Malaria and Malnutrition have claimed lives of 400 tribal children in Malkangiri district during the last two months, Odisha BJP president Basant Panda today said. Addressing a joint press conference here, Mr Panda, BJP legislature party leader K V Singh Deo and general secretary Bhrigu Baxipatra said the situation in Palkonda and Dorimunda in Malkangiri district was the worse where most of the children have not only died of Japanese Encephalitis but also in malnutrition, dengue and malaria. The dreaded JE has claimed more than 100 lives of children in the district, they said and alleged that the state government had miserably failed to take adequate measures to contain the disease. The BJP leaders demanded adequate compensation to the next kin of the deceased on the lines of compensation paid to the victims of SUM hospital fire tragedy. But unfortunately except Rs 2,000 provided to the bereaved families under the Harischandra Yojana no assistance was provided to the affected families. A five-member team of the BJP led by Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan visited the district yesterday on the direction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had asked Mr Pradhan to visit the district after a 10 year old boy of the Palkonda village who lost two of his siblings in JE wrote a letter to Mr Modi to save him and other children from the vector borne disease. The BJP leaders said, though the situation demanded that both the state and the central government should come forward and jointly work to contain the situation but the state government was playing "dirty" politics to serve its narrow political interests. They came down heavily on the BJD government for trying to restrict the tour of the team on security ground and denied any security cover forcing the Union Minister to visit the areas with security help from the BSF. "Dubbing the state government's action as 'unfortunate and a political conspiracy ", Mr Singhdeo said the chief secretary in a letter had agreed to make necessary security arrangement and follow the protocol for the Union Minister's visit to the district. But yesterday just prior to the arrival of Mr Pradhan and the BJP team, the district Superintendent of Police informed the Union Minister that he could visit all areas except Palkonda for security reason even though the BSF had sanitised the area and said there was no security problem. It only proved that the SP was pressurised to restrict the visit of the Union Minister. But since Palkonda was worst affected by JE, the team, he said decided to visit the village with security provided by BSF personnel. The SP and the district collector did not even meet the Union Minister.The Police personnel, the BJP leaders alleged were withdrawn from the Minister's convoy after two KM and the team was piloted by the BSF personnel. Replying to a question Mr Singh Deo said the Chief Minster did not want the Union Minister to visit the village before his visit. The Chief Minister who has been moving around various districts and inaugurating schemes has no time to visit Malkangiri to take stock of the situation. The Chief Minister, who is holding the home department, should have the courage to visit Malkangiri, assess the situation and act accordingly, he remarked.UNI BD-DP AKM 1844 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0212-1024040.Xml
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the government today signed a 500 million dollars loan agreement to build a 9.8-km-long bridge across the Ganges River to improve transport connectivity between north and south Bihar. "The new Ganga Bridge will significantly reduce travel time to Patna from the surrounding regions, in particular north Bihar, which will ease access of people to state's administrative and social services," said L B Sondjaja, Deputy Country Director of ADB's India Resident Mission after signing the loan. "The bridge is expected to benefit over 9 million people," he added.This will be India's longest river bridge.The new Ganga Bridge to be located near Patna will span both channels of the Ganges River and serve as an alternate route to the existing Ganga Bridge, which has begun to deteriorate. The project will also build viaducts, embankments, and toll and service facilities, and will link to national highway networks."The construction of the bridge is a major landmark for the state of Bihar and will be a crucial link between north and south Bihar which is divided by the Ganges River. The bridge will be a boon for the inhabitants of Raghopur Diara River Island," said Pankaj Kumar, Managing Director, Bihar State Road Development Corporation at the loan signing ceremony. Currently, the 250,000 inhabitants of the island rely on boats and a seasonal pontoon bridge as their only links to Patna.The bridge, using state-of-the-art engineering techniques, will be the first of its kind in India. The height and length have been designed to minimize impacts on the river itself and to ensure the bridge will be able to withstand climate-related stresses such as a rise in the water level.UNI ASH PS RJ 1952 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0388-1023950.Xml
Talking to UNI, Superintendent of Police Padam Chand said today that a case was registered under the Foreigner Act at Manali police station.

He said during patrolling near Allo ground yesterday, police came across one Jose Atl Arias, a Mexican, who was walking outside a hotel

When interrogated and asked for documents, the accused could not produce the same and was booked. Further investigation was in progress, Mr Chand added.UNI ML SW RJ 1924

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SP Kullu Padam Chand said that the case was registered yesterday under police station Banjar on the statement of a resident.

The accused under the influence of alcohol approached to the general store and asked the owner to exchange the Rs 500 note. When denied, the accused turned violent and even slapped the owner of the shop, police official informed.

A case has been registered and further investigations are on.UNI ML PS RJ 1955

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Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij today said all activities of Punjab government concerning the Sutlej-Yamuna-Link (SYL) canal are politically-motivated. Addressing the mediapersons here, he said Punjab had got sufficient time and opportunities to present its point of view regarding the SYL issue before the Supreme Court, but now the Court has given its decision in favour of Haryana by nullifying the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act passed by the Punjab Vidhan Sabha. In reply to a question, Mr Vij said, "We have complete faith in our Constitution and the law and hope that the Supreme Court would get its decision implemented, as it has declared the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act of 2004 as unconstitutional."UNI DB SW RJ 1952 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-1024232.Xml
A JLKF spokesperson said Malik was released from the central jail and has reached home.

Malik was arrested from Maisuma on November 10 to prevent him from leading a march to the historic Jamil Masjid, where no Friday prayers were offered for the past 18 weeks, due to restrictions. He was lodged in the police station Kothibagh and later shifted to the central jail, this afternoon.

Before being arrested on November 10, the JKLF chief was released on October 29 after remaining under detention since July 9, a day after Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) commander Burhan Wani and two other militants were killed in an encounter in Anantnag.

Killing of Burhan evoked massive protests, during which over 90 people, mostly youths, had died in security force and police action in the Valley, where life remained crippled due to the strike for the past 130 days.UNI ABS SW RJ 1910

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The Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) activists today staged a demonstration and sat on Dharna outside the Corporation Bank in Pundri town to press for the arrest the absconding manager. They were demanding arrest of the Branch Manager who allegedly fled after withdrawing Rs 1.43 crore cash from the accounts of farmers and some traders of Pundri area recently. Getting information a police party led by Pundri SHO Satish Kumar reached the bank and informed the farmers that on a complaint lodged by bank officials, a case had been registered against the absconding manager and efforts were on the arrest him. However, the protesters said that they would not withdraw their Dharna till the accused was arrested and the money returned to the affected farmers. Bhura Ram Pabnawa, a BKU leader, said that 23 farmers and some traders who had mortgage their lands and properties to get loans from the banks were in great shock, as they had been cheated by the bank Manager. The farmers also threatened that if bank did not meet their demand by tomorrow they would lock the bank and not allow its functioning . The Bank Manger Vatandeep Choker has withdrawn Rs 1,43,25,600 from accounts of 23 farmers and some shopkeepers through 35 cheques. The account holders since September had been demanding copy of their bank statements and the manger misled them by telling them that their accounts will be credited soon. However when the Manager suddenly disappeared and the victims got bank statements were shocked to know that their money had been withdrawn from their accounts fraudulently. UNI XC JS JW SHK 2212 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-1024291.Xml
Haryana cabinet today approved the proposal of the Public Works (Building and Roads) Department for construction of two-lane road connecting Faridabad-Jassana-Chirsi-Manjhawali-Sheikpur in Haryana and Atta Gujran to Greater Noida Expressway in Uttar Pradesh including four-lane bridge over River Yamuna. With the completion of the project, there will be a reduction of 40 kms distance between Faridabad and Greater Noida. The joining of the borders of both States will reduce congestion of traffic now going from Faridabad to Noida via Delhi. The saving of vehicle operating cost would also be reduced and so would reduce fuel consumption, maintenance cost and travel time would also be saved. The movement of perishable goods would also be facilitated. It will also ensure all round development of the area. The connectivity of this project road starts from Faridabad bypass near Sector 18 and ends at Yamuna Expressway. The existing length of project highway is 23.750 kms. The existing alignment of the project is broadly straight except a few locations where geometrics need improvement. A total of 40.915 acres of land would be required, by way of negotiation, for the project and a total compensation of over Rs 41.95 crore would be given to the people in the villages of Manjhawali, Mojmabad Majra Sheikhpur and Sheikhpur. In another decision, the cabinet approved the draft ordinance for amendment in the Punjab Scheduled Roads and Controlled Areas Restriction of Unregulated Development Act,1963. This amendment makes an enabling provision for inclusion of one more member in the Tribunal who shall be a professional from other fields like Law, Town Planning, Industry and Management apart from the existing provision for one member of the rank of Chief Engineer having special knowledge of roads and highways.UNI DB JW BL2032 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-1024322.Xml
President-elect Donald Trump picked Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, the favorite of the party's establishment and a low-key Washington insider, to serve in the influential position of White House chief of staff.Yesterday the choice of Priebus, a loyal campaign ally to Trump who has close ties with House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, signaled a willingness to work with Ryan and the Republican-led Congress to get his agenda passed.The other front-runner for the job had been Stephen Bannon, Trump's campaign chairman and former head of the conservative Breitbart News. Trump named Bannon as his chief strategist and senior counselor.The chief of staff position, which serves as a gatekeeper and agenda-setter for the president, is typically one of the most important early choices for an incoming president."I am thrilled to have my very successful team continue with me in leading our country," Trump said in a statement. "Steve and Reince are highly qualified leaders who worked well together on our campaign and led us to a historic victory. Now I will have them both with me in the White House."Trump, who will succeed Democratic President Barack Obama on January 20, has been contemplating the candidates for top jobs in the White House and in various Cabinet positions since Tuesday's election win over Democrat Hillary Clinton.The selection of Priebus as chief of staff could anger some hardline Trump supporters who were counting on Trump to keep his campaign promise to "drain the swamp" of business-as-usual Washington insiders.Trump and his advisers already have hedged on some of his major campaign promises, including on immigration, healthcare and appointing a special prosecutor to investigate Clinton.Priebus is a longtime Wisconsin political operative who was credited with marshaling party resources for Trump's White House bid. The Republican National Committee stepped in and ran most of the party's get-out-the-vote effort this year in the absence of such an operation by the Trump campaign.He frequently traveled with Trump on the campaign trail and was seen as a positive force who helped rein in the unpredictable Trump in the closing weeks. Trump made his high regard for Priebus known on election night when he pulled him to the microphone to take a bow for his campaign efforts.Bannon is a firebrand outsider who as head of Breibart repeatedly attacked the Republican Party establishment including Ryan, alienating many veteran Republicans. Bannon showed his willingness to engage in brutal political tactics when he instigated the appearance before a presidential debate of three women who said they had been sexually abused by his Democratic rival's husband, former President Bill Clinton.BORDER WALLTrump backed away yesterday from his promise to build a wall on the US-Mexican border, saying some areas could instead be "fencing," and added he would move to deport up to 3 million immigrants in the country illegally who have criminal records.Trump, whose pledge to force Mexico to pay for a border wall was a centerpiece of his White House, said in "certain areas" he would accept fencing instead of a brick-and-mortar wall, according to excerpts of his interview with the CBS program "60 Minutes.""But certain areas, a wall is more appropriate. I'm very good at this, it's called construction, there could be some fencing," the New York real estate developer said.In the "60 Minutes" interview, Trump sought to play down the divisive nature of his candidacy and said Americans alarmed by his election have nothing to fear. "Don't be afraid. We are going to bring our country back. But certainly, don't be afraid," he said.Demonstrators in major US cities took to the streets for a fifth straight day yesterday to protest against Trump, decrying his campaign promises to restrict Muslim immigration and deport immigrants in the country illegally, as well as allegations that the former reality TV star sexually abused women.Trump said in the interview that once he takes office he would remove immigrants with criminal records who are in the country illegally."What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, probably two million, it could be even three million, we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate. But we're getting them out of our country," he told "60 Minutes."During the campaign, Trump said he would deport the estimated 11 million immigrants in the country illegally, most of whom are Hispanic. Trump said Mexico was sending criminals and rapists into the United States.Ryan, who like Priebus is from Wisconsin and will play a key role in getting Trump's agenda through the Republican-led Congress, yesterday backed away from Trump's promise during the campaign of a "deportation force" to round up and deport immigrants in the country illegally."We are not planning on erecting a deportation force. Donald Trump's not planning on that," Ryan told CNN's "State of the Union" program. "I think we should put people's minds at ease. That is not what our focus is. That is not what we're focused on. We're focused on securing the border."Kevin McCarthy, the No. 2 House Republican, said on "Fox News Sunday" the wall with Mexico could in parts be a "virtual" wall patrolled by drones.REUTERS AKC 0407 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0432-1021584.Xml
South Korean President Park Geun-hye has retained a lawyer ahead of being questioned by prosecutors investigating a favours scandal engulfing her administration, her office said today.Park's presidency has been rocked by allegations that a friend used her ties to meddle in state affairs and wield improper influence. Park will be the first sitting president to be questioned by prosecutors over a criminal case.Her approval rating remains at an all-time low for a second week. Hundreds of thousands marched in the capital, Seoul, on Saturday demanding that she resign.Park's lawyer, Yoo Yeong-ha, a former member of the government's National Human Rights Commission, will discuss arrangements with prosecutors for their questioning, the presidential Blue House said in a statement."Yoo will discuss with prosecutors the questioning's format, date and location," a Blue House official said.Prosecutors are investigating whether Park exerted improper pressure on "chaebol" conglomerate bosses to raise funds for foundations involving her friend, Choi Soon-sil, the Yonhap news agency reported on Sunday.Yonhap today said prosecutors had summoned Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin, which if true would make him the latest head of a South Korean conglomerate to be questioned by investigators. Lotte Group could not confirm the report and prosecutors were not immediately available for comment.Other chaebol bosses, including Hyundai Motor Group chairman Chung Mong-koo and Hanjin Group chairman Cho Yang-ho, were questioned last weekend.Prosecutors are also investigating Choi, who has been detained since October 31.The leader of the main opposition party proposed talks with Park on Monday but later cancelled the offer due to strong party opposition.Another apology by Park and an offer to work with opposition to form a new cabinet and relinquish some of her powers failed to quell the crisis, prompting opponents to say she did not grasp its severity.Park said earlier this month prosecutors should clarify what happened and that everyone involved should be held accountable, including herself, and take responsibility if found guilty. Reuters SB 1144 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0094-1023166.Xml
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin during a visit on Dec. 5 and 6, prime ministry sources said.Russia and Turkey, a NATO member, are backing opposing sides in the Syrian conflict. In recent months they have been normalising ties that broke down a year ago when Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the border with with Syria. REUTERS VS GC1532 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0440-1023512.Xml
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev appointed Deputy Economy Minister Yevgeny Yelin as acting economy minister after his chief, Alexei Ulyukayev, was detained over bribery charges, a spokeswoman for the prime minister's office said today. REUTERS VS BD1813 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0440-1023935.Xml
In the hours after Donald Trump secured the US presidency, supporters of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan triumphantly took to social media, hailing the election of a man who had threatened to ban Muslims from entering the United States.At first glance, Trump seemed an unlikely hero for millions of Turks who support the Islamist-rooted AK Party founded by Erdogan in the predominantly Muslim nation. But in his victory, many saw a blow to a Washington establishment they say has failed Turkey as an ally and worked against its interests.Anti-American sentiment in Turkey - a NATO ally key to the US-led fight against Islamic State in neighbouring Syria and Iraq - has risen sharply since a failed military coup in July.Erdogan and the government blame the abortive coup on Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic cleric who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999. Government supporters have been incensed by what they see as US reluctance to extradite Gulen, who denies involvement in the plot, as well as Western criticism of a crackdown on his suspected followers."We can't hide the disappointments we've felt during the Obama term," said one senior member of the AK Party, speaking on condition of anonymity because Erdogan, who sets the tone of Turkish policy, has himself made little comment so far, beyond congratulating Trump."Trump's pre-election comments on Muslims disappointed us, but these will be relegated to the context of campaigning. Real politics is different ... I think there will be much better dialogue between our president and Trump than with the previous administration," the official said.But Erdogan, like other leaders in the region, will be kept guessing by a Republican US president-elect who has yet to make his policies in the Middle East clear.Many Turks have also been angered by US support for a Kurdish militia fighting Islamic State in Syria, seeing them as an extension of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants who have waged a bloody three-decade insurgency in Turkey.Trump's policy on this is unclear. He has indicated, though, that his priority in the multi-sided Syrian conflict will be fighting Islamic State - not forcing President Bashar al-Assad to leave power as Ankara has long desired.This could not only put him at odds with Erdogan, but help shift the course of the Syrian civil war in favour of Assad and his allies.'CONTROLLING HAND'In Ankara's corridors of power, few had expected Trump to win. But in his victory, senior officials sense an opportunity to reset an alliance that has been strained under Barack Obama, with whom Erdogan has had increasingly testy relations.Trump, a real estate billionaire, and Erdogan, the son of a poor sea captain, are from different worlds but their leadership styles bear striking similarities - both are populists who command a devoted following but are deeply polarising, and are not afraid to speak their mind.There is a "high chance" of good chemistry between the two leaders, said a second senior Turkish official, even if they are unlikely to always see eye to eye."They'll sit down without any pretence. Berlusconi was a bit like that," the official said, referring to the former Italian prime minister, who enjoyed close relations with Erdogan.Following Trump's victory, Hilal Kaplan - a prominent journalist with the pro-government Sabah newspaper, which is run by the brother of Erdogan's son-in-law - tweeted: "We're happy to see the U.S. establishment cracking.""Turkey is one of those countries that rejects America's controlling hand across the globe," she later told Reuters. "Trump's election is a blow to this international status quo."But deep divisions are likely to persist.There may not be any swift progress on Gulen to remove a significant obstacle to smooth Turkish-U.S. tiesTurkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has already urged Trump to extradite the cleric, but that will ultimately be an issue for the U.S. judiciary, not the president, and a legal deliberation process that could take years.Disagreements over Syria could also test relations.Trump has questioned the wisdom of backing rebels fighting Assad and has suggested cooperating with Russia - the Syrian leader's most powerful military ally - against Islamic State.And while Hillary Clinton, the Democratic U.S. presidential candidate, stoked Turkish anger during the campaign by suggesting she would arm Kurdish militias fighting the jihadists, Trump has not explicitly ruled out such a move.'HONEYMOON'"We'll witness a period of honeymoon, post the end of the Obama period, where the relationship had become quite acrimonious," Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat and analyst at Carnegie Europe, said of Turkish-US ties."Going forward, however, we are likely to see points of divergence," he added. "Trump policies would certainly empower both the regime in Syria, the regime-friendly forces, and also Russia. That is against what Turkey has tried to do since 2011 in terms of regime change and backing the opposition."Trump's backing of Israel will also worry Ankara, a major supporter of the Palestinians and a donor to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.During campaigning, Trump won support in Israel with a promise that Washington would recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Palestinians want East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in a 1967 war, as capital of the state they aim to establish alongside Israel in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.Trump's threat to abandon NATO allies in Europe if they do not spend enough on defence, and his arguments against international trade agreements of the kind that could benefit Turkey, are also cause for concern in Ankara.But as the world waits to see how Trump will shape his foreign policy, Ankara officialdom is remaining cautiously optimistic."Generally, Turkish governments are more at ease with Republican administrations in the United States than they are with Democrats," said Halil Karaveli, managing editor of The Turkey Analyst, a policy journal."A new administration is a whole new ball game," he added. "The Trump presidency represents, from the Turkish perspective, a chance for a restart."REUTERS JW PR1044 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0364-1024487.Xml
Japan and Russia said today they would accelerate talks on economic cooperation ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Japan in December, despite the detention of Russia's economy minister. The minister, Alexei Ulyukayev, who denies extorting a 2 million dollars bribe from oil giant Rosneft, had led the Kremlin's efforts to deepen cooperation with Tokyo. "We will speed up arrangements, so that more than 10 documents in such areas as customs, human exchange and medicine can be agreed at the time of the president's visit," Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said at a joint new conference with Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov. The pair were speaking after co-chairing a meeting between Japanese and Russian trade delegations. "Judging from how our preparatory work is proceeding, I am totally confident that quite a few documents of cooperation will be signed when the Russian president makes the trip in December," Shuvalov said. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in September agreed with Putin to drive economic cooperation and to work for the conclusion of a peace treaty. A territorial row over a chain of western Pacific islands, seized by Soviet troops at the end of World War Two, has upset diplomatic relations ever since, precluding a formal peace treaty between the two countries.REUTERS JW BL2300 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0364-1024497.Xml
WINDHOEK, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Namibia's most wanted fugitive Lazarus Shaduka handed himself over Monday after about four years on the run, police confirmed.

Police confirmed that Shaduka surrendered himself at Namibian Consulate at Ondjiva in southern Angola.

Shaduka, who was wanted for the murder of his wife, had a 100,000 Namibian dollar (about 7,000 U.S. dollars) reward on his head.

He fled the country in 2012 just hours before he was supposed to hand himself over to the prison authorities to start serving a 20-year jail term imposed by the Supreme Court.

The murder of Selma Shaimemanya was committed in 2008 at the couple's Windhoek home.

After his arrest, Shaduka spent about two years in custody before the High Court found him guilty of culpable homicide and fined him 25,000 Namibian dollars (about 1,700 U.S dollars).

The Supreme Court, however, rescinded the High Court ruling that had found him guilty of culpable homicide. Instead, the Supreme Court convicted him of murder and sentenced him to 20 years imprisonment.

Since 2013, the Namibian Police could not find him until Monday when he handed himself over.
NEW DELHI, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- After staying for months in a private hospital, the ailing Chief Minister of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu has indicated that she has almost recovered and that she has been "reborn".

J. Jayalalitha, the 68-year-old woman politician, has been in the hospital in state capital Chennai since Sept. 22, a day after she made her last public appearance.

"Due to the continuous prayers by people in Tamil Nadu, in other states and across the world, I have been reborn and I am happy to share this information with you," Jayalalitha said in the letter that was released by her regional AIADMK party late Sunday evening.

She had last month handed over all her official responsibilities to her deputy -- state's Finance Minister O.P. Panneerselvam -- though she did not give up the post of chief minister.

Initially, doctors said Jayalalitha was receiving treatment for "fever and dehydration". Later, local media reported, quoting doctors, that she had a lung infection. But overall there has been a veil of secrecy around her health.

A former film actress, Jayalalitha is the head of AIADMK party and has been elected Tamil Nadu's chief minister four times. She is one of India's most powerful woman politician.
KIGALI, Nov, 14 (Xinhua) -- The transformative power of improved science education is known, and we must harness it to serve our ambitious goals, for sustainable development and prosperity, said Rwanda President Paul Kagame on Monday.

He was speaking at the opening ceremony of the 27th general meeting of The World Academy of Science (TWAS) in the Rwandan capital Kigali.

Rwanda hosts the high level science conference from 14th to 17th November at the Kigali Convention Centre with an aim of promoting and advancing science education in developing countries across the globe.

TWAS is a global science academy based in Trieste, Italy, working to advance science and engineering for sustainable prosperity in the developing world.

"In the developing world in particular, science plays a critical role in our socio-economic transformation, by helping to narrow the gap between us, and the more developed regions. The World Academy of Science is an excellent example of collaboration at both levels, as well as a clear demonstration of the power and relevance, of increased South to South cooperation," said Kagame.

He noted improved science education and strengthened scientific research capacity, has never been more urgent, particularly in Africa, where it can have a transformational impact, on the pace and quality of development.

"Our continent urgently needs to produce many more scientists and engineers generally." he said.

The four-day meeting has brought together close to 300 participants, including leading researchers and science policymakers, science ministers, leaders from science associations, funding agencies, and non-governmental organizations from more than 60 countries across the globe.

According to Professor Bai Chunli, President of TWAS, educating and training young scientists, building global science networks are areas of strength for TWAS and its partner organizations.

"Better and sustainable science education is foundation for economic and social growth. Throughout the history of TWAS, we have been committed to science for sustainable development. We know that science and technology help developing countries to address human challenges and build more prosperous communities," he said.

Bai noted that globally TWAS has nearly 1,200 members -- about 100 in sub-Saharan Africa and TWAS has been a leading advocate for science in sub-Saharan Africa.

"We offer fellowships that fully fund PhD studies and postdoctoral research at major science institutions in the South. TWAS and the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World." Bai said.

Papias Malimba Musafiri, Rwanda minister of education, said that TWAS has played a crucial role towards promoting science education and research in the developing world.

"We really appreciate Prof. Bai Chunli and his team for their effort to transform science education in Africa and particularly Rwanda for sustainable prosperity of our children's future. We are proud of TWAS's role in African progress especially in advancing science and education for a more prosperous and peaceful world" he added.

The meeting will include among others symposia and lectures on chemistry, global epidemics, and the role of social sciences in achieving a more just world. A symposium on astronomy will feature a presentation on the Square Kilometre Array, the world's largest radio telescope, being planned for South Africa and Australia.

During the opening ceremony, several researchers were awarded with prestigious accolades for their work including TWAS-Lenovo Prize, one of the world's most prestigious honors for science in the developing world, which went to Chinese materials scientist Zhao Dongyuan.

President Paul Kagame received an award from TWAS for embracing science, technology and innovation for sustainable development in Rwanda and Africa.

The Academy will also announce newly elected fellows and young Affiliates.
MARRAKECH, Morocco, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) on Monday launched a flagship program on climate, ecosystems and livelihoods to help developing countries achieve development goals and meet climate targets while improving people's livelihoods and protecting the environment.

The initiative, supported by China, was launched during a high-level event on the sidelines of a UN climate conference.

The program, aiming to seize the "power of integration" of sustainable development goals, will be led by the UNEP's International Ecosystem Management Partnership.

It will help protect the most fragile ecosystems, such as drylands, river basins and coastal zones in Asia, West Asia and Africa.

The program will be rolled out in three phases, from assessment in 2016-2018 to development in 2019-2021 and scaling up in 2022-2025.

The first phase will see a thorough survey of three types of "hotspots" -- fragile ecosystems, biodiversity-rich areas, and communities vulnerable to climate change and ecosystem degradation.

During the duration of the program, the UNEP's International Ecosystem Management Partnership will provide assistance in monitoring and assessment, capacity building, technology demonstration and science for policy.

The forum, co-organized by China, Morocco, and the United Nations, brought together senior UN officials and ministers from more than a dozen countries.

Participants will discuss the role of South-South cooperation in addressing climate change and building the capacity of developing countries and explore ways of financing for climate efforts and sustainable development.
BRUSSELS, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- The European Union said on Monday that the expected duration of working life in the 28-member bloc stood at 35.4 years on average in 2015, up by 1.9 years compared with 2005.

According to Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU, between 2005 and 2015, the expected duration of working life has increased across all members, albeit to different extents. The average working life was in 2015 expected to be the longest in Sweden (41.2 years), ahead of the Netherlands (39.9 years) and Denmark (39.2 years).

In contrast, working life was expected to last less than 33 years in Italy (30.7 years), Bulgaria (32.1 years), Greece (32.3 years), Belgium, Croatia, Hungary and Poland (32.6 years each) as well as Romania (32.8 years).

Duration of working life was expected in 2015 to be longer for men (37.9 years) than for women (32.8 years) in all member states, except Lithuania.

The overall increase in duration of working life is generally driven across member states by the change in women's duration of working life. Over this 10-year period, duration of working life has increased more rapidly for women (2.6 years) than for men (1.2 years).

This indicator "duration of working life" measures the number of years a person aged 15 is expected to be active, either employed or unemployed, in the labor market throughout his/her life. Enditem
BAGHDAD, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- At least five civilians and three policemen were killed on Monday in two suicide bomb attacks in the city of Fallujah in west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, a local security source told Xinhua.

The two attacks occurred before the sunset when a suicide bomber drove his explosive-laden car into a security checkpoint and detonated it at the entrance of Nazal district in central Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, killing five civilians and two policemen and injuring six, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In the second blast, a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest blew himself up at the gate of a police headquarters, killing a policeman and wounding four others, the source said.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the twin bombings, but the Islamic State (IS) group, in most cases, is responsible for such suicide attacks which often target crowded areas like markets, cafes and mosques across Iraq.

Iraqi security forces and allied militias freed Fallujah, a city of Iraq's largest province of Anbar and the once major stronghold of the Islamic State (IS) group, in mid-July, and then continued to push into vast rural areas and other parts of the province, which stretches from the western edges of Baghdad to the country's borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Under tightened security measures, thousands of residents have returned to their homes in Fallujah after more than two and a half years.

Terrorist acts, violence and armed conflicts killed 1,792 Iraqis and wounded 1,358 others in October across Iraq, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq said.

Many blame the current chronic instability, cycle of violence, and the emergence of extremist groups, such as the IS, on the United States, which invaded and occupied Iraq in March 2003.
TIRANA, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Albanian government has targeted a budgetary deficit equivalent to 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) for next year, the Finance Ministry here said Monday.

According to them, this is the lowest level of deficit registered in the last two decades.

The draft budget for 2017, currently being discussed at Albanian parliamentary committees, targets GDP growth of 3.8 percent in 2017 while it foresees an increase to 4 percent in the medium term, ministry experts said.

The report accompanying the draft budget also showed that the primary balance is expected to be positive for the second consecutive year at the level of 0.7 percent of GDP which is also the highest level recorded in these 25 years, they added.

Therefore, the targeted public debt level is expected to go down by around 2.7 percentage points. The public debt will keep shrinking, experts said.

Meantime, the Albanian Finance Ministry said in a statement that Albanian economic growth will be driven by domestic demand and foreign direct investments, particularly those in the energy sector.

The ministry also said that 2017 draft budget had been agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Speaking of this year, Albania's economy in the first half of 2016 grew by 3.2 percent year-on-year while the governments target full-year is at 3.4 percent, it added. Enditem
AMMAN, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Jordan on Monday called for increased aid from the international community so it can cope with the pressure of rising numbers of Syrian refugees, reported the state-run Petra news agency.

The remarks were made by Jordan's Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh during a meeting with US Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, Anne C. Richard, as both sides considered the impact of Syrian refugees as well as regional issues.

Judeh summarized the challenges facing Jordan in the health, education, water and energy fields, stressing the need for the international community to shoulder its responsibility in supporting Jordan so it can continue to provide aid to over 1.4 million Syrian refugees in the country.

The international community needs to honor the commitments and pledges it made to Jordan to enable the country to cope with the large number of Syrian refugees, he added.

He stressed the need for a political solution to the crisis in Syria, saying that any solution must be inclusive of all Syrians.

Richard stressed support to Jordan, highlighting its key role in regional issues.

The U.S. official added that Jordan is a key player in regional stability, and expressed appreciation for its aid toward Syrian refugees.
by Magdalena, Han Mei

WARSAW, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- As Polish apples have different taste and look and are competitive both in the quality and price aspect, we have great hopes for export to China, Miroslaw Maliszewski, chairman of the Polish Orchardmen Association told Xinhua Monday.

Following the Belt and Road Initiative such as the Chengdu-Lodz express cargo railway service and Zhengzhou-Warsaw rail freight connection, Polish fruit growers are keen to explore the potential of the Chinese market.

In November 2016, the Polish Embassy in Beijing received a confirmation from the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the PRC (AQSIQ), approving the export of Polish apples export to China.

Polish Minister of Agriculture Krzysztof Jurgiel announced on Sunday that Polish fruit growers were ready for export.

"The apples are being exported to China since this month. The Chinese market is very receptive," the minister said, adding that 7 billion zloty (1.7 billion U.S. dollars) have been used in recent years to ensure all Chinese requirements are fulfilled, especially as far as herbicides and plant protection products are concerned.

"At the beginning, it was quite abstract, as China is the world's biggest apple producer. However, we submitted an official application for being allowed to export to the Chinese market in 2014 and few months ago, an agreement was signed," said Maliszewski.

The agreement was signed in June 2016.

"Polish apples are competitive both in the quality and price aspect in comparison to other imported apples. We hope that our apples might help stimulate the Chinese internal fruit market," Maliszewski added.

Poland is Europe's major apple producer. Majority of Polish apples, around 40 percent, come from the Grojec region near Warsaw. Other regions famous for apple orchards are Lublin Voivodeship and Sandomierz region in southeastern Poland.

Currently, the Polish side is carrying out a campaign aimed at educating Chinese consumers about European apples.

The Belt and Road Initiative is an optimal opportunity for Polish fruit growers, Maliszewski said.

"We hope the Belt and Road Initiative will stimulate trade exchange, allowing not only Polish fruit, but also different groceries, such as meat and dairy products to be present in China. Negotiations are constantly ongoing," Maliszewski said.

"Polish apples being exported to China gives us great hopes for the future," he added. "In future, we hope to export berries and other fruits to China."
MOSCOW, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- A Russian military MiG-29 fighter jet has crashed in the Mediterranean Sea, and the pilot has successfully ejected, Russian Defense Ministry said Monday.

The jet crashed during a training mission as it approached the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov for a landing due to technical failure, the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry did not specify when the accident took place, while some media reports said it happened on Sunday.

The pilot has successfully ejected and his life is not in danger, the ministry added.

As Russia's sole aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov has been sent to reinforce the Russian naval group operating in the Mediterranean with the aim of aiding the anti-terrorist mission in Syria.
Chinese Ambassador to Kenya Liu Xianfa (2nd R) presents certificate of scholarship to a student of the Nairobi University in Nairobi, Kenya, Nov. 14, 2016. The Chinese Embassy in Kenya on Monday provided 20 scholarships worth 20,000 U.S. dollars for needy university students to enable them to pursue a range of humanities and science courses. (Xinhua/Sun Ruibo)

NAIROBI, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Embassy in Kenya on Monday provided 20 scholarships worth 20,000 U.S. dollars for needy university students to enable them to pursue a range of humanities and science courses.

Chinese Ambassador to Kenya Liu Xianfa said the scholarships for underprivileged but bright students are at the heart of the blossoming China-Kenya cooperation in education and skills transfer.

"Science, education and humanities exchanges have become one of the pillars of China-Kenya bilateral relations," said Liu, adding that Kenya has become a training hub for Chinese language and culture

So far, 58 Kenyan university students from poor backgrounds have benefited from the Chinese Ambassador's scholarship launched in 2013.

The scholarship program was initiated by the Chinese embassy and the University of Nairobi to cover tuition fees for students from poor families pursuing courses like engineering, medicine, economics and finance.

Liu said beneficiaries of the scholarship program have been instrumental in driving Kenya's socio-economic transformation agenda.

He added that China-Kenya collaboration in science, technology and innovations has unleashed huge benefits in critical sectors like agriculture, health, energy and telecommunications.

The ambassador reaffirmed China's commitment to nurturing of youth talent in Kenya to speed up economic growth and social renewal.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Academic Affairs at University of Nairobi Henry Mutoro hailed the Chinese Ambassador scholarship program for transforming the lives of needy students through acquisition of lifelong skills.

"The 58 students who have benefited from the scholarship program have not disappointed and continue to excel in academic studies," said Mutoro.

He lauded the blossoming partnership between Kenyan and Chinese universities that has focused on joint training and research programs in languages, humanities and sciences.

Apart from hosting one of the largest Confucius institute in Sub-Saharan Africa, the University of Nairobi has forged linkages with Chinese academic institutions on modern skills training.
ST. PETERSBURG, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Eight citizens of CIS countries (notably Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan) were arrested in St. Petersburg, Russia Sunday on suspicion of terrorism.

"Interfax" reported Monday that Russian FSB discovered a terrorist group that was planning to commit a series of terrorist attacks in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Ten members of the group were detained on Saturday, FSB also found explosives, firearms, etc.

The detainees testified about their contacts with the terrorist organization "Islamic State".
BEIRUT, Nov 14 (Xinhua) -- The Lebanese among the rest of the people in the world witnessed Monday night the moon in its closest distance to earth since Jan. 26, 1948 and would not be so close again until in Nov. 25, 2034 as NASA said.

A supermoon happens when a full moon or new moon coincides with the moon's closest approach to Earth; also called perigee. A super full moon looks around 12 to 14 percent bigger than the micromoon.

Ramzi Abou Rjeili from the Deir el Qamar town of Mount Lebanon was among those who gathered in the streets of the town to watch the supermoon.

"Every seven decades the moon looks so big, and as the media said it would be closer to earth for about 315,000 kilometers than its normal distance to Earth," Abou Rjeili told Xinhua.

"For us in Deir el-Qamar (monastery of the moon in English) we are used to watching the moon, but it is the first time I see it so big," he added. Enditem
Chinese ambassador to Syria Qi Qianjin (2nd L) signs a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Imad al-Azab (3rd L), head of the National Commission for the Syrian Science Olympiad, in Damascus, Syria, Nov. 14, 2016. Chinese ambassador to Syria, Qi Qianjin, said Monday that China is carrying on with providing Syria with humanitarian aid worth 70 million U.S. dollars. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)

DAMASCUS, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Chinese ambassador to Syria, Qi Qianjin, said Monday that China is carrying on with providing Syria with humanitarian aid worth 70 million U.S. dollars.

The ambassador made the remarks during his meeting with head of the National Commission for the Syrian Science Olympiad, Imad al-Azab.

During the meeting, the Chinese ambassador also provided the Commission with a batch of computers to support its work and activities.

Qi said that China is interested in enhancing the cooperation with Syria in the fields of training cadres and education through official channels or NGOs.

Meanwhile, al-Azab stressed the importance of exchanging visits between the two sides to sign joint cooperation agreements in the scientific field.
LIMA, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- 2016 APEC Economic Leaders' Week kicks off on Monday in Lima, capital city of Peru, with the theme "Quality growth and human development."

Running from Nov. 14th to 20th, it will bring together leaders, senior officials and business elites from the 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies to discuss the future of international trade policies, economic growth and improvement of life conditions.

During the meetings, advancing regional economic integration, enhancing the regional food market, supporting small and medium business development and boosting labor forces will be priorities, according to the official press release.

Four main events will be held through the week, including the APEC Concluding Senior Officials' Meeting on 14th and 15th, the APEC Ministerial Meeting on 17th and 18th, the APEC CEO Summit from 17th to 19th, and finally the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting on 20th.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting to boost regional economic integration and deliver a speech to the APEC CEO Summit, according to China's Foreign Ministry.

China has been an APEC contributor and supporter since it joined the mechanism 25 years ago and has played a significant role in building the Asian Pacific family.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama are among other leaders to attend the meeting.

APEC, founded in 1989, is a forum of 21 economies in the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, China's Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.

The APEC region, home to around 2.8 billion people, represents 57 percent of the world's GDP and 49 percent of global trade.

APEC seeks to promote the liberalization of trade and investment, facilitate business and promote economic cooperation, achieve prosperity among member economies.
Andy Murray of Britain returns a shot in the group match with Marin Cilic of Croatia at the 2016 ATP World Tour Final at O2 in London, Britain on Nov. 14, 2016. Murray won 2-0. (Xinhua/Han Yan)

LONDON, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Andy Murray defeated seventh seed Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-2 in their Group clash for his first victory after climbing to the top of the world rankings at the ATP World Tour Finals in London's O2 Arena on Monday.

In an earlier match, fifth seed Kei Nishikori shocked world No. 3 Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland 6-2, 6-3.

Murray added 200 points with his 12th win over Cilic and now has 11,110 points in the world rankings as he battles Novak Djokovic (10,980) for year-end No. 1.

Enjoying a career-best year, Murray is now 73-9 with eight titles overall and has extended his winning streak to 20 matches since Sept. 20. He will next play Nishikori on Wednesday.

Murray broke twice to take a 3-1 lead while Cilic, who committed 17 unforced errors, looked for a second break, but Murray was able to clinch the 46-minute opener.

In the second set, Murray broke twice in a run of five straight games to wrap up victory in 90 minutes.

"A big thank you for all of the support, it was an incredible atmosphere today," Murray said after the match. "I really appreciate it."

Nishikori, who is playing the year-end finale for the third straight year, needed only 67 minutes to prevail. It is the Japanese star's third victory over Wawrinka in seven meetings.

"I felt very comfortable out there," said Nishikori. "He wasn't playing his best. He made a lot of unforced errors. I see a lot of opportunities today."

Wawrinka, the oldest player in the field at the age of 31, did not create any break point opportunities.

"It was not a great match, compared to what I [know I] can do," said Wawrinka. "It wasn't a great day for myself. In general, I think he played well and put a lot of pressure from the beginning. I don't think I found anything on the court today. I was a little bit slow on everything. I was hesitating a lot with my game [and] my movement."
HELSINKI, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila said on Monday the ailing nickel and zinc mine in Sotkamo, northeastern Finland, would not be shut down.

The premier made the remarks during his visit to the mine, which has been operated by state-owned company Terraframe following the insolvency of the earlier operators in 2014.

The latest decision was a nearly total turnaround as the primary alternative was to close the mine half a year ago.

Sipila said the government would not accept a bad deal with an outsider, and had no plan ready for disengaging from the mine.

Last Friday, the government said it would contribute a further hundred million euros to keep the mine operator afloat until new private investors for the company are found.

Olli Rehn, Minister for the Economy, told media that the environmental risks of the operation were low and operational uncertainties were diminished.

Biological heap soaking method was adopted when the Talvivaara mine started operation in 2008. The method had worked well in warmer climates, but encountered problems in northern Finland.

The mine then experienced severe environmental problems as waste water contaminated nearby lakes.

Media reports indicated positive development in efforts to find private investors, but officials refused to mention any names in order not to disturb the talks. Rehn said financing would be assured by the end of this year.

Rehn also pointed out that the economic impact of the mine for the province of Kainuu is tangible. The mine at Talvivaara and its services used to generate 10 percent of the GDP of the area.

Local media noted that over 800 million euros of Finnish public money has been used to keep Talvivaara in operation. This means that each resident of Finland, irrespective of age, has spent 145 euros.

Lauri Ratia, Chairman of Terraframe said the world price of nickel has increased essentially this year. He said the extended government financing will make it possible to carry out talks with potential investors.

The mine is currently running at a loss of ten million euros per month, but Ratia assured the cash flow would be positive in 2018.
LIMA, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Among visitors from the 21 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, the Chinese visitors rank the first in doing business and investing in Peru.

According to figures released on Monday by Peru's immigration agency (SNMN), just over 71,000 international visitors from APEC member economies traveled to Peru in the past five years.

Of those, 67,713 traveled on business and 3,732 came for investment, with the great majority coming from China.

From 2011 to 2015, 21,456 Chinese business people visited Peru. Chile ranked second, with 17,840, followed by the United States, with 12,413 and Mexico, with 8,525.

China also leads in the investment field, with 1,240 Chinese investors coming to Peru, closely followed by Chile (1,200) and the U.S. (666).

Starting Monday, Peru's capital Lima is playing host to the 24th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders' Week.

The gathering aims to promote the creation of a free-trade zone in the region.
Visiting Chinese Vice Premier Ma Kai (L), who is in Paris for the fourth China-France High Level Economic and Financial Dialogue, meets with French President Francois Hollande in Paris, capital of France, Nov. 14, 2016. (Xinhua/Li Genxing)

PARIS, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese Vice Premier Ma Kai, who was in Paris for the fourth China-France High Level Economic and Financial Dialogue, met with French President Francois Hollande on Monday.

During the meeting, Ma said the purpose of his visit is to implement the consensus reached by both countries' leaders as well as the outcome of the G20 Hangzhou Summit, to promote the pragmatic economic and trade cooperation, and to lift Sino-French comprehensive strategic partnership to a new level.

Ma expressed China's hope that France would continue to exert its influence by urging the European Union to fulfill its obligations under Article 15 of the Protocol on China's Accession to the World Trade Organization and to play an active role in facilitating the establishment of a fair, just, transparent and nondiscriminatory international trade order that complies with WTO rules.

Hollande said France attaches great importance to ties with China and is ready to further deepen cooperations with China in the fields of energy, trade and anti-terrorism.

France welcomes China's further nuclear energy technology cooperation with France, he said.

Hollande said France opposes trade protectionism and will make greater efforts to protect the safety of Chinese tourists and expatriates in France and hopes that more Chinese will travel to France.
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of students from at least four high schools in Portland, Oregon, took to the street on Monday against U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

The protest march, according to Portland Police Bureau, ended hours later in the afternoon without incident.

The bureau, which posted a series of messages on its Twitter social media network account during the protest, once called for parents to "encourage them (kids) to go back to school."

Portland, a city in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, has seen nightly protest since last Tuesday, when Trump was elected next president. And it was the first time that a similar event took place during day time.

No arrests were made on Monday, and students were allowed to gather in front of the City Hall.

The authorities in Portland said in a statement on Monday that it had arrested more than 100 protesters for violating laws.
CANBERRA, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Australian and Indonesian authorities have commenced training drills to prepare for a possible catastrophic tsunami in the region.

Michael Keenan, Australia's Minister for Justice, said that the "tabletop" Ambon DiREx 2016 exercises would focus on exploring the coordination of regional assistance for Indonesia in the case of a fictional tsunami.

Keenan said in the scenario, which was developed by disaster management program DMInnovation, the tsunami had been triggered by an earthquake measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale.

"Exercise Ambon is the culmination of almost five years' work in a productive partnership between Australia and Indonesia, in collaboration with EAS (East Asia Summit) countries," Keenan said in a media release on Tuesday.

"The EAS Rapid Disaster Response Toolkit is world's best practice - an important resource that will enable countries in the region to provide quick and effective assistance in response to natural disasters such as the tsunami in this exercise.

"I applaud the initiative of our Indonesian partner in conducting this exercise, which will provide a valuable opportunity for all the countries in the region to actually apply the toolkit to a disaster scenario."

Willem Rampangilei, head of the Indonesian National Disaster Management Authority, said Australia and Indonesia's cooperation was reflective of the two nations' broader relationship.

"The strength of our relationship is underlined by strong cooperation, at various Government levels, across many issues including emergency management," Rampangilei said.

"Indonesia and Australia both understand the terrible impacts of catastrophic natural disasters.

"We can't prevent them, but knowing how best to provide inter-country assistance in their wake is very important for minimizing loss of life in the response phase, and the speed of the subsequent recovery."

Australia provided 750 million U.S. dollars in assistance to Indonesia in the wake of the December 2004 tsunami.
BUENOS AIRES, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Argentine President Mauricio Macri on Monday telephoned U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to congratulate him on winning the presidency, state news agency Telam reported.

During the 15-minute conversation, the two sides expressed their wish to boost bilateral relations.

"Argentina is a great country, and we will have the closest ties between our countries in history," Macri's office quoted Trump as saying.

When Macri said he hoped to see Trump at the G20 major economies' summit to be held in 2018 in Argentina, Trump replied that he would like to welcome Macri at the White House before that.

The two leaders "pledged to work on a common agenda for growth in both countries," Telam reported.

The report said Macri and Trump know each other and have "personal ties," without disclosing more details.

Argentine Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra said the call "re-established the personal connection they had for many years."

She added that Trump "has spoken with very few people these days," so the conversation was "significant."

On Thursday, Macri said "the entire world" was "surprised" by Trump's win over his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Relations between the South American country and the United States have become warmer since Macri took office in December 2015.
CANBERRA, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government has announced the nation's first independent body to fight financial crimes.

Using a secure web portal, businesses that are members of the AFCX (Australian Financial Crimes Exchange ) will be able to alert other members to, and share with them information on suspicious transactions.

Members will also be able to analyze data from across the industry rather than their own data to detect suspicious trends and take preventative action.

The system was established through a partnership between Australia's four largest banks, and the government will provide security capabilities, technology and intelligence to the platform.

"Financial crime is constantly evolving alongside advances in technology, becoming faster and more complex. It is imperative that we work hard to stay ahead of the threats," Michael Keenan, justice minister, said in a media release on Tuesday.

David Pegley, managing director of the AFCX, said the formation of the body was a landmark moment in Australia's fight against financial crimes.

"Financial institutions already invest heavily in their own fraud detection technology. This joint effort is a mark of their serious commitment to do their utmost to guard against any growing threat and protect their customers," Pegley said.

"AFCX members are looking for patterns and trends to reduce overall financial crime activity in Australia to offer the best protection for their customers, and all Australians," he said.
LIMA, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Business and enterprise representatives from China and Peru signed purchasing agreements worth 2 billion U.S. dollars on Monday in Lima, as the 2016 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Week kicked off in the capital city.

The agreements involved light industry, textiles, agricultural products, medicine, metals and minerals. Over 100 government officials and entrepreneurs attended the signing ceremony.

"Chinese-Peruvian trade has achieved growth and progress against the sophisticated and adverse situation of the world," Zhu Yong, a senior official from the Commerce Ministry of China, said at the ceremony.

Deepening cooperation and jointly overcoming hardships have proved precious to both sides and are conducive to producing win-win outcome and boosting global trade in the future, he added.

Juan Manuel Varilias Velasquez, chairman of the Peruvian Association of Exporters, said: "China as the most vigorous economy in the world has contributed to the consistent development of Peru in the past 15 years," adding that the business talks between the delegates and the signed agreements would further strengthen bilateral cooperation.

China has become Peru's largest trade partner and largest export destination in the world, while Peru has jumped to be China's third largest trade partner in Latin America.

The two sides are expected to strengthen and deepen their ties through sharing development opportunities, optimizing trade structure and expanding trade volumes, said the officials attending the signing ceremony.
VIENNA, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- The British exit from the European Union (EU) could affect Austria due to its impact on the two countries' major mutual trading partner Germany, Austria Press Agency quoted an Austrian official as saying here on Monday.

Austrian Trade Commissioner for the UK Christian Kesberg said that while Austrian managers presently have a "keep calm and carry on" attitude toward the so-called "Brexit" outcome, not anticipating any direct shocks, secondary effects via Germany are looming because Germany is the UK's third-largest trading partner and the most important one for Austria.

Given Germany's particular significance to the UK and Austria, if the British departure from the EU have a negative economic impact on Germany, Austria will in turn feel this.
YANGON, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- U Bein Bridge, a famous historical bridge and also the longest wooden bridge in Myanmar, will get renovated starting next month, aimed to promote tourism, official media reported Tuesday.

Located in Amarapura, south of Mandalay region, the 1.2-km-long bridge was built in 1850s over the Taungthaman Lake, using a traditional method.

The teakwood bridge, an important passageway for local people to cross the lake, is considered one of the most scenic spots in Amarapura, a town boasting beautiful landscape and rich local life.

The renovation work will be undertaken with the help of German experts, to maintain the bridge's original feature, Mandalay Region Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation was quoted as saying.

The bridge had been challenged due to the flooding of the country's giant river - the Ayeyarwady River in August when the increased water level of the lake nearly reached the floor of the bridge, forcing the authorities to close it temporarily.
BEIJING, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The State Council, China's cabinet, has announced the appointment and removal of several officials, according to a circular issued Tuesday.

Li Xiaohong was removed from the post of president of Wuhan University and named vice minister of education.

Huang Wei will replace Hou Jianguo as vice minister of science and technology.

Xiong Xuanguo was appointed vice minister of justice.

Li Guo was named deputy head of the General Administration of Customs, and Lu Peijun and Lyu Bin will no longer hold this post.

Fu Jianhua was appointed deputy head of the State Administration of Work Safety.

The State Council decided that Chen Shun will no longer hold the post of assistant minister of education and Dou Yupei will be removed from the post of vice minister of civil affairs.

Li Ganjie will no longer hold the posts of vice minister of environmental protection and the head of National Nuclear Safety Administration.

Tong Daochi will no longer serve as the assistant minister of commerce.
Andy Murray wins the opening match at the ATP world tour finals in London on Nov. 14, 2016.(Xinhua)

LONDON, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Andy Murray defeated seventh seed Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-2 in their Group clash for his first victory after climbing to the top of the world rankings at the ATP World Tour Finals in London's O2 Arena on Monday.

In an earlier match, fifth seed Kei Nishikori shocked world No. 3 Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland 6-2, 6-3.

Murray added 200 points with his 12th win over Cilic and now has 11,110 points in the world rankings as he battles Novak Djokovic (10,980) for year-end No. 1.

Enjoying a career-best year, Murray is now 73-9 with eight titles overall and has extended his winning streak to 20 matches since Sept. 20. He will next play Nishikori on Wednesday.

Murray broke twice to take a 3-1 lead while Cilic, who committed 17 unforced errors, looked for a second break, but Murray was able to clinch the 46-minute opener.

In the second set, Murray broke twice in a run of five straight games to wrap up victory in 90 minutes.

"A big thank you for all of the support, it was an incredible atmosphere today," Murray said after the match. "I really appreciate it."

Nishikori, who is playing the year-end finale for the third straight year, needed only 67 minutes to prevail. It is the Japanese star's third victory over Wawrinka in seven meetings.

"I felt very comfortable out there," said Nishikori. "He wasn't playing his best. He made a lot of unforced errors. I see a lot of opportunities today."

Wawrinka, the oldest player in the field at the age of 31, did not create any break point opportunities.

"It was not a great match, compared to what I [know I] can do," said Wawrinka. "It wasn't a great day for myself. In general, I think he played well and put a lot of pressure from the beginning. I don't think I found anything on the court today. I was a little bit slow on everything. I was hesitating a lot with my game [and] my movement."
BEIJING, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Third World Internet Conference will start Wednesday in Wuzhen, Zhejiang Province, east China.

President Xi Jinping will address the three-day conference via a live feed.

Home to the world's largest online community, 710 million as of June 2016, more than 95 percent of China's cities, towns and villages are now covered by fixed broadband.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2012, China has been making efforts to build itself into an Internet power.

-- In November 2013, the third plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee included Internet development in its mission to "comprehensively deepen reform," calling for better management of cyberspace.

-- In February 2014, the central Internet security and informatization leading group, headed by Xi, was established to lead and coordinate Internet security and digitalization, and draft national strategies, development plans and major policies in this field.

-- In October 2014, the fourth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee decided that the Internet should be administered by law, and that legislation and regulations should follow.

-- In April 2016 at a meeting on Internet security and digitalization, Xi, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, said China should create a cleaner online environment and improve cyberspace security by applying core systems, employing outstanding personnel and contracting responsible Internet firms.

-- In August 2016, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the Standardization Administration of China released the criteria for the national development of Information technology.

-- On Oct. 9, 2016, during a group meeting attended by senior leaders, Xi reiterated that to successfully build China into an Internet power the country must innovate information technology, boost digital economy, and improve both online management and security.

-- In late October of 2016, the CAC, the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development released a plan on expanding online services to rural areas. The plan featured articles on how to increase the sale of agricultural products, better-quality education services and proposed that a information service system for the poor be established by 2020.

-- On Nov. 7, 2016, the top legislature passed the Cybersecurity Law, featuring articles on sovereignty in cyberspace, national security and the rights of citizens. By adopting the law, the government will begin to roll out measures to "monitor, defend and handle cybersecurity risks and threats originating from within the country or overseas sources, protecting key information infrastructure from attack, intrusion, disturbance and damage."
WELLINGTON, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese visitors would be crucial to the recovery of the north Canterbury economy after the quake, particularly in the hard-hit township of Kaikoura in New Zealand, famed for its coastal scenery and whale-watching, a tourism industry group leader told Xinhua Tuesday.

Tourism industry and government agencies are moving to bolster confidence in China, New Zealand's fastest growing and second biggest tourism market, in the wake of the 7.5-magnitude quake, which killed two people in the north Canterbury region, said Tourism Industry Aotearoa (TIA) chief executive Chris Roberts.

Tourism and government agencies were closely monitoring reactions in China, Roberts said.

New Zealand tourism chiefs had issued an urgent appeal to prospective Chinese visitors after early Monday's deadly earthquake: Don't cancel your travel plans.

The industry had learned from the Christchurch earthquakes, which killed 185 people in 2011, that the international media coverage risked portraying New Zealand as a whole devastated, said Roberts.

"To date, we've been checking and there've been very, very few reports of people canceling planned trips to New Zealand, which is good," Roberts said in a phone interview.

"But we do know from China in particular that yesterday, immediately following the quake, there was some anxiety and Chinese travel companies were receiving calls from customers about their planned trips to New Zealand this summer. Hopefully they're getting the right information to them that there is no reason to cancel a trip to New Zealand."

The TIA was part of the government-organized Civil Defense visitor response group, which was arranging "official messaging" through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), embassies and other channels.

"The key from a tourism perspective is that New Zealand is still open for business. Yes, there's some disruption in north Canterbury, but the rest of the country is unaffected and we certainly want to welcome our tourists to keep coming to New Zealand over summer," said Roberts.

"We know from the experience of the Christchurch earthquakes that Christchurch took a big hit and other parts of the South Island also did -- parts of the South Island that were actually completely unaffected by the earthquakes -- so we want to try to avoid that."

Monitoring the public response and getting out "good information" would be a key focus of MFAT and the government's Tourism New Zealand agency, which has an office in Shanghai, over coming weeks.

Massive landslides cut off road and rail links to Kaikoura, making it accessible only by sea and by helicopter and sparking an airlift evacuation of about 1,000 stranded travelers on Tuesday.

"We'd want to support Kaikoura and get it back on its feet once the immediate cleanup is carried out and the road is reopened. Hopefully the tourist flows will begin again for whale-watching and all the other activities because it's very important to that town that it's able to get back in operation as soon as possible," he said.

Recovery of the tourism market was also essential to Chinese airlines that had recently begun direct flights into Christchurch and to Chinese carriers that were flying to New Zealand for the first time via the main gateway of Auckland.

"They're flights from new regions of China for the first time coming into New Zealand, so those airlines will be keen to have those planes filled up," Roberts said.
WELLINGTON, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The New Zealand government Tuesday announced it was backing a satellite development center as another key stepping stone in building a national space economy.

The Center for Space Science Technology (CSST) would establish an international satellite data exchange and collaborate with leading researchers and businesses, in New Zealand and abroad, to design, build and launch New Zealand's first fleet of cube satellites, said Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce.

The CSST would be based in Alexandra, in the South Island's Otago region and undertake research to explore the use of space-based measurements and satellite imagery unique to New Zealand to meet the specific needs of regional industries, Joyce said in a statement.

The government would provide funding of up to 14.7 million NZ dollars (10.46 million U.S. dollars) over four years for the new institute with additional funding from industry, and it would operate as a private, independently governed organization.

It would support the development and growth of New Zealand's space economy by filling critical gaps in the collection and processing of New Zealand's satellite data, he said.

In September, Joyce opened New Zealand's first space launch site, the privately run Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, on the Mahia Peninsula on the North Island's east coast.

The U.S.-owned Rocket Lab is a commercial space launch operator using technology developed in New Zealand.

The government tabled the Outer Space and High Altitude Activities Bill in Parliament the same month and it is intended to become law by mid-2017.

It would enable the development of a space industry in New Zealand, and enable regulators to manage risks and implement certain international obligations relating to space activities and space technology.

The Bill would also ensure the country's space industry met its international obligations, including the Technology Safeguards Agreement, recently signed with the United States.

Rocket Lab plans to begin space launches from New Zealand this year and is expected to start taking commercial payloads next year.
SYDNEY, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Australian authorities have arrested a 22-year-old man in western Sydney on Tuesday for travelling to and facilitating others to travel to Syrian conflict zone in 2013, as part of a difficult and protracted investigation surrounding the return of foreign fighters.

Australia, a staunch ally in the U.S.-led fight against terror in Syria and Iraq, has remained on heightened alert for home-grown terror attacks for over two years, arresting or jailing at least 45 suspects in connection to domestic terror plots.

It's believed that there are 110 Australians fighting for Islamic State, while 60 have been killed.

Authorities fear those who have travelled to and returned from Syria, Iraq or any other area, where hostile activities are occurring, would become more radicalized and bring back a greater capability in the use of weapons and explosives for any potential attack on Australian soil.

"We will continue to look at those who have returned from foreign countries and put appropriate strategies in place to investigate those who have committed offenses against Australian law," Australian Federal Police (AFP) Acting Assistant Commissioner for Counter Terrorism Michael Kelsey said on Tuesday.

"Although there are complexities in gathering evidence from foreign countries, we are committed to doing everything we can to bring people to account for their actions, and mitigate any risk to our community from those who have travelled to the region."

Police said the 22-year-old man, named in local media as Muhammad Abdul-Karim Musleh, was sent to Syria by notorious terrorist recruiter Hamdi Alqudsi - currently serving six years in an Australian prison - for just 11 days before returning home in July 2013.

While it's not known why Musleh returned so quickly from the Middle East, Fairfax Media reported the young man have been spooked by Turkish authorities while attempting to meet a Syrian recruiter before crossing the border.

The Australian government forbids any Australian traveling to war zones without special permission, and those who do and join either side of the conflict face harsh penalties.

Investigations are also ongoing into Australians who have fought for forces battling Islamic State such as the Syrian-Kurdish militant group YPG.

Under controversial foreign fighter laws, any dual national will have their Australian citizenship revoked if they are alleged to be a member of an organization listed on Australia's official terror group watch list. Single nationality Australians face a potential imprisonment of 10 years.
KATHMANDU, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has called up his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, requesting him to provide exchange facility for demonetized Indian currency notes in circulation in Nepal, the prime minister's office said here.

They held a five-minute conversation on Monday night in which the Nepali prime minister congratulated Modi on his move to crack down on black money and corruption, a press statement released by the prime minister's secretariat said.

Responding to Dahal, the Indian prime minister assured that he would address the problem concerning the demonetization faced by Nepal.

The Nepali prime minister took personal initiative to address the problem of exchanging demonetized Indian currency notes after rounds of efforts made by the state-run central bank - Nepal Rastra Bank failed to solve the problem.

Media reports said the Nepalese central bank wrote a letter to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last week requesting to manage the Indian currency notes of 500 and 1,000 denominations from the Himalayan nation.

The latest move of the Indian government is posing a challenge to the management of Indian currency worth billions possessed by the Nepali nationals.

Hundreds of thousands of Nepali nationals in India and those residing and working in various border regions between the two countries have also been hugely affected by the Indian move.
SEOUL, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Counsel of South Korean President Park Geun-hye, who is grappling with a scandal involving her longtime confidante, requested the delay on Tuesday of prosecutors' investigation into the embattled president.

Yoo Young-ha, former prosecutor and lawmaker who was appointed on Monday as Park's lawyer, told reporters that prosecutors unilaterally designated the schedule, saying it would take significant time to review this case.

The prosecution office had requested a direct investigation into President Park no later than Wednesday, but the probe could be delayed as the attorney needs time to make preparations.

If realized, Park would become the first South Korean leader to be investigated by prosecutors as a sitting president. The country's constitution bans a president from being criminally executed except for treason and insurrection charges, but criminal investigation is allowed if the indictment is suspended until the end of presidency.

Park has been mired in the scandal involving her decades-long friend Choi Soon-sil, who is suspected of meddling in state affairs behind the scenes and peddling influence for personal gains.

Yoo said that if prosecutors unavoidably demand face-to-face investigation into President Park, he would accept it though document investigation is more desirable.

The lawyer said probe into the president should be conducted in a way to minimize a possible damage to the presidential governance as it can paralyze state affairs and divide public opinion.
BEIJING, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Grey-haired Zheng Lingqin still remembers some 50 years ago when she first set foot in the Brazilian city Salvador, where the locals were so curious when they saw a Chinese that they even followed her and tried to touch her straight black hair.

Salvador, the capital city of Bahia State, which is also the oldest city in Brazil, has witnessed the beginning of trade between China and Brazil dating back to the 1500's. China, silk and fans shipped from China can be found in the local museum and were once favored by the local elite.

Coming from Shanghai, Zheng and her husband, Lou Binglin, started their business in the late 1960's as vendors who sold embroidered tablecloths, which earned them their first small fortune. The couples opened their shop one year later.

"If you sold ten tablecloths then, you could afford a car with that income," Zheng told Xinhua.

The rapid development of the Brazilian economy then gave birth to a large middle class who became the main customers of their tablecloths. From 1968 to 1974, the annual domestic growth rate was over 11 percent, which made Brazil the richest country in Latin America and ranked it among the top 10 industrial countries in the world.

Going back to their hometown for a visit as China just launched its reform and opening-up policy, the couple found that Brazilian food, clothes and household appliances were warmly welcomed by their relatives in Shanghai.

At present, over 1,000 Chinese are living in Salvador.

Chinese shops line Salvador's famous commercial street named "September Seventh." Selling household appliances, suitcases, bags and accessories, Zheng Shoujing's two shops are among them.

Local people prefer Zheng's mobile phones and other electronic goods because of their "good quality."

"If the quality is not good, I will definitely not purchase them no matter how cheaply they were offered," Zheng explained his principle of buying goods from China's dealers.

Zheng's local employee, Erika, 19, also bought earrings and watches from the shop. Her reasons are simply "reasonable prices, good quality and high technology."

Five years ago, Erika learned from watching television that Chinese are "smart and good at doing business." She now understands Chinese people better by working for them: being polite, respectful with employees, paying workers on time. Erika hopes that she can earn enough money to visit China in the future.

Another Chinese merchant, Wu Kening, 61, came to Salvador in 1988. Having majored in electronics, Wu opened an electrical appliances repair shop to start his business. He earned 2,000 U.S. dollars in the first month.

Every time Wu went back to China, he found some business link between China and Brazil. He now operates a dental clinic, which offers state-of-the-art porcelain teeth to several hospitals in Salvador.

However, what impressed Salvadorians were not only small commodities made in China. Some hoisting equipment at the Salvador port mostly came from China's ZPMC Electric. Local data showed that 60,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) Chinese containers both entered and exited the port in 2015.

Although Brazil is still undergoing a sluggish economic recovery, its trade volume with China reached 66.327 billion dollars in 2015. It also shows that China is currently Brazil's largest trading partner. Meanwhile,Brazil is also China's largest trading partner among the BRICS countries.

As a bridge that has connected China and Brazil for more than five hundred years, Salvador is witnessing a new chapter in bilateral cooperation thanks to many hard-working Chinese people.

Now, whenever some Chinese people are walking on the streets of Salvador, locals will not follow them and touch their hair anymore. Instead, they will greet them with the Chinese words "ni hao!"
A student shows her colored moon-shaped fan during the 2016 Muscatine Chinese Culture Week at Muscatine High School in Iowa, the United States, Nov. 14, 2016. The students and teachers of Muscatine High School gathered at the school's Hall of Honor decorated with Chinese red lanterns to have a sip of Chinese culture during the 2016 Muscatine Chinese Culture Week. (Xinhua/Wang Ping)

by Xu Jing, Wang Qiang

MUSCATINE, Iowa, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- A group of students surrounded Feng Huiyun and looked on as the Chinese master of dough modeling pinched out a vivid Minion in less than 10 minutes with colorful dough.

"It is so cool," "it looks so easy, but it's so hard," admired the students, overwhelmed by the masterful skill of the Chinese artist.

The students and teachers of Muscatine High School gathered at the school's Hall of Honor decorated with Chinese red lanterns to have a sip of Chinese culture during the 2016 Muscatine Chinese Culture Week.

Doing it yourself gave the students a lot of fun. Laura Arroyo made a Panda with dough. She twisted two rolls, black and white, stacked them in order, pasted two white spots on the black head, and rolled a green dough as bamboo to stick it to the body. Laura proudly hold the Panda she made with a stick.

Dough modeling is not the only Chinese heritage that the U.S. students have tried their hands on. They also tried their talent on the circular fan, inside snuff bottle painting, the Lord of Rabbit, facial painting, and calligraphy.

On the table chaired by Zhao Wei, Master of the "Circular Fan" lay more than 10 blank moon-shaped fans. More than 10 students sat there, intent on adding either green or red colors to the fan. The flowers they painted do add certain vivid life to the fans.

Inside snuff bottle painting is an art that really needs some skills. A student thrusted a slim long pen into a small sniff bottle and painted. Though the color she added inside looked uneven from the outside, Master Wang Dongping still gave her a thump-up.

Rylee Blake and Kaylie Reynolds tried Chinese calligraphy. Both Rylee and Kaylie attended the school's Chinese classes, Rylee is at Level Two and Kaylie at Level One. Rylee wrote five Chinese characters "I love strawberry". Another girl wrote a Chinese character "home" helped by a Chinese calligrapher.

Muscatine High School listed Chinese as a second language, among others, for students to learn starting from 2006. It now offers four levels of Chinese learning.

To inaugurate the Chinese Culture Week, artists Li Hui and Li Yang performed "the Beautiful Muscatine", a music they especially composed for the event.

The Muscatine High School Choir in return presented to the Chinese artists a Christmas song and a Chinese song. The 28-person choir attended the 13rd Beijing International Chorus Festival this summer.

Muscatine's friendship with China dates back to 1985, when Chinese President Xi Jinping, then a local official from China's northern province of Hebei, visited Iowa as a member of an agricultural exchange delegation, and stayed with a local family in Muscatine to better understand Iowan farm life. Xi visited Muscatine again in 2012 as Chinese Vice President.

"Muscatine is blessed because we have such a long relationship with China," said Dan Stein, president of Muscatine-China Initiative Committee. "It (the event) brings Chinese culture to the younger students, and get them excited about China and Chinese culture. I'm hopeful we will make a big impact for many years to come," Dan added.

Daniel Wang, CEO of China Windows Group which co-sponsored the event, said the Chinese Culture Week "not only offers American people a chance to know Chinese art, but also presents them a modern and energetic China."
WELLINGTON, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Four New Zealand air force helicopters were expected to fly almost 200 people out of the quake-battered tourist town of Kaikoura late Tuesday, according to the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF).

The NH-90 helicopters were deployed to deliver emergency supplies and evacuate stranded tourists and residents after Monday's deadly 7.5-magnitude quake triggered massive landslides that wiped out road and rail links to the South Island town.

Some flights early Tuesday were delayed by weather conditions, but by early evening about 140 people had been evacuated and the air force expected to fly almost 200 people to Christchurch by last light, said Wing Commander Scott McKenzie.

"The earthquake has cut off land access to Kaikoura and disrupted power and water supplies. So we've been delivering food, water, diesel fuel and other basic necessities the entire day, and evacuating people out of there," McKenzie said in a statement.

New Zealand navy offshore patrol vessel HMNZS Wellington was on its way to the Kaikoura coast to conduct seabed surveillance to determine whether navy supply ship HMNZS Canterbury would be able to dock at Kaikoura or would have to anchor offshore.

Both vessels are expected to arrive early Wednesday.

Defence Minister and Acting Civil Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee said the evacuees have been taken to Christchurch, where authorities had been helping make arrangements for affected tourists.

It was hoped that land routes to the south of Kaikoura could be cleared and reopened by the weekend.

"This is heavily dependent on weather conditions in the area and the magnitude and frequency of aftershocks," Brownlee said in a statement.

"Cell phone and landline coverage in Kaikoura is improving and providers are coordinating well, but services are not yet at 100-percent functionality, meaning communications remain challenging at times," he said.

"The total number of people displaced by the magnitude 7.5 earthquake and subsequent landslides and disruption is yet to be confirmed, but more information about emergency accommodation needs is being sought."

The New Zealand military on Tuesday accepted offers of help from U.S. and Japanese forces in its relief operations.

The U.S. Navy had offered two MH60 helicopters aboard its destroyer USS Sampson, which was currently in New Zealand waters for celebrations to mark the 75th anniversary of the New Zealand navy.

The U.S. had also offered the use of a P-3 Orion aircraft to help with surveillance flights.

About 1,000 tourists were thought to be stranded in Kaikoura, a popular tourist destination famed for its coastal scenery and whale-watching activities.

The town and the surrounding area have been shaken by hundreds of aftershocks some of them severe.

Two people died in Monday's quake: one in a collapsed house in Kaikoura and another at a property at Mount Lyford, north of Christchurch.
by Xinhua writer Chen Shilei

BEIJING, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama's last overseas visit while in office, which became a last-minute conciliatory trip after Donald Trump's victory in the presidential elections, will in the end reassure nobody.

Obama on Monday started the trip, which will take him to Greece, Germany and Peru, amid concerns that Trump's election will change U.S. foreign policy and affect U.S. strategic relations with its allies and partners around the world.

The three-nation trip, during which Obama is expected to discuss regional and global issues with European leaders and attend a summit of leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), was planned when his Democratic colleague Hillary Clinton seemed to be winning the race to the White House.

Obama, who criticized Trump during the general elections for lacking "basic knowledge" about critical issues in Europe, Asia and the Mideast, now is ironically convincing U.S. allies and partners that his successor will not behave as he predicted and America will maintain its core interests in the globe.

The inconsistency between his words before and after the presidential elections reflects the looming uncertainty of relations between the United States and its European allies, making his final trip not so reassuring as expected.

In Europe, U.S. allies were alarmed by Trump's rhetoric during his presidential campaign suggesting the United States might pull out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) if other NATO members do not pay more and withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change.

However, frankly speaking, Obama is not the right choice to disperse the anxieties of U.S. allies over the possible changes, given his role as an outgoing president who has limited influence on the incoming administration.

Meanwhile, the deep strategic concern among those countries also mirrors a growing decay of Washington's leadership in global affairs.

The victory of Trump, who swore to "make America great again" and has been supported by nationalists and skeptics of globalization, reflects an increasing trend of isolation in U.S. society.

The trend had granted Trump firm support in the presidential race against Hillary and now it will greatly influence the foreign policy of his administration, making his allies more insecure and fretful.

Against such a backdrop, Obama's conciliatory overseas trip is doomed to be fruitless, and will only intensify the strategic uncertainty of the U.S. allies, instead of reassuring them.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Minister of Economic Development Aleksei Ulyukaev (right) seen before a meeting with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Istanbul, October 10, 2016. (Sputnik File Photo

MOSCOW, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Economy Minister Alexey Ulyukaev was detained and under investigation for allegedly receiving a bribe of 2 million U.S. dollars, the Russian Investigative Committee said Tuesday in a statement.

Svetlana Petrenko, the acting head of the Investigative Committee's press office, said that Ulyukaev was arrested for taking bribe that was extorted from the Russian energy giant Rosneft oil company.

According to the committee, Ulyukaev allegedly received the bribe from representatives of Rosneft "with the use of the threats" for providing positive appraisal given by the Russian Economy Ministry, which allowed Rosneft to buy 50 percent of the state's shares of Bashneft oil company.

A source in the Russian Federal Security Service said that Ulyukaev had been monitored by Russia's Federal Security Agency for more than a year.

The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that it is a very serious accusation that requires solid proof, and the decision regarding the investigation can only be taken by the court.

Rosneft refused to comment on the investigation, saying the shares of Bashneft were bought in compliance with the Russian legislation.
SEOUL, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- South Korean political heavyweights on Tuesday demanded President Park Geun-hye step down or be impeached over a scandal involving Park's longtime confidante.

Moon Jae-in, former chairman of the main opposition Minjoo Party and one of major presidential hopefuls, told reporters that he will initiate a nationwide campaign to let President Park step down, saying the campaign will last until the president declares her unconditional resignation.

Moon said people's frustration, shown in Saturday's mass rally, cannot be cured only by Park's resignation, noting it is high time to replace the current era and overhaul the root of the country.

Over a million South Koreans took to the streets in Seoul alone in the third weekend rally to demand Park step down.

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon and Mayor Lee Jae-myung of Seongnam city in Gyeonggi province, who are two major presidential hopefuls of the main opposition party, welcomed Moon's proposal and expressed willingness to join the campaign.

Ahn Cheol-soo, former chairman of the minor opposition People's Party, said that President Park's resignation is a way to save the country, urging the scandal-hit president to declare a political resignation before being investigated by prosecutors.

Prosecutors requested a direct probe into President Park no later than Wednesday, but Park's attorney asked its delay citing lack of time and preparations.

Rival parties on Monday agreed to a bill to appoint an independent counsel who will investigate the scandal involving Choi Soon-sil, the president's decades-long friend suspected of meddling in state affairs behind the scenes.

Under the country's constitution, a president has immunity from criminal execution, but investigation is allowed if the indictment is suspended by the end of presidency. A presidential election is required to be carried out within 60 days if a president steps down.

Kim Moon-sung, former chairman of the ruling Saenuri Party and one of presidential hopefuls in the ruling bloc, said that it would be correct to impeach President Park as the hurried presidential election, which would be conducted within 60 days after Park's resignation, may fail to verify presidential candidates.

Kim, one of key non-President Park faction members in the governing party, urged the party leadership to resign, saying the leadership blindly following Park cannot normalize the current situations.

Related:

S.Korean president's counsel requests delay of prosecutors' investigation into scandal

SEOUL, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Counsel of South Korean President Park Geun-hye, who is grappling with a scandal involving her longtime confidante, requested the delay on Tuesday of prosecutors' investigation into the embattled president.

Yoo Young-ha, former prosecutor and lawmaker who was appointed on Monday as Park's lawyer, told reporters that prosecutors unilaterally designated the schedule, saying it would take significant time to review this case. Full story

S.Korean parliament agrees to independent prosecutor bill over president's scandal

SEOUL, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- South Korean parliament on Monday agreed to a bill on appointing an independent prosecutor who will investigate a scandal involving President Park Geun-hye's longtime confidante suspected of meddling in government affairs behind the scenes.

Ruling and opposition parties agreed to the bill, under which the main opposition Minjoo Party and the casting vote-wielding People's Party will propose candidates for an independent counsel to President Park. The ruling Saenuri Party will be excluded from the candidate proposal. Full story

S.Korean president accepts dialogue offer from opposition party chief after mass rally

SEOUL, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Monday accepted a bilateral dialogue offer from chief of the main opposition Minjoo Party following the biggest mass rally in three decades over a scandal involving Park's longtime confidante.
BEIJING, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- China on Tuesday said it would be "good" if the United States could join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang made the comments in response to a question about whether China welcomes the United States to join the Beijing-based multilateral development bank.

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post said that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's national security adviser, James Woolsey, called the Obama's administration's opposition to the formation of the AIIB "a strategic mistake" in a letter to the newspaper, according to Reuters.

The AIIB aims to promote infrastructure construction in Asia and meet relevant investment demand. It is an open and inclusive multilateral development institution, Geng said.

"It would be a good thing if the United States, the world's largest economy, were to join the AIIB. We have held this attitude since the very beginning," he noted.

The China-initiated AIIB, formally established on Dec. 25, 2015, started operations in January this year. It now has 57 members and authorized capital amounting to 100 billion U.S. dollars.

Geng added that, nevertheless, the AIIB is an independent multilateral institution with its own rules and procedures about new membership approval.

"China cannot take a stand on behalf of other AIIB members," he said.
KARACHI, Pakistan, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Navy's frigate Handan on Tuesday docked at Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi to participate in bilateral joint drills in Pakistani waters.

The frigate that belongs to the 24th Chinese Navy fleet convoy for the Gulf of Aden was warmly welcomed by the senior officials of Pakistan Navy, Chinese officials and diplomats at the Pakistan Navy Dockyard in Karachi.

During its stay, Handan will take part in the joint drills with Pakistan Navy from Nov. 15 to 21, aiming at enhancing bilateral training level, promoting tactics exchanges and sharing experiences on anti-piracy.

The exercises will include about a dozen tasks such as port leaving under threats, shooting and nighttime patrol surveillance.

During a short meeting between the two sides, Commodore Zaka Ur Rehman of Pakistan Navy expressed his appreciation at the role that the Handan has played in the Gulf of Aden against piracy and said that "China is Pakistan's best friendly and brotherly country. We have arranged bilateral exercises, which hopefully will be very successful, useful and rewarding and will further strengthen our bilateral relations."

For his part, Chi Qingtao, the chief officer of the joint drills from the Chinese side, said that "we hope that our joint bilateral exercises will be a great success. It's a great cooperation between the navy of the two friendly countries."

Chi also briefly introduced the 24th Chinese Navy fleet convoy to Rahman.
HANOI, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- A national non-profit organization Save Vietnam's Wildlife on Tuesday released the largest-ever figure of 46 Java pangolins to Cuc Phuong National Park in northern Vietnam.

These pangolins were rescued from illegal trafficking in northern Thai Binh province, reported Vietnam's state-run news agency VNA.

Earlier, local authorities detected a truck carrying 61 live pangolins and 37 big-headed turtles. As many as nine pangolins were killed due to serious injuries during transportation. While the remaining are receiving treatment to recover, the 46 healthy pangolins have been released to wildlife with a identification chip on each.

Nguyen Van Thai, director of Save Vietnam's Wildlife, said on VNA that Vietnam needs to improve law enforcement and stop consumption unless the pangolins here will disappear due to wildlife trafficking.
BEIJING, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese mobile transport platform Didi Chuxing announced Tuesday its agreement to partner with global car rental giant Avis Budget Group to offer overseas car rental services.

The two companies will coordinate product, technology and local marketing resources to provide Didi Chuxing's over 300 million registered users traveling outbound from China with easy and convenient car rental service in about 175 countries, according to their strategic partnership agreement.

Registered users with Didi Chuxing's mobile application will be able to book Avis and Budget rentals at airports and neighborhood locations around the globe, according to the agreement.

"Internationalization is a clear mission for Didi. The partnership is a key step in our broader initiative to go global. Together, we will provide quality local travel experiences across the world for China's fast-expanding outbound traveler community," said Fu Qiang, senior vice president of Didi Chuxing and general manager for Didi Car Rental.

China has been the world's top outbound tourism consumer for the past four years, with about 120 million Chinese people travelling overseas in 2015.

We also look forward to building a more connected global mobility network that builds growth in a spirit of openness and sharing, Fu added.

Didi inked a partnership with U.S. counterpart Lyft last year for cross-platform services. Regulators in major Chinese cities rolled out strict requirements for car-hailing services in October, pushing Didi to further seek overseas market expansion.
By Yoo Seungki

SEOUL, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- South Korea is expected to formally sign a military intelligence pact with Japan later this month in the absence of a coalition cabinet that would be formed by the parliament-proposed prime minister.

Seoul's foreign ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuck told a press briefing on Tuesday that the accord with Japan would be brought to the vice ministers' meeting as the legislative office completed deliberation on its legality.

South Korea and Japan resumed talks earlier this month on the direct exchange of military intelligence on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s nuclear and missile programs.

The two sides initialed the deal on Monday, and it is forecast to be formally signed late in November following internal procedures which include ratifications here in vice ministers' meeting on Thursday and cabinet meeting next Tuesday. The final procedure would be President Park Geun-hye's ratification.

President Park, who is grappling with a scandal involving her longtime confidante, has pushed the accord despite public and parliamentary objections as part of efforts to induce the parliament to propose a politically-neutral prime minister and let the prime minister form a coalition cabinet.

The scandal-hit president said she will accept the parliament-proposed prime minister, but three main opposition parties and many of ruling Saenuri Party members refused the president's overtures, demanding Park step down or impeached.

By hurriedly pushing the military pact with Japan, President Park can indirectly force the opposition bloc to form a new cabinet aimed to prevent the deal from coming into force.

Ostensibly, Seoul has claimed that the intelligence sharing with Japan is an urgent issue amid growing nuclear and missile threats from the DPRK.

The opposition bloc expressed strong objections to the government's "unilateral" attempt, saying Monday that it will push the resignation or impeachment of Defense Minister Han Min-koo if the initialing of the pact actually happens.

Many South Koreans still see such a deal with Japan as unacceptable as the Japanese leadership has yet to sincerely apologize for its militaristic history. The country was colonized by the Imperial Japan between 1910 and 1945.

Former President Lee Myung-bak attempted to sign the military pact with Japan in June 2012, but it failed at the last minutes amid public outcry over the hurried, closed-door deal without any social consensus and parliamentary consultations.

The Park Geun-hye administration is repeating the hush-hush attempt to sign the deal without any social consensus as public attention is being centered on the scandal involving Park's decades-long friend.

On Saturday, over a million South Koreans took to the streets in Seoul to demand Park's resignation. It was the largest mass rally since June 1987 when about 1 million people protested against the military dictatorship.
SARIPUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- A total of nine Taliban militants including two main commanders have been killed and 15 others injured in the northern Saripul on Tuesday, provincial governor Mohammad Zahir Wahdat said.
SARIPUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- A total of nine Taliban militants including two main commanders have been killed and 15 others injured in the northern Saripul province on Tuesday, provincial governor Mohammad Zahir Wahdat said.

"Taliban militants launched coordinated attacks on the southern part of provincial capital Saripul city early today morning but fled away after suffering casualties and leaving nine dead bodies including two key commanders Gul Hamid and Mabariz behind," Wahdat told reporters here.

Fifteen more militants have been injured and sporadic fighting between security forces and Taliban fighters is going on in some villages in the outskirt of provincial capital the Saripul city 360 km north of Kabul, the official added.

He also confirmed that six security personnel have been killed or injured in the fighting.

Taliban militants who are active in parts of Saripul province, have not commented.
TEHRAN, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi on Tuesday rejected concerns posed by the European Union (EU) over its missile program, Tasnim news agency reported.

Qasemi said that Iran's defense capabilities, including missile tests, can never be subject to any negotiation,

"Iran's missile tests are conducted within the framework of the country's defense policies, and Iran's defense capabilities would by no means be negotiated or compromised on," Qasemi was quoted as saying.

His comments came in reaction to a recent statement by the Council of the European Union, which expressed "concern with the regional military build-up, including Iran's missile program."

In the statement, the EU institution urged Iran "to refrain from activities which may deepen mistrust, such as ballistic missile tests."

Qasemi said earlier that Iran's missile program is not a violation of any resolution of UN Security Council, and has nothing to do with the nuclear deal or JCPOA reached between Iran and the world powers in July last year.

Iran's missile program is solely developed for deterrence purposes to meet national security needs, and the pressures by the West will not have any impact on the country's resolve to boost its defensive capabilities, he said.
ABUJA, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian police have confirmed nine deaths were recorded following a clash between policemen and the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, also known as Shi'ites sect, in the northwestern state of Kano on Monday.

Kano State police commissioner Rabiu Yusuf told Xinhua on Tuesday that eight members of the Shi'ites sect and a policeman died during the bloody clash.

Yusuf said during the melee many members of the sect were injured, as well as four policemen.

The clash occurred as members of the sect prepared for their yearly procession along Kano-Zaria road in which they gathered at the residence of their spiritual leader, Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, who has been incarcerated since last year.

The clash was triggered as the police made efforts to ensure orderliness on the busy road, Yusuf said.

According to him, the sect members snatched a police rifle and unleashed terror on the security men.

Ibrahim Musa, a spokesman of the sect, said women and children were among those killed during the clash.

The sect alleged that policemen blocked the road and fired tear gas canisters to disperse the trekkers.

The Nigerian police said an investigation has been launched on the allegation.
CAIRO, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- An Egyptian court on Tuesday overturned a death sentence against ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi and ordered a retrial in a mass jailbreak during the 2011 uprising, official news agency MENA reported.

The Court of Cassation, Egypt's highest degree court, ordered that Morsi and five co-defendants, including the supreme guide of the now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, will also be retried.

Morsi was sentenced to death in June 2015 in connection with a mass jailbreak during the country's 2011 uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak.

He, along with 129 members of the Brotherhood, was charged of assaulting a prison, killing officers and fleeing in cooperation with Palestinian Hamas movement's affiliates.

The jailbreak helped more than 20,000 criminals escape the prison and spread chaos in the country.

Morsi, the first democratically elected president, was overthrown by the army in response to mass protests against his one year rule in July 2013.

He received several prison sentences in other cases related to spying and espionage, in which he appealed.

Tuesday court's ruling cancelled the only execution sentence he was facing.

In another case related with voilence and killing protesters outside the presidential palace in 2013, Morsi was handed his first final sentence, 20 years in prison.
JUBA, Nov.15 (Xinhua) -- At least 21 humanitarian workers have been abducted by gunmen in South Sudan's Northern Liech State over the weekend, a local official said Tuesday.

Lam Tungwar, Information Minister for Northern Liech State, told Xinhua by phone that youth allied to opposition leader Riek Machar overrun the town of Nhialdiu on Sunday and abducted the aid workers who were residing in a UN compound.

Tungwar said the abductees included one Kenyan national and the rest were South Sudanese working for different aid agencies.

"It was a surprise attack on Sunday where they overrun the town and looted property. Twenty-one humanitarian workers residing in the UN OCHA compound were taken away. The government is trying its best to rescue them," Tungwar said.

He added the gunmen also attacked the town of Koch, looting homes and burning over 40 huts.

The northern region of South Sudan has exchanged hands several times between government troops led by President Salva Kiir and opposition forces loyal to Machar during civil war that broke out in December 2013.

More than 100,000 displaced people are living in the protection of civilian site in Bentiu town of the northern region, according to the latest figures by the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan.

A peace deal signed between Kiir and Machar under UN pressure last year led to the formation of a unity government in April, but was shattered by renewed fighting that erupted in early July.

Machar, who had returned to his old post as Kiir's deputy in the unity government, was sacked again and fled the country after the July fighting. He is now in residence in South Africa and has asked his supporters to launch a rebellion.

Tens of thousands have been killed and more than two million displaced since late 2013.
Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa speaks during an exclusive interview with Xinhua News Agency in Quito, capital of Ecuador, Nov. 10, 2016. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa hopes Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming state visit to his country will expand cooperation between the two sides in various fields. (Xinhua/Santiago Armas)

QUITO, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa hopes Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming state visit to his country will expand cooperation between the two sides in various fields.

The goal, Correa told Xinhua in a recent interview, is to "mutually make the most" of the strategic partnership.

Xi's visit later this week, as part of a three-country tour to Latin America, will be both "historic and beneficial," he said, noting it will mark the first time a Chinese head of state visits Ecuador, which established diplomatic ties with the Asian giant 36 years ago.

In 2015, on his second visit to China after coming to power in 2007, Ecuador and China agreed to elevate the ties to the level of strategic partnership.

CHINESE FINANCING OF STRATEGIC PROJECTS

The Ecuadorian president spoke highly of the importance of Chinese investment in his country, whose economy, in his word, has long been constrained by financing.

Correa said China has taken part in the development of economy, industry and energy in Ecuador as a strategic partner and his country has become one of the countries that attracted the most Chinese funds.

China has funneled some 15 billion U.S. dollars in financing the South American nation in the past 10 years.

"China's support, through projects and financing, has really changed the history of Ecuador," Correa said.

Small developing countries, like Ecuador, have no internal source of financing, which they need "in emerging from underdevelopment," he said.

"We have very profitable projects, but need that financing, (and) China has it," he added.

"Thanks to the financing cooperation with China, Ecuador got rid of one of the worst roadway networks in South America, and has the best now," he said.

PROMISING PRAGMATIC COOPERATION

The two countries have achieved important progress in cooperation in energy, mining and infrastructure construction.

Of the eight hydropower stations under construction and finished, seven were constructed by Chinese firms, which has helped turn the once energy-poor Ecuador into an energy exporter.

During his visit, Xi is set to symbolically inaugurate the Coca Codo Sinclair station, the largest of the hydropower stations, at a ceremony in the capital Quito, since the facility is located in a remote region between the Amazonian provinces of Napo and Sucumbios.

The station with an installed capacity of 1,500 megawatts, was built by China's Sinohydro.

"These projects have allowed us to obtain our energy independence, (and) to have one of the most environmentally-friendly energy sources," Correa said.

"More than 90 percent of our energy can now come from clean and renewable hydropower, and that is due in part to Chinese cooperation and financing," he added.

Correa, who is to leave office in May 2017, hopes China will continue to invest in Ecuador, which has a portfolio of some 40-billion-dollar worth of "profitable projects" in shipbuilding and steel.

"We have Chinese companies building highways and hydroelectric plants, and we have oil and mining companies. So there is already investment here. But many more highly profitable projects are hugely important to the country's development," he said.

Tourism is one area with much room to grow, said Correa.

Ecuador, which ranks among the world's top five countries in biodiversity, received 18,200 Chinese visitors in 2015.

The two countries have established close ties in the past decade, as evident from China's role in relief efforts after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that devastated towns along Ecuador's north coast in April, killing 673 people.

As one of the first countries to supply humanitarian aid immediately after the quake, China furnished more than 5,000 tents for the homeless and nearly 10,000 cots, among other basic supplies, and donated 2 million dollars in cash.

"I only have words of gratitude to President Xi Jinping, his government, and all of the Chinese people for the great solidarity they showed Ecuador," Correa said.
MOSCOW, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- A fire in the northwestern Russian city of Tver on Tuesday killed six people, including five children, according to local authorities.

The fire broke out in an accommodation house in the village of Penkovo in Tver and information about the fire was received at 2:59 a.m. Moscow time (2259 GMT), said the Russian Emergencies Ministry press service in Tver.

A woman and five children died in the fire and a man was injured, the press service said.

The fire was extinguished at 3:50 a.m. Moscow time (2350 GMT). Thirty-five rescuers and 14 pieces of equipment were involved in the rescue operation.
MADRID, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Nine people are reported to have escaped from an Immigrant Internment Center (CIE) in the Spanish city of Murcia on Monday night.

Local media reported that the escape happened after a revolt of inmates at the internment center in which nine policemen suffered slight injuries.

There was initial confusion in the hours directly after the escape with Spanish TV network RTVE reporting a dozen inmates had escaped and just three policemen injured, but on Tuesday morning those figures had been revised to nine escapees and nine policemen injured.

The causes of the revolt which began shortly after 20:30 local time on Monday, are still being investigated, but it is known that inmates, most of whom are in the center prior to being deported to their homelands, set fire to papers and cardboard in the center and were involved in an "incident" with the police.

The fire brigade were called and arrived with four fire engines and around 40 firefighters and some of the inmates used the confusion to escape. The police have begun searching the area for the escapees.

The Murcia CIE has a capacity for 130 inmates and this is the third incident of the kind in just over a month. Oct. 5 saw 67 inmates escape after a similar revolt, while five more escaped on Oct. 31. Meanwhile similar centers in both Madrid and Barcelona have seen protests at living conditions by inmates.

The Spanish Interior Ministry recently published that 2015 saw a 16 percent rise in the number of illegal immigrants at the Spanish coast, many of whom have been housed in the countries CIEs.
The undated file photo shows pilot Yu Xu, the first Chinese woman to fly the J-10 fighter jet. The Chinese military has conferred the title of "revolutionary martyr" on pilot Yu Xu who died in an accident during a routine flight training on Saturday. (Xinhua/Shen Ling)

BEIJING, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese military has conferred the title of "revolutionary martyr" on pilot Yu Xu.

Yu, the first Chinese woman to fly the J-10 fighter jet, died in an accident during a routine flight training on Saturday.

Born in 1986, in Chongzhou in southwest China's Sichuan Province, Yu joined the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force in September 2005, and had flown four types of aircraft.

She was one of the pilots selected to fly over Tian'anmen Square during the 2009 National Day parade and had flown the J-10 in air shows at home and abroad, according to Air Force spokesman Shen Jinke.

From country girl to China's first female J-10 pilot, Yu devoted her most precious years to the building of a strong army, Shen said.

Yu's death has sadden the country, with people across the country mourning her in various ways. About 10 million people laid virtual wreaths at an online mourning hall set up for her.

Related More Photos >>

J-10 fighter jets of China's Bayi Aerobatic Team perform in Zhuhai

J-10 fighter jets of China's Bayi Aerobatic Team arrive at Zhuhai airport
MOSCOW, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) has detained five individuals linked to the Islamic State terrorist group and suspected of plotting attacks in Moscow and in the North Caucasian republic of Ingushetia, the FSB said Tuesday.

FSB officers seized five firearms, two ready-to-use improvised explosive devices (IED) of 10 kg in TNT equivalent each, homemade electric detonators and ammunition for various weapons, it said in a statement.

A criminal case has been opened against the detainees on the count of involvement in activities of a terrorist organization banned in Russia.

The FSB said that in October it had neutralized the leader of the group Zubeir Sautiyev, also an IS emissary, as well as his five accomplices.

This is the second special operation by Russia's intelligence and security agency within one week. On Saturday, the FSB said it had detained 10 individuals on suspicion of planning attacks in Moscow and Russia's second largest city of St. Petersburg, who admitted their link to IS.

IS militants have threatened to attack Russia since the country launched its air campaign against terrorist groups in Syria in late 2015.
MARRAKECH, Morocco, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday hailed "unstoppable" momentum of the Paris Agreement, expressing optimism on the future involvement of the next U.S. administration on climate change.

"The Paris Agreement has come into force in a record time, which once seemed to be unthinkable, now has become unstoppable," the secretary-general told a press conference here during UN conference on climate change.

So far, 110 out of the 193 signatory parties have ratified the agreement, according to the latest tally provided by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

"Never in the history of the United Nations, any convention, treaty or agreement, has entered into force in such a short period of time," Ban stressed. "Members signed the agreement because it represents the interest of their countries and the whole world."

For his 10th and last presence at a Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC, Ban said he has been convinced after traveling around the world that climate change is happening.

"We have no Plan B, because we have no Planet B," he stressed.

Meanwhile, Ban said he had talked about climate change with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump last week.

"I remained very optimistic about our efforts to combat climate change," Ban said. "Trump, to be the U.S. president, will understand the seriousness and urgency of climate change."

During the campaign, Trump once called global warming a "hoax" and promised to pull out of the Paris Agreement once elected.

"We have seen many campaign rhetorics," Ban said. "But he (Trump) may have to realize the reality of the world's programs, particularly on climate change."

Ban believed low-carbon economy is the answer to the business future, noting the UN is working with some of the largest American states like California, cities like Las Vegas and corporations like General Mills on less carbon emissions and deforestation, because "they have understood the severity of climate change phenomenon."

"As a very successful business person before being elected, Trump understands market forces are already at work and we need to harness climate change. He will make a good and wise decision," the secretary-general added.
DHAKA, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Seven militants of local banned Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) have been indicted in a case filed for killing of a Japanese national in Bangladesh.

A court in the country's northern Rangpur district, some 304 km away of capital Dhaka, Tuesday framed charges against the JMB militants for killing the Japanese national Hosie Kunio in October last year.

Special Judge's Court of Noresh Chandra Sarker in Rangpur also fixed Jan. 4 next year for holding the hearing in the case.

Kunio was gunned down on Oct. 3 last year in Rangpur district by motorcycle borne assailants days after the killing of an Italian citizen Tavella Ceasar in Dhaka's diplomatic zone.

Five of the accused are now behind the bars while one is on the run and another militant was killed in a reported shootout with members of law enforcers.
MARAKKECH, Morocco, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- China will adhere to its objectives, policies, approaches and actions in addressing climate change, Xie Zhenhua, China's special representative on climate change affairs, said here Tuesday.

China will stay unswervingly consistent with its strong commitment to combating climate change, Xie told an event on the sidelines of a United Nations conference, which will last through Nov. 18.

Actions and implementation in line with the Paris Agreement requires a global effort, and China is active in continuing cooperation with all parties involved, he said at the event on Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) implementation and experience sharing.

To fulfill its commitment to the agreement, China will cut its carbon emissions per unit of GDP by 60 to 65 percent by 2030 from the 2005 levels, and peak its carbon emissions by 2030; increase non-fossil fuel sources in primary energy consumption to about 20 percent, and increase the forest stock volume by 4.5 billion cubic meters.

China is the first developing country to set up a national carbon emissions trading (EST) market based on its seven pilots that are running now. And it is promoting cooperation with Japan and South Korea on EST for an all-win mechanism, Xie said, highlighting low-carbon development and cooperation among east Asian countries.

He also praised cooperation mechanism among the three Asian countries in the fields of low-carbon and circular economy, promoting collaborate works on moving ahead on a practical level to facilitate an important regional carbon market.
FUZHOU, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- A court in China's Fujian Province on Tuesday sentenced Han Xiancong, a former senior political advisor in east China's Anhui Province, to 16 years in prison for taking bribes and abuses of power.

Han, former vice chairman of Anhui Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, will also have personal property worth one million yuan (about 146,000 U.S. dollars) and his illegal profits confiscated, according to the first-instance ruling.

Han sought profits for others in land transfers, bidding, construction, appointments and promotions from 2003 to 2014. He accepted bribes worth more than 23.3 million yuan (about 3.6 million U.S. dollars).

Han was also found to have caused damage to state property worth 222 million yuan due to his acts of favoritism, including helping enterprises obtain land use right at below market price.

According to a statement by the court, Han repented, confessed and returned his illegal gains "in an active manner"; all grounds for leniency.
SYDNEY, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The China Chamber of Commerce in Australia marked a decade of building business ties between the two countries with a banquet on Tuesday evening in Sydney that befitted the growing importance of bilateral trade and investment.

About 500 top officials, business leaders and representatives from the public and private sector of both countries gathered at The Westin Sydney to celebrate the chamber's success as a major platform for Chinese enterprises in Australia for the past 10 years.

The chamber and its branches have "come a long way and done a great deal of commendable work", Cheng Jingye, Chinese ambassador to Australia, said in a speech at the event.

"The chamber has served as a linchpin connecting Chinese and Australian business communities, and promoted communications between the Chinese enterprises and the Australian governments at all levels," Cheng said.

The China Chamber of Commerce in Australia, a nonprofit organization jointly formed by trade associations representing Chinese investors in the country, has 289 members across New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland, with 127 members in its Sydney branch and 57 in its Melbourne one alone.

All its members form a major part of Chinese investment in Australia, covering industries ranging from energy and property to tourism and agriculture. The organization aims to provide services that include helping to protect members' legal rights and promoting the development of bilateral trade and economic exchanges.

The past decade of the chamber's work has witnessed "fantastic growth in China-Australia trade", Cheng said.

"In 2006, total trade between the two countries was 50.455 billion Australian dollars. In 2015 this figure grew to 155.5 billion Australian dollars. Foreign direct investment from China to Australia grew from 550 million Australian dollars in 2006 to 35.17 billion Australian dollars by 2015."

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, in a congratulatory message to the chamber, said the anniversary was "an occasion for pride and satisfaction", with the chamber's "many contributions over the past decade to the strong and growing economic ties between our two nations".

Last year, two-way trade flows between Australia and China reached nearly 150 billion Australian dollars, and the value of investment between the two countries was 145 billion Australian dollars, he said.

"China is Australia's largest trading partner, our largest goods and services export destination, and our largest source of goods imports."

"Such a fruitful relationship has been fostered through many years of patient business and personal cooperation, forged in a spirit of mutual respect and understanding," he said.

"In this, the China Chamber of Commerce in Australia has played a vital role in helping to nurture one of Australia's most important economic links, a relationship that is set to become even more significant."

Australian Trade, Tourism and Investment Minister Steven Ciobo, who was also speaking at the dinner, said Australia has welcomed Chinese investment, including major investments in Australian businesses as well as directly into Australian real estate.

"There are some great and positive success stories that flow from this investment and from the investment relationships that we have," Ciobo said.

The chamber's chairman, Hu Shanjun, who is also general manager and country head -- Australia, Bank of China, said his organization's members have also undertaken social responsibility projects to give back to local communities.

"Many members have incorporated charity into their social responsibility programs and are contributing significantly in improving local public facilities," he said.

Matt Thistlethwaite, Australia's Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury, representing Bill Shorten, leader of the Opposition, said at the banquet that the key to maintaining the important relationship between Australia and China is that of cooperation, with the chamber poised to play a key role.

"Although China is our number one trading partner at the moment, we can't take that relationship for granted," he said.

"Australia is competing with many other nations who are seeking to source and to supply goods and services into the largest populace in the world. So there's more work to do ... and your organization will play a key role in promoting and supporting that work."
TIRANA, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Over 10,000 Albanian citizens have lost their lives or have been seriously wounded by weapons from 1997 up to now, Albanian Minister of Interior Saimir Tahiri said Tuesday, launching an awareness campaign against their use.

Albania's young generation should reject the model of keeping unauthorized guns as they are a constant threat to the citizens and society here, the minister appealed.

Tahiri further said Albanians see the use of weapon as the first choice in spontaneous conflict, what has led to an increasing number of deaths from guns.

The latest awareness campaign was launched in cooperation with partners at the European Union and United Nations.

Although Tahiri acknowledged the objective was challenging, he expressed confidence it would yield results as even in the past, Albania has conducted several campaigns of this kind to collect illegal weapons.

Citizens in Albania got armed in 1997 during the civil disorder that Albania went through following the failure of the pyramid schemes. At that time, the then-government decided to open the weapons depots in the north, for protection against the violence of the south.

At that time, it was estimated that, on average, every male from the age of 10 upwards possessed at least one firearm and ample ammunition. According to official sources, around 656,000 weapons of various types were looted from army depots that year.
by Chen Yanbei, Guo Shuang

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who called climate change a "hoax," may dramatically alter the path set by the Obama administration on reductions of emission, leaving the fate of climate-change research uncertain.

Global warming has caused sea levels to increase by 3.2 millimeters per year, threatening infrastructure and ecosystems, according to a new report published in Science, which called for more research into adaptations to sea-level increases, and for reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.

POSSIBLE WITHDRAWAL FROM PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT

Trump has been a long-term skeptic of climate change. During his presidential campaign, Trump vowed to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, which was inked in December, 2015 and came into force last week. The agreement, signed by more than 180 countries, aimed to hold increases in the global average temperature below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, by pledging to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

Responding to concerns that Trump may "cancel" the Paris Agreement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said on Monday the deal was a result of concerted efforts of all parties, including China and the United States.

China is willing to strengthen cooperation with the United States and other countries on climate change and promote green, low-carbon and sustainable development around the globe, the spokesperson added.

On Sept. 3, 2016, during the G20 summit in China's Hangzhou City, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama, handed over the necessary instruments to join the Paris Agreement to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, marking a milestone in the cooperation between the two largest economies in the world.

Last week, Xi congratulated Trump on becoming president-elect of the United States, and said he hoped they could work together to boost China-U.S. relations so as to benefit the world.

RESHAPING DOMESTIC EMISSION AND ENERGY POLICIES

A report from Scientific American notes that Trump has selected Myron Ebell, the director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), to lead his transition team for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which develops and enforces emission regulations.

Ebell, a high-profile skeptic of climate change, chairs the Coller Heads Coalition, which leads non-profit groups that "question global warming alarmism and oppose energy rationing policies," according to Ebell's page on the CEI website.

His participation in the EPA transition signals that the Trump team is looking to drastically reshape the climate policies the EPA has pursued under the Obama administration. Local media noted that Ebell suits Trump's environmental ideals; he has been a firm disbeliever of the Paris Agreement, even urging the Senate to vote against it.

Other skeptics include U.S. Republican energy lobbyist Mike McKenna and former Interior Department solicitor David Bernhardt, chosen by Trump to play leadership roles in the Energy Department and Interior Department teams, according to the report from Scientific American.

FATE OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

In the United States, scientific research on climate change is mainly funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Department of Energy (DOE), Huang Xianglei, an associate professor from the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences at the University of Michigan, told Xinhua.

All these federal agencies support fundamental research on the physical scientific basis of climate change, but with different emphases. For example, NOAA focuses more on ocean climates, while NASA mainly supports spaceborne observations. The holy grail of this research is to find so-called "climate sensitivity," namely the increase in the average global temperature as the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide doubles.

"Different computer models have produced values between 1.5 and 4 degrees, but shrinking this uncertainty further has proven very difficult," said Huang.

The NSF and DOE also fund research on adaptations to climate change and mitigating its damage.

The budgets of NASA, NSF, NOAA and DOE are set by Congress, while individual program officers within these agencies decide how funds are divided based on peer reviews from within the scientific community. This means that while the new president may take a personal stance against climate change, "it is too early to tell how the new administration would and could steer the direction of climate-change research," Huang said.
WUZHEN, Zhejiang, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The third World Internet Conference (WIC), to be held in Wuzhen between Nov. 16 and Nov. 18, will collect government officials, bushiness bosses and academics to discuss the future of the digital economy.

The following are some highlights to be closely watched for this year's event.

--- China's leadership to update Internet policy

Last year's keynote speaker Chinese President Xi Jinping will address this year's conference by video, according to the organizer, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC).

This year, Liu Yunshan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, will address the conference on innovation in Internet development.

China considers the Internet a key driver of future world economic growth and has introduced policies accordingly.

The CPC Central Committee acknowledged in October that the country needs breakthroughs in high-performance computing, mobile communication, quantum communication, core chips and operating systems.

More guidelines on innovation are expected at the conference.

--- Baidu's smart cars

The WIC is an opportunity for tech firms to show off their latest products.

This year, driverless cars designed by Chinese search engine giant Baidu take center stage.

On the day before the conference, a fleet of 15 blue-striped cars cruised one of Wuzhen's main thoroughfares. The cars can analyze traffic flow and control their maneuvers automatically, according to Cao Haitao of Baidu's artificial intelligence unit.

Baidu's senior vice president Wang Jin said the company has sufficient expertise in high-precision electronic mapping, positioning, sensing and decision-making and control systems to mass produce smart vehicles by 2020.

--- Brainstorming among Internet gurus

A number of Chinese enterprises are now considered some of the world's top tech firms, and their bosses some of the the most talked-about gurus.

This year's conference will open the floor to Alibaba's Jack Ma, Tencent's Pony Ma, Baidu's Robin Li, Xiaomi's Lei Jun, Sohu's Charles Zhang and JD.com's Richard Liu. Their foreign counterparts will include LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Qualcomm president Derek Aberle, Microsoft vice executive president Shen Xiangyang, and Nokia's chair Risto Siilasmaa.

Also invited are foreign government officials and telecom regulators, who will brainstorm ways to better govern cyberspace.

--- Ancient water-town's rebirth in the age of the Internet

The town of Wuzhen is well-known for its extensive network of canals. Drawing on traditional water-town architecture, prize-winning architect Wang Shu designed the imposing Wuzhen Internet International Convention Center in keeping with its surroundings.

Wang, the first Chinese to win the Pritzker Prize, believes his design, as well as Wuzhen's canal network, encapsulates the spirit of the Internet.

"The town's land is fragmented, but all the pieces are connected by water. Scattered around are low residential buildings instead of high rises," Wang said. "This is the spirit of the Internet - non-integrated on surface but connected underneath."

Today, Wuzhen is a vibrant Internet town. Connections are widely available and the Internet is part of most residents' day-to-day activities.

Feng Peixiang, a local retiree, has his health monitored and reads the news by iPad every day. He wears a watch that sends a signal to the rescue center if he is in difficulties. He has even consulted doctors in Shanghai without leaving home.

"It is amazing to live in the time of the Internet," he said.

Zhejiang Province, home to Alibaba, is at the forefront of Internet industries. According to the CAC, about 80 percent of the nation's online retail, 70 percent online exports, and 60 percent online B2B transactions are conducted through Zhejiang.
by Xinhua Writers Lyu Qiuping, Liang Tianyun, Xu Yang

BEIJING, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Compared with the U.S. presidential election that recently stunned the world, retiree Han Yueai cares more about the election on her own doorstep.

Han and 2,300 of her neighbors in Bajiaobeili neighborhood of Beijing's Shijingshan District on Tuesday voted for three district-level deputies to the people's congress.

"People vote for their own representatives to solve difficulties for people," she said.

On Tuesday, residents of 16 districts in Beijing Municipality, including the top leadership of the country, voted for more than 4,300 district-level and 10,000 township-level deputies for the people's congress.

Han asked one of the candidates Chen Peng about how to address the nursing facility shortage in the neighborhood, as she could not find a vacant bed in any local nursing home.

"If I am elected I will negotiate with civil affairs and other related departments in the district, and speed up construction of more nursing homes," Chen said at a meeting between voters and candidates organized by the local election committee.

Chen, 42, has won people's favor over the past two years, serving as head of the neighborhood. Other candidates include the manager of a local company, the owner of a private pharmacy and a grassroots cadre.

DEMOCRACY CHINESE STYLE

The people's congress system has been in place for 62 years and is China's fundamental political system. There are people's congresses from the national level right down to the smallest townships. At township and county level, deputies are directly elected by citizens every five years. Deputies of higher levels are voted by deputies from lower levels.

More than 900 million Chinese have or will elect over 2.5 million deputies at county and township levels in elections running into next year, making it the world's largest election in terms of voter numbers.

Huang Shisong, deputy secretary general of the executive committee of Beijing Municipal People's Congress, said to ensure the transparency of the elections, disciplinary bodies of the municipality will send official inspectors to 16 districts, and encourage residents to tip them off regarding any violations in behavior.

In Shijingshan, 10 residents were invited as civilian inspectors to oversee voter registration, candidate selection, meetings with candidates and, crucially, voting.

"Considering the vital significance of the election, I feel a responsibility to oversee the whole process," said Zhao Yingchun, a civilian inspector from Lugu residential community, who joined in voting supervision and vote counting Tuesday.

No violations have been found in the election procedure so far, according to Huang.

Other regions of China are also creating ways to ensure electoral openness. In Muling City, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, vote counting machines were introduced in October, and voters were able to see the real-time votes of each candidate on an LED screen.

Zhu Lijia, of the Chinese Academy of Governance, said the people's congress system enables people's representatives to participate in decision making, legislation and supervision.

"It is a democracy that fits China, although the system can be improved," he said, adding that balancing urban-rural representation at the people's congress was an example of improvement.

In 2010, China amended its Electoral Law to ensure both rural and urban areas adopt the same ratio of deputies, ending a practice where rural deputies represented a population four times greater that urban deputies.

TRANSPARENT ELECTION

Lured by political power, some officials have sought votes by offering bribes or other under-the-table means.

According to a statement from the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), as of mid-October this year, 245 officials have been punished for malpractices in local elections, including attending banquets while inspecting cadres, leaking confidential information, canvassing, seeking promotion through improper methods, and spreading fabricated information in local elections.

Penalties issued included warnings, demotions, and expulsions from CPC and administrative posts.

The most notorious case of election fraud found was in January 2013, when 45 National People's Congress deputies were elected from the Liaoning Provincial People's Congress through vote buying and bribery. A total of 523 deputies to the Liaoning Provincial People's Congress were implicated in the fraud.

Dai Yanjun, deputy director of the Party-building department at the Party school of the CPC Central Committee, said that local elections at various levels had learned lessons from the Liaoning case, and the electoral system had been improved.

"We should lock up power by building a transparent system. If every step during an election is open and transparent, under-the-table and power-for-money deals will find nowhere to hide," he said.
KUNMING, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The first session of the Lancang-Mekong sub-regional commodity exposition opened in southwest China's Yunnan Province on Tuesday.

The expo is part of the efforts of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) mechanism, which was established during the first Lancang-Mekong leaders' meeting held in Sanya, Hainan this March.

Officials, business representatives, experts and scholars from China, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Myanmar are attending the expo.

They will discuss issues regarding construction of processing trade parks, financial cooperation, the internationalization of the RMB, and the Maritime Silk Road.

Sutee Markboon, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Interior of Thailand, said the expo provides a good opportunity for the six countries in the Lancang-Mekong sub-region to cooperate, learn from each other, and boost people's living standards.

Yunnan Province will also boost construction of free trade zones around its borders with these countries while strengthening cooperation and exchange with them.

The expo will last until Nov. 20. During the expo, business seminars and cultural exchange activities will also be held.
by Zheng Jianghua

BRUSSELS, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election purports a possibility that the superpower's foreign policy will be more unilateral, experts told Xinhua. However, there are still uncertainties as precedents show that not all U.S. presidents completely delivered on what they promised during their campaign.

"It's too early to speculate about the impact of the U.S. elections on international relations, but the President-elect's past rhetoric and its unusual and sometimes cynical relation to reality provides some indications," said Prof. David Fouquet, vice-president of European Centre for International and Strategic Research (CERIS), in an recent interview with Xinhua.

"So do the identities of persons reported to be his advisers or his potential cabinet appointees, who almost entirely represent a general profile categorized as neo-conservative," said Fouquet, adding "the makeup of the new U.S. Congress also reinforces this impression."

Trump will have to choose a cabinet over the next several weeks. While no name has been officially released, some media reported that he will likely appoint former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani as attorney general and former House speaker Newt Gingrich as secretary of state.

Trump will also have to fill at least one and possibly more seats in the Supreme Court. He has said he favors conservative-leaning judges, which is likely to spark a political row.

"The result could be a generally strong tendency to more unilateral and less multilateral in U.S. foreign policy and action," said Fouquet, also director of Asia-Europe Project of CERIS.

"This will probably cast into doubt or challenge such pillars of global governance as the G20 economic and financial dialogue and the Paris Agreement on climate change," added Fouquet.

The U.S. will likely suspend at least the economic and trade elements of "pivot to Asia" strategy symbolized by the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) accord, much of the transatlantic system embodied in the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), as well as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Fouquet elaborated.

The President-elect has also spoken of withdrawing from the World Trade Organization (WTO) and applying punitive tariffs not seen since the 1920s which probably contributed to the Great Depression of that era, he noted.

Moreover, the new U.S. administration's probable unilateralism would also tend to undermine much international cooperation dedicated to addressing other global challenges, ranging from arms control, non-proliferation to poverty alleviation, he said.

It would also lead to more ad-hoc unilateral or regional groupings to address issues where there is a will to act or even lead, he added.

"Examples might include continued Europe-China cooperation and possible leadership aimed at transitioning toward a low-carbon economy to address climate change issues," he said, adding that there are other examples where such global leadership and collaboration would be required.

However, it's not clear at present that "whether Europe or China is currently capable or willing to assume such new or additional responsibilities, without assurance that the United States or any other partners will follow," he noted.

Other experts are more cautious to predict the direction of U.S. foreign policy.

"The essence of Trump's foreign policy will be its unpredictability," wrote Jeremy Shapiro, research director at European Council on Foreign Relations, in an article posted on the website of the think-tank.

Shapiro, who was a member of the U.S. state department's planning staff, thinks that Trump's personality, temperament and judgment matter more than his foreign policy.

"Precedents show that many U.S. presidents don't stick to promises made during their election campaigns. Compared with his predecessors, Trump has a more distinctive personality. So it's not clear for the moment whether he will deliver on what he promised," said Men Jing, director of the Center for EU-China Study at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium.

Echoing Men, Ding Chun, director of the Center for European Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, said other great powers, including the European Union, "are taking a 'wait and see' attitude toward the President-elect."




Chief Executive of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) Chui Sai On delivers the Policy Address for the Fiscal Year 2017, entitled "Development Plan in Progress for Building a Perfect Home", at the Legislative Assembly in Macao, south China, Nov. 15, 2016. (Xinhua)

MACAO, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chief Executive of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) Chui Sai On said Tuesday that the SAR government is to take a series of livelihood-related measures to advance the life quality for locals.

Chui disclosed the initiatives in the Policy Address for the Fiscal Year 2017 at the Legislative Assembly, entitled "Development Plan in Progress for Building a Perfect Home".

This year's policy address covered four chapters: "Implementation of livelihood-related policies and measures", "Consolidation of the foundation for economic development", "Building a happy and perfect home", and "Enhancement of public services' efficiency".

Enhancing the respective livelihoods of Macao people is a top priority of the government, said Chui. The SAR government is to push forward measures in the short, medium, and long-term that help consolidate the three-layer social security system, namely the social security fund, social assistance, and social welfare.

In support of its policy targets, the SAR government is maintaining the public subsidies for elderly, disadvantaged families, low-income full-time employees and those who need help.

The government would continue the Wealth Partaking Scheme, which offers 9,000 patacas annually to each permanent resident and 5,400 patacas for each non-permanent resident.

All these relief measures would cost the SAR government 12.352 billion patacas, Chui concluded.

The SAR government will continue with the public housing policy to improve the living quality of locals. Chui said that a total of about 12,600 public housing units will be built in the short to medium term. While in the long run, it is planned to build about 28,000 public housing units at the reclamation area.

Chui's report remains cautiously optimistic about Macao's economic prospects, predicting the economy of the SAR is expected to resume positive.

In economic development chapter, Chui places great importance on regional cooperation, indicating that the Macao should make the most of the supportive measures granted by the central government to participate in the nation's "Belt and Road" initiative.

The report also emphasizes to deepen the cooperation with Jiangsu, Beijing, Tianjin and the provinces of the Pearl River Delta Region, and explore the exchange and cooperation between Macao and the traditional industrial regions in the midwest and northeast regions of China.
BEIJING, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Senior Chinese and U.S. diplomats and security officials will discuss law enforcement cooperation in Beijing next week.

China and the United States will outline priorities for cooperation at the 14th meeting of the China-U.S. Joint Liaison Group (JLG) on Law Enforcement Cooperation from Nov. 21 to 22, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang told a regular news briefing Tuesday.

"China looks to work with the United States to enhance mutual trust, expand consensus and deepen cooperation," Geng said.

JLG, established in 1998, is a major channel for China-U.S. law enforcement cooperation. It involves the foreign ministries, security departments, justice departments and others.

The United States is a major destination for corrupt Chinese officials and economic fugitives. Through the JLG, China has worked closely with the United States to apprehend and extradite them.

Yang Xiuzhu, former vice mayor of Wenzhou suspected of embezzlement, is in U.S. custody with China urging her repatriation.

Some "most wanted" fugitives were repatriated to China in 2015, including Yang Jinjun and Kuang Wanfang. Wang Guoqiang, former Party chief of Fengcheng city in Liaoning Province and Huang Yurong, former Party chief of Henan Provincial Highway Administration turned themselves in.
MOSCOW, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Russian military launched on Tuesday a large-scale offensive against terrorist targets in Syria with the participation for the first time of the country's aircraft carrier, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.

The major operation conducted large-scale strikes against the Islamic State and Nusra Front in the provinces of Idlib and Homs, Shoigu said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the top brass of the country's Armed Forces.

Russia's sole aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov has joined in combat action for the first time in the history of the Russian Navy, according to the minister.

Another vessel of the Russian naval group in the Mediterranean, the Admiral Grigorovich frigate, has fired Kalibr cruise missiles against terrorist positions, Shoigu said.

The Bastion coastal defense missile systems were also used in the campaign, he said, adding that terrorist facilities producing toxic substances were among the main targets of the intensive strikes.
LAGOS, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian government said on Tuesday it had rescued 50 persons from human trafficking in the past four days in northwest State of Kano.

Shehu Umar, the State Commander of National Agency for the Prohibition for Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), told reporters that the victims were intercepted by the Nigeria Immigration Service in Katsina on their way to Europe through Niger and Libya.

He said the victims included women and children, noting that the victims hailed from Abia, Delta, Edo, Enugu, Imo and Kwara states.

Umar told reporters that the zonal office had rescued a total of 343 victims this year, comprised of 321 females and 122 males.

The official added that the victims were discovered due to three main reasons -- lack of legal documents, lack of enough fund and use of illegal routes.
TEHRAN, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Iran will confront any attempt to change borders of regional countries, a senior adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader was quoted as saying by Press TV on Tuesday.

"Iran will, in words and action, oppose the disintegration of regional countries by foreign elements," Ali Akbar Velayati made the remarks during a meeting with visiting former French defense minister, Herve Morin, in the capital Tehran on Tuesday.

"We will confront such attempts, which are detrimental to the region," stressed Velayati.

Iran's military advisory mission in Iraq, for instance, aims to contribute to regional stability in general and preserve the Arab country's sovereignty and territorial integrity in particular, he said.

"Senior Iraqi authorities state that without Iran's help, Daesh would have very likely gained control over Baghdad," he added.

Velayati urged for continuous talks with French officials, saying that "the exchange of viewpoints about regional issues is a requirement in the relations between the two countries."

As for Morin, who served as the French defense chief under former president Nicolas Sarkozy from 2007 to 2010 and currently is a parliamentary member, he said that "It is impossible to fight terrorism without Iran's participation."

He described the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers as a "guarantee to stability and security in the region and the world," as the deal ended disputes over Iran's sensitive nuclear program.
NAIROBI, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Kenyan government will rely on local and foreign investors to help bridge a yawning infrastructure financing gap, senior officials said Tuesday.

Cabinet secretary in the National Treasury, Henry Rotich, said a strategic engagement with the private sector will help the government bridge an infrastructure financing shortfall estimated at two billion U.S. dollars.

"The government requires huge capital outlay to hasten modernization of infrastructure. We therefore require active participation of the private sector to generate new financing towards key infrastructure projects like roads, ports and railways," said Rotich.

He was speaking during a national conference on public-private partnership (PPP) to finance expansion and rehabilitation of major transport networks in the capital Nairobi.

Kenya has been developing a public-private financing model to modernize transport infrastructure and accelerate industrial growth.

Rotich said the enactment of friendly policies and regulations had facilitated private sector investments in transport infrastructure, energy, telecoms and water supply.

"As the second most favorite investment destination in this continent after South Africa, Kenya has witnessed a surge in the number of institutional investors willing to venture in road construction and power projects," Rotich told policymakers and investors.

He revealed the government will mobilize additional resources from the domestic market to implement mega infrastructure projects.

The official said pension funds and capital markets could be harnessed to finance four major road projects.

Cabinet Secretary for Transport and Infrastructure, James Macharia, said institutional investors from China, Europe and the United States are keen on channeling funds towards transport infrastructure in Kenya. Enditem
ADEN, Yemen, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry declared Tuesday that the Saudi-led Arab coalition and Yemen's Shiite Houthi rebels have tentatively agreed to a cessation of hostilities in Yemen commencing November 17.

Kerry said that the Yemeni warring sides agreed to form a consensus government that will be announced before the end of the this year.

Kerry announced his statement while speaking to reporters in Abu Dhabi after conducting recent U.S.-brokered talks between representatives from the Shiite Houthis and the Saudi-led Arab coalition in Oman's capital Muscat.

However, Yemen's Foreign Minister Abdul-Malik Mekhlafi refused the comments made by the U.S. Secretary of State, saying that "Yemen's government doesn't know anything about Kerry's plan about ceasefire."

The Yemeni Minister said that "Kerry's reports are just attempts to reach an agreement with Houthis with no participation from the legitimate government side."

He added that "Kerry's statement doesn't concern Yemen's government anyway as we aren't aware of it and any unilateral agreement will definitely fail."

Another government source told Xinhua that "the current U.S. administration is trying hard to make achievements before the end of its term by forming baseless agreements that only foil peace efforts in Yemen."

Earlier this month, Yemen's internationally recognized President Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi announced his rejection of a plan submitted by the UN envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh, saying that its contents "bare seeds of war in the country."

The UN roadmap called for naming a new vice president after the withdrawal of the Shiite Houthi rebels from the capital Sanaa and other northern provinces and handing over all heavy weapons to a third party.

The UN plan also suggested forming a new government that will be formed from the two-warring sides and would not be led by President Hadi who would transfer his power to the new vice president.

The situation in Yemen has deteriorated economically and politically since March 2015, when war broke out between the Shiite Houthi group, supported by former President Ali Abdullash Saleh, and the government backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition.

Houthis and Saleh's forces hold most of Yemen's northern regions while government forces backed by Saudi-led military coalition share control of the rest of the country including seven southern provinces.

The civil war, ground battles and airstrikes have already killed more than 10,000 people, half of them civilians, injured more than 35,000 others and displaced over two millions, according to humanitarian agencies.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) holds a welcoming ceremony for Ecuador President Rafael Correa Delgado before their talks in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 7, 2015. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)

QUITO, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa hopes Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming state visit to his country will expand cooperation between the two sides in various fields.

The goal, Correa told Xinhua in a recent interview, is to "mutually make the most" of the strategic partnership.

Xi's visit later this week, as part of a three-country tour to Latin America, will be both "historic and beneficial," he said, noting it will mark the first time a Chinese head of state visits Ecuador, which established diplomatic ties with the Asian giant 36 years ago.

In 2015, on his second visit to China after coming to power in 2007, Ecuador and China agreed to elevate the ties to the level of strategic partnership.

CHINESE FINANCING OF STRATEGIC PROJECTS

The Ecuadorian president spoke highly of the importance of Chinese investment in his country, whose economy, in his word, has long been constrained by financing.

Correa said China has taken part in the development of economy, industry and energy in Ecuador as a strategic partner and his country has become one of the countries that attracted the most Chinese funds.

China has funneled some 15 billion U.S. dollars in financing the South American nation in the past 10 years.

"China's support, through projects and financing, has really changed the history of Ecuador," Correa said.

Small developing countries, like Ecuador, have no internal source of financing, which they need "in emerging from underdevelopment," he said.

"We have very profitable projects, but need that financing, (and) China has it," he added.

"Thanks to the financing cooperation with China, Ecuador got rid of one of the worst roadway networks in South America, and has the best now," he said.

PROMISING PRAGMATIC COOPERATION

The two countries have achieved important progress in cooperation in energy, mining and infrastructure construction.

Of the eight hydropower stations under construction and finished, seven were constructed by Chinese firms, which has helped turn the once energy-poor Ecuador into an energy exporter.

During his visit, Xi is set to symbolically inaugurate the Coca Codo Sinclair station, the largest of the hydropower stations, at a ceremony in the capital Quito, since the facility is located in a remote region between the Amazonian provinces of Napo and Sucumbios.

The Ecuadoran Vice President, Jorge David Glas (C), poses with employees in one of the tunnels of the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric project, in El Chaco, Napo province, Ecuador, April 7, 2015. (Xinhua/Str)

The station with an installed capacity of 1,500 megawatts, was built by China's Sinohydro.

"These projects have allowed us to obtain our energy independence, (and) to have one of the most environmentally-friendly energy sources," Correa said.

"More than 90 percent of our energy can now come from clean and renewable hydropower, and that is due in part to Chinese cooperation and financing," he added.

Correa, who is to leave office in May 2017, hopes China will continue to invest in Ecuador, which has a portfolio of some 40-billion-dollar worth of "profitable projects" in shipbuilding and steel.

"We have Chinese companies building highways and hydroelectric plants, and we have oil and mining companies. So there is already investment here. But many more highly profitable projects are hugely important to the country's development," he said.

Tourism is one area with much room to grow, said Correa.

Ecuador, which ranks among the world's top five countries in biodiversity, received 18,200 Chinese visitors in 2015.

The two countries have established close ties in the past decade, as evident from China's role in relief efforts after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that devastated towns along Ecuador's north coast in April, killing 673 people.

As one of the first countries to supply humanitarian aid immediately after the quake, China furnished more than 5,000 tents for the homeless and nearly 10,000 cots, among other basic supplies, and donated 2 million dollars in cash.

"I only have words of gratitude to President Xi Jinping, his government, and all of the Chinese people for the great solidarity they showed Ecuador," Correa said.
Photo taken on Nov. 14, 2016 shows the Lima Convention Center, where the 2016 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Week takes place in Lima, capital of Peru, on Nov. 14, 2016. (Xinhua/Carlos Lezama/ANDINA)

MEXICO CITY, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting, to be held in Lima, Peru later this week, is vital to establishing a free-trade zone in the area to promote integration and globalization, a Mexican expert has said.

Ulises Granados, an expert in international relations and coordinator of the Asia-Pacific Studies Program at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM), made the remarks during an interview with Xinhua as the APEC Economic Leaders' Week kicked off on Monday.

"I think that at this coming meeting, there will certainly be several advances on matters of interest, and certainly also other matters of a political nature will be highlighted, such as the recent U.S. presidential election," said Granados.

At the meeting, APEC's 21 member economies are expected to lay the groundwork for technical negotiations on a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, or FTAAP, as agreed at the 2014 APEC leaders' meeting held in Beijing, China.

APEC's economic integration, within the framework of the FTAAP, is set to make trade more efficient in the region, which accounts for some 57 percent of the world's gross domestic product and 49 percent of all international trade flows.

"It represents an enormous potential market," said Granados, "the bloc has advanced towards its main goals, which are to ease trade, enhance the competitiveness of small and medium-sized companies and increase the flow of trade in services."

Photo taken on Nov. 14, 2016 shows assistants on the first day of the 2016 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Week in Lima, capital of Peru, on Nov. 14, 2016. (Xinhua/Vidal Tarqui/ANDINA)

"If the agreement is reached, it will without a doubt generate greater benefits," he added.

This year's meeting, Granados noted, follows up on earlier commitments made in the 1994 Leaders' Declaration issued in Bogor, Indonesia.

In that document, APEC members outlined their vision of an Asia-Pacific free-trade and investment zone, and pledged to take the measures needed to liberalize and facilitate trade, by 2010 for the developed members, and by 2020 for the developing economies.

Members are also set to discuss reducing tariffs on services to spur regional trade and using infrastructure development to stimulate growth.

"I firmly believe the 21 member economies will state the measures they should adopt amid the (global economic) slowdown, which should be in keeping with the conclusions reached at the G20, and I am sure that what will stand out is the interest in promoting greater integration ... in the Asia-Pacific through the creation of a free-trade area," Granados said.
KATHMANDU, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- A high-level Nepalese government delegation departed Tuesday for Lhasa, China's Tibet Autonomous Region to hold talks with Chinese officials on finalizing the protocol of the Transit Transport Agreement (TTA), Nepal's Commerce Ministry said.

The bilateral meeting is scheduled to be held on November 16-19.

Nepalese Commerce Secretary Naindra Prasad Upadhyaya told Xinhua that the team was sent to Lhasa to prepare necessary groundwork for the protocol, which would help materialize the TTA.

After the signing of TTA in last March, it will be the first bilateral meeting regarding the development of protocol to the agreement.

During the visit of former Nepalese Prime Minister K.P Sharma Oli to China last March, the two nations signed the agreement to pave the way for either country to use each other's territory for third country trade.

However, the TTA is just a framework and is incomplete without the protocol. The protocol to the TTA will include details about customs arrangements, mode of transport, types of cargo and operational modality.

Nepal's third country trade is presently conducted only through Indian territory. The TTA with China allows the Himalayan country to transport its imports and exports via its neighbour's territory.

Sainju had told Xinhua last month that Nepal wanted to use transit facility through four to five border points between two countries to reach the China's two to three sea ports for conducting trade with third countries.

"We have not specifically mentioned border points and sea ports that we want to use in the draft of protocol we have sent to the Chinese side," he had said. "It will be concluded based on discussion between the two sides."

Nepalese experts say that an efficient transport network and simplified paperwork and information system will be essential to make practical use of the transit facility.

Nepal has signed transit agreement with India and Bangladesh, but has been able to use transit facility provided by India only so far.
AMMAN, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Jordan and Iraq on Tuesday urged increased cooperation to fight terrorism and radical ideologies, the state-run Petra news agency reported.

Jordan's Lower House Speaker Atef Tarwaneh said Tuesday that there is a need to unify the Arabs efforts to address issues facing the Arab nations.

He made the remarks at a meeting with his Iraqi counterpart Salem Jabouri, during which they said Arabs need to have unified stances on the various issues facing them.

"Our war against terrorism will not only be at the military level...The most important battle is the ideological battle everywhere," Tarawneh said.

Jordan is part of a US-led international coalition to fight the so-called Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

The Iraqi lawmaker said Jordan and Iraq face common challenges.

He also reviewed developments in Iraq and the impact of terrorism on the country, voicing appreciation for Jordan's support.
Image taken on Sept. 3, 2015 shows a employee labeling Hass avocados boxes at Packing Plant Agricultural Hoja Redonda, in El Carmen, province of Chincha, department of Ica, Peru. (Xinhua/Luis Camacho)

LIMA, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Business and enterprise representatives from China and Peru signed purchasing agreements worth 2 billion U.S. dollars on Monday in Lima, as the 2016 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Week kicked off in the capital city.

The agreements involved light industry, textiles, agricultural products, medicine, metals and minerals. Over 100 government officials and entrepreneurs attended the signing ceremony.

"Chinese-Peruvian trade has achieved growth and progress against the sophisticated and adverse situation of the world," Zhu Yong, a senior official from the Commerce Ministry of China, said at the ceremony.

Deepening cooperation and jointly overcoming hardships have proved precious to both sides and are conducive to producing win-win outcome and boosting global trade in the future, he added.

Juan Manuel Varilias Velasquez, chairman of the Peruvian Association of Exporters, said: "China as the most vigorous economy in the world has contributed to the consistent development of Peru in the past 15 years," adding that the business talks between the delegates and the signed agreements would further strengthen bilateral cooperation.

China has become Peru's largest trade partner and largest export destination in the world, while Peru has jumped to be China's third largest trade partner in Latin America.

The two sides are expected to strengthen and deepen their ties through sharing development opportunities, optimizing trade structure and expanding trade volumes, said the officials attending the signing ceremony.
Liu Yunshan (L), member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, meets with Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong in Wuzhen, east China's Zhejiang Province, Nov. 15, 2016. (Xinhua/Zhang Duo)

WUZHEN, Zhejiang, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Liu Yunshan, a senior official of the Communist Party of China (CPC), met on Tuesday with foreign guests invited to the third World Internet Conference.

The conference, themed "Innovation-driven Internet development for the benefit of all -- building a community of common future in cyberspace" is to take place in the river town of Wuzhen, eastern China's Zhejiang Province, from Wednesday to Friday.

Liu, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, met with Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong, former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke, and President of Qualcomm Derek Aberle.

During his meeting with Hor, Liu recalled Chinese President Xi Jinping's recent visit to Cambodia, saying the visit has invigorated the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries.

He said China is willing to further cooperation with Cambodia in various fields including internet development and governance, so as to benefit people of the two countries.

Hor said President Xi's visit to Cambodia is of historical significance and the Cambodian side is ready to deepen all-round pragmatic cooperation with China and enhance bilateral friendship.

When meeting with Hawke, Liu said, China and Australia, as major countries in the Asia-Pacific region, share wide common interests in terms of internet development and governance.

Both sides should be devoted to promoting exchanges in such fields as cyberspace interconnection, internet governance and cyber security, said Liu.

Noting that cooperation between Australia and China ranges widely, benefits both sides and has huge potential, Hawke said he believes China will continue to be a contributor to world internet development.

When meeting with Aberle, Liu hoped that Qualcomm would deepen exchanges and cooperation with Chinese companies, so as to jointly make contributions to internet innovation and the building of a community of common destiny in cyberspace.

Aberle was satisfied with the win-win cooperation between Qualcomm and the Chinese companies, hoping to expand cooperation with China on cyber security and internet technology innovation.
VIENTIANE, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Irish President Michael Daniel Higgins and Lao President Bounnhang Vorachit on Tuesday discussed future directions to be taken to strengthen bilateral relations and cooperation between the two countries.

The Irish President and his delegation is paying an official working visit to Laos from Monday to Wednesday, reported Lao state-run news agency KPL.

During talks, both sides discussed assistance and cooperation on Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) clearance in Laos, the preservation of the environment and climate change, and cooperation promotion in economy, trade and investment in Laos, as well as regional and international issues of common interest.

Laos and Ireland established diplomatic relations in 1998.
File photo shows the Protection of Civilians site 3 of the United Nations Mission In South Sudan (UNMISS) in Juba, capital of South Sudan. (Xinhua/Li Baishun)

JUBA, Nov.15 (Xinhua) -- At least 21 humanitarian workers have been abducted by gunmen in South Sudan's Northern Liech State over the weekend, a local official said Tuesday.

Lam Tungwar, Information Minister for Northern Liech State, told Xinhua by phone that youth allied to opposition leader Riek Machar overrun the town of Nhialdiu on Sunday and abducted the aid workers who were residing in a UN compound.

Tungwar said the abductees included one Kenyan national and the rest were South Sudanese working for different aid agencies.

"It was a surprise attack on Sunday where they overrun the town and looted property. Twenty-one humanitarian workers residing in the UN OCHA compound were taken away. The government is trying its best to rescue them," Tungwar said.

He added the gunmen also attacked the town of Koch, looting homes and burning over 40 huts.

The northern region of South Sudan has exchanged hands several times between government troops led by President Salva Kiir and opposition forces loyal to Machar during civil war that broke out in December 2013.

More than 100,000 displaced people are living in the protection of civilian site in Bentiu town of the northern region, according to the latest figures by the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan.

A peace deal signed between Kiir and Machar under UN pressure last year led to the formation of a unity government in April, but was shattered by renewed fighting that erupted in early July.

Machar, who had returned to his old post as Kiir's deputy in the unity government, was sacked again and fled the country after the July fighting. He is now in residence in South Africa and has asked his supporters to launch a rebellion.

Tens of thousands have been killed and more than two million displaced since late 2013.
DJIBOUTI, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- China and Djibouti have vowed to further strengthen bilateral relations and cooperation in various fields.

This came on Tuesday when visiting Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao met and held talks with Djiboutian Prime Minister Abdoulkader Kamil Mohamed in Djibouti on ways of further strengthening bilateral relations between the two countries.

Li, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, noted that China and Djibouti have been enjoying fruitful cooperation in various fields.

China and Djibouti have maintained long-term friendship, he said. Since the two countries forged diplomatic relations 37 years ago, the two sides have always treated each other with sincerity, helped each other and achieved fruitful cooperation in various fields, said Li.

China appreciates Djibouti's unwavering support for China in issues related to China's core interests on the international stage, said Li.

The vice president further said that China and Djibouti have valuable development opportunities ahead in terms of cooperation.

He expressed China's willingness to consolidate mutual political trust with Djibouti and actively implement the outcome of the Johannesburg summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held last December, as well as the consensus reached between the two heads of state during the summit.

Cooperation between the two countries in the areas of infrastructure, talent training and people's livelihoods will be enhanced, to promote greater development in China-Djibouti relations, he said.

The CPC is ready to work with Djibouti's People's Rally for Progress to deepen inter-party exchanges and cooperation and promote the development of state-to-state relations, he said.

Kamil said that Djibouti is very satisfied with the friendly relations and cooperation with China. He also expressed deep gratitude to the selfless assistance provided by China over a long time.

Under the framework of 10 major China-Africa cooperation plans proposed by President Xi Jinping during the FOCAC Johannesburg summit and the Belt and Road Initiative, Djibouti hopes to strengthen cooperation with China in areas including infrastructure, energy and industrial park construction, Kamil said.

Djibouti will, as always, adhere to the one China policy, said the prime minister.

The prime minister said that the People's Rally for Progress hopes to strengthen exchanges at all levels with the CPC and learn from its successful experience.
VIENTIANE, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Laos is expected to see more foreign tourists in 2016 with higher revenue as the Southeast Asian country sets to earn an income of 700 million U.S. dollars.

The number of tourist arrivals to the country reached more than 4.3 million in 2015, drawing revenue of 650 million U.S. dollars, an increase of four percent compared to the previous year, reported Lao state-run news agency KPL on Tuesday.

Over the next five years, the revenue from the tourism and services sector is expected to be more than 950 million U.S. dollars a year. Laos expects to attract more than six million international tourists by 2020.

In 2015, there were 2,426 hotels and guesthouses across Laos with 44,600 rooms. The service and tourism businesses in Laos have seen tourist arrivals increase every year from 4.1 million people in 2014 to 4.3 million people in 2015, said KPL.

Mining exploration and tourism services are the main industries driving economic growth in Laos and it is a priority of the government to promote agricultural production, services and create more jobs for local people, it said. Enditem
XIAMEN, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- A former vice mayor of Xiamen City in east China's Fujian Province has been prosecuted for bribery, said the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Tuesday.

Putian City People's Procuratorate in Fujian has completed an investigation into Li Dongliang and initiated a public prosecution at Putian Intermediate People's Court .

Li is accused of accepting a huge amount of bribes himself or through his relatives to seek benefits for others when he worked as a district head in Xiamen and vice mayor of the city.
LAGOS, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria's National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) said on Tuesday it will not support the sale of the state-run oil giant's assets without proper consultation with labor unions in the petroleum sector.

There is no way the unions will open their eyes and allow these assets to be sold without proper consultation, Tokunbo Korodo, the Union's Southwest Chairman told reporters in Lagos.

Oil workers in the West African country had on Nov. 13 declared that they would reject any attempt by the government to sell some of its stakes in the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

The reaction came as the Nigerian government recently made known its plan to sell some national assets to augment revenue shortfall.

The Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources released a draft policy document on the reform of the oil sector on Nov. 10, which proposed the sale of some of its stake in the national oil firm.

"We are against any sale of the nation's assets because there is no justification for it," he added.

"They are planning to sell them to their cronies like they did in power sector," he said.

"We cannot continue to watch until they sell the whole nation," Korodo told reporters.

According to him, the government needs to resolve labor issues before selling any assets. Enditem
VIENTIANE, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Education experts from Laos and the European Union (EU) on Tuesday met in Lao capital Vientiane to discuss measures to strengthen cooperation in higher education.

The second EU-Laos Higher Education Policy and Cooperation Roadshow attracted some 1,000 people, according to a report by local Vientiane Times online newspaper.

Leo Faber, EU Ambassador to Laos said he hoped to see an increasing number of EU-Laos partnership projects under the Erasmus Plus Program, more students from Laos going to Europe for their studies, and increasing numbers of European staff and students coming for exchanges in Laos.

At the event, participants shared their experiences of higher education and discussed the priorities of higher education in Laos, regional and international integration in higher education and cooperation between EU and Lao universities.

Since 2004, more than 250 students from Laos have received scholarships from the EU's Erasmus Mundus Program to further their studies at various levels ranging from professional training, bachelor, master's and doctorate degrees in the EU.

EU member states such as the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom also regularly provide scholarships for students from Laos.
JERUSALEM, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Israel on Tuesday appointed an ambassador to Turkey, for the first time since the relations between the countries were severed six years ago.

The foreign ministry named Eitan Na'eh, who currently serves as Israel's deputy ambassador in London, as the new envoy.

Na'eh previously served as the ambassador to Azerbaijan. Between 1993 and 1997, he served as the consul general in Ankara.

The appointment is a major component of the reconciliation deal that was signed between Israel and Turkey in June after years of tensions over the fatal Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish flotilla in 2010.

The move also came after Kemal Okem, a proxy of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had been named as the country's ambassador to Israel, according to Turkish media reports in October.
Su-33 fighter before taking off from Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier near the Syrian coast in the Mediterranean Sea. (Sputnik Photo)

MOSCOW, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Russian military launched on Tuesday a large-scale offensive against terrorist targets in Syria with the participation for the first time of the country's aircraft carrier, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.

The major operation conducted large-scale strikes against the Islamic State and Nusra Front in the provinces of Idlib and Homs, Shoigu said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the top brass of the country's Armed Forces.

Russia's sole aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov has joined in combat action for the first time in the history of the Russian Navy, according to the minister.

Another vessel of the Russian naval group in the Mediterranean, the Admiral Grigorovich frigate, has fired Kalibr cruise missiles against terrorist positions, Shoigu said.

The Bastion coastal defense missile systems were also used in the campaign, he said, adding that terrorist facilities producing toxic substances were among the main targets of the intensive strikes.
by Alexia Vlachou, Tian Ye

ATHENS, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- A city in southwest Greece, home to many archaeological findings, is seeking cooperation with local and foreign investors to create two underwater archaeological parks to protect antiquities and boost local tourism, a Greek official said on Sunday.

Dimitris Kafantaris, mayor of Pylos-Nestor municipality in the Peloponnese peninsula, said Pylos would be inviting tenders from investors in early 2017 to build the parks.

"The development of diving parks can contribute as an alternative type of tourism. Underwater archaeology can play a significant role in reviving Greece's debt-wrecked economy," said Angeliki Simosi, archaeologist and head of Greece's Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities.

According to local authorities, the project is expected to contribute to shaping a new development model that ensures sustainability, exploiting the comparative advantages of Greece and Pylos in the sector of diving tourism.

Pylos has always been in the spotlight for underwater archaeology. The city's Navarino Bay was the battleground for two major naval wars. The first war took place during the Peloponnesian War in 425 BC, during which Athenians defeated a defending Spartan fleet. The second battle in 1827, which saw allied forces from Britain, France and Russia defeat Ottoman and Egyptian forces, led to the independence of Greece. In 1980, a Greek tanker Irene Serenade sunk to the bottom of Navarino Bay.

"A particular point of interest is the modern wreck of the tanker Irene Serenade, as it is located within the marine archaeological area of the bay of Navarino," Kafantaris added.

Near Methoni at the island of Sapienza, which is about 15 minutes' drive from Pylos, there were two shipwrecks from the Roman era. Cargo including sarcophagi and columns were found on the seabed.

Despite limited budget, underwater archaeology in Greece has made important progress, thanks to cooperation projects with foreign schools and institutions.

The Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities has cooperation projects across the country with the Trondheim University of Norway and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) from the United States, among many others.

In 2015, the Ephorate joined forces with the University of Patras and used new technological means to dig out more details regarding the geological features of the seabed in Methoni Bay and the two shipwrecks.

After advanced research in 2015, Simosi wants to create an underwater museum in Navarino Bay and Methoni, enabling visitors to see the submerged treasures in Pylos.

Simosi believes cooperation projects with other countries will facilitate the protection and exhibition of Greece's underwater treasures and calls for cultural protection authorities in China to join research projects in Epidaurus, another city in Greece.
YAOUNDE, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Twenty people were killed and ten others were hospitalized in critical conditions after taking traditional alcohol named Odontol in East Region of Cameroon last week, local newspaper Cameroon Tribune reported on Tuesday.

East Region Governor Gregoire Mvongo was quoted by the newspaper as saying the victims were from 7 villages in the region, adding a medical team was dispatched to the sites to provide treatment to other people who consumed the alcohol.

The people in the villages usually drink the alcohol on occasions of wedding and other festivals. According to the newspaper, the victims went unconscious several hours after taking the alcohol last week, and died in the next few days.

The authorities are making investigations on the incidents.
OSLO, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg said on Tuesday the clearing process for Syrian groups to go through when being trained by Norwegian forces in Jordan does not guarantee their loyalty in the future, newspaper VG reported.

"The local groups that are supported (by Norway) go through a clearing process, but I shall still repeat that we can never have an absolute warranty about the position of the local groups' loyalty in the future," Solberg told the parliament.

She confirmed together with Defence Minister Ina Marie Soreide Eriksen and Foreign Minister Borge Brende in May that Norway would send 60 commandos to Jordan in order to train Syrian rebels.

According to VG, there was also a possibility of sending the soldiers to Syria in case of necessity, and Solberg confirmed that this is still effective.

In June it was confirmed that the Norwegian commandos had been sent to Jordan to train the rebels connected to the group New Syrian Army. They have been trained by the United States with the purpose of fighting against the Islamic State (IS or ISIL) and have not proclaimed the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad enemy.

The situation in those areas, where the Norwegian soldiers operate, changes fast. It is a difficult task in a demanding and confusing landscape, Solberg said, emphasizing that this is why Norway had sent its best soldiers to execute the task.

"We train in two places: where Kurdish Peshmerga Forces are, as a part of Iraqi security forces, and in Jordan, at the border between Syria and Iraq, where we train local Sunni Arab groups, belonging to those areas that are to be released from ISIL," she added.

"It is true that there is a big and difficult conflict in Syria. I have a big respect for those that maybe think that Noway should not participate in such conflicts, but by failing to do so, there will be no improvement, neither for Syrian nor Iraqi people," Solberg said.

The prime minister also announced that Norwegian contribution in Erbil in Iraq will be reduced.

According to Solberg, there is still a need to support Iraqi forces at other places in the country and the government is now considering these requests.
RIYADH, Nov. 15, (Xinhua) -- Saudi Deputy Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, asserted on Tuesday the reinforcement of the military partnership with the United States to achieve the stability of Gulf countries, reported the Saudi Press Agency.

He stressed the military partnership while chairing the 15th session of the Joint Defense Council of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States in Riyadh.

He also pointed out the results of the 2015 Camp David meeting between Gulf countries and the U.S. in order to promote military and security strategic partnership to ensure regional stability.

Additionally, he emphasized the importance of military and defense coordination between GCC countries in the face of future challenges.

The Deputy Crown Prince's remarks come as the U.S. is developing its new international strategy after electing Donald Trump as its new president.

Saudi Arabia also assured on Monday that its investments in the U.S. won't change because of the newly elected president.
LUSAKA, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Authorities in Zambia have arrested a Tanzania national for trying to smuggle heroin in the country hidden in his rectum, a senior official from the country's anti-drug agency said on Tuesday.

Theresa Katongo, the public relations officer at the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC), said the 29-year-old Tanzanian was arrested in northern Zambia's Nakonde district for trafficking in 17 sachets of heroin.

The drugs were concealed in his rectum which were discovered after officers conducted a body search on him, she added.

The officers also arrested another Tanzanian national in the same district for trafficking in 1.67 kilogram of loose cannabis.
SINGAPORE, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel met Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong Tuesday, reaffirming warm bilateral relations between the two countries and discussing regional and international developments.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said on Tuesday that the leaders witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Singapore's National Research Foundation and Luxembourg's National Research Fund to foster science and innovation collaborations through funding for joint projects.

During his visit in the city state, Bettel delivered a speech titled "Political Leadership in the Digital Age" at Singapore Management University, and also visited one-north, where he was hosted to a tour of FusionWorld by the Agency of Science, Technology and Research.

MFA revealed that Bettel was also briefed on Singapore's vision for autonomous vehicles by the Ministry of Transport, and took a test drive in an autonomous automated vehicle.

Bettel made a working visit to Singapore from Monday to Tuesday, returning to Luxembourg Tuesday night, said the ministry.
LAGOS, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The negative impact of Nigeria's oil industry was a major concern in the oil rich Niger-Delta region, the government said Tuesday.

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, said the government has held meetings with leaders from Niger Delta to ensure that peace returned to the region where militancy had sprang up again, with militants.

Due to months-long instability in the region, the nation has lost revenue, with its oil production dipping by over 600,000 barrels per day to 1.65 million bpd.

The minister added that the West African country will move beyond oil export and improve its economy.

"Our vision is to move Nigeria beyond crude oil exports into value added activities in oil, namely refining and petrochemical industries," he added.

According to him, the vision is also to expand from oil into gas-based industrialization.

Kachukwu clarified that the aim of restructuring the sector was to ensure efficiency and business enhancement. Enditem
HANGZHOU, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- China has approved its first national information economy demonstration area in the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang.

A ceremony was held on Tuesday in Wuzhen, home of the annual World Internet Conference, to mark the start of work on the demonstration area.

The demonstration area will explore new mechanisms and models for innovative growth of the information economy and make Zhejiang a leader in "Internet Plus", big data, smart cities, cross-border e-commerce, sharing economy as well as the cultivation of new entrepreneurs.

Zhejiang is home to e-commerce giant Alibaba. In the first three quarters, the core industries of information economy in the province realized added value of 273 billion yuan (40 billion U.S. dollars), up 14 percent year-on-year.
File photo taken on Oct. 1, 2016 shows an explosion site in Mogadishu, Somalia. (Xinhua/Faisal Isse)

MOGADISHU, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Fighting between rival federal state forces in the central Somali town of Galkayo has displaced more than 90,000 people, including at least 20,000 children, in the past six weeks, a UN official said Tuesday.

The representative of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Somalia, Steven Lauwerier, said a large number of the displaced children were living in settlements and that several children were vulnerable.

"This is a very serious situation for the children of Galkayo and is bound to have a major impact on their education and their lives," Lauwerier said in a statement released in the Somali capital Mogadishu.

Galkayo is currently divided into two districts, with Galmudug state governing the southern district and Puntland state the northern one.

The town has been beset by recurrent clashes between Galmudug and Puntland forces, with the latest round killing 45 people, including civilians.

Clashes continued despite a ceasefire signed in Abu Dhabi between Galmudug and Puntland leaders, but relative calm has now returned to Galkayo.

The UNICEF said all schools in Galkayo were closed during the six weeks of fighting, affecting more than 20,000 children and young people.

It said teachers have been injured, four schools damaged and that five schools outside the town are closed as they are now used to house some of the displaced. Any schools still functioning are severely overcrowded.

"We must ensure that there are places for children to learn in a safe environment either in temporary spaces or in schools outside town. The children must be given catch up classes and their schools must be protected from further damage," Lauwerier said.

The UN agency has teamed up with its partners to set up safe temporary learning spaces for the displaced children. The teams are also working to ensure teachers receive incentive allowances.
Chinese scientist Zhao Dongyuan (C) displays his 2016 TWAS-Lenovo Science award during the opening ceremony of the 27th general meeting of The World Academy of Science (TWAS) in Kigali, capital of Rwanda, Nov. 14, 2016. (Xinhua/Yang Mengxi)

KIGALI, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese scientist Zhao Dongyuan scooped the 2016 TWAS-Lenovo Science Prize for his works on nano materials.

The award, one of the most prestigious honors given to scientists in the developing world, was announced Monday at the ongoing 27th The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) general meeting in the Rwandan capital Kigali.

Zhao is credited for developing innovative nano-sized materials that can be used to clean water, deliver medicine and improve batteries.

The chemistry professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, China, focuses on mesoporous materials -- structures that feature tiny, microscopic holes.

The annual prize including 100,000 U.S. dollars is provided by China's largest computer maker Lenovo.

The TWAS-Lenovo Prize focuses on recognizing outstanding work in basic sciences, with the subject area changing each year -- Physics and Astronomy in 2013, Biological Sciences in 2014, Mathematics in 2015 and Chemical Sciences in 2016.

Each year the Academy also awards individual prizes of 15,000 dollars to scientists who have been working and living in a developing country for at least 10 years.
UNITED NATIONS, Nov.15 (Xinhua) -- As the fragile recovery continues, more than 850,000 people in the Central African Republic -- half of them children -- are still on the move, either internally displaced or refugees in neighboring countries, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said Tuesday.

Insecurity in the aftermath of the conflict has prevented most of the 920,000 people displaced in early 2014 from returning home. On Tuesday, 383,000 people remain displaced inside the country while 468,000 have sought refuge in Cameroon, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Congo, with Cameroon hosting more than half of these refugees.

"When children return to their communities as security improves, they will need to have schools and clinics to come to," Christine Muhigana, UNICEF's deputy director for West and Central Africa, said in a press release. "Access to quality health and education is the cornerstone of any recovery, and the foundation for a peaceful future."

A civil war in the Central African Republic broke out on Dec. 10, 2012 between Seleka rebel coalition and government forces. Seleka took power from former President Francois Bozize in March 2013 and the rebel's leader Michel Djotodia declared himself as president.

A National Transitional council was established and elected Catherine Samba-Panza as provisional president until the second round of the new election on Feb.14, 2016, in which Faustin Archange Touadera was elected as the president.

"The country is in a better place now," said Muhigana. "But this is still one of the world's most dangerous countries for children, and renewed violence threatens to undermine signs of progress."

Aid officials are to meet in Brussels on Nov.17 to report on the recovery progress and seek funding to continue their programs. Leaders from the Central African Republic will make the case for a 3-billion-U.S. dollar aid package to global donors, including the European Union, the World Bank, and the United Nations.

Working with the government and partners, UNICEF is strengthening the education system by training more than 1,300 teachers and building or repairing 172 schools in 2016 with funding from the European Union and the Global Partnership for Education.
MARRAKECH, Nov. 15, 2016 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addresses the opening of the joint High-Level Segment of the 22nd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22) and the 12th Conference of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP12) in Marrakech, Morocco, on Nov. 15, 2016.(Xinhua Photo)

MARRAKECH, Morocco, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday hailed "unstoppable" momentum of the Paris Agreement, expressing optimism on the future involvement of the next U.S. administration on climate change.

"The Paris Agreement has come into force in a record time, which once seemed to be unthinkable, now has become unstoppable," the secretary-general told a press conference here during UN conference on climate change.

So far, 110 out of the 193 signatory parties have ratified the agreement, according to the latest tally provided by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

"Never in the history of the United Nations, any convention, treaty or agreement, has entered into force in such a short period of time," Ban stressed. "Members signed the agreement because it represents the interest of their countries and the whole world."

For his 10th and last presence at a Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC, Ban said he has been convinced after traveling around the world that climate change is happening.

"We have no Plan B, because we have no Planet B," he stressed.

Meanwhile, Ban said he had talked about climate change with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump last week.

"I remained very optimistic about our efforts to combat climate change," Ban said. "Trump, to be the U.S. president, will understand the seriousness and urgency of climate change."

During the campaign, Trump once called global warming a "hoax" and promised to pull out of the Paris Agreement once elected.

"We have seen many campaign rhetorics," Ban said. "But he (Trump) may have to realize the reality of the world's programs, particularly on climate change."

Ban believed low-carbon economy is the answer to the business future, noting the UN is working with some of the largest American states like California, cities like Las Vegas and corporations like General Mills on less carbon emissions and deforestation, because "they have understood the severity of climate change phenomenon."

"As a very successful business person before being elected, Trump understands market forces are already at work and we need to harness climate change. He will make a good and wise decision," the secretary-general added.
U.S. President Barack Obama (L) reviews a presidential honor guard during the official welcoming ceremony at the presidential palace in Athens, Greece, Nov. 15, 2016. U.S. President Barack Obama arrived in Athens Tuesday for a two-day visit amid draconian security measures as his trip marks the first to the country by a U.S. leader since 1999. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)

ATHENS, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama reiterated on Tuesday Washington's steady and strong support to Greece's efforts to address the debt crisis while visiting Athens as part of his last European tour.

During talks with the Greek political leadership, the outgoing U.S. leader urged an end to austerity and called for debt relief in combination with Greece's commitment to the path of reforms.

"Austerity cannot be the formula for growth. The Greek economy needs space to recover," Obama said in joint statements with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras broadcast live on Greek national broadcaster ERT.

The U.S. president acknowledged that Greek people faced very difficult times during the seven-year crisis that brought the country at the brink of economic meltdown and Greece was now on the right path to recovery.

Obama sent several times a clear message of support to Greek people dealing with the economic crisis. Athens hopes this official support will help its case in forthcoming talks with its international creditors.

Greece is pushing for debt relief as soon as possible to ensure sustainable growth.

In addition, during Tuesday's talks, Obama praised Greek people's compassion for refugees and promised that the United States would continue to help in coping with the refugee crisis.

"In my message to the rest of Europe, I will continue to emphasize our view that austerity alone cannot deliver prosperity. It is going to be important both with respect to debt relief and other accommodative strategies to help the Greek people during this period of adjustment," he said at the Greek prime minister's office.

Before an official dinner hosted by Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, Obama also reiterated the U.S. government's willingness to support ongoing efforts for a solution to the Cyprus issue.

The Greek authorities have taken strict security measures, cordoning off a large part of the city centre with approximately 4,500 Greek police officers deployed across Athens.

On Wednesday, Obama is scheduled to visit the Acropolis Hill and deliver a speech at Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center before leaving Greece for Berlin.
ARUSHA, Tanzania, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- President of Tanzania's semi-autonomous Zanzibar archipelago, Ali Mohamed Shein on Tuesday assented to Oil and Gas Bill 2015 which gives the Isles' government go-ahead to explore the natural resources.

In his speech he made soon after signing of the Bill, Shein stressed that the document ill provide powers to Zanzibar to continue developing its natural resources for the benefits of the people.

He said before the law it was not possible for Zanzibar to start exploring its natural resources.

"Some explorers could not continue with exploration because there was no law governing the exploration of gas and oil," he said.

He added that the new law will open a new chapter in investment in the oil and gas sector.

Shein noted that the next step after signing of the law is to form an institution and also called on the public to exercise patience as the benefits of investing in gas and oil may take up to eight years to be realized. Enditem
China will stay unswervingly consistent with its strong commitment to combating climate change, Xie told an event on the sidelines of COP22. (Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe)

MARAKKECH, Morocco, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- China will adhere to its objectives, policies, approaches and actions in addressing climate change, Xie Zhenhua, China's special representative on climate change affairs, said here Tuesday.

China will stay unswervingly consistent with its strong commitment to combating climate change, Xie told an event on the sidelines of a United Nations conference, which will last through Nov. 18.

Actions and implementation in line with the Paris Agreement requires a global effort, and China is active in continuing cooperation with all parties involved, he said at the event on Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) implementation and experience sharing.

To fulfill its commitment to the agreement, China will cut its carbon emissions per unit of GDP by 60 to 65 percent by 2030 from the 2005 levels, and peak its carbon emissions by 2030; increase non-fossil fuel sources in primary energy consumption to about 20 percent, and increase the forest stock volume by 4.5 billion cubic meters.

China is the first developing country to set up a national carbon emissions trading (EST) market based on its seven pilots that are running now. And it is promoting cooperation with Japan and South Korea on EST for an all-win mechanism, Xie said, highlighting low-carbon development and cooperation among east Asian countries.

He also praised cooperation mechanism among the three Asian countries in the fields of low-carbon and circular economy, promoting collaborate works on moving ahead on a practical level to facilitate an important regional carbon market.
AMMAN, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Jordan's Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said Tuesday that the kingdom will host the 28th Arab Summit on March 29, 2017, the state-run Petra news agency reported.

He said that there will be political and economic meetings for Arab officials and ministers ahead of the summit.

The minister also said Jordan will coordinate with the Arab League in holding the summit.

King Abdullah II of Jordan will send invitations to Arab leaders, he added.

Jordan decided to host the summit after Yemen said it was unable to host it due to domestic unrest. Enditem
U.S. President Barack Obama (L) reviews a presidential honor guard during the official welcoming ceremony at the presidential palace in Athens, Greece, Nov. 15, 2016. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)

ATHENS, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama reiterated on Tuesday Washington's steady and strong support to Greece's efforts to address the debt crisis while visiting Athens as part of his last European tour.

During talks with the Greek political leadership, the outgoing U.S. leader urged an end to austerity and called for debt relief in combination with Greece's commitment to the path of reforms.

"Austerity cannot be the formula for growth. The Greek economy needs space to recover," Obama said in joint statements with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras broadcast live on Greek national broadcaster ERT.

The U.S. president acknowledged that Greek people faced very difficult times during the seven-year crisis that brought the country at the brink of economic meltdown and Greece was now on the right path to recovery.

Obama sent several times a clear message of support to Greek people dealing with the economic crisis. Athens hopes this official support will help its case in forthcoming talks with its international creditors.

Greece is pushing for debt relief as soon as possible to ensure sustainable growth.

In addition, during Tuesday's talks, Obama praised Greek people's compassion for refugees and promised that the United States would continue to help in coping with the refugee crisis.

"In my message to the rest of Europe, I will continue to emphasize our view that austerity alone cannot deliver prosperity. It is going to be important both with respect to debt relief and other accommodative strategies to help the Greek people during this period of adjustment," he said at the Greek prime minister's office.

Before an official dinner hosted by Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, Obama also reiterated the U.S. government's willingness to support ongoing efforts for a solution to the Cyprus issue.

The Greek authorities have taken strict security measures, cordoning off a large part of the city centre with approximately 4,500 Greek police officers deployed across Athens.

On Wednesday, Obama is scheduled to visit the Acropolis Hill and deliver a speech at Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center before leaving Greece for Berlin.
LONDON, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- British Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling announced Tuesday the award of the first major contracts worth 900 million pounds (1.12 billion U.S. dollars) to start work on the London to Birmingham leg of the new high speed rail link, HS2.

Grayling also announced Tuesday the route of the second phase of HS2 from Birmingham to Manchester and Leeds.

With HS2 linking the north of England to the existing 160-year-old West Coast Line, it will reduce journey times to Britain's capital from Edinburgh as well as Glasgow.

Grayling said HS2, the company set up to build the new rail, has awarded three contracts to major construction companies for preparatory work ahead of civil engineering work to commence laying the new line next year.

The transport secretary told MPs in the House of Commons on Tuesday: "Our railways owe much to the Victorian engineers who pioneered them, but we cannot rest on their legacy when we face overcrowding and capacity problems.

"HS2 is an ambitious and exciting project and the government is seizing the opportunity it offers to build a transport network fit for the 21st century."

"The full HS2 route will be a game-changer for the country that will slash journey times and perhaps, most importantly, give rail passengers on the existing network thousands of extra seats every day. They represent the greatest upgrade to our railway in living memory."

He said poor connectivity between the cities and regions of the English midlands region and the north was restraining economic growth, adding: "HS2 will become the backbone of our national rail network. It will increase capacity on our congested railways, improve connections between our biggest cities and regions, and generate jobs, skills and economic growth."

HS2 will be the first new railway to be built north of London in more than 100 years. But the existing lines from the north are now overcrowded, according to government figures.

There is overcrowding on peak services, with more than 10 percent of passengers arriving on peak hour services into Birmingham and Manchester having to stand because there are not enough seats.

The whole project is currently set to cost more than 69 billion U.S. dollars, with phase one between London and Birmingham costing around half, almost 34 billion U.S. dollars.

When phase one opens, journey times between London and Birmingham will be cut from one hour and 21 minutes to 49 minutes. When phase two is completed, journey times to London from Manchester will be slashed by half to just over one hour.
The photo shows a jade suit sewn with gold thread, which will be on display at an exhibition, named "Age of Empires: Chinese Art of the Qin and Han Dynasties (221 B.C.-A.D.220), in April in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the United States. (Xinhua/Courtesy of The Met)

NEW YORK, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced here on Tuesday that it's hosting in the coming April a major exhibition on ancient Chinese artifacts and art works dating back nearly 2,000 years.

The exhibition, named "Age of Empires: Chinese Art of the Qin and Han Dynasties (221 B.C.-A.D.220)," features more than 160 rare pieces of art loaned from 31 museums and archaeological institutions in China, said Thomas Campbell, the Met's director, at a press briefing.

Among the exhibits are the world famous terra-cotta warriors from the Qin Dynasty (221 B.C.-206 B.C.), or life-sized clay soldiers buried with the emperor to guard him in the afterlife, and a jade suit sewn with gold thread, the luxurious burial clothing for the royals of the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.).

Though short-lived, Qin was the first Chinese feudal dynasty that achieved national unification. The succeeding Han Dynasty built a great Eastern empire as powerful and influential as its Western peer of almost the same era, the Roman Empire.

The photo taken on Nov. 15, 2016 shows the building of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the United States. (Xinhua/Zhou Xiaozheng)

"People in the West know much about the Roman civilization and its profound impact on the Western civilization, but their knowledge about the great Han civilization is far from enough," said Maxwell Hearn, the Met Curator of Asian Art.

He believes that the upcoming exhibition, which kicks off on April 3, 2017, will greatly appeal to the art lovers worldwide, and also help people examine ancient China's relationship with the outside world.

According to the Met, most of the works to be put on display, including "extremely rare" ceramics, metalwork, textiles, sculpture, painting, calligraphy and architectural models, have never before been seen in the West.

The photo shows a terra-cotta warrior from the Qin Dynasty (221 B.C.-206 B.C.), which will be on display at an exhibition, named "Age of Empires: Chinese Art of the Qin and Han Dynasties (221 B.C.-A.D.220), in April in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the United States. (Xinhua/Courtesy of The Met)

Over the past decades, the Met has developed a very close relationship of cooperation and exchange with Chinese museums, hosting joint exhibitions and supporting each other in loan exhibitions, Hearn told Xinhua.

Meanwhile, the number of Chinese visitors to the New York-based museum has kept rising over the years. Last year the Met received nearly 300,000 Chinese visitors, one of the largest sources of foreign visitorship for the 146-year-old museum.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Paul Ryan will continue to serve as U.S. House Speaker, the chief legislative partner to President-elect Donald Trump for the next two years, after a unanimous voice vote on Tuesday among Congress Republicans.

The Wisconsin lawmaker won the nomination during a closed-door conference meeting at the Capitol. He is expected to win a floor vote to be officially reelected as Speaker on January 3, 2017, when all 435 House members cast their vote in a public roll call.

Kevin MaCarthy, a Californian Republican, was unanimously reelected to another two-year term as majority leader, while Steve Scalise, from Louisana, was reelected majority whip.

"Welcome to the dawn of a new unified Republican government," Ryan told media before Tuesday's voting.

In Tuesday's closed-door meeting, Ryan told fellow Republican lawmakers that he had just spoken to Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who relayed a message that the Trump-Pence team is supportive of the House leadership team, according to a TheHill news daily report.

"I talk with Donald Trump virtually every single day. I spoke with Mike Pence this morning. We are the same page,"said Ryan.

"We're working hand in glove and we're going to make sure that this is a very successful administration," Ryan told reporters after the meeting.

However, there are whispers that if about two dozens of Republicans were to withhold their support, Ryan's reelection would be in jeopardy. Ahead of Tuesday's meeting, several Republican lawmakers urged Ryan's team to delay leadership elections, said local media.

Ryan, who enjoys broad support among Republican rank-and-file, waffled on backing Trump during the campaign, especially after Trump's lewd tape about women was leaked early October.

"I am sickened by what I heard today," Ryan said at the time.

Trump's victory for presidency has obviously eased Republicans' internal tensions. However, there are ongoing uncertainty about how Republican mainstream politics will meld with Trump's.

Trump on Sunday chose his campaign official Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist and senior counselor, and Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus as his chief of staff in White House.

Priebus, also from Wisconsin, is Ryan's longtime friend and ally, while Bannon, 62, is the former executive of right-wing Breitbart News which often launched personal attacks against Ryan and his family.
Dead fish spotted floating in a canal off the Long Island, New York, on Nov. 14, 2016. (Web pick)

NEW YORK, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- An investigation is under way into the tens of thousands of dead fish spotted floating in a canal off the Long Island, New York.

The closing of the Shinnecock Canal at 3:00 a.m. on Monday trapped within the Canal a large, dense school of bunker (Atlantic menhaden) and other bait fish, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) said in a statement emailed to Xinhua Tuesday afternoon.

The large school of fish was most likely chased into the canal by other predatory fish, and the fish kill does not suggest any impacts to the health of Shinnecock Bay,around three hours drive east of Manhattan, New York.

Dead fish spotted floating in a canal off the Long Island, New York, on Nov. 14, 2016. (Web pick)

A preliminary field analysis suggested that the fish likely died because of "a lack of dissolved oxygen and the high density of fish," the conservation department added.

DEC staff have collected additional samples for further analysis. The Canal and locks are operated by the Suffolk County Department of Public Works. The canal locks and gates were reopened at 10:00 a.m. Monday, allowing the live and dead bunker to enter Shinnecock Bay.

As a precaution, the Suffolk County Department of Health Services has also collected water samples to test for pathogens, nutrients and pesticides.
DAMASCUS, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in his interview published on Tuesday that his administration is still skeptic about the ability of the U.S. president-elect, Donald Trump, to fulfill his previous promises on the need to fight terrorism in cooperation with Russia.

In an interview with Portugal's RTP national TV, Assad said he is being extremely cautious about judging Trump's stance, "particularly that he hasn't occupied any political position before, and thus we cannot say anything about what is he going to do."

Assad's skepticism emanates from the fact that Trump is not alone in control of the United States.

"What about the dominant forces within the U.S. administration? What about the mainstream media against him? How would he handle it? And thus we remain skeptic on whether he can fulfill his promises or not," Assad said.

Before winning the elections, Trump expressed willingness to cooperate with Russia in the war on terrorism, and thus a possible cooperation with the government of Assad.

"When you think about it, wouldn't it be nice if we got along with Russia?" Trump said in July. "Wouldn't it be nice if we got together with Russia and knocked the hell out of IS (the Islamic State)?" he added.

In the interview, Assad said that if Trump is going to fight the terrorists, then "we will naturally be allies to him alongside the Russians, Iranians and several other countries that want to defeat the terrorists."

Assad stressed that he would cooperate with the Americans in the war against the terrorist groups, "because we have suffered more than any other place in the world from terrorism... If they have the will and ability, then of course."

He said his government is ready to cooperate with any party in the world "unconditionally" in the war on terror.

Still, Assad made it clear that any international effort against the terrorists without the coordination with the Syrian government, will be considered illegal and "if it's illegal, we will not accept or acknowledge it."
Participants pose for a group photo during the 4th Meeting of Governors/Mayors of the Capitals of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Vientiane, capital of Laos, Nov. 15, 2016. Enhancing liveability within the major urban areas of Southeast Asia was on the agenda as civic leaders of some ten ASEAN capitals met in Laos Tuesday. (Xinhua/Liu Ailun)
Man killed by relative laid to rest

Demonic forces, I cast you out! shouted Pastor Dairy.

He asked the family of Sheldon Boatswain, 34  who was brutally chopped, dragged through his house, and burned while alive last Tuesday at his Myers Lane, Enterprise home by a male relative with whom he lived  to hold hands around the Boatswains pearl coloured casket and pray against the work of the devil.

Whatever you have released on this family, whatever generational curses, we crush the work of the enemy, we crush the work of Satan, and I command a reversal in the name of Jesus. The family and friends gathered in the Proof Producers Ministry Church of God in Enterprise, Chaguanas lifted their hands to join their fervent prayers for deliverance with the pastors.

During his sermon, Dairy reminded those gathered that Boatswains body was just an object that carried his eternal soul.

The body that you see here is not Sheldon.

He is gone. If you want to communicate with Sheldon, live for God and die, and then you will see him. Boatswain was eulogised by one of his sisters, Debbie Ann Neils, and mourned by a church filled with fervent believers who remembered Boatswain as a man of the Lord. After the viewing of his body, a family member smiled through her tears and remarked, his face looks normal, man.

Thank God for that. Boatswains alleged killer, whose family said was a St Anns outpatient, remains in police custody at the Cunupia Police Station.

Police are awaiting instructions from the Director of Public Prosecutions on whether or not he should be charged.
PM: Kamla fed PNM wives

Responding to allegations by Persad-Bissessar at a United National Congress (UNC) meeting in Barrackpore last Friday, Rowley said, If ministers wives were fed as she is claiming, then she fed them because the contracts that she is pointing to, as far as I am aware, those contracts were not awarded by this Government.

Describing Persad- Bissessar as an embarrassment to this country, Rowley told reporters during a PNM walkabout in St Joseph, Would you believe that the numbers she is talking about are earnings of a previous period ... some of which are contracts which these companies received under her administration?

He continued, She speaks now, amalgamating the earnings of these companies and deliberately giving the country the impression that those earnings, that those contracts took place under this Government.

Saying Persad-Bissessar was trying to find company for the government that she led, Rowley quipped, She seems to be mixing up earning money and tiefing money. The last government was thrown out of office for stealing money, the whole country knew the (PP) government was corrupt.

The Prime Minister said Persad-Bissessar is now telling the country that if somebody earns money or wins a contract, its one and the same thing. Rowley said,

We (PNM) make a distinction between a contractor of any ilk ... doesnt matter who the contractor is ... if a contractor wins a contract and earns money ... more power to that contractor. However, he said what was happening under Persad- Bissessars watch was that contractors were being overpaid, getting contracts in questionable circumstances and the Treasury was being raided.
Nepali PM calls up Modi over demonetisation

Nepal,Indo-Pak/Pakistan,Politics,Diplomacy,Business/Economy, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

Kathmandu, Nov 15 (IANS) Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda" has telephoned his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to seek exchange facility for demonetised Indian currency in circulation in his country, the Prime Minister's Office said.

During a five-minute conversation on Monday night, Prachanda congratulated Modi on his move to crack down on black money and corruption, Xinhua news agency quoted an official statement as saying.

Modi has assured Prachanda that he would address the problem faced by Nepal where Indian currency is widely used.

Prachanda took personal initiative to address the problem of exchanging demonetised currency notes after efforts by the state-run central bank -- Nepal Rastra Bank -- failed to resolve the problem.

The Nepali central bank had written to the Reserve Bank of India last week regarding the 500 and 1,000 rupee notes in circulation in Nepal.

The demonetisation move is posing a challenge to the management of Indian currency worth billions possessed by Nepali nationals.

Hundreds of thousands of Nepali nationals in India and those residing and working in various border regions between the two countries have also been hugely affected by the Indian move.

--IANS

py/mr
Congress says demonetisation no war against black money

Delhi,National,Politics,Business/Economy, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Nov 15 (IANS) The Congress on Tuesday tore into the demonetisation scheme, saying that it was in reality a move meant to bail out those with black money.

Congress spokesman Kapil Sibal launched a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of being out of sync with the woes of the common man now battling for cash.

Sibal said Modi's pledge that the situation caused by the November 8 spiking of 500 and 1,000 rupees notes will stabilise in 50 days cannot be believed because his earlier promises had also fallen flat.

"All this has nothing to do with battling black money or corruption," he told the media.

Saying Modi had "collaborated" with those who have black money, he said it were the poor who were facing the brunt of his decision that has resulted in serpentine queues outside banks and ATMs across the country.

Sibal said the demonetisation was aimed at wiping out the Non-Performing Assets of banks.

The Congress leader said Modi had no understanding of the plight of the ordinary men and women who were struggling to exchange or deposit the old currency or withdraw money from their accounts.

"He makes fun of people... It looks like he is far removed from ordinary people's problems."

Commenting on the Prime Minister's comment that he had sacrificed everything for the country, Sibal asked: "Which palace he was living in that he gave up? Which property did he donate to the public? What sacrifices did he do for the country?"

Sibal added: "Please understand the pain of the ordinary people. Stop your whims and fancies..."

He also hit out at the limits placed on bank withdrawals.

"What kind of law is this? The money is mine, the bank account is mine, it is taxable income... Why can't I withdraw it? It is not Modi's money."

--IANS

mr/sar
UN chief confident Trump will change mind on Paris agreement

Morocco,COP 22,Politics,Diplomacy,Environment/Wildlife, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

Marrakech, Nov 15 (IANS) United Nations Secretary General Ban ki-Moon on Tuesday said he is confident that US President-elect Donald Trump would distance himself from his election campaign attack against the Paris Climate Change Agreement, signed by 109 countries, and would address global climate change issues during his presidency.

He said the Paris agreement, which came into an international law on November 4, is unstoppable now.

"As you may know, I spoke to Mr Trump, discussed many issues on peace, security and climate change. I remained very optimistic that Mr Trump will understand the 1importance of maintaining the historic agreement," Ban told reporters here.

He said the Paris agreement has come into force in a record time and it has never happened in history that any (global) pact has entered into force in such a short time.

"So it (the Paris agreement) has established a larger impact... now it has become unstoppable," said an optimistic Secretary General, who is going to demit office in just one and a half months after a 10-year-long tenure.

"I am too much optimistic about the Paris agreement continuation," Ban told this IANS correspondent to a query.

He said the global business communities and the civil society members are fully on board and committed to the Paris agreement.

Ban, who was attending his last UN climate conference as Secretary General, was here to attend the 22nd Conference of Parties (COP22) conference.

He said now the Paris agreement has come into force, it is the time to translate words into effective policies and actions, and that he would discuss the impacts of climate change with Trump more in detail personally.

"I am sure that he will understand the whole importance and seriousness and urgency."

Batting for the continuation of the Paris agreement by the next UN Secretary General too, he said more than 3,000 scientists talked about the impact of climate change in the future.

"We don't have planet B. We have to live in this planet and there should be urgency of addressing climate change," he added.

(Vishal Gulati is in Marrakech to cover COP22. He can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)

--IANS

vg/vd
Mamata, Kejriwal to petition President on demonetisation

Delhi,National,Politics,Business/Economy, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Nov 15 (IANS) The Chief Ministers of Delhi and West Bengal, Arvind Kejriwal and Mamata Banerjee, will participate in a march on Wednesday to Rashtrapati Bhavan to press for the rollback of the Centre's demonetisation decision.

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah is also expected to join the march led by the Trinamool Congress.

Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes will no longer be legal tender from November 8 midnight, Trinmaool supremo Banerjee has been up in arms against the move.

She has reached out to opposition parties, including arch rival Communist Party of India-Marxist, for putting up a united fight against what she said was an "anti-people" move.

"Mamata will be walking tomorrow (Wednesday) to the Rashtrapati Bhavan and we are going to the meet the President (Pranab Mukherjee). Besides Delhi Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah will be present," Trinamool Rajya Sabha member Derek O'Brien said on Tuesday.

"We have spoken to the Left (parties); we have spoken to others like the Shiv Sena. This is not the time for politics; this is the time to take the people's story, which is a grim story, to the President," he said.

While Banerjee had called up CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury to express concern over the demonetisation move, the Marxists are unlikely to be part of the Trinamool march.

Replying to media queries on CPI-M joining the march, Yechury said his party will confront the Modi government in Parliament first and decide its future course of action based on the government's response in the house.

The Trinamool, though, appeared unperturbed.

"It is not about the left or the right; it is about everyone. It is time to act, the matter (demonetisation) has already spun out of hand," said O'Brien.

--IANS

and/tsb/sac
WeChat may help users feel better

United States,Lifestyle/Fashion,Media,Technology, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

New York, Nov 15 (IANS) Instant messaging service WeChat may enhance people's feelings of overall satisfaction with life if they use it for fun and to pursue their interests, says a study.

WeChat use, however, will not necessarily bring happiness or unhappiness though that depends on how you use it, said the team of Chinese researchers.

The study, conducted by Zhengbao Wen from Hangzhou Normal University; Yinghua Ye from Zhejiang University; and Xiaowei Geng from Ludong University in China examined the motivations for and intensity of WeChat use by university students as they related to the users' emotional experience and feelings of well-being.

"With its multi-faceted functionalities, research into the psychological impacts of this lifestyle app are only just beginning to be understood," said Brenda K. Wiederhold from Interactive Media Institute, San Diego, California.

According to its parent company Tencent, as of the second quarter of 2016, WeChat reported over 806 million active monthly users, a 34 per cent rise from the same period in 2015.

The study appeared in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.

--IANS

na/dg
As water war escalates, Punjab de-notifies SYL land

Punjab,National,Politics, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

Chandigarh, Nov 15 (IANS) Escalating the political and legal war over water sharing, the Punjab cabinet on Tuesday de-notified the land acquired for the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal nearly four decades back.

"The Punjab Council of Ministers today (Tuesday) decided in public interest that the land acquired for SYL Canal Project, which is presently vested in the Punjab government, free from all encumbrances, stands de-notified with immediate effect and shall forthwith vest in the original land owners or their lineal descendants/legal representatives, free of cost," said the decision of the cabinet, taken at a meeting here.

"The decision comes into immediate effect and necessary orders are being passed. The meeting was presided over by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal," said Punjab Chief Minister's Advisor on National Affairs and Media Harcharan Bains.

The move comes as the latest in the political and legal war over water sharing between Punjab and Haryana through the SYL canal, which has remained at the centre of controversy for four decades without a drop of water actually flowing in the canal, following last week's verdict by the Supreme Court holding the abrogation of water agreement by Punjab in 2004 was illegal.

The Punjab government, through Chief Minister Badal, made it clear that Punjab will not spare even a drop of water even if the Supreme Court decides the case against it.

In March this year, the Punjab assembly had "unanimously" passed a bill to return the land acquired for the construction of the SYL canal.

Within hours, the Haryana assembly, passed a "unanimous resolution" condemning the passage of the Bill by the Punjab Assembly. It had described the move as "unilateral, unconstitutional and denying the authority of the Supreme Court."

Badal had introduced 'The Punjab Satluj Yamuna Link Canal Land (Transfer of Proprietary Rights) Bill, 2016' to de-notify the land acquired for construction of the canal, and return 3,928 acres of land free of cost to the original landowners. The land was acquired nearly four decades ago.

Haryana claims to be a water deficit state and has stated that it has been deprived of more than half of its legitimate share of 3.50 MAF in surplus Ravi-Beas water, which has resulted in reduction in agriculture production.

The Supreme Court had earlier accepted its petition for early hearing on the issue of the SYL canal, on which the Presidential Reference is pending for the past 11 years.

The Congress government in Punjab had, in 2004, scrapped the water sharing agreements with neighbouring states and had refused to give any water to other states, especially Haryana. The presidential reference was sought after this move by Punjab which nullified all agreements on water sharing. The Punjab assembly, in 2004, passed the controversial 'Punjab Termination of Water Agreements Bill' on water sharing with other states.

The SYL Canal, that was to link two major rivers (Sutlej and Yamuna) in Punjab and Haryana, was planned and major portions of it were even completed in the 1990s at a cost of over Rs 750 crore at that time, is entangled in a political and legal quagmire with Punjab and Haryana unwilling to give up their respective stands.

--IANS

js/vd
China bestows military honour on killed woman fighter pilot

China,Crime/Disaster/Accident,Defence/Security, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

Beijing, Nov 15 (IANS) The Chinese military has conferred the title of "revolutionary martyr" on pilot Yu Xu, the first Chinese woman to fly the J-10 fighter jet who died in an accident during a routine flight training on Saturday.

Born in 1986, in Sichuan province, Yu joined the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force in September 2005, and had flown four types of aircraft, Xinhua news agency reported.

She was one of the pilots selected to fly over Tian'anmen Square during the 2009 National Day parade and had flown the J-10 in air shows at home and abroad, according to air force spokesman Shen Jinke.

From country girl to China's first female J-10 pilot, Yu devoted her most precious years to the building of a strong army, Shen said.

Yu's death has saddened the country, with people mourning her in various ways. About 10 million people laid virtual wreaths at an online mourning hall set up for her.

--IANS

py/vt
'Kaabil' was a beautiful journey: Hrithik Roshan

Uttar Pradesh,Cinema/Showbiz,Lifestyle/Fashion,Bollywood, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

Noida, Nov 15 (IANS) Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan, who will next be seen on screen in "Kaabil", says filming the movie was a beautiful journey for him.

Hrithik on Tuesday was here at the DLF Mall Of India to unveil the new collection of the Swiss luxury time piece brand Rado's Lightness Collection. He believes in the brand's philosophy that "if you can imagine, you can do it".

"This is something I have based my life on. That if I can see it in my mind, then I can do it. It was even more amazing that I applied this when I played a blind man in 'Kaabil'. It was a beautiful journey and I hope you all watch the film," he said.

The 42-year-old actor hopes the audience can feel the character as deeply as he did while playing it on camera.

"I hope when you see the movie, you will also feel what I was feeling in the film," said Hrithik, who features in the Sanjay Gupta directorial with Yami Gautam.

Talking about the film, Hrithik said: "It is about a man, who against all odds, finds the strength inside him to make his life the way he wants it to be."

Produced by Hrithik's father Rakesh Roshan under their home banner FilmKraft Productions, "Kaabil" will release on January 26 next year.

--IANS

dc/rb/bg
Why should we trust PM who keeps extending deadlines: Congress

Delhi,Business/Economy,Politics, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Nov 15 (IANS) The Congress on Tuesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the hardship faced by the common man in the wake of November 8 demonetisation move which, the party said, was in reality meant to bail out those with ill-gotten wealth.

The Congress said Modi's pledge that the cash-crunch caused by spiking of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes will stabilise in 50 days cannot be believed because his earlier promises too had fallen flat.

"Why should we trust the government? They are only extending deadlines. On November 8, Prime Minister Modi said it is an inconvenience of only a few days and then went to Japan. Now, he is asking for 50 days," senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal told the media here.

"Modi ji said Rs 80 lakh crore is lying outside India and promised he will bring it back in 100 days (of coming to power at the Centre). Where is the black money?" Sibal said.

"Why should we trust him? The Rs 80 lakh has not been brought back. If he has lied about that, why should we trust him now?"

Sibal launched a blistering attack on Modi, accusing him of being out of sync with the woes of the common man now struggling for cash.

"All this has nothing to do with battling black money or corruption," the former Union minister said.

Sibal also hit out at the government for not giving a list of names of people with black money to the Supreme Court.

"As far as black money is concerned, Modi ji is yet to give the names to the Supreme Court."

Saying that Modi had "collaborated" with those who have black money, the Congress leader said it were the poor who were facing the brunt of his demonetisation decision that has resulted in serpentine queues outside banks and ATMs across the country.

Sibal said the demonetisation was aimed at "wiping out the Non-Performing Assets of the public sector banks".

The Congress leader said Modi had no understanding of the plight of the ordinary men and women who were struggling to exchange or deposit the old currency or withdraw money from their accounts.

"He makes fun of people... It looks like he is far removed from ordinary people's problems."

Commenting on the Prime Minister's statement that he had sacrificed everything for the country, Sibal asked: "Which palace was he living in that he gave up? Which property did he donate to the public? What sacrifices did he make for the country?"

Sibal added: "Please understand the pain of the ordinary people. Stop your whims and fancies..."

He also hit out at the limits placed on bank withdrawals.

"What kind of law is this? The money is mine, the bank account is mine, it is taxable income... Why can't I withdraw it? It is not Modi's money."

--IANS

sid/tsb/sac
North Korean envoy leaves for Geneva for talks with US

South Korea,Politics,Defence/Security,Diplomacy, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

Seoul, Nov 15 (IANS) North Korea's Deputy Director for North American affairs Choe Son-hui has left for Geneva to hold talks with experts and diplomats from the US, South Korea's foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

During her layover at the Beijing airport, Choe told the media that she was going to attend a meeting with old friends, EFE news agency reported.

The South Korean ministry and other experts in Seoul believe the North Korean envoy is scheduled to hold talks with former US politicians and diplomats in a meeting similar to the one held in Kuala Lumpur last month.

On October 21 and 22, North Korea's vice foreign minister Han Song-ryol, and the North's UN Ambassador Jang Il-hun met former US envoys Joseph DeTrani and Robert Gallucci and expert Leon Sigal to discuss the conflict between the two countries.

Choe's meeting in Geneva would be the first of its kind since Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential elections.

It is believed that North Korea is trying to gather information on the position of Trump's administration towards the Kim Jong-un regime.

Dialogue between the two countries were stalled during US President Barack Obama's term, following an intensification of conflict due to North Korea's nuclear arms programme.

The Obama administration, who demands North Korea take a firm step towards denuclearisation before initiating talks, has adopted a policy of tough economic and trade sanctions against the country to choke its economy and force it to abandon its nuclear programme.

Meanwhile, North Korea has called for dialogue without preconditions, and demanded it be recognised as a nuclear state and a definitive peace treaty with South Korea to replace the armistice that ended the Korean War (1950-53).

During his election campaign, Trump did not rule out a meeting with Kim Jong-un and also mentioned a possible re-negotiation of military alliances with its allies in the region, South Korea and Japan, including a withdrawal of US troops from these countries.

--IANS

py/dg
BJP workers protest against Kejriwal

Delhi,National,Politics,Business/Economy, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Nov 15 (IANS) The Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday staged a protest against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal outside the secretariat for his "support towards the black money holders".

The protesting workers were detained by police as they raised slogans against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor.

Attacking Kejriwal, Delhi BJP unit president Satish Upadhyay told the media: "It is sad that when Delhi government should have extended support to people standing in lines we find Kejriwal extending support to people with black money."

Upadhyay said the issue of problems being faced by people in queues is an emotional one being used by Kejriwal to extend indirect support to black money holders.

The protest came a day after Kejriwal questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

Kejriwal also attacked Modi over the currency spike, saying it caused problems for the common man.

Kejriwal called the November 8 demonetisation a poorly planned exercise. He asked the government to stop being adamant and withdraw it immediately.

--IANS

aks/py/bg
APEC summit opens reaffirming commitment to free trade

Sweden,Business/Economy, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

Lima, Nov 15 (IANS) The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Leaders Week started off here, with its Business Advisory Council (Abac) meeting promising free trade "with or without" the US support.

US President-elect Donald Trump had earlier stated his intention to renegotiate or leave the free trade agreements in which the US is a party.

While the US President Barack Obama had decided not to push for approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) ratification, which marked the start of the Apec meetings.

In response to this challenge, Apec's organisers reiterated their faith in trade liberalization in the meet that started on Monday here, Efe news reported.

The chairman of the Abac, Juan Francisco Raffo, said that although Apec was "very concerned" about Trump policies but it reaffirmed it would continue to focus on trade liberalization and free trade agreements.

Raffo said if someone did not like the idea, they would be left out.

"If the US repudiates the Trans-Pacific agreement or any other agreements, we only have to move forward with less people," Raffo told Efe.

He appreciated Chinese intention to pursue trade liberalisation agreements and called it "good news".

At the Apec 2016 that started in the Peruvian capital, business meetings, talks between experts and state ministers, as well as a dialogue between Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and the leaders attending the summit, were scheduled.

Among others, the participation of Barack Obama, at his last Apec summit, as well as Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, were expected.

The Apec is the world's largest trade association and consists of 21 Pacific Rim member economies and accounts for 54 per cent of global GDP, 50.3 per cent of exports and represents a population of 2.85 billion people.

--IANS

in/
RIL serves arbitration notice to government on ONGC gas dispute

Delhi,Business/Economy,Immigration/Law/Rights, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Nov 15 (IANS) Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has served a notice to the government for arbitration after the Petroleum Ministry asked it to pay $1.55 billion for allegedly producing gas from a well in the eastern offshore KG Basin connected to a field of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC).

The government raised the demand on November 4, giving the Mukesh Ambani-led RIL one month to pay, on the basis of the recommendation of the Justice A.P. Shah committee, constituted to examine the dispute over gas in the Krishna-Godavari basin.

RIL filed the notice demanding arbitration last week.

Reacting to the demand, RIL has said that it had no basis on how the figure was calculated.

"The liability of the contractor has not been established by any process known to law and the quantification of the purported claim is without any basis and arbitrary," the company said in a statement after the government raised its demand.

"Reliance Industries proposes to invoke the dispute resolution mechanism in the production sharing contract, and issue a notice of arbitration to the government. Reliance Industries remains convinced of being able to fully justify and vindicate its position that the Government's claim is not sustainable."

The panel's constitution also followed reports on the migrating of gas by American consultants DeGolyer and MacNaughton which concluded that 11.122 billion cubic meters of ONGC gas had migrated to the blocks of Reliance Industries.

They also said of the 58.68 billion cubic meters produced from there since 2009, some 49.69 billion cubic meters belonged to the private company and 8.981 billion cubic meters could have come from the ONGC side.

At the then gas price of $4.2 per million British thermal unit and the prevailing exchange rate, the volume of gas claimed as belonging to ONGC, which the private player produced, was estimated to be worth around $1.7 billion (Rs 11,055 crore).

Interestingly, the Justice Shah panel itself had called for further probe into the subject. In one of the paras of its report, the committee said it was not able to ascertain in clear terms if the two companies, indeed, had prior knowledge of migrating gas.

"I wanted this to be probed further," the single-member panel said.

Reliance Industries said in carrying out petroleum operations, the contractor worked within the boundaries of the block awarded to it and had complied with all the applicable regulations and provisions of the production sharing contract.

"The claim of the government is based on misreading and misinterpretation of key elements and the production sharing contract and is without precedent in the oil and gas industry, anywhere in the world."

--IANS

bc-ap/vd
HC order on ex-serviceman's martyr status on Dec 12

Delhi,National,Immigration/Law/Rights,Politics, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Nov 15 (IANS) The Delhi High Court on Tuesday said it will pass order on December 12 on PILs against the AAP government's decision to declare ex-serviceman Ram Kishan Grewal, who committed suicide over implementation of OROP scheme, a "martyr" and give his family Rs 1 crore financial aid.

A division bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal, which was to pass order on Tuesday, postponed it for December 12.

The Delhi cabinet has approved the government's proposal to provide Rs 1 crore financial aid to Grewal's family and decided to declare him a "martyr". But the Public Interest Litigations (PILs) said the Delhi government's action will promote more suicides for the award of assistance to families and it cannot "glorify" the suicide.

One of the PILs filed by former central government employee Puran Chand Arya, through advocate Abhishek Chaudhary, said suicide is a "cowardly act" and it can "never deserve martyrdom/shaheed status".

"Such acts amount to promotion of suicide in the society, which is a matter of national shame. Government is wasting public money for political gain."

Another PIL filed by advocate Avadh Kaushik said granting martyr status to Grewal is a "clear abuse, insult and disdain to the real martyrs who sacrifice their lives for the nation and for the good cause".

The Delhi government's action is not only "illegal, arbitrary, biased, malafide, motivated, and amounting to misappropriation of public funds, but it is also a clear case of glorifying and abetting an amiss, heinous and cowardly act of suicide, attempt and abetment thereof is a crime under the Indian Penal Code", it said.

The petitions also objected to the Delhi government's decision to give a job to any of Grewal's family members, saying the decision is against public interest as it curtails and infringes upon the fundamental rights of the people, particularly the unemployed youths of Delhi who are waiting and trying for government employment on their own merit.

The Delhi government's action would send a wrong signal to society that "committing suicide is an act of heroism and martyrdom", and thus the same is required to be curbed at the very threshold, said Kaushik.

The pleas also sought direction to the government to frame a uniform recognition or compensation policy for martyrs so that all of them would be treated equally.

--IANS

gt/lok/vt
Modi seeks opposition's support for demonetisation

Delhi,National,Politics, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Nov 15 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday sought the support of all political parties over his government's demonetisation decision, in the way they had cooperated in the passage of the GST Bill in Parliament.

Modi also called for their support on the issue of holding simultaneous elections in the country, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar told reporters after the conclusion of an all-party meet.

"Prime Minister's request is for cooperation, similar to what they did for GST (Bill). We are requesting them to cooperate in the crusade against corruption, black money and fake currency," Kumar said.

He said that the Prime Minister also appealed to the political parties to use the Winter Session of Parliament for debate and discussions on issues of national interest and public welfare.

The Prime Minister also called for discussion on the state funding of elections and simultaneous polls, he added.

--IANS

ao-bns/nir/bg
Indian students' enrolment in US institutes up by 25%

Delhi,National,Diplomacy,Education, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Nov 15 (IANS) The enrolment of students from India in American educational institutes in 2015-16 registered a record 25 per cent increase over the previous year, US Ambassador Richard Verma said on Tuesday.

The Open Doors report on students mobility between India and the US, which he released here, said India has a record 165,918 students going to the US in 2015-16, comprising 15.9 per cent of the total international student population in the country.

"Since my arrival (two years ago), I have looked forward to the release of the Open Doors report each year as the number of Indian students in the US has continued to break all records. Last year, we had record percentage growth and a record number of Indian students in the US," Verma said in an event at the American Centre here.

India ranks number two in sending undergraduate students and number two for graduate students, said Matthew Asada, First Secretary for Exchange and Education at the US embassy.

On the other hand, the number of American students in India has remained relatively flat, Verma said.

"I hope that with efforts such as our Passport to India initiative, including its massive open online course on 'The Importance of India', the number of American students in India will begin to grow," Verma added.

At the same time, "we are focused on promoting student flows between our two countries, and also working to create a policy and regulatory environment in which institutional partnerships can flourish", Verma said.

"The Indian government has announced a series of steps, such as the draft National Education policy as well as regulations on the establishment of World Class universities, which promise to increase the extent of foreign collaborations."

"We look forward to the government's continued work in these areas and stand ready to partner with them on this and other higher education initiatives," Verma added.

Meanwhile, the US Commercial Service (USCS) and ELS Educational Services (ELS) of Princeton, New Jersey, have decided to organise US Education Fairs for 20 US institutions of higher education in four cities in Nepal and India from November 14 to 19.

--IANS

spk/sm/vt
Demonetisation policy is a big scam, says Azad

Delhi,National,Politics,Business/Economy, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Nov 15 (IANS) Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad on Tuesday termed the government's demonetisation policy a "big scam" and said there should be an inquiry into the "selective leakage" of the government's move.

Azad also clarified that the Congress is with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and other opposition parties on the issue of demonetisation, but it would not be part of the delegation led by TMC chief Mamata Banerjee that will meet President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday.

"The government was not prepared to implement the demonetisation policy. People are suffering, farmers and daily-wage earners don't have money.

"It was done in haste and without any preparation. It is a very big scam. It could be the country's biggest scam," said Azad after an all-party meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Azad said there should be an inquiry into the leakage of information on the demonetisation policy of the government, and it should be discussed it Parliament, which begins on Wednesday.

"The selective leakage that happened..many knew about it..even few BJP people knew about it," he said, demanding to know how the new Rs 2,000 note came out in the open even before November 8, when the Prime Minister made the announcement. "How did this happen?"

Asked if Congress was for roll back of demonetisation, Azad said: "We are not for rollback of the scheme..We are concerned about the inconvenience caused to the people. We are against black money," said Azad.

"But we are objecting to the way it was done in total haste without making any preparation," he added.

On the question of meeting the President along with Mamata Banerjee, Azad said: "TMC and we are all together..whether it is Congress, TMC, BSP, Samajwadi party, CPI-M, CPI, JD(U), all are united.."

He said that Banerjee has sought an appointment with the President, but the Congress was for first raising the issue in Parliament.

"Our general view is we shall not seek an appointment with the President on the very first day itself..We shall first discuss the issue inside the house, and then if need arises we shall seek an appointment," added Azad.

Azad added that the Congress supports Banerjee's move, and will continue to support her.

"We support the Bengal CM. She is well within her rights to meet the President. If we seek an appointment with the President later, TMC will be a part of that," said Azad.

Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said that Congress will raise the issue of demonetisation in the Lok Sabha.

"Demonetisation is the biggest issue..we'll take it up in the Lok Sabha. The dispute between judiciary and executive will also be raised in Parliament. this issue must also be solved," said Kharge.

--IANS

sid/rn
Press Council neither 'paper tiger' nor regulator: Chairman

Delhi,National,Media, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Nov 15 (IANS) The Press Council of India (PCI) is "neither a paper tiger nor a regulator", its Chairman C.K. Prasad said here on Tuesday, and added that the Council has only been trying to be a "facilitator" for press freedom.

Addressing a press conference on the eve of tghe council's Golden Jubilee Celebration here on Wednesday, Prasad said: "In media, we are often described as a paper tiger...this is not true."

The former judge cited the example of a PCI verdict, which has gone against an incumbent Union minister.

The PCI Chairman said: "We are not a regulator, as often suggested. I don't like that word. The Council is not here for policing the media."

But, he said, the delay in disposing of cases has been an issue before the PCI and steps have been taken accordingly to ensure that pending cases are disposed of fast.

"We disposed of about 1,000 cases during my tenure since November 2014. So far, we have only 282 cases pending and most of these are dated after April 1, 2016."

"In fact, disposing of the old cases have helped pass the message that the Council means business and is not a paper tiger," he stressed.

"The Press Council of India has achieved a major milestone by clearing all the backlog cases for the first time in its history," he added.

Prasad said the PCI will celebrate 'National Press Day' and PCI Golden Jubilee on November 16 (Wednesday).

The PCI was established in 1966 on the recommendation of the First Press Commission.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi will grace the session," he informed.

The press council delegations from Bangladesh, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka would be attending the function.

"Delegations from Pakistan are also expected...they have confirmed and now we are trying to arrange visas for them," Prasad said.

PCI member C.K. Naik, a senior journalist, said as Bhutan and Afghanistan do not have any press councils, they would be represented at the Golden Jubilee functions by the representatives from their embassies here.

Answering questions, another PCI member, Ravindra Kumar, said the Council is also trying to prepare "guidelines for journalists working in conflict-hit regions like northeast India".

In this connection a team of PCI has visited the northeastern states, including Manipur.

The Indian Press Council is trying to work out an "alliance" of all press or media councils of South Asian countries "to promote peace, fair and fearless journalism" in the region, Prasad said.

Among others senior journalist S. Nihal Singh will be honoured with the special "Raja Ram Mohan Roy Award" for "Outstanding Contribution Towards Journalism", he said.

Senior journalist Arvind Kumar Singh, Xavier Seivakumar, T.P. Dhanesh and Pritam Bandyopadhyay have also been selected in different categories for the awards.

A special jury of the PCI also decided to honour senior media persons for their "outstanding contributions". They include -- Raghu Rai (photo journalist), Shetia Singh, P. Venkateswara Rao and Mrinal Pandey (senior journalists) and Harish Chandra Shukla (senior cartoonist).

--IANS

nd/nir/vt
First Women's Park for entrepreneurs in north Karnataka

Karnataka,National,Business/Economy, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

Bengluru, Nov 15 (IANS) The Karnataka government on Tuesday announced setting up the first Women's Park at Kalaburgi in the state's north to facilitate women entrepreneurs open their manufacturing and processing units.

"The first Karnataka Ladies Association and Manufacturers Park (K-LAMP) in the Kesaratagi industrial area of Kalaburgi will have facilities to incubate, train, develop and test diverse products for mass production," said Additional Chief Secretary K. Ratna Prabha at a conclave here.

Kalaburgi is about 640 km from Bengaluru.

The state government also launched a website (www.klampk.com) dedicated to women entrepreneurs on the valedictory day of the 'ThinkBig 2016', a global summit of women entrepreneurs in partnership with the US-based WEConnect International global network.

"Special incentives have been provided in the state's new industrial policy for the Hyderabad-Karnataka region comprising the six backward districts of Bidar, Bellari, Kalaburgi, Koppal, Raichur and Yadgir to encourage women entrepreneurs set up their units in various sectors," said Prabha.

Admitting that many women had to be groomed for promoting enterprising ventures across the state, she said the Industry Department would conduct seminars, worships and product-oriented programmes for budding women entrepreneurs in different sectors.

"Going forward, the KIADB (Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board) will develop an exclusive Women's Park on a 50-acre land near Bengaluru, with plots of 5,000 square feet each for micro and small-scale units," she added.

Addressing about 2,000 women delegates from 19 states across the country and dozen countries from the world over, Biocon Chairperson Kiran Mazmudar Shaw urged the women entrepreneurs to think big and build scale.

"Don't be contended with opening a boutique or a small-scale unit but realise your full potential and break the mindset," she said.

As about 90 per cent of women rely on self-financing, Shaw said banks and venture capitalists should realise that women were worth investing in and advised them to change their mindset.

Announcing a 'Women Start-up' programme at the IIM-B school, Goldman Sachs India Chairman Sonjoy Chatterjee said the course would help women think of and initiate new ventures of their own.

"The free-of-cost year-long programme will train, mentor, incubate and support women to select projects in partnership with a Wall Street financial services firm," said Chatterjee.

--IANS

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Eminent citizens condemn demonetisation

Delhi,National,Politics,Business/Economy, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Nov 15 (IANS) Over 150 eminent personalities on Tuesday denounced the Narendra Modi government's decision to demonetise high denomination currency notes as "misconcieved".

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, social activist Aruna Roy and economist Jayati Ghosh, among others, questioned the government's rationale behind demonetising of 500- and 1,000-rupee notes and gave nine reasons why the move would not curb black money as is being claimed by the government.

"In the last 5 years, IT raids have found that only 5-6 per cent of black money is kept in hard cash. Moreover, those who have amassed sizable black money are equipped to find ways around demonetisation by converting their existing cash to bullion, gold jewellery, real estate and foreign currencies through brokers and middlemen," they said in a statement.

They, however, said that they would support any effort of the government to curb corruption.

"we support all efforts to stop corruption, stamp out black money and counterfeit currency, and act against funding that helps create unrest in the country, be it through terrorism or creating divisions and hatred among people," the statement said.

Questioning the rationale behind issuing of 2,000-rupee notes, they said: "If it is the government's case that high value denomination currency is used to hoard black money, then the decision to reissue new Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes does not make sense. Issuing even higher value Rs 2,000 note is completely inexplicable and puzzling."

Some of the other popular personalities who signed the statement are Nayantara Sehgal, Harsh Mander, and Mallika Sarabhai.

--IANS

rs/lok/vt
Tell how you will deal with cash chaos, SC asks government

Delhi,National,Immigration/Law/Rights,Business/Economy, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Nov 15 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre to explain the steps it has taken or will take to deal with chaos outside banks and ATMs following the demonetisation move and observed that people should not suffer.

Asking the Centre to file a reply without formally issuing notice, a bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said they will not interfere with the government policy but said standing in queues for hours was traumatic.

Refusing to stay the November 8 decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency, as sought by one the four petitioners, Chief Justice Thakur told Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi: " ...instead of forcing citizens to stand in queues for their own money, why can't you raise their cash withdrawal to a reasonable limit? It is traumatic for people to stand in lines for hours doing nothing."

"We are wondering if you can do something to reduce the trauma of the common people," the bench said as senior counsel Kapil Sibal told the bench that it was the small sellers or street vendors who were suffering the most as they are dependent on cash transactions.

Sibal, appearing for one of the petitioners, described demonetisation as a "surgical strike against the common man".

Pointing to hardships faced by the people and provisions of the law governing demonetisation of notes, Sibal said: "You can have surgical strikes against black money but you can't have surgical strikes against the common people."

Chief Justice Thakur observed: "What Attorney General says is a surgical strike; what you say is carpet bombing."

Makings it clear that he was not seeking a stay on the government decision, Sibal said: "We are with the government in curbing black money; but the inconvenience it is causing to the public is not reasonable. It is jeopardising their lives."

Pointing out that 86 per cent of the currency had gone out of circulation, the petitioner's counsel said: "It is my money. It is legitimate money, tax paid. Under what law of the land can you restrict my right to withdraw my money?"

Defending the demonetisation decision as conforming with legal provisions, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi admitted that the government decision of such magnitude would cause some pain and urged the court not to interfere as "these are the matters of economic policy".

At this, Chief Justice Thakur observed: "We are not interfering in your policy matters."

Contesting Sibal's contention that the government did not follow the law before demonetisation, Rohatgi said: "You can't pass a law saying we are going to issue a notification for the demonetisation of currency notes of certain denomination...."

Saying there will be "some pain (to common people) if there is a surgical strike against black money", Rohatgi said there were pains "in the past too for getting a scooter (two-wheeler), Fiat car, telephone, ration ..."

Telling the court that the aim was to flush out black money and stop terror funding, the Attorney General said: "Some collateral damage will take place. I could not calibrate the two lakh ATMs (in the country) as that would have brought the cat out of the bag." This position has been articulated by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

The Attorney General said Rs 3.25 lakh crore in Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes had been deposited since demonetisation. He said it was out of the Rs 15 to Rs 16 lakh crore that is in circulation. He said the government expected Rs 10 to 11 lakh crore to come to banks.

Addressing the concerns shown by the court, the Attorney General said every day we are adding Rs 10,000 crore to the economy and said that inconvenience alone could not be a ground against demonetisation.

--IANS

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Rise of a maverick: Mixed signals and troubling implications (Comment: Special to IANS)

Delhi,National,Politics,Opinion/Commentary, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

On November 9 the unthinkable happened after the most polarised election in US history. With the so-called swing states - Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania -choosing Donald Trump, the so-called Clinton Firewall was breached and, despite a lower share of the popular vote, Trump convincingly won the presidency.

His victory divided the US and impacted global public opinion, including among Washington's allies. Protests continue in California and a petition calling on the US Electoral College to dump Trump and select Hillary Clinton as president, based on the larger share of popular votes she won, has already picked up 3.2 million signatures. Some ugly racist incidents have already occurred in the US and one can expect the extreme right to try to exploit this victory.

Trump has started backing away from his more extreme position such as repealing Obamacare, putting "crooked Hillary" behind bars, and walking out of trade pacts and international agreements to which the US is a party, including the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

What are the implications for India and the bilateral relationship? Much would depend on his choice of Secretary of State and whether his governance style would be decentralised with the President depending on a team of dedicated technocrats. This would be the best option, given his ignorance on global and strategic issues.

Early trends are not encouraging. His transition team includes four members of his family as well as corporate consultants and lobbyists with little knowledge of global challenges for US interests worldwide.

Trump's approach to India has been contradictory with much doublespeak. During the final presidential debate he referred positively to India, its high growth rate and spoke of his business relationships here. At an Indian American rally in New Jersey in October, in front of a large gathering of Indian media, he originally described himself as an admirer of "Hindus". When the anchor pointed out that all Indians were not Hindus, he side-stepped and spoke of being a big fan of India.

Early in the campaign, he complained of outsourcing, about jobs being "shipped out" to India and alleged misuse of H1B visas. He voiced strong criticism of call-centres being outsourced to India and Indians. After he used a false Indian accent to mock Indian call-centre workers, he sought to wriggle out of it by clarifying that India was a great place and his anger was not against India but against outsourcing. Whether this is feasible or possible remains to be seen, but it has troubling implications for our bilateral relationship.

His statements on Pakistan have been equally ambiguous with hints that he would seek help from India and other nations to address the "problem" of what he described as a "semi-unstable" nuclear-armed Pakistan. In an early interview he said: "The problem with Pakistan, where they have nuclear weapons - which is a real problem. Pakistan is semi-unstable. We don't want to see total instability." It is not clear whether as President this would translate into a reversal of US policy towards Pakistan. Possibly not, since even Trump, as President, would need to respect the fine line defining US foreign policy based on American interests.

His policy on Afghanistan is equally unclear with hints that he would cut down on US commitments overseas. This would have direct implications on our peace and security with the increased threat of terrorist attacks in case of a premature US withdrawal from Afghanistan. It is unclear at this moment whether a Trump presidency would strongly support India's Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) membership and its candidature for permanent membership of the Security Council and strengthen the Indo-US Strategic Partnership, which is also based on common concerns on the rise of China.

Trump has hinted that in order to make "America great again" he would follow a policy of splendid isolation, such as the one US followed at the beginning of the 20th century. In that event, not only would it negatively impact US strategic interests worldwide and encourage fundamentalism but it would also encourage China to become the pre-eminent power in Asia - which would be highly detrimental to India.

Given his insistence that Europe should pay the US for military protection and increase funding to NATO, several European commentators are questioning whether his 'America first' policy would result in the end of the West as the world has known after World War II. His earlier positive pronouncements about President Vladimir Putin have increased European fears about the impact of a new detente between the US and the Russian Federation adversely impacting European and European Union strategic interests.

In the global arena, his victory is being interpreted as the rejection of globalisation. After Brexit, there are crucial elections coming up in France and Germany and the rise of ultra-right wing parties in many parts of Europe. There are now fears that Marie Le Pen, President of the National Front, would easily make it to the second round of the French presidential elections. In Germany, Frauke Petry is the leader of the right-wing Alternative for Germany who is radically opposed to Chancellor Angela Merkel's immigration and refugee policy and of 'Islamification' of Germany.

Even after Ronald Reagan's election, the national and international mood had not been so grim or pessimistic. The day after the election, the leading newspaper in France, Le Monde, characterised the result in its front page as "a clown has been elected in the USA". The flawed American electoral system which allows a president to be elected after he loses the popular vote to his contender has resulted in an inexperienced but overconfident maverick being elected to this exalted post.

With his finger on the nuclear button, the world, including the US' principal allies in Europe, would have to treat him with more respect than they presently do. India would need to watch and wait what a Trump presidency could do for a carefully crafted India-US strategic relationship. Only history and posterity can judge the result. One can only hope for the best in this case.

(Bhaswati Mukherjee is a former Indian ambassador. The article is in special arrangement with South Asia Monitor/www.southasiamonitor.org)

--IANS

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Government must swiftly revamp currency exchange process (Column: Active Voice)

Delhi,National,Opinion/Commentary,Business/Economy, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

The past week has been momentous with two important events: the election of Donald Trump as the 45th US President and the Indian governments decision to demonetise the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes.

Both had an element of surprise. While many opinion polls had predicted a Hillary Clinton victory, everyone, including the media, was unaware of the demonetisation till Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced it in an 8 pm broadcast on November 8. While it is difficult to predict what a Trump presidency might look like, it is relatively easier to foresee the impact of the demonetisaion. This was previously resorted to in 1946 and 1978, but it is for the first time that a move of this magnitude has been undertaken where approximately 86 percent of the currency in the two denominations became defunct overnight.

These are four broad areas where the impact is expected: the economy; politics and the security situation; the housing market and black money hoarders; and the common people.

On the economic front, due to insufficient money supply, there is expected to be hoarding of smaller denomination notes. This is expected to result in a slower growth in demand. But these are expected to be short term, especially if the government is able to replenish the money supply.

However, the propensity to spend may decrease in the short- to medium-term. Barring this, much of the money is going to be flushed out of the system. People with genuine money are rushing to banks to exchange this, leading to parking of funds with the banking sector. Already about Rs 1.5-2 trillion has been deposited out of the total Rs 17.3 trillion of the cash, out of which over Rs 14 trillion is in demonetised denominations.

Another important impact is on the informal component of the economy, which is now slowly turning to banks to replace currency. This is expected to again be used for assessments of the size of this component in the economy. Also, as the government decides to tax unreported money above Rs 2.5 lakh there is bound to be a rise in tax revenues.

The stock markets have already seen a decline due to the sudden move as well as due to the Trump ascendancy.

The second important impact is on politics and the security situation. With the assembly elections in 12 states in 2017-2018, the biggest of them being Uttar Pradesh, with a population equivalent to Brazil, the impact could be considerable.

There have been statements from political parties of all hues on how the move is anti-common man. The Trinamool Congress, the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Left parties have all tried to question the government's move. While there is merit in questioning how this could have been done better, asking too many questions raises the risk of these parties being perceived as corrupt.

The nature of demonetisation demanded it be kept secret, as otherwise people with ill-gotten money could have exchanged their cash for assets such as gold and other metals. The three-and-a-half-hour timeframe saw investments by people to get gold and the like. However, the Income Tax Department is now looking at these carefully. Despite this, the impact of the decision has signaled a move to remove funding, which could have been used for gaining power.

Apart from this, the move also has important implications for the security dimension with it having removed counterfeit currency that could have been used for fuelling terror and Maoist operations. However, these are small-term impacts and counterfeit currency can again appear in the future. Modi has signaled that there is more to come in his resolve to solve the corruption conundrum.

The third important element is with respect to the housing market, and black marketers and hoarders. The housing market is set to see a decline in prices as the stock of cash is removed from the system. Also, the 60:40 rule, which seemed to be the de facto norm, will most likely change as there will be a move away from cash. This will also reduce the size of the overall parallel economy.

There are reports of some counterfeit currency having been burnt as these cannot be taken to the banks for exchange. Rumour-mongering is rife at the moment with prices of items such as salt rising. However, it must be said that such rumour-mongering is at best avoidable and not to be believed.

Finally, the impact on people has been huge. Common people have been queuing at the banks for exchanging their notes and withdrawing their currency in smaller denominations. The impact can be felt on all sections of society with the poor being badly hit. The rich and a majority of middle class can pay through cards but the poor have little option. Another important facet is the urban versus rural consumers. While the urban folk will somehow be able to avail of goods and services, the rural folk being away from banking system, will find it relatively difficult to exchange their notes till December 30. The pain for most people is real, but it is time to behave humanely with those in need. Finally, the move shows a preference away from cash to a cashless economy.

The impact of these two events can only be judged completely in due course of time. However, for the time being, the government should make provisions for swift revamping of the currency exchange process as well as recalibration of ATMs for life to return to normal for the common folk. The decision has been bold and risky and it is time for the implementation agencies and citizens to work together to improve the efficiency with which this can be done.

(The article is co-authored with Sankalp Sharma, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Competitiveness, India. Amit Kapoor is Chair, Institute for Competitiveness & Editor of Thinkers. The views expressed are personal. Amit can be reached at amit.kapoor@competitiveness.in and tweets @kautiliya)

--IANS

amitk/vm/sac
Good samaritans feed people on Pune streets

Maharashtra,National,Business/Economy,Human Interest/Society, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

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Pune (Maharashtra), Nov 15 (IANS) The recent demonetisation has hit some trades below-the-belt. These include the commercial sex workers and transgenders of Pune and other parts of the Maharashtra.

Dependent and functional purely on cash payments, the world's oldest profession has ground to a total halt in Budhwar Peth and surroundings, which houses the third largest red-light district in the country.

"Following demonetisation on November 8, the sole income source of the commercial sex workers (CSWs) and transgenders has dried up.

"Since most clients used to pay in 500- and 1000- rupee notes, all their savings were rendered illegal overnight," said entrepreneur Tehseen Poonawalla, who initiated an informal project to feed those in need.

Moved by their plight and their children's, who mostly live on and off the streets, Poonawalla and a few friends got together and decided to do something about the sudden crises for these marginalised sections.

"We approached local hotels, restaurants and other events where food is served and asked them to donate the extras or leftovers for feeding the these people.

"The response was overwhelming and we were able to give food packets to around 200 beneficiaries daily," Poonawalla told IANS.

After collecting the left-overs, they load it in a van and take it to the silent streets where many children and even handicapped shiver in the biting cold of Pune's early winter.

He said the government must consider the plight of the most vulnerable sections of society, who are reduced to a fight for survival after demonetisation.

The worse is a vast majority lack bank accounts or identity papers; are shunned by society because of the social stigma attached to their work; and are solely dependent on 'cash transactions' for everything.

"We are doing whatever we can and hope others in different cities also think on these lines.

"When the disempowered sections are left to fend for themselves, it is the moral duty of the people, who are better off to help out," Poonawalla said, preparing for the Tuesday round of feeding them.

--IANS

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Microsoft to power its data centre with wind energy

United States,Technology,Business/Economy, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

New York, Nov 15 (IANS) Microsoft said its Cheyenne datacentre in Wyoming will now be powered entirely by 237 megawatts of wind energy.

"Our commitment extends beyond greening our own operations because these projects help create a greener, more reliable grid in the communities in which we operate," Brad Smith, President and Chief Legal Officer, said in a Microsoft blog post on Monday.

"That's why we are announcing our largest wind energy purchases yet - 237 megawatts of wind energy - that will allow our datacenter in Cheyenne, Wyoming to be powered entirely by wind power," Smith added.

Microsoft has also structured the purchase and partnered with the local utility in novel ways to facilitate a shift of cities and states towards a cleaner energy grid.

Microsoft said it entered into agreements with two wind farms to power its Cheyenne datacentre from renewable sources.

Of the two partnerships, Microsoft has procured 178 megawatts from the Bloom Wind Project in Kansas through Allianz Risk Transfer (ART) to help bring this new project online and partnered with Black Hills Corp. to purchase wind power from the 59-megawatt Happy Jack and Silver Sage wind farms in Wyoming.

With these energy deals, Microsoft's total investment in wind energy projects in the US has gone up to over 500 megawatts.

"The combined output of the Bloom and Happy Jack/Silver Sage projects will produce enough energy on an annual basis to cover the energy used at the datacenter," Smith said.

--IANS

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I thought I'd be a dancer: Goldie Hawn

United States,Cinema/Showbiz,Hollywood, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

Los Angeles, Nov 15 (IANS) Veteran actress Goldie Hawn says she never thought she would be an actress.

Instead, the "First Wives Club" star once saw herself owning a dancing school, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

"I thought my life would look like a normal, what we call, a normal person," Hawn said on a Australian TV program.

"I got married, I had children, I had a white picket fence, I had my own dancing school and I lived happily ever after. That's what I thought when I was 17 and 18, and 19. And then things suddenly changed," Hawn added.

The 70-year-old actress has children Kate, 37, and Oliver, 40, with her ex-husband Bill Hudson and Wyatt Russell, 30, with her long term partner Kurt Russell.

She says for her, the key to being happy is to "constantly work" on her relationship.

"We have our ups and downs like everybody else. You have to want to stay together, and we really want to. Therefore you work to be together," Hawn said.

"The ups and downs of life are there. It is not always happy. What we want to help children with is, just because you feel sad or happy or depressed doesn't mean that is who you are. We want them to know, 'I am really sad right now but I am not a sad person.' I always wanted to understand the causes of happiness. I'm a bit of a scientist I guess you could say," she added.

--IANS

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A right guaranteed to us by the First Amendment is the freedom of press. That being stated, there are many means to get stories out to the population. Whether its social media, the news on TV or newspapers, consumers are constantly being fed information.
Head of UN-backed Presidential Council (PC) Faiez Serraj has appointed finance minister to help release life-saving funds help up by Central Bank of Libya (CBL) at odd with Libyan unity government.

Libya has been without financial minister since the inception of the unity government in December. Fakhr Muftah Bufernah aligned House of Representatives (HOR), initially named for the position has never taken up the position.

The PC has appointed Osama Saleh also aligned with HOR. Salehs appointment follows London meeting held last month in move to blow up hurdles existing between the PC and the CBL. Prime Minister Serraj accused the CBL for fostering economic and financial challenges as it refused to disburse cash.

The PC hopes with Salehs appointment the CBL will proceed to the release of 8.6 billion dinars ($6 billion) needed by the Council to overcome financial and economic hardship. The CBL during meeting also agreed to disburse 600 million dinars for the National Oil Corporation (NOC).

Saleh will be aided by Abubakr al-Jafal as deputy minister.

The PC birthed in December out of Libya Political Agreement signed in Morocco has been shouldered the responsibility to help rebuild the North African country and OPEC member. The task has been difficult to carry out as Serraj and his cabinet Government of National Accord (GNA) has faced resistance on the ground to impose itself.

Libyans are now facing lack of cash and repetitive power cuts rendering life in capital Tripoli and several other cities unbearable.

The PC also appointed Abdulbari Ali Shanbaru and Tarek Shoaib Bunasirah respectively as deputy local government minister and deputy foreign minister.

The new appointments will anger the east-based HoR which in August rejected Serrajs cabinet line-up deemed too large.
Around 200 world leaders will discuss on November 15 how to put into action Paris historical agreement targeting containment global temperature rise at less than 2 degrees at time the year 2016 is predicated the hottest year ever.

Political leaders from around world have started arriving in Marrakech, Morocco, since Sunday. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and Moroccan monarch Mohamed VI will preside over the summit.

Implementation of the Paris agreement now signed by over 100 countries motivated by global giants US and China will be gist of talks at the gathering.

2016 according to World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) is edging slowly to become the hottest year ever recorded.

Global temperature according to the WMO has already approximately reached 1.2 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels and 0.88 degrees above the average for 1961-1990, the Irish times reports.

The 1988, the hottest year ever recorded will be beat by 2016, the WMO warned. The global institution also reveals that 16 of 17 of hottest years on record will have occurred in the 21st century.

Paris Agreement proposed last year during COP21 in Paris envisages to containing global warming below 2 degrees Celsius and moving the world economy away from fossil fuels.

The summit is taking place in the backdrop of new-elect US President Donald Trumps anti-stance against the Agreement. The new American president during pre-election campaigns promised to withdraw the US from the agreement as he claimed that global warming is an invention by China.

If the US withdraws from the Agreement, it no doubt will deal a huge blow to the world, former Irish President Mary Robinson and founder of Mary Robinson Foundation notes.

The moral obligation of the United States as a big emitter, and a historically big emitter that built its whole economy on fossil fuels that are now damaging the world  its unconscionable the United States would walk away from it.
In a key note address at the opening of the high-level segment of the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP 22) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), King Mohammed VI underscored Moroccos environmental commitment and urged all countries of the globe to pool efforts to save the earth.

The fact that Morocco is organizing this world conference for the second time after the 2001 session, reflects our commitment to approaching international challenges within a multilateral framework, said the sovereign, describing COP22 as a conference of truth and clarity and a a decisive turning point in the implementation process of the historic Paris Agreement.

The whole of mankind is pinning great hopes on the resolutions to be endorsed. It is expecting more than just a declaration of commitments and principles to curb greenhouse warming and mitigate its effects, affirmed the Monarch.

He highlighted that climate change affects disproportionally some parts of the globe, particularly Africa and the small island states.

In light of the different priorities between developed and developing countries, the Sovereign called for unifying education on environmental issues and providing the countries of the South, especially the least developed, as well as insular states, with such urgent financial and technical support as it will enhance their capacities and enable them to adapt to climate change.

In this respect, King Mohammed VI urged advanced countries to honor their commitments to mobilize 100 billion dollars at least, by 2020 as part of the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

He emphasized the need for all the parties to facilitate the transfer of technology, and work for the development of research and innovation in the field of climate, adding that governmental players, including companies, local communities, NGOs from civil society, should give strong impetus to the Global Climate Action Agenda.

In his speech, the King highlighted Moroccos unwavering commitment to uphold its commitments to implement the Paris agreement saying that the Kingdom was among the first countries to announce their intended Nationally Determined Contributions

Morocco has pledged recently to reduce the rate of emissions.

In addition, it has taken concrete steps to ensure that 52% of the national energy supply comes from clean sources by the year 2030, the King went on to say.

He noted that COP22 will be a true test to gauge the efficiency of the commitments we have made as well as the credibility of the parties that announced them.

The time has come to redress the situation. We have no alternative but to work to make up for lost time, through continued, comprehensive mobilization and positive harmonization, so that the coming generations may lead an enjoyable and dignified life together, said the Monarch.
In a move that matches climate finance with action, forty-two countries from different continents signed to the NDC Partnership, which was launched, on Tuesday November 15, at COP22 Moroccan Pavilion with the aim of enhancing cooperation among nations so that developing countries have more effective access to the technical knowledge and financial support necessary to deliver on their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

Co-chaired by Morocco and Germany, the initiative enhances cooperation among nations so that developing countries have more effective access to the technical knowledge and financial support necessary to deliver on their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to address climate change and deliver on related sustainable development goals, the founders said in a statement.

Speaking on this occasion, Hakima El Haite, Moroccan Climate Champion, welcomed the momentum generated by the new partnership as a milestone towards unlocking the full potential of the Paris Agreement.

Launching at COP22 the NDC Partnership comes at an opportune time to accelerate climate action worldwide. This Partnership is a vital, collaborative platform for helping countries embed their NDCs into all sectors and all levels of decision-making, she said.

This initiative will enable an effective cooperation between countries of the North and the South towards capacity building that is required to implement the Paris Agreement, said El Haite, emphasizing that the NDC Partnership is at the heart of climate action instruments.

In the same vein, German Development Minister Gerd Muller said that the NDC Partnership is a new instrument to share knowledge and match financial resources with climate action programs.

For her part, Head of the UNDP, Helen Clark, highlighted the importance of the new partnership, stressing that NDCs need to be integrated into all countries development plans.

Afterwards, Ministers from the participating countries delivered key note addresses highlighting their commitment in favor of this new partnership. The countries that have signed to the NDC Partnership so far are: Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cote dIvoire, Denmark, DRC, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Maldives, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Saint Lucia, Seychelles, South Africa, Spain, Uganda, UK, Vanuatu, Vietnam, New Zealand, Sweden, Norway and the United States. Other countries are welcome to join. The Initiative also has institutional partners including the European bank for reconstruction and development, European commission, UNDP, FAO, GEF, UNFCCC and the WB.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has paid tribute to King Mohammed VI, the Moroccan government and people, expressing his gratitude and heartfelt thanks for the Monarchs decision to host the 22nd UN climate change conference in Marrakech.

Throughout my tenure as UN Chief, I have worked closely with His Majesty the King and I am looking forward to meet again with the Sovereign, said the UN Secretary General at a press conference held at COP22.

He also stressed the importance of the UN conference convening in Morocco in a bid to enable world leaders, decision-makers, businessmen, civil society activists, ecologists, bankersto come together and unify stands, goals and actions to counter climate change challenges.

This landmark conference reflects the leadership of Morocco, said the UN Secretary General, noting that Morocco is an important member of the United Nations, a key regional actor in Africa and in the MENA region.

Mr. Ban Ki-Moon also hailed Moroccos contributions to peace-keeping operations and security around the world. The North African Kingdom stands out in the region thanks to its democratic institutions, its noteworthy actions for sustainable development and serious efforts to tackle climate change, added the UN Chief, saying that he is counting on the leadership of the Moroccan Sovereign to enable COP22 achieve its goals.

According to experts, the holding of COP22 in the North African country is an international recognition of Moroccos efforts to boost renewable energies and environment-friendly economy.

Morocco has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 32 by 2030. In its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) to address climate change to UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC,) the country has unveiled an ambitious plan to increase the share of renewable electricity capacity to 42 pc in 2020 and to 52 pc by 2030.
Best buddies in the making. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images; Sergei Ilnitsky/AFP/Getty Images

Throughout the U.S. presidential campaign, its been clear that the Donald TrumpVladimir Putin friendship was meant to be. Last year, Putin called Trump a really brilliant and talented person, and state-run media made it clear that the Russian president was pulling for the mogul. Trump, in turn, called Putin a stronger leader than President Obama, and invited Russia to keep meddling in the U.S. election.

Yet somehow, Trump and Putin had (allegedly) never even spoken! The pair remedied the situation on Monday, when Putin called to chat with the president-elect (he was already the first world leader to send him a congratulatory telegram). According to a statement from Trumps office, they discussed a range of issues including the threats and challenges facing the United States and Russia, strategic economic issues and the historical U.S.-Russia relationship that dates back over 200 years.

They also agreed on the absolutely unsatisfactory state of bilateral relations, and said they would both like to work to normalize relations and pursue constructive cooperation on the broadest possible range of issues.

The Kremlin released a brief statement as well, which recapped Putins goals for relations with the U.S., including a return to pragmatic, mutually beneficial cooperation.

Its not quite George W. Bush looking Putin in the eye and getting a sense of his soul, but were sure thats coming.
Wisconsins state capital one of many places where Republicans walked tall on November 8. Photo: Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images

Just about everybody who has paid attention to the 2016 presidential election knows that Hillary Clintons campaign broke down in a series of states she was supposed to win but didnt. What is less well-known is that Democratic hopes of chipping into the large Republican advantage in control of state legislatures foundered in the same states.

Alex Wagner has the basics at The Atlantic, working from the wish list of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (the main Democratic group financing and working for state legislative opportunities):

One week ago, the DLCCs target list included flipping seats in critical states: the Michigan House, the North Carolina House, the Pennsylvania House, the Florida Senate, both the Senate and House assemblies of Ohio, as well as Wisconsins State Assembly and Senate.



But on November 8, all of these statesMichigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, Wisconsinended up being the ones that ultimately destroyed Clintons chances of winning the presidency. The DLCCs attempts to make Democratic inroads met with a similar end.

Yeah, Democrats flipped both of Nevadas state legislative chambers, and flipped one in another blue state, New Mexico. They lost the Iowa and Minnesota senates and the Kentucky House. Democrats also failed to break Republicanconservative-Democrat legislative coalitions in New York and Washington, but created a Democraticmoderate-Republican coalition in Alaska. All in all it was pretty much a wash, and thats not good news for Democrats coming out of a really bad midterm election in 2014.

What really ought to galvanize Democrats is the realization that all the shock over Trump carrying Ohio, Michigan (tentatively), Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin obscured the fact that Republicans already controlled  and retained  the legislatures in all four of those states. Its being largely discussed as a Trump triumph that percolated down-ballot. Maybe it was a Republican victory that percolated up-ballot.

In any event, the state legislative results have created a more difficult landscape for Democrats hoping to reverse the Republican state advantage leading into the next redistricting process. But Republican successes (particularly at the presidential level) could well create a better environment for Democrats in 2018 and 2020.
Political gridlock. Photo: Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images

Ever since Donald Trump announced his candidacy, securing Trump Tower  the Fifth Avenue edifice where Trump resides  has been a headache for those tasked with protecting him. Now that Trump will actually become president of the United States, and he doesnt seem willing to totally give up his Manhattan residence, those challenges have become even more daunting. Thus, the Secret Service is reportedly suggesting drastic action: shutting down traffic on the blocks surrounding Trump Tower whenever the president is in town.

New Yorkers, as you may expect, are none too thrilled with the idea of closing down one of the busiest thoroughfares in their already traffic-clogged metropolis. Highly placed members of the NYPD have already said that the plan cant happen, a source tells the New York Daily News. But something must be done.

The NYPD held a special briefing about the towers security on Monday, and all sides have agreed to a meeting on Thursday to discuss logistics.

Its a negotiation, the same police source told the Daily News. Their job is to keep the president safe. Our job is to keep the president safe, but also let the people who live and work and visit there have some semblance of normality. It wont be complete normality, but itll be adjusted normality.

NYPD spokesman Stephen Davis did confirm that no matter what kind of compromise is reached, 56th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues will most likely be closed to all traffic, and two lanes of Fifth Avenue closest to the tower will probably be shut down whenever Trump is in residence.

Since the election, Trump Tower has become the scene of massive anti-Trump protests. The tower has been ringed with concrete barriers and rows of dump trucks filled with sand meant to protect the building from explosives or vehicles trying to crash into the building. And the FAA has already declared the airspace above the building a no-fly zone, at least until Trump officially takes office.

There has been no comment yet about exactly how many blocks the Secret Service would like to close whenever the towers namesake is in residence, and shutting down streets may be just the beginning. The iconic gilded tower is faced with glass and was built in 1983. It will likely need to be totally retrofitted so that it could sustain an explosion or terrorist attack.
Hes baaaack. Photo: Sarah Rice/Getty Images

Running as a Washington outsider who disagrees frequently with members of his own party may have been the key to winning the White House in 2016, but its not very helpful when you need to create a functional government. Donald Trump kicked things off on Monday by naming GOP Establishment figure Reince Priebus as his chief of staff, and alt-right champion Steve Bannon as his chief strategist. As the debate rages on whether Bannon himself is a racist, an anti-Semite, and a white nationalist  or merely a popular figure among racists, anti-Semites, and white nationalists  Trump is looking ahead to his next divisive appointment.

On Monday, rumors swirled about whom Trump would name to several top national security positions, and each has the potential to rile up people from across the political spectrum  if they dont kill each other first. A source described the disagreements within the Trump transition team as a knife fight, according to CNN.

While liberals have been bracing themselves for the possibility that Rudy Giuliani could be named attorney general, now reports claim hes the front-runner for secretary of State. Trump is also said to be considering former U.N. ambassador John Bolton for State, and Senator Jeff Sessions for the top spots at the Justice Department, the Defense Department, or the Department of Homeland Security.

Trump and his vice-president, Mike Pence, are set to go over cabinet picks on Tuesday, so we could have an announcement on these positions soon. Heres a look at the controversies theyre choosing between.

Photo: Ralph Freso/Getty Images

Rudy Giuliani

Rumored Position: Giuliani is the favorite to serve as secretary of State, according to the Associated Press. However, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and CNN say hes merely one of the finalists, along with John Bolton. Hes also been rumored for attorney general or Homeland Security secretary, but hes made it clear hes not very interested in those positions.

The Case for Giuliani: The former New York mayor appeared to be campaigning for secretary of State while speaking at a Wall Street Journal CEO Council event on Monday night. He said Bolton would be a good choice for the position, but when asked if theres a better pick, Giuliani said, Maybe me, I dont know.

Giuliani laid out how his foreign-policy views overlap with the president-elects, according to the Journal. He said Trumps primary policy goal would be taking out ISIS, but didnt explain how this would be accomplished. That actually lines up with Trumps stance on the matter; hes said he cant reveal his plan to attack the terror group because he wants to remain unpredictable.

As for Russia and China, Giuliani said the Trump administration wants to reset relations with both countries. He said President Obama mishandled Russia by turning them into an adversary and failing to earn their respect. Giuliani suggested the solution is more threats. Russia thinks its a military competitor, it really isnt, he said. Its our unwillingness under Obama to even threaten the use of our military that makes Russia so powerful.



Why Hes Controversial: Giuliani has no foreign-policy experience, and recent comments he made on the topic were alarming. In September, he defended Trumps claim that the U.S. should have seized Iraqs oil, saying, If we would have taken the oil, you wouldnt have ISIS, because ISIS formed with the power and the wealth of that oil. When asked if thats legal, Giuliani said, Of course its legal. Its a war  Until the war is over, anythings legal. Seizing another countrys property is prohibited under the Geneva Conventions.

As a former federal prosecutor, Giuliani is seen as a better fit for attorney general, though the left has a long list of reasons why he shouldnt be anywhere near the Justice Department. Radley Balko recapped many of them in the Washington Post this week, noting that Giuliani was a stalwart defender of abusive cops, the mayoral architect of stop and frisk (which he still touts as a success), and an incredibly vindictive mayor.

As mayor, Giuliani went after art, advertisements, and protests he found offensive, prompting First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams to dub him the single most consistent opponent of First Amendment rights in living memory. In the past week, hes suggested that the thousands of people protesting Trumps election are professional protesters, and called them a bunch of spoiled crybabies.

Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

John Bolton

Rumored Position: Several outlets say Bolton is a top contender for secretary of State. Compared to Giuliani, Bolton is a more conventional choice  for Trump, that is  but the former mayor has a much closer relationship with the president-elect.

The Case for Bolton: National Review published a piece on Saturday arguing for Bolton as secretary of State. They said the former ambassador to the United Nations under George W. Bush has extensive experience, but has never become an establishmentarian or lost his edge. The piece continued:

Bolton has the advantage of being an experienced, straight-talking yet nuanced foreign-policy hand, who also fits the Trump sensibility on national security. Bolton is an American internationalist who believes in the importance of American power. He is a hard-headed realist whose focus is always the national interest. He negotiated the creation of the Proliferation Security Initiative, for instance, a global effort to counter illicit trafficking in weapons and materials of mass destruction. It was, and is, a diplomatic rarityan activity, not an organization, as one U.K. diplomat put it. United Nations, take note.



Bolton is a leading critic of international institutions, such as the U.N., and led the effort to keep the U.S. out of the International Criminal Court, which fits with Trumps America first views.

Why Hes Controversial: In many other ways, Bolton and Trump hold opposite views on foreign policy, and it seems unlikely that the president-elect will be swayed by National Review, which published an entire Against Trump issue.

Bolton is one of the most hawkish neoconservatives, while Trump has suggested he wants to avoid foreign interventions. Trump claims he opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2003 (though thats not what he said in public), but Bolton pushed for intervention, saying at the time that Saddam Hussein had hidden weapons of mass destruction and arguing that the American role actually will be fairly minimal. In 2015, Bolton said, I still think the decision to overthrow Saddam was correct.

While Trump has said he wants to work with Russia, in 2014 Bolton said the Obama administration should stand up to Putin, and supply Kiev with weapons and other assistance, while also reviving President George W. Bushs 2008 plan to fast track Ukraine for NATO membership.

And while Trump and Bolton are both against the Iran nuclear deal, in 2015 Bolton argued in favor of bombing Iran.

A far lesser concern: There could be another political battle over Boltons confirmation. Hes known for his combative stances, and hes been accused of bullying subordinates who disagreed with him. President George W. Bush was forced to use a recess appointment to make him ambassador to the United Nations after Democrats and even some Republicans blocked a vote on his nomination. A Trump source told CNN that while they believe it would be difficult, they think they could get Bolton confirmed this time around.

Photo: Taylor Hill/WireImage

Jeff Sessions

Rumored Position: Politico says Senator Jeff Sessions is the top pick for secretary of Defense, but he could also be attorney general or Homeland Security secretary. The Times says hes up for attorney general, and notes that neither he nor Giuliani has expressed interest in the less glamorous job of Homeland Security secretary.

The Case for Sessions: The Alabama senator endorsed Trump in February and has been his top ally in Congress. Hes the rare Trump loyalist who has extensive government experience. He served in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1973 to 1986, was first elected to the Senate in 1997, and sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, where he chairs the subcommittee on nuclear-weapons policy. Hes led Trumps national-security committee since March.

Sessions served as Alabama attorney general in the mid-90s and is known for taking hardline positions on immigration, which could make him a good pick for the top post at the Justice Department.

On defense, the senator has expressed support for Trumps military expansion plan, which could add more than $55 billion annually to the Pentagons budget, though hes a budget hawk. He told Defense News last month:

[Trumps plan would create] a need for a spending increase, there is just no doubt about it. And it is painful for me as a budget person to acknowledge that we cant stay at a sequester-like level. We are just not going to be able to do that. But President Trump will not do the one thing that President Obama and Hillary Clinton favor. That if you increase defense spending, you have to increase the non-defense spending at the same amount. That is just absurd.

Why Hes Controversial: In 1986, Sessions was rejected for a federal judgeship after several U.S. attorneys testified that he had made racist remarks, including calling a black prosecutor boy, referring to a white civil-rights lawyer as a disgrace to his race, and calling the NAACP Communist-inspired and un-American. Sessions denied the allegations, but failed to convince a bipartisan group of ten senators on the Judiciary Committee.

One GOP official told Politico that Sessions is opposed to the president elects own plan for defense, adding, Hes a Judiciary guy, thats where his heart is. Thats his baby, not defense. If he goes to Defense, its a disaster.
Many of these Trump voters are probably expecting magic, or populist policies. Too bad for them. Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

As the days go by after Donald Trumps upset presidential victory, he is managing to keep his options open in terms of his basic strategy for governing  and particularly his relationship with a congressional Republican majority that is ready to rock and roll with a legislative blitzkrieg based on the Ryan budget. Perhaps that is because he never gave serious thought to what he would do if he actually won the election. Maybe he just hasnt made up his mind. And quite possibly hes just keeping potential opponents guessing. But so far he has not closed off any of the three very different paths I outlined last week: pursuing a sort of chaos administration resembling his candidacy; becoming the unlikely enabler of the Ryan agenda; or trying to remake the GOP into a populist/nationalist party.

What Democrats should keep in mind, however, is that whichever way he goes he is very likely going to betray his white working-class base  the people who put him into office  sooner or later. The later part is the most certain. Donald Trump does not have the power to bring back the Industrial Era economy he has so avidly embraced. He will not be able to reopen the coal mines, rebuild the manufacturing sector, or repeal the international economic trends that would exist with or without NAFTA or TPP. And for that matter, he has little ability to reverse the demographic and cultural trends most of his voters dislike.

But Trump may betray his white working-class followers more immediately if he does indeed sign something like the Ryan budget into law, rewarding every wealthy and powerful GOP constituency, making the tax structure significantly more regressive than it already is, and gutting a social safety net that poorer white folks depend on as much as do poorer minority people. Add in something like a push toward tighter credit and an abandonment of fiscal stimulus  which congressional Republicans will be urging on the new administration with every other breath  and you could see a reactionary administration that has to rely even more powerfully than the Trump campaign on atavistic cultural appeals to the white working class and the alleged magic he can perform as president. As a New York Times analysis of Trump voters in Michigan explains, there will always be an irreducible Trump/GOP vote that is essentially ethnocentric (or even racist) in nature. But some of the voters are persuadable for Democrats going forward.

Overall, it might behoove Democrats to exhibit a bit of patience in devising a strategy to defeat Trumpism until it is clear what Trumpism in the Oval Office will actually entail. But many Democrats are understandably in a hurry to right the wrongs of the 2016 campaign.

Most obviously, the Bernie Sanders wing of the party, convinced (with reason if not any actual evidence) its guy might have succeeded where Hillary Clinton failed, is urging maximum populism onto Democrats as a way to recapture or at least fight for the white working class. Many of the loudest voices calling for this approach have been calling for it in every circumstance for decades, but that does not necessarily mean they are wrong this time.

But that is not the only approach. At Foreign Policy, Lee Drutman argues that Trump has already engineered a realignment that has made him the unassailable champion of the white working class, leaving Democrats the option of unambiguously becoming the champions of multicultural cosmopolitanism.

If Democrats define themselves as the party that is opposed to Republicans (as they must), they will soon find themselves as the party of fiscal responsibility (as opposed to the Republicans, who will again run huge deficits), as the party of international responsibility (as opposed to the more isolationist and nationalist Republicans), and as the party of global business (as opposed to the protectionist Republicans). They will continue to be the party of environmentalism (the stakes of this will get even greater soon) and the party of diversity and tolerance.

Drutman, however, is betting that Trump will continue to divide his own party and defy its Washington Establishment. If he is right, then he is also right that many cosmopolitan upscale Republicans who held their nose and voted for Trump will be furious and perhaps even ready to defect.

The bottom line is that devising an anti-Trump strategy depends on what Trump does next. He cannot maintain his current ambiguity for much longer, unless he is going to follow a crazy, herky-jerky path all along, in which case he is probably going to disappoint and even betray all of his supporters before too long.
We are not going to sacrifice a half million people who live among us, de Blasio said of protecting undocumented workers. Photo: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images

As the United States seeks to understand what the hell happened on Election Day, one of the most helpful frames for understanding is the urban-rural divide. Consider the below cartogram, where the U.S. map is skewed according to population. Not only is it weird and ugly, but also useful:

Of all the graphs going around since Trump's win, this cartogram skewing the map by population is probably the best. https://t.co/VasD9FEQ1u pic.twitter.com/W1E3YQuQFy  Ronan Lyons (@ronanlyons) November 14, 2016

The blue girth speaks to how, while cities occupy little of Americas geography, they contain a ton of the humanity. Thanks to the structure of the Electoral College, the people who live in the cities have their presidential votes matter less than those in rural areas  with a ginormous cultural divide between the two. While the nations urban dwellers might feel short-changed by the election, theres reason to believe that cities themselves are the best bulwarks against the forthcoming Trump White House.

Thats according to Fordham University political theorist Benjamin Barber, author of If Mayors Ruled the World. Americas cities are the one institution today that still works, where government functions, where trust levels are double the levels of other institutions, he told Quartz. This dynamic is seen not just in the U.S.: The instability of the national governments, Barber says, can be seen in Brexit, the rise of right-wing governments in Hungary and Poland, and the ascendance of a populist demagogue in the Philippines  to name but a few of the leading examples.

In a post for the Nation, Barber lays out the urban-rural divide at a global scale:

The role of cities rests on right: the obligation under the Social Contract to uphold the life, liberty, and sustainability of their citizens, something nation states have shown themselves increasingly incapable of doing. Once upon a time, nations aspired to universality, and local jurisdictions were parochial and particularistic. Today the valence is reversed, and cities speak to global common goodsmarriage rights, minimum wage, climate action, creative culture, refuge for immigrantswhile nations have grown parochial and xenophobic. Urbanity is a global virtue associated with diversity and multiculturalism; nationalism has a parochial character upheld by walls.

Such has been the case in the United States. While Congress is red, 17 of the countrys 20 largest cities have Democratic mayors, and it shows in policy. In 2014, Seattle approved a $15-dollar-an-hour minimum wage (just last week, Washington State approved a $13.50 wage  one of four states to approve such hikes). Louisville has declared itself to be a Compassionate City. New York has a shelter mandate for the homeless. Last year, the city introduced the IDNYC card, and over half of the 850,000 card holders are undocumented. Mayor Bill de Blasio has said that if a President Trump tried to get the data, hed be in for a real fight  to the point of deleting the database. We are not going to sacrifice a half million people who live among us, he said. Were not going to tear families apart. We will do everything we know how to do to resist that.

While the federal government may become less interested in social justice come January, city governments can still be a progressive force. Roe v. Wade guarantees a national right but even in the absence of a national right, if it is overturned, cities and states can themselves insist on those rights, Barber said. In New York and Chicago, and Atlanta and New Orleans and San Diego, they can say abortion is legal and protected.

The most radical idea Barber proposes is that maybe, just maybe, more of the tax dollars generated in cities should serve the municipality  and the homeless, poor, and otherwise disadvantaged living there  rather than being siphoned off to Washington. Cities create 80 percent of American GDP and tax revenue, Barber likes to say. As he describes it, its a Marxist dynamic: Cities are the labor, and the government is the capital. (The capitol is the capital, you might say). And as any labor force does to gain leverage on management, it organizes: thus the U.S. Conference of Mayors, EuroCities, and a United Nationslike body that Barber helped found  the new Global Parliament of Mayors. Ironically, this is an old conservative talking-point: less national power, more local power. But in this case, its not about keeping gun rights; its social services. The path of effective resistance would be through greater unity among American cities and their governments. Its one thing for Washington to say its not going to do health care and social safety nets, Barber says, its another to say we will not let cities do it.
Michelle Obama at the Democratic National Convention. Photo: Bill Clark/Getty Images

A nonprofit director and a mayor in the town of Clay, West Virginia, are each out of a job after coming under fire for a racist Facebook post about Michelle Obama, according to the Charleston Gazette-Mail. Pamela Ramsey Taylor, who was the director of Clay County Development Corporation  a local nonprofit  reportedly posted a status after Donald Trump was elected president on Tuesday saying she was looking forward to having Melania Trump as First Lady.

It will be so refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady back in the White House, she wrote. Im tired of seeing a [sic] Ape in heels.

Clays mayor, Beverly Whaling, reportedly commented on the post, Just made my day Pam.

The post and comments were later deleted, but screenshots of the post have been widely shared on social media. At the time of writing, an online petition to remove both women from office had received almost 95,000 signatures. Taylor lost her job on Monday. By evening, CNN reported that Whaling resigned from her post as well.

According to NBC affiliate WSAZ, Taylor issued an apology on Facebook. In a statement to the Washington Post, she insisted her comment was not racist. My comment was not intended to be racist at all, she wrote. I was referring to my day being made for change in the White House! I am truly sorry for any hard feeling this may have caused! Those who know me know that Im not in any way racist! Again, I would like to apologize for this getting out of hand! She told WSAZ that the public response to the post is a hate crime against me.

Joe Murphy, the vice-chairman of the Clay Democratic Executive Committee, told the Gazette-Mail that his organization strongly oppose[s] any form of racism or hate speech, and described Michelle Obama as one of the most graceful and articulate first ladies in American history.

Update, Nov. 15 11:16 p.m.: This post has been updated to note that following the racist exchange on Facebook, Mayor Beverly Whaling has resigned from her position, according to CNN.
Sabra Williams, Tim Robbins, and inmates in an Actors Gang Prison Project class at the California Rehabilitation Center. Photo: Peter Merts

You can imagine how this idea was received 10 years ago, but heres the pitch: A tenacious British actress teams up with Oscar winner Tim Robbins to bring acting classes to maximum-security prisons. And not just any acting classes, but improv workshops that ask Crips and Bloods and convicted murderers and white supremacists to sit together, wear makeup and masks, and maybe even pretend to be women sometimes. The eight-week intensive is meant to help the incarcerated better handle their emotions. But if you think it sounds more like the treatment for an Orange Is the New Black spinoff than a serious attempt at criminal-justice reform, youre not alone.

People said, Yeah, yeah, you want to give them crayons. Youve got acting classes? recalls Robbins of the launch of the Actors Gang Prison Project. Were like, No, we dont want anyone to be an actor. Theres too much unemployment in that. Its about changing behavior. Fundraising was a slog. Correctional officers pushed back. And these actor-facilitators were dismissed as another merry band of liberals pushing whats known in the Prison Industrial Complex as hug-a-thug programming.

Sabra Williams, the co-founder and executive director of the Prison Project  who also had a small part in Kristen Wiigs Welcome to Me last year  remembers those early days. There was so much opposition with lots of COs telling me, Why are you wasting your time with these losers? she says. A few haters thought we were giving inmates too much power. One spread rumors that I was having an inappropriate relationship with a student.

Yet, despite the haters, the Prison Project celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, and will expand to 10 California prisons in February 2017, just as some hard data has finally come in to prove the programs merits. The recidivism rate in the state is more than 50 percent. But a recent preliminary study by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation showed that, for inmates who completed the Prison Project, that number dropped to 10.6 percent. Critics will point to a sample size thats too small to draw broad conclusions, and its a valid concern. But the provisional findings are encouraging, to say the least.

There is now immense support from inside the prison system, and public opinion is shifting, thanks in part to Robbins and Williamss up-from-the-bootstraps lobbying efforts. Governor Jerry Brown approved a $6 million line item in Californias 20162017 budget earmarked specifically for Arts in Correction, a partnership between the CDRC and the California Arts Council, up from $2 million the previous year. And in 2017, all 35 prisons in California will have at least some kind of publicly funded arts program  up from exactly zero a decade ago.

Photo: Peter Merts

Former Attorney General Eric Holder is a vocal supporter of the Prison Project; after meeting with Williams and Robbins in Washington in 2014 to discuss criminal justice reform, he traveled to the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco, CA to observe their work firsthand. This is the kind of innovative initiative that legislatures on all levels should support, Holder told me. The effort led by Sabra and Tim points the way to a more successful rehabilitation and re-entry process.

In an interesting twist, Ronald L. Davis  whom President Obama appointed as the executive director of his Task Force on 21st Century Policing  recently expressed interest in having the Actors Gang create similar classes to train police officers in emotional intelligence and de-escalation techniques. In the spring, Williams says shell apply for a grant with the hopes of doing just that.

Before we get to how she and the star of The Shawshank Redemption were initially laughed out of the room, it helps to look at why their work is so vitaland, yes, maybe even bipartisan. As Holder pointed out in an August New York Times op-ed, crime rates in America are at historic lows. But incarceration numbers have more than quadrupled since the 1970s. Roughly 2.3 million Americas are in prison, meaning we have 5 percent of the worlds population but 22 percent of its prisoners.

Some conservatives may not want to give inmates crayons, but Williams would argue we cant afford not to. In 2010, it cost about $80 billion per year to house people in our prisons and jails. Or between $45,000 and $60,000 dollars per adult. Our class costs $1,500 per year for that person, she says. When the majority of them dont come back to prison, theyre saving California a lot of money.

Teaching inmates to diffuse their emotions through 16-century commedia dellarte improv exercises may seem like an unlikely cost-cutting measure, but thats exactly what it could turn out to be. Williams first had the idea a decade ago, around the time she joined Robbinss L.A.-based theater company, the Actors Gang. Shed moved to Los Angeles from London where, as part of the English Shakespeare Company, shed gone into prisons to perform the Bards Roman plays. She saw first-hand the effect these visits and workshops had on the incarcerated. Shed just assumed that the Actors Gang already had a similar program in place. Robbins responded: We dont. Make something happen.

Photo: Peter Merts

What happened next was a classic fake-it-till-you-make-it story. Williams cold-called the California Institution for Men in Chino  where Edward Nortons character served time in American History X  and asked the community resources director there if hed be interested in a free acting program. It was really good that I was very naive, she says. He was like, Yeah, get in here. It didnt cost him anything. Literally, I just bullshitted to three other actors that I knew what I was doing, and we went in a car on a wing and a prayer and did our workshop.

The acting exercises they were doing were similar to what the Actors Gang members do themselves every Sunday. The inmates sit on the floor in a circle and wear white makeup and masks (keep reading, conservatives!), improvising scenes as characters from the commedia dellarte tradition. Were talking about stock characters like Pantalone (a cheap merchant), Arlechinno (a mischievous servant), and Capitano (a pompous military captain known for inflating his status). In a way, this all makes complete sense. The 16th-century style of theater from Italy and France started as a way for peasants to satirize the upper class. (The roving troupes of actors wore white makeup so they could be seen in twilight.)

Photo: Peter Merts

Christopher Bisbano, who spent 18 years in prison on attempted murder charges, participated in one of those early classes. It was three women and one guy and they all had on, like, jogging suits and running shoes. I thought we were going to do cartwheels or something, Bisbano recalls. We discussed what the work was about, then what was expected of us. Sabra talked about this early-16th-century form of theater. How this type of style works is you work from a state, one of the four core emotions: happy, sad, frightened, or angry.

The work was challenging for many reasons, but also maybe one: because it requires inmates to look directly into each others eyes, which is rare in prison. Youre not supposed to show happy or sad or being frightened, says Bisbano. Its a sign of weakness.

Robbins recalls a moment in year two of the program when the full weight of this work hit him. One of the guys  Robbins prefers incarcerated person over the word prisoner  said, I didnt realize until I took this class that Ive been wearing a mask on the yard for 20 years. That angry face, that tough guy, thats not the total of me. Thats just a part of me that I do for survival. But theres another part of me that is capable of feeling and expressing other emotions other than anger.

Robbinss first thought (Oh my God, its transformed people) led to a second, scarier revelation: Oh, shit. Were going to have to do this.

That first year, the Actors Gang Prison Project cut its teeth at the California Institution for Men with an eight-week program, one day a week for four hours. For year two, it was the California Institution for Women, then the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco, where theyve remained for nine years  in both the general population yard and on the sensitive needs yard (for those who would be attacked or killed in general population, often because of the nature of their crimes or gang issues). In the lean, early days  even when wardens and COs invited them inside, the money wasnt there. At a minimum, the class cost $5,000 to run, which just about covered transportation and materials. Williams would go out and raise the money, run the eight-week class, then go right back out to find more money so they could do it again. Even as public opinion on judicial reform began evolving, the economic collapse decimated funding for Arts in Corrections.

Photo: Peter Merts

There were other hiccups. Williams and her staff are frequently alone in rooms with inmates whove been convicted of murder, drug dealing, and rape. Theyre working with women who killed their husbands. But discipline problems have been almost nonexistent. Williams did once receive a love letter from a prisoner, which Robbins read aloud in class. We do things publicly, Williams explains. Thats the culture of the class. Its important in terms of safety and people knowing that were aware of the rules and we know where we are. Weve never thrown anyone out in ten years. The man who wrote the letter left the class. But a year later, he came back, sat down, and did the work. No one ever mentioned it again.

Beyond recidivism, the Actors Gang Prison Project work has led to a nearly 90 percent reduction in behavioral infractions for participants, one of the unexpected effects the program has had outside of class. What it did was it started to change the culture on the yard, Bisbano says. There were no racial boundaries in class. The African-Americans, the whites, Mexicans, Hispanics, we were all playing together. Its very rare in prisons, especially in California. When we had our presentations, we would invite other inmates to come watch. Then they would see that their homeboy was up there dressed up like some character, acting like a fool. It started to break some boundaries. We had something special in common.

To be able to share personal stories in character, without judgment, he adds, basically its providing a safe place, a sacred place, where we could go and get into these characters and see what relationships developed.

Photo: Peter Merts

Jeffrey Beard, who was secretary of Californias Department of Corrections until he resigned in January, was instrumental in legitimizing the Prison Project program, talking about the work as behavioral therapy, which certainly sounds more convincing than crayons. After Holder invited Robbins and Williams to Washington to discuss innovative ways to change the criminal-justice system, his successor, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, invited them back to the White House to continue that conversation.

In February 2015, President Obama invited Republican senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Rand Paul of Kentucky and the Democratic senators Dick Durbin of Illinois and Cory Booker of New Jersey to the White House to talk criminal-justice reform. Two separate bills  both limiting the use of mandatory minimum sentences  are now making their way through the Senate and the House. Whether a version passes remains to be seen, though its looking less likely. (Republican senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas has actually claimed, We have an under-incarceration problem.) Still, its worth noting that both bills provide funding for Arts in Corrections, thanks in part to the Actors Gangs lobbying efforts.

On the tenth anniversary of the Actors Gang Prison Project, Robbins and Williams are looking forward. They recently launched a re-entry program run by Bisbano, who was released from prison in July, and Robbins is as motivated as ever. I would never have imagined it when we started, but it feels like a mission now, he says. Weve incarcerated way too many people for crimes that are not violent, and its been way too expensive, and there is a better way.

The arts are really embraced in the space now, continues Robbins. Were part of creating legislation. Were part of changing the system here in California. Its no longer this crazy idea that it seemed like it was ten years ago.

An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett as Attorney General and has been corrected. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Ms. Jarrett both attended the White House event on criminal justice reform.
Rathfinny appoints brand ambassador

Rathfinny Estate, the largest single estate vineyard in the UK, has appointed a new brand ambassador to create a buzz around the name in advance of the launch of its first wines in 2018.

The Sussex-based winery has announced the appointment of Rob Buckhaven, who is tasked with bringing further awareness of Rathfinny to the trade.

Buckhaven has a background in wine writing and presenting and most recently he held the position of wine buyer for Boisdale Restaurants. He previously held the role of senior brand manager for Torres and he is currently a wine columnist for Metro.

He said: Joining the Rathfinny team at such a pivotal time in the English Sparkling Wine story is incredibly exciting. Rathfinny is set to be a real powerhouse within the English wine category, from the innovative and ambitious work they are doing on their estate through to driving forward the Sussex PDO application.

The Rathfinny story and the vision they have for their own sparkling wine, which meets incredibly high self-imposed standards of production, is what drew me to the role. It is these standards of practice which they envisage for other producers In the county looking to attain the Sussex stamp of approval. I am hugely excited to be a part of the Rathfinny family, and believe that the timing could not be better.

Rathfinny, which is owned by Mark and Sarah Driver, has renowned winemaker Jonathan Medard from Champagne, and Cameron Roucher from New Zealand managing the estate. It plans to export 50% of its production overseas.

Related articles:
After the past 7 days, this is the kind of news AMERICA NEEDS RIGHT NOW.

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That being said, I really hope someone is waiting for him at home with every Wrestlemania that he's missed on DVR and a cat.

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aw I hope so too!

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Good, what happened to him was a miscarriage of justice. I'm still kind of "hmmm" on Avery, though.

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there's a lot to be suspicious about Avery, but his trial was far from fair.

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Damn idek



I remember watching Making a murderer and feeling like the cops put words in his mouth but like idk

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He was a minor with intellectual deficiencies. He should have had a parent in the room at least.

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FINALLY!!! The entire case was mishandled, and regardless if Steven did it or not (I don't think he did), Brendan should have never been jailed let alone even questioned! I hope he sues the state and prosecuters like crazy.

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And get faaaar out of state before doing it.

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The terms of his release say "he may travel only within the Eastern District of Wisconsin," though. This poor kid. :(

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I'm glad something good came of this year but that will never replace the harrowing years he's experienced.



I hope they get the hell out of Wisconsin.

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I guess it's probably too late to start Making a Murderer then.

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If anything you won't suffer the anguish we did because his situation really was the most heartbreaking part!

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I might actually check it out then. It always seemed like something that was going to be a little too dark whenever I almost started before and I was never in the right mood for it.

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i legit skipped watching the last two episodes because i knew they were his trial/conviction and i just couldn't stomach it

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It doesn't really spoil anything because the documentary leaves w/ doubts about a lot of stuff. People are still very divided.

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idk about avery, he seems shifty so i could see him doing it. but this poor guy... the police fed him the confession and it seems like he needs some learning support.

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good for him. he is still young and can live a lot of things but his life will never be the same. all those years he had to endure locked down. god :/

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He's gonna be so confused watching tonight's Monday Night Raw.

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lolololol :(

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Wait is that Shannon nfrom shannon & the clams

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lol i kept thinking that your icon was photoshopped jlaw

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Omg finally

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I'm happy for him, I hope that he can move out of his town because he'll have no peace there

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Holy shit. I hope he has a smooth transition into civilian life...

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I hope he gets tickets to Wrestlemania and snuggles with his kitties. Poor kid.

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Good!! the whole thing was complete bullshit. I can't believe a jury convicted him.







I have not been following but does anyone know whats going on with Adnan Sayed?

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He has a new trial coming up. They're deciding if they should let him out on bail right now.

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lmao sorry, i though you were talking about brendan



Edited at 2016-11-15 12:56 am (UTC)

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Fucking fuck you 2016!



I'm over your shit.



I didn't even know she was sick. So sad to hear this. 

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No one knew. She'd been battling it for a year and kept it under wraps and went about like nothing was wrong. Truly bad ass.

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she actually didn't look sick at all either. Like I remember seeing her on PBS and she looked fine, I would've assumed her co-host was the ill one to be honest.

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Ugh I was so sad when I heard this. They dedicated the entire PBS news hour to her and it was both sad and beautiful.

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Honestly, I'd give up my fight right now too.

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I've always admired and respected her. This sucks, especially now when we need good journalists more than ever.

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She was the best. 2016 is literally the worse year. I can't even begin to describe.

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WHAT THE FUCK.

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I have not had cable for a few months and am missing PBS (only have OTA channels now), and this is just so heartbreaking. I loved watching her on TV.

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you can't get PBS with an antenna? That's pretty much one of the only channels I get

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Huh? I also only get over the air channels, and I get two PBS channels along with the network channels

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Here is Gwen Ifill calling out hate speech, again to a table full of men who all try to speak over her. pic.twitter.com/NKAtFaXVtS  Media Matters (@mmfa) November 14, 2016

RIP Gwen. She's the type of person and journalist we would be lucky to have in these next 4 years.

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R.I.P Gwen. My mother has been crying for you :(

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I'm so sad. We need her more than ever.

I'm also so sad that she went out knowing Trump got the presidency. What a horrible thing to know.

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Is it fucked that I immediately thought Tr*mp did it?



Shit is fucked.

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Before I saw that it was from cancer I was like "so it begins".

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one of the few who seemed to get it right.

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She was a great journalist. PBS and NPR are the only two US news sources I feel I trust now at least for radio and TV media.

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61 is so young - goodness.

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RIP amazing lady.

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I AM GOING TO MISS HER WITH JUDY. DAMNIT IT'S NOT THE SAME FAM!



PBS NEWSHOUR WILL ALWAYS BE MY SHOW!

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President of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, was poised to announce on Sunday that the nation has increased oil production by 250,000 barrels per day. This was accomplished through the creation of three new fields west of the Karoun River. The addition in production was highly unexpected, especially to neighboring OPEC nations. As of this past Wednesday, Brent crude oil futures have dropped a substantial amount to under $44 per barrel.

Three publicly traded companies on three separate exchanges have paid as much as $3 billion to obtain these fields. Sinopec from China has acquired the largest, producing 115,000 barrels per day. Chinas National Petroleum Corporation bought the second largest field and the third was given to Persia Oil and Gas Development of Iran. All three of these companies stand to profit from these fields. Iran is in the process of ramping up production to reach their prior unsanctioned levels, which would place the oil majors in a crucial position to grow.

Total SA has also entered into an agreement with Iran, reinvesting efforts and $4.8 billion into projects previously explored to the sanctioning of Iran. Total plans to produce 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day at the south pars gas field offshore. Total is simply another one of the firms that will likely profit from Irans expected rapid growth.

Iran only wishes to return to their production level of 12 percent of OPECs total production. As of October, OPECs production levels were at 33,643,000 bpd and Iran produced 3,690,000 bpd, or nearly 11 percent. Last month, Iran would have needed about 350,000 bpd more in oil to reach their goal. The 250,000 bpd created from these three new fields will put the country close. President Rouhani wants to increase production of this new region to over one million bpd, a conceivable figure.

Saudi Arabia, Irans closest rival in oil production, is unhappy to see Irans advances. More competition means fewer profits for Saudi Arabian oil majors like Saudi Aramco. The company is privately owned but there is potential for an IPO in the next year or two. It would be in investors interest to short their currency, the Saudi Riyal, while holding long positions in the companies maintaining the three new fields mentioned above. Related: ExxonMobil Is Digging Its Own Grave

OPEC is planning on excluding Iran from the production cut to allow them to regain their market share. However, if Iran is to achieve their ambition faster than expected, OPEC may consider including them. OPEC is meeting once more on November 30th to continue discussing the planned cuts. OPEC has mentioned previously they wish to limit oil production to less than 33 million bpd, a number that is becoming more and more unlikely as production further accelerates.

A continued inundation of supply for crude oil will only lower the price of oil further. Economists are skeptical that a deal will be approved at the end of the month meaning oil prices could fall as low as $40 per barrel. If a deal were to remarkably emerge, this could result in a price surge. As we get closer to the meeting, investors should prepare their portfolios with straddles or, for the confident speculator, a spread in the direction of their interests.

By Michael McDonald of Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The day after the November 8th U.S. presidential election, the stock prices for electric car maker Tesla plunged 5 percent. Solar and wind stocks also fell, while the share prices for coal and oil companies surged. Peabody Energy, for example, the worlds largest private sector coal producer, saw its stock skyrocket by more than 40 percent on speculation that the Trump administration could breathe new life into the dying sector.

The energy industry, in other words, could be substantially altered by a change in government policy, with clean energy in danger of being left behind while fossil fuels rebound. But the solar and wind industries have made enormous strides in bringing costs down, which will probably insulate them from a more antagonistic White House. Scrapping government support might slow growth rates, but the clean energy train has likely left the station.

But the market for electric vehicles is much smaller and less mature than solar and wind. EVs still depend on generous federal tax credits and, even then, sales have been slow in a world of cheap gasoline. Automakers are still confident in the longer-term  a carbon constrained world and volatile crude oil prices almost certainly means that EVs have a bright future. But the short-term could be rocky.

Automakers are set to roll out some 19 new EV models over the next few years, adding choice, supply and momentum to the EV industry. GM will release its all-electric Bolt in the coming weeks, a mass market vehicle with a 238-mile range and a sticker price around $37k. Tesla will follow that up with its Model 3 next year, a 215-mile EV that will be slightly cheaper. Then there are the plug-in hybrids that have a combination of electric and gasoline, which gives motorists greater peace of mind in regards to recharging. The Chevy Volt will have an all-electric range of over 50 miles before gasoline kicks in, and costs roughly $33k-$34k. The cheaper alternative, Toyotas new Prius Prime, will have a shorter range of 25 miles, but will cost just $27k. All of these cars will benefit from federal tax credits that run as high as $7,500. Related: Trump Considers Oil Tycoon Harold Hamm for Energy Dept.

Sales remain at low levels  EVs will capture less than 1 percent of the global car market this year. But sales in the U.S. are up 26 percent in the first 10 months of 2016 compared to the same period a year earlier. And U.S. EV sales could rise fourfold by 2020 to 320,000 annually, according to the WSJ.

But the industry does have some headwinds. Lithium-ion battery costs have declined by 65 percent since 2010, which have helped automakers close the gap on sale prices with convention vehicles. Also, the range of EVs have extended, as the figures mentioned above associated with new models indicate. More EV models will satisfy a range of consumer needs.

Moreover, refueling infrastructure, one of the most critical pieces of the puzzle, continues to improve as well. The number of EV refueling stations have surged by 89 percent over the last three years.

The Obama administration recently announced a new effort to expand the refueling infrastructure even further. The White House said on November 3 that it would launch a new plan to build out a national network of recharging stations, establishing 48 national EV charging corridors along existing highways. They would install signs every 50 miles or so along these corridors, alerting drivers to recharging stations, similar to the way that current highway signs point to gasoline stations. Related: Expert Commentary: 5 Reasons To Be Bullish On Oil

There are some 150,000 retail gasoline stations in the U.S.; while EV recharging stations lag, there are an estimated 16,000 EV stations across the country, a figure that is rising quickly. Meanwhile, 24 state and local governments have committed to expand their government vehicle fleets with EVs.

It is unclear if this program can survive in the Trump era. In fact, even the $7,500 federal tax credit could become a target by the new oil-friendly administration. An unnamed member of Trumps transition team told UtilityDive that Trumps team will probably let the tax credit survive. The fact that the provision expires for automakers once each surpasses 200,000 EVs sold could actually help the tax credit from getting axed  since it will expire on its own at some point in the next two or three years, the Trump administration may not feel urgency in killing it. But, like so much with the new government, much remains to be seen.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

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In its latest monthly oil production update, OPEC reported that its crude oil output increased by another 240,000 barrels a day in October to 33.64 million barrels a day, a new record high, with Nigeria, Libya and Iraq driving the supply boost and with total production about 1 million barrels higher than the plateau agreed upon in Algiers at the end of September.

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As a result of OPEC's relentless increase in total output, the cuts OPEC would need to enforce to reach the Algiers output target just get bigger and bigger...

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... most of it is as a result of soaring Iranian oil exports - by roughly 1 million bpd - since the easing of sanctions by the Obama administration:

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It is also the reason why oil has continued to slide in recent weeks, as the upcoming OPEC production cut (or even freeze) - which will have to be shouldered almost entirely by Saudi Arabia due to production cut exemptions granted to other states, most notably Iran - has lost almost all credibility with the market.

Suddenly, however, there is a ray of hope in OPEC's dark world, and it comes courtesy of president-elect Donald Trump, who just may eliminate as much as 1 million barrels of OPEC oil output, or the cartel's entire excess production, should he undo the Iran nuclear agreement, which is extremely unpopular in GOP circles.

Recall that Trump's stated number one priority from his pre-election circuit has been to dismantle the "disastrous" Iran deal - although as Bloomberg notes, his to-do list might have changed since saying that back in March. And, as Bloomberg's Julian Lee calculates, confirming our math from just right after the Algiers (non) deal, tearing up the Iran nuclear agreement would remove almost a million barrels a day of supply at a stroke: a million barrels is about the same size as the cut OPEC needs to make.

The next question: can Trump actually undo Obama's landmark Iran nuclear agreement? According to Lee, the answer is yes, "despite assertions to the contrary from Iran's President Rouhani and a slew of analysts." Here's how:

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the deal is snappily titled, wasn't ratified by Congress, but brought into force by President Obama via executive order. Trump could rescind that. The fall-out would be messy, but it could be done (in theory). Related: Shell Tops Ranks Of Ideal Oil, Gas Employers

There is a second way as well, enshrined within the agreement itself. The dispute resolution mechanism allows any signatory to refer a perceived breach of the deal's terms to the joint commission created to oversee the accord. If the complaining party isn't satisfied with the outcome and believes the breach constitutes "significant non-compliance", it can refer it to the U.N. Security Council. The Security Council would then vote -- and here's the killer blow -- - not on whether to re-impose sanctions, but on whether to "continue the sanctions lifting."



That might not sound like a big difference, but it's critical. By framing the vote this way, the U.S. could, in theory, veto the resolution. All the U.N. sanctions on Iran would then be re-imposed.

Should Trump proceed down this path, it would leave only EU sanctions, which prohibited the importing of Iranian oil into EU countries. And while one might expect a European backlash against unwinding the deal - after all it would remove much of the marginally cheapest oil available to European refiners - it may not be very effective, because as BBG adds, "the tortuous process of re-establishing Iran's oil trade with Europe shows that only too clearly."

Although there were willing buyers and a very willing seller, the difficulty came in finding insurers who would underwrite the transactions, or shippers to carry the crude. All the big re-insurers had at least some U.S. involvement and they were extremely hesitant to pick up the business -- even with the apparent backing of the Obama administration. They would drop the business like a scalding hot potato if the new president killed the deal. End of Iranian oil flows to Europe. Related: The Catastrophic Consequences Of Peak Oil Demand

And it wouldn't be just Europe: Asian buyers, who in the past were threatened with the loss of access to the U.S. banking system to persuade them to cut their purchases of Iranian, promptly abandoned Tehran supplies. They likely would again.

Sure, there would be a reciprocal response, as any attempt to end the deal by Trump would prompt Iran the retaliate and abandon its own commitments. Coming shortly before Iran's presidential election in May, it would be a huge boost to Tehran's hardliners. In Bloomberg's estimates, "you'd expect life to become more difficult for the Americans in Iraq, where it's engaged alongside Iranian-backed militias in ousting Islamic State from its last stronghold in the country - another Trump priority."

Ironically, such an act by Trump would make him Saudi Arabia's best friend overnight: should the president-elect remove the burden from the Kingdom to cut its own production by as much as 1 million bpd and shift it to Iran, whose output would be forcibly cut, the Saudis would not only preserve their market share, but enjoy the price of crude soaring back into the mid to upper $50-range. As such, it is unclear if Trump would enjoy being perceived as a hardliner on Iran, yet one who indirectly helps support the nation that has been the most vocal supporter of the Clintons, Saudi Arabia.

Finally, and speaking of the public, any escalation between the Trump administration and Iran which would send oil prices higher, while great for U.S. oil, would be frowned upon by U.S. motorists, who would have to pay more at the pump. The decision who to please will ultimately be Trump's to make.

By Zerohedge

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
After a strong sell-off in recent days, option expiry combines with OPEC cut expectations to emphatically rally prices on this third Tuesday in November. Hark, here are five things to consider in oil markets today:

1) We said in the aftermath of the Algiers meeting that if an OPEC production cut were to be forthcoming, Saudi Arabia would have to do the heavy-lifting. A production cut still appears a likely scenario, as does some back-breaking work by Saudi.

With the OPEC meeting in Vienna in fifteen days, the cartel is entering the final stretch of diplomacy, via the medium of closed-door meetings. The situation for OPEC has only become more complicated since the end of September, however.

Libyan oil production is on the rise, exhibited via their increased exports both this month and last (hark, at 550,000 bpd so far in November, according to our ClipperData). And despite reports of a renewed surge in sabotage in Nigeria, export loadings have clambered above 2 million barrels per day so far in November. Exports for the two are up over 1mn bpd compared to September:

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2) Rising OPEC production means that the cartel is going to have to dig even deeper in terms of production cuts. At the time of the Algiers meeting, the latest data showed OPEC producing 33.237mn bpd. Last week's November report from OPEC pegged production at 33.64mn bpd - a record.

This is reflected in the middle bar below; the cartel has to cut by at least 0.64mn bpd, or by 1.14mn bpd, depending upon the production target they choose (32.5mn bpd or 33mn bpd). Including a rebound in Angolan production (as well increasing flows from Libya and Nigeria, as highlighted above), the cartel is going to have to cut by an even larger amount.

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3) The current sticking point for the cartel appears to be Iraq, and Iraq's discontent with both freezing their production, and the low estimate of their production by secondary sources. Saudi appears unwilling to waive Iraq's participation in the cuts - but may have to back down on this front if it wants a deal pushed through.

The reason Saudi Arabia has been willing to make a concession with Iranian production seems to lie with their belief that the Persian Gulf state is unable to increase materially from here. Iranian oil exports continue to climb, however - something we have highlighted in recent days. Iran's exports into Asia have now climbed to over 2.2mn bpd - way higher than their total exports at the start of the year:

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4) The chart below is from a piece addressing the question as to whether low oil prices are good or bad for the economy. We discussed this a few months ago, driven by the statistic that consumption has been boosted by 0.61 percent due to higher discretionary income (h/t lower gasoline prices), while investment has dropped by 0.62 percent due to lower drilling activity.

With the overall U.S. economy having less economic dependence on oil - and less vulnerability to its price changes - the U.S. is less exposed than most, as the chart lower right shows. Nonetheless, as the stat above illustrates, the positives and negatives basically cancel each other out.

(Click to enlarge)



5) Finally, the below chart shows how the Permian Basin now has nearly as many active oil rigs as the rest of the United States combined (including offshore rigs too). The EIA attributes the increase in the Permian due to higher M&A activity, which in itself was bolstered by rising prices in Q2, as well as improving credit conditions - spurring on positive sentiment the upstream oil sector.

(Click to enlarge)



By Matt Smith

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Two of Donald Trumps main pledges during the presidential race were building a wall along the border with Mexico, and making the U.S. energy-independent. Now that the election is over, these issues are coming to the fore.

First, the president-elect said that the wall, which he mentioned on the campaign trail and in numerous debates, is still very much on the table, though what type of wall that may be is an unknow. Second, he said he planned to start deporting illegal aliensthose with criminal recordswhich could amount to as many as three million individuals.

Despite The Wall, the deportation of Mexican citizens, and several grandiose comments about Mexico paying for said wallnot to mention Trumps proclamation that he would raise import tariffs up to 35 percent on some Mexican productsMexicos President Enrique Pena Nieto was among the first of the world leaders to congratulate Trump on his victory.

And if NAFTA is no more, tariffs will rise for all imports. What does all this mean for the future of oil imports to the U.S.?

The United States imported over 670,000 bpd of crude and fuels from Mexico in August, according to the EIA. Another 773,000 bpd came from Venezuela. Together, the two countries ranked third in the U.S. oil and products import mix, after Canada and Saudi Arabia.

While supplies from Canada are unlikely to be threatened, thanks to traditionally warm bilateral relations with the country, the situation is different for both Mexico and Venezuela because of the illegal immigration issue and the blatantly anti-U.S. Caracas regime. Whether Trump is successful in cutting backor cutting entirelyimports from Saudi Arabia is yet another unknown

And while its possible that Mexico and Venezuela could suffer a drop in exports to the U.S., if Trump stays true to his campaign promises, other forces are also influencing the matter. Related: Can Trump Derail The EV Revolution?

The situation in Venezuela remains highly volatile, but there is a ray of hope on the horizon as the government of President Nicolas Maduro and the leaders of the opposition party MUD begrudgingly discusses the direction Venezuela should take. But no matter the outcome of these talks, the starving country will need markets for its crude oil, and the U.S. happens to be the largest one, so it is very unlikely that anyone there would seek to antagonize Trump.

Things are a bit different in Mexico, since many of the illegal immigrants Trump wants to deport come from the southern neighbora factor that may stress relations. But with the liberalization of the Mexican energy market in the last few years, Mexico is turning out to have lucrative opportunities for the U.S. energy industry, to include oil and gas production, refining, marketing, and, of course, transportationthe full deck. And U.S. energy businesses need these opportunities to sustain their profitability, just as Mexico needs to sell its crude. In short, the neighbors need each other.

President-elect Trump will likely come to rely on expert advisers for a lot of the decisions he will make once he steps into the Oval office. With various experts already warning against the adverse outcomes of NAFTAs removal and the increase of tariffs, its possible that these advisers will help the president-elect tweak some of his campaign pledges. For the time being, imports from Mexico and Venezuela should be safe.

By Irina Slav For Oilprice.com

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House of Harley-Davidson announced today the expansion of its territory with the purchase of Racine Harley-Davidson.

This purchase marks the third House of Harley-Davidson dealership location, joining the flagship store at 6221 W. Layton Ave. and a satellite retail location in Milwaukees Mitchell International Airport. The new spot is at 1155 Oakes Rd. in Mount Pleasant.

"We are proud to expand our territory and we see tremendous growth opportunities in Racine County. We look forward to servicing the customers who love the Harley-Davidson brand in southeastern Wisconsin," said Jeff Binkert, president of House of Harley-Davidson. "We congratulate the former owner, Mark Ulinski, on his retirement and we cant wait to welcome our customers to House of Harley-Davidson, Racine and to our exceptional brand of service."

Since Binkert and his team purchased House of Harley-Davidson in August 2015, the dealership has expanded its community presence by hosting dozens of charitable events, including those that honor veterans, law enforcement and public safety professionals, childrens charities and animal welfare organizations.

And, of course, its where I learned how to ride a motorcycle.

This July, I participated in the Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Riding Academy, a learn-to-ride program for new riders. House of Harley will continue the program in its Racine location.

House of Harley-Davidson is the official motorcycle seller and service provider for southeast Wisconsins law enforcement agencies, including police departments from the city of Milwaukee, Wauwatosa, Franklin, Brown Deer, Greendale, South Milwaukee; sheriffs offices from Milwaukee County, Walworth County, Jefferson County; and the Wisconsin State Patrol.

"We are proud to be a part of the Harley-Davidson legacy in Wisconsin and we look forward to bringing a world-class experience to our new customers in Racine County, especially as the excitement builds for the Harley-Davidson Motor Company 115th Anniversary celebration in 2018," Binkert said.

House of Harley's flagship location at 6221 W. Layton Ave.

House of Harley-Davidson, Racine service and sales area will include:
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

It wasn't to be, but had it been, Hillary Clinton would have become not only the first woman president, but the first president to enter the Oval Office as a lame duck. For Republicans in (and out) of a Congress they totally controlled, it would have been scorched-earth tactics all the way. Not a law, not a Supreme Court justice, not an achievement would they have allowed her. The investigations, which never really ended, would have revved up instantly. Impeachment was already on the table before Election Day. And yet, in one area she would have been on the job and had a free hand from day one: foreign policy, especially in America's wars and conflicts in the Greater Middle East and Africa.

For that, a president no longer really needs a Congress for which "war powers" are a thing of the past, a Congress that, in twenty-first-century America, couldn't defund a war if the planet's future depended on it. Wars, assassination campaigns, military "pivots," and Special Ops raids across significant parts of the planet are now really just the commander-in-chief's business. From Washington to Detroit, Kansas City to Portland, Hillary Clinton would have been dead in the water, but from Syria to Afghanistan, Yemen to Libya, Iraq to Somalia, the Clinton White House would have been on the job.

Of course, in Donald Trump's America, in those first 100 days, there will be no lame ducks. Anything will, after a fashion, be possible. Any corporate or 1% dream will be imaginable. Taxes? Don't fret for a sec if you're already raking it in. Environmental protections? What in the world were they for anyway? Climate change? A footnote at best in a Washington to be ruled by Big Energy and its lobbyists. The first woman president has already been obliterated. Domestically speaking, once Trump & Co. have done their damnedest, the first black president will, in essence, never have existed.

And when it comes to foreign policy, The Donald and his crew will have the same freedom Clinton would have had to do anything they want and use the U.S. military any way they please. The difference, as TomDispatchregular Nick Turse points out today, is that, while we had a pretty clear sense of what Clinton would do abroad (and the damage it would have caused), we really have no idea what The Donald's still nonexistent national security team will do (only, of course, that if you had to put your money down, it's bound to be grim and chaotic). So take a little trip with Turse into a very dark place and think about where this country, its wars and policies, may be heading. Tom

It Did Happen Here

Rebirth of a Nation?

By Nick Turse "So is he going to win?" The question washed over me as I slumped in my hard plastic chair. I had passed the day walking through a town where most homes lay in ruins and human remains were strewn across a field, a day spent looking over my shoulder for soldiers and melting in the 110-degree heat. My mind was as spent as my body. Under an inky sky ablaze with stars, the type of night you see only in the rural world, I looked toward the man who asked the question and half-shrugged. Everyone including me, I said, thought Donald Trump was going to flame out long ago. And he hadn't. So what did I know? At that point, I couldn't bear to talk about it anymore, so the two of us sat speechless for a time. Finally, my companion looked back at me and broke his silence. "It can't happen, can it?" he asked. I had no answer then -- March of this year -- sitting in that ruined town in South Sudan. I do now. I thought about that March night as the election results rolled in, as the New York Times forecast showed Hillary Clinton's chances of winning the presidency plummet from about 80% to less than 5%, while Trump's fortunes skyrocketed by the minute. As Clinton's future in the Oval Office evaporated, leaving only a whiff of her stale dreams, I saw all the foreign-policy certainties, all the hawkish policies and military interventions, all the would-be bin Laden raids and drone strikes she'd preside over as commander-in-chief similarly vanish into the ether. With her failed candidacy went the no-fly escalation in Syria that she was sure to pursue as president with the vigor she had applied to the disastrous Libyan intervention of 2011 while secretary of state. So, too, went her continued pursuit of the now-nameless war on terror, the attendant "gray-zone" conflicts -- marked by small contingents of U.S. troops, drone strikes, and bombing campaigns -- and all those munitions she would ship to Saudi Arabia for its war in Yemen. As the life drained from Clinton's candidacy, I saw her rabid pursuit of a new Cold War start to wither and Russo-phobic comparisons of Putin's rickety Russian petro-state to Stalin's Soviet Union begin to die. I saw the end, too, of her Iron Curtain-clouded vision of NATO, of her blind faith in an alliance more in line with 1957 than 2017.

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While the United States presidential election bitterly divided the American public, most Israelis were sanguine about the race. Both candidates -- Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton -- were keen to end eight years of icy mistrust between Barack Obama, the outgoing president, and Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli prime minister should -- at least on paper -- be happier with Trump.

Netanyahu, elected four times, has always faced off with Democratic incumbents. Now he has not only a right-wing Republican in the White House but a Republican-dominated Congress too.

Standing guard over the relationship will be Sheldon Adelson, a US casino magnate who is Netanyahu's most vocal supporter. It will not be lost on Trump that the billionaire is one of the Republican Party's main financiers.

Netanyahu was among the first to congratulate Trump by phone. The US president-elect reciprocated by inviting him for talks "at the first opportunity." And yet Netanyahu is reported to be anxious about a Trump White House. Why?

It is certainly not because of Trump's stated policies on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

He has backed moving the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem -- a move that, if implemented, would make the US the first western state to recognize the city as Israel's capital. It would effectively rubber-stamp Israel's illegal annexation of East Jerusalem, the expected capital of a Palestinian state.

Previous Republican candidates have made the same promise, but Trump looks like the first who might carry it through. A nervous Palestinian leadership warned at the weekend they would "make life miserable" for him if he did.

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From Our Future

It's already a Washington truism that Donald Trump, who promised to "drain the swamp" of lobbyists and others who exploit government for personal gain, has turned to it instead for his key appointments.

It's true. The reptiles are taking over. Let's take a tour of the place while we still can.

Welcome to Trump Swamp. Join us on the glass-bottom boat as we gaze on the denizens below. Keep your hands inside the railings -- and please don't feed the gators.

It's hard to get past the white nationalist in any discussion of Trump's team. Sure, they call Steve Bannon's worldview "alt-right," but that's deceptive. That makes it sound like something new, when hatred is as old as the hills.

White supremacist Jared Taylor cheered Bannon's hire, saying he suspected Bannon will serve as an "anti-waffler" to maintain Trump's ideological and racial purity. (Taylor's most recent tweet, as of this writing is, "Excellent Boston Globe article about the Hispanic invasion. This is how we throw away our country.")

"I think that's excellent," said former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke of Bannon's hire.

"Perhaps The Donald IS for 'REAL,'" the chairman of the American Nazi Party exulted, adding: "Time will tell."

Admittedly, when one of the President-elect's appointments gets positive responses from the KKK and the Nazis, it's hard to focus on his other hires. But it's important. If "personnel is policy," as Sen. Elizabeth Warren says, then Trump's policy is plunder.

Billionaire Steve Mnuchin is a leading contender for Secretary of the Treasury. As we first noted last August, Mnuchin ran a mortgage-lending outfit called One West, which was investigated for its abusive treatment of borrowers. The California Reinvestment Coalition asked authorities to investigate One West's pattern of racial discrimination in foreclosures, and specifically cited its "foreclosures of widows."

Looks like the proprietor of Trump University has found a soul mate. There are others.

Trump also sought out JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon for Treasury Secretary. Dimon has presided over a truly epic orgy of fraud during his tenure. Dimon is a generous campaign donor to politicians from both parties, which may explain why he has escaped serious investigation.

(Dimon wisely took his name out of consideration for the job. Elizabeth Warren would have humiliated him.)

Then there's billionaire Wilbur Ross, a leading contender for Commerce Secretary. Ross, who is already reassuring investors that Trump won't do anything rash on trade, invests in "distressed assets." What the aliens in "Independence Day" do to planets like Earth, Ross does to troubled companies. He plunders them for anything of value and then leaves them in ruins.

And speaking of plundering a planet and leaving it in ruins, here are the leading contenders for Trump's top energy and environmental slots:

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by Sen. Doug Whitsett

The 2016 election results are nothing less than exciting. Pollsters and political pundits had assured us that another Clinton in the White house was a near 95 percent certainty. By their computations, there simply were not enough deplorable Trump supporters to even make the presidential contest close.

Thankfully, they were uniformly wrong. The too-often quiet American majority came to the polls in record-breaking numbers to change the course or our nation. They came from middle-America in droves and elected Republican nominee Donald Trump the 45th President of the United States.

Trump won election by prevailing in several states that were lost by U.S. Senator John McCain in 2008 and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney in 2012. Those include Florida, North Carolina and a number of Midwestern rust belt states like Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The selection of Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his vice president likely helped carry those states, as well as his own.

Many of the same pollsters, political pundits and so-called experts also predicted Republicans would lose control of the U.S. Senate. Wrong again! A series of incumbent Republican Senators turned back well-funded Democrat challenges to maintain a majority in that chamber. They include senators Marco Rubio in Florida, Rob Portman in Ohio, Richard Burr in North Carolina, Ron Johnson in Wisconsin, Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania and Roy Blunt from Missouri.

During the last presidential debate, the candidates were asked to explain their philosophies regarding appointments to the US Supreme Court. Their responses couldnt have been more different.

Trump stated his primary criteria was for selection of justices who would uphold the U.S. Constitution. Clinton replied she would appoint justices who she believes would shape the Constitution toward the political will of the people.

President Donald Trump could be afforded the opportunity to appoint at least three Justices. His election, along with the Senate Republican majority, should help to ensure the selection of justices similar to the late, greatly respected constitutional scholar Antonin Scalia.

Republicans also maintained their strong majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in Congress. For the first time in over a decade, Republicans at the federal level have the opportunity to govern with the principles of true conservatism. They can get serious about balancing the budget and addressing the nearly $20 trillion in federal debt that has nearly doubled under the Obama administration.

Voters gave Republicans the opportunity to roll back the nonstop growth of government, to free the markets of the more onerous Obama initiatives such as Obamacare and his absurd energy policies, to repair our crumbling infrastructure, and to rebuild our military capabilities and leadership. It is now their responsibility to perform.

Oregon voters once again chose to elect a Democrat governor and Democrat majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives. Nearly 30 years of Democrat governors and a decade of Democrat control of the state legislature has resulted in immense increases in spending and government growth.

Maintaining all that growth is projected to cost about $3 billion more during the next two year budget cycle. The immediate problem is that revenue projections only predict about $1.5 billion more than we have ever before had to spend.

Simple math demonstrates at least a $1.5 billion shortfall between projected costs and projected income. The obvious potential solutions are to spend less money or raise more revenue. Democrats historically have had little appetite for reducing spending.

The proposed multi-billion dollar Measure 97 gross receipts tax on businesses was widely rejected by Oregon voters. This means there will be no blank check to bail out the big government special interest groups that have long dominated politics at the state capitol in Salem. The 2017 budget struggles will be epic.

Regular audits from the Secretary of States Office could aid in that budget process. Meaningful audits of state agency spending is much more likely now that former longtime Representative Dennis Richardson has been elected Secretary of State. His platform included using that agencys audits division to better track state agency spending, and increasing transparency and accountability.

Richardson is the first Republican elected to statewide office since former U.S. Senator Gordon Smith in 2002. His candidacy was endorsed by nearly every newspaper editorial board in the state.

He has been a stalwart fiscal conservative throughout his legislative career. During the 2005 Legislative Assembly, he was elected speaker pro tempore, the last time Republicans held a majority in either chamber. We have served together for a decade on the budget-writing Ways and Means Committee which at one time he co-chaired. I am confident Dennis will serve the people of this state well bringing some much-needed, and long-overdue, balance to our state government.

In the Oregon Senate, my Republican colleagues all won re-election by impressive margins. Senator Herman Baertschiger (R-Grants Pass) won his race with 97 percent of the vote. Senator Bill Hansell (R-Athena) earned 80 percent; Senators Ted Ferrioli (R-John Day), Fred Girod (R-Stayton) and Jeff Kruse (R-Roseburg) garnered around 70 percent; Senators Brian Boquist (R-Dallas) and Tim Knopp (R-Bend) were both at around 60 percent in their races.

Former Klamath County Commissioner Dennis Linthicum also earned 60 percent of the vote in his election to represent SD 28. He will succeed me in office following my retirement from the Legislature early next year. Senator-elect Linthicum will represent the district well. He has a tremendous understanding of the importance of natural resources to our rural economies and is a strong proponent of constitutionally limited government and free market economic policies.

Preliminary results have former Ashland mayor Alan DeBoer leading by about 500 votes in the SD 3 race to replace Senator Alan Bates (D-Ashland), who passed away last summer. Assuming those results hold up, Senate Democrats will no longer hold a 60 percent super-majority that allows them to levy taxes on a party line vote. It could limit their ability to further grow government by enlarging the ranks of the public employee unions. It could also force a meaningful discussion of limited, constitution reform of the states Public Employee Retirement System in order to maintain its long-term solvency.

Republicans in the Oregon House of Representatives did not gain or lose any seats. That also deprives Democrats of a supermajority in the House. Many incumbents won their races by wide margins.

Representatives Dallas Heard (R-Roseburg), Duane Stark (R-Grants Pass), Greg Smith (R-Heppner), Greg Barreto (R-Pendleton) and Cliff Bentz (R-Ontario) all pulled around 90 percent of the vote in their races. Around 80 percent was earned by Representatives Andy Olson (R-Albany) and Sherrie Sprenger (R-Scio). Representatives Carl Wilson (R-Grants Pass), Mike McLane (R-Powell Butte) and John Huffman (R-The Dalles) received around 70 percent. Around 60 percent of the vote was received by Representatives Sal Esquivel (R-Medford), Vic Gilliam (R-Silverton), Jodi Hack (R-Salem), Cedric Hayden (R-Roseburg), Bill Post (R-Keizer), Bill Kennemer (R-Oregon City) and Gene Whisnant (R-Sunriver).

Seats left open by the decision of Rep. Jim Weidner (R-Yamhill) and Rep. John Davis (R-Wilsonville) to not seek another term were also retained by House Republicans. The House Republicans who represent districts with Democratic registration majorities also withstood well-funded challenges, including Representatives Julie Parrish (R-West Linn), Mark Johnson (R-Hood River) and Knute Buehler (R-Bend), who will all be returning to the Legislature for the 2017 session.

Werner Reschke handily won the House District 56 seat being vacated by the retirement of Rep. Gail Whitsett (R-Klamath Falls). Like Linthicum, Reschke is a strong fiscal and social conservative with private business experience. He is a good listener, intelligent, industrious and an excellent speaker and writer. We are confident he will represent the constituents of our district very well.

The American people were given a clear choice in last Tuesdays election. Clintons vision for our nation appeared to promise four more years of policies similar to the last eight years of the Obama administration. Trump offered a vison of a return to the free market entrepreneurial innovation and growth that has made America exceptional. In my opinion, they made the right choice and by doing so may have saved our nation as we know it.

Senator Doug Whitsett is the Republican state senator representing Senate District 28  Klamath Falls
iStock/Thinkstock(MIAMI) -- The rate of homicides, especially homicides by firearms, sharply increased in Florida in the years after the "stand your ground" law was passed, according to a new study published Monday by the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine.



Passed in 2005, the so-called "stand your ground" law in Florida allows residents to use force, including deadly force, if they "reasonably believe" they are at risk of bodily harm. The law also created a "no duty to retreat" provision if they felt at risk.



To see if they could find any measurable effects in the homicide rate after the law's passage, researchers from the University of Oxford looked at Florida homicide data at various points in time from 1999 to 2014. They then compared increases or decreases in those rates with four control states (New York, Virginia, New Jersey and Ohio) where a "stand your ground"-type law does not exist.



By examining data from a database run by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers found that in the years after the law was passed in Florida, homicides increased approximately 24 percent -- from an average of 82 homicides per month between 1999 to October 2005 to 99 homicides per month between October 2005 to 2014.



Additionally, they found the rate of homicide by firearms went up approximately 32 percent -- from a mean of 49 homicides per month to 69 during those same periods.



Researchers found no similar increases in the four control states that did not have a "stand your ground"-type law.



They also examined suicide data but did not find any comparable increase in either Florida suicide rates or, more specifically, suicide by firearm rates after the law's passage. The authors acknowledged that it's possible there may be multiple factors that led to an increase in the Florida homicide rate.



"Circumstances unique to Florida may have contributed to our findings, including those that we could not identify," the authors wrote in the study.



There are 23 states that have implemented some form of a "stand your ground" law, according to the researchers.



Jeffrey Swanson, a professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University, has studied the effects of gun-related policies and said the study published Monday was "important."



"These 'stand your ground' laws have proliferated and for the people who favor them, the point is that it's going to make people safer," Swanson told ABC News Monday. "You can stand your ground if you perceive your life is being threatened [but] what we're seeing here empirically is exactly the opposite."



While the researchers found an increase in homicide rates after the law's passage, they did not find enough evidence to definitively find the law caused the increase in the homicide rate.



While the study had limitations, Swanson said the research of the four control states makes the study stronger.



"They look at comparable trends in states that didn't pass the law and don't see the effect," Swanson noted.



Swanson said these kinds of studies must continue in order for policy makers to make clear and informed decisions about legislation.



"This is always the question of balancing risk and rights," Swanson said.



The National Rifle Association, which backed Florida's "stand your ground" law, did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment on the study.

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
PTI,AML submitted evidences against Nawaz Sharif

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and its ally the Awami Muslim League of Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Monday submitted volumes of evidence that purportedly establish that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif allegedly laundered money to pay for his London properties.



The PTI and the AML chief are two of the four parties, hearing on whose petitions will be resumed by a five-judge Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali. The court is currently considering whether or not to appoint a judicial commission to probe the Panamagate scandal.



Conspicuously, the counsel representing the prime minister and his children did not file any evidence before the court. However, an application was moved on behalf of Maryam, Hassan and Hussain Nawaz for a change of counsel from Salman Aslam Butt to Mohammad Akram Sheikh and Aizid Nafees.



Mr Butt earlier represented the prime minister, his three children as well as his son-in-law retired Capt Mohammad Safdar. Legal experts believe that the respondents may submit evidence to disprove the allegations levelled in the petitions against them early on Tuesday morning, or seek further time to furnish the same.



But Sheikh Rashid described the changing of counsel as an attempt to further delay proceedings on the part of the prime ministers family.



Talking to reporters while initialling each leaf of his 600-page tome of evidence, Sheikh Rashid appeared confident that the Supreme Court would dispense justice. He expressed the apprehension that Nawaz Sharif may cause irreparable damage to himself in his attempt to become the Erdogan of Pakistan.



At the last hearing on Nov 7, the Supreme Court had provided the prime minister and his children a final opportunity to submit evidence to support their claims, adding that after going it, the court would decide whether to appoint a judicial commission or decide the controversy at hand on its own.



On Monday, senior counsel Naeem Bukhari submitted a 686-page document, which purportedly demonstrated how the Sharif family allegedly laundered their money and purchased property in 1998.



The evidence includes an April 10, 2000 Guardian article titled Sharif set for grilling on wealth as well as an April 5, 2016 article, headlined Pakistani PMs children raised 7m against UK flats owned offshore; Maryam Nawazs comments from a television talk show, different press clippings, Chaudhry Nisars statement about the Mayfair flats from Aug 12, 2012; Siddiq-ul-Farooqs statement also about the Mayfair flats, an FIA letter regarding M/s Nescoll Ltd, different land registries, reports and financial statements of various companies, Maryam Nawazs Form A for the year 2012-13 under the Punjab Agricultural Income Tax Act 1997 and a book called Raiwind Sazish by journalist Asad Kharal.



However, that last item drew the ire of Maryam Nawaz Sharif, who tweeted on Monday: Asad Kharals entire book of already dismissed evidence before this very court has been re submitted as evidence.



So much hue and cry, slanderous allegations & attempts at defaming the Sharifs & this is what you come up with!, she tweeted, referring to the PTIs claims of providing concrete evidence regarding the Sharif familys alleged corrupt practices. But Mr Kharal, not to be outdone, responded to Ms Sharif on Twitter, saying: Please correct yourself [maam]! Earlier, I had not presented this book before the Supreme Court in Panamagate case.



However, the Supreme Court had already dismissed the petition moved by Mr Kharal while initiating hearing in the Panama Papers case.



My emphasis is on Article 62 of the Constitution, which is the only way to ensure Nawaz Sharifs disqualification, Mr Sheikh Rashid said.



Sheikh Rashid also submitted a 600-page document, explaining that he had submitted a list of 11 different companies owned by the Sharifs, describing it as their nama-e-amaal.
Seven Pakistani soldiers killed on LOC

Seven Pakistani soldiers were killed Sunday night during cross-border firing across the Line of Control, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.



"Seven soldiers embraced shahadat at the LoC in the Bhimber sector in a ceasefire violation by Indian troops late last night."



Pakistani troops responded to 'unprovoked' Indian firing, and targeted Indian posts effectively, ISPR said.



Later on Monday, Army Chief General Raheel Sharif attended funeral prayers of the deceased soldiers at Jehlum who had died following unprovoked firing by the Indian troops along the LoC.



The Foreign Office (FO) summoned Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale on Monday to lodge a protest against the killing of soldiers across the LoC.



The FO Spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said India must stop all ceasefire violations and avoid targeting residents along the LoC. "We reserve the right to respond befittingly respond to Indian aggression," he said. The FO also delivered a letter of protest to India.



Zakaria earlier strongly condemned the "continuous unprovoked" firing in a tweet and added, "Pakistan Army responding in befitting manner. We salute our valiant soldiers who render ultimate sacrifices for national cause."



Pakistani authorities last week lodged protests with India as well as with the UN military observers over targeting of civilian populations as the civilian death toll from Indian shelling has risen to at least 26 in the past few weeks. Another 107 have been injured.



The Pakistani FO protested at least five times during the past five weeks over targeting of civilian populations.



Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed his profound grief and sorrow over the loss of precious human lives in the latest incident of cross-border firing.



He paid tribute to the slain soldiers and reiterated Pakistan's ability to defend itself against any aggression.



"We are fully capable of defending our soil against any aggression. The Indian forces have resorted to escalating tension on LoC only to detract the world's attention from the grave human rights situation in the Indian-held Kashmir," he claimed. The premier said that Indian forces have inflicted 'unspeakable atrocities' against the unarmed and innocent people of held Kashmir.



"There is an indigenous uprising against Indian occupation, and the Indian government is failing to read the writing on the wall. "By creating tension at LoC, the Indian forces are uselessly trying to divert the attention from the Kashmir issue," he added.



Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, responding to the latest development along the shared Pak-India border, claimed that India was heating the situation up along the LoC and Working Boundary due to internal compulsions, Radio Pakistan reported.



The defence minister said it was regrettable that certain extremist elements which had come into power in India could become a source of destruction not only for their own country but the whole region.



Asif urged the global community to take notice of "Indian provocations against Pakistan" as any escalation of tension between the two nuclear armed neighbours could prove catastrophic for the whole region.



He added that Pakistan is using diplomatic and international forums to highlight Indian 'belligerence'.



Cross-border firing appears to have become a routine as tensions simmer between Pakistan and India following an alleged 'surgical strike', unrest in Kashmir and the Uri army base attack.



The Indian deputy high commissioner has been summoned to the Foreign Office several times in protest against 'unprovoked' Indian fire and loss of lives due to incidents of cross-border firing.



Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stepped up a drive to isolate Pakistan diplomatically after the Uri army base attack last month. Hours after the attack occurred, Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh termed Pakistan a 'terrorist state' and accused Pakistan of involvement.



The Uri attack occurred days before Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was set to address the United Nations General Assembly regarding Indian human rights violations in held Kashmir.



Following the attack, India claimed it had conducted a cross-border 'surgical strike' against 'launch pads of terror' in Azad Jammu and Kashmir  a claim Pakistan has strongly rejected.



Pakistan maintains that India is attempting to divert the world's attention away from atrocities committed by government forces in India-held Kashmir.
USA should cooperate with China: Chinese President

BEIJING/WASHINGTON: Chinese President Xi Jinping told US president-elect Donald Trump that cooperation was the only choice for relations between the worlds two largest economies, with Trump saying the two had established a clear sense of mutual respect.



There has been intense speculation over the impact of Trumps win on issues facing the two countries, from global trade and climate change to the security balance in the Asia-Pacific. AFP reported that the US president-elects contrary and ambiguous positions had left a pall of uncertainty over how he would manage the relationship between United States and China.



Trump lambasted China throughout the US election campaign, drumming up headlines with his pledges to slap 45 percent tariffs on imported Chinese goods and to label the country a currency manipulator on his first day in office.



His election has injected uncertainty into relations at a time when Beijing hopes for stability as it faces daunting reform challenges at home, slowing growth and a leadership reshuffle of its own that will put a new party elite around Xi in late 2017. In their first interaction since the US election, Chinese state media said Xi told Trump in a telephone call on Monday that as the worlds largest developing and developed economies, there were many areas where China and the United States could cooperate.



The facts prove that cooperation is the only correct choice for China and the United States, China Central Television (CCTV) cited Xi as saying.



Xis remarks were a reiteration of phrasing typically used by Beijing to describe bilateral relations.



The two sides must promote the two countries economic development and global economic growth and push for better development going forward in China-US relations, Xi said.



During the call, the leaders established a clear sense of mutual respect for one another, and president-elect Trump stated that he believes the two leaders will have one of the strongest relationships for both countries moving forward, a statement from Trumps presidential transition office said.



The two agreed to maintain close communications and meet soon, CCTV said. Xi had congratulated Trump in a message delivered shortly after his surprise election victory last week.



The Global Times, a nationalist tabloid published by the ruling Communist Partys Peoples Daily newspaper, said if Trump slapped China with heavy tariffs it would paralyse bilateral trade.



In an editorial, the Global Times newspaper warned that China would take countermeasures if Washington levied tariffs and said that making things difficult for China politically will do him no good.



It said that Beijing would use a tit-for-tat approach and target US autos, aircraft, soybeans, and iPhones. When the time comes, large orders for Boeing planes would switch to Europe, US auto sales in China would face setbacks, Apple phones would essentially be crowded out, and US soybeans and corn would be eradicated from China, the paper said in a commentary.



It also said that China could limit the large number of students it sends to American schools. Trump, coming from a business background, is very astute. We do not believe he will treat China-US trade so childishly.



China has signalled it will promote plans for regional trade integration, vowing to seek support for a Beijing-backed Asia-Pacific free trade area at a summit in Peru later this month, after Trumps win dashed hopes for the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).



Trumps criticism of US allies, including Japan, for free-riding on US security guarantees, has deepened anxiety among Washingtons allies about its commitment to post-war security arrangements in the face of a rising China and volatile North Korea.



Trump appears to be seeking quick ways to withdraw the United States from a global accord to combat climate change, which has been billed by China and US President Barack Obama as a key area for cooperation.



Under President Barack Obama, Washingtons foreign policy pivot towards Asia was viewed with alarm in Beijing, which saw it as an attempt to contain its growing geopolitical and economic might.
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...
The mathematical (and other) thoughts of a (now retired) math teacher,
Ghanas investigative journalists, Anas Aremeyaw Anas has announced that the cry about corruption at the passport office has come to his attention and that very soon, he would focus his attention in the area.



The passport office would soon see me, he said, amid thunderous applause from the audience who attended a public lecture he (Anas) addressed at the Central University near Tema, over the weekend.



According to him, there was gargantuan corruption at the passport office and Ghana needs me to be there to unravel the seeming unending corruption, within that part of our economy.



Anas Aremeyaw Anas has, meanwhile, challenged Justice Paul Derry to face him before the Panel of Eminent Committee of Judges constituted by the Chief Justice, if he is a man.



The 2015 Ghanas best Journalist of the year said it was needless for Justice Paul Derry, who was a former High Court judge to run to the International Human Rights Court, Abuja, Nigeria, to seek relief, after Ghanas Chief Justice, Madam Georgina Theodora Wood, had constituted a panel of eminent committee in Ghana to hear his defence.



Justice Derry was among the judges that Anas expose implicated as being corrupt and, therefore, influencing judgement in cases they sat on in their courts. Consequently, he was reported to have prayed the International Human Rights Courts in Abuja to cite the ace journalist for using his profession to invade his privacy and breaching the journalism ethical standards.



Taking his turn at the Central Universitys (CU) annual Public Lecture Series, with the faculty of Communications, at Miotso, Dawhenya, Anas said presently, 72 law suits stared at him, but they would not scare him from chasing and exposing the corrupt deeds of public officials.



This years CU Public Lecture was on the theme: Putting the pieces together: the aftermath of the judiciary expose, and Anas said albeit he recognized that his work might be at variance with the ethics of journalism, it was necessary he defied certain odds to expose corruption.



My definition and style for journalism is to name, shame and jail to save the country from the hands of unscrupulous persons, whose core aim is to rob the nation of what it deserves, he stated.



The masked journalist, thus, said that much as he would welcome criticisms of his style and definition, he would not slack affirming his shift from the academic definition of journalism, otherwise, the nation wreckers would go scot-free.

Defending his definition of journalism, he said: The repositories of ethics may have their views but the Ghanaian society differs from theirs, therefore, the need for my style of journalism.



He said he could not watch such nation wreckers go unexposed if he did not shift from the academic definition of journalism.



Anas Aremeyaw Anas held that judges in Ghana, over the years, had not been questioned so well, even though he said they were not sacrosanct.

President of CU, Professor Kwesi Yankah, lauded Anas efforts of ensuring that corruption was reduced in Ghanas socio-economic growth.



He believed that Ghana would, one day, have more of such brave and learned journalists to uncover more rots in the country.





Source: The Chronicle









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Vice President K. B. Amissah-Arthur is urging the electorates to reject the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the upcoming December 7 elections, as the party has no developmental ideas for the nation.



He described the NPP as a private sector oriented party, pretending to be a development oriented one, hence its unrealistic promises.



Mr Amissah-Arthur said this when he addressed a mammoth rally of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) at Kaleo in the Upper West Region, as part of his campaign tour in the region.



He noted that, development should be relevant to the needs of the people and one cannot sit at a place to be assuring the same thing to every community, as the NPP is doing.



"Development must always be relevant to the needs of the people and one cannot just sit in Accra and think everybody in Ghana must have the same thing like one dam, one district, even if some of the communities do not need those dams," he said.



He disclosed that, as a development oriented party, the NDC always go to the people to ask about their needs and wants, hence the massive infrastructural development across the country tailored to suit the needs of specific communities.



"As a development oriented party, the NDC will continue to prioritize projects that the people need, and not do the things that are dreamed up in Accra and may be irrelevant to a particular community," he assured.



Mr Amissah-Arthur urged the electorates in the Nadowli-Kaleo constituency to retain Hon Alban Sunmana Bagbin, as their Member of Parliament (MP), adding that his experience is still needed for the development of the country.



"On December 7, go out there and vote John Dramani Mahama as your President and Hon

Bagbin, as your MP," he said.









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A fibroblast undergoing ferroptosis. Credit: Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen

Ferroptosis is a recently discovered form of cell death, which is still only partially understood. Scientists at the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen have now identified an enzyme that plays a key role in generating the signal that initiates cell death. Their findings, published in two articles in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, could now give new impetus to research into the fields of cancer, neurodegeneration and other degenerative diseases.

The term ferroptosis was first coined in 2012. It is derived from the Greek word ptosis, meaning "a fall", and ferrum, the Latin word for iron, and describes a form of regulated necrotic cell death in which iron appears to play an important role. "The individual mechanisms involved in this type of cell death remain only partly understood, and our findings make an important contribution towards a better understanding of ferroptotic cell death," says study leader Dr. Marcus Conrad, who is heading a research group at the Institute of Developmental Genetics at the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen.

Along with his team and colleagues from the University of Pittsburgh, he was able to show that ACSL4, an enzyme involved in the metabolism of fatty acids, plays a central role in ferroptosis. In order for the lethal mechanism to be triggered, a certain amount of specific oxidized lipid molecules must be present in membranes. "Acsl4 is critically involved in shaping the cellular lipid composition by storing more poly-unsaturated long-chain fatty acids in cellular membranes, thereby providing the starting materials for the generation of the lethal lipid signals driving ferroptosis" explains PhD student Sebastian Doll, first author of one of the two studies. "Previously it was assumed that iron-dependent lipid oxidation occurs randomly; however, our data now demonstrate that ACSL4 centrally contributes to the formation of oxidized lipid death signals in ferroptosis."

Potential applications for the treatment of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases

Although the term 'cell death' is generally viewed as an adverse event and thus has a rather negative image, it has been shown  particularly in the context of cancer  that the selective destruction of aberrant cells is vital for the human body. The scientists therefore examined the role of ACSL4 in this context. They showed that a subset of breast cancer cells (i.e. triple negative breast cancer cells) that do not produce ACSL4 are extremely resistant to ferroptosis, while those that express the enzyme respond very sensitively to ferroptosis induction. "This is a highly interesting finding given the fact that the presence of ACSL4 determines whether or not cells can embark on the ferroptosis pathway" explains Dr. Jose Pedro Friedmann Angeli, who was centrally involved in both studies. It is thus well conceivable, he says, that the molecule could be used as a biomarker in cancer patient stratification.

The researchers also provided the first molecular approach for targeting ACSL4 in the signalling pathway. In a model experiment using thiazolidinediones, a class of active compounds commonly used in the treatment of diabetes, they succeeded in slowing down the process of ferroptosis.

"Our intriguing insights that the ACSL4 enzyme plays a substantial role in the process of cell death provide novel cues for yet-unrecognized therapeutic approaches towards inhibiting ferroptosis in degenerative diseases or inducing ferroptosis in certain tumor diseases," says study leader Dr. Conrad. In particular, tumors that are otherwise very difficult to treat with standard chemotherapy might be amenable for ferroptosis therapy, the researchers say.

More information: Sebastian Doll et al. ACSL4 dictates ferroptosis sensitivity by shaping cellular lipid composition, Nature Chemical Biology (2016). DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.2239 Valerian E Kagan et al. Oxidized arachidonic and adrenic PEs navigate cells to ferroptosis, Nature Chemical Biology (2016). DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.2238 Journal information: Nature Chemical Biology
New energy vehicles (NEVs) at Beijing Institute of Technology's campus. Credit: Yu Hao

Many Chinese cities are suffering from deteriorating environmental qualityparticularly due to air pollution that contributes to fog and haze. Air pollutant levels now far exceed "safe" limits established by the European Union, and one of the main culprits behind it is the rapid increase in automobile ownership and usage.

These rising environmental concerns are driving the development of new energy vehicles (NEVs)aka plug-in electric vehiclesas a way to help mitigate the environmental problems associated with automobile usage. But sales of NEVs are still relatively low. In 2014, the 74,763 NEVs sold accounted for only 0.3 percent of total automobile sales in China that year.

So, a group of researchers from the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research at Beijing Institute of Technology, the Collaborative Innovation Center of Electric Vehicles in Beijing, and the Sustainable Development Research Institute for Economy and Society of Beijing set out to find out what motivates or influences consumer to purchase electric vehicles within seven cities in China. They report their findings this week in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy.

"China has a responsibility to make efforts to reduce the pollution for fossil consumption," said Yu Hao, an associate professor in the School of Management and Economics at Beijing Institute of Technology.

The group's work is based on "a carefully designed questionnaire and an empirical analysis of its data to determine the main factors influencing NEV purchases," explained Hao.

To aid and speed the development of China's NEV industry, "it's essential to understand both the motives behind consumers' purchases and any existing barriers to the popularization of NEVs," Hao continued. "Our studies revealed that monthly income, the number of cars a family owns, sustainability, and vehicle comfort are the factors that most strongly influence customers' purchasing behavior."

They also found that factors such as age, marital status and city of residence are playing a role in consumers' decision-making process.

Based on the group's findings, "several suggestions are now being provided to help develop the Chinese NEV market," Hao said. Their primary recommendation is that the Chinese government should consider scaling up "effective targeting of financial support and subsidies, while improving the financial incentive system for NEVs."

Beyond that, "companies within the NEV industry should also be encouraged to increase their research and development investments," Hao added. "Ultimately, the government ought to encourage citizens to raise their awareness of the environment and sustainable development."

As far as the next step for their work, "low carbon economy and NEVs are both hot topics around the world, so governments are competing to regulate subsidy policies for NEVs," Hao said. "We're interested in further exploring how these differentiated policies may affect consumers' purchase intentions so we can make corresponding policy recommendations."

More information: "What influences personal purchases of new energy vehicles in China? An empirical study based on a survey of Chinese citizens," Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, DOI: 10.1063/1.4966908 Journal information: Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy
Immunofluorescence analysis of SH-SY5Y cells treated for 5 days with 10uM Retinoic Acid and 50ng/ml BDNF for the next 3 days. The DAPI fluorescence stain is blue and Beta-tubulin is green. Credit: Caponi, et al.

One of the biggest challenges in cognitive or rehabilitation neurosciences is the ability to design a functional hybrid system that can connect and exchange information between biological systems, like neurons in the brain, and human-made electronic devices. A large multidisciplinary effort of researchers in Italy brought together physicists, chemists, biochemists, engineers, molecular biologists and physiologists to analyze the biocompatibility of the substrate used to connect these biological and human-made components, and investigate the functionality of the adhering cells, creating a living biohybrid system.

In an article appearing this week in AIP Advances, the research team used the interaction between light and matter to investigate the material properties at the molecular level using Raman spectroscopy, a technique that, until now, has been principally applied to material science. Thanks to the coupling of the Raman spectrometer with a microscope, spectroscopy becomes a useful tool for investigating micro-objects such as cells and tissues. Raman spectroscopy presents clear advantages for this type of investigation: The molecular composition and the modification of subcellular compartments can be obtained in label-free conditions with non-invasive methods and under physiological conditions, allowing the investigation of a large variety of biological processes both in vitro and in vivo.

Once the biocompatibility of the substrate was analyzed and the functionality of the adhering cells investigated, the next part of this puzzle is connecting with the electronic component. In this case a memristor was used.

"Its name reveals its peculiarity (MEMory ResISTOR), it has a sort of "memory": depending on the amount of voltage that has been applied to it in the past, it is able to vary its resistance, because of a change of its microscopic physical properties," said Silvia Caponi, a physicist at the Italian National Research Council in Rome. By combining memristors, it is possible to create pathways within the electrical circuits that work similar to the natural synapses, which develop variable weight in their connections to reproduce the adaptive/learning mechanism. Layers of organic polymers, like polyaniline (PANI) a semiconductor polymer, also have memristive properties, allowing them to work directly with biological materials into a hybrid bio-electronic system.

"We applied the analysis on a hybrid bio-inspired device but in a prospective view, this work provides the proof of concept of an integrated study able to analyse the status of living cells in a large variety of applications that merges nanosciences, neurosciences and bioelectronics," said Caponi. A natural long-term objective of this work would be interfacing machines and nervous systems as seamlessly as possible.

The multidisciplinary team is ready to build on this proof of principle to realize the potential of memristor networks.

"Once assured the biocompatibility of the materials on which neurons grow," said Caponi, "we want to define the materials and their functionalization procedures to find the best configuration for the neuron-memristor interface to deliver a full working hybrid bio-memristive system."

More information: "A multidisciplinary approach to study the functional properties of neuron-like cell models constituting a living bio-hybrid system: SH-SY5Y cells adhering to PANI substrate," AIP Advances, DOI: 10.1063/1.4966587 Journal information: AIP Advances
Efforts to save the Florida panther may have broken through a longtime barrier: a female cat appears to have forged the Caloosahatchee River to stake out new territory to the north.

In a statement Monday, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said the discovery was confirmed in November. It was the first time in 40 years that a female panther has crossed the river in Southwest Florida. If she mates with males who routinely cross the river, a new population could be added to the lone, crowded Florida population south of the river that in recent years has been dying in record numbers.

"This is a big deal for panther conservation," Kipp Frohlich, deputy division director for Habitat and Species Conservation, said in the statement. "An expansion of the panther's breeding range should improve the prospects for recovery."

A trail camera first snapped a picture of the female in 2015. The following summer, biologists set up additional cameras that collected more pictures, although the panther's gender was unclear, the statement said. Then in November, a biologist discovered female panther tracks near one of the cameras. Male tracks are larger than females, so staff believed that the tracks, which they preserved with a plaster cast, confirmed their findings.

"When we saw the tracks, we felt confident they were made by a female panther," Darrell Land, the commission's panther team leader, said in a statement. "We could rule out a male panther because by the time males are old enough to leave their mother, their paws are already bigger than females' paws."

Panthers once roamed much of the state but their number had dwindled to just 46 by 1990 because of years of inbreeding. To revive the population, biologists released nine female Texas cougars, a close cousin. The plan worked, with numbers rising to between 100 and 180. But the increased number put pressure on territory - males, which roam a much bigger range, begin dying more frequently crossing roads, and more males began killing each other.

Part of the recovery plan called for a separate population north of the river to ease the pressure, but landowners resisted having females relocated. In 2015, the state proposed scaling back conservation efforts to eliminate the second population, which environmentalists fiercely opposed.

"We have been working with landowners to secure wildlife corridors to help panthers travel from south Florida, cross the river and reach this important panther habitat," said Larry Williams, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Florida supervisor. "While we do not know if this female used these tracts of land, we do know that securing lands that facilitate the natural expansion of the panther population are critical to achieving full recovery."

2016 Miami Herald

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Professor Neil Hyatt, Research Chair in Radioactive Waste Management, calls for UK plutonium policy to be re-examined to allow swift immobilisation of UK's civil plutonium stockpile to maximise safety, security and affordability for UK taxpayers.

Plutonium was once envisaged as the fuel for a fleet of fast breeder reactors, but the reactor development programme was shelved in 1994. Since then, plutonium, recovered by reprocessing of nuclear fuel, has continued to stockpile at the Sellafield site.

At the end of reprocessing operations in 2020, the UK civil plutonium stocks will exceed 140 tonnes - the largest stockpile of plutonium under civil safeguards in the world. Several influential reports have highlighted security concerns associated with indefinite storage of this material.

Current Government policy is to reuse the UK's plutonium as so-called MOX (Mixed Oxide) fuel in a fleet of new light water reactors. However, an analysis of the troubled US MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility, conducted by Professor Neil Hyatt, Director of Sheffield's Immobilisation Science Laboratory, has identified issues that may also be problematic for a potential new UK MOX fuel production plant.

The USA has all but abandoned completion of its MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility, a cornerstone of the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement between the USA and Russia, signed in 2010, to eliminate 34 tons of weapons grade plutonium. This lead to Russia suspending implementation of the agreement in October 2016.

Writing in the journal Energy Policy, Professor Neil Hyatt argues "The heavily over budget and delayed US MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility is based on the same reference design as a potential UK plant. So there is an urgent need to review the design basis assumptions and cost data for a UK MOX fuel fabrication plant, in the light of the US experience".

Professor Hyatt adds "In addition, no owner of a future new nuclear reactor in the UK has yet given a commitment to accept MOX fuel and the commercial appetite is expected to remain weak. For example, the Generic Design Assessment for the Hinkley Point C reactors explicitly excluded consideration of MOX fuels".

The study concludes Government policy should be changed to commit to immobilising plutonium which is suitable for reuse as MOX fuel, in the event that a MOX fuel fabrication plant is no longer considered a viable proposition.

Professor Hyatt argues that the UK needs to learn the lessons of the US plutonium disposition programme, which was wedded, exclusively, to plutonium reuse in MOX fuel fabrication: "There are significant cost and technical uncertainties in both the MOX reuse and immobilisation and disposal options. We can only mitigate these uncertainties by making a commitment to promptly immobilising all plutonium which is not reused as fuel and developing the necessary technology".

More information: Neil C. Hyatt, Plutonium management policy in the United Kingdom: The need for a dual track strategy, Energy Policy (2016). DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2016.08.033 Journal information: Energy Policy
Credit: Michigan Technological University

A new patent search tool developed by engineers at Michigan Technological University makes it easier to discover and track inactive patents.

Many innovators and inventors feel they have squandered hours fruitlessly rifling through old patents on the US Patent and Trademark Office website, trying to figure out which are still active and how they may relate to developing technologies.

A team from Michigan Tech decided to take matters into their own hands and streamline the exploration process with an online search engine, which is now free for everyone to use at www.freeip.mtu.edu. They tested how well the tool works and the journal Inventions published their results last week.

Something Old, Something Almost New

With today's fast-paced innovation, 20 years is a long time to waitand it's how long a patent's registration lasts. However, nearly half of all registered patents are inactive before their life time ends, which is a potential goldmine for inventors and innovators, says Joshua Pearce, a materials science and electrical engineer at Michigan Tech. Pearce and his graduate student Yuenyong Nilsiam developed the patent search engine.

"Think about what a 20-year-old cell phone looks likeit simply doesn't make sense to use 20-year-old patents for a new innovation," Pearce says.

But many registered, inactive patents could be inspiring. So, the algorithm Pearce and Nilsiam wrote works by scraping the US Patent Database each week when the agency updates patent statuses. Every 3.5 years, 7.5 years and 11.5 years, patents come up for renewal, and if the dues are not paid and the paperwork remains unfiled, then the patent becomes inactive and enters the public domain.

"We want to make patents useful again to inventors," Pearce says, adding the search tool is part of a larger movement. "More companies and individuals are looking to open source hardware development, which allows you to harness a global ecosystem of innovators, engineers and designs."

Open Source and 3-D Printing Technologies

Pearce runs the Michigan Tech Open Sustainability Technology (MOST) Lab and is deeply committed to making scientific knowledge widely available. The lab focuses on using appropriate technology to find collaborative solutions for sustainability and poverty reduction.

One of the technologies they often use is low-cost 3-D printing, which Pearce and Nilsiam used in patent queries to vet their search engine. They manually tracked patent searches using the US database and compared it to using their search engine, which cut the time identifying patents by a factor 1,500. In this case, it saved them 9 hours of tedious clicking through the USPTO database. Speeding up the process like this, Pearce says, could help innovators develop or commercialize their own technologies faster. But Pearce and his team didn't want to keep all the benefits to themselves.

"We're only making publicly available data more available," Pearce says. "For innovators, this could be a first stop shop, a way to see if your idea is available and what other solutions have been thought up."

The team hopes that by initially streamlining inactive patent searches, it will foster and speed up innovation down the road  particularly in the rapidly developing world of open source hardware. Granting access to more public domain could help more lightbulbs go off around the nation.

More information: Open Source Database and Website to Provide Free and Open Access to Inactive U.S. Patents in the Public Domain. www.academia.edu/29781601/Open  Domain?auto=download%20
Glens Falls Councilman at-Large Dan Hall said he is close to announcing a decision on whether he will run for mayor next year.

"I would say pretty soon," he said in an interview Tuesday. "We're getting close. I haven't decided yet."

Hall reaches term limits at the end of next year and cannot run for re-election to his current post.

Mayor Jack Diamond, who also reaches term limits at the end of next year, has said he plans to wrap up his 20-year tenure in city government and retire from politics.

There has been talk in political circles about Hall, a Democrat, running on a bipartisan ticket next year with Republican Jane Reid as councilwoman at-large candidate.

Republican Timothy Guy, a retired Warren County sheriff's deputy, and Conservative William Brown, a former city 1st Ward supervisor, already have announced their candidacies for mayor.

Water and Sewer Commissioner Nancy Underwood, an Independence Party member, and Peter Casertino, a city police officer, have said they are considering the mayor's race.

Warren County Green Party leaders have said they expect to have a mayoral candidate.
GLENS FALLS  A roofing contractor has been charged with felony grand larceny for allegedly defrauding a customer of over $3,000 by taking money and not doing the work as agreed, police said.

Randy J. Allen, 45, of Queensbury, was charged with third-degree grand larceny after an investigation by Glens Falls Police, authorities said.

He is accused of signing a contract and taking $3,340 in payments to do a roofing job in Glens Falls, but not doing the work, police said.

Police said he did not use a specific business name. Allen was arraigned and sent to Warren County Jail for lack of bail.

Glens Falls Police Officer Zack Tanner made the arrest.
LAKE GEORGE  The cost to repair a Lake George firetruck has overrun what was originally budgeted for the project, leaving town and village officials in a quandary.

The Lake George Town Board on Sept. 1 declined a request to purchase a new firetruck at a cost of nearly $1 million. It directed Fire Chief Jason Berry to fix the 1994 tower truck, which has been out of service since late July with various issues including cracks in the aerial lift cradle and a leaking pump.

The estimates for the cost of the repairs was about $41,000. More problems have been found with the truck since then.

Were pushing real hard at sixty grand, said Supervisor Dennis Dickinson.

Larry Vander Molen of the Dewitt-based Vander Molen Fire Apparatus told the Town Board on Monday that the initial estimate was based upon a list of repairs that was handed to the apparatus company. When the company got going with the work, it was discovered that the rear brakes were in as bad shape as the front brakes and there was damage to the climbing ladder. The radiator also needed to be repaired.

The rear brakes and the radiator were addressed. About $45,000 has been spent so far, according to Vander Molen.

Dickinson said when he brings his car to the repair shop, he tells them what he thinks is wrong with the vehicle. Then, the mechanics tell him what is wrong and have him approve the work. The estimate is not just based off a list of what he thinks his wrong.

We just finished our budget. We have no money left over for any of this stuff. It puts us in a tight spot and it puts us in a difficult position with the fire department, he said.

The town of Lake George pays a flat amount to the fire department per a contract. Dickinson said the town has not received a list of expenditures from the fire department.

Chief Jason Berry was not at the meeting. He had just returned to work following his honeymoon.

Berry said Tuesday that town officials were told that once the truck was opened up, more could be found.

What do you expect? Youre trying to put more money into this truck that really isnt worth it to get it to pass inspection, he said.

The estimators try to give the best estimate they can based upon what they can visually see, according to Berry. The water pump leak and the radiator problem were unexpected.

The further that you get into it, the worse it gets, she said.

The town took $30,000 out of the departments operating budget just to pay for the repairs, Berry said.

The village agreed to pay for the repairs up front and have the town reimburse it for its 77 percent share under the fire protection contract.

Mayor Robert Blais said the village had used about $41,000 from its contingency account, but it also does not have any money left.

Were scrambling right now to see where we can find some money to put toward these additional repairs. How many more additional repairs are they going to find before the truck is done? he said.

Blais said a large portion of these additional repairs are for the ladder, which he pointed out is something that should have been evident.

He questioned the company doing the estimates.

How did they miss $13,000 worth of repairs? he said.

One option is to bring the truck back without any repairs to the ladder and just use it as a pumper, Blais said. However, he said fire officials are saying it will not pass inspection.

The Village Board will discuss the issue at its meeting Monday.
Inventory needs to be managed and managed well, or you are going to get in recurring trouble, and lose your credibility and hard-earned conversions, whether 

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The policy which is for high airtime users covers permanent disability as a result of an accident, permanent disability due to illness, selected critical illness such as cancer, stroke, kidney failure and hospitalization for various reasons.

At the Press briefing in Accra, the Chief Commercial Officer at Tigo, Tara Squire, highlighted the need to widen the portfolio mix of micro-insurance products to cater for the needs of mid to high tier income earners.

We are proud to introduce yet another first, an insurance product that will bring financial relief to our mid to high value customers. This is what leading the digital lifestyle means to us as a brand; delivering innovative digital services to our customers with ease and convenience, he said

Providing some insights that led to the development of the product, the Country Manager for BIMA, partners of Tigo Insurance, Russell Haresign, said it was developed in response to customer demands for micro-insurance products with higher living benefits. It comes with increased cover and it is a threefold benefit because it covers accident, illness and hospitalisation. We are excited to say that this is also the first mobile insurance policy to offer a no claims bonus meaning customers who dont make claims are awarded airtime credit every year, he added.

Customers can access the product through *550# and follow the screen prompts to register and subscribe to Tigo Income Protection Policy. To enjoy the policy benefits, they will have to contribute 30p a day for at least one month.
Dubbed the 'Dubai-inspired' flyover, the new construction is meant to ease up traffic in that part of the city.

Fans rushed to take selfies with the actor, who looked flattered and very pleased to indulge them. It was definitely a night to remember for these folks who were very ecstatic to have a celebrity in their midst.
Presenting the items to the school, Chief Executive Officer and founder of the foundation, Mrs. Delali Greenstock, underscored the important role education plays in the life of an individual and the country as a whole.

She mentioned that as a social organization that wants to touch lives across Africa and build hope for a better future, the foundation thought it prudent to drive a positive change through quality education  a reason it has made it a point to reach out to the future leaders of the country.

We believe that every child deserves a chance to be well educated no matter their background. Nobody has the right to choose which family to be born into so when we see children with potential, we try to help them as much as possible. This ten thousand books and pens project is aimed at helping the children and making them feel comfortable in school. We also try to pick pupils who are bright and needy and support them. This is the little we can do to support them. Definitely, we will extend the gesture to others schools in and outside the Greater Accra region, she said.

Accompanied by some members of her team, Mrs. Greenstock interacted with the pupils and challenged them to take their studies seriously. She urged them to among other things cultivate the habit of reading and acquire more knowledge for a bright future.

Deputy headmaster of the school, Mr. George Quagraine expressed his schools appreciation and commended So Me Nsa Foundation for the gesture.

The pupils were refreshed with drinks by the kind courtesy Kasapreko Company Limited, producers of Awake Mineral Water, Royal Drinks and Superstar Fruit Drink.
Death is an inevitable occurrence. It is something man cannot do away with, it would come to you at any time. There are three things that are constant in life; they consist of Change, Death and God. Whether you like it or not you will experience them.
He died in Tokyo at that age of 77 in 1997. He had been mostly confined to his home since suffering a heart attack five years earlier.

His death shocked Japan's cinema industry, which took pride in him as its most presentable actor in international cinema, fondly calling him "Mifune of the world."

Kurosawa cast Mifune in leading roles in all but one of 17 films he made between 1948 and 1965. "Rashomon," in which Mifune played a cynical bandit, won the Grand Prix award at the 1951 Venice Film Festival.

Mifune played a peasant-turned samurai leading farmers' resistance against bandits in "Seven Samurai," which inspired two Western remakes, both titled "The Magnificent Seven" (1960 and 2016).

Born in Qingdao, China, on April 1, 1920, to a photographic studio owner, Mifune joined film company Toho Co. in 1946 after serving six years in an Imperial Japanese Army aerial photography unit during World War II.

He appeared in around 170 feature films, including such foreign productions as Terence Young's "Red Sun" (1972) and Steven Spielberg's "1941" (1979).

He also starred in the 1980 popular US television mini-series "Shogun," based on James Clavell's bestselling book.

Mifune's last role on the silver screen was in "Fukai Kawa (Deep River)" in 1995, in which he portrayed a man tortured to the last moment of his life by his experience eating one of his comrades during war.

He left assets of 630 million yen (then $5.4 million), according to local tax officials.

"My grandfather passed away when I was nine so the memories I have of him are mainly as a grandfather figure, but I remember him as a gentleman at home," said his grandson, the actor Rikiya Mifune.

"He would talk in a gruff and manly manner and always have perfect posture, like a true samurai, even at home."
The highly viewed and generally accepted pageant has redefined beauty pageants and has given meaning to our culture. Miss Abena Kyei Boakye who emerged 3nd Runner-up in 2011 graced this pageant and made an extreme impact - for the first five years of the competition, she was the first representative from the Brong-Ahafo Region to have made it into the finals.

As an upcoming actress, she has worked with Venus films productions; sisters at war and currently on set of popular television series "stalemate", "the woes of Africa" and more. She has projects in the pipeline and about to make a sensational impact in the movie scenes.
Harrowing footage shows the pair, named Denis and Katya, laughing and joking with each other as the 15-year-old boy points a gun out a window of a house in Russias Pskov region.

He then opens fire at a police vehicle, reports svoboda.org. They reportedly holed themselves up in the home  which was empty at the time  after Denis got into an argument with his parents.Throughout the live-stream, the young couple showcased their haul of weapons, including countless bullets.

They can be heard repeating the words, Russians dont surrender. Denis also says, If we dont surrender, we die. But if we surrender, we will never see each other again.

In one scene, Katya holds a gun up to Denis head.Denis posted on Instagram and Russian social media website VK. DailyMail.com reports his last VK post read,

I loved you, but you do not notice how you destroyed my mind and life. Goodbye all, friends and family, and acquaintances. Do not worry, I will go out in style. Good luck to all in your life and please do not be afraid to live as you want or you see fit. Life is for fun  this is the best life. I love you.

The live-streaming went on for hours. At one point, the pair were answering questions from people on social media. His Instagram has since been deactivated.
The ruling delivered by Justice Norvice Aryene said the plaintiffs lacked the capacity to bring the case to the court. She further explained that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate how they will affected personally by the move.

A group known as the Coalition Against the Concession of ECG headed to court after they contended that the proposed plan by government is not in the best interest of the nation and must not be allowed to go through.

The coalition said it can't understand why government intends to hand out the management of ECG to an investor that will be injecting an estimated amount of $150 million over three years into the company.

This amount the group claims is far less than what ECG "as weak as it is" is currently investing in its distribution operations every year.

The coalition also contends that government at a cabinet meeting held on February 11, decided to hand ECG to any company or individual worth $400 million, an amount the group says is less than a tenth of what ECG is worth.
Justice Anin Yeboah rescheduled the date through the court registrar. No reasons were given for the adjournment.

Amidu's application follows the Attorney Generals Department which filed a notice at the Supreme Court to discontinue the case it filed about a week ago.

A notice of discontinuance indicated that: "please take notice that the 1st Defendant Judgment Creditor [Attorney General] herein has this day [26th Day of October 2016] discontinued the present application to orally examine the 3rd Defendant Judgment Debtor [Alfred Agesi Woyome] with liberty to reapply."

In a statement released November 4, 2016, Amidu said, "I have this morning 4th November 2016 filed an application at the Supreme Court for leave to examine the Judgment Debtor as the citizen public interest Plaintiff in favour of whom the case was decided for the Republic of Ghana."

The anti-corruption campaigner [Amidu] said, "I have examined the circumstances surrounding the governments reluctance to enforce the judgment and orders of the court with the seriousness which the matter deserves. I share the view expressed by objective and reasonable members of the public that because the government was the 1st defendant/respondent against whom the Supreme Court made declarations of unconstitutional conduct in paying the judgment debt to Alfred Agbesi Woyome, the government has been pretending for purely political reasons at each turn to take steps to enforce the judgment and orders of the court only to deliberately abort them."
In its May edition, the magazine ran a story titled Now This Man needs your prayers, Parkinsons disease eats Rawlings strength away, that said Mr Rawlings had been diagnosed with Parkinsons disease, a chronic neurological disorder resulting in the lack of control over movement and balance.

According to the magazine, it reached the conclusions based accounts by the former presidents doctors in Ghana and South Africa.

Related: Rawlings denies Parkinson's disease claims; threatens to sue Africawatch

According to Mr Rawlings, the story was injurious to his reputation as he and his immediate family and his team of staff were inundated with calls from friends and family members all over the country and abroad and harassed by the media following the outbreak of the said story.
Accra celebrated the opening of the iconic Kwame Nkrumah Circle Interchange with a breathtaking ceremony last night.

NANA CONDEMNS HOUSE ATTACK

NPP flagbearer for the December 7 polls, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has reacted to the attack on his private residence by supporters of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), assuring that he and his party members would not be intimidated by the Mahama-led administration.

USA THREATENS VISA BAN

The United States of America and the United Kingdom have issued statements strongly condemning the upsurge of political violence in Ghana as the country head for the general election on December 7.

RAWLINGS SUES AFRICA WATCH

SC THROWS OUT SPECIAL VOTING SUIT

PPP MP ASPIRANT SHAKES KEEA

'GHANA MAY BE ON TIME-BOMB'

SUGAR FACTORY IS BACK

All is set for the much talked about Komenda Sugar Factory to commence commercial production of Sugar on Monday, November 28, 2016.

LETS STAND UP AGAINST NDCS BULLYING  NANA ADDO

The flag bearer of the opposition NPP, Nana Akufo-Addo, has condemned the attack on his Nima residence by supporters of the ruling National Democratic Congress on Sunday.

AGRIC MUST DECLINE FOR SERVICES TO GROW  PREZ MAHAMA

MAHAMA RAPS PRIVATE SECTOR

With exactly 21 days for Ghanaians to decide whether he should have a second term, President John Mahama has been providing reasons for the tough decisions he has had to take, assuring a cross section of business leaders of better times ahead.

DOMESTIC AIRLINES GEAR UP FOR CHALLENGE AS NEW AIRPORTS BECOME OPERATIONAL
He joined individuals and organisations opposing moves by the police to shutdown social media platforms on election day if it becomes necessary to maintain national stability.

The Inspector General of Police (IGP) John Kudalor, has said the Police administration was considering a shutdown of social media platforms in a bid to ensure peace during the election.

There was public uproar when the Inspector General of Police, in a press interaction, said blocking social media during the December polls was an alternative the police was considering in a way to prevent troublemakers who might want to cause mayhem and disrupt the election process.

Many criticised the police for thinking about banning a platform it does not even use.

Addressing various labour unions at the Flagstaff House on Tuesday, November 15, Mahama charged Organised Labour to take a keen interest in solutions for social media threats.

According him, "The threat to national security, when someone starts posting false results and things then people believe that some party is winning and then the eventual outcome is that the party did not win. Then people say the results were doctored, will create a major problem for us."

He also promised to provide adequate security to ensure a violence free election, as Ghanaians go to the polls on December 7.
According to him, the Commissioner's posture is worrying because of her bias against some political parties.

He, however called for the impeachment of Charlotte Osei after the elections.

Martin Amidu on numerous occasion called for the head of the Mrs Charlotte Osei. Amidu said the EC is on a rigging agenda following its decision to disqualify 13 presidential candidates from contesting in the polls over errors in the nomination forms they filed.

Martin Amidu argued that "there can be no free, transparent and fair elections when any of the disqualified aspiring candidates and any political party sponsoring them have their names added to the ballot more than three weeks belatedly, because the Commissioners preferred and approved candidates would have had an unequal advantage over them in the contest for the Presidency."

But in a statement released November 11, 2016, Amidu said, "It is too late in the month to advocate in defence of the Constitution for a reorganization of the Commission before the election, or for the impeachment of the Commissioner. This should be the task immediately after the 2016 elections."

The anti-corruption crusader also called Ghanaians to vote against the incumbent National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Below is his full statement:

FELLOW CITIZENS BE ALERT TO THE ELECTORAL COMMISSIONERS OTHER TRICKS: BY MARTIN A. B. K. AMIDU

Constitutional and democratic forces that have struggled against the abuse of citizens rights when it comes to the free, fair and transparent choice of a President from candidates presented by all political parties and independents at this years polls, have had a partial victory. The Progressive Peoples Party (PPP), the National Democratic Party (NDP) and the Peoples National Convention (PNC) now have their presidential candidates listed as approved on the presidential ballot. The forces of democracy have triumphed over the Returning Officer/Commissioner who schemed to unconstitutionally impose her arbitrary will by qualifying only her four preferred candidates on the presidential ballot.

By sheer impudence, incompetence, and arrogance the Returning Officer and Commissioner refused to obey the decisions of the High Court in favour of some of the candidates. And even when the Supreme Court finally gave its ruling insisting that all the 13 disqualified candidates be given the right to the hearing she had unlawfully denied them, the Commissioner sabotaged the spirit of the Supreme Court decision by an alleged discovery of several new defects and errors on each candidates nomination form. The Commissioners agenda was no doubt to disqualify all 13 candidates again if she had her way.

However, the activism of the media, civil society, constitutional, and other political activists have compelled the Commissioner to see the foolhardiness of the path she was treading. Had those standing up against her failed, I have no doubt that if she had disqualified all 13 candidates again, the stability of our democracy would have been seriously endangered and impaired. To save face, the Commissioner consequently chose the line of least resistance by approving the nominations of the three strongest, more established, and most viable political party candidates - PNC, PPP, and NDP.

I have said that the Commissioners choice of the two major political parties, the NPP and the NDC with a sprinkle of the CPP and an independent candidate at the beginning was done in pursuance of a rigging agenda with her mentors. However, it was the enormous hurricane of pressure from civil society, civil society organizations, and the media that resulted in the addition to the ballot of three of the most active candidates out of the 13 originally disqualified candidates.

Yet even this selection process like the first one still lacked transparency and I dare say it appears arbitrary. This time around the Commission did not publish any statement to give the public reasons why the other eight candidates did not make it to the ballot. As a result, the public is unable to make an informed opinion of her fairness and transparency in the matter. That Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom would have gone back to the Supreme Court for interpretation if his amended nomination based on the grounds upon which the High Court asked that he be given a hearing, was too obvious to cow the Commissioner into cautious approval. I believe that Her Excellency Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings nomination was the main target of the Commissioners mentors. But the Nduom case was on all fours with Her Excellency Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings case, making it a challenge for the Commissioner to undertake a gamble with her alleged additional new errors. Dr. Edward Mahamas party is known to be one of the oldest under the Constitution, active and capable of bloody nose activism and it was in the process of securing a ruling on 10th November 2016. Hassan Ayarigas party just got registered this year and he dared to threaten to reorganize the Electoral Commission should he win the Presidency. He should have known better and kept quiet: he should have learned hard lessons from Dr. Nduoms earlier challenge of the almighty arbitrary Commissioner.

See also: EC still bent on rigging elections

In pursuing her arbitrary, unfair and lack of transparent approval process, the Commissioner knew that once she met the timetable laid down by the Supreme Court ruling of 7th November 2016 and of the balloting for the presidential polls on 10th November 2016, the eight disqualified candidates would have no hearing at the Supreme Court for interpretation, nor would they have the ability to mount a new action in any other court. POWER!

It is a pity that political parties properly registered under the Constitution cannot present candidates in this years presidential ballot as was the intention of the framers of the Constitution, just because the Commissioner, in pursuit of her rigging agenda on behalf of her mentors, will not engage in alternative dispute resolution. But the eyes of every citizen have been opened to the arbitrary conduct and impunity exhibited by the Commissioner. And now particularly the political parties are fully aware as to how the power of the Commissioner can be wantonly abused.

It is too late in the month to advocate in defence of the Constitution for a reorganization of the Commission before the election, or for the impeachment of the Commissioner. This should be the task immediately after the 2016 elections  conducted by responsible members of the media, civil society, and civil society organizations who love the Republic of Ghanas constitutional and democratic dispensation of free, fair and transparent political representation for elections and referenda. We need to put Ghana First and work tirelessly for change of governance at this years presidential election.

Before then, let us watch the rigging agenda of the Commissioner and her mentors during the remaining election period. She has already engineered elections in such a way that a good six weeks have been lost for the campaign period of the NDP, PPP, and the PNC. Her actions affect the equal right and facilities for political campaigning mandatorily enjoined by the Constitution. Fellow citizens be alert to the Commissioners other tricks. The Commissioner cannot be trusted to fairly implement her mandate under the 1992 Constitution without vigilance on our part. We must defend the Constitution!

Martin A. B. K. Amidu
According to the party, "The Electoral Commission printed Parliamentary Notices of Polls with different inscriptions in the blue portion of the NPP logo/symbol."

Confusion broke out on Monday at the ECs office in the Ashanti region following the refusal of the NPPs regional chairman to accept the parliamentary ballot papers sent to the region.

The ballots for the region arrived in Kumasi Sunday night and the representatives of the various parties gathered to assess them on Monday morning.

But the NPP in a statement said, "At no point did NPP supervisors at the printing houses express satisfaction/approval over the removal of party initials from the Parliamentary Notice of Poll and ballot sheets as is being suggested by the Electoral Commission."

Read related:Supreme Court throws out Special Voting suit

Below is the full statement:

RE: CLARIFICATION: POLITICAL PARTY LOGO ON BALLOT SHEETS.

We refer to the statement issued by the Electoral Commission on the evening of Monday, 14th of November 2016 in an apparent response to concerns expressed by some members of the NPP over the omission of the partys initials beneath its symbol on the parliamentary ballot sheets and wish to point out the obvious distortions and untruths therein.

1. The Electoral Commission printed Parliamentary Notices of Polls with different inscriptions in the blue portion of the NPP logo/symbol.

2. Whilst for instance the Notice of Poll in the Asante Akyem North constituency had in the blue portion of the NPP symbol MOTTO: DEVELOPMENT IN FREEDOM, another one for Kwadaso had NPP: DEVELOPMENT IN FREEDOM. But both had NPP written beneath the symbol and all of these are public and copies can be verified.

See also:Confusion at EC as Ashanti NPP reject parliamentary ballot papers

3. The NPP supervisors quickly drew the Commissions attention at the printing houses to correct this anomaly. In doing this correction, the NPP initials beneath the symbol was also removed.

4. We again noticed that and quickly asked for it to be reinstated, only to be informed by the Commissions supervisors that it was too late for the initials to be included.

5. The Commission further took the position that it had not erred in removing the NPP initials placed beneath the symbol since the NPP official logo/symbol had no such initials included in it.

6. It, however, made a surprise turn around in bringing the NPP initials back on the Presidential Notice of Poll and ballot sheets.

7. At no point did NPP supervisors at the printing houses express satisfaction/approval over the removal of party initials from the Parliamentary Notice of Poll and ballot sheets as is being suggested by the Electoral Commission.

We urge party members/supporters and voters in general to remain calm and focused on the Great Elephant symbol. 3y3 Osono.
It is, however, unclear what triggered the clashes but according to reports, both sides confirmed gunshots and hurling of harmful objects.

The NPPs acting General Secretary, John Boadu at a press conference hours after the incident accused the NDC of attacking their supporters with guns, knives and other harmful objects.

The NDC has since denied the claims saying it was the personal security of Nana Addo who first fired multiple shots at the NDC members.

Police have since launched investigations into the incident.

There were also reported clashes between the two parties at a village called Garikpe in the Wulensi constituency over the weekend. The two candidates, the NPPs Thomas Donkor Ogaaja and George Larrir Maabam accused each other of instigating the violence.

But before these, there have been earlier attacks between the two leading parties that have injured and hospitalised many.

Security agencies are yet to make arrests in several of these confrontations. Even in cases where there have been arrests, the prosecution was not done.

Pulse.com.gh brings you a list of some of the clashes that have occurred between the NDC and the NPP this year ahead of the elections.

Odododiodioo clashes

The constituency has often been hit with confrontations ahead of major elections in the country. Supporters of the governing NDC and the NPP clashed in the Odododiodioo constituency in Accra on November 8, 2016.

Reports say the fight occurred at the end of two separate campaign rallies held by the two parties.

Several people from both sides were reported injured and others were hospitalised.

The NPP MP aspirant for the constituency, Nii Lante Bannerman subsequently accused the Member of Parliament for the Odododiodoo constituency, Nii Lante Vanderpuije of physically assaulting him.

The police invited the MP for questioning, but what has happened afterwards remains unknown, as police are yet to come out with any information.

The two earlier clashed in October when the brother of the late Nii Ayi Kwei Mankatah, former NDC Member of Parliament (MP) for Odododiodoo, took offence to a song composed against him by an NPP supporter.

Before that, the two parties attacked each other in September after a planned parliamentary debate between the NDCs incumbent Member of Parliament, Nii Lante Vanderpuije, and NPPs Nii Lante Bannerman, turned chaotic resulting in injuries.

Kukoum clashes

In that same month of September, a similar clash ensued between supporters of the two leading political parties at Kukoum in the Eastern Region.

The two parties accused each other of manipulating the voter transfer exercise in the area for their gain. The clashes led to destruction of some electoral equipment at the offices of the EC necessitating a suspension of the exercise. Unfortunately, there has been no documentation of any arrest being made.

Ajumako-Besease clashes

In October, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), John Kudalor ordered the deployment of more officers to Ajumako-Besease in Central Region after political violence left several people injured.

Clashes between members of the governing NDC and opposition NPP led to one sympathiser of the governing party and two others from the opposition party sustaining various degrees of injuries. An NDC supporter, Samuel Asare was allegedly stabbed in the right eye when some irate NPP thugs in a pick-up and on motorbikes reportedly assaulted them at Bethel Hill.

Zabzugu clashes over voters transfer exercise

Violent political clashes erupted in Zabzugu in the Northern region between supporters of the National Democratic Congress, New Patriotic Party and an Independent candidate for Tatale- Sanguli constituency, James Cecil Yanwube.

The confusion began in October over a misunderstanding in the voters transfer exercise by the Electoral Commission. Supporters of the NPP and the Independent candidate who is also Member of Parliament for Tatale attacked each other after the NPP accused the MP of transporting foreigners to patronize the exercise. Two arrests were made but nothing more.

Suhum clashes

About 20 irate youth believed to be supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Suhum clashed with some women who were said to be members of the New Patriotic Party's (NPPs) Royal Ladies on October 13, 2016.

The NPP ladies, who were more than 15, were on a house-to-house campaign in the evening when the irate supporters of the NDC who were in a party vehicle stopped near them, accused them of making derogatory statements against their parliamentary candidate, Margaret Ansei, alias Magoo, and reportedly assaulted them.

Walewale clashes in July

Clashes broke out between the NDC and the NPP in the same month of October when supporters of the two main political parties clashed in Walewale township where two youth groups simultaneously launched their campaign activities.

These are the NPPs Bawumia Youth for Change and the NDCs Zaadiaya Youth group fronting for the Northern regional Minister.

Brong Ahafo clashes over Limited voter registration

The timely intervention of the police prevented a bloodbath between supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) at some registration centers at Nkoranza in the Brong Ahafo region during the limited voter registration exercise in May this year.

Supporters of the two attacked each other with cutlasses and other sharp instruments over challenges of some new registrants by polling agents of both parties.

The above are some of the disturbing occurrences that have happened in the run-up to the December 7 polls, with some of the more serious attack occurring in the month of October. There are fears that the conflicts might escalate as the two leading parties continue to hurl insults at each other over any latest provocation.

As the National Peace Council continues to urge political parties to call their supporters to order, the Police has also assured all and sundry that it is solidly on the ground to forestall any disturbances.
This was contained in his latest epistle copied to the media.

Amidu stated that electorates must think of Ghana before thinking of which parties they are affiliated to.

READ ALSO: Krobo youth welcomes Nana Addo with demonstration

He further reinstated his accusation that the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC) has intentions to rig the elections in favour of the NDC. He argued that since it is too late to impeach Mrs Osei before the election, the first thing that must be done is to impeach her.

READ ALSO: President Mahama commissions Kwame Nkrumah interchange

he added.

Below is the full article by Mr Martin Amidu:

FELLOW CITIZENS BE ALERT TO THE ELECTORAL COMMISSIONERS OTHER TRICKS: BY MARTIN A. B. K. AMIDU

Constitutional and democratic forces that have struggled against the abuse of citizens rights when it comes to the free, fair and transparent choice of a President from candidates presented by all political parties and independents at this years polls, have had a partial victory. The Progressive Peoples Party (PPP), the National Democratic Party (NDP) and the Peoples National Convention (PNC) now have their presidential candidates listed as approved on the presidential ballot. The forces of democracy have triumphed over the Returning Officer/Commissioner who schemed to unconstitutionally impose her arbitrary will by qualifying only her four preferred candidates on the presidential ballot.

By sheer impudence, incompetence, and arrogance the Returning Officer and Commissioner refused to obey the decisions of the High Court in favour of some of the candidates. And even when the Supreme Court finally gave its ruling insisting that all the 13 disqualified candidates be given the right to the hearing she had unlawfully denied them, the Commissioner sabotaged the spirit of the Supreme Court decision by an alleged discovery of several new defects and errors on each candidates nomination form. The Commissioners agenda was no doubt to disqualify all 13 candidates again if she had her way.

However, the activism of the media, civil society, constitutional, and other political activists have compelled the Commissioner to see the foolhardiness of the path she was treading. Had those standing up against her failed, I have no doubt that if she had disqualified all 13 candidates again, the stability of our democracy would have been seriously endangered and impaired. To save face, the Commissioner consequently chose the line of least resistance by approving the nominations of the three strongest, more established, and most viable political party candidates - PNC, PPP, and NDP.

I have said that the Commissioners choice of the two major political parties, the NPP and the NDC with a sprinkle of the CPP and an independent candidate at the beginning was done in pursuance of a rigging agenda with her mentors. However, it was the enormous hurricane of pressure from civil society, civil society organizations, and the media that resulted in the addition to the ballot of three of the most active candidates out of the 13 originally disqualified candidates.

Yet even this selection process like the first one still lacked transparency and I dare say it appears arbitrary. This time around the Commission did not publish any statement to give the public reasons why the other eight candidates did not make it to the ballot. As a result, the public is unable to make an informed opinion of her fairness and transparency in the matter. That Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom would have gone back to the Supreme Court for interpretation if his amended nomination based on the grounds upon which the High Court asked that he be given a hearing, was too obvious to cow the Commissioner into cautious approval. I believe that Her Excellency Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings nomination was the main target of the Commissioners mentors. But the Nduom case was on all fours with Her Excellency Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings case, making it a challenge for the Commissioner to undertake a gamble with her alleged additional new errors. Dr. Edward Mahamas party is known to be one of the oldest under the Constitution, active and capable of bloody nose activism and it was in the process of securing a ruling on 10th November 2016. Hassan Ayarigas party just got registered this year and he dared to threaten to reorganize the Electoral Commission should he win the Presidency. He should have known better and kept quiet: he should have learned hard lessons from Dr. Nduoms earlier challenge of the almighty arbitrary Commissioner.

In pursuing her arbitrary, unfair and lack of transparent approval process, the Commissioner knew that once she met the timetable laid down by the Supreme Court ruling of 7th November 2016 and of the balloting for the presidential polls on 10th November 2016, the eight disqualified candidates would have no hearing at the Supreme Court for interpretation, nor would they have the ability to mount a new action in any other court. POWER!

It is a pity that political parties properly registered under the Constitution cannot present candidates in this years presidential ballot as was the intention of the framers of the Constitution, just because the Commissioner, in pursuit of her rigging agenda on behalf of her mentors, will not engage in alternative dispute resolution. But the eyes of every citizen have been opened to the arbitrary conduct and impunity exhibited by the Commissioner. And now particularly the political parties are fully aware as to how the power of the Commissioner can be wantonly abused.

It is too late in the month to advocate in defence of the Constitution for a reorganization of the Commission before the election, or for the impeachment of the Commissioner. This should be the task immediately after the 2016 elections  conducted by responsible members of the media, civil society, and civil society organizations who love the Republic of Ghanas constitutional and democratic dispensation of free, fair and transparent political representation for elections and referenda. We need to put Ghana First and work tirelessly for change of governance at this years presidential election.

Before then, let us watch the rigging agenda of the Commissioner and her mentors during the remaining election period. She has already engineered elections in such a way that a good six weeks have been lost for the campaign period of the NDP, PPP, and the PNC. Her actions affect the equal right and facilities for political campaigning mandatorily enjoined by the Constitution. Fellow citizens be alert to the Commissioners other tricks. The Commissioner cannot be trusted to fairly implement her mandate under the 1992 Constitution without vigilance on our part. We must defend the Constitution!

Martin A. B. K. Amidu
This was contained in a press statement issued by the UK.

In the statement, the British government expressed concern over the recent violent clashes that have occurred in the country ahead of the December 7 polls.

This follows clashes between members of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) on Sunday in front of the residence of Nana Akufo Addo.

Meanwhile the United States government has also condemned all political violence in Ghana, particularly, any violent act directed at political candidates, their homes or families.

In a press release issued by the UK Embassy in Accra, it threatened to deny or revoke visas for those who engage in political violence ahead of the polls.

Find below the full statement from the United Kingdom

The British Government expresses its concern at recent incidents of political violence in Ghana in the run-up to the presidential and parliamentary elections on 7 December.

We condemn all violent acts by the supporters of any political party, including any occurring as a result of holding electoral campaign events close to the private homes of rival candidates.

The UK is a great supporter of Ghanas democracy and of maintaining its electoral record. We admire the open and energetic nature of its campaigns. We believe that violence has absolutely no place in the electoral process.

We therefore call on all Ghanas political actors to promote peace, and to respect Ghanas electoral and constitutional processes. All political parties should strongly urge their supporters to refrain from, and indeed actively to condemn, any violence, incitement or intimidation which only serve to undermine democracy.

The UK reserves the right to take action against anyone engaging in or inciting political violence, including considering refusing or revoking visas.
He said "Let the president [Mahama] and his army of propaganda warriors be assured that they would not succeed in their intimidation and deliberate propaganda mongering against the NPP and [me]."

Violence broke at the Nima residence of Nana Addo on Sunday for reasons yet to be made public but according to the NPP, the incident is part of series of activities planned by the NDC.

Some supporters of the NDC undertaking a health walk, allegedly veered off to Nana Addo's Nima residence and tried to enter the house but met resistance from security men.

Below is Nana Addos full statement

Sunday, November 13, 2016, was a sad day in our nations history. On that day, the Ghanaian people saw a most unbecoming sight: the home of the leader of Ghanas biggest opposition party being attacked by supporters of the ruling National Democratic Congress government.

One would, ordinarily, have treated it as a one-off spectacle, in spite of the nature of the attack. However, my four-day tour of the Brong Ahafo Region has revealed a rather disturbing trend, leading up to this years elections.

In Sankore, on Thursday, October 10, I witnessed, at firsthand, the open brutalisation of NPP members. Prior to my visit, two NPP members had been brutally murdered by NDC thugs. The scars of intimidation and assault by thugs recruited by Hon Eric Opoku, MP for the constituency and Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, are still evident. In Asutifi South, a few kilometres away, another Minister in President Mahamas government, Collins Dauda, MP, is also perpetrating violence against his own constituents. Ghanaians heard on the radio comments made by the brother of Collins Dauda to the effect that he kills people on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, these savage attacks against our party activists have gone unpunished, with the perpetrators of these acts walking free. We have protested the apparently selective manner in which the law is being applied against those perceived to be political opponents of the current government. The police have looked on unconcerned, and the President of the land has not, on a single occasion, condemned any of these brutal acts by his Ministers.

Is it then a surprise that NDC footsoldiers have become emboldened to extend these attacks to all parts of the country?

More here: AMA bans political activities

For us in the NPP, the peace of the nation, as well as the consolidation of our democratic governance are not negotiable. We urge all political parties and Ghanaians committed to promoting peace and deepening our democracy to work with us in securing these ends. Ghanaian democrats, no matter their party affiliation, should stand shoulder to shoulder to defend and promote the aims of our democratic republic, which also include standing up against the bully.

Let the president and his army of propaganda warriors be assured that they will not succeed in their intimidation and deliberate propaganda mongering against the NPP and I.

We shall continue to believe in Ghana. We will muster the necessary courage to defend democratic Ghana and continue in our peaceful quest to win power in 2016 and bring back hope and opportunities to the people of Ghana, irrespective of their politics, creed, ethnicity, region, religion, age, gender or social status
In the period leading to and following Ghanas elections on December 7, we call on all actors to remain peaceful and respect the democratic process. We encourage all parties to make it clear to their constituents that any violence or attempts to use intimidation to disrupt the democratic process is unacceptable. The United States will consider all options to hold responsible those who incite political violence, including denying or revoking visas, the statement said.

Supporters of the governing National Democratic Congress, NDC and the opposition New Patriotic Party clashed on Sunday in front of Nana Akufo-Addos Nima residence when the NDC were having a health walk.

It is, however, unclear what triggered the clashes but according to reports, both sides confirmed gunshots and hurling of harmful objects.

The NPPs acting General Secretary, John Boadu at a press conference hours after the incident accused the NDC of attacking their supporters with guns, knives and other harmful objects.

The NDC has since denied the claims saying it was the personal security of Nana Addo who first fired multiple shots at the NDC members.

The US Embassy said even though campaigns can be vigorous and sometimes contentious, violence has no place in the electoral process.

It assured that the international community is working with the Electoral Commission, National and Regional Peace Councils, NGOs, civil society organizations, the media, the police and others to support Ghanas efforts towards credible and peaceful polls.

We urge all to participate peacefully in the democratic processbefore, during and after Election Day.
Addressing labour unions in Accra on Tuesday, President Mahama said the Nima Police should have predicted the situation and taken appropriate measures that will prevent such incidents from happening.

READ ALSO: UK threatens to deny visas over violent clashes

President Mahama took the opportunity to assure the labour unions present that he will do all within his power to ensure the elections are peaceful. He also promised not to incite others to engage in any form of violence.

Meanwhile the 2016 presidential candidate of the NPP, Nana Akufo-Addo, has said that the clash will in no way intimidate him and the party.

He said "Let the president [Mahama] and his army of propaganda warriors be assured that they would not succeed in their intimidation and deliberate propaganda mongering against the NPP and [me]."

Violence broke at the Nima residence of Nana Addo on Sunday for reasons yet to be made public but according to the NPP, the incident is part of series of activities planned by the NDC.
"This just means I'm still up at 4am trainin' hard, takin' care of my babies, drivin' my pick up truck and tellin' a few dirty/nerdy jokes... extremely sexily of course.

Huge THANK YOU you to the entire hard working and very cool staff at @People as well as all the fans worldwide. I'm honored and grateful for the luv!

Remember, sexy isn't something you "try and be". Sexy happens naturally when you're comfortable just being yourself.

Trust me, I'm an expert at this. (plus I read the "how to be sexy and a great kisser" guide when I was 8)," he wrote.
Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected! Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected!
ABC News(WASHINGTON) -- President Barack Obama said Monday the outcome of the U.S. election leaves him with "concerns" and many missed Donald Trump's unforeseen victory.



"There was a lot of folks who missed the Trump phenomenon....that connection that he was able to make.. that was impervious to events that might have sunk another candidate, thats powerful stuff," Obama said in his first press conference since the historic 2016 election in which it seemed certain Hillary Clinton would win. "Whats clear was that he is able to tap into yes the anxieties but also the enthusiasm of his voters in a way that was impressive."



While he promised his administration is working with President-elect transition team, as he took questions from the press for the first time since the historic 2016 presidential election, Obama did issue reservations about Trump's temperament which have many at home and around the world uncertain. Obama said the presidency often magnifies any personal weakness.



"There are going to be certain elements of his temperament that will not serve him well unless he recognizes them and corrects them."



He talked about his own inability to keep track of "stacks of briefing books" and so he has surrounded himself with "people who can help," and he hopes Trump does the same.



"The people have spoken. Donald Trump will be the next president," Obama said. "It will be up to him to set up a team that will serve his policies."



He said while the election matters, about 43 percent of the country who were eligible to vote did not do so, and that Trump is going to have to blance what he said in the campaign with working with those who disagree with him.



"Because of the nature of the campaigns, and the bitterness and the ferocity of the campaigns, that its really important to try to send some signals of unity, and to try to reach out to minority groups and women and others that were concerned about the tenor of the campaign," Obama said.



Obama added, "It is important for us to let him make his decisions." And in the end, the American people will judge "if they like what they see," he said.



Obama said that he has offered the advice to Trump that "campaigning is different than governing" and that he felt Trump is "sincere" in wanting to move the country forward.



"[Trump] is going to try and make sure he delivers" to both his supporters and to those who voted for his opponent Hillary Clinton, Obama said. He added that it is important for Trump to reach out about those needing reassurance.



People will still be looking to the United States. Our example will still carry great weight, he said.



Asked what he thought about Stephen Bannons appointment as chief strategist, Obama declined to comment, citing his desire for a smooth transition of power. "I think it's fair to say that it would not be appropriate for me to comment on every appointment that the president-elect starts making if I want to be consistent with the notion that we're going to try to facilitate a smooth transition."



In talking with Trump last week, Obama said he learned the incoming administration is committed to maintaining the role the U.S. plays with NATO and its allies.



"In my conversation with the president-elect, he expressed a great interest in maintaining our core strategic relationships and so one of the messages I will be able to deliver is his commitment to NATO and the Transatlantic Alliance," Obama said.



Later Monday, Obama will depart on his final foreign trip as commander-in-chief and will make stops in Europe and Peru.



Obama added that his administration has "stabilized the American economy" and will continue to do so as the hand-off to President-elect Trump and his team occurs.



Trump has previously stated he would dismantle some of the presidents top initiatives once elected.



"This office is bigger than any one person, and that's why ensuring a smooth transition is so important," Obama said.



"The learning curve always continues," he added of the presidency. "This is a remarkable job; it is like no other job on Earth and it is a constant flow of information, challenges, and issues. That is true now more than it ever has been."

Pres. Obama tells @MarthaRaddatz he advised Trump to "dig in" on ramifications of positions, including on Obamacare. https://t.co/1qXVoLJxer  ABC News (@ABC) November 14, 2016

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected!
Times Live reports that the convict, Mthunzi Hlomane, known popularly as 'University of Cape Town,' was arrested in February in connection with the rape of five women between November 2015 and February 2016 near the Rhodes Memorial in Cape Town.

During the court appearance, Hlomane allegedly entered into a plea and sentencing agreement which culminated in the nine life sentences he got.

Hlomane reportedly pleaded guilty to kidnapping, assault, robbery and raping of numerous women last year.
According to the reports, the suspect identified as Leah Wambui reportedly attacked her nephews for eating a whole loaf of bread without leaving any for her, News Flash reports.

Wambui is reported to have used a blunt object to hit the children while their mother was out.

Neighbours who reportedly rushed to the aid of the children after hearing their screams said they found the young boys bleeding from injuries they had sustained in the attack.

News Flash reports that one of the children reportedly bled out from the cuts on his head and died on his way to the hospital.
We have a guest writer on Men's Roundtable today and he takes a look at the victory of Donald Trump in the recently concluded presidential election in the United States and what it holds for Nigerians living there.

The victory of Donald Trump in the polls is historic and it is a reflection of true democracy in the United States of America.

It is on record that the sitting President of the United States of America campaigned vigorously for Secretary Hillary Clinton, who, by every account, has more policy experience than Trump.

But the working class White Americans voted en masse for Trump because they believed his promise of creating more jobs in America, bringing jobs out-sourced to other countries back home, and building a wall between the Mexico and the U.S.A border will help improve their economic condition.

Nigerians with legal status in the United States have nothing to fear about deportation because America is not a country of men but of laws.

Congress has to pass a bill and the bill signed into law by the President in order for the President to implement his or her immigration agenda.

Trump does have the authority after being sworn in as President to issue executive orders that will administratively change how legal documents in order to live, visit, and work in America are issued.

And also, the incoming President Trump can also vigorously enforce current immigration laws in the books in order to deport folks here in America without legal documentation to be here.

Naturalized citizens in the United States of America that are of Nigerian descent or descent from other countries have nothing to fear regarding deportation.

It is unprecedented for a President to ponder deporting citizens of the US nor is it legal. We are eager to see if Mr. Trump will fulfill his promises about building a wall along the U.S.A-Mexico border and vigorously profile Muslims as he suggested during the campaign.

Donald Trump is set to carry out all his threats

Photo Credit: Daily Mail

Historically, Presidents have not always implemented every agenda they articulated during campaigns. It will be instructive to see what happens with the Presidency of Donald Trump.

Generally, Nigerians in the United States of America preferred the candidacy of Secretary Clinton during the campaigns partly because her immigration policy was not as dramatic as that of President-elect Trump.

Nigerians are living their everyday lives with the victory of Mr. Trump as they did before and I suspect most without papers will try to legalize their stay in the United States of America as soon a possible.

I doubt that Nigerians without legal documentation will move back to Nigeria en masse because most still feel they have more economic opportunities here in U.S.A as compared to Nigeria.
Punch reports that the incident took place on the premises of Holy Cross Cathedral on Lagos Island.

The suspect, according to the police, also went further to inflict several cuts on the body of the victim, before dragging her corpse to a corner on the premises, where it was discovered by a member of the church.

It was gathered that the gory act was committed while a vigil was ongoing at the church on Friday, November 4, 2016.

The police from the nearby Lion Building Police Division were informed and the evacuated the corpse and later arrested the suspect.

A mechanic who has his shop near the church narrated that the victim and the suspect were mentally ill and usually slept in the church premises.

Both of them are mentally ill. They were being taken care of by the church. A vigil was going on that day when the incident happened.

I learned that she (Wendipanga) went to where the woman was sleeping on the church premises and slit her throat with a knife.

Another resident in the area who knew the two said Disu moved to the church after a building she stayed on Lagos Island was demolished.
It has been confirmed that Adeparusi who left his apartment on Sunday with a brief Ill be back was found dead in a morgue in Abuja. The photojournalist died from a motor bike accident.

Yinka Adeparusi was an award winning photojournalist. He graduated from Lagos State University School of Communication, with double honours in Photojournalism and Cinematography and minor in Mass Communication.

Colleagues of Adeparusi described him as a "a soft-spoken, very professional and clear-headed individual." He was said to be kind, loving, creative and hardworking. A consummate professional, Yinka Adeparusi won award in the United States a few months ago.

When it was announced that Yinka Adeparusi had gone missing, his colleagues and family members started looking for him. Calls to his mobile phones were not going through despite several attempts from friends and his colleagues to reach him.

His body was discovered in a morgue in Abuja where he resided today, Tuesday, November 15, 2016, hours after several news published articles that he had gone missing.
The Area Comptroller, Mr Tolulope Ogunkua, told newsmen in Ibadan on Tuesday, November 15, that the vehicle was intercepted in the Saki axis of Oyo state, Punch reports.

ALSO READ: Customs arrest 12 suspects for fake job advert

It was also revealed that some seizures were made, including 30 fairly used vehicles from different locations in the area.

Ogunkua also said that the arrests would serve as a deterrent to recalcitrant saboteurs of the Nigeria economy.

The comptroller explained that he found it worrisome that some Nigerians have remained unrepentant despite the many losses they have suffered following seizures of these items but that the command remains unshaken in its determination to deal with them.

Punch reports that two persons were arrested with the bullion van and have been in their custody, to be charged to court soon.

Ogunkua added that the command had been trailing that particular bullion van which usually moved in the company of police escorts.

ALSO READ: Custom officers arrest man smuggling bags of rice as corpses in ambulance

According to him, the command's surveillance team exchanged gunfire with the suspects before they were finally subdued.

You will recall that I had reiterated our resolve to increase the revenue profile of the command and to tirelessly reduce the incidence of smuggling.

In keeping to this promise, the command initiated new anti-smuggling strategies which led to remarkable exploits evidenced in the situation on display today.
Punch gathered that the residents of the communities have been witnessing raids by the bandits almost on a daily basis with many being killed, raped and kidnapped in the process.

Some of the residents who narrated their experiences said despite protests by women in the area against the killings and rapes, the police had refused to intensify patrols of the communities, while some of the perpetrators arrested have been freed only for them to come back with renewed gusto.

It was learned that in the months of June and July 2016, a Ghanaian lady identified as Grace Obinna, who raped and killed while a 60-year-old woman identified as Francisca, who was stabbed in the cheek while her 10-year-old daughter, was also injured in the attack.

On Wednesday, November 9, 2016, a woman and her two children, were attacked on Ahmadiyya Estate where severe injuries were inflicted on them by the rapists.

A pastor in the estate the woman was about to follow her children to school at about 9am when they were attacked.

They are still receiving treatments in a hospital. People are beginning to flee Igbo Agbowa community. After several months of enduring attacks, people are fed up. Women are scared. No one knows whose house is next.

Likewise, a landlord in one of the affected communities said the rapists attacked houses where women and their children stayed alone.

There is panic in our area. The rapists usually targeted homes where the men were not around. They would loot property and rape female victims. This does not leave out the elderly.

A youth leader also posited that the police are not helping matters as they are quick to release any suspect arrested.

A few weeks ago, we caught one of them trying to rape a woman. He was beaten and burnt to death in Ibeshe.

But at other times, the police did not allow jungle justice. However, the rapists had not stopped their onslaughts on the residents.
The suspects, according to Punch, Ezekiel Yusuf, and Musa Abubakar, were arrested after the lured the lady who sells pawpaw on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and forcefully had carnal knowledge of her.

ALSO READ: "In Lagos: 2 men get N500,000 bail over alleged gang-rape of 22-year-old girl"

The State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Abimbola Oyeyemi, who confirmed the arrest of the suspects who are 29 and 25 years old respectively, said they lured the lady into Yusufs apartment under the pretense that they wanted to buy pawpaw from her.

It was while she was shouting that the people around came to her rescue and subsequently reported to the police.

The DPO in charge of Ojodu Abiodun, S quickly dispatched detectives to the scene and two suspects were promptly arrested.

ALSO READ: "Wicked People: 5 men gang-rape woman in lover's presence"
The little baby, Tobiloba Ademuyiwa, has been diagnosed with a serious congenital heart disease by doctors at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), and the parents have resorted to asking for help from kind-hearted Nigerians so that their poor infant can survive.

The worried father, Ademuyiwa Ayodeji, sent this passionate appeal to Pulse:

"Dear All,

I am writing to ask for your kind help to save my son's life. On the 1st of June this year, my 2-month-old son, Master Ademuyiwa Tobiloba, was diagnosed as having serious congenital heart diseases (single ventricle, transposition of great arteries and pulmonary hypertension) in LUTH.

The diagnosing doctors told me and my wife that our son's diseases were highly rare, complex, dangerous and almost incurable in Nigeria here and that we would need to fly him to India as soon as possible. My wife and I are in the deepest despair.

On Friday, 5th August 2016, our consultant at LUTH requested that we do another Echo scan on him and after the scan, she advised that we do the surgery within the next two months because the disease has started spreading and making it difficult for him to breathe well.

The total cost of the surgery is N4 million, which seems to be the only opportunity for my son to live.

I have been able to raise about N1.5 million from my workplace and donations from people and still need much more. Your financial support will be highly appreciated.

All donations should be directed to the below account details:

All my family would be extremely grateful if you would like to give us help in whatever way.

Thank you very much!

Yours sincerely,

Ayodeji Ademuyiwa (Father)

."

We at Pulse also plead with well-meaning Nigerians to come to the aid of this family so Tobiloba can go for the surgery as that seems to be the last hope for him.
The information officer of Garki Local Government Area of the council, Malam Lawan Sulaiman, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday that they would be deployed in the council area.

According to him, WHO consultant in the area, Malam Muhammad Sani, announced the provision during the November round of polio immunisation in the council.

The spokesperson said Sani noted that the gesture was to sensitise parents on the importance of polio vaccination, hence the need for them to make their children and wards available for every round immunization.

Meanwhile, Sulaiman said no fewer than 59,076 children were targeted in the ongoing polio immunisation in the council.

He said that the council had received enough doses of Oral Polio Vaccines (OPVs) for the exercise.
ASUU had on Monday announced that activities in Universities across the country would be shut down over the inability of the Federal Government to implement agreements reached with it since 2009.

On Tuesday, November 15, the upper chamber pledged to intervene in the matter following a motion moved by Sen. Jibrin Barau (APC-Kano North) under matters of urgent national importance.

Barau is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TetFund.

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, urged the chamber to engage relevant stakeholders and ensure that the 2009 agreement is fully implemented.

He said: "We must find a way of seeing to the implementation and we will look into the matter quickly.

"We will also get the relevant parties to quickly come to the table so that we can find a way of moving forward and report back to us."

While reading the motion, Barau urged the government to implement all agreements.

ALSO READ: ASUU says granting new varsity licences ill-timed

He also urged the Muhammadu Buhari administration to make frantic efforts in ensuring the development of Nigerian public universities.

Also speaking, Senator Danjuma Goje (APC-Gombe Central) lamented the historical ASUU strike, describing it as a recurring decimal.

"It is a disturbing issue to parents and students. There is need to nip it in the bud. We should not allow it to escalate," Goje said.
The state government said the Senate has no power to investigate the expenditure of the bailout.

The Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General of the state, Mr Owoseni Ajayi pointed this in a letter sent to the Chairman, Senate Committee on State and Local Government Administration, Senator Gumel Abdullahi.

In the letter, Ajayi expressed gratitude to President Muhammadu Buhari for granting the bailout to Ekiti and other states, but insists that the Senate would be acting outside its constitutional powers by probing the state over the bailout.

He said: "It is incontrovertible that the duty of oversight of governments financial activities by the legislative arm in Nigeria is a constitutional matter and the diligent performance of this duty in a time like this, when our nation is in economic recession, cannot be overemphasised.

"We therefore appreciate the intentions and aspirations of the National Assembly in the above regard, which, we have no doubt, are aimed at ensuring fiscal discipline, financial integrity, accountability and probity of government and its relevant agencies at all levels.

"However, we respectfully wish to observe that we are constrained, as a state government bound by the principles of federalism and the rule of law, to accede to your proposal to exercise oversight powers over the disbursement of the bailout granted to Ekiti State by the Federal Government because it is legally and constitutionally outside the powers of the Senate of the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

"In this regard, we wish to draw your attention to the clear provisions of Sections 121, 122, 123, 124, 125 and 125 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), which vests the powers of oversight functions in respect of states finances exclusively in the respective state Houses of Assembly."

ALSO READ: NUPENG tells FG not to give bailout funds to states
Lieutenant Colonel B.U. Umar was shot dead by insurgents on Tuesday, November 15, between Bita and Piridang, according to Premium Times.

His vehicle stepped on an improvised explosive device, but he was not hurt, a source told Premium Times.

He came out to assess the damage on the vehicle and Boko Haram opened fire and killed him in the process, the source added.

Umar, the commanding officer of the 114 TF battalion of the Nigerian Army, was reportedly ambushed along with his troops.

Details from the incident are still sketchy as it is yet to be confirmed by the appropriate authorities.

Umars death comes less than two weeks after the death of Lieutenant Colonel Muhammed Abu-Ali who was viewed as a hero in the fight against Boko Haram.

ALSO READ: Terrorists attack village near Chibok
Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu said that the country would suffer a famine if the mindless export of Nigerian grains did not stop.

Huge demand for our grains in the global market is creating an excellent environment for the mindless export of Nigerian grains, Shehu said while speaking during a radio interview in Kano.

Unless this is curtailed, Nigerian markets will be bereft of food by January next year. Over the past year, providence has blessed Nigeria with bountiful harvest of grains, more than enough to feed the country and to export to other countries.

At present, there is a high demand for grains from Nigeria, from African countries as distant as Libya and Algeria, and from places as far away as Brazil.

However, the ministry of agriculture has raised concerns about a massive rate of exportation, which could lead to shortage of grains in Nigeria by January, he added.

ALSO READ:
This information is contained in the Presidents twitter handle.

President Buhari, who left the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on Monday, arrived the Marrakesh Menara Airport in Morocco, some hours later.

While in Marrakech, the President would participate in the official opening of the plenary of the conference on Nov. 15 where he would deliver his national statement during the High Level Segment of COP 22.

A statement earlier issued by the Presidents Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, said President Buhari would be presenting Presidential address at the conference.

The address, according to the statement, is expected to highlight, among other key issues, Nigerias unwavering commitment to implementing the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and policy actions aimed at tackling climate change through environmental sustainable efforts.

It said that the President would also use the occasion of his speech to rally international support for the clean-up of Ogoniland in the Niger Delta and the resuscitation of the Lake Chad Basin.

The statement said President Buhari would also attend the Africa Day Commemoration at COP 22 with the theme, Moving from Commitments to Action with Intended Nationally Determined Contributions and African Renewable Energy Initiative.

The President, according to the statement, will also attend the Summit of African Heads of State on the sidelines of the Climate Change conference.

COP 22, will be attended by representatives from 197 countries including world leaders, environment ministers, government officials as well as a wide range of representatives from civil society and the private sector.

The conference is the first meeting of State Parties since the entry into force of the landmark Paris Agreement on Nov. 4, 2016.

The legally binding international Agreement on climate change, among others, addresses issues of global warming, including its impact on food security and agriculture.
Alhaji Dasuki died at the age of 93on Monday, November 14, in Abuja.

Buhari made the comments via a statement released by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu.

The statement reads:

Apart from modernizing the traditional institution to bring it in tune with changing times, President Buhari believes that the late Ibrahim Dasuki, who died on Monday at the age of 93, will be long remembered for his role in the creation of the present local government system in the country.

The President pays tribute to his contribution to national peace and development, particularly his significant role in producing the report that gave birth to the current local government councils.
A few top ranking officials at the nations seat of power have disclosed this much to Pulse.

Buhari is yet to fill in hundreds of board and parastatal slots.

According to sources spoken to for this story, the President is yet to name persons into various board level positions because members of the cabal want a huge percentage of the appointments to be ceded to their cronies and loyalists.

The cabal wants 40 percent of the appointments for themselves and theyve told the President so in very clear terms, offered a top ranking Presidency source.

The source added that since his assumption of office as President, Buhari has ceded responsibility of appointing persons into various federal level positions, to the cabal.

But members of the cabal recently handpicked stooges and loyalists as Ambassadorial nominees, much to the chagrin of State Governors.

Governors were not consulted before Ambassadors were picked from their States, a move that earned the President plenty of flak and embarrassment.

The development also led to a few of the Ambassadors turning down their appointments.

According to a similar story in The Nation, following the backlash that greeted his Ambassadorial nominations, the President expressed his dismay to the Governors.

According to the story, The President told the Governors that he was shocked by the protests which the nomination of Ambassadors generated.

The Governors protested to Buhari that they were neither consulted by the selection committee, nor the nominees known to them.

The source claimed that those given the assignment by the President to shop for competent hands only put their stooges.

To avoid a repeat of padding of appointees, according to the source, the President assured the Governors and party leaders that he would henceforth ensure wider consultations with Governors, and party leaders on appointments.

The source added: The President has dumped the cabal making discreet and embarrassing appointments. Now, it is going to be consultations before appointments.

As a matter of fact, the President felt betrayed on appointments by some of his aides and kitchen cabinet advisers.

There were also a few lines suggesting that the President may turn a new leaf in the days ahead.

ALSO READ:

Now, Buhari is set to reconcile with everybody, especially the aggrieved Governors and leaders of the party, by running an all-inclusive administration and involving these leaders in strategic decision-making process.

The Nigerian Senate has just rejected some of the Presidents Ambassadorial nominees.

46 non-career Ambassadors were told they didn't meet the cut.

Monsurat Sunmonu, Chairman Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, said during plenary on Tuesday that President Buhari will have to re-present his Ambassadorial list to parliament.

I suggest we return the list of non-career Ambassadors to the executive so that they can re-present it. There are about 200 petitions against the nominees and we dont even know where to start, Sunmonu said.
Charly Boy had announced plans to lead other Nigerians on Tuesday, November 15, 2016, to the National Assembly to protest alleged corruption in the legislature.

Charly Boy, the national coordinator of the advocacy group said the protest was born out of the will of Nigerian youths who have shown the desire to "stand up against the injustice and oppression done against them by corrupt politicians."

The eccentric artist who rode on his Power Bike from the Unity Fountain to the National Assembly said he was there to provide "fatherly support to the young kids."

His words: "I am here to encourage some youths who told me that they are not happy with the way things are going in this country. I have always had this faith in my country. I have always said that the future of this country lies in the hands of its exceptional youths and until these youths start to crawl out of wherever they are hiding, Nigeria is going to be in jeopardy.

"I was happy that some youths are doing what young people should do and I am just here to encourage them to take their rightful place in society. I have also advised them on the need to go back to the drawing board and come out massively because this is a course for the few men and women of integrity left in Nigeria to come and speak out against this oppression," he said.

Officers and men of the Nigerian Police, however, denied the group access into the National Assembly saying that "they had not written to inform the lawmakers of their coming."

But protesters blocked the main entrance of the National Assembly thereby preventing movement to and from the complex.
The elder Dasuki, a former Sultan of Sokoto, died on Monday, November 14, in Abuja.

He is due to be buried on Tuesday, November 15, in accordance with Islamic rites, but his son, whos being held by the Department of State Services (DSS) on charges of corruption might not be released to pay his last respects.

Sambo Dasuki is alleged to have spearheaded the $2 billion arms deal fraud through which funds for the purchase of weapons to fight Boko Haram were squandered by government officials.

He has been in DSS custody since December 2015 after being arrested on the orders of President Muhammadu Buhari and charged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The ECOWAS court, in October, ordered the government to release Dasuki but the latter says it must study the judgment before complying.

The government had earlier told the court that releasing Dasuki would be dangerous.
The Minister of Interior, Retired Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Danbazau disclosed this in Sokoto on Tuesday, November 15 while addressing newsmen.

Danbazau said Sambo also rejected another offer to be in Sokoto throughout the mourning of his Father.

"We had discussed with the Director-General, DSS, yesterday and Sambo was offered to visit his late father on his hospital bed in Abuja.

"He declined and said he preferred to pray for him. He was also offered to be in Sokoto throughout the mourning period and he also declined, preferring to pray for his late father. That was the true situation," Danbazau said.

ALSO READ: 14 things you should know about the former Sultan of Sokoto

The Minister described the late Dasuki as a true nationalist and prayed Allah for the repose his soul.

Ibrahim Dasuki, who was the former Sultan of Sokoto, and father of Col. Sambo, died on Monday in an Abuja Hospital at the age of 93.
The NLC, in its argument, said that Nigerians were still struggling to cope with the last increase in the price of fuel.

The government must not take us for granted; indeed the patience and perseverance of the entire populace must not be taken for granted as we will sure mobilize the entire citizenry for mass protests in addition to other legitimate actions to resist any further increase, NLC President, Ayuba Wabba said while speaking to journalists in Sokoto

What is urgently required of government is not another increase but a downward review of the current pump price of petroleum products.

Nigerian workers and pensioners are as important to the growth of the economy and must not be allowed to continue to suffer further hardships. We therefore reiterate our call on government to treat the review of the minimum wage and pension with the utmost urgency they deserve, he added.

The NLC had earlier told the government that further increasing the fuel price would be an insensitive move.

ALSO READ: Fuel might cost N151 per litre soon
The Federal Government on Monday, November 14, filed a 15-count charge before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, against Justice Ademola and his wife, Olabowale, who is the Head of Service of Lagos State, for allegedly receiving gratification.

Reacting to the allegation, a lawyer in his defence team, Mr Jeph Njikonye, said the prosecutors went so "low" to impute that Justice Ademola received gratification from his uncles law firm, G.T.J Ademola & Co.

Njikonye said the Federal Government only filed the charges to play to the gallery and to justify the "unconstitutional" raid on houses of some judges by the DSS.

He said: "We have taken a preliminary look at the charges and we can confidently say that they are bogus and trumped up to play to the gallery of the public. It is also an attempt to justify their unconstitutional raid on the houses of the judges in the wee hours of the day.

"Unfortunately, the populace will not have the opportunity to be in court to see how unsubstantiated and how woolly those charges are. There is no iota of substance in the charges.

"All of these are politically-motivated.

"They are trumped-up to denigrate and tarnish the name of the judge and the name of the Ademola family.

"They also went so low to impute that the judge received gratification from his uncle, who runs the G.T.J Ademola & Co.

"We will be eager to get to the bridge and cross it."

ALSO READ: Chief Justice says NJC has no power to dismiss any judge

The lawyer said the government also "roped" in the judge's wife, whom she described as a woman of integrity.

"In playing to the sentiment of the public, they disingeniously roped in the wife of the judge.

"As Head of Service of Lagos State, the wife of the judge does not reside in Abuja.

"She is a woman of sterling character and who does not know anything about the cases her husband presides over."

The Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation filed the 15 counts in the suit with number, FCT/CR/21/2016, against the Justice Ademola and his wife.
The Special Media Adviser to the Minister, Mr Festus Akanbi, disclosed this in a statement issued on Tuesday, November 15.

The Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007 stipulates that any Federal Government funded agency that generates revenue must remit 80 per cent of its profit as operating surplus into the Consolidated Revenue Funds accounts.

The Fiscal Responsibility Commission that is in charge of executing this, has always called attention to the fact that many of the Federal Government MDAs short change the government by not remitting or under remitting their operating surplus.

The commission has had cause to challenge agencies such as the NNPC for not remitting operating surplus in nine years, by claiming operational losses.

The agencies under review include the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Petroleum Technology Development Fund, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Nigerian Television Authority and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Others are, Nigeria Ports Authority, Bureau of Public Enterprises, Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Debt Management Office and the Nigeria Inland Revenue Service among others.

ALSO READ: Finance minister speaks to Pulse on the economy

According to the statement, the committee, headed by the Accountant General of the Federation, Mr Ahmed Idris, will reconcile the operating surpluses of the 31 revenue-generating agencies of government for the period 2010 to 2015.

"The Committee will therefore be inviting the management of these agencies to explain why their operating surpluses have not been remitted as mandated by the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007.

"Some of these agencies have incurred huge expenses on overseas trainings, medicals and huge expenses on behalf of supervisory ministries and other government organs involved in oversight functions without appropriate approval.

"Other infractions include payment of salaries and allowances to staff and board members, governing councils, and commissions which are outside or above the amount approved by RMAFC and Salaries and Wages Commission," it stated.

It also said some of the infractions the committee will be looking at, are donations, sponsorships, unfavourable contract signed for revenue collection by a third party; granting of staff loans that have not been repaid.

Also sale and transfer of assets to board members in these agencies will also be looked into.
The labour unions said the legislators decision to purchase the cars at this time, shows how insensitive they are to the plight of Nigerians.

This is coming on the heels of a report that the House of Representatives has received the first batch of the vehicles.

The General Secretary of the NLC, Peter Ozo-Eson also called on the leadership of the House to cancel the deal.

Ozo-Eson said it is not right for the lawmakers to spend such huge amount of money in the midst of a harsh economic climate.

According to the Executive Director, Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Ibuchukwu Ezike, It is not today that we have begun to see the insensitivity of the leaders of this country and that was captured in the statement by the former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, saying that Nigeria is fantastically corrupt and when recently Donald Trump made his own statement about Nigeria.
But Natalie Portman said Monday portraying grief-stricken Jacqueline Kennedy had taught her the virtue of celebrities giving more of themselves to the public.

"Jackie," Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrain's first English-language feature, is a searing and intimate portrait of the first lady in the week after John F Kennedy's assassination in 1963.

Portman told journalists at the American Film Institute's AFI Fest in Los Angeles, where "Jackie" was getting its US premiere, how she admired the stoic and dignified face Jackie put on for the public.

"It's understanding that even when she was going through something incredibly private, it meant something to other people how she presented herself publicly," Portman, 35, said.

"It's like other people share in whatever you're going through and that's really impressive that she was able to do that," she added.

Born Neta-Lee Hershlag in Jerusalem to a doctor father and an artist mother, Portman has taken on tough roles since starting her big-screen career.

She got her break at age 11 in "The Professional," the tale of a hitman-for-hire (Jean Reno) who becomes the mentor to a young girl.

But she turned down 1996's "Romeo + Juliet" because of the age difference between her and Leonardo DiCaprio, and rejected the 1997 remake of "Lolita," which she deemed "sleazy."

She also signed on to "Anywhere But Here" (1999) with Susan Sarandon only after a nude scene was dropped.

'More than sex symbol'

"I value my private life and security way more than getting parts by flashing my boobs on some magazine or being a sex symbol in films," she said in a 2000 interview.

Portman won a best actress Oscar for 2010's psychological ballet thriller "Black Swan".

It was on the set of that film she met her future husband, French dancer and choreographer Benjamin Millepied, with whom she is expecting a second child.

She has been tipped for a second Oscar for her performance in "Jackie," with critics raving about how accurately she managed to capture Kennedy's voice and personality.

"The easier things were... the more superficial details like the way she talked and the way she moved and looked," Portman said on the red carpet at Hollywood's TCL Chinese Theatre.

"Those are things you spend a lot of time on but it's really the way she felt that takes the imagination and the real searching. The other stuff is like learning a skill as opposed to exploring your own depths."

"Jackie" peaks with the first lady's real-life strategy of painting a fairy-tale picture of JFK by using "Camelot" as a sobriquet for the Kennedy administration, an epitaph which stuck.

"I loved that she defined herself as a wife primarily, but then lived a life that was very counter to that where she was her own woman," said Portman.

"It was like she didn't know how to be any other way, except exactly herself -- very strong, very able to author her own story. And (she) really became the author of her own story and his story."
And boy, does he love some media attention!

In an interview granted Zero Tolerance, a quarterly magazine published by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Atiku made some startling revelations.

Lets walk you through them with some insights of our own.

1. Atiku will vie for the Presidency again

This was a dress rehearsal for another Atiku Abubakar presidential run in 2019.

An Atiku Presidency has failed to fly in the past because the man has been tainted with a corrupt tag.

He doesnt like it.

Hard as he has tried, 'corrupt' is the first word that comes to mind when Atiku is discussed.

The corrupt tag has undermined several Atiku presidential bids--from the Obasanjo era to the former VPs attempt to become APCs presidential standard bearer in the run up to the 2015 election.

In the interview with Zero Tolerance, the Turaki Adamawa did try to convince everyone that he isnt as corrupt as Nuhu Ribadu made him look.

Ribadu was the no-nonsense Chairman of the anti-graft agency (EFCC) at the time.

Atiku said: When Ribadu came to ask me for forgiveness, I said if you want me to forgive you, Nuhu, go to the same television stations where you said I was corrupt and say you now (have) realised that I am not corrupt.

Then he said Sir, you have forgiven so many people who have offended you publicly without them going to TV stations to apologise to you and I said, your case is different because first of all, I helped to found the EFCC.

I was instrumental to your appointment, so, I believe I have contributed to your development and this is how you are paying me back. In any case, he kept on apologising and I said, okay, no problem. That closed the chapter.

Atikus life ambition has been to become President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and hell keep trying to rebrand himself until he gets it.

This interview is all part of another Atiku for President strategy.

2. The grudge against Obasanjo won't go away

Forget Atikus visit to Baba Iyabo in 2014, he hasnt quite forgiven his former boss for 'frustrating' his Presidential project in the past.

Atiku tells the story of how he fell out with Obasanjo:

My offence was that I disagreed with him on the amendment of the constitution to remove tenure/term limits or what was popularly called the third term agenda.

In fact, he sent the then Attorney-General and Prof. Jerry Gana to my office to bring the draft amendments to the constitution. After going through (them), I found out that tenure limits had been removed. In other words, he could be President for life.

I then asked them that if I send you to the President, can you deliver this message? They said yes. I said go and tell him I will not support it and (I) will fight it.

Obasanjo had denied he wanted a third term Presidencybut no one believed him.

Atiku still harbours plenty of grudge against Obasanjo.

You only need to read his words above one more time to know it will take more than Photo-Op visits to Abeokuta and phony smiles before the media, to make him forgive Baba.

3. Atiku hasnt forgiven Ribadu either

Atiku still cant fathom why Ribadu hounded him so badly.

Atiku credits himself with making Ribadu.

According to Atiku: I was instrumental to your (Ribadu) appointment, so, I believe I have contributed to your development and this is how you are paying me back?
In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Dayo Adeyeye, the party praised Fayose for his achievement in Ekiti and for always holding the Muhammadu Buhari administration and the All Progressives Congress (APC) accountable.

Below are five key things the party told Fayose:

1. Fayose demonstrated uncommon leadership qualities in service delivery to his home state, Ekiti and Nigeria in general during his first tenure as governor from 2003 to 2006.

2. Your second term in office from 2014 to date has equally epitomised your achievements in infrastructure, policies and programmes in the state which is in compliance with the manifesto of the PDP.

3. Your achievements in office have placed Ekiti State on a pedestal higher than other states in the South-West Zone of Nigeria. Keep it up!.

4. You have steadfastly defended the PDP and well-meaning Nigerians by holding the Federal Government accountable for all its campaign promises.
Fayose also dedicated his birthday to poor Nigerians who are suffering and lacking the basic necessities of life.

The governor made the comments via a statement released in commemoration of his 56th birthday on Tuesday, November 15.

The statement reads:

I dedicate this birthday to the desperately poor, the poor, and the once vibrant middle class Nigerians that have now been reduced to an unprecedented level of marginalization, untold suffering and virtual nothingness.

I use this occasion to solidarise with our people who are suffering and lacking the basic necessities of life at a level never seen before in this country.

It will make no meaning for me to be celebrating birthday in the face of the muzzling, arm-twisting, ridiculing and blackmailing of the judiciary, legislature and the opposition in the name of anti-corruption war. When a democratically elected government embarks on a systematic effort to kill the opposition, legislature and subjugate the judiciary, it is no time for lovers of democracy like myself to pick samba and tambourine to celebrate birthday.

Rather than wine and dine, which, usually, is the hallmark of birthday celebrations, I shall spend today, fasting, meditating and praying to God that He should graciously and mercifully intervene in the affairs of our great country, Nigeria, which, regrettably, has been laid prostrate by this clueless, fumbling and wobbling administration.

I pitch my tent with you, I stand with you, by you, and for you. I shall never be tired of speaking for you. When they call me the unofficial leader of opposition, they, in their own warped understanding and pervert thinking, seek to disparage me. I accept this title as a great privilege and call to duty, which I considered sacred.

On this day, I rededicate myself to this patriotic and God-assigned duty and responsibility with unwavering commitment and renewed strength, vigor, and vitality.

I say to the people of Nigeria, we shall be great again. These perilous times shall pass and together, we shall bring back the glory and greatness of our country and people.
During a farewell visit from Archbishop Augustine Kasujja, Apostolic Nuncio (Ambassador of the Holy See), the president described the Catholic leader's efforts as active and relentless," Vanguard reports.

Buhari pointed out the Pope's contributions in Syria, which he said were spectacular.

Please convey our gratitude to the Pope. We thank the Vatican for supporting Nigerias efforts. You have spent over six years here. We hope you will keep in touch, he added.

Archbishop Kasujja responded by praising the courage of Nigerians, especially in the North-east.

If you permit me, I will love to be an ambassador of Nigeria wherever I go, he added.

Pope Francis' reign as the Catholic World leader has been filled with many attempts to ensure total global peace.

ALSO READ: 10 life changing tweets from Pope Francis

In March, 2016, he made an emotional appeal for peace in his message during his traditional Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world) Easter blessing, Religion News Service reports.

"The Lord Jesus by his resurrection triumphed over evil and sin. May he draw us closer on this Easter feast to the victims of terrorism, that blind and brutal form of violence which continues to shed innocent blood in different parts of the world, as in recent attacks in Belgium, Turkey, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, and the Ivory Coast, " he said.

The Pontiff recently prayed for world peace with over 400 religious leaders, including the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, in September, 2016.

Here, thirty years ago, Pope John Paul II said: Peace is a workshop, open to all and not just to specialists, savants and strategists. Peace is a universal responsibility. Let us assume this responsibility, reaffirming today our yes to being, together, builders of the peace that God wishes for us and for which humanity thirsts", he said.
Some of them who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) said it would save parents and guardians the cost of purchasing scratch cards.

A parent, Mr Sunkanmi Sunday said the money that would have been spent on the cards would be channelled towards other things.

The replacement of scratch cards with PIN is very timely, especially with this recession, it will save us some costs.

We will even be able to use the money for other things, so it is a good decision, Sunday said.

An admission seeker, Fatimah Bakare said it was better especially for candidates that would not pass at the end of the day.

It is a good one because if one ends up not passing the examination afterwards, the money that could have been wasted will be minimal.

So, it is just as if JAMB is helping us to reduce the burden on our parents a little, Bakare said.

Another respondent, Augusta Okoye said the decision was a relief to parents, especially those that have more than one child seeking for admission into tertiary institutions.

I have lost count of the amount I have spent on recharge cards for my children apart from the money used in obtaining the form.

There was a year that I gave three of them money for that purpose, but unfortunately, only one of them passed.

I almost developed hypertension each time my children mention it to me that it is time to give them money for scratch cards.

Personally, I will like to thank whoever made decision because parents will no longer be looking for money for cards when feeding has become a problem for virtually every household," Okoye said.
"Since April 2015, when large popular protests broke out against the decision of President Pierre Nkurunziza to seek a third term, Burundi has been in violent political crisis," the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) said.

In a 200-page report, the FIDH documented how state-sponsored violence and opposing rebel groups have perpetuated a cycle of violence.

"The crackdown by the security services and the (ruling party's youth wing) Imbonerakure... aims primarily at retaining power through any and all means," the report said.

More than 1,000 people have died, between 300 and 800 are missing, some 8,000 are being held for political reasons and more than 300,000 people have fled the country, said the report titled "Repression and Genocidal Dynamics in Burundi".

The FIDH, along with leading Burundian rights group the ITEKA League, spent 24 months investigating rights abuses in the country.

"All the criteria and conditions for the perpetrating of genocide are in place," the report said, listing "ideology, intent, security institutions... identifying populations to be eliminated, and the using of historical justifications."

Burundi suffered a brutal civil war from 1993 until 2006 between majority Hutus and minority Tutsis, which claimed an estimated 300,000 lives.

A failed coup in May 2015 was the "breaking point" after which the authorities adopted a "logic of systematic repression", the report said.

After Nkurunziza's re-election in July 2015, the repression deepened, it said, citing targeted killings and massive arbitrary detentions.

In addition, ethnic Hutus in power "have sought to turn a political crisis into an ethnic one, equating 'opponents' and 'rebels' with Tutsis," the report warned.

Anschaire Nikoyagize, the now exiled president of the rights group, ITEKA League, said in a statement: "The crimes of the regime have become systematic... Crimes against humanity are occurring and there is a risk of genocide."

'Admission of guilt'

Today, Burundi has become increasingly isolated from the international community, notably by withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The move came after ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said she was mulling a full investigation into allegations of murder, torture, rape and forced disappearances -- in what Bujumbura described as a "plot to do harm to Burundi".

The FIDH labelled Burundi's decision to quit the court as "an admission of guilt" by Nkurunziza's regime

The ICC, created in 2002, is often accused of bias against Africa and has struggled with a lack of cooperation, including from the United States, which has signed the court's treaty but never ratified it.
This guy is a complete maniac. His utter hate towards Muslims will make our job much easier because we can recruit thousands,Abu Omar Khorasani, a top IS commander in Afghanistan, told Reuters.

Our leaders were closely following the U.S. election but it was unexpected that the Americans will dig their own graves and they did so," Khorasani added.

Khorasani also described President Barack Obama as a moderate infidel with at least a little brain in comparison to Trump.

ALSO READ: Pastor Chris Okotie says Donald Trump will reconcile America with God
Breitbart News, whose anti-elite, anti-immigration agenda has made it popular with fringe groups and white supremacists, is credited with helping propel Donald Trump to the White House.

Trump named the executive chairman of the platform, Steve Bannon, as the CEO of his campaign in August and then chief strategist in the White House at the weekend.

Marion Marechal-Le Pen, whose aunt Marine is the leader of the National Front (FN) and its presidential candidate, told AFP on Tuesday that she would be happy to work with Breitbart if they came to France.

"All alternative media are generally positive. Donald Trump is the demonstration of that... they're among the useful tools," the 26-year-old parliamentarian told AFP on a visit to Moscow.

She said there had been no talks with Breitbart, but the FN has had "some small contacts for some time" with the Trump campaign.

Bannon called Marechal-Le Pen a "rising star" in an interview with French website radio-londres.fr in July and said the news group was hoping to open a Paris bureau, or start a French version.

Breitbart editor-in-chief Alexander Marlow told The New York Times that the site's expansion would be linked to elections next year in Germany and France, where Breitbart intends to support Marine Le Pen.

"There's an under-served readership" in Europe, Marlow was quoted as saying in an article published on Sunday. "It's the same readers who had been ignored in Britain and had been ignored in the United States."

Marine Le Pen is expected to win around 30 percent of votes in the first round of presidential elections in May next year, according to polls.

She would then face a second-round run-off against a rival candidate, most likely from the centre-right, which she is expected to lose.

Le Pen has worked hard to try to make the FN more acceptable to mainstream voters, shedding its overtly anti-Semitic and racist image under the party's former leader, her father Jean-Marie.

Her platform remains focused on restricting immigration, fighting against Islamic fundamentalism and withdrawing France from the European Union.

Marechal-Le Pen was speaking at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations during a trip to Russia, which has courted the FN and other populist anti-EU parties in Europe.

The National Front seeks closer ties between the West and the Kremlin and supported President Vladimir Putin after his annexation of Crimea in Ukraine in 2014.
"Iran's defence capabilities cannot be compromised and are under no circumstance negotiable," he told state television IRIB.

"Missile tests are conducted within the framework of Iran's defence policies."

Iran's military has carried out a number of missile tests in recent months, which the United States and European governments have said are a breach of its commitments under last year's nuclear deal.

Western powers say the missiles are capable of carrying nuclear warheads and therefore go against the deal, under which Iran agreed to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for a lifting of global sanctions.

The EU foreign ministers called on all sides to respect the agreement -- reflecting concerns over US president-elect Donald Trump's vow to ditch it.

Ghasemi welcomed the EU's "interest and determination to develop ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran and the renewed emphasis on the commitment of this union in the full implementation by all sides" of the nuclear deal.

The EU has been pushing to open an office in Tehran amid a surge in interest from European companies hoping to resume trade ties.

But there has been push-back from Iranian conservatives, who say the office would be used to press human rights issues, and Ghasemi said last week it was "unlikely such an office would be opened... in the short term".

The head of Iran's Human Rights Council, which falls under the hardline judiciary, said last month: "If this office is used for following up trade issues, there is no problem. But they have said that following the opening of this office, they want to have close contacts with human rights defenders and NGOs.
They face travel bans and asset freezes for "being responsible for the violent repression against the civilian population in Syria, benefiting from or supporting the regime, and/or being associated with such persons," an EU statement said.

EU leaders agreed at a summit in October to increase sanctions against the Assad regime, citing devastating attacks on Syria's second city of Aleppo, and added 10 top military and government officials to the list.

But suggestions they might also sanction Russia, which has backed long-time ally Assad's offensives against rebel forces and flown many of the missions against Aleppo, were dropped after sharp differences emerged.
Here are five cards the socialist president holds to trump the opposition during the Vatican-backed talks over the economic and political crisis.

Block the vote

The two sides vowed in a declaration on Saturday to find a "democratic, peaceful" way out of the crisis, tackle food shortages and discuss electoral reform.

But Maduro rejected his rivals' key demand for a vote on removing him before his term expires in 2019.

He has resisted pressure so far with the backing of the high court and electoral authorities, which the opposition says he controls.

"The MUD has been left in a very uncomfortable situation with regard to its voters, because the most essential issues are not mentioned" in Saturday's declaration, said Benigno Alarcon, a political scientist at Andres Bello university.

Weakened opposition

To sit at the negotiating table, the opposition suspended its threat of street protests and a political trial against Maduro.

The move brought to the surface divisions in the opposition MUD coalition. Half of the 30 groups that make up the coalition have boycotted the talks.

"As far as appearances are concerned, the government clearly won this round by a knockout," said Luis Vicente de Leon, head of polling firm Datanalisis.

"It managed to calm people, confirm its status as a negotiator with international involvement and accentuate the divisions in the opposition."

International caution

Alarcon said Maduro had successfully played for time. Staging the talks has staved off pressure from the international community.

Members of the Organization of American States have talked about sanctioning Venezuela. But while the dialogue is under way, "no one will call for that," Alarcon said.

Meanwhile, "the opposition finds itself in a difficult position given the fact that it is under immense pressure from the Vatican and international actors to continue talks," the Eurasia Group consultancy said.

Military allegiance

With Maduro blocking their drive for a vote, Alarcon judged that the opposition "are going to have no choice but to return to a strategy of street protests and legislative pressure," which Maduro has so far resisted.

Eurasia judged that "the continuation of the dialogue bodes well for Maduro and reinforces our view that he will be able to remain in power until the end of his term, barring a more acute social explosion that brings masses to the streets."

Confrontation in the streets is a high-risk strategy for the opposition, since Maduro has the public support of the military high command.

MUD secretary general Jesus Torrealba admitted on Monday that "when it comes to resorting to violence, (Maduro) is in control."

Debt cushion

The opposition blames Maduro's economic policies and mismanagement for the crisis. He says it is a US-backed capitalist conspiracy.

Economic analysts have wondered whether the government will be toppled if it defaults on the billions of dollars of debt Venezuela owes to China and other foreign investors.

But last month PDVSA, the state firm that handles the oil exports on which the country relies, gained much-needed breathing room.
Each time he carried a suitcase containing between 1.5 and 2.0 million euros in 200-euro and 500-euro notes, Takieddine told the site in a video interview, saying he was given the money by Kadhafi's military intelligence chief Abdallah Senussi.

Sarkozy, who is bidding to recapture the presidency in next year's election, has for years been dogged by allegations that he accepted millions from Kadhafi during his successful 2007 run for the top office.

During questioning in a separate case, Takieddine accused Sarkozy of having been in Kadhafi's pocket in 2006-07 but he had never previously claimed to be the bagman.

The allegations against Sarkozy first emerged in March 2011, when the French leader was campaigning for the NATO-led military intervention that helped overthrow Kadhafi.

"Sarkozy must first give back the money he took from Libya to finance his electoral campaign," Kadhafi's son Seif al-Islam, who is now in jail in Libya, demanded.

A year later, as Sarkozy was campaigning for a second term, Mediapart published a document signed by former Libyan intelligence boss Musa Kusa referring to an agreement for 50 million euros ($54 million at current rates) in backing from Tripoli.

Sarkozy, who lost his 2012 re-election bid, vigorously denied the allegations, claiming the document was a fake.

Takieddine's video testimony comes five days before Sarkozy goes up against former prime minister Alain Juppe and other rivals in a primary to choose the candidate of the French right in next year's presidential vote.

'Mafia state'

The first round of the two-stage primary takes place on Sunday.

Takieddine said he delivered the cash directly to the interior ministry, which Sarkozy headed at the time.

He said he was received on the first two occasions by Claude Gueant, Sarkozy's then cabinet chief whom he later made his interior minister.

The businessman, who said he wanted to tell all about "the mafia state in which we are living", said he set down the cases in Gueant's office but did not discuss the contents with him.

On the third occasion, he was received by Sarkozy himself in an apartment on the first floor of the ministry, he claimed.

After setting down the case, he said Sarkozy spoke to him briefly about a group of Bulgarian health workers imprisoned in Libya whose liberation Sarkozy negotiated later that year.

But he studiously avoided the topic of the briefcase.

In 2012, Senussi, who is also imprisoned in Libya, told investigators he "personally supervised" the handover of 5.0 million euros towards Sarkozy's campaign.

But despite several other such former high-ranking members of Kadhafi's regime making similar claims, French investigators have yet to find any evidence of illegal campaign funding, according to AFP's sources.

Sarkozy has brushed off the allegations as the claims of vindictive Libyan regime members, furious with him for leading the intervention that ended Kadhafi's 41-year rule.

The 61-year-old right-winger, who is trailing presidential frontrunner Juppe in opinion polls, is embroiled in several scandals.
The pair spoke Monday, when Xi said that the two powers needed to co-operate and Trump's office said the leaders "established a clear sense of mutual respect for one another".

On the campaign trail Trump frequently demonised Beijing, but questions have been asked whether his conduct in the White House will match his promises as a candidate.

Monday's conversation was "diplomatically impeccable and has bolstered optimism over bilateral relations in the next four years", China's frequently nationalistic Global Times newspaper said in an editorial.

Barack Obama, whose foreign policy pivot to Asia alarmed Beijing, was "profoundly affected" by the Cold War-shaped outlook of American elites, the paper said, but Trump's views "have not been kidnapped by Washington's political elites".

"Trump is probably the very American leader who will make strides in reshaping major-power relations in a pragmatic manner," it added, saying his ideology and experience "match well with the new era".

It was a sharp contrast to the same newspaper's editorial the day before, which baldly warned the incoming president not to follow through on campaign-trail promises to levy steep tariffs on Chinese-made goods or Beijing would take a "tit-for-tat approach" and target US autos, aircraft, soybeans, and iPhones.

But the president-elect's ambiguous and sometimes contradictory views on key questions on the relationship between the world's two largest economies, including trade, the South China Sea and North Korea, have cast a pall of uncertainty over how he will manage it.

While campaigning, Trump went as far as calling the Asian giant America's "enemy", accused it of artificially lowering its currency to boost exports, threatened to impose tariffs of 45 percent, and pledged to stand up to a country he says views the US as a pushover.

But he also indicated he is not interested in getting involved in far-off squabbles, and decried the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade deal, which encompasses several other Asian countries and has been seen as an effort to bolster US influence, for costing American jobs.

TPP has been signed by the US but not ratified by the Senate, where its chances are seen as poor.

Tuesday's editorial in the government-published China Daily newspaper called the Xi-Trump chat "propitious", noting that Beijing is "understandably relieved that the exclusive, economically inefficient, politically antagonising TPP is looking ever less likely to materialise".
"We will have to see how many of these deportations, which the US government usually carries out, ... correspond to Mexico," Sanchez said at a news conference.

"This and other issues will be part of the agenda that Mexico will put on the table in the bilateral meetings that will take place with the government of President-elect Donald Trump," he said.

Pena Nieto said last week that he had agreed to meet with Trump, possibly before the Republican billionaire takes office in January, and that he felt "optimistic" about future relations.

Trump said in a interview broadcast Sunday on CBS television's "60 Minutes" program that up to three million undocumented immigrants with criminal records would be deported or incarcerated.

Trump also reaffirmed his signature campaign pledge to build a wall on the border with Mexico, although he conceded parts of it may be just a fence.

Sanchez recalled that Pena Nieto has rejected Trump's call for Mexico to pay for the barrier.

The presidential spokesman said the foreign ministry will launch a campaign in the United States to keep Mexicans informed and protect them through Mexico's consular network.

Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu huddled with consular officials on Saturday to design plans to protect and assist Mexicans in the United States.

While Pena Nieto prepares for the new US administration, he spoke by phone with President Barack Obama on Monday about economic ties, fighting organized crime and "managing migration," the White House said in a statement.
Turning the ship before it hits the iceberg
Two people were arrested early Tuesday morning after Nye County Sheriffs deputies allegedly discovered eight grams of methamphetamine.

Two people were arrested early Tuesday morning after Nye County Sheriffs deputies allegedly discovered eight grams of methamphetamine.

Leslie Ward, 48, of Pahrump and Cecil Thomas Cooper, 52, of New Mexico, were taken into custody around 2 a.m. after NCSO general assignment detectives and K-9 patrol deputies stopped a vehicle for failing to maintain its travel lane and for not having a front license plate during a focused enforcement targeting narcotics.

According to information from the sheriffs office, Cooper was driving with Ward as his passenger when they stopped the vehicle.

Believing Cooper may be impaired, the officers reportedly asked Cooper to perform a series of field sobriety tests at the scene, which he allegedly failed.

Additionally Cooper allegedly made some admissions in reference to using methamphetamine and was subsequently placed under arrest for DUI and being under the influence of a controlled substance.

Police then used K-9 Deputy Indie to search for the possible presence of narcotics inside the vehicle. The dog allegedly gave a positive indication to its handler that there were drugs inside the vehicle and a subsequent search allegedly revealed approximately eight grams of methamphetamine in a purse belonging to Ward as well as drug paraphernalia.

Ward too was placed under arrest on charges of being under the influence of a controlled substance, trafficking methamphetamine, possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Both Ward and Cooper were then transported to the Nye County Detention Center to be booked into custody.

As of Thursday morning, Cooper had reportedly bailed out of custody, but Ward remained in custody on a no bail hold.
CEDAR FALLS  Lawmakers, who in the coming months will begin to work through another state budget, voiced support Monday for a new Board of Regents initiative to plan two years out for tuition increases  and urged regents to go even further.

During a meeting in Cedar Falls of the Iowa Legislatures fiscal committee, co-chair Rep. Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, said he wants regents to help students budget four years ahead.

Its just looking at students having the ability to know what four years of education would cost, Grassley said. How do we get to that point? Is that where were trying to get right now? Because I think it should be.

Regents President Bruce Rastetter said it is, and the board has asked its university presidents to think how to get there.

Weve seen some different plans of that, he said. But  that should be a natural goal of the regents.

Over the summer, the board debuted a forward-looking plan that envisions an increase in resident undergraduate tuition rates of 2 percent in each of the next two academic years and also seeks 2 percent increases in state money each year.

Nonetheless, tuition could go up more in the second year if state appropriations fall short of what the board wants.

Next month, the board is scheduled to consider final approval of tuition rates for the 2017-2018 school year, including the 2 percent bump for resident undergrads and higher increases for non-resident students and those pursuing academic programs that cost more to provide.

The board historically has discussed tuition and appropriations one year at a time, but late-running legislative sessions in recent years have prompted last-minute tuition increases across university campuses.

Rep. Dave Jacoby, D-Coralville, was among lawmakers who stressed Monday the importance of avoiding surprises in helping families budget, reducing student debt and potentially improving four-year graduation rates.

I know youre asking for two years, but honest to gosh years three and four are probably what worries families even more, he said. So if theres a way the Board of Regents could actually look longitudinal at three years and four  that would help immensely.

Rastetter said the two-year plan is a step toward that goal, but he acknowledged the difficulty of balancing university budgets that depend not only on tuition revenue but also on appropriations, enrollment trends, fundraising and other factors.

One of our challenges is were dependent upon state appropriations, which I think all of us practically realize is dependent upon state revenue and the economy of Iowa, he said.

Because tuition rates depend on the number and type of students paying, regents and lawmakers closely track trends.

Regents Director of Institutional Research Jason Pontius told lawmakers Monday that enrollment has been increasing, with record enrollment this year for the three regent universities combined, including record numbers at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University.

About 60 percent of the regent total 81,899 students are Iowa residents, with the rest coming from outside Iowa.

Pontius said the state Department of Education projects the number of high-school graduates in Iowa will remain flat in the coming years, potentially affecting universities growth.

Projections show slower growth in the coming decade  about 6 percent more students are expected by 2026.

But lawmakers Monday noted that many Iowans move away to get a degree, or dont pursue higher education at all.

We need to stop the frame of reference that were competing against a fixed pool, when we have stats in front of us right now that show there are a lot of Iowans who dont even show up, said Sen. Jeff Danielson, D-Cedar Falls.
Federal prosecutors are one step closer to taking permanent custody of nearly half of the 64 pit bulls seized in April that they say are part of a large dog-fighting ring in the Quad-Cities.

On Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Sara Darrow granted prosecutors emergency motion seeking an entry of default against 14 people  five of whom they have named as possible participants in the ring  served in the case who did not file a claim or answer seeking to contest the forfeiture of any of the dogs.

The 27 dogs were seized April 14 from the home of Ryan M. Hickman in the 500 block of 14th Avenue; the home of Marcus Holmes in the 500 block of 6th Street; the home of Stantrel Knight in the 4000 block of 20th Avenue; and the home of Timon Mayfield in the 900 block of 14th Avenue, all in Rock Island.

The judges ruling essentially ends their participation in the case, said Sharon Paul, a spokeswoman from the U.S. Attorneys Office.

The same day Darrow granted the motion, prosecutors filed a new motion seeking a final judgment and order that forfeits the property to the U.S. Marshals Service.

If the judge grants the motion, marshals can then dispose of the pit bulls according to law, which includes transferring all right, title, and interest of the dogs to a shelter or other appropriate organization for further assessment or adoption, according to a proposed forfeiture order filed with the motion.

Darrow has not filed a final forfeiture order as of Monday.

April raid

Federal and local law enforcement and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals removed 64 dogs from a dozen homes in Rock Island and Davenport on April 14.

One of the dogs taken from Knights home died the next day while being transported to a temporary shelter because of severe anemia, according to court documents.

Although no criminal charges have been filed, prosecutors filed a 15-page complaint for forfeiture and claimed the dogs are subject to seizure and forfeiture because they were used as gambling devices and were involved in a violation of the Animal Welfare Act. The measure regulates the treatment of animals in research, exhibition, transport and by dealers.

Confidential sources and cooperating witnesses provided information to law enforcement that several individuals in the area have been involved or participated in an illegal dog-fighting operation, including gambling on dog fights, in Illinois, Iowa, Alabama and Mississippi, according to the complaint. They also have purchased and transported dogs from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Alabama and Mississippi, according to the complaint.

Prosecutors in the civil forfeiture complaint listed 17 individuals they say are thought to be involved with dog fighting. They include: Hickman, Willie Jackson, Quentin Clemons, Algerron Goldsmith Sr., Simmeon Hall, Holmes, Sherrick Houston, Jaquan Jones, Knight, Denzell Lee, Andre Lidell, Mayfield, Demarlo McCoy, Terril McDuffy, Derrick Nephew, Torrie Roberts and Darrick Rodgers.

The complaint claims, in at least two cases, dogs that lost a fight were killed by their owners, then hung by the neck in front of spectators.

Dogs were seized from the homes of Hickman, Holmes, Houston, Goldsmith, Jackson, Jones, Knight, Lidell, Mayfield, McCoy and McDuffy.

Hickman and Jackson were charged in Rock Island County Circuit Court with drug charges following the dog seizure.

Prosecutors in May confirmed that a criminal investigation into the dog-fighting ring was under way. Paul declined to comment on the criminal case Monday.

Denying accusations

McDuffy, of Davenport, and Houston, Jones, Jackson, Lidell, McCoy and Goldsmith, all of Rock Island, have filed claims seeking to have dogs returned. In their claims, the men denied they are involved in dog fighting and stated the animals were well cared for.

One woman, who was not named as a possible participant in the forfeiture complaint, also has filed a claim for one pit bull that was seized at the home of Jones.

Those claims have not been resolved as of Monday, according to online court records.

The dogs will remain in the custody of the ASPCA until further order from the court.

Prosecutors filed their emergency motion for default in October. Tim Rickey, field investigations and response for the ASPCA, wrote in an affidavit filed in support of the motion that 25 of the 27 dogs that were named in the motion have been housed and cared for in an ASPCA-run temporary shelter since they were seized. The two other dogs are in foster care, he wrote.

Despite the high quality of care the dogs are receiving, even the most well-equipped animal shelters cannot replicate the environment of a human home that domesticated dogs have evolved to function in, and cannot adequately meet the psychological and social needs of dogs housed in a shelter for more than a short stay, Rickey wrote.

Animals housed in shelters for extended periods of time, despite the quality of care they receive, often decline medically and behaviorally from stress, and they become less adoptable, he wrote.

Kelly Krause, a spokeswoman for the ASPCA, said she could not comment on the dogs until the judge signs off on a final forfeiture order.

Our hope is to help find homes for the dogs when/if we receive custody, she wrote in an email.
The Davenport Community School District continues its march to Des Moines and the judgement of state officials in its effort to gain more money for educational purposes.

In an unanimous vote, the school board on Monday agreed to ask for $683,276 in supplemental state aid for 106 students who left the district a year ago in the open enrollment process.

In another unanimous vote, the board will ask for $165,302 in instructing students who are in the English Language Learning program.

The date is Dec. 13, the state agency is the School Budget Review Committee, and making its case will be a three-person contingent from Davenport: Ralph Johanson, president of the school board, Superintendent Art Tate, and Marsha Tangen, the district's chief financial officer.

Tangen explained 106 students were not present for what is called a "certified" enrollment count. Davenport ended up paying tuition to other districts for those students, nevertheless, and that added up to $683,276.

Board member Clyde Mayfield asked Tangen if the enrollment count was a year behind, which she confirmed. "The kids weren't here when we counted, but we paid for them. This is how the state makes up the difference," she said.

Johanson questioned whether the amount Davenport seeks is close to actual costs, and later learned from Tangen it is the "per-pupil" cost, which is what she's allowed to ask for.

Davenport's financing complaint is about the formula that sets per-pupil spending for school districts across Iowa. About half the districts can spend more, up to $175 more per pupil, than Davenport can.

The Iowa Youth Congress, a team of four students from Mid-City High School, explained they are also working on legislation to support Davenport's position.

Students Alexandria Bribriesco, Taylor Lance, Ayiana Litt and Jalen Crawford explained to board members how the youths' funding legislation was introduced to the Legislative Services Agency in Des Moines on Monday.

"We want to get this out there; basically, this is what we want to work on," Litt said.

Litt warned the board members that pending legislation can take years to find its way through the legislative process. However, she added that the students have been working on the the project for basically for the past year.

"It's great you are all involved. I'm really happy that you are!" Jacob Kroeger said. Kroeger is a student member of the Davenport board, from West High School.
A solar project the could result in significant energy savings for all of its buildings is being considered by the Davenport Community School District.

School Board members are mulling a plan that would add large solar arrays to playground areas and school roofs. More than two dozen buildings are included in the contract proposal that will continue for 20 years.

On one hand, board members are looking at estimated savings of more than $300,000 per year, owning the solar system after 20 years, and realizing $1.9 million in estimated energy savings in the 21st year.

The district spends just under $1.4 million on energy costs annually.

Board member Julie DeSalvo commended the project but noted its complications. Among them, the space needed for the large arrays, taken in some cases from existing play areas.

"I think this is the right thing to do," said school board president Ralph Johanson.

The board will further consider the solar project during its December committee-of-the-whole meeting, and vote Dec. 12 if it wants to move forward on the project.

In a preliminary poll, all seven board members indicated their support. Many questions remain, and they will be the responsibility of Mike Maloney, the district's operations director.

Maloney, who has had previous experience installing solar projects in school districts, sent out a request for proposals (RFP) in January to start the process.

Since then, a partnership has formed to work on the project that includes an energy company and contractors.

One drawbacks is that a solar array doesn't produce energy at night, Maloney said, and the district would have to pay night-time energy costs. In addition, several of the solar arrays would have to be placed on a building's roof, and if that roof needs to be repaired, the task is more costly, and complicated.

"The preliminary numbers are favorable, but there's lots more work to do on this," he said.

Each building in the district is different, and the solar arrays need significant space, and must be open to sunlight. At Garfield Elementary School, 902 E. 29th St., 80 percent of the panels would be on the roof in order to generate the amount of electricity that building needs.

At Fillmore Elementary School, 7307 N. Pacific St., there is plenty of nearby land and it could easily work as a ground-based system, Maloney said.

Student members of the school board raised concerns. A.J. Smith of Central High School cited studies on how ground-based solar panels potentially can be dangerous.

Marissa Robertson, North High School, asked Maloney if any alternative energy source was considered.

The Davenport district is committed to green energy and half of its buildings have geothermal heat in them, Maloney said. Wind energy is not feasible for the entire district.

Rich Krogmann, general manager at Northwest Automation & Controls, Davenport, is on the solar committee. He told the board the aim is to save the district money and allow more of its funds to be used to educate students.

DeSalvo worried about hail damage to the panels. Jason Egli, president of EPo Energy, provides the panels and said his company has many solar arrays in the Midwest, and has lost two panels to hail damage. Some of those projects were at other Iowa schools.

The size of the arrays will change the way some neighbors see the school buildings and grounds, Maloney said.

Several officials worried about solar tax credits, which now extend to 2020. Board member Richard Clewell pointed out a new administration that is hostile to green energy could change federal programs, like this one.

Board members Jamie Snyder and Clyde Mayfield said the solar array system could be obsolete in 20 years, and voiced concern on how they impact play areas at each school.

"This is a big deal," Clewell said, after learning that Egli is supplying premium solar panels with 25-year warranties.

"Being green, and in a leadership position ... I do think this type of initiative is a really important aspect of what we can do," Johanson said.
Homeowners in the historic Keystone neighborhood of Rock Island may qualify for repairs designed to improve the health and safety of their homes.

Rebuilding Together will present details about the Rebuild Keystone program to neighborhood residents at the next Keystone meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday at St. John's Parish Hall, 4501 7th Ave, Rock Island. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Pizza, childcare and door prizes will be provided. Residents may bring a side dish or dessert to share.

The program begins at 6:45 p.m. and includes updates from law enforcement, the city of Rock Island, Keystone Neighborhood Association, Rebuilding Together and St. John's Lutheran Church.

Rebuilding Together Quad Cities, the Keystone Neighborhood Association, St. John's Lutheran Church and Augustana College are partners in the new initiative.

Rebuilding Together received a grant from the Rock Island Community Foundation for a Rebuild Keystone Program to provide home repair and rehabilitation services that improve health, safety and independence for homeowners in the Keystone area.

Rebuilding Together will work with Keystone and St Johns Lutheran Church to identify and select homes for repair under Rebuilding's Safe and Healthy Homes initiative. One project already has been completed as part of the first phase of the initiative.

Rebuilding Together works to improve communities by providing free home repairs and modifications. Volunteers do most of the work.

For more information, go to www.rebuildingtogetherquadcities.org or call 563-322-6534.
Those closest to Niabi Zoo and its operations agree the Coal Valley zoo could benefit financially from a public-private partnership. But the timing and scope of that move is up for debate.

At a meeting at the zoo on Monday, members of the zoos oversight committee unanimously decided to table discussion about the possible partnership between the Rock Island County Forest Preserve District and the nonprofit Niabi Zoological Society.

We cant run the zoo without private donations for projects, said Terry Brahm, a member of the zoos seven-person oversight committee, which was formed about a year ago to develop a proposal. If theres not an interest were wasting our time, but I think we can move this forward in a pretty timely manner.

Lee Jackson, director of the zoo since June, also acknowledged on Monday the potential benefits of a partnership, but stressed theres no need to rush the transition.

Its not important at all that we do it tomorrow, he said. Its important that we do it right.

Last week, however, Rock Island County State's Attorney John McGehee's office urged caution in moving forward with the plan, and Jackson subsequently sent an email recommending against it, frustrating interested stakeholders.

But Jackson said recipients may have misinterpreted his initial message. He made it clear that he, too, was frustrated by the legal opinion.

What I was trying to get across was we cant do it now, he said. Its getting in the way of everything else we want to do.

Earlier Monday, Jackson sent a summary of the legal opinion, which cites liability and labor issues, and a recommendation of his own.

Instead of forming a new public-private partnership, Jackson thinks the zoo and the zoological society should create a new Memo of Understanding, an outline of the roles and responsibilities of each entity.

Additionally, Jackson advises the zoological society to reinstate term limits, so both governing bodies can draft the memo once new society members are in place, whom he said the zoo could help recruit.

Agreeing with Brahm of the oversight committee, Jackson said increased involvement from the society could help spur fundraising efforts.

Most people everywhere dont want to give money to the government, he said.

The only other forest preserve district with a zoo in Illinois is Brookfield Zoo, which is owned by the Cook County Forest Preserve District and run through a partnership with the Chicago Zoological Society.

Their partnership operates under the Cook County Forest Preserve District Act, while the Rock Island County Forest Preserve District operates under the Downstate Forest Preserve Act.

At this point, Jeff Craver, director of the Rock Island County Forest Preserve, said Illinois law prohibits the district to sell Niabi Zoo, or any of its other properties.

In related business, Jackson said an assistant director for the zoo will be hired within 30 days. Meanwhile, he has hired four new animal handlers this fall, cutting the need to just one employee to solidify a 10-person crew of keepers.

The zoo, which saw 23,886 visitors last month, also is advertising for a curator of education and conservation.

The oversight committee will meet again on Dec. 12.
The Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center is hosting its 27th annual community Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday at the center, 630 9th St., Rock Island.

Meals will be served 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Moline Foundation is the principal sponsor, with support from Wheelan-Pressly Funeral Home and Tyson.

There will be no carry-out service this year. Meals will be provided to senior residential facilities and other individuals on Saturday.

Volunteers are needed, and should call 309 732-2999 to sign up for a variety of opportunities between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. Volunteer opportunities:

Carving crew, 7-9:30 a.m.: Must be at least 18. Carving turkeys for serving by 10 a.m.

Traffic director, 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. (shorter shifts available). Must be at least 18. Volunteers will assist in directing traffic and parking.

Early preparation, 8-10:30 a.m. Must be at least 18. Volunteer to set up serving area.

Host/Hostess, 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. (shorter shifts available): Volunteers will help seat guests. They will facilitate additional food and beverage needs, socialize with guests, replenish plates, napkins and eating utensils at the beginning of the serving line.

Servers at the buffet stations, 11:15 a.m. to 1:30 pm (shorter shifts available): Must be at least 18. Help guests fill their plates and pour beverages. Maintain attractive appearance of buffet tables and notify runners when food items need replenishing.

Runners, 11:15 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. (shorter shifts available): Replenish food and steam tables as needed while helping with anything unexpected.

Kitchen crew, 11:15 a.m. to 2 p.m. (shorter shifts available): Must be at least 18. Place food on serving dishes for runners, prepare additional food as needed and wash cooking and serving utensils and return them to storage.

Cleanup crew, 11:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (shorter shifts available): Clean up tables after guests leave, keep trash can empty, keep tables looking attractive and neat and clean up food or beverage spills.
MUSCATINE, Iowa  Muscatine Community School District workers will be able to retire earlier in the coming year if they are 55 and older, work full-time and have worked at the district for at least 15 years.

To qualify for early retirement, workers will have to submit their resignation by January 4, 2017. Those who choose to retire can remain on the districts health plan until they are 65 and qualify for Medicare. This retirement incentive plan, the board noted, is similar to previous incentive plans the district offered in the past.

Superintendent Jerry Riibe said the plan will help the district save money in response to declining student enrollment in the district.

The early retirement incentive program is designed as a budget lever to make room in the general fund by incentivizing some folks to leave early, mainly with the thought that teachers or staff members will be hired that will not be as costly, he said.

Riibe also said the board considered the option of not replacing staff as workers retire.

One of the difficulties with that is that there are some positions that would have to be replaced, he said.

Another difficulty with that tack, he said, is that class sizes may go up if some teachers arent replaced. He noted the board can decide what teachers to hire on a case-by-case basis.

Hopefully it [the incentive plan] will allow us to maintain things like our class size and some programs, but with less expensive staff, he said.

The board offered similar programs in previous years.

As soon as we would know who is not returning, then we would start looking at which positions need to be replaced and where we may be able to move some people to different positions, Riibe said.

The measure passed in a unanimous vote.
CEDAR RAPIDS  Saying hes still fired up and ready to go, President Barack Obama told supporters Monday they need to lick their wounds, but then get back to work on winning the next election.

Youre allowed to mope for a week-and-a-half, maybe two if you need it, Obama said in a conference call with supporters. Then the party has to come together and focus on the way ahead.

Sounding many of the same themes as he did in his press conference earlier in the afternoon, Obama said Democrats have better ideas, but they have to be heard for us to actually translate those ideas into votes and, ultimately, into action.

Democrats face geographic challenge because in big chunks of the country their ideas arent being heard and wont be unless Democrats are there fighting day in, day out for those ideas.

Obama also took something of a victory lap during the 10 minutes he spent on the call with more than 16,000 supporters. He thanked those on the call, saying the incredible support youve shown me over the years has allowed me to do the good that we have done.

It is indisputable that the country is better off today than it was eight years ago, he said.

The president acknowledged he hasnt accomplished all he wanted, but will continue to pursue his goals for the final months of his presidency.

For the next two months, my main job is to make sure we finish up strong, so when I turn over the keys I can continue to say unequivocally and demonstrably that the country is better off than when I found it, Obama said.

He didnt define his role as "Citizen Obama" after Donald Trump assumes the presidency, but told supporters he expects to be working shoulder to shoulder for many years.

Obama also congratulated Hillary Clinton for her history-making race.

We did not get the results we wanted, but we took a step in shattering a barrier thats still there, he said. That doesnt mean we dont hurt for what was an unexpected loss.

Recalling his rise from an unknown Illinois state senator to the U.S. Senate and then presidency in four years, Obama said things can change quickly.

So lets learn our lessons, lick our wounds, brush ourselves off and then well get back to work, he said. All right.
HOT SPRINGS  Miss South Dakota 2015, Autumn Simunek, is asking the community to join her and the Hot Springs American Legion Auxiliary to help veterans, military members and their families in need enjoy a comfortable holiday season.

Simunek hopes the community will help contribute Buddy Baskets or Buddy Bags, filled with essential household items, personal hygiene products or gift cards or help with monetary donations through January 30, 2017.

For example, a Buddy Basket might be a laundry basket filled with paper towels, laundry detergent, household cleansers, sponges, light bulbs, flashlight, batteries, bath towels, dishes, utensils, dish soap; all of this frosted with wrap, a bow and greeting tag.

A Buddy Bag might include a bag filled with: personal products, hand towels, shower slippers, socks, a hat/gloves/scarf set, and gift cards

Drop items off at Legion Post 71 on Jennings Avenue in Hot Springs, or mail monetary donations or shopping gift cards to: SD American Legion Auxiliary, Attn: Vets Relief Drive 129 North Main Avenue Hartford, SD 57033 or American Legion Auxiliary Unit 71, Attn: Vets Relief Drive, 1045 Jennings Avenue Hot Springs, SD 57747.

Statewide drop-off locations and additional information are available at: SDLegionaux.org, Autumn Simunek at VeteransHRD@gmail.com or 605.890.3093.
The Real Heroes

Politicians have a tendency to try to take credit for things, especially in an election year. They talk about how many jobs theyve created, how theyve kept our cities safe and how theyve assisted the less fortunate. Our veterans, on the other hand, dont seek the spotlight. They dont expect recognition  even though they are the ones who really deserve the credit for our way of life.

Thats why we celebrate Veterans Day. To give credit to those who seek it least and yet deserve it most. Its also an opportunity to remember those who fought in our earliest conflicts.

Next year will mark the centennial of the United States official involvement in World War I. This war to end all wars was a global affair which lasted from 1914 to 1918, but the United States did not officially enter until 1917. In 1915 and 1916, while the U.S. was still contemplating its level of engagement, groups of American men made the decision to enlist with foreign armies to fight against the Central Powers.

On their own accord, they volunteered to fight abroad, joining the British Army, French Foreign Legion and other Allied services. These men were citizen soldiers. They were farmers, machinists, dock workers and blacksmiths who left their day jobs to fight for freedom. They joined the struggle before it was even asked of them.

Now, as much as any time in history, we depend on our citizen soldiers, the men and women of our National Guard, to step up and defend our country. We count on them to defend our freedom abroad, and then to come back home safely to pick up where they left off with their families and their jobs.

This Veterans Day, 165 of South Dakotas citizen soldiers are deploying to Kuwait. Volunteers all, the men and women of the 153rd Engineer Battalion and Forward Support Company are leaving their jobs and their loved ones to serve their nation abroad. They will be providing command, logistical, mechanical and transportation support to U.S. forces in the area. For more than one-third of the group, this is their second or third deployment.

Elected officials do the important work of fine tuning our laws and guiding public policy. Still, we should never forget who the real heroes are. Though they dont usually make the front page news, our men and women in uniform are the ones to thank for our way of life. Without them, there would be no freedom.

Take a moment this week to pray for the men and women of the153rd as they head to Kuwait and for all of our soldiers who are deployed. Pray also for the families who are serving their country by bearing the burden of a loved ones absence. And this Veterans Day, give credit where credit is due by thanking someone who has served to keep us free.
PIERRE | South Dakotas court system received hundreds of thousands of dollars owed by criminal offenders after the states new debt office opened last summer.

Greg Sattizahn, administrator for the South Dakota Unified Judicial System, reported on the progress during a meeting Monday with a state oversight council on prison reforms.

In my mind, Sattizahn said about approximately $750,000 collected so far this year, thats money that wasnt coming in otherwise.

He said offenders couldnt be kept on probation solely to pressure them to continue paying restitution, fees and fines.

The new obligation recovery center, which began operations in July, is providing a system for the courts to bring in more of the money owed.

Sattizahn said the courts were $170 million in the hole and didnt have a consistent way to pursue offenders debts to their victims and the government. Many counties didnt take any action in the past, he said.

Now the courts are issuing letters to offenders 15 days apart, telling them their cases will be referred to the obligation recovery center if they dont pay up or start a payment plan.

The 15-day letters generated $580,000 so far this year, the 30-day letters $292,000 and the 45-day letters $134,000, according to Sattizahn.

The obligation recovery center is allowed by state law to levy a 20 percent surcharge and to impose restrictions against hunting and fishing licenses, camping permits, driver's licenses and motor vehicle registrations.

The court system now is working its way backward in time. Some $12.5 million of debts dating to 2014 recently were sent to the recovery center for processing.

Of that $12.5 million, about $280,000 was quickly collected, Sattizahn said, and payment agreements were established for another $361,000.

We now have a plan to collect this debt rather than be overwhelmed by it, he said. While these numbers are small, its a good sign were collecting.

The most common debts are state fines that would go to school districts. Theres also restitution for victims and court appointed attorney fees that offenders owe to counties, as well as court-automation fees charged on the cases.

I think anything we can do here is good, Sattizahn told the panel members. It took us a while to get here but we have a plan now.

Remarked Rep. Karen Soli, D-Sioux Falls, The moral of the story is, pay your speeding ticket.
A criminal intoxication charge against a pilot who was about to fly a commercial aircraft out of Rapid City last month has been dismissed in part because the Rapid City Police Department failed to test the pilots blood for several hours.

Police officers handling the case apparently did not know the legal blood-alcohol limit for operating a plane, which led them to initially forgo a blood test even after the pilot asked for one. By the time police realized the mistake and obtained a blood sample, four hours had passed.

The delayed test did not detect a measurable amount of alcohol, despite an earlier police breath test that indicated a blood-alcohol content of 0.046 percent. The legal limit for operating an aircraft in South Dakota is 0.04, which is lower than the better-known driving limit of 0.08.

On Monday, at the request of the Pennington County States Attorneys Office, a judge dismissed a charge of operating an aircraft while intoxicated that had been filed against pilot Russell Duszak, 39, of Salt Lake City. No explanation for the dismissal was provided during the brief court proceeding at the Pennington County Courthouse in Rapid City.

Afterward, Deputy States Attorney Lara Roetzel told the Journal that the delayed blood test thwarted her prosecution.

His blood was drawn four hours after the initial detection of alcohol in the cockpit of the plane, Roetzel said of Duszak, who police said smelled of alcohol and had reddened eyes prior to his arrest. And due to the way that blood dissipates, it ended up reducing it to an amount that was not measurable.

A breath test, Roetzel added, is not admissible in court. When asked why the blood test was delayed four hours, Roetzel deferred the question to police. Police spokesman Brendyn Medina responded with a lengthy email to the Journal.

Medina wrote that the incident posed a set of highly unusual circumstances for our officers.

Four hours is a long span of time to lapse between the initial PBT (preliminary breath test) of an individual suspected of being under the influence, and the subsequent blood draw, Medinas email said, in part. But, our officers worked diligently in this incident to ensure it was handled in the most proper and professional manner possible under the law, while protecting the safety of the planes passengers, and the rights of the pilot.

Further details of the police departments actions are contained in their own written reports, which are part of the public court file.

The reports say that a Transportation Security Administration worker noticed the smell of alcohol on Duszak about 8 a.m. Oct. 26 as Duszak passed through a metal detector at Rapid City Regional Airport. The TSA worker reported her observation up the chain of command, and another TSA worker notified Rapid City police Officer Paul Hinzman.

When Hinzman arrived at Duszaks departure gate, passengers were still waiting to board the 50-seat SkyWest Airlines jet with a passenger list of 45. Duszak, the flights co-pilot, was in the cockpit conducting pre-flight procedures.

Hinzman noticed that Duszaks eyes were slightly red and his breath smelled slightly of alcohol. Additional officers who later came in contact with Duszak reported similar observations.

Hinzman took Duszak to the airport office of Delta Air Lines, which is a SkyWest partner. There, at about 8:30 a.m., Rapid City police Officer Jerred Younie administered a breath test on Duszak and recorded a blood-alcohol content of 0.046 percent.

Rapid City Police Lt. Mark Eisenbraun arrived about 8:45 a.m. and spoke to Duszak.

I told him it was not our intention to proceed with any state charges however I warned him there would likely be consequences from the airline authorities, Eisenbraun wrote in his report. He told me he wanted a blood test. I told him that since we were not charging him with a crime, I had no reason to take a blood sample. I did offer him the use of the local on-call blood technician but I advised him he would be responsible for the testing and storage of the sample. At his request I called dispatch and asked for the blood technician to respond to the airport.

The police reports do not say whether Duszak actually obtained his own blood-test result. Nor do the reports specifically explain why Eisenbraun declined to order an official blood test, or why Eisenbraun decided against pursuing a criminal charge at that time.

It appears, however, that Eisenbraun may have thought no crime had been committed because he might not have been aware that the legal blood-alcohol limit for operating an aircraft is 0.04 percent, which is lower than the legal limit of 0.08 for driving a vehicle.

Eisenbrauns written report says that after he spoke to Duszak, Eisenbraun left the airport, which is about eight miles east of Rapid City, and returned to the police station downtown. There, Eisenbraun spoke to Lt. Elias Diaz.

Lt. Diaz and I consulted additional resources and found the statute SDCL 50-13-17, Eisenbraun wrote in his report. This statute prohibits the operation of an airplane with a BAC over .04.

Eisenbraun contacted Officer Hinzman and told him not to release Duszak. Eisenbraun also sent Officer Younie back to the airport to renew the investigation into Duszak.

Younie received the call from Eisenbraun at 9:46 a.m. Younie found Duszak, who was still at the airport, and asked him to answer more questions and submit to a blood test. Duszak declined to do either, on the advice of a lawyer hed spoken with by phone.

Meanwhile, Officers Eisenbraun and Diaz had spoken with Roetzel of the Pennington County States Attorneys Office, and they determined there was probable cause to arrest Duszak for operating an aircraft while intoxicated.

Officer Younie arrested Duszak, took him to the Pennington County Jail in Rapid City, and filed paperwork asking for a search warrant to force Duszaks submission to a blood test. A magistrate judge granted the warrant.

Finally, at 12:38 p.m.  four hours and 38 minutes after the TSA worker smelled alcohol on Duszaks breath  a blood test was administered.

Duszak posted a $300 bond and left jail sometime that day. SkyWest, which is based in St. George, Utah, placed him on unpaid leave. He remained on unpaid leave as of Monday afternoon, a SkyWest spokeswoman said. The Oct. 26 flight that Duszak was intended to co-pilot from Rapid City to Salt Lake City was delayed two hours until a new crew arrived.

Then, on Monday, during what was supposed to have been Duszaks initial court appearance, the charge was dismissed because the blood test did not detect a measurable amount of alcohol.

Roetzel, in her interview with the Journal, said an earlier blood test might have produced a measurable amount of alcohol. Even if that amount had been below the 0.04 percent limit, Roetzel said, she could have extrapolated backward to establish Duszaks likely blood-alcohol content at the time he was sitting in the cockpit. But because the blood test was so delayed and did not detect a measurable amount of alcohol, Roetzel said, there was nothing to extrapolate from.

An additional factor that hindered the prosecution is a quirk in the law. Roetzel said the states legal definition of driving a vehicle under the influence of alcohol allows evidence other than a blood test. But the separate state law defining the operation of a plane while intoxicated allows only blood-alcohol evidence.

Since breath tests are inadmissible in court, Roetzel said, the only way to prove a charge of operating an aircraft while intoxicated is with a blood test. She suggested that state legislators should consider amending the law to allow other evidence in similar future cases.

When the Journal reached Duszak by phone Monday, he declined to comment. Duszak had an attorney, Jay Shultz, of Rapid City, who had barely gotten up from his chair at Mondays court proceeding before the prosecution moved for dismissal and the judge agreed. In a brief interview outside the courtroom, Shultz said the blood test had indicated a blood-alcohol content of less than 0.015 percent. He declined further comment about the case.

A SkyWest spokeswoman said the company is conducting its own investigation into the matter. Duszak also faces a pending review of his pilots certificate by the Federal Aviation Administration, according to FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory.
FORT PIERRE  A national cattlemen's organization told South Dakota ranchers that unfair free-trade deals and the consolidation of the packing plant industry are to blame for plunging prices in their industry over the past two years.

Ranchers from across western South Dakota gathered in Fort Pierre on Sunday to listen to a presentation by Bill Bullard, chief executive of R-CALF USA, or the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America, according to the Capital Journal (http://bit.ly/2fRDNnM ). The meeting was among several being held statewide by the Montana-based organization, which promotes the interests of cattle producers and has members in 46 states.

Bullard noted that U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and other federal officials have touted the fact that U.S. agriculture exports, including beef, have set records the past seven years. But he said that's deceptive. Bullard said imports of foreign beef have far outstripped U.S. beef exports, pushing prices down for South Dakota ranchers selling their calves in the fall.

He said Donald Trump's election to the White House provides "a window of opportunity" to bring about changes in federal policies that affect the cattle industry. Bryan Hanson, president of R-CALF USA, echoed those sentiments, saying Trump's criticism of free-trade agreements aligns with the group's concerns.

"We definitely think that it's the free-trade agreements that killed us," Hanson told the newspaper. "They basically opened up our market to imports of beef from third-world countries where they can operate on shoestring budgets."

Even though cattle prices have drastically declined over the past two years, retail beef prices in supermarkets haven't really dropped, said Delia Johnson, who raises grass-fed calves with her husband.

"Why have our prices fallen 50 percent the past two years?" she said. "Beef should be cheaper at the food counter than it is."

Johnson said consumers want more information on where their food is coming from, which fits R-CALF's push to restore a strict "country of origin labeling" law. She said such a law would give U.S. cattle producers an advantage to selling beef because a lot of the beef sold in the U.S. comes from other countries.
Russian government offers businessman 15,000 for failure to provide healthcare in jail

MOSCOW, November 15 (RAPSI, Yevgeniya Sokolova)  Russian government has offered businessman Amazasp Abramyan 15,000 in compensation for failure to provide medical attention in detention, his lawyer Sergey Petryakov told RAPSI on Tuesday.

Representative of the Russian Federation at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) Georgy Matyshkin has come up with this approach as part of an amicable agreement in order to withdraw proceedings in Strasbourg, Petryakov said.

On Tuesday, Abramyan assented to the proposal of Russian authorities who had actually admitted violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights which prohibits torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, the lawyer added.

According to Petryakov, Abramyan, the head of Eurodorstroy company, was arrested on suspicion of bribery in February 2015 and put in jail. His detention has been repeatedly extended by court.

He was diagnosed with multitude of serious diseases. Doctors insisted that the businessman requires immediate surgery. However, a warden of the Perm detention facility N1 where he had been placed said that the surgery is impossible in a closed institution because of its complexity.

One of the Perm medical institutions was ready to admit the businessman for treatment, however the detention units administration failed to ensure convoy for the period of treatment and post-surgery rehabilitation (about 90 days), the attorney added.

In April 2016, a court in Perm found Abramyan guilty and fined him 50 million rubles ($759,200). The ruling has become effective.

In June, ECHR communicated the application filed by Abramyan and sent a range of specific questions to Russia. The defendant offered the litigant to settle the dispute amicably instead of submission of the response, Petryakov said.
MOSCOW, November 15 (RAPSI)  Moscow's Basmanny District Court placed Russian Economy Minister Alexey Ulyukayev under house arrest on request of the Investigative Committee, RAPSI reported from the courtroom on Tuesday.

Please find the full text coverage of the hearing here.

Ulyukayev is to stay under house arrest till January 15.

Investigators claim that a criminal case against Ulyukayev was launched on November 15. He stands charged with receiving bribe on Monday for a positive review of a deal that allowed state-controlled oil giant Rosneft to acquire a 50 percent share stake in mid-sized producer Bashneft.

Ulyukayev pleads not guilty. He refused to testify, but agreed to cooperate with investigators.

Presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told RIA Novosti that Vladimir Putin was informed when the investigation was launched.

However, he failed to answer the question whether the situation with Ulyukayev can affect Bashneft deal.

Bashneft was controlled by the government of Russias Bashkortostan region until 2003, when a major stake was sold to companies affiliated with Ural Rakhimov, son of the former head of Bashkortostan Murtaza Rakhimov. The company was privatized in 2009 when Russian oil-to-telecoms conglomerate AFK Sistema gained control of it.

Investigators opened a criminal case in April linked to deals with Bashneft shares in 2002 to 2009.

Rakhimov and billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov were implicated in the sale of Bashneft stock in 2009. Rakhimov was charged in absentia with embezzlement and money laundering, put on the international wanted list.

The Moscow Commercial Court granted in October 2014 a claim which had been filed by the Investigative Committee and ordered AFK Sistema, its subsidiary Sistema-Invest to forfeit Bashneft stock.
Situation in Crimea amounts to armed conflict between Ukraine and Russia - ICC

MOSCOW, November 15 (RAPSI)  Russias reunification with Crimea amounts to an international armed conflict between Ukraine and Russia, according to the Report on Preliminary Examination Activities for 2016 published by the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on the courts official website on Tuesday.

Fatou Bensouda, the ICC Prosecutor, suggests that the conflict began at the latest on February 26, when the Russian Federation allegedly deployed members of its armed forces to gain control over parts of the Ukrainian territory without the consent of the Ukrainian Government.

For the purposes of the Rome Statute, the ICC founding document, the report reads, no determination of whether or not the intervention is considered lawful or not is required, while an armed conflict may be international in nature if one or more states partially of totally occupies the territory of another state whether or not such action meets with armed resistance.

Crimea reunified with Russia after a referendum had been held in March 2014, where 96.77 per cent of the voters in the peninsula and 95.6 per cent of those in the city of Sevastopol favored Crimea to become a part of the Russian Federation. The referendum took place after a coup in Ukraine had overthrown the countrys government. The voting in Crimea answered all the democratic standards envisaged by international law and the UN Charter, what, as President Vladimir Putin said, closed the issue for good.

The Rome Statute, a multilateral treaty signed by 124 states and serving as the ICCs founding document, entered into force on July 1, 2002, thus enabling ICC to function. ICC is the first permanent international tribunal having jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The court is legally independent from the United Nations.

Russia signed the Rome Stature in 2000; however, it has not ratified the treaty and is therefore outside ICCs jurisdiction. Nevertheless, Russia cooperates with the organization and takes part in its work as an observer.

The U.S. ceased to be a party to the Rome Statute in 2002. In 2016 Burundi, South Africa and Gambia announced they would withdraw from ICC, whereas Uganda and Kenia said they consider such a move.

Meanwhile, Ukraine, which is not a state party to the Statute, accepted the exercise of jurisdiction by the ICC via its two declarations lodged pursuant to Article 12(3) of the Rome Statute in April 2014 and September 2015.
THREE FORKS, Mont. - The Mortons made their annual trip to Billings this October for the NILE, the Northern International Livestock Exposition, with one of two cows they had planned to bring: a pretty 8-month-old Red Angus heifer, her soft coat a burnished auburn. The other, a 20-month-old more accustomed to the pasture than the halter, preferred to stay home.Rather than causing her undue stress, the Mortons will offer her as a featured bred heifer lot at their upcoming female sale."It's a fantastic place to get your name out there," said Bob Morton of Green Mountain Red Angus in Three Forks, one of The Prairie Star's featured producers this winter. "You meet breeders and commercial cattlemen from all over the country."Bob and Julie Morton are hardly in need of exposure. He is president of the Red Angus Association of America; she is president of the Montana Red Angus Association.Still, it doesn't hurt to visit with other producers, many of whom are long-standing customers. It's also advantageous for the next generation. The Mortons' oldest son, Tom, 21, is an animal science major at Montana State University, who plans to come back to the ranch after graduation.Bob's parents, Jim and Shirley, are the ones who first started coming to the NILE with their registered Red Angus 30 years ago. They had been running commercial cattle since the 1960s, but got into the purebred industry in 1985. It was a natural fit.Jim was known for keeping detailed records on everything: grazing, irrigation, and individual birth and weaning weights on all his calves. His 150 head commercial herd was known as one of the most uniform in the area. But Jim always liked the strength and integrity of the Red Angus breed. When he had the chance to buy some stock from another rancher's purebred Red Angus herd, he took it.Soon the purebreds outnumbered the commercial cattle, and they, too, showed the positive effects of breeding for performance and strict culling. His goal was to raise the perfect mother cow; he believed a good cow raises a good bull.By 1990, Jim was out of the commercial business altogether, and Green Mountain Red Angus was on its way to becoming the distinguished operation it is today.Bob, 50, attended a one room school near the ranch in Jackson Creek, baling hay and fixing fences for his dad in his spare time. He graduated from Montana State University in 1991 with a bachelor's degree in range science and a minor in animal science.He married Julie, fellow MSU animal science graduate, the same year. Julie, 48, was raised on a commercial cattle ranch in Willow Creek near Bozeman. Her father, Walt Steingruber, used to buy bulls from Bob's father, who died in 1999.In 2010, Walt, the last of the three brothers who ranched together, sold the operation that had been in the family 100 years. Bob and Julie have two sons: Tom, who'll graduate this spring, and Jim, 19, a film and photography major at MSU.Bob and Julie live at what they call the winter ranch in Three Forks, 25 miles west of Bozeman. That's where the breeding, calving, and much of the haying, takes place. The cattle summer at the Jackson Creek ranch on the Bozeman pass, where Bob was raised. It's about a 40-minute drive between the two places.The herd now numbers around 225 head of registered 1A Red Angus. Their hired man, Jeremy Dunbar, 38, runs about 40 commercial cows. Together, they'll calve out about 265 head total starting in January. Green Mountain's first due date - Jan. 11 - kicks off what is a fairly precise annual calendar. The next date: March 1, when calving wraps up.After that, it's the bull sale, always held the third Tuesday of March, which this year is March 21. By the end of March, all the bulls will have been delivered. April 4, artificial insemination begins. Cows are bred two full cycles, or 42 days. The cleanup crew gets let out to pasture with the cows May 10.All the cows stay on pasture at Three Forks until June 10, when they get trucked to Jackson Creek. June 20, haying begins at Three Forks; it gets going at Jackson Creek early to mid-July. All together, they get about 2,000 tons between the two places. Aug. 15, the Mortons take the calves' 205 day weights and draw blood.That information goes to the Red Angus Association of America, which provides genetic data about the calves, enhancing the accuracy of their EPDs.It's expensive, but highly accurate, and all part of the intensive management style favored by registered producers."The DNA testing really helps us evaluate the genetic potential of the incoming calf crop" said Julie Morton. "The DNA results combined with their performance ratios help us determine which bulls stay in the feed lot and which heifers will be staying in the herd."The weaned bull calves go into the feedlot at Three Forks Sept. 20. They're weighed when they go in and every 35 days after to check their efficiency and how well they're growing out.The heifers come into their feedlot early October. They don't get weighed as frequently."They're just happy being cows," Julie said. "They have a little less management at this time."The third week in October, it's NILE, and then it's all about getting ready for the Big Sky Elite Female Sale the first Wednesday in December, which this year is Dec. 7.For the sale, the Mortons get together with three other top registered Red Angus producers to offer some of the breed's top females. By the time this year's sale comes around, the Mortons will have completed a new calving barn. Their old one is sound, but cramped, and January calving in Montana is tough stuff."We've gotten by with our existing barn for 25 years," Bob Morton said of his too-small barn. "Adding a second calving barn is really going to allow us to better manage our January calving season."The Mortons are actually in pretty good shape, shelter and range-wise. Their Three Forks place is located in the old Gallatin River channel, and the brush-dense slough bottom is ideal for pairs to get out of the wind.There's also a lot of water in the pastures that bubbles up from natural springs, which means its constantly flowing, even when it's 40 below. Then up on the hillsides, the Mortons have acres of lush pasture to graze."Having the bottom ground is phenomenal during the winter," Julie said. "Then once they go out to graze, they have all this beautiful pasture."
GLENDIVE, Mont. - Along the winding Yellowstone River in eastern Montana, Lassle Ranch Simmentals have been breeding top genetics into its hardy purebred Simmental and SimAngus bulls for more than 40 years.Here, cattle graze on the prairie ranges, and the often-rough terrain is a part of their heritage.Lassle Ranch Simmentals is a family operation, run by Clay and Marianne Lassle, along with their daughter, Sarah Thorson and her husband Ryan, and their two daughters, Grace and Harper. Clay and Marianne have another daughter and son who help out when they can during major projects like branding and A-I season: Stephanie Schultz and her husband Scott, with their two daughters, Sheyenne and Savannah; and Travis Lassle and his wife Alix, with their son, Sawyer.Young producers Sarah and Ryan are graduates in animal science. Sarah graduated from Montana State University and Ryan from the University of Wisconsin at River Falls.They met while both were working for Genex Cooperative, Inc., a top bull genetics company geared to meet the needs of cattle producers worldwideSarah and Ryan had many of the same goals for their life careers: raising high-quality seedstock cattle and continuing to be part of the team at Genex.Sarah works as the Beef Marketing and Education manager and Ryan is the manager of Genex Hawkeye West, a Genex beef production facility and custom collection facility in Billings, Mont.I love educating our beef staff at Genex and love being here on the ranch, Sarah said. At Genex, she works with the beef sales staff and recently returned from their beef tour. On the tour, she and others on the staff visited ranches to see Genex progeny. It was also an opportunity to get all our Genex representatives from out in the field together, and talk about the upcoming breeding season.Sarah and Ryans knowledge of top genetics is evident in the breeding program at Lassle Simmentals. Each year, new genetics are selected for the heifers and cows.Our goal is to produce the best bull calves for our annual bull sale, and heifer replacements for the future of our ranch, Sarah said.Sarah's grandfather, Erwin Lassle, started the ranch. He worked full-time for the railroad, and bought the home place, along with a few cows. He was fortunate to purchase a ranch where irrigation was available from the Yellowstone River.Today, that irrigation provides moisture for high-quality alfalfa hay and corn for silage to supplement the cattle. Its an excellent forage as a base winter feed, and part of the Total Mixed Rations (TMR) that both bulls and cows are fed at needed rates to meet their nutritional needs.Erwin's son, Clay Lassle, came back to the ranch full-time after he graduated high school. Clay was excited about a course on artificial insemination he took while a junior in high school. He brought what he learned to Lassle Ranch Simmentals and began A-I'ing heifers and cowsGrandpa Erwin started with Angus cows, but Dad turned to Simmentals, because he was looking for more performance, Sarah said.Clay's new A-I program produced Lassle's first Simmental calves in 1975.In addition to the A-I program, Lassle Ranch utilizes an extensive embryo transfer program with a cooperator in Grass Range, Mont.We'll flush five or six of our best cows. It is a way for us to get more calves from our best cows every year, Sarah said.The embryo transfer calves arrived on the ranch in September.The calves were weaned before arrival and are a little older than the calves born at home, she said. The embryo calves were born the beginning of February, while calving at the ranch began March 5.The new bull calves are currently on a high roughage Total Mixed Ration (TMR).Some 140 of the 2016 spring bull calves are being developed for the annual bull sale to be held Feb. 9, 2017 at the ranch.The bulls we raise are for the commercial cattlemen. We've been fortunate to sell several bulls to other purebred breeders and into A-I studs, but our focus will always be the commercial cattleman, Sarah said.These commercial cattlemen are looking for bulls that are ready to work and have good feet and legs to move across big country.Lassle Ranch pays close attention to Expected Progeny Differences (EPDs).We pay a lot of attention to EPDs, such as weaning weight, because most commercial cattlemen sell their calves by the pound, she said.Other EPDs that are on the top of the list for Lassle Simmentals include calving ease, marbling, yearling weight and the All-Purpose Index (API) Simmental index.According to the American Simmental Association, the API index assumes the sire will be used on both cows and heifers and heifers will be retained as replacements while other offspring are sold based on grade and yield. This index is targeted at a producer looking to optimize revenue from fed cattle and maternal characteristics of replacement heifers. Balance is the key for the Lassles moderate-framed bulls. They put heavy emphasis on good dispositions, udder quality, solid pigmentation, and fertility. About half the bulls sold at Lassle are purebred Simmental, but some commercial cattlemen want a composite bull.We have a large offering of SimAngus bulls for those cattlemen who are looking to add Simmental influence to their herd, but don't want to use a purebred bull, Sarah said.There will also be a few purebred Angus bulls in the sale next year.A few customers prefer an Angus bull on their heifers, she added.Currently, the cows are out grazing, but the will be brought closer to home for preg-checking soon.The cows will then be on hay field aftermath until closer to calving.The longer we can keep from feeding the cows, the better, she said.The Lassles have already started preparations for their bull sale.At weaning time, they took an ear notch from each bull to test for bovine viral diarrhea (BVD), and in addition, a blood sample was also taken to test for parentage and coat color, as well as to provide genomically enhanced EPDs. Then they sorted the bulls into the pens they would be fed in.Dad and I sorted the bulls by frame size into four pens with about 35 bulls to a pen - then we joked that all they had to do until December was eat and gain, Sarah said.In December we'll clip the bulls so they look sharp for their pictures and videos. Between Christmas and New Years, we will be photographing bulls for the sale, and putting together the catalog, with photos and information on each bull included. Ultrasounding of the bulls also takes place before the sale.We encourage our bull customers to come out to the ranch and go through the bulls before sale day and ask any questions, Sarah added. We spend a lot of time with the bulls before the sale, and most of our returning bull customers do the same, she said.The Lassle Ranch Simmentals sale is completely sold by Superior Livestock's video broadcast.Last year, we tested the waters with a video only sale and it went well, Sarah said.In the sale barn at the ranch, big screen TVs will be set up on each wall, and customers that are there bid for their bulls on site, along with those watching on the Superior Broadcast or their computers at home.We still serve lunch, and we usually have a great crowd, she added. But selling over video is a way for our customers to participate in the sale even if a blizzard or calving keeps them close to home.Some 80 percent of bull customers from their 2016 sale were repeat customers, which demonstrates how well respected Lassle Ranch Simmentals is in the bull world.They will sell most of their bulls in western North Dakota and eastern Montana, especially in the Miles City, Plevna and Baker area, and last year, a bull went as far as to Mississippi.
Peter Nicholls - WPA Pool/Getty Images(LONDON) -- Prince Harry visited a sexual health charity in London Tuesday where he met with health workers helping members of minority communities struggling with HIV and AIDS.



Harry, 32, visited NAZ, a sexual health charity in Fulham, London, in his mission to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS, particularly among those in his generation.



Harry, the fifth-in-line to the British throne, urged young people to fight against complacency and delivered a reminder that there is still much to be accomplished in the fight against HIV and AIDS.



Harry was also treated to a performance by the Joyful Noise choir, which is comprised of people living with HIV.



Harry's mother, the late Princess Diana, was one of the first public figures who tried to de-stigmatize HIV and AIDS, and Harry has carried on her work. Harry underwent an HIV test in July that was broadcast live on the royal family's Facebook page to show people just how simple it is to get tested.



Later in July, Harry spoke at the International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, and participated in a talk with AIDS activist and musician Elton John.



"It is time for a new generation of leaders to step forward. It is time for us to step up to make sure no young person feels any shame in asking for an HIV test," Harry said at the conference. "It is time for us to step up and acknowledge that stigma and discrimination still act as the greatest barrier to us defeating this disease once and for all."



Harry has been back at work, attending a series of engagements over the last week since news of his relationship with American actress Meghan Markle became public.



Harry was seen Tuesday wearing a beaded bracelet identical to the bracelet that Markle, 35, showed off in an Instagram post. Markles bracelet has been reported to possibly be a gift from Harry.



Markle was seen in London last weekend buying groceries and returning with them to Harrys home at Kensington Palace. Harry visited Markle over Halloween weekend in Toronto, where she films the legal drama Suits.



Harry will depart this weekend for a two-week tour of the Caribbean on behalf of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Human Rights Watch - November 13, 2016

(New York) a High-definition satellite imagery shows widespread fire-related destruction in ethnic Rohingya villages in Burmas Rakhine State, Human Rights Watch said today. The Burmese government should immediately invite the United Nations to assist in investigating reported destruction of villages in the area.
We, the undersigned, support all efforts to stop corruption, stamp out black money and counterfeit currency, and act against funding that helps creates unrest in the country be it through terrorism or creating divisions and hatred among people. However, the decision to de-monetize Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes is misconceived and will not address the problem of black money for the following reasons:

1. If it is the Governmentas case that high value denomination currency is used to hoard black money, then the decision to reissue new Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes does not make sense. Issuing even higher value Rs 2000 note is completely inexplicable and puzzling.

2. Black money is generated through evasion of taxes on income from lawful activities and money generated from illegal activities. In the absence of steps to curb the generation of black money, demonetization is a futile exercise, as it proved to be in 1978.

3. In the last 5 years, IT raids have found that only 5-6% of black money is kept in hard cash. Moreover, those who have amassed sizable black money are equipped to find ways around demonetization by converting their existing cash to bullion, gold jewellery, real estate and foreign currencies through brokers and middle-men. In fact, organized middle-men and touts have already emerged to convert black money into white for a commission.

4. As per The Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata study done on behalf of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Rs 400 crores worth of fake currency is in circulation in the Indian economy. This is only .028% of Rs 14,180 billion worth currency demonetised in Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes

5. Experts including a former RBI Governor and the current Chief Economist of the World Bank have spoken against demonetization.

6. 86% of currency in circulation is in Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes. 97% of all transactions by volume are done in cash. Summary demonetization has created chaos all over the country with people unable to purchase daily essentials and, in many cases, life-saving goods and services. 5 persons, including one infant, have died as a direct result of the impact of demonetization

7. Only about 30% of the Indian population has access to the banking system as per data compiled by the banking division of the finance ministry. Moreover, the distribution of banks is highly skewed with a third of all bank branches in only 60 Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities/towns. Consequently, people in rural India who often also suffer from inadequate information have become the worst victims of demonetisation.

8. Reports have started coming in of digital payment systems unable to keep up with the new volume of transactions with credit and debit card servers also going down.

9. All currency has value only because of the inherent trust in the banking system. Summary demonetization has shaken this trust and will likely impact Indiaas economy well beyond the initial and widespread chaos.

It is evident that demonetisation will not achieve its stated intent of eliminating black money but has thrown the entire countryas economic system in disarray. Related developments also call into question Governmentas intentions and need clarification:

1. Rs 1.14 lakh crore of bad debts has been waived by Government banks in the last 3 years. At the same time, loans worth lakhs of crores of rupees are still outstanding. Why has the Government not made public the names of the beneficiaries of the waiver and the names of the big defaulters, both individuals and corporations?

2. A key campaign promise was to bring back black money stashed abroad and deposit Rs 15 lakh each from the proceeds in the account of every citizen. Why has the Government not made public the names held by it of Indian account holders in offshore banks?

3. Were BJP leaders and friends given prior information about the impending demonetisation so that they could take pre-emptive measures to safeguard their assets? [The WB unit of the BJP is reported to have deposited a total of Rs 3 crore in Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes in its bank accounts in the days and hours before the announcement of the demonetisation. A BJP leader posted pictures of wads of Rs 2000 notes much in advance of the demonetisation. A digital payments company printed a full page advertisement lauding demonetisation in a newspaper on the morning following the announcement at 8pm on November 8, 2016.]

4. Why did the Government announce that cash deposits higher than Rs 2.5 lakh will be scrutinised against the tax return with 200% penalty for any tax evasion? [This appears to be intended to dissuade people from depositing money so that the Government can claim success of demonetisation and forewarn people to split their deposits among different accounts and different depositors.]

5. All conversions can be done only after filling a form and attaching ID proof. This has led to major harassment of poor and illiterate people and those who do not have an identity card.

6. What is the cost of demonetisation? [It has been estimated that the cost of replacing currency in circulation with new Rs 500 and Rs 2000 notes will be Rs.20,000 crore. Besides, far greater losses will be incurred by markets predominantly run on cash and the participants (wholesale markets, retail stores, street-vendors, transportation etc) and in lost productivity.]

7. Even if the Government was intent on demonetisation, why was it not implemented after careful planning: new notes printed, arrangements made for distribution, ATMs recalibrated etc? [It has been seen that banks are running out of cash within hours of opening and most ATMs are still non-functional.]

8. We are all concerned about the use of money power in elections. Why hasnat the Government proposed state funding of elections? Why is the BJP resolutely against transparency in its own funding by refusing to come under the Right to Information Act?

The summary way demonetisation has been effected is leading to a riot like situation in the country. We demand that the Government ensure that common people have immediate access to enough money to pay for their daily needs and health emergencies. Failing which, we demand the rollback of demonetisation or suspension of demonetisation to enable the common person to make adequate arrangements for daily needs and for more orderly phasing out of the old notes. The role of the Government is to undertake honest tax administration and not to treat the common person like a criminal making him/her stand in line and filling forms to access his/her own legitimate money

Signed/-

Prabhat Patnaik

Prashant Bhushan

Aruna Roy

Bezwada Wilson

T M Krishna

Jayati Ghosh

Nayantara Sahgal

Harsh Mander

Kavita Srivastav

CP Chandrasekhar

Nikhil Dey

Shantha Sinha

Aniket Alam

Dipa Sinha

Jagdeep Chhokar

Achin Vanaik

Anand Patwardhan

Amar Kanwar

Amita Baviskar

Annie Raja

Dr. Anand Teltumbde

Deep Joshi

EAS Sarma

Kalpana Kannabiran

Himanshu Thakkar

Jayati Ghosh

Mallika Sarabhai

Manoj Mitta

Utsa Patnaik

Satish Deshpande

Sandeep Pandey

Sohail Hashmi

Zoya Hasan

Syeda Hameed

Arundhati Dhuru

Chandru Krishnswami, Justice (Retd.)

John Dayal

Kavitha Kuruganti

M.K.Raina

Manisha Sethi

Nivedita Menon

Pamela Philipose

Ram Rahman

Sohail Hashmi

Teesta Setalvad

Vivan Sundaram

A longer list of signatories is reproduced below (in alphabetical order) -

Gargi Mishra

Gautam Navlakha

Geeta Kapur

Himanshu Thakkar

I.K Howard

Indira Chandrasekhar

Jashodhara Dasgupta

Javed Malick

Jaya Lakshmi, Grameena Mahila Okkuta

Jayanti Bannerjee

Jeevan Kumar

K Laxminarayana, Hyderabad Central University

K.K. Kohli

Kamini Tankha

Karnataka Janaarogya

Chaluvali Kathyayani Chamraj, CIVIC, Bangalore

Keya Dasgupta

Kiran Kumar Vissa,

Rythu Swarajya Vedika, AP and Telangana.

Koninika Ray, National Federation of Indian Women

Kumkum Lal

M V Shobhana Warrier

Madangopal Singh

Madhu Prasad

Madhuresh, National Alliance of Peopleas Movements

Madhuri Krishnaswamy, Jagrit Adivasi Dalit Sangathan, Madhya Pradesh

Madhurima Nundy

Mahesh Kumar

Malabika Majumdar

Manjari Katju, University of Hyderabad

Mary E John, Academic

Meena Gopal

Meera Sanghamitra

Mohan Rao, Professor, Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, JNU

Moushumi Basu

Mukul Mangalik, Academic

Nafisa daSouza

Nalini Nayak

Nandini Dutta

Nandini Ghosh

Nandita Narain

Narendra Gupta

Neeraj Mali

Noopur Desai

Noor Zaheer

P Krishnaprasad

Palaash Bhargava

Paraminder

Jeet Singh, IT for Change, Bangalore

Pramod Kumar

Prashanto Sen, Advocate, Supreme Court

Preeti Sampat, Sociologist, Delhi

Prithvi Sharma

Priyank Jain

Prof. Anandlakshmy, Chennai

Prof. Hargopal, Visiting Professor, NLSIU, Bangalore

Puloma Pal, Mumbai

Raj Mehta

Rajeev Bhargav

Rajinder Arora

Rajni Arora

Renuka Mukerji Agarwala

Ritwik Shukla

Rudrashish Chakraborty

Runu Chakraborty

S. Jeevan Kumar, Human Rights Forum, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh

S.G.Vombatkere, NAPM, Mysore

S.Q. Masood Centre for Peace Studies

S.S. Negi

Saba Hasan

Sana Khan

Sandhya, Independent consultant and Researcher, Delhi

Sanjai Sharma, Human Rights Law Network

Sanjaya Kumar Bohidar

Sanjeev Ghotge

Satish Deshpande, Sociologist, Delhi University

Satya Rai Nagpaul, Mumbai

Saumyajit Bhattacharya

Seema Baquer

Shaikh Ghulam Rasool, RTI Activist, Jammu and Kashmir

Sharmila Samant

Smita Gupta

Soma KP, Independent Feminist Activist and Researcher

Soma Singh

Subhendu Dasgupta

Sudha Goparaju, Independent Researcher and MAKAAM

Suhas Kolhekar, NAPM, Maharashtra

Suma Josson

Sumandro Chattopadhyaya, Centre for Internet and Society, Delhi

Sumi Krishna

Suvrat Raju, International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research

Taru Dalmia, Singer and Musician

Uma Shankari, NAPM

Usha Seethalakshmi, Independent Researcher, Hyderabad and MAKAAM

Uzra Bilgrimi Uzramma

Vasanth Kannabiran, Activist and Writer

Vasavi Kiro, Co-convenor NAMHHR, Ex-member Jharkhand State Commission for Women

Venugopal Kasba

Vimala Morthala, Independent Social Activist and Writer, Telangana

Zahoor Siddiqui (and many morea)

For any further information, you may contact- 94.14.00.41.80, 98.735.22.104
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One of the most legendary writers of all time created the most adventurous fantasized and romanticized novel of all time Ivanhoe. Later in the timeline of movie making, several movies of this story were made, including an Australian cartoon movie from 1986.

In 1982, a British movie maker Douglas Camfield created a television movie together with the writer John Gay. Douglas was born in 8th May in India, got adopted by English parents in London, he sadly passed away the 24th January 1984. His Ivanhoe movie is claimed to be one of the best version of the story and in Sweden when it got released it became so popular that it is broadcast on tv even today as a new year tradition every 31 December.

Story:

After returning home from the war in the holy land. Ivanhoe (Anthony Andrews) saves a Jewish salesman Isaac of York (James Mason) from an ambush by the Normands. Grateful by his actions, Isaac offers Ivanhoe strong equipment and a fast horse for the tournament. Ivanhoe sees the tournament as chance to be forgiven by his father Cedric the Saxon (Michael Horden) and to reclaim his love for the Lady Rowina (Lysette Anthony). But the victory doesn't go as planned, when Ivanhoe get seriously injured by the ruthless Normand Templar Knight Brian Gilbert (Sam Niell). Gilbert is almost successful to kill Ivanhoe but get interrupted by a mysterious Black Knight who rescue Ivanhoe. Rebecca (Olivia Hussey) is the daughter of Isaac offers Ivanhoe protection and medical help. But she and her father get captured together with Ivanhoe, Cedric, and Rowina by the Normand leader Front De Beuf (John Rhys-Davies). Prince John (Ronald Pickup) order De Beuf to find the Black Knight and eliminate him, but what he doesn't know is the Black Knight is England's rightful King Richard the 1st (Julian Glover).

Different from the Novel:

In the novel, the book describe more of the war in the holy land and tells Ivanhoes experience in the war with King Richard, in the movie, it's not shown at all, it's not even mentioned until later in the movie, it's starts with Ivanhoe dressed as a Pilgrim and rescue Isaac.

Brian Gilbert was named De Bois Gilbert, and was more brutal to Rebecca, but in the movie Brian Gilbert has love affection for Rebecca, despite he kidnap her, he get more sensitive and sympathy for her.

the Character Maurice De Bracy is the third leader of the Normands in the movie, and a 2nd rival to Lady Rowinas affection, it in the novel he wasn't one the leaders, he was only a mere soldier, in the novel only Front De Beuf and De Bois Gilbert were the leaders, although one part was correct in the movie, and that is when he surrendered to King Richard, and the king let him go to send a message to Prince John.

Robin Hood guest appeared in both the novel and the movie.

Overall:

Despite its a television production, Ivanhoe from 1982 is very strong as any cinema movie. And has the best actors to perform as Robin Hood (David Robb) and Friar Tuck (Tony Haygarth), the casting is all well portrayed for their parts, and the director Douglas Camfield did an excellent job with the cinematography, specially the tournament scenes.

I with pleasure reward this great British movie with 8/10.
Having already enjoyed a long and prolific career in the television world, Argentinean writer-director Leonardo Bechini has only turned his attention to film recently and based on the trailer for his upcoming dramatic thriller Operacion Mexico, it's hard not to wish he'd made the switch much earlier.

Argentina, summer of 1978. The members of an insurgent organization, Edgar Tulio Valenzuela (Tucho) and Rachel Black (Maria), a pregnant woman with their young child, are kidnapped by the Armed Forces and transferred to the suburbs of Rosario, province of Santa Fe . A senior officer of the argentine Army makes Tucho a proposal , that in order to fulfill it , he ll betray the ideals to which he has devoted his life and if he rejects, he ll lose his wife and children. They love each other beyond all reason and circumstance. Maria and Tucho make a pact, and in between betrayal and horror, a love story that will last forever is born.

The production values here look absolutely fantastic, capturing the nuance and flavor of the period setting while the story balances out dramatic and thriller elements. It's a very promising trailer, indeed, and you can take a look below.
 Some sentencing question after Georgia jury verdicts of guiltly on all counts of murder, child cruelty and sexting for Justin Ross Harris | Main | Looking for the best "anti-Garland" on Prez-Elect Donald Trump's SCOTUS not-so-short list 

The title of this post is the headline of this astute new BuzzFeed News article that flags some issues and raises various questions that I have been thinking a lot about ever since last Wednesday around 2am. Here are highlights:

In recent months, President Obama has stepped up the pace of federal clemency  issuing three large batches of commutations in the month before the presidential election. The White House has regularly pushed those numbers as evidence that Obama has done more than his predecessors to address unfairness he has criticized in criminal sentencing.

But now that he is due to be replaced by Donald Trump, who ran in part by saying he would be a law and order president, leading advocates of the clemency process say it is the time for Obama to step up and do more. [I]f President Obama believes these sentences are unjust, it is his constitutional responsibility to fix them, Rachel Barkow, a member of the United States Sentencing Commission and NYU law professor, told BuzzFeed News this week....

To that end, the group, co-founded by Van Jones, will be in Washington this week, holding a series of events  including a vigil in front of the White House on Monday evening  urging Obama to take unprecedented action on clemency in the coming months.

Mark Osler, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, acknowledged that time is short. I think there will be  and should be  a sense of urgency, he said on Friday. I think the clearest thing is to find efficiencies  find ways to look at more people over these last weeks in a way thats consistent and effective, in terms of evaluation. And that means, probably, looking at categories of people and identifying them specifically.

Specifically, he pointed to people who did not get the benefit of the Fair Sentencing Act in 2010  which addressed cocaine-to-crack sentencing disparities in federal law, but was not retroactive. As such, Osler explained, many people were stuck with a life sentence or the 10-year mandatory [minimum] who could not receive that sentence today....

There has, though, been an election  one that likely will reflect at least somewhat different values on criminal justice issues, Osler acknowledged. Its fair to say that those people within this administration are very aware that the amount of care that they give to criminal law  and the excesses of criminal law  probably wont be reflected in the next administration, he said. Nonetheless, Osler said that Obamas two elections more than suffice as a rationale for why Obama should continue pressing forward with the Clemency Project in his final months in office. Hes the elected president until January 20, 2017, he said. I dont think you sit back and dont make full use of every day that you have.

Barkow put it in similarly broad terms  but with a historical context. Clemency is critical to an effective federal criminal justice system, Barkow noted, pointing out that Alexander Hamilton wrote in The Federal Papers about the important role clemency plays in the American system. The President has only a couple months to reach everyone. The fate of these people and their loved ones rests in his hands, and one of his lasting legacies can be to reaffirm Hamiltons view that both humanity and good policy require the broad use of the pardon power.
A 20-year veteran of law enforcement in the Central Valley was shot and killed Sunday at point-blank range in what authorities are calling an execution. Stanislaus County Sheriff's Deputy Dennis Wallace was responding to a report of a suspicious van near a popular fishing spot outside of the city of Hughson, 10 miles south of Modesto, as the Associated Press reports. Upon running the plates on the van he discovered the van was stolen and called for backup, but by the time backup arrived on the scene, Wallace was dead.

In a press conference, Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson said, "We believe that Deputy Wallace was killed outside of the car, and we know for a fact that the gun used in this crime was in direct contact with his head when the trigger was pulled twice."

Wallace was 53 and a resident of Hughson.

Christianson says that they have a suspect in custody, 36-year-old David Machado, who was apprehended after an attempted purse-snatching 150 miles south of Modesto in the town of Lindsay, according to CBS 5.

Per the AP, Machado is also suspected in a carjacking in the town of Keyes, near Modesto, after ditching the van there. Officers in Tulare County did not initially know that the man they apprehended in the purse incident was wanted elsewhere, but luckily they quickly discovered he was suspected in Wallace's murder, and contacted the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department.

News of Machado's killing comes just after a report of two San Jose officers being fired upon by an unknown assailant on Sunday night, for which the police union there is now offering a reward for information leading to an arrest.

Also, as the AP reports:
An innocent bystander was injured in the Mission Monday afternoon, caught in the crossfire during a shootout between two suspects.

It was 4:45 p.m., police say, when two suspects began shooting at each other on the 3000 block of Harrison Street, which is between 26th and Cesar Chavez Streets.

A 37-year-old man who was walking in the area was struck in the confrontation, police say. One of the suspects participating in the gun battle, a 32-year-old man, was also injured by gunfire. Mission Local reports that witnesses heard as many as eight shots during the incident.

According to the San Francisco Police Department, both men were transported to San Francisco General Hospital for treatment of their wounds, which police say are not life-threatening.

The injured suspect has been placed under arrest, police say. Following the scrum, investigators say they also discovered a vehicle driven by the second suspect, as well as a gun that they believe was used in the altercation. As of Tuesday morning, police did not have any additional information on the second suspect, who appears to remain at large.


A man walking in the Tenderloin was rushed to the hospital Monday, when a duo of muggers repeatedly struck him with a skateboard.

Police say that the attack occurred at 1:45 a.m. Monday, on the 500 block of Ellis Street, when is between Leavenworth and Hyde Streets, near the Tenderloin Children's Playground.

According to the San Francisco Police Department, the 48-year-old male victim was approached by two men in their late 20s. The duo "struck him with a skateboard several times," then took his cell phone and an undisclosed amount of cash.

The man was left with injuries to his face, head, and jaw, and was transported to San Francisco General Hospital. An update on his condition was not available as of publication time.

Police say that his attackers fled in an "unknown direction" and haven't been seen since. As of Tuesday morning, no arrests have been made in this case.

Related: Deplorable Teens Mug Embarcadero Tourist
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Last Tuesday, Wisconsin did what seemed to be unthinkable: It went red during a presidential election.

The pundits will debate endlessly about how Republican Donald Trump turned months of trailing in the polls into a victory on Election Day, but whats worth examining is whether Wisconsins new voting laws had an impact on Tuesdays results.

As The Nations Ari Berman pointed out, last weeks election was the first presidential contest conducted in 50 years without the full force of the Voting Rights Act, which the conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court gutted in 2013. Since then, Berman noted, 14 statesincluding Wisconsinenacted new voting restrictions, such as voter ID.

Wisconsins Republican-backed voter ID law, enacted in 2011 but blocked by the courts until this year, was one of the most stringent in the country and was widely seen as an attempt to disenfranchise up to 300,000 traditionally Democratic votersprimarily seniors, students, low-income residents and people of color.

Although a lawsuit filed by One Wisconsin Institute and Citizen Action of Wisconsin Education Fund recently forced the state to ease some of the laws requirements, Berman wrote that he witnessed potential voters being turned away at Wisconsin polls last week, including an 85-year-old woman in Plymouth, because her drivers license was expired and wasnt accepted.

How many people were turned away from the polls?, Berman wrote. How many others didnt bother to show up in the first place? These are questions we need to take far more seriously.

Analiese Eicher, program and development director for One Wisconsin Institute, said the voter ID law had an impact on voter turnout, although theres no way to know definitively how many potential voters were deterred from going to the polls on Election Day because they didnt have the proper ID.

Voter ID laws, and the kinds of laws Republicans passed in Wisconsin in the last five years, are voter suppression laws, Eicher told the Shepherd.

Neil Albrecht, executive director of the City of Milwaukee Election Commission, was more blunt about the impact of the new voting requirements.

The integrity of the election was really compromised, he told the Shepherd.

Low Voter Turnout

If you looked at the polls, the signs of a Democratic victory seemed to be there. After all, Hillary Clinton had a blowout six-point lead in the most recent Marquette Law School poll and early voting turnout was historically high, with more than 828,451 ballots cast before Election Day, the majority of which were cast in traditionally Democratic counties.

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The Wisconsin Elections Commission had predicted high turnout of 3.1 million voters overall, higher than the 3 million who voted in the 2012 presidential election.

That prediction didnt materialize. The unofficial results from the Associated Press show that 2.9 million Wisconsinites voted, 66.23% of the states voting population. Thats Wisconsins lowest voter participation rate in a presidential election since 1996, when Bill Clinton cruised to re-election against Kansas Sen. Bob Dole.

When all the votes were counted, with 248,045 ballots cast the City of Milwaukee had 75% voter turnoutimpressive, but less than its 87% turnout in 2012 (288,459 votes) and 80% in 2008 (275,042 votes), when President Obama was at the top of the ticket. In other words, post-voter ID, about 41,000 fewer Milwaukeeans showed up at the polls.

In the end, Wisconsin turned red as Trump won 48% to Clintons 47% of the vote, with just 27,257 votes separating them, about 14,000 fewer votes than the drop-off in Milwaukee.

Milwaukee Turnout to be Studied

The election commissions Albrecht is careful to note that a number of factors could have contributed to the low voter turnout in the city, including the candidates messages and activities.

That said, Albrecht said that the new voting lawsespecially voter IDcould have contributed to the 12% decline in voter participation in the city.

What Im encouraging is an examination of the changes to Wisconsins election laws in the last five years and how those affect peoples access to ballots and how those may have contributed toward the gap we are seeing in voter participation from 2012 to 2016 in the City of Milwaukee, Albrecht said.

On Friday, Gov. Scott Walker told Charlie Sykes that voter IDs potential impact on voter participation was a load of crap.

On Monday, the Journal Sentinel reported that UW-Madison researchers would look into the potential impact of voter ID on voter participation.

One bright spot was the citys record-high early-voting statistics. Thanks to the suit that chipped away at voter ID, municipalities were able to expand early-voting hours as well as the number of voting locations. Milwaukees early voting soared. But not everyone had an acceptable ID to vote, Albrecht said.

It really did demonstrate that the states photo ID public education campaign, which was so fractured, did not reach some of the most difficult-to-reach communities in Milwaukee, Albrecht said.

He said the requirements were especially onerous for the citys disadvantaged residents, which he said disheartened him.

Living in poverty shouldnt cost you your right to vote, Albrecht said. And those are the voters who are left behind by the new requirements.

While the city lost 12% of voters overall, the loss was even more significant in the neighborhoods with a high concentration of low-income people of color.

The 15th District, represented by Alderman Russell Stamper II, saw the steepest decline, with a 38% loss off votes from 2012 to 2016. Alderwoman Milele Coggs 6th District saw a 31% decline in voting; the 1st District, represented by Common Council President Ashanti Hamilton, and the 7th District, represented by Alderman Khalif Rainey, both lost 29% of its voters; and the 2nd District, represented by Alderman Cavalier Johnson, declined 24%, according to Albrechts data.

We cant ignore the fact that there was a lot of public concern with how these new requirements would affect these communities, Albrecht said. But the fact that it was ignored I really feel has compromised the integrity of the election.

Wisconsin isnt the only state to enact new voting restrictions, of course, with the alleged aim of combatting widespread voter fraud.

These laws were designed to abate something that was never proven, and that is this very undefined concept of widespread voter fraud, Albrecht said. Whether or not they were effective in addressing something that was never proven is pretty uncertain. But what is certain is that people were not able to vote because of these laws. Thats where I feel and I think a lot of the public feel that the integrity of the election was really compromised.

He said the loss of the full protections of the Voting Rights Act is being felt now, especially by African American voters.

There is a pattern, Albrecht said. As I said when the voter ID law was being examined, we are repeating history. We really are. That is the populations, the people of color, particularly African Americans who were protected by the Voting Rights Act, again are the most vulnerable and disenfranchised population in this presidential election.
Professor Don Hickey, of Wayne State College, addressed popular myths surrounding the midnight ride of Paul Revere as the Revolutionary War began near Boston, Massachusetts, in April 1775.

Hickey presented his remarks at a gathering on Sunday at the Betty Strong Encounter Center in Sioux City, where Hickey has been a frequent presenter of programs focusing on the nation's history. More than 100 were present for his discussion.
SIOUX CITY | A Hinton, Iowa, man was hospitalized early Tuesday after rescue crews mechanically extricated him from his sport utility vehicle following a collision with a Sioux City Transit bus.

The incident occurred around 5:40 a.m. at Business Highway 75 and Outer Drive.

According to a news release from the Sioux City Police Department, 26-year-old Chad Plante, of Hinton, was driving a 1999 Chevrolet Tahoe south on Highway 75 when it collided with a Sioux City Transit bus making a left turn onto Outer Drive from the northbound Highway 75 lanes.

The release said the transit bus went off the road to the southwest, crashing through a chain-link fence. Plante's vehicle was turned onto its side.

Sioux City Fire Rescue mechanically extricated Plante from his vehicle, and he was taken by ambulance to Mercy Medical Center -- Sioux City. Police said his injuries were significant but "not believed to be life-threatening at this time."

A Mercy representative did not have information on Plante's condition Tuesday afternoon.

The operator of the transit bus, 39-year-old Jamie Pica, of Sioux City, was transported by ambulance to UnityPoint Health -- St. Luke's, the release said. No passengers were on the bus at the time of the accident, according to the release.

Police diverted traffic from the area for several hours Tuesday morning while a Sioux City police technical investigator processed the scene.

The incident remains under investigation. Charges are pending based on the investigation's outcome.
SIOUX CITY | District Judge Steven Andreasen had heard all the arguments, all the reasons why Isaiah Mothershed should be sentenced to a total of 150 years in prison or to a sentence as short as 25 years for shooting a police officer and committing a string of armed robberies.

On one hand, in asking for the maximum sentence, Woodbury County Attorney Patrick Jennings had said that Mothershed was a violent criminal from whom the community should be protected.

On the other hand, Mothershed's father, Theodore Mothershed, said his son was a smart young man with ambitions and goals he'd like to accomplish.

"Rehabilitation is what he needs," Theodore Mothershed said.

Isaiah Mothershed himself did not make any sentencing requests.

"I would just like to say that God knows the truth and God will do justice," he said during his chance to speak before being sentenced.

Once both sides had made their case Tuesday morning, and after a lengthy pause, Andreasen spoke slowly and carefully, spelling out his decision to sentence Mothershed to 50 years in prison with a mandatory minimum of 35 years for his conviction of two counts of attempted murder and four counts of first-degree robbery.

"The court would note this sentence of 50 years in prison with a mandatory minimum of 35 years in prison basically means Mr. Mothershed will be 54 years old before he's eligible for parole for release. Any more would essentially be a life sentence without parole," Andreasen said.

A Woodbury County District Court jury last month found Mothershed, 19, of Sioux City, guilty of pulling a gun out of a couch while handcuffed and shooting Sioux City police Officer Ryan Moritz in the leg on Feb. 7 while waiting to be transported to jail after his arrest. Mothershed also was convicted of a string of armed robberies and break-ins that occurred from Jan. 29 to Feb. 6 and of firing a shot at a homeowner after she interrupted one of the break-ins.

Mothershed faced a 25-year sentence and 17.5-year mandatory minimum on each count.

Giving his victim impact statement, Moritz asked Andreasen to give Mothershed the maximum sentence.

"I have absolutely no doubt that he would have pulled that trigger until the gun was empty if he hadn't shot himself in the leg," Moritz said. "Put him where he belongs before anyone else gets hurt."

Mothershed's attorney, Matthew Metzgar, asked Andreasen to consider that Mothershed was 18 years old at the time of the crimes, an 18-year-old who had lost his mother to cancer at age 8, was the subject of a custody battle and was raised by a single father. Metzgar said Mothershed's crimes were committed under the influence of peer pressure, and, like other 18-year-olds, before he was fully mature.

"Are we going to allow some of that rehabilitation to take place or not?" Metzgar asked. "It doesn't have to be a sentence in which the mandatory minimums result in a life sentence."

Andreasen said he knew his sentencing decision might be unpopular.

"The court understands some people may believe a sentence of life in prison without parole is appropriate," he said. "The court believes the sentence is a fair balance of the goal of this court to provide Mr. Mothershed at least the opportunity for rehabilitation and be released back into this community."

Jennings and Moritz declined to comment after the hearing. Metzgar also declined to comment.

Prior to sentencing, Andreasen denied Metzgar's motions for acquittal and for a new trial.
SEATTLE  Democratic mayors of major U.S. cities that have long had cool relationships with federal immigration officials say they will do all they can to protect residents from deportation, despite President-elect Donald Trump's vows to withhold potentially millions of dollars in taxpayer money if they do not cooperate.

New York City's Bill de Blasio, Chicago's Rahm Emanuel and Seattle's Ed Murray are among those in "sanctuary cities" that have tried to soothe worried immigrant populations.

"Seattle has always been a welcoming city," Murray said Monday. "The last thing I want is for us to start turning on our neighbors."

In Providence, Rhode Island, Mayor Jorge Elorza, the son of Guatemalan immigrants, said he would continue a longstanding policy of refusing to hold people charged with civil infractions for federal immigration officials. Newark, New Jersey's Ras Baraka echoed that decision, calling Trump's rhetoric on immigration "scary."

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck told the Los Angeles Times that he's committed to a longtime policy of staying out of immigration issues. Mayor Eric Garcetti has backed that up but stopped short of calling LA a sanctuary city because the term is "ill-defined."

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney restored sanctuary status when he took office in January and said last week that the city would protect its residents.

During the campaign, Trump gave a speech in which he promised to "end the sanctuary cities" and said those "that refuse to cooperate with federal authorities will not receive taxpayer dollars." He blamed such policies for "so many needless deaths."

Trump didn't elaborate on his plans for cracking down on the cities. In a "60 Minutes" interview broadcast Sunday, he said his administration's priority will be deporting criminals and securing the border.

But significant questions  and unease  remain about his approach to sanctuary cities.

There is no legal definition of the term, which is opposed by some immigration advocates who say it does not reflect that people can still be deported.

It generally refers to jurisdictions that don't cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That can mean, for example, that they don't notify immigration officials when an undocumented immigrant is about to be released from custody.

Some cities, like San Francisco, have long declared themselves safe havens for immigrants, issuing local ID cards to allow them to access government or other services.

The term also been used to refer to cities that bar their employees, including police, from inquiring about a person's immigration status because crime victims and witnesses might be less likely to talk to investigators if they are worried about being deported.

"We don't want anybody to be afraid to talk to us," said Sheriff John Urquhart of Washington's King County, which includes Seattle.

Because states and cities can't be required to enforce federal law  and there's no U.S. requirement that police ask about a person's immigration status  it's likely that any Trump effort to crack down on sanctuary cities would focus on those that refuse to comply with ICE requests, said Roy Beck, chief executive of NumbersUSA, which wants to see immigration levels reduced.

It's also unclear what money Trump might pull. For Congress to impose conditions on federal money heading to the states, the conditions must be related to the funding's purpose, the U.S. Supreme Court has said.

For example, the government threatened to withhold highway funds from any state that failed to adopt a 0.08 blood-alcohol limit: Both the limit and the highway funding were related to road safety.

"If the funding is for improving childhood education, it's hard to say that's reasonably related to local law-enforcement cooperation with deportations," said Mary Fan, a University of Washington law school professor.

However, the U.S. Justice Department's inspector general looked at some jurisdictions with sanctuary policies earlier this year and concluded some appear to violate a federal law that says state and local governments may not prohibit or restrict workers from sharing information about a person's immigration status with federal immigration officials.

Having such policies could jeopardize millions of dollars in DOJ grant money the jurisdictions receive, the inspector general's memo said.

About 300 jurisdictions nationwide have sanctuary-like policies, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, which calls for lower immigration levels.

"The result is people who should be deported, who have come to the attention of police because of crime, are released back into the community," said Jessica Vaughan, the group's director of policy studies.

A prime example for supporters of a crackdown on sanctuary cities is the fatal shooting of Kate Steinle last year on a San Francisco pier. A man who had been previously deported and had been released by local law enforcement was charged in her death.

Immigrant advocates say they are worried Trump's plans will wind up deporting more than violent criminals and they are gearing up for a fight.

"These cities have reaffirmed they're going to respect the dignity of all their residents," said Matt Adams, legal director at the Seattle-based Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. "What they're saying is, 'We're not going to use our
What is this deplorable's belief system? I believe in God. I believe marriage is between one man and one woman. I believe abortion is the murder of an innocent life. I believe the American flag is to be respected at all times and defended at all costs. I believe English should be the only mandatory language taught in the public schools and used in all federal, state and local government buildings. I believe all illegal aliens should be returned to their country of origin. (This would not be a problem except for a grossly incompetent federal bureaucracy.) I believe all legal immigrants should be welcomed with open arms. Oh, and lastly, I believe men should conduct their business in the men's room and women should conduct their business in the women's room.
SOUTH SIOUX CITY | The City of South Sioux City is continuing steps to help address a strong odor stemming from the Big Ox Energy plant.

The City Council, at its meeting Monday, approved an agreement with Innovative Business Consultants of Sioux City to test for hydrogen sulfide in the homes affected by the odor.

Hydrogen sulfide connected with Big Oxs wastewater treatment plant has spread through sewer lines beneath homes in the area.

Ian Iacino, risk manager for IBC, said about 60 homes have signed up for the testing. While the testing happens, IBC is seeking hydrogen sulfide testing monitors to constantly detect levels within individual homes.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) states that industrial workers can safely be exposed to a reading of 10 hydrogen sulfide parts per million over an eight-hour time period. Average readings at manholes in the affected area have surpassed that  sometimes spiking toward 100 parts per million.

Iacino said monitors have been found for homes, and would react to even the slightest detection. However, with an alarm that would go off at a reading of 1.6 -- which is .1 ppm above the odor threshold per OSHAs standards -- South Sioux City Mayor Rod Koch stated concerns that the level of alarm should be lower than 1.6.

I just dont know if Id be comfortable with that, he said, adding that he would like IBC to try to find a detector that could be set to a lower alarm setting. Until we vet this out, I wont be comfortable with 1.6.

Iacino said testing on individual homes will begin Thursday and IBC will continue to look for alternative monitors.

Des Moines-based McClure Engineering also presented a revision of temporary and long-term plans detailed in a contract approved by the city last week.

The long-term solution includes installing a separate industrial waste line from the Bennett Lift Station to Park Place, which would isolate the residential areas from industrial wastewater.

In the meantime, Terry Lutz, president of McClure, said temporary fixes will be installed while the line is designed and constructed.

Last week, Lutz presented a plan that would see special valves installed at Le Mesa Way, Park Place, 39th Street and G Street.

Monday, a plug has been inserted at 39th and G Streets, and sewer traps to isolate the gas have been installed at manholes on Redbird Lane, Le Mesa Way and Park Place.

He said construction on the new, permanent line could begin in the next couple of weeks.

At the council meeting, citizens in the affected areas voiced their displeasure with the incident. Many have been living in area hotels for the last month.
DES MOINES  Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds said Monday shes had no discussions with Gov. Terry Branstad about ending his current term early to take a post in President-elect Donald Trumps administration and she expects the focus to be on working with a GOP-led Legislature to move their goals to the next level.

Reynolds dismissed speculation about Branstad possibly being eyed as Trumps pick to be the next U.S. ambassador to China given his close ties to Chinese President Xi Jinping and his strong support in helping Trump win Iowa in last weeks election. She also said it was coincidence that Branstad currently is leading an Iowa trade mission to China and Japan, noting the visit was planned months ago for this week.

As youve heard the governor and I say multiple times, Reynolds said during the administrations weekly news conference Monday, were proud of what weve been able to do. But were not done yet. Weve got a lot to do, so Im looking forward to continue serving Iowans.

Reynolds sidestepped questions if she planned to run for governor in 2018 and told reporters I dont know what the governors going to do when asked if she expected Branstad would seek a seventh term. She did confirm that she had Branstad have not talked about the possibility of him not serving out the remaining two years and two months of his current term after an eventful election last week.

Republicans will return to the Statehouse in January with a new majority in the Iowa Senate to go with a slightly larger majority in the Iowa House after Nov. 8 balloting in which Iowans backed Trump, held status quo on federal-level incumbents and put 29 GOP senators and 59 GOP representatives in charge at the Statehouse.

Im excited about this next legislative session and Im excited to get back to work on behalf of Iowans, Reynold said. Were going to sit down  the governor and I and our team and our staff and legislators and were going to talk about putting an agenda together that will take Iowa to the next level.

The lieutenant governor said the Branstad administrations goals continue to be growing quality jobs, shrinking the size of government, returning Iowa schools to world-class caliber, making Iowa the healthies state in the state as a way to help control spiraling health-care costs, and improving the quality of Iowas water supply.

Thats the big picture were looking at, Reynold said. Well sit down and take a look at everything and then work with legislators and see how we continue to move the state forward.

The 2017 sessions agenda may be tempered by the amount of state tax money that is available for budgeting once the state Revenue Estimating Conference meets in December. That could be somewhat restrictive on what our opportunities are moving forward. All of that has to come into play when we take a look at next steps, she said.

Iowas economic growth has been slowed by depressed farm prices that have hovered below the cost of production, and Reynolds said the objective of the trade mission Branstad currently is leading to China and Japan is to expand Iowas exports and to encourage reverse investment in Iowa by Chinese companies.
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa  Lawmakers, who in the coming months begin working through another state budget, voiced support Monday for a new Board of Regents initiative to plan two years out for tuition increases  and urged regents to go even farther.

During a meeting in Cedar Falls of the Iowa Legislatures fiscal committee, co-chair Rep. Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, said he wants regents to help students budget four years ahead.

Its just looking at students having the ability to know what four years of education would cost, Grassley said. How do we get to that point? Is that where were trying to get right now? Because I think it should be.

Regents President Bruce Rastetter said it is, and the board has asked its university presidents to think how to get there.

Weve seen some different plans of that, he said. But  that should be a natural goal of the regents.

Over the summer, the board debuted a forward-looking plan that envisions increasing resident undergraduate tuition rates 2 percent in each of the next two academic years while also seeking 2 percent increases in state money each year.

Nonetheless, tuition could go up more in the second year if state appropriations fall short of what the board wants.

The board next month is scheduled to consider final approval of tuition rates for the 2017-2018 school year, including the 2 percent bump for resident undergrads and higher increases for non-resident students and those pursuing academic programs that cost more to provide.

The board historically has discussed tuition and appropriations one year at a time, but late-running legislative sessions in recent years have prompted last-minute tuition increases across the university campuses.

Rep. Dave Jacoby, D-Coralville, was among lawmakers Monday who stressed the importance of avoiding surprises in helping families budget, reducing student debt and potentially improving four-year grad rates.

I know youre asking for two years, but honest to gosh that years three and four are probably what worries families even more, he said. So if theres a way the Board of Regents could actually look longitudinal at three years and four  that would help immensely.

Rastetter said the two-year plan is a step toward that goal, but he acknowledged the difficulty of balancing university budgets that depend not only on tuition revenue but on appropriations, enrollment trends, fundraising and other factors.

One of our challenges is were dependent upon state appropriations, which I think all of us practically realize is dependent upon state revenue and the economy of Iowa, he said.

Because tuition rates depend on the number and type of students paying, regents and lawmakers closely track trends.

Regents Director of Institutional Research Jason Pontius told lawmakers Monday that enrollment has been increasing, with record enrollment this year for the three regent universities combined, including record numbers at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University.

About 60 percent of the regent total 81,899 students are Iowa residents, with the rest coming from outside Iowa.

Pontius said the state Department of Education is projecting the number of high school graduates in Iowa will remain flat in the coming years, potentially affecting the universities growth.

Projections show slower growth in the coming decade  about 6 percent more students are expected by 2026.

But lawmakers Monday noted that many Iowans move away to get a degree, or dont pursue higher education at all.

We need to stop the frame of reference that were competing against a fixed pool, when we have stats in front of us right now that show there are a lot of Iowans who dont even show up, said Sen. Jeff Danielson, D-Cedar Falls.
SIOUX CITY | Debra Van Peursem cooked her first Thanksgiving turkey in a microwave.

In 1977, the family and consumer science teacher had recently gotten married and she was living in an apartment on Iowa State University's campus that didn't have a stove.

Van Peursem threw some apple slices inside the 12-pound bird to keep it moist as she cooked it in a bag in the microwave for an hour. She rotated the turkey every 20 minutes.

"My mom said, 'Is it going to be OK?'" she recalled. "Well, yeah. You put a thermometer in it and you check the temperature."

Van Peursem said the turkey turned out great. Her guests loved it.

Each year around Thanksgiving time, Van Peursem's students at East High School cook four turkeys and all the fixings -- mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and homemade buns. They use the leftover meat and bones to make a Hawaiian sundae and stock for soup.

Van Peursem urges first-time Thanksgiving dinner hosts to "keep it simple." You can only have one thing in the oven and that's the bird, unless you have a double oven. She makes sides, such as hash brown casserole or stuffing, in a slow cooker. She also boils food on the stove and asks her guests to bring a dish, preferably salads and desserts to save on refrigerator space.

"Whenever you have a Thanksgiving get-together, you don't make the whole meal, you need to have them bring part of it because your oven is being taken up with the turkey," she said.

Hosts need to plan ahead when it comes to the turkey. Van Peursem said a frozen turkey takes three days to thaw in a refrigerator. If it's not completely thawed, she said you can place the bird in lukewarm water and check it every hour.

"The mistakes that most people make are not checking the cavities. There's always two cavities to check," she explained. "They'll get inside the legs and get the neck out of the stomach area, but then there's another area back behind that you have to check. They forget that one."

Van Peursem doesn't have a special sauce for her turkey; she just takes salt and pepper and rubs in into the inside of the cavity to flavor it. She doesn't baste her turkeys either; she just places them in a bag to bake for 10 to 15 minutes per pound, but never above 325 degrees.

Sometimes, Van Peursem will stuff a bird at home but she won't let her students do it, because "stuffing is so dangerous."

Because of the potential for food poisoning, Van Peursem said you can't stuff a bird the night before and then get up early the next morning and throw it in the oven. She said hot stuffing has to go directly from the stove to the inside of the turkey and then the turkey needs to go immediately into the oven.

"The reason why is because the stuffing does not reach the internal temperature that it needs. Because it was cold in the refrigerator it never actually gets properly hot in the oven and it doesn't heat up to that temperature," she said.

If the meat thermometer reads 165 degrees in the thickest portion of the turkey's breast, Van Peursem said the meat is safely cooked. Since it takes a 12- to 14-pound bird about three hours to cook, she recommends making the turkey the day before.

"Slice it, have it ready to go and all you're doing is putting the pan in the oven to heat it up," she said. "If you're busy and have to carve a turkey and everybody's bringing things and asking questions and you're setting the table, you don't have time to do it."

Homemade bread, Van Peursem said, can be made a week ahead of time. Freeze it and then thaw it.

When making mashed potatoes, she cautions to mash the potatoes before adding milk. Top the potatoes with store-bought gravy, or, she said you can easily make it with chicken broth, cornstarch, water and pan drippings.

Above all, don't stress. Van Peursem said her students don't.

"People just need to relax. I have not had any of my kids not enjoy making the turkey," she said.
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Robert Gilpin, R.I.P. - The Washington Post : His greatest book was written in 1981, but the main theory in it is perhaps more trenchant now...
SOCIEDAD ASIATICA

THE ASIAN SOCIETY

COMISION DIRECTIVA



THE DIRECTIVE BOARD



PRESIDENTE:

Liliana Garcia Daris



Universidad del Salvador.

Argentina

VICEPRESIDENTE:

Won-ho Kim

Universidad de Hankuk de Estudios Extranjeros.

Corea

SECRETARIO:

Luis Diaz Brougton



Universidad de Santiago, Chile



PROSECRETARIO:



Martha Barriga Tello

Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Peru



VOCALES:



Mauricio Martinez



Universidad de los Andes, Colombia



Juan Uriburu Quintana



Universidad de Chenchi, Taiwan

CONSEJEROS ACADEMICOS

ACADEMIC ADVISERS



ASH NARAIN, Roy,

Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi.

India



GARCIA BAZAN, Francisco,



CONICET, Universidad Argentina John F. Kennedy



MATSUSHITA, Hiroshi,



Universidad de Kobe, Japon



MIEMBROS FUNDADORES



FOUNDING MEMBERS



ALBERT, Liliana



Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, Argentina



ANTON PACHECO, Jose Antonio



Universidad de Sevilla, Espana



ANTONIJEVIC, Ingrid



Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Chile



BARRIGA TELLO, Martha



Universidad Nacional de San Marcos, Peru



BERGMAN, Sergio

Melton Institute de Jerusalem, Israel



BERTOLINI, Luis



Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, Argentina



CABEZON, Jose



Universidad de Santa Barbara, Estados Unidos



CAGNI, Horacio



Universidad Catolica de La Plata, Argentina



CARRANZA, Francisco



Universidad de Dankook, Corea



CASTLETON, Barbara



Ohio State University of Athens



CASTRO, Jorge

Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, Argentina



CHAOUL-REICH, Alejandro



Universidad de Texas, Estados Unidos



CHELMICKI, Hanna I.



Universidad del Salvador, Argentina



DIAZ BROUGHTON, Luis



Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Chile



FRANCO, Raul



Universidad del Salvador, Argentina



GADRE, Vasant



Universidad Jawaharlal Nehru, India



GARCIA DARIS, Liliana

Universidad del Salvador, Argentina

GLUCK, Carol



Universidad de Columbia. Estados Unidos

HOPKINS RODRIGUEZ, Eduardo



Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru



KIM, Wonho



Universidad Hankuk de Estudios Extranjeros, Corea



KO, Heysun



Univesidad de Dankook, Corea



LOPEZ DEL CARRIL, Luis Maria



Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, Argentina



LUCO, Enrique



Universidad del Salvador



MARTINEZ, Mauricio



Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia



MASATERU, Ito



Universidad Nacional de Osaka, Japon



MATSUSHITA, Hiroshi



Universidad de Kobe, Japon



MINKOWICZ, Gabriel

Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires

MONETA, Carlos Juan



Universidad del Salvador, Argentina



MORROW, John Andrew



Minot State University, Dakota del Norte, USA



NGUYEN, Thiet Son



Academia de Ciencias Sociales de Vietnam, Vietnam

OVIEDO, Eduardo

CONICET. Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina

PEREIRA, Ronan Alves

Universidad de Brasilia. Brasil

PEREYRA, Violeta



Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina

REMETE, Andrea

Universidad del Salvador, Argentina



RIMOLDI DE LADMAN, Eve



Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, Argentina



ROMERO CASTILLA, Alfredo



Universidad Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico

TEDIN URIBURU, Virgilio



Universidad de Harvard, Estados Unidos

UEHARA, Alexander



Universidad de Sao Paulo. Brasil

URIBURU QUINTANA, Juan



Universidad de Chenchi, Taiwan



VITTOR, Luis Alberto



Universidad Argentina John F. Kennedy



XU, Shicheng



Academia China de Ciencias Sociales, Republica Popular China
The gravity of the existential threat we face from Islamic Jihad is truly of epic proportions. It is essentially a battle pitting free-civilized man against a totalitarian barbarian. What is at stake is the struggle for our very soul - namely who we are and what we represent. The lives that were sacrificed for individual rights and freedoms that we've come to cherish are being chiseled away from right under our noses by the stealth jihadists. And many of us are in denial and totally clueless.



The left's appeasement and pandering to evil is nothing new. What makes their utopian delusions so infuriating and unpardonable is that it is not only they who will have to pay the consequences, and deservedly, so, they are thwarting and undermining our best efforts at resistance and are thus dragging us down in the process as well.







By Peter Lancz,, the head of the Raoul Wallenberg World Campaign Against Racism.
A retired U.S. Marine from Charles Co., who elected to remain anonymous, won his 2nd Bonus Match 5 top prize in 2 years.

BALTIMORE

(Nov. 15, 2016)Nov. 10 is an especially joyous day for a retired U.S. Marine from Charles County. The date marks the Marine Corps' 241st birthday and is also the day he arrived at Maryland Lottery headquarters in Baltimore to claim a $50,000 Bonus Match 5 prize. The man elected to remain anonymous to the public.The daily game is a lucky one for the Persian Gulf War veteran, who also won a $50,000 Bonus Match 5 top prize in September 2014. On that occasion, a set of Quick Pick numbers did the trick. This time, the former machine gunner bought a $6 ticket from Food Mart Citgo in Waldorf on which he picked a slate of nine lines of his own numbers. When one of those lines matched the first five numbers in the Nov. 9 drawing6, 18, 22, 23 and 29he was a $50,000 winner again."I pulled out the ticket and checked the numbers on my phone, and as soon as I saw them, I knew those were my numbers," the lucky winner said. "I was shaking."His immediate reaction was to run to the house of his frienda U.S. Army veteran. "We were like little kids outside celebrating," the winner said. "And then, at one point, we were both, like, 'Wait a minute, we should probably go in the house.' "The excitement that night extended into the next morningso much so that the winner forgot to bring the winning ticket when he left home for the trip to Lottery headquarters. "I got about 10 minutes from the house and realized it," he said with a smile.The winner has two sons and a daughter, who is in college. She is about to get a special gift, courtesy of her father's Lottery luck."She just started college and I want to get her a car," he said. The winner also plans to use his prize to donate money to support the volunteer work he does at area veterans' hospitals.His lucky retailer, Food Mart Citgo, is located at 11901 Business Park Drive. For selling a top-prize-winning Bonus Match 5 ticket, the Charles County store will receive a $500 bonus from the Lottery.
Le Collectif Cheikh Yassine a organise un certain nombre dactivites et de festivites pour les enfants de Gaza sous le theme  La joie des enfants de Gaza pour lAid . Ces activites ont commence le premier jour de lAid et continue jusquau 4eme jour de lAid dans la bande de Gaza.



Plusieurs activites, ont ete organisees parmi lesquelles : des competitions recompensees par des prix, des jeux, des animations et des chants presentes par un groupe ainsi que des distributions de cadeaux et daides financieres.




The Soyuz rocket is rolled out by train to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Monday, Nov. 14, 2016. NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos, and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan the morning of November 18 (Kazakh time.) All three will spend approximately six months on the orbital complex. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls). NASA

The rocket that will launch the next crew to the International Space Station rolled out to its launch pad today at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. On orbit, the three Expedition 50 crew members are conducting human research, measuring radiation levels and wrapping up Cygnus cargo operations.

Veteran space travelers Peggy Whitson of NASA and Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos along with space newcomer Thomas Pesquet from ESA are in Kazakhstan getting ready for their mission in space. Their Soyuz MS-03 rocket stands at its launch pad counting down to a launch Thursday at 3:20 p.m. EST. The new crew members will take a two-day trip to the orbital complex where they will live and work until May.

Shane Kimbrough, NASA astronaut and Expedition 50 Commander, is nearing the end of Cygnus cargo transfers as he readies the resupply vehicle for its Nov. 21 release from the Unity module. Afterward, Cygnus will stay in space a few more days to release a set of tiny weather satellites and conduct the Saffire-II spacecraft fire study.

Cosmonaut Andrey Borisenko, who is on his second space station mission, logged his food and medicine intake today for the Morze hormone and immune experiment. Kimbrough handed Flight Engineer Sergey Ryzhikov a collection of radiation detectors that only monitor neutrons and will be processed for the RaDI-N experiment.

On-Orbit Status Report

Radiation Dosimetry Inside ISS-Neutron (RaDI-N) Retrieval: Today a USOS crewmember retrieved all 8 of the Space Bubble Detectors that were deployed last week around the International Space Station (ISS) for the RaDI-N experiment, and handed them to the Russian crewmember to be processed in the Bubble Reader. The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) RaDI-N investigation measures neutron radiation levels while onboard the ISS. RaDI-N uses bubble detectors as neutron monitors which have been designed to only detect neutrons and ignore all other radiation.

Telescience Resource Kit (TReK) Laptop Setup: In support of the Space Commerce Conference and Exposition, the crew setup the TReK Demonstration laptop and relocated the high definition camcorder to allow the conference attendees to view their images real-time from the Trek laptop on the ISS. TReK is a suite of software applications and libraries that can be used to monitor and control assets in space or on the ground. This week, the Space Commerce Conference and Exposition will present a three day event engineered to highlight the intersection points between terrestrial industries and the aerospace community.

Orbital ATK (OA)-5 Cargo Operations: The crew performed 3.5 hours of Cygnus cargo transfer operations today, thus completing all of the Cygnus cargo operations. Following todays transfer operations the crew participated in a conference with ground specialists. Ground teams are assessing photos of the vehicle to verify the final configuration.

Emergency Book Updates: The crew made pen and ink (redline) edits into the six hard copy Emergency (EMER)-1a books. These changes reflect new operations following the ISS Server1 transition to Zbook that was completed last week. The EMER-1a books contain crew response to Depress, Fire and the equipment to be retrieved prior to isolating a module.

Station Support Computer (SSC) Guacamole Service Pack Transition: Today, ground controllers deployed the Guacamole service pack on the SSC client laptops. This service pack provides software updates and additional functionality, including applications for the European Space Agency (ESA) EveryWear payload. The EveryWear application allows for connecting remote wearable sensors, allowing for physiology data collection for both science research and medical purposes.

Todays Planned Activities

All activities were completed unless otherwise noted.

MORZE. Taking food and liquids (medicine) registration in flight log

Compound Specific Analyzer-Combustion Products (CSA-CP) Checkout Part 2

BIMS. Operator Assistance During the Experiment

BIMS. Experiment Ops.

UDOD. Experiment Ops with DYKHANIYE-1 and SPRUT-2 Sets.

Water Recovery System Waste Water Tank Drain Termination

UDOD. Photography during Experiment Ops

Changeout of ??1, ??2 Dust Filters (???433???_?2_?II-1). Discard de-installed items. Update IMS and Cleaning ?1, ?2 Fan Screens in DC1

Exercise Data Downlink via OCA

PFS PuFF Calibration Syringe Maintenance

MORZE. Psychophysiological Evaluation: Cattell Test

Telescience Resource Kit Laptop Setup

Regenerative Environmental Control and Life Support System (RGN) WSTA Fill

Systems Operations Data File (SODF) Emergency Book Update

MORZE. Taking food and liquids (medicine) registration in flight log

Cleaning FGB ??1 Circulation Fan Screens

Filling (separation) of ??? (???) for Elektron or ???-??.

Transfer Cygnus Cargo Operations

MATRYOSHKA-R. BUBBLE-dosimeter gathering and measurements.

??? maintenance

?3 Fan Screen Scrubbing in DC1

Radi-N Detector Retrieval/Readout

Radiation Dosimetry Inside ISS-Neutrons Hardware Handover

MATRYOSHKA-R. Handover of BUBBLE-dosimeter detectors from USOS.

Transfer Cygnus Cargo Operations

MATRYOSHKA-R. BUBBLE-dosimeter gathering and measurements.

Activity with Progress 433 Air Heater Fan (???)

MORZE. Experiment Setup

Cygnus Cargo Operations Conference

Delta file prep

Regenerative Environmental Control and Life Support System (RGN) WSTA Fill

??????-2. P/L Assembly Setup on panel 418

MORZE. Taking food and liquids (medicine) registration in flight log

Completed Task List Items

Veggie 03 Pillow Watering (Completed Monday)

HRF Ultrasound 2 USB Drive Swap (Completed Saturday)

OA-5 Flag Photograph (Completed Saturday)

JEM CTB Location Confirmation (Completed Saturday)

Ground Activities

All activities were completed unless otherwise noted.

Battery 4B3 Reconditioning

SSRMS SPDM Stow

Three-Day Look Ahead:

Wednesday, 11/16: TOCA Analysis, Ipad Air 2 Deploy, Cygnus Depart OBT, Server 2 Deploy

Thursday, 11/17: 49S Launch, DoseTrack, STRATA Card, Cygnus Egress, Winscat

Friday, 11/18: Cygnus Vestibule Demate, Node 1 CPA Install, RWS Setup
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Walking into the cozy, light-filled space of coastal Capitolas Cat & Cloud, you will find yourself suffused with what can be a rare emotion in coffeegenuine, sincere kindness. The attitudes of baristas in specialty coffee shops continues to be a pain point for the community, a subject I hear bandied about year-after-year at conferences and in interviews, and this outpouring of legitimate niceness is a product, a foundational element even, of the Cat & Cloud philosophy, built upon by the shops owners, Chris Baca, Jared Truby, and Charles Jack. The upbeat tenor of Cat & Clouds staff is not a happy accident; it is instead the specific product of three learned coffee veterans, putting their shared experiencethe good and the badtowards a loftier goal of employee happiness and its direct effect on customers.

Amongst co-owners Baca, Truby, and Jack, there is a lifetime of specialty coffee experience lived, but it is Santa Cruzs Verve Coffee where the story of Cat & Cloud begins. Though Truby and Baca had known each other prior, all three of Cat & Clouds co-owners found themselves ensconced at the burgeoning chain in leadership positions: Truby as the longtime management and cultural compass, Baca as the head of sales, and former Wall Street guy Jack as one-half of a two-part finance team. As the company grew, Baca found himself working a job outside his comfort zone. I ran out of room for growth, Chris Baca tells me. I was in a job that I wasnt suited for or enthusiastic about. I had a huge passion for education, training, and coffee in general, and my job had nothing to do with any of that.

Dissatisfied, Truby and Baca moved onTruby to The French Press in Santa Barbara, Baca to San Luis Obispo to open HoneyCo roasters with Jon & Sarah Petersonbut the seeds for a future venture had been planted. A little over a year later, Baca and Truby, with Jack in tow, reconvened with one goal in mind. We all had this dream to do our own thing, Baca tells me. We wanted to provide a new experience for our customers and our staff. You have to start somewhere or you never will.

The three secured what Baca calls a super serendipitous, dream location in Capitola, a small surf community just a few blocks from the beach. They got to work hashing out the philosophy behind Cat & Cloud, and what theyd need to do to bring it to life for their employees. Weve seen baristas treated like commodities, Baca says, and to us, employees are these awesome ambassadors for your company. Theyre more responsible for your success than you are as owners. To start, they focused on transparency as a business. For years and years, Baca says, we worked in coffee and we had an incomplete picture of what it took to be a professional and run a business.

Paying lip service to employee appreciation and transparency is something weve all heard before. But behind the scenes and beyond the build-out, the owners at Cat & Cloud opened their doors with a trio of ready-to-roll perks already in the wings, each aimed at addressing issues the three had experienced during their own time behind the bar. To start, Baca, Truby, and Jack understand the monetary difficulties of pursuing full-time barista work in a state as expensive as California. To ease the burden on their staff, 10 percent of the retail bottom line is divvied up amongst their full-time employees. Full-time employees are also given four weeks paid vacation from the start, and Baca encourages them to use it. Its stressful to take a vacation, he says. No wages, no tips, but people have to take a little time off for their mental health. Tanner Roark, a former Verve employee and an opening day employee at Cat & Cloud, sees both the extra money and the vacation time as both a stress relief and a way that the owners show faith and commitment to their employees. The world and the culture we live in is driven by money, Roark says. You kind of get trapped as a barista. I mean, if you take time off in Santa Cruz on a baristas wages, you can pretty much say goodbye to paying rent. Roark finds that having and being encouraged to take paid time off allows a culture of life/work balance to be fostered.

They want to break the mold, Roark tells me, and they really do believe that quality of life impacts your ability to do a good job, and that means you have to take time off. What it says to me is that Im valued enough that theyll trust me to not be here, because they want to build a culture around mental and physical health.

And though Baca freely admits that as a new business Cat & Cloud doesnt have a lot of moneythe project was funded with 35,000 dollars from a Kickstarter campaign, with the rest of the funds coming through a Small Business Associate loangiving employees a chance to take time off is enormously important to their business model, and it requires a degree of pre-management in order to take the hit on labor costs and staffing. We dont run this place fast and loose, Baca tells me. These are the sort of things that are important. Sure, you have to be a little bit creative, but we make sure our margins are where we want them to be, and once theyre dialed its a win-win situation. You get less turnover and more loyalty. Roark believes that this, the dedication to a good employee culture regardless of what money resides in the bank, is absolutely crucial to what Cat & Cloud is building: These perks have already been committed to and promised to the staff. They arent waiting to make a major profit, theyre committing to these things right out of the gate. This makes me feel very valued.

The third and final employee perk at Cat & Cloud is perhaps the most important. According to the shops owners, and multiple baristas I spoke with in researching this article, all members of staff at Cat & Cloud are given free reign of any and all information related to the inner workings of the shop. Kristen Hutson, a barista at Cat & Cloud explains: Their communication loop is phenomenal. Any questions about anything, theyll answer. If its information about new coffees, or what our numbers look like, or any sort of financial questions, they encourage you to ask, and they love to provide that information. Hutson describes the environment as collegiate, telling me that the owners guide people like students, with Tanner Roark adding that Cat & Clouds employee transparency model provides a sense of ownership as well as consistency across the board. They value teamwork, Roark says. Theyve done such a good job of communicating their values that the entire staff is on the same page, all of us going in the same direction.

To follow through on this promise, the company has two monthly meetings where anything is allowed to be discussed, including critiques of the management. Hutson describes those meetings in glowing terms: Theyre busy doing things and theyre not in the shop all the time, so they know that if something is going onthe flow of the space, the towels, whateverwell know first. Theyll listen, and then theyll fix it. Beyond that, Roark sees the owners actively seeking out feedback and criticism, Theyre always learning, always wanting to be better, and that attitude its infectious and makes the staff want to do the same.

Adding to this, each class of employees hired throw their names in a hat, and anytime a coffee-related trip is planned, one name is drawn and that employee is given the opportunity to come along. Hutson and Roark are scheduled to visit Guatemala in February, with more accompanying Baca and crew to Seattle for the La Marzocco Experience in Seattle.

The end result is something like a dream achieved for Baca, Truby, and Jackthe sort of shop and work environment they longed for as kids on the come-up. And while staff retention and happiness is part of this model, they know that inevitablythe shopkeepers lamenttheyll be arming their staff to someday go on and do their own thing out in the world. Thats part of the equation, Baca tells me. Its our dream, he says, to better equip people to one day open their own shop.

Its a gentle approach to working with other humans that crosses over into the Cat & Cloud cafe experience. If youre a 26-year-old, super-hip kid, Baca says, or a mom with a stroller, we want you to feel the nonjudgmental vibes. This extends to the wide variety of drinks on the shops menu, from a blended coffee beverage called a Creamy Beige (the name derives from the Old Gregg character on the BBCs The Mighty Boosh) to Bulletproof-style coffee (with grass-fed butter and MCT oil), to even something as simple as vanilla syrup, in case youre a vanilla latte sort of person. Cat & Cloud wants customers to have a consistent, enjoyable experience, but there are some quirks here: for example, the shop doesnt do traditional pour-overs, instead brewing their single-cup coffee offerings through a really big 22-gram portafilter on one of their two La Marzocco Strada AVs. The product is a cup of coffee that finds a delicate middle ground between the more nuanced flavor profiles of a cup of pour-over and the baser, roastier flavors of a solid cup of drip.

The experience at Cat & Cloud is, in an almost undefinable way, special. Theres an energy that flows from barista to barista, and barista to customer, thats somehow both efficient and professional, but soaked in what can only be described as a true enjoyment of the task at hand. And now that this atmosphere has begun to take root, the owners are looking towards the futurewith the hope to open three new shops and a roaster in the Santa Cruz area by 2020. And to get there, theyll depend on the employees theyre currently training to take charge when the time comes. Until then, Baca and his team will continue tweaking what needs to be tweaked to continue to grow without forgetting the appreciation and importance of their staff.

When you make coffee your livelihood, Baca says, its a struggle. Were still learning, and we have all these big ideals, but were making a commitment to the intangibles that dont show up on a spreadsheet like how glowing your staff is. Those are the things that make work fun, and if it sucks to work somewhere, well, Id rather work somewhere else. Its a sentiment echoed in something told to me by Cat & Cloud barista Tanner Roark: For me, it feels like home in this very deep way. It feels so different from where Ive worked before, it feels so real, and it feels like a place I want to work for a very long time.

Noah Sanders (@sandersnoah) is a Sprudge.com staff writer based in San Francisco, and a contributor to SF Weekly, Side One Track One, and The Bold Italic. Read more Noah Sanders on Sprudge.
Algiers, Nov. 14, 2016 (SPS) The Algerian National Liberation Front's Secretary-General, Djamal Ould Abbes, reiterated Sunday his party's support for the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination and independence, during a reception to Sahrawi ambassador to Algeria, Bouchraya Hamoudi Beyoun.

Mr. Ould Abbes affirmed that this position emanates from that of the Algerian people government, recalling the historical relations of struggle linking the Algerian National Liberation Front and the Polisario Front.

He also reiterated that his party will remain a strong advocate in accordance with the spirit and the values of the 1st November Revolution in defence of the right of peoples to self-determination, including the Sahrawi people.

The Saharawi diplomat informed his interlocutor on the latest developments of the Saharawi question, recalling the obstacles placed by Morocco against the efforts of the United Nations to enable the Sahrawi people to exercise their right to self-determination, in accordance with all international resolutions.

Mr. Beyoun reaffirmed the will of the Sahrawi people to continue their struggle until the recovery of their freedom and independence. (SPS)

062/090/TRA




I've done numerous interviews this year about the short falls our industry still faces and how I believe we can change our course and build something great.

I'm not a marketing expert, nor do I have a Harvard degree but I have done one thing few people in this industry have done. I've stood on the door steps of thousands of everyday peoples houses and engaged then about what horse racing means to them. Why they aren't involved, and most importantly, how they could or would become involved.

The answers were always the same, and from those conversations thestable.ca was born. Affordable ownership and flat-rate billing.

You would think it was simple enough, but horse racing has never offered those two things together, and if it did, it was never marketed that way.

Our client list has almost tripled in the last month since the Lexington and Harrisburg yearling sales and for the first time in my life I feel gratified. Not because my wife and I built a stable of 62 horses from scratch when our province and industry was quietly crumbling around us. Not because we now have an active email list of 288 people worldwide. But because we are on the cusp of changing the business habits that has crippled this industry for decades.

Thestable.ca is not just about buying and selling fractions of yearlings. It's about bringing a voice to voiceless trainers and elevating the customer service that is hard to find in an industry that it shouldn't be.

We are always trying to bring attention to not just what we are doing, but how, and why we are doing it. We are not just trying to promote thestable.ca, but reintroduce horse racing to a group that forgot it existed; the general public.

By changing the dynamic of investment in horse racing from people 45-70 years old with disposable income to every human being that ever liked horses, we will open a floodgate of interest and investment the vast majority of our industry has never seen.

With time and support, what we have started will bolster investment infinitely, energize our dwindling fan base and cultivate new customers for our race tracks and in turn casino partners.

I write this as I wait on the tarmac about to fly to Ohio for the last yearling sale of the year. I'm asking for input, support and advertising in something I believe will be helpful to many trainers, and a unique opportunity for our industry to engage the general public.

On December 10, starting at 11:00 am thestable.ca will hold the first ever open to the public (and industry) fractional ownership sale.

We invite all trainers to bring their yearlings to Tomiko Training Centre and showcase them along side myself, my wife Amy, all our staff, and our yearlings under a drone streamed live for the world to see.

We would like to advertise the event in Hamilton, Burlington, Oakville, Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo and Guelph, as a unique opportunity to become a horse owner less than a 30 minute drive from where they live.

The proximity to Christmas I believe actually helps considering the inexpensive nature of horse ownership done in those manner. Our location is ideal to bring out the general public, the media and allow our industries trainers to mingle with potential investors.

Thestable.ca has yearlings priced as low as $96 and as high as $792 for a 1% share and over 40 yearlings with various price points in between. Combine that with likely interested trainers this could be an exciting morning and afternoon for not just fractional ownership but our entire industry.

We are approaching $1 million of investment in thestable.ca this year. We now have hired 14 employees in what has been a shrinking market. Take into consideration the economy, the cloudiness in horse racing's future and consumer interest, I think it's fair to say we are onto something.

I've spoken in Columbus, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and I am scheduled to speak in Illinois and also at Michigan State University next month. It's safe to say I don't mind talking to one person or a room full people about an industry I owe everything to. But for any measurable good to come from this event on December 10 I need help marketing it.

This industry should be in agreement of one thing for certain, Fans and investors are needed and we have an extremely inclusive way to provide both. Make no mistake, fractional ownership done in this manner will change the face of horse racing forever.

I know this was a novel to read, but it took a while to write also.

Thank you for your time,

Anthony MacDonald

The views presented in Trot Blogs are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Standardbred Canada.
More information is coming out regarding what Northside Downs regulars are calling the worst accident in the history of the racetrack. Danny Campbell, who was aboard I Am Able, has discussed what it was like being at the front of the chain-reaction wreck.

Campbell has told CBC News Nova Scotia that he thinks his mounts hopple got caught in his knee boot, which caused him to go down to the track. The duo had been leading the charge first-over, which resulted perilous for those that were behind and following.

"When he (I Am Able) started to go down, I tried to pull him back. But the back horse hit me and drove me forward, Campbell said. I lost full control and landed on the track."

Campbell provided an update on his condition to the CBC. He said that he has a fractured hip, suffered a dislocated shoulder, and sustained bruised ribs. Campbell said that he remembered thinking, "I am going to be hurt and this is going to be a hard landing."

The accident was rough on a few other drivers in particular, as Roddy Hurley and John Beaton also suffered serious injuries. Hurley told Trot Insider that he suffered a bad concussion along with bumps and bruises, but was released from hospital. Beatons wife, Kim, provided an update on her husbands condition

The CBCs most recent update has quoted Beaton as saying on Monday that, "My cracked ribs are sore. Other then that, my other spots have been good.

Luckily, horses were not seriously injured in the accident, but some did suffer bruising and lacerations.

Please join Standardbred Canada in wishing all of the horsemen and horses that were involved in the accident speedy and complete recoveries from their injuries.

(With files from CBC News Nova Scotia)
Claiming trotter Warrawee Proton has been unstoppable in recent weeks, and it was more of the same during Monday evenings card of racing at Woodbine Racetrack.

The five-year-old son of Muscle Mass-Yankee Sally was five lengths away from the leader heading into the final quarter of his claiming assignment, but a :28.1 closing panel was more than enough for the gelding to extend his winning streak to five.

Sylvain Filion got away in mid-pack with the Richard Moreau-trained Warrawee Proton, but the trotter was on the move on the way to the half. He was third on the outside as the field zipped by the three-quarter pole, and he turned on the jets late and won in going away fashion over Demand An Answer in 1:56.1. Third prize went to Girl Drama.

Sent off as the 1-2 favourite, Warrawee Proton is now 14-for-30 this season and 23-for-67 over the course of his career. Claimed from the winning effort, he clicked for the partnership of Ecurie Richard Moreau Inc, Fred Handelaar and Don Beanland.

To view results for Monday's card of harness racing, click the following link: Monday Results  Woodbine Racetrack.
Ontario Racing (OR) will host its fifth scheduled in-person consultation on Wednesday, Nov. 16 regarding a proposed long-term funding framework for horse racing in the province.

This framework, subject to government approval, will be presented to the industry for feedback. If approved, this framework will provide the industry as a whole  from owners, trainers and breeders to racetrack operators  with the certainty they need to make investments in their businesses.

ORs primary objective, to this point, has been to engage directly with the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. and the government to provide input to the development of a road map to sustainable funding for the industry. Now, ORs focus will shift towards engagement with the industry as a whole to garner feedback on this proposed framework.

This proposed framework is based on key principles including:

A new racetrack alliance: all Ontario racetracks that conduct live racing will be invited to create a new alliance. It is proposed that Woodbine Entertainment Group (WEG) will serve as the administrator of this new alliance.

Longer-term, predictable funding: Ontarios horseracing industry can invest in their businesses beyond 2021.

Ongoing accountability and transparency: decision-making based on evidence and agreed upon success indicators.

Industry leadership: racetrack business plans, race dates, purse levels will be aligned across racetracks for a coordinated approach. Ontario Racing will play a key industry leadership role in the future.

Next steps include widespread in person conversations with the industry about these principles, across Ontario. Sessions will take place in every region of the province that has horse racing. The following consultation schedule has been updated. (dates subject to change)

Wednesday, November 16 - 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. - Ottawa (Rideau Carleton Raceway)

Saturday, November 19 - 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. - Port Perry (Golfer's Dream Golf Club, Scugog)

Tuesday, November 22 - 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. - Milton (Gambrel Barn, Country Heritage Park)

The four previous sessions transpired in Toronto, Dundas, Sarnia and London.

Ontario Racing encourages all interested parties to submit their feedback about the future of the industry by accessing its online consultation portal here. The portal includes a series of questions and the option to attach a word document, for those who would like to share additional thoughts. The proposed long-term funding framework was outlined in a webinar, hosted on October 19, and can be viewed here.

Ontario Racing will collate feedback from the industry, and this perspective will inform recommendations to government.

(With files from Ontario Racing)
On October 28, 2016, John T. Mayo of the Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame was presented an Individual Award of Excellence by the Greater Hudson Heritage Network for dedication and service to New York State history.

The peer-reviewed award program recognizes and commends exceptional individuals and projects which exemplify creativity and professional vision, resulting in a contribution to the preservation and interpretation of the history, culture and diversity of the region.

As operations manager of the Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame, Mayo has contributed to the museums mission to preserve and celebrate harness racings presence for more than 19 years. Despite a number of additions and renovations which have augmented and enhanced the structure  which now totals 36,000 square feet  the original 1913 horse stable has remained virtually unchanged since its transformation into a museum in 1950. Preserving the stable and maintaining the more modern rooflines and facilities that connect to it are ongoing challenges for Mayo and the Museum staff.

Mayo also supervises the museums education department and junior docent program. A favourite of his fellow staff members, Mayo is regarded as an outstanding ambassador for the museum and much deserving of this award.

The Greater Hudson Heritage Network serves the museum and history communities as a catalyst to advance professional standards and practices, build capacity of organizations to meet their missions, and create a network of effective and professional stewards. John Mayo and other awardees were honoured on Friday, October 28 at GHHNs annual conference, convened this year at Locust Grove Historic Estate in Poughkeepsie, NY.

(Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame)
AFTAH to Trump: 'Gay Marriage' Not 'Settled' Law

Contact: Peter LaBarbera or Brad Wallace, AFTAH , 312-324-3787CHICAGO, Nov. 15, 2016 / Standard Newswire / -- AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera called on President-elect Donald Trump to revise his estimation that the Supreme Court has "settled" the issue of homosexual "marriage" -- and instead honor his pledge to America's voters to defend natural marriage against the "shocking" 2015 Obergefell ruling.[Americans For Truth About Homosexuality ( AFTAH ) is dedicated to exposing and opposing the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) agenda. Sign up for AFTAH updates .]In an interview with CBS "60 Minutes" Sunday, Trump asserted that the Supreme Court's 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling imposing homosexual "marriage" on all 50 states was "settled" law, and that "gay marriage" as a political issue is "done  And I'm fine with that."That directly contradicts what then-candidate Trump told GOP primary voters in South Carolina last February: that he opposed the "shocking" Obergefell decision and that evangelical voters can trust him to protect real, man-woman marriage. Trump said he favors letting the states decide marriage laws for themselves.Just prior to the Iowa caucuses, where he was appealing to evangelical voters, Trump said he would like to see Obergefell overturned: "If I'm elected I would be very strong in putting certain judges on the bench that maybe could change things, but they have a long way to go."The late Antonin Scalia--whom Trump holds up as the type of Supreme Court Justice he would appoint--ripped into Obergefell in a powerful dissent--saying it was a "naked judicial claim to legislative--indeed, super-legislative--power; a claim fundamentally at odds with our system of government."[T]o allow the policy question of same-sex marriage to be considered and resolved by a select, patrician, highly unrepresentative panel of nine is to violate a principle even more fundamental than no taxation without representation: no social transformation without representation," Scalia wrote AFTAH's LaBarbera described what is at stake with Trump and marriage: "Many millions of evangelical, Catholic and moral-minded voters trusted Mr. Trump with their votes because they did not see him as just another slippery politician. Now it is up to President-elect Trump to show that he is worthy of that trust by clarifying his defeatist statement on Obergefell."America cannot become great again by defying God, and homosexuality-based 'marriage' is about as godless as it gets," LaBarbera said. "Trump needs to do all he can to reverse the Supreme Court's unconstitutional Obergefell rulingjust as he pledges to overturn Roe v. Wade and abortion-on-demand."It would be a YUUGE mistake for Trump to break his pledge to the pro-marriage Republican voters who put him in the White House. His victory was a stunning rebuke to the arrogant, corrupt and dishonest political-media elites who think they know better than the American electorateeven as they push extremist agendas like allowing men into female restrooms," LaBarbera said. "Trump must not pander to the media on 'gay marriage.'"In the "60 Minutes" interview, Trump returned to his view expressed in an 2015 interview with the Hollywood Reporter  which he said: "anybody that's making that an issue [of homosexual 'marriage'] is doing it for political reasons. The Supreme Court ruled on it."LGBTQ-identified citizens voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton for president. Even the tiny "gay Republican" group, Log Cabin Republicans, voted NOT to endorse Trump. Meanwhile, evangelicals and traditional Catholics voted overwhelmingly for Trump.AFTAH is based outside Chicago: AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522
tech2

Taiwan based computer hardware and smartphone maker Asus will be announcing its first ever AR-enabled smartphone called the ZenFone AR. The announcement expected to be made at the upcoming CES 2017. The smartphone will also support Google Tango, making Asus the second OEM to come with AR capability apart from Lenovo.

The news comes directly from Asus CEO Jerry Shen. According to the CEO the ZenFone AR will come with advanced functionality and performance at a competitive price.

A quick recap, Google's Project Tango is based on machine vision that uses a camera and a bunch of sensors to provide motion tracking, depth perception, and area learning. With this AR apps can fully utilise and make use of indoor navigation, gaming and more.

Asus is also planning to launch all-in-one (AIO) VR devices in Q3 of 2017 featuring built-in cameras, sensors and controllers which will completely different from the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift. The ZenFone 4-series will also be announced in Q2 of 2017.

Shen also acknowledged the fact the companys handset business unit suffered losses in the Q3 of 2016 due to lower shipments. However he believes that profits should improve during the October 2016 to March 2017 period.
Nash David

If we were to meet today, and I borrowed a few hundred rupees, how easy would it be on you? These are difficult days. But its a temporary crunch. It shall pass away. For many SEC1 urban junta, money isnt the problem. Cash is. They're still able to hop from one corner of the city to another, thanks to wallets and taxi aggregation services. They're able to dine, splurge, shop or buy medicines using their debit or credit cards.

Life really hasnt come to a standstill for most. Unfortunately, its the ones who do grocery shopping who have to bear the brunt of cash. Statistically, the urban Indian male probably thinks life is going on as normal. Its the urban and sub-urban Indian woman who has to take on the challenge of either convincing the fruit or vegetable vendor to permit credit for a month, or to accept Rs 2000 notes. Come what may, bills need to be paid.

Now this isnt a phase of a collapsing economy, war or poverty. The engines are chugging, the economy is growing, probably stepped on full gas right now. Yet, transactions are limited for want of liquidity. Simply put  cash.

Coming back to transacting a few hundred rupees. Whats the easiest most convenient way of carrying out such dealings?

Use a wallet

Yes. That helps. Only, both parties need to sign up, have the relevant app on their smartphones, with their respective bank accounts tied in. So the wallet gets loaded from the bank account. Then, there is a wallet-to-wallet transfer. If the recipient needs all that money, s/he simply transfers it to their respective bank accounts. Mission accomplished. And they sleep peacefully.

Unfortunately, most services have a preferred wallet system. For instance, if you use Uber, you'd pay via Paytm. On the other hand, if you want to use Ola, Ola Money is the only choice you have. In effect, wallets end up being restrictive. It's not as open ended as a bank transfer.

Do an online transfer

This is the Plain Jane way. The sender requests for the recipients bank account details  including account name, number, branch, and IFSC code. These details are added as a beneficiary in their existing Internet banking system. Once approved, transaction is done. Mission accomplished. Faster. And its direct. Is available 24 hours a day.

Depending on if you used NEFT or IMPS services, the transfer happens in real-time, or could take a couple of hours. This depends on the urgency, of course.

Why another mode of transaction?

India has an impressive rate of mobile and smartphone penetration. Despite all the hype around how we're among the fastest growing mobile markets in the world, mobile transactions are abysmally low. For good reasons. And this would need a 360-degree approach to sort out. Picture this.

You're making an important payment. Such as tickets. You browse online and it presents a login page for your payment gateway. You sign in to your bank's website, do your transaction. All this while, you'd be depending on connectivity to go through the critical steps of authentication. We definitely need something better. Something that simplifies the security and authentication process at the same time. If there's one standard process that brings banks under one umbrella and enables businesses to implement payments and fund transfers in an easy and convenient way, it would increase adaption rates of mobile transaction.

Whats better?

The all-new Unified Payment Interface, which was launched on 11 April this year. The objective was to bring a unified platform that enables P2P money transfer, B2C, M2M transfer all under one umbrella. Since this is done with the initiative of the RBI and the Indian Banks Association, it comes across as any standard feature such as NEFT or IMPS. Besides, unlike wallet services such as Paytm, it ends up as a default service on existing banking apps.

What's interesting with UPI is that you could simply share your identifier which resembles an email address. For instance if your name is Manoj, and you hold an account with HDFC Bank, you could select a unique identifier such as manoj@hdfcbank. That's all you would ever need to share with anyone who needs to send you money. No hassles around IFSC, Bank account number or any other numbers. Since the sender has selected his/her user ID, it's authenticated to the account. It's easy to remember and convenient.

According to the NPCI website, 17 banks are currently live on the system. These include Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and several others joining in.

Waiver of Switching Fee for Pose Com TX Ns by Tech2 on Scribd

NCPI also issued a statement yesterday, where it was waving off setup charges for new merchants. In the current scenario, when cash transactions are difficult due to shortage of currency notes, there can't be a better opportunity to get India to adapt digital transactions as the default choice.

In an ideal world, you could step in to your local bakery (let's call it Tasty Bakery), make your purchases, and when it comes to paying, you could simply open your app and enter tastybakery@icicibank and you're done. All of this form your bank's default app. This simplifies the whole process for numerous customers who have concerns over messing up the transaction online. Especially late adopters of mobile payment.
Aditya Madanapalle

There is a spotlight on fake news stories following the surprise win of Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential elections. Facebook is being blamed for circulation of fake stories in the trending news section, that contributed to the outcome of the elections. Facebook is denying that it circulated fake news, and Mark Zuckerberg has termed the idea that fake news stories influenced the elections as "crazy."

Earlier this year, Facebook denied reports that employees were suppressing conservative news stories on the social networking platform. A fake news story that Trump had actually won the popular vote, showed up on top of Google search results. Google admitted that the fake story was a problem. Data from analytics firm shows that a significant portion of traffic to sites originates from social media platforms and search engines.

Both Facebook and Google agree that more can be done to improve the accuracy of news articles on their sites. However, Facebook and Google are not the only platforms responsible for spreading news. Instant messaging clients such as WhatsApp and Telegram are also responsible for the spread of information, and there are no checks on the accuracy of this information. The original sites that posted the news stories in the first place are not held to blame as much as a social networking site or a search engine, both of which in no way control the content of the websites they index.

Immediately after the demonetisation of currency notes in India, there was a flurry of activity. Rumours spread as rapidly as factual information. Rumours of a salt shortage, for example, sent the prices soaring, and a woman ended up dead as a fallout.

Confirmation bias makes people actively look for, remember, share and interpret new information in the light of already existing beliefs. This means that views and opinions contrary to what they feel or think is ignored, and sources of information that are in tune with their thoughts are selectively amplified. In a hive of people engaging in this behavior, an echo chamber is created, where the misinformation gets rapidly disseminated among the people who are more likely to believe it.

The problem of misinformation spreading rapidly in the information age is not new. There have been rumours, fake forwards and urban legends for as long as the internet has been around. Services such as Snopes.com are dedicated to cataloging the misinformation, and checking the veracity of stories.

Google News added a fact checking label next to news articles last month. This feature identifies the verified articles by international fact checking organisations. Articles that are fact checked by major fact checking networks are labelled as such. Fact checking is a collaborative effort, and requires some time after publication. It becomes difficult to check facts for very local sources, or news of anonymous origin.

Even if the news articles are not clickbait or entirely fabricated, there is a tendency to ignore the news that doesn't fit in with our worldview. According to this Medium post by Trent Lapinski, the reason why Democrats cannot understand why Trump won, was because they underestimated the fallout of the Wikileaks e-mails, that Hillary Clinton was under FBI investigation, and that she rigged the primaries. The Democrats were busy making politically correct jokes about Trump among themselves, while ignoring the other side.
hidden

Chinese telecoms equipment group ZTE Corp, facing U.S. sanctions that could come this month, on Tuesday said it had appointed a new chief export compliance officer based in the United States. Matthew Bell was appointed chief export compliance officer and legal counsel, and will also serve as chief compliance officer and legal counsel for ZTE USA, the firm's U.S. subsidiary, the firm said.

An imposition of a ban from Nov. 28 for U.S. component makers and software firms to do business with ZTE threatens to cut off much of the supply chain for the Chinese network equipment and smartphone maker. The U.S. Commerce Department ordered the trade ban in March this year over allegations that ZTE violated U.S. sanctions on Iran by selling products with U.S. technology into the country. It subsequently gave ZTE reprieves that were extended to Nov. 28 while the company seeks to reach a settlement.

Uncertainty brought about by the export restrictions have weighed heavily on ZTE's share price this year, with the stock down 33 percent in Hong Kong. Bell - who joins from U.S. engineering firm Kellogg Borwn & Root - will report to Chief Compliance Officer Cheng Gang, ZTE said.

Reuters
hidden

U.S. internet companies including Facebook Inc and Amazon Inc have sent President-elect Donald Trump a detailed list of their policy priorities, which includes promoting strong encryption, immigration reform and maintaining liability protections from content that users share on their platforms.

The letter sent on Monday by the Internet Association, a trade group whose 40 members also include Alphabet's Google, Uber and Twitter, represents an early effort to repair the relationship between the technology sector and Trump, who was almost universally disliked and at times denounced in Silicon Valley during the presidential campaign. The internet industry looks forward to engaging in an open and productive dialogue, reads the letter, signed by Michael Beckerman, president of the Internet Association, and seen by Reuters.

Some of the policy goals stated in the letter may align with Trumps priorities, including easing regulation on the sharing economy, lowering taxes on profits made from intellectual property and applying pressure on Europe to not erect too many barriers that restrict U.S. internet companies from growing in that market. Other goals are likely to clash with Trump, who offered numerous broadsides against the tech sector during his campaign.

They include supporting strong encryption in products against efforts by law enforcement agencies to mandate access to data for criminal investigations, upholding recent reforms to U.S. government surveillance programs that ended the bulk collection of call data by the National Security Agency, and maintaining net neutrality rules that require internet service providers to treat web traffic equally.

The association seeks immigration reform to support more high-skilled workers staying in the United States. Though Trump made tougher immigration policies a central theme of his campaign, he has at times shied away from arguing against more H-1B visas for skilled workers, saying in a March debate he was "softening the position because we need to have talented people in this country."

While urging support for trade agreements, the letter does not mention the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Trump has repeatedly assailed with claims it was poorly negotiated and would take jobs away from U.S. workers. The technology sector supported the deal, but members of Congress have conceded since the election it is not going to be enacted.

Trump's often-shifting policy proposals on the campaign trail frequently alarmed tech companies and sometimes elicited public mockery, such as when Trump called for closing off parts of the internet to limit militant Islamist propaganda.

Reuters
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A lot of strange things can be found in Los Angeles, but a battery-powered Jaguar sport utility vehicle is something new even for Southern California.

The all-electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV, a preview of a vehicle Jaguar intends to start selling within two years, highlights how technology, regulation, shifting consumer tastes and cheap gas are converging to force automakers out of their traditional lanes.

Show visitors this week will also see the largest-ever Mini car offered by Germany's BMW AG and a bevy of trucks and SUVs that Detroit automakers General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV will promote in luxury electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc's home state.

FCA's Italian Alfa Romeo brand will also feature a new SUV, as will Germany's Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE), which is trying to rebuild its image in California after the scandal over its cheating on diesel emissions tests.

With a mandate that zero-emission vehicles make up 15 percent of automakers' California sales by 2025, the state is driving carmakers to roll out carbon-free vehicles in an environment of uncertain future demand. At the same time, cheap gasoline is propelling a shift among U.S. consumers toward larger vehicles, particularly SUVs.

The move by Jaguar is a response to those conflicting pressures, executives said.

Recent company research indicated one quarter of Jaguar drivers would consider a battery-powered vehicle.

"There's no doubt the market is shifting," said Joe Eberhardt, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover North America. "There are differing views of how rapidly that shift is happening and to what degree. We want to be prepared."

Twenty percent of Jaguar's North American sales come from California. The brand is owned by India's Tata Motors.

"It's a very fluid time in the industry and I don't think there is a right or wrong or specific answer to what the next 10 years will be," Eberhardt told Reuters. "Which means we have to be flexible enough...to see what direction the market will take."

Jaguar has enjoyed strong U.S. sales of its 2017 F-PACE SUV, helping drive a 93 percent rise in year-over-year U.S. Jaguar sales from January until October. Until the F-Pace debuted this year, Jaguar had sold only sedans and coupes, leaving the SUV business to Tata's Land Rover brand.

The electric platform of Jaguar's new SUV available in 2018, with its 90kWh lithium-ion battery pack and targeted range of 220 miles, had to be built from the ground up.

Co-development with Tata Motors, itself working on electric and hybrid vehicles, was not feasible given the differences between market segments and needs, Eberhardt said.

The I-PACE targets the same wealthy, environmentally aware consumers now driving Tesla's Model X SUV. But Eberhardt said Jaguar's vehicle will be "a much lower price point" than the most premium Model X offering, which fully loaded can cost about $130,000.

Other luxury carmakers from Audi to BMW and Mercedes-Benz have announced, but not yet launched all-electric SUVs, and Eberhardt said he believed Jaguar would beat them to market.

"Out of the established car makers, we really are the first. Which has advantages but on the other hand it's unchartered territory."
tech2 News Staff

A man in China has sued internet conglomerate Xiaomi over its Mi branded smartphone. A users known as Mr Zhang has reportedly sued Xiaomi on its failure to unlock the NFC module that comes built into the smartphone but has not been accessible to the user since launch.

First reported by GizmoChina, Zhang was disappointed by how the brand has failed to deliver a software update that should have unlocked not just the NFC capabilities, but also related features that would let him use his smartphone to pay for bank transactions and transit services. Xiaomi had apparently promised a software update while selling the smartphone and stated that it would come by October. It is now the middle of November and those features have not yet shown up on the Mi 5s smartphone.

It's basically a software update which has been delayed by Xiaomi. But what is important here is that Xiaomi promised that the said features would arrive but they simply did not (for whatever reason).

Zhang wrote to Xiaomi demanding a refund and compensation, but the Chinese smartphone brand simply did not reply. Post this incident, Zhang filed for a suit against Xiaomi. As per the source, the customer always has an upper hand when it comes to such lawsuits as the customer paid for the device knowing that the advertised feature would arrive in the promised time frame.

Back in September Xiaomi announced Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus smartphones in China, the smartphone packed in the Snapdragon 821 SoC and Adreno 530 GPU. The dual camera sensors are the highlights of the smartphone. The rear of the device features a dual-camera system with two 13MP Sony IMX 378 sensors with the same aperture and speed rating as the camera on the Mi 5s. Of the two cameras, one captures a colour image and the other captures black and white data, which is more sensitive to light. The phone then combines the data from the two sensors to create a sharper, brighter image.
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Nokia expects its sales to fall around 2 percent next year, in line with the broader telecoms network businesses in which it operates, but forecasts the market and its own business will return to modest growth in 2018. The Finnish company set out its outlook on Tuesday at an investor meeting in Barcelona, where it warned markets for networks equipment next year would decline in Europe, Greater China and Latin America, while remaining flat in North America, Middle East Africa and Asia, outside China.

Nokia added it planned a dividend of 0.17 euros per share for 2016, up from 0.16 euros last year, but below analysts' mean forecast of 0.19 euros, according to Thomson Reuters data. Nokia also paid a special dividend of 0.10 euros in 2015. Shares in the company fell 5.6 percent following the announcement.

Between 2016 and 2021, Nokia said it expected a rebound in several regions of the world, although growth would remain flat in Europe and decline over the next five years in Greater China, according to its investor presentation. Nokia bought French rival Alcatel-Lucent earlier this year to better compete with Ericsson and Huawei in a tough market. Ericsson, the world's largest mobile equipment maker, in particular has had a torrid few months, issuing a series of profit warnings.

Last week, the Swedish firm said its mobile gear business would decline around 2 to 6 percent in 2017. Ericsson has suffered a sharper fall in sales, cut its forecasts and recently hired a new chief executive amid an industry-wide decline in demand for current 4G mobile network equipment, which is not expected to significantly recover until next-generation 5G equipment arrives around 2020.

Nokia President and Chief Executive Rajeev Suri said on Tuesday his company was outperforming Ericsson in almost every area. "Nokia is not Ericsson. They are in crisis," Suri told investors. Nokia said that while its network sales were set to decline next year, it expected the operating margin for the business to improve to 8-10 percent in 2017 from estimated 7-9 percent in 2016.

Reuters
a-Jays is a Swedish brand, well known for its extreme attention to detail and highly stylish audio headphones. Today we have an Android phone version of a-Jays Four Plus (+) which is mid-price ranged earphone. Let us see how it performs.

Build and Design: 8.5/10

The earphones are packed in a completely different plastic packaging that we are generally used to seeing. While the packaging itself is smart and durable, I did fumble many-a-times to try to open it from its frustrating locking-pin design.

The colours used, the clean lines are very Apple-esque. I personally loved the smart colour combinations used, especially the gold duotone colours. These earphones are good looking, elegant and certainly have class without being loud.

On the remote/mic, there are no indentations for volume. Interestingly, they have been left out as it is evident that the top and bottom buttons are for volume while the middle controls music and calls.

The L-shaped cable is Fettuccine flat-style and doesnt get in the way while minimising cord noise. This styling of the cable also ensures that it remains tangle-free, perhaps the reason for no inclusion of a carrying case.

Out of the box

You get the essentials, such as earphones, the ear tips of L, M, S sizes and a really nice durable box which would be barely ever used. Unfortunately, no carrying case at this price point.

Performance: 8.5/10

These earphones sound super-clear. I was amazed to hear the clarity of sound on these right off the bat without any software enhancements. There is definitely a night and day difference between earphones of this class in this price.

Objectively: These earphones are quite clear, detailed in sound and yet not clinically flat. The bass is just right, well-balanced for the sound. All genres sound good, youll have little to complain about. The highs can be a bit of a concern at high volumes.

Subjectively: The first reaction I had was Wow these are really clear and detailed. Many earphones claim to be clear but just end up being skewed towards the higher-end of the spectrum at the cost of deeper and mid bass. These tactfully arent, they are well-balanced and detailed at the same time. This is indeed how earphones ought to be at this level and price.

Bass heads will need to add a few notches to the lower-end to get the boomy loud bass prominence. The clarity of sound extends well as the bass doesnt overpower the rest of the sounds at all.

The audio sounded perhaps more aggressive than the Brainwavz S3. The S3s have a smoother sound to it. This, of course, Im nit-picking, both the earphones are excellent choices.

Call Quality: 8.5 / 10

The call quality is good. Due to the great clarity and detailed nature of the earphones, voice feels clearer than most earphones but not by a wide margin.

Verdict and Price in India

Would I recommend these? Definitely YES! A-jays Four Plus are an excellent pair of earphones for a street price of Rs 5,500. The Brainwavz S3s around the same at Rs 5,000, sound excellent and have a tonne of accessories in the package too. There is no clear winner except your own individualistic choice for the kind of sound you like to hear. Both earphones will require some EQ help for lower-end bass boost.

Do check which OS youd want to go for, Android or iOS before buying one.

Go for these if you want

Well-balanced sound

Clear sound yet not clinical

Smart elegant design

Don't go for these

If you want pronounced bass

Find latest and upcoming tech gadgets online on Tech2 Gadgets. Get technology news, gadgets reviews & ratings. Popular gadgets including laptop, tablet and mobile specifications, features, prices, comparison.
Dedicated to the Restoration of Progressive Democracy
WASHINGTON  Coming off of a decisive re-election victory last week, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, a senior member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, urged congressional leaders Monday to act on a "golden moment for tax reform" when the new Congress convenes in 2017.Buchanan, a longtime champion of tax reform, noted that President-elect Donald Trump along with House and Senate Republicans share that mindset, urging them to capitalize on this "historic opportunity" to jump-start our economy."The tax code punishes ordinary Americans and suffocates business growth," Buchanan wrote in a letter sent to House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. "Its time to fix the economy by simplifying the tax code and reducing rates on individuals and businesses."Buchanan introduced the Main Street Fairness Act to help small businesses. The bill would ensure that small businesses never pay a higher tax rate than large corporations, by removing income earned by so-called passthrough businesses from the individual tax code and treat this income like business income earned by corporations.The concept behind Buchanan's bill is a part of the tax cut package pushed by President-elect Trump."Its clearly time that Washington stopped punishing small businesses and started helping them," Buchanan said.
Fresh air strikes resume on rebel-held Aleppo

Rebel fighters gather during their advance towards the Islamic State-held city of al-Bab, northern Syria.



Warplanes have bombed besieged rebel-held eastern districts of the Syrian city of Aleppo for the first time in three weeks, a monitoring group says.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the Haidariya, Masakin Hanano and Sheikh Faris areas were hit. The Syrian government's ally, Russia, halted air strikes in mid-October to allow civilians and rebels to leave.

Activists fear the resumption signals that the government's assault on the east will now be stepped up.

Earlier, a hospital in a rebel-held village west of Aleppo was reportedly bombed, the third medical facility to have been hit in the past 24 hours.

The Syrian Observatory said at least one person was killed in Awaijel.

Earlier, turkish warplanes on Monday struck Islamic State positions in and near the northern Syrian town of al-Bab while Ankara-backed Syrian opposition fighters inched closer to the town, one of the extremist group's largest remaining strongholds in the country, Turkish state media and Syrian activists said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group that tracks Syria's civil war, now in its sixth year, said the airstrikes and the shelling killed three people and wounded 30 others.

The stepped-up campaign by Turkey comes after Ankara first sent ground forces into northern Syria during the summer, vowing to clear the border area both of the Islamic State group and the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces, which it views as an extension of the Kurdish insurgency in Turkey.

Since then, Turkish troops and opposition fighters allied with them have captured wide areas along the border with Turkey, cutting IS fighters off in their self-declared caliphate from the rest of the world. They have also captured dozens of towns and villages in northern Syria.

Turkey's Anadolu news agency reported 15 airstrikes against IS in al-Bab on Monday, saying they destroyed two command centers, an arms depot and two buildings used as headquarters, as well as 10 defensive positions.

Also, the Aleppo Media Center, an activist collective, said Turkey-backed opposition fighters captured three villages on Monday northwest of al-Bab and another village northeast of the town. The Observatory confirmed that four villages near al-Bab were taken, adding that the Turkey-backed fighters have captured 29 villages in the al-Bab area over the past week.
Importance of technology in quality education

Professor Dr. Abu Yousuf Md. Abdullah

Chairman (Board of Trustees), Northern University Bangladesh :

A report prepared for the "UNESCO 2009 World Conference on Higher Education" dwelled on the unprecedented changes taking place in higher education worldwide. The report titled "Trends in Global Higher Education: Tracking an Academic Revolution" focused on the academic transformations of the 21st century, especially on the global phenomena of "massificiation" - increased rate of enrolment - in post-secondary education.

One of the key aims of higher education is to build a manpower base that can cater to the needs of existing economic and social dynamics. Proper utilization of human resources is paramount for transforming bulging populations into national assets. Unfortunately, similar to most other developing countries the government initiatives and management mechanisms are insufficient for meeting demographic demand and not dynamic enough, by their own, to live up to global standards.

The worldwide process of large-scale privatization in tertiary education started in the 1980s. Contrary to traditional perception, in the 21st century, education is considered as an industry with its own market peculiarities. Following the footsteps of Western countries like the U.S., the U.K., London, Australia, Canada and some countries of South East Asia, Bangladesh entered a new era in education after the emergence of privately owned educational institutions for post-secondary studies.

Quantitative and qualitative observations and evaluations are necessary for identifying the issues acting as the Achilles' Heel of our education sector. In the journey towards bringing revolutionary positive changes in the industry, it is also equally important to implement feasible, realistic and innovative solutions to impediments. Bangladesh has to improve its status in the overall knowledge economy in a world order where every advanced or advancing nation is striving to excel through knowledge and research.

The former President of the Commonwealth of Learning, Sir John Daniel urged in a speech that further emphasis be given on open learning and distance education. According to Sir Daniel, who also served as Assistant Director-General at UNESCO, the revolutionary change witnessed in higher education could only be sustained through technological mobility. He also shed light on the complexity of increased expenditures incurred in ensuring quality higher education and falling educational standards along with cost-cutting measures.

Anir Chowdhury, adviser to the UNDP and USAID-supported Access to Information (A2i) Program under the Prime Minister's Office, at a seminar jointly organised by the British Council and English in Action, said that education is going outside the building. In this context, the Indira Gandhi Open University and MIT's Out-Campus, which coordinate open universities under its jurisdiction, provide models of successfully digitalized education systems.

Today's markets are characterized by regular upheavals in the form of disruptive technology. The primary objective of the traditional postal communication system, maintained by physical delivery and a network of post offices as modes of distribution, has been rendered obsolete. Ideas and experimentations abound for utilizing thousands of defunct brick-and-mortar post offices, which were built at huge expense to state coffers. Another example could be the rising popularity of digital news sources, leading to reduced reliance on large-scale press machinery and resulting in less deforestation.

A smartphone in 2016 packs enough data processing capacities to rival all of NASA's combined computing power in 1969, the year man stepped foot on the moon. Already, the number of active mobile internet connections in Bangladesh has crossed the six-crore mark, according to data from the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission. The future possibilities seem limitless when we envision the scenario of internet-enabled smartphones in every hand, each having the potential to reach the metaphorical moon of opportunities.

The present government's initiatives, especially the revolutionary concept and implementation of Digital Bangladesh, have set the track for striding forward to an era where public services can be availed at less time and cost, and with fewer visits to government offices. The primary beneficiaries of improved digitalized services are the citizens of the nation, though such increase in efficiency have far-reaching implications in ensuring good governance and maintaining the rule of law.

There is no alternative to large-scale digitization for sustaining the beneficial effects of the privatization revolution in higher education in the long run. Incidentally, the quality of education in private universities is often measured with the yardstick of having a permanent campus. As a common citizen, I believe that it is paramount to ensure adequately skilled teachers, international-standard laboratories, enriched libraries, updated and need-based curricula and an amiable learning environment for ensuring quality education. Surprisingly, some sections of the media squarely put the blame on universities' not having permanent campuses for substandard education services. I do not want to belittle the importance of proper academic buildings but physical structures cannot be only important factor in ensuring quality education.

In order to accelerate the higher education revolution in poor and middle-income countries, additional expenditure must be reduced in unproductive sectors. Academic buildings are essential for education but in the future, they might have to face similar fates as of the post offices of the twentieth century. Technology has to be brought forward to use the resources of private universities. We have often seen regular academic activities being hampered due to student protests, blockades and general unrest. As a result it becomes really difficult to complete courses on due time. At present, many teachers are guiding their students over the phone or through the internet so that students can complete their courses in time. Students are taking online exams which are even graded online, with instant access to feedback. All these initiatives are appreciable they demonstrate that education should not be confined to the four walls of the classroom.

The need for establishing libraries occupying thousands of square meters of space is gradually diminishing. Students can enjoy all the facilities of the library from home after digitalization of the system which provides 24/7 access to online libraries.

Mankind's quest for higher education has come a long way since the establishment of the University of Al Quaraoyyin in modern-day Morocco, said to be the world's very first university. In the context of the higher education revolution, it is not undue thinking that the priority placed on permanent campus regulations is a hindrance in the advancement of technological innovation required for today's institutions. Through distance education, flipped classrooms and online interactive content, education services need to adjust to changing times. The question of university buildings being rented or being owned should not be given more priority than more pressing issues, for example, the issue of environment friendliness through utilization of natural light, renewable energy et cetera.

The World Bank, in one of its recent reports, mentioned that the education sector in Bangladesh is developing, overcoming the constraint of poor management. We need to invest in research and development and produce skilled teachers in order to foster effective learning environments. Prioritizing physical infrastructure requirements and merely increasing the count of graduates should not be regarded as the primary focus. Ensuring the utilization of technology for building the minds of the nation's future generations is the optimal route to excellence in education.
New BD envoy to Indonesia calls on President



Newly appointed envoy of Bangladesh to Indonesia Major Gen Azmal Kabir made a courtesy call on President Abdul Hamid at Bangabhaban on Tuesday afternoon.

During the meeting, the President said there are excellent bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Indonesia. There are also scopes to expand trade and investment relations between the two friendly countries, he said and asked the envoy to take necessary steps to exploit those scopes for mutual benefits of the two countries.

The President's press secretary Joynal Abedin briefed reporters after the meeting.

President Hamid said Bangladesh produces world standard pharmaceuticals, ceramic and other products and advised the ambassador to put continued effort to create market for the products.

Azmal Kabir sought the President's cooperation in discharging his assignment in Indonesia.
Tolerance: The root of peace and harmony

Barrister Miti Sanjana :

The United Nations' (UN) International Day for Tolerance is observed globally on November 16 to create awareness amongst people about the significance of tolerance in the society. The International Day for Tolerance is a day symbolizing the need to learn about respecting and recognizing the rights and beliefs of others regardless of color, ethnicity, religion, heritage or even personal preferences. It is also a day to discuss about and take leanings on the negative effects and impacts that intolerance has created in our society. On International Day for Tolerance discussions and debates take place across the world, focusing on how human beings suffer various forms of injustice, oppression, racism and unfair discrimination on the basis of their religion or background due to intolerance. The day is celebrated by disseminating flyers, posters, news articles and broadcasts, and other promotional material to raise people's awareness about the importance of tolerance in our everyday life. Other activities include essays, dialogues and story-telling etc.

There are various kinds of human rights laws banning and punishing hate crimes and discrimination against minorities. But it is very important to organize special training programs, discussions, messages about the need of tolerance to strengthen moral and intellectual solidarity amongst people of different groups through education, dialogue among cultures, knowledge-sharing etc.

Every morning when we wake up and turn on the TV we are confronted with the news of communal hatred, terrorism, violence, war, disasters happening everywhere in the world. We live in a world with a wide diversity of people with different beliefs, cultures, religions, lifestyle, habits, thoughts and feelings. Tolerance is a virtue which is required to maintain a harmonious relationship with others while living in our society with families or alone or in workplace or anywhere. It is a pre-requisite to establish love, peace and joy within the family, society and world. Tolerance is a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, beliefs, practices, racial or ethnic origins, etc., differ from one's own. Without tolerance the human mind tends to become judgmental and selfish.

Recently in Bangladesh, some miscreants vandalized and looted Hindu temples in Brahmanbaria. They attacked and looted many houses of the Hindu community. Within few days of these attack, evictions of Santal people from their land took place in another area. The trends of growing hostility toward ethnic and religious minorities in the country are growing alarmingly.

What is tolerance? Tolerance is the opposite of intolerance. If you consult an English dictionary, it will tell you that tolerance means the capacity for or the practice of recognizing and respecting the beliefs or practices of others.

Tolerance is a highly valuable quality in social life. It is a fact that there are differences among people in various aspects of life. In such a situation, if people act according to their own mindset, it is bound to create intolerance that may lead to violence. Therefore, the best policy is what is called tolerance. Tolerance is the only way to establish peace in society. Adhering to the way of tolerance creates the kind of environment in which everyone finds room to carry out their constructive activities. Tolerance is an integral part of our culture. We have a long history of the culture of tolerance. Tolerance helps us to respect human dignity regardless of color, sex, religious beliefs, and political views and to accept our surroundings. Tolerance is not only the acknowledgement and respect of one's different opinions but also it means that acceptance of someone who is different from him or herself. Tolerance teaches us to respect fundamental human rights. Tolerance is a virtue and we all are familiar with that cliche. However, it is constant commitment to others who live with us within the society.

Tolerance has long been a concern for many of us, but it is becoming a bigger and bigger issue today. Tolerance is a necessity for individuals within a society to get along, especially when a variety of cultures and people with different color, ethnic group, religion, heritage, religious beliefs live in one community or nation.

It also teaches us to be more loving and compassionate. Tolerance does not mean that all individuals must agree with others views but tolerance involves allowing others to express their own views and practice their faith without interruption, harassment or discrimination, hatred, disrespect, discrimination and violence. We can be different in various ways but can respect each other and love one another despite our differences.



(The writer is an Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh and an activist.)
We can`t put dead bodies on sale

BUSINESS in human skeleton is horrifying but on the rise to suggest how far human beings can go to make ill-gotten fortune. What is totally dismaying is that not the thieves and burglars, a section of our physicians are engaging in the high value dirty trade. They are retaining bodies of dead people at hospitals and also luring criminals to dig out corpses out of graves and put them on sale through secret business network.



The New Nation on Sunday reported that such illegal business is booming across the country as demand of human skeleton for medical education and other purposes is on the rise. Syndicates are running the business and it is not that the law enforcers don't know about it.



Police recovered at least 38 human skulls and some bones from a flat in capital's Kafrul area on November 5 and arrested one. A physician was living in the flat and he confessed that his seniors are also involved in the racket. Earlier in June last year, 13 bodies were stolen from the city's Jurain graveyard and in May seven corpses were stolen from a graveyard in Ashulia. Thieves also removed 23 bodies from a Gazipur graveyard. As per estimate around four thousand pieces of human skeletons are needed for students of the country's medical and dental colleges where over eight thousand students get admission into government and private colleges each year. Besides over five thousand pieces of skeletons are smuggled into India mainly because of the fact that the Indians cremate the bodies and their collection is not possible.



Reports said a thief sell a human body at Tk 20,000 and it is sold again at around Tk 50,000 after decomposing the flesh and perishable organs. The syndicate members earn around Tk 30 crore annually from the inhuman trade.



We can't let criminal gangs to run the illegal and inhuman business defying the sanctity of the dead persons. Moreover involvement of physicians in the business is most repugnant and they must be critically dealt with. It is true that medical students need skeleton to study human anatomy. Medical Colleges collect abandoned bodies for the purpose. Many donate their body and one can also take permission from families for use of the human body for medical purpose.



But digging out bodies from graves is a criminal act of highest order and why the law enforcers are not destroying the network and putting them on trial is the big question. Many believe that some unholy nexus may be at work to run the trade. In our view graveyards must have their strict security system to protect the dead. No family will be at peace if it knows the body of its beloved ones is no more at his resting place. It is totally unacceptable to the nation.
70 killed in a month

In this photograph released by the Myanmar Armed Forces, soldiers view the crater from a landmine explosion on a bridge in Maung Nama Taung village of Maungdaw, located in Rakhine State near the Bangladesh border.

The Hindu :

The army hit out at Human Rights Watch's figures, accusing Rohingyas of arson.

Myanmar's security forces have killed almost 70 people since taking control of northern Rakhine state last month, the army said, adding that media reports of widespread destruction in the area were "false news."

Troops have poured into a strip of land along the border with Bangladesh, an area largely home to the Muslim Rohingya minority, since deadly raids on police border posts on October 9.

Clashes escalated over the weekend when troops killed more than 30 people in two days of fighting that saw the military use helicopter gunships for the first time.

A hunt for the attackers has seen a total of "69 Bengalis (Rohingya) killed and 234 arrested" between October 9 and November 14, according to a Facebook post by the army chief's office late Monday.

"Seven soldiers, including one commanding officer... and 10 police sacrificed their lives," it added.

Myanmar's army has tightly-controlled information about their operations

in the region and denies reports from activists that troops are killing civilians, raping women and torching homes.

Heavy restrictions on access to the area has made it difficult for foreign journalists and independent observers to verify the government reports or allegations of army abuse.

The army chief's office also hit out at figures from Human Rights Watch, which released satellite images they said showed more than 400 razed buildings in three Rohingya villages where clashes have taken place.

The army statement said only 227 buildings had been burnt down and accused Rohingya "terrorist arsonists" of setting fire to houses in a bid to discredit the military.

The statement, titled "Countering false news released by some news agencies in connection with area combing in Maungtaw area, Rakhine state," said army "officials are carrying out further scrutiny" of media reports.

The swell of violence in Rakhine has posed the biggest challenge so far to Aung San Suu Kyi's government and raised questions over her civilian administration's ability to control the army.

Rakhine has sizzled with religious tension since violence between the majority Buddhist population and the Muslim Rohingya left more than 100 dead and pushed more than 100,000 into squalid displacement camps in 2012. Ms. Suu Kyi has faced global censure from rights groups for failing to come out in strong defence of a minority that the U.N. has labelled as one of the world's most persecuted peoples.
Shipon finally freed after 17 yrs

UNB, Gazipur :

Shipon, who was imprisoned for 17 years in a murder case without any trial, has finally been released from jail.

He walked out of Kashimpur Central Jail on Tuesday following a High Court order, said jail super Proshanto Kumar Banik of Kashimpur Jail part-2.

Earlier on November 8, the HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice JBM Hassan granted bail to Shipon until the case is settled. The HC ordered the Dhaka Additional District Judge's Court for the settlement of the case within two months and

directed the Dhaka Legal Aid Office to take necessary steps for the submission of papers of his bail without any cost. The court asked the Dhaka district administration for providing support to the victim's rehabilitation, if needed.

In 1994, a man was killed in a clash between two groups at Sutrapur in the capital. Victim's relatives filed a case making Shipon the No 2 accused. Police arrested Shipon in 2000 and a court sent him to jail. He was

shifted to Kashimpur Jail on November 7 last year. Recently, an investigative report was aired in a private television channel in this regard. Later, Supreme Court lawyer Kumar Debol Dey sought the High Court's attention by submitting the report.
Winter knocking

Vegetables available: Gachhi cleaning date tree for juice: Farmers busy with harvesting paddy, celebrating Nabanna: People throng tourist spots

Staff Reporter :

Weather became colder as people have started feeling chill in the air in early morning hours and in the night, signalling the winter's arrival, says Met Office on Tuesday.

Though the day temperature continues to remain around 31 degree Celsius to 14 degree Celsius, night temperature has started falling slightly in the last two days.

After withdrawal of monsoon, winter chill is gradually setting in the country's different areas especially remote areas of northwestern regions making evening, night as well early morning less warm.

Bangladesh is a land of river and it has wonderful six seasons. The characteristics of four seasons are slowly disappearing from Bangladesh but summer and winter are getting more acute.

A north wind originating from the Himalayan regions has already started blowing over the country signaling cold weather and seasonal change.

"The day as well as night temperatures are expected to dip further as wind pattern sets northernly. However, the winter is expected to set in the last week of the current month (November) or first week of the next month (December)," Ruhul Kuddus, an expert of Met Office said yesterday.

According to the officials of Met Office, as the wind is blowing from the north in the last two days, the day as well as night temperatures will start dipping down from the last week of the current month, officials added.

Though it is early to predict, a normal winter with chilly nights and foggy mornings is expected this year, the experts said, adding there will be sunshine during the day along with spells of thick dense fog.

Meanwhile, people of country's northwestern regions have already started experiencing the winter morning with mist and cold.

Besides, there is light fog everywhere and dewdrops have also started falling on leaves and blades of grasses at night on the first day of the Bengali month Agrahayan (November 15).

As the month of Agrahayan (mid-October to mid-December) began on Tuesday the country's farmers are very busy with harvesting paddy and celebrate nabanna with the new rice crop.

When winter arrives it ushers in some changes in lifestyle and food habits of people in this part of the world.

In early morning, when mist envelops the surroundings, one can still notice amid poor visibility some people moving with several earthen pots hanging from two sides of a bar that they carry on their shoulder

Meanwhile, early winter vegetables have started arriving in city markets over the last few days.

Country's farmers are producing early winter vegetables like cauliflower, cabbage, radish, carrot, beet, turnip, tomato, leafy spinach, red spinach and receiving fair prices in the wholesale market, said Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) officials.

In winter, people love to travel in different places of the country due to the soothing weather between the month of October and February. There are almost no rains during this period.

Meanwhile, hotels and motels have prepared a rich choice of attractive winter packages for the tourists.

Besides, to cater to the popularity of the demand for pitha, especially during winter, a variety of pithas such as Bhapa, Puli, Narkel Puli, Chitoi, Dudh Chitoi, Patishapta are being prepared in the villages.

Villagers enjoy pithas with their loved ones every day as winter is a season of celebration in the country.

This celebration cannot be fulfilled without Pitha. Pitha occupies an important place in our culinary culture. For Bengalis, it has been a long tradition to make varieties of pitha, particularly during the winter.

Apart from these, many farmers are busy with sharp crescent shaped machetes for using to clean and peel off layers from the neck of date tree for extraction of juice.

There is a group of most important people called 'gachchi', who make the plants ready for oozing out juice. They are seen climbing to the top of the date- tree, clean it, peel off the upper layer, insert a half bamboo shoot and hang a pot beneath it for collection of juice.


Chargesheet against BCL leader accepted

UNB, Sylhet :

A court here on Tuesday accepted the chargsheet against Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) leader Badrul Alam in a case filed for trying to kill college girl Khadija Akhter.

Soraban Tahura, Additional Chief Magistrate of Sylhet court, accepted the chargesheet and handed the case over to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court. The court also fixed November 29 for the next hearing of the case, said Zedan Al Musa, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Sylhet Metropolitan Police.

Police submitted the charge-sheet against Badrul Alam on November 8. Earlier on October 5, Badrul Alam confessed to his crime before a Sylhet court. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Soraban Tahura recorded Badrul's statement under section 164. On October 3, Khadija, a 2nd year Degree student of Sylhet Govt Women' s College, was hacked by Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) unit BCL leader Badrul Alam on her way home from MC College following the refusal of his proposal for having an affair with him.

Hearing the victim's screams, other students rescued Khadija and caught Badrul from the spot and handed him over to police after giving him a good thrashing.
Trump pragmatic, not ideological, says Obama

AFP/ The Washington Times :

Trump will be driven by pragmatism, not ideology, as he governs, but he warned the Republican businessman's temperament could be an issue unless he shifts course once in office.

Mr. Obama, speaking at his first news conference since Election Day, said he has "concerns" about a Trump presidency, while expressing some hope that his successor may not unravel his legacy on health care, climate change and the agreement to restrain Iran's nuclear program.

"He is coming into this office with fewer set-hard-and-fast policy prescriptions than other presidents," Mr. Obama said. "I don't think he is ideological. I think ultimately he is pragmatic," Mr. Obama said. "And that can serve him well, as long as he's got good people around him."

Mr. Obama had several warnings for Mr. Trump, including suggesting he not undo some of his major foreign-policy achievements, such as the Iran nuclear deal and the international climate-change agreement.

Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks declined to comment.

Before the election, Mr. Obama had campaigned more for Democrat Hillary Clinton than any modern sitting president had for his party's nominee. He told Americans Mr. Trump would be a danger to the country if he were elected, saying he is "uniquely unqualified" for the presidency and couldn't be trusted with the U.S.'s nuclear weapons arsenal.

He also repeatedly promised world leaders that Mr. Trump wouldn't get elected.

The president's comments on Monday came before he left for the final foreign trip of his presidency. He has said since Tuesday's election that he would see Mr. Trump has a smooth transition, stressing that the presidency is "bigger than any one person."

Mr. Obama stressed that saying something "inaccurate or controversial" as a candidate is different than doing so as president, when rhetoric can move financial markets and affect life-or-death scenarios.

"There are going to be certain elements of his temperament that will not serve him well unless he recognizes them and corrects them," said Mr. Obama, who met with Mr. Trump for 90 minutes in the Oval Office last week. "I think he recognizes that this is different. And so do the American people."

Mr. Obama said he is open to changes to his health-care law. If Republicans repeal it and replace it with something that works better, he said, "I'll be the first one to say, 'that's great.' "

But on the international climate-change agreement and the Iran nuclear deal, he warned of global consequences if Mr. Trump backs out. Withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, he said, would elicit U.S. sanctions against European countries, Russia and China, which are part of the agreement.

"So it becomes more difficult to undo something that's working than undo something that isn't working," Mr. Obama said.

While overseas, Mr. Obama will visit Greece, Germany and Peru. At each stop he's expected to reassure U.S. allies of continuity in longtime American policies and alliances from his administration to Mr. Trump's.

"On a lot of issues, I think what you're going to see is, now comes the hard part," Mr. Obama said of Mr. Trump, "now comes governing."
Reliance trying to get 2 power plants contract sans tender

Anisul Islam Noor :

Reliance group, an India conglomerate, has been negotiating to sell around 200mw solar power to Bangladesh.

"We have received Reliance's proposal offering to sell electricity from its solar power plant at US cents 15 per unit or kilowatt-hour which is equivalent to Tk 12 per unit,' a power division official, adding that a decision would be taken after examining the matter.

Reliance has wanted the job under the Speedy Supply of Power and Energy (Special Provisions) Act 2010, overstepping the rule for awarding power generating projects without tender, sources said.

The official said that it would be possible if the proposal is approved by the concerned authorities.

The deal will be for 20 years, according to the proposal sent by Reliance Power's Senior Vice-President and head of business Sameer Kumar Gupta told the media early October.

Apart from the proposal, Reliance is now negotiating to set up and operate a 750MW gas-fired power plant and a floating terminal to supply 500 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from imported LNG under the speedy supply act.

Reliance in its proposal also requested for exemption of all sorts of taxes and duties applicable for business in Bangladesh.

The Power Development Board will lease out 1,000 acres of developed land to Reliance under a long-term agreement at a low rent. The location should be in the proximity to any load centre like Dhaka or Chittagong, according to the proposal.

The government will require providing additional land to be used to install any temporary establishment, connecting roads and power evacuation facilities.

State-run Power Grid Company of Bangladesh will develop power evacuation system, including installation of transmission lines to feed the electricity to the national grid from the plant, the proposal said.

Reliance in its proposal demanded free supply of 170 cubic metres of water every day and that would be required during construction period.

The government will have to provide guarantee to facilitate Reliance to have easy access to loans in the international market.

The Reliance proposal also kept an open window to get support from the government of Bangladesh as it said, 'Any other support that has not been specified hereinabove but that would be required for successful implementation, financing and operation of the project shall be provided by the government of Bangladesh.'

The government has also been requested to provide all necessary approvals prior to the beginning of the project implementation.
Our job is to oppose Trump`s bigotry vigorously

The Guardian :

Bernie Sanders has urged millions of progressives "to mobilise and fight back at every instance" against Donald Trump's presidency.

In a post-election interview with the BBC, the Vermont senator backed those who have protested against Trump's election.

"Our job is to oppose him vigorously through millions of people in many many different ways," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "I am very worried that a President Trump may take us back to where we were before, and we in the progressive community are not going to allow that to happen. We have travelled too far to descend back into racism and sexism."

Protests against Trump have taken place in cities across the US following the election. The demonstrations have so far been largely peaceful, but there have been dozens of arrests. A man was wounded in Portland, Oregon, on Friday as he joined a march across the city's Morrison Bridge. The following night, 17 demonstrators were arrested in Oregon. More than 10,000 protesters marched to Trump Tower in New York on Saturday.

Sanders called on more people to take to the streets if Trump tries to implement his campaign rhetoric. "We have got to rally millions of people to stand together, to say, 'We are not going to be deporting millions of Latinos from this country. We are not going to allow women to be insulted and attacked and have their rights taken away from them.'" Sanders, who defied expectations by running a close race against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, was also scathing in his criticism of the Democratic party's attempt to ally itself with big money. He said the party's unwillingness to challenge the financial establishment was one of the reasons that Trump won.

"Over the years the Democratic party has become a party more concerned about raising money from wealthy individuals than they have been about bringing working people into the party and taking on the billionaire class, taking on Wall Street, taking on the drug companies or the insurance companies. The Democratic party has not been strong in standing up for the needs of working families. I think people are saying, 'Well, the Democrats haven't done it for us, let me try this guy Trump.'"

As the Democratic party evaluates what went wrong in the election, Sanders said he was leading attempts to radicalise its leadership. "I am working right now to find and support new leadership for the Democratic party and an entirely new process by which we welcome working people and young people into that party," he said.

Sanders said he was willing to work with Trump if he was serious about honouring campaign pledges about improving the economy for working people. But he added: "We are going to oppose him vigorously in terms of his bigotry. "The only way that we can stop it is to bring millions of people together to make it clear to Trump and his allies that they will pay a very, very heavy political price if they go forward in policies that the American people don't want. "The progressive agenda about raising the minimum wage, pay equity for women, healthcare for all, making public colleges and universities tuition-free, that is an agenda that is supported by the vast majority of the American people." Sanders conceded that Trump won by appealing to "a lot of angst and anxiety and unhappiness in America in terms of what's happening to working families".

Asked if he could have beaten Trump, Sanders said it was impossible to tell. "There are polls out that suggest that, but the answer is you don't know. I would love to have had the opportunity. But remember, Hillary Clinton ended up in the election with more votes than Donald Trump. Could I have done better? Maybe. Maybe not."

He added: "He goes into the White House as the least popular presidential candidate in American history. His unfavourable ratings were off the charts. I know beyond any doubt that many millions of people voted for him, despite their dislike of much of what he had to say about minorities, or women, or many other issues. The reason that he won is that he's a very good performer, he is a professional television performer. He knows his audience pretty well."

Sanders ended the interview with this rallying cry: "Trump's agenda is a minority agenda, not supported by most people. Our job is to mobilise and educate and to fight back at every instance."

 comes action. When US policy on climate change, race and immigration, reproductive rights, gun control, surveillance and LGBT rights all hang in the balance, journalism rooted in progressive values has never been more important. Now is the time to fund our fearless reporting and diverse voices, to help us hold President-elect Donald Trump and his administration to account. The Guardian's independent, investigative journalism is expensive and difficult to produce. But we do it because we believe our perspective matters.

Fund our journalism and together we can keep the world informed.
Main accused recaptured, remanded

Staff Reporter :

Police on Tuesday recaptured Rafsan Hossain Rubel, the prime accused in a case filed for gang-raping a Garo woman, from the city's Badda area.

Earlier on Saturday when sub-inspector Imran and constable Dipak Chandra of Badda Police Station took Rubel, son of Mafij Uddin Miah, to Dhaka court for recording his confessional statement, he managed a good escape from their custody on that day.

"A special squad of detective branch (DB) of police recaptured Rubel from in front of Suvastu Tower at Uttar Badda in the city on Tuesday morning, three days after his escape from the police custody," SM Mostaq Ahmed, Deputy Commissioner of Gulshan Division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) told journalists yesterday.

He added the detective police rearrested him while trying to board a Tongi bound passenger bus at about 9:30 am.

Meanwhile, a Dhaka court placed Rubel on a six-day remand.

Metropolitan Magistrate Sabbir Yeasir Ahsan Chowdhury passed the order when the officer-in-charge of Badda Police Station, also the investigation officer of the case, produced him before the court with a 10-day remand prayer.

On November 11 members of elite force Rapid Action Battalion arrested Rubel, from the Airport Railway Station area of the capital and later handed over him to Badda Police on the next day. The police official said after fleeing from the court, Rubel stayed at a mosque near court until nightfall as police, who were already on alert throughout the Old Dhaka court premises and adjacent areas along with Dhaka city, were searching frantically for him.

Rubel also offered prayers and thanked the Allah first as he managed a good escape from police custody inside the courtroom.

In order to hide the handcuffs Rubel wrapped a bandage so that people would think he received wounds.

He spoke to nobody and walked out the court premises silently. Next, he realised he needed money.

He later phoned one of his relatives and received Tk 1,000 through bKash transfer. Nobody in the mosque doubted about him as his arm seemed broken and bandaged, according to the DC. He came out of the mosque after dusk and had a cup of tea and a cigarette. Moving on, he first went to Gulistan via bus and later to Badda. He did not make contact with any of his friends.

Alone and hungry, Rubel went to a nearby playground in Badda on Sunday night. Following the day, nothing was different for Rubel as he could not get his cuffs off and police were looking for him everywhere. He thought he had to leave Dhaka.

After having breakfast with a piece of cake and a soft drink, Rubel started heading towards Tongi.

Police, however, were aware of his habits and received information that he was in the Badda area. Throughout the night, uniform and plainclothes were looking for him.

Tuesday morning, Rubel was still undecided as to how to get the cuffs off his hand. But again, he changed his mind and tried to escape from the area.

The Garo woman, a resident of Khilkhet area in the capital who used to work at a beauty parlour, was gang-raped on October 25 last by four youths while returning home from her workplace.

Later, she filed a complaint with the police station on October 28.Airport

According to the case statement, the victim was raped in Badda on October 25 while visiting her betrothed, one Ripon Mrong, at a mess in Misritola located in North Badda.

The manager of the mess asked Ripon to leave the mess since he had violated rules by bringing a woman there.

A mess resident Salauddin, intimidated the couple with local goons - Rubel, Rony, Sumon, Nazmul and some others who were called to come over.

Rubel, Salauddin and Al Amin tried to rape the girl in a nearby rickshaw garage but as it was full of people they dragged her to an abandoned house near the garage and raped her there instead.

Badda Police SI Imranul Haque and constable Dipok have been suspended for the negligence of duty over the incident.
Students want removal of Minister Sayedul

Students blocked Shahbagh inter-section again on Tuesday protesting frequent attacks on people of Hindu communities at Nasirnagar and demanded removal of Minister Sayedul Haque immediately.

Staff Reporter :

The students of Dhaka University's Jagannath Hall on Tuesday again blocked Shahbagh intersection and demanded removal of Minister Sayedul Hoque for his derogatory speech centering an attack at Nasirnagar in Brahmanbaria district.

The protesters at the same time demanded reconstruction of the damaged houses and temples of the Hindu community at Nasirnagar by the government, and warned of tougher movement in case of negative response by November 30. They started their demonstration under the banner of 'General Students of Dhaka University' at about 11:30am.

The traffic movement was seriously halted in view of a barricade on the busy road.

Later, the leaders and the activities of different leftwing student bodies, including Samajtantrik Chhatra Front, Chhatra Federation and Chhatra Union, took part in the protest.

Besides, the leaders and the activists of different organisations of minority communities, including Minority Rights Movement and Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Adibashi Party, joined the blockade programme.

Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor Professor AMS Arefin Siddique, Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) President Saifur Rahman and its General Secretary SM Zakir Hossain visited the spot.

The demonstrators finally withdrew the blockade around 1pm getting the assurance from the DU VC that he would arrange a discussion with Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader about their demands.

Advocate Rana Dasgupta, who expressed solidarity with the blockaders, called upon the government to ensure the security of the minorities across the country.

Co-Coordinator of the movement Manik Rakkhit told The New Nation that they would also organise a long march towards Nasirnagar from Shahbagh on November 18 to press for the same demands.

Last Friday, the students blocked Shahbagh intersection for nine hours in demand of resignation of Minister Sayedul, and then withdrew giving a three-day ultimatum to the government. Zealots, in a hate attack, went on rampage on Hindus in Brahmanbaria's Nasirnagar on October 30 and vandalised at least five temples and ransacking about hundred houses over a "Facebook post".

Later, several other attacks were carried out periodically where houses of the Hindu community were set fire to. The latest incident of such arson was the day before yesterday.

While the purpose of the attack was to drive Hindus from their land, blames have been put on two Islamist outfits which rallied in Nasirnagar moments before the attack on October 30.

In the latest development, police administration has announced Tk 1 lakh bounty on the arsonists who are "secretly setting homes of the minority community on fire".

Minister Sayedul Hoque, MP from Brahmanbaria's Nasirnagar, is currently in the oven for his comments over the attack. He said the attack was "nothing serious".
$15m BB retrieved fund deposited to NY Fed account

Special Correspondent :

The retrieved $15.25 million, part of $81 million stolen from Bangladesh Bank's (BB) account with the New York Federal Reserve Bank, was deposited to the same account on Monday and Tuesday.

BB officials deposited the fund which the Philippines authorities handed over to them in Manila on Friday.

The two-member BB team travelled to Manila on November 7 to complete the process to get back the fund from the Philippines authorities and deposit it to the BB account with New York Fed.

BB retrieved the fund after 10 months of the high-profile cyber heist in which cyber criminals attempted to launder nearly $1 billion from its reserve account with the New York Federal Reserve Bank in February 5 but succeeded to launder $101 million using SWIFT financial messaging system.

Some $20 million went to Sri Lanka, where it was blocked by authorities. The rest of $81 million entered into four fictitious accounts at the RCBC Bank in Manila.

Confirming the matter, Debaprosad Debnath, General Manager of Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), told The New Nation on Tuesday that the fund was deposited to BB's account with the New York Federal Reserve Bank in two phases.

"In the first phase, we deposited 488.28 million pesos ($10.05 million) on Monday and in the second phase, we deposited $4.63 million on Tuesday to the BB's reserve account with the New York Federal Reserve Bank," he added.

Casino junket Kim Wong returned $4.63 million and 488.28 million pesos ($10.05 million) to Philippines authorities from the millions of dollars he took from two Chinese high-rollers. The money later forfeited by the Philippine government.

Wong, however, denied any role in one of the world's biggest cyber heists.

Earlier, the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Manila ordered the release of $15.25 million to Bangladesh central bank declaring Bangladesh as the rightful owner of the heist money.

Following the order, Bangladesh's central bank filed an execution suit with a Philippine court to get the money bank in its account. The case was also settled and the order issued in favour of Bangladesh.
Ivy again excluded from AL list of favourites

Our Correspondent :

The political scenario in Narayanganj is going to be tense again centering the upcoming Narayanganj City Corporation (NCC) polls to be held on December 22.

The Narayanganj city unit Awami League (AL) on Tuesday at an extended meeting prepared a list for favourite mayor candidates, excluding the outgoing mayor Selina Hyat Ivy.

"Such a decision could lead to a possible intra-party conflict, heating up Narayanganj's political situation again. This could also lead to deadly cashes between the supporters of Shamim Osman and Selina Hayat Ivy," party sources said. Ivy was also excluded from the AL list during the last city corporation polls. But she contested as an independent candidate and won. The party embraced her back into the party although it had earlier announced to oust the rebel candidates.

Narayanganj district AL, at the meeting, proposed three names for the post of mayor. They are Anwar Hossain, Awami League district unit president, Mojibur Rahman, president of Siddhirganj upazila unit of Awami League, and MA Rashid, Bandar upazila unit president of the ruling party. The meeting was held at Narayanganj Circuit House on Tuesday afternoon, presided over by Chandon Shil, Acting President of Narayanganj city unit AL.

"The names of three AL leaders have been proposed as mayor candidates for the upcoming Narayanganj City Corporation polls following a direction of AL central committee," Chandon Shil told The New Nation on Tuesday night.

He said: "We did not include the name of Selina Hayat Ivy in the list, as nobody, present at the meeting proposed her name as a candidate." Ivy could not be reached for her comments despite several attempts over her cell phone. Her phone was found switched off. The maiden election to the NCC was held on October 30, 2011 when Selina Hayat Ivy won the race, defeating ruling AL-backed candidate Shamim Osman.

Ivy, a popular figure in Narayanganj politics and Vice-President of Narayanganj city unit AL, had already gained confidence of local people as well as the party's high-ups because of her contribution to development of the city.

The doctor turned politician had been upgraded as Deputy Minister as per a government order.
Minister echoes Secy`s statement

Vested quarter involved behind Nasirnagar attack: Cabinet Committee

Staff Reporter :

The Cabinet Committee on law and order in its meeting on Tuesday expressed grave concern over two recent attacks on the Hindu and Santal minorities in Brahmanbaria and Gaibandha.

The meeting, presided over by Industries Minister Amir Hossain, Amu, asked the law enforcement agencies to remain alert to tackle such untoward incidents in the future.

"Government doubts about the possible involvement of a vested quarter behind the recent attack on minority members at Nasirnagar in Brahmanbaria district," Amu said after the meeting held in the conference room of the Home Ministry.

He added: "At present, the media are running some isolated incidents [of attack on minorities] But we want to say, all of us are the sons of this soil. We'll see country's interest first."

When asked about the identity of the vested quarter, the Minister said: "We'll expose their identities after a thorough investigation. About 84 persons have so far been arrested in connection with the Nasirnagar attack."

Answering another query about the submission of probe report over Nasirnagar attack, Amu further said: "The probe report is yet to be submitted. What the media are running about submission of the report is not true." The meeting was attended, among others, by Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, LGRD Minister Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain, Home Minister Asaduzzamn Khan Kamal, State Minister for Labour and Employment Mujibul Haque Chunnu, Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Haque, Senior Secretary of Home Ministry Khandaker Mozammel Haque Khan and DG of RAB Benzir Ahmed.

About the probe report on Nasirnagar attack, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed also said: "So far as we know, the investigation report has not submitted yet. I have read in the newspaper that the report was submitted, but the IGP told us that it was not true."

Taking a question from the reporters, Tofail Ahmed further said: "One Zahangir of Islami Chhatra Shibir had uploaded the distorted photograph in the name of Rasraj. The law enforcers are trying to nab Zahangir."

It is to be noted that, the government had formed a four-member probe committee headed by Additional DIG Md Sakhawat Hossain to conduct investigation into the attack on Hindu people at Nasirnagar.

A section of media ran reports that the probe report was submitted to the police headquarters on Monday. The media also said that the incident was instigated due to internal conflict of local political leaders, including BNP. Rejecting the probe report, the BNP in its instant reaction said that the report was prepared with an intention to save ruling party leaders, who were behind the attack.

Meanwhile, the Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu echoed the same what Industries Secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan had said two days ago about the Santal minority community in Gaibandha.

"The land grabbers had tried to grab the land in Gobindaganj by exploiting the Santals, though the Santal community actually is not owner of the land that claimed by the sugar mill authorities," Amu said.

Earlier on Monday, Industries Secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said: "The government agencies are trying to find out the vested quarter that instigated violent clashes with a view to illegally occupying lands belong to two sugarcane farms of Rangpur Sugar Mills Limited in Gaibandha." The Industries Secretary also claimed that law-enforcing agencies were not responsible for the deaths of Santal community in clashes with workers of the sugar mill at Gobindaganj in Gaibandha.
Chairman must start with corruption within Commission

It is generally known that Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission himself is honest. But that is no assurance of his competence to fight corruption of big or small fishes if he cannot show his courage and competence to keep his officials above corruption. Bengalis are known for talking big only to prove an underachiever.



The corrupt officials are working overtime to harass small and helpless ones by showing them falsely involved in petty corruption cases. The corrupt officials are easily exploiting weak people by denying bail. So punishment begins with their filing an FIR.



The courts take strong view against corruption and are very hard on granting bail. So it is easier for the corrupt officials to blackmail the small fishes for bribe. Let the Chairman examine the files of corruption cases against others to know how baselessly many such cases have been commenced. He will find how blatantly some of his officials are abusing their power.



Now they have also the power to arrest, thus they can now abuse the power of arrest also. verybody wants more power to make the people more helpless.



The Chairman must have read a recent news in the newspapers how Land Ministry officials were vandalised by officers from the ACC for implicating them in false cases.



The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is reportedly using various traps to arrest dishonest government officials in a bid to curbing corruption in government offices. A senior ACC official has been quoted in a report published by The New Nation on Monday saying that they are also keeping vigilance on big fishes to gather information and fight back corruption. The teams are at work, he said to trap them while taking bribe from people to give them services that they are mandated to give free of cost.



The Chairman knows that big corruptions are not transacted across the table. May we suggest humbly that let him start with Ministers for investigation into corruption but he will not be able to do it. It is no fight against corruption if politically powerful ones remain above and when Anti-Corruption officers are happy chasing and harassing small fishes.



Bangladesh is swept by corruption in all government offices while politically linked big corruption involving powerful people within and outside the government are remaining untouched. So big talks have to be backed by big achievements.



In countries serious about ending corruption the fight against corrupt people starts with the Presidents and Prime Ministers even when there is no allegation of taking bribe directly. In South Korea the President is facing a corruption allegation for the conduct of her close confidant.



We also want to see ACC engaged in finding the budget manipulation of big projects.



The agency's recent performance included arrest of three land officers in Tangail, Narsingdi and Narayanganj and an officer of Roads and Highways in Dhaka while accepting bribe as the report quoted its Deputy Director (Public Relations) Pranab Bhattachariya said.



Another land officer was arrested on Thursday from Rupganj in the Narayanganj district showing he was receiving Tk 25,000 as bribe from a client. There is a strong speculation that the money was planted by the officials themselves.



The Chairman will also find that forgery and corruption cases are being filed against land developers for falsely obtaining construction plan but RAJUK officials are not shown as accomplices.



Our justice system is found more political in following the political agenda of the government when it should be more concerned to resist abuse of power.



Recent media report said ACC officials are sending three letters on an average in a day to real estate offices asking names and address of buyers of flats and land. We want the Chairman to clean his office to earn confidence of the people to the effect that ACC is not another engine of oppression.



A recent TIB report confirmed many ACC officers are misusing power to make illegal fortune.



The people are seething in anger and this will have consequences.


The big challenge in the U.S. Senate runoff for Treasurer John Kennedy and Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell will be grabbing the attention of the same voters who were already less than enthusiastic about this race during the primary.

For Campbell, however, there are other obstacles. Last Tuesdays election saw 578,000 votes cast for Campbell and Caroline Fayard, the leading Democrats.

Kennedys own vote share alone was 482,000 votes. When combined with the three leading Republican candidates, including Congressmen Charles Boustany and John Fleming, that GOP share jumps up to 984,000 votes.

The Campbell campaign will have to find a way to overcome that numerical hurdle and expand upon its core Democratic vote.

When and where the two men might debate is another question. They will have at least three choices for televised forums, with WDSU-TV in New Orleans hosting a debate on Nov. 29, Louisiana Public Broadcasting sponsoring its statewide forum on Dec. 1 and WVLA-TV in Baton Rouge hoping to put on its own show on Dec. 2.

National Republicans are eager to seal the deal in Louisiana and regional offices are already being set up to make the final push for Kennedy.

There will be 10 satellite GOP offices statewide for the race, which should also benefit the two Republican runoff candidates who are in congressional races in the Acadiana and Shreveport regions.

Campbells most important ally in the primary was undoubtedly Gov. John Bel Edwards, who is receiving a lot of the credit for Campbell reaching the second round. Edwards also played a key role in Campbells fundraising operation.

Itll be interesting to see just how much more political capital Edwards will be willing to expend on Campbells behalf with oddsmakers heavily favoring Kennedy. A campaign spokesperson said late last week that the governor is continuing to help and is replying to all requests.

Edwards, overall, has endorsed three candidates during this election cycle and so far only one has been handed a defeat.

Mary Werner, the daughter of one-time Democratic Party chair Buddy Leach, lost her bid for the Public Service Commission despite Edwards support and a last-minute cash infusion from her family. Former GOP chair Mike Francis beat her and another opponent with 54 percent of the vote, avoiding the need for a runoff.

The governor has likewise endorsed fellow Democrat Marshall Jones in the 4th Congressional District, where state Rep. Mike Johnson benefitted from independent expenditures made by D.C.-based conservative organizations.

With the field now cleared, the Republican infrastructure is getting fully behind Johnson as Jones has to run a campaign in earnest after getting a pass as the lone Democrat in the primary.
Sean Holloway cant get the eight months back. Thats the amount of time the Supreme Court of Louisiana has ruled he spent in jail over and above what he should have for a 2015 vehicular homicide plea and conviction.

Photo courtesy LPCC

Holloways case is a study in the slow-grinding wheels of justice. Nineteen years old in 2007 when involved as the driver in an accident that killed a friend, Holloway had a blood alcohol level of .051  below the legal adult limit but above the limit for underage drivers. He pleaded guilty to the charge in 2014, more than six years after the crash, following numerous continuances, delays and, at one point, the case being dropped by then-District Attorney Mike Harsons office.

However, in 2012, between the time of the crash that killed his friend, Shawn Lancon, and his guilty plea, state law was changed as it pertains to applying crime of violence to criminal offenses. Drunk driving was one of them.

Holloway was sentenced on May 20, 2014, to four years imprisonment at hard labor, three of which were to be served without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. Holloway was further sentenced to an additional year of home incarceration. And off he went to prison.

Eight months later, Shawn Lancons mother got a notification that Holloway was set to be released from prison for good behavior. She was incensed and urged prosecutors to intervene. They did, asking District Judge Marilyn Castle in Lafayette to amend the sentence to a crime of violence, which requires the defendant serve at least 85 percent of the sentence. In February 2015, in a case that was widely reported by local media, Castle did just that. Holloway remained behind bars as his attorneys appealed. The case bounced up to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal and back, finally landing at the Louisiana Supreme Court. By the time SCOLAS justices got their hands on the case, Holloway had served the time Castle re-sentenced him to and was free.

On Oct. 19, SCOLA released its opinion: ...we find that Art. 890.1, effective May 17, 2012, applies by its plain language upon conviction, in sentencing the offender and therefore that version of the article, rather than the former article pertaining to designation of crimes of violence, applied when Holloway was convicted and sentenced in 2014. Therefore, the ultimate judgment of the court of appeal, which vacated the district courts January 29, 2015 designation of Holloways conviction as a crime of violence, is affirmed.

In a footnote to the ruling, the states high court further defined its reasoning: We note that the district court did not, at the time of sentencing, find that the offense committed by Holloway constituted a crime of violence. The district court imposed a sentence within the range provided in the penalty provision.

The state did not object to or appeal the sentence and did not seek to appeal it. There is no mechanism provided in the Code of Criminal Procedure by which the state can, more than eight months after a sentence that is legal in all respects is imposed and made executory, return to the district court to seek what is essentially a modification of the sentence.

Lafayette attorneys Barry Sallinger and Allyson Prejean, who represented Holloway, say the case is the first of its kind in Louisiana dealing with reconsideration of a sentence after its already been imposed. Unfortunately, the high courts decision came too late for Sean Holloway.

The only thing that could be hoped for is that sentencing judges in the future would be adherent to the rules of criminal procedure and not allow prosecutors to try to improperly punish one by seeking to impose an illegal sentence, Sallinger tells ABiz.

We reached out to the Holloway family for comment for this story but got no response.

Sallinger says Holloway has little legal recourse in terms of civil action against the D.A.s office or judge. The latter is protected broadly by judicial immunity.

However, there are U.S. Supreme Court and federal appellate and district court cases which stand for the proposition that judicial immunity is lost when a judge lacks jurisdiction, Sallinger notes. Under the circumstances, one could argue here that the trial court had no jurisdiction since the time for actions capable of being employed by the court lapsed many months prior to the filing of the motion by the state.

In order to successfully press a civil action against the prosecution, Sallinger says, Holloway would have to prove malice  not such a tall order, says Sallinger:

The issue here would be whether it could be proven that the prosecution had filed its motion and perpetuated its two appeals with enmity as motivation. That is not so difficult a bridge to cross.

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One of the most popular features at the OM Expo at LITE in early November was the BMW test drive  a 360-degree virtual reality test drive powered by TANTRUM Lab, one of two businesses under the TANTRUM brand started by Scotland native and Lafayette transplant, Elliot Green. TANTRUM Exp focuses on creating memorable, brand-focused, consumer lifestyle events. TANTRUM Lab is a new venture specifically focused on creating virtual reality systems for technical training, consumer experiences and health care provider applications. I sat down with Green after the OM Expo to get to know him better.

Moving to Lafayette from New York City is quite a change. What has been the best aspect of growing your business in Lafayette?

The best thing Ive experienced is the people and the business support networks. In New York, I went to a small business bureau for advice and the only help I received was build a website  not exactly ground-breaking stuff. In Lafayette, the support available in the community is outstanding. Ive met local business groups who have helped develop our physical offices and groups that have helped our staff with practical training, local meet-ups and even financial aid specifically for technology-related business. Overall, its the people of Louisiana and Acadiana that have made the biggest difference with an open, progressive mindset relating to new business and how to help it grow and succeed.

Tell us about a time when you had to push through a tough moment or decision.

The hardest decisions for me are the ones that require a certain amount of blind faith because the right decision isnt clear at the time. Starting TANTRUM Lab was a leap of faith for me. I knew there was a market, I knew the product, and I knew Lafayette had the talent. I just needed to resolve my own mind to accept, focus and move forward without hesitation, without looking back.

Tell us about a time you fell short of a major goal and how you use the lessons from it to better your business today.

I used to be an avid snowboarder and was fortunate to teach and compete internationally. The single consistent part to any day on the hill was a requirement to commit 100 percent to that single thing you were doing right then. Big jump  commit. Cliff jump  commit. Teaching a class  commit. Whenever you felt any selfdoubt, any distraction, you would hurt yourself or endanger others. Its a mind-set. See, imagine and commit. You have to commit 100 percent and go for it. Its amazing what the lack of a safety net will do for you.

What aspect of business excites you most as an entrepreneur?

Being a business owner is equally exciting as it is terrifying. I find great satisfaction in the creative freedom Im allowed as an entrepreneur. Some of our ideas for projects arent always the safe and easy ones. In this market, especially as it relates to technology, the bigger the risk the greater the reward. We try to push the envelope every day.

**What do you see as the future of TANTRUM?

**

I think going forward our event business will decrease, and well need to think about how we can stay in clients minds and still be competitive on cost, while not being physically located in New York City. TANTRUM Lab is going to see massive growth in 2017. With technology, we have the ability to do away with the perceived need for physical proximity to a client and create truly groundbreaking pieces of work for national clients. Were already working with national brands and global agencies to create exciting work on each coast.

For companies or individuals interested in learning more about you or TANTRUM, what is the best way to connect?

Have a look at our websites (www.tantrumlab.com and www.tantrumexp.com) and if you want to know more, just give me a call. Im always open to hearing what people think or talk about what were doing. The more people who know what TANTRUM is up to the farther we will go.

Zachary Barker is executive director of the Opportunity Machine, a LEDA-backed initiative that focuses on cultivating Lafayettes entrepreneurial and technology based industries.

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Attorney Briana L. Drescher has joined Preis PLCs Lafayette office. Drescher obtained her juris doctorate degree, magna cum laude, and two bachelor of arts degrees from LSU in 2016 and 2013, respectively. She was elected to the Order of the Coif and was a member of Louisiana Law Review. Her main areas of practice include automobile liability, civil rights, first party property and bad faith liability, general casualty, insurance coverage, law enforcement professional liability, products liability, property damage and redhibition. Preis PLC is a regional defense law firm representing both domestic and international clients with offices in Lafayette, New Orleans and Houston.

The Family Tree, a Lafayette nonprofit that provides education and counseling resources, has named Marie Collins as its new executive director. Collins goes to The Family Tree from the Lafayette Parish Sheriffs Office, where for a decade she oversaw mental health, substance abuse and other services. She holds a masters degree in community counseling from LSU, and is a licensed professional counselor, licensed marriage and family therapist, and a licensed addictions counselor.

Collins will oversee all aspects of TFTs services and education. The nonprofit has also reestablished under Collins guidance its counseling program, which was suspended several months ago.

Kathryn Fenstermaker has been hired as business development consultant at C.H. Fenstermaker & Associates and is working to promote the companys new GIS-based software, MapAnalyst. The software has already impacted assessors of Acadia, Lafayette, and West Baton Rouge parishes, the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury, both the city and Port of Lake Charles, St. Landry Parish Government, the Lafayette Police Department and the Acadiana Economic Development Council. Fenstermaker received a bachelor of arts in French from Millsaps College and a teaching certification from UL Lafayette. She taught French in the Lafayette Parish Public School System. She is a member of the705: Young Leaders for A Better Acadiana. Also at the company, John D. Foret, Ph.D., has joined as environmental operations leader. Foret has decades of experience in the coastal regions of Louisiana, most recently as a research fisheries biologist for the Department of Conservation, National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and National Marine Fisheries Service. He served as research fisheries biologist with DOC/ NOAA/NMFS Galveston Laboratory from 1998 to 2016 and was team leader within the Fishery Ecology Branch in Lafayette. He coordinated all activities associated with the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act relating to coastal fisheries habitat restoration for the NMFS in southwest Louisiana.

Stokes & Spiehler, a petroleum engineering and consulting firm in the oil and gas industry, has named Blair LeBlanc VP  offshore operations; Russ Bellard VP  onshore operations; Tony Shell VP  sales and marketing; and Donnie Busscher engineering manager. A registered professional engineer who has worked for the firm since 2003, LeBlanc graduated from UL Lafayette with a bachelors degree in petroleum engineering; he previously worked with Unocal, Sperry Drilling Services, Transocean and Ocean Energy. Also a registered professional engineer who has worked for the firm since 2001, Bellard is experienced in supervising drilling, completion and workover field operations on wells, as well as detailed project design, procedure writing, cost estimate preparation and regulatory compliance. He earned a bachelors degree in civil engineering and petroleum engineering from UL and previously worked with Halliburton. A senior account manager in Houston with more than 20 years of oil and gas experience, Shell will work with individual sales team members to ensure responsiveness to clients needs. Additionally, as Stokes & Spiehler moves into new oil and gas markets, he will guide these efforts to market more than 250 consultants specializing in drilling, completions, workover and concentric operations.

He previously worked in retail management and earned a degree in organizational behavioral management from the University of Houston. Busscher worked as an in-house engineer and wellsite consultant for land and offshore operations before joining the Stokes & Spiehler team after earning a bachelors degree in petroleum engineering from UL in 2005. In his new role, Busscher will oversee daily engineering operations.

Kenneth Comeaux has been named to the Billeaud Companies board of directors. Comeaux, who works at Petroleum Helicopters Inc., replaces Clare Billeaud on the family-owned development businesses operating board. Clare is resigning from the board due to relocating out of state. Over the last 20 years at PHI, Comeaux has held the positions of senior business systems analyst, manager of business system projects and, for the past four years, operations financial manager. He holds a B.S. degree in electrical engineering and an MBA from UL Lafayette.

Aimee Lejeune and Peter Barrilleaux have joined Victory Addiction Recovery Center as counselors. A New Roads native who has lived in Lafayette since 2000, Lejeune has 23 years of experience in mental health. She has worked with clients of all ages providing case management services in a medical setting, therapy in a psychiatric hospital, and individual counseling in a private practice. She brings a specialty of helping those who struggle with mental health and drugs and alcohol. She has a bachelors degree in psychology from Louisiana Tech University and an MSW from LSU. Barrilleaux has worked with people battling addiction for over 10 years. He attended USL and completed training with the Louisiana Association of Substance Abuse Counselors and Trainers. Barrilleaux has worked at residential treatment centers as well as long-term care facilities in the state. Originally from Larose, Barrilleaux will focus on working with clients in Victorys Intensive Outpatient Program.

Broussard Poche, LLP, certified public accounting firm with several offices throughout Acadiana, has promoted three team members. Carlinna Bertrand was promoted to partner from director of audit services after 13 years with the firm. Erin Melancon, who has been with the firm for over 15 years, is now director of audit services after serving as audit manager. Jessica Naquin was promoted from senior accountant to tax manager after six years with the firm.

Minh Weldon has joined Postlethwaite & Netterville as a consulting manager in the firms Lafayette area office. Weldon has 12 years of diversified business and leadership experience in the energy industry focused on IT application support, business analyst support, and IT risk and security support. In her new role as a consulting manager, she plans and manages all phases of client engagements with a focus on business consulting and advisory. In other news, Postlethwaite & Netterville was named one of the top 100 accounting firms in the U.S. by Accounting Today magazine. With more than $57 million in net revenue, P&N was ranked the 65th largest firm in the U.S. P&N is the only Louisiana-based firm to make the list this year again.

Erik J. Billet has joined Home Bank as internal audit director. Billet brings extensive accounting and auditing experience to his role at Home Bank. He most recently served as director of operational accounting at Ecoserv in Lafayette and before that was manager of assurance services at Ernst & Young. Billet is a graduate of UL Lafayette with bachelors degrees in both accounting and finance, and he is a CPA. He serves as a board member of the Accounting Department Advisory Committee at UL.

Sam Kelly, who has eight years of marketing experience, has joined Russo as brand manager. She started her career working as an account executive for Acadian Broadcasting and Citadel Broadcasting before going on to serve as director of marketing for Unitech Training Academy. She is active in Walk to End Alzheimers, Operation Backpacker, St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, Food for the Hungry and Faith House.

The U.S. Department of Commerces International Trade Administration says new export data shows merchandise exports from the Lafayette metropolitan area totaled more than $1.1 billion in 2015. Exports from companies throughout the Lafayette area accounted for $1,16 billion, down 24 percent from 2014. Key merchandise export categories for the Lafayette metropolitan area in 2015 included machinery, except electrical; processed foods; and transportation equipment.

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The Louisiana Republican Partys challenge to the ban on unlimited donations to political parties is headed to the United States Supreme Court.

A federal three-judge panel dismissed the suit last week and the case will be able to bypass all other courts.

Its expected that the Supreme Court could hear the case in late 2017 or in 2018. Scheduling will likely take place some time in February.

The case challenges provisions of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law that, the party argues, disadvantage state political parties as compared to super PACs.

Party executive director Jason Dore, who is spearheading the effort, said the challenged provisions prevent state political parties from using state-regulated contributions for traditional party activities, even if the activities involve communications done with no candidate coordination.

Politico Magazine is calling the caseThe Next Citizens United, referring to the groundbreaking U.S. Supreme Court case that gave super PACs the ability to collect unlimited donations.
The Oil Centers free outdoor concert series, Oil Center After Hours, closes out its fall season this Wednesday with a special performance from the Grammy-nominated Roddie Romero & The Hub City Allstars.

The concert will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 16, at the entirely underutilized Heymann Memorial Park beginning at 5:30 p.m.

Roddie Romero & the Hub City All Stars are a renowned, Grammy nominated Louisiana band who have been performing worldwide at the most prestigious venues and festivals and venues for more than 25 years. This premier Louisiana band is celebrated not only for their authenticity when performing or recording traditional Cajun and Creole music indigenous to South Louisiana, but also for their original songwriting which stays true to Louisiana inspirations. They are notorious "Louisiana-Roots-Rockers" centered around infectious grooves and soulful originals. American music is Roddie Romero & the Hub City All Stars  born out of the Delta dirt  rising high off the levee of traditionalism and into the future of Louisiana Music.

For more information on Oil Center After Hours, including details about next springs musical lineup, stay tuned to TheOilCenter.com or find them on Facebook.
President Joe Biden has decided to ban Russian oil imports, toughening the toll on Russia's economy in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine. The United States generally imports about 100,000 barrels a day from Russia, only about 5% of Russia's crude oil exports, according to Rystad Energy. Last year, roughly 8% of U.S. imports of oil and petroleum products came from Russia. Gas prices have been rising for weeks due to the conflict and in anticipation of potential sanctions on the Russian energy sector. The U.S. national average for a gallon of gasoline soared 45 cents a gallon in the past week and topped $4.06 on Monday, according to auto club AAA. Should the US ban Russian oil imports over Ukraine war?

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University ranked "very intolerant of free speech" fights the accusation by banning the study and all involved

Concerned that Russians don't consume enough alcohol in the month of March, Russia's Orthodox Church makes St. Patrick's Day official holiday

Grassroots group calls for "The Million Regulators March" on Washington, supported by all who fear the loss of their betters telling them what to do

Experts: Starbucks CEO Schultz's hiring of 10,000 Muslim refugees likely to blow up in his face

Will the groundprog be frightened by its own shadow and hide - or will there be another season of insane protests?

Trump signs executive order making California and New York national monuments; residents have two days to vacate

Women's March against fascism completed with 400,000 fewer deaths than anticipated

Feminist historians uncover ghastly concentration camps where so-called "housewives" were forced to live inauthentic lives slaving away in kitchens

Dictionary of the future: Global Warming was a popular computer simulation game, where the only way to win was not to play

"Anti-fascist" groups violently protest misspelling of their original name, "aren't-we-fascists"

Post-inauguration blues: millions of democrats distraught as the reality of having to find real jobs sets in

"Journalism is the continuation of war by other means" is exposed as a fake quote by mainstream media journalists

Congressional Democrats: "We cannot just simply replace Obamacare with freedom because then millions of Americans will suddenly become free"

Schoolchildren jailed for building only white snowmen

Obama's reckless attacks on Russia serve as recruitment tool to create more Russian hackers

Hillary: "I lost, so I'm going to follow our democratic traditions, poison the wells, and scorch the earth"

Children in Venezuela cook and eat their Christmas toys

Hillary: "I can hack Russia from my bathroom"

Hillary suggests to counter "fake news" with government newspaper called "Truth" ("Pravda" for Russian speakers)

BREAKING: Millions of uncounted votes found on Hillary's private voting machine in her Chappaqua bathroom

New York Times: Fidel Castro world's sexiest corpse

After years of trial and error, CIA finally succeeds with the "waiting it out" technique on Fidel Castro

Post-election shopping tip: look for the PoliticsFree label at your local grocer to make sure you don't buy from companies that don't want your business anymore

In Hillary's America, email server scrubs you

Obama transfers his Nobel Peace Prize to anti-Trump rioters

Democrats blame Hillary's criminal e-mail server for her loss, demand it face prison

Afraid of "dangerous" Trump presidency, protesters pre-emptively burn America down to the ground

Clinton Foundation in foreclosure as foreign donors demand refunds

Hillary Clinton blames YouTube video for unexpected and spontaneous voter uprising that prevented her inevitable move into the White House

Sudden rise in sea levels explained by disproportionately large tears shed by climate scientists in the aftermath of Trump's electoral victory

FBI director Comey delighted after receiving Nobel Prize for Speed Reading (650,000 emails in one week)

U.N. deploys troops to American college campuses in order to combat staggeringly low rape rates

Responding to Trump's surging poll numbers, Obama preemptively pardons himself for treason

Following hurricane Matthew's failure to devastate Florida, activists flock to the Sunshine State and destroy Trump signs manually

Tim Kaine takes credit for interrupting hurricane Matthew while debating weather in Florida

Study: Many non-voters still undecided on how they're not going to vote

The Evolution of Dissent: on November 8th the nation is to decide whether dissent will stop being racist and become sexist - or it will once again be patriotic as it was for 8 years under George W. Bush

Venezuela solves starvation problem by making it mandatory to buy food

Breaking: the Clinton Foundation set to investigate the FBI

Obama captures rare Pokemon while visiting Hiroshima

Movie news: 'The Big Friendly Giant Government' flops at box office; audiences say "It's creepy"

Barack Obama: "If I had a son, he'd look like Micah Johnson"

White House edits Orlando 911 transcript to say shooter pledged allegiance to NRA and Republican Party

President George Washington: 'Redcoats do not represent British Empire; King George promotes a distorted version of British colonialism'

Following Obama's 'Okie-Doke' speech, stock of Okie-Doke soars; NASDAQ: 'Obama best Okie-Doke salesman'

Weaponized baby formula threatens Planned Parenthood office; ACLU demands federal investigation of Gerber

Experts: melting Antarctic glacier could cause sale levels to rise up to 80% off select items by this weekend

Travel advisory: airlines now offering flights to front of TSA line

As Obama instructs his administration to get ready for presidential transition, Trump preemptively purchases 'T' keys for White House keyboards

John Kasich self-identifies as GOP primary winner, demands access to White House bathroom

Upcoming Trump/Kelly interview on FoxNews sponsored by 'Let's Make a Deal' and 'The Price is Right'

News from 2017: once the evacuation of Lena Dunham and 90% of other Hollywood celebrities to Canada is confirmed, Trump resigns from presidency: "My work here is done"

Non-presidential candidate Paul Ryan pledges not to run for president in new non-presidential non-ad campaign

Trump suggests creating 'Muslim database'; Obama symbolically protests by shredding White House guest logs beginning 2009

National Enquirer: John Kasich's real dad was the milkman, not mailman

National Enquirer: Bound delegates from Colorado, Wyoming found in Ted Cruzs basement

Iran breaks its pinky-swear promise not to support terrorism; US State Department vows rock-paper-scissors strategic response

Women across the country cheer as racist Democrat president on $20 bill is replaced by black pro-gun Republican

Federal Reserve solves budget crisis by writing itself a 20-trillion-dollar check

Widows, orphans claim responsibility for Brussels airport bombing

Che Guevara's son hopes Cuba's communism will rub off on US, proposes a long list of people the government should execute first

Susan Sarandon: "I don't vote with my vagina." Voters in line behind her still suspicious, use hand sanitizer

Campaign memo typo causes Hillary to court 'New Black Panties' vote

New Hampshire votes for socialist Sanders, changes state motto to "Live FOR Free or Die"

Martin O'Malley drops out of race after Iowa Caucus; nation shocked with revelation he has been running for president

Statisticians: one out of three Bernie Sanders supporters is just as dumb as the other two

Hillary campaign denies accusations of smoking-gun evidence in her emails, claims they contain only smoking-circumstantial-gun evidence

Obama stops short of firing US Congress upon realizing the difficulty of assembling another group of such tractable yes-men

In effort to contol wild passions for violent jihad, White House urges gun owners to keep their firearms covered in gun burkas

TV horror live: A Charlie Brown Christmas gets shot up on air by Mohammed cartoons

Democrats vow to burn the country down over Ted Cruz statement, 'The overwhelming majority of violent criminals are Democrats'

Russia's trend to sign bombs dropped on ISIS with "This is for Paris" found response in Obama administration's trend to sign American bombs with "Return to sender"

University researchers of cultural appropriation quit upon discovery that their research is appropriation from a culture that created universities

Archeologists discover remains of what Barack Obama has described as unprecedented, un-American, and not-who-we-are immigration screening process in Ellis Island

Mizzou protests lead to declaring entire state a "safe space," changing Missouri motto to "The don't show me state"

Green energy fact: if we put all green energy subsidies together in one-dollar bills and burn them, we could generate more electricity than has been produced by subsidized green energy

State officials improve chances of healthcare payouts by replacing ObamaCare with state lottery

NASA's new mission to search for racism, sexism, and economic inequality in deep space suffers from race, gender, and class power struggles over multibillion-dollar budget

College progress enforcement squads issue schematic humor charts so students know if a joke may be spontaneously laughed at or if regulations require other action

ISIS opens suicide hotline for US teens depressed by climate change and other progressive doomsday scenarios

Virginia county to close schools after teacher asks students to write 'death to America' in Arabic

'Wear hijab to school day' ends with spontaneous female circumcision and stoning of a classmate during lunch break

ISIS releases new, even more barbaric video in an effort to regain mantle from Planned Parenthood

Impressed by Fox News stellar rating during GOP debates, CNN to use same formula on Democrat candidates asking tough, pointed questions about Republicans

Shocking new book explores pros and cons of socialism, discovers they are same people

Pope outraged by Planned Parenthood's "unfettered capitalism," demands equal redistribution of baby parts to each according to his need

John Kerry accepts Iran's "Golden Taquiyya" award, requests jalapenos on the side

Citizens of Pluto protest US government's surveillance of their planetoid and its moons with New Horizons space drone

John Kerry proposes 3-day waiting period for all terrorist nations trying to acquire nuclear weapons

Chicago Police trying to identify flag that caused nine murders and 53 injuries in the city this past weekend

Cuba opens to affordable medical tourism for Americans who can't afford Obamacare deductibles

State-funded research proves existence of Quantum Aggression Particles (Heterons) in Large Hadron Collider

Student job opportunities: make big bucks this summer as Hillarys Ordinary-American; all expenses paid, travel, free acting lessons

Experts debate whether Iranian negotiators broke John Kerry's leg or he did it himself to get out of negotiations

Junior Varsity takes Ramadi, advances to quarterfinals

US media to GOP pool of candidates: 'Knowing what we know now, would you have had anything to do with the founding of the United States?'

NY Mayor to hold peace talks with rats, apologize for previous Mayor's cowboy diplomacy

China launches cube-shaped space object with a message to aliens: "The inhabitants of Earth will steal your intellectual property, copy it, manufacture it in sweatshops with slave labor, and sell it back to you at ridiculously low prices"

Progressive scientists: Truth is a variable deduced by subtracting 'what is' from 'what ought to be'

Experts agree: Hillary Clinton best candidate to lessen percentage of Americans in top 1%

America's attempts at peace talks with the White House continue to be met with lies, stalling tactics, and bad faith

Starbucks new policy to talk race with customers prompts new hashtag #DontHoldUpTheLine

Hillary: DELETE is the new RESET

Charlie Hebdo receives Islamophobe 2015 award; the cartoonists could not be reached for comment due to their inexplicable, illogical deaths

Russia sends 'reset' button back to Hillary: 'You need it now more than we do'

Barack Obama finds out from CNN that Hillary Clinton spent four years being his Secretary of State

President Obama honors Leonard Nimoy by taking selfie in front of Starship Enterprise

Police: If Obama had a convenience store, it would look like Obama Express Food Market

Study finds stunning lack of racial, gender, and economic diversity among middle-class white males

NASA: We're 80% sure about being 20% sure about being 17% sure about being 38% sure about 2014 being the hottest year on record

People holding '$15 an Hour Now' posters sue Democratic party demanding raise to $15 an hour for rendered professional protesting services

Cuba-US normalization: US tourists flock to see Cuba before it looks like the US and Cubans flock to see the US before it looks like Cuba

White House describes attacks on Sony Pictures as 'spontaneous hacking in response to offensive video mocking Juche and its prophet'

CIA responds to Democrat calls for transparency by releasing the director's cut of The Making Of Obama's Birth Certificate

Obama: 'If I had a city, it would look like Ferguson'

Biden: 'If I had a Ferguson (hic), it would look like a city'

Obama signs executive order renaming 'looters' to 'undocumented shoppers'

Ethicists agree: two wrongs do make a right so long as Bush did it first

The aftermath of the 'War on Women 2014' finds a new 'Lost Generation' of disillusioned Democrat politicians, unable to cope with life out of office

White House: Republican takeover of the Senate is a clear mandate from the American people for President Obama to rule by executive orders

Nurse Kaci Hickox angrily tells reporters that she won't change her clocks for daylight savings time

Democratic Party leaders in panic after recent poll shows most Democratic voters think 'midterm' is when to end pregnancy

Desperate Democratic candidates plead with Obama to stop backing them and instead support their GOP opponents

Ebola Czar issues five-year plan with mandatory quotas of Ebola infections per each state based on voting preferences

Study: crony capitalism is to the free market what the Westboro Baptist Church is to Christianity

Fun facts about world languages: the Left has more words for statism than the Eskimos have for snow

African countries to ban all flights from the United States because "Obama is incompetent, it scares us"

Nobel Peace Prize controversy: Hillary not nominated despite having done even less than Obama to deserve it

Obama: 'Ebola is the JV of viruses'

BREAKING: Secret Service foils Secret Service plot to protect Obama

Revised 1st Amendment: buy one speech, get the second free

Sharpton calls on white NFL players to beat their women in the interests of racial fairness

President Obama appoints his weekly approval poll as new national security adviser

Obama wags pen and phone at Putin; Europe offers support with powerful pens and phones from NATO members

White House pledges to embarrass ISIS back to the Stone Age with a barrage of fearsome Twitter messages and fatally ironic Instagram photos

Obama to fight ISIS with new federal Terrorist Regulatory Agency

Obama vows ISIS will never raise their flag over the eighteenth hole

Harry Reid: "Sometimes I say the wong thing"

Elian Gonzalez wishes he had come to the U.S. on a bus from Central America like all the other kids

Obama visits US-Mexican border, calls for a two-state solution

Obama draws "blue line" in Iraq after Putin took away his red crayon

"Hard Choices," a porno flick loosely based on Hillary Clinton's memoir and starring Hillary Hellfire as a drinking, whoring Secretary of State, wildly outsells the flabby, sagging original

Accusations of siding with the enemy leave Sgt. Bergdahl with only two options: pursue a doctorate at Berkley or become a Senator from Massachusetts

Jay Carney stuck in line behind Eric Shinseki to leave the White House; estimated wait time from 15 min to 6 weeks

100% of scientists agree that if man-made global warming were real, "the last people we'd want to help us is the Obama administration"

Jay Carney says he found out that Obama found out that he found out that Obama found out that he found out about the latest Obama administration scandal on the news

"Anarchy Now!" meeting turns into riot over points of order, bylaws, and whether or not 'kicking the #^@&*! ass' of the person trying to speak is or is not violence

Obama retaliates against Putin by prohibiting unionized federal employees from dating hot Russian girls online during work hours

Russian separatists in Ukraine riot over an offensive YouTube video showing the toppling of Lenin statues

"Free Speech Zones" confuse Obamaphone owners who roam streets in search of additional air minutes

Obamacare bolsters employment for professionals with skills to convert meth back into sudafed

Gloves finally off: Obama uses pen and phone to cancel Putin's Netflix account

Joe Biden to Russia: "We will bury you by turning more of Eastern Europe over to your control!"

In last-ditch effort to help Ukraine, Obama deploys Rev. Sharpton and Rev. Jackson's Rainbow Coalition to Crimea

Al Sharpton: "Not even Putin can withstand our signature chanting, 'racist, sexist, anti-gay, Russian army go away'!"

Mardi Gras in North Korea: "Throw me some food!"

Obama's foreign policy works: "War, invasion, and conquest are signs of weakness; we've got Putin right where we want him"

US offers military solution to Ukraine crisis: "We will only fight countries that have LGBT military"

Putin annexes Brighton Beach to protect ethnic Russians in Brooklyn, Obama appeals to UN and EU for help

The 1980s: "Mr. Obama, we're just calling to ask if you want our foreign policy back. The 1970s are right here with us, and they're wondering, too."

In a stunning act of defiance, Obama courageously unfriends Putin on Facebook

MSNBC: Obama secures alliance with Austro-Hungarian Empire against Russias aggression in Ukraine

Study: springbreak is to STDs what April 15th is to accountants

Efforts to achieve moisture justice for California thwarted by unfair redistribution of snow in America

North Korean voters unanimous: "We are the 100%"

Leader of authoritarian gulag-site, The People's Cube, unanimously 're-elected' with 100% voter turnout

Super Bowl: Obama blames Fox News for Broncos' loss

Feminist author slams gay marriage: "a man needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle"

Beverly Hills campaign heats up between Henry Waxman and Marianne Williamson over the widening income gap between millionaires and billionaires in their district

Biden to lower $10,000-a-plate Dinner For The Homeless to $5,000 so more homeless can attend

Kim becomes world leader, feeds uncle to dogs; Obama eats dogs, becomes world leader, America cries uncle

North Korean leader executes own uncle for talking about Obamacare at family Christmas party

White House hires part-time schizophrenic Mandela sign interpreter to help sell Obamacare

Kim Jong Un executes own "crazy uncle" to keep him from ruining another family Christmas

OFA admits its advice for area activists to give Obamacare Talk at shooting ranges was a bad idea

President resolves Obamacare debacle with executive order declaring all Americans equally healthy

Obama to Iran: "If you like your nuclear program, you can keep your nuclear program"

Bovine community outraged by flatulence coming from Washington DC

Obama: "I'm not particularly ideological; I believe in a good pragmatic five-year plan"

Shocker: Obama had no knowledge he'd been reelected until he read about it in the local newspaper last week

Server problems at HealthCare.gov so bad, it now flashes 'Error 808' message

NSA marks National Best Friend Day with official announcement: "Government is your best friend; we know you like no one else, we're always there, we're always willing to listen"

Al Qaeda cancels attack on USA citing launch of Obamacare as devastating enough

The President's latest talking point on Obamacare: "I didn't build that"

Dizzy with success, Obama renames his wildly popular healthcare mandate to HillaryCare

Carney: huge ObamaCare deductibles won't look as bad come hyperinflation

Washington Redskins drop 'Washington' from their name as offensive to most Americans

Poll: 83% of Americans favor cowboy diplomacy over rodeo clown diplomacy

GOVERNMENT WARNING: If you were able to complete ObamaCare form online, it wasn't a legitimate gov't website; you should report online fraud and change all your passwords

Obama administration gets serious, threatens Syria with ObamaCare

Obama authorizes the use of Vice President Joe Biden's double-barrel shotgun to fire a couple of blasts at Syria

Sharpton: "British royals should have named baby 'Trayvon.' By choosing 'George' they sided with white Hispanic racist Zimmerman"

DNC launches 'Carlos Danger' action figure; proceeds to fund a charity helping survivors of the Republican War on Women

Nancy Pelosi extends abortion rights to the birds and the bees

Hubble discovers planetary drift to the left

Obama: 'If I had a daughter-in-law, she would look like Rachael Jeantel'

FISA court rubberstamps statement denying its portrayal as government's rubber stamp

Every time ObamaCare gets delayed, a Julia somewhere dies

GOP to Schumer: 'Force full implementation of ObamaCare before 2014 or Dems will never win another election'

Obama: 'If I had a son... no, wait, my daughter can now marry a woman!'

Janet Napolitano: TSA findings reveal that since none of the hijackers were babies, elderly, or Tea Partiers, 9/11 was not an act of terrorism

News Flash: Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) can see Canada from South Dakota

Susan Rice: IRS actions against tea parties caused by anti-tax YouTube video that was insulting to their faith

Drudge Report reduces font to fit all White House scandals onto one page

Obama: the IRS is a constitutional right, just like the Second Amendment

White House: top Obama officials using secret email accounts a result of bad IT advice to avoid spam mail from Nigeria

Jay Carney to critics: 'Pinocchio never said anything inconsistent'

Obama: If I had a gay son, he'd look like Jason Collins

Gosnell's office in Benghazi raided by the IRS: mainstream media's worst cover-up challenge to date

IRS targeting pro-gay-marriage LGBT groups leads to gayest tax revolt in U.S. history

After Arlington Cemetery rejects offer to bury Boston bomber, Westboro Babtist Church steps up with premium front lawn plot

Boston: Obama Administration to reclassify marathon bombing as 'sportsplace violence'

Study: Success has many fathers but failure becomes a government program

US Media: Can Pope Francis possibly clear up Vatican bureaucracy and banking without blaming the previous administration?

Michelle Obama praises weekend rampage by Chicago teens as good way to burn calories and stay healthy

This Passover, Obama urges his subjects to paint lamb's blood above doors in order to avoid the Sequester



White House to American children: Sequester causes layoffs among hens that lay Easter eggs; union-wage Easter Bunnies to be replaced by Mexican Chupacabras

Time Mag names Hugo Chavez world's sexiest corpse

Boy, 8, pretends banana is gun, makes daring escape from school

Study: Free lunches overpriced, lack nutrition

Oscars 2013: Michelle Obama announces long-awaited merger of Hollywood and the State

Joe Salazar defends the right of women to be raped in gun-free environment: 'rapists and rapees should work together to prevent gun violence for the common good'

Dept. of Health and Human Services eliminates rape by reclassifying assailants as 'undocumented sex partners'

Kremlin puts out warning not to photoshop Putin riding meteor unless bare-chested

Deeming football too violent, Obama moves to introduce Super Drone Sundays instead

Japan offers to extend nuclear umbrella to cover U.S. should America suffer devastating attack on its own defense spending

Feminists organize one billion women to protest male oppression with one billion lap dances

Urban community protests Mayor Bloomberg's ban on extra-large pop singers owning assault weapons

Concerned with mounting death toll, Taliban offers to send peacekeeping advisers to Chicago

Karl Rove puts an end to Tea Party with new 'Republicans For Democrats' strategy aimed at losing elections

Answering public skepticism, President Obama authorizes unlimited drone attacks on all skeet targets throughout the country

Skeet Ulrich denies claims he had been shot by President but considers changing his name to 'Traps'

White House releases new exciting photos of Obama standing, sitting, looking thoughtful, and even breathing in and out

New York Times hacked by Chinese government, Paul Krugman's economic policies stolen

White House: when President shoots skeet, he donates the meat to food banks that feed the middle class

To prove he is serious, Obama eliminates armed guard protection for President, Vice-President, and their families; establishes Gun-Free Zones around them instead

State Dept to send 100,000 American college students to China as security for US debt obligations

Jay Carney: Al Qaeda is on the run, they're just running forward

President issues executive orders banning cliffs, ceilings, obstructions, statistics, and other notions that prevent us from moving forwards and upward

Fearing the worst, Obama Administration outlaws the fan to prevent it from being hit by certain objects

World ends; S&P soars

Riddle of universe solved; answer not understood

Meek inherit Earth, can't afford estate taxes

Greece abandons Euro; accountants find Greece has no Euros anyway

Wheel finally reinvented; axles to be gradually reinvented in 3rd quarter of 2013

Bigfoot found in Ohio, mysteriously not voting for Obama

As Santa's workshop files for bankruptcy, Fed offers bailout in exchange for control of 'naughty and nice' list

Freak flying pig accident causes bacon to fly off shelves

Obama: green economy likely to transform America into a leading third world country of the new millennium

Report: President Obama to visit the United States in the near future

Obama promises to create thousands more economically neutral jobs

Modernizing Islam: New York imam proposes to canonize Saul Alinsky as religion's latter day prophet

Imam Rauf's peaceful solution: 'Move Ground Zero a few blocks away from the mosque and no one gets hurt'

Study: Obama's threat to burn tax money in Washington 'recruitment bonanza' for Tea Parties

Study: no Social Security reform will be needed if gov't raises retirement age to at least 814 years

Obama attends church service, worships self

Obama proposes national 'Win The Future' lottery; proceeds of new WTF Powerball to finance more gov't spending

Historical revisionists: "Hey, you never know"

Vice President Biden: criticizing Egypt is un-pharaoh

Israelis to Egyptian rioters: "don't damage the pyramids, we will not rebuild"

Lake Superior renamed Lake Inferior in spirit of tolerance and inclusiveness

Al Gore: It's a shame that a family can be torn apart by something as simple as a pack of polar bears

Michael Moore: As long as there is anyone with money to shake down, this country is not broke

Obama's teleprompters unionize, demand collective bargaining rights

Obama calls new taxes 'spending reductions in tax code.' Elsewhere rapists tout 'consent reductions in sexual intercourse'

Obama's teleprompter unhappy with White House Twitter: "Too few words"

Obama's Regulation Reduction committee finds US Constitution to be expensive outdated framework inefficiently regulating federal gov't

Taking a page from the Reagan years, Obama announces new era of Perestroika and Glasnost

Responding to Oslo shootings, Obama declares Christianity "Religion of Peace," praises "moderate Christians," promises to send one into space

Republicans block Obama's $420 billion program to give American families free charms that ward off economic bad luck

White House to impose Chimney tax on Santa Claus

Obama decrees the economy is not soaring as much as previously decreeed

Conservative think tank introduces children to capitalism with pop-up picture book "The Road to Smurfdom"

Al Gore proposes to combat Global Warming by extracting silver linings from clouds in Earth's atmosphere

Obama refutes charges of him being unresponsive to people's suffering: "When you pray to God, do you always hear a response?"

Obama regrets the US government didn't provide his mother with free contraceptives when she was in college

Fluke to Congress: drill, baby, drill!

Planned Parenthood introduces Frequent Flucker reward card: 'Come again soon!'

Obama to tornado victims: 'We inherited this weather from the previous administration'

Obama congratulates Putin on Chicago-style election outcome

People's Cube gives itself Hero of Socialist Labor medal in recognition of continued expert advice provided to the Obama Administration helping to shape its foreign and domestic policies

Hamas: Israeli air defense unfair to 99% of our missiles, "only 1% allowed to reach Israel"

Democrat strategist: without government supervision, women would have never evolved into humans

Voters Without Borders oppose Texas new voter ID law

Enraged by accusation that they are doing Obama's bidding, media leaders demand instructions from White House on how to respond

Obama blames previous Olympics for failure to win at this Olympics

Official: China plans to land on Moon or at least on cheap knockoff thereof

Koran-Contra: Obama secretly arms Syrian rebels

Poll: Progressive slogan 'We should be more like Europe' most popular with members of American Nazi Party

Obama to Evangelicals: Jesus saves, I just spend

May Day: Anarchists plan, schedule, synchronize, and execute a coordinated campaign against all of the above

Midwestern farmers hooked on new erotic novel "50 Shades of Hay"

Study: 99% of Liberals give the rest a bad name

Obama meets with Jewish leaders, proposes deeper circumcisions for the rich

Historians: Before HOPE & CHANGE there was HEMP & CHOOM at ten bucks a bag

Cancer once again fails to cure Venezuela of its "President for Life"

Tragic spelling error causes Muslim protesters to burn local boob-tube factory

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu: due to energy conservation, the light at the end of the tunnel will be switched off

Obama Administration running food stamps across the border with Mexico in an operation code-named "Fat And Furious"

Pakistan explodes in protest over new Adobe Acrobat update; 17 local acrobats killed

White House: "Let them eat statistics"

Special Ops: if Benedict Arnold had a son, he would look like Barack Obama







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A 23-year-old Carbondale woman is headed to prison for four years after she pleaded guilty to stabbing her boyfriend in August.

Porchia Skinner pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated domestic battery, a Class 2 felony, which carries a prison sentence of three to seven years, according to a news release from Jackson County State's Attorney Michael Carr. After release from prison, she must complete four years of mandatory supervised release.

Skinner's boyfriend, who was not identified, is recovering from the stabbing; no additional details were released.

This past August, Carbondale police were called to a home where they saw a man holding his chest and bleeding, according to the release. He immediately identified Skinner, his girlfriend, as the one who stabbed him, according to the release.

Police found the knife that had been used in the stabbing near the apartment.

 The Southern
BENTON  History was made election night in Franklin County. A decades-long Democratic stronghold, the county shifted red.

In fact, every race where a Republican ran, they were awarded a victory, a big boon for a party that only opened a headquarters in the last two years (and incidentally closed it six months later after donations dried up).

Jim Kerley, Republican Party Chairman for Franklin County, said this has a lot to do with the Democratic party moving the needle further and further left on social issues, particularly LGBTQ issues.

I think we have let the minorities overrule us is what I think, Kerley said, adding that the vast majority of Democrats he knows feel the same way. He said if they were to vote their conscience, they had to make the switch from Democrat to Republican.

Franklin County Board Chairman Randall Crocker agreed.

Im not going to argue with him, thats for sure, said Crocker, a 16-year Democratic elected official.

Crocker said he is frustrated with the move the Democratic Party has made nationally.

I think we need to deal with the real issues that face our country, not these special interest groups so much, he said, identifying those in the LGBTQ community as part of those special interest groups. Crocker said often that he does not condone discrimination, but also does not see it as a particularly big issue in the region.

Jim Eaton has been the Democratic Party Chairman in Franklin County for 15 years and said these far left policies just dont play with local voters.

When the top of our ticket is headed up by people who are, for lack of better terminology, way left liberal, it makes it tough on our local candidates, Eaton said. I think the party needs to get back to putting people back at the top of the ticket we all can support.

Kerley said he started to see the sea change coming two years ago when Greg Wollard was elected County Clerk. He saw the trend grow this year when Republicans outvoted Democrats in the primary for the first time in recent county history.

Jim Muir was one of this years historic winners in Franklin County. He won Circuit Clerk on the Republican ticket. It was his first outing as a politician and, in fact, this was his first year as a registered Republican. He said he woke up one day and realized his party had moved away from him socially.

The Democratic party, particularly on a national level, does not represent my beliefs anymore, Muir said.

He said, despite being a registered Democrat for more than 40 years, he had no problem voting Donald Trump in both the primary and the general election. However, he was quick to say this was more a vote against Hillary Clinton and less a vote in favor of Trump, citing coal, abortion and the Supreme Court as his primary reasons.

National issues were not the only deciding factor for many Franklin County voters. The state budget impasse was also on their minds. Kerley and Muir both said many saw the state languishing under a Democratic supermajority and wanted a change.

People are tired of no results, Muir said.

Eaton sees this as short-sighted, saying many voted against their best interest by ousting Gary Forby and John Bradley for state seats.

I dont see where Southern Illinois is going to get an pro-Southern Illinois legislation passed in the near future, Eaton said of the recent appointment of Republicans to the Illinois House and Senate.

While all seem to agree social issues are what drove Franklin County to the Republican side, both sides are split as to the future. Kerley and Muir both believe this change is here to stay.

Its a remarkable thing happening that you see in Franklin County, Muir said. I don't see it snapping back. I think its going to continue on.

Crocker said he thinks the national party needs to shift to return Franklin County to blue. He said it is the working class, social conservatives, like those in Franklin County, that made a Trump presidency possible and their beliefs need to be given credence nationally.

Eaton still holds out hope for the future of his party in Franklin County.

They are not going to make everybody happy, Eaton said of the new Republican class. Every year of not making everybody happy, you lose votes. Through attrition it will come back around.
A former Orangeburg car dealership has received a new purpose.

What was once the Gibbes Ford Dealership at 1175 Five Chop Road is now housing religious activities for Orangeburg Hindus.

"We are in the final stages of completion," Hindu Temple trustee P.J. Patel said. "The first two stages are complete and the last stage of construction began about a month ago."

The Hindu Temple and Cultural Center is currently being used for religious gatherings. There are plans to open the building for public community events in the first quarter of 2017.

The building has been renovated and will have three banquet facilities  one covering 12,000 square feet, another 7,000 square feet and a third 3,500 square feet. The largest banquet hall will seat about 700 and the two others around 500 and 300.

The facility will also include a kitchen.

The banquet facility will be operated and managed by the Hindu Temple and Cultural Center.

In addition, the building will be able to handle any future growth of the temple.

The banquet hall will also serve as a meeting place for Hindus for weddings and baby showers.

It is estimated there are about 300 Hindu families within about a 60-mile radius of Orangeburg and other local communities such as Denmark, Barnwell and Bamberg.

The original Hindu temple opened in 2007 on Charleston Highway with about two families.

Six years ago, the Hindus celebrated the grand opening of a Temple and Cultural Center located at 1035 Five Chop Road.
The 2016 elections were a political tsunami that produced a populist billionaire president, a Republican Congress, 33 Republican governors and a like number of state legislatures. These results offer conservatives a golden opportunity to shape political decisions from Maine to Arizona and set the nation on a far different course than has been followed under the ultra-progressive philosophy of President Barack Obama.

Is the conservative movement up to the challenge? Let us consider the essential elements that make up a successful political movement.

1. A political movement must have a relevant philosophy. It is a given that conservatives of all stripes honor the Constitution and its established system of checks and balances. They agree that government should be limited, individuals should be free and responsible in their freedom, and there can be no lasting liberty without virtue, public and private.

These are quintessentially American ideas, rooted in the founding of the republic and still endorsed by a large majority of the American people. Gallup, Pew and other national polls report that when given a choice, a decisive majority of Americans still favor limited government over Big Brother, free enterprise over socialism, individual freedom over collectivism, traditional American values over post-modernism, and peace through strength rather than U.N. resolutions and peacekeepers.

2. A political movement must have a national constituency united behind a common philosophy. Conservatives are not ideological but idealistic. They are individualistic but respond to the communitarian impulse in a crisis. Conservatives come together when the times require it and the right leadership appears  as with Robert A. Taft in the 1950s, Barry Goldwater in the 1960s, Ronald Reagan in the 1970s and 1980s, New Gingrich in the 1990s, and George W. Bush in the 2000s following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The sharp debates that occur among the different strains of conservatism are a sign of vitality, not decline.

3. A political movement must have a sound financial base. Thanks to technical proficiency and political success, the number of conservative donors has grown exponentially from a few thousand in the 1950s to many millions today. The fiscal strength of conservative organizations, led by the Heritage Foundation and Heritage Action, is impressive. The assets of leading center-right foundations is more than $10 billion, not including the multi-billion-dollar wealth of the Koch brothers, generous benefactors of conservative as well as libertarian causes.

4. A political movement must be media-savvy, familiar with and expert in the latest mass communications techniques. Conservatives have adapted to the Age of the Internet, spreading the good news of freedom via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and a hundred blogs with an occasional glance back at the Age of Gutenberg. Herein a paradox: Conservatives have characterized the media as The Enemy for decades, yet conservatives dominate cable news (e.g., Bill OReilly), talk radio (e.g., Rush Limbaugh), syndicated newspaper columns (e.g., Cal Thomas), non-fiction best-sellers (e.g., Mark Levin), and direct mail (e.g., fundraiser guru Richard Viguerie, who has mailed 2 billion letters in his remarkable 50-year career).

5. A political movement must have charismatic, principled leadership. Conservatives have been blessed to have been led by extraordinary men and women for six decades. They include Taft, Goldwater, Reagan, Gingrich, Phyllis Schlafly, William F. Buckley Jr., Ed Meese, Milton Friedman, Jack Kemp and a phalanx of others.

There are many rising and already visible political stars in the conservative firmament such as Mike Pence, Ted Cruz, Ben Sasse, Paul Ryan, Jim Jordan, Scott Walker and Susana Martinez. With the right leadership, the friction that often erupts in the conservative movement will fade and disappear as they did when Taft, Goldwater, Reagan and Gingrich were the acknowledged leaders of conservatism.

But what has sustained conservatives for six decades and more is not their numbers or their organizational skill or their use of the media or their fund-raising prowess or even their attractive leaders. Its the power of their ideas  linked by the priceless principle of ordered liberty  and their application to the problems of the day.

More than a half-century ago, Ronald Reagan posed a nation-defining question: This is the issue.  Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.

For conservatives, the choice is clear and never clearer than right now with a president-elect who says he wants to make America great again. What better way than to apply the principles that made American great in the first place?
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By Trend





Azerbaijan Railways CJSC (ADY) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) discussed the implementation of projects on the international transport corridors passing through Azerbaijan, as well as the long-term tasks.

The discussions were held in the meeting of ADY Head Javid Gurbanov with ADB Vice President Wencai Zhang, responsible for operations in the ADB South Asia Department and the Central and West Asia Department, who is on a visit to Baku, the ADY said in a message Nov. 14.

Gurbanov informed Zhang about the reforms and activities carried out for reconstruction of infrastructure of Azerbaijans railways.

The sides also discussed medium-term prospects and priorities of cooperation, as well as further expansion of relations.

The ADB will consider allocating a $200-million loan for implementation of the International North-South Transportation Corridor. The bank management will review the project Apr. 15, 2017.
By Trend





NATO is looking forward to continue the political dialogue with Azerbaijan during 2017, the Alliances press office in Brussels told Trend.

"The Allies met on Nov. 5 to discuss the implementation of the Individual Partnership Action Plan over the past year," said the NATO press office, adding that the new NATO-Azerbaijan Individual Partnership Action Plan still needs to be developed.

"It will build on the existing partnership activities we have," noted the NATO press service. "These include a dialogue on a broad range of defence, security and good governance issues, as well cooperation in the areas of defence reform, support to enhancing interoperability and defence education reform."

Touching upon the bilateral cooperation in Afghanistan, the press office added that NATO highly appreciates Azerbaijans commitment to continuing support for NATOs efforts in Afghanistan.

The NATO press service also said that no high-level visits have been scheduled at the moment.
By Trend





Consultations will be held between the foreign ministries of Azerbaijan and Moldova in the near future, Gheorghe Leuca, Moldovas ambassador to Azerbaijan, told Trend November 14.

Lilian Darii, Moldovas deputy foreign minister, is expected to visit Baku to participate in the foreign ministerial consultations, Leuca added.

During the consultations, Azerbaijans and Moldovas officials will discuss the current state and prospects of cooperation between the two countries in regional and international organizations to which the two countries are members, the ambassador said.

He added that the dates of the visit and consultations are being agreed.

From the Azerbaijani side, Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov will take part in the consultations, Leuca said.

Earlier, Darii at a meeting with Qudsi Osmanov, newly appointed ambassador of Azerbaijan to Moldova, expressed interest in intensifying the bilateral political dialogue and expanding the economic and trade relations between Moldova and Azerbaijan.
By Azernews





By Amina Nazarli

An exhibition entitled "Stars of Absheron. Azerbaijani artists of 1960-1980s" opened at the Russian State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow on November 14.

Azerbaijans First Lady, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva, Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Leyla Aliyeva and Arzu Aliyeva attended the event, Azertac reported.

The exhibition was jointly organized by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Culture Ministry of Russia and the Marjani Foundation.

The exhibition presents a majestic exposition of works that are kept in Tretyakov Gallery, the Azerbaijani National Art Museum and private collections. The exhibition features more than 60 works by 12 Azerbaijani artists, including Javad Mirjavadov, Nadir Abdurrahamanov, Kamal Ahmad, Rasim Babayev, Sattar Bahlulzade, Toghrul Narimanbayov, Tahir Salahov and sculptor Fazil Najafov.

In her opening remarks, Director General of the Russian State Tretyakov Gallery Zemfira Tregulova highlighted the idea of launching the exhibition, and hailed the importance of the event in the cultural life of Moscow.

Mehriban Aliyeva, in her speech, described the opening of the exhibition as an outstanding event in the cultural life of Azerbaijan, expressing her hope that it will be of the same significance in the cultural life of Russia too.

Mrs. Aliyeva noted that the organizers of the exhibition chose the period of 1960s-1980s not accidentally.



"This is a period of bright splash of Azerbaijani art. At that time many outstanding musicians, composers, painters, sculptors lived and worked in Azerbaijan and their names were heard far beyond the republic, their names sounded in the entire Soviet Union," she said.

Talking about Azerbaijani-Russian ties, the president of Heydar Aliyev Foundation said that relations between the two countries are based on a solid historical foundation.

"This is friendly relations, which are characterized by mutual understanding and close cooperation. In addition to the common historical past, today our countries, our peoples are united by many common trends and directions. This is especially observed in the cultural space. Of course, first of all it is the great Russian language, and the great Russian literature. As you probably know, Azerbaijan is one of the few countries of the former Soviet Union, where education in Russian is fully preserved," she emphasized.

Addressing the event, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Olga Golodets thanked Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva for the professional attitude to the Azerbaijani culture in general.

In his remarks, Culture Minister of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky thanked the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and Marjani Foundation for the organization of the exhibition.

Speaking at the event, President of the Marjani Foundation Rustam Suleymanov expressed his hope that "Stars of Absheron" project will have great future.

The exhibition demonstrates the originality of the Azerbaijani schools, as well as testifies for the significance of art in Azerbaijan as part of the global art process.

The exhibition will run until February 26, 2017.




By Azernews





By Gunay Hasanova

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has supported the idea of a gradual transition to a visa-free regime with Russia, said the speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko on November 14, following a meeting with Rouhani, RIA Novosti reported.

Lets move further toward liberalization of visa relations. We have made the first step and the number of tourists from both sides has increased. We are ready to gradually move toward liberalization of visa relations with the aim to finally introduce a visa-free regime between Russia and Iran," Matvienko quoted Rouhani as saying.

"It is hoped that the liberalization of visa regime will affect tourists, organized groups of young people, students, cultural exchanges, and business people's trips," Matvienko added.



Moreover, she pointed out that this process is important both in terms of economics and humanitarian point of view.

Iranian Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani will pay an official visit to Russia next year, the speaker added.

"I invited my colleague to pay an official visit to Russia and he accepted the invitation," Matvienko said.

She also noted that the Russian-Iranian contacts were growing rapidly.

Specific agreements on the work of Russian oil companies in Iran can be achieved during the meeting of the intergovernmental commission in Tehran on December 13, according to Matvienko.

The speaker also noted that the Iranian side is interested in developing cooperation with the Russian Federation to the field of peaceful nuclear energy, in particular, the continuation of the construction of new nuclear power reactors at Busher, as well as creating a group on scientific and technical progress for the joint development of ways to modernize the economies of two countries.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Rouhani signed a deal that eased bilateral visa rules during Putins latest visit to Tehran in 2015.

This document aims to ease the two countries' citizens' travel and eases the conditions for exchange of trade and technological delegations between the two countries.

Russian authorities such as the Commerce and Industry Chamber, the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and the Public Organization of Small Businesses can provide recommendation letters to Iranian consular establishments to ease the visa procedures for businessmen, according to the agreement.

The trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $1.5 billion in July, while the figure is expected to double by March 2017.
By Azernews





By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijan, the leading state in the CIS area for protection of intellectual property rights, intends to further strengthen its positions.

MP Asim Mollazade said that the reforms in the education system and science will bring Azerbaijan closer to the international standards in the area.

All literary and scientific works created by Azerbaijani scientists should meet the international legal norms and properly protected, Trend quoted the parliamentarian as saying.

"Intellectual property rights are one of the most significant human rights. Their protection by international law is very important for Azerbaijan. The holding of international conferences in this regard play a major role for expansion of relations in this area and high level protection for our intellectual property rights worldwide, said Mollazade.

The MP believes that new startups will ensure the promotion of copyrights among youth, resulting in the growth of the economy.

Mollazade further reminded that the Azerbaijani Parliament adopted a number of legislative acts over this issue

He emphasized the necessity of taking every step to bring the protection of intellectual property rights in Azerbaijan in line with the international standards, which in turn would simplify the protection of Azerbaijanis intellectual property in the world.

Intellectual property rights in Azerbaijan include: all rights to industrial property (including inventions, industrial designs, utility models, trademarks, and geographical indication); and copyright and related rights.

The country is about to finalize a long-term national strategy in the field of protection of intellectual property rights. New strategy aims at the better development of the sphere of intellectual property protection, its integration into the already existing international system and rendering effective services in this field.

The Strategy includes 30 target areas, which compromises about 90 specific issues. The main purpose is to protect the rights of inventors. This process contributes to the competitiveness of local products.

Azerbaijan joined WIPO in 1995 and was rated significantly high in its annual rankings.
Emirates NBD, a leading bank in the region, was honoured by Efma and Accenture with a Bronze Digital Distribution award at the 2016 Global Distribution & Marketing Innovation Awards for its innovative mobile-based Fitness Account.



Launched in November 2015, the Fitness Account is a mobile only savings account that allows customers to earn higher interest on their balances linked to their level of physical activity. With over a third of the banks customer base actively using the banks online and mobile banking platforms on a regular basis, the unique initiative pushed for a healthy lifestyle among its customers and is aligned with the UAE governments mission to fight obesity in the nation.



Suvo Sarkar, senior EVP & group head  Retail Banking & Wealth Management at Emirates NBD said: The Emirates NBD Fitness Account is a truly distinct product that combines our customers banking needs with their health and lifestyle goals. We are honoured to be recognised for this successful proposition on an international platform and going forward, will continue to be an early adopter of global technology innovations to offer our customers more such engaging and rewarding products and services.



Pedro Cardoso, head of Multichannel and CRM at Emirates NBD said: With the Fitness Account we have taken a very different approach to wearables and combined the features of a lifestyle app with a banking product that turns health into wealth. Offering customers an opportunity to earn higher interest on their balances linked to number of steps they walk or run daily is a great example of the endless opportunities for innovation in modern-day banking to enhance the customer experience.



More than 200 financial institutions from 61 countries submitted over 460 case studies of innovations to Efma and Accenture within 10 categories: Customer Experience; Digital Marketing; Physical Distribution; Digital Distribution; Payments and Wallets; Salesforce Change Management; Big Data, Analytics and AI; Best New Service or Product; Global Innovator; and Most Disruptive Innovation.



Winners were selected by a combination of votes from a panel of judges comprised of senior retail bankers from around the world and online votes from Efma members and non-members. Three criteria were taken into account when assessing entrants: the originality of the innovation, the impact it is creating on the industry and how adaptable it is for use in other markets and countries. The ceremony was held at the Hilton Hotel in Barcelona, Spain.  TradeArabia News Service
Many transportation and logistics (T&L) companies need to refine their current business models to capitalise on opportunities in industry segments that are attractive in terms of both growth and returns, according to a new report.



The report, titled Transportation and Logistics in a Changing World: The Journey Back to Profitable Growth, is by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a global management consulting firm.



Some T&L companies have succeeded in combining strong growth with high returns, while for many others this has been an elusive goal. To understand what sets apart the top performers, BCG conducted an industry-level analysis of critical performance metrics and complemented it with detailed analyses of business segments and individual companies.



Giovanni Moscatelli, a principal at BCG, Middle East, said: T&L players in the Middle East can definitely leverage the findings of the report to become more profitable; however, they will need to confront the transformational environment of the sector.



In particular, to capture long-term opportunities, regional players would need to remove the emerging bottlenecks in infrastructure by creating seamless intermodal connections, adopt lean operations also across their corporate functions, and coordinate closely with Government entities - at different levels - to ease the evolving regulatory framework, he said.



In addition, they must explore adjacencies by selecting business models with a lighter asset base, as well as screen, identify and secure long-lasting partnerships to explore neighbouring markets. The real challenge will be having a long term view about key trends impacting the region, while - at the same time  reacting rapidly and selectively when it comes to exploring new business opportunities, he concluded.



Despite T&Ls growth in recent years, BCGs industry-level analysis found comparatively low returns, measured in terms of return on capital employed (Roce) and total shareholder return (TSR).



The Roce for T&L from 2011 through 2015 was 10.1 per cent, falling short of the industrys weighted average cost of capital of 10.3 per cent. Not surprisingly given its low Roce, the T&L industry did not reward its shareholders with high returns.



During the five-year period from 2011 through 2015, the T&L industry ranked only 17th for annual TSR among the industries BCG studied.



Performance has varied widely at the level of T&L business segments. Combining the perspectives of growth and return on assets (ROA), the study found that the most attractive segments are logistics advisors, CEP (courier, express, and parcels) delivery, hinterland terminals, and, to a lesser extent, rail transport (outside of Europe). All other segments do not earn the cost of capital. The segments facing the most intense challenges in terms of both growth and ROA include sea and air transport and postal delivery.



But challenging market conditions only partially explain why profits did not keep pace with revenue growth, according to the report. For many T&L players, organic growth strategies aimed at gaining market share in new regions and in new business segments failed to deliver profitability. In some instances, companies accelerated growth through acquisitions, but these inorganic strategies also failed to realise the anticipated profit growthoften because the companies did not adequately integrate the acquired businesses into their operations and networks, it added.  TradeArabia News Service
The UAE has launched an unprecedented six-pillar plan to implement fourth-industrial-revolution technologies during the Annual Meeting of the Global Future Councils in Dubai, UAE.



Mohammed Abdullah Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs and the Future, co-chair of the Annual Meeting of the Global Future Councils, held a press conference at the meeting where he announced the plan.



The plan was set in collaboration with the World Economic Forum (WEF) and seeks to transform the Fourth Industrial Revolution into a global movement spearheaded by the UAE.



First Pillar: The UAE Government will establish the Fourth Industrial Revolution Council, the first of its kind in the world. The Council will report directly to the Cabinet and will be supervised by the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs and the Future. Council members will include representatives from government, private-sector, and academic organisations.



Second Pillar: Working closely with the World Economic Forum (WEF) and through the Global Future Councils to formulate a global governance framework that regulates legislative and executive efforts to implement Fourth-Industrial-Revolution technologies, and to create global markets for them in collaboration with governments and relevant private-sector organisations.



Third Pillar: In collaboration with the World Economic Forum, the UAE Government will work to establish Fourth Industrial Revolution Councils, which aim to provide advisory support to decision makers around the world.



These councils will be tasked with studying the effects of Fourth-Industrial-Revolution technologies on economic and social systems, determining economic and investment opportunities within key sectors where these technologies can be implemented, and providing advisory support for governments looking to set legislative and executive frameworks  along the lines of the governance framework formulated through the plans second pillar  in order to implement these technologies.



Fourth Pillar: Launching a programme that seeks to include governments from around the region in the network of experts that take part in the Global Future Councils and, consequently, enhancing the events role in supporting economic development in those economies.



The network includes more than 5,000 members and experts from governments, international organisations, private companies, and academic research institutions. The programme will come out with several plans, events, and initiatives that will be announced at a later date.



Fifth Pillar: The UAE will be the first country in the world to experiment with and implement the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, creating new markets for them. This builds on the steps the government has already implemented through initiatives and strategies promoting technologies such as blockchain, smart transportation, 3D printing, and artificial intelligence.



Sixth Pillar: The  UAE Government will be the first in the world to design and build a framework within its national agenda that aims to prepare governments for the future, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum. The framework focuses on measuring the readiness of governments in the next ten years against six main criteria: technology and innovation, economy, society, natural resources and the environment, security, and governance.



Al Gergawi noted that the Annual Meeting of the Global Future Councils saw top-tier future experts from around the world converge in the UAE  in 35 different councils  to set the foundations for a better future for generations to come.



The Annual Meeting of the Global Future Councils is much more than a conference, Al Gergawi said, it is a platform for finding pragmatic and applicable solutions and initiatives.



The UAE Government realises the importance of planning for the future, Al Gergawi explained. With that in mind, it set off to proactively turn the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution into reality. The Councils saw 50 Emirati experts take part, underlining the governments seriousness in its efforts to build the future today.



More than 700 future experts from around the world took part in the Annual Meeting of the Global Future Councils, where they worked to formulate visions and initiatives that bring together government and private-sector institutions to find solutions for future challenges, turning them into opportunities that improve peoples lives and make for a successful future.  TradeArabia News Service
Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), the largest industrial company in the UAE outside the oil and gas industry, will supply high quality UAE-made aluminium to BMW for use in the manufacture of some of the German car groups engines.



Although EGA has supplied aluminium to the automotive parts industry for decades, the deal with BMW is the first made directly with a major automotive group.



EGA will supply BMW with aluminium under the deal for the next three years.



Abdulla Kalban, managing director and chief executive officer of EGA, visited BMWs head office in Munich, Germany, after the finalisation of the contract.



Kalban said: Winning BMW as a direct customer is important for EGA because their standards are so high, both for the aluminium itself and how it is made. EGA produces high quality aluminium with world-class efficiency and environmental responsibility. We have spent decades developing technology in the UAE to improve our processes and make this possible.



EGA operates two smelters in the UAE, one in Jebel Ali in Dubai and the other in Al Taweelah in Abu Dhabi. The company is also building a bauxite mine in the Republic of Guinea and an alumina refinery at Al Taweelah. Bauxite is refined into alumina which is the main feedstock for aluminium smelters.  TradeArabia News Service
Dubai-based NDigitec, a leading creative production company, has opened its new lounge at Dubai Design District (d3), the regions most prestigious creative design hub.



The lounge at d3, the first-of-its-kind in the region, is a meeting point of creativity and technology, showcasing the latest augmented reality and virtual reality content in its dedicated demo room, said a statement from the company.



NDigitec's latest lounge has been designed to inspire creativity, stimulate innovation and highlight the companys core competencies as well as offer hi-tech technologies to relevant stakeholders as a step to boost customer interaction, it stated.



The lounge cements the companys reputation as the preferred creative production partner in the UAE and across the region, it added.



Vatche Kavlakian, the chief executive of NDigitec, said: "Our company has ambitious expansion plans and the inauguration of the companys lounge at d3 is a step in that direction."



"We plan to invest more in NDigitec Premedia as we see tremendous potential for our solutions in the region," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Syrian government aircraft have bombed besieged rebel-held eastern districts of the city of Aleppo for the first time in three weeks, said a report citing activists.



The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that at least five people were killed as a number of areas were hit, reported BBC.



The government and its ally Russia halted air strikes in mid-October to allow civilians and rebels to leave.



On Tuesday, activists said the three-week moratorium on air strikes declared by Russia had seemingly ended.



Warplanes and helicopters reportedly bombed the Haidaria, Masakin Hanano, Sakhour, Sheikh Faris, Bab al-Nairab, Qadi Askar and Qaterji districts.



Russia however denied it had resumed attacks on Aleppo, but said it had launched missiles at jihadist groups elsewhere, said the report.



Russia's only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, was also used in combat for the first time, with Su-33 fighters flying sorties from the eastern Mediterranean.



The UN says weeks of air strikes and shelling have killed more than 700 civilians in the east, while rocket-fire has left scores dead in the government-controlled west.
Enterprises today have to be aware that they have Data Chaos within their businesses, and they need to embrace this as part of their digital transformation.



So what is data chaos? The challenge with big data, other than the obvious fact that it is big, is that so much of it is unstructured. The struggle among businesses to extract meaningful information from unstructured data is universal. Data is ubiquitous and is embedded in countless formats. Its in our email, paper documents, online posts, videos and more.

Most of the time its free form, in every format except the neatly organized rows and columns of a database. We refer to this as data chaos -- the point where the size and growth of unstructured data vastly outpaces structured data, presenting significant obstacles to operational efficiency, responsiveness to customers and profitable growth.



The chaotic world of business data finds its resolution in Digital Transformation. Businesses need to focus on managing the data and information. A business can harness the value by being able to control the data and better use it to serve customers, improve businesses and decision-making and this will have a positive effect on the bottom line.



However, to do this, four core problems need to be addressed, that AIIM (the Association for Information and Image Management) outlines for the enterprises when it comes to information and data.



The first one is engagement. With information flowing from all around the business, both inside and outside, businesses needs to consider their customers, employees and partners and understand how they can best capture information and deliver it to the right place, in a secure and effective manner.



Next is automation. Organizations need to consider how their processes are automated in order to get information to the right place fast and accurately. This is important, as the digital native (a growing percentage of the population with the GCC) wants a response quickly. In addition, if time is lost due to the delaying of decisions because of unavailable information, then this may impact the bottom line and vitally, it may also have regulatory and compliance consequences. It is vital that information capture is automated and processed across the business as one, and not in silos. This can create the competitive advantage.



The next is Insight. What good is data that is just data? It is the value of information that is important to a business. So being able to capture and organise can create value for the business. After all, if a business harnesses their data it could achieve $65 million by processing 10 per cent more data more effectively; Understand the value!



Finally, but not least, risk. This runs across how engagement, automation and insight. The regulations and compliance that each business needs to adhere to is vital, and as information increases across the business, a CIO needs to consider where, what and how the data flows through the business. It is vital that the relevant policies are put in place to adhere to compliance and regulations.



It is clear that businesses today are unprepared in this world of Data Chaos. There is only a focus on structured data and data management systems and strategies are outdated. The exploitation of unstructured data represents too great an opportunity for businesses to ignore. Today systems of engagement and insight have moved to the edge and it is crucial to have tools, which are web-based. This way the business can integrate and leverage the data regardless of the edges i.e. where it is created.



Emma Isichei is Worldwide Category Director, Capture Solutions at Kodak Alaris Information Management.


Samsung has agreed to acquire Harman International Industries in an $8 billion dollar deal, which will give Samsung a significant presence in the rapidly growing market for connected technologies, particularly automotive electronics.



Samsung has agreed to acquire Harman International Industries in an $8 billion dollar deal, which will give Samsung a significant presence in the rapidly growing market for connected technologies, particularly automotive electronics, which is expected to grow to more than $100 billion by 2025.



Harman is the market leader in connected car solutions, with more than 30 million vehicles currently equipped with its connected car and audio systems, including embedded infotainment, telematics, connected safety and security.



Approximately 65 per cent of Harmans $7 billion of reported sales during the 12 months ended September 30, 2016 are automotive-related, and its order backlog for this market at June 30, 2016 was approximately $24 billion.



Harmans experience designing and integrating sophisticated in-vehicle technologies, as well as its long-term relationships with most of the worlds largest automakers, will create significant growth opportunities for the combined business by enabling it to leverage Samsungs expertise in connected mobility, semiconductors, user experience, displays and its global distribution channels.



In addition, the combination of Harmans brands and audio capabilities and Samsungs expertise in consumer electronics will deliver enhanced customer benefits and elevate user experiences across Samsungs complete portfolio of consumer and professional products and systems.



Harman perfectly complements Samsung in terms of technologies, products and solutions, and joining forces is a natural extension of the automotive strategy we have been pursuing for some time, said Oh-Hyun Kwon, vice chairman and CEO of Samsung Electronics.



As a Tier 1 automotive supplier with deep customer relationships, strong brands, leading technology and a recognized portfolio of best-in-class products, Harman immediately establishes a strong foundation for Samsung to grow our automotive platform.



The vehicle of tomorrow will be transformed by smart technology and connectivity in the same way that simple feature phones have become sophisticated smart devices over the past decade, added Young Sohn, president and chief strategy officer of Samsung Electronics.



We see substantial long-term growth opportunities in the auto technology market as demand for Samsungs specialized electronic components and solutions continues to grow. Working together, we are confident that Harman can become a new kind of Tier 1 provider to the OEMs by delivering end-to-end solutions across the connected ecosystem.



Dinesh Paliwal, Harman chairman, president and CEO, said: Samsung is an ideal partner for Harman and this transaction will provide tremendous benefits to our automotive customers and consumers around the world. Combining Samsungs strengths in leading-edge displays, connectivity and processing solutions with Harmans technology leadership and long-standing customer relationships will enable OEMs to provide new offerings for their customers.



Partnerships and scale are essential to winning over the long term in automotive as demand for robust connected car and autonomous driving solutions increases at a rapid pace. This transaction will bring Harman and Samsungs complementary strengths together to accelerate innovation in this space. More broadly, this investment underscores the strength of Harmans employees, as well as our success and leadership across our markets. We look forward to working together with Samsung to elevate experiences for consumers worldwide, he added.



Customer benefits and significant growth opportunities



Samsung expects the combination to deliver significant growth opportunities and benefits to customers by leveraging Samsungs and Harmans complementary technologies, resulting in increased market penetration across important end markets.



 Automotive: Combining Harmans leadership in new connected car technologies, including its top positions in infotainment, cyber security, over-the-air updates and telematics, with Samsungs significant expertise and experience in connectivity technologies, including 5G, UX/UI, display technology and security solutions, will enhance Harmans automotive and connected services businesses to drive greater sales and provide significant benefits as automakers speed the adoption of next-generation connected cars.



 Audio: Harmans leading brands and cutting-edge audio systems include JBL, Harman Kardon, Mark Levinson, AKG, Lexicon, Infinity, and Revel. The company also licenses Bowers & Wilkins and Bang & Olufsen brands for automotive. All of these brands will greatly enhance the competitiveness of Samsungs mobile, display, virtual reality and wearable products to deliver a fully differentiated audio and visual experience for customers.



 Professional: The combination will also expand the combined companys business-to-business platform through its ability to deliver integrated, large-scale audio and visual professional solutions at stadiums, concert facilities and other performance centers such as The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and STAPLES Center  home of the Grammy Awards.



 Connected Services: Samsung will gain access to Harmans 8,000 software designers and engineers who are unlocking the potential of the IoT market. This collaboration will deliver the next generation of cloud-based consumer and enterprise experiences, as well as end-to-end services for the automotive market through the convergence of design, data and devices.



The transaction, which is subject to approval by Harman shareholders, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions, is expected to close in mid-2017.  TradeArabia News Service




Dubai-based family-owned conglomerate Juma Al Majid Group is set to launch the security safes and bank security products from top European brand Wertheim in the UAE through its office equipment, storage and material handling solution division.



It is the host and distributor for flagship brands that form the backbone of this division from Konica Minolta Digital Solutions (MFP, Printer, digital Press, MPS /OPS, DMS/ECM) and Kardex Remstar (Document Management and Material Handling Solution).



Other major brands include Rosss, (Storage & Warehousing Solutions) EBA, (Office & Industrial Shredding Solutions) Akten-Ex (Certified Shredding Solutions & industrial Heavy Duty Shredders), Intimus (Paper & Industrial Shredding Systems) & Lexmark Printers.



Juma Al Majid Group's office equipment, storage & material handling solution division has joined hands with Wertheim brand for the launch.



Chief operating officer of Juma Al Majid Group Khaled Issa said: "We are strengthening the backbone of this division by introducing our new partner company Wertheim.



"Business productivity depends on fast, efficient processes and equipment that meet our clients' documentation, communication, safety, and information retrieval requirements, simply and effectively. With this in mind, Office Equipment, Storage & Material Handling Solution Division has been constantly updating its product lines and delivery systems to keep with up-to-date technology, thus ensuring complete customer satisfaction," he added.



Martina Lunzer, the general director of Wertheim, said: "Wertheim is honoured to collaborate with one of the most skilled companies in the Middle East. For Wertheim it is a milestone to support Juma al Majid in Dubai and the Emirates with expertise, products and service."



"We are convinced that our high quality products, tested and certified by the official VdS laboratory in Germany fit excellently to the company profile of Juma Al Majid Group," she noted.



Wertheim, which has its headquarters in Vienna, Austria, was founded in 1852 as a key manufacturer of physical security equipment and bank security products.



Since the time of Franz Wertheim, the company has grown from fireproof and burglar-resistant safes

producers to a comprehensive manufacturer of certified security products.



The products range from wall safes to heavy vault doors. The companys philosophy is centered on quality, technical innovation and customer satisfaction, it added.-TradeArabia News Service
Revenue, marketing and distribution service Busy Rooms has signed a deal with Thomas Cooks hotel brand Sentido Hotels & Resorts to integrate 68 hotels into its central reservation and revenue management technology.



Andrew Ransley, vice president EMEA for Busy Rooms, said: We are pleased to welcome the hotel division of one of the leading European leisure travel brands to Busy Rooms. Given Thomas Cooks history of innovation, Busy Rooms has the right technology to provide customised developments and meet future requirements of Thomas Cook Hotels & Resorts.



Busy Rooms (CRS) will provide the group with its all-in-one central reservations system including the dynamic packaging booking engine, channel management, revenue management, call centre application, as well as group and hotel level reporting. The solution will be customised to help Thomas Cook Hotels & Resorts to implement a multi-level distribution and sales strategy. - TradeArabia News Service
Oman Air has successfully concluded its participation at World Travel Market (WTM) held in London at ExCeL London last week.



During the three day business exhibition the airline unveiled several key developments to the worldwide travel and tourism industry as well as leading figures in the UK media.



As part of the airlines ambitious growth programme and fleet expansion; announcements included the launch of Oman Airs daily flight from Manchester due to start in May 2017 and the move of its double daily flights to Terminal 4 at London Heathrow. To help demonstrate Oman Airs continued commitment to ongoing investment in the comfort of guests onboard, two members of Oman Airs cabin crew were on the stand encouraging visitors to try the new award-winning Business Class seat which was on display.



An intense programme of meetings was scheduled throughout the three days with targeted members of the travel trade and media.



Oman Airs chief commercial officer Abdulrahman Al Busaidy said: WTM London is an incredibly important event for us to attend and raise our profile in the international travel arena. Oman Air had a very successful few days where we managed to communicate our award-winning offering and extensive international network to some important and influential figures in the travel industry. We are particularly delighted at the incredibly favourable reaction to our newly announced daily flight from Manchester to Muscat launching next year.



Activities during WTM also included the hosting of a small trade gathering, where Oman Air recognised its most influential UK partners for their support in 2015-16 and a jointly hosted media event with the Oman Ministry of Tourism. As part of the media event, Oman Airs Rogier De Jager, regional vice president Europe, introduced the airlines annual media awards to reward the journalists responsible for the best articles / broadcast appearing in the UK in 2015-2016. The awards were presented together with Maitha al Mahrouqi, under secretary of The Ministry of Tourism, Oman.



Oman Air has itself celebrated numerous awards since its participation in WTM London 2015 including the Best International Airline and Best In-Flight Magazine as well as awards for its new Business Class seat, which was tested with enthusiasm during the show. - TradeArabia News Service


The TransGriot is available for speaking engagements, college lectures, panel discussions, media interviews, conferences or Trans 101 education efforts for your school, business or professional organizations.



For local Houston area, Texas or national events, you can e-mail me at transgriot@yahoo.com



For events outside the Houston metro area, I ask that my travel and lodging expenses be covered.



This is separate from my speaking fee.



If you are interested in having me appear as a speaker or panelist, you can e-mail me with the date and details of your proposed event.

Please book as early as possible because my speaking and event calendar slots during the year rapidly fill up.
CHEYENNE  The Wyoming Business Alliance and Wyoming Heritage Foundation have created a new initiative where business people across the state will be able to help improve public education.

Wyoming Excels was officially launched during Gov. Matt Meads Business Forum at Cheyenne.

Wyoming Excels is about business engaging with educators, said Fred von Ahrens, the volunteer chairman of the initiative.

Von Ahrens is vice president of manufacturing for Tronox, a company in Green River that mines trona and makes soda ash. He also is vice chairman of the Wyoming Business Alliance/Wyoming Heritage Foundation.

This initiative will allow us to get a seat at the table to support the education system, he said, and be a partner to improve education.

Its all about the outcomes for our children, so they become outstanding citizens and employees. Its about accountability in the system, transparency in funding and return on investment and student outcomes.

Business people can help in various ways, including serving as mentors, von Ahrens said.

Von Ahrens said the Daniels Fund and the John P. Ellbogen Foundation each donated money for a three-year grant totaling $510,000 to support Wyoming Excels.

This is an outstanding opportunity, von Ahrens said. We are honored by the confidence these foundations have put in our organizations.

Karren Sparky Turner of the Daniels Fund said Wyoming Excels will help build an educational system that will assure the well-educated, skilled, productive workforce and citizenry.
A major Casper business development organization has announced a local entrepreneur and investor as its new leader.

Charles Walsh was named president and CEO of the Casper Area Economic Development Alliance on Monday. CAEDA is funded by the city and Natrona County and receives private funding for some initiatives.

Walsh said his priority was helping Casper businesses provide jobs, given the regions economic woes.

We need to focus on our backyard, Walsh said. We need more immediate return versus pursuing things that will take us a longer time.

Walsh suggested that he would narrow CAEDAs efforts to recruit businesses to the Casper area. He emphasized the importance of attracting companies that would not only succeed in Casper but complement rather than compete with existing businesses.

Walsh has served on the CAEDA board for three years and helped create Wyomings first angel investment fund under the Breakthrough 307 umbrella. Angel investing involves an individual offering seed funding to a startup company.

Walsh is Air Force veteran who founded and sold several companies in Ohio before moving to Casper in 2006. He replaces Bill Edwards, who has headed the agency since 2012.

Walsh outlined five goals for his term as CAEDA president:

Engage existing local businesses because they are best able to expand quickly.

Targeted recruitment of new companies that would fit well within the local economy.

Helping to nurture a startup culture in Casper by supporting entrepreneurs through tools like mentor programs.

Skills training for the local workforce.

Quality of life improvements, including supporting projects like the David Street Station downtown plaza.

Walsh said CAEDAs priorities are creating jobs and supporting capital development by private-sector businesses that will lead to more jobs.

He cited the recent extension of sewer infrastructure to the western edge of town as an example of how the organization achieves these goals. The project was intended to connect a manufacturing company called Nalco FabTech, which promised 60 new jobs, to the water grid. But it also expanded the infrastructure capacity of the Casper/Natrona County Airport, which is looking to attract more companies to its business park.

When we look at projects, were not looking at projects that just give us one benefit, Walsh said.
GREAT FALLS, Mont.  Blackfeet tribal leaders have closed reservation waters to all water craft due to the recent discovery of invasive mussel larvae in Tiber Reservoir, which is east of the reservation.

Fishing from the banks is still allowed. Nearby, Glacier National Park instituted a similar water craft ban last week.

Blackfeet Fish and Wildlife Director Dona Rutherford tells the Great Falls Tribune (gftrib.com/2eykiAP) the tribe plans to test reservation waters to make sure none have been impacted.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials announced last week that Tiber Reservoir tested positive for the larvae of aquatic mussels  the first such infestation in the state. Quagga and zebra mussels can clog water pipes. They also eat microscopic organisms that fish rely on for food.
A state legislative panel reviewed a report Monday about the 15-year-old Wyoming State Penitentiary  which has buckled floors along with wide cracks separating the walls and sits atop unstable soil  but did not draft a bill to pay for repairs.

Thats because the states facing a $157 million revenue shortfall, said Rep. Dave Miller, a Riverton Republican who is chairman of the Joint Judiciary Committee, which met at Casper College.

Lawmakers will be so focused on finding ways to eliminate the deficit when they convene in Cheyenne in January that they wont want to try to find an extra $87.2 million  the estimated amount repairs will cost, Miller said.

Miller served on a task force that studied the structural problems at the Rawlins prison.

Miller said Gov. Matt Mead is aware of the buildings issues and may ask lawmakers to address them. A bill could be introduced during the 2017 session of the Wyoming Legislature, sponsored either by an individual lawmaker or by the Joint Appropriations Committee, Miller said.

If no bill is passed, the structural problems at the prison will continue. The prisons maintenance staff will have to continue to make Band-Aid fixes  installing columns to raise a ceiling in one area, sawing the bottoms off doors as floors rise in another.

Under the main prison building, the soil is swelling and heaving, causing the floor to rise. In ancillary buildings on the east side of the prison, including inside a unit with privileges for inmates with good behavior, the soil is sinking, causing walls to crack.

A 1997 soil report concluded there was a moderate-to-high potential of buildings swelling and collapsing when the soil gets wet. The geotechnical firm that analyzed the prison site and wrote the report recommended the state construct the prison using a specific building system. Its unknown whether the general contractor followed the design plan.

The Wyoming Attorney Generals office is investigating the construction.

But Miller said that the AGs investigation is separate from the work of the task force, which had to decide whether to fix the prison or abandon the site and build a new prison altogether at a price of about $259 million.

Keeping in mind the states revenue struggles due to a decline in oil, gas and coal, the task force chose to make repairs.

It looks cheaper on paper, Miller said. Some of the consultants, the architects and the engineers said well get the full life of the building.

Miller said he voted against repairs. He is a geologist and believes the site should be abandoned for one with more stable soil and bedrock. He doesnt believe the repairs will save the facility.

He noted that the Wyoming Department of Corrections was ordered by the U.S. Department of Justice in the late 1990s to abandon the former prison, which sits just north of the current prison site, due to structural problems that the federal government determined made the prisoners unsafe.

Miller doesnt believe the prison can be fixed for $87.2 million. Much of the equipment is now dated and will need to be upgraded.

I think youre talking $100 million-plus, he said.
At least 300 protesters filled the streets of downtown Laramie on Monday afternoon as part of a peaceful walkout to demonstrate solidarity among women, racial minorities, immigrants, the LGBT community and other minority groups in the aftermath of the U.S. presidential election.

Throughout the roughly hour-and-a-half duration of the march, protesters held up signs, including Equality hurts no one, Love trumps hate and Nasty women unite and posted photographs and updates on Twitter under the hashtag #SolidarityWyoming. Toward the front of the procession, two protesters carried a bright red banner bearing the words WE R LOVE, with the O replaced with a heart containing the bison on the Wyoming flag.

The Solidarity Walk Out, which began at 12 p.m. on Simpson Plaza, was organized by University of Wyoming freshman Rihanna Kelver, a transgender woman and former candidate for the Albany County School District No. 1 Board of Education.

Kelver said she was inspired to organize the event after spending time with friends and hearing about some of the other post-election protests going on nationally. She stressed the walkout was not created specifically to protest Donald Trump being elected as U.S. president, but rather to recognize the anxiety and fear minority groups had been feeling since the election and demonstrate solidarity.

With all the rhetoric and speech thats been used from Trump and his supporters, and the amount of reported hate crimes thus far after the election, a lot of us kind of went into this state that maybe we should just hide back, and you know, kind of shut down, Kelver said. And so, in a way to avoid that, we kind of went with this event as a way to show solidarity between all these different communities, and as a way to show our community of Laramie that were here, we have these concerns, and were not going to just go into the background and stay silent.

Renee Laegreid, a UW history professor and the president of the UW Faculty Association, a chapter of the American Association of University Professors, gave a short speech to the crowd just before the walkout began.

As a candidate, Trump unleashed  well, not exactly an arrow, but more like a shotgun, at all sorts of groups, racial groups, ethnic groups, LGBT groups, disabled people, women, she said. And when I saw  some of the internet posts the other day, right after the election, it was really stunning to me to see how quickly some of these people who felt empowered by the uncivil discourse that had been unleashed, were so willing to take advantage of it and intimidate other people.

As they marched through the streets, members of the group participated in a number of chants, including The people, united, will never be divided; Show us what democracy looks like; this is what democracy looks like and Donald Trump, go away  racist, sexist, anti-gay.

Yair Sanchez, a UW junior, said he and other protesters were there to stand together more than ever right now and wanted everyone to feel as if they still belonged to a safe community.

It makes us sad that even though we made it so far ... with this election, I feel like we took so many steps back, he said. And we really want to stand up for all the communities that are scared, that fear because of the election, and were here to really tell people that we are here, and were here to stay, and were going to fight with everything.

Karlee Provenza, a Ph.D. student at UW, said she was concerned about the rights of the LGBT community, women and minorities, especially with a Republican-dominated House of Representatives and Senate.

The people that have been appointed to the cabinet are people that have no interest in equality, she said. And if we lose another Supreme Court justice, Im concerned that were going to lose that, so Im here today to try to put pressure on my government, on my legislators, and to show solidarity to those that are in areas where maybe they dont feel that they have a voice.

After exiting Simpson Plaza, the group proceeded west down Grand Avenue, briefly stopping at the corner of First Street and Grand Avenue before heading north on Third Street, east on Clark Street and returning to the university campus for one last rally.

As the protest wound down, two UW students sporting red Make America Great Again caps stood outside the Wyoming Union and quietly watched the proceedings. Both students, Brandon Emery and Bailey Bonnet, said they identified as supporters of the president-elect but were not part of any counter-protest efforts.

You know, America voted, Bonnet said. If you have any, any opposing views to the president-elect, I mean, you have the right to express those, but peacefully. And if youre going to start to get hostile and burn the American flag, thats not cool and that, that needs to be stopped. But I totally respect the peaceful protests, you know. As Americans, we do have the rights to our own opinions and to stand up for what we believe in.

Albany County GOP Chair Karen Bienz said Monday since she wasnt present at the walkout, it was difficult to comment specifically on the event.

Im hoping that the country can move forward, she said. I think that thats the only statement that we want to offer.
An Oklahoma man is facing vehicular homicide charges in connection to a crash near Laramie that killed two.

Charles Gibson, 58, of Midwest City, Oklahoma, was not injured, but was arrested by the Wyoming Highway Patrol and taken to the Albany County Detention Center after the crash on Thursday.

Gibson's semi-truck struck a Chevrolet Uplander van head-on on U.S. Highway 287, killing 46-year-old Dawn Wight and her husband, 57-year-old Robert Wight. Two juvenile male passengers in the back seat of the van were airlifted from the scene to medical facilities in Laramie and Denver. The family is from Sandy, Utah.

Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper Rick Colling says troopers are investigating if driver fatigue was a contributing factor in the crash.
BILLINGS, Mont.  An Oregon man who died after falling into a scalding Yellowstone National Park hot spring was looking for a place to hot pot, the forbidden practice of soaking in one of the parks thermal features, officials said.

Sable Scott told investigators that she and her 23-year-old brother, Colin, left a boardwalk near Pork Chop Geyser on June 7 and walked several hundred feet up a hill in search of a place that they could potentially get into and soak, Deputy Chief Ranger Lorant Veress told Montana television station KULR-TV.

As Sable Scott took video of her brother with her cellphone, he reached down to check the water temperature and slipped and fell into the hot pool, according to the incident report obtained by KULR through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Park officials did not release the video or a description of it.

Search and rescue rangers spotted Colin Scotts body in the pool the day of the accident, but a lightning storm prevented recovery.

The next day, workers could not find any remains in the churning, acidic water, Veress said.

In very short order, there was a significant amount of dissolving, Veress said.

Pork Chop Geyser is in the Norris Geyser Basin, one of the hottest and most volatile areas in Yellowstone.

Water temperatures in the basin can reach 199 degrees and signs warn visitors to keep to boardwalks and trails in thermal areas.

The National Park Service did not issue any citations in Colin Scotts death.

Scott was on a college graduation trip with his sister at the time of his death, which came a day after six people were cited for walking off-trail at the parks Grand Prismatic Spring.

A week later, a tourist from China was fined $1,000 for breaking through the fragile crust in the Mammoth Hot Springs area, apparently to collect water for medicinal purposes.
TEXAS

Chilis punishes boss who took vets meal

DALLAS  The president of the Chilis restaurant chain said the manager who took away a veterans free Veterans Day meal has been removed from the job.

In a statement issued Monday, Chilis President Kelli Valade also said she personally apologized to Ernest Walker for the managers actions and thanked him for his service to the country.

Ernest Walker posted a video to Facebook on Friday of the manager removing his meal at a Chilis in the Dallas suburb of Cedar Hill.

The Army veteran wrote that the meal was removed after another diner questioned the uniform Walker was wearing. Walker said the manager took his meal even after Walker showed his military ID and discharge papers.

WEST VIRGINIA

2 criticized over racial post of Mrs. Obama

CHARLESTON  The director of a West Virginia development group and a mayor are under scrutiny after a racist post about first lady Michelle Obama caused a backlash and prompted calls on social media for both women to be fired.

Clay County Development Corp. director Pamela Ramsey Taylor made the post following Donald Trumps election as president, saying: It will be refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady in the White House. Im tired of seeing a Ape in heels.

Clay Mayor Beverly Whaling responded: Just made my day Pam.

The post, first reported by WSAZ-TV, was shared hundreds of times on social media before it was deleted.

WISCONSIN

Making a Murderer figure to be released

MADISON  A man whose homicide conviction was overturned in a case profiled in the Netflix series Making a Murderer could be celebrating Thanksgiving at home with his family in Wisconsin after a judge Monday ordered him released from prison.

Brendan Dasseys release was ordered by U.S. Magistrate Judge William Duffin even as prosecutors appeal the judges earlier ruling overturning Dasseys conviction.

Duffin ruled in August that investigators tricked Dassey into confessing he helped his uncle, Steven Avery, rape, kill and mutilate photographer Teresa Halbach at the Avery family salvage yard in Manitowoc County in 2005. Investigators allege Avery lured her there by asking her to take photos of a minivan.

PENNSYLVANIA

Doctor boots patient after Trump dispute

BROOMALL  A teacher said she went to her doctor for a physical but instead got booted from the office by her Donald Trump-supporting physician after she disagreed with him.

Heidi Kravitz Dunn told The Philadelphia Inquirer it happened Friday in Broomall. She said Dr. Joseph LaBricciosa ranted about the inner city kids she teaches and criticized protests over Trumps election. Dunn said she told him they had a right to protest. She said he replied if she didnt believe what he believed, his practice wasnt for her and she needed to go. So she left.

LaBricciosa said he didnt kick her out. He adds he sent her a letter of apology and wont talk politics with patients anymore. Dunn said she has a new doctor.

OHIO

Ex-lawyer gets 12 yrs. for sexual hypnoses

ELYRIA  A former Ohio attorney who authorities say hypnotized unwitting female clients for his sexual gratification was sentenced Monday to 12 years in prison.

Michael Fine was sentenced in Lorain County after pleading guilty in September to kidnapping and attempted kidnapping charges involving six women. The judge ordered Fine, 59, classified as a registered sex offender.

Defense attorney Robert Housel said Fine has had difficulties in his life, voluntarily gave up his law license and acknowledged what he had done by entering guilty pleas.

CALIFORNIA

Google fooled by fake news about election

SAN FRANCISCO  Googles search engine highlighted an inaccurate story claiming that President-elect Donald Trump won the popular vote in last weeks election, the latest example of bogus information spread by the internets gatekeepers.

The incorrect results were shown Monday in a two-day-old story posted on the pro-Trump 70 News site. A link to the site appeared at or near the top of Googles influential rankings of relevant news stories for searches on the final election results.

Google acknowledged the problem, although as of mid-afternoon Monday, the link to 70 News remained prominent in its results.

COLORADO

Man held for 28 years acquitted in rape case

DENVER  A Denver man who spent more than a quarter of a century in prison for a rape he long denied committing was acquitted of the crime on Monday, leaving a courtroom to applause from supporters and chants of its over.

Clarence Moses-EL, 60, was freed in December, after a judge overturned his 1988 conviction on rape and assault charges and found that he would likely be acquitted if his case went to trial again.

Another prisoner claimed to be responsible for the attack, but prosecutors chose to try Moses-EL again. Jurors began deliberating the case last Thursday, and they issued their not guilty verdict Monday  leaving Moses-EL beaming and fighting back tears.

Outside court, Moses-EL said he holds no grudges and hoped his case will help improve the criminal justice system. Right now, he said, he wants to enjoy his freedom.

You dont know how much freedom really means until you have it taken away from you, he said, And especially if its taken away from you for something you didnt do.

Moses-EL had long maintained his innocence.

Wire reports
Dawn and David Bain are ready for retirement, but rather than plop a for-sale sign on their popular Sierra Vista restaurant, the couple is paying it forward.

The Bains are holding an essay contest. The prize: their restaurant, The Outside Inn.

If I could do something and pay it forward to someone who would never have the opportunity in their life, I thought that was kind of the win-win situation all the way around, said David Bain, a 56-year-old father of two.

The writer of the winning essay gets the 2,000-square-foot restaurant, the land it sits on, the kitchen equipment, the dining room furniture, pictures on the walls, silverware, plates and cups and any food left in the pantries, freezers and refrigerators.

The cost: $125 per entry, and the couple is limiting the entries to no more than 7,500.

My wife and I are kind of unconventional types, said Bain, who has run The Outside Inn, 4907 S. Arizona 92, with his wife for 23 years. This is not a scam. We just want to help somebody and change someones life for the better.

The Bains have been considering the essay contest for several months and posted the first notice at the end of August at theoutsideinnblog.wordpress.com, where you will find the entry form and contest rules.

But the contest is just officially launching. Writers must be 18 years or older and the winner would be required to pay any taxes, including income and real estate, once they take ownership, according to contest rules.

Entrants are asked to answer the question  Why I want to operate my own restaurant  in 200 words or less. No where in the essay should the writer identify themselves. Entries must be postmarked by April 30, 2017, and judging could begin at the end of May.

According to rules posted on the contest website, judges will winnow the entries to 100, then an independent panel of judges will bring that number to 20 finalists before determining a winner.

The winner will then have 30 days after he or she is notified to let the Bains know if he or she will accept the prize, which Bain on the website estimated is worth $400,000 for the land and restaurant equipment alone. If the winner opts out, the first runner-up gets the restaurant.

The Bains moved to Arizona from Colorado in 1989 and operated a restaurant with partners along Tempes busy Mill Avenue college district. Two years later, the couple sold out to their partners and moved to Sierra Vista, where they opened The Outside Inn in 1993 in a converted home that dated back to the 1960s.

The restaurant serves a French-inspired menu that includes Australian rack of lamb, veal piccata, broiled lobster tail, chicken Bolognese, ratatouille gratine, and several seafood and steak dishes. Its lunch menu includes soups, salads and sandwiches.

Its crowdsourcing reviews on sites including Yelp and TripAdvisor are mostly positive; many of the reviewers seem genuinely surprised to see a fine-dining restaurant in the town of less than 50,000 thats anchored by Fort Huachuca.

Bain said the essay winner doesnt need to keep the menu or the restaurants theme. In fact, they can do with the property as they wish so long as it complies with county zoning laws, he said.

The Outside Inn has earned positive marks from the Cochise County Health Department, which awarded the restaurant an excellent rating after its September inspection, according to county records.

Bain said he and his wife, who is 60 and has experienced some recent health problems, want to spend more time with their daughter, who lives in Tucson, and son, who resides in Las Vegas.
Arizona Opera is mounting Dvoraks Rusalka this weekend  a first for the company and the first time it has done an opera in Czechoslovakian.

Here are a few things you need to know about the production before you see it on Saturday, Nov. 19, or Sunday, Nov. 20, at the Tucson Music Hall:

Its a fairytale: Rusalka takes its cue from Hans Christian Andersens 19th century fairytale The Little Mermaid, who gives up her identity as a sea creature to become human.

What weve decided to do is look at the piece through the lens of Rusalka herself and to distill the piece down to its most essential relationships and most essential storytelling, explained Joshua Borths, Arizona Operas resident stage director.

Silence and silhouettes: The stage is set with the human world hidden in silhouette and the sea world clearly visible. The human world is silent until Rusalka crosses the threshold connecting the two worlds, and then the human world comes out of the shadows.

These giant doors open to let the human world in, which highlights what the piece is about, what happens when we make irrevocable decisions and have to bear the consequences, either living happily ever after or living with the tragedy, said Borths.

Girl gets boy and then ... : Rusalka is a water spirit who falls for an earthly prince. She convinces the witch Jezibaba to turn her into a human so she can be with her prince. But the transformation has consequences: As a human, she cant speak, and if the prince rejects her, shes damned, the witch warns her.

Turns out Jezibaba isnt too fond of humans.

There is obviously a hidden storyline there of her hatred for humans, said mezzo-soprano Daveda Karanas, who sings the role of the witch Jezibaba. I just love how multifaceted she is. Any day I can play a witch is my favorite day. I love it.

Rusalka takes the chance, crosses over and finds her prince. And, pretty much as Jezibaba warns, the prince turns a blind eye on her on their wedding day, turning his attention to a princess at the party.

Here comes the girl loses boy part: Prince makes a move on princess, Rusalka returns to the sea, then the princess ditches the prince. And here it gets fairytale quirky: Rusalka can have her cake and eat it, too, if she kills the prince. Of course she cant, so the prince, feeling pretty lonely and lousy, comes begging for forgiveness and one last kiss, knowing that kiss will mean his death.

Dontcha love fairytales?

Singing in Czech: For the first time in its 45 years, the Arizona Opera will sing in Czech. What will it sound like? Probably Russian, said Karanas.

Its fun. Ive sung in many languages, so I would definitely compare it to Russian, said Karanas, a Louisiana native and Arizona State University graduate. It kind of feels like Russian with Italian vowels.

This is Karanas first Rusalka, although she did a childrens version of it while she was in graduate school. The company took that version  a little more Disney than not, Karanas said  to schools around the state in conjunction with the performance, which played in Phoenix Nov. 11-13.

Borths, the companys education outreach and community engagement director, estimated 60,000 kids statewide experienced the performance.

Dream come true: Borths has never directed Rusalka, but he said it is one of his favorite operas.
Desiree Navarro / Getty Images

If you live in America, you probably aren't very far away from your local Applebee's. After opening an Applebee's restaurant in Hawaii in October, the restaurant chain now has locations in every state.

However, after dwindling sales, Applebee's launched a $75 million overhaul of its menu earlier this year, replacing all of its gas-powered grills with its trademark wood-fired grill.

In anticipation of the changes, HealthGrove, a health research site powered by Graphiq, took a closer look at the healthiness of Applebee's food. Using nutritional information from the restaurant, the team found the 55 fattiest items on the menu.

HealthGrove used dishes from the dinner menu, lunch menu and kid's menu to determine which food item was fattiest. They've also included descriptions of each dish, which come from either the Applebee's website or their physical menu.

Items are ranked from lowest to highest amount of fat, with the fattiest meal at Applebee's at No. 1. In the case of a tie, meals with more calories were ranked higher; if still tied, dishes that have more sugar were given a higher rank.

Two salads are among the five fattiest foods at Applebee's. These findings are similar to another story by HealthGrove that found 40 cheeseburgers with fewer calories than a Caesar salad from The Cheesecake Factory.

Note: HealthGrove collected nutritional information from Applebee's on Nov. 13, 2016.

Compiled by Bret Greenacre, HealthGrove.com
Around this time of year, the sidewalks of South Twelfth Avenue are lined with squash: big ones, small ones, veiny green ones with bell bottoms and curvy trunks, flat little pumpkins and puffy white ones with bumps. (Sorry, squash is so dang pretty it makes me want to write schlocky Dr. Seuss poetry.)

They're usually at the stands that sell the corn. Farmers come up from the Southeast Arizona town of Elfrida to sell them, along with their Mexican honey and packets of dried chiles. When you ask what they're selling, the answer is always the same: "calabazas." (Simple as that.)

I did a little snooping around and I found out that most of them are actually Green-Striped Cushaw squash, also known as the crookneck pumpkin. This variety is primarily grown here and in the American South, where people like to use them in their pumpkin pies. The Slow Food website says the cushaw came up from Mesoamerica, and is currently grown by the Hopi and the Tohono O'Odham, who call it Ha:l.

I have been cooking with this squash  which cost me $5  for the past week. The seeds I roasted with salt and pepper, and have been snacking on at work. (They're a little less flaky than your regular pumpkin, but otherwise the same.) The light orange flesh I put in a pasta primavera with tomatoes, summer squash and Cotija cheese. The next morning I cooked an egg over the leftovers, and let the squash fry until it was crispy and brown on the edges.

I was buying some pumpkin empanadas at La Estrella Bakery the other day and I struck up a conversation with the woman who was ringing me up. She told me she likes to make that squash into a dessert. She boils it like you would camotes, or sweet potatoes, with a cone of the Mexican cane sugar piloncillo. Then she pours sweetened condensed milk on top. It's not something you buy at a restaurant, she said. You cook it at home.

When I headed over to the Saint Mary's Food City for the piloncillo and the canned milk, guess what I found! The squash was right there, in a giant bin labeled "Mexican hard squash," two pounds for 98 cents.

Gorgeous! #squash #tucson #calabacitas A photo posted by #ThisIsTucson  (@this_is_tucson) on Nov 11, 2016 at 4:57pm PST

I made some up this morning with my remaining two bowls of squash cubes. (Even a medium-sized Cushaw has quite a bit of meat in there.) I submerged the squash in water with a a couple of star anise pods I bought at Food City, the cone of piloncillo and a cinammon stick. I let it simmer for half an hour. When it came out the flesh was soft and rich and summery like a pumpkin's, but much less stringy. It soaked up the cinnamon and anise, which added a rich campfire feel without being overwhelming.

I have never tasted anything like this before, but it felt so incredibly familiar. I'm still sitting here trying to recall a memory I've never had, of sitting around a table eating this with people I love.

I guess I still have so much to learn about this place we call Tucson, but this lesson was easy ... I could do it in my sleep.

Cushaw dessert squash with piloncillo and sweetened condensed milk

Ingredients:

1 medium-sized Cushaw squash

1 cone piloncillo

2 star anise pods

1 cinnamon stick

14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk

Cut stem off squash and then slice in half. Remove seeds and strings from inside of squash. (Seeds can be roasted separately.) Carefully cut away skin and chop flesh into 1-inch cubes.
NEW YORK (AP)  People magazine named Blake Shelton its Sexiest Man Alive for 2017 on Tuesday, but it took some convincing by his girlfriend Gwen Stefani to get her guy on board.

The country music superstar and coach on NBC's "The Voice" hates being the center of attention, the magazine said.

"She goes, 'Listen to me,'" recalled the 6-foot-5, Oklahoma-bred Shelton. "'You're going to regret this for the rest of your life if you don't take this gift and just live in the moment.' I've been ugly my whole life. If I can be sexy for a year, I'm taking it!'"

Bonus for the outspoken Shelton: He can hold the accolade over the head of Adam Levine, his fellow coach on the singing competition and 2013's Sexiest Man Alive. Only Shelton used some colorful language to describe that experience between his pal and banter partner on air.

Shelton said he was, in fact, proud and honored to have been picked, adding: "I'm not going to treat this like Hugh Jackman or one of those guys who's humble about it. People are going to hate me over this. Because it's going to be used in every conversation, whether it's at 'The Voice' or at the feed store in Tishomingo, Oklahoma, or in a conversation with a doctor. Until I have to hand the title, which is what it is to me, over to someone else, this is mine. This is like a certification."

Shelton's latest album, "Texoma Shore," hit No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums this week.

The magazine's Sexiest Man Alive special double issue hits newsstands Friday.

Here's a look at the "Sexiest Man Alive" from previous years:
We watch the Macy's parade on TV, we serve Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless, the president pardons a turkey and we gather together. And there's always a turkey dinner.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich says the city of Tucson may be violating state law by destroying guns that were turned in or confiscated by the police department.

However, in his 11-page response to a complaint filed by state Rep. Mark Finchem, Brnovich did not indicate whether he will pursue legal action to force the city to stop turning most guns taken in by police into scrap metal.

The city contends destroying the firearms is lawful because the disposition of municipal property is a local concern.

The Ordinance, which requires the Tucson Police Department to destroy forfeited firearms, conflicts with state law. The Office recognizes, however, that while the prior case law is most likely distinguishable, there is a question as to whether this matter is of purely local concern and thus the Ordinance might not violate state law, Brnovich concluded in his report, issued Monday. The Office therefore concludes ... that the Ordinance may violate state law.

He said there is statewide interest in preserving the right to bear arms, regulating firearms to preserve public safety, regulating police departments and ensuring that cities do not waste resources that could generate revenue.

That, Brnovich wrote, makes the destruction of firearms distinguishable from the disposition of municipal real property, which courts have treated as being purely of local concern.

Finchem, an Oro Valley Republican, filed the complaint last month, stating Tucson is violating a 2013 Arizona law that requires the sale of otherwise legal guns obtained by law enforcement agencies.

Finchem filed his complaint under a controversial new law, SB 1487, which says local governments that violate state laws lose their state-shared revenue if they dont stop. Tucson received $172 million from the state last year.

TPD has destroyed 4,820 guns since the beginning of 2013, city records show.

City Attorney Mike Rankin said the city will have to wait and see whether Brnovich pursues legal action against the city. Their answer is Were not sure (whether it is legal), Rankin said Monday night.

Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild is more certain legal action against the city will occur related to SB 1487.

Rothschild said new law challenges the citys sovereign status.

The citys position is that SB 1487 is unconstitutional, he said.

Councilman Steve Ko- zachik said Brnovich has sidestepped the underlying issue in his response.

He absolutely punted the fundamental questions put before him, Kozachik said. He added the decision was more political than legal.

Kozachik noted that if the city is forced to answer the complaint at the Arizona Supreme Court, it is required to post a multi-million dollar bond just to fight the yet-untested state law.
A green sleeping mat was propped up next to the witness stand Monday afternoon as civil-rights advocates and federal prosecutors argued about conditions inside Border Patrol detention centers.

The mats lie at the heart of a lawsuit that claims the Border Patrol violates its own policies as well as detainees constitutional rights by forcing them to sleep on concrete floors in conditions cold enough to earn them the nickname hieleras, or iceboxes, among undocumented immigrants.

U.S. District Court Judge David C. Bury began Mondays hearing by pointing to his concerns about court filings in recent months, such as the radically different views expressed by experts who inspected the detention centers.

He also pointed to Border Patrol statistics obtained by civil-rights advocates that show most detainees stay in the centers twice as long as the agencys recommended 12 hours or less.

The Border Patrol, represented by the Department of Justice, claims it is doing the best it can with its budgetary restrictions, Bury said.

But this court cant be concerned with budgetary issues, he said.

Bury noted the detainees had not been formally charged with an offense and many would face civil, rather than criminal, charges.

Can they be denied sleep? Bury asked, noting cameras in the centers showed overcrowding in facilities that did not appear to be designed for sleeping.

Mondays hearing dealt with a motion for a preliminary injunction that would force the Border Patrol to improve conditions at the eight detention centers in the Tucson Sector.

Bury heard testimony from an expert on incarceration and an expert on health care in detention.

The Department of Justice is to present its side on Tuesday.

During Mondays hearing, Sarah Fabian, an attorney with the Department of Justice, questioned the courts interpretation of agency guidelines and pointed to issues with transferring minor detainees.

The lawsuit was filed in June 2015 on behalf of three former detainees by the Morrison and Foerster law firm and several immigrant-rights groups.
FBI training in Tucson and Oro Valley for federal, state and local law enforcement agencies will focus on child abductions.

Practical street exercises will begin Wednesday in Oro Valley's Rancho Vistoso community, and culminate with a mock abduction exercise on Friday near North La Canada Drive and West Moore Road, said officials in a news release Monday.

Classroom training will be held at Tucson Police Department's Miracle Mile substation.

Participants will receive an overview of child sex offenders, understanding the behavior of child abductors and false allegations of abductions.

Law enforcement agencies will work with the Arizona Child Abduction Response Team, and participants will respond to incidents in Southern Arizona, officials said. More than 100 participants are representing15 agencies, and more than 40 volunteers are acting in roles during the exercises.

The federal agency's team, Child Abduction Rapid Deployment, is primarily involved in non-family, and ransom abductions. They also investigate mysterious disappearances of children.

The FBI team, which was created in 2005, has been deployed more than 100 times regarding 108 victims, said authorities.

Training has also been done in Texas, Nevada, Louisiana, Rhode Island, North Carolina and New Jersey, officials said.
Its been just over a year since Tucson voters resoundingly shot down the use of red-light cameras for traffic enforcement.

The city manager ordered the cameras shut down for citations the day after the election.

Those cameras, the shells of which remain at the eight major intersections, have been the source of many emails and queries to the Road Runner. So, finally, your humble columnist dove into the most basic question about them.

Did they work? In short, when it comes to curbing dangerous intersection driving, data provided by the Tucson Police Department make a strong case they did. However, the cameras impact on collisions  especially serious wrecks  is more difficult to discern, at least according to new data obtained by the Road Runner.

The Road Runner requested red-light camera intersection collision data for two nearly year-long periods before and after the vote. Additionally, a TPD officer provided a spreadsheet with speeding and red-light running violation data  not actual police citations  for the two months after the ban and the same period the year before.

(The cameras did continue collecting data after the Nov. 3, 2015, vote, but not for enforcement.)

According to the two-month violation data, overall incidents of red-light running and speeding through the intersections between Nov. 4, 2015, and Jan. 4, 2016, were up 109 percent and 126 percent, respectively, from the same range a year prior. Data recently compiled by the Traffic Safety Coalition, a pro-red-light camera group funded in part by the industry, shows similar patterns in other Arizona communities where voters ended their use.

During the latter two-month period, that meant 25,291 motorists proceeding into the eight intersections after a light turned red and 5,045 people speeding through them at a minimum of 11 mph over the speed limit. Responding to those findings, John Kromko, chairman of the successful Tucson campaign to end the use of red-light cameras, said he suspects TPDs violation data was manipulated, possibly by shifting definitions of where the intersection begins.

Some jumps at specific intersections and directions of travel were eye-popping. For example, red-light running on westbound Speedway at North Kolb Road skyrocketed 818 percent to 1,497, and speeding shot up 730 percent on southbound Craycroft Road at East Broadway.

However, the collision data suggest a trend that might be counterintuitive to some: Collisions at the intersections didnt increase after the cameras went dark, and may have actually declined.

Comparing collisions between October and December 2015 (which includes about a month before the cameras were shut off) to the same period a year before, TPD found that collisions at all intersections either stayed the same or decreased with the exception of two intersections, where they rose modestly.

The longer-range data requested from TPD suggest something similar.

That set shows collisions at or near the eight intersections between November 2015 and August 2016 fell 8 percent to 307 from 334 the year prior. Only one intersection, West River Road and North Oracle Road, saw an increase, a modest jump of one to 35. Two intersections had exactly the same number of collisions, and the steepest decline was seen at Speedway and Kolb, where the number of incidents fell 25 percent to 38.

There were no fatal wrecks at any of the intersections in either period, according to TPD.

TPD Assistant Chief Ramon Batista described the mixed bag of data, which shows seemingly incompatible increases in dangerous driving behaviors and flat or declining collisions, as the wildest anomaly.

However, thanks to TPDs Lt. Jamie Brady graciously taking time out of her Veterans Day holiday, the Road Runner received even more fine-grained collision data.

That data confirm the overall reduction in collisions, but add a few interesting twists, including that more serious reportable crashes increased slightly and less-serious property damage only collisions declined by nearly 30 percent.

David Goldenberg, a TSC spokesman, said that without a more granular look at crashes in the eight intersections stemming from red-light running and speeding, a complete and full understanding of what is happening is not possible.

Anything less is arguably flawed data. It does not tell a complete or accurate story, he added.

But Kromko was not at all surprised by the result, arguing that in some ways the cameras made intersections more dangerous, by encouraging sudden braking, among other things.

Also, annual collision data for the eight intersections proper  not including areas approaching the intersection  do show a steady decline from 188 in fiscal year 2006 to 57 in FY 2015, which includes the roughly four-year period during which all of the red-light cameras were deployed, according to a previous TPD analysis. Kromko is also suspicious of these numbers. He provided the Road Runner with an independently produced report based on Arizona Department of Transportation collision data that argues the decline may have just mirrored a broader decline in collisions in the area.

Meanwhile, data from other communities that have shut off red-light cameras show a 16 percent rise in fatal red-light running crashes, according to another report from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Kromko again countered that fatal crashes were fairly rare at the eight Tucson intersections to begin with, and have remained so.

So, what to make of this mess of conflicting numbers?

Batista argued that even if overall collisions are declining, the speeding and red-light violation data suggest that the collisions that do occur might be more serious, an argument supported by the follow-up data Brady provided.

Kromkos view is that red-light cameras were an expensive scam for drivers when they were operating and at the very least did nothing to improve intersection safety.

For his part, Goldenberg said that if collisions are in fact declining in Tucson, that would constitute an exception to what has been seen in a number of other communities that have banned the cameras.

The data is indisputable, he said. Red-light cameras reduce red-light running, reduce crashes, and reduce the injuries and deaths that occur because of red-light running and speeding.

But what do you think? Check out the poll available in the online version of this story and weigh in.
Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in The Hague said on Monday there were preliminary grounds to believe U.S. forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan and at secret detention facilities elsewhere in 2003 and 2004.





In a report, prosecutors said there was a "reasonable basis to believe" that U.S. forces had tortured prisoners in Afghanistan and at Central Intelligence Agency detention facilities elsewhere in 2003 and 2004.





"Members of US armed forces appear to have subjected at least 61 detained persons to torture," the prosecutors' office, wrote. It added that CIA officials appeared to have tortured another 27 detainees.





The prosecutors' office, headed by Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, said it would decide imminently whether to pursue a full investigation.





The results of a full investigation could potentially lead to charges being brought against individuals and the issuing of an arrest warrant. The ICC is a court of last resort, however, meaning it could only bring charges if domestic authorities were not dealing adequately with allegations.





Monday's finding marks a significant step forward in the court's decade-old examination of conflicts in Afghanistan and could draw a sharp response from a U.S. administration that is set to become less internationalist under President-elect Donald Trump.





"These alleged crimes were not the abuses of a few isolated individuals," the report said. "They appear to have been committed as part of approved interrogation techniques in an attempt to extract 'actionable intelligence.'"





The United States occupied and patrolled large parts of Afghanistan during their hunt for the Taliban and al Qaeda forces behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.





Further crimes may have been committed at CIA facilities in Poland, Lithuania and Romania, prosecutors added, because individuals captured in Afghanistan were allegedly transferred to those sites.





The report, covering all the many preliminary examinations being carried out by the court, found grounds to suspect all belligerents, including the Taliban and the Afghan government, had committed war crimes. - Read More




A family of four were displaced by a house fire on the city's south side Monday.

No one was injured in the blaze in the 200 block of West Ohio Street, said Capt. Barrett Baker, a Tucson Fire Department spokesman.

At 2:38 p.m., firefighters responded after multiple 911 calls were made reporting the blaze in the neighborhood near South Sixth Avenue, north of West Irvington Road.

Crews found heavy black smoke and flames coming from the rear of a house where a shed was burning and also a patio area, said Baker.

Flames spread to the house's attic, and firefighters battled the blaze as best they could because they were hampered by a downed power line. Crews had to wait for Tucson Electric Power Co. workers to arrive and secure the electricity, Baker said.

Twenty-three firefighters brought the blaze under control in 26 minutes.

The family had a place to stay and did not need assistance from the Southern Arizona Chapter of the American Red Cross.

Initial indications were that the fire started outside of the house, but fire investigators were working to determine the cause, said Baker. A damage estimate was not yet known.
Browse volunteer opportunities on the Volunteer Center at United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizonas website, volunteer.unitedwaytucson.org, click on find needs and search for the organizations name.

S.Y.STEM Coalition  Junior Shark Tank is an entrepreneurship and product design camp specially designed to give high school students a glimpse into the exciting world of building and owning their own business through 6 week course. Looking for talented, enthusiastic volunteers for various roles.

Childrens Museum Tucson  Intern needed to assist with the STEM specialist of the museums after school I Am A Scientist! program. The intern will work as part of the education team and will work directly with elementary-age students.

Titan Missile Museum  Seeking volunteer greeter at the Titan Missile Museum. Greeters are the first contact our visitors have as they enter the museum. Greeters answer questions and brief visitors on daily tours and special events.

Emerge! Center Against Domestic Violence  Volunteers are needed to join the shelter team in support participants and staff in our nutrition and life skills program.
OPINION: "Dickens' famous passage about an earlier fraught time captures this knife-edge moment: 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us...'" writes Tucsonan Brent Harold.
Help India!

By Faisal Fareed, TwoCircles.net

Projecting a united face after the recent power squabble in Yadav family, Samajwadi Party may face another crisis in coming days. This time the controversy may range over an issue all too familiar before the run-up to elections: the distribution of party tickets for 2017 assembly polls.

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The Akhilesh camp has devised a two-way strategy to deal with power struggle: first, take up issues raising rules mentioned in SPs constitution and second, to isolate Shivpal within the Yadav family.

Indications have been given by SPs expelled Rajya Sabha MP Ramgopal Yadav that a special convention of the party may be summoned to tide over the crisis. Ramgopal is ardent supporter of Akhilesh Yadav and is pitted against state president Shivpal Yadav.

On November 10, Ramgopal minced no words in claiming that Shivpal Yadav is distributing tickets as per his whims and fancies. He even targeted Mulayam, stating that he is being misled.

Such accusations are quite common during power struggle in any party. But Ramgopal has given enough signals that Akhilesh camp is ready to deal with the crisis. Recently, Shivpal had changed two tickets from Chauri Chaura and Sahjanwa seat in UP. To avoid any showdown again with Shivpal, preparations are on to put pressure on him to yield and fall in line.

Ramgopal has claimed that a special convention of the party may be summoned. The constitution of SP, which was drafted in Jabalpur convention in 2008, states that national convention will be held every three years which will include all MPs, MLAs, former MPs and district board members. But on the demand of 40 percent of these members a special convention of the party can be summoned. This is mentioned in section 23 of SPs constitution.

Akhileshs camp is hopeful that they command sway over partys members and hence will be easily able to muster courage and raise such demands which will put pressure on Shivpal. Their main allegation is that tickets are being distributed arbitrarily by Shivpal by misleading Mulayam. This will help in cornering him within the party by projecting that he has lost support. And the decision will get stamp of partys convention that CM Akhilesh Yadav will distribute the tickets.

Another strategy by Akhilesh camp is to isolate Shivpal within Yadav family. On November 10 during Ramgopals interaction with media several members of Yadav family openly sat with him while he accused Shivpal. Mainpuri MP and Mulayams grandnephew Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, Mulayams nephew and Etawahs district board chairman Anshul Yadav, Ramgopals nephew and SPs expelled MLC Arvind Yadav, SPs MLC Dileep Yadav, Etawahs MLA Raghuraj Singh Shakya, SPs MLA from Mainpuri Rajkumar Yadav were present during the function. Not only this, hundreds of people from Etawah region were present to meet Ramgopal. This was done to present a picture that Shivpal has lost support in Etawah Mainpuri area and also within Yadav family.

Whatever be the result, infighting within SP and Yadav family is far from over and the second phase may begin any day, though not so open but in a more discreet manner.
Help India!

By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net

Srinagar: Azra Mufti might not be a well known name in the literary circles of the country, but this 25 year old girl from conflict-torn Kashmir has come up with a novel which focuses on the various painful stories about tolerance and violence against women in general.

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Born and brought up in North Kashmirs Baramullah district, Mufti did her masters in business administration and currently works as an Assistant professor in Chandigarh Group of Colleges, Mohali. She has also served as an assistant professor in Islamic University of Science and Technology in South Kashmir, Awantipura.

Her novel Tearful Pages, will be released in December, consists of stories about woman who has faced any sort of violence. Since my childhood, I have always noticed that there is a huge difference between what people preach and what they practice. I came to believe that a woman is treated as an object of lust and people are losing their morals when it comes to giving dignity and respect to women, Mufti told TwoCircles.net while taking about the book.

Times are changing but stereotypes are not. Women are still facing harassment in one form or another, so just these bottled up emotions inside me had to come out and what could have been a best way but to write about it, she added.

While discussing if her novel talks specifically about problems faced by Kashmiri women, Mufti said, There are some stories where the protagonists are Kashmiri women, but I believe that crime is cosmopolitan; limiting it any particular place or religion is not fair. What a Kashmiri Woman feels after harassment is not different than what an American woman would feel, so emotions are same and I wanted to reach a global audience not only domestic one.

Reaching out to Kashmiri girls, Mufti says that they should never compromise on your dignity.

Remember dust settles but we dont. Do not sacrifice your dignity for your destiny and learn to stand up for what is right. Bring honor to your parents and learn how to deal with problems gracefully. Girls are full of power and nobody will serve it to you, you have to take it and lead, she says.
Help India!

Text and video by Shiva Thorat, TwoCircles.net

On Sunday, a discussion on Uniform Civil Code took place at the behest of Satyashodhak Study Circle. The programme saw eminent personalities like social activist Irfaan Engineer and Firoz Mithibhorewala and lawyer Flavia Agnes.The programme was hosted by Professor Kunda, a former professor at University of Mumbai.

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The program, which was held at Bhupesh Gupta Bhavan, Prabhadevi, Mumbai was the thirteenth such discussion held by Satyasodhak Study Circle and they are eager to further many such discussions on social issues, economic-cultural aspect.

The video begins with an introduction of the study circle by Prof. Kunda.
'Snow White and the Huntsman' director Rupert Sanders, who is helming the long awaited adaptation of the hit manga due in cinemas next year, explained his rationale for casting Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson in the lead role of the Major. At an on-stage interview at a Tokyo event promoting the trailer's debut, the British filmmaker said that, 'I think whenever you cast someone someones going to be critical about it,' and praised Johansson as one of the best actresses of her generation. He also praised her ability to provide humanity to a mechanical character.

Was GitS whitewashed?

Hollywood has been facing a backlash in the last few years, due to a perception of there being a lack of prominent roles for ethnic minorities. These have lead to backlash against productions like 'Doctor Strange' (Tilda Swinton), 'Pan' (Rooney Mara), 'The Lone Ranger' (Johnny Depp) and most famously, the #OscarssoWhite hashtag against the 2016 Oscars. However, producer Steven Paul fired back, saying that '(the film) was a very international story, and it wasnt just focused on Japanese,' arguing that an international, multicultural approach was the correct path for the project. Over in Japan, fans of the franchise expressed surprise over the controversy, with many saying they assumed that the American production would cast a white actress.

In spite of whitewash claims, the film will debut 2017

GitS will arrive in theaters, on March 31, from Paramount Pictures and Dreamworks Pictures. Disney would've distributed the film, but in 2015, did not renew its contract with Dreamworks and so the rights passed over fully to co-distributor Paramount. The film's screenplay went through multiple writers, including Laeta Kalogridis (Pathfinder, Terminator Genisys), Jamie Moss (Street Kings, Spectral), William Wheeler (The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Queen of Katwe) and Johnathan Herman (Straight Outta Compton), with only Moss and Herman getting final credit on the project. Sanders described the film, and the Major, as 'kind of a coming of age story', dealing with questions of a person's worth, identity and morality.
The truth be told, no agency can be trusted. And with multitudes of people coming forward with stories and incidents of losing money, legally fighting the agency, or looking for ways to get their deposit back; I do believe that through experience of my own something has to be done. There are sites and webpages listing ways to spot a fraud/property scam, listing sites like Zillow and Craigslist - alongside a Grafton police warning (the states) about rental scams posting fraudulent housing - and what to do when something like this appears in future.

I think more then just common pages and the odd listing need to be done, but I will add a further two to the list of semi-fraudulent estates: Carter Stones and Shens Estate.

Carter Stones

The Carter Stones (Ilford) website has a mixture of reviews and star ratings, the most common being 1 star. For most parts it was the landlords complaining of being scammed and robbed of their money, but tenants are equally issuing and filing complaints against the agency.

Tenant And Landlord Reviews

This company is full of rookies!!!!! Save yourself the hassle and don't bother renting or letting through them! They never return your calls; take months paying you rent and deposit that they take upfront from your new tenant.

The staffs are incompetent and very very unprofessional. Sana was the most discourteous individual within this branch. They do not have a proper tenant vetting process in place!!!! Only after your fees and the tenants fees!!!!Avoid Avoid Avoid! (SayNoToCarterStones)

Carterstones are scamming people, whether you're a landlord or tenant or prospective tenant.

Previously scamming as 'Frazer Knight' (pls check them on google) before they declared bankruptcy and continued scamming as CS. With landlords that have taken out mgmt contracts, they delay rent and eventually don't pay you rent; more detrimental they don't pass on the AST and deposit details to you, and you don't know who is in your property and there's a good chance your property has been sub-letted to multiple occupants (ie HMO)!.

With tenants they probably don't hold deposits in a DPS. They also advertise bogus properties for rent and keep the deposit money plus 1 month's rent from tenants that respond to the fake ad. If you are one of these victims, please get in touch (ksosa70@yahoo.co,uk). There are others in similar positions that you can share information from - this I'm sure will help you sort out the unfortunate situation you find yourself in. Thanks (ksosa)

If you do not want early grave....avoid this agent.....they are bad! Seriously bad as in bad, they are not professional, delay months in paying etc. (Emma)

There are sites to help with reviews and listings of agencies when going for a prospective agreement with the agency of your choice.

Be smart. When looking for reviews make sure it is credible and sincere/ do your research.

Shens Estate

The difference between Shens and Carter Stones is that Shens most probably do not have letting agreements with landlords on their properties. They pose as a singular person, and advertise their fake listing of properties. She will meet you in person, and offer you a false holding receipt. She will answer all your calls and messages, but delay the proceedings after she has received payment of your holding deposit. You will never see that property you are holding.

Fraud Helpline

If this has happened to you please contact: 0300 123 2040 before calling the police as they will direct you on what to do next.

They will investigate your claim so please keep hold of every piece of information that you have on the fraudulent agency. Somebody should contact you in due time. If any readers of this article know of any other fraudulent agencies please comment and let me know as this is something that needs to be stopped.
When a Digital Marketer from San Francisco heard the infamous Access Hollywood recording of President-Elect Donald Trump making the grotesque statement 'Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything...', in relation to beautiful women, she decided to take a stand.

After the clip was aired, Trump stated that it was a private conversation and nothing more than 'locker room' chat. He also felt it necessary to point out that Bill Clinton's comments on the gold course were worse. He said he was sorry if 'anyone was offended'. It might have been the poorest apology ever and didn't exactly do anything to fix Trump's sexist, misogynist image.

To make matters even worse, his wife said was forced to say it was unacceptable, but basically excused it, saying that he wasn't really like that. His daughter, Ivanka, might have been even worse simply said that her father was 'blunt'. BLUNT. Not sexist. Not Misogynist. Just 'blunt'.

Grab your wallet campaign

Shannon Coulter, CEO of DoubleKnown Marketing and Communications; a small marketing company, launched a campaign on Twitter to boycott Ivanka Trump's women's fashion brand. Since its launch on 10th October, 2106, the campaign has gained a LOT of attention and attracted upstanding, hard working women in an effort to use their voices and their hard earned money NOT to further line the pockets of the woman who is so supportive of her father's sexist and completely disrespectful views on women.

Ms. Coulter and her supporters know that they can no longer no longer impact the outcome of the election, but they can still make their voices heard.

Ivanka Trump's clothing line which, ironically and hypocritically, isn't even manufactured in the USA, is sold at a host of retailers across the US and can also be purchased here in the UK.

The #GrabYourWallet campaign is encouraging the boycott of these goods in response to Ivanka's continued support for her father and his outdated and downright offensive ideologies. It's difficult to support a woman who supports someone who doesn't support women, you know?

After initially focussing on the Trump range, and the retailers that carry it (Nordstrom, Bloomingdales, TJ Maxx, Macy's, etc), the campaign has now expanded to not only refusing to purchase anything from the range, but refusal to even shop at the stores that stock anything carrying the Trump brand.

Over the past few days, Coulter has even reached out to Amazon.com CEO, Jeff Bezos, to ask him to discontinue working with the family and allowing their merchandise for sale through his company. Given Bezos recently congratulated Trump on his victory, it's highly unlikely that this would happen, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Stand up and be counted

At the end of the day, this isn't just about not supporting the Trump family, but taking a stand against the low wages and long hours at their manufacturing plants overseas, whilst they simultaneously promise to double the US economy and Make America Great at the same time.

So, are you woman enough to #GrabYourWallet and take a stand? Or are you happy enough to continue to purchase what you want, from where you want? Could you live without that new pair of Ivanka Trump shoes or that Amazon Prime subscription in order to stand up for yourself and/or the women in your life?
Since election day on Tuesday, there have been nationwide riots and protests in the USA. Many guessed that no matter who won, America would be in great danger. To say that would be putting it mildly with the violence that has been happening for the past four nights in a row.

Coast to coast protests

From coast to coast, there have been a ridiculous number of protesters doing enough to land them in jail with accusations of assault of a police officer. In Portland, what started off as a peaceful Protest containing over 4,000 people, soon turned violent.

Protesters have been speaking their minds about Donald trump's presidency, and are outraged. For the past few nights, protesters have been vandalizing their communities, local businesses, damaging cars, assaulting officers and other displays of criminal and dangerous behavior.

Violence results in arrests

As of November 10th 2016, twenty-six protestors have been arrested and detained for their reckless behavior. Protests and riots dont stop in Portland, other cities in the United States not limited to Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Denver, Detroit, Baltimore, Dallas, Oakland and Minneapolis have also seen the ugly side of the protests. In Oakland, California, more than 1000 protesters started breaking store windows, vandalizing buildings with graffiti, threw firecrackers at police officers and other shenanigans of the like.

People came together outside of Los Angeles City Hall with chants such as not my president. Other protesters gathered outside of the White House on Thursday night chanting with signs accusing Donald Trump of being a racist. Despite the riots, many of the protests were somber and peaceful.

There's nothing wrong with a peaceful protest, but how is anything beneficial with defacing your community?

Local business owners are suffering and they're not even the ones to blame. What are we facing, America? Many are not happy with the presidential election results. How did this happen though? How are so many people rioting when Trump won a democratic election?
It's been a while since we've had to deal with the shocking start to "The Walking Dead" season 7. How many of us really thought that we'd say goodbye to both Glenn and Abraham in the same episode? And in the way that it happened? Negan has quickly become the character to despise in all this, and this week's episode looks like we have to say goodbye to another character, without evening seeing that character die. Is that really the case or is "The Walking Dead" having us on?

Has Maggie really given up?

It seemed a little anti-climatic when Rick told Negan that Maggie had died.

We saw a grave and everything after Negan's premature arrival to Alexandria Safe Haven to collect his taxes. That doesn't really mean that Maggie is gone, though, does it? It just doesn't seem right in taking her out that way, and there's a sort of feeling of "Prison Break" when they decided to kill Sara off only to bring her back in season 4. Yes, "Prison Break" was different with contract issues, but there was still that feeling of lack of closure.

Maggie doesn't seem like the type of character to just give up. She has been through a lot. They all have, really, but she could have given up so much earlier than this. This isn't the Maggie that we know.

The post credits clip told all in 'The Walking Dead'

Fans who kept watching until the very end will be happy to know that it was all a ploy. Maggie is safe somewhere, and Rick wanted to keep Negan off her scent. That is why he even showed a grave; to make Negan think that Maggie was gone and couldn't be taken. If Negan knew that Maggie was alive, chances are she wouldn't live to see another day.

But it isn't all over yet. There is still time for Negan to find out about Maggie, and "The Walking Dead" fans know that it will eventually happen. The real question is when that will happen. It looks like there's going to be a trip to the Hilltop next week, which could leave her in trouble unless someone is able to hide her first.

Right now, anyone could be next. Negan is making it clear that nobody is safe in true "The Walking Dead" fashion. Find out what happens to Maggie next Sunday on AMC.
Rhino horn middlemen and traders are troubled by the number of "weirdos and lunatics" who are obsessed with animal protection in South Africa. Describing the people who are desperately trying to stop the illegal poaching and Rhino trafficking in South Africa as "these weirdos," is a person of the Asian ethnic group in Johannesburg that Al Jazeera spoke to whilst filming an undercover documentary that reveals the extent of corruption in South Africa.

Al Jazeera - rhino expose

The documentary by Al Jazeera was titled "The Poachers Pipeline," and they took a good look at the how rhino trafficking works in South Africa.

It seems that if you want to buy rhino horn - well, you can - you just need to know a middleman from the organized crime network. The man who spoke of the "weirdos" owns a Chinese restaurant in Johannesburg. Al Jazeera says that in his house he has a collection of "products from endangered species." These include ivory chopsticks, scales from endangered pangolin, and rhino horn bracelets.

Corruption at Ministerial levels

He told undercover journos that if they wanted to buy some horn, he could try and get it for them. He was able to give the journalists directions to a dealer and the trail of the trade continued from there - lion teeth, rhino horn, ivory ...all there and ready for buyers - if you know the right people.

The investigation in South Africa, Al Jazeera disclosed, included a rhino horn trafficker who "bragged about his close connections to Minister of State Security David Mahlobo, who runs the country's intelligence services." David Mahlobo denied any involvement, but when it comes to the trade in endangered animals, without corruption it would not flourish.

Blasting News spoke to Alexia Trombas, founder of The Southern African Fight for Rhino (SAFFR). Asked if it was possible that corruption could extend as far as Diplomats and to Ministerial level, she told Blasting News that "corruption is well entrenched."

Asked how we can combat the corruption, Alexia feels it is so large and widespread that ultimately, the only way to save Africa's endangered species is to target grassroots.

"The only way to stop this is community involvement and a financial incentive to stop this. Self-policing run along the lines of CAMPFIRE or a similar arrangement can work. This is what SAFFR is doing going forward."

It is very hard to fight corruption at government and diplomatic levels as too many people benefit from it Alexia says, "Corrupt governments serve a purpose. They are put in power, kept in power until an international organization decides differently." She explains that it is not just at high government levels. "Corruption is found elsewhere - for example, there is corruption regarding police and the moneyed elite."

The whole of Africa is now free of colonial rule. This means that black majority rule has taken over.

African governments who allow corruption and wildlife trafficking to flourish create a mindset where it is not seen to be a problem amongst Asians where the demand is highest. According to Trombas, "the head of the Shanghai business community in SA, said that they learn everything (about the trade) from the African people themselves - so if the indigenous Africans come and offer rhino horn and ivory they see nothing wrong with buying that."

Animal protection activism is vital for rhino

The fight will go on against the exploitation of South Africa's wildlife. The rise of animal protection activism is a vital part of ensuring the long hard fight continues. "Let them call us weirdos," is Alexia's response to name-calling.

She is happy to be "troublesome" and her organization will continue to be troublesome. "This weirdo activist is the worst of them all. I will die fighting for the rhino," she concludes.

View Al Jazeera documentary here below:
The election of Donald Trump sent shock-waves through the entire world, as the former host of "The Apprentice" was able to upset Hillary Clinton in the general election. With reality setting in, it appears that Trump might be taking on a little bit more than he can chew.

Job expectations

For 18 months on the campaign trail, Trump touted his business experience for why he would be a "tremendous" commander in chief, promising voters that he would "Make America Great Again." Trump is well-known for having a large ego, and his election victory put the billionaire real estate mogul on cloud nine.

However, reports confirm through his campaign advisors that Trump was "shocked" that he actually won the election, and has been described as "overwhelmed" with the responsibility that comes along with it. Just days after winning the election, Trump made his way to the White House where he met with President Obama for over an hour. As reported by Business Insider on November 13, Trump is so stunned by the scope of the job that he needs more help from Obama than previously thought.

Report: Trump was unfamiliar with the scope of the president's job when meeting Obama https://t.co/rlFPdwUKiL pic.twitter.com/ddW1Iy6b6e  Business Insider (@businessinsider) November 14, 2016

Citing a report in The Wall Street Journal on Sunday, Trump "seemed surprised" after meeting with Obama and having the job details described to him.

Even Trump's advisors and staff members were caught off guard, as they had no idea that the entire West Wing staff gets replaced with each new administration. Due to these issues, Business Insider confirms that Trump will need more time with the Obama to help him prepare, which is not what typically occurs with an incoming president.

Donald Trump calls Barack Obama 'a very good man' after his first White House meeting: https://t.co/dMRVbYAcv3 pic.twitter.com/cJ9zTV0g9a  Complex (@ComplexMag) November 10, 2016

While Trump spent the better part of the last five years questioning whether or not Obama was even an American citizen, he got a reality check after the two sat down for their meeting.

After the two spoke, they addressed the press where both sides were respectful and pleasant with one another.

Moving forward

Trump is working fast to put together his administration and cabinet with just over 70 days until he becomes the leader of the free world. So far, Trump has named RNC Chair Reince Priebus as his new Chief of Staff, while announcing Steven Bannon of Breitbart News fame to be his Chief Strategist. As Trump continues to make major decisions about who will surround him in the Oval Office, the new president-elect will also face fraud and racketeering charges in a court of law in regards to the Trump University trial which begins in just two weeks.
Heading into Election Day, Hillary Clinton was such a strong favorite that her campaign had already planned a fireworks celebrating. By the end of the night, Donald Trump had become president-elect, and the direction of the country was instantly altered.

Trump's division

Described by campaign advisors as "shocked," Trump really didn't believe that he had a chance at winning the election. Recent reports also note that Trump was planning to end his campaign last October and endorse New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, but his unexpected popularity forced a change of plans.

In the days since winning the election, Trump has made two major moves, as he's hired Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus as his new Chief of Staff, and executive chair of breitbart News, Steve Bannon, as his Chief Strategist. With future announcements expected to be made shortly, CNN reported on November 14 that there is disarray behind the scenes.

Trump's transition has drawn sharp internal disagreements, sources say; One source described it as a "knife fight" https://t.co/UutiB4GOv4 pic.twitter.com/0oezuqXQ3t  CNN (@CNN) November 15, 2016

The current climate inside the Trump administration has been described as a "knife fight" by one CNN source, as advisors are having a hard time finding common ground.

The transition team is currently being led by Vice President Mike Pence, who took over the role after Christie was let go earlier in the week. A power struggle is reportedly occurring between Priebus and Bannon, as well as Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, in regard to how much power each individual will have moving forward.

The environment is getting so heated that Pence will make his way to Trump Tower on Tuesday to personally meet with the former host of "The Apprentice." As of press time, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is considered the favorite to become the next Secretary of State, with Sen. Jeff Sessions, known for his harsh immigration policies, being considered for the job of Attorney General or Secretary of Defense.

KKK, American Nazi Party praise Trump's hiring of Bannon https://t.co/emZhmnDNh4 pic.twitter.com/YWYdvC9pCv  The Hill (@thehill) November 15, 2016

Other names

Other names that have been floated around have also raised eyebrows. Former half-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been considered as Interior Secretary, with former WWE CEO Linda McMahon being vetted for a position in the commerce department.

Moving forward

Trump has just over nine weeks to ease tensions and put together a cabinet that he will work with for at least the next four years. As Trump and his team prepare for a moinve to the White House, the former host of "The Apprentice" will face charges of fraud and racketeering in a federal courthouse in relation to the Trump University trial which begins on November 28.
President-elect Donald Trump's transition team includes personalities like former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani is infamous for his institution of the stop and frisk policy which resulted in racial profiling of African-Americans and Latinos by New York City police. Many have pointed out the fundamentally unconstitutional nature of the stop and frisk policy. A policy which allows police officers to randomly stop and search any person whom they think is suspicious. This is a blatant violation of the US Constitution's Fourth Amendment protection of citizens from illegal search and seizure.

Given the frightening rise in power over the last several decades of the US national security state, should anyone be surprised?

Edward Snowden, Julian Assange and WikiLeaks

Wikileaks burst onto the scene with the leaked footage of the video collateral damage showing the murder of civilians and journalists by the US military. Former US Army soldier Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning is serving a 35 year sentence for alleged violations of the Espionage Act for having the courage to reveal this footage to the world. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been detained for 5 years without charge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. And Edward Snowden, the courageous former National Security Agency contractor who revealed the level of US spying on its citizens and allies, is still exiled in Moscow under Russian political asylum.

Snowden demonstrated that Obama's campaign promises to curtail these abuses were false.

The national security state

Spying on American citizens and the US national security state tragically increased under President Obama's administration. Critics and legal scholars critique Obama's alleged unconstitutional domestic actions and allegedly illegal international actions.

Actions such as targeted killings which many scholars argue is a linguistic sleight of hand to get around the United Nations Charter which bans political assassinations. Drone strikes occur without due process of law. Without a criminal charge, indictment, arrest, or criminal trial of terror suspects. American attorney Robert H.

Jackson recognized the importance of the rule of law. Even the Nazis, the worst criminals of the 20th Century, were given their day in court in an international legal tribunal. The precedent US normalization of drone strikes of criminal suspects sets under international law is frightening. Equally terrifying is the state of civil liberties in the US.

The NDAA and Posse Comitatus

After the devastation of the American Civil War, in 1878 Congress enacted the Posse Comitatus Act making it illegal for the federal government to use federal military personnel against the US civilian population. This all changed with the enactment of section 1021(b)(2) of the National Defense Authorization Act. Pulitzer prize winning journalist Chris Hedges went so far as to sue President Obama in 2013 over the constitutionality of the new section of NDAA.

Hedges won in trial court, lost on appeal, and petitioned to the Supreme Court. The Court determined Hedges did not have standing to bring suit.

The end of liberty

The section allows the US military to detain US citizens alleged to substantially support alleged terrorist forces and to be imprisoned indefinitely until the end of hostilities without due process of law. Many are still shocked that a former constitutional law professor would support such fundamentally unconstitutional measures. Should it be any surprise therefore, that under Obama's administration federal military personnel (i.e. the US National Guard) are being used to viciously violate the human rights of peaceful water protectors standing against Dakota Access?

This is the neo-liberal national security state legacy that is now being handed over to Donald Trump and his fascist regime of liberty-hating climate change deniers. The Resistance must not allow them to Trump liberty.
Customers try virtual reality devices at the China Unicom stand at a telecoms exhibition in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. [Photo/China Daily]

China United Network Communications Ltd said it has partnered with internet giants in a move to arrest its continuing profit decline and speed up its shift toward the mobile internet.

China Unicom, the country's second-biggest telecom carrier, made the remarks on Saturday after it inked a strategic partnership with e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd to cooperate on basic telecommunication services, mobile internet and industrial internet.

Wang Xiaochu, chairman of China Unicom, said the all-round deep cooperation between China Unicom and Alibaba has a solid foundation. Jack Ma, founder and chairman of Alibaba, said he has high expectations for the cooperation deal.

China Unicom also signed a strategic cooperative agreement with Baidu Inc on Nov 2, to cooperate on projects in mobile internet, artificial intelligence, big data and telecom services.

Baidu aims to help China Unicom put the services of its bricks-and-mortar outlets and franchised stores online. China Unicom will offer Baidu stronger telecom infrastructure support, including internet data centers and information and communication technology.

The cooperation between China Unicom and internet giants comes after the National Development and Reform Commission selected China Unicom to be among the first batch of enterprises for the pilot mixed ownership reform.

Chinese local media recently reported that China Unicom would likely attract private investors to participate in its reform.

"China Unicom has rich network resources, but it has the fewest 4G users compared with its rivals, including China Mobile Communications Corp and China Telecommunications Corp," said Peter Liu, research director at consultancy Gartner Inc.

"There is an urgent need to find new users and data flow portals," he said.

Liu said the cooperation was a positive move, which would see both sides benefitting from each other's strengths and would enhance China Unicom's core business competitiveness.

Xiang Ligang, CEO of telecom industry website cctime.com, said it was an inevitable trend that internet companies partnered with telecom carriers.

"It is expected that this cooperation will boost China Unicom's 4G user base," he said.

Xiang said the mixed ownership reform is a very complex process, involving share purchases and a change of operational modes and needed time to implement.

Analysts said China Unicom, whose 4G subscribers accounted for 28 percent of China's total at the end of June, is likely to continue to face heavy marketing costs that will weigh on profits.

Its 4G subscribers reached 72.4 million in June, up by more than 46 percent compared with the number in January, while China Mobile's 4G subscribers were 429 million in June.
WUHAN -- Zhang Zhijun, head of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, on Monday met with former Kuomintang party chairman Wu Poh-hsiung to discuss cross-Straits relations.

Wu is in Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei province, to attend the "Taiwan Week," a cross-Straits cultural communication program.
Trade ministers of the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim countries attend a press conference after negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement in Atlanta, the United States, on Oct. 5, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

In spite of the White House's continuous insistence on there being "a strong case to make with regard to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement", chances are it will not get approved in the remainder of US President Barack Obama's term.

However, it might be too early to announce the demise of the TPP. Despite US President-elect Donald Trump's repeated pledge to scrap it on the campaign trail, who knows what he will do when he enters office.

Of course, Beijing is understandably relieved that the exclusive, economically inefficient, politically antagonizing TPP is looking ever less likely to materialize by the day. After all, the trade grouping has been essentially driven by the US' strategic considerations and meant to counter China's economic influence in the Asia-Pacific.

But the US should rest assured the sky will not come tumbling down even if the TPP does get killed at the hands of the next president. Instead of lamenting, its proponents should congratulate themselves on dodging a bullet, as the pact is inopportune. Because, what actual benefits will the TPP bring to the US as a country and its workers, whom the deal is claimed to serve, should it go ahead and pit Beijing and Washington more firmly against each other? Very few, if any.

The anticipated setback offers a precious opportunity for decision-makers in both Beijing and Washington to reevaluate the state of affairs, and recalibrate their respective approaches.

China and the US are not allies, and are not likely to be in the foreseeable future given their dramatic differences. But that does not mean they cannot be partners.

Beijing has been persistent in pursuing peaceful co-existence with the US. Its enthusiastic proposal of and insistence on a "new type of major-country relationship" between the two countries deserves something better than the TPP.

In their first conversation on the phone on Monday, Beijing time, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Trump exchanged wishes for better ties and promises of cooperation, which is hopefully propitious for the upcoming Trump era.

The incoming administration should realize that the more open, inclusive Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership will turn out to be a far more efficient vehicle for advancing US interests. Washington may want to take advantage of the nascent, evolving platform and become involved from the rule-making stage.

US influence in the Asia-Pacific will not abate if the Trump administration chooses to engage with the region constructively.
Time for Peru and China to take economic relations to next level, says Peruvian expert Updated: 2016-11-14 09:36 (Xinhua)

LIMA - Peru and China are in the right time to further promote their economic ties to higher level, said Peruvian economist ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the South American country.

"The most important task is now to consolidate the advances in economic relations made since Peru and China began their free-trade agreement (FTA) in 2010," said Peruvian economist Fernando Gonzalez.

In terms of China's vision of Peru, the director of the APEC Studies Center, explained that "China has a very clear strategy based on continued results, boosting its own production chain for industry and services, and seeing ever more sophisticated technological development."

"China is a country of high efficiency. These capacities are not limited to production but extend to how to make pragmatic public policies," added Gonzalez.

He said that, after the visit of Peru's Pedro Pablo Kuczynski to China in September and the upcoming visit by President Xi Jinping to Lima in November, the two countries "must resolve any problems that remain and focus on the fundamentals."

According to Gonzalez, both sides need to improve cooperation in mining areas and allow China's ICBC bank to open up more financial services in the country.

Moving on to the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), Gonzalez said this was an initiative to minimize divisions within the region and help to create one large free-trade zone.

"This is a project that unites China and the US, and it drives to work together while managing their rivalries in the most civilized possible. This is the central topic for the future of the Asia-Pacific, for peace and prosperity in the region," he continued.

It would essentially unite the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), between ASEAN, and six other Pacific economies, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

The academic concluded that "it is an honor for Peru to host the one more step of the Beijing Roadmap being taken this year."
LONDON - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange faced questioning on Monday by prosecutors at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has been holed up for four years, over allegations he committed rape in 2010.

Swedish Chief Prosecutor Ingrid Isgren arrived at the embassy to pose questions to Assange through an Ecuadorian prosecutor over the allegations which Assange has denied, a Reuters photographer at the scene said.

Assange, who enraged the United States by publishing hundreds of thousands of secret US diplomatic cables, took refuge in the embassy in August 2012 to avoid being extradited to Sweden over the rape allegation.

The 45-year-old Australian has refused to go to Sweden for questioning, saying he fears further extradition to the United States, where a criminal investigation into the publication of secret documents by WikiLeaks is ongoing.

Isgren and a police investigator will be able to ask questions through the Ecuadorian prosecutor, who will later report the findings to Sweden, prosecutors have said.

"After the report, the Swedish prosecutor will take a view on the continuing of the investigation," they said.

A Swedish appeals court decided in September to uphold Assange's arrest warrant, saying a strong public interest argument outweighed a case to set it aside based on the lengthy deadlock and a previous lack of impetus in pursuing the case.

Assange's request to have the warrant overturned came after a UN panel in February said his stay at the Ecuadorean embassy equalled arbitrary detention, that he should be let go and be awarded compensation.

Even if Sweden drops the investigation, however, Assange could be arrested for breaching bail conditions in Britain.
China looks forward to further strengthening ties with the United States after President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan 20, according to Cui Tiankai, the Chinese ambassador in Washington.

"What we want to see in China is a smooth transition and continued growth of our bilateral relations, so that we can bring even greater benefits to our two peoples," he said in an interview on Friday with CNN's Christiane Amanpour.

President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory message to Trump after his election victory on Wednesday. Vice-President Li Yuanchao also congratulated Mike Pence, the US vice-president-elect.

Asked about Trump's campaign rhetoric, such as a pledge to impose a 45 percent tariff on Chinese imports and branding China a currency manipulator, Cui said bilateral relations are based on growing common interests and cited cooperation in a range of areas, including the global economy, trade and investment, energy and counterterrorism.

Both countries have greatly benefited from increased cooperation in recent decades, the diplomat said, adding that common interests "will determine the future direction of this relationship".

Trump talked about the tariff early in his campaign but has not mentioned this in recent months. It is believed such a tariff would not only violate World Trade

chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com
Demonstrators in major US cities took to the streets for a fifth straight day on Sunday to protest President-elect Donald Trump, whose campaign manager said President Barack Obama and Democrat Hillary Clinton should do more to support a peaceful transition.

Following several nights of unrest, crowds of people marched in parks in New York City and San Francisco, and planned to do so in Oakland, California, according to social media.

A few thousand joined a march at the south end of New York's Central Park, beginning at a Trump property on Columbus Circle and walked toward the real estate mogul's skyscraper headquarters less than a mile away.

They chanted, "Say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcomed here!" and "We are here to stay!"

Demonstrators carried signs in English and Spanish saying things like "Hate won't make us great".

Thousands in several cities have demonstrated since the results from Tuesday's election showed Trump, a Republican, lost the popular tally but gained enough votes in the 538-person Electoral College to win the presidency, surprising the world.

Largely peaceful demonstrators in urban areas have said Trump threatens their civil and human rights. They have decried Trump's campaign promises to restrict immigration and register Muslims, as well as allegations the former reality-TV star sexually abused women.

Dozens have been arrested and a handful of police injured.

In San Francisco on Sunday, about 1,000 people marched through Golden Gate Park toward a beach where they chanted, "Let's make waves." They held signs such as "I resist racism" and "Down with the Trumps."

Other protests were expected Sunday in St Louis, Philadelphia, Denver, as well as smaller cities like Worcester, Massachusetts and Iowa City, Iowa.

In Los Angeles, an estimated 8,000 people marched on Saturday to condemn what they saw as Trump's hate speech about Muslims, his pledge to deport people in the country illegally and crude comments about women.

Civil rights groups have monitored violence against US minorities since Trump's win, citing reports of attacks on women in Islamic head scarves, of racist graffiti and of bullying of immigrant children. They have called on Trump to denounce the attacks.

Trump said he was "so saddened" to hear of instances of violence by some of his supporters against minorities, according to a transcript released on Sunday of an interview with the CBS program 60 Minutes.

Kellyanne Conway, Trump's campaign manager, said on Fox News on Sunday that she was sure many of the protesters were paid professionals, though she offered no proof.

Suggesting a double standard, Conway said on NBC's Meet the Press that if Clinton had won and Trump supporters had protested, "people would be freaking out that his supporters were not accepting election results".

"It's time really for President Obama and Secretary Clinton to say to these protesters, 'This man is our president,'" she said on NBC.

Republican House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan told CNN on Sunday that protests are protected by the First Amendment as long as they are peaceful.
LIMA - Among visitors from the 21 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, the Chinese visitors rank the first in doing business and investing in Peru.

According to figures released on Monday by Peru's immigration agency (SNMN), just over 71,000 international visitors from APEC member economies traveled to Peru in the past five years.

Of those, 67,713 traveled on business and 3,732 came for investment, with the great majority coming from China.

From 2011 to 2015, 21,456 Chinese business people visited Peru. Chile ranked second, with 17,840, followed by the United States, with 12,413 and Mexico, with 8,525.

China also leads in the investment field, with 1,240 Chinese investors coming to Peru, closely followed by Chile (1,200) and the US (666).

Starting Monday, Peru's capital Lima is playing host to the 24th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders' Week.

The gathering aims to promote the creation of a free-trade zone in the region.
A video featuring top Chinese tourist destinations (Top) is broadcast on Times Square in New York, the United States, on Nov 14, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

NEW YORK - Americans who have so far never been to China have a "handy channel" to explore the land of endless wonders from Monday to Nov 28.

They could get of glimpses of the top natural and historical attractions of the robust country, starting from Monday morning local time, on one of the most visible billboards in the world at the Times Square.

A 50-second advertising video, featuring top Chinese tourist destinations including the Great Wall, the Forbidden City in Beijing, and the Potala Palace in Lhasa, is being posted China National Tourism Administration and China Public Diplomacy Association on a spectacular on 2 Times Square, the building that is the northern anchor of the district.

The video, running 48 to 120 times each day from Nov 14 to Nov 28, is a prelude to the launching of the closing ceremony of the 2016 China-US Tourism Year and a grand event with 5,000 Chinese tourists visiting the US in Washing DC and other parts of the United States in late November, according to an official with the Chinese Consulate in New York on Monday.

The events and activities hosted during the China-US Tourism Year are aimed at promoting a steady growth of US tourists travelling to China as well as an early realization of the goal of 5 million trips between the two nations in 2016.

China has become the No 1 travel destination for US tourists in the Asia-Pacific and the US is the third biggest source country travelling to China.
President Obama held his first news conference since voters sharply rejected his candidate and his party at the polls last week, reassuring people at home and abroad that Donald Trump was committed to governing in a more pragmatic fashion than his harsh campaign style would suggest.





Hes going to be the next president and regardless of what experience or assumptions he brought to the office, said Obama, who met with Trump for the first time last week. This office has a way of waking you up.





Obama faced reporters crammed into the James S. Brady Briefing Room on Monday before leaving Washington for a week-long foreign trip to Greece, Germany and Peru, where he will meet with more than a dozen foreign leaders with their own set of worries about where the United States is headed under its next president.





At moments the president offered advice to his successor that sometimes sounded like a warning. He urged Trump to respect those norms that are vital to a functioning democracy, such as civility and tolerance and a commitment to reason and facts and analysis.





After last weeks shocking election results, Obama struck a more sanguine note. I think hes sincere in wanting to be a successful president and moving this country forward, Obama said. I dont think any president ever comes in saying to himself, I want to figure out how to make people angry or alienate half the country. 





The president sought to reassure U.S. allies, noting that in his conversation with Trump last week, the New York businessman expressed a great interest in maintaining our core strategic relationships, including the one with NATO. As he visits with world leaders, Obama vowed to let them know that there is no weakening of resolve when it comes to America meeting its commitments and defending its allies.





Throughout the hour-long news conference, Obama sought to calm and reassure a jittery and divided country, choosing his words carefully and emphasizing unity over division.




Highlighting the truth that the federal government is taking in more than enough money to meet its obligations and prevent the default from occurring, former Alaska Governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin threw down the gauntlet saying that if the president allows the country to go into default, he should be impeached.

Defaulting on our national debt is an impeachable offense, and any attempt by President Obama to unilaterally raise the debt limit without Congress is also an impeachable offense, Palin said in a Facebook post. A default would also be a shameful lack of leadership, just as mindlessly increasing our debt without trying to rein in spending is a betrayal of our children and grandchildren who will be stuck with the bill.

As the federal government inches closer to the October 17 deadline for raising the debt ceiling, Obama has attempted to scare the markets by warning them that the government could be in default if the Republicans refuses demands to raise the debt ceiling without conditions.

The president has frequently used terms such as deadbeat nation and saying the nation will lose its sterling credit rating if he doesnt get what he wants. The president has used language that suggested to creditors that the president could choose to not pay interest payment on the countrys debt. If this were to happen, then the country would technically be in default which would affect the countrys credit rating.

However, Republican Senators Ron Cruz and Rand Paul as well as economic experts have pointed out there is no danger of a default unless the president were to choose for it to happen.

I think its irresponsible of the president and his men to even talk about default, Sen. Rand Paul said during an interview on NBCs Meet the Press. Theres no reason for us to default. We bring in $250 billion in taxes every month. Our interest payment is $20 billion. Tell me why we would ever default.

With these figures, it is evident that the government has more than enough money to meet its obligations. Some have compared the analogy to what happens when a family has their credit cards maxed out. Rather than ask for an increase in the credit limit, they look at their budget and find other items to cut such as eating out or entertainment expenses.

If United States were to hit the debt limit ceiling without an increase it would essentially be in the same boat. While the Treasury Department has the authority to prioritize payments to prevent a default, it has indicated it will not do so. When Republicans attempted to pass a bill in an attempt to reassure the markets of United States would in fact prioritize its payment, Obama threatened to veto the bill.

Ultimately, if the debt limit is reached it would essentially restore the budget to Clinton era levels, or a 20% cut in the federal budget.
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HA NOI  Ambiente, the global consumer-goods platform, is scheduled to be organised from February 10 to 14, 2017, at the Frankfurt Exhibition Centre, Germany.

The trend barometer, ordering platform and design showcase will present products for the dining table, the kitchen, household goods and gourmet items, as well as the home, furnishings and gifts during the five-day event.

Ambiente is divided into the three major product areas  "Dining", "Living" and "Giving."

Ambiente is the centre of the worldwide consumer-goods market. Exhibitors from more than 90 different countries will be showcasing their new products in Frankfurt and setting trends for the whole of 2017, Stephan Kurzawski, senior vice president, Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH, said.

More than 4,300 exhibitors from 96 countries visited the Frankfurt am Main to attend Ambiente in 2016, where, over a gross floor area of 308,000sq.m. and for five whole days, they showcased new products and innovations.

Viet Nam was represented by 57 companies and ranked 19th among exhibitor nations. -- VNS
HCM CITY  The Viet Nam International Food Industry Exhibition (Vietnam Foodexpo 2016), the most outstanding national trade promotion event specialising in agricultural products, seafood, and the food industry, will be held in HCM City from November 16-19.

The Vietnam Foodexpo 2016 will have 550 booths of over 400 exhibitors from Viet Nams 30 cities and provinces and 15 other countries and territories, including Egypt, Poland, Cuba, Italy, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea, Hungary, Malaysia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, Thailand and China.

A wide range of farm produce, seafood products, processed food products, beverages, tea and coffee, food ingredients, food processing technologies and machinery will be displayed at the expo.

Ta Hoang Linh, deputy general director of the Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said the expo, with the theme Better Food, Better Life, will contribute to introduce the dynamic development of Viet Nams food industry, promoting the brands of enterprises, products and services in the industry and creating favourable conditions to expand the market share of Vietnamese food in both domestic and export markets.

The exhibition will also serve as a catalyst for technological innovation, thereby increasing productivity, quality and safety in production, processing and business associated with agricultural products, food and drinks, he said.

As the National Honoured Exhibitor at the Vietnam Foodexpo 2016, 30 Italian companies will introduce Viet Nam to some of their finest products and brands at the expo.

In addition, Italian import delegations will come to the expo to find Vietnamese export partners.

Carlotta Colli, Italian Consul General in HCM City, said the expo would create good opportunities for Vietnamese and Italian firms to enhance co-operation and penetrate each others market.

Held at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Centre, the event will also include the Vietnam Foodtech 2016 featuring modern technologies and machines for the food industry, the international conference on Viet Nam food industry and a seminar on investment promotion in the food processing industry, Saigon international cooking contest and other activities.

Organised by Vietrade, the expo is as part of the Governments activities to build a brand strategy for Viet Nams food industry, Linh said.

The expo is expected to welcome more than 20,000 visitors, he said, adding that many local and international trade delegations and potential buyers have registered to visit the expo to seek supply sources.  VNS
A garment and textile production line of Vinh Oanh Company in the northern Nam inh Province.  VNA/VNS Photo Vu Sinh

HA NOI  The textile and garment sector will continue facing challenges in 2017 due to fierce competition by other major exporters--including China, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan--while global demand is forecasted to slow down.

Le Tien Truong, General Director of the National Garment and Textile Group (Vinatex), said textile and garment exports to the US and the EU will also be under negative impacts as consequences of Brexit and the US President-elect Donald Trump, who opposes the TPP trade pact.

Therefore, the sector anticipates its export growth rate at just 5-7 per cent if there are no appropriate policies, Truong said.

Vu uc Giang chairman of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vitas) said it has made several proposals to the Ministry of Industry and Trade on support for the local industry, including strengthening management of both domestic and foreign investment projects in the industry, reviewing policies on minimum wage raises and working hours.

The association also asked for adjustments to the sectors development and assistance in human resources training assistance.

In addition, Vitas also proposed the Ministry of Industry and Trade to review and revise legal documents causing difficulties for garment and textile businesses. It has also asked to eliminate the limit on extra working hours monthly to help businesses spur their production.

Vietnamese textile and garment export revenues increased 4.8 per cent year-on-year in the first 10 months of the year to reach US$23.3 billion, according to Vinatex.

The garment-textile export turnover needs to hit an average of $2.5 billion a month in the last two months of the year in order to reach this years target of $28-$29 billion.

The US is the top market of Viet Nams textile and garment products with $10 billion, up 4.37 per cent against last year, followed by the Europe with nearly $3 billion , a year-on-year increase of 2.46 per cent.

Japan and Republic of Korea (RoK) are also among key markets for Vietnamese garments and textiles.  VNS
HA NOI  Yamaha Motor Viet Nam is recalling 31,650 Yamaha Acruzo-2TD1 motorbikes produced from September 22 last year to August 3 this year due to technical defects.

Earlier, some customers complained that their motorbikes vibrated when operating at low speed. After consideration, the company decided to implement the recall programme to repair the problem.

Yamaha Acruzo owners, whose motorbikes having frame numbers from RLCSEA910FY001001 to RLCSEA910GY032650, should bring their motorbikes to the companys dealers or authorised service stations to have them checked, while the engine control unit (ECU) will be re-programmed for free.

The programme will last until March 19 next year. Customers can contact the hotline for 24-hour free support at 18001588, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said.

The ministry will actively monitor the recall programme and continue updating information to consumers and press agencies in the future.  VNS
HCM CITY  Viet Nam is likely to see increasing investment from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and other neigbouring countries in the next five years, according to a survey conducted by United Overseas Bank Limited (UOB).

Enterprises from Malaysia (38 per cent), Thailand (35 per cent) and Singapore (29 per cent) ranked Viet Nam as one of their top-three expansion destinations, according to the UOB Asian Enterprise Survey 2016.

The enterprises were among the 28 per cent of all 2,500 surveyed respondents who chose Viet Nam as their favoured expansion destination in the next three to five years.

Asian enterprises said they were drawn to Viet Nams stable political and economic climate (41 per cent), large and growing customer demand (40 per cent) and favourable tax and regulatory environment (35 per cent).

With an economic growth of 6.7 per cent last year and 60 per cent of its 90 million people under 35 years old, Viet Nam continues to be an attractive destination for investment.

In the first half of the year, the country received a record US$11.3 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI), a surge of 105 per cent from the same period last year.

Eric Tham, head of Group Commercial Banking at UOB, said the findings from the survey reaffirmed the entrepreneurial spirit of Asian enterprises.

Speaking at an investment forum organised by UOB in HCM City last week, Tham said the top industry sources of foreign investment into Viet Nam included key sectors, such as manufacturing, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, construction, real estate, and energy and natural resources sectors.

Growth in these key sectors is expected to build a strong foundation to support long-term economic growth.

Investments in Viet Nam will also create more jobs and boost income. This in turn will open doors for new economic opportunities as Viet Nams growing urban population and expanding middle class start spending more on consumer goods, and on healthcare services to ensure their personal health and well being. In addition, Vietnamese enterprises will benefit from collaborating with foreign companies in the areas of knowledge sharing and skill transfer, Tham said.

Last year a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) and UOB aimed at increasing investment and trade between Viet Nam and Southeast Asia.

Tham said while Viet Nams economy could be affected by global market uncertainties stemming from a precipitous drop in oil prices and tepid consumer demand in the West, Viet Nams rapid development presents many opportunities for Asian businesses.

With its head office in Singapore, UOB has a global network of more than 500 offices in 19 countries and territories in the Asia Pacific, Europe and North America.  VNS
A series of co-operation opportunities have been offered to dozens of enterprises from HCM City and Japans Oita City. VNA/VNS Photo

HCM CITY  A series of co-operation opportunities have been offered to dozens of enterprises from HCM City and Japans Oita City.

Over two days starting yesterday, a delegation of some 20 companies from Oita has been meeting with many Vietnamese companies to introduce their strengths and potential as well as to seek investment opportunities in the country.

This is the first time that Oitas companies have visited HCM City, opening many co-operation opportunities between the two countries as well the two cities of HCM City and Oita, according to Le Nguyen Duy Oanh, Vice Director of the HCM City Department of Industry and Trades Centre of Supporting Industries Development.

Oanh added that companies from Oita City are strong in mechanic, steel, and manufacturing industries. Tourism and human resource training are also strong, so that Vietnamese companies in general, and those from HCM City in particular, would do well to widen co-operation with them.

According to Oanh, during two days working in HCM City, the delegation will visit industrial zones in the city as well as meet Japanese companies who are operating in the city to study the situation on the ground.

Kiyotaka Himeno, Chairman of Oita Prefectural Organisation for Industry Creation said they see huge potential in HCM City, and Viet Nam as a whole, that matches Oitas businesses.

After the visit, his organization will commit to a plan of co-operation with Viet Nam.

Oita is a coastal prefecture on Japans Kyushu Island. It has a population of 1.16 million on a total area of over 6,300sq.km.

Oita prefecture has a well balanced combination of companies with state-of-the-art technology in steel, chemicals, shipbuilding, automobile, semiconductor, and precision equipment. Big companies operating in Oita include Nippo steel and Sumitomo Metal Corporation; Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding Company Ldt, Toshiba, Oita Canon Inc, JX Nippon Oil and Energy Corporation, and Daihatsu Motor Kyushu Company Ltd.  VNS
HA NOI (BizHub)  Bilateral trade between Viet Nam and South Korea is expected to reach US$70 billion by 2020 due to the Viet Nam  South Korea Free Trade Agreement (VKFTA) which came into effect one year ago.

South Korean Ambassador Lee Hyuk in Viet Nam told Cong Thuong newspaper that as of September, the export value from South Korea to Viet Nam rose 12 per cent, while the export value from Viet Nam to South Korea increased 32 per cent year on year.

Of note, exports from South Korea to Viet Nam exceeded the export value from South Korea to Japan, a traditional and long term export market of South Korea. This is being seen as the greatest success since the VKFTA came into effect in December 2015, he said.

Export products from Viet Nam to South Korea include textiles, crude oil, seafood, fibers, wood and wood products, while products that were shipped from South Korea to Viet Nam were computers, electronic products and their components, machines, equipment and telephone components.

An increase in Viet Nams exports to South Korea had contributed to the growth in Viet Nams total export value and had balanced exports and imports between the two countries, Lee Hyuk said.

From 2017, 18 items would join tariff reductions under the VKFTA, so the trade value between the two countries was expected to increase and become more balanced, he said.

In addition, South Korea had become the largest investor in Viet Nam, in both volume and value, with a total investment capital of $49 billion. South Korea had also been the second largest donor of official development assistance (ODA).

Lee Hyuk said in 2016 that bilateral trade between Viet Nam and South Korea was expected to exceed $40 billion. The two countries anticipated that the value would reach $70 billion in 2020 due to taking full advantage of the VKFTA.

Of note, investment from South Koreas enterprises in Viet Nam would assure that the bilateral trade value meets its target, he said. South Korean enterprises believe the investment environment in Viet Nam would continue to improve, he said.

Le An Hai, deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trades Asian Market Department, said based upon commitments of VKFTA, in the coming years the two countries would improve their economic and politic relationships.

Viet Nam is to focus on building preferential mechanisms for South Korea, while South Korea is to continue to open its market for Viet Nams goods, according to Hai.

Local enterprises should take full advantage of the VKFTA to build cooperation to export products to South Korea and other regional countries, he said.

The ministry would work to ensure a fair business environment and create favourable conditions in business and investment activities for foreign enterprises in Viet Nam, including South Korean firms, Hai added. - VNS
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc met with Governor of Japans Mie prefecture Eikei Suzuki on November 14, saying he wanted Mie to invest in the industries it has advantages in such as cargo machinery, electronics and chemical production in Viet Nam.

At the meeting in Ha Noi, PM Phuc noted the strong and substantive development of the Viet Nam-Japan extensive strategic partnership, adding the enhancement of locality-to-locality cooperation was critical to bilateral ties.

Many Japanese enterprises have prioritised Viet Nam to invest in and reeled in success. The Northeast Asian nation now ranks second among foreign investors in Viet Nam, but the two sides still need to promote investment partnership to turn Japan into the biggest investor.

The Vietnamese Government and local authorities pledged to provide the best possible conditions for Japanese companies, he noted.

The host leader said his country looked forward to stronger collaboration with Mie in tourism as both own many famous landscapes and relic sites. He asked the two sides to continue cultural exchanges, aside from culture festivals held in each others nations.

He also hoped for more labour co-operation, noting that Viet Nam had a young population with quality workers.

For his part, Eikei Suzuki said his 50-strong delegation included many city and business leaders in Mie who aim to seek co-operation opportunities in culture, economy, investment and environment.

Surveys show that most small- and medium-sized enterprises in the prefecture want to make overseas investments, and Viet Nam is among their top choices, according to Suzuki.

Mie prefecture is home to leading technology businesses such as Honda, Toyota and Toshiba. The Governor expressed his hope for closer co-operation in this field.

The Mie delegation also worked with officials of some Vietnamese cities, including Hoi An, to boost tourism, investment and business partnerships. The two sides should bolster ties in aviation so as to facilitate the travel to each other, he said.

Eikei Suzuki also voiced the willingness to further co-operate with Viet Nam in environmental protection and seaport development.  VNS
The Government will work with automakers to turn the national automobile industry into a key economic sector, contributing to the countrys economic growth and meeting the publics demand for autos, said Deputy Prime Minister Trinh inh Dung.

Speaking at a meeting with domestic automakers and representatives from ministries in Ha Noi last week, Dung said the implementation of free trade agreements would be challenging for the industry, however, the opportunities would expand as the domestic market develops, along with the regional market.

To reach the targets, the deputy PM emphasised the importance of remaining determined, taking bold actions and assuring unanimity between the Government and business community. It also needed to focus on development targets to take action and solve difficulties for businesses, including auto assemblers and parts suppliers.

Dung asked automakers to develop more initiatives in the industry by strengthening co-ordination among domestic businesses and international enterprises.

According to the report from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the automobile industry consists of more than 400 businesses, with most being small and medium enterprises. They have a total production capacity of about 460,000 units per year. Of which, 47 per cent are foreign-invested businesses, the remainder being domestic businesses.

In the 2001-2014 period, the industry reached an average growth rate of 17 per cent annually and contributes more than US$1 billion to the State budget per year, while creating jobs for about 100,000 workers.

The ministry said that locally-produced trucks and passenger vehicles with ten seats and above, and special-purpose vehicles, had reached the high rate of using locally supplied parts from 45 per cent to 55 per cent, while meeting 70 to 90 per cent of the markets demand.

However, the industry failed to gain the target of supplying 60 per cent of local parts for vehicles with nine seats and below by 2010. In fact, it has gained an average rate of 7-10 per cent, of which the Innova car from Toyota Motor Vietnam (TMV) reached the highest rate, at 37 per cent.

The ministry said the industry was able to produce some simple parts, such as mirrors, glass, seats, electric wires, batteries, tubes and some plastic products. Of the total 400 auto businesses, few had invested in those production technologies used in manufacturing auto bodies.

Also, the industry failed to obtain the targets of selling cars at reasonable prices. Car prices in Viet Nam remain high, compared with nearby countries, said the ministry.

A representative from TMV said the industry had been placed on the list of prioritised sectors, but the countrys current policies were similar to other countries, so it had not yet been able to make breakthroughs in the industrys development.

Meanwhile, representatives of other automakers, including Hyundai Thanh Cong, Ford Vietnam and Vietnam Engine and Agricultural Machinery Corporation, agreed that the Governments policies on supporting businesses and the auto market were quite responsive to the current situation, though they had been implemented ineffectively.

The implementation of policies needs to be concrete, explicit and easy to understand. As for policies which directly affect businesses, it is necessary to set up itineraries with detailed and suitable steps, according to the representative from Ford Vietnam.

Discussing import taxes on automobiles, which will be greatly reduced in the next few years due to free trade agreements, the representative of carmaker Truong Hai Automobile JSC (Thaco) said there would be two scenarios.

In the first, businesses which have auto production and assembling factories in Viet Nam and other ASEAN countries will try to maintain production of several models, while shifting to imports. In a second scenario, there will appear a new investment wave from giant automakers which have never built factories in ASEAN. With the Governments policies on encouraging and luring investment, the investors may want to set up business in Viet Nam with an eye on the regional market.

Therefore, if Viet Nam has the correct policies, there will be many opportunities to develop its automobile industry, according to the Thaco representative.

To head up new opportunities, Deputy PM Dung said businesses needed to restructure its operation, select key products, reduce production costs, improve quality and cut product prices.

As for State management bodies, Dung assigned relevant ministries and sectors to take prompt actions on checking mechanisms and policies to fill up or revise, if needed.

Further, the Government will prioritise to develop the part supply industry by pushing co-operation, expanding markets and implementing policies to attract investors.

Car sales rise in October

Around 28,280 cars were sold in the country in October, an increase of 26 per cent compared to the same period last year, the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA) said.

As per the data with the VAMA, the sales figures in October are the highest since early this year, even higher than the 24,400 cars sold in June, a month when consumers flocked to buy cars to avoid the Governments adjustment of special consumption tax for automobiles which came into effect on July 1.

Last month witnessed two large car exhibitions, in HCM City and Ha Noi. The high level of competition prompted several automobile manufacturers to reduce the price of cars so as to attract customers and stimulate demand. Thats one reason why sales have shot up.

The sale of passenger car topped the charts, with 18,134 units, up by 7 per cent from the previous month. After this came commercial cars, which declined by 2 per cent to touch 8,928. The purchase of special-purpose vehicles was up 10 per cent to reach 1,221 units. Of these 20,880 units were locally assembled, the remaining were imported.

Local carmaker Truong Hai Automobile JSC (Thaco) continued to lead sales with 9,895 units, occupying 40.4 per cent of the market share. Toyota Motor Vietnam is in the second slot with 5,532 units, owning 22.6 per cent of the market share. They are followed by Ford Vietnam and Honda Vietnam, which have sold 2,430 and 1,247 units, respectively.

Going by the October sales figures, around 300,000 units are expected to be sold this year, with an average sale of 28,000 units per month.  VNS
On occasion of the Kings Day in Belgium today (November 15), Viet Nam News presents an article written by Belgium Ambassador to Viet Nam, Jehanne Roccas.

Belgium and Viet Nam from cooperation to partnership

Today  November 15  we celebrate Kings Day in Belgium. At our Missions around the world we seize this occasion  at a less hot and humid moment than our National Day July 21  to invite our main contacts and to celebrate the relations between our countries. Therefore, we will offer to a select audience a concert of the Belgian jazz prodigy Jef Neve tonight at the Temple of Literature. However, this year we did not want to keep our celebrations restricted, and we decided to reach out. What better way to strengthen our relations than by furthering exchanges between Vietnamese and Belgian people?

The number of Belgians exploring Viet Nam does not cease to grow, and more and more Vietnamese are finding their way to our country, enjoying our ancient cities, nature and culinary traditions. Our scholarship programme has resulted in a diverse and enthusiastic community of Vietnamese alumni of Belgian universities. In addition, Belgium has been a faithful development partner of Viet Nam over the past decades, contributing a total of over 500 million euros (US$545 million). Currently, both partners are working on a 58 million euros ($63 million) development programme concentrating on governance, water management and sanitation in the central provinces of Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan, Nghe An and Kon Tum. In addition, Belgium assisted Viet Nam in drafting the 2015 Public Investment Law. Also, three provinces receive Belgian assistance to adapt to climate change and support green growth. Moreover, Viet Nam is one of the main partners of our academic cooperation, and the Belgian government also financially supports NGOs that aid the most vulnerable parts of Vietnamese society.

In short, our economic relations are ever expanding. In 2015 Belgium was one of the 29 markets amounting up to $1 billion of export revenues for Viet Nam, and the total trade between the two countries surpassed $2 billion. Also, Belgian investments in Viet Nam are on the rise. At the end of 2015, they amounted up to more than $523 million, and by mid-June 2016 they had increased to $724 million. Belgians invested in Port of Hai Phong logistics, where they are responsible for the attraction of one third of total FDI. They also invest in the agro-alimentary sector  opening of one of the first AB Inbev breweries in Southeast Asia in 2015  and in the cocoa sector. Also, the Vietnamese insurance, mining and high end tourism sectors have recently attracted Belgian financing. In addition, the Belgian government has a concessional ODA financing programme that finances Belgian companies projects, especially in the environment and health sector.

These achievements are the building blocks for our outreach through the .be Belgium day at ECOPARK, a first public event targeted at families. Last Sunday, we welcomed hundreds of adults and children, who were able to enjoy the very well-known Belgium by tasting our beers and savouring our chocolates. We also introduced them to our high-ranking universities, showcased our technological know-how and used interactive activities to raise awareness about our supported projects in Viet Nam.

Looking back, we find that we are gradually entering a new stage of relations, a more mature one, a source of strength in learning from each other. We therefore see a lot of value in our academic exchanges. Recently a seminar brought together Belgian and Vietnamese health professionals. They discussed how to introduce early cancer detection methods into the Vietnamese health care system. Another recent area of cooperation is food safety. In May 2016, specialists from our Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain participated in a seminar for Vietnamese professionals, and our universities are organising targeted and meaningful exchanges on the issue. Belgian companies follow on the same track. The Belgian company Rent-a-Port Haiphong offered a wealth of know-how that has proven its course in Belgian ports. The practices have been adapted here, thereby introducing higher environmental standards and top-of-the-line services. Puratos Grand-Place has spent many efforts educating cocoa farmers to produce the highest quality of beans. It also invested in the rest of the supply chain so that in the future Viet Nam is able to produce delicious and high quality Belgian-style chocolate. Also, AB Inbevs brewery is one of the most high-tech ever built.

We really feel the future for our collaboration is looking bright, and many more avenues are to be explored by all partners. Next year we celebrate 40 years of development cooperation. Also the Belgian presence in Hai Phong will have amounted up to 20 years, and in 2018 it will have been 45 years ago that Belgium and Viet Nam began bilateral relations. These events are all milestones. In between, we have to work together make many of the past encounters concrete. Today, however, we will just celebrate what exists. Therefore, we want to wish you all a happy Kings Day! VNS
JAPAN - The Japanese master of animation is thought to be preparing his 12th feature film, three years after announcing his retirement.

Just a few months after the release of his movie The Wind Rises, in September 2013, Hayao Miyazaki took the decision to stop directing animated feature films. Now, as his 76th birthday approaches, the Japanese filmmaker could be coming out of retirement with an upcoming film entitled Boro the Caterpillar.

Miyazaki has had the story of this little caterpillar in mind since the 1990s. In 1997, the director set the project aside to work on Princess Mononoke, before taking it up again a few years later to create a short film for the Studio Ghibli museum, which opened on the outskirts of Tokyo, Japan, in 2001.

If the movie comes about, it will be the 12th feature-length film from Miyazaki, following The Wind Rises, released in 2013. Since 1979s The Castle of Cagliostro, the Japanese filmmakers work has enjoyed success all around the world. Many of his works (Castle in the Sky, Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro) are now considered classics of the animated genre. Hollywood paid tribute to the director in 2014 with an honorary Oscar recognising his entire career. AFP
Le o Muoi, deputy director of the HCM City Institute for Strategy and Development, tells the Viet Nam News Agency about the need to reorganise the citys inner transport system

What is the transport development plan for HCM City from now till 2020 and the following years?

The Citys transport development master plan up to 2020 and the vision after 2020 were approved by the Prime Minister in 2013. I should say that development plan has totally tallied with the idea of the citys construction planning in that period and the development master plan of the Southern region; of which HCM City is defined as a locomotive for the whole region.

HCM Citys transport development plan covers different transportation modes, including the urban railway network, roads, aviation, domestic waterways and sea routes.

Under that transport master plan, by 2020 HCM City will have some highway axis such as HCM City  Long Thanh  Dau Giay, HCM City  Thu Dau Mot  Chon Thanh, Ho Chi Minh  Moc Bai; Luc ferry  Long Thanh; Biem Hoa  Vung Tau. Adding to these highways, the city will up grade the Ho Chi Minh  Trung Luong express way from 4 lanes to 8 lanes.

Regarding urban transport development, with the present network of inner city public bus system, the HCM City authorities will build 8 urban rail lines, 3 tram lines or monorails together with 6 Bus Rapid Transits (BRT) routes.

In your opinion what are the main causes of serious traffic jams in HCM City, particularly in the road portion leading to the Tan Son Nhat airport?

Detailed master plans for the citys transport development in general and its urban transport in particular have already been developed. However, in order to turn these plans into a reality, the city needs huge capital resources. This is a big challenge for the city itself.

Based on this fact, we have decided to implement the master plan in several phases.

The second reason leading to the serious traffic jam in the city is its geological position. In the past, the citys expansion was northward to the direction of ong Nai and Tay Ninh Provinces. But, at present, the citys expansion turns toward the sea. This is one of the reasons why these days, following heavy rains most of the city is under the water.

It is not easy at all for the city to solve the problem of flash floods coupled with high tides. Thats why the city needs synchronous measures, and transport is only a small part of the puzzle.

Also, it should be a crime not to mention the rapid increase of a huge number of private cars. This is a key force decreasing the amount of people using the public transport system. In my opinion, from now till 2020, and even the following years, public transport system should remain a key means of transportation for HCM City.

Ironically, the citys bus routes have developed rapidly, but its market share has been shrinking. One of the reasons is that in the past 10 years, most of the buses have become depleted while the maintenance and investment budget has almost been frozen. Maintenance work on the citys infrastructure has not been properly done due to the shortage of investment money. It is high time for the city authorities to make a change in their thinking toward public transport development to meet the peoples movement requirements.

Regarding traffic jams on roads leading to Tan Son Nhat airport as well as in the air, many people have complained that traffic jam nowadays occur both on land and the air. According to the latest statistics, annual growth rate of the airport has already surpassed the designed capacity.

According to Viet Nams master plan for the aviation industry well start to build the Long Thanh airport by 2020, some 40 km to the east of HCM City. The Long Thanh airport will help reduce passenger loads for the Tan Son Nhat airport. Of course, it will also help HCM City solve the problem of heavy traffic jams.

What are the measures to solve the big traffic jam problem in HCM City?

As I have mentioned above, to solve the problem we need synchronous measures, including moving schools, hospitals and government offices to city outskirts. This is a traditional method in the planning field.

In my opinion, three main measures can help solve the problem:

First, high rises should only be allowed to be built outside the ring road No.1

Second, the city should develop a plan to remove the Cat Lai and Sai Gon ports to outside the city  to the Cai Mep  Thi Vai port, in the Can Gio area. This is the most feasible plan to solve the problem of traffic jam in the inner city.

Third, the city should invest more in the public transport development, particularly in the public transport while encouraging people to cut down on using their private means of transport._VNS
HA NOI  The Ministry of Finance has drafted the overall programme combating waste and promoting thrift from 2016  2020 period. The draft comes under the direction of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, with specific saving targets in using State budget.

The main task of the programme is to continue implementing an overall scheme of economic restructuring associated with innovative growth models and other restructuring projects of sectors in improvement of productivity, quality and efficiency, according to the programme.

It includes restructuring State budget spending towards more savings, effectiveness, monetary policy to ensure and macroeconomic stability.

In addition, the draft also aims to manage State budget plans proactively and tightly to ensure collection and spending, striving to increase budget revenues while saving budget spending and mobilising other resources for State revenue, reaching average 20-21 per cent of the GDP.

State budget collection and spending must echoe the set plan.

The draft also looks to control the State budget deficit, striving to keep surplus spending below 4 per cent of GDP.

It sets specific saving targets for some sectors that require larger budgets, which are also the hot spots using the State budget inefficiently, including science and technology, health care, education and training.

Spending on expensive equipment and facilities will be saved to prepare resources for salary reforms, as will expenditures for scientific research.

Investment will be made transparently and based on research outcomes.

State agencies are encouraged to implement the autonomy mechanism. In addition, the adjustment of public services will be sped up as part of a plan to give direct support to social policy beneficiaries instead of through State agencies.  VNS
HA NOI  The Party and the State should pay more attention and direct more investment to teachers and students on islands, teachers from remote islands have said.

At the conference with the Ministry of Education and Training on Sunday, teachers from remote islands argued for policies that improve the quality of teaching and studying.

Nguyen Thi Bich Thuy, teacher at Lai Son Primary School in southern Kien Giang Provinces Lai Son Island Commune, said that she hoped to narrow the gap between island students and mainland ones.

Students on islands should have access to information technology such as desktops and foreign language rooms, she added.

Nguyen Thi Hoi, teacher at Ngoc Vung Secondary School in northern Quang Ninh Provinces Van on Island District, agreed, saying that IT access on islands is still quite restricted.

Her school was an example. The school has two sories and eight classrooms, but the number of students is equivalent to nine classrooms, forcing the school to use a boarding room as a classroom.

We hope to build more classrooms, a functional room and a lab as places of practice for students, she said.

Phan Hong An, teacher at Phuoc The Secondary School in central Binh Thuan Provinces Tuy Phong Island District, said that island students had not yet had their school fees reduced or supported. Thus, it is difficult to persuade parents to let their children go to school instead of going fishing.

oan Van Kieu, teacher at Son Hai Secondary School in southern Kien Giang Provinces Kien Luong Island District, agreed.

Kieu said most of students at his school dropped school when they finished the ninth grade, as there was no high school on the island.

Any students who want to continue their education must leave the island to go to the mainland, a move only the rich can afford, he said.

Kieu suggested the ministry supportes finance for students who wish to continue their education.

In terms of policies for teachers, most said that their wages are still low compared to travelling and living costs.

Most goods on the island are more expensive than that in mainland. For instance, a kilogramme of vegetables is VN 10,000 (US$0.4), while its price is VN 4,000 ($0.16) on the mainland.

Le Xuan Quyet, teacher at Song Tu Tay Primary School in central Khanh Hoa Provinces Truong Sa Island District, suggested that the ministry take measures to help teachers access more information to improve their knowledge.

At the conference, Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha said that the ministry will focus on projects to invest in facilities for island schools and hold training courses for teachers.

It will also raise funds for students who had good performance at schools but could not continue their studies. The ministry would ask school principals to free school fees for such students.

For the more complicated issues, the ministry will propose measures to the Government, he said.  VNS
Gia Loc

HCM CITY  Seven years ago, teacher Cao Thi Thanh Minh left her comfortable surroundings in the north-central coastal province of Quang Binh and moved to an island commune in one of HCM City s outlying districts.

The 29-year-old biology teacher was hired by Thanh An Secondary School, the only secondary school in Thanh An commune, which is bordered by mangrove forests, in Can Gio District.

Upon graduation from the Quang Binh Province s College of Education , Minh was told that the commune school was looking for teachers and she applied for a job.

When she first arrived at the commune, located about 70 kilometres to the east of central HCM City , Minh discovered that she to take a ferry to Can Gio District and then a wooden boat to reach the school.

During the first days of teaching, I was sad and homesick. I thought about giving up teaching altogether, and leaving this place, which had electricity generated from a diesel power station for only 18 hours a day, Minh said.

Last year, however, the island was connected to the national grid.

Three years of studying at the College of Education would have been a waste, though, if I had given up. So, I decided to stay. 

When she saw the smiles on the faces of her students, her mood always lifted.

Their smiles and their interest motivated me to stay and do a good job, Minh said, adding that she began to slowly adapt to the new circumstances.

Now, I dont want to leave the peaceful life and pure air here, although some of my colleagues say that the City needs teachers and suggested that I apply, Minh said.

The students in the commune are obedient and virtuous, and the parents, who are often poor, do not pay attention or care about their childrens learning, so the schools teachers must fulfill that role, according to Minh.

Award-winning teacher

At the school, Minh follows a student-centred teaching methodology recommended by HCM City s Department of Education and Training.

In her classes, Minh often divides students into teams and assigns tasks according to different topics. In a lesson on roots of plants, for example, each team goes outdoors to identify the kind of root.

Last year, she won a consolation prize for a digital lesson plan she designed on integrating wildlife protection. The contest was held by the citys education department in co-operation with the non-profit Wildlife at Risk (WAR).

In the 2014-2015 period, Minh was also named one of Can Gio Districts top 38 excellent teachers.

To attract students, I try to make the subject more exciting. When my students are interested in the topic, they learn well, Minh said.

Le Minh Nhut, deputy head of Thanh An Secondary School, said that Minh was an enthusiastic, creative and proactive teacher.

She was also elected to the communes Peoples Council, thanks to the trust and admiration of the students parents and other residents.

Educational development

Minh is one of 13 teachers in the commune who have moved from other provinces to contribute to the areas educational development.

Thach Thi Thuy, from the north-central coastal Ha Tinh Province, has spent four years teaching in the commune, often taking a wooden boat in fierce winds to the school.

Living and teaching here has been a valuable experience, Thuy said. I was shocked to live in a place with electricity for only 18 hours a day, and a shortage of water. The water supply is cut regularly and, sometimes, even for a week.

Some of the schools classrooms are made of corrugated steel sheets and are temporary as a new school is being built nearby.

Despite the hot classrooms and other problems, Thuy said that compared to her hometown, which often experiences threatening storms, living in the commune was better.

Encouragement from her brother, colleagues and the school has also helped her relieve stress.

Like Minh, Thuy is using new methodologies to teach English to help her students appreciate the importance of learning English.

The Ministry of Education and Training has commended teachers like Minh and Thuy for living and teaching on the countrys islands.

The teachers are good role models and need more encouragement and care from the state and community, the ministry has said.  VNS
Minister and Head of Government Office Mai Tien Dung has asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade to explain huge losses incurred by companies and corporations under its watch, progress made in the equitisation and divestment process, and measures taken to limit environmental damage.  VNA/VNS Photo

HA NOI  The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) was asked yesterday to explain huge losses incurred by companies and corporations under its watch, progress made in the equitisation and divestment process, and measures taken to limit environmental damage.

The questions were posed during an inspection visit to the ministry by a Prime Minister-assigned working group headed by Minister and Head of Government Office Mai Tien Dung.

The team also conveyed PM Nguyen Xuan Phucs requests for clarification and explanation of a variety of issues including its personnel structure, trade-value building and domestic retail market expansion.

Other questions were related to support provided for start-ups and strategic projects for energy development.

More time needed

Admitting that the ministry was facing challenges in implementing the Governments policies, including those dealing with personnel appointments and planning, Minister Tran Tuan Anh said the ministry has looked drawn many lessons and will do its best to redress problems.

Tuan Anh also said personnel and appointment planning was a sensitive issue and relevant policies related to many ministries and sectors. So a concerted effort was needed to tackle problems.

He said the MoIT was intensifying its scrutiny of a number of projects seen as ineffective, suffering huge losses or at risk of a complete loss of the State investment capital as well as property.

He said more time was needed to address all the issues because they involved huge amounts of State capital, property, legislation and regulations. These projects were also managed by other ministries and sectors, Tuan Anh said.

He said the MoIT would report to the Government, ask for continued reforms for more effective management of State-owned firms.

Talking about the equitisation of and divestment from State-owned enterprises, Anh said the MoIT was following the right schedule, but problems remained.

He said the MoIT was also studying the social and environmental impacts of hydropower and thermal power plants.

As part of the first steps to allay public concerns about the environmental impacts Duyen Hai 3 and Vinh Tan 3 thermal power plants in the provinces of Tra Vinh and Binh Thuan respectively, Anh said local residents had been invited to visit and inspect the two plants.  VNS
QUANG NINH  Fire destroyed a furniture shop and damaged several houses in Quang Ninh Provinces Mao Khe Town late last night. There were fortunately no casualties.

The fire started at about 9.30pm at Tung Hang furniture shop. The flames quickly spread to at least four adjacent houses, a local witness said.

On being informed by residents, provincial firefighting and transport police forces deployed firefighters and three fire-trucks to the site. One hour later, the fire was completely extinguished.

The fire destroyed all the property of the furniture shop, said Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Viet Tu, from Quang Ninh Provinces transport police office said.

The cause of fire was not clear, he said, adding that the investigation was underway.

According to latest news from the ong Trieu District Police, the damage from yesterdays fire is estimated at VN10 billion (US$ 447,500), including two cars.

The peoples committees of Quang Ninh Province and ong Trieu have each supported the shop owner with VN10 million. They also called on local residents to donate money to help affected households.  VNS
HA NOI  Major problems of Viet Nams railway sector will be resolved if a double-track railway is developed on the route from the north to the south of the country, experts said yesterday.

Vuong inh Khanh, former vice director general of the Viet Nam Railway Corporation, said at a talk about railway development held by Giao thong (Transport) newspaper that for decades, the corporation  a major railway operator and service provider in Viet Nam  desired to run 25 train pairs, but in fact operated just 18 train pairs, because infrastructure failed to meet required conditions.

A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared with a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track.

Current limited infrastructure hindered the sectors development, weakened its competitiveness and posed risks to road safety, he said.

Khanh said it was time for Viet Nam to seriously consider developing a double-track railway and funding the development, as the National Assembly was discussing amendments to the 2005 Railway Law, which came into effect on January 1, 2006, and has proven problematic and inadequate for current and future development of the sector.

Nguyen Huy Hien, vice head of the Railway Department under the Transport Ministry said a major problem for the railway sector in Viet Nam was that the Viet Nam Railway Corporation was managing, using, exploiting and running the railway system, which was being funded by government.

The railway system  a public asset  was also managed by the Transport Ministry, he said, implying an overlapping in management between the government body and the corporation.

Hien said the railway bill needed to clarify roles and responsibilities of the parties involved.

Moreover, the bill should be better oriented towards the market, meaning that not only the Viet Nam Railway Corporation, but also other enterprises should be allowed to operate the national railway system, which would help create competition and reduce transport cost.

Nguyen Van Doanh, a Viet Nam Railway Corporation board member, said it was difficult to attract private investment for railway infrastructure.

In the short-term, the state-budget would still majorly fund railway infrastructure development in case infrastructure development and operation were separated.

Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Ngoc ong said the ministry would submit to the government a proposal on high-speed North-South Railway with speed of 160-200km per hour.

He said under the proposal, railway lines would be standardised and upgraded to better serve passengers.

Le Minh ao, vice head of the ministrys Planning and Investment Department, cited reports by the Viet Nam-Japan Consulting Joint Venture saying that until 2030, the North-South transport corridor will see demand of 534,000 passengers per day or 195 million passengers per year, 4.5-5.5 times higher than that of 2010.

High-speed railway was needed as other means of transports were unable to carry some 138 million passengers per year.

In the NAs agenda last Friday, the deputy minister agreed on the need to amend the 2005 Railway Law. He noted that railway infrastructure has deteriorated and was outdated. While most countries were using tracks that are 1.435m wide (broad gauge), Viet Nam was still using 1m-wide tracks (metre gauge). The bill is expected to be discussed next Friday.  VNS
Steve McMullin, associate professor of fish and wildlife conservation in the College of Natural Resources and Environment at Virginia Tech, has been conferred the title of professor emeritus by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.

The emeritus title may be conferred on retired professors, associate professors, and administrative officers who are specially recommended to the board by Virginia Tech President Tim Sands. Nominated individuals who are approved by the board receive an emeritus certificate from the university.

A member of the university community since 1990, McMullin made significant contributions to fish and wildlife conservation in North America and the profession of fisheries science through his work with state and federal agencies and professional societies focusing on leadership development and the interactions between humans and natural resources.

His teaching and research specialized in the human dimensions, policy, and administration of natural resource management. He was also active with the American Fisheries Society and the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

McMullin served as the director of the colleges Leadership Institute, in which select juniors and seniors develop leadership abilities to prepare them as future leaders in managing natural resources for sustainability and biodiversity. Students in this two-semester course sequence strengthen their talents through in-class discussion and hands-on leadership projects. They travel to Richmond, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., to meet with leaders and policymakers in the field of natural resources.

In the classroom, McMullin taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses ranging across the fish and wildlife curriculum. He advised numerous students on masters degree and doctoral degree dissertations and helped them develop successful careers in both academic and industrial settings.

He also taught continuing education courses for natural resource professionals and generated tools and processes for assessing management effectiveness. Those tools have been used by nearly half of the nations state fish and wildlife agencies.

In 2013, McMullin served as interim head of the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation. He had served as associate department head for the previous seven years.

McMullin received his bachelors degree and masters degree from the University of Idaho and a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech. Prior to receiving his doctoral degree, he spent 12 years with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, serving as biologist, regional fisheries manager, and chief of the Montana Fisheries Management Bureau.
Victorian Liberals questioned over Ditch Danmobile stunt Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy has come under fire over his party's use of a vehicle resembling an ambulance on the first official day of the state election campaign as he declared he is "not going to take any lectures" from unions.

Shadow treasurer declares inflationary environment wont change tax cut stance The Coalition has vowed to see the legislated stage three tax cuts come into effect in 2024, despite fresh forecasts of a high inflationary environment.

Melbourne Cup jockey cops massive fine and ban over careless race act Melbourne Cup runner-up jockey Patrick Moloney was fined nearly 40 per cent of his $55,000 earnings from the race after he was scrutinised for "careless riding".

Albanese very confident of successful Voice referendum Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he is very confident a referendum to establish the indigenous Voice to Parliament will be successful.
FBI: Hate crimes against Muslims up

ATLANTA (AP)  Reported hate crimes against Muslims rose in 2015 to their highest number since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to FBI statistics released Monday.

The number of hate crimes reported by law enforcement agencies to the FBI increased 6.7 percent, from 5,479 incidents in 2014 to 5,850 last year. The total is far lower than the numbers seen in the early 2000s, but the report comes at a time of heightened tensions following last weeks presidential election.

The most recent reporting covers calendar year 2015, which included the terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., as well as Republican Donald Trumps call for a ban on all Muslims entering the U.S.

Chilis takes back veterans free meal

CEDAR HILL, Texas (AP)  The parent company of Chilis wants to make things right after a veteran had his free meal taken away on Veterans Day.

Ernest Walker posted a video to Facebook on Friday of a manager taking away his meal at a Chilis in the Dallas suburb of Cedar Hill. The Army vet writes the meal was taken away after another diner raised questions about the uniform Walker was wearing. Walker said the manager took his meal even after he showed him his military ID and discharge papers.

Walker said he bought the fatigues he was wearing after he was discharged as a tribute to his service.

Hypnotist attorney jailed for sex crimes

ELYRIA, Ohio (AP)  A former Ohio attorney was sentenced to 12 years in prison for hypnotizing unwitting female clients for his sexual gratification.

Michael Fine, 59, was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty in September to charges involving six women.

Authorities say Fines criminal activities were exposed in 2014 after a client who suspected shed been hypnotized recorded two telephone conversations during which Fine used explicit sexual language. Publicity prompted other women to contact authorities.

Drunken driver: Trump to blame

MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  A Minnesota motorist had a novel excuse for her drunken driving arrest: She blamed Donald Trump.

Police in the Minneapolis suburb of Lino Lakes said the 33-year-old woman rammed into two vehicles stopped at a traffic light Wednesday. The woman told officers she was upset over the election and they should let her go home. Police said the woman was referencing Trumps victory.

Her blood alcohol measured 0.33 percent a few hours after the crash, well over Minnesotas legal driving limit of 0.08. The drivers in the other vehicles werent hurt.

2016 set to break global heat record

MARRAKECH, Morocco (AP)  Global temperatures are soaring toward a record high this year, the U.N. weather agency said Monday, while another report showed emissions of a key global warming gas have flattened out in the past three years.

Another year. Another record. The high temperatures we saw in 2015 are set to be beaten in 2016, said Petteri Taalas, the head of the World Meteorological Organization.

WMO data through October showed world temperatures, boosted by the El Nino phenomenon, are 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels.

WMO said 16 of the 17 hottest years have occurred this century.
CEDAR FALLS  Lexi Theusch streams steaming hot milk into the mug with a practiced hand. Gently shaking the pitcher, her wrist moves almost imperceptibly. When she sets the mug down, there is a perfectly shaped heart in the center.

Theres definitely an art to it, and it doesnt happen every time. Sometimes I mess up, says Theusch, who is manager of the Starbucks licensed store at College Square Hy-Vee.

But not very often.

Theuschs apron says it all: Midwest Barista Champion.

Theusch won the title of Starbucks 2016 Midwest Barista Champion earlier this year in a competition at the U.S. Bank Plaza Starbucks location in Minneapolis. Since then shes been donning her apron with pride every day as she whips up coffee beverages beloved by Starbucks customers, ranging from triple Americanos and caramel macchiatos to the new and Theuschs new personal favorite  chestnut praline latte.

Theres so much dedication, passion and professionalism in what we do. Its a good work environment, and we work hard to provide the best products to our customers, says the 20-year-old barista, a junior business management major at the University of Northern Iowa.

She took over as manager in August and puts in long days Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and weekends at the kiosk. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the barista attends classes.

Time management is the key, Theusch says, smiling. It can get pretty busy, going to school full time and working full time. As manager, I have a lot of responsibilities, but its also fun and challenging, and I love it.

She began her coffee career as a high school student at the kiosk in Hy-Vees Edgewood Road store in Cedar Rapids. It took 40 hours of training to become a barista, and then Theusch underwent trainer training, a 45-hour program that prepared her for moving into management.

Next, she enrolled in Starbucks Coffee Masters Journey, a one-year program where she studied all aspects of coffee and the coffee industry, including history, species, regions and more. At its conclusion, she prepared a tasting for upper management.

Theusch was encouraged to compete in the Iowa barista competition, which she won. That entitled her to compete for the Midwest regional title against four other winning baristas.

There were two parts to the completion. The competitors had to prepare several perfect Starbucks beverages while describing the process. Theusch added her latte art to the flat white, a coffee drink with ristretto shots of espresso and steamed milk. They were judged on sensory characteristics and technical skills.

In the second phase, each competitor was given a scenario. Theusch had to prepare a Starbucks tasting for fictional newlyweds who had received a coffeemaker as a wedding gift. She ended up pairing Pikes Place, a smooth medium roast, with coffee cake and justifying her choices to the judges.

I shared what I knew, and it didnt take me long to get comfortable and more confident. The judges are looking for that passion and dedication, and the desire to share your knowledge with customers, she explains.

Along with bragging rights as Midwest champion, Theusch received an apron emblazoned with her title. Shes also planning the next step on her career path.

I want to visit a coffee farm and see where all this begins. How coffee grows, the beans are picked  were actually the last 10 feet of the coffee making process  the brewing and serving. Im always learning something new, and I want to keep doing that because its exciting.
CEDAR FALLS  Cedar Falls is changing directions, and location, on plans for a new public safety building.

At a goal-setting session this week, city staff recommended the City Council pursue locating the building at the site of the citys south fire station, which is near the intersection of Greenhill Road and South Main Street and the sprawling Western Home Communities complexes.

Though no final decisions were made during goal setting, the council gave staff the go-head to pursue planning for that site. Pending final approvals, it may be two years at the earliest before anything would be constructed. Under that option, the current main fire station at East 18th and Main streets would remain in operation as a fire substation.

The city is considering housing all fire and police administrative offices as well as the police station  all now at City Hall  and the main fire station in a single public safety building.

For several years, the city looked at building such a facility on the site of the current Iowa State Patrol Post 9, 1510 W. First St., as soon as the state is ready to move that facility. Land at that site is owned by the city. The city offered another city-owned site west of the city Public Works Building at 1521 Technology Parkway as a site for a new State Patrol Post.

City Administrator Ron Gaines noted the state had approached the city with the idea years ago. But the city has waited several years with no action by the state, Public Safety Director Jeff Olson said, and it could be another several years before the state acts. He urged the council to move on.

Weve been talking with the troopers for some time and were still nowhere, Olson said. Were ready at this point to, we can use the term abandon that location at this point, and look at something at South Main and Greenhill (Road).

Olson said the city could revisit the First Street location if the state makes some decision on a patrol post move, but nothing appears imminent.

The existing south fire station, and adjacent property on which a public safety building would be built, is on land owned by the parent company of Covenant Medical Center in Waterloo. Covenant CEO Jack Dusenbery said last month his organization will cooperate with the city on whatever they determine to be best option for such a building. Olson was optimistic something can be worked out with Covenant without substantial additional expense, as was the case with the existing south fire station.

Olson projects the building would cost about $9 million. Jennifer Rodenbeck, the citys director of finance and business operations, said the city has saved up about $5.7 million in operational savings over several years and anticipates having about $7 million in total accumulated by the end of fiscal year 2016-17, which ends next June 30.

I dont think we could move quickly enough to be ready in 2017, but certainly by 2018 we would want to get moving, Olson said. Were early into it, but we are getting our ducks in a row and moving forward.

If the city proceeds with the South Main Street location for a public safety building, and the State Patrol later decides to move, Olson said the city could consider closing the fire station at East 18th and Main and build a new satellite station at the current State Patrol post site.

Olson said it makes sense to have the police station and the main fire station at the South Main site because the city is growing in that direction. He also noted response times to the northern parts of the city would remain the same with the East 18th and Main station still in place and improve slightly if that station ultimately were moved to the current State Patrol post site.

With police and fire administration and the main police and fire stations all under one roof, there are a whole lot efficiencies there, and lot of work we can do with the employees working together out of that same department, furthering our public safety model, Olson said.

Council member Mark Miller, representing the 1st Ward, which includes northern Cedar Falls, said hed still like to see the now-closed Lone Tree Road fire station reopened. City official have said call volumes and response times dont justify regular staffing of the station, though it was open during the September flood.
WATERLOO  Police continue to investigate a Friday night shooting that claimed the life of a Waterloo woman.

No arrests have been made in the death of 19-year-old Talasa Wright.

Friends and family members said Wright was good person.

She had a lovely heart. She always helped everybody she could, said Shedrie Smith, a family friend.

She experienced what she could in life. I feel she was taken too young, said her older brother, Oshea Wright. She cared for her family.  She was a strong individual. She didnt really care about who anybody else said, she did what she felt was happy for her.

Wright was born and raised in Waterloo.

It was just me and my mom and my sister from the start. We went through hell and back together. She was always the person to keep us together. She was that person to be smiling and be the happiest around us, the brother said.

Authorities said Talasa Wright and others were in a passenger car on Gable Street when she was shot around 11 p.m. Friday. She was taken to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City where she later died.

Wrights death is the third homicide this year with the most recent coming only a week earlier when Darrell Lanier was shot on Nov. 1. No arrests have been made in Laniers death.

Community activist and former county supervisor Leon Mosley said the violence has to end.

It really makes me mad, but until we start telling everything, and I mean everything, about all the crime thats going on here, we will always have a problem, Mosley said.

Mosley said often people dont come forward because talking to authorities can be seen as taboo.

They have that no snitch thing where they dont want to talk about it, and they dont want to get involved. Well, when you dont want to get involved, thats what you get a whole bunch of kids running the streets, shooting the guns and everything.
WATERLOO  Students from eight Cedar Valley schools capped six weeks of raising money and collecting food donations Monday by bringing their bounty to the Northeast Iowa Food Bank.

Each school weighed its contributions, which collectively tipped the scales at 30,270 pounds. That was about 7,500 pounds below last years total and fell short of the 2016 Student Food Drives 50,000 pound goal.

After weighing the contributions, most of the participating schools stuck around to volunteer. This is the first year a service component was added to the annual food drive.

This day turned out even better than I expected, Barb Prather, the food banks executive director, told students as the event wrapped up. I would have never thought we would be able to get 70 kids to work two or three hours.

Students from six of the schools volunteered. Some of them came early so they can work longer, said Sheri Huber-Otting, food solicitor for the agency.

Among the tasks they completed was bagging food for the BackPack Program, one of eight programs the agency has to serve people in its 16-county area.

Thats lunches for kids on the weekend, explained Alex Raiter, a sophomore at Don Bosco High School who was working with one crew. Needy students are identified by their school to receive a backpack full of food so they can have meals on the weekends.

There are soup, fruit snacks, pop tarts and cereal and then macaroni (and cheese), said Raiter.

These will get out to schools and we will deliver them to kids that need them, said Emily Kaus, a Hudson High School senior working with another crew. She is a member of Hudsons National Honor Society, which headed the schools food drive and passes out backpacks each week to its needy students.

Its pretty cool as a community we can help out those who are less fortunate, said Charlotte Collins, a Valley Lutheran High School freshman who also was volunteering.

Other students sorted grocery products for the food bank shelves.

They sorted about 3,000 pounds of food and packed about 2,500 backpacks, said Prather.

The day ended with lunch and a ceremony to hand out first-, second- and third-place awards to the schools in three categories  which means every school gets a prize. The top school in each category received $1,000, second place received $750 and third place received $500.

That money goes back to their school for whatever they want, said Prather. Its due to our generous sponsors that enables us to do that. The event had 10 major sponsors.

In the small division, Valley Lutheran got second place and Waterloo Christian School got first. In the medium division, Union High School got third, Don Bosco got second and Hudson got first. In the large division, East High School got third, West High got second and Cedar Falls High got first.

Cedar Falls student senate led its food drive, which gathered 10,920 pounds of food. Among the events they held were trunk or treat, a volleyball competition, a competition between third period classes, bake sales and a karaoke night.

Its always really rewarding every year, said senior Julie Jorgensen. Its always cool to be participating in such an effort.

For students who dont regularly volunteer, she noted, the food drive is an opportunity to get involved.

Its a good way for people to step out of their comfort zones and do stuff and have fun doing it.
WATERLOO  The city will install a speed hump to slow traffic near Highland Elementary School.

Waterloo City Council members voted unanimously and without discussion Monday to approve installing the $550 device in the 800 block of Idaho Street.

Residents in the area petitioned the city for traffic safety improvements after an 8-year-old girl was seriously injured after being hit by a vehicle while crossing Idaho Street on Oct. 11. Police said a distracted driver was cited for failure to yield.

Traffic Operations Superintendent Sandie Greco said a speed study conducted over several days showed the average vehicle was traveling 33 mph in the 25-mph zone on Idaho.

While parents of Highland students had also talked about adding additional traffic lights and stop signs on side streets, Greco said the speed hump is the only change being proposed at this time.

We will monitor the situation to see how its working, she said.

Greco said her office and the police department will reach out to school officials about providing some in-class education about the operation of the crosswalk signal and other pedestrian and bicycle safety measures.

In other business, council members voted unanimously to:

Donate an undeveloped alley to Hawkeye Community College for construction of its new $8 million downtown campus on the former Waterloo Bowl-In site, bounded by Jefferson and First streets, Mullan Avenue and U.S. Highway 218.

Accept a $200,000 Resource Enhancement and Protection grant from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to help pay for parking lot and grounds improvements around the Waterloo Boat House in Cedar River-Exchange Park.
WATERLOO  A move to reduce the citys future use of tax-increment financing narrowly failed Monday night.

Waterloo City Council members voted 4-3 against a motion to release 50 percent of the future property taxes generated in the Martin Road TIF district back to the citys general fund, schools and county government.

I think we should try something different and see if it works, said Councilman Tom Lind, who was joined by Steve Schmitt and Bruce Jacobs in supporting the measure.

But Councilmen Jerome Amos Jr., Ron Welper, Pat Morrissey and Tom Powers voted against the move after Chief Financial Officer Michelle Weidner said the change could hurt the citys ability to attract new businesses by cutting money available for new roads and tax incentives.

If we empty that jar too far, we wont be able to pay (a) developer, or we wont be able to pay the next developer, Weidner said. Were going to run out of money before we run out of projects.

The debate came as the council was being asked to reshuffle the timeline on the Martin Road TIF, which includes the business park along U.S. Highway 63 from north of Ridgeway Avenue south to Hudson.

While portions of the TIF district created in 1996 have been developed, large areas of land remain vacant. With the district set to expire in 2019, city planners have proposed releasing only the undeveloped land and then adding it back to the TIF district for a new 20-year cycle.

We have some more infrastructure to be built out there, said Community Planning and Development Director Noel Anderson. We have the greyhound parks dilapidated building to deal with. So theres a lot of work to be done, and were going to need more time utilizing the TIF financing if were going to see projects out there.

Tax-increment financing allows the city to keep nearly all of the property taxes generated by new projects within a district and use that money to develop the land or provide tax breaks to attract businesses.

Several residents joined Lind in suggesting the city could allow half that money to go back to the taxing bodies, using the citys portion to pay for public safety cameras around the community.

Weidner urged council members to remember the city only gets about 43 percent of the taxes release from the TIF districts. She also noted the vacant land being added back to the Martin Road TIF wont have any increment value to release for several years.

There is no increment today, she said. Were not going to have any increment unless we get some projects.

Council members unanimously completed the process of removing the undeveloped land from the TIF district. The first reading to add it back to the district passed 6-1, with the second and potentially third reading slated for next week.
WATERLOO  The Cedar Bend Humane Society is partnering with Iowa Humane Alliance Regional Spay and Neuter Clinic in Cedar Rapids to offer the public reduced cost spay and neuter surgeries.

Surgery prices include: dog spay, $80; dog neuter, $65; cat spay or neuter, $40; and feral or barn cat spay or neuter, $35.

Free transportation is available from Cedar Bend Humane Society in Waterloo to Iowa Humane Alliance Regional Spay and Neuter Clinic in Cedar Rapids. Space is limited to 25 pets.

The first trip to Cedar Rapids will be Dec. 12. Check in with your pet at 6:45 a.m. at Cedar Bend Humane Society, 1166 W. Airline Highway. Your pet will be transported to Cedar Rapids for surgery at Iowa Humane Alliance.

Pets will be transported back to the Cedar Bend Humane Society the following day. Post-surgery pickup will be Dec. 13 at 8 a.m. at Cedar Bend Humane Society. Arrive promptly at 8 a.m.

Bring verification of rabies vaccination. If you do not have verification of rabies or do not have the rabies vaccination, a rabies vaccination will be given for a $10 fee. Rabies vaccination is mandatory.
Its not a great moment for permanent Washington. Americans just elected Donald Trump, who has promised to drain this cozy swamp. And even though Trump did not win the popular vote last Tuesday, many voters on the left and right agree with him on the swamp issue. Remember, Bernie Sanders nearly won the Democratic nomination with the same message.

Speaking as a resident of the swamp, I can tell you this isnt the first time weve seen this. Before Trump, there was Barack Obama. In 2008 he ran on hope and change. He tried (and quickly failed) to ban lobbyists from his administration. Before Obama, there was George W. Bush. During the New Hampshire primaries, the soon-to-be 43rd president ran an ad that said: You mark my words: You leave money sitting around the table in Washington  Washington politicians will spend it.

In 1992, there was Bill Clinton, who stood up for all the Americans who worked hard and played by the rules but were nonetheless at the mercy of the special interests. In 1980, Americans voted for the Ronald Reagan revolution. That election unseated a relatively unknown southern governor, Jimmy Carter, who campaigned in 1976 on bringing honesty back to a capital reeling from the scandal of Watergate.

There are important differences with Trump. He is the least qualified man to ever win the presidency. He has never held public office. Trump also is a major political donor. It was part of his initial appeal. He would tell his crowds how he knew first-hand how corrupt politicians are. He used to be one of the guys bribing them.

And yet, despite all of this, Trump is now relying on Washington insiders to clean up the mess they created. His transition team is filled with them, from former House speaker Newt Gingrich to fourth-term senator Jeff Sessions. When asked on 60 Minutes on Sunday why he was employing so many lobbyists on his transition team, Trump said, Thats all there is down there.

There are a few reasons why presidents before Trump have tried and failed to unseat the governing and political class. To start, modern governing is immensely complicated. We remember presidents for their big decisions like the Iraq War or Obamacare. But most of a presidents time is taken up with the dreary management of the administrative state. No politician can be expected to even know how to address most of these matters. The White House and government agencies rely on smart staffers who learn quickly what the debate is and draw up policy options.

Trump and others like him say this process is corrupted. But this is not exactly right. Lobbyists certainly get access to decision-makers because of campaign contributions and personal connections. But their influence most of the time relies on a mastery of policy details, not a simple transaction of pay-for-play. Often it is the lobbyist and not the bureaucrat or staffer who knows the full history of the mundane issues under consideration by a White House. After all, chances are the lobbyist used to be a staffer, bureaucrat or member of Congress. It is this revolving door that has kept the permanent government in business for more than a century.

This is why you see so many alumni of swamp-draining administrations stick around the swamp after their president leaves.

They end up engaging in the kind of influence-peddling their bosses once opposed.

Take Gingrich. On Sunday, the former speaker told CBS, The swamp doesnt want to be drained, and the swamp will just suck you in if you let it. As a former lobbyist for the mortgage giant Freddie Mac, Gingrich knows of what he speaks.

I understand why millions of Americans find all of this so awful. Permanent Washington has done a poor job at addressing the anxieties and pain of many Americans. All the while they have done a very good job of fattening the government they influence.

But before writing off the swamp entirely, its worth thinking for a minute about the man we just elected president. While many Americans are no doubt elated, Trump campaigned at times like an authoritarian. He threatened his accusers with lawsuits. He banned members of the press from his events. He promised to jail his opponent, Hillary Clinton. He encouraged, at times, his audience to rough up protesters.

It may be all of this banana-republic bravado was for show. But if this is truly who Trump is, the country will need the permanent political and governing class to stop him. The leaks, slow-rolling and backstabbing that in normal times infuriate those who try to reform Washington will be the first line of defense. I sincerely hope it doesnt come to that. But if Im wrong, you need me in that swamp.
Let me share with you what a friend emailed me the other day.

Maybe you have this thing that I have, he wrote, but Im looking at my straight white male co-workers who are still gliding through their day unencumbered, and Im just like you people just do not get it. You might be upset about the outcome, but you. just. dont. under. stand. right. now.

Yes, I have this thing my friend has. Maybe you do too.

This thing is more than disappointment by the defeat of Hillary Clinton, arguably the most qualified person to seek the office in recent memory who happens to be a woman.

After a campaign that mainstreamed white supremacy, xenophobia and misogyny, this thing is palpable fear.

Fear of being targeted because youre Muslim. President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on a ban of Muslims from entering the United States. Hate crimes against Muslims went up 78 percent during the course of 2015, no doubt empowered by Trumps ugly rhetoric.

Fear of being targeted because you or your family members are undocumented immigrants. No. 5 on Trumps 10-point plan to put America first is the termination of President Obamas two executive orders, DACA and DAPA, that protected from deportation the children of undocumented immigrants and the undocumented parents of American-born children.

Fear of being targeted because youre transgender. The Republican Party platform supports those fear-mongering bathroom bills that demean and ultimately endanger the lives of transgender Americans. And the Obama Justice Department that intervened to protect the rights and dignity of transgender Americans in North Carolina will give way to a Trump attorney general who couldnt care less.

Fear of being targeted because youre African-American. In response to protests against police-involved killings of black men, President-elect Trump declared during the campaign he was a law-and-order candidate. He advocated a national stop-and-frisk policy that would only exacerbate tensions between police and the people they are sworn to serve and protect. Both are echoes of the Big Apple mayoralty of Rudy Giuliani. That he could be the next attorney general does nothing to make African-Americans feel safe.

Fear of being targeted because youre gay or lesbian. The Republican platform opposes same-sex marriage. Vice President-elect Mike Pence championed a law that legalized discrimination under the cover of so-called religious freedom. Trumps vow to revoke all of Obamas executive orders would strip discrimination protections from lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender federal contractors.

More than one well-meaning colleague has told me, Well, look at it this way, you have plenty of material to write about. True. But heres what our well-meaning friends, especially those who have not felt the sting of discrimination or even otherness, need to understand.

President-elect Trump has made promises that represent a threat to real lives and livelihoods. Some are unconstitutional. All are immoral.

And until the president-elect demonstrates otherwise, the gnawing fear will remain and grow deeper. His tweet blaming nationwide protests on the media  and then praising the protests hours later  show how far we are from having our fears acknowledged and addressed.
If you have opinions about the subject matter of posts on this blog please share them. Do you have a story about how the system affects you at work school or home, or just in general? This is a place to share it.
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South Australia government responds to Royal Commission

15 November 2016

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The government of South Australia will support nine of the 12 recommendations of a Royal Commission on the nuclear fuel cycle, Premier Jay Weatherill announced today. These include the expansion of uranium mining and exploration, but not the removal of existing prohibitions on nuclear power generation.

Jay Weatherill delivered the government's response (Image: Government of South Australia)

The Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission was launched in March 2015 to undertake an independent and comprehensive investigation into the potential for increasing the state's participation in the nuclear fuel cycle. Weatherill today delivered to the state parliament the government's formal response to commission's report, which was published in May.

The commission made five recommendations related to uranium exploration and mining, all of which the government has decided to support. This support means, Weatherill said, that a new state-wide mineral exploration drilling initiative can be developed to support the discovery of new deposits in South Australia, with a particular focus on uranium.

These five recommendations the government supports are: the simplification of state and federal mining approval requirements for radioactive ores, to deliver a single assessment and approvals process; to further enhance the integration and public availability of pre-competitive geophysical data in South Australia; to undertake further geophysical surveys in priority areas, where mineral prospectivity is high and available data is limited; increased long-term investment in programs to encourage and support industry investment in the exploration of greenfield locations; and to ensure the full costs of decommissioning and remediation with respect to radioactive ore mining projects are secured in advance from miners through associated guarantees.

The government also supported the commissions recommendations to collaborate at the national level on the development of a comprehensive national energy policy that enables all technologies, including nuclear, to contribute to a low-carbon energy system, and to monitor the development of new nuclear reactor designs. It also supported a recommendation to promote and increase the use of nuclear medicine at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute.

It did not support the commission's recommendation that it should pursue the removal of existing prohibitions on nuclear power generation in the state, "recognising that in the short-to-medium term, nuclear power is not a cost-effective source of low-carbon electricity for South Australia."

Waste investigations continue



Weatherill said the government would not "pursue policy or legislative change" relating to a nuclear waste storage facility in the state but would "continue to encourage" discussion on the issue and "remain open to pursuing this opportunity for South Australia." A potential waste facility was the subject of two recommendations by the commission. The government said it would support continued investigation into the recommendation to pursue the opportunity to establish used nuclear fuel and intermediate level waste storage and disposal facilities in South Australia, but would not support the recommendation to remove related legislative constraints.

Yesterday, Weatherill announced plans for a referendum after a Citizens' Jury rejected proposals that South Australia should store and dispose of nuclear waste. Today, he said the government had concluded the restoration of bipartisanship and broad social consent secured through a state-wide referendum was "the only path forward".

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

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Nov 14, 2016 | By Tess

Perhaps one of the best things about 3D printing technology is how democratic and accessible it can be. Of course, while not everyone can afford a state of the art industrial or desktop 3D printer, there are tons of options out there for those who want to 3D print for cheap or who want to build their own additive manufacturing systems. Recently, for instance, we came across the particularly inspiring story of Afate Gnikou, a Togolese inventor who built his very own 3D printer from electronic waste he gathered from landfills.

Gnikous foray into 3D printing began in 2013, when the 37-year-old geographer took part in a contest organized by local tech incubator WoeLab to build Togos first ever 3D printer. At the time, he wanted to draw attention to the huge amount of electronic waste that was ending up in Togolese, Nigerian, and Ghanaian landfills, largely from second hand computers from Europe and abroad, so decided to build his 3D printer out of these wasted materials.

Since participating in the contest, Gnikou has continued to work on his innovative 3D printer, made entirely from recycled parts, and has been recognized for his determination. In 2014, for instance, Gnikou and his team were awarded first place at Fab10, an international event hosted in Barcelona geared towards accessible technologies. As the maker explains, however, even this award did not help him to raise funds or find a partner for the project.

Gnikou at Fab10 in Barcelona (2014)

Despite these challenges, Gnikou is still determined to further develop his 3D printer and turn it into a viable product for the African market. As he explained, I want to adapt the 3D printer to the Togolese and, indeed, African context and to fit local needs. This has involved making a more sturdy and durable 3D printer model, and improving its structural frame.

For example, while the first 3D printer model was built using the body from a computer, the second iteration has integrated the body of a scanner, and plastic parts from computer monitors. This has allowed him to make the 3D printer more solid than before. Additionally, Gnikou has added lights to the 3D printer, which means it can more easily be used at night or in darker spaces.

3D printed knee prostheses

Ultimately, the Togolese maker is hoping to use his recycled 3D printer to make affordable and custom fit prostheses for the people in his community. As he explained in an interview, There are many people in my community living with disabilities. If I ask them why they dont use medical prostheses, they smile and say 'My friend, they are too expensive!.'

Like in many places, prostheses are still relatively unaccessible in Togo largely because of their high cost. Under the current system, prosthetic devices are all standardized and imported to Togo from abroad, meaning not only high costs but also ill-fitting or generically sized prostheses. Gnikou hopes that his 3D printer will help to create affordable and specially customized prostheses for those who cannot afford regular ones. With a 3D printer, we could what we need and free our continent from its dependence on imports.

The DIY 3D printer has so far printed about 150 objects, though all relatively small in size, the largest being 16 cm in width and 12 cm in height. To help move his vision forwards, Gnikou is continually looking for interested partners and additional funding. Primarily, he is looking to expand his workshop space (he is currently working out of his parents house), and to set up a training facility where he can teach young people to build their own 3D printers and machines. My goal would be to get them to the point where they are able to create objects that respond to concrete needs or help them in their daily lives, he said.

Posted in 3D Printer

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Nov 14, 2016 | By Benedict

Penn State University has signed a Master Research contract with defense manufacturer Lockheed Martin, signaling the continuation of research collaboration and an enhanced recruiting relationship. Lockheed Martin has previously supported Penn State students in various 3D printing projects.

Agreements between academic institutions and wealthy companies can be mutually beneficial: universities are put in a good position to secure research funding from the corporate partner, while participating companies able to keep an eye on promising graduates from the university who might prove worth recruiting. Penn State and Lockheed Martin, a Pennsylvania-based public university and an American defense and aerospace company, respectively, are two parties to have consistently taken advantage of the unique relationship between business and academia, having collaborated on numerous ventures, including several additive manufacturing projects, as recently as spring 2016.

According to a press release put out on Friday, the partnership between Penn State and Lockheed Martin is set to continue long in to the future, as the pair recently put pen to paper on a Master Research Contract. According to the two parties, the new agreement will signal the initiation of further research collaborations, an enhanced recruiting relationship, and an increased engagement from Lockheed Martin in Penn State programs. Advancing university-industry partnerships such as this one with Lockheed exemplifies Penn State's renewed emphasis on economic development and job creation, and adds to our growing reputation as the go-to industry-friendly university, commented Neil Sharkey, vice president for research at Penn State.

While there are few details yet about the kind of projects on which Penn State and Lockheed Martin will collaborate, the defense company has historically taken part in several Penn State research programs, including those in the area of 3D printing, or additive manufacturing. Earlier this year, Lockheed Martin asked students in Penn States Introduction to Design Engineering class to use 3D printing to solve new problems in aerospace, defense, and other areas of interest for Lockheed Martin. During this project, students used additive manufacturing to create, amongst other things, 3D printed heat exchangers, shock absorbers, wire connectors, and USB hub mounting brackets.

The research agreement between Penn State and Lockheed Martin reportedly includes a framework that will guide future research projects focused in areas including computer science, cybersecurity, supply chain and aerospace engineering. Students will have access to high-profile talent recruitment opportunities, and Lockheed Martin employees will get the chance to take part in Penn States online masters programs for electrical engineering and engineering leadership and management.

As our technological demands increase, so do our needs for world-class talent, said Lockheed Martin Vice President of Engineering & Technology Dan Heller. This agreement is an ideal opportunity for Penn State students to work alongside Lockheed Martin engineers and scientists on the challenges we face today and those we anticipate will emerge in the future.

Earlier this year, Lockheed Martin reported that it was using metal 3D printing technology to build satellites up to 40 percent faster. The company has also used 3D printed parts in its Trident missiles.

Posted in 3D Printing Technology

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Nov 15, 2016

3D Printers and materials provider EnvisionTEC today debuts the Vector Hi-Res 3SP at Formnext. The Vector Hi-Res 3SP has a large build envelope of 300 x 175 x 200 mm (11.8 x 6.9 x 7.9 in.) and offers outstanding resolution of 0.002 or 60 m in the X and Y planes. That is nearly double the resolution of the original Vector 3SP, a popular model that launched a year ago.

The new 3D printer will be able to process a variety of proprietary materials including ABS Tough, ABS Hi-Impact, E-Glass and E-Tool, which is designed for short-run injection molding of thermoplastics. The system also includes a standalone PC with a large 56-cm (22-inch) touchscreen monitor.

Additionally, EnvisionTECs exclusive strategic partner, Viridis3D, will be demonstrating its Robotic Additive Manufacturing (RAM) for the first time in Europe. The RAM 123 uses a unique binder jetting head attached to a multi-axis, high-precision robot arm from ABB to print affordable and detailed sand molds and cores for the foundry industry.

The Vector Hi-Res 3SP will be on display at booth E10 in hall 3.1.

Posted in 3D Printer

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Dave wrote at 11/17/2016 5:28:17 PM:Yeah, I'm with g and Chris. What does affordable mean? Do you have a figure you can add to the article?g wrote at 11/15/2016 6:34:43 PM:"Affordable" in the headline is very subjective. What is the approximate price of this?Chris wrote at 11/15/2016 1:01:25 PM:What price does this unit have to be called affordable?




Nov 15, 2016 | By Tess

If you live in a city, chances are youll be all too familiar with the woes and frustrations of finding a parking spot downtown. More than just a source of frustration, however, driving around in circles looking for parking is actually detrimental to the environment, as more emissions are needlessly put out into the air. Fortunately, a Dutch startup called PARKEAGLE is hoping to making parking easier for drivers through an innovative IoT system that uses smart sensors and 3D printing to help guide drivers to available spots.

PARKEAGLE has devised a system wherein a network of smart wireless sensors are installed in parking spots and can connect automatically to a drivers smartphone or even directly to their car, letting them know where there is an available spot. Founded in 2014, the Dutch startup is still in the process of developing its innovative and much anticipated sensor system, but is receiving much positive acclaim. We can see why.

From its beginnings, PARKEAGLE has incorporated 3D printing into its development process to prototype versions of its smart sensor encasement. Initially, the company turned to SLS 3D printing through a service, but found that the process was costly and too time consuming for prototyping. At this point, PARKEAGLE reached out to Dutch 3D printing software startup Printr to help them prototype and further advance their innovative parking sensor.

Printr, founded in 2014, has become known for its comprehensive 3D printing platform Formide, as well as its accompanying tools The Element, a USB device which wirelessly connects your 3D printer to Formide, and Katana, a free slicing app. In teaming up with PARKEAGLE, Printr was able to help the startup create physical models of its designs to show to potential investors while further developing and optimizing the sensor enclosure design.

As a parking sensor device, the 3D printed enclosure had to meet certain criteria, such as being durable and able to withstand heavy loads, being water resistant, being portable, and of course, being easy to install. Initial prototypes for the enclosure were made up of three parts, though after some consultation with Printr, were reduced to only two parts. With Printrs guidance, the Dutch parking startup was also able to switch from SLS to FDM 3D printing, which helped to cut down on both production costs and overall production time.

The developers were also able to optimize the sensor enclosure design for FDM 3D printing and account for the model to be printed in durable PLA plastic. According to the company, the 3D printed prototype also allowed for the inclusion of electronic components so that PARKEAGLE would more sufficiently test its product and the efficiency of various prototype designs. In the end, the startup found that a wide and low enclosure was the most effective as it distributed weight more efficiently and was thus able to resist it.

PARKEAGLE recently participated in Get in the Rings startup pitch competition, which took place in Amsterdam this past September. The startup also gained additional attention at the Rotterdam Mobility Lab, where it won another pitching contest. So, while it might be a while before you can benefit from PARKEAGLEs innovative 3D printed parking sensors automatically guiding you to a free parking spot, the startup is well on its way to readying the product for commercialization.

Posted in 3D Printing Application

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Nov 14, 2016 | By Tess

Since its founding in 2010, Chinese electronics company Xiaomi Inc. has made a name for itself in the smartphone, laptop, mobile apps, and consumer electronics markets, releasing a wide range of competitively priced products. Now, judging by some leaked photos of a new product, it seems the privately owned company could be venturing into a new area: the world of additive manufacturing.

The photos, which first appeared on GizmoChina earlier today, depict an unreleased desktop 3D printer which is emblazoned with Xiaomi Inc.s recognizable "Mi" logo. And while not many official details and specs have been leaked to accompany the photos, sources are speculating that the Chinese electronics company could soon officially unveil its very first 3D printer.

Of the leaked images, one is a digital rendering of a compact, relatively tall enclosed 3D printer made out of transparent and frosted materials. The others, which are actual photos of the 3D printer, essentially demonstrate the same features. Judging by the photos, Xiaomis 3D printer body is made primarily from plastic, with metal supports and electronics inside.

The 3D printer, which bears a similar aesthetic to Britas popular water pitchers, has a perforated top cover (presumably for air circulation), and an opening at the bottom, where users can remove their finished prints. While most technical details are undisclosedsuch as build volume, overall size, and pricethe unreleased 3D printer seems like it will likely be marketed for beginners, as its frame and composition seem relatively small and simple. Likewise, when Xiaomi Inc. finally does announce its first 3D printer, we cant imagine it will be a very expensive one, especially considering how competitively priced the companys other products are.

Of course, those are all the details we have about Xiaomi Inc.s rumored 3D printer release so far, so well have to wait and see when and how the electronics company, which is the worlds fourth largest smartphone manufacturer, announces its first foray into the 3D printer market. Stay tuned for more.

Posted in 3D Printer

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Rose L. wrote at 9/20/2017 8:51:06 AM:It would seem that Tiko, Yeehaw, and this one are exactly the same. FYI-- Yeehaw has sent out two units to my aunt (one is for "spare parts" the company says) and it still has not printed a single thing despite daily trials. Can't log in to Chinese website. Can't speak with anyone about it. Total junk. Am wondering if it could be converted into a fishtank with enough silicone....Royt wrote at 11/15/2016 5:15:06 PM:Reminds me of the tiko3d printer which is finally shipping on KickstarterChris wrote at 11/14/2016 10:09:43 PM:looks a bit like the TIKO 3DJames wrote at 11/14/2016 8:03:44 PM:Looks similar to the Tiko3D printer.Keith S. wrote at 11/14/2016 7:36:50 PM:I guess this is why Tiko 3D printer was delayed a year, so Xaomi could reverse engineer most of it.




Laurel Nakanishi in Orion:

I remember standing in a forest of tamarack in early spring, near Siyeh Glacier in western Montana. High in the branches, clutches of needles sprouted the color of parakeets. The grove was old, so old that the trees grew giant and mossy. They had lived in this valley for over 150 years. I leaned against a stump where Allie sat. No one was looking at my body or at Allies body. No one was wondering what we were doing holding hands, our fingers interlaced. There was no need for words like lesbian or queer or bisexual. There was no need for any label at all. Siyeh Glacier is on land thats thought of as wild: a place in which traces of human civilization are hard to find. The glacier itself once covered more than fifty acres, and its been frozen for millennia. But when we finally crested the pass and looped around to the north side of the mountain, we found only a field of dirty snow, dripping into a little stream. Climate change had melted the ice that had been here for thousands of years. It was a reminder that, while we felt free on that mountain, there can be no complete escape from where we come from. Not even in wilderness, not even with Allie.

Like our carbon pollution, we bring parts of our culture everywhere we go. Matthew Shepard, Gwen Araujo, the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Floridaall the stories I hear about queer people are violent and sad. And while I know that there are many queer families living happily in communities around the country, I find that, more often, I carry the violence with meas fear, as self-hate, as distrust. I carry it even to the tops of melted glaciers. Maybe that is what the wilderness has taught me, continues to teach me: that while the violent and polluting parts of our culture are inescapable, they dont define me. We are all part of a grander ecosystem, an interconnected natural world that is larger than our civilization and its discontents. We are both bigger and smaller than the identities that we create for ourselves, and when we want to get distance from them, we can go out into those areas we call wilderness and find ourselves, once again, as human animals.

More here.
Sarah Zhang in The Atlantic:

Last week, in a historic first, a box of water made it from Havana to Buffalo, New York. It was roundabout journey, since you cant just FedEx a box from Cuba to the U.S. (The embargo, no commercial cargo flights, etc.) The box flew first to Toronto. Customs brokers then escorted it across the U.S.-Canada border to its final destination at Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

Why such a production for a box of water? It was the test run for a promising lung-cancer vaccine called CIMAvax, which was developed in Cuba and soon will begin clinical trials in the U.S. But no one in America has ever run a clinical trial with Cuban drugs, and no one was even sure, logistically, how to ship fragile cargo between the two countries. (Again, the embargo, no commercial cargo flights.) So the researchers devised a roundabout route and tested it with this box of water. We actually wanted them to ship a box of beer, joked Ke lvin Lee, an immunologist at Roswell who helped forge the C uban collaboration, but it turned out to be too complicated .

This shipment came, of course, at a time of thawing relations between U.S. and Cuba. The embargo is still in placeonly Congress can vote to lift itbut the Obama administration has been issuing executive actions easing restrictions on trade and travel to the country. Last month, the administration made it easier to carry out joint U.S.-Cuban medical research, and the Food and Drug Administration promptly followed by approving clinical trials for the Cuban lung-cancer vaccine at Roswell.

CIMAvax is so interesting, scientifically speaking, because it belongs to a new class of cancer treatments called immunotherapy.

More here.
From The Critical Flame:

Bhanumati Mishra: First and foremost, what does translation mean to you? What drives you to publish translations of Indian writing into English?

Mini Krishnan: I publish translations of Indian writing because in them lie our own histories, our sense of identity and belonging; because we need to breathe our native breath; because it is our historical duty in a largely illiterate country to preserve our words, our worlds, and slow their disappearance. In the indigenous writing of the subcontinent lay the memories and history of a people who are rapidly losing their languages. What better service than to retrieve and reinterpret a body of work which is emotionally important for India?

BM: Tell us about your tryst with regional languages, and also about the early influences in your life besides your father, who was the editor of the Deccan Herald in Bangalore.

MK: In the 1950s, while I was growing up in Bangalore, to function only in English was fashionable and those who didnt were looked down upon. Gradually, Malayalam faded from my Anglo-Indian existence. No one ever suggested that I learn the Malayalam alphabet, and I must confess I wasnt very keen either. We were coping with both Hindi and Kannada in school and trying to master another languageeven if my origins lay in its culturewas not a welcome proposition. Meanwhile, I enjoyed textbook Hindi in school and sailed through the Hindi Prachar Sabha exams outside it. I was old enough to enjoy lofty and subtle poetry and something in me stirred as I studied Harivansh Rai Bacchan, Kabir, and Rahim. The melodrama and sentimentality, the lyricism and those rich overblown descriptionsit was all me.

In Standard IX, when I began to memorise English poetry, my mother often responded with a faint smile. There is something very similar in Malayalam, only better. Poetry in Malayalam was better than poetry in English?

More here.
C.J. Polychroniou in Truthout:

Some years ago, public intellectual Noam Chomsky warned that the political climate in the US was ripe for the rise of an authoritarian figure. Now, he shares his thoughts on the aftermath of this election, the moribund state of the US political system and why Trump is a real threat to the world and the planet in general.

C.J. Polychroniou for Truthout: Noam, the unthinkable has happened: In contrast to all forecasts, Donald Trump scored a decisive victory over Hillary Clinton, and the man that Michael Moore described as a wretched, ignorant, dangerous part-time clown and full-time sociopath will be the next president of the United States. In your view, what were the deciding factors that led American voters to produce the biggest upset in the history of US politics?

Noam Chomsky: Before turning to this question, I think it is important to spend a few moments pondering just what happened on November 8, a date that might turn out to be one of the most important in human history, depending on how we react.

No exaggeration.

The most important news of November 8 was barely noted, a fact of some significance in itself.

On November 8, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) delivered a report at the international conference on climate change in Morocco (COP22) which was called in order to carry forward the Paris agreement of COP21. The WMO reported that the past five years were the hottest on record. It reported rising sea levels, soon to increase as a result of the unexpectedly rapid melting of polar ice, most ominously the huge Antarctic glaciers. Already, Arctic sea ice over the past five years is 28 percent below the average of the previous 29 years, not only raising sea levels, but also reducing the cooling effect of polar ice reflection of solar rays, thereby accelerating the grim effects of global warming. The WMO reported further that temperatures are approaching dangerously close to the goal established by COP21, along with other dire reports and forecasts.

More here.
Just as important (if not more) than the gravy at Thanksgiving dinner is the wine you pair the bird with. We asked eight California winemakers what bottle they're bringing to the Thanksgiving table.





The Winemaker: Tami Lotz, Mumm Napa



The Wine: Perrier-Jouet, Grand Brut (France) $44

"Thanksgiving is a special day to celebrate with friends and family, and what better way to start the feast than with Champagne? I will definitely be including Perrier-Jouet Grand Brut in our celebration. It's lovely, toasty character is a fantastic pair with a cheeseboard to kick things off, and it can hold its own all the way through the main meal." // perrier-jouet.com





The Winemaker: Janet Myers, Franciscan Estate Winery



The Wine: Williams Selyem, Peay Vineyard Pinot Noir 2012 (Sonoma Coast) $59

"I love pinot noir for the Thanksgiving feast because it pairs so beautifully with the fruit-inspired side dishes and sweet yams that go with the holiday. This year, there will be a Williams Selyem pinot noir at our Thanksgiving table." // williamsselyem.com





(Courtesy of Schramsberg Vineyards)





The Winemaker: Todd Graff, Frank Family Vineyards



The Wine: Schramsberg Vineyards, Blanc de Blancs 2013 $39 and Blanc de Noirs 2012 $41

"I'm a big fan of sparkling wines. There's nothing better than starting the all-American holiday with some wines from our good friends and neighbors, Schramsberg. Lead with the Blanc de Blancs and follow that up with the Blanc de Noirsits richness and balanced acidity pairs wonderfully with the big bird and all the traditional sides." // schramsberg.com





The Winemaker: Paul Clifton, Hahn Family Wines



The Wine: Domaine Henri & Gilles Buisson, "Sous la Velle" Saint Romain Blanc 2013 (France) $35

"This chardonnay is from a domaine I fell in love with, in one of the most beautiful French villages I've ever had the good fortune of staying in, called Saint-Romain, Cote-d'Or. It's very light on new oak, but with some barrel-aged character. Beautiful floral notes with hints of honeysuckle. A fuller-bodied chardonnay with crisp acidity." // domaine-buisson.com





The Winemaker: Sara Fowler, Peju Province Winery and Liana Estates



The Wine: Roederer Estate, Brut Multi Vintage (Alexander Valley) $24

"Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays and with that come some favorite traditions. We always start off the day with sparkling, because everyone in my circle loves bubbles. It's a must to always have a large supply of chilled Roederer Estate sparkling from the Alexander Valleyit's both inexpensive and delightful." // roedererestate.com





(Courtesy of Crocker & Starr)





The Winemaker: Kathleen Inman, Inman Family Wines

The Wine: Crocker & Starr Winery, Cabernet Franc 2013 (Napa Valley) $80

"For the first time, I am not cooking Thanksgiving dinner. I am heading to Virginia to meet my daughter's future in-laws for the first time and to share Thanksgiving with them. I will be sending a magnum of Pam Starr's Crocker & Starr Napa Valley Cabernet Franc. This is such a beautiful wine with a lovely floral nose, great blue and black fruit, and exotic spices. It is elegant and balanced and will not overpower the traditional flavors of Thanksgivingthough this year, the traditional may be a bit different for us as our hosts deep fry their turkey!" // crockerstarr.com





The Winemaker: Chris Kajani, Bouchaine Vineyards



The Wine: Agrapart & Fils, "Terroirs" Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru (France) $56

"My go to for Thanksgiving dinner is Agrapart Champagne, a lovely grower champagne founded in 1894. It's made from only 10 hectares (roughly 25 acres) of chardonnay grapes, farmed without pesticides. It's vibrant and complex; the acidity of the champagne balances almost any dish you pair with it. Happiness in a bottle!" // champagne-agrapart.com









The Winemaker:

Chris Carpenter, Cardinale and Lokoya

The Wine: The Eyrie Vineyards, Chasselas Dore 2015 (Oregon) $27



"Some years ago, an intern from Switzerland turned me on to the chasselas variety. It is a dry white that has a weight and texture that works really well with, and won't overshadow, the turkey." // eyrievineyards.com
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Bird flu prevention measures throughout Switzerland

Bern, 15.11.2016 - The OSAv reinforces its measures against avian influenza. From 16 November 2016, the whole of Switzerland will be considered a control area. The aim is to prevent contact between wild birds and domestic poultry throughout the territory. There is no evidence yet that the Swiss poultry farms are affected. According to current knowledge, this virus is not transmissible to humans.



The avian influenza subtype H5N8 has been diagnosed there ten days in dead waterfowl at Lake Constance. During the weekend, two birds were discovered on the shores of Lake Geneva. The countries around Lake Constance concerned by the cases, Germany, Switzerland and Austria, assess the situation and take measures in a concerted manner. These three countries are betting on a stepwise procedure, it means they adapt their measures as and the evolution of the situation.



There are some days, the Federal Office of Food Safety and Veterinary (OSAv) announced that it would strengthen protective measures. From Wednesday, November 16, 2016, the control zone is extended to the whole of Switzerland. Therefore, outdoor poultry detention, swimmers and runners birds is subject to restrictive measures. To prevent contact between wild birds and domestic poultry, feeding and watering of these must be carried out without a run, inaccessible to birds located outside.



If these restrictions can not be applied, the animals must be placed in closed rooms or barns wear a waterproof roof and closed sides. Operators who own chickens must also record the animals with abnormalities and special symptoms.



Address for inquiries



Federal Office of Food Safety and Veterinary (OSAv); media service; Such. 058 463 78 98; media@blv.admin.ch
Escalating fuel prices in various nations is likely to drive the industry demand for electric vehicles from 2016 to 2023.

Electric Motorcycles & Scooters Market Size, Industry Outlook, Regional Analysis (U.S., Germany, UK, Italy, Russia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, UAE, South Africa), Application Development, Competitive Landscape & Forecast, 2016  2023

Electric motorcycles and scooters market size is anticipated to exceed USD 55 million by 2023.

Entrance of several huge original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) is expected to fuel the industry demand. These vehicles offer numerous benefits in contrast with internal combustion engine powered vehicles such as zero emission and fuel economy of pollutants namely carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and hydrocarbons. In addition, decreasing battery prices is estimated to propel the industry growth over the forecast period.

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Lack of recharge infrastructure especially in developing countries might pose a challenge to the global electric motorcycles and scooters market. Lower gross domestic product (GDP) growths accompanied by restrictive congestion or emissions policies are forecast to hamper the industry demand from 2016 to 2023. In addition, high cost of vehicles along with limited availability in the market might pose as challenge to the industry demand.

Various factors such as integrated mobility, inclination towards eco-friendly transportation and development of mega cities are anticipated to positively impact the industry demand. In addition, increasing environmental apprehension accompanied by availability of these electric vehicles at affordable prices is anticipated to fuel the industry growth over the several forth coming years. Advent of several awareness initiatives taken by governments to promote the adoption of electric vehicles is likely to boost the industry demand over the forecast period. Attributes such as low operational and maintenance costs offered by these electric vehicles is estimated to augment electric two wheelers market demand.

Innovations of nano technology in lithium-ion batteries used in these vehicles are likely to provide potential growth avenues over the forth coming years. Researchers are now working on improvising the battery performance along with minimising the manufacturing cost. Thus, the availability of superior quality batteries at economical cost might help in lowering the prices of these electric vehicles. Manufacturers are now entering into numerous emerging economies where fuel prices are a serious matter of concern.

The global electric motorcycles and scooters market can be segmented on the basis of power, technology of battery. On the basis of power the industry can be segmented into high powered and low powered electric motorcycles (e-motorcycles) and electric scooters (e- scooters). On the basis of technology of battery, the industry can be segregated into Sealed -ionLead Acid (SLA), Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) and Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion). Li-Ion can be further segmented into lithium iron phosphate and lithium metal chemistries. Proliferating use of Li-ion batteries enables in having longer battery lifespan as well as improved power densities unlike sealed lead-acid (SLA) batteries.

Asia Pacific electric motorcycles and scooters market size is estimated to witness significant growth. The surge in the industry can be subjected to the presence of large number of developing economies. China is expected to lead the industry owing to rising demand for these vehicles in the region. In addition, development of mega cities, shift towards eco-friendly transportation accompanied by integrated mobility in the nations namely Japan, China and India.

Europe electric two wheelers market size is estimated to witness significant gains forecast period owing to the technological innovation and advancements. In addition, availability of developed infrastructure is also likely to boost the industry demand from 2016 to 2023. Furthermore, rigorous regulatory initiatives for reducing dependency on fuel are likely to exhibit high growth prospects to various industry participants over the forecast period.

Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @ https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/218

Key industry players occupying significant electric motorcycles and scooters market share in the industry include BMW Motorrad International, Polaris Industries, GOVECSJiangsu Xinri E-Vehicle Co., Ltd., Yamaha Motor Co., BOXX Corp, Greenwit Technologies (Motorino), Terra Motors, AllCell Technologies, Green Energy Motors, Alta Motors, Chaowei Power, E.T Scooter, Yadea Technology Group Co, Gogoro, Peugeot Scooters, Zero Motorcycles, Inc., Harley-Davidson, Hollywood Electrics, iO Scooter, Honda Motor Co., Ltd., Huafu High Technology Energy Storage Co., Ltd., Yadea Technology Group Co, Ltd. KTM, Lightning Motorcycles, Mahindra GenZe, Mission Motors and Yadea Technology Group Co., Ltd among others.

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https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/automotive-fuel-cell-market

Fuel Cell Electrolyte Market Size, Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Germany, UK, Italy, Russia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, UAE, South Africa), Application Development, Price Trend, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2016  2023

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About Global Market Insights

Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.

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IndexBox has just published a new report World: Kaolin  Market Report. Analysis And Forecast To 2020.

This report has been designed to provide a detailed analysis of the global kaolin market. It covers the most recent data sets of quantitative medium-term projections, as well as developments in production, trade, consumption and prices.

The global exports of kaolin amounted to 1,696 million USD in 2015, fluctuating mildly over the period under review. A 26% drop in 2009 was followed by recovery over the next two years, until exports slightly dipped. They increased modestly in 2013 and 2014, ending 2015 with a 5% decline. Overall, there was an annual decrease of -1.7% from 2007 to 2015.

According to IndexBox estimates, USA remained the dominant global exporter of kaolin. In 2015, the USAs kaolin exports totaled 562 million USD, which accounted for a 33% share in terms of global exports. Belgium, The UK, Brazil, and China were the other key global suppliers of kaolin in 2015, with a 45% combined share of global exports.

Belgium (+6.1% per year) and China (+4.6% per year) were the only major exporters that showed a positive rate of growth from 2007 to 2015. Belgium strengthened its position in the global kaolin export structure, growing its share from 7% in 2007 to 14% in 2015.

On the other hand, Japan (7.9%, based on value terms), Belgium (7.8%), Finland (6.5%), Germany (6.5%), and China (5.6%) were the leading destinations of kaolin imports in 2015. Imports to China grew the fastest, at a pace of +4.9% per year from 2007 to 2015. By contrast, Japan, Finland, and Germany contracted their imports of kaolin over the same period. None of the major importers saw significant changes to their import share size, with Japan displaying the largest share contraction of -4 percentage points.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 REPORT DESCRIPTION

1.2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

2.1 KEY FINDINGS

2.2 MARKET TRENDS

3. MARKET OVERVIEW

3.1 MARKET VOLUME AND VALUE

3.2 CONSUMPTION BY COUNTRY

3.3 MARKET OPPORTUNITIES BY COUNTRY

3.4 MARKET FORECAST TO 2020

4. PRODUCTION

4.1 PRODUCTION IN 2007-2015

4.2 PRODUCTION BY COUNTRY

5. IMPORTS

5.1 IMPORTS IN 2007-2015

5.2 IMPORTS BY COUNTRY

5.3 IMPORT PRICES BY COUNTRY

6. EXPORTS

6.1 EXPORTS IN 2007-2015

6.2 EXPORTS BY COUNTRY

6.3 EXPORT PRICES BY COUNTRY

7. PROFILES OF MAJOR PRODUCERS

3 easy ways to order

Follow the link below to review a free sample or to buy the report: http://www.indexbox.co.uk/store/world-kaolin-market-report-analysis-and-forecast-to-2020/

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The Law Office of David R. Rocheford, Jr., P.C. welcomes new Associate Attorney Kenneth C. Robinson Esq. to the team. The Law Office of David R. Rocheford, Jr., P.C. is renowned for its expertise and professionalism in real estate closing services and fee

Leominster, MA, (November 15, 2016)  The Law Office of David R. Rocheford, Jr., P.C. is pleased to announce the addition of legal expert and Associate Attorney, Kenneth C. Robinson, to its team.

Kenneth Robinson is an experienced attorney in legal real estate and has an extensive background of education, as well. He graduated with honors from the Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania where he received his Bachelor degree. He went on to make the Honors list and Deans list at the Widener University School of Law in Pennsylvania where he obtained his Doctorate. Robinson previously worked at a law firm as an Associate where he represented clients in real estate cases and handled real estate closings.

A key reason Robinson was chosen to join the established team at The Law Office of David R. Rocheford, Jr., P.C. is because of his drive, integrity, and unwavering commitment to his clients. His ambition for staying up-to-date on the best legal practices, along with his talent for representing institutional and individual clients, only add to his vast legal experience in real estate.

The Law Office of David R. Rocheford, Jr., P.C. has been offering real estate legal services to clients in Massachusetts and the surrounding areas since 2000. Robinsons addition to the team is an added testament to the firms dedication to its clients, which include mortgage lenders and banks, as well as buyers and sellers.

About The Law Office of David R. Rocheford, Jr., P.C.

Established in 2000 by Managing Attorney David Rocheford, The Law Office of David R. Rocheford, Jr., P.C. is a premier real estate law office in Leominster, Massachusetts. Specializing in title, settlement, and escrow services, the firm is known for its quality services and friendly staff, and has proven why it is a top choice for mortgage lenders, banks, and financial institutions. The law office also represents buyers and sellers with their transactions in an efficient and professional manner, guaranteeing customer satisfaction and uncompromised integrity. Please visit www.thebestclosings.com for more information.

Media Contact

Company Name: Law Office of David R Rocheford, Jr

Contact Person: Lisa Thomann, Client Relations Manager

Email: lisa@thebestclosings.com

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Address:156 Hamilton Street Leominster MA

Country: United States

Website: http://www.thebestclosings.com/


Authier Lithium Project Progress Update

Brisbane, Nov 15, 2016 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Sayona Mining Limited ( ASX:SYA ) ( DMNXF:OTCMKTS ) ("Sayona" or the "Company") is pleased to announce an update on the development activities at the Authier lithium project, Quebec, Canada.



Highlights



- Off-take options being evaluated to enhance project economics



- PFS progressing towards completion in 4th quarter 2016



PFS to determine optimal project configuration, capital and operating costs



- Metallurgical testing demonstrates ability to produce a high-grade spodumene concentrate



- Additional environmental testing underway to support baseline environmental study



Off-take and Project Value Adding Opportunities



The Company is exploring a number of options for selling or value-adding the high-quality spodumene concentrate that will be produced from a future operation at Authier. This includes direct sales of concentrate to converters that produce lithium products suitable for the global battery markets. Strong demand for the lithium products has driven concentrate prices to record levels and the Company has received strong interest for the supply of new concentrates to the market.



In early November, the Company attended a global lithium conference in China and held a number of discussions with interested parties seeking to establish long-term spodumene sales contracts. China is the global centre for the production of value-added lithium products and one of the potentially largest markets for the consumption of lithium-ion batteries. The Chinese Government has a stated clean energy policy, which includes significant investment subsidies, for growing electric vehicle sales from less than 500,000 in 2016 to over 5 million by 2020.



In addition, the Company is actively evaluating value-adding opportunities in the downstream lithium sector. Currently there is significant financial margins being achieved by the processing of spodumene concentrates into lithium carbonate. The Company is evaluating the technical and economic viability of building a lithium carbonate and/or hydroxide production conversion facility to enhance the project value, and improve the long-term competitive position of the project. Quebec is uniquely positioned with a number of significant commercial and market advantages. Quebec has excellent infrastructure including globally competitive, low-cost gas and electricity prices, skilled labour, road and rail transport networks, a supportive government, and is in close proximity to the US markets including, the Tesla Giga factory in Nevada.



Metallurgical Testing



SGS Lakefield in Canada is completing a detailed metallurgical test work program using 430 kilograms of drill core that was representative of the Authier deposit in terms of spodumene grade and mineralogical characterisation. This has included, adding the forecast 5% waste dilution that would occur mining, to the sample to as closely as possible simulate the ore feed to the metallurgical processing plant.



The process test work has successfully demonstrated the ability to produce high-grade concentrates using conventional flotation technology. The anticipated flow sheet incorporates crushing, grinding, mica removal via flotation, spodumene flotation, and drying and bagging. Authier ore has now been the subject of extensive metallurgical studies which the Company believes will significantly de-risk future commissioning and operation of the project.



The final stages of metallurgical test work program which incorporates locked cycle process testing of the Authier ore is nearing is nearing completion. Following completion of the locked cycle testing program, Bumigeme Inc will prepare an updated flow sheet, and capital and operating cost estimates for incorporation into the Pre-Feasibility Study ("PFS").



JORC Resource Upgrade and Pre-Feasibility Study



The Company is working towards completing its PFS in 2016. Drilling data from the 3,800 metre resource definition and extension drilling program just completed will be incorporated into an updated JORC Mineral Resource estimate for the PFS. Geotechnical data collated during the drilling program will be incorporated into a new optimised mine plan.



The PFS will assess the development potential of a simple, low strip ratio, open-cut mining operation and processing facility producing spodumene concentrate.



The PFS is being prepared by SGS Canada and Bumigeme who together have significant experience and expertise in all aspects of lithium resource definition, mining, processing and infrastructure requirements in Quebec. The PFS will assess the technical and economic viability of developing the Authier project, and expands on the Authier NI43-101 Technical Report, Preliminary Economic Assessment, completed in 2013.



Environmental and Permitting



A detailed base-line environmental study was completed at Authier in 2013. Whilst the report didn't highlight any significant environmental issues, it recommended a high-level focus on water and tailings management. As such, the Company has engaged consulting firms to undertake a number of updated studies, including:



- Tailings and waste rock disposal options including a geochemical characterisation program. However, based on the experience of other nearby similar deposits, the Company doesn't expect the tailings or waste rock to be acid generating or amenable to metal leaching; and



- A hydrogeological study to assess the hydrogeological conditions prevailing in the area, the current quality of the groundwater, and identify any potential impacts on the project ground water, plan the pumping activities, and to provide information for the geotechnical engineering and geo-mechanics of the project.



The Company is currently engaged with the local authorities to establish the permitting regime for Authier. It is expected that no Federal Government authorisation or Environmental Impact Assessment / Public Consultation process will be required if the project's planned annual production doesn't exceed 2,000 tonnes per day of ore (the same design rate in the 2013, Glen Eagle Resources, NI43-101, Authier Preliminary Economic Assessment). The Company will be required to apply for various operating permits and a mining lease.



Community Engagement



The Company recently met with the local La Motte council mayor to outline its development plans for the project. Authier is expected to create between 40 and 60 direct jobs and a major investment in the local community. The Company is also planning a number of community forums during 2017.



To view tables and figures, please visit:

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/F9PW91BZ





About Sayona Mining Limited





Sayona Mining Limited (ASX:SYA) (OTCMKTS:SYAXF) is an Australian, ASX-listed (SYA) company focused on sourcing and developing the raw materials required to construct lithium-ion batteries for use in the rapidly growing new and green technology sectors. The Company has lithium projects in Quebec, Canada and in Western Australia.

Please visit us as at www.sayonamining.com.au


Aconex CFO to Retire

Melbourne, Nov 15, 2016 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Aconex Limited ( ASX:ACX ), a global leader of digital innovation in construction, today announced that its Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Steve Recht, has informed the Board of his intention to retire from the company and from full-time corporate life in 2017. To assist in the smooth transition to a new CFO, Mr. Recht has agreed to remain with Aconex until a handover to his successor can occur.



Aconex Chief Executive Officer Leigh Jasper paid tribute to Mr. Recht as a key member of the executive team and said, "Steve has made an outstanding contribution to the Company, including playing an integral part in the Company's IPO. He has made a significant contribution to the Company's success, growth and development since joining in 2012. Steve will be missed but I respect his decision to retire."



Mr. Recht said, "I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with Aconex's and being part of its success. I look forward to working with the CEO and the board on the transition."



The Board will shortly begin a search process to review potential internal and external candidates for the CFO role.



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For more information on Aconex, please visit:



- Investor Centre: http://investor.aconex.com



About Aconex Ltd





Aconex Limited (ASX:ACX) project collaboration solution digitally connects owners, builders and other teams, providing complete visibility and management of data, documents and costs across all stages of a construction project lifecycle. The Aconex cloud-based solution has been used to manage over $1 trillion in projects across 70,000 user organisations in over 70 countries. The companys ordinary shares are traded on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) under the ticker code ACX and are included in the S&P/ASX 200 Index.

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Thomson Reuters has introduced a new search feature, Answer Path from Checkpoint, meant to help tax professionals find answers in the Checkpoint software faster.

Checkpoint is an intelligence resource for tax professionals, so the search feature is a key component to its functionality. Answer Path provides a shortcut to commonly searched federal tax topics. As a user types, the tool will display Quick Tax Amounts and Orientation Documents. Quick Tax Amounts provide answers to questions a user might type in. Orientation Documents provide a plain English snapshot of a topic with links to the applicable code sections, and guide the user to more in-depth coverage in their subscription as well as practice aids and instructions to IRS forms.

Initially, Answer Path will focus on topics related to preparing and filing federal individual income tax returns, such as computations, payments, exemptions, deductions and adjustments. The tool is only available to subscribers of certain Checkpoint products.

Keeping up with changes and navigating the complexity of the tax law is critical to our customers tax preparation, planning and advisory business, said Colleen Dillon, director of the tax practitioner segment with the Thomson Reuters tax and accounting business, in a statement. Answer Path empowers tax professionals to be confident in their research  regardless of their expertise level.

For more information on Answer Path, click here.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board is planning to welcome new board members as the terms of several of its members end next year.

This past July, accounting professor Christine Ann Botosan joined the board (see Utah Professor Christine Ann Botosan Joins FASB). But there will be more turnover in 2017, according to FASB chair Russell Golden.

Speaking at Financial Executives Internationals Current Financial Reporting Issues conference in New York on Monday, he described some of the changes at the board. In a group like ours, its important that we have diverse perspectives, but its also important that we have change amongst board members, and to some degree amongst staff, he said. Were entering into a high degree of change associated with more members.

He noted that Botosan recently replaced longtime member Thomas Linsmeier. We lost an academic, but we also gained an academic, said Golden. That helps the board understand what is the conceptual theory, what is the theoretically correct answer, what independent research is out there that the board can consider on approving financial reporting, so I think its important that we have representatives from academia on the board.

Another member, Daryl Buck, who comes from a private company background, is choosing to leave the board early, Golden noted. We have not yet named his replacement, but I fully expect that the board of trustees will select a member from the private company financial reporting community because I think its important that we have that perspective.

In June 2017, the second five-year term of another board member, Larry Smith, is set to end. Hell be at the 10-year period and will no longer be able to serve, said Golden. Were actively recruiting his replacement. The composition of the board currently does not include a large multinational preparer so weve asked the trustees to consider a pool of candidates, some of which would include a large multinational preparer to replace Larry.

Then in June 2018, another longtime FASB member, Marc Siegel, will see his second term ending. Marc historically has been a representative of the sell-side analyst community so well be actively recruiting somebody from the investment community, said Golden. We have a degree of change, but what were continuing to do is to try to change the culture of the board so that we can consider the costs and the benefits.

FASB technical director Susan Cosper spoke alongside Golden at the conference about the changes at the organization. Board turnover always leads to an interesting circumstance for the staff, she said. As we think about the projects and memorandums that we bring to the board, we have to constantly remind ourselves that new board members havent been on the same journey that all of the other board members have been on. We spend a tremendous amount of time onboarding them, which is to really take them on that journey, and then we need to continue to remind them of that journey.

For Botosan, they spent time getting her up to speed on the ongoing projects. As we think about the new board members coming on in January and later in 2017, well implement a similar process, but at the same time were constantly thinking about what projects will be able to finish, said Cosper. How will board turnover impact those projects in terms of will they be able to vote on them, wont they be able to vote on them, so its constantly something that were thinking about. By July of 2017, well have effectively three new board members.

FASBs overseer, the Securities and Exchange Commission, is also dealing with turnover of its commissioners, especially with chair Mary Jo Whites announcement Monday that she will be stepping down when President Obama leaves office (see SEC Chair Mary Jo White to Step Aside when Obama Leaves Office).

Priorities and Convergence

Golden told panel moderator, Kenny Bement, the controller of reporting and governance at Googles parent company Alphabet Inc., about some of FASBs other priorities in the next year. On the technical side, he hopes to complete the improvements in accounting for hedging and long-duration insurance contracts in 2017. He also hopes to make more progress next year in some of FASBs disclosure projects, including its disclosure framework. Golden was also asked about the status of FASBs convergence work with the International Accounting Standards Board.

I believe that in analyzing the costs and benefits, each member of the FASB needs to recognize that there is a benefit to investors that invest globally to have similar outcomes, he said. We also need to recognize there is a cost to multinationals when we do not have similar outcomes, and the board needs to recognize that and compare that to the potential to have a solution that is not as good as it could be. We also need to recognize that we live in a country that has different laws than other countries. We live in a country that has different regulations than other countries, and we live in a country that has a different culture. So what we have been doing at the FASB is weve been engaging in a dialogue with the IASB. Weve also been engaging in a dialogue with other prominent national standard-setters. The reason for that is we want to understand their rollouts, their regulations and their cultures, and we want to work together so that we can find common solutions for these difficult financial reporting problems.

He pointed to Canada and Japan as examples of other national standard-setters that have been engaging with FASB. I think the best possible way forward is for those standard-setters in those countries to think about whats important, to think about and recognize that there is a benefit for having common solutions, said Golden. Theres a cost when we dont have common solutions, but the best way there is to engage in a strong and equal dialogue. We continue to participate as a common member of the IASBs ASAF [Accounting Standards Advisory Forum], which consists of 12 standard-setters, and were recommending to the IASB our solutions that would improve IFRS. Were also engaging in dialogue with other standard-setters about what they think would improve U.S. GAAP and what we think could improve their GAAP. Hopefully as we continue this evolution well have better financial reporting solutions, and theyll be more common around the world.

Cosper noted that she frequently gets questions around definitions that could be common for both FASB and the IASB of terms such as business. FASB has a project on its agenda to clarify the definition of a business, and it was originally part of a convergence project on business combinations, she noted.

In that circumstance, we had the same words, but the words were applied differently if you applied IFRS or if you applied U.S. GAAP, she said. So we wanted to try to adjust our words so we got consistent outcomes that made sense for the U.S., but also consistency in how it was applied under IFRS.

Non-GAAP Metrics

Non-GAAP measures have also been a matter of debate at FASB, especially with the SECs recent guidance on the subject. I think non-GAAP is accepted by investors because of the financial reporting that we have in this country, said Golden. I think that investors recognize that theres an internal control structure, they recognize that theres an attest function associated with the GAAP information, and they recognize that in a lot of cases, the non-GAAP is derived from the GAAP information. It may just be a different way to present it or it may be GAAP lite or GAAP plus.

He has spoken with FASBs advisory councils and others about the proliferation of non-GAAP metrics. I think we can learn from non-GAAP to improve GAAP, said Golden. There are cases where we evaluate the types of non-GAAP information thats out there. It helps us understand should we improve GAAP or should we not. When you look at a lot of the non-GAAP around adjusted earnings, theyre not adjusted the same at all companies, so what that tells me is we shouldnt waste our time at the board trying to come up with consistent subtotals. It tells me the market doesnt want consistent subtotals. What the market may want is more disaggregation on the performance data.

Later at a press conference, Cosper talked further about FASBs work on the hedging and insurance contracts standards. In terms of hedging, we havent gotten quite as far as the IASB has gone with their issued standard, but the outcomes will be closer to what you have under IFRS, she said. The comment letter for that project closes on November 22. So far weve only gotten one or two comment letters, and we anticipate a roundtable for a variety of stakeholders. We have two roundtables scheduled for financial entities and for nonfinancial entities. Then we plan to begin our deliberations in January. On insurance contracts, we definitely have a different model than what the IASB has. A couple of years ago, we were working with the IASB on a converged model and we stepped back from making a comprehensive set of changes to the insurance standard to making targeted changes. So we will have differences with respect to our model and their model. That project we issued for public comment in late September. Were planning roundtables on that in March.

Golden was asked about the impact of last weeks presidential election on FASB if the Dodd-Frank Act is repealed. We do monitor changes in our external environment to understand if it has an impact on the FASB or Financial Accounting Foundation, he said.
(Bloomberg) Mary Jo White has stepped to the front of the line of financial regulators moving aside for Donald Trumps administration.

White, a political independent appointed by President Barack Obama, said Monday that she will step down as Securities and Exchange Commission chair in January. Her nearly four-year tenure has been highlighted by high-profile enforcement cases and plagued by internal battles that stalled controversial policies.

With the Senate under Republican control, Trump is likely to have a relatively easy time installing his choices to run the SEC and other agencies, so the vacancy might be filled quickly. The five-seat commission is already two members short and White has essentially represented a tie-breaking vote between Republican Michael Piwowar and Democrat Kara Stein, who split on major issues.

It remains to be seen what tack the president-elect will take in overseeing the financial industry beyond his campaign pledge to dismantle the Dodd-Frank Act, which has dominated regulators work since it was enacted in 2010. Former Commissioner Paul Atkins, a Republican who left the agency in 2008, is leading the Trump transition teams work on independent regulators like the SEC.

Improve Morale

After taking the helm in 2013, White moved to improve morale at an agency that had been assailed by lawmakers over its failure to spot Wall Street abuses in the run-up to the financial crisis. Her outreach efforts included handing out coffee and doughnuts to rank-and-file employees, and walking the halls of the agencys sprawling headquarters to chat with workers.

I also looked past Dodd-Frank, past the financial crisis, pushed the mission of the agency as hard as I could, which produced truly game-changing rulemaking, White said in an interview. The efforts strengthened investor protections and our financial system, laying the groundwork for future regulatory regimes and aggressive enforcement,  she said.

Major enforcement actions under Whites watch included a September lawsuit accusing hedge fund billionaire Leon Cooperman of insider trading. Policy highlights included pushing through rules designed to make the $18.5 trillion mutual-fund industry more resilient.

The SEC also brought first-of-their-kinds cases such as a settlement with hedge fund Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC over allegations it paid bribes to win business and accords with private-equity firms over claims that they didnt adequately disclose fees to investors.

Waiver Fights

White sparred with Democratic commissioners after siding with Republicans to waive additional punishments for companies settling enforcement cases. She also drew persistent criticism from Senator Elizabeth Warren over what the Massachusetts Democrat saw as the agencys failure to hold individuals accountable for Wall Street wrongdoing.

Warren also chided White for not pursuing rules that would force corporations to disclose their political contributions. The lawmaker last month took the unusual step of urging Obama to remove White from the chairmanship.

The criticism, White said, comes with the territory. You take a bullet for the agency.

Tough Persona

Whites ability to take the punches served the SEC well, said Daniel Gallagher, a former Republican commissioner who left the agency in October 2015. Her biggest accomplishment was pushing through regulations in July 2014 that toughened rules on money-market mutual funds, he said.

The tough persona that shes developed and needed as a prosecutor really helped, said Gallagher, who now serves as president of Patomak Partners LLC.

Whites departure in January would leave Piwowar, the sole sitting Republican, as the likely acting chair until a permanent replacement is confirmed by the Senate.

While its early in the process, a number of names are being floated as possible contenders, according to people close to the transition, finance industry trade groups, congressional aides and SEC staff members. Gallagher and Atkins, who is chief executive officer of Patomak Partners, are both possible contenders as are Proskauer Rose LLP lawyer Ralph Ferrara, a former SEC general counsel; and SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci, whos on the executive committee of Trumps transition team. Representative Scott Garrett, a New Jersey Republican who lost his re-election bid last week, is being pushed as a possibility by Tea Party Republicans.

White, 68, hasnt said what she plans to do next. After serving as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York under President Bill Clinton, she had a lucrative law career representing banks and other clients. Her husband, former SEC official John White, is a partner at law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP.
Venturing into the unknown is intimidating at first if youre just getting started with value-based pricing in your accounting practice, but it gets easier over time.

Your first attempts at proposing value-based pricing to clients will be awkward, but you can ease the transition by following the steps outlined in an article I wrote for Accounting Today earlier this year (see The Impossible Journey: Transitioning to Value-Based Pricing). I likened taking those first few steps to my first trip to China.

Once in Shanghai, I discovered that everything in China went well beyond the limits of my preparation. In new cities, I like to wander around the hotel area to get a feel for the neighborhood. We were in an area called the French Concession. It was a hybrid of a European village and Chinatown, without a familiar face in sight. We headed out in search of food and I tried to register landmarks along the way.

We crossed the street to the left and still couldnt find a restaurant that everyone could agree on. We decided it was hopeless and headed back to the hotel, making another left in order to square off our route. After 20 minutes of seeing nothing that looked familiar, it dawned on us, we were lost. Hopelessly lost.

That experience is a lot like a first attempt at a value-based conversation with a client. Suddenly the client is talking about bigger and broader topics than youve experienced and wants to know how to work together. You have the skills and experience to help and are excited by the conversation, but you feel like I did at that moment in Shanghai. Your partners may even say the same thing mine did: Well, genius, you got us here. Now what?

Crafting Options

Once your firm has a clear idea of your clients desired outcomes, its time to give them a proposal about how you will get them there. The first hurdle is going to be internal and its going to focus on what exactly are we going to present now that we know what they want, how theyll assess success, and how it impacts their business?

There are two schools of thought on how experts should build a proposal for clients. One school is: Im the expert. They expect me to have a strong opinion and tell them what to do. Well label that the Old School. It comes from a time when your clients didnt feel like they had access to any and all information in existence. Today, if you dictate a solution, your client will double check your suggestions and lengthen your sales cycle. The second school, the New School of Thought, acknowledges a shift in client decision-making and approaches the proposal from the opposite point of view. Clients know what they want because in their hands is a device that has access to trillions of bits of information. This means your clients are likely to dictate a solution to you, but as the expert, you need to help them make sense of it all.

Your goal is not only to give them a proposal offering what they want, but also proposing what they need. Think of it this way: My household has three kids of driving age and our house looks like a parking lot. My mechanic is the expert that keeps my fleet running. Over time weve learned something from one another. It used to be that if I used the correct terminology, he assumed I knew what I was talking about and wanted what I asked for. This usually resulted in frequent quotes and multiple visits before we came to a conclusion. I felt empowered, but not being a mechanic, half the time, I made things worse. One day, exasperated, he asked, Greg, how long are you going to have this car? Once I explained it, he offered me options with corresponding pros and cons. Hes the expert, and once he knew my desired outcome, he worked with me to get there. I still feel empowered, and he gets the work faster.

Use options to deepen partnerships with clients. Thats what your clients want. They want to partner with you to achieve their outcomes. To do that, you need to offer them options, but the options need to be designed in a specific way. Here are three considerations to put on the table during your next proposal discussion:

Its Not a Tactic

First, understand that my advice on crafting options is not designed to anchor price or manipulate your clients in any way. This is not a 60 percent of people just take the middle choice persuasion tactic. I think you need to offer options because you have more knowledge about what your firm can do than your client does. You have more capabilities than they know. Like a good partner, you are giving them information they should be aware of to make a good decision.

For instance, my mechanic knows that squeaking in front means I need a new steering assembly. But based on whether I plan to have the car for 10 years versus two years, he has options to meet my need while attending to my desired outcome. In a similar fashion, you may be able to adjust a clients timeline based on whether or not they use certain resources. Youre not trying to persuade clients to choose a value-based pricing option. Youre offering them alternatives that meet their needs while attending to what they didnt know they should be asking for.

Options Must Be Differentiated

Second, each option you offer to clients must be materially different from the other, meet their desired outcome, but provide for different value. Let me give you an example of the opposite. There are times my mechanic interprets my desired outcome as a pricing exercise and I get what amounts to Option 1, Option 1+ and Option 1++. Not being an expert, I cant see the difference besides price.

I see this same lack of differentiation when my clients run draft proposals by me. To get around this, I use Option 1+ as the new option 1 and ask for better options two through three. Its an effort, but I make them marshal all their available resourcesboth internal and externaland ask them to be applied to the clients desired outcome. The new options might add a sales consultant to speed up growth, or involve managing an outplacement service for displaced employees, or utilize a team of freelance forensics resources to prevent future fraud or legal issues.

Your value to clients increases when you open your mind and come up with two or three distinct options that not only provide their desired outcome, but enhance the value beyond what your clients know is possible.

Options Must Accurately Reflect Your Clients Desired Outcomes

The last item in providing powerful options is that each option has to reflect the clients outcomes in a very specific way. The options have to mirror exactly what the client is after, using their own words. The proposal is no time for guessing or assumptions, so if youre not clear, call and get clarification. You not only want to know what the client is asking for and how they are asking for it, but the proposal needs to repeat it to them verbatim.

If my mechanic begins talking about the steps I should take to maintain my kids old Honda Civic in the same way he does my Range Rover, theres a disconnect.

In the same way, your proposed options need to reflect your clients reality, in their terms. Are they looking for higher revenue per employee? Or getting employees to take more pride in their work? Or do they use the word fulfilled? Their chosen words may not be terms that you use, but remember, your clients not broken. They dont need fixing. They want your firm to help them achieve their desired outcomes, because they believe the effort will make a difference to their organization and be good for them. Your job is to help them get what they want, in your firms own particular way.

Keep those three points in mind as you sit down with your partners and come up with a value-based pricing proposal. A proposal based on the clients perceived value. Once youve heard them define the destination, use options to partner with them on getting there. Avoid the trap of defaulting to a single solution or offering a low, medium and high set of choices. Instead, strive to offer a series of distinct approaches that will not only get the outcome theyre after, but will offer them new and unique solutions in ways only your firm can offer. Help them get their desired outcomes in ways they didnt even know existed.

Its a process, not an event.

That day in Shanghai, we eventually found our way back to the hotel. The solution included a Starbucks employee, a set of Howard Johnsons hotel workers, and a couple of aggressive taxi drivers, but we were none the worse for the wear. As a matter of fact, just as your firm will be better with proposal number 10 compared to proposal number one, we were wiser about how to get around Shanghai the very next day. Partner with your clients using the power of options and increase the value they receive from your services.

Greg Chambers is president of Chambers Pivot Industries LLC, which helps entrepreneurial companies with their sales-and-marketing practices.


By Eric Blair

The Obama Administration is rushing to implement a global treaty on climate change without a vote in Congress and before Trump can cancel the agreement.

Put another way, US will be under global governance without input from the peoples elected representatives. Those protesting the prospect of fascism might want to pay attention to this story.

According to The Independent:

The US Secretary of State John Kerry says he will continue his efforts to implement the Paris Agreement on global warming, until the day President Barack Obama leaves office.  President-elect Donald Trump has called climate change a hoax and said he would cancel US involvement in the landmark Paris deal.

According to the Associated Press, the Paris climate agreement has already officially become international law:

The Paris Agreement to combat climate change becomes international law on Friday (Nov 4th)  a landmark demonstrating that countries are serious about tackling global warming amid growing fears that the world is becoming hotter faster than scientists expected. So far, 96 countries, accounting for just over two-thirds of the worlds greenhouse gas emissions, have formally joined the accord, which seeks to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius.

In September, US and China ratified the Paris climate agreement.

The United States has joined China to formally ratify the Paris agreement to curb climate-warming emissions, the worlds two biggest economies said on Saturday, which could help put the pact into force before the end of the year.

The signal of the two large emitters taking this step together and taking it early, far earlier than people had anticipated a year ago, should give confidence to the global communities and to other countries that are working on their climate change plans, that they too can move quickly and will be part of a global effort, Senior Obama adviser Brian Deese told reporters.

The White House defends bypassing Congress on the Paris climate deal because it claims it is not a treaty but rather an executive agreement.

White House said the president has the legal authority to ratify the accord without the two-thirds Senate vote required for international treaties. The Administration said the pact is merely an executive agreement, not a treaty.

Except that The Independent refers to it as a treaty in the article above, and Reuters just called it the most complex global treaty in over 20 years

The 2015 Paris Agreement was agreed last December by almost 200 countries and has been described as the most complex global treaty since the Marrakesh (trade) Agreement, signed in 1994. Ratification was swift compared to other international treaties, showing strong international support, but around 100 countries have yet to ratify it.

John Kerry is giving a major speech this week at the climate conference in Morocco where hell likely double down on Americas commitment to the treaty.

Imagine a global tax on the air we breathe imposed without a democratic process. Sounds like fascism to me.

Eric Blair writes for Activist Post. This article is free to repost in full with attribution.
By Chris Kikila Perrin

When is environmental damage too much? When is it acceptable? In what is being called a relatively tiny marine oil spill, for the Heiltsuk First Nations of the Central Coast of BC, the question is being asked in quite real terms, forcing government to answer the questions that it might have preferred to have evaded.

Since running aground in mid-October, a small boat has been leaking oil into the Pacific Ocean, and along BCs Central Coast. Despite the fact that this spill comes in the aftermath of the Royal Visit to the region  a visit that sought to place the health of the coastline and all the life that dwells there within the global lens  there appears to be very little international interest. Making matters worse, there appears to be little interest from Canadian lawmakers on how best to reduce the potential for disasters like this.

Along the Central Coast of British Columbia, the Great Bear Rainforest is seen as one of the most pristine wilderness environments on earth. Stretching approximately 400 kilometers along this sparsely populated area, the Great Bear Rainforest has long represented the very idea of conservation and intrinsic preservation to Canadians and environmentalists around the world.

Along with the Kermode Bear, the area made National Geographics Places of a Lifetime list and has been called the planets last large expanse of coastal temperate rainforest by people like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Natural beauty, conservation projects, and provincial parks are not, however, all the region is known for.

Of all things, the Central Coast offers access to the Pacific Ocean. It also provides a more-or-less direct line for fossil fuel exportation from various LNG (liquefied natural gas) sites around the province, as well as tar sands oil from the neighboring province of Alberta.

North of Bella Bella, the town of Kitimat serves as the proposed terminal destination of Enbridges Northern Gateway Pipeline, a project that has seen a great deal of protest that, in many ways, echoes the issues coming to a head in Cannon Ball, North Dakota. One of the most attractive aspects of the region, insofar as fossil fuel extraction is concerned, is the access it offers to Asian markets, pitting the desires of big oil corporations against those of First Nations and environmentalists, alike.

Even with the legislative death of Northern Gateway, the region continues to be the focal point for resource extraction. Octobers oil spill  which is ongoing  provides a visceral reminder of what is at stake in such discussions, pushing many local residents to demand a full tanker ban along the Central Coast.

Yet, while the Coastal Rainforest is inundated with thousands of liters of oil, the federal government seems content to remain reactive. Rather than agreeing to the suggested ban, the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau instead proposed a $1.5 billion (CDN) fund to help deal with oil spills after they occur.

Reactive policies like this leave the fragile ecosystems found in the Central Coast region to suffer contamination before they are dealt with, and offer no change for the way issues of sovereignty are evaluated between First Nations and the colonial Canadian government.

Since his election in 2015, PM Trudeau has taken several quick steps back from his promises to respect First Nations sovereignty and deal with environmental issues. Although this relatively tiny marine oil spill can be seen as just that, a minor environmental issue that will be cleaned up with more federal money, there is a deeper implication that can be seen  one that pits ongoing environmental degradation and cultural assimilation and genocide against neoliberal economic policy.

This article (Oil Has Been Spilling Into The Pacific Since Last Month And Its Being Totally Ignored) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Chris Kikila Perrin and UndergroundReporter.org. If you spot a typo, please email the error and the name of the article to undergroundreporter2016@gmail.com. Image credit: Flickr/John Lester.
Sony MAX, the Premium Hindi movie channel from Sony Pictures Network, has rolled out a new campaign to celebrate its success of being the undisputed number one Hindi movie channel in India. The campaign is based on the thought Naaz Hai Humein Apni Deewangi Pe which encapsulates the countrys obsession with Hindi Cinema and its influence on the everyday moments of life. The channel will be unveiling multiple short films showcasing how fans inspired by movies have imbibed the Deewanapan.

The three 45-seconder TVCs string together people from different walks of life and depict how extremely passionate movie buffs look at every situation from a 70mm lens. The campaign also attempts to capture the rich pallet of emotions behind various facets of Hindi Cinema. The TVCs consist of 7 distinct situations including the likes of a young couple eloping with the entire community running behind them and then with a sudden sharp turn they screech and look into the camera and say Ishq karo toh aise karo ki zamana peeche lag jaye. Another one is a college graduation ceremony sequence where an Anil Kapoor inspired student dances her way to the stage to receive her degree, leaving the audience and the professors spellbound  Entry maro toh aise ki sab dekhte reh jaye. A rickshaw driver inspired by Hindi movies pulls his collar wide when two pretty looking girls arrive for a ride. With a lot of cheek, he turns them down and says Aur thukrao toh aise thukrao ki choor-choor ho jaye. One more situation on friendship sees a young man taking a beating for his friend by some goons much larger than him. As he takes one to the chin he says, Dosti nibhao toh aisi ki misaal bann jaye. All TVCs end with a voiceover in the end Deewana banate aaye hai, banate rahenge.

Vaishali Sharma, Senior VP  Marketing, SONY MAX movie cluster, commented, The strategic reason to have a fresh campaign is to celebrate the uninterrupted leadership and success of the Sony MAX channel over the last 26 weeks. The campaign is a reflection of the influence and impact that Sony MAX has had on peoples lives with its movie offerings. The core thought Naaz hai humein apni Deewangi pe not only showcases the madness that movies instills in every Indian, but also takes the deewanapan a notch higher.

The TVCs are conceptualized by DDB Mudra and shot by Tubelight Films. The campaign kicked off on November 12. To promote the core thought, the channel is engaging in a massive television plan across news, regional and music channels (apart from its own TV network) for two weeks. The marketing plan also consists of a digital leg.



In conversation with Adgully, Vaishali Sharma speaks more on the new campaign, content plans, channel performance and more.



On the progression of the campaign thought from Deewana Bana De to Naaz hai humein apni Dewangi pe.

It is not a progression, the campaign thought is the same  Deewana Bana De, Naaz hai humein apni Dewangi pe is a new campaign line. For MAX, one of the initiatives we do every year is to strengthen the brand imagery and its emotional connect with viewers. For many years Deewana Bana De has been a strongly established brand ethos amongst viewers. But this year, we had a great opportunity to build our campaign as MAX has been an undisputed leader for weeks post IPL, in fact, we have been the leaders week-on-week post IPL. So, this was a perfect opportunity for us from a consumer perspective and the TVC actually shows the impact and spread of the brand on the viewers.



The objective was, how do we through a campaign establish the fact that we are the undisputed market leader and how do we celebrate the success and the following that brand MAX has in the HSM market. From a consumer insight point of view, the campaign reflects how the passion for Hindi cinema has seeped into moments, mannerisms, the way we look at life and our reaction to situations in real life. It is about how Hindi cinema has become part of our DNA.



We strongly believe that a constant refresh helps position the channel better in minds of the viewers and gives it a premium image, especially for a movie channel as the product for them is just films, so it is important to create that distinction.



On the brief shared with DDB Mudra.

The brief was very simple as our objective was very clear. First  showcase the width and scale on how Deewangi is spread across consumers across various moments in life expressing different emotions that Hindi cinema is actually known for. Second  a larger than life campaign that gives a feel of how Deewangi and MAX is relatable to each consumer and the ownership they feel for the channel, for the brand.



On plans to build up on the Deewangi proposition in the communication and across the content.

The campaign will be promoted through a heavy television plan and on digital. We will be using Hindi news, music and GEC channels apart from our own network to promote the campaign.



On Sony MAXs performance so far.

The channel has been doing great in terms of viewership as we have been markets leaders post IPL week-on-week.



On strategy to build up the movie property.

MAX has always been known for its premieres; there were quite a few in the past few months post IPL. We recently premiered Sultan and will have staggered premieres in the near future as well. The announcements will happen closer to a premiere date.
Dentsu Inc. in Tokyo has created a striking icon to celebrate Adfests 20th Anniversary. Inspired by the roots of a tree or plant, Dentsus brand identity tells the story of Adfests evolution over the past 20 years and brings to life next years theme, 20 Years of Diversity.



In 1998, a seedling named Adfest was planted in one of the most diverse continents in the world. Its purpose was to nurture and celebrate creative talent across Asia, explained Yoshihiro Yagi, Group Creative Director at Dentsu Inc. in Tokyo.



Since then, the seedling has evolved and grown. Each year, its diversity expands. But it cannot grow without the support of its roots, which run deep and wide  these roots are the heart and soul of Adfest, and form the inspiration for our design.



Yagi is one of the most internationally awarded art directors in Japan, and perhaps in Asia. He joined Adfest 2016 as Jury President for Design and Print Craft, and was subsequently invited to design the brand identity for Adfest 2017, which will take place at the Royal Cliff Hotels Group in Pattaya, Thailand, from Wednesday, March 22 to Saturday March 25.



He said that the idea of comparing Adfests origins to the roots of a tree came from interviewing farmers in Japan. I spoke to some very interesting farmers who grow apples that do not seem to go rotten, even for as long as a year. It became apparent to me that to grow a good apple  while it is important for the leaves, branches, and trunk of the apple tree to be strong  the roots actually have an extremely important function.



Similarly, when we talk about the growth of people and businesses, we tend to look at their appearance. But I learned how elements that cant be seen from the outside are absolutely vital for growth. I thought about this in connection with Adfest, and kept this idea in mind over the course of the project, Yagi added.



Adfest 2017 will consist of two separate programmes: Craft@ADFEST, which runs from March 22 to 23; and Creative@ADFEST, which runs from March 24 to March 25. Whereas Craft@ADFEST will explore the technologies and trends influencing production, post and digital companies, Creative@ADFEST is tailored for agency and marketing professionals.



Vinit Suraphongchai, Chairman of Adfest, said, We would like to extend our thanks to the talented designers at Dentsu Inc. who have devoted many hours to creating a bold identity for Adfest 2017. Their design perfectly represents Adfests coming of age, while recognising that our success is deeply rooted in our origins in Asia.
It is easy for a talented actor to get into the character she portrays on screen. But what do you do of a character which is inspired from your real life?

Actor Drashti Dhami has been playing the role of Naina in Pardes Mein Hai Mera Dil where she gets to be the best friend of her on-screen mother. However, it seems the actor finds this nostalgic for every time she finishes her dialogue about missing her mom in the show, she has been complaining about not being able to spend enough time with her mother in real life.

Drashti was quoted saying, My chemistry with my on-screen mother Asha is same as my real life relationship with my mother. I plan most part of my leaves to spend quality time with her and my family to compensate for my hectic working hours.

Such a darling daughter, Drashti!

Catch her as Naina in Pardes Mein Hai Mera Dil every Monday to Friday at 8 pm on Star Plus
Who doesnt love cakes? And when that cake is yummier than the usual fare, there seems to be a lot of competition around who gets to eat it. The starting point of this communication was to emphasize on the fact that Britannia Cakes are so tasty, one would go to any length to get their hands on it.

Conceptualised and executed by Grey group, Bangalore, this TVC from Britannia sees a father-son duo caught in the most important question of the hour: Who gets to eat the cake? Who deserves it more? We see the father narrate a fantastical tale where he is recounting an incident when the child was much younger. He claims that when the boys Britannia Cake pack was stolen by a monkey, he undertook great risks to bring it back to the child. That, according to the father, is a jolly good reason why the cake pack should be all his.

Just when we think that the child is convinced and the father has gotten away with his fibbing, we realise that the child is not as gullible as we had presumed him to be. After all, he is also his fathers son! With a sign off that reads, Yummy waali shararat, this spot nicely captures the mischievous relationship that we see between parents and children these days.

Vishal Ahluwalia, Vice President and Business Head, GREY group Bangalore said, "The challenge for GREY was to capture the magic between parents & kids through the lens of a delicious Britannia Cake and tell the story in a disruptive form. All credit must go to team Britannia who were bold enough to accept a new story telling format and believe in a film which was conceptualized on a wide fantastical canvas.

"Britannia has positioned bar cakes as the perfect treat for kids, both in terms of health and delight. However, with this campaign we have refreshed the positioning to bring out the more universal appeal of cakes. With "Yummy Wali Shararat" we want to talk about how this category brings out the child in each of us. What better way to bring this to life than good humoured leg pulling between a father and a son", said Manjunath Desai, Vice President Strategy & Business Development, Britannia Industries Limited.

The TVC has been released across 10 languages, nationally.

YouTube Link of the TVC - https://youtu.be/uf1pfrrGs6E
HolidayIQ (HIQ) helps travelers plan and book their travels with ease. Reviews on the site help make travelers informed decision about the place they are planning to visit next. The company is not only focused on national and international travels but also aggressively working towards supporting the tourism industry and amplifying Indias heritage in a bigger way. Once such initiative came from their partnership with INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) through which they are getting the Indian audience to get more aware of the heritage destinations/places and also educating on how identifying a heritage within your state can contribute to Indias tourism in a big way

Find Indias #NextBigHeritageDestination - India is a land of stories and significant mythologies and diverse communities that have been evolving over the years leaving a part of a great heritage value which is still unexplored by large Indian tourists themselves. The idea is to bring the same stories, sights, destinations and their charm come alive by getting the states to highlight their own #NextBigHeritageDestination.

There are very few Indian organizations who are working towards preserving and identifying the heritage of the country and one such organization who has been working aggressively on preserving the land of heritage value is INTACH. They not only identify locations but also communities, the art, culture of a place and help build them under their State of built heritage program & thus the partnership with HIQ. To support this great development initiative HIQ launched their campaign-

The campaign teasers were launched via their social media platforms on October 1, 2016 and will run till the end of November, 2016. The contest went live on social media starting October 1 with the teaser.

The contest is designed in a way that it also rewards the traveler, if the travelers entry for the #NextBigHeritageDestination is chosen as the winner of the campaign, INTACH will not only take that as a project to build/preserve the sight/destination submitted by the winner but the winner will also be rewarded with a cash prize worth Rs 50,000* distributed amongst the six winners whose entry will be taken into consideration by INTACH for development. More details here.The two main objectives for the social media strategy are - awareness and participation

Quality over quantity - By giving more focus to the quality of leads than quantity by personally identifying the people who care about heritage preservation in India across social media platforms and reaching out to them via direct messaging/tweets. Outreach program speaks to the state tourism boards on social media, travel enthusiasts and tourism ministers of the state to take notice and support the cause.

Brand is very experimenting on spending nominally to promote the campaign and have reached out to 10.7L+ account on facebook, 26K+ accounts on Twitter and 6K+ on Instagram and have received 100+ genuine entries from across India within the two weeks of the campaign launch with a simple native advertising approach which is often ignored in the paid scheme of social media world.

This is getting noticed by some of the state tourism boards as well. For instance, the Karnataka state minister Mr. Priyank Kharge retweeted a tweet which is specific to the state and has shown interest by writing to the HIQ Founder & CEO, Mr Hari Nair to explore partnership opportunities. Priyank Kharge- Karnataka Tourism Minister is supporting the cause by retweeting as well.
VICENZA, Italy, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The leading company in the laser therapy research and production field signs an agreement at the China-Italy Innovation Forum with two Chinese players for the tech and healthcare sectors in order to develop specific protocols to apply MLS Laser Therapy to acupuncture points.

ASAlaser is looking with growing interest towards China, thanks to the agreement signed with Beijing TED Healthcare Technology Ltd. and the Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The three companies will collaborate in order to develop protocols aimed at employing MLS Laser Therapy - one of the top ASAlaser therapies - in the field of laser puncture. One single goal: to find new therapeutic solutions to efficiently treat multiple pathologies, first and foremost those which cause non-specific musculo-skeletal pain.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161111/438345 )

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150724/242098LOGO )





This new goal achieved by ASAlaser, for more than 30 years in the front line for the research and production of laser therapies for physiotherapy and rehabilitation, took place against the background of the China-Italy Science, Technology & Innovation Week (25/27 October), a world-class matchmaking event addressed to businesses, universities, research centres and public bodies of the two countries, which also aims to promote business opportunities. In fact, through a schedule structured on science, technology and innovation themes and based on B2B meetings, Italian and Chinese operators were able to meet face to face, thereby strengthening growth relationships and reinforcing the economic co-operation already in place. The 2016 edition, promoted by MIUR, co-ordinated by Citta della Scienza in collaboration with CNR and structured in three locations (Bergamo 25/10, Bologna 26/10 and Naples 26-27/10), allowed ASAlaser, which is currently present with its own therapeutic solutions in over 80 countries spread across 5 continents, to take a further step forward along its internationalisation process. The value of the two therapies was underlined during seminars held at the China-Italy Innovation Forum in Napoli by the ASAlaser Chairman Lucio Zaghetto, by the Managing Director of Beijing TED Healthcare Technology Ltd. - Dai Rujun - and by Wang Linpeng, the director of the Acup-center of the Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The acupuncture expert pointed out that the "integration with the technological innovation which characterises ASAlaser can be considered the new frontier which this important sector of traditional Chinese medicine strives towards".

2017 therefore opens marked by the creation of new projects for the company with Headquarters in Vicenza, already committed on other international fronts. The latest of which was the significant feedback received by the "made in" ASA therapies at the Congress of the Asian Confederation for Physical Therapy in Kuala Lumpur, which was attended by 695 doctors and specialists from Malaysia, the Middle East, but also Japan and South Korea, interested in discovering the sector novelties. Appreciation for Laser Therapy was also shown by the Vice Minister for Health, Dr Hilmi Bin Haji Yahaya, one of the first visitors to ASAlaser's local distributor's stand.

SOURCE ASA Srl
NEW YORK, Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Synopsis

In real terms, the Chilean construction industry registered a growth rate of 2.8% in 2015. This was preceded by an annual growth rate of 1.6% in 2014, 3.2% in 2013, 7.0% in 2012 and 6.8% in 2011. Economic recovery, coupled with government investments in infrastructure, and residential construction, increased issuance of building permits and greater total surface area for construction contributed to growth. In addition, reconstruction projects after the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in 2010 supported industry growth during the review period (20112015).

The country's construction industry will continue to expand in real terms over the forecast period (20162020) due to investments in transport infrastructure, energy and utilities, and affordable housing projects.



The government plans to invest CLP18.9 trillion (US$28.0 billion) under the Infrastructure Master Plan to develop the country's infrastructure by 2021. Under the infrastructure plan, CLP2.0 trillion (US$3.0 billion) will be invested to develop Chile's submarine fiber optic network between Aysen and Magallanes, and construct 20 wastewater treatment plants in the northern region by 2021.



In real terms, the Chilean construction industry is expected to increase from a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.64% during the review period to 4.29% over the forecast period.



Summary

Timetric's Construction in Chile  Key Trends and Opportunities to 2020 report provides detailed market analysis, information and insights into the Chilean construction industry, including:



- The Chilean construction industry's growth prospects by market, project type and construction activity



- Analysis of equipment, material and service costs for each project type in Chile



- Critical insight into the impact of industry trends and issues, and the risks and opportunities they present to participants in the Chilean construction industry



- Profiles of the leading operators in the Chilean construction industry



- Data highlights of the largest construction projects in Chile



Scope

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the construction industry in Chile. It provides:



- Historical (2011-2015) and forecast (2016-2020) valuations of the construction industry in Chile using construction output and value-add methods



- Segmentation by sector (commercial, industrial, infrastructure, energy and utilities, institutional and residential) and by project type



- Breakdown of values within each project type, by type of activity (new construction, repair and maintenance, refurbishment and demolition) and by type of cost (materials, equipment and services)



- Analysis of key construction industry issues, including regulation, cost management, funding and pricing



- Detailed profiles of the leading construction companies in Chile



Reasons To Buy

- Identify and evaluate market opportunities using Timetric's standardized valuation and forecasting methodologies.



- Assess market growth potential at a micro-level with over 600 time-series data forecasts.



- Understand the latest industry and market trends.



- Formulate and validate strategy using Timetric's critical and actionable insight.



- Assess business risks, including cost, regulatory and competitive pressures.



- Evaluate competitive risk and success factors.



Key Highlights

- The government is focused on the development of transport infrastructure to provide better connectivity for citizens and support overall economic development. Under the Infrastructure Master Plan 20142020, the government plans to invest CLP16 trillion (US$28 billion) to develop road, rail and airports by 2020. The government's infrastructure investment is expected to support the infrastructure construction market over the forecast period.



- Under the Agenda Digital Imagina Chile 20132020 (Chile Digital Agenda 20132020), the government plans to increase internet access from 40% of the total population in 2015 to 80% by 2020. Accordingly, it plans to invest CLP14.8 trillion (US$26.0 billion) to develop a fibre-based broadband network and long-term evolution (4G) network in the country by 2024. Over the forecast period, the government's plan to increase internet penetration to support economic growth and development is expected to drive growth in the energy and utilities construction market.



- The rising population has elevated demand for houses in the country. The government plans to bridge the gap between supply and demand for housing units by constructing houses under housing programs. In May 2016, the government announced that it planned to build 25,000 new houses under the Nuevo Programa de Integracion Social y Territorial, the New Social Integration and Territorial Program by 2020.



- The government is developing and modernizing the country's transport network under the public-private partnership (PPP) model. Accordingly, in 2015, a consortium consisting of Aeroports de Paris, Vinci Airports and Astaldi announced plans to build and redevelop the Arturo Merino Benitez international airport in Santiago. Under this plan, the government aims to renovate and redesign existing terminals of Arturo Merino Benitez airport, and build 175,000m2 new terminals with 37 aircraft stands by 2020.



- The government's commitment to provide quality service in healthcare and quality education is expected to support the institutional construction market over the forecast period. Accordingly, in the 2016 budget, the government allocated CLP117.4 billion (US$173.5 million) for the construction of primary schools. Additionally, the government plans to invest CLP45.6 billion (US$67.4 million) to build 832,658 pre-kindergartens across the country by 2020.

Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p03340758-summary/view-report.html



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/construction-in-chile-key-trends--opportunities-to-2020-300362665.html

SOURCE Reportlinker
LONDON, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Activated carbon, a functional carbon material with properties of physical and chemical adsorption, can be divided into coal-based activated carbon, wood-based activated carbon, and other activated carbons.



In 2015, global activated carbon capacity approximated 2.1 million tons (mainly distributed in China, the United States, Japan, and Europe), compared with total demand of only about 1.547 million tons, indicating a huge excess capacity across the entire industry and further capacity integration or elimination in the future.



As the world's largest producer of activated carbon, China's capacity and output of activated carbon reached roughly 900,000 tons and about 628,000 tons (up 6.6% year on year) respectively in 2015, with autilization of 69.8%. Driven by environmental protection and automobile industries, China's activated carbon industry will continue to grow steadily in the future at an output CAGR of around 7.4% during 2016-2020.



Besides satisfying domestic demand, about 1/3 of China-made activated carbon is exported. The country exported 251,000 tons of activated carbon, including 58,000 tons of wood-based activated carbon, mainly to Japan, Peru, and Indonesia, and 193,000 tons of other activated carbons, primarily to Japan, South Korea, and Belgium.



Water treatment and food & beverage are two application fields of activated carbon in China, together making up 60.2% of total demand in 2015, with the former mainly adopting granular activated carbon and the latter powdered activated carbon.



Major global activated carbon manufacturers include U.S. Calgon, Cabot, and Meadwestvaco, Japanese Kuraray and Osaka Gas, French CECA, and Chinese Fujian Yuanli Active Carbon, Datong Coal Mining Jinding Activated Carbon, and Shanxi Xinhua Chemical. Calgon is the world's largest activated carbon producer with a 21.2% global market share, Fujian Yuanli Active Carbon is the largest wood-based activated carbon maker in China, seizing about 21.7% of the Chinese wood-based activated carbon market, and Datong Coal Mining Jinding Activated Carbon is the country's largest coal-based activated carbon manufacturer, occupying 16.7% or so of the segment in China.



Global and China Activated Carbon Industry Report, 2016-2020 by ResearchInChina highlights the followings:

Global activated carbon industry (overview, market size/structure, demand in major countries, etc.);

China's activated carbon industry (overview, development environment, output/sales, patent, price, market structure, imports/exports, competitive landscape, development trends, etc.);

Main upstream sectors (wood cutting/processing, chemical activator, coal) (market size/price/structure, etc.);

Main applications (water treatment, food & beverage, automobile, pharmaceuticals, etc.) (development, product application, etc.);

6 global and 19 Chinese activated carbon producers (operation, presence in China, activated carbon business, etc.).

Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/2041908/



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

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To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-and-china-activated-carbon-industry-report-2016-2020-300363719.html

SOURCE ReportBuyer
DALLAS, Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Louisiana voters rejected a recommendation of the state's HCR 11 Task Force on Structural Changes in Budget and Tax Policy that would have created a single flat corporate tax rate of 6.5% and eliminated the federal income tax deduction for corporations. The vote was required because the income tax deduction is in the Louisiana State Constitution.

On Election Day, November 8, 2016, Proposed Constitutional Amendment No. 3 failed with a vote of 56% ("no" to the elimination of the deduction). Consequently, Louisiana's corporate income tax brackets and rate structures will remain the same.



We previously issued a comprehensive special report on all the Louisiana tax developments on November 3, 2016. In addition, we announced our plans once the election was over to have a webinar to review all the developments that have occurred. Please watch for a "Save the Date" announcement for further information on the webinar.

About Ryan

Ryan is an award-winning global tax services firm, with the largest indirect and property tax practices in North America and the seventh largest corporate tax practice in the United States. With global headquarters in Dallas, Texas, the Firm provides a comprehensive range of state, local, federal, and international tax advisory and consulting services on a multi-jurisdictional basis, including audit defense, tax recovery, credits and incentives, tax process improvement and automation, tax appeals, tax compliance, and strategic planning. Ryan is a five-time recipient of the International Service Excellence Award from the Customer Service Institute of America (CSIA) for its commitment to world-class client service. Empowered by the dynamic myRyan work environment, which is widely recognized as the most innovative in the tax services industry, Ryan's multi-disciplinary team of more than 2,100 professionals and associates serves over 12,000 clients in more than 40 countries, including many of the world's most prominent Global 5000 companies. More information about Ryan can be found at ryan.com.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160125/325377LOGO

TECHNICAL INFORMATION CONTACT:

Jason DeCuir

Principal

Ryan

225.334.0040

jason.decuir@ryan.com

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/louisiana-voters-elect-to-keep-corporate-federal-income-tax-deduction-300362565.html

SOURCE Ryan
MACAU, Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The 6th China (Macau) International Automobile Exposition drew to a successful close on November 6 at the end of the three-day event.

As China's largest and most influential overseas auto show, this year's edition and forum covered an area of 65,000 square meters, with 100 famous auto brands, companies, representative organizations and industrial alliances from 20 countries and regions, and more than 50,000 exhibitors and professional visitors in attendance.

The spectacular events were broadcast live in Macau and covered by nearly 400 local and international media.

Sales Volume: Exhibitors Achieve Excellent Performance

Stimulated by the attractive discount offered by exhibitors, local and luxury car dealers, as well as Chinese self-owned brand vehicles, received a good number of orders.

Professionalism: Greater international presence

Fourteen international and professional summits and forums were held during the exhibition, alongside a promotional activity for the going global of the Chinese automobile industry by the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China's Foreign Trade Development Bureau.

First Launch of Supercars and New Automobiles in Asia-Pacific

The supercar pavilion of the auto show invited more than 20 top-level luxury brands, many of which launched new cars during the exhibition.

Culture: The People of Macau Actively Participate in as many as 30 Activities Related to Automobile Culture

About 30 auto culture-themed activities including a photography competition, children's painting contest, model competition and a famous cars lottery were co-hosted by various institutions and associations.

After six years of efforts, the Macao Auto Show has established itself as an UFI-certified and international brand exhibition, widely recognized by experts and enterprises across the automotive industry.

It also serves as a platform for Chinese car manufacturers to promote themselves in overseas markets and for the comprehensive display and exchange of imported vehicles.

The 7th Macao Auto Show will be held from November 3-5, 2017.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-6th-china-macau-international-automobile-expo-draws-to-a-successful-close-300362639.html

SOURCE China (Macau) International Automobile Exposition Organization Committee
(Editors note: Due to the sensitivity of the specific maintenance issue affecting the F-22 Raptor, the exact details of the problem and solution could not be released to the public and are described in simplified terms.)



A re-occurring weapon's system issue with an F-22 required a small team of Airmen to collectively work together recently to develop an innovative solution.



The teams problem solving is a testament to the amount of responsibility and confidence the Air Force puts in its Airmen regardless of age or experience.



During roll call, our expediter (an experienced crew chief responsible for coordinating required maintenance taskings) gave out the tasks for the day. My task was to figure out why we were having this re-occurring problem with one of the jets, said Senior Airman Samuel Privett, a 43rd Aircraft Maintenance Unit weapons load crew member.



Privett spent a lot of time working with his team and interpreting the engineering diagrams to trace the problem the jet had.



"It took us about two days and several people overall to finally nail it down, said Privett, a 23-year-old native of Dallas.



This in-flight weapons system maintenance issue affected the radar cross section of the F-22 and persisted over a period of a few months. This reduced the effectiveness of the F-22s low observability, which meant enemy aircraft and radars -- operational or simulated -- would have a better chance of identifying the aircraft.



We have a fabrication machine in the shop that allowed us to create what we needed. We were able to fix the problem ourselves without having to send the jet off to the depot for maintenance, Privett said.



Replacing the entire affected system would have cost approximately $40,000 to $50,000, but an in-house team solution cost the Air Force only $250. The team also saved more than 200 hours in labor and lost flight time.



Senior Airman Privett plays a key role in fostering teamwork and ensuring accurate communication from shift to shift, said Master Sgt. David A. Riddle, the 43rd AMU weapons flight chief. In conjunction with other members of the mighty 43rd Hornet Weapons Flight, we were able to isolate the malfunction that had been eluding us for quite some time.



The repair reduced the downtime of the aircraft, allowing a quick return to the sky with student pilots. The hard work of the 43rd AMU enabled Tyndall AFB to meet its main mission objective, to train and project unrivaled combat airpower.



The teamwork displayed throughout the process was excellent, and Senior Airman Privett was one of the key leaders of that 10-plus member team, Riddle said.



The Air Force relies on the diversity of its force to find innovative solutions to mission-essential problems. This is not limited to race, gender and religion, but also in the age and maturity of an individual.



"Diversity within teams helps us to view problems from a multitude of perspectives, experience levels and individual technical knowledge capabilities," said Col. Jacqueline M. Mongeon, the 325th Maintenance Group commander. "We have the unique ability to leverage the knowledge of both more experienced maintainers with the fresh perspective and innovation the younger generation brings to the fight. New ideas tempered by a steady hand sets us apart as an organization and contributes to the overall mission."

USAF. (U.S. Air Force Graphic by Rosario "Charo" Gutierrez)
JTF-Bravo, Costa Rican medical teams bring health care to remote indigenous village

A group of 16 doctors, nurses, dentists and other specialists from Joint Task Force-Bravo took part in Operation Pura Vida, a joint humanitarian mission and medical readiness training exercise at an indigenous region in the Caribbean province of Limon, Nov. 1-3.



The group arrived in four helicopters from the 1st Battalion, 228th Aviation Regiment and joined 30 Costa Rican physicians to provide basic health care services to approximately 300 residents of the indigenous village of Piedra Mesa, Telire region of Talamanca, Limon.



Communities living in remote areas are usually at a great disadvantage in terms of access to medical care. Ordinarily, Piedra Mesa patients would have to travel on foot for up to seven days to the nearest medical treatment facility. The JTF-Bravo team provided patient services to include preventive medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, dentistry, and nurse technicians; in addition to the airlift capability.



Costa Rican Public Security Minister Gustavo Mata Vega, and S. Fitzgerald Haney, the U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica, visited the mission site Nov. 3. Mata thanked the ambassador, the embassy, and JTF-Bravo for the assistance, and said that humanitarian missions like this one are fundamental to improve health and security conditions for indigenous people.



This is something that the village has requested, along with the Costa Rican government, and its an opportunity for everyone to better understand and provide services to what otherwise would be a very isolated, indigenous population, said Maj. Rosemary Reed, the JTF-Bravo Civil Military Operations deputy, We want their support and understanding of why were bringing this particular unique capability to their village.



A thriving rural community is dependent on the health of its population. Access to medical care does not guarantee good health, however, access to health care is critical for a populations well-being and optimal health.



Its not based on the amount of people that live here. Its based on how difficult, for the few people that do live here, to provide care because of the villages remote location, said Miguel Coello, a JTF-Bravo medical liaison officer, who previously served with JTF-Bravo at this location three times.



According to Coello, the most common patient ailments related to this particular area are malnutrition, renal diseases, upper respiratory infections, skin diseases and chronic mosquito-borne diseases.



Some treatments are lengthy, but if some of these diseases are not treated in a timely manner, they can be lethal, explained Coello.



For follow-up care, the Costa Rican Social Security Bureau (Caja Costarricense de Seguridad Social), have a team of doctors who travel to Piedra Mesa village every three months.



This is one of the best examples of several different entities coming together, Coello said, For example, we were able to provide the airlift, but the tents and field accommodations were provided by the Costa Rican Fire Department and Red Cross; and security was provided by the Costa Rican police. These organizations were brought here to also exercise their expeditionary capabilities.



The purpose of JTF-Bravo conducting a MEDRETE is to test capabilities, react to a natural disaster and to interact with a local populace by building relationships with other entities within Central America, according to Capt. Lettishia Burchfied, the Operation Pura Vida officer in charge.



MEDRETEs like the one held in Piedra Meza serve the broader purpose of fostering a spirit of cooperation and goodwill between U.S. and partner nation counterparts.



The concept for Operation Pura Vida was formulated during a Central American Community of Interest discussion in April 2016 which focused on the growing trend of Transnational Threat Networks observed in Costa Rica. In response, the COI established a joint planning group which met serval times in the following months. During this period, JPG planners developed this challenge into a coherent U.S. and Costa Rican force combined operation focused against positive environmental effects (MEDRETE), while simultaneously disrupting the T3Ns residing in nearby area (future illicit drug eradication).



The planning effort culminated in late October with approval by the U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica and commander of U.S. Southern Command to execute.



By all measures, the resulting operation, Operations Pura Vida, stands as a glowing CENTAM COI success, said Maj. Graham White, the JTF-Bravo Plans and Policy director.



This is the fifth time that Costa Rica has received assistance from SOUTHCOM, which is responsible for all U.S. military activity in Latin America. The aid program started in response to a request by the U.S. Embassy in San Jose.
Jean Marc Tchazou left Cameroon in 2007. He said the government of his homeland was oppressive, and he knew that his only chance at success meant moving to the United States.

Now a Senior Airman in the Air Force Reserve, Tchazous journey to citizenship was highlighted in a 2013 Patriot Magazine article. He said by acquiring his U.S. citizenship, he left behind in Cameroon a system strafed by corruption.

Opportunity is the main reason I came to the United States, Tchazou said. In the U.S., if you work you will see the results of it.

Tchazou said he came to the U.S. ready to work hard at becoming an entrepreneur. But first he had to overcome the fact that he spoke no English. He learned the language through community college courses and language software programs, trading in his childhood dream of becoming a doctor, like his father, for new dreams: an advanced degree, U.S. Citizenship, becoming an Airman, and finding his way as an entrepreneur.

After arriving in the U.S. with a Bachelors Degree in Finance from Cameroons University of Douala, Tchazou completed his Masters Degree in Accounting at Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts. Tchazou also frequently takes individual college courses to learn new skills, recently adding computer science and coding courses to his ever-increasing roster. It was during one of his computer courses that Tchazou got the idea for his latest endeavor: marrying technology with healthcare.

My goal is to bring healthcare to people through their phone. Tchazou had a military friend who was battling depression after multiple deployments but refused to seek treatment because of the stigma associated with a PTSD diagnosis. After many months, Tchazou was finally able to convince his friend to seek treatment. I am developing the app e911md.com with a medical clinic in Washington, D.C., to help people connect with a doctor, but remain anonymous.

Having enough doctors participate in the program will be key to its success. Tchazou is initiating a marketing campaign to attract additional healthcare professionals who will be available to app users. Another option to expand services is to license the app to individual clinics. Fundraising and marketing is key while were in beta testing. We also encourage individuals to download the app so we can show prospective doctors that there is a market for this service, he said.

While the app can help any prospective patient, Tchazou said, Mental health and drug addiction is our main focus. The app is in beta testing now, but when it is fully functional Tchazou said it will connect patients with doctors for remote consultation, counseling, to receive medical records for review by medical staff, or to refer a patient to a local provider if necessary.

The app is free to download for both iPhone and Android, but there will be a fee for doctor consultations that can be paid using insurance, credit card or PayPal. Exact pricing is not established because each doctor will set his or her own fee. However, Tchazou said, It will certainly cost less and be more convenient than a visit to the Emergency Room. He is also excited about a new feature on the app called, Virtual 911 which will allow users instant online access to all of their medical records.

Tchazou said the inspiration for e911md.com came from a paternal source as well as a practical one.

My father used to travel in Africa and Asia practicing medicine, and one of the ways my father consulted with his patients was by telephone, said Tchazou, whose father was a generalist physician and died in 2014. I knew I wanted to do something that mixed medicine with technology, and after visiting the hospital with a sick friend and waiting for hours just to spend a few minutes with a doctor, the idea came to me.

Tchazou joined the Westover community over four years ago, and he said he has no plans of leaving anytime soon  even if his business takes off.

Westover is like family to me, he said. Id like to continue to grow here as an Airman, and as an entrepreneur.
The governments decision to demonetise currency notes of higher denomination is politically motivated says Jitendra Awhad.

After opposition parties sharpened their attack on Modi government for demonetisation of 500 and 1000 rupee notes, NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad has demanded the government to release a white paper pertaining to this issue. He has asked what was the proportion of circulation of higher denomination notes in the economy and what was their market value? Awhad also wanted to know whether the government has made any alternative arrangements before going ahead with the demonetisation decision so that it may cause minimum inconvenience to citizens.

Awhad said that the governments decision to demonetise currency notes of higher denomination is politically motivated. He said, The common man is undergoing huge hardships ever since the government had taken the decision to scrap 500 and 1000 rupee notes. People have to stand in queues outside banks to either exchange or deposit their hard earned money. This is a politically motivated decision taken by the government ahead of the assembly elections to be held in several states next year and has nothing to do with improving the countrys economy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has failed to deliver the promises made by him before general election pertaining to bringing back black money stashed abroad. People had voted for the government with huge expectations but they are feeling disappointed now.

Citizens are finding it difficult to withdraw their hard earned money and struggling to make both ends meet. Labours working in the unorganised sector, skilled and unskilled workers and shop keepers are facing severe difficulty due to this decision. Many labours are finding it difficult to send money to their native places. As a result of this, the government has created financial anarchy and the country may head towards recession and there might be job losses too, he added.

The government must disclose the cost incurred by it to print old notes of 500 and 1000 and how it is planning to destroy these notes which have been declared invalid said the NCP leader.

Citizens are able to withdraw only Rs 2,500 per day through ATMs. Is this amount sufficient for them to manage their expenditures? There is a huge demand for lower denomination currencies but they are in short supply. How much amount is disbursed by RBI to banks for overcoming the problem of currency shortage. What is the cost incurred to print each note?, asked Awhad

He also wanted the government to disclose what is the printing cost of newly introduced notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 2000. How many days will the people have to bear with inconvenience and does the government have any action plan to resolve the woes of the common man, said Awhad.
[dropcap]O[/dropcap]n Wednesday, all the opposition political parties including BJPs ally Shiv Sena will come on the street to protest against demonetisation, but surprisingly main opposition party Congress will not join a march organised by Mamata Banerjees Trinamool Congress to petition the President against the scrapping of notes. A day before Parliament convenes for the winter session and as battle lines were drawn, the picture of unity that both the government and opposition had flaunted seemed to fade with the time. People have to realise why these parties are teaming up against the BJP. Did they speak up or raise their voice for the inconvenience face by common man in their day-to-day lives? No. These parties are severely affected by the demonetisation move and not the people. Never believe that political parties exist for the welfare of the people. If they were then the respective states would have flourished under their rule. Believe in what economists say around the world and not these politicians.

Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray has criticised the government for the hardships that demonetisation has caused to common people. Mamata Banerjees party however wants to meet the President straightaway on the notes ban, which Ms Banerjee has called a draconian decision that punishes common people who had to form long queues at banks to exchange old notes for money to buy essential commodities. They will put up a united face in Parliament though, with both parties and the Janata Dal United moving notices to suspend all work on the very first day to debate demonetisation and its impact on people. Arvind Kejriwals Aam Aadmi Party and the National Conference leader Omar Abdullah have said they will join the march from Parliament House to Rashtrapati Bhawan, the presidential palace. Meanwhile, PM Modi has rejected all demands to withdraw the notes ban. He informed a group of his partys top lawmakers that the country has welcomed the move, but the opposition is trying to sabotage it. He made it clear that the government will not be defensive about a decision that he said holds long-term benefits for the country, though he has repeatedly acknowledged the hardships that people are facing amid the cash crunch after the move. The government will however have to give in to the oppositions demand for an immediate debate on the issue to ensure minimum disruption of the session and the support it needs to push two bills related to its mega reform the Goods and Services Tax, a unified tax it hopes to implement by April 01 next year.

Lets us assume that they have all come together to fight for corruption, then why this decision took so much time to react when more than 25 people have died. The political parties motive is not going to help people. I dont endorse the demonetisation decision of the ruling party but not cheap politics over this crucial issue. We, the people of India, are facing inconvenience but we are willing to do it because ultimately this is our own nation. None of these political leaders stood in queue with common man for exchanging of notes. Then why this political stunt of blocking the roads? And how these roads blocks are going to solve peoples problem?

I understand that people are facing trouble but these changes are happening for good and will be beneficial in future. I know, there will be some people that are against the decision but we as Indians need to think for our future and do not listen to these people. The decision was definitely good but the execution was wrong. Government hurried in declaring the ban, but now the time is to find solutions but not organise agitations. If the country fails to take this opportunity of cleansing herself now, the countrymen may not have an opportunity to forgive themselves forever. Thus, fully proving Winston Churchills observation on Indian independence right, which goes as Power will go to the hands of rascals, rogues, freebooters; all Indian leaders will be of low caliber and men of straw. They will have sweet tongues and silly hearts. They will fight amongst themselves for power and India will be lost in political squabbles. A day would come when even air and water would be taxed in India. God save this country at least now from these unethical rogues up in arms to derail this movement and help this PM whose intentions and actions set a sweet tone to earnestness.

Moreover, no one is showing the positive side of the story. Media is not presenting where all the things are going smoothly. It can go and ask people at-least those who are living in cities like Delhi, Mumbai (metropolitan cities) that people can use their card for daily needs and do not stand in line just for changing their money with Rs. 2000 note. I can understand that online shopping/card swap facility is not available in rural areas but it exists in urban areas. People on the streets is hailing the governments decision despite an admitted hardship which they are willingly accepting and at the same time some political parties are complaining due to obvious reasons.

The Supreme Court also refused to stay the November 8 government notification demonetising Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 currency and asked the Centre to take immediate measures to alleviate the hardships and sufferings of the traumatised common man who is forced to stand in queues to withdraw a little bit of his own hard-earned money. The Bench asked the Centre to file an affidavit by November 25, 2016, detailing the various measures it can take to lessen the hardship and inconvenience caused to people without hindering the larger objective of the government notification to get rid of black money and cross-border terror financing. Let us wait for governments reply, and hope for smoother banking operations.

(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@afternoonvoice.com)
Pakistans Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday submitted in the Supreme Court the details of his assets which included a letter by a Qatari prince who provided funds for purchase of controversial properties in London, which are now owned by Sharifs children. Sharif and his daughter Maryam submitted a 397-page document detailing their assets.

The most interesting document given to the court is the letter from Qatari prince Shaikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Hamad bin Abdullah bin Jassim bin Muhammed Al Thani, stating that he gave money to the premiers family for the purchase of flats in London.

Sharifs childrens counsel Akram Sheikh submitted the letter addressed to the apex court.

It says that Sharif in 1980 invested 12 million Dirhams in the Al Thani company belonging to the Qatari princes father.

In the year 2006, the accounts in relation to the above investment were settled between Hussain Nawaz Sharif and Al Thani family, who then delivered the bearer shares of the companiesto a representative of Hussain Nawaz Sharif (Sharifs son), the letter read.

The letter immediately got a terse response from one of the five judges hearing the case who observed that the letter contradicts Sharifs statement in parliament this year when he did not disclosed the source of money or that he got it from a Qatari company.

The court is hearing five identical petitions by Imran Khan and others that Sharifs children were listed in Panama papers as having offshore companies that properties in London.

The petitioners asked the court to probe if the properties were purchased with legal money.

The court set November 17 for next hearing and also asked that Sharifs two sons  Hassan and Hussain should also submit the details of their assets.

Earlier, Imrans legal team submitted details to prove that Sharif laundered millions out of the country to build assets abroad which are now owned by his children.

The case could be make or break for Sharif who was elected third time Prime Minister in 2013.

The Qatari princes letter may prove instrumental to dispel the charges by opposition that the London flats were bought with illegal money transferred by the Sharif family when he was ruling the country.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14, 2016  An Alaska Airlines flight took off from Seattle today and landed at Washington Reagan National Airport in what USDA is calling a breakthrough in bioenergy.

The trip was the first commercial airlines flight powered by a renewable fuel made from wood waste, in this case discarded tree limbs and branches from forests in Washington, Oregon and Montana.

USDA says the flight is the culmination of a five-year, $39.6 million research and education project supported by the departments National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and led by Washington State University and the Northwest Advanced Renewables Alliance. Launched in 2011, NARA has advanced research into biofuels and biochemicals, fostered the Northwest regional biofuel industry and helped educate tomorrow's workforce on renewable energy.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who was present when the flight landed, said the grant was a bet on the promise that cellulose-rich wood waste could be a viable renewable fuel source.



Today, we are able to celebrate the results of that investment, which is a major advancement for clean alternatives to conventional fossil fuels," Vilsack said. The Obama administration, he said, has invested a total of $332 million to accelerate cutting-edge research and development on renewable energy, making it possible for planes, ships and automobiles to run on fuel made from municipal waste, beef fat, agricultural byproducts and other low-value sources.

All of this creates extra income sources for farmers and ranchers, is bringing manufacturing jobs back to rural America, and is keeping our country at the forefront of clean energy and innovation, he said. We must continue to focus on targeted investments to help the rural economy retool itself for the 21st century."

Learn about the benefits of subscribing to Agri-Pulse. Sign up for your four-week free trial Agri-Pulse subscription.





The demonstration flight used a 20 percent blend of jet fuel made from cellulose derived from limbs and branches that typically remain on the ground after the harvesting of sustainably managed private forests, known as harvest residuals. Cellulose, the main component of wood, is the most abundant material in nature and has long been a subject of investigation for producing sustainable biofuels.

The wood waste came from forests owned by Weyerhaeuser in Washington and Oregon, the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe in Washington and the Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribes in Montana. The 1,080 gallons of biofuel used in the flight was chemically indistinguishable from regular commercial jet fuel, USDA said.

Alaska Airlines estimates that if it were able to replace 20 percent of its entire fuel supply at Sea-Tac Airport in near Seattle with biofuel, it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 142,000 metric tons of CO2. This is equivalent to taking approximately 30,000 passenger vehicles off the road for one year, according to USDA.

#30

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Iraqi Troops Say Recapture Nimrud, Site of Assyrian City

(Reuters) -- Iraqi soldiers recaptured the town of Nimrud on Sunday and the nearby ruins of the 3,000-year-old Assyrian city which was overrun and bulldozed two years ago by Islamic State militants. Nimrud, once the capital of an empire stretching across the ancient Middle East, is one of several historic sites looted and ransacked by the militants when they seized large parts of northern Iraq two years ago. The militant group, whose ultra-hardline doctrine deems the country's pre-Islamic religious heritage idolatrous, released video footage last year showing its fighters bulldozing, drilling and blowing up murals and statues at Nimrud. Those statues included the famous winged bulls with human faces, known as lamassu, which stood at the entrances to the palace of Ashurnasirpal II, king of Assyria in the 9th century BC, and nearby temples on the site. "Troops from the Ninth Armoured Division liberated Nimrud town completely and raised the Iraqi flag above its buildings," the statement said. Army officers later told Iraqi television that Islamic State had also been driven from the old city, 1 km (less than 1 mile) east of the town, which formed the capital of an Assyrian empire reaching from Egypt to parts of modern-day Iran and Turkey. Nimrud lies on the eastern bank of the Tigris river, 30 km (20 miles) south of Mosul where Iraqi soldiers are battling Islamic State for the largest city under the militants' control in Iraq and neighboring Syria. "VICTORY FOR HUMANITY" Iraq's deputy culture minister Qais Hussain Rasheed said that recapturing the remains of Iraq's rich heritage from the jihadists was a triumph for the whole world. Islamic State still controls other Assyrian landmarks including the ruins of Nineveh and Khorsabad, as well as the 2,000-year-old desert city of Hatra, famed for its pillared temple which blended Graeco-Roman and eastern architecture. "Liberation of ancient Iraqi archeological sites from the control of forces of dark and evil is a victory not only to Iraqis but for all humanity," Rasheed, deputy minister for tourism and antiquities at the culture ministry, told Reuters. The scale of the damage inflicted on the sites is not completely clear, but Iraqi officials say some buildings have been totally destroyed. A report by Rasheed's ministry last year said one of the carved wall panels at Nimrud's northern palace was stolen in July 2014. Eight months later, far greater damage was inflicted. The militants destroyed 10 winged bulls, located at the palace gates and at the temple of Ishtar - godess of love, war, sex and power - and Nabu - god of literature and wisdom. A month later in April 2015 "the gangs completely blew up the city and its ancient buildings" the report said. Rasheed said antiquities authorities had given detailed coordinates to Iraqi forces on the ground and their U.S.-led air support to avoid any accidental damage to the archaeological sites, and also provided information to commanders about "the heritage and antiquities of Nineveh" - where they are operating. Once sites are retaken from the militants, a special antiquities security team will join security forces there to help them preserve the sites, he added. Nimrud was excavated in the 19th century by British archaeologist Austen Layard. Max Mallowan and his wife, crime writer Agatha Christie, worked at Nimrud in the 1950s. Her experiences in Iraq, and journeys from Britain to the Middle East, formed the background to several of her novels including Murder on the Orient Express and Murder in Mesopotamia.

Editing by Alexandra Hudson.
Drones Fly Over Ancient Nimrud to Help Secure Assyrian Ruins

BAGHDAD (Reuters) -- Iraqi soldiers began painstaking work on Monday to secure the remains of the 3,000-year-old city of Nimrud, a day after driving out Islamic State militants who overran and ransacked the ancient Assyrian capital. Nimrud's palace and temples, once at the heart of an empire which stretched across the Middle East, were razed by the ultra-hardline zealots after they swept through northern Iraq in 2014, destroying historic sites they declared idolatrous. Whether any treasures at Nimrud can be rescued will be hard to assess until archaeologists can get there. That will take time because of fears the militants have left bombs or even fighters concealed in tunnels among the ruins. "We are stepping up drone surveillance now over Nimrud to make sure no imminent threat still exists," a colonel in the Ninth Armoured Division told Reuters. He said troops were in control of the area, but had strict instructions to be "extremely cautious" and were staying out of Nimrud while remaining villages nearby were cleared. The drones overflying the area were unarmed. "We want to make sure we don't inflict even the least damage to buildings in Nimrud already damaged by the evil Daesh (Islamic State)," he said. Nimrud lies on the eastern bank of the Tigris river, 30 km (20 miles) south of Mosul where Iraqi soldiers are battling to crush Islamic State. Mosul is the largest city under the militants' control in Iraq and neighbouring Syria. The Sunni Islamist group still controls the remains of the ancient city of Nineveh, in central Mosul. Khorsabad, another Assyrian site northeast of Mosul, is close to the frontline of the current conflict. To the south, the 2,000-year-old desert city of Hatra, famed for its pillared temple blending Graeco-Roman and eastern styles, was also seized and damaged by the militants in 2014. The UN cultural agency UNESCO has condemned the destruction at Nimrud as a war crime and an attack on the world's shared heritage, pointing to ancient Mesopotamia's role as a cradle of civilisation where early urban centres flourished and cuneiform writing on clay was developed. "Liberation of ancient Iraqi archaeological sites from the control of the forces of dark and evil is a victory not only for Iraqis but for all humanity," Iraq's deputy culture minister Qais Hussain Rasheed told Reuters after the army announced it had taken Nimrud. NIMRUD DEVASTATION In neighbouring Syria, Islamic State was driven out of the city of Palmyra eight months ago, after dynamiting monuments including two temples and Palmyra's imposing triumphal arch. Syria's antiquities chief said much of Palmyra could be restored, but video footage of the destruction carried out by the militants in Nimrud, and a government report issued last year, suggest the devastation in Iraq is extensive. The report by Iraq's culture ministry said a carved wall panel was stolen from the northern palace at Nimrud in July 2014. Eight months later, far greater damage was inflicted. The militants destroyed 10 colossal statues of winged bulls, located at the palace gates and at the temple of Ishtar - goddess of love, war, sex and power - and Nabu - god of literature and wisdom. A month later in April 2015 "the gangs completely blew up the city and its ancient buildings" the report said. Video released by Islamic State supporters, purporting to show them at work in Nimrud, included footage of the militants using bulldozers and electric drills to tear down murals and statues. They also rigged up barrels full of explosives which they appeared to detonate at the site. As recently as in the last three months, according to satellite imagery, Islamic State appears to have bulldozed the ziggurat, or step tower, built by Ashurnasirpal II and Shalmaneser III in the 9th century BC. Pictures released by the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) Cultural Heritages Initiative showed that between late August and early November the towering remains of the ziggurat had been steadily flattened. What appeared to be scars from bulldozer shovels were visible, and ASOR said there were also signs of machinery tracks at the temple of Ishtar. A picture which ASOR dated Nov. 4 did, however, show contours of the palace and two temples still visible, suggesting they were not entirely erased. "It's premature to talk about the extent of damage that has been caused by Daesh," a government archaeological source said. "After the sites have been completely secured by the army, then we will send the archaeology police to cordon off the sites," the source added. "Then we will send our crews to take images and write a detailed report on the damage." Nimrud was excavated by a series of archaeological missions since the 19th century including in the 1950s by British archaeologist Max Mallowan, who was accompanied by his wife, detective novelist Agatha Christie. Her experiences in Iraq, and journeys from Britain to the Middle East, formed the background to several of her books, including Murder on the Orient Express, They Came to Baghdad, and Murder in Mesopotamia.

Writing by Dominic Evans; editing by Philippa Fletcher.
An Antonov 225, the worlds largest commercial cargo aircraft, stopped off at Germanys Leipzig/Halle Airport en route to Chile via Iceland.

It was the An225s 21st visit to the central German airport. A Leipzig/Halle spokesperson said: "Apart from its home base at Kiev Gostomel, there is no other European airport that the plane has visited more frequently."

PortGround, a subsidiary of airport owner Mitteldeutsche Flughafen, loaded 160 tonnes of freight on board the An225.

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November 14, 2016

On Nov. 14, the official opening of three new oil fields in the oil-rich southwestern Khuzestan province received mixed coverage in Iranian media. While Reformists hailed the boost in oil production in the post-sanctions era, conservatives focused on President Hassan Rouhanis speech regarding youth unemployment.

On Nov. 13, Rouhani officially inaugurated the first phases of the Yadavaran and North Azadegan fields as well as the North Yaran field, which are shared with Iraq. These oil fields provide a total production of more than 220,000 barrels per day.

The move came after the Nov. 8 preliminary $4.8 billion agreement between the National Iranian Oil Company and a consortium led by France's Total to further develop phase 11 of Irans giant South Pars natural gas field. Total is the first Western energy company to sign a major deal with Tehran since the lifting of nuclear-related sanctions in January.

At a ceremony to formally open the new fields, Rouhani stressed that the inauguration is a result of the July 14, 2015, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The JCPOA means a new space, a new air. This means that trapdoors have been opened and fresh air has entered, Rouhani said. Now people will benefit from the new opportunities. The oil industry has used these opportunities in the best way it could.

Rouhani added, After the nuclear agreement, some said it would take ages to reach the goal of 2 million barrels of daily exports. They also said we cannot return to the pre-sanctions situation. But [the progress of] our oil industry in just a few months has surprised the world.

The Reformist Etemad daily wrote that Rouhanis speech shows he is confident that Donald Trumps victory in the US [presidential elections] cannot change the future of the nuclear agreement. Etemad also asserted that Rouhanis speech had a message for the 171st Meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) conference, due to be held Nov. 30.

Etemad wrote, Iran wants to be exempt from production cuts because of its lost share of the market during the years of international sanctions. Those who have doubts about Irans stances on this issue can reread what the Iranian president said [on Nov. 13].

The newspaper Iran reported that the country would need a $200 billion investment in the oil and gas industries in the next five years, which is unachievable without foreign investment.

Domestic and foreign investors are widely interested in the energy industry of Iran, and this is an opportunity that must be taken into consideration, the daily said. Any delay in developing our joint oil and gas fields [with neighboring countries] will just benefit our enemies.

While Reformist newspapers hailed the inauguration of three oil fields, Conservatives focused on a different part of Rouhanis speech and magnified his comments about youth unemployment. Resalat covered the oil fields' development under the headline, President: Youth Employment Is Our Biggest Issue.

Resalat quoted Rouhani as saying, We should use the oil industry to resolve the issue of youth unemployment. The residents of oil-rich regions should profit from this industry by creating employment opportunities and developing education and the health care system.
November 14, 2016

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  A number of Fatah leaders, namely Jamal al-Tirawi and Najat Abu Bakr, who were dismissed from the movement at the end of October on the grounds of having other allegiances, have called for the formation of a committee of Fatah elders to try to re-boost the movement, reunite it and thwart any exclusionary decisions by the movements seventh conference scheduled for Nov. 29.

This call comes in tandem with Fatahs official announcement of the seventh conference and its cutting of salaries of the staff supporting dismissed leader Mohammed Dahlan, as well as the outbreak of clashes between the security forces and some armed members in camps in the West Bank in protest of the movements dismissal decision.

Tirawi told Al-Monitor that the calls to form said committee come in a bid to save the movement, in light of the accumulated internal crises and concerns that the conference would pave the way for more dismissals and further salary cuts.

He said that the idea to form a committee of elders was the result of discussions held with many of the leaders and cadres of the movement, who refuse this exclusivity and exclusion policy carried out by Fatahs senior leaders  Mahmoud Abbas and his peers  hoping that these calls would not fall on deaf ears.

Tirawi said that the movement includes many historic, intellectual and competent leaders who could form the committee, refusing to give specific names. He believes that these figures are consensual and approved by everyone in the movement.

In the same context, Naeema al-Sheikh, a member of parliament who was dismissed from Fatah, told Al-Monitor, Since the very beginning of the dispute in 2010 between Abbas and other leaders within the movement [Dahlan and his supporters], we have been calling for a committee of elders to save and reunite the movement.

She explained that said committee ought to be formed by unbiased Fatah figures who would be able to discuss and handle matters of contention between the leaders and the cadres of the movement to reach a solution satisfactory to all parties. This committee would strive to mend fences within the movement, unlike Fatahs internal courts, whose decisions are controlled by Abbas.

Sheikh said that the dismissed members will continue their demands and steps to form this committee to serve as an impartial fair body, capable of reinstating the dismissed leaders and cadres and ending this monopoly of decision.

The sacked leaders do not recognize the Palestinian courts decisions that were issued following their dismissal, the latest of which was the Constitutional Court decision Nov. 6 to grant Abbas powers to lift parliamentary immunity of Dahlan. They considered the courts to be a tool in the Palestinian presidents hands.

For his part, Ahmad Abdul Rahman, a member of Fatahs Consultative Committee, told Al-Monitor, Those who hold different allegiances do not need a committee of elders or wise men; they need to return to their senses and place Fatah at the top of their priorities, holding up their independence away from anyones tutelage and without any affiliation to any other party.

When they abide by the movements decisions and apologize for what they have done during the last period  be it their allegiance to other Arab parties or libeling the Fatah leadership  only then can they return to the movement without the need of a committee of elders, Rahman said.

He added, This is of course with the exception of Dahlan, who is facing financial and criminal cases before courts and cannot return to the movement.

Rahman advised Dahlan and his political peers to retire from politics for many years, given how much they faulted their movement and accepted becoming tools in the hands of some countries  i.e., the Arab Quartet.

Of note, the Arab Quartet (Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan) launched talks in August in a bid to achieve reconciliation between Abbas and Dahlan after the escalation of disputes following the latters dismissal in June 2011 by Fatahs Central Committee. However, the Arab efforts pushing toward returning Dahlan to the heart of Fatah were to no avail, given Abbas intransigent refusal of such a reconciliation, which he views as paving the way for Dahlan to become his successor as president.

Not one of these sacked leaders will return to the movement under the leverage of one of these countries, as we will not allow them to interfere in the matters of Fatah or the Palestinians, Rahman said.

Political analyst Hani Habib considered the calls to form a committee of elders inside Fatah to be too late, as the preparations for the movement's seventh conference are wrapped up. He believes that said conference would also be another explosion of anger within the movement, given the exclusion of a number of sacked leaders and cadres who had participated in the sixth conference in August 2009.

The deep divisions plaguing Fatah would not be mended by any committee of elders, as the movement is divided between two camps, pro-Abbas and pro-Dahlan, he told Al-Monitor.

Political analyst Mohamed Hawash told Al-Monitor that it is unlikely for the formation of any committee to change the reality of Fatah, which is now at its nadir, noting that it is normal for all movements and organizations to hit rock bottom but that does not mean their demise.

Fatah has experienced many rifts in the past within its ranks but this did not affect its trajectory, Hawash said.

He added, Fatah has a Consultative Committee that includes most of the historic leaders [founding leaders such as Ahmed Qurei and Abdullah al-Ifranji among others], who did not have any luck in the latest elections of the sixth conference, and who nonetheless have considerable political and regulatory savvy.

Hawash said that some of them could play a role in solving the differences plaguing the movement, which could be further impetus toward containing internal differences without the need to form any committee.

He noted that the demands and calls on the part of sacked members to form said committee are mere attempts, especially on the part of Dahlan, to return to the movement and be part of any new formation resulting from the seventh conference. He stressed that the fate of Fatah is not associated to these dismissed members.

The recently escalated demands to form a committee of elders appear to be an attempt by sacked members to leverage the movements leadership to take them back in and to stop further dismissals of cadres associated with Dahlan.
November 14, 2016

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is switching up some important diplomatic appointments, including its ambassadors to the United States and United Kingdom, causing speculation as to why, and once again raising criticism of the way ambassadors are named.

The Palestinian Maan News Agency wrote Oct. 18 that PA President Mahmoud Abbas reached the decision to change the diplomatic lineup after consulting with Foreign Minister Riyad Malki. Since then, Abbas has appointed new ambassadors to the United States, United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Abbas named his strategic affairs adviser, Husam Zomlot, as ambassador to the United States to replace Maen Areikat, who will now move to London. Areikat replaces Manuel Hassassian, who has not been reappointed at this time. Areikat had an agenda jammed with political events in the United States as part of the PAs global action to confront Israel. The PA may be seeking to use Areikats experience in political events and activities in London, and thus Europe, to which the PA attaches great importance.

Zomlot's appointment to the United States might have exceptional significance because of the large role the United States has played in trying to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Zomlot was appointed based on the recommendations of Palestinian leaders due to his relations with the United States and other Western states, and his pivotal role in meetings with US leaders and official delegations visiting Palestine. Zomlot told Al-Monitor he prefers to wait until he officially moves to Washington before making any statements.

Appointing a new Palestinian ambassador to the UAE is also important, amid tensions between the UAE and the PA that have festered since May. Relations started going downhill when the UAE voiced its support for Mohammed Dahlan, Fatahs dismissed leader and Abbas archenemy, while Abbas refused the Emirati offer to broker a reconciliation with Dahlan.

The new UAE ambassador, Nabil Abuznaid, is relocating from his position in the Netherlands. He was active in attempts to obtain European recognition of the Palestinian state in 2014 through his network of connections in the Netherlands. Rawan Abu Youssef will take Abuznaid's place. Youssef has occupied several vacancies in the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, most recently as assistant foreign minister for multilateral relations.

Abuznaid is replacing Issam Massalha, who is being removed from his position in the UAE in the reshuffle. Massalha has yet to be reappointed and has not yet returned to the Palestinian territories. Abdel Fattah Hamayel, the mayor of Bethlehem and former Palestinian minister of youth and sports, in February criticized Massalha because he imposed high taxes on Palestinians in Abu Dhabi for routine paperwork. That taxation, which Palestinians opposed, might have played a role in his removal.

The PA has a wide international diplomatic network, with about 100 ambassadors distributed around the world. The embassies cost the PA about $200 million yearly, which exceeds the authority's modest financial means. However, the changing assignments don't seem to reflect a cut in spending, as the PA isn't planning to close any embassies.

So why the shakeup?

An official at the Palestinian Foreign Ministry told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, Palestinian figures demanded  through calls with the Palestinian presidency and intervention from major leaders in Fatah and the [PLO]  [that Gaza receives its fair] share of diplomatic appointments, based on past promises from Abbas. Abbas might make a major reshuffling in key embassies like Egypt and Algeria before the end of 2016. The main criterion to appoint ambassadors is their closeness to Abbas, but there are around 100 Palestinian Embassies abroad. Only two ambassadors hail from Gaza, while the others are from the West Bank. This reflects Abbas negative opinion of Gaza and its people.

Another official, Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas leader and Foreign Ministry undersecretary in the Gaza Strip, told Al-Monitor, The foreign minister in Ramallah [in the West Bank] directly assigns Palestinian ambassadors without communicating with us. But Palestinian diplomatic work needs more cooperation. Therefore, Palestinian ambassadors must be assigned based on professional rather than factional rules. Gazans get a low number of diplomatic appointments compared to the West Bank.

Abdullah Abdullah, a member of Fatahs Revolutionary Council and the head of the political committee at the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), was an ambassador in the 1970s. He quit diplomatic work in 2003 after having served as Palestinian ambassador to Lebanon, Canada and Greece. He told Al-Monitor, Ambassadors should be chosen in a way that serves the Palestinian cause. We have diaspora across the world and wide global solidarity campaigns that necessitate the presence of competent ambassadors. Unfortunately, the PLC [has had no luck in convincing] the foreign minister to get informed about how to appoint new ambassadors.

Some observers believe corruption may have something to do with some of the changes.

Press statements issued in 2014 brought up corruption in the Palestinian Embassies, such as the implication of a diplomat at the Palestinian Embassy in China in fraud cases worth $15 million. In June, news broke of Palestinian Ambassador to Venezuela Linda Sobh's plan to appoint her daughter, Samar, as general consul at the embassy as soon as Samar graduated. On Nov. 10, Sobh was appointed ambassador to Guyana in South America.

There are several corruption scandals in Palestinian Embassies across the world  in Spain, Sweden and France," Fahmi Shrab, an employee at the European Affairs Department at the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Gaza, told Al-Monitor. "They mostly revolve around illicit gains made by some diplomats who abused their positions of power at the embassies, thus tarnishing Palestinians reputation. Notably, most Palestinian diplomatic appointments are based on loyalties, nepotism and favoritism rather than competence and professionalism."

Transparency Palestine stated in February that Palestinian diplomatic jobs suffer from a lack of transparency in terms of appointment and promotion, and personal relations clearly affect them.

Abdul Sattar Qassem, a political science professor at An-Najah National University in Nablus, told Al-Monitor, The appointments in the Palestinian diplomatic corps depend on the agreement of the nominated ambassadors to Abbas political program, following negotiations and security coordination with Israel. These appointments do not seek foreign professional competence. As a result, many ambassadors get involved in affairs that harm the Palestinian people, like illicit gains.
November 14, 2016

Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to solve problems at home and stop frittering away taxpayers money abroad.

Less than a week after his stunning victory, a number of Arab leaders have delicately begun to urge the president-elect and his transition team not to leave them in the lurch. They warn that aid-dependent countries throughout the region are still recuperating from the Arab Spring upheaval while fending off terrorism and chaos  all to Americas long-term benefit.

The outreach can be seen in a congratulatory cable from Jordanian King Abdullah, who looks forward to many more years of cooperation between the two countries, in media outreach from the US representative of the American Chamber of Commerce for Egypt, and yet again by the Tunisian ambassadors participation Nov. 17 in a panel discussion on Supporting Tunisia: A priority for the next administration?

Of course every country right now wants to position itself before the Republicans and, especially, the new Trump team, Tunisian Ambassador Faysal Gouia told Al-Monitor. Thats why CSID [Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy] is holding a conference on the topic.

The flurry of activity follows mixed messages from Trump, who has oscillated throughout the campaign between an America First isolationism and calls for bold action against terrorism. Since the election, the Trump team has only added to the reigning confusion by floating ideologically diverse picks for secretary of state, including centrist Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and former ambassador to the UN John Bolton, who advocated bombing Iran during negotiations last year.

Weve spent $6 trillion in the Middle East: $6 trillion. We could have rebuilt our country twice, Trump told CBS "60 Minutes" in his first post-election interview Nov. 13. And you look at our roads and our bridges and our tunnels  and our airports are, like, obsolete. And I think it was just a repudiation of whats been taking place over a longer period of time than that.

Some of Trumps staunchest supporters have been even more vocal.

I think these Middle Eastern countries have got to be told: You get down to business. We're cutting you off, right-wing radio pundit Laura Ingraham, who is now in the running to be White House press secretary, said on her show in March.

In the same "60 Minutes" interview, however, Trump twice mentioned that the crisis in the Middle East was a key point of discussion in his transfer of power meeting with President Barack Obama. Gouia and others are buoyed by such talk as evidence that he wont do anything to undermine their efforts to combat terrorism and restore stability.

I think Trump has an understanding of what Egypt has gone through and what its trying to do on the security side, Hisham Fahmy of AmCham Egypt Inc. told Al-Monitor. He has publicly supported Egypt in its fight against the extremists, whether in the Sinai Peninsula or coming in from Libya and other places.

Fahmy oversaw a delegation of 56 US companies to Egypt late last month, including nine that have never done business in the country. He said they met with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and other top officials and came away impressed by the governments recent economic reforms and optimistic about the potential for investment and trade between the two countries, regardless of who is in the White House.

Sisi was one of the first foreign leaders to congratulate Trump on his victory after the two hit it off during a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September. Fahmy urged Trump to retain the long-lasting bilateral relationship, especially the annual $1.3 billion annual military aid package.

Im guessing that the military aid in particular will be maintained, he said. In practical terms, but also in psychological terms, its very, very important.

Sisi was less enthused by Hillary Clinton, who offered support for the Muslim Brotherhoods Mohammed Morsi after he was elected president in 2012 and pressed Sisi on the detention of US citizen Aya Hijazi during their meeting in September. Fahmy said human rights will remain an issue between the two countries under Trump, but advised the incoming president that conditioning aid doesnt work  It never has and it never will  and to keep such discussions private to avoid sparking a backlash.

Doing something public doesnt serve the issue, Fahmy said. If Egypt decides to pardon or let [someone] go, it looks as if theyre being dictated [to] by the United States. So weve always believed that discussions should be in private and the pushing should be in private.

Gouia echoed the sentiment that bilateral relations will remain largely unchanged in substance if not in tone, despite the campaign rhetoric.

I make a difference between the campaign and the conduct of affairs  how we look at the relations between the United States and the entire world, he said. Im sure there is a big difference.
November 14, 2016

WASHINGTON  The fate of the Iran deal, a resolution to the Syrian civil war and other pressing foreign policy issues may rest with who Donald Trump chooses to advise him and serve in his Cabinet.

While Trump has signaled some continuity with the Obama administration in seeking to cooperate with Russia to combat the Islamic State (IS) and find a solution to the Syrian war, on others his expressed instincts and range of proposed advisers signal a sharp departure, particularly on global climate change. On the Iran nuclear deal, it may particularly depend on who has his ear.

"President-elect Trump is not particularly ideological and that will serve him well," President Barack Obama said at a news conference on Nov. 14 before traveling to Europe and Peru. "I think ultimately he is pragmatic."

It all comes down to the people, who they are, a senior US administration official working on Iran told Al-Monitor. Whoever it is, is going to have a long list of to-dos. Whether they feel like adding one more to the list  I think anybody that comes in is going to be looking at a very long list of foreign policy challenges, the official added.

The Republican president-elect spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin Nov. 14. The Kremlin said they talked about joining forces in the fight against the common enemy of international terrorism and a possible resolution of the crisis in Syria.

Trump, on the campaign trail, has frequently expressed the desire to work with Russia to combat IS. And in one of his first interviews after his surprise victory last week, Trump said his major focus would be fighting IS and questioned whether the United States should be backing the rebels fighting the Bashar al-Assad regime.

Ive had an opposite view of many people regarding Syria, Trump told The Wall Street Journal Nov. 11. My attitude was youre fighting Syria, Syria is fighting [IS], and you have to get rid of [IS]. Russia is now totally aligned with Syria, and now you have Iran, which is becoming powerful, because of us, is aligned with Syria.

If the US attacks the Assad regime, we end up fighting Russia, fighting Syria, Trump told the paper.

Trump appears to see the threat of [IS] and Islamist extremism as urgent and the principal current threat to the United States, former US Ambassador to Iraq and the UN Zalmay Khalilzad, a reported contender for a top national security post, wrote of Trumps foreign policy in an article last July. He wants US alliances to focus on the threat of Islamist terrorism and also is willing to cooperate with Russia to defeat it. He is willing to use more US forces and to adopt more aggressive tactics. He appears to favor using a lot of force against terrorist targets in the Middle East but then get out rather than maintain a significant role on the ground for years.

On the campaign trail, Trump espoused the view that the landmark Iran nuclear agreement reached by Iran, the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, China and Russia in July 2015 is a terrible deal and that the Obama administration negotiated poorly. But the real estate developer has also said that he knows from his business experience that it is very hard to rip up a signed contract, and he would instead enforce it very hard.

It's very hard to say, 'We're ripping it up,'" Trump told NBCs Meet the Press on Aug. 16, 2015.

"I would police that contract so tough that they don't have a chance, Trump said. As bad as the contract is, I will be so tough on that contract."

But in the week since Trumps surprise election victory, the list of reported contenders for top foreign policy and national security posts in the 45th presidential administration has suggested a wide range of ideological viewpoints, some at odds with Trumps campaign criticism of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and its aftermath and his expressed aversion to deep US military entanglements in the Middle East.

Every bad decision that you could make in the Middle East was made, Trump told The New York Times in March 2016. And now if you look at it, if you would go back 15 years ago  if our presidents would have just gone to the beach and enjoyed the ocean and the sun, we wouldve been much better off in the Middle East, than all of this tremendous death, destruction, and you know, monetary loss  were far worse off today than we were.

Among the contenders to be secretary of state, according to The New York Times, are former Bush-era Ambassador to the UN John Bolton, Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former US Ambassador to Afghanistan and the UN Zalmay Khalilzad, and former US commander in Afghanistan Stanley McChrystal. Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is also under consideration for secretary of state, The Wall Street Journal reported Nov. 14, saying that he and Bolton were the leading contenders.

For his part, Gingrich, a top Trump surrogate, told Mother Jones David Corn over the weekend that he does not want to be secretary of state and instead prefers to work in the Trump White House on strategic planning.

Among the reported contenders, Bolton would signal fierce opposition to the nuclear deal and a confrontational path with Iran, while Khalilzad and McChrystal would signal pragmatism and potential dialogue with Iran, and Corker some more middle course.

Bolton, writing in the Nov. 14 New York Post, urged Trump to cancel the Iran nuclear deal in his first days in office.

One key step would be to abrogate the Iran nuclear deal in his first days in office, Bolton, who did not receive Senate confirmation to be Bushs ambassador to the UN, wrote. There will be considerable diplomacy required to explain this courageous but necessary decision, but the unambiguous signal it would send worldwide cannot be underestimated.

Despite such a hard-line stance seeming at odds with Trumps expressed suspicion of further Middle East military entanglements, Trump last year cited Bolton as one of the two or three figures whose foreign policy counsel he listens to. But some Washington veterans believe Bolton might have a hard time getting confirmed by the Senate, which he did not receive when he was Bushs nominee to be ambassador to the UN in 2005, even when there was a larger Republican Senate majority than will be coming into office next year.

A former Bush administration State Department official, speaking not for attribution, said it is hard to assess what the decision-making criteria will be for appointments drawing on the campaigns small inner circle of loyalists. On Nov. 13, Trump named Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus as his White House chief of staff, and Breitbart executive chairman and his campaign CEO Stephen Bannon as White House chief strategist and senior adviser, sparking controversy because of Breitbarts association with the alt-right movement.

Regarding Corker as a potential secretary of state nominee, My sense is he is probably confirmable, moderate, a practical guy, the former Bush administration official said. But noting Corker withdrew from consideration to be Trumps running mate, I think there is a question mark there, he added. But if Trump is trying to pick someone reassuring within the available options, he might fit the bill.

Former US Ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq Khalilzad wrote a sophisticated article last summer on Trumps foreign policy views, called the Emerging Trump Doctrine, a few months after introducing Trump at his first major foreign policy speech at the Center for the National Interest.

What we are witnessing is nothing less than the birth of a Trump Doctrine, one that calls for a break from the status quo on at least five main issues: US goals, countering the terrorist group [IS] and Islamist extremism, democracy promotion, immigration and great-power relations, Khalilzad wrote for The National Interest, the Centers magazine, on whose advisory board he sits.

Khalilzad, a veteran US diplomat of Afghan descent, seemed to be positioning himself for a potential role advising Trump on foreign policy, but a position on the campaign never materialized, the former Bush administration official noted, for reasons he didnt know.

If I were them, I would want someone like him, but it is also very difficult to know what the decision-making criteria are. It is extremely difficult to assess, the former Bush administration official said. Obviously, it would be huge symbolism, given Khalilzads Muslim background, to have him in a senior position. There is a political logic to it, too. It would send a signal that is reassuring, both domestically and abroad, after this campaign, that this administration does not have animus against Muslims.

Top among the Trump campaigns national security advisers, retired Defense Intelligence Agency Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn is considered to have a lot of influence on the candidate and likely to receive a senior post, possibly national security adviser or director of national intelligence, sources said.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, one of Trumps first supporters in Congress and an anti-immigration hawk, is also in line for a Cabinet post, possibly as attorney general or secretary of defense or homeland security. Sessions, a former prosecutor, is the No. 3 Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and has supported increased spending at the Pentagon. Many people, particularly Democrats, would probably prefer to have Sessions heading the Pentagon than at the Department of Homeland Security or as attorney general, because of his tough anti-immigration stance, the former Bush administration official said.

Stephen Hadley, who served as national security adviser for George W. Bush, is also reportedly under consideration to be secretary of defense. Outgoing New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is also reportedly under consideration for secretary of defense, or US ambassador to the UN. Former Missouri Sen. Jim Talent is also reportedly under consideration to be secretary of defense.

Retired Army Brig. Gen. Michael J. Meese, a former adviser to Gen. David Petraeus in Afghanistan and Iraq and the son of Reagans Attorney General Ed Meese, serves on Trumps national security transition team, The Washington Post reported.

Former House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Rogers (R-Michigan) also serves on the Trump national security transition team and is reportedly under consideration for a post, possibly CIA director or director of national intelligence.

While State Department and Pentagon officials said they had not seen Trump transition officials in their buildings last week, National Security Adviser Susan Rice met with Trump transition officials on Nov. 14.

For the US officials who helped negotiate the Iran deal  the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)  and believe it has enhanced US national security and walking away from it would harm US national interests, they are preparing to offer their guidance to their successors and future colleagues, as the case may be.

I have been thinking about it a lot. I think that what I want to do  is to make the case  of what we are getting out of it, the US administration official said. The position we were in prior to the JCPOA, from the perspective of the breakout timeline, and potential for military conflict. And then demonstrate what we are getting out of it at the moment. And what the consequences would be if we walked away.
November 15, 2016

Donald Trumps historic victory this month shocked many across the world. Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) officials must deal with countless uncertainties surrounding Washingtons Middle East foreign policy in the post-Obama era. One area of grave concern for Arab Gulf monarchies is Syria, where since 2011 the Saudis and Qataris have invested heavily in Sunni Islamist forces fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

For Riyadh and Doha, the upcoming transition in Washington constitutes a major setback to their interests in this conflict. With Trump stepping into the Oval Office on Jan. 20, the prospects for Saudi Arabia and Qatar achieving their regime change objective in Damascus appear dimmer than ever  and those for Assads survival seem stronger than any point since the ongoing crisis erupted almost six years ago.

Although Washington has provided limited logistical and financial support to segments of Syrias armed opposition while calling for Assads departure from power, a major grievance on Riyadh's and Dohas part has been the Obama administrations reluctance to take more decisive action against the Damascus regime. On Sept. 20, the emir of Qatar articulated this frustration with Americas outgoing president when addressing the UN General Assembly. Red lines were set for the [Assad] regime  yet those who demarcated those lines have not felt provoked to raise a finger. In the eyes of many in the GCC, Obama mismanaged the crisis and enabled Tehran to exploit the conflict for the purpose of expanding and consolidating Iranian/Shiite influence across the Levant.

As many in the GCC expected a Clinton victory, there was optimism that as commander in chief, the former secretary of state would embrace a more hands-on approach to the Syrian crisis, tip the balance of power against Assad in the rebels favor and ultimately push back Russia and Irans growing influence in the Arab world. Such optimism was justified. According to one of Clintons campaign advisers, she was determined to reset Washingtons Syria policy and focus on taking the murderous Syrian regime out of there. Short of supporting a deployment of US ground troops to Syria, Clinton advocated implementing a no-fly zone to build leverage and momentum for a diplomatic solution that removes Assad and brings Syrias communities together to fight [the Islamic State].

Trump, however, has articulated a different plan for defeating IS that entails working with the Assad regime and its backers in the Kremlin. The president-elect has signaled his plan to cut off support for anti-Assad forces in Syria while collaborating with Moscow and Damascus  and unofficially by extension with Tehran  in their fight against the so-called caliphate. Three days after his electoral victory, the real estate mogul told the Wall Street Journal, Ive had an opposite view of many people regarding Syria. My attitude was youre fighting Syria, Syria is fighting [IS], and you have to get rid of [IS]. The president-elected continued, Russia is now totally aligned with Syria, and now you have Iran  which is becoming powerful, because of us  is aligned with Syria.  Now were backing rebels against Syria, and we have no idea who those people are. If the US military attacks the Syrian regime, We end up fighting Russia.

Despite geopolitical constraints left over from the Cold War, a number of voices in Washington have also officially and unofficially endorsed Trumps position on Assad, seeing Syrias embattled secular regime and its backers in Moscow as natural allies of the West in the global struggle against radical Islam. After realizing how many unknown and fluid variables shape the Syrian opposition forces, many "realist" minds in Washington argue that toppling Assad should not be part of the US agenda.

According to this thinking, the Syrian regime  despite its war crimes  is the only actor in the country that can preserve the Syrian nation-state, secure a future for Syrias ancient religious minorities, maintain Damascus de facto peace with Israel  which the countrys Baathist leaders have unofficially embraced since the mid-1970s  and provide millions of the countrys citizens with social services. Those who make this argument contend that the Damascus regime is Syrias only realistic bulwark against IS and al-Qaeda franchises. Such voices maintain that the devil you know is better than the devil you dont.

To many GCC officials, however, IS meteoric rise in Iraq and Syria was an outcome of the Baghdad and Damascus regimes oppression of certain Sunni communities and Irans expanded and consolidated influence across the Levant following the Iraqi Baathist regimes 2003 downfall. Put simply, the Saudis and Qataris maintain that the sectarian nature of the Tehran-backed Iraqi and Syrian regimes are the root cause of these countries ongoing crises and thus IS is merely a symptom. These statesmen argue that Obamas focus on combating the so-called caliphate and not the Syrian regime was rooted in a naive understanding of the war in Syria and the Islamic Republics "aggressive" and "predatory" actions in the region. There was much hope in Riyadh and Doha that a Clinton administration would move Washington closer to these GCC members on the question of Assads future.

Despite the extent to which Trump as a presidential candidate blasted Obama for pursuing policies that strengthened the Islamic Republics hand in the Middle East, from the Saudi and Qatari perspective one of the major risks of the billionaires strategy for defeating IS is that he will continue what Riyadh and Doha officials see as the outgoing presidents misguided approach of not taking military action against the Assad regime.

Of course, we must be careful in any analysis that attempts to forecast how Trump will approach challenges on the international stage, and the Syrian crisis may be his administrations most difficult one in 2017. The president-elect has often contradicted himself, and his current stances on Russia, Syria, Iran and IS could easily change  particularly given the Middle Easts fluid geopolitical landscape and countless unknown variables shaping the US-Iran relationship in the post-Obama era. Although arguing that Trump will make America an official ally of Syria might be a stretch, it does appear that Assad has far less reason to worry about the US military punishing his regime once Trump enters the Oval Office. By taking pressure off Assad, however, Obamas successor will certainly add new tensions to Washingtons relationship with Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
November 14, 2016

The bans and restrictions the Turkish government has imposed over the past four months under the state of emergency have resulted in tens of thousands of people shut out of social and economic life in what virtually amounts to civil death. Journalists and lawyers who lost their jobs after the July 15 coup attempt are now subject to legal and de facto work bans, which have produced a long list of victims.

Those affected by the emergency rule measures can be divided into two major categories: people who face judicial investigations and people not being judicially prosecuted but nonetheless directly or indirectly victimized by the measures. The latter category includes people dismissed from private enterprises closed for their alleged affiliation with Fethullah Gulen  the supposed mastermind behind the attempted putsch  and those who lost jobs in the public sector on the same grounds or for being active in oppositional trade unions.

Some 11,000 teachers and 50,000 other public servants were dismissed after the coup attempt, and most of them are now grappling with unemployment. A former village teacher, for instance, described his plight to a media outlet. He said, Ive been married for five years. Im ready to work, even as a porter, but no one would give me a job, as the Syrians are working for very low wages. We feel desperate and dont know what to do.

Academics expelled from universities find themselves in a similar situation. One of them, sociologist Kemal Inal, told Al-Monitor, All the entitlements I had acquired from work of more than 27 years vaporized with a single decision by the government. Ive sent CVs to dozens of places since I was expelled on Sept. 1, but Ive heard back from no one. Perhaps they are scared.

Inal said his family is under severe financial strain, because his wife, a teacher, was also dismissed. Going abroad was my only way out, he said. I had applied to a number of universities to work as a lecturer, and one of them offered me a three-month position. But then my passport was canceled, and I couldnt go abroad. Im totally cornered.

The number of people who lost their jobs in the private sector is not known. On Oct. 19, the Human Rights Association reported that 1,061 private schools, 15 private universities, 113 student hostels and 35 hospitals and medical centers had been shut down. In addition, hundreds of companies have been seized and are now being run by government-appointed trustees. The government has created a social security code that enables it to track people who lost private sector jobs and are now back in the labor market.

A physician from Izmir whose hospital was closed for alleged links with what Ankara calls the Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organization (FETO) experienced firsthand how the tracking works. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he told Al-Monitor, I looked for a job for quite a while and then found one at a private hospital. The day I was supposed to start, I was told [the hospital] couldnt enter me into the social security system. We called the social security agency, and they said that I was the subject of an ongoing inquiry and that the system would allow my entry only after the inquiry was completed. So Im still jobless.

Hundreds of other staff from the same hospital are yet to receive their severance pay and other financial entitlements. According to a government regulation, the entitlements of the staff of closed institutions are supposed to be paid within six months. Another former employee of the hospital, who is owed back pay and severance for 11 years of employment, said, Weve been told well receive those once the inquiries are completed. They are examining whether we are FETO members or not. We are supposed to be reimbursed accordingly.

The probes in question are not judicial investigations, and the procedure by which the Social Security Institution is conducting these inquiries remains a mystery. On Sept. 27, the Justice Ministry said that 70,000 people were the subject of some sort of judicial action. Since then, the figure is estimated to have reached 100,000, given that the clampdown has continued unabated.

Actual judicial investigations have been marred by questionable practices. According to one legislative decree enacted under the state of emergency, lawyers who are themselves the subject of investigations cannot represent others facing similar investigations. At first glance, this might seem like a measure to prevent lawyers from collaborating in coup trials. Yet the maiden application of the provision demonstrates how broadly it is being employed.

When Mehmet Ozdemir, a leftist, was detained in Istanbul on Aug. 22, lawyers from the Istanbul branch of the Progressive Lawyers Association (CHD) attempted to assume his defense. The court, however, banned the lawyers from the case, citing a lawsuit against the CHD dating back to 2013. In short, the provision serves to sideline lawyers facing investigations involving their profession and restricts the right of defendants to choose their attorneys.

The media have faced similar restrictions on top of the already ferocious crackdown on independent journalism. A circular issued by the Press Advertisement Institution requires public agencies to stop advertising in newspapers whose proprietors are indicted on terrorism-related charges. The same applies to media outlets that employ journalists indicted on terrorism-related charges.

On the judicial front, more than 3,670 judges and prosecutors have been expelled from the profession, and about 3,000 of them have seen their assets frozen as part of ongoing investigations. The law allows for property seizures only of assets acquired through a criminal act set out in a court ruling. Under the state of emergency, however, the scope of this measure, too, has been broadened.

The more than 30,000 people awaiting trial behind bars have faced a series of additional sanctions, ranging from property seizures and restrictions on meetings with lawyers to the dismissal of their spouses and children from public service.

In all cases, the sanctions have targeted people whose prosecution has not yet been completed as well as some who are not the subject of judicial investigation at all. Kerem Altiparmak, a legal scholar at Ankara Universitys Faculty of Political Science, has warned against the grave impact of sanctions against people for whom no concrete evidence exists linking them to the coup attempt. Depriving these people of their economic and social rights for life infringes upon the essence of fundamental rights, which the constitution explicitly forbids.

Altiparmak also wrote, "Dismissing people from public service through lists [incorporated into] legislative decrees constitutes a grave violation of the republics basic tenets laid out in Article 2 of the constitution. Turkey cannot sustain forever this practice, which condemns people to 'civil death' in violation of universal norms protected also by international law. If this method is not reversed politically, it is bound to be reversed legally sooner or later. The government therefore must urgently drop unlawful methods in favor of weeding out [Gulenists] through transparent and fair investigations that respect the publics right to know the truth. If it fails to do that, not only tens of thousands of people will be victimized, but the struggle against FETO will come to naught."

The current state of affairs offers little hope, however. An estimated 1 million people, including the families of those affected by the investigations and dismissals, appear headed for bleak futures.
November 14, 2016

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has held power in Turkey since 2002, when his Justice and Development Party (AKP) emerged victorious from parliamentary elections. Since then, first as prime minister and today as president, his popular support has increased with only a few bumps along the road, which he skillfully maneuvered. Now, in the aftermath of the failed coup of July 15, Erdogan seems more popular than ever. A new survey by the polling firm Genar suggests that more than 60% of the electorate supports Erdogan. Public support for his leadership against the coup attempt is at a phenomenal 88%.

The same Genar survey revealed another remarkable statistic: Erdogans potential votes in a presidential election increases to 70% of the electorate when the base of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) is included. There is currently great sympathy for Erdogan among MHP voters, who apparently may opt for him in the next presidential race. According to another recent poll, support for the AKP stands at 55% of voters, whereas the MHP has 12%. Support for the main opposition secular Republican People's Party (CHP) is holding steady around its usual 25%, whereas the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) has fallen to 7%.

Such broad support for Erdogan means that his support base is not limited to Islamists, as is sometimes assumed by the Western media. Various surveys, including a 2013 Pew Research Center poll, showed that Islamists  those who favor a state based on Sharia  constitute little more than 10% of the population in Turkey. It is safe to assume that most of these Islamists would today vote for Erdogans AKP, hoping that the party will do more in the long run for their cause. Then there is at least another 35% of the electorate, give or take, that also routinely votes for the AKP. They are typically Anatolian Sunni conservatives  who are religious but also pragmatic  who love Erdogans religious references along with the social services, highways and shopping malls provided courtesy of the AKP.

The base of the MHP, Turkeys fourth largest party also consists of Anatolian Sunni conservatives. The only difference between the AKP and MHP bases is that the latter has been more insistent on ethnic Turkish nationalism. It has exhibited stronger enmity toward Kurdish separatism, real or perceived, and has always been hawkish against the armed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which Turkey and the United States have designated as a terrorist group.

That is why relations between the AKP and the MHP became strained when Erdogan sought to find a peaceful resolution to the Kurdish question through negotiations with the PKK, from summer 2009 to summer 2015, despite a resurgence of conflict in 2011. Devlet Bahceli, the MHPs hard-line leader, repeatedly condemned the AKP for high treason for negotiating with terrorists rather than wiping them out. In return, Erdogan routinely lambasted the MHP on the grounds of racism, skull measuring.

When the peace process finally ended, in July 2015, the gap between the two parties quickly evaporated. Moreover, Bahceli faced an intra-party challenge, against which he responded by allying himself with Erdogan. Today, Bahceli is so close to Erdogan that Prime Minister Binali Yildirim found it safe to announce that a new constitution, based on Erdogans preferred presidential system, would soon become a reality with the help of the MHP.

As a result, it seems fair to say that the entire Turkish right  a spectrum of Islamists, conservatives and Turkish nationalists constituting more than 60% of the electorate  is united behind Erdogan. Such a grand coalition had taken shape only once before, in the 1970s when the three parties representing these three trends  the Islamist National Salvation Party, the center-right Justice Party and the Nationalist Action Party  joined forces on two occasions to form a National Front. At that time, the three parties independently continued to follow their own leaders. Now, Erdogan is the leader of the entire right-wing, creating what some have called the third National Front.

There are of course differences between the 1970s and today. In the past, communism was the main enemy of the National Front, while today, it is a broader spectrum of foes, including the Gulenists, leftists, liberals, the PKK and its regional affiliates, and the Western powers allegedly using all these groups as pawns to weaken or even destroy Turkey. Lately, some pro-Erdogan pundits have even designated globalism as the enemy, putting Erdogan and his cause in the same camp with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brexiters and US President-elect Donald Trump, whose electoral victory thrilled the whole pro-Erdogan media.

There is also another element in Erdogans new grand national front that has traditionally never been close to the country's Islamists or conservatives: the Homeland Party, led by Dogu Perincek, the man who built his political career as the beacon of Maoism in Turkey. After the fall of communism, Perincek turned toward a blend of Kemalism and anti-imperialism. He was, in fact, a prominent opponent of the AKP during the partys first decade, but then began to move closer to Erdogan on the basis of opposing the Gulenists and the alleged Western powers behind them. The Homeland Partys votes are miniscule, but Perincek still effectively serves the new grand national front through his audacious newspaper, Aydinlik, his people in the bureaucracy and his foreign connections, such as his friend Alexander Dugin, a Putin confidant who was recently welcomed by the AKP at the Turkish parliament.

How long will this grand national front last? It is impossible to say with any certainty, but it may prove to be more durable than Erdogans past alliances  that is, those with the European Union, the Gulenists, liberals and Kurds. These older alliances came with constraints on Erdogans power, but the grand national front is almost totally under his command. In addition, its vote potential is huge and could possibly keep Erdogan safely in power for years, if not decades.

For those Turkish citizens who find themselves outside this grand national front  the pro-CHP secularists, Alevis, leftists, liberals and Kurdish nationalists  this is, of course, bad news. For them, it means they live in a country in which they will always be in the opposition, and given the blunt majoritarianism of the AKP, will always feel marginalized. As a result, some of the most wealthy and educated among them are thinking of emigrating for good, which would be a colossal brain drain, and others simply remain hopeless, a feeling that in the long run could lead to radicalization.

Thus, although the grand national majority might keep Erdogan in power, it will not give Turkey the peace, diversity and creativity it needs to move forward. If Erdogan is really the political genius his followers think he is, he should soon recognize this conundrum and find ways to reach out to the disaffected minority.
November 14, 2016

The first phone conversation between President Vladimir Putin and President-elect Donald Trump took place on Nov. 14. The official press release read, Putin and Trump agreed that the current state of US-Russia relations is unsatisfactory and agreed to actively work toward their normalization and constructive cooperation on a broad range of issues. It also stated that both parties emphasized the need to return to a pragmatic, mutually beneficial cooperation that meets the interests of the two states as well as stability and security in the world.

For some, the tone of the conversation as well as its underlying message inspired hopes for a renewal of the relationship between Moscow and Washington; for others it was an embodiment of the worst fears associated with the Trump-Putin tandem. Until now, most assessments of Trumps possible presidency were that as an amateur in international politics, Trump would inevitably be outfoxed by Putin, based on Trumps positive remarks about him.

These statements, however, should be seen in a specific context, which was Trumps criticism of what he perceived to be Obamas inaction and weakness. To assume that this would mean that Trump would be obedient to Putin is a fallacy. Rather, Trumps expressions of respect for Putin betray an ill-concealed desire to follow the Russian president's example as a decisive and tough leader. Given that Trump is known as a tough negotiator, Moscow doesnt expect that dealings with the United States in Syria or elsewhere will be as easy as they have come to be portrayed.

In his own personal letter to the US president-elect, Russias leading foreign policy analyst, Fyodor Lukyanov, attempted to draw Trump's attention to two important things: First, in 'big politics' a lot can be bargained  but not everything. Second, while businessmen may choose to change partners if they dont like doing business with them, politicians cannot. Theres simply no place else to go. Even if the first contact between Putin and Trump brings hope for a positive change, a lot will depend on how Trump is to digest and follow this philosophy through his dealings with Putin.

On specific foreign policy fronts, Syria is clearly the most daunting problem for the two states in the region at the moment. Both Moscow and Washington continue to support their respective warring parties on the ground and promote seemingly uncompromising narratives. However, problems associated with the post-war Syrian settlement  including a new constitution, the formation of a transitional government and the restoration of the country  ironically offer immense potential for cooperation. It seems that both parties believe that navigating through the military stage of the conflict into the diplomatic realm is a must but until now, there was no visible route. The fact that Putin and Trump, according to the press release, shared the necessity to unite efforts in the fight against Enemy No. 1, which is international terrorism and extremism and discussed issues of settling Syria in this paradigm seems to offer such a route or at least pave a way for it.

Should Trump indeed decide to focus on the fight against the Islamic State and Islamic extremists in general, it would create some solid ground for cooperation with Moscow. Yet his actual policy may be more nuanced, and at this point the equation has many unknowns, especially given genuine opposition to such cooperation within the Pentagon. Changing this situation is a serious challenge, and the key question people in Moscow are asking these days is: Given that Trump is hard pressed on every side already, will he be forced to compromise his position on Russia for the sake of a deal with the Washington establishment  including his own party, where the level of antagonism vis-a-vis Moscow is high? Or will he remain determined to fix the relationship with the Kremlin  albeit for the pragmatic reasons of safeguarding US national interests as he sees them?

For now, Moscow will try to reinforce Trumps vision at the international level. For the last couple of months, Moscow has been bracing for the worst-case scenario of what might have been President Hillary Clintons policies  namely the potential introduction of a no-fly zone in Syria and increasing financial, military and political support for the Syrian opposition. Now that this scenario seems to be off the table, Russia may choose to lower its deterrent capabilities as a bargaining chip or even as a concession toolkit. So far, the pattern that has been crystallizing is that the Kremlin wants to send all kinds of positive messages to the US president-elect by dramatically decreasing its military strikes, by not responding to what until recently would have been considered NATO provocations and by tempering anti-American rhetoric. The current Russian criticism against the United States by and large targets US elites  not America as a country or even as a state.

If prospects for cooperation on Syria look more promising now, other fronts may be more complicated. One of the most underestimated tracks in the Middle East might be the coming tug-of-war over Iran. Russia's tactical alliance with Tehran on Syria and a relative consensus on a broad regional agenda is a work in progress for Moscow, not a given variable. Trump may be expected to restore the dented relations with Gulf monarchies, even though regional elites are skeptical about such a prospect at this point. Yet the deal with Iran that the Obama administration negotiated is unlikely to be rejected, although there will definitely be an attempt to renegotiate it so that it better favors American and Israeli interests. Moscow will be watching this track and exploring its options in all of this.

The role of strong regional power brokers will increase and so will the need for quality relations with them. Russia has been relatively successful in forging good relations with Egypt, Iran, Israel and  with a mixed record  Turkey. However, Moscow should now be ready to embrace a different reality: Regardless of how regional rulers feel about Trump, theres a call for a fresh start in relationships with the United States across the region. In this regard, its quite symptomatic that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was one of the first international leaders to congratulate Trump on his victory. Should Trump take advantage of the opportunity to restore US relations with its allies, Moscow may be forced to work out a different type of relationship with these states.

On a bigger scale, Moscow is pondering whether Trump will promote some strategic vision for the Middle East similar to one his Republican Party fellows promoted under President George W. Bush. Moreover, he will face a choice that Clinton also would have had to make had she been elected  does America want a greater political presence in the region, or would it rather minimize its engagement, either for the sake of continuing an Asia-Pacific pivot or to concentrate on US domestic issues? Depending on how these questions are addressed, Russia and the United States could either switch to a cooperative mode or slip back into an adversarial one.

Finally, timing is important. Given that next US election cycle starts virtually the day after the inauguration of the new president, four years in office might too short for Trump to set up the right paradigm for relations with Moscow, while long enough to plunge them further down. Therefore, there are two vital goals for Washington and Moscow. First, their leaders need to create a clear  and realistic  vision of what they would like to achieve within two years, and second, they must preserve a single-minded determination to keep their options open for any opportunities to reduce conflicts that may emerge  such as the ones sprouting up now.
West Park Loop

The building at 133 A/B and 145 West Park Loop, currently rented by Lockheed Martin, has been sold in a $4.6 million deal.

(Courtesy Colliers International)

Here are the top stories in Alabama business for Monday, Nov. 14, 2016:

Stay tuned Tuesday to find out what this big workforce development announcement is. Bigwigs from Alabama Power, the Alabama Community College system and the state Department of Labor will all be there.

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A building in Huntsville that currently houses a Lockheed Martin research development office has been sold in a $4.6 million deal, Colliers International announced Monday.

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RB Bancorporation, the Athens, Alabama-based parent company of Reliance Bank, announced Monday it will merge into Trustmark Corp. The Jackson-based bank will buy RB for $25.6 million.

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Construction has started on the $3 million Liberty Park development that will house a Your Pie Pizzeria as well as other shops. Sanders Capital Partners is developing the 9,000-square-foot development next to Prominence Shops.

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AT&T Alabama State President Fred McCallum, State Sen. Cam Ward, and Jefferson County Commissioner Jimmie Stephens will appear in Hoover Tuesday to unveil a new technology for consumers and small businesses in Central Alabama.

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Nuclear Holdings LLC plans 2,000 permanent, high-paying jobs and 4,000 temporary construction jobs in Hollywood, Alabama. The company submitted the $111 million winning bid for the mothballed Bellefonte Nuclear Plant in northeast Alabama.

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The Alabama Career Center System will host a job readiness workshop on Nov. 21 at the Montgomery Career Center. The workshop will take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the center at 1060 East South Blvd. in Montgomery.

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Follow all of Alabama's business news here anytime.
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Todd Snider has been touring on his 2016 solo album, "Eastside Bulldog." (Todd Snider Facebook photo)

Todd Snider has canceled a Nov. 19 show organized by the Acoustic Cafe at the Princess Theatre in Decatur. The Acoustic Cafe's founder, Steve Masterson, said refunds will be available for all ticketholders.

"I'm disappointed, but he's been sick," Masterson said during a phone interview. "Everybody who bought tickets will be paid back."

Snider became ill over the weekend, according to his Facebook page, and canceled at least three more concerts: Nov. 12 at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minn.; Nov. 13 at the Barrymore Theater in Madison, Wis.; and Nov. 16 at Delmar Hall in St. Louis.

Update, 5:36 p.m.: Snider has canceled all of his shows this week, including a Nov. 15 date at Wooly's in Des Moines, Iowa, and a Nov. 17 concert at South on Main in Little Rock, Ark.

Snider's team issued an apology to fans Nov. 12 on his Facebook page, explaining his no-show at the Fitzgerald Theater:

"Todd fell ill earlier today and tried to rest right up until show time to be able to hopefully pull it off. He could not even get out of bed due to what is guessed at this point to be the flu or food poisoning. ... Please understand that it's tough on Todd and everyone else to travel all the way to the show and not be able to play. Apologies to all who had tickets to the show."

Snider's Decatur date included an after-party and jam session at the Princess' coffee shop and bar, also organized by the Acoustic Cafe. Masterson said that part of the evening will proceed as planned on Nov. 19, with music by Davis Little, Daniel Raine, Ed Pickett and Greg Jones.

The Acoustic Cafe was experimenting with re-usable, laminated tickets for Todd Snider's Nov. 19 concert at the Princess Theatre in Decatur. Promoter Steve Masterson had hoped to recycle the tickets for future shows there. (Acoustic Cafe Facebook photo)

Admission to the jam session is free, Masterson said, and the time has been moved to approximately 8:30 p.m. The musicians will play for about two hours in the coffee shop.

Because Masterson has issued re-usable, laminated tickets for Snider's concert, these tickets must returned to the Acoustic Cafe for refunds. There are two ways to do it:

-- Those who used credit cards can mail their tickets and a copy of the sale confirmation to Masterson, and the ticket price will be refunded on the card. Visit the Acoustic Cafe website for more info, including an address for returns.

-- Those who attend the jam session on Nov. 19 can bring the tickets and a copy of the sale confirmation to the Princess Theatre. Masterson said he'll be on scene to give out cash refunds.

Snider's show in Decatur was a first for the Acoustic Cafe, an outdoor festival that folded in June after a 21-year run in Hayden and Haleyville.

Masterson had hoped to partner with the Princess Theatre for a new chapter in the Acoustic Cafe's history, possibly promoting a series of concerts at the theater, 112 Second Avenue Northeast, or a weekend festival that would stretch across the street to the Alabama Center for the Arts.

Snider's concert at the Princess was intended as a trial run. There's no word yet on whether Masterson will follow up with another event at the theater.
"I have to admit that I'm one of those writers who's always dreamed of getting an award and having to go to New York to accept it. This was literally a dream come true."

Katherine Clark is surely in good company--but not many who share that dream see it come to life. Clark stepped into that reality when her first novel, "The Headmaster's Darlings," won the 2015 Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction. She traveled to New York City last month to accept it, and used the prize money to bring along her children, Stanley, 16, and Adele, 14.

"It wasn't just New York that they were taking in. I think they were taking in what it means that their mother is a writer," Clark said. Her husband is a physician and her children see him respond to pages and on the phone with patients. But when Stanley was 12, he told a friend in carpool, "My mother loves to type! That's all she does! That's what she does all day long!"

"That was his comprehension of what I do, what my career is: I type," Clark recounted with a laugh.

"The Headmaster's Darlings" is the of Clark's Mountain Brook series. She was raised in Mountain Brook and now resides in Pensacola. She previously published oral biographies of Eugene Walter and Onnie Lee Logan, so the Mountain Brook series marked a new genre for Clark. The third book, "The Harvard Bride," released Oct. 11.

The award is sponsored by Dave and Reba Williams, Southerners who have called New York home for decades. Clark is the ninth recipient. The Williamses met working on Wall Street, and in her retirement, Reba has written three murder mysteries. They founded the award after they learned younger relatives had not read "To Kill A Mockingbird."

"They decided that Southern literature needed to be honored and needed to be nurtured," Clark said, "and that inspired them to found the award." It's named for Willie Morris, a journalist and author.

The couple hosted a luncheon in Clark's honor at their Fifth Avenue apartment, and also flew in the 2015 judges.

"I got to meet them and chat with them and hear why they chose my book. That just could not have been more gratifying," Clark said with a laugh.

Clark accepted the award at an evening reception at the New York Yacht Club. Each of the 100 or so guests received an autographed copy of the book, and many spoke to Clark about her work. About a third of them, she estimated, came from the South. But regardless of where an individual was raised, a common thread emerged: They identified with Mountain Brook as portrayed in the novel.

"I had talked to them (in remarks) a little bit about Mountain Brook being the Tiny Kingdom and being this little exclusive world unto itself. It's almost like being in a bubble, where you're in a self-contained universe that's not really connected to the real world," she said. "The novel isn't just about Mountain Brook, the novel is about any culture or society that sequesters itself or is sequestered, that isn't necessarily attuned to the rest of the world."

Clark's fourth installment in the Mountain Brook series, "The Ex-Suicide," is scheduled for a spring release from Story River Books. She hopes to continue the series beyond that novel's publication, but her next project takes a turn back to oral biography. She is in the process of completing an oral biography about author Pat Conroy, one of Clark's greatest champions and a bestselling novelist who died in March. That book is slated for fall 2017 publication.

His absence in New York hung over Clark.

"I wish Pat were here. He would've loved this so much. He took such pride in his authors," she said. "It's one of the most affecting things he told me: He explained to me he thinks his father killed his capacity for joy. That is a line straight out of the book: 'I'm really unable to take joy in anything good that happens to me. I can take joy in good things that happen to people I care about.'"

But the work continues without him. Clark collaborated with Conroy's widow, Cassandra King, to review the oral biography's manuscript. And she continues to write.
On Election Day, they showed up wearing pantsuits.

For many women, it's already their daily work uniform. Others haven't worn one in years. Still others went out to buy one to mark the occasion. For the first time in American history, a woman was on the ballot as the Democratic candidate for president and, thanks to a movement that spread via social media, many women were adopting Hillary Clinton's penchant for pantsuits as they voted.

In Alabama, thousands of women posted photos of themselves, along with stories about what they were wearing, in a place where they could share such often-personal information, where they didn't have to worry than anyone would "troll" their post or say anything negative at all.

In Alabama, that place was a Facebook group that grew out of a 3-million-strong national group, Pantsuit Nation.

By Tuesday, the Alabama group had become a haven for the 7,000-plus women who had joined it in its first four days of existence. Throughout the day, the page was filled with photos of smiling women of all ages, proudly casting their vote for Clinton, sometimes accompanied by their significant others, their children, their friends and even by their late mothers and grandmothers, whose jewelry and other items they wore.

Not all of them wore pantsuits. Some wore all-white, in honor of the suffragettes who fought for the 19th Amendment - and that's a big deal in Alabama, where most women know you just don't wear white after Labor Day, even if it's 90 degrees outside.

Later that evening, though, the excitement and optimism of the Alabama group had turned to shock, sorrow and anger, as the election results indicated that Clinton would not be the first female president after all. Over the next few days, though, the membership continued to grow - in just one week, it hit the 10,000-member mark - as women shared their thoughts and feelings with each other in a supportive environment.

Immediately, the members vowed to continue working together in the future, in some way.

"The best thing to happen as a result of this crazy election: This page," wrote one.

'Part of a community'

The secret group was the brainchild of Alabama native Amy LeePard, 36, who lives in Northport and works in higher education technology at the University of Alabama.

LeePard was inspired to create the group when she saw a member in the larger Pantsuit Nation group refer to herself as "a single blue dot in Alabama."

As "someone more progressive than my state as a whole," she said, she knows how "disenfranchising and silencing" that can be. "I know many people in this election have felt very isolated. I wanted to respond to that, to give them an opportunity to connect and know they're part of a community."

After she created the group on the Saturday morning before the election on Tuesday, she shared the new Alabama group in the larger Pantsuit Nation and started receiving 100 requests an hour for the rest of the day.

"It kept growing and growing," she said in an interview the evening of the election. "It was really amazing and intense to see how significant it's been for some people as a space for solidarity and community."

In the first few days, LeePard was surprised to read comments from members who "aren't afraid anymore," she said. "I didn't quite expect that. People are living with a lot more fear than I realized."

She has enjoyed the powerful stories of families that were shared with the group. "A sense of family and connection is so important to Southerners," she said.

The membership covers a lot of ground, she said, from atheists to Southern Baptists, from Republican voters who voted for a Democrat for the first time in this election to former Bernie Sanders supporters - and being female is not a prerequisite.

"The unifying thread is an acknowledgement that many of the things this election has emboldened are not okay, not messages we want to pass on to our children," she said. "This election has been very polarizing and distasteful in a way I don't think has been the case for a presidential election before."

The Facebook group she created "has been a space of positivity, encouragement, support and empowerment," she said. Friendships have been formed, issues discussed - sometimes heatedly - and plans have been made to become more formally organized.

Meanwhile, LeePard has watched in awe as the members governed themselves, which is exactly what she wanted. "It's important to me to be a facilitator, but not control what's happening," she said.

Making communities kinder, safer

LeePard's long day Tuesday started at the polls early in the morning - she voted at the community park she fought to save about a year ago - and ended when she took her 92-year-old maternal grandmother to vote and then out to dinner. "My Granny is one of my best friends," she said. "We've gone to vote together many times."

Her grandmother, who lives in Tuscaloosa, once felt disenfranchised herself. She grew up in Louisiana where, when she was a young voter, men would accompany women into the voting booth to make sure they voted the "right" way. As a result, she stopped voting for a long time.

"It's important to me that she votes, so our tradition is to vote together," LeePard said.

Her grandmother's 95-year-old sister lives in New Orleans. LeePard acknowledged that this could be the sisters' last presidential election, and she lamented the fact that they had to hear "such disgusting things" from Clinton's opponent (she doesn't say his name) throughout the campaign.

"It's unbelievable to them, and disheartening to me," she said. "It's sad to see their generation exposed" to such vulgarity and vitriol at the end of their lives.

Political activism runs in her blood. LeePard's paternal grandparents registered minority voters in Birmingham in the 1960s and "received threats for doing so," she said. "I appreciate what the right to vote means, what social justice means, regardless of who you vote for."

Several days after the election, LeePard said that there's been so much activity in the group's first full week of existence that it's difficult for her to keep up with it all. From the statewide group, other groups have been formed in North Alabama, Birmingham, Mobile and other areas. LeePard and other administrators have talked at length about how to move forward to heal communities while minimizing anger and divisiveness.

In the meantime, simple things can make a big difference, she said. "What we can change is how much we do in our communities. We can be kinder. There are many actions that we can take in our everyday lives and communities to create the kind of world we want our children to inherit, a world we want to live in where our friends and family members are safe."

Again and again in the group that's now "secret," meaning it can't be found by non-members, she said she's seeing "a lot of hope" in the members' posts, with "people wanting to do better." "It's not a matter of Republican or Democrat, it's how we agree to treat each other and take care of our neighbors." Making communities kinder and safer, she said, is "nonpartisan" and something every American should be working toward.

"This is an incredible opportunity to band together, support each other and recognize that action starts very locally."
Cherokee County authorities say they have arrested two people in connection with several burglaries after they were discovered camping.

Sheriff Jeff Shaver said the two were taken into custody Monday when deputies responded at County Road 45 and Frog Mountain Road after hunting club members complained about someone living in a vehicle on the property.

When they arrived, they found Amanda Leann Link, 37, of Centre, and Kristopher Corey Jackson, 41, of Centre. Shaver said the couple are suspects in several burglaries.

Kristopher Jackson

Link was arrested on an active warrant for fraudulent use of a credit or debit card. Jackson, who tried to flee, was charged with attempting to elude, resisting arrest, obstruction of justice and giving a false name to authorities.

The couple's vehicle was impounded and some stolen property was discovered inside, Shaver said.

"The investigation continues, and it is hopeful that more property can be identified and returned," he said.

This post was corrected at 8:41 a.m. Nov. 16 after incorrect information was sent out by authorities.
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Oil at the edge of the surf at the Gulf Shores public beach in Gulf Shores, Ala., Thursday, June 24, 2010. .

(Press-Register/John David Mercer)

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation has approved $63 million for six Alabama projects as part of a restoration and conservation plan resulting from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Gov. Robert Bentley's office announced.

The money comes out of two plea agreements approved by a federal court in 2013 that resolved certain criminal charges against BP and Transocean, according to the governor's office.

A total of $356 million will go into the Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund for conservation projects in Alabama over a five-year period.

Today's announcement marks the fourth installment of those awards.

A total of 19 Alabama projects with a total value of more than $115 million have now received awards from the GEBF.

The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration all took part in selecting the six projects.

The largest is the Gulf Highlands conservation acquisition, costing about $36 million.

The project is a plan to acquire, conserve and manage 113 acres with 2,700 feet of beach and dune habitat. The parcel is the largest privately held undeveloped beachfront parcel remaining in Alabama.

The land will become part of the Alabama Department of Conservation's Fort Morgan Parkway management area, with limited public access.

The project will protect habitat for nesting sea turtles, migratory birds and shore birds and the endangered Alabama beach mouse, according to the news release from the governor's office.

The other projects:

-- Fisheries and ecosystem monitoring in marine waters and the Gulf of Mexico: about $4.4 million.

-- Bon Secour-Oyster Bay wetland acquisition: about $12.5 million.

-- Dauphin Island conservation acquisition: about $3.5 million.

-- Lightning Point acquisition and restoration, Phase I: about $6 million.

-- Fowl River watershed restoration, coastal splits and wetlands project, Phase I: about $1 million.
Henderson Washington.jpg

Charles Todd Henderson left, and Lynneice Washington

Jefferson County leads the state in sending criminals to death row, but that could be about to change.

New top prosecutors are preparing to take over the Bessemer and Birmingham divisions and both have reservations about the death penalty.

Charles Todd Henderson, a Democrat, won election last week to become district attorney for the Birmingham division in Jefferson County.

In Bessemer, Lynneice Washington, also a Democrat, is leading Republican Bill Veitch in the race for district attorney in the Bessemer division. Washington is leading Veitch by 223 votes going into today when provisional ballots and overseas and military ballots will be counted. Because of the tight race (less than half of one percent difference), an automatic recount will be held Nov. 21.

If Washington wins she would become the first female and African American to become a District Attorney in Jefferson County. She also would be the first black woman to hold the position of district attorney in Alabama history.

Both Henderson and Washington say they are "personally opposed" to the death penalty.

"It's not going to be my routine policy to seek the death penalty in every capital murder case," Henderson said.

The death penalty should be reserved for the "most heinous of circumstances," Henderson said.

Henderson cited Jeffrey Dahmer as an example of a person convicted of such a heinous crime. The Milwaukee man raped, murdered and dismembered 17 men between 1978 and 1991. Wisconsin does not have the death penalty and Dahmer was sentenced to 16 life sentences. He was killed in prison by another inmate.

Henderson said he also has a problem with Alabama being the last state to allow a judge to override a jury's recommendation for life without parole and impose the death penalty for a defendant.

"We serve at the will of the people, whether you are talking about a judge or prosecutor," Henderson said. "We should honor what the people say."

Henderson said he also favors going back as far as the 1980s and 1990s to review death penalty cases to make sure someone wasn't wrongfully convicted. He cited, as an example, the release last year of Anthony Ray Hinton, who service nearly three decades on death row for the slayings of two Birmingham-area fast food managers. Hinton was released after new forensic testing on the alleged murder weapon - the key piece of evidence in the case - couldn't be matched to the bullets from the slayings. Hinton's lawyers had argued for more than a decade that the testing should be done.

Henderson said the office couldn't look at every case, but if there are cases brought to the office's attention, then it "is incumbent on us to go back and look at the case."

Neither candidate, however, went as far to say that they wouldn't seek the death penalty in any circumstance.

"I am personally opposed to the death penalty because there have been so many people who were put on death row who were later found to be innocent," Washington said.

But like her potential counterpart, Washington said she would still have to follow the law when it came to the death penalty. "I don't make the laws. I have to follow the laws," she said.

Jefferson County - all in the Birmingham division - sent more criminal defendants to death row between 2010 and 2015 than almost every other county in the nation, according to the report "Too Broken to Fix" released last month by Harvard Law's Fair Punishment Project.

The report, among other things, cited overzealousness of prosecutors for Jefferson County making that list.

The report describes Jefferson County as being among 16 "outlier" counties in the nation when it comes to sentencing the most people to death in the nation. Jefferson County is the most populous county in Alabama and is home to Birmingham which has one of the highest violent crime rates in the nation.

Brandon Falls, the Republican who had held the job of district attorney in the Birmingham division for the past eight years before he lost re-election last week, did not respond to a call to his office for a response to this story.

But last month he did respond to the Harvard report.

He said the report didn't consider the sheer volume of homicide cases in Jefferson County. He noted that during that six-year period of 2010 to 2015 the report studied, there were 180 capital murder cases and 205 murder cases charged in Jefferson County.

In 2015 Birmingham was the nation's third most violent among cities with populations of 100,000 or more, and was fifth in homicides, according to FBI statistics.

"Educated minds can disagree about the effectiveness and appropriateness of the death penalty," Falls stated in an email to AL.com regarding the report. "The role of the District Attorney's Office is to protect the citizens of Jefferson County by enforcing the law as set out by the Alabama Legislature, the Alabama appellate courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court, and to do so ethically and without bias toward any individual. This responsibility is and always will be the highest priority of my office."
The murder trial against former Homewood pastor Richard Shahan has been continued.

The trial was set to begin the week of January 9, 2017, but has been rescheduled for the week of May 15.

Jefferson County Circuit Judge Laura Petro granted the continuance on Monday.

Shahan's attorneys John Lentine and Wendell Sheffield filed the motion to continue last week. According to court documents, the defense asked for a continuance because of evidence collected and provided to them by the prosecution. The evidence is "voluminous," documents said, and contains several hundred pages of witness statements. Extra time before trial will allow the defense to thoroughly review the statements and conduct more interviews.

In October, Deputy Jefferson County District Attorney Patrick Lamb disclosed more evidence investigators had found to the defense. Court documents showed that finding filled 18 blank DVD's and 7 blank CD's.

Shahan is accused of killing his wife Karen in July, 2013. Her body was found in the family's Hugh Circle home. Investigators said she was stabbed to death and had several small defensive wounds.

55-year-old Shahan was jailed and released without being charged after Karen's slaying. Shortly after his release, he resigned from his position as Children and Families Pastor and the Facilities Director at First Baptist.

He was arrested New Years Day of 2014 in Nashville while trying to board a plane to Germany. According to statements and numerous emails from the former pastor, he was involved in multiple romantic relationships with men in Nashville and in Europe.

Shahan's trial was originally set for April, before being pushed back to January, 2017.
The Kiwanis Club of Birmingham is committing $4 million to make improvements to Vulcan Park, including extending the trail system by two miles and creating a light show that will be projected onto the 112-year-old cast iron statue.

"We want to invigorate Vulcan's role as the heart of a new and dynamic Birmingham," Kiwanis Club President Tom Thagard said, as he announced the club's centennial project today, which includes new park space on the north side of Vulcan and the trail extension. This space is will be named Kiwanis Centennial Park.

"Kiwanis Centennial Park is designed to reconnect Vulcan to Birmingham physically, visually and in spirit," he said.

The Kiwanis Club's project will reconnect Vulcan to downtown Birmingham physically, according to the group. This will include landscaping on the north side of the park, renovation of the lower piazza entrance and building steps for walking access from the north side to the statue itself.

The redevelopment of the park will allow families to come up from Southside, enjoy the park space and then walk up to see the Vulcan statue, Thagard said.

"In addition to enhancing Vulcan's prominence on the skyline, this visionary project will physically reconnect Vulcan as the central hub from which locals and tourists will access our cultural institutions and parks," Vulcan Park and Museum President and CEO Darlene Negrotto said in a statement.

The Birmingham City Council recently approved the extension of the Vulcan trail to Green Springs Highway. The trail currently runs from 11th Place South to Richard Arrington Boulevard South.

Birmingham Mayor William Bell said a portion of the Kiwanis funds will go towards the extension, and the city is looking for other funding partners.

"Vulcan is our city symbol and we have done a lot in the past several years to improve the quality of the experience for the individuals who go to Vulcan," Bell said. "The Vulcan Trail will add to that experience, and I am just so grateful that the Kiwanis are being civic minded enough to give about $4 million for the improvement of the Vulcan Trail.

"It continues to show the great support from civic organizations in our city to really improve the quality and image of the city itself," Bell continued.

The two-mile walking and jogging trail at Vulcan will serve as the hub for planned 750 miles of Birmingham's Red Rock Ridge and Valley Trail System.

Thagard said he hopes to break ground on the construction project on May 19, 2017, the 100-year anniversary of the Birmingham Kiwanis Club.

The dynamic, multi-colored light show to be installed on the Vulcan statue was designed by Schuler Shook.

Thagard said the light show will be similar to the computer driven LED light system used at the Empire State Building in New York City.

Bell said he envisioned the lights being used for commemorate special events in the city.

Vulcan is the world's largest cast iron statue. It was designed by Italian artist Giuseppe Moretti and cast from local iron in 1904.

According to the Kiwanis Club, the Birmingham group was the key driver behind the creation of Vulcan Park. In the 1930s, club leaders worked to secure the location and bring the cast iron man to the top of Red Mountain as "a unifying symbol of the city's can-do spirit."

The Kiwanis Club of Birmingham will hold a capital fund drive over the next five years to raise the funds needed to pay for the project, Thagard said. The funds will come from individual member contributions, corporate and civic foundation contributions and easement contributions from the Freshwater Land Trust.

The Freshwater Land Trust is partnering with Kiwanis Club, Vulcan Park and Museum and the city of Birmingham on the project.
After pulling his lifeless son from the car where the toddler had been left sweltering and alone for hours, Justin Ross Harris insisted it had been a fatal accident. Police found the death suspicious -- from the short drive during which Harris said he forgot about his son to the fact he returned to his SUV once without noticing the boy.

After a month-long trial and four days of deliberations, a jury Monday sided with authorities and convicted 35-year-old Harris of malice murder -- concluding not only that he should be held criminally responsible, but that he left his 22-month-old son, Cooper, to die on purpose.

Harris held a flat stare that showed little emotion as the verdict was read. He was found guilty of all eight criminal counts against him. The malice murder charge alone carries a sentence of life in prison, either with or without the possibility of parole. The trial judge scheduled a sentencing hearing for Dec. 5.

"I believe categorically, unequivocally, that justice was served today," Cobb County District Attorney Vic Reynolds told reporters outside the courthouse, though he added "it's not a verdict we celebrate."

Harris' defense team vowed to appeal the verdict and to seek a new trial as well.

"From the moment we met Ross Harris, we've never once wavered in our absolute belief that he's not guilty of what he's been convicted of," defense attorney Maddox Kilgore told reporters.

The toddler died after being left for seven hours in the back of Harris' SUV on June 18, 2014. Harris said he forgot to drop his son off at day care that morning and drove straight to his job as a web developer for Home Depot, not realizing Cooper was still in his car seat.

Harris told police he didn't notice Cooper until he left work for the day to go to a movie.

Soon afterward, investigators found evidence that Harris was having sexual relationships -- both online banter and in-person affairs -- with numerous women, including a prostitute and a teenager. Prosecutors charged Harris with malice murder, saying he intentionally killed his son in order to escape the responsibilities of family life.

Prosecutors ultimately prevailed with their argument that Harris must have known Cooper was in the car.

Harris drove less than two minutes to work after strapping the child into his car seat when they finished breakfast at a Chick-fil-A restaurant just over a half-mile from Harris' office. Parking lot surveillance video showed Harris also went to his car after lunch and tossed in some light bulbs he had purchased, though he never got inside. Detectives testified Harris seemed too calm when answering their questions hours after his son died.

"It wasn't one thing that (jurors) said, 'This proves malice,'" lead prosecutor Chuck Boring told reporters. "It was everything."

Defense attorneys said Harris was responsible for his son's death, but insisted it was an accident rather than a crime. Friends and family members testified he was a devoted and loving father, and the jury watched video clips of Harris trying to teach Cooper to say "banana" and letting the boy strum his guitar. The joyous moments had some jurors laughing aloud.

Harris' ex-wife, Leanna Taylor, also came to his defense. She divorced him in March and bitterly told the jury that Harris "destroyed my life." But she testified he was a loving father who, regardless of how unhappy he may have been in their marriage, would not have harmed their son on purpose. Taylor was not in the courtroom Monday. Harris was alone, except for his lawyers, as the verdict was read.

An attorney for Taylor, Lawrence Zimmerman, said they were disappointed in the verdict.

"Clearly it is our belief that this was not done with any malice," Zimmerman said in an emailed statement.

Jurors seen leaving the courthouse Monday declined to speak with reporters. Boring said he had spoken with some of them, and was told they were nearly unanimous when they began deliberations last week. He said they wanted to make sure and review the evidence, taking four days to deliver a verdict.

Prosecutors said Harris left online clues to murderous intentions. Evidence showed that minutes before Harris locked the car door on his boy, he sent an online message: "I love my son and all, but we both need escapes." Five days earlier, Harris watched an online video in which a veterinarian sits inside a hot car to show it reaches 116 degrees in a half-hour.

Harris was also found guilty of sending sexual text messages to a teenage girl and asked for nude photos of her pubic area. The girl testified Harris knew she was in high school the months they swapped sexual banter when she was 16 and 17, and Harris several times sent her photos of his penis. He was asking for a photo of her breasts the day Cooper died.

Harris moved to Georgia from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in 2012. He lived in the Atlanta suburb of Cobb County, which is also where Cooper died. Because of intense pretrial publicity surrounding the case, the judge agreed to relocate Harris' trial 275 miles away in the coastal port city of Brunswick.

Harris lawyers said he never spoke of the verdict when they met with him in a holding cell after the case ended Monday.

"Instead he recognized he can now begin the grieving process he's not been able to go through the last two-plus years," Kilgore said. "He talked about Cooper and how much he misses him."
boeing huntsville

Boeing Jetplex Campus in Huntsville. (Courtesy of Boeing)

Boeing announced Tuesday plans to bring about 400 jobs to Huntsville in a move celebrated by Mayor Tommy Battle as reflecting the talented high-tech workforce in the Rocket City.

Boeing also said it plans to make capital investments in Huntsville of about $70 million by 2020.

The maneuver by Boeing is designed to simplify the company's footprint in the Strategic Defense & Intelligence System division.

"Boeing's announcement reinforces our strategic pivot back to research and development after achieving much success in advanced manufacturing," Battle said in a statement. "Huntsville is a knowledge based economy and Boeing continues to invest here because our talent pool matches the needs of their workforce requirements.

"Boeing has been a tremendous corporate partner, and we are thrilled to play an important role in the company's ability to create greater efficiencies. It is Huntsville's talent that will help Boeing meet the needs of the warfighter and, in turn, help secure our nation and that of our allies."

Madison County Commission Chairman Dale Strong also applauded the news.

"This Boeing announcement today of 400 additional jobs in Madison County, Alabama once again highlights Boeing's 100 year history to our nation's defense and intelligence sectors," Strong said in a statement. "These 400 jobs will take Boeing's footprint to just over 3,100 jobs in Alabama.

"This only furthers their commitment to our region and once again shows that Madison County is perfectly positioned in every aspect related to missile defense, space and national security."

U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said Boeing's announcement points to the state's "world class workforce."

"Boeing's expansion in Huntsville is great news for our state and a true testament to Alabama's world class workforce," Shelby said in a statement. The company's commitment to Alabama has not only made a lasting impact on our nation's aerospace and defense capabilities, but also on our state's economy.

"I look forward to the progress that will come from the additional jobs and investment in our state, and I am confident that Boeing will continue to build on its history of success in Alabama."

Gov. Robert Bentley praised the longstanding relationship the state has had with Boeing.

"Since Boeing first came to Alabama in 1962 joining our efforts to put man on the moon, our partnership has been a strong one and it continues to grow," Bentley said in a statement. "A University of Alabama study found that Boeing's presence in the state sustains nearly 8,400 direct and indirect jobs across Alabama. We look forward to a long relationship with Boeing and ensuring their continued growth and success."

Chris Raymond, Vice President-General Manager, Strategic Defense & Intelligence Systems at Boeing, said it was too soon to specify the exact types of jobs that would be coming to Huntsville.

The jobs will be mostly related to Boeing's defense business, Raymond said.

"We haven't really specified the type because we do a lot of production here but we also have a lot of engineering here," he said. "Depending on what actually makes up those jobs over the next three or four years, it could be some of each. We will look at that over time."

The construction of new buildings by Boeing in Huntsville is expected to take place between the company's current footprint west of town. Boeing currently has facilities in Huntsville at Redstone Gateway near the main entrance to Redstone Arsenal as well as near Huntsville International Airport.

The move is part of a larger nationwide restructuring for Boeing. In addition to shifting 400 jobs to Huntsville, Boeing also announced Tuesday plans to take 1,600 jobs to Los Angeles and 500 jobs to St. Louis.

"Making better use of our facilities will enhance efficiency and promote greater collaboration," Leanne Caret, president and CEO, Defense, Space & Security at Boeing, said in a press release. "This will help drive our global growth in Boeing's second century."

Earlier this month, Boeing unveiled a University of Alabama study that reflected the company has an economic impact of more than $2.2 billion in the state.

Boeing has a design center in Huntsville that has worked with NASA and commercial airlines as well as its missile defense headquarters and research and development.

Longtime history with the state and also just the capability we've had here," Raymond said of why Huntsville was chosen to take a major role in the company's restructuring. "We've diversified a lot here in terms of intercession of great place to do business locally with the state, great intersection of talent, great environment for our employees.

"And then the capability we have here with electronics already, some of our complex systems in engineering we have here. this is really about trying to get like work together and increase the critical mass we've got in some of our locations."

Raymond the new jobs are expected to largely be transfers within Boeing. If jobs transfer to Huntsville without employees, Raymond said Boeing would look to hire from the Huntsville and have had great success doing that in the past.

According to the Boeing announcement, job transfers could come from southern California. Boeing also plans to close its sites in El Paso, Texas and Newington, Virginia.

Updated today, Nov. 15, 2016, at 2:11 p.m. with new information throughout.

Updated today, Nov. 15, 2016, at 3:26 p.m. with comment from Gov. Bentley.
wildfire

Wildfire burns in Talladega County. Drought has gripped much of Alabama this years with many areas seeing exceptional drought conditions. (Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com)

TVA on Tuesday issued an outdoor burn ban on all land it manages across its seven-state footprint in the southeast.

The threat of wildfires due to dry conditions prompted the ban, TVA said.

Gov. Robert Bentley has already issued an outdoor burn ban effective for all of Alabama.

The TVA ban includes all public lands, recreation area and facility reservations that the federal utility manages. Campfires, barbeques, smoking or any other flame-producing activity - as well as parking vehicles on non-paved or gravel surfaces - is prohibited.

TVA also announced it is temporarily closing public access to recreation areas and facility reservations in locations where fire danger is extreme.
Jin Liqun, president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). [Photo/Xinhua]

The president of the young Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Jin Liqun, is an exciting personality with sure words and mastery of the details of his office and firm.

The former top chief of the World Bank exudes firmness in his grasp of what the bank is and targets. It was a delight interviewing him at the AIIB headquarters in Beijing last weekend. The bank was created last year mainly at the behest of China on Christmas Day and commenced operation on January 17 this year. Apart from the founding member states, new members have joined including Canada that came in September after China hosted the G20 Summit. Egypt and South Africa are the only two African countries currently in the AIIB.

"The letter 'A' in AIIB can stand for Asia, Africa or America"

He hinted that irrespective of the phobia for the AIIB by the US at its inception, the possibility of the country joining the bank when the president-elect, Donald Trump, is in power cannot be ruled out.

He said: "I have heard a certain senior official of the President Barack Obama speak good of the AIIB and after Donald Trump won, I was told that many in his team have an opinion that Obama was not right not to join the AIIB, especially after Canada joined, which was a very loud endorsement of the bank. So we can't rule out the new government in US endorsing the AIIB or indicating interest to join as member."

Canada's membership became the 22nd non-Asian state member among the present 57 members. However, the test of the bank's popularity that started with a capital base of $100 billion, some 50 percent of that of the World Bank, is the line-up of close to 20 new countries intending to be part of the bank and most of them from outside Asia. At least, five of the new applicants are African countries. The Bank in October appointed Nigerian renowned economist, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala an adviser among nine others from all over the world.

The president restated the bank's willing to welcome new members as the old members with higher shareholding would drop more of their stakes to allow the new members have some shares, but after the next batch of members are admitted, Jin said there would hardly be any shares left for more countries to join. Very soon, the curtain would be drawn on the shortlist of the new members whose membership will take effect from January next year.

But the bank chief wants more African countries to join as he assured that the objectives of the AIIB includes assisting in the development of the smaller economies of the world no matter where located. To underscore the openness and overrule the phobia for it by US, Jin joked that "the letter 'A' in AIIB can stand for Asia, Africa or America. They all start with and that means the bank is for all of them."

"Our major consideration in extending facilities to governments or state members is whether such projects the fund would be used for will in any benefit of Asia and assist in bettering Asian economy and also that of the borrowing country. But we have a duty and obligation to ensure that we don't give impossible conditions to enable them utilize the funding and incentives of the bank. Every member state borrowing right is based not on the GDP but on shareholding and China has highest shareholding with 30 percent of the total volume. Right now, China is like a non-borrowing state member because if it does, it might crowd out other members that somehow need the fund more. But for the qualified borrower, the major plank for consent is on need and importance and not on shareholding capacity only. That implies that if a state needs to borrow and the AIIB is convinced that the need is compelling and there is prospect for profit in the targeted project the funding will be used for, the request would be granted as long as there is the collateral especially that of the economic potential of the project."

AIIB funding of project is predicated on factors like the sustainability, the environmental friendliness which implies how the project would not cause a serious imbalance in environmental protection. But in situations where the importance would impact and encourage development and fight poverty, the environmental impact factor might be played down provided it is not so weighty to create another big problem. The last factor is the social acceptability - implying that the people of the community the project is to be sited must be ok with it and it must target to improve on their livelihood.

"AIIB structure, projects and funding must be lean, clean and green. By these I mean that the membership must be manageable and not too bogus, and we believe that the more the better. The project funding must be clean and that means there must be no form of corruption in the process leading to the funding and in the execution. It has to be clean to the extent of encouraging a clean and non-polluted environment. As I said earlier, on this we also consider the benefits when the environmental impact is bearable. For instance, in the USA today, most of the states, or almost all the so-called 'Red States' still rely on coal power station for electricity and it is not foreseeable in the next 30 years that fossil fuel would be done away with because of the carbon emission. What is steadily done is ensuring its effect is minimized. So in a place we find that coal power plant for instance is needed as the only way the people would be assured of power supply enough to encourage economic growth, we will find a way of minimizing the emission effect and go ahead with the project to strike a balance."

US initial fear

Jin admitted that: "At the formation of the AIIB, the US, the base of the Bretton Wood Institutes that manage the world economy including the World Bank and the IMF, saw the new body as a threat to its dominance and importance in the world economic order. They raised issues on whether the bank's functions would be consistent with fundamental human and environmental rights of the borrowers or state members. We did our best to convince them that we were no threat or rivals or either naive as not to know the basic rules of operations. And moreover, we believe there is enough space in the global economic theatre for several bodies to operate, and many regional development banks operate side by side the World Bank and there is no reason the AIIB would be the violator. We rather need to work with and benefit each other to create a better world.

"For instance, Asia alone needs as much as $1tr infrastructure funding every year and the World Bank hasn't such pool of money to pick the bills therefore the need for an alternative. Moreover, if the AIIB exists just like the World Bank, there is no time the new body would embark on a project of building a power plant, airports, roads or seaport to boost the economy of any country that the World Bank will still vote funds for the same project. So if the AIIB handles one project and the World Bank takes another that is a lot better for the world towards defeating poverty and hardship."

On the management of the bank, the president stated that right now, the AIIB operates a lean workforce of about 90 workers and operates solely from the head office in Beijing as a strategy to save cost and may continue that way for a long time. He however hinted that with time as the need arises, the bank may operate little outlet offices just to handle needs as it would stick to the rule of cost effective management.

To make its operations adapt to global best practice standards, he said the AIIB adopts universal procurement approach to get the best manpower and equipment and also recruits experts from everywhere in the world based on their competence irrespective of whether the country of origin of such expert is a member of the AIIB or not. That way, it is sure to harness the best hands to run its operations.
More than 15 cars and mailboxes were vandalized in an Alabama city during a three-hour period early Monday morning, and police need help finding suspects.

Decatur police are looking for what is described as a small, dark-colored vehicle with loud exhaust that might be a four-cylinder, Lt. Proncey Robertson said.

The suspects were captured on video footage from a home security system.

Most of the vandalism reports involved vehicle windows busted by blunt objects, Robertson said.

Such reports were taken between 3-6 a.m. in the following southwest neighborhoods:

Westwood Drive

Eleanor Drive and Brookhaven Street

Skyview, Clarkview and Clearview Streets

Simmons Drive

Manchester Avenue

Evelee Street

Corrine Avenue

Puckett Avenue

First Avenue

On Memorial Drive, mailboxes reportedly were damaged, Robertson said.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Decatur police as 256-341-4660.

"We would like to (ask) that people report any suspicious activities to the police," Robertson said. "Check your home surveillance system to see if you may have recorded any activities that would help identify subjects who are responsible for this activities."
AL state house.jpg

Though charter school creation is inching forward slowly, Sen. Del Marsh, R-Anniston, said he is not worried about the pace.

"It's important that we take this time to make sure we don't make mistakes that maybe others have made," said Marsh, sponsor of the 2015 law authorizing charter schools in Alabama. He said he is optimistic that moving slowly will ensure success down the road.

But so far, only two school districts, Birmingham City and Athens City, are fully registered as charter authorizers in Alabama, and only two additional districts, Macon County and Greene County, applied before the November 1 deadline, according to the Office of Public Charter Schools at the Alabama State Department of Education.

Emily Schultz, State Manager of Policy and Advocacy for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, said the lack of interest by school boards is likely because there is no incentive for them to participate, adding "I don't think it's really on their radar."

Schultz has been assisting state officials with implementation of the law. Alabama was the 43rd state to authorize operation of public charter schools. The first charter school law was enacted in 1991 in Minnesota.

One way for boards to participate is by becoming a charter school authorizer, which means they set the rules, approve a charter school operator's application, and oversee accountability for any charter school operating within their district.

Sally Smith, Executive Director of the Alabama Association of School Boards has encouraged boards to become charter authorizers, stressing the amount of control they maintain if they serve as an authorizer, but recognizes there are challenges to consider.

"If there is an obstacle, it is likely the additional time and effort required to be a quality authorizer. Most school leaders' schedules are stretched to capacity already without taking on this additional challenge, and for most, hiring additional staff to focus on this effort simply is not an option," Smith said.

Alabama's charter school law is considered one of the strongest in the nation, particularly in the area of accountability.

Schultz said a board does take on a lot of responsibility when they become an authorizer. A board needs to know if a charter school is not producing the student outcomes promised in its application, and if not, what it takes to close the school.

Schultz also said that deadlines may have been confusing, but both she and Marsh are optimistic those kinks have been ironed out.

The statewide Alabama Public Charter School Commission has authority over charter schools in districts where a board chooses not to register as an authorizer.

The state commission recently approved two applications for charter school operators: one in Mobile County and one in Huntsville. The Huntsville application must be reviewed by a federal judge overseeing enforcement of a decades-old desegregation order for that city district.

The Commission also can hear appeals if a local board serving as an authorizer rejects an application.

The two existing charter authorizers released guidelines for what they are looking for from a charter operator, known as the request for proposal, or RFP, on November 1. The deadline for applications to operate a charter school in those districts is November 30.

Birmingham City Schools is looking for an operator for a dual-language immersion school.

Athens City School's RFP states it is looking for an operator who will focus on students with learning disabilities and students who are at-risk or incarcerated, though superintendent Dr. Trey Holladay told the Decatur Daily he didn't expect any charter school operators to apply.

Asked whether Alabama's implementation of charter schools is following a normal pace, Schultz said it's not possible to compare Alabama's rollout with that of other states because we have different authorizer standards.

Smith agreed, saying, "Starting slowly and taking the time to develop quality and accountability is preferable to poor planning. We do expect that with time, more school boards could consider becoming authorizers, especially as they learn important lessons from those who are now going through the process."

Marsh predicted as more people learn what charter schools offer and see them in action, the "snowball effect" will occur, and more charter schools will open.

Marsh said it's important to "start with a small amount of schools. Let's get it right."
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley is no fan of president-elect Donald Trump.

During the Republican primary, Bentley backed Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Prior to November's election - and just after the release of a 2005 videotape in which Trump discussed grabbing a woman's genitals - Bentley said he would no longer support the Republican presidential nominee. The day after the election, however, Bentley offered his congratulations to the president-elect.

"Congratulations President-elect Trump," Bentley tweeted. "I look forward to supporting your leadership, creating opportunities for all."

While Bentley's relationship with the Trump administration appears to be a work in progress, the two men have something in common and it has to do with money.

No salary for Bentley or Trump

Bentley, a retired physician, ran on a pledge not to accept his $119,950 yearly salary until Alabama's reached full employment, something that hasn't happened in the first six years of his administration.

Bentley pegged full employment at 5.2 percent. September's rate was just slightly higher - 5.4 percent.

This week, Trump, a billionaire developer, said he would not accept the $400,000 salary that comes with his new position.

"I think I have to by law take $1, so I'll take $1 a year," Trump said during a Sunday interview. "I'm not gonna take the salary. I'm not taking it."

Trump becomes the third president to reject his salary, joining John F. Kennedy and Herbert Hoover, both who were independently wealthy. Trump's personal wealth is around $3.7 billion, making him the richest person elected president.

The presidential salary is set by statute, however, so Trump may not be able to reject it entirely, Forbes pointed out. He could opt to donate his salary to charity or return it to the Treasury Department, however.

Trump's $1 salary would be the same accepted by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
Karin_Nov14.JPG

Fairhope Mayor Karin Wilson speaks during the Fairhope City Council's work session meeting on Monday, Nov. 14, 2016, in Fairhope, Ala. (John Sharp/jsharp@al.com).

The third mayor to take over Fairhope's top elected post in the past 44 years ushered in her administration Monday by winning approval from the City Council to hire an outside attorney who will examine pending lawsuits against the city.

The recommendation came from Mayor Karin Wilson, sworn into office on Nov. 7, who wants an accurate accounting of the city's legal bills.

But other issues that are atop Wilson's agenda - such as a clarity on the mayor's salary - were pushed off for future consideration.

Wilson, an independent bookstore owner and political novice, said she wants a thorough study of the city's sewerage system capacity prior to any development moratorium. And, regarding the mayor's salary - which had been boosted with a dual role as the superintendent of utilities - Wilson said she's aiming for more transparency.

"I am new and I am learning and I appreciate your patience," Wilson said during the council meeting. "But if I do ask for time to look into something or study something, it's not because of anything but to make the right decision for the citizens."

'Good stewards'

Wilson campaigned on a platform of scrutinizing the city's legal bills to see what savings were possible.

The council, with unanimous vote, endorsed her recommendation to select attorney Matthew McDonald of Mobile-based Jones Walker LLP to review pending litigation against the city.

Wilson said she would meet with McDonald in the coming days and determine a fee for his services. She said that McDonald's work will take a few weeks to complete.

"I feel very confident that it was an important win for the council and mayor to make a great decision for the citizens of Fairhope," Wilson said after the vote. "We are trying to be good stewards of taxpayers' money and I have recognized for a while that (legal bills) have been a huge expense."

Wilson, during the council's work session, said that McDonald could offer a "fresh set of eyes" at those fees.

Council President Jack Burrell said he agreed with Wilson, but added that he had no reason to believe that the city's current attorneys "don't have our best interest."

'Rush move'

Wilson said that the city shouldn't make any "rush move" on a development moratorium.

"I want to get the information needed so we are taking steps that might not need to be drastic right now," said Wilson, who has advocated for better planning and growth in Fairhope, which is among the fastest growing cities in Alabama.

Council members questioned the lack of specifics in an original moratorium proposal, such as what type of developments the city aimed to control.

Talks about freezing development surfaced following the city's controversial approval last year of a 240-unit apartment complex on U.S. 98.

That vote led to political upheaval during the municipal elections and helped propel Wilson to a victory over four-term Mayor Tim Kant. Three new council members were also sworn in last week.

The public discussion of a moratorium has led to a surge in project proposals submitted to the city's Planning & Zoning Department, according to Eric Cortinas, the city's building official. Said Cortinas: "They are getting flooded."

Said Burrell: "It's definitely put a sense of urgency on the developers to get in their applications."

Burrell said he was concerned that the talk about the moratorium, added with the already explosive growth occurring in Fairhope, is putting increased pressure on the Planning & Zoning Department.

U.S. Census data shows that Fairhope's growth is outpacing other booming cities in Alabama. Fairhope's population has jumped 22 percent since 2010, from 15,338 residents to 18,730 in July 2015. That's substantially ahead of Madison (9.4 percent), Auburn (16.2 percent) and Daphne (15.4 percent), for example.

"We need to hire more staff ... we recognize the need for more staff because they definitely need some relief," said Burrell. "I have a deep concern for the people who work in that department and what they are going through not just because of the talk about the moratorium, but just with the explosive growth."

Transparent salary

Meanwhile, Wilson said she plans to submit a plan for how to handle some administrative functions that were previously co-mingled within the mayor's office.

Under Kant, the mayor was paid a $30,000 annual salary but also received a $60,000 salary as superintendent of utilities.

Wilson wants the positions broken apart, making the salary framework more transparent to citizens.

"Every municipality has it structured so there is no guesswork," Wilson said, adding that she felt the $32,000 annual salary for mayor was "embarrassing" and would prevent Fairhope from attracting quality future candidates for the office.

But the mayor's current salary, at $32,000 a year, cannot be increased during the next four years. The previous council voted in the current pay structure that set the mayor's annual salary.

The next time the mayor's salary can be adjusted is six months before the next mayoral election, which won't be until 2020.

Burrell said the council could add allowances, such as a car allowance, to help augment Wilson's salary if she chooses not to accept the superintendent of utilities position.

Wilson said she would like to hire an additional administrator who could oversee the city-owned utilities, which is Fairhope's biggest profit center generating around $5 million each year.

This story was updated at 9:19 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016, to omit a development moratorium from a list of priorities that new Fairhope Mayor Karin Wilson has while in office. Wilson is an advocate of smart-growth development.
A popsicle and a smile might not be a substitute for a psychologist, but it makes the conditions more bearable for IDP children.

Sulaimania, Iraq  Its recess at the makeshift school in the Ashti camp for internally displaced people and Haidar Ibrahim is ready to receive his throng of little customers.

On the outskirts of Sulaimania in Iraqs Kurdistan region, in a small shack right across the narrow dirt road from the school, customers pour out like clockwork every day.

Around here, he is known as Ashti camps candy man. His shack is filled with all sorts of brightly coloured, tooth-decaying sweets, popsicles, chips, popcorn and drinks. Its a business, yes  but he admits, this is something more than a job. Its a service that serves up endless smiles.

These children come to see me at recess every day for a snack or a drink, and some others come from the opposite end of the camp because they know theres a guy here who will be kind to them, and smile at them, he says. All the way here for a smile, can you imagine?

There are 8,000 children among the 2,800 internally displaced families that live here. And many bear the scars of trauma  some have gone mute, others have recurring nightmares.

At 26 years old, Ibrahim is seen as a big brother for many of these children and like them, his journey here has been difficult.

A member of the predominately Kurdish Shabak community, he fled his hometown of Bashiqa, in Mosul, in the summer of 2014, soon after the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group declared its self-styled caliphate there. The Shabak people are an ethno-religious group, most of whom follow Shabakism, a variation of Shia Islam. The size of Iraqs Shabak population is unclear, with estimates ranging between 130,000 and 500,000.

For Iraqs Kurds, its not about independence any more

My town is about a half hour from Mosul, he recounts. We heard ISIL entered the city, but we stayed for about 10 days. When we realised the situation would get worse, not better, we left.

At the candy shack, among the smiles and sweets, he sees the children are suffering. by

Some Shabak people stayed behind, they were pragmatic and they collaborated, he says. The rest of us left.

Ibrahim and his brother owned an aluminum factory in Bashiqa. He says he watches television these days nearly 24 hours to see if he can make out the factory in the news reports: Is it still standing or have they destroyed it? I dont know.

He says he heard that his town has recently been liberated by the Peshmerga, but he wont move back there with his wife and four children until he is assured there is security.

When it is secure, why not? Ill go back, he says. But for now, he is living at the camp. Its better here in the camp than living under ISIL.

Ibrahim and his brother opened their candy shack about a year ago, when they moved to the Ashti camp from another settlement for the internally displaced.

At the candy shack, among the smiles and sweets, he sees that the children are suffering.

They like to talk, but they dont share their feelings, or their problems, he says. They come, they laugh a bit and they buy sweets with the little pocket money their parents can afford to give them.

Some are polite, he says, while others have stolen from him: Im tough with the thieves, but not too tough.

Ibrahims little shack of sweets complements the efforts of local NGOs implementing a range of psycho-social programmes to address the childrens traumas, whether these are art workshops or music lessons.

A popsicle and a smile might not be a substitute for a psychologist, but it certainly makes the conditions more bearable for the camps children who repeatedly say they miss home.

Follow Tanya Goudsouzian on Twitter: @tgoudsouzian
Lisbon, Portugal  Under a flyover of concrete, alongside a road full of afternoon commuters, a group of people flock around a van. One of them, a woman in a colourful summer dress and a golden necklace, looks like she came to see a show at the nearby theatre. However, just like the man in his unwashed jeans in front of her, she is here for her daily dose of methadone. It will get her through the night.

Drugs started when my father brought me to the south of Portugal, to the Algarve, where I met people who were in the scene, the woman tells Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity.

Life was glamorous in these days. Everything sparkled. My boyfriend was a dealer, and I started to push drugs for him, too. We made loads of money. Now he is out of my life, but the addiction has always stayed with me.

She drinks the methadone from a little paper cup and says she has to leave. She walks to the car parked on the pavement, where an obese man waits for her.

Another woman, a former sales agent named Veronica  who lost two of her front teeth during her years as an addict  comes over to the nurse to look up her dosage information in the system. Veronica began using heroin when she saw her boyfriend do it, wanting to understand what was so good about the drug that he could not stop taking.

The small paper cups are filled with methadone  a drug that takes away the withdrawal symptoms when addicts begin reducing their intake of heroin.

WATCH: Whats the solution to the worlds drug problem?

Psychologist Hugo Faria, working for the methadone programme Ares do Pinhal, explains how this methadone van is the first step in the outreach towards addicted people in the streets. This way, he explains, health workers can build trust and make sure people do not have to steal to feed their addictions.

The next step for the addicts is treatment, though there is no penalty ( PDF ) for those unable or unwilling to partake in a treatment programme.

There is no pressure, Faria explains. Even if people only come to take the methadone for years on end, we keep helping them. This way, we can check up on their health, and at least we have contact with them.

Dead bodies on the streets

The methadone programme is part of a drug policy shift that Portugal underwent 15 years ago, under the left-leaning government of Jorge Sampaio. The country was suffering from a huge heroin problem.

According to Dr Joao Goulao, head of SICAD, the drug intervention branch of the Portugals health ministry, in 1999 a staggering one percent of the population was addicted to heroin  one in every 100 people, whereas, in comparison, the average in all of Europe at present is 0.4 percent ( PDF ).

In the 1990s, in the Lisbon neighbourhood of Casal Ventoso drugs were highly accessible and addicts would inject even on the street.

On a daily basis, authorities would find dead bodies on the streets there, Goulao told Al Jazeera.

Historian Luis Vasconcelos, who teaches at the ISCTE University at Lisbon, believes what happened in Portugal wasnt so different from the rest of Europe, where the heroin burst followed the pull towards drugs during the liberal countercultural hippy movement of the mid-1960s and 70s.

Still, it is difficult to compare the different countries as statistics on heroin addiction in the 1990s are not readily available for all countries in Europe.

Apart from what happened in other countries, adds Vasconcelos, for Portugal, in the 90s heroin was the main issue. You couldnt switch on the television or read a newspaper without hearing about it.

Patients, not criminals

In search of a solution to the growing drug crisis, a committee of judges, psychiatrists and scientists was formed. The committee had the radical idea to contemplate legalising all forms of drugs  from heroin to cannabis  which would open the possibility to start treating drug users as patients instead of criminals.

Goulao was one of the nine members of the committee.

We started [from scratch] when developing our policy. But throughout the process, we always considered addiction as a health issue, he explained to Al Jazeera. To legalise drugs conflicted with the United Nations drug convention system, though, so we had to tone down our ideals.

Portugal is one of the 106 states that signed into the UN drug convention in 1988, which aimed at promoting interaction between the countries to battle the international trade of drugs.

What came about was a plan to decriminalise all forms of drugs when the culprit is caught with a small amount, making possession only punishable under the administrative law  for example, by a fine instead of a prison sentence.

After the arrest, a clear distinction between the recreational and addictive use of drugs would be made. The recreational user receives the fine for using drugs in public, while the addict is encouraged to subscribe to a treatment programme, which is paid for by the government.

Drug dealers, however, are still considered criminals, as drugs are still illegal in the country. This way, the juridical system can focus on battling distribution of drugs, while addiction is handled through the health system.

Before, possession of drugs was considered a criminal offence, which was punishable by a prison sentence of three months up to a year.

An important aspect of the plan was to divert the money used for the juridical system  arresting and imprisoning addicts  into treatment. When the policy was presented in 2000, parliament voted in favour.

Because drug addiction  especially heroin  was so commonplace in Portugal by the end of the 20th century, everyone in society knew of an addicted family member. Thus, the issue was not something abstract: it became a personal matter. As a result, law 30/2000 was implemented in July 2001.





Annual spendings on the Portuguese anti-drug programme, according to a report by SICAD, provided by Goulao to Al Jazeera, increased from $49m in 2001 to $77m in 2002, after which the figure increased steadily until the economic crash of 2008.

Spendings in the crime department didnt change, but were divided in a different way, because money was no longer spent on prosecuting minor possession charges.

When the new policy in Portugal was put into effect in 2001, the UN opposed the experiment. But, during a recent conference in Vienna, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), which is the independent control organ for the implementation of United Nations drug conventions, called the Portuguese approach an example of best practices, because it puts health and welfare in the centre and is based on the respect of human rights.

At the treatment clinic

The methadone outreach programme is set up to steer addicts towards treatment in a government-run clinic.

Since the revolution of 1974, many clinics opened their doors, though drugs were still completely illegal. Dr Antonio Costa, who had been working as a psychiatrist in a treatment clinic called Taipas since before the decriminalisation, stresses how many of the addicts had problems with the police and the courts that got in the way of treatment before the policy was officially changed.

Addicts were used by the police to find dealers, and they were imprisoned by our courts. They were treated badly because people did not understand drug abuse yet. People thought addicts were strange and scary, Costa told Al Jazeera.

Now, its commonplace to look at drug addiction in a similar way as you would look at alcoholism  which is an illness people in Portugal understand.

The Taipas rehabilitation clinic, based on the premises of a psychiatric hospital, started out in 1989 and saw a huge increase in its budget after the new drug policy became law in 2001. Even during the crisis of 2008, the drug-treatment sector was not hit too badly.

According to Goulao, this sector had to do with a 10 percent cut, compared with around 30 percent in most other government sectors.

During a tour through the Taipas-building, psychologist Dr Rosa Castro Andre says psychotherapy is the key to the treatment of addiction. When considering substance dependence, she analyses the different factors that may lead to addiction: trauma, childhood experiences, loss of a parent.

Just like Costa, Andre stresses how addiction is approached as an illness instead of a crime.

READ MORE: The paradox of the war on drugs and marijuana legalisation

Evidence of success

A decade-and-a-half after the implementation of the law, the number of overdoses have dropped significantly, according to research from the Transfer Drug Policy Foundation, a UK think-tank that advocates drug decriminalisation.

Evidence also shows success in preventing first-time drug use and delaying the age of drug use, according a report by the Open Society Foundation, an NGO which advocates a change of policies surrounding drug use.

Furthermore, drug use among 15 to 19-year-olds, a group most often the target of anti-drug campaigns, has markedly decreased, according to the report. The number of people indicating to have been using drugs in the past month has declined compared with 2001 figures, with an average opioid addiction of 0.5 percent (PDF) .

Drug abuse hasnt been eliminated in the country, but decriminalisation has not led to an increase of addiction, the experts insist.

Above that, the recognition by the UN is an important confirmation for Goulao and others who have worked to realise the decriminalisation work. However, Goulao stresses Portugals approach to drugs was only a reaction to a problem that was very specific for the country.

We would not want to say this is some magical model to completely eradicate drug use worldwide, Goulao explains. Its simply what worked for us, at that time, with heroin.
Ilhan Omar has broken barriers as first Somali American elected legislator, but will be a lonely voice in Trumps US.

New York, the United States  An election that won Donald Trump the White House and gave Republicans control of Congress was an unlikely moment for the United States to also get its first Somali American legislator in the form of headscarf-wearing Ilhan Omar.

Omar, a 34-year-old refugee from Somalias bullet-ridden capital, Mogadishu, won a seat in Minnesotas House of Representatives on November 8, as a self-styled progressive who would stick up for fellow Muslims and work for fairer pay and better schools in Minneapolis.

To her supporters, she is a charismatic ambassador for Somalis and Muslims and a silver lining in an election that elevated the Republican candidate, Trump, who campaigned against the threat of terrorism from Muslim refugees, like Omar.

Crowds chanted her name as Omar made her victory speech Tuesday night, wearing pearls and elegant white robes. Critics ask, however, whether beneath the sparkly smile and all-purpose liberal slogans, she is a political lightweight who dodges scrutiny.

If weve learned anything these past few days, its that America is at a point of divide with two very opposing concepts of nationalism, Omars spokesman Akhilesh Menawat told Al Jazeera.





Weve found that our solution  uniting people and thriving in our diversity, not fearing diversity  works. Weve done Minneapolis; now its time to go to the state and keep moving forward. Theres a lot more work to do.

Proving her worth

Omar was born in Mogadishu, but her family fled after dictator Siad Barre was toppled in 1991 and Somalia collapsed into cycles of clan-on-clan violence, famine and religious fanaticism, which continue to blight the Horn of Africa nation.

After four years in a Kenyan refugee camp, Omars family was excited to secure refugee resettlement to the US state of Virginia. They soon joined fellow Somalis in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a northern Rust Belt state on the Great Lakes bordering Canada.

Twelve-year-old Omar knew little English and grew frustrated that teachers continuously overlooked her in class. She once showed pluck when a maths teacher ignored her raised hand when asking pupils to solve a number puzzle.

In defiance, she just walked up to the board and answered the problem and sat back down  to prove that she was worth something, said Menawat.

Aged 14, she got her first dose of US-style politics when interpreting for her grandfather at caucuses of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party (DFL), a Democratic affiliate. It stuck and soon, she was a student organiser at Edison High School.

She earned degrees in business, political science and international studies. She helped female African immigrants. As a city council policy wonk, she favoured rehabilitating rather than jailing offenders, and helped restaurants stay open late for fast-breaking Ramadan suppers.

During her campaign to represent district 60B, some 400 volunteers canvassed more than 100,000 voters to push Omars pledges of social justice, closing the opportunity gap and cleaning up the environment.

After defeating a DFL veteran in her August primary, Omars campaign was caught in a scandal over alleged bigamy. In a statement, she distinguished between her legal and faith tradition marriages. She lives with Ahmed Hirsi and their three children.

Breaking barriers and ceilings

Jaylani Hussein, who heads the state branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, a lobby group, said a right-wing backlash was among the hazards of the job for any Muslim running for office in the USs hostile political climate.

She definitely broke a lot of barriers and ceilings, Hussein told Al Jazeera. Anyone from the Muslim community who is running for political office or who is in political office has seen increased attacks and threats against them.

Faiza Mahamud, a reporter for the Minneapolis-based Star Tribune newspaper, said the rumpus raised questions over Omars line between transparency and privacy. Other questions linger over her political spat with Somali American city councillor, Abdi Warsame.

She talks about being a bridge-builder between communities, but a lot of people have expressed concern about how accessible shes going to be to the larger community. This will be a challenge for her and well see how she manages it, Mahamud told Al Jazeera.

Omar became a shoo-in after her Republican rival, Abdimalik Askar, suspended his campaign in August.





At her victory party, she came to the podium as the song The Worlds Greatest by R Kelly entertained an energised crowd and Omar spoke of shifting narratives, restoring hope and re-establishing access in our democracy.

This will be a struggle

The national mood was very different. Omar broke the glass ceiling for Somali American politicians, but the Democratic candidate for the Oval Office, Hillary Clinton, had failed to become Americas first woman president.

Trump won by driving his juggernaut of voter anger through Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and other states along a supposedly impenetrable Blue Wall that Democrats had not lost in a presidential ballot since 1992.

Before the biggest electoral upset in recent decades, critics had said Trumps bid to swing Minnesota was the desperate act of a losing candidate. The property tycoon turned rural Minnesota red, but Democrats clung on to the state with a slim 44,000-vote margin.

In the closing days of campaigning, Trump filled a hangar at the Minneapolis-St Paul airport and said the state had suffered enough for accommodating thousands of Somali refugees who, he said, had a penchant for supporting ISIL and spreading their extremist views.

It was more than hyperbole. Three Somali Americans  two US citizens and one a lawful resident  pleaded guilty in June to trying to join ISIL. According to officials, some 30 young men from Minnesota have left the US to join ISIL, or al-Shabab in Somalia.

US Census data counts about 86,000 Somali Americans in the US, about 25,000 of them live in Minnesota. They are mostly in the Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St Paul, which are among the most racially segregated areas in the US.

While Trump has argued for halting Muslim immigration and blocking refugees from conflict areas like Syria and Somalia, Omar warns that angry rhetoric is exactly what drives young Somali Americans to fanaticism.

According to Menawat, fear-mongering about Islamic terrorism and Sharia law is the reason these young, mostly men, are drawn to that message because they feel like theyre rejected by the community they live in.

Omars job these next two years involves educating people to see that Muslim and Somali refugees are no different than all the ancestors of everyone else in this nation who were, at one point, immigrants, Menawat added.

This will be a struggle.

With a Trump White House and Republicans running Congress in Washington and even Minnesotas House of Representatives, Omar will need to be as bold as she was during her maths class to get noticed.

Follow James Reinl on Twitter: @jamesreinl
Canada might have a strong tradition of free press, but that has not stopped Canadian police spying on journalists.

Journalism and journalists are under siege  but not in the places you might suspect.

Now, be honest, as you read that sentence what countries sprang instantly to mind? Russia? Turkey? Egypt?

To be sure, doing journalism in any one of that troika of nations can be risky business, often inviting imprisonment or worse.





But the smug, widely held view that Western journalists are largely immune from the state-sanctioned perils faced by their brethren toiling in other, more repressive states has always been a reassuring myth.

In the United States, the first amendment is famously supposed to ensure, on paper at least, a free press, free from intimidation, censorship and reprisal.

In Canada, Section 2b of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms explicitly shields: freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.

Journalists who dont pick at the comfortable margins, and choose, instead, to challenge the vested centres of state power, have long known that geography and the political pedigree of a government are irrelevant when it comes to official retribution.

Predictably, after an enterprising reporter pricks the empires sensibilities, the empire routinely strikes back, invariably using all the legal and illegal tools at its disposal to establish whos the real boss.

Of course, this vindictiveness is not new.

Enemies of state

Because of his abiding insecurity and suspicion, Richard Nixon fashioned an enemies list teeming with the names of pesky, recalcitrant journalists.

Former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper drafted a less well-known facsimile of, in effect, Nixons enemies list brimming with people and bureaucrats his ministers were directed to shun.

Still, if enemies lists dont do trick, then the courts will.

The inveterate culture of impunity is endemic to police and spies no matter the ideology or country they serve, nor, it's clear, the nationality of the journalists fixed in their malevolent cross-hairs. by

New York Times reporter James Risen spent seven taxing years duelling with the Obama administration in court to stay out of jail and to protect the identity of a key source central to his revelations about clandestine US efforts to disrupt Irans nuclear ambitions.

A circumspect journalist not prone to hyperbole, Risen once described the Obama administration as the greatest enemy of press freedom in a generation. (President-elect Donald Trump will, Im convinced, quickly wrest that ignominy from Obama.)

If the courts dont do the trick, then the surveillance state will.

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has repeatedly raised the alarm that Western governments use their tools in the electronic ether principally to spy on their citizens  including journalists  and not terrorists or foreign spies.

Not an isolated incident

Recently, Snowdens prescient warning was borne out when it emerged that several journalists in Quebec were spied upon by police, possibly at the behest of powerful provincial figures.

The drip, drip, drip of damning disclosures began in late October when Montreal police admitted that they had, for months, snooped on La Presse columnist, Patrick Lagace, in a futile effort to unearth sources who were leaking unflattering information to him about the police.

As part of its espionage, police stalked Lagaces incoming and outgoing telephone calls. Police also employed GPS technology to monitor Lagaces whereabouts in real time.

Montreals police chief defended the spying by claiming investigators had obtained the necessary warrants and the leaks constituted a crime worthy of inquiry.

Lagace and his editors dismissed the police chiefs exculpatory reasoning as dangerous bunk.

If he knew one thing about freedom of expression and if he knew one thing about press freedom he would never have allowed that, Lagace said.

Meanwhile, La Presse editor-in-chief Eric Trottier denounced the polices previously secret actions as an assault on all journalists.

OPINION: Trudeaus global brand is a hot commodity

It irredeemably compromises the confidence that must exist between a journalist and his or her source so that citizens can be informed of subjects that are in the public interest and can participate in an enlightened manner in the democratic life of the country, Trottier wrote.

The news about cops spying on scribes had just begun to reverberate inside Quebecs political and media circles when it emerged that the tally of journalists who were targets of police surveillance had mushroomed suddenly to seven.

This time, Quebec provincial police confirmed that the calls made and received by several prominent print and broadcast journalists had been tracked for more than five years in connection with a 2013 police probe that was launched, reportedly, on the same day that a high-profile union leader made a complaint.

Apparently, the once isolated incident was now spreading like a state-engineered virus.

One of the targeted journalists, Alain Gravel, said: Its a shock. In a democratic society like ours, you never imagine that this thing could happen and be so systematic. Its two events now in the same week. So were very concerned.

While I sympathise with their plight, Gravels suggestion that systemic spying on journalists working in democratic societies by police and other muscular, secretive state institutions is inconceivable, borders, surprisingly, for an experienced reporter, on the naive.





Gravels and his colleagues experience proves that not only is Western government-approved spying on journalists plausible, its also an inevitable institutional response to scrutiny that puts those agencies in league with the anti-democratic practices of the regimes Western journalists are so quick to expose and condemn.

Glass house meet stone.

No consequences

In any event, to staunch the metastasising scandal, the Quebec government has struck a public inquiry to examine the police forces subterfuge, warning that sanctions maybe in the offing.

Im not reassured. Public inquiries into police misconduct in Canada  whatever its nature, scope or duration  are as routine as a Trump tweet at 3am.

After receiving a stern lecture and a tepid slap on the wrist for abusing their pervasive, surreptitious powers, cops know that, in time, and with a little patience, they can safely return to covert business as usual since, ultimately, they are immune from real, lasting accountability.

This inveterate culture of impunity is endemic to police and spies  East and West, North and South  no matter the ideology or country they serve, nor, its clear, the nationality of the journalists fixed in their malevolent cross-hairs.

Andrew Mitrovica is an award-winning investigative reporter and journalism instructor.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Protesters hit the streets throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails as Greek police respond with tear gas and stun grenades.

Athens, Greece  Police have battled with anarchists late into the night following two marches protesting against US President Barack Obamas visit.

Greek police estimated that as many as 150 anarchists were involved in Tuesdays clashes. They responded to rocks and Molotov cocktails with tear gas and stun grenades.

A march by PAME [the communist party labour union] ended peacefully. A second march pushed up against a police cordon and protesters threw two Molotov cocktails, an Athens police spokesman told Al Jazeera. Thats when the clashes began.

By late at night, police had confined the violence to the area of the Athens Polytechnic, a campus anarchists have used in the past as a safe haven from police, who are not allowed on to university grounds without a request from the chancellor.

Police said there were no injuries or damage to private property.





Some 8,000 protesters walked through central avenues chanting slogans against the European Union, NATO, and the International Monetary Fund, a staple of left-wing marches.

Leftists normally hold an annual protest march outside the US embassy on November 17 to commemorate the crushing of a student uprising by a military dictatorship in 1973.

But Obamas arrival two days before kicked off demonstrations early this year.

The last time a US president came to Athens 17 years ago, violent protests again marred the visit. NATO ended the Yugoslav war in 1999 by bombing Greeces Orthodox ally Serbia.

Anger against NATOs deployment against a European country and US ally in World War II fuelled protesters anger at the time.

But then-president Bill Clinton defused the tension by apologising for US support for the military dictatorship that crushed the Polytechnic uprising.

When the junta took over in 1967 here, the US allowed its interests in prosecuting the Cold War to prevail over its interest  I should say obligation  to support democracy, which was after all the cause for which we fought the Cold War. It is important we acknowledge that, Clinton said to thunderous applause.

On November 14, 1973, students at the Athens Polytechnic went on strike to protest against Greeces US-backed military regime. On November 17, the army stormed the Polytechnic and killed an unknown number of students.

Complimentary remarks

Earlier on Tuesday, President Obama and Alexis Tsipras, Greeces prime minister, exchanged complimentary remarks.

In the economic crisis of 2008, [Obama] led the US economy on a completely different path to that chosen by Europe, Tsipras said.

Eight years later, the results are more than visible.

In prepared remarks, Obama said: I know this has been a painful and difficult time, especially for Greek workers, pensioners, and young people.





Ive been clear from the beginning of this crisis that in order to make reforms sustainable, the Greek economy needs the space to return to growth and start creating jobs again.

We cannot simply look to austerity as a strategy, and it is incredibly important that the Greek people see improvements in their daily lives.

The left-wing government in Greece has touted Obamas visit as a vindication of its efforts to deliver social justice and keep society stable, as austerity policies have led to an economic depression. Obama was due to address the Greek people on Wednesday.

Many Greeks feel that had Obamas visit come sooner in the economic crisis, it might have helped more.

The fact that Obama is choosing to visit Greece helps Greece, said Aristotelis Tsiampiris, international relations expert at Piraeus University.

But Im not going to hold my breath that two months before he exits the White House, magically hes going to resolve the debt crisis, the immigration crisis, and everything else that is ill with Greece. That is not going to happen and could not have happened.

Donald Trumps election in the US also weakens Obamas hand. The Democratic Party will not be in power come January.

Nonetheless, many people here hope that Obamas presence will lend weight to his message of support for Greece.
UN chief warns new US leader Donald Trump any move to pull out of historic climate deal would be unacceptable.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said action on climate change has become unstoppable and he expressed hopes that US President-elect Donald Trump will drop plans to quit a global accord aimed at weaning the world off fossil fuels.

At a meeting of almost 200 nations in Morocco to work out ways to implement the 2015 agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions, Ban said on Tuesday that US companies, states, and cities were all pushing to limit global warming.

What was once unthinkable has become unstoppable, he told a news conference on the Paris agreement, reached by governments last year, ratified in record time, and formally adopted by more than 100 nations, including the United States.





Trump has called human-induced climate change a hoax and pledged to cancel the Paris deal.

French President Francois Hollande said inaction would be disastrous for future generations, and it would be dangerous for peace.

The United States, the largest economic power in the world, the second largest greenhouse gas emitter, must respect the commitments it has undertaken, Hollande said to applause. The agreement was irreversible, he added.

The accord, aiming to phase out net greenhouse gas emissions this century, was a breakthrough after more than two decades of negotiations, driven by increased scientific certainty that man-made emissions drive heat waves, floods, and rising sea levels.

Donald Trump, climate finance, and catastrophe

Ban said he hoped that Trump, elected last Tuesday, would drop his view.

I am sure he will make a quick, wise decision, Ban said, adding that climate change was having severe impacts from the Arctic to Antarctica.

He noted that this year is on track to be the warmest year since records began in the 19th century.

I hope he will really hear and understand the severity and urgency of addressing climate change. As president of the United States, I hope he understands this, listens, and evaluates his campaign remarks.

Ban said companies such as General Mills and Kellogg, states such as California, and cities such as Washington, Nashville and Las Vegas were working to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.

He said Trump  as a very successful business person  would understand that market forces were already acting to push the world economy towards cleaner energies, away from fossil fuels.

Ban, who will step down at the end of the year after a decade in charge of the United Nations, has made action on climate change a core issue of his time in office.
Unrest in Burundi risks spiralling into civil war and genocide, rights groups warned on Tuesday, urging the international community to deploy a peacekeeping force to protect civilians in the country.

Burundi descended into turmoil in April 2015 after President Pierre Nkurunzizas controversial decision to run for a third consecutive term  a vote he later won amid violent protests.

Since then, more than 1,000 people have died, between 300 and 800 are missing, some 8,000 are being held for political reasons and more than 300,000 people have fled the country, according to a report published on Tuesday by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and Burundian Human Rights League (ITEKA).

We are talking about a forgotten conflict here, FIDH president Dimitris Christopoulos told Al Jazeera.

We are constantly talking about Iraq, we are constantly talking about Syria, but nobody bothers about what is happening in this country.

There is an extreme, systematic violation of human rights here on a daily basis, which may lead to dynamics of genocide.

Genocide in Burundi: Preventing this scenario from becoming a reality https://t.co/InUkKhzFvA #africa #humanrights  Fidh in Africa (@FidhAfrica) November 15, 2016

In their 200-page report, entitled Repression and Genocidal Dynamics in Burundi, the groups said crimes against humanity are being committed in Burundi today.

They cited systematic arrests, summary and extrajudicial executions, acts of torture and other acts that are manifest in Burundi.

FIDH and ITEKA, which have a network of observers in the country, also pointed out several dramatic actions by Burundis government by the end of October.

OPINION: Helping Burundi break the cycle of violence

They included the governments denunciation of a UN human rights report quite damning of the regime, its expulsion of the African Union and three UN experts, its withdrawal from the International Criminal Court , as well as its suspension of five Burundi organisations defending human rights, including ITEKA.

This year, Burundi has refused to allow the African Union to send 5,000 peacekeepers and the United Nations to deploy 228 international police.

The groups said that the governments recent break with the international community heralds a new intensification of repression and crimes against citizens who are considered hostile to the regime.

Burundis government is losing all contact with the outside world, FIDH president Christopoulos said.

These are bad symptoms. This is not African politics as usual.

Burundis government rejected the report, saying the organisations that produced it are aiming at regime change, manipulated by the opposition and using false information, said Jean Claude Karerwa Ndenzako, deputy spokesman for President Nkurunziza.

We are not surprised by what they say. There is nothing new, Karerwa told The Associated Press.

In September, after the publication of a damning UN report claiming that Burundis government is behind systematic human rights abuses, including executions and torture, Burundi accused the world body of bias.

In a statement, the government said that UN investigators were politically motivated and their conclusions based on anonymous and unverifiable sources.

In October, Burundis government withdrawn permits from several human rights organisations and other non-profit groups, accusing them of stirring up hatred and tarnishing the nations image by criticising the government.





Conditions for genocide

The report by FIDH and ITEKA also addressed the possibility of genocide.

The groups said the government viewed protests against a third term for Nkurunziza as a threat, but after an attempted coup in May 2015, the ruling party started to use the classic rhetoric of defending the Hutu majority as being persecuted and threatened by the risk of the return of an oppressive Tutsi military.

FIDH and ITEKA said all the criteria and conditions for perpetrating of genocide are in place: ideology, intent, security institutions and relaying  the identifying populations to be eliminated, and the using of historical justifications.

Our organisations warn that these dynamics are intensifying and could lead to genocide in Burundi, the rights groups said.

READ MORE: Reintegrating child soldiers in Burundi

FIDH and ITEKA urged the African Union, UN, European Union and international community to send a civilian protection force to Burundi, impose sanctions against perpetrators of serious human rights violations, and make every effort to resume political dialogue and find a peaceful solution to the crisis.

In the first place, we need to exhaust all possible means of political dialogue, Christopoulos said.

In the second place, we need to protect civilians, people are dying. And in the third place, we need to investigates crimes against humanity committed in this country.
Although residents of besieged east Aleppo have been told to leave immediately, they have no safe way of doing so.

East Aleppo, Syria  Syrian government forces sent a text message to residents of east Aleppo on Sunday, demanding they leave the rebel-controlled area within 24 hours or risk their lives during a major offensive.

Our dear people living in east Aleppo, the militants kill your children and take your women, read the text message, which declared the governments intent to retake rebel-held districts of the city.

Approximately 250,000 people are believed to be living in besieged east Aleppo, and Syrian government forces have reversed recent gains rebels made last month in their effort to break the siege.

East Aleppo resident Shamel Mohammad understood the text message loud and clear, but he is not going to leave. In general, I dont want to leave. I just want the supply route to open, for food and aid to return to the city, and to go back to how things were before the siege, said Mohammad, who sells stationery.

READ MORE: Syria Civil War Explained

Other residents of east Aleppo, although they have already stayed through five years of civil war, now want to leave owing to the current conditions. Of course, I want to get out, Fatima Lababidi, a schoolteacher and mother of four, told Al Jazeera. Both she and Mohammad live near the dividing line between government- and rebel-held areas in Aleppo, near the citadel.

But whether or not they want to leave, many agree that leaving is nearly impossible. Theres no way out. The regime doesnt open the route for us and doesnt stop bombing, said Lababidi.

I don't want to move away. My biggest dream is we return to the security and safety of six years ago  that we may eat and drink and live a little. by Shamel Mohammad, east Aleppo resident

Despite deteriorating conditions and dwindling food supplies, Mohammad said: I dont want to move away. My biggest dream is we return to the security and safety of six years ago  that we may eat and drink and live a little.

According to Mohammad, opening a supply route to east Aleppo by linking it to rebel territory west of the city, not migration, will accomplish this. The last time the route at Ramouseh [military academy] was opened, people died there but aid could get in.

Small amounts of aid from other parts of Syria reached east Aleppo when rebel groups took the Ramouseh military academy in August.

Conditions are getting worse in east Aleppo, according to many observers. Electricity is always cut off, [theres a] high increase in prices, and an acute lack of vegetable availability, fuel is almost non-existent in markets, the bread quality and quantity is abating, Humam al-Malah, a member of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, in the Aleppo governorate, told Al Jazeera.

Maybe the most difficult obstacle is the lack of stored fuels that is required for the generators.

Late last week, the UN warned that east Aleppo risks mass starvation if food is not allowed in immediately, and pleaded that the Syrian government, Russia, and rebel groups permit food to be delivered.

It has been disputed who is responsible for civilians inability to leave east Aleppo. Recently, Syrian state media reported that rebel groups are preventing civilians from escaping, seeking to use them as human shields. However, many east Aleppo residents say it is the government, not rebel groups, that is preventing their escape.





From what Ive seen, the regime is the one attacking the people here, said Lababidi, when asked about reports of attacks against people trying to flee east Aleppo. She said leaving is impossible due to the government-imposed siege and the general violence: Theres no way out. All the routes are closed and there are battles all around the city.

Some observers, such as al-Malah, are sceptical about the routes that the government says exist for people to leave. From our point of view, it is only to deceive the public, because the crossings are monitored by the regimes snipers, and any attempt by anyone to cross it might lead to them being shot, he said.

The people also fear crossing to the regime territory as it might lead to their arrest, especially without international parties guaranteeing their safety.

Until the situation changes in east Aleppo, Mohammad waits. The worst part of it all is that no one cares or pays attention to our suffering, death, agony or starving, he said. If things ease up, only God knows.
Egypts Court of Cassation has overturned a death sentence against the countrys deposed president Mohamed Morsi and ordered a retrial, according to reports.

The countrys first democratically elected president, Morsi was overthrown by a military coup in July 2013 after having served just one year of a four-year term.

PROFILE: Egypts deposed president Mohamed Morsi

The organisation to which he belonged, the Muslim Brotherhood, has since been outlawed. A government crackdown on the movement, as well as other groups, has resulted in tens of thousands of arrests and mass trials.

Morsi was tried in an Egyptian court on several charges, including one of escaping prison during the 2011 uprising against then-president Hosni Mubarak.

He was also accused of sharing state secrets with foreign powers, including Qatar. His defence argued that he was merely engaging all foreign entities within the limits that any head of state would.

Hundreds of death sentences

Morsi was given several sentences, including life, a 20-year prison term and the death penalty. He appealed against those sentences, but has already had the 20-year term confirmed by an Appellate Court.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have argued that the trials carried out by the government of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who led the coup against Morsi, have been political in nature and violated the rights of thousands of Egyptians.

Mass trials have sentenced hundreds of Egyptians to death. Rights groups have also called attention to the prison abuse in Egypts detention system.

Morsi himself has in the past abstained from eating prison food, out of fear for his life.
Number of anti-Muslim hate crimes rose in 2015 to the highest level since the aftermath of 9/11.

Hate crimes against Muslims in the United States shot up 67 percent in 2015 to their highest levels since the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, according to new FBI statistics.

Overall, 57 percent of the 5,850 reported incidents were motivated by race or ethnicity, while 20 percent of hate crimes were related to religious bias, the federal law enforcement agency reported on Monday.

There were 257 incidents of anti-Muslim bias in 2015, compared with 154 the previous year. The number is second only to the surge in hate crimes following the 9/11 attacks in 2001, when 481 incidents against Muslims were reported.

While there was a huge increase in crimes against Muslims, Jews remained the most frequent target of religious-based hate crimes in the US, representing 53 percent of all those reported, the FBI said.

READ MORE: Reports of racist attacks rise after Donald Trumps win

The bureaus report also listed 1,053 hate crimes regarding sexual orientation, 19 percent of which were committed against gay males.

The report came at a time of heightened racial and religious tensions in the US following last weeks presidential election.

Today, FBI released 2015 hate crime stats, marking the 25th anniversary of the annual Hate Crime Statistics report. https://t.co/LuLkmytXFo pic.twitter.com/YH2fkyY8By  FBI (@FBI) November 14, 2016

Just a fraction

Donald Trump just named a white supremacist as chief strategist. We have no reason to believe things are going to get better for the American Muslim community or other minorities any time soon. by Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR

I think these statistics are just a fraction of what we see on the ground right now, Ibrahim Hooper, from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told Al Jazeera.

We witnessed a spark in the number of hate crimes against Muslims in late 2015, and this number increased further during Donald Trumps election campaign.

We expect the situation to get worse in the future, based on the fact that Donald Trump had mainstreamed Islamophobia.

President-elect Trumps campaign had heavily focused on minorities, immigrants and Muslims, routinely painting these groups as threats to peace, the economy, and homeland security.

Famously while campaigning, Trump called for a ban on Muslims entering the US. He also promised to build a wall to block Mexicans.

In the first television interview since his election, Trump said he is planning to immediately deport or jail as many as three million undocumented immigrants.

There have been several reports of racist, Islamophobic and anti-semitic incidents since last Tuesdays election that have sparked outrage, including a mosque at New York Universitys Brooklyn campus being vandalised, and several Muslim women reporting Trump supporters attempting to rip off their headscarves.

A statement from Penn on the current events on campus. pic.twitter.com/CALK7OERup  Penn (@Penn) November 11, 2016

Black students at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) said they were afraid to attend classes after they were subjected to racial slurs and threats of lynching following the election.

A videotaped assault in Chicago showed black men beating a white man as onlookers screamed, You voted Trump!

Hundreds of Americans also detailed on social media racist attacks that have taken place since the election.

San Jose State University sent an email that a woman had her hijab ripped off by a white male with such force it choked her as she fell  Pam Pho  (@NerdyPam) November 10, 2016

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate crimes across the United States, has counted more than 200 complaints since election day, according to USA Today.

On Sunday, Trump further ignited civil rights organisations concerns by naming right-wing Breitbart news executive Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist and senior counsellor.

Under Bannons tenure, Breitbart pushed a nationalist agenda and became one of the leading outlets of the so-called alt-right  a movement often associated with white supremacist ideas that oppose multiculturalism and defend Western values.

Donald Trump just named a white supremacist as chief strategist, CAIRs Hooper said. We have no reason to believe things are going to get better for the American Muslim community or other minorities anytime soon.
ICC report suggests US soldiers and CIA may have used cruel and violent techniques on detainees.

US armed forces and the CIA may have committed war crimes by torturing detainees in Afghanistan, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has said in a report.

Members of US armed forces appear to have subjected at least 61 detained persons to torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity on the territory of Afghanistan between 1 May 2003 and 31 December 2014, says the report issued on Monday by Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.

The report added that CIA operatives may have subjected at least 27 detainees in Afghanistan, Poland, Romania and Lithuania to torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity and/or rape between December 2002 and March 2008.





Most of the alleged abuse happened in 2003-2004, and was allegedly part of approved interrogation techniques in an attempt to extract actionable intelligence from detainees.

Prosecutors said they would decide imminently whether to seek authorisation to open a full-scale investigation in Afghanistan that could lead to war crimes charges.

State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said the US does not believe an ICC investigation is warranted or appropriate.

The United States is deeply committed to complying with the law of war, and we have a robust national system of investigation and accountability that more than meets international standards, Trudeau said.

A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Captain Jeff Davis, said officials were awaiting more details about the ICC findings before commenting.

If an investigation into the US army and the CIA goes ahead, it would be a very significant move by the ICC, according to David Bosco, who wrote a book about the ICCs role and function in global politics.

This would be the first time that the ICC has set its sights on US personnel and it does look like they are going to be focusing on the activities of the CIA in Afghanistan in 2003, 2004, which makes it a serious investigation of CIA interrogation practices in the wake of 9/11, he told Al Jazeera.

The prosecutor in this latest report also signals that she does not have confidence that the national judicial systems are going to do their job and therefore she wants to move forward with the investigation.

READ MORE: Families of Afghans killed in US drone raids seek probe

Established in 2002, the ICC is the worlds first permanent court set up to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

More than 120 countries around the world are members, but superpowers including the US, Russia and China have not signed up.

Former US President Bill Clinton signed the Rome treaty that established the court on December 31, 2000, but President George W Bush renounced the signature, citing fears that Americans would be unfairly prosecuted for political reasons.

Even though the US is not a member of the court, Americans could still face prosecution at the ICC headquarters in The Hague if they commit crimes within its jurisdiction in a country that is a member, such as Afghanistan, and are not prosecuted at home.

So far, all of the ICCs trials have dealt with crimes committed in Africa.





Before deciding to open a full-scale investigation, ICC prosecutors have to establish whether they have jurisdiction and whether the alleged crimes are being investigated and prosecuted in the countries involved.

The ICC is a court of last resort that takes on cases only when other countries are unable or unwilling to prosecute.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Bush administration allowed the use of waterboarding, which simulates drowning, and other so-called enhanced interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists.

President Barack Obama banned such practices after taking office in 2009.

During the presidential campaign, Republican nominee Donald Trump suggested that as president he would push to change laws that prohibit waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques, arguing that banning them puts the US at a strategic disadvantage.
Yemeni government says it is not interested in Kerrys truce announcement, accusing US secretary of interference.

The Arab coalition and Houthi rebels fighting in Yemen have agreed to a temporary cessation of hostilities starting on November 17, and to work towards installing a national unity government, US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday.

However, shortly after Kerrys announcement, Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdel-Malek al-Mekhlafi said his government was not interested in a ceasefire or political talks with the Houthi rebels.

An Arab alliance, made up of Saudi Arabia and other Arab states, launched a military campaign against Houthi fighters and their allies in March last year to support President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadis government following the rebels seizure of the capital, Sanaa, in 2014.





Speaking after talks in the United Arab Emirates, Kerry said that he had presented the rival parties with a document calling on pushing a proposed peace deal that included a call for a ceasefire.

Referring to a truce that began in April and lasted until the end of August, Kerry said the Houthis had agreed to abide by the terms of the April 10 cessation of hostilities beginning on November 17, provided the other party implements the same commitment and thus far the Emiratis and the Saudis  they have both agreed to try to move forward with this.

Kerry said all parties to the conflict had also agreed to work to set up a Yemeni national unity government by the end of the year.

However, Mekhlafi contradicted Kerrys comments and accused the US secretary of state of interference.

The government was not aware of, nor is it interested in what Secretary Kerry announced, which represents a desire to scuttle peace efforts by trying to reach an agreement with the Houthis apart from the government, Mekhlafi wrote on his official Twitter page.

Humanitarian catastrophe

There was no immediate comment from the warring sides. Hadis government had previously rejected the latest peace proposal by the United Nations special envoy for Yemen.

READ MORE: Thousands of Yemenis protest UN envoys peace plan

There have already been several failed attempts to defuse the conflict in the country, which is facing a humanitarian catastrophe.

The war has killed at least 10,000 people, wounded more than 35,000 and displaced at least three million since March 2015, according to the UN.
Leaked memo, prepared by a consultant, allegedly shows that British government has no formal strategy for Brexit.

Britain has no overall plan for Brexit and the strategy for leaving the European Union might not be agreed for six months, according to a leaked memo seen by British media outlets.

The leaked document, prepared for the Cabinet Office by a consultant, said government departments were working on more than 500 Brexit-related projects and might require an additional 30,000 civil servants.

Prime Minister Theresa Mays office said it did not recognise the claims made in the memo.





This is not a government report and we dont recognise the claims made in it, a spokesman for Mays office said.

We are focused on getting on with the job of delivering Brexit and making a success of it.

Titled Brexit Update and dated November 7, the memo criticises May for her tendency of drawing in decisions and details to settle the matter herself, the BBC and The Times reported on Tuesday.

[The memo] suggests that perhaps as many as 30,000 extra staff are needed, and it talks about serious splits within the cabinet on the best way forward, Al Jazeeras Barnaby Phillips said, reporting from London.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Trade Minister Liam Fox and Brexit Minister David Davis were on the Leave side during the referendum campaign, and finance minister Philip Hammond and Business Secretary Greg Clark were with Remain.

OPINION: Brexit  The English gamble

The document also says that major players in industry were likely to point a gun at the governments head to secure assurances similar to that given to car maker Nissan that it would not suffer from Brexit.

May has promised to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which kicks off two years of talks to leave the EU, by the end of March, but she has so far given little away about her plans for Britains future relationship with the bloc.

The UKs High Court ruled earlier this month that Mays administration would not be allowed to trigger the countrys exit from the EU without approval from parliament.
Already dealing with unemployment and drug cartels, Guerrero state anticipates possible 1 million deportees from US.

Mexico is starting to seriously contemplate the possibility that millions of its people could be deported from the Unites States, and with some considerable concern.

Under proposals put forward by President-elect Donald Trump, Mexico could see millions of people streaming back with no jobs available; the country might lose some of the billions of dollars in remittances sent home annually; and some jobless deportees could swell the ranks of drug cartels, sparking more violence.

At least a million Guerrero residents live in the United States, many without proper documents, and the state is already reeling from drug gang violence, high unemployment and poverty.



Undocumented migrants fear deportation under Trump

Of course Guerrero is not in any condition to receive the million or more than one million migrants in the US, Governor Hector Astudillo of the southern state of Guerrero told the Associated Press news agency.

On the contrary, they have been an important mainstay in supporting the economy of Guerrero.

Migrant workers sent home almost $25bn in remittances to Mexico in 2015, and experts say most of that went to support the most basic needs of the poorest Mexicans.

Trump has suggested that he might somehow seize the funds of those immigrants who are not deported to pay for a border wall.

Even if Trump seems to be back-pedalling on the idea of mass deportations, the prospect remains frightening for people in Mexico.

On Sunday, Trump said in an interview on the news programme 60 Minutes that what we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, a lot of these people  probably two million, it could be three million  and getting them out of our country.

Deportations might backfire

Central Americas violent gangs emerged in the 1980s when migrants who had fled El Salvadors civil war were deported by the US after committing crimes as members of street gangs in Los Angeles.

The deportees took their criminal know-how home and started new gangs.

The US government in 2012 estimated about 1.9 million immigrants were criminals and could face deportation. The Migration Policy Institute, a Washington think-tank, estimated 820,000 of those are in the US illegally.

Mike Vigil, former chief of international operations for the US Drug Enforcement Administration, said at least some deportees would probably embrace drug trafficking.

Even deporting only the felons would backfire by causing more violence in Mexico and Central America, he said.

Whats going to happen is that these individuals are going to return back to Mexico and they have no jobs, so they are going to feed the ranks of the cartels there, said Vigil.

That would lead to more violence, kidnappings in Mexico, and these areas [of Central America], which would cause a tsunami of undocumented immigrants coming into the United States, probably much more so than what he could actually deport, Vigil said.

There are cases of deported migrants assuming leadership positions in the regions gangs, such as Martin Estrada Luna, a high school dropout from Washington state with a record of petty crimes such as burglary.

Two years after he was sent back to Mexico in 2009, he had transformed himself into a drug baron known as El Kilo, leader of a ruthless cell of the Zetas gang who masterminded the mass killings of more than 250 people.

While millions of migrants in the United States illegally could ultimately face deportation, the process to find and deport all of them probably wont happen rapidly.

For immigrants with no criminal history, the wait for a judges final deportation order could take years. There are about 521,000 cases pending in federal immigration courts currently, according to public data obtained by Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
Death toll spike comes as former UN chief Kofi Annan expresses deep concern over crackdown on Rohingya Muslims.

Nearly 70 violent attackers have been killed by Myanmars security forces in northern Rakhine state over the past week, the army said, claiming the dead were members of an armed Rohingya group.

Ten policemen and seven soldiers were also killed in clashes, the military added.





The announcement takes to 102 the tally of deaths of suspected Rohingya Muslim attackers since October 9, while the security forces toll stands at 32, based on reports in state-owned media.

A series of skirmishes and attacks over the past week led to the death of 69 violent attackers and the arrest of 234, the militarys True News Information Team said late on Monday.

Deep concern

The bloodshed is the most serious since hundreds were killed in communal clashes in Rakhine in 2012.

Myanmars 1.1 million Rohingya are denied citizenship with many of the countrys majority Buddhists regarding them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

The death toll update came as former United Nations chief Kofi Annan, who chairs a commission on resolving Rakhines problems, voiced concern at the upsurge in violence.

I wish to express my deep concern over the recent violence in northern Rakhine state, which is plunging the state into renewed instability and creating new displacement, said Annan in a statement.

All communities must renounce violence, and I urge the security services to act in full compliance with the rule of law, he said.

US State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said on Tuesday a US delegation holding previously scheduled talks in Myanmar urged the government to improve transparency.

The US also repeated its call for an independent investigation and humanitarian access.

The violence has exposed tensions between Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyis seven-month-old civilian administration and the army, which ruled for decades and retains key powers, including control of ministries responsible for security.

Members of an investigative commission, set up by Suu Kyi in August, are in Rakhine for consultations with community members this week.

READ MORE: Who are the Rohingya?

Soldiers have poured into the area along Myanmars frontier with Bangladesh, responding to coordinated attacks on three border posts on October 9 that killed nine police officers.

They have locked down the district, where the vast majority of residents are Rohingya Muslims, shutting out aid workers and independent observers, and conducting sweeps of villages.

The Rohingya face severe restrictions on travel and access to healthcare. Many were dependent on regular nutritional and medical aid long before the outbreak of fighting in October.
Save the Children warns 200 children could die of hunger every day as conditions in north steadily decline.

Two hundred children could die each day from hunger in northeastern Nigeria as a result of the ongoing conflict in the country, a humanitarian agency has warned.

Up to half of all children under the age of five are acutely malnourished, international charity Save the Children said on Monday, after screening the health of boys and girls in the region between June and October in 2016.

The figure could be even worse in areas that are out of reach because of insecurity, according to the report.

Children are presenting in desperate conditions and facing severe malnutrition, often in combination with other life-threatening illnesses like pneumonia, malaria and diarrhoea, said Ben Foot, Save the Children country director.

READ MORE: UN  40 percent of Somalis dont have enough food to eat

For some cases this may be the second or third time they have fought malnutrition so their immune systems are already severely weakened.

Violent attacks on civilians since 2009 by the armed group Boko Haram have affected almost 15 million people in northeastern Nigeria, according to the World Health Organization.

Zainabu Ibrahim, a mother of five severely malnourished children who escaped the clutches of Boko Haram three months ago, lives in a Bakassi camp, in Maiduguri, which is home to almost 21,000 other displaced people.

Boko Haram fighters stopped us from farming. We were really living on wild fruits and leaves, Ibrahim told Al Jazeera.





When we came here months ago, six of us were registered as a family and were given two measures each of corn, rice and beans to take us through the month. We tried to convince them that wont be enough but no one pays any attention.

More than 2.2 million people have fled their homes in the region, while seven million people are estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the WHO.

Roughly three million people lived in unknown conditions in inaccessible areas in 2015.

Boko Harams goal is to enforce a strict interpretation of Islamic law. Since 2009, at least 14,000 people have died at the hands of the armed group in Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger.
Rescue effort under way in the Mediterranean, with only 23 rescued so far from a boat carrying more than 120 people.

Around 100 people are feared drowned in the Mediterranean Sea after a dinghy capsized off Libya, according to rescue teams frantically searching for survivors in darkness and rough seas.

Rescuers and the Italian coastguard said on Tuesday that they had recovered seven bodies.

According to German NGO Jugend Rettet, which has a boat in the Mediterranean, 23 survivors had been rescued by an oil tanker which was first to reach the stricken dinghy.

Sad news from board.. Stay strong everyone! pic.twitter.com/onDawHdtok  Jugend RETTET  IUVENTA (@jugendrettet) November 15, 2016

The survivors and four of the recovered bodies were transferred from the tanker to the Aquarius, a boat operated by another charity group, SOS Mediterranee.

A survivor told one of that organisations staff that the dinghy had begun to sink at 6am, four hours before the arrival of the tanker.

READ MORE: More than 2,000 refugees rescued off Libyas coast

We were 122 on the boat, no children under 15, but there were 10 women travelling with us and only one survived, the recued man was quoted as saying.





We waited in the water, taking any floating thing to remain afloat, but most of the people drowned, including my little brother. He was 15.

At 10, the tanker came and rescued us. I want to call home to tell them that my brother died.

Attempts to find any survivors were continuing but were being hampered by very rough conditions and the chances of finding anyone alive appeared slim.

Second disaster

The latest tragedy came a day after the sinking of another dinghy in the Mediterranean.

Officials with the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Tuesday that dozens of people probably died before the merchant ship reached that dinghy, which was of a type that would normally have 100-150 passengers packed on board.

INTERACTIVE: Why on earth would anyone do this?

Only 15 people managed to survive, and on Tuesday they were on board an Italilan coastguard ship en route to the Sicilian port of Catania.





Exactly how many people died will not be known until the ships arrival in Catania, but it would be unusual for traffickers to set sail from Libya with as few as 15 people on board.

The coastguard said a total of 298 people were rescued in three operations on Tuesday, taking the total rescued since Saturday to 2,600.

The latest deaths add to a total of 4,271 mostly African people who have died trying to cross the Mediterranean this year, according to the UN refugee agency.

This year is already the deadliest on record for migrants and refugees trying to reach Europe, with uncertainty about the situation in conflict-torn Libya fuelling a higher number of departures in difficult weather conditions at the onset of winter.
State department spokeswoman said the US is deeply concerned over proposed bill to retroactively legalise outposts.

The United States has described as troubling an Israeli bill supported by a ministerial committee allowing settlers in the occupied West Bank to remain in homes built on private Palestinian land, adding that it hoped the law does not pass.

We are deeply concerned about the advancement of legislation that would allow for the legalisation of illegal Israeli outposts located on private Palestinian land, State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau told a briefing on Monday.

While most of Israels settlements in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank  all of which are illegal under international law  are constructed under the auspices of the Israeli government, outposts are built without authorisation and technically illegal under Israeli law.



Israel to ban public address systems

If the law were enacted it could pave the way for the legalisation of dozens of unauthorised settlement outposts deep in the West Bank.

This would represent an unprecedented and troubling step thats inconsistent with prior Israeli legal opinion and also break long-standing policy of not building on private Palestinian land, Trudeau said.

The US believes settlements endanger the prospects for a two-state solution and Israeli-Palestinian peace, Trudeau added.

We hope it doesnt become law.

The ministerial committee defied Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and voted on Sunday to back the bill, which will be debated by parliament on Wednesday and is still some distance from becoming law.

Israels Attorney-General Avihai Mandelblit has called the bill legally flawed in its current form, saying that it contravened private property rights legislation and did not tally with Israels international law commitments.

The settlement project began after Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the 1967 war.

In the 1970s, with the governments encouragement, large number of Jews began moving on to the occupied land. There are now more than 550,000 settlers living on occupied Palestinian land.
Two white men face assault charges after a video hit social media showing a black man being forced into a coffin.

Two white men in South Africa have been charged with assault after an online video emerged showing them pushing a black man into a coffin and threatening to burn him alive.

The pair are to appear in court on Wednesday in the northeastern town of Middelburg charged with assault and intent to cause grievous bodily harm, a court clerk said on Tuesday.





The footage was apparently shot on a mobile phone by one of the two white men involved in the incident.

The video caused outrage on social media with hundreds of South Africans condemning the white mens behaviour under the hash tag #coffinAlive.

The 20-second clip shows one white man shoving the black man, who makes distressed noises, into the wooden coffin and trying to force down the lid.

Do you want to speak? Come, come. We want to throw the petrol on, said one of the men, speaking Afrikaans.

They are also accused of threatening to put a snake in the coffin.

The video, which is undated, has spread rapidly across social media.

It was allegedly taken at a farm close to Middelburg town in Mpumalanga.

READ MORE: S Africa: Black students protest racist hair rules

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) opposition party said it would rally outside Middelburg magistrates court on Wednesday to protest against the alleged assault and racism in South Africa.

The EEF named the suspects as Willem Oosthuizen and Theo Martins Jackson, and the victim as Victor Rethabile Mlotshwa.

Press Alert: EFF Leadership Will Attend the Court Case of White Men who Assaulted a Black Man & Put Him in a Coffin https://t.co/8xPEUWngYx  Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) November 14, 2016

The two white men  beat up a black man, Victor Rethabile Mlotshwa, and put him in a coffin, the EFF said in a statement .

READ MORE: Race debate resurfaces as S Africa picks rugby squad

These white racists then took a video and put it up on social media for amusement. This humiliation can be based on nothing else but his blackness, which means it is in actual fact a humiliation of black people as a whole.

Racial controversies have erupted regularly on social media in recent years in South Africa, which is still beset by deep-rooted inequality 22 years after the end of white-minority apartheid rule.

#coffinalive It hurts me that in today's times in SA one human can treat another human being in such an inhumane manner. This is so sick!     (@QariZiyaadPatel) November 15, 2016

After seeing that #CoffinAlive vid I realised that inhumanity is rooted on some people.  Ted Halenyane (@Ted_Seleka) November 15, 2016



https://twitter.com/my_success21/status/798455711474794496
Gabina VOA is designed to be an infotainment youth radio show broadcasting to Ethiopia and Eritrea in the Amharic language. The show brings varied perspectives on issues concerning young people in the Horn of Africa region. Gabina in the Amharic language is a front row taxi ridesymbolic of the shows content as a fun ride that takes audiences from point A to point B. Gabina VOAs main goal is Enlightening young people, introducing them to cutting-edge technological innovations, exposing them to new processes and ideas so they can be productive, informed and self-governing citizens.
Government offensive in Aleppo comes as Russia also announces large-scale operation against opposition targets in Syria.

Intense air strikes have hit several rebel-held areas in Aleppo for the first time in more than two weeks, signalling the start of a major government offensive in Syrias northern city.

The ferocious bombardment of eastern Aleppo on Tuesday came as Russian armed forces also announced the launch of a large-scale operation against opposition targets in Syria.

Syrian state television said government jets carried out attacks against what it called terrorist strongholds and supply depots in the old city of Aleppo, citing what it described as special sources.

The air strikes killed at least 10 people in Aleppo city, according to The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and other groups.





The Local Coordination Committees, an activist group, said death toll was at least four.

In the last few hours at least nine neighbourhoods inside the city of Aleppo have come under intense bombardment, said Al Jazeeras Osama bin Javaid, reporting from Gaziantep, on the Turkish side of the Syria-Turkey border.

Residents from inside Aleppo tell us that there is chaos and mayhem in the streets  where there are streets still remaining.

Many parts of Aleppo have been cut off from other areas because they were targeted in earlier air strikes and roads were taken.

Medics say they are trying to reach those areas, but they are still stuck inside their homes because enemy aircraft are still in the air, Javaid said.

In the northern part of Aleppo, air strikes have been the most intense and activists there tell us that this is where they expect that a ground incursion will occur.

Aleppo has become the fiercest front in Syrias five-and-a-half-year war, pitting President Bashar al-Assad, supported by Russia, Iran and Shia militias, against Sunni rebels, including groups backed by Turkey, the United States and Gulf monarchies.

READ MORE: In east Aleppo, there is no way out

Its all air strikes and parachute bombs. Today, the bombing is violent  There hasnt been this kind of attack in more than 15 days, said Ibrahim Abu al-Laith, an Aleppo-based spokesman for the Syrian Civil Defence group, adding that fighter jets and helicopters were still visible in the sky.

The Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, is a first responder group that operates in rebel-held areas across the country.

Also on Tuesday, Sergei Shoigu, Russias defence minister, said fighter jets from the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier deployed in the eastern Mediterranean had launched their first strikes on Syria.

For the first time in our naval history, the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov started taking part in combat, Shoigu said.





Today from this carrier, our Sukhoi-33 began their operations.

He said Russian jets would target ammunition depots, training camps and armaments factories in the rebel-held province of Idlib and the central province of Homs.

We launched a major operation to strike the positions of the ISIL and Jabhat al-Nusra in the provinces of Idlib and Homs, he said, referring to the armed group previously known as the al-Nusra Front.

In the northwestern province of Idlib, a member of the Jund al-Aqsa group, known as Abu-Dardaa-al-Shami, told the Associated Press news agency over the phone that the air strikes were much, much, much more intense than previous ones.

He said that in addition to the air raids, ballistic missiles hit the province near the town of Saraqeb.

The Observatory, a UK-based group monitoring the war, said missiles fired from Russian warships in the Mediterranean struck areas in Aleppo province and on the eastern edge of nearby Idlib. Syrian activists also reported strikes in Idlib, Homs and Aleppo.

Russian statement

Later on Tuesday, the Russian Interfax news agency cited Russias defence ministry as saying that Tuesdays missile strikes did not hit Aleppo.

The ministry said that Russian and Syrian jets have not bombed the city in the last 28 days.

Planes were launched from the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier and also cruise missiles were launched from a frigate, which struck targets in Idlib and Homs province, said Al Jazeeras Rory Challands, reporting from Moscow.

What we are not hearing at the moment from the Russians is any mention of Aleppo, only at the moment  strikes against Idlib and Homs province.





Elizabeth Trudeau, US state department spokesperson, said the renewed bombing coincided with multiparty talks in Geneva between the United States, Russia and other countries seeking to achieve a ceasefire in the conflict and a roadmap towards a political settlement.

We strongly condemn the resumption of air strikes in Syria by the Russians as well as the Syrian regime, Trudeau told reporters. The most recent reported attacks were on five hospitals and one mobile clinic in Syria. We believe its a violation of international law.

Trudeau said Russia had allowed no food or other aid into east Aleppo during its suspension of bombing.

It let eastern Aleppo residents starve while seeking praise from the international community for halting indiscriminate strikes for three weeks, she said.

Western countries and human rights activists have accused the air forces of the Damascus government and its Russian ally of repeatedly targeting hospitals, bread lines and other civilian infrastructure in territory controlled by the rebels.

Government offensive

Both Russia and Syria have denied doing so, and say their air campaign is directed against military targets belonging to the opposition fighters, who they describe as terrorists.

Aleppo has for years been divided into government-held western and rebel-held eastern sectors, but the Syrian army and its allies managed to isolate and besiege the rebel-held districts during the summer.

Its allies include Irans Revolutionary Guards, Lebanons Hezbollah and Iraqi Shia militias.

A government offensive to retake eastern districts raged from late September to late October, backed by an intense aerial bombardment that the UN said killed hundreds and drew condemnation from western countries and rights groups.

However, after Syria and Russia announced their pause in strikes last month  a move they said was to let those who wished to quit besieged areas  rebels launched their own assault that killed dozens of civilians in west Aleppo, according to the UN.
Kremlin says Vladimir Putin congratulated US president-elect Donald Trump in phone call that also covered Syria war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and US president-elect Donald Trump have spoken over the phone to discuss efforts to improve US-Russian ties, the Kremlin and Trumps office said.

President-elect Trump noted to President Putin that he is very much looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the people of Russia, Trumps office said in a statement on Monday.

The Kremlin, in a far more specific and longer statement, said that Putin congratulated Trump on his victory and expressed Russias readiness to establish a partner-like dialogue with the new administration on the basis of equality, mutual respect and non-interference in domestic relations.

OPINION: Trump  Putins best frenemy

During the call, the two leaders discussed a range of issues including the threats and challenges facing the United States and Russia, strategic economic issues and the historical US-Russia relationship that dates back over 200 years, Trumps office said.

In its statement, the Kremlin said Putin and Trump agreed that US-Russian ties were in extremely unsatisfactory condition.

Syrias civil war

The two also agreed on the need to combine efforts in the fight against international terrorism and extremism and discussed settling the Syrian war in that context, according to the Kremlin.

How to fight side-by-side in Syria, where Russia supports President Bashar al-Assad and the US supports rebels fighting against him, and also against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS), has been one of the key sticking points between US President Barack Obama and Putin.

The Kremlin said that Putin and Trump agreed to continue phone contact and to plan a personal meeting in the future.

Obama began his presidency with a goal to reset ties with Russia, but they eventually plunged to the lowest point since the Cold War over the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria.





Separately, vouching for the successor he never imagined having, Obama on Monday sought to reassure an anxious nation and world that Trump would maintain US alliances and influence.

There is enormous continuity  that makes us that indispensable nation when it comes to maintaining order around the world, Obama said.

Relationships and policies go beyond presidents, he said, adding that military officials, diplomats and intelligence officers would cooperate with their foreign counterparts as before.

In a White House meeting with Trump last week, Obama said the Republican expressed a great interest in maintaining our core strategic relationships, including strong and robust NATO partnerships.

It was a sharp change in tone for Obama, who regularly mocked Trumps candidacy in the last days before the election, even accusing the billionaire businessman and former reality television star of helping ISIL with his rhetoric about Muslims and undermining US democracy through his claims of a rigged election.

At the time, almost all polls showed Democrat Hillary Clinton leading Trump.
Ex-prime minister replaces his former mentor as Senegals new president.

Macky Sall, who once served as prime minister under Abdoulaye Wade, replaces his former mentor as Senegals new president.

Sall unseated Wade, the ageing president who unsuccessfully sought a third term in office, in a landslide victory in the countrys 2012 presidential elections.

As a member of the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS), Sall served as prime minister under Wade between April 2004 and June 2007 and was also the president of the National Assembly between June 2007 and November 2008.

His political career appeared to have peaked under Wade, who ruled the West African nation for almost 12 years.

Sall saw quick political success, and occupied several ministerial portfolios before becoming prime minister.

But he then fell out of favour with Wades government, quit the party and struck out on his own.

Fall-out

Relations soured between Wade and Sall when the latter questioned the role of Karim Wade, the presidents son, in alleged irregularities concerning construction sites for Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) held in early 2008.

Wade loyalists viewed Salls move as a covert attempt to undermine Karim and bolster his chances of becoming the president.

Wade had long been accused of trying to position his 44-year-old son to take over from him.

After the fall-out, Sall formed his own party, the Alliance for the Republic (APR-Yakaar), under which he was elected mayor of Fatick in 2009.

Under APR-Yakaar, he ran a nationwide campaign to compete in the 2012 elections.

Although Wade led in the first round of the elections, the combined weight of Senegals opposition vote favoured Sall in the runoff.

Wade had faced growing criticism for his attempt to seek a third term in office on a constitutional technicality amid discontent over corruption, nepotism and financial scandals in his government.

Upbringing

Sall was born to a modest family in the western city of Fatick, to a civil servant father and a mother who sold groundnuts.

He graduated from Dakars Cheikh Anta Diop University with a degree in geology, before heading to France to further his education in the field.

His father was a dedicated member of the Socialist Party which had been in power since independence. But Sall says he quickly became disgusted with its misrule, joining the opposition in 1983.

Sall was at Wades side when he finally unseated the Socialists in the 2000 elections. A year later, the new president appointed him mining minister.

In 2003 he became minister of territorial administration and government spokesman before taking up the office of prime minister a year later.

Sall led his mentors election campaign in 2007, but lost his spot as prime minister in the cabinet shortly afterword, though he went on to be elected speaker of the National Assembly.

A tall, plump man, Sall is nicknamed Niangal in the local Wolof language, referring to his closed, austere expression, while he comes across as naive.

But his aides say appearances are deceptive. He is not as docile as he seems, said El Hadji Wack Ly, a lawmaker with the PDS. He is a firm man who keeps his word.
An insight into the lives of Afghan translators who risked everything to work with the US military and were left behind.

Wahdat worked as an interpreter for the US military in Afghanistan for three years. Now unemployed, he lives in hiding in Kabul, fearful of the Taliban, who have threatened his life numerous times because he worked with the American forces.

Taliban thought that the interpreters are ears and eyes for the military  youll have to be killed. They dont kill you the easy way if you worked as an interpreter. They will try every maniac punishment first to hurt you, he said.

Interpreters coming new to the US have all big dreams, and think that this is the end of my trouble, I'll have a better life, but I think it's the start of another big trouble. There will be challenges. by Wahdat, former translator for the US military in Afghanistan,

During more than a decade of US operations in Afghanistan, thousands of Afghan civilians like Wahdat signed up to work for the American military as translators.

In exchange for taking these jobs, the US government promised them a degree of protection through a special visa programme giving them safe passage to the United States. But applying for a visa is a lengthy process. Many interpreters have waited years for approval, in the meantime facing death threats at home.

In early 2016, Fault Lines went to Afghanistan to investigate the lives of Afghan translators who qualify for these so-called special immigrant visas and to find out why so many of them have been left behind. Later this year, we followed up on their stories.

Sakhidad Afghan was one of the many interpreters who tried to escape death threats by applying for a special visa to live in the US. He met all the requirements for a visa, but the process took far longer than the promised nine months. When the Americans pulled out of the base where he worked, Sakhidad had to find a new job, and living off-base put him at a greater risk.

In March 2015, Sakhidad Afghan was kidnapped, tortured and killed by the Taliban  while still waiting for his visa.

US State Department officials declined to comment on Sakhidads case and said they dont keep track of how many interpreters have been killed while waiting for their visa approval.

The only difference between me and Sakhidad, or people like me and Sakhidad is our chances. That we still survived  by chance. I mean we can take precautions, we can take security measures, but for how long? says Wahdat.

Weeks after we met Wahdat in Afghanistan in the spring of 2016, officials from the US government contacted us to ask for more information about his case. A month later, his visa was approved.

I still remember, it was May 12, 2016, at 02:32 oclock. I was at the top of the roof and I checked it, I just yelled and I started running to my mom, jumping up and down and said, here is my visa its approved and its issued. Everyone was so happy and cheering, and my mom was almost crying  it was the happiest day of my life, Wahdat recalls.

But once theyve managed to escape their life in fear and hiding, what next? What is life in the US like for the former translators? And what are the new challenges facing them?

Fault Lines follows Wahdat during his first few days in the US, documenting his journey from Kabul to Texas, as he adjusts to a new life in a new home.
Almost a week after Donald Trump was chosen as the 45th U.S. president, UF students continued to protest his win on campus.

On Turlington Plaza on Monday morning, members of UFs Radical Student Alliance began shouting anti-Trump chants, denouncing Trump as the next president and telling students to stand together to protect minority groups. By mid-afternoon, students who supported Trump debated them, drawing a crowd of about 200 who watched members from each side argue.

Before the counter-protesters began, Marco Fonseca, a 21-year-old member of the Radical Student Alliance, led chants through a megaphone and told passing students to combat racism and fascism.

(Trump) wants to make America great, the UF philosophy junior said. Well, Im here to tell you America was never great.

Soon enough, another student showed up with a megaphone, counter-arguing claims made by the Radical Student Alliance. As the crowd formed around them, claims about Hillary Clinton, Trump and their supporters were thrown around.

Chris Salazar, 19, got involved when he heard claims made about Trump supporters.

Im personally not racist or a bigot, the UF finance freshman said. I thought it was unfair to generalize that all Trump supporters are racist.

He said its time for others to support the president-elect, but the opposing side ignored everything he said.

Hes my president, he told them. Democracy decided. Im going to support him.

Jorge Zaldivar, 21, said he was passing by Turlington Plaza when he noticed the commotion. The UF finance senior joined in because hed seen debates and protests across the country.

I just didnt know it was happening here, he said, adding that he wanted to discuss Trumps policies and economic plans. I was hoping it would.

The size of the crowd fluctuated as students argued against each other. Some watched from the second floor of Turlington Hall.

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Phillip Steffens, 20, broke off from watching the main argument to talk with another student.

Steffens, who supported Trump in the election, said the shouting match didnt allow rational discussion, but being able to talk to another student allowed him to find common ground with someone who had different ideas.

It went well, the UF marketing junior said. I dont think I changed his mind at all, but I think we both learned a lot.

Conor MacDonnell, 24, watched members of each side argue. He said it was exciting to see students engaging with each other.

America is a country of ideas, and today were seeing this really amazing turnout by people who are so passionate, the UF doctoral student said. Its exciting for all those ideas to clash together, because it promotes compromise. It promotes freedom of speech.

Chris Salazar, a 19-year-old UF finance freshman, argues in a tight group on Turlington Plaza during a protest against President-elect Donald Trump on Monday. "He's my president, Salazar said after arguing. Democracy decided. I'm going to support him." Read more on page 3.
During Islam Appreciation Month, students gathered in the Reitz Union to hear a Muslim activist speak about empowering Muslim women.

Tope Fajingbesi, a financial accountant from Maryland who recently worked on Hillary Clintons presidential campaign, told about 50 UF students Monday about Muslim womens role in politics. During the event, hosted by Islam on Campus, Fajingbesi said she wanted to help Muslim women find their purpose in life and grow closer to Allah.

Muslim women shouldnt define their lives based on others perceptions, she said.

They have to define it by the promise Allah has made to them, she said. We have to understand theres more to our lives then just sitting in the background.

Fajingbesi spoke about famous Muslim women including major figures from the Quran and the female founder of the worlds first university in Morocco.

This is who we are, she said. This is our history. This is something that we need to be proud of.

While campaigning for Clinton in Michigan, she said other Muslims told her that getting involved with politics was haram, or forbidden. But Fajingbesi said Muslim women should be political instead of passive, especially after the results of the presidential election.

Our faith does not tell us to be passive and just to roll over when something needs to be done. We need to get up and do it, she said. Were going to have to engage this new America.

Samon Imtiaz, a UF biology junior, said she liked hearing Fajinbesi describe finding the purpose in life by listening to Allah and spending time thinking without distractions and noise.

She really emphasized thinking on your own, the 20-year-old said.

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Five stories above Gainesville, on top of the city-owned parking garage downtown, about 150 people gathered to gaze at a large yellow supermoon Monday night.

As the sun set at about 6 p.m., the moon revealed itself while music played and people roller-bladed, biked and walked around the top of the concrete garage.

For Tyler Francischine, a UF Health employee, it was a time to forget about the election for an evening, at least.

She said beyond roller-blading, she comes to the top of the garage regularly to think, write and watch the sunset.

I think that in a time like right now, with the election, its important to be together as a community, she said. The sky is doing its thing, and we can all be together as one  its good timing for something like this. It reminds us were more alike than we think.

Francischine was joined by Maynard Shaye, her colleague at UF Health and a fellow member of the roller-blading group Thndr Bldrz.

Shaye, 26, said the group meets atop the garage every week to skate.

We have a lot of fun up here, Shaye said.

This week, the groups members decided to meet to celebrate the supermoon  when the full moon is closest to Earth and appears largest. Mondays moon was the largest since 1948, and the next supermoon wont come around until 2034, according to NASA.

Francischine said she made a public Facebook event to watch the moon but, by the next day, more than 500 people had shown interest.

It just went viral, she said. I dont think any of us were expecting that.

Couples sat cocooned in blankets and kids played tag underneath the street lamps, but when the moon came out from behind clouds, the majority pressed against the garages walls to get a good look. Some howled.

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Joe Cucchiaro Jr. stood with his dog, Wiley, watching clouds move across the moon. He said he and his German shepherd-golden retriever mix have been backpacking on and off for 10 years and just rolled into town from Michigan.

I got here like 20 minutes ago, and I saw a bunch of little heads over the rail from the street, he said. I figured I would see what was going on.

He said hes not sure how long he will stay in Gainesville, but he was glad to be here to see the community gathered to celebrate the moon. From here, hes headed to St. Petersburg, Florida.

Its pretty, he said. Its very yellow.

Edwin Smith and Brian Kleeger walked 30 minutes from their home at Graham Hall to join the party.

They both saw the event on Facebook, and Kleeger said he wasnt expecting to see so many kids.

Living on campus, you always forget Gainesville is a place with dogs and kids, Kleeger said. Im pretty wowed. Ive never seen a moon this bright before.

Gainesville residents and UF students watch the supermoon on the roof of a parking garage above Volta Coffee, Tea and Chocolate on Monday night. About 150 people showed up with dogs, roller blades and cameras to see the moon at its brightest and closest location to the Earth until the next supermoon in 2034.
As an educational institution, UF pursues justified, true beliefs. We strive to get as close to the truth as possible. To do this, we employ a healthy dose of rational skepticism; we critically analyze all claims, and every theory must contain an element of falsifiability.

So every semester, when that preacher man comes out of his cave and builds that fraternity-knock-off signpost thing on the Plaza of the Americas in an attempt to indoctrinate you, its really in your best interest to question him incessantly as a young academic who seeks truth.

We posit that a total and complete belief in God  that which this man argues for  is inconsistent with academic pursuits. On one hand, theres the desire to apply rational skepticism to our studies: Peer review, constructive debate and competing theories are prevalent. But on the other hand, accepting the belief in the Abrahamic God seems like a face-value commitment. The Bible is the word of God, some mutter, because the Bible tells us so and is infallible. But why? We know this because the Bible is the word of God, they repeat, begging the question. Were met with a contradiction here; we are encouraged to question the knowledge that we take for granted but also take certain knowledge for granted.

We note the Abrahamic God not only because hes the one this preacher man claims to exist, but also because this God requires total and certain belief from his believers. According to scripture, he does not accept half-fledged commitments. As a newspaper made by students, we cannot be bold enough to say, in good conscience, that God certainly does not exist. But many reading this will step back and employ the God exists, and he does not intervene deistic watchmaker defense, which is absurd. How can one ever prove or disprove this? This claim is simply unfalsifiable. Moreover, even if we grant this defense credence, why should we have any investment in God? If God truly has no impact on our lives, wed rather live our lives of our own accord than according to a metaphysically inconceivable creature.

The infamous Pascals Wager  the same Pascal that the coffeehouse just north of campus is named after  probably has frightened a lot of you into faith. If no god exists, then belief or lack of belief does not matter. If a god does exist, and you acknowledge that belief, then youll be saved. On the other hand, if a god exists and you dont believe, then youre damned. The only logical conclusion then, is to believe in God: If he doesnt exist, whatever, and if he does exist, you win.

Dont you think God sees through your half-committed bulls---? Moreover, if youre going to play that absurd game, think of this: God gives us little to no evidence of his existence, but he grants us the ability to think critically. Theres an implicit contradiction here. We use this rational thought to feed the starving, heal the sick and employ distributive justice. Despite this, when we employ critical reasoning toward God, he condemns us to a miserable fate. If this is the case, damn us all to hell. As students, we are commanded to practice the critical thinking skills exhibited in the last three examples of argument and counterargument when we encounter men on stools in front of libraries.

With this established, we find it necessary to question any and all claims made by this stool-sitter damning us all as sinners. Thats what college is for  challenging beliefs and encouraging healthy debate.
           2005     ..        










English News China deepens ties with Latin America out of strategic consideration: expert

Alwihda Info | Par peoplesdaily - 15 Novembre 2016



Xi will also elaborate Chinas policies towards Latin America when giving a speech at the Peruvian Congress, while holding talks, attending signing ceremonies of cooperation agreements and press conferences with his Chilean counterpart Michelle Bachelet during his trip to Chile.

By Song Haoxin from Peoples Daily



President Xi Jinpings forthcoming Latin American trip, which is his third time to the continent after taking office in 2013, will send a clear signal to Latin America that it is Chinas long-term strategic decision rather than a temporary expediency to enhance ties with this region.



During his stay in Ecuador, the first leg of his trip, Xi will ink a series of important cooperation documents and attend inauguration ceremony of China-aided projects together with his Ecuadoran counterpart Rafael Correa.



Xi will also elaborate Chinas policies towards Latin America when giving a speech at the Peruvian Congress, while holding talks, attending signing ceremonies of cooperation agreements and press conferences with his Chilean counterpart Michelle Bachelet during his trip to Chile.



Liu Yuqin, former Chinese ambassador to Ecuador and Chile, told the Peoples Daily that Xis third visit to the continent comes as China and Latin America bolstered their ties in recent years. As representative regional countries, the three destinations share traditional friendship and solid cooperation with China.



It will be the first time for Ecuador to receive a state visit by a Chinese president. In October 1971, before Ecuador established diplomatic relationship with China, the country voted for restoring the lawful seat of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations.



Both nations maintained a smooth relationship since establishing diplomatic ties 36 years ago, and decided to upgrade their bilateral relationship to a strategic partnership in 2015. China now is the third biggest trade partner and a key investor to Ecuador.



In recent years, China and Ecuador have reaped fruits in mutually beneficial cooperation on energy, electricity and mineral resources. China-aided major projects, such as hydropower stations, emergency response center for national security, hospitals, have played an important role in the latters economic development and disaster relief.



After a deadly earthquake jolted the Pacific coast of Ecuador in April, the Chinese government and Chinese enterprises lent a helpful hand in disaster relief immediately. Such efforts were praised by local society.

Peru and Chile were among the first Latin American countries who signed free trade agreements with China. Propelled by the agreements, the two countries now witness a double-digit growth in their exports to China, while China now has grown into their biggest trade partner.

Chile has been a pioneer in developing ties with China, and created a host of firsts in bilateral exchanges. The country was not only the first South American nation to establish diplomatic ties with China, but also the first country that recognized Chinas market economy status, and the first to sign a FTA agreement with China in Latin America.

The first inter-governmental friendship organization towards China in Latin America was rightly established in Chile in 1952.

Whats more, China now is Chiles biggest trade partner, with Chinese automobile brands like Great Wall Motors, Chery Automobile and Changan Automobile, are favored by local consumers. China Construction Bank has set up a branch in Chile, which is not only the first China-funded bank in Chile, but also the first RMB clearing bank in South America.

As both China and Latin America are restructuring their development strategies amid the current world economic recession, a closer cooperation will not only address their aspiration and demands, but help revitalize the economies of both nations, the region and the world at large.

With complementary advantages in economy, both sides can tap their economic potential and achieve a win-win outcome by furthering their cooperation.

Moreover, Chinese investment is now carrying more weight in Latin American economy. Besides, both sides also share willingness to beef up political dialogues and cooperation, coordinate positions and strategies in international affairs, in order to deepen collaboration in the international arena.



A healthy Sion-Latin-America collaboration will also leverage South-South cooperation, analysts pointed out, explaining that as a key player on worlds stage and propeller of South-South cooperation, China is a brother to developing countries, and their trustworthy friend as well.

According to Liu, Xis three visits to the continent in four years have sent a clear message to Latin American countries: instead of a makeshift plan, it is a long-term decision out of strategic consideration for China to strengthen ties with Latin America.



She told the Peoples Daily that the trip also tells the world that China hopes to better understand Latin America, and reinforce bilateral political mutual trust and cooperation on the basis of equality, mutual benefits and mutual respect, thus bringing tangible benefits to both peoples.

This trip will consolidate the traditional friendship between China and the three countries, improve bilateral political trust and pragmatic cooperation in a comprehensive way, and push China-Latin America comprehensive cooperative partnership for sustained progress, so that developing countries and emerging economies including Latin America could together build a community of human destiny by addressing challenges together and pursuing shared development.



Dans la meme rubrique : < > More robots entering people's daily life China sees accelerated development of express delivery sector in rural areas China's FAST discovers largest atomic cloud in universe Pour toute information, contactez-nous au : +(235) 99267667 ; 62883277 ; 66267667 (Bureau N'Djamena)










English News China invests money into South, Central America, hoping to boost trade

Alwihda Info | Par peoplesdaily - 15 Novembre 2016



Chinese firms are more comfortable arranging state-to-state deals with guaranteed sovereign loans. The private investment model, like Public-Private Partnership, which is endorsed by a number of Latin American countries and involves project financing, construction and operation, are quite new to Chinese firms, according to the companies.

By Li Xuanmin Source: People's Daily and Global Times





Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming visit to Latin America, which will start on Thursday, has once again drawn the world's attention to closer economic ties between China and countries in the region.



In recent years, Chinese firms have invested billions of dollars into Latin America.



The most recent example is the $2 billion, 1,500 megawatt Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric station in Ecuador, which was awarded to State-owned PowerChina International Group in 2010.



The station began operating on Friday, according to a statement the company sent to the Global Times on Thursday.



When running at full capacity, the power station can meet close to 40 percent of the country's power demand, the statement said.



The hydropower station is one of dozens of projects that Chinese companies have funded in Latin America.



In Nicaragua, Hong Kong-based HKND Group is building a 278-kilometer canal that will connect the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean.



In Chile, State-owned China Harbour Engineering Co (CHEC) is constructing a port at San Antonio.



In general, Chinese investment has been flowing into two industries in the region - raw materials such as minerals and fossil fuels, as well as the infrastructure, which includes ports, railways and power plants, said Dong Jingsheng, vice director of Latin America Research Center at Peking University.



In 2015, China has already surpassed the US as the region's largest foreign investor and top destination for exports. China's direct foreign investment (FDI) in Latin America jumped 52.63 percent in 2015 to $29 billion, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).



Trade between China and the region also stands to gain. In 2014, the total volume of Chinese-Latin American trade soared to $263.5 billion, up 22-fold from 2000, according to the Xinhua News Agency in August.



At a forum in January 2015, President Xi Jinping vowed to increase China's investment in Latin America to $250 billion within a decade, Xinhua reported in January 2015. Xi also predicted that annual bilateral trade could hit $500 billion in a decade, according to Xinhua.



Delays and complications



However, it may take longer time to achieve the goal, experts warned. Chinese-funded projects in the region have not always proceeded smoothly.



The Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric power plant has run into extensive delays because drills got jammed during construction. The project was supposed to be finished in January 2014.



"The delay was mainly caused by an incomplete feasibility study prior to the project's start," Dong told the Global Times on Thursday. "Chinese contractors are unfamiliar with the region's complicated geography, which drove up costs and made it harder to control risks."



Stricter environmental standards are another issue that Chinese investors have to deal with.



"Almost all construction projects need to undergo an environmental assessment, and contractors are required to come up with clear measures to offset any potential impact," Jiang Wei, deputy manager of State-owned CHEC Americas Division, told the Global Times on Thursday.



"But Chinese firms are not experienced in handling environmental issues and corporate social responsibility requirements, which has resulted in conflicts with local interests," Jiang said.



For example, the investment contract for the copper mining concession in the province of Zamora-Chinchipe, Ecuador, which was signed by a joint venture formed by two Chinese State-owned enterprises and the Ecuadorian government in 2012, has received strong opposition from local communities mainly due to controversial environmental practices.



In addition, Chinese firms are more comfortable arranging state-to-state deals with guaranteed sovereign loans. The private investment model, like Public-Private Partnership, which is endorsed by a number of Latin American countries and involves project financing, construction and operation, are quite new to Chinese firms, according to the companies.



"What's worse is that the experienced western and local companies that came early to the region have already built a firm base there, leaving a small yet fiercely competitive market niche for their Chinese competitors," Jiang said.



On top of the disadvantages, some Chinese funding has also ended up in unstable political and economic scenarios, Jiang Shixue, deputy director of the Institute of Latin American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Thursday.



One example is the halt of construction of Chinese bullet trains in Venezuela after the country's oil-dependent economy was crushed by a collapse in global oil price.



China Railway Construction Corp's deal to build a $3.75 billion high-speed railway in Mexico was called off in 2015, partly due to power struggles between different parities in the country, media reports said.



Grasping opportunities



But clearly Latin American countries can use Chinese technology, capital and resources, especially at a time when they have struggled to secure loans from lenders such as the World Bank (WB) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).



In 2015, the WB slashed lending to the region by 8 percent to $8 billion, while the IDB slashed its lending by 14 percent to $11.5 billion, according to data released by China's MOFCOM in February.



Unlike the international institutions, Chinese lenders offer indiscriminate, condition-free loans that are more flexible, Dong said. Some even offer options of commodity-for-loan deals. Against the backdrop, China has grown into an important source of development funds for cash-strapped Latin American countries.



Backed by two policy banks - China Development Bank and China Exim Bank, China offered loans of $29.1 billion in 2015 - more than the WB and the IDB combined, according to the Financial Times in February.



In the midst of sluggish global demand, resource-rich Latin American countries have strived to replace their export-driven economies to boost growth. The infrastructure sector, which "China has a strong advantage and an excess of installed capacity" is a suitable alternative, said Luo Sinan, the Commercial Counselor at the Embassy of Ecuador in China. Luo preferred to use his Chinese name.



The industrial and manufacturing sectors are also underdeveloped in many Latin American countries like Ecuador, and China's capital inflow into such sectors "is considered strategic to the change of the current production matrix," Luo told the Global Times on Sunday.



Also, Chinese firms are attracted by the region's abundant resources, its inexpensive and high-quality labor force for foreign investors, experts noted.



The business environment in Latin American countries like Peru, Colombia and Chile is open and transparent. In 2015, the three countries ranked among the top 50 according to the ease of doing business there, WB statistics show.



"The investment outlook for the region is bright," Dong said. "Chinese investors should also consider investing in sectors such as manufacturing and services, which are full of potential."



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English News President Xis visit new milestone for Sino-Chilean ties: Chinese Ambassador

Alwihda Info | Par peoplesdaily - 15 Novembre 2016



Their two-way trade in 2015 was nearly five times that of a decade ago. Chile has now grown into China's third largest trade partner in Latin America, while China is Chiles largest trading partner, export destination, source of imports and purchaser of bronze products.

Source: Peoples Daily



Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming state visit to Chile, the first visit to the Latin American nation by a Chinese head of state in 12 years, will be a new milestone in the course of Sino-Chilean ties, Chinese Ambassador to Chile Li Baorong said prior to Xi kicking off his Latin American tour.

Xi's visit will have a profound influence on the development of bilateral ties and increase the momentum of all-round cooperation between the two countries, he added in a signed article published on the People's Daily on Tuesday.

Praising the time-honored friendship between China and Chile, Li pointed out that the first inter-governmental friendship organization aimed at China in Latin America was rightly established in Chile as early as 1952.

The founders of the association include Nobel Literature Prize winner Pablo Neruda, famous artist Jose Ventureli, as well as former Chilean president Salvador Allende, the president who made the decision to establish diplomatic ties with China.

Back in 1970, Chile was the first South American nation to establish diplomatic ties with China, was also the first country to reach a bilateral agreement on Chinas accession to the WTO, and the first to sign a free trade agreement with China in Latin America, the ambassador pointed out, lauding the host of firsts achieved by Chile in its exchanges with China.

China and Chile have maintained rapid development in bilateral relations, while yielding fruitful results from practical cooperation in recent years, the diplomat stressed, citing the duos fast-growing bilateral trade and deepening economic cooperation since they signed the free trade agreement in 2005.

He further pointed out that their two-way trade in 2015 was nearly five times that of a decade ago. Chile has now grown into China's third largest trade partner in Latin America, while China is Chiles largest trading partner, export destination, source of imports and purchaser of bronze products.

As both nations diversified their portfolio of export products, an increasing amount of quality goods made it into each others markets, Li stated, explaining that Chinese automobiles enjoy a high market share in Chile, while wine, salmon, cherries and grapes from Chile are very popular in China.

Riding on this momentum, both nations have extended investment cooperation to all fronts such as infrastructure, agriculture, renewable energy, mining, and communication, he wrote, adding that China and Chile have also made efforts to reinforce pragmatic cooperation in production capacity and integrate their industries by setting up mechanisms for economic cooperation and strategic dialogue.

According to Li, financial cooperation has bolstered bilateral collaboration when it comes to the economy, trade and investment. After the two countries central banks inked currency swap and RMB clearing agreements in 2015, China Construction Bank opened its Chilean branch in Santiago in June. As the first RMB clearing bank in Latin America, the branch will be a financial platform serving business cooperation between China, Chile, and Latin America at large.

The diplomat praised the colorful cultural exchanges between the two, citing the number of exchange programs China and Chile held to mark the Year of Chinese Culture in Chile last year, as well as the China-Latin America Cultural Exchange Year this year. Those celebrations organized by cultural organizations from both countries have presented Chilean people a feast of Chinese culture.

He also pointed out that a Chinese cultural relics exhibition held at Chilean Presidential Palace drew more than 200,000 visitors in two months. Such cultural and arts exchanges have promoted mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples, he said.

After years of hard work, China and Chile have established a mature relationship with a solid political foundation, as well as in-depth cooperation in various fields. Their ties will embrace a brand-new chapter with more strategic and comprehensive significance, the diplomat concluded.



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All policymakers and regulators claim to love innovation, especially if it might help the underserved. Unfortunately, regulators' thinking often fails to keep up with their rhetoric.

A particularly frustrating example is the emerging opposition from some in the government, including Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry, to a regulatory sandbox for financial services. Sandboxes provide a space where companies can try new ideas, under the watchful eye of regulators, but with some degree of regulatory forbearance, including the waiver of certain rules or limits to enforcement actions.

Opponents fret that a sandbox would provide companies with a way to avoid consumer protection laws. However, sandboxes need not be a Hobbesian "war of all against all," where the powerful prey on the weak. Instead  provided they are done right  sandboxes can offer an environment where companies can innovate while ensuring consumers are protected.

Fear and uncertainty about regulatory risk are major impediments to companies pursuing innovative financial products. Concern is especially high for innovators trying to serve populations who need help the most. The fear of facing the regulator's wrath chills innovation, deprives consumers and encourages firms  especially small innovators  to stay under the radar. In addition to harming companies, innovation and consumers, this state of play isn't good for regulators. Refusing to let innovators experiment in a permissive environment keeps regulators in the dark. For regulators, who all too often have to play catch up, this reality ought to be reason enough for them to accommodate innovators.

Regulatory sandboxes are a potential solution to innovators' and regulators' problems. In the U.K., the Financial Conduct Authority runs a sandbox program focused on financial technology companies. This sandbox allows firms to test new products that regulators deem are truly innovative and potentially beneficial to consumers. (Of course, one wonders whether regulators can judge whether a product meets these criteria. Regulators, like the rest of us, can't see the future until it's here.) The FCA also requires firms to have appropriate consumer safeguards, such as the wherewithal to compensate consumers who are harmed if the test goes awry.

Likewise, a U.S. sandbox could help encourage innovation without jeopardizing consumers. In exchange for greater transparency from the company, regulators could agree to limit the company's potential liability for future consumer protection violations. In this model, companies would not be able to escape the responsibility for compensating inadvertently harmed consumers, but would have the assurance that the government would not assess fines and penalties. Of the three justifications for sanctioning a company  compensation, punishment and deterrence  only the first is appropriate for companies operating with transparency and in good faith.

Taking fines, penalties and the reputational harm that comes from an enforcement action off the table would remove a major source of risk and uncertainty for innovators. But consumers would remain protected. Not only would consumers be able to enjoy the fruits of innovation, but entrepreneurs would compensate consumers for any inadvertent harm suffered in the process. Given the nature of the product and anticipated number of customers, a firm can estimate in advance the potential for consumer harm. By contrast, fines, which are driven by the whims of the regulator, can often dwarf the compensatory damages, and may bear little or no relationship to actual customer harm. For example, in the Wells Fargo scandal dealing with unauthorized accounts, the bank may end up paying only $5 million in compensation to consumers while it must pay $185 million in fines.

While fines in addition to customer restitution are appropriate for intentional bad acts, a firm that wants to try a new product to better meet the needs of consumers and acts in good faith doesn't deserve regulators penalizing it or dragging its name through the mud. Without having to worry about outsized and arbitrary risk, firms could pursue innovation with confidence while still being responsible for making customers whole if they are harmed.

Needlessly spurning useful tools based on a misunderstanding of how they would work in practice prevents progress and doesn't protect the public. While consumer protection is vital, it is not incompatible with innovation or providing certainty to companies trying to improve options for the public. Policymakers and regulators should match their rhetoric with action and provide regulators and companies the space they need to build a better future.

Brian Knight is a senior research fellow in the Financial Markets Working Group with theMercatus Center at George Mason University.
In today's environment, there is no way to separate technology from the strategy of a bank. From deciding how to serve commercial clients to figuring out how to make acquisitions work, technology is omnipresent.

Amy Brady is emblematic of the way the bank chief information officer job has evolved, or at least the way experts say it should evolve. She was brought in to the Cleveland-based bank five years ago to change the way the organization viewed technology and has played a critical part in forming the bank's direction.

"The way we manage technology here is integral to our business strategy; we don't think of them as separate things," said Amy Brady, chief information officer for the $136 billion-asset KeyCorp. "Technology influences business strategy as much as the business strategy influences it. They are so intertwined that at this point that's the way it has to work."

A major part of that strategy this year was KeyCorp's $4.1 billion acquisition of First Niagara Financial Group.

The IT team has a big hand in any acquisition, but in this instance, Brady said, the company's approach  having its IT staff working side by side with business leaders  led to a relatively smooth integration.

"Tech and ops play a huge role when you do an acquisition," she said. "We tried to really leverage our tech and engineering capabilities to make sure the transition went as smooth as possible."

The systems conversions were completed by Oct. 11, less than a year after the deal was announced and about 75 days after it closed. Brady said the speed is a result of preparation and having a concrete plan.

"Early on, we inventoried and assessed [First Niagara] systems and executed a decision process for any applications that had an overlap with Key systems or functionality to ensure that only one system moved to the target environment," Brady said. "In doing so, we focused on architecture simplification with minimal duplicate systems. The analysis resulted in very few systems migrating to Key outside of systems that supported new businesses."

Further, the integration team had weekly "cross-workstream meetings" and executive updates on the status of and progress on any risks and issues. The team formed a "command center" that acted as a centralized overseer of the project, coordinating communication and cooperation between the different groups involved.

"We also provided continuous monitoring of system performance in real time  before, during and after the event  to ensure early identification of any potential performance issues and allow for proactive intervention," Brady said.

Issues, even for a small number of customers, are common in integrations. Key's First Niagara integration was no different. A small group of customers in the consumer and small-business line had problems authenticating themselves when they tried to log on for the first time, Brady said. Because of the collaborative structure that the tech team and business-line heads had established ahead of time, Key was able to redesign the digital home page to display the first-time-login area more prominently; streamline the authentication process; increase staff at the contact centers and do more training; and issue a formal apology, along with $100, to each of the affected customers. All that was done within 48 after the problems arose.

All the coordination between Brady's team and the individual business lines resulted in a "considerably fast" conversion given the size of the two institutions involved, Brady said.

"The rigor and discipline that we used to drive the conversion were essential to our success," she said. "We knew that there would be some bumps in the road and having the team prepared to quickly react and resolve was critical to our successful conversion."

Brady and her team's involvement in the integration demonstrates the larger shift happening in banking  technology is touching everything and the CIO's role has been elevated.

But it wasn't always that way. Even 10 years ago CIOs "weren't considered part of the C-Suite" and many didn't report directly to the chief executive officer, Brady said.

"But Beth and I have regular conversations about bringing transformational solutions to the table," Brady said, referring to KeyCorp CEO Beth Mooney. "Now, more than ever, as a CIO you want to really drive transformation."

When she is not integrating mega-acquisitions, Brady said, a lot of her time is focused on looking for ways to further digitize the company.

"We're thinking about, 'What is the experience the clients want?' and how we can use new technologies in a way we haven't been able to in the past."

For example, Brady and her team recently have conducted brainstorming sessions on how artificial intelligence and robotics may play into the future customer experience, as well as the potential of blockchain in financial services.

Still, many bank CIOs and the IT departments they lead still function in the old role of order-taker, fulfilling requests to fix tech problems or simply keep the business running. But banks that still have that mentality risk falling behind, said Matt Guarini, who leads Forrester's research team serving CIOs.

"In the past, IT was more of a cost center operation and now it is an enabler of profit," Guarini said. "The CIO has become very important, in some cases the second-most important to the CEO. But some banks still have one foot in the old camp. And if you're thinking about [the role of CIO and IT] that way, that will present challenges in the future."

That's because new innovation is accelerating.

"Banks have so much more information than ever before, and technology is evolving so much more quickly," Guarini said. The CIO has to not just understand technology but "understand the customer and the business and how to build out the right solutions to help the bank move forward."
Note: This story was originally published Nov. 11, but has been updated following developments Monday.

Before Steven Mnuchin became President-elect Donald Trump's likely nominee to lead the Treasury Department, he was a driving force behind one of the most controversial banking turnarounds during the financial crisis.

Mnuchin was the top fundraiser for Trump's victorious presidential campaign. That experience has paid off in a big way for the former Wall Street banker, whom Trump's transition team has recommended that he nominate for Treasury secretary, according to a Bloomberg News report citing sources familiar with the process. Other candidates floated in connection with the job included House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling and even JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Jamie Dimon.

Mnuchin, who spent nearly two decades at Goldman Sachs, had drawn attention in recent years for a big gamble he and fellow investors took in commercial banking. He was instrumental in the recapitalization of the failed mortgage lender IndyMac, its return to financial health as OneWest Bank and its ultimate sale to CIT Group in a lucrative deal. He joined the CIT board after the 2015 sale and has since pushed the $66 billion-asset company to slim down and boost returns.

How that experience will translate into a career in public service is unclear. Though Mnuchin  who has never held public office  has a track record of success in financial services, there have also been hiccups along the way, including criticism from community groups for ignoring the needs of underserved communities.

"He took a company that was a very visibly failed institution of the mortgage crisis and rehabilitated it," said Vincent Caintic, an analyst with Stephens. "He made it into a stable and viable company and sold it successfully for double the money."

Caintic said that Mnuchin's experience rehabilitating companies could bode well for a career in government. Additionally, the fact that he worked closely with regulators, negotiating the terms of a failed-bank acquisition, could work in his favor.

But memories of Mnuchin's crisis-era move into banking still gnaw at some community activists. Mnuchin in 2009 led a group of Wall Street investors  including George Soros and John Paulson  in rebuilding IndyMac under the OneWest brand.

"In some ways, the bank was the poster child for income inequality," said Kevin Stein, deputy director at the California Reinvestment Coalition, noting the disconnect between the high-profile bank investors and borrowers who were struggling during the crisis to pay their mortgages.

Stein said that the company generated ill will around its Pasadena, Calif., footprint, in particular, because of foreclosures it made on widows through Financial Freedom, its reverse-mortgage-servicing business.

Financial Freedom is currently under investigation by the Department of Housing and Urban Development for issues related to its accounting. CIT has discontinued the business.

The deal also was one of those that attracted intense scrutiny because of the windfall it generated for private-equity investors, former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chair Sheila Bair has said.

Though a nomination is uncertain, especially in as fluid a situation as the days following Trump's stunning win over Hillary Clinton, it would mark a career shift for Mnuchin, a financial executive who has had a somewhat peripatetic career.

Mnuchin began his financial services career in 1985 at Goldman, where he ultimately rose to partner and chief information officer. He left the investment banking giant in 2002 and, two years later, established the investment firm Dune Capital Management.

Outside of his career in banking, he has also earned a reputation in film. He has helped finance hit movies such as "Avatar." He also briefly served as co-chairman of Relativity Media but resigned last year before the Beverly Hills, Calif., studio filed for bankruptcy.

Within the world of bread-and-butter banking, though, Mnuchin has earned a reputation for getting results.

Mnuchin decided to enter the business back in 2008, when he saw a TV news shot of customers lined up outside of the $32 billion-asset IndyMac, hoping to withdraw their money. He decided that the time was right to buy a bank, according to a Bloomberg Businessweek story on him.

He led a group of investors who bought the assets of IndyMac in 2009, nine months after its blockbuster failure. The group negotiated lucrative terms to a loss-share agreement with the FDIC and within less than a year turned a $1.6 billion profit.

As chairman of the newly formed OneWest, Mnuchin helped lead a rapid turnaround. The company moved away from risky mortgage loans and sought to become a more of a "full-service" regional bank with additional branches, according to Caintic.

In August 2015, OneWest was sold to CIT, which was run at the time by Wall Street icon John Thain. The deal pushed CIT  another crisis-era turnaround story  above the threshold to be considered a systemically important financial institution.

A key priority of Thain was asset growth and burnishing CIT's reputation as a major industry player. But Mnuchin has been influential in pushing CIT to focus, instead, on boosting returns and simplifying its business model.

Mnuchin was a key figure behind CIT's decision last year to shed its costly aircraft-leasing business, according to Caintic. The company announced plans to sell it last fall; Thain at the same time announced his intention to step down. Thain was succeeded earlier this year by Ellen Alemany, who currently serves as chairman and CEO and was previously a member of the CIT board.

CIT's acquisition of OneWest encountered a number of challenges. The reverse-mortgage business has had significant problems with its accounting. There have also been issues with culture clashes between the two companies.

The deal also received intense pushback from community activists, who criticized the foreclosure policies at OneWest and its overall commitment to working with underserved communities.

In approving the deal, regulators required CIT to revise its plan to comply with the Community Reinvestment Act.

"What we know of [Mnuchin] is in relation to OneWest Bank, which we found to be very problematic," Stein said.

Still, both at OneWest and now on the board of CIT, Mnuchin has backed decisive actions that benefit shareholders.

CIT, for instance, is in the midst of a multiyear effort to boost its return on average common equity above 10%, in part through significant cost cuts. As of the third quarter that figure stood at 7.5%.

"I think they have been a positive influence on getting CIT back on track," Caintic said. "Mnuchin has been a key person in pushing for that type of execution."
Bulk shipping company Korea Line Corp. has been picked over Hyundai Merchant Marine to acquire Hanjins operations between Asia and the United States.



Korea Line Corp. has been picked as the preferred bidder for the assets of Hanjin Shippings business between Asia and the United States, beating out Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM), according to media reports.

The deal comes as a surprise: Korea Line is a bulk shipping company and is not currently operating containerships.

After Hanjin filed for court receivership on Aug. 31, Koreas Financial Services Commission directed HMM, which at the time had been the second largest container carrier in South Korea after Hanjin, to form a task force to review a possible acquisition of Hanjins assets.

According to Koreas Yonhap News Agency and other media reports, the Seoul Central District Court said a final deal for the Hanjin acquisition will be signed Nov. 21.

The Korea Joongang Daily said, The courts initial sale list included five vessels, related crew members and networks on Hanjins Asia-U.S. route as well as seven of the companys overseas subsidiaries.

Another source told American Shipper that while not confirmed, there is speculation the company may use five ships to offer a transpacific service between Busan and Long Beach, aiming to be, at least for now, a high service, niche carrier.

Yonhap reported that in addition to the Asia-U.S. route, Korea Line has bid for Hanjins 54 percent stake in the Total Terminals International facility at the Port of Long Beach, which Hanjin co-owns with Mediterranean Shipping Co.

According to its website, Korea Line has 29 owned ships  19 bulkers, eight gas carriers, one tanker and one pure car/truck carrier. The company said it has taken delivery of six vessels this year. For 63 percent of its business, Korea Line acts as a dedicated carrier for some of Koreas biggest companies  the steelmaker POSCO (formerly known as Pohang Iron and Steel Co.), Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), Korea Gas Corp. (KOGAS), and Hyundai Glovis, the logistics affiliate of Hyundai Motors.

Bloomberg said it was told by a spokesman that Korea Line offered better terms in its bid, including taking on all employees. However, Hanjin has been laying off workers since it filed for bankruptcy protection and stopped booking cargo.

Yonhap said, Korea Line has expressed its intention to offer job security for some 700 land and sea-based employees working for Hanjin Shipping.

Its not clear how many of those workers might be in the United States.

According to the Korea Joongang Daily, Korea Line was acquired in 2013 by the Samra Midas Group, a company that appears to be keen on expansion in the shipping industry.

Earlier this year, Samra Midas reportedly considered buying part of SPP Shipbuilding, but then decided to walk away from the deal, according to the Korea Herald, which also reported in September that Samra Midas owns nearly 75 percent of Samsun Logix, another bulk shipping company that filed for bankruptcy in 2015.
It's safe to say that there has rarely, if ever, been a president more absolutely sure of the utter and total correctness of his positions than Barack Obama. While outward humility and the intentional display of human hesitation have long been staple behavioral facets of virtually every first-rate high-level communicator as he tries to connect with (and win the support of) his constituency when making difficult decisions, words such as "I've really struggled with this" or "I've thought long and hard about this one" seldom seem to emanate from President Obama's lips. Instead, complete self-assuredness bordering on smug, condescending arrogance has been the hallmark of his demeanor.

His "signature domestic achievement"  The Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")  was brought into existence only by an arcane budgetary trick pulled off by then-Senate majority sycophant Harry Reid. After winning a Massachusetts Senate seat in January 2010, Scott Brown became the "41st senator," the one who would complete a Republican filibuster and prevent the ACA from becoming law.

But the ACA per se was never voted on by the full Senate, and Brown never got the chance to play his role as the 41st Senator in a filibuster. Sparing everyone the long, sorry, detailed saga, Reid managed to get the ACA to be dependent on a Senate vote under reconciliation, a budget technicality that requires only a simple majority of 51.

Hats off to Reid. It was brilliant political maneuvering. Arguably the most sweeping, significant domestic policy in U.S. history, Obama's ACA was implemented without a single Republican vote in either the House or Senate. Never has policy of such magnitude been passed without having convinced even one member of the opposition party of its worth and thus have any opposition support. Not one Republican vote.

It is also quite accurate to say that there has never been a president who implemented such fundamentally impactful policies while circumventing the usual legislative process as Barack Obama. No president has ever announced that he has "a pen and a phone, and I intend to use them if Congress won't act." Two examples are the bold immigration acts (transparently designed to legitimize illegal immigration and the next-generation of sure-fire Democratic voters whom those illegal immigrants will produce) and presidential EPA appointees who then enact punitive environmental edicts that could never pass through the normal legislative process, for the purposes of helping the administration solidify political and fundraising allegiances with the sympathetic Green lobby while simultaneously inflicting financial damage on "evil" Republican-run capitalistic enterprises.

The champion of all non-legislative "executive actions" was the controversial Iran nuclear agreement. As was the case with almost all of his unconventional actions, President Obama tried hard to give this one the appearance of legitimacy. He "authorized" Secretary of State John Kerry to meet with Iran on multiple occasions, to "hammer out" the fine details of a sensitive agreement to effectively end Iran's nuclear development and prevent the Iranians from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

The deal's actual particulars are not the topic of discussion here. This is the point, and it's fascinating: the entire Iran nuclear agreement is a private agreement between President Obama and Iran. It carries no legal weight or significance. It is not a "treaty," which would have needed to be ratified by two thirds of the Senate. It never went through the Senate. It's a nod-nod, wink-wink of zero legal legitimacy. It is a water bucket made out of a window screen; it holds no water and was never intended to. It was intended to give the appearance of being a high-level agreement between two adversarial countries, designed to look as if it had been painstakingly negotiated on multiple occasions between the highest-ranking surrogates of each respective government. Both sides know that it's a nothingburger, and they have known that all along. But to President Obama's everlasting political credit, he skillfully lent the entire process an air of visual legitimacy, safe in the knowledge that his allies in the liberal media would never call it for what it was.

The Plan was for Hillary to follow Obama into the Oval Office. Sharing exactly his philosophies and intents, she'd preserve every executive order, protect every piece of shaky legislation that slithered through with nary a Republican vote, and continue the strategy of governing by Cabinet-level appointee. In this way, Obama's legacy  born mostly of legal shortcuts, legislative sleight-of-hand, and a lazy disregard for the tough work of across-the-aisle negotiation and honest compromise  would be cemented for all time.

Sometimes, lazy is good. Lazyman lobster and lazyman lasagne come to mind. But lazy isn't good for formulating and implementing presidential policy. President Obama didn't allow for the possibility of a President Trump succeeding him into office. Trump will undo Obama's entire shaky Jenga-esque policy tower, and all of Obama's precious "accomplishments"  ill-conceived, shoddily constructed, and condescendingly presented  will come tumbling down.
Thomas Lifson has correctly observed that reforming the Civil Service System ought to be a high priority for President-Elect Trump and the new Republican Congress.

We need to understand why the Civil Service System first created as a reform in how the federal government operated. "To the victors go the spoils" was the way Andrew Jackson put it almost 200 years ago. Jackson expressed the view that the president has the right  legal and moral  to throw out government employees and replace them with cronies.

The size of the federal government was proportionately much smaller then than today, and those political allies rewarded with jobs to deliver the mail or to collect tariffs seemed innocuous enough, at least until President Garfield was assassinated by a disgruntled federal office seeker in 1881. The Pendleton Act of 1883 created a system in which those who sought federal jobs, except for a layer of high-level executives, had to pass an objective hiring system.

The second part of Civil Service System reforms was to create protections that made it difficult  really, almost impossible  for any Civil Service System employee ever to lose his job. This is the heart of the problem. Presidents can fill the upper echelon of federal agencies with whomever they want (except for the few who require Senate confirmation), and presidents can fire these people easily enough as well. But no one  not even these high-level political appointees  can fire anyone.

Ironically, the problems with the spoils system had nothing to do with firing federal employees, but only with hiring federal employees. The right reform is simple enough: allow the president to fire any federal employee in the Executive Branch at will, but keep the system in place only for hiring through the Civil Service System.

A president would then have the power to fire lazy, dishonest, rude, or unnecessary federal employees, but he could have no power to fill those positions he caused by firing bad federal employees with his supporters or partisans. So if a federal employee took the Fifth Amendment in an investigation of federal malfeasance, something that Thomas Lifson correctly noted was intolerable, the next day, that employee could be told, "You can either refuse to answer questions or keep your federal job, but not both."

If President Trump brought in business experts to analyze federal operations and detect waste and inefficiency, then President Trump could do what he did so often in his reality television show and fire those who are unnecessary.

Anyone familiar with the internal operations of government knows that 30% is a conservative figure for the number of federal employees who do nothing. Allowing a tough, business-oriented president like Trump to dramatically reduce the size of the federal government would also reduce the cost of government  and all this could be done expeditiously.

Federal employees would instantly become not only more efficient, but more polite and responsive to the public (i.e., the folks who pay their salaries). More than that, coworkers in offices would strongly encourage politeness and civility, because the more complaints a particular office caused, the more likely that office would be to get a bad reputation, and people in that office would be fired.

What about the danger of a president forcing people to support him or lose their jobs? Civil servants ought to be completely apolitical anyway and ought not to contribute to any political campaign or to work for any candidate. If that was the case in practice, then the president could not know who did not support him and, because all hiring was objective and removed from the president's power, he could not hire any friends.

If the president could not reward anyone by firing a federal employee but could only punish the federal employee by firing him, he would have every incentive to be fair in firing federal employees. Politicians know that punishing voters loses votes not only because that voter, who may have supported the president, would be unhappy, but because every fired employee has family and friends and neighbors and congregants at his church, and firing an employee causes ill will among all those close to the fired employee.

This is a reform is easy to understand and would make sense to the American voter. Best of all, it would work. Civility, efficiency, and integrity in the administration of the federal government would improve almost at once.
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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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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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, ...

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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, ...

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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, ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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The souffle is a difficult dish to master. Even seasoned chefs can tell you that this very fragile, puffy delicacy will collapse if you open the oven at the wrong moment. Mirroring the vulnerability of the souffle, a nation of undergraduate and graduate students is on the verge of a hysterical collapse following Hillary Clintons loss to Donald Trump.

Just as the frustrated chefs anxiety comes from the perpetually delicate souffle, the educators anxiety comes from a perpetually delicate generation of students. Post-election safe spaces abound at campuses nationwide, where mollycoddled students are offered coloring books and puppies (not a joke), and administrators implicitly signal to the campus minority that voted for Trump that their political philosophy is damaging to their eggshell peers.

My own law school sent an email offering group stress-relief and individual therapy sessions to grieving students. The higher-tiered University of Michigan law school one-upped us, though, by providing a [p]ost-election [s]elf-care session replete with play-dough, Legos, and bubbles.

If my school had only asked, I could have brought all those items in. Although it mightve taken a while to find the play-dough, which is kept in storage with the rest of my 10-year-old daughters old toys that shes outgrown.

After receiving that email from my law school, my wife explained the souffle-making process to me, which I thought was quite the apt analogy, given college students exaggerated victimhood:

Whipping egg whites, the first step in achieving a perfectly rising souffle is a sensitive task. Egg whites are particularly touchy, and so the bowl must be pristine. One drop of fat or oil in your mixing bowls and they won't whip.

Sarah Klotz, a Butte College assistant professor, recognized that her post-election egg whites no longer felt their school was the pristine bowl it was meant to be. In place of a planned lesson on Emily Dickinson, her 25 students would instead talk about their feelings.

The structure seems strong and high-walled, but is very dainty and must be handled extremely delicately.

Wrestling with defeat, 150 Rice University students clasped hands, hooked arm in arm, and formed a circular wall of anti-Trump solidarity. The student who organized that event encouraged the maudlin display by saying [y]our voice is wanted, it is desired. Lets spend a few moments locking arms, holding hands, and feel like one big family.

It must have perfect conditions, if there's even one small element that it doesn't approve of, the structure will not hold.

Eerily, University of Denver has placed a surveillance camera to keep watch over its free speech wall, following the defacement of a Black Lives Matter message and the addition of lyrics from the Minor Threat song Guilty of Being White. In the spirit of chilling speech, the university explained that [anonymity] allows one to disrupt community standards without facing the impact and accountability of their work A camera has been put in place to monitor The Wall.

You might recall the anti-authoritarian Pink Floyd album (also named) The Wall: We dont need no education. We dont need no thought control.

But credit given where credit is due, you must hand it to the University of Denver. The school is apparently running a master class in irony.

A professor of mine argues that this is a problem of bad priorities, that schools simply shouldnt bother obsessing over students psychological health, because that isnt a schools prime task. Students are apprentices and have no right to participate in the shaping of their instruction.

That seems to me to be intuitively correct. But its like saying if that frog had wings, he wouldnt bump his ass when he hops. In practice, academia has shifted schools curriculums, over time, to teach courses that wont help students pay back their loans, let alone live the economic life of their parents generation. It might not matter if useful courses were forced on them, because students are so emotionally frail they dont believe they should have midterms or low grades anymore.

It puffs up with air.

Economic security is not the sole purpose of education, of course, but many courses arent teaching anything intrinsically valuable either. Ill concede that many subjects are worth learning, even if they wont get you a job. (Nobodys hiring an interior decorator because they have a masterful knowledge of The Federalist Papers.) But when UPenn, which costs $69,340 to attend, offered a course called Wasting Time on the Internet, there was nothing valuable being offered, economically or intellectually.

There are a few ways the problem of oversensitive and poorly performing students might be solved. First, federal loan programs ought to provide disincentives for majors with low returns (like gender studies). A limited number of tuition loan applications should be granted, with each area of study receiving a higher or lower rate of approval for loans depending on how graduates in that area perform after graduating from a given school. This would mean that if only eight graduates with gender studies degrees from Butte College ever went on to get jobs, that only eight federal tuition loans would be approved in that whole college for that major thereafter, until graduates employment prospects improved.

Finally, for those special few who are genuinely talented, a specialized exam could be created to assess their ability in a specific field before they even attended college. If a kid scored a 100% on such an exam, lets say in the subject of physics, he would be able to get a loan to study physics. If a kid scored 100% on the same exam but in philosophy, he would still get his loan to study philosophy. The same principle of qualification by examination could be extended to grad school applicants. And then real talent, even in liberal arts, still has an opportunity.

(This is all accepting that federal loans exist. Principally, I believe the very existence of the federal loan program is a big problem.)

More importantly, kids would begin to understand again that attending school is a privilege and not a right. Otherwise, well just be left with the university souffle: high-rising, filled with hot air, and only one loudmouth president-elect away from falling apart.

Alex Grass is a fellow at the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy at Cardozo Law School. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Gina, and his two children, Joseph and Lucia.
Donald Trump's upset victory is being attributed to many factors, from Hillary Clinton being a corrupt and flawed candidate to the rise of the angry white male. Never mind that Trump secured more white women support than did Clinton. Maybe it was due to the FBI investigations and Director Comey's schizophrenic opening and closing the investigations. Maybe it was Anthony Weiner entering the race with State Department emails on his laptop. Or the endless WikiLeaks revelations.

What really gave Trump his victory is one person: Barack Obama. This election was nothing less than a complete and total repudiation of his presidency, his policies, his "fundamental transformation of America" that he promised and delivered.

Let's go back to 2008, the year Barack Obama was elected as the first black president, promising hope and change, along with a fundamental transformation of the country  transformation that was in the eye of the beholder. He would be the first post-racial president, mending the racial divide that had ironically already healed enough for America to elect its first black president. The economy was in turmoil after the financial meltdown a few months earlier. He was new. He was "articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," according to his vice president. He even had the "perfect crease in his pants," foreshadowing a great presidency to a New York Times columnist.

The 2008 election not only gave us President Obama, but gave the Democrats a majority of state governorships, 29 to 21. That year, Democrats also controlled the Senate, 58-41, a seven-seat gain. Democrats gained 21 House seats, increasing their control 257 to 178. At the state level, Democrats also won big, controlling both houses of state legislatures in 27 states. Democrats were on the bow of the Titanic, shouting, "I'm king of the world."

After Al Franken won a contested election and Arlen Specter became a Democrat, the Senate then had a filibuster-proof 60-seat Senate majority, leaving the Democrats and their leader, Barack Obama, with complete control of the reins of power. It was similar to handing Democrats Aladdin's lamp with unlimited wishes.

The first order of business was passage of Obamacare, without a single Republican vote. Republicans were shut out, sitting in the locker room while the Democrats were out on the field. The president, ever gracious and conciliatory, told his Republican opponents two simple words, which set the tone for the next eight years: "I won."

That was then. What happened over those eight years?

Obamacare. Economy in the doldrums. Record-low labor participation rate. Anemic economic growth. Iran's nuke program. Benghazi. Egypt. Syria. Iraq. Terrorism on U.S. soil. An open border. Unvetted and non-assimilating immigrants. A shrinking middle class. Arrogance from the ruling class, media, Hollywood, and academia. Political correctness beyond even what George Orwell envisioned. This is the real Obama legacy, the promised "fundamental transformation of America."

Along came Donald Trump, a brash and at times crude businessman and TV reality show host. Of all the 17 GOP candidates, it was Trump who recognized most clearly the state of Obama's fundamental transformation. He was also the one who succinctly articulated what needed to be done to fix it. Build the wall. Extreme vetting of immigrants. Better trade deals. Corrupt government agencies. Crooked Hillary. Making America great again. Everything the polar opposite of the Obama agenda.

A more moderate Obama presidency would not have transformed the country in such a radical way  more like a Bill Clinton presidency, which was decidedly liberal but not radical in the way of Obama's tenure. Bill Clinton was succeeded by a Republican president, but barely in a very close election. George W. Bush was not Donald Trump. He preached "compassionate conservatism," which was a different direction from the previous presidency, but not the bold new course advocated by Trump.

What has Obama's electoral legacy given us? The Republicans now control the Senate, 51 to 48. The House 238 to 193. Democrats control the lowest number of state legislatures in history. The GOP controls 31 governor's offices and 31 secretary of state offices. Republicans have majorities in 69 of 99 legislative chambers.

In summary, "[u]nder President Obama, Democrats have lost 900+ state legislature seats, 12 governors, 69 House seats, 13 Senate seats," according to GOP operative Rory Cooper.

This is the total annihilation of the Democratic Party. As a CNN commentator observed, "[w]ho thought Obama's legacy would be the destruction of the Democratic Party?" The Democrats paved the way for Donald Trump and Republican control of the White House and Congress.

It was the Obama agenda on the ballot last week. Hillary Clinton's corruption was a sideshow. The main act was Obama, as he himself told us: "Obama warned that while his name would not be on the ballot in November, all of the progress that the country has made over the last eight years was on the line." One man's progress is another man's calamity.

Indeed, it was Obama's "progress" on the ballot  "progress" that was already apparent four years ago but that Mitt Romney could not articulate and offer a rebuttal to. Donald Trump had the answer this cycle and prevailed. It's a healthy dose of antiseptic on the festering sore in Washington, D.C.

The Democrats, in disarray and chaos after their trouncing at the ballot box, are full of blame and excuses. The Russians. James Comey. Rogue FBI agents. WikiLeaks. Anthony Weiner. Anything except the real reason they lost: the legacy of Barack Obama.

Brian C Joondeph, M.D., MPS, is a Denver-based physician and writer. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
In his "Ballad of a Thin Man," our newest Nobel laureate, Bob Dylan, famously wrote, Something is happening here / but you dont know what it is / do you, Mister Jones? He was writing about a would-be interviewer from Time magazine who couldnt grasp the changing zeitgeist of 1965. He could write the same song today about nearly any mainstream journalist covering the 2016 election.

Hillarys defeat is unfathomable to the media, and they are virtually inconsolable. They went to bat for her  lied, concealed and distorted the truth just as she had done  disgracing themselves and their profession gladly for the cause. Why wouldnt the deplorables listen to them?

This is the victory of the uneducated and uninformed, proclaimed leftist journalism professor Jeff Jarvis, whose elitism tells more about the sorry state of American journalism than hes capable of realizing. I fear that journalism is irredeemably broken, a failure. My profession failed to inform the public about the fascist they are electing. Yeah, this idiot teaches young people.

Brian Stelter on CNNs Reliable Sources (they really call it that) agreed with the failure nonsense. This was a collective failure  a failure of imagination. In some ways, a mass delusion. And the media contributed to it.

Whos really deluded? What except bias, arrogance, and incompetence can explain the near universal failure of the media to understand the obvious undercurrents affecting this election?

Or what about journalists steadfast refusal to see Hillary Clinton as the God-awful candidate she was? One of Trumps recurring statements  that Hillary is the most corrupt person ever to run for president  was never addressed by the media, let alone refuted. They couldnt refute it, but why did its truth not matter to them?

They let Clinton shirk the press for a year. She never answered any real questions. They continue to project her as a worthy applicant for president, ignoring the bald-faced lies, the unethical and likely criminal behaviors, and all the other seedy  and disqualifying  baggage she and Bill lug around from scandal to scandal. Besides that, she rigged a primary and ran a filthy, mean-spirited campaign of lies, name-calling, and identity hatred. What did she even stand for other than ambition and entitlement?

Misreading the electorate, slandering voters as deluded racists, covering up the wretchedness of Hillary and her associates, and then openly trashing the results of an honest election have real consequences. Look in the streets. Or in our classrooms.

Americans are fed up with journalistic malfeasance. They dont care what reporters think about anything. They want them to do their jobs. They want reliable information. This is a struggle over the very soul of journalism.

The public wants a national press that is unbiased, neutral, and independent of the political establishment and the powers that be. Americans are getting the opposite, and tens of millions of them no longer trust the media or patronize their products. Why subscribe to a newspaper when you cant trust whats written in it?

Remarkably, journalists dont seem to care. They agree with Hillary. The masses are deplorable. Most of their customers are deluded and racist, and their rejection is a validation of journalists own superiority. Theyre ahead of the curve. Everyone else is behind.

Thats a helluva business philosophy for an industry in catastrophic decline. Newspaper and magazine industries have collapsed, the audience for network news has shrunk by over 50 percent in 30 years (and gotten considerably older), and media trust and favorability are at historic lows.

The more the industry declines, the more one area grows: bias. It has noticeably accelerated during the Obama years as progressivism becomes more dominant and assertive.

But journalists cant see that, either. A report on media bias from the Poynter Institute just before the election concluded: There is no evidence of monolithic liberal or conservative bias in the newspaper industry.

These tiresome denials of bias had zero credibility before the election. Now? Forget about it.

Lets make this simple: if you can't see bias in the media youre either a liar or an imbecile. In either case, youre unqualified to be a journalist.

Dont expect any genuine post-election soul-searching or real reform. Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., the publisher of the countrys leading newspaper, the New York Times, wrote an unusual letter to his readers this weekend (a letter that may or may not be an apology for the Times disgraceful election coverage). In it he stated, We believe we reported on both candidates fairly during the presidential campaign.

He doesnt say exactly when during the campaign this fair reporting occurred, or whether it was intentional. But he does pledge to cover the Trump presidency with the same fairness. Exactly the same, no doubt.
Democrats are fighting each other after the Hillary loss because the lefties, or progressives, believe the party is not lefty enough. The lefties believe they lost because Hillary was not "progressive" enough. They want to take over the party's domestic agenda just as the McGovernites after 1972 took over the foreign policy and national security agenda.

The Hill reported on November 12, 2016:

Progressives believe the Democratic establishment is responsible for inflicting Donald Trump upon the nation, blaming a staid corporate wing of the party for nominating Hillary Clinton and ignoring the Working Class voters that propelled Trump to victory[.]

Lefties do not accept that Hillary lost because she is corrupt and has been investigated by the FBI for the past year, nor do they accept that the Democratic Party has lost the white male vote. Trump appealed to workers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin who have lost jobs due to NAFTA, free trade, excessive regulation by federal agencies, and high corporate taxes. Coal miners lost jobs due to the Obama-Hillary war on coal. Hillary supports partial-birth abortion up to the last minute before birth, which did not attract Catholic and Evangelical voters. These are all policies favored by the left and Hillary.

The Hill reported that former Colorado Democrat senator Ken Salazar, in charge of the Hillary transition team, said:

Democrats have not done very well in rural America and I don't understand why that has happened. The broader question is how to have a Democratic Party that can attract those working men and women.

Democrats do not understand why they did not do well in rural America and why they did not attract working men and women? How about not calling them deplorables and bitter people who cling to their guns and religion?

Pew Research reported on November 9, 2016 on the presidential election vote by race and religion. Trump won the white evangelical vote, the white Catholic vote, and the white men with no college vote by large margins. The Democrats now wish to further alienate these groups by advocating for late-term abortions, unisex bathrooms, and more free trade.

The Democrats further alienated these white voters by calling them racists who voted for a "white backlash," according to Van Jones at CNN. This makes no sense, because Hillary is white. If there were a white backlash, it would have occurred when Obama ran.

Hillary's and the Democrats' push for a 100% domestic "progressive" left agenda is similar to the aftermath of the 1972 election, when the McGovernites took over the Democratic Party's foreign policy and national security agenda. For example, the Democrats abandoned South Vietnam, allowing North Vietnam to conquer it. Carter abandoned the Shah, which allowed Khomeini to take over Iran. Iran then captured our embassy and held Americans hostage, with no adequate response from Carter. Clinton then failed to respond to the attacks on the World Trade Center (1993), the USS Cole, the two African embassies, the Khobar Towers, and Sudan's offer of Osama Bin Laden himself.

Obama and Hillary continued this weakness by announcing a withdrawal from Afghanistan, which allowed the terrorists to wait us out while killing Americans. Obama compounded this folly by withdrawing from Iraq without a Status of Forces agreement to leave troops to preserve our victory, thus allowing ISIS to gain control. This led to more terrorist attacks in our country. Benghazi and the Iran nuclear surrender are the latest examples.

"Progressives," led by Elizabeth Warren, want to match the McGovernites by taking complete control of the domestic agenda of the Democratic Party.

This is good news for Republicans because they will win more elections.

It is bad for the country because the Democratic Party is totally dominated by leftist ideologues. It is weak on foreign policy and national security to defend our country, but it favors a powerful nanny state regulating our lives. It is difficult to see how the Democrats can move farther left.
Warning! Microaggressions ahead!

The president of the University of Virginia had the gall to quote Thomas Jefferson in a letter to the Snowflakes at her school in an effort to reassure them about the election that so traumatized them:

Thomas Jefferson wrote to a friend that University of Virginia students are not of ordinary significance only: they are exactly the persons who are to succeed to the government of our country, and to rule its future enmities, its friendships and fortunes, Sullivan said in the email. I encourage todays U.Va. students to embrace that responsibility.

Sounds benign enough to me, balm to those fragile souls. Not so! cried various professors of politics; psychology; women, gender, and sexuality; wounded self-esteem; terminal self-preening; haughty superiority; prancing solipsism; snotty self-regard; and various other academic disciplines.

A gaggle of professors and students sent a letter, drafted by assistant psychology professor Noelle Hurd, to University president Teresa Sullivan to voice their disapproval:

We would like for our administration to understand that although some members of this community may have come to this university because of Thomas Jefferson's legacy, others of us came here in spite of it.

Sorry, children, is it ignorance or stupidity? If it were not for Thomas Jefferson, no one, diverse or otherwise, would attend UVA. At all. The man founded the school. Is the university supposed to be a seat of learning  ya know, like, totally into imparting of knowledge, or an extended bull session where the professors trade their bull with the students?

This is a complex issue but members of our community are intelligent and compassionate enough to be able to wrestle with this history and decide how we want to move forward as an institution that welcomes all.

Tell us, Professor Hurd: how thoroughly have you thought through your position? For example, would it be inappropriate to quote the Declaration of Independence in any context? What about the Constitution? Do you object to quotations from anyone who owned slaves? Should the University of Virginia be a Founder-free zone?

On this showing, you and all who signed your letter are not intelligent enough to wrestle with this history.

Henry Percy is the nom de guerre of a writer in Arizona. He may be reached at saler.50d[at]gmail.com.
During his press conference on Monday, November 14, 2016, Obama said he did not have any "significant" scandals in his administration. I thought I was watching a conservative version of Saturday Night Live satirizing him.

The Guardian reported that Obama said:

... One of the things that you discover as president is that there are all these rules and norms and laws ... and the people that work for you are also subject to these rules and norms[.] ... I am very proud that we have been able to leave this administration without significant scandal[.] ... I will put this administration against any administration in history, and the reason is because frankly we listened to the lawyers. We had ... people in every agency."

Obama presided over the Hillary email scandal that was investigated by the FBI. We learned through WikiLeaks that Obama knew that Hillary was using a private unsecured email server. According to the FBI's Director James Comey, Hillary was extremely negligent and weakened our national security. Obama lied when he said he did not know that Hillary was using a private server. This is not significant? Did Obama consult with lawyers about the email server?

Obama presided over IRS harassing conservative groups. This is not significant?

Obama presided over Fast and Furious, sending weapons to Mexico that resulted in the deaths of about 300 Mexicans and two Americans, Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata. This is not significant?

Of course, none of the lapdog media asked Obama if he checked with the "lawyers" about Hillary using a private email server, nor did they ask why the email scandal, the IRS scandal, and Fast and Furious are not significant.

Bill Clinton lectured us the meaning of "is." Obama is lecturing us about the meaning of "significant."

Obama is truly worried about his legacy.
The 2016 election was a major defeat for Big Labor and forced unionization. As the results get further dissected, the magnitude of the defeat inflicted on the liberal agenda becomes more apparent with each passing day, especially when down-ballot results are analyzed.

One aspect has to do with the right-to-work, which was well articulated by Chantal Lovell and F. Vincent Vernuccio in a Wall Street Journal piece. Here is a summary of what they saw.

Since 2012, four states have enacted right-to-work legislation, bringing to 26 the number of states that are RTW. However, at least three additional states came close, but the effort was defeated by intransigent Democrats who have now been swept away.

1. In Missouri, the legislature passed right-to-work by strong majorities (92-66 in the House and 21-13 in the Senate),but the effort was vetoed by Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat. Nixon has been term-limited, and his hoped for successor was defeated on Nov. 8. The Republican governor-elect, Eric Greitens, is for right-to-work.

2. In New Hampshire, the story is similar. In 2011, the legislature passed right-to-work, but then Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat, vetoed the bill. But the 2016 election will usher in Republican Chris Sununu as governor, and he looks favorably on RTW. The odds are looking up for the Granite State to be the first New England state with right-to-work protection for its workers.

3. Last year in Kentucky, RTW passed the state senate but stalled out in the assembly. But now, for the first time in nearly a century, the GOP has taken firm control of both houses. On top of that, Gov. Matt Bevin has said in a post-election op-ed that right-to-work is one of his priorities for 2017.

Other states may well harbor RTW aspirations in the near future. Ohio would be a natural one. Republicans control both houses of the legislature and even have a supermajority in the Assembly. Unfortunately, GOP Gov. John Kasich has historically been hostile to RTW.

Then there is the question of whether coerced union membership of public-sector workers violates a person's First Amendment rights. This is a matter before the courts. As Lovell and Vernuccio point out:

That case could be Janbus v. Afscme which is currently being appealed to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. It also hinges on the argumnet that forcing public employees to pay a fee for a union as a condition of employment violates the first Ameddment. If the Supreme Court, with President Trump's nominees in place, accepts that line of thinking, it could free government workers nationwide from forced unionism.

A Supreme Court ruling here reaffirming First Amendment rights would ripple through the entire public sector, which up until now has been the only growth area for unionization.

Also, there is the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal government's top labor arbiter. The NLRB is a quasi-judicial body that decides labor questions. It is a powerful entity that the Obama administration has skewed to the left.

Since 2010, the NLRB has been staffed by a majority of pro-union Democratic appointees by the Obama administration. During that time, the agency has overturned decades of precedents to allow for ambush elections, micro-unions, and liability for franchisers -- all of which have been criticized by labor attorneys and congress as hand outs to labor unions.

As a Trump administration makes appointments to the NLRB, its composition will change from one being radically pro-union to a balanced membership that doesn't believe that its mandate is to always bend over backward to accommodate Big Labor.

The combination of all the above will drastically change the favorable environment in which unions have operated for the longest time. The government's thumb on the scale for unions will shrink. This will be painful for the union bosses and the Democratic Party, which receives massive funding from unions. But as Barack Obama lectured congressional Republicans in 2009 soon after his election victory, "Elections have consequences." Thank you, Mister President. That is something you and I can agree on.

Yes, November 8 was an earthquake defeat for Big Labor, and its effects and aftershocks will ripple well into the future. Let 'em roll.
Donald Trump's plan to deport criminal illegal aliens may hit a roadblock in cities that have declared themselves sanctuaries for illegals.

The mayors of several big cities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officials in deporting illegal aliens who commit a crime have vowed to continue the practice of nullification even under the threat of a cut-off of funds.

The battle lines have been drawn, and the cities are daring the Trump administration and the GOP Congress to make good on their threats.

In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is vowing to continue the practice of non-compliance with federal immigration authorities.

Politico:

On Monday, Chicago's elected officials, including Mayor Rahm Emanuel, are expected to hold a news conference to formally discuss how the city will retain its sanctuary status. Aldermen are expected to call on Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner to pressure Trump to back off his vow to interfere with funding. Across the country and in Chicago and Illinois ... young men and women [are] very distraught about this, Chicago Alderman Danny Solis told POLITICO Illinois on Sunday. Solis is among those planning to attend the news conference with Emanuel. "Theres some people, though I disagree with them, but I have some respect for  Paul Ryan, Reince Priebus," Solis said, referring to the House speaker and the RNC chairman who will serve as Trump's chief of staff. "Im hoping that those guys have much more influence on Trump and what needs to be done not only on his first 100 days, but in his term." Illinois Comptroller-elect Susana Mendoza, whose parents are Mexican immigrants, called on Rauner to take a stand on the issue. As a leader of this state, the governor, and everyone in a leadership position, should be saying its wrong, Mendoza told POLITICO Illinois on Sunday. I would expect that the governor would say, thats ridiculous. Besides moral bankruptcy, its bad fiscal policy for the city or any city. The move is largely motivated by elected officials who say theyve heard from terrified residents, including so-called Dreamers (children whose parents entered the country illegally), who fear imminent deportation. On Sunday, Emanuels office released a statement directing those with questions or in need of legal resources to call 311. I want to assure all of our families that Chicago is and will remain a sanctuary city, Emanuel said in a statement. Chicago has been a city of immigrants since it was founded. We have always welcomed people of all faiths and backgrounds, and while the administration will change, our values and our commitment to inclusion will not. Since Tuesdays election, other cities that have affirmed their commitment to remaining sanctuaries include New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Philadelphia and San Francisco.

You will note that the mayors refuse to differentiate between illegal aliens and legal immigrants. No one is advocating we deport people who are here legally. Hysteria is being ginned up by the mayors and others over this issue because they find it politically advantageous to refuse to distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants, thus scaring all immigrants.

But cutting funding to these cities is a delicate matter. To do it legally, the funds have to be connected to the issue. One example is cutting highway funds to states who didn't adopt the 0.08 blood alcohol level for drunk drivers.

ABC News:

Since states and cities can't be required to enforce federal law  and there's no federal law requiring police to ask about a person's immigration status  it's likely that any Trump effort to crack down on sanctuary cities would focus on those that refuse to comply with ICE requests, said Roy Beck, chief executive of NumbersUSA, which wants to see immigration levels reduced. It's also unclear what money Trump might pull from the cities. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that for Congress to impose conditions on the receipt of federal money by the states, the conditions must be reasonably related to the purpose of the money. For example, the feds threatened to withhold highway funds from any state that failed to adopt a 0.08 blood-alcohol limit: Both the limit and the highway funding were related to road safety. "If the funding is for improving childhood education, it's hard to say that's reasonably related to local law enforcement cooperation with deportations," said Mary Fan, a University of Washington Law School professor. That said, the U.S. Justice Department's inspector general looked at some jurisdictions with sanctuary policies earlier this year and concluded some appear to violate a federal law that says state and local governments may not prohibit or restrict officials from sharing information about a person's immigration status with federal immigration officials. Having such policies could jeopardize millions of dollars in DOJ grant money the jurisdictions receive, the IG memo said. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, which also calls for lower immigration levels, about 300 jurisdictions around the country have sanctuary-like policies. "The result is people who should be deported, who have come to the attention of police because of crime, are released back into the community," said the group's director of policy studies, Jessica Vaughan.

One potential target to cut funding that has been discussed in past Congresses is refusing to supply matching funds to sanctuary city police departments. This is probably legal, but the downside is that those matching funds are needed for public safety. The money not only goes for new equipment and maintenance, but also helps pay for additional police officers. Ordinary citizens would suffer the consequences of fewer cops on the beat if Congress cut the funds.

There is federal money that's sent to cities that's spent on immigration issues, but it's not enough to make those mayors feel the consequences of their defiance.

The fact is, this refusal to enforce the law is nothing less than nullification  the act of a state or local government refusing to enforce laws that Congress says it must enforce. It may be that cities don't have to enforce some federal immigration laws, but there is no doubt, as the Justice Department I.G. reported, that their cooperation in determining the immigration status of some illegals is required.

For 40 years, cities have thumbed their nose at federal immigration law with no consequences. That's about to change. And if these cities still refuse to obey the law after funding has been cut, President Trump should consider sending in either armies of federal immigration agents or the military to force compliance. Eisenhower did it. Kennedy did it. The precedent has been set. Trump should put these cities on notice that here on out, their defiance will have consequences.
Stephen Bannon's appointment as chief strategist for Donald Trump has triggered a disturbing surge of whiteophobia in the media. Whiteophobia is the irrational fear of white people and the fear that white people might do you harm, even in a white-majority country where Asian and African-like massacres, rapes, and genocide are unknown; even in a country where tens of millions of non-white immigrants flood through the borders; even in a country where white rulers have been doing their best for decades to make America as non-white as possible through unchecked immigration.

Witness this typical whiteophobic response in the Huffington Post, the go-to source for white liberals whose unending guilt for their Caucasian birth torments them like a hot poker under the driver's seat of a Prius:

At Breitbart, Bannon helped make the hardline populist website a go-to resource for white nationalists and the alt-right, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups [as long as they are white].

What exactly is a "white nationalist"? It is defined by people who are attached to the concept of a "white nation." Well, America is a white-majority nation (still). It was a white nation in its founding and has been overwhelmingly so for centuries. But the HuffPo seems to mean it in a pejorative way, preferring white people over people of other races, perhaps like "Black Lives Matter" and "La Raza" (which means "The Race").

But what has Bannon's Breitbart published that has promoted the "white race"?

Breitbart has propagated conspiracy theories, like Planned Parenthood having Nazi ties ...

Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, has been quoted talking about eliminating genetically "unfit" people through abortions.

... or Clinton aide Huma Abedin being a spy for Saudi Arabia.

There is no evidence that Huma has ever been a spy; all we know is that her family has ties to the terrorist group the Muslim Brotherhood. In any event, what does accusing Abedin have to do with "white nationalism"? Nothing.

Let's play along and accept for the moment that Breitbart published misogynist stories. If true, what would that have to do with "white nationalism"? Nothing. How can white nationalism exist without white women?

As for portraying "people of color" and "immigrants" as "inherently criminal," Breitbart has not done that. What it has done is report on the epidemic of black-on-black crime, and crime caused by refugees and illegal immigrants. Does reporting facts make one a "white nationalist"?

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) spokesman Adam Jentleson said Trump's choice of Bannon "signals that White Supremacists will be represented at the highest levels in Trump's White House. " "It is easy to see why the KKK views Trump as their champion," he added.

Actually, it is easier to see Harry Reid's longtime support for Ku Klux Klan leader and fellow Democrat Senator Robert Byrd as evidence of support for White Supremacists at the highest levels of the Democratic Party.

The whiteophobic response to Bannon's appointment is troubling. I think the HuffPo's problem with Bannon is about not alleged white supremacy, but his history of failing to kowtow to all the left's sacred cows  feminists, illegal aliens, Middle Eastern refugees.

Just think about the double standard: when a Muslim massacres white people, liberals are the first to say, "Don't blame Muslims! Oh, no, we worry about Islamophobia!" But when a white person even says something deemed insensitive, we never hear liberals say, "Most white people are good! We worry about a backlash against white people!" Instead we have (had) people like Hillary Clinton saying, in a presidential debate, that most people (presumably whites) have racism in them.

Question for discussion:

1) If liberals could go out of their personal bubbles and actually have contact with white people who don't feel guilty about being white, do you think that might counteract their whiteophobia?

2) Do you think a community awareness workshop conducted in a non-triggering safe space could cure liberals of their whiteophobia?

Ed Straker is the senior writer at NewsMachete.com.
The ugliness, the hate, the narrow-mindedness, the violence, the authoritarianism of the liberal left unleashed by the election of Donald J. Trump (R), despised by the self-proclaimed dealers of peace, tolerance, love, and open-mindedness, as documented here by Carol Brown and other right-thinking media (and minimized by the so-called mainstream media), is revealing.

Remember, this isn't the alt liberal-left  the fringe. These are the feelings, the attitudes, and the beliefs of a substantial proportion of liberals. After all, President Barack Hussein Obama (D) and other elected Democrats haven't condemned these violent snowflakes. Dominating the culture for so long, these lefties thought they could do anything and get away with it. But they can't.

For instance, Matt Harrigan, CEO of cyber-security firm PacketSled, is, like most of the Silicon Valley executives, bright but arrogant and condescending to those who disagree with him. Despite Harrigan's wishes, Trump was elected. And so Harrigan publicly announced he would assassinate Trump. Although most of the original statements and tweets have since been deleted, Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit captured the ugliness in a series of screen shots.

Not surprisingly many of the liberal left, in all its non-peace-loving, narrow-minded glory, approved.

But others didn't, so Harrigan offered a weak apology, blaming those offended for being offended at his mighty, superior self.

My recent facebook comment was intended to be a joke, in the context of a larger conversation, and only privately shared as such. Anyone who knows me, knows that I do not engage in this form of rhetoric with any level of seriousness and the comment most certainly does not represent my real personal views in any regard. I apologize if anything that I said was either taken seriously, was offensive, or caused any legitimate concern. Best Regards, Matt Harrigan

Threatening to kill anyone, especially a public figure such as a president, is not funny. Other PacketSled executives were not amused, immediately notifying the Secret Service of Harrigan's statements  just as he wished  and placing him on "administrative leave."

PacketSled takes recent comments made by our CEO, seriously. Once we were made aware of these comments, we immediately reported this information to the secret service and will cooperate fully with any inquiries. These comments do not reflect the views or opinions of PacketSled, its employees, investors or partners. Our CEO has been placed on administrative leave.

He should be fired for damaging the reputation and potential worth of the company. With no apologies.

Update, from packetsled.com:

The PacketSled Board of Directors accepted the resignation of President and CEO Matthew Harrigan, effective immediately. Fred Wilmot, the companys Chief Technology Officer, will serve as interim CEO while the Board of Directors conducts a search for a permanent replacement. We want to be very clear, PacketSled does not condone the comments made by Mr. Harrigan, which do not reflect the views or opinions of the company, its employees, investors or partners.

Thomas Lifson adds: This will encourage other liberals to behave themselves, as Voltaire wrote in Candide:
When the ancient Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were unearthed from under volcanic ash at the foothills of Mount Vesuvius, in the mid-18th century, the materials that emerged from the digs brought to light a certain aspect of the ancient world that caused great deal of embarrassment the cities fascination with erotica. This was not the odd nude sculpture, but phallic shaped oils lamps and items of jewelry, frescoes of couples engaging in sex, scenes of fornications, and the most scandalous of them all a statue depicting the half-man, half-goat Greek god Pan penetrating a female goat.

Today, it is well known that the ancient Romans had a very liberal view on sexuality, and that Pompeii boasted a large sex industry with dozens of brothels whose walls were adorned with erotic frescoes. Artistic depiction of sex was also found on the walls of bedrooms in private villas. Phallic-shaped amulets hung from the neck of Pompeii residents to ward of evil spirits, and an assortment of sex-themed artworks embellished every home.

The candid display of sexually explicit materials caused such great embarrassment and consternation among the 18th century public, that King Charles III of Bourbon ordered the obscene antiquities to be locked away in a secret cabinet, away from public view.

The secret cabinet or gabinetto segreto was originally located at Museum Herculanense in Portici, and only those with express written permission from the King were allowed to view it. But the censorship only fueled the desire to see the erotic art. Illustrations of the frescoes and copies of the banned exhibits were clandestinely reproduced and circulated among the French elites.

After the transfer of the museum from Portici to what is today the Naples National Archaeological Museum, a short period followed during which the collection could be seen without special restrictions, until King Francis I of Naples paid a visit in 1819 with his wife and daughter. The embarrassed king hastily ushered away his wife and daughter and ordered the museum to lock away the collection inside a special chamber, where only gentleman of mature age and respected morals could get access to. Women and children were barred from entering.

For the next two hundred years, the Secret Museum remained mostly closed, opening briefly for only a few number of times. When it opened during the 1960s, the restrictions were still in place. Finally in 2000, the collection was brought out and made publicly available for both men and women.

Sources: www.naplesldm.com / Wikipedia / holeinthedonut.com / Feast on History
Instagram, Facebooks photograph sharing social network, has been changing its look and feel, shoring up its corporate and business features, and aiming to broaden its appeal in the last twelve months. Today, the modern Instagram service has over 500 million regular users, a little under half that of Facebook or WhatsApp, and has proven a more robust advertising platform for some businesses compared with Twitter. And as more people start to use the Instagram service, so more and more companies are starting to use the platform. The news today is that Android now has an Instagram account and has put up an initial six posts to form a Hello World collage image. These six posts consist of four images and two videos, showing an animation of the Android waving.

@Androids Hello World harks back to many peoples first program written and the images show off parts of the Android ecosystem. The posts show of a collection of Android devices  the Google Pixel, Google Nexus 6P, the last tablet device released in the shape of the Google Pixel C and two Android Wear devices. We also see Android Auto and Android Pay referenced and plenty of references to a number of Android platform names, such as donuts, jelly beans, lollipops, marshmallows and of course, some nougat as well. It appears that Android are setting up their account to cover all things Android-related, which of course would make sense. However, until the account starts publishing more media, we cannot be sure how Google will be using this new outlet.

Nevertheless, the introduction of @Android, combined with Instagrams improved business systems and of course the growing audience for the photo-sharing social network, ties in well. Instagram started setting up their service to better allow businesses to cater for customers questions, to better understand how people interact with their account and of course, to help them find more customers. These features included giving Instagram customers the ability to better contact the business account via calling, texting or emailing. Instagram have also made it easier for businesses to promote their services and have incorporated the Insights system to allow businesses to understand their customer needs. Despite Android commanding almost 90% of all smartphone sales, and of course being backed by Googles search engine, its likely the company will be using at least some of Instagrams business features. At the time of writing, the @Android account only has a small number of followers. This may not change much until the company start publishing posts and word gets out.
Do you tend to snore or grind your teeth while sleeping and your significant other is less than pleased with that fact? In that case, you may want to check out a new anti-snore wearable called  the Anti-Snore Wearable. This curious device just hit Kickstarter a couple of days ago and is off to a good start as it has raised just over 13,000 in pledges in less than 48 hours. It still has a long way to go to reach its 100,000 goal, but its obvious that theres some demand for an Internet of Things (IoT) device such as this one.

The Anti-Snore Wearable was developed by a Dutch startup Sleep.ai and is based on a relatively simple concept. The armband detects when you start snoring or grinding your teeth and starts vibrating in order to get you to turn over. As it turns out, most people snore and grind their teeth when theyre sleeping on their back so this physical stimulus should prevent most people from waking up their significant others by making them turn to their side. Interestingly enough, the microphone which detects unwanted sleeping behavior isnt installed in the armband itself. Instead, the Anti-Snore Wearable connects to your Android smartphone with a dedicated app which listens for snoring and grinding sounds. In other words, you have to keep your phone next to your bed in order for this invention to work properly.

The said companion app is aptly titled Do I Snore and is currently available for download from the Google Play Store free of charge. In other words, you can already use it to see whether youre snoring or grinding your teeth while sleeping which should help you figure out whether the Anti-Snore Wearable is something youll want to buy once it hits the market. Speaking of which, Sleep.ai estimates that their creation will start shipping to Super Early Bird backers next June while everyone else will get it in July. Ordering the Anti-Snore Wearable by pledging to its Kickstarter campaign will set you back 69. For that price, youll get a single unit which Sleep.ai will ship anywhere in the world at no additional cost. While this isnt the first device designed to prevent or suppress snoring, it certainly seems like the most convenient solution so far.

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A smart connected home can be comprised of many different products, such as lights, thermostats, speakers, and more, but to make them all work flawlessly and seamlessly together you will generally need a hub to bridge them all. Samsungs answer to this is the SmarThings Hub which does just that, bridges the gap between different IoT products so you can control everything from one centralized location, that location being the SmartThings companion app. While the SmartThings Hub will work with other SmartThings products, it will also work with a wide range of other IoT products from different brands, too. Normally the SmarThings Hub costs $99.99, but right now you can actually pick it up for about half that price at just $49.99.

The Samsung SmartThings Hub comes in a white, unassuming design, resembling a square shaped router with rounded corners that can easily fit into any home decor. Its powered by an AC adapter that you plug into the wall, but it can also take 4 AA batteries for backup power, with a total of 10 hours of battery life when using the backup power method. Youll also need to plug the Hub into your router via an ethernet cable. In the box youll get the Hub itself, the AD adapter, 4 AA batteries, a quick start guide, and the ethernet cable, so youll have everything you need to set it up.
The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge is one of the best-looking smartphones of 2016, even the best looking one according to many people. The Galaxy S7 Edge features a curved display up front, and has basically not side bezels, aside from its metallic frame, of course. Well, Elephone, a Chinese smartphone manufacturer, had introduced the Galaxy S7 Edge look-alike a while back, the Elephone S7. This smartphone actually resembles the Galaxy S7 Edge so much, that the company got accused of flat out copying Samsung. In any case, the Elephone S7 is currently available for pre-order, and it seems like many people are interested in getting this smartphone, and the fact that it is available in a number of variants, colors, and that it costs far less than the Galaxy S7 Edge certainly helps.

That being said, the Elephone S7 is fueled by the Helio X20 64-bit deca-core SoC by MediaTek, and the device has just landed on AnTuTu it seems. The phone managed to hit 86.380 points on AnTuTu, and you can see its more detailed results in the image down below. Now, this is not exactly an earth-shattering result, but its what weve come to expect from MediaTeks Helio X20 SoC. These results are more than good enough, and do keep in mind that the Helio X20 and Helio X25 are MediaTeks flagship processors this year, so this is currently the pride and joy of the company. Other than this SoC, the Elephone S7 comes with a number or really solid specs, while it is made out of metal and glass, just like the Galaxy S7 Edge.

The Elephone S7 features a 5.5-inch fullHD (1920 x 1080) curved display, along with 2GB, 3GB and 4GB of RAM. The device packs in a 3,000mAh battery, while it also comes with two SIM card slots. The 13-megapixel camera is placed on the back of this smartphone, and a 5-megapixel shooter can be found on its front side. Android 6.0 Marshmallow comes pre-installed on the Elephone S7, with some additions from the company, like a number of gestures youll find inside of the phones software. The Elephone S7 comes in Blue, Black, Green and Gold color variants, in case you were wondering.

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The United Kingdom may have voted to leave the European Union, but Google apparently isnt bothered by that decision. In fact, the companys Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai has just announced that the Mountain View-based tech giant will be significantly expanding its London operations. While speaking at the new Google office at 6 Pancras Square in Kings Cross, London, Pichai revealed that 10-storey building which the company just opened will host 7,000 employees in the near future. For added context, the firm is currently employing approximately 4,000 employees in the country, so Google is planning to create 3,000 more jobs in the UKs capital.

During his first visit to the UK since becoming Googles CEO in 2015, Pichai asserted that the company is extremely excited to continue investing into its new Kings Cross campus. He revealed that the current plan is to create 3,000 more jobs in London by 2020, adding that the UK is still a great place for the tech industry. With that said, Pichai pointed out that unobstructed movement of skilled migrants is a crucial prerequisite for a healthy technological sector in any country, UK included. Unfortunately, neither Pichai nor any other Googles representative present in London wanted to comment on the cost of the companys latest expansion plans in the country.

In a short response to this set of announcements, Her Majestys Treasury (Britains finance ministry) described Googles plans as a big vote of confidence regarding the countrys position as a global technological hub. Needless to say, there was no shortage of skeptics regarding the future of British economy following the so-called Brexit referendum in June. Many industry experts already went on record to state the in the two years required for finalizing the Brexit deal, the British economy and its tech sector, in particular, could be damaged substantially. These concerns were raised as people speculated that tech companies will want to continue enjoying the benefits of an open borders and the free trade union the EU offers and will consequently move their operations from the UK. While Googles latest investment doesnt dispel all of these worries, the fact that one of the largest tech companies on the planet is committing to the post-Brexit UK certainly will be seen as a good sign going forward.
Earlier this week, Google announced an expansion of Google Expeditions, its virtual reality (VR) program designed to bring VR technology to schools throughout the world. As it turns out, Expeditions is now coming to the United Kingdom. For the uninitiated, the concept behind this initiative is rather simple: Google Expeditions teams visit various schools and enables their students to experience the wonders of virtual reality technology at no cost. All of the necessary equipment and software is brought on site by Googles educational team. The technicians help teachers set up the VR experience before class and assist them in supervising students while theyre visiting virtual worlds.

Speaking of which, the Expeditions program now offers more than 300 VR experiences which teachers can choose from. The basic idea is to use virtual reality technology in order to ennoble any given class, and not waste teachers precious time. For example, if students are learning about Australia during a geography class, the Expeditions team will recommend an experience related to that continent. If theyre in the process of learning about space, the program can send them to Mars. In the same vein, a class on UK history could be complemented by a virtual tour of Buckingham Palace. The UK curriculum of Google Expeditions was designed in collaboration with a digital education company TES and Twig, an award-winning firm which specializes in visual education. The program revolves around Expeditions, a VR app built for educational purposes. Each experience offered within the app consists of a virtual reality world complemented by descriptions and points of interests. Teachers can navigate their students through virtual space using a tablet.

The UK iteration of Google Expeditions is currently focusing on London, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Belfast, Cardiff, Birmingham, and Leeds. However, any British school can apply to participate. The UK division of Google noted that the program is limited in scope, so they wont be able to visit all schools which apply but urged everyone to register nonetheless. While the Google Expeditions UK tour has already started, applications will remain open for at least a couple more weeks. If you want to know more, check out the introduction video of the UK variant of Google Expeditions below.
While video has seemingly taken over the web, theres no denying that images online are everywhere. Its hard to head to a single website without seeing an image or two, and given the vast variety of different screen resolutions out there, it can be difficult for websites and designers to get the right quality of image for their audience. Now that data allowances are a big deal once again, customers are often looking for ways to cut down on their data usage, and websites are awarded brownie points for cutting down the amount their pages use, too. The problem with this, however, is that using an image that has a smaller data footprint is often smaller in terms of resolution and therefore in quality, too. Now, Google wants their new RAISR initiative to help bridge this gap.

Over on the Google Research Blog, the team behind RAISR, or Rapid and Accurate Image Super-Resolution explain the technique. In a nutshell, the team used Machine Learning to train a computer algorithm to more efficiently fill in the gaps when enlarging a smaller image. Usually, when we enlarge a smaller image, things become quite blocky, and this is because traditional enlarging techniques fill in the pixels that are side-by-side each other with squares of a similar color, because it doesnt know any better. To fix this, the team gave RAISR 10,000 pairs of images, one lower-resolution and one higher-resolution, in order to give the algorithm an idea of how to fill in the gaps when enlarging those smaller images in order to keep the overall look of the image the same.

Super-resolution techniques like these have come a long, long way and Googles RAISR has become something a filter that has a pair of methods it has been trained to use. Both of which  as we can see below  do a great job of improving the overall quality of an enlarged image without using any more data, even if the result can appear a little soft in some cases.

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The source link below goes into a lot of detail about the new project, and while this might seem like the strange lab stuff we never see in the real world, there are so many real wolrd applications for this. Imagine responsive design on different screen resolutions delivering a great experience no matter the size or resolution of the display, without having to use large and data-heavy images for assets? It could lead to improved magnification of older photographs to get a better look at the past, and it could lead to improvements in photo editing software on our smartphones, too.
Censorship is a big problem in most parts of the world, and this issue is even more pronounced in the Internet era when governments can hardly secretly interfere with peoples information sources and communications channels. Unfortunately, that doesnt stop them from indulging in such practices. According to a study called Freedom on the Net conducted by Freedom House, an independent watchdog organization, Internet freedom has declined on a global level for the sixth year in a row. The NGO found that more than two-thirds of all Internet users still live in countries where governments are actively practicing censorship while 38 countries made arrests based on critical posts on social media in 2016. Generally speaking, 27% of Internet users are ruled by governments which arrested people for publishing, sharing, or even liking content on Facebook in the past.

Apart from censorship of traditional and social media, another related trend in 2016 pertains to governments going after communications apps. According to Freedom House, instant messaging (IM) solutions were routinely censored in 2016, with WhatsApp facing the most restrictions out of all available IM apps. Its presumed that government prone to censorship block mobile communications solutions because the thereof can be used for disseminating unwanted information in a quick and secure manner. In other words, they cant be controlled, only prevented from functioning. The said apps were facing heaviest pressure during anti-government protests when certain governments reportedly even shut down all Internet access to limit the spread of unwanted information.

Freedom House concludes these findings are further proof of how important social media and IM apps are for promoting freedom of expression and other human rights, as well as general political freedom. In addition to political censorship, the said study found that certain video and voice communications apps were partially limited solely for economic reasons. For example, several countries are currently restricting access to Skype to prevent users from migrating from traditional mobile and fixed-line services offered by national telecommunications providers. Interestingly enough, despite Internet freedom being at an all-time low, Freedom House reports that online activism reached new heights in 2016 as over two-thirds of the countries encompassed went through some visible changes thanks to the efforts of Internet activists. For more details on Freedom of the Net, check out the infographics in the gallery below.
As far as mobile users are concerned, Gmail is one of the most convenient and approachable email services ever created. Of course, thats mostly due to its well-designed mobile app. Even if youre a power user who isnt only interested in traditional email management but is looking for a piece of software that can organize emails so that they fit a very specific workflow, Google has you covered with Inbox. Inbox is another email app with Gmail integration which handles emails like tasks and automates a significant portion of your actions. Unfortunately, both Gmail and Inbox are only available through apps and web browsers. When it comes to desktop solutions, Google still seemingly isnt interested in providing a comparably convenient user experience.

Cue third-party solutions like Kiwi for Gmail, a desktop client for Gmail which its developers describe as the only true email client for Gmail. Originally funded by Kickstarter in late 2014, Kiwi for Gmail quickly went on to become the best-rated email client app on the Apple Mac Store after officially launching in mid-2015. A year and a half later, the Kiwi for Gmail team is still working on regularly adding new features to its popular email client. In fact, a major update for this macOS software was just announced earlier today. Once the next app update hits the Apple Mac Store, Kiwi for Gmail will introduce several new features compatible with the G Suite. Among other things, the client will soon allow users to access Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides within Kiwi for Gmail. In other words, youll be able to use some of Googles most popular services in a native desktop environment.

Apart from that, Kiwi for Gmail is also receiving several new features designed to facilitate multitasking. More specifically, the app will now allow you to open documents in separate windows and keep them opened even while switching between Google accounts, as well as quickly access recently opened documents and Google Drive files from multiple accounts. In other words, Kiwi for Gmail is gradually evolving into Kiwi for Google services. Unfortunately for Windows and Linux users, theres still no word on whether this app will ever get ported to other platforms.
After a few months of rumors and carefully crafted teasers, the Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer Gionee has finally officially announced the Gionee S9, its latest Android smartphone. Just like most of the companys other offerings, the Gionee S9 is a mid-range smartphone designed to offer excellent value for money. The phone is equipped with a 5.5-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) LTPS 2.5D screen and features the octa-core MediaTek Helio P10 system-on-chip clocked at 2 GHz which also comes packed with the Mali T860 GPU. In addition to 4GB of LPDDR3 RAM and 64GB of internal memory, the Gionee S9 boasts a microSD card slot which supports up to 128GB of additional storage.

On the camera side of things, Gionees latest Android smartphone comes with a dual-camera setup which consists of a 13-megapixel sensor complemented by a 5-megapixel one below it. The back of the device also features a dual-tone LED flash. The front camera is 13 megapixels in size. As for special features, the Gionee S9 boasts a hybrid dual SIM setup which means that you can insert an additional nano SIM card into the device if youre willing to sacrifice your microSD slot. Like many modern smartphones, the Gionee S9 features a fingerprint sensor. It ships with Android 6.0 Marshmallow modified with the Amigo OS 3.2 and is powered by a standard 3,000mAh battery. All this hardware is packed in a rather portable package as the Gionee S9 is only 154.276.47.4 mm in size and weighs just over 168 grams.

The Chinese smartphone maker announced that the Gionee S9 will launch in China on November 25th, priced at 2499 Yuan, or approximately $365. The device will be available in Gold, Rose Gold, and Black colors. Unfortunately, it isnt likely that this smartphone will ever be released globally, though it will probably eventually make its way to Taiwan, India, and Thailand where Gionee has already established a market presence. Interestingly enough, the Chinese company made no mention of the Gionee S9T which was recently certified by TENAA (Chinas equivalent to the FCC) along with the Gionee S9, so hopefully more information regarding that device will follow soon. You can check out the first official photos of the Gionee S9 in the gallery below.
Google released its own smartphones, the Pixel and Pixel XL, last month during an event held in San Francisco. Both smartphones sport mostly the similar specifications, save for the resolution, screen size and battery capacity. Now that both phones are out for a while now, it would be expected that the developer community has now started doing their part of the work by started developing new ROMs, mods, and custom kernels to satisfy the needs of device tinkerers and enthusiasts, who are always on the hunt for trying out something new. Today, the team behind Team Win Recovery Project, TWRP, has officially released TWRP recovery for the Pixel and Pixel XL phones.

If youre sporting a Pixel or Pixel XL device, you can now install TWRP recovery to open up your device to install custom ROMs like CyanogenMod and others. The recovery is now officially available for both devices, the Pixel and Pixel XL, but do keep in mind that this is just an alpha release and not the stable one so things might be little rough on the edges; according to Dees_Troy, one of the developers behind this custom recovery, due to Android Nougats File Based Encryption (FBE), data restoration on the Pixel and Pixel XL might not work as intended; also, if youre using the multi-user feature on your Pixel device, Dees_Troy advises to not to use TWRP as File Based Encryption (FBE) keeps data folder of every user separately, which can conflict with TWRPs data restoration process. Whats more, in case youre already enjoying root access on your Pixel or Pixel XL, installing TWRP recovery will remove the root access as TWRP is currently not compatible with the SuperSU version; Dees_Troy says SuperSU will require an update so both TWRP and SuperSU can coexist. Though the developer has given some temporary workarounds to troubleshoot some of the issues, its advisable that you wait for a more stable build to come out.

With that said, if youre still interested in trying out TWRP, here are the things you will need: as always, you will need an unlocked bootloader to install the custom recovery, next, you will need the right recovery image and the zip file for your Pixel or Pixel XL to replace your stock recovery, follow the link below to grab the right files for your device. Then comes the most important part, flashing the recovery; in case youve previously flashed TWRP recovery on your old device, you might be familiar with the fastboot commands. But do keep in mind that with the Pixel and Pixel XL, those old commands will no longer work as Pixel uses two partitions for Seamless Update. For detailed instructions on installing the recovery, hit the source link below.

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Download TWRP recovery for the Pixel XL
The Google Pixel and Pixel XL were made available for pre-order the day Google launched its flagship smartphones of 2016, and customers in the US snapped most pre-0rder units up in a matter of days. Customers who were quick enough to pre-order one of those devices were eligible for a free unit of Googles VR headset, the Daydream View, though the VR headset was not shipped out alongside the Pixel smartphones. Now that most US customers have received their Pixel smartphones, Google is sending out the promo codes to its customers who pre-ordered a Pixel smartphone, which will allow them to redeem a Daydream View, free of charge.

The Daydream View promo codes are being sent via e-mail and customers will have to redeem the code through the said e-mail. In order to do so, simply click on the redeem now bottom which is located at the bottom of the e-mail, and this will lead you to the Google Store. Next, add the Daydream View to your shopping cart and you are all set to check out with a free Daydream View. The promo code will be automatically applied to your order, but if that doesnt happen, copy and paste the code which can be found in the e-mail.

If you would like a recap on the specs of Googles Daydream View VR headset, read on. The VR headset comes with a built in 220 mAh battery with a run-time of up to 12 hours. It also uses power from the device its connected to, in this case the Pixel or the Pixel XL as they are the only Daydream-ready phones available at the moment, and also requires the devices display for viewing Daydream content. The Daydream View comes with its own remote control which can be used for navigation of the Daydream UI and control of the content. The Daydream View is made from soft, breathable fabric which makes the VR headset lightweight, which in turn should result in the unit being fairly comfortable to wear. On top of that, the face pad is hand-washable, allowing you to clean it when the need arises. Connectivity options include Bluetooth and a USB Type-C port is available to charge the VR headset, though a USB Type-C connector is not included in the packaging.
Highlight  Improved dual-camera setup, impressive battery life, and a brand new processor make the Huawei Mate 9 a contender for Smartphone of the year

Huawei has two main line ups of smartphones right now, theres the P series and then the Mate series. The Mate series is arguably more popular, and thats due to the fact that it has a large screen (something thats very popular now thanks to Samsung) but also pretty incredible battery life. If you take a look back through our reviews of the Huawei Ascend Mate, Ascend Mate 2, Mate 7, Mate S and Mate 8, youll notice one thing about them, they all had fantastic battery life. So the Huawei Mate 9 has big shoes to fill. Especially with Huawei touting the fact that it can last two days on a charge. Thats not all that Huawei has packed into the Mate 9 either, and with a 699 price tag, youd expect plenty more and Huawei does give that and then some.

With a 5.9-inch 1080p display, the latest Kirin 960 processor, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage out of the box, is the Mate 9 the phone to beat? Probably. And it couldnt have come at a better time (again thanks to Samsung). But is it worth throwing hundreds of dollars at (or Euros if youre in Europe) to pick one up? Lets find out.

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Specs

The Mate series has always sported a rather large display, and the Mate 9 is no different. Huawei has equipped the Mate 9 with a rather large 5.9-inch 1080p display. This means its a Full HD display with about 373 pixels per inch. Its also an LCD display. Powering the Mate 9 is the HiSilicon Kirin 960 CPU which is the first one to use Cortex-A73 cores from ARM. Which is something that Huawei really touted in the announcement of this phone. The Kirin 960 is an octa-core processor  four 2.4GHz Cortex-A73 cores and four 1.8GHz Cortex-A53 cores. That SoC is also paired with the Mali-G71, another first for the Mate 9. For memory and storage, we are looking at 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. There is a micro SD card slot included which can support up to 256GB of storage.

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On the camera side of things, we have a dual camera setup, which Huawei worked with Leica to create. Its a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor and a 12-megapixel RGB sensor. The RGB sensor does have OIS, and both have an aperture of f/2.2. The front-facing camera is a 8-megapixel shooter with a f/1.9 aperture. When it comes to connectivity, we have support for LTE-A Cat12 600/150Mbps, but also WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, WiFi Direct, Bluetooth 4.2, and NFC. It does location tracking with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, and GALILEO. Finally, it does use a USB Type-C port to power the 4000mAh battery that is non-removable.

Colors that are available for the Huawei Mate 9 include Space Gray, Moonlight Silver, Champagne Gold, Mocha Brown, Ceramic White and Black. Our review unit here is the Mocha Brown color.

In the Box

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Inside the retail packaging, Huawei has provided us with all of the usual suspects. Right on top youll find the Huawei Mate 9, Below that youll find two more boxes. One has the wall charger, USB-C to USB-A cable, and a pair of headphones. The other box features your quick start guide and a snap on case to protect the Huawei Mate 9. Its a brown case, and its the same color no matter which color of the Mate 9 you pick up.

Hardware

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When it comes to hardware, weve pretty much known what to expect from Huawei. All of their devices feel really solid and high-end. Even if the design is a bit boring at times. The Huawei Mate 9 kept a somewhat similar design, compared to the Huawei Mate 8. But it did make some subtle changes. Its a bit more conservative, compared to the other smartphones out there right now. Huawei has an aluminum jacket on the Mate 9, which makes for a great looking device, but often times a slippery one. However, we are happy to report that our Mocha Brown colored review unit isnt as slippery as some of the other colors. We got hands on time at their launch event in Munich, Germany with the Space Gray model, which was a bit slippery, and felt pretty boring to be honest. But the Mocha Brown model feels much different in the hand, and looks pretty nice, to say the least.

The backside of the Mate 9 is in brown, as is the chin and forehead of the front. However the frame is in a more copper color, which gives a nice contrast to the back and front. The back of the device houses that dual camera setup, which is slightly upgraded from the Huawei P9 announced earlier this year. Instead of featuring two 12-megapixel sensors back there, there is a 20-megapixel and a 12-megapixel sensor. The 20-megapixel sensor is a black and white sensor and the 12-megapixel sensor is your RGB sensor. To the left of the sensor is your dual LED flash and then your phase detection autofocus and laser autofocus on the right side. There is also a fingerprint sensor below the camera set up, which is smaller than what weve seen on other Huawei and Honor smartphones. More on that a bit later.

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Huawei has the power button below the volume rocker on the right side. Now Huawei referred to this setup as upside down, and they did it this way as they felt it gave users a better experience than having the buttons reversed. And in everyday usage, that does definitely appear to be the case for us. On the top of the device, youll find the 3.5mm headphone jack as well as an IR blaster. Huawei said that their users loved having an IR blaster, so they made sure to keep it included in the Mate 9. The bottom of the device houses a speaker and a USB Type-C connector. Now the Mate 9 does do stereo sound, using the bottom speaker and then the earpiece as the other speaker. Finally, on the left side of the device houses the SIM card and SD card tray.

Theres not a whole lot to say here about the hardware on the Mate 9. It does look a whole lot like any other Huawei smartphone, which is to be expected. It has a slightly curved back, which makes it fit more comfortably in the hand. Theres no doubt about it, the Mate 9 is a large smartphone, with a 5.9-inch display youd expect that. But the phone is pretty compact, its actually the same size as the iPhone 7 Plus which has a 5.5-inch display. That just goes to show you how small these bezels really are on the Mate 9.

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Display

Huawei has been adamant about keeping their devices to a 1080p display. Saying that QHD or 2K displays arent really necessary, and that they just affect battery life and gaming performance. So its no surprise to see a 1080p display here on the Mate 9. Although it is a bit of a surprise to see the more expensive PORSCHE DESIGN Huawei Mate 9 feature a 2K display. Using a 1080p display on the Mate 9 means that the battery life is going to last even longer. But if the display is terrible, than the extra battery life doesnt make much of a difference. Luckily, the display looks incredible.

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This is an IPS panel, that Huawei is using on the Mate 9. Which means it should be pretty good at viewing outdoors in direct sunlight, which it is. We used the Mate 9 in direct sunlight and could still see the display without much of an issue. Additionally, the display got nice and dim, but perhaps not dim enough, especially in dark rooms. But Huawei has a nifty trick up its sleeve in the Mate 9. And the feature is Eye Comfort. What this feature does is that it filters out the blue light and it will relieve the visual fatigue when you are reading for a long period of time. Especially at night. There is a toggle for this in the quick settings, but there is also the ability to schedule when this feature automatically enables. I have it set to enable at 10pm and disable at 7am everyday. You also have the ability to adjust the temperature the screen is when Eye Comfort is turned on, so you can set it to your liking.

Outside of that, you can also adjust the temperature of the screen. So that you can adjust it to be cooler or warmer, which ever is your preference. From the naked eye, the screen normally looks a bit cool, but you can adjust that if that does indeed bother you. The display isnt as sharp as something youd find on the Galaxy S7 Edge from Samsung, or really any other QHD smartphone. But its quite good for a 1080p panel, and in fact, it doesnt even bother me that its a 1080p display. Its just that good. Now of course, if youre looking for a phone to use for virtual reality, then the Mate 9 may not be that great  and thats due to having the screen much closer to your eyes than if you were using it normally.

Performance

When announcing the Mate 9, Huawei was pretty proud to be able to say that this is the first smartphone using the new ARM Cortex-A73 architecture in the Kirin 960 (also the first device to feature this SoC). The Kirin 960 is an octa-core processor featuring four Cortex-A73 cores clocked at 2.4GHz and four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.8GHz. Making it a pretty powerful processor, especially when paired with the Mali-G71 GPU and 4GB of RAM. With this kind of specs, you would expect the performance on the Mate 9 to be top notch, especially in everyday usage, and it certainly is. We experienced virtually no issues with using the Mate 9 daily. This included doing things like going through Twitter, using Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, Gmail and other apps.

Now when it came to gaming, that is where those Cortex-A73 cores really showed what they were made of. The gaming experience on the Mate 9 was top notch. Probably one of the best gaming experiences on a smartphone released this year. The Mali-G71 definitely lived up to all of the hype, and its going to be interesting to see how many OEMs use it next year (Samsung is rumored to use it with an Exynos processor in the Galaxy S8).

When it comes to RAM, 4GB is more than enough. For most people, 3GB is even enough RAM. And that was our experience on the Mate 9 with 4GB of RAM. Theres plenty here, we never even came close to using up all of the available RAM, never mind running out of RAM. Memory management isnt bad at all, nothing like what Samsung does with their devices. Going back into recents and opening an app that was already opened, simply brings the app back up, instead of reloading it. Which is nice to see.

Fingerprint Sensor

Huawei, as some might say, pioneered the fingerprint sensor being on the back of a smartphone. Their fingerprint sensors have always been lightning fast and very, very accurate. And its no different here with the Huawei Mate 9. The big difference between the fingerprint sensor here on the Mate 9 and some other smartphones is the fact that the sensor is actually a bit smaller. Now Huawei didnt tell us why the sensor was smaller, but it looks like this was done to make it uniform with the camera module above it. Now with the sensor being smaller, the sensor is still just as accurate as you would expect from a Huawei device. Unlocking the phone is nice and quick, and since it is running on Android 7.0, the fingerprint API is included. Meaning that you can use the fingerprint sensor to login to supported apps and authenticate purchases made in Google Play and Android Pay.

The fingerprint sensor is a sort of touch pad, like you see on the Google Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones. Allowing you to swipe down to pull down the notification shade, and swipe up to get rid of it. This isnt actually new on Huawei devices, as this was part of the feature-set in the Honor 8, that the company launched over the summer. However, it doesnt bring all of the features from the Honor 8, as this is just a sensor and not an actual button like the Honor 8s fingerprint sensor is.

Even with the Huawei Mate 9 being such a large device, the fingerprint sensor seems to be in the perfect spot. Its right about where your finger would be resting when holding the device. Making it easy to pull the phone out of your pocket and unlock it, as well as logging into apps using it, without needing to shimmy your hand up the device to get your finger onto the sensor.

Wireless Connectivity

The Mate 9 wasnt announced to be available in the US, but we do know it is coming. Huawei hasnt yet made it official, as there are still some things going on behind-the-scenes to get it ready for a US release. Having said that, the model that we have here does have all of the bands necessary to be used in the US. Both the MHA-L29 (the model we are using) and the MHA-L09 work in the US with AT&T and T-Mobile, unfortunately neither one works with Sprint or Verizon, even though there is some CDMA support on the MHA-L29 model. The bands for the MHA-L29 are listed below.

GSM 850, 900, 1800, 1900

HSDPA 800, 850, 900, 1700, 1900, 2100

LTE Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 26, 28, 29, 38, 40, and 41.

Now, we used the Huawei Mate 9 on T-Mobile (both in Germany and in the US) and it worked great with both. We actually noticed that it got better reception in the US than on other smartphones, even T-Mobile branded smartphones. Definitely nice to see, as you can never have enough signal, especially in dead zones. Speaking of dead zones, areas where we typically wouldnt get coverage, or have very slow 4G LTE speeds, we were getting some pretty fast speeds. Now also keep in mind that this will not support WiFi Calling, VoLTE or any other carrier technology like that in the US. Since this smartphone is not sold on a carrier, it does not have their software baked in which would enable these services.

We do also have WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac as well as Bluetooth 4.2 included here. WiFi speeds were about what weve seen with other smartphones. So no real surprises there. Bluetooth also worked well. We didnt have many issues with it losing connection, as weve seen with other recently announced smartphones.

Sound

No front-facing speakers here, but we do have stereo speakers on the Mate 9. The speaker is at the bottom of the device, and its actually both sides of the USB-C port, instead of just one side. For the second speaker, Huawei is using the earpiece on the front of the device. Which is similar to what Lenovo has done with the latest Moto smartphones. This provides nice and clear, also loud audio from the Mate 9. The speakers are pretty good here on the Mate 9, not perfect, but pretty great. Watching videos on YouTube, the speakers perform quite well. Giving you clear sound, even while holding the device. Thanks to the earpiece being a second speaker, you dont need to worry about covering the bottom speaker and affecting the audio that the Mate 9 is outputting.

Theres not much available here as far as settings go for the audio side of things on the Mate 9. But Huawei does have the option to use Stereo+. What this does is when the device is in landscape mode, it will switch from euphony to stereo, and provide some pretty amazing sound. During our review, we left this option on the entire time, and were quite impressed with how well it really worked.

Benchmarks

Benchmarks dont always translate to real-world experience, but the numbers from the Kirin 960 SoC and 4GB of RAM in the Mate 9 definitely look stunning. For Geekbench 4, it scored a 1935 in the single-core test and a 5907 in the multi-core test. Now what does that mean when comparing it to other devices on the market? Well its the best. In the single-core test, the device with the highest score is the Galaxy S7 (even higher than the Galaxy Note 7) with 1806. So it has a pretty big lead over it. When it comes to the multi-core test, the highest is the Galaxy Note 7 at 5228. Making a big jump between the two.

With AnTuTu, the story isnt actually the same. It scored a 122,254, which is pretty impressive in its own right, but its not the highest score weve seen in AnTuTu. Thats actually only good enough to put it at #20 between the LG G5 and Meizu PRO 6. Both of which are high-end flagship devices that launched this year, but still pretty low on the totem pole.

These numbers dont really mean a whole lot, for daily usage, but it does show that this processor is quite powerful, and being the first to use the Cortex-A73 architecture from ARM, it shows just how powerful mobile processors will be in the next year or so.

Battery Life

One of the big features of Huaweis Mate series, and something that has made it super popular, is its battery life. And the Mate 9 doesnt disappoint. It has a pretty large 4,000mAh battery inside, which lasts all day long  actually, Huawei says it can last you up to two days. Weve steadily gotten 6+ hours of on-screen time out of this battery. Which is pretty impressive, and largely the same as the Honor 8 which has been my daily driver for a few months now. Which shows that Huawei really knows what they are doing with software optimization and making these batteries last as long as possible. It can probably get you through two full days of usage, especially with standby being so good (a big thanks to the improved Doze mode in Android 7.0 Nougat), but we were often only able to get through a full day and have about 30-40% left at the end of the day, which is still very respectable.

Having a huge battery inside a smartphone is great, but what isnt great is charging it. Typically these larger battery capacities will take longer to recharge  its a good thing that you only need to charge the Mate 9 at night then. But Huawei has a feature in the Mate 9 that allows you to charge it pretty fast. Its called SuperCharge, and using the included charger, it can output up to 4.5A, which brings some serious power to the Mate 9. Huawei said that you can fully charge the battery (from 0 to 100%) in 90 minutes with the included charger. Now since the charger is an EU charger, we were only able to test it out while in Germany for the launch event, and were happy to report that it does indeed charge it that fast. Luckily it does still work with Qualcomms Quick Charge solutions, so you are able to charge the Mate 9 using Quick Charge 3.0, although it is a bit slower, without any issues.

There are some power-saving modes here, which we havent needed to actually use. Since the battery lasts so long already. But we have a Power Saving Mode which limits background app activity, reduces or disables some visual effects and sounds, and disables background email retrieval to save power. Power saving mode will turn off automatically when your device is charging or has a full charge. Now this mode doesnt add a whole lot more time to the battery, but if youre in need of keeping the Mate 9 alive longer, this is definitely a good idea. Then there is Ultra, which according to Huaweis description here Only select apps are available. It basically turns off everything and only gives access to six apps. Three of those are the phone, messaging and contacts. You can add the other three if you wish to do so. Now the Ultra power saving mode does definitely save you a ton of battery. Throughout my usage, Ive seen the time go up to as much as 271 hours. Which equals about 11 days, thats pretty impressive to say the least.

If you were wondering about the battery life here on the Mate 9, dont. Its everything its cracked up to be, and then some.

Software

The Huawei Mate 9 introduces us to EMUI 5.0 and Android 7.0 Nougat. So with the Mate 9 were able to see what Huawei is planning to do with Android 7.0 (they are preparing a beta of EMUI 5.0 for the Honor 8 now, and should have other devices updated shortly thereafter). Its launching with the October 1st security patch. When this was announced, it was the latest security patch, so good job of Huawei to launch it with the latest patch.

When talking with Huawei, there were a lot of things that they opted to change with EMUI 5.0, versus EMUI 4. One of the big ones was getting to different settings. If you used the Huawei P9, or the Honor 8, then youll know that a number of settings are located under the Advanced Settings section, making it a bit difficult to jump to things like storage, memory and battery life. Now, 90% of the common user settings are within 1-2 taps when jumping into settings. Making it easier to get to everything. Another big change was the launcher. Huawei, and many other Chinese manufacturers, dont use an app drawer in their skin. That appears to be a big thing over in Asia, but on the Western side of the world, many of us prefer and app drawer. Luckily, there is an option to bring it back now. Just head into Settings > Home Screen Style and select Drawer. Its a small feature, but definitely worth having here.

Theres a few other interesting features available in EMUI 5.0, and one of them is App Twin. Now what this allows you to do is log into two accounts at the same time on supported apps. Right now, the only ones supported are WhatsApp and Facebook. Supposedly WeChat is supported, but that may only be in the Chinese ROM, seeing as mostly only those in China use WeChat. This means that you can use two WhatsApp accounts at the same time, by having two instances of the app running. Its a pretty interesting feature, but since I only have one Facebook and one WhatsApp account, I didnt really have a need for it.

The update to EMUI 5.0 is full of fantastic changes, but not all of them are good. For instance, in the status bar now, instead of seeing the app icons for notifications, you just get a number. Meaning you need to open the shade to see what notifications you have. And if you use an app like LastPass that always a notification in there, that means you will always have a 1 in the status bar. Its not something we like, but we have gotten used to it. Now something we dont like, pertains to Gmail and Inbox notifications. And that is the fact that the subject of the email is shown in white, the same color as the background of the notification. Meaning you cant read the subject. Now with this being Android 7.0 Nougat, you do get multiple notifications together, then you can see the subject, but when you expand the notifications to deal with each email, the subject turns white again. Its a bit strange, and its something that affects most software skins from Chinese manufacturers, surprisingly. Meizu has the issue with Flyme OS, and Xiaomi with MIUI. Leads us to wonder if they dont check and/or try Gmail or Inbox because its not available in China.

When it comes to Nougat features, there are actually plenty of them in here. Huawei has adopted Googles multi-window feature. So you can long-press the recents button to jump into that. You can also use your knuckle and draw a line horizontally across the display to jump into it. Speaking of gestures with your knuckle, you can also knock on the display to take a screenshot. This is something that first debuted on the Honor 8 earlier this year. The settings app does also have the slide-out drawer, like AOSP Nougat has. We also have the updated Doze from Nougat on the Mate 9, which provides even better standby time on the device. One last Nougat feature that is available on the Mate 9 is the ability to quickly double-tap the recents button to switch back to the last opened app. Its a small feature that debuted in Android 7.0, but it definitely makes multi-tasking even better.

After using the Mate 9 as our daily driver for about a week, its safe to say that EMUI has definitely gotten better. Is it perfect? Not by a long shot. There are still things that need to be updated and changed, but this update shows that Huawei is paying attention to their customer feedback, and making changes based on that feedback. Which is important, because without customers, there is no Huawei.

Camera

Prior to 2016, one of Huaweis weak points was their camera. We had the opportunity to visit Huawei in China last year and we asked about their cameras, because they are good but they werent great. Huawei told us that wed see a huge improvement in their smartphone cameras in 2016, and we have. Starting with the Huawei P9 back in April, where the company debuted their dual-camera setup that was Leica branded. Our Editor-In-Chief, Tom, attended that event and reviewed the P9 and absolutely loved the camera. Huawei continued this with their flagship Honor device in August with the Honor 8. Although it wasnt Leica branded, it was a slightly upgraded camera from the P9 earlier in the year. That device has been my daily driver since it launched, and I absolutely love it. And that got me excited about the Mate 9s camera. As it was an upgraded camera setup from Leica and Huawei. Featuring a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor and a 12-megapixel RGB sensor (as opposed to a 12-megapixel RGB and a 12-megapixel monochrome in the P9 and Honor 8). And even with the high expectations, we still came away impressed.

Before we jump into the camera quality, lets talk about some of the features and the actual software. The camera app is jampacked with all sorts of features, yet it still looks fairly minimal. Holding it in landscape, youll see a few quick (and easy to get to) settings on the left side. This includes the option to switch cameras (rear to front, and vice versa). Theres also filters, flash and wide aperture. The wide aperture is good for those macro and close-up shots you are looking to take. Swiping in from left to right, youll find all of the modes included. This includes auto, monochrome, beauty, video, HDR, beauty video, panorama, night shot, light painting, time-lapse, slow-mo, watermark, audio note, document scan and Good Food. There is a button to download more, however right now the only one you can download is Good Food, this may change in the future though. Swiping from right to left, brings you into all the rest of the settings. An important thing to note here is that out-of-the-box the camera will default to 12MP. But you can do 20MP, which is a bit strange since the RGB sensor is 12-megapixel. But Huawei explained to us that it basically takes multiple photos like the new Pixel smartphones do, to give you that 20-megapixel resolution.

Theres another feature in this camera that I absolutely loved, and thats the fact that you can do manual in any mode. You probably noticed that when listing off the available modes, there was no professional or manual mode listed. That is because you can use manual settings in every single mode on the camera. That is pretty impressive, and will make every photographer happy.

Enough about the software, hows the pictures? Phenomenal. The pictures all came out looking stunning. None of them had blown out backgrounds, nor were they oversaturated. Additionally, these monochrome photos looked pretty amazing as well. Now theres another feature that I didnt mention, and thats the Hybrid Zoom. Basically, this uses image data from the larger 20-megapixel sensor to allow for lossless zooming. Meaning you can zoom in and it wont degrade the picture. In the gallery below, there is a picture of a Trump Pence sign (this was taken before the election, obviously), it is zoomed in about halfway and in monochrome. And it just looks absolutely stunning.

The Huawei Mate 9s camera is up there as one of the best smartphone cameras of the year. We were seriously impressed with this camera, and it only got better the more we used it. This is leaving us excited to see what Huawei does in 2017, as they have just set up an R&D facility with Leica in Germany a few months ago, so this partnership will be continuing for the foreseeable future. And were excited about it.

The Good

Camera

Battery Life

Display

Build Quality

Fingerprint sensor

Android 7.0 Nougat

The Bad

Price Tag

Availability

A bit of a boring design

Some quirks with EMUI 5.0

Wrap Up

We basically knew what to expect with the Huawei Mate 9. And that wasnt due to all the leaks, but because this is the fifth Mate smartphone the company has produced, and the DNA has always been the same. A big phone, with a big battery. And thats what the Mate 9 is. And it is arguably a more popular line than their P series, which was their original flagship. The Mate 9 is probably going to be one of Huaweis best smartphones for the near future, depending on what they announce at CES in January and Mobile World Congress in February.

The only real down-side to the Huawei Mate 9 is pricing and availability. The device was announced to cost 699 in Europe. Pricing was not announced for other regions, and no availability was announced either. Which is not a good thing for Huawei. With the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 being taken off the market, now is the time for the Mate 9 to hit the market and hit it strong, as users are wanting another big smartphone to replace the Galaxy Note 7. And unfortunately, the Mate 9 may come a bit too late. The Mate 9 is coming to the US (and the model we have supports ALL of T-Mobile and AT&Ts bands), but theres no word on when that will happen.

Should you buy the Huawei Mate 9?

If you dont mind, or prefer a larger device, then yes. Theres plenty to love about the Huawei Mate 9. Like most phones it does have its quirks, but those are pretty easy to get used too. The battery life and larger display definitely make this an attractive smartphone from Huawei. And the fact that it looks like Huawei is getting on board with quicker software updates, just gives users another reason why the Mate 9 should be their next smartphone.
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LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska lawmakers have been told that the fat has been cut and the next step is to trim and eliminate programs in the Department of Education to help close a large state-budget gap.

Nebraska Education Commissioner Roger Breed described to the Legislature's Education Committee on Thursday the possible effects of cutting state-funded programs in the department by 10 percent. Among the options are reducing both the number of disabled people who get help from the department to join the work force, and students who take statewide writing tests.

"There's no one that supports these cuts," Breed told the committee of the options he presented. "We're now down to the point we're having to eliminate programs," he said later.

The Education Committee will later decide whether to include those options on its list of budget-cutting suggestions for the full Legislature to consider when it convenes in January. Legislative committees are identifying possible cuts totaling 10 percent of state general-fund appropriations for all agencies under their purview.

The cumulative list will help the Legislature when it begins addressing a budget gap fiscal analysts have said could be several hundred million dollars during the next two-year budget cycle.

Breed told lawmakers that cutting the vocational rehabilitation program for disabled people by about $354,000 would trigger the loss of up to $1.3 million in federal funds.

Giving statewide writing assessments that help educators measure student progress to just one grade level instead of the current three - fourth, eighth and 11th grades - would save about $200,000.

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Online:

http://www.education.ne.gov/
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By Amy Forliti

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Amina Farah Ali had become the go-to person for Somalis in the southern Michigan city of Rochester wanting to donate items to refugees displaced by violence in their homeland.

But she and another woman, Hawo Mohamed Hassan, were actually using the pretense of charity to send money to a violent terrorist group in the African country, prosecutors allege. They also claim the women made direct pleas in teleconference calls for others "to support violent jihad in Somalia."

The two women, both U.S. citizens living in Rochester, are among 14 people named in indictments unsealed Thursday in Minneapolis, San Diego, and Mobile, Ala. - accused of being part of what the government called "a deadly pipeline" that routed money and fighters from the U.S. to al-Shabab. The Somali insurgent faction embraces a radical form of Islam similar to the harsh, conservative brand practiced by Afghanistan's former Taliban regime.

Both women said they are innocent. "We are not terrorists," Ali said after she and Hassan made their first appearances Thursday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul.

The indicted also include Omar Hammami, an Alabama man now known as Abu Mansour al-Amriki, or "the American" - who has become one of al-Shabab's most high-profile members and appeared in a jihadist video in May 2009. The group's fighters, numbering several thousand strong, are battling Somalia's weakened government and have been branded a terrorist group with ties to al-Qaida by the U.S. and other Western countries.

Attorney General Eric Holder said the indictments reflect a disturbing trend of recruitment efforts targeting U.S. residents to become terrorists. He credited Muslim community leaders in the United States for helping combat radicalization.

Of the 14 people named in indictments Thursday, at least half are U.S. citizens and 12 of them are out of the country, including 10 men from Minnesota who allegedly left to join al-Shabab. Seven of those 10 Minnesota men named had been charged in earlier indictments or criminal complaints.

Ali, 33, and Hassan, 63, are the only two people indicted Thursday who remain in the U.S. They are both charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Ali faces multiple counts of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and Hassan faces three counts of lying to the FBI.

Abdifatah Abdinur, a Somali community leader in Rochester, said many knew Ali as a religious speaker who preached to women, and as a person who would collect clothes for refugees, telling many people to drop off donations at her garage.

"I know a lot of people might send money or goods, without knowing the consequences of what they were doing," said Abdinur said.

"If you have clothes, you give them to her," said Abdinur. "If you have shoes, give them to her." Abdinur said. "I was surprised, as almost everybody was (to learn) that she was sending clothes to al-Shabab."

The women and others allegedly went door to door in Minneapolis; Rochester, Minn., and elsewhere in the U.S. and Canada to raise funds for al-Shabab's operations in Somalia. The indictment says they claimed the money would go to the poor and needy and used phony names for recipients to conceal that it was going to al-Shabab.

They also allegedly made direct appeals to people in teleconferences. During one teleconference, the indictment says, Ali told others "to forget about the other charities" and focus on "the jihad."

The indictment says Ali and others sent the funds through various hawalas, money transfer businesses that are a common source of financial transactions in the Islamic world. Ali is accused of sending $8,608 to al-Shabab on 12 occasions from September 2008 through July 2009.

The fundraising operation in Minnesota reached into Ohio, where a Columbus resident helped collect donations for al-Shabab, according to the indictment. The document also says that after the FBI searched Ali's home in 2009, she contacted an al-Shabab leader in southern Somalia and said: "I was questioned by the enemy here. ... They took all my stuff and are investigating it ... Do not accept calls from anyone."

Prosecutors didn't seek detention for Ali or Hassan, but a federal magistrate set several conditions for their release, including barring travel outside Minnesota without permission.

When asked whether she understood why she was in court, Ali said through an interpreter: "I do not know - however, I think maybe because of my faith."

Ali, who works in home health care and has lived in Rochester for 11 years, also said: "Allah is my attorney."

Hassan said she was self-employed, running a day care.

Minneapolis has been the hub of the federal investigation into al-Shabab recruitment over the last two years, after a U.S. citizen from Minneapolis carried out a suicide bombing in Somalia in October 2008. Roughly 20 young men - all but one of Somali descent - have left Minnesota for that country since late 2007.

In Mobile, Ala., on Thursday prosecutors unsealed a September 2009 indictment against Hammami. Holder said Hammami has appeared in several propaganda videos for al-Shabab and "has assumed an operational role in that organization."

Hammami, 26, grew up in the middle-class town of Daphne, Ala., and attended the University of South Alabama in Mobile, where he was president of the Muslim Student Association nine years ago. School officials said they have been unaware of his whereabouts since he left the university in 2002.

Hammami's father, Shafik, is an engineer with the state highway department who also has served as president of the Islamic Society of Mobile. Shafik Hammami confirmed his relationship to Omar Hammami in e-mail exchanges with The Associated Press earlier this year but declined further comment.

In San Diego, prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging Jehad Serwan Mostafa, 28, with conspiring to provide material support to al-Shabab. Mostafa is believed to be in Somalia.

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Yost reported from Washington. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Ala.; Jason Straziuso in Nairobi, Kenya; Lolita C. Baldor in Washington; and Andrew Welsh-Huggins in Columbus, Ohio.
In this photo taken on Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014, a woman sits next to her home with coals packed on her fire place, in the West Point area that has been hit hard by the Ebola virus, with residents not allowed to leave West Point, as government forces clamp down on movement to prevent the spread of Ebola, in Monrovia, Liberia. The Ebola outbreak in West Africa eventually could exceed 20,000 cases, more than six times as many as are now known, the World Health Organization said Thursday. A new plan released by the U.N. health agency to stop Ebola also assumes that the actual number of cases in many hard-hit areas may be two to four times higher than currently reported.( AP Photo/Abbas Dulleh)

People stand on the shoreline near a sign reading 'NO DUMPING', amongst rubbish at West Point, a area heavily effected by the Ebola virus, with residence not being allowed to leave West Point, as government forces clamp down on movement to prevent the spread of Ebola, in Monrovia, Liberia, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014. Health officials in Liberia said the other two recipients of ZMapp in Liberia i a Congolese doctor and a Liberian physician's assistant, have recovered. Both are expected to be discharged from an Ebola treatment center on Friday, said Dr. Moses Massaquoi, a Liberian doctor with the treatment team. (AP Photo/Abbas Dulleh)

People gather as officials hand out food aid at West Point, an area that has been hit hard by the Ebola virus, with local residents not allowed to leave the West Point area, as government forces clamp down on movement to prevent the spread of Ebola, in Monrovia, Liberia, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014. Health officials in Liberia said the other two recipients of ZMapp in Liberia, a Congolese doctor and a Liberian physician's assistant, have recovered. Both are expected to be discharged from an Ebola treatment center on Friday, said Dr. Moses Massaquoi, a Liberian doctor with the treatment team.(AP Photo/Abbas Dulleh)

FILE - This Aug. 12, 2014 file photo shows a healthcare worker walking near a Ebola isolation unit wearing protective gear against the virus at Kenema Government Hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone. Federal researchers next week will start testing humans with an experimental vaccine to prevent the deadly Ebola virus. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced Thursday that it is launching the safety trial on a vaccine developed by the agencyis National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and GlaxoSmithKline. They will test 20 healthy adult volunteers to see if the virus is safe and triggers an adequate response in their immune systems. (AP Photo/ Michael Duff, File)

Bruce Aylward, WHO Assistant Director-General, speaks to the media during a press conference about the WHO briefing on the Ebola roadmap. It outlines all actions that need to be taken by affected countries and partners to bring an end to the largest and most complex recorded Ebola outbreak in history, at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Thursday, August 28, 2014. (AP Photo/Keystone/Martial Trezzini)

By Associated Press,John Heilprin,Krista Larson

GENEVA (AP)  The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is accelerating and could grow six times larger to infect as many as 20,000 people, the World Health Organization said Thursday. The U.N. health agency unveiled a new road map for containing the virus, and scientists are fast-tracking efforts to find a treatment or vaccine.

Ebola has menaced Africa for 40 years, but previously struck in remote villages and was contained fairly quickly. This time, it has spread to major cities in four countries, provoking unrest as whole neighborhoods and towns have been sealed to the outside.

An experimental vaccine developed by the U.S. government and GlaxoSmithKline will be tested on humans starting next week, the U.S. National Institutes of Health announced Thursday. The NIH trial will use healthy adult volunteers in Maryland, and British experts will simultaneously test the same vaccine in healthy people in the U.K., Gambia and Mali.

Preliminary results on the vaccine's safety  not its effectiveness  could be available in months.

Scientists also announced that they have mapped the genetic code of this strain of Ebola to better understand how it kills. In a study published Thursday in the journal Science, researchers traced an explosion of cases in this outbreak to a single funeral in Guinea in May.

They hope to use the genetic mapping to track mutations that could become more worrisome the longer the outbreak lasts, and make a difference in how doctors spot and fight the disease as vaccines are developed.

The outbreak has now killed at least 1,552 people among 3,069 reported cases in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria, and the real caseload in urban areas could be two to four times higher. Meanwhile, an entirely separate Ebola outbreak has killed 13 of 42 people sickened in a remote area of Congo, in Central Africa, the agency said.

With about a 50 percent mortality rate among those known to be infected, the overall death toll could reach 10,000 in the worst-case scenario.

"I think that's completely unacceptable," said the agency's emergency operations director, Dr. Bruce Aylward.

The WHO's new plan would cost $489 million to support 750 international health workers and 12,000 national ones. It aims to:

 stop Ebola transmission in affected countries within six to nine months

 prevent the spread of any new infections within eight weeks of a case being identified anywhere in the world

 and improve the public health responses to Ebola in any nation with major transportation hubs or borders shared with affected countries.

With the world's support, medical workers hope to take "the heat out of this outbreak" within three months, Aylward said.

The U.N. agency's announcement was immediately criticized by Doctors Without Borders, a medical charity running many of the treatment centers in West Africa.

"The WHO road map is welcome, but it should not give a false sense of hope. A plan needs to be acted upon. Huge questions remain," the charity's operations director, Bruce de le Vingne, said in a statement. "States with the capacity to help have the responsibility to mobilize resources to the affected countries, rather than watching from the sidelines with a naive hope that the situation will improve."

Containment is key, but it has to be done carefully, in ways that don't cause panic or hamper the response, the agency said.

The WHO has supported the quarantine of sick people, and said cordoning off entire neighborhoods can be useful, as long as civil rights are respected. But it has called on airlines to resume flights to affected countries, since Ebola is unlikely to spread through air travel. Health checks at airports should provide sufficient protection while still enabling humanitarian workers to get in.

"Right now there is a super risk of the response effort being choked off, being restricted, because we simply cannot get enough seats on enough airplanes to get people in and out, and rotating, to get goods and supplies in and out and rotating," Aylward said.

Ebola and the measures used to control it are making it harder for some of the world's poorest people to feed themselves and seek medical care. Many thousands of people have been cut off from markets; food prices have soared and farmers are separated from their fields. People now fearing hospitals are going without treatment for other diseases, like malaria, which kills around 600,000 each year, 90 percent of them in Africa.

The World Food Program says it needs $70 million immediately to help feed 1.3 million people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in the coming months because control measures have threatened food supplies.

Nigerian authorities, meanwhile, confirmed their first fatality outside the commercial capital of Lagos, where a dying Liberian-American airline passenger infected others in late July. They said a man sickened after coming into contact with the passenger had evaded surveillance and infected a doctor in southern Nigeria, who later died.

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Larson reported from Dakar, Senegal. Seth Borenstein in Washington; Bashir Adigun in Abuja, Nigeria; Sarah DiLorenzo in Dakar; and Maria Cheng in London contributed to this report.
(ANSA) - Brussels, November 15 - Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Tuesday that Italy had "objections and reservations" about the ongoing debate on revising the EU's Dublin Regulation on asylum seekers. He said the current direction of the debate was "entirely unsatisfactory" because it opens up to "unacceptable" flexibility on migrant commitments while "loading many burdens" on the countries where the asylum seekers arrive first. "If it is not corrected, we will state our opposition," Gentiloni said after meeting Frans Timmermans, the First Vice-President of the European Commission. Gentiloni also said that he could see "no rifts" in relations between Italy and the European Union following recent polemics and speculation on whether Brussels will soften its position on Rome's 2017 budget when it gives its opinion on it on Wednesday. "We don't expect any particular rigidity or flexibility, but simply the acknowledgement of our good arguments," he said.


(ANSA) - Brussels, November 15 - European Affairs Undersecretary Sandro Gozi said Tuesday that Italy was tired of "ambiguity" and "contradictions" within the European Union, warning the bloc risks imploding unless it changes. "We are neither nationalist, nor populist," Gozi said at the fringes of a general affairs council meeting in Brussels.

"But we are very tired of European ambiguity and contradictions. We are very tired of a Europe that says some things and then does not do them. "We are very tired of a Europe that is small on big things and big on small things. And we are convinced that, if Europe doesn't change, we are faced with the start of European disintegration".


(ANSA) - Brussels, November 15 - European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Tuesday he is "concerned" about United States president-elect Donald Trump.

"I don't believe he will put a stop to Transatlantic relations, which are necessary for global stability," Juncker said. "I can't imagine that he will put into practice what he said he would do during the election campaign, a campaign which I moreover found disgusting," he added.

Transatlantic relations on matters of security and defence "merit detailed analysis in accordance with the intentions of the president-elect," Juncker said. The former premier of Luxembourg added that he had doubts about Trump's "real intentions" concerning NATO, future US trade policy and his "temptation towards total isolationism".

This "would not be in the interests of Europe or the United States," Juncker concluded.


(supersedes previous)(ANSA) - Rome, November 14 - A tax decree linked to the government's 2017 budget bill is likely to have to return to the Lower House budget committee due to a "hole" in coverage for two measures, sources said Monday. The decree was expected to arrive on the floor of the House on Monday and win approval Tuesday after being put to a confidence vote. The return to the committee stage may make the legislation's passage through the House longer than expected.

As far as the draft budget itself, Premier Matteo Renzi, who is also the leader of the center-left Democratic Party (PD), earlier confirmed it provides for a 50-euro net increase to minimum pensions. Originally the government planned to increase pensions of under 1,000 euros a month by 30 euros net, beginning in 2017. "Taxes have been going down since I've been premier, but I agree that it's still not enough," he told Radio Montecarlo in an interview earlier in the day. "I certainly am not one to raise taxes on consumer goods in order to finance post-quake reconstruction". Also on Monday, the centre-right Area Popolare (AP) caucus filed an amendment calling for a "moving bonus" for companies that transfer to Italy from the UK after the Brexit. The idea is to make up to 25% of moving expenses tax deductible, capping the amount at 3% of taxable income in the 2016/2017 fiscal year. AP, which mainly consists of the New Centre Right (NCD), is a junior partner in Renzi's coalition.

The PD filed a number of amendments to the draft budget. One would increase the government's super amortization program for companies investing in capital goods - from 140% to 160% - in Italy's chronically impoverished southern regions. The measure would cover the Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, Puglia, Sardinia, and Sicily regions.

Another amendment would allow people to pay for concert and museum tickets and to make donations to non-profits with cell phone credit. Yet another amendment calling for a VAT tax exemption on surplus food products donated to charity. Donations would not be able to exceed 5,000 euros' worth a year.


Turkey: concern should not halt migrant accords, Gentiloni Stresses allocation of funds for Africa 'important'

(ANSAmed) - BRUSSELS, NOVEMBER 15 - Meetings on Tuesday between Italian foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni and European officials focused mainly on the issue of migration, he said.



Gentiloni met with European Parliament chief Martin Schulz, Democratic Party (PD) MEPs and European Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans. ''The message that I conveyed,'' he said, ''is that certainly the situation in Turkey is of great concern and delicate. I hope that this concern, which we do express to Turkish authorities, does not lead to an interruption of collaboration on the migration front in the Aegean Sea. However, we cannot barter away this collaboration with silence on the concerns that we have spoken about.'' The Italian minister said that he had received ''understanding'' both from Schulz and from Timmermans ''on the importance of following up on the agreements with some African countries'' and ''encouragement for Italian initiatives''.



(ANSAmed).




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By Ahmed Mohamed

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (AP) - A suicide bomber attempted to drive a truck loaded with explosives into an army barrack but was shot and killed when he refused to stop the car before dawn on Wednesday, an army official said.

The high-ranking officer, who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said the truck exploded just outside the barrack, damaging several buildings in the town of Nema, located 1,200 miles (1,500 kilometers) east of Nouakchott.

The attack came two days after terror group al-Qaida of the Islamic Maghreb, or AQMI, released two Spanish aid workers who had been kidnapped while delivering supplies in Mauritania last November. In a recording sent to Spanish newspaper El Pais, the al-Qaida offshoot said the Spanish hostages were released because a part of their demands had been met, suggesting that the Spanish government had paid a ransom.

A Frenchman kidnapped in April by the al-Qaida affiliate was executed in July after a joint operation led by Mauritanian and French commandos attacked one of the terror group's camps in Mali.

AQMI had promised to avenge the death of seven of their men in the attack and the army official said he believes the suicide attack was intended as payback for the July 22 raid.

Mauritania, a nation that straddles the Sahara desert on Africa's west coast, is a moderate Muslim republic. It has been rocked by the rise of the extremist group, which began as an Islamic rebellion in Algeria, and in 2006 merged with al-Qaida. The group has bankrolled itself through 'kidnap economy' including Austrian, Swiss, French and Italian hostages.

Experts say the multimillion dollar ransoms being paid for the release of European hostages has allowed the organization to recruit better-trained fighters and to launch more sophisticated attacks.

Suicide bombers are relatively unknown in West Africa. The first such attack in Mauritania was on Aug. 8, 2009, when a terrorist wearing an explosive belt tried to blow himself up in front of the French embassy in Nouakchott. The militants openly claim on jihadi websites they want to topple the government in Mauritania to create an Islamic caliphate.

___

Associated Press Writer Rukmini Callimachi contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal.
COP22: CMAI conference for Paris Agreement signers begins Political delegates of 196 nations to decide on implementation

(ANSAmed) - MARRAKECH, NOVEMBER 15 - The 22nd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22) began in earnest on Tuesday at 1 PM local time with the first session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA 1).



The large tent of the Bab Ighli conference center brought together delegates from the 196 signatories of the agreement.



The delegates were welcomed by the King of Morocco Mohammed VI, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Moroccan Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar (who is chairing this COP22) and UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa. COP22 began on November 7 but had prior to Tuesday only seen preparatory work. Taking part in the CMA1 are political representatives of the nations: environment ministers as well as heads of state and government. The CMA1 will have to begin drawing up measures to implement the objectives of the Paris Agreement on Climate (maintain global warming within 2 degrees of pre-industrial levels, if possible within 1.5 degrees). Every country had brought its own targets for greenhouse gas emissions reductions to Paris, called National Determined Contributions.



The aim of the CMA is to evaluate whether these NDC are adequate to achieve the overall results needed and to update them if necessary. The UN's environmental body, the UNEP, has said that the commitments made in Paris are not enough and must be stepped up.



(ANSAmed).




130 migrants return to Belgrade from Croatia border Afghanis and Pakistanis walked to border over the weekend

(ANSAmed) - BELGRADE, NOVEMBER 15 - A group of roughly 130 migrants returned to Belgrade by train on Tuesday morning after failing to cross the border into Croatia.



The migrants mostly from Afghanistan and Pakistan had walked along the motorway linking the Serbian capital to Zagabria at the weekend.



On Monday they broke through a police cordon in the attempt to cross the border before going to the station in Sid for the return journey to Belgrade.



They have reportedly refused accommodation in migrant reception centres, preferring to sleep rough in the streets and parks of the capital. (ANSAmed)
CAIRO - An Egyptian court on Tuesday overturned the death sentence issued against ousted president Mohamed Morsi over a mass jailbreak in 2011 and ruled that he must be retried, Al Arabiya reports.

The court of cassation accepted the appeal presented by the Muslim Brotherhood's former political leader against the death sentence issued by a court of first instance in May 2015 and upheld on appeal the following June. Morsi was sentenced to death along with five other Muslim Brotherhood leaders, including the supreme leader Mohamed Badie.

The court of cassation also overturned life sentences handed down against a further 21 people convicted in the same trial. Morsi is also implicated in other trials and in June 2016 he was sentenced to life for alleged espionage for Qatar.


Syria: Russia launches massive op in Idlib and Homs Kunetsov aircraft carrier used to target 'terrorist factories'

(ANSAmed) - MOSCOW, NOVEMBER 15 - The Russian air force on Tuesday launched ''a large-scale operation to deliver strikes against terrorists in the Syrian provinces of Idlib and Homs, including with the involvement of the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov'', the TASS news agency quoted Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu as saying. ''The Russian forces are delivering massive strikes against terrorists' factories in Syria,'' he said. ''The strikes are targeting depots with ammunition and training centers, and also plants for the production of various mass destruction weapons.'' He stressed that these attacks would continue.



Russian Sukhoi Su-33 combat planes have started their operation from the board of the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, Shoigu said.



He added that ''before that, we conducted very thorough and substantial reconnaissance of all the targets. Proceeding from this, the basic targets were determined.'' TASS reported that ''According to the Russian defense minister, the operation involves the frigate Admiral Grigorovich that has made launches of Kalibr cruise missiles''. Reporters on the ground say that Syrian armed forces are also attacking the same areas, especially Maarrat Al-Numan, Ehsem, Bara, Juzif, and other areas outside of Syrian government control. (ANSAmed).




Israel names ambassador to Turkey after 6-year hiatus Following normalization accords post-Mavi Marmara crisis

(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, NOVEMBER 15 - The Israeli government on Tuesday named Eitan Naeh its new ambassador to Turkey, reported Turkish state broadcaster TRT.



The position had been vacant for six years after the crisis between the two nations resulting from the Mavi Marmara incident. Naeh had been deputy chief of mission for the Israeli embassy in London. His appointment came after the June signing of normalization agreements between the two countries. A Turkish ambassador is expected to be appointed to Israel soon. (ANSAmed).




Italy against Dublin reform unless changed - Italian FM Rome has 'objections and reservations'

(ANSAmed) - BRUSSELS, NOVEMBER 15 - Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Tuesday that Italy had "objections and reservations" about the ongoing debate on revising the EU's Dublin Regulation on asylum seekers. He said the current direction of the debate was "entirely unsatisfactory" because it opens up to "unacceptable" flexibility on migrant commitments while "loading many burdens" on the countries where the asylum seekers arrive first. "If it is not corrected, we will state our opposition," Gentiloni said after meeting Frans Timmermans, the First Vice-President of the European Commission. Gentiloni also said that he could see "no rifts" in relations between Italy and the European Union following recent polemics and speculation on whether Brussels will soften its position on Rome's 2017 budget when it gives its opinion on it on Wednesday. "We don't expect any particular rigidity or flexibility, but simply the acknowledgement of our good arguments," he said.



(ANSAmed).




Obama warns austerity alone 'cannot deliver prosperity' At Acropolis tomorrow, then speech on democracy

(ANSAmed) - ROME, NOVEMBER 15 - US president Barack Obama said Tuesday that austerity alone cannot deliver prosperity to the Greek people.



He was speaking in Athens on the first stop of his last tour in Europe as US president, reported the Greek daily Kathmerini. Strong ties between Greece as Washington as part of NATO are extremely important, he added in meeting with Greek president Prokopis Pavlopoulos. He went on to underscore the importance of visiting Greece since it is the ''cradle of democracy''. The Greek leader assured Greece's commitment to the European Union. Obama added that NATO is a pillar of security for the US and that his country is firmly committed to it. During his election campaign, Donald Trump had complained of the fact that the US carries more than its fair share of the weight within NATO. The US president will on Wednesday visit the Acropolis and will later hold a speech on democracy and on globalization prior to flying to Berlin. (ANSAmed).




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By Juan Carlos Llorca

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) - A former prison director in Guatemala accused of participating in the killings of 10 inmates turned himself over to police Friday, authorities said.

Interior Minister Carlos Monocal said police arrested former prison director Alejandro Giammattei inside the Honduran Embassy, where he had sought refuge last week claiming he was the victim of a political persecution. Honduras rejected his request.

Giammattei is one of 19 people accused of being involved in the killings of seven inmates when police regained control of the country's Pavon prison during an uprising there in 2007 and in the alleged execution of three inmates who escaped from the "El Infiernito" prison in 2005.

Nine other suspects have been arrested. Investigators said they include two civilians, two former policemen and an officer still on the force.

Those still being sought include former Interior Minister Carlos Vielmann and former National Police Director Erwin Sperissen. Both are believed to have left Guatemala.

All of the former officials are from the 2004-2008 administration of then President Oscar Berger. His government enacted policies to crack down on violent crime and street gangs, and it was unclear whether the alleged killings were related to that policy.

The U.N International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, which was established to investigate such cases, said those detained "were part of a criminal organization that was organized within the Interior Ministry and national police since 2004, and which carried out illegal executions."

President Alvaro Colom on Friday said he will ask the United Nations to extend the commission's mandate for four more years.

The U.N. created the independent commission in 2007 at the request of Guatemalan authorities overwhelmed by the scope of crime and corruption. The current mandate expires in September 2011.
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NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) - The teenage thief dubbed the "Barefoot Bandit" by police has pleaded guilty to a minor offense in the Bahamas and is expected to be deported soon to the United States.

Colton Harris-Moore pleaded guilty to illegal landing in his first court appearance in Nassau on Tuesday. The charge carries a $300 fine or three months in jail, followed by deportation.

The 19-year-old American spent two years fleeing police before his capture Sunday in the Bahamas. He faces burglary and theft charges in several U.S. states.
Goggin currently is vice president of Airplane Programs Engineering for the companys Commercial Airplanes unit, overseeing the engineering teams that support all the current 7-series passenger planes. Before that, he was vice president of Boeings Development Program Excellence initiative, focused on properly starting programs and identifying key risk areas.

During more than three decades with Boeing, Jim built a legacy that will endure for many years to come, said Leanne Caret, president and CEO of Defense, Space & Security. Pats experience across commercial and defense programs will help us grow a stable of strong development programs on the foundation that Jim put in place.

BDS Development oversees the pre-production phases of key defense and space programmes with a goal of enhancing performance prior to entering production. It, and a similar organisation in Commercial Airplanes, demonstrate the companys best-of-Boeing approach to reduce risk and improve the affordability of key development activities.

Goggin, who has worked at Boeing for 29 years, will move into his new role in December so he and ONeill can collaborate during a transition period.
Al Baker said: "We will be making some interesting announcements soon. We have two other projects in the pipeline which you will get to know."

Aside from shareholder investments, al Baker said Qatar Airways is also considering strategic partnerships without equity. Among the airlines it is seeking deeper ties with is fellow Oneworld member, American Airlines, with which it already has a bilateral relationship.

According to al Baker, Qatar Airways hopes American will end its existing ties with Etihad Airways to work solely with Qatar in the Gulf. If that should occur, and if Qatar Airways and American were to enter into a joint-venture, the CEO believes that could then pave the way for another very lucrative joint-venture - with IAG International Airlines Group/British Airways.

"I'm a businessman and I would be delighted to do this with American," he said. "I think the American Airlines administration has been misled by Delta Air Lines and I think in the long run they will realise that a partnership with Qatar Airways is a very robust business proposition for them."
"I can say with confidence that the federal government needs a major overhaul. Dont get me wrong, most public servants in government are highly educated and dedicated professionals who are committed to the greater good. At the same time, the government has become a bloated bureaucracy that is based on past conditions and in too many cases, federal programs and policies cant demonstrate that they are generating real results that benefit the American people." David Walker President and CEO The Peter G. Peterson Foundation http://www.pgpf.org/ ; former, recently served for 10 years, Comptroller General of the United States and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).NPR's story on David Walker: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124460237
I don't know how many young women come to this blog or how many are parents of teenage or young adult women, but here are some safety tips from Kelsey's Army:

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P

S

1. Trust your instincts - If something feels wrong then something probably is wrong.2. Know your surroundings - know who and what is around you.3. Always have a plan for where you would go and what you would do if a situation arises.4. Be willing to make a scene in order to be noticed.5. Let someone know where you are going and when you will be back.Remember the acronym TIPS:ake Chargenform others of your whereaboutsrepare for any situationurvival Mentality (role play situations so you will respond should they happen)For more information, go to Kelsey's Army
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. The film Earthquake about the 1988 devastating Armenian earthquake will hit the screens November 18th.

ARMENPRESS had an interview with the films director Sarik Andreasyan.

Andreasyan says he has lived in Kazakhstan, and wanted to be a director since high school.

After moving to Moscow, he enrolled in Yuri Grimovs studio, and after graduating began writing scripts. In 2008, Andreasyan shot his first movie.

Asked about choosing actors for his roles, Andreasyan says : Often we say with humour that while reading the script we see Robert De Niro for all roles. The first famous actor to star in my first movie was Dmitry Nagiyev. I am thankful to him, since he was the only one to agree to star. I invite actors who suit for the roles, I dont ask someone to act just because they are famous. For instance, in the case of Earthquake, we spoke with Konstantin Lavrinenko. Our negotiations lasted for 10 seconds. He was aware of that tragedy and said he wants to star in the movie.

Speaking about his cooperation with Oscar winner Adrien Brody, Andreasyan says they are friends.

Initially we didnt plan Brodys involvement in American Heist, however it turned out he works with the agency with which we cooperate. We presented the script, and three days later Adrien said he hasnt played such a character before and he would like to portray an ex-con who just got out of prison. When we met, I honestly said that I dont know what advice to give to an actor who is the youngest actor ever to win an Oscar, he said.

Andreasyan says he grew up watching crime-dramas like The Godfather, Scarface. The Armenian director says his favorite actors are Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, whom he has met. I have met my heroes, he said.

Earthquake was selected by Armenia as the entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards. However, the film was disqualified by the Academy for not meeting the submission requirements.

Andreasyan says the disqualification has nothing to do with the movie itself, but rather with the documents.

The Academy hasnt watched the movie yet, since screenings begin in December, and in October they go through the papers. The film wasnt included because according to the Academys demands, the films creative supervision must be carried out by citizens of the country which submit the bid. They focus not on nationality but on citizenship. And the majority of those who worked on the film are Russian citizens, but ethnic Armenians, he said.

I received an offer to shoot a Hollywood movie, but we are still waiting to choose the actors. The most difficult part in the US is finding artists, since the actors factor is crucial in the American cinema  it forms the budget, he said.

Earthquake is a 2016 Armenian drama film directed by Sarik Andreasyan about the 1988 Armenian earthquake. It was selected by Armenia as the entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards. However, the film was disqualified by the Academy for not meeting the submission requirements.

The full interview with director Sarik Andreasyan is available in Armenian.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. Russian President Vladimir Putin and the US President-elect Donald Trump on November 14 held a phone conversation as agreed in advance by both sides, the Kremlin press service said, reports Armenpress.

The Russian President said he was ready to develop a dialogue of partnership with the new administration on the principles of equality, mutual respect and non-interference in each others domestic affairs, the statement says.

During the conversation Putin and Trump not only agreed on the absolutely unsatisfactory state of bilateral relations but also expressed support for active joint efforts to normalize relations and pursue constructive cooperation on the broadest possible range of issues. They emphasized the importance of establishing a reliable foundation for bilateral ties by developing the trade and economic component, the Kremlins statement said.

Putin and Trump both spoke of the need to work together in the struggle against the number one common enemy  international terrorism and extremism. In this context, they discussed issues related to solving the crisis in Syria, the statement reads.

Putin and Trump agreed to continue contacts by phone and arrange a meeting in person in future, the preparation of which will be carried out by the representatives of both sides.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. The Defense Ministry of Nagorno Karabakh told Armenpress the Azerbaijani forces made more than 75 ceasefire violations across the Nagorno Karabakh-Azerbaijan line of contact.

The Ministrys announcement reads: Overnight November 14-15 the Azerbaijani side violated the ceasefire regime more than 75 times by firing over 1300 shots from various caliber small arms at the Armenian positions in the Nagorno Karabakh-Azerbaijan line of contact.

In the north-eastern and northern directions of the line of contact the Azerbaijani forces fired also 60mm and 80mm mortars (7 shells), as well as under-barrel grenade launcher (1 grenade).

The Defense Army forces are in control of the situation and continue confidently fulfilling the military service.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. The United States will remain an indispensable power despite the change in power, US President Barack Obama said in the first press conference after the victory of Donald Trump, reports Armenpress.

His speech was broadcast in CNN TV channel.

Obama said during their meeting Trump expressed a great interest to maintain the strategic relations with the allies of US, including the cooperation with NATO. "There is no weakening of resolve when it comes to maintaining a strong and robust NATO relationship," CNN quoted Obama as saying.

Obama said it is necessary to give Trump a chance to fulfill his plan. The American people will decide in several years whether they like what they see, he said.

At the same time Obama said Trump must correct certain aspects of his temperament which will not serve him well.

Photo by AP
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. You are not alone major healthcare forum will be held in Yerevan on November 26, Europa Donna Armenia representative Nvard Kocharyan told Armenpress.

The forum will be concentrated on citizens with cancer disease.

The forum is being held under the initiative of Europa Donna Armenia, Armenian representation of the European Breast Cancer Coalition.

During the forum oncologists will present reports on cancer, modern methods of treatment, the genetic predisposition, as well as there will be reports prepared by people who have overcome the cancer.

Issues related to reporting the medical sector, the media involvement, as well as psychological and legal issues will be discussed. The forum aims to be united together to fight against cancer, to provide clear information to the Armenian public, she said.

She said the patients at the Forum will have a chance to ask their issues of concern to doctors. Talks with journalists are scheduled during which the topics related to the importance of the media involvement, spread of accurate and literate information will be covered. A small event will be held for women who are at the treatment stage.

Since the forum is patient-driven and is the first of its kind in Armenia, we expect the presence and active involvement of the patients, including both those who were treated and who are at the treatment stage, as well as their cohesion and support to each other. It is important such events to be continuous, and that no one will feel himself-herself alone, she said.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. Former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani is seen as United States President-elect Donald Trumps top candidate for secretary of state, the Wall Street Journal reports citing sources.

According to WSJ, Trumps aides are also considering former Ambassador of US to United Nations John Bolton as a possible candidate.

Rudy Giuliani was asked in Washington whether he would be the next secretary of state, to which he responded one never knows.

According to sources, Trumps relationship with Giuliani can be a major consideration.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev discussed the case of Economic Development Minister Alexey Ulyukayev who is detained for taking a bribe, the Russian Governments press service said, adding that Medvedev highlighted the need of conducting a thorough investigation, RIA Novosti reported.

As Russian Presidents Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, Vladimir Putin is aware of the case.

Of course, it was reported to the President. He is aware. He was, actually, reported at the initial stage of the investigation. In other words, he has received the complete information, Peskov said adding that the accusations are very serious, and only the court can make a decision over it.

In the night of November 15 the Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against Economic Development Minister Alexey Ulyukayev. He was detained on receiving 2 million USD bribe based on factual evidence.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. Armenian MP, RPA Vice President Razmik Zohrabyan commented on the reports in the media which says Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan is going to replace Zohrabyan in the Vice President's post during the upcoming RPA meeting, reports Armenpress.

MP Zohrabyan told reporters in the Parliament that this issue has not been discussed in the RPA executive bodys sessions.

To the question whether he sees the necessity of change in the partys leadership, the MP said: I cannot answer to this question since there has not been such discussion. When such discussion will be held, I will express my opinion.

Referring to the rumors on PM Karapetyans joining the RPA, Zohrabyan said this issue will be discussed if Karen Karapetyan submits an application for party membership, however, there is no such application yet.

Zohrabyan said it is not news that the head of Armenias new government can cooperate with the RPA. The MP recalled that Karen Karapetyan headed the partys list for Yerevan City Council elections and served as Yerevan Mayor for a certain time.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. The Prosperous Armenia party faction will vote in favor of the legislative initiative on the compensation of servicemen fallen or became disabled while defending Armenia, Head of the PAP faction Naira Zohrabyan said during the discussion of the bill in the Parliament.

Why we are voting in favor of it, since we dont know what will happen in the border in 5 minutes. Every day we can expect a large-scale war. We must have an idea of uniting the people. Our army must and can be that idea, that code of the national unity today for our country in war, she said.

The MP said they are going to vote in favor of the bill, however, they must also talk about the confidence factor. She said today it is a big issue when there is no public trust towards any state initiative.

She said they will support the bill, however, no one can stop them to speak about corruption cases existing in the army and other fields.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. Armenian peacekeepers participating in Kosovo and Afghanistan missions had an opportunity to talk to their relatives during a traditional telebridge organized in the framework of NATO week in Armenia from November 14-18.

Chief of General Staff of Armenian armed forces General-Lieutenant Movses Hakobyan welcomed the peacekeepers and their relatives during the telebridge.

It is something unique for me to talk to our soldiers in this format. Since the Armenian armed forces are in a rather complicated situation of neither war, nor peace, we have to think also about organizing peace. Your activities are very important, and the experience you gain will be used for developing our army, Armenpress reports Hakobyan saying.

Ambassador of Germany to Armenia Matthias Kiesler wished the peacekeepers safe service and successful return.

The servicemen assured that they were in a high mood, the only issue they face is longing.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. The Eurasian Intergovernmental Council meeting to be held on November 16 in Moscow will address the draft Customs Code of the Eurasian Economic Union, Armenpress reports Russian Governments website informs.

The ratification of the Customs Code is expected to take place in December of the current year by the Presidents of the EAEU member states.
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YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. The Hayastan All-Armenian Funds 17th annual Pan-European Phoneathon, led by the funds French affiliate and with the participation of its affiliates in Germany and Switzerland, will take place during November 16-20, mobilizing Armenian communities throughout the three countries, the fund's official website reports.



Proceeds from the large-scale fundraising campaign will be used to rebuild Nagorno Karabakh communities that have sustained heavy damage as a result of the four-day war this year, to provide assistance to the Syrian-Armenian community, and to support the continued growth of agricultural-development projects in Armenias Tavush Province.



The Hayastan All-Armenian Funds affiliate in Greece will have its own phoneathon, which will be held during November 19-20 in Athens. Proceeds from this campaign will be contributed to the construction of the kindergarten of Karin Tak, a village in Nagorno Karabakhs Shushi Region. The kindergarten-construction project, now underway, is slated to be completed in summer 2017.



Valerie Toranian, editor-in-chief of the French magazine Revue des Deux Mondes, and journalist and entertainer Nikos Aliagas will serve as the godmother and the godfather of the Pan-European Phoneathon, respectively, making appeals for unity and support throughout the five days of the event.



In the course of the Pan-European Phoneathon, more than 600 volunteers stationed in Paris, Marseille, Toulouse, and Lyon will make calls to Armenian households, businesses, and organizations, to request their support of far-reaching projects that will benefit Armenia and Artsakh, as well as our compatriots in Syria.



Last year, the Pan-European Phoneathon raised a total of over 1.3 million Euros, which was used for various agricultural projects in Tavush, the construction of multifunctional community centers in Nagorno Karabakh, and assistance to war-affected Syrian-Armenians and Iraqi-Armenians.



Armenian communities in Europe have held phoneathons for the past 16 years, consistently expanding their donor bases and fundraising totals. Hayastan All-Armenian Fund phoneathons are also held annually in South America, through the funds Argentinean and Brazilian affiliates. The Brazilian-Armenian communitys phoneathon, the Hayastan All-Armenian Funds last major fundraising event for 2016, will be held during November 26-27.



A testament to the growing stature of these phoneathons  whether in Europe, South America, or elsewhere  is the fact that their volunteer corps continue to draw the participation of numerous non-Armenian individuals
San Francisco Symphony violinist Kum Mo Kim, whos currently touring South Korea with the orchestra, shares the story of her father, John S. Kim, who founded the countrys first symphony orchestra and, during the Korean War, was discovered by no less than the Vice President of The United States, who brought him to the U.S. to study.
People from New Zealand check organic produce at an agriculture industrial park in Nanchong, Sichuan province, last year. They were attending an international organic agricultural development forum in the city.Wang Jue / China News Service

China and New Zealand agree to recognize each others' agricultural product certification

China signed a landmark agreement with New Zealand on Monday that will see the countries recognize each other's standards for organic products.

The deal is the first of its kind for China and will boost development of the domestic organic industry and bilateral trade, according to the Certification and Accreditation Administration.

Sun Dawei, head of the administration, and Martyn Dunne, director-general of New Zealand's Ministry for Primary Industries, inked the agreement in Beijing.

According to the agreement, organic products exported from New Zealand will have a certificate from the ministry, while those heading the other way will be certified by the Chinese administration, removing the need for lengthy checks at their destination.

About 70 percent of New Zealand's organic products are exported, with much of it shipped to China. The most common goods are dairy products, meat and vegetables, while China exports organic coffee, frozen vegetables, crops and raw materials for pet food.

"China is negotiating with countries including Denmark, the United Kingdom and Thailand as well as the European Union for mutual recognition of organic food certification," said Wang Maohua, an official overseeing food and agricultural product certification at the administration. "We expect to reach an agreement with Denmark in one or two years."

The organic industry in China has grown rapidly in recent years, despite the nation's economic slowdown. Total sales reached 60 billion yuan ($8.78 billion) last year, twice as much as in 2013, Wang said. Best-sellers include dairy products, wine, rice and vegetables.

China strictly regulates the industry. For example, enterprises that have their certificates revoked for faking organic processes must wait up to five years to reapply for certification.

Jia Huai, a researcher at the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, told Xinhua News Agency that China has faced obstacles in signing mutual recognition agreements on organic standards with other countries as its domestic organic industry lacks credibility due to some enterprises adopting controversial practices.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. Experts say the main issue for rapid development of Armenias IT sector is lack of human resources.

Deputy Director of the Union of IT enterprises Hayk Chobanyan told ARMENPRESS today there are 2500 vacancies in Armenias IT sector. The yearly number of graduates for the IT sector is 1800.

Although there are this many graduates, not all of them meet the markets demands. One can say only the half meets the demands. Therefore, our main efforts are directed towards education. A new process has begun, we hold corresponding classes in schools and educational programs have been formed for undergraduate institutions. Its called short-term BA, Chobanyan says, highlighting also online education.

In his words, the students internship is very important, which often is carried out not on a high level. According to him, often internships are just a formality, although it must be a priority.

According to Hovik Musayelyan  director of Synopsys, it is very important to carry out works in all circles in order to raise the level of education. It is important that our talented youngsters in schools have a clear perception in choosing their profession, he says.

It is important for us that universities receive qualified raw resources from schools, so that these young people are in demand after graduations. Experience shows that 7-8 percent of university graduates find jobs. In this case it is very important to elaborate the concept of having a technology university, based on Polytechnics foundation, he said.

Minimum 25 percent growth is documented yearly in the IT sector in Armenia. The average yearly growth of the past 10 years comprised 33 percent.

The Armenian IT production in being exported to numerous countries worldwide  the large part of which to the United States.
Ranbir is dressed in school uniform as he seems to having a fun time with other boys seemingly in a hostel.

The picture of Ranbir from the sets was shared by UTV Motion Pictures.

Mumbai: Ranbir Kapoors recent film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil did decent business at the box-office and the actor has already resumed the shoot of his next release Jagga Jasoos.

The shooting of the film has been on for a substantial amount of time, with the lead actors, Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif, even shooting for other films in the meantime. The makers have now shared a new picture from the film where Ranbir is dressed in school uniform as he seems to having a fun time with other boys seemingly in a hostel.

The particular sequence was shot on the Childrens Day on Monday and the occasion seems to be perfect for the shoot of such a sequence.

The film has been directed by Anurag Basu, with music composed by Pritam and is scheduled to release on April 7 next year.
Indo-Pak relations took a major hit after attack on Indian Army base in Uri.

Pakistan army soldiers take position at a forward area Bagsar post on the Line of Control (LOC), that divides Kashmir between Pakistan and India, in Bhimber. (Photo: File/AP)

New Delhi: Use of heavy calibre guns by Indian forces are wreaking havoc among Pakistani forces across the Line of Control and also eliciting a rare admission by Pakistan on Monday when seven of its solders died in Indian firing in Bhimber in Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir, a fact which drew no reaction from the Indian government till last reports came in.

Sources told this newspaper that seven Pakistani soldiers killed in action could be a result of two kinds of action  artillery shells landing in an unprotected section post which usually comprises about two bunkers or a targeted precision strike by a raiding party of Indian soldiers.

It seems that recoilless anti-tank and anti-personnel armaments were used which has led to big casualties in the Pakistani side. In this particular area near Bhimber, Indian posts are at an elevation and overlooks many Pakistani posts so there is a distinct line-of-sight advantage where such heavy weapons are best utilised, an informed source said on condition of anonymity.

There is no doubt that in terms of weapons used, the escalation ladder is climbing. Many stretches of the LoC are already seeing extensive use of 81mm and 120mm guns which underlines the escalation.

Instead of just focusing on militants and infiltrators, we have started targeting military positions because when a soldier dies they will feel the pain while militants are expendable, the source added.

While the infantry operates 81mm mortars that have an effective range of 4-6 km, 120mm guns are operated by artillery and have an effective range of 8-9 km. The Armys Northern Command has been tweeting about the use of heavy guns ever since an Indian soldier was martyred and his body mutilated by Pak-backed militants in the Machhal Sector on October 28.

In a November 11 official press release by Pakistan foreign secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, the use of heavy artillery by Indian forces was pointed out during firing on November 9 in the Shahkot and Jura sectors on the LoC. Indian Army sources however pointed out that the Pakistanis were also using heavy weapons.

Indo-Pak relations are plumbing new lows ever since the September 18 attack by Pakistan-backed militants who attacked an Indian Army base in Uri.

India hit back very strongly on September 28-29 when Indian troops crossed into Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir to target areas used to gather terrorists killing many militants and Pakistani soldiers. Ever since the border areas on the two respective sides have been witnessing unprecedented firing and shelling.
PM admits it was little harsh, but says poor support move.

New Delhi/Ghazipur: Defending his governments demonetisation order, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted Monday that the poor in the country were supporting his move against corruption, black money and fake currency. Admitting that it was a little harsh and that people were facing inconvenience, Mr Modi attacked the Opposition, mainly the Congress, for misleading the people and asked if corruption and dishonesty should be allowed in the country. Scoffing at the Opposition for blaming him for the problems faced by the poor, Mr Modi said he was better aware of hardships faced by ordinary people. The PM said he knew he was up against the powerful, but vowed to continue his fight for the poor, farmers and villagers, as the Opposition parties joined forces to corner the government on the issue in the Winter Session of Parliament starting Wednesday.

Addressing the BJPs Parivartan Yatra rally in Ghazipur in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, Mr Modi said while the poor were enjoying sound sleep after the decision, the rich were running from pillar to post to buy sleeping pills.

Mr Modi also brought up his chai-walah days, saying that his decision to crack down on black money was a little kadak (strong) just like his tea. Mujhe yaad hai mujhe gareeb log kehte the Modi ji chai jara kadak banana. Gareeb ko jara kadak chai achi lagti hai, magar ameer ka muh bigad jaata hai. (I remember poor people used to ask me to keep their tea a little strong. Well, the poor love their brew on the stronger side but it usually spoils the taste buds of the elite), Mr Modi said taking on the black money holders, who he said are spending sleepless nights since the crackdown.

RELIEF and RESCUE.

In a dig at the Congress, the PM recalled that the Congress government had imposed the Emergency, stifling the rights of the people and the media, and banned chavanni (25 paise coins).

Under which law did they ban chavanni? ...Its another thing that they couldnt move beyond chavanni... You took the step as per your stature, we did what matched ours, Mr Modi said.

Invoking the name of Indias first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, on his 127th birth anniversary, the PM said he had purposely chosen this date for his visit to UP to launch projects. You (Nehru) are no more, the leaders from your party and your family are levelling false allegations... still, on your birthday, I am starting work to complete your unfulfilled desire for the development of India, Mr Modi said.

The PM said while there was no dearth of money for development, the fact was that money was stashed away somewhere else and not where it should be. Defending the demonetisation move, Mr Modi said the fake currency menace couldnt be checked if such a big offensive was not initiated. The PM also said fake notes were pumped in by the enemy to wage war, for terrorism, Naxalism and extremism, and they are most worried as they are not able to make payments. The PM alleged rumours were spread and housewives instigated that their hard-earned cash for their daughters wedding was being taken away.

Without naming BSP chief Mayawati, the PM said: They (politicians) used to get huge garlands of notes under which their face got hidden, in an apparent reference to the currency note garland presented to Ms Mayawati at a rally in Lucknow when she was the chief minister.

Reaching out to locals, Mr Modi, who laid the foundation stone for several railway projects, began his address in Bhojpuri by saluting Ghazipur for giving birth to Param Vir Chakra awardee Abdul Hamid, who taught Pakistan a lesson in the 1965 war.

Thanking UPs voters for supporting and trusting the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Mr Modi said: The state played a key role in giving us an absolute majority.

In New Delhi, the BJP targeted Ms Mayawati as well as Trinamul supreno Mamata Banerjee for attacking the PM over the demonetisation decision. BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma attributed Ms Mayawatis criticism of the governments move as her frustration as crores of rupees she had allegedly collected by selling Assembly election tickets have turned into garbage. Rejecting her attack on the PM as low-level politics not worthy of a reply, he alleged she had turned BSP into a shop while it was a movement under founder Kanshi Ram, her mentor.

The BJPs West Bengal co-in-charge, Siddharth Nath Singh, said Ms Banerjee had become a cheerleader of hawala operators and smugglers, alleging that the queen of the Saradha scam was losing her mental balance due to the Modi governments strike against black money with the demonetisation exercise.
Naik is banned in both the UK and Canada for his alleged hate speeches aimed against other religions.

New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday banned controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik's NGO 'Islamic Research Foundation' for five years terming it illegal.

The law enforcing Agencies will be maintaining strict surveillance of the activities of all the establishments of the Foundation.

This development came after the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) began the cancellation process of Naik's Islamic Research Foundation's Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) registration.

Earlier, the Centre had asserted that Zakir Naik's Islamic Research Foundation is maligning India and, therefore, it is correct to ban it.

"If any person tries to malign society, tries to divide it, create tension between the people and hamper peace in the country then the government and people always will take strict and sever action against them," Minister of State for Parliamentary Affair Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.

Naik came under the scanner after the Bangladeshi newspaper 'Daily Star' revealed that one of the perpetrators of the July 1 terror attack in Dhaka, Rohan Imtiaz, ran propaganda on Facebook that said he was inspired by Naik to carry out the crime.

Naik is banned in both the U.K. and Canada for his alleged hate speeches aimed against other religions.

He is among the 16 banned Islamic scholars in Malaysia. He is also accused of radicalizing and attracting youth for terror acts and has come under the scanner of the security agencies.
According to the home ministry, Naik, who heads the IRF, has allegedly made many provocative speeches.

New Delhi: The Central government has declared controversial preacher Zakir Naiks NGO Islamic Research Foundation as an unlawful organisation under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for a period of five years. The decision was cleared by the Cabinet, which met on Tuesday evening, following a proposal from the home ministry.

The home ministry had earlier sought a legal opinion from the law ministry on the issue and there was a view that IRF could be banned under the UAPA. Following this, a detailed proposal was sent to the Union Cabinet which gave its consent on Tuesday.

The move comes after investigation by the home ministry found the NGO was allegedly having dubious links with Peace TV, an international Islamic channel, accused of propagating terrorism, the official said.

According to the home ministry, Naik, who heads the IRF, has allegedly made many provocative speeches and engaged in terror propaganda.

Multiple agencies, both from the Centre as well as Maharashtra government, were carrying investigations into the activities of IRF amid reports that organisation was involved in religious conversion and that some speeches of Mr Naik were inciting people.

An educational trust run by Naik have already been prevented from receiving foreign funds and agencies are looking into its activities. Earlier, the home ministry had also cancelled IRFs registration for receiving foreign donations also and had put it under the prior permission category. Mr Naik and IRFs role had first come under the scanner following a terror attack at an upmarket restaurant in Dhaka earlier this year as one of the attackers had claimed that he was influenced by Mr Naiks speeches.

Sources said now that IRF has been declared an outlawed organisation it will not be able to carryout any activity in the country and all its offices will have to be shut with immediate effect. The ban is for a period of five years following which it will again be reviewed by Centre and if required it will again be extended for a similar period, sources added.
The second step is to discuss specific non-NPT (Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty) members admission into the NSG, he said.

Chinas stand for a non-discriminatory criteria is regarded significant as Pakistan, a close ally of Beijing too has applied for the NSG membership along with India.

Beijing: China, which has been blocking Indias NSG bid, on Tuesday maintained its tough stand on the issue and called for a two-step non-discriminatory solution to admit non-NPT members into the 48-member elite grouping.

Chinas remarks came as the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) at its meeting in Vienna November 11 discussed a formula acting on Indias application to join it.

We maintain that we should follow two-step approach. First we should find out a solution that is applicable to all non-NPT members applications to the NSG through consultations and discussions, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a media briefing here outlining Chinas stand at the Vienna meeting.

The second step is to discuss specific non-NPT (Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty) members admission into the NSG, he said.

We believe that the solution should be non-discriminatory and applicable to all non-NPT members and it must not damage the core value of the NSG as well as the authority, effectiveness and integrity of the NPT, he said.

We hope that we can enter into the second step after finishing the first step at an early date which is to talk about specific non-NPT members joining the NSG, he said.

Chinas stand for a non-discriminatory criteria is regarded significant as Pakistan, a close ally of Beijing too has applied for the NSG membership along with India.

China, which has blocked earlier Indias entry on the ground that India has not signed the NPT, has held two rounds of talks with India and Pakistan about their admission into the group.

India has secured the backing of the US and majority of the NSG members based on its non-proliferation record in comparison to Pakistan which faced serious allegations of nuclear proliferation in the past specially with regard to its nuclear scientist Dr A.Q. Khan.

Mr Geng said at the Vienna meeting of the NSG, members talked about the technical, legal and political matters relating non-NPT members accession to the NSG.
Various parties have already given separate adjournment notices in the Lok Sabha.

New Delhi: Amid efforts by Opposition parties to mount a joint offensive on the government on the issue of the sudden demonetisation, cracks surfaced on the issue of the proposed march by the Trinamul Congress to the President House. While the Congress and the Left parties distanced themselves from the public display of anger, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee was promised support by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah.

The Opposition parties, which met here on the eve of the Winter Session of Parliament, have decided to meet again on Wednesday morning to thrash out the differences.

The meeting of the Opposition parties was attended by, among others, the Congress, Left parties, Trinamool Congress, NCP, DMK and the Janata Dal (United). Many Opposition leaders concluded that it was too early to visit the President on the issue and that it must first be raised at parliamentary forums.

Sources said that the reason for not agreeing to a march to the President House might be attributed to the fact that Left parties and the Congress, bitter political rivals of the TMC in West Bengal, are wary of being seen on a common platform of an initiative which was floated by Ms Banerjee.

Officially, though, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress leader in Rajya Sabha, maintained that had Parliament not been in session, the Opposition would have gone to meet the President. But as the two Houses were meeting for 30 days starting Wednesday, the issue should first be discussed and raised there. He said if the Opposition members demands were not fulfilled, other options could be explored.

Interestingly, CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the proposed march to President House was not discussed in the meeting at all. Mohammed Salim, the CPI-Ms face in Lok Sabha, said that the Opposition would employ all alternative tools available in a democracy, including the demand for a joint parliamentary committee to look into the issue.

Various parties have already given separate adjournment notices in the Lok Sabha and for suspension of proceedings in Rajya Sabha to discuss the issue.

Ms Banerjee, who landed in the capital Tuesday evening, said: Tomorrow, I am meeting the President on demonetisation issue. I will be meeting him with 40 of my MPs.

In a series of tweets earlier in the day, the TMC chief said that she had spoken with various political leaders and parties, including Rahul Gandhi, Nitish Kumar, Naveen Patnaik, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Arvind Kejriwal.

If they want to join me, it is good. If not, then I will go alone with my MPs, she said, adding that the situation is serious. Very grim. People are suffering. We will meet the President tomorrow, no matter what.

She met Mr Kejriwal after landing in Delhi and was promised support for the march. Ms Banerjee also came down heavily on the desperate attempt by the government to start what she branded as a black mechanism with indelible ink.

This shows that this government distrusts the common people. Also, there are by-elections on Nov 19. What will the Election Commission say about this decision to put indelible on prospective voters? she tweeted.

(Economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das has said that a small mark of indelible ink would be put on the right hand finger of those exchanging Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes for new ones from Wednesday. For voting, the mark is put on the left hand.)

The Congress, which despite its dwindling numbers is still the largest Opposition block, met for a strategy session before the Opposition meet and decided to forcefully take on the government on implementation of the demonetisation.

Sources said that top party leaders were of the view that information on the demonetisations was leaked to the BJP and that this issue should be raised in both houses of Parliament.

The party made a sharp attack on the Narendra Modi government alleging that the real agenda behind demonetisation was to mop up resources in order to bail out non-performing assets of banks which were owed by several industrialists.

The Congress Kapil Sibal made a strong allegation when he said, Out of the roughly Rs 16,000 crore in the market, the government hopes to see Rs 10,000 crore placed in the banks. The balance Rs 6,000 would be generated by the RBI and placed at the disposal of the government and the real objective of that fund was to pay off the non-performing assets of banks.
Regrettably, one of the countries of its origin and spread is in Indias neighbourhood, Modi said.

New Delhi: Reflecting rapid upswing in ties, India and Israel on Tuesday decided to broad-base their already close defence partnership and agreed to intensify cooperation in combating radicalism and extremism while calling for tough global action against terror networks and States harbouring them.

In wide-ranging talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, the two sides also resolved to deepen their overall engagement including in key areas of trade and investment, agriculture, water resources, education and research. The two sides also inked two pacts to strengthen cooperation in agriculture and water resources management.

In a media statement after the talks, PM Modi made a veiled attack on Pakistan, saying one of the countries in Indias neighbourhood has been supporting terrorism, adding he and Rivlin agreed to intensify bilateral cooperation in combating terror. We recognise that terrorism is a global challenge, knows no boundaries and has extensive links with other forms of organised crime.

Regrettably, one of the countries of its origin and spread is in Indias neighbourhood, Modi said.

Prime Minister Modi said both the countries agreed that the international community must act with resolve and determination against terror networks and States that harbour them.

Failure to act and silence of speech only encourages the terrorists. We agreed to intensify our cooperation to combat the forces of extremism and radicalisation that threaten all peace loving nations, he said.

On his part, Rivlin, the first Israeli President to visit India in nearly 20 years, said both India and Israel were threatened by terrorism as the two countries uphold values of freedom and that nothing can justify terror. He said India and Israel will be together in fighting the menace.

Referring to growing collaboration between the two countries, particularly in the defence sector, President Rivlin said his country is ready to make in India and make with India.

Noting that Rivlins visit has given a crucial push to efforts to build new pillars in ties, Modi said both sides noted the strength of the growing defence partnership and agreed on the need to make it more broad-based through production and manufacturing partnerships.

Referring to Israels expertise in micro-irrigation in drought-prone areas, the Prime Minister said water management and conservation, and collaboration in scientific research were identified as areas for priority engagement.

As fellow democracies, our people are our biggest strength and the biggest beneficiaries of a strong India-Israel partnership. The 2000-year old Jewish community in India represents a thriving link to this past. Today, it is a vital part of our composite cultural mosaic that continues to thrive in their traditions. We are proud of the Jewish community in India. President and I agreed that promoting people-to-people contacts, which has a long shared history, is our shared priority, PM Modi said.

India is Israels largest buyer of military hardware and the latter has been supplying various weapons systems, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles over the last few years but the transactions have largely remained behind the curtains.
Most Opposition parties have joined ranks in criticising the demonetisation, saying it has only led to hardship for the common man.

New Delhi: On the eve of Parliaments Winter Session that begins on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought the Oppositions cooperation for the smooth functioning of both Houses and urged them to send out a positive message about politicians. The Opposition parties, however, were unrelenting in their criticism of the recent demonetisation move by the government, calling it a currency scam that should be probed.

Despite this, and cash-strapped peoples continuing struggle for basic necessities as they wait in long queues seven days after Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were banned overnight, the ruling BJP said the demonetisation decision was getting the peoples support and had taken the shape of a peoples movement.

Most Opposition parties have joined ranks in criticising the demonetisation, saying it has only led to hardship for the common man.

As the government braced itself for a stormy session, key NDA partner Shiv Sena, which had on Monday endorsed the Narendra Modi governments demonetisation move, gave indications that it could join Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjees proposed anti-demonetisation march to Rashtrapati Bhavan Wednesday. The Sena parliamentary party office asked its MPs to assemble near Rashtrapati Bhavan by 1.30 pm.

Cash crisis

Some Sena MPs have decided to skip the sessions first day amid confusion on whether the Sena is with the government over demonetisation or against. In Mumbai, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray tried to clarify his party is not against Modi, but now it is a matter of life and death for the people of the country. Ms Banerjee also called Mr Thackeray to discuss the issue.

At the all-party meeting convened by the government on Tuesday, Mr Modi asserted the demonetisation decision was a crusade against corruption and black money, but an unrelenting Opposition called it a ill-prepared and hasty decision, that has caused economic chaos.

However, Mr Modi asserted the government was willing to discuss all issues and answer the questions raised by the Opposition, and hoped the session would be fruitful. Other than demonetisation, the Opposition parties will also try to corner the government over issues like the surgical strikes across the LoC, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, OROP and the plight of farmers.

Parliament is the right forum to send out a positive message about politicians by addressing the issues appropriately. Politicians are accused of several things and it is time we could send out a positive message to the people, the PM said at the meeting.

Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad alleged that the demonetisation decision was leaked in advance to some people, including BJP leaders, and called it probably the biggest scam. He, however, added that his party was not for its rollback.

Asking floor leaders of various parties at the meeting, the PM said demonetisation and other important issues should be discussed in detail.

Making a last-ditch effort to pacify the Opposition, Mr Modi gave credit to all parties for the legislation on rollout of the Good and Services Tax (GST) and noted that it had happened as all parties worked together. He also said he had witnessed several positive suggestions from both the Opposition and ruling benches during the discussion on various issues in Parliament and this needs to be continued. Key bills are pending in the Rajya Sabha, in which the government is in a minority and had witnessed the Opposition parties joining hands over several issues.

The PM also spoke in support of simultaneous Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections and backed state funding of elections, urging the political parties to debate the issue.

As the Opposition parties joined forces to corner the government, the BJP said rival parties had ganged up against Mr Modi, who was working to curb black money and corruption. BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma claimed the public was supporting the move and that it had taken the shape of a peoples movement.

Information and broadcasting minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said the allegations that the demonetisation decision was leaked was totally absurd and mischievous. He said: As the line of demarcation between honest and dishonest is being clearly drawn in the country, some Opposition parties are getting rattled and making absurd allegations.

Responding to observations on the withdrawal of high-value notes, finance minister Arun Jaitley asserted that the government was fully prepared before announcing the decision despite the strict secrecy to be maintained. He said the demonetisation decision was only a part of the larger strategy to tackle corruption and unaccounted money.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. United Nations Special Rapporteur David Kaye will pay his first official visit to Turkey this week to assess the situation of the right to freedom of opinion and expression in the country, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said, reports Armenpress.

Turkey faces a number of challenges right now. To be sure, the attempted coup in July was roundly criticized by individuals across the political spectrum in Turkey, for good reason. It was clearly an assault on democratic institutions and governance. However, both before and after the attempted coup, the space for critical voices, academics, journalists, lawyers and others in civil society has been under threat. These are among the key issues I will study during my stay in the country, Kaye said.

Kaye said the visit will be an important opportunity to collect first-hand information on the media independence and the safety of journalists, activists.

David Kaye will hold meetings with Turkeys legislative, executive and judicial authorities, will hold discussions with the participation of civil society representatives. He will prepare a report on the situation of human rights in Turkey based on his visit results.
Human rights activist and author Ma Thida will be in the city to offer an insight into the confines of a Burmese prison.

A former aide of Burmese politician Aung San Suu Kyi and a prisoner of conscience in her country, Ma Thida was sentenced to 20 years, imprisonment in 1993 for endangering public peace, having contact with illegal organisations, and distributing unlawful literature. After serving nearly six years in solitary confinement, she was released. Her works efforts to tell the truth however, continue to this day. At a session on November 19 and 20, the writer and human rights activist will be in conversation with Aakar Patel at Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest 2016, to discuss her life behind the bars and what followed after she walked out prison.

What will your session be about?

My first session on November 19 will be, Words Behind Bars: Being a prisoner of conscience. It will be about my prison memoir and my life in prison from 1993 to 1999. My second session on November 20 is, Women politicians in South Asia. Though I am immensely interested in politics, I do not want to be called a politician. But it happens.

How difficult was it to pen your memoir and how long was it in the making?

Writing down this book was not that hard. The one thing that I did care about was, to not make any of my friends (mentioned in the book) fall in trouble or get arrested because of any disclosure. Deciding how much I should disclose about their activities was the difficult part. My experience in prison was not that hard. Just that we were not allowed to read or write in prison in those days, so I needed to memorise every significant event and date. As soon as I was released, the first thing I did was to write down everything. I spent over four months to finish writing this book, but I did the research during my prison days with the help of a Harvard student. I finished writing it in 2010, when situation in my country was not good. So keeping this manuscript as a soft copy was risky too. So I left a hard copy of my manuscript at Harvard in my friends hands. I was thinking of getting it published in English first since there was still censorship in Myanmar at that time. Fortunately my Myanmar version was published as soon as the censorship was lifted in 2012.

Tell us about your journey as an author.

Well, I was always passionate about writing. I just want to be recognized as an independent, good writer. I was a late reader since I started reading voraciously in my mid-teens. My love for writing coupled with my interest in human rights led me to write since the age of 16  although then, it was only short stories. Thanks to the military regime in the country, many of my short stories got banned. But with time, many of my essays and articles did get published. From there I went on to become the editor of a various publications.

what are the other projects youre working on?

I am leading PEN Myanmar as an elected president and currently also being elected as board member of PEN International. Most of my activities and projects are related to freedom of expression and literature.
The poor are not sleeping. They are spending nights outside banks. Only Modijis friends are having good sleep.

New Delhi: Mounting attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his kadak chai remark saying the poor were being fed poison instead, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said that an emergency Delhi Assembly session has been convened on Tuesday to discuss the explosive situation arising out of demonetisation. Mr Modi had said earlier in the day My decision is a little harsh. When I was young, poor people used to ask for kadak (strong) tea but it spoils the mood of rich.

The CM added that looking at the hardships faced by the common public due to the move, his government has decided to deploy civil defence volunteers who will not only help citizens with paperwork at the banks but will also provide them with water and refreshments while they are in the queues.

Mr Kejriwal reiterated his demand that the demonetisation of the higher currency notes be rolled back and lashed out at Mr Modi and finance minister Arun Jaitley saying the Centre has lost all sense of proportion due to lack of any concrete plan in executing the scheme. The situation is just the opposite of what the Prime Minister said. The poor are not sleeping. They are spending nights outside banks. Only Modijis friends are having good sleep. He has made the poor drink poison in the name of kadak chai, Mr Kejriwal said.

The Delhi chief minister said he was pained to see people struggle for cash to buy basic necessities like food items and medicines, adding government was exploring options to arrange cooked food for those in need. We have also asked the divisional commissioner to explore in the next two to three days the possibility of arranging food through langars for those who are having to starve due to lack of hard cash, Mr Kejriwal said. The Delhi health secretary has also been directed to ensure that there is no shortage in city government-run hospitals, Mr Kejriwal said. The Cabinet meet was attended by ministers and top officials, including the chief secretary. Mr Kejriwal is likely to meet his Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee, who has also been vociferously opposing the measure, when she arrives in New Delhi on Tuesday.

It is simply a mechanism to transfer 50 per cent of the countrys total black money to BJPs accounts. The intention is UP polls. They would have arrested Swiss bank account holders and manufacturers of counterfeit currency had they wanted to act against black economy, he said. Mr Kejriwal said the Delhi government was exploring accepting Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes in Delhis pavilion at the International Trade Fair but decided against it as any such decision falls under the jurisdiction of the Centre.
The plea sought a ban on wearing face veils including burqas, helmets, hoods, etc.

New Delhi: Stating that banning burqa is not a public interest matter, the Delhi high court rubbished a PIL seeking a ban on the face veils in the national capital. The petitioner had stated that the burqa can pose a security threat.

A bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Sangeeta Dhingra Sehgal dismissed the plea saying, If it is a policy decision, the government will take care of it. How can we entertain it (PIL) under Article 226 (power of high courts to issue certain writs)?

We cannot interfere in this writ petition. The same is dismissed. It is not an issue that deserves consideration by this court under the article. It is not a matter of public interest.

The plea sought a ban on wearing face veils including burqas, helmets, hoods, etc. at public places like transport, government buildings, and heritage sites in the capital on the grounds of threat from terrorist activities.

The plea, filed by Sardar Ravi Ranjan Singh, alleged, The use of face coverings and wearing of full body cover like the burqa is a serious security issue and citizens are put to constant risk and fear in the national capital which is in violation of Article 21(protection of life and personal liberty) of the Constitution of India.

It said, There is a rapid growth in terrorist activities and the perpetrators of these criminal acts show no respect to burqa and ruthlessly use it as an instrument to carry out fidayeen attacks.

The petitioner also referred to the recent attacks in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir and said that public safety and the government offices in the capital are at constant risk.

Face veils or burqas can be used to prevent identification at border check-posts etc. Further, criminals and extremists can use burqas to skip checking at police posts and barricades, the PIL, which made the Centre, Delhi government, and National Security Council as parties, said.
Jackie, Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrains first English-language feature.

Natalie Portman in a still from Jackie, in which she plays the role of late US First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

Los Angeles: She is famous for jealously guarding her privacy, favoring a small wedding to a lavish celebrity ceremony and taking her grandmothers maiden name to shield her family from the limelight.

But Natalie Portman said on Monday that portraying grief-stricken Jacqueline Kennedy had taught her the virtue of celebrities giving more of themselves to the public. Jackie, Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrains first English-language feature, is a searing and intimate portrait of the First Lady in the week after John F Kennedys assassination in 1963.

Ms Portman told journalists at the American Film Institutes AFI Fest in Los Angeles, where Jackie was getting its US premiere, how she admired the stoic and dignified face Jackie put on for the public.

Its understanding that even when she was going through something incredibly private, it meant something to other people how she presented herself publicly, Ms Portman, 35, said. Its like other people share in whatever youre going through and thats really impressive that she was able to do that, she added.

Born Neta-Lee Hershlag in Jerusalem to a doctor father and an artist mother, Ms Portman has taken on tough roles since starting her big-screen career. She got her break at age 11 in The Professional, the tale of a hitman-for-hire (Jean Reno) who becomes the mentor to a young girl.

But she turned down 1996s Romeo + Juliet because of the age difference between her and Leonardo DiCaprio, and rejected the 1997 remake of Lolita, which she deemed sleazy. She also signed on to Anywhere But Here (1999) with Susan Sarandon only after a nude scene was dropped.

I value my private life and security way more than getting parts by flashing my boobs on some magazine or being a sex symbol in films, she said in a 2000 interview. Ms Portman won a best actress Oscar for 2010s psychological ballet thriller Black Swan.

It was on the set of that film she met her future husband, French dancer and choreographer Benjamin Millepied, with whom she is expecting a second child.
Mr Modi must find the first opportunity to meet him to develop chemistry and sell a shared vision of 21st century Asia.

Donald Trumps victory upended pollsters and shocked the global community anxiously awaiting the outcome of an extremely raucous and personalised election. The leaders of Americas Republican Party had surmised, after losing to President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, that to win in an ethnically diversifying country they would have to broaden their base. Mr Trump, however, did just the opposite by consolidating white majority support by an unabashedly anti-minority and bigoted campaign. The Economist magazine, which had denounced Mr Trump prior to the election, writes that he has contempt for conservative orthodoxy and harbours a dystopian vision, bigotry and anti-intellectualism. It concludes that if he has not rewritten the rules of electioneering, he has certainly flouted most of them.

His new electoral alliance, transcending traditional party lines, dredges economic fears and racial anxiety of the white majority, that will shrink by 2050 from 61.8 per cent of the population today to 46.6 per cent, if current immigration policies persist. In his victory speech, he called them the forgotten men and women. Though the last-minute intervention by the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation broke Hillary Clintons momentum and distracted attention away from Mr Trumps sex tapes, she really lost as she did not represent the change which most people sought.

His win mirrors a global trend towards the rise of chauvinistic leaders, often highly divisive but certainly autocratic, who rally their nations using past hurts or contemporary angst. Those falling into this category would include Russias Vladimir Putin, Turkeys Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Chinas Xi Jinping and Indias Narendra Modi. Waiting in the wings are Trump clones like Marine Le Pen, leader of the xenophobic National Front in France, often dubbed Trump Lite.

Mr Trumps apparent threat to the existing geo-economic order, stems from his economic and foreign policy pronouncements in the campaign, a lot even contemptuous of the traditional Republican Party platform. For instance, he condemns all trade agreements, including the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), that integrated the Mexican and Canadian economies with that of the US. On foreign policy, he advocates a retreat from US exceptionalism  a bedrock of the US worldview as the deemed custodian of liberty and freedom worldwide. Mr Trump instead preaches America First and an isolationist stance. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in her congratulatory message, conditioned partnership on respect for human dignity, racial equality and tolerance. A similar message went from the European Union. These are surprisingly blunt signals to the putative leader of the Western alliance.

From the fog of electioneering some elements of his putative foreign and domestic policies are emerging. In his victory speech he was moderation incarnate, advocating partnership and not confrontation with nations willing to get along with us. Having campaigned against Nafta he would have to at least review if not discard it. The Mexican peso has plunged in anticipation and Canada, which sends three-quarters of its exports to the US, is understandably nervous. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which was to tie the US to 11 partners in the Asia-Pacific region and provide geo-strategic underpinning to containing China, is now in limbo. Japans Lower House had already approved the TPP. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is rushing to engage Mr Trump in the US even before his inauguration to seek clarity about all elements of the US-Japan alliance.

Mr Trumps praise of President Vladimir Putin and signal to Nato allies that to obtain US protection they must commit greater resources increases uncertainty in Europe, already facing universally rising anti-establishment feelings, of which Brexit was a signal. His iconoclastic suggestion, which he may now drop, that Japan and the Republic of Korea could acquire nuclear weapons if they need for self-protection to offset reduced US commitment may undermine the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, not entirely an unwelcome prospect from Indias perspective.

The Trump approach to the Islamic world is also laden with paradoxes. He has scoffed at Sunni Gulf sheikhdoms and yet also wants to undo the nuclear deal with Iran. At the same time he wants ISIS obliterated, though it seems extremely unlikely that he would be prepared to commit troops for this. He is unlikely to press Israel as Mr Obama did on illegal settlements. But President Obama engaged Iran realising that the US could not counter ISIS without committing troops in West Asia unless the Russia-Iran axis, supplemented by US-boosted Iraqi and Kurdish forces operating under US air cover, was unshackled in northern Syria-Iraq.

A group called Hindu Americans for Trump had invited him to a New Jersey temple in a town largely inhabited by Gujarati-origin Indians. Was it PM Narendra Modis outreach to Mr Trump using the RSS and Gujarati links? If so, it is a welcome move. India will have to watch carefully Mr Trumps policy towards East Asia, including China, Europe, including Russia, and West Asia, mainly Iran. India and Pakistan would perhaps figure lower on his initial list of priorities.

On trade and economics, India must monitor his policy on visas, taxing of outsourcing firms and other protectionist steps that may present both challenges and opportunities. Trump Inc has real estate links in Mumbai and Pune. He is also at heart a transactional businessman whom India can engage as he carries little baggage of Cold War links to Pakistan.

Mr Modi must find the first opportunity to meet him to develop chemistry and sell a shared vision of 21st century Asia. India-US ties are flourishing but still lack economic and technological depth. Some unfinished business still lingers  such as Indias permanent membership of the UN Security Council, Nuclear Suppliers Group and enhanced defence links. Can

Mr Modis Make in India be meshed with Mr Trumps America First to craft, what President Obama once called, the defining partnership of the 21st century? History beckons both.
President-elect committed to Nato alliance, says Obama.

Washington/Brussels: Expressing concerns over a whole bunch of issues about his successor Donald Trump, outgoing US President Barack Obama has said the President-elect will soon realise that certain elements of his temperament would not serve him well unless he corrects them.

I think what will happen with the President-elect is there are going to be certain elements of his temperament that will not serve him well unless he recognises them and corrects them, Mr Obama, 55, said.

Because when youre a candidate and you say something that is inaccurate or controversial, it has less impact than it does when youre President of the US. Everybody around the world is paying attention. Markets move. National security issues require a level of precision in order to make sure that you dont make mistakes. I think he recognises that this is different, and so do the American people, Mr Obama said.

Mr Obama also maintained that Mr Trump is committed to maintaining Americas core strategic relationships, including Nato as the President embarked on his last foreign trip while in office to reassure concerned allies after his successors election.

In my conversation with the President-elect, he expressed a great interest in maintaining our core strategic relationships. And so one of the messages I will be able to deliver is his commitment to Nato and the Transatlantic Alliance, Mr Obama told White House reporters here before leaving on a week-long three-nation trip.

I think thats one of the most important functions I can serve at this stage, during this trip, is to let them know that there is no weakening of resolve when it comes to Americas commitment to maintaining a strong and robust Nato relationship, and a recognition that those alliances arent just good for Europe, theyre good for the United States, and theyre vital for the world, he said.

During the election campaigning, even as late as last Monday, Mr Obama had said that 70-year-old Trump was temperamentally unfit to be the President of the country.

Do I have concerns? Absolutely. Of course, Ive got concerns. He and I differ on a whole bunch of issues. But the federal government and our democracy is not a speedboat, its an ocean liner  as I discovered when I came into office. It took a lot of really hard work for us to make significant policy changes  even in our first two years, when we had larger majorities than Mr Trump will enjoy when he comes into office, Mr Obama said.

I think the President-elect, rightly, would expect that hes judged on whether we improve from that baseline and on those metrics, or things get worse. If things get worse, then the American people will figure that out pretty quick. If things get better, then more power to him. Ill be the first to congratulate him, he said. Mr Obama met Mr Trump at the Oval Office last Thursday.

Meanwhile, Nato head Jens Stoltenberg on Tues-day said he was sure that Donald Trump would meet all US commitments to the alliance, just days after urging the President-elect not to go it alone.

President-elect Donald Trump stated during the election campaign that he is a big fan of Nato, Mr Stoltenberg said in Brussels as he arrived for talks with EU defence ministers.

And I am certain that he will be a President... Who will live up to all the commitments of the United States in the alliance, because a strong Nato is important for Europe but its also important for the United States.

Mr Trumps upset election badly rattled nerves in Europe after he appeared to call into question Washingtons near 70-year security guarantee by saying he would only help Nato allies if they paid their way.

In a stark warning in Britains Observer newspaper on Sunday, Mr Stoltenberg wrote going it alone is not an option... This is no time to question the partnership between Eur-ope and the United States.

But the Nato chief noted Tuesday that the two sides were on the same page, with Mr Trump having also called for increased defence spending in Europe. I absolutely agree with him; that has been the message from US leaders for many years, Mr Stoltenberg said. The good thing is that we now see that Europeans are actually investing more in defence... Therefore contributing to better burden sharing, he said.

The Ukraine crisis shook Nato out of years of complacency and defence cuts, with leaders agreeing to its biggest military build-up since the end of the Cold War based on a commitment to devote two percent of national output to defence.

Mr Stoltenberg also said the military alliance wanted dialogue with Russia, after US President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on Monday to work towards constructive cooperation.
There are more than 1,000 non-commissioned officers on the Liaoning, and they are the main part of China's aircraft carrier.

Beijing: China's first aircraft carrier is now ready for combat, a key breakthrough for a navy that has been trying to flex its muscles far beyond its shores amid territorial disputes with several neighbouring countries.

The Liaoning carrier, made from an empty hull of a Soviet era ship, recently left its shipyard in Qingdao in east China to start a new training mission to test its combat capacity as it is prepared to "fight against enemies".

The construction of China's second indigenously-built aircraft carrier is already underway at a feverish pitch. Liaoning, which had previously been described in Chinese media as a surface platform for tests and training, has now "formally been described as having a real combat capacity," the state-run Global Times said.

"As a military force, we are always combat ready and our combat capacity also needs to be tested by war. At this moment, we are doing our best to promote our strength and use it to prevent war. But we are preparing for actual combat at any time," Senior Captain Li Dongyou, the political commissar of the vessel, told the daily.

The refurbished ship was launched by former president Hu Jintao in 2012.

There are more than 1,000 non-commissioned officers (NCOs) on the Liaoning, and they are the main part of China's aircraft carrier. "Among them, we have 42 Chief Petty Officers with an average age of 40 and experience of serving in the navy for more than 20 years," Li said.

"Weaponry is the key for combat capability on the carrier. As China's first generation of NCOs on the carrier, these officers' capability on how to operate, repair and maintain equipment is irreplaceable. And they are the source of our confidence," Li said.

The report did not elaborate on how China plans to use the carrier, but Liaoning is seen as to put more muscle behind the Communist giant's increasing assertive moves in the South China Sea, where territorial claims by neighbouring nations have dogged China's expansionist idea, and where it faces challenges from the US.

The South China sea, through which USD 5 trillion of trade passes annually, has been a centre of dispute between China and Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

"As a combat platform, China still lags behind the US in technology and capability to execute missions, but three senior US officials who visited the Liaoning before all gave a positive evaluation on the management of the carrier, officers and soldiers' daily lives and training are well organised and the equipment maintenance is fine," Li said.

Chinese media reports have said that as the construction of the second aircraft carrier picked up pace, China has stepped up preparations to deploy the first carrier force by putting in place a new batch of carrier-based fighter pilots.

With plans to build two more carriers, the PLA as built up its largest carrier-based pilot team after more than three years of intensive training, media reports had said in August. Speculation is rife that China may deploy one of the aircraft carriers in the South China Sea.
Obama tried to reassure worried allies, stressing that dismantling or unravelling such agreements was not easy.

Athens: US President Barack Obama will arrive in Athens on Tuesday, the first stop on a final foreign trip that will aim to reassure worried Europeans following Donald Trump's surprise presidential election victory.

The 44th president of the United States had likely imagined his farewell visit to Europe coming after eight years in power in different circumstances.

But Trump's defeat of Hillary Clinton last week will be on everybody's minds as the future of several key global deals on issues such as Iran's nuclear programme and the environment looks uncertain.

During a press conference in Washington on Monday, Obama tried to reassure worried allies, stressing that dismantling or unravelling such agreements was not easy.

After travelling to Greece, Obama will head to Germany to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and British and Italian prime ministers Theresa May and Matteo Renzi.

He will conclude his trip with a stop in Peru for a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Among the leaders he is expected to meet there is President Xi Jinping of China.

Obama on Wednesday will visit the Parthenon in Athens, then deliver a speech sure to have considerable resonance, given the recent US elections on the challenges of globalisation.

The question of Greek debt, which is choking the economy, and the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have arrived in Greece fleeing conflict in the Middle East will be the focus of talks during Obama's first visit to the country.

Shortly after his arrival in Athens, where thousands of police officers have been deployed amid tight security in the capital, Obama will hold a joint press conference with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

An uncertain world

"It's a symbolic and rare visit that recognises Greek efforts to manage its debt and to stabilise the country," government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said.

According to Greek Finance Minister Euclide Tsakalotos, the election of Trump could strengthen Greece's position against its creditors.

"We live in an uncertain world and this could help Greece. Because the European Union and the eurozone must show that they can resolve their problems among themselves," he told German newspaper TAZ.

Subjected to tough austerity measures, Greece is struggling to emerge from recession despite a recent upturn in its finances.

"In order for the reforms to be sustainable, people need hope," Obama said in an interview with Greek daily Kathimerini.

He promised to continue urging Greece's creditors to "take the necessary measures, particularly in regard to debt relief, so it can return to robust economic growth".

Obama will also highlight "the compassion and the generosity" that the Greek people have shown to refugees and migrants landing on their shores.

Rights group Amnesty International called on him to take advantage of the visit "to draw attention to the appalling conditions suffered by the tens of thousands of refugees trapped in Greece", and to demand wealthy nations assume responsibility.

Civil servants, communists, far-left groups and anarchists all plan to hold demonstrations as Obama swings through the Greek capital.
A full inquest into Brandons death will take place in January.

London: A 15-year-old Indian-origin boy hanged himself to death allegedly after being bullied in a school in the city of Leicester in the East Midlands region of England.

Brandon Singh Rayat died in August but his mother, Mina Rayat, decided to speak out on Monday at the start of National Anti-Bullying Week.

I begged doctors to hospitalise him because it was all too much.I told them he wanted to kill himself, she told Leicester Mercury newspaper.

Although Brandon received help, he was never detained. His anxiety got worse so that it became a complete phobia. He wouldnt leave the house in case he bumped into anyone from school, the 44-year-old added.A full inquest into Brandons death will take place in January.

He was found hanged in his bedroom with a scarf on August 9, after several failed suicide attempts including drinking bleach as well as slashing his wrists.

The teenager became suicidal after his schoolmates started calling him a paedo and a faggot as part of prolonged cyber attacks.

He stopped attending Judgemeadow Community College in Leicester last November.

Mina, a hair and beauty therapist who lives with her 41-year-old husband Raj, a shop worker, said, We feel totally let down, by both the school and by the doctors.

James McKenna, principal of Judgemeadow Community College, said: The whole school was extremely saddened by Brandons death, and our thoughts remain with his family. It wouldnt be appropriate to comment in detail in advance of the coroners inquest, but we can say that Judgemeadow takes the welfare of its pupils very seriously and does not tolerate bullying in any form.
Ishaq Dar said made it clear that the government was not considering demonetisation of Rs 5,000 currency notes.

Islamabad: Pakistan, unlike India, will not demonetise Rs 5,000 notes or withdraw Rs 40,000 prize bonds, with Finance Minister rebuffing media reports, saying "these rumours are baseless and no such proposal is under consideration".

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Monday said made it clear that the government was not considering demonetisation of Rs 5,000 currency notes and withdrawal of Rs 40,000 prize bonds.

The minister said that these rumours are baseless and no such proposal is under consideration of the government, Dawn reported.

Haroon Akhtar Khan, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday had said the proposal to discontinue currency notes and prize bonds of the highest denomination was "under consideration", the daily said.

Khan said the proposal came from the Tax Reforms Commission before the 2016-17 budget but the final decision was postponed and a tax reforms implementation committee was asked to look into it after the budget.

Presently, prize bonds are sold and purchased against cash without recording any identification of the seller and buyer. These are also traded in the open market and remain a major source of fraud and illegal activities.

Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Osman Saifullah Khan last week submitted a resolution in the Senate to demonetise 1,000 and 5,000 rupee notes to tackle corruption, citing the example of India which has withdrew 500 and 1,000 denominations of notes.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. The regular session of the 4-day sitting has kicked off in the Parliament of Armenia with 108 lawmakers registered.

The Parliament continues debating the bill on compensations for servicemen who were wounded during military operations, and for the families of the fallen soldiers. Under the bill, a special fund will be created, and each employed citizen of Armenia will have to transfer 1000 AMD to the fund every month.

The money will be directed for compensations of the families of fallen soldiers and those who suffered disabilities.
Israels Supreme Court orders the dismantlement of an outpost northeast of Ramallah by 25 December. Right-wing cabinet members call on residents to resist and approve bill to legalise the outpost retrospectively. Thousands of people are said to be ready to defend it. Palestinians turn to international law and announce recourse to the UN.

Jerusalem (AsiaNews/Agencies)  The settlement policy promoted by the Israeli government and endorsed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who depends on right-wing nationalists to govern, has opened a new front of confrontation with the judiciary (and Palestinians).

The dispute revolves around the outpost of Amona, north-east of Ramallah, which the Supreme Court of Israel ordered dismantled. The Israeli government seems however determined to resist, sparking the ire of the Palestinian Authority, which has said it is ready to resort to the United Nations.

The Israeli cabinet approved draft legislation to legalise retroactively unauthorised Jewish settlements, or outposts, in the occupied West Bank. For Mr Abu Rudeina, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, this would fuel tensions and "bring disasters to the region".

Despite the accusations and threats made by Palestinian leaders, Israel seems set to go ahead with its settlement policy despite a power struggle within the right, and the Supreme Courts decision to reject a government petition to delay the demolition of the outpost.

"The evacuation must occur before December 25," the high court said in its ruling. "The court rejects the delay requested by the state." In what seems to be a sharp rebuke of the government, it adds that "the duty to obey rulings is not a matter of choice.

Right-wingers in Netanyahu's cabinet have called for 40 families living there to resist evacuation, and the Israeli cabinet approved a bill to legalise retroactively unauthorised settlement homes built on private Palestinian land in communities that meet certain criteria. The draft would compensate Palestinian landowners in return for the seized land.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett is one of the strongest supporters of the bill. His votes in the Knesset are crucial for the survival of Netanyahus weak government. The bill to become law must still be approved by Israel's Knesset, or parliament.

For analysts and experts, the Amona affair represents the litmus test of Israels settlement policy. Everyone is now waiting to see if the government continues on its hard-line stand as its hawkish right-wing members want or gives in to international law and the decision of the Supreme Court.

On the margins of the crisis, a committee of solidarity with the Amona settlers announced late Monday that "thousands" of supporters would be mobilised to block their evacuation. Some fear the repeat of past clashes between settlers and police.

According to Peace Now, 2,623 housing units were built in 2016 in areas under direct Israeli administration in the West Bank, 756 of which were retroactively legalised. At least, 570,000 Israelis live in more than 130 settlements built by Israel since 1967 when it seized the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Under international law, these settlements are illegal, a view disputed by the Israeli government, which has boosted its settlement activities in the past few years. In addition to official settlements, there are 97 outposts, which even the Israeli government regards as illegal.

Peace talks between the Israeli and Palestinians sides broke down in 2014, triggering an escalation of violence in the region.
Yesterday exams for the 12th grade took place. Today there will be those for the 10th. The student turnout was higher than that of last year. The Ministry of Education has determined that tests only incorporate half of the curriculum, given that the students have been unable to go to school for four months.

Srinagar (AsiaNews) - In Kashmir more than 95% of 12th grade students have turned up at school to take their annual exams. These pupils have defied the curfew in force since July, and the threats of the separatists, who had criticized the decision of Education Minister Naeem Akhtar who decreed the reopening of schools in conjunction with the exams.

Yesterday throughout the Valley of Kashmir nearly 48 thousand students of the 12 grade took their exams. Today there will be those for the 10th, which will involve nearly 55 thousand students.

These annual exams were awaited with a mixture of anxiety and worry. Since July in fact, an ongoing guerrilla war between rebels and government forces, following the death of Burhan Wani, a militant of the Hizbul Mujahideen group, has kept schools closed.

During the months the school system has been severely curtailed and only a few students were able to continue the lessons thanks to some volunteer teachers who have taught free of charge.

Besides all that, in recent weeks several buildings were targeted by yet unknown vandals who set fire to at least 32 schools.

The influx of students has been higher than expected. They flocked to 480 centers open for the occasion, registering an increase of 2.56% compared to 2015. Today there are 550 institutes that will act as exam centers. In all, 6,200 teachers have been recalled to service, to supervise and ensure the proper functioning of the exams.

Earlier, the state government had been accused of insensitivity towards young people, with the decision to hold examinations regularly despite the revolt. In the end the Ministry of Education of Jammu and Kashmir (Bose) decided to meet the students' difficulties, ruling that the examinations in this round relates only to about half of the school curriculum. Those who do not take the exams in this round will have another opportunity in March 2017. On that occasion, the tests will be on the entire course of study.
The deal provides for the sale of tanks, artillery systems, combat aircraft and military helicopters. On the agreement weighs the possible veto of the UN Security Council. Russian official: "Ready to continue negotiations." Iran and China decide to carry out joint military exercises and cooperate in the fight against terrorism.

Tehran (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Tehran and Moscow are at the final stages of negotiations that will lead to a 10 billion dollar weapons sale. According to reports from a Russian senator, the Kremlin will give the army of the Islamic Republic of T-90 tanks, the latest generation artillery systems, combat aircraft and military helicopters.

Viktor Ozerov, head of the Committee for the defense and security of the Upper House of Parliament, reports that the talks between the two sides was underway. In the recent visit of a Russian delegation to Tehran last details were discussed and the agreement is ready for signature.

The supply of arms and military equipment from Russia to Iran will further strengthen the alliance between Moscow and Tehran, which has emerged in the Syrian arena.

Last year the United Nations removed - at least partly - the embargo on arms sales to Iran, following the signing of the agreement on the nuclear issue by Tehran.

However, until 2020 the UN Security Council must give the green light to trade in conventional weapons; and this clause may constitute a serious obstacle to the conclusion of the Agreement between the Kremlin and the Islamic Republic.

"Obviously the United States and its allies - said Viktor Ozerov - will block these supplies, but we are ready to continue the negotiations." Moreover, already in the recent past, Russia has provided Iran with S-300 missile defense system, while remaining faithful to a 2007 agreement that remained blocked because of Western pressure.

The relations between Russia and Iran have long been controversial and troubled. However, in the last several years, commonalities and key alliances are emerging between both nations in major international disputes. The war in Syria and support for President Bashar al-Assad is perhaps the most obvious case.

Senior Government officials in Moscow have emphasized that Russia continues to support the terms provided for in the (international) deal on the Iranian nuclear issue and that the Kremlin's position "has not changed." An answer, albeit indirectly, to the claims of neo US President Donald Trump that during the election campaign termed it "the worst agreement ever negotiated.

It remains to be seen how and when the new US administration will move, also in consideration of the fact that - at least in words - the new occupant of the White House intends to resume relations with Moscow and open new avenues of dialogue with Vladimir Putin.

Meanwhile, Iran and China have announced an agreement to carry out joint military exercises and cooperation between the two countries in combating terrorism. General Hossein Dehghan, the Iranian defense minister, and his Chinese counterpart Chang Wanquan have signed the document, which binds the Chinese and Iranian armies even more. In the context of the signing, Beijing and Tehran also announced the intention to "create a collective movement to combat the threat" of terrorism
"The Lord tries to wake them up, help them to convert. But the Lord also acts "in another way: He invites us: 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock.'" "The importance of being able to" feel when the Lord knocks at our door "," because he wants to give us something good, wants to join us. "

Vatican City (AsiaNews)  We must guard against becoming "lukewarm Christians" because they "lose the ability to contemplate, the ability to see the great and beautiful things of God" and risk not being able to recognize when he knocks on their door, warned Pope Francis at Mass this morning in Santa Marta.

The Pope was commenting on a passage from Johns Book of Revelations (3,1-6.14-22) in which the Lord rebukes the "lukewarm" Christians of the Church of Laodicea, to talk about this same risk that exists for the Church today and not just for the first Christian community.

The Pope highlighted how the Lord uses strong language, of rebuke for the lukewarm, "who are neither hot nor cold: I am about to spit you out of my mouth. Beware of the calm which deceives: God is not there The Lord, Francis said, warns against that calm without substance of the lukewarm, calling it a calm which deceives. But what does a lukewarm person think? The Lord says it here: He thinks he is rich. I have grown rich and have need of nothing. I am calm. That calm which deceives. If, in the heart of the Church, of a family, of a community, of a person there is an ever-present calm, God is not there". To the lukewarm, the Pope said not to fall asleep in the false belief of needing nothing.

The Lord shows that the lukewarm are naked; their richness comes not from God

Jesus, the Holy Father warned, defines those who believe themselves rich as unhappy and miserable. However, he did it out of love, so that they might discover a different richness, that which only the Lord may bestow.

Not that richness of the soul which you think you possess because you are good, because you do everything well, all is calm. There is another richness  that which comes from God, which always carries its cross, always carries some restlessness of the soul. And I urge you to buy white clothes in which to dress, so that your shameful nakedness is not seen. The lukewarm are not aware they are naked.

The lukewarm, Pope Francis said, lose the capacity to contemplate, the capacity to see the great and beautiful things of God. For this the Lord seeks to awaken us, to help us convert. But, he continued, the Lord is present in another way: He is there to invite us: Behold, I knock at the door. Here the Pope underlines the importance of being able to hear when the Lord knocks at our door because He wants to gives us something good.

Pope Francis went on to say there are Christians who are not aware when the Lord knocks. For them every noise is the same. We must understand well when the Lord knocks, when He wants to bring us His consolation. The Lord, Francis added, is before us also to invite us to invite Him, which is exactly what happens with Zacchaeus, as the days Gospel recounts: That curiosity of Zacchaeus, who was small, was a seed from the Holy Spirit.

The initiative is from the Spirit towards the Lord. He raises His eyes and says: But come; invite me into your house. The Lord is there He is always there with love: whether to correct us, to invite us to supper, or to be invited by us. He is there to tell us: Awake Open Come down. It is always He. Do I know how to distinguish in my heart when the Lord tells me to awake, to open, or to come down? May the Holy Spirit give us the grace to know how to discern these calls.
by Christopher Sharma

The faithful were stopped on the western border with India. They were headed to Buddhist temples in northeastern India. The crackdown stems from Chinas threat after Indias president met Tibetan leaders in Nepal.

Kathmandu (AsiaNews)  Nepali authorities have arrested 41 Tibetan pilgrims on the border with India. The group was travelling by bus to some of Indias most important Buddhist temples when it was stopped in Kailali, a district in western Nepal.

The pilgrims did not have identity papers or passports, police officer Rajendra Bista said. We arrested them and took them to Kathmandu, to the Immigration Department, for further investigation and necessary legal action."

All those arrested, including the bus driver, are Tibetans. Their pilgrimage included stops in the cities of Varanasi, Kushinagar and Bodh Gaya, all located in northeastern India.

According to many analysts, the arrests appear to be a direct consequence of Chinas warnings to Nepal following the visit of Indian President Pranab Mukharjee to the country.

During his trip, which took place between 2 and 4 November, the Indian leader met with the Dalai Lama and some Tibetan leaders, sparking Beijings ire. Chinese authorities reacted sharply, calling on Nepal for immediate reconfirmation of the 'One China policy.

Fearing diplomatic repercussions, Nepali authorities sought to reassure Beijing, but the Chinese have not reduced the pressure, demanding assurances on the economic project "One Belt One Road".

Nepali authorities responded by increasing checks on Tibetan pilgrims. "Before our religious pilgrimages were permitted, said Ken Tung Tashi, the driver of the bus on which the 41 detained pilgrims were travelling, but since the start of discussions between Nepal and China, we have been under closer surveillance."

According to Prof Surendra K.C, a diplomatic and political analyst, "the low quality of the Nepali diplomacy has failed to dispel Chinas doubts or restore mutual trust. As a result, Tibetan refugees and pilgrims have become the victims."

Buddhist leader Karma Lama appealed to Kathmandu "not to harm people of faith with its actions and make instead the necessary changes to allow pilgrimages."

A spokesman for the Nepali government tried to be reassuring, saying that "we do not want to put the faithful in the middle of the discussion between the two countries. We are on the side of religious freedom as enshrined in the Constitution.
The rate of road accidents caused by senior citizens is growing steadily. The new Road Traffic Laws will take effect from March 2017 to try to contain the increase in accidents.

Tokyo (AsiaNews) - In Japan, the number of traffic accidents caused by the elderly is growing. According to the Japanese Ministry of Health, fatal accidents between 2003 and 2013 caused by the drivers over 75 years of age, increased by 20%. For this reason, the government intends to impose more accurate medical examinations for renewal of the license of elderly drivers. The problem becomes more and more important in the light of incidents in recent months.

In Yokohama on October 28, a 87 years old retiree hit and killed a six year old child who was going to school. The senior, Masaichi Goda, was arrested. During questioning , the police were puzzled by Goda, who claimed to have forgotten where he was going, and that was about to throw out the garbage but did not know how to get home. On November 11, the elderly man began serving a term of imprisonment of three months during which, some specialists will make sure of his mental condition. If it proves to be a case of senile dementia, Goda will not be condemned.

In a similar incident in Tachikawa November 12, the 83 year old Sachiko Uezu drove through a level crossing and hit and killed two pedestrians.

According to the National Police Agency, among all fatal traffic accidents involving cars and motorbikes throughout Japan, the proportion of those caused by people aged 75 years old or older is increasing every year, reaching 12.8 percent in 2015. Under the revised Road Traffic Law that is scheduled to take effect in March 2017, people aged 75 or older will have to be referred to a medical doctor for diagnosis if it is found in regular cognitive ability checkups that their memories and judgment are diminished.
The promise to continue telephone contacts and see each other soon. Cooperation on many issues, including the fight against international terrorism and peace in Syria.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has telephoned the newly elected US president Donald Trump. In addition to congratulations on winning the election, he has discussed possibilities for improving relations between the two countries.

A Kremlin statement describes the current relationship between the two powers as "very unsatisfactory", proposing a "common work to normalize relations towards constructive cooperation on a wide range of issues."

The two presidents have agreed in the common commitment to fight international terrorism and to find ways to bring about peace in Syria, as well as enhance trade between the two countries.

During the Obama administration the relations between Washington and Moscow have dropped to their lowest level since the Cold War. In addition to differences and enmity shown in the Middle East, especially towards the fate of Syrian President Bashar Assad, the invasion of the Crimea led to a series of economic sanctions against Russia and an increase of the military defense in NATO countries.

A statement from Trumps office stated that the new president wants to have "a strong and lasting relationship with Russia and the Russian people".

During the US election campaign, Trump has been accused by his rival of being "sponsored" by Putin and has often cited the threat of Russian hackers on behalf of the votes.

For his part Trump said that he lifted the sanctions against Russia and could recognize the annexation of Crimea.

Putin and Trump have agreed to have new and continuous telephone contacts, while waiting for the opportunity to have a personal meeting in the near future.
Google And Facebook To Ban Fake News From Ad Networks

Trending News: Google, Facebook To Crack Down On Fake News Sites

Long Story Short

Google and Facebook have both announced plans to ban fake news sites from using their advertising networks. The move comes as both companies try to assuage serious and mounting criticism over the role their sites played in disseminating fake, usually pro-Trump news during the election campaign.

Long Story

By trying to hit them where it hurts most  their bottom line  tech giants Google and Facebook are banning fake news sites from using their critically important advertising networks.

The proliferation of fake news sites, many of them pro-Trump, became a serious issue during and immediately after the election, with many critics blaming the sites for not doing enough to halt the misinformation campaigns.

According to Reuters, Google said it is working on a policy change to prevent websites that misrepresent their content from using their AdSense network; Facebook is updating its advertising policies against the dissemination of misleading or deceptive content to include fake news. But Facebook wont touch fake news stories shared by users, and Googles change wont stop fake news stories, such as those claiming Donald Trump won the popular vote, from appearing in its search results.

Fake news is designed to resound in reader echo chambers and appeal to Google and Facebook algorithms. A hysterical, clickbait-y headline will get a click and send users to a site that, as BuzzFeed News reported recently, may very well have been created by a bunch of teenagers in Macedonia. The more the article is shared, reacted to and commented on, the bigger the cut its creators receive.

Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg has been forced to state repeatedly that the social networking site didnt play a significant role in the election or its final result and stated that he believes that Of all the content on Facebook, more than 99% of what people see is authentic. Only a very small amount is fake news and hoaxes.

Facebook also came under fire when it removed human editors and automated its Trending News feed this summer, a move many believe helped the spread of fake news stories.

Google uses a combination of AI algorithms and humans to monitor and review sites hoping to be or are already a part of AdSense. The company knows a lot is at stake, and is jealously guarding its reputation out of fear that legitimate publishers and advertisers will be angry at seeing their brands damaged by appearing near dubious news sources.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question

Do we need to teach people how to read the news, just so they can have the critical faculties to separate the real from the fake?

Drop This Fact

Even semi-legit news sources traffic in fake news, according to another BuzzFeed News report from last month. So-called hyperpartisan sites like Freedom Daily and Addicting Info regularly publish fake or partially fake news. According to BuzzFeed News analysis, the practice is much more acute on right-wing sites: a stunning 38% of articles posted by Freedom Daily, Right Wing News and Eagle Rising were deemed mostly or partially false. On the left, just under 20% of posts by Occupy Democrats, Addicting Info and The Other 98% were mostly or partially false.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. Georgia-NATO regular military exercises threaten the regional peace and stability, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, reports TASS.

We have put an attention on the regular military exercises of Georgia and NATO, to which more than 250 servicemen from 13 countries are taking part the statement says.

Russia considers such activeness a serious threat to the regional stability and peace, the statement reads.

NATO doesnt cover up that the current military partnership with Tbilisi is considered as part of its containment policy towards Russia, the statement said adding that the role taken by Georgia hinders the normalization of the Russian-Georgia relations.
There are certain foods that strike a craving within that simply cant be satiated by any other food. The donut is one of them. When the mood 
Contract drafting has become so flawed that lawyers drafting contracts have become copy and paste monkeys, an American lawyer said.The comment came from Ken Adams, adjunct professor at Notre Dame Law School in Indiana at a panel on how to improve contract drafting hosted by the University College London last week, according to The Law Society Gazette.The US-based lawyer suggested that a universal contract drafting style guide should be developed and used by law firms and that automated templates put together by answering a series of questions should be considered.Fellow panellist and Clifford Chance partner Kate Gibbons said, however, that there is no one size fits all template and that templates in general should not be slavishly followed. The Magic Circle firm partner said that lawyers can improve by reading and studying poetry because it develops appreciation of the importance of every word.Gibbons  along with fellow panellists Kristin McFetridge, chief counsel for BT, and High Court judge Justice Flaux  also criticised excessively complex language in contract drafting, the Gazette said.McFetridge said that BT has already reworked its terms and conditions so customers understand exactly what they are buying. To improve, lawyers can try studying a foreign language as this could help them better understand the quirks of the English language.Justice Flaux, meanwhile, suggested provisions and interpretations that are tried and tested should be used but added that a problems is many people do not appear to understand grammar.Ensuring you properly understand the meaning of what you are writing is crucial, as incorrectly used grammar can change the meaning, the judge said.However, Adams said he cannot accept the notion of tried and tested. He noted that 93% of interpretation clauses either state the obvious or are not feasible, the Gazette wrote.
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Between 9 and 13 years  thats the window of opportunity for a lawyer hoping to make partner according to a study by industry recruiter Origin Legal.Its research looked at 111 new partners in the top 20 firms in London and discovered that 9 to 13 years was when 80 per cent joined the partnership, with an average of 10 years.However, the study found that once the window is in the distant past, lawyers are less likely to move up the ladder.For Magic Circle firms, 60 per cent of new partners were in the corporate finance/banking practice with corporate litigation accounting for 20 per cent.European law firm Fieldfisher is now operating in China through a merger with local law firm JS Partners.The merger is effective 15November and is a Swiss Verein structure. JS Partners will use the Fieldfisher brand but will be known as FeiShi. Although Fieldfisher operates a Japan practice, it is London-based, making the merger its first major move into Asia Pacific.Fieldfishers network is gaining momentum with a merger last week in the UK and a tie-up through a Swiss Verein in Italy earlier in the year. The firm is expecting further Asia Pacific activity with Dr Zhaofeng Zhou, managing partner of JS Partners commenting that the firm is looking for further growth in the coming months.Squire Patton Boggs has added former Allen & Overy counsel Dannelle Howley to its real estate practice in Sydney.Widely regarded as a leading real estate law specialist in Australia, her practice focuses on complex, structured and large-scale transactions. She has previously acted on deals including the acquisitions of the Australia Postal headquarters, Four Seasons Hotel Sydney and the Victorian Police Complex.The Hong Kong office of international law firm Latham & Watkins has been awarded four awards by the governments Family Council including its Distinguished Family-Friendly Employers Award.It has been recognised for its family friendly policies and practices; for demonstrating innovative ideas in formulating family-friendly policies and practices; for providing an appropriate and friendly environment for breastfeeding employees; and a special mention award for being a previous winner of the Distinguished Family-Friendly Employers Award.
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YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. Germany considers it necessary to continue talks between the EU and Turkey over the countrys accession to the EU, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after the talks with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, reports Armenpress.

I know that there are those in the EU who consider it useful not to continue the negotiation process over Turkeys accession to the Union. I am personally opposed to suspending those talks, the German FM said adding that the criteria for joining the EU are not new, Turkey knows it, and it must comply with them.

Steinmeier also said it is necessary to restart the political settlement process of the Kurdish issue in Turkey. That issue will not be solved only through military means. A political process is necessary, and for restarting that process the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK) must lay down arms and refuse from terrorist activities, he said.
I'm surprised you can't get a birth certificate. If so, I guess that want a written statement from you explaining why and what you are providing instead with as much detail and proof as possible. They don't appear to have asked for a statuary declaration, so you don't have to provide one. Only if they ask, would you do so.
Winter is almost here and going by the reports so far, it's going to be a cold one. Now while you prepare to shield against the harsh weather, what about your car? Not only does it need some prep to deal with the conditions but also, you need to take some precautions and keep certain things in mind in order to drive safely in winter.

PREP UP YOUR CAR

The first step is to get your vehicle ready for the harsh conditions. Get it checked and serviced and replace parts which show above average levels of wear and tear. Do not skimp on this as it will reduce the chances of your vehicle breaking down in cold, icy conditions.

Clean the car: Clean all windows and the wing mirrors with lukewarm water to get rid of ice or snow and ensure good visibility. Do not pour hot water directly as the sudden temperature difference can cause them to crack. Clean the headlamps and tail-lamps too. If theres snow on the roof, then remove to prevent it from rolling down the front windscreen under hard braking.

Electricals: Check if all lights including indicators and the rear windscreen demister are working fine. During the hot summer months, we rely on the cars AC to keep us comfortable while during winter the heater keeps the cabin warm. So ensure its functioning properly before you drive off. In case you get stranded, the heater will turn out to be a lifesaver.

Windscreen washer and wipers: In snowy conditions, visibility drops. If the roads are covered with wet ice, then the windshield could get cluttered from the tyre spray of other vehicles. So, keep the windscreen washer fluid topped up. Mix water and concentrated screenwash in the right proportion to ensure it doesnt freeze. Replace the wiper blades if they are over six months old and get the motor serviced too.

Battery and engine oil: On cold days, one could experience difficulty in starting the engine. The battery performance decreases with a drop in temperature. If your battery is old, replace it and get the charging system and cables checked. Use an engine oil and coolant that can withstand lower temperatures.

Brakes: On wet, icy or snowy roads, the stopping distance will increase. Check with the service advisor if the brake pads need to be replaced. Also get the brake calliper cleaning and greasing done to ensure smooth operation.

Tyres: Ensure all tyres, including the spare, are in good condition, have more than adequate tread, devoid of any cuts or damage and properly inflated. Upgrade to winter tyres if you drive on roads that get covered in snow. Always stick to the manufacturer recommended tyre pressure. An overinflated tyre increases the chances of a skid when driving in slippery conditions. If you stay or are going to drive through a region which experiences moderate to heavy snowfall then keep a pair of snow chains in the boot. Practise fitting these on the tyres so that you arent left guessing when the need to use them arises.
Hyundai has launched the Tucson with prices starting from Rs 18.99 lakh; available in three trim levels and with a choice of two engines.

Update: Read our 2016 Hyundai Tucson India review

In recent years, the demand for SUVs in India has seen a major jump with multiple automakers trying to capitalise on the surge. Last year, the launch of the Creta proved to be a big boost for Hyundai, and it became one of the bestselling SUVs in the country. Now Hyundai has further bolstered its SUV line-up with a third model  the new, third-gen Tucson. The Tuscon name is not new to India with Hyundai having originally launched the first-gen SUV back in 2005, though it was dropped from the line-up after only a brief stint.

Now Hyundai seems confident that the Tuscon in its third generation will be able to rack in numbers, especially with the jump in popularity of SUVs in recent years. And given the new SUVs aggressive pricing, Hyundai is clearly looking to make a big impact in the segment.

Specifications

Hyundai is offering the new Tucson with a choice of a petrol and a diesel engine. The diesel one is a 2.0-litre four-cylinder motor that develops a healthy 185hp and 400Nm of torque. The petrol engine is a 2.0-litre four-cylinder unit that develops 155hp and 192Nm of torque. Both motors are paired with either six-speed manual or automatic gearbox and as only two-wheel-drive.

Features

The Tucson is available in three trim levels  2WD MT, 2WD AT GL and 2WD AT GLS. The diesel engine is offered across all trim levels, though petrol buyers do not have the option of getting the fully kitted out SUV. Interestingly, this is the same set-up as on the Creta, where too, the top trim is only diesel. Standard equipment on offer in the new Tuscon include automatic projector headlamps, LED daytime-running lamps, fog lamps, height- adjustable driver seat, electric adjust, folding and heated wing mirrors, puddle lamps, cruise control, reclining second row seat, rear wiper, and washer, 8.0-inch touchscreen, AVN system with navigation, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and voice recognition. In terms of safety, dual airbags and ABS are part of the standard kit as are rear parking sensors and camera.

The top 2WD AT GLS trim gets some additional goodies such as LED headlamps (segment first), leather upholstery, dual-zone auto climate control with rear AC vents, 10-way power-adjust driver seat, drive modes, hands-free tailgate operation (segment first), side and curtain airbags, stability control, hill-start assist and front parking sensors.

To sweeten the deal, Hyundai is offering a three-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty along with a three-year/30,000 km free maintenance package and three-year roadside assistance package. Loyal customers get a one-year extended warranty as well.

Price

Hyundai has launched the new Tucson at an introductory price of Rs 18.99 lakh for the entry-level petrol model. The pricelist is as follows:

Hyundai Tucson prices Variant Petrol Diesel 2WD M/T Rs 18.99 lakh Rs 21.59 lakh 2WD A/T GL Rs 21.79 lakh Rs 23.48 lakh 2WD A/T GLS --- Rs 24.99 lakh

Rivals

The new Tucson is a direct rival to the petrol-only Honda CR-V which comes at the higher end of the Tucsons price range. While there is no direct diesel rival, the recent price cuts in the likes of the Ford Endeavour and Chevrolet Trailblazer bring them within the same bracket as the smaller Tucson.
America has also discovered an appropriate use for a Prius. #thegrandtour pic.twitter.com/kHuPMvtRoo  The Grand Tour (@thegrandtour) November 15, 2016

Yet another acceptable use for a Prius. #thegrandtour A photo posted by The Grand Tour (@itsthegrandtour) on Nov 15, 2016 at 1:43am PST

The only appropriate use for a #Prius. #thegrandtour. #amazonprime A photo posted by The Grand Tour (@itsthegrandtour) on Nov 15, 2016 at 1:09am PST

OK, but what is "the line"? Well, it's one of those imaginary boundaries that doesn't really have a position that's set in concrete and may move one way or the other depending on the situation. However, classic, conventional advertising (TV, print) is considered ATL, and it's a bit looked down upon by some in the industry since they consider these channels outdated.BTL, on the other hand, is where creatives can let their imagination run wild and come up with the most surprising, amusing, and sometimes even ridiculous ideas. Most of the times, the client will not go along with them and they will never leave the drawing board, but when the client's name is "The Grand Tour," you can expect total freedom, and then some.That's how Clarkson , Hammond, and May's new show ended up being promoted throughout the world using crashed Toyota Priuses. The trio is notorious for its hate toward the Japanese hybrid, seeing the Prius as the epitome of four-wheeled boredom, and you can't blame them. This car may help save the planet, but an exciting drive it is not.The show's Instagram and Twitter accounts have started posting images of the cars in pretty dire situations, accompanied by captions such as "The only real acceptable use for a Prius" or "America has also discovered an appropriate use for a Prius."If the old saying that "any sort of publicity is good publicity" holds out, then Toyota has nothing to be upset about. Besides, it's not like The Grand Tour's presenters have anything against the brand. Just think of that Top Gear episode where they tried to destroy a Hilux, or when they went to the North Pole in a red Hilux. OK, I see a pattern developing here...The Grand Tour premieres this Friday on Amazon Prime, and even though you won't hear anyone use these exact words - for obvious reasons - you can expect it to take over where the old Top Gear left off. Only with bigger budgets, which means the three will have even fewer restrictions in manifesting their immaturity. If that sounds good, tune in on Amazon Prime on November 18.
It's easy to get carried away when you have 707 ponies under your right foot and while we're can't be sure such a scenario caused the accident that destroyed the Mopar machine in the image we have here, we're dealing with a serious case of dismantling.The Hellcat showed up in Cleveland, being listed on the Facebook page of a company that offers parts for project cars.This particular example of the Challenger used to be a six-speed manual Hellcat, one that only got to enjoy 6,247 miles in its factory form (this had been born as a 2015 model).Now, some of you will want to know more about the rescue process for the bits and bobs that result from such a brutal crash. Well, at least when it comes to Cleveland Power and Performance, the developer we're discussing here, the salvaged parts become a turnkey pallet.You can see an image showing such a pallet to your right, with the solution allowing any potential buyer to easily asses the state of the hardware.According to the company, this is the sixth Hellcat that has received its wooden frame and we have to admit that seeing the supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi, along with the rest of tech goodies that were rescued from the wreck, being put to good use does make us feel better.For one thing, Fiat Chrysler can't help but give in to the urge to Hellcat so many contraptions, from production vehicles, such as the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk (here are some spyshots ), to concept cars like the Ram Rebel TRX . So enthusiasts out there on a mission to build their project cars deserve a go too.
The Dubai Police General HQ has recently added six new Audi R8 and Audi Q7 cars to its super car patrol fleet as part of its efforts to reach out to UAE residents on traffic safety.

The new police patrol cars were announced when Lt. General Khamis Mattar Al Muzainah, commander-in-chief of Dubai Police, received Ali Al Nabooda, general manager Audi, Al Nabooda Automobiles, and the accompanying delegation from Audi Middle East at Dubai Police General Headquarters.

Al Muzainah said that Dubai Police Force has always sought, through the introduction of its fleet of supercars, to enhance the security of the emirate, according to the automaker.

The new Audi R8 features a 5.2L V-10 and improved fuel economy of up to 13% compared to the previous model, according to the automaker.

Photo: Audi

The new Audi Q7 premium SUV offers luxurious comfort, the largest interior in the segment and a weight savings of up to 325 kilograms. The Q7 also has improved fuel efficiency that's 27% better than its predecessor, according to the automaker.
Shell Canada has announced a multi-year agreement to provide Shell Fleet Navigator Card services to Purolator, an integrated freight and parcel solutions provider in Canada.

Further expanding the footprint of Shell fleet operations in Canada, Purolator has transitioned its fleet of 3,000 drivers across the country to the Shell Fleet Navigator Card, according to the company.

In addition to Shell's accessible fuel network, fleet managers at Purolator will have access to Shell's online card management tool, eTRAC. The system not only provides key insights into driver spending, it allows managers to set card restrictions and access comprehensive reporting functions, according to the company.
Car rental companies in Riyadh, Dammam, Al-Khobar, and Jeddah were fined more than 3 million Saudi Arabian Riyals for committing at least 2,000 violations in October and the first two weeks of November, according to a report by Saudi Gazette.

A committee from the Public Transport Authority made inspection tours of the offices in the four Saudi cities to ensure they were following the rules. The committee found several violations including operating without proper licenses or with expired ones, according to the report.

Some offices didnt have the rental contract placed in a clear place for the customers to see, says the report. Other offices were parking their cars in unlicensed places and using cars, which were not insured.



The Public Transport Authority asked all companies and individuals in the transport sector to obey the rules to avoid punishments and fines, says the report.

Click here for the full Saudi Gazette report.
After three years on the market in its current generation, the Toyota Corolla Altis is getting a stylish makeover both inside and out to welcome the new year. Revamped LED lights, bumpers and 16-inch wheels are complemented by user-friendly features like a rear-view camera, three USB ports and a 7-inch touchscreen.

The touchscreen is compatible with both DVD players and the Japanese carmaker's T-Connect navigation and infotainment systems. The restyled Altis' dashboard has also been flourished with white tread seams and softer materials.

Under the hood, its engine is more or less identical to its predecessors: 141hp 1.8-liter and 125hp 1.6-liter four-cylinder petrol engines. The 125hp engine maintains the ability to work on compressed natural gas (CNG), while both engines can run on E85 gasohol.

The CVT auto transmission has also arrived with a Sport mode in order to increase its responsiveness, reported Bangkok Post. Using the paddle-shifters or gear level on the vehicle's steering wheel, owners of the upgraded Altis can still work the gears manually. Toyota has also promised a noticeably smoother ride after they retooled the model's suspension.

The new Altis includes seven airbags, which it has now updated to be the standard number. Toyota also employed Vehicle Stability Control to its updated model, said Carlist.

Toyota's latest Corolla Altis will be equipped with seven airbags as standard, a rear-view camera, three USB ports, a seven-inch touchscreen which plays DVDs and Toyota's T-Connect navigation system, to name a few.

Naturally, the Corolla Altis' price has risen accordingly, but it is arguably an increase in value given its new facelift. Toyota will be launching the vehicle in Thailand with a price range of 799,000 baht (22,000 USD) to 1.079 million baht (30,500 USD) depending on the model.

Although the company has yet to announce when the car will enter other markets around the globe, it seems the stylish new Altis could be the start of a bid to create more premium Corollas. Bangkok Post said sources from the company have promised a makeover for its Vios as well sometime in 2017.
Technology and gadgets are all around, name it and everyone wants it. However, battery issues are one of the problems of consumers in their gadgets. Need not worry about owning a Surface Pro 3, because battery issues have been resolved, thanks to a firm update.

So, what is Surface Pro 3 and what are its common battery issues that owners are experiencing?

The Surface Pro 3 is the third-generation Surface series 2-in-1 detachable, designed, developed, marketed and produced by Microsoft, which runs the Windows 10 Pro operating system (OS).

However, the Surface Pro 3 is way too different from its older version, the Surface Pro 2, because it's not a direct copy of Version 2. The Surface Pro 3 is a new model of the two older versions that were released by its manufacturer, Microsoft. It hopes that the Surface Pro 3 is the tablet that can replace the widely and commonly used laptop in all possible way.

As Microsoft greatly hopes that Surface Pro 3 is the right tablet that can replace the laptop, what could have gone wrong with the batteries? What cause this battery issues and how can it be resolved?

Gadget experts and Microsoft itself have diagnosed the symptoms, causes and over course the treatment for the Surface Pro 3 battery issue.

One of the concerns of Microsoft is that most Surface Pro 3 owners don't know the cause of its battery issue, and would likely end up hopeless on the problem. In addition, Surface Pro 3 owners don't know the simple remedies to their battery problems.

This issue has been a standing dilemma to Surface Pro 3 owners and caused manufacture's product quality issue. Moreover, according to International Business Times, the battery issue was extremely worrying both Microsoft and users of Surface Pro 3.

In order to address the issue and eventually inform Surface Pro 3 owners, Microsoft posted the symptoms and causes of this problem. According to Microsoft, its is only a limited number of Surface Pro 3 owners find that their battery no longer holds a charge, and looks like the battery capacity has been gone. And when the power is plugged in, the Surface Pro 3 is working just fine, but when it's unplugged and being used, the battery runs out quickly than expected.

Microsoft further explained the battery issue using a comparison to a car's fuel gauge. A car's fuel gauge helps the driver determine how much to fill the tank. In this case, if the fuel gauge isn't working right, the car would also not be able to fill the tank the right amount of fuel needed to keep is going. Thus, this is what happened to the Surface Pro 3 battery capacity. When the battery capacity indicator in the system can't identify how much battery power is needed or left, then this will lead to a power issue.

Microsoft immediately addresses this battery issue by diagnosing the main cause. It was soon found out that it is more of an operating system and firmware issue than the expected battery issue.

A "System Firmware Update - 11/7/2016" is now being used by Microsoft as a treatment for Surface Pro 3 battery issue. The "System Firmware Update - 11/7/2016" has been described and believed one of Microsofts greatest devices that gave great revenues and allowed it to compete against the well-known Apple's iPad Pro, which is Microsoft's biggest competitor in the market.

Surface Pro 3 Update is available for all its users worldwide. Microsoft posted information to help users how to get the update. Microsoft believed that that "System Firmware Update - 11/7/2016" is the treatment and solution to Surface Pro 3 battery issue.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. Germany is satisfied with the cooperation with Armenian Armed Forces, particularly with the peacekeeping brigade.

Since 2010, the Armenian peacekeeping forces are taking part in the ongoing peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan under German command. We are grateful for Armenias assistance, military attache of Germany to Armenia Colonel Michael Westermann told reporters.

Within the framework of NATO week, a visit to the peacekeeping brigade of the Armenian Armed Forces was organized. Deputy Head of the tactical department of the brigade, Major Yervand Voskanyan briefed the military attaches of partner countries  Germany, France, USA, on the Armenian peacekeeping brigades mission and the general structure.

The Armenian peacekeeping forces undergo initial training in Armenia, then in any of partner countries, and then they are dispatched to the corresponding country to realize the mission, for instance, they train in Germany and depart for Afghanistan. Large number of the officers undergo additional training in Europe and USA. Speaking about the peacekeeping brigade, I can say that within the framework of NATOs Operational capabilities concept we have an accredited battalion, which passed all stages in 2007-2015 and is currently has a certificate of combat readiness, the Major said.

Commander of the brigade, Major-General Arthur Simonyan said the building where the brigade is stationed  built back in 1902  will serve as a military training facility after renovations, and the brigade will be relocated to a different facility.

5 Armenian divisions were formed in this area during the Great Patriotic War, which left for the frontline. The first Armenian regiment of the newly formed Armenian state was also established here, the Commander said.

He said Armenia has the potential and capabilities to expand cooperation with partners.
Turbocharged Direct Injection (TDI) is designed and Produced by Volkswagen Group as a turbo diesel engine that features turbocharging and cylinder-direct fuel injection. The said device is being bombarded with its legality under the European Law. Volkswagen said that the software allowing its diesel vehicles to evade emissions rules does not violate European law, Volkswagen group is aiming to strengthen its legal defenses to opposing the possible compensation claims in Europe.

According to Car and Driver, the majority affected vehicles registered of the rigged cars in Europe where the European Commission has been raising the pressure on the carmaker. Volkswagen Group admitted to manipulating the diesel emissions test in the U.S more than a year ago and is offering cash payouts to U.S. drivers. The European Commission is urging the German Group to compensate, financially, the affected 8 million TDI users around Europe.

As stated in the European Law, where carmakers are allowed to use software where it increases emissions beyond limits by arguing that the said software would give the engine more durability and would protect the engine from harm. The technicality of this law is where the Volkswagen Group is banking on the legality of their Turbocharged Direct Injection. This means that TDI is legal in Europe, technically.

The Germany Federal Environmental Agency's views on the negative effect of nitrogen oxide to human health and the environment are also being denied by the German group.

Although the Volkswagen Group believes that their Turbocharged Direct Injection software is legal in Europe, the group would still refit the affected cars for the reason of goodwill. Volkswagen Group would like their customers to cooperate constructively with the regulators and also with the Federal Motor Authority, according to Fortune.

Volkswagen stands as an icon in the motor industry for innovation and creativity, but would this new software that they produce make a stain on the company's innovation? Will the German Group continue to manufacture the questioned software?
Boom Technology unveiled its XB-1 supersonic demonstrator in Denver on Tuesday, and said they aim to build the fastest-ever civilian aircraft, with a cruise speed of Mach 2.2. Boom is working with Virgin Galactics The Spaceship Company to build and test the XB-1. The demonstrator is a technically representative 1/3-scale version of the production Boom airliner, the company said. First flight for the demonstrator is expected late next year, said Blake Scholl, CEO and founder of Boom. Sixty years after the dawn of the jet age, were still flying at 1960s speeds, said Scholl. Concordes designers didnt have the technology for affordable supersonic travel, but now we do. Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, said he has an option on Booms first 10 airplanes.

The Spaceship Company  will provide engineering and manufacturing services, along with flight-test support and operations, as part of our shared ambitions, Branson said. Booms tri-jet design features a delta wing and a tapered carbon-fiber fuselage. Unlike Concorde, the Boom design requires no afterburner, which the company says will significantly improve fuel economy. The full-size jet will carry up to 45 passengers and fly nonstop for up to 4,500 nm.
Zhamanak is concerned about that Yerevans and Moscows plans to sign a new agreement on a joint Russian-Armenian military unit, saying that it could increase Russian influence on decision-making in Armenias Armed Forces. The paper says that such a deal is risky also because Russia has not been a reliable ally for Armenia.

Haykakan Zhamanak says that the Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiation process has returned to the kind of deadlock that existed before last Aprils hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh. Before the April escalation, Azerbaijan was refusing high-level negotiations and then we saw what happened, writes the paper. After the April 5 truce agreement reached in Moscow, [Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev was asking for renewed negotiations. Serzh Sarkisian set preconditions for their resumption and they were discussed [with Aliyev and international mediators] at Vienna and Saint Petersburg. Unlike in the situation that existed before the April war, it is Armenia, not Azerbaijan, which is refusing to negotiate now. That may be done on the grounds that Azerbaijan is refusing to honor its commitments and negotiating with it is therefore meaningless. Regardless of the Armenian sides justification, this is creating a very dangerous situation because of the conventional wisdom that an alternative to negotiations is war.

Haykakan Zhamanak goes on to link the situation with the planned Russian-Armenian agreement on the joint army contingent. If Armenia is really going to rely on Russia, then who can guarantee that it will not be faced with yet another [Russian] betrayal, like the one which happened during the April war? it asks.

Chorrord Ishkhanutyun reports that a senior parliament deputy from the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), Vartan Ayvazian, has hit out at critics of the governments plans to introduce a new tax for compensations to be paid to the families of soldiers killed or maimed in action. Ayvazian said that those who do not like the measure should leave the country. Vartan Ayvazian very clearly defined the ideology that has been at the heart of the ruling party, says the pro-opposition paper. The HHK has for years acted just like that.

Hraparak denounces the planned tax as populist. The paper says at the same time that the governments decision to introduce the tax in the run-up to parliamentary elections testifies to its short-sightedness. It claims that many Armenians will resent the controversial measure and even take to the streets in protest.

(Tigran Avetisian)
15 November 2016 10:51 (UTC+04:00)

The Armenian armed units shattered ceasefire with Azerbaijan a total of 29 times throughout the day, Azerbaijan`s Defense Ministry reported on November 15.

The Armenian armed forces, stationed in Armenia`s Barekamavan village in Noyemberyan region and nameless hills in Berd and Krasnoselsk regions subjected to fire the positions of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces located at nameless hills in Gazakh region, Munjuglu village in Tovuz region and Gadabay region.

The ceasefire was also violated near the Goyarkh village in Tartar region, Garagashli village in Aghdam region , Kuropatkino village in Khojavand region, Horadiz and Gorgan villages in Fuzuli region, as well as nameless hills in Tartar, Goronboy, Jabrayil and Fuzuli regions.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

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15 November 2016 17:05 (UTC+04:00)

By Gunay Hasanova

Armenian citizens urge parliamentarians to give a negative assessment to the draft 1,000 dram law.

Representatives of so-called Against the looting of 1,000 drams group in social network Facebook protest near the Armenian Parliament, Tert.am reported.

Representatives of the initiative call the deputies to give a negative assessment to the bill, that was put to the vote in an expedited manner.

The essence of the law is that all the people who have suffered while serving in the Armed Forces of Armenia, fulfilling the will of the aggressive authorities and occupying lands from its real owner - Azerbaijan, will receive a small compensation for the crippled health and life.

To solve the social problems of the families of killed or disabled soldiers, every working citizen will be charged in the amount of 1,000 AMD each month for 20 years, the bill suggests.

These finances, according to the draft law, will be "allocated" to a special fund.

The initiators of the protest claim that the problem is not about 1,000 AMD, it is about who will manage this money.

In addition, there are citizens who are struggling to make money, therefore, 1000 drams is a big amount for them.

The representatives of the initiative propose to charge MoD generals, bureaucrats, and oligarchs by higher amounts.

Representatives of the initiative are outraged by the fact that all will have to pay the same amount, but the amount should be different for different segments of society.

The economy of the country remains critical, demonstrating unbelievably low indices each year. Descending economy, high poverty and increasing outflow of people are the pure realities in Armenia, which lack any governmental scenario or program to change the situation.

Armenia is one of the few countries where imports exceed exports by 3 times. Last year, the government again failed to keep its promise to substantially increase exports and to develop import substitution. The solution of this problem could strengthen both the national currency and reduce the growing unemployment. However, nothing is done to improve the situation, and Armenia is on the way to the abyss.

Meanwhile, Armenias external debt is growing, as well as the budget deficit. Moreover, the economic growth is significantly lower than it was foreseen. The state debt of Armenia has already amounted to $5.36 billion as of the end of the first half of 2016. The forecasted GDP in 2016 amounts to 5.443 trillion drams. Consequently, by the end of the first half-year, the national debt of Armenia made up 46.7 percent of GDP, which is quite risky for the countrys economy.

The World Bank released in April that 76 percent of the Armenian population spend less than $5 per day and 26 percent  even less than $2.5.

Armenian experts themselves do not hold optimistic views regarding the crisis situation in the country.

In 2017, we are expected to consume less than we did in 2003, which is to say we are decreasing our consumption index in the GDP ... to about 91.2 percent. Hence, in 2017 our populations living standards will be lower compared to 2013, says Armenian economist Vilen Khachatryan.

Some 8.8 percent of the State Budget will be directed to serving the state debt, according to the economist.

By and large, the conflicts with neighbors, including the occupation of Azerbaijani territories, territorial claims, and nonsense about the so-called Armenian genocide do not satisfy anyone in the region, including the Armenian people themselves. That is the wrong policy of the Armenian authorities.

Hence, the dominance of corrupted government, implementing aggressive policy, monopolies and oligarchic structures remain a major obstacle on the way of economic survival.

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Gunay Hasanova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @gunhasanova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
15 November 2016 10:22 (UTC+04:00)

Bakutel 2016, the 22nd Azerbaijan International Exhibition and Conference on Telecommunications and Information Technologies will take place from 29 November2 December 2016 in Baku.

Every year for over 20 years, Bakutel, the largest exhibition in the region, has been bringing together leading players of the communications market. As the main arena for presenting IT products and services, Bakutel has acquired status as the main business platform where contacts are made and new businesses are created. The Ministry of Communications and High Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan has shown invaluable support for Bakutel and has played a key role in establishing and developing the exhibition.

The support from international industry institutions such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and accreditation from UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry attests to Bakutels international recognition. The organisers of the event are Iteca Caspian and Caspian Event Organisers.

National stands from Azerbaijan, Austria, Belarus, Croatia, France, Iran, Italia, Slovenia, Turkey, Netherlands, Pakistan, USA and other countries will take part at Bakutel 2016.

40% of exhibitors are regular exhibitors. Among exhibitors are leading ICT companies, mobile operators, communications operators, internet providers, system integrators, and distributors of well-known brands. The exhibition features national stands from a number of countries, actively supported by the Ministry of Communications and High Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Thus, the pavilion of the Ministry of Communication will present the innovations in post, communication and e-government.

Presentations of such projects as Audio library for visually impaired children and Digitalization of museums Google Art Project and also start-up projects will be made at the event. At the same time, a number of conferences and forums will be held on the side-lines of the exhibition.

Thus, Bakutel, as the main industry event, is long awaited in Azerbaijans ICT industry. In addition to business meetings and talks, all visitors and exhibitors will be able to participate in competitions and quizzes, and get various surprises.

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15 November 2016 11:10 (UTC+04:00)

By Gunay Hasanova

The state-owned rail transport operator Azerbaijan Railways and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) discussed the implementation of projects on the international transport corridors passing through Azerbaijan, as well as the long-term tasks.

The discussions were held at a meeting of Azerbaijan Railways Head Javid Gurbanov with ADB Vice President Wencai Zhang, responsible for operations in the ADB South Asia Department and the Central and West Asia Department, who is on a visit to Baku, on November 14.

Gurbanov informed Zhang about the reforms and activities carried out for reconstruction of infrastructure of Azerbaijans railways.

The sides also discussed medium-term prospects and priorities of cooperation, as well as further expansion of relations.

The ADB will consider allocating a $200-million loan for implementation of the International North-South Transportation Corridor.

The bank management will review the project on April 15, 2017.

The North -South, which will serve as a link connecting the railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia is expected to bring huge benefits to the Azerbaijani budget. Some five million tons of freight per year is expected to be transported by means of the corridor in the initial stage with the further increase to more than 10 million tons.

The route enjoys several advantages compared to other transport corridors, as it is considered to be more profitable for each parameter than other alternative routes, including reduction of the distance and delivery time two or threefold

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15 November 2016 14:58 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan, which targets on developing the agrarian sector as part of its efforts to diversify the national economy and ensure the food security, is looking for ways to enter the world market with its products as well.

The development of agriculture is one of the priority directions for Azerbaijan to boost the non-oil sector and non-oil exports. The government supports agricultural sector at the state level and implements various agricultural projects aimed at increasing volume of domestic production and decrease dependence on the imported goods.

Azerbaijan has a self-sufficiency ratio for fresh fruit and vegetables. Alongside other agricultural products, the country is keen on developing grain production to fully ensure self-sufficiency in this main product of the consumer basket and also export it to the third countries.

President Ilham Aliyev also highlighted the importance of increasing production of this cereal in the near future.

Addressing the Qarabag Taxil LLC grain farm on November 12 as part of his visit to Beylagan region, President Aliyev said that Azerbaijan must export grain products, "but, of course, first of all, we need to meets domestic demand."

He further said that Azerbaijan will ensure its food security. "Today we cannot yet be self-sufficient in wheat. To do this, there are objective reasons. However, we are approaching this goal. Along with this, a large export potential of grain production should be created. We export fruit and vegetable products and other products, and in the future we must also export grain products. Of course, first of all, we need to cover domestic demand," he said.

The farm is the first pilot project in Azerbaijan, which was created a few years ago. The farm, which wheat yield currently amounts to 57 quintals per hectare, has a good performance, the president underlined.

"I think this is a record, as the country's average wheat yield makes up 30 quintals. And we consider it as a good result, since the rate was 20-22 quintals," said the president. "This shows that in case of right approach, all issues can be resolved at the highest level. Productivity, observed here, is approaching the level of developed countries."

The head of state noted that Qarabag Taxl is a large farm. "Big investments were put in the farm, including state financial support, credits on favorable terms, and this is the result of joint activities of state and private sector," he said.

President Aliyev said that the activities of this sector now play a big role in ensuring food security of the country.

"For the first time in Azerbaijan, soybean was planted in this household. And this is a very positive fact. Unfortunately, in previous years we have not grown soybeans, despite the fact that it is a very effective sphere. And each year Azerbaijan spends $50 million for imports of soy from abroad. Now if we provide ourselves with soy that money will remain in our country. Secondly, in the future, we need to export soybeans. We have such an opportunity," said the president.

Experts claim that the population of Azerbaijan is expected to grow to 12.1 million people by 2050, thus increasing the country's demand for food supplies in the future.

Today all countries are experiencing some concerns in food safety, the president emphasized.

"Demand is increasing with the population growth in the world, but land plots are not increasing. Of course, very serious steps must be taken to meet the growing needs. We do not have such a large plot of land. Therefore, we must effectively use every inch of ground. None of inch of land should remain useless. On the other hand, we need to increase yields.

The agricultural sector is important in Azerbaijan not only to increase export potential, but also to restore and protect the countrys food security.

Enjoying advantageous geographic location Azerbaijan has all possibilities to increase food security and production in the country.

Involving new technologies and modern equipment is of crucial importance for the development of the agricultural sector and food production. However, the application of new technologies and purchase of modern agricultural techniques that require significant resources, to make changes in this area would not be possible without the support of the government.

The main directions of state policy is also focused on reducing the dependence of the domestic market on imports of food and maximum measures should be implemented for the establishment of food resource.

As a result of agrarian reforms carried out in Azerbaijan, the guarantees were made for the dynamic development of agriculture. The country achieved 6.6-percent growth in the volume of agricultural production in 2015.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
15 November 2016 17:30 (UTC+04:00)

By Nigar Abbasova

Azerbaijan and the Asian Development Bank intend to strengthen mutual cooperation and move on with the implementation of joint projects.

The issue of bolstering ties was high on agenda during the meeting between President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Vice-President of the Asian Development Bank Wencai Zhang on November 14.

The head of state said that Wencai Zhang's visit to the country created a good opportunity for discussing prospects of cooperation and review work done in recent years, underlining new dynamics in cooperation between Azerbaijan and ADB.

Describing Azerbaijan as a reliable partner with financial capabilities, and the country which has always fulfilled its commitments, President Aliyev thanked Wencai Zhang for the important projects which ADB carried out in Azerbaijan, particularly for its supporting the Southern Gas Corridor project, which is of pivotal importance not only to Azerbaijan but to the region in a broader geography, including Europe.

Pointing to Azerbaijan-ADB cooperation in a number of areas, the head of state noted that most of the jointly implemented infrastructure projects have already been realized.

Wencai Zhang, in turn, praised very good cooperation between ADB and Azerbaijan, mentioning that ADB has allocated $2.8 billion to Azerbaijan since the country joined the organization in 1999.

He went on saying that apart from its own projects in Azerbaijan, ADB also supports and attaches importance to Southern Gas Corridor and Shah Deniz projects, adding that a special council was set up at the ADB to deal with these projects.

The sides also emphasized the importance of the ADB-supported infrastructure projects in Azerbaijan, including North-South railroad corridor, water supply, road expansion and other projects.

Energy projects

Azerbaijan may see the finance institute among the main lenders in the implementation of such projects as the development of gas condensate field Shah Deniz Stage 2 and Southern Gas Corridor. The projects are included in the ADB's 2017-2019 country operations business plan for Azerbaijan.

Speaking at a press conference in Baku Zhang said that the Board of Directors of the bank will discuss allocation of a loan for the SGC project until late 2016.

The SGC project, which aims at the diversification of the EU gas supply sources and routes was also discussed during a meeting between Finance Minister Samir Sharifov and ADB Vice-President.

The loan may finance the SGC that includes the development of giant Shah Deniz 2 field and building a chain of export pipelines for gas supply to Europe. The loan may be provided on an annual base with separate tranches to the Southern Gas Corridor Company (SGCC) as the government agent for developing Shah Deniz 2 and export pipelines.

SGC project envisages transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian Sea region to Europe through Georgia and Turkey.

Separately, ADB is also considering Shah Deniz Gas Field Expansion Project, which has a proposed status, and expected to support the government's ongoing investment in the development of the project.

The project aims to improve Azerbaijan's fiscal position by increasing revenues through the export of natural gas from the expanded Shah Deniz natural gas production and processing facility and the creation of additional domestic employment.

Transport projects

Zhang also held a meeting with Azerbaijan Railways CJSC (ADY) head Javid Gurbanov, where the sides discussed the implementation of projects on the international transport corridors passing through Azerbaijan, as well as the long-term tasks.

Gurbanov informed Zhang about the reforms and activities carried out for reconstruction of the infrastructure of Azerbaijans railways. The sides also discussed medium-term prospects and priorities of cooperation, as well as further expansion of cooperation.

The bank will consider allocating a $200-million loan for the implementation of the International North-South Transportation Corridor. The management of the institution will review the project on April 15, 2017.

If approved, the funds are expected to be mainly spent for the development of Baku-Yalama (border with Russia) rail line, which is implemented within the framework of the North-South project.

Allocation of funds for the realization of the North-South project is envisaged within the ADBs railway sector development program. Azerbaijan Railways CJSC is the executing agency for obtaining the loan.

Potential spheres of interaction

Addressing the press conference Zhang said that ADB intends to consider new potential spheres to expand cooperation with Azerbaijan.

Along with traditional spheres, the bank also plans to render its assistance to the implementation of institutional reforms, and projects in the sphere of ICT, renewable sources of energy and professional education.

Azerbaijan became a member of ADB in 1999 while the countrys share in the banks capital amounts to 0.5 percent. Other proposed ADB projects in Azerbaijan include renewable energy development project (biomass cogeneration), and solid waste management project for intermediary cities.

Country Partnership Strategy of the bank for Azerbaijan, which covers 2014-2018 aims to diversify the economy, foster new economic opportunities, and reduce disparities between urban and rural areas, while a huge emphasis is placed on the development of the transport sector in the country.

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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. Commander of the peacekeeping brigade, Major-General Arthur Simonyan always receives positive assessments over the Armenian peacekeepers performing their mission in different countries, reports Armenpress.

We have a second level assessment of the NATO standards, we have passed an exam and received our highest grade starting from participation in the peacekeeping operations till now. We receive letters with positive reactions from the commanders as well. Of course, there are shortcomings as well, and we are working on them. We are participating in nearly 12 military exercises in a year, from which 8-9 in different foreign countries, in the multinational forces. Currently we have two peacekeeping brigades with 56 and 65 members in Afghanistan, in Kosovo with 35 members, and in Lebanon with 32 members. The representatives of our partner countries always express a wish to expand the cooperation and increase the number of brigades, the commander said adding that it is possible the number of brigades performing their mission in Lebanon will increase.

He said the Armenian community holds meeting with the servicemen, and he is happy that the Armenian peacekeeping brigade is conducting the service in Lebanon.
15 November 2016 15:53 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli



A total of 12 state-owned properties were sold on November 15 during the auction of Azerbaijans State Committee on Property Issues.



The cost of the properties amounted to 1.2 million manats ($699,422). The auction also put on sale 12 non-residential areas, two small state-owned enterprises, three joint stock companies and one vehicle.



"Today's auction was different due to high demand among potential buyers. Non-residential land in Nasimi district of Baku, put up for auction at 18,000 manats ($10,000), eventually was sold for 45,000 manats ($26,000). Another area in the Narimanov district of Baku cost 12,000 ($6,900) was sold for 12.500 manats ($7.2000)," the committee reported.

The full list of the state enterprises is available at http://privatization.az/index.php/az/

The portal for privatization  privatization.az, launched in July 2016, reflects all necessary information about the facilities, their addresses, location, and even initial cost and aims at facilitation of the process.

The website is available in two languages - Azerbaijani and English. Why Azerbaijan is special section available on the website explains the reasons and advantages of investing in the country.

The privatization process is designed to attract both foreign and local investors, as well as improve the business environment of Azerbaijan.

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
15 November 2016 18:21 (UTC+04:00)

By Nigar Abbasova

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) made a decision on distribution of superfluous volume of funds provided by the financial institute for the implementation of certain road projects in the country.

Vice-President of the Bank Wencai Zhang said at a briefing in Baku that the excess financial means, saved from the five loans approved by the Bank, may be used for the financing of sub-projects within the investment program on the reconstruction of motor roads.

ADB Country Director for Azerbaijan Nariman Mannapbekov clarified that the sub-projects may cover the construction of roads adjacent to the main motor highways.

The Baku Office of the Bank earlier told Trend that some $30 million in tote from the five loans remained unused. Cost cutting appeared due to the changes in the currency market, namely the change of the manat rate against the USD.

ADB has already completed the funding within two investment programs for reconstruction of roads in Azerbaijan.

The first multi-tranche package worth $500 million was approved in 2007. The funds were directed to the construction of Masalli-Astara highway, as well as the reconstruction and expanding of the Ganja bypass road.

The second multi-tranche package was approved in November 2012 in the amount of $500 million. The program envisaged the construction of Masalli-Shorsulu highway (63 kilometers), consisting of two parts Masalli-Jalilabad (32.2 kilometers) and Jalilabad-Shorsulu (over 30 kilometers).

Azerbaijan became a member of ADB in 1999 while the countrys share in the banks capital amounts to 0.5 percent.

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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
15 November 2016 12:21 (UTC+04:00)

By Gunay Hasanova

Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential elections serves as a matter of concern for Armenia in terms of resolution of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Armenia, mostly counting on Trump's rival in the presidential race Hillary Clinton, is feeling left alone in the field of battle.

Following the April events, Moscow's initiative to find the soonest resolution to the Karabakh conflict based on the rule of international law seriously concerned Yerevan.

The revitalization of the American mediation motivated by the Armenian lobby was going to be a counterbalance to that. Although, the Diaspora did make definite job, the unexpected results for Armenia of the U.S. presidential elections ruined Yerevans plans.

Currently, Armenia is wondering what position Donald Trump will hold towards the South Caucasus and whether it will be possible to neutralize the inconvenient for Armenia Moscows initiative.

In the opposite Baku expects true assistance of Trump-led U.S. to a fair settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In a congratulatory letter to the new-elect president of the United States, the Azerbaijani leader expressed hope that the U.S. will contribute to the soonest resolution of the long-lasting conflict.

Armenia, which keeps under occupation 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, is also concerned that the current U.S. president is insufficiently informed about Karabakh issue and he wont put that much weight on Armenian factor in American politics. This, in turn, will create conditions for further strengthening of Russias initiative, known to be associated with the gradual resolution of the conflict and return of the territories.

Russian political scientist Oleg Kuznetsov said the Armenian lobby in the U.S. presidential election bet for a wrong candidate choosing as the object of financial support Hillary Clintons campaign. Hence, Armenia lost the struggle for influence on the new host of White House.

However, with Donald Trump case Armenians do not have a chance since he financed his election campaign of his own funds, without resorting to the resources of third-party investors. Therefore, he is free from the influence of Armenian Diaspora, Kuznetsov said, adding that Trump will approach the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict based on his own vision of the situation.

Kuznetsov also pointed out that he disagrees with the point that Trump is not informed about the situation in South Caucasus, adding that this is a misconception.

Trump is an experienced financier and investor in real estate, so he is able to assess not only the economic but also the political component of each of his project, he added.

Trump knows about Azerbaijan and knows it very well. Previously, Trump made investments in Azerbaijan and undoubtedly understands the investment attractiveness of the country.

Azerbaijan plays an important role for the West in terms of cooperation in the field of energy security. Moreover, the country carries out independent policy, focused on its own national interests.

In addition, the political scientist said that Trump intends to rebuild relationships not just with Russia, but personally with Vladimir Putin, whose identity was clearly demonized by Western politicians for last three years.

Donald Trump may support several individual initiatives of the Russian President, which includes step by step solution of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, according to Kuznetsov.

The Armenian terrorism is a part of international terrorism and the struggle with it will sharply increase in the process of transition from one president to another. Whatever these decisions will be, their development is free from the influence of the Armenian lobby in the U.S. To a certain extent this will strengthen the position of Baku supporters in the political leadership of Russia.

Consequently, I think Azerbaijan should expect positive news at the beginning of next year," Oleg Kuznetsov concluded.

Nagorno-Karabakh that affected the destiny of millions again aggravated on April 2 after the Armenian military units in the occupied lands started shelling Azerbaijans positions.

To protect the civilian population, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces launched counter attacks and as a result, the Azerbaijani troops retook hills around the village of Talysh, as well as Seysulan settlement, and also took over Leletepe hill located in the direction of Fizuli region.

While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as a sole mediator in the resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign State with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of the due attention of the international community for years.

Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping the tension high in the region.

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Gunay Hasanova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @gunhasanova

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15 November 2016 11:28 (UTC+04:00)

By Gunay Hasanova

The Council of the European Union (EU) Foreign Ministers adopted a final document, following the negotiations on the Eastern Partnership Program on November 14.

The document states that the EU remains committed to supporting the territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty of all its partners.

The Eastern Partnership is a project of the European Union (EU), the main aim of which is the development of integration ties of the EU with six post-Soviet countries: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

The EU has repeatedly voiced that it favors a peaceful settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and supports all efforts in this direction, including the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group.

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.

Azerbaijan and Armenia called a truce 22 years ago, on May 12 1994, to end the devastating war, but violence has flared up from time to time. The Armenian troops most recently resorted to the aggression and provoked a deadly exchange of artillery fire in early April.

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Gunay Hasanova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @gunhasanova

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15 November 2016 11:53 (UTC+04:00)

By Gunay Hasanova

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs are prepared to work with the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in any way that can bring a lasting settlement.

OSCE MG US Co-Chair James Warlick made the remark while talking to Trend on November 15.

The diplomat expressed hope that the co-chairs will be able to bring the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers together to continue an important discussion on key issues, including the importance of respecting the ceasefire and taking steps towards fully implementing decisions taken in Vienna and St. Petersburg.

We continue to encourage the presidents to meet at the earliest opportunity, added Warlick.

Following their recent visit to the region, the MG co-chairs noted the possibility of a meeting with the Azerbaijani and Armenian ministers in Hamburg, as well as stressed the necessity of the presidents' meeting.

The foreign ministers may meet with the participation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in the framework of the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting scheduled for December 8-9.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

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15 November 2016 15:27 (UTC+04:00)

By Gunay Hasanova

Azerbaijan's foreign minister once again stressed that peaceful settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is impossible without withdrawal of Armenian troops from occupied territories.

Armenia is responsible for breaking out war against Azerbaijan, use of force against the country, the occupation of its territories, ethnic cleansing, and other serious crimes, said Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov in an interview with the Spanish news agency EFE.

The sooner Armenia withdraws its troops from the occupied Azerbaijani territories, the sooner the conflict will be resolved and until that, a peaceful settlement is not possible, said Azerbaijani FM.

The minister stressed that Armenia not only rejects implementing the well-known UN Security Council resolutions on the conflict settlement, but rather resorts to an armed provocation against Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly noted its readiness to resolve the conflict through substantive negotiations.

The sooner Armenia realizes this and withdraws its troops from the occupied territories, the sooner the conflict be solved and Armenia will be able to take advantage of the economic benefits of the regional cooperation, Mammadyarov concluded.

The occupation of Azerbaijani lands harms Armenia itself  due to its policy, the country cannot benefit from the international projects. If that continues, Armenia will be even more ignored by its neighbors.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in the resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign State with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of the due attention of the international community for years.

By ignoring four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, as well as appropriate documents adopted by The European Parliament, the Council of Europe, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the Non-Aligned Movement, Armenia intends to preserve the status quo in the region and freezes the needed settlement of the conflict.

---

Gunay Hasanova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @gunhasanova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
15 November 2016 10:23 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

NATO is looking forward to continue the political dialogue with Azerbaijan during 2017, the Alliances press office in Brussels told Trend.

"The Allies met on November 5 to discuss the implementation of the Individual Partnership Action Plan over the past year," said the NATO press office, adding that the new NATO-Azerbaijan Individual Partnership Action Plan still needs to be developed.

Azerbaijan's cooperation with NATO is carried out in the framework of the Partnership for Peace program. Earlier, NATO has approved the document of the fourth stage for the Individual action plan within the partnership for 2015-2016. Meetings on review of the partnerships objectives implementation are carried out together with the International NATO headquarters in Baku and Brussels within this plan and the Planning and Review Process (PARP).

A total of 27 from 41 objectives, adopted by Azerbaijan within PARP, refer to the Azerbaijani Armed Forces. A part of the accepted objectives is already completed, while the work on implementation of other long-term tasks continues.

The NATO press service reported that it will build on the existing partnership activities we have.

"These include a dialogue on a broad range of defense, security and good governance issues, as well cooperation in the areas of defense reform, support to enhancing interoperability and defense education reform."

Touching upon the bilateral cooperation in Afghanistan, the press office added that NATO highly appreciates Azerbaijans commitment to continuing support for NATOs efforts in Afghanistan.

The NATO press service also said that no high-level visits have been scheduled at the moment.

Azerbaijan cooperates with NATO in Afghanistan -- the peacekeeping contingent of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces has been serving there since November 20, 2002.

As of April 2016, the Azerbaijani peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan includes 90 servicemen, two medical officers and two sappers.

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15 November 2016 10:31 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

The foreign ministries of Azerbaijan and Moldova will hold consultations in the near future.

Moldovas Ambassador to Azerbaijan Gheorghe Leuca announced about this while talking to Trend on November 14.

Moldovas Deputy Foreign Minister Lilian Darii is expected to visit Baku to participate in the foreign ministerial consultations, Leuca added.

During the consultations, the officials of Azerbaijan and Moldova will discuss the current state and prospects of cooperation between the two countries in regional and international organizations to which the two countries are members, the ambassador said.

Leuca further emphasized that the dates of the visit and consultations are being agreed.

From the Azerbaijani side, Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov will take part in the consultations, Leuca said.

Earlier, at a meeting with Newly Appointed Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Moldova Qudsi Osmanov, Lilian Darii expressed interest in intensifying the bilateral political dialogue and expanding the economic and trade relations between Moldova and Azerbaijan.

The diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in 1992. Moldova appointed its ambassador in Azerbaijan in 2004 and Moldavian embassy was opened in Azerbaijan in 2015.

Currently, Azerbaijan and Moldova are strategic partners, and the two countries are cooperating at the bilateral and international levels.

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15 November 2016 10:57 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijan`s Parliamentary Speaker Ogtay Asadov met Polish Ambassador to Azerbaijan Marek Calka in Baku on November 14.

The speaker highlighted history of Azerbaijani-Polish ties, and praised level of cooperation between the two countries, Azertac reported.

Asadov said reciprocal visits created fruitful condition for strengthening bonds between Azerbaijan and Poland.

The speaker said Azerbaijan was interested in developing relations with Poland in political, economic fields, further highlighting activity of the Azerbaijan-Poland Intergovernmental Economic Commission.

Both countries support each other within the international organizations, he added.

Marek Calka, in turn, said Azerbaijan was a friendly country for Poland, adding that further strengthening ties in various fields served to common interests of the nations.

Then, the speaker met Belgian Ambassador to Baku Bert Schoofs. The speaker said Azerbaijan attached great importance to developing relations with Belgium, adding reciprocal visits proved level of cooperation.

The speaker also said there were fruitful opportunities for boosting cooperation in political, economic and cultural fields.

Asadov noted Azerbaijan was a reliable energy partner of Europe. Realizing TANAP and TAP projects would play an important role in ensuring the energy security of Europe, he added.

On importance of reciprocal visits in developing inter-parliamentary ties, the Speaker stressed role of the friendship groups operating in both countries` parliaments.

The ambassador, in turn stressed the importance of cooperation in further strengthening inter-parliamentary ties between the two countries.

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15 November 2016 11:16 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed an order on November 14 providing funding for the renovation of multi-storey buildings in Horadiz, Azertac reported.

Under the presidential order, 3 million manats were allocated from the Presidential Contingency Fund for the renovation of 27 multi-storey residential buildings in Horadiz.

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YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. The highest court of Egypt has overturned the death sentence of ousted President Mohammed Morsi, reports BBC.

Morsi had been sentenced to death for his part in a mass prison break during the 2011 revolution.

He was elected president in 2012, but removed by the military a year later after street protests against his rule.

Morsi has separately been sentenced to life in prison for terrorism offences, and still faces trial on other charges, but the Courts ruling means he will be re-tried over the prison break charges.

The court also annulled death sentences for five leaders of his banned Muslim Brotherhood movement, including its supreme guide Mohammed Badie, convicted in the same case.

Twenty-one life sentences for other members were also overturned.
15 November 2016 12:35 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has left for Portugal for an official visit, Azertac reported.

Elmar Mammadyarov will meet with officials of Portugal as part of his visit.

The meetings will focus on expanding cooperation on bilateral and multilateral formats, as well as developing economic, trade and inter-parliamentary relations between the two countries.

Azerbaijan and Portugal enjoy successful relations despite the geographical distance between the two countries.

The two countries signed a number of cooperation agreements, while representatives of both countries often pay high-level visits.

Azerbaijan and Portugal have a high potential for cooperation in the fields of information technologies, tourism, construction, agriculture, health and education.

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15 November 2016 14:28 (UTC+04:00)

By laman ismayilova

Azerbaijans Defense Minister, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov visited mobile command post of the Air Forces, established in the area of large-scale military exercises as the drills entered the fourth day.

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reported that Hasanov got acquainted with the activity of mobile headquarters, equipped with modern control systems in order to ensure control, maintenance, including work in supporting groups, as well as the organization of combat duty and gave relevant instructions.

The minister was informed about the activities and location of command post elements in the field conditions to ensure continued and operational management of formations and military units of the Air Forces.

More than 60,000 members of military personnel, over 50 planes and helicopters, more than 150 tanks and armored vehicles, as well as up to 700 systems of missile and artillery forces are involved in the training.

The exercises to run till November 18 conducted according to the plan approved by the President of Azerbaijan, Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Ilham Aliyev, involved ships and boats of the Naval Forces.

The Azerbaijani Army, which today is considered the most modern army in the Caucasus, consists of Air Force and Air Defense Forces, the Navy, and the Land Forces.

The skills and combat readiness of the Azerbaijani army are growing year by year. The army building process in Azerbaijan is progressing as well.

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15 November 2016 16:53 (UTC+04:00)

By Gunay Hasanova

Azerbaijan expects from the European Union a clear position on settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict after a new Azerbaijan-EU strategic partnership agreement is signed.

Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammad-Guliyev announced about this while talking to Trend, further adding that this is the most important issue to be discussed within the framework of the future talks between Azerbaijan and the EU.

He added that Azerbaijan made it clear that the country intends to hold talks in this direction, because this issue is of particular importance for Baku.

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 EU has repeatedly voiced that it favors a peaceful settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and supports all efforts in this direction, including the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group.

Mammad-Guliyev further said that the future format of talks between Azerbaijan and the EU on the draft partnership agreement will still be specified.

The current format of Azerbaijan-EU cooperation within the framework of the existing agreement within the subcommittees can be maintained in the future as well, he said.

Noting that subcommittees in other areas may be established as well, he said It all depends on the subject of negotiations.

Four subcommittees operate between Azerbaijan and the EU: the first subcommittee deals with trade issues, the second one deals with issues of justice, freedom, security, human rights and democracy, the third one deals with issues of energy, transport and environment, and the fourth one deals with social and humanitarian issues, covering the fields of education, medicine, etc.

Regarding the period of launching the talks, Mammad-Guliyev said that this issue will still be discussed with the Union.

The European Council on November 14 adopted a mandate for the European Commission and the high representative for foreign affairs and security policy to negotiate, on behalf of the EU and its member states, a comprehensive agreement with Azerbaijan.



The new agreement should replace the 1996 partnership and cooperation agreement and should better take account of the shared objectives and challenges the EU and Azerbaijan face today.

The new agreement will follow the principles endorsed in the 2015 review of the European Neighbourhood Policy and offer a renewed basis for political dialogue and mutually beneficial cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan, said the message.

The new agreement envisages the compliance of Azerbaijans legislation and procedures with the EUs most important international trade norms and standards, which should lead to the improvement of Azerbaijani goods access to the EU markets.

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Gunay Hasanova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @gunhasanova

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15 November 2016 16:35 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijan's State Migration Service identified as many as 2,299 foreigners, who violated residence legislation and rules of temporary or permanent stay in the country in October 2016.

Eighteen foreigners were issued with new documents instead of lost ones for the temporary and permanent residence in the country, while 212 foreigners were fined and their residence was legalized.

As many as 1,576 foreigners were given 48 hours to leave the country, while 493 citizens of other countries were expelled under an administrative order.

The State Migration Service received 10,807 appeals in October for extension of stay of foreigners and stateless persons, applications for permits for temporary and permanent residence, as well as acceptance, rejection, and restoration of citizenship, granting refugee status and citizenship, as well as granting permits for self-employment in the country or its extension.

Moreover, the Service reported 45,874 appeals in connection with the registration of the place of residence over the month.

Moreover, the State Migration Service carried out 6 educational activities in some regions of the country during the month.

Foreigners and stateless persons arriving in Azerbaijan for a period exceeding three days should register with the Migration Service in accordance with the national legislation.

A copy of the person's ID should be submitted to the Migration Service personally, via mail, or email within 3 days. This service is free and application forms are available at the Migration Service, post offices, and at www.migration.gov.az.

The Migration Service will immediately register foreigners at the place of their stay and present written notification to the receiving party within 1 working day.

Foreigners can be registered for the period allotted by their visas, or for 90 days under the visa-free regime.

After changing the place of residence, registration must be renewed. These easy steps can exempt visitors from penalties and deportation.

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15 November 2016 16:22 (UTC+04:00)

By Nigar Abbasova

World energy markets are still buffeted by conflicting trends leading to high volatility in price of the crude oil, while OPEC members seek to settle their differences on a deal to cut output.

Oil prices rose by more than 2 percent on November 15, bouncing back from multi-month lows on expectations that OPEC will agree in late November to cut production to reduce a supply glut.

North Sea Brent crude oil was up $1.05 a barrel at $45.48 after hitting a three-month low of $43.57 on Monday, Reuters reported. U.S. light crude was up $1.15 a barrel, or 2.7 percent, at $44.47. It reached a three-month low of $42.20 on Monday.

Oil producers in OPEC are due to meet on November 30 to agree to limit output. An outline deal was reached in September but negotiations on the detail are proving difficult, officials say.

The Vienna meeting is expected to become decisive for the market, while the proposed production ceiling ranges between 32.5 million barrels per day (mb/d) and 33 mb/d.

The producer countries of the cartel are now in the final stage of coordination the agreement.

Qatar, Algeria and Venezuela are supporters of the deal, while the major OPEC producers- Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq have not yet overcome differences over their shares in the market.

Although most of traders are generally pessimistic, comments from top officials of member countries insignificantly altered the sentiment in the market and renewed optimism that OPEC will agree on the production cuts.

Saudi Arabia's energy minister has said it is imperative OPEC reach a consensus on a deal to curb production, Algeria's state news agency APS said on Sunday. Moreover, Iran and Iraq, which are considered to be key producers, are also reported to be contemplating the proposals

Supply and demand remain among the most influential components of oil-market behavior. Unlike in most other markets, though, drastic changes in oil price do not necessarily kindle changes in demand.

--

Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

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15 November 2016 10:40 (UTC+04:00)

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $120-million loan to improve access to safe, reliable, sustainable and affordable water supply services for over 260,000 inhabitants in the Kibray and Zangiota districts of Uzbekistans Tashkent province, the Bank reported.

The ADB loan will be allocated for eight years at the rate of 2 percent per year, including a five-year grace period. It is expected that a loan agreement will be signed until the end of the first quarter of 2017.

Much of the water supply infrastructure in Tashkent has deteriorated and needs extensive rehabilitation, resulting in unreliable services, leakage losses, and high water pollution risk, said Hao Zhang, ADBs principal urban development specialist with the Central and West Asia Department. The project will significantly reduce time and money spent by households and businesses to access water and brings about improved living standards, especially in rural settlements.

The project will revitalize the Kadirya regional water supply system by upgrading existing water supply networks, providing potable water treatment services, rehabilitating water distribution network and improving the financial, operational and system management of the Tashkent Provincial Suvokova for Kibray and Zangiota district branches.

Located adjacent to the Uzbek capital, Kibray and Zangiota contribute substantially to the provinces economic growth and strengthen its urbanrural linkages. Both districts have considerable expansion potential in the agro-industrial and textile industries. Zangiota is also identified as a possible location for a future special industrial zone.

The ADB office in Tashkent told Trend that the projects total cost is $143 million. Along with the ADB loans, the Uzbek government and local beneficiaries will also allocate $23 million for the projects implementation. The project will be implemented until 2023.

Since Uzbekistan joined ADB in 1995, the country has received $5.1 billion in loans and $64.9 million in technical assistance grants.

ADB, based in Manila, is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth and regional integration.

Established in 1966, ADB in December 2016 will mark 50 years of development partnership in the region. It is owned by 67 members  48 from the region. In 2015, ADB assistance totaled $27.2 billion, including co-financing of $10.7 billion.

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15 November 2016 15:08 (UTC+04:00)

By Gunay Hasanova

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has supported the idea of a gradual transition to a visa-free regime with Russia, said the speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko on November 14, following a meeting with Rouhani, RIA Novosti reported.

Lets move further toward liberalization of visa relations. We have made the first step and the number of tourists from both sides has increased. We are ready to gradually move toward liberalization of visa relations with the aim to finally introduce a visa-free regime between Russia and Iran," Matvienko quoted Rouhani as saying.

"It is hoped that the liberalization of visa regime will affect tourists, organized groups of young people, students, cultural exchanges, and business people's trips," Matvienko added.



Moreover, she pointed out that this process is important both in terms of economics and humanitarian point of view.

Iranian Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani will pay an official visit to Russia next year, the speaker added.

"I invited my colleague to pay an official visit to Russia and he accepted the invitation," Matvienko said.

She also noted that the Russian-Iranian contacts were growing rapidly.

Specific agreements on the work of Russian oil companies in Iran can be achieved during the meeting of the intergovernmental commission in Tehran on December 13, according to Matvienko.

The speaker also noted that the Iranian side is interested in developing cooperation with the Russian Federation to the field of peaceful nuclear energy, in particular, the continuation of the construction of new nuclear power reactors at Busher, as well as creating a group on scientific and technical progress for the joint development of ways to modernize the economies of two countries.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Rouhani signed a deal that eased bilateral visa rules during Putins latest visit to Tehran in 2015.

This document aims to ease the two countries' citizens' travel and eases the conditions for exchange of trade and technological delegations between the two countries.

Russian authorities such as the Commerce and Industry Chamber, the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and the Public Organization of Small Businesses can provide recommendation letters to Iranian consular establishments to ease the visa procedures for businessmen, according to the agreement.

The trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $1.5 billion in July, while the figure is expected to double by March 2017.

---

Gunay Hasanova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @gunhasanova

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Members of a Brown County, Indiana church say they will not paint over or wash off the hateful anti-gay messages swastikas that was tagged on the LGBT accepting church for several weeks attempting to turn the hateful message into a message of love and acceptance by allowing the community to see it on their walls.

We could be angry, we could be embarrassed, we could be hurt, said Reverend Kelsey Hutto of St. Davids Episcopal Church, But the fact of the matter is those are on our walls because were doing the right thing. And we choose to look at them as symbols of hope. This was meant to cause divisiveness, this was meant to cause hatred, and were not falling into that trap. Were responding with love and were going to use those images as images of hope.

The spray painted graffiti was discovered early Sunday morning. The tagging included a swastika, the phrase Heil Trump, and an a message saying Fag Church. Hutto believes her church was targeted because the Episcopal church recognizes same-sex marriage.

Hutto believes leaving the graffiti up for several weeks will allow members of the community to recognize why the church was targeted. The symbols of hate could be transformed into a beacon for those searching for a welcoming place to worship, she said.

If anybody in the surrounding area feels like they need a safe haven, we are that place, Hutto said. And if it takes somebody tagging our church for that to happen, then were okay with that.

Indiana State Police are urging Hoosiers to report hate crime cases to authorities because the information is forwarded to the FBI and other Federal agencies that track all hate crimes.

Some of these hate groups, they may travel from state to state, said Indiana State Police Trooper Nick Klingkammer. And being at the federal level, they can cross those state boundaries and enforce that.

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YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. Freedom House ranked Armenia among countries with free internet in Freedom on the Net-2016 report, reports Armenpress.

However, Armenia has dropped by two points in the report.

The report says the internet is used to express complaint towards the government, as it happened in Armenia in case of #ElectricYerevan movement.

Georgia is also ranked among the countries having freedom of the net, Azerbaijan is included in the report as partially free, whereas Turkey and Iran dropped into not free category according to the report.

The five countries with the freest Internet are Estonia, Iceland, Canada, the US and Germany.

The gross violations of Internet freedom were registered in China.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian on November 15 held a meeting with Deputy Director General of the International Centre for Migration Policy Development Gabriela Abado, press service of the MFA told Armenpress.

Welcoming the guest in Yerevan, FM Nalbandian expressed satisfaction over the opening of the ICMPD representation in Armenia. The Minister said for years the organization has carried out a number of migration-related projects and contributed to increasing the efficiency of border management.

Gabriela Abado expressed gratitude for the reception and said the ICMPD is interested in intensifying relations with Armenia, and the establishment of the ICMPD Yerevan Office is the evidence of it.

The sides exchanged views on the field of mobility, the process of visa regime facilitation and implementation of readmission agreement, as well as the possibility of visa regime liberalization in the future between Armenia and the European Union.

Speaking about the mutual cooperation established with Armenia, the ICMPD Deputy Director Gerenal appreciated the productive cooperation with the Armenian interested structures. She stated that the Armenian experience on admitting and integrating refugees can serve as an example for other countries.

At the end of the meeting Edward Nalbandian and Gabriela Abado signed the agreement on the establishment of the ICMPD Yerevan Office.

The International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) was founded in 1993, upon the initiative of Austria and Switzerland.The organization was created to serve as a support mechanism for informal consultations, and to provide expertise and efficient services in the newly emerging landscape of multilateral cooperation on migration and asylum issues. ICMPD is an international organization with 15 member States (Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland), 146 staff members, a mission in Brussels and regional offices and representatives throughout Europe, Northern Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.
US President-elect Donald Trump speaks at election night rally in Manhattan, New York, US, November 9, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

The European Union was eager to set up an early meeting with the new United States president, betting it would be Hillary Clinton. It didn't turn out that way. Still, European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker sent US president-elect Donald Trump a joint letter of congratulations, inviting him to visit Europe for a summit as soon as possible.

Most likely, the EU's letter was the first invitation the US businessman-turned-president has received from global leaders. Whether or not Trump accepts the invitation, he must fly to Italy in May and Germany in July next year to attend the G7 and G20 meetings, where EU leaders will get a better chance to seek a Brussels-Washington meeting.

In March 2017, the EU will hold an event in Rome to mark the 60th anniversary of the Rome Treaty, a founding pillar of the modern Europe project. And against the backdrop of Brexit, Brussels may invite Trump to the event, in order to gauge the level of his confidence in the future of European integration.

Taking these developments into consideration, the cross-Atlantic partnership may top Trump's foreign policy agenda after he enters the White House on Jan 20. It seems Brussels has taken the initiative to embrace the Trump era while its bureaucrats are busy adjusting themselves to the new political reality.

European commissioners, and ministers of trade, foreign affairs and defense have already included US president-elect Trump in their routine discussions. Brussels has many reasons to show such urgency. The EU wants to know more about him, as Tusk openly expressed concerns at a meeting on Wednesday about the uncertainties the US election result will bring about for the EU.

Many in Europe have the same feeling, even as The Economist pondered why American voters turned their backs on Clinton.

These are part of the complicated realities in Europe Trump has to take into consideration when devising his EU policy. While Washington and Brussels prepare the stage for such a meeting, the urgent task for Trump and his team will be to polish his image, because Europeans want actions, not words, especially those that can help the EU solve its problems.

In his message on Wednesday, Tusk stressed that the cross-Atlantic partnership has been there for centuries, because Europeans and Americans have always worked together for common peace and prosperity and European integration.

Coincidentally, Nov 11 was the 98th anniversary of the end of World War I (1914-18), with Europeans once vowing to establish permanent peace in the world, and Nov 13, marked the first anniversary of the bloody terrorist attacks in Paris.

Apart from seeking the US' continuous support in its eastern and southern regions to ensure security, the EU also needs to cooperate with Washington to continue its fight against terrorism. But these urgent challenges need to be discussed in a broader context. They need to take stock of US President Barack Obama's legacy and examine how the EU has contributed to it.

Despite its achievements, the Obama administration, together with the EU, must take responsibility for the "Arab Spring", as well as the worsening situation in the Middle East. After all, misconstrued US foreign policy is partly the reason for the terrorist attacks and refugee crisis in Europe.

So when the EU approaches the Trump administration for early talks, it should put security and safety high on the priority list even though economic and trade agendas are essential.

It is worth watching to see whether Trump, compared with Obama, will deal differently with the EU, particularly because the EU and the US both are very important global stakeholders and must contribute to international relations and common global prosperity.

The author is deputy chief of China Daily European Bureau. fujing@chinadaily.com.cn
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian armed forces keep full control of the situation on the front line. We follow the process of the military exercises in Azerbaijan and make relevant conclusions, Chief of General Staff of Armenian armed forces General-Lieutenant Movses Hakobyan told the reporters.

The situation on the front line is the same as in the previous 24 years. We keep full control of the situation. There is nothing extraordinary, Armenpress reports Hakobyan saying.
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has met in Paris with the representatives of the Armenian community. Armenpress reports, citing Nouvelles dArmenie, Co-chairmen of the Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations in France Ara Toranian presented the issues of concern for the Armenian community. He particularly referred to Nagorno Karabakh issue, stating that the security of the latter is of key importance not only for Armenia, but for the entire European civilization. Toranian also emphasized the negative position of the Armenian community on the issue of Turkeys accession to the EU.

In a sincere conversation a reference was also made to the individuals with close ties with the Azerbaijani dictatorship within Sarkozys circle. Sarkozy stated that when taking political decisions, he is the leader, but not the representatives of his circle, stating that he supported the criminalization of the denial of the Armenian Genocide during his presidency. He also affirmed that he is against Turkeys accession to the EU, contrary to current President Hollandes position.

Referring to the issue of genocides, Sarkozy stated that there have been 4 genocides  Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, the genocide of Cambodians and the Tutsi genocide. He also stated that the struggle of Armenians against genocides raises universal issues. According to him, denialism is not an expression of opinion, but it is a crime.
Armenia can win the competition in transit from Iran to Russia, Russian businessman Alexander Sharov told NEWS.am.

November 15, 2016, 09:35 Sharov: Armenia can win competition in transit from Iran to Russia

STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 15, ARTSAKHPRESS: He added that even though the Iran-Armenia cargo transportation by vehicles is growing, there is a real chance to increase it on the account of cargo from Russia.

Sharov noted that shipments via the Caspian Sea take longer, since they have to wait for the ships, and although it is quicker via Azerbaijan, the transit fees there are about $1,000.

And if it is carried out via Armenia and Georgia, it seems it will be around $300, he added.

As per the Russian businessman, this is why Armenia should become appealing for Russian importers.

[But] this will not be possible without logistics, he stressed.

Alexander Sharov concluded that if Armenia does not become greedy when it comes to the VAT, it could win in cargo transit with a very common route.
STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 15, ARTSAKHPRESS: Proceeds from the large-scale fundraising campaign will be used to rebuild Nagorno Karabakh communities that have sustained heavy damage as a result of the four-day war this year, to provide assistance to the Syrian-Armenian community, and to support the continued growth of agricultural-development projects in Armenias Tavush Province.

The Hayastan All-Armenian Funds affiliate in Greece will have its own phoneathon, which will be held during November 19-20 in Athens. Proceeds from this campaign will be contributed to the construction of the kindergarten of Karin Tak, a village in Nagorno Karabakhs Shushi Region. The kindergarten-construction project, now underway, is slated to be completed in summer 2017.

Valerie Toranian, editor-in-chief of the French magazine Revue des Deux Mondes, and journalist and entertainer Nikos Aliagas will serve as the godmother and the godfather of the Pan-European Phoneathon, respectively, making appeals for unity and support throughout the five days of the event.

In the course of the Pan-European Phoneathon, more than 600 volunteers stationed in Paris, Marseille, Toulouse, and Lyon will make calls to Armenian households, businesses, and organizations, to request their support of far-reaching projects that will benefit Armenia and Artsakh, as well as our compatriots in Syria.

Last year, the Pan-European Phoneathon raised a total of over 1.3 million Euros, which was used for various agricultural projects in Tavush, the construction of multifunctional community centers in Nagorno Karabakh, and assistance to war-affected Syrian-Armenians and Iraqi-Armenians.

Armenian communities in Europe have held phoneathons for the past 16 years, consistently expanding their donor bases and fundraising totals. Hayastan All-Armenian Fund phoneathons are also held annually in South America, through the funds Argentinean and Brazilian affiliates. The Brazilian-Armenian communitys phoneathon, the Hayastan All-Armenian Funds last major fundraising event for 2016, will be held during November 26-27.

A testament to the growing stature of these phoneathons  whether in Europe, South America, or elsewhere  is the fact that their volunteer corps continue to draw the participation of numerous non-Armenian individuals.
Commander of the peacekeeping brigade, Major-General Arthur Simonyan always receives positive assessments over the Armenian peacekeepers performing their mission in different countries.

STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 15, ARTSAKHPRESS-ARMENPRESS: We have a second level assessment of the NATO standards, we have passed an exam and received our highest grade starting from participation in the peacekeeping operations till now. We receive letters with positive reactions from the commanders as well. Of course, there are shortcomings as well, and we are working on them. We are participating in nearly 12 military exercises in a year, from which 8-9 in different foreign countries, in the multinational forces. Currently we have two peacekeeping brigades with 56 and 65 members in Afghanistan, in Kosovo with 35 members, and in Lebanon with 32 members. The representatives of our partner countries always express a wish to expand the cooperation and increase the number of brigades, the commander said adding that it is possible the number of brigades performing their mission in Lebanon will increase.
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At 110 years old, the Chambers House on Calder Avenue in Beaumont understandably could use a little lift.

The C. Homer and Edith Chambers Foundation is paying to replace a partly rotted column supporting the second-floor porch and waterproof the other columns, which are in good shape.

Each of the columns was made from a single yellow pine log and hoisted into place without the use of nails. Placeholder supports are helping to keep up appearances until the work is done, perhaps in six or eight weeks, said Alicia McKibbin, executive director of the Beaumont Heritage Society, which operates the Chambers House.

The Heritage Society, which owns and operates the John J. French Museum, maintains the Chambers House, home to Florence Chambers, who was born in 1912 and died in 2004, and her sister, Rose, who was born in 1902 and died in 1989.

Take a tour What: The Chambers House Where: 2240 Calder Ave., Beaumont When: 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; Saturday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Cost: $5 per person, 4 years old or younger free. School tours are available at $1 per student. Info: (409) 832-4010. See More Collapse

Until the restoration that began in 2004, the house had not seen an update since 1924, when the large exterior columns were added to the home, McKibbin said.

Because the home remained virtually untouched from its original construction, it represents a true time capsule of how an upper middle-class family lived in the early 20th century, McKibbin said.

The house contains 90 years of family history, and last week, a new item was restored to it - a Chambers family Bible from 1823, McKibbin said.

The First United Methodist Church had restored the Bible for its return to the home, McKibbin said. The church is one of the foundation's beneficiaries, along with the Tyrrell Historical Library, the Art Museum of Southeast Texas and the Beaumont chapter of the American Red Cross.

The Bible is an example of items still there that Florence and Rose would have held, including the blue dress Florence wore for a portrait of the sisters.

Once the structural work is done, the house will be repainted, said McKibbin.

The house isn't completely level because of settling under the brick piers.

"It's part of the character of the house," McKibbin said.

The next event at the Chambers House will be an open house from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Dec. 15 - a Vintage Christmas at the Chambers House Museum.

The house was built by lumberman Hardee Turner, who lived in it from 1906 to 1914, when he sold it to the Chambers family.

The never-married sisters lived in it until they died after amassing more than $12 million in a well-chosen stock market portfolio that they managed themselves. That forms the basis of the foundation that supports their charities and the maintenance of their home-museum.

DWallach@BeaumontEnterprise.com Twitter.com/dwallach
Courtesy photo / Waco and the Heart of Texas

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Its okay, Culture Trip, San Antonians know our city is beautiful.

The travel website released a list of what it considers to be the most beautiful cities in the Lone Star State. The list includes small towns like Hunt, Wimberley and Canyon.

RELATED: Most mispronounced Texas city names

There was no love for San Antonio, on the list, however.

Click through the slideshow to see what 10 Texas cities made Culture Trips list.

kbradshaw@express-news.net

Twitter: @kbrad5
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Newton County Commissioners Court enacted a burn ban Monday in unincorporated areas of the county.

The ban will last for at least 30 days unless the Texas Forest Service determines that drought conditions no longer exist or county commissioners or the county judge determines "that the circumstances that required the Order no longer exist," the declaration states.

The burn ban does not prohibit activities authorized by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for firefighter training; public utility, natural gas pipeline or mining operations; planting or harvesting of agricultural crops; or burns that are conducted by a certified burn manager, according to the declaration.

Violation of the burn ban is considered a Class C misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500.
The westbound outside lane on Interstate 10 at the Brush Island overpass will be closed today from 9:30 a.m. to noon for overhead sign work, according to a press release from the Texas Department of Transportation.



Road conditions and traffic updates available on Facebook and Twitter.




At the invitation of Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova, Andrei Galbur, on Wednesday will pay a working visit to Armenia.

November 15, 2016, 15:19 Moldova deputy PM, FM to visit Armenia

STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 15, ARTSAKHPRESS: The President will receive Galbur, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia informed.

On the same day, the Armenian and Moldovan FMs will conduct talks, and hold a joint news conference.

In addition, several documents are planned to be signed.
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Lavon Havens has tended to the scrapes, cuts and probably a few heartaches of generations of Vidor Pirates.

Havens, 92, retires today after a 54-year career at Vidor High School.

She spent the first 27 years as a school nurse and the last 27 as a part-time secretary for the school's band.

Her coworkers joke that she went from being the school nurse to the "Band-Aid."

Havens, with a corsage of carnations pinned to her blazer, sat in the band hall on Thursday morning, visiting with dozens of well-wishers who dropped by to say farewell.

Havens said she worked so many years because she "needed something to do."

She is only retiring now because her doctor told her to stop driving, she said.

Susan Touchstone, the school's former librarian and now a part-time secretary, said Havens showed her co-workers what "hard work looks like."

"She has worked circles around us for years," Touchstone said.

Havens on Thursday talked about her time at Vidor High School and her travels beyond Orange County.

She started traveling with the band for competitions in the 1970s, providing first aid in the event a player get overheated or twisted an ankle.

About every three to four years, the band took a big trip, many times to Disney World. Havens isn't sure how many times she's been to the Orlando, Florida, complex, but she's certain she has been on almost all of the rides.

Like many of the students she has either treated or assisted through the years, Havens is also a Vidor graduate.

She walked the stage in 1940 and immediately began training to become a nurse at the Jefferson Davis Hospital in Houston.

"At the time I graduated high school, about the only thing a woman could do was be a secretary or a nurse," Havens said.

By the late fall of 1944, she was on the Queen Mary headed to Europe after enlisting as an Army nurse.

When she arrived in England, Havens said she was delayed getting to her post because the Battle of Bulge was raging on the Western Front.

During her time in Europe, Havens said she frequently treated soldiers off the front lines in bombed-out buildings across England and France.

While en route to a new assignment in Burma, Havens got the news that the war had ended.

She was rerouted to Nuremberg, Germany.

During the Nuremberg trials, Havens said she worked as a prison guard, watching over 10 women who she said were secretaries and wives of Nazi soldiers. One teenager was there with her mother, Havens said.

Havens said she never knew exactly why the women were imprisoned and never spoke to them.

"All I did was walk by and look in the windows," she said.

Despite seeing the horrors of war, Havens said she felt lucky to see that part of the world. It was a drastic change in scenery and culture for a "country girl" from Vidor.

Havens married when she returned to Vidor. She was 25.

Back in Southeast Texas, she spent time working for a private practice in Vidor and for St. Elizabeth Hospital in Beaumont before accepting the school nurse job at Vidor High School.

Havens and her husband had three children. Havens said her 11 grandkids and 16 great-granchildren are now "scattered across the world."

Now that she is retired, Havens said she intends to spend her free time solving crossword puzzles and crocheting.

MHeath@BeaumontEnteprise.com Twitter.com/mheath31
In his book "Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance," best-selling author Dr. Atul Gawande traces the origins of the first pricing method for surgical services all the way back to ancient Babylon, where surgeons were paid 10 shekels for "any lifesaving operation." It wouldnt be until three decades ago, however, that standardized pricing methods became widespread in the United States, where the practice of reimbursing for "usual, customary and reasonable fees" gave way to a more uniform approach pushed by public and private payers in the 1980s, Gawande writes in his book.

Today, contracted and government-mandated reimbursement rates are the norm throughout our industry, detailing exactly how much an in-network provider is to be paid for surgery, office visits and other medical services. Of course, patients at times leave these networks, whether its to see highly desired specialists or seek treatment at centers of excellence. This practice posed few issues until a few years ago, when payers routinely reimbursed out-of-network (OON) physicians based solely on the "usual, customary and reasonable" standard.

This is no longer the case. With the Affordable Care Act now guaranteeing healthcare coverage to millions of Americans, cost containment is a top priority for commercial payers. How are they doing it? First, by creating narrow provider networks, primarily with large health systems that have the scale and capacity to absorb the influx of new patients. And second, by severely restricting reimbursements for OON care.

Unfortunately, like a lot of issues in our highly fragmented industry, there is no simple solution for addressing the current challenges outpatient facilities face in treating OON patients. Still, while ASCs must navigate this ever-evolving patchwork of court decisions and state-by-state payer rules that appear in flux, they can maximize their chances for success by implementing the appropriate processes and keeping abreast of the latest court cases.

OON best practices

Payers are waging a multi-front strategy to fight OON reimbursements, including accusing providers who treat OON patients of violating false claims statutes and practicing fee forgiveness. These serious allegations involve enticing OON patients to visit a facility without any real intention of requiring them to pay, and then billing their insurance companies for a disproportionate share of their care. Payers also are limiting reimbursements for OON patients by sending payments directly to patients and implementing a Maximum Non-Network Reimbursement Programa standard thats more common with public payers.

There are a variety of practices OON providers can implement to combat these allegations. First, insurance companies should be asked up front, "Whats the pricing method for this procedure?" Second, outpatient surgical facilities can limit many of their risks simply by developing a comprehensive patient registration packet that includes the following:

 Assignment of benefits: A legal form that provides the surgery center with the necessary rights under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to appeal on behalf of the patient.

 Disclosure of OON status

 Disclosure of any physician financial interest

 A comprehensive internal collections policy

 Indigency form, if necessary

Physicians also have a role to play in meeting the challenges of treating OON patients, including ensuring medical necessity is met and noted in the operative notes; staying current with medical policy changes for all common carriers; and working with front desk staff if anything changes in the procedure to make sure the authorization matches the performed procedure.

Court cases

A primary reason it remains so challenging today to treat OON patients is that many issues are still being settled by the federal courts, including cases related to illegal self-dealing, fee forgiveness, fraud, kickbacks and referrals in OON reimbursement cases.

For example, a federal judge in June 2016 ruled against Cigna, forcing the insurer to pay approximately $14 million to Humble Surgical Hospital, a physician-owned facility. In court filings, the payer originally accused the Texas-based provider of improperly forgiving patient medical costs, thereby nullifying the payers reimbursement policy for OON cases. Cigna initially sued Humble for $5.1 million in alleged overpayments, but lost $13.7 million$11.4 million for underpayments and $2.3 million in ERISA penaltiesin a counterclaim, according to press reports.

A similar 2015 case, UnitedHealth Group v. Spinedex Physical Therapy USA, also was a victory for providers. In this case, the court ruled that Spinedex did not need to bill and collect from the patient before billing and collecting from the payer. And the same year, an appellate court ruled in North Cypress v. Cigna that its OK for providers to offer patients a discount for paying early or upfrontanother alleged form of fee forgiveness.

Still, providers have not emerged victorious in every instance. In Cigna v. Advanced Surgery Center of Bethesda, the insurer prevailed on some claims in the 2015 case, which involved providers treating OON patients as though they were in-network for billing purposes. Unfortunately, these seemingly conflicting decisions, along with others yet to come, do not provide a definitive blueprint for OON providers as to howand how muchthey can charge patients.

But considering how relatively new our system of payment for medical services in this country actually is, perhaps its not surprising that were still working through the specifics.

"The standardized fee schedule," Gawande writes in his book, "is a thoroughly modern development."
Here are seven new joint venture ASCs announced or opened in the past few months.

Winchester, Va.-based Valley Health broke ground on its new $6.2 million on Oct. 28, 2016. The project is a joint partnership between the Valley Health System and 26 local physicians.

Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board approved Chicago-based practices Rush University Medical Center and Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush's plans to build a new building, featuring a surgery center, in Oak Brook.

Surgical Care Affiliates, based in Deerfield, Ill., formed a partnership with Surgical Center of Connecticut in Bridgeport.

Deerfield, Ill.-based Surgical Care Affiliates partnered with Norwich, Conn.-based River Valley Ambulatory Surgery Center.

The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board will decide whether to approve Elgin, Ill.-based Advocate Sherman Hospital's plans to build an ASC on its campus. The proposed ASC is a joint venture between Advocate Sherman Hospital and Surgical Care Affiliates, based in Deerfield, Ill.

UC San Francisco Health and Walnut Creek, Calif.-based John Muir Health are opening a new outpatient center in Berkeley, Calif.

The physicians of the Gastroenterology Group of Northern New Jersey opened the Northern New Jersey Center for Advanced Endoscopy in Englewood Cliffs. The center is a joint venture between GGNNJ, the Englewood Hospital and Medical Center and Physicians Endoscopy.
Getting something published in Possums Pages was an aspiration for many of us. It was something to cut out and take to school to brag about on Monday morning.

Possums Pages was a mixture of articles for kids, articles by kids, artwork by kids, jokes by kids, letters from kids and a mixture of puzzles and crosswords designed for kids. There were also competitions for writing and regular colouring-in competitions.

In those days the Sunday Mail came with several pages of comics and a centre spread called Possums Pages.

SEVERAL centuries ago when I was a kid, one of the things we looked forward to was the weekend newspapers.

As I recall, the Friday issue of the Post-Courier had something shorter but similar back in the 1960s.

In this digitised age of social media, where we have seen the demise of many newspapers, a viable substitute for something like Possums Pages has yet to evolve.

There are a few blogs around directed at kids but they seem to be run by big publishing companies like Penguin and National Geographic, mainly interested in selling childrens books and magazines.

There is no equivalent of an interactive blog like PNG Attitude for children, a PNG Attitude Lite, not even a weekend version.

In the social media revolution kids seem to be a lost demographic.

This doesnt mean that kids arent using the Internet. They are inveterate users. What is worrying is the stuff they are viewing and reading, stuff like pornography. What sort of adults are they going to be with a background like that?

In our quest to encourage literature in Papua New Guinea it is an area we have largely overlooked.

While we have encouraged writers of childrens stories we have tended to overlook the kids themselves. There is no place where they can read childrens literature, comment on it and offer their own take on the world and its events.

That kids have a point of view and want to express it has been left in no doubt when you consider the pioneering work done by Francis Nii, Jimmy Awagl and the other fine people of the Simbu Writers Association, especially their production of high school anthologies.

If we see the encouragement of a reading culture among children as important for the future of Papua New Guinean literature, it seems to be a significant omission.

Or perhaps it is a need we have recognised but for which we know the extensive commitment of resources like time and effort are just not available.

As a society we rail against what the kids are accessing on their mobile phones but we offer no healthy alternatives. Just as we offer no healthy alternatives to our many other social ills.

Maybe it is time to take stock of our kids digital futures in this new and dangerous post-Trump world.
Colorado Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper said Monday that he is considering reintroducing a certificate-of-need program in the state, a regulatory change that would effectively stem the recent expansion of suburban hospitals and stand-alone emergency departments, according to the Denver Business Journal.

Gov. Hickenlooper brought up the idea while presenting his proposed $28.5 billion state budget to the Joint Budget Committee, according to the report.

Colorado had a CON program for many years before it was repealed in the 1980s by the Republican-majority Legislature. At the time, many hospital leaders said the requirements under the program impeded their ability to meet the needs of the growing population.

Healthcare policy advocates have renewed discussions of a CON program proposal over the past year as the number of free-standing emergency departments cropping up across the state rises.

"Should we have as many hospitals as we have?" Gov. Hickenlooper asked before the Joint Budget Committee, according to the report. "Should we continue to open hospitals willy-nilly, or should there be more systemic control of expansion?"

When asked after the meeting if he was referring to a plan to implement a CON program, Gov. Hickenlooper said he was not yet ready to back such a proposal. However, he said it should be considered as a means of slowing the steady increase in hospital costs that have added to soaring national healthcare expenditures, according to the report.

"I think it should be on the table, and I think it is on the table," Gov. Hickenlooper said, according to the report. "Many hospital systems are worried about bureaucratic red tape [in such a program]. I think the devil [is] in the details. We don't want to make it so burdensome that the hospital systems can't navigate it efficiently. But look at how many hospital rooms there are across the state now. We just can't keep writing a blank check."
The difficulty of optimizing emergency care without raising costs causes many hospital leaders to perceive the emergency department as a necessary evil. Identifying the best strategies for optimizing care and efficiency in the emergency department can be a complicated process since no two are exactly alike.

At Becker's Hospital Review's 5th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable on Nov. 7, Derik King, MD, FACEP, division president of EM/HM/eHealth Services with Schumacher Clinical Partners, discussed strategies for turning the ED into an asset.

"The emergency department is the crux for value-based purchasing and really is the key to make sure we advance healthcare going forward," said Dr. King.

Here are three strategies for ED optimization.

1. Change the perception: Data presented by Dr. King suggests EDs in the U.S. incur 136 million visits annually, costing the nation $38 billion year. These facts feed the notion that the ED is just a money drain, but Dr. King suggests this evidence is being misinterpreted.

"Really, [the ED is] an asset," said Dr. King. "There's going to be all those people walking out of your hospital with papers with your hospital's name on it ... 50 to 70 percent of your admissions start in the ED. You have to make the ED efficient for those people."

Additionally, quality measures of hospital performance and the HCAHPS survey on patient experience and satisfaction begin in the ED, according to Dr. King. Change management  like the implementation of EMR platforms and other initiatives  also starts in the ED. Therefore, investing in ED optimization is essential to a hospital's success.

2. Don't devote too many resources to avoiding the ED: According to Dr. King, eliminating half of all ED visits for minor illnesses or injuries only saves hospitals 0.2 percent to 0.8 percent of all healthcare costs. Additionally, a full-on commitment to fast care will not benefit all ED patients, as discharges and transitions to other care facilities can often result in complications and readmissions.

"Fast care is not always ideal care for all patients," said Dr. King. "Matter of fact, there are some patients we should take more time with and treat in different care settings ... but you have to commit to that. You have to give the providers the staff. You have to be willing to accept that. Time will eventually translate to revenue for you."

3. Embrace the safety-net functions of the ED: Many Americans across the country will continue to struggle with obtaining access to primary care. For these individuals, the ED is the only place to go for treatment. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which requires anyone coming to an emergency department to be stabilized and treated, will continue to force cost-shifting, according to Dr. King. For this reason, it's important to deliver quality safety-net care and educate patients upon discharge.

"As healthcare providers, we should embrace this. We should want to treat them," said Dr. King. "And then we should teach them what to do next. We should teach them where to go and tell them how to access other pieces of the healthcare system."

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Minneapolis-based Allina Health saw revenues increase in the third quarter of 2016, but the 13-hospital system's operating income fell in the three months that ended Sept. 30.

Allina revenues increased 4.62 percent year over year to $962.61 million in the third quarter, according to recently released bondholder documents. The financial boost was attributable, in part, to increased patient volume. Although inpatient admissions remained almost flat year over year, Allina said outpatient admissions and total surgeries were up in the third quarter of 2016 compared to the same period the year prior.

The system recorded an operating loss of $67.74 million in the third quarter of this year. That's a significant change from the operating gain of $12.19 million Allina recorded in the same period of 2015.

Looking at the first nine months of this year, Allina posted an operating loss of $13.66 million on revenue of $2.91 billion. In the first nine months of 2015, the system recorded an operating gain of $102.22 million on revenue of $2.79 billion.

Allina's operating losses in the third quarter and in the first nine months of this year were primarily attributable to expenses related to two strikes called by the Minnesota Nurses Association. Allina said it incurred $84.68 million of strike expenses in the three months that ended Sept. 30. For the first nine months of 2016, the price tag for the strikes reached $104.88 million.

The nurses association authorized a strike in June after Allina nurses overwhelmingly rejected an offer by the health system that would have eliminated union-backed health insurance and moved the workers to its corporate plans. During the seven-day strike, Allina brought in 1,400 replacement nurses.

Health benefits were again the sticking point when Allina nurses went back on strike September. The six-week strike ran from Sept. 5 to Oct. 16.

Allina recorded net income of $26.62 million in the first three quarters of this year, compared to net income of $73.12 million in the same period of 2015.

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Maintaining optimal financial performance amidst regulatory uncertainty is a key challenge hospital CFOs look to tackle in 2017.

Healthcare leaders explored financial challenges their organizations face in 2017 during a panel discussion at Becker's Hospital Review's 5th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable Nov. 7 in Chicago.

Here are six challenges panelists identified.

1. Combat volume leakage. As commercial and government payers continue to reduce reimbursement rates, provider organizations need to treat a larger volume of patients to break even. This is becoming increasingly difficult as regional healthcare competitors step up efforts to attract consumers, says Mark Anderson, CFO at LaneRegionalMedicalCenter in Zachary, La. "Competitors in the area are fighting for our patients. Our strategies in 2017 revolve around driving volume to our hospital as reimbursement declines," Mr. Anderson says.

2. Smart expansion. Mergers, acquisitions and affiliations have become important tools in a hospital's strategic wheelhouse. Looking to the future of value-based reimbursement, healthcare providers like Adventist Health Northern California in Roseville are gradually expanding their footprint to encompass and control the entire continuum of care. "We're identifying strong rural health clinics and acute care settings we could potentially affiliate with as part of our smart growth strategy," says Joseph Reppert, CFO at Adventist Health Northern California.



3. Clinical documentation improvement. Without accurate clinical data, a healthcare organization is at a serious disadvantage when it comes to population health, says Kendall Qualls, vice president of global marketing at Medtronic. Hospital leaders are both financially and clinically motivated to improve the quality and specificity of their clinical documentation data. For instance, a hospital can achieve a higher level of reimbursement if clinical coding reflects the severity of the medical condition. "We are working with more and more hospital executives to focus on clinical documentation improvement," says Deb Gage, president and CEO at Medecision. "Data accuracy is of primary importance moving forward."

4. Build fundamentals of managing risk. Healthcare organizations will need to make risk management a core competency moving forward. But unlike insurers, hospital systems have little to no experience taking on risk. Going into 2017, "we are seeing [hospital leaders] focus on the fundamentals of becoming a risk-baring entity," says Ms. Gage. She says Medecision is helping clients understand utilization management, network management and compliance, among other necessary skills.

5. Paradigm shift in reimbursement. Simultaneously managing fee-for-service and alternative reimbursement models poses a difficult balancing act for health systems moving into 2017, Mr. Reppert says. Value-based programs like bundled payments require a different financial skill set and different financial management tools. This means CFOs must consider making strategic and capital investments at a time when hospital resources are increasingly limited. "It's very tough to keep your feet on both sides of the reimbursement world, one being fee-for-service and the other being capitated rates," Mr. Reppert says.

6. Improve point-of-service collection rates. Improving point-of-service collections is still a challenge for many hospital systems. Hiring and retaining frontline staff with a high-level skill set can greatly enhance a hospital's collection efforts, Mr. Anderson says. "We put registration staff through an intensive 10-week boot camp to ensure they have the technical and emotional intelligence to engage our patients in productive financial conversations," Mr. Anderson says. "Employee training and engagement has been key to improving upfront collections."

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A shift toward value-based care and EMR implementation has increased hospitals' use of medical data to identify lapses in care and enhance performance outcomes. A reliance on big data, however, often does not allow hospital administrators to pinpoint problem sources or develop actionable, facility-specific solutions.

Temporal analytics  or breaking down big data into real-time clusters  is a type of clinical intelligence that can inform administrators of what is happening at the point of care, said David Goldsteen, MD, chairman and CEO of intelligence solutions provider VigiLanz, at Becker's Hospital Review's 5th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable on Nov. 9 in Chicago. He says hospital administrators may find situation-based temporal analytic tools are better at identifying day-to-day problem points than their big data counterparts.

Here are four thoughts on how temporal data can improve value-based outcomes.

1. Draw an institution-specific profile. Since temporal analytics is event-specific, its derived outcomes can vary considerably depending on the institution. "As clinicians take tests like blood cultures, [temporal analytic platforms] can collect the time stamps regarding when those actions occurred," Bart Abban, PhD, director of analytics and data science at VigiLanz, says. "Based on that, you can really paint a profile of what is happening to the patient from time to time, sequence to sequence," he says.

2. Create actionable solutions. Temporal analytics is different "from a big data approach, because big data  while occasionally coming up with some useful little insights  really isn't what you need to operate your institutions," Dr. Goldsteen says. By deploying a platform to track and time stamp specific clinical issues like antimicrobial, pharmacy and infection problems, a hospital can identify endemic patterns and inform staff in real-time when issues occur. Problems like prescribing the wrong antimicrobial to treat pneumonia can then be faced at the point of care.



3. Allocate resources to garner the highest outcomes. Determining the variability in clinical response can have significant consequences on outcomes in value-based care, Dr. Abban says. "Once you minimize the variability, you can begin to quantify how much effort [you] take to move responses" toward the most effective solution, he says. When pushing toward a new outcome, temporal analytics allows hospitals to analyze if "the marginal outcomes or the marginal returns are greater than the marginal cost put in," Dr. Abban says.

4. Use hospital culture to convert data into action. Raw data will only foster action if a hospital's culture enables staff to use the information, Dr. Goldsteen says. Problem hospitals may be able to get as far as identifying their specific problems, but even this is ineffective if the hospital's staff is not on board with using the data to pursue better outcomes. "As you're fed real time information and you support a cultural shift in your organization, you're going to be asking your frontline providers to act upon that data," Dr. Goldsteen says. Successful hospitals have the policies and procedures to make individuals feel "empowered to act upon information presented to them," he says.
Many companies that are considered "disruptors" share one of many things in common: they leverage networks to orchestrate resources. Are health systems taking note?

"We in healthcare don't seem to be absorbing as quickly the business models and benefits of networks," Jonathan Bush, president, CEO and founder of Watertown, Mass.-based athenahealth, said at the 5th Annual Becker's Hospital Review CEO + CFO Roundtable. The perks of networks are especially evident with ride-hailing company Uber.

Uber's parallels with healthcare

Uber began in 2010 in San Francisco with only a few cars and the tagline, "Everyone's private driver." The service, which is now available in 507 cities worldwide, stemmed from the founders' idea for a town car timeshare. Passengers could enter their credit card information on the app, then call a town car or luxury car with the press of a button. The car would arrive at GPS-determined location and the passenger's account was automatically charged, tip included.

"The first Ubers were limo service drivers in limo service cars that had no passenger. They would have nothing to do for 2 to 3 hours at a time," says Mr. Bush, who has compared these cars to academic medical centers. "Can you think of any other industries besides black car limos that have a lot of extra capacity laying around a lot of time?"

Mr. Bush listed several other equivalents to black car limos in healthcare: hospital beds, surgeons, data centers and single-instance health IT. Uber continued to tap into excess capacity in the transportation industry and launched UberX in 2012, a low-cost option that expanded its fleet of available, licensed vehicles.

"Uber added a whole new category of capacity, and that created a whole new element of demand," says Mr. Bush. "This huge new ecosystem flexes and contracts with demand and happy hours."

So who is Uber in healthcare? Well, Uber is in healthcare.

Last year the ride-hailing app launched a one-day flu shot program in 35 U.S. cities, recognizing that fewer than half of American adults receive flu shots. With UberHEALTH, registered nurses traveled to locations at a passenger's request to distribute free flu shots for up to 10 people if a passenger purchased a $10 wellness pack, which included a water bottle, tissues, hand sanitizer and a lollipop. In one day, nurses vaccinated 2,057 people under the program in 2015. In 2016, it made the entire flu shot program free  no $10 wellness pack purchase required. (The number of flu vaccines delivered this year was not available at time of publication.)

Separately, Uber also partnered with Circulation for a service that lets hospitals dispatch a car to transport acute care and elderly patients to appointments, which helps reduce the likelihood and cost of missed appointments.

Mr. Bush discussed other disruptors that are leveraging networks to better orchestrate resources. One example is Candescent Health, which hoists radiology scans onto the cloud so a radiologist specializing in joints or a radiologist specializing in pediatrics can better spend their time reading those respective scans, specifically. "And a child in rural Wyoming can have her lung x-ray read a thousand miles away by the best pediatric lung radiologist in the country," Mr. Bush and his colleague John Fox, executive director of content for athenahealth, wrote for Harvard Business Review.

An opportunity to not go the way of the taxi

By early 2016, Uber was valued at $62.5 billion. Its success has put traditional taxi companies under significant pressure. For example, this year the price of medallions to operate a York City taxi fell to $805,000, down 23 percent from the 2013 peak of $1.05 million. In January, San Francisco's largest taxi service  Yellow Cab  filed for bankruptcy.

"I have this idea that everyone here has an opportunity to not become a taxi," says Mr. Bush. "There's still not that Uber-like resource orchestration [in healthcare], but I'm seeing some hints of it emerging. One has to balance between being so early at something that you run yourself into a wall and so late that there's no chair when the music stops."

To bend healthcare's cost curve and improve patient access, Mr. Bush urges health systems and hospitals to take stock of the market-driven models around them that make the most of existing capacity and demand to ultimately reap the benefits of networks.
Choosing the right EHR system can be overwhelming due to the large amount of vendors and EHR systems available today.

"The requirements that [hospitals are] looking for are really critical in how you make your decision," said Michael Martz, vice president and CIO of Ohio Valley Health Services and Education in Wheeling, W.Va. "We wanted an EHR that would support what we had now, but we also needed something to really position us for the future."

Mr. Martz shared his thoughts on picking the right EHR for his health system during a panel at Becker's Hospital Review 5th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable on Nov. 8 in Chicago. Joining him were Jonathan Bush, CEO of Watertown, Mass.-based athenahealth, Stephen F. DePooter, vice president and CIO of Chicago-based Norweigen American Hospital, and John Cacciamani, MD, CEO of Chestnut Hill Hospital in Philadelphia.

When looking for a single unified EHR system, Mr. Martz hired a local university to conduct a formal comparison of Meditech 6 and Epic. He was surprised to discover more clinicians preferred the Meditech system over Epic, claiming the information was easier to find and required a lot less clicks than Epic. Physician preference, combined with greater affordability, motivated Mr. Martz to choose Meditech as the new EHR for his hospital system.

To choose an EHR system for Norweigen American Hospital's inpatient system, Mr. DePooter said he set up a governance structure including both clinicians and financial staff members, who will weigh the pros and cons of each system before ultimately making the final decision.

Mr. DePooter highlighted three main aspects hospital systems should consider when looking at EHR systems. "First and foremost, the system has to do the basic functions that an inpatient system will do," he said. After the basic functions are covered, a health system must consider the system's reporting capabilities from a data and quality perspective, as well as the amount of support offered with the EHR.

Mr. Cacciamani said the notion of a ubiquitous EHR system reaching across the whole health system hasn't paid dividends except in rare cases where the market is locked.

"Each system has to meet the needs of its essential customer," said Mr. Cacciamani. "At the end of the day, it's about cash". An EHR system should help achieve expense reduction control on the inpatient side and support good documentation on the outpatient side to ensure an efficient charge capture, he said.

"Healthcare isnt a $3 trillion market  It's 15,000 $20 billion dollar markets," said Mr. Bush. "The EMR you need as an onco radiologist looks nothing like the EMR you need as a pediatrician or a gynecologist or a rehab physiologist."

Mr. Bush expects to see an explosion in EHR switchability in the future, citing an inflection point in the willingness and ability to connect care.

"The winning EHR systems will be the ones who can communicate information for everything from a televisit to a doctor's appointment to a trip to the clinic," he said. "These systems won't be on one giant computer system  they'll all be on a network that can communicate with one another."

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Six healthcare leaders discuss President-elect Donald Trump's healthcare plans and how they could affect hospitals in the future.

Responses have been edited for length and accuracy.

Ted Chan, Founder and CEO of Caredash.com (Boston): "The unraveling of Obamacare seems likely to happen. Healthcare expenses are still growing. As additional reforms take place, hospitals, physician practices, doctors, insurers, pharmaceutical companies and medical device players will again have to fight through uncertainty for elbow room through the complexities of transfer pricing, compensation and profit taking/sharing. The switch and the ramp up took time for everyone, and turning the ship again will be complex with a lot of overhead.

I believe at the end of the day rolling back healthcare reform will redistribute costs since people won't stop getting sick. Before Obamacare the uninsured went into hospitals or had emergencies just the same and couldn't usually pay. People went broke or hospitals absorbed the cost. Under Obamacare hospitals were paid for these services and could budget and staff appropriately. These costs will get passed back to consumers and companies."

Michael T. Dougherty, CEO of Provident Consulting (Farmington Hills, Mich.): "ACA repeal will definitely bring uncertainty to hospitals and other players in the sector that have benefited from increased insurance coverage. To avoid disruption, the replacement of health insurance exchanges, premium subsidies and change in the Medicaid system to block grants will need to be carefully phased. We do foresee continued support for pay-for-quality initiatives but with an effort toward simplification that may actually spur industry adoption. Bipartisan support for IT interoperability should remain strong. In any scenario, hospital systems will need to focus on compliant revenue capture and coordination across the continuum of care."

Nancy Lakier, Founder, CEO and Managing Principal of Novia Strategies (Poway, Calif.): "Healthcare has been and will certainly continue to be a focal point under President-elect Donald Trump. While we have historically seen bipartisan support for the need for healthcare reform and the need for accountability of care, the differences centered around payment structures. The shift under the ACA has been from volume- to value-based care, and hospitals were reimbursed for new volume under the ACA.

With this changing political landscape, we expect the reimbursement structures to change and the new volume payments will likely be in flux. For example, the potential partial or full repeal of the ACA; retraction of Medicaid expansion and the exchanges; and the probable increased competition among payers could substantively change payment models, though potentially not until 2018."

Erik Shannon, National Partner-in-Charge, Health Care Advisory Services of Grant Thornton (Houston): "President-elect Donald Trump has promised to eliminate the individual mandate to buy health insurance, a move that likely means a return to medical underwriting based on pre-existing conditions. It is anticipated these changes will increase the number of uninsured, which will impact all providers, but especially hospitals that have seen their [disproportionate share hospital] reimbursements cut.

Health plans that offer insurance products through state health insurance exchanges may see a very near-term impact. There's a risk that healthy individuals looking to buy insurance through state exchanges may opt out of the current enrollment process because they assume a President Trump will waive any penalties for not having health insurance. If this becomes a trend, then health plans will be insuring populations that are less healthy than they assumed when they set their premiums."

Zach Silverweig, Co-founder of CipherHealth (New York): "The Trump presidency will obviously bring great shifts to the majority opinion moving forward, especially in regards to healthcare policy. However, there is a component of healthcare that both political parties can agree on: making the patient experience consistently better. We expect elements of value-based payment models to stay through the Trump presidency, because they are pretty successful at driving down hospital costs while improving patient outcomes and satisfaction scores. Although value-based initiatives can be seen as a complex challenge by many hospitals, technology solutions exist to enhance the effectiveness of those initiatives."

Dan Steingart, Vice President of NFP Health Care of Moody's Investors Service (New York): "Trump's proposed repeal of the ACA would be credit negative for not-for-profit hospitals over the short term by exacerbating uncertainty regarding insurance coverage and eligibility. Once a new system is in place, expanded health insurance coverage through private insurance would have benefits and limitations, the severity of which would depend on the level of reimbursement. Given that most individuals in the U.S. would still require subsidies to purchase coverage, the level of reimbursement would further depend on the size of these subsidies.

Trump's proposal to move federal Medicaid funding to block grants and do away with the current matching system, whereby states and the federal government jointly fund the Medicaid program, would be credit negative for not-for-profit hospitals, owing to the limits on Medicaid funding and downward pressure on Medicaid reimbursement. A block grant program could also create pressure to curtail services that Medicaid covers. As previously covered services are cut, uncompensated care would rise for many not-for-profit hospitals. There likely would be a significant reduction in funding and cash flow for large urban hospitals, teaching hospitals and safety net providers that rely on supplemental funding."
In what former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt (R) called "the most provocative statement of change that has occurred in my lifetime," Republican candidate Donald Trump was elected the 45th President of the United States, and the GOP maintained control of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, signaling a now imminent shift to the right on healthcare policy. This shift in the core ideology that has shaped the healthcare landscape since the passage of the ACA leaves many healthcare leaders wondering how they can reposition their strategic plan for the future.

Much depends on what happens in Congress, and if anything is certain, it's that the process will neither be simple nor straightforward. "Democracy does not happen crisply," Mr. Leavitt said in a post-election webinar hosted by Salt Lake City-based Leavitt Partners, the healthcare intelligence firm he chairs. "It involves discussion, inexactness and uncertainty."

However, there are a number of indicators that can offer leaders an idea of what is likely to happen under a Trump administration. The following five takeaways are based on webinar panel discussion moderated by Rich McKeown, CEO of Leavitt Partners. In addition to Mr. Leavitt and Mr. McKeown, panelists included Vince Ventimiglia, vice chair of Leavitt Partners, Clay Alspach, principal at Leavitt Partners, and Ian Morrison, PhD, futurist and advisor at Health Intelligence Partners.

1. Bill H.R. 3762, the reconciliation bill vetoed by President Barack Obama in January, shows the likely path Republicans will take to dismantle the ACA. "The best indicator of the future is the past efforts made by Republicans to alter [the ACA]," Mr. Leavitt said. The blueprint for this is H.R. 3762.

Republicans in Congress will most likely use the budget reconciliation process to drive changes to the ACA during Mr. Trump's first 100 days in office, according to Mr. Ventimiglia. The reconciliation process has procedural benefits  it only requires 51 votes to pass in the Senate, rather than the normal 60 votes, and there are now exactly 51 Republican senators.

However, despite the procedural benefits, the reconciliation process is limited in scope. The potential changes can be divided into two buckets, Mr. Ventimiglia said. The first bucket is revenue and tax-related provisions. This would involve the revenue-generating taxes included in the ACA like the medical device tax, the health insurance tax and the Cadillac tax. The second bucket is direct spending. This includes entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid, as well as premium subsidies under the ACA, according to Mr. Ventimiglia. "Beyond those two buckets, nothing can be done," he said. To make other changes, like reform the insurance exchanges, Republicans will need to attach a sidecar bill, which will be tougher to pass.

Looking to H.R. 3762 as a blueprint means the revenue-generating taxes under the ACA will likely be repealed, but Medicaid expansion will be left untouched for now, as will Medicare reimbursement cuts. "One of the big reasons for that is to fill a $700 million hole is incredibly difficult," Mr. Ventimiglia said. "And in reconciliation, you have to go positive."

2. Look to red states  like Michigan, Ohio and Indiana  that expanded Medicaid for hints of what may happen to Medicaid expansion. Many Republicans in Congress support repealing at least part of the ACA, so when midterm elections near they can tell their constituents they fulfilled their promise, Mr. Ventimiglia noted. What Republican leaders won't want is tell constituents they are rescinding Medicaid coverage, he said. "Those members [of Congress] will be very resistant to repealing the Medicaid expansion unless there is some other way to cover those folks," Mr. Ventimiglia said.

Mr. Morrison agreed Medicaid expansion in some form may continue because it has been popular among hospitals and health systems. "If you take the typical health system across the country in expansion states, there have been massive increases in Medicaid patients and a reduction of bad debt," Mr. Morrison said.

Until another option to offer insurance to those who were covered under Medicaid expansion is made clear, Mr. Ventimiglia doesn't expect to see a change. Any change to Medicaid expansion, he predicted, isn't likely to happen until Republican governors who expanded Medicaid  like Ohio Gov. John Kasich or Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder  leave office.

3. Partisanship was a continuous threat to the ACA, so any successful replacement plan will have to be bipartisan. It was the consensus among panelists that one of the great shortcomings of the ACA and its longevity was the partisanship that came with it, which Republicans will want to avoid. A lack of bipartisan approval around healthcare policy makes it incredibly vulnerable when there is a change of power.

Finding bipartisan agreement right now may seem unlikely  the country feels more divided than ever. Leading up to the election, the public became increasingly polarized. Last year, 53 percent of Republicans held consistently conservative views, compared to 31 percent in 2004, and 60 percent of Democrats held consistently liberal views, compared to 49 percent in 2004, according to Pew Research. Polls conducted in late October show 55 percent of registered voters expected political divisions to deepen if Mr. Trump won, according to Pew. But the passage of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act shows both Republicans and Democrats have recently reached consensus on significant healthcare policy. "There is a real need not to overreach and not to try to move too fast and to try to bring people together in a collaborative way," Mr. Alspach said.

4. Market trends and MACRA indicate value-based care and many associated programs are here to stay. Both sides of the aisle agree fee-for-service medicine has to change and coordinated care is better than uncoordinated care, Mr. Leavitt said.

"It is important to remember that the movement away from fee-for-service and toward value is not being simply driven by political policies. Economics  not just domestic, but global  put pressure to reduce the percentage of GDP directed toward healthcare," Mr. Leavitt said. "There's not a place on the economic leaderboard for a country that spends 20 to 25 percent of its GDP on healthcare."

The difference in value-based care going forward may simply be what drives it. Right now the main impetus for value comes from CMS' Innovation Center, which was created by the ACA to implement programs like ACOs and bundled payments.

But even while considering an ACA repeal, the programs created by CMMI will likely continue. This is because the bipartisan passage of MACRA, which takes effect in January, relies on the existence of the programs put forth by CMMI, according to Mr. Alspach. "If CMMI were shuttered or limitations were added, it would be a big difficulty [for MACRA]," Mr. Alspach said. The political conversation around restructuring CMMI will likely focus on two aspects: money and authority.

First, the ACA allotted $10 billion every 10 years for CMMI. That funding could be taken away, but "the Congressional Budget Office believes CMMI is going to save a tremendous amount of money," Mr. Alspach said, "tremendous" meaning $40 billion in savings for every $10 billion spent. This indicates the funding for CMMI is likely to continue, but it may be put under a shorter appropriation cycle, according to Mr. Alspach.

Second, the conversation around CMMI will focus on the amount of authority given to the executive branch. Through CMMI, the executive branch is able to implement and mandate a number of pilot programs and policies. Such ample executive authority is not a hallmark of Republican administrations, so power could redistributed under Mr. Trump's leadership. "We are going to have to think through whether the philosophical and intellectual commitment to growing, refining and improving those systems will remain at CMS," Mr. Ventimiglia said.

5. Current premium pricing problems will remain a challenge. Any issues with premium prices and payer competition on the exchanges will not go away overnight. Premiums are going up for individual plans on the federal exchange by an average of 25 percent in 2017, and HHS reported earlier this month that 8.4 million individuals, who buy insurance on and off the exchanges, will shoulder significant premium hikes.

Mr. Trump will inherit this problem, even as his administration works to dismantle the ACA. The exchanges will need to be actuarially sound to survive a transition to a new scheme. Replacing a tax-based system would take the IRS at least 18 months to process, so the exchanges will need to last at least that long, according Mr. Ventimiglia.

Then if the Trump administration is able to replace the ACA exchanges with something else, pricing problems will persist until bigger economic issues are addressed. Mr. Trump has indicated he wants to keep provisions that require insurers to cover people with pre-existing conditions and allow beneficiaries under age 26 to stay on their parents' plans. However, Mr. Trump also campaigned on a platform that opposed the ACA's individual mandate to buy insurance coverage. "In a world of guaranteed issuance with weak mandates, you will run into pricing problems," Mr. Morrison said. "That problem is going to linger for the Trump administration." What is left for the next administration to figure out is how to preserve guaranteed issuance and still make insurance affordable, according to Mr. Morrison.

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OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital is outsourcing the functions of three departments and eliminating more than 20 middle management positions, according to a Mansfield News Journal report.

Here are 10 things to know.

1. The restructuring affected a total of 80 employees.

2. OhioHealth Mansfield is outsourcing its linens, transcription and childcare services, Jean Halpin, president of OhioHealth Mansfield and Shelby hospitals, told the Mansfield News Journal. The hospital also cut 22 management positions in its lab and nutrition services areas, including supervisors, directors and managers, according to the report. Additionally, OhioHealth Mansfield will not replace the hospital's recently retired vice president of clinical services.

3. The hospital expects to save about $1 million through the restructuring. Those funds will be reinvested in different areas of OhioHealth Mansfield, according to the report.

4. But the hospital noted the move is not solely about finances. Ms. Halpin said in the report that the changes will also help the hospital focus on patient care, as management employees in dual clinical and supervisory roles will now concentrate on their clinical roles.

5. Numerous positions are being re-posted to get rid of redundancy as their responsibilities change, including working nights and weekends, and employees can reapply for the jobs, Ms. Halpin told the Mansfield News Journal.

6. According to the report, the hospital's linen services will transfer to Comtex Laundry. Five of the 19 linens employees will still be OhioHealth employees. The other 14 employees will have the opportunity to transfer to other entry-level positions, Ms. Halpin said in the report.

7. The hospital's transcription services will transfer to medical transcriptio ncompany MModal. The 14 transcription employees at the hospital will have the option to transfer to positions with MModal, according to the report.

8. Additionally, Ms. Halpin told Mansfield News Journal, the hospital is seeking a partner to take over the hospital's childcare services. She also told the publication she hopes the current 16 hospital childcare employees will be able to transfer to the new childcare company.

9. The changes in the linen and transcription services, as well as the management changes, are slated to take effect in mid-January, according to the report. The childcare services changes are slated to take effect at the end of June.

10. Commenting on the job cuts, Ms. Halpin said: "As hospital administrators, we must continually keep an eye on the bottom line and make adjustments as necessary to ensure we continue to provide the highest quality of care at the lowest possible cost. To not do that would be irresponsible. As difficult as these decisions have been, they had to be made to position us for long-term success."

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As healthcare continues down the path of value-based care and bundled payments continue to rise in prominence, hospital administrators are under increasing pressure to reduce costs and improve outcomes. To do so, CEOs should focus on their hospital's anesthesia services, as simple protocol improvements can often achieve major savings and improve quality of care.

The quality and consistency of a hospital's anesthesia program effects patients from neonates to adults, as well as frontline providers' success. The high cost of anesthesia also makes the service ripe for examination to ensure cost-effective efficiency.

At Becker's Hospital Review's 5th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable on Nov. 7, John Harris, CEO, and David Leachman, MD, chief of anesthesia at Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces, N.M., discussed their successful partnership, providing attendees with insights into what CEOs should expect from their anesthesia providers.

Regarding the widespread influence of anesthesia services on hospitals' delivery of quality care and fiscal health, Dr. Leachman said, "The practice of anesthesiology is really a web spread throughout whole hospital."

One of the key points of emphasis for Mr. Harris in working with an anesthesia partner is the importance of cooperation and collaboration. Because of anesthesia's wide-reaching influence and the strength of their partnership, Mr. Harris considers Dr. Leachman his eyes and ears in the hospital. Transparency between the CEO and the hospital's anesthesia leader is key.

"Having a leader like Dr. Leachmen, for me, has meant the difference between having a black box and having insight into what goes on in the operating room," said Mr. Harris, later adding that a CEO should have a strong rapport with the chief of anesthesia where he or she should feel comfortable heading down the operating room and the anesthesia leader should feel comfortable entering the CEO's office.

This level of transparency, according to Mr. Harris, is indicative of the kind of leadership CEOs should be looking for in their anesthesia services. Anesthesia leaders should be connectors across disciplines, working well with surgeons and nurses. They should also work with administration to determine the appropriate measures and protocols that will best serve the hospital and allow everyone to meet their goals.

Dr. Leachman cited his collaboration with Mr. Harris in the development of a model for the hospital's anesthesia services  reviewing everything from staffing to specific quality outcome goals  as just one way hospital administration helped him create a culture of success at Memorial Medical Center.

Mr. Harris described himself as having an entrepreneurial spirit and cited his focus on improving anesthesia services and managing costs for these services as a major contributor to the hospital's recent expansion in surgical capacities. According to Mr. Harris, Memorial Medical Center completes approximately 10,000 surgeries a year, increasing the number of surgeries by 20 percent year-over-year. In 2017, Mr. Harris expects the hospital will see an increase of approximately 2,500 surgeries.

According to Dr. Leachman, Memorial Medical has managed to increase the utilization of the hospital's operating rooms by 100 percent over the last year.

Mr. Harris said one of the key things CEOs might want to consider when looking to improve anesthesia services is interviewing chief of anesthesia candidates themselves before they are hired by the anesthesia services provider.

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President-elect Donald Trump's plan to turnaround the healthcare industry presents uncertainty and opportunity, according to a report from PwC's Health Research Institute that examines the potential impacts of his healthcare policy.

Becker's caught up with Benjamin Isgur, leader of PwC's Health Research Institute, to discuss the key things providers can expect to see from the Trump administration in terms of healthcare. Here are six things to watch.

1. An ACA repeal  in some form  is likely. Mr. Trump campaigned heavily on repealing the ACA, so this is one of the issues the healthcare industry is focused on first and foremost, according to Mr. Isgur.

HRI rated the likelihood of a repeal gaining traction as moderate because it depends how the repeal is defined, according to Mr. Isgur. Repealing "every nook and cranny of the ACA" is not likely, he said. "On the other hand, if it means repealing the individual mandate, or just defunding subsidies and exchanges, or repealing the medical device taxit's a lot more likely," he added. If a full repeal is not possible, Congress will be able to use the reconciliation process or appropriations process to at least dismantle parts of the law.

2. Uncertainty exists around the insurance exchanges. "Taking away people's new insurance is going to be extremely disruptive to people's lives and how the industry operates," Mr. Isgur said. Creating a plan to replace coverage if the exchanges are repealed will likely be a major point of discussion early in Mr. Trumps presidency, he added.

HRI rates the impact of an ACA repeal on the federal budget, payers and providers as negative. This rating is based on the information currently available about the repeal and replacement plan. At face value, a repeal would increase the federal deficit and increase the number of uninsured by almost 20 million people, HRI wrote, citing a Commonwealth Fund study. Employers would have to spend to change policies and data systems, while revenue and tax provisions, including tax credits for premiums, would end, according to HRI.

"We know that a lot of hospital bad debt has decreased over the last few years as more people have been insuredHealth insurers we are talking to are concerned right now because they don't know what the plan is," Mr. Isgur said.

3. Medicaid expansion will likely continue. Overall, what takes place in the industry under Mr. Trump will be a game of balance. While campaigning, Mr. Trump supported a block grant program for Medicaid. Based on a 2015 proposal by House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price, R-Ga., using block grants for Medicaid would reduce federal spending by $913 billion over the next decade, according to HRI. However, many people ,may lose coverage under the block grant program.

There are indicators from Mr. Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence suggesting Medicaid expansion will continue. For example, as the HRI report notes, while Mr. Pence was governor of Indiana, Medicaid was expanded with some flexibility around cost sharing. "We can certainly see a scenario where the Medicaid expansion continues forward," Mr. Isgur said.

4. Volume to value is here to stay. The federal government was the primary accelerator of healthcare's changing payment models through Medicare ACOs, bundled payments and the like, but Mr. Isgur says the value-based care trend has now eclipsed policy. "[The volume-to-value] issue has changed from one that was mainly driven from a public policy, government standpoint," he said. "Now it has permeated through all payersEmployers want to see continued movement to value, insurers want to see continued movement to value and consumers  who are taking on more out of pocket cost  want to see the value they are going to get."

HRI notes that a Trump administration is likely to support the continued move to value, though mixed results in some value-based care programs mean reimbursement programs will continue to evolve. "Health system executives can feel pretty confident this concept is not going away. It may look different depending on how the new administration puts their stamp on volume to value," Mr. Isgur said.

5. Free market forces will take center stage, while major industry trends march on. Mr. Trump's health plan is based on infusing free market approaches in the healthcare industry. "This is the world providers need to prepare for," Mr. Isgur said. "Not just all the scenarios around repeal and replace, but also will we start to see a more businesslike approach and philosophy around healthcare."

Coupled with his plan to expand health savings accounts, consumeristic trends will continue to hold. Patients will be more involved in their healthcare and making more choices for themselves, meaning issues like transparency, access, convenience and quality are still critical for providers. Increasing use of technology and mobile devices for example, will continue no matter what policies are put in place on the Hill.

6. Macroeconomic healthcare trends still need to be addressed. These trends were not discussed on the campaign trail by either candidate, but loom as a challenge to future policy, according to HRI. Some of these issues include the Medicare Trust Fund for Part A, which is on track to run out by 2028 unless changes are made, Mr. Isgur noted. Over the next 10 years, mandatory spending on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security is projected to account for most (88 percent) of the growth in federal spending. This will put pressure on discretionary spending for roads, parks, schools and defense programs, according to HRI, which in turn means reimbursement cuts are inevitable.

"That's something providers really need to think about. There's not going to be a new injection of moneyThey are going to have to turn to themselves and figure out how they are going to provide services in an era of less reimbursement," Mr. Isgur said.

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Newport News, Va.-based Riverside Health System is closing two senior care centers in Virginia in February, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

The system will close its senior care centers in Manchester and Hampton, Va., which are part of the system's Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly.

The closure of the centers will affect 133 employees. Riverside Health System is helping those employees find other positions within the system, Peter Glagola, a system spokesman, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Riverside Health System is closing the PACE centers in an attempt to consolidate its senior care centers after recording losses on its PACE program in the Richmond, Va., area in recent years.

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Even the most revered leaders must constantly seek ways to become better. As industries evolve, rules and regulations change, technology and communication tools advance and a new generation of workers emerges, great leaders remain perceptive to new competencies they must build and timeless management skills they must enhance.

At Becker's 5th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable Nov. 8 in Chicago, five senior executives discussed the crucibles of leadership and how to inspire others. The panel included Phillip Kambic, president and CEO of Riverside Healthcare in Kankakee, Ill.; Jose R. Sanchez, president and CEO of Norwegian American Hospital in Chicago; Charles Koontz, president and CEO of GE Healthcare IT and chief digital officer of GE Healthcare; Michael Haley, president and CEO of IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie, Ind.; and Mark Madden, senior vice president of senior executive search at B.E. Smith. Kayla McCann Marty, associate at McGuireWoods, moderated the discussion.

Here are five thoughts from the panelists on great leadership.

1. Certain tenets of outstanding leadership will never fade. Flexibility and nimbleness amid periods of change, strong communication skills, courage, humility, patience and a desire to learn are among the most critical leadership traits, and will remain so, according to Mr. Sanchez. Great leaders should be able to describe themselves in those terms, but they must also possess the self-awareness to know where they need to improve.

2. Communication is king. A leader who doesn't communicate frequently and clearly will fail to inspire and engage employees. This is especially pertinent as the American workforce becomes increasingly saturated in millennial professionals who desire and expect a higher degree of transparency and communication with senior leaders. According to Mr. Madden, one of the most important skills B.E. Smith looks for in its CEO recruits is communication, in addition to the ability to adapt to change.

An important aspect of solid communication is the ability to tailor one's approach and message to each audience, according to Mr. Kambic. "You need different tools and techniques for different audiences," he said. "For example, we have a three-hour weekly meeting with our senior vice presidents, and that's an expensive meeting. But to achieve the focus and clarity around what we are working on, and so everyone knows what the expectations are  it's worth it."

3. Accessibility is a must. The CEO who holes up in the office and is but a faceless name and distant presence will quickly lose touch with the workforce, and subsequently, his or her ability to inspire them. In addition to communication, a leader who is accessible and receptive to meeting with employees will go far. "It's important to be aware of the level of visibility of the leadership," said Mr. Haley. "I think I'm approachable to the staff, which is critical. Folks routinely come around and ask me questions. I also do a breakfast mic series twice a month with people from all walks of the hospital to listen to their questions and learn about what's going on."

4. Don't underestimate the power of data. Across all industries, and especially in healthcare, data analytics is becoming increasingly important for making projections, tracking trends and deriving actionable insights. While the CEO and CIO may not have been the closest of colleagues in the past, the increasing demand for healthcare IT and the growing presence of data analytics in quality and operations initiatives means understanding data and technology is now the CEO's responsibility as well.

"Our healthcare provider customers are hungry for help in figuring out how to approach the mountains of data their EMRs have accumulated," said Mr. Koontz. Healthcare leaders today must prioritize "unlocking the potential of data and digitization  that's where the opportunity lies," he added.

5. Build exceptional teams. "To anyone who's accused me of being a great leader, I tell them I'm just really good at surrounding myself with people who are driven, committed and take ownership of their work," said Mr. Haley. "With great teams, you can move mountains, but if you don't surround yourself with people like that, accomplishing anything will be a challenge."
Small to midsize hospitals must constantly work to establish a delicate balance between offering valuable services and care to their communities without raising expenses.

In a panel at the Becker's Hospital Review 5th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable on Nov. 8 in Chicago, six healthcare CEOs shared advice on how to maintain successful small and midsize hospitals.

Panelists included: Alex Rintoul, CEO of The Medical Center at Elizabeth Place in Dayton, Ohio; Larry Schroeder, CEO of Sauk Prairie Healthcare in Prairie Du Sac, Wis.; Emmett Schuster, president and CEO of Gibson General Hospital in Princeton, Ind.; Maria Ryan, PhD, CEO of Cottage Hospital in Woodsville, N.H.; and Chris Grottenthaler, founder and CEO of True Health Diagnostics in Frisco, Texas.

Here are the top soundbites from their discussion, lightly edited for clarity.

Valuable strategies to thrive in today's healthcare climate:

Mr. Schuster said, "Every health system, whether large or small, has to be responsive to the community. If we're trying to provide something that they dont want, they'll let you know. No matter how hard your board beats on you to make it happen, it won't work. You need to listen to your customers, not just the internal boss."

Mr. Schroeder highlighted the importance of focusing on patient satisfaction. "We're still very much wedded to fee-for-service business, but we'll take any quality incentive that people put before us and we will achieve it. We stress the importance of patient engagement and satisfaction to everyone who works at our organization."

Dr. Ryan said "The worst thing that can happen in a critical access hospital is that your expenses keep going up. You need to be nimble and partner with other organizations for their services to meet the needs of your community. For example, there's a tertiary care hospital 45 minutes away from my hospital  I partner with them for radiologists."

Mr. Grottenthalersaid, "The small to midsize hospitals that are the most successful are the ones sticking their necks out and trying to bring new services to the system. I think if you stand still, you're going to die. You need to continue that innovation."

Mr. Rintoul said small to midsize hospitals in competitive markets must zero in on a specific niche to excel at. "Our physician-owned hospital is located in a very competitive market. While we started out as a general acute care hospital, we had to get more involved in a particular niche to separate ourselves. Find what you can do well and be the best in that area or market, while also stepping back from the things you can't do well."

The community hospital: a dying model or future of healthcare?

Mr. Schroeder said, "Hospital might be a bit too narrow of a focus. We've changed our identity and the way that we operate to a health system. In the future, I think healthcare will stay local. Patients want to get treatment close to home, close to where there family is. So the definition might change, but I think the proximity issue will stay where it's at."

Mr. Schuster said, "A brick and mortar hospital means expense. More and more the population, millenniums and beyond, are going to be looking for the easiest way to get care. They don't want to come to a hospital if they don't have to. As telemedicine progresses, I think the definition of a community hospital is going to change  Is it truly a hospital, or is it just a healthcare provider?"

Mr. Grottenthalersaid he sees a lot of opportunity for small community hospitals to thrive in the future. "Patients need direct access to care. If they have to travel 30 to 50 miles to a larger health system to get it, then they won't do it. It needs to be provided in the community. I think we'll see continued expansion of localized services, bringing more departments and new services to the community."

Mr. Rintoul said, "It really depends a lot on the workforce dynamics  both on the nursing end and also the physician end. If you are in an area where you have a hard time recruiting physicians or nurses, it's going to be very hard to be a successful small hospital."

Dr. Ryan said, "According to the National Rural Health Association, seventy rural hospitals have closed since 2010 and more than 600 are at risk today. There is legislation out there called Save Rural Hospitals that cites quite a few studies that say people actually get better care in a smaller hospital."





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A report from a watchdog group claims Austin-based University of Texas Dell Medical School misspent $105 million in property taxes collected by Travis County's healthcare district, Austin, Texas-based Central Health, according to the Austin-American Statesman.



Written by lawyer Fred Lewis, the report details that although the funds were supposed to be put toward healthcare for underprivileged populations, they have been mixed with funds for medical school projects and non-healthcare governmental projects.



"Because UT Dell and [Central Health] appear to have breached these basic fiduciary and legal duties, Travis County, as the financial overseer of CH, has the responsibility to retain an independent, third-party auditor" to facilitate a "comprehensive performance and forensic audit," the report states.



UT Dell Medical School and Central Health denied the claims. "We do not commingle Central Health funds with any others," said Clay Johnston, MD, PhD, dean of the medical school. "We're in full compliance with the affiliation agreement with Central Health."



Central Health President and CEO Patricia Young Brown agreed. She added that UT Dell Medical School "is increasing the number of medical residents working in our community health clinics and is creating the next generation of doctors to care for our safety net population."
Thousands of nurses in the midst of contract negotiations with multiple hospitals in the Philadelphia area will demonstrate Tuesday, according to a report on philly.com.

The nurses are represented by the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals.

Approximately 2,300 nurses from Albert Einstein Medical Center, St. Christopher's Children's Hospital and Hahnemann University Hospital, recently voted to join the union and are negotiating their first contracts, according to the report. The nurses are slated to hold informational pickets at Hahnemann and St Christopher's from 6 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. Tuesday and from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Einstein, with a 6:30 news conference at Einstein.

Nurses at Suburban Community Hospital, also represented by PASNAP, are working through first-time negotiations with the hospital's new owner, Ontario, Calif.-based Prime Healthcare Services, according to the report. About 150 nurses are involved, a union spokesman said in the report. They will be picketing from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., from 11 p.m. to 1 p.m. and from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., with a noon news conference.

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The case count in an outbreak of Burkholderia cepacia has increased to 149 cases across five states, according to a CDC update on Nov. 9. Health officials have linked the infections to pre-filled saline flushes manufactured by Nurse Assist  a Fort Worth, Texas-based medical device maker for long-term care facilities.

On Oct. 4, Nurse Assist issued a voluntary recall of the prefilled syringes after more than 30 cases of B. cepacia were linked to the product. The CDC  with aid from the Food and Drug Administration and the state health departments of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania  identified the syringes, used to clean out intravenous lines, as the source of the outbreak. The investigation is ongoing.

Manish Trivedi, MD, an infectious disease specialist with AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in Atlantic City, N.J., praised the CDC-led investigation, according to The Press of Atlantic City.

"What ended up happening was that the CDC, state and county health departments got involved quickly and targeted where this bacteria was coming from," said Dr. Trivedi. "Once identified, they did an excellent job at removing the sources."

Cases have occurred across 58 facilities and six of those infected have died.

According to the CDC, B. cepacia bacteria can be found in soil and water. Though B. cepacia poses little risk to healthy people, individuals with weakened immune systems may be susceptible to severe respiratory infections caused by the bacteria. B. cepacia are often resistant to common antibiotics.

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Four healthcare industry experts discuss how President-elect Donald Trump's healthcare policies could affect the medical device and pharmaceutical industries.

Responses have been edited for length and accuracy.

Danielle Humphrey of Hogan Lovells  an international law firm (Washington, D.C.): "In a nutshell, it appears that Donald Trump is proposing an across-the-board decrease in regulation and taxes and significant changes at [the] FDA. Overall, medical device firms can anticipate significant turnover at all levels of [Center for Devices and Radiological Health], leading to a loss of institutional knowledge and predictability. Trump has promised to reverse many policies of the current administration, including repealing the Affordable Care Act and its medical device tax, and has proposed a moratorium on new regulations and the elimination of regulations that do not improve public safety.



Additionally, Trump and the Republicans specifically address the medtech industry by proposing key reforms at [the] FDA that will make the product review process more efficient while restoring FDA's role as the world's leading public health agency and ensuring that U.S. citizens are the first to have access to new, cutting edge devices and pharmaceuticals.

Taxes are another key topic impacting the medtech industry and Trump seeks to lower corporate taxes in order to draw innovative companies back to the United States. He also supports a policy whereby profits earned and taxed overseas can be repatriated in the United States, making funds available for domestic job creation."

Zackary Irani, CEO of Biomerica  a medical diagnostics company (Irvine, Calif.): "Trump is most likely going to strive to create an environment that yields constant innovation throughout the medical device and biotech industries. While it's far too early to tell whether or not this will be his strategy, the general hope would be that this innovation will create efficiencies and better healthcare for patients via new technologies."

Karine Kleinhaus, MD, Divisional Vice President, North America of Pluristem Therapeutics  a biotherapy company (Haifa, Israel): "The change will bring new robust interest in healthcare specifically in cell therapy. Despite the discord in both political parties, at the end of the day everyone may benefit from a successful handling of the regenerative medicine issue at least in a lame-duck session after the election. The Regrow Act has strong support across the political spectrum. The new bill calls for an injection of billions into federal biomedical research and an easing of restrictions on FDA approvals of stem cell products. Converting the scientific potential of stem cell technology into real therapeutic value still represents a significant challenge, however. The stem cells field faces a wide variety of scientific, technologic and regulatory challenges, and successful commercialization has not yet been achieved."

Dan Steingart, Vice President of NFP Health Care at Moody's Investors Service  a credit ratings, research and risk analysis firm (New York): "Trump has proposed removing barriers to import drugs from foreign countries where they can be purchased at lower cost. Drug prices have increased significantly in recent years and policies that lower drug prices are credit positive for not-for-profit hospitals, because such policies would reduce their costs."
The American Medical Association awarded Katie O. Orrico, JD, with the Medical Executive Lifetime Achievement Award.

Here are six highlights:

1. Ms. Orrico serves as director of the Washington Office of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and Congress of Neurological Surgeons.

2. AMA presents the award to a medical association executive who has "contributed substantially to the goals and ideals of the medical profession," according to the press release.

3. Throughout her career, Ms. Orrico has led efforts to create alliances with other organizations. She serves on the AMA-led MACRA Task Force and MIPS Workgroup.

4. Ms. Orrico has also contributed to the Council of Medical Specialty Societies, the Partnership to Improve Patient Care and the Health Coalition on Liability and Access.

5. She is a founding member of the Alliance of Specialty Medicine, which includes 14 national medical specialty societies.

6. Ms. Orrico earned her Juris Doctor degree from George Mason University School of Law in Arlington, Va.
A North Country man is among three people arrested by the state Inspector General's office on workers' compensation fraud charges.

Ronald Durand, 44, of State Route 411 in Lafargeville, has been charged with third-degree grand larceny, third-degree criminal possession of stolen property, third-degree insurance fraud and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing.

According to the inspector general's office, Durand began collecting workers' compensation benefits in March 2013 after claiming he injured his back while delivering jugs of drinking water. Authorities said he told the state Workers' Compensation Board, his employers' insurance carrier and medical providers that his injury prevented him for working.

An investigation found that Durand was allegedly exercising at the Watertown YMCA within months of his reported injury. Surveillance conducted by authorities found Durand was bench pressing as much as 335 pounds and performing other lifts with significant amounts of weight.

Catherine Leahy Scott, the state inspector general, said her office's investigation revealed Durand illegally received nearly $3,200 in workers' compensation benefits.

He was arraigned in Jefferson County Court Tuesday.

The inspector general's office also arrested two people in a separate workers' compensation fraud investigation.

Marleen Ayen and Anthony Hull, of Main Street in Antwerp, are facing multiple charges. Ayen allegedly received nearly $3,200 in workers' compensation benefits after claiming she was injured on the job in 2004.

Last year, authorities say she informed her insurance company that she wasn't employed. But an investigation found that she was working at Robbins Hardware, a store in Antwerp owned by Hull.

The investigation also revealed that Hull allegedly didn't offer workers' compensation coverage for his employees and claimed he didn't have employees. The inspector general's office said he did, in fact, have workers at the store.

Ayen has been charged with third-degree grand larceny, third-degree criminal possession of stolen property, first-degree falsifying business records and fraudulent practices, a crime tied to the workers' compensation program.

The charges against Hull include first-degree offering a false instrument for filing and two workers' compensation crimes  fraudulent practices and failure to secure the payment of compensation.

Like Durand, Ayen and Hull were arraigned in Jefferson County Court. The three defendants are due back in court in December and January, according to the inspector general's office.

"Each of these defendants chose to defraud the workers' compensation system to gain an inappropriate financial advantage over honest employers and employees across Jefferson County and the state," Leahy Scott said. "I will use my position and office to vigorously pursue anyone who abuses the workers' compensation and claims benefits to which they are not entitled."
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Recently an unverified report went viral on social media that claimed a businessman from Surat, named Laljibhai Patel, had surrendered Rs 6,000 crore, to the government, following the governments demonetisation move to curb black money. However, The Indian Express have reported that Patel denied any such action. Notably, he became famous when he broke the Guinness World Record for buying PM Narendra Modi's suit-jacket for Rs 4.3 crore with his name embroidered on it.
File photo dated 11/10/16 of Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who has snubbed an emergency EU foreign ministers' meeting called to discuss Donald Trump's shock US election victory.

The chairman of RBS has warned that banks could pull out of Britain unless Theresa May secures a post-Brexit transition plan.

Sir Howard Davies said American and Japanese banks are very concerned at the prospect of a hard Brexit and are drawing up contingency plans.

He urged the Prime Minister to offer the City some reassurance and certainty by negotiating a transitional deal which will allow firms based in Britain to continue to be able to operate in the rest of the EU.

He told ITV's Peston On Sunday show that jobs could be lost to Europe and to Ireland.

He said: "I think it is damaging if we don't get a transitional deal because I think you will then see banks and financial institutions making decisions on the basis of uncertainty.

"They will not wait because they have to make a decision which will allow them to be, to continue to function in the event of a hard Brexit if that's a possibility.

"So they will not sit back, they are currently making contingency plans and once you've got a contingency plan - hey, there is a risk you might implement it one day.

"And therefore I think that it is quite urgent."

Financial firms fear they could lose membership of the single market and their passporting rights, which allow companies in the UK to operate across the European Economic Area.

Sir Howard said the Government does not need to detail its full negotiating position, but needs to reassure the City so Britain does not encounter a "jerky and sudden" departure from the EU.

He said: "What is really important is the transitional arrangements.

"So what we are particularly focused on in the City at the moment is to try to get an understanding that actually allowing a cliff edge departure from Brexit would be damaging for everybody, because about three quarters of all European capital transactions take place in London - often by French banks or German banks etc - but they take place in London.

"If you suddenly broke that off it would be destabilising for the whole of the European financial markets.

"So what we need is a transitional arrangement, as the Article 50 process starts, so we can say 'look, here is the way in which things are going to work in the medium term'.

"In the long term, of course, I think there will be some movement of activity."

Sir Howard said he is optimistic transitional arrangements can be drawn up as it is in the interests of the remaining EU states as well as Britain.

His warning came as Boris Johnson snubbed an emergency EU foreign ministers' meeting called to discuss Donald Trump's shock US election victory.

Foreign Secretary Mr Johnson, who branded vocal European concern about the US election result as a "whinge-o-rama", was dismissive of the need for a special EU meeting.
Mobile phone giant Vodafone has posted a rise in half-year earnings as it cheered a better-than-expected performance in Europe.

Vodafone saw a 4.3% lift in underlying earnings to 7.9 billion euros (6.9 billion) in the six months to September 30, when stripping out the effects of currency volatility and merger and acquisition activity.

Chief executive Vittorio Colao said performance in Europe was led by Germany and Italy.

"As Europe's fastest-growing broadband operator, we are driving rapid uptake of our consumer fixed and TV services while our wholly converged enterprise business continues to outperform its peers. We are now translating faster revenue growth into margin expansion, supported by our focus on cost efficiency."

But foreign exchange volatility hit sales, which fell by 3.9% to 27.1 billion euros (23.5 billion) over the period.

It follows the collapse of the pound, which has fallen nearly 15% against the euro since the Brexit vote.

Vodafone says it now expects underlying earnings to come in between 15.7-16.1 billion euros (13.6-13.9 billion), narrowed from its previous range of 15.7-16.2 billion euros (13.6-14 billion).

The company has said a 1% change in the sterling to euro exchange rate could knock underlying earnings by around 20 million (17 million) and impact free cash flow by 10 million euros (8.6 million).

A 1% change in the rupee to euro exchange rate is also expected to hit underlying earnings by around 20 million euros (17 million).

Mr Colao said: "Overall, we expect to sustain our underlying performance in the second half of the year and remain on track to meet our full-year objectives despite macroeconomic uncertainties."
While the likes of Apple may seem worlds away from a business operating in Northern Ireland, the same rules apply to all

If you look at some of the most successful companies in the world today - Apple, Toyota, Dyson - it's not hard to see what they all have in common. They are dynamic, innovative and constantly reinventing their products. They are prime examples of companies that were built on research and development, and, equally as important, are sustained by R&D.

While the likes of Apple and Toyota may seem worlds away from the small and medium businesses operating now in Northern Ireland, the same rules apply to all.

Investing in R&D leads to long-term benefits that can include not only increased sales but also increased efficiency and productivity.

Yet even with much tangible evidence of the benefits of R&D, many businesses, particularly small businesses, are reluctant to invest.

Understandably, one of the biggest stumbling blocks is the perceived cost involved.

But there are many sources of support, both financial and advisory. For first-time investors in R&D, Invest NI can provide up to 50,000 of assistance towards the costs of developing, building and testing a prototype and handling intellectual property.

Invest NI support is also available to businesses that want to undertake further R&D projects which will improve or develop new products or processes through new scientific or technical knowledge.

There is also a wealth of funding available UK wide, such as Innovate UK and EU wide, such as Horizon 2020, particularly for companies that are interested in partnering with other businesses or academic institutions to carry out research.

Even with Brexit looming, businesses can continue to apply for EU-related sources of finance - including Horizon 2020 which has a budget of over 70bn - as long as the UK remains a member of the EU (that is, until Article 50 negotiations are complete).

In fact, the UK Government has said it will underwrite the funding for projects even if they continue beyond the UK's departure from the EU.

In addition to grants, businesses can also benefit from R&D tax credits which can significantly reduce the cost of carrying out R&D projects and UK Patent Box which can reduce corporation tax to 10%.

Many businesses in Northern Ireland have taken advantage of the support available and have built their success on investment in R&D.

Take DisplayNote Technologies, a small company that has R&D at its core.

Its area of expertise is creating collaborative software, and it has secured significant sales of its products with major corporations worldwide including NEC Display Solutions Ltd (Japan), DSI (Technology Core) (Australia) and TouchIT Technologies INC (United States).

Its successful Montage product - which facilitates wireless presentation, communication and collaboration - was developed with an Invest NI grant for research and development.

And a 67,000 R&D project by Amphora Technologies has created a unique and non-destructive instrument to test the durability of reinforced concrete on-site.

The company is now finalising distribution agreements out in China.

Similarly, software company Hyperoo took its back-up product to a higher level with an investment of 49,000. The result of the investment is first-year sales of 85,000.

As long as customers continue to seek out new products and new technologies, businesses need to embrace R&D and move forward. Otherwise they risk being left behind.
The Irish economy will be able to brush aside the uncertainty posed by the Brexit vote, Moody's has said.

The ratings giant said the Republic would continue to outperform other European countries, forecasting the economy would increase by 3.4% this year and 3.1% in 2017.

That's more conservative than the predictions from the Republic's Department of Finance, but Moody's remains upbeat about the prospects for the Irish economy.

"Although the UK's June 2016 vote to leave the European Union leaves Ireland's economy exposed, Moody's believes that the uncertainty created by the vote is manageable for Ireland over the outlook period," Moody's said, in a note to investors.

It also said that the Irish economy would likely perform strongly over the next two to three years.

The impact of the referendum result has already dented the Irish exporting sector due to the dramatic weakness in sterling - conversely giving a boost to Northern Ireland exporters. The Ulster Bank purchasing managers' index (PMI) for October said exports from the province surged at their fastest rate in 12 years during the month. But apart from exports, private sector growth in Northern Ireland was weak.

Irish business body Ibec has warned that if the pound weakens further, it could translate into hundreds of millions of euro in losses in the food and drink sector in the Republic.

Moody's also maintained its positive outlook for Irish banks, but warned the large stock of bad loans remains a "critical issue".

It pointed out that problem loans for rated Irish banks were 41.5bn (36bn) at the end of last year, down from 67bn (58m) at end of 2014, and that they will fall further over the coming years.
Consistently ranked at the top of its market by leading international publications, corporate law firm A&L Goodbody was recently named Ireland Law Firm of the Year 2016 in the Chambers Europe Awards.

The firm's Commercial Property Team is the proud sponsor of the Commercial Estate Agent of the Year category in the 2016 Belfast Telegraph Property Awards in association with propertynews.com.

A&L Goodbody's Commercial Property Team is the market leader in commercial property law in Ireland, north and south.

Led in Northern Ireland by Partners Mark Blair and Tracey Schofield, the team is well known for its involvement in the most high profile, complex transactions.

Mark Blair, head of Commercial Property at A&L Goodbody in Belfast, said: "We have been involved in practically all of the major commercial property deals in Northern Ireland in the past number of years - whether on the selling, buying or financing side of such transactions.

"With such high levels of commercial property activity having been recorded in the local market over the past 12 months, I would expect there to be a high level of very credible competition for the Belfast Telegraph Property Awards." Partner Tracey Schofield said: "Recent Northern Irish highlights for A&L Goodbody have included acting on the acquisition of Junction One in Antrim and The Outlet in Banbridge for Tristan Capital and the Lotus Group, representing the Dalata Hotel Group in the ongoing development of a 206 bedroom, 14-storey Maldron hotel on Brunswick Street in Belfast, and our ongoing work for the Benmore Group, in relation to their innovative plans to create an integrated healthcare, lifestyle, leisure and well-being park at the King's Hall site in south Belfast - truly a first of its kind in Northern Ireland."

Having also recently acted for McAleer & Rushe on the purchase of the former Belfast Telegraph building on Royal Avenue, Mr Blair said it "seems particularly fitting" that A&L Goodbody should support the Belfast Telegraph's awards again this year.

"We are really looking forward to seeing the future plans for that building," he added.

Mr Blair concluded: "Local and international investors and developers are working hand in hand with commercial estate agents across the province to increasingly change our property landscape for the better. In Northern Ireland I think we have some of the hardest working and technically excellent commercial agents in the UK and Ireland, and on behalf of A&L Goodbody I would like to congratulate all of the finalists in the Commercial Estate Agent of the Year' category."

To contact a member of the Commercial Property Team at A&L Goodbody, please call 028 9031 4466, or email Partners mblair@algoodbody.com or tschofield@algoodbody.com
Bruno Mars will play Dublin as part of his The 24K Magic World Tour.

The tour begins on March 28 at Antwerp, Belgiums Sportpalais and will travel throughout Europe through June with shows set in London, Paris, Madrid, Zurich, Copenhagen, Berlin and elsewhere.

Mars will play Dublin on Saturday April 29, 2017.

Tickets for The 24K Magic World Tour, produced by Live Nation, go on sale on Monday, November 21.

The North American leg will kick-off on July 15 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and then visit over 45 cities across the US and Canada before culminating with a four-night stand at The Forum in Los Angeles.

The 24K Magic World Tour marks Mars first full-length tour since 2013s hugely successful Moonshine Jungle World Tour, an international blockbuster that sold 2 million tickets worldwide across 155 sold-out dates.
Nick Rhodes, Simon Le Bon and Roger Taylor leave the Rolls Building in central London after a US copyright hearing

Members of pop group Duran Duran will have to wait to hear whether they have won or lost a High Court battle over the US rights to some of their most famous songs.

The case is being seen as a test case which could affect many other UK songwriters.

Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and Roger Taylor were at London's High Court as a judge said he would take time to consider his judgment.

A fourth group member, John Taylor, is in the US. Former member Andrew Taylor is also involved in the case but did not attend court.

In a hearing over two days, lawyers for Gloucester Place Music Ltd, which is part of EMI Music Publishing, asked Mr Justice Arnold to rule that the group members have breached music publishing agreements by serving notices to terminate the grant to the company of US copyrights in their first three albums - Duran Duran, Rio and Seven And The Ragged Tiger - plus A View To A Kill, the Bond film title track.

The notices were served under US copyright laws which give songwriters "an inalienable right" to call for a reversion of copyright after 35 years.

Gloucester Place - ultimately owned by US business Sony/ATV - says the group members' agreements are governed by English laws of contract and prevent them seeking to reclaim copyright.

The case is of wide importance because other UK songwriters have signed similar agreements with the big publishing companies.

Ian Mill QC, appearing for Gloucester Place, said: "My clients entered into contracts and agreed to pay these artistes sums of money by way of royalties in return for which the artistes promised to give them rights to exploit, subject to the payment of those sums, for the full term of copyright."

Mr Mill argued that, by seeking to exercise their reversion rights, the group members were breaching their contracts under English law because they had agreed "that they will not seek to obtain a reversion".

Michael Bloch QC, appearing for the group, suggested there was no doubt that the publishers were eager "to keep on milking this particular cow in the US", and that was a measure of how profitable it had proven to be.

The QC suggested the publishers' "shameful" case was "as feeble as it is greedy".

He said if they were right "the English court may serve as an offshore haven for any of their ilk who wish to defeat the protective provisions of the US - the principal market for popular music in the English language - or any similar legislation elsewhere".

Outside court Rhodes said: "We sincerely hope that this cynical attempt to deny us the opportunity offered to all songwriters in the US, to reclaim their copyrights after 35 years, will be dismissed outright by the British courts.

"US copyright law clearly states that songwriters are permitted to apply for a reversion of their copyrights after a 35 year period.

"This provision was instigated to help rebalance the often unfair deals which artists sign early in their careers when they have little choice to try to get their first break, with no negotiating power and virtually no understanding of what their copyrights really mean for the future.

"When we registered a request, in 2014, for the reversion of our eligible copyrights in America, we understood it to be a formality.

"Regrettably Sony/ATV have decided to challenge our rights under the premise of a contractual technicality in the UK and have elected to take legal action against us.

"We felt we had absolutely no choice but to stand up for ourselves, and indeed all other artists, who are likely to suffer similar circumstances."
It may still be autumn, but it sure feels a lot like winter. The days are getting shorter and the temperatures cooler  signs that its the time of year when people have turned on the heat in their homes. Its also the time of year when the number of home fires goes up, oftentimes caused by the use of alternate heating methods. The American Red Cross has steps people should follow as they get their homes ready for the long heating season.

Its important to take steps to get your home ready for winter. The Red Cross responds to about 66,000 disasters every year across the country, and most of them are home fires. Here in central New York, our Disaster Action Team volunteers responded to more than 200 home fires last year in Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Onondaga and Oswego counties.

To prepare for cold weather, make sure to have furnaces, chimneys, fireplaces, wood and coal stoves inspected and cleaned. Prepare a disaster supply kit to have ready should winter storms hit. The kit should include a three-day supply of food and water per person, flashlight, battery-powered or hand-crank radio, and extra batteries.

Nearly half of American households use alternative heating sources such as space heaters, fireplaces or wood/coal stoves to stay warm. Fixed and portable space heaters, including wood stoves, are involved in nearly 75 percent of fire-related deaths.

If using a space heater, the Red Cross recommends that people look for a model that shuts off automatically if the heater falls over. Space heaters should be placed on a level, hard and nonflammable surface in the home. Keep all potential sources of fuel like paper, clothing, bedding, curtains or rugs at least three feet away from space heaters, stoves or fireplaces. Portable heaters and fireplaces should never be left unattended. Turn off space heaters and make sure any embers in the fireplace are extinguished before going to bed or leaving home. Keep children and pets away from space heaters.

Download the free Red Cross Emergency App at redcross.org/apps for heating safety and winter storm tips.

The Red Cross and our partners have undertaken an effort to reduce deaths and injuries caused by home fires by 25 percent. Our Home Fire Campaign began in 2014 and is already responsible for saving more than 110 lives across the country.

Working with fire departments and community groups, were installing smoke alarms in homes in neighborhoods at high risk for fires and teaching residents about fire prevention and preparedness. The Red Cross is calling on everyone to take two simple steps that can save lives: Create and practice their home fire escape plan, and check their smoke alarms.

In central New York, more than 900 smoke alarms were installed last year, and were well on our way of topping that this year. To schedule an appointment, call (315) 234-2299.

To learn more about the campaign and home fire safety, visit redcross.org/homefires.

Have a safe and enjoyable winter.
Eddie Redmayne and JK Rowling attending the Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them European Premiere at Leicester Square, London

Stars of Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them have said fans can expect a whole new side of the wizarding world as the magic of Harry Potter moves to America in the latest film of the franchise.

Set in New York in 1926, the prequel to the much-loved stories of the boy wizard sees young "magizoologist" Newt Scamander, played by Eddie Redmayne, travel to Manhattan with a mysterious suitcase full of magical creatures.

He arrives at a time when segregation between magic and non-magical people is rife and his mischievous animals are far from welcome.

Carmen Ejogo plays Seraphina Picquery, head of the wizarding authority Macusa.

Speaking at the European premiere of the film in London's Leicester Square on Tuesday, she told Press Association: "I think there are a lot more eccentrics in the British world, for sure.

"But I think we are just beginning to discover this world. I think we get a taste of who the characters are, but a lot of them will unfold to be even more complex than what you get to see in this film."

JK Rowling, who made her screenwriting debut with the film, has revealed there will be at least another four films in the Fantastic Beasts series, including some characters that Harry Potter fans will already be familiar with.

Making a surprise appearance at a fan event for the film last month, she and director David Yates said the next films would explore the wizarding community around the globe.

Yates told the Press Association: "(Hogwarts headmaster) Dumbledore makes an appearance in the second film and there's a whole raft of characters who will be coming back and new characters that Jo (Rowling) has created.

"They are all wonderful and I can't wait to cast them - because that's going to be fun - and I can't wait to put them in the next film."

A New Yorker and serious Harry Potter himself, Dan Fogler, who plays the "No-Maj" (non-magical human) Jacob Kowalski, said he felt the film did justice to how he had pictured the American branch of the wizarding world.

The star, 40, told the Press Association: "Academy Award-winning people rebuilding New York in the Twenties, you feel like you are being transported. It's surreal. It was like working in a dream."

Harry Potter fans lining the red carpet on Tuesday went wild as Rowling greeted them in a sparkling floor-length gold gown.

While she gave few details away, the writer, 51, promised there will be all sorts of "interesting things" coming up in the next film, both for diehard Potter fans and novices.

Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them will officially launch in UK cinemas on Friday.
Nick Alexander was killed while he was working for Eagles of Death Metal at the Bataclan theatre in Paris

Eagles Of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes has taken to the stage at a concert celebrating the life of Nick Alexander - the Briton killed in the Paris attacks in November last year.

Mr Alexander was working as a roadie for the US band when three terrorists stormed the Bataclan theatre on November 13.

He was among 89 people killed in the attack.

Hughes appeared moved as he paid tribute to his friend on stage at the Shepherd's Bush Empire in London - just days after the first anniversary of the massacre.

Dressed in white, he told the crowd as he closed his set: "I'm going to do an acapella song, specifically for my dear friend Nick, who I miss every day.

"And I think what's happening here is one of the most beautiful things you could have asked for.

"The only answer that there is for things that are terrible is love and beauty and peace, and right now you are proving that beyond a shadow of doubt."

Hughes's performance comes after it was claimed he was turned away from Sting's concert at the Bataclan on Saturday by the venue's management.

The American singer provoked anger in the months following the massacre when he suggested Bataclan security staff were at fault in the attack, but later apologised.

Hughes was joined on the line-up for the gig - dubbed A Peaceful Noise - by rockstars including Maximo Park, Travis frontman Fran Healy, Supergrass's Gaz Coombes and Chas And Dave.

Zoe Alexander, Mr Alexander's sister, said the family had marked the first anniversary of the attacks in Paris and had watched Sting perform at the Bataclan as the venue re-opened for the first time.

She told the Press Association: "It was very important for us to stand side-by-side with the other families that had gone through the same experience. There is great strength to be gained there."

She added: "It was a very powerful experience but it had a very strong and determined energy ... But also a very joyful energy. There was a very celebratory tone about it.

"While we must not forget what happened we need to carry on making music - and the message from that was really clear."

Ms Alexander, 43, said the tribute concert on Tuesday night was "very personal" to her brother - and many of the performers had worked with him on tour and been his friend.

Healy, of Travis, first met Mr Alexander in the catering tent during a gig in Glasgow on the band's 2009-2010 tour.

"We saw each other throughout the tour but that was the first time I met him and I always remember thinking, 'He's really really cool'," he said ahead of the concert.

Before performing a stripped-back set, including hits Driftwood and Turn, Healy told the crowd that he believed music venues were "holier than churches".

He said: "We hang our troubles in the cloakroom and get lost. We get found, we drop our guards. There are no strangers at a gig. We are all in the band.

"So what happened in Paris last year was all the more awful because of this - on our turf, in our church.

"So we are here tonight in this special place to honour Nick the only way we know how - through live music."

The crowd paused for a minute's "peaceful noise" following a set by singer-song writer Frank Turner, with the whole audience rising to their feet to applaud Mr Alexander's life in a moving tribute.

The concert marked the official launch of the Nick Alexander Memorial Trust, which aims to provide musical equipment to small charities and vulnerable groups across the country.

Ms Alexander told the Press Association she would remember her brother as someone who "approached life head-on".

"He packed a lot into those 35 years so we will remember him in that way - as somebody who embraced life and forged their own path," she said.
Actor Eddie Redmayne has said he was concerned it would take a "different set of muscles" to play the wizard Newt Scamander in the latest Harry Potter inspired film, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them.

Known for his talent at portraying real and complex characters, such as the physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory Of Everything - for which he won an Academy Award last year - Redmayne, 34, now takes on the magical world in the Harry Potter prequel, set in 1920s New York.

Speaking at the film's European premiere in London's Leicester Square on Tuesday, he told the Press Association: "I thought I was going to use a different set of muscles, but when you meet JK Rowling, the characters are so real in her mind and have such an intricate back story."

He added that he had gone to the extremes of "method" acting for his role - to the point that he was stopped at airport customs on his way back from New York earlier this week, because he was still carrying his wand.

Commenting on the situation, he joked: "Firstly, what on earth was I doing carrying a wand? It looks like something a bit weird. They didn't seem too impressed."

He also confessed to losing the plastic film prop in his hotel room, just hours before arriving at the London premiere.

Many of the film's cast members have also admitted to being serious Rowling fans themselves.

Ezra Miller, who plays the misunderstood teen Credence, said that he had to fight back tears during both the European and world premieres of the film, adding that he had been thanking Rowling all week.

Scottish actor Kevin Guthrie plays Abernethy in the film, an employee of the American wizarding authority Macusa.

He described being involved in the film as "a dream come true".

Carmen Ejogo, who plays Macusa leader Seraphina Picquery, added: "When the first books came out I checked them out, then followed each movie as it came out. I've kept up to date.

"But I think the fun of the film is that we're all on license to go in our own directions."

Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them will officially launch in UK cinemas on Friday.
Theresa May is being urged to allow UK nationals to retain their European Union citizenship if they wish to do so after Brexit.

The European Movement UK argues it would be unprecedented for Britons to be stripped of their EU citizenship against their will.

It plans to deliver a petition to the Prime Minister asking her to make optional retention of citizenship a priority in withdrawal negotiations under Article 50 of the EU Treaties.

The move comes after Luxembourg MEP Charles Goerens tabled plans for European associate citizenship for those who feel and wish to be part of the European project but are nationals of a former member state.

Unless a plan of this kind is taken up, Brexit risks being the first time when a whole population of a modern state loses its citizenship without that nation being involved in armed conflict or ceasing to exist, said the European Movement.

The group's chief executive Matthew Fulton said: Sixteen million people voted to remain citizens of the EU, and as such we're asking that this Government accepts it has a mandate to represent the wishes of those who want to remain in Europe by letting them keep their EU citizenship as a key request in the Brexit negotiations.

And the European Movement UK's chairman, Labour MEP Richard Corbett, added: Stripping citizenship from millions of residents against their will is unprecedented in a modern democracy.

With the option to satisfy both those who wish to leave the EU and those who wish to retain the right to free movement on the table, we ask that Theresa May make this a priority in her negotiations when Article 50 is triggered.
The woman whose home was set on fire claimed that just days before the arson Ghadghadi had threatened.

A man jailed for an arson attack which forced a grandmother and two children to flee from an adjoining house has failed in a bid to overturn his conviction.

The Court of Appeal rejected claims that the guilty verdict returned against Montassar Ghadghadi for setting fire to an empty property in Tandragree, Co Armagh in June 2013 was unsafe.

Ghadghadi, a 26-year-old Tunisian national from Clonavon Avenue in Portadown, is serving a five-year sentence over the attack on a house rented by a friend of his girlfriend at the time.

She was not at home when the early morning blaze broke out, causing damage estimated in excess of 60,000.

The woman returned from a caravan break to discover the house on Market Street Court completely gutted.

Her next-door neighbour had to be evacuated along with a three-year-old granddaughter and 11-month-old grandson.

Ghadghadi denied setting fire to the woman's property during a jury trial at Belfast Crown Court earlier this year.

The woman whose home was set on fire claimed that just days before the arson he had threatened her that he was going to come and burn down the house.

Ghadghadi's legal team appealed the conviction, arguing that the trial judge wrongly failed to discharge the jury after the woman made further prejudicial allegations about being assaulted in a shopping mall.

But senior judges in Belfast held there had been a strong circumstantial case against him.

It involved a witness account of a man at the scene matching his description, and a photograph of a person wearing clothes matching his.

Ghadghadi was also picked out at a video identification procedure.

Lord Justice Weatherup, sitting with Lord Justices Gillen and Weir, pointed out that animosity between the defendant and the woman would have been apparent to the jury.

"In all the circumstances we conclude that the impact of the material and the potential prejudice to the appellant were limited," he said.

"We are satisfied that the trial judge was correct to refuse the application to discharge the jury."

Dismissing the appeal, he confirmed: "We do not believe that the verdict is unsafe."
Funeral of Kevin Kearney at the Holy Family Church on the Limestone Road in north Belfast. The 27-year-old died after a one vehicle RTC on the York Road in Belfast last week. Picture by William Cherry/Press Eye.

Funeral of Kevin Kearney at the Holy Family Church on the Limestone Road in north Belfast. The 27-year-old died after a one vehicle RTC on the York Road in Belfast last week. Picture by William Cherry/Press Eye.

Funeral of Kevin Kearney at the Holy Family Church on the Limestone Road in north Belfast. The 27-year-old died after a one vehicle RTC on the York Road in Belfast last week. Picture by William Cherry/Press Eye.

Funeral of Kevin Kearney at the Holy Family Church on the Limestone Road in north Belfast. The 27-year-old died after a one vehicle RTC on the York Road in Belfast last week. Picture by William Cherry/Press Eye.

Funeral of Kevin Kearney at the Holy Family Church on the Limestone Road in north Belfast. The 27-year-old died after a one vehicle RTC on the York Road in Belfast last week. Picture by William Cherry/Press Eye.

Funeral of Kevin Kearney at the Holy Family Church on the Limestone Road in north Belfast. The 27-year-old died after a one vehicle RTC on the York Road in Belfast last week. Picture by William Cherry/Press Eye.

Family and friends during the funeral of Kevin Kearney which took place at Holy Family Church in North Belfast. Picture Colm Lenaghan/ Pacemaker

Funeral of Kevin Kearney at the Holy Family Church on the Limestone Road in north Belfast. The 27-year-old died after a one vehicle RTC on the York Road in Belfast last week. Picture by William Cherry/Press Eye.

Family and friends during the funeral of Kevin Kearney which took place at Holy Family Church in North Belfast. Picture Colm Lenaghan/ Pacemaker

Family and friends during the funeral of Kevin Kearney which took place at Holy Family Church in North Belfast. Picture Colm Lenaghan/ Pacemaker

Funeral of Kevin Kearney at the Holy Family Church on the Limestone Road in north Belfast. The 27-year-old died after a one vehicle RTC on the York Road in Belfast last week. Picture by William Cherry/Press Eye.

Family and friends during the funeral of Kevin Kearney which took place at Holy Family Church in North Belfast. Picture Colm Lenaghan/ Pacemaker

The funeral of a man who died in a road crash in Belfast has heard how his smile would brighten any room.

Kevin Kearney-McMillan (27) died when his silver Toyota Supra careered off the road on York Street in Belfast close to its junction with the Limestone Road before hitting a tree.

The north Belfast man had recently become a father again.

Rescue teams cut him from his wrecked vehicle and he was rushed to the Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital, but later died.

The funeral took place at Holy Family Church in north Belfast followed by burial in Milltwon Cemetery on Tuesday.

Mourners heard that Kevin was a "loving and caring son" from an early age and whose smile would "brighten any room".

Father Paul Morely told the congregation: "Kevin loved his family Katie, Corey and baby Kevin Jr. They always came first with him and he regularly planned day trips and weekends away for them.

"Kevin loved being around his family and friends. Kevin was always full of fun and the life and soul of every social gathering, a real joker always full of craic and making everyone laugh.

"Kevin was very famous for his love of shopping whether it was the latest style in Hugo Boss or cars as Toyota Supra.

"Kevin loved to take his Mum to town, treating her to lunch and to pick treats for Katie and the boys.

Expand Expand Previous Next Close Kevin Kearney-McMillan A tribute at the scene of the crash Liam McBurney/RAZORPIX / Facebook

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"Kevin came from a very close knit family both McMillan /Kearney and Roberto were always there for him."

The congregation heard how difficult it had been when his father, also Kevin, was killed. He was murdered in north Belfast in 2013.

"Kevin lost his father three years ago and he found it very hard, his uncle Martin then became his rock. Martin was a huge influence from an early age as throughout his adult life," the priest continued.

"Kevin enjoyed life to the fullest and his smile would always brighten a dark room.

"He will be sorely missed but his memory will live on as he touched so many."

His heartbroken mother Jeanette spoke of her sorrow in a death notice, saying that she has lost her only son, who had a "heart of gold".

"We will miss your wit, wisdom, kindness and compassion, and most of all son, your presence in our lives," she said.

Mr Kearney-McMillan's partner Katie added: "Where do I begin, you were the love of my life, left too soon, my love for you went beyond the moon, stay close to me and the boys Kevin, we love and miss you so much, you were the heart and soul of our family, love you so much, your Katie and boys."

His grandmother Maureen McMillan expressed her devastation in another heartrending death notice.

"Your smile has gone forever, and your hands we can never touch, we have so many memories we all love you so much," she said.

Many friends have expressed solidarity with the family.

Flowers and notes have been left at the site of the road crash.

It is the second devastating tragedy for the family.

Mr Kearney-McMillan's father was killed by the dissident republican group which calls itself "the IRA" in October 2013 in what police at the time termed as a "callous and cold-blooded murder".

His body was found in a lake in Alexandra Park. He had been shot.

The 46-year-old father-of-four had left his daughter off at school and returned home to take his dogs for a walk in Alexandra Park.

Mr Kearney's brother Martin spoke out at that time and said the murder had "torn us apart".

"He lived for his children. He spent almost every hour with his children. It has torn the family apart. It has been a very emotional week. We're just devastated," he said.
Motorists will no longer be fined for driving in a bus lane outside Belfast's Central Station at night, it was announced yesterday.

Officials announced a u-turn on their policy of punishing offenders at night on East Bridge Street. It follows complaints about the camera operating 24 hours a day - even though buses do not run at night.

Yesterday's announcement came hours after the Belfast Telegraph reported how more than 100 penalty charge notices had been issued at this location since June 2015.

One motorist said they had been caught twice in the space of 30 minutes after midnight at East Bridge Street.

The bus lane will now only be restricted from 7am to 7pm, in line with most others in the city.

Two other 24-hour cameras, on the Upper Newtownards Road and the Saintfield Road at Forestside, will also have their hours reduced.

In total, more than 2,000 people have been fined for driving in Belfast's bus lanes between the hours of midnight and 6am.

Some 115 fines were issued on East Bridge Street and a further 2,090 were issued at Castle Street.

Bus services do not run at night in the city centre. The last one ends before midnight.

DUP MLA Christopher Stalford said a review into Belfast's bus lanes was urgently needed, claiming there was a lack of common sense from officials.

"The amount of fines handed out for people using the lanes is shocking," he said.

"Currently the system is rigid, with no wriggle room for those who in some circumstances need to use the bus lanes either for safe drop-off points, or in cases of emergency.

"There is a lack of common sense with the approach to the use of bus lanes. Particularly in this case, when people use bus lanes overnight.

"There are no buses operational through the night and to fine someone upwards of 90 is absurd."

A Department for Infrastructure spokesperson said: "A review of all 24 hour bus lanes took place in March.

"It recommended that three of the 24 hour bus lanes could be amended to 7am to 7pm, including East Bridge Street, Saintfield Road at Forestside and Upper Newtownards Road.

"Legislation is currently being prepared to enable these changes to be made.

"In relation to Castle Street, it operates under a Control of Traffic Order, meaning it is a no-entry street for general traffic. However, Minister [Chris] Hazzard has asked officials to look at the restrictions within this area of Belfast to ascertain if changes to existing prohibitions can be made."

The department also said the bus lanes were a normal aspect of modern cities with efficient public transport systems.

"Bus lanes are an important element in keeping city traffic flowing well and a vital benefit for the many thousands of users who opt to travel by bus to school, work or for pleasure," it added.

"Filling one bus with passengers equates to the removal of around 50 cars from our roads, that is a queue of cars about 1/3 km long."
An artists impression of the new 774-bedroom development at Nelson Street

Belfast's largest ever student accommodation development has been given the go ahead.

The massive 774-bedroom building by Olympian Homes at Nelson Street will bring the number of rooms given the green light in the area close to the new Ulster University campus to more than 2,700.

Simon Murray-Twin, chief executive of Olympian Homes, told Belfast City Council's planning committee that the city is "under provided" in terms of student accommodation.

But a 271-bedroom student building in the heart of the city's Golden Mile was turned down by the committee.

It was turned down for a number of reasons including the height and scale of the development.

Representing Rojem, the firm behind it, solicitor Dawson McConkey of Carson McDowell said there was a "clear need" for student buildings and that some 20m of funding is already in place for the scheme.

He said his client "can't understand why it is being turned down" and said the company would look elsewhere in the UK to develop student accommodation.

A planner representing the company said the refusal proposal was "fundamentally flawed".

Members of the planning committee visited the area earlier this month after the application was deferred in October.

Planners previously said the development could "adversely impact on the character and appearance" of buildings, including listed properties, and recommended the scheme be refused permission.

The recommendation for refusal was put forward by TUV councillor Jolene Bunting.

Around 7,000 student rooms are at various different stages of development across Belfast.

Meanwhile, an application to build a 19-storey apartment block in Belfast was pulled from the agenda on Monday night.

The apartment block, which was earmarked for the Sailortown area, had been recommended for refusal.

Plans for the scheme included redeveloping the currently empty Rotterdam Bar and Pat's Bar, on Pilot Street and Princes Dock Street respectively, which are both for sale.

Planners citied a range of problems with the two proposed developments.

Among these was a lack of information in demonstrating a "satisfactory methodology in the identification and mitigation of the unacceptable risks posed by contamination of the site".
Children flash v-signs as they return with others to the town of Hisha, after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) took control of the area from Islamic State militants, in the northern Raqqa countryside, Syria November 14, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

DAMASCUS - Chinese ambassador to Syria, Qi Qianjin, said Monday that China is carrying on with providing Syria with humanitarian aid worth $70 million.

The ambassador made the remarks during his meeting with head of the National Commission for the Syrian Science Olympiad, Imad al-Azab.

During the meeting, the Chinese ambassador also provided the Commission with a batch of computers to support its work and activities.

Qi said that China is interested in enhancing the cooperation with Syria in the fields of training cadres and education through official channels or NGOs.

Meanwhile, al-Azab stressed the importance of exchanging visits between the two sides to sign joint cooperation agreements in the scientific field.
Youve probably noticed the similarity between Cayuga County and the Gaza Strip, right? Their shape is similar. Both are elongated forms, with the base about twice as wide as the top, and both have access to water: Cayuga Lake and the Mediterranean Sea.

There are, however, differences. Gaza contains about 140 square miles of land, most of it desert, while Cayuga County, a geographical giant, boasts 864 square miles of rich farmland. Demographically, Gazas the giant. With 1.85 million people, Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Cayuga County lags with barely 79,000, almost a demographic vacuum.

Thomas Friedman, a New York Times correspondent, thinks if the Gazans stopped shooting rockets at their Israeli neighbors, they could build a viable economic state. A population of nearly 2 million people has got to contain any number of young geniuses capable of establishing innovative startup businesses, no? If only their energies were headed in the right direction!

What about Cayuga County as an economic unit? There arent a lot of us, but we arent shooting at our neighbors. Thats a big advantage. Although we have fewer geniuses, the geniuses we have can concentrate on the main chance in economic development, if they knew what it was. So what is it?

In the end ... Auburn-area capitalists turned to a sure bet  the blue chip stock or bond  and precipitated the areas decline, writes historian Scott Anderson in his book "Cayuga County: The Entrepreneurs Frontier." This began to happen in the 1880s. Capital was pulled from the community as investors matured, became conservative, and passed accumulated wealth to their heirs. Later, beginning around 1950, came deindustrialization and the movement of industries south and overseas. Thats history.

Today there is evidence of capital  local or other  coming back into Auburn. The Plaza of the Arts, the East Hill project, the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival, the Auburn Public Theater, a new hotel, the sprucing up of an older hotel, new restaurants  these are all good signs. Artistic activity should be encouraged as much as possible. People need to make things, and artists make paintings, sculpture, art objects of all kinds. This is basic manufacturing, and it isnt being made overseas. There is more.

When I first saw the Cayuga Milk Ingredients plant rising in Aurelius, I did a double take. Now that its built, I still look at it in wonder. Its huge white rectangular form, with its turret at the top and its gleaming steel towers, rising out of the flats where there had been nothing, strikes me as almost surreal. Its not the White City of the 1893 Chicago Exposition, perhaps, but its an inspirational sight, and maybe a sign of the future. And now a smaller building, erected by a Canadian company, is rising by its side. Here is reinvestment!

All right, the plant employs just 60 people. Thats how factories operate now. Maybe this can be built on, or leveraged, as they say? What are our resources? Open space. Fertile land. Clean water (for the most part). Clean air. There is nothing up here an Angelino would call a traffic jam! We need publicity; there should be more startups in cornfields! Ecological tourism. And better roads! Have you driven Route 34B lately? Cyrus Wheeler made wagons; why didnt he think of automobiles? Wed have driverless cars by now!

Somewhere in sands of the desert a shape with lion body and head of a man is moving its slow thighs. the poet W.B. Yeats wrote 80 years ago in his poem, "The Second Coming," creating a metaphor of change from one civilization to another. Today, Neptune is feeling his oats.

The ocean level is rising. Theres no doubt. Florida already is in trouble, though they may not want to admit it. Hurricane Sandy flooded most of the Manhattan lands reclaimed since the 1600s. If, decades from now, the coastal cities have to be abandoned, where do you think people will come? Here, to a place near you and me. Cayuga County is a demographic vacuum. We could yet be the Gaza Strip! Lets hope we wont be shooting at each other!

Maybe people should be studying how to deal with all this.
The 26-metre Diplodocus skeleton is a museum icon and has been on display for more than 100 years.

Dippy the Diplodocus is coming to the Ulster Museum in 2018.

An iconic dinosaur is set to take up residence in Belfast as it ventures out of London for the first time in over a century.

'Dippy' the Diplodocus - one of 10 replicas cast from the original Diplodocus carnegii - has been a permanent fixture at the Natural History Museum since 1905.

But from September 2018, visitors to the Ulster Museum will be able to observe the gigantic skeleton as it travels the length and breadth of the UK.

In total, Dippy will visit eight venues between early 2018 and late 2020, after a total of 90 venues responded to the open-call for potential partners in 2015.

In its displayed pose, the full 292-bone skeleton is an impressive 21.3 metres long, 4.3 metres wide and 4.25 metres high.

Kathryn Thomson, chief executive of National Museums Northern Ireland, said: "We're thrilled that Dippy will be coming to the Ulster Museum in Belfast, where he can be assured of a very warm Northern Irish welcome.

"It will give us a fantastic platform to uncover and connect to stories from our own extensive Natural Sciences collection. We look forward to creating an exciting programme of events for 'Dippy on Tour: A Natural History Adventure' that will appeal to all ages and inspire our visitors to engage more with the natural world in our area."

Sir Michael Dixon, director of the Natural History Museum said: "We wanted Dippy to visit a variety of locations so he can draw in people that may not traditionally visit a museum.

"Making iconic items accessible to as many people as possible is at the heart of what museums give to the nation, so we have ensured that Dippy will still be free to view at all tour venues.

"Working with our eight partners we look forward to inspiring five million natural history adventures and encouraging children from across the country to develop a passion for science and nature.

"Few museum objects are better known - surely no one object better evokes the awesome diversity of species that have lived on Earth?"

Since his unveiling at the Natural History Museum in 1905, Dippy has become a star - featuring in newspaper cartoons, news reports and even playing starring roles in film and television.

First described as a new type of dinosaur in 1878 by Professor Othniel C Marsh of Yale University, the Diplodocus lived some time between 156 and 145 million years ago and belongs to a group called sauropods - meaning 'lizard feet'.

The Diplodocus carnegii was first unearthed by railroad workers in Wyoming in the USA in 1898, with its discovery billed as the 'most colossal animal ever on Earth'.

The bones were acquired by Scottish-born millionaire businessman Andrew Carnegie who made the dinosaur a centrepiece for his museum in Pittsburgh.

When it was reconstructed, experts discovered subtle differences from the two other Diplodocus species known as Diplodocus longus and Diplodocus lacustris and the new species was named Diplodocus carnegii after its owner.

King Edward VII saw a sketch of the dinosaur while visiting Carnegie at his Scottish castle and remarked how much he would like a similar specimen for the animal galleries of the Natural History Museum. Carnegie obliged by commissioning a replica cast of his dinosaur.

The skeleton arrived in London in 36 packing cases and was unveiled to the public four months later in a lavish ceremony on May 12, 1905.

During the Second World War the skeleton was disassembled and relocated to the basement to protect it from bomb damage. In 1979, the Diplodocus moved to the Hintze Hall at the museum, where it has been on display ever since.

Over the years, the dinosaur's appearance has changed, reflecting advances in our understanding of dinosaur biology and evolution. The dinosaur's head originally pointed downwards with the tail resting on the ground. But following research in the 1960s, the neck was raised to a horizontal position and in 1993, the tail was repositioned to curve over visitors' heads.

Dippy will be at the Ulster Museum between September 17, 2018, until January 6 2019.

The dinosaur will also visit five regions across England as well as Scotland and Wales and will be on show at: Dorset County Museum, Birmingham Museum, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum Glasgow, Great North Museum Newcastle, National Assembly for Wales, Number One Riverside Rochdale and Norwich Cathedral.
Christine Quinn, left, and Roberta O'Neil, the daughters of Christopher Quinn, in front of a poster in Westminster, London

Families whose loved ones were killed by the Army during the Northern Ireland Troubles have launched a campaign at Westminster to denounce the Government's "miserly" compensation pay-outs.

The relatives are backing a week-long publicity drive that will see an advertising van transport billboard images of the victims around London.

The campaign has been organised in response to recent comments made by Prime Minister Theresa May when she vowed to protect the British Armed Forces from an "industry of vexatious allegations" and harassment by "activist, left-wing human rights lawyers".

Mrs May was expressing concern at the number of cases taken against the military for alleged mistreatment in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Those involved with the billboards claim a "culture of impunity" at the Ministry of Defence pre-dates the recent conflicts abroad and clearly existed on the streets of Northern Ireland during the 30-year sectarian conflict.

The campaign focuses on two people shot dead by soldiers, father-of-five Christopher Quinn, 39, who was killed in 1971 in west Belfast, and 12-year-old Kevin Heatley, who was killed in Newry, Co Down in 1973.

Mr Quinn's family was paid 500 by the MoD while Kevin's parents were given 750.

Roberta Quinn, one of Mr Quinn's daughters, said: "My mother was left to raise five children and scrape to make ends meet after my father's shooting.

"How dare Theresa May talk about 'vexatious allegations' when we see the MoD was prepared to drag my mother through the courts and ended up paying her a miserly 500 knowing that my father was an innocent man?"

Kevin Heatley's brother Martin said the MoD explained the 750 was an "acceptable rate for a minor".

"This was the final blow for my parents," he said. "The MoD offered us about 60 for each year Kevin lived. What an insult."

The publicity event, which got under way at Parliament Square on Tuesday, is sponsored by human rights campaign group The Pat Finucane Centre (PFC).

Paul O'Connor from the PFC said: "These two selected cases are just the tip of the iceberg."

He added: "A culture of impunity still exists in respect of the actions of the British military in Iraq and Afghanistan."
A priest whose Fermanagh home was targeted in a sectarian hate crime on Remembrance Sunday has said he wants to talk to his attackers.

Fr Joe McVeigh said he was left "in disbelief" when he found his parochial house in Lisbellaw with three ground floor windows smashed.

Returning home in the evening after attending two wakes on Sunday, he thought he had been robbed at first when he saw the damage.

"First it was disbelief, then shock, followed by anger and a whole mixture of emotions," he told the Belfast Telegraph.

Police described the incident as a hate crime after ruling out other motives such as burglary and vandalism.

"I'm a Catholic priest in a very loyalist village - but I've had no trouble up to now, apart from some Union flags put up on my gate," said Fr McVeigh.

"I hear there was trouble here way back in the bad old days. You don't expect it now though, it's disbelief really. I thought we were past that stuff."

Addressing his attackers, he said: "It's a pity you have to resort to this, there's no need for it. I'd love to talk to you about whatever's hurting you.

"If it's not vandalism, it's something against me personally or just a Catholic priest being here. I'd like to talk to them."

Fr McVeigh said the Protestant community in the area had rallied round him since the attack: "It's very disappointing it should happen. I'm sorry if it gives a bad image of Lisbellaw, as I find people here to be friendly and supportive," he said.

"This is definitely a minority thing and it's disappointing. Those who did this are giving a bad impression of the village."

Posting on Twitter yesterday, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said: "I unreservedly condemn (the) cowardly attack on the Parochial House of Fr Joe McVeigh in Fermanagh. Spoke to him today. Shameful."

Sinn Fein councillor Debbie Coyle said Fr Coyle was well known for his cross community work in the area.

"We have to have a zero tolerance towards hate crimes," she said.

"He's a lovely fellow and I'm quite shocked that's happening to him."

Police have appealed for witnesses to call 101, quoting the reference number CC2016111301184 or to call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 11.
The go-ahead for a massive 130million project aimed at easing traffic gridlock in Belfast is set to be announced today - even though uncertainty over funding remains.

Infrastructure Minister Chris Hazzard is to seek further reassurances from the government on finance for the York Street Interchange in the aftermath of the Brexit verdict.

He is expected to tell the Assembly today, however, that he intends to move forward on the scheme to tackle Belfast's biggest traffic bottleneck.

The aim is to replace the existing signal-operated junction at York Street with direct links between the Westlink/M1, M2 and M3 - the three busiest roads in Northern Ireland.

The project will also separate traffic through underpasses below the existing road and rail bridges, as well as underneath a new bridge at York Street.

The Sinn Fein minister is believed to have accepted the conclusion of a public inquiry that the need for the multi-million pound project has been demonstrated.

His department will now publish the formal 'intention to proceed' notice and kick-start a designation order for the scheme - but a linked vesting order is to remain effectively in limbo until the finance to build the interchange is secured.

Stormont has liaised in detail over recent years with the European Commission on the project as a priority case for EU co-financing which would provide up to 40% of the costs.

UK Chancellor Philip Hammond recently indicated projects already signed off by the Commission are guaranteed funding while the UK remains within the EU - which is likely to be the case for the next two years.

But Minister Hazzard, who will be quizzed by MLAs in the Assembly this morning, believes Mr Hammond's statement does not go far enough and he is to make clear he will continue to press the Treasury.

He will also warn MLAs that the envisaged timetable for EU withdrawal does carry a significant potential negative effect on the project - which has been in planning since 2009, and was first announced last year.

The minister believes he will not be able to apply for EU funding until early 2018.

The busy Belfast junction carries 100,000 vehicles each day.

But the decision to press on may have been influenced by recent figures revealing Belfast is the third most congested city in the UK.

Traffic info company Inrix used real-time data in a study over four years which established average speeds and congestion levels in 18 urban areas.

London drivers were the worst affected, stuck in jams for an average of 101 hours a year - up from 72 hours in 2012, an increase of 40%. Greater Manchester was second with 51 hours lost to drivers in 2015, up from 45 in 2012, and Belfast next, with drivers spending 38 hours in traffic delays in 2015, compared to 31 in 2012, up 22%.

There have been claims however that the massive York Street plan could lead to one to two road accidents each week.

Residents also raised concerns over air quality, loss of natural light and the proximity of added traffic lanes to properties, along with existing demands to regenerate areas around North Queen Street.

It has also been reported that a memorial to the 15 victims of the 1971 UVF bomb at McGurk's Bar on North Queen Street would have to be demolished if the project goes ahead.

The Belfast Telegraph understands, however, that the minister has concluded the likely significant environmental impact of the scheme has been properly assessed.

And it is understood he accepts the project will not adversely affect the integrity of the Belfast Lough Special Protection Area and the Belfast Lough Open Water Special Protection Area.
More than 200 people attended the funeral of John Kearns following an article about him in the Derby Telegraph

An appeal to find relatives of a 95-year-old British Army veteran who enlisted for service in Belfast in 1943 has been launched after the pensioner received a touching funeral tribute from his adopted community in Derby.

Markeaton Crematorium was filled with more than 200 people for the funeral of John Kearns, who died at Royal Derby Hospital, having lost his beloved wife around 18 months previously.

Following appeals to regimental groups and on social media, there was "standing-room only" at Mr Kearns's funeral service, according to the Derby Telegraph.

A Royal Pioneer Corps veteran, he had no known surviving family and was visited by only one set of friends while in hospital, neighbours Josie Flear and Alan Mann, who lived next door to him in Long Eaton.

Ms Flear said Mr Kearns's health had started to deteriorate after the death of his wife, Eileen, to whom he had been married for 40 years.

She said: "I have always said he died of a broken heart. They were soulmates and such a kind and loving couple."

Thanks to their appeal, prompted by concern that only a handful of people would attend his funeral, more than 200 strangers turned up to honour him. "At first we thought it would be us two and a friend of ours. It's wonderful for him to have this many people here. We're really pleased with the turnout and we think it was a lovely service."

Mr Mann said they had found the service history of Mr Kearns, but not his war medals.

The records showed that he enlisted in the Royal Pioneer Corps in Belfast on August 5, 1943, and that he served with the corps as a private for the whole of his army career.

Among the documents was a letter from his commanding officer, describing him as "an extremely pleasant and likeable man who has seen long service in the Army."

Sergeant Richard Baker, from the Royal Engineers, who served in Iraq and Bosnia and now works in Derby, said he felt proud to be at the service.

Members of the Derby branch of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regimental Association also attended, as did representatives of the Royal Engineers of Nottingham.

After a news article about John Kearns's funeral service, a former Belfast man, Dennis Caughey, asked readers of the Belfast Telegraph if they could help trace any relatives of the army veteran. "It occurs to me that there might be some in Northern Ireland, as the article says he enlisted in the Army in Belfast in 1943," Mr Caughey, who now lives in Derby, wrote.

"I wonder if you would feel it appropriate to bring to a wider audience through your paper."

If you can help trace Mr Kearns's family, contact the News Desk on (028) 9026 4440
Police at the scene of Sunday evenings shooting at Bann Road, Ballymoney

A man who was shot in the back by a gang of masked and armed men at a house in Ballymoney had only recently moved into the property, the Belfast Telegraph understands.

The victim, who is aged in his 30s, was in a stable condition yesterday at Causeway Hospital in Coleraine.

Police are still working to establish a motive for the attack, which took place outside a house in the Bann Road area at around 7pm on Sunday.

According to a PSNI spokesperson, the victim was struck about the head and body, and sustained a gunshot wound to his back.

"The man, who is aged in his 30s, remains in hospital in a serious but stable condition," a police spokesman said.

He continued: "The suspects are believed to have made off from the scene in a car in the direction of Bendooragh.

"Enquiries are ongoing and police are working to establish a motive for this incident.

"Detective Inspector Bob Blemmings is appealing to anyone who witnessed the incident, or who has any information which could assist detectives with their enquiries, to contact them at Coleraine on 101, quoting reference 1068 13/11/16, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111."

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, local DUP councillor Alan McLean said there was a "sense of shock" in the Ballymoney community following the shooting.

Mr McLean said he was aware of the victim's name and understood he had only recently moved into the house where the incident took place. "The area where this happened has not seen anything like this at all in the past," he added.

"I don't think he (the victim) was living in the house very long. As I understand it, he had just moved in there.

"There is certainly a sense of shock amongst the local community here in Ballymoney.

"I work in the town and people have been expressing their concern about what has happened.

"Regardless of the circumstances behind this attack, people should not be taking things into their own hands."

North Antrim MLA Mervyn Storey said it was "sad" that the attack took place on Remembrance Sunday.

"In the cover of darkness masked men took the law into their own hands to execute their form of justice.

"This is not what our community wants," he commented.

Mr Storey urged anyone with any information on the shooting to contact the PSNI.
Almost 700 drivers caught illegally using Belfast's bus lanes have had their fines scrapped - because they are not from Northern Ireland.

Dozens of penalty notices are written off every week as the offender cannot be traced.

In two cases, the same motorist was clocked 17 times by cameras - but wasn't fined a single penny.

The database used to trace registered vehicle keepers - operated by the DVLA (Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency) - stores details of vehicle owners based in the UK only.

It means drivers from the Republic of Ireland, mainland Europe and beyond can drive without fear of punishment in the city's bus lanes - while tens of thousands of fines are issued to local people.

South Belfast MLA Christopher Stalford said: "I think it's further evidence that the practical consequences of these bus lanes just haven't been thought through.

"I think they need to be looked at again.

"It is not right that Northern Ireland citizens, particularly ratepayers in Belfast, should be penalised for driving around the city while people from outside of Northern Ireland can break the law with impunity."

The Department of Infrastructure said 691 penalty charge notices had been "generated but not issued" because of lack of drivers' details between June 2015 and September this year.

The figures were obtained after a Freedom of Information request from the Belfast Telegraph.

Two cars were each caught illegally driving in bus lanes on 17 separate occasions, while a third was spotted 15 times.

Yet none of the three were fined a single penny - because they could not be traced. It will infuriate the thousands of Northern Ireland motorists who have been hit with fines of up to 90 a time.

Last month this newspaper revealed how the cameras had raised more than 2.7m in their first 15 months - even though they had been expected to generate just 500,000 every year.

Up to August 31 this year, a total of 51,811 penalty charge notices were issued. They were worth a combined 2,729,021 - or 6,245 a day on average.

One camera, at Donegall Square East beside City Hall, was responsible for 17,972 penalties totalling 975,242.

The other hotspots are Castle Street, where drivers have been issued with 14,184 fines worth 706,366, and Great Victoria Street, where 8,167 fines worth 442,978 have been generated.

The wave of negative headlines around Belfast's bus lanes has led to warnings that shoppers are being deterred from visiting the city.

Glyn Roberts from the Northern Ireland Independent Retail Trade Association said a review is needed. "We do need to see an open and honest review of how these bus lanes are enforced," he stated.

"A good starting point would be a yellow card system, where people are given a warning first, which we have put forward to the Department for Infrastructure for consideration.

"It does make for a lot of negative headlines at a time when we should be focusing on the good things that Belfast has to offer this Christmas," Mr Roberts added.

A spokesperson for the Department for Infrastructure said: "A Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) is issued to drivers who contravene bus lane regulations, in line with legislation. The department would prefer that drivers adhere to the law, meaning fewer PCNs would be necessary.

"The department can only issue these to registered vehicle keepers based on address details provided by the DVLA.

"When the vehicle keeper addresses are not available, then it is not possible to formally issue a PCN, which eventually results in some being written off.

"However, PCNs continue to be recorded for that particular vehicle even though the earlier ones have been written-off."
Peter Weir warned of the difficult pressures on the purse strings

Stormont's Education Minister has said he has "no more money" to boost teachers' wages.

Appealing for members of the NASUWT to "show restraint" and not participate in planned strikes, Peter Weir warned that pay increases could lead to redundancies.

The minister said: "There has always got to be a balance to be struck between greater levels of pay and teachers losing their jobs.

"I don't have any additional money to throw at this particular issue."

Mr Weir was speaking during Question Time at the Assembly.

He also disputed claims that Northern Ireland teachers' pay lagged two years behind their counterparts elsewhere in the UK, adding that annual increments meant those with a salary under 37,500 had received a rise.

"We have got to deal with this in the degree objective facts," he added.

"There is a tough financial regime out there in terms of schools and the reality is that while I am sure there is a strong desire to see additional pay, the more we push up pay the more, in current position with school budget that is going to a greater level of further redundancies."

The NASUWT is one of the region's biggest teaching unions.

Members from more than 100 schools in Belfast and Newtownabbey are expected to stage a one-day strike later this month over pay, workload and job insecurity.

Teachers in other areas will take similar action early next year.

It is the first strike action by the NASUWT in five years and the stoppage could cause severe disruption and force the closure of some schools.

SDLP MLA, who raised the issue, said teachers in Northern Ireland were as equally dedicated and committed as counterparts in other parts of Great Britain.

Meanwhile, the NASUWT has hit back claiming the Minister's comments may serve to deepen teachers' anger.

General secretary Chris Keates, said: "This is an outrageous statement from the minister. He is talking about 'additional' pay when the fact is that teachers have had year-on-year pay cuts since 2011 and no pay award at all for last year.

"The minister risks turning Northern Ireland's education service into a second class system if he continues to allow teachers' pay to fall behind.

"What is even more appalling is that hard working teachers are now being threatened with the loss of their jobs simply for asking for a pay award for which the Assembly has been given funding."
A tiny Bellaghy forge which has been made world famous by the late poet Seamus Heaney is to play host to wordsmiths instead of blacksmiths this weekend as part of a tribute to the Nobel Laureate.

Writers and actors are to read Heaney's poetry along with new specially-commissioned pieces at six shows on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, when the audiences will be restricted to just 15 at each performance inside the small forge.

They'll also see Barry Devlin, a grandson of the late blacksmith Barney Devlin, giving a demonstration of the smithy's craft in the forge which has been a major attraction for Heaney's aficionados from around the world.

Heaney used to pass Barney Devlin's forge on the Hillhead Road near Bellaghy every morning on his way to school and the sights and sounds coming from it fascinated him - so much so that he wrote a poem called The Forge which contains the line 'All I know is a door into the dark' and the last four words were the title of a collection of Heaney's poems in 1969.

Nearly 40 years later, Heaney penned another poem inspired by the forge.

Midnight Anvil was published in his 2006 collection District and Circle and told of how Barney Devlin rang in the millennial New Year by hitting his anvil 12 times as his nephew in Canada listened to the clangs over a mobile phone.

Mr Devlin died aged 96 earlier this year at his home, where a painting of the blacksmith and the poet at the forge door took pride of place alongside a handwritten copy of the poem which had a message from Heaney that read "Hammer on Barney".

The poet pre-deceased Mr Devlin by three years in August 2013, when it was revealed that Heaney had always called to see him if he was in Bellaghy.

Mr Devlin described his friend's death as "a very sad day indeed".

As well as welcoming thousands of visitors to the recently-opened Seamus Heaney Home Place, officials have also been organising a series of tours, talks and readings at their centre, housed is what was once Bellaghy's police station.

But now they're striking out to one of Heaney's most iconic landmarks, Barney Devlin's forge.

The blacksmith's family have applauded the move. His son Barry said: "Barney was a huge admirer of Seamus Heaney, but more importantly he was his friend.

"He always had the forge open to the public, both as a nod to its working past and to the poems that it inspired, and it is the family's wish to carry on this tradition."

Not only will some of Heaney's poems be read, the Home Place team have also invited Irish and British writers including Paula Meehan, Deborah Levy and Geoff Dyer to devise a number of new works on the theme of Sparks Flying.

A spokesman for the Home Place said: "They're just short, five minute pieces and we've been given permission by the Devlin family to have actors read them in the forge itself.

"It's a very small space but there will be a wonderful resonance of having new pieces of writing read there, in a space that so excited Seamus' imagination."
AUBURN  A Nine Element Watershed Plan is slowly taking shape as part of Cayuga County's efforts to identify sources of pollution and stop blue-green algae from blooming in Owasco Lake.

Michele Wunderlich, associate planner with the county's Department of Planning & Economic Development, updated members of the Owasco Lake Watershed Management Council at its meeting on Tuesday.

Wunderlich outlined the newly formed advisory committee, which includes representatives from the council, the New York State Department of State, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Cayuga County, the city of Auburn, Tompkins County, the Central New York Regional Planning and Development Board, the Finger Lakes Institute and the Owasco Watershed Lake Association.

Wunderlich said requests for proposals to carry out studies and mapping of the watershed have been approved by the state Department of State and the county attorney, and she expects them to be released by the end of this week.

The update comes the morning after a new environmental group called Save Owasco Now met for the first time, advocating for a Total Maximum Daily Load on Owasco Lake. It's a strategy the majority of Auburn City Council members are advocating for, despite the county's decision to move forward with the Nine Element Plan.

Both a Nine Element Plan and a Total Maximum Daily Load aim to reduce pollution in a watershed. Both, if implemented, provide funding opportunities for state and federal grants, and both cover specific sources of pollution like a pipe feeding into a lake, and non-point sources like agricultural runoff. But there are some significant differences between the two strategies.

According to the DEC, a Nine Element Plan is typically better for addressing non-point sources of pollution, requires an implementation plan, and through that plan schedules public participation at various stages. Bruce Natale, environmental engineer for the county, said multiple sources of pollution can be targeted in the plan, and overall, it would take between two and two-and-a-half years.

A Total Maximum Daily Load, according to the DEC, addresses one kind of pollution, and is better for addressing a specific source called a point source. Terry Cuddy, Auburn city councilor and member of Save Owasco Now, said at the Save Owasco Now meeting Monday night that there's more teeth to a Total Maximum Daily load than a Nine Element Plan, because consent orders can be issued.

Wunderlich said that's because point sources are easier to regulate than non-point sources because you can see exactly where the pollution is coming from.

Besides that, Total Maximum Daily Loads historically take a long time to implement. Cornell University, for example, has been working to get a Total Maximum Daily Load on phosphorous at the southern end of Cayuga Lake. John Halfman, a research scientist and professor of geolimnology and hydrogeochemistry at the Finger Lakes Institute at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, said Cornell is in its third year of working to get it and has spent millions of dollars trying to do so.

Both city and county officials agree that combining the two strategies would be the best option for Owasco Lake, but the county has decided to go forward with the one they think is the quicker and more wide-sweeping of the two, at least to get things moving. Natale said the Nine Element Plan would make a good precursor to a Total Maximum Daily Load.

But those advocating for a Total Maximum Daily Load have not communicated with those working on the Nine Element Plan. Cuddy said the county and city are working together, but Wunderlich said she has not been approached by city officials about the two initiatives. Cuddy has also not specified what pollution source the Total Maximum Daily Load would limit, saying at Monday night's meeting that the city would leave that up to "the powers that be."
A surgeon who served a jail sentence over the death of a patient from Northern Ireland at a private hospital has had his conviction quashed on appeal.

David Sellu, now 69, was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter in November 2013 and handed a prison term of two-and-a-half years.

On Tuesday, three appeal court judges overturned the conviction.

Mr Sellu was present in court to hear Sir Brian Leveson, who heard the case with Lord Justice Irwin and Mr Justice Globe, announce that the conviction should be quashed.

Armagh man James Hughes (66) died at the Clementine Churchill Hospital in Harrow, London, after falling unexpectedly ill following knee surgery.

The retired builder had a planned left knee replacement on February 5, 2010. The operation went well, but while recovering from surgery he developed abdominal pain and was transferred to Sellu's care.

Last month Mr Sellu was present at the Court of Appeal in London to challenge his conviction over the death of father-of-six James Hughes.

At the start of the conviction challenge, Mark Ellison QC, for Sellu, told Sir Brian Leveson, Lord Justice Irwin and Mr Justice Globe, that Sellu, a "respected consultant colorectal surgeon", treated Mr Hughes between February 11 and 12, 2010. It was the standard of the doctor's care to Mr Hughes over a period of approximately 25 hours which formed the basis of the case against him.

Mr Ellison said the prosecution case at trial "essentially reflected" the opinion of its two medical experts "as to Mr Sellu's care having been in a number of respects grossly negligent, in the context of a dramatically increasing risk of Mr Hughes dying over a 25-hour period leading up to the operation".

He said the "essence" of the prosecution case was that the doctor should have performed an operation to repair a perforated bowel "at a much earlier time".

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After surgery Mr Hughes was transferred to the intensive care unit but he died on February 14, 2010.

Mr Ellison said that Sellu, of Hillingdon, who served 15 months before being released in February last year, submitted that "his conviction for gross negligence manslaughter is unsafe" on a number of grounds.

He told the judges that there was now new evidence "undermining the prosecution case as to Mr Hughes's increasing risk of mortality and the need for an earlier operation to have been carried out".

The QC argued that the fresh evidence "casts serious doubt upon the accuracy and reliability" of the prosecution evidence. It is also argued on Sellu's behalf that the trial judge "misdirected" the jury in certain respects, including a claim that he "failed adequately" to explain to the jury the meaning of gross negligence.

Mr Ellison, in written submissions before the court, stated: "This was a highly complex gross negligence manslaughter case throwing up a plethora of expert issues."
The officers were members of the Police Service of Northern Ireland

Two police officers have been disciplined over serious failings in the investigation of an assault.

The incident happened at a bar in Londonderry last June.

The victim provided police with contact details for himself and a witness and also advised the incident had been captured on CCTV.

However, in a complaint to the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman six months later, he said his only contact with police had been a leaflet received through the post.

The man claimed officers had done nothing beyond recording an initial statement.

Police records, examined by Ombudsman investigators, showed the only action taken had been to view city centre TV footage two months after the incident - even though it had been ready for examination within two weeks.

The investigating officer also admitted having failed to contact the named witness, and failing to secure CCTV footage from the pub.

Staff at the bar told the Ombudsman the incident had been recorded but the footage had since been wiped.

Meanwhile, police records also showed the officer had only viewed the city centre CCTV footage before asking her supervisor for permission to close the case on the basis that a suspect could not be identified.

The supervisor, who had recently been promoted, said she was getting to grips with her new role when she authorised the case closure.

She told a Police Ombudsman investigator she had confidence in the officer and had assumed all necessary lines of enquiry had been completed.

The supervisor accepted the service provided to the victim was not of standard expected.
Prime Minister Theresa May and her husband Philip attend the Lord Mayors Banquet at Mansion House in London last night

Theresa May has accused some business leaders of resisting her drive to tame the excesses of capitalism in her first landmark City of London speech.

The Prime Minister said some suspicious company bosses believe she has a "growing anti-business agenda" after she criticised firms which fail their workers and targeted a "global elite".

But Ms May vowed to press ahead with a "new approach to managing the forces of globalisation so that they work for all" - insisting that is a pro-business strategy. And she told British companies that she wants the country to be "seen not just to do business, but to do that business in the right way".

However, the Prime Minister did not reveal any further policies, despite growing criticism that she has failed to explain what specific changes she plans in response to the Brexit vote.

Delivering her first speech to the Lord Mayor's Banquet, Ms May argued that many business leaders "recognise" their responsibility to others in the workplace and society.

But she continued: "Others have voiced their suspicion of what they see as a growing anti-business agenda. I don't agree. It is because I believe so passionately in business that I say this.

"Asking business to work with government to play its part is profoundly pro-business, because it is fundamental to retaining faith in capitalism and free markets."

The comments reflect the tightrope the Prime Minister is attempting to walk in criticising some of the effects of globalisation, while standing for free markets and free trade. Speaking at the Guildhall, she argued that "liberalism and globalisation continue to offer the best future for our world" - while promising to "deal with the downsides".

Ms May said: "Let's be clear: those forces have had, and continue to have, an overwhelmingly positive impact on our world.

"But we can't deny, as I know you recognise, that there have been downsides to globalisation in recent years, and that - in our zeal and enthusiasm to promote this agenda as the answer to all our ills - we have on occasion overlooked the impact on those closer to home who see these forces in a different light.

"These people - often those on modest to low incomes living in rich countries like our own - see their jobs being outsourced and wages undercut. They see their communities changing around them and don't remember agreeing to that change.

"They see the emergence of a new global elite who sometimes seem to play by a different set of rules and whose lives are far removed from their everyday existence.

"And the tensions and differences between those who are gaining from globalisation and those who feel they are losing out have been exposed ever more starkly through the growth of social media."

She drew together the EU referendum result and Donald Trump's shock victory, saying: "We meet tonight in a world transformed. A year ago, few among us would have predicted the events ahead. Change is in the air. And when people demand change, it is the job of politicians to respond."

The PM said she sees Brexit as an opportunity to "manage the forces of globalisation so that they work for all" and to show that "Britain can lead" in facing the "greatest challenges of our time".
Activity on housing projects also rose at a sharp and accelerated pace during October

Growth in the Irish construction industry has hit a seven-month high, new figures indicate.

Activity, new orders and employment all increased at faster rates in October, according to the Ulster Bank Construction Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI).

Companies also increased their purchasing activity, and confidence over future output also improved from September.

Simon Barry, a chief economist with Ulster Bank said: "Overall, the October results paint an encouraging picture of recent developments at Irish construction firms.

"Solid readings across the headline, new orders and employment indicators highlight that momentum behind the sector's recovery continues to look strong."

The PMI, a seasonally-adjusted snapshot designed to track changes, found t he commercial construction category was the best performer for the sixth successive month.

Activity on housing projects also rose at a sharp and accelerated pace during October.

The rate of new order growth was substantial, having quickened for the fifth consecutive month to the strongest since February.

As a result, c onstruction firms were encouraged to increase their staffing levels.

The rise in new business in October was also a key factor behind an expansion of purchasing activity by construction firms - among the sharpest since the survey began in mid-2000.

Meanwhile, higher demand for inputs led suppliers to increase their charges, and also resulted in delivery delays. The rise in input costs faced by construction firms during October was sharp and the fastest since August 2015.

Suppliers' delivery times lengthened at a much more marked pace than was recorded in September.

Business sentiment ticked up in October and remained strongly positive, with about two thirds of respondents predicting an increase in activity over the next 12 months.

Among the factors supporting optimism were predictions of improving market conditions and a good pipeline of work, the survey said.

Mr Barry added: "I mportantly, construction firms are continuing to benefit from robust increases in new business levels, with the new orders index rising to its highest level since February following a fifth consecutive monthly acceleration in October.

"Firms continue to report a strengthening in client demand amid a general improvement in economic conditions as an important contributor to the ongoing uplift in new business volumes.

"In turn, the healthy expansion of new orders continues to underpin increased demand for construction workers.

"The employment index rose sharply last month, with the pace of hiring accelerating to its fastest in eight months as almost one third of firms noted a rise in employment."
Peter Robinson says his position "has already been set out in detail" at the Northern Ireland Finance Committee hearing

Peter Robinson has said he is not answerable to a parliamentary inquiry in Dublin probing a controversial 1.2 billion property portfolio sale by the Republic's toxic assets agency Nama.

The former Northern Ireland first minister said he would want to help the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee investigation but he has not received an invitation to attend.

The committee said it sent a letter to Mr Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness more than a month ago, on October 5, asking them to give evidence before the hearings.

While Mr McGuinness agreed to attend, and is to be cross-examined on Wednesday, the parliamentary watchdog said it never received a response from Mr Robinson.

It works on the assumption that no response within 10 days means the invitee is unavailable.

Mr Robinson told the Press Association: "I have not received any invitation yet but constitutionally Northern Ireland ministers are not and should not be answerable to a Dail committee for their actions.

"However I would want to be helpful to the committee in carrying out its role. If they do want to contact me I'm sure we can devise another way to provide my views to the committee."

He added: "My position has already been set out in detail at the Northern Ireland Finance Committee hearing."

Mr McGuinness has previously said he thinks Mr Robinson should attend the hearings.

Dublin's Public Accounts Committee is investigating the sale by Nama of a massive Northern Ireland property portfolio, known as Project Eagle, to American investment fund Cerberus in 2014.

It wants to speak to Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness about a phone call they were involved in, along with Dublin's Finance Minister Michael Noonan, about Project Eagle in January 2014, months before the sale.

Another US investment company, Pimco, has told the committee it pulled out of an earlier bid for the portfolio after it discovered a "success fee" or fixer payment of 16 million for three parties behind the scenes.

Pimco said the money was to be shared equally by Belfast businessman Frank Cushnahan, US law firm Brown Rudnick, and Ian Coulter, a managing partner of Tughans, a Belfast law firm subcontracted to assist in the deal.

Mr Cushnahan was formerly a Nama adviser on Northern Ireland on the recommendation of the Democratic Unionist Party.

Brown Rudnick also acted as advisers in the successful deal with Cerberus, which has been dogged by scandal for more than a year, including 7 million linked to it being found in an Isle of Man bank account.

Mr Coulter resigned after it was unearthed.

Pimco said it was first approached about buying the portfolio in April 2013, by Brown Rudnick, which introduced Mr Cushnahan and Mr Coulter.

The investment firm was told the Northern Ireland government wanted to ensure there would no fire-sale of the properties and that "it was a sensitive political matter and would have a major impact on the Northern Ireland economy".

Following a meeting with Mr Robinson and then finance minister Sammy Wilson in May 2013, Pimco was "informed by Brown Rudnick that it was the Northern Irish government's preferred purchaser for Nama's Northern Ireland portfolio", the firm said in a letter to the committee last week.

All parties involved have denied any wrongdoing.
The Irish army disarmed viable explosive device in Kildare on Tuesday.

The Defence Forces deployed the Army Bomb Disposal Team on request from An Garda Siochana after a suspect device was found in Athy, Co Kildare.

The Army Bomb Disposal Team arrived at 12.45pm and rendered a viable improvised explosive device (IED) safe at the scene.

A number of houses were evacuated to ensure the safety of the residents.

The area was declared safe at 1.45pm.

The device was then removed to a secure military location for further examination.

Material has been handed over to An Garda Siochana to assist them with their investigation.
The boy's death is being investigated by Metropolitan Police.

The death of a 14-year-old boy who fell ill at school while in detention is being investigated by police.

Nasar Ahmed, a year nine pupil at Bow School in east London, was taken to the Royal London Hospital after becoming unwell last Thursday, Scotland Yard said. He died at at the hospital on Monday, with his death currently being treated as unexplained by officers.

The BBC reported that the boy was severely asthmatic. It is understood that he was in an exclusion group with three other pupils, doing school work under a teacher's supervision, when he began to have problems breathing and a 999 call was made.

In a statement the school's executive headteacher, Cath Smith, said: "I am very sad to confirm that one of our year nine pupils, who was taken ill at school last Thursday, has passed away in hospital.

"The whole school community sends our thoughts and prayers to him, and to his family.

"We will continue to offer support to the family, his fellow pupils and teachers at this very difficult time.

"We will, of course, co-operate fully with investigations into the circumstances of this tragic incident and will also carry out a thorough review of what happened ourselves."

Bow School is a mixed secondary school with around 500 students aged 11 to 18.

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said: "We were informed on Sunday November 13 that a child was being treated in an east London hospital after being taken unwell at a school in Tower Hamlets on Thursday November 10.

"On Monday November 14 the 14-year-old boy died. His next of kin have been informed.

"The death is being treated as unexplained at this time."

She added that a post-mortem examination would be carried out.

Its last Ofsted inspection gave it a Good rating in 2013. It changed its name from the Bow School of Maths and Computing to Bow School in February 2013 and moved to its current site in Twelvetrees Close in 2014.
Julian Assange was said to have been "fully co-operative" during interviews on Monday

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will be interviewed for a second day inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London over a sex allegation.

Swedish officials will again be present while questions they have submitted are put to the Australian by a representative of the Ecuadorian government.

Sources said Mr Assange was "fully co-operative" during interviews on Monday.

The process could take three days, then the Swedish prosecutor will have to decide the next move.

Assistant prosecutor Ingrid Isgren and Swedish police inspector Cecilia Redell will again be present at the interview.

They have said a DNA sample will also be taken if Mr Assange gives his consent.

The results of the interview will be reported from Ecuador to Swedish prosecutors in a written statement, after which the prosecutors will take a view on the continuation of the investigation.

Ms Isgren will not give interviews during her stay in London, it was made clear.

"As the investigation is ongoing, it is subject to confidentiality. This confidentiality also applies according to Ecuadorian legislation for the investigative measures conducted at the embassy. Therefore, the prosecutors cannot provide information concerning details of the investigation after the interview," said a statement.

WikiLeaks said that after six years of offering his statement to Swedish authorities, Mr Assange has finally been given the opportunity to do so.

A statement continued: "There have been numerous irregularities in Sweden's preliminary investigation, which the UN has described as 'excessive and unnecessary'.

"Sweden's failure to progress the preliminary investigation until now has resulted in a gross breach of Mr Assange's right to be presumed innocent and has fatally harmed his ability to meaningfully defend himself.

"Unfortunately, the irregularities with procedure have continued. Mr Assange's Swedish counsel, Per Samuelson, was not notified or summoned to attend the procedure by the relevant prosecution authorities, despite the fact that the process concerns a preliminary investigation in Sweden under Swedish law in the presence of a Swedish prosecutor.

"Mr Assange's Swedish defence counsel had travelled to London in the hope of being able to attend. In spite of the fact that Mr Assange's Ecuadorian counsel, Carlos Poveda Moreno, raised concern that Mr Samuelson was not present at the start of the procedure, the authorities in charge proceeded anyway.

"This clear breach of process did not stop Mr Assange co-operating fully. Mr Assange felt compelled to participate even with these problems.

"For the first time since August 2010, Mr Assange was finally able to give his statement in relation to this allegation. He has done so in part to ensure the Swedish authorities have no further excuse not to discontinue their preliminary investigation.

"In the presence of Swedish prosecutors, but without his Swedish defence counsel, he offered his full co-operation throughout the process.

"These irregularities will be raised in a formal setting in the near future."

Mr Assange has always denied the sex allegation.

He has been living in the embassy for over four years and has been granted political asylum by Ecuador.

He believes that if he leaves the embassy he will be extradited to the US for questioning over the activities of WikiLeaks.
AURELIUS  Founding members of the Cayuga Anti-Fracking Alliance have come together again, but this time under a new name with a new cause. Called Save Owasco Now, the group spearheaded by Auburn City Councilor Terry Cuddy, gathered for its first public meeting Monday night to discuss action items for combating blue-green algae toxins in Owasco Lake, the drinking source for more than 45,000 Cayuga County residents.

More than 40 people attended the meeting at Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES, which focused on the discovery of microcystin, a toxin that can be produced by blue-green algae, in the treated drinking water toward the end of September and into October. The toxin was not detected at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's health advisory guideline levels, but it was the first time in New York state that toxins had made it past the filtration systems of a plant.

"I'd like to think of us as a SWAT team," said Patty Beer, one of the founding members of the group. "We're dealing with a kind of unknown situation. We're kind of the canary in the mine."

Cuddy said the main things he hopes the group will accomplish in the next eight to nine months are to improve the water treatment plants to make sure toxins are not detectable in the drinking water next year, keep Owasco Lake on the state Department of Environmental Conservation and EPA's list of impaired water bodies, implement a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), continue to keep waterfowl from Owasco Lake, and comment on the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) permits, which are in review by the DEC.

The city of Auburn has already begun working with an engineer for ways to make the treatment plant more successful in ridding the finished water of toxins. Cuddy said the city began that work without the help of state funding, something he hopes will come down the line.

For addressing the longer-term issue, Cuddy said he hopes the state will implement a TMDL, which is the maximum amount of a pollutant a water body can receive while adhering to the U.S. Clean Water Act, on whatever source of pollution it thinks is proliferating the harmful algal blooms on Owasco Lake. Meanwhile Cayuga County officials are going forward with a Nine Element Watershed Plan, which Cuddy said he hopes will supplement the TMDL.

The guest speaker was Walter Hang from Toxics Targeting, an environmental database service in Ithaca. A few years ago, Hang worked on a phosphorous loading problem at the southern end of Cayuga Lake. Cornell University's Lake Source Cooling process to to use cold water from the bottom of the lake to cool rooms on campus was stirring up phosphorous and causing widespread algae blooms.

Hang told the group that reducing phosphorous is the answer for Owasco Lake, despite nutrient levels being below the DEC's threshold of 20 micrograms per liter. He said because Owasco Lake is a drinking source, there really should be no excessive phosphorous in the lake.

"These lakes have not received the attention they deserve," Hang said. "If this problem were on Long Island, it would probably be a different story.

"You've got to do everything you can now," he added, referencing that the colder months are when algae dies off and the toxin problem is not as acute. "Strike while the iron is hot."

Save Owasco Now plans to meet again on Dec. 12 with a meeting time and place to be determined.

Watch the video shown at Save Owasco Now's meeting, "Owasco Lake: A Tipping Point-The Water Crisis of 2016
Ban Ki-moon said he is sure Donald Trump "will make a good, wise decision and I'm going to discuss this matter more in person"

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has said he hopes Donald Trump will shift course on global warming and "understand the seriousness and urgency" of the problem.

"As president of the United States I'm sure that he will understand this, he will listen and he will evaluate his campaign remarks," Mr Ban said.

Mr Trump has called global warming a "hoax" on social media and pledged during his campaign to "cancel" the landmark Paris climate agreement adopted last year.

Speaking to reporters at his last UN climate conference as secretary-general, Mr Ban said he is sure the president-elect "will make a good, wise decision and I'm going to discuss this matter more in person".

The Paris Agreement was signed by more than 190 countries and has been formally approved by more than 100, including the US.

Mr Ban called international climate action "unstoppable" and said that no country, "however resourceful or powerful", is immune from the impacts of global warming.

Mr Trump's election has brought uncertainty about the US role in the Paris deal, which calls on all countries to reduce or curb greenhouse gas emissions and encourages rich countries to help poor ones deal with climate change.

French President Francois Hollande said the Paris Agreement is "irreversible" and the US must respect the decision by the Obama administration to join the deal.

Mr Hollande said France will hold a respectful dialogue with Mr Trump on climate change, but added that he "demands" US involvement on behalf of the more than 100 countries that have ratified the deal.
The UVF stole PSNI uniforms and warrant cards in preparation for a post-ceasefire break-in at one of Northern Irelands biggest police stations that could have wrecked the peace process.

Loyalist supergrass Gary Haggarty has admitted overseeing the plot that involved members of the terror gang posing as cops to get access to the armoury at the Seapark base near Carrickfergus.

In possession of a map drawn up by a rogue officer that led them straight to the weapons room, the UVFs intention was to take dozens of police-issue guns and ammunition.

But the burglary  which would have rivalled the IRAs 2002 break-in at Castlereagh police station  never went ahead because Haggarty tipped off his handlers.

Sunday Life can reveal that the Seapark plot was at the top of the UVF leaderships agenda for six years between 2001 and 2007.

This was while the organisation was supposedly on ceasefire and at a time when the leader of its PUP political wing David Ervine held an Assembly seat.

Haggartys damning Seapark burglary confession is contained in a case file put together by the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) that has been seen by this newspaper.

In return for pleading guilty to a record 202 charges, including five murders, and giving evidence against his former UVF colleagues, the 44-year-old has been promised a reduced three-year sentence.

Haggarty, who appeared in public for the first time in six years when he stood in the dock of Belfast Magistrates Court last Monday, has already served that period on remand.

The former UVF south-east Antrim boss is now living under a new identity and armed guard at a safe house in England and will only return to Northern Ireland for future court dates.

Among his admissions is that how on dates between September 2001 and March 2007 he had a quantity of PSNI uniforms and other PSNI items, a PSNI warrant card, and a diagram of how to access the PSNI armoury at Seapark.

The indictment goes on to say that the said articles were in your possession for a purpose connected with the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism.

Politicians last night responded to Sunday Lifes bombshell revelations by accusing the authorities of allowing agents to commit multiple, repeated and terrible crimes.

SDLP MLA Daniel McCrossan wants to know how terror boss Gary Haggarty came to be in possession of PSNI uniforms, warrant cards, and a diagram of how to access the armoury at the sprawling Seapark base.

He said: These papers raise questions about how the UVF acquired police identification, passes and uniforms in order, allegedly, to raid a munitions store at Seapark.

This adds another dimension to either what the police allowed to happen or otherwise how police officers were helping the UVF to plan operations.

During 800 interview tapes and 30,000 pages of transcripts Haggarty named the entire UVF leadership and more than 50 members who he worked with during his 25 years as a paramilitary.

He joined the terror gang in 1991 as a foot soldier in the Mount Vernon estate, before rising through the ranks to become its south-east Antrim commander in 2004.

This was a position he held for three years before being stood down in 2007 after the publication of a Police Ombudsman report that identified him as a long-standing agent.

Haggarty agreed to become a supergrass in 2010 after being charged in connection with the 1997 murder of John Harbinson who was beaten to death by the UVF. Prior to this the loyalist had worked as an informant.

Security sources claim Haggarty was recruited in 1993 while working as a tyre-fitter at a garage on the Shore Road and used his job to bug the cars of dozens of UVF members.

Among the leading loyalists he has agreed to give evidence against in court is the groups Chief-of-Staff John Bunter Graham, its 1st Battalion boss Harry Stockman, and former Shankill A Company leader Joe No Neck McCaw.

Haggarty would have met the trio regularly at UVF headquarters on the Shankill Road, and is believed to have secretly taped many of their conversations. Another charge which he has confessed to is having covert audio recording devices for terrorist purposes.

Loyalist sources told Sunday Life that this threat of prosecution is currently being used by government officials to force the UVF to declare its intention to disband.

The terror gang had discussed publicly announcing its desire to leave the stage on the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme in July but pulled back at the last minute.

A senior UVF source said: The big problem the UVF faces is that a lot of the offences Haggarty has named people for occurred after the Good Friday Agreement, the Seapark break-in being one example.

If anyone is convicted of them they would carry full prison sentences, there would be no early releases.

Weve been backed into a corner here and saying were going to disband looks like something we might need to do.

cbarnes@sundaylife.co.uk
UVF victims whose cases feature in the supergrass trial could be in line for a multi-million pound compensation pay-out if there is evidence authorities knew about proposed killings but did not warn them.

Documents seen by Sunday Life show that as well as admitting to involvement in five murders, 44-year-old Gary Haggarty has confessed to injuring and targeting dozens more during a 16-year terror campaign between 1991 and 2007.

In many cases Haggartys handlers had prior knowledge of the attacks but failed to warn the victims that their lives were in danger, according to the Police Ombudsmans Operation Ballast into the activities of the UVF and agent handlers.

His confessions include the UVF murders of Sean McParland, Eamon Fox, Gary Convie, Sean McDermott and John Harbinson.

Haggarty has also admitted plotting to kill north Belfast republicans Eddie Copeland, Paul DiLucia, Mickey Donnelly and Leo Morgan, as well as former SDLP councillor turned political commentator Brian Feeney, and Catholic taxi driver John Flynn.

Last year in the High Court the PSNI admitted a claim of wrongdoing in public office over the handling of a loyalist paramilitary agent (Haggarty) in the Flynn case. Counsel for the Chief Constable also accepted that he was entitled to damages.

The vast majority of those Haggarty targeted were Protestants from north Belfast and Newtownabbey, and in many cases the victims were loyalists.

Among those Haggarty has confessed to carrying out punishment attacks on are convicted killers Fred McClenaghan and Nigel Brown.

Magherafelt man McClenaghan, 54, is currently serving life for the 2011 shotgun murder of his ex-girlfriend Marion Millican in Portstewart.

Haggarty has told police that he was part of a UVF unit which kidnapped and beat the 54-year-old in 1994.

Another of his targets was Nigel Brown, who is serving life for the 2005 sectarian stabbing of schoolboy Thomas Devlin in north Belfast.

He was subjected to a punishment attack by Haggarty and his Mount Vernon UVF cronies in the late 1990s.

Other loyalists attacked by the gang include William Billy Buttons Montgomery, Stevie Benson and Willie Glendenning from Rathcoole, Billy Volkes from the Shore Road, and Davy Whitecap Millar from Mount Vernon.

Convicted paedophile Cyril Warnock  the brother of deceased UVF boss Rab Warnock  was also beaten up by Haggarty. So too was now dead UVF killer Mark Gutsy Campbell, and loyalists Jason Ghost Gordon, Matty Dawson, Thomas Harpo Flannigan and Rab McCracken.

UDA man Tommy English, who was murdered by the UVF in 2000, was attacked by Haggarty and his gang at a north Belfast petrol station in 1997.

The supergrass admits taking part in the assault and later ordering staff to destroy CCTV footage of the incident.

Newtownabbey brothers Tommy and Michael Cousins were targeted by Haggarty simply because he hated their hard men reputation.

Andy Best from Tigers Bay was another victim, as was Billy Bushell and Willie Beckett from Rathcoole, and John Fat Nicholl.

Other loyalists who were singled out for attack by Haggarty were UVF informant Terry Fairfield, Mount Vernon men William Logue and Archie Galway, and convicted drug dealer Laurence Duffer Kincaid.

Many of these individuals may now be in line for substantial compensation payouts that could end up costing the government millions of pounds.

That is because as a paid informant from 1993 to 2010 Haggarty was duty bound to tell his handlers about any planned UVF attacks.

The victims should have then been warned by police that their lives were in danger, but in many cases they were not.

Justice campaigner Raymond McCord, whose son was murdered by the UVF, only found out last week that Haggarty has confessed to planning a 1999 bomb attack on his home.

The UVF has tried to kill me several times, but on this occasion I received no prior warning. The first I knew about it was when I spoke to my solicitor last week, said Raymond. I believe that authorities were prepared to let the attack take place because I was exposing its relationship with the UVF.

Political commentator Brian Feeney, who was targeted by Haggarty between 1993 and 1995, says he first learned of the threat against him when he received a letter from police in 2015.

The former SDLP politician, who survived two other loyalist murder bids, said: Of course my life was put in danger by not warning me that I was being targeted by Gary Haggarty and the UVF. I can only assume the failure to so was to protect informants in the gang.

Not only has Haggarty confessed to a series of murders, attempted murders and assaults, he has also revealed how the UVF was up to its neck in drug dealing and racketeering.

Sensitive papers seen by Sunday Life show the supergrass admitting to extorting thousands of pounds from small businesses in north Belfast and south-east Antrim. Those paying weekly cash sums to the UVF were pubs in the centre of Belfast, Newtownabbey, Larne and Carrickfergus. Haggarty has further admitted taking protection money from Chinese takeaways in these areas, and burning down a petrol station after it stopped giving him free fuel. Statements the supergrass has given to police also reveal how the UVF was heavily involved in drugs.

He admits to taking possession of five kilos of cannabis in July 1997, and to selling speed and magic mushrooms.

Haggarty has also acknowledged giving beatings to drug dealers for refusing to pay the UVF protection cash.

After agreeing to turn supergrass in 2010 he provided detectives with a document entitled the finance files of Carrickfergus UVF. He admitted that during the period between 2004 and 2007, while leader of the south-east Antrim UVF, he had

130,000 of terrorist funds.

Other scams the double agent has accused the UVF of involvement in is the manufacture and sale of fake driving licences, supplying counterfeit cheques, chipping digital TV boxes and mobile phones.

He also revealed how young men who got in trouble with the UVF were given the option of joining the terror gang instead of being shot in the legs.

cbarnes@sundaylife.co.uk
A new generation of supersonic jet is promising Concorde-style travel that "anyone can afford to fly".

Anyone who can afford $2,500 for a transatlantic flight, that is.

That's the estimated fare for a three-hour flight from London to New York on a Sir Richard Branson-backed prototype due to take off next year.

Boom is a US-based company aiming to "overcome the challenges of supersonic passenger flight," and Virgin Group is one of its investors.

The company is developing a slim-body aircraft capable of flying at Mach 2.2 (1,451mph), with the first passenger flights due "in the early 2020s".

Concorde, which flew for the final time in 2003, reached Mach 2.0.

State-of-the-art aerodynamics, carbon fiber reinforced plastic and advanced turbo-fan engines will make the airliner "as efficient and affordable as business class" in today's airlines, Boom says, making return transatlantic flights doable in a single day.

XB-1, its prototype 'Demonstrator' plane, will take to the skies in 2017.

Ultimately, the finished product will be the world's fastest civil aircraft, carrying 45 passengers in one, premium class. Each will have a large personal window, direct aisle access and seat dimensions "similar to short-haul first class".

Other agencies, including NASA and BAE Aerospace, are also working on next-generation supersonic jets. Key to their success will be the ability to operate quieter flights, without the noisy 'boom' associated with Concorde.

An 'X-Plane' under development for NASA by Lockheed Martin aims to produce a supersonic "heartbeat" (a less disruptive, soft thump), for example.

Boom also says its flights will produce "a much quieter" noise.

If supersonic jets do succeed in making ultra-fast flights more affordable, airlines will quickly look beyond transatlantic travel to other profitable routes - trans-Pacific, for example, or to major hubs in Asia, Australia and Latin America.

"This isn't just for people with private jets - it's for anyone who can fly business today, and soon for everyone who flies," said Boom Founder and CEO, Blake Scholl.
A Homer woman ran out of gas while driving on Interstate 81, but that was the least of her problems.

Laura E. Fassett, 29, was arrested Sunday and charged with aggravated driving while intoxicated and unlawful possession of marijuana.

The New York State Police said the arrest was made after troopers spotted a disabled vehicle on I-81 in the town of Homer. Fassett told the troopers she ran out of gas.

Authorities said an investigation determined that Fassett had been driving while intoxicated and possessed a small amount of marijuana.

Fassett's blood alcohol content was 0.18 percent  more than twice the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

Fassett was arraigned in Homer Town Court and remanded to the Cortland County Jail in lieu of $500 cash bail or $1,000 property bond. She is due to return to court today.
One of the oldest terrorist groups in Southeast Asia, the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) has re-emerged in the southern Philippines. Through collecting ransom money for hostages in its captivity, the militant group is developing capabilities to conduct long-range operations to kidnap more tourists and crew members of ships.

Despite efforts by the Philippine police and military to deal with the threat, ASG has stepped up operations on land and sea. By boarding vessels off the Philippine coast, ASG has attacked pleasure craft, tugs and fishing boats as a source of revenue.

However, ASG is building its capabilities to launch operations away from its heartland. In a landmark maritime operation, ASG successfully targeted a cargo ship just off the southern entry of the Sibutu Passage, a 29 km- (18 mile-) wide channel used by merchant shipping in transit between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea.



On Oct. 20, ASG gunmen in a speedboat boarded the 11,400-ton heavy load carrier Dong Bang Giant 2, abducting the Korean captain, Park Chul Hong, and a Filipino crewman, Glenn Alindajao, 30, a master mariner  in the first kidnapping incident aboard a merchant ship.

Historically, ASG threatened the national security of the Philippines and, on occasion, it extended its reach to Sabah, eastern Malaysia. But its operation on Oct. 20 threatens the regions security.

A hybrid



ASG is a hybrid group engaged in criminal and terrorist activity on land and at sea. Formed in 1991, ASG is led today by Radulan Sahiron, who has amassed more than U.S. $10 million in kidnaping for ransom operations during the year, according to reports.

The ransom payments emboldened the ASG and enhanced its long-range operational capabilities. The theater of conflict is shifting and expanding, and the lack of government capacity to fight back is becoming increasingly evident.



With both a terrorist and guerrilla capability, ASG is the most capable threat group in the Philippines and added to its capability during the administration of former President Benigno Aquino III.

Despite the Philippine security forces killing 200 ASG leaders, members and supporters in 2015, ASG recruitment grew from 449 to 506, a 16.71 percent increase. In 2015, there were 148 ASG-initiated violent incidents, a 70.11 percent increase compared to the 87 incidents in 2014.

There were 46 IED attacks in 2015, marking a 275 percent increase from 12 incidents in 2014. Most IED attacks occurred in Basilan where Indonesian, Malaysian and Moroccan fighters aligned to the so-called Islamic State (IS) teamed up with Isnilon Hapilon, ASG deputy leader and leader responsible for Basilan. In preparation for joining IS, Hapilon broke away from ASG and unified several groups that pledged allegiance to IS and invited foreign fighters.



Despite the governments law enforcement operations and focused military operations which resulted in the neutralization of hundreds of ASG-linked personalities, its manpower and firearms continue to increase due to the inclusion of newly identified personalities, recruitment efforts and procurement of war material, funding for which emanates from ransom payments derived from its kidnap-for-ransom activities, the Joint Armed Forces of the Philippines-Philippine National Police Intelligence Committee (JAPC) reported in March 2016.

Both the Philippine military and police will need to deploy more operational troops to contain, isolate and eliminate the ASG threat. Furthermore, both AFP and PNP will need operational and intelligence support from their regional and international partners.



Held hostage

At present, ASG is holding nearly two dozen captives. In addition to Filipinos, ASG kidnapped a Dutch, a Korean, a German, six Vietnamese, five Malaysians, and two Indonesians. In addition to Filipinos, ASG released Indonesian and Malaysian sailors and nationals of other countries after their ransoms were paid.



On Nov. 8, Gen. Ricardo Visaya, chief of staff of the Philippine Armed Forces, expressed confidence in neutralizing the ASG in Basilan and Sulu before he stepped down on Dec. 8.

Nonetheless, the ASG threat is likely to persist and worsen unless the government builds greater counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency capabilities. Philippine military and political leaders had made similar pledges and vows to wipe out ASG, but they failed repeatedly.



The threat groups in the Philippines are undergoing dramatic change with the influence of the IS. An al-Qaeda centric group, ASG is transforming into an IS-centric group with ASG members lured by IS propaganda.

The Sulu-based ASG, led by Sahiron, suffered after his deputy, Isnilon Hapilon, who led the Basilan faction, broke away in 2015. With its Basilan faction joining IS and forming the Islamic State of the Philippines (ISP), ASG is trying to recover by stepping up its operations.

Unlike ASG, the local branch of Islamic State also engages in criminal activity  notably extortion  to raise funds. Although ISP has not engaged in kidnappings, it has received significant funding from IS central and IS regional associates.

Government response

The Philippines, meanwhile, heavily relies on international counterterrorism operational and intelligence support. The capacity of the Philippines to fight terrorism and insurgency will diminish if its new president, Rodrigo Duterte, shifts closer to China. Chinese counter-terrorism capabilities are 20 years behind the United States.

Philippine-U.S. relations suffered after Duterte launched a campaign to eliminate drug traffickers and drug dealers. According to human rights organizations, at least 3,680 people have been killed by police and unidentified attackers in the Philippines, from June 30 to early October.

Although the campaign to eliminate drug traffickers and dealers is popular within the Philippines, the European Union., U.N., other entities and a few Western countries have expressed reservation. Angered by American criticism over his campaign to kill the drug dealers, Duterte called for the withdrawal of U.S. special forces.

From 2002-2015, the U.S. Special Operations Forces were deployed to train and advise Philippine units fighting ASG. Although Duterte is determined to dismantle ASG, his call for a U.S. withdrawal will hamper the greater international cooperation and collaboration needed to maintain the military and polices combat and intelligence capabilities.



This month, Duterte also authorized Indonesia and Malaysia to engage ASG in hot pursuit in the waters of the Philippines. These three affected nations are expected to discuss a standard operating procedure (SOP) and legal aspects of the operational plan when the defense ministers meet in Vientiane, Laos on Nov. 22.



Challenges for Duterte



The response of the Philippine authorities to the emerging threat of IS was belated. The Aquino administration refused to accept that IS had created a nucleus in Basilan and that an IS-centric threat landscape was emerging. With 16 IS-linked entities operating in the Philippines, the Duterte administration faces twin challenges.



First, it must eliminate the emerging IS threat by targeting ISP and other local groups that have pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the so-called caliph of IS. These entities include the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), in Central Mindanao, and Islamic State Lanao (ISL).



Second, it must neutralize the ASG, the group responsible for both terrorist attacks and piracy. The core strength of ASG is in Western Mindanao  the Sulu Archipelago consisting of Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi Tawi.



Until Manila develops capabilities to dismantle the threat groups on land, create a maritime corridor with security escorts, and regulates foreigners visiting high-risk zones, terrorism and piracy will persist and may even grow.

The Philippine government will need the support of the international community to fight the renewed capabilities of the ASG. To develop an aggressive response to dismantle the ASG, Manila will have to retain its intelligence capabilities and build new operational capabilities.
Bangladesh police stand guard at the site where farmer Kunio Hoshi was shot dead in Rangpur district, Oct. 3, 2015.

A court in northern Bangladesh on Tuesday indicted seven suspected members of a militant group in the killing of a Japanese citizen last year.

The seven allegedly belonged to home-grown group Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), which Bangladeshi authorities have blamed for the October 2015 killing of farmer Kunio Hoshi in Rangpur district, some 300 km (185 miles) from Dhaka. The 66-year-old Hoshi had been working for two months as an agricultural researcher before being gunned down by two suspects on a motorbike.

A year ago, police arrested three other suspects in connection with Hoshis killing, but officials dropped charges against them earlier this year.

The court today framed charges against seven JMB members. Charge framing means the Kunio Hoshi murder trial starts today, Rathish Chandra Bhowmick, a special public prosecutor in Rangpur, told BenarNews, adding that witness testimony would begin on Jan. 4.

The killing of Hoshi occurred less than a week after three men on motorcycle shot and killed an Italian aid worker, Cesare Tavella, in Dhakas diplomatic quarter in late September 2015.

The Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the two killings, but the government attributed the attacks to homegrown militants.

In July 2016, IS also claimed responsibility for a terrorist siege at the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe in the quarter that left 20 hostages dead, including nine Italians and seven Japanese. But government officials have rejected these claims, saying IS has no presence in the country.

The indictments against Hoshis alleged killers occurred less than a month after seven men were formally charged in Tavellas death, including a senior official of the Dhaka city unit of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

Five suspects appear in court

In the Hoshi case, investigating police officer Abdul Kader Jilani said he had submitted charge sheets on July 3 against eight suspects. They were identified as Masud Rana, a JMB zonal chief for Rangpur, and JMB members Ishaq Ali, Liton Mia, Abu Sayeed, Sakhawat Hossain, Ahsan Ullah Ansari, Nazrul Islam and Saddam Hossain.

Islam was killed in a gunfight with police in Rajshahi on Aug. 2, while Saddam and Ansari absconded. The other five appeared in court on Tuesday.

On Nov. 13, 2015, Bangladeshs Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested three men  Rajib Hasan Sumon, Naoshad Hossain Rubel and Kajal Chandra Barmanon  on charges related to Hoshis death. During a press conference, RAB alleged that the trio had confessed to killing the Japanese citizen.

Charges against the three were dropped and they were released in August, Jilani said.

During the course of the investigation, I found JMBs link. The Neo-JMB killed Kunio Hoshi - and I have submitted charges against seven JMB militants, Jilani told BenarNews, referring to a faction of JMB.
Rights activist Khurram Parvez is seen in an undated picture prior to his arrest in Srinagar, India.

Indian activists are clamoring for the immediate release of a Kashmiri human rights worker who has been jailed for eight weeks under a law that allows the state to hold a person without trial for up to six months.

Khurram Parvez, 39, the Srinagar-based chairman of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), was arrested on Sept. 16. He was taken into custody to stop him from documenting and circulating information about rights abuses allegedly committed by security forces in Indian-administered Kashmir, according to a petitioner who has sought the quashing of the law known as the Public Safety Act (PSA).

On Tuesday, a court in Kashmir gave the Bharatiya Janata Party- (BJP)-Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) coalition government in the troubled state until Nov. 21 to respond to the petition by Parvez Imroz.

The lawyer representing the state was not carrying along necessary records, so the court granted the government time til Monday to explain the grounds on which it has arrested Parvez, Imroz told BenarNews.

Police have accused Khurram Parvez of instigating Kashmiri youth against the Indian establishment during ongoing violent unrest that erupted after the killing of a separatist leader in July.

The agitation has left at least 100 people dead and more than 10,000 injured in clashes between anti-India protesters and security forces.

The Himalayan region of Kashmir, which is claimed in its entirety by both India and Pakistan, has grappled with a separatist insurgency that has claimed more than 70,000 lives since the late 1980s.

Khurram has a long history of affiliation with separatist organisations who advocate secession of Jammu and Kashmir from the union of India and in pursuit of this goal he has been found resorting to unlawful activities since long, according to a police dossier accessed by BenarNews.

Government backs arrest

The state government stood by its decision to arrest Parvez, who is one of about 450 people taken into custody under the PSA during the four months regional unrest.

He has been booked under the PSA only after his role in fomenting the law-and-order situation in Kashmir was ascertained, Abdul Khan, the states Law and Justice minister, told BenarNews.

We will file a detailed response in court on Monday. We are committed to restoring peace in the region and whosoever disturbs peace will be dealt with sternly, he said.

But activists said Parvezs arrest was just another example of efforts by Indias Hindu nationalist-led government to stifle dissent.

By virtue of the draconian PSA, the state government is trying to silence the rights activists and others who have been demanding an end to brute use of force by authorities on unarmed Kashmiris, Ahsan Untoo, chairman of International Forum for Justice, told BenarNews.

Israr Khan, a former senior police official in the region, said the continuation of the PSA was not helping the cause of the government, which has said it intends to win over the confidence of Kashmiri youths.

Peace in Kashmir cannot be restored by slapping rights activists with the PSA. The government should release all political prisoners and formally invite all stakeholders, including the separatists, for a dialogue. Rampant arrests will only fuel more anger among the public, Khan told BenarNews.
Bersih chairwoman Maria Chin Abdullah (second from right) signs an autograph on a banner as she and others seek support for an upcoming good government rally in Kuala Lumpur, Nov. 11, 2016.

Malaysias police chief warned Tuesday that officers would resort to anti-riot measures if violence broke out during a rally being planned for this weekend in Kuala Lumpur by a grassroots coalition that advocates clean government.

The weeks leading up to the Bersih 5.0 rally scheduled for Saturday have been tense, with people voicing fears that a violent confrontation could take place between yellow-clad protestors calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Razak over corruption allegations and so-called Red Shirts who support his United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party.

I would like to repeat this  all parties should follow the rule of law. Dont get angry at us if we take steps against those who dont obey the law, Police Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar said, warning that officers could fire tear gas and use water cannon if things got out of hand.

Some standoffs between the two groups have already occurred in the run-up to the rally organized by Bersih, a coalition of NGOs advocating transparent government, as Bersih activists have campaigned nationwide to drum up support among rural Malaysians for the big demonstration in the capital on Nov. 19. The countryside is where UMNO draws much of its support.

Last years rally, which was dubbed Bersih 4.0 and also called for Najibs resignation, drew 200,000 protesters to downtown Kuala Lumpur, organizers said.

The Bersih movement wants Najib to step down over allegations of corruption tied to state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). The prime minister has faced calls for his resignation following news reports in July 2015 that nearly U.S. $700 million in 1MDB-linked money wound up in his private bank accounts.

We have planted the seed. The seed where people actually start to ask what [the] 1MDB scandal is all about, Bersih chairwoman Maria Chin Abdullah told Agence France-Presse. Why is it that were questioning the prime minister having 2.6 billion ringgit in his personal account and doesnt need to even account for it.

Law will be enforced without exception

Najib, who has denied any wrongdoing, this week claimed he was the first to order investigations into 1MDB.

Malaysian authorities have actually led the way in investigations into 1MDB. It was I who first instructed multiple authorities in Malaysia to conduct investigations, Najib told the Nikkei Asian Review on Monday.

[I] have always made clear that full cooperation should be extended to any investigation provided it is in accordance with the laws of our country. Furthermore, as I have consistently stated, if any wrongdoing is proven, the law will be enforced without exception, he said.

The Red Shirts, led by Jamal Md Yunos, an UMNO division chief, have appeared at some of the rallies leading up to the Nov. 19 demonstration to challenge the message being promoted by Bersih.

In a text message to BenarNews, Jamal said, lawan tetap lawan  (the fight is still on), when reminded of Khalids warning.

Last month, Jamal was taken into custody by police over allegations of that he threatened to incite race riots in multi-ethnic Malaysia if Bersih, a racially diverse coalition, went ahead with the rally. Members of Malaysias ethnic Malay majority dominate UMNOs ranks.

Businesses prepare for rally

Zakhir Hussin [Shuman Vasu/BenarNews]

Meanwhile, owners and workers at businesses in central Kuala Lumpur were looking forward to profiting from the upcoming rally, which will attract many potential customers to the area.

Zakhir Hussin, who owns an eatery there, said he had never encountered problems during past Bersih rallies.

In fact, business booms during the rally. More people drop by to have food and drinks, and they have never created any issues, he told BenarNews.

Still, he had some concerns for Saturday.

Personally, I dont have any problem with the Yellow Shirts. However, this time around Im afraid there might be clashes if the Red Shirts also turn up.  That would definitely spell trouble, Zakhir told BenarNews, adding that he would be open for business on Saturday.
Adem Karadag (in handcuffs), one of two Uyghur suspects arrested in connection with the bombing of the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok last year, arrives at a military court in the Thai capital, Feb. 16, 2016.

The trial of two Uyghur men accused of carrying out a deadly bombing last year at a Hindu shrine in Bangkok opened on Tuesday after months of delays caused by wrangling over a courtroom interpreter.

Adem Karadag (also known as Bilal Mohammed) and Yusufu Mierali went on trial at a military court in Bangkok after judges accepted a pair of interpreters provided by the Chinese embassy, according to a lawyer for the defendants.

Karadeg and Mierali were arrested within a few weeks of the bombing at the Erawan Shrine, a popular tourist destination in Bangkok, that left 20 people dead and 125 injured on Aug. 17, 2015. The two defendants, who identified themselves as Uyghurs from Urumqi in the Xinjiang region of China when they pleaded not guilty to the charges nine months ago, could face the death penalty if convicted.

My clients were not happy about the translators provided by Chinese embassy, but, to me, it is acceptable for making the trial [go ahead]. It is a minor issue, defense lawyer Chuchart Kanpai told BenarNews.

The translator can communicate well in Uyghur but the defendants felt uneasy. The court took note of the complaint of their discomfort, he said.

Many injured, many dead: Witness

Uyghurs are a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority within China, who mostly live in the Xinjiang region but are also spread across Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkey. Uyghurs have been leaving China in large numbers to escape alleged persecution and repression by Chinese authorities, who consider them to be separatists and terrorists.

The bombing happened weeks after Thai authorities forcibly sent nearly 100 Uyghurs to China. However, soon after the attack, Thailands prime minister rejected media reports speculating about this.

Thai officials have since said that Karadeg and Mierali were part of a human trafficking ring that carried out the attack in retaliation for a crackdown by Thailand against people-smuggling networks last year. Thai authorities have issued 17 arrest warrants for Thai and foreign suspects wanted in the case, but the two Uyghurs are the only ones who have been arrested and charged in Thailand.

A pipe bomb, packed with three kilos of TNT, went off after being planted inside the shrine near a busy intersection in Bangkok. Footage from a security camera caught a man leaving a backpack on a bench inside the shrine moments before the explosion. Police later identified the man as Adem Karadag.

Karadag, then 31, was arrested on Aug. 29, 2015, after police said they had found bomb-making materials at an apartment in Bangkoks suburban Nongjok district. He was charged with offenses ranging from premeditated killing and bomb possession to illegal entry into Thailand.

Mieraili, then 28, was arrested on Sept. 1, 2015, while trying to flee to neighboring Cambodia, police allege. Investigators claim that he was attempting to acquire bomb-making materials.

The start of their trial was twice delayed  in August and September  over problems with providing a courtroom interpreter who could translate between Uyghur and English.

The trial was postponed because an interpreter from Uzbekistan who had been appointed to the case was charged in a drug case by Thai authorities. Later, Thailands attorney-general rejected an attempt by the defense team to get an interpreter provided by the World Uyghur Congress, a Uyghur exile group based in Germany, citing national security reasons.

On Tuesday, after the issue of the courtroom interpreter was settled, only one witness took the stand on the trials opening day.

Police Col. Somkiat Ploytubtim, an officer who investigated the bomb site, testified for the prosecution.

I saw many people injured and many dead. The shrine was damaged, Somkiat testified.

The trial is scheduled to resume on Wednesday. According to Agence France-Presse, it is expected to go on until early 2018 with the court only sitting for a few days each month.
AUBURN  Three Syracuse teens have pleaded guilty to intending to sell nearly 50 bags of heroin in the city of Auburn.

Anthony Sutton, Jr., 18, of 344 Baker Ave.; Dyrell Ferguson, 18, of 120 Woodlawn Ave.; and Nahshon Nance, 19, of 159 Ballantine Road, Apt. 84, all appeared in Cayuga County criminal court Tuesday before Judge Mark Fandrich.

According to Cayuga County District Attorney Jon Budelmann, at around 1 a.m. Oct. 17, the three teens were pulled over at 70 North St. after Sutton was observed speeding and driving the wrong way on Arterial West. During the traffic stop, Auburn police then found 47 bags of heroin in the vehicle, which the defendants admitted they intended to sell.

Sutton, Ferguson and Nance pleaded guilty to one count of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a class B felony punishable by up to nine years in prison. However, in exchange for their pleas of guilty, Budelmann offered each of them two years in prison and one year post-release supervision with a shock camp recommendation.

Fandrich remanded all three defendants to Cayuga County Jail without bail. Their sentencing has been scheduled for Feb. 14.

Also in court:

 An Auburn man with an extensive criminal history has pleaded not guilty to more felony charges in Cayuga County.

Karl Diggs, of 191 Genesee St. Apt. 30, has been charged with six felonies: three counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance and three counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance. The 44-year-old was arrested in November 2015 for allegedly selling narcotics in Cayuga County.

At Diggs' arraignment Tuesday, his attorney Rome Canzano asked Fandrich to consider setting bail in the amount of $5,000, as Diggs has been held in Cayuga County Jail since March. However, Fandrich chose to remand Diggs without bail, citing his extensive criminal history  46 misdemeanor convictions and at least three felony convictions  and more than 20 incidents in which he failed to appear in court.

Diggs is scheduled to be back in court Jan. 24.
SAN NARCISO, Calif. -- Chuck E. Cheeses is a chain of pizza restaurants and arcades that have become popular locations for childrens birt...
A bid from Pulte Homes to rezone and add 465 residences and possibly a school near Sandy Run Creek on Jedburg Road wasn't met with open arms at a Oct. 26 community meeting on the part of local homeowners seeking to preserve the area's rural characteristics. Read moreJedburg Road residents tell Pulte Homes: 'Keep it rural'
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First up, Joe Biden is thinking about dropping tariffs against China. But theres a spy in prison this morning that helps us understand why he shouldnt. Ill explain.





Your second brief, If youre looking for a good paying job, you might consider being a CEO for a health insurance company. One executive made $142M dollars last year. Let's talk about that.





And as always, Im keeping an eye out for developing stories. Put this one on your radar. Mexican cartels are grooming American kids online and paying them cash to traffic illegals or run drugs across the border. Ill share details.





If you enjoyed this episode of the President's Daily Brief, remember to subscribe and listen daily at podfollow.com/pdb.

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For Immediate Release, November 15, 2016 Contact: Tanya Sanerib, (503) 544-8512, tsanerib@biologicaldiversity.org Lawsuit Launched to Prompt 'Endangered' Status for African Elephants WASHINGTON The Center for Biological Diversity filed a notice of intent today to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect Africas two gravely imperiled elephant species as endangered. Unprecedented poaching for ivory and accelerating habitat loss has decimated both savannah and forest elephant populations over the past decade. Savannah elephant courtesy Flickr/Bernard Dupont. This image is available for media use. If the current rate of poaching persists, savannah elephants could be extinct in roughly two decades and forest elephants long before that, said Tanya Sanerib, a senior attorney at the Center. Only by recognizing the true, endangered status of the two species of African elephants can we highlight and address elephants plight and threats. Todays notice of intent to sue follows a June 2015 petition filed by the Center asking the Fish and Wildlife Service to recognize forest elephants and savannah elephants as separate species. The petition also sought endangered status for both smaller, western African forest elephants and larger savannah elephants found in eastern, central and southern Africa. Species designated as endangered receive the greatest protections under the Endangered Species Act, including a ban on most imports and sales. According to a new study, most ivory currently being traded is from recently poached elephants. This is bad news for both forest and savannah species. Populations of forest elephants are quite small and have been decimated by poaching. A recent study on forest elephants found they reproduce slowly, which means they cannot readily bounce back from the poaching crisis. Meanwhile a survey of savannah elephants conducted over the past couple of years  known as the great elephant census  revealed that only roughly 375,000 savannah elephants remain across the continent. The census results also documented the loss of 140,000 elephants over seven years due to poaching. Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), a treaty governing wildlife trade, recently agreed to work to close down domestic ivory markets contributing to the poaching crisis and to address ivory stockpiles. Pressure is mounting in the European Union and United Kingdom to develop such measures. Now is the time for the United States to lead on protecting elephants by recognizing the two African species as separate and protecting them as endangered, said Sanerib. People love elephants, and a world without them would be a very sad place. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.1 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.


For Immediate Release, November 14, 2016 Contact: Michael Saul, Center for Biological Diversity, (303) 915-8308, msaul@biologicaldiversity.org Legal Protest Filed Against Fossil Fuel Auction of Public Lands in Utah BLM Fails to Weigh Climate Impact, Raises Risk for Imperiled Wildflowers, Black-footed Ferret VERNAL, Utah Conservation groups filed a formal administrative protest today challenging a Bureau of Land Management plan to auction off more than 12,000 acres of publicly owned fossil fuels in northeast Utah. The protest cites concerns over air and water pollution, fracking and potential harm to imperiled species  including the black-footed ferret and Grahams and white river beardtongues  and the BLMs failure to consider the auctions impact on climate change. Its simply irresponsible for the BLM to issue new fossil fuel leases on public lands without considering the impact that extracting and burning these new sources of dirty energy will have on the climate, said Michael Saul, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. Given the recent election result, the Obama administration should move immediately to halt new leasing on public lands to preserve his climate legacy. The protest calls on the Bureau to halt new leasing of fossil fuels in the proposed area, asks that the Bureaus Nov. 15 auction be postponed and that, at least, the agency remove parcels along the Green River and those that contain habitat for endangered plants and animals. These areas proposed for leasing include important recreational destinations and wildlands, habitat for two rare wildflowers, the Grahams and White River beardtongues (subject to a recent court decision reopening the question of their need for Endangered Species Act protection), and white-tailed prairie colonies that could provide habitat for reintroduced black-footed ferrets, North Americas most endangered mammal. Groups protesting the lease auction include the Center for Biological Diversity, Utah Rivers Council, the Sierra Club, Western Watersheds Project, Living Rivers and Colorado Riverkeeper. Background

The American public owns nearly 650 million acres of federal public land and more than 1.7 billion acres of Outer Continental Shelf  and the fossil fuels beneath them. This includes federal public land, which makes up about a third of the U.S. land area, and oceans like Alaskas Chukchi Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Eastern Seaboard. These places and the fossil fuels beneath them are held in trust for the public by the federal government; federal fossil fuel leasing is administered by the Department of the Interior. Over the past decade, the combustion of federal fossil fuels has resulted in nearly a quarter of all U.S. energy-related emissions. A 2015 report by EcoShift Consulting, commissioned by the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth, found that remaining federal oil, gas, coal, oil shale and tar sands that have not been leased to industry contain up to 450 billion tons of potential greenhouse gas pollution. As of earlier this year, 67 million acres of federal fossil fuel were already leased to industry, an area more than 55 times larger than Grand Canyon National Park containing up to 43 billion tons of potential greenhouse gas pollution. Last year Sens. Merkley (D-Ore.), Sanders (I-Vt.) and others introduced the Keep It in the Ground Act (Senate Bill 2238) legislation to end new federal fossil fuel leases and cancel non-producing federal fossil fuel leases. Days later President Obama canceled the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, saying, Because ultimately, if were going to prevent large parts of this Earth from becoming not only inhospitable but uninhabitable in our lifetimes, were going to have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground rather than burn them and release more dangerous pollution into the sky. Download the September Keep It in the Ground letter to President Obama. Download Grounded: The Presidents Power to Fight Climate Change, Protect Public Lands by Keeping Publicly Owned Fossil Fuels in the Ground (this report details the legal authorities with which a president can halt new federal fossil fuel leases). Download The Potential Greenhouse Gas Emissions of U.S. Federal Fossil Fuels (this report quantifies the volume and potential greenhouse gas emissions of remaining federal fossil fuels) and The Potential Greenhouse Gas Emissions fact sheet. Download Over-leased: How Production Horizons of Already Leased Federal Fossil Fuels Outlast Global Carbon Budgets. Download Public Lands, Private Profits, a report about the corporations that are profiting from climate-destroying fossil fuel extraction on public lands. Download the Center for Biological Diversitys formal petition calling on the Obama administration to halt all new offshore fossil fuel leasing. Download the Center for Biological Diversitys legal petition with 264 other groups calling for a halt to all new onshore fossil fuel leasing. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.1 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.


For Immediate Release, November 15, 2016 Contacts: Kristen Monsell, (510) 844-7137, kmonsell@biologicaldiversity.org

Mati Waiya, (805) 823-3301, matiwaiya@wishtoyo.org After Trump Victory, Lawsuit Seeks to Protect California Coast,

Chumash Cultural Resources From Offshore Fracking Offshore Drilling, Fracking Could Expand Radically Under New Administration LOS ANGELES The Center for Biological Diversity and Wishtoyo Foundation today sued U.S. officials for approving fracking in federal waters off California without sufficiently evaluating the risks. The suit points to offshore fracking pollutions threats to the marine environment, public health, imperiled wildlife and sacred Chumash cultural resources and places. Todays suit follows Donald Trumps election victory, which may embolden Republicans to try to end the longstanding prohibition on new drilling off the California coast. Oil companies will likely push to drill and frack in federal waters near Malibu and Orange County and even as far north as Humboldt County. Federal officials failure to carefully study the risks of offshore fracking is doubly disturbing after Trumps election, said Kristen Monsell, a Center attorney. Every offshore frack increases the risk of poisoning our ocean, and that danger could now spread along our coast. Oil companies just dump fracking wastewater in the ocean, and were swimming in it along with the whales and sea turtles. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement decided to allow offshore fracking in California in May, after releasing a cursory environmental assessment of the practice. The assessment fails to fully disclose the chemicals and their effects on marine life and water quality, citing information gaps, yet it acknowledges that the chemicals can be hazardous. The assessment admits that offshore fracking will prolong offshore oil and gas activities, extending the life of aging infrastructure and increasing the risk of yet more devastating oil spills. It is beyond belief that the Bureaus failed to examine the impacts to the natural and cultural resources the Chumash maritime peoples depend upon to sustain our lifeways and connect with our ancestors, said Mati Waiya, Chumash ceremonial elder and Wishtoyo Foundation executive director. The Santa Barbara Channel is one of the most biologically diverse seascapes in the world. It contains a vast array of habitats and marine life, including giant kelp forests and threatened and endangered blue whales, sea otters and sea turtles. The channel, home to the Chumash peoples for more than 13,000 years, contains submerged Chumash village sites, ancestral remains, traditional fishing grounds and historical tomol (canoe) routes still used by the Chumash, as well as sacred Chumash natural cultural marine resources such as kelp forests, dolphins, swordfish and abalone. Today's lawsuit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, asserts that the bureaus approval of offshore fracking without first completing an environmental impact statement violates the National Environmental Policy Act. The suit also asserts that the governments failure to consult with expert wildlife agencies to analyze offshore frackings harm to threatened and endangered species violates the Endangered Species Act. At least 10 fracking chemicals used in offshore fracking in California could kill or harm a broad variety of marine species, including sea otters and fish, Center scientists have found. The California Council on Science and Technology has identified some common fracking chemicals to be among the most toxic in the world to marine animals.



Oil companies in the Santa Barbara Channel have federal permission to dump up to 9 billion gallons of produced water  including fracking chemicals  into the ocean every year. The lawsuit seeks a court order prohibiting the federal government from approving fracking in federal waters off Californias coast unless and until it complies with the National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act. The Obama administration could forestall expanded drilling off the California coast under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which gives the president authority to withdraw from disposition any of the unleased lands of the Outer Continental Shelf. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.1 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places. Founded in 1997, Wishtoyo Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit grassroots organization that enhances the well being of communities by preserving and protecting Chumash Native American culture, and the natural resources all people depend upon throughout California and the traditional Chumash range in Ventura, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. To learn more about Wishtoyo visit us at www.wishtoyo.org.
For Immediate Release, November 15, 2016

Contact: Randi Spivak, (310) 779-4894, rspivak@biologicaldiversity.org

Public Lands Bills Would Strip Federal Regulation of Fossil Fuels,

Give Away 7 Million Acres in Nevada

WASHINGTON The Center for Biological Diversity today condemned three bills being considered in the lame-duck session of Congress that would strip federal regulation from all forms of energy production on Americas public lands and give away 7.2 million acres of federal land in Nevada.

These bills, sponsored by extreme right-wing Republican lawmakers, would be a disaster for Americans who own and treasure these public lands, said Randi Spivak, director of the Centers Public Lands program. These bills are nothing more than a green light for big energy to exploit our shared resources for the enrichment of private corporations, while silencing the public, contributing to climate chaos and guaranteeing harm to imperiled wildlife.

Two of the bills, H.R. 866 and S. 490, would essentially give states control over oil, gas and coal extraction and development on public lands, exempting fracking, drilling and mining from bedrock environmental protections such as the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, which allow citizen participation in environmental decision-making and assess the environmental consequences of proposed projects.

The third bill, H.R. 1484, would hand over 7.2 million acres of federal land in Nevada to state ownership, where theres an increased likelihood theyll be exploited by the fossil fuel industry or other extractive industries.

Americas public lands, and the wildlife that call them home, are our natural heritage, Spivak said. We cant allow Congress and its well-heeled backers to steal and destroy these precious places.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.1 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
HIT: To another outstanding class of nursing graduates from Cayuga Community College.

Cayuga nursing graduates achieve 100 percent pass rate Graduates of Cayuga Community College's 2016 nursing class achieved a 100 percent pass rate 

CCC announced that its 2016 nursing class achieved a 100 percent pass rate for the National Licensure Exam. CCC students beat the state and national average pass rates by 17 and 15 points, respectively. The program has a six-year pass rate of 99.3 percent.

MISS: To a disturbing sex abuse case in Cayuga County.

Moravia sex offender charged with having sex with teenager A Moravia man already registered as a Level 2 sex offender is facing felony charges after he

The Cayuga County Sheriff's Office announced last week that it has arrested a Moravia man on a charge of second-degree criminal sex act. The 38-year-old defendant is a Level 2 sex offender in New York state, having already been convicted of having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 2003.

HIT: To Prison City Pub & Brewery's expansion plans.

The downtown Auburn craft brewer has earned a huge following for its world-class beers made right here in Cayuga County, but that fame has also put tremendous demand on the business to make more beer with limited production capacity.

Now Prison City has a little more space to help boost production after acquiring the former salon space in the basement of the building at the corner of Dill and State streets.

Prison City is hoping the extra room will translate into being able to make about 900 to 1,200 barrels annually instead of the 300-400 barrels currently being produced.

The company also had a long-term plan for a major production facility, but this interim step is great news.


For Immediate Release, November 15, 2016 Contact: Wendy Park, Center for Biological Diversity, (510) 844-7138, wpark@biologicaldiversity.org

Loraine McCosker, Ohio Sierra Club, (740) 590-8474, loraine.mccosker@gmail.com

Brian Kaiser, Ohio Environmental Council, (614) 487-5837, bkaiser@theoec.org Protest Calls on BLM to Reject Fracking Plan in Ohio's Wayne National Forest Feds Fail to Address Climate Change Impact, Danger to Groundwater, Wildlife Habitat ATHENS, Ohio Conservation groups just filed an administrative protest asking the Bureau of Land Management to halt an oil and gas lease auction next month in Ohios Wayne National Forest due to its failure to address concerns over fracking, climate change and effects on endangered species. The plan to allow dangerous hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, on 1,600 acres of the states only national forest would degrade streams and groundwater, fragment wildlife habitat and worsen climate change, the groups said. The BLM also ignored the likelihood that opening these parcels to development would facilitate more fossil fuel extraction on adjacent private land. The groups highlighted the Bureaus failure to address groundwater and surface-water contamination risks from wastewater disposal and other fracking operations. This will be bad for wildlife, bad for recreation and bad for the health of Ohio's only National Forest, said Nathan Johnson of the Ohio Environmental Council. Ohioans don't want heavy industrial development on their public lands. Theres a better path forward  one that builds clean energy jobs for local residents and doesn't destroy their air, land and water in the process. The BLM failed to do its duty to take a hard look at the impact these new fossil fuel leases would have on other fracking on private land nearby. In fact, the agency seems to be actively facilitating this new extraction, said Wendy Park, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. At this critical time, the Obama administration should act to halt all new leasing of public lands for oil and gas fracking. The proposed Wayne National Forest leasing in Appalachia Ohio continues the extraction paradigm of centuries past, said Loraine McCosker of the Ohio Sierra Club. The legacy of this past extraction continues to negatively impact southeast Ohio economies. There are clean energy and local business initiatives that this proposal will threaten. We simply must demand that the Wayne not be leased by the BLM and that the Forest Service withdraw these parcels for leasing." Public lands are for the people, not for the benefit of Big Oil and Gas, said Lena Moffitt, director of the Sierra Clubs Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign. Drilling for oil and gas means more fracking, and fracking means poisoning our air and water, and threatening the health of our communities and our environment. At a time when clean energy like solar and wind is proving to be safest, healthiest and most cost-effective way to power our country, it's high time we recognized that we need to leave dirty fuels like coal, oil and gas in the ground. The protest also states that the BLM failed to adequately address the potential impacts from the proposed oil and gas leasing on species that are federally designated as threatened or endangered with extinction, including the Indiana bat, northern long-eared bat, fanshell, pink mucket pearly mussel, sheepnose mussel and snuffbox mussel. The governments plan is remarkably shortsighted in its failure to consider the full extent of fracking and wastewater disposal that could occur throughout the forest. Park said. Water quality and wildlife will suffer regardless of where these activities occur. Groups involved in the protest are the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, Heartwood, Ohio Environmental Council and Sierra Club. Background

The American public owns nearly 650 million acres of federal public land and more than 1.7 billion acres of Outer Continental Shelf  and the fossil fuels beneath them. This includes federal public land, which makes up about a third of the U.S. land area, and oceans like Alaskas Chukchi Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Eastern Seaboard. These places and the fossil fuels beneath them are held in trust for the public by the federal government; federal fossil fuel leasing is administered by the Department of the Interior. Over the past decade, the combustion of federal fossil fuels has resulted in nearly a quarter of all U.S. energy-related emissions. A 2015 report by EcoShift Consulting, commissioned by the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth, found that remaining federal oil, gas, coal, oil shale and tar sands that have not been leased to industry contain up to 450 billion tons of potential greenhouse gas pollution. As of earlier this year, 67 million acres of federal fossil fuel were already leased to industry, an area more than 55 times larger than Grand Canyon National Park containing up to 43 billion tons of potential greenhouse gas pollution. Last year Sens. Merkley (D-Ore.), Sanders (I-Vt.) and others introduced the Keep It in the Ground Act (Senate Bill 2238) legislation to end new federal fossil fuel leases and cancel non-producing federal fossil fuel leases. Days later President Obama canceled the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, saying, Because ultimately, if were going to prevent large parts of this Earth from becoming not only inhospitable but uninhabitable in our lifetimes, were going to have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground rather than burn them and release more dangerous pollution into the sky. Download the September Keep It in the Ground letter to President Obama. Download Grounded: The Presidents Power to Fight Climate Change, Protect Public Lands by Keeping Publicly Owned Fossil Fuels in the Ground (this report details the legal authorities with which a president can halt new federal fossil fuel leases). Download The Potential Greenhouse Gas Emissions of U.S. Federal Fossil Fuels (this report quantifies the volume and potential greenhouse gas emissions of remaining federal fossil fuels) and The Potential Greenhouse Gas Emissions fact sheet. Download Over-leased: How Production Horizons of Already Leased Federal Fossil Fuels Outlast Global Carbon Budgets. Download Public Lands, Private Profits, a report about the corporations that are profiting from climate-destroying fossil fuel extraction on public lands. Download the Center for Biological Diversitys formal petition calling on the Obama administration to halt all new offshore fossil fuel leasing. Download the Center for Biological Diversitys legal petition with 264 other groups calling for a halt to all new onshore fossil fuel leasing. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.1 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
It can be tough to be a vegetarian. You have to work harder than everyone else to make sure youre getting all the nutrients your body needs. So, when its time to take a
WASHINGTON: Internet freedom declined for a sixth consecutive year in 2016 as governments around the world cracked down on social media and messaging applications used to express dissent, a watchdog group said on Monday.

The Freedom on the Net report by the activist group Freedom House said a growing number of regimes are restricting or censoring messaging platforms such as WhatsApp in addition to popular social networks.

"Popular social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have been subject to growing censorship for several years, but governments are now increasingly going after messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram," said Sanja Kelly, director of the study.

"Messaging apps are able to spread information quickly and securely -- and some governments find this threatening."

The report said 34 of the 65 countries assessed in the report saw internet freedom deteriorate since June 2015.

Julia Sudnitskaya via 123RF

Some of the notable declines were in Uganda, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ecuador, and Libya, while online freedom improved in Sri Lanka and Zambia and in the United States, due to the passage of a law limiting collection of telecommunications metadata.

Freedom House said 67 percent of internet users live in countries where criticism of the government, military, or ruling family is subject to censorship.

Governments in 24 countries limited or blocked access to social media and communication tools, up from 15 in the previous year.

Even some democratic governments have been targeting applications that use encryption features seen as a threat to national security. WhatsApp faced restrictions in 12 of the 65 countries analyzed, more than any other app.

"Although the blocking of these tools affects everyone, it has an especially harmful impact on human rights defenders, journalists, and marginalized communities who often depend on these apps to bypass government surveillance," said Kelly.

China was the world's worst offender for a second year, according to the report, followed by Syria and Iran.

Freedom House criticized a new Chinese law that allows for seven-year prison terms for spreading rumors on social media, a charge often used to imprison political activists.

It said some users in China belonging to minority religious groups were imprisoned for watching religious videos on mobile phones.

The report said authorities in 38 countries made arrests based on social media posts over the past year, an increase of more than 50 percent since 2013. Prison sentences imposed in some countries exceeded ten years. Some have been jailed for merely sharing or "liking" content on Facebook.

"When authorities sentence users to long prison terms for simply criticizing government policies online, almost everyone becomes much more reluctant to post anything that could get them in similar trouble," Kelly said.

Source: AFP
The Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the UCT Graduate School of Business (GSB) has partnered with social enterprise organisation Reconstructed Living Labs (RLabs) to run a free programme in Cape Town for people aiming to become changemakers and social entrepreneurs and/or innovators in their communities.

The course, titled Becoming a changemaker: Introduction to social innovation, is presented online but, unlike most online programmes, it also has an in-person facilitated component now available in Strandfontein, Cape Town.

Many of the challenges facing communities in South Africa actually represent opportunities, which can be turned into businesses and has the potential to create jobs for others, says Marlon Parker, founder of RLabs and one of the instigators of the course.

Innovative, creative problem-solving

He says that the course has been designed to show individuals how they can make a difference, how they might, for instance, use social media to market an organisation or enterprise or how the resources at a library can be used to mobilise a youth group. It is about showing people how problems can be solved innovatively and creatively, he says.

The six-week course is the University of Cape Towns sixth Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) that is being made freely available online through UCTs Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT) and international online learning platform Coursera. But this course has one important difference. Despite the fact that most of the material is delivered online, students will also have access to a physical campus where they can go for information and get help with assignments or  for those who dont have easy access to wifi  to access all the content on the internet.

Overcoming barriers of access

Director of the Bertha Centre Dr Francois Bonnici says that this format of running the MOOC lessens the barrier of access to the internet and data costs as the content will be available offline to the participants and will be contextualised by the local facilitators.

The Strandfontein venue is really a place where people can come to connect, to brainstorm ideas and do the course online, says Parker. There will be someone to help facilitate the course content offline, to explain concepts and provide further assistance. He says more of these cafes/campuses are planned - which forms part of their RLabsU initiative - from Atlantis to Hanover Park, as well as other venues across the Cape Flats.

Parker adds that the course material is presented by UCT Graduate School of Business lecturers on social innovation and entrepreneurship, including Dr Bonnici and Dr Warren Nilsson. And people will meet other participants from all over the world and build networks across the continent, he says. This is where the magic happens, online. It opens huge opportunities for collaboration.

Advocating and supporting initiatives such as RLabs forms part of the Bertha Centres mandate. The centre is the first academic centre in Africa dedicated to advancing social innovation and entrepreneurship.

Opportunity to share knowledge

Commenting on UCTs decision to launch MOOCs, deputy vice chancellor Professor Sandra Klopper explains that in developing the universitys MOOC strategy, there has been awareness of the scarcity of contributing universities from Africa in particular.

We believe there is an opportunity to share knowledge generated from our leading academics and researchers, and to showcase the universitys rich array of intellectual and teaching resources.

RLabs empowers youth through the use of innovative and disruptive technology by teaching them vital skills and providing much needed support and a sense of community. It is active in 23 countries. This is its latest collaboration with UCT.

Dr Bonnici adds: We are excited about pioneering a new kind of MOOC that will reach deeper into communities. It will also advance access to quality education in order to catalyse social change.

And, as RLabs, we are really excited to partner with the Bertha Centre who have been pioneering work and research in social innovation, agrees Parker. This collaboration also enables us to fulfil a broader mandate to see more changemakers driving social change globally.

For more information on the course or to sign up, go to: www.coursera.org/learn/social-innovation.
56 students. 10-minute talks. Two days of game-changing topics.

23 November marks the start of MAC Live 2016, an innovative programme designed to showcase the multiple talents of the Red & Yellow Marketing and Advertising Communications (MAC) Class of 2016.

The MAC programme has been producing some of the industry's top talent for over 16 years, a direct result of its highly practical, real-world approach. The launch of MAC Live looks to take this a step further with an annual, two-day celebration of skills and innovative thinking, the first of which will take place on 23 and 24 November.

Each student will have 10 minutes to present on a topic of their choice, ranging from Marketing and Branding to Digital and Future Trends, all interwoven with personal stories and thought-provoking, refreshing insights. This is not your run-of-the-mill 'conference'. No topic is the same as the next, and attendees can expect to be engaged and enlightened in bite-size 90-minute blocks - making it easy for busy professionals to pop in and out and hone in on the subjects they're most interested in.

Whether you're looking for the next ad giant or marketing leader, or simply eager to experience an industry talk like no other, MAC Live 2016 will not disappoint. Join us this November at 95-97 Durham Avenue, Salt River, Cape Town, to experience our extraordinary MAC graduates, live.

To RSVP, email or call us on 021 462 1946 by 21 November 2016.

About Red & Yellow School

The Red & Yellow School has been producing industry leaders and game changers in the fields of marketing, graphic design, art direction and copywriting for 22 years. Applications for 2017 are open. Find out more on the website or contact Red & Yellow on 021 462 1946 / 011 067 3400 / .




The IAB SA resolved at its AGM on 26 October 2016 to apply for core membership of the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA), a move which the IAB Board believes will bolster the self-regulatory framework established by the advertising industry 48 years ago and bring much-needed digital best practice and know-how to the ASA.

The ASA is itself in the process of applying for accreditation by the National Consumer Commission as an industry ombud in terms of the Consumer Protection Act. This will give it stronger and more expansive legal jurisdiction to deal with complaints, and more effective enforcement powers.

Current ASA core members include the Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA), the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the Marketing Association of South Africa (MASA). Core membership will entitle the IAB SA to a seat on the ASA Board, representation on various board committees, and the opportunity to participate in the formulation and review of the ASAs business strategy.

Were really excited about the role the IAB SA can now play in gearing the ASA up to deal with increased volumes and complexity of complaints relating to online advertising, says Andrew Allison, IAB SAs Head of Regulatory Affairs. The ASA has served across five decades as an example to the private sector of how responsible industry self-regulation can work. Were committed to ensuring it continues to do so into the future."

Fred Makgato, Head of Legal and Regulatory Affairs at the ASA, welcomed the IAB SAs decision, which happens at an opportune time when digital advertising is growing at an exponential rate in South Africa."

Mike Gendel, Chairman of the ACA and a director of the ASA, expressed his delight at the decision: The ACA is certainly pleased that the IAB SA will be applying to join the ASA as a core member. The ASA and its other members recognise the importance of self-regulation across all commercial media, including digital and social media, and the IAB SAs decision is a welcome development which will benefit consumers and marketers."

Enter now

Let your hard work be counted in South Africas largest digital industry awards and gain world recognition. More information on the entry categories, rules and entry tips visit thebookmarks.co.za.

About the IAB South Africa:

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) South Africa, is an independent, voluntary, non-profit association focused on growing and sustaining a vibrant and profitable digital industry in South Africa. The IAB South Africa represents the digital industry across all sectors including the media, the marketing community, government, and the public, and also acts as the channel through which international bodies can enter the South African digital market. The IAB South Africa currently represents over 200 members including online publishers, creative, media and digital agencies, brands, and educators, between them accounting for more than 41 million local unique browsers. The IAB South Africa strives to provide members with a platform through which they can engage, interact, and address digital issues of common interest, thereby stimulating learning and commerce within the South African digital space. To find out more about the IAB South Africa, visit its website, like its Facebook page and follow @iab_sa on Twitter.




Winning digital strategies for news publishers in the age of platforms were a hot topic at the first day of the INMA Media Summit Africa 2016. Here's what you need to keep in mind about the power of social platforms and mobile devices' effect on your publishing strategy.

Grzegorz Greg Piechota, a Nieman fellow at Harvard University and director of Agora, Poland, has actually studied digital disruption, so was just the right digital mind to provide the rest of us with a good starting point, stating it is about how mobile and social work together. Mobile was here first and wasnt taking off that fast. Its the combination of smart phones and social networks that changed the way we view news.

For publishers, social media can become a major discovery platform as well as a way to break news. But we need to be cautious as anyone can publish truth due to the ubiquity of social media, but most users of social networks are not concerned about news sources, which brings in the question of veracity and reliability. This was made all the more pertinent when moderator Peter Ndoro pointed out that #INMAAfrica attendees tweets trending on Twitter, and enterprising tweeters from elsewhere were latching onto the hashtag  even though the news they were tweeting had nothing to do with the summit.

Living through our mobiles

Its a generational shift, said Piechota, stating that everyone under the age of 45 online is there to learn news, while for the youngest set it is for social media. People use different media platforms for many things, but the fact that Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp are the top three platforms for news discovery means social media is replacing the traditional roles of legacy media. Think about it. We increasingly we learn breaking news through social media as it is where we spend the bulk of our screen-distracted days. From the moment our mobile phones alarms ring to when we blearily log into the internet to check news while still in bed, were on our phones for the bulk of the day. Half of that mobile time is spent on social networks.

Piechota said what these platforms really do is organise the market. Its value grows with each new user due to network effects, as everyone on social media serves as both a creator and reader, amplifying overall engagement.

But just because you post something to your brands social media account doesnt mean everyone in your intended audience will see it. Take Facebook for example. The information shared in the below video from six months ago is potentially already outdated.

That's because the platform is quite literally flooded with content, at any given time there are over 2,000 stories waiting for your attention, but you wont necessarily even see them as they use filtering algorithms to dwindle the pool down to about 100 stories and dont show one youve already seen.Thats because research shows most clicks go to the first 10 stories shown, and very few scrolling down further than that in a single session. Piechota added that theres no universal ranking of stories either, but rather a score based on individual users interests and demographics. This means the content you see isnt necessarily all your friends latest updates but rather content thats engaging and doesnt send you out of Facebook to another site. The longer you stay on the platform, the longer you have to engage with ads, with the algorithm constantly updated.

Taking this insight back in history to what disrupted the newspaper business, Piechota said it was mainly classified ads. The difference is that the likes of Craigslist and Google were coming in to take that newspaper advertising money in the first wave of disruption thats still progressing. Now, social media is coming to take print medias audience.

We need to ask whether were just creating content for other platforms

Lots to think about there and a word of caution against simply digitising what works for your legacy media to share online. All the presentations will be available from 2pm on 15 November on INMA's website, and be sure to follow the #INMAAfrica hashtag for the latest updates.
Spear Reit has become the first Western Cape region-specific property fund to list on the JSE.

Spear, led by Cape property expert Mike Flax, listed on the Alternate Exchange on Friday, 11 November. The relatively small real estate investment trust has assets worth R1.5bn and a market capitalisation of about R900m.

Flax said Spear would appeal to people who were seeking to invest in a specialised property company with high growth potential.

"The Cape metro area grew about 7% last year; compare that with SA, which is struggling to grow at half-a-percent. We are investing in a diverse range of assets in the Cape and believe we can offer dividend growth in the teens each financial year for the next five or so," said Flax.

Spear listed at R9.25 per share and closed at R9.30. It traded on a forward yield of 8.2%. Spear's investment portfolio in the Western Cape is made up of 21 properties comprising a mix of 1% residential, 46% industrial, 22% retail, 22% office and 9% hospitality.

Some of the fund's property is situated in the Cape Town central business district and the suburbs of Newlands, West Beach, Woodstock, Milnerton and Tyger Valley.

The total gross lettable area of the portfolio is 172,000m.

Of the properties, 49% was being let to single tenants and 51% to multiple tenants including JSE-listed entities.

Flax said Spear could grow its assets to about R7bn in the medium term.

Source: Business Day
SAN FRANCISCO - US cosmetics maker Estee Lauder on Monday snapped up the beauty products brand Too Faced, beloved by the younger demographic, for $1.45 billion in its biggest acquisition to date.

Getty/AFP/File | US cosmetics maker Estee Lauder has snapped up the beauty products brand Too Faced, beloved by the younger demographic.

The deal aims to "strengthen the company's leadership position in the fast-growing prestige makeup category globally, increase the company's consumer reach in the specialty-multi channel, and win with millennials -- all in strong alignment with the company's strategy," Estee Lauder said in a statement.

The company, which has catered heavily toward older women, was impressed with the brand loyalty Too Faced has generated, and was willing to pay the price to lock in its growth strategy. Like many younger women, fast-growing Too Faced is extremely active on social media.

It uses edgy names for products, such as "better than sex" mascara, and quirky packaging. It has a massive following on Instagram, and offers makeup tutorials on YouTube Too Faced has had sales of $279 million this year, up 70 percent in one year.

Other big players in the cosmetics market have been rolling out similar strategies. Among them, France's L'Oreal has been picking up hot brands such as Urban Decay, NYX and IT Cosmetics.
With this historic election coming to a close, its very clear that it is a great time to be a Republican!

Americans embraced the agenda of putting our country first. This is the agenda of free markets, not crony capitalism or champagne socialism. The agenda of giving everyone a chance, not letting bureaucrats pick winners and losers. The agenda of opportunity and personal responsibility, not allowing the government to enable delinquency. The agenda of American exceptionalism, protecting our national interest, and putting America first, not encouraging illegal behavior and being submissive to those who want to destroy us. This was a victory for the born and unborn, the rich and poor, the employer and employee. The silent majority has spoken. American won this year.

The election of Donald Trump as 45th president of the United States was certainly amazing. Although, what is equally amazing was the resounding victory that Republicans had in New York and here in Cayuga County. Republicans held onto the very crucial majority in the New York state Senate! This will ensure that upstate New York is protected against the New York City Democrats whom are bought and paid for by union bosses and special interest.

We delivered Cayuga County, by double digits, for President-elect Trump. We also resoundingly delivered Cayuga County for Congressman Katko, Assemblyman Finch, Senator Seward, Senator-elect Helming and state Supreme Court Judge Schiano.

We could not have done this without our dedicated Cayuga County Republican Committee members and the hundreds of volunteers that knocked on doors all over the county and made tens of thousands of phone calls from our Victory Office. We out worked the Democrats in Cayuga County and countered their ridiculous claims and juvenile behavior at every turn. Our team has made me proud.

Thank you to all of the volunteers and congratulations to our Republican candidates. We are excited about the momentum that this election will give us as we tackle the important Cayuga County Legislature and Auburn City Council races next year. Did you get your most recent city water bill, I mean come on?!? Its time for a change.

The tax and spend Democrats must be stopped. The CCRC is going to hold them accountable with every single vote they take (whether in secret Executive Session or on the floor) and push back on the outrageous fleecing of Cayuga County taxpayers that the Democrats continuously propose.

Thanks again and God Bless America.

Jeff Herrick

Sennett

Herrick is chairman of the Cayuga County Republican Committee
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND: Swiss luxury goods giant Richemont will cut 210 jobs at its Piaget and Vacheron Constantin high-end watchmakers, a union source said Monday.

The world's second-biggest luxury group had warned earlier this month that it would have to deal with overcapacity issues as sales of exclusive watches were facing such a tough time it was buying some pieces back from retailers.

The Unia union plans to hold meetings Tuesday with staff at the four facilities affected, a union leader told the Swiss news agency ATS.

At the beginning of 2016, Richment announced it would cut 300 to 350 jobs, including at its top brand Cartier. But in the end, accounting for retirements and retraining, it only dismissed 100 staff.

In the first half of its fiscal year which ended September 30, Richement earned 540 million euros ($579 million) in net profit, a drop of 51 percent from the same time last year, as sales slid by 13 percent to 5.1 billion euros.

The luxury watch sector has seen tough times since Chinese authorities banned giving expensive gifts as part of an anti-corruption crackdown in 2013, followed by democracy protests in 2014 hitting sales in Hong Kong.
In a move that will spare thousands of hens from a life inside cramped battery cages, McDonalds South Africa has announced plans to switch to 100 percent cage-free eggs in its supply chain by 2025.

This policy follows dialogue with Humane Society International, one of the worlds largest animal protection organisations, which has been working with McDonalds on this and other animal welfare issues around the world.

Tozie Zokufa, Africa program manager for Humane Society International, stated: We applaud McDonalds South Africa for its leadership in corporate social responsibility and animal welfare. McDonalds decision to switch to exclusively cage-free eggs improves the landscape for farm animals across South Africa and makes it clear that the future of egg production is cage-free. We look forward to working with more companies on similar policies.

McDonalds SA Chief Executive Officer, Greg Solomon, stated: Today, we are pleased to announce, ahead of the 12-month timeframe we set for ourselves that we will fully transition to cage-free eggs in all our restaurants across South Africa by 2025. Starting in 2017, we will begin to phase in cage-free eggs at all of our restaurants. Our egg supplier has committed to providing us with quality, safe and consistent supply at more than 10% per annum until all the eggs we purchase are cage-free by 2025. The move is testament to McDonalds commitment towards sustainability and food innovations.

Giving hens room to spread their wings

In South Africa, most egg-laying hens are confined in wire battery cages, where each hen has about the space of a single sheet of paper to spend her whole life. Battery cages are among the cruelest of factory-farming practices. Undercover investigations have documented the suffering caused by the extreme overcrowding in these wire contraptions, where birds are confined to cages so small and tight, they cannot even spread their wings.

The cage-free egg movement has quickly spread throughout the world and a growing number of food companies are adopting cage-free egg purchasing policies. HSI has worked with the food industry leaders around the world on their recent cage-free egg pledges, including Sodexo and Compass Group - two of the worlds largest food service providers, and Arcos Dorados, the largest McDonalds operator in Latin America.
Recently, I took part in a robust IABC Africa panel debate in Cape Town on communicator readiness for 2020. The thing about discussions like these is that if they are facilitated well, they can spark discussion that sets the tone for the entire conference.

And ignite unbridled dialogue under the steermanship of director of the IABC International executive board, Daniel Munslow, it certainly did, running well over the conferences tight schedule.

There is no doubt that demands on communicators are changing now more than ever, and panellists Mia Azam, Woolworths financial services senior communications manager, Sappis group head of corporate affairs, Andre Oberholzer, and 2016/2017 chairman of the IABCs International Executive Board, Dianne Chase, all put forward sound arguments for remaining future fit as the needs of businesses evolve.

But to my mind, the more things change, the more they stay the same  with perhaps one small difference: When your audience pays you with their time, it has become even more critical now than ever before to get your message across as quickly and efficiently as possible. The future is about communicating real-time decisions rapidly.

The 24-hour news cycle and the lack of historical perspective has made us all dangerously impatient. Rapid technological disruption, the rebalance of world power, and continuing economic uncertainty, all combine to create highly volatile and increasingly complex messages.

Making this powder keg even more unstable is that communicators need to drill through huge volumes of information and translate issues into easy to understand terms. Our interactions need to break through the clutter and present messages that are compellingly succinct.

What is also fast disappearing - at last - are the communication silos of old and, along with them, the tired necessity of having meetings upon meetings which, more often than not, result in nothing at all.

To the Twitter generation, a week feels like an age. A CEO shares the stage today with much younger and often self-taught opinion makers who, for the most part, have developed a knack for getting their message across in news their audience can use.

Simply put, if youre not on the bus, it will leave you behind at the station. The holy grail of deadline has never been more sacred.

I work with leaders across a range of business sectors and believe that they rarely have had a more challenging time. Its not enough to be an executive with stellar credentials who is sorely lacking in effective and efficient communication skills.

In order to remain relevant, it is absolutely critical for executives to adopt an agile approach in their communications. Its all about reducing complex messaging into short and powerful soundbytes.

So, if I had to offer my clients some advice, I would tell them to broaden their circle. They need to find straight shooters who tell them what they need to hear  not what they want to hear.

Brutal honesty has, at last, found a very real and important place.
The year 2016 will "very likely" be the hottest on record, the UN said on Monday, 14 November, warning of calamitous consequences if the march of global warming cannot be halted.

Average temperatures for the year were set to hit about 1.2C (2.16F) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels - meaning that 16 of the 17 hottest years on record were this century, said the UN's World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

The new record means the world is already more than halfway to the upper limit of 2C of warming overall, 1.5C if possible, which UN nations had agreed upon to stave off worst-case-scenario climate change.

"Another year. Another record. The high temperatures we saw in 2015 are set to be beaten in 2016," WMO secretary general Petteri Taalas said in a statement.

The El Nino weather phenomenon had boosted temperatures in the early months of the year, but even after its effects dissipated, the mercury stayed high.

In parts of Arctic Russia, temperatures were 6C to 7C higher than the long-term average, the statement said. Other Arctic and sub-Arctic regions in Russia, Alaska and northwest Canada were at least 3C above average.

"We are used to measuring temperature records in fractions of a degree, and so this is different," said Taalas.

The WMO report was published as UN climate talks entered their second week in Marrakesh - the first since last year's huddle in the French capital concluded with the climate-rescue Paris Agreement.

The Moroccan followup is meant to agree on rules for executing the plans and goals outlined in the pact, which envisions reining in global warming by cutting back on greenhouse gas emitting coal, oil and gas for energy.

Earlier Monday, the annual Global Carbon Budget report said carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels have been nearly flat for three years in a row - a "great help" but not enough to stave off dangerous climate change.

Both analyses warned that concentrations of planet-warming greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continued to rise, reaching 400 parts per million in 2015 and likely to exceed that record in 2016.

Global temperatures for January to September this year were about 1.2C over pre-industrial levels, and 0.88C over the average for 1961-1990, said the WMO.

"More than 90% of northern hemisphere land areas outside the tropics were at least 1C above average."

Temperatures were also above normal over most ocean areas, contributing to coral bleaching and disrupted marine ecosystems in tropical waters, the report said.

Arctic sea ice extent was "well below normal" throughout the year.

"Because of climate change, the occurrence and impact of extreme events has risen," the WMO said. Heatwaves and flooding that once occurred once in a generation, are now much more regular.

It pointed to several "high impact" events this year, including Hurricane Matthew which ravaged Haiti in October, flooding in China, several heatwaves, the most damaging wildfire in Canadian history and major droughts.

Food shortages, population migration and conflict are expected to increase as a result of more frequent and potentially more intense weather-related disasters, the report warned.

Source: AFP
Anchored on the distributed ledger algorithm that enables peer-to-peer money transactions without a third party, such as a bank, blockchain is probably one of the most impactful breakthrough disruptions in recent years.

In fact, Germanys Fidor Bank, announced its plans to launch the first specialised bank for crypto-currencies along with currency exchange Kraken back in 2014.

Difference between bitcoin and blockchain

The distinction between blockchain and bitcoin is important: Bitcoin is just one of many crypto-currencies, which uses blockchain technology as its transaction conduit. Therefore the latter may be regarded as a threat to centralised banking systems. However, despite volatility in public perception, the blockchain concept has remained and is likely to continue in 2016 as adoption broadens.

Briefly, blockchain is a series of connected blocks of data containing records of transactions, the most common type in use at present being bitcoin. These interconnected blocks form a chain of data which is effectively a database that is decentralised, fully distributed and publicly visible, making it open for scrutiny and acting like a ledger.

In a traditional non-blockchain transaction, there is usually a trusted third party, such as a bank, that independently verifies the transaction. With blockchain, it is the network that verifies the transaction, effectively making the middle-man redundant.

Protecting customer data privacy will be an important consideration for bitcoin. By the very nature of blockchain, it is physically impossible to remove data from the chain of blocks that comprise previously validated transactions. However, data in the blockchain can be encrypted and typically users would own bitcoin wallets with secure passwords that would protect their digital value and personal information.

Some innovative work is being done on blockchain in Johannesburg, where one of the start-ups at the Alphacode workspace in Sandton is investigating a blockchain solution for a virtual stock exchange in the Maldives.

Digital wallets  the forerunner of blockchain

This is the disruptive nature of blockchain - it disintermediates the trust equity that banks have in all their transactions. To some extent, this type of disruption has already started in payments with different ecommerce players such as PayPal and smaller point-of-sale (POS) solutions like SnapScan.

However, the banks still benefit: FNB partnered locally with PayPal in 2010, Standard Bank with SnapScan, the South African app of the year in 2013. The third largest payment network by value globally (after Visa and Mastercard) is UnionPay, which is also Chinas only domestic bank card organisation. UnionPay signed a deal in February 2016 with Barclays Africa, which gives the billions of UnionPay cardholders access to the largest point of sale and ATM network in Africa.

Barclays will make a Chinese interface available, further improving convenience for its customers. UnionPay will also issue cards in African markets further driving financial inclusiveness on the continent. As with growth of fintech ecosystems and incubators, these partnerships indicate that banks are actively investing in future technologies and solutions.

Collaboration between banks

Although blockchain is potentially disruptive to the banks current processes, setting it up in South Africa will require a high degree of collaboration among players in the financial services industry. Progress has already been made in this regard, with Absa indicating to the market that it would be hosting a forum for engagement. It is also the first African bank to join R3, an international consortium of 50 financial companies developing blockchain usage in the industry.

FNB envisages that the currency landscape in South Africa could be affected if bitcoin or one of the other non-sovereign, global digital currencies using blockchain becomes widely used. The South African Reserve Bank would regulate the introduction and usage of bitcoin as a legitimate form of exchange and it has huge potential to reduce costs in the traditional banking infrastructure.

New and different types of currency handling firms would also be introduced into the industry in addition to Bitcoin exchanges, such as bitx.co.za and ice3x.com. Bitcoin is already accepted at 30,000 online websites through PayFast, one of South Africas payment providers that also enable money to be sent from other countries to an account holder in South Africa.
The traditional small-scale fishers of Langebaan have won a court victory that might allow them to restore their way of life. On 31 October the Western Cape High Court ruled in their favour in a long-running battle.

sarangib via pixabay

Since 2011, the community has been restricted from fishing in an area on the Langebaan Lagoon known as Zone B by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF). These fishers are completely dependent on net-fishing to make a living. The court ruling allows them to resume fishing in Zone B. However, the judgment might still be appealed.

"For three years, we've been fighting this court case," said Solene Smith, chairperson of the Coastal Links Langebaan branch.

Thembalethu Tanci, the deputy director of Line and Net Fisheries Management for DAFF wrote in a court affidavit that the reasons for the restriction were to "manage the harder stock", "facilitate the recovery of certain fish species" and to prevent by-catch "which threatens the sustainability of fish species such as the white stumpnose".

On the opposite side, Norton Dowries, the vice-chair of the Coastal Links Langebaan branch, stated in an affidavit: "This has serious consequences for our livelihoods, and threatens the continued existence of the custom of traditional net fishing in Langebaan." The reason for the ban is "irrational, unreasonable and unfairly discriminate[s] indirectly on the basis of race" said Dowries.

Before the judgment, only three commercial net fishers were allowed in Zone B. These fishers all own property in the national park.

"The Court found that the Department failed to take into account the impact of its decision on the rights of the small-scale fishers... In addition, the Court said that there was not sufficient data to support the conservation reasons given for excluding the small-scale fishers from Zone B," explained Wilmien Wicomb, an attorney at the Legal Resources Centre (LRC).

Background

Historically, net-fishing has provided a consistent food security to the local Langebaan community. From as far back as the 1960s, traditional net-fishers have been complaining about the impact that sport fishing has on their livelihoods. The lagoon was then separated into Zone A for the sport fishers and Zone B for the traditional net-fishers. Later, Zone B would be further split, with a new Zone C becoming a designated sanctuary. This further limited the amount of fish available. The net-fishers did not argue against the need for conservation.

Under apartheid, the fishers along the Langebaan lagoon were forcefully removed but continued to fish on the site. In 2011 fishing became completely restricted in Zone B for all except the few with property and addresses on the Lagoon. This meant the traditional fishers had to go back to using Zone A, which would be a "controlled multi-use" zone.

This was an issue as Zone A became increasingly overcrowded, especially during the holiday seasons. The traditional net-fishers would find themselves competing for space with holiday makers and commercial fishers.

Since July 2013, these restrictions have continually been fought against in court by the fishing community.

GroundUp was still awaiting comment from DAFF at the time of publication.
MTN and Huawei have jointly launched the Smart Water Metering solution, "the first Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) solution in Africa". The solution is designed to help MTN develop their NB-IoT services to explore new markets.

The Smart Water metering solution enables the automated collection of utility meter data, while manual meter reading leads to high labour costs and missing or inaccurate data. Through sensors installed in water meters, customers can identify water pipeline leakage earlier. Household water meters will automatically report data on a regular basis, reducing fault probabilities and the operating expense.

Powered by the NB-IoT technology by Huawei, the sensor array is designed to serve as a diagnostic spine that underpins network management. The data gathered can be used to control waste water flows from each property, identify faults across the network and improve health and safety outcomes.

NB-IoT is a new technology that will extend the utilisation of IoT by making it more efficient to connect objects requiring a long battery life and are located in hard to reach areas to the internet by ways of mobile connectivity. This Low Power Wide Area technology will connect more objects to the Internet of Things. The strong growth in the NB-IoT market has motivated many analyst firms to create forecasts showing the expected numbers of connections as well as the revenue potential. Generally, the global IoT market is expected to be worth trillions of dollars by 2020, and there will be a very promising market with 450 million cellular IoT connections needed in Africa.

A better connected Africa

Babak Fouladi, group chief technology and information officer, Interim SA CTO of MTN, commented: "NB-IoT is viewed by the industry as the answer for enterprise applications in a range of different areas, from utility meters to sensor monitoring to asset-tracking. In line with our strategy to explore new enterprise markets, MTN is glad to lead the application of this new technology in Africa. Now weve succeeded in the commercial trial of smart water metering, the first NB-IoT service in Africa, and looking forward, wildlife tracking, smart farm, and smart parking, etc., lots of services will be available to bring us a better connected Africa.

Jacky Chen, managing director of Huawei MTN Key Account Group, said: The number of cellular IoT connections in Africa will grow seven-fold over the next three to four years, and NB-IoT will be a key driver for this trend.

The Smart Water Metering service from MTN will be commercially deployed in 2017. MTN and Huawei will showcase a live Smart Water Metering Demo and other IoT services at AfricaCom 2016 in Cape Town, 15-17 November.
The Constitutional Court has dismissed the application for direct access in a bid to challenge the Cabinet's decision to withdraw from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The Constitutional Court considered the application by the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution founded on exclusive jurisdiction and in the alternative for direct access, and the application for direct access by the Democratic Alliance (DA).

The court has concluded that the application founded on exclusive jurisdiction should be dismissed as the matter does not invoke the jurisdiction of this court.

Further the application for direct access has been dismissed on the ground that it is not in the best interest of justice for the court to hear the matter at this stage.

Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha has welcomed the judgement.

The dismissal of the application for direct access happens as the Minister is travelling to the Hague, in Netherlands, where he will be making an opening statement during the general debate of 15th meeting of the Assembly of States Parties of the ICC.
The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has welcomed the move by Dihlabeng Local Municipality to centralise applications for NSFAS.

This will make it easier for learners in rural areas to apply for financial aid with NSFAS before the 30 November 2016 closing date.

With only 15 days to go before the closing date, we are hopeful this initiative will boost the number of applications we [have] already received. We are confident there will be a sufficient number of Grade 12 learners, with no internet connectivity, who will use the paper application forms, NSFAS head of Business Enablement and Transformation, Victor Rambau, said following a meeting with the municipality in Bethlehem, Free State.

The local municipality will assist NSFAS to distribute and collect the manual application forms before 30 November from Grade 12 learners in the district.

The executive council of the Dihlabeng Local Municipality said it could not have asked for a better partnership than the student funding and awareness initiative because most of the 11 high schools in Bethlehem are no-fee schools.

In a statement on Tuesday, NSFAS said Dihlabeng Local Municipality has recognised the importance of creating and promoting access to higher education for the disadvantaged.

Beyond 30 November, we hope to create a long-lasting relationship with NSFAS to ensure the doors of learning are accessible to all our learners through the provision of funding to accelerate access and success in higher education and training for the poor and working class families, said Lindiwe Makhalema, the Mayor of Dihlabeng Local Municipality.

The scheme said it will continue to respond to stakeholders on the ground in a bid to make applications easily accessible for rural municipalities, which have a high number of no-fee schools.

NSFAS encouraged other similar districts and local municipalities to offer a helping hand for the benefit of their own disadvantaged learners.

The 2017 NSFAS applications for financial aid opened on 1 August 2016.

NSFAS visited most of the rural areas to raise awareness of the application period and to help with distribution and collection of paper applications. More than 249,439 students have registered and have successfully created their myNSFAS accounts on the new online portal, since the opening period.

More than 67,000 online applications were completed, while 68,050 applications are still in the process of completion. At least more than 25,000 manual applications were received and are currently being captured at the NSFAS head office in Cape Town.
University of Cape Town vice-chancellor Max Price said a judicial commission is not the way to solve the fees crisis, pacify protesting students and stabilise universities.

The intention of a judicial commission was to solve crime; as it "calls witnesses and subpoenas people", it took a long time to resolve the issues, Price told an audience at the Discovery Leadership Summit in Sandton on Monday, 14 November 2016.

He said the commission's report was expected early in 2018, and then the country's budget could potentially be changed in 2019.

"The impact on fees will only be on 2020 as the budget gets announced in 2019. Our response is to call [the] government to act now.

"We can't wait for a judicial commission," Price said, adding that the delay in finding a solution by using a lengthy commission had fuelled student anger.

Price said the government must create a technical task team that could provide solutions within months.

Talkshow host Redi Tlhabi - who moderated the education debate at the summit - asked if Price agreed with University of the Witwatersrand vice-chancellor Adam Habib's earlier analysis, made on 702, that universities beset by crisis would experience an exodus of wealthy and middle-class students.

Habib had said that the rich would send their children to study overseas.

This, he argued, would leave universities with only poor students and no cross-subsidisation by wealthier students, which would lead to further financial difficulties.

"I agree with the analysis in a sense that if higher education is in a perpetual crisis and unstable, [but] the real problem lies in losing our top staff.

"If they are working in an environment where they can't teach or it is disrupted ... if they are going to feel intimidated, then they going to look elsewere [for work]."

Price said the academics were globally "competitive", and an exodus would damage the quality of local universities.

National Student Financial Aid Scheme board chairperson Sizwe Nxasana said he had worked out a model that would provide free education, food, accommodation and a stipend for poor students, as well as affordable loans for the missing middle and working class, that is to be presented at the judicial commission next week.

It would cost R45bn a year, Nxasana said.

TMG Digital/The Times

Source: Business Day
Nelson Mandela Bay recently saw the launch of a new venture - supported by Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality together with Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism - allowing locals and tourists to experience the city's marine tourism offerings through unique excursions including waterfront cruises, island cruises and more, offered by Stampede Cruises and the Blue Pearl.

L-R: Executive Director of Economic Development Tourism and Agriculture, Anele Qaba; MMC of Economic Development Tourism and Agriculture, Cllr Andrew Whitfield; NMBT CEO, Mandlakazi Skefile, Owners of The Stampede and Lochhead and owner of The Blue Pearl, Maclean.

We warmly welcome the addition of new products to the tourism offerings of the city. Through increased unique experiences in the destination the tourism sector can positively contribute to the economic, socio-cultural and environmental growth of our destination, confirmed MMC of Economic Development, Tourism and Agriculture, Councillor Andrew Whitfield.

Algoa Bay is an incredibly diverse bay with four estuaries which need protection, the largest coastal dune field in the Southern Hemisphere, many historical shipwrecks, beautiful and safe beaches, some of the most diverse and colourful coral a diver could find as well as a variety of marine mammals and birds. Nelson Mandela Bay has recently also laid claim as the Bottlenose Dolphin Capital of the World.

Executive director, Anele Qaba: There is no doubt that tourism in NMB has suffered a great loss due to the closure of crucial tourism products such as the Oceanarium, Apple Express, Red Location and others. This necessitated the NMBM to take introspection in relation to its destination management approach and to put plans in place to develop the tourism industry and sustain the key growth sector for the city. Losing the Jester had a negative impact on NMB tourism as a coastal attraction and I am thrilled that today we are launching these two boats, though not on a bigger scale will close the gap left by the departure of the Jester. This product will go a long way in meeting the expectations of visitors and locals from a coastal city."

Stampede Cruises

Rod Lochhead, director of Stampede Cruises, expressed excitement to share NMBs unique natural heritage, Stampede Cruises offers a unique boating experience combining a deep love of nature and conservation with a strong desire to share all that Algoa Bay has to offer with both local and international visitors alike. Our chartered tours around Algoa Bay are relaxed and fun with a touch of adventure, exploration and discovery. From the islands to the sea life, our bay has something for all.

Stampede offers relaxed comfort on board a spacious catamaran, either seated on the sheltered bridge deck saloon or upfront on the trampoline. Tours will offer an adventurous day out with either a leisure style or responsible conservation style tour where you have the opportunity to visit St Croix, Jaheel, and Brenton Island, or further afield to the Bird Island Group.

violetta via pixabay

Blue Pearl

The Blue Pearl offers adventure trips for up to eight passengers around Algoa Bay and this creates awareness for marine conservation while affording passengers the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful bay from a unique perspective. The cruise assists to cultivate public support for the Algoa Bay Hope Spot and to promote the ethics and principles thereof.

The Blue Pearl is an 8 meter RIB with 2 x 115 horsepower motors. Blue Pearl can easily reach cruising speeds of 25 to 30 knots. Blue Pearl follows the ethos of Take 3 For The Sea which promotes public participation in beach cleanliness and encourages conscious enjoyment by all ocean users.

Morven Maclean, director of the Blue Pearl advises, An ideal cruise hugs the coast past Summerstrand to the Cape Recife lighthouse. The way back we pass the Bell Buoy for a quick dip in the sea for the adventurous souls on board, we then head towards Kings Beach in through the harbour, we can then drop you off on the jetty at Algoa Bay Yacht Club or Shisas- the South African restaurant in the Harbour - where you can get an instant cold beverage and a snack.

NMBT CEO, Mandlakazi Skefile, We are excited to collaborate with both products in order to showcase the destinations unique experiences and natural heritage. The additional experience will attract new visitors and extend the stay and spend leading to greater spend and thriving industry."
The cities of Johannesburg and Tshwane no longer want to be test cases for the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) system over its enforcement issues and disappointing traffic fine collections. Aarto is only in force in Johannesburg and Tshwane, but is due to be instituted nationally and proposes wide-ranging changes in how the country's motorists are to be policed.

Michael Sun, member of the mayoral committee for public safety in Johannesburg, and Derrick Kissoonduth, member of the mayoral committee for safety and security in Tshwane, both made representations to Parliament's transport portfolio committee on Friday. They pleaded for the metros to be exempted from executing Aarto because of teething problems in its implementation, and until the system was ready for its national implementation.

System proved disastrous

Sun said Johannesburg had expected the pilot project to help the metro run its traffic systems better. The system had proved disastrous and resulted in even worse compliance than before.

"The implementation of Aarto was supposed to make things easier for motorists and cities. It has not only made things harder for the city but has created unpleasant challenges with the [implementing] Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA)," Sun said. "We have to deploy policing to clamp down on illegal driving and this is creating a strain."

SA Post Office a challenge

Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department director Sipho Dlepu said the greatest challenge was resolving the requirement to issue infringement notices through registered mail and the tension this caused when dealing with the South African Post Office and the infringement agency.

"The service of courtesy letters and enforcement orders that were offered by the RTIA - as required by the Aarto Act - with the city ceased in October 2015, when the RTIA refused to pay the post office.

"This is when the post office could no longer render proof of service of documents by registered mail. The payment of fines has dropped substantially since then," Dlepu said.

More fines, fewer payments

Before the Aarto system was piloted in 2008, the city had issued 655,719 fines, which had a 10.25% payment rate and generated R15m in income. The number of fines had increased to 1,712,931, but the payment rate now was 4.71% of fines.

The Justice Project SA has instituted court action to ensure traffic infringement notices are sent via registered mail. The Aarto system had generated more fines, but fewer offenders are being prosecuted.

Sharing revenue with the agency was unfair and the city's manager was in possession of a committee report that recommended Aarto be suspended, Dlepu said. Kissoonduth asked that Tshwane be allowed to adjudicate offenses through the Criminal Procedures Act until Aarto was ready for national roll-out.

Agency spokesman Monde Mkalipi acknowledged on Sunday the metros' presentations in Parliament and confirmed the cities were considering suspending Aarto until the issues were resolved. "We will continue implementing Aarto while dealing with all the challenges," he said.

Source: Business Day
Getting to know Design Indaba's creative director - Selly Raby Kane

Design Indaba has been blowing the minds of creatives for the past 21 years. Next year (2017) they'll be taking the awe-inspiring initiatives to the next level with the help of Selly Raby Kane, Design Indaba's very first external creative director

Kane is a Senegalese fashion designer who spoke at the 2015 event, with a passion for exploring oneiric otherworldliness. View her Inner Cruise video for a refresher of what shes all about. We chatted to Kane about what she envisions for next years event, and what inspires her about design. What does Design Indaba mean to you? What does Design Indaba mean to you?

Kane: Because Ive spoken at Design Indaba and had the opportunity to see it from the inside, it gives me the chance to dive into other peoples universe and not just into their results or facade, but into their processes. At the end of the day you get to hear about real human stories, and what was really fascinating to me when I was listening to other speakers, and even just looking at the content on Design Indabas website  is that theres a focus on humans and a focus on everybodys truth and how you take your truth and put it in the service of design, creation, your community etc. Theres a very human approach and it resonates with me a lot.

Talk us through the link between creativity, design and fashion based on your own sense of style Talk us through the link between creativity, design and fashion based on your own sense of style

Kane: To me fashion is like a canal, its a media that I use, and Im very interested in all the types of media available today for me to use to put in my creativity. Thats why Im exploring virtual reality, Im working with a production firm in South Africa to imagine what the streets of Dakar would be if we were diving into the urban legends of the city, making all the creatures that our grandmothers used to tell us about and bringing them to life. I just love creating to express the inner voice that I have, it happened to be fashion because as long as I can remember I wanted to be a fashion designer, but now Im opening myself up to other mediums and Design Indaba is helping me with that.

How is design, as a whole, important to the African continent? How is design, as a whole, important to the African continent?

Kane: Its very important. What I like the most about design, for example on the streets of Dakar, design is everywhere and everybody is a designer because you need to face your environment and the questions your environment asks of you, and you do that through design, you dont have to be a graduate to create an object that will help you face that environment. Thats the part of design that I like about our cities and once were able to translate that state of mind, those very organic design processes to the world, it would be massive.

Do more people need to encouraged to go into design as a profession? Do more people need to encouraged to go into design as a profession?

Kane: I think people are becoming open to the fact that there are other careers and goals in life other than making sure you have a lot of money and security. People are also more exposed to these opportunities with the internet, which provides windows to the world not just your own country. In 2016 I think its less complicated to tell your parents that youre dropping out of law school and focusing on design.

Give us some of your top career highlights Give us some of your top career highlights

Kane: Well, Design Indaba is a big one, its a big opportunity for me, and coming from West Africa to Cape Town and working here, it creates this magical link that connects two cities that I really like. Im really looking forward to making sure that people where I come from collaborate within the project, I really see it as a project and there are huge collaboration opportunities.

In 2014 during Dakar Biennale, I did a show - a fashion art installation, which gathered a lot of the young creatives from the Dakar sub-culture. It was the story of Dakar being invaded by strange creatures, the city was projected into the future, and it was a highlight for me because so many things happened during that show  it was a fusion between art and fashion and it managed to capture the attention of fashion and art people at the same time, so that was really interesting. In fact, the DJ that produced the soundtrack of that show is now touring the world with that music, so its changed lives and that to me is a highlight.

How important is collaboration in design? How important is collaboration in design?

Kane: To me its a really fascinating process and I really like to share and combine mind sets and energies and to see a result, to me, is a like a magical process. So collaboration is key, sharing is key, we see it in everything even business models that we have, and the more successful are basing it on this idea of collaboration, so I really see it as the present and the future. For example the alien cartoon I mentioned earlier, wouldnt be same without the soundtrack and the other elements that happened, so you need to make sure that all the energies are collaborating to be more visible and it just makes things more radiant.

What can we look forward to at Design Indaba 2017? What can we look forward to at Design Indaba 2017?

Kane: What is great about this opportunity is that its a way to show my universe and invite people into how I see the world. Its going to be very dreamlike, oneiric, a bit playful and there will be a story. I really want to create an immersive experience for people, so when they enter I want them to feel completely elsewhere and be able to read the story through music and design.

Colour us excited to find out more! You can click through to our Design Indaba special section and view Kane's 2015 Design Indaba talk embedded below:

For more information on the 2017 Design Indaba Festival, please visit www.designindaba.com/festival.
WASHINGTON - Facebook had a tool to weed out fake news circulating on the social network this year but declined to deploy it for fear of offending conservatives, a report said Monday.

 Karolina Grabowska via Pixabay

The report by the online news site Gizmodo comes with Facebook under fire for allowing hoaxes and misinformation to go viral and - according to some critics - boost the efforts of Republican Donald Trump in his successful presidential run. Facebook denied the report.

Gizmodo, citing unnamed sources said to be knowledgeable about Facebook's decision-making, said the tool was shelved after a controversy over reports saying the social network suppressed some conservative voices in its "trending topics" earlier this year.

"They absolutely have the tools to shut down fake news," Gizmodo quoted one source as saying. "There was a lot of fear about upsetting conservatives after (the uproar over) trending topics."

A Facebook statement said that the claims made in the article were "not true."

"We did not build and withhold any News Feed changes based on their potential impact on any one political party," the statement from Facebook said.

"We always work to make News Feed more meaningful and informative, and that includes examining the quality and accuracy of items shared, such as clickbait, spam and hoaxes."

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg has rejected the idea that bogus stories shared at the social network paved a path of victory for Trump.

"The idea that fake news on Facebook, which is a very small amount of the content, influenced the election in any way I think is a pretty crazy idea," Zuckerberg said during an on-stage chat at Technonomy, a technology trends conference in California.

In a weekend posting, Zuckerberg said dealing with hoaxes and fake news is complex.

"This is an area where I believe we must proceed very carefully," he said.

"Identifying the 'truth' is complicated. While some hoaxes can be completely debunked, a greater amount of content, including from mainstream sources, often gets the basic idea right but some details wrong or omitted."

The notion of hoaxes and fake news remained a topic of debate on Monday, when internet users searching on Google were delivered a bogus report saying Trump won the popular vote in addition to the Electoral College.

The numbers on a blog called 70News - contradicting official results tallied so far by states - said Trump received 62.9 million votes to 62.2 million for Hillary Clinton. The blog urged those petitioning for the Electoral College to switch their votes to reflect popular will to scrap their effort.

"Hey Change.org, scrap your loony petition now," the posting said.

The bogus site was listed at the top of many search queries for "final election result." Preliminary tallies showed Clinton won roughly 700,000 more votes than Trump despite losing the states needed for an Electoral College victory.

Google seeks "to provide the most relevant and useful results for our users," a company statement to AFP said.

"In this case we clearly didn't get it right, but we are continually working to improve our algorithms."

Source: AFP
As a result of incorrect billing, many South African businesses are paying too much for electricity. And given that many are under increased financial pressure from all sides, being able to reduce one of their biggest expenditures just might make the difference between success and failure.

Companies that have reduced their electricity consumption could qualify for substantial tariff reductions with their local municipality, says Mila Loubser, head of energy reporting at Energy Partners.

Don't assume

She comments that businesses should not assume that their tariffs will automatically be lowered once they have reined in their energy consumption. Municipalities often do not detect that a business has reduced its energy footprint, either because they are using old equipment such as mechanical meters, or they have a billing platform with little flexibility to accommodate changes in the tariffs.

There are also many cases where municipalities are adding the load of other users to the electricity bill of the business in question. This often happens to tenants in shopping malls, or areas where there are multiple units and small loads that landlords are allocating to tenants, Loubser continues.

Clerical errors

Other cases involve possible clerical errors. We have one client, for example, who continued being charged winter tariffs throughout the whole summer, which caused massive over-billing.

The biggest problem driving this trend, according to Loubser, is a lack of knowledge and understanding on the part of the electricity consumers. In our experience, businesses, whether they are large or small, often continue paying for higher rates without examining their bills at the end of every month.

Dealing with municipalities

Businesses need to know how to raise the issue of tariffs with their local municipalities. The best advice for companies, is to talk to the right people at the municipality, otherwise they will sit in queues for days. It is also vitally important to prepare all possible data in advance (their surveyor general diagram, account info and meter number). Ideally, the business can also include the check meter half hour readings, which is usually the best proof to the municipality that there is merit in their application.

Loubser adds that this could still be an onerous process for businesses to tackle on their own. The best course of action is to involve an energy manager to conduct an audit of the companys electricity spend. The consultant can calculate the effective rate, find out whether the business qualifies for tariff reductions, and whether there is room to further reduce energy consumption. Finally, the consultant will help the business owner to negotiate successfully with the municipality. A typical tariff switch project usually takes between one and four months, depending on which municipal jurisdiction the client falls under, says Loubser.

One of our biggest success stories so far, is a bakery in KwaZuluNatal that saved R 2,6m only by changing their tariff. The tariff switch also happened at exactly the right time, because the client was ramping up production and was in a position to benefit the most from optimised electricity costs, Loubser explains.
AfriGIS welcomed ten new candidates at the AfriGIS induction day recently held at the CTU Pretoria Campus. Since its first launch in 2012, the AfriGIS Learnership Programme has been successful in training individuals who have been carefully selected to pursue a career in IT. AfriGIS, in partnership with MICT SETA and CTU Training Solutions, provides a 12-month structured integrated learning programme that consists of theoretical training at CTU (six months) and practical work experience at AfriGIS (six months). Upon completion of the Learnership programme, Learners are better prepared to represent themselves in the ICT sector with an NQF level 5 National Certificate in IT Systems Development.

More than 3000 applications were received for this Learnership. Following the selection process, ten individuals were chosen to embark on this journey. AfriGIS and MICT SETA have given the learners an opportunity to change their own lives and the future of their families. Now it is up to them to make the most of this opportunity, added Christa Welthagen, Human Resources Manager of AfriGIS.

The AfriGIS Learnership Programme continues to develop talented young minds by exposing them to IT through knowledge and skillsets that further assists them in their education and experience. AfriGIS offers industry level support to ensure success in the Learnership Programme. Learners are assigned to mentors within AfriGIS who provide empowerment, guidance and advice on their career path. The level of involvement in skills development is important to AfriGIS and every member of our team understands the Industry and environment we work and live in.

There is nothing as fulfilling as following a career that you are passionate about. Software development is not something you learn and you know it. It changes every day. You need to focus and work hard. We are here to help you to get your set of fundamentals, and get your roots settled in IT. Furthermore, your personality matters at AfriGIS, it is how you get noticed. We pride ourselves on being diverse and working together. Teamwork and communication is important to us, said CF Haasbroek, Development Manager of AfriGIS.

We are very excited to have you here and help pave a way for you in achieving a start to your IT career. You need to study hard and be actively involved in the programme every day. This is a wonderful opportunity to improve your knowledge and move forward in life. It takes time, patience, hard work and understanding in completing this programme, concluded Emmarentia Booysen, Corporate Branch Manager at CTU.

Since inception in 2012, the AfriGIS Learnership Programme has already given 22 learners invaluable experience to kick start their career, 20 of them were successfully placed within industry upon completion, and two are still being assisted in finding employment. We continue to work with our partners, as well as our clients to create jobs for these young individuals. AfriGIS continues to invest and empower as many young under-privileged individuals as possible.




The advent of digital media has turned the media landscape upside down. The news cycle moves at lightning speed, thanks to live tweeting, blogging and citizen journalism, all unknown just a few years ago.

Image by 123RF

Fibre optics have revolutionised the telecommunications industry, the internet is getting cheaper and faster and more communities are logging on, even in remote areas in Africa. More people use their smartphones to receive digital content than ever before.

To remain accessible, conventional media practitioners in Africa are adapting to a new media world that is time-sensitive and more interactive. Advocacy journalism, in particular, is growing exponentiallybloggers and citizen journalists are mobilising for various causes, including good governance.

Although a lot has changed in media technology and operations over the last 15 years, society still looks to the media to play its traditional roleto inform, educate and entertain.

In Africa the media plays an even more critical role, that of deepening and institutionalising democracy. Citizens need to be informed as nations take on new responsibilities in a globalised world.

Media plays an important role in building an informed society. Citizens need credible information from a media that can skillfully moderate debate and provoke meaningful conversations that can lead to transforming Africa, says Eric Chinje, chief executive officer of the African Media Initiative (AMI), a Nairobi-based pan-African organisation that seeks to strengthen the continents media.

To play its role effectively, according to Chinje, the media must see itself as instrumental to ensuring and improving the quality of life in society.

Journalists see themselves as watchdogs. Instead, I see the media as a leader. Watchdogs just sit down and watch, but a leader stands up and leads. You have to walk and work, Chinje said in an interview with Africa Renewal.

Development of society

Africa needs journalism that innovates and supports innovation in a modernising continent, he says, one that not only grows, but promotes growth and the development of society. It needs journalism that not only generates the ideas that are the engine of social transformation, but also moderates the debates that emerge from these societal changes.

This year, the link between media freedom and sustainable development was emphasised during World Press Freedom Day on 3 May, following the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by world leaders.

The importance of free and independent media to inform the citizens of the world is crucial to the achievement of the SDGs, said Irina Bokova, the director-general of UNESCO, adding that at this time of turbulence and change across the world, including new challenges that require global cooperation and action, people need readable, reliable and independent information.

Free and independent media is very instrumental in cleaning up corruption and enhancing bureaucratic accountability, says John Mukum Mbaku, a senior fellow at the US-based Brookings Institutions Africa Growth Initiative  a group that conducts policy research and analysis to help achieve sustainable economic development in Africa.

Investigative reports about corruption not only inform the public about venality in the public sector but can also force the government to take action to improve efficiency in the public sector and enhance economic growth and development, Mbaku told Africa Renewal.

In Nigeria, for example, during the 2015 presidential election, the media helped the opposition carry its message to the people and stepped up in forcing government accountability. In Ghana, an investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, has broken dozens of stories of corruption and organised crime.

The increase in investigative stories exposing corruption in many other countries across the continent, even those with authoritarian regimes, has helped put governments on their toes. In Kenya, North Africa, and South Africa, the media have been notably vocal in keeping the citizens informed and exposing ills facing society.

Still, Chinje thinks a lot more needs to be done: We see a few cases, far between, of the right stuff. Once in a while, one can spot one or two good stories, but that is not enough to light up the profession.

The media itself needs to engage in capacity building, he says, which the AMI is trying to bring to the continent through training.

Media technology has changed, but the thinking among the editors has not changed. Politically, socially, the populations, everything around us has changed, but the media has not rethought its purpose in a changing Africa, says Chinje. He proposes greater debate and awareness among the media themselves so they can rediscover their informational role in society.

While few dispute medias importance in society, the numerous challenges they face in Africa threaten to reverse the gains made so far.

Digital media were welcomed across the continent, but technological adaptation to new media technology continues to pose a major challenge in many media houses. Unreliable internet connectivity and outdated equipment mean that journalists have no access to the critical tools of their trade, or must make do with inadequate systems in a digital world, which may hinder their work.

However, according to Chinje, the biggest challenge for journalists in Africa is a lack of capacity to do their work effectively. You cannot inform if you are not informed, he says, adding that many of them lack training in interpreting complex information, including data that needs skilled interpretation.

Media organisations across the continent, lacking an independent funding source, have historically struggled with financing shortfalls. This is partly because the majority depends on capricious government advertising to stay afloat. Any small criticism could result in the cancellation of adverts worth thousands of dollars. In many countries the government or its agencies are the biggest advertisers.

While governments seek favourable media coverage, often sending out self-serving press releases that tout the good job they are doing in governing the country, journalists are obliged to look for the cracks and contradictions in these messages.

Traditional media (newspapers, TV, radio) in Africa and worldwide are also losing revenue streams as readers and listeners shift toward free digital content. As audiences migrate to other news venues, traditional medias influence and, by extension, advertising revenues diminish.

As a result of medias newfound courageous voice and anticorruption exposes, press freedom is in jeopardy in Africa, with the media being increasingly targeted for restraint or even shut down in some countries.

Nigeria, for example, tried unsuccessfully this year to enact a vaguely worded social media bill that suggested draconian punishments for saying the wrong things online. Chad, Congo Brazzaville and Uganda blocked social media during elections, and the move was contemplated even in such professed democratic countries as Ghana.

In Liberia, the government this year shut down the privately owned Voice FM. In 2015, journalists were killed on the job in five countriesthe Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan. Whether from government, armed groups or terrorists, threats and attacks on journalists make it risky for them to do their work.

As the digital media world expands, new challenges have emerged. Without editorial oversight, information is unchecked and rumours gain credence over truth. Tales of corruption and other gaffs by public officials spread like wildfire on the internet, making governments even more reluctant to give press interviews than they ever were.

Apart from government censorship, which makes it difficult for various African media outlets to perform their jobs effectively, Mbaku says that they grapple with poor or non-existent infrastructure for printing and distributing newspapers, poor internet connectivity and inadequate preparation of media workers.

Way forward

To build better strategies and survive the turbulence, media providers need to adapt to the demands of their society.

The most crucial survival strategy for Africas media is to migrate to cellphones and the internet, and to generate content in local languages so it is accessible to a majority of citizens. Except for a few media outlets in North Africa that publish in Arabic and a few around East Africa that publish in Swahili, most media in Africa use English, French, Spanish or Portugueseall European languages. This means news content may not easily be accessible to the majority of citizens, who are not literate in these languages.

The media and government in many African countries may be at loggerheads, yet the media is considered the fourth estate after the three arms of governmentthe executive, the legislature and the judiciary. Government and media are two sides of the same coin. If they fight they destroy the coin, remarks Chinje. The government brings policy and the media should bring information about those policies to enrich the ideas and improve their implementation for the good of society.

African governments need to enable the media to function effectively as an instrument of development and peaceful coexistence. This, according to Mbaku, can be accomplished by constitutionally guaranteeing press freedom and removing many of the bottlenecks, such as government censorship, that have constrained the ability of the press to carry out its mission effectively and unhindered.

Source: Africa Renewal.
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WELLINGTON - Chinese visitors would be crucial to the recovery of the north Canterbury economy after the quake, particularly in the hard-hit township of Kaikoura in New Zealand, famed for its coastal scenery and whale-watching, a tourism industry group leader told Xinhua Tuesday.

Tourism industry and government agencies are moving to bolster confidence in China, New Zealand's fastest growing and second biggest tourism market, in the wake of the 7.5-magnitude quake, which killed two people in the north Canterbury region, said Tourism Industry Aotearoa (TIA) chief executive Chris Roberts.

Tourism and government agencies were closely monitoring reactions in China, Roberts said.

New Zealand tourism chiefs had issued an urgent appeal to prospective Chinese visitors after early Monday's deadly earthquake: Don't cancel your travel plans.

The industry had learned from the Christchurch earthquakes, which killed 185 people in 2011, that the international media coverage risked portraying New Zealand as a whole devastated, said Roberts.

"To date, we've been checking and there've been very, very few reports of people canceling planned trips to New Zealand, which is good," Roberts said in a phone interview.

"But we do know from China in particular that yesterday, immediately following the quake, there was some anxiety and Chinese travel companies were receiving calls from customers about their planned trips to New Zealand this summer. Hopefully they're getting the right information to them that there is no reason to cancel a trip to New Zealand."

The TIA was part of the government-organized Civil Defense visitor response group, which was arranging "official messaging" through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), embassies and other channels.

"The key from a tourism perspective is that New Zealand is still open for business. Yes, there's some disruption in north Canterbury, but the rest of the country is unaffected and we certainly want to welcome our tourists to keep coming to New Zealand over summer," said Roberts.

"We know from the experience of the Christchurch earthquakes that Christchurch took a big hit and other parts of the South Island also did -- parts of the South Island that were actually completely unaffected by the earthquakes -- so we want to try to avoid that."

Monitoring the public response and getting out "good information" would be a key focus of MFAT and the government's Tourism New Zealand agency, which has an office in Shanghai, over coming weeks.

Massive landslides cut off road and rail links to Kaikoura, making it accessible only by sea and by helicopter and sparking an airlift evacuation of about 1,000 stranded travelers on Tuesday.

"We'd want to support Kaikoura and get it back on its feet once the immediate cleanup is carried out and the road is reopened. Hopefully the tourist flows will begin again for whale-watching and all the other activities because it's very important to that town that it's able to get back in operation as soon as possible," he said.

Recovery of the tourism market was also essential to Chinese airlines that had recently begun direct flights into Christchurch and to Chinese carriers that were flying to New Zealand for the first time via the main gateway of Auckland.

"They're flights from new regions of China for the first time coming into New Zealand, so those airlines will be keen to have those planes filled up," Roberts said.
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Flagstaff police are still searching for an armed suspect who fled into the woods off Lone Tree Road after being stopped on Interstate 40 for suspected auto theft around 10 p.m. Sunday.

The suspect was last seen fleeing near the ceramics building and ovens at Northern Arizona University, but after a search of several hours, police said they were unable to locate him.

Residents were asked to lock their doors and remain vigilant for any suspicious activity. At this time there are no further leads and no credible reason to believe he is still in the area.

The suspect was described as a white male wearing a gray tank top T-shirt, black shorts and boots. It is believed the suspect stole firearms from the vehicle because they were missing when it was searched.

The vehicle was stolen out of Yavapai County, and troopers with the Arizona Department of Public Safety used stop sticks to flatten its tires. But the suspect continued driving into Flagstaff before abandoning the vehicle.

Citizens are asked to call the Flagstaff Police Department at (928)774-1414 or Silent Witness at (928)774-6111 with any information on the case.
The city of Flagstaff is not expected to take any action against a protester who burned an American flag on the lawn of Flagstaff City Hall during an anti-Donald Trump demonstration.

The Flagstaff Police Department monitored the protest and no arrests were made, said Meg Roederer, the citys interim communications manager. Citizens have the right to gather and protest with peaceful assembly exercising their First Amendment right and flag desecration is considered a protected speech.

Flagstaff residents who chose to stay up watching the Electoral College tally this past Election Day learned the Republican candidate would be the next U.S. president just after midnight Wednesday, Nov. 9. About an hour later, the Taala Hooghan Infoshop, a local indigenous rights activism and resource center, issued a call to action.

Who's down for anti-fascist demo today (Wed. Nov 9) in #flagstaff? 5pm at City Hall then around from there? the infoshop posted on Twitter and Facebook at about 1 a.m. after the election.

The event page on Facebook, which has since been taken down, spread quickly among Flagstaff residents and Northern Arizona University students.

According to a Flagstaff Police Department report, officers responded to City Hall at about 5:30 p.m. Nov. 9 after learning there was a protest planned. There were no reports of any crimes being committed at that point and the group was small.

An officer saw at least 100 people marching south on South San Francisco Street across East Butler Avenue. Officers and civilians saw the protest blocking multiple intersections and a large stretch of South San Francisco Street due to the sheer size of the crowd before moving onto the NAU campus.

A man identified by participants as Taala Hooghan Infoshop co-founder Klee Benally was photographed waving an upside down American flag during the march.

After moving through campus, the protesters made their way back to the City Hall lawn, where they could be heard chanting, "No Trump! No KKK! No fascist USA!"

One man in the middle of the group then set an upside down American flag on fire. It looked like the same flag spotted earlier. Police were unable to identify the man burning the flag because he was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and most of his face was hidden behind a black cloth.

Conor Sweetman, assistant news editor of The Lumberjack student newspaper, identified the man to the Daily Sun as Benally. The Flagstaff-based activist is perhaps best known for his efforts with the Save the Peaks Coalition to stop Arizona Snowbowl from using reclaimed water to make snow on one of the Navajo people's sacred mountains.

Sweetman said Lumberjack staff recognized Benally because reporters had interviewed him in September for a story about rallies protesting police violence against minorities. Benally organized those demonstrations.

"In the photos he was wearing a mask but prior to throwing on the mask it was definitely Klee Benally," Sweetman said. "We know who he is and he'd been carrying and waving the flag the whole way up the march."

After most of the flag had burned, the protester discarded it on the ground and merged back into the crowd. The fire was extinguished without police intervention.

Police seized the remnants of the flag as evidence for possible reckless burning charges, although there does not appear to have been much forward movement in the investigation.

Officers contacted multiple groups as they left the protest but none could tell them who had organized it.

Flagstaff police did not make any arrests as a result of the protest and there were no reports of property damage, violence or the riot-like behavior that has been reported at other anti-Trump protests across the United States.
Up-skirt photo arrest

Flagstaff police arrested a man on suspicion of taking up-skirt photos at Collins Irish Pub and Walmart.

According to the police report, officers responded to Collins, located at 2 N. Leroux St., at approximately 2 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 5. A witness told police she was dancing when she noticed a man holding a phone under the skirt of another woman on the dance floor. She could also see the woman's underwear on the phone's display screen. The witness later found out the same suspect had taken photos up her own skirt.

When officers confronted the suspect, he admitted to taking up-skirt shots of three women at Collins. He showed the photos to the police. He also said he had taken up-skirt photos of a woman at Walmart, located at 2750 S. Woodlands Village Blvd. At about 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4.

Police arrested Johnson Gleason, 38, on a charge of surreptitious photography. He was booked into the Coconino County Detention Facility.

City and county residents who want to report a crime but wish to remain anonymous may call Silent Witness at 774-6111 or (877) 29-CRIME, submit a tip online at www.coconinosilentwitness.org, or text the word Flagtip along with your information to 274637 (CRIMES). Rewards of up to $2,000 are given for information that leads to an arrest.
Standard Chartered plc, a leading global bank is seeking three Islamic banking licences in Africa, including Botswana, international media has reported.

According to reports, the London Stock Exchange listed could debuts its Islamic banking products and services, named Saadig, as early as 2017. The targeted markets are Botswana, Nigeria and Zambia, the banks head of Islamic banking for retail clients, Mohammad Ali Allawalla has told Reuters. Nigeria is an interesting market in terms of size we are exploring and other markets like Botswana and Zambia, which are not big markets in terms of sheer size but in terms of pockets of customers they present a good opportunity, Allawalla is quoted as saying by the news agency.

The bank already has presence in the above-mentioned markets. In Botswana, the global banks owns Standard Chartered Botswana, a leading listed bank which has been in Botswana for more than 100 years. Its not just a matter of what we would like to do, its also a matter of how mature the regulations are, what do the regulations allow you to do, what is the cost of setting up vis-a-vis the products you can roll out in the market, said Allawalla.





Standard Chartered Saadiqs core markets are Pakistan, Malaysia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia and Bangladesh and in 2014 it entered the Kenyan market, its first move into Africa. As well as talking to regulators in the three African countries, Standard Chartered Saadiq is also in discussions about gaining an Islamic banking licence in Brunei in South East Asia and working with the regulator there on guidelines for Islamic wealth management.
The amount of time the average First National Bank customer spends in a branch will fall to 86 minutes in 2016, from 100 minutes in 2015, a decline of 14percent year on year, FNB Business chief information officer Peter Alkema said on Tuesday.

The improvement, he said, means that FNB customers will spend a total of 8 760 fewer days in bank branches during 2016 compared to last year. Thats a quarter of a century back in their lives [overall].The reduction in branch use by customers is part of the banks strategy to drive users to digital channels, including online banking and the companys smartphone app.

Although many people still regard physical branch infrastructure as a way into financial inclusion, its not a point of dependency but rather a place of first contact, Alkema said. We quickly move them onto our digital platforms [after becoming customers].He said FNB has seen a dramatic increase in the use of its app and its mobile banking services in the past year. Total internet, mobile and app transaction volumes have risen by 15percent over 2015. The number of customers using the FNB banking app rose by 85percent in the same period. The banks eWallet is also proving popular. FNB expects R1.5 billion to be sent via its mobile money service by the end of the year.





Alkema said fewer customers are using branches to deposit cash, with four times as much cash being deposited at automated terminals than in branches. However, despite the growing move to digital channels and payment methods, the use of cash in South Africa continues to increase at a rate of about 10percent /year.Meanwhile, Alkema has warned that telecommunications operators, which are keen to expand into financial services, may be underestimating what is required of them to build a serious retail presence.MTN Group, in particular, has aggressively hired new top executives with extensive experience in the financial services sector.

They include incoming CEO Rob Shuter (ex-Nedbank), incoming chief financial officer Ralph Mupita (ex-Old Mutual) and vice-president of strategy and mergers & acquisitions Stephen van Coller (ex-Absa), signalling that financial services is a key future focus area for the company.Those companies must go the Discovery route of putting down big money and building a big team to build a retail bank, said Alkema. Its not an overnight thing. [Discovery CEO] Adrian Gore understands this. When you see the telcos putting serious cash reserves aside, then [well know theyre serious].

Still, the telcos are well positioned to enter financial services, Alkema said.Airtime has become a geographically independent store of value. In Africa, people buy airtime for people in other countries  its become a cross-border remittance. So, telcos already have a pseudo digital currency. They are already sitting on a digital store of value, which is that data and voice capability. When they can figure out new and innovative business models around that, it will be hugely interesting.Alkema said telecoms operators need to find innovative business models that are not simply an add-on to their telco capabilities but a full banking offering.

They need to get out there and say there are building a retail bank, exactly like Discovery has done.The problem is the market is already competitive, in an economy that is depressed, making it difficult for new players to break in.The only market share available is the market share you can take away from existing banks, said Alkema. And that will be a tall order given that local banks have a strong foothold and are innovative. Also, the regulatory environment is tough, making it difficult for new players to enter the market successfully.

Techcentral
The stigma and prejudice associated with the condition of albinism has to stop. It's inhumane,"says Councillor of Marulamantsi Ward and Chairman of the Albinism Society of Botswana (ASB) Sergeant Kgosietsile.

He was speaking at a leadership workshop for people with Albinism which began at Sedibeng Lodge on Wednesday. The three-day workshop, organised by the ASB and sponsored by the German Embassy is aimed at empowering people with albinism with public speaking, research, advocacy, and assertiveness and confidence skills.Kgosietsile said people with Albinism needed to be empowered with education, among other things, not just to prosper, but to also come to the fore and get help with accepting their condition, as self-esteem is one of their greatest challenge. Albinism, a congenital disorder in which people lack colour pigmentation in their skin, hair and eyes, affects about one in every 20, 000 people worldwide. It is most common in sub-Saharan Africa, where there remains great misunderstanding about people with the condition.

In some parts of southern and eastern Africa, body parts of those living with Albinism are believed to hold magical powers, and so they are hunted and killed by "Albino hunters. Attacks have been reported in Tanzania, Burundi and Malawi. But even when they are not hunted, Kgosietsile said people with Albinism often face discrimination and ridicule within their own families and communities. Thulaganyo Perekisi (29) shared with Botswana Guardian the challenges he has endured in his day-to-day life: As much as some family members accepted me from birth, it took my parents some time to truly accept me. It affected me because I needed them at that time, and I didn't have their support. But I couldn't blame them because they didn't understand what was going on with me.

I have experienced a lot of discrimination from our society and people who are uninformed about Albinism.





As a primary school pupil, Perekisi said other kids stayed away from him because he was different from them and this affected his self-esteem. I was called different names; some would call me "white spooky", and others would always tease me and call me ugly. At the time, I also didn't understand what and who I was until one day, a girl from my class reached out to me.She asked me why I was casting myself aside from other kids, and I had to explain to her that it was because I was different. She was so young, and I was amazed with her mindset. She told me that people will always talk no matter what, but it's up to me to change their perception of me. Since then, I dont let anyone treat me as though I am different from the rest of the people.It's funny how dark-skinned people think they are better than Albinos, but we are all black.

I have come across people who would make derogatory remarks when they see me. Its really frustrating because it shows how ignorant people can be.Perekisi says there is need for a lot of awareness rising. The organisations advocating for people living with Albinism or disabilities in general should take a different approach when raising awareness. Instead of mobilising each other, they should involve the society and provide necessary information to them he said, adding, We should not be made to feel self-conscious about who we are because that's how isolation begins. Other challenges discussed at the workshop include eyesight problems, discrimination at the workplace but more pressing is climate change, which Kgosietsile said has affected persons with Albinism more, especially when exposed to the excessive heat the country has experienced recently.

As an organisation we are concerned because not much is being done to protect our people. Climate change has adverse effects on people with Albinism. They are more prone to cancer of the skin, he said. He pleaded with government to make available funds so that people with Albinism can buy and apply special lotions made for their skins.

He said: Our skin is very sensitive to heat and recently we have seen a rise in skin cancers and many Albinos are dying because of this. By not availing these creams to us, government is ignoring a right to life of the Albino.Kgosetsile also stressed that all kinds of nonsensical myths about Albinism should be debunked. This event is aimed at creating awareness on the abuse which people with Albinism experience, and to help alleviate trauma experienced by them. We also want to provide support by educating society on issues affecting us, he said.
There are growing concerns that Vice President Mokgweetsi Masisi risks compromising his chances of retaining the position of Botswana Democratic Party chairman which he reportedly seeks to defend at the elective congress next year.

Masisi, who is the current Vice President also seeks to succeed President Ian Khama as Head of State when Khama retires at the end of his two five-year terms in 2018. Unconfirmed reports say that, the current Minister of Infrastructure and Housing Development, Nonofo Mofefhi, is challenging Masisi for the two positions. A recent visit to Tutume by Vice President, Mokgweetsi Masisi has ignited angry accusations by members of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) in the area who complain that the VP disregarded protocol when he jetted into the village and met party members with neither the involvement nor knowledge of the party structures in the region or constituency.

It is alleged that Masisi has been meeting and talking to party veterans such as former Members of Parliament for Nkange constituency Obed Chilume and his successor, Ambrose Masalila. Sources in the BDP in the Nkange constituency which encompasses Tutume note that in the runup to the 2014 general election, there was palpable animosity between Chilume and Masalila on the one hand and Batshu on the other. Masalila lost the BDP primary elections to Batshu before the 2009 general election. Apparently, he was not happy with the outcome of the primary elections hence the fallout, which sources say continues to this day. BDP sources say that Masisi, who has been recruiting members of the opposition and especially from Botswana Congress Party, wants to position his own people in the constituency to help his bid for the chairmanship and later, Head of State.





This has not gone down well with supporters of Edwin Batshu, the sitting MP as they insist that Masisi wants to replace Batshu with former BCP chairman Batisani Maswibilili in the next general election. Maswibilili, who is the current Chairman of the BCP Committee of Elders, has unsuccessfully contested the constituency losing to Masalila twice and to Batshu once. Matters allegedly came to a head when Masisi was officiating at Batshus victory party recently. We had heard rumours that the Vice President had been holding clandestine meetings with both Batshus detractors as well as BCP members he is allegedly recruiting into the party to oust Batshu in the next election. What we found suspicious about the whole thing is that the Vice President never saw the need to meet party structures in the area. He went behind them and held secret meetings with some members instead.

This has prompted suspicions that he has a hidden agenda, said a party official in the area speaking on condition of anonymity. He added that, because the rumours of Masisis alleged flirting with BCP activists had been flying thick and thin, Masisi seemed to confirm them when, to the utter chagrin of the BDP fraternity, he invited the group of BCP members who had sat under a tree at the victory celebration, to come forward and sit at the top table which they reportedly did. When contacted for comment, Maswibilili could only say, I will not glorify the madness of the BDP members and duplicity of some BCP members who are spreading the false rumours. Maswibilili, who does not understand what the fuss is all about, refused to shed more light on his relationship with the BDP save to say that he innocently attended the rally with other BCP activists.

Interestingly, a BDP councillor, Ishmael Mokgethi and Botho Ntirang are said to have openly come down heavily on the Vice President regarding his way of operating. Mokgethi, who is the chairman of the Tutume Sub-District, reportedly lambasted Masisi for holding secret meetings with certain party members in the constituency to the exclusion of others especially the party structures. When contacted for comment, Mokgethi said, It is true I complained about certain things that I felt were not being done properly. For his part, Ntirang is said to have lectured the party elders on the need to be careful with new recruits. Masisi has been accused of being obsessed with new recruits at the expense of the older members who have demonstrated undying loyalty to the party. There has also been a tendency by Masisi, who has been on the rampage winning over members of the opposition to the ruling party, to have them welcomed at rallies outside their places of residence. For example, when Ditiro Majadibodu and a number of BCP members joined the BDP, they were unveiled at a rally in the Barolong-Mabule constituency during a by-election there.

More recently a group of BDP members returning to the party after leaving in connection with their controversial loss in the primary elections towards the 2014 general election, were paraded at a rally in Kalakamate just before the recent by-election there. Some of them come from Zwenshambe while the others originate from Nlapkhwane villages. It is true that I stood to address the issue of welcoming people back into the party but outside the places they stay and will likely contest. The time has come for us to evaluate the benefits of this new strategy. Some of us doubt if it works, said Ntirang. Chilume denied knowledge of any plan to oust Batshu. While he admitted to having had meetings with the Vice President, he said, Maswibilili and I meet a lot over issues of the development of our village. I am one of the founders of the BDP especially in this area and therefore as far as Masisi is concerned, I worked with his father at government when Mokgweetsi was a student. We discuss a lot of things and not Batshu. In any case, as chairman and Vice President, Masisi does not need permission from anyone to visit whomsoever he wishes to visit, said the veteran politician.

As far as he is concerned, Batshu need not fear anything because if the people want him, they will return him to Parliament. Why is he afraid? asked Chilume rhetorically. In an interview, Batshu denied knowledge of the allegations doing the rounds that he is the target of an internal effort to replace him. To be honest, I am not aware of it but in politics, there are always enemies. Regarding Maswibilili, I personally would be happy to have him in the BDP. With respect to who stands and who does not, that is a matter for members to decide. There are processes to be followed, said Batshu. Masisi could not be reached for comment as his mobile phone was off air at the time of going to press.
A rude awakening! Indeed, a rude awakening as the world watched in great disbelief the rise and triumph of a potent concoction of right-wing populism and sheer lunacy packaged and braded, Donald Trump.

I have no doubt that the sheer magnitude of this shock, must have recorded high on the Richter scale. It certainly is of volcanic eruption proportions. Trumpism, as the die-hard followers of potent ideology prefers to call it, is premised on exploiting racism, bigotry, hatred and fear to attain a political goal. Hard as it is to come to terms with the reality that comes in January 2017, the Trumps would be swapping their already luxury home for the iconic Whitehouse, the one thing we can at least all agree on is that Trump heavily relied on racial resentment and patriotic animus as high-octane fuel to power him to the Oval Office.

From day one, hate has been the dominant strategic component of his campaign. It was by far the most defining feature of his political message, effectively rendering his take on economy and foreign policy immaterial footnotes. Essentially, Trump normalised hate and prejudice.





It is therefore, almost impossible to ascribe Trumps victory purely to his showmanship, wealth and policies (if any) while ignoring his open intimacy with right-wing populism, which premised on white supremacist ideologies. Essentially, hate has won. But the politics of race and hate are not anything new to mainstream American politics, particularly to the Republican Party. Remember the racial abuse that President Barack Obama had to endure to the Oval Office; he was literally not accepted as a legitimate American. But Trump has just taken the fever of hate, lunacy, loathing and otherism to a level never seen before in contemporary societies.

Let us bear in mind that, in 2012, Trump commissioned investigators to go to Hawaii, Obamas hometown, to dig for his birth certificate. Subsequent to this, polls showed Trump leading in the conservative vote even though he had not announced his intentions to run under the Republican card. Essentially, Trump had found an opening that had long existed within the conservative front: racism. Trump has been trading in hatred, paranoia, and irrationality. His own brand of the politics of hate had connected with a significant portion of white audience. In hindsight, there is nothing surprising that he has expanded this base by unleashing sweltering hate on immigrants, Muslims and other people of colour.

Trump has proved to be the political pivot that the hate-spewing white nationalists were long looking for to leverage and propagate their hate. No wonder, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) endorsed him and other White supremacists flocked to his campaign.

Trumps campaign also cashed on scaremongering. He decried Mexican and other immigrants as criminals who were threatening to overrun United States. He even at one point suggested ISIS was about to invade the United States under the pretext of immigration. He claimed the Generals in charge of US policy knew nothing and that Obama was sympathetic to terrorists and absurdly insisted that Obama and Clinton had founded ISIS. In other words, US national security was in the hands of fools and traitors.

Throughout the campaign, Trump's demagoguery and bigotry were not bound by facts."Make America Great Again" was a revisionist slogan designed to capitalise on hate, resentment and bigotry. Trumps chief currency was anger anchored on racism-driven ignorance. Trumps victory is an ugly victory because it was oxygenated by hate and bigotry.
China and India are two key markets which are expected to lead demand for diamonds in the short to medium term, an industry expert with more than 30 years in the diamond business told a conference this week.

De Beers Vice President, Marketing and, also Forevermark Chief Executive Stephen Lussier said the two leading economies which currently control just more than 20 percent will grow at much faster rates due to a number of factors. The current market share can even double by 2022.

We expect demand from these countries to pick up in the next five to ten years largely due to urbanisation and strong economic growths, said Lussier who is based in London but rarely there as he travels the world over in search of new markets for the worlds most precious stone. As more and more people migrate to cities and towns for economic opportunities, there will also be corresponding increase in income status enabling more people to afford diamond products such as jewellery. Lussier was speaking at the diamond conference organised by Botswana and De Beers.





The two are owners of rough diamond producer, Debswana Diamond Company. The Forevermark boss also pins his hopes on rising population in the two markets, stating it will boost sales. India, which is part of BRICS nations has strong middle class families ranging between 250 and 300 million. Chinas population is well over 1, 3 billion, far much more than the current biggest market for diamonds by any measure, United States of America. On the other hand, India grew by 7, 6 percent in the year 2015/6, signaling better times for the economy and the diamond industry.

In the same vein, China the worlds second biggest economy saw its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) jumping by 6, 7 percent year on year up to June 2016. These are just some of the reasons that make Lussier upbeat that diamonds will now find more comfort in New Dehli and Beijing. Despite being bullish, Lussier is also aware of the current economic challenges and commodities price crash that has affected most economies, China and India included. The current difficulties have affected diamond demand. Last year alone, producers and suppliers in the diamond trade experienced a decline in revenue of as much as 30 percent. De Beers and Alrosa remain the biggest market players.

Meanwhile, Dr. Mignon Reykene, a consultant and senior lecturer at GIBS told delegates that, marketers of diamonds should also tap into other platforms for selling the product. She said the new generation of diamond buyers, which she termed millennial are complex and different compared to those of the past. They need right platforms such as online buying, stressed Reykene who is also an independent consultant. About 6 percent of the worlds global diamond sales are done through online platforms.
MC for the day at the iZaura fashion show brunch, Zenzele Hirschfeld, described her long-time friend, fashion designer, entrepreneur and socialite, Mothusi Lesolle as an epitome of botho.

Some of the guests described him as a man dedicated to his craft, while others said that he is an example of perseverance. Hirschfeld along with other guests had gathered together to celebrate him, his fashion house iZaura and his successes, in an event dubbed, Brunch with iZaura which took place at the Masa Hotel rooftop this past Saturday.

The setting was perfect for this occasion which was geared at creating platforms for dialogue and conversation around the development of the local fashion industry and the promotion of entrepreneurial approaches towards seizing opportunities in Botswanas markets and beyond the border. Fashion enthusiasts, entrepreneurs and culinary lovers came dressed to kill in a variety of chic and fashionable clothing. Mingling with the guests while waiting for others to arrive, the bubbly and cheerful Lesolle had to contend with his name being called from every corner of the room as everyone wanted a piece of him. It was easy to tell that the guests adore Lesolle and wanted to share this glorious day with him.





Lesolle is finally living his dream but he is adamant that he wants to achieve more and will consider himself successful when he has pushed his brand beyond Botswanas borders and has a presence in countries like Kenya and the United States of America. When he finally took the stage to speak about his journey in the fashion industry, Lesolle narrated how he had quit his job in the corporate sector to pursue his dream of being a sought after fashion designer. He started working for acclaimed fashion designer Mpho Kuaho of Jophes 09267 to learn more about the nitty gritties of the industry until he started his own line. It has been only three years since I started and I have faced several challenges along the way but I persevered and did not give up on my dream. I have learnt a lot and I am ready to grow as a designer.

Initially I focused primarily on haute courte, but I now want to start designing ready to wear clothes, that are relatable, he told the attentive crowd. He added that his designs are inspired by women from all walks of life and considering that majority of the guests were women, it was easy to understand why. Guests were also treated to a sneak preview of the line that he is currently working on. Mothusi said that he is in the process of identifying and sealing a signature look that will be instantly associated with his designs. The garments were a hit with the guests and amidst the oohs and aahs of admiration, many of them bought their favourite pieces on the spot.
Aspectacular and thrilling show under the Mascom Live Sessions is slated to take place on 9 December 2016 at the BotswanaCraft.

The organisers have really come to the party for this one and are pulling all the stops to ensure that this is a show not to be easily forgotten, with a line-up that will excite fans. For the first time in the history of the sessions, South Africas popular Afro pop group Mafikizolo, is comprised of Theo Kgosinkwe and Nhlanhla Nciza and they will bring the house down alongside Botswanas very own local sensation Thabang Gaarogwe who will be the curtain raiser for the acclaimed group.

Mafikizolo is not your average group. You have to see them with your very own eyes in order to appreciate what they can unleash. From the minute that they take to the stage to the time that they bow down, you will remain glued to the stage as they take you through their groovy set. The dynamic duo that has worked with some of the top artists across the African continent take their craft seriously and always ensure that they give their fans a show worth remembering. The group has several albums under their belt including Reunited, Sibongile, Kwela, Van Toeka, Six Mabone and Gate Crashers.





Fans can look forward to performances of popular hits such as Khona, Ndihamba Nawe and O tswa kae. This promises to be one huge party that anybody who wishes to start the festive season and jam in style would not want to miss. And for those who have been cursed with two left feet, between now and beginning of December, they have time to polish their dance moves and hopefully move like eels on the dance floor on the night.
The employment relationship and how it is affected by business transfers in countries across Africa

The Employment & Benefits team at pan-African law firm, Bowmans, has put together a Guide covering the employment consequences in business transfers in Botswana, Cameroon, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia. The Guide outlines the laws in each jurisdiction that regulate the employment consequences of business transfers and provides useful insight for those planning to buy or sell a business, or out- or in-source a service, in those countries.

Different African countries regulate the employment impact of business transfers differently. The key distinction across jurisdictions is whether there is an automatic transfer of employment with going concern transfers, and if there is, whether this applies in outsourcing situations as well. This is according to Chris Todd, partner and head of the Employment & Benefits Practice at Bowmans.

Todd explains, In jurisdictions that have automatic employee transfer provisions, such as South Africa, Uganda and Madagascar, everything done by or on behalf of the previous employer immediately before the business transfer is deemed to have been done by or in relation to the new employer. This means that for the buyer, employment due diligence is critical, and risk must be mitigated by appropriate warranties and indemnities given by the seller. In addition, pension arrangements can be complicated and trade union and collective bargaining rights fall outside the scope of the typical regulation."

William Kasozi, Managing Partner of Bowmans in Uganda says that the Employment Act 2006 and the Employment Regulations in Uganda protect employment rights when a business is transferred as a going concern. This includes the transfer of the business or trade in part or in whole.

The protection accorded is principally that all rights and obligations between the employee and the old employer are automatically transferred and apply between the employee and the new employer, he says.

Adrien Rangira, a partner at Bowmans Francophone Africa says that in Cameroon, Madagascar and Senegal, If a going concern is transferred, the new employer is automatically substituted in the place of the previous employer in all contracts of employment in existence immediately before the date of the transfer. In addition, all rights and obligations between employer and employee continue in force as if they had been rights and obligations between the new employer and each employee.

In jurisdictions with no automatic transfer provisions, such as in Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia, the situation is reversed, and the seller or transferor of a business is primarily at risk.

Angela Waki, a partner at Bowmans in Kenya says that at present, there is no automatic transfer of employment on a business transfer in Kenya and employees are usually transferred through termination and rehire.

In practice, there are two options available to deal with employees. In the first option, a redundancy exercise is carried out by the seller and the employees are then engaged by the buyer on new employment contracts, in which case no continuing employment obligations are passed to the buyer. In the second option, the seller, the buyer and each affected employee enter into a tripartite agreement pursuant to which the existing employment contract is terminated and the buyer offers employment to the employee. In these circumstances, the employees would usually agree to waive their right to any redundancy payments in consideration of the new employer recognising accrued entitlements (including recognition of the original start date of the employees initial employment). Affected employees in a transfer must give their individual consent or, where unionized, with the representation of their union which can make this a drawn-out process.

In Nigeria, the buyer can cherry pick employees and is held only to the terms of offers specifically made to employees, said Mary Ekemezie, Senior Associate with Nigerian firm Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie.

This means that for the seller, the commercial terms of the deal may depend to a material extent on the likely cost and complexity of employment redundancies, and the transaction may be dependent on agreed transfers of employment or regulatory approvals of redundancies. Risk will be mitigated by the commercial terms and the extent to which the buyer is willing to take on employee obligations voluntarily, Ekemezie notes.

Talita Laubscher, a South African Employment partner at Bowmans, points out that this has been the outcome of a number of recent high profile mergers in South Africa too.

This means that the new owner of a business is faced with the difficult task of deciding what efficiency driven changes in the business are a result of the merger, and what changes arise from underlying operational considerations, she says.

Businesses planning mergers and acquisitions or outsourcing transactions across Africa need to be aware of the differing laws guiding the employment relationship in these countries. Knowing whether employment risks lie with the buyer or the seller will help those in the transaction to mitigate risks successfully, Laubscher adds.

www.bowmanslaw.com
The general manager for Doney Park Water acknowledged that the water company made a mistake in failing to send out boil water notifications to residents on Friday. Instead, residents received word on Sunday that one of the system's water samples had tested positive for E. coli on Wednesday and they should boil all water before they drink it.

But because Friday was Veterans Day, the company had one of its junior operators on staff and there was a misinterpretation of the notification process, said Bill Linville, Doney Park Water's general manager. Linville also said that an employee at the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality had initially said they were following the correct process after one of their samples tested positive for E. coli.

All of the water company's staff have now been properly educated on notification rules, Linville said.

He did point out that the E. coli contamination was confined to only a small portion of the northern part of the system. Water is pumped to that area, so there is no way it can flow back down to other places, Linville said.

He said he wished the notification system could have been better so that "the whole system wouldn't have gotten terrified."

Operators immediately started flushing the water pipes and rechlorinating the water after Wednesday's positive sample, he said. New samples taken Friday came back negative for E. coli and ADEQ rescinded the boil water order on Monday.

Doney Park Water is still investigating what could have been the source of the contamination, Linville said.


A representational photo.

DHAKA (PTI): Bangladesh Navy has acquired its first submarines from China, as Dhaka sought to boost its naval power in the resource-rich Bay of Bengal.



Bangladesh Navy chief Admiral Nizamuddin Ahmed received the two submarines during a ceremony at Liao Nan Shipyard in northeast China's Liaoning province's Dalian city, the Inter Services Public Relation Directorate spokeswoman Syed Taposhi Rabeya said on Monday.



The type 035G class submarines will become part of the country's naval fleet at the beginning of next year, she said.



The submarines will be named 'BNS Nabajatra' and 'BNS Joyjatra' respectively, Dhaka Tribune reported.



Bangladesh is said to have paid nearly USD 203 million for the two submarines, the report said.



Type 035G-class submarines area, also known as Ming- class, is a class of diesel-electric submarines of China's People's Liberation Army Navy.



The primary weaponry for Type 035G is Yu-3 torpedo, and French sonar DUUX-5 and its Chinese-built version were used on later units, 12 of which were completed between 1990 and 1999.



Bangladesh has been expanding its defence capabilities in recent years, building a new airbase close to neighbouring Myanmar, opening several new military cantonments across the country and adding new frigates to its naval fleet.



Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced the plan to purchase two submarines in 2013 as part of her government's move to build a modern navy to defend the resource-rich Bay of Bengal.



An international tribunal has settled Bangladesh's long- standing maritime border disputes with neighbours Myanmar and India, paving the way for Dhaka to invite bids from multinational firms to explore for oil in the Bay.



Bangladeshi officials say that has ensured the country's sovereignty over 111,631sq-km of sea, an area nearly equal to its landmass.


A boil water notice issued to Doney Park residents over the weekend should have gone out at least two days earlier, according to state environmental officials.

Residents got notification Sunday that E. coli bacteria had been detected in the Doney Park Water Systems tap water on Wednesday and were told to either use bottled water or boil their tap water before using it.

The order was rescinded Monday morning after more recent water samples tested negative for E. coli and total coliform. The presence of those bacteria indicates that water may be contaminated with human or animal waste and can occur when runoff increases into the drinking water source, there is a break in the distribution system or a failure occurs in the water treatment process.

While the threat has presumably passed, Doney Park Water should have informed residents of the E. coli detection much earlier than it did  by the end of Friday at the latest, said Caroline Oppleman, spokesperson with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.

The water company received the first positive E. coli test results on Wednesday, which triggered another round of required sampling that was analyzed and results sent back late Thursday evening, Oppleman said. Those results showed up negative for E. coli but positive for total coliform, which, according to EPA regulations meant that Doney Park Water should have sent out a public notice within 24 hours.

Without a doubt they were required to notice on the 11th and they failed to do so, Oppleman said.

Officials with Doney Park Water, which serves about 8,200 people according to ADEQ, did not return calls for comment or explanation about the noticing delay.

An E. coli detection in water can have serious implications for human health. According to the EPA, a violation of E. coli standards indicates possible exposure to pathogens in drinking water that can possibly result in serious, acute health effects, such as diarrhea, cramps, nausea, headaches, or other symptoms.

On Monday morning the Coconino County Public Health Services District had not received any notification of people getting sick due to the tap water in Doney Park.

At Flagstaff Medical Center, Tyffany Laurano, the hospital's director of emergency services, reported that the emergency department saw 53 patients with gastrointestinal complaints between Nov. 10 and Nov. 13. However, there isnt any way for hospital officials to correlate those complaints to the Doney Park water issue, FMC spokesperson Sophia Papa wrote in an email.

Federal regulations require public water systems to sample for total coliform and E. coli on a monthly basis. The last time Doney Parks water tested positive for E. coli was in 2011, according to an ADEQ database.

According to the letter from Doney Park Water that residents received on Sunday, the water company immediately began chlorinating and flushing its system when it received the positive E. coli test results.

At least one area resident, Donna Holsclaw, said she could taste chlorine in her water on Friday. When Holsclaw spoke with one of the company's water technicians however, he didnt indicate there was any sort of problem with the water. According to chatter on the neighborhoods online forum, some neighbors received notices later than others and some people didnt receive any notice about the water problems at all, Holsclaw said.


A representational photo.

PUNE (PTI): Opening ceremony of the sixth India China Joint Training Exercise, Hand in Hand 2016, was held on Wednesday at the parade ground in Aundh Military Camp, here.



The joint exercise was held in the presence of Major General Y K Joshi, ADGMO of Indian Army and Major General Wang Haijiang of the People's Liberation Army and other senior Army officers of both the countries, said a defence release.



The parade was commanded by Lt Col Li Guanghua, Commanding Officer of People's Liberation Army.



"Both the senior military officers of the Indian Army addressed the contingents before Major General Wang Haijiang of Chinese Army declared the Joint Exercise open. The aim of the joint exercise is to acquaint both the Armies with each other's operating procedures in the backdrop of counter terrorism environment," it added.



"The opening ceremony was followed by both the contingents displaying their weapons which included assault rifles, grenade launchers and other sophisticated equipment.



The ceremony concluded with an enthralling and mesmerising display of India martial arts of Kalyaripattu, Khukri dance and Malkhamb by soldiers of Indian Army and a massed martial arts display by the Chinese contingent. The exercise will terminate on November 27," the statement said.



Earlier on November 15, the Chinese contingent from the 13 Group Army, Chengdu Military Region comprising of one Infantry Company along with supporting staff landed at the Lohegaon airfield in two IL- 76 Aircrafts from China.



The statement said the 13-day schedule is focused upon training on crossing of obstacles, special heliborne operations, firing of various weapons, handling & neutralisation of improvised explosive devices and conduct of cordon & search operations in insurgency and terrorism environment.


Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/11/2016 (2178 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Melita Health Centre will be without emergency room services for a month during the holiday season.

Its the latest rural ER to see temporary suspension due to lack of physicians.

They have one physician only that does on-call in the community, said Prairie Mountain Health CEO Penny Gilson. Hes a long-term physician and now takes a fair amount of time off away from the community, so whenever he goes away, there isnt service.

Melitas month-long ER suspension will take place Dec. 14 at 8 a.m. until 8 a.m. on Jan. 14, 2017. This is in addition to other closures scheduled this month: from 8 a.m. on Nov. 16 until 8 a.m. on Nov. 25, and again on Nov. 30 at 8 a.m. until 8 a.m. on Dec. 3.

Meanwhile, Carberry and Glenboro will be without an emergency department for a 24-hour period later this month: beginning at 7:30 a.m. on Nov. 25 until 7:30 a.m. on Nov. 26.

Prairie Mountain Healths public alerts section on its website shows a similar situation in many rural communities.

Often a temporary closure will last for 24 hours, as seen with the Hamiota District Health Centre. It will be without an emergency department from 8 a.m. today until tomorrow at 8 a.m. It will again be closed due to staff resource issues on Nov. 21 and again on Nov. 29.

While Prairie Mountain Health works to cover emergency departments in rural communities on a 24/7 basis, Gilson explains sometimes it just is not possible.

We did have a physician leave Deloraine and so the two doctors  one in Deloraine, one in Boissevain  have been covering 24/7, Gilson said. But again thats a pretty onerous on-call schedule with only two physicians, so Im anticipating we may have some challenges over Christmas there.

Killarney and area will see their ER closed four times this month for 15-hour periods

(5 p.m. to 8 a.m.) on Nov. 18, 21, 23 and 28. Gilson noted a new physician from the United Kingdom has just arrived in Manitoba and will start working in Killarney soon. The Shoal Lake/Strathclair Health Centre will be closed Nov. 29 at 7 a.m. until further notice.

We did place a physician in Shoal Lake whos doing primary care in Shoal Lake, and doing on-call work out of Hamiota, Gilson said. So its just sporadic times where we dont have coverage, and we do a mail drop to the community every month outlining when there might not service.

Roblin had a three-day suspension of service every week, but as of last week is back to full service.

To deal with the ongoing challenge, Gilson said PMH strategically monitors where their EMS units are.

If weve got holes in the emergency room coverage, then we try to make sure weve got our ambulances well-situated to be able to respond in a timely manner, Gilson said. We just monitor it very, very closely and try to keep communities well informed.

Gilson also noted that ambulance services provided today are much different than what was offered years ago. Medical attention that was traditionally only done in the ER has shifted to the back of an ambulance so people are receiving active care en route to the hospital. Patients are taken to the closest available emergency room.

In terms of community impact, Gilson said the biggest issue is when people have non-urgent situations, and having to travel a longer distance for that medical attention.

Recruitment and retention of rural health professionals remains a top priority for PMH.

We keep making every Manitoba grad aware of the opportunities we have in Prairie Mountain, Gilson said. We continue to sponsor international medical graduates through the provincial assessment process  We will have six ready next summer if theyre all successful.

 jaustin@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @jillianaustin
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/11/2016 (2178 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An organization focused on water-related concerns in the Assiniboine River Basin is bracing for its biggest test since they formed in 2014.

Top of mind for representatives at last weeks conference in Minot, N.D., was the threat of potential flooding this spring, after excess moisture saturated the landscape this fall, particularly in Westman.

Allan Preston, board chair for the Assiniboine River Basin Initiative, said the topic came up in many conference presentations and casual discussions among delegates.

Many of those in attendance have weathered through the floods of 2011 and 2014, said Preston, a Hamiota resident. I wont say theres a fear of another flood but theres certainly an awareness that the soil moisture conditions right now are quite similar to what they were back in 2010  in other words, completely saturated.

Preston cautioned it is too soon to forecast a flood, but he said representatives at the conference are aware that present conditions are conducive to spring flooding. The threat will be aggravated in the coming months if there is heavy snowfall and a fast melting season.

Last weeks conference in Minot was the third annual gathering of the Assiniboine River Basin Initiative, which includes the sub-basins of the QuAppelle, Souris (Mouse) and Assiniboine rivers.

The organization, which was formed after devastating floods in 2011 and 2014, brings representatives from Manitoba, Saskatchewan and North Dakota together to work co-operatively in dealing with water-related matters.

Due to work the group has done since its inaugural conference, Preston said they are better prepared to mitigate future flooding.

He pointed out the dike improvements in Brandon, mitigation efforts in Minot and local conservation and watershed management authorities emphasizing small dam construction and retention structures as positive steps.

Preston noted the group is moving ahead with a

$1.8-million HydroGeoSphere model, which will produce a precise 3D control-volume simulation of the entire basin, which stretches 162,000 square kilometres.

Combined, these efforts are part of the common goal of improving water management.

Theres tremendous work that has been done and will be done, he said, but (in the past) sometimes the left hand doesnt know what the right hand is doing, Preston said.

A final draft of the committees framework for watershed stewardship, which lays out their goals and objectives, was presented at the conference. Key strategies include improved trans-boundary communication and prioritizing science-based decisions.

 ifroese@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @ianfroese
Fire managers are planning a prescribed burn project Wednesday in the Mormon Lake area. Weather conditions will dictate when or if the project is initiated by fire managers.

A portion of the Arizona National Scenic Trail, between Forest Service Roads 90N and 90H, will be temporarily closed at least through the weekend due to the burning. A short, easy reroute will be marked during that time.

Prescribed burns are conducted to help protect communities, such as the Village of Mormon Lake in this case, from severe wildfires. These burns reduce fuel accumulations when conditions are safe. They also reintroduce fire into the Ponderosa pine ecosystem for restoration purposes.

In addition to the Mormon Lake Prescribed burn, the Mogollon Rim Ranger District will likely have prescribed burns, postponed from today, in the Blue Ridge Urban Interface Project near Clint Wells on Tuesday.

MORMON LAKE BASIN PROJECT

When: Ignition planned for Wednesday.

Where: Just south of Forest Service Road 240 near the FSR 90 & 90H.

Size: Approximately 1200 acres.

Impacts: Good ventilation is expected to push smoke to the northeast/east during the day and may be visible to traveler on Lake Mary Road (Forest Highway 3) and Coconino County Road 90.

BLUE RIDGE URBAN INTERFACE PROJECT

When: Ignition planned for Tuesday

Where: Approximately eight miles northeast of Clints Well.

Size: Approximately 400 acres.

Impacts: Good ventilation is expected to push smoke to the north/northeast during the day and may be visible to Happy Jack visitors, Clint Wells residents, others along the rim country, along with motorists on Forest Service Road 300, Arizona Route 87 and Lake Mary Road (Forest Highway 3).

A wildfire, the Jones Fire, is also burning north of Stoneman Lake and is scheduled to be suppressed using burn out operations Tuesday as well. This back burn will create smoke in the Mormon Lake and Stoneman Lake areas.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/11/2016 (2178 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Our new Progressive Conservative government is committed to ensuring accountability, strategic investment and value for money, including within Manitobas Crown corporations. We are restoring this accountability after the previous NDP administrations decade of debt, decay and decline, when they made politically motivated decisions that damaged these corporations bottom lines.

We have created the new Department of Crown Services responsible for Manitoba Hydro, Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries and Manitoba Public Insurance. Our new government has asked these Crown corporations to review their activities to ensure they are operating within their core mandates while acting in the best interests of ratepayers and taxpayers. We are, as well, preparing legislation that will improve the accountability of Crown corporations and strengthen their oversight to find efficiencies and savings, while improving their services Manitobans depend on.

Our government has welcomed the decision by Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries to cancel its unnecessary relocation and construction of a new headquarters in Winnipeg. Liquor and Lotteries newly appointed board of directors reviewed the plan to purchase and renovate a downtown office tower at a cost of $75 million, and found it to be unnecessary, a poor use of taxpayers dollars and well outside the corporations core mandate.

As well, during the past 3 years, Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries spent more than $292,000 of taxpayers money on excessive travel for its senior executives.

Our commitment to accountability and value also stands in sharp contrast to the previous governments mismanagement and waste in accelerating construction of Manitoba Hydro mega-projects. The NDPs aggressive pursuit of the Bipole III transmission line and the Keeyask Generating Station has burdened Manitoba Hydro with unprecedented debt, which is projected to nearly double to $25 billion from its current level of $13 billion within the next three or four years. The NDPs mismanagement of Hydro has seriously damaged our provinces financial stability. Our new PC government is committed to correcting this course, as part of our mandate to fix the provinces finances, repair our services and rebuild our economy.

Unlike the NDP, we understand the choices we make today have an impact on the services we can deliver tomorrow. We are listening to Manitobans and working with citizens, stakeholders and the new boards of our Crown corporations. We are proud to put the public interest first, in the Brandon area and across Manitoba. We are committed to restoring trust and integrity in government while making Manitoba families safer and stronger.

Len Isleifson

MLA for Brandon East
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A makeshift solar-powered houseboat has washed up on an Irish beach after apparently drifting across the Atlantic Ocean from Canada.

Authorities say the owner was intending to sail on the "floating caravan" but was talked out of it before it broke loose from its mooring in Newfoundland in the last few months.
The Simpsons has responded to correctly predicting a Trump presidency 16 years ago.

In the episode 'Bart to the Future', Lisa was the first female president and America was financially crippled as a result of Trump's time in the White House.

The Simpsons updates its 2000 prediction of a Trump Presidency... #TheSimpsons pic.twitter.com/Myf5rYb9Dj  The Simpsons (@TheSimpsons) November 14, 2016

In the latest opening credits, Bart writes on the blackboard 'being right sucks'

Earlier this year, Simpsons writer Dan Greaney said that the episode, which aired in 2000, "was a warning to America".
The following editorial appeared in The Orange County Register on Thursday, Nov. 10:

In the thunder of a presidential campaign, it is sometimes hard to remember that the president of the United States is the head of just one of three co-equal branches of the federal government.

The president cant raise or cut taxes, expand or contract the defense budget, commit the U.S. to treaties, or amend the Constitution. There is very little that a president can do without the consent of at least a majority of U.S. senators, who are under no obligation to support the presidents agenda, and a majority of the U.S. House of Representatives, lawmakers who face the voters every two years  and likely have the ulcers to prove it.

On television, the presidency could easily be mistaken for a monarchy, with all the pomp of red carpets and motorcades. The truth is very different. The American system of government has a fire alarm in every corridor of power  and many opportunities to break the glass and knock down the blaze of an ill-advised policy.

Some people call that gridlock, but its the founders design. After an election like the one weve just had, at least half the country may be newly persuaded of its wisdom and foresight.

No one should mistake the end of the campaign for the end of the dispute. Americans have deep and sincere disagreements about the causes of the nations most pressing problems: the lack of economic growth, the deficit of new jobs that pay enough to support a family, the increasing cost and decreasing choices of health insurance, the unaffordable cost of college, the threat of terrorist attacks in U.S. cities and the persistence of violent turmoil abroad.

In order to accomplish anything during the next four years, the president-elect will have to work with Congress in a constructive manner that respects the views of tens of millions of Americans who voted for a different candidate. There will not always be agreement, but we should demand civil discourse and reject any attempt to demonize or marginalize people of good will whose experiences led them to a different view of an issue.

With respect to vacancies on the U.S. Supreme Court, nominations should be made with an understanding that public confidence in the court is essential to public confidence in government. The Senate has the power to reject a nominee who might put that confidence at risk for any reason.

Thats just one of many checks and balances that are built into our system to limit the power of those who are elected to high public office. The U.S. government was not designed for perfect human beings, but for the other kind.

Into the great unknown with Trump

The following editorial appeared in the Dallas Morning News on Wednesday, Nov. 9:

Come January, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States.

This newspaper, along with many Americans both liberal and conservative, had hoped never to write that sentence. But the time for arguing about who should lead this country for the next four years is over.

When Trump takes the oath of office in January, he will become the only president this great nation has. He will be our president, and yours, too, no matter how you voted or even if you voted.

Enhancing his clout is the fact that he will be joined by fellow Republicans in control of both houses of Congress.

Accepting all of this is going to be painful for Hillary Clinton supporters. But its a necessary step if America is to heal the divisiveness that has plagued its politics for so many years.

Those who voted against Trump, or who oppose his policies in the future, must find ways to work with him, even as they find the courage and creativity to draw lines around those principles and policies that mean the most to them.

But neither is it wise, or even honest, to pretend that Tuesdays results, as impressive as they are, does not threaten to divide us even further.

Many of our countrymen and women are jubilant. Trump, many have felt, hears the cries of those who have felt left out of the cultural conversation in America, and of those who have been left behind as the nations economy has become increasingly international in scope and arcane in complexity.

But tens of millions of Americans are grieving. To them, Tuesdays results feel like a rending of what they assumed were the bedrock principles of this modern nation. For months, this newspaper has stood in their camp, and we cannot pretend these election results do not dismay us.

We worry that we dont yet know, that no one knows, how Trump will govern once he is president. We worry about his tough talk on massive deportations, religious litmus tests, and his general impulsiveness, even on issues of national security and foreign affairs. Principled Republicans and Democrats alike should steel themselves to push back against these instincts.

These wounds will not heal quickly, and the fear of what a Trump presidency will mean for America will not evaporate over night.

But they can heal eventually, and Trump himself can help that happen. Much depends on how he governs. Will he seek to exploit the vulnerable among us? Or will victory bring an unexpected grace?

Keeping promises made to forgotten Americans

The following editorial appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Thursday, Nov. 10:

Donald J. Trump was elected president of the United States Tuesday in free and fair elections. Love or hate Trump, because of our cherished democracy and playing by the rules that are at the core of American principles, we are fully obliged to support the president-elect as he seeks to govern the nation to the best of his ability and in the peoples interest.

After running in the most unconventional and brutal presidential campaign in modern history, Trump gave a short victory speech that was conventional and calming: I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans, he said. Working together, we will begin the urgent task of rebuilding our nation and renewing the American dream.  The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer. Those words indicate that he not only understands the obligation voters commitment places upon him, but that he also wishes to get America past the bitterness and division of the past year.

The voters left both the House of Representatives and the Senate in the hands of a Republican Party majority. That means that America should be free, starting in January, of the paralyzing political gridlock that has so hampered President Barack Obama in addressing the nations problems.

Voting results indicate that first and foremost among these problems is the feeling of many voters that their well-being is not being seen to by Washington, that they are being left to rot. Dealing with these issues is going to require Trumps balancing his campaign pledges of a tax cut, reducing Americas military presence overseas without jeopardizing its security, and renewing America through constructive, remunerative work. He must not forget the geography of the American Brexit: Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio. Those are the states that made Trump president. Trump ran on the promise of doing something about a broken American dream. He cannot now say that it was a metaphor, that none of it is really possible.

Trump enters the White House with the immense enmity of millions of Americans who are aghast at his conduct on the campaign trail for the past year and a half. Yet to echo Hillary Clinton in her gracious concession speech Wednesday, We owe him an open mind and a chance to lead.

A police apology to minorities is not magic, but a good place to start healing

The following editorial appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Monday, Nov. 7:

Relations between police and residents of minority communities across America are tense as shootings and deaths on both sides generate increasing media attention. An apology from the head of one of the nations largest police organizations for the professions role in the historical mistreatment of minorities is a bold attempt to reset the conversation and create a new environment of trust.

Terrence Cunningham, president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said last month that he hopes all involved can work together to break a multi-generational  almost inherited  mistrust between minorities and police.

Powerful words from the Wellesley, Mass., chief of police and head of the IACP, whose members include 23,000 U.S. police chiefs and senior law enforcement officers from dozens of countries. Cunninghams statement at the groups annual conference in San Diego comes amid heightened concern over perceived overreaction, especially in police-involved shooting cases where the victim was unarmed.

The shooting death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014 was a pivotal moment in police-community relations. Subsequent shootings have inflamed tensions, triggered protests and increased mistrust. The history of policing is filled with examples of bravery, self-sacrifice and service, Cunningham said, but the darker periods must be acknowledged to begin healing.

Fellow chiefs gave Cunningham a standing ovation, but the Fraternal Order of Police, representing more than 300,000 law enforcement officers, said apologies do not adequately address the current issues facing law enforcement and the communities they serve.

Trust is a two-way street. Law-abiding citizens have every right to go about their business without fear of police harassment. They also need to know that an encounter with law enforcement will not necessarily turn deadly.

Police also must have the ability to do their jobs  protecting the public  without fearing that everyone views them as the enemy. They must be able to do their jobs without worrying that they will be ambushed when they head into treacherous areas and dangerous situations.

No one should expect tensions to dissipate overnight. But Cunningham has at least started a necessary, if not uncomfortable, conversation within the police community.

Acknowledging a checkered history that includes acts of bravery and goodwill, as well as abuses, is a peace offering that can form the basis for rebuilding confidence. The past cannot be changed, but law enforcers should use Cunninghams message to begin offering training and programs aimed at restoring trust.

Progressive leaders will find ways to create better communities and ease tensions. An apology is a good step toward peace.
A man in his 80s has died after a house fire in Co Tyrone.

He was found dead by emergency crews who were called to the property in Lissan Road, Cookstown, shortly before 9.50am on Tuesday.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said the political block of Norwegian Air's longstanding bid to fly trans-Atlantic from Cork Airport appears to have lifted, writes Daniel McConnell, Political editor.

The matter was raised by Cork South West TD Jim Daly in the Dail, who called on the Taoiseach to convene a mission to Washington DC in a bid to resolve the dispute.

Mr Daly said: It is not safety reasons blocking this, it is not commercial reasons, it is purely political. There is a political deadlock preventing all transatlantic traffic coming into the second largest airport in the country, he said.

Now with a new administration coming into Washington, would he consider sending a delegation to Washington to ask that politics be taken out of this, Mr Daly said.

In response, Mr Kenny said the Government has supported and continues to support the Norwegian Air project and that he and several of his ministers have raised the matter in Washington consistently in recent years.

The Government support this. The opportunity that exists from this Norwegian Airlines to be able to fly the Atlantic and land in Cork, Shannon and to a lesser extent Knock. This matter has been raised by the ministers over the years, he said.

I myself had the opportunity to raise it directly with the President of the United States on two successive St Patrick's week visits, Mr Kenny added.

The union of airline pilots were blocking this for some time.They have lifted that blockage and they are happy to go ahead provided the pilots who fly the routes were paid at European and US rates. There was a fear that pilots from the Far East only flying the routes at a lower rate, Mr Kenny told the Dail.

He said he would be very happy to continue to make the case on behalf of Cork Airport.

Meanwhile, the costs associated with the building of the National Childrens' Hospital have doubled to more than 1bn, it was claimed in the Dail.

Tipperary Rural Independent Alliance TD Mattie McGrath said the costs involved in the project are now like a runaway train, which prompted some hilarity the Dail chamber given news reports in this morning's papers about the Limerick-Ballybrophy line costing 550 per passenger.

Mr McGrath told the Dail he still opposed plans to locate the hospital at St Jamess Hospital in central Dublin.

He said the projected cost over-runs could fund a resolution of the public pay crux and fix health service problems like those at Clonmel Hospital.

What is staggering is that these costs exclude fit-out costs for equipment and IT, Mr McGrath said.

He called on the Taoiseach if he wanted to be remembered in the future as the person who presided over such huge cost over-runs.

In response, Mr Kenny said the planned new hospital would provide childrens health services for the next 50 years.

He said the matter would be subject of a memo to Government from Public Spending Minister, Paschal Donohoe, and Health Minister, Simon Harris, which caused the two ministers to appear somewhat surprised in the Dail chamber.

Mr Kenny said value for money would be central to government deliberations.

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin focused on what he said was the funding crisis in the Institutes of Technology countrywide. Mr Kenny said a new third level college funding plan was currently being prepared and will be ready by the middle of next year.
A prisoner has died inside Maghaberry high security jail in Northern Ireland.

The death is the

Read More:

The Northern Ireland Prison Service confirmed the latest fatal incident in a statement.

"The next of kin have been informed and the Prison Service has expressed their sympathy to the family," it said.

"The PSNI, Coroner and Prisoner Ombudsman will conduct a full investigation into the death."
Update 11.21am: The Department of Public Expenditure has said that Minister Pascal Donohoe will not be revealing a timeline for public pay talks today.

The Minister is bringing a memo to Cabinet on the issue but it does not contain a proposed date for discussions to begin.
Members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) will hold a lunchtime protest from 1.30-3pm today at Dungarvan Community Hospital, Waterford.

The action is aimed at highlighting what the organisation says is a shortage of nurses at this 146 bedded care of the older person facility.
President Michael D Higgins begins his visit to Laos today - the final country on his tour of south east Asia.

He'll be meeting the country's political leaders in the capital Vientiane.

The President's trip is aimed at promoting trade, education and cultural links with countries in the region.

President Michael D. Higgins receiving an official welcome to Laos People's Democratic Republic. pic.twitter.com/LEn65FdYYP  President of Ireland (@PresidentIRL) November 15, 2016

The Presidents visit will seek to support the socio-economic development of the region in the areas of nutrition, clearance of unexploded ordnance, green energy and small producer sustainability in the agricultural area.

He will discuss the future of ecologically sustainable tourism, including through the Irish Aid programme.

President Higgins will attend a State Banquet hosted in his honour by President Bounnhang Vorachith and his wife, which will also include a performance of Lao traditional music.

The President and Sabina Higgins will also have a meeting with the small Irish community in Lao PDR.

The President will also visit Mahasot Hospital, where women are supported in learning about early child nutrition before and after birth, through a partnership project between Government and civil society which is supported by Irish Aid.
Air strikes have hit rebel-held eastern areas of Aleppo for the first time in three weeks, Syrian opposition activists say, amid fears it could signal the start of a new government offensive in the city.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the air strikes struck three neighbourhoods, but had no immediate word on casualties.

Activist Baraa al-Halaby, based in eastern Aleppo, said warplanes fired missiles and helicopters dropped barrel bombs on the eastern part of Syria's largest city.

In mid-October, Russia said it would halt air strikes to allow rebels and supporters to leave eastern Aleppo.

The rebels refused to take up the offer and the United Nations failed to negotiate the delivery of aid into the besieged area.

UN agencies said today that food production in Syria has shrunk to "an all-time low", threatening to drive more people from their homes after more than five years of war.

The World Food Programme and the Food and Agricultural Organisation said factors like rising prices, poor weather, general instability and the lack of fertiliser and seeds could force some farmers to stop producing.

A joint report said the planting area in the 2015-16 season was the smallest ever in zones controlled by the government, ethnic Kurds and the armed opposition.

WFP spokeswoman Bettina Luescher said information was lacking about areas controlled by Islamic State.

FAO regional representative Abdessalam Ould Ahmed said 80% of households lack food or money to buy it.
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Claim:

MIXTURE

Examples:

[Collected via e-mail, 2006]

WHERE YOUR TAXES GO - ILLEGAL ALIENS



Attributed to the LA Times, June 2002:



1. 40% of all workers in L.A. County (L.A. County has 10 million people) are working for cash and not paying taxes. This was because they are predominantly illegal immigrants, working without a green card.



2. 95% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens.



3. 75% of people on the most wanted list in Los Angeles are illegal aliens.



4. Over 2/3's of all births in Los Angeles County are to illegal alien Mexicans on Medi-Cal whose births were paid for by taxpayers.



5. Nearly 25% of all inmates in California detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally.



6. Over 300,000 illegal aliens in Los Angeles County are living in garages.



7. The FBI reports half of all gang members in Los Angeles are most likely illegal aliens from south of the border.



8. Nearly 60% of all occupants of HUD properties are illegal.



9. 21 radio stations in L.A. are Spanish speaking.



10. In L.A.County 5.1 million people speak English. 3.9 million speak Spanish (10.2 million people in L.A.County).



(All 10 from the Los Angeles Times)



Less than 2% of illegal aliens are picking our crops but 29% are on welfare. See...



http://www.cis.org/



Over 70% of the United States annual population growth (and over 90% of California, Florida, and New York) results from immigration.



The cost of illegal immigration to the American taxpayer in 1997 was a NET (after subtracting taxes immigrants pay) $70 BILLION a year, [Professor Donald Huddle, Rice University].



The lifetime fiscal impact (taxes paid minus services used) for the average adult Mexican immigrant is a NEGATIVE.



29% of inmates in federal prisons are illegal aliens.

Origins:

Los Angeles Times

Over 2/3's of all births in Los Angeles County are to illegal alien Mexicans on Medi-Cal whose births were paid for by taxpayers.

all

Los Angeles

Medi-Cal."

The FBI reports half of all gang members in Los Angeles are most likely illegal aliens from south of the border.

No one knows for certain the percentage of illegals in gangs, thanks in large part to sanctuary laws themselves. But various estimates exist:



A confidential California Department of Justice study reported in 1995 that 60 percent of the 20,000-strong 18th Street Gang in southern California is illegal; police officers say the proportion is actually much greater. The bloody gang collaborates with the Mexican Mafia, the dominant force in California prisons, on complex drug-distribution schemes, extortion, and drive-by assassinations. It commits an assault or robbery every day in L.A. County. The gang has grown dramatically over the last two decades by recruiting recently arrived youngsters, most of them illegal, from Central America and Mexico.

Los Angeles

18th Street

95% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens.

In Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide in the first half of 2004 (which totaled 1,200 to 1,500) targeted illegal aliens. Up to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants (17,000) were for illegal aliens.

Los Angeles

The Los Angeles Police Department has a 12-year old Foreign Prosecution Unit that pursues suspects who fled the US after committing crimes in Los Angeles and gives testimony when they are prosecuted aboard. The United States does not have extradition treaties with most Latin American countries but many countries, for example, Mexico, Nicaragua or El Salvador try suspects for murder and other violent crimes committed in the US.



The Foreign Prosecution Unit was founded in 1985, after a study found that nearly half of the LAPD's outstanding arrest warrants involved Mexican nationals who were presumed to have fled the country. The FPU works with Interpol to find suspects who flee abroad and then prepares the evidence so that the person can be arrested and prosecuted. The FPU clears about one-third of its cases, compared to two-thirds of all homicide cases in Los Angeles.



The Mexican consulate in Los Angeles has a representative of the Mexican attorney general's office to work with the FPU in prosecuting suspects in Mexico for crimes committed in Los Angeles.

75% of people on the most wanted list in Los Angeles are illegal aliens.

on-line,

Nearly 25% of all inmates in California detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally.

The L.A. County Sheriff reported in 2000 that 23% of inmates in county jails were deportable, according to the New York Times .

all

21 radio stations in L.A. are Spanish speaking.

"Los Angeles"),

20 "Spanish

Los Angeles.

Less than 2% of illegal aliens are picking our crops but 29% are on welfare

$700 million

$430 million

Over 70% of the United States annual population growth (and over 90% of California, Florida, and New York) results from immigration.

Sacramento Bee

When Department of Finance numbers are merged with Census Bureau numbers and birth and death data collected by the state Department of Health Services are added to the mix, showing that half of all births are to immigrant mothers, the inescapable conclusion is that foreign immigration and births to immigrant mothers together comprise all of the state's net population growth. Or, to put it another way, without foreign immigration, California would have virtually zero population growth.

The cost of illegal immigration to the American taxpayer in 1997 was a NET (after subtracting taxes immigrants pay) $70 BILLION a year, [Professor Donald Huddle, Rice University].

There is a great deal of disagreement over the costs and benefits of immigrants to the US and California. Studies in the early 1980s in Texas and New York concluded that the taxes paid by immigrants exceeded the cost of providing public services to them, but that the federal government got the surplus of taxes over expenditures, and local governments had deficits. Los Angeles did a study in 1992 that reinforced this conclusion.



Donald Huddle of Rice University set the benchmark for today's debate with a study that concluded that the legal and illegal immigrants who arrived since 1970 cost the US $42.5 billion in 1992, and $18.1 billion in California. According to Huddle, 7.2 million immigrants arrived legally and illegally in California since 1970, and the state incurred costs of $23 billion to provide them with services  half of the costs were for education and health care, and one-sixth were due to the costs of providing services to US residents displaced by these immigrants.



As with all such studies, Huddle made assumptions about how many illegal aliens there are, their usage of welfare and other public services, the taxes they paid, and their indirect economic impacts. Jeff Passel of the Urban Institute reviewed and revised Huddle's US estimates, and his calculations turned the $42 billion net cost into a $29 billion net benefit.



Most of the $70 billion difference between these studies arises from their estimates of the taxes paid by immigrants  Huddle assumes that post-1970 immigrants paid $20 billion in taxes to all levels of government, and Passel assumes they paid $70 billion. And the major reason for the difference in tax estimates is that Huddle did not include the 15 percent of each worker's earnings that are paid in Social Security taxes, while Passel did  this accounts for over one-third of the $70 billion difference.



Huddle excluded Social Security taxes because, in his view, contributions today need to be offset by the promise of benefit payments to immigrants when they retire. Passel included them because the federal government treats Social Security on a pay-as-you-go basis.

According to the most controversial study of those discussed here, the benefits and costs of immigration to the United States in 1992 add up to a total net cost to all levels of government of $42.5 billion. This study, by Donald Huddle, was sponsored by the Carrying Capacity Network, a nonprofit group that advocates major reductions in immigration to the United States. "The Costs of Immigration" (Huddle 1993) uses estimation procedures that include a variety of errors. When these errors are corrected, the post-1970 immigrants in Huddle's study actually show a surplus of revenues over social service costs of at least $25 billion.

Last updated:

Listing provides statistics about the number and costs of illegal aliens in Los Angeles County.The various figures quoted above were not taken from a 2002article. They appear to have been gleaned from a variety of sources and vary in accuracy as noted below:The California Vital Records Department of the Department of Health Services classified as "Hispanic" the race/ethnicity of 62.7% of all births occurring in Los Angeles county in 2001. The statistic quoted above therefore erroneously characterizesparents of Hispanic heritage inCounty in 2001 as being "illegal alien Mexicans onIn April 2005, Heather Mac Donald, a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims. On the issue of gang membership among illegal immigrants, she said:Note, however, that this statement references a California Department of Justice study (not an FBI report), and that it describes only a single gang inCounty (theGang), the gang that likely has the highest membership rate of illegal aliens.This figure also appears (unsourced) in Heather Mac Donald's testimony before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims:Even if the statistic is accurate, however, it is subject to a variety of interpretations. For example, illegal aliens might be disproportionately represented by outstanding homicide warrants inbecause they are more likely to flee the jurisdiction before their cases are adjudicated than legal residents are (not necessarily because they commit a far greater share of the homicides in Los Angeles). This interpretation is supported by a University of California Davis summary of immigration issues that notes:The Los Angeles Police Department's " Most Wanted " list is viewablebut since each entry generally includes only the ethnicity of a suspect (not his or her immigration status or nationality), and many of the entries refer to persons of unknown identity, it's difficult to verify the claim that 75% of the people listed therein are illegal aliens.Again, this figure appears to correspond with Heather Mac Donald's testimony before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims:Note, however, that the 23% figure cited includesdeportable aliens, not just Mexican nationals.The number of Spanish-language radio stations in Los Angeles varies a bit from source to source (and according to how one definesbut according toif both AM and FM stations are counted, and all programming formats (e.g., music, news, talk, religion, sports) are included, then it's fair to say that there are aboutspeaking" radio stations inAlthough illegal aliens are not generally eligible to collect public welfare benefits, an illegal alien may receive benefits under the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and Food Stamps programs on behalf of his or her U.S. citizen child. (Any child born in the United States is considered a U.S. citizen, regardless of the parents' immigration status.) A 1997 General Accounting Office (GAO) report determined that in 1995 households headed by illegal aliens received a total ofin AFDC benefits andin Food Stamps.As therecently reported, the "over 90%" figure for population growth in California is essentially accurate if the term "immigration" is defined to encompass both foreign immigrants and births to immigrant mothers:It is true that Rice University economist Donald Huddle has conducted studies and concluded that immigrants (both legal and illegal) in the U.S. receive billions of dollars more in social services from local, state and federal governments than they contribute in revenue. It's also true that others have criticized his studies as flawed and arrived at exactly the opposite conclusion (i.e., that immigrants actually produce a net revenue surplus). For example, a University of California Davisarticle on "Illegal Immigration: Numbers, Benefits, and Costs in California" notes:An article published by the Urban Institute drew similar conclusions:19 September 2014
A man with a history of illicit drug use who was jailed in United States after he kept quiet about a mental illness on his visa application has been given the green light to work as a lawyer in the ACT.

Court documents said the man made numerous disclosures in his admission application, a requirement for lawyers in the territory to determine whether they're fit to practise.

Judges were concerned the stresses of legal work could trigger a return to drugs and imposed strict monitoring conditions on the man. Credit:Tanya Lake

Most of the offences he detailed were minor, but three ACT Supreme Court judges said the "most concerning" transgression was committed six years ago.

The 2010 offence stemmed from a six-month trip to the United States as part of a university exchange program, when the man denied he had ever been diagnosed with a mental illness on his visa application.
Investor advocacy group the Australian Shareholders' Association (ASA) has called for the head of retail billionaire Gerry Harvey after an incendiary shareholder meeting on Monday failed to resolve controversy over Harvey Norman's relationship with its franchisees.

"The experienced ASA representatives who attended yesterday's AGM, including two directors, were all very disappointed with the leadership shown by Gerry Harvey and believe substantial change is now warranted," ASA chairman Diana D'Ambra said in a prepared statement on Tuesday.

The ASA is calling for the resignation of Mr Harvey, saying he should be replaced as chairman by an independent non-executive director.

It also said the company should change its auditor to provide a "fresh set of eyes" on the accounts, and said the majority of the board should be independent within two years.
Apple's decade-long search for a marquee Melbourne store could be about to bear fruit.

The tech giant is believed to be in the final stages of negotiating a deal that will see it open a new $50 million megastore in Melbourne's iconic Federation Square, almost a decade after it first started looking for an appropriate central city site, industry sources say.

Apple has been in lengthy and secretive negotiations with Federation Square's management and the state government to take over and demolish the Yarra building in the square.

The global tech heavyweight plans to replace the unique "deconstructivist" metal building with a new $50 million see-through glass structure that will house its first Asia Pacific stand-alone megastore.
Prisons irrelevant Thank you, Andrew Leigh, for your excellent article on imprisonment. ("Why is imprisonment rising as crime is falling?" CT, 14/1/16, p. 15). Based on my experience working in a maximum security prison, I suspect the answer is prisons fulfil a need for certain people: prison guards, the majority of whom cannot obtain any other sort of work; career criminals or "hard men" who actually run them and who are institutionalised, making them incapable of living anywhere else; a lazy, uncaring citizenry who want to sweep society's losers under the carpet. They justify this by indulging in Dostoyevskian fantasies about reforming people by making them suffer in places that, by their very nature, are incapable of turning criminals into decent human beings. A system based on restorative justice, instead of punishment, would encourage criminals to live in society and earn money to provide restitution to their victims.

The small number of people who, even with sophisticated electronic surveillance techniques, are too dangerous to put into open society should be incarcerated in small, secure units. These should be staffed by professional penologists who are willing to apply a bit of tough love to people they might be able to rehabilitate. If they can't, at least their charges won't make rehabilitation impossible for others. Prisons have as much relevance to 21st century Australia as do public floggings and hangings. John Mason, Latham Dr Andrew Leigh MP, shadow assistant treasurer, raised an old argument in, "Why is imprisonment rising as crime is falling?" (November 14, p15).

He claimed, "there's little evidence rising prison populations have been a major driver of the crime drop since the mid-1990s." There is strong evidence of such causation locally, a significant drop in crime since the AMC began to fill up. As an economist, he eventually got to the point. Incarceration costs $300 a day. He mentioned over-representation of Aborigines among inmates and suggested public safety does not require "non-violent offenders" to be imprisoned. The implication we don't need protection from career thieves and vandals is incredible. Leigh's closing paragraph repeats his economic premise, "whether jailing more low-risk offenders passes the cost-benefit test". He suggested "better use of monitoring technology, smarter approaches than mandatory sentencing and decent funding for legal aid." "Low risk" could mean offenders who commit only relatively minor crimes rather than those at low risk of recidivism.

Cost-effective sentencing requires a whole-of-society context. Dr Leigh has only reiterated some well-known problems. Gary J. Wilson, Macgregor PM's fascist attack How different is Turnbull's attack on Leigh Sales and the elite media from Donald Trump and his attacks on the media? Fascism in the 21st century comes in many different suits but it is still fascism.

E. R. Moffat, Weston Deplorable victory The "basket of deplorables" gave the middle finger to the PC brigade and the rest of the left leaning rabble. Now it's time for Cory Bernardi to do a Trump, before Australia is submerged in the "swamp". Owen Reid, Dunlop Huawei concerns

Further to Jeremy Mitchell (Letters, November 11) I acknowledge that Alexander Downer stepped down from the board of Huawei in 2014 when he went to London. However, he should not have been on the Huawei board in the first place. National security concerns about Huawei have existed since at least 2012. C. Williams, Forrest Project fail Obviously Clementine Ford was watching a different Project to 99.9 per cent of other observers. I thought Price was very measured and that excitable woman beside him kept talking over the top of him. Strangely the moderator, Carrie somebody, then chastised Price for his attitude. An objective observer would have thought the chastisement should have been directed at the excitable woman!

Brendan Ryan, Mawson Barbaro mistake A reminder to Jon Stanhope of Al Grassby's decision in the 70's to allow Pasquale Barbaro senior into the country against AFP advice and the damage that has done (My Letter to editor 5 Aug 2015). K. Bell, Kambah Australia could be next

Much of the commentary on the working-class movement that led to the election of Donald Trump and increasing upheaval in Australia is based on the false premise working people do not understand globalisation. Working people understand the impacts of globalisation all too well. They understand their parents had steady jobs with steady pay. They understand that now they have no job, or a series of poorly paid part-time jobs, or a sham contract. They understand their children are in a worse position. They understand they are falling further behind in an increasingly unequal society. They are angry. They do not want patronising explanations of the benefits of globalisation.

They know "innovation" has led to job insecurity and exploitation. They know trickle down economics is a sham. They know corporate tax cuts create bigger profits, not jobs. They want full-time jobs with decent pay and conditions. They believe the government is responsible for giving them an opportunity to have those jobs. It is not an unreasonable or irrational belief. Tony Judge, Woolgoolga

All Friday's edition of The Canberra Times lacked was a black armband. The front page picture of young American protesters, probably pushed along by leftist academics, was a good introduction to the successive sobs of Ross Gittins, upset the climate change band wagon is doomed, of Nick O'Malley's fears feminism will suffer, of Allison Pearson's warning her daughter's future looks bleak and of Waleed Aly's twisted condemnation of Trump's supposed racism. Then John Hewson climbed on the wagon to declare battery storage would soon replace coal-fired power stations. Even CT's editorial tried to blame the non-voters, all Democrats I guess, for Trump's victory. The truth seems to be the US voting silent majority decided against political correctness and thought it was time to clear the decks. Australian politicians, tree huggers and alarmists should heed the warning. It will happen here next.

Peter Murray, Red Hill In Paul McGeogh's article under the subheading "Fighting Terrorism" (CT, November 12) he states Trump once asserted "that the generals would do as he told them" regardless of the legality of such directive, thus raising the spectre of a Caine Mutiny-style confrontation between the joint chiefs and Donald "Queeg" Trump. As Commander-in-Chief of US Forces, a president requires no input from Congress to initiate or limit military action but having previously claimed to know more about destroying ISIS than do the generals, there exists the very real potential for a situation with cataclysmic consequences if Trump appoints as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs an officer with the same aggressively unstable mind set that he has so far exhibited. John Murray, Fadden The women of America have only themselves to blame. They had the best chance ever to select an erudite, credentialed woman over a misogynistic pig. Yet the figures show that even educated women gave Donald Trump 49 per cent of their vote. If only a slightly greater percentage of American women had voted for Ms Clinton, Donald would have been sent back to the sty, where he belongs.

It didn't help she had to drag her own misogynistic millstone around to her engagements. Women around the world have got to start supporting their own gender. When it comes to equality, women are often their own worst enemies. John Galvin, Weston Donald Trump is not officially President-elect  yet. The presumptive next president, yes. But he will not become President-elect until formally elected by the US Electoral College at its meeting on 12 December. Donald Trump could still theoretically not become president. But that near-impossibility all depends on the electoral college and the strange US voting system. The college electors can still change their minds before December.

If enough of them did, then the college could theoretically reverse the result of Tuesday's election. But it will almost certainly go one way, with most of the electors casting their ballots on December 12 for Donald Trump. Don Sephton, Greenway Donald Trump's win has been greeted with joyous celebration by Pauline Hanson and has encouraged the far right of the Liberal National Party to believe the LNP can increase its appeal by actively campaigning on issues such as opposition to climate change, marriage equality and section 18C. Before Abbott, Bernardi and Christensen get too carried away I suggest they take note of, firstly, that Hillary Clinton still managed to out-poll Donald Trump and, secondly, that Donald Trump received fewer votes than both of the unsuccessful Republican candidates in 2008 and 2012, John McCain and Mitt Romney. Given Australian elections are usually won by the major party that most successfully appeals to the political centre, the LNP will commit political suicide if it vacates the political centre in order to pursue the votes of a comparatively small minority of disgruntled ultra-conservatives.

Bruce Taggart, Aranda The real lessons for Australia from the American presidential campaign was that the methodology is laborious, costly, divisive and people don't really get to choose who they would like as their president. It shows the minimalist proposal put forward by the Australian Republican Movement has a great deal of merit. Tom Cooke, Pearce If we can get millions of people to chase Pokemons we can get millions of Americans to vote for Donald Trump or even Donald Duck.

John Rodriguez, Florey If you, like me, are fed up with the excessive coverage of the US presidential election, I have a suggestion. Turn off the source: radio, TV or social media. When advertising revenue falls as a result of this boycott, perhaps we will get some worthwhile news about the rest of the world. Kris Klugman, Fisher

TO THE POINT DOGGY DEBT Three years ago my dog was hit by a car. Her worst injury was a front leftleg which felt like a sock of sand. I rushed to Jan Spate, who said the normal procedure would be immediate amputation, "but let's try and save the leg". Weeks of cast changes worked. My four-legged friend is stillmy four-legged friend. Foreverindebted. Paul Kringas, Giralang GILLARD'S CLASS

Note the rush to comment on the US election result by former prime ministers Keating, Howard and Rudd, each demonstrating his expertise on international affairs. The only one not to rush to seek the spotlight is Julia Gillard: more class than the lot of them put together. David Nolan, Holder AMERICA'S GOLDEN RULE Gordon Soames (Letters, November 12) is wrong in believing that US invasions, kidnappings, etc are not rules based. The USA has the gold so [it] makes the rules.

Michael Duffy, Curtin TIES THAT BIND A US president once let the cat out of the bag, saying it's the military-industrial complex that runs the US. Expect Trump to be similarly bound hand and foot. Barrie Smillie, Duffy In the great game of bridge, a no trump contract is the most desirable. Would that this had played out in the (now dis)United States.

Cynthia Moloney, Yarralumla FREE BUS COSTS The Labor-Greens agreement commits the government to free bus travel for Canberra's wealthy retirees. The average ACTION bus can carry 72 passengers. For every 72 retirees who take up this offer during peak hour, Canberra's ratepayers will pay $500,000 for an extra bus. Leon Arundell, Downer CURIOUS SPECIES

What a curious species we are: one person seeks and finds a frog who might save her species from extinction; others adorn our public spaces with WMD. Matt Ford, Crookwell NO SAFE SPACES There are no such things as safe spaces in the world, let alone any defined by intellectual thought. Gerry Murphy, Braddon
Fifty years ago, Sydney's fish market moved from the hustle of Haymarket to its present site on Blackwattle Bay. The years have not been kind.

It is universally accepted that the ramshackle assortment of sheds huddled close to the Anzac Bridge flyover are no longer appropriate for such an important harbourside site.

The Parramatta Road renewal precinct at Leichhardt as envisaged by the NSW government.

NSW governments have struggled to find a solution to revitalise the area. All have failed.

But it is just possible that the Baird government has cracked this long-standing planning problem.
Former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton is also in the running. [Wall Street Journal] Ben Carson, one of the contenders for the Republican nomination and a retired neurosurgeon, turned down an offer to serve in Trump's administration citing lack of experience. Surely someone who wanted to Commander in Chief could come up with a better on than that? [Raffi Williams/Circa] And the transition team has lost another man. Mike Rogers, the former House Intelligence Committee Chairman has left. [Jennifer Jacobs/Bloomberg] This is part of a purge of people close to Chris Christie, who has was also forced out. [NBC] Giuliani says Trump is going to supersize the military to thwart China, which should reassure those worried about his isolationist approach, particularly in the Asia Pacific, although it will alarm those worried about his temperament and impulsiveness. [The Australian] Giuliani was speaking at a Wall Street Journal CEO council event. Guess who was also there? Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi who is on secondment to the United Nations in New York.

The conservative Senator posted to Twitter a photo of himself with Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway. Wonder what campaign Bernardi is seeking advice for... In Australia, the Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe says Trump's trade policy is "dangerous" and singled it out as his biggest concern. Lowe has some interesting observations on Brexit, including his belief the people of Britain voted to be poorer. [Peter Martin/The Age] 2. Turnbull's 457 crackdown Malcolm Turnbull has been planning his own crackdown on the skilled 457 worker visa scheme "for some months" but feared looking like he would be following Shorten, reports Philip Coorey. [Financial Review]

Nevertheless, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton is set to go ahead in announcing the crackdown. This will include reducing from three months to two the time a sacked worker on a 457 visa has to find a new job or go home. The changes were gazetted last week and before Shorten's own ramped up rhetoric, reports Renee Viellaris. [Courier Mail] Bill Shorten is taking an Australia-first policy approach for jobs and industry. Credit:Joe Armao Bill Shorten and his attack on foreign workers is Trump-lite and his "aping of Trump is unmistakeable and pathetic in its transparency," and shows the sad condition of the Labor party today, writes Paul Kelly. Ouch! [The Australian] The Labor leader is straying into dangerous territory, says former Rudd and Gillard advisor Sean Kelly. [The Monthly] Some of those foreign workers include tech-heads and belong to the very industries Shorten has previously spruiked as unlocking the "jobs of the future". [Ben Potter, Lucille Keen/Financial Review]

3. Aus politics - the rest of. Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Senator Penny Wong. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Penny Wong has made her first significant move in the Foreign Affairs portfolio. In an opinion piece, Senator Wong argues that post-Trump, the world and the alliance faces a very different America and Australia needs a better road map in Asia as a result. [Fairfax] The position is endorsed by by the head of the foreign affairs think tank The Lowy Institute, Michael Fullilove, who was once frontrunner to fill a vacant Senate spot for Labor. [Peter Hartcher/Fairfax] Hillary Clinton and Gillian Triggs are women of their own undoing, writes right-wing commentator Janet Albrechtsen. [The Australian]

Liberal MP Michael Sukkar, a conservative from Victoria, believes lighting can strike thrice and in Australia same-sex marriage will be our Brexit and Trump moment. [The Australian] Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will raise the asylum seeker deal with US President Barack Obama at a summit in Peru on the weekend. [Dennis Shannahan, David Crowe/The Australian] And a quick plug for something I'm up to tonight. It's my last night in Oz so how better to share it than with Anthony Albanese? (I hear the Albo beer is actually not that great but I'm keeping an open mind). If you can make it in Sydney please come along, if not, make sure you follow on Facebook and send me any questions you'd like asked! 4. Gender pay gap is real

Sobering report from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency which finds the average full-time base salary across all industries and occupations for women is 17.7 per cent, or $16, 219, less than men's. This gets worse when you take into account total remuneration like bonuses. (23 per cent) Women make up half of Australia's workforce. [Fairfax] 5. Deloitte authored leaked Brexit memo British Prime Minister Theresa May. Credit:Getty Images Prime Minister Theresa May is targeting firm Deloitte for the appearance of a very damaging memo in the British press today. The leaked memo confirms what has long been obvious - the Tories, having executed the Brexit referendum, have absolutely no idea how to make it happen. [Reuters]

And it confirms a split within the Cabinet over Brexit which could cause delays in negotiating of up to six months. A great scoop by The Times. [Deborah Haynes, Francis Elliot] But 10 Downing says the document is not from the government nor prepared for the government and Deloitte is "touting for business." Deloitte says the memo was intended for internal use and was not informed by any access to government. [Greg Heffer/Daily Express] 6. Assange interview concludes Swedish chief prosecutor Ingrid Isgren arrives at the Embassy of Ecuador. Credit:Chris J Ratcliffe Swedish prosecutors have finished interviewing Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in London over rape allegations. Prosecutors are yet to announce what they determined and whether or not the investigation will continue. [9News]
The "Australia first" push that has followed the election of Donald Trump is already producing unlikely alliances across party lines, with Nationals MP George Christensen echoing Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's call for a crackdown on 457 foreign worker visas.

Seemingly alert to the prospect of America's populist, protectionist, anti-establishment bug crossing the Pacific, Mr Shorten has targeted the traditional Labor base in recent days, ramping up his rhetoric about protecting domestic jobs with new plans to curb overseas labour.

He has been joined by Mr Christensen, a maverick Queensland conservative and avowed Trump supporter, who says "there is no need for the issuance of any further 457 foreign worker visas in our region" where unemployment is high.

"I will be writing to the Minister for Immigration, the Minister for Employment, the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister today requesting that no further 457 visas be issued for jobs in the Central and North Queensland regions. After all, Australian jobs should be for Australian workers," he said in a statement on Facebook.
Political enthusiasts can watch Queensland government debates live on the web but it may be some time before you can tune in to Brisbane's City Hall.

In question time on Tuesday afternoon, Greens councillor Jonathan Sri (The Gabba) asked Lord Mayor Graham Quirk why his administration "opposed filming in this chamber".

Greens councillor Jonathan Sri was accused by councillor Shayne Sutton of being unethical and giving residents false hope. Credit:Lisa Maree Williams

"I've spoken to many residents who do not have the ability to attend the public gallery on Tuesdays to observe council debates, nor do they have the time or specialist knowledge to work their way through the written minutes of council meetings," Cr Sri said.

"They've requested access to video records of what goes on in council."
Four people hid in a bathroom before fleeing their burning home after a former partner allegedly rammed a car into the Ipswich residence in a possible murder-suicide attempt, police say.

Police said the alleged attacker, a 37-year-old under a domestic violence order in relation to one of the residents, might not survive after running from the Ipswich house still alight and collapsing on the front lawn.

He allegedly crashed a car into the home's garage about 7.30pm on Monday before using an accelerant to set fire to the building, with three women  aged 18, 23 and 48  and an 18-year-old man inside.

Acting Inspector Heath McQueen said the occupants barricaded themselves inside the bathroom when he crashed through the garage, before being forced to flee as the house burned around them.
A man has been airlifted to hospital after a dump truck rollover at a Queensland mine site on Tuesday.

A 56-year-old Townsville man was driving a dump truck at Wirralie Gold Mine west of Mackay when it rolled about 8am.

RACQ CQ Rescue crew along with critical care paramedic and doctor transported injured worker to helicopter. Credit:RACQ CQ Rescue

Workers at the mine rushed to free the man who was trapped in the cab and moved him to worker's accommodation to wait for a rescue helicopter.

The man suffered a collapsed lung, severe chest trauma, internal injuries and a possible fractured pelvis and shoulder.
I had no idea how gorgeous and vibrant regional NSW is until we were diverted inland to escape the bushfires last weekend.

Every small business could learn a thing or two from the best, clearly family-run, little ventures we came across during our unexpected adventure.

Businesses near the M1 need to be notified when a major incident occurs about how emergency services are responding, so they can advise travellers. Credit:Max Mason Hubers

Becoming increasingly uneasy sitting in a mile-long gridlock before the roadblock on the MI, the main route up and down the eastern seaboard, at Karuah where the fire front was, we finally turned back north up the highway to find an inland route back down to Sydney.

Trying to figure out the best way home, we regrouped with my family (along with the rest of the population holidaying on the NSW mid north coast who were also trying to figure out how to get back down the M1) at Bulahdelah, a riverside town recently bypassed by the highway.
Apple is weighing an expansion into smart glasses, a risky but potentially lucrative area of wearable computing, according to people familiar with the matter.

While still in an exploration phase, the device would connect wirelessly to iPhones, show images and other information in the wearer's field of vision, and may use augmented reality, the people said. They asked not to be identified speaking about a secret project.

Apple has talked about its glasses project with potential suppliers, according to people familiar with those discussions. The company has ordered small quantities of near-eye displays from one supplier for testing, the people said. Apple hasn't ordered enough components so far to indicate imminent mass-production, one of the people added.

Should Apple ultimately decide to proceed with the device, it would be introduced in 2018 at the earliest, another person said. The California-based company tests many different products and is known to pivot, pause, or cancel projects without disclosing them. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.
Christopher Binse has spent so long either in jail or trying to avoid the law while on the outside, it's hard to imagine him having an honest job.

By estimates, the man known as "Badness" has spent about 30 of the past 34 years in some form of custody, largely for his history of hold-ups, prison escapes and a 2012 siege in Keilor East.

So there was good reason why Justice Terry Forrest looked disbelieving when Binse responded to a question about his last occupation, after pleading guilty on Tuesday to a series of armed robberies in the 1980s and 1991.

"Financial solutions consultant," Binse told the Supreme Court.
Wicked Campers' sexually derogatory slogans could be driven off road under a state government push to stamp out sexist advertising in Victoria.

The campervans' crude slogans and cartoons have prompted howls of protest across Australia.

The looming crackdown in Victoria comes after the Queensland government introduced legislation this month targeting inappropriate advertisements.

Advertisers in Queensland will have to remove offensive images and slogans - such as "life sucks if your girlfriend doesn't" - or their vehicles may be deregistered.
Victorian secondary students will be instructed to watch for signs they are being groomed for sex, as new figures reveal that schools across the state reported 258 suspected cases of sexual abuse in 2015.

In a suite of new guidelines published by the Education Department, students will be warned that a perpetrator could be "someone who you like or trust, someone you've known for a while" and that grooming was an adult's attempt "to prepare you  for sexual activity at a later time".

Victorian secondary students will instructed to watch for signs they are being groomed for sex.

Giving gifts such as phone credit, clothes, money, and extra attention that "makes you feel special" is flagged in the guidelines as the kind of behaviour that could constitute grooming.

"Although it may seem harmless at first, you may end up feeling like you owe them something in return, and this could involve sexual acts," the department resource explains.
Melbourne Express: Wednesday, November 16, 2016

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One of Australia's top IVF companies is continuing to publish potentially misleading success rate data on its websites despite a "warning shot" from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

On Tuesday, the Monash IVF Group was publishing success rate data on its websites in various formats criticised by the ACCC as potentially false or misleading earlier this week.

IVF clinics have been told to publish more accurate success rate data. Credit:Sebastian Kaulitzki

The Monash IVF Group, which runs clinics under different names in most Australian states, is listed on the sharemarket.

Its website for clinics in Victoria, NSW and Queensland is reporting success rates for pregnancies, not live births, and it is only reporting data for one group of embryos (blastocysts), rather than all those grown in its laboratories and transferred into women.
Rome: Rescuers recovered one body and saved 298 people in the Mediterranean amid poor weather conditions, a day after a rubber boat with an unknown number of people flipped in heavy seas, Italy's coast guard says.

On Tuesday, the migrants were pulled from three different rubber boats, one of which had turned over, it said in a statement.

Sea conditions were challenging, with 2-metre waves and winds of up to 25 knots, a SOS Mediterranee spokeswoman said.

On Monday, an oil tanker pulled 15 people from the water about 55 km off the Libyan coast after a rubber boat turned over in heavy seas, a coastguard spokesman said.
The University of Bristol has unveiled ambitious plans for its future, including the creation of a multi-million pound second campus in the city.

The announcement comes as it prepares to launch its new strategy in London tonight [15 November] and in Bristol on 29 November.

In addition to the second Bristol campus, which will house a Digital Innovation Hub and a pioneering new initiative in business education, there are plans to enhance the centre of its Clifton campus by remodelling the area around Tyndall Avenue and building a new University Library and Student Resource Hub.

Potential locations for the new campus are still being assessed, and the University hopes to make an announcement in the coming weeks.

Central to the vision for the new campus is a Digital Innovation Hub - a place where technologies, policies, practices, business models, and businesses fit for the digitalised society are created  and a 'business school of the future', offering courses in partnership with industry to prepare students for the jobs of tomorrow.

Research and teaching on this new, future-focused campus will concentrate on the interfaces between disciplines  for example, where business education meets big data, computer science and digital innovation.

Professor Hugh Brady, Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Bristol, said: "There's a real buzz around the strategy as the University prepares for a new, more ambitious era.

"Central to our ambitions is the creation of a new campus, which will be a hub for innovation, engagement and entrepreneurship and be completely integrated with the city. We are working with city partners to develop this vision: we will be offering tailored masters courses co-created with industrial partners and be looking to develop research and people that feed and grow the local digital economy, with the ambition that Bristol will be known internationally for digital innovation.

"Our strategy also includes exciting initiatives to ensure all our students receive the very best educational experience. Graduates of the future need to be ready for anything: they need to be multi-skilled, resilient and adaptable, able to work across disciplinary and geographical borders.

"Already, our students are among the most sought-after by employers in the UK  we are going to improve upon that position through the introduction of a new Bristol Futures curriculum initiative which will give all students access to three personal and professional development pathways - sustainable futures, innovation and enterprise, and global citizenship. We are also going to position ourselves as a sector-leader in educational innovation, through the creation of a new Bristol Institute of Learning and Teaching."

The Tyndall Place plans revolve around transforming the area around Tyndall Avenue and Woodland Road over the next five years to provide new and enhanced facilities for students, and improve the public realm.

This transformation aims to create a welcoming 'heart' to the University  for students, staff and members of the public alike.

Key to the new strategy is the establishment of Specialist Research Institutes (SRIs), focussing on areas of research which have the greatest potential for large-scale, world-changing impact. These fields will include population health, migration and biodesign.

Professor Brady, who took over as Vice-Chancellor and President in September 2015, added: "Our ambition is to be internationally renowned for the breadth, depth and impact of our research and scholarship. Focusing on the areas of research where we can make a particular contribution to global challenges, and working with the best placed international partners is critical to our success."
It took nearly 30 years for the land of Daniel Freeman, the first person to take advantage of the Homestead Act of 1862, to be designated as a national historic site.

The Freeman homestead was officially designated as the Homestead National Monument of America on March 19, 1936 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The National Park Service continues to operate and administer the park today as a lasting memorial to all the settlers who built the American west, the service says of the monument on its website.

The Homestead Act of 1862 was a law signed by President Abraham Lincoln to encourage settlement in the West. Any adult who had never taken up arms against the U.S. government could file to claim 160 acres of land, under conditions including $18 in fees and building and farming on the land for five years.

In less than six weeks following the death of Freeman in 1908, interested individuals in Beatrice started urging Congress to convert the land into a national park, historian Ray H. Mattison wrote in Homestead National Monument: Its Establishment and Administration.

Among those who publicly supported the idea throughout the process in the early 20th century were multiple congressmen and representatives of Nebraska, the Nebraska governor and legislature, the Nebraska State Historical Society, the Beatrice Chamber of Commerce, the Beatrice Daily Sun editorial board, other Nebraska and out-of-state newspapers, and several community members who formed the Homestead National Park Association.

Congressman Edward H. Hinshaw, representative from Nebraska, proposed the establishment of a national park on the Freeman land in a bill in 1909 and again in 1911. The bills did not pass through Congress.

In 1925, Senator George W. Norris, a powerful congressional leader from Nebraska, joined the fight to see the Freeman land preserved as a national park, reads the NPS website.

After early bills died in Congress, project leaders took a more tactful and organized approach, gaining more proponents and sending letters of support to the National Park Service, the president and members of Congress.

In January 1935, Norris pitched in the Senate a bill proposing that $24,000 be appropriated to purchase the Freeman homestead to be designated as The Homestead National Park of America. Meanwhile, Congressman Henry C. Luckey of Lincoln pitched an identical bill in the House of Representatives.

The Committee on Public Lands and Surveys endorsed Norris bill, amending the park to be called Homestead National Monument of America. It passed in the Senate on March 29.

The measure passed in the House on March 16, 1936.

Three days later, Roosevelt signed the bill into law with Norris and Luckey present.

Homestead National Monument of America Superintendent Mark Engler said there are a few things unique about the passage of the bill.

Its important to note that many national monuments were created by executive order by the president, Engler said. This park is different in that it was authorized by Congress and signed into law.

Engler said that while there are more than 80 national monuments under the National Park Service, the Homestead is the only one with of America attached to its name.

That was in large part because of Congress, Engler said. Early leaders pushed for the site to be a national park. As we know, that didnt happen. I think part of that compromise was to add the name of America.

Engler also said of America is an explicit reminder that the monument tells the stories of all settlers of the West, not just Freeman. Millions of people are connected to the Homestead Act of 1862 and the monument is the place to tell the endless stories and effects that are also connected to the law, he said.

After Roosevelt signed the bill, a problem halted progress of the monument. There was no money.

The enthusiasm of the supporters of the monument proposal was dampened when it was learned that Congress did not appropriate funds to carry out the law, Mattison wrote. Again they turned to Norris for help.

Two years later, Norris drafted an amendment asking Congress again for $24,000 for the monument. The senate and the House approved it and Roosevelt signed off on it on March 5, 1938.

Freeman heirs received their checks totaling $18,000 from the government for the 162.73 acres of land, Mattison writes.

Today, the Homestead National Monument is home to two public buildings, 100 acres of preserved tallgrass prairie, hiking trails, an authentic log cabin, an original one-room school house and more. The Education Center and Heritage Center include year-round historic displays, films, merchandise, art, workshops, and educational and entertaining programming.

Engler stressed the importance of the publics engagement and involvement in the project from its infant stages through to current day.

Its really no different from how things are done today from the standpoint that things like this happen when the public is engaged and wants to see things happen, Engler said. Thats part of a democracy and thats what happened here in 1936.

Eighty years later, we still see the community very active with the monument. I think thats a very positive thing.

Today, a formal volunteer group, Friends of the Homestead, helps run events and other action at the monument. The Homestead also employs a larger staff than in its early years.

In the early days, the monument was a one-man operation with the first superintendent on site in 1940. It wasnt until 1961 that staffing bulked.

During 1941 considerable progress was made in the development of the area, according to Mattison.

Historical research began, the project started to restore native grasses that were in the area in 1863, and a temporary bridge, road and parking area were constructed.

Development came to a halt in December 1941 when the U.S. entered WWII, then increased again in the 1950s with the onslaught of more funding. The park received $327,600 for construction and rehabilitation in 1961, Mattison said.

Visitation increased from 1,992 in 1947 to 18,687 in 1960, according to Mattison. Engler projects 2016 visitation numbers to be 80,000.

The more the monument, the community and the area can grow that visitation, the greater the economic impact will be locally," Engler said.

Engler pointed out that visitors to the monument spend money on food, gas, stores, lodging and other Beatrice and Gage County area businesses and offerings.

The monument is a source of pride for the community, Engler said, mentioning the many area businesses, organizations and clubs with Homestead in their titles.

We are proud to be part of this community and were grateful for everything the community has done to help the Homestead become a better place and we look forward to working with the community well into the future and to see not only the citizens of Beatrice and Gage County but also the citizens of the world benefit from the experience they had here.
On the back of a 27.7% year-on-year increase in broker numbers, national aggregator eChoice has launched a suite of customised business tools.Blake Buchanan, general manager of aggregation, said it was important to streamline broker business activities especially with brokers arranging more than 50% of all new loans in Australia.In recognising the need to plan for ongoing industry growth, new enhancements have been made to our FLeaTS proprietary system which will significantly improve our brokers ability to manage borrowers needs, as well as further reducing their administration load, he said.This system allows brokers to give clients the right information in a timely fashion, Buchanan told Australian Broker.What FLeaTS does differently is it qualifies not only the clients borrowing capacity but it qualifies them against the borrowing policies of the funder.This means that instead of the system giving a blanket statement saying a client can borrow $1 million from four funders, it may advise that the individual can borrow $1 million from the two funders and $970,000 from the others because this fits a certain policy or is critical to the clients needs, he added.The brokers clients are getting a better answer, faster. Obviously, thats saving time on the brokers behalf but also saving time for the clients as well.Buchanan continued, saying that the eChoice system is one of the most connected in the marketplace  helping brokers to achieve maximum results in a timely fashion.If you picture a client that wants to purchase a property for the first time and theyre moving into that property as well, obviously you need to finance but you also need your general insurance. Can you provide general insurance quotes for that client?When a client is moving into a property, they need removalist services, they need their water, their power, their gas, they need conveyancing, property reports, strata reports, etc.This means diversification for brokers should not stop at asset and commercial finance  it should also move into consumer needs, he said.When developing the system, eChoice had also made sure it was extremely user-friendly, Buchanan told Australian Broker.Weve based some of our processes on what brokers are used to in the ApplyOnline and NextGen systems. Eighty-five per cent of the time, a broker will use their front-facing CRM and invariably end up in NextGen. We said well cater to the needs of the broker and produce a system that is like-for-like.This design is quick and process-driven, eliminating any confusion brokers may feel when moving from one system to another, he said.What weve actually been able to prove is weve cut down on training times through our system. When brokers who have been in the industry for a long time look at it, they understand where things are and how to use it without being trained.
Looking at current market conditions, WBP Property Group has revealed that half of all off-the-plan inner city apartments in Melbourne will drop in value by an average of up to 15% before settlement.Its not like the values are falling. Simply, theyre over-priced from the very start, Greville Pabst, executive chairman of WBP, told Nine News.Its a bit like a new car. When you drive it off the lot, straight away it depreciates. Its the same when you buy new property.This 15% value was extrapolated from a 2015 study surveying around 1,800 OTP properties purchased between 2009 and 2015, Pabst told Australian Broker.Upon valuation in 2014 to 2015 the average loss of properties showing a negative discrepancy of $1,000 or more between market price and contract price was almost 10%, he said.With the significant jump in supply of high density apartments in Melbournes CBD and surrounds we expect this figure has worsened with the average deviation expected to be closer to 15%.While the survey only reflected OTP apartments located in Victoria, Pabst said the same fundamentals were at play in Sydney and Brisbane  areas with an increasing supply of high-density, high-rise residential dwellings.Likewise, the phenomenon does not discriminate based on the buyer type and whether one is a homebuyer or investor, he added.Pabst continued, saying that the onus was on the buyer to do their homework independent of their broker, accountant, financial planner or any other advisor.Like any asset, scarcity plays an important role in performance. Applying this philosophy to property can mean avoiding high-rise high-density developments and selecting boutique properties with fewer units and fewer expensive facilities like gyms and swimming pools that result in high owners corporation fees.
Mainstream specialty finance company, Liberty Financial, has appointed James Boyle as chief executive officer as part of enhancing its organisational structure.Boyle was formerly chief operating officer at Liberty, his most recent role since joining the company in 2003 from State Street Corporation. As CEO, Boyle will continue to have responsibility for operations, distribution and strategy across all of Liberty's operational businesses.He will report to the board of Liberty, composed of executive and independent directors.The current board is chaired by independent director Richard Longes and includes Peter Hawkins and Leona Murphy, both of whom are independent, and Sherman Ma, executive director.James has provided distinguished strategic and operational leadership at Liberty for the past thirteen years. He is part of an exceptional team that has delivered consistent, strong and profitable growth over that time," Longes said.In many ways James appointment acknowledges the role he has been performing and now is the right time to formally recognise that.Last week Standard & Poors announced an upgrade to Libertys corporate rating to BBB. Liberty is the only Australian non-bank lender that holds a public investment grade rating.Liberty also announced last week that Leona Murphy was appointed to the Liberty board. Most recently Murphy was chief strategy officer for IAG. She is an independent director of Stone & Chalk.Earlier this month Liberty announced a group profit before tax for the year ended June 30 of $74 million, which was an increase of 11% on the previous year. Loan originations grew by 227% to $2.5 billion for the year and total assets grew by 46% to $5.1 billion.
Yardley Friends Meeting at 65 N. Main Street in Yardley will host the documentary Organic Roots on Friday, November 18 at 7 p.m. Join director Al Johnson for a showing of this film followed by a discussion of the last 50 years of this movement. Organic foods are part of our life today and a tool in our concern for...
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October 31, 2022

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Media Advisory: Roche leader to discuss critical decision-making for life sciences companies

BUFFALO, N.Y.  Rich Christie, MD, PhD, global head of development and science innovation at Roche, a Switzerland-based health care company with a focus in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics, will deliver the keynote address at the Innovation Lecture Series on Thursday.

Christie will address how biotech leaders make decisions concerning science, business development and conflicts between management and the companys board of directors and investors. He will discuss the effect these decisions have on employees and companies intellectual property portfolios.

An entrepreneur, inventor and life sciences executive, Christie has worked across the pharmaceutical industry. One area of focus has been developing novel collaboration structures among pharma, academic and not-for-profit groups to drive early-stage innovation.

Thursdays free event will be from 4-5 p.m. at the University at Buffalos New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences (CBLS), 701 Ellicott St., Buffalo.

Media are encouraged to attend. To register, visit www.momentoftruth.eventbrite.com. Please contact Julianna Fortain, CBLS marketing and special events coordinator, at jellis9@buffalo.edu, for more information.

The event is sponsored by CBLS, UBs New York State Center of Excellence in Materials Informatics (CMI) and UBs Center for Advanced Biomedical and Bioengineering Technology (UB CAT).
The Guild of Architectural Ironmongers (GAI) has recognised the educational achievements of the door hardware industry at its annual Education Awards.

Along with almost 400 guests, the Guild celebrated the hardware professionals who have achieved a GAI qualification this year. Of the 90 learners who attained the Certificate in Architectural Hardware and the 42 students who completed the full GAI Diploma, six also received awards at the prestigious ceremony.

Since 1980, the GAI Education Awards have included Gold, Silver and Bronze awards for each qualification and the Pinnacle Award sponsored by ASSA ABLOY, which is given to the student with the best aggregate results over the three years of the Diploma programme.

Neil Vann, market regional manager for ASSA ABLOY, presented this years Pinnacle Award (which is given to the student with the best aggregate results over the three years of the Diploma programme) to Sreejith Ramanathan, who has worked for three years as a project specifier, handling hardware specifications for various projects in the Middle East and North Africa.

Maria Powell, president of the GAI, said: The Education Awards are our greatest testament to the passion we have for our industry and to our international community of architectural ironmongery. It showcases our constant pursuit of learning and the maintenance of professional qualifications.

Guests also celebrated the growing success of the GAI education programme; enrolments for 2015/16 saw a 23% increase from the previous year.
Chancellor Cecil Staton recognized, from left, Dan Gerlach with the Golden LEAF Foundation, Wanda Johnsrude, Marie and Walter Williams and Phil Hodges for their generous contributions to ECU. (Photos by Cliff Hollis)

The Chancellors Amethyst is a new recognition to celebrate philanthropy, given this year to the Golden LEAF Foundation and Greenville residents Walter and Marie Williams.

Wanda Johnsrude is recognized by Chancellor Cecil Staton for the medical school scholarship she endowed in her late husband's memory.

Chancellor Cecil Staton celebrated philanthropy at the Board of Trustees and ECU Foundation dinner.

The presentation of a new recognition for philanthropy was the highlight of the East Carolina University Board of Trustees and ECU Foundation dinner on Nov. 10.Chancellor Cecil Staton recognized the Golden LEAF Foundation and Greenville residents Walter and Marie Williams with the inaugural presentation of the Chancellor's Amethyst. The distinction celebrates a demonstrated and ongoing legacy of philanthropy to the university and marks the beginning of a comprehensive campaign at ECU.Staton believes The Golden LEAF Foundation, the Williamses and the university have similar goals: to serve the state of North Carolina and beyond. This shared vision has led to funding for multiple programs and scholarships at ECU for the betterment of both students and the region.said Staton.The Golden LEAF Foundation was chartered by the North Carolina General Assembly to benefit the tobacco-dependent regions of the state through money received from a settlement with cigarette manufacturers. The foundation has given more than $6.5 million dollars in grants for programs and additional funding for scholarships at ECU. Most recently, grant funding has gone toward the Advanced Manufacturing and Innovation Academy, the Biopharmaceutical Work Force Development and Manufacturing Center of Excellence, and Retirement Migration and Economic Development: Eastern North Carolina as a Retirement Zone.said Golden LEAF President Dan Gerlach.Walter and Marie Williams have also been very generous to East Carolina University, donating to multiple campaigns and other initiatives since graduating from East Carolina in the 1950s. Their philanthropy helped start the STEPP Program for students with identified learning disabilities - an initiative that is now helping other universities create similar programs. They have also been very active in the Pirate Club, being members for 50 years and gifting millions of dollars to the Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum as well as to the Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium Southside Renovation Campaign.Walter Williams said about receiving The Chancellor's Amethyst.Staton also took the opportunity to recognize the contributions of Wanda Johnsrude along with Phil and Lisa Hodges.Johnsrude endowed an annual scholarship for Brody School of Medicine students. The scholarship honors her late husband, Dr. Irwin S. Johnsrude, who was one of the early members of Eastern Radiologists and a faculty member at the Brody School of Medicine.According to his wife, one of Irwin Johnsrude's wishes was to support medical students to lessen the financial hardships as they pursue their dreams of becoming physicians. Wanda Johnsrude endowed the scholarship in 2010 and continues to make substantial annual gifts to support it.Phil Hodges was the founder and former president of Metrics Inc., which was sold, and now operates as Mayne Pharma Group. Because of his professional expertise, Staton said Phil is a key partner in the effort to build public-private partnerships between the university and the community. This fall, the Hodges finalized their estate plans to support the College of Allied Health Sciences and the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences. They are also supporting the Dowdy-Ficklen renovation project.Phil Hodges said.As part of the night's gathering, ECU was recognized with the 2016 W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Engagement Scholarship Award for the southeast region from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), in recognition of extraordinary community outreach initiatives by the MATCH Wellness partnership. East Carolina is one of only four universities in the country to receive this award.The MATCH Wellness program is an interdisciplinary, community-university partnership created to combat the epidemic of childhood obesity. Since it began in 2007, nearly 13,000 students have participated in the MATCH curriculum, which is estimated to have prevented 1,300 cases of adult obesity.Today, MATCH Wellness is housed within ECU's Pediatric Healthy Weight Research and Treatment Center at the Brody School of Medicine and reaches more than 5,000 youth in about 40 public schools throughout North Carolina.Dr. Sharon Paynter, interim director of Public Service and Community Engagement, presented the W.K. Kellogg award to the chancellor.Staton said.
New figures out this week show demand for food donations at Highbridges Foodbank is continuing to soar as local people struggle with financial problems.

Over 550 packs of three-day emergency food supplies were provided to local people by the Highbridge Area Foodbank during the period from AprilSeptember 2016, compared to 291 during the same period in 2015.

Of this number, 202 went to children. Organisers say the top three reasons for Foodbank referrals are benefit delay 32%; benefit change 30%; and low income 14%.

Wayne Sadlier, Foodbank Manager in Highbridge, told Burnham-On-Sea.com this week: Anybody could find themselves in need of the Foodbank. Every week we meet local people who have been hit by something unavoidable  such as illness, a delay in welfare payments or an unexpected bill  and are unable to afford food.

It really is only with the communitys support that were able to provide vital emergency help when it most matters, and were constantly surprised and overwhelmed by local peoples generosity.

Were keen to work with individuals, businesses and organisations across the community to help put a stop to local people going hungry  theres a part for everyone to play. Thank you so much to everyone in Highbridge, Burnham-On-Sea and the surrounding area who already donates time, food and money to help local people. If youre not already involved, wed love to hear from you!

Highbridge Area Foodbank is part of The Trussell Trust foodbank network. The Trussell Trust has this week proposed a direct telephone line between foodbanks and local job centres  as it reveals that more than half a million emergency food parcels have been issued across the UK in the first six months of the year. The number means that the foodbank network is on course to distribute the highest number of food parcels in its 12-year history during 2016-17.

The proposed hotline would provide vital timely and invaluable trouble-shooting support for people referred to Foodbanks because of problems with a welfare claim and may prevent them from needing the foodbank again.

A hotline would be a low cost solution that allows foodbank managers and volunteers to support those in serious crises more quickly and efficiently, reducing stress and negative impact on the mental wellbeing of people referred to the foodbank. Evidence from The Trussell Trust network of foodbanks suggests foodbank managers, volunteers and welfare advisers spend a significant amount of time on hold to DWP phone lines on behalf of people in crisis.

Highbridge Area Foodbank has been providing three-day emergency food and support to local people since 2012. Between April 2015 and April 2016, 644 three day emergency food supplies were provided to people in Highbridge, Burnham-On-Sea and the surrounding area by the Foodbank. Of this number, 195 went to children.

Pictured: Above, Burnham-On-Sea Food bank helper Alun Davies and, top, some of the stock of supplies given out by the Food Bank
When North Carolina voters in 17 counties cast their ballots this year, they had the option of voting "yes" or "no" for proposed increases in local sales or property taxes. In effect, however, voters in all 100 counties got their say on tax policy. The message most sent was unmistakable: don't raise taxes.First things first. There were 17 tax-hike referenda on county ballots. In 14 counties - Bladen, Carteret, Clay, Cleveland, Graham, Henderson, Jones, Mitchell, Pasquotank, Rockingham, Rutherford, Stanly, Stokes, and Swain - voters were asked to raise the sales tax by a quarter-point. In all 14 counties, voters said no , often by large margins. In Gates County, voters also said no to a supplemental property tax for school construction.In the final two cases, the trend went the other way. In Halifax County, voters approved a supplemental property tax for schools. And in Wake County, voters approved a half-cent hike in the sales tax for public transportation. But neither margin was overwhelming. In fact, in populous and Democratic-trending Wake - where 57 percent opted for Hillary Clinton and 60 percent picked Roy Cooper - the transit tax passed with only 53 percent of the vote.Speaking of Clinton and Cooper, taxes weren't just on the ballot as a collection of county referenda. The races for president, governor, lieutenant governor, U.S. Senate, and state legislature all featured lots of advertising, debate, and media coverage about the issue. The tax plans of Clinton and Donald Trump contrasted sharply. Deborah Ross' long record of voting for higher taxes in the General Assembly became a flashpoint in her race with Richard Burr. In dozens of state house and senate races, Democratic challengers attacked Republican incumbents for slashing taxes too much over the last six years, and promised to rescind at least some of the tax cuts to pay for more state spending on education, health care, or unemployment benefits.In the vast majority of contested races, North Carolinians opted for the candidate least likely to raise their taxes, or mostly likely to cut them.But what about Cooper? He significantly outpolled most of the Democratic ticket, essentially tying with Pat McCrory in the race for governor despite the general Republican tilt of the election. Does that constitute a contrary signal about public opinion on taxes?No, and this is an important point. Roy Cooper did not promise to rescind any of McCrory's cuts in personal, corporate, or payroll taxes. Indeed, he pointedly refused to endorse any increase in state tax rates, even when asked repeatedly about the question by debate moderators and reporters. If he had, I would submit, Cooper would have lost lots of votes from among the suburban and rural voters who split their tickets between him and GOP candidates for other offices.Fiscal liberals often accuse fiscal conservatives of an unjustified fixation on the tax issue. They are mistaken. Elections are about bestowing the government's coercive power to tax, spend, and regulate on particular leaders. At stake are the core questions of how much to use those powers, and to what ends.Since 2010, state Republicans have chosen to shrink the size and scope of government. They've cut taxes by billions of dollars. They've kept budget growth at a modest, steady pace, which has had the effect of reducing the size of state government relative to the state's economy to a projected 5 percent of gross domestic product next year, down from an average of about 6 percent of GDP when Democrats ran the legislature. At roughly the same time, Republicans won control of most of North Carolina's county commissions and put a similar check on local taxes and spending.In 2016, voters had ample opportunity to weigh in on these developments. They defeated almost all of the tax hikes on the ballot. And when there was a clear contrast between the candidates on taxes and spending, the fiscal conservatives usually won.Of course, North Carolinians believe in spending money on core services. But most favor doing so by setting priorities, not raising taxes.
First time since his ouster, former chairman of Tata Sons, Cyrus Mistry, is likely to come face to face with Ratan Tata, interim chairman of Tata Sons, at Bombay House later this week.
Normally regular recruiters Google, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Zomato and Hopscotch might not be visiting Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) campuses during final placements this year.
Amidst allegations of misappropriation of funds in AirAsia India, the promoters significantly reduced their quantum of investment in the airline through the year, it is learnt. This is despite the airline needing funds to be able to expand its footprint after an initial slow start.
Tata group has been in sharp focus ever since the battle broke out between Ratan Tata and Cyrus Mistry on October 24. India's fund managers have a sizeable exposure to Tata group companies. Entities like Tata Motors and its differential voting rights shares, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and Tata Steel have gained importance in fund managers' schemes. Several Tata shares have come under pressure over the last fortnight. Despite the turmoil, exposure of schemes to these stocks has remained stable. For instance, Birla Sun Life Frontline Equity Fund lapped up nearly three million more shares of Tata Motors and its investment as on October 31 stood at Rs 605 crore against Rs 446 crore a month ago. Overall investments in Tata Motors went up. In TCS, overall investments came down by Rs 300 crore. Shares of TCS have been losing steam all through October. Axis Long Term Equity Fund sold 300,000 shares of TCS. In Tata Steel, overall allocation of equity funds went up, month over month, by Rs 300 crore. In October, HDFC Prudence Fund lapped up two million shares of Tata Steel, taking the investment to Rs 451 crore in October-end compared with Rs 345 crore in September.
Jayalaxmi Agrotech has built a local server (Agripole) which is used to help farmers download agriculture-related applications in local language at village fairs using the Intel Edison platform.


Alibaba-backed mobile ecommerce player put out an ad on the front pages of newspapers last week congratulating Indian prime minister Narendra Modi for taking the boldest decision in the financial history of independent India.


Amidst the standoff between Ratan Tata and his estranged successor Cyrus Mistry, the six independent directors of chose to support the management and board of the company, instead of the chairman.
Nusli Wadia, Non-Executive, Independent Director, Tata Motors arrives for Tata Motors' board meeting at Bombay House in Mumbai (Pic: Kamlesh Pednekar)

Nusli Wadia, chairman of the Wadia group of companies, is likely to write to the shareholders of Tata Chemicals, Tata Motors and Tata Steel on the foreign acquisitions made by Tata Sons Interim Chairman Ratan Tata that have led to huge losses for these companies and could lead to potential write-downs.

Tata Sons, principal shareholder of these companies, had last week issued a notice, asking them to convene extraordinary general meetings (EGMs) of shareholders to remove

Cyrus Mistry and Wadia as directors. The Tata Sons board had ousted Mistry as chairman of Tata Sons on October 24 and appointed Ratan Tata interim chairman.

According to a source close to the development, Wadia, as an independent director of these companies, will write about several objections he had raised over Ratan Tata's foreign and Indian acquisitions.

When Ratan Tata wanted Tata Steel to invest in Tata Teleservices in early 2000s, Wadia was the only director who said no and made sure Tata Steel did not invest in a company that did not have clarity on return on investments. Ratan Tata stormed out of Tata Steels board meeting, saying if Tata Steel would not invest, then it would be Tata Sons that would, the source said.

Today, Wadia is proved right as Tata Teleservices is sitting on Rs 35,000 crore of losses, said the source, who did not wish to be named.

At Tata Steels board meetings over the acquisition of Corus in 2007, Wadia had questioned the decision because the margins of the takeover target were low and its business was facing a decline in demand.

Ratan Tata went on to invest in Corus at an exorbitant price. Wadia questioned the necessity of this acquisition when the biggest market for steel was in India and China. The answer then was to build a global Tata empire, the source said.

The $12.9-billion acquisition and the additional investments to run Corus plants have gone down the drain, said the source. Who is responsible for the losses? The shareholders must know, the source added.

Providing details on mismanagement of Tata Steel Europe, the source said, Till about a year and a half ago, Tata Steel had absolutely no control over Tata Steel Europe. The European companys board was a law unto themselves. The CFO of Tata Steel was not even allowed inside the boardroom of Tata Steel Europe. It was Mistry who changed the structure of the board of Tata Steel Europe and made sure Tata Steels representatives were inside the European company, the source said.

All these facts would be stated in Wadias letter to shareholders, the source added.

Each of the Tata group companies will have to call an EGM within 45 days of the notice on ouster of the directors. The Tatas own 35-39 per cent stakes in these companies and need a simple majority of the votes at the EGMs to pass the resolutions to remove Wadia and Mistry.

On Tata Motors, the theme of Wadia's letter is likely to be on the Nano project that has become a millstone. The companys passenger car division is making losses of Rs 3,500 crore per annum and the Nano project has already lost Rs 25,000 crore. This project should have been shut down many years ago, but it is still kept alive just to keep Ratan Tata happy, said the source.

However, Jaguar-Land Rover acquisition had turned out well, the source said.

Wadia also prevented a potential disastrous acquisition by Tata Chemicals where the margins of the takeover target were just four per cent, the source said.

The Tata plan to become a global group came at a huge cost. Whether it was by Indian Hotels or Tata Steel, these acquisitions came at a big price. To hang Mistry for these mistakes is something he (Wadia) will not tolerate, especially as he promised Jeh (JRD Tata) that he would look after the interests of the Tatas, the source said.
In the last couple of years, I had the misfortune of spending more than a month at a stretch twice in hospitals. The recent one was a freak bike accident that left a lung punctured, knee ligaments torn, and ribs bruised. But the earlier one was much scarier: a nasty strain of dengue that had me partially blind all of a sudden.
Within days of issuance of Rs 2,000 notes, two men were arrested in Tarn Taran district of Punjab, bordering Pakistan, on charge of printing colour copies of the new currency notes.

Harjinder Singh and Sandeep, along with two others, were printing the new Rs 2,000 notes in Bhikhiwind village, 40 km from Amritsar, to circulate these in the market and make a fast buck, the Punjab Police said.

The government had on November 10 issued the new notes of Rs 2,000 in the wake of November 8 demonetisation of the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

"Since most people have not seen the Rs 2,000 notes till now, the accused wanted to take advantage of the situation," a police officer said.

The arrested men had scanned the new notes to obtain their colour prints, police official Gurdeep Singh said.

The police seized fake currency notes, printer, scanner and computer of the accused.

"A case of counterfeiting currency has been registered against them. Further investigations and raids are in progress and more arrests are likely soon," the police officer said.
The Durham County Board of Elections (as well as many of the other local boards of elections in North Carolina) worked through the Veterans Day holiday today. All 100 local boards are busy with the post-election processes that will eventually get them to the point of certifying their county's election results. The post-election work across the state is under particular scrutiny because of the razor close gubernatorial race. At this time, Gov. Pat McCrory trails challenger Roy Cooper by 4,979 votes.The McCrory campaign had voiced concerns over possible irregularities in Durham County after eight precincts' voting hours were extended on Election Day and after the county BOE reported 90,000 votes late on Election Night. Those late votes pushed Cooper ahead of McCrory by just a few thousand votes. Gov. McCrory has not conceded the election and appears to be headed for a recount.This wasn't the first time the Durham County BOE had problems this year. In May, after the March 2016 primary, it was discovered that a BOE staff member had counted more than 200 provisional ballots twice when the number of voters didn't match the number of ballots cast.This afternoon the Durham County BOE began work on their 1,768 provisional ballots. Kate Cosner, chief of staff and interim director, directed the staff on the correct way to input provisional information. Once the information is entered into the provisional system, the board staff will begin investigating each voter and ultimately the three county board members will make the decision as to whether to count their votes. Only a few, of what appeared to be, political activists were at the Durham BOE this afternoon to observe the process. It will take several days to complete the process.It has been reported that there are more than 50,000 provisional ballots yet to be processed and there are more absentee ballots to be counted, undoubtedly changing the final results.In every election, in all 100 counties, all provisional ballots are investigated and if the voter is eligible, their votes are counted. A provisional ballot is a safety net provided to all voters who have voter registration problems when they go to cast their votes, especially on Election Day.While there are different reasons why a voter would vote a provisional ballot, unreported moves seem to be the reason most vote provisionally. A voter who fails to update his address after a move in the county would be allowed to vote a provisional ballot. The ballot is then returned to the local BOE office where the staff investigates the voter's eligibility.According to the State Board of Elections (SBOE), the deadline for mail-in absentee ballots postmarked on or before Election Day is November 14 at 5 p.m. November 17 is the deadline for overseas and military absentee ballots.County BOE's are scheduled to certify results (county canvass) at 11 a.m. on Nov. 18.After the county canvass and before noon on Nov. 22, a statewide candidate may demand a recount. In order to demand a recount, the vote difference must be less than 10,000 votes. All 100 counties perform their own recounts.Only after the State Canvass, scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 29, are results considered official.All Board of Elections meetings are open to the public.
Former global managing director of McKinsey and Co and Goldman Sachs board member returned to India last week after completing his two-year prison term in the US, reported the Economic Times.



Gupta, the erstwhile poster boy for the success of the Indian community in the US, came to his motherland on what the news report said his friends called a "soul searching" mission.



Gupta was convicted in 2012 of passing confidential boardroom information to now jailed hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam.
A team of data scientists associated with Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur predicted Republican candidate Donald Trumps victory in the US Presidential election six days before the final results.
As thousands continue to struggle daily in the wake of the central governments surprise move of demonetising of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes since November 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi mother, Heeraben on Tuesday was seen joining the serpentine queues of a bank in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
Pharmaceutical major Sun Pharmaceutical has signed anagreement with the government of Madhya Pradesh to lend a helping hand toprevent reintroduction of Malaria in Mandla district in Madhya Pradesh. The funds for the same will come from the Corporate Social Responsibility funds earmarked by the company. The company will be responsible for recruiting man-poweressential for the project.
The winter session of Parliament beginning on Wednesday is likely to see a united opposition confront the Narendra Modi government over the problems faced by people following the move to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, with issues concerning farmers and one rank one pension (OROP) also likely to be taken up.

The government is likely to push its legislative agenda, that includes passage of pending legislations for rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the surrogacy regulation bill.

Opposition parties including Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party, Trinamool Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and Samajwadi Party have been vociferous in attacking the government over its move to demonetise currency and the trouble being faced by people on account of the move across the country. Demonetisation has led to fall in business due to difficulty in getting currency notes.

Trinamool Congress and AAP have demanded rollback of demonetisation, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a televised address to the nation on November 8.

Opposition parties are likely to target the Prime Minister for the decision that is being talked about across households and widely commented upon in the social media.

The Congress and Trinamool Congress have given notices for suspension of business in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on the opening day of the winter session to discuss demonetisation. The session is slated to conclude on December 16.

Congress spokesperson Ajoy Kumar said the party will raise the issue of demonetisation and repeated ceasefire violations on the India-Pakistan border that has led to loss of lives.

"We will raise government's failures on all fronts, including black money and issues concerning farmers. There have been about 300 ceasefire violations in Jammu and Kashmir in the last one-and-a-half months which has resulted in soldiers being martyred and civilian deaths," Kumar told IANS.

Janata Dal-United leader K.C. Tyagi said that demonetisation will be a top issue for the party.

"Apart from demonetisation, we will take up issues concerning farmers, the present situation in Kashmir, one rank one pension and government's flip-flops on Pakistan," Tyagi told IANS.

He said the party will strive for cooperation among opposition parties.

Revolutionary Socialist Party leader N.K. Premachandran said that demonetisation was a major issue for Left parties.

He said there was apprehension that information about demonetisation was "leaked very secretly."

"Also there were no precautionary measures and people are being put to great difficulty," he said.

"Other issues we will be raising include alleged politicisation of Army's surgical strikes and communalisation of the entire system. On Goods and Services Tax concerns of states are not being taken into account," he said.

The government is keen on passage of pending GST bills and its roll out from April 1 next year.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan held a meeting of leaders of parties in the house on Monday to ensure smooth functioning of the house.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar has convened an all-party meeting on Tuesday.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told IANS that the government is prepared to discuss all issues raised by the opposition with permission of the chair. He hoped the session, which will have 22 sittings, will be fruitful.

According to PRS legislative, which tracks work of Parliament, the legislative agenda for the session includes 10 blls for consideration and passing.

Nine new bills are slated to be introduced and later taken up for passage.

The pending bills for roll out of GST include Central Goods and Services Tax Bill to facilitate levy of tax on intra-state supply of goods or services, Integrated Goods and Services Tax Bill to facilitate levy of tax on inter-state supply of goods or services and The Goods and Services Tax (Compensation for Loss of Revenue) Bill to facilitate payment of compensation to states for loss of revenue arising on account of implementation of GST.

The bills listed for consideration and passage include Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and The Whistle Blowers Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2015.

The bills to be introduced for passage include Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016 and Divorce (Amendment) Bill, 2016.
The government on Monday advised banks and the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) to waive charges on e-transactions till December 31, to help out cash-strapped people hit by the drive. Following this, NPCI waived till year-end the switching fee for all RuPay issuing and acquiring member banks for point of sales and e-commerce transactions.
When a pensive image of the prime minister of India, Narendra Damodardas Modi, suddenly beamed on all news channels across the country on the evening of November 8, it gathered millions of eyeballs. Millions others jostled in front of television sets as he went on to announce the government's decision to demonetise two key currency notes, Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.
Nepal Premier Prachanda has telephoned Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought an arrangement so that Nepalese holding a huge stock of banned high denomination Indian bank notes could swap them with legal currency in the country.

During his five-minute telephonic conversation with Modi, Prachanda told him that Nepalese have quite a big stock of Indian bank notes of 500 and 1,000 denominations that have now been pulled out of circulation.

Hundreds of thousands of Nepalese, who earn a living by working as daily-wage labourers in India, visit the neighbouring country seeking medical treatment or rely on Indian markets to purchase daily essentials, are said to be holding big chunk of scrapped Indian bank notes, Kathmandu Post reported.

Also, those visiting India as pilgrims and those engaged in cross-border trade are said to have a big stock of now-useless Indian bank notes.

Some of these people, according to the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, may lose their entire savings if the now-obsolete notes are not replaced with legal bills.

"Considering this, India should make an arrangement so that Nepalese can exchange the banned notes here in Nepal," a statement posted on Prachanda's personal website quoted the premier as saying.

In response, Modi said he would immediately resolve the issue and would also ask Finance Minister to hold talks with Nepalese counterpart.

Following the Indian government's surprise decision, the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the central bank, also banned the use of those bank notes in Nepal from last Wednesday.

The NRB has said IRs 33.6 million in the denominations of 500 and 1,000 is within the financial system in Nepal, the report said.

The figure includes cash parked at vaults of banks, financial institutions and NRB.

But actual stock of banned Indian bank notes is expected to be much more because Nepalese were previously allowed to carry Indian 500 and 1,000-rupee bank notes worth up to IRs25,000, it said.

Also, those residing in areas bordering India usually stash Indian notes of larger denominations as they have to frequent Indian markets to buy goods.

The Indian government has said people who have accounts in Indian banks need not worry as the financial institutions will provide them the currency exchange facility. But many Nepalese who own the banned notes do not have accounts in Indian banks.

Against this backdrop, the Ministry of Finance wrote to the Indian Finance Ministry on Thursday requesting that arrangements be made so that Nepalese holding banned Indian notes could replace them with legal tenders here in Nepal.

NRB too wrote a letter to the Reserve Bank of India, seeking exchange facility for Nepalese holding banned Indian notes here in Nepal.

The Indian central bank earlier responded saying the NRB's



message has been conveyed to the Indian Finance Ministry.

Indian central bank governor Urjit Patel told the same thing to Nepali central bank governor Chiranjibi Nepal during the conversation between the two, a senior NRB official said on condition of anonymity.

This was an indication concrete results may not be achieved by holding talks at the central bank level, as the Reserve Bank of India cannot make any move without getting an instruction from the Indian Finance Ministry, the report said.

This, many said, called for the need to hold talks at higher level.

Earlier, former finance ministers Ram Sharan Mahat and Surendra Pandey had also told Parliament that interventions need to be made at the top Indian government level to reap favourable results.

The urgency was shown by almost everyone to deal with the issue as the Indian government has set a deadline of December 30 to deposit the scrapped notes at banks.
Since the demonetisation of high currency notes terror funding has come down to zero and there hasn't been stone-pelting on security forces, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Monday.

He thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the "daring" move, which, he said, will also help clamp down on the narcotic drugs.

"Earlier, there were rates: Rs 500 for stone pelting (on security forces in Kashmir) and Rs 1,000 for doing something else. PM has brought terror funding to zero," Parrikar said.

"In the last few days after PM's daring move there hasn't been stone pelting on security forces. I congratulate PM for it," he said, speaking at an event here organised by the BJP MLA Atul Bhatkhalkar.

Talking to reporters later, Parrikar said those who sponsor terror will be affected by the demonetisation.

Earlier, at the event, Parrikar said, "Bhatkhalkar did not tell me beforehand that he will felicitate me."

A citation was presented to Parrikar, which lauded his role in surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir. It also thanked him for providing relief to people affected by land development rules in the vicinity of Central Ordnance Depots.

"When I became Defence Minister, I did not think there will be things like this (dealing with COD-land issue). I thought Defence meant bang-bang on the border," he said.

"Altogether, 17.38 lakh acres of land in the country is under Defence possession. Defence is the largest land owner in India," Parrikar said.

"There was delay in resolving COD issue as there were concerns over security on one hand and people's concerns on the other," he said.

"Whether it's border security or economic security, PM Modi has taken daring decisions," he said, adding "whatever is being done, our jawans on border are doing it, I and PM are just supporting it."

"Problem of new notes circulation will be resolved to a large extent in the next four-five days," Parrikar said.

In the next Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections, nobody will be left with power to bribe voters, Parrikar said, without naming the ally Shiv Sena which has been critical of demonetisation.



The Defence Minister said an issue should not be made out of his simplicity and his shunning various official perks.

"I came to Mumbai thrice (on personal visits) and police didn't know," Parrikar said.

BJP MP Gopal Shetty said he will expose Defence officers who indulged in irregularities while dealing with the COD issue.

Providing relief to people in suburban Kandivli and Malad here, Parrikar had earlier this year said the local military authority (LMA) will have to respond within 30 days to applications for no-objection certificate for redevelopment and construction near the defence establishment, failing which the state government and the municipal corporation can take a call.

The move was welcomed by residents of buildings within the 500-meter radius of the Central Ordnance Depot, a defence establishment spanning across 17 acres of Kandivli and Malad.

Two notifications -- issued by a cautious government in 2010 in the wake of the Adarsh scam and by the ministry of defence (MoD) in 2011 -- had scuttled all redevelopment projects in the highly congested areas of Kandivli and Malad, as they made permission from the LMA mandatory for any construction within 500-meter radius of COD.
In order to provide respite to cash-starved citizens, the government not only decided to increase the withdrawal and exchange limits in banks and ATMs across the country but also directed banks to guide anxious customers in filling the forms and provide customers waiting in queues with tea, coffee and biscuits.



Here are the different measures undertaken by the govt:



1. The government advised banks and the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) to waive charges on e-transactions till December 31. Following this, NPCI waived till year-end the switching fee for all RuPay issuing and acquiring member banks for point of sales and e-commerce transactions

2.The limit for various categories of withdrawals has been raised, exemptions extended till November 24, and micro-ATMs will be deployed in rural and semi-urban centres.
Here are excerpts from the Wall Street Journal on the day before the election...Finally, there was the On The Street Interview I saw:Question: Why do you think Hillary is qualified to be president?Answer: She is qualified because she is a woman.Or, if you need further proof that we are surrounded by non-thinking voters, go to this link ...Ought to change her name to Hillary No-Way-She-Can-Lose Clinton.
Seafood exporters are in a quandary after demonetisation of high-value currency notes as they fear the crisis if prolonged and can lead to cancellation of orders.

The governments surprise move to ban Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes has left the exporters of the perishable item a worried lot.



The exporters are finding it tough to make the materials available in time at ports for shipments.

Exporters are unable to make the shipments on time as they are running out of cash to make on-road expenses of trucks carrying the cargo to the ports. There are personal expenses of the drivers, fuelling, road taxes, loading and unloading costs, which are to be met in cash only. On any given day, the expense comes to around Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh, said Ramesh Mohapatra, chairman, Magnum Seafood and president, Utkal Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The governments move will have a natural impact on the exports due to delay in shipments. If we fail to deliver on or before the due date to the customers, the orders may get cancelled, he added.

Indian seafood exports are pegged at $4.7 billion with the US and southeast Asian countries being major importers. Frozen shrimp is the major export item followed by frozen fish.

The governments move to limit the withdrawal amount and cash transactions will also delay the payments to the workers.

We will make the payments to the contractors by cheques, said Tara Ranjan Patnaik, chairman, Falcon Marine Exports.

Ajay Dash, president, SEAI-Odisha, also said theyd pay by cheques to workers.
Knowingly or unknowingly the Modi government has pushed the country into something resembling the Soviet era. The whole country is queuing up for hours in front of banks or ATMs in search of few thousand rupees. The unpreparedness of the whole demonetisation scheme has exposed the gross inefficiencies of the Indian banking system. With $217 billion (86% of total currency value in circulation) currency out of the system, markets are deserted and economic activities are at a bare minimum. If the present chaos continues for some more time, there is a danger of a parallel black economy emerging based on banned currency. This could be a much serious phenomenon than existing black economy.
Pune-based economic think tank ArthaKranti, which claims to have suggested to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to demonetise the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, wants the government to abolish income tax and 56 other taxes and replace it by a banking transaction tax, or BTT, of two per cent on earnings.
India, China and other developing countries marked a partial victory at the climate talks with the Moroccan hosts backing off from a rigid stance on the Marrakech Call  a political statement that it wanted heads of states and ministers of 196 countries to endorse without getting into the content of the document. On Monday, Morocco, playing the host and president of the negotiations brought out a second and relatively more balanced draft of the document, offering it to countries informally to comment on it.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to stay the central governments drive but told the Centre to justify the need for such a drastic step through an affidavit. The apex court will examine its legality with reference to the provisions of the Reserve Bank Act.
Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Tuesday called his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi amid growing tensions in the Himalayan country over demonetisation of Indian currency. It is believed that 29 million Nepalese citizens are holding Rs 1,000-1,500 crore in denomination of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000. In Nepal and Bhutan, Indian rupee is the second currency and is freely transacted. India had recently permitted people travelling to Nepal from India to carry up to Rs 25,000.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to stay the government's notification demonetising Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes but asked it to spell out the steps taken to minimise public inconvenience.
There could be sops, after the pain. Sensing the growing frustration among the middle classes and the poor in India over dry ATMs and long queues at banks after demonetisation of big notes, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is learnt to be sending out feelers to finance minister Arun Jaitley to relax the income-tax slabs, even if marginally, in the Union Budget. "This would help consolidate the BJP position among the salaried class," a source said.
Even as ministers and heads of states gathered at Marrakech for the climate talks an ugly battle ensued behind closed doors over climate finance. Developed countries insisted that the OECD report which claims that rich nations are well on way to provide the committed US $100 billion annually by 2020 be accepted as the benchmark formally under the UN climate negotiations for future talks on the issue.


This year has been a washout for jewellery companies due to a sharp increase in the price of gold and a number of measures taken by the government to disgorge black money. Scrapping high-value currency notes was the last straw.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to stay the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8 but wanted the government to justify the drastic step through an affidavit. The court will examine its legality with reference to the provisions of the Reserve Bank Act.


The Government of Tamil Nadu is in talks with the central government on rationalisation of the index, in the wake of recent ranking by the centre in which the State was ranked as 18th. Around Rs 87,000 crore investment out of the Rs 2.42 lakh crore committed during the Global Investors' Meet in 2015, is being implemented in the State, said a senior administrative officer from the State government.
Country's merchandise exports continued to rise for the second consecutive month in October, growing by 9.59 per cent in October.

Export rose to $ 23.51 billion in October against $21.45 billion in the corresponding period last year, government data showed on Tuesday. In September, exports rose by 4.6 per cent, only the second occasion in the 22 months since December 2014 when a chronic fall in exports started.
With elections in main growing states of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh due next year, the union Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) today raised the minimum support price for the 2017-18 marketing season that starts from April by a hefty Rs 100 per quintal, the biggest increase so far in the current NDA regime.

The increase which in percentage terms translates into a 6.6 per cent hike is more than the RS 50 and 75 per quintal rise in MSPs announced in the last two years.
With reports of sudden spurt in deposits at Jan Dhan accounts in the wake of demonetisation, ministry has asked the to convert the small accounts into PMJDY (Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana) accounts by carrying out eKYC and KYC(know your customer).
Around one lakh employees representing a majority of the cooperative across the country are expected to protest against the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) decision restricting majority of the cooperative from dealing with the Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes which has been demonetised last week. The employees might look at various options including strike to protest, according to union leaders.
Small signs of moderation in asset quality pressure on are becoming visible, going by the dip in the amount of loans that got added to the pool of gross non-performing assets (GNPAs) in the quarter ended September.
Are you tired of waiting in endless queues at ATMs? Micro ATM may be able to come to your rescue.
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Over the last week, two of the worlds biggest internet have faced mounting criticism over how fake news on their sites may have influenced the presidential elections outcome.
After more than three hours of testimony both for and against the proposed One Big Sky Center, the Billings City Council voted 6-2 Monday to approve the projects pre-development memorandum of understanding.

Joining Mayor Tom Hanel in support of approving the agreement were Shaun Brown, Dick Clark, Ryan Sullivan, Rich McFadden and Larry Brewster.

Opposing it were Chris Friedel and Mike Yakawich.

Councilman Brent Cromley recused himself from the vote, saying his law office has completed some work for the developers. Council members Angela Cimmino and Al Swanson were absent.

While the agreement contains no concrete commitments or responsibilities, it does authorize staff to work with the developers to produce an acceptable development agreement by June 30, 2017, Assistant City Administrator Bruce McCandless wrote in a memo before the meeting.

Skip Ahern, one of three partners in MontDevCo LLC, told the city council he wasnt yet asking for tax increment financing help.

I dont need your TIF funds now, he said. What I need now is an expression of interest.

He said he built the most expensive office buildings in Denver and Phoenix, and we filled them right up.

MontDevCo seeks $30 million in tax increment financing as part of the $165 million it estimates it will need to complete the mixed-use development, which will include office and apartment buildings, a conference center, a parking garage, retail space and public greenspace along North 29th Street.

Ahern said the construction firm Swank Enterprises, with its building in the footprint of One Big Sky Center, will be heavily involved in the project, but we also could use a contractor who has built something like this before.

A group of Millennials and other members of the Billings business community told the council they were in favor of the city approving the predevelopment memorandum of understanding, the citys first opportunity to endorse the project.

A project that improves the downtown core, utilizes pre-existing infrastructure by building up and not out and grows future tax revenue should be attractive to any city council, said Joel Anderson, a member of the Billings Chamber of Commerces NextGen group.

Millennials are starting businesses and revolutionizing the world, and we are the ones who will eventually be running the city, said Janine Mix. Missoula has about eight projects going, and we have none.

Tana Hergenraeder told the council that a failure to approve the agreement might send a signal to future developers that the council is not open to exploring partnerships.

She said that a number of Billings residents see One Big Sky Center as a catalyst for the community.

Right now, said Bill Cole, who chairs the chamber board of directors, you are just being asked to go steady for a short period, not get married forever.

He too cautioned that developers might go elsewhere if the city council declined to approve the agreement.

Were not the prettiest girl at the dance, he said.

Other business

By a 7-2 vote, the council tabled endorsing the Authorize Community Transformation initiative that would promote legislative passage of a local option authority.

Council members said they want to see a draft bill of the proposal before endorsing the idea, which would allow communities to vote on an up-to-3-cents-per-dollar tax on specific goods and services for no more than a decade.

Hanel and Cromley opposed tabling the proposal, saying they wanted to support the ACT initiative.

As the clock approached midnight, the nine council members present unanimously approved a $24,500 raise for City Administrator Tina Volek. The raise brings her annual salary to $155,000.

Volek told the council that her "time here is coming to a close" and that the additional pay will "lay the groundwork for the hiring of a subsequent city administrator in a competitive format."

"This puts us in a much better position to attract a new city administrator," Hanel said.
Mary Jo White has stepped to the front of the line of financial regulators moving aside for Donald Trumps administration. White, a political independent appointed by President Barack Obama, said Monday that she will step down as Securities and Exchange Commission chair in January.
The hub of the technology industry is . In finance, the world capitals have long been London and New York.
Reliance Mutual Fund, a part of Reliance Capital, has crossed Rs 2 lakh crore in assets under management (AUM) and expects big gains from .

With this, Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management now manages over Rs 3.3 lakh crore in total AUM and retains its position as the largest asset manager in the country.

Reliance Mutual Fund is the third fund house to cross the 2 lakh crore AUM mark after HDFC MF and ICICI MF. Overall, the industry has 43 fund houses.

"Yes, we have crossed the Rs 2 lakh crore AUM mark on our daily AUM. However, this number will be reflected in the official data released by AMFI at the end of the quarter," said Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management Ltd Executive director and CEO Sundeep Sikka while speaking to PTI.

Reliance Mutual Fund has seen a significant rise in its debt AUM this year, which surged from Rs 96,800 crore in March 2016 to Rs 1,27,000 crore in October this year.

"We expect a strong momentum from the recent initiative by the government. We see this as a huge positive for the entire MF (mutual fund) industry which will be a strong beneficiary as investors opt for safer and more structured avenues for wealth creation," Sikka added.

The MF industry reached close to Rs 16.3 lakh crore in AUM during October 2016 and the industry is aiming to cross the Rs 20 lakh crore mark soon as more and more money is channelised into banks and the country moves towards a digital economy.

" has accelerated our growth and will enable huge inflows into the economy and stock market through structured investment routes. We see the MF industry crossing the Rs 20 lakh crore mark very soon," said Sikka.

The government on November 8 demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in a step to curb black money.
About 900,000 Afghan refugees have returned this year from Pakistan and Iran surpassing all previous years, said Afghanistan's Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations (MoRR) on Tuesday.

More than 600,000 refugees have returned from Pakistan whereas 300,000 from Iran, according to the MoRR.

"Government has announced the allocation of $100 million USD for the returnees, some financial cooperation has been considered for each returnee," the Tolo News quoted media advisor to MoRR, Hafiz Ahmad Miakhail as saying.

Meanwhile, the Food Program (WFP) has said that among those return-refugees there are about 23,000 children of which many are suffering from malnutrition.

Spokesman to WFP, Wahidullah Miakhail said, "There are about 23,000 children among the families repatriated and these children either suffer from malnutrition or are threatened with malnutrition and we are trying to help these children."

An Afghan returnee Rozi Khan said, "Government has failed to deliver on its promises regarding the refugees; the refugees are living in very bad conditions."

"We left Pakistan five days ago, now there is no shelter for us to live in and no food to eat, we have a lot of problems," said another refugee Mohammad Jan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Trinamool Congress (TMC) Chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is set to join the opposition in meeting President Pranab Mukherjee tomorrow over the Centre's demonetisation scheme, asserted that she will fight in defence of the common man who is being 'harassed' over this financial calamity.

Speaking to the media here after arriving in the capital, she stated that she will convey to the President what is in the minds of the people.

"We are against black money for sure. But we are also against the way the public is being tortured and harassed. Agriculture sector, labourers, housewives, teachers, government job holders all are in dangers. All small scale markets are done for," Mamata said.

Coming down heavily on the Centre, she further pointed out that there are people who have been rendered cashless and are fending for food.

The TMC Chief also questioned the government as to why there was not a proper plan put in place before going ahead with the scheme.

"99 % of the nation is being punished for the crimes committed by the 1% which is just not fair," she added.

Talking about the march tomorrow against the Centre, Mamata confirmed that she will be joined by the Shiv Sena.

"This is not about individual or political interest, but we will do what we can for the public," she said, adding that she will be meeting Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal later in the day to talk about tomorrow's march.

Meanwhile, responding to reports of party chief Uddhav Thackeray holding talks with Mamata Banerjee in connection with opposing Centre's move of banning high denomination notes, Shiv Sena said that it would do anything to help the common man.

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said that the sufferings of the common man matter more that political differences.

"It is true that talks are on between Mamata Banerjee and Uddhav Thackeray. This is not an issue involving politics, this is a matter which concerns the common man. Shiv Sena will make any and every effort to reduce the pain of the common man," said Raut.

Meanwhile, TMC spokesperson Derek O'Brien told ANI that Mamata and leaders of other parties will meet the President at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow.

"Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah will also accompany Mamata Banerjee," he said.

The TMC supremo had earlier also tried to bring the Left on board on this issue.

The Congress, TMC, Left Parties, YSR Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) yesterday huddled to strike a common strategy for the Winter Session that starts on Wednesday and will continue till December 16.

Almost all opposition parties at the all-party meeting chaired yesterday by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said demonetisation had not been properly implemented, adding the move has led to chaos.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Mahajan expressed hope that there will be a healthy discussion on various issues during the Winter Session. She said the members of various parties demanded a discussion on various issues including demonetisation of high value notes.

Prime Minister Modi, however, told the NDA allies that there was no need to be defensive on the government's decision as there is widespread support for it and people are ready to face hardships for larger gains.

He urged NDA allies to go to the public and explain the long-term benefits of demonetisation in curbing corruption and black money.

The Prime Minister also asked them not to buckle under the opposition's pressure.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ahead of Parliament's Winter Session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi exhorted all the opposition parties to cooperate and extend support to the government's crusade against black money and corruption, said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar on Tuesday.

The Prime Minister also urged the opposition parties to put forth their arguments in a fruitful manner in order to ensure smooth passage of the session.

"The Prime Minister reminded the opposition parties that they were cooperative during the passage of the GST act and requested all the parties' cooperation both inside and outside the house regarding the Government of India's crusade against corruption, black money and fake currency which are affecting common man," Kumar said.

The Prime Minister further called on the opposition parties, during the all-party meet, to come out with solution with regard to conducting simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly elections and the state government's role in funding elections.

"In the recent decades there have been spate of elections; therefore there is a need for simultaneous election. The Prime Minister exhorted all the parties to brainstorm and discuss the issue and debate this issue and come out with a solution," Kumar said.

On the other hand, calling the demonetisation as the "biggest scam of all time", Rajya Sabha MP and Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said the opposition is united and will jointly raise the issue in the Parliament.

"We are not against black money, but the Government has been unsuccessful in bringing back black money from aboard. And the manner in which the government haphazardly executed the demonetisation scheme, the farmers, small traders are bereft of money. The people are struggling to pay for medical expenses," Azad said.

Apart from that, the Parliament will also witness discussions on the Kashmir issue, One Rank One Pension Issue and farmer's issue.

The Winter Session of the Parliament is scheduled to take place between November 16 and December 16.

The Congress has sought suspension of business on day one of Winter Session to discuss the demonetisation issue.

Leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday said Congress MPs would raise the demonetisation issue under rules 56 and 193 during the Winter Session.

Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma has already given a notice for the suspension of business under rule 267 of the Rajya Sabha for a discussion on the same issue.

Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad has also given a notice under rule 267 for discussion on the issue of Kashmir unrest.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kyocera Document Solutions America, Inc., one of the world's leading document solutions companies, today announced that Buyers Laboratory LLC (BLI) has awarded the Kyocera TASKalfa 3252ci its "Highly Recommended" and "Reliability Certified" ratings for 2016.

BLI is a leading independent provider of product intelligence for the imaging industry, trusted by buyers and IT directors around the world. Over two months, BLI conducted rigorous assessments of virtually all features, capabilities, and performance measures. The TASKalfa 3252ci was rated as "an excellent overall performer."

The assessment included a 125,000-impression reliability test, during which time the MFP experienced only one misfeed. BLI analysts noted that the MFP's long-life components and high maximum paper capacity mean less frequent interruptions, and that both color and monochrome output remained consistent over long runs.

The TASKalfa 3252ci impressed Buyers Lab with its fast first-print and first-copy times, as well as its fast scan speed. The device is HyPAS-enabled, ready to run any of Kyocera's industry-leading library of applications. BLI analysts called special attention to the mobile printing capabilities.

"WiFi-Direct and NFC support for Android are both standard, and the device can run Apple AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, and KYOCERA Mobile Print," said George Mikolay, Senior Editor for A3 and Production Hardware at BLI. "This MFP is ideal for today's mobile workforce."

"Both dealers and customers are looking for reliability and performance - and this is it," said Douglas Cole, Director of Product Marketing, Corporate Marketing Group for KYOCERA Document Solutions America. "This recommendation from BLI confirms everything we've been saying about the TASKalfa 3252ci."

The MFP features a unique waste toner design: expired black cartridges can be used as waste containers, reducing storage requirements and landfill waste. The design earned the TASKalfa 3252ci a Summer 2016 Outstanding Achievement in Innovation.

"With its low price, robust feature set, and strong overall performance, the MFP is an excellent value for small to mid-size workgroups," continued BLI's Mikolay. "BLI highly recommends the Kyocera TASKalfa 3252ci for monthly volumes of up to 15,000 impressions.

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Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal was called on Tuesday by China's newly appointed Ambassador to the country Yu Hong at his official residence in Baluwatar.

According to a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Secretariat, the Chinese Ambassador during the meet discussed bilateral relation between the two countries, the ongoing post-earthquake reconstruction works in Nepal and Chinese support with PM Dahal, reports The Himalyan Times.

Apart from this, issues related to Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming visit to the country were also discussed.

Dahal, on behalf of the Government of Nepal, thanked China for its support to the country and expressed commitment to the one-China policy, the statement said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress Party on Tuesday made a sharp attack on the Narendra Modi government alleging that the real agenda behind demonetisation was to mop up resources in order to bail out the non performing assets of banks which were owed by several industrialists.

Kapil Sibal of the Congress Party made this strong allegation when he said, "Out of the roughly 16,000 crore rupees in the market, the government hopes to see 10,000 crores placed in the banks. The balance 6,000 would be generated by the RBI and placed at the disposal of the government and the real objective of that fund was to pay off the non performing assets of banks."

Sibal added that the money of the common person was going to be used by the government to bail out rich industrialists.

Taking a strong exception to the unwarranted criticism of the government, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu earlier accused the opposition parties of belittling the Centre's move intended to benefit the poor.

"Some opposition parties are resorting to this malicious campaign to belittle the move taken by the government which will benefit the poor," said Naidu.

"There had to be an element of surprise or the unscrupulous elements would have taken advantage. There was no question of sharing it," he added.

Naidu also rubbished reports of the Centre pre-informing some people about the demonetisation move.

"To say that the government had informed some people in advance is an absurd allegation. Demonetisation step was taken to check the misuse of this high value notes by sponsors of terror and black money holders," he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has told NDA allies that there was no need to be defensive on the government's decision as there is widespread support for it and people are ready to face hardships for larger gains.

He urged NDA allies to go to the public and explain the long-term benefits of demonetisation in curbing corruption and black money.

The Prime Minister also asked them not to buckle under the opposition's pressure.

Meanwhile, the government has convened an all-party meeting today to seek cooperation from leaders of the both the Houses for smooth functioning of Parliament.
At Archie Cochrane Ford, a safe culture for its 115 employees led to a big payday Monday.

At the Billings auto dealership, officials from the Montana State Fund distributed about $43,000 in dividends from Archie Cochrane workers compensation premiums.

Archie Cochrane was among the largest recipients in Yellowstone County, which received $4.6 million total for this year. The average dividend from the fund was $1,838 in Yellowstone County.

I attribute it to our management team and staff. Were big on safety and training. Its important to us that people have a safe place to work, Garry Brayko, owner of Archie Cochrane, said Monday.

He added that he plans to invest the money back into the business and improve training.

The Montana State Fund is distributing about $35 million in dividends to employers statewide before Dec. 9, matching last years record distribution. The agency has returned a dividend every year since 1999, a total of $176 million back into Montana communities.

The dividends are based on the amount of workers compensation claims filed by employers, which means that safer workplaces are likely eligible for more money back. Other factors include the financial markets where Montana State Fund invests its money, according to agency officials.

Montana is traditionally one of the most dangerous places to work, with high accident rates and workers compensation claims, said Laurence Hubbard, CEO of the Montana State Fund.

We think its really important to put a spotlight on worker safety and change the culture, Hubbard said.

Hubbard is traveling to seven Montana cities this week to present checks and highlight workplace safety.
After the Delhi Pollution Control Committee recorded a 1/3rd fall in the particulate matter (PM) 10 levels and 1/4th fall in PM 2.5 levels, Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung lifted the ban imposed on construction and demolition activities in the city, in the second review meeting held today.

"In view of the loss of income to daily wage labourers and the labouring class, ban on construction/ demolition to be lifted forthwith," said the Raj Bhawan statement, however, it was directed that the DPCC guidelines for minimizing dust in construction sites must be strictly adhered to.

The special Commissioner of police, Traffic informed Jung that following his order, construction work was stopped at 539 sites and 29 cases were registered by the department.

Over 1.5 crores revenue was generated from the violators of construction/demolition activities in the last one week.

While there has been no respite on the use of firecrackers and diesel generating sets, trucks will only be allowed to enter the capital after 12 midnight till 31st of January 2017.

Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain, Environment and Forest Minister Imran Hussain, Delhi police and representatives from all three MCDs attended the meeting.

Earlier on November 7th, Jung had held an emergency review meet after the air quality in the capital touched an alarming 999 micrograms of particulate matter per cubic meter in some, which is more than 15-16 times the limit considered safe.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In the wake of the Centre's move to demonetise Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday urged Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to take immediate steps to mitigate the difficulties faced by the citizens of the country.

"There has been much inconvenience to the common public, both for exchanging the old notes and also for withdrawing cash from banks and ATMs. This is primarily on account of the fact that the banking system does not appear to have been geared up for this mammoth task given to them," Siddaramaiah wrote in a letter to Jaitley.

Suggesting that sufficient and practical measures could have been put in place in advance, Siddaramaiah said, "I hope that the Central Government and Reserve Bank of India will take immediate and effective steps to mitigate these hardships taking into account the suggestions."

Stating that in his view the new Rs. 500 notes should have been introduced first before Rs. 2,000 notes, he requested Jaitley to introduce new series of Rs. 500 notes immediately to give relief to the common man.

He also suggested that the time limit for use of old currency for the exempted categories of payments be extended till December 30 as this period is anyway available for them for the exchange of old currency.

"While the currency notes of Rs. 500 and 1,000 have been withdrawn, new notes of Rs. 2,000 have been introduced in the market. There is no currency available in the market between Rs. 100 and 2,000 today. This is causing many practical problems. In my view, new Rs. 500 notes should have been introduced first before Rs. 2,000 notes. Release of Rs. 2,000 has not solved the problems due to withdrawal of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes. I am informed by the bankers that new series of Rs. 500notes is being issued soon. I request you to introduce them immediately to give relief to common man," Siddaramaiah said.

Stating that medical services are in a nature of an emergency service irrespective of them being in the government or private sector, the Chief Minister said there were instances of patients being denied treatment in private hospitals due to lack of availability of cash with them.

"Private hospitals, diagnostic labs, blood banks may also be included in the exempted list. The time limit for use of old currency for exempted categories of payments may be extended till December 30," he added.

The Chief Minister's other suggestions to Jaitley included increasing the cash supply to the cooperative banking sector as per their requirement, enhanced withdrawal limits for registered traders and commission agents of the markets to enable them to pay small and marginal farmers in time.

The Karnataka Chief Minister yesterday took stock of the prevailing situation in the state in the wake of demonetisation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With the opposition all set to train guns on the BJP-led NDA regime in the Winter Session over the demonetisation move, Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal on Tuesday said that this decision would not be withdrawn and added the ruling dispensation is ready to discuss the matter in Parliament.

Meghwal said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given strict orders that this decision will not be withdrawn.

"We are ready to discuss the issue in Parliament. We are not going to withdraw this decision. ATMs are taking time to calibrate the new Rs. 2,000 note. People should circulate the money rather than stocking it," Meghwal told ANI.

"We are doing routine monitoring of the situation. People are standing in line but are happy with the decision," he added.

Earlier on Monday, Prime Minister Modi told NDA allies that there was no need to be defensive on the government's decision as there is widespread support for it and people are ready to face hardships for larger gains.

He urged NDA allies to go to the public and explain the long-term benefits of demonetisation in curbing corruption and black money.

The Prime Minister also asked them not to buckle under the opposition's pressure.

The Prime Minister's assertion came as the opposition parties joined hands to corner the government over the move to demonetise high-value currency.

Later in the day, almost all opposition parties at the all-party meeting chaired by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said demonetisation had not been properly implemented, adding the move has led to chaos.

The Congress, Trinamool Congress, Left Parties, YSR Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) huddled to strike a common strategy for the Winter Session that starts on Wednesday and will continue till December 16.

However, they could not arrive at a consensus on West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee's proposal to hand over a protest memorandum in this regard to President Pranab Mukherjee.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court today will hear several petitions challenging the government's decision to scrap Rs.500 and Rs.1000 currency notes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In an effort to promote and educate the youth about staying smart, safe and savvy online, Google India today announced the launch of the second edition of the Web Rangers contest. Google Web Rangers contest is open to students across the country within the age group of 10 and 17 years.

Entering its second year, the competition aims to encourage young people in schools and communities to highlight the importance of Internet safety and being good digital citizens. As part of the competition, students across the country are invited to create, innovate and submit their creative ideas in various categories in the form of entries ranging from a comprehensive Internet safety campaign, to a project involving a video, website, app or even design a poster to educate and spread awareness around digital safety.

"Last year, kids from across the country amazed us with their innovative and inspiring submissions. As we celebrate the second edition of the Web Rangers contest, we can't wait to see what the students have in store for us. The Web Rangers contest is a platform to enable these young adults to become good digital citizens and empower their friends and families to have a safer and meaningful digital experience. " said Sunita Mohanty, Director, Trust and Safety at Google.

Last year the competition received hundreds of entries across schools in the form of sketches, cartoons, videos and apps. Here's a look at the winning entries judged on the various parameters including creativity, reach and impact.

The deadline for submitting entries for this year's contest is January 5, 2017. Winners in each of these categories stand to win Chromebooks and tablets. To learn more about the rules and format, or to submit your entries, visit this page.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Indepay Networks today announced fast-tracking pre-paid cards launch to provide near cash digital alternative in line with the Government's demonetisation drive.

The company is in the final stages of launching prepaid cards in collaboration with multiple banks for secured digital payments.

Indepay, the youngest payment network focusing on new adopters of banking, will enable its banking partners to attain 100 million new customers through its pre-paid products.

The launch of pre-paid cards and mobile application comes as a relief in fraudulent times and is also in alignment with the Government's vision of cashless society.

Indepay will launch its pre-paid cards in February, this fiscal; focussing on under-banked and un-banked masses.The branchless mode of operation will involve enrolment of unbanked masses with simple Aadhaar card identification.

Rajib Saha, CEO and President of Indepay said, "The Company is working on a pilot basis in several cities across the country and hasacquired 10 lakh customers already. Customers will be able togetthese cards easily from Indepay's partner banks or business points. The cards can be recharged and used for all purposes, from making payments to withdrawing cash. Prepaid cards will work collaboratively with banks, card processors and mobile wallets."

The bank owned prepaid model of Indepay will reduce the load on bank branch infrastructure, hence facilitating accelerated adoption of cashless transaction. It will help add many new customers to the branchless banking model in accordance with the RBI guidelines.

Mr. Saha added, "At a time when people are seeking easy digital money alternative and are apprehensive about using debit and credit cards due to cyber frauds, these prepaid cards are much safer and simpler to use."

"Pre-paid cards limit the users' monetary exposure just to the amount in the wallet, while safe guarding life earnings in their bank account and protecting them from risks of fraudulent practices. Prepaid card is closest to cash and comes without any liability. Use of Indepay's pre-paid cards will push the existing networks' proliferation in the market place and will also reduce the transaction cost of merchants in addition to providing incentives to its customers," he added.

Indepay is already working with banks in India, Indonesia and other Asian countries.

In India, the company has tied-up with State Bank of India as the first banking partner, acquiring more than 1.25 million customers. It is active in Uttar Pradesh (West), Delhi/ NCR,Northeast and Rajasthan.

In Indonesia, Indepay was launched in 2015, in cooperation with one of its largest banks, PT Bank Central Asia Tbk (BCA). The model is operating successfully with high appreciations from the government of Indonesia.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Affirming support to India on countering terrorism, Israel President Reuven Rivlin on Tuesday said both nations are threatened by terror because they uphold the values of freedom.

"Thank you from the bottom of my heart, you have truly made us feel at home in your beautiful country. Israel and India are threatened by terror because we uphold the values of freedom. Terror is terror is terror is terror," Rivlin said in a joint statement.

"Israel is ready to answer the Prime Minister's call - we are ready to 'Make in India' and Make with India. Israeli companies can tie up with Indian flagship programmes like 'Make in India'," he added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his part said terrorism is a global challenge and has no boundaries.

"And regrettably, one of the countries of its origin is in India's neighbourhood," he said in an apparent reference to Pakistan.

The Prime Minister said the failure to act and silence of speech only encourages terrorists.

Prime Minister Modi said India is grateful to Israel for its clear support to India's permanent candidature in a reformed UN Security Council.

He said the two countries agreed to promote educational exchanges as well as enhancing people to people contacts through greater cultural and tourism linkages.

India and Israel today inked two agreements in the field of water resources management and agriculture. The agreements were signed following delegation-level talks between Prime Minister Modi and the visiting Israeli President.

India and Israel have excellent relations in the areas of economy and commerce, science and technology, research and innovation, culture, tourism, and education.

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By offering to host the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GES) next year, India has clearly demonstrated that it is wholly committed to entrepreneurship and innovation, said United States Ambassador to India Richard Verma on Tuesday.

"We couldn't be more excited to be partnering with the Government of India to co-host GES 2017. GES 2017 will be an important opportunity for India to advance ease of doing efforts, highlight skills and entrepreneur development, and encourage more private sector investment. I know the Indian government is developing an ambitious vision for this one-of-a-kind event which demonstrates that India is open for and that it is a global leader when it comes to innovation and entrepreneurship. And, I can assure you that our governments are working together to nurture this culture of innovation and ensure there is an ecosystem in place to support innovators, their ideas, and marketisation, Verma said in introductory remarks at the American Center, which is hosting the Global Entrepreneurship Week 2016.

Describing entrepreneurship as a major feature of the American economic landscape, Verma said that since the founding of the United States in 1776, entrepreneurship has been a driver of economic growth, of job creation, and the source of countless ideas, many of which were successfully translated into products and services that touch citizens across our country and around the world, saving lives and enhancing the quality of life.

He said India too has a rich tradition of entrepreneurship.

"In recent years, Indian American innovators have contributed to the success of Silicon Valley and its startup culture, and there are strong ties between Silicon Valley and such Indian tech hubs as Bangalore and Hyderabad. And that same strain of innovation and entrepreneurship is manifest in the growing wave of startups in India: in health technology, mobile apps, e-commerce, and so much more," he added.

Verma said entrepreneurship is more than just an engine of economic growth. It is also a factor that makes communities more vibrant, inclusive, and secure.

"President Obama highlighted entrepreneurship's transformative properties when he noted that it is the, "ability to turn an idea into reality - a new venture, a small - that puts rising economies on the path to prosperity, and empowers people to come together and tackle our most pressing global problems, from climate change to poverty." These are but some of the reasons that we are so excited about entrepreneurship and are doing what we can to promote it worldwide, including here in India," he said.

He further went on to state that entrepreneurship and innovation are central to Prime Minister Modi's vision for transforming India.

"When the Prime Minister visited Silicon Valley last fall, I heard him speak about the need to bring together the best minds in India and the United States to solve our two countries' - and the world's - biggest challenges. He encouraged all of us to look at ways to harness our great networks of entrepreneurs and innovators to improve the lives of ordinary people," he said.

He said that the GES is a a preeminent global forum on entrepreneurship and a shining example of how governments, educational institutions, and private sector stakeholders can work together to foster the kind of entrepreneurial ecosystems that encourage economic growth, business-friendly environments, job creation, and secure communities.

He said that to promote this growing entrepreneurial summit, the United States will launch an entrepreneurship knowledge hub and business incubator.

"This facility - which we hope to inaugurate early next year and housed in part right behind this wall - will work with entrepreneurs to help them learn how to turn their ideas into enterprises. The incubator, which will be managed by the University of Texas's prestigious IC Institute, will also work with companies to help connect them with the investors who can move their concepts off the drawing board and onto the store shelf, and will work with other players in the Indian entrepreneurial universe to help foster a vibrant, cohesive and collaborative ecosystem," he said.

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Noting that "failure to act and silence of speech only encourages the terrorists", Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said Israel and India have agreed to intensify their cooperation to combat the forces of extremism and radicalisation that threaten all peace-loving nations.

Addressing a joint press conference with Israel President Reuven Rivlin after bilateral talks, Prime Minister Modi said, "We recognise that terrorism is a global challenge, knows no boundaries and has extensive links with other forms of organised crime."

"Regrettably, one of the countries of its origin and spread is in India's neighbourhood," said the Prime Minister in an indirect reference to Pakistan.

Stating that President Rivlin and he deeply value their strong and growing partnership to secure their societies, Prime Minister Modi observed, "Our people are constantly threatened by forces of terrorism and extremism. We agreed that the international community must act with resolve and determination against terror networks and States that harbour them. Failure to act and silence of speech only encourages the terrorists. We agreed to intensify our cooperation to combat the forces of extremism and radicalisation that threaten all peace-loving nations."

Hailing India's defence partnership with Israel, the Prime Minister said, "We noted the strength of our growing defence partnership and agreed on the need to make it more broad-based in production and manufacturing."

Prime Minister Modi also expressed India's gratefulness to Israel for its clear support to India's permanent candidature in a reformed the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

"We have identified water management and conservation, and collaboration in scientific research and development as two areas of priority engagement, whereas our economic initiatives and emphasis on innovation, research and technological development match well with Israel's strengths and capacities," said the Prime Minister.

Speaking on the various aspects of India-Israel cooperation, he said, "Our engagement is multi-dimensional and wide-ranging such as enhancing agricultural productivity and efficiency; boosting research and innovation linkages; employing applications of science and technology for the benefit of our societies; forging strong trade links and investment ties; building defence ties to secure our people; enhancing people to people ties through greater cultural and tourism linkages; and promoting educational exchanges. The growing number of Indian students going to study in Israel and vice versa can be an important bridge in our bilateral partnership."

Noting that President Rivlin's visit provides an opportunity to break new ground and shape new contours of our partnership, the Prime Minister said, "Excellency, your visit will provide crucial push to build new pillars in our partnership. The 2000-year old Jewish community in India represents a thriving link to this past, a vital part of our composite cultural mosaic. As we approach the 25-year milestone in establishment of diplomatic relations, we are committed to advance our engagement on several fronts."

Responding to Prime Minister Modi's statement, President Rivlin affirmed support to India on countering terrorism, while saying, "Terror is terror is terror is terror."

President Rivlin, who is on an eight-day official visit to India, said, "Israel is ready to answer the PM's call; we are ready to 'Make in India' and 'Make with India'."

Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari will call on President Rivlin at 4 p.m. at Hotel Taj Palace, while the visiting President will call on his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhawan 7.30 p.m., which will be followed by a banquet hosted by President Mukherjee at 8 p.m.

Later, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will call on the visiting dignitary.

President Rivlin will be visiting the Taj Mahal at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, followed by a visit to Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam Water Treatment Plant at Sikandra at 12 in the noon.

He will return here at 3.45 p.m.

President Rivlin, who is visiting India on an invitation of President Mukherjee, is expected to meet business leaders of both India and Israel. He will also be visiting 'Centre of Excellence' in agriculture in Karnal and will participate in Agro Tech - 2016 on Thursday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After her 'All I Have' residency in Las Vegas, Jennifer Lopez will perform on stage in the Sin City very soon.

The 47-year-old superstar is set to perform at the 'Latin Grammys' for the first time, according to People magazine.

Lopez' ex-husband Marc Anthony is also named 'The Latin Recording Academy's 'Person of the Year'.

"I am so excited and really looking forward to this new musical journey and to celebrate my Latin roots with Marc Anthony and the Sony/Magnus family," the 'On the Floor' crooner said in a statement.

Last month, president of the American 'National Broadcasting Company' Bob Greenblatt revealed that the network will be taking on musical comedy 'Bye Bye Birdie' next year, with Lopez set to both executive produce and star as the character of Rosie Alvarez.

The 2016 'Latin Grammy Awards' goes live on November 17 at the 'T-Mobile Arena' in Las Vegas.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pakistan Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has expressed his disappointment with the British Government over Altaf Hussain's acquittal in a money laundering case and said that Islamabad was expecting a different decision in view of the evidences against the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder.

Nisar, who arrived in London on three-day visit on Sunday evening, held a detailed meeting with his British counterpart Amber Rudd at her office on Monday and discussed bilateral relations but focused more on the MQM case, reports The Nation.

According to sources, Rudd made it clear to the visiting minister that every department in Britain works with complete independence and the government as such never interferes in the working of these departments.

"The acquittal of MQM leader and his colleagues is a decision made by the Scotland Yard at the conclusion and advice of Special Prosecution Service which was obligatory as a matter of fact and procedure," she reportedly clarified.

During his stay in London, Nisar will hold meetings with senior officials of Scotland Yard, Secretary of State Boris Johnson and National Security Advisor Sir Mark Layall Grant besides other British government dignitaries.

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A man who punched a Montana Highway Patrol trooper and dragged him with his car before crashing received a 40-year prison sentence in District Court last week.

In August, Abraham Spotted Elk Jr., 62, pleaded no contest to felony assault on a peace officer and guilty to two counts of felony criminal endangerment.

Judge Rod Souza sentenced Spotted Elk to 30 years for assaulting a peace officer and 10 years for criminal endangerment.

A highway patrol trooper pulled over Spotted Elk on Dec. 31, 2015, in Billings.

According to court documents, Spotted Elk smelled of alcohol and was slurring his speech.

After the officer saw meth in the car, Spotted Elk put his car into gear and attempted to drive away. The trooper tried to grab the wheel to control the vehicle. Spotted Elk punched the trooper as he held on for about 40 yards.

Later, another trooper saw Spotted Elk driving on Minnesota Avenue. Spotted Elk tried to flee along South 27th Street. He drove onto a snowbank and sidewalk to pass traffic. He eventually lost control of his car and smashed through a concrete barrier before stopping.

Officers found $900, a loaded assault-style rifle and 100 rounds of ammunition in Spotted Elk's car. His previous convictions included a second degree murder charge out of federal court in 1986. He was sentenced to life in prison and paroled in December 2011.
'Deadpool' star Ryan Reynolds recently opened up, in an interview, about his obsession for the movie.

The 40-year-old actor was asked about his favourite "Ryan Reynolds movies" to which he replied, "Buried, Adventureland. The Voices, Mississippi Grind."

"I love Deadpool with my last beating heart. I like Van Wilder. If you watch that, I'm just wholesale robbing from Chevy Chase," he told GQ magazine.

Deadpool is a fictional anti-hero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

The movie follows the life of Wade Wilson (played by Ryan Reynolds), a former 'Special Forces' operative who now works as a mercenary. His world comes crashing down when evil scientist Ajax performs a rogue experiment leaving him with accelerated healing powers and a twisted sense of humor.

".I was banging the loudest drum for Deadpool. I wasn't just trying to open it; I was trying to make a cultural phenomenon," he said.

Reynolds also revealed his first moment with his wife Blake Lively, with who he shares two children.

"No, we were hanging out at this little restaurant in Tribeca that's open really late, and this song came on and I was just like, "Want to dance?" No one was in there, so it was just totally empty. And it was just one of those moments where halfway through the dance, it was like, "Oh, I think I just crossed a line." And then I walked her home. And, uh, you know, I don't really need to go into what happened after that," he shared.

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The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear a plea filed by Delhi University Professor Nandini Sundar, who has been named as an accused in the alleged murder of a tribal person in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh.

The Chhattisgarh government on last Friday assured the Supreme Court that it will not arrest Sundar, in connection with the alleged murder of a tribal person in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh.

The state government told this to the apex court division bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur and also comprising Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel while replying to the plea filed by Sundar.

While telling the court that no coercive action would be taken against Sundar, Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the state would submit to the court its report in a sealed cover before the next date of hearing on November 15.

Earlier, refuting charges of murder Nandini Sundar said it was part of the state police's vendetta against all researchers, journalists, lawyers and activists who have been critical of their fake encounters and mass gang rapes, adding that she would take up the matter legally.

"It's part of the Chhattisgarh Police's vendetta against all researchers, journalists, lawyers, activists who have been critical of their fake encounters, their mass gang rapes of women and the complete lawlessness of the police. This FIR against us is absurd. We haven't even been to the area for five months. We will be taking it up legally," Sundar told ANI.

Sundar and 10 others have been booked for the murder of a tribal in Sukma.

Sundar has been named in a complaint by the wife of Shamnath Baghel, who was killed by Maoists last Friday in his village in Maoist-hit Bastar.

Baghel had been leading a campaign against Maoist activities since April and had recently formed the "Tangiya (axe) group".

Baghel and other villagers had in May lodged a complaint against Sundar and others for allegedly inciting tribals against the police.

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Israel President Reuven Rivlin, who arrived here yesterday on an eight-day official visit to India, received a ceremonial welcome in the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhawan.

President Rivlin was received and welcomed by his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with whom he would hold bilateral talks later in the day.

President Mukherjee will also host a banquet in his honour.

"I am very honoured and very pleased to be the guest of President Mukherjee. He was along with us a year ago and we are very privileged and honoured today to be here in your great country in India. Thank you so much for welcoming me Mr. President," President Rivlin told the media after receiving the ceremonial welcome.

The meeting between President Rivlin and Prime Minister Modi will take place at 11.30 a.m., at the Hyderabad House, which will be followed by the signing of agreements and press statement at 12.30 p.m. The focus of the talks is likely to be on agricultural cooperation between the two sides. India and Israel enjoy excellent relations marked by strong ties in the areas of economy and commerce, science and technology, research and innovation, culture and tourism, education etc.

Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari will call on President Rivlin at 4 p.m. at Hotel Taj Palace, while the visiting President will call on his Indian counterpart at the Rashtrapati Bhawan 7.30 p.m., which will be followed by a banquet hosted by President Mukherjee at 8 p.m.

Later, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will call on the visiting dignitary.

President Rivlin will be visiting the Taj Mahal at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, followed by a visit to Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam Water Treatment Plant at Sikandra at 12 in the noon.

He will return here at 3.45 p.m.

President Rivlin, who is visiting India on an invitation of President Mukherjee, is expected to meet business leaders of both India and Israel. He will also be visiting 'Centre of Excellence' in agriculture in Karnal and will participate in Agro Tech - 2016 on Thursday.

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The number of financial phishing attacks is expected to rise during the Holiday season which starts unofficially on so-called Black Friday and continues through Cyber Monday and Christmas.

Retrospective research by Kaspersky Lab specialists shows that, over the last few years, the holiday period was marked by an increase in phishing and other types of attacks, which suggests that the pattern will be repeated this year.

A peak season for sales is obviously also a peak hunting season for criminals: retailers offer lots of hard-to-resist deals and people plan on spending money on gifts for themselves, their friends and relatives. So, while e-commerce customers are making wishes for the upcoming sales, the retailers themselves are preparing their stores for a massive rise in the number of visitors, and financial infrastructure owners - banks and payment systems - are getting ready for a huge increase in the number and value of transactions; cybercriminals are preparing too.

At least, that was the case in previous years.

As Kaspersky Lab threat statistics shows, in 2014 and 2015 the proportion of phishing pages that hunt financial data (credit cards details) detected by the company during Q4 (which covers the holiday period) was around 9 percentage points higher than the average for the year. In particular, the result for financial phishing in all of 2014 was 28.73%, while the result for Q4 was 38.49%. In 2015, 34.33% of all phishing attacks was financial phishing, while in Q4, that type of phishing was responsible for 43.38% of all attacks.

Holidays influence the type of financial targets that criminals are after. Both in 2014 and 2015 Kaspersky Lab researchers witnessed a significant (several percentage points) increase in phishing attacks against payment systems and online stores. Attacks against banks also grew, but at a lower rate.

When trying to steal payment data, criminals use different schemes: they may create a fake payment page of a famous payment system, or they copy legitimate online retailer sites or even create 100% fake shops with incredibly attractive offerings.

And of course, criminals exploit the Black Friday theme itself. While doing research into the threat landscape, in October 2016, Kaspersky Lab researchers spotted a Black-Friday themed phony internet shop offering products at attractive prices. Which means that weeks before the actual start of the holiday sales, the criminals are already preparing

"In 2014, we conducted some research into how the phishing threat landscape behaves itself in the holiday period, and discovered that the number of attacks against particular targets - payment systems and famous retail networks - increased during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday period. In 2015, the situation repeated itself and this makes us think that in 2016 it will happen again. So we urge users to be as cautious as possible when shopping online this season," said Andrey Kostin, senior web content analyst at Kaspersky Lab.

In order to avoid becoming a victim of holiday phishing scams during the upcoming Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas periods, Kaspersky Lab experts advises the following measures:

 Do not click on any links received from unknown people or on suspicious links sent by your friends on social networking sites or via e-mail. They can be malicious; created to download malware to your device or to lead to phishing webpages aimed at harvesting user credentials.

 Do not enter your credit card details on unfamiliar or suspicious sites, to avoid passing them into cybercriminals' hands. If these websites are offering advantageous deals that look too good to be true, they most likely belong to criminals.

 Always double-check the webpage is genuine before entering any of your credentials or confidential information (at least take a look at the URL). Fake websites may look just like the real ones.

 Install a security solution on your device, with built-in technologies designed to prevent financial fraud. For example, Safe Money in Kaspersky Lab's solutions creates a secure environment for financial transactions on all levels.

Phishing is one of the most widespread cyberthreats that users may encounter during holidays, but it is not the only one. Read more about other types of threats to customers, retailers and banks that are likely to emerge in the coming holiday period in Kaspersky Lab Holiday cyberthreats Review on Securelist.

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Thousands of Manipuris celebrated "Maha Raas", a festival celebrating the love life of Lord Krishna.

The festival is celebrated every year on the full moon night of "Kartik Purnima" in the Hindu month "Kartik" to mark Krishna's love for Radha.

Girls in their traditional dresses danced round the idols of Lord Krishna and Radha. Dressed as "gopies", they sang devotional songs throughout the night at a local temple.

The Maha Raas celebration started in Tripura more than two century ago in the Radha-Madhav Jews Temple.

Prior to partition, the devotees from far Syllhet and Comilla, in present Bangladesh, used to come and participate in the night-long festival.

The celebration started after a Maharani of the Manikya dynasty of Tripura, daughter of Manipur's Maharaja Bhagya Chandra, brought the idol of Radha-Govind from there and established a Radhamadhav temple here.

Tripura had a cultural and traditional bond with the Manipur kingdom that started more than 350 years back through matrimonial alliances.

In fact, Bhakti cult was also in progress in Tripura along with the Manipuri culture during Maharaja Krishna Chandra Manikya's reign in the late 18th century.

Today the festival is totally sponsored by the state government as per the treaty between the Manikya dynasty and Union Government during the time of merger of Tripura with the Indian union.

This is the 218th year of celebration of Raas, a festival of particularly the Hindu Manipuris. However, today both Bengalis and even the state's tribal population forgetting their religious and cultural identities participate in the night-long celebration said to be a platform of communal harmony.

Raas is a symbol of love and communal harmony. Forgetting all differences, the people of all communities gather here to celebrate the festival.

Ajoy Saha, a non-Manipuri visitor, said: "We enjoy here every year. Though we are non-Manipuris but the people from various communities take part in this festival and celebrate. We wait for the raas festival throughout the year so that we can take part in it."

Abhiram Singha, one of the organizers, said: "Here the girls act as living gopies of Radha-Krishna. In the earlier days, such big temple was not there but still the people from Bangladesh and other parts used to take part in the whole night programme."

Neera Sinha, a participating dancer, said: "We call this 'maha-raas' and every year we celebrate this on the full moon night. On maha-rass, we dance as gopies and really enjoy this right."

Nipa pala is celebrated as invocation to Raas where pung (traditional drums) and kartals (small metallic musical instruments) are played.

The Radha Govindas' Raas dance is a classical form of dance and symbolizes the rich history and tradition of the Manipuri community.

It was Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, who adopted the dance from the palace to Shantiniketan.

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U S President Barack Obama has said that his successor Donald Trump is pragmatic and that this quality will serve the latter to take decisions during the administration.

I don't think he is ideological, I think ultimately he is pragmatic in that way and that can serve him well as long as he has got good people around him and he has a good sense of direction," Obama said.

Obama said he was certain after meeting Trump last week that he was sincere about being President for all Americans but also called on the President-elect to reach out to people who felt anxious after the explosive rhetoric of the campaign, including women and minorities, reports CNN.

The President said he told Trump that his election achievement in tapping into the enthusiasm of his voters was impressive.

"I think he is coming to this office with fewer set hard and fast policy prescriptions than a lot of other presidents might be arriving with. Do I have concerns? Absolutely, of course I've got concerns. He and I differ on a whole bunch of issues," Obama added.

During the news conference on Monday, Obama also said that Washington would remain the world's "indispensable" power and committed to NATO even under the administration of his newly-elected successor Donald Trump as the latter has assured him about the same.

"In my conversations with the President-elect, he expressed a great interest in maintaining our core strategic relationships," Obama said, adding that he had a message from Trump to pass on to leaders he will meet this week. "One of the messages I will be able to deliver is his commitment to NATO and the transatlantic alliance," said the President.

Obama added, "There is no weakening of resolve when it comes to maintaining a strong and robust NATO relationship.

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Sales decline 3.47% to Rs 91.43 crore

Net profit of Albert David declined 3.60% to Rs 6.16 crore in the quarter ended September 2016 as against Rs 6.39 crore during the previous quarter ended September 2015. Sales declined 3.47% to Rs 91.43 crore in the quarter ended September 2016 as against Rs 94.72 crore during the previous quarter ended September 2015.91.4394.7212.3513.7212.5712.8910.4910.646.166.39

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Sales decline 14.77% to Rs 84.12 crore

Net profit of Assam Company India declined 57.45% to Rs 15.39 crore in the quarter ended September 2016 as against Rs 36.17 crore during the previous quarter ended September 2015. Sales declined 14.77% to Rs 84.12 crore in the quarter ended September 2016 as against Rs 98.70 crore during the previous quarter ended September 2015.84.1298.7029.4350.4817.7238.1815.3936.1715.3936.17

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Bank of Baroda rose 8.90% to Rs 175 at 10:12 IST on BSE after net profit jumped 343.54% to Rs 552.12 crore on 2.1% decline in operating income to Rs 12046.60 crore in Q2 September 2016 over Q2 September 2015.

The result was announced after market hours on Friday, 11 November 2016.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was down 410.69 points, or 1.53%, to 26,408.13.

On BSE, so far 12.96 lakh shares were traded in the counter, compared with average daily volume of 10.87 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock hit a high of Rs 175.35 and a low of Rs 166 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 182.45 on 30 November 2015. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 109.45 on 12 February 2016. The stock had outperformed the market over the past 30 days till 11 November 2016, rising 4.15% compared with the 2.98% decline in the Sensex. The scrip had also outperformed the market in past one quarter, rising 7.60% as against Sensex's 4.74% decline.

The large-cap state-run bank has equity capital of Rs 460.83 crore. Face value per share is Rs 2.

The bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at Rs 42949.25 crore as on 30 September 2016 as against Rs 42991.68 crore as on 30 June 2016 and Rs 23710.33 crore as on 30 September 2015.

The ratio of gross NPAs to gross advances stood at 11.35% as on 30 September 2016 as against 11.15% as on 30 June 2016 and 5.56% as on 30 September 2015.

The ratio of net NPAs to net advances stood at 5.46% as on 30 September 2016 as against 5.73% as on 30 June 2016 and 3.08% as on 30 September 2015.

The bank's provisions and contingencies (excluding tax provisions) fell 5.07% to Rs 1795.84 crore in Q2 September 2016 over Q2 September 2015.

Provision coverage ratio of the bank was at 62.95% as on 30 September 2016.

Government of India holds 59.23% stake in Bank of Baroda (as on 30 September 2016).

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On 15 November 2016

Bannari Amman Sugars announced that the Hon'ble High Court of Judicature at Madras on 15 November 2016 pronounced the Order allowing the petition praying Scheme of Amalgamation of Madras Sugars with the Company. Certified copy of the order of Hon'ble High Court of Judicature at Madras is expected to be obtained within a week and we will submit the required documents immediately thereafter.

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The Billings Re-Entry Task Force turned nearly 60 law-abiding residents into felons last week.

Gathering in the downtown DoubleTree Hotel ballroom, representatives from organizations across Billings experienced the felon re-entry simulation put on by Billings Probation and Parole.

Participants got a small envelope explaining what had landed them in the Montana State Prison. The form also detailed what requirements they needed to meet as part of their supervised release from prison.

Passages worker Lacey Stovall's form said she'd been convicted of burglary, but it isnt what you think, she joked.

The participants included people like Stovall, who work with felons on a daily basis at places like Passages Women's program and the Alpha House prerelease center. Some had no direct connections to felon re-entry, including a Montana State University Billings professor and a representative of the Downtown Billings Alliance.

Nancy Niedens, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was a convicted drug user, according to her card. She was told she needed to submit each day to a UA, initials unfamiliar to her. UA stands for urine analysis  the abbreviation is common in the criminal justice system.

The exercise was meant to simulate a felons first month out of prison. Multiple tables around the ballroom represented different places an offender may need to go to in their first month. This included the courthouse, the Department of Motor Vehicles, a pawn shop and the probation and parole office.

Most participants spent their first week trying to get a state-issued identification card.

It's the first struggle of many offenders leaving prison, said Probation and Parole officer Katie Weston.

In the simulation, not having an ID prevented offenders from getting anything done, not unlike in the real world, Weston said.

It was the second time Weston has put on the simulation. The first time was in Helena, where Institutional Probation and Parole officers participated. Institutional officers work inside the prisons to prepare offenders before they're released. After completing the simulation, the officers wanted to work harder to make sure exiting felons at least had a state ID before returning to a community, Weston said.

During the simulation, participants called to one another asking where the Alcoholics Anonymous class was and how it was different from Narcotics Anonymous. Multiple times, someone would go to a table to ask where something was, only to learn they were in the right place by accident.

Probation and Parole Eastern Bureau Chief Jennie Hansen said this can be a problem for people who are sent to Billings, because although it has many resources, it can be difficult to navigate.

They come to Billings and they dont know where anything is, Hansen said. It can end up being more detrimental to them.

The second week, the line to buy bus tickets stretched on. Whenever a participant went to a new table, they had to present a bus ticket, making transportation a top priority for most.

Billings buses do not run on Sunday and stop running early in the evening, Hansen said, making it difficult to accept anything other than a nine-to-five job.

By the end of the simulation, half the people were back in jail. Many had resorted to stealing. More stood looking overwhelmed as Weston sounded the last two minutes of the fourth simulated week.

It gets scary when you start missing appointments, Stovall said. It makes you not want to go back.

Stovall had returned to her thieving ways not long after the simulation began.

MSUB Professor Alan Christensen said by the end he was happy for the three minutes he got to spend in jail. His feet hurt and he just wanted to sit down. Christensen used to employ people from Alpha House, the men's prerelease center, for his landscaping company, he said.

I guess I was doing a nice thing, but I didnt really understand what they were up against, Christensen said.

The criminal justice system was built to keep some people separated from others, Christensen said. He never really thought about what it would be like to return to a society after being ostracized.

About 95 percent of offenders in prison right now will return to the community at some point, Weston said. That number was based on national figures, but with Probation and Parole supervising more than 2,000 felons, the reality that former offenders return to the community cannot be denied.

Of prisoners released in 2012, about 63 percent have not committed another crime since their release. Of those released in 2013, 61 percent have not re-offended. The national average inverts Montanas statistics, with the majority of offenders returning to prison within three years.

Billings Probation and Parole Division Deputy Chief Chris Evans said the system has undergone a massive change since he began with the agency about 16 years ago. The office no longer follows the idea of trail and jail, which encouraged officers to be strict when it came to violations.

The 29 Probation and Parole officers in Billings each supervise about 80 to 90 offenders at any given time, Evans said. The Billings office has the largest case load in the state.

Billings is more open to giving those extra chances people need, Weston said. There is more support built in here.

Evans said he wants officers who are willing to work with people, and people like Weston who have a passion for helping others find better solutions.

Weston supervises offenders who have spent extensive time in prison before being released to the community. While these offenders have committed crimes that might make the public nervous, like homicides or sex offenses, they are often the most willing to comply with their supervision.

They dont want to be involved in the criminal life anymore, Weston said.

While an offender might come to Probation and Parole on their fifth or sixth chance for re-entry, Weston said officers work to not judge offenders on their past.

Probation and Parole determines an offender's level of supervision on a one-to-five scale. Level one means having contact with a probation and parole officer at least three times a month. About 85 offenders in Billings require this level of supervision.

Weston and her partner, Sarah Reil, prefer to meet with the offenders they supervise in person. Being in a persons house gives Reil a better idea of how her offenders are doing. She can also meet their families and neighbors and can spot bad situations before they develop, she said.

We arent going to send someone to jail for a positive drug test, Evans said. Relapses happen. People just need to be honest with the person supervising them.

When an offender commits a new offense and causes injury, Evans said officers take it hard. They reach out to family and treatment providers, trying to figure out if they could have prevented it, Evans said.

What it ultimately comes down to is them deciding, I cant live like this anymore, Weston said. They have to, and we like them to, come to that decision on their own.
Total Operating Income decline 0.94% to Rs 4955.97 crore

Net profit of Corporation Bank rose 9.37% to Rs 206.28 crore in the quarter ended September 2016 as against Rs 188.60 crore during the previous quarter ended September 2015. Total Operating Income declined 0.94% to Rs 4955.97 crore in the quarter ended September 2016 as against Rs 5002.90 crore during the previous quarter ended September 2015.4955.975002.9067.5074.13439.77298.78439.77298.78206.28188.60

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Corporation Bank rose 11.64% to Rs 47 at 11:20 IST on BSE after net profit net profit rose 9.4% to Rs 206.28 crore on 5.8% decline in operating income to Rs 5750.62 crore in Q2 September 2016 over Q2 September 2015.

The result was announced on Monday, 14 November 2016, when the stock market was closed for a public holiday.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was down 375.96 points, or 1.40%, to 26,442.86.

On BSE, so far 4.77 lakh shares were traded in the counter, compared with average daily volume of 65,560 shares in the past one quarter. The stock hit a high of Rs 47.80 so far during the day, matching the stock's 52-week high level. The stock hit a low of Rs 44.40 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 47.80 on 9 September 2016. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 30.75 on 25 February 2016. The stock had outperformed the market over the past 30 days till 11 November 2016, rising 2.31% compared with the 2.98% decline in the Sensex. The scrip had also outperformed the market in past one quarter, rising 3.82% as against Sensex's 4.74% decline.

The mid-cap company has equity capital of Rs 229.41 crore. Face value per share is Rs 2.

Corporation Bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at Rs 15611.06 crore as on 30 September 2016 as against Rs 15726.12 crore as on 30 June 2016 and Rs 7729.07 crore as on 30 September 2015. The ratio of gross NPAs to gross advances stood at 10.81% as on 30 September 2016 as against 11.01% as on 30 June 2016 and 5.32% as on 30 September 2015. The ratio of net NPAs to net advances stood at 6.91% as on 30 September 2016 as against 7.22% as on 30 June 2016 and 3.54% as on 30 September 2015. The bank's provisions and contingencies (excluding tax provisions) rose 46.66% to Rs 826.80 crore in Q2 September 2016 over Q2 September 2015. Provision coverage ratio of the bank was at 57.39% as on 30 September 2016.

Government of India holds 70.765% stake in Corporation Bank (as on 30 September 2016).

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The outlook for the global airline industry has been changed to stable from positive, Moody's Investors Service says in a new report. Airlines' operating margins and operating profits are expected to decline in the coming 12 to 18 months, as capacity continues to outstrip demand.

"Capacity will continue to grow a bit more than passenger demand over the next year or so," said Moody's analyst, Jonathan Root. "As a result, both the aggregate operating margin and operating profit of Moody's-rated airlines will drop to ranges that are within our range for a stable, rather than a positive, industry outlook."

Aggregate operating margin is expected to fall to 9.4% in 2017 from a projected 10.8% this year, while operating profit will contract by about 11% in 2017, against a projected 1.2% contraction this year, Root says in "Global Airline Industry-Changing Outlook to Stable; Operating Margin to Decline Below 10%." Moody's estimates that global capacity will grow between 5.5% and 6.5% next year, against 6.1% growth during the first nine months of this year, spurred by the still-low cost of fuel and increased deliveries of new aircraft that need to be placed in service, primarily by airlines in developing markets.

Meanwhile, growth in passenger demand will slow modestly next year due to lackluster global economic expansion, as well as geopolitical uncertainties and the effect of the threat of terrorism on Asian demand for long-haul travel, particularly to Europe. The strong US dollar, excess capacity growth and competing business models will continue to pressure yields until more players reduce capacity or limit growth, Moody's says.

Demand will expand between 5.2% and 6.2% over the next 12 to 18 months, against 5.9% in the first nine months of this year.

For US airlines, a combination of slightly higher fuel costs and higher labor costs at American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and United Continental Holdings will contribute to a 20% contraction in operating profits over Moody's outlook horizon. Conversely, improving economic activity, along with significant capacity adjustments, will drive a recovery in operating profit for rated Latin American carriers, though volatility in local currencies remains a key risk.

Moody's is now basing its outlook for the global airline industry on its expectations for operating margins and changes in operating profits on a reported basis for rated airlines only, in order to better reflect changes in operating conditions for airlines. Previously, the outlook was based on the rating agency's forecasts for aggregate adjusted operating margin, changes in industry yields and revenue passenger kilometers for all carriers.

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Tata Motors reported consolidated net profit of Rs 848.16 crore in Q2 September 2016 as compared with net loss of Rs 1740.20 crore in Q2 September 2015. Total income rose 7% to Rs 66,106.96 crore in Q2 September 2016 over Q2 September 2015. The result was announced on Monday, 14 November 2016, when the stock market was closed for a public holiday.

GAIL (India) will announce its Q2 September 2016 results today, 15 November 2016.

Tata Steel reported consolidated net loss of Rs 49.38 crore in Q2 September 2016 compared with consolidated net profit of Rs 5609.43 crore in Q2 September 2015. Total income fell 0.01% to Rs 27579.57 crore in Q2 September 2016 over Q2 September 2015. The result was announced was announced after market hours on Friday, 11 November 2016.

Aurobindo Pharma's consolidated net profit rose 33.53% to Rs 605.64 crore on 12.03% rise in total income to Rs 3783.73 crore in Q2 September 2016 over Q2 September 2015. The result was announced on Monday, 14 November 2016.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation's (BPCL) net profit rose 26.16% to Rs 1305.18 crore on 2.67% fall in total income to Rs 45715.06 crore in Q2 September 2016 over Q2 September 2015. The result was announced after market hours on Friday, 11 November 2016.

Seperately BPCL after market hours on Friday, 11 November 2016 announced formation of Joint Venture with GAIL Gas for a City Gas Distribution (CGD). Consortium of BPCL and GAIL Gas has been awarded the authorization for laying, building, operating and expanding of a City Gas Distribution Network (CGD Network) in the geographical area of North Goa by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board established under the PNGRB Act, 2006. The board of directors of the company has approved the proposal to form a new Joint Venture Company (JVC) for this purpose, BPCL said. The proposed JVC shall have equal equity participation from BPCL and Gail Gas and with a provision for equity stake of up to 10% for government of Goa or its nominee. The authorization provides exclusively for laying gas pipelines and related infrastructure in the GA over the next 25 years and a marketing exclusivity for 5 years. The CGD Network shall cater to the demand of CNG and Piped Natural Gas to consumers in the domestic, commercial and industrial segments.

Hindalco Industries' net profit surged 256.18% to Rs 439.74 crore on 1.28% rise in total income to Rs 9,494.40 crore in Q2 September 2016 over Q2 September 2015. The result was announced on Saturday, 12 November 2016.

Bank of Baroda's net profit net profit jumped 343.54% to Rs 552.12 crore on 2.06% decline in total income to Rs 12046.60 crore in Q2 September 2016 over Q2 September 2015. The result was announced was announced after market hours on Friday, 11 November 2016.

IL&FS Transportation Networks said that IIPL USA LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the company has been declared as the preferred bidder for the maintenance of 4 project highways in Dallas County, Texas USA. The combined length of the highways to be maintained is 436 Miles (698 Km) for a period of 730 days at the total contract value of $1.75 million (approx. Rs 11.65 crore). This is in continuation to the Routine Maintenance Contract awarded for Tyler District, Texas in the amount of $5.25 million (approx. Rs 35 crore). The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 11 November 2016.

Hikal said that credit rating agency ICRA has upgraded the company's long term rating from BBB to BBB+. The outlook on long term rating is stable. ICRA has reaffirmed the short term rating of A2. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 11 November 2016.

MOIL said that the board of directors of the company has approved Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed jointly with Government of Madhya Pradesh, Mineral Resources Department and Madhya Pradesh State Mining Corporation, a PSU under Govt, of Madhya Pradesh to conduct exploration and prospecting works in Madhya Pradesh. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 11 November 2016.

Kingfa Science & Technology (India) said that the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation has handed over the possession of Plot No. F-5/5 admeasuring 120000 sq mtr of the Chakhan Industrial Area Phase -II, Village Shinde & Vasuli Tal-Khed, District - Pune to the company, for manufacturing facility. The company also has signed the lease Agreement for the land. The result was announced on Monday, 14 November 2016, when the stock market was closed for a public holiday.

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Tata Steel lost 6.74% to Rs 398.10 at 14:05 IST on BSE after the company reported net loss of Rs 49.38 crore in Q2 September 2016, as against net profit of Rs 5609.43 crore in Q2 September 2015.

The result was announced after market hours on Friday, 11 November 2016. The stock markets were closed on Monday, 14 November 2016, for a public holiday.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 358.72 points or 1.34% at 26,460.10

On BSE, so far 6.66 lakh shares were traded in the counter as against average daily volume of 8.96 lakh shares in the past two weeks. The stock hit a high of Rs 417 and a low of Rs 394.15 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 440.90 on 11 November 2016. The stock had hit a 52-week low of Rs 211.30 on 12 February 2016.

The large-cap company has equity capital of Rs 971.22 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

Tata Steel's total income declined 22.5% to Rs 26602.03 crore in Q2 September 2016 over Q2 September 2015. Other income dropped 97.09% to Rs 231.08 crore in Q2 September 2016 over Q2 September 2015.

Tata Steel's consolidated earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) fell 8.5% to Rs 2992 crore in Q2 September 2016 over Q2 September 2015. The drop in margins was due to lower realisations in India and ramp-up costs of Kalinganagar. EBITDA rose 66% in Q2 September 2016 over Q2 September 2015 largely due to significant improvement in the operating performance at Tata Steel Europe.

In its outlook for Indian operations, Tata Steel said that a seasonal uptick in demand is expected to be backed by positive variables like 7th Pay Commission disbursements, good monsoons and penetration of organised financing in Tier 2/3 cities. The increase in tariff barriers globally on Chinese steel has opened exports opportunity for Indian steel players which will help the domestic demand supply balance . The recently announced demonetisation is expected to cause short term disruptions. For European operations, Tata Steel said that the European Union economy is expected to grow gradually though UK's growth has been revised downwards following the Brexit referendum result. European steel mills are expected to continue to be under pressure from imports. The weaker pound is expected to improve UK's short-term competitive position, however it will add cost pressure due to higher cost of raw materials purchased in US dollars. For South East Asian operations, Tata Steel said that steel demand in Thailand is expected to maintain its growth rate on the back of expanding government expenditure and progress on infrastructure investment plans. Demand in Singapore is expected to be subdued on continued slower construction sector growth and low downstream spreads. Increasing trade barriers on Chinese steel in countries like Malaysia, Vietnam provides export opportunities.

T V Narendran, Managing Director of Tata Steel India and South East Asia, said that the markets were challenging as strong monsoons affected steel demand across the country while the increase in domestic capacity added to the competitive pressure.

Tata Steel is Europe's second largest steel producer, with steelmaking in the UK and Netherlands, and manufacturing plants across Europe. The combined Tata Steel group is one of the world's largest steel producers.

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Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister for HRD, Government of India, has announced that universities will be granted an autonomous status based on the National Institutional Ranking Framework and National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). The institutions with good ranking will have 100% autonomy, average institutes will have 50% autonomy and bad performers would have only 10% autonomy in their working.

Javadekar said that for sustainable progress of a country it was essential to have really good research-driven and innovation-oriented universities. In view of this, the government was in the process of establishing 20 world-class universities, of which 10 will be in the public sector and 10 in the private sector with full autonomy. He added that the government will play the role of a facilitator and help in improving the quality of education.

Speaking on the National Education Policy, the Minister said that there have many misconceptions and the government was revisiting the policy to develop a relevant framework to bring about autonomy in the sector. He added that recently a meeting was held with 40 MPs of varied states to encourage research and innovation in the universities as that will add value to the system. Javadekar said that the government was thinking of reintroducing Class X board examination for CBSE schools. But he assured that any such decision will only be applied from the next academic year and would come into force in 2017-18.

To incentivize innovation, the Minister said that India Hackathon has been launched where students of all technology institutions in India are being challenged to offer innovative solutions to some of the daunting problems faced by our nation. He added that though India possesses best of brains in the world but due to lack of infrastructure, labs, scholarships, quality education and enabling policy framework, the students prefer to carry out research and innovations abroad. Hence, the government is determined to create a conducive research environment in the country.

Elaborating on the various programmes initiated by the government to enhance the quality of higher education and development of infrastructure for the sector, Mr. Javadekar said that Uchhatar Avishkar Yojana (UAY), IMPacting Research INnovation and Technology (IMPRINT), Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) and Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN) and soon to be implemented Global Research Interaction Network (GRIN) are some of the schemes which will give a boost to the sector.

The Minister said that Indian universities do not fare well at the international rankings. He alluded to the fact that the perception of Indian institutes is not as expected in the global arena. The government was in the process of addressing the perception issues as well, he added.

Earlier while moderating the theme session, Mohandas Pai, Chair, FICCI Skills Committee & Chairman, Manipal Global Education Services, said that with automation and artificial intelligence, machines have started playing a critical role; therefore there was a need to educate and skill the youth of India according to the disruptive transformation taking place at the workplace.

Sunil Kant Munjal, Chairman, Hero Corporate Services, said that to address the gaps in the higher education system, there was a need to have a re-look at the education policy with a light touch, which gives full freedom to institutes to operate, experiment and innovate to enhance the quality of education. The Munjal University has been experimenting with varied ideas and the curriculum contains 45% experiential content. The best known organizations such as Shell, IBM and KPM have partnered with the institute and helping in imparting skills to the student that will make them industry-ready.

He added that Siemens has set up its industry on the campus, which is enabling students to learn the functioning of machines.

Subhash Ghai, Filmmaker and Founder, Whistling Woods International, said that it was important to impart the right kind of education coupled with innovation and liberal arts and art of living to enhance a child's intelligence. India needs to grow into a country of innovators and thinkers. He added that knowledge and information are applied to derive at intelligent solutions; hence the education and skills imparted to students should be such that it encourages development of innovative skills.

Francisco Marmolejo, Higher Education Coordinator, The World Bank, said that India must not lose sight of its goal while internationalizing its higher education structure. It must remain locally relevant and meaningful as gaining higher education without context will leave students unemployable. Besides, higher education should be made accessible to all. He added that the sector should also focus on success and failures to learn and make higher education locally relevant.

Prof Ashish Nanda, Director, IIM Ahmedabad, said that tertiary education needs to be strengthened in India and must be designed so that it caters to the young, vibrant and education hungry demography. He added that the sector needs to be opened up and universities should have autonomy but with accountability. Prof Nanda said that institutes of excellence must be nurtured. The government should pick few institutes and invest time and energy on them as it takes time to build a university and its reputation and brand.

Dr. Jo Beall, Director Education and Society British Council (Exec Board), said that autonomy and strong industry academia linkages have played a critical role in the success of the universities in the UK. India can learn from these examples of the UK. She added that India is way ahead when it comes to private universities and the UK could imbibe some of the learnings. Speaking about the relevance of higher education in the era when information is widely available digitally, Dr. Beall said that the young people are today exposed to information which is more of opinions than facts. Hence, higher education helps them to recognize those facts.

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Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday rejected allegations that the demonetisation move was leaked to certain people.

"The allegation of selective leak of demonetisation is absurd. No leak was made to anybody. Utmost secrecy was kept during the entire exercise," Naidu said here.

Some opposition leaders have accused the government of leaking the November 8 announcement to spike the 500 and 1,000 rupee notes in advance to certain individuals.

"Certain hardships faced by people are being blown out of proportion," the minister said.

Naidu, who is also the Information and Broadcasting minister, said the government was ready to face Parliament in the winter session that starts on Wednesday.

The decision to demonetise Rs 500 and 1,000 notes was not sudden, he said, but well thought out.

"This is a war against corruption and black money," Naidu reiterated. People with vested interests were "spreading rumours to create panic in society", he said.

--IANS

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With signs of a mellowing backtracking on some of the harshest elements of his election promises, President Barack Obama, who had called him unfit for the high office, has now described him as a non-ideological pragmatist and hoped he would build on his successes.

"President-elect Trump is now trying to balance what he said in the campaign and the commitments he made to his supporters with working with those who disagreed with him, and members of Congress, and reaching out to constituencies that didn't vote for him," Obama said at his White House news conference in Washington on Monday.

"My advice, as I said, to the President-elect when we had our discussions was that campaigning is different from governing," he added. "I think he recognises that. I think he's sincere in wanting to be a successful President and moving this country forward."

A somber Trump softened some of the controversial election rhetoric in his first extensive media interview that he gave to Lesley Stahl of CBS and was broadcast Sunday.

While during his campaign the Republican had threatened wholesale deportation of the estimated 11 million illegal - or undocumented - immigrants, he said he would round up and deport or detain only the criminals and drug dealers among them, whom he estimated to number about two to three million.

As for the rest, whom he called "terrific people," he said their future would be determined later when the borders have been secured.

On building a wall along the Mexican border, he said he was now open to a mix of wall and fence.

He also came out in favour of some elements of Obamacare, the universal health insurance program that is the capstone of Obama's presidency. During the heat of the campaign, he had vowed that dismanting it was his first priority.

In a direct threat to his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton during a presidential debate, Trump said he would have a special prosecutor appointed to look into her cases.

He repeated it during his rallies, calling her "Crooked Hillary," while the crowds chanted "Lock her up."

But asked about this during his interview he said of the Clintons: "I don't want to hurt them. They're, they're good people. I don't want to hurt them."

Obama, who had declared during the campaign that Trump was unqualified for the job, now reciprocated his turn around with a states manly gesture.

"He is coming to this office with fewer set hard-and-fast policy prescriptions than a lot of other Presidents might be arriving with," Obama said. "I don't think he is ideological. I think ultimately he's pragmatic in that way."

From coast to coast, Democratic party supporters have been holding protests against Trump since his election, chanting: "He is not our president."

In a message directed at them, Obama said, "Look, the people have spoken. will be the next President, the 45th President of the United States."

Recalling the caustic opposition he had faced after his election, Obama said, "When I won, there were a number of people who didn't like me and didn't like what I stood for. And I think that whenever you've got an incoming President of the other side, particularly in a bitter election like this, it takes a while for people to reconcile themselves with that new reality."

Obama, who left for Europe Monday night after his news conference, had a calming message for the allies across the Atlantic troubled by Trump's election.

He said that Trump had in conversations with him "expressed a great interest in maintaining our core strategic relationships." Obama said from this, "one of the messages I will be able to deliver is his commitment to NATO and the Transatlantic Alliance."

During his campaign, Trump had criticised the international alliances saying that they had forced the US to bear the their burden and that he would insist on the allies picking up the tab and being more responsible for their defences.
The Congress on Tuesday tore into the demonetisation scheme, saying that it was in reality a move meant to bail out those with black money.

Congress spokesman Kapil Sibal launched a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of being out of sync with the woes of the common man now battling for cash.

Sibal said Modi's pledge that the situation caused by the November 8 spiking of 500 and 1,000 rupees notes will stabilise in 50 days cannot be believed because his earlier promises had also fallen flat.

"All this has nothing to do with battling black money or corruption," he told the media.

Saying Modi had "collaborated" with those who have black money, he said it were the poor who were facing the brunt of his decision that has resulted in serpentine queues outside banks and ATMs across the country.

Sibal said the demonetisation was aimed at wiping out the Non-Performing Assets of banks.

The Congress leader said Modi had no understanding of the plight of the ordinary men and women who were struggling to exchange or deposit the old currency or withdraw money from their accounts.

"He makes fun of people... It looks like he is far removed from ordinary people's problems."

Commenting on the Prime Minister's comment that he had sacrificed everything for the country, Sibal asked: "Which palace he was living in that he gave up? Which property did he donate to the public? What sacrifices did he do for the country?"

Sibal added: "Please understand the pain of the ordinary people. Stop your whims and fancies..."

He also hit out at the limits placed on bank withdrawals.

"What kind of law is this? The money is mine, the bank account is mine, it is taxable income... Why can't I withdraw it? It is not Modi's money."

--IANS

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Flaying the Centre for the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday that "it was based on one person's thinking and could turn out be a mega scam".

"The big black money players have been allowed to go scot free by the Prime Minister.. People like (Vijay) Mallya and Lalit Modi are sitting abroad," Gandhi said, speaking to mediaperons here late on Tuesday night.

He claimed that most economists with whom he discussed the issue said the demonetisation decision of November 8 was not thought out properly and was based on "one persons' thinking."

Gandhi, who arrived here late in the evening in connection with a court hearing in Thane on Wednesday, was interacting with mediapersons at the MCA Club in Bandra.

He also attacked the BJP for depositing Rs 1 crore in a bank account in Kolkata on the same day the demonetisation announcement was made.

Instead of demanding a rollback of demonetisation, Gandhi said the government should ensure implementation of it with "sensitivity".

"Do you see any black money players in the queues. It is only the farmers, government servants and common man," he said.

He said there was no economic rationale behind the decision.

Rahul Gandhi also refused to comment on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mother going to a bank in Gandhinagar to exchange her demonetised currency. "Mine and Narendra Modiji's style is different. I won't speak on his Mataji," he said.

"A couple of days back, the PM was laughing in his speech, then next day he was crying. He should decide what he wants to do," Gandhi added, referring to Modi's different speeches on demonetisation.

"I am seeing on social media that BJP leaders are holding cash stacks in their hand, where did they get this money from?" Gandhi asked.

--IANS

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One week after Donald Trump won the presidency, farm groups are still trying to figure out whats in store for agriculture, including who might lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Everybody is interested in who we will be dealing with, said Bob Hanson Montana Farm Bureau Federation president. We were completely caught off guard about who won."

There was plenty of buzz about the election on Monday as the Montana Farm Bureau Federation gathered in Billings for its annual meeting. Answers were few, although there seemed to be an agreement that the farm economy was headed down a rough road regardless of the elections outcome.

Trump and Hillary Clinton both denounced the Trans Pacific Partnership, which the Farm Bureau considers crucial to lowering trade barriers for American farm and ranch products, particularly from Montana, which exports roughly 80 percent of the wheat, mostly to nations in the Asian Pacific. Ranchers have been hopeful a TPP deal would lower Japanese tariffs on beef and open Vietnam to U.S. beef sales.

Trump said during campaign stops that the TPP was a bad deal and one that he would renegotiate. Farm leaders say the wait puts U.S. agriculture exports at a disadvantage because individual nations are already negotiating better deals and China has its own multi-nation trade deal advancing, which excludes the U.S.

On other issues, there is hope a Trump administration will turn back some of President Barack Obamas executive actions farmers oppose, like the Waters of The United States. WOTUS, as its known to conservatives, expands federal protection of waterways and sources of drinking water.

At issue is how far the rule extends the federal governments clean water reach over streams and wetlands. The EPA and Army Corps of Engineers have been working for several years to expand federal powers under the Clean Water Act. From the beginning, Montana farm groups, homebuilders and local governments have worried the rule would apply to ponds and seasonal waters that didnt flow year-round to larger rivers and streams.

In my opinion, there was kind of an overreach there that violates states rights, Hanson said of Waters of the U.S.

The regulatory expansion not only addressed water quality, but also signaled the beginning of federal water regulation based on quantity, Hanson said. Trump has in the past said he would like to repeal the water rule.

A bigger question will be how Republicans craft the new farm bill while controlling the presidency, House and Senate. The last time Republicans controlled all three and passed a farm bill was 1954.

The last farm bills passage wasnt a sure thing, with conservatives from non-farm states insisting on cuts to farm subsidies, while others attempted to cut the bills nutrition title, which includes funding for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps.

In the nutrition title debate, Obama served as the firewall, refusing to sign a farm bill that cut food assistance to the poor at least to the degree House Republicans wanted.

Hanson said he hadnt ruled out there not being another farm bill because of the struggles of the last one, passed in 2014.

If theres a new farm bill, it will be drafted as commodities prices are in steep decline, which means agriculture groups will be asking for more financial backing than they received in the last farm bill, Hanson said.
Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad on Tuesday termed the government's demonetisation policy a "big scam" and said there should be an inquiry into the "selective leakage" of the government's move.

Azad also clarified that the Congress is with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and other opposition parties on the issue of demonetisation, but it would not be part of the delegation led by TMC chief Mamata Banerjee that will meet President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday.

"The government was not prepared to implement the demonetisation policy. People are suffering, farmers and daily-wage earners don't have money.

"It was done in haste and without any preparation. It is a very big scam. It could be the country's biggest scam," said Azad after an all-party meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Azad said there should be an inquiry into the leakage of information on the demonetisation policy of the government, and it should be discussed it Parliament, which begins on Wednesday.

"The selective leakage that happened..many knew about it..even few BJP people knew about it," he said, demanding to know how the new Rs 2,000 note came out in the open even before November 8, when the Prime Minister made the announcement. "How did this happen?"

Asked if Congress was for roll back of demonetisation, Azad said: "We are not for rollback of the scheme..We are concerned about the inconvenience caused to the people. We are against black money," said Azad.

"But we are objecting to the way it was done in total haste without making any preparation," he added.

On the question of meeting the President along with Mamata Banerjee, Azad said: "TMC and we are all together..whether it is Congress, TMC, BSP, Samajwadi party, CPI-M, CPI, JD(U), all are united.."

He said that Banerjee has sought an appointment with the President, but the Congress was for first raising the issue in Parliament.

"Our general view is we shall not seek an appointment with the President on the very first day itself..We shall first discuss the issue inside the house, and then if need arises we shall seek an appointment," added Azad.

Azad added that the Congress supports Banerjee's move, and will continue to support her.

"We support the Bengal CM. She is well within her rights to meet the President. If we seek an appointment with the President later, TMC will be a part of that," said Azad.

Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said that Congress will raise the issue of demonetisation in the Lok Sabha.

"Demonetisation is the biggest issue..we'll take it up in the Lok Sabha. The dispute between judiciary and executive will also be raised in Parliament. this issue must also be solved," said Kharge.

--IANS

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Tamil superstar Vijay on Tuesday welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetisation move and said it will uplift the Indian economy.

However, he wished it could have been planned in a way that the common man didn't suffer.

"I welcome demonetisation. It will certainly uplift Indian economy and I think this is a much-needed and bold move," Vijay told the media here.

"I wish it was planned well. People are finding it difficult to buy medicine, which is a basic necessity. As many as 80 per cent of people are suffering because of wrong committed by 20 per cent of the population."

He feels the government should have foreseen the problems faced by the public.

"I really felt bad when I heard that an old man died because he couldn't conduct the wedding of his granddaughter. In another case, a baby died in a hospital because her family didn't have new currency for treatment," he said.

"It required a lot of planning much in advance to ensure the common man didn't suffer."

--IANS

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India should not misunderstand Pakistan's patience and it is capable of defending itself against "any belligerence", Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Tuesday.

While chairing a high-level meeting at the Prime Minister's House, Sharif said Pakistan was exercising "maximum restraint" in the face of "Indian violence", and it should not be "misunderstood as our weakness", a statement said.

"Pakistan cannot be bullied by such tactics as we are fully capable of defending our soil against any belligerence", the Prime Minister underlined, a day after Pakistan said that seven of its soldiers had been killed by Indian forces on the LoC.

Sharif was briefed by his Adviser on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz on the "increased frequency of indiscriminate firing and shelling" from the Indian side targeting civilian populated areas.

The Prime Minister said that "deliberate escalation of tension at LoC by the Indian Forces is a threat to regional peace and security".

He also termed it a "futile attempt" by India to "divert" attention from the "worst kind of atrocities" being allegedly committed in Jammu and Kashmir.

Sharif urged the UN to take notice of the ceasefire violations on LoC and the "unwarranted escalation of tension" between the two countries.

"Our Armed Forces do not initiate fire but will always respond in a befitting manner to any aggression," said Sharif.

--IANS

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An Egyptian court on Tuesday revoked the death sentence of ousted President Mohamed Morsi and ordered a retrial in a mass jailbreak case, media reported.

Morsi was sentenced to death in June last year in connection with a mass jail break during the country's 2011 uprising, Xinhua news agency reported.

The first President to be democratically elected after the 2011 revolt, Morsi was overthrown in a coup led by now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in 2013.

Morsi, who was immediately arrested after the coup, has received lengthy jail sentences related to other charges, including two high-profile espionage cases. Tuesday's court ruling means he will no longer be executed.

The court said Morsi would be given a new trial alongside five other leaders of his now-banned Muslim Brotherhood group, whose death sentences in the same case were also quashed.

Last month, a court upheld a 20-year jail sentence for Morsi over the killing of protesters in December 2012. It was the first final verdict against Morsi.

--IANS

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The first look and title of actress Nayanthara's yet-untitled Tamil project will be unveiled on Friday to coincide with the star's birthday.

In a statement, the makers announced that the first look poster and title of the Minjur Gopi-directed film will be revealed at midnight on Thursday.

In the film, Nayanthara plays a District Collector, who delves into the water problems of her jurisdiction.

Also starring the child actors -- Vignesh and Ramesh -- from National Award winning Tamil film "Kaaka Muttai", the film's principal shooting has been wrapped up and it's gearing up for release soon.

Nayanthara is currently busy shooting for Tamil thriller "Imaikaa Nodigal", which also stars Atharvaa, Raashi Khanna and Anurag Kashyap, who is being introduced as the antagonist.

--IANS

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The German government has banned a prominent conservative Islamic group and raided some 190 sites in connection with it across 10 federal states.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere on Monday ordered the prohibition of The True Religion group -- which abides by the ultra-conservative Salafist school of Sunni Islam -- on the grounds that it was unconstitutional and that some members were suspected of having links to the Islamic State terror (IS) group, Efe news reported.

A statement released by the Interior Ministry said that "at least 140 young people who had been involved in the organisation had later travelled to Iraq and Syria".

It added that The True Religion group supported totalitarian ideologies, defended armed jihad and undertook jihadi recruitment drives for people wishing to travel to Iraq and Syria.

Hundreds of police agents were mobilised to raid some 190 houses, offices and Islamic centres including mosques, in connection with Salafist group in such regions as Berlin, Bavaria, Hamburg, Bremen and Lower Saxony.

The True Religion movement is led by Ibrahim Abou-Nagie, a Palestine-born preacher who became well known in parts of Germany for handing out free copies of the Koran in some of the country's major cities.

German intelligence services estimated that the country was home to around 9,200 followers of radical Islam -- 1,200 of whom were considered potentially dangerous and capable of committing attacks in the name of religion.

Further, it was estimated by officials that around 870 people had left Germany to travel to Syria and Iraq in order to join the ranks of the IS.

--IANS

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The central government on Tuesday banned controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik's NGO Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) for five years with immediate effect.

The ban on IRF has been enforced under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and approved at a union cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Declaration of the IRF as "unlawful" under Section 3 of the UAPA will force closure of its offices and interests across the country.

Sources in the Home Ministry told IANS that the government has a strong case against the IRF.

The move comes after the government found the Islamic preacher to be involved in utilising funds meant for his NGOs for radicalisation of youths, they said.

Some other organisations, being run by Naik, have also been under the government scanner, the sources added.

--IANS

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Hundreds of students from at least four high schools in Portland in Oregon took to the street against US President-elect Donald Trump.

The protest march on Monday, according to Portland Police Bureau, ended hours later without incident, Xinhua news agency reported.

The bureau, which posted a series of messages on its Twitter account during the protest, once called for parents to "encourage them (kids) to go back to school".

Portland, a city in the US Pacific Northwest, has seen nightly protests since last Tuesday, when Trump was declared elected 45th President of the US.

Monday was the first time that such an event took place during day time.

No arrests were made on Monday and students were allowed to gather in front of the City Hall.

The authorities in Portland said in a statement that more than 100 protestors were arrested for violating laws.

--IANS

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Demonetisation has hit hard the mostly cash-based retail businesses in India, witnessing an estimated sharp plunge of 25 per cent since the government banned 500 and 1,000 rupee currency notes, according to traders.

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) - one of the largest trade associations in India, said businesses "in markets across the country has reduced to 25 per cent" since the government announced the surprise move on November 8 night.

CAIT explained that Indian retail trade is worth about Rs 42 lakh crore annually. Retail trade per day is approximately Rs 14,000 crore per day, of which about 40 per cent trade is conducted through business-to-business ventures. The rest 60 per cent is conducted directly with consumers.

It said that agriculture wholesale markets across the country "had very less business" because farmers couldn't sell their produce as there is no cash due to unavailability of smaller denomination notes.

"The logistic sector has come to a standstill as truck drivers have only high denomination notes, which has led to blocks in the smooth movement of transportation," it said.

Shopkeepers and small business owners narrated their harrowing tales of cashlessness that has drastically reduced their trade. They said there were fewer buyers and those who come to purchase also carry the newly-minted Rs 2,000 currency notes.

"Some people buy items for Rs 100 and give Rs 2,000. We have to return Rs 1,900. This consumes a large number of small value currencies, which are already in short supply," Subhash Chand, a grocery shop owner in south Delhi's East of Kailash, told IANS.

Chand said that at this rate shopkeepers were able to sell goods to only a few people.

The government has asked people to encourage paying through cards or e-wallets. But given the poor penetration of such facilities, it is not possible for everyone to get used to cashless transactions, he said.

Aman Thapa, who owns a small Chinese eatery in Arjun Nagar of south Delhi, said he did not have the facility to accept card payment and the cash crisis "has led to a huge decline in my business".

"Nowadays few people are visiting our food stall. We have suffered huge losses," Thapa said.

Abhishek Sharma, who owns a handicraft shop Rajasthan Emporium in Connaught Place, said most of his buyers used to pay him in cash.

"The fixed limit in withdrawing money has caused the ripple effect in our business as we sell handicrafts of high cost and none is coming to buy it as people do not have enough cash," Sharma told IANS.

"This is the peak season of our business as people buy handicrafts for decorating marriage halls, houses and other places in times of marriages and festivals," Sharma said.

But despite the difficulties he faced, Sharma welcomed the demonetisation move "if it helps curb unaccounted wealth and nail tax evaders in India".

He, however, was critical of the way the decision was implemented. The government, he said, should have planned better and given more time to people or have circulated a large number of small value currencies to address the cash crisis.

A tea and cigarette vendor in Noida, Anil Kumar Gupta, has found a temporary solution to the cashlessness of his customers.

But it comes with a risk and possibly a price too. Gupta said he is buying goods on credit and selling them on credit as well.

"The problem is common. Everyone is suffering. I purchase on credit and sell on credit with a hope that the situation may ease very soon. However, if I don't get returns in a couple of days, I fear I will have to shut my shop," Gupta told IANS.

(Amiya Kumar Kushwaha can be contacted at amiya.k@ians.in)

--IANS

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The enrolment of students from India in American educational institutes in 2015-16 registered a record 25 per cent increase over the previous year, US Ambassador Richard Verma said on Tuesday.

The Open Doors report on students mobility between India and the US, which he released here, said India has a record 165,918 students going to the US in 2015-16, comprising 15.9 per cent of the total international student population in the country.

"Since my arrival (two years ago), I have looked forward to the release of the Open Doors report each year as the number of Indian students in the US has continued to break all records. Last year, we had record percentage growth and a record number of Indian students in the US," Verma said in an event at the American Centre here.

India ranks number two in sending undergraduate students and number two for graduate students, said Matthew Asada, First Secretary for Exchange and Education at the US embassy.

On the other hand, the number of American students in India has remained relatively flat, Verma said.

"I hope that with efforts such as our Passport to India initiative, including its massive open online course on 'The Importance of India', the number of American students in India will begin to grow," Verma added.

At the same time, "we are focused on promoting student flows between our two countries, and also working to create a policy and regulatory environment in which institutional partnerships can flourish", Verma said.

"The Indian government has announced a series of steps, such as the draft National Education policy as well as regulations on the establishment of World Class universities, which promise to increase the extent of foreign collaborations."

"We look forward to the government's continued work in these areas and stand ready to partner with them on this and other higher education initiatives," Verma added.

Meanwhile, the US Commercial Service (USCS) and ELS Educational Services (ELS) of Princeton, New Jersey, have decided to organise US Education Fairs for 20 US institutions of higher education in four cities in Nepal and India from November 14 to 19.

--IANS

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Gov. Steve Bullock called for a modest spending increase in his proposed budget for the next biennium despite revenue declines from key sources over the last two years.

I think Montanans expect us to invest in areas that help grow our economy, Bullock said at a Tuesday press event announcing the plan. Despite revenue challenges, Montana must ensure the continuation of core services.

Bullocks plan amounts to a 1.4 percent increase in spending over the biennium.

It includes:

 $292 million of infrastructure and building investments through grants and loans;

 an expansion of business tax credits for capital investments as well as new credits for offering on-the-job training;

 the expansion of the income tax credit to match the federal rate;

 the end of a tuition freeze at public colleges;

 a higher tax rate for families making more than $500,000;

 a 1-percent pay increase for state employees in November 2018 and another 1 percent increase a year later.

The budget includes funding for education, preschool, senior services, child protective services and mental health services  especially for teen suicide prevention.

He includes $3 million to help launch the proposed Montana-Wyoming Integrated Testing Center that would incentivize the use of carbon sequestration and other technologies that use coal with less release of carbon.

Republicans, who will continue to control both legislative chambers in January, panned the Democrat governors proposal after a cursory review.

I dont think its a very good place to start, Senate President Scott Sales, R-Bozeman, said, skeptical that revenues will recover as strongly as predicted. In my world, Id call it grossly irresponsible.

Id say its very unrealistic, said Speaker of the House Austin Knudsen, R-Culbertson. He said that beyond essential infrastructure he doubts there will be enough money to pursue any new spending priorities.

Bullock holds his ground on some ideas that drew criticism from the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2015. His infrastructure proposal includes $157 million of bonding as well as $25 million to renovate Montana State Universitys Romney Hall, $19 million to construct a new Montana Historical Society and $16.8 million for a veterans home in Butte. Previous efforts to offer voluntary public preschool also failed to gain legislative approval.

The governors plan also includes a few new taxes. He suggests creating a 6 percent consumption tax on medical marijuana, a tax on vapor fluids for electronic cigarettes and a new tax bracket for Montanans reporting income greater than $500,000, increasing their rate from 6.9 to 7.9 percent.

It makes no sense that someone earning minimum wage pays the same tax rate as someone earning $240 an hour, Bullock said. Those families can afford to pay a little bit more.

The proposals conflict generally with GOP campaign promises to hold or reduce tax rates.

That kind of class warfare tactic was voted out in the last presidential race, said Senate Majority Leader Fred Thomas.

The governors Budget Director Dan Villa estimates that the current biennium will end in June with $121 million left in the bank  about $200 million less than expected when the Legislature approved the budget in 2015. The plan includes rebuilding the ending fund balance, commonly known as the rainy day fund, to $300 million by the end of 2019. Many Republicans questioned whether forthcoming revenue estimates would show the state had that much left in the bank and argued the rainy day figure is higher than needed.

The governor proposes decreasing spending by $8.8 million for the 2018 fiscal year but increasing it by $44 million for 2019. Total spending would be about $2.3 billion in 2018 and $2.4 billion in 2019.

Villa said the plan requires spending decreases at all state agencies that were drawn primarily from mandatory contingency plans for 5 percent reductions, but not all will see cuts that deep. The highest will be 8.5 percent for the Department of Public Health and Human Services, which Villa said is misleading since some savings and increased federal funding account for much of that reduction rather than programmatic cuts.

Recent revenue declines are compensated for by making those targeted cuts across agencies, transferring some unused funding from the states wildfire account and other special revenue sources to the general fund, and savings that free up money, such as the conversion of Medicaid recipients to a higher federal reimbursement rate and the hiring of additional public defenders that will reduce costs incurred by contracting.

Villa estimates that state revenues will grow 4.9 percent in 2018 and 6.6 percent in 2019, up from -3.6 percent in 2016 and an estimated 3.4 percent this year.

Both Bullock and Villa said they were uncertain whether any major changes to federal funding, which accounts for almost half of state spending, could be on the horizon.

The Legislative Fiscal Division releases its revenue estimate on Thursday, kicking off negotiations between the governor and legislators over which figures to use as a new budget is built.
The Jammu and Police on Tuesday dismissed some policemen for showing cowardice during weapon-snatching by militants, an official said.

Special Director General, Coordination and Law and Order, S.P. Vaid told IANS that after carrying out investigations into weapon-snatching incidents by militants from policemen posted on guard duties during the last four months, it was established that some of these policemen had exhibited cowardice by showing no resistance during these incidents.

"Some of these policemen, most of them posted in Kulgam and Anantnag districts, were found guilty of cowardice during weapon snatching incidents by militants.

"In other cases where the deployed guards fired even one shot in retaliation, weapon snatching by militants was thwarted. One of our brave policeman lost his life while resisting such an attempt by militants," said Vaid.

"It was, therefore, decided to dismiss from service some policemen who had been found guilty of showing cowardice," he added.

During the last four months, militants had managed to snatch dozens of weapons from policemen posted on guard duties, mostly at places where members of minority Kashmiri Pandit community still continue to live in the Valley.

--IANS

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Even as 93 children have succumbed to Japanese Encephalitis in Malkangiri so far, Odisha Health Minister Pradip Amat on Tuesday said the deadly outbreak was under control.

Out of 162 children admitted in the District Headquarter Hospital, 32 succumbed to the Japanese Encephalitis while 61 children died due to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome and other reasons, said the Minister after holding a review meeting on the situation.

He said the situation is under control in the district.

He said 17 children are undergoing treatment at the District Headquarter Hospital in Malkangiri.

Out of them, six were in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) while 11 were undergoing treatment in the Encephalitis ward, he added.

Amat said 180 villages in seven blocks of the district were affected by the vector-borne disease.

While the state government has distributed 15,000 Insecticide Treated Mosquito Nets (ITMN), the Centre is yet to provide ITMN to the state for distribution among the people, said the Health Minister.

He said that vaccination against Japanese Encephalitis would begin in Malkangiri district by December.

The disease, which originates from pigs and spreads to humans, mostly children, through mosquitoes, surfaced in the district in September.

The Odisha unit of BJP on Tuesday hit out at the state government for denying security to Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan during his visit to Maoist-infested Malkangiri district on Monday.

The party said it was a political conspiracy of the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD).

"We visited the Japanese Encephalitis-affected villages without police security. The state government should have at least maintained the security protocol provided to the Union minister," said senior BJP leader K.V. Singhdeo.

--IANS

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A major bank employees union said it will have to "review" cooperation extended to the efforts of the central government if the employees' burden is increased further.

"I may have to review the cooperation extended to the efforts if the employees are put to undue stress and difficulty. There is a limit to elasticity," C.H. Venkatachalam, General Secretary, All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) told IANS on Tuesday.

"Further there will be a circus within the bank branches if the government implements the idea of indelible ink on people exchanging the invalid 500 and 1,000 rupee notes," he added.

"The government can also have a ballot box inside the bank branches," another banker quipped.

According to Venkatachalam, there should be a software/technological solution rather than the indelible ink.

"The technological solution should be such that once the data is fed into a bank branch system it should get reflected in the systems of all other bank branch computer terminals," he said.

According to him, the central government has asked Indian Banks' Association (IBA) to instruct member banks to deploy staff on shift basis if banks have to function longer hours.

The government has also asked IBA to install additional terminals, and hire retired bankers to ease the situation.

Venkatachalam said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the central government should ensure sufficient supply of currency notes so that people can exchange their old notes.

Officials of public sector banks also wondered how private sector banks are able to get currency supplies whereas they are not able to get needed cash.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday sought the support of all political parties over his government's demonetisation decision, in the way they had cooperated in the passage of the GST Bill in Parliament.

Modi also called for their support on the issue of holding simultaneous elections in the country, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar told reporters after the conclusion of an all-party meet.

"Prime Minister's request is for cooperation, similar to what they did for GST (Bill). We are requesting them to cooperate in the crusade against corruption, black money and fake currency," Kumar said.

He said that the Prime Minister also appealed to the political parties to use the Winter Session of Parliament for debate and discussions on issues of national interest and public welfare.

The Prime Minister also called for discussion on the state funding of elections and simultaneous polls, he added.

--IANS

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Andy Murray defeated seventh seed Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-2 in their Group clash for his first victory after climbing to the top of the world rankings at the ATP World Tour Finals in London's O2 Arena.

"A big thank you for all of the support, it was an incredible atmosphere today," Murray said after the match on Monday, Xinhua news agency reported. "I really appreciate it," he added.

Murray added 200 points with his 12th win over Cilic and now has 11,110 points in the world rankings as he battles Novak Djokovic (10,980) for year-end No. 1.

Enjoying a career-best year, Murray is now 73-9 with eight titles overall and has extended his winning streak to 20 matches since Sept. 20. He will next play Nishikori on Wednesday.

Murray broke twice to take a 3-1 lead while Cilic, who committed 17 unforced errors, looked for a second break, but Murray was able to clinch the 46-minute opener.

In the second set, Murray broke twice in a run of five straight games to wrap up victory in 90 minutes.

--IANS

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Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda" has telephoned his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to seek exchange facility for demonetised Indian currency in circulation in his country, the Prime Minister's Office said.

During a five-minute conversation on Monday night, Prachanda congratulated Modi on his move to crack down on black money and corruption, Xinhua news agency quoted an official statement as saying.

Modi has assured Prachanda that he would address the problem faced by Nepal where Indian currency is widely used.

Prachanda took personal initiative to address the problem of exchanging demonetised currency notes after efforts by the state-run central bank -- Nepal Rastra Bank -- failed to resolve the problem.

The Nepali central bank had written to the Reserve Bank of India last week regarding the 500 and 1,000 rupee notes in circulation in Nepal.

The demonetisation move is posing a challenge to the management of Indian currency worth billions possessed by Nepali nationals.

Hundreds of thousands of Nepali nationals in India and those residing and working in various border regions between the two countries have also been hugely affected by the Indian move.

--IANS

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North Korea's Deputy Director for North American affairs Choe Son-hui has left for Geneva to hold talks with experts and diplomats from the US, South Korea's foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

During her layover at the Beijing airport, Choe told the media that she was going to attend a meeting with old friends, EFE news agency reported.

The South Korean ministry and other experts in Seoul believe the North Korean envoy is scheduled to hold talks with former US politicians and diplomats in a meeting similar to the one held in Kuala Lumpur last month.

On October 21 and 22, North Korea's vice foreign minister Han Song-ryol, and the North's UN Ambassador Jang Il-hun met former US envoys Joseph DeTrani and Robert Gallucci and expert Leon Sigal to discuss the conflict between the two countries.

Choe's meeting in Geneva would be the first of its kind since Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential elections.

It is believed that North Korea is trying to gather information on the position of Trump's administration towards the Kim Jong-un regime.

Dialogue between the two countries were stalled during US President Barack Obama's term, following an intensification of conflict due to North Korea's nuclear arms programme.

The Obama administration, who demands North Korea take a firm step towards denuclearisation before initiating talks, has adopted a policy of tough economic and trade sanctions against the country to choke its economy and force it to abandon its nuclear programme.

Meanwhile, North Korea has called for dialogue without preconditions, and demanded it be recognised as a nuclear state and a definitive peace treaty with South Korea to replace the armistice that ended the Korean War (1950-53).

During his election campaign, Trump did not rule out a meeting with Kim Jong-un and also mentioned a possible re-negotiation of military alliances with its allies in the region, South Korea and Japan, including a withdrawal of US troops from these countries.

--IANS

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Over 6,000 people were displaced due to major floods that hit parts of Indonesia's West Java province, an official said on Tuesday.

The floods have submerged over 5,000 houses, 12 mosques, four school buildings and more than 100 hectares of paddy field, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of the national disaster agency, told Xinhua news agency.

Evacuation was underway, with the operation being carried out by soldiers, police, personnel from local search and rescue offices and local disaster agencies, he said.

Flood relief was also flowing into the evacuation centres, Sutopo added.

--IANS

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Pakistan won't go the India way. It will not demonetise Rs 5,000 notes or withdraw Rs 40,000 prize bonds, the media reported on Tuesday.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said late Monday that rumours to this effect were baseless and "no such proposal is under consideration of the government", Dawn reported.

Haroon Akhtar Khan, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, earlier on Monday said the proposal to discontinue the currency notes and prize bonds of the highest denomination was under consideration.

Some experts have said the prize bonds and Rs 5,000 notes were fuelling corruption and tax evasion.

Last week, a Pakistani MP called for a withdrawal of 1,000 and 5,000 rupee notes from circulation citing the example of India where 500 and 1,000 rupee notes have been axed.

--IANS

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People continued to suffer for the sixth consecutive day on Tuesday in the wake of the November 8 demonetisation of high-denomination currency notes as thousands mobbed banks across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Men and women stood in serpentine queues for hours to exchange the spiked notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination with new ones and/or to withdraw cash from their accounts to meet their daily expenses.

The situation remained chaotic at banks and security men had a tough time controlling the crowds.

With most ATMs remaining closed, no relief was in sight for people facing a severe cash crunch.

With new currency notes of Rs 500 yet to arrive at banks on Tuesday afternoon, the hapless people could not do anything but wait. Those who got Rs 2,000 notes were clearly disappointed.

Adding to their woes, some banks refused to exchange notes of people who availed of the facility last week.

"I stood in the queue for three hours, only to be told by bank officials that I will not be able to exchange notes since I had already exchanged Rs 4,000 last week. This is despite the fact that I hold an account in this bank," griped Mohammed Shareef at ICICI Bank's Toli Chowki branch in Hyderabad.

When asked, bank executives said the 'system' can't accept more than one exchange for one person.

In another violation of rules, the said bank branch officials also refused to exchange the spiked currency of those not maintaining accounts in the branch.

Many people complained that bank officials were attending only to a few influential and major customers known to them.

"I waited for more than two hours but bank officials said they can't give me new notes as I don't have an account," said G. Narsaiah, a construction worker, who came to exchange Rs 2,000 in old notes.

"What will I do with these notes of Rs 2,000? Nobody has change in the market," said another customer who was given two notes of high-denomination currency in exchange.

Women and elderly people suffered a lot as there were no separate queues at a majority of the banks. The situation in smaller towns and villages in Telangana was worse.

In neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, people stood in long queues outside banks in Vijayawada, Guntur, Visakhapatnam, Rajahmundry, Nellor, Tirupati and other towns to get new notes or exchange old ones.

--IANS

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A south Billings Senate race appears headed for a recount, after a late round of ballots counted Monday broke in favor of the Republican.

GOP candidate Don Roberts told The Gazette he will seek a recount in his Senate District 26 race against Democrat Margie MacDonald. MacDonald appeared to have a 127 vote lead in the initial ballot count last Tuesday. However, there were still provisional ballots to be tallied the Monday following Election Day.

Provisional ballots consist of votes by people who didnt have adequate identification, or both registered and voted on Election Day. There were 1,700 Yellowstone County provisional ballots counted Monday and in Senate District 26, those votes were strongly Republican.

MacDonalds lead slipped to 24 votes, well below the half a percentage point margin required for recount.

When I went through the neighborhood, I thought we were doing pretty well, but its hard to know in that district how its going to shake out, Roberts said. I think we need a recount just to see where its going.

MacDonald was in Helena on Tuesday where lawmakers are preparing for the 90-day, 2017 Legislature. She said 24-vote lead would put a reversal out of reach for Roberts.

"I was not celebrating until yesterday, but I'm happy and excited, and ready to celebrate," MacDonald said.

MacDonald spent roughly $23,000 campaigning this year. She said she targeted registered voters with direct mail and door knocking. Voters who registered on Election Day weren't on MacDonald's radar.

This is MacDonalds second recount election in a row. She defeated Republican Tony ODonnell in a 2014 recount race in House District 51, a South Billings district that comprises half of the Senate District that MacDonald ran in this year. The House District in SD 26 includes is House District 52. Both HD 52 and 51 elected Republicans this year.

The number of newly minted voters casting ballots on Election Day was significant this year, said Bret Rutherford, Yellowstone County Elections officer.

Roberts won the late registration vote, Rutherford said. People think its just the Democrats doing the late registration vote and thats just not the case.

This is the sixth election year in a row that Yellowstone County has had a race in recount range. However, officially the recount is still about a month off.

Recounts arent allowed until the Montana Secretary of State performs the final election canvas, which wont occur until Nov. 29. Once the canvas is complete, Roberts will have five days to request a recount. Once the recount is requested, Yellowstone County will have five days to respond, likely putting the recount into the second week of December.

Roberts will be billed for the recount, which will cost about $800, Rutherford said. Only when margin of victory is one quarter of one percent do taxpayers pay for ballots to be recounted.
A woman's stress levels during pregnancy can cause changes in the microbiome of the foetus that can lead to anxiety as well as learning difficulty in babies, persisting even into adulthood, researchers say.

In the study, the team of researchers at The Ohio State University, found that when pregnant mice were exposed to stress, it appeared to change the makeup of the bacteria in both their guts and placentas, as well as in the intestinal tracts of their female offspring.

Markers of inflammation increased in the placenta, the foetal brain and the adult brain of the offspring while a supportive protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) decreased. And these microbial changes lasted into adulthood.

The mice were more anxious, they spent more time in dark, closed spaces and they had a harder time learning cognitive tasks even though they were never stressed after birth, the researchers said.

Further, the female offspring of the stressed mice showed a lower ability to learn and higher anxiety-like behaviour compared to the offspring of non-stressed mother mice.

"Microbes from a mother's gastrointestinal and reproductive tracts are the first to colonise in a developing foetus and newborns," said led researcher Tamar Gur, Assistant Professor at Ohio State.

"That makes the bacteria an interesting potential explanation of why and how stress before an animal or person is born could prompt mental illness that can last a lifetime," Gur added.

The study was presented at Neuroscience 2016, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego, recently.

--IANS

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The Finance Ministry on Tuesday dismissed as baseless rumours that some institutions were planning a strike against demonetisation and said technology teams will be set up to hasten the pace of recalibrating ATMs.

"Don't believe rumours spread on the social media about certain institutions going on strike," Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das told reporters here.

"On zooming the (strike) picture on the social media, it was found to be from 2015," he added.

Das was briefing the media on the second review meeting on demonetisation held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with officials of the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday night.

To ease liquidity crunch, Das said, it was decided to constitute 'technology teams' to hasten the pace of recalibrating the ATMs for the new high-denomination notes.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said it will take 2-3 weeks to recalibrate the ATMs. All ATMs in India need to be calibrated afresh to disburse the newly-minted Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes as per their weight, dimensions, design and security features.

The technology teams have also been directed to popularise e-wallets among people, Das said.

Micro ATMs are also being deployed in banks across the country.

"Separate green channel is being created in banks across the country for micro ATMs," he said.

Among other measures, a task force has been formed to monitor stocking and transfer of old notes in other places, the senior officer said.

Assuring the people of enough cash availability with banks and post offices, Das said there was no reason for panic.

--IANS

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Actor Ryan Reynolds had a nervous breakdown after filming for "Deadpool".

The 40-year-old, who featured in the title role of the superhero movie, was diagnosed with anxiety after the filming wrapped up, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

"I felt like I was on some schooner in the middle of a white squall the whole time. It just never stopped. When it finally ended, I had a little bit of a nervous breakdown. I literally had the shakes. I went to go see a doctor because I felt like I was suffering from a neurological problem or something. And every doctor I saw said, 'You have anxiety'," Reynolds told GQ magazine.

"I say this with the caveat that I completely recognise the ridiculously fortunate position that I am in. But the attention is hard on your nervous system - that might be why I live out in the woods. And I was banging the loudest drum for 'Deadpool'. I wasn't just trying to open it; I was trying to make a cultural phenomenon," he added.

--IANS

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The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government on a plea that challenged a state law which permits allotment of bungalows to former Chief Ministers on their request.

Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre issued the notice on a plea by NGO Lok Prahari, represented by its General Secretary and former bureaucrat S.N. Shukla.

The amended law was brought in to circumvent the top court's verdict that barred the allotment of bungalows to former Chief Ministers. The amendment was effected within weeks of the August 1 verdict of the court.

While retaining the provision that Chief Ministers will vacate their official accommodation within 15 days of demitting office, the amended law said the government accommodation could be provided to them on their request.

While retaining the 15 days provision in the Uttar Pradesh Ministers (Salaries, Allowances and Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Act, 2016, it added a provision that said: "A government residence shall be allotted to a former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, at his/her request, for his/her lifetime, on payment of such rent as may be determined from time to time by the Estate Department of the state government."

Coupled with this, amendment was also effected in The Allotment of Houses Under Control of the Estate Department Act, 2016, that sought to regulate the allotment of government accommodations to state government employees and officers, their associations, political parties, journalists, trusts, officers of All India Service, lawmakers, ministers, chairman and deputy chairman of the Legislative Council, Speaker and Deputy Speaker of Legislative Assembly and Judges.

The top court by its August 1 verdict had directed six former Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh to vacate within two months the accommodation provided to them by the state government in their capacity as former Chief Ministers.

These are Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati, Narayan Dutt Tiwari, Ram Naresh Yadav, present Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh, who have accommodations on Lucknow's posh Mall Road and Vikramaditya Marg.

The court had said the former Chief Ministers had no right to occupy government accommodations as it held the allotments bad in law, being "largesse only to former Chief Ministers without any element of reasonableness".

Directing the six former Chief Ministers to vacate their official accommodation which they were in unauthorised occupation, the top court's order asked the Uttar Pradesh government to recover the rent at market rate for the period they were in occupation of the residential premises.

--IANS

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The Supreme Court will hear a plea seeking criminal contempt proceedings against Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal for their public pronouncements that they will not comply with the top court's verdict on SYL.

A bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice D.Y.Chandrachud said that the matter would be heard in due course as counsel Rakesh Dahiya, appearing for the petitioner Satbir Hooda, mentioned the matter for an early hearing.

With an eye on Punjab elections scheduled for early next year, both Akalis led by Badals and Congress by Capt. Amarinder Singh are engaged in upstaging each other in political rhetoric after the top court on November 10 in its advisory opinion had held that the Punjab Termination of Agreement Act, 2004, was not in conformity with the provisions of the Constitution and thus unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court had ruled that Punjab has no right to unilaterally terminate the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal water sharing agreement with neighbouring states.

Soon after the apex court advisory opinion on the Presidential reference, the Punjab cabinet on November 15 de-notified the land acquired for the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal nearly four decades back. The Punjab government has made it clear that it would not spare even a drop of Ravi and Beas rivers' water for Haryana.

In March this year, the Punjab assembly had "unanimously" passed a bill to return the land acquired for the construction of the SYL canal.

The top court had on March 17 ordered status quo on the SYL and appointed the Union Home Secretary as well as the Punjab Chief Secretary and Director General of Police as receiver of the canal and assets associated with it.

However, the top court's constitution bench refused to extend the March 17 interim order after giving its advisory opinion on the Presidential reference on the constitutionality of the Punjab Termination of Agreement Act, 2004.

The constitution bench had said that it could not say anything further on the interim order as after giving its advisory opinion, nothing survives before it.

--IANS

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The Congress on Tuesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the hardship faced by the common man in the wake of November 8 demonetisation move which, the party said, was in reality meant to bail out those with ill-gotten wealth.

The Congress said Modi's pledge that the cash-crunch caused by spiking of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes will stabilise in 50 days cannot be believed because his earlier promises too had fallen flat.

"Why should we trust the government? They are only extending deadlines. On November 8, Prime Minister Modi said it is an inconvenience of only a few days and then went to Japan. Now, he is asking for 50 days," senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal told the media here.

"Modi ji said Rs 80 lakh crore is lying outside India and promised he will bring it back in 100 days (of coming to power at the Centre). Where is the black money?" Sibal said.

"Why should we trust him? The Rs 80 lakh has not been brought back. If he has lied about that, why should we trust him now?"

Sibal launched a blistering attack on Modi, accusing him of being out of sync with the woes of the common man now struggling for cash.

"All this has nothing to do with battling black money or corruption," the former Union minister said.

Sibal also hit out at the government for not giving a list of names of people with black money to the Supreme Court.

"As far as black money is concerned, Modi ji is yet to give the names to the Supreme Court."

Saying that Modi had "collaborated" with those who have black money, the Congress leader said it were the poor who were facing the brunt of his demonetisation decision that has resulted in serpentine queues outside banks and ATMs across the country.

Sibal said the demonetisation was aimed at "wiping out the Non-Performing Assets of the public sector banks".

The Congress leader said Modi had no understanding of the plight of the ordinary men and women who were struggling to exchange or deposit the old currency or withdraw money from their accounts.

"He makes fun of people... It looks like he is far removed from ordinary people's problems."

Commenting on the Prime Minister's statement that he had sacrificed everything for the country, Sibal asked: "Which palace was he living in that he gave up? Which property did he donate to the public? What sacrifices did he make for the country?"

Sibal added: "Please understand the pain of the ordinary people. Stop your whims and fancies..."

He also hit out at the limits placed on bank withdrawals.

"What kind of law is this? The money is mine, the bank account is mine, it is taxable income... Why can't I withdraw it? It is not Modi's money."

--IANS

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A leading Korean small car maker looking to enter India took a few journalists on a sponsored trip to South Korea recently. However, it was an unusual trip for the journalists in more ways than one. While the company remained tight-lipped about its India plans, a big team from the company grilled the journalists about the Indian car market for two consecutive days. Indeed, some journalists had to give in writing that if they filed a report on the companys India plans, it would have to be treated as a purely speculative piece.
By launching two parallel procedures to adjudicate on Pakistans objections to a couple of hydropower projects being implemented by India on the rivers allocated to it under the Indus Water Treaty, the World Bank has only exposed its naivety. The move is legally untenable as it goes beyond the dispute settlement norms mooted in the treaty brokered by the World Bank in 1960. Responding to Pakistans allegations regarding Indias hydro-electric projects  Kishanganga on the Jhelum and Ratle on the Chenab  in Jammu and Kashmir, the World Bank has chosen to set up a court of arbitration (as demanded by Islamabad) as well as a neutral expert (as suggested by New Delhi) to operate concurrently. What defies logic is that the World Bank has done so despite realising that simultaneous adjudication by two set-ups might result in incongruous outcomes and, thereby, exacerbate the problem rather than resolving it.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh,Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar , Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge chairing an all-party meeting ahead of the Winter Session of Parliament in New Delhi
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi tonight accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "laughing" when 18-20 people died in queues outside banks and ATMs and termed the demonetisation of high currency notes as a decision sans rationale.

"Nearly 18 to 20 people died in queues (outside banks/ ATMs) and PM Narendra Modi was laughing. He should clarify whether he was laughing or crying," he said, in an apparent reference to Modi's remarks in Japan and Goa.

He also claimed that BJP people were alerted beforehand about the demonetisation.

"How can one explain the BJP people in West Bengal depositing crores in high-denomination notes just before PM's announcement on November 8?" Rahul asked.

"BJP workers were seen holding up bundles of the new Rs 2000 notes, as seen from images on the Internet, before Modi announced this decision," he told reporters in suburban Bandra tonight.

"This move by the Modi government will turn out to be a big scam," Rahul said.

He also claimed that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was kept in the dark about the announcement.

"I don't think even Finance Minister knew about the demonetisation announcement," Rahul said.

"The PM took decision without thinking. We don't want to reverse it, but at least resolve the difficulties people are facing," he said.

"Many economists say there is no rationale to this decision. They say it's a decision based on political calculation," he said.

"The entire Opposition united against Modi government's demonetisation move which has resulted in massive inconvenience for people," Rahul said.

"Go after the big players in black money. I don't see that happening. We cannot let farmers and labourers stand in queues for months," he said.

Asked to comment on Modi's mother standing in a bank queue, Rahul quipped: "Mine and Narendra Modi's styles are different. I won't speak about his mother.

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A Heights teen who was seriously burned earlier this month is recovering at the University of Utah Burn Center in Salt Lake City, his father said Monday.

Andrew Lunder, who turned 14 on Saturday, has burns covering 40 percent of his lower body, said Andrew's father, Jason Lunder.

An eighth-grader at Medicine Crow Middle School, Andrew was rescued by three men on Nov. 1 after they noticed a fire in an empty field in the Heights.

Billings police determined gasoline was involved, and Jason Lunder said his son had been wearing flannel pants for pajama day at school.

It remains unclear how the fire ignited, Lunder said, but the family wants to focus on getting Andrew better before they started asking more questions about the evening.

Doctors had to take skin from Andrew's back and hip to transplant onto the burned areas of his body. Andrew was up and out of bed the day after the surgery and has "pushed" his physical therapy in order to get home quicker, his father said.

"Seeing him at the hospital, seeing him scared, that was the worst part," Lunder said.

Andrew's mother will stay at the hospital for the duration of her son's recovery, Lunder said. He said the hospital had a bed in Andrew's room for her and that they expect him to make a full recovery. Domino's, which employs both Andrew's parents, granted Andrew's mother leave and has helped with her expenses to Salt Lake City. The family was grateful for the company's support as well, Lunder said.

Andrew has received get-well cards from classmates and a letter from the community in support, Lunder said. The Medicine Crow school newsletter has provided updates on Andrew's condition.

School District 2 superintendent Terry Bouck said Medicine Crow Principal Nikki Hofmann has been in contact with Andrew's mother. Andrew will be able to catch up with his studies once he returns home, Hofmann told the family.

Lunder said the family is also grateful for the men who helped Andrew that night: Tanner Schilling, Nathan Pierce and William Pierce.

"If they weren't there, he probably would have died in that field," Lunder said.

Lunder said he wants Andrew to meet with the men when he returns to Billings, which he hopes will be in time for Christmas.

The family will take Thanksgiving dinner to Andrew in Salt Lake City.

"Hopefully the bird will keep on the drive down," Lunder said.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the Lunder family.
French authorities say four men have been detained in an investigation into a failed attack last year on a suburban Paris church.

The Paris prosecutor's office said the four men were arrested separately today in suburbs northwest of Paris.

Rance's LCI television reported they may have provided logistical help to chief suspect Sid Ahmed Ghlam.

Authorities say Ghlam, a 25-year-old Algerian, planned to attack a church in Villejuif and is also suspected in the killing of a woman nearby. The computer science student was arrested in April 2015 after apparently shooting himself by accident and has been jailed on preliminary charges since then.

Authorities have made other arrests in the case. Investigators have said Ghlam received instructions from someone, possibly in Syria, before implementing the plot.

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Iraqi forces have recaptured more than a third of eastern Mosul four weeks into the battle to retake the city from the Islamic State group, the interior ministry's spokesman said today.

"More than a third of this (eastern) side has been liberated," Saad Maan said at a televised conference.

Iraqi forces launched the massive operation to retake Mosul, the last IS-held Iraqi city, on October 17, advancing towards it from the north, east and south.

Forces on the eastern front were the first to reach Mosul, and Iraq's elite Counter-Terrorism Service has since recaptured several areas inside the city.

On the southern front, interior ministry forces are approaching Mosul airport on the city's southern outskirts.

IS overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but Iraqi forces backed by US-led air strikes have since regained much of the territory lost to the jihadists.

In addition to Mosul, IS holds the town of Tal Afar to its west, and also still controls areas in the western province of Anbar.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook is telling his employees to "keep moving forward." Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is saying "progress does not move in a straight line." T-Mobile's CEO John Legere tweeted "let's see what an out of the box, non-typical, non-politician can do for America!"



CEOs of major companies are taking stands about the results of the election a departure from the traditional model of not mixing politics with business that major brands have long espoused.

Some are using it as an opportunity to bring their employees together following a divisive election campaign.

Others are using it as an opportunity to stress their companies' values and mission, or an opportunity to make nice with Trump, who many CEOs were publicly against during the campaign.

The men and women who head the nation's biggest companies know that having a hostile relationship with the Trump administration could make doing business difficult. They also know that they operate in liberal bastions like New York and San Francisco just as much as in Trump-leaning places like Fort Wayne, Indiana, or Charleston, West Virginia.

"Neutral is the best policy," says John Challenger, CEO of workplace consultant Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

T-Mobile's Legere, who long was vocally opposed to Trump, congratulated the president-elect on Twitter for his victory last week, while holding off on judging the president-elect's policies. Meanwhile another telecommunications executive, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure, himself an immigrant and personally opposed to Trump, sent an email to employees saying that "it's our obligation to accept the will of our fellow Americans and respect the new leader."



It's possible that Legere and Claure made nice because the president appoints the chairman and commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission, an agency that holds enormous influence over the telecommunications industry. All five FCC commissioners will see their terms expire during Trump's first term.

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India today asserted that all future actions on climate change must be firmly rooted in climate justice and issues like adopting a sustainable lifestyle will be central to its course of action.

Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave made the assertion in his meeting with Conference of Parties (COP22) president and Moroccan Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar on the sidelines of the crucial climate summit here as they discussed a wide range of issues, which will come up for consideration over the next few days.

Dave also held deliberations with Mezouar on enhancing cooperation between the two countries especially in the renewable energy sector.

"Dave told the COP President that India believes that all future actions must be firmly rooted in climate justice and issues like adopting sustainable lifestyle and Common But Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR) will remain central to India's course of action," an official statement said.

Dave also proposed to Mezouar that in his capacity as the head of the current climate summit, a 'Call from Marrakesh', will be a good sign for streamlining actions envisioned by the global community.

Mezouar also appreciated India's initiative in "stitching together a formidable" International Solar Alliance (ISA), which will be open to signing from today.

"Mezouar also expressed his desire to further enhance the cooperation between India and Morocco, especially in the renewable energy sector, so that energy becomes affordable for the poor and vulnerable population of the two countries," the statement said.

Both the leaders also discussed enhancing South-South Cooperation among other issues during the meeting.

The CoP22 started on November 7 and will go on till November 18 as nations continue their work on strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, with the central focus on enhancing ambition, promoting implementation and providing support.

Dave had yesterday said that India wants a broad outline or roadmap for the implementation of the Paris agreement to be finalised at the ongoing crucial climate change conference.

He had said that India will push the world for adopting a low carbon lifestyle during discussions.

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Army chief Gen on Tuesday reviewed security situation along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir and asked the troops to be alert against any inimical activity, in the wake of heightened tension in Indo-Pak ties.

"The Chief of Army Staff, General Dalbir Singh visited Headquarters Northern Command at Udhampur today", a senior Army officer said.

The visit comes a day after Pakistan said the Indian army killed seven of its soldiers in shelling.

Gen Suhag exhorted the troops to be alert against any inimical designs and be aggressive in their approach.

The General interacted with the Formation Commanders and reviewed the situation along the Line of Control (LoC) as well as internal security situation in the Command theatre, he said.

The army chief commended the soldiers for boldly responding to ceasefire violations along the LoC. He also lauded the synergy and co-operation between the Northern Command, Air Force, Paramilitary Forces, Civil Administration, Central Police Organisations operating in the region.

The firing at the LoC has intensified ever since the surgical strike of September 29.
Army chief Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag will today visit Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir, the headquarters of Northern Command, to take stock of operational preparedness along the border in the wake of heightened tension in Indo-Pak ties.

The visit comes a day after Pakistan said that the Indian army killed seven of its soldiers in shelling.

Army sources said Gen Suhag, who left the national capital in the morning, will be briefed in detail about the situation by Northern Command Chief Lt Gen D S Hooda and other top commanders.

The firing at the LoC has intensified ever since the surgical strike of September 29.

Both sides have used artillery guns in the recent past, officially the first time since the ceasefire was announced in 2003.

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Syria's has said in an interview with Portugal's RTP state television that Donald Trump will be a "natural ally" if the US president-elect fulfils his pledge to fight "terrorists".

"We cannot tell anything about what he's going to do, but if... He is going to fight the terrorists, of course we are going to be ally, natural ally in that regard with the Russian, with the Iranian, with many other countries," said Assad on Monday.

Asked about Trump's campaign comments suggesting the US should focus more on fighting the Islamic State (IS) group, Assad said he would welcome such a move but was cautious.

"I would say this is promising, but can he deliver?" said Assad, who was speaking in English.

"Can he go in that regard? What about the countervailing forces within the administration, the mainstream media that were against him? How can he deal with it?" he said.

"That's why for us it's still dubious whether he can do or live up to his promises or not.

"That's why we are very cautious in judging him, especially as he wasn't in a political position before," said Assad.

In an interview with The New York Times on March 26, Trump said he thought "the approach of fighting Assad and ISIS (IS) simultaneously was madness, and idiocy".

"You can't be fighting two people that are fighting each other, and fighting them together. You have to pick one or the other," said Trump.

And during campaigning, Trump also pledged to improve America's ties with Assad's main backer, Russia.

After his election victory, Trump told The Wall Street Journal: "I've had an opposite view of many people regarding Syria".

He also said that if the United States attacks Assad "we end up fighting Russia".

In his interview with RTP, Assad accused the United States of interfering in the affairs of other countries.

"They think that they are the police of the world. They think they are the judge of the world. They're not," he said.

Asked to give his assessment of the next UN chief, Antonio Guterres of Portugal, Assad insisted the "United Nations is not the secretary-general" even if the role is "important".

"The United Nations is the states within this organisation, and to be frank, most of the people say only the five permanent members" of the UN Security Council, said Assad.

"This is the United Nations because they have the veto, they can do whatever they want and they can refuse whatever they want.

"If you ask me 'what do you expect from such a new official in that important position,' I would say I need two things: the first one is to be objective... The second one... is not to turn his office into a part or branch of the State Department of the United States.

"That's what we expect now," said Assad.

The Syrian president went on to criticise his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, describing him as a "sick person".

"He's (a) megalomaniac... He's out of touch with the reality," said Assad.
Assam boy Abhisekh Saharia received the National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement from President Pranab Mukherjee on the occasion of Chidren's Day at Rahtrapati Bhawan yesterday.

Saharia, a Class XI student of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Khanapara here, was awarded the Inspire Award Certificate for innovation in Science Pursuit by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development for his innovative project of designing and preparing an infrared blind aid kit, an official release said here today.

Saharia received a silver medal, a cash prize of Rs 10,000 and book voucher worth Rs 3000 for his exceptional achievement in the field of innovation.

The President gave away the awards to children for their outstanding achievements and to individuals and institutions for contributing to child development and child welfare.

The National Child Awards for Exceptional Achievement gives recognition to children with exceptional abilities in fields such as academics, culture, arts, sports, music etc, the release added.

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The Assam Pavilion was inaugurated at the India International Trade Fair (IITF), 2016 in New Delhi by Additional Chief Secretary (Industries and Commerce Department) Ravi Capoor yesterday.

The pavilion with the theme and logo of 'Digital Assam' was showcasing various e-initiatives like Ease of Doing Business, NRC up-dation, e-district, Community Service Centres, Land Records, e-procurement and Call Analysis and Tracking System, an official release said here today.

This year, 13 government departments/ agencies, 44 MSME units and four handmade organic tea producers have participated in the Assam Pavilion.

'Assam Day' will be celebrated on November 22 at Pragati Maidan's Lal Chowk Theatre, the release added.

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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's questioning at the Ecuadoran embassy in London over a longstanding rape allegation ended today, Swedish prosecutors said.

The results of the questioning by an Ecuadoran prosecutor, which began yesterday, will not be provided immediately on the grounds of confidentiality, the Swedish prosecutor's office said in a statement.

"After this report, the prosecutors will take a view on the continuation of the investigation," it added.

Swedish prosecutor Ingrid Isgren, Ecuador's ambassador to Britain, Carlos Ortiz, and an Ecuadoran lawyer representing Assange were all present as the former hacker was grilled with questions provided by Swedish officials.

However, Assange's Swedish lawyer Per Samuelsson was not allowed to attend, a ruling that he will "contest", he told AFP today.

The 45-year-old Assange sought refuge in Ecuador's embassy in London's upmarket Knightsbridge neighbourhood in June 2012, fleeing allegations of rape and sexual assault in Sweden dating back to 2010.

Assange has denied the claims and called them politically motivated.

The former computer hacker, an Australian national, refused to travel to Sweden for questioning, saying he feared he would then be extradited to the United States over WikiLeaks' release of 500,000 secret military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

A first hearing scheduled for October with Ecuadoran prosecutor Toainga Wilson was postponed at Assange's request, citing "his rights to the protection and defence of his person," according to Ecuadoran prosecutors.

Swedish prosecutors dropped their sexual assault probe into Assange last year after the five-year statute of limitations expired.

But they still want to question him about the 2010 rape allegation, which carries a 10-year statute of limitations.

Assange insists the sexual encounters in question were consensual and his lawyer Samuelsson told Sweden's TT agency yesterday that he was "very hopeful" his client would clear his name.

"For the first time since August 2010, Mr. Assange was finally able to give his statement in relation to this allegation," he added.

"He has done so in part to ensure the Swedish authorities have no further excuse not to discontinue their preliminary investigation," WikiLeaks later said in a statement, adding that Assange fully cooperated with the process.

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Colleen Osgard showed up first with her husband Barry, carrying a protest sign and packages to send in the mail.

At noon, more people showed up on the First Avenue North sidewalk, in front of the downtown U.S. Post Office. Those who gathered on Tuesday to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline targeted a small upstairs office in the building for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

"There is global warming. We need to protect the water," said Osgard, 62, who said she just returned from the Standing Rock protest site. "I have children and grandchildren I want to protect."

Opponents chose the location to protest the North Dakota oil pipeline a day after the Corps announced it would seek more input from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe before allowing construction of the final part of the project.

That final stretch would be laid beneath Lake Oahe, and Standing Rock officials say the potential for a pipeline failure threatens the tribe's main water source. It has been the site of a protest for months.

The roughly 60 protesters that gathered in Billings held signs saying "Water is Life," "Can't Drink Oil" and "Stop DAPL," which refers to the acronym for the 1,172-mile Dakota Access Pipeline.

Chelsee Davie, 32, helped organize the event. On the steps of the Post Office building, she read a statement.

"We are outside the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers office to urge them, along with the Obama administration, to deny the easement to drill under Lake Oahe," she said, "to rescind the permits given under Nationwide Permit 12 and demand that a full environmental impact statement be conducted or reject the Dakota Access Pipeline outright."

Nationwide Permit 12 refers to the process by which the Corps approved construction of the pipeline.

The protesters eventually moved on to North 27th Street, on the sidewalk of the Wells Fargo Center. They urged the bank, which is one of several financing the pipeline, to divest from the project.

A security guard watched the demonstration from inside the building entryway, alongside Wells Fargo employees on their phones. Shortly afterward, a Billings police officer arrived, but he made no move to break up the peaceful protest.

Some drivers honked at the scene. Passers-by pulled out their phones to take photos. The protest drew attention, which 26-year-old Ta'jin Perez said was the point of it all.

"It's really important we keep everything in the open."
US President Barack Obama today said he would press upon European allies his view that austerity alone "cannot deliver prosperity."



"In my message to the rest of Europe I will continue to emphasise our view that austerity alone cannot deliver prosperity," Obama told Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras at the start of his final trip as president to Europe.

Tsipras, who signed a hugely unpopular bailout agreement with the European Union last year, is anxious for a new US pledge to help alleviate the country's enormous public debt.

Obama said that it was "important" to help the Greeks with debt relief and other strategies.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), which was party to two prior Greek rescues in 2010 and 2012, has refused to join the third bailout without debt relief.

But Germany, which holds elections next year, is strongly opposed to the idea.

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An Australian national has been apprehended by the CISF at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) here for allegedly carrying two live bullets in his hand baggage.

According to officials, the incident was reported yesterday after a CISF security personnel detected the live ammunition of 5.56 mm calibre from the baggage of a flier arriving from Vienna and was to travel to Goa from here.

"The person has been identified as Australian national W Joshed and he was in transit to Goa when he was held. He could not produce documents for carrying the two rounds and was handed over to Delhi police," they said.

Carrying of arms and ammunition in the aircraft is prohibited under law in India, they added.

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The long-delayed trial of two Uighur men accused of bombing a Bangkok shrine finally kicked off today as a military court allowed Beijing to supply translators for the suspects despite their objections.

Yusufu Mieraili and Bilal Mohammed are accused of planting a bomb in a Hindu shrine in Bangkok's commercial heart in August 2015 that left 20 dead, mostly ethnic Chinese tourists.

The blast came weeks after Thailand's junta forcibly repatriated 109 Uighurs to China, where rights activists say the Muslim minority faces cultural and religious repression.

The timing prompted speculation that the attack was part of a revenge plot against a country that had been a key transit hub for Uighurs as Thailand's military leaders grew closer to Beijing.

Thai authorities have rejected that theory saying the attackers were part of a people-smuggling network angered by a recent crackdown, a motive most analysts say is simply not compelling.

The trial for the two men, who have been held in military prison for over a year, was delayed several times as the court struggled to find a suitable interpreter and rejected one provided by the defence.

The hearing finally started today after judges accepted two interpreters provided by the Chinese embassy and waved off objections from the defendants.

"I do not want translators from China because China does not respect Uighurs," Mohammed said through one of the interpreters.

"I want a translator who can speak Uighur from America, Canada, Australia or other countries," added Mieraili.

Uighurs, a Turkic minority, hail from China's westernmost province, Xinjiang.

The decision to use translators provided by the Chinese embassy is controversial because Uighurs have fled the region for years alleging they are the victims of state-sponsored persecution and assimilation policies that favour China's ethnic Han majority.

Beijing has also vowed to pursue Uighurs who flee abroad.

But a military judge today rejected the defendants' concerns saying that the interpreters were "appropriate as they only do translation" and "speak the same language as the defendants".

Sam Zarifi, Asia director for the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), which is monitoring the trial, said the appointments raised fresh doubts about the prospect of justice in a case being handled by an army tribunal.

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A clerk working at a state-run bank here was arrested today on charges of cheating and criminal breach of trust after he and his colleague allegedly deposited Rs 6 lakh in demonetised currency without ID proof and withdrew equal amount of new currency.

V Mallesh allegedly colluded with cashier Radhika and deposited the demonetised currency in the bank last Saturday without ID proofs and withdrew an equal amount of new notes (Rs 2,000 new currency notes), Assistant Commissioner of Police (L B Nagar Division) P Venugopala Rao said today.

Police had registered a case under sections 420 (cheating) and 406 (criminal breach of trust) against Mallesh and Radhika, who is absconding.

"As RBI rules were not followed in connection with the deposit of the demonetised notes in the bank, the bank manager had lodged a complaint with police on Sunday. Out of the new currency, an amount of Rs 5.6 lakh was returned to the bank authorities by the clerk and the cashier," police had said.

Further investigation is on.

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Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti today deposed before a local court which is hearing a defamation case filed against her by senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh.

Bharti, former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, replied to 35 questions put to her in 'yes' or 'no'.

After her deposition which continued for an hour, Chief Judicial Magistrate Bhubhaskar Yadav adjourned the hearing to December 1.

On September 30, the district court had stayed the non-bailable arrest warrant issued against her by the trial court for not appearing before it. Bharti's lawyer had said her statement could be recorded through a lawyer and her presence was not necessary.

Singh filed the defamation case against Bharti in 2003, after she, while campaigning for Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls as the BJP's chief ministerial candidate, alleged that a multi-crore rupees scam had taken place during Singh's tenure as the Chief Minister between 1993 and 2003.

"Digvijaya Singh has filed case against me out of vengeance after Congress under his leadership was wiped out by BJP in Madhya Pradesh and I became the Chief Minister," Bharti told reporters while leaving the court today.

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A day after Odisha police denied permission to Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to visit a Maoist-hit village in Malkangiri district, the state unit of BJP today alleged a "conspiracy" behind the incident.

Pradhan, accompanied by state BJP president Basant Panda and BJP legislature party leader K V Singhdeo, had yesterday visited Palkonda village to meet those families who lost their children to Japanese Encephalitis (JE). The Union Minister was under the security cover of BSF jawans.

Pradhan had to take in the security of the Central force after Odisha Police refused to accompany him to the affected village for security reason.

"We toured two villages in Malkangiri district without any personnel of Odisha Police. When we started from BSF camp to Palkonda village, there were two police escort vehicles for the minister. But after covering a distance of around two kilometres, the escort vehicles pulled up to the side and stayed back. After we arrived at the guest house, neither the Collector nor SP met the Union Minister," Singhdeo told reporters here.

Alleging that the state government forgot to maintain the security protocol meant for visiting Central ministers, Singhdeo blamed Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who is also in-charge of the home department, for the goof-up.

BJP state president Basant Panda criticised the Chief Minister for not visiting Malkangiri, even as about 100 children have so far died of JE and other diseases within a span of two months.

"It is unfortunate that the Chief Minister has time to roam around different places in Odisha to inaugurate projects. But he has no time to visit Malkangiri till now," he said.

Meanwhile, Pradhan stated, "I do not understand why the local police denied permission to my visit despite the state government clearing the programme. I was forbidden from visiting Palkonda village.

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On a day the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar launched 'Har Ghar Bijli Lagataar' (uninteruppted electricity supply to every household) programme, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi today attacked the state government over "tardy" implementation of scheme of electrification of villages.

"The intensive electrification is pending in 16,000 villages out of more than 40,000 villages in Bihar," he told reporters on the sidelines of Janata Durbar at his official residence.

Flaying the Chief Minister for "circumventing" the centre's rural electrification scheme, 'Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana', to take credit for electrification of villages in Bihar under a new scheme, Modi hit out at the state government for incapability to get adequate power production of its own to meet demand.

The senior BJP leader said Kumar should be thankful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for increasing allocation to Bihar from the central pool by 1000 MW to tide over increasing demand of electricity in the state.

Bihar used to get only 1978 MW during the UPA rule, which now stands at 2942 MW, Modi, a former deputy chief minister said.

Finding other faults in rural electrification projects in Bihar, he charged the state government with not providing free connection to the families above poverty line (APL) in rural areas when the centre provides 90 per cent grant and 10 per cent soft loan to the states for rural electrification.

Similarly, the central rural electrification scheme proposes free power connection to the BPL families and for that it gives Rs. 3000 for power connection to each such family, but the state government has failed to provide free electric connection to all 83 lakh BPL families, the senior BJP leader alleged.

He said only 15 lakh BPL families have been given



power connection in Bihar out of 83 lakh such families.

The former deputy chief minister also charged the state government with failing to clear outstanding dues of Rs. 1486 crore to NTPC for purchase of power and added that one unit of the 2x250 thermal power plant at Kanti in Muzaffarpur stands shut as the state government has not yet paid Rs 198 crore to NTPC that it had incurred on renovation of the plant.

The financial condition of the Bihar State Power Holding Company, the nodal company for power generation, transmission and distribution, was in bad shape as it has been running monthly loss of Rs. 200 crore due to inadequate collection of electricity bills from consumers at Rs. 470 crore per month against expenditure of Rs. 975 crore, he said.
In a controversial remark, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today said economists were of the opinion that black money helped the Indian economy in times of global recession.

"I am very clear on this...Black money should not be generated. Economic experts say the magnitude of the global economic crisis at times is not felt in India because of strong (parallel) economy of black money," he said.

"I am opposed to black money. I do not want it," he said on the sidelines of Indo-Myanmar-Thailand Friendship Car Rally flag off here.

His remarks come in the wake of the government's sudden decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes to stamp out black money, resulting in serpentine queues outside banks and ATMs.

Akhilesh also said that whichever government had troubled the poor, it was shown the door by the masses. "This government has caused immense pain to commoners," he said.

The chief minister was of the view that demonetisation will not serve the purpose of checking black money.

"It's good that corruption is checked and people become aware that there should not be (any) corruption. But this problem cannot be overcome merely by changing Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes...Those who used to keep such notes are now waiting for Rs 2000 notes...," Akhilesh had said on Saturday.

(REOPENS DEL28)



Akhilesh recently sent missives to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley urging them to allow Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes at private hospitals and medicine shops till November 30 to ensure medical facilities to the poor.

"As Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 were banned in haste, those undergoing treatment at hospitals and nursing homes are facing a lot of problems. I, therefore, request you to intervene and allow private hospitals, nursing homes and medicine shops to accept these notes till at least November 30," Yadav said.

"Due to the ban, those going to avail medical facilities in hospital are a harried lot. It is proving fatal for them. Allowing (Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes) currency will help people get medical treatment," he said.

With foreign tourists facing difficulties due to demonetisation, Yadav has directed the state Chief Secretary to ensure opening of extra counters for them to exchange currencies.

As the Centre's move caught people by surprise, SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav has demanded a roll back of the decision for a few days in view of the wedding season.

He suggested that people be given a weeks time by the government.

BSP chief Mayawati has also said poor people and farmers have been badly hit by the decision, which reminded people of the dark days of Emergency imposed by the then Congress government.
Border guarding force BSF has created a 30-bed night shelter for the stay of the family members of poor patients getting treated at the Safdarjung hospital here.

The tented night shelters will have blankets, mattresses and television sets, a senior official said.

The shelters will be provided security and other logistics by a special team of Border Security Force personnel and it will help some of those who are not able to find a suitable boarding place near the hospital.

"The facility can be availed by any person who visits this hospital for getting treatment of their kin. The allotment of beds will done on the basis of names recommended by Safdarjung authorities," the official said.

The facility was jointly inaugurated by Renu Sharma, wife of BSF chief K K Sharma and para-Olympian athlete Devendra Jhajharia.

The Javelin thrower had become the first Indian to clinch two gold medals at the Paralympics after he broke his own world record to clinch the top honours at the Rio Games.

Devendra won his previous gold in the 2004 Athens Games.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The BSF today sent a delegation to the Border Coordination Conference with Bangladesh's BGB to discuss improving coordination at the border to prevent the inflow of Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) and also to iron out differences pertaining to cross-border criminal activities.

Led by BSF Meghalaya Frontier chief PK Dubey, the 18-member delegation will hold meetings with Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) at Sylhet for four days from today, a BSF spokesperson said here.

Frontier chiefs from Mizoram, Cachar and Tripura were also part of the team, he added.

The BSF guards the international border with Bangladesh in at least four north-eastern states -- Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura -- and a huge consignment of fake currencies has been seized by it over the last five years.

The BGB delegation will be led by its Additional Director General Qazi Masroor Ullah and is expected to discuss smuggling of fake currency notes, insurgency on both sides of the border, besides the issues of common concern related to crimes and violations of the international border, the spokesperson said.

The conference is aimed at improving the ties and understanding between the two border-guarding forces, the spokesperson said, adding that such exercises in the past had helped improve border management and acted as confidence building measures between the two forces.

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With less than a years experience in offering Medicaid coverage to all very low income Montanans, the early data indicate higher enrollment than expected and a decrease in charity care at most community hospitals in the state.

The HELP Act approved by the 2015 Legislature took effect on Jan. 1. It has made a huge difference in the lives of individual Montanans and families. More parents, more low-wage workers and more indigent mentally ill people have dependable health care coverage than ever.

As of Sept. 30, 56,868 Montanans had enrolled in Medicaid under the expanded provisions authorized by the new state law and offered by the federal Affordable Care Act. Although its estimated that 80,000 Montanans are eligible, proponents projected that enrollment numbers would be much lower this year because people unaccustomed to having health coverage would take a while to sign up. The great majority of enrollees so far are people with incomes below poverty level.

The first months of Medicaid expansion brought both unexpected costs and unexpected savings, according to an analysis prepared this month by Sue OConnell of Legislative Services.

The states cost of administering the program, which includes eligibility determination, have turned out to be lower per person than estimated during the Legislature.

The cost for the private third-party administrator (Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana) are higher per enrollee than expected.

The state collected less premium income in the first 10 months than expected.

For the first six months of 2016, the federal government paid 99.1 percent of actual Medicaid coverage costs. The figure is less than the 100 percent expected because Montana asked for an exception that will keep enrollees covered for 12 months at a time, even if their income fluctuates above the usual eligibility level. That will ensure that more Montanans have coverage, especially those working seasonal jobs. The federal government required the state to pay for that additional benefit.

Montana health care providers and their professional organizations strongly supported the HELP Act, as did other businesses and church leaders. Their message was that the purpose of expanding Medicaid eligibility is to get more people covered, so they can access health care on a timely basis to maintain their health and treat illness and injury early and most effectively.

Its not a windfall (for hospitals); its not about the money; its about coverage and getting people into care, said Bob Olsen, Montana Hospital Association vice president. We need time for this to mature.

That is a message lawmakers need to hear. The HELP Act is in effect through June 2019, unless the Montana Legislature cuts it short or the U.S. Congress repeals the provision of the U.S. Affordable Care Act that allowed the states to cover more poor citizens with the federal government paying the bulk of costs.

State Sen. Bob Keenan, R-Big Fork, requested a bill draft nearly a year ago to repeal the HELP Act. He filed this placeholder even before serving on the HELP Act oversight committee.

The HELP Act requires that the federal government cover at least 90 percent of the costs of caring for people who enroll under the new eligibility criteria. The federal government must maintain its cost sharing commitment for Montana Medicaid to continue covering 57,000 of its residents.

With Republicans in the U.S. Congress, including Steve Daines and Ryan Zinke of Montana, calling for repeal of the ACA, there is uncertainty about the laws future. President-elect Donald Trump said during the campaign that he would immediately repeal the health care law and replace it with something that he hasnt explained publicly. Two days after the election, Trump said he was considering keeping the ACA requirement that allowed parents to keep their young adult children on the parents employer health plan through age 26. Trump also endorsed the ACA provision that requires insurers to cover pre-existing medical conditions.

But its the Medicaid provision that has made the biggest initial impact in Montana. The Legislature and Montanas congressional delegation must ensure that government doesnt take away the lifeline that the HELP Act has created for people with annual incomes below $16,242.
With barely two days remaining for campaigning to end for bye-election to Hayuliang Assembly constituency in remote Anjaw district of Arunachal Pradesh, the heat and dust of electioneering is gaining momentum with both the women candidates trying their best to woo voters.

North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) candidate Dasanglu Pul, the youngest among the three wives of former Chief Minister Kalikho Pul, contesting on a BJP ticket, is locking horn with Independent candidate Yompi Kri.

Addressing an election rally at Hayuliang yesterday, Chief Minister Pema Khandu appealed to the people to vote for Dasanglu as a mark of respect to the former chief minister.

While assuring the people of his government's all-out support for the overall development of the border district, he also promised to review road compensation rate, promote large cardamom cultivation and shift the present firing range of the Army at Cherang to elsewhere, an official communique said.

State BJP president Tapir Gao, Home Minister Kumar Waii also made pleas to the voters to support Dasanglu for the development of the district bordering China, it added.

The constituency with a total electorate of 11,003, including 5,508 female voters, has 81 polling stations of which three--Kibitho, Aphumna and Taflagam--are situated near the International Border with China.

The highest numbers of electors are in Hayuliang polling station with 955 voters while Malogam polling station has only two.

The seat had fallen vacant after Pul committed suicide on August 9 this year.

The counting of votes will take place on November 22.

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The Chinese military has conferred the title of "revolutionary martyr" on Yu Xu, the first lady pilot and a member of the air force aerobatics team, who was killed in a training accident over the weekend.

Yu, the first Chinese woman to fly the J-10 fighter jet, died in the accident during a routine flight on Saturday.

Born in 1986 in Chongzhou in southwest China's Sichuan Province, Yu joined the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force in September 2005, and had flown four types of aircraft.

She was one of the pilots selected to fly over Tian'anmen Square during the 2009 National Day parade and had flown the J-10 in air shows at home and abroad, according to Air Force spokesman Shen Jinke.

From country girl to China's first female J-10 pilot, Yu devoted her most precious years to the building of a strong army, Shen said.

Yu's death has sadden the country, with people across China mourning her in various ways. About 10 million people laid virtual wreaths at an online mourning hall set up for her, state-run Xinhua agency reported today.

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China's leading locomotive maker today said it has made it's first bulk export of eight-inch transistor chips to India for upgrading the transformers of 100 electric locomotives to make the electric trains more energy-efficient.

CRRC Zhuzhou Institute Co. Ltd, a state-run locomotive maker based in Zhuzhou City in central China's Hunan province, said that it exported eight-inch insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) chips to India.

The China-made chips are currently used on the 7,200-kilowatt electric locomotives that power it's high-speed trains.

IGBT chips will be used for upgrading the transformers of 100 locomotives in India to make the electric trains more energy-efficient.

The company built the world's second eight-inch chip production line in 2014, which has reached annual output of 120,000 chips and one million IGBT modules.

The IGBT chip is a key technology of modern electric appliances. It can be used in everything from high-speed rail to the aerospace and aviation industries.

The Chinese locomotive maker expects the chips to have huge export potential.

In August this year, CRRC had set up its first USD 63.4 million joint venture plant in India to repair and manufacture railway locomotive engines.

CRRC said in August that it was the first foreign company to set up assembly line of rail transportation equipment in India after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the 'Made in India'.

The joint venture, named CRRC Pioneer (India) Electric Co.Ltd, is housed in Bavo Industrial District located between New Delhi and Bombay.

The plant was set up with an investment USD 63.4 million and the Chinese side holds 51 per cent of the share. The India plant will repair and manufacture railway locomotive engines.

It will also provide technology support to India's rail system, and supply electric transmission systems to oil drilling, wind power generation and mining equipment making in India, the report said.

This is China's first major investment in Indian Railways after the two worked out a multi-pronged collaboration about Chinese participation in the modernisation of Indian railway systems.

While Indian Railway engineers are getting trained in China in heavy hauling, China is also cooperating with India to set up a railway university similar to the one it developed.

Besides the high-speed train, India and China have agreed to cooperate to identify the technical inputs required to increase speed on the existing railway line from Chennai to Mysore via Bangalore.

China is also conducting feasibility study to build high speed railway line between Chennai and New Delhi.

Japan has bagged the first bullet train project to build high-speed rail line between Ahmedabad and Mumbai.

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Chinese state-run media lauded Donald Trump today after a phone call between him and President Xi Jinping, saying that the president-elect's emergence could mark a "reshaping" of Sino-American relations.

The pair spoke yesterday, when Xi said that the two powers needed to co-operate and Trump's office said the leaders "established a clear sense of mutual respect for one another".

On the campaign trail Trump frequently demonised Beijing, but questions have been asked whether his conduct in the White House will match his promises as a candidate.

Yesterday's conversation was "diplomatically impeccable and has bolstered optimism over bilateral relations in the next four years", China's frequently nationalistic Global Times newspaper said in an editorial.

Barack Obama, whose foreign policy pivot to Asia alarmed Beijing, was "profoundly affected" by the Cold War-shaped outlook of American elites, the paper said, but Trump's views "have not been kidnapped by Washington's political elites".

"Trump is probably the very American leader who will make strides in reshaping major-power relations in a pragmatic manner," it added, saying his ideology and experience "match well with the new era".

It was a sharp contrast to the same newspaper's editorial the day before, which baldly warned the incoming president not to follow through on campaign-trail promises to levy steep tariffs on Chinese-made goods or Beijing would take a "tit-for-tat approach" and target US autos, aircraft, soybeans, and iPhones.

But the president-elect's ambiguous and sometimes contradictory views on key questions on the relationship between the world's two largest economies, including trade, the South China Sea and North Korea, have cast a pall of uncertainty over how he will manage it.

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Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos is traveling to the US for medical exams to guard against a possible return of prostate cancer.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner said today that he and his family were surprised after doctors detected an increase in prostate-specific antigen during a routine checkup.

He said he will undertake the exams Thursday at Johns Hopkins Institute in Baltimore and return home the next day.

The president had surgery in 2012 to remove a tumor in his prostate.

Santos said that while he is in the US he will also meet with Vice President Joe Biden as well as Republican and Democrat leaders to explain a modified peace agreement reached over the weekend with leftist rebels.

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Launching a fierce attack on the Congress, especially on Rahul Gandhi, amid the demonetisation debate, BJP chief Amit Shah today alleged that the leaders of that party had accumulated Rs 12 lakh crore during the UPA rule through "corrupt" means, which he said was turned into "paper scrap" overnight by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Setting the tone for the Winter Session of Parliament, scheduled to begin tomorrow, he claimed that the Congress was unhappy with the withdrawal of the high-value currency notes as its "fortune" was reduced to "paper scrap" by Modi's move.

Shah also mocked the Congress vice-president for "going to a bank in a Rs-4 crore car to exchange Rs 4,000".

"During their 10-year rule, the Sonia-Manmohan government did one scam every month, be it 2G, CWG, coal allocation, Adarsh Society, aircraft purchase and many other. With such large-scale corruption, Congress leaders accumulated Rs 12 lakh crore which is equal to the size of three Union budgets.

"They parked this huge amount of money in their houses, godowns and at their friends' places thinking that it was safe. But, Modi turned it into paper scrap by announcing demonetisation on November 8. This has taken away all the charm from the faces of the Congressmen," he said.

Shah was addressing party workers and citizens at Bharuch in Gujarat where he inaugurated the Bharuch District Cooperative Bank building.

The BJP president was also unsparing in his attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, claiming that everyone was in "deep trouble" due to the demonetisation move, but no one was ready to reveal the reason behind their discontent.

Shah's comments came on a day when the Congress-led opposition closed ranks to pin down the government on the demonetisation issue in Parliament.

"The situation is like a flood which sweeps away everything. Now, Congress leaders, Kejriwal, Mamata and Mulayam Singh have joined hands to save themselves from this flood. I am sure that those present here are not worried at all because we do not have black money. Only those who have black money are worried," he said.

Taking a dig at Rahul who had criticised the prime minister for the demonetisation decision, Shah said, "Rahul baba went to withdraw Rs 4,000 in a Rs-4 crore car. Do you think these people ever need Rs 4,000 cash? Rahul baba talks about the poor. I want to tell him that if he and his party were so concerned, then the Congress leaders should not have stashed away the Rs 12 lakh crore."



Acknowledging that the cash crunch was causing hardships to the common man, the BJP chief said they will "benefit in the long run".

"After surgery, you feel a bit of pain till the wounds



heal completely. This is just like that. I know that you are facing problems. But, these queues (outside banks and ATMs) are temporary. After some time, you will be able to buy a new apartment at a price which would be 30 per cent lesser (than the prevailing one)," Shah said.

Slamming Rahul for his 'khoon ki dalali' barb on Modi in the wake of the Army's surgical strikes in PoK in September, he advised the Congress vice-president to take lessons in history.

"The whole country was in grief when our jawans were brutally killed by terrorists in Uri. Had Congress been ruling now, they would have only condoled the death of the jawans. But, the BJP government sent a stern message that those who do not respect the borders will (have to) face consequences.

"After the surgical strikes, Rahul Gandhi had said that Modiji was doing 'khoon ki dalali'. I think, Rahulji is not aware of history. He needs to read it. He should realise that our jawans are ready to sacrifice their lives to save our motherland and the whole country is standing behind these brave armymen," the BJP chief said.

He also attacked senior Congress leader Kamal Nath who had reportedly questioned the "frequent" foreign tours of Modi over the last 30 months since assuming power.

Shah claimed that the prime minister's foreign tours were "less" in numbers compared to his predecessor Manmohan Singh.

"Kamal Nath claimed that Modi was visiting foreign countries frequently. I want to tell him that (Manmohan) Singh had made more foreign trips than Modi. But, no one used to notice his tours as he only used to read out from some written notes and come back.

"Today, thousands gather to welcome Modi during his foreign visits. He gets a grand welcome which is a matter of great pride for all Indians. Now, everyone takes note of our prime minister's visit. That is the reason why Congress leaders feel that he is visiting foreign countries frequently," he said.
Congress today opposed the move to reintroduce compulsory Class 10 board examination for CBSE schools from the 2017-18 academic year.

"The government should not decide what the child should do? This is my firm belief.

"CBSE Class 'X' Board were optional. Whichever child wants to take, he should be allowed to take the exam. If he does not want, he need not take it. Why should the government have to decide what the child must take?" party spokesman Kapil Sibal told reporters.

Sibal, a former HRD Minister, was asked to react on the decision of his successor Prakash Javadekar of reintroducing the exam.

Javadekar had yesterday announced that the government will reintroduce compulsory class X board examination for CBSE schools from the 2017-18 academic year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Chowdhury today ruled out any joint movement with "Saradha and Narada scam" tainted TMC over the issue of demonetisation, as he asked Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to stop her "drama of fighting against black money".

"We are also against black money. But we feel that there is a problem in the hasty procedure that has been adopted. Common people are suffering.

"Congress has opposed the decision and will protest against it. But in no way will the party in Bengal join hands with Saradha and Narada scam tainted TMC," he told reporters.

Chowdhury said Banerjee's opposition to the Centre's decision against black money was nothing but a "well scripted drama to fool masses".

"We would ask her to stop this drama and mock fight against the Centre's decision. We are ready to listen to lecture on black money from any other political party but not TMC, many of whose leaders are accused in Saradha and Narada scam," he said.

"Those who themselves are running a corrupt government can not talk against black money. Eighty percent of the FICN is routed through West Bengal, all this has happened because of the patronage of TMC leaders in border areas. She (CM) should concentrate on stopping cattle smuggling," the Congress leader added.

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When asked about Banerjee trying to create a national front against NDA-led Centre, the state Congress president said, "Mamata Banerjee is dreaming about national politics. But I would advise her to stop, infact she should take lessons from her past experiences. Leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi are there to lead this opposition front."



Upping the ante against BJP, the Chief Minister had on Saturday said that she was not averse to working with arch rival CPI(M) and other parties like Congress, SP, BSP to fight against the "anti-people" Modi government which has imposed an "undeclared emergency".

She is also scheduled to meet President Pranab Mukherjee this week over the Centre's demonetisation move.

On being asked about Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad convening a meeting of opposition parties, including TMC to prepare a strategy to attack BJP in the upcoming Winter session of Parliament, Chowdhury said floor coordination with all opposition parties was a part of Parliamentary democracy.

"Floor coordination is a part of Parliamentary democracy. Coordination among opposition parties keeps on happening. But TMC has not coordinated with the opposition parties when there were uproar in Parliament on Vyapyam scam and Lalitgate issue last year," he added.
Delhi Police's Crime Branch that has been tasked with investigating the case of missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed will be retracing the whole sequence of the incident.

The case was last week transferred from South District to Crime Branch in order to have a "fresh look" at the case. The team, which is investigating the matter, has started from scratch and is re-looking at all the clues and evidence.

"We are examining each and every fact thoroughly again with a fresh mind and look. We will be retracing the whole sequence right from the beginning and scanning every clue that might have been missed out, and to have a fresh perspective," Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav said.

"If there is a lead, we will send teams wherever required," he said.

The officer said they will leave no stone unturned to trace Najeeb, who went missing on October 15 following an on-campus scuffle allegedly with the members of ABVP the night before.

"We are going through the whole range of people who might provide clues. We are working very hard. We will go in great depth to find out what happened," Yadav claimed.

However, Najeeb's younger brother Mujeeb claimed that the Crime Branch team hasn't contacted them till now.

"We know that the case has been transferred to the Crime Branch. We haven't been contacted by them as of now and we don't know who is the officer investigating the case," he said.

Last month, an SIT was formed to trace the missing student following the instruction of the Union Home Minister to Delhi Police Commissioner Alok Kumar Verma.

The SIT, headed by Additional DCP-II(South) Manishi Chandra, failed to gain any actionable clues in the matter.

The team was reconstructing Najeeb's personality after a doctor at VIMHANS, told police that the student was suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder and depression.

Following this, the psychiatric angle had gained prominence in the probe. The team was also mulling seeking help from psychiatrists from AIIMS or RML to chalk out a plan for investigation in the case.

However, the Crime Branch team is investigating all probable angles, without focusing on any one perspective, sources said.

While the case was being investigated by the SIT, teams were sent to Darbhanga in Bihar and Nepal after they got leads hinting Najeeb being there, but they could not find him.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Navi Mumbai police have arrested a history sheeter in connection with the rape and murder of a 27-year-old local woman earlier this month.

Rajkumar Pandey, hailing from Khalapur in Raigad district neighbouring Mumbai, was apprehended from Taloja on a tip off.

The woman, identified as Anjali Pawar, was murdered on night of November 3 allegedly by Pandey who has a string of cases registered against him, said senior police inspector N B Kolhatkar of crime unit II, Panvel.

According to police, Pandey was out on bail in connection with a burglary case and started living with his girlfriend Nazuka alias Monica Mane at Akurli in Panvel taluka.

Pawar was friend of Mane, who was staying opposite the latter's house in locality.

Police suspect that Pandey drank liquor on night of November 3 before forcibly entering Pawar's house where he raped her.

He was angry as Pawar narrated the incident to Mane and also decided to approach police.

According to police, Pandey picked up a knife from Pawar's house and allegedly slit her throat in a fit of rage and also slashed veins of her wrists.

He later dragged her body to bathroom and dumped it there after locking house from outside, police said.

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BUTTE  A Butte man died early Tuesday after flipping his vehicle east of Anaconda on Interstate 90.

There were no other casualties. His name was not immediately released.

A spokesperson at the Montana Highway Patrol dispatch said the man, 40, was driving a 2004 GMC Envoy in the westbound lane when he drifted off the right side of the road. The driver overcorrected and rolled twice through the median and into the eastbound lane, coming to a stop in the eastbound ditch.

The call came in at 12:15 a.m. The crash occurred just east of the Highway 1 interchange.

The dispatch spokesperson said the man was not wearing a seat belt and died at the scene. Road conditions were dry and authorities suspect drugs were a factor in the crash, according to the patrol's report.
Cuba has pardoned 787 prisoners in response to Pope Francis's call for world leaders to show mercy to inmates, authorities said today.

The communist country's powerful Council of State, headed by President Raul Castro, issued the sweeping pardon in honor of the Jubilee year declared by the pope, said a front-page notice in the official communist party newspaper, Granma.

Pope Francis declared the Jubilee year last December, a special time of remission of sins and universal pardon.

Cuba said those pardoned included women, youths and sick inmates.

"The crimes for which they were punished, their conduct while fulfilling their sentences and the time served were taken into consideration," it said.

Prisoners convicted of murder, homicide, corrupting minors, rape, drug trafficking and other "extremely dangerous" crimes were excluded.

Francis kicked off the Jubilee with calls to world leaders to improve prison conditions for inmates and consider granting them amnesty.

In September last year, Cuba released 3,522 prisoners as a goodwill gesture ahead of a visit by the pope.

Cuba does not release data on its prisoner population. Anti-Castro dissidents say the figure is high for an island of 11 million people.

Authorities did not say whether any dissidents were among those pardoned. Castro's opponents accuse the regime of holding dozens of political prisoners -- something he denies.

Francis played a key part in bringing together the United States and Cuba for secret talks on patching up their relations after decades of Cold War enmity -- culminating in the December 2014 announcement of a historic thaw.

The Catholic Church has taken on the role of mediator with the Cuban government in recent years.

That marks a rapprochement after years of tension under Castro's predecessor and older brother Fidel, the father of the 1959 Cuban Revolution.

Under Fidel Castro, Cuba was officially an atheist state from 1976 to 1992.

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Punjab Congress Legislature Party chief Charanjit Singh Channi today said the decision of the Parkash Singh Badal government to de-notify the land acquired for the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal project was only "half-measure".

"It (de-notification of SYL canal project land) is half- measure...The real issue is restoring ownership rights over Sutlej, Beas and Ravi waters back to the state," he said here.

He said the de-notification was nothing but continuation of the same method resorted to earlier that was stayed by the Supreme Court.

Earlier today, the Punjab Cabinet decided to denotify the land acquired for the SYL canal project with immediate effect and return it to its owners free of charge.

"The Badal government has only tried to buy time till election through this half-measure that would again invite legal intervention with Punjab gaining nothing. The state government had earlier too adopted the legislation to return land to the farmers," he said.

Channi slammed the Badal Government for not having any agenda for the Special Assembly Session convened tomorrow.

"None of the members (MLAs) have been given any genda,... Everybody has been kept in complete dark about the session," he said.

A special session of the Punjab Assembly has been convened in the wake of the Supreme Court declaring as "unconstitutional" the 2004 law enacted by the state government to terminate the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal water sharing agreement with neighbouring states.

If the SAD and BJP were true to the people of Punjab on SYL they should fall in line with the Congress legislatures and resign rather than calling and attending the Special Session, he said.

The CLP chief alleged that the Centre would not allow any relief to Punjab even through judiciary as the two other states- Haryana and Rajasthan- are BJP ruled.

"At one level, the present verdict is political", he alleged.

Channi challenged chief minister Parkash Singh Badal to end Akali Dal's alliance with the BJP in case the CM was really sincere in protecting the interests of Punjab.

"Badal does not want to confront the BJP government for vested family interests," he alleged.

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Senior officials from Delaware and other states in the US today expressed interest in working with Telangana in skill development and other areas.

They also discussed the opportunities for investment and business in Telangana with state IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao, a government release said.

Rao explained the state's industrial policy to the visiting delegation.

Telangana topped the rankings in Ease of Doing Business and Hyderabad is home to several top IT companies, he said.

Rao enquired about the steps for infrastructure development in urban areas and sought investments into the sector, the release said.

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With frustration over the cash crunch mounting, Parliament looks set to witness a firestorm of protest on the issue of demonetisation when it meets for the winter session tomorrow, with a joint opposition having readied itself to put it on the mat.

Though Mamata Banerjee's TMC failed to build a consensus on her party's proposed to march to Rashtrapati Bhawan tomorrow itself to protest demonetisation of high-value currency notes, 13 parties led by main opposition Congress resolved to vigorously raise the issue of hardship faced by the common people due to the exercise aimed at squeezing out black money from the system.

As ATMs struggled in disgorging cash and banks appeared crumbling under pressure due to demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 bills, a Congress-led opposition went into a huddle to devise ways to pin down the government on the issue.

At a meeting of 13 opposition parties including arch rivals TMC and CPI-M, besides BSP, SP, JD-U and DMK, opposition leaders unanimously concluded that it was too early to visit the President on the issue which must first be raised adequately in parliamentary forums.

An all-party meeting, which was also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saw him seek the opposition's cooperation for demonetisation exercise aimed at tackling black money, counterfeit currency notes and terror funding, but his unrelenting rivals picked holes in it and accused him of not adhering to the principle of confidentiality and leaking information about the impending action.

Leader of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, however, made it clear after the all-party meeting that his party was not in favour of a roll back of demonetisation.

"It is a big scam, perhaps the biggest. There was selective leak of information, many in the BJP and even others knew about it (demonetisation) beforehand. We will raise the issue in Parliament....There should be an inquiry...Who should hold the iquiry should be decided.

"Some say this is an economic surgical strike before the elections (in some states including UP) aimed at finishing rivals and saving the ruling party (BJP)," Azad said after the meeting.

About Mamata Banerjee deciding to go ahead with her proposed march to Rashtrapati Bhawan, Azad said, she had sought an appointment with the President as a Chief Minister. "She is within her right to go to the President alone, but when we go to him together, TMC will be a part of it."



"We have been against black money, we are against black money and we shall be against black money. We have been criticising the government for its failure to bring back black money stashed abroad. But today, people are dying while standing in queues, workers, farmers have no money to pay their bills at hospitals. People from Kashmir to Kanya Kumari are harassed," he said.

Various parties have separately given adjournment notices



in Lok Sabha and for suspension of proceedings in Rajya Sabha to discuss the issue and highlight the plight of the common man.

Meanwhile, the Delhi assembly passed a resolution demanding a roll back of the demonetisation exercise.

As the government came under attack, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said a revolutionary or transformative step may have initial hiccups, but it gives long-term gains.

He said the demonetisation of higher currency notes had to be implemented with all secrecy as otherwise the people would have "taken care of" their ill-gotten wealth.

"There is need for ending parallel economy. Our neighbour is hiding, abetting, funding and training terrorists. There is 20 lakh crore of rupees of counterfeit currency in India which is weakening our economy. There are also arm dealers, smugglers...," he said, addressing a legislators' workshop in Delhi on infrastructure in the states.

The move will also curb Maoist operations as they "thrive" on black money.

Hitting out at the opposition, BJP said while Prime Minister Narendra Modi was working to curb black money and corruption with his demonetisation exercise, rival parties had "ganged up" against him.

Terming demonetisation as a 'surgical strike' on black money, BJP National Secretary Shrikant Sharma claimed that the general public is in the support of the move and now it has taken a shape of "people's movement".

He added that despite difficulties, the common man is supporting the decision.

Mamata Banerjee, however, unleashed a tirade against the government on the issue, saying the people have been reduced to "beggars" after having to stand in long queues to withdraw their own hard earned money.

"Tomorrow I am meeting the President on demonetisation issue. I will be meeting him with 40 of my MPs. I have spoken to various political parties. I have spoken to Rahul Gandhi, Nitish Kumar, Naveen Patnaik, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Arvind Kejriwal.

"If they want to join me, it is good. If not, then I will go alone with my MPs. National Conference leader Omar Abdullah is likely to join me," Banerjee told reporters at Kolkata airport here before leaving for New Delhi.

Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram of Congress ridiculed the demonetisation move, saying banks doling out cash to citizens was "proof" that 'achhe din' have arrived.

In a series of tweets, the senior Congress leader also took a dig at the Modi government on the way it was implementing the scheme, remarking that "millions of working people standing in queue. Long live productivity".

Shiv Sena, an NDA constituent which has been targeting the Modi government on demonetisation, said party leader Uddhav Thackeray was in touch with Mamata Banerjee on the issue.

"Mamata Banerjee and Uddhav ji are in touch. This is not



a political issue but something which concerns people. Shiv Sena will do whatever it can to ease the hardship of people," its Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said.

In a sarcastic take on the emotional pitch of Modi over demonetisation, Shiv Sena said his decision to scrap high value currency notes would not put his life in danger unlike his predecessors Indira and Rajiv Gandhi who were assasinated while fighting for greater goals of the country.

Making an emotional appeal at a function in Goa on November 13, Modi had said that there were certain forces up against him that may not let him live and destroy him completely due to his decision on demonetisation and asserted that he was ready to face any consequence but would not get bogged down even if he was burnt alive.

"PM Modi is under a security which is impregnable where even a mosquito cannot bite him. Lives have been sacrificed by those innumerable freedom fighters for the nation. (Former PM) Indira Gandhi had waged a war against Khalistani anti- nationals, for which she paid by sacrificing her life," the Sena said in an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana', edited by Raut.

UP CM Akhilesh Yadav, in a controversial take on demonetisation said economists were of the opinion that black money helped the Indian economy in times of global recession.

"I am very clear on this...Black money should not be generated. Economic experts say the magnitude of the global economic crisis at times is not felt in India because of strong (parallel) economy of black money," he said in Lucknow.
A day after banks remained closed on account of Guru Nanak Jayanti, Mumbaikars today again thronged banks and ATMs and were seen making a beeline for exchanging their old currency notes and withdrawing cash.

The ATMs were found to be working better as compared to earlier, giving some hope to the cash-strapped citizens that they may be able to withdraw some money faster.

Pramod Harlalka, a sub-broker in stock market, managed to withdraw Rs 10,000 from a bank at Bhayander in neighbouring Thane district.

He said, "It was really a soothing moment to find Rs 10,000. But the problem is that this is of notes of Rs 2,000 each. Now there is going to be another problem to use it. I am sceptical to use it for small payments, because there is scarcity of small denomination notes everywhere."



He said that a major public sector lender's statement to disburse Rs 20 and 50 notes was a welcoming step, but it should be done immediately.

Meanwhile, some residents also came to help those standing in queues by offering them tea and biscuits.

"I was on morning walk with my friends when we noticed dozens of people in a queue around 7 AM outside a bank at Manish Nagar in Char Bangla. Perhaps, they left homes very early in the morning without having breakfast. Therefore, with our friends, we arranged tea and biscuits and offered them," said N K Bhartiya, a local resident.

Some people were relieved after finding that banks have started work with some improvisation.

Meera Dubey, a homemaker from suburban Santacruz, said, "Banks have now made proper arrangements for the people. Today there are separate lines for deposit and exchange. Also, senior citizens are being given due attention. It seems that banks have learnt few lessons from initial failures."



However, a senior citizen, Bal Kumund Mishra (73), was unhappy as his bank did not allow him to withdraw Rs 24,000, as per new circular issued by the RBI yesterday.

"I was very much disappointed when bank officials informed me that I can get only Rs 10,000 though I showed them the copy of new circular. Bank people denied to give money more than Rs 10,000," said Mishra, a Thane resident.

Another citizen, Om Prakash Joshi, while recounting his ordeal since last week, said, "My wife is admitted in Bethany hospital of Thane. Hospital management is not accepting cheque and insisting only for pay orders. Even medical stores are not accepting Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. I fail to understand what to do? These are the worst days of our life.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In an embarrassment for the ruling BJP, its oldest ally Shiv Sena today decided to side with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Parliament tomorrow to oppose the process in which the demonetisation move is being implemented by the Modi government.

South Mumbai Sena MP Arvind Sawant said Mamata today telephoned his party chief Uddhav Thackeray and sought Sena's support in "voicing the concerns of the common man".

"People are being harassed and the poor are being troubled by this move. Initially, the government said the trouble will be over in 2-3 days and now the PM asks cooperation for another 50 days," Sawant told PTI.

Clarifying his party's stand on the issue, Sawant said Sena was not against weeding out black money. "But the process in which it is being done is not right. They (government) should have been prepared for the chaos," he added.

On Mamata's telephone call, he said, "Mamataji said she is talking to more political parties to side up against the government. Whoever wants to join us will join us. Sena will voice the concerns of the common man and side with Mamataji in Parliament for common people."



He said, "Sena will be a part of the parties that are against the process in which the (demonetisation) move is implemented. The government should have had a contingency plan (in place) before implementing the decision."



Sawant said the sudden scrapping of high-value denominations of Rs 1,000 and 500 was a "sheer harassment for the common man."



Mamata is trying to play a pivot against the Modi government and is tapping into public sentiment post withdrawal of the high value tenders announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8.

Accusing the Modi government of turning the people of the country into "beggars", Mamata earlier in the day said in Kolkata that she would meet President Pranab Mukherjee tomorrow on the issue irrespective of whether other parties join her or not.

She has also flayed the decision to use indelible ink to mark customers who exchange defunct currency notes and said it showed that this government "distrusts" the common people.

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Hitting out at DMK for demanding deployment of officials from other districts in three poll-bound Tamil Nadu assembly constituencies, ruling AIADMK today said this betrayed the Opposition party's "fear" of losing in the elections.

"DMK has sought this because of its fear of losing (polls) ... It has begun gibbering triggered by fear of losing," AIADMK said in its party mouthpiece 'Dr Namadhu MGR'.

Polls for Thanjavur and Aravakkurichi and bypoll in Thirupparankundram constituencies will be held on November 19.

DMK had on November 13 urged the EC to deploy only officials, including police personnel, who do not belong to Aravakkurichi and Thanjavur constituencies for election related duties there to ensure "free and fair polls".

In view of the deputation for poll work in their local areas, officials are being given postal ballots to cast their votes, DMK had said and alleged that ruling party would try to "influence," such local officials.

Such officials from Aravakkurichi and Thanjavur constituencies on poll duty should be recalled immediately to "ensure free and fair polls," the party had said pointing out that in Thirupparankundram no local official was deputed.

Slamming the DMK, the ruling party said, "when (electoral) loss stares at them, they start hurling blame," adding "they were not even looked at by the people."



Claiming that AIADMK's victory "is confirmed" buttressed by "historic" welfare measures, the party condemned the DMK for "casting aspersions" on the EC and government officials.

In Aravakkurichi constituency, V Senthil Balaji (AIADMK) and KC Palanisamy (DMK) and in Thanjavur, Anjugham Boopathy (DMK) and M Rengasamy (AIADMK) are among the candidates. In Thirupparankundram, AIADMK has fielded A K Bose, while P Saravanan is the DMK nominee.

Besides, the AIADMK and DMK candidates, PMK, BJP and DMDK and independents are also contesting the polls. PMK is not in the fray in Thirupparankundram as it did not get its mango symbol in that segment.

The four-party combine, People's Welfare Front, comprising MDMK, CPI(M), CPI and VCK, has boycotted the polls.

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Several Dutch companies see many businesses opportunities and are keen on investing in agrifood, food processing, automotive and the creative industry in India, a senior visiting official from Netherlands said today.

"We are exploring various business opportunities and are looking at investing in ... Sectors like agri food, food processing, automotive and the creative industry in India," Minister of State of Noord-Holland, Jaap Bond told PTI here.

As part of the Amsterdam India Business Journey, a Dutch business delegation is currently visiting the country to attract Indian businesses and knowledge institutions to the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area.

An over 20-member delegation is visiting Mumbai and Pune essentially to explore opportunities.

The bilateral trade between India and Netherlands is growing and we see 5 per cent growth from the 3 per cent growth earlier, Bond said.

"Today's relationship between the Netherlands and India is driven by modern sectors such as ICT, the life sciences and logistics. Many major Dutch companies already have a successful and growing presence in India. Likewise, about 180 Indian companies are currently active in the Netherlands, over half of which are based in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area," he added.

"There is huge potential for Dutch businesses in India. I feel confident that this delegation - comprised of representatives of the Dutch business community, knowledge institutions and the local government - will bring our two countries even closer with even more economic and other opportunities for both," he added.

Bond pointed out that due to the fast growth of the economy, India is a dynamic emerging market.

Several Dutch companies namely Philips, Unilever, Heineken, TomTom, Elsevier, DSM, AkzoNobel, and Shell have established offices in the country.

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An Egyptian appeals court today cancelled the death sentence handed out to ousted President Mohamed Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohammed Badie and ordered a retrial in connection with a mass jail break during the country's 2011 uprising.

The Court of Cassation also cancelled life sentences for 21 others in the same case.

Five co-defendants, including Badie, who also received death sentences in June 2015, will be retried too.

Morsi and other Brotherhood leaders were sentenced to death in June 2015 for escaping from Wadi al-Natroun prison, damaging and setting fire to prison buildings, murder charges, looting weapons and allowing prisoners to break out of jails during the January 2011 revolution.

Morsi was sentenced to life in prison in two other trials. He was convicted of spying for Iran, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

In another case, Egypt's first freely elected civilian president was found guilty of stealing documents relating to national security and handing them to Qatar.

Morsi came to power after Egypt's long-time President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in 2011.

He was toppled by the current President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi following mass street protests.

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A Pryor man on Monday admitted federal charges that he illegally shot, butchered and took the meat of a bison in 2014 and illegally possessed a bald eagle carcass.

As part of a plea deal that reduced initial felony charges to misdemeanors, the defendant, Tyler Dale Medicine Horse Sr., 58, agreed to pay $8,000 restitution to the bison's owners, Trisha and Brandon Siemion.

Medicine Horse pleaded guilty to theft and to unlawfully possessing an eagle during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Susan Watters in Billings.

Assistant Federal Defender Dave Merchant told the judge that while the defense doesnt agree with the restitution amount, it accepted it as part of the plea deal.

The agreement also calls for a probationary sentence. Medicine Horse faces a maximum one year in prison and a $100,000 fine on the theft.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Sullivan said the case began in December 2014 when Medicine Horses estranged wife, Veronnica Medicine Horse, reported to the Yellowstone County sheriffs office that her husband had stolen her cellphone and iPad.

During an interview of Veronnica Medicine Horse, the deputy learned that Medicine Horse had recently left at her residence an eagle carcass and bags of meat, Sullivan said.

The deputy found the eagle carcass and contacted the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Veronnica Medicine Horse told a game warden that her husband had texted her on Nov. 28, 2014, that his nephew had shot an eagle with a .243 cal. rifle and that they also had shot a buffalo that had run away from a buffalo ranch.

Two days later, Medicine Horse contacted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to get something off his chest, Sullivan said.

In a voluntarily recorded interview, Medicine Horse told agents he had found the bald eagle on the side of the road near Crow Agency on Nov. 28, 2014, and that it was clear someone had shot and killed it and had removed its tail, Sullivan said.

Medicine Horse also admitted to shooting a bison near Fort Smith about the same time as when he found the eagle, Sullivan said.

Medicine Horse initially said he saw a bison standing by some trees by Wyola when he shot it with a .243-caliber rifle. He later returned to the scene and butchered the bison, leaving only the ribs and head. He then took the bison meat to his brothers house for storage.

The defendant, who is a member of the Crow Tribe, at first said he thought the bison belonged to the tribe because it had no tags. Later, Medicine Horse admitted he lied about the location of the shooting and said he actually shot it near a ranch closer to Fort Smith, Sullivan said.

Medicine Horse took investigators to the kill site. The bison owner ultimately located the carcass with help from the Big Horn County Sheriffs Office. Sullivan said the location was on the Crow Reservation and on land owned by the CH Land and Cattle Co.

Investigators also executed a search warrant on Dec. 11, 2014, at the residence of Medicine Horses brother. Law enforcement found the remaining pieces of bison and a DNA test on the meat showed that bison found at the residence matched that of the bison carcass found on the Siemions ranch, Sullivan said.

Watters set sentencing for March 8 and continued Medicine Horse's release.
An Egyptian court today ordered the release of Alaa Mubarak and Gamal Mubarak, sons of former president Hosni Mubarak in an embezzlement case after rejecting the government's appeal against freeing them.

Mubarak and his sons were charged of acquiring almost Egyptian 126 million pounds from the presidential palace budget and using the money for the construction and development of family-owned assets.

They were also charged with forging official documents and damaging public property.

In May 2014, Mubarak and his sons each were sentenced to three years in a maximum security prison on these embezzlement charges.

Collectively, they were fined Egyptian 125 million pounds and are required to repay Egyptian 21 million pounds.

In 2015, the criminal court ordered their release, but the verdict was appealed by the general prosecutor.

The court today refused the appeal and confirmed the release of Mubarak's two sons.

Mubarak was Egypt's president for nearly 30 years before being ousted by Mohammed Morsi in an uprising in 2011 following mass protests against his rule.

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Rescuers in New Zealand were scrambling today to evacuate up to 1,200 tourists stranded by a 7.8 earthquake that caused "utter devastation" on the coast of the South Island.

A navy ship was steaming towards the seaside town of Kaikoura, which bore the brunt of the quake that claimed two lives when it struck early yesterday.

Huge landslides have cut road and rail links to the town, where police say water is running low, power is intermittent and hundreds of people are staying in evacuation shelters.

It has a population of 2,000, which Prime Minister John Key said was bolstered by an extra 1,200 tourists attracted by the area's popular whale-watching cruises.

He said four military helicopters would begin ferrying the trapped visitors, mostly international backpackers, in small groups to Christchurch from early today.

Naval ship HMNZS Canterbury would take hundreds more when it arrives, likely tomorrow, he added.

"It's more water and food, it's more chemical toilets, it's fixing up the road access, getting those tourists out and then ultimately the big clean-up job," he told TVNZ.

The Defence Force said a C-103 Hercules was also on standby to drop supplies, while state broadcaster Radio New Zealand reported up to 50 civilian helicopters could also be drafted into the tourist evacuation effort.

The Canterbury set off from Auckland late yesterday and its commanding officer Simon Rooke said the ship could take up to 500 tourists.

Heavy rain and driving winds were hampering clean-up efforts, although life outside the main Kaikoura disaster zone was slowly returning to normal.

There have also been more than 800 aftershocks, some measuring more than 6.0, further complicating the work of emergency crews.

The tremor, one of the most powerful ever in the quake-prone South Pacific nation, hit just after midnight yesterday morning.

It triggered landslides that dumped mountains of rocky debris on a main highway and ripped railway tracks 10 metres (30 feet) off course.

One person was believed to have died at a historic homestead that collapsed at Kaikoura, with another killed at a remote property north of Christchurch.

It was felt across most of the country, causing severe shaking in the capital Wellington, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) away.

It also set off a tsunami alert, with sirens sounding and police and emergency workers going door to door to evacuate seaside properties.

While officials initially feared waves of up to five metres (16 feet), they only reached about two metres before the alert was lifted.

Key flew over the quake's epicentre yesterday and said he was shocked to see such "utter devastation".

Key said New Zealand's strict construction codes meant its buildings were high quality and tourists' chances of being caught in a tremor were "truthfully very low".

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A 'Festival of India' began today in Oman to showcase the country's diverse culture.

The event will witness classical and folk dances, music shows, Indian cuisine fest and exhibition on Islamic art calligraphy, among others, an official release here said.

The festival, which will come to an end on March 24 next year, will be held in four cities -- Muscat, Sur, Sohar and Salalah, it added.

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Four members of a notorious gang who were allegedly planning to extort money from over half dozen builders, doctors, directors of big educational institutions in Mathura and Agra, were arrested today.

"One car, 4 kg of drugs, two stolen motorbikes and two pistols along with cartridges were recovered from the possession of gang leader Vinod Mudgal," SP City Ashok Kumar Singh said, adding that over half dozen builders, doctors, directors of big educational institutions of Agra and Mathura were on the hit list of the gang.

In a joint operation of Swat team and Kotwali police team, the four members were nabbed near Jubilee park last night.

The gang had allegedly taken contract of killing Dhan Kumar Jain, the General secretary of Agra Sarrafa committee for 2.5 crore, Singh said.

Singh said the gang has also taken 42 lakh as advance for eliminating Dhan Kumar Jain in 2015.

"The gang has made unsuccessful attempt to kill Dhan Kumar Jain recently, however he was saved since he had entered his vehicle in police station Hari Parvat (Agra)," Singh concluded, adding that gang was purchasing arms after selling intoxicants.

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Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani has emerged as a "serious" contender to become the next US secretary of state, a top aide to President-elect Donald Trump said today, amid reports of intense infighting over key posts in the new administration.

Trump -- the 70-year-old Republican billionaire who takes office in just nine weeks -- was to meet with Vice President-elect Mike Pence later today in New York to discuss the next round of cabinet appointments.

Giuliani, a member of Trump's inner circle, had been considered a leading candidate for attorney general, but at a public forum in Washington yesterday, he said he would not be heading the Justice Department.

"His name has been mentioned in a serious way in connection with secretary of state, a job that he's qualified for and a job that he would do exceedingly well," Kellyanne Conway, Trump's campaign manager, said today on Fox .

The 72-year-old Giuliani was mayor of New York on 9/11, and his decisive leadership after the World Trade Center's twin towers were toppled in the September 2001 attacks made him a national hero.

A crime-fighting former prosecutor who cleaned up New York and lifted its fortunes, Giuliani made a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 but withdrew after learning he had prostate cancer.

Former UN ambassador John Bolton, a neo-conservative hawk and former undersecretary of state, also was reported to be in the running for the top diplomatic post.

"John would be a very good choice," Giuliani said at the forum sponsored by The Wall Street Journal.

Asked if there were anybody better, Giuliani quipped: "Maybe me, I don't know."



Bolton made no mention of his chances in an interview today with Fox but seemed like he was auditioning for it, weighing in heavily on US relations with Moscow the day after Trump called Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"I think one of the reasons that Putin is very casual about expanding Russian influence, taking advantage of America in Eastern Europe and the Middle East is that he sees, quite correctly, Barack Obama as an exceedingly weak leader," he said.

"I think Trump is going to be the opposite."



Bolton was a controversial choice for UN envoy in 2005, having once said if the UN headquarters lost 10 floors, "it wouldn't make a bit of difference."



Also in the mix for a top job is Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, an early Trump supporter who is reported to be under consideration possibly for attorney general, secretary of defense or head of the Department of Homeland Security.

Sessions has been a fierce advocate for restrictions on immigration, but was once rejected for a federal judgeship after officials testified he made racist remarks, The New York Times reported.

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The Supreme Court today asked the Chhattisgarh government to give advanced notice of four weeks to social activist Nandini Sundar and others before proceeding against them in the case relating to the alleged murder of a tribal man in Naxal-affected areas of the state.

The apex court also took on record the assurance given by the state government that Sundar and others, who have been booked for the alleged murder, will not be arrested or interrogated as of now.

A bench of Justices M B Lokur and Adarsh Goel granted liberty to Sundar and others to approach the court if any notice of arrest or interrogation is served upon them.

"ASG Tushar Mehta says that Nandini Sundar, Archana Prasad, Vineet Tiwari and others will not be arrested or interrogated. State government is directed to give four weeks advance notice before proceeding in the case. Liberty to petitioners to approach court after the notice is served," the bench said.

The bench, however, refused to entertain Sundar's plea that the state should first take permission from the court before arresting or interrogating her and other activists in the case.

"No, they can't be stopped perpetually. If there is a crime, they need to proceed. It is their statutory right. They will first give you notice and then they can proceed," the bench said, adding that the activist can approach the court after the notice is served.

The bench also did not take on record ASG Mehta's statement, saying when a statement is already been made that they would not be arrested, then nothing else is required.

"We don't need to look at everything. You have made a statement. Now it is on record. You will have to give advance notice. As and when you want to proceed, show us the material," the bench said.

On November 7, Delhi University Professor Sundar, JNU professor Archana Prasad and others were booked on charges of murder of a tribal villager in the insurgency-hit Sukma district of Chhattisgarh.

At the outset, senior advocate Ashok Desai, appearing for



Sundar and other activists showed some newspaper clips and said that IG Bastar Range K Sivarama Prasad Kalluri has recently made a statement that Nandini Sundar and others will not be able to enter Bastar and people will stone them. He said this should not be allowed.

Mehta countered the argument claiming whenever there is a hearing on the matter, there are reports and if the court wants to take on record these materials, then it should also have a look at the records which the state government wants to submit to the court.

The bench, however, disposed of the application filed by Sundar and said if any notice is issued, then they have the liberty to approach the court.

The court had on November 11 taken on record the statement of Chhattisgarh government that no action will be taken against Sundar and others till November 15 and had asked the state to find a peaceful solution to the Naxal problem there and adopt a "pragmatic" approach towards life.

Police had claimed that alleged armed Naxals had killed the villager, Shamnath Baghel, with sharp weapons on the night of November 4 at his residence in Nama village under Kumakoleng gram panchayat in Tongpal area, around 450 kms from Raipur. Baghel and some of others were spearheading protests against Naxal activities in their village since April.

An FIR was lodged against Sundar, Archana Prasad (JNU Professor), Vineet Tiwari (from Delhi-based Joshi Adhikar Sansthan), Sanjay Parate(Chhattisgarh CPI-M State Secretary) and others for the murder of Baghel based on the complaint of his wife, the state police had said.

They were booked under section 120B (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 and 149 of IPC at Tongpal police station.
The mortal remains of the fisherman, who died in a Pakistani jail hospital following illness last month, were today consigned to flames at his native Malkhet village in Umargam tehsil of Valsad district.

The fisherman, Mohan Jethiya Rathod, had died in the hospital of Karachi jail in Pakistan on October 2. His body was flown to India last evening.

"Rathod was cremated at his native Malkhet village, about 300 kms from Vadodara, this morning," Jagdish Tandel, a senior official of the fisheries department of Gujarat government, said.

His body was flown from Karachi yesterday and was received by two officials of Gujarat Fisheries Department at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai.

"After completing the required legal formalities at the Mumbai airport, the body was taken to his village by road last night and was handed over to his family," Tandel said.

In the last week of October, Pakistani government had informed the Union Home Ministry about the death of the fisherman at Karachi jail hospital. Thereafter, the Gujarat government was informed about it, which completed the necessary paperwork to bring back Rathod's body.

Rajya Sabha member Parimal Nathwani recently had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the issue.

Veljibhai Masani, senior vice president of Gujarat Fishermen Association, had also taken up the issue with the Centre.

Rathod was one of the seven crew members onboard 'Sara', the boat which was seized by Pakistan Maritime Security Agency in the Arabian Sea on the charge of entering that country's waters on December 20 last year.

Remaining crew members are still in Pakistani jail.

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Kerala Governor Justice (Retd) P Sathasivam today called for integrating Health and Wellness Tourism as part of the recently launched Nava Kerala Mission programme.

Inaugurating a one-day conference on Health and Wellness Tourism organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here, he said health is one of the four key areas where mission-mode initiatives had been undertaken by the Government through Local Self Government institutions in the Nava Kerala Mission.

Health and Wellness Tourism projects should be integrated to it, he said.

"As a state which has made significant progress in health care in terms of high life expectancy, minimal infant mortality and state-of-the-art infrastructure, Kerala's entry into Medical and Wellness Tourism can only be smooth," he said.

The Governor said that Kerala has the potential of a destination that could offer, besides leisure and wellness, the best medical facilities also, and upgrading the concept of wellness to 'medical wellness' would be easy which will in turn attract a large number of tourists.

However, there was a need for a well thought out strategy to effectively promote Kerala as a Medical Wellness destination, he said adding this should not be limited to marketing efforts alone. Priority should be given to upgrade medical infrastructure in the state, he said.

Earlier, setting the theme for the conference, E M Najeeb, Chairman, Health and Wellness Tourism, and Chairman, ATE Group, emphasised on the need to create an action plan for the right eco-system for Medical and Wellness Tourism in the State.

Kerala has immense potential in this segment as the State has 26 NABH accredited hospitals. He urged more hospitals to go in for international accreditation.

Dr M I Sahadulla, Chairman, KIMS Group, gave an overview of the current profile of medical tourists coming to the state and stressed on the need to deliberate on the reason the state was lagging as it has only 4.5 per cent of the Health Tourism market share.

Easing visa formalities, opening up of insurance and developing skills would enhance our capability in this sector, he said.

V P Nandakumar, Chairman, Kerala State Council, CII were among those who spoke.

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A hand grenade was found near the Delhi Public School in ONGC Assam Assets headquarters at Nazira in upper Assam's Sibsagar district today, the police said.

The grenade was recovered from a drain by the side of the main gate of the school, the sources said.

A driver of the school bus noticed the explosive and informed the school authority which in turn reported the matter to the police, it said.

An investigation is on.

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The Allahabad High Court today dismissed a petition filed by one of the accused in the Dadri lynching case seeking transfer of the case to the CBI.

A Division Bench comprising Justices Ramesh Sinha and Rekha Dikshit dismissed the petition of Sanjay Singh who had alleged that the Uttar Pradesh police were not investigating the case in a fair and impartial manner and had, so far, not placed before the trial court the report of a forensic lab at Mathura which had established that the meat seized from the house of Mohd Akhlaq was "of cow or its progeny".

Akhlaq (55) was beaten to death in September, 2015 by a mob which had barged into his house infuriated over a rumour that his family had slaughtered a cow and consumed its meat.

Akhlaq's son Danish was also severely beaten up by the mob.

The high court dismissed the petition following the submission of Additional Advocate General Imran Ullah that the petitioner's allegations were "wrong" since the police have already filed charge sheet in the matter and the report of the forensic lab has already been filed before the trial court.

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Ten Montana Highway Patrol troopers will return after being dispatched to the Dakota Access Pipeline protest site.

The 10 troopers finished their last shift Sunday night. The 14-day deployment was approved by Gov. Steve Bullock under an interstate compact that allowed Montana law enforcement to aid regional law enforcement.

Multiple states have sent officers to the scene near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.

Montana Department of Justice spokesman Eric Sell said there are no plans to send more troopers to the scene.

Tim Crowe, a spokesman for Bullock, said there have been no additional requests for assistance through the interstate agreement, called the Emergency Management Assistance Compact.

Law enforcement and pipeline workers have clashed with protesters in an ongoing demonstration that began in August. Arrests were made as recently as Friday, after reports of confrontations and vandalism.

Bullock released a statement on Thursday: "My thoughts are with the thousands of people, including Montanans, gathered around Standing Rock in North Dakota. Working government to government, we look forward to a quick and peaceful resolution."

Bullock said he would consult with tribal leaders before approving any future requests for law enforcement aid.
The Allahabad High Court today resumed hearing on a petition challenging the election of Narendra Modi from the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat even as his counsel rubbished the petitioner's allegations that "undue influence" was put on the electorate who were appealed to vote in his favour "in the name of Hindu religion".

Appearing on behalf of Prime Minister Modi, senior Supreme Court lawyer and BJP leader Satya Pal Jain assailed the contention made by the petitioner -- Congress MLA Ajay Rai who contested against Modi -- that since the respondent (Modi) had been declared as the "Prime Ministerial candidate" beforehand, this had subjected the people to "undue influence".

Jain, who is also Additional Solicitor General of India, argued that "undue influence" on voters could have been "only through threat or persuasion and the petitioner has failed to provide any evidence that such means were used".

"Moreover, it was not Modi himself who had declared himself as the Prime Ministerial candidate. It was a policy decision taken by his party and in a parliamentary democracy every political party has the right to declare any person of its choice as its leader," Jain said.

Jain also repudiated Rai's contention that the people had been appealed to vote in the name of Hindu religion with the use of slogans like "Har Har Modi" and references to "Maa Ganga".

"The Supreme Court has itself held that Hinduism is not a religion but a way of life. Slogans like these were mostly raised by the supporters and not the candidate himself. Moreover, the use of slogans never led to any situation that may have led to violation of the Representation of the People Act or the Model Code of Conduct," Jain, who is also a member of the BJP national executive and a former MP from Chandigarh, said.

Jain also sought to refute the allegation that the expenses involved in Modi's election from Varanasi had far exceeded the limit fixed by the Election Commission and pointed out that "the candidate had furnished full details of his poll expenditure with the Returning Officer within 30 days of the declaration of results".

As the working hours came to a close, Justice Vikram Nath ordered that hearing on the petition will continue tomorrow.

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Delhi High Court today stayed the operation of a 2012 order passed by Central Information Commission (CIC) asking the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF) to disclose the details of institutional donors to the fund.

A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra stayed the CIC's order till further direction saying the matter "requires consideration".

The bench was hearing PMNRF's plea challenging the single judge's verdict of November 19 last year which had dismissed its petition against the CIC order.

"This matter requires consideration," the bench said, adding, "the CIC order dated June 6, 2012 had remained stayed during the pendency of writ petition (filed by PMNRF before single judge). The same shall continue until further orders".

The bench fixed the matter for hearing on February 13 next year.

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sanjay Jain, appearing for PMNRF, told the bench that it was an "important matter".

PMNRF had approached the single judge in 2012 challenging the CIC's order in which it had said, "we are of the view that the details of the institutional donors should be placed in public domain and disclosed to the appellant (Aseem Takyar)".

However, the CIC had said it would not be appropriate to direct the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) of PMNRF to disclose the names of the recipients and beneficiaries of the fund.

Takyar had sought information regarding PMNRF including the names and particulars of donors and beneficiaries during the period from 2009 to 2011 under the RTI Act.

The Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) of PMNRF had provided some information to Takyar but had denied the details regarding donors and beneficiaries of the fund. Takyar had then approached the CIC.

After the CIC order, PMNRF had moved the high court when a single judge bench dismissed its plea saying the CIC's order was "well balanced".

PMNRF had challenged the single judge order saying such information was private and must be kept confidential.

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Delhi High Court today said it would next month pronounce an order on pleas challenging AAP government's decision to award Rs one crore compensation and a job to the family of ex-armyman Ram Kishan Grewal, who had committed suicide allegedly over OROP issue.

"List the matter for order by this court on December 12," a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal said.

The bench had on November 7 reserved its verdict for today on two pleas, which AAP government had termed premature.

Delhi government had defended its decision to award Rs one crore to the family of Grewal, saying it was a "policy matter" which has to go to the Lieutenant Governor (LG) for approval.

The plea by advocate Avadh Kaushik, who had also opposed the government's decision to declare Grewal as 'martyr', has said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal should not "glorify" the act of suicide.

Another petitioner Puran Chand Arya, through his counsel Abhishek Choudhary, had sought a direction to restrain the government from going ahead with the decision till the court pronounced its order.

Retired Army Subedar Grewal had on November 1 committed suicide allegedly over 'One Rank, One Pension' (OROP) when a protest on the issue was going on.

The petitioners has claimed that the AAP government has decided to give 'martyr' status to Grewal and they should not award compensation like this as it was taxpayers' money.

"A person who has committed suicide has been awarded. It will promote suicide in the society," the petition claimed.

Advocate Kaushik, who had on two earlier occasions challenged similar decisions of the Delhi government granting compensation and government job to kin of individuals who had committed suicide, told the bench that this was the third time when the government has taken such a decision.

In his plea, he alleged that by granting compensation and a job to kin of the ex-serviceman, Kejriwal government has "glorified, justified, supported, propagated and consecrated the act of suicide".

He has sought directions from the court to quash or set aside the decision saying it amounts to "misappropriation of public funds".

The PILs has also sought a direction to the Centre, LG and Delhi government to "frame a proper and valid scheme or policy for declaring a deceased person as a 'martyr' and to award the compensatory benefits and perquisite to his family".

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French President Francois Hollande today urged the United States to respect the "irreversible" Paris Agreement on climate change, and said France will lead a dialogue on the topic with President-elect Donald Trump "on behalf of the 100 countries that have ratified" the deal.

Speaking to a UN climate conference in Morocco, Hollande praised US President Barack Obama for his role in getting the landmark pact adopted in the French capital last year.

"The United States, the most powerful economy in the world, the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, must respect the commitments that were made," he said. "It's not simply their duty, it's in their interest."



Scientists say oil and other fossil fuels are the biggest contributors to man-made warming. Trump, however, has called global warming a "hoax" and pledged during his campaign to "cancel" the Paris deal.

"The agreement was historic," Hollande said. "But what we must say here is that this agreement is irreversible."



Earlier, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he hopes Trump will shift his course on global warming and "understand the seriousness and urgency" of addressing the problem.

"As president of the United States, I'm sure that he will understand this, he will listen and he will evaluate his campaign remarks," Ban told reporters in Marrakech.

The Paris Agreement was signed by more than 190 countries and has been formally approved by more than 100 of them, including the United States and even oil-rich Saudi Arabia.

Ban called international climate action "unstoppable" and said that no country, "however resourceful or powerful," is immune from the impacts of global warming.

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Israel today invited bids for 24 new offshore oil-and-gas exploration licences it hopes will bring more major finds in the Mediterranean as it strives to become an energy exporter.

"We are offering for exploration half of our economic waters in 24 blocks," Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said, announcing the offer which closes on April 21.

"Estimates are that most of the natural gas in Israel's economic waters is yet to be found," he said at a conference, adding the US energy department shared that view.

The government hopes the new blocks turn up discoveries comparable to the Tamar and Leviathan natural gas fields found off its coast in recent years.

Israel hopes the Leviathan field and others to come will eventually allow it to become a gas exporter, which could provide it with additional leverage in the turbulent Middle East.

In September neighbouring Jordan signed a contract to buy gas from Leviathan for the first time and Steinitz said there had been contacts with the Egyptians over a possible sales deal.

"I think that the Egyptian option realistically exists," he said, without giving details.

He said that prospects of a major gas deal had also helped reconciliation talks with Turkey after a bitter six-year rift.

Last month, Steinitz met his Turkish counterpart Berat Albayrak in Istanbul.

It was the highest level official meeting since the two countries normalised ties in June after a 2010 crisis triggered by Israel's deadly storming of a Gaza-bound ship.

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Speaker Paul Ryan unanimously won his GOP colleagues' votes today for another term at the helm of the House. He told fellow Republicans he had President-elect Donald Trump's support, and heralded "the dawn of a new, unified Republican government."



"It feels really good to say that actually," Ryan told reporters. "This will be a government focused on turning President-elect Trump's victory into real progress for the American people."



While victory was the GOP unifier, Democrats were verging on disarray. House Democrats abruptly announced today that they were delaying their own leadership elections set for Thursday until November 30 to give lawmakers more time to process disastrous election results.

It's not clear whether the election delay might morph into a real challenge to Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. She has led House Democrats for more than 12 years and has consolidated support with strong fundraising and an ability to deliver votes, but there's long been grumbling from Democrats who say new leadership is needed at the top.

As for Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican still has to win a floor vote for speaker in January, when all members of the House will cast ballots, including Democrats.

But he secured the nomination at a closed-door GOP conference vote today afternoon with the strong backing of his fellow House Republicans, even though a few conservative dissenters pushed unsuccessfully to delay the balloting.

Those grumblings of dissent could hardly be heard over the buzz of enthusiasm as House Republicans convened for their first regular conference meeting since Trump won the presidential election. Even though a number of House Republicans, including Ryan, had opposed Trump or were critical along the way, most said they're now firmly on board and prepared to try to enact Trump's agenda on immigration, infrastructure, energy and jobs.

Republicans also backed California's Kevin McCarthy for majority leader and Steve Scalise of Louisiana for the No. 3 job of House whip.

Lawmakers trooped out of their morning meeting in the basement of the Capitol smiling, pledging quick action to roll back President Barack Obama's accomplishments and clutching red "Make America Great Again" hats.

"That was a nice fun touch. Now here's my problem: Every member wants it autographed," said GOP Rep. Chris Collins of New York, one of Trump's earliest congressional backers, who has been tapped as congressional liaison to the transition team. "I'm going to have to say, 'President-elect Trump, bring out your Sharpie, we've got to do a lot of autographing.'"



During the meeting, Ryan told colleagues that he'd spoken today morning with Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who said that he and Trump "are very supportive of the leadership team and are looking forward to working with them," said Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo.

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Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd plans to take 25 per cent stake in the USD 30 billion mega oil refinery planned to be set up on the west coast, the company's chairman Mukesh K Surana said today.

"HPCL Board at its meeting today decided to participating in the 60 million tons a year refinery in Maharashtra. We intent to putting in 25 per cent equity," he told reporters here.

Indian Oil Corp (IOC) will hold 50 per cent stake in India's biggest oil refinery, while the balance 25 per cent will be with Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL).

"We are open to getting a strategic partner but that will be decided later. For now, we have decided to participate in the project with 25 per cent stake," Surana said.

The 60 million tonnes a year refinery and a mega petrochemical complex will be set up in two phases.

Phase-1 will be 40 million tons together with an aromatic complex, naphtha cracker and polymer complex. This will cost Rs 1.2-1.5 lakh crore and will come up in 5-6 years from the date of land acquisition.

The mega complex will require 12,000-15,000 acres of land and two-three sites on coast of Maharashtra are being explored. "We have so far not finalised the land. Talks are on," said the HPCL chairman.

The second phase, involving a 20 million tons refinery, will cost Rs 50,000-60,000 crore.

IOC has been looking at west coast for a refinery as catering to customers in West and South was difficult with its refineries mostly in the North.

HPCL and BPCL too have been looking at a bigger refinery because of constraints they face at their Mumbai units.

The mega west coast refinery will produce petrol, diesel, LPG, ATF and feedstock for petrochemical plants in plastic, chemical and textile industries in Maharashtra.

Fifteen million tonnes a year is the biggest refinery any public sector unit has set up in one stage. IOC recently started its 15 million tonnes unit at Paradip in Odisha.

Reliance Industries holds the distinction of building the biggest refinery in India till now. It built its first refinery at Jamnagar in Gujarat with a capacity of 27 million tonnes, which was subsequently expanded to 33 million tonnes. It has built another unit adjacent to it for exports, with a capacity of 29 million tonnes.

The refinery being planned by the state-owned firms will be bigger than that. The phase-1 itself will be bigger than any one single unit.

India has a refining capacity of 232.066 million tonnes, which exceeded the demand of 183.5 million tons in 2015-16 fiscal.

According to International Energy Agency (EA), this demand is expected to reach 458 million tons by 2040.

Surana said HPCL was talking to the Rajasthan government for fiscal incentives for setting up a 9 million tons refinery at Barmer at the cost of up to Rs 50,000 crore.

"Viability gap funding will definitely be required. Whether it is in form of tax concessions or grant, those are things being discussed," he said.

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Hundreds of Iraqi civilians lined up today for food in eastern neighborhoods of Mosul recently retaken from the Islamic State group, as rations ran low, an Iraqi officer said.

Maj Salam al-Obeidi says some 700 residents gathered in three areas of the Zahra and Qadisiya neighborhoods, the latter of which was the scene of a fierce IS counterattack a day earlier.

"This is a problem for us because the food we have is not enough for them and we're waiting for more food to be sent from the government," al-Obeidi said. "Now the Iraqi soldier is giving his food to the civilians."



Iraq launched a major offensive last month to drive IS out of the northern city, the country's second largest, which is still home to more than 1 million civilians.

Special forces have captured a foothold in the city's east, and have been advancing slowly over the past week to avoid casualties and civilian deaths as IS fighters emerge to attack from the dense, urban landscape, often with armor-plated suicide car bombs.

The militants struck back against special forces in Qadisiya a day earlier, Maj Gen Sami al-Aridi said. Two dozen men wearing suicide vests charged the front lines, setting off a three-hour battle that killed 20 militants and severely wounded a special forces soldier.

The Iraqi armed forces do not release official casualty figures, but field medics have noted dozens of killed and wounded since the operation to liberate the city began on October 17.

Since last week's quick advance into Mosul proper, Iraqi forces have struggled to hold territory under heavy IS counterattacks.

At a conference outside Mosul, Col John Dorrian, a spokesman for the US-led forces supporting the operation, said airstrikes had so far destroyed 59 suicide car bombs and over 80 tunnels.

"We will continue to strike the enemy for as long as it takes for the Iraqi flag to be raised over Mosul and every other corner of this country," he said, adding that the coalition had conducted over 4,000 strikes with air power and artillery since the campaign began.

The United Nations meanwhile said smoke from oil wells and a chemical plant torched by IS near Mosul has forced over 1,500 people to seek medical treatment for respiratory problems.

The group's humanitarian affairs coordination office said the fires have emitted toxic smoke for 25 to 60 days, affecting 14 towns.

It says the mid- and long-term effects on people's health, the environment, agriculture and livelihoods could be dire.

IS shelled and set fire to the al-Mishraq Sulfur Gas Factory south of Mosul in late October, causing the deaths of at least four people from toxic fumes, the U.N. Has said, likening the attack to the use of chemical weapons.

Nearby oil wells set ablaze by IS have been burning uncontrollably since June.

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The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and India today inked a USD 500-million loan agreement to build a 9.8 km long road bridge across the Ganga river to improve transport connectivity between north and south Bihar.

Along with ADB's loan and USD 900,000 in technical assistance to improve bridge operation and management, the Bihar government will provide support equivalent to USD 215 million and the project is expected to be completed by the end of December 2020, ADB said in a statement.

"The new Ganga Bridge will significantly reduce travel time to Patna from the surrounding regions, in particular north Bihar, which will ease access of people to state's administrative and social services. The bridge is expected to benefit over 9 million people," the multilateral agency said.

The new Ganga Bridge, to be located near Patna, will span both channels of the Ganga River and serve as an alternate route to the existing Ganga Bridge, which has begun to deteriorate, the statement said.

The project will also build viaducts, embankments, and toll and service facilities, and will link to national highway networks, it added.

Bihar, the third most populous state in India with over 100 million inhabitants, has poverty levels above the national average, with seven out of 10 of the state's poorest districts located in the north.

According to the statement, the bridge, using engineering techniques, will be the first of its kind in India.

The agreement for the project was signed by Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary in Ministry of Finance on behalf of India and Deputy Country Director of ADB's India Resident Mission L B Sondjaja, ADB said in a statement.

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Indian firms made direct investment of USD 2.11 billion in October, down 39.34 per cent from a year earlier, Reserve Bank data showed.

The overseas direct investment by the local firms stood at USD 3.47 billion in October 2015.

For month-on-month comparison, the Indian firms had made an investment of USD 2.48 billion in September 2016.

The investments in October were comprised of equity worth USD 1.51 billion, loan of USD 187.96 million and rest of USD 407.43 million were in the form of guarantee issued.

The major investments made overseas by the Indian firms included USD 622.01 million by Indian Oil Corporation in is wholly-owned subsidiaries in the Netherlands and Singapore.

Tata Communications invested USD 165.86 million in a fully owned unit in Singapore while Fortis Healthcare put in USD 133.63 million in a joint-venture firm in Mauritius.

RBI said the data is provisional and is subject to change based on online reporting by the agency banks.

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An Oregon man who died after falling into a scalding Yellowstone National Park hot spring in June was looking for a place to "hot pot," the forbidden practice of soaking in one of the park's thermal features, officials said.

Sable Scott told investigators that she and her 23-year-old brother, Colin, left a boardwalk near Pork Chop Geyser and walked several hundred feet up a hill in search of "a place that they could potentially get into and soak," Deputy Chief Ranger Lorant Veress told KULR-TV in an interview.

As Sable Scott took video of her brother with her cellphone on June 7, he reached down to check the water temperature and slipped and fell into a thermal pool about 6 feet long, 4 feet wide and 10 feet deep, according to a National Park Service incident record first reported by KULR.

Park officials did not release the video or a description of it, but the report said it also chronicled Sable Scott's efforts to rescue her brother.

Search and rescue rangers spotted Colin Scott's body floating in the pool the day of the accident, but a lightning storm prevented recovery, the report said.

The next day, workers could not find any remains in the boiling, acidic water.

"In very short order, there was a significant amount of dissolving," Veress said.

The report included images of several signs warning people of the dangers of the park's geothermal features and of traveling off walkways in the area where Colin Scott died.

The National Park Service did not issue any citations in the case.

Scott was on a college graduation trip with his sister at the time of his death, which came a day after six people were cited for walking off-trail at the park's Grand Prismatic Spring.

A week later, a tourist from China was fined $1,000 for breaking through the fragile crust in the Mammoth Hot Springs area, apparently to collect water for medicinal purposes.
Reflecting their growing proximity, India and Israel on Tuesday decided to further "broad-base" their already close defence partnership and intensify cooperation in combating radicalisation and extremism, while calling upon global community to act tough against terror networks and States harbouring them.

The two countries also agreed to deepen their cooperation in a variety of areas including trade and investment, agriculture, water resources and cyber crime during extensive talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, who is on his first visit to India.

Giving gist of his talks with the Israeli leader, Modi, in a media statement, said people of both countries were constantly threatened by forces of terrorism and extremism and both sides agreed to intensify cooperation in combating them effectively, particularly having "practical and specific" engagement such as in the cyber domain.

"We recognise that terrorism is a global challenge, knows no boundaries and has extensive links with other forms of organised crime," he said.

In an obvious reference to Pakistan, the Prime Minister said, "Regrettably, one of the countries of its origin and spread is in India's neighbourhood.

"We agreed that the international community must act with resolve and determination against terror networks and States that harbour them. Failure to act and silence of speech only encourages the terrorists," he said.

Noting that Rivlin's visit has given a "crucial push" to efforts to build new pillars in bilateral ties, Modi said both sides noted the strength of the growing defence partnership and agreed on the need to make it "more broad-based" through production and manufacturing partnerships.

India is Israel's largest buyer of military hardware and the latter has been supplying various weapons systems, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles over the last few years but the transactions have largely remained behind the curtains.

The two sides inked two pacts to strengthen cooperation in agricuture and water resources management sectors.

Referring to growing collaboration between the two countries, particularly in defence sector, Rivlin, the first Israeli President to visit India in two decades, said his country is ready to "make in India and make with India".

He also asserting that nothing can justify terrorism. "We stand together in defending our people and our values," Rivlin said.

The two sides inked two pacts to strengthen cooperation in agriculture and water resources management sectors.

Talking about security cooperation, the Prime Minister

said the two sides agreed to "intensify cooperation to combat the forces of extremism and radicalisation that threaten all peace-loving nations. We also prioritised practical and specific engagement such as in the cyber domain."

He said both sides recognised that terrorism is a global challenge that knows no boundaries and has extensive links with other forms of organised crime.

Referring to Israel's expertise in micro-irrigation in drought-prone areas, the Prime Minister said and water management and conservation, and collaboration in scientific research were identified as areas for priority engagement.

He said both sides agreed that the current trajectory of the Indian economy has opened up many promising opportunities for Israeli companies which can scale up their tie-ups with our India's flagship schemes like Make in India, Digital India, Skill India, and Smart Cities.

"Indian and Israeli companies can also work together in high-technology manufacturing, and services sectors. Make in India and as President Rivlin told me in our discussion, Make with India can generate jobs and benefit both geographies. Our partnership can generate jobs and benefit both geographies," he said.

Modi said India was also grateful to Israel for its "clear support" to India's bid for permanent membership in a reformed UN Security Council.

On people-to-people ties, the Prime Minister said the 2000-year old Jewish community in India represents a thriving link to this past, adding people of the two countries were "biggest strength and the biggest beneficiaries" of the strong Indo-Israel partnership.

"Two-and-a-half decades of our friendship has brought rich dividends for both our nations. It has also strengthened voices of peace, stability and democracy globally. Your visit provides an opportunity to break new ground and shape new contours of our partnership," Modi said.

In his remarks, Rivlin hoped Modi will visit Israel soon.

There were indications that Modi may visit Tel Aviv in first part of 2017 which will be 25th year of formal diplomatic ties between the two countries. India had established "full" diplomatic relationship with Israel in 1992 though it had recognised the country in 1950.

"As we approach this big milestone, we are both committed to advance our engagement on several fronts. And, build on convergences and commonalities in our interests and concerns on regional and global issues," Modi said.

Rivlin, who arrived here yesterday, was given a ceremonial reception at Rashtrapati Bhavan earlier in the day. The Israeli leader also visited Raj Ghat and paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi.

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National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah today said Jammu and Kashmir had acceded to secular India and not to a 'Hindu Rashtra' and urged New Delhi and Islamabad to start dialogue to end the cross-border firing by the armies of both the countries.

He also said that restoration of autonomy was the only constitutional remedy for the resolution of Kashmir issue.

"Dialogue is the only way forward and (restoration of) Autonomy (to the state) is the only real solution (to resolve Kashmir issue)," he said at the meeting of the party's working committee of Ganderbal district unit at the party headquarters here.

Abdullah said New Delhi was bound to make provisions to grant autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir and "this was a guarantee that time and again been clarified with the representatives of the government of India."



"Jammu and Kashmir had acceded to secular India and not to a 'Hindu Rashtra'. Autonomy is the only workable solution to the Kashmir issue. Autonomy remains only constitutional remedy to Kashmir issue and there was nothing 'unconstitutional' about it," the former J-K Chief Minister said hitting out at the reported recent comments of RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat in Jammu.

The very basis of our relationship with India is based on secular nature of the country, he added.

Calling himself as staunch belief in Autonomy as an "achievable goal, a dream that will see light of the day", Abdullah said "For the love, I have for the people of this state, I will never show them a dream that cannot be fulfilled".

The former CM said autonomy for the state was "political statement" of his party and it would never barter it.

Expressing his anger against alleged violence on both sides along the Line of Control, he said, force of any kind was not going to help either India or Pakistan.

"Whose writ is this force going to establish?" he asked and asked both the nations to pull people out of the misery that the violence had pushed them into.

While dismissing as 'propaganda' spread by political parties that were ready to 'sell their soul for power', Abdullah said history was a witness to the fact that Kashmir s accession to India was conditional.

"Karan Singh has been bold enough to clarify for all those spreading misgivings about our accession to India. He has said time and again said that his father acceded to India on the basis of three conditions," he said.

Without naming any party, Abdullah called upon the people of Kashmir to be wary of people whose aim is to use "divisive strategies" to divide people.

"We need to look inside at our conscience and reject the ideas of the conspirators. We need to rise to the occasion and expose the falsehood thatis being spread against the party," he said.

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A 17-year-old Indian-origin Sikh boy has been shot dead when he was returning home from work, prompting police to launch an investigation.

The incident took place last week at his home in his garage on Kandinsky Way in California.

Famliy of Gurnoor Singh Nahal, who was a high-school student, says he was coming home from work when he was shot.

They do not suspect anything was taken and cannot understand why.

"We cannot imagine it. We are lost," his uncle Tejinderjit Singh was quoted as saying by the CBS Local .

Nahal's grandmother found him lying in the garage. She said he cried for help, but it was too late.

"She heard it and it was very loud and I think when she heard that, she came out and then she saw him," Singh said.

His neighbours say that things like this do not happen in their North Natomas neighbourhood.

"It was a young kid. We have kids to a 19-year-old and a 17-year-old, so it's really sad," said a neighbour, Gil Garcia.

Gurnoor went to Inderkum High and was supposed to graduate this spring.

Police responded to the scene and investigated the area for hours asking witnesses for help. They have not determined a motive in this case, the report said.

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In line with global trends in the pharma sector the focus of domestic drug firms on acquisitions to consolidate their position will limit deleveraging for the time being, rating agency Fitch has said.

"The ongoing focus of the top Indian pharma companies' on selective acquisitions to limit deleveraging over the short term," Fitch said in '2017 Outlook: Indian Pharmaceuticals'.

These acquisitions will help the companies to consolidate their positioning, with deleveraging likely only over the medium term as the acquired businesses contribute incremental earnings, it added.

"Many firms (including Sun, Dr Reddy's, Lupin and Cipla) have actively pursued acquisitions...In order to augment their existing drug portfolios and solidify their presence in both existing and new geographies," Fitch said.

It pointed out that domestic pharma market would continue to grow on account of higher consumer spending, urbanisation, improving access to medical facilities and health insurance, and the growing prevalence of lifestyle diseases.

As per Fitch, the regulatory compliance remains the key for growth and it "expects pharma companies with a strong regulatory compliance track record to benefit from a faster pace of Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) approvals under GDUFA in the US market."



"Drug approval by USFDA to Indian drug companies has almost doubled to over 200 in FY15-FY16 over the prior period, and Indian pharma companies now represent about 30 per cent (by volume) and 10 per cent (value) of the USD 70 billion - 80 billion US generics market," Fitch said.

Furthermore, the USFDA aims to implement the GDUFA II framework from October 2017, which gives some guidance on a further reduction in approval timeframes. "This will benefit Indian pharma companies in boosting their presence in the US," it added.

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An Israeli minister who decided to give a drone as a gift to visiting Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev came under fire today after it emerged it may contain sensitive technology.

Israeli Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel gave Medvedev a tour of a research centre last week and reportedly asked him if he wanted the drone on display there as a gift after the Russian premier took an interest in it.

Footage broadcast on Israeli television shows Medvedev enjoying himself flying the drone with its remote control.

Medvedev accepted the gift -- but it was not clear whether Ariel was allowed to give it away.

Israeli media reported that not only was the drone worth as much as USD 50,000, but it also may have contained technology not meant to be shared.

The drone was made by Spanish company Alpha Unmanned Systems, while its thermal camera was from US company Flir, the Jerusalem Post reported.

There were also reports that Medvedev did not receive the remote control or the thermal camera with the drone.

Haaretz newspaper reported that staff at the Volcani Centre, which carries out agricultural research, had so far refused to give the components away.

Ariel's ministry issued a statement acknowledging that the drone was given to Medvedev, but said the gift had been approved by "the relevant professional officials".

The ministry will quickly purchase a new drone to replace it, the statement said -- though some pointed out that this would have to come at taxpayers' expense.

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel called for Ariel to pay for the drone from his own pocket.

Opposition politicians slammed Ariel's largesse.

Nachman Shai of the opposition Zionist Union said the minister from the far-right Jewish Home had been duped into handing "knowledge and technologies to the wrong countries".

Stav Shaffir, a lawmaker also from the Zionist Union, called for Ariel's resignation.

The Volcani Centre and Israel's foreign ministry refused to comment.

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The Odisha government today claimed that Japanese Encephalitis was well under control even as the death toll in the tribal-dominated Malkangiri district touched 93 in a span of two months.

Health and family welfare minister Pradip Kumar Amat told reporters here that 93 children had died in Malkangiri district, of which 32 were suferring from JE.

The health minister, however, attempted to downplay the situation and claimed that 61 kids died of some other diseases.

He said that currently 17 children were undergoing treatment at the district headquarters hospital in Malkangiri.

Out of them, six were in the Intensive Care Unit while 11 were undergoing treatment in the Encephalitis ward, he added.

The Health Minister said that 180 villages in seven blocks of the district were affected in the vector-borne disease.

Claiming that the state government has distributed 15,000 Insecticide Treated Mosquito Nets (ITMN) to check the spread of vector-borne disease, Amat alleged that Odisha was yet to receive the ITMN provided by the Centre.

The minister said the vaccination programme against JE would begin in Malkangiri district by December.

Rejecting the minister's statement, state BJP president Basant Panda claimed that the JE death toll in Malkangiri along was above 100.

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"Desperate Housewives" star Jesse Metcalfe and Cara Santana toasted their engagement at a party.

Metcalfe, 37, proposed to the fashion blogger during a romantic boat ride on the Hudson River in New York in August after ten years of dating.

They finally threw a party to celebrate their engagement with family and friends at the luxury club Hills Penthouse West Hollywood in Los Angeles, reported E! online.

They shared a video on Instagram made up of pictures of the couple, wearing a grey suit and plum shirt and backless gold sequinned dress respectively, posing in a photo booth.

In the various snapshots, they are smiling for the camera, kissing, and holding hands, with their names written in a love heart in the corner of the snaps.

"Such an awesome evening celebrating our engagement!!! Thank you so much to all of our family and friends for sharing this moment with us! Love you all!!!," Metcalfe wrote in the caption.

"Such A Fun Night // Thank You To All Our Family And Friends For Celebrating With Us //," Cara wrote, followed by snaps of her hanging out with friends at the club, including Olivia Culpo.

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Jet Airways today said it has expanded its existing codeshare pact with Kenya Airways which will allow the African carrier to fly more passengers into India.

The expanded codeshare comes into effect from today, Jet Airways said in a release.

As part of the enhanced pact between the two international carriers, Kenya Airways will place its flight code (KQ) on Jet Airways' seven daily flights between Mumbai and New Delhi, five daily flights from Mumbai to Ahmedabad and five daily flights between Mumbai and Hyderabad for travel into India, the release said.

At present Jet Airways, in which Gulf airline Etihad holds 24 per cent stake, has codeshare pacts with 19 international airlines besides having over 100 interline partners.

Codesharing allows an airline to book its passengers on its partner carriers and provide seamless transport to destinations where it has no presence.

"Expansion of our codeshare relationship with Kenya Airways will allow us to offer the Indian diaspora in Kenya convenient access to more destinations in India. At the same time, Indian travellers can continue enjoying the opportunity to explore more of Kenya and East Africa via our international codeshares," Jet Airways Chief Commercial Officer Jayaraj Shanmugam said.

The arrangement continues to include Jet Airways' code (9W) on Kenyan's double daily flights on the Mumbai-Nairobi route, allowing Jet Airways' guests to connect to other onward destinations in Africa, the Jet Airways release added.

"The expanded partnership will enable customers of both carriers to derive maximum benefit from this cooperation. It will enable us to offer our customers seamless connections to three Indian cities. We see a lot of demand into domestic India from Kenya and East Africa, with passengers travelling mostly for business, leisure or health tourism," said Kenya Airways' Group Managing Director and CEO Mbuvi Ngunze.

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Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das today commended the people of India for their support to the demonetisation despite facing a little difficulty.

"The whole nation is worried about black money. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has developed a culture in which the honest learned and the dishonest got punished," he said at a programme here.

Das observed he was awed by the support of people of this country in this drive by Modi despite facing a little hardship.

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Jaipur Literature Festival today revealed the fifth list of 10 speakers set to appear at the 10th edition of the event next year.

Touted as the world's largest free literary event, the festival is expected see participation by over 250 authors, thinkers, politicians and popular culture icons, with a special focus on world literatures.

"To celebrate its 10 years, organisers have decided to announce 10 speakers set to appear at the festival every week over the period of 10 weeks every Tuesday at 6 pm starting today," organisers said.

The latest list is a diverse lineup of speakers from across the globe including translator and author Arshia Sattar, internationally acclaimed economist Sanjeev Sanyal, award winning Jamaican poet Ishion Hutchinson, British novelist Adam Thirlwell and British archaeologist and academic Barry Cunliffe among others.

Emma Sky, a British expert on the Middle East and Guillermo Rodriguez, an active promoter of Indo-Spanish cultural relations will be debuting at the festival.

"A passionate traveller, he lived in India in the 1990s and specialised in Indian literary criticism and modern Indian poetry in English, obtaining a PhD in English from the University of Kerala and the University of Valladolid.

"He has published critical works on Indian literature and culture in India, Spain, France, Germany and Poland, and is the author of When Mirrors Are Windows: A View of AK Ramanujan's Poetics," organisers said.

Chief bookseller at the Elliott Bay Book Company Rick Simonson who has been attending JLF since 2010, will return to the festival along with Philip A Lutgendorf, a Professor of Hindi and Modern Indian Studies at the University of Iowa and British historian and journalist John Keay.

The five-day-long festival will be held from January 19 - 23, 2017 at the Diggi Palace hotel in Jaipur.

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CHEYENNE, Wyo.  Wyoming authorities have called off the search for the remains of a missing 13-month-old Cheyenne boy at a northern Colorado landfill.

Laramie County sheriff's Capt. Linda Gesell says the search for Silas Ojeda ended Thursday after authorities weren't able to find the boy's body at the landfill near Ault, Colorado.

Twenty-three-year-old Logan Hunter Rogers of Cheyenne, the boyfriend of the boy's mother, is charged with involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment with a controlled substance in Silas' death.

Laramie County District Attorney Jeremiah Sandburg says sheriff's deputies briefly arrested Silas' mother last week but says she was released after his office determined not to file charges against her.
The case of missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed is likely to be raised in Parliament by the Opposition, with senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad saying that the matter was not just about a student, or a minority person, but about very humanity.

The Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha said the issue was raised during one of the meetings held today ahead of the Winter Session of Parliament starting tomorrow.

"Three important meetings were held today, one was about our own party with Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha leaders present, the other was of Congress and other like-minded parties and the third was the all-party meeting with government and the opposition.

"During the meeting, various issues were raised, from demonetisation to SIMI (activists encounter) case, OROP. And, the case of Najeeb also came up. The leaders want that Najeeb's case be discussed in Parliament," Azad said.

He was a addressing a gathering here at a seminar organised here by National Tricolour Association of India, a non-profit organisation.

Azad, however, did not specify, the issue of the missing JNU student was raised in which of the three meetings.

Najeeb went missing on October 15 following an on-campus scuffle allegedly with the members of ABVP the night before.

The senior Congress leader also met Najeeb's sister Sadaf and JNU student leader Shehla Rashid at the event.

"I must tell that this is not just about Najeeb or a Muslim person, but about very humanity. A university student disappears, and there is no action, then it is matter of concern. And, even if it was Hindu boy, we would have been equally concerned, and fought it with the same zeal," Azad said.

Earlier during the programme, former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, face of the party in Uttar Pradesh polls, sought to reach out to the Muslim community and said her party will always stand behind them.

"Our Muslim brothers should not fear anything and live in this country like any other member of any other community," she said.

Dikshit, before leaving met Sadaf and Shehla on the stage.

Shehla, who also addressed the gathering, took the occasion to hit out at the right-wing student outfit in the campus.

"He went missing on October 15, but why no sniffer dogs were used later, or CCTV cameras footage checked. Some even said, he had joined ISIS and was mentally unsound. These are all nonsense theories being rounded up," she claimed.

"This fight anyway is not just about Najeeb, but a fight to preserve the fabric of India. It is fight about what we we forget and what we will remember. But, we will fight for justice for Najeeb," she said.

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Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee (JPCC) President Sukhdeo Bhagat, MLA, today described Raghubar Das-led state government as "arrogant" and greedy for land.

Addressing the large crowd at Ulgulaan Sankalp Public meeting at Jalla College Ground in Patamda, around 20 km from here, Bhagat said the state government has shown haste to bring about an amendment in the decade-old Chhotanagpur and Santal Paragan Tenancy Act (CNT and SPT), which was framed to protect tribal land.

It simply indicated that the government was functioning on remote control from Delhi and on the directives of the corporate houses, he said.

The meeting was organized by the East Singhbhum district Congress Committee coinciding the birth anniversary of tribal freedom fighter Birsa Munda and Jharkhand Statehood day.

Bhagat said the government has become arrogant and hungry to acquire tribal land and felt the 16-year mineral-rich Jharkhand should have been a developed state but unfortunately lagging behind across sectors.

On fight against the proposed amendment in the CNT and SPT, Bhagat said Congress will not allow the government to acquire an inch tribal land and decided to intensify its agitation.

"Our Vice-President Rahul Ganghi ji has assured to take up the issue in the interest of the tribal community," he said.

Bhagat said Congress will gherao the state assembly on the issue on November 17.

He further blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi of stoking trouble for the common man by implementing a policy without preparation, referring to demonetization of Rs.500 and Rs.1000 currency notes amd said it impacted the poor and farmer community badly.

"Poor people are facing problem in withdrawing their money from banks and ATMs," he said observing that the Prime Minister can only speak but become deaf when his turn come to listen."



Former Union Minister Subodh Kant Sahay said general masses have made up their mind to teach a lesson to the present dispensation in the next election.

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Filmmaker Kabir Khan says reports of superstar Shah Rukh Khan making a cameo in "Tubelight" are merely rumours.

There were reports that the "Fan" actor was approached for a special appearance in the film which stars Salman in the lead.

When asked about this, Kabir told reporters, "When I'll get to know I'll let you know... But for now, all these are just rumours."



"Tubelight" marks the third collaboration of the actor-director duo, who have previously worked on blockbuster "Bajrangi Bhaijaan" and "Ek Tha Tiger".

"Tubelight" also stars Chinese actress Zhu Zhu. The movie will hit the theaters on Eid next year.

Kabir was speaking at the launch of Vivo V5 smartphone.

The director, who has helmed movies that have a strong political background, also spoke about the recent demonitisation move of the government.

When asked if the move is affecting film business, especially the recently released "Rock On 2", he said, "I think it is affecting daily life, going to a film is part of daily life. The fact that there are less notes available in the market, people are not able to get their hands on 100, 500 rupee notes so it is definitely a problem.

"Jiskay paas thoda bohot hai woh film ticket pe nahi kharchana chah rahe hai. They want to cover essential things first (those who have some money, don't want to spend on movie tickets).

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Works by over 350 students of 55 art schools from across the country will be featured at the Students' Biennale (SB), an event running parallel to the third edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, that is scheduled to begin from December 12 this year.

A core art educational initiative by Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF) to promote contemporary art practice in India, SB in its second edition will serve as a platform for aspiring artists to showcase their works to an audience of roughly half a million people.

It will be inaugurated on December 13 by C Raveendranath, Minister for Education, Government of Kerala, and will be hosted across seven venues in historic Fort Kochi.

As part of the initiative, 15 emerging curators reached out to art schools throughout the country, "to encourage art students to reflect on their practices and showcase their works on a international stage".

"The SB channels the energies of a global art event into the art education system, challenging students to go beyond the constraints of both curriculum and exhibition," organisers said.

The curators for SB this year, who were selected by mentors like Bose Krishnamachari, Riyas Komu, Meena Vari and Vidya Shivadas, will include Adwait Singh, Aryan, Ajit Kumar, Faiza Hasan, CP Krishnapriya, Harshita Bathwal, Naveen Mahantesh, Noman Amouri, Paribartana Mohanty, Rajyashree Goody, Sarojini Lewis, Shatavisha Mustafi, Shruti Ramlingiah, Sumitra Sunder and Vivek Chockalingam.

"Over the course of the year, they reached out to 45 government and 10 private art schools - about three-four schools per curator - across India, conducting institution visits, organising workshops and interventions, and interacting with BFA and MFA students.

"The immediate intent is to expose its participants to processes that go into making and presenting a world class art event and the nuances of curatorship. It also gives them an opportunity to acquire skills to pursue a career in the contemporary art world and encourage discourse on the state of art education in India," organisers said.

The show will offer insights into each artist's individual journeys and interests, besides exhibiting several collateral projects by the initiative.

Local exhibitions of the initial outcomes from curatorial interventions and a schedule of programmes will also be presented during the exhibition.

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US Secretary of State John Kerry said today that rebels are ready to observe a ceasefire in Yemen starting this week but the government swiftly dismissed the plan.

The Iran-backed Huthi rebels had agreed to a "cessation of hostilities beginning on November 17, provided the other party implements the same commitment," said Kerry.

He was speaking in Abu Dhabi a day after meeting Huthi negotiators in Oman for talks aimed at finding a durable political settlement for the war in Yemen which has killed thousands.

Kerry said the United Arab Emirates and regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia "have both agreed to try to move forwards with this. They believe it makes sense".

Saudi Arabia leads an Arab coalition that has been battling the rebels in Yemen in a bid to restore the legitimacy of the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.

But Hadi's government said it was not aware of any new peace initiative.

"The government of Yemen is not aware of the statements made by Mr. Kerry and does not consider itself committed to them," said Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdel Malek al-Mekhlafi.

Remarks attributed to Kerry "are a bid to derail peace efforts and a bid to reach an agreements with the Huthis without the government," he said.

The Saudi-led coalition began intervening in Yemen in March 2015, after the Shiite rebels seized Sanaa and swathes of the country forcing the government to seek exile in Riyadh.

More than 7,000 people have been killed and nearly 37,000 wounded in Yemen since then, and the UN says millions are in need of food aid.

Another 21 million people urgently need health services, according to the United Nations.

Six attempts to clinch a ceasefire in Yemen have foundered, including a three-day October truce that fell apart as soon as it went into force to allow aid deliveries to millions homeless and hungry.

Kerry said he met in Oman with a Huthi delegation that travelled there specially to see him and that talks "went into the wee hours of the morning (Tuesday)."



"The Huthi have agreed. The UN envoy is very supportive of wanting to do this. We are on board, the coalition, so to speak. The Saudis and Emiratis," he said.

Kerry also spoke about efforts to set up a new government of national unity in a "safe and secure Sanaa... Towards the end of the year."



"The key is now to get everybody on board," he said, adding that it was now essential to implement a UN peace roadmap drawn up by special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.

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Chemicals and Fertilisers Ministry will enter into an agreement with the Agriculture ministry to market products developed by agri-scientists of government's research institutes ICAR and IARI, Union Minister Ananth Kumar said today.

The ministry is setting up more than 2,000 centres, Kisan Suvidha Kendra, across the country where seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and soil testing facilities would be made available for farmers, he said.

"We are ready to sign an memorandum of understanding (MoU) for commercialisation and marketing of products developed by scientists," Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ananth Kumar said while addressing a national symposium on Agrochemicals Research and Education in India'.

"We will keep your products in Kisan Suvidha Kendra," he told scientists.

Kumar said his ministry is also ready to sponsor research programmes related to agro-chemicals.

The minister stressed on the need to promote bio-pesticides and said that its usage should be increased from 3 per cent to 30 per cent.

He said the neem-coated urea falls in the category of bio-pesticides.

Highlighting the benefits of neem-coated urea, Kumar said this has helped in curbing diversion of urea up to 20 per cent which is worth Rs 12,000 crore.

"100 per cent neem coating of urea has led to reduction in consumption and higher yield," the minister said and stressed on balanced use of fertilisers.

Besides neem-coating, Kumar said the government has cut prices of phosphatic and potassic fertilisers that has helped in balanced fertilisation.

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Sri Lanka today reiterated its policy of zero tolerance on torture at the UN Committee Against Torture (UNCAT), government sources said.

This was after the island's human rights commission and civil society organisations reported on going cases of torture under custody.

The UNCAT session in Geneva began its reviewing of Sri Lanka.

Attorney General Jayantha Jayasuriya said that the government in June this year had joined the National Human Rights Commission to march against torture, sending a message at the highest level of government regarding its commitment to zero tolerance on torture.

The government, keeping in line with its constructive engagement with the Human Rights Treaty mechanisms has taken several progressive policy measures over the last two years, recognising the importance of a transparent and independent mechanism for investigation into alleged incidents of torture in custody, the Sri Lanka statement at the sessions said.

He said that in May 2016 the cabinet approved an Inter-Ministerial Committee tasked with drafting the National Human Rights Action Plan for 2017-2021, assisted by a Steering Committee of officials and experts and drafting committees working on each of the thematic areas.

Prevention of Torture is one of the thematic areas focused in developing the National Human Rights Action Plan for 2017- 2021.

The Sri Lanka statement came after a call by the International Truth and Justice Project on the UN to investigate continued abductions, torture and sexual violence blamed on the security forces.

The local civil society in their reports had submitted to lack of legal safeguards, legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture.

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Ruling CPI(M)-led LDF and Opposition Congress-led UDF today hit out at the Modi government for its decision to use indelible ink to mark customers exchanging defunct currency notes, saying it will only create "panic" and cause "more confusion".

"The Centre is bringing more stringent regulations. What is neededtoday is to simplify the regulations," Finance Minister Thomas Issac said in a Facebook post.

"New notes should be made available through banks and ATMs and the latest decision will create panic," he said.

Issac alleged that the Centre's latest decision will put the poor people and daily wage earners standing in the queue under the shadow of hoarders and black marketers.

Opposition leader in the assembly Ramesh Chennithala said the BJP government's decision to mark those queueing up before banks to exchange their old notes with indelible ink will only help in creating "more confusion".

"It's not ink, but more notes that are needed. People are running from pillar to post not having enough money even to meet their daily needs," Chennithala said in a statement here.

People have to wait in the queue for hours to exchange their notes, he said, adding that to paint all of them as black marketers was not right.

Meanwhile, activists of CPI and DYFI took out separate marches to the Reserve Bank of India office here protesting against demonetisation of high-value currencies, which they said was causing hardship to people.

(REOPEN MDS11)



The Vyapari Vyavasaya Ekopana Samithi today decided not to go on an indefinite agitation from tomorrow, taking into consideration the present situation due to currency crunch and the Sabarimala pilgrimage season beginning from tomorrow.

Though the samithi sources said the agitation had been dropped following assurances from the state government and state BJP leaders, BJP State President Kummanam Rajasekharan denied that any assurance had been given.

The shortage of Rs 50 and Rs 100 notes has hit hard the lottery agents in the state.

With lottery sales taking a nosedive since demonetisation of Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes, government today decided to postpone draw of at least 10 lotteries and quashed draw of eight other lotteries.
The Van Gogh Museum today said that a notebook of drawings billed as the Dutch artist's lost work were imitations, shooting down claims by a French publisher to have made a major art discovery.

The Amsterdam-based museum said its experts had long been aware of the notebook, and on the basis of being sent 56 photos of 65 of its drawings "they were of the opinion that these could not be attributed to Vincent Van Gogh".

The announcement came as French publishers Le Seuil told a Paris press conference that it was publishing 65 previously unknown Van Gogh's drawings in a book on Thursday entitled "Vincent Van Gogh, the fog of Arles: the rediscovered sketchbook".

But the Van Gogh museum said its experts had also examined the original drawings in 2013 and "did not change their minds".

"Their opinion, based on years of research on Van Gogh's drawings ... Is that these album drawings are imitations of Van Gogh's drawings," the museum said in a statement.

"The experts examined its style, technique and iconography, and among their conclusions were that it contains distinctive topographical errors and that its maker based it on discoloured drawings by Van Gogh," the museum added.

Another clue debunking the authenticity of the notebook was that the drawings "are executed in brownish ink, and this type of ink has never been found in Van Gogh's drawings from the years 1888-1890."



The museum, one of Amsterdam's major tourist attractions, holds some 500 Van Gogh drawings and four of his sketchbooks.

Le Seuil had described the sketches as "a very impressive ensemble" and insisted that "their authenticity is well established".

It claimed the accounts book was found in the archives of the Cafe de la Gare in Arles where Van Gogh painted furiously over the period of his year-long stay there.

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A man was allegedly shot dead today



in the Jhajjar Kotli area of Jammu, police said.

Kashmiri Lal shot Sita Ram with his 12 bore Gun in the Selli village, a police officer said.

He said that the victim was shifted to the hospital where the doctors declared him as brought dead.

The accused has been arrested, police said, adding that the reason behind the shooting is under investigation.

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LARAMIE  Considering it's a lake that doesn't hold water, Barber Lake is a popular destination.

Sitting just a few miles west of Centennial and half a mile from Wyoming Highway 130 on Barber Lake Road, the low-elevation stop offers a picnic site adjacent to a lake stocked each year by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, reported the Laramie Boomerang.

"It's a very, very popular fishery," said Lee McDonald, a fisheries biologist with the department.

The lake offers wheelchair-accessible fishing, and it's free of snow and ice much earlier in the summer than its high-alpine cousins up the mountain. McDonald said Game and Fish tries to have the lake filled with water and stocked with catchable-sized rainbow trout by Memorial Day.

"Game wardens have mentioned it's more heavily used than any other single lake in the range," he said. "It gets a lot of use."

But, like summer tourists and warm weather, Barber Lake at its finest is a temporary condition.

Barber Lake is man-made, and it leaks. Despite efforts by the U.S. Forest Service in the past to remedy the problem by adding clay to the lake bed and lining the outlet with plastic, it doesn't hold water, Forst Service spokesman Aaron Voos said.

Lowell Hart, who works as a caretaker at nearby Snowy Range Lodge, said the sight of a stocked lake losing water isn't pretty.

"It creates quite a stink," he said.

Hart doesn't think stocking it each year is a good use of resources, considering the transplanted fish lose their home a few months after they move in.

"Is it a good idea to fill a lake that you know is going to drain out, and when you cut the water, you know that all the fish that are put in there are going to get beached?" he said. "It's heartbreaking."

The U.S. Forest Service holds a water right, dating back to 1919, that's used to fill the lake by diverting water from nearby Libby Creek through a short canal.

McDonald said the lake only stays filled as long as water is flowing into it, and the Forest Service must yield to senior water rights.

"Some years we can't fill or it or we can't maintain it for very long," he said.

In the summer, the water was shut off in mid-August, McDonald said, and the lake drained after about three weeks.

Hart said he and several other neighbors tried to move a few fish into Libby Creek before the lake dried out, even though he's not sure they'll survive the winter there.

"While I was up there ankle-deep in mud, it made me a little hot," he said.

McDonald said the popularity of the lake, its proximity to several campgrounds and the fact that it provides wheelchair access make it worth stocking, even knowing the trout won't survive.

"We definitely feel good about being able to provide a fishery there," he said.

Lake Marie, near the summit of the Snowy Range Scenic Byway, has a paved sidewalk along the south shore, but wheelchair-accessible options in the Snowies are few. In Curt Gowdy State Park, Granite and Crystal reservoirs have accessible amenities.

"We're always looking for more places, and when those opportunities present themselves, we go with them," McDonald said. "It's a pretty high value to us, when we do have those areas."

Tia Reed teaches in the Personalized Learning Services program at Laramie High School. The program is for students with severe cognitive or physical disabilities. About 10 students went on a field trip to Barber Lake in the summer.

Reed said the lake's proximity to the highway meant students could ride a school bus all the way in. Those with mobility limitations could fish off a concrete pad that abuts the shore and use the accessible restroom.

"It's easy for kids that aren't very mobile to stand there and fish over a ledge," she said.

Students were able to see the fish swimming in the lake, and while only one student caught a fish, many felt nibbles at the ends of their lines.

"Fishing is something recreational that they can do, that they can learn and use the rest of their life," Reed said.

Game and Fish loaned fishing poles to the group and provided a classroom-wide license. Reed said Barber Lake was ideal for the field trip because the high school students are too old to fish at Huck Finn Pond at LaPrele Park, but not experienced enough to catch a fish at other area lakes. Huck Finn Pond is stocked and also has a wheelchair-accessible dock, but fishing is limited to children.

Game and Fish uses catchable-sized fish  meaning they measure 8 or 9 inches long  in waters that can't sustain a fish population long-term, McDonald said. Such waters might have too many anglers, or they don't have the right habitat.

"That's a classification we use for fish we can put into a fishery and make it an instant fishery, but without a huge expectation that it's going to maintain itself over time," he said.

He said it's unfortunate that Barber Lake drains for the winter with live fish still in it, and Game and Fish personnel try to remove as many fish as they can. This year, they captured about 200 fish and moved them to nearby Hanging Lake. They estimated there were 40 or 50 left when they gave up because the water was too muddy, he said.

By trial and error, Game and Fish stocks the lake with enough fish for anglers, but not too many, he said. This year the department added 2,000 rainbows.

"It's a tradeoff between being able to provide a good fishery that makes it justifiable to manage it that way, I think," he said.
Media should avoid sensationalism and should be presented without mixing views, but it is often the other way round, Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said today.

Speaking at an event where he presented the Akashvani Annual Awards, Naidu emphasised that "information with confirmation" is the greatest weapon be it against corruption or other social evils.

"People come to me and talk about their plans to start a channel. I always say, be nearer to truth, keep away from sensationalising. But often it is the opposite that happens. However, All India Radio (AIR) is one exception," Naidu said.

He said that another practice which prevails is of mixing and views, which is not the proper thing.

"But that has become the order of the day for many people. You want to thrust your views on the viewers. You say this is my view, if there are takers, they will take it. But news has to be news," Naidu said.

He said that information with conformation is the greatest weapon against corruption and other evils but often sensationalism becomes the norm.

Speaking at the event where Minister of State for I&B Rajyavardhan Rathore and Prasar Bharati Chairman A Surya Prakash were also present, Naidu hailed the role played by AIR saying it worked without a break even against odds, be it natural calamities or law and order problems.

Naidu also emphasised that cultural and spiritual heritage of the country is a great asset and the entire world looks towards India for it. This heritage, he said, should be maintained and showcased.

He said Akashvani Annual Awards are a distinct recognition. He, however, wondered why awards for the year 2012 were being given in 2016. The awards for 2016 should be given by the end of the year, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Aam Aadmi Party MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj today demanded that a lie detector test be conducted on the Vice Chancellor and those accused of assaulting JNU student Najeeb Ahmed who has been missing from the campus for a month.

"The government is claiming that we will become a superpower but when students are going missing from campuses how can we progress? Why Najeeb hasn't been traced yet? Only because the students accused of assaulting him are from ABVP? I demand that a lie detector test be conducted on them," Bhardwaj said while addressing a protest gathering at JNU.

"Vice Chancellor should also undergo brain mapping and lie detector test about why an action was not taken against the said students," he added.

Najeeb (27), a student of School of Biotechnology and a native of Badaun in Uttar Pradesh, went missing on October 15 following an on-campus scuffle allegedly with the members of ABVP the night before.

JNU students and teachers have been leading a movement alleging inaction on administration and Delhi Police's part in tracing the missing student.

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In a major escalation of boardroom brawl at Tata Group, Cyrus Mistry was today ousted as chairman of Tata Global Beverages by a majority vote by board members, a move that Mistry slammed as illegal and inaccurate representation of board proceedings.

Seven out of 10 directors at the board meeting of Tata Global Beverages Ltd (TGBL), which co-owns and runs Starbucks coffee stores across India, voted for removal of Mistry as chairman of the company, the company said in a filing.

Mistry, however, will continue as a director of TGBL.

TGBL is the second listed company of the USD 103 billion Tata Group that has removed Mistry as chairman since the October 24 decision of the holding company, Tata Sons, to remove him as the head.

Last week, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) removed Mistry as chairman but that ouster was not through a vote but by virtue of Tata Sons holding a commanding 73.26 per cent stake in the India's largest software services firm.

"The developments at the board meeting of the Tata Global Beverages Ltd is nothing but a repeat of the illegality that the Board of Directors of Tata Sons Ltd did on October 24," Mistry said in a statement issued by his office.

It claimed there was nothing on the agenda of the Board, a meeting of which was called to approve second quarter earnings, "about replacement of the Chairman just as there was nothing in the Tata Sons Board Agenda on October 24," it said.

Two out of the six independent directors on TGBL -- Darius Pandole and Analjit Singh -- voted against the resolution moved for Mistry's ouster. Ireena Vittal is believed to have abstained.

Tata Global Beverages Ltd (TGBL) said Harish Bhat, a non-executive director of the company, has been appointed chairman of the company.

Bhat is believed to be a confidant of Ratan Tata, who was brought back from retirement as interim chairman of Tata Sons after Mistry was shown the door.

In the statement, Mistry said Tatas continue to demonstrate the lack of respect for due process of law.

"Harish Bhat, an employee of Tata Sons proposed that Mr S K Santhanakrishnan be made Chairman at the meeting. This proposal was ruled out since there was already a Chairman for the meeting, namely, Cyrus Mistry.

"When the proposal to remove Mr Mistry was sought to be moved, it was ruled out by the Chairman since it was not on the agenda. The meeting was conducted by Mr Mistry as Chairman and was concluded," the statement by Mistry's office said.

The TGBL statement to the stock exchanges "is therefore inaccurate and illegal and it is but a repeat of exactly the same illegal acts done by Tata Sons Ltd on October 24," it said.

It added that two independent directors Darius Pandole and Analjit Singh "opposed the bid at committing these illegal acts."



Since taking over, the 78-year-old Tata has begun tightening his grip over the conglomerate.

Even after his removal as chairman of Tata Sons, Mistry continues to head several listed companies ranging from Tata Motors to Tata Steel and Tata Power.

Tata Sons has asked Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Chemicals and Indian Hotels Co Ltd (IHCL) to call extraordinary general meeting of shareholders to remove Mistry from the board.

"The board of directors of the company considered the



continuance of Cyrus P Mistry as chairman of the company at its board meeting held on November 15, 2016," TGBL said in the regulatory filing.

"After extensive deliberations, and keeping in view the long-term interest and alignment of all stakeholders and stability of the company, the board of directors resolved to replace Cyrus P Mistry as chairman of the Company, by a majority vote, with 7 out of the 10 Directors present at the board meeting, voting in favour of the resolution."



The TGBL board has 10 members, excluding ousted chairman Mistry. Mistry's vote was not considered in deciding on the resolution moved by Tata Sons, which holds 35.27 per cent stake in TGBL.

Mistry would however continue on the board of TGBL as board of directors can remove a chairman. For removing a director, a vote by shareholders is necessary.

Sources said Tata Sons may seek an extraordinary general meeting of the shareholders to seek Mistry's removal as director.

TGBL's six independent directors are Darius Pandole, V Leeladhar, Mallika Srinivasan, Analjit Singh, Ranjana Kumar and Ireena Vittal.

The other directors are Harish Bhat, who has been today appointed chairman of the company, Managing Director and CEO Ajoy K Misra, Non-executive Director S Santhanakrishnan and Executive Director L Krishnakumar.

Among independent directors, Pandole is a partner at private equity (PE) fund New Silk Route (NSR) while Leeladhar is former CMD of Vijaya Bank and Union Bank of India.

Mallika Srinivasan is the Chairman and CEO of Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited. Analjit Singh is Chairman of Max India and Ranjana Kumar is former vigilance commissioner of the Central Vigilance Commission.

Ireena Vittal is former partner with McKinsey & Co.

On November 5, seven independent directors of Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) had strongly backed Mistry. Tata Chemicals independent directors had also come out in support of Mistry.

Last week, taking Mistry head on, Tata Sons sought his removal as well as that of the group's friend-turned-foe Nusli N Wadia from the board of three prime listed Tata group companies -- Tata Motors, Tata Chemicals and Tata Steel.

Tata Sons, which holds 26.51 per cent stake in Tata Motors, has asked the manufacturer of Jaguar Land Rover to convene an extra-ordinary general meeting of the company to consider its resolution seeking removal of Mistry and Wadia.

The latest moves are seen as attempts by Ratan Tata, who was brought in as interim head after sudden removal of Mistry, to seize back control of India's largest conglomerate.

(REOPEN DEL87)



In TGBL, the promoters Tata group has 35.72 per cent shares as on September 30, 2016 in which Tata Sons, the holding company of the group has 23.50 per cent stake.

Another Tata group firm Tata Chemicals owns 7.10 per cent stake, followed by Tata Investment Corporation with 4.43 per cent stake.

Two another group entities Tata Industries and its investment arm Ewart Investments owns marginal stake of 0.12 per cent and 0.56 per cent.

TGBL operates in tea, coffee and water segments. It has a portfolio of several global brands which includes Tata Tea, Tetley, Jemca, Vitax, Eight O'Clock Coffee, Himalayan, Grand Coffee and Joekels.

The company has presence in several markets which includes the US, the UK, Eastern Europe and its over 65 per cent of revenue originates from markets outside India.

Besides, it also operates a joint venture with Starbucks called Tata Starbucks Ltd, which owns and operate Starbucks cafes in India.

(REOPEN DCM96)



Meanwhile, speaking to a private channel TGBL



Non-Executive Director S Santhanakrishnan said the board removed Mistry as Chairman for "stability and long terms growth" of the company and there was no illegality.

"It was not related with Mr Mistry's performance but we went with the larger issues and long term issues of the company as we did not want confrontation with the major shareholder. Hostility to any one is not good for the company... ," he said.

Santhanakrishnan further said: "Parent and I (TGBL) should have a good relationship. Tata are our parent, probably ever since the company has started, TGBL has Tata's name with it. It has nothing to do with the performance".
Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren today described Narendra Modi government's decision to demonetise currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 denominations as good step but felt the way it was implemented was wrong.

Soren, who was accompanied by his father and JMM Supremo Sibu Soren, arrived in the steel city here to take part in 'Jan Akrosh Rally' of Kolhan region, organised by party's East Singhbhum district committee on the birth anniversary of tribal freedom fighter Birsa Munda and Jharkhand statehood Day, described the move as "political stunt".

The move to demonetise currency note is fine but the poor people were suffering for the wrong-doing of some people, he told newsmen here.

Soren said majority of the banks in the country were in bad shape and the government was trying to revive them by injecting Rs 25,000 crore.

Now, the government was sucking the blood of poor farmers, labourer and women by forcing them to stand in queue to withdraw money, he said.

Referring to the government's proposal to amend decades-old Chhotanagpur and Santal Paragana Tenancy Act (CNT and SPT), Soren alleged that the chief minister was misguiding the masses on the issue.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NATO head Jens Stoltenberg today said he was sure Donald Trump would live up to all US commitments to the alliance, just days after urging the president-elect not to go it alone.

"President-elect Donald Trump stated during the election campaign that he is a big fan of NATO," Stoltenberg said in Brussels as he arrived for talks with EU defence ministers.

"And I am certain that he will be a president... Who will live up to all the commitments of the United States in the alliance, because a strong NATO is important for Europe but it's also important for the United States."



Trump's upset election badly rattled nerves in Europe after he appeared to call into question Washington's near 70-year security guarantee by saying he would only help NATO allies if they paid their way.

He also appeared to be much more friendly towards Russia, praising President Vladimir Putin as a strong leader in marked contrast to a weak Barack Obama in Washington.

Asked about a telephone call between Trump and Putin on yesterday in which the Kremlin said they agreed to improve relations, Stoltenberg denied this was cause for concern.

"First of of all, I think it is a very normal thing that president-elect Donald Trump speaks to world leaders, including of course the leader of Russia," he said.

"The message from NATO has been that we want dialogue with Russia ... Especially when tensions are high, especially when we face many different challenges, it is important."



Stoltenberg's upbeat tone came despite his stark warning in Britain's Observer newspaper on Sunday, in which he wrote that "going it alone is not an option... This is no time to question the partnership between Europe and the United States."



But the NATO chief noted today that the two sides were on the same page, saying Trump's call for the allies to increase defence spending was exactly what they were already doing.

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NIA today filed a supplementary charge sheet in a special court against Indian Mujahideen's alleged key operative Abdul Wahid Siddibapa, who was arrested from IGI Airport here on his arrival from Dubai in a case of alleged conspiracy to carry out terror acts in the country.

The charge sheet was filed before Special Judge Rakesh Pandit who posted it for consideration tomorrow.

32-year-old Siddibapa, a resident of Bhatkal in Karnataka and a cousin of Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal, was held at the IGI Airport here on May 20 after he landed from Dubai.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had earlier filed two charge sheets in the case against several other accused including Yasin Bhatkal.

According to NIA's FIR lodged in September 2012, members of IM, in association with other IM sleeper cells based in the country and outside, were conspiring to commit terror acts by making preparations for targeting various important places in India especially in Delhi by causing bomb blasts with the active aid and support from their Pakistan-based operatives and associates, thus waging war against India.

NIA had alleged that Siddibapa played an active role as the main conduit in the chain of fund supply from Pakistan via Dubai to other IM operatives in India to commit terror acts.

The court had on November 6, 2013, issued a non-bailable warrant against Siddibapa, which was extended time to time, following which a Red Corner Notice was issued against him on December 3, 2013.

NIA had earlier filed charge sheet against Bhatkal and his associate Asadullah Akhtar under various sections of the IPC, including 120B (criminal conspiracy), 121 (waging war against the country), 121A (conspiracy to wage war) and under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

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The Nitish Kumar cabinet today approved a proposal for acquiring 126.4075 acres at Bihta for construction of civil enclave.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Bihar cabinet chaired by Kumar here.

The cabinet gave its nod to the proposal of Cabinet Coordination department to allocate Rs 2,60,74,02,668 for acquiring the land, Principal Secretary to the Cabinet department Brajesh Mehrotra said.

Out of this, 108 acres would be handed over free of cost to Airport Authority for usage.

The cabinet approved the proposal for acquiring 126.4075 acres at Bihta for construction of civil enclave.

The cabinet gave its nod to 19 proposals of different departments at the meeting, he said.

It gave the go ahead to a Transport department proposal to amend taxes under different headings in the Motor Vehicle Act, 1992.

A proposal of the Law department for nominating Patna High Court judge Navniti Prasad as working chairman of Bihar Legal Services Authority was also approved, Mehrotra added.

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Assam Minister and convener of BJP's North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) Himanta Biswa Sarm has ruled out any possibility of forging an alliance with Trinamool Congress and Indigenous People's Front of Tripura before the state assembly polls.

The senior BJP leader also said his party would form the government in Tripura.

"We are not thinking of any alliance with TMC or IPFT. Rather, we are launching political struggle to unseat CPI-M led Left Front from power. BJP is spreading in the north-east and has gained strength in the region including in Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland and unseated Congress in Assam," said Sarma, who is also Assam's finance minister.

"We will also be able to unseat CPI-M led left Front in the coming assembly elections," he told reporters yesterday.

Tripura, he said, is a badly-governed state where 68 per cent of the population lives below poverty line, eight lakh of its 40 lakh population is unemployed and the government employees get poor salaries as recommendations of the sixth central pay commission were not implemented.

It is BJP which can ensure development of Tripura, he claimed and lashed out at Tripura Chief Minister and CPI-M leader Manik Sarkar for disapproving the demonetisation move.

"This move was to crush black money and only Prime Minister like (Narendra) Modi ji has dared to take this step. But CPI-M and its new ally, the TMC, continue to criticise this," he said.

Sarma also campaigned for the upcoming by-poll at Barjala (SC) constituency here, which has fallen vacant due to resignation of Congress MLA Jiten Sarkar following internal feud in the party.

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Congress today targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi after his 97-year-old mother Hiraba visited a bank at her village in Gujarat to replace now-defunct banknotes with new ones, saying "no good son" would ever want this.

"I am very sad. No good son ever wants that his 97-year-old mother has to (face such a situation) and they boast of a 56-inch chest," party spokesman Kapil Sibal told reporters.

Congress leader Rashid Alvi, speaking separately, accused Modi of not following "putra dharma" (duties of a son).

"If a son cannot look after his own mother, how can one expects him to look after the people of the country?" he asked.

Accompanied by relatives, Hiraba, who was in a wheelchair, came to a branch of Oriental Bank of Commerce at Raisan village on the outskirts of Gandhinagar this morning and got notes worth Rs 4,500 exchanged.

Modi had on November 8 announced scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes to curb black money menace.

After the announcement, people have been queueing up at banks across the country to get their old high denomination notes exchanged for the new notes.

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Porbander BJP MP Vitthal Radadiya today warned of "consequences" if the ban on District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) from accepting or exchanging scrapped notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 is not lifted immediately.

Radadiya, who is also the chairman of Rajkot District Cooperative Bank, condemned the restriction imposed by RBI on Gujarat-based DCCBs on Sunday barring them from accepting and exchanging scrapped notes, claiming that it has increased the hardships of farmers and villager who are dependent on such rural banks.

"This is absolutely an arbitrary decision taken by the RBI overnight. This restriction on DCCBs is like snatching away the rights of villagers and farmers, as most of these banks operates in villages. I condemn this decision," said Radadiya.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has barred DCCBs in Gujarat from accepting or exchanging defunct currency notes from people. The central bank on Sunday emailed a circular to all the 18 Gujarat-based DCCBs, asking them not to accept and exchange the demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

According to Radadiya, this has put thousands of farmers and villagers in deep trouble.

"I have made a representation to the Gujarat CM (Vijay Rupani) as well as Amit Shah (BJP chief) in this regard. If no decision is taken immediately, people will have no other option to start a mass agitation against this move and government will have to bear the consequences," said Radadiya.

BJP leader Dilip Sanghani, who is the chairman of National Federation of State Cooperative Banks (NAF-SCOB), today was in Delhi to meet Union Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar on this issue.

"Till yesterday, only Gujarat based DCCBs were barred from accepting old notes. But now, such banks all over India are covered. I have met Gangwarji today on this issue and made him aware about the difficulties people are facing. I am hopeful that government takes a positive decision in this regard," Sanghani told PTI from Delhi.

Meanwhile, quota agitation leader Hardik Patel also issued a statement condemning the RBI move.

In his statement, Hardik claimed that a mass agitation would start if the decision is not taken back within three days. He warned the BJP to get ready or face the consequences.

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US President flew into Athens on his final foreign trip to Europe on Tuesday, seeking to calm the nerves of allies concerned by Donald Trump's surprise presidential election victory.

With Europeans worried by Trump's downplaying of the importance of the NATO alliance, Obama pointedly told Greek daily Kathimerini before his visit that Washington had to resist the "urge" of isolationism.

"Our best chance for progress is to resist the urge to turn inward and instead reinvigorate our shared values and work together," Obama said.

Speaking to reporters on the eve of the trip, Obama cautioned his brash successor Trump that he faces a reality check if he tries to enact some of his more controversial campaign promises.

"This office has a way of waking you up," said the outgoing president.

The fourth president to travel to Greece, Obama will visit the Acropolis before delivering a much-awaited speech on the challenges of globalisation.

He will then hold talks later Tuesday with Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

Security was tight in central Athens, with thousands of police officers on the streets and traffic to be affected for several hours.

Today, Obama travels to Germany, where he will speak to the French and British leaders, in addition to close ally Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Obama concludes his trip with a stop in Peru for a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) where he is expected to meet President Xi Jinping of China.

Athenians today had mixed feelings about the president's visit, which has precipitated a major security clampdown.

"We live in the hope that it will bring something positive for Greece and the region," said Spyros, a 30-year-old civil servant.

Ekaterini Tsarmoutzi, a private employee, said Obama "was nice as a person, but above all he is an American."

Many Greeks are suspicious of the US after they helped install a repressive dictatorship in the country in the late sixties.

Greek trade unions, leftist and anarchist parties have called for protests in Athens today to denounce "imperialist" US involvement in wars in the Middle East.

In turn, police have banned protests in areas of the capital where Obama will hold his meetings.

The boosted police measures also come after assailants threw a grenade at the French embassy in Athens last week, slightly wounding an officer on duty.
Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha today directed the election authorities here to intensify surveillance by installing CCTVs at vantage points in Nellithope Assembly constituency, where a bypoll will be held on November 19.

Sinha,accompanied by Dilip Sharma,Director General (Election Expenditure) of the Election Commission of India, was on a visit here and held a one-on-one meeting with representatives of all political parties and also registered leaders' views.

He sought the cooperation of all the partiesfora free and fair poll.

A release from Chief Electoral Officer of Puducherry V Candavelou said the DEC, while appreciating the efforts of election authorities here, said surveillance should be intensified by installing CCTVs at vantage points to monitor and discourage any form of mischiefand inducement to voters.

Such CCTVs should also be installed outside all polling stations on polling day, he said.

Sinha also directed election authorities to deploy additional sector officers to strengthen the polling machinery in addition to intensification of night and early morning patrolling and also for random and surprise checks.

He directed the police to erect barricades and seal the entire constituency for strict surveillance to ward off trouble makers and outsiders and also to intensify vehicle checks.

Sinha held discussions with General Observer and Expenditure Observers appointed by EC, the release said.

He also reviewed the poll preparedness with the Chief Electoral Officer, District Election Officer, Returning officer for Nellithope constituency, police officials of Puducherry and Kottakuppam range in neighbouringTamil Nadu, the release said.

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Muslims in India should speak out against any act of violence on Hindus committed by members of the majority population in Islamic countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad today said.

He was a addressing a gathering here at a seminar on -- Role of Muslim Youth in Strengthening Democracy -- organised by National Tricolour Association of India, a non-profit organisation.

"There have been cases of violence against Muslims, from (Mohammad) Akhlaq's lynching in Dadri to two boys in Jharkhand who were hung from a tree.

"And, there has never been a lack of expression of secularism from Hindus in our country. You see on television, how they (Hindus) strip RSS and BJP bare, whenever such incidents happen. But, why we (Muslims) don't raise issues when there are violations against Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh," he asked.

In his address, Azad also hit out at the Centre saying, "democracy has ceased to exist" in the country ever since the NDA government came to power.

He added that if the Muslims in India start speaking out against acts of such violence in the neighbouring countries then, "BJP's anti-Muslim edge will be blunted."



Two other scholars, who also spoke at the seminar held at the India Islamic Centre, underlined the "silence" of the country's Muslim community in hours of violence in "India's neighbourhood".

We hear cases of violence meted out to our Hindu brothers in Bangladesh, or of Hindu temples being razed or desecrated. But, do we (Muslims) speak out on such brazen acts of violations. We must speak out against injustice, just as we expect our majority Hindu brothers to stand by us in India, they said.

Azad also hit out at the government over the demonetisation issue saying, "the move has driven Indians crazy in the name of black money".

He also took a dig at the media and Prime Minister Modi, saying, "now it's all Modi in newspapers and on TV channels, the Opposition cannot be seen."



"The time of free and impartial media is no more. Now, you open, newspapers, and you see 10-20 pictures of Modi," he alleged.

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Altogether 11,275 members of Bru community belonging to 1,980 families have been identified as bona fide residents of Mizoram till date in four Bru relief camps in Tripura, Mizoram Home department officials said today.

These persons could be sent to Mizoram, the officials said.

Of the six relief camps, identification process began on November two and was completed in Kaskau, Khakchangpara, Hamsapara and Asapara, the officials said.

The identification task, undertaken in Asapara, the second largest relief camp, ended last evening, they said.

Mizoram-Tripura border Mamit district deputy commissioner Lalbiaksangi said that a total 5,550 Brus belonging to 871 families were identified at Asapara relief camp during November 11 to 14, of which 3,039 people belonging to 473 would be resettled in Mamit district while 2,511 people belonging to 398 families would be resettled in Kolasib district bordering Assam.

Lalbiaksangi said that identification would be conducted at Naisingpara, the largest relief camp in NorthTripura district, from today and is expected to be completed by Saturday next.

The process of identification would be undertaken in Hazacherra, the last relief camp, on November 21.

The physical repatriation was scheduled to begin from November 30, the officials said.

However, the Ministry of Home Affairs has to make expeditious decisions in some matters in order to begin the physical repatriation as per schedule, the officials said.

If there was absence of clarity on certain matters, the commencement of the physical repatriation might be deferred and might begin early next year, the officials said.

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The University of Oxford will mark this week the 150th birth anniversary of Cornelia Sorabji, the first Indian woman to study at the world famous university.

Sorabji, who was also the first woman to practise law in India and the UK, was born on November 15 in 1866 and came to study at Somerville College in Oxford between 1889 and 1892.

"November 2016 is the 150thanniversary of her birth. Somerville College is marking this anniversary with an event at India House in London, launching a new scholarship in her name, which has been established in collaboration with the Faculty of Law at Oxford," Somerville College said in a statement today.

Plans for the new scholarship in memory of Cornelia Sorabji had been unveiled in Septemberto support Indian students studying law at Somerville College.

"CorneliaSorabji was a woman of tremendous spirit and courage and someone who paved the way for many Indian students, including (former Prime Minister) Indira Gandhi at Somerville. India is a key part of our college and this scholarship will pave the way for more graduates to follow in their footsteps," said Prof Alice Prochaska, principal of the college.

The scholarship will cover up to 50 per cent of the entire cost of the degree, which is usually around 36,000 pounds including tuition fees and lodging.

The college is also campaigning for it to eventually become a fully-funded endowment to support bright Indian students who often win admission to Oxford University but are unable to bear the high costs associated with it.

To be successful, the applicant will be expected to demonstrate not only exceptional academic merit but also a commitment ultimately to return to India to put their skills and experience into practice.

While the scholarship is open to any high achieving Indian student, female students will be especially encouraged to carry on Sorabji's ideals.

"Through the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development we are building on the historical links between Oxford and India to ensure that the next generation of Indian students return home with the academic knowledge, networks and wider leadership training that will help them shape the country's development in the 21stcentury," Prochaska said.

Sorabji was an Indian Parsi Christian who despite standing first in university examinations at the Deccan College was not eligible for the Government of India scholarship to study in England.

But she refused to give up and went on to study at Oxford with the help of funds raised by her British friends.

Her memoir 'India Calling' documents the number of prominent establishment figures she met during her time in Britain. She died in her home at Finsbury Park in London in 1954.

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Prime Minsiter on Tuesday said Pakistan cannot be bullied by Indian "tactics" and its restraint should not be "misunderstood" as weakness, warning that his country was fully capable of defending against "any belligerence".

His remarks came a day after the Pakistan Army admitted that seven of its soldiers were killed in firing by Indian troops across the Line of Control (LoC) in Bhimber sector.

"Pakistan cannot be bullied by such tactics as we are fully capable of defending our soil against any belligerence," Sharif said while chairing a high-level meeting to review the situation along the LoC.

He said Pakistan was exercising "maximum restraint" in the face of Indian firing, which should not be "misunderstood as our weakness," The Express Tribune reported.

Expressing grief over the death of the seven soldiers, Sharif said deliberate escalation of tension along LoC by Indian forces is a threat to regional peace and security.

"It is also a futile attempt of the Indian authorities to divert the world's attention from the worst kind of atrocities they are committing" in Kashmir, he said in a statement.

He called on the United Nations to take notice of the ceasefire violations along the LoC. "Our armed forces do not initiate fire but will always respond in a befitting manner to any aggression," Sharif said.

Yesterday, Army chief General Raheel Sharif ordered troops to "effectively" respond to firing by India across the LoC.

Earlier, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz briefed on the increased firing and shelling by India.

He said the recent incidents of firing have led to 26 deaths and 107 injuries in complete violation of the 2003 ceasefire understanding and international law.

The premier was also briefed on Pak-US relations in the backdrop of recently held presidential elections in the US. Reaffirming to strengthen bilateral relations, Sharif said Pakistan and the US enjoy strong and strategic partnership spanning over a period of seven decades.

"Pakistan looks forward to closely work with the newly elected government for realisation of peace, security and prosperity in the region and beyond," he said.

Pakistan's Security Adviser General Nasir Khan Janjua and other government officials were present during the meeting.
Over 900 families displaced due to military operations against terrorists in the restive tribal region in northwest Pakistan today returned to their homes after nearly two years.

A spokesman for Frontier Corps (FC) said the rehablitation of Temporary Displaced Persons (TDPs) of Lower Orakzai agency was carried out.

The families who belonged to Bizote, Utman khel and Feroz khel tribes returned to their homes



The army had launched Zarb-e-Azb in June 2014 to flush out militant bases in northwestern tribal areas.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A pre-Partition gurudwara in Nankana Sahib, the birthplace of Sikhism's founder Guru Nanak, has been reopened in Pakistan's Punjab province.

"Gurudwara Kiyara Sahib which was closed over 75 years ago has finally been reopened for the yatris," Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) spokesman Amer Hashmi told PTI today.

He said thousands of Sikhs gathered in Nankana Sahib to attend the festivities on the 548th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak visited Kiyara Sahib yesterday when it was reopened by ETPB chairman Siddiqul Farooq.

Farooq also laid a foundation stone of a memorial of Bhai Mardana, a close associate of Guru Nanak, in Nankana Sahib.

He said Gurudwara Kiyara Sahib has been reopened on the wish of Sikh 'yatris'.

He said on November 19, Angetha Sahib at Darbar Sahib Kartarpur will be reopened and the groundbreaking ceremony for the Baba Guru Nanak University in Nankana Sahib is scheduled for January.

Yesterday the main event of Palki was held in Gurudwara Janamasthan Nankana Sahib, 80 kms from Lahore, in which more than 15,000 people mostly Sikh pilgrims from India (2,100), US, Canada, Britain and other European countries participated.

IndianSikhs will also visit other gurudwaras in Punjab province before their departure for homeon November 21.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pakistan, unlike India, will not demonetise Rs 5,000 notes or withdraw Rs 40,000 prize bonds, with Finance Minister rebuffing media reports, saying "these rumours are baseless and no such proposal is under consideration".

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar yesterday said made it clear that the government was not considering of Rs 5,000 currency notes and withdrawal of Rs 40,000 prize bonds.

The minister said that these rumours are baseless and no such proposal is under consideration of the government, Dawn reported.

Haroon Akhtar Khan, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif yesterday had said the proposal to discontinue currency notes and prize bonds of the highest denomination was "under consideration", the daily said.

Khan said the proposal came from the Tax Reforms Commission before the 2016-17 budget but the final decision was postponed and a tax reforms implementation committee was asked to look into it after the budget.

Presently, prize bonds are sold and purchased against cash without recording any identification of the seller and buyer. These are also traded in the open market and remain a major source of fraud and illegal activities.

Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Osman Saifullah Khan last week submitted a resolution in the Senate to demonetise 1,000 and 5,000 rupee notes to tackle corruption, citing the example of India which has withdrew 500 and 1,000 denominations of notes.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today submitted in the Supreme Court the details of his assets which included a letter by a Qatari prince who provided funds for purchase of controversial properties in London, which are now owned by Sharif's children.

Sharif and his daughter Maryam submitted a 397-page document detailing their assets.

The most interesting document given to the court is the letter from Qatari prince Shaikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Hamad bin Abdullah bin Jassim bin Muhammed Al Thani, stating that he gave money to the premier's family for the purchase of flats in London.

Sharif's children's counsel Akram Sheikh submitted the letter addressed to the apex court.

It says that Sharif in 1980 invested 12 million Dirhams in the Al Thani company belonging to the Qatari prince's father.

"In the year 2006, the accounts in relation to the above investment were settled between Hussain Nawaz Sharif and Al Thani family, who then delivered the bearer shares of the companies...To a representative of Hussain Nawaz Sharif (Sharif's son)," the letter read.

The letter immediately got a terse response from one of the five judges hearing the case who observed that the letter contradicts Sharif's statement in parliament this year when he did not disclosed the source of money or that he got it from a Qatari company.

The court is hearing five identical petitions by Imran Khan and others that Sharif's children were listed in Panama papers as having offshore companies that properties in London.

The petitioners asked the court to probe if the properties were purchased with legal money.

The court set November 17 for next hearing and also asked that Sharif's two sons - Hassan and Hussain should also submit the details of their assets.

Earlier, Imran's legal team submitted details to prove that Sharif laundered millions out of the country to build assets abroad which are now owned by his children.

The case could be make or break for Sharif who was elected third time Prime Minister in 2013.

The Qatari prince's letter may prove instrumental to dispel the charges by opposition that the London flats were bought with illegal money transferred by the Sharif family when he was ruling the country.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The developers of the Dakota Access crude oil pipeline are seeking a judgment to complete the pipeline without further action from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Energy Transfer Partners LP and Sunoco Logistics Partners LP filed the claim in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Monday night, according to a statement from the two companies.

The companies are asking a judge to declare they have the legal right-of-way to build, complete and begin operating the $3.78 million 1,172-mile pipeline, which has faced months of opposition from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and others over concerns that a spill, where it crosses the Missouri River north of the tribe's reservation, would contaminate the river and drinking water for those downstream.

"We totally disagree with the premise of this lawsuit," said Jan Hasselman, an attorney with Earthjustice representing the tribe, adding that the law is clear that an easement is needed.

Dakota Access is so desperate to get this project in the ground that it is now suing the federal government on the novel theory that it doesnt need an easement to cross federal lands, Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II said in a statement. They are wrong, and the lawsuit will not succeed. We are looking forward to discussing the easement with the administration and explaining why it must be denied."

Dakota Access has been waiting months for approval of a final easement from the corps to cross the river. The U.S. Department of the Army announced yesterday that it would delay issuing the easement in order to further consult with the tribe.

The companies contend that the corps has already granted all of the relevant authorizations when it approved the permit for the river crossing.

"Dakota Access Pipeline has waited long enough to complete this pipeline. Dakota Access Pipeline has been granted every permit, approval certificate and right-of-way needed for the pipeline's construction. It is time for the courts to end this political interference and remove whatever legal cloud that may exist over the right-of-way beneath federal land at Lake Oahe," Energy Transfer Partners CEO Kelcy Warren said in a statement.

In its statement Monday, the corps said a review of previously granted permits followed legal requirements, which Energy Transfer Partners said "should have brought the unwarranted delay to a close."

"Without even identifying any specific problem with its almost three-year review or the record it was based upon, the Army has now determined that 'additional discussion with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and analysis are warranted," the companies said in a statement.

Because of this, the companies claim the relief they are seeking from the court is "fully warranted," saying "the declaratory judgement would restore normal order to the federal permitting process and end the administrations flagrant disregard for rule of law."

Archambault said Dakota Access previously told the court they needed to be delivering oil on Jan. 1 or their shipper contracts would expire and the project would be in jeopardy.

"So they are rushing to get the pipeline in the ground hastily to meet that deadline. The only urgency here was created by their own reckless choice to build the pipeline before it had all the permits to do so .... They made bad decisions and are now facing the consequences," Archambault said.

Hasselman said, even with this latest court filing, he doesn't expect a judge's final decision until sometime next year.
BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain today said parties should not to do politics over demonetisation which was meant to "wipe out and check black money, corruption and terror funding".

"The prime minister has taken a big and bold step against black money. This (demonetisation) is his surgical strike on black money, corruption, terror funding and hawala transactions. We expected the political parties to welcome the move, but they are playing politics over it," he told reporters here.

"I can understand the anxiety of those who possess black money, but why are the political parties suffering from an uneasiness or having difficulties with the demonetisation move," said the BJP national spokesman who was accompanied by the party's Bihar unit vice-president and MLC, Sanjay Mayukh.

"The aam aadmi (common man) is praising the prime minister's bold initiative but the political parties, especially the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), are opposing the decision...People are facing some difficulties," he said.

Hussain condemned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's tweet on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's nonagenarian mother queueing up at a bank in Gujarat to exchange the demonetised currency notes saying, "Kejriwal is lowering the standard of public life."



Political parties, he said, should cooperate with the prime minister on the issue of black money, adding that those opposing demonetisation today will have to support the government's decision under "public pressure" later as they had to do as regards the army's surgical strikes in PoK.

"At that time, the political parties had initially questioned the surgical strikes but later, stopped due to people's pressure," the BJP leader said.

Replying to a query, Hussain said he expected RJD supremo Lalu Prasad to also praise the demonetisation move.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Patanjali CEO Acharya Balkrishna today visited Nizamabad district of Telangana to explore the possibility of setting up a food processing unit.

Balkrishna, who visited Lakkampally village near Nandipet in the Food Processing SEZ in the district, said, "We have surveyed the surrounding areas of Armoor, Balkonda and Nandipet and we feel the atmosphere in the region is very conducive to start a plant."



Armoor and Balkonda areas have turmeric cultivation over about two lakh acres and contribute a huge chunk to the total production of the yellow spice in India.

Nizamabad MP Kalvakuntla Kavitha had earlier requested Yoga guru Baba Ramdev to set up food processing units of Patanjali in her constituency.

Kavitha said in a release today that the state's industrial policy facilitates approvals for industry in only 15 days, and food processing plant in the region will generate employment for a large number of people.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Municipal corporations today told Delhi High Court that they have been paying salaries on time to all 'safai karamchaaris' on their payroll, complying with the court's directions in this regard.

The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) told a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Seghal that they have complied with the court's July 11 direction asking the corporations to pay monthly salary of 'safai karamchaaris' on or before 10th of every month from August onwards.

Similarly, in its compliance report filed before the court East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) said that salaries of all the 'safai karamchaaris' till September 30 have been paid.

EDMC has said that the July salary was released on August 5, while salaries for the months of August and September were released on September 1 and October 4 respectively.

The bench has now posted the matter for January 23 next year, saying it will keep it pending to monitor whether its directions were being complied with or not.

In its directions, the bench had asked the civic bodies to submit compliance report before the court on 11th of each month and warned of initiating contempt proceedings against them in case of non-compliance.

Earlier, in July the Delhi government had told the high court that they have taken adequate steps to resolve the issue of timely payment of the salaries to 'safai karamchaaris'.

It had said a proposal has been placed before the AAP government's cabinet with regard to disbursement of Municipal Reform Fund (MRF) even to those corporations which have not performed well.

The bench had passed the July 11 directions on three PILs seeking payment of salaries to 'safai karamchaaris' employed with the MCDs.

The court had on May 27 said it was not concerned with the dispute between the AAP government and the three BJP-led municipal corporations in the city and only wanted that all employees of the civic bodies get their salaries.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Haryana government today said the Punjab Cabinet "does not have the power" to return land acquired for the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal project to its "original owners" after the Supreme Court's verdict on the issue.

Earlier in the day, the Punjab Cabinet announced it will denotify the land acquired for the canal project and return it to the "original owners" at no cost.

"The Punjab government has no power to return the land as the Supreme Court has made it clear in its verdict that the state legislative or executive cannot frame laws on inter- state water issues," Haryana Advocate General (AG) Baldev Raj Mahajan said here.

"This decision (of the Punjab Cabinet) is completely illegal and without jurisdiction," he claimed.

The Supreme Court in its November 10 judgment held the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004, passed by Punjab to terminate water sharing pacts with neighbouring states as "unconstitutional".

Describing the move of the Punjab government as "vote bank politics", the A-G said, "The Punjab cabinet's decision is just a show-off in the wake of elections (next year)."



The Haryana government would take-up the matter in the Supreme Court when it is listed for hearing, he informed.

Mahajan said Haryana will get the matter pertaining to the execution of the apex court's 2002 and 2004 orders to complete the SYL canal expedited.

"The state would press for the execution of the decree passed by the Supreme Court in favour of Haryana in 2002 and 2004. Whereby the SYL canal be constructed," he said.

The Advocate General said the execution petition was already pending with the Supreme Court.

The matter is expected to be listed within a month or so, he added.

(Reopens DES38)



Meanwhile, Haryana Principal Secretary for Irrigation Anurag Rastogi said any fresh legislation brought to nullify any part of the Presidential Reference on the SYL canal issue, on which the Supreme Court has given its judgement, would be "unconstitutional".

"If we go by the opinion of the Supreme Court, the step taken by Punjab Government is unconstitutional. Any such step in the future will also be unconstitutional," he said.

"In the decision of the Supreme Court in 2002 and 2004, it was stated that the SYL Canal should be completed by the Central Public Works Department. But then the Punjab Assembly enacted the Punjab Termination of Agreement Act," he said.

The constitutional bench of the Supreme Court has given its decision in favour of Haryana and now it would be forwarded to the President of India for a final decision, he added.
Former media baron Peter Mukerjea's lawyer today told the Bombay High Court that his client never objected to the relations between his son Rahul and Sheena Bora, his wife Indrani's daughter from earlier relationship.

Only Indrani, the main accused in Sheena murder case, was opposed to this relationship, said advocate Aabad Ponda, seeking bail for Peter.

Arguing before Justice N W Sambre, Ponda said Peter was not aware of any conspiracy allegedly hatched by Indrani, her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna and her driver Shyamwar Rai to kill Sheena.

Peter, arrested by CBI in the case last November, has moved the HC for bail after the sessions court rejected his plea.

CBI has contended that Peter, with Indrani and Sanjeev Khanna, entered into a criminal conspiracy to kill Sheena as they were opposed to her relationship with Peter's son Rahul.

"Peter was not against Rahul and Sheena's relationship. Indrani was against the relationhip and in fact Peter and Indrani had frequent quarrels over this. Peter was only against Rahul and Sheena living together without getting married and with no job. Peter objected only to them living together in 2007 and he separated them," Ponda argued.

He claimed that when Peter came to know in 2011 that Rahul and Sheena had got engaged, he sent an SMS to his son from his driver's phone congratulating him and giving them his blessings.

"He did not have any hatred towards Sheena. The only fault of Peter was that he obeyed everything Indrani told him which is why he is in jail now. When Indrani told Peter to stop talking to Rahul he agreed. But he was not aware of what conspiracy Indrani was hatching," Ponda said.

Citing confessional statement of the driver Rai, Ponda said, "The statement clearly says Indrani wanted to kill both Sheena and Mikhail Bora as they were both threatening to reveal to everyone that they were her children and not siblings as she had claimed and they demanded money from her.

Ponda claimed that Rai's statement showed that Indrani



wanted to murder Sheena and Mikhail for property and other reasons, and not because of Sheena's relations with Rahul.

Justice Sambre will continue to hear the bail plea tomorrow.

Meanwhile, another judge of the high court today directed CBI to file its reply to a petition filed by Peter seeking copy of the statement of an unnamed witness which is part of the supplementary charge sheet.

Justice Revati Mohite-Dere sought to know from CBI why it was not ready to share the statement with the accused, and posted the petition for arguments on November 17.

The court said pending hearing of this petition, the agency shall not proceed with arguments on framing of charges against the accused before the trial court.

The special CBI court today extended the judicial custody of the three accused -- Peter, Indrani and Sanjeev -- till November 29.

According to the prosecution, Sheena was murdered on April 24, 2012, but the crime came to light after the arrest of Rai in another case in August 2015.
A plea was today filed in the Supreme Court seeking constitution of an SIT to investigate into the "incriminating" evidence and details of "unaccounted" cash recovered allegedly during IT and CBI raids in two companies two years ago.

The plea, filed by NGO Common Cause, has also sought a direction to CBI, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to "produce the records and the seized material recovered in the raids" on the two groups before the apex court.

It has also sought a direction to the "authorities not to return the seized documents to the business groups concerned".

The application, filed through advocate Prashant Bhushan, claimed that "actionable evidence" gathered during the raids on both the groups was given a "quiet burial" by Income Tax Department and the CBI.

It said that CBI had conducted raids in 2013 at various premises of one of the groups' company during its probe into the coal block allocation scam case.

"The documents seized by the CBI in its search operation in Mumbai reportedly revealed massive bribery of politicians and officials of various ministries over several years," it alleged.

Referring to media reports, it said that IT department had raided the other group's offices in Delhi and Noida in November 2014 and during which "incriminating documents and cash" were reportedly seized.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Launching a vitriolic attack on Narendra Modi on demonetisation issue, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi tonight said the prime minister was "laughing" while people were dying in queues outside banks and ATMs to withdraw money and the move will turn out to be a "big scam".

Taking on the Modi government on the eve of Winter Session of Parliament, he said many economists including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had found the decision to withdraw the high-value tenders to be without rationale.

The government did not seem to be going after the "big players" in black money like Vijay Mallya and Lalit Modi, he said.

"Nearly 18 to 20 people died in queues and PM Narendra Modi was laughing. He should clarify whether he was laughing or crying," Rahul said, in an apparent reference to the PM's remarks in Japan and Goa.

He also claimed that BJP members were alerted beforehand about the demonetisation.

"How can one explain the BJP people in West Bengal depositing crores in high-denomination notes just before PM's announcement on November 8?" he asked.

"BJP workers were seen holding up bundles of the new Rs 2,000 notes, as seen from images on the Internet, before Modi announced this decision," Rahul told reporters in suburban Bandra.

"This move by the Modi government will turn out to be a big scam," Rahul said, adding "I don't think even Finance Minister knew about demonetisation announcement. PM does not believe in his own people."



"The PM took decision without thinking. We don't want to reverse it, but at least resolve the difficulties people are facing," he said.

"The move will have serious repercussions on financial situation. I spoke to many economists including Manmohan Singh-ji and they said it had no economic rationale but an opportunistic decision based on political calculations."



Rahul also questioned the logic behind introducing Rs 2,000 note after scrapping the Rs 1,000 note.

"The entire Opposition is united against Modi government's



demonetisation move which has resulted in massive inconvenience for people," Rahul said.

"We want the government to sort this out expeditiously. The rural population has borne the maximum brunt. What will happen to a farmer who might have saved cash for daughter's marriage? Banking network is not very strong in remote areas. The transition should have been smooth," he said.

"The real black money players like Vijay Mallya and Lalit Modi are out of the country. The big players are going scot free," he said.

"Go after the big players in black money. I don't see that happening. We cannot let farmers and labourers stand in queues for months," he said.

Asked about his own visit to a bank to exchange old notes, Rahul said, "My sense was to be with the people in their hardship and be with them."



On Modi's jibe at him and Congress that those involved in 2G spectrum scam were now standing in queue to exchange Rs 4,000, Rahul said, "Modiji is always attacking me. Those waiting in line outside banks are poor, small traders, government employees. Are they thieves?"



"Some planning should have been there. What to do when crores of people line up outside banks to withdraw cash and new 2,000 rupee notes don't fit into the ATMs," he said.

(Reopens BOM 34)



Asked to comment on Modi's mother standing in a bank queue, Rahul quipped: "Mine and Narendra Modi's styles are different. I won't speak about his mother.
Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of creating a socio-economic anarchy, All India Forward Bloc today said he owed an apology to the nation.

Without making any adequate alternative arrangement, the prime minister has pushed the entire nation into severe socio- economic anarchy, its general secretary Debabrata Biswas alleged.

It is now crystal clear that the Reserve Bank of India was not prepared for the aftermath, he said in a statement.

Biswas said it was unfortunate that Modi had challenged the integrity, loyalty and patriotism of the people.

"For a few black money holders and fake currency rackets, the entire people of the country are forced to prove their patriotism and loyalty by standing in the queues of banks and ATMs," Biswas said.

"Instead of making emotional speeches, the Prime Minister should apologise to the nation," he demanded.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan today proposed to declare Cuttack and Bali as "sister cities" in view of the rich historic links between Odisha and Indonesia.

Pradhan made the suggestion while participating in the ongoing three-day Kalinga-Indonesia Dialogue here at Ravenshaw University, pointing out that Cuttack had played a central role in establishing cultural ties with Indonesia.

"To enrich the bond and to ensure development for Cuttack, steps should be made to declare Cuttack and Bali as sister cities," Pradhan said assuring that he would take up the issue with Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

Tracing the trade and cultural links between ancient Kalinga and the erstwhile independent archipelagos of Bali, Sumatra, Java, Borneo and others, Pradhan said the people of Cuttack still remember the valiant ventures of those seafaring traders by observing 'Boita Bandana' and the 'Baliyatra' every year on the day of Kartika Purnima on the banks of Mahanadi here.

The Union minister further suggested that the same rituals and festivals could also be organised in Bali to strengthen the ties between the two cities.

Rueing over the fact that very less has been explored about the 2000-year-old foreign trade of the erstwhile Kalinga with that of other places across the globe through sea routes using non-mechanised boats, Pradhan urged the international studies department of the University to scan the present socio-economic-cultural changes of those countries against the backdrop of their ancient links with Kalinga.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
People continued to face hardships over withdrawing money from banks and ATMs on the sixth day today since the central government demonetised high-value notes as banks struggled to cope with the crisis.

Many bank branches, including those of country's leading State Bank of India (SBI), displayed the 'No Cash' sign after the start of banking hours today even as long queues were seen in front of their gates.

"Their is tremendous exchange pressure on the branches which may be reason why some of them may have run out of cash in the beginning," AGM (PR) of SBI Bengal Circle Mohan Mitra told PTI.

Mitra said that out of 3,500 ATMs in the West Bengal circle, only 2,450 were operational. "Every one hour, one ATM is going off. It takes 2-3 hours for refilling an ATM," he said.

Ditto is with other banks. "Yesterday was a holiday. So it was expected that there will be rush today," said Sangram Das, Communications Manager with ICICI Bank.

He conceded that the problem is with logistics though RBI has maintained the currency flow.

"We have around 300 ATMs in the city. The ATMs are becoming dry shortly after refilling and it generally takes three hours for again putting cash into them," he said, adding that it may take a month's time to return to normalcy.

"What is worrisome is that many repeat customers are there. Many people have huge cash with them. Since these persons are not being able to exchange the entire amount at one go, they are engaging others for exchange against a commission per transaction," a manager with Bank of Maharashtra explained.

"That is why the government has decided to use indelible ink so that a customer was not able to go for multiple withdrawals on a single day," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Department of the Army is calling for more discussion and analysis before issuing an easement for the Dakota Access Pipeline to cross under the Missouri River north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.

The river crossing has been a point of contention for months, with protesters raising concerns over the effects of a potential crude oil spill and water contamination.

From a DOA, Department of Justice and Department of the Interior review started on Sept. 9, the DOA concluded its previous decisions on the 1,172-mile pipeline met with legal requirements but it will continue to meet with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe before issuing a final decision.

The Army has determined that additional discussion and analysis are warranted in light of the history of the Great Sioux Nations dispossessions of lands, the importance of Lake Oahe to the tribe, our government-to-government relationship and the statute governing easements through government property, a DOA statement read.

Discussions would include the potential for adding requirements to the easement in an effort to reduce the risk of a spill or hasten detection and response, as well as whether to grant the easement at the proposed location.

Response to Monday's announcement varied widely.

Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II said in a statement that the decision was not completely what he hoped for, but it was an indication the president was listening.

"We are encouraged and know that the peaceful prayer and demonstration at Standing Rock have powerfully brought to light the unjust narrative suffered by tribal nations and Native Americans across the country, Archambault said. "Not all of our prayers were answered, but this time, they were heard.

A statement from MAIN Coalition, a group supporting construction of an oil pipeline through the Midwest, read: Todays decision is yet another attempt at death by delay and is a stunning rebuke of the Army Corps of Engineers, the federal civil service, four state governments and the rule of law. By its own review and admission, the Army Corps of Engineers did everything right . Now the Secretary of the Armys office is requiring even more consultations: Why?

The coalition also reiterated that Dakota Access follows the route of a natural gas pipeline already in place and said the corps has consulted with tribes during the permitting process.

Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., made a statement calling for the corps' approval of the easement, and a former U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration administrator weighed in on the delay as well.

"Todays political decision undermines the regulatory review process and places future infrastructure projects in jeopardy," former PHMSA Administrator Brigham McCown said in a statement. "The safety of the Dakota Access Pipeline has been thoroughly studied at the state and federal level, including multiple environmental and cultural studies, approval by four state regulatory bodies and the favorable opinions of two federal courts .... The review process by the Army Corps of Engineers was thorough and led to the pipelines approval. The rule of law should be upheld and the final easement issued.

Meanwhile, Greenpeace spokeswoman Lilian Molina characterized the situation as "environmental racism."

It is abundantly clear that the tribe was not adequately consulted in the permitting process, and the administration seems to recognize the need to respect the tribes rights and sovereignty moving forward. The previous decision to reroute the pipeline from Bismarck, a city that is mostly white, to just north of Standing Rock is a clear case of environmental racism," she said in a statement.
The Rajasthan Finance Commission today shared with its Madhya Pradesh counterpart initiatives taken by the commission to financially strengthen gram panchayats in the state.

During their Jaipur visit, Chairman of Madhya Pradesh Finance Commission Himmat Kothari along with members DRS Chaudhary, Malay Kumar Rai and Member Secretary Sushil Kumar held meeting with Rajasthan Finance Commission Chairperson Jyoti Kiran and officials and discussed the issues pertaining to the functioning of the commissions.

"The commission has prepared an innovative index while adopting global sharing mechanism for the disbursement of fund in districts," Kiran said.

"Other innovative steps were also taken by the commission to strengthen the gram panchayat and we shared it with the Madhya Pradesh state finance commission."



She also shared with them the recommendation of the commission in the last two interim reports.

Kothari said the commission will study the initiatives and consider to implement the same in his state.

The finance commission in MP was set up in 2014 and is preparing its interim report.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ratan Tata, back at the helm of India's biggest conglomerate, today met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley as bitter boardroom battle continues to rage following the ouster of Tata Sons Chairman Cyrus Mistry.

Tata, who reportedly wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi informing him about the changes at the over USD 100 billion group within hours of Tata Sons bringing him back in place of Mistry, met Jaitley for over 30 minutes.

The 78-year-old chieftain refused to comment on the discussion with Jaitley, who also heads the Corporate Affairs Ministry.

Besides Jaitley, Tata is believed to have sought meeting with Prime Minister. Mistry too had sought meetings with Modi and Jaitley.

The government has so far stayed clear of the row calling it an internal affair of Tata Sons.

Tata-Jaitley meeting comes amid escalation of feud between the Tata Group patriarch and his estranged successor.

On October 24, Mistry was abruptly removed as Chairman of group holding company Tata Sons Ltd, less than four years after he succeeded Ratan Tata triggering several rounds of allegations and counter allegations.

Mistry has said he was wrongfully terminated and alleged constant interference from his predecessor undermined his leadership, reducing him to a lame duck Chairman.

Tata Sons on the other hand accused Mistry of being a poor leader who was seeking to wrest control of some of key units. The ousted Chairman denied these allegations as unsubstantiated.

Though Mistry was sacked from the holding company, he retains chairmanship at key listed units. Tata Sons has removed him as Chairman of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and has asked Tata Chemicals, Indian Hotels Co Ltd and Tata Motors to call extraordinary general meeting of its shareholders to remove Mistry from the board.

Independent directors at at least two of the companies - Indian Hotels Co Ltd and Tata Chemicals have backed Mistry's leadership.

Tata Sons is also seeking to remove independent director Nusli Wadia, who is believed to be a force behind getting independent directors to back Mistry.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A small mark of indelible ink, used mostly during elections to prevent multiple voting, will be put on the right hand finger of those exchanging banned 500 and 1,000 rupee notes for new ones from tomorrow to prevent crowding at banks by repeat exchangers.

As per the assessment of Finance Ministry, bank counters are getting overcrowded due to same people turning up again and again to exchange old notes.

"Ideally, the ink mark should have been put on the left hand as is done when a person casts his vote. But with by-elections due in some states, an ink mark for exchange or withdrawal of currency note on the left hand will lead to unnecessary difficulties. So it has been decided that the ink mark would be put on right hand," an official said.

The ink manufactured at the Mysore Paints and Varnish Ltd - the firm that has supplied indelible ink to the Election Commission since 1962 to mark voters, will be made available to banks and post offices from tonight.

Banks in major cities will start marking note exchangers with the ink, the official said.

Also, an expert committee comprising of officers from the Department of Economic Affairs and the Department of Financial Services are preparing standard operating procedure (SoPs) for ink marking as well as additional steps to be taken to manage the crowds.

The move comes amid long, unending queue at banks even after a week of Prime Minister Narendra Modi announcing withdrawal of old Rs 500/1000 notes in biggest crackdown on black money, corruption and counterfeit currency.

The notes withdrawn accounted for 86 per cent of the cash circulating in the Asia's third-largest economy.

The source said the use of indelible ink would prevent "unscrupulous persons" from use conduits for exchanging notes.

A persons, as per the revised guideline, is allowed to exchange old notes totalling up to 4,500 on a single day.

Earlier in the day, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said it was noticed that the same people were coming back again and again to exchange notes, causing the long queues and creating hassles for genuine people to get their cash.

By-elections for four Lok Sabha seats - Cooch Behar and Tamluk in Purba Medinipur district in West Bengal, Shahdol in Madhya Pradesh and Lakhimpur in Assam will be held on November 19.

As many as 8 Assembly seats in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and Puducherry will go to polls on the same day.
Russia's Investigative Committee today said it had detained Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev on suspicion of taking a two-million-dollar bribe over a massive deal involving state-controlled oil giant Rosneft.

The Investigative Committee said in a statement the detention was carried out as a result of an operation by the FSB security service, the successor to the KGB.

It claimed the minister received the money yesterday for giving the go-ahead for Rosneft to acquire a majority stake from the state in Russian oil company Bashneft in a $5.2 billion deal last month. The statement does not say who gave the bribe to Ulyukayev.

The sale of the 50.07 per cent stake in Russia's sixth-largest producer came after months of wrangling that has seen Rosneft -- headed by Igor Sechin, a powerful ally of President Vladimir Putin -- face down opposition from some in the government, while Ulyukayev said Rosneft could bid for the stake.

"The entire sum -- 329.69 billion rubles -- will go to the Russian budget," Ulyukayev said in a statement after the deal on October 12, adding that the government had received only two bids and the other one had been less than the company's independently assessed value.

Putin said publicly at the time that he was "a little surprised at such a position of the government, but this really is the government position, primarily of the financial and economic bloc".

The Investigative Committee said in a statement that Ulyukayev had been detained as part of a probe into large-scale bribe taking, for which he could face a jail term of between 8 and 15 years. It said that it will charge him shortly.

Spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko told RIA Novosti agency: "This is about extortion of a bribe from Rosneft representatives accompanied by threats."



"Ulyukayev was caught red-handed as he received a bribe," she said.

She said that "The acquisition of the Bashneft shares was carried out on a legal basis and is not the subject of the criminal investigation."



Ulyukayev has served as head of the ministry of economic development since 2013.

RIA Novosti cited a law enforcement source as saying that Ulyukayev was detained as part of "sting operation" after investigators received "serious evidence" from "tapping his conversations and the conversations of his associates".

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Interfax agency: "This is a very serious accusation that requires very serious proof. In any case only a court can decide."



Asked if President Vladimir Putin knew of the detention, he said: "It's night time, I don't know if the president has been informed."



First deputy central bank chief Sergei Shvetsov told RIA Novosti that Ulyukayev "was the last person you would suspect of something like this. What is written in the media looks absurd. Nothing is clear now".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Russia announced a major air offensive in Syria today as Syrian opposition activists reported the first airstrikes in three weeks in the besieged, rebel-held part of the northern city of Aleppo.

The offensive began hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President-elect Donald Trump discussed Syria over the phone and agreed on the need to combine efforts in the fight against what the Kremlin called their No 1 enemy "international terrorism and extremism."



US President Barack Obama's administration has been trying for months to negotiate a cease-fire in Aleppo, the epicenter of the war between President Bashar Assad and rebels fighting to topple him, some of whom receive US aid.

Al-Qaida's local affiliate fights alongside the rebels, but the Islamic State group has no presence in Aleppo.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a meeting with Putin today that the operation involves aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, which made a much-publicized trip to Syria's shores last month.

He said Russian warplanes will target ammunition depots, training camps and armaments factories in the rebel-held province of Idlib and the central province of Homs. He did not immediately mention Aleppo.

The activists reported strikes in all three places. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said missiles fired from Russian warships in the Mediterranean have struck areas in Aleppo and Idlib provinces. The Observatory said airstrikes also struck three neighborhoods in Aleppo city, but had no immediate word on casualties.

Activist Baraa al-Halaby, who is based in eastern Aleppo, said via text messages that warplanes are firing missiles and helicopters are dropping barrel bombs on the eastern part of Syria's largest city.

"People are scared. The bombardment is intense," al-Halaby wrote.

In mid-October, Russia said it would halt weeks of deadly airstrikes to allow rebels and supporters to leave eastern Aleppo. The rebels refused to take up the offer and the United Nations failed to negotiate the delivery of aid into the besieged area.

On Saturday, government troops repelled a rebel offensive on western parts of Aleppo that was designed to break the siege on the opposition-held east. Aleppo has been contested since 2012.

The government siege has left an estimated 275,000 people trapped, with no aid allowed in since July, amid a punishing bombing campaign.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Russia today put Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev under house arrest for two months over suspicions he pocketed a two-million-dollar payoff during a deal involving state-controlled oil giant Rosneft.

Ulyukayev was the highest ranking official detained over suspected corruption since President Vladimir Putin took power in 2000 and his arrest sparked speculation over whether the probe is linked to an internal power struggle.

Judge Artur Karpov told Moscow's Basmanny district court that the 60-year-old minister would be confined to his residence in the southwest of the Russian capital until January 15 during the ongoing investigation.

Russia's Investigative Committee said Ulyukayev had "illegally demanded" payment to approve acquisition by Rosneft of a majority stake in Russian oil company Bashneft from the state, a USD 5.2-billion deal completed last month.

Investigators accused Ulyukayev of "threatening (and) using his ministerial powers to create obstacles to the company's activities in the future".

The committee said earlier today that the FSB security service, the KGB's successor, detained Ulyukayev after a sting operation yesterday as he was receiving the alleged bribe.

Investigators did not say who handed the alleged bribe to Ulyukayev.

Former MP Gennady Gudkov, a staunch Kremlin critic who once served in the KGB, said the move was the result of a high-level internal power struggle.

"What we are seeing today is not a fight against corruption," Gudkov wrote in an op-ed published on the website of Ekho Moskvy radio station.

"It is a fierce internal fight for influence, financial flows and positions."



Police ushered Ulyukayev, without handcuffs and wearing a suit and tie, into the courtroom today afternoon, according to an AFP correspondent at the scene.

He refused to answer reporters' questions. He told the court that he was ready to cooperate with investigators but had yet to testify, Russian agencies reported.

"I am determined to cooperate with the investigation as much as possible since my reputation and good name can only be restored by finding out the truth in this case," he was quoted as saying.

At least two people have given testimony to investigators incriminating Ulyukayev, local media reported.

The large-scale bribe-taking charge could see him face a jail term of between eight and 15 years.

The eventual sale of the 50.07-percent stake in Russia's sixth-largest oil producer came after months of wrangling that has seen Rosneft -- headed by Igor Sechin, a powerful Putin ally -- face down opposition from some in the government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Nicolas Sarkozy's links with Moamer Gaddafi came under fresh scrutiny today after a businessman claimed he had delivered three suitcases full of cash from the Libyan leader toward the Frenchman's first presidential bid.

In an interview with the Mediapart investigative site, Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine said he had made three trips from Tripoli to Paris in late 2006 and early 2007 with cash for Sarkozy's campaign.

Each time he carried a briefcase containing between 1.5 and 2.0 million euros in 200-euro and 500-euro notes, Takieddine said in a video interview, adding that he was given the money by Gaddafi's military intelligence chief Abdallah Senussi.

Sarkozy, who is bidding to recapture the presidency in next year's election, has for years been dogged by allegations that he accepted millions from Gaddafi during his successful 2007 run for the top office.

During questioning in a separate case, Takieddine accused Sarkozy of having been in Gaddafi's pocket in 2006-07 but he had never previously claimed to be the bagman.

The allegations against Sarkozy first emerged in March 2011, when the French leader was campaigning for the NATO-led military intervention that helped overthrow Gaddafi.

"Sarkozy must first give back the money he took from Libya to finance his electoral campaign," Kadhafi's son Seif al-Islam, who is now in jail in Libya, demanded.

A year later, as Sarkozy was campaigning for a second term, Mediapart published a document signed by former Libyan intelligence boss Musa Kusa referring to an agreement for 50 million euros (USD 54 million at current rates) in backing from Tripoli.

Sarkozy, who lost his 2012 re-election bid, vigorously denied the allegations, claiming the document was a fake.

Takieddine's video testimony comes five days before Sarkozy goes up against former prime minister Alain Juppe and other rivals in a primary to choose the candidate of the French right in next year's presidential vote.

The first round of the two-stage primary takes place on Sunday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Narendra Modi government today surpassed a major legal hurdle after the Supreme Court refused to stay its notification demonetising Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes but told it to reduce the inconvenience of the people, saying "you cannot have surgical strike" against them.

"You (Centre) can have a surgical strike against blackmoney but you cannot have surgical strike against the people of the country," a bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice D Y Chandrachud said, pointing to the long queues at banks and ATMs.

"Carpenters, maids, vegetable sellers are dependent on cash. Are you capable of reducing their trauma? Your aim is to wipe out blackmoney but people are traumatised standing in queues for hours doing nothing," the bench said.

"They (Centre) call it surgical strike. You (Kapil Sibal appearing for a petitioner) call it carpet bombing. The object of such measures is against the people hoarding cash,"it said.

While observing that fighting the blackmoney menace was a "laudable" step, it asked the Centre to "consider taking steps to ease the pain of the common people" and also consider raising the limit of cash withdrawals.

"Why can't it be raised to a reasonable level so that there is less number of people standing in the queue," the bench said, adding that the inconvenience part has to be looked into.

The government told the apex court that the situation was being constantly monitored at the highest level and just now, it has been decided that the banks would allow from today the withdrawal of Rs 50,000 per current account per week and the facilities would also be available to companies.

The apex court did not issue notices to the Centre or the RBI and asked them file a comprehensive affidavit detailing steps taken so far and other proposed measures to ameliorate the harassment and inconvenience caused to citizens due to demonetisation of the high value currency notes.

The government, represented by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, came fully prepared to defend its ambitious step aimed at curbing blackmoney and counterfeit currency used in financing terror and extremist violence saying the target was to "catch the big fish" which the previous governments could not do in last 50 years.

The bench concluded the day's hearing by asking the Centre and the RBI to be open to suggestions from various stakeholders and posted the matter for further hearing on November 25 of four PILs questioning the November 8 demonetisation notification.

While senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for one of



the PIL petitioners, was candid that he was not seeking any stay on the notification but was highlighting the harassment and inconvenience caused to common people particularly in the remote parts of the country, other petitioners insisted on their demand for stay, even at the fag end of the hearing.

"We will not be granting any stay," the bench bluntly said while observing that "the real purpose is to force those who have hoarded cash at home to deposit in bank and explain the source of money. But in the process, collateral damage is being faced by common men who have to stand in queue for hours together."



The succour to the Modi government came when the bench remarked that the Centre's objective was not "illegal" but appeared to be "laudable", though there was inconvenience and "collateral damage" to the common people by the so-called "surgical strike" against the blackmoney and fake currency.

Rohatgi's focus of argument was that there was no legal basis for opposing the Centre's move to demonetise the higher denomination currency notes aimed at "catching big fish" and the common man in this country have waited for 50 years for his Fiat car, his phone and gas connection.

"The people are willing to wait," Rohatgi said, adding that some amount of pain will be there as detection of fraud is also the emphasis of the government, as he defended the Centre's decision which was in complete compliance of section 26(2) of the Reserve Bank of India Act.

The present "surgical strike has to be seen in the context of safety and security of the nation, its border, and financial terrorism unleashed through fake currency," he argued.

"The attack is on those who have stashed huge amount of currency," he said, adding that the surgical strike of this nature has to be carried out in complete secrecy and it was not possible to come out with Rs 10 lakh crore worth of currency in one go as there was a need for recalibration of ATM machines across the country.

The Centre, which had filed a caveat in the matters, sought dismissal of the pleas saying they were "misconceived" as the idea behind demonetisation was the circulation of large number of fake currency, used to finance terrorism in various parts of the country including Jammu and Kashmir and northeastern states.

Rohatgi said there were as many as 24 crore bank accounts including 22 crore opened under the 'Jan Dhan Scheme' and the Centre was hopeful to "ramp up" the outflow of cash to banks, post offices and two lakh ATMs across the country.

"Two lakh ATM machines could not have been re-calibrated



in advance to be in tune with the new notes as the cat would have been out of the bag," Rohatgi said, adding that "secrecy is the key to such actions".

The Attorney General said there were approximately one lakh branches of various banks and two lakh ATMs besides the post offices across the country to dispense cash to the people and restriction on withdrawal was there to ensure that the money be paid to maximum number of people.

He responded to the submission of Sibal by stating that the senior Congress leader was advancing arguements on "complete misconception" that demonetisation was against RBI provisions.

When Rohatgi said that economic policy matters should not be interfered with by the courts, the bench responded saying "We will not interfere with the economic policy of government, but are only bothered about the hardship caused to people".

Sibal, appearing for one Adil Alvi, said he has also challenged the constitutional validity of the notification as the provision of the RBI has not been complied with.

He referred to section 26(2) of RBI Act and said the government was not authorised to demonetise all series of currency notes of high denominations in one go.

There has to be a legislation if the government wants to demonetise the entire series of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, Sibal said, adding that in 1978, a law was brought to demonetise the currency notes of particular denominations.

Sibal then highlighted the inconvenience faced by the common people in remote areas like Bastar in Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and northeastern states in getting their own money from banks and ATMs and said it was a "surgical strike against the common man."



"How can there be a cap in withdrawing my own money, which is also taxed," he said and referred to the promise written on a Rs 500 currency note.

He said that 11 people have died so far and private hospitals are not taking cash for treatment.

"Government says it is a surgical strike on black money. It is a carpet bombing on the common man," Sibal said.

During the hearing, Rohatgi, who was asked about the



quantum of new currency that can be printed in a day for infusion in the banking system, said he could not answer it in "open court for security reasons. I can only say they are working 24 hours a day to reach every part of the country".

The court, which agreed with his concern, was told by the AG that till now Rs 3.25 lakh crore have been deposited in banks since November 9. Notes worth Rs 55,000 crore were currently in circulation through banks, ATMs and post offices.

He said according to the Centre, the size of blackmoney was around Rs 15-16 lakh crore and it was expected that people would deposit Rs 10-11 lakh crore in the banks while the remaining Rs 4-5 lakh crore was being used to foment terror and other nefarious activities which has been neutralised.

The apex court, on November 10, had agreed to hear pleas against the November 8 decison of the Narendra Modi government that these notes are no longer a legal tender.

Out of the four PILs on the demonetisation issue, two were filed by Delhi-based lawyers Vivek Narayan Sharma and Sangam Lal Pandey, while two others were filed by individuals, S Muthukumar and Adil Alvi.

The petitioners had alleged that the sudden decision had created chaos and harassment to public at large and the notification of the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance be either quashed or deferred for some time.

The pleas had also sought either quashing of the notification or a direction to the Centre for grant of "reasonable time frame" to citizens to exchange the demonetised currency notes to avoid difficulties being faced by the people.

The Prime Minister, in a televised address to the nation, had declared that high denomination notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 will no longer be legal tender from November 8-9 midnight. He had said the Government has declared a "decisive war" against black money and corruption.
The scramble for cash spawned by demonetisation a week ago assumed frantic proportions today as people descended outside banks in droves in the wee hours fearing ATMs may run dry and another death of an elderly man standing in queue being reported from Hyderabad.

Tens of thousands of people lined up hours before banks opened in towns and cities across the country to exchange or deposit or withdraw money, a day after a public holiday in several states, even as the grim situation showed no signs of abating. Small businesses also continued to be hit hard with lack of patrons who were scurrying for small change.

Laxman Rao, a retired government employee who came alone to Marredpally branch of a state-run bank in Hyderabad to deposit Rs 1.5 lakh, collapsed at the bank's entrance.

"He collapsed on the bank's entrance steps and the policemen on duty immediately shifted him to a nearby hospital where doctors declared him brought dead," Deputy Commissioner of Police (North Zone) B Sumathi told PTI.

"He died of heart-ailment...He had once earlier suffered a heart-attack and had been operated upon," the DCP said based on preliminary investigation. He was native of Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh.

As banks opened after a day's break, Mumbai and suburbs witnessed greater scramble for cash with people making a beeline before banks and ATMs to exchange old currency notes and withdraw cash for essential expenses.

The BJP-led Government in Maharashtra decided to set up a cabinet sub-committee to recommend further measures to mitigate the hardships of the people due to demonetisation.

"The cabinet meeting reviewed the situation arising out of the Centre's move to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes," an official in the Chief Minister's office said.

"My wife is admitted in Bethany hospital of Thane. Hospital management is not accepting cheque and insisting only on pay orders. Even medical stores are not accepting Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. I fail to understand what to do? These are the worst days of our life," said Om Prakash Joshi while recounting his ordeal since last week.

To the relief of some customers, the ATMs were found to be working better as compared to previous days.

In the wake of the problems faced by citizens while exchanging demonetised currency, Maharashtra Police also set up grievance cells in all district and commissionerates.

Frustration writ large on their faces, people continued to throng banks and ATMs desperate to exchange or deposit demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes across Tamil Nadu even as there was no let up in the milling crowds a week after withdrawal of the currency.

The famous Koyambedu vegetable market, which receives almost 500 truckloads of vegetables from various southern states every day, wore a deserted look due to lack of patronage from customers and small retailers.

Activists of CPI and DYFI took out separate marches to the RBI office in Thiruvananthapuram protesting against demonetisation of high-value currencies, which they alleged was causing hardship to people.

In Delhi, people in large numbers started queueing up outside ATMs and banks from early morning but with limited success as many cash vending machines were running dry. Police also had to threaten an unruly crowd outside RBI with lathis.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A senior al-Qaida leader was reportedly killed in a late-night drone strike that hit his home in Libya's remote south, a Libyan agency said today.

The strike was suspected to be the work of a Western military but a Pentagon spokesman denied it was carried out by the United States.

The LANA agency said that Abu Talha al-Hassnawi, a key figure in al-Qaeda's North African affiliate, was killed in his house in Sabha late yesterday.

According to the agency, al-Hassnawi was previously a leading member of al-Qaida's affiliate in Syria, and was a leading recruiter of fighters heading to fight in Syria's vicious and complex conflict that has seen rival al-Qaida and Islamic State militants battle each other.

Al-Hassnawi was also purportedly close to the a top militant once considered the most dangerous man in the Sahara the one-eyed terror leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a former member of al-Qaida's North Africa branch and has been seen in his company in the past.

LANA also said that al-Hassnawi had fled to Sabha from the northern coastal city of Sirte, where Libyan militias and forces loyal to the UN-brokered government in the capital, Tripoli, are battling the Islamic State affiliate with the help of US airstrikes.

Libya is split between two rival governments, the UN-backed one in Tripoli and its rival, based in the country's east. The LANA agency that reported al-Hassnawi's death is affiliated with the east-based government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pipeline protesters took their message to the doorsteps of both state and national government on Monday, marching from the Capitol to the federal courthouse.

"They have brought their battle to us. We will bring it to them," Magdalena Rios told several hundred protesters gathered in a circle on the Capitol lawn in the late afternoon.

The protesters began their organized, hours-long rally at the Capitol around 11:30 a.m., marched south to the block of Third Street between Rosser Avenue and Avenue A around 1 p.m., then returned to the Capitol around 3 p.m.

A few protesters went inside the federal courthouse in hopes of speaking with the judge and getting their message across to the federal government.

"I informed them that the federal judge had gotten the message," said Paul Ward, U.S. marshal for North Dakota. The protesters were asked to leave, which they did politely, he said.

Gathered in the street outside the courthouse, one group of protesters  composed largely of non-natives and people willing to be arrested  formed a distinct perimeter around a second group, composed mainly of native people and elders.

People took turns speaking to the group as about 50 law enforcement officers looked on from the outer perimeter.

"When we put out the call, America answered. And we are grateful that the American people are here," Robert Eder, a veteran from Fort Peck, told the crowd. "It may not be utopia, but it is the best country in the world, because our ancestors  white, black, red and yellow  have stood together to dispel and displace racism and hate and greed.

"Thank you for being here, taking the time out of your lives to show America that our resources are not for sale to anyone with money," he continued. "Water is sacred; water is precious."

Andrew Sigman stood on the outer line in an effort to shield people in the center from getting arrested.

"We're exercising our white privilege," said Sigman, who in a previous interview suggested white people have been treated more favorably by the police during the protests.

Julia Johnson, of Pittsburgh, also joined the outer line.

"My indigenous brothers and sisters did that for me in the Black Lives Matter movement," she said.

Though the protesters did not have a permit, no one was arrested, North Dakota Highway Patrol reported.

There's a large number of them, and we dont have the resources  to necessarily deal with such a large crowd," Highway Patrol Lt. Tom Iverson said. Our officers are being patient with them.

Rios said one protester who had intended to lead the march was arrested while driving to Bismarck, but Morton County Sheriff's Department spokesman Rob Keller could not confirm that.

The Capitol was put on a "soft lockdown," meaning only employees with key cards could go in and out. The federal courthouse was also locked down while protesters stood outside, according to Ward. St. Mary's School was put into "shelter in place" mode while protesters marched by, according to Gerald Vetter, president of Light of Christ Catholic Schools.

Police blocked roads to keep traffic away from where people were marching. They ultimately stopped the forward march at Rosser Avenue, which officers on scene said was done to maintain traffic on the busy thoroughfare.

Bismarck residents looked on as the protesters passed their homes and offices. Some pulled out their cellphones to record the march on video, while others peered from upstairs windows.

"I thought it'd be a lot smaller," said Roberto Morales, who stepped out of his Bismarck house to watch the protesters go by. "I like it. It's pretty cool."

"I'm sure they're being heard, rather than before it was always just the cops and them not interacting with the community," Morales added.

Others were more frustrated by the protests, which blocked city streets throughout the day.

"I agree that water is life," said Christina Dukart. "This kind of thing with protests blocking roads is kind of frustrating."

One Bismarck woman broke into tears of fury as she looked on at the protesters in the middle of Third Street, while another man called out simply, "I don't care!"

The demonstration took place a day before protest actions are scheduled for locations around the world as opponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline aim to convince the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers not to issue a permit to allow the pipeline to be placed under the Missouri River.

Bismarck Tribune reporters Blair Emerson and Nick Smith contributed to this article.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who will lead the MPs of her party TMC in the march to Rashtrapati Bhawan to petition the President against demonetisation of high-value currency notes, is likely to be accompanied by lawmakers of the National Conference and NDA ally Shiv Sena.

According to TMC sources, while Shiv Sena and National Conference have agreed to be part the march, it is learnt that Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP is unlikely to join it.

Kejriwal met Mamata after her arrival here today and both discussed the issue for about 40 minutes.

"Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee or TMC have always fought against black money. All our MPs will be marching to Rashtrapati Bhawan tomorrow. Shiv Sena has also confirmed to join the march," senior TMC leader Dinesh Trivedi said after the meeting between the two leaders.

Asked whether AAP would join the march tomorrow because of its differences with NDA and Shiv Sena, Trivedi said, "What is their differences we are not going into it. But he (Kejriwal) has not said that he will not come. He said he will let us know after the discussion."



TMC leader Derek O'brien said, "Omar Abdullah (NC leader and former J&K CM) has confirmed to partcipate in the march. Besides one or two other parties have also confirmed." He, however, did not elaborate on which these other parties were.

O'brien said, "Our CM is the first person to speak against the demonitisation and we are also first to give notice in Parliament on this. We have already realised that the quicker we found the solution to this problem, the better it is."



About AAP not joining the march O'brien said, "CM spoke to all parties saying we need to go beyond the political lines. It is for the individual parties. Some people have told if A comes, then B cannot come, If B comes then C cannot come. So these are issues. So she said 'these are your political issues. I am here because this is an issue which is going beyond the party lines'."



Mamata had earlier tweeted: "The situation is serious. Very grim. People are suffering. We will meet the President tomorrow, no matter what.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A British Sikh BBC reporter based in southwest England has spoken out about being mistaken for a Muslim and targeted in an Islamophobic incident.

Manpreet Mellhi, whose family hails from India, found packets of pork scratchings in her shopping basket at a Sainsbury's supermarket in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, on Saturday.

The BBC Radio Gloucestershire reporter and presenter recalls that before finding two packets of the salty snack in her basket she had noticed a pair of shoppers sniggering at her, according to 'Gloucestershire Live'.

"To person who dropped two bags of pork scratchings into my basket in Sainsbury's: your pitiful Saturday activity backfired. I'm not Muslim," she tweeted.

"It shocked me a bit. I think it was deliberate, though I couldn't say 100 per cent, but nothing about it was a normal situation. Did people want to offend me? I don't know. Did they think it was funny? Probably," Mellhi said.

"Had I been a Muslim or had it happened to a Muslim then I would have found it more offensive than I did. It's sad for someone to go into a supermarket on a Saturday and mock somebody," she said.

Muslims do not consume pork because it is forbidden as part of their religion.

Mellhi decided not to report the incident to police so Gloucestershire Constabulary said it could not comment on the specific incident.

Police Constable Steph Lawrence, the force's hate crime coordinator, said, "It is extremely important for victims to report hate crime and we encourage them to, no matter how small they think the incident is. These are completely callous and unacceptable crimes which we are determined to tackle."



"It is vital for all hate crimes to be reported, otherwise we struggle to know the full scale of the problem and we cannot measure how significant it is due to under reporting," Lawrence said.

UK Home Office figures released last month revealed that racially and religiously aggravated abuse incidents registered a 41 per cent jump in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum in June.

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New York-based publishers Simon & Schuster has announced its first list of Indian titles that would come out next year with the authors including the likes of Keki N Daruwalla, Jairam Ramesh and Samanth Subramanian.

The list, announced last night at an event to mark five years of the publishing house's operations in India, includes both established as well as debut writers.

Subramanian's book "The Last Man Who Knew Everything: J B S Haldane's Life and Science" deals with the essential moral questions of science while detailing the extraordinary life of one of the geniuses of the modern era Haldane.

Daruwala's novel "Letter to Mamma" spans India's pre- and post-Independence history and is a celebration of words.

Ramesh in his book "Indira Gandhi: A Life in Nature" details an unknown facet of the life of Indira Gandhi as a lover of nature. It draws extensively from unpublished letters, notes, instructions and memos, as well as from many of her speeches and writings that have not been included in the official compendium.

The other books include "Spark: The Insight to Growing Brands" by McDonald's Paddy Rangappa and former IIM-A director Jagdeep S Chhokar's "Born Local, Going Global: Management Across Cultures".

The new voices are Natasha Badhwar, Prayaag Akbar, Priyanka Dubey and Priya Sahgal.

According to Editorial Director, Dharini Bhaskar, the aim is to provide a home for acquisitions not just in the subcontinent but beyond.

"We offer 'global' publishing in the truest sense by engaging in a dialogue with our sister companies in the UK, the US, Canada and Australia, and earning their complete support and interest. Many of the books in this list, that we hold world rights to, will travel across seas; several in the offing will take similar journeys," she says.

The books, she says, display Simon & Schuster's commitment to the environment.

"Internationally, and in India, our titles carry an FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) stamp. This means that the paper we use comes from responsible sources. We are committed to healing a world that is at the brink of an ecological disaster," Bhaskar, who joined Simon & Schuster in August, says.

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Former Himachal Pradesh minister and six-time BJP MLA I D Dhiman passed away today at his native village Dialri, 25 km from from Hamirpur, due to age-related ailments.

He was 82.

Dhiman was not keeping well for the past few days, family sources said.

A former headmaster and popularly known as "guruji", Dhiman was elected to Himachal Pradesh Assembly for the first time from Mewa constituency in 1990 and won from the seat six times in a row in 1993, 1998, 2003, 2007 and 2012.

Known for his simplicity and honesty, Dhiman served as a state minister in Dhumal government from 1998 to 2003 and 2007 to 2012, holding the education portfolio.

He is survived by his wife Satya Dhiman, son Anil Dhiman and two daughters.

Hundreds of people including supporters, political figures social activists, government officials bid a tearful adieu at the village as a massive crowed turned-up to participate in his funeral procession.

Former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, once a student of Dhiman, BJYM chief and Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur, state BJP chief Satpal satti and other party and Congress MLAs attended the funeral.

With his demise, the strength of BJP has been reduced to 27 in the 68-member legislative Assembly.

"Deputy Commissioner of Hamirpur has sent a communication to the Vidhan sabha informing about demise of I D Dhiman, which will now be notified," Assembly Secretary S S Verma said.

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An ethnography museum in South Goa had a surprise visitor, when Congress president Sonia Gandhi walked-in without much security and prior information.

Gandhi walked into Goa Chitra, in South Goa's Benaulim village, about 40-km from here, last evening at around 4 PM and spent around 40 minutes there, founder of the museum, Victor Hugo Gomes said.

She was on a private visit to Goa.

"Yesterday morning, security staff of a starred hotel came to purchase the entry tickets and said that some special guest is going to visit. They never told that she is going to come," he told PTI today.

Gomes said she was taken around by a guide who explained her about various artifacts put up on display at the museum.

"She took interest in all the artifacts and was there for around 40 minutes.She saw the entire place and also inquired whether this is government or private initiative," he said.

Gomes said that there was no "VVIP fanfare" around her during her visit.

"That is the kind of respect a cultural centre should get," he added.

A restorer by profession, Gomes, said during recently held BRICS several heads of the State came to the Benaulim village (which hosted the event) but none visited the museum.

"I am very happy that Sonia Gandhi showed interest in such cultural centre," he said, recalling how former Union minister Kumari Selja too had paid the visit to the museum in the past without airing about her VVIP status.

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Sri Lankan government today said it has launched a probe into the alleged involvement of army with a terror gang that has unleashed violence in Tamil-dominated Jaffna, the epicentre of the civil war which ended in 2009.

Deputy Defence Minister Ruwan Wijewardene told Parliament that a former army man was among those arrested in connection with the latest wave of violence to hit Jaffna.

"Among those arrested for involvement with this group was an ex-army man. He had left the army and worked with the group. It may be some ex-military men are involved. We are investigating," Wijewardena said.

He was replying to a question by Opposition JVP in the light of a government spokesman Rajith Senaratne's statement that the gang, known as Aava group, was a creation of former defence ministry chief Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

The Opposition has alleged that Gotabhaya created the group with the involvement of elements from the army in the northern district.

Law and Order Minister Sagala Ratnayaka said 38 of the 62 identified members of the group were now in custody. Thirty two of them are facing judicial action and the group is not a terrorist outfit, he said.

"They have money and roam around in modern motorcycles," Ratnayake said, adding that they wield swords.

He claimed the group got their first sword from a person who arrived from India and later swords were made locally.

Terrified Jaffna residents, who have previously suffered harassment from the Sinhalese-dominated military during and after the 30-year separatist war, have complained of intimidation by the group.

Last month, two Tamil students were shot dead by police and protests by the residents have raised tensions in the region.

The new government of President Maithripala Sirisena came to power on promise of reconciliation after the end of the war and has tried to restrict the involvement of military in day-to-day life of the Tamil-dominated region. But some allege that government troops still maintain large presence in the region.

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Demonetisation of high-value currency notes will affect the supply of essential commodities in Madhya Pradesh as nearly 60 per cent of the trucks are stranded due to the currency crunch, a top official of the truckers' body said today.

"Because of the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes and lack of availability of the (new) currency, we are able to run only 40 per cent of the trucks, while the remaining 60 per cent remain stranded," Madhya Pradesh Motor Transport Association president Parvinder Singh Bhatia told PTI.

He said the Centre's demonetisation move has not only affected the transporters, but also the supply of essential goods.

Bhatia said transporters used to give a certain amount of money to the drivers towards the necessary expenses during transportation.

"But, after the sudden announcement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ban Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes on November 8, the drivers on the long routes are facing difficulties," he added.

Cities such as Indore, Bhopal, Jabalpur, Gwalior and Burhanpur are the major centres for transporting goods and they are badly hit by the Centre's decision, Bhatia said.

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As banks opened after a day's recess, Mumbai and suburbs witnessed greater scramble for cash with people making a beeline before banks and ATMs to exchange old currency notes and withdraw cash for essential expenses.

The BJP-led Government in Maharashtra decided to set up a cabinet sub-committee to recommend further measures to mitigate the hardships of the people due to demonetisation.

"The cabinet meeting reviewed the situation arising out of the Centre's move to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes," an official in the Chief Minister's office said.

To the relief of the customers, the ATMs were found to be working better as compared to previous days.

Pramod Harlalka, a sub-broker in stock market, managed to withdraw Rs 10,000 from a bank at Bhayander in neighbouring Thane district.

He said, "It was really a soothing moment to find Rs 10,000. But the problem is that this is of notes of Rs 2,000 each. Now there is going to be another problem to use it. I am sceptical to use it for small payments, because there is scarcity of small denomination notes everywhere."



He said that a major public sector lender's statement to disburse Rs 20 and 50 notes was a welcome step, but it should be done immediately.

In some localities, residents came forward to help those standing in queues by offering them tea and biscuits.

"I was on morning walk with my friends when we noticed dozens of people in a queue around 7 AM outside a bank at Manish Nagar in Char Bangla. Perhaps, they left homes very early in the morning without having breakfast. So, with our friends, we arranged tea and biscuits for them," said N K Bhartiya, a local resident.

Meera Dubey, a homemaker from Santacruz, said, "Banks have now made proper arrangements for the people. Today there are separate lines for deposit and exchange. Also, senior citizens are being given due attention. It seems that banks have learnt few lessons from initial failures."



However, a senior citizen, Bal Kumund Mishra (73), was unhappy as his bank did not allow him to withdraw Rs 24,000, as per new circular issued by the RBI yesterday.

"I was very much disappointed when bank officials informed me that I can get only Rs 10,000 though I showed them the copy of new circular. Bank people denied to give more than Rs 10,000," said Mishra, a Thane resident.

Another citizen, Om Prakash Joshi, while recounting his ordeal since last week, said, "My wife is admitted in Bethany hospital of Thane. Hospital management is not accepting cheque and insisting only for pay orders. Even medical stores are not accepting Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. I fail to understand what to do? These are the worst days of our life.

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A group of swimmers braved the sting of extremely salty waters to cross the Dead Sea from Jordan to Israel today, a seven-hour challenge that organisers described as a first.

The swim organised by the EcoPeace charity was aimed at raising awareness for the iconic water body which has been receding by roughly a metre each year.

The 26 extreme swimmers from across the world, equipped with special masks due to the water's high salinity, took seven hours to make the crossing, organisers said.

The distance is only 17 kilometres (10.6 miles) and the mineral-rich lake was calm, but the high amount of salt in the water makes it nearly impossible to swim normally.

It has 10 times more salinity than the Mediterranean Sea, meaning bodies float to the top, and keeping under the water is difficult.

"It was tougher than we expected," said Samuel Moran, a 40-year-old Spaniard.

"The worst was the sun and the feeling of the salt on your skin that is very irritating. You feel like you are burning all the time," he said, adding he felt like quitting "many times".

The swimmers, the oldest of whom was 68, wore specially designed face masks as even a tiny amount of water in the mouth or eyes can cause agony.

Kim Chambers from New Zealand said she had swam extreme routes across the globe but this presented a unique test.

"Even just a few drops (of water) feels like acid burning in your eyes -- if you ingest it, either through your mouth or through your nose, it is potentially fatal."



The Dead Sea's coastline is shared by Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories and is the lowest point on earth, 400 metres below sea level.

But experts have warned it is on course to dry out by 2050.

Gidon Bromberg, EcoPeace Middle East co-director, said the event was "a global call to save this amazing sea".

"This is the lowest place on earth, these are the deepest saline waters on the globe, a unique composition, and sadly for the last 50 years they have been dramatically on the decline," he said.

The swimmers came from across the globe, including New Zealand, South Africa and Israel. There were no Jordanians among them.

The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation it was the first ever swim across the sea.

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Upping the ante on the Sutlej- Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue, the Punjab cabinet today announced that it will denotify the land acquired for the project and return it to the "original owners" at no cost.

The move came on the eve of the special session of the Punjab Assembly convened to discuss the issue in the wake of the Supreme Court holding as "unconstitutional" the 2004 law passed by the state government to terminate the SYL canal water sharing agreement with neighbouring states.

"The Punjab Council of Ministers today decided in public interest that the land acquired for the SYL canal project, at present vested in the Punjab government, free from all encumbrances, stands denotified with immediate effect and shall forthwith vest in the original land owners of their lineal descendants/legal representatives free of cost," advisor to chief minister on national affairs and media Harcharan Bains said.

He said the decision "comes into effect immediately and necessary orders are being issued".

Talking to persons after the meeting, Cabinet Minister Daljit Singh Cheema said the cabinet was "competent" to take the decision.

"The water table is declining in Punjab. Neither we have water nor the SYL canal can be constructed. Therefore, the land acquired from farmers for the project should be returned to them. A decision has been taken by the state cabinet to denotify that land," Cheema said.

When contacted, Irrigation Minister Sharanjit Singh Dhillon said the decision was taken after seeking opinion of experts.

(REOPENS DEL74)



The Punjab Assembly had in March passed "Punjab Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal land (transfer of proprietary right) Bill' "to provide for transfer of proprietary rights to the land owners from whom the land was acquired by the state government for the construction of SYL".

Dhillon said: "Today's decision was taken by the Punjab cabinet, while the Bill was passed by the state Assembly."



The objective is not to let the water go out of Punjab, he added.

A senior government official said the land acquired for the project measured close to 5,300 acres.

Earlier in the day, the core committee of Shiromani Akali Dal said the construction of the SYL canal was "neither necessary nor feasible" and vowed not to allow even a drop of water go outside the state.

After the Bill was passed by the state Assembly, Ministers and MLAs of all parties, led by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, had met the then Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki requesting him to grant ascent to the new Bill for de-notification of the land acquired, but he did not commit to anything.

Some farmers had then started taking possession of their land acquired for the construction of the canal and levelling it.

SAD and Congress workers had also given earthmoving equipment to help farmers level the land in a few villages in Patiala and Ropar districts.
A protest to coincide with an international day of action by opponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline is planned for today in Bismarck.

More than 100 events are planned worldwide, with many scheduled to take place outside U.S. Army Corps of Engineers offices. The Bismarck event will take place at 2 p.m. at the entrance of United Tribes Technical College.

Pipeline opponents argue the corps OK'd the pipeline, which is planned to run under the Missouri River north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, without adequate environmental review or input from the tribe. The events are in solidarity with pipeline opponents camping near the construction area in southern Morton County.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is the founder and president of the Waterkeeper Alliance, is scheduled to speak at the Oceti Sakowin camp during the afternoon.
A special session of the Punjab Assembly has been convened tomorrow in the wake of the Supreme Court declaring as "unconstitutional" the 2004 law enacted by the state government to terminate the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal water sharing agreement with neighbouring states.

Ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) will come out with a strategy that will suit them better in all legal terms, a party spokesperson said here today.

He said the government is fine tuning its next legal, legislative and political moves.

After the SC verdict last Thursday, 42 MLAs of Congress have resigned from the Vidhan Sabha.

However, Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal told PTI that the resignations of Congress MLAs were "under consideration".

Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Charanjit Singh Channi said the government should first spell out its agenda for the special session.

"We have officially not received any communication about the session being convened," he said.

Besides, Congress is not aware whether there is any agenda of the government behind summoning the session, he added.

Yesterday, Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh wanted an assurance from the government that the new legislation will be approved by the governor and not made a mockery.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has asked all political parties to get together on the SYL issue. However, Badal's deputy and his son Sukhbir Singh Badal has said that the Congress has run away from the issue.

In a related development in neighbouring state, Haryana Government has convened a meeting of all political parties under the Chairmanship of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on the issue of Sutlej-Yamuna-Link Canal.

"The meeting would be held at Haryana Niwas on November 17, 2016 at 12 noon," an official spokesperson said today.

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Syria's regime and its ally Russia has launched a wide-ranging assault on rebels with renewed strikes on the besieged eastern neighbourhoods of Aleppo, sparking fury in Washington.

The United States strongly condemned Russia's renewed bombing campaign, warning that strikes on civilian targets break international law.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke of a "major operation" which saw the first missions carried out by warplanes taking off from the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier that arrived off Syria last week.

In Aleppo, Syrian government aircraft pounded the eastern neighbourhoods with air strikes and barrel bomb attacks, a monitor and AFP correspondent yesterday said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least five civilians were killed in the bombardment, the first of its kind since October 18.

State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said Washington had received reports that the latest Russian and Syrian regime strikes had hit hospitals and clinics.

UN member-states also overwhelmingly condemned escalating attacks against civilians in Aleppo and called for a ceasefire to pave the way to a settlement for Syria's five-year war.

The assault ended a period of relative respite for more than 250,000 people living in besieged eastern Aleppo.

On October 18, Moscow said it was halting its air strikes ahead of a short-lived truce and Syrian raids also subsided, with bombardment mostly confined to areas where clashes were taking place on the edges of the battered city.

The respite came after international criticism of a ferocious assault launched by Syrian and Russian forces on September 22 in a bid to recapture eastern Aleppo.

Civilians were among hundreds of people killed in the bombing campaign, which also destroyed infrastructure.

No aid has entered eastern Aleppo since it was first surrounded by government troops in mid-July, and the UN said Thursday it was distributing its last remaining food rations in the rebel districts.

The UN's food agency, FAO, said a farming crisis across Syria had reduced food production to a record low and raised fears that people would be forced to flee famine.

On Sunday, east Aleppo residents received text messages from the army warning rebels to leave within 24 hours.

"After the end of this period, the planned strategic offensive will begin," the message said.

Yasser Yusef, of the Nureddine al-Zinki rebel group, said the bombardment would lead to "massacres and crimes against humanity in northern Syria and particularly in Aleppo city and Idlib."



As the strikes hit Aleppo, Moscow announced its Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier was now being used in its campaign to bolster President Bashar al-Assad.

Russia has been carrying out a bombing campaign in Syria for the past year and deployed a naval contingent to back up its operation.

An AFP correspondent in Idlib said strikes hit several parts of the rebel stronghold province, including Maaret al-Numan, Saraqib and Ariha.

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Telangana Government today sought a loan of Rs 7,900 crore from NABARD for completion of 11 pending irrigation projects in the state.

State Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao made the request during a meeting with officials of NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development), a government statement said.

The 11 projects are part of the 99 pending irrigation projects identified by the Central government across the country, he said.

The minister told the NABARD officials that the state government was facing some difficulties in accessing loans for the 11 projects under Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act as it is already availing other loans.

Loan is being sought from NABARD in view of the difficulties, he added.

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Three farmers were injured in a clash allegedly with sugar mill employees due to a delay in weighing of their crop at Thana Bhawan in Shamli district, police said today.

The clash occurred last evening when the farmers had gone to the sugar mill to get their crops weighed. They got into an argument with the employees over delay in weighing of their crop, they said.

This led to a clash in which stones were also pelted. The injured, identified as Altamas, Mohad and Shahrukh, were rushed to a hospital.

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A major travel company has been directed by a district consumer forum here to pay a compensation of over Rs 6.3 lakh to a former Delhi High Court judge for deficiency in service to him and his family during their leisure trip to South Africa.

The forum, headed by its president S K Sarvaria, also asked Thomas Cook (India) Ltd to pay a litigation cost of Rs 60,000 to retired judge Justice Ashok Kumar Srivastava, who had availed of the tour package from the company.

"We hold the company guilty of deficiency in service provided to the complainant and his family in the pleasure foreign tour named 'South Africa Leisure Tour'," the forum said.

It also observed that the family, comprising his wife, daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren had to face inconvenience when they had to stay one-day extra in Nairobi due to the cancellation of flight back to Delhi.

"It was the responsibility of the company through its employees, officers and agents to ensure timely arrival of the complainant and his family at the airport for boarding of the flight to India," the fourm held.

"Complainant and his family had to face inconvenience during their overstay for one day," it added.

According to the complaint, the family booked a tour package to South Africa from December 12, 2014, to December 25, 2014 and paid around Rs 12 lakh which included flight tickets, sightseeing, hotels, guides, driver and tips.

The complaint said the company also assisted two members of the family to obtain visa.

When they reached the airport to catch the return flight from Johannesburg to Nairobi, they were informed that the flight was cancelled and the Kenyan Airways officials told them that the cancellation of the flight was duly conveyed to the tour company.

The family had to overstay at Nairobi for one additional day due to the cancellation of the flight, resulting in trouble for them as two of their visas were supposed to expire on December 25, 2014, it said.

The company, however, contended that the complaint is baseless, misconceived, frivolous and without any cause of action.

It also contended that the revised air tickets were sent through their service provider in South Africa but the family refused to take the tickets.

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US President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin today spoke over phone for the first time and agreed on the need for jointly working to normalise "extremely unsatisfactory state" of ties between the two nations.

Putin "called to offer his congratulations on winning a historic election," according to a Trump statement. The two leaders discussed issues including shared threats, strategic economic issues and the historical US-Russia relationship.

The Russian President was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Trump last Wednesday, sending him a telegram about an hour after he had emerged the victor, but the two have not met nor had they spoken previously.

"President-elect Trump told President Putin that he is very much looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the people of Russia," a statement by Trump's transition team said.

According to the Kremlin, Trump and Putin agreed on "the extremely unsatisfactory" state of relations between the two countries and "declared the need for active joint work to normalise them."



The two leaders said they would work to "bring them (bilateral ties) to the framework of constructive cooperation.

Citing the Russian leader, the Kremlin statement added that this new relationship will be based "on the principles of equality, mutual respect and respective non-involvement in the other party's domestic affairs."



The statement said that Putin and Trump agreed on combating "global enemy number one" - international terrorism and extremism.

Officials are now working to arrange a personal meeting between the two leaders, the statement said.

During the US presidential campaign, senior American security officials accused Russia of hacking the computers at the Democratic National Committee headquarters and releasing emails that proved embarrassing to Hillary Clinton campaign. Putin denied any state role in the hacking.

Relations between the two countries have soured in recent years, despite President Barack Obama starting his eight years in office by calling for a "reset" with one of the US' long-term rivals.

While Russia and the US have managed to work together on issues like North Korea and Iran, they have openly clashed on Syria.

Obama has also condemned Russia's intervention on the side of pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine, while Russia's decision to grant whistleblower Edward Snowden asylum infuriated Washington.

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Donald Trump told New Jersey Governor Chris Christie just months after he launched his presidential campaign in June 2015 that he did not expect to stay in the race past October of that year, a new book claims.

Trump told Christie, who at that point was also running for president, that he "didn't expect to make it past October" and would endorse Christie when he dropped out, an unnamed Christie adviser said, according to a new book out by several members of CNN's political team.

"I think they always had an understanding that the first one out would probably endorse the other," the adviser was quoted as saying in the book, "Unprecedented: The Election that Changed Everything" that is scheduled to be released on December six.

During the throes of the Republican primary, Trump and Christie had a common enemy: Marco Rubio. After Christie's endorsement, Trump would praise Christie for his takedown of Rubio during the Republican debate right before the New Hampshire primary.

Christie mercilessly mocked Rubio when he repeated a talking point again and again to criticise President Barack Obama.

During the Republican primary, Christie and Trump -- who have known each other through New York-area politics -- were not as harsh toward each other as were other pairs of rivals.

Christie, though, did criticise Trump by calling on voters to get serious and not treat the election as a game, and Trump at one point alleged that Christie knew about his now-convicted aides' plans to close down the George Washington Bridge.

Christie has since become one of President-elect Trump's most stalwart defenders, and he is currently under consideration for a number of high-profile cabinet posts, CNN reported.

But on Friday, Christie was layered over as chair of Trump's transition team, with Trump's vice president, Mike Pence, now in charge of assembling the Trump administration.

The relationship between two outsized personalities will continue to unfold in the months ahead, the report said.

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Two persons were today arrested in connection with the recent murder of a journalist of a prominent vernacular daily, police said today.

Scribe Dharmendra Singh, a journalist with Dainik Bhaskar, was shot dead by some unidentified assailants when he was having tea at a roadside stall in his village Amra talab of Rohtas district.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted to probe the murder case, arrested two persons during a raid late last night, a statement issued by the office of the Director General of Police (DGP) said.

Those arrested have been identified as Radhika Raman Rai and Manish Singh, Patna Zonal Inspector General N H Khan told PTI.

Both the accused have been arrested from two separate places of Rohtas district, he said.

While Rai is the resident of Rohtas district, Manish, who is wanted by the police in three cases lodged in Rohtas district, is the resident of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, the statement said.

On the basis of information available from those arrested, police has also seized a motorcycle (BR-24 N 9904) which was used in the crime, it said.

Police is interrogating the duo and conducting raids to nab other absconding culprits, the statement said, adding that the matter is being investigated from all angles.

Dharmendra, who is survived by his wife and a son, had an old rivalry with Pappu Singh, currently lodged in a jail and is a resident of Dumariya village under Mufassil police station of the district, it said.

On the basis of a written complaint of Ravindra Singh, brother-in-law of the journalist, police lodged an FIR with Mufassil police station against four named and two unnamed persons in the murder case, the statement said.

"We have already constituted an SIT to probe the case and chargesheet would be submitted against those arrested in the case on a priority basis and would be put to speedy trial," Khan said.

The murder of the journalist in Rohtas has come close on the heels of killing of a scribe of a Hindi daily in Siwan, Rajdeo Ranjan, in May.

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Uganda's police said today they had nabbed a con man suspected of swindling a Polish weapons manufacturer into signing a bogus 120-million dollar arms deal.

BMP Poland inked the multi-million dollar deal with the man, named as Sam Ssimbwa, who had presented himself to the company as an agent for Uganda's defence ministry, a police spokesman said.

Ssimbwa was taken into custody Thursday, spokesman Emillian Kayima said, adding that he and unnamed co-conspirators had already pocketed 520,000 euros "as part payment for consultancy fees regarding the transaction."



Ssimbwa and his associates, who have not been detained, designed an elaborate fraud including the creation of a fake public call for tender.

Ssimbwa was then contracted by BMP as a lawyer to secure the contract to supply Kampala with equipment including 375 tanks, 46 reconnaissance Ferret and Eland armoured cars and various artillery.

Spokesman Kayima said investigators had asked BMP Poland "to provide police with evidence regarding the fraud".

A BMP representative contacted at company headquarters in Warsaw confirmed it had "contacts in Uganda" but declined to comment "until the situation is resolved".

Uganda's army refuted press reports meanwhile that the army chief was implicated in the scandal.

It also denied the military investigative branch's deputy had been transferred to Somalia in secret while investigating the case.

Ugandan newspaper The Daily Monitor reported that negotiations with the BMP were held inside the army headquarters in the presence of men in uniform.

The army denied any such meeting took place.

"The public is hereby assured that the reports are unfounded, malicious and aimed at tainting the hard earned good image of the Uganda People's Defence Forces," spokesman Paddy Ankunda said in a statement.

"Any persons who try to break this bond will be stopped using the strong arm of the law", he added.

The purported Defence ministry documents said Uganda's military was also looking for body armour, anti-riot equipment, armoured personnel carriers and self-propelled artillery systems.

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UK army chief Gen Nick Carter today visited Indian Army's South Western Command here and discussed various issues of mutual interest and avenues of professional cooperation between the two countries.

"Gen Carter was received with traditional military honours upon his arrival at Jaipur. He had an interaction with South Western Army Commander Lt Gen Sarath Chand and other senior officers of the Command," defence spokesperson Lt Col Manish Ojha said.

"Various issues of mutual interest and avenues of professional cooperation between the two Armies were discussed by them," he said in a release.

Gen Carter later visited various places of historical importance in the city which included the Light and Sound show in Amber Fort.

The Chief of the General Staff of the Armed forces of the United Kingdom, accompanied by his spouse Louise Anne Ewart and his staff officers, is visiting the command from November 15-16.

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Pipeline protesters faced off against police Tuesday morning at the entrance to a Dakota Access equipment yard west of Mandan.

Protesters on scene said they were standing to support women who had been exploited or gone missing in oil industry man camps, adding a new message to the months-long anti-pipeline protests.

About 400 people gathered on Old Highway 10, where they blocked the road before proceeding towards the warehousing site and were stopped by police around 10:20 a.m. Protesters  many wearing goggles and masks in anticipation of pepper spray  formed a line along the railroad tracks, which crossed an access road leading to the warehousing area. About 100 police, many in riot masks and carrying batons, gathered on the other side.

A group of protesters also blocked access to the yard by disabling a car between the road and railroad tracks, by slashing the tires and dismantling part of the engine. They filled the vehicle with tumbleweed, and the Morton County Sheriff's Department alleges they tried to start it on fire.

Police closed Highway 10 west of Mandan during the protest.

Officers made multiple calls for the group to disperse, which were met with calls back from the crowd.

"This is an unlawful protest. You blocked Highway 10; now you're blocking the railroad tracks. You're all arrestable. You need to disperse," an officer called over a loud speaker.

"We are the patriots. You are the attackers," a protester called back to police. "Why do you protect DAPL over us?"

Darlene George, of the Okanagan Nation of British Columbia, said she was "standing in solidarity with the missing indigenous women" and that she wanted to support North Dakotans in their fight against the oil pipeline they fear will contaminate the Missouri River.

"It's all connected," she said.

After several warnings, a line of officers moved into a U-shape, and they physically pressed the protesters back toward the road. Many carried batons in front of them and yelled, "Move back." Dozens of people were pepper sprayed and at least one was arrested from the line. Some people within the crowd began calling out, "We're leaving," but the police pushed until everyone reached the highway.

Protesters loaded into cars to leave the area around 11:30 a.m. Police blocked the line of cars heading east on Highway 10 back toward Mandan. Officers walked up and down the line, peering into windows and arresting at least one more person from a car.

North Dakota Highway Patrol Lt. Tom Iverson said traffic was stopped after the protest, because police spotted a vehicle believed to be involved in a Friday protest, when the tires of six law enforcement vehicles were slashed. Iverson said the driver of that vehicle tried to flee the stop, which led them to arrest the driver and passenger. He said two people were arrested from another vehicle driving recklessly there, as well.

In total, 25 people were arrested from the protest site, according to the Morton County Sheriff's Department. Most are facing felony charges of tampering or damaging a public service by blocking the railroad tracks. Some also are charged with resisting arrest, trespass and obstructing a government function.

BNSF Railway halted train traffic for about three hours Tuesday due to the protest, according to spokeswoman Amy MacBeth. She said a signal bungalow had been painted, but there was no damage to the tracks, and service resumed at 1 p.m.

Mary Kathryn Nagle, a partner at Pipestem Law, who represents the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center, said the protesters are correct in making a connection between the $3.8 billion Bakken crude pipeline and violence against native women.

"In the Bakken, since 2005, there has been a rapid increase in oil expansion. With that rapid increase has come an explosion of sex trafficking, domestic violence, sexual assault and murder," Nagle said. "Native women have had to bear the brunt of those increased crimes."

Nagle said the increase in crime against native women can be attributed to the location of oil development on tribal land, which is often remote and difficult for police to reach. When they do, jurisdictional issues often hamper criminal prosecutions, she said.

The Department of Justice Office of Violence Against Women highlighted the issue in its 2013 tribal consultation report and has since made grants to fund victim services for native women in the Bakken.

Nagle indicated she and NIWRC will be filing a brief in Standing Rock's suit against the Army Corps of Engineers, saying, in essence, that tribal consultation is especially important in this case, because the pipeline may ultimately bring more violence to native women.
The British government has no concrete plan for leaving the EU and may need six more months to form a negotiating strategy for apart from nearly 30,000 extra staff, a leaked memo published today claimed.

The memo, obtained by 'The Times', warns that civil servants are working on 500 Brexit-related projects and could need as many as 30,000 extra staff in the wake of the June referendum in favour of an exit from the 28-nation European Union.

"Every department has developed a 'bottom-up' plan of what the impact of could be - and its plan to cope with the 'worst case'. Although necessary, this falls considerably short of having a 'government plan for Brexit' because it has no prioritisation and no link to the overall negotiation strategy," the memo says.

The document, written by an unnamed consultant, is titled " Update" of November 7 and claims it will take another six months before the government decides precisely what it wants to achieve from Brexit or agrees on its priorities.

It criticises Prime Minister Theresa May, who it says is "acquiring a reputation of drawing in decisions and details to settle matters herself" - an approach it describes as being "unlikely to be sustainable".

The document also identifies cabinet splits between UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Brexit secretary David Davis and international trade secretary Liam Fox on one side, and UK chancellor Philip Hammond and business secretary Greg Clark on the other.

The UK government has dismissed the claims of the leaked Cabinet Office memo.

A UK government spokesperson said:"This unsolicited document has nothing to do with the government at all.

"It was produced by an individual from an external accountancy firm. It has no authority and we don't recognise any of the claims it makes. We are getting on with the job of delivering Brexit and making a success of it."

It is understood the memo was written by a consultant at the professional services firm Deloitte. It remains unclear as to who commissioned it but no ministers are believed to have seen it so far.

Chris Grayling, UK transport secretary who sits on the government's Brexit Cabinet Committee, said he had no idea where the report had come from and denied it had been commissioned by ministers.

"The process is complex but by no means the challenge that is set out in today's newspaper story. I have a team of people in my department who are working with David Davis on issues like aviation, but I do not see the scale of the challenge that is in today's newspaper," he told BBC.

The note follows a string of recent leaks highlighting dissent among senior figures about how May should approach Brexit. May has promised to start the process of leaving the EU by the end of March next year.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon voiced hope today that will "vary" his stance denying climate change as world leaders gathered in Morocco to keep a planetary rescue plan on track.

A week after the election to the White House of Trump, who has called global warming a "hoax" and has threatened to "cancel" the global pact, Ban said: "I am sure he will make a good, wise decision".

He has spoken to the president-elect, the UN secretary-general said, and he was "optimistic" that the business mogul "will hear and understand the seriousness and urgency of addressing climate change."

Ban was addressing journalists in Marrakesh before opening the "high-level segment" of an annual UN climate meeting -- the first since last year's adoption of the Paris Agreement to stave off calamitous global warming.

Trump's election has been uppermost on the minds of many delegates and negotiators gathered since last Monday to thrash out a roadmap for putting the agreement into action.

"I have explained at length about our expectations and our hope that... President-elect Trump will hear and understand the seriousness and urgency of addressing climate change," said Ban.

"As the president of the US I am sure he will understand this, he will listen, he will vary his campaign remarks," he added.

It was usual for campaigning politicians to engage in rhetoric, but a president had to understand "the reality of the whole world's problems," said the UN chief.

"No country, however resourceful or powerful, is immune from the impacts of climate change," he added.

"My sense is that as a very successful business person in the past... I believe that he understands that there are market forces already at work on this issue."

The hard-fought Paris Agreement set an objective of limiting average global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels by cutting planet-heating greenhouse gases from burning coal, oil, and gas.

Many fear that withdrawal by the United States, a champion of the deal under President Barack Obama, would shatter the political goodwill built up over years of negotiations, and put the very planet-saving goals of the deal at risk.
UN member states today condemned widespread human rights violations in North Korea and expressed concerns that funds needed to ease the dire humanitarian crisis are spent on Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs.

A resolution drafted by Japan and the European Union was adopted by a consensus vote in the General Assembly's committee on humanitarian affairs.

Following the vote, diplomats from China, Pyongyang's ally, Russia, Syria, Iran and Cuba took the floor to state they were disassociating themselves from the outcome.

The full General Assembly is expected to vote on the measure next month.

North Korea has conducted two nuclear tests this year and test-fired a series of missiles, even as 18 million North Koreans out of a total population of 25 million are facing food shortages, Japan's ambassador said.

"The authorities of the DPRK (North Korea), without regard to the plight of their own citizens, divert their limited resources to develop weapons of mass destruction," said Ambassador Koro Bessho.

"Such institutional decision itself is a human rights violation," he told the committee.

North Korean counsellor Ri Song Chol responded: "Japan should mind its own business."



Pyongyang "categorically rejects" the resolution, said the North Korean diplomat, describing it as one-sided and an "extreme manifestation of politicization."



The resolution for the third year encourages the Security Council to refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court for war crimes investigation.

Such a step appears unlikely, however, with China widely expected to use its veto to block such a measure.

The vote came as the United States and China were locked in negotiations on a new Security Council draft resolution to tighten sanctions on North Korea following Pyongyang's missile and nuclear tests.

The new sanctions are expected to target North Korean exports of coal to China among other measures, UN diplomats said.

The UN's new rights expert on North Korea, Argentine Tomas Quintana, is to travel to South Korea and Japan this week, his first visit to the region.

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US forces may have committed war crimes in Afghanistan from 2003-2004 by torturing prisoners in what appeared to be a deliberate policy, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has said.

Unveiling the results of a lengthy initial probe into atrocities in Afghanistan, prosecutor Fatou Bensouda yesterday said she would decide "imminently" whether to ask to launch a full-blown investigation -- and take the world's only permanent war crimes court into uncharted territory.

She stressed that the Taliban militia and the affiliated Haqqani network, Afghan government forces and US troops as well as the CIA all appeared to have carried out war crimes since the Islamic militia was ousted by a US-led invasion in 2001.

And she blamed the Taliban and its allies for the deaths of some 17,000 civilians since 2007 to December 2015 in a brutal insurgency with "numerous attacks" on schools, hospitals and mosques.

But for the first time, Bensouda highlighted allegations of "war crimes of torture and related ill-treatment, by US military forces deployed to Afghanistan and in secret detention facilities operated by the Central Intelligence Agency".

There was a "reasonable basis to believe that" during the interrogation of detainees, "members of the US armed forces and the US Central Intelligence Agency resorted to techniques amounting to the commission of the war crimes of torture" as well as cruel treatment and rape.

If Bensouda does ask judges to authorise a full-scale inquiry, the tribunal would be taking on its most complex and politically controversial investigations to date.

The former administration of president George W. Bush authorised the use of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques --including waterboarding -- after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Their use was abolished by President Barack Obama when he took over the White House in January 2009.

War crimes allegedly carried out by US forces were "not the abuses of a few isolated individuals," Bensouda insisted in her annual report to the 124 states that belong to the ICC.

Rather it appeared "these alleged crimes were committed" as part of "a policy or policies aimed at eliciting information through the use of interrogation techniques involving cruel or violent methods".

The aim was to "support US objectives in the conflict in Afghanistan".

Detailing her office's initial findings, Bensouda said "at least 61 detainees" were subjected to "torture (and) cruel treatment" by US armed forces in Afghanistan between May 1, 2003 and December 31, 2014.

"Members of the CIA" also appeared "to have subjected at least 27 detained persons to torture, cruel treatment... and/or rape on the territory of Afghanistan" as well as in secret detention centres in Poland, Romania and Lithuania between December 2002 and March 2008.

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Four Sikh truck drivers in the US have settled a discrimination case against an American trucking giant which will pay USD 260,000 in damages for denying them employment after they refused to cut their hair and remove their turbans for the company's drug tests.

The Sikh truck drivers reached a settlement agreement with J B Hunt trucking company following a seven-year federal investigation in which the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) found evidence that the company had discriminated against them due to their religious articles of faith, said a release issued by the Sikh Coalition, a Sikh civil rights organisation.

J B Hunt has agreed to pay USD 260,000 in damages as well as amend company policies and practices to comply with federal anti-discrimination laws.

The company will be obligated to train its hiring personnel on anti-discrimination laws and submit reports to the EEOC for the next two years about its workplace anti-discrimination efforts.

"I am relieved by this resolution because no one should have to face humiliation because of their religious beliefs," said lead complainant Jagtar Singh Anandpuri.

"I have been driving a truck for years, and I know there is nothing about my faith that interferes with my ability to do my job," he said.

Three complainants were denied accommodations after they informed the company that they could not cut their religiously mandated hair for drug testing.

The fourth client was denied an accommodation to the company's demand that he remove his turban while providing a urine sample.

In each case, JB Hunt automatically denied employment, despite the clients' otherwise impeccable job qualifications, the release said.

It added that the US Department of Transportation, which imposes safety standards and regulations on the commercial trucking industry, does not require hair sample tests for employment.

However, alternative forms of drug testing are available, including nail sample tests.

"Our clients repeatedly asked for alternatives within the drug testing regimes that would allow them to follow their religious tenets, and those requests were denied. Thankfully J B Hunt has finally switched gears and moved into the right lane to comply with federal anti-discrimination law," said the Sikh Coalition's Legal Director, Harsimran Kaur.

The Sikh Coalition represented the clients in this case since 2008. An estimated 500,000 Sikhs live in the US.

"Employers have a legal and moral duty to honour the religious identity and expression of their workers," said the Stanford Clinic's director, James A Sonne.

"This settlement encourages Sikh Americans everywhere, including at J B Hunt, that they can maintain their articles of faith without sacrificing their livelihood - as is their right, he said.

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Congress President Sonia Gandhi's visit to a private museum in South Goa took the staff of the facility by surprise.

Gandhi, who was on a private visit to Goa, yesterday walked into the Goa Chitra Museum located in Benaulim village, 40 km from here, at 4 pm without any prior intimation.

The Congress President left for Delhi today after her week-long visit to the state.

"In the morning, the security of a starred hotel had come to purchase the tickets and said that some special guest is going to visit. They never told that she is going to come," Victor Hugo Gomes, founder of the museum, told PTI today.

He said she was taken around by a guide who explained her various artefacts on display at this ethnography museum.

"She took interest in all the artefacts and was there for around 40 minutes. She saw the entire place and also inquired whether this is government or a private initiative," he added.

Gomes said that there was no VVIP fanfare around her visit.

"That is the respect a cultural centre should get," he added.

A restorer by profession, Gomes said that during the recently held BRICS, several heads of the State came to the Benaulim village (which hosted the event) but none visited the museum.

"I am very-very happy that Sonia Gandhi showed interest in such cultural centre," he said recalling how former Union Minister Kumari Selja too had visited the museum in the past without making any air about her VVIP status.

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Muslims of the country will not tolerate an "interference" with their personal law and give a "suitable" reply to the BJP in the coming Assembly elections on the 'triple talaq' issue, the leaders of All India Tanzeem Ulama-e-Islam (AITUI) said today.

"The (Narendra) Modi government is trying to push the country towards the RSS agenda. Sunni Muslims oppose the Law Commission's move to seek public opinion on abolishing triple talaq," said president of AITUI Mufti Ashfaq Hussain Qadri, adding that the minority community will give a "suitable" reply to the saffron party in the upcoming Assembly polls in a few states.

The body of Sunni Muslim scholars will take out a 'Parliament March' from Jantar Mantar on November 18 to express its opposition to the Centre and Uniform Civil Code (UCC), he told a press conference.

"Thousands of Muslims will gather at Jantar Mantar on November 18 and march towards Parliament in protest against the attempts of the Modi government to impose UCC. They oppose the proposals of the government to bring changes in the Shariat in the name of women's safety," said Qadri.

The issues of missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed and rights of Palestinians will also be included in the agenda, said Shujat Qadri, general secretary of the Muslim Students' Organisation of India.

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The World Medical Association today came out in support of Indian Medical Association (IMA) over its decision to protest against the Centre's proposed National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill, which seeks to replace the existing Medical Council of India (MCI).

Doctors affiliated to the Indian Medical Association had earlier said that they will hold a nationwide protest tomorrow against the government's proposal to dissolve the MCI and replace it with National Medical Commission, with the IMA dubbing the move as "undemocratic".

"The autonomy of the medical profession is under threat throughout the world and what is happening in India is likely to happen elsewhere. Physicians everywhere have to speak out against marginalisation of the medical profession and in support of professional autonomy which is essential for the good of high quality patient care.

"The new Commission proposed by the Indian government effectively means that non-doctors handpicked by the government will be regulating the medical profession without any autonomy. That is unacceptable," Ardis Hoven, Chair of the World Medical Association (WMA), said in a statement.

IMA has strongly opposed the proposed National Medical Commission Bill 2016, citing concern that the NMC will have non-elected members nominated by the government.

The existing Medical Council of India has 130 members, having a representative character with two-thirds elected and one-third nominated professional members representing the entire spectrum of professional stake holders.

"The proposed National Medical Commission, on the other hand, will have 19 handpicked members nominated by the government. It will be a 100 per cent nominated Commission with no representative character, mostly comprising non-doctors without any autonomy. This is undemocratic," K K Aggarwal, National President (Elect), IMA, said.

MCI has faced criticism from several quarters for alleged corruption in the top medical body.

The Supreme Court had earlier this year appointed a three-member Oversight Committee headed by ex-CJI R M Lodha to oversee functioning of the MCI, which regulates medical practice in the country, for at least a year.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping today called for a zero-tolerance attitude towards "electoral misconduct" as he cast his ballot at a polling station in Beijing to elect new deputies to the local people's congress.

Former presidents Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao voted by proxy.

Xi, who recently acquired the status of a "core leader" of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), cast his vote at a polling station in Huairentang, Zhongnanhai electoral district in Xicheng District of Beijing, along with over 1,200 others.

He arrived at the polling station, gave his elector's card to staff and got a ballot.

He cast his ballot after filling it, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

Xi said the county and township-level election supervised by the CPC requires adherence to the party's leadership, democratic spirit and acting in accordance with laws, to ensure the people's right to vote and the right to be elected.

He called for a zero-tolerance attitude toward "electoral misconduct".

About nine million people cast their ballots at 12,270 polling stations in Beijing today, to elect 4,373 new deputies to the people's congresses at district level, and 9,946 deputies to township-level people's congresses in Beijing.

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(Reuters) - Boeing Co , the world's biggest planemaker, said on Tuesday that it would cut 500 jobs over four years and shut two plants as it revamps its defence and space unit.

The company, which is shutting plants in El Paso, Texas and Newington, Virginia, said some jobs in Huntington Beach plant would move to El Segundo, Long Beach, and Seal Beach in Southern California.

Boeing also said many positions in Kent, Washington will move to nearby Tukwila.

The company said about 1,600 positions will move to Los Angeles County, California; 500 to St. Louis, Missouri and about 400 to Huntsville, Alabama as part of the consolidation. (http://bit.ly/2fuDKh2)

The changes related to job cuts and the consolidation were not material, a Boeing spokesman told .

The company also said it would create a new global operations group that would include its defence units in Australia, Saudi Arabia, and UK. The unit will he headed by David Pitchforth, managing director of the company's UK defence unit.

Boeing's defence, space and security business, which had about 48,000 employees as of Oct. 27, accounted for 31.4 percent of the company's total revenue of $23.9 billion in the latest quarter.

(Reporting by Ankit Ajmera and Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

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JAMESTOWN  Old age took the life of White Cloud, the iconic albino bison that drew visitors to Jamestown over her 20-year life span, died at her owners ranch Monday.

It was expected it would happen sometime, said Ilana Xinos, director of the National Buffalo Museum, Monday. It was not expected today.

During her time in Jamestown, White Cloud was the most notable member of her species residing in Jamestown, a city that has billed itself as the Buffalo City since the 1950s.

She will be missed by the museum, our city and by all the travelers that could look to the north and view her as they drove along I-94 (Interstate 94), said Don Williams, National Buffalo Museum president.

White Cloud was born in 1996 at the Shirek Buffalo Ranch near Michigan, N.D. She was released into the herd at the National Buffalo Museum in 1997 and had resided there until last spring when she was returned to the Shirek Buffalo Ranch due to ill health.

Genetic testing early in she life had revealed White Cloud was a true albino and also a genetically pure bison. Bison have a life expectancy of 20 to 25 years, according to the National Bison Association. Xinos said the white hair made it difficult for White Cloud to regulate her body temperature in the winter and summer and may have been a contributing factor to health problems.

She was old, said Ken Shirek, an owner of the Shirek Buffalo Ranch. We tried to do as much as we could for her in her old age.

Shirek said White Cloud had been fed corn and choice hay through the summer rather than putting her on a pasture where grazing could have caused stress.

During White Clouds 19 years in Jamestown,she was often featured in tourism advertisements.

She was always one of our No. 1 attractions, said Emily Bivens, office manager for Jamestown Tourism. People who came to town saw the Worlds Largest Buffalo and then would ask right away, Where are the white buffalo?

Xinos said an estimated 3 million people saw White Cloud during her years at the National Buffalo Museum. White Cloud also brought people who lived in the community to the Frontier Village and the National Buffalo Museum to see a rare bison, Williams said.

To me, White Cloud was more than a tourist attraction, he said. She drew many, many people to the community, but more than that, she brought the community together with White Cloud Days, parades and special Native American events.

White bison are held in reverence by many Native American cultures.

Dakota Miracle, one of White Clouds 11 calves born with the National Buffalo Museum herd and also a white bison that is assumed to be an albino, remains in the museum herd.

Xinos asked people with memories of White Cloud to share photos and stories on social media with the #WhiteCloud tag.

Future plans include a full body taxidermy mount of White Cloud as a display at the National Buffalo Museum. Fundraising for that project is just beginning, and donations can be sent to the White Cloud Preservation and Memorial Fund, c/o National Buffalo Museum, 500 17th St. SE, Jamestown, ND 58401.

With your support, she will be preserved for future generations, Xinos said.
In a vaguely worded release late on Monday, the independent directors of Tata Motors - owner of luxury automaker Jaguar Land Rover - backed Mistry's and company management's strategy saying that all decisions taken by the board of Tata Motors on strategy and operations had been "unanimous" and executed by the chairman and the management.

Mistry was ousted as chairman of Tata Sons, the holding firm that steers the $100 billion steel-to-software Tata empire, last month. Mistry has since been in a bitter public spat with Tata Sons and Tata family patriarch Ratan Tata, who has returned as interim chair of the group.

Tata Sons blamed Mistry's ouster on what it called a "breach of trust" and poor performance. Mistry in turn has faulted Tata Sons for poor governance structures and blamed Ratan Tata for many of the conglomerate's legacy issues.

The independent directors of Tata Motors did not give Mistry a unanimous public endorsement though, and opted to avoid taking sides in the feud.

A source close to Tata Sons told that an independent director brought forward a resolution at the Tata Motors board meeting on Monday, seeking to endorse Mistry in a similar manner as two other Tata group company boards, Indian Hotels and Tata Chemicals , had done earlier this month.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the resolution was opposed by another independent director and the guarded statement that was later issued was a "compromise."

The source admitted that the outcome however, was a setback for Tata Sons, which has already called for a number of special shareholder meetings to oust Mistry entirely from some of its group company boards.

Representatives for both Tata Sons and Cyrus Mistry were not immediately reachable for comment.

Mistry remains chair of several major Tata group companies including Tata Motors and Tata Steel . And despite his ouster as chair, Mistry remains a board member in Tata Sons, by virtue of his family's 18.41 percent stake in the holding firm.

Tata Sons is roughly two-thirds controlled by Tata Trusts, a group of philanthropic foundations led by Ratan Tata.

The group last week axed Mistry as chair of Tata Consultancy Services , a company in which Tata Sons owns an over 70 percent stake. But it has struggled to get him out from other subsidiaries where it only owns minority stakes.

The Tata Motors board met on Monday primarily to discuss the automaker's quarterly results. The company posted a net profit of 8.48 billion rupees ($125 million) in the three months ended Sept. 30. That compared with a net loss of 17.40 billion rupees in the same period last year.

Tata Global Beverages , will be the next company in the Tata conglomerate to report results this week. The board of Tata Global Beverages, which co-owns and runs Starbucks coffee stores across India, is set to meet on Tuesday. Mistry is also chairman of the Tata Global Beverages board.

(Additional reporting by Abhirup Roy; Editing by Greg Mahlich and Grant McCool)

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NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's trade deficit in October widened to $10.16 billion compared with $8.34 billion in the previous month as gold imports more than doubled to $3.5 billion from a year ago, government data showed on Tuesday.

Merchandise exports grew 9.6 percent year-on-year to $23.5 billion in October, while imports expanded 8.11 percent year-on-year to $33.67 billion, the data showed.

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar and Rajesh Kumar Singh; Editing by Malini Menon)

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By Paul Sandle

LONDON (Reuters) - Mobile telecoms group Vodafone reported a first-half net loss of 5 billion euros ($5.5 billion) on Tuesday after writing down the value of its Indian business by the same amount due to the start of a price war sparked by a powerful new rival.

Chief Executive Vittorio Colao said an improvement in its European markets was "modestly ahead" of expectations, led by Germany and Italy, but competition in India had intensified and was expected to hit its cash flow.

The three biggest players in the Indian market, leader Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular, have seen the market thrown into turmoil by the arrival of Reliance Jio Infocomm, which is backed by India's richest businessman Mukesh Ambani.

Jio has made an immediate impact with the launch of free calls and cut-price data services in September.

Colao said Jio's free trials were "unprecedented" and Vodafone was watching carefully to see that the promotions were limited to 90 days, as required by the regulator.

"Any company needs to start billing, that will be the moment when we will start seeing exactly how the market is going," he told reporters on Tuesday.

"For the time being, we have reduced our prices, we have increased our allowances, we made special offers for the value seekers in the market, but of course it's harder to assess the impact until players play by the same rules."

Vodafone has been looking to spin off its Indian business but said on Tuesday it would now wait for market conditions to stabilize before listing Vodafone India's shares. This would not happen before the end of March next year, it said.

"It's our intention to IPO as soon as market conditions improve in India," Chief Financial Officer Nick Read said.

Meanwhile Vodafone slightly lowered the top of its forecast range for the group's full-year earnings to 16.1 billion euros from 16.2 billion. The lower limit was left unchanged at 15.7 billion euros.

Citi analyst Simon Weedon said the cut at the top end was "somewhat pernickety", but he expected the market to be relieved that competition in India wasn't more damaging at this stage.

Vodafone's shares, which have fallen 15 percent in the last three months, were up 0.2 percent at 205 pence by 1115 GMT.

Customers in Europe were responding well to bigger data packages and network improvements, Colao said, and its 4G mobile broadband subscriber base had increased by 15 million to 39.3 million. Some 525,000 new customers had also taken its broadband service.

Like for like revenue growth accelerated in Germany and Italy in the second quarter, while a decline in its home British market improved as it continued to recover from problems caused by a new billing system.

"We expect to sustain our underlying performance in the second half of the year and remain on track to meet our full-year objectives despite macroeconomic uncertainties," Colao said.

Vodafone reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of 7.9 billion euros for the six months to Sept. 30, up 4.3 percent and beating a 7.8 billion euro consensus forecast.

Organic service revenue was up 2.4 percent in the second-quarter, it said, ahead of the 2.2 percent recorded in the first and beating forecasts of a slight decline.

($1 = 0.9262 euros)

(Editing by Kate Holton, Greg Mahlich)

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Investments by private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) funds declined around 25% to $1.19 billion across 58 deals in October 2016, compared to $1.63 billion in 65 deals in the year-ago period. However, sequentially, this was a 5.3% increase in value terms.
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Samsung Electronics has agreed to buy Harman International Industries in an $8 billion deal, marking a major push into the auto electronics market and the biggest overseas acquisition ever by a South Korean company.

The transaction highlights Samsung's efforts to break into the high-barrier automotive industry where it has little track record and also marks a strategic shift for the electronics company, which has previously shunned big acquisitions.

"An M&A deal this big is a first for us. But it shows that under Jay Y. Lee, the company is changing and open to new ways to grow," a source familiar with the deal told Reuters, referring to Samsung Electronics' vice chairman.

The purchase of the Stamford, Connecticut-based maker of connected car and audio systems is part of Samsung's search for new growth areas as its smartphone business - scarred by the withdrawal of the fire-prone Galaxy Note 7 - slows.

The greater use of electronics and software in vehicles, and the ability of cars to connect to smartphones and other devices, is offering technology companies with new business opportunities.

"We have been studying the automotive market for some time. We conclude that organic growth will not get us where we want to go fast enough," Young Sohn, President and Chief Strategy Officer of Samsung Electronics, said on a conference call.

"Samsung will not get into the business of manufacturing cars," he said.

Samsung, a maker of chips, displays, smartphones and TVs, agreed to acquire Harman for $112.00 per share in cash, a 28 percent premium to the U.S. company's closing price on Friday.

Harman shares rose 25.6 percent to their highest level in more than one year.

"Harman was missing, in our opinion, a meaningful presence in displays and cockpit electronics; Samsung has these," Baird Equity Research said in a report.

But investors in Samsung had reservations about the purchase price.

"Samsung is using its huge cash pile to pull ahead of rivals in the auto technology market. But it remains to be seen whether Samsung will be able to grow into a company that will be able to compete with the likes of Bosch and Continental," said fund manager Park Jung-hoon of HDC Asset Management, which owns Samsung Electronics shares.

Harman's products, which provide infotainment, telematics, connected safety and security services, are used in more than 30 million vehicles made by automakers such as BMW, Toyota Motor Corp and Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE), according to its website.

Harman earns around two-thirds of its revenue from its automotive-related business, and its automotive order backlog as of end-June stood at $24 billion, more than three times annual sales of $6.9 billion in fiscal 2016.

Samsung created an automotive electronics business team a year ago to look for opportunities in this area. This year it invested $450 million in Chinese automaker and rechargeable batteries firm BYD Co Ltd.

Separately, Samsung has held talks with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) over a potential sale or partnership for the latter's Magneti Marelli auto parts maker, sources have said.
The demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 bank notes has left the country in a major cash crunch.

The demonetisation fulled little anger among people as some of them are being unable to meet their daily needs due to short or lower denomination notes.

Another website, atmfinder.cms.com, also provides details of ATMs in different cities in India.


Intensifying the crackdown on laundering of illicit wealth, tax authorities are keeping a close vigil on jewellers to check if sales are being broken down into sub-Rs 2 lakh to avoid quoting of PAN.

After the government banned old 500 and 1000 rupee notes, gold and bullion are said to be favoured route for laundering of ill-gotten wealth. Gold was sold as high as Rs 50,000 per ten grams last week against the market price of Rs 31,000 as gold and bullion was said to be used to convert the debunked currency.

A 20-40 per cent haircut in the value of defunct currency was also being resorted to launder black money.

"PAN is mandatory for jewellery sale of over Rs 2 lakh. We are keeping a watch on jewellers to see if they are breaking their sales into parts of less than Rs 2 lakh," CBDT Chairman Sushil Chandra said.

Necessary action and penalty, he said, would be initiated wherever violations are found. "Whether it is deposit of cash or sale of goods in old currency note, we are keeping a watch and taking steps," he said after inaugurating the CBDT pavilion at IITF. The government is reportedly also looking at asking jewellers to deposit old high-value currency notes by a set date to prevent money laundering.

Also, there are fears that jewellers could show backdated cash sales. While jewellers and diamond traders usually show bills every week while depositing cash generated through sales, very high value deals in cash are often split in smaller amounts or stolen PAN number is cited on bills.

Industry insiders say the modus operandi is to use unaccounted gold stock against receipt of demonetised currencies at a heavily discounted rate.

Jewellers stayed open into the early hours soon after the Tuesday night announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw old 500 and 1000 rupee notes in the nation's biggest crackdown on black money, corruption and counterfeit currency. As much as 250-kg gold was reportedly sold in Mumbai within a few hours of the announcement.

Finance Ministry has ordered all its revenue intelligence agencies to join the crackdown on jewellers and hawala operators besides tracking movement of demonetised currency notes. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Directorate General of Central Excise intelligence (DGCEI) have now joined the income tax department in the crackdown.

The Income Tax department has sent around 600 notices to jewellers across 25 cities asking them to detail daily sales between November 7 and 10. Teams of DGCEI officials are also visiting major jewellery stores and their manufacturing units to serve notices seeking these details, sources said. Jewellers in major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Bhopal, Vijaywada, Nashik and Lucknow are initially under the scrutiny of the DGCEI officials, they said, adding that this exercise can later be extended to other cities too.


Apart from tracking cash deposits exceeding Rs 2.5 lakh made in banks during the 50-day window for old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, the Finance Ministry is also compiling data on the surge in deposits in hitherto zero- balance Jan Dhan accounts which will also face a 200% penalty if unexplained.

After withdrawing old 500 and 1000 rupee notes, the government has allowed the banned notes to be deposited in bank accounts or exchanged for new currency notes till December 30.

This has led to a sudden spurt in cash balances in millions of Jan Dhan accounts, opened under the government's scheme for beneficiaries to get their entitlements like LPG subsidy.

Tax Department is collating data on spurt in Jan Dhan accounts. It will analyse all data and impose tax plus a 200 per cent penalty in cases of unexplained high value deposits, the official said.

Misreporting of income invites a penalty of 200% of the tax payable under the new Section 270(A) of the Income Tax Act.

Those depositing Rs 3-5 lakh will have to pay a penalty of Rs 50,000 in addition to the tax of Rs 25,000 that will be levied on the hitherto undeclared amount. The total tax plus penalty of Rs 75,000 that such persons will have to cough up will work out to an effective rate of 15 %

But those depositing larger sums of Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore will end up paying a much bigger pentaly of Rs 27 lakh to Rs 56 lakh in addition to the tax which will take the effective rate of tax to the 81 % to 85% range.

"We would get the details of accounts in which more than Rs 2.5 lakh have been deposited. Any mismatch with income declared by the account holder will be treated as a case of tax evasion," Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said last week.

This would be treated as a case of tax evasion and the tax amount plus a penalty of 200 per cent of the tax payable would be levied as per the Section 270(A) of the Income Tax Act, he had said.

Under Section 12 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, tax department can ask for any information from any agency including the Reserve Bank of India and cooperative banks besides all scheduled banks.

To prevent misuse of the 50-day window provided for exchange of genuine holdings of the scrapped 500 and 1000 rupee notes, the tax department may resort to imposing tax and penalty even before annual Income Tax Return (ITR) is filed, the official said. Any unexplained source of income can be charged with tax and a 200 per cent penalty on it. That can happen before filing of ITR. No retrospective amendment is required if high value deposits are caught before filing ITR, he said.

At the same time the Finance Ministry has carried out series of advertisements in newspapers assuring people that their hard earned money is safe and depositing junked Rs 500/1,000 notes of up to Rs 2.50 lakh in bank accounts will not be reported to the tax department.

It has also stated that farm income continues to remain tax free and can be easily deposited in bank. Small businessmen, housewives, artisans, workers can also deposit cash in their accounts without any apprehensions, it has said. On farm income, the official said the tax department will match the acre of land the person has and the deposits made in the bank account.
Was it a security breach, a technical snag or just a logistical issue for delay in releasing the new Rs 500 note?

A day after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise announcement of demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 note to break the back of black money hoarders and counterfeiters, the Rs 2,000 note reached the banks' branches instantly, but the new Rs 500 note was conspicuous by its absence.







ALSO READ: Taxman's lens on surge in Jan Dhan accounts That has created a new problem as it is difficult to get change for a Rs 2,000 note. The new Rs 500 note has now landed at the banks after five days of the demonetisation announcement. What created the delay when such a big decision was taken to withdraw the high value notes from the market? RBI insiders dismiss the security breach or a technical snag theory and instead reason that the issuance of new notes is part of the overall 'roll out plan of currency'. "It is a step by step roll out. The delay was purely because of logistical issues," says an RBI official. There is, however, no denying the fact that the Rs 500 note has been under the attack of counterfeiters from across the border, especially Pakistan.



ALSO READ: Old cash can buy fuel & milk for 10 days more



In December last year, the Minister of State for home Haribhai Chaudhary blamed Pakistan in the Parliament. The minister said as per the inputs available, that high quality fake currency notes are printed in sophisticated presses located in Pakistan. "High quality fake currency notes seized in India and abroad, originate only from Pakistan, which has created a self sustaining criminal network in South and South-East Asian region for infusing fake currency into India via Nepal, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and UAE." Similarly, RBI data also clearly indicates that the Rs 500 note has seen the highest instances of counterfeiting followed by Rs 1,000. In 2015/16, RBI came across 2.61 lakh cases of fake Rs 500 notes as compared to 1.43 lakh cases of fake Rs 1,000 notes.



ALSO READ: Demonetisation: SBI to dispense Rs 20, Rs 50 notes soon



While these fake currency numbers as a percentage of total currency in circulation ( like 1,670 crore pieces of Rs 500 note and 632 crore pieces of Rs 1,000 note ) are too low and not even 1 per cent, but these fake currency numbers are the ones detected by the banks and the RBI. The actual fake currency in circulation could be much higher.

Globally, central banks keep on adding new security features in their currency to thwart the attempts of counterfeiters. The RBI had made the last big change in security feature in 2005 with a new series of bank notes.
The jewellery stocks slumped in early trade on Tuesday after the effects of demonetisation started hurting the sector.

Transactions in the sector are mostly done through cash. The citizens are reeling under a cash shortage after the government pulled out Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes on November 8.



PC Jeweller stock fell 26 per cent in early trade to Rs 288 on the BSE. It hit a new 52-week low of Rs 288 on the BSE.

Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri lost 12 per cent to Rs 60.50. The stock closed 14 per cent lower on the BSE.

Gitanjali Gems too fell 12.42 percent to Rs 55.70.

TV reports said tax authorities conducted nationwide raids on jewellers asking them to give an account of the gold sold last week after PM Modi announced demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes on November 8, 2016.


Anger, frustration and despair have pervaded the streets of India since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement last week to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes.

Long queues at ATMs are ubiquitous in the country, with the old, the young and the poor helplessly standing for their turn to withdraw cash at the ATMs.



This has posed the question - could the government and the Reserve Bank of India been better prepared?

Yes, the secrecy over the announcement may have been a reason for the government to act on logistical preparedness, but what could have the government done better. Let's take a look:

Dispensation of Rs 100 bank notes

According to reports, a week ahead of the announcement on demonetisation, the Reserve Bank had directed banks to recalibrate at least 10 percent or 20,000 ATMs to dispense Rs 100 notes only. The Central bank should have assessed the availability of Rs 100 notes at ATMs before the demonetisation.

The shortage of Rs 100 notes has proved to be a major challenge while transacting with high-value notes as railway counters, hospitals and petrol pumps themselves had largely run out of smaller currencies that needed to complete the transaction.

The Central government allowed use of old defunct currency at government hospitals, railway ticketing, public transport, airline ticketing at airports, milk booths, crematoria/burial grounds and petrol pumps. Scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes can also be used for paying household utility bills, fuel, taxes and fees and purchases from co-operative stores till November 24.

But due to shortage of smaller currencies any transaction worth less than Rs 500 or Rs 1000 has been troublesome. And, it is happening at almost all the places where government has allowed the use of old notes.



ATMs recalibration

All major banks' automated teller machines or ATMs are either out of service or have run out of cash. Delhi's busiest Metro intersection Rajeev Chowk has at least 5 ATMs, however all of them have run out of cash.

In metropolitan cities like Mumbai and Delhi, many ATMs of banks such as State Bank of India, ICICI Bank Ltd, IDBI Bank Ltd, HDFC Bank Ltd and Canara Bank were reportedly not functional.

Earlier on Monday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that it will take two-three weeks to recalibrate the ATMs across the country for the new notes. "It will be a slow process. Such a big cash replacement cannot happen in a mechanical way overnight," he said.

It clearly indicates that banks were not fully prepared to deal with the situation. The RBI should have made sure that all the banks' ATMs were fully operational.

Had it been the case, we would not have seen such long queues at ATMs. According to a survey, at least 44 per cent of people complained that ATMs did not work between November 11 and 13.

"With more than 9,000 citizens participating, 14 per cent said they had to wait for up to 2 hours, 8 per cent said they able to get cash in less than 10 minutes while 34 per cent did not visit an ATM," NDTV cited a survey.

Bankers and ATM service providers are facing two major issues-the quantum of money and logistic issues. The RBI should have coordinated with banks in order to avoid current cash-crunch.
A new report which measures the public pulse of entrepreneurship shows that uncertainty still remains in Ireland about the future of self-employment as mass immigration during the economic crash continues to leave a gap in the self-employed graduate pool.



The seventh annual Amway Global Entrepreneurship Report (AGER) surveyed 50,861 globally including 1,000 adults in Ireland.

The report shows that despite a positive mind frame, Ireland ranked lower for entrepreneurial potential compared to EU average due to a lack of skills amongst graduates. Under 35 year olds have the most positive attitude towards entrepreneurship with males being the more positive sex.



Furhermore, Irish men (43%) are more likely to start a business than their female counterparts (31%), displaying no changes in comparison to last year.



There is uncertainty about the future of entrepreneurship in the country. Twenty five percent think that people will be more likely to be self-employed while 26% think that self-employment will be as likely as today.



Prof. Dr. Jimmy Hill from the National College of Ireland commented, "Employment prospects in key industries such as IT and Financial services sector have increased and there is an almost insatiable demand for talent, especially graduates. However, as a result of mass immigration to countries like Australia during the economic crash, there is a lack of entrepreneurial graduates available especially for industries such as Research and Development. The lag time for new immigrants to realize their immense entrepreneurial potential is impacting AESI results to some degree."

Source: www.businessworld.ie

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The latest figures from the CSO show that Irish goods exports fell to 9.9bn in September. However, taking the first nine months of 2016 together, goods exports are up a robust 4.9%.

Non-pharmaceutical exports have grown by 4.3%. The trade in goods surplus in the first nine months equalled 34.1bn, up 9.9% on the same period of 2015. Overall, Irish export performance appears to be holding up well despite the appreciation of the euro against sterling.



Imports grew from 5.7bn to 6.1bn, so the trade surplus narrowed to 3.8bn.

The trade in goods surplus in the first nine months equalled 34.1bn, up 9.9% on 2015. Imports have grown by 6.2% in volume terms but by just 1.3% in nominal terms  helping to push up the trade surplus. This implies import prices have fallen by 4.7% in 2016, reflecting the euros strength against sterling.



According to Davy Stockbrokers, "Overall, Irish export performance appears to be holding up well given the sharp depreciation of sterling. That said, the euro has depreciated by 5% against the US dollar since the Brexit referendum, helping to limit the negative impact on competitiveness."

Source: www.businessworld.ie

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The latest Irish Consumer Spending Index (CSI) released by Visa today shows that the annual rate of expansion slowed to the weakest in almost a year-and-a-half.

Expenditure across all payment types (cash, cheques and electronic payments) rose +4.3% year-on-year, down from +5.0% in September and the weakest increase since May 2015.

The latest expansion was also slower than the average seen across the 26 months of the series so far. The latest slowdown in the rate of expansion continued a recent trend which has seen much weaker increases in expenditure than in the first half of 2016. Growth in overall spending was hampered by a reduction in expenditure in face-to-face categories.



Face-to-face spending was down -0.4% year-on-year, the first decline recorded in the series so far. This followed a marginal increase in the previous month.

In contrast, eCommerce spending rose at a considerable pace (+15.0% year-on-year). Moreover, the rate of expansion quickened to a four-month high, with the sterling exchange rate making UK online retailers a more attractive option. Recent Red C research findings have shown that 29% of consumers are already claiming to be shopping online more from the UK since the changes in exchange rates between sterling and the euro.



The index shows that wide divergences were also registered among the broad sectors monitored. Recreation & Culture remained the star performer, seeing spending rise +15.1% year-on-year. Meanwhile, Transport & Communication was the only other sector to see growth accelerate, with expenditure up +9.6% year-on-year. Solid, but slower increases in spending were also seen in the Hotels, Restaurants & Bars, Household Goods and Food & Drink categories.



Spending in the Clothing & Footwear sector continued to fall in the year to October. The latest reduction (-2.8% year-on-year) was the third in as many months and the sharpest in two years.

Country Manager at Visa Ireland, Philip Konopik said, "While it is very positive to have recorded the twenty sixth month of consecutive consumer spending growth, there were a couple of negative milestones in October. The fact that face-to-face spending recorded the first decline since the Visa Consumer Spending Index began is worrying for the Irish retail community, in particular for Clothing & Footwear experiencing a third month of contraction in a row. However, one of the busiest trading periods lies ahead, with Black Friday and Christmas offering a potential for bounceback."

Source: www.businessworld.ie

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Irelands cyber security conference - Dublin Info Sec 2016 took place at the RDS today with high-level sessions on Irelands cyber resiliency, protecting businesses from attack, human factors in cyber security and the whistleblower.



The conference highlighted the cyber security hazards and vulnerabilites facing businesses and organisations across the country and how to manage risk. New EU laws coming down the line on General Data Protection Regulation and the implications for Irish organisations were discussed at the national conference.



The conference opened with an in-depth look at Irelands Cyber Resiliency headed up by Cyberpsychology expert Dr. Mary Aiken, along with Cyber Security Consultant Brian Honan and Joseph Carson, Cyber Security Strategist.



Carson claimed Ireland faces threats to its cyber security from external operators given its role as a key gateway for US and EU trade. He warned that food supplies, fuel, utilities and medical services are all potentially at risk from major cyber war.



He further warned that Ireland is at risk of cyber attack because of its key Atlantic position. Carson believes the best defence is to decentralise. He claims the best way to combat the threat of cyber attacks is to build digital alliances with foreign allies which mitigates the chances of an individual country becoming compromised completely.



Private and public sector cyber security specialists at Dublin Info Sec 2016 provided delegates with the latest research, tools and technologies to reduce risk and protect against security breaches in organisations.



An Tanaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality, Frances Fitzgerald TD addressed the national cyber security conference, "This important conference reflects the breadth and complexity of the issues that arise in the cyber security field. Along with our increasing reliance on digital services and technology is an increasing level of awareness of the risks and threats we face to our digital assets - be they websites or social media channels, portals, our databases including personal data, data centres and the rest of it."

She added, "We live in a digital world where everything is becoming interconnected, bringing huge opportunities for business and society. Our homes are becoming smarter from TVs to fridges, alarms, heating and air conditioning. All of these are being networked and accessible for personal convenience and enhanced control. With this new level of accessibility and interconnectedness comes new risks and dangers."

Source: www.businessworld.ie

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Britain has no overall strategy for leaving the European Union and splits in Prime Minister Theresa May's cabinet could delay a clear negotiating position for six months, according to a memo for the government that was leaked to The Times newspaper.

The document, prepared by consultancy firm Deloitte for the government department that supports the prime minister and her cabinet, casts Britain's top team in a chaotic light: May is trying to control key Brexit questions herself while her senior ministers are divided and the civil service is in turmoil.

"The Prime Minister is rapidly acquiring the reputation of drawing in decisions and details to settle matters herself - which is unlikely to be sustainable," according to the document, dated Nov. 7 and published by The Times.

"It may be 6 months before there is a view on priorities/negotiation strategy as the political situation in the UK and the EU evolves," said the document, titled "Brexit Update".

May's spokeswoman said the Deloitte memo was unsolicited, had nothing to do with the government and had no credence. Deloitte declined immediate comment.

"It was not commissioned by the government," May's spokeswoman told reporters. "It does seem as though this is a firm touting for business now aided by the media."

But such a disorderly portrayal of the government underscores both the extent of the turmoil unleashed by the June 23 vote to leave the EU and the uncertainties ahead as May tries to pull Britain out of the world's biggest trading bloc.

Like the Brexit vote, Donald Trump's victory in the United States has underscored how swiftly assumptions are being turned upside down, pushing governments, investors and chief executives into the unknown.

The pound fell as much as 1.3 percent to 87.07 pence per euro following the memo leak before recovering to 86.92 pence. It also lost more than half a percent to $1.2417.

'NO COMMON STRATEGY'

The memo said no common strategy had emerged, partly as a result of splits within the government and partly due to the evolving political situation in the rest of the EU where both France and Germany face major elections in 2017.

May's cabinet is split, with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Trade Minister Liam Fox and Brexit Minister David Davis - who all campaigned to leave the EU - on one side and finance minister Philip Hammond and Business Secretary Greg Clark - who wanted to remain - on the other, according to the memo.

May's priority, it said, is survival and keeping her ruling Conservative Party together, rather than business or economic considerations.

"Industry has 2 unpleasant realisations - first, that the Government's priority remains its political survival, not the economy," the memo said.

"Second, that there will be no clear economic-Brexit strategy any time soon because it is being developed on a case-by-case basis as specific decisions are forced on Government."

The document also said that "major players" in industry were likely to "point a gun at government's head" to secure assurances similar to that given to carmaker Nissan that it would not suffer from Brexit.

"The public stance of Government is orientated primarily to its own supporters, with industry in particular barely being on the radar screen - yet," it said.

Government departments were working on more than 500 Brexit-related projects and might require an additional 30,000 civil servants, it said.

If the Supreme Court forces the government to give lawmakers a say on triggering the formal talks to leave the bloc, some ministers might be happy to see more radical Brexit options watered down, the memo said.

May has promised to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which kicks off two years of talks with Brussels, by the end of March but she has so far given little away about her plans for Britain's future relationship with the bloc.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that Britain must be clear about its aims for Brexit by the end of March. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie
Tesco's sales are rising at the fastest pace for three years, industry data showed on Tuesday, signalling the recovery at Britain's biggest supermarket group is gathering pace.

Shares in the company climbed as much as 4% after market researcher Kantar Worldpanel said Tesco's sales grew by 2.2% year-on-year in the 12 weeks to Nov. 6, boosting its

share of Britain's grocery market to 28.2% from 27.9% this time last year.

The stock has risen 43% so far this year, with the firm reporting three straight quarters of underlying sales growth in its main British market. Last month's Kantar report also showed Tesco growing its UK market share for the first time

in five years.

Kantar highlighted that most of Tesco's gains came from its own-label products, both its cheaper "Farm Brands", launched in March to encourage shoppers to return from discounters Aldi

and Lidl, and its more upmarket "Finest" range. It also noted more affluent shoppers returning to Tesco.

While Tesco's momentum continues to build, Aldi and Lidl saw their sales growth fall to the slowest rate since 2011, up 10.2% and up 6.1% respectively, Kantar said.

But Kantar noted the discounters are still attracting new shoppers, helped by continuing store openings. Britain's other major supermarkets - Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons - saw sales declines of 0.7%, 5.0% and 2.4% respectively, though Morrisons' fall reflected the closure of some stores.

Overall, UK grocery sales increased 0.8% in the 12-week period.

Kantar also said deflation in Britain's supermarket sector weakened to 0.5% in the 12 weeks to Nov. 6 and predicted that after more than two years of deflation prices could start to rise in the coming months.

"We're likely to see prices starting to creep up again in December, unless retailers choose Christmas to unleash a new round of price cuts," said Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel.

"Although it's tempting to link any potential price increases to Brexit and the devaluation of sterling, it's worth remembering that deflation has been easing since December last year, well before the (June) referendum."

Official data published on Tuesday showed UK consumer prices rose 0.9% in October compared with a year ago. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie

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Its International Education Week at Utah State University. On KVNUs For the People program on Monday Monika Galvydis, the study abroad program director for the university, and Chris Peltier, the associate director for international recruitment explained the program. Galvydis said that study abroad numbers are low both at the university and nationally, but there are good reasons to study abroad.

I think its important for students to have the experience. And its more than its just a great time to go abroad, they get really good transferable skills that they are able to bring to jobs, their future. So I think its really important to improve their lives, said Galvydis.

And theres actually really great statistics, its not just anecdotal statistics that say Oh go abroad, youll have a great time. Its really academically studied and documented benefits that students receive from that experience.

Peltier, on the other hand, works to draw international students to Utah State. Its beneficial for the students and the university.

He said, I think for the students that are overseas, the families know the value of an education in the U.S. So I dont have to talk about how the United States is the best place to get an education. And for the students that are here they definitely get skills. Some of these students cant get into universities in their country because theyre so impacted, theres just too much crowding in countries like India.

Among the events during International Education Week, Galvydis will debunk the myths of studying abroad to hopefully increase participation. Her talk will be held in the TSC auditorium on Wednesday at 3 p.m.

Other events include the always-popular Mr. & Miss International Contest. That will be held Friday night at 7 p.m. in the same location. The week concludes with the Diwali-annual Festival of Light event on Saturday night from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m in the TSC Ballroom. For more information: https://www.usu.edu/today.
The following graph, in various forms, is making the rounds:

[Image removed.]

The suggestion of the graph (and usually of commentary by those who share it) is that Sec. Hillary Clinton lost to President-elect Donald Trump because Democrats didnt turn out to vote for her like they did for President Obama.

The idea is that Hillary Clinton was a historically unpopular candidate. This is true. Second only to Donald Trump, she was the least liked candidate of all time, at least since anyone has been keeping track. Her career, though long and accomplished, has been plagued by scandal, much of which surfaced in the final weeks of her campaign. It makes sense that maybe Clinton just didnt get enough Obama voters to show up at the polls.

Im unsure the source of the data. It may be completely accurate, but even if so it is misleading. As Carl Bialik wrote last week for FiveThirtyEight, On average, turnout was unchanged in states that voted for Trump, while it fell by an average of 2.3 percentage points in states that voted for Clinton. Relatedly, turnout was higher in competitive states  most of which Trump won.

So turnout was depressed for Clinton, but apparently only in those states that she won. Low turnout, then, cant explain why she lost the states she didnt win. And, in fact, this doesnt even capture the phenomenon accurately, since she is on track to win some states by a greater margin than Obama did in 2012. Thus, depressed turnout in the states she won might mean fewer Republican-leaning voters there and not that she failed to turn out her Democratic-leaning base.

When we look at the states Trump won, and swing-states in particular, at least two things seem necessary: 1) Trump won many voters who had previously voted for Obama. 2) Trump actually did bring some voters to the polls who had not voted in recent elections, as he claimed he would do.

That many voters who voted to reelect Barack Obama, our first African American president, would four years later vote for a man who questioned Obamas citizenship and whose campaign was plagued by association with alt-right, white identity politics suggests that issues of race were not important to these voters. Of course, that doesnt mean that race wasnt an important factor for other voters, nor that these voters dont actually care about racism in general, but only that this narrative, just like any other, has limits and flaws.

Digging into voter exit poll data from this highly contentious election has been insightful to me for this very reason. Like anything in life, it paints a much more complex and layered picture than what many people would like to admit. Even as one of the big stories of this election is the failure of polls to correctly indicate the winner beforehand, the exit poll data we have has the opposite and complementary effect of the many criticisms of the pre-election polls: It complicates our assumptions and points to the limits of the stories we like tell ourselves. Data has limits, but so do narratives.

My concern over the last week has been to point to these limits not for the sake of gotcha punditry but rather humility. Any knowledge worthy of the name ought to be accompanied by humility. At least since Plato, philosophers have repeated the dictum that the more we learn, the more we discover we do not know.

All of this amounts to a challenge to rationalism. By rationalism, I do not simply mean reason. Without reason we couldnt know anything. But rationalism is the belief that human reason can explain everything. If that were true, there could not be anything beyond our ability to know and comprehend. But from a Christian point of view, this is an essential tenant of the faith.

In perhaps the most terrifying passage of the Old Testament, at the end of the book of Job the Lord speaks out of an ominous whirlwind to answer Jobs questions  by asking Job a ton of questions he cant answer. Job struggled with the problem of evil: Why do bad things happen to good people? (In particular, why did bad things happen to Job?) He and his friends had a long debate over the nature of God and justice, only to end with no resolution, until God shows up.

On the one hand, God honors Jobs request to appear before him and argue his case. On the other hand, God reminds Job how little he really knows, saying,

Who is this who darkens counsel

By words without knowledge? (Job 38:2)



A lot of pollsters are probably feeling like Job at the moment:

What shall I answer You?

I lay my hand over my mouth. (Job 40:4)

Im less optimistic about the pundits, however. For many, this is a time to lay blame on others. For others, its time to gloat. In the midst of it all, the voices of real people who once again took the time to participate in our democratic process can get drowned out.

Some fear a Trump presidency over worries of how some of his most radical supporters might be emboldened. (Trump himself actually spoke out against this sort of thing on 60 Minutes last night, even if downplaying his own knowledge of it.) Others celebrate Trumps victory, feeling that finally someone has listened to them. In reality, both are justified in their beliefs to some degree. But we run the danger of losing all of that and more amidst the words without knowledge of overly simplistic commentary.

All this is not to say that anyone who shared the graph at the start of this post is some self-serving huckster looking for Facebook likes or even that they are therefore rationalists. I almost shared it myself, in fact. It is interesting, and Im thankful that someone shared it with me. Rather, my point is only to highlight that while turnout is another piece of the puzzle, it also turns out to be more than it appears. Correcting our assumptions about the existence of unexplainable aspects of reality can help us maintain our humility and safeguard against making hasty conclusions, mistakenly presuming that all of reality can fit into our heads, even as we admirably seek to know all that we can.

For those of us who are religious, at least, practicing that humility is something that ought to be considered essential to our faith.
CAMEROUN :: Cameroon: Intensification of fight against ivory trafficking

A man was arrested in Yaounde on November 7,, 2016 for illegal possession of over 15 ivory pieces including carved statuettes during an operation that was carried out by wildlife officials from the Centre Regional Delegation of Forestry and Wildlife working in collaboration with police from the 10th District. The man who sells carved ivory objects among other carved objects was arrested as he attempted to sell the ivory in a popular neighbourhood in Yaounde.

Eyewitness accounts say he has been regularly selling ivory objects and this was bad fortune for him as this time around he fell into the hands of wildlife officials. The same accounts hold that he is regularly supplied ivory objects by sculptors who buy raw ivory and carves them into objects. He attempted to resist arrest as wildlife officials and policemen swooped in on him to find plastics bags containing ivory objects.

This is the third arrest involving carved ivory within a week as a couple of days earlier a man was arrested in Melong in the Littoral Region for trafficking in wildlife products. Earlier another trafficker was arrested in Dschang in the West Region and he was found in illegal possession of several carved ivory objects. He owned a shop and investigations show this was his base from where he had been doing business for quite a long time.

These arrests fall within the framework of governments wildlife law enforcement initiative that was started in 2003 with the prime objective being to track, arrest and prosecute all those breaking the 1994 wildlife law. According to the law, anyone found in possession of a protected wildlife species is considered to have killed or captured the animal and is liable to a prison term of up to 10 years if found guilty. The aim of this law is to protect species that are seriously in danger of extinction following unsustained poaching and selling of their parts. The successful implementation of the law is assisted by an international wildlife law enforcement NGO.

It is within this framework that government has successfully carried out hundred of arrest of wildlife law offenders among them several ivory trafifickers. The rising prices of ivory in the international market is stimulating the poaching of Africas elements to satisfy demand in these markets. A recently published report says an elephant is killing every 15 minutes and in recent years around 30 000 elephants are killed each year for their ivory. This situation is rapidly deteriorating with the increase in ivory trafficking. Governments are tackling the problem through several measures. The Cameroon government burnt 6 tons of ivory in April this year as an attempt to sending a strong message that protecting the elephants of the country is a top priority and that they are not carving in to traffickers.
| BY Ricki Green |

Wellbeing communications expert, author and founder of Brand New Solutions communications agency, Gillian Fish (left), has today announced the re-launch of the firm as The 6AM Agency, in a partnership with PR and communications industry leader, Chris Savage (right).

The 6AM Agency, with a decade-long heritage of deep specialisation in wellbeing and good living PR, will focus on delivering insights-led creative story telling which engages audiences with relevance and authenticity, across earned, owned and paid.

Says Fish, founder and CEO, The 6AM Agency: As a new dawn settles on a shifting landscape, we too have evolved into a new breed of communications agency. Meaningful audience engagement requires a continually evolving agility. Data-driven insights, brilliant strategy, outstanding creativity and superb multi- channel execution are all mandatory.

The 6AM Agency is uniquely positioned to deliver real value for clients. It leverages its deep public relations heritage and wellbeing specialisation to help brands grow through powerful, relevant engagement, building trust and action.

Audiences are seeking not only functional advice around wellbeing, but on-going trusted partner relationships which provide community and which support their very personal wellbeing and good living journeys. This provides unique opportunities for brands to truly innovate and engage in long term conversations. Thats The 6AM Agencys specialty.

Says Savage: The PR industry has to move fast to remain relevant in new age communications. Gillian Fishs The 6AM Agency has the specialisation, leadership, team, ambition and relentless drive to be one of the communication industry leaders, today and tomorrow. It already leads in wellbeing communications, and is now going much broader. Thats why I am backing it. Ive never felt more excited and sure of an agencys ability to set a new standard in the broader communications industry.

The 6AM Agency is about being one step ahead. Its all about alertness, creativity and action. Its in the moment. Every hour. Every day. This is what clients need and want.

The 6AM Agency has also announced senior new appointments.

Kim Feitelberg has been appointed head of strategy. Former executive head of strategy, Ogilvy South Africa and most recently as strategic consultant at BMF, Australia, takes the lead role as head of strategy, with a clear mandate to put creative strategy coupled with commercial intelligence front and centre of campaign thinking.

Amy Friedlander has been appointed digital strategic advisor. Friedlander founded a digital strategy consultancy and is a former account director at Mark/M&C Saatchi, leading the Google consumer marketing account as well as Qantas digital amongst others. Friedlander recently exited an educational app start-up, Wasabi productions, which she expanded to and led in the USA. Friedlanders 6AM remit is to advise on integrated communication strategies which penetrate media bubbles and enable brands to engage with audiences in the fast paced social, mobile and algorithm driven landscape.

Founded in 2002, the agency was built on the foundations of good health and lifestyle, with a deep passion for evidence-based wellbeing, renowned for its work with world leading brands and experts in complementary therapies and integrative healthcare.

Today The 6AM Agency has a multinational client base across Australia, Japan and the United States providing PR, content, influencer and social services.
| BY Ricki Green |

Initiative Australia has announced the appointments of Tristan Burrell (left) as national chief strategy officer and Shaun Briggs (right) as managing director of the Melbourne agency. Their appointments follow news that Melissa Fein will be Initiative Australias new CEO.

Says Fein: These are crucial hires and central to how we build the future of Initiative and our client relationships. Both Tristan and Shaun are superstars and I am truly looking forward to welcoming both into the senior leadership team.

Burrell has been with Mediabrands for 10 years and is returning to Australia after more than 4 years working in New York. He is currently global head of strategy and ideas UMs J3 agency. Originally with UM in Sydney, Burrell won the global Cannes Young Lions Award in 2009 and was involved in award-winning work for UM Australia clients including Microsoft, Xbox, Meat and Livestock Australia and the Federal Government.

He relocated to further his career in New York and contributed to award-winning campaigns for the Rogaine and Clean & Clear brands in the US. He also helped lead strategy for major new business wins in the USA including the global Johnson & Johnson business and Coca-Cola USA.

Briggs is currently general manager of Dentsu Mitchell and before that he was head of client services at Mitchell & Partners. He will start work at Initiative Melbourne at a date to be fixed.

Says Mark Pejic, chairman of IPG Mediabrands Melbourne of Briggs: Right from the outset Shaun was our first pick to lead Initiative Melbourne. I have worked extensively with him in the past across many client portfolios and he has a great eye for media strategy and outcomes, as well as being highly respected by clients and a great team leader.
| BY Ricki Green |

Photographer and former art director, Jay Hynes launches his new photography exhibition I saw a at Lot Four Studio in Cremorne this Thursday, 17 November.

A departure from his commercial work, these photos were taken during an overseas trip to Italy, Croatia and Germany. The exhibition showcases Hyness subtle observances of life  at times amusing, at others poignant.

Says Hynes: I was lucky enough to get to Europe during Melbournes winter/ I didnt have a plan for a photo series. I took my old Canon 5D and one lens and thought, Ill see what happens.

What happened was completely unexpected, even for Hynes.

Says Hynes: On day one, I shot an image of an Italian flag waving in the afternoon sun. That night I posted it on Instagram with a really simple caption, I saw a flag in Rome today. People seemed to like that, so the next day I did something similar.

Quite by accident, the simple device of starting the captions with I saw a became the idea behind the series.

By the end of the trip, Hynes had amassed around thirty posts  and a fair few worthy shots that hadnt yet seen the light. Hed enjoyed some traction on social media and there were suggestions of an exhibition. So Hynes took the plunge.

Says Hynes: I thought it was a good way to show a different side to my work than the commercial stuff. And also a chance for creatives to get together and drink some free beer.

The exhibition runs for three days only  Thursday 17 (6pm to 10pm), Friday 18 (11am to 5pm) and Saturday 19 November (11am to 5pm). Get along to the launch at Lot Four Studio, 4 Railway Place, Cremorne, if youre keen on the free beer.
The final issue of Religion & Liberty for 2016 is now available online. It will explore a breadth and depth of topics, including the ten dollar founding father, why we need those dollars, the danger of a utopian dream and more.

For the main feature, Victor Claar interviews Vernon Smith, who won the Nobel Prize for economics in 2002. He describes the relationships among many things we might not think are connected, especially the interplay between economics, science and religion.

Bruce Edward Walker revisits the 1941 book Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler. He was intimately familiar with the lies and horrors of totalitarianism, as he faced political prison in Spain and a French concentration camp. Walker implores the current generation to read Koestler and reject the creeping norm of socialism.

Money matters, Dylan Pahman argues in a new essay. He comments on the frequently misquoted words of the Apostle Paul, who said, For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil

This issues Double-Edged Sword looks at Luke 2 and the story of a young Jesus staying at the temple while his family continued home.

Rev. Anthony Perkins wants to look objectively at and understand Ukraine. Between Russias active campaign to spin its history and the Wests own agenda, its a difficult thing to do. Perkins reviews Serhii Plokhys The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine and finds this to be a valuable tool in discovering the truth behind the propaganda.

Actons executive director, Kris Mauren, looks ahead to 2017. In the FAQ, he answers the question, What can we expect from Acton in 2017?

Though he died in 1804, 2016 may be the year of Alexander Hamilton. Thanks to Lin-Manuel Mirandas hit Broadway musical Hamilton, many people are learning the story of one of Americas most important founders. While theres plenty of focus on the man, what about the woman who helped make him great? This issues In the Liberal Tradition looks at the life of Americas oldest Revolutionary War widow, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, and her tireless work to help societys most downtrodden.

To conclude, Rev. Robert Sirico reflects on economic freedom and the interest in socialism and communism by Americas young: Its as if were forced collectively to suffer the death of a great nation by a thousand cuts rendered by overweening regulations, taxation and government incursions enabled by a thinly veiled political hostility to religious faith.
"We want to have a creative space where we have a lot of highly skilled people all under the one roof - so when someone comes along with a product idea they'll basically have access to people who can help them every step of the way," Preston said.
The company said that it has separated Cyta Hellas from the rest of the Cyta group, in order to open the prospect of strategic options with potential investment partners.

The decision was confirmed by Cyprus government, which said that 100% of Cyta Hellas would be sold before Cyta itself is privatised. The government said that it would sell Cyta Hellas through a competition and that it was inviting expressions of interest from investors.

Cyta has 300,000 consumer and business subscribers in Greece, where it competes mainly against Deutsche Telekom-controlled OTE.

The company said in a statement: The environment of economic uncertainty and constant changes in Greece creates major new challenges daily for all the telecoms industry companies.

Cyta has invested 200 million in its Greek operations over eight years, where it has built 5,500km of fibre and set up 500 service points. The company stood out in the market, it said, but reports point out that it has been consistently loss-making, and has an estimated 60 million of debts.

The Cyprus Weekly newspaper quotes an unnamed source suggesting that Cyta might get no more than 30-40 million for the Greek operation.

Mobile operator Wind Hellas was named in April as possibly interested in acquiring Cyta Hellas. Wind Hellas  once owned by Telecom Italia and then by Orascom  was rescued from financial difficulties in 2010 by a group of local investors.
Benchmark Litigation has published its 2017 directory of leading law firms and the personal injury firm of Cunningham Bounds LLC received Benchmark's top ranking of "Highly Recommended - Local Litigation Firms."

Cunningham Bounds was one of only 10 law firms in Alabama to receive this honor.

In addition to Cunningham Bounds' firm ranking, seven of its attorneys were named "Local Litigation Stars" in this year's guide: Greg Breedlove, Joseph "Buddy" Brown, Toby Brown, David Cain Jr., Robert Cunningham, George "Skip" Finkbohner, and Steve Olen. This edition of Benchmark Litigation also noted Robert Mitchell on its "Future Stars" list.

Firms and attorneys cannot pay to be recommended for the directory. As noted in the publication, "the results of Benchmark Litigation stem from the culmination of a six-month research period where researchers conduct extensive interviews with litigators and their clients to identify the leading litigators and firms. Firms making the statewide list are considered dominant in their areas, and were recommended as reputable and effective litigators by both clients and peers.

Law firms in each local market were divided into "highly recommended" and "recommended" categories. All listed firms were consistently mentioned by peers and clients, but the 'highly recommended' firms received the most mentions and were held as dominant in their particular jurisdiction."

The list of "Local Litigation Stars" for each state reflects only those individuals who were recommended consistently as reputable and effective litigators by clients and peers. The list of "Future Stars" in each state reflects those partners who were consistently referenced by peers and clients as litigators who are likely to be become "Local Litigation Stars."

For more information on the Benchmark Litigation rankings, visit: www.benchmarklitigation.com.

The personal injury law firm of Cunningham Bounds LLC, founded in 1958, is based in Mobile, Alabama and has been representing plaintiffs for more than 50 years. Today, the firm continues its tradition of representing victims in cases involving catastrophic injury caused by work related accidents, defective products, truck and automobile accidents, and medical malpractice. The firm also has expertise in business litigation, complex litigation, and national and state class action litigation involving defective products and consumer rights.

For more information, please visit www.cunninghambounds.com.
It is a week since Mexicos Secretariat of Communications and Transport (SCT) told Rivada, led by Irish businessman Declan Ganley, that its bid was invalid because it did not include a bond for one billion pesos ($49 million).

That left only one Mexican consortium, Altan, bidding for the countrys Red Compartida (shared network) project, designed to be a carrier neutral wireless network that would reduce the power of dominant operator America Movil.

The SCT has backed its decision to exclude Rivada with a detailed summary of what it sees as the companys failure to include a bond, and Rivada has responded with a point-by-point statement, adding that it plans to take the issue to the Mexican courts.

Rivada did not comply with the terms and conditions established in the tender rules for the submission of the bid bond, said the SCT in its statement. The bid bond had to be submitted within the technical bid on October 20th 2016, at the act of proposal submission. Not submitting the bid bond in accordance to the terms and conditions of the tender rules is cause for disqualification,

Rivada responded: The Rivada Consortium fulfilled the requirements set out in the competition rules, including having delivered the bid security. The time at which the Rivada Consortium delivered the bid security to the SCT does not constitute a substantive deficiency of its proposal.

It adds: The SCT did not demand the delivery of the Rivada Consortiums bid security, as established by the applicable regulatory framework.

The consortium says it will submit the case to the consideration of the federal courts of the country.

Rivada has asked a court to allow the consortium to be readmitted to the bidding.

The group said: The Rivada Consortium is confident that its arguments will be analysed with autonomy and responsibility by the federal courts of the country. Mexico is a great country and an attractive destination for the investment. The Rivada Consortium will persevere in its efforts to preserve the legal principles and the enormous benefits that underpin the shared network.
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Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact.

Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here.

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You are our people. You Care. We Care2.
The United States of America is still the number one choice for Indian students aspiring to obtain higher education overseas. In the 2015-16 session the number of Indian students studying in the US has increased marginally by 25% from the previous year.

At present, there are about 165,918 Indian students studying in US, contributing over 5.6 billion US dollars to the American economy. Indian students alone comprise of 15.9% of the 1 million and odd foreign students in the US for 2015-16.

The overall contribution of foreign students to the US economy is $35 billion according to reports from 2016 Open Doors data released by the Institute of International Education (IIE) in collaboration with the US department of state's bureau of educational and cultural affairs. [You might to know more about: Stanford Univ Makes Education Affordable, Waives Tuition Fees For Poor]

According to the data, India and China are among the top contributers, while the increase in Chinese students going abroad is about 8% only, Indian students continue to flock to the US rising the number to about 25%. However, remains in the first position, sending about 3.28 million students to the US for higher education.

Experts owe the rise in Indian students choosing USA to the ease in entry norms to the US and the country's highest priority to maintain people-to-peole contact. [Interesting read: Educational background of US President Elect Donald Trump]

The dip in UK bound students due to stringent rules on post-study visa norms has also contributed to the rise.

Also the stabilisation of the Indian rupee against dollar over the past couple of years has also motivated Indian students to come to the US for higher education. Also read: US B-Schools Increase Scholarships By 40% To Attract Indian Students

The number of Indian students to the UK halved to 2000 in five years primarily due to restriction in post-study visa and India's refusal to treat UK's one-year master's degree courses on par with two-year post-graduate degrees back home.

Read more about the reasons as to why UK is losing its popularity among Indian students

Nearly 85% of Indian students head to five countries: the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. China and Germany are also emerging as study abroad destinations.
Property/casualty insurance executives may be worried about disrupters discovering novel ways to connect with their hard-earned policyholders, but an insurance regulator with a reputation for jumpstarting change sees positive motivations for industry action on the horizon.

What theyre really doing is they are forcing the industry to be very honest with itself, look itself in the mirror and say, We had better meet this challenge. We had better figure out what our policyholders want. We better get from point A to point Z, or we are going to lose them,' North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Adam Hamm told Carrier Management in a September interview.

Asked about the creation of InsurTech competitors that include peer-to-peer insurers, on-demand coverage providers and underwriting platforms using social networking reputations instead of credit scores, Hamm delivered two calls to action. It incentivizes the insurance industry to stay on the top of its game. And it incentivizes us as regulators to do the same thing and to work with the industry, he said.

We have the largest, most competitive insurance market on planet Earth. If we want to stay there, then we are all going to have to figure out ways to deal with these disrupters. We have the largest, most competitive insurance market on planet Earth. If we want to stay there, then we are all going to have to figure out ways to deal with these disrupters.

If we dont do that as regulators, then the industry is going to suffer, which is only going to hurt the insurance sector as a whole, including our insurance regulatory system, he said. We have the largest, most competitive insurance market on planet Earth. If we want to stay there, then we are all going to have to figure out ways to deal with these disrupters.

Hamm, who has served as North Dakotas commissioner for the past nine years and on a national level at the National Association of Insurance Commissionersas president in 2014 and as chair of the Cybersecurity Task Force for the past two yearsis actually not personally staying in either of those regulatory roles. With his term as commissioner coming to an end this year, Hamm decided not to seek re-election. (See related article, Whats Next for N.D. Insurance Commissioner Adam Hamm?)

Republican Jon Godfread won the election for insurance commissioner last month and will assume the position in 2017.

Looking ahead, what does Hamm view as the biggest challenges ahead for his soon-to-be-former peers involved in state regulation?

Top of mind for Hamm is cybersecurity. That is something the insurance sector has to get right. We have to get to a point where were doing everything we can to stop these breaches from occurringand when they are occurring, stopping the bleeding as quickly as possible.

Bigger picture, Hamm has advice for the industry overallnot just regulators but every part of the insurance ecosystem, including insurance companies and agents: We have to come back to proving our value add, he said.

Focusing on state regulators specifically, he said: The federal government is becoming more and more involved in insurance because internationally, through the IAIS [International Association of Insurance Supervisors], theyre becoming more involved in trying to set standards that can apply across the globe. As state insurance regulators, we have to recommit to proving what our value add is to this regulatory process so that we continue to have an NAIC for another 145 years .

Making a related point, Hamm spoke about the disrupters that are emerging. The insurance industry is getting all sorts of pressure to figure out ways to meet the needs and expectations of consumers of today. As they engage in insurance transactions, they want it right now, they want it seamlessand in some ways its really not where insurance has been for the last few decades.

Youre starting to see peertopeer, Lemonade, the list goes on and on of companies transforming the insurance buying process to match customer expectations. To meet the needs of their consumers, the industry is going to need help from regulators in order to get from point A to point Z, he said.

For my colleagues, we have to commit ourselves to think outside of the box to make sure that the insurance industry is continuing to be competitive, is continuing to be the sort of industry thats going to attract consumers to want to participate in it while at the same time complying with insurance regulatory laws, rules, and requirements.

That is a needle that has to be threaded, he said, noting that as the insurance industry strives to become more front-facing with consumers, some of the initiatives really dont fit within the insurance regulatory paradigm in place today.

How do we figure out a way to crack the nut of making it so that the consumer is getting what they need while at the same time regulators are still in a position to protect them, he asked, summing up the key challenge.

(In a longer version of this article, Hamm also reflects on his nine-year tenure and talks about how the department beat some long odds to open up the states health insurance market, offering a lesson learned from the experience that applies directly to the current landscape of disruption. In the profile article, which was also published in Carrier Management magazine, he also discusses a leadership style that emphasizes consensus-building.)

***

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Cadillac announced that their first ever 2017 CT6 Plug-In Hybrid model will arrive in the US in the spring of 2017, featuring a driving range of more than 400 miles (643 km).



The automaker first announced their range-topping CT6 PHEV model last year at the Shanghai Auto Show, when it was revealed that its two-motor EVT system, combined with the 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder petrol unit, would produce a total output of 335 HP (250 kW) and 432 lb-ft (586 Nm) of torque.

Each electric motor puts out 100 HP (74.5 kW), and on electric power alone, the CT6 PHEV can run for approximately 30 miles (48 km)  up to a top speed of 78 mph (125 km/h).

It can also hit 60 mph (96 km/h) from a standstill in an estimated 5.2 seconds, similar to its V6-powered competitors, though with twice the full EV range and MPGe (miles per gallon equivalence) figures.

Still, in terms of autonomy, the combination of its efficient turbocharged engine and battery power enables users to drive more than 400 miles (643 km) before recharging, thus helping remove any range anxiety the driver might experience along the way. Its fuel economy figure is estimated to be 65 MPGe, which in EU terms would be around 3.6 liters/100km.

The CT6 is a technological showcase throughout, and by far the lightest car in its class, making it an ideal platform for electrification, said Cadillac president Johan de Nysschen. In the CT6, Cadillac presents a new formula for prestige luxury. The advanced Plug-In Hybrid system is a key addition, providing a combination of exceptional fuel economy, crisp acceleration and strong electric-driving range.

While prices in the US will start at $75,095, there will also be a $995 destination freight charge before any applicable electric vehicle tax incentives. The CT6 PHEV will also be offered as its own unique package within the range, as pricing and equipment levels are to be comparable to the existing Premium Luxury version, which is the second-highest spec in the model range.

Among its many on-board features, customers will find several optional technologies as standard, such as Rear Seat infotainment, Enhanced Night Vision and Rear Camera mirror.

PHOTO GALLERY
Just a few days after a new Nissan GT-R quarter mile world record was set by Ekanno Racing in Bahrain, former record holder AMS Performance has just reclaimed the title with its latest project car.



Owned by car collector and drag racing enthusiast Gidi Chambi, this GT-R has been dubbed the Alpha G and differs from other AMS GT-Rs as its massive aftermarket turbochargers now protrude out of the front bumper, rather than retaining their standard location in the engine bay.

This, and a host of other modifications, allow the car to pump out an insane 2,500 hp, enough to rocket it down the quarter mile in just 7.14 seconds at 212 mph (341 km/h), slightly ahead of the former record which stood at 7.16 seconds at 209 mph (336 km/h).

AMS Performance holds the accolades of building the worlds first 9-second GT-R, the first 8-second GT-R and the first 7-second GT-R. If history is anything to go by, this particular GT-R could soon crack the 6-second barrier, becoming the first to do so.

VIDEO
Samsung has struck a deal to purchase Harman International Industries in a deal worth about $8 billion.



The electronics company will acquire Harman for $112 per share in cash and gives Samsung a presence in the rapidly-growing market for connected technologies, particularly those in the automotive industry.

Over 30 million vehicles are currently equipped with Harman connected car and audio systems and the brands automotive systems are so in demand that in June, it had a $24 billion order backlog.

Samsungs say the auto industry will benefit greatly from the purchase with future Harman products expected to utilize Samsungs display technologies, security solutions and 5G network. Samsung devices will also benefit from Harmans expertise in the audio industry where it owns companies such as JBL, Harman Kardon, Revel and licenses Bowers & Wilkins and Bang & Olufsen in the automotive world.

Discussing the deal, president and chief strategy officer of Samsung Electronics, Young Sohn, said The vehicle of tomorrow will be transformed by smart technology and connectivity in the same way that simple feature phones have become sophisticated smart devices over the past decade.

We see substantial long-term growth opportunities in the auto technology market as demand for Samsungs specialized electronic components and solutions continues to grow. Working together, we are confident that HARMAN can become a new kind of Tier 1 provider to the OEMs by delivering end-to-end solutions across the connected ecosystem.

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Besides the usual batch of sedans, estates, hatchbacks and SUVs, Mercedes-Benz is also working on a new generation of the popular Sprinter van series.



Currently in test mule form, the van was scooped in two body styles, a commercial van and a people carrier. Once the automaker is satisfied will all the updates, the entire Sprinter family is expected to go under the knife, meaning that the Chassis Cab and Dropside will be part of the updated lineup as well.

The van is believed to get a new front fascia, mirroring other new cars in the German companys portfolio, while inside, an entirely different design is expected, along with newer tech features.

Previous reports have said that the adoption of an electric powertrain and autonomous driving technology could be in the works, but these rumors have yet to be confirmed. What we can expect, however, are new driver assistance systems, and engine revisions.

An exact reveal date is still far from being announced, but the most plausible scenario sees the next generation Mercedes-Benz Sprinter debuting close to the end of next year.

VIDEO
Toyota has just celebrated the ground breaking of its second Mexican manufacturing plant, located in Apaseo el Grande and dubbed Toyota Motor Manufacturing de Guanajuato (TMMGT).



When completed, the plant will be the companys 15th in North America and produce the Corolla from 2019 onwards. Toyota says the de Guanajuato factory, costing $1 billion to build and tool, will employ approximately 2,000 people and build 200,000 Corollas annually.

According to Mike Bafan, TMMGT president, TMMGT will afford us the opportunity to boost vehicle quality and appeal while achieving cost savings through production engineering innovations. This plant will also be simple, sustainable, mindful of its environment and highly competitive.

Ultimately, this means our customers will benefit from our cars being produced locally with the highest quality and environmental standards, Bafan said.

Once production at TMMGT reaches capacity, the Japanese brand will be producing approximately 2.2 million vehicles annually in North America.

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Set to debut this weekend, at the 2016 Guangzhou Auto Show, the new MG ZS carries a familiar look.



Various Chinese Media outlets have released a few images of the model ahead of its official unveiling, and by the looks of it, the vehicles front end features a design similar to Mazda CX-3 model, while the back is reminiscent of its upscale counterpart; the MG GS.

Built on a shortened GS platform, the new MG is said to rival models like the Nissan Juke, as well as Ssangyongs Tivoli. Under the hood, it will supposedly feature the same engine as the GS, including a 130 hp, 1.5-litre petrol engine (mated to a speed six manual), as well as a 120 hp, 1.0-litre three-cylinder unit.

Judging by the spy photos, the car will also be offered with an automatic transmission  possibly the same seven-speed DCT unit found in the GS.

Although theres no official word on its pricing, speculations indicate that it will cost significantly less than its competitors, starting from around 80,000 ($11,600) to 120,000 yuan ($17,500) in China.

The ZS will be made available, eventually, in the U.K. as well, although it will have a different name.

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Photo: Contributed

It is, as I write this, the day before Remembrance Day. I am going to attend an elementary school Remembrance Day ceremony later this morning where my 10-year-old son, Caden, has a solo singing part.

Last year, it was older sister Morgan. There is an incredible poignancy of a childs singing voice carrying a message of peace built on horrors that the child could be catching only a glimpse of.

Thank you to our teachers going above and beyond the curriculum to give our children the opportunity to participate in these ceremonies.

Simply showing up with others at a Remembrance Day ceremony is important, but a deeper connection is achieved with participation.

I had that opportunity on a nippy Nov.11, approximately 25 years ago in Regina. A reservist at the time, I had the honour of joining three other Cenotaph sentries, each of us standing perfectly still, heads bowed and white gloves on the butts of our down-turned rifles.

It was while I imagined my fingers developing frostbite when my own glimpse of the sacrifice of those who have served us became somewhat clearer.

A different day of remembrance is just around the corner.

The United Nations, in 2005, declared the third Sunday in November as a World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.

The scale of carnage is staggering. Almost 4,000 people are killed and many hundreds of thousands are injured every single day in road traffic incidents around the globe.

The UN believes that a day of remembrance is a way to draw attention to the consequences and costs of road crashes and to measures that can be taken to prevent them. Its aim is to remind governments and individual members of society of their responsibility to make roads safer.

Canada followed suit. In 2008, we declared the third Wednesday in November to be the National Day of Remembrance for Road Crash Victims.

More Canadians have been killed in road traffic incidents than were killed in both World Wars.

We have more than our share of carnage in British Columbia.

Most recently published ICBC statistics show that one life is taken in this province every approximately 30 hours.

A British Columbian is injured every six minutes.

It takes more than declaring a day of remembrance. It must be observed. We must come to a complete stop in our lives to remember the victims of this ongoing tragedy, like we do on Nov. 11.

Only then will the United Nations goals be achieved.

It would take so very little to stop the carnage. We need only to change our driving attitudes and behaviours. We must catch a glimpse of the magnitude of the problem in order to motivate ourselves and others to be mindful of road safety every time we are behind the wheel.

Is road safety important to you?

Simply show up this coming Wednesday, Nov. 16, at 6 p.m. for the fifth annual Kelowna commemoration of the National Day of Remembrance for Road Crash Victims.

By doing so, you will be attending one of only a handful of commemorative events in all of Canada.

It will be cold and dark in the Orchard Park Mall parking lot, corner of Dilworth and Highway 97, but we will have a heated shelter and Timbits to keep us warm.

A brief ceremony starting promptly at 6:30 p.m., with short safety messages delivered by members of emergency services and others, will be followed by a minute of silence broken only by the rushing sound of traffic at one of the most dangerous intersections in Kelowna.

Please bring your children. Driving attitudes are formed long before a young person sits behind the wheel for the first time.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: trueleafpet.com

The times, they are a changing.

Once deemed as illegal in every corner of the earth, marijuana is breaking free of its government-imposed outlaw status and is making its way into mainstream society  legally.

With California, Nevada and Massachusetts joining Alaska, Washington and Colorado in legalizing the plant for recreational use, pot is taking its place in society as a vice endorsed by the masses.

However, legalization of the plant south of the border will likely not be a boon to legal pot growers in Canada.

Darcy Bomford, founder and CEO of Vernon-based True Leaf, said there are still too many rules and regulations in place preventing marijuana to be shipped across the border.

Marijuana is still illegal under American federal law and the U.N.

True Leaf produces animal hemp treats and is making inroads into the United States and Europe. The company also has applied to grow marijuana for medical purposes.

Even when the company is given federal blessings to grow medical pot, Bomford does not anticipate any of that product will flow south.

But that does not mean the door into American is completely closed. Bomford said with the changing pot laws, changes in hemp laws may allow True Leaf to develop other hemp products for sale in the U.S.

And, with the federal Liberals moving to legalize pot for recreational use in Canada, there will likely be a budding local market.

No one really knows (president-elect Donald) Trump's stance on cannabis. The real market will be in Canada and exporting may be down the road, said Bomford.

Bomford said the changes may allow producers to sell marijuana for recreational purposes, although for now True Leaf will be focussing on medical marijuana.

We truly believe the cannabis plant has some amazing benefits. We are focussed on the medicinal side, he said.

And with the easing of restrictions on marijuana, he welcomes regulation for the industry.

The fact there is lots of regulation around it is good. I realize the importance of quality control, he said, adding all marijuana should be checked for pesticides, THC and CBD levels.

I think Canada is sort of a world leader right now in terms of a federally recognized program, he said.

Bomford said True Leaf's focus will be on medicinal use of marijuana, but did not rule out a move into the recreational market should it be open up.
Photo: CTV

A Victoria sailor isn't letting her age stop her from attempting to set a world record.

Jean Socrates, 74, hopes to set a world solo sailing record as the oldest person to ever circumnavigate the globe.

In her first attempt, a month ago, she was forced home by damage to her boat in rough weather.

Socrates expects the journey will take eight months.

 with files from CTV Vancouver
Photo: Carmen Weld

With a projected global population of nine billion people by 2050, the pressure is on the agricultural industry to come up with a way to feed us all.

As it stands the industry needs to change, as many experts say we are running out of ways to keep humanity fed.

With that in mind, industry leaders gather in Kelowna this week for the Agritech Innovation Challenge conference, discussing the potential of B.C. innovators and B.C. agrifood leaders to work together.

Dave Smardon with Bioenterprise Corporation explained the critical need for sustainable and efficient 'Agritech'.

In 2050 we have to produce more food than the entire human history of this planet. Food production has to go up 75 per cent to match a population of nine billion. said Smardon.

Seventy per cent of the world's fresh water is used in agriculture, that is an awful lot of fresh water. Thirty-eight per cent of the world's land is used for agriculture. One-in-three work in agriculture.

The only way we can resolve some of these issues is through innovation.

Local MLA and Agriculture Minister Norm Letnick spoke at the conference Monday and noted that technology plays a key role in sustaining the B.C. agricultural sector in the long run.

He is optimistic that a combination of leading agricultural practices and advanced technology will enable B.C. to take advantage of domestic and international opportunities.

He brought up a recent visit to a dairy farm that highlighted the advantages of using technology in B.C.

There was a carousel that was milking 60 cows at a time, all robotically, said Letnick. One person to handle more than 1,000 cows in Chilliwack, first in the world. It was amazing. It just opened my eyes.

He said the industry is also using technology that allows them to support, check and grade cherries, apples and other fruits. There is also new drone technology that could someday be able to fly independently to do things like scare away birds etc.

You'll look across the industry and you'll see all kinds of other great examples, said Letnick.

That marriage with technology will help us sustain our B.C. food security. If we really want to feed ourselves, as our province, we have to make sure we have a whole bunch of things going for us.

Agritech Innovation Challenge aims to bring together innovators, investors, venture capitalists, tech experts and marketing experts to support the next generation of technology development in order to enhance the competitiveness and resiliency of B.C.'s agrifood sector.

It was organized and managed by the BC Innovation Council, a provincial crown agency.

Drones and cannons, milking robots, computer sorters for size and colour, storage solutions, water management, GPS on combines, GPS for pest management, lasers to process chicken  computers are everywhere, added Letnick.

At the end of the day, if we want to encourage young people to take over our farms, take over our processing plants, we have to make sure there is an opportunity for them to make money. That is why I am so keen in what we are doing here today, marrying technology with agri-foods.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The president of the teachers' union in British Columbia says he expects more teachers in classrooms as early as January after a Supreme Court of Canada decision last week that affects class sizes.

But Premier Christy Clark says implementing the court decision may take some time.

Speaking from London, England, Clark says the two sides first need to negotiate the terms of rules on class size and the composition of classes with special needs students.

She says she's not making any guarantees when that will happen.

The Supreme Court sided with the union last week by overturning legislation that prevented the teachers union from negotiating class size and the composition of their classes in their collective agreement.

Hansman, who is attending a meeting of the Canadian Labour Congress in Ottawa, says he has meetings Wednesday with Education Ministry officials.
Photo: Kate Bouey

It has taken two years and more than a dozen consultation meetings with user groups and the public, but Vernon city council has finally endorsed an airport master plan that provides direction for future airport development over the next 20 years.

The Vernon Regional Airport Master Plan identifies new facilities and improvements to existing facilities over the next two decades.

Some of the first improvements will providing more hangar and tie-down areas along Captain Bailey Way to the south of the airport and the rehabilitation of the runway.

Earlier this year, council rejected a $5.2 million proposal to extend the runway.

I don't think it's a bad thing, us moving forward and having a good plan, said Mayor Akbal Mund. That doesn't include the future extension of the runway which is fine. We don't need it.

We're 20 minutes away from Kelowna International Airport and they continue to grow.

Other airport improvements over the coming years include:

constructing a paved helipad

upgrading and improving the terminal building to a permanent structure

constructing a new airport operations shop and vehicle storage building

implementing an aircraft movement monitoring system

The estimated cost of implementing the master plan is $2.49 million.
Photo: Facebook - Coralee Crystal Freedom Carrier

It has yet to be rubber-stamped, but Vernon city council has agreed to bylaw amendments that allow residents to keep a mini pig and up to four hens in their backyard.

The original rule allowed 3 urban hens while pigs were considered farm animals and not allowed to live within city limits.

The mini pig issue was raised earlier this year when a resident was informed she had to get rid of her domesticated porcine pet, Layla.

The new bylaw will allow mini pigs to be kept as pets.

Coun. Brian Quiring expressed some concern that the mini pig could be a maxi problem if a weight restriction was not added to the bylaw.

We could end up with a 500-pound mini pig but it says mini pig on paper and there's nothing we could do about it, Quiring told council on Monday.

Bylaw manager Clint Kanester said pig owners should buy from reputable breeders to ensure their 80-pound pets didn't become 250-pound problems.
Leanna Taylor

Leanna Taylor cries as an attorney shows photographs of her son Cooper to the jury during a murder trial for her ex-husband Justin Ross Harris Monday, Oct. 31, 2016, in Brunswick, Ga. A jury has found Harris guilty of malice and felony murder in the death of his son.

(John Bazemore/The Associated Press)

BRUNSWICK, Georgia -- A Georgia man whose toddler son died in a hot car was found guilty of both malice and felony murder on Monday by a jury tasked with weighing a month of dueling testimony over whether the child's father left him to perish on purpose or made a fatal mistake.

Justin Ross Harris, 35, who showed little emotion as the verdict was read, had been on trial since Oct. 3 in the death of his son, Cooper.

The 22-month-old boy died after being left for hours in the back of Harris' SUV on June 18, 2014. Harris said he forgot to drop his son off at day care that morning and drove straight to his job as a web developer for Home Depot, not realizing Cooper was still in his car seat.

Soon afterward, investigators found evidence that Harris was having sexual relationships -- both online banter and in-person affairs -- with numerous women, including a prostitute and a teenager. Prosecutors charged Harris with malice murder, saying he intentionally killed his son in order to escape the responsibilities of family life.

Harris was also charged with felony murder, which required no proof of intent to kill -- just that Cooper died as a result of his father committing the felony of cruelty to children. Malice murder carries a prison term of life with or without parole.

Prosecutors argued Harris must have known Cooper was in the car. He drove less than two minutes to work after strapping the child into his car seat when they finished breakfast at a Chick-fil-A restaurant just over a half-mile from Harris' office. Parking lot surveillance video showed Harris also went to his car after lunch and tossed in some light bulbs he had purchased, though he never got inside.

Harris told police he didn't notice Cooper until he left work for the day to go to a movie. The boy was dead, having sweltered in the car for about seven hours.

Prosecutors said Harris left online clues to murderous intentions. Evidence showed that minutes before Harris locked the car door on his boy, he sent an online message: "I love my son and all, but we both need escapes." Five days earlier, Harris watched an online video in which a veterinarian sits inside a hot car to show it reaches 116 degrees in a half-hour.

Defense attorneys said Harris was responsible for his son's death, but insisted it was an accident rather than a crime. Friends and family members testified he was a devoted and loving father, and the jury watched video clips of Harris trying to teach Cooper to say "banana" and letting the boy strum his guitar. The joyous moments had some jurors laughing aloud.

Harris' ex-wife, Leanna Taylor, also came to his defense. She divorced him in March and bitterly told the jury that Harris "destroyed my life." But she testified he was a loving father who, regardless of how unhappy he may have been in their marriage, would not have harmed their son on purpose. Taylor was not in the courtroom on Monday. Harris was alone, except for his lawyers, as the verdict was read.

Also testifying in Harris' defense was Gene Brewer, an Arizona State University psychology professor who specializes in memory and attention. He said it would have been possible for Harris to forget about Cooper in a matter of seconds.

Harris was also found guilty of sending sexual text messages to a teenage girl and asked for nude photos of her pubic area. The girl testified Harris knew she was in high school the months they swapped sexual banter when she was 16 and 17, and Harris several times sent her photos of his penis. He was asking for a photo of her breasts the day Cooper died.

Harris moved to Georgia from Tuscaloosa, Ala., in 2012. He lived in the Atlanta suburb of Cobb County, which is also where Cooper died. Because of intense pretrial publicity surrounding the case, the judge agreed to relocate Harris' trial 275 miles away in the coastal port city of Brunswick.
Photo: Google Street View

Shots were fired at the back of a Kelowna elementary school sometime over the weekend.

Police were called to South Rutland Elementary Monday morning after receiving a report of mischief at the school.

Cpl.Jesse O'Donaghey said RCMP conducted a full examination of the scene, and recovered evidence at the scene to confirm damage is consistent with a small calibre firearm.

Damage was contained to a metal rolling shutter which covers a classroom window at the rear of the school.

O'Donaghey said police stress the shot was fired sometime over the weekend when no one was believed to be inside.

"There is no information at this time to suggest that the damage to the school was a targeted incident, nor is there any evidence or information that leads us to anticipate any further incidents," said O;Donaghey.

"Regardless, police are treating the matter seriously, and working closely with the Central Okanagan School District."

He said the investigation, including a canvass of the neighbourhood, is continuing.

"Police are looking for any additional information which will help them identify the individual or individuals responsible for this careless mischievous act.

Anyone who may have heard something of interest, witnessed the incident or has any information which may assist investigators is asked to contact Const. Georgina Josefsson, school liaison officer (SLO), with the Kelowna RCMP at 250-762-3300.

Or remain anonymous by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477, leaving a tip online at www.crimestoppers.net or by texting your tip to CRIMES (274637) ktown.
A sunken tug has been lifted from the waters off British Columbia's central coast more than a month after it ran aground and sank, releasing thousands of litres of fuel into the ocean.

The Heiltsuk First Nation says in a release that the Nathan E. Stewart was lifted from the Seaforth Channel near Bella Bella late Monday afternoon, and was suspended alongside a salvage barge.

The tug will be drained on the barge before being shipped to Vancouver.

According to the latest report, the vessel was loaded with 237,262 litres of diesel fuel when it hit the reef, spilling 107,552 litres of fuel and 2,240 litres of lubricants.

Heiltsuk Chief Councillor Marilyn Slett says the First Nation is relieved that the boat is off of the ocean floor and is being removed from the region.

But she says the community still has a lot of clean-up work to do.

"We're feeling very uncertain about our future as we face the hard work of assessing the short and long-term environmental, cultural and economic impacts on our community," Slett says.

Jess Housty, an incident commander for the Heiltsuk First Nation, says intensive cleanup along the shoreline has not yet started because there was still danger that more pollution could escape the tug.

"It's been 33 really long days of seeing that vessel in the water, continuing to pollute our shores," Housty says.

The First Nation will do an independent investigation into the accident, Slett says, and she wants the various levels of government to make sure the community is taken care of, both in the short and long terms.

"The Heiltsuk people have lost the most in this disaster," she says. "Our governments have the responsibility to work with us to ensure our people's needs are met."
Photo: Twitter

A B.C. Supreme Court judge is considering the fate of a homeless camp set up on a piece of land owned by the City of Vancouver on the east side of downtown.

Lawyers for the city have asked the court for an injunction to evict the remaining campers, arguing that the site presents serious health and safety concerns.

But lawyers for the Pivot Legal Society, which is representing residents of the camp, argue shelters in the city are full and the camp provides residents a stable place to live where they can feel safe.

The tent city sprouted up last summer and late last month city staff began moving residents into a nearby shelter, but about 17 people stayed.

Resident Stacey Dubois said outside of court that he has lived at the site since "day one" and doesn't want to leave.

"We do find it's a lot safer where we are," he said. "We do look after one another. And we do have a lot of services around us."

Several similar camps have popped up around the province as the cost of housing continues to climb. A tent city was erected on the courthouse lawn in Victoria in November 2015, and more than 100 people lived there before the court ordered it dismantled this summer.

Robert Cooper, a lawyer with Pivot, said in court Monday that the Vancouver camp is different than the one in Victoria because it is on an empty lot, not an area intended to be a public gathering place.

Cooper noted the site is close to services designed to help homeless people, and said that providing portable toilets and regular garbage removal would help mitigate some of the city's health and safety concerns.

City lawyer Iain Dixon replied that the land is not suitable for a homeless camp.

"The city doesn't have an obligation to provide garbage service and other things to a site that it doesn't believe should be there," he told the court.

The city has previously said that since the camp started, more than 65 calls have been made to police, an ambulance has been requested about 20 times, and the fire chief has twice issued orders for campers to remove hazardous material.

The city has also said that it plans to build a social housing project with about 250 units and an integrated health centre at the site of the camp, though construction is not expected to begin for four or five years.
Photo: Contributed

An integrated water system for Kelowna moved one step closer to reality today.

After months of negotiations, the province announced Monday the city's water providers have agreed on a 'statement of principles' and 'terms of reference' for a value planning process.

That process will allow for a third-party to review all relevant documents and information to form a new, integrated water system over time.

The five area water providers  City of Kelowna, Black Mountain Irrigation District, Glenmore-Ellison Improvement District, South East Kelowna Irrigation District and Rutland Waterworks  agreed on the process.

"This collaborative approach brings the municipality and the four districts closer to bringing to life an optimal, holistic water solution for the Kelowna area-a solution that provides the best, lowest cost approach, achieves public health standards, includes administrative and operational flexibility and maintains the region's important agricultural interests," said Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development Peter Fassbender.

"This milestone is the result of a commitment from all parties looking to achieve the best outcomes. With this type of positive and collaborative forward movement, financial support from the provincial, and federal governments can be considered."

Fassbender said the province will continue to support the process as it moves forward.

Safe, clean drinking water for the entire city is council's number one priority.

Mayor Colin Basran has repeatedly stated an integrated water system is long overdue.

He said earlier this year Kelowna is the only mid-sized city he knows of in the province served by five major water providers.

Monday, Basran said the announcement is a positive step in the right direction to get clean drinking water to everyone in the city.
Photo: CTV

The cost of equipping Vancouver Police with body cams has derailed the project.

The program would cost $17 million.

Police estimate each camera and accessories would cost $2,300. Maintenance, data storage, and software would bring that to $26,000 per camera.

The alarmingly high cost was revealed in internal budget documents obtained in a Freedom of Information request by CTV.

Its extremely high. Its not affordable right now, VPD spokesman Staff Sgt. Randy Fincham told CTV. Until something comes along or someone comes along who is willing to fund the project, we dont have the means.

The body cams are estimated to cost $1.5 million in total, and data storage $12.3 million. The balance would mostly come in staffing costs and a contingency budget.

That's about six per cent of the department's entire budget. And that doesn't include the cost of retrieving videos for court or transcribing the video.

It does seem like an awful lot of money. Is there a misplaced decimal? said the NDPs Mike Farnworth. $17 million is the budget of some local police forces. Is this just an excuse not to do it?

The plan was to get 660 of the GoPro cameras. The VPD currently has eight in use.

 with files from CTV Vancouver
UPDATE: 4:30 p.m.

The snow has stuck to the Coquihalla Connector.

DriveBC is warning this evening of limited visibility due to fog, along with snow and slush on Highway 97C.

It warns of slippery sections all along the Connector.

ORIGINAL: 8:20 a.m.

Drivers may want to avoid travelling mountain highway passes today as the snow is coming down.

A thick blanket of snow can be seen on a majority of DriveBC highway cams in Southern B.C., including the Okanagan Connector and the Coquihalla.

Environment Canada has issued a snowfall warning for the Coquihalla Highway, Hwy. 5, Okanagan Connector, Hwy. 97C, Hwy. 3 between Hope and the Kootenay Pass and the entire Similkameen.

Snowfall is blanketing the area now with total amounts of 15 to 20 centimetres expected.

A frontal system is giving heavy snow to most southern highway passes this morning, writes Environment Canada.

Total snow amounts of 15 centimetres are expected before the snow tapers off to a few flurries or changes to rain this afternoon.

Wet snow is also being reported in higher elevation areas of the Central Okanagan including Glenmore and Mount Boucherie.

Be prepared to adjust your driving with changing road conditions.

Rapidly accumulating snow could make travel difficult over some locations and surfaces such as highways, roads, walkways and parking lots may become difficult to navigate due to accumulating snow.

Weather in the mountains can change suddenly resulting in hazardous driving conditions, adds Environment Canada.

For more information on driving in winter conditions, click here.

For up to date details on highway conditions and road closures check DriveBC.

You can also monitor Environment Canada for alerts, warnings and updated forecasts.

For your local weather forecast click here.
The Transportation Ministry is driving forward a controversial improvement plan for the Highway 97, Stickle Road intersection north of Vernon despite a public preference for a traffic light.

But the traffic light option was ruled out after a third-party safety study found it would cause more rear end collisions, according to the ministry.

The ministry plan is fully supported by Vernon-Monashee MLA Eric Foster.

"Improving safety is our top priority for the Highway 97/Stickle Road intersection," said Foster. "The ministry's design is the best option for protecting safety and it also will keep people and goods moving efficiently, so it's important to construct this project for the benefit of local highway users and the travelling public at large."

The ministry plan, which will connect the south end of the Stickle Frontage Road to the end of 20th Street behind the Rona store, has been in the public eye for many months and has been condemned by a number of residents in the area and by naturalists worried about dwindling wetland.

But the ministry has decided there has been enough talk.

"Public engagement is an important part of this process and my ministry would like to thank everyone who provided their input at the three open houses and through feedback forms," Transportation Minister Todd Stone.

"Given that many of the comments we received indicated a preference for a traffic signal to be installed, the ministry asked an independent road safety expert to compare the ministry's design with a traffic signal.

While both improvement options were considered, the report concluded that a traffic signal is not supported as it would further increase the risk of rear-end collisions and delay traffic."

The report concluded that the installation of a traffic signal on a roadway where the posted speed exceeds 64 km/hr can provide an overall five per cent reduction in crashes, however the frequency of rear-end collisions can increase substantially. In comparison, the restricted movement configuration can result in an overall 20 per cent reduction in crashes.

A total of 150 people commented on the project through feedback forms, email and mail  many of them calling for a traffic light at the intersection. The ministry also held consultations with the City of Vernon, the regional district, local stakeholders and with the public.

The proposed changes at the Stickle Road intersection will extend left turn lanes onto Highway 97 and see the installation of acceleration and deceleration lanes while removing the left turn onto the highway. As well, there will be a new road to connect the south end of the Stickle Frontage Road to the end of 20th Street in Vernon.

The ministry says these improvements will:

increase safety by reducing the number and severity of collisions at the intersection

maintain the flow of traffic along Highway 97

maintain access to Stickle Road for residents and businesses

In an effort to appease naturalists, the ministry also plans to improve fish habitat, plant native riparian vegetation, remove invasive plant species and install bird and bat nesting boxes. As well, crews will rebuild portions of the existing BX Creek corridor trail that are impacted by the planned improvements, to ensure existing access to Swan Lake and BX Creek are maintained.

The $9.5 million project is expected to go to tender by early 2017. The ministry estimated that a traffic signal would have cost approximately $7.8 million.
Photo: Contributed

An Ontario judge who came under fire for wearing a Donald Trump "Make America Great Again" hat in court has apologized for his behaviour, calling it a "lapse in judgment."

The Hamilton TV station CHCH reports that Judge Bernd Zabel went into court today solely to express his regrets, and issued an apology to the courts, the bar and his colleagues.

The station reports Zabel said his gesture was not intended as a political statement.

It was the first time the judge has appeared in court since the incident was reported last week.

Over the weekend, a Hamilton city councillor called for the judge to resign or be removed from the bench, saying the move could undermine public faith in the judicial system.

The Hamilton Spectator has reported that a complaint against Zabel has been filed with the Ontario Judicial Council.
Photo: Bob Vanderford Photography

While the gloom of winter has settled over the North Okanagan, Coldstream council was given a review Monday of what happened with boaters on Kalamalka and other areas lakes over the summer months.

A total of 518 people and 202 boats were checked on Kalamalka, Mabel, Mara and Sugar lakes between July 1-Sept. 4 during patrols by the BC Conservation Officers Service.

In all, 73 per cent of those stopped were found to be non-compliant in one way or another, from minor to more serious matters. A total of 14.9 per cent were ticketed, said Staff. Sgt. Major Josh Lockwood.

Infractions included: no boat licence, no life jacket, open alcohol, insufficient safety equipment, failure to stop for mandatory mussel inspection, no fishing licence.

The same thing is happening on all of the lakes, said Coldstream Mayor Jim Garlick. These patrols are useful for educating the public and getting them to comply with all of the rules.

The District of Coldstream paid for four days of patrols on Kalamalka Lake over the summer but Garlick wants to increase those after a firsthand look at what the conservation officers can accomplish.

I went for a ride with them in the summer to see what they did.

He described boaters, who had no infractions, driving over to the officers to find out how to make their watercraft safer.

It cost us $500 per day for a patrol. I feel it was money well spent and I'd like to see it expanded a couple of more days, said Garlick. With it we will have fewer accidents and deaths on the lake and better educate the boating public.
Photo: Contributed

RCMP in Prince Rupert have launched an internal investigation after cellphone video surfaced online apparently revealing a confrontation between officers and two teenagers.

Police in the north coast city confirm in a news release that they responded to reports of a fight in progress shortly before 1 a.m. on Nov. 12.

An ambulance was called when officers found an injured 16-year-old boy but they also say the teen became combative and tried to fight the attendants and police.

According to police, an 18-year-old female bystander joined the fight and was taken into custody.

Sgt. Jagdev Uppal says video of the incident has been distributed on social media and investigators are now trying to locate the person with the video and also want to speak with any other witnesses.

A public complaint about the police response was filed on Nov. 14 and the RCMP release says an internal probe has begun.
Bryant BP restoration.JPG

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant discusses projects that focus on Mississippi Gulf Coast ecosystem restoration and economic development before the RESTORE Council meeting at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum Convention Center on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015, Biloxi, Miss. On Tuesday, Bryant revealed Mississippi will receive $114 million in the BP Oil Spill settlement funds geared towards restoring the Gulf Coast to its natural habitat. (Mike Kittrell/GulfLive.com)

BILOXI, Miss. -- Gov. Phil Bryant announced on Tuesday that Mississippi will be receiving more than $114 million in BP Oil Spill funds for 15 coastal restoration projects.

According to Bryant, the money will be funded from three sources: $68 million under the RESTORE Act, $16.1 million from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and $21 million under the Natural Resource Damage Assessment.

The announcement was made on Tuesday as part of The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) first Mississippi Restoration Summit where an overview of all of the restoration efforts in Mississippi--a comprehensive explanation of where we've been, where we are, and where we are headed was presented.

"In addition, we will explain how new and existing projects, from all the various funding streams, will work together to improve our natural resources and our quality of life for decades to come, according to Gary C. Rikard, MDEQ Executive Director.

According to multiple media sources, Mississippi will receive a total of $2.2 billion from the oil spill that will span the next 15 years.

The largest projects the state will see are two clean water programs expected to reduce bacteria levels in the water near beaches. The state will receive $45 million in RESTORE Act money for one project, and $11 million for the other.

Mississippi will also receive $11 million to buy key tracts to conserve habitat and help restore Graveline Bay, between Ocean Springs and Pascagoula.

Below is the breakdown of how BP funds will be allocated throughout the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

University of Southern Mississippi Oyster Hatchery ($7.7 million) - The money will fund the acquisition of an oyster hatchery and research center. The hatchery is state of the art and will be operated by the University of Southern Mississippi.

Pascagoula Oyster Reef Relay and Enhancement ($3.5 million) - The enhancement will invest money in relaying oysters from unharvestable reefs to harvestable reefs and using the best science to select locations and to maximize oyster production.

North Rail Connector Planning Assistance ($550,000) -- This project is the number one economic development priority in Jackson County. The funds will pay for planning, strategizing and permitting needs that will move the rail connector forward.

NOARC ($2.75 million) - The National Oceans and Applications Research Center is designed to create the sky-to-sea market in Mississippi. It will attract new industries for environmental monitoring to the Mississippi Gulf Coast and establish an area for them to demonstrate their technologies.

Salvation Army Center of Hope ($1.32 million) -- The Center for Hope will bolster workforce development for the Coast. Located in North Gulfport, it will provide activities such as job skills for the labor force so that people have a better opportunity to invest in themselves and their families.

Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center ($3.52 million) -- The Coliseum and Convention center has the capacity to be a world-class facility and attract larger conference audiences. In order to do this, the coliseum needs to make site improvements. This project will support capacity improvements at the facility.

Compatibility, Coordination, and Restoration Planning (Two projects totaling $1.8 million) - Funds support of restoration planning.

Mississippi Marine Mammal and Turtle Conservation, Recovery and Monitoring Program ($9.9 million) - This project will invest over $9.9 million in dolphins and sea turtles and will help its partners lead the Gulf in restoration and research. This project will also help establish Mississippi State University as a leader in marine veterinary science.

It is a partnership among Mississippi State, the University of Southern Mississippi, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources.

Coastal Bird Stewardship in Mississippi ($6.2 million) - This provides $6.2 million for coastal bird assessment and stewardship of the species and its habitat. Partners are Mississippi State, National Audubon Society, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources.

Graveline Bay ($11 million) - Money will be used to purchase key tracts to conserve habitat and invest in restoration at Graveline Bay. The project will protect wildlife for generations to come.

Grand Bay ($6 million) - This project fulfills the same purpose as the Graveline Bay investment.

Upper Pascagoula River Nutrient Reduction Alternatives ($4 million) -- An investment of $4 million will improve water quality on the Pascagoula River, one of most important rivers in the state and the southeast.

Additional information can be found at www.restore.ms.
Photo: The Canadian Press Tom Ridge, former secretary of Homeland Security in the U.S.

The Canada-U.S. border is unlikely to see any thickening under president-elect Donald Trump despite the Republican's protectionist campaign rhetoric, former American security czar Tom Ridge said Tuesday.

While Trump's views on Mexican migrants and Syrian refugees appeared to be sharply at odds with Canada's approach, Ridge said Canada needs to take a deep breath and wait to see what actually emerges from a Trump administration.

Ridge, appointed as first Homeland Security secretary in the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks on the United States, was fiercely critical of the campaigning Trump, denouncing his "bumper-sticker approach" to policy and a bombastic tone that "reflects the traits of a bully."

Now that the campaign is over, Ridge said he hoped Trump would "substantially alter his approach" to borders.

"There's always a difference between the political rhetoric and actually the governing posture that he takes," Ridge told The Canadian Press in an interview.

"There'll be strong and countervailing influences on some of these issues within the legislative branch as well."

Ridge said it's important to watch who Trump appoints to his cabinet before drawing any conclusions about policy directions.

One thing is certain, he said, Trump won't be building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico as he famously pledged to do during the campaign.

"Let's not be so arrogant to think that everybody who crosses our border from the south wants to be a citizen," Ridge said. "We're not going to build the wall."

Either way, he said, Trump's pronouncements have tended to be about the border with Mexico, not with Canada. He also suggested the U.S.'s northern border could be a model for Trump.

Any thickening of the northern border in particular would be a "huge mistake" given the critical relationship Canada and the United States have, he said.

"If you want to look at a relationship that has proven to be very sensitive to the needs of both countries, and the culture of both countries, take a look at the Canada-U.S. border."
Photo: Google Street View

A mother in Port Alberni wants the courts to stop her local school district from allowing religious exercises in public schools.

Candice Servatius has filed a petition in B.C. Supreme Court after her children were required to take part in what she alleges were religious practices at John Howitt Elementary School in Port Alberni.

Servatius says in the petition that an event the school described as a traditional First Nation Nuu-chah-nulth "classroom and student cleansing" occurred in her children's classrooms in September 2015, and her unwilling daughter was informed it would be rude to refuse to participate.

After she complained, the petition says School District 70 agreed to stop all further spiritual exercises, but then allowed what she alleges was a prayer based on aboriginal spirituality at a student assembly in January, 2016.

According to the petition, Servatius says school officials have refused to honour the School Act and Charter of Rights provisions respecting religious neutrality.

She wants the courts to declare the school district violated her right to freedom of religion, and she is seeking costs and an order that the district be prohibited from offering religious rituals, ceremonies or cleansings at any of its schools.
Photo: The Canadian Press

The chair of a Senate committee says Canada has failed to address the troubling issue of dementia, although other countries have implemented national strategies.

Sen. Kelvin Ogilvie says the federal government should provide $30 million a year to properly fund a plan that pulls together governments, health organizations and patients.

Ogilvie, chair of the committee on social affairs, science and technology, also wants to see strings attached to $3 billion promised by the Liberal government for home care over the next four years.

The committee, which started its study in February, says it has heard from a number of witnesses and examined programs to identify gaps for patients, caregivers and clinicians.

Conservative leadership candidate Lisa Raitt says she supports a national strategy.

The issue is personal for Raitt, as her husband Bruce Wood was recently diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's Disease.
Photo: RCMP

It's not often an airplane is turned into police.

Vernon RCMP are in possession of a remote control plane that a member of the public turned into the front desk on Monday.

"If it's yours, please come into our detachment and identify it," said Const. Jocelyn Noseworthy. "We'd love to give it back to its owner."

Police have released a photo of the white and blue aircraft.
Photo: CTV

Strong "King Tides" could cause some problems this week for coastal areas.

Also known as perigean tides, they happen twice a year when the sun and moon's gravitational forces combine, causing large, and possibly destructive, waves.

While this also occurs in the spring, it tends to cause more problems closer to winter, when coinciding with large storms.

In the past, homes along Marine Drive, across from Locarno Beach in Vancouver, have been damaged, as well as areas of Stanley Park and Kitsilano Beach in 2012.

In 2014, a section of the seawall in Delta's Boundary Bay was destroyed and homes were flooded in West Vancouver.

"With the sea level rise we're experiencing due to climate change, those king tides keep rising even higher," Mayor Gregor Robertson said at a press conference last week.

City of Vancouver staff have been considering several options to deal with future problems, including raising the seawall or building a storm surge under the Burrard Bridge to protect Granville Island.

 with files from CTV Vancouver
Photo: Facebook

An Ottawa rabbi says she was shocked to find a red swastika and anti-Semitic slur spray-painted on her front door in the dead of night.

Anna Maranta, who runs a Jewish faith centre from her home, says she has never experienced anything like the vandalism that left her shaken.

Maranta reported the incident to the Ottawa police hate crimes unit, which sent an officer to investigate today.

Ottawa Liberal MP David McGuinty condemned the attack in the House of Commons, calling on fellow MPs to make it clear that religiously motivated assaults are contrary to Canadian values and principles.

Jewish group B'nai Brith Canada says a swastika was also discovered Monday on the wall of Hof Kelsten, a well-known Jewish bakery in Montreal.

B'nai Brith notes the attacks in Canada follow a number of similar incidents across the United States, as well England, where vans used by a Jewish school were recently defaced by swastikas.
Photo: Contributed

Margaret Atwood, Yann Martel and Madeleine Thien are among the names of prominent Canadian authors attached to an open letter demanding an external investigation of the University of British Columbia's firing of Steven Galloway.

The acclaimed Vancouver-based writer was fired from his position as head of the creative writing department in June following a months-long probe into allegations of misconduct.

The publisher for author Joseph Boyden confirmed he spearheaded a group effort to write and circulate the open letter, although not all those on the list could be reached to confirm their support.

Boyden, who is the author of the award-winning novel "Through Black Spruce," sent an email to writers asking for their signatures, saying the open letter "does not draw conclusions about guilt or innocence, but focuses on a process that ill-served complainants and Mr. Galloway."

The letter criticizes the university for publicizing last year that Galloway was suspended pending an investigation of "serious allegations," casting a "cloud of suspicion" over the professor.

The university appointed former B.C. Supreme Court judge Mary Ellen Boyd to investigate the allegations against Galloway, but it has refused to make the findings of her report public.
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A House Judiciary subcommittee investigating the impeachment of disgraced former Attorney General Kathleen Kane pressed forward with a long-awaiting public hearing Monday.

There was one big problem with that: Kane resigned in mid-August, in the wake of her conviction on perjury, obstruction of justice and other charges. So there can be no impeachment.

Overkill?

Not to Rep. Todd Stephens, R-Montgomery County, who said the hearing was worthwhile for several reasons:

* To inform the public of the broader scope of Kane's misbehavior in office, beyond the leaking of grand jury information at the heart of the criminal case.

* To build a formal record for future proceedings in the unlikely event that Kane is pardoned, or her conviction is overturned and she somehow finds herself in the running for a position of public trust again.

* To look forward to possible reforms that could strengthen oversight of the Attorney General's office when and if there are similar problems at the top in the future.

"We need to begin to turn an eye to how do we learn from this experience... What steps do we need to take so that we can ensure that this doesn't happen again," Stephens, chair of the Subcommittee on Courts, said Monday afternoon.

It was not immediately clear that his Democratic counterparts - who were largely absent from huge stretches of the hearing - were fully on board with what at least one member implied was a rehash.

"The legislative session is about to end, and this effort should too," Rep. Tim Briggs, D-Montgomery and the senior Democrat on the courts subcommittee, said Monday night.

"The former attorney general was charged, tried, convicted and sentenced. She resigned her office. She is constitutionally unable to hold office ever again. Let this sad story end there."

Here's a look at some of the ground that was covered in Monday's testimony:

* On the accountability front, Chris Juba, president of the Fraternal Order of Police local representing OAG narcotics agents, told the committee about an offer extended in 2015 by Kane to its lawyers for help in contract negotiations.

Kane, Juba stated, indicated she would see the union got a deal with terms better than contained in a separate contract for OAG employees covered by a different union if its leaders helped squash sexual harassment allegations against one of her most trusted lieutenants, Jonathan Duecker then the head of the Bureau of Narcotics Investigation.

Under that deal, an agent in Juba's union who had made a sexual harassment allegation against Duecker was supposed to sit for a televised interview and state that she had no problem with Duecker.

The union, in turn, was supposed to write a companion letter of endorsement for Duecker, whom Kane was intending to name as her chief of staff.

Neither step happened.

In fact, the agent who said Duecker made an unwelcome sexual advance against her during and after a 2014 Christmas party, told the committee by telephone Monday she felt Kane's request of her was even worse than the underlying act.

"Number one, because she's a woman," the agent, Cynthia Pugh, said, at times breaking into sobs. "Number two, because it's wrong...

Pugh complained that Kane was effectively asking Pugh to sell out her own credibility to help Duecker because, at that point, he was one of the few people in the office she could trust.

As someone who frequently has to testify in court, the agent said, she couldn't do it.

"To get someone to commit career suicide just because she needed that man (in place) is preposterous," Pugh said.

* Chad Ellis, chief inspector of the OAG's Office of Professional Responsibility, outlined four cases in which Kane, or Duecker, blocked recommended personnel actions against her favorites.

Ellis's list included:

- Duecker, Kane's eventual chief of staff who was recommended for termination following investigation of two sexual harassment claims.

- Supervisory special agent Patrick Reese, who kept his job even after his December 2015 conviction and sentencing on contempt of court charges.

- Ellen Granahan, Kane's sister, who Ellis said should have received internal discipline for her involvement in a once-private pornographic email chain that included agents and prosecutors in the office.

In the fourth case, Ellis complained that Kane completely blocked his attempts to investigate another Bureau of Narcotics Investigation staffer who is alleged to have ordered agents to "fix" problems with an undercover drug buy.

That agent, David Carolina, was a regular part of Kane's personal security detail in the latter stages of her tenure.

"If you were in this particular circle, there was a stalling of the process," Ellis said. "In my past experience, this was low hanging fruit that would have been very easily addressed, and it just wasn't."

Duecker and Reese were eventually terminated from the OAG in September, shortly after current Attorney General Bruce Beemer was confirmed by the state Senate to complete Kane's term.

Granahan still serves with the agency.

* Earlier in Monday's hearing, a former deputy attorney general testified to what she felt was Kane's interference in another potential criminal investigation, a complaint that was ultimately forwarded to federal prosecutors.

Stephens and his colleagues said their goal will be to try to develop legislation in the upcoming 2017-18 session that formalizes oversight over the Attorney General in those cases where it's needed.

"We need to find another avenue (outside the office) so that people, if they have a concern or a grievance, can bring that to someone's attention whose got some authority to dig into it, and take a look at it," Stephens said.

Kane, who is currently appealing her conviction, was invited to appear at Monday's hearing, Stephens noted, but she declined through her attorneys.
The British did everything in their power to thwart the journey of a young Danish explorer into the heart of Arabia in 1912  but ended up helping him by mistake.

The Danes had a history of exploration in the Arabian Peninsula going back to Carsten Niebuhr in the 18th century. In 1911 the Royal Danish Geographical Society decided to revive that tradition by mounting a new expedition. One of the members was a young Danish student, Barclay Raunkir, whose father, the botanist Christen Raunkir, gives his name to a system of plant categorisation still in use today.

The Society duly informed the British Government of their intentions. However, the British viewed the expedition as an unwelcome intrusion into their imperial sphere of influence, and decided that it should be prevented. The British claimed that as they could not guarantee the safety of their own officers and travellers in the region, they could not offer any assistance or protection to the Danes either.

As a result, the Society abandoned the scheme, despite the fact that money had been raised and plans were well advanced. Nevertheless, Raunkir decided to make the journey himself, and after passing through Ottoman territory, he arrived at Kuwait in January 1912.

Telegram from the Government of India to the Political Resident dated 1 March 1912 asking the Resident to give a hint to the Sheikh of Kuwait

IOR/L/PS/10/259, f 75.



The British Government of India responded by giving instructions to the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf that a hint should be given to the Sheikh of Kuwait that no assistance should be given to Raunkir. Without the Sheikhs support the expedition would be impossible. British officials also monitored the Danes movements in the region and passed on information.

It came then as a considerable surprise to the British some months later to learn that the expedition had been a complete success. Raunkir had made his way from Kuwait to Riyadh and back to the coast at Bahrain, in a somewhat dilapidated condition, collecting important geographical, ethnographic and botanical information on the way.

India Office minute: the Royal Danish Geographical Societys gratitude was a little embarrassing - IOR/L/PS/10/259, f 48.

Worse, the Royal Danish Geographical Society sent a letter thanking the British Government, particularly mentioning the valuable assistance given to Raunkir by two British Political Agents, Shakespear at Kuwait, and Lorimer at Bahrain. An India Office minute records that after all the obstacles the British had placed in the way of the Danes it was a little embarrassing to be thanked in that way, and in the circumstances there seemed to be nothing for it but to put on the best face we can.

Part of Captain Shakespears report on Barclay Raunkir, 9 March 1912. It was regrettable that the Government of India had not made their objections known sooner - IOR/L/PS/10/259, f 42.

The British Government wanted to know what help, exactly, Lorimer and Shakespear had given the expedition. Lorimer was quickly exonerated, but Shakespear was forced to explain that he had given the Dane his good offices and permitted the Sheikh of Kuwait to assist the expedition because instructions to the contrary had not arrived in time. He had also thought that Raunkirs limited mapping skills showed he was more of a botanist than a geographer, and he had satisfied himself that Raunkir was not acting on behalf of either the Turks or the Germans.

Raunkir himself, weakened by his exertions, died in Copenhagen in 1915. He was 25.

Martin Woodward

Content Specialist, Archivist British Library/Qatar Foundation Partnership

Sources:

London, British Library, File 1202/1912 'Arabia:- Travellers. Capt. F. F Hunter. Herr Runkiar (Danish Expedition). Capt Shakespear.'. IOR/L/PS/10/259.

Barclay Raunkiaer, Through Wahhabiland on Camelback (London: Routledge & Keegan Paul, 1969).

See also: Desert Encounter: Knud Holmboe
Ghana: Union calls on Government to protect local cement industry

15 November 2016

Dr Ekwow Spio Garbrah, Ghana's Trade and Industry Minister, is being encouraged by the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) Ghana to take immediate action to defend the local cement industry.



Solomon Kotei, the general secretary of the union, called on the government to immediately "as per Legislative Instrument 2240, put a regulation on quotas and sign and clear the license approval process with the Cement Monitoring Committee."



Cement producers grievances include: "under declaration of CIF values, lower tariffs, export subsidies, dumping, under declaration of volumes imported, and abuses at bonded warehousing," said Mr Kotei.



"The local cement manufacturers who are over-burdened with high corporate taxes and import duties on their raw materials are being unfairly competed with these foreign importers. The unfair trade practices enables the foreign cement importers to flood the local cement market with lowly-priced cement of questionable quality, to the detriment of the nation, Mr Kotei added.



Mr Kotei said the Minister of Trade should, "review any inimical trade protocols, agreements with foreign cement producers/importers that have been found to undermine cement produced locally."



He called on the Minister, "to check and put a stop to unfair trade practices by foreign cement producers/importers which, caused unfair competition in the cement industry in Ghana."



He further called on the Ministry to, "put a hold on bagged imported cement to allow investigation into the unfair trade practices."

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Washington, D.C.

The incoming Trump administration will likely embrace the local control sprit of the Every Student Succeeds Actand might move to make big changes to pending regulations, predicted current and former GOP Hill staffers at a panel Monday.

Trump and Company will likely return to a more balanced federal-state partnership, Vic Klatt, a principal at Penn Hill Group, told those at an Education Writers Association session. And I think the education world is going to ultimately go, Phew. No more wacky changes from the federal level.

The Trump administration doesnt need to come up with a whole new framework on K-12, now that ESSA is on the books.

On the whole K-12 issue, they dont need to do a lot besides implement the law the way that it was written, which intentionally shrank the federal government after 15 years of No Child Left Behind and restored responsibility to state and local school systems, said David Cleary, a top aide to Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Senate education committee. I think it would be very smart for them to implement the law the way it was written, and not go forward with those regulations the way they were proposed.

In fact, lawmakers could use their power under the Congressional Review Act to rescind some of the Obama administrations K-12 regulations before they take effect, Cleary said. That means Congress would take an up-or-down vote on the regulation. Lawmakers couldnt amend or change the regulations.

And if the vote is successful, it could have implications down the road. The executive branch couldnt try regulating in a particular area again until new legislation is passed. The Obama administration has plenty of education regulations that would be ripe for rescinding, in Clearys view.

Near the top of that list: the still-yet-to-be-finalized regulations for supplement-not-supplant, a wonky spending provision . Other regulations that matter to K-12 education could be tweaked or reviewed, including on teacher preparation and ESSA accountability .

If the Obama administration is worried that Congress might really follow through and use the Congressional Review Act to prevent a future secretary of education from regulating on supplement-not-supplant, it could decide not to finalize its current proposal, which is still in draft form. That means the regulation probably wouldnt go through, but another, future administration could still regulate on supplement-not-supplant.

The administrations proposed regulations have drawn ire from groups representing state and local superintendents, school board members, teachers, and from congressional Republicans, including Alexander. Civil rights groups, and ESSAs Democratic sponsors, on the other hand, are big fans.

Before the election, when most polls were predicting Democrats would hold the White House, the Obama administration had planned to finalize all its draft ESSA regulations before leaving office.

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
South Carolina Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman says she is very excited about the possibilities for her states education policy under President-elect Donald Trump, especially because she thinks her state will have more freedom under the Every Student Succeeds Act.

Spearman, a Republican elected in 2014, thinks that a Trump administration will give states more freedom to interpret things like ESSA spending requirements than President Barack Obamas administration has so far. She also thinks the president-elects administration will hew more closely to lawmakers intent when they passed the law in 2015. And she believes that Trump will help boost the growth of school choice programs around the country, including in her stateSpearman expressed an interest, for example, in participating in Trumps $20 billion federally backed choice initiative should lawmakers approve it.

Education is best handled at the state and local level, Spearman said in an interview.

Trump has pledged to give local communities more power over education. And given the number of states in which Republicans now control both chambers of the state legislature and the governorship, Spearmans view could become much more prevalent and important in the coming months and years. Ballotpedia has a map of such trifectas after the election last weeknote that Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wyoming also have or will Republican superintendents of education in 2017.

Spearman attended the Republican National Convention in July and has supported Trumps candidacy because, among other reasons, she believes that he will reduce the overall role of the federal government in education. You can watch a video of our interview with Spearman below:

Spearman still wants the U.S. Department of Education to conduct oversight on some issues, but also supports making sure we dont have jobs there that could be handled at the state level. (In some cases, thanks to ESSA, Trump may not be able to do take action on certain education-related issues even if he wants to .)

I have no problem with them looking at the U.S. Department of Education as a target for streamlining, Spearman told me. Im sure there are some funds there that could be redirected. But I do believe there is a role for the department to play.

One area where she thinks Trump can be particularly helpful is on career and technical education and job training. Right now, for example, South Carolina is expanding its apprenticeship programs for students, and she believes Trump can lead by example: Success can be reached in our country through many different pathways. And he is certainly an example of that.

When we spoke to Spearman at the RNC, she did express one concern about Trumps candidacy: the rhetoric the president-elect used on the campaign trail and its potential impact on children. When we asked her about this issue after the election, she said Trumps victory speech on Nov. 9 assuaged her concerns on that front.

He showed ability to use the type of language and explanations that are good for our children and us as educators, she said.

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
UPDATED

President-elect Donald Trump doesnt have a track record on education , which means that his choice of education secretary will send a really important signal on where he wants to go in terms of policy on the Every Student Succeeds Act, higher education, and more.

So who is on the short list? Tough to say, but here are some names making the rounds inside the Beltway:

Dr. Ben Carson: The neurosurgeon was among Trumps opponents in the Republican presidential primaries and later endorsed him. As a candidate, Carsons proposed education agenda, like Trumps, centered on school choice. Its easy to imagine that Carson, who is famous for separating conjoined twins, would spend a lot of time as secretary talking about the importance of science education. Its unclear what form that would take though, given some of Carsons other views. As secretary, Carson could revive the culture wars over how to teach evolution, since hes said in the past he doesnt believe in it . UPDATE: It doesnt look like Carson is interested in serving in Trumps cabinet, according to Bloomberg .

Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin: Walker, also a one-time Trump GOP primary rival, is probably best known for rolling back collective bargaining rights for public employees, including teachers, in Wisconsin. Its unclear if he wants to sit at the helm of the education department, but a lot of Republicans in Washington have him on the top of their wish list. Since Walker is, or at least was, a rising star in the party, such a pick could elevate the importance of the issue.

Gerard Robinson: The former state chief in Virginia and Florida is now a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute and a leader of Trumps transition team on education. Check out Andrews interview with him here on what he hopes to see from a Trump administration . (Robinson was speaking only for himself in the interview, not on behalf of any organization.)

Williamson Evers: A research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, he served in a top policymaking roleassistant secretary of planning, evaluation, and policyduring the tail end of the President George W. Bushs administration. Evers, who has worked for past GOP presidential campaigns, is also a leader of the Trump transition team. Hes a veteran of the so-called math wars in California, has opposed teacher tenure, and was part of the Bush administrations efforts to restart K-12 education in Iraq. More in this story . One possibility: Evers doesnt become secretary, but gets a key role in the administration that could matter just as much on K-12, such as deputy secretary (the No. 2 post in the department).

Rep. Luke Messer of Indiana: The GOP congressman pushed legislation that would allow Title I money for disadvantaged kids to follow students to the school of their choice, including a private school. That proposal ultimately foundered, but Messer has done some deep thinking on the question of how small-government-friendly Republicans could push choice . And he has a track record of working in a bipartisan way. Hes teamed up with Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., on student data privacy legislation, for instance.

Former Indiana state chief Tony Bennett: Bennett, who was a driving force in Chiefs for Change in its early days, is close to both former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and incoming Vice President Mike Pence, who served as governor of Indiana. As state chief, Bennett, a Republican, pushed for an ambitious education redesign agenda, including teacher evaluation through student outcomes, A through F grades for schools, an expansion of charter schools and vouchers, and more. He was also a consistent supporter of the Common Core State Standards, which Trump doesnt like. But his hard charging style didnt sit well with some educators, and he was defeated in his bid for re-election by Glenda Ritz, a Democrat . (Ritz went on to lose her own re-election bid this year.) Later, Bennett became Floridas state chief .

But he came under scrutiny when emails showed that, during his tenure in Indiana, he had changed the grade of a charter school from C to A. The school, Christel House, was run by a philanthropist who donated to Bennetts campaign. Bennett left his gig in Florida, and was ultimately cleared of ethics violations by the Indiana State Ethics Commission. He was found guilty of using state resources for political purposes, and had to pay a $5,000 fine.

Admiral William McRaven: He is a former United States Navy admiral who oversaw special operations, and is the current chancellor of the University of Texas system. Hed be the first secretary with a primarily higher education background since Lauro Cavazos who served as education secretary under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

Tony Zeiss: The former president of Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, N.C. retired in February after more than two decades of service. The school became a national leader in workforce development under his watch, according to the Charlotte Observer. His work even got a shout-out in President Barack Obamas 2012 State of the Union address. Zeiss, whose name surfaced late Tuesday, would be another higher education pick . And like Pence, hes a Hoosier.

Eva Moskowitz or Michelle Rhee: Both of these reformey Democrats were floated by a Trump spokesman during an appearence on MSNBC. Moskowitz is the founder of Success Academy Charter Schools, Rhee is the controversial former chancellor of public schools in the District of Columbia, where she pushed through policies like performance pay. Both are Democrats, so their policies could be pretty different from most of the other folks on this list. More on the odds of either of them getting the nod here.

Jeanne Allen: Shes a long-time school choice advocate who founded the Center for Education Reform, which champions vouchers and charter schools. Allen served as a senior aide at the U.S. Department of Education under President Ronald Reagan. In May, Allen said she rejected the opportunity to advise Trumps campaign on education issues , telling us, I dont want my issues coming out of his mouth.

It sounds like Allen may have reconsidered since then. She was heartened by the selection of Pence, and campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, she said on Twitter.

A Total Outsider: Before the election, Carl Paladino, a school member in Buffalo, N.Y., and Trump surrogate, told the Council of the Great City Schools that Trump could go completely outside the box on the education secretary pick and choose a business leader or someone with experience outside of education.

In addition, two other school choice advocates, Betty DeVos, a philanthropist, and Kevin Chavous, a former D.C. City council member and a Democrat, are also possibilities. Both sit on the board of directors of the American Federation for Children, a school choice advocacy organization. (Hat tip: Politico ).

Of course, filling the lower-level positions at the department, such as the deputy secretary and assistant secretaries, can have an equally outsized impact on K-12. Over at Rick Hess Straight Up, the education policy director at AEI has some ideas .

Did we miss someone? Email us at aklein@epe.org , or aujifusa@epe.org . We will update this post as new names trickle out.

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
There may be some life left in the movement to bring education savings accounts to Nevada after the states supreme court ruled the school voucher-like program unconstitutional. Gov. Brian Sandoval says hell help lawmakers get a new program up and running, according to the Nevada Appeal .

Education savings accounts, or ESAs, allow parents to pull their children out of public schools and use most of the states per-pupil funding for their children on other forms of schooling, such as private school tuition or home-schooling materials.

But the Nevada high court ruled in October that the way the ESA program was funded was unconstitutional . (Theres more to the ruling, which dealt with two separate lawsuits, and you can read the details on that here .)

ESA supporters have claimed that the ruling is not an outright ban, and still leaves them a pathway to revive the program by changing the funding source through legislation.

Gov. Sandoval says he will include funding for the ESA program in his next budget, reports the Nevada Appeal:

He said under the Nevada Supreme Court's ruling, the so-called Educational Savings Accounts program will have to have a separate line item in the budget. "He said he is working with Sen. Scott Hammond, R-Las Vegas, who authored the ESA bill that was struck down by the high court to develop a plan that may be acceptable to a majority of the now Democrat controlled Legislature."

Thousands of students have applied to the program so far. Nevada State Treasurer Dan Schwartz, who has been in charge of implementing the program, told me previously that he will continue to accept new applicants for the program.

What Makes Nevadas Voucher Program Unique: Its Universal

Only a handful of states have education savings accounts, which are labeled that way because the money is deposited in accounts that parents draw from to pay for approved education-related expenses.

Of the states that do have an ESAArizona, Florida, Mississippi, and Tennesseetheir programs are limited to a small number of students, such as those with disabilities or from low-income families.

Nevadas program is open to all public school students, so long as they have been enrolled in a public school for at least 100 days. Its because of its scope that the Nevada program draws so much national attention.

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Elizabeth Radday, Learning Support teacher at The Marvelwood School , recently spent six months in Finland, where she studied how their innovative vocational education system works for all students, including students with learning disabilities. Here she shares five lessons she learned about vocational education in Finland. This post is part of our ongoing series exploring vocational education around the world with Advance CTE .

I recently returned from a six-month stay in Finland as a Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching grantee. I went to Finland hoping to learn more about education for students with learning disabilities at the upper secondary (high school) level and came home with a new outlook on vocational education. Finland, a country that has consistently been at or near the top of international tests of educational comparison such as the PISA , not only has great education for students through age fifteen, their upper secondary model is one that other countries should look to as an exemplary model of vocational education.

I fell into vocational education in Finland because that is where I found most special needs students. However, I was reminded over and over again that students choose to enter vocational school and it is not a system where kids with learning disabilities are tracked into a path with a dead end.

What do they get right that we can use a model to move the United States toward a respected system of vocational education for high school students? Here are five lessons I learned about vocational education in Finland.

1. Vocational education is a choice.

In Finland, there is an almost equal split between students who choose to go to vocational school and general upper secondary school (the traditional high school). And choice is a key word in that sentence; it is one of the most important reasons Finnish vocational education succeeds in Finland in ways it doesnt in other countries.

During the winter and spring of ninth grade, students apply to their top five upper secondary school choices. I have heard over and over from parents, teachers, and students, that where students go for high school is truly their choice. Most students feel no pressure from their parents to go on to one path or the other, and both options lead students on successful career pathways of their choice. Parents emphasize that they want their children to be happy and successful in whatever path they choose, so they encourage their children to make the choice they feel fits them best.

Students gave me a variety of reasons why they chose one school or another, but they all emphasized it was their personal decision. Some say they chose a general upper secondary school, or lukio, because they have hopes of attending a university and studying for a certain career that will require higher education like being a doctor or teacher. Others chose a lukio because they werent sure what they want to do as a career yet, and lukio gives them three more years to figure that out.

Students who chose a vocational path knew what they wanted to do and were eager to learn skills for that career. Some were motivated to start working and earn money after only three years of school and didnt have to go to university. Some were looking for a practical and well-defined future in a specific field. Vocational school is highly respected and seen as the more practical, well-defined, and more secure path for many students!

Many of the students are well aware that some careers coming out of vocational school are more lucrative than those that require a university degree and they even joke about the people who spend more time in school doing more work and ultimately end up earning less or having less secure jobs. If America wants to make vocational education more popular and respected, it has to be seen as a choice that all students have, not a path that some people are forced into.

2. Vocational education is not a dead end.

Vocational schools in other countries offer similar training for students. So why doesnt it earn the same respect as a general upper secondary education in most places? Its simple: vocational education is seen as less rigorous and is a dead end, meaning that students have no chance for further education or promotion in many other places.

In Finland, students who earn a vocational degree have a wide range of options open to them. After earning their initial vocational certificate around age nineteen, students can earn an additional vocational certificate to make themselves more marketable. They can also study at the vocational school for a few more years to earn an advanced certificate in a particular area in order to move to a higher position within a company.

Many students apply to universities of applied science where they can earn bachelors (and then masters) degrees in their fields. And finally, the traditional university remains an option for students with vocational certificates. They must take the same entrance exam as any other student and if they are qualified, they can gain acceptance to a traditional university.

In the United States, vocational education at the high school level cannot be the end of educational opportunities for students. A vocational diploma must be treated with the same respect as a high school diploma and should permit a student the ability to gain entrance to both public and private universities throughout the country.

3. Vocational education covers a broad range of careers.

In Finland, vocational education does not just encompass the fields that Americans think of as vocational. There are 120 different vocational certificate programs in 50 different fields that students can choose to study at different vocational schools in Finland. Of course, there are many of the traditional fields like construction, plumbing, electricity, and cosmetology. But there are also vocational certificates in fields such as tourism, business and entrepreneurship, health services, natural resources, technology, social services, and catering.

I met students learning to make sausages who were studying food production. I saw students learning to sew and make clothing. I even spent some time at stables where students were learning horse care and horseback riding instruction. My favorite experience was at a school in Lahti where students were learning to be circus performers! Circus arts is a vocational degree in Finland.

The wide range of vocational fields means that students can prepare for a wide range of careers, and nearly everyone can find something in which they are interested and can do with confidence and great skill.

The United States can make vocational education more attractive to a wider range of students if schools offer vocational skills that cover as broad a range as they do in Finland.

4. Vocational education is supported by all of society.

One very important part of earning a vocational certificate is on-the-job learning. Students must spend at least one term (six to eight weeks) each year in an apprenticeship-type situation. They must find an employer willing to host them and then the student, teacher, and work supervisor plan which skills the student will learn during that period. At the end of the term, the student is assessed on the mastery of the new skills.

Employers all over Finland are willing and open to accepting students to do on-the-job learning at their companies. Sometimes customers have to have a little more patience because they are being waited on or served by someone doing on-the-job learning, but everyone accepts and encourages these students and their work.

In addition, vocational schools often have their own restaurant, bakery, salon, or store where the public can purchase goods produced by the students. The people know that they can get excellent baked goods and delicious meals at a lower price at school restaurants and bakeries, or get beauty services for a good price by going to a school salon. People also buy other products that students make, from planters to chairs and cabinets or even sauna stoves at the vocational schools. Students gain the experience of working for real customers and society benefits by having a well-trained workforce.

As a society, communities throughout the United States must support students in vocational programs by allowing them to be apprentices and interns at a wide range of businesses in order for vocational training to be effective for our high school students.

5. Vocational education keeps more kids in school and leads to more employable citizens.

The United States loses between twenty and thirty percent of all high school freshman before they make it to graduation. This unacceptably high number of high school dropouts means there are hundreds of thousands of young adults with few skills for employment. And on the other side, employers cannot find skilled workers to fill empty positions.

The most often cited reason that students drop out of school is that it is not engaging and doesnt seem relevant to their future. Vocational education, on the other hand, is directly related to what a student will have to do on the job and leads directly to employment for many young adults. Students stay in vocational school because they find what they are learning is actually what they will use when they graduate. Vocational education also helps employers find the workers they will need who have been trained successfully in vocational schools.

The United States is ripe for change and improvement in vocational education. Some schools and states have exemplary programs and are moving in the right direction. While Finlands model isnt perfectly replicable in the United States, there are certainly lessons we can learn from their highly efficient and successful system.

Follow Elizabeth , Advance CTE , and the Center for Global Education at Asia Society on Twitter.

Photo courtesy of the author.
About 200 local superintendents from dozens of Ohio school districts plan to convene on the statehouse today to protest new high school requirements that imperil the graduation of hundreds of students.

The district leaders are coming to the states capital, Columbus, from more than 70 counties , according to local news reports. Theyre worried because in some districts, as many as half of this years junior class are not on track to graduate.

The focus of the superintendents protest is a set of graduation requirements approved by the Ohio board of education in 2014 .

The new rules require students, beginning with this years junior class, to earn 20 credits and choose one of three pathways to graduation. One of those pathways requires students to rack up 18 points out of a possible 35 points across seven end-of-course tests that replaced the states previous graduation exam, the Ohio Graduation Test. Those points must be distributed a certain way, too. Four must be in math, four in English, and six must be in social studies or science.

Students can use two other routes to graduation, as well: They can earn an industry-recognized career credential and score at a workforce-ready level on the WorkKeys test, or earn a score on a national college-entrance exam that signifies they dont need remediation in college.

The Columbus Dispatch reported that Ohio is likely to ease the graduation rules , but the superintendents are gathering on the steps of the state Capitol today to apply pressure to make that happen.

Peggy Lehner, the Ohio Senate education committee chairwoman, told reporters that the superintendents concerns will be addressed, and that state officials will look at a variety of revisions. The state board is also scheduled to discuss the issue at its meeting this week.

Were not going to let 50 percent of our students in the state go without diplomas, Lehner said, according to local news reports.

One revision could be to reduce the number of points students need to score on the end-of-course tests, and gradually increase it to 18 again. Another could be lowering the minimum scores students need to earn on the SAT or ACT, although those minimums were the ones college faculty identified as showing the likelihood that students are ready to handle credit-bearing college work.

Image: Getty
I borrowed the headline from the Los Angeles Times because it captured the essence of the reaction to Tuesdays election as reported in news outlets throughout the state.

Immigration policy is the first flash point . California has some of the most liberal policies in the country. Undocumented immigrants can get drivers licenses, health insurance, and in-state tuition at public colleges. And the idea of mass roundups of undocumented residents, as Trump promised, is facing massive protests in the state.

On Monday, Los Angeles Police Department chief Charlie Beck said his department would continue its policy of prohibiting officers from initiating contact with someone only to determine their immigration status. The department has also stopped turning over people for low-level crimes and from honoring federal requests to detain inmates who might be deportable. Beck said he had no plans to change LAPDs stance under the Trump administration.

Last Thursday, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez led a prayer service in which he assured that the Catholic Church will continue to support immigrants in the country illegally. The Times story contains a photo of Gomez embracing Eric Garcetti, the Jewish mayor of Los Angeles.

Other denominations voiced similar determination. On Sunday, Mike Kinman, rector of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, was greeted with a standing ovation from his congregation after preaching: This very room will be your sanctuary and we will stand between you and those who will do you harm.

California is home to approximately 500,000 youth and young adults covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which Trump promised to reverse despite its cruelty. New Yorker writer Dana Goodyear writes of their tears and fears. I would be back to zero, said one college student.

Gov. Jerry Brown was pictured on the Sacramento Bee web site saying that, we need to build a wall around the state to protect us from the other states, to which he quickly added that he was being facetious. But Los Angeles County Democratic Party chairman Eric Bauman called on Brown and the legislature to build a legal wall to keep our residents safe from the grim and cynical vision that Donald Trump has laid out for America.

Rough and Tumble, a news aggregation service, carries headlines of protests in several cities, an uptick in verbal abuse and hate speech in public places, and the slew of lawsuits facing the President elect, including the litigation over Trump University, which Trumps lawyers want to delay .

In Los Angeles, students plan school walkouts , and the Los Angeles Police Department issued an advisory to parents to urge their children to engage in peaceful behavior.

William Perez studies and writes about the DREAMers, including the DACA protected. I ask him what this weekends protests signaled. I think what we are seeing is definitely more than a momentary reaction, Perez, a Claremont Graduate University professor, compared the current protests to those in the last decade against punitive immigration measures, and said:

The difference is that now there is a large grassroots infrastructure in the form of a national network of high school and college student groups/clubs and Dream Centers that can facilitate large-scale mobilization in ways that were not possible even in 2010.

There is a reason why both Sanders and Clinton recruited DREAMer organizers for their presidential campaigns. Although they are young, they are seasoned veterans with many years of experience. As details emerge from the Trump administration regarding its immigration policies, you can expect a swift and large-scale response from immigrant youth, not just those that are undocumented, but also those in mixed-status families, he wrote. (In earlier On California columns [1] [2] [3] , Perez wrote about how students that are returned to Mexico are effectively without a home in either country.)

The President-elect also departs radically from California on environmental policy . Gov. Brown and former GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneger signed dozens of environmental laws including smog regulations and cap and trade regulations. By 2030, state requires 50 percent of its electricity to come from renewable sources, such as solar and wind. Companies, like Tesla, whose business model depends on movement to environmental friendly energy, employ thousands of workers.

Ironically, some of Trumps promised freedom from federal oversight in education plays into Californias support of alternatives to the test-and-punish policies promoted by the Obama Administration. But whatever comfort may be found in federal flexibility in education pales in significance when compared with the wall of difference between the state and the Trump Administrations direction for the country.

Former Stanford University education dean and U.S. Education Department undersecretary Marshall Smith responded to a query saying: The dramatic change in the federal government puts into great jeopardy our nations recent gains in civil rights and liberties and in the worlds struggle to reduce the potential effects of climate change.

He continued, In the absence of federal leadership, California has a moral obligation to our children and grandchildren to accelerate her efforts in both of these areas. We have the money and human capacity; all we need are the guts!
After Kansas Supreme Court justices earlier this year threatened to shut down the states public schools unless its legislature provided millions more to its poorest school districts, opponents retaliated by attempting to kick those justices off the bench, using that states recall process in the Nov. 8 election.

Those efforts failed, and now the justices will soon hear the second half of that case on whether the states $4 billion is enough to provide all of its students with an adequate education. If the state lost the case, the legislature will have to come up with potentially $800 million more a year for its public schools, a feat that Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican, said will inevitably lead to increased state taxes.

The case, Gannon v. State, started in 2010 when four of the states poorest districts argued in court that the legislature was violating the states constitution by not providing enough funding for districts to provide an adequate and equitable education to its students.

Since then, the court has over and over again ruled that the states funding formula violates the states constitution, but the heavily conservative legislature was slow to act. Between 2011 and 2012, Brownback slashed income taxes, putting an even larger dent in the school districts budget.

In response to the rulings, Brownback and the states legislators have argued that the court is stepping outside its realm of responsibilities by dictating how the state should spend its money. The justices are appointed, but can be recalled under a retention clause in the states constitution. A group called Kansans for Justice led the $1 million efforts to recall the justices based on several controversial rulings in recent years, including its decisions regarding school funding.

The second part of Gannon v. State is expected to be heard before the end of this year.

Dont miss another State EdWatch post. Sign up here to get news alerts in your email inbox. And make sure to follow @StateEdWatch on Twitter for the latest news from state K-12 policy and politics.
Rape Shield Laws Upheld by New Hampshire Supreme Court

Last Thursday, the Supreme Court of New Hampshire re-affirmed the state's rape shield laws and overturned their own decision. The 2014 conviction for the 2012 sexual assault and murder of Lizzi Marriot was appealed, and as part of the appeal, the attorneys for the appellant wanted to include part of the record that had been sealed as it related to Ms. Marriot's sexual history.

Initially, the court granted the defendant's motion to unseal the records for use on appeal, which would put them into the public record. However, after victim's advocates voiced their concerns over what that ruling would mean, and the attorney general's office appealed that ruling, the court actually reversed their own ruling.

Court Overturns Its Own Ruling

If it sounds strange that a court would overturn its own ruling, that's because it is rarely done. While nearly every court has a mechanism available allowing a losing party to challenge a ruling, such as a motion for reconsideration, these motions are rarely successful, but are still brought with regularity. However, in this case, the court granted the appellant's motion to unseal the records without hearing oral arguments, and the attorney general asked the court to reconsider after hearing arguments. The court then changed their mind about the records being unsealed.

It is worth noting however that the court's October 14 order explains that while the records and appellate briefing may be sealed and/or redacted, the oral argument will be open to the public, and defense counsel will not be prohibited from making any arguments they deem necessary. The court further notes in that order that records sealed do not contain confidential materials, but are rather sealed because of the nature of the case.

What Does This Mean for the Public Oral Argument?

While the October 14 order clearly states that defense attorneys will be allowed to go into the prior history of the victim during the oral argument scheduled for this week, the order also clearly states that it shall only be done as necessary, and done not in a way to embarrass the victim or victim's family. While this might not afford much comfort to the victim advocates, since the topic has been briefed, justices tend to steer oral arguments towards where they have questions, rather than where attorneys want to focus.

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The massive talent shortage in tech has all kinds of weird effects: the inability to outbid tech giants means that badly secured hospitals get devoured by ransomware; it means that companies that value diversity get to outmaneuver much better-resourced competitors; it means that companies that pledge to be ethical can edge out their competition (and that unethical conduct can have real costs); and it means that companies get so desperate that they form industry-wide criminal conspiracies to try to short circuit the seller's market for tech skills.



The tech industry can't afford to be picky about national origins. Apple was co-founded by a Syrian refugee; Google was co-founded by a Russian emigre  indeed, more than half of the founders of billion-dollar US startups are immigrants.

For Canada  with its cheap dollars and much smaller market  this is a serious disadvantage, one that was magnified by more than a decade of politics dominated by oil extraction, not knowledge-economy or manufacturing businesses. The oil industry doesn't need a lot of big brains: at its root, oil is a bunch of holes in the ground, surrounded by guns.

But America's just shot itself in the foot by electing a man who has promised to end H-1B immigration, and to end immigration from the world's most unstable, war-torn regions  the regions from which anyone with in-demand skills will be fleeing first. Canada's new, more migrant-friendly government offers the talent that America will not accept a pretty good second prize: a neighbouring, wealthy, stable state with good access to US markets, whose government will not "extreme vet" you and make you feel like you and your family could be deported at any second, on any pretense, just to throw some red meat to the xenophobic base.

When I first moved to the UK, I had a "Highly Skilled Migrant Visa," a status I got even though I didn't have a university degree  I had to get a waiver by showing that my professional experience made up for it. There were a tiny number of people who got the HSMV through these waivers, and to qualify, we all had to be financially independent of the UK state. Most of us were running businesses that employed Britons.

Under the last Labour government, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith courted the xenophobic vote by "closing immigration loopholes," including university waivers for Highly Skilled Migrants, with practically no notice. I was lucky in that my now-wife and I were already planning our wedding and by bringing forward the date, I was able to switch to a spousal visa. Others were not so lucky or so patient. My immigration lawyers told me that they had a client who just gave up on the UK: he was American, with British children, and a business employing many Britons. The proof that the government viewed him as politically disposable convinced him that the UK wasn't the right place to run his business, so he shut it down, sold his house, and moved his family back to London.

America needs all the tech talent it can get  talent that will keep its software-enabled cars and thermostats and pacemakers from being shut down by pranksters and saboteurs, just for starters. By slamming the door on that talent, America is giving its regional neighbours a hell of a gift.



Some Canadian startups are looking forward to recruiting from the US. "It's been a giant pain in the ass to bring in foreign talent," said Christopher Reid, the CEO of Sortable, a startup based in Waterloo, Ont. that uses machine learning to optimize digital ads. (Founded two years ago, Sortable has about 50 employees.) The new immigration measures introduced by Canada are going to be "really useful," he continued, as he praised Waterloo's startup cultureit's home to big names like Kik and Thalmic Labs, to name a few. As for scientists, many are worried about how a Trump presidency will affect their research and funding. For now, it's impossible to say exactly what the impact will befor one thing, he's never held elected office before. But when Nature asked scientists on Twitter how they thought the election would affect them, there was dread: worry over National Institutes of Health funding (it's currently the largest biomedical research funder in the world), worry about possible cutbacks for climate change research, worry over the future generation of scientists.

The Threat of a Brain Drain Under a Trump Presidency Is Real

[Kate Lunau/Motherboard]
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There is a high demand for workers in engineering, health care, IT and production jobs throughout Tennessee, according to a new report released by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.

TNECD released its annual Labor and Education Alignment Program (LEAP) report on Tuesday, a regional study of occupations in high demand among employers throughout Tennessee. The evaluation identifies occupations with high employer demand by focusing on key metrics such as median wage, online job postings, hires and job openings. The report also highlights a few key education programs offered in the state that prepare students and job seekers for in-demand occupations in these fields.



TNECDs Center for Economic Research in Tennessee (CERT) created the report along with the TNECDs Director of Workforce Development.



Tennessee is poised to continue to experience significant job growth for the foreseeable future, TNECD Commissioner Randy Boyd said. How successful our state is in the coming years, however, depends on the readiness of our workforce and aligning our statewide education offerings with the job needs of Tennessee industries. Programs such as the Tennessee Promise and Tennessee Reconnect are ensuring all Tennesseans have access to higher education. With the LEAP report, stakeholders across the state can better align education and industry to make sure our future workforce is getting the training and education for the jobs our businesses are looking to fill.



The LEAP report identified more than 250 occupations with high employer demand across the state. While nearly every industry group has jobs in high demand, the report focused on job openings in engineering, IT, health care and production occupations. The LEAP reports also outlines educational tracks and the types of postsecondary programs available throughout Tennessee that can prepare students for jobs in these four in-demand occupation groups.



The LEAP report is meant to aid local, regional and state policy decision-making by outlining occupations in high demand and highlighting opportunities to reduce gaps between education and the workforce needs of employers.



The report can be used for career exploration and planning by educators, career advisers, parents, students, local chamber of commerce and others. Additionally, the LEAP report highlights the opportunities for increased education and industry alignment in terms of workforce development strategies such as work-based learning, internships, co-ops and apprenticeships.



LEAP is a statewide program designed to help post-secondary institutions provide students with the skills and credentials employers need through aligning education and industry. LEAP is the result of legislation introduced by Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris.



Twelve LEAP collaborations have been awarded grants in 2016 to assist with programs in advanced manufacturing, mechatronics, health care and other workforce development initiatives throughout Tennessee.



More information on the 2016 LEAP report is available here.


If you spend your days dreaming of getting away to the perfect foreign country, then youre not alone  millions of Americans every year are buying tickets to go to countries across the world for a vacation theyll never forget. While some countries are noted for their love of foreigners and vacationers alike, there are certain places that arent quite as friendly. Even if theres a killer price on a beautiful location, youll want to know the ins and outs of your chosen vacation spot before you book your flight  you never know what scary situations you can find yourself in if you dont do your research first. Here are the top five places to avoid.

1. Turkey

Istanbul, the most populated city in Turkey, may seem like the perfect destination due to its beauty and architecture, but the U.S. Department of State warns against any travel in the region, particularly in southeastern Turkey.

Lately, Turkey has been experiencing a number of terrorist threats, which has resulted in increased military activity. These terrorist groups before have specifically targeted U.S. tourists, and extremists also tend to target large sporting events, open markets, and public venues, which are places youll most likely want to go when vacationing.

Even U.S. government officials are experiencing travel restrictions in Turkey. Try a different country instead, and steer clear from this one for now.

2. Egypt

Seeing the pyramids, reefs, and ruins are all part of the perfect Egypt experience, but this dream destination might sound better in your head than it is in reality. SafeTravel explains Egypt is currently considered a high-risk country for tourists, particularly near the border of Libya. There is a heavy threat of terrorism and kidnapping close to this area, with armed groups present near the border as well.

As for other popular areas in Egypt, such as Cairo, these areas are also considered high-risk for vacationers. The political situation in Egypt is causing civil unrest and heavy terrorist threats, particularly to areas where there are a lot of foreigners present, so travel is heavily cautioned. There have also been several attacks recently in areas where tourism is high that have included explosions, attacks near the popular pyramids, and firearm attacks near government buildings. Hotel bars, restaurants, and resort areas are also deemed unsafe at this time.

If you do find yourself in Egypt, be sure to avoid any protests and large public gatherings. These situations may escalate into violence. If you can stay away, its probably the best choice right now.

3. Mexico

You can find tons of all-inclusive vacations in the beautiful country of Mexico, but you may want to save this spot for another year. As of now, travelers should avoid many areas in Mexico, such as Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, San Luis Potosi, and Tamaulipas, says USA Today. There are high rates of violence near Mexicos northern border states because of the narcotic trade as well, so be wary if youre planning on going to popular areas like Tijuana.

If youre traveling to Mexico by car, highway robbery and carjacking are big concerns for tourists. If you have a newer or larger vehicle with a U.S. license plate, then you may be targeted  dark SUVs are particularly vulnerable. If youre traveling around Mexico by taxi, then always get in a sitio taxi, as the government regulates them. Other taxi services exist, but you dont want to take the chance of getting into a dangerous situation. Robbery, assault, and pickpocketing are all common crimes that happen throughout Mexico as well, especially if youre a tourist, so travel in groups and stay aware of your surroundings at all times.

4. Syria

Syria is rich with history, beautiful ruins, and castles that would make for a beautiful Middle Eastern vacation, but at this time and for the foreseeable future, its best to stay away. Lonely Planet explains that in 2011, the Syrian civil war began, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths and mass exiles. While Syrians themselves have paid the biggest price for the conflict, Westerners in the area, such as journalists, and aid workers, have also been publicly kidnapped and executed.

More recently, the U.S. Department of State updated their warning to reflect just how dangerous things have become. One part of the warning reads: No part of Syria is safe from violence. Dont plan to travel to this country any time soon.

5. Honduras

When it comes to a beautiful, tropical climate in Central America, its hard to beat Honduras. However, due to the high crime rates and the outrageous homicide rate outlined by the U.S. Department of State, youll be better off skipping this dangerous country. Throughout Honduras, criminal activity is critically high. For tourists, this means kidnapping, crime, and violence may occur during their stay. Because the Honduran government doesnt have the resources to prosecute cases and thoroughly investigate crimes, a lot of things fly under the radar, including murder. Honduras has one of the highest homicide rates worldwide, and most of these cases go unresolved.

Highway assaults and carjackings are also commonplace in Honduras in both highly populated and remote areas of the country. Some criminals will even go as far as to create roadblocks or checkpoint areas to convince people theyre with the police. Drug trafficking is not uncommon either, and criminals will resort to violence to carry out their activities.

If you are planning a trip to Honduras with a reputable travel agency and youre staying at a hotel resort, you should still be extremely cautious and aware of your surroundings, particularly at night. If youre on a cruise ship that stops on the shores of Honduras, you should still exercise caution, even if youre with a good company.
Merck reported sales growth of 19.3% in the third quarter of 2016. EBITDA pre exceptionals rose sharply by 24.3%.

We had a good third quarter and are lifting our guidance for the full year, said Stefan Oschmann, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board of Merck. We have made good progress with the execution of our strategy. We have advanced our pharmaceutical pipeline and are realizing the cost synergies from the acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich faster than planned. In the course of the year, we have lowered our debt from the acquisition by  1 billion.

Group sales rose in the third quarter of 2016 by 19.3% to  3.7 billion (Q3 2015:  3.1 billion). Thanks to the Life Science business sector, Group sales increased organically by 0.9%, while negative exchange rate effects caused sales to decline slightly by -0.6%. Acquisition-related sales growth of 19.0% mainly reflects the Sigma-Aldrich transaction, which closed in November 2015. From a geographic perspective, North America and Latin America fueled organic growth.

EBITDA pre exceptionals, Merck's key earnings indicator, grew sharply by 24.3% to  1.2 billion (Q3 2015:  944 million). This was mainly attributable to the Sigma-Aldrich acquisition and the good operating performance in Life Science. The Healthcare business sector contributed to the increase in earnings with the good development of operating business, higher royalty and license income, and the release of provisions that had been set up for the termination of clinical development projects. At 31.5%, the EBITDA margin pre exceptionals was higher than in the year-earlier quarter (Q3 2015: 30.3%). Group EBIT grew by 19.9% to  676 million (Q3 2015:  564 million). Net income climbed by 25.5% to  457 million (Q3 2015:  364 million). Earnings per share pre exceptionals rose in the third quarter of 2016 by 28.8% to  1.70 (Q3 2015:  1.32).

As of September 30, 2016, Merck had lowered its net financial debt from the acquisition of Sigma-Aldrichto  11.6 billion (December 31, 2015:  12.7 billion). Merck had 50,967 employees worldwide on September 30, 2016.

Merck generates profitable growth in the nine-month period

In the first nine months of 2016, Group net sales grew by 19.3% to  11.2 billion (January-September 2015:  9.4 billion). This double-digit growth rate is due to both acquisition effects (19.3%) and organic sales increases (3.6%). The impact of negative exchange rate effects on Group net sales was -3.6% in the first nine months of 2016. EBITDA pre exceptionals of the Merck Group came in at  3.4 billion in the first nine months of 2016 (January-September 2016:  2.7 billion), which was 26.7% higher than in the year-earlier period. Earnings per share pre exceptionals climbed 28.1% to  4.79 in the first nine months of 2016 (January-September 2015:  3.74).

Healthcare posts organic growth and higher profitability

The Healthcare business sector generated organic sales growth of 1.3% in the third quarter of 2016. This was canceled out by negative foreign exchange effects of -1.4%. The negative portfolio effect of -1.0% was due to the return of the rights to Kuvan to BioMarin Pharmaceutical at the beginning of the year. Consequently, Healthcare net sales decreased by -1.1% to  1.7 billion in the third quarter of 2016 (Q3 2015:  1.7 billion).



The multiple sclerosis drug Rebif saw an organic sales decline of -5.5% in the third quarter of 2016. Including negative exchange rate effects of -1.2%, Rebif sales amounted to  436 billion. (Q3 2015:  468 million). For the oncology drug Erbitux Merck reported sales of  219 million in the third quarter (Q3 2015:  223 million) owing to organic sales declines of -0.6% and negative exchange rate effects of -1.3 %. Merck achieved very strong organic sales growth of 10.2% with the fertility treatment Gonal-f. This was primarily due to the favorable competitive situation in North America, which Merck continued to benefit from. Including negative exchange rate effects of -0.9%, sales grew to  182 million (Q3 2015:  167 million).

EBITDA pre exceptionals of the Healthcare business sector rose in the third quarter by 5.2% to  565 million (Q3 2015:  537 million). Apart from organic developments, this was also due to the release of provisions amounting to around  40 million, which had originally been set up for the termination of clinical development projects. Consequently, the EBITDA margin pre exceptionals of Healthcare improved in the third quarter to 33.5 % (Q3 2015: 31.5%).

Life Science generates strong organic sales growth

Thanks to demand from the biotech industry for Merck products, the Life Science business sector achieved strong organic sales growth of 5.7% in the third quarter. Furthermore, the acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich led to an additional 77.4% jump in sales. In the third quarter, foreign exchange had no impact. Consequently, Life Science sales rose by 83.1% to  1.4 billion (Q3 2015:  759 million).

With Life Science, the Process Solutions business area, which markets products for the entire pharmaceutical production value chain, again delivered strong organic sales growth in the third quarter with an increase of 10.1%. The main driver was growing demand for filtration and single-use products. The Research Solutions business area, which focuses on academia and pharmaceutical research institutions, reported a slight organic sales decline of -0.4%. Sales by Applied Solutions, which serves clinical and diagnostic testing laboratories as well as the food and environmental industries, grew organically by 3.3%.

EBITDA pre exceptionals of the Life Science business sector climbed by 110.7% to  424 million in the third quarter (Q3 2015:  201 million). The EBITDA pre exceptionals margin of Life Science improved significantly to 30.5% (Q3 2015: 26.5%).

Performance Materials maintains high profitability

Net sales of the Performance Materials business sector declined organically in the third quarter by -5.8%, which was primarily due to the expected continued destocking by display industry customers. However, the acquisition-related sales increase of 3.5% attributable to the SAFC Hitech business of Sigma-Aldrich, which has been integrated into the Performance Materials business sector, had a positive impact. In addition, slightly positive exchange rate effects of 1.0% were recorded. Net sales by the Performance Materials business sector thus decreased by -1.3% to  645 million (Q3 2015:  653 million).

The Display Materials business unit recorded an organic decline in sales versus a strong year-earlier comparative base. This was due to volume declines of older liquid crystal technologies as well as continued customer destocking. The Integrated Circuits Materials business unit achieved strong organic growth. The business with deposition materials for chip production, which was added to the product portfolio as a result of the acquisition of the SAFC Hitech business of Sigma-Aldrich, performed well.

EBITDA pre exceptionals of Performance Materials fell in the third quarter by -5.4% to  282 million (Q3 2015:  298 million). With an EBITDA pre exceptionals margin of 43.7%, the profitability of Performance Materials, which has meanwhile achieved good diversification, was the highest among all the business sectors (Q3 2015: 45.5%).

We are committed to sustainably securing our market and technology leadership in display materials, whether in liquid crystals, for which we are launching our new, energy-saving SA-VA technology for televisions, or in OLED materials, said Stefan Oschmann. In addition, we want to leverage our liquid crystals expertise in areas beyond displays, for example in liquid crystal windows.

Merck raises earnings forecast owing to Healthcare

For 2016, Merck continues to expect a moderate organic increase in Group sales in comparison with the previous year. In the third quarter, the business developed in line with expectations. In addition, owing to the acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich, Merck continues to expect a portfolio-related net sales increase in the low double-digit percentage range in 2016. This is still expected to be countered by negative foreign exchange effects that are forecast to range between 3% and 5% due to the currency devaluations in Latin America. Merck thus continues to expect net sales of between  14.9 billion and  15.1 billion in 2016.

However, Merck is raising its earnings expectations and now assumes EBITDA pre exceptionals to range between  4,450 million and  4,600 million (previously  4,250 million to  4,400 million). This improved guidance is due primarily to the Healthcare business sector, which recorded the previously mentioned release of around  40 million in provisions in the third quarter for research projects terminated in previous years. On the other hand, research and development costs rose in the third quarter to a lesser extent than originally planned owing to good cost management of our research projects and conservative cost budgeting at the beginning of the year. Against this background, Merck now assumes that in the remaining months of the year, the cost increase will also be less pronounced than previously planned. Merck now expects business free cash flow to range between  3,250 million and  3,360 million (previously:  3,140 million to  3,250 million).
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Sheerine Alemzadeh Karla M. Altmayer

Two Chicago public-interest attorneys have branched off to organize a worker-led movement to end gender-based violence.

Karla M. Altmayer and Sheerine Alemzadeh are co-founders of Healing to Action. The organization plans to create events and spaces for workers to discuss and recover from their experiences with gender-based violence and will train workers on how to talk to media and lobby public officials.

As to exactly what they and others will be lobbying for, Altmayer and Alemzadeh will have to wait and see.

I think it is a little bit of a radical thing, to say were going to let the workers decide, Altmayer said.

Both of the co-founders passions for this line of work came from personal experience.

Altmayer grew up with a single mom who was an immigrant and a survivor of gender-based violence. She raised Altmayer and her two siblings on a domestic workers salary and always talked about education as a tool to do something more.

I saw the law as a tool for possibly changing communities, she said.

Altmayer, whose mother had recently died, had no money to fund her graduate studies. She said her acceptance into the Northern Illinois University College of Law with full tuition covered and a stipend was a miracle.

During an internship with LAF, she was frustrated to see how widespread and tolerated sexual harassment and gender-based violence were among migrant farmers.

For an Equal Justice Works Fellowship funded by Kirkland & Ellis LLP and the Medtronic Foundation, Altmayer returned to LAF to work with immigrant women working as farmers, including those who were sexual-violence survivors.

She said her clients didnt have much of an opportunity to talk about and detail how they were being sexually harassed by a boss, for example. And few were ready to litigate.

Luckily, I had met Sheerine, Altmayer said.

Alemzadeh started her career interested in combating sexual assault as opposed to an interest in the law. Her interest in working to rectify sexual assault also stemmed from her background. Her parents emigrated from Iran and avoided talking about sexual assault.

There was a sense that silence was the most protective and safest way to deal with it in Iranian culture, she said. That keeping it quiet and under wraps was an act of love, actually.

That ethos didnt mesh with how she had learned people discuss injustice openly. As a result, in college, she studied how sexual violence differs in marginalized communities.

She worked as a paralegal at Tahirih Justice Center, a nonprofit with offices in Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Houston that helps immigrant women and children fleeing gender-based violence. After seeing how much of a difference an attorney can make, she went to the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Alemzadeh got a Skadden Fellowship after graduation, which was funded by the Skadden Foundation affiliated with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. Altmayer pointed out that both her and Alemzadehs public interest careers launched thanks to funding from big firms.

As a Skadden Fellow, Alemzadeh was a staff attorney at the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE), representing low-wage workers, including food service, construction and health-care employees. She invited Altmayer to a Coalition Against Workplace Sexual Violence meeting where rape crisis organizations throughout the city and surrounding area meet and collaborate.

After her fellowship, Altmayer represented undocumented people accused of deportable crimes through the National Immigrant Justice Center. Many of those undocumented women had experienced gender-based violence in the workplace, in their homes, as children, crossing the border and in their own countries, but some had never talked about being raped until they were in a detention facility with 20 other women, where they had to deal with their legal issues rather than getting to see a therapist.

The experience made Altmayer realize that survivors of workplace sexual assault needed not only curriculum training on their rights but also a space and time to process and heal.

Altmayer and Alemzadeh came up with the idea of an organization that would fill that hole in 2015.

It was after a coalition meeting and we were both feeling really inspired, Altmayer said.

Sept. 15 of this year, they both left their previous full-time positions to launch Healing to Action.

Miguel C. Keberlein, director of the immigrants and workers rights practice group at LAF Chicago who oversaw Altmayers work at LAF as an intern and as a staff attorney, said he admires Altmayer and Alemzadehs commitment.

They both gave up very stable and enriching positions that they were in to try to make this happen, he said.

He said Healing to Action absolutely could become a model for future organizations.

It really defines what it means to be grassroots: It comes from workers identifying their own needs and being able to respond to those needs, Keberlein said. Thats something that many people talk about but have a difficult time putting into action.

Lynne Johnson, a Healing to Action board member and CAASE policy director who worked with Alemzadeh during her fellowship, said that having survivors of workplace sexual assault and harassment lobby for their own needs may make Healing to Action more effective.

Legislators are most impacted by people who are most impacted by the legislation itself, she said.
Benjamin Thomas Wolf, president of Keep Chicago Livable, is photographed Nov. 15, 2016, in his home in Chicago's Bucktown neighborhood. Wolf's group has filed suit against Chicago's new regulations on Airbnb rentals; a second lawsuit with different plaintiffs was filed Nov. 15, 2016. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)

A group of homeowners is suing the city of Chicago, alleging the city's new "draconian and unintelligible restrictions" on Airbnb and other home-sharing platforms are unconstitutional and punish responsible homeowners.

This is the second lawsuit filed this month that takes aim at the city's new home-sharing rules, which are set to go into effect fully next month. The regulations lay down the law for homeowners renting their living spaces out on Airbnb, the home-sharing platform that has become a thorn in the hotel industry's side.

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The new regulations call for an extra tax on home-sharing hosts, a limit on the number of units in buildings that can be rented out on the platforms and a requirement that hosts maintain records on guests, among other rules.

The ordinance "arbitrarily and irrationally" deprives homeowners of their rights to offer their homes to guests, and violates the Illinois and U.S. constitutions, according to the most recent lawsuit, filed Tuesday morning in the Cook County Circuit Court.

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Liberty Justice Center, a Chicago-based nonprofit litigation center representing the plaintiffs in the case, teamed up with a Phoenix-based think tank called the Goldwater Institute on the suit in hopes of blocking the regulations. The four plaintiffs  Leila Mendez, Sheila Sasso, Alonso Zaragoza and Michael Lucci  have rented out their homes on Airbnb.

"We would hope the city would go back to the drawing board and start over," said Jacob Huebert, senior attorney at Liberty Justice Center.

Maria Guerra Lapacek, commissioner of Chicago's Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection, also was named as a defendant.

"We intend to vigorously defend this suit and the ordinance it challenges, as we believe the plaitiffs' legal arguments lack merit," said Bill McCaffrey, a spokesman for the city's law department.

There are 6,400 Airbnb hosts in Chicago, according to the San Francisco-based company. About 371,000 guests stayed in the city between Nov. 1, 2015, and Nov. 1, 2016.

Airbnb is not involved in the suit. Spokesman Ben Breit said in a statement that the company is "100 percent focused on educating the Chicago Airbnb host community about the new rules and regulations passed as part of the June ordinance."

The suit takes issue with more than half a dozen aspects of the ordinance, calling them vague, unreasonable and difficult to abide by. It's not the first lawsuit that attempts to overturn a city home-sharing law, in Chicago or elsewhere.

A trial court judge ruled last month that a Nashville, Tenn., ordinance regulating short-term rental properties was unconstitutionally vague. The Nashville case, like the one filed in Chicago this week, was filed by a think tank acting on behalf of local homeowners. But Airbnb itself has sued other cities, such as San Francisco; Santa Monica, Calif.; and Anaheim, Calif., over ordinances that force the company to remove or refuse certain bookings that violate city laws.

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Keep Chicago Livable, a nonprofit comprised of homeowners that oppose Chicago's regulations, filed a suit earlier this month in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, saying "this new law is designed as a particularly cruel trap for the unwary."

Benjamin Thomas Wolf, president of Keep Chicago Livable and a plaintiff in that case, quit renting out his Bucktown neighborhood condo in light of the regulations.

"I abide by the rules and my life has been about enforcing the law and now to break the law, I'm just not prepared to do that," said Wolf, who said he has worked for the FBI. "It's important for us to challenge this."

None of the plaintiffs in the Chicago case filed this week was available for comment Tuesday.

Chicago's law authorizes building commissioners to inspect rentals, and requires hosts to keep guest registration records that city officials can request. These are invasions of privacy, according to the suit filed Tuesday.

Mendez, one of the plaintiffs, stopped renting out her home for periods of 31 days or less to avoid a warrantless search. The suit asked the court to immediately prohibit these types of searches.

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The ordinance caps the units per building that can be used as vacation rentals, which restricts the rights of other people in the building to use their homes as they see fit, Huebert said. Additionally, homeowners can only get vacation rental licenses if they are renting out their primary residence, barring a few exceptions, which the suit says discriminates against non-Illinois dwellers. The primary residence restriction applies to people in single-family homes and two- to four-unit buildings.

"It affects people who live out of state," Huebert said. "They own a residence in Chicago and want to rent it out through Airbnb, and it says they can't."

Then there's the excessive loud noise rule, which the suit alleges is vague and nearly impossible to abide by, and the additional 4 percent tax home-sharing hosts must pay, which the suit says is discriminatory because it doesn't apply to hotels.

"If the city has specific concerns about the public health or safety and eliminating nuisances it might think are associated with home sharing, it should pass a law that's actually directed toward those kinds of things," Huebert said, "as opposed to one that is very long and confusing."

amarotti@chicagotribune.com

Twitter AllyMarotti
Michael McCarthy, a spokesperson for TSA, explains the new automated secrurity lanes at Chicago O'Hare International Airport in Chicago on Monday, November 14, 2016. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune) (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

United and American airlines are introducing quicker, more efficient security lanes at O'Hare International Airport, with the goal of reducing the type of bottlenecks that caused hundreds of travelers to miss flights this spring.

American Airlines has been sending passengers through two automated lanes at one of its Terminal 3 security checkpoints for about a week. United Airlines' three lanes, at a Terminal 1 checkpoint for TSA PreCheck customers, opened Monday.

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The new lanes let up to five passengers at a time put luggage in bins for screening, rather than the single-file line where efficient travelers were thwarted by slower passengers. A conveyor system automatically diverts bags in need of extra screening without halting the line  and separates flagged bags with possible weapons from those with oversized containers of shampoo.

The system also takes a photo of each bag's exterior that is linked to the X-ray of its contents and a unique radio frequency identification tag on its bin, to make it easier for agents to keep track of bags, and has a parallel conveyor belt that automatically brings empty bins back to the front of the line, similar to the ball return at a bowling alley. Ferrying empty luggage bins back to the front of the line has been a job of Transportation Security Administration agents.

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The TSA has estimated the system cuts the time passengers spend in screening by about 30 percent. United has seen "up to 100 percent improvement" in automated lanes it installed last month in Los Angeles, said John Slater, vice president of United's O'Hare hub.

American says its line is noticeably quicker, too.

"The feedback that we have received from our employees and customers has been overwhelmingly positive," said Franco Tedeschi, American's Chicago vice president.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 7 A Transportation Security Administration screener surveys passengers Nov. 14, 2016, at Terminal 1 of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. New conveyor lines at the airport can divert bags to a new line should they need additional screening. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

Airlines have been looking for ways to streamline the security screening process, particularly after airport security lines ground to a near-halt at some airports in May, causing hundreds of travelers to miss flights. Those lines, which topped two hours at times, now average five minutes or less at O'Hare, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation.

The TSA already was working on the technology, but the lengthy lines helped get the automated lanes up and running quicker, said Jill Vaughan, assistant administrator of the TSA's Office of Security Capabilities.

American said new screening lanes at four hub airports and a test of new CT scanners in Phoenix would cost $5 million when it announced the program this summer. United declined to say how much the new lanes cost.

Transportation Security Administration workers direct travelers through the new automated security lanes Nov. 14, 2016, at Terminal 1 of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. The new lines automatically divert bags in need of extra screening and include a parallel conveyor belt to return empty bins to the front of the line. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

United added the new lanes at its TSA PreCheck checkpoint first because it tends to attract valuable frequent fliers. "The customers actually make that investment, and they get the privilege of going through a little more quickly than standard customers," Slater said.

Road warriors won't be the only ones to benefit from the improvements, however. United plans to redesign its Terminal 1 lobby and add more automated lanes at O'Hare in 2017, Slater said. The airline also expects to open automated lanes at Newark Liberty International Airport by Thanksgiving.

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American is bringing automated lanes to airports in Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Miami and New York in early 2017. It also will begin testing early next year new computed tomography, or CT, scanners in Phoenix that will let passengers keep liquids and laptops in carry-on bags during screening.

lzumbach@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @laurenzumbach
Crain's Chicago Business publisher David Snyder and associate publisher Lisa Emerick will leave the weekly publication at the end of the year. (Crain's Chicago Business)

One day after laying off three editors, Crain's Chicago Business announced a shake-up at the top of the masthead with the departure of publisher David Snyder and associate publisher Lisa Emerick.

Snyder and Emerick will leave the weekly business publication at the end of the year. No replacements have been named, K.C. Crain, director of operations for Crain Communications, said Tuesday.

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A 33-year veteran of Crain's Chicago Business, Snyder served as publisher for 6-1/2 years. He cited changes at the company in "an effort to refashion the business" as leading to his "amicable" exit.

"K.C. has a vision where he'd like to take the publication," Snyder said. "We've had a number of really constructive conversations over the last several weeks. At the end of the day, our vision for the future of Crain's Chicago Business was different."

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A 100-year-old, family owned business, Detroit-based Crain Communications has a portfolio of trade publications such as Automotive News, Advertising Age, Modern Healthcare and Plastics News. Crain's Chicago Business is the oldest and largest of its four weekly business journals, which also serve Cleveland, Detroit and New York.

Snyder, 55, was named publisher of Crain's Chicago Business in October 2010, after previously serving as associate publisher. He joined the weekly as a researcher in 1983, moved into reporting the following year and was named editor in 1993.

Emerick joined Crain's Chicago in 2010 as marketing director, and was named associate publisher in January 2014.

Crain, 36, said he will be spending more time in Chicago to oversee management during the transition, but long-term "there will be a replacement and a new leadership team" at Crain's Chicago Business.

The publication will continue to be profitable this year, but saw "soft" print revenues compared with last year, according to Crain.

Crain's parted ways on Monday with assistant managing editors Tom Corfman and Craig Newman and a part-time copy editor, which represents nearly a 10 percent reduction in its newsroom staff.

Corfman, a longtime Crain's reporter and editor, helped launch the Crain's On Politics newsletter in February. The newsletter was discontinued this week, Snyder said.

Newman, the former managing editor of the Chicago Sun-Times, joined Crain's in March to manage daily news and digital operations.

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rchannick@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @RobertChannick
A federal judge has tossed out Land of Lincoln's lawsuit seeking more than $70 million that the now-defunct health insurer says it's owed by the federal government.

The insurer shut down at the end of September amid financial woes, sending 49,000 Illinoisans scrambling to find new coverage for the last three months of the year. Shortly before the insurer's closure was announced, it sued the federal government in June for more than $70 million.

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Land of Lincoln, which sold plans on the Obamacare exchange, alleged that the government owed it the money under the Affordable Care Act's risk corridor program. That program was meant to help offset losses for insurers in the early years of the federal law, but Congress passed spending bills that limited the amount the government could pay to insurers under that program.

For 2014, insurers asked for $2.87 billion in risk corridor payments but only got $362 million.

Land of Lincoln alleged in federal claims court that it had relied on receiving its full share when it opened for business and that it set its prices lower than it otherwise would have in anticipation of getting that federal money.

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In 2015, Land of Lincoln lost $90.8 million. It also was supposed to pay more than $30 million to the federal government this year under another part of the Affordable Care Act.

Last week, a federal claims court judge sided with the government, saying the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reasonably interpreted the law in determining the payments and that the government did not break any contract with Land of Lincoln.

The U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment on the decision. The Illinois Department of Insurance, which is handling questions about Land of Lincoln, is reviewing the court's decision and evaluating its options, spokesman Michael Batkins said in a statement. He declined to comment on what might have been done with the money had Land of Lincoln won.

But it's possible the money could have been used to pay any remaining claims from providers, said Timothy Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee University in Virginia and expert on the Affordable Care Act. Now, the Illinois Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association, funded by other insurers in the state, is required to pay any remaining provider claims.

Land of Lincoln's lawsuit is one of a number that have been filed by insurers across the country over the risk corridor payments.

Jost, who's been a proponent of the Affordable Care Act, said the lawsuits show that there's a lot of blame to go around  including on congressional Republicans  for problems under the health care law.

"Had (Land of Lincoln) prevailed in the court of claims I think it would have made more clearly the point that this was an important part of the problems we've seen under the Affordable Care Act," Jost said.

Donald Trump recently won the presidential election on a platform that included repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, which he described as a "catastrophe." Trump and a Republican-dominated Congress are expected, at the very least, to make significant changes to the law next year, though the extent is not yet clear.

Under the law, more than 300,000 Illinoisans this year bought health insurance plans on the exchange, and the law also prohibits insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. It also allows parents to keep children on their insurance plans until age 26 and requires all Americans to have health insurance or pay a penalty.

lschencker@chicagotribune.com

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The following items were taken from Winnetka and Northfield police department reports and press releases. An arrest does not constitute a finding of guilt.

Northfield

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Theft

A leaf blower and a chainsaw were taken from a truck parked near the intersection of Wagner and Bosworth roads, according to a Nov. 10 report. The loss is estimated at $750.

Someone broke a rear window of a vehicle parked in the 200 block of Waukegan Road on Nov. 10 and took a Gucci purse and checks, police said. The estimated loss is more than $500.

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Winnetka

Fraud

A resident of the 1100 block of Scott Avenue reported on Nov. 8 that someone used their personal information to open several AT&T wireless accounts. There is no reported loss at this time.

Disorderly conduct

Tracy Ray Rollins Jr., 24, of the 1900 block of Pine Road in Homewood, was charged with disorderly conduct on Nov. 9 subsequent to an investigation of an incident that occurred on Nov. 5, police said.

DUI

Carmen Chico, 64, of the 6100 block of Fairfield Avenue in Chicago, was charged with DUI and illegal transportation/possession of alcohol in the 1000 block of Tower Road on Nov. 11, police said.

Local ordinance

David J. Lesser, 22, of the 800 block of Cherry Street in Winnetka, was issued a municipal citation in the 700 block of Oak Street on Nov. 3 for failure to return found property to the owner.

Brian Cox is a freelancer for Pioneer Press.
The Festival of Wood and Barrel-Aged Beer over the weekend at the UIC Forum in Chicago was a sold-out party for beer lovers. (Nick Stetina)

Five thoughts from the 14th Festival of Wood and Barrel-Aged Beer, which was held across three sessions Friday and Saturday at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

1) The beer is good  and getting even better

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The quality at FOBAB in recent years, in my experience, has been about 20 percent genius, 20 percent undrinkable and 60 percent good to very good. However, I think the overall quality was up this year. Here's my guess as to why: As the number of breweries in the U.S. has grown  a whopping 4,269 at the end of last year from 1,813 five years ago  more beer has (obviously) entered the market. That also includes more not-so-good beer and more not-so-good barrel-aged beer.

But with experience comes improvement, and breweries are increasingly figuring out how to coax the best beer from their tanks and barrels. Stouts, barleywines, wild ales and fruit beers  the successes were across the board at this year's FOBAB, and out of a variety of barrels (whiskey and wine, mostly, but also tequila, rum, gin and neutral, first-use oak barrels). That's the good news. The bad news is that there is still mediocre beer out there, and some of it was evident at FOBAB, even if it was far less than 20 percent of what was poured.

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So far as I could tell, the flaws were mostly due to the papery finish that comes from oxidation  meaning the beer sat in the barrel for too long. Even among breweries that have figured out how to brew a masterful India pale ale or stout, the next hurdle for some appears to be refining barrel management.

2) John Laffler is a star

During the 20 minutes I spent chatting with Laffler, the co-founder of Off Color Brewing in Chicago, four people walked up to him and said some version of, "Are you John Laffler? I love your beer." Then they would go on about how much they admire him, admire his brewery and appreciate the things he is doing for beer. The first time it was cute. The second time was surprising because it was happening again. The third was equal parts humorous and impressive. The fourth was stunning. Was this normal? Yup, Laffler said, who seemed genuinely appreciative and humble about the whole thing. He said it even happens when he travels, while sitting in a faraway bar sipping a beer. "It makes my sister crazy," he said. A lot of it, he admitted, is rooted in his time managing Goose Island's barrel-aging program, which he left in 2013 to start Off Color.

While Off Color is indeed a tiptop brewery that makes mostly outstanding beer, what stuck with me was the enthusiasm of Laffler's fans. There was clearly a personal and emotional connection between the consumer and the beer. The fervor wasn't rooted in national ad campaigns; it was in quality and an understanding of who was behind it. In an era of big beer snapping up small beer, I'm as convinced as ever that what's in the glass is not the only thing that matters. Craft beer has been built on an intimate connection between brewery and consumer, and that continues to be the case. That dynamic is one of the key things that big beer is buying when it snaps up a small craft brewer for tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. It's something that big beer can't create on its own.

The quality at the Festival of Wood and Barrel-Aged Beer was up this year as breweries gain experience in coaxing flavor from their tanks and barrels. (Nick Stetina)

3) However ...

The longest line of the festival was about 100 times deeper than anyone else's. It wound for 30 or so minutes to, you guessed it, Goose Island and its roster of Bourbon County beers (which date to 1995, not 1992, if you haven't heard). After spending time with Laffler and his admirers, I wondered how those line-dwellers felt about the subject of brewery ownership. So I asked a group of guys standing in the cavernous hall with empty glasses, still at least 20 minutes from beer: Did they care that Goose Island is owned by the world's largest beer company, Anheuser-Busch InBev? Not a bit, they said. If the beer is good, they want it.

So while craft beer has been built on an intimate connection between consumer and product, a "new normal" has also taken root that marginalizes that relationship. To many, if not most, beer fans, what's in the glass is indeed all that matters. Anheuser-Busch InBev, MillerCoors, Constellation Brands and other big beer companies are counting on it. But I think we're still in the early stages of that discussion and what it all means in the long term.

4) Just because a beer is sour doesn't mean it's good

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Like any other beer, sour beer  which is a descriptor, not a style  requires layers and nuance. Blinding tartness isn't enough. This is an ongoing gripe, and one beer at FOBAB reminded me of it. Fortunately, I can't remember which one. So don't ask.

5) The best thing about beer festivals?

Discovery.

Peach Climacteric is a tart peach ale made by WeldWerks Brewing of Greeley, Colo., a brewery that is barely a year old and does not distribute in Chicago. Yet it was a favorite of many people during the weekend. Even before I arrived at the Friday night session, someone on Twitter urged me not to miss that beer. Sure enough, it was delicious: vaguely sweet with a lightly tart, dry finish and redolent of gorgeous ripe peaches.

Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. >

As I stepped away with my second pour of Peach Climacteric, I ran into WeldWerks' co-founder and head brewer, Neil Fisher, who was equal parts stunned and thrilled at the reaction his beer was getting.

"I'm still trying to figure out how anyone has figured out anything about us," Fisher said of the FOBAB crowd. "You guys have a very connected beer culture here."

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The experience convinced him that he will be back in 2017. The drinkers who found WeldWerks and turned it into a festival darling will likely be pleased to see a return.

Other favorites during the weekend included:

BA Malevolence Chocolate Caliente (Spiteful Brewing, Chicago)

Brett IPA (Penrose Brewing, Geneva, Ill.)

Foedre Saison (Perennial Brewing, St. Louis)

Soursmith Kriek (Arclight Brewing Co., Watervliet, Mich.)

Old Fashioned (Wicked Weed, Asheville, N.C.)

End of Jones (a blend of two stouts  End of Days and Jones Dog  from Chicago's Pipeworks Brewing that I created).

Winners in the festival competition can be found at the FOBAB website.

jbnoel@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @joshbnoel






With cooler weather coming, warmer beverages sound better every day. Still, you can drink only so much coffee, and some of us are perhaps already a little, um, over-caffeinated. Maybe it's time to consider a cup of tea, the world's second-most-popular beverage (after water), according to the Tea Association of the U.S.A., with about one-third of coffee's caffeine.

With hundreds of teas out there, you might reasonably conclude that they must come from many different plants. Fact is, all tea actually comes from one plant: Camellia sinensis, a species of evergreen that grows worldwide in warmer climates. Tea's wonderful variety results from the terroir  where the plant grows  and the way the leaves are processed. All tea leaves start out green and become darker as they oxidize, a process that brings out and concentrates flavors.

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Here are six classic teas to check out:

Assam. If you're transitioning to drinking less coffee and more tea, Assam is a good gateway beverage that's hearty and deep-flavored. Named after its home region in northeastern India, this malty brew is used in Irish and German breakfast teas, an indication of its potential, like coffee, to stimulate.

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Pu-erh. A reddish-black Chinese tea from Yunnan province, pu-erh is aged, hardening as it dries, then pressed into regular shapes for shipping. Like wine, pu-erh improves with age. You'll sometimes see vintages on the packaging, and because pu-erh's so dry, you can hold it for a little longer than most teas, and it may even continue to improve with age.

Darjeeling. A product of West Bengal, India, darjeeling is usually a black tea, but when the leaves are very young, they can be used to make a white tea, which is much lighter in taste. Compared with Assam and pu-erh, Darjeeling tea leaves yield a lighter liquor, with a flowery nose and slight astringency.

Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. >

Sencha. A rich, fresh-tasting green tea from Japan with low astringency, sencha, as with most green teas, can be re-infused two or more times. Aficionados appreciate the changes the tea goes through after each successive infusion.

Gunpowder. Several types of tea may be called "gunpowder," which refers to the tight balls into which the tea is sometimes rolled to preserve the fresh taste of the tender leaves. This is rare green tea, sometimes with a grayish cast and an almost sweet aroma and taste.

Oolong. Kind of a cross between green and black tea, oolong leaves are more oxidized than green, less oxidized than black, which means it's somewhat stronger and more astringent than green tea but less strong and astringent than black tea. If you usually prefer black tea, oolong is a fine place to start experiencing what green tea offers.

Some good teas come in bags, and we've liked Rishi and Mighty Leaf, both available at Whole Foods. We prefer to shop for whole leaf tea at smaller tea shops, where you can discuss personal preferences with the tea merchant.

To brew whole leaf tea, use a tea ball or preformed tea bags (T-Sac is a reliable brand). Fill about halfway, so that all the leaves will be exposed to water.

Black tea and oolong require boiling water and should be steeped 3-5 minutes; if your black tea is getting too strong, don't steep it less time; rather, use less tea because adequate steeping in boiled hot water is needed to bring out black tea's flavors. Green tea requires not-quite-boiling water, 175-180 degrees, and should be steeped about 2 minutes. White tea is steeped at a lower temperature  160 degrees or so  for 7-10 minutes.

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There are a lot of teas out there, and it could be a long winter, so you'll have plenty of time to learn about teas as you enjoy their immense, incredible variety.






Five years have passed since the last of the Harry Potter movies, "Deathly Hallows: Part 2," wrapped up J.K. Rowling's staggeringly popular film franchise, the natural extension of the greatest publishing phenomenon in the history of wands.

But endings often leave a door open, and a map to somewhere new. In handsome, generally diverting fashion "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," directed by Potter alum David Yates and adapted by Rowling from her 2001 book, takes us not to Hogwarts but to 1920s America, visited at a crucial moment in its secret wizarding history by a Hogwarts alum bearing a very full suitcase. Potter fans will likely enjoy this first of a planned quintet of "Fantastic Beasts" outings; newcomers open to a certain, dutiful amount of expository world-building and narrative throat-clearing should get their money's worth, too.

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We're in the realm of varyingly grown-up adults, rather than in the primary company of students navigating a scary adult world. Eddie Redmayne, costumed like the winner of a Jazz Age "Doctor Who" contest, plays shy, sweet Newt Scamander, a "magizoologist" by training and a glance-averting, Hogwarts-bred wizard who devotes his life (and his magic portal of a suitcase) to the collection, care and feeding of a wide variety of beasties, from Bowtruckle to Hippogriff.

Rowling's book ran a mere 128 pages, one-sixth the length of the longest Potter novel. This explains the movie's stretch marks. In "Fantastic Beasts" there's a simple storyline, and a complicated one. The simple one details how Scamander, newly arrived in 1926 New York City, loses track of his latest acquisitions and finds them all again. He has help in that regard. His cohorts are the wizard-world characters Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston), an investigator with the Magical Congress, U.S. division, and Tina's flapper-styled sister, mind reader Queenie (Alison Sudol). Dan Fogler takes the role of the fourth musketeer, a would-be baker introduced by Scamander to the wizard world.

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Here's the more complex business. In this alternate-universe edition of Prohibition-era New York, the wizard underground is threatened by dark doings in Europe by Gellert Grindelwald, whom we met as an older man in the Potter series. It's no secret: Grindelwald (Johnny Depp), and his eventual showdown with Dumbledore, will take up much of the acreage of future "Fantastic Beasts" films. Rowling's fascination with fascism, its roots in childhood trauma and complacent democracies rotting from the inside, here find their emblems in characters played by Colin Farrell and Samantha Morton. Ezra Miller plays the bullied and abused Credence Barebone, whose rage takes the rather routine visual form of a destructive digital cyclone.

The storytelling rhythm gets a bit pokey for the amount of story being told. There are scenes, typically the most destructive ones, that could be plopped into any old "X-Men" movie. But director Yates knows his way around this stuff. The visual evocation of '20s Manhattan with a twist offers considerable satisfaction, as does Redmayne's embodiment of a boy-man more comfortable in the company of animals than with humans.

The ringer here is Fogler's Jacob, the wide-eyed, slack-jawed conduit for the muggle, or "no-maj" (i.e., unmagical) global audience. After watching him overact in one too many slob comedies over the past decade, it's a relief and a treat to see Fogler get ahold of a nice, big, funny, warm part, in a nice, big pre-sold franchise.

Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.

mjphillips@chicagotribune.com

"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them"  3 stars

MPAA rating: PG-13 (for some fantasy action violence)

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Running time: 2:13

Opens: Friday

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Bruno Mars, seen here performing at the Nov. 6 MTV Europe Music Awards, will be in concert at United Center in August. (Emmanuel Dunand, AFP/Getty Images)

Bruno Mars is bringing his massive 24K Magic World Tour to Chicago for two nights in 2017.

The Grammy winning, multi-platinum selling artist will play the United Center Aug. 16 and 18 in support of his new album "24K Magic," out Friday.

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Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Monday. For complete details visit www.livenation.com.

The tour will keep him busy most of 2017, beginning in Europe in March before returning to North America in July and playing shows until the end of the year.

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Fans will be able to see Mars put his new songs to the test soon as he's performing on Sunday's American Music Awards and at the Victoria Secret Fashion Show airing Dec. 5.

Most recently, he was the musical guest on "Saturday Night Live" with host Emily Blunt in October.

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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 122 Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Read the review. (Twentieth Century Fox)
Fat Babies performs at Honky Tonk BBQ in Chicago. The band is celebrating the release of its latest album, Solid Gassuh, on a triple bill Nov. 23 at FitzGeralds in Berwyn. (Brian Jackson / Chicago Tribune)

As usual, it was standing-room-only when the Fat Babies took to the stage Sunday afternoon, the crowd spilling well outside the listening room.

This time, though, the band wasn't playing its usual spots  the Honky Tonk BBQ on Sunday nights and Green Mill Jazz Club on Tuesdays.

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No, this time the Fat Babies were packing them in at the Skokie Public Library, where the crowd started queuing up an hour in advance.

Considering that the Fat Babies specialize in jazz repertoire penned before most of the people in the audience were born, you might not think their appearances would generate this degree of interest wherever they play.

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But during the past few years the Fat Babies have become a very hot ticket indeed in their hometown, Chicago, and on tour, performing music that much of the jazz world considers passe. You don't encounter many bands, after all, specializing in repertory by Jelly Roll Morton, Scott Joplin, Louis Armstrong and the like, and fewer still that offer the combination of verve and scholarship that always has defined the Fat Babies' work.

The caliber of the Fat Babies' music is apparent on its newest release, "Solid Gassuh" (Delmark Records), which conveys immediacy of sound and urgency of delivery.

"I think it more closely reflects what you hear if you came to hear us play at the Honky Tonk or the Mill," says bassist-bandleader Beau Sample, citing a very good reason for that.

Unlike previous Fat Babies recordings, this one wasn't cut in a studio.

"I thought it would be a little more fun to do these recordings on Mondays in the Honky Tonk, when they're closed," says Sample.

"That way we could go in on a Sunday night, play our show, leave our stuff there, and then come in and do short recording sessions on Monday. Each recording session was only a few hours long, and we'd knock out a few songs and call it a day.

"It's about trying to capture the energy of how we feel when we're playing. As opposed to: We've got to go into the studio for 10 hours today and 10 hours tomorrow and knock out a whole album."

It took the Fat Babies about a month to put "Solid Gassuh" away, and the recording captures the musically freewheeling but technically adroit playing that first put the band on the map six years ago.

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But there's something more to this ensemble's appeal, as well. Though the repertoire is historic, the approach is contemporary. Meaning that these musicians play their scores not as if they're trying to re-create sounds of nearly a century ago (an impossible task, anyway), but as if the composers had just finished putting the ink on the page.

Which in fact is often the case, since much of the band's repertoire has been newly arranged by some of its members. Purists might scoff at this approach  which, for example, features stand-up bass rather than the tuba of yore.

But the energy and drive of the band's up-tempo pieces and tonal radiance of its ballad playing render such reservations beside the point. Listen to the Fat Babies, and you're hearing a fervent argument for giving ancient repertoire respect more typically lavished on new material (though the band comes up with a few originals).

"The Fat Babies have done the jazz world a huge service by showing how deep the classic jazz repertoire can be, picking unhackneyed songs and infusing the music with the spirit of their heroes, while also making sure to stay true to themselves," writes jazz scholar Ricky Riccardi in the new album's liner notes.

"The original recordings are 80, 85, 90 years old in some instances, but the Fat Babies have once again created music that is timeless  not to mention infectious, joyous, challenging, alive and authentic. It will never die."

That's an optimistic view, but certainly the Fat Babies are trying to prove it true, bucking up against a jazz world that often marginalizes music created before the bebop revolution of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and colleagues. As Riccardi acknowledges in his liner notes, "It's frustrating when the jazz media treats a band playing music from 1945 like it's cutting edge, while a band performing music from 1935 gets hit with loaded phrases like 'nostalgia' or 'earlier era' and 'museum piece.'"

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Remarkably, though, the Fat Babies seem to have had little problem championing pre-bop jazz.

"I don't think it has been very challenging," says Sample, who finds that the ensemble can stay as busy as it wants.

"I think the music we play is fun and infectious and makes people want to dance and drink and have a good time.

"Luckily we live in a city where there are venues to do that, and luckily people still come out.  I don't think it's very hard to get people interested in the music, especially when it's played with true spirit. I mean, Louis Armstrong could play a gig in Chicago right now, and he'd still blow everyone away."

It's the artistic value of the music and the level at which it's played, Sample seems to be saying, that determines success or failure more than anything else.

But Sample, a Texan who moved here from Austin in 2007 to play this music, acknowledges that Chicago stands as a congenial setting for his brand of jazz. Early giants such as Armstrong, Morton and others launched their national careers here in the 1920s, when their music was considered the cutting edge. And though Chicago ever since has valued the newest currents in jazz, the sounds of the original breakthroughs never have faded away.

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"There's a sense of history here," says Sample, whose septet recently expanded to an octet with the addition of reedist Jonathan Doyle.

"You're at the Green Mill. Every time I play there, people talk about Al Capone and Louis Armstrong and all the (musicians) that used to play in Chicago.

"Even though people may not know specific details of the history of Chicago music, they know a lot of great music came from here.

"It seems like the spirit is in the air still. I definitely feel it."

As does anyone who listens to the Fat Babies.

The Fat Babies will celebrate the release of "Solid Gassuh" on a triple bill with the Jake Sanders Trio and pianist Reginald Robinson at 8:30 p.m. Nov. 23 at FitzGerald's, 6615 W. Roosevelt Road, Berwyn; $15; 708-788-2118 or www.fitzgeraldsnightclub.com. The Fat Babies also perform at 9 p.m. Tuesdays at the Green Mill Jazz Club, 4802 N. Broadway; $7; 773-878-5552 or www.greenmilljazz.com, and at 8 p.m. Sundays at Honky Tonk BBQ, 1800 S. Racine Ave.; no cover; 312-226-7427 or www.honkytonkbbqchicago.com.

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Howard Reich is a Tribune critic.

hreich@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @howardreich







Watch the latest movie trailers.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 122 Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Read the review. (Twentieth Century Fox)
Newspapers in Tehran announce the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president. He has harshly criticized the U.S.-brokered international deal to limit Iran's nuclear weapons program. (AFP/Getty Images)

Reporting from Washington  President Obama said Monday that the historic accord to curb Iran's ability to develop nuclear weapons  the most important arms control agreement in decades  is working, and he expressed hope that Donald Trump will keep it intact.

"My suspicion is that when the president-elect comes into office  he will look at the facts," Obama said at a news conference. Abandoning the deal would remove obstructions that blocked Iran's nuclear capabilities and could force the United States to sanction European allies that continued to honor the accord.

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"When you are not responsible for it, you can call it a terrible deal," Obama said. "When you are responsible  you are more likely to look at the facts."

The question remains whether the deal, ratified by six world powers and implemented under a United Nations Security Council resolution, will survive under a Trump administration.

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As a candidate, Trump targeted the Iran deal with special scorn but wavered on his intentions. He vowed at times to tear it up and at other times indicated he would negotiate stiffer concessions from Iran.

In speeches, he vastly inflated Iran's financial gains from the agreement, suggesting Tehran benefited unfairly. And he complained that it only limited Iran's nuclear weapons program, not its ballistic missiles or other issues of concern to U.S. policymakers.

But the United States enforces separate sanctions related to Iran's ballistic missiles, its support for foreign terrorist groups and human rights abuses. The Treasury Department twice added sanctions to Iranian companies and individuals this year after the nuclear deal went into effect.

"We have seen that this agreement has done what we said it was going to do, which is limit Iran from obtaining a nuclear [weapon]," said Mark Toner, the State Department spokesman. "It wasn't focused on changing Iran's behavior at large. It was focused on preventing it from obtaining a nuclear weapon."

Trump's advisors make clear that revisiting the agreement is a priority for Trump even if the plan ahead is still a work in progress.

Ripping up is maybe a too strong a word. Hes gonna take that agreement, its been done before in international context, and then review it.  Walid Phares, Trump foreign policy advisor

"'Ripping up' is maybe a too strong a word. He's gonna take that agreement, it's been done before in international context, and then review it," Walid Phares, a Trump foreign policy advisor, told BBC radio. "He will take the agreement, review it, send it to Congress, demand from Iranians to restore a few issues or change a few issues. And there will be a discussion. It could be a tense discussion."

Another advisor, R. James Woolsey Jr., who headed the CIA from 1993 to 1995 under President Clinton, was more hawkish. Speaking on CNN, he called the deal "the worst single international agreement the United States has ever signed."

Woolsey said the deal was neither implementable nor verifiable.

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"It is truly rotten," he said.

Under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the deal is formally known, Iran has met its commitments to curtail access to nuclear fuel and technology and is submitting to verification systems set up to monitor its compliance, according to the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency.

U.S. officials and most arms control experts say Washington would be isolated if it withdraws from the deal.

It could put the United States in violation of the Security Council resolution that it endorsed, kill any chance of another diplomatic deal with Iran and hurt U.S. credibility with the five other major powers who negotiated it: England, France, China, Russia and Germany.

Even Israel, which fiercely opposed concessions to the Islamic Republic during the negotiations, has accepted that the deal is working and that Iran no longer poses an imminent nuclear threat.

Worse, according to arms control experts, it could give Iran a free hand to cast off its commitments  and give the U.S. few options short of military force to respond.

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"Iran would be free to resume its nuclear program, and it would be difficult to impose new sanctions," said Gary Samore, a former arms control advisor to Obama who now is research director at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard.

The Trump administration "would end up with furious allies and the resumption of Iran's nuclear program," agreed Cliff Kupchan, chairman of the Washington-based Eurasia Group, a risk-assessment firm. "This has gone from a deal that was working to one that is at risk."

The Obama administration argues that the deal effectively closed off all the pathways that Iran could pursue to obtain a bomb: by enriching uranium, producing plutonium or buying technology from other countries.

Under the terms of the pact, Iran removed the core of a heavy water reactor under construction at Arak that ultimately could have produced plutonium, then filled the reactor with cement.

It dismantled or mothballed thousands of fast-spinning centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium to bomb grade, and it shipped nearly its entire stockpile of enriched uranium to Russia for reprocessing.

U.S. officials said those steps extended Iran's so-called breakout time  the period it would need to build a bomb  from two to three months to more than a year. That's enough time for the world to respond should Tehran decide to rush for a bomb, advocates say.

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In exchange, key financial and trade sanctions were lifted from Iran, giving it access to the international financial system and global markets for the first time in years, as well as more than $50 billion in assets frozen abroad since the country's 1979 revolution.

There are several ways a Trump administration could kill or undermine the deal.

The most likely strategy is to make new demands, such as insisting on more intrusive inspections on Iranian facilities or bases, or for a longer period before Iran can again enrich uranium.

Iran would likely refuse  putting the onus on Washington to either abrogate the treaty or continue to abide by it in some form.

Trump also could decline to renew sanctions relief. As the deal is crafted, the suspension of various U.S. sanctions has to be renewed by the president every 120 or 180 days. But other countries, which have largely lifted sanctions, are unlikely to reimpose theirs.

The agreement was harshly criticized by many Republicans, who said Iran could not be trusted and doubted that its nuclear program was truly crippled. A GOP-led effort to block the accord in Congress failed last year amid Republican infighting and a Democratic filibuster.

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When Trump met with Obama for the first time at the White House on Thursday, the president spent a good amount of time explaining the complexity of the deal, administration officials say.

"We obviously believe in the importance of the Iran deal, which had significantly rolled back Iran's nuclear program and averts yet another conflict in the Middle East," said Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security advisor.

Administration officials will "run through the tape" with Trump's advisors, he added. "And then the new team will make their own determinations. And we respect that every administration will make its own judgment."

For more on international affairs, follow @TracyKWilkinson on Twitter.

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For the fourth time in American history, the president-elect lost the popular vote. Credit the electoral college
Who has the time? That is the central question posed by Zadie Smith's mesmerizing fifth novel, "Swing Time." It's not only a question of having enough time, but also of owning the concept of time itself. Who gets to determine time's boundaries, fix its meaning, set its value and decide to whom it applies? Is it possible to rob entire peoples of their sense of time, and what effect does that have on their bodies and souls?

The specters of these questions first appear in the present-day prologue to "Swing Time" as the narrator sits in a darkened movie theater, watching a clip of Fred Astaire in the film that gives the book its title. "I saw all my years at once, but they were not piled up on each other, experience after experience, building into something of substance  the opposite," warns the narrator, who remains nameless throughout the novel.

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It's easy enough to forget this early warning in the thrill of recognition and novelistic pleasure that accompanies the opening chapters. Reminiscing about a childhood spent playing with her best friend Tracey in London public housing, the narrator draws us into a plot that at first seems primed to explore the intensities of female friendship, as if we were embarking on Elena Ferrante's Neopolitan novels with a biracial cast. Tracey and the narrator share two crucial traits: a love of dancing, and a skin color indicative of mixed racial parentage. The narrator's mother is a self-educated black activist who neglects her daughter and weak-willed white husband in favor of her revolutionary dreams: "She dressed for a future not yet with us but which she expected to arrive." By contrast, Tracey's white mother is too flashy, her absentee black father a criminal, and Tracey herself illegitimate: "This, too, was an example of bad taste," the narrator notes dryly. The narrator's problem, of course, is that Tracey can dance  really dance  where the narrator can only devour old Fred Astaire films and imagine what it's like to have perfect timing.

Readers of Smith's past novels, particularly her most experimental novel, "NW," may smell a rat in this "David Copperfield"-style setup; the writing is so crisp and evocative, however, that this reader took the bait, venturing blithely along until "Swing Time" swung abruptly forward to the narrator's adulthood. Meeting her future employer Aimee, a megapop star in the mold of Madonna or Robyn, the narrator describes her as "half Peter Pan, half Alice," but most of all Aimee is all-white, from her freely appropriated pseudo-spiritualism to her clueless do-gooderism to her bootstrap banalities. Aimee never grows up because her money means she never has to; mistaking her own boundless opportunism for fate, she sees it as "good timing" when the narrator's office burns down, and hires her on the spot as her personal assistant.

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Just as the reader is settling in with Aimee, the book swings back to the narrator's childhood with Tracey for a few chapters, then back again to the future, much of which takes place among a whole new set of characters in a West African country modeled after the Gambia, where Aimee, ever well-intentioned, has decided to build a girls school. As Aimee's attention wanders to the next opportunity to "be present in this moment," the narrator finds herself visiting the African village alone, increasingly desperate to understand the lives of its residents ("I realized it was very hard, almost impossible, for me to imagine what time felt like for them, out here.")

(Penguin)

Easily enough understood on their own, these episodes are arranged with disjointedness that increasingly nags. Characters are introduced for the first time late in the novel casually, as if the reader should know them already, and plot points have a way of feeling either belated or too sudden, appearing before their proper context. At one point, when the narrator tries to explain her life to Aimee, who moans petulantly, "The timeline is confusing," I found myself nodding along with the white lady.

That is exactly the point, of course. In Smith's widely read 2008 essay "Two Paths for the Novel," she observed, "Realism's obsession is convincing us that time has passed. It fills space with time." Smith, who may be one of our most important modern theorists of the novel, has a gift for re-creating the perfect faux-timelessness of Edwardian pre-modernist prose  think "Howards End," the nostalgic last gasp of a prose style that feels invisible when you read it, a dispatch from the moment before global war broke realism in half. Smith's whole career, from "White Teeth" to "On Beauty" to "NW," has been a tense negotiation with the powerful pleasures of the Anglo-European realist novel. She knows how to take us to the brink of these pleasures before undercutting or deflating them, making us realize that our own desire for narrative fulfillment is as naive a function of privilege as Aimee's belief in stories about the "power of love."

The only power that matters in "Swing Time" is narrative power, which makes fate of coincidences and virtue of wealth. Who owns time, indeed? In answering the question, Smith makes her own realist prose testify against itself, at one critical point in the novel replacing a narrative trope with a Ralph Ellison record-scratch, elsewhere perversely planting a Chekhovian gun in Tracey's apartment with no intention of firing it. The gun yields not the narrative money shot Chekhov demands but only a wistful desire for one: "I walked toward my own flat trying to think of some equivalent revelation I could offer to Tracey the next time I saw her, a terrible illness or a new baby, but there was nothing, nothing, nothing!" It's a perfectly crafted ironic moment from a narrator who recognizes but cannot complete the temporal rhythms necessary for meaning, no matter how much she craves it.

Readers will crave it too, but there are compensatory pleasures in the sheer scope and Smith's ideas and her audacity in playing them out. References to watches and clocks pile up  the giant Swatch "the size of a human man" hanging on a rich white girl's bedroom wall, the broken watch one African character wears as a status symbol  until it begins to feel like you're in one of those dreams you have when you're worried about missing an early flight, constantly checking the time only to see the numbers melt away. The characters speak in competing platitudes: "Time's on your side." "We had nothing but time." "For our people, the time is now!" In the most beautiful passages, the narrator fantasizes that musical time is a kind of panacea, a timeless time that promises to dislodge black bodies from a painful past stripped of genealogy and history and launch them into a future as graceful as a Michael Jackson moonwalk. This last vision of time is destined to run aground, like all fantasies. But while it lives, it swings.

'Swing Time'

By Zadie Smith, Penguin, 453 pages, $27
hile walking to his gate in an airport, a frequent Delta Air Lines flier snaps three pictures of passengers with emotional support animals.

One woman, who appears to be in her late 20s, sits at an airport cafe table. She wraps her right arm around her brown dachshund wearing a pink vest.

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A second woman, perhaps in her 40s, walks toward the gate in a pink-collared shirt and even brighter pink sneakers. Her Pomeranian doesn't have any sort of service dog vest.

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The third woman sits in a seat at the gate, hands folded across her belly and a black and white dog lying across her lap.

Eric Goldmann of Atlanta tries to find out if they are faking a disability to travel without paying a pet fee.

"When I see a dog in the airport, I befriend them," Goldmann said recently. "I like dogs. I'm allergic, but I like them."

He said he's been traveling several times a week for business for about 15 years, but only in the last handful of years has he seen so many pets in airports. Goldmann had taken 142 flights this year by the end of October and said he saw so-called emotional support animals on about 40 percent of the planes.

"It's the cool, new trend to travel with a pet," he said.

Delta Air Lines spokeswoman Ashton Morrow said she couldn't disclose the number of service animals on flights by year.

"Delta complies with the Air Carrier Access Act by allowing customers traveling with emotional support animals or psychiatric service animals to travel without charge in the cabin," Morrow said. "We reserve the right to review each case and make every effort to accommodate our customers' travel needs while also taking into consideration the health and safety of other passengers."

But people traveling with fake emotional support animals is a growing problem for flight attendants, frequent fliers and people with disabilities who have service animals for medical reasons.

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Goldmann said he's gotten people to admit they pay about $49 for an official certificate from a licensed therapist and another $149 or so for the service animal vest.

Those who bring a pet on an airplane because they are nervous or afraid to fly are not covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act, Jennifer Schwenker said.

Schwenker is the mother of twin boys with autism and her family has a service dog, Barkley.

"We worked hard to provide Barkley for our boys," she said. "We work hard yearly to keep him properly trained, make sure he has veterinarian care and is certified yearly through 4 Paws for Ability."

She said people who pretend to need an animal for support just to travel without paying fees are being disrespectful of those with disabilities.

"When someone says to me, 'I wish I could bring my dog with me everywhere,' I ask, 'What disability would you like to have in order to do this?' That response always ends that conversation!"

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Jen Williams, who has been an Atlanta-based flight attendant since 1996, said she's seen an incredible increase in support animals in the past year.

While pets are allowed on flights, they have to follow more rules than service animals.

Delta charges $125 to bring a dog, cat or household bird on board a domestic flight, excluding Hawaii, and Fido counts as a carry-on item. Passengers must call Delta ahead of time as the number of pets per flight is limited and arrangements are accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis, according to its website.

Williams said one family, which was planning to travel for a month, followed those rules. They alerted the airline, paid the fee for their 14-pound dog and brought along a kennel because pets are not permitted out of their cages during flights. The dog couldn't stand up inside the kennel, thus violating the rule. So it was kicked off the flight.

If the family had lied and said their pet was an emotional support animal, they wouldn't have had to take off without the dog, Williams said.

"It's definitely gotten carried away to the point where people are taking advantage of the system," Williams said. "It's hard when someone is following protocol and they're not allowed to take the animal out of the cage, but others use the loophole to have an animal sit on their lap."

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The ticket counter agents are responsible for ensuring that a dog has its proper paperwork as a service animal, Williams said. By the time the animal gets to the plane, there is little a flight attendant can do or legally ask.

"It's getting to be ridiculous," Williams said. "A co-worker saw a ferret wearing a diaper that was supposedly an emotional support animal."

She's seen dogs get loose and use the aisle as a lavatory. A co-worker told Williams a so-called service dog once bit a passenger and medics had to meet the flight when it landed.

"A lady on a flight was allergic, so we moved her away, but she broke out in hives," Williams said. "A nurse on the flight gave her Benadryl that we wouldn't have had if she didn't happen to be on the plane."

Though Williams said she hopes something will change, she doesn't expect new regulations. In fact, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport recently added pet relief areas for service animals to be in compliance with a new federal requirement.

(c)2016 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution | www.ajc.com

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Mayor Rahm Emanuel speaks during a press conference at Ann and Robert Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago, to state that Chicago will remain a sanctuary city and to raise awareness about the significant impact of the presidential election on youth health and well being, Monday, Nov. 14, 2016. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

Rahm Emanuel is running for re-election as mayor of Chicago and he's doing it nimbly, with stunts and tricks.

He's scrambling to outpace his critics on the angry left by cleaving to Latinos and picking a fight with President-elect Donald Trump over "sanctuary cities."

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And there was that oh-so-syrupy "Chicago Radio Town Hall Meeting," starring Emanuel and moderated by iconic anchorman Bill Kurtis, on dozens of radio stations the other night.

That should tell you too.

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"I was flying home across the lake and looking out of our airplane window at our beautiful skyline," Kurtis began, "you can see 44 new buildings going up, cranes everywhere, the biggest building boom in Chicago history. Oh yes, the Cubs just won the World Series. We've got some things to celebrate. How do you feel about all of that?"

What politician wouldn't love such demanding journalism?

But if you were listening in your car, alone and without a sick bag, you were in serious difficulty.

It was a Rahm infomercial, an embarrassment even to fake journalism. The mayor ordered a dessert so cloyingly sweet that I hope it didn't trigger diabetic comas across Chicago.

Doug Levy, chairman of the Illinois Broadcasters Association, which helped put the event together, said I was just being cynical.

"That is a lot of cynicism," Levy said. "He's the elected mayor of Chicago and we wanted to start a dialogue. What's wrong with that?"

It's not journalism, I said.

"Our goal was to facilitate discourse between the people and the mayor," Levy said. "We didn't necessarily set out with a journalism goal."

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Obviously.

Also obvious is the fact that Rahm grabbed himself a campaign commercial for free, on 47 stations in Chicago at once.

"It was definitely an infomercial, wasn't it?" reform Ald. Scott Waguespack, an Emanuel critic, told me. "There were no real questions. It was like one of those infomercials with Kevin Trudeau or the guy with the ShamWows. And all the hype and drama involved  and the 'super secret location' where it was done, the pre-selected questions, all of it.

"It's all about 'Control the news, controlling the message,' a pretense at transparency but completely opaque. That's how the mayor operates, and thinking that way has cost him," said Waguespack. "But it does look like he's running, doesn't it?"

Emanuel didn't make an official announcement, and he could pull it all back. But Hillary Clinton was just embarrassed in the presidential elections, as was President Barack Obama, as Trump brought the Republicans back.

Rahm gets it. He understands why she lost. He understands that mocking half of America's voters was not good politics.

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And if the Democrats under Clinton/Obama were too full of themselves to listen to Rahm's advice, that's on them, not him.

But it leaves Rahm few escape routes.

And you're discerning readers. You're wise in the Chicago Way. And you're too smart to believe in coincidence in politics.

Now you can see his smoke signals and read Rahm's animal tracks in the news. And so, you can tell he's running.

It all comes a year after the Emanuel administration was politically scorched by black voters over its suppression of the Laquan McDonald video.

That video shows a white cop shooting the black teenager to death, pumping 16 bullets into the boy's body. It was suppressed by City Hall until after African-American voters helped mightily to re-elect Emanuel over Cook County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia.

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The mayor insists to me that he suppressed nothing. But somebody held it back until after black voters abandoned Garcia and came the mayor's way. It didn't sit in the darkness just by accident. So blame the lawyers then, blame whomever, but it worked.

And after the video finally was released, Emanuel's poll numbers with black voters hit bottom. He licked his wounds. He waited. And now he's running.

There isn't much push by African-American politicians. City Treasurer Kurt Summers won't challenge Rahm. They're enabled by the same money guy, Grosvenor Capital's Michael Sacks. And State Sen. Kwame Raoul won't challenge Rahm.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart thought about it once, but racial tensions in his 19th ward over a police shooting in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood may have squashed those thoughts a bit.

Rahm's main African-American rival is Cook County Board President Toni "Taxwinkle" Preckwinkle. And I'm waiting for her to play some old-school Cook County Board boss Democrat musical chairs:

Taxwinkle's ally Chuy Garcia would move over to replace Cook County Clerk David Orr in a do-nothing job. And Chuy's alderman, Rick Munoz, would then replace Chuy on the board. At least that's the scenario.

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It hasn't been announced. But everybody watching politics is waiting for it. Yes, liberals for all their high falutin' "good government talk" play politics too.

What's also convinced me was Rahm's announcement that he would resist Trump's dismantling of the "sanctuary city" business, where cities defy federal immigration law.

"To all those who are, after Tuesday's election, very nervous and filled with anxiety as we've spoken to, you are safe in Chicago, you are secure in Chicago and you are supported in Chicago," Emanuel said. "Chicago will always be a sanctuary city."

Rahm and Trump would probably agree that undocumented immigrants who've committed violent crimes should immediately be invited to leave the U.S.

But Rahm can't let the anti-Trump crowd outflank him. So he makes statements, and isn't pressed, and dances to the left, so quickly that you can almost see him run.

Listen to "The Chicago Way"  radio free Chicago in podcast form  here: http://wgnplus.com/category/thechicagoway/.

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Twitter@John_Kass
The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago has announced it will return a rare ninth-century Greek New Testament manuscript to the Greek Orthodox Church on Nov. 15, 2016. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune)

On Tuesday morning, the president of a tiny Lutheran seminary on Chicago's South Side is expected to hand a 337-page book to a Greek Orthodox archbishop.

In that simple gesture, the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, a one-building institution with 225 students, hopes to spark a movement that will lead institutions all over the world to return antiquities to their rightful owners.

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That's because the book is a complete New Testament, handwritten in Greek in the 9th century and looted 99 years ago from a monastery in northern Greece. Only 60 of the manuscripts exist. This one is worth at least six figures, far and away the most valuable piece owned by the Lutheran school.

And the seminary is giving it back to the Greek Orthodox Church for free.

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"I get that question a lot," LSTC President James Nieman said in his office a few days before the exchange, when asked if his school was receiving compensation.

"No," Nieman said. "It's just a kind of a moral question. It would be weird" to receive money for the book, he added.

Maybe if little LSTC does it, other institutions will follow its lead, Nieman and others said.

"We want to say, even a little school like ours can do something that makes a difference and that is powerful and right," he added, "and we'd like to encourage other institutions who are in a similar circumstance to be able to do the same thing. I think that would be a very important part of this for us."

Eleven hundred years ago, a monk named Sabas copied the manuscript, which other monks added to three centuries later. For hundreds of years, the book was among an estimated 1,300-plus volumes in the library of the Kosintza Monastery near Drama, Greece.

But in 1917 Bulgarian guerrillas, upset over their country's loss in the Second Balkan War, looted monasteries in northern Greece, including Kosintza, and took all the volumes, said New York attorney GeorgeA. Tsougarakis, who represents the church in trying to reacquire the materials.

Those volumes "have been spread all around the globe," Tsougarakis added. In December, the Greek Orthodox Church began sending letters to institutions that possessed the volumes and asked for their return.

The Lutheran seminary is the first institution the church contacted that is returning the materials, Tsougarakis said. "We hope that others will follow the fine example," he said.

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Archbishop Demetrios, head of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, traveled from New York to Chicago on Monday to receive the manuscript during a service scheduled for Tuesday morning at the seminary chapel in Hyde Park.

"In the spirit of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday," Archbishop Demetrios said in a prepared statement, "our hearts are filled with gratitude to our Lutheran brothers and sisters for this generous and kind gesture."

Precisely where the manuscript was kept after its theft remains something of a mystery, although historical records indicate Bulgarian authorities took it to Sofia in 1917. From there, it found its way to Munich, where antiquities dealer Jacques Rosenthal sold it in 1920 to Levi Franklin Gruber, a religious scholar.

Gruber in 1926 became president of Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary, one of the institutions that later would merge to become LSTC in 1962. He stored it in a bank vault in Chicago and, when he died in 1946, left the manuscript to his wife, who set it up as an annuity, Nieman added.

"The school paid her ... to receive the manuscript into its rare books, along with his other stuff," Nieman said. "It was her retirement plan."

Mrs. Gruber died in 1969.

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Through the decades, the school made the manuscript available for serious researchers there and from other institutions, Nieman said. Professors lugged it to class. More recently, the school digitally photographed every page to preserve it in perpetuity.

Tsougarakis sent a letter to LSTC in December asking for the manuscript's return, but the letter was lost in the mail, Nieman said. When the school received a second letter in March, Nieman investigated the possibility of returning it and spoke with the governing board, faculty and others at the school.

"The most surprising thing to me in this process was that not a single person in any of this said we shouldn't do this," Nieman recalled. "They all said, of course we have to do this."

Known as codex 1424, the manuscript's 337 thick, well-preserved pages are made from sheepskin. Its covers are two boards wrapped in leather that worms had damaged "long before it came to the seminary," Nieman said. The school wrapped it in acid-free tissue and a black plastic case and stored it in a third-floor rare collections room, he said.

It is a well-known document in the field of biblical research. About 5,000 Greek New Testaments exist, but many are fragments.

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Codex 1424 is known as minuscule, meaning the handwriting is in upper and lower case. Also, the manuscript is the oldest complete New Testament of the Byzantine text family, Nieman said. In addition, it contains prefaces, epigrams, marginal commentaries and other writing that enhance its significance, he said.

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"One way of thinking about it is that the current Greek version of the Bible ... derives directly from it," Nieman said. "It's not like Jefferson's original writing of the Declaration of Independence, but it would be like a first edition, printed version of the Declaration that was handed around to real people in Boston."

A week before the service where he would hand over the manuscript to Archbishop Demetrios, Nieman and professor emeritus Ralph Klein, curator of the rare book collection, gave a presentation to let students, faculty and others at the seminary learn about the manuscript and bid it farewell.

All seemed excited at the chance to return the book to its rightful owner, saying that it was a courageous action that builds an ecumenical bridge between Eastern and Western faiths.

"This is an opportunity for us to be selflessly generous," said Paul Eldred, a masters of divinity student, "and when do you get a chance to do that? It doesn't belong here. It belongs in its home."

tgregory@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @tgregoryreports
A mobile police command center in the 3800 block of West Roosevelt Road last weekend was part of the multi-agency effort to combat violence in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

Five people were killed and at least 32 others wounded in shootings in Chicago from Friday afternoon to early Monday, a weekend when Chicago police and other law enforcement agencies conducted "targeted enforcement missions" to combat violence on the South and West sides.

The toll was down from the more than 50 people shot each of the last two weekends. But the number was still twice as high as the same weekend last year, when 18 people were shot, one of them fatally.

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Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said the department deployed an additional "several hundred" uniformed officers as well as officers from the Cook County Sheriff's Department, Illinois State Police and FBI to three city districts: Gresham on the South Side, and the Ogden and Austin districts on the West Side.

Forty-four people were arrested in the targeted zones, including 16 felony arrests and one homicide suspect. Officers also recovered 12 weapons during the mission's 30-hour window, Johnson said at a news conference Monday afternoon.

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"Our combined efforts were meant to send a clear message to criminals in these communities that their actions will not go without consequences and to let residents know that we're there to help them take their communities back," he said.

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Officers conducted vehicle stops, traffic enforcement, warrant missions, parole compliance checks and custom notifications for people on what police refer to as their "strategic subject list," a compilation of people who police believe are likely to be perpetrators or victims of violence.

Johnson said the zones were based on crime data and intelligence gathering that pointed to where retaliatory violence might occur. He said only one shooting incident was reported in the three zones during that period  at a house party that spilled onto the street and resulted in an arrest.

"I'm a realist. Like many of you, I know that one mission doesn't erase the tragic violence that we've seen over the year," Johnson said. "What it does do, however, is set the stage for additional missions like this to reduce the levels of violence we've seen in some of our most affected areas."

With more than 675 homicides recorded this year, Chicago could easily surpass 700 homicides before the end of the year for the first time since 1998, according to data kept by the Tribune. Homicides are up in the city by 54 percent compared with the same period in 2015, and shootings are up 46 percent, according to Tribune data.

Violence typically declines during cold weather, but 2016 has been an exception. At least 50 people were killed in January, the deadliest start to a year since at least 2000.

nmoreno@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @nereidamorenos
More than 150 University of Illinois at Chicago students walked out of classes on Nov. 15, 2016, to protest the election of Donald Trump as the next U.S. president. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune) (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune)

Students troubled and angered by Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election gathered Tuesday on the campus quad at the University of Illinois at Chicago to denounce the businessman.

At the lunchtime rally, several hundred students listened and chanted as a series of speakers lambasted Trump as racist, misogynist, divisive and dangerous for the United States.

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"It is easy to say 'Not my president,' but in reality the damage has been done," student organizer Joe Padilla told the diverse crowd of backpack-wearing students via megaphone. "So what we are to do now is not to reject all those who voted for Donald Trump but three things: educate, agitate and organize!"

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 8 A group of University of Chicago students hold a walkout protest against president-elect Donald Trump on Nov. 15, 2016. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)

Padilla, 21, a junior from Downers Grove who is studying history and teaching, urged students to sign a petition to make UIC a sanctuary campus for students in the U.S. without legal permission. He also expressed alarm at what he called an increase in hate crimes nationwide in the days since Trump was elected.

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"Now more than ever we need to reject hate, intolerance, discrimination and intimidation," Padilla said.

The demonstration was nestled in a UIC quad near one of the student centers and a classroom building, so it did not affect city streets, unlike the protests last week near Trump Tower, in the Loop and on Lake Shore Drive. A few UIC campus and Chicago police officers looked on from afar.

Student Robin Penn heard about the rally by word of mouth and decided to take a few minutes to attend. Penn, a 21-year-old education major from Logan Square, said the policies of the Green Party and Jill Stein were more closely aligned with her views, but she ended up voting for Hillary Clinton. Trump, she said, represents the opposite of what the country should stand for and "is for everything I'm completely against."

"It's important so the world knows we're not OK with this," Penn said.

Later Tuesday afternoon at the University of Chicago, a similar sized group of students held a rally on the main quadrangle.

Students demonstrated against Trump's statements and positions, especially his comments about women, minorities and climate change.

"We reject the president-elect!" the demonstrators chanted.

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One young women held a sign that read "Can't Comb Over Misogyny." Another: "T: Toxic. R: Racist. U: Unacceptable. M: Meritless. P: Pig."

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Speakers urged students to contact Illinois legislators and the governor about making colleges throughout the state sanctuaries for foreign students.

Another student clutched a handmade cardboard sign etched with black marker with the message "Stay Outraged."

As the demonstrators marched calmly and then gathered for the speeches, other U. of C. students worked on laptops at picnic tables or scurried past on the quad, either ignoring the rally or curiously glancing in its direction, going about their day.

The demonstrations were part of an organized #StopTrump student action effort nationwide. Rallies were planned for several downstate campuses for later in the day.

poconnell@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @pmocwriter
Chicago Police Officer John Gorman, seen here in a police booking photo, is on trial in a 2014 off-duty road dispute in which he is accused of firing his gun at a passing vehicle. (Chicago Police Department)

A part-time suburban firefighter says he gave chase in his Ford F250 pickup after seeing a beige Buick speed through traffic and nearly hit a flower vendor on Chicago's South Side.

The 2014 incident ended when the Buick pulled over and off-duty Chicago police Officer John Gorman got out, pulled out a gun and pointed it at the occupants of the truck, testified the firefighter, Charles Ostrowski.

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"We both yelled, 'Gun!' and ducked down in the truck," Ostrowski testified Tuesday as Gorman's trial for felony aggravated discharge of a firearm began.

Ostrowski, then a part-time Melrose Park firefighter, said he immediately yanked the steering wheel to the left and gunned his pickup around Gorman.

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Prosecutors said Gorman fired five shots at the passing vehicle just blocks from the Morgan Park police district headquarters. No one was injured, but Ostrowski later found a small bullet hole in his truck's rear bumper.

Police found five spent shell casings and Gorman admitted to firing the shots, according to prosecutors and trial testimony. His .38-caliber handgun had one bullet left in its six-round magazine, authorities said.

In his opening statement, Gorman's lawyer, Michael Clancy, painted Ostrowski and his friend, Dominic Dimaggio, an off-duty Merrionette Park police officer at the time, as the aggressors, arguing that his client was defending himself as a large truck sped toward him after chasing his Buick through traffic.

Ostrowski and Dimaggio saw open containers of beer in Gorman's car while it was stopped in traffic, according to prosecutors and testimony.

Prosecutors previously said Gorman refused to submit to a Breathalyzer. By the time he was compelled to submit to the exam by internal affairs investigators, more than five hours had passed. His blood-alcohol content was still 0.07 percent, just below the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

Because so many hours had passed, he was charged with just misdemeanor driving under the influence.

The incident began as Ostrowski and Dimaggio drove home after lunch at a Palos Heights bar and a stop at an American Legion Hall in Worth. They were driving east on 111th Street when the Buick passed them and sped through traffic, weaving in and out of lanes, Ostrowski testified.

After seeing the Buick nearly strike the flower vendor after the light turned green at Pulaski Road, the two began following the car as Gorman continued to drive recklessly, Ostrowski testified.

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When Gorman stopped near 111th Street and Spaulding Avenue, the suburban cop stepped out of the truck, showed his badge and told Gorman to roll down his window.

Dimaggio said, "I'm the police. Are you OK? Roll down your window. We need to talk about your driving," Ostrowski testified.

But on cross-examination by Clancy, Ostrowski admitted telling police that day that his friend had asked, "Why are you driving like an (expletive)?"

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Ostrowski also acknowledged that the police report did not indicate his friend had identified himself as a suburban cop.

When the left-turn light turned green, Gorman sped around the truck and continued driving east, Ostrowski testified. Dimaggio then called 911.

At Prospect and Pryor avenues, Gorman stopped the car and got out. He walked to the rear of his car, displayed a pistol, raised his arm and pointed the gun at the front of the truck, according to testimony.

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Dimaggio, who resigned from the Merrionette Park force in 2015, is expected to testify when the bench trial before Judge James Linn is scheduled to resume Dec. 2.

If convicted, Gorman, now 54, faces anywhere from probation to 15 years in prison. He has been on paid desk duty at the city's nonemergency call center since his arrest on the misdemeanor charge, Clancy said.

sschmadeke@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @SteveSchmadeke
Intended as a discussion group, the blog has evolved to be more of a reading list of current issues affecting our county, its government and people. All reasonable comments and submissions welcomed. Email us at: bill.pysson@gmail.com REMEMBER: To view our sister blog for education issues: www.district100watchdog.blogspot.com
After having its already low debt rating cut by one agency, Chicago Public Schools has delayed plans to sell hundreds of millions of dollars in bonds that analysts said would hit the market this week.

CPS cited "changing market conditions" when it said it would hold off on selling $426 million in bonds until sometime next year. That means the district will wait for another chance to refinance some debt and pay for new infrastructure.

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It's not clear when the district will sell the rest of up to $1 billion in long-term bonds authorized last month by the Chicago Board of Education.

"We'll sell the bonds when market conditions are optimal," district spokeswoman Emily Bittner said Monday in an email.

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Word of the delayed sale came as financial analysts at Standard & Poor's said familiar financial concerns prompted the agency to drop the school system's credit rating deeper into junk territory last week.

Those problems include the district's continued reliance on costly short-term borrowing to cover daily expenses, plus $55 million in costs added to this year's budget by the recent Chicago Teachers Union pact.

CPS has said the contract costs will be paid for with help from new revenue that Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration pulled from special city taxing districts for schools.

But the district, among other assumptions in its budget this year, is banking that state lawmakers will come through with $215 million in aid that hinges on lawmakers reaching an accord on pensions. The district has warned it will cut that amount from schools if that assistance doesn't materialize.

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CPS has said some of its planned bonds would pay for renovation and construction projects, as well as equipment purchases. Another chunk, according to S&P and Fitch Ratings, would be used to refinance some old debts. The district has said it won't publicly detail what projects it plans use that money for until after it goes to market for the new bonds.

The district already has proposed a $338 million capital budget to be financed partly with $233 million in borrowing against a recently enacted property tax levy for school projects.

S&P also warned of a further downgrade of CPS bonds, saying it has at least a 1 in 3 chance of occurring within a year. S&P's downgrade followed a similar move by Moody's Investors Service in late September when it dropped the district's bond rating further into junk status.

Analysts at Fitch didn't change their already junk-level assessment of the district's debt.

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The district has an overall debt load of roughly $7 billion.

jjperez@tribpub.com

Twitter @PerezJr
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart discusses the state's broken bail system and proposes ways to make the public safer and the criminal justice system more fair during a press conference at the Cook County Department of Corrections Division 11 on Nov. 15, 2016. (Antonio Perez/ Chicago Tribune) (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune)

A few days before last Thanksgiving, James Williams Jr. was arrested on charges of selling $40 worth of cocaine to an undercover Chicago police officer in the West Englewood neighborhood.

Low-level drug offenders in Cook County are typically freed on bail without posting cash, but in court the next day, a judge ordered Williams held on $10,000 bail. That meant he needed to come up $1,000 cash to win his freedom.

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Nearly a year later, Williams, 44, is about to spend another Thanksgiving in Cook County Jail, still unable to pay the bail. In the year he's been incarcerated, he lost his job as a cook, his sister died, his girlfriend gave birth to their son and the couple lost their car, according to his girlfriend, Kareem Williams.

"For $40, it seems like he's served his time," she said of Williams, who is still awaiting trial. "He needs to come home."

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The cash-bail system has increasingly come under fire nationally and in Chicago as discriminatory, stranding largely indigent, minority defendants for months as they await trial for nonviolent offenses. It was designed to ensure that defendants don't flee before trial, but critics say judges, in deciding on the amount of the cash bail, don't always know a vital detail  how much money a defendant can raise.

On Tuesday, Sheriff Tom Dart, whose office runs the jail, is calling for abolishing the state's cash-bail system just days before the County Board has scheduled a hearing to overhaul how the county sets bond.

Cara Smith, Dart's policy director, confirmed that the sheriff's office is drafting legislation that would allow judges to assess whether a defendant should be held in custody or released under conditions that include electronic monitoring. The specifics are still being worked out, but Smith said the state would need to invest more in court services to help judges make better bail decisions and improve monitoring of those freed pending trial.

While persuading legislators, judges and other players statewide promises to be a mammoth task, Smith said the current system unfairly penalizes low-level offenders and allows freedom more violent offenders with access to cash.

She said the jail had a record 1,024 inmates last year who spent more time in custody than the length of their ultimate sentence.

"We need to use the jail for people who pose a risk to the public, not use tax dollars and jail space for people who don't have $100 or $500," Smith said.

Last month, on the heels of similar lawsuits in eight other states, advocates filed a proposed class-action lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court alleging that criminal court judges routinely set cash bail at unaffordable levels, depriving arrestees of their constitutional right to pretrial liberty.

"This is wealth discrimination," said Locke Bowman, executive director of the MacArthur Justice Center at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and one of the attorneys involved in the lawsuit.

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Days later, the Illinois Supreme Court quietly announced it would work with a national nonprofit over the next four years to launch pretrial screening programs  such as ones already underway in Cook County and a third of the state's 24 judicial circuits  throughout the state to help judges determine which defendants can safely be released while awaiting trial.

The expense for taxpayers has been significant  a year's stay in the jail for an inmate with no serious mental or health problems is estimated to cost about $60,000, according to a county study.

County and jail officials say the use of pretrial screening and the expanded use of electronic monitoring has helped drop the population at Cook County Jail to about 8,000 after swelling to more than 10,000 as recently as three years ago.

County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who has been critical of too many nonviolent offenders clogging the jail, has said she believes further bond court reforms could bring the jail's population down to about 6,000.

Chief Judge Timothy Evans said the state's bond statutes lay out as many as three dozen factors for judges to consider in setting bail. Moving to no-cash bail would require legislative action to put less emphasis on keeping defendants locked up, he said.

"I know many people are jumping on this bandwagon now, but if I had it my way, we wouldn't be relying on any money bails at all," Evans told County Board commissioners last month.

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Two bond court judges, who asked not to be named because of the ongoing lawsuit, said they've unfairly been placed under a political spotlight. They took great offense at being labeled discriminatory or racist, saying each case is judged on its merits based on the law and the information given to them by prosecutors and defense attorneys.

Some blasted the County Board for spending $500,000 to remodel a busy bail hearing courtroom  construction is to begin in January  at a time when there aren't enough funds to fully staff necessary court services.

If the state moves to a no-cash bail system, they said, politicians should bolster electronic monitoring and back the judiciary when, inevitably, a defendant who is released commits a violent crime. Legislators also should allow judges to keep their discretion because new screening tools to help assess a defendant's risk of re-offending and failing to appear in court aren't perfect, the judges said.

"We shouldn't be computers  every case has a different set of facts," one judge said.

Even with cash bonds, defendants who win release sometimes commit violent crimes.

Jaques Bryant was arrested last fall after police on patrol heard several shots and found him on the West Side with a loaded .38 Special revolver. The assessment tools found that Bryant, then 19, was low risk for re-offending or failing to appear in court, records show.

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The algorithm also did not flag Bryant, who had no violent convictions in his background, as more likely to commit a violent crime. A judge ordered him held on $40,000 bail, a high bail for such low risk factors. But Bryant was able to put up the cash.

Last month, Bryant, who has the words "God's Gift" tattooed on his chest, was arrested again and charged with attempted first-degree murder. He is accused of shooting a teenager on the West Side, records show. This time, a judge set his bail at $750,000.

Records show that the screening tool ranked James Williams Jr., the man charged with selling $40 worth of cocaine, as much more of a risk than Bryant. He has three prior violent convictions over the past 26 years, according to records.

Michael Tardy, director of the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, said the state Supreme Court hasn't taken a position on shifting to no-cash bail but noted the practical outcome of expanding the use of pretrial screening would "be less reliance on cash bail  so there will be an evolution in the system."

"The people who don't get out (of jail) are the people of color or in poverty," he said of the system now in place in many Illinois counties. "And that's the only risk that they (pose) ... they can't post bond."

As many as 300 inmates in Cook County Jail are locked up because they can't even come up with $100 cash to post bail, according to sheriff's officials.

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The "raft of human misery that we see in some of these cases" should compel elected officials to find solutions "even a little outside our comfort zone," Cook County Commissioner Bridget Gainer, D-Chicago, said at the County Board hearing.

It's a stark contrast to the federal system in which defendants can post property as well as cash to win their freedom. If defendants flee, the court can order the property seized.

Even advocates acknowledge a switch from the cash-bail system won't be easily accomplished, in part because of necessary legislative changes and significant cost shifting.

The cash bonds are often used as payment to criminal defense lawyers once a case has been concluded  and to cover part of the fines or fees assessed by judges as well as the 10 percent that goes to cover the expenses of the circuit court clerk's office. If defense attorneys lose that key revenue source, more cases could go to the taxpayer-funded public defender's office.

"From the judicial point of view, I think the argument is compelling," said Winnebago County Chief Judge Joseph McGraw, who chairs the Illinois conference of chief judges. "Looking at the other side of the coin ... a lot of other costs will be shifted if we don't have cash bond."

The lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of cash bonds said Illinois statutes mandate the pretrial release of all defendants except in cases in which a judge determines the release would "pose a real and present threat" to anyone's safety.

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The statutes also instruct judges to set bail in an amount "considerate of the financial ability of the accused," but Cook County judges routinely do not inquire about a defendant's financial wherewithal, the lawsuit alleged.

Every afternoon on the first floor at the Leighton Criminal Court Building  the city's busiest criminal courthouse, at 26th Street and California Avenue  a rotating cast of five judges presiding in two bond courts quickly make rulings with a huge affect on defendants  sorting out who will go home or sit in jail.

Depending on the day, the process can be calm and orderly or downright chaotic.

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Last month, a defendant charged with aggravated reckless driving collapsed to the floor after a judge set his bail at $75,000. He would have to post 10 percent  or $7,500  to be released.

Another shouted, "Crown Town  Latin Kings!" before screaming obscenities at the prosecutor.

In more than half of the cases over a recent two-day period, judges ordered defendants released on their own recognizance without having to post any cash.

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"It's almost like trusting an altimeter on an airplane," McGraw, the Winnebago chief judge, said of the balancing act that judges must weigh in setting bond. "You can't see the ground, but you've got to trust your instrument because there is so much you can't see."

Chicago Tribune's Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas contributed.

sschmadeke@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @SteveSchmadeke
Former Ald. Edward Vrdolyak leaves the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse during a recess on Oct. 15, 2010, in Chicago. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

Former Chicago Ald. Edward Vrdolyak earned the nickname "Fast Eddie" for his bare-knuckled ability to work the angles.

But for the second time in the past decade, Vrdolyak has been indicted on charges of using his influence to shoehorn his way into a big-money deal and turn a handsome profit for himself and his connected friends in spite of doing little or no work.

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In charges made public Tuesday, federal prosecutors alleged Vrdolyak muscled in on one of the biggest bonanzas of them all  the record $9.2 billion settlement with the tobacco companies from the late 1990s.

Prosecutors charged that Vrdolyak worked out a secret deal with other attorneys to collect as much as $65 million even though he'd done no work on the tobacco case. The indictment did not make clear just how much the former alderman actually pocketed.

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The case was unsealed last week without fanfare by low-key U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon's office. His spokesman, Joseph Fitzpatrick, declined comment Tuesday.

Vrdolyak, who turns 79 next month, could face up to five years in prison if convicted of both counts of impeding the IRS and income tax evasion.

His lawyer, Michael Monico, said he was dismayed by the government's decision to charge Vrdolyak. He said the former longtime alderman will plead not guilty to the two-count indictment Tuesday in federal court.

Vrdolyak was added to an indictment against attorney Daniel Soso, a former Chicago police officer who once ran for alderman with Vrdolyak's backing. Soso was originally indicted alone in May 2015 on charges of failing to pay about $780,000 in taxes related to the settlement money.

Despite Vrdolyak's reputation for skirting criminal probes, the case marks the second time in less than a decade that the onetime political powerhouse faced criminal charges. In 2010, Vrdolyak was sentenced to 10 months in prison for his role in a $1.5 million real estate kickback scheme that had links to the federal probe that felled then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Like many Chicago politicians, Vrdolyak got his start by working precincts at election time and within a few years he had grown a formidable ward organization. In 1970, he survived scandal when his brother, Peter, was indicted on charges of gambling and using prostitutes as door prizes during Vrdolyak ward events, according to Tribune stories from the time. Peter Vrdolyak was convicted; his brother was not charged.

First elected alderman of the Far Southeast Side's 10th Ward in 1971, Vrdolyak, the son of Croatian-born tavern keepers, quickly earned a reputation as a consummate Chicago politician, brash at times but with a keen sense of how to do business the old-fashioned way. A Tribune editorial from his freshman term called Vrdolyak an "influence-peddler and backroom wheeler and dealer almost without peer in a city noted for them."

In an interview that year, Vrdolyak said he lived by the axiom that "if you're good to people, they reciprocate."

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"They send business your way, so you get jobs for people," he said. "That's the way it's done. Me  it's the only place these people can go. I'm the committeeman, alderman, father confessor, cop, lawyer, employment agency. Me. I'm the man."

In the 1980s, Vrdolyak became Cook County Democratic chairman, led the "Vrdolyak 29" block of white aldermen who frustrated Mayor Harold Washington and twice ran unsuccessfully for mayor. After Washington's death, Vrdolyak ran as a Republican for mayor but made his worst showing ever  and the bitterness of that race still showed years later as Mayor Richard M. Daley tightened his grip on City Hall.

"You've got to understand something about the Irish, the Daley Irish," he told the Tribune in 1996. "It's the Irish first, and everybody else is a Polack."

Through the years, Vrdolyak has had to defend himself against allegations he was cozy with the Chicago mob. In 1983, Vrdolyak wrote a letter to the Tribune detailing his close relationship with Joe Salas, a reputed hit man who was convicted in the 1979 abduction and murder of a Florida agriculture inspector. Vrdolyak, who had sponsored Salas for a city job, wrote that he'd been friends with Salas' family for years and "attempted to counsel (them) against any anti-social behavior."

Later, after his power at City Hall waned, Vrdolyak found political refuge in the alleged mob stronghold of Cicero, where he was paid millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded fees under then-town President Betty Loren-Maltese, who was later convicted of corruption.

The indictment made public Tuesday alleges Vrdolyak was in the middle of a scheme that stemmed from a series of lawsuits brought by some 46 states seeking to recover Medicaid funds the state had spent treating smoking-related diseases from tobacco giants such as Phillip Morris. The tobacco companies eventually negotiated a series of settlements totaling $206 billion.

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The $9.2 billion settlement in Illinois' suit sparked controversy after it was revealed that then-Attorney General Jim Ryan had negotiated a contingency arrangement promising 10 percent of the payout to four law firms that handled the litigation. That figure was dramatically reduced after years of court arbitration, but in the end, Ryan agreed to pay a total of $188.5 million to several law firms.

One of those firms was the Seattle-based Hagens Berman, which was headed by attorney Steve Berman. According to the indictment, Berman entered into a secret agreement in 1996 to pay Vrdolyak and Soso fees from the settlement and hide the payments from the attorney general and tobacco companies. Under the final deal struck in 1999, Vrdolyak expected to receive about $65 million from Berman.

The firm has denied any attempt to conceal payments.

In 2005, while investigating Soso for failure to pay income taxes, the Internal Revenue Service learned that he had been receiving large payments from Vrdolyak and failed to report the income, the charges alleged. The IRS then served Vrdolyak with a levy notice requiring him to pay the IRS instead of Soso because of all the back taxes owed.

That November, Vrdolyak sent a fax to an IRS investigator claiming that he was no longer paying Soso and therefore he owed them no money. The fax stated that if there were any payments made in the future he "intended to honor the 2005 levy served on him" and remit the funds to the IRS, according to the charges.

But according to the indictment, money again began changing hands two years later, with Soso hiding funds paid to him by Berman and Vrdolyak in accounts used by his relatives and girlfriend.

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In 2011, Vrdolyak sent payments totaling $170,000 to Soso, including checks that a Vrdolyak relative wrote, the indictment alleged.

The indictment comes five years after Vrdolyak was released from prison on his 2007 case. He pleaded guilty to fraud for his role in a kickback scheme in which a Gold Coast real estate deal was rigged so he could secretly split a $1.5 million finder's fee with corrupt insider Stuart Levine, a close friend who later secretly wore a wire on Vrdolyak.

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In 2009, U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur spurned prosecution calls for prison and sentenced Vrdolyak to probation for a fraud conviction, but prosecutors appealed.

The 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals later ordered that a different judge resentence Vrdolyak, calling Shadur's punishment a "slap on the wrist" that ignored Vrdolyak's status as one of Chicago's most influential insiders. The appeals court also held that Shadur gave too much weight to dozens of letters  including one from then-Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher  attesting to his acts of generosity.

In October 2010, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly sentenced Vrdolyak to 10 months in prison as well as five months in a work-release center and an additional five months in home confinement.

jcoen@chicagotribune.com

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A man was shot while driving on the Eisenhower Expressway near Morgan Street on Nov. 15, 2016. Four others were injured after the shooting caused two crashes. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune) (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune)

A 20-year-old man was shot and four other people were injured during a shooting that caused two crashes Tuesday afternoon on the Eisenhower Expressway, authorities said.

State police were called to eastbound Interstate 290 at Morgan Street about 3 p.m. Tuesday and found a 20-year-old man had been shot in the abdomen while driving a black Infinity SUV, causing him to crash into a wall, an Illinois State Police trooper said.

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Though his condition had been stabilized as of Wednesday at Stroger Hospital, officials still have not been able to interview him, said state police spokesman Master Sgt. Jason Bradley, who added that the 20-year-old was the only person who was shot.

Three others inside the Infinity were injured, including a 24-year-old man in the front passenger seat who possibly suffered a broken leg and a 22-year-old woman and infant who were in the backseat.

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The male passenger was also taken to Stroger and the woman and child were taken to Rush University Medical Center.

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Other occupants of the SUV have not been cooperating with police, so investigators still do not have a good idea of what occurred other than the gunman was inside a passing vehicle, Bradley said.

A 50-year-old man driving a red Toyota Camry in the westbound lanes swerved to avoid metal debris that landed in the road, causing him to lose control and also hit the wall, the trooper said. He was taken to Stroger with injuries that weren't life-threatening.

Video from the scene showed a black SUV that appeared to have crashed into the barrier next to the left lane.

The expressway was closed east of Morgan for the investigation, with traffic diverted at Racine Avenue, according to state police and the Illinois Department of Transportation.

Tuesday's attack marks the 45th shooting on Chicago-area expressways since Jan. 1, Bradley said, though none of them has been random.

"The number has been higher than in years past, but not any of these have been random persons," Bradley said.

Bradley urged anyone who knows anything about the attack to call Illinois State Police at 847-294-4400.
Chicago police hold a news conference in Garfield Park in Chicago on Nov. 15, 2016, to announce an arrest in the death of 2-year-old Kyrian Knox, whose body parts were found in the park's lagoon. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune) (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune)

A man who was caring for 2-year-old Kyrian Knox in the summer of 2015 "snapped" and killed the toddler after the lactose-intolerant boy was fed milk and cried for a whole afternoon, police said.

Kyrian's dismembered remains were found in the Garfield Park Lagoon on the West Side on Sept. 5, 2015. Police said in a news conference at the park Tuesday afternoon that Kamel Harris, 41, was arrested on murder charges in Kyrian's slaying after investigators learned that blood they recovered from the man's vehicle belonged to the boy.

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Harris, of Rockford, was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder, felony concealment of a homicidal death and felony dismemberment of a human body.

He was brought to Chicago on Monday from the Winnebago County Jail, where he was in custody on unrelated charges.

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"He kind of just snapped and couldn't deal with it anymore," said Area North Cmdr. Kevin Duffin, whose detectives led the investigation.

Last September, Chicago police Marine Unit divers responded to a call of a foot possibly floating in the lagoon. Marine Unit divers later found another foot and two hands on the shoreline, said Marine Unit Sgt. Angel Romero. The following day, they found a head.

"It was pretty difficult to deal with," Romero said. "Probably one of the most difficult things I've dealt with in my 29 years on the job."

Harris then falsely reported the boy missing, police said. Officials have also said that Kyrian may have actually been missing since August 2015.

The break in the case came when police late last year found blood in Harris' vehicle. Harris had denied that the toddler had been inside the vehicle, Duffin said. The blood was tested, and this summer, police learned it matched the slain boy, Duffin said.

"Unfortunately, it took several months, I believe it was late July or early August of this year, when it was confirmed to be the baby's," he said.

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While the medical examiner's office ruled Kyrian's death a homicide, Duffin said Tuesday that no one was able to determine exactly how Kyrian was killed.

Police believe that Kyrian's remains were dumped in the lagoon because Harris has family in the area of the park.

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"As a father of a 6-month-old myself, it's hard to fathom why someone would do this to a child," said Ald. Jason Ervin, who 28th Ward covers the park. "But we are glad that this is the first step in bringing this case to justice."

In November last year, Chicago police said they were searching for a person of interest wanted for questioning with the disappearance of Kyrian. Later that month, police said a couple who were last with Kyrian were refusing to cooperate in the investigation. They were not identified as suspects at the time.

The toddler's mother, Lanisha Knox, had moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with a high school friend who also had a 2-year-old. Both women left their children in the care of Harris, who is the high school friend's father, officials have said.

Duffin said Tuesday that the other child was OK and is safe but had no further information.

Duffin said that since being taken into Chicago police custody on Monday, Harris has not cooperated with investigators and has requested a lawyer.
Chicago could see its first trace of snow this weekend, while states in the Upper and Central Plains are expected to get hit with their first major winter storm that could create blizzard conditions.



A cold front will drop temperatures by 20 to 30 degrees in the Chicago area from Friday morning to Saturday morning, when the forecast calls for rain and snow showers, according to the National Weather Service.



The snow, if it falls, is expected to be light and not likely to accumulate, the weather service said.

Watch the latest 7-day forecast for the Chicago area. Nov. 15, 2016. (CBS Chicago)

To qualify as measurable snow in the record books, at least 0.1 of an inch has to fall. The earliest that has happened in the Chicago area is Oct. 12, 2006, when 0.3 of an inch was recorded at O'Hare International Airport.



Anything less than 0.1 qualifies as a trace. The earliest trace of snow here is Sept. 25 in 1928 and 1942.



The weekend is expected to be more bracing to the west and north. Heavy snow is expected to accumulate across the Dakotas, Nebraska and Minnesota.

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The heaviest band of snow is expected to stretch from central South Dakota to northern Minnesota and toward Thunder Bay, Ontario. Snow there could reach a foot.
Deahvion Austin, 14, who uses the nickname Mya, was reported missing from North Lawndale on Sunday, Nov. 13, 2016. (Photo via Chicago police)

Chicago police are asking for the public's help finding a 14-year-old girl missing from North Lawndale.

Deahvion Austin disappeared Sunday from the 1400 block of South Avers, according to a missing person alert. She's known to spend time in the area near 16th Street and Pulaski Road.

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Austin, who is known by the nickname Mya, stands 5-foot-8 and weighs about 125 pounds. She is black and has a medium complexion, with brown eyes and black hair. She was last seen wearing a blue jacket with white on the collar and sleeves and jeans. She may be carrying a beige purse.

Anyone with information about Austin is asked to call 911 or call Area Central detectives at 312-747-8380.
SPRINGFIELD  Democratic Speaker Michael Madigan on Tuesday indicated there won't be a state budget unless Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner sets aside his economic agenda, prompting the governor's allies to accuse the House leader of placing the state "in peril."

Madigan's comments followed a closed-door meeting with Rauner and legislative leaders as a temporary stopgap budget to keep government afloat through the end of the year is set to expire. It was the first time the group has been in a room together in several months and followed tens of millions of dollars in campaign attack ads on both sides that sought to demonize Madigan and Rauner as the cause of the record impasse.

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The speaker emerged from the half-hour meeting on the first day of the fall session saying another deal to get state government through the end of its budget year in July could happen if Rauner follows "the framework" for previous stopgap agreements. That's Madigan-speak encouraging Rauner to set aside his so-called turnaround agenda, which the governor has made a prerequisite of a larger budget deal.

"If you use the same framework, the odds are you'll get a budget to finish off this fiscal year, you'll be able to provide a good level of funding for education, you'll be able to provide for public safety, you'll be able to provide for the seniors and the vulnerable in our society," Madigan said.

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The speaker, who has run the House for all but two years since 1983, said he would appoint a new group of rank-and-file lawmakers to work on budget issues, naming Democratic Chicago Rep. Greg Harris as the chairman. Previous working groups have fizzled, which Republicans have said was by design.

Harris' appointment in itself is a message: He is the chair of the Human Services Committee and has been an outspoken advocate for funding for social service groups, which have suffered greatly as the state fumbles along without a complete spending plan. Harris also successfully negotiated the state's law legalizing gay marriage.

Senate GOP leader Christine Radogno of Lemont called Madigan's budget move a "step back," saying it's time for leaders to get to the bargaining table instead of sending middlemen. While Rauner previously has agreed to temporarily set aside his priorities as various funding crises arose, Republicans say they are not willing to do that this time around.

While Rauner's wish list has changed over time, the governor frequently has referenced limiting payouts for workers hurt on the job and curbing collective bargaining rights. He's also called for term limits on lawmakers and legislative leaders.

"Everybody has to give in a little bit. That is the way budgets are negotiated," said House Republican leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs. "We are at a tipping point, we are willing to work with the Democrats with their priorities. But it's a two-way street, they have to work with us and our priorities. If we can do that, we will get a good product and the governor will sign a budget. But going down the same road and saying it's our way or the highway, which Democrats have been doing for two years, is going to put this state in further peril."

The governor and legislative leaders are scheduled to meet again Wednesday. Democratic Senate President John Cullerton, who did not address reporters after the meeting, later issued a statement saying he hoped to "hear some practical solutions" when they reconvene.

"Like most people, at the end of the day I don't really care if it's the four leaders or all 177 members finding a path forward. What's important is that we find consensus on how to move forward," Cullerton said.

Lawmakers are back in Springfield following a bruising campaign season that pitted Rauner and allies in business against Madigan and Democrats backed by organized labor.

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Republicans were able to pick up four seats in the House and two more in the Senate, though new members will not be sworn in until January. Even then, Democrats will retain their supermajority in the Senate at 37-20, while House Democrats will have 67 members to 51 for Republicans.

Meanwhile, an effort to override Rauner's veto of a bill that would automatically register people to vote if they get a new or updated driver's license was delayed in the Senate on Tuesday after not enough Senate Democrats showed up. Democrats hope to push the issue again Wednesday, saying it could amount to a test of Rauner's influence over the GOP following overwhelming bipartisan support for the measure in the spring.

In the House, lawmakers gave initial approval to a plan backed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to overhaul the pension plans for city municipal workers and laborers amid objections from Republicans.

Under the plan, both taxpayers and newly hired city workers and laborers would pay more toward pension costs, and in return, workers could retire two years earlier. Starting next year, newly hired employees would pay 11.5 percent of their wages toward retirement, compared with 8.5 percent today. Employees hired from 2011 to 2016 also could opt to pay more into the pension fund, city officials said. In exchange, workers who make the higher pension payments could retire at 65 instead of 67. The plan would not affect people hired by the city before 2011 or workers or laborers who have already retired.

The city would gradually increase how much it puts into the two pension funds, with the aim of reaching 90 percent funding by 2057. To help cover the cost, the city would use money raised from a newly approved water and sewer tax and a telephone emergency services fee increased earlier. The water and sewer tax will cost the typical homeowner $53 next year but grow to $226 a year by 2020.

Sponsoring Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, said specific figures within the pension proposal could change as negotiations continue in the coming weeks, noting some unions and the municipal fund had concerns that needed to be addressed.

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The hope is the proposal could pass legal muster after the Illinois Supreme Court struck down a broader city in pension overhaul, citing a clause in the state constitution that prohibits employee benefits from being diminished.

Republicans called for a more comprehensive statewide pension solution, saying lawmakers too often focus on Chicago's problems to the detriment of the rest of the state.

Chicago Tribune's Hal Dardick contributed from Chicago.

mcgarcia@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @moniquegarcia
President-elect Donald Trump looks on in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016 during a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in their first public step toward a transition of power in Washington, D.C. (Olivier Douliery / TNS)

BRUSSELS  European and NATO defense officials on Tuesday cautioned President-elect Donald Trump about his warming relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that they welcomed dialogue but that the United States should not abandon its allies in a bid for improved ties with Moscow.

The warnings came hours after Trump and Putin spoke by telephone and vowed to work toward better relations, which have sunk to Cold War-era lows after Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

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Trump frequently praised Putin on the campaign trail, saying he was a stronger leader than President Barack Obama. The Republican said during the campaign that if he were elected, he would reboot relations with the Kremlin to facilitate cooperation on a host of global challenges and "would look at" recognizing Crimea as part of Russia, a step that would legitimize a military takeover that most of the world says was illegal. The Kremlin said both teams were working on setting up a face-to-face meeting.

European nations led by Germany have pushed hard against Trump's rhetoric on Russia, and German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said Tuesday that the president-elect needed to be cautious in his dealings with Putin.

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"It is always good for us to remain in dialogue with Russia," von der Leyen told reporters ahead of a meeting of EU defense ministers in Brussels. "But for us it's also important that we not forget our principles. That means that international laws should not be broken."

Trump's election has sparked fears among European nations that they need to be more self-reliant on security matters, not only because the future U.S. leader pushed the issue on the campaign trail but also because some nations fear depending on security guarantees from a leader they see as having dangerously authoritarian tendencies. E.U. defense and foreign ministers met this week to put the finishing touches on efforts to bolster European defense initiatives that would give them more capabilities separate from the United States. The efforts were underway before the U.S. election, but they were given new urgency after Trump's surprise victory.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization - of which the United States is the most dominant member - also has been put into a tailspin after the election, with front-line countries such Poland and the Baltics struggling to divine Trump's policy intentions. During the campaign, Trump said he would not automatically adhere to U.S. security guarantees in Europe and would "look into" rolling back sanctions on Russia that were imposed after the Crimea annexation.

"It is a very normal thing that President-elect Trump speaks to world leaders, including, of course, the leader of Russia," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday. He said he was "certain" that Trump would live up to U.S. commitments.

But Stoltenberg warned against abandoning countries that have taken hits from Russia in recent years.

"We think it is important to respect the territorial integrity and the sovereignty of all nations, including Ukraine," he said.

The Monday conversation between Trump and Putin did not touch on some of the sharpest issues facing Russia and the West, avoiding talk of Crimea or the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine, the Kremlin said Tuesday. A day earlier, Moscow said the two had discussed a "settlement for the crisis in Syria" and joining efforts in the fight against global terrorism, notably the Islamic State group.

The Washington Post
The nation's Republican governors are meeting in battleground Florida with an unexpected opportunity: a president-elect of their own party with political IOUs to pay, perhaps the projects the party's heads of the states prefer.

Donald Trump owes no governor more than Wisconsin's Scott Walker, the onetime rival for the GOP presidential nomination who ended up endorsing the billionaire and whose state had been thought to be a Democratic firewall. But for the first time since 1984, Wisconsin voted for a Republican last week. When Trump won that state and Pennsylvania, The Associated Press around 2:30 a.m. EST declared him the winner of the presidential race over Hillary Clinton.

Walker, the incoming chairman of the Republican Governor's Association, said Tuesday that Trump's election elevates "the possibilities in terms of what we can do to take power out of Washington and send it back to the states." More importantly, he said on MSNBC, "back to the people."

What the people can agree on as a top post-election priority is fixing the nation's roads, bridges and other infrastructure, according to a survey at the end of the election. Clinton and Trump voters polled on 13 issues after the election agreed on two problem areas  drug addiction and crumbling infrastructure in the United States, according to the Pew Research Center.

Walker said the federal government's focus should be on "fixing and maintaining our existing infrastructure" not "grandiose" high speed rail lines, for example.

During a speech at a Monday night reception at an Orlando hotel, Florida Gov. Rick Scott called on his fellow Republicans to help Trump bring "disruptive change" to Washington.

For Scott, that means a complete repeal of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

Scott, who has been vague about what should be done about the 20 million Americans who got health insurance through the overhaul, said "of course we will need to unwind in a fair way, but we absolutely must repeal it."

Those expected to attend this week's conference include governors who had voiced differing opinions over Trump's bid for the White House.

Scott backed Trump right after he won the Florida primary in March and eventually headed up a Super PAC that ran ads praising Trump and criticizing Clinton.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, the nation's only Latina governor, refused to endorse Trump before the election but did congratulate him after he won.

Associated Press
First lady Michelle Obama meets with Melania Trump for tea in the Yellow Oval Room of the White House on Nov. 10. (Chuck Kennedy / The Washington Post)

A nonprofit group director and a mayor in a small town in West Virginia have been swept up in a firestorm surrounding comments made about Michelle Obama which have been perceived as blatantly racist.

Following Donald Trump's presidential election, Pamela Ramsey Taylor, who was director of Clay County Development Corp. in Clay, a tiny town outside Charleston, reportedly posted about the move from Michelle Obama to Melania Trump on Facebook, saying, "It will be so refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady back in the White House. I'm tired of seeing a Ape in heels," according to NBC affiliate WSAZ.

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The news station reported that town's mayor, Beverly Whaling, then replied: "Just made my day Pam."

The comments were later deleted, but images of the post have been shared widely on social media. As of Monday afternoon, an online petition calling for the women's terminations has garnered more than 14,000 signatures.

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Both of their Facebook pages have now also been removed, according to the Charleston Gazette-Mail.

Two-tenths of a percent of Clay County's residents are African American, according to U.S. Census data. More than three-quarters of the presidential votes cast in the county went to Trump.

The two women have apologized for their controversial remarks.

"My comment was not intended to be racist at all," Whaling said in a statement to The Washington Post. "I was referring to my day being made for change in the White House! I am truly sorry for any hard feeling this may have caused! Those who know me know that I'm not of any way racist!

"Again, I would like to apologize for this getting out of hand!"

Taylor could not be reached for comment, but WSAZ reported that she issued an apology on Facebook.

However, Taylor told the news station that the public response had become a "hate crime against me," explaining that she and her children received death threats. She said she is planning to file a lawsuit against people who have slandered and/or libeled her, according to the news station.

A representative at Clay County Development Corp., a nonprofit funded with state and federal money, said the board has "removed" Taylor from her position as director and appointed Leslie McGlothlin to take her place. McGlothlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Clay Town Councilman Jason Hubbard told the Charleston Gazette-Mail that the town will address the incident at a council meeting Tuesday night.
Paul Ryan unanimously won the nomination of his House Republican colleagues Tuesday to continue as speaker and serve as the chief legislative partner to President-elect Donald Trump.

"Welcome to the dawn of a new unified Republican government," he told reporters ahead of Tuesday's vote.

Ryan must now win a floor vote in January of all 435 House members. If about two dozen Republicans were to withhold their support, his election would be thrown in doubt.

Several Republicans made clear this week that although Trump's victory may have eased the internal party tensions that threatened Ryan's speakership before the election, it has not eliminated them entirely.

"I haven't heard from him what he wants to change - what's going to be different the next two years than the last two years?" said Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, a co-founder of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus. "So far, I'm not hearing anything about changing the way we do business here in Washington, so I'm not ready to support him yet."

Labrador is in a clear minority among House Republicans - Ryan, R-Wis., enjoys broad support among the GOP rank-and-file - but his qualms reflect ongoing discomfort over how Ryan's brand of Republican politics will meld with Trump's. He was among a handful of members who said Tuesday they would still consider opposing Ryan then.

The tension is manifest in Trump's plans for his White House. On Sunday, he chose Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, a longtime Ryan friend and ally from Wisconsin, as his chief of staff while also tapping a campaign official who has sought to undermine Ryan, Stephen Bannon, to a coequal position as chief strategist.

On significant matters such as trade policy, immigration reform and entitlement cuts, Ryan and Trump have crossed ways. And Trump's enthusiastic backers in Congress bristled when Ryan distanced himself from his party's presidential nominee - withholding his endorsement for several weeks after Trump clinched the nomination, for instance.

Ryan instead hit the campaign trail and the TV airwaves holding a copy of the "Better Way" policy agenda he developed - one that mostly ignored the areas where Trump's agenda clashed with tenets of conservative doctrine. In media interviews since the election, he has pointed to the agenda as a blueprint for major legislation that can be enacted with a Republican White House and Congress working in tandem.

Trump and Ryan met last week on Capitol Hill and appeared before cameras together for the first time since the campaign began. Both men have said in the past week that action to repeal the Affordable Care Act, secure the southern U.S. border and cut taxes are among their shared priorities.

"We are on the same page," Ryan said Tuesday, citing recent conversations with Vice President-elect Mike Pence. "We will be working hand in glove."

In a closed-door conference meeting Tuesday, each GOP House member was given one of Trump's signature red "Make America Great Again" hats.

That show of unity has mostly quieted two groups of Republicans that have been vexed by how Ryan has handled Trump. One consists of early and enthusiastic Trump supporters who bristled at how Ryan kept Trump at arm's length during the presidential campaign.

One member of that group, Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pa., would not commit Monday to supporting Ryan as speaker but also said "everyone seems to be on the same page now." Barletta was among a handful of members who rose during the closed-door conference meeting Tuesday morning to urge Ryan to delay Tuesday's scheduled leadership votes.

But another early Trump backer, Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., gave Ryan a full-throated endorsement Monday.

"He is the best positioned and best prepared person to be speaker of the House," Cramer said. "I think clearly the time to move forward with a Republican agenda is now. Now is not the time to have civil war."

The other restive group is the Freedom Caucus, members of which also pressed for a delay in elections. Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va., for instance, said Monday that "a smart, rational conference would want to analyze an historic election like the country has never seen" before voting on its leaders.

Labrador dismissed the notion that Ryan holds an equal claim to lead Republicans alongside Trump and mocked the idea that the election results constituted a mandate for the Ryan policy agenda.

"Our leadership needs to understand that the American people sent a message to the House. They sent somebody like Donald Trump to change the way Washington works," he said. "I hope they understand that business as usual is not going to work."

But the Freedom Caucus, despite rumblings that it might demand a seat at the GOP leadership table, did not run a candidate against Ryan or for any other post.

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., another Freedom Caucus leader, said the leadership elections "came in roaring like a lion" but are "going to go out as gentle as a lamb."

"Our focus has shifted more to how do we make sure that we have a good plan on supporting the initiatives that are important to the American people," he said Monday. "As long as the existing leadership's willing to do that, we're focused more on the policy and the legislative components than the control components."

But implicit in that concession is a threat: If Ryan diverges too far from Trump, a GOP rear guard stands ready to challenge him - and oust him, if necessary. And the tests stand to be frequent, starting with a Dec. 9 deadline for extending federal spending. Conservatives are pushing Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to back away from a year-long spending bill to be negotiated with a lame-duck President Obama.

In a gesture of unity, Ryan chose three members from differing wings of the party to place his name in nomination Tuesday: Rep. Chris Collins, N.Y., an early Trump backer; Rep. Mick Mulvaney, S.C., a co-founder of the Freedom Caucus; and Rep. Martha McSally, Ariz., a member of the moderate Tuesday Group.

Although Ryan is expected to easily win his party's nomination for speaker, he must also win a floor vote in January of all 435 House members. If about two dozen Republicans were to withhold their support, his election would be thrown in doubt.

Beyond Ryan, other senior members of House leadership are expected to stay. Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Calif., Majority Whip Steve Scalise, La., Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Wash., and Policy Committee Chairman Luke Messer, Ind., are all running unopposed.

There is, however, a fierce battle for the chairmanship of the National Republican Congressional Committee - the party's campaign arm - between Rep. Steve Stivers, Ohio, and Rep. Roger Williams, Texas. And two junior leadership positions are set to be filled with new faces Tuesday after Conference Vice Chairman Lynn Jenkins, Kan., and Conference Secretary Virginia Foxx, N.C., declined to seek reelection to those posts.

Reps. Douglas Collins, Ga., and Bill Flores, Texas, are vying for the vice chairmanship, while Rep. Jason Smith, Mo., is the only declared candidate for the secretary's post.

That means, barring the surprise entry of another candidate, seven of the top eight House Republican leaders will be white men.

Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, who will be one of 21 Republican women in the House, said that was reason for concern.

"Just recently we realized, oh my gosh, we didn't have enough women that were running," she said. "We have great women as part of this conference. There are amazing women, and we should have more women in leadership."
In an interview aired Sunday, Donald Trump told "60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl that he would deport as many as 3 million undocumented immigrants after he takes office next year. It remains to be seen whether the president-elect will fulfill this pledge, and if he does, how quickly he would seek to do so. In any case, two new analyses confirm that deportations could have severe consequences for the American economy.

One of the analyses, released by the National Bureau of Economic Research on Monday, offers the first detailed estimates of how a policy of mass deportation would affect specific industries. The authors, Ryan Edwards and Francesc Ortega of Queens College, City University of New York, came up with a few unexpected results.

Unsurprisingly, the greatest number of undocumented workers -- 1.3 million -- were employed in leisure and hospitality, followed by the construction sector, which employed 1.1 million. These two sectors were followed by professional and business services, which is not a sector often associated with unauthorized employment but included nearly 1 million undocumented workers, by Edwards and Ortega's estimate.

The two economists relied on Census data from 2011 to 2013 to estimate the number of undocumented workers in each industry. While the Census does not ask respondents whether they are undocumented, the records do show when they arrived, what country they came from, and whether their occupation required a license -- information that can be used to estimate the likelihood that a person is undocumented.

According to a recent estimate from the Pew Research Center, there are about 8 million unauthorized workers in the United States in total.

If all undocumented workers were immediately removed from the country, Edwards and Ortega forecast a decline of 9 percent in agricultural production and declines of 8 percent in construction and leisure and hospitality over the long term.

These are the industries most dependent on undocumented labor. Relative to the overall economy, however, the most important effect would be a decline in manufacturing output of $74 billion over the long term, followed by somewhat more modest declines in wholesale and retail trade and financial activities.

There are relatively few undocumented workers in the financial sector, but they make a disproportionate economic contribution. The sector employs just under 200,000 undocumented immigrants, but their weekly earnings are $1,132 on average -- roughly twice the average across the economy for unauthorized workers, which is $581.

"When we think about unauthorized immigrants, we tend to think about poor Mexican workers with low education in agriculture," Edwards said. In other sectors, he added, "they're highly trained, highly paid professionals, so their removal has a pretty large effect."

Edwards and Ortega estimate that undocumented workers are responsible for about 3 percent of the U.S. economy overall. Deporting all of them would result in a substantial contraction.

For his part, Trump has argued that removing immigrants will benefit U.S. workers who compete with them for employment. "The truth is, the central issue is not the needs of the 11 million illegal immigrants or however many there may be," Trump said in August. "There is only one core issue in the immigration debate, and that issue is the well-being of the American people."

Most economists who have studied the effects of immigration have found only minimal effects on native-born workers' wages, and one recent review of the research concluded that those most negatively affected by immigration are immigrants already living in the country -- who tend to be most similar to the new arrivals in terms of education and skills and thus compete with them most directly.

In any case, many analysts are skeptical that Trump will deliver on his campaign-trail promises for punitive immigration policy. "We do not anticipate significant changes on immigration policy, but incremental restrictions seem likely," wrote Sven Jari Stehn and Alec Phillips of Goldman Sachs in a note to investors on Saturday.

They added that major changes to the country's immigration system, including deportation on a major scale, would require congressional approval. Many lawmakers in Congress favor less radical measures, including Rep. Paul Ryan, the Republican from Wisconsin and the speaker of the House, who supports eventual legal status for those here illegally.

Stehn and Phillips did consider one of Trump's proposals: requiring all employers to verify electronically that their personnel can work in the country legally. They estimated that this requirement would force about 2.5 million people to leave the country over two years, and that the policy would reduce gross domestic product by one half to three quarters of a percentage point.

"Such a policy would have significantly adverse effects on the economy," they wrote. Unemployment would decline at first as employers hired legal workers to replace their unauthorized workers, but many positions would have to remain vacant. As the economy's overall capacity to produce declined, unemployment would increase again, and so would prices.
MENOMONIE, Wis.  Police in northwestern Wisconsin are looking for two women who they say may have information about the death of a student at the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

Twenty-four-year-old Hussain Alnahdi was fatally assaulted Halloween weekend in downtown Menomonie. Police Cmdr. Todd Swartz says investigators are in the process of determining the women's involvement in the case, but he would not elaborate. The police department distributed photos of the women which Swartz said were captured the morning Alnahdi was killed.

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Police say a preliminary autopsy report shows Alnahdi died of a traumatic brain injury. Toxicology tests are pending.

Alnahdi was from Saudi Arabia and was a junior majoring in business administration. The university foundation, private donations and the Council on American-Islamic Relations are offering $20,000 in reward money leading to the person who killed Alnahdi.

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Associated Press
President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence are in New York today to discuss cabinet positions. Meanwhile, Trump transition officials are asking about having some of Trump's family members receiving high-level security clearance. Nov. 15, 2016. (CBS Miami)

NEW YORK  Hidden from the public in his Manhattan high-rise, Donald Trump huddled Tuesday with Vice President-elect Mike Pence as he tried to fill out key posts in his Cabinet. But the transition team appeared to be straining under the enormous challenge of setting up a new administration.

Former Rep. Mike Rogers, a respected Republican voice on national security issues, announced he was quitting the transition effort. An apparent clerical oversight effectively halted the Trump team's ability to coordinate with President Barack Obama's White House.

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Trump himself broke with protocol Tuesday night by leaving Trump Tower without his press contingent. The transition team had told reporters and photographers there would be no movement by the president-elect for the rest of the day and night, but less than two hours later a presidential-style motorcade rolled out of the building, suggesting that Trump was on the move and leaving reporters scrambling.

Trump turned up at Club 21, a midtown Manhattan restaurant where he was having dinner with his family. Reporters were not allowed inside, and Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks asked that they respect that he was having an evening out with his family.

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A short time later a tweet appeared on Trump's account: "Very organized process taking place as I decide on Cabinet and many other positions. I am the only one who knows who the finalists are!"

That was the only public statement from the president-elect on the transition itself. Meantime, his allies engaged in an unusual round of public speculation about his potential appointments  including their own futures  as the president-elect and his aides weighed the nation's top national security posts.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani seemed to be angling for secretary of state. But Trump's transition team was reviewing Giuliani's paid consulting work for foreign governments, which could delay a nomination or bump Giuliani to a different position, according to a person briefed on the matter but not authorized to speak publicly about it.

Giuliani founded his own firm, Giuliani Partners, in 2001, and helped businesses on behalf of foreign governments, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. He also advised TransCanada, which sought to build the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, and helped the maker of the painkiller drug OxyContin settle a dispute with the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Vice President-elect Mike Pence gets into an elevator as he arrives at Trump Tower in New York City on Nov. 15, 2016. (Drew Angerer / Getty Images)

A Trump official said John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, remained in contention for secretary of state. Bolton has years of foreign policy experience, but he has raised eyebrows with some of his hawkish stances, including a 2015 New York Times op-ed in which he advocated bombing Iran to halt the country's nuclear program.

Businessman Carl Icahn disclosed on Twitter, based on conversations with the president-elect, that Trump was considering Steve Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs banker, and Wilbur Ross, a billionaire investor, to lead the Treasury and Commerce departments.

Pence, now running the transition team, ignored questions from reporters both as he entered Trump Tower, a thick binder tucked under his arm, and as he left six hours later. He took over from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who spent months running transition operations before his demotion last week.

The switch slowed Trump's ability to coordinate with the White House. Not until Tuesday evening had Pence signed a memorandum of understanding facilitating interactions between his team and Obama administration officials. Christie had signed the document, but Pence's promotion made it invalid. White House spokeswoman Brandi Hoffine said the administration was waiting on more documents required by law before agencies could begin sharing information with the transition team.

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A person familiar with the transition efforts said different factions in Trump's team "are fighting for power."

Indeed, Trump effectively created two power centers in his White House even before taking office. He named Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus as his chief of staff and flame-throwing media mogul Steve Bannon as his chief strategist, but called them "equal partners." Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner is also deeply involved in the transition, creating another layer of uncertainty about who is making decisions.

"That organization right now is not designed to work," according to the person close to the efforts, who like others involved in the transition, insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the internal process.

Former GOP national security official Eliot Cohen blasted Trump's team on Twitter, calling them "angry, arrogant." Cohen opposed Trump during the campaign, but in recent days, he said those who feel duty-bound to work in a Trump administration should do so. But he said Tuesday that after an exchange with Trump's team, he had "changed my recommendation."

With Trump's team divided, emboldened Republicans on Capitol Hill moved forward with a united front. House Speaker Paul Ryan, a lukewarm Trump supporter during the campaign, unanimously won his GOP colleagues' votes for another term at the helm of the House. He told fellow Republicans he had Trump's support, and heralded "the dawn of a new, unified Republican government."

Democrats, reeling from sweeping defeats in the election, focused their ire on Bannon, a man celebrated by the white nationalist movement.

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"If Trump is serious about seeking unity, the first thing he should do is rescind his appointment of Steve Bannon," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said. "As long as a champion of racial division is a step away from the Oval Office, it would be impossible to take Trump's efforts to heal the nation seriously."

Trump's team has defended Bannon and tried to put its focus on filling the top national security jobs. Trump's selections will be the first signals to anxious international allies about the direction he plans to take U.S. foreign policy.

Associated Press
President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed in a telephone conversation Monday that relations between their countries were "unsatisfactory" and vowed to work together to improve them, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Moscow said the two men discussed combining efforts in the fight against terrorism, talked about "a settlement for the crisis in Syria" and agreed that their aides would begin working on a face-to-face meeting between them.

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Trump's office later said that Putin had called to "offer his congratulations" and that they had discussed shared threats and challenges, "strategic economic issues" and the long-term relationship between the two nations.

The president-elect spoke admiringly of Putin during the campaign, praising him as a stronger leader than President Barack Obama and saying the two countries should join together to fight terrorists, particularly the Islamic State in Syria.

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Those views put Trump at odds with many GOP defense hawks, who have praised his promise to increase military spending but are uniformly suspicious of Moscow and have denounced Russian actions in Eastern Europe, Ukraine and Syria. The offer of cooperation could also immerse Trump in a deep controversy with the Pentagon, where military and civilian leaders have strongly opposed collaboration with Russia, particularly in Syria.

U.S. intelligence officials have also expressed concern, noting that the Kremlin is believed to have been involved with hacking the email accounts of prominent Democrats, in hopes of injecting chaos in the U.S. electoral process and perhaps swaying the outcome of the vote.

Trump's conversations with Putin and other world leaders came as protests continued for a sixth straight day in major cities and on college campuses over last week's election results, in which Trump won the electoral college but lost the popular vote to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

He also faced escalating criticism over his appointment of former Breitbart News head Stephen K. Bannon as chief strategist at the White House. Bannon has been denounced by a chorus of advocacy groups, commentators and congressional Democrats as a proponent of racist, anti-Semitic and misogynistic views.

"Bringing Steve Bannon into the White House is an alarming signal that President-elect Trump remains committed to the hateful and divisive vision that defined his campaign," House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Calif., said in a statement. "There must be no sugarcoating the reality that a white nationalist has been named chief strategist for the Trump Administration." Trump allies have dismissed the accusation.

Obama, in his first news conference since the election, declined to comment on Bannon and sought to reassure the country and the international community that Trump is committed to governing in a more realistic and pragmatic fashion than he displayed on the campaign trail. Obama said Trump pledged in their conversation last week to maintain U.S. strategic relationships, including the NATO alliance.

At the same time, Obama urged the president-elect to reach out to groups representing minorities and women , many of whom have felt slighted by his candidacy.

"One of the great things about the United States is that when it comes to world affairs, the president, obviously, is the leader of the executive branch, the commander in chief, the spokesperson for the nation, but the influence and the work that we have is the result not just of the president. It is the result of countless interactions and arrangements and relationships," Obama said. ". . . And there is enormous continuity beneath the day-to-day news that makes us that indispensable nation when it comes to maintaining order and promoting prosperity around the world. That will continue."

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Trump has signaled in numerous ways that he will not hew to many of the norms of past presidents, from declining to release his tax returns to relying on his family as key advisers. Previously, he has said he would avoid conflicts of interest as president by turning his business over to his children.

Since his victory last week, Trump has received congratulatory calls from a number of foreign leaders, including some he sharply criticized during the presidential race, such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Sunday night, after he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump's office said that he "believes the two leaders will have one of the strongest relationships for both countries moving forward."

Trump's relationship with Russia may be one of his trickiest to navigate.

Although the statement released by his office contained few details and did not mention Syria or other specific issues, it said Trump told Putin "that he is very much looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the People of Russia."

In addition to praising Putin, Trump has indicated that closer relations with Russia would keep the Kremlin from establishing tighter ties with China. He has appeared to absolve Russia from responsibility for intervention in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea, and during the campaign repeatedly questioned the relevance of NATO, which has charged Moscow with engaging in provocative air and sea actions on the alliance's eastern flank.

Giving Putin a free pass on those issues would run directly counter to the Russia policy of the Obama administration, which has, among other things, called for an international war-crimes investigation of Russia's actions in Syria. It could also undermine current European negotiations with Moscow over Ukraine, as well as support for U.S. and E.U. sanctions.

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Russia is interested not only in getting the sanctions removed but also in obtaining equal status as a player in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Moscow is the primary supporter, along with Iran, of President Bashar al-Assad. In September 2015, one year after the United States began bombing Islamic State targets in Syria, Putin ordered Russian jets into operation against "terrorist" targets there.

Most Russian airstrikes, however, have targeted U.S.-backed opposition forces fighting against Assad and, according to the United Nations, have killed hundreds of civilians. The United States and its European allies have called for an international investigation of Russia for war crimes.

Obama administration offers to coordinate U.S. counterterrorism strikes against the Islamic State in Syria with Russia, if the Russians would stop bombing opposition and civilian targets, have repeatedly failed to stop the carnage. Any cooperation with Russia would also put the United States on the side of Iran, whose activities in the region Trump has vowed to stop.

Also controversial was Trump's decision Sunday to name Bannon as chief strategist, a move condemned by the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, Capitol Hill Democrats and some Republican Trump critics.

Trump's staff brushed off the criticism Monday, saying Bannon is a former naval officer and Goldman Sachs executive who has been a measured voice behind the scenes at the campaign.

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"That's not the Steve Bannon that I know, and I've spent a lot of time with him," Trump's new chief of staff, Reince Priebus, said on MSNBC, responding to allegations of racism, misogyny and anti-Semitism. ". . . He was a force for good on the campaign at every level that I saw, all the time."

Kellyanne Conway, who worked closely with Bannon as Trump's campaign manager, also defended him. "He's been the general of this campaign," she told reporters as she arrived Monday at Trump Tower in Manhattan to meet with the president-elect.

Asked whether Bannon needed to explain his connections to the alt-right movement, which includes many white nationalists and white supremacists, Conway said: "I'm personally offended that you think I would manage a campaign where that would be one of the going philosophies. It was not - 56 million-plus Americans or so saw something else. . . . You should really focus on the will of the people, which was to elect Donald Trump the president."

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., sought to calm the fears many Americans still hold about Trump's election.

"There is a lot of hysteria and hyperbole," Ryan said during an interview Monday with his hometown radio station, 1380 Big AM in Janesville, Wisconsin. "I would tell people to just relax - things are going to be fine.
Isaac Abella, 82, taught physics at the University of Chicago for more than 40 years. (University of Chicago)

Isaac Abella, a physicist who played an early role in the development of lasers, taught physics at the University of Chicago for more than 40 years.

As a physicist, university sources said, Abella specialized in laser physics, quantum optics and spectroscopy of rare-Earth laser materials. But his interest and his talent lay in teaching, especially undergraduates.

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"That certainly was his emphasis," said colleague Henry Frisch, also a professor in the physics department. "He was a good teacher and a very thoughtful and dedicated teacher."

Abella's interest in teaching and mentoring students extended to serving as the longtime resident master at the school's Shoreland residence hall, where he and his late wife Mary Ann, who died in 2004, lived with their own children from the early 1980s to the late 1990s.

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Abella, 82, who lived in Hyde Park for decades, died Oct. 23 of complications with cancer in Montgomery Place in Hyde Park, according to his son, Benjamin, a physician in the department of emergency medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Abella was born in Toronto and grew up there and in the New York City area. After high school in New York, he returned to Toronto to get an undergraduate degree in physics and astronomy from the University of Toronto. He then earned a master's degree and Ph.D. in physics from Columbia University in New York.

"His whole life he had been an enthusiast for science and learning and academic pursuits," his son said. "It was a lifelong passion."

At Columbia, he worked under Nobel laureate Charles H. Townes, conducting research on early lasers. According to the University of Chicago, his thesis, "Some Properties of Ruby Optical Masers with Applications to Non-Linear Effects," published in 1963, is among the earliest works on two-photon absorption. The terms maser and laser refer to concentrated beams of energy, with masers referring to microwaves and lasers referring to light.

Benjamin Abella said his father's early work came to mind often.

"Every time I take my kids to the grocery store and they see laser scanners," he said of one kind of everyday reminder of his father's area of interest.

Abella started teaching at the University of Chicago in 1965. He won the Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 1969.

He retired in 2011.

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During his career, Abella was a fellow at the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics in Boulder, Colo.; a visiting scientist at the optical sciences division of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C.; a guest scientist at the National Bureau of Standards at the Boulder Laboratories; and research fellow at Argonne National Laboratory.

Abella was a member of the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on Undergraduate Science Education, which addressed science literacy in the United States. He was also a member of the NAS Mathematics (K-12) Standards Review Committee on behalf of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. He also played a big role in the University of Chicago's physics department teaching activities committee.

Abella and his late wife were invited in the early 1980s to serve as resident masters for the University Shoreland residence hall, where they hosted events ranging from pizza parties in the dorm to field trips to Lyric Opera of Chicago.

"He and his wife were very good masters," Frisch said. "Really the mother and father to students, and the Abellas were really wonderful at that."

The post was a good fit for his parents, Benjamin Abella said, because the two combined social skills and breadth of academic interests with the ability to serve as hosts. The family, their son said, was not squeezed into dorm-sized rooms, but lived in an apartment spacious enough to host social events and visiting speakers.

"My parents had gifts of charm and diplomacy," Benjamin Abella said.

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Other survivors include a daughter, Sarah Abella; a sister, Bracha Glass; a brother, Jack Abella; and six grandchildren.

Services were held.

Graydon Megan is a freelance reporter.
As Donald Trump builds his administration, it's important to distinguish between his legitimate decisions on personnel and policy  even those that differ substantially from mainstream ones  and the scarier actions that need to be resisted by everyone committed to democracy.

Take the first big announcements on filling jobs at the White House. As the new chief of staff, Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chairman, is not the worst possible choice.

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But the president-elect also has chosen Steve Bannon as chief strategist and senior counselor. By announcing the two appointments together, Trump is suggesting the two may have comparable clout. Thus, Bannon is about to become one of the most influential people in the country.

Bannon is a longtime professional bigot, as documented by the Southern Poverty Law Center among others. When both the Anti-Defamation League and the Council on American-Islamic Relations  two groups that have clashed with each other  immediately condemn the same thing, you know something is not normal. And, in this case, it is also not acceptable.

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Bigotry isn't just immoral. It puts democracy at risk by threatening the equal citizenship of those who are targeted. Trump's threats against the media and against his political opponents, by undermining legitimate opposition, are in the same category.

Win or lose, this is a battle worth fighting. But how?

White House staff positions, unlike cabinet and other executive-branch appointments, are not subject to the advice and consent of the Senate. That's how it should be: These crucial positions are responsible only to the president, whereas the top officials in executive-branch departments and agencies have to answer to Congress as well as the president.

But outside opposition can raise the cost, perhaps higher than even Trump is willing to pay. Organized groups and individual constituents can demand that every member of Congress, in both parties and both chambers, go on record as supporting or opposing the selection of Bannon. It's true that presidents are entitled to the staff they want, but members of Congress routinely offer their opinions on such selections  and so those opposed should push hard to get a response.

If Bannon is to be defeated, the Republican senators who opposed Trump in the election might be the key.

Though the Senate can't directly block Bannon, individual senators can place a "hold" on one or more Cabinet or executive-branch nominees and refuse to budge unless he is removed from consideration. Honoring these holds is at the discretion of the majority leader. If Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tries to move ahead despite the objections, then Democrats and some Republicans could vote down Cabinet picks until Trump relents.

Even if Republican senators like Nebraska's Ben Sasse and Arizona's Jeff Flake, who would not support Trump in the campaign, won't fight, opposition from organized groups could still be enough to defeat this selection. Trump might be initially emboldened by this dissent, but then could grow impatient.

Even if unsuccessful, this is a fight worth having. It can put Trump on notice immediately that the political system will push back if he follows through on subverting democratic norms.

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And, yes, this is one time when it would useful to clarify where everyone stands. A lot of Republicans resisted Trump's nomination, and a fair number were willing to stand against him even in the general election. Many, naturally, will support a lot of the policies he signs into law. Forcing a fight on Bannon will give them an early opportunity to demonstrate that they still oppose the anti-democratic excesses  and keep anti-Trump liberals and conservatives on the same side of a fight, even as they part ways over (say) Obamacare and taxes.

Yes, the battle to keep this man from having a formal role in government is a long shot. But it's worth fighting.

Bloomberg View

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg View columnist covering U.S. politics.
Framed up as an ostensibly responsible thing for "maintenance" and "community improvement," the proposed City bond doesn...
This Friday, Oct. 28, 2016, image shows a portion of a webpage offering the powerful opioid carfentanil for sale by the Shanghai Bohua Fine Chemical Co. Carfentanil is a controlled substance in the U.S., where it can be used legally to immobilize large animals like elephants. But it is not controlled in China, the top source of fentanyl-related compounds that end up in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. (AP)

It can be bought online and shipped to your doorstep, like shoes from Zappos, or a mystery novel from Amazon. It's cheap, just $40 for a gram. Nicknames: pink, U4. Potency: eight times more powerful than morphine. Death toll: at least 50, and counting.

Two recent casualties should be incentive enough to clamp down on the drug's availability, and the people who profit from it. Best friends Grant Seaver and Ryan Ainsworth from Park City, Utah, got their hands on the drug, formally named U-47700, through a teenage friend who bought it online from a company in Shanghai. Both Seaver and Ainsworth were 13. Grant's parents found him dead from an overdose of pink Sept. 11. Two days later, Ryan's father found his son dead on the couch.

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An opioid epidemic is sweeping through the country, and America can't keep up.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 28,600 people died from opioid overdoses in 2014. About half of those deaths involved prescription drugs. Much needs to be done to stop doctors from overprescribing opioid painkillers and shift toward alternative, nonaddictive measures for pain. But there's another side to the problem that is just as worrisome: the ease with which opioids not prescribed by doctors can be purchased through overseas websites.

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These drugs include U-47700, and the ever-growing list of versions of fentanyl, an opioid at least 50 times more powerful than morphine.

Neither the states nor the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration can keep up with the rapid evolution of new opioid drugs manufactured overseas. With whack-a-mole futility, regulators are banning opioids gaining popularity with users, only to find that they've been replaced by other deadly substances appearing in online markets and, eventually, the bloodstreams of teens and 20-somethings.

DEA officials announced the start of a two-year ban on U-47700 on Monday. That move was preceded by bans imposed by several states, including Illinois. Various mutations of fentanyl have been banned. But with every ban, foreign laboratories find a way to tweak the formula chemically so that the drug can still be regarded as legal in the U.S.

Many of these drugs are legal for research purposes but not yet approved as medical treatment. China is the leading overseas source for these drugs, including U-47700. The drug was created in the 1970s by pharmaceutical giant Upjohn as a less addictive alternative to morphine. But animal tests showed it still led to addiction, so its appearance on the market was scuttled.

Chinese labs, however, relied on online patent records and material from scientific journals that gave them enough information to produce the drug themselves. By late 2014, it began appearing on websites for online purchase. There are no reports of a death attributed to a U-47700 overdose in Illinois yet. But as long as the drug can be bought with the click of a mouse, the potential is there.

So far, state and federal regulators have been stumped for a solution. One reason regulators can't keep pace with new generations of opioids is because the entities that keep watch for new opioid threats  law enforcement authorities, crime laboratories, medical examiners, health care professionals, for example  have no clearinghouse with which to share what they find out. The National Governors Association suggests that clearinghouse could be the El Paso Intelligence Center, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security that collects and analyzes data to identify drug traffickers. That makes sense, but it's only a start.

Federal and state officials need a better way to pinpoint the next new opioid finding its way into American iPads and laptops. With that data, the federal government can pressure China into shutting down production of the drug. The U.S. has already gotten China to do that with certain kinds of fentanyls, but the DEA needs to keep up on what the next generation of drugs will be. We've seen how the opioid epidemic has rapidly mushroomed  we're lagging in the race to turn the tide against it.
As Chicago Tribune writers flood us with "what if" campaign scenarios and dark missives about the stark uncertainty that half of us feel after the election, one can't help but ask what has been the impact of an elite national newspaper's endorsement of a third-party presidential candidate. I was dismayed when the Chicago Tribune endorsed Libertarian Gary Johnson as a "principled option"  the only one of the nation's top 25 daily newspapers to do so.

Illinois' electoral votes, certain to go to Hillary Clinton, were never seriously in question, rendering the newspaper's endorsement of Johnson a message. The Tribune's readership extends beyond state lines, however, and delivering this message to Wisconsin readers may have backfired. Johnson's total vote count in Wisconsin was a little more than 106,000, whereas Clinton lost the popular vote there by a mere 27,000.

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Arguably, the Electoral College, which as Steve Chapman noted "is the only place that counts," has robbed the majority of people in the nation of their first choice. Elections are about results, and about selecting someone to serve. Maybe next time the Tribune Editorial Board will begin with the end in mind and support the best candidate with a legitimate chance at victory.

 Steve Antonius, Lee, Ill.
Business / Companies

by Agencies

Southern Africa's best-loved wheel and tyre company, Tiger Wheel & Tyre, is coming to Kwekwe. The company, which has 91 stores in South Africa, two in Harare, one in Bulawayo, as well as stores in Namibia, Botswana, and Mozambique, will open its Kwekwe store at 9 Industrial Road, on 7 November 2016.Tiger Wheel & Tyre is best known for its slick, polished and professional service, and is respected for selling only top quality products that include wheels and tyres. For more than three decades, the brand has strived to, and succeeded in raising the bar in its industry.The Kwekwe store features two high-tech fitment bays and one alignment bay. Under the competent leadership of Store Manager, Ishmael Gatore, the highly trained sales staff and technicians are looking forward to introducing the brand to local motorists.In keeping with the formula that made Tiger Wheel & Tyre famous, and forever changed motorists' expectations of a wheel and tyre store, the store features a high-tech showroom where products are displayed for customers to examine up close. A welcoming hospitality lounge allows customers to relax and unwind over a magazine or catch up on the day's news, while enjoying complimentary refreshments.Among the world-class tyre brands available to customers, are Continental, Goodyear, Pirelli, Yokohama, Hankook, Michelin, BFGoodrich, GT Radial, Sumitomo, Apollo and Tiger Wheel & Tyre's own value brand Velocity. Wheels, in turn, include models from TSW, Racing Hart Concepts, Black Rhino, and Turn 1, among others.Whether motorists need wheels, tyres, balancing, wheel alignment or tyre rotation, they'll get all that and more, along with unsurpassed service at Tiger Wheel & Tyre.For more information visit the website www.twt.to , call them on (055) 23221-2, or stop by the store and get the answers you need firsthand from Ishmael Gatore and the staff of Tiger Wheel & Tyre Kwekwe.
At the urging of the Arlington Heights Police Department, village officials have passed a law targeting street gang members who are loitering on sidewalks, in parking lots, and in front of retail stores. (Karen Ann Cullotta / Pioneer Press)

At the urging of the Arlington Heights Police Department, officials have passed a law targeting street gang members who are loitering on sidewalks, in parking lots, and in front of retail stores in the village.

While officials said the police department is not seeing an increase in gang activity in the village, the new ordinance provides local law enforcement with another tool to deter gang members from loitering, which is often associated with the intent to claim territory, recruit new members, and intimidate rival gangs and community members, Arlington Heights Police Deputy Chief Mike Hernandez said.

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"We're trying to make it easier for our patrol officers who are seeing this kind of activity," Hernandez said. "Now, rather than having to make an arrest, and bring the gang members down to the station, if they are in violation of this local ordinance, police can write a citation."

The ordinance, which was passed unanimously at the Nov. 7 Village Board meeting, is aimed at curbing loitering among known gang members who are part of a police department data base, meaning the individuals have had contact with law enforcement in the past, Hernandez said.

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In addition, the new ordinance also targets narcotics-related loitering, which will focus on designated areas of the community that are frequently associated with drug-related crimes, officials said.

While the new law will allow patrol officers to issue citations for gang loitering, if a known gang member commits a crime, they would still face an arrest and charges, Hernandez said.

The new ordinance also gives those who are congregating in some situations an opportunity to cooperate with police, he said.

For example, if a known gang member is observed visiting a retail store or restaurant in a law-abiding manner, Hernandez said police would not get involved, unless a crime was committed.

But if a group of identifiable gang members are loitering on a local sidewalk, in a parking lot or outside a retail store with no purpose other than to congregate, a patrol officer would have the option of first asking them to leave the premises and move on, and if they refuse, issuing a citation for violating the local law.

"It's up to the patrol officer's discretion, but they can ask them to leave, and if they cooperate, write up the report, without issuing a citation," Hernandez said.

The new ordinance, which is modeled after similar local laws prohibiting gang loitering in Mount Prospect and Rolling Meadows, is also aimed at supporting local business owners and ensuring that residents feel safe.

"When there are threatening-looking gang members hanging out near a business, stopping by to pick up a gallon of milk can feel pretty intimidating," Hernandez said.

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"If gang members know we're going to take action, they'll be less likely to be loitering and promoting their gang," Hernandez said.

Arlington Heights Mayor Thomas Hayes said that while gangs are "not a huge problem" in Arlington Heights, with much of the activity occurring on the outskirts of town, local officials now have an additional tool to combat the issues when they arise.

"This ordinance was very carefully drafted to preserve the constitutional rights of individuals to peaceably assemble," Hayes said. "But we're making sure that innocent people are protected from gang members who are intimidating the public, in particular, with criminal activity."

kcullotta@tribpub.com

Twitter @kcullotta
Teenage boys from Aurora and Chicago face felony charges in connection with a hit-and-run crash in a stolen car Tuesday morning that sent a 54-year-old woman to the hospital.

At about 7:10 a.m. Tuesday, Oswego police responded to Route 30 and Harvey Road for a reported hit-and-run crash, according to a news release from the police department. A minivan traveling northbound on Harvey Road had crashed head-on into a small SUV southbound on Route 30, according to police. The SUV driver, a 54-year-old Aurora woman, was transported to an area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to police.

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At the scene, witnesses described two males, about 16 to 18 years old, wearing hoodies and dark jeans, getting out of the minivan and running away, according to police.

The minivan had been reported stolen to the Kane County Sheriff's Office earlier Tuesday morning, according to police.

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Witnesses reported last seeing the teens heading northeast toward the Lincoln Station subdivision. Oswego police, with help from the Aurora police canine unit, began a search for the teens. Police dogs led officers north into Aurora, where police found two teens matching witness descriptions about three miles north of the crash site, according to Oswego police.

The boys  a 17-year-old from Aurora and a 17-year-old from Chicago  were taken into custody at about 9:45 a.m. and transported to the Oswego Police Department.

The Kendall County State's Attorney's Office approved felony charges against both teens. Both are charged with felony leaving the scene of an accident with personal injury and possession of a stolen motor vehicle.

The teen from Aurora was also cited with no valid driver's license, failure to yield and failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, according to police.

Both teens were transported from the police department to the Kane County Juvenile Justice Center pending court proceedings, police said.

hleone@tribpub.com

Twitter @hannahmleone
Fermilab in Batavia will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2017. (Fermilab / Handout)

Fermilab to celebrate 50th anniversary

Fermilab in Batavia has announced plans to celebrate its 50th anniversary next year.

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Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy lab, was founded in 1967 under the direction of Robert Wilson. Scientists working at Fermilab discovered three of the elementary particles that make up our universe, photographed the farthest reaches of space to learn more about dark energy and recently received the Department of Energy's approval to start construction of the largest physics experiment ever built on U.S. soil, the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, Fermilab officials said.

Fermilab has launched a new web page, 50.fnal.gov, with full details of its 50th anniversary celebrations. On Jan. 21, A public kickoff party will be held for Fermilab's anniversary year, featuring a reception in Wilson Hall at 7 p.m. and a concert by Mucca Pazza. Tickets are on sale now.

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East Aurora High School to present fall play

East Aurora High School Theatre will present its fall play "She Kills Monsters  Young Adventurer Edition" this weekend.

The performances will be presented in Hawks Auditorium at East Aurora High School, 500 Tomcat Lane, Aurora, at 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday.

General admission tickets are $5 and are available at the door.

For more information, contact East Aurora High School theater teacher Ross Wheeler at rwheeler@d131.org.

Program to focus on mental health of teens

Area residents are invited to attend "Community Conversation about Adolescent Mental Health" at 7 p.m. Thursday at Congregational Church of Batavia, 21 S. Batavia Ave. in Batavia.

The event is sponsored by the Batavia Ministerial Association in partnership with Batavia Public School District 101 and the Batavia Fire and Police Departments.

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The panel discussion, to be led by Suicide Prevention Services of Batavia; Lauren Miller of TriCity Family Services; and Batavia Fire Department Deputy Chief Ed Jancauskas, will focus on mental health and issues related to anxiety and depression in youth.

Following the panel discussion, there will be time for questions from the audience. No registration is required for this free community event.

Kane County presents Family Reading Night with the Judges

The Kane County Law Library, in cooperation with the Kane County 16th Judiciary, will host its 18th annual Family Reading Night with the Judges on Wednesday, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Judges Keith Johnson, Todd Tarter and DJ Tegeler will share their favorite bedtime stories. Families can tour a courtroom and sit in a judge's chair. There will be snacks and stories as the library and the judiciary celebrate the importance of literacy and reading.

This event is for children in second grade or younger and an adult must accompany children. Family Reading Night is an annual statewide event sponsored by the Illinois Secretary of State and State Librarian, Jesse White, and Illinois Center for the Book.

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For information call the Kane County Law Library & Self-Help Legal Center at 630-406-7126.

Winter story times at Creek Bend Nature Center

The Forest Preserve District of Kane County's Story Time at Creek Bend Nature Center series is for preschoolers.

Story times are for children (infants through age 5) and their caregivers. Winter dates are on Fridays  Dec. 2, Jan. 20 and Feb. 3 from 10:30 to 11 a.m. The programs are at Creek Bend Nature Center, within LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve, 37W700 Dean St., St. Charles.

Staff from the St. Charles Public Library will read books, perform finger plays and sing songs. After the program is an opportunity to see interactive exhibits inside the Nature Center.

Story Time at Creek Bend Nature Center programs are free, however, advance registration is required. Call 630-444-3190 or e-mail programs@kaneforest.com to register.

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For information, or to view the full roster of Forest Preserve District nature programs, visit www.kaneforest.com.
News / Africa

by Staff Reporter

Police in Francistown are investigating an incident in which a 33-year-old Zimbabwean woman was shot on Wednesday morning at Satellite location as she walked to work with her husband.According to 'The Voice', Sipho Ndlovu was carrying her 6-month-old baby when she met her ordeal.The publication reports that Ndlovu sustained a fractured sheen and she is currently recuperating at Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital.When narrating details of the incident, Ndlovu's husband Danisa Phiri (37) said a police car approached them from behind and with the full knowledge that he was in the country illegally, he fled leaving his wife behind."A few moments later I heard a gunshot. I thought maybe it was a warning shot for me to stop but I later discovered that my wife was shot right in the middle of the road," said Phiri.Visibly still shaken by the ordeal the nursing mother said the police initially told hospital staff that she fell on a rock but later changed and claimed they shot at her as she crossed into Botswana illegally.Botswana Police Public Relations Officer, Witness Bosija, confirmed the shooting incident. "Yes we have a shooting incident in Francistown which involves two foreigners. Our officers were on duty and a foreign individual was shot and is currently recovering at the hospital," he said.Bosija could not provide any further details as he said investigations were still at an early stage.
The Aurora Public Library Board violated the state's Open Meetings Act, according to a letter from the Illinois Attorney General's office.

Steve Silverman, bureau chief of the Attorney General's Public Access Bureau, said in a letter earlier this month that his office concluded the board violated the act "by discussing in closed session budgetary matters that are outside the scope of the exception" to the act that the board used to close the meeting.

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In essence, the board closed the meeting because it was discussing specific employees and the future of their jobs. But that discussion appeared to leak into general discussion of budgetary items that should have been talked about in open session, Silverman's letter said.

Silverman sent the letter to John Savage, the Library Board president, and David Pierce, the former Aurora mayor who lodged a formal complaint about the closed meeting to the Attorney General's office.

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Pierce had also alleged that the board took action on budgetary items  which included staff cuts and cuts in hours at two of the library's branches  during the closed session.

But Silverman said his office "was unable to conclude, based on the available information, that the board took final action in closed session."

The complaint stemmed from a move by the library to close its East Side Express Center on Church Road and reduce hours at its West Side branch on Constitution Drive, next to Washington Middle School. The library also was going to lay off 11 full-time and 10 part-time employees.

The moves were designed to save $800,000 to $1 million, which would cover an estimated budget deficit of about $1 million at the end of the 2016 fiscal year.

Since that time, the library has found other jobs for some of those employees, which decreased the number of employees laid off. It also made changes in some of the cuts in hours at the branches. Still, the cuts and staff reductions already have gone into effect.

The meeting in question took place May 25. The board adjourned its regular meeting into an executive session because Executive Director Daisy Porter-Reynolds was going to present information about "specific employees whose positions would be eliminated and who and why she selected these positions," according to a response letter sent by the Library Board to the Attorney General's office.

"In connection with this, the executive director also discussed how the specific employee eliminations would impact operation hours and certain library centers," the board letter said.

The board also told the Attorney General's office that the library is managed by the executive director who is "charged with making personnel decisions and determining the scope of services offered by the library." It added that the library's budget is decided by the Aurora City Council, and so the board "has never taken action (during a closed or open session meeting) with respect to the budget, including but not limited to balancing the budget, or decreasing expenditures."

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Silverman noted in his letter that one of the reasons the Attorney General's office was unable to conclude for sure if the board took any action in the closed session was because the board failed to keep minutes for the meeting, or keep a recording of the closed meeting, as it is required to do by the Open Meetings Act.

In its response letter to the Attorney General, the board said the recording device malfunctioned.

"They did not take minutes," Pierce told The Beacon-News. "It's very possible they've never taken minutes in closed session."

Savage said that while the Attorney General's office said the board did not keep the kind of minutes it should have, Silverman noted in his letter that the opinion is not binding.

"My understanding is the case is closed, there are no penalties," Savage said.

The reason for that, Savage said, is that the Library Board has taken steps to address its situation in taking minutes. He said both staff and the board have gotten more Open Meetings Act training, and the library has new recording equipment to make sure it keeps audio records of its meetings. The secretary also will take written notes, he said.

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"We had an issue that we did not have appropriate minutes," Savage said. "We're taken action to improve our process."

slord@tribpub.com
The Communities in Schools organization is sponsoring a turkey-themed festival to support its Coats for Kids program.

Turkey Fest will take place Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m. at Mike and Denise's pizzeria in Aurora, according to a statement from East Aurora School District 131. It is set to include a frozen turkey bowling contest, a turkey raffle, themed raffle baskets from local businesses and other events.

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Proceeds from the event are set to go toward a program designed to ensure children in the community have adequate winter clothing. Over the past four years, more than 8,000 kids have received new coats, hats, mittens and scarves through the program, according to East Aurora.

Admission to the event is free. Participants who bring a new child's winter hat or gloves can receive free raffle tickets.

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Ticket booklets and information are available by contacting Anna Toole at agtoole@cisaurora.org or 630-640-8462.
The property at 200 Lageschulte St., Barrington, will become the future site of a youth center, art studio and furniture retailer. (Todd Shields / Pioneer Press)

A youth center, art gallery and building expansion to an existing furniture and consignment shop in Barrington could help rejuvenate an industrial area in the village, officials said.

Barrington village board members unanimously approved Monday a development plan that would add a 4,000-square-foot center catered to area teenagers and an 1,500-square-foot art gallery and studio, as well as more storage space for furniture retailer The English Daisy, at 200 Lageschulte St.

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A groundbreaking for the project should happen by spring 2017, said Charles Kraft, a North Barrington resident who owns the property along Lageschulte Street.

The project will help spruce up the area, said Village Manager Jeff Lawler.

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"This area needed a facelift. It's primarily a gravel parking lot in an industrial area," Lawler said. "It's adjacent to a residential neighborhood, and new buildings will certainly be more attractive."

The youth center, the largest part of the project, will offer after-school educational tutoring and mentoring for Barrington area teens, said Rick Selk, CEO of Youth for Christ  Chicago, a local chapter of the larger Youth for Christ organization selected to manage the local center.

The center also will feature an auditorium with 125 non-fixed seats, a coffee and snack station, along with indoor and outdoor seating.

Founded in 1944, Youth for Christ runs programs geared toward teenagers between the ages of 11 and 19, accepting people of Christian faiths and people with no faith at all, Selk said.

"We promote healthy Christian choices based on biblical truths of the Christian faith," he said. "It's an international group in 120 countries with 140 chapters in the United States."

Within walking distance to Barrington High School, the youth center also will host weekly "campus life" sessions, where trained staff and volunteers discuss relevant topics with teenagers, such as drug abuse, divorce, dating and self-esteem, Selk said.

Kraft's development plan also will let Barrington High School use the majority of parking spaces at the center as off-site parking during school days. Kraft also would make upgrades to the sidewalks and landscaping near the property, according to the development plan.

"We still have a lot to do, but we are now well launched," Kraft said. "Youth for Christ is the logical group to operate and manage the center."

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The idea of a Barrington area youth center developed several years ago after Kraft started talking with few members at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Barrington about the need for such service, he said.

After buying the property in 2015, Kraft met with Stephen McWilliams, principal at Barrington High School, to discuss the idea. McWilliams left the meeting with a favorable opinion, Kraft said.

In an email Tuesday, McWilliams said he believed the center will be a positive program for high school students.

Tshields@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter @tshields19
AfDB should not bail out corrupt Zanu PF regime - PDP

by Jacob Mafume - PDP National Spokesperson

As reported in The Zimbabwe Independent of November 11 2016, the Board of the African Development Bank (AfDB) will meet on December 7 to consider the rollover of Zimbabwe's debt from Pilar 11 funds.



In this meeting, the AfDB will seek authority from its shareholders who are the African governments and regional shareholders.



As at the time that Zimbabwe makes this request, the country is mired in a huge ocean of political, social and economic challenges.



On the human rights front, there are reports of arbitrary arrests, abductions and assault of human rights defenders.



Itai Dzamara remains missing and recently, the state has resorted to the unconstitutional banning public rallies and meetings.



At the same time that this is going on, the government has created a serious crisis through the raiding of Real Time Gross Services (RTGS).



In September, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa admitted to illegally raiding of the RTGS at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) that is now running into billions of dollars. The result is that the fiscal

deficit is now over 12% of the GDP.



For Zimbabwe to earn the support of the international community, it must reform.



In the past we have consistently maintained that there is need for key reforms to be in place. These reforms include; security of the tenure of land, the respect of the Constitution and the rule of law, media and electoral reforms and the repealing of the Indigenisation and Empowerment Act.



When in September, Chinamasa tried to show some modicum of reforms in the deferment of civil servants bonuses in 2016 and reducing the salaries of top civil servants, this was shot down by Zanu PF to prove that they are not ready for reforms.



The civil servants wage bill remains the elephant in the living room and the same government wants to recruit thousands of persons to join the military service.



Another issue is corruption, which has reached endemic levels. Zimbabwe is now losing 60% in every dollar due to massive leakages through corruption.



Given the above scenario, it will be wrong for the AfDB, African governments and the international partners in supporting this rogue regime.



We therefore maintain that the AfDB must remove Zimbabwe from its agenda of its meeting on 7 December.



Further, we ask that all the governments with a conscience must stand up to the brutal regime in Zimbabwe.



We also want to inform all governments that their support of this corrupt government, any future democratic government in Zimbabwe will consider such loans as audacious debts and will also not honour the same.



As the People's Democratic Party (PDP), we are totally sick of the efforts of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the AfDB of continuing to seek to help a rogue regime against the ordinary citizens.



This is our country and we know what is best for the country. What is best for our country is not to support the rogue regime but rather to support democratic change, democratic reforms and a sustainable Zimbabwe.



#TogetherAnotherZimbabweIsPossible


News / National

by Staff reporter

Tsvangirai served as Prime Minister in the coalition government between 2009 and 2013 before losing a hotly-disputed election that gave Mugabe the sole mandate.In a letter, in which he sought to clarify issues around his interactions with Mugabe, including reports he had secretly been given money to pay for his medical bills, Tsvangirai, through his spokesperson, Luke Tamborinyoka, claimed that Mugabe owed him and had rejected overtures to meet. He said Mugabe was angry because Tsvangirai refused to endorse the 2013 general election result.Mugabe, according to Tamborinyoka, last met Tsvangirai a day before the July 31, 2013 elections with former Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo mediating.Former Cabinet minister Paul Mangwana, who was a co-chairperson of the Parliamentary Select Committee that crafted the new Constitution, said legally Tsvangirai had no locus standi to claim a pension.
News / National

by Xolisani Ncube

President Robert Mugabe attacked State Security minister Kembo Mohadi during last week's Zanu-PF politburo meeting following the Beitbridge strongman's visit to controversial Malawian prophet Shepherd Bushiri's church where the minister was told he was about to get a promotion, The Standard reported.A video of a timid Mohadi being told that he was bewitched by people from Borrowdale and Chitungwiza went viral on social media last week and the issue was immediately linked to the battle to succeed Mugabe that is raging in the ruling party.The former Home Affairs minister has been linked to a faction backing Vice-President Emmmerson Mnangagwa.According to some reports, Mohadi is being tipped for the post of vice-president if Mnangagwa eventually succeeds Mugabe.Zanu-PF officials who attended the party's politburo meeting in Harare last week said Mugabe had a go at Mohadi."The president said although he has his own faith and beliefs and respects individual decisions and it was everyone's right to believe in whatever they want, believing in such kind of people [Bushiri] was a mockery," one source said."He said it was irrational for people of sound mind to approach such prophets and take their prophecies seriously."Mugabe is a Catholic. In 2014 he fired his long-time deputy Joice Mujuru after accusing her of consulting Nigerian witchdoctors to plot his death so that she could take over power. Mujuru challenged the 92-year-old leader to prove his claims.Bushiri's "prophecy" that Mohadi could soon wear a "crown" could have angered Mugabe, the sources said. Mugabe told the minister that he should not put his life and political career in the hands of prophets, the source said."The president did not only mock Mohadi, he went on to chastise Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa for having his name dragged into the prophet fiasco," said another source."To use his own words, the president said 'Ahh vakomana, kutoteerera zvimapurofita zvenyu izvi? Munhu akafunda chokwadi? Ahhh, imika imi' [surely you pay attention to these prophets, learned people like you?]"We all looked down because no one could laugh, you wouldn't know what the targeted people would say tomorrow."Bushiri, who is said to be one of the richest people in his native Malawi, claimed Mohadi was being targeted by rivals who were now lining up witchdoctors to stop his imminent rise."But none of them shall prosper. I am seeing somebody holding a spear targeting that man [Mohadi], and this man is visiting all these witchdoctors and you have been going through a lot and the Lord has been protecting you," he said.
News / National

by Simbarashe Sithole

GURUVE - Drug dealer Sinodia Jacob (36) who was nabbed on Sunday for possessing cannabis (mbanje) at Pembi Chase farm in Mvurwi, was slapped with US$100 fine or 30 days in prison yesterday (Monday) by Guruve magistrate Feresi Chakanyuka.The prosecutor Mazhindu Mazhindu told the court that on Sunday the 13th of November Jacob was found with 23 twists of cannabis under her pillow in her bedroom hut by Mvurwi Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and was nabbed.Jacob admitted guilty to the charge but could not pay the required fine hence she was left with no option than to go to Kachara prison in Guruve.Cases of drug abuse have become the order of the day in Zimbabwe.
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Over 1,500 runners turn out each year in Lincolnwood for the village's Turkey Trot 5K and 10K race events. Pictured are runners from the 2015 race. This year's event will be held on Sunday, Nov. 20, 2016. (Steve Lasker / Handout)

Sunday's Turkey Trot races will continue the annual tradition of welcoming thousands of runners to Lincolnwood each November to celebrate America's love of the Thanksgiving bird while bringing people together for a day of outdoor enjoyment.

The 5K and 10K races also serve as the fitness event that helps to kick-start burning off those extra pounds people often pick up from lavish holiday dinner spreads.

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Every year on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, Lincolnwood closes down some of its major roadways, including parts of Pratt and Lincoln avenues, to make way for thousands of runners who flood the streets to race toward the finish line near Proesel Park.

Enrollment for the Nov. 20 Turkey Trot is expected to reach capacity at 2,000 participants before race day, organizers predict, when thousands more spectators are anticipated to head to Proesel Park to cheer on friends and family competing in the races.

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To mark the milestone 40th anniversary of the race, Linda Vering, of the Lincolnwood Parks and Recreation Department, said participants will be treated with cider and pumpkin pie at the finish line, which will be near the aquatic center at 7055 Kostner Ave.

Also, she said, participants who finish the race will receive 1970s-inspired medals. Headbands adorned with a plush turkey on top will be handed out to the first 1,500 runners who arrive on race day.

"It will be funny to see the sea of turkeys running by," Vering said. "It's always fun and this year we're trying to make it an even bigger celebration."

To pay homage to the premiere year of the Turkey Trot in 1976, oldies from the 70's spun by a live DJ stationed near a disco ball will greet runners as they cross the finish line.

Last year, registration reached capacity a few days ahead of the race, Vering said. About a week ahead of this year's race, 1,600 runners had already signed up, with more participants expected to commit to the event before race day, she added.

Additionally, the growing popularity of the Drumstick Dash, where kids chase an adult dressed up as a turkey down a racecourse, prompted race organizers to lower the age range for participants from 10 to 6 this year, Vering said.

According to the Lincolnwood Parks and Recreation Department, runners from 13 states, including from as far away as Idaho and Florida, and three countries, including Finland, Israel and the U.K., are expected to participate.

Natalie Hayes is a freelancer.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

Zanu PF outspoken youth member Energy Mutodi has said the members of the Defence Forces have a right to comment on any civil matters as they are also affected by such issues.This come at a time when General Douglas Nyikayaramba has been rapped by sections of the society for delving into the corruption issues in his recent statement in which he said corruption can be a cause of civil unrest and a security threat."Reports in some sections of the media suggesting that some political analysts are saying the army has no business commenting on corruption and governance issues have proven beyond doubt that some scribes in Zimbabwe's private media houses are surviving from handouts given to them by corrupt government ministers who while they continue to loot from parastatals want to be portrayed as blameless and victims of tribalism and factionalism," Mutodi said."I would like to urge those journalists to stop supporting corrupt tendencies by public officials and join the people in condemning the scourge. Our country is now a laughing stalk with no currency of its own, no food, no jobs, no industry, no infrastructure and no hope because the politically linked ones are mercilessly looting from it everyday and remain free from arrest and prosecution."He said the state has been used as an avenue to steal from the poor and to shatter the hopes of ordinary citizens of ever living in a self-sufficient country that can provide the needs and wants of its people."The poor who suffer to raise money to educate their children remain poor and become even worse as their investment in the education of their children will never pay dividends to them due to adverse unemployment. The Executive continue to promulgate disastrous policies that leave the people in worse situations while ministers and sinior government officials swim in looted state funds and neither experience nor appreciate the hardlife that citizens continue to live," Mutodi said."I am very much excited about the comment that General Douglas Nyikayaramba has passed on corrupt ministers and I am confident that he is expressing the views of every other army personnel. The army must not keep quiet when thieves brag about their ability to stop state institutions including the police from executing their constitutional mandate to effect arrest on suspected criminals and bring them before the courts."He said all the power comes from the people including the mandate to rule that President Mugabe currently has."President Robert Mugabe cannot defend ministers who are stealing from the people because the people are the ones who have given him the mandate to be in office. The people want corruption to end and those accused must face justice without trying to confuse everybody with cheap politics like factionalism and tribalism," he said."I am also happy with reports that President Mugabe has said he will not stand in the course of justice and defend criminals as what his deputy Phelekezela Mphoko has done. Anyone who supports corruption is a devil and must be condemned in the strongest terms because corruption breeds poverty, argon and poor standards of living and low life expectancies. Corruption leads to underdevelopment, unattractiveness of the country to investment and unemployment. The vicious cycle of poverty is powered by public sector corruption.""I am urging President Mugabe to leave ZACC to carry out its constitutional mandate without fear and move on anyone accused of corruption irregardless of the factions they belong to in the ruling party."He said it is the people not factions who will vote for Zanu PF in 2018 as they have always done."The only way President Mugabe can regain the confidence of the electorate and win resoundingly again is when he deals with his fat cats in government who are depriving the people of a thriving economy through their unquenchable thirst for money. If it is not possible to deal with corruption as a civilian government, then the army has a leeway to prepare and take necessary steps to seize power until we know what we must do as civilians to promote the emergence of an equitable, rational and accountable society," he said."It is true as what some have said that the war veterans of this country did not go to war so that a conducive environment for theft of public resources by opportunists would be created. Action on corrupt ministers must be taken now without any further delay and there is no need for any inquiry about the impartiality of ZACC as it is not a court itself. ZACC must freely make its accusations against anyone and it is the right of the accused persons to defend themselves in court and not in newspapers.""We know it that some of them are bribing these poor journalists and asking them to fight their wars. If anyone has facts to defend themselves let them do it before a judge or magistrate who has the knowledge and experience to determine criminal cases and make a fair ruling."He said that is the only way people can successfully fight corruption if ministers know that they can steal but at the end of the day they must stand in court to account."If they steal and know for certain that nothing will happen to them then we are not serious and that's unacceptable. In that case the whole leadership must step down," he said.
A proposed ordinance change will align Morton Grove's fines for possession of small amounts of marijuana with the new state law and allow the village to issue local citations for possession of drug paraphernalia, according to Police Chief Michael Simo.

The village board is expected to vote on the proposed changes at its Nov. 28 meeting.

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The changes were proposed by the police department to bring the village in line with a recent change in state law regarding fines for illegal possession of 10 grams or less of marijuana and to give local police the power to issue citations for drug paraphernalia, Simo said.

"We never really had an ordinance against paraphernalia that officers could enforce," he said. "[Since] the state legislature changed the rules about (possessing) under 10 and over 10 grams and the paraphernalia associated with that, it seemed like a good time to do it all at once."

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Trustees could set fines at $100 to $200 for possessing up to 10 grams of marijuana, according to the proposal. Fines for possession of 10-30 grams would be between $200 and $750, having 30-100 grams could carry a $500-$750 penalty.

Meanwhile, fines for illegal possession of drug paraphernalia in conjunction with 10 grams or less of marijuana and other illegal drugs would be $100. The cost could rise to $200 for drug paraphernalia possession along with more than 10 grams of marijuana, according to the revised ordinance.

"That applies to paraphernalia used to ingest or inject any other illegal drug controlled by the controlled substances act, including cocaine and heroin," Simo said.

As of this past summer, the state lessened the severity of penalties for 10 grams or less in order to keep more minor cases out of the court system, Simo said. Since medical marijuana was legalized in Illinois, state officials have begun treating marijuana possession less severely, he said.

The new ordinance, including illegal possession of marijuana or drug paraphernalia, will be prosecuted in local administrative court, Simo said.

Possession of other illegal drugs in Morton Grove is treated as a state charge and is adjudicated in Cook County Circuit Court in Skokie, he said.

"The paraphernalia piece is going to affect us the most," Simo said of local Morton Grove court.

In Morton Grove, previous fines for illegal possession of 10 grams or less of marijuana ranged from $100 to $750, he said.

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Phil Rockrohr is a freelancer.
Customers browse the produce aisle of the new Jewel-Osco at Route 176 and Midlothian Road in Mundelein, site of the former Dominick's that closed in 2013. Store officials say they have a larger array of organic foods to accommodate the changing grocery market. (Rick Kambic / Pioneer Press)

The new Jewel-Osco store in Mundelein had to open five hours early on Nov. 8 because customers kept showing up at the door and the parking lot was getting full, according to Store Director Bill Reckert.

"We were actually done and ready," Reckert said. "There was obviously a lot of anticipation and instead of shooing people away just to keep a schedule, we figured it's more courteous to just let them in."

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The anticipation has been growing since Jewel-Osco announced in March its plans to rehab and take over the vacant Dominick's building, which went dark in December 2013 when the chain went out of business.

Located at Route 176 and Midlothian Road, Reckert said the parking lot was packed and lines of cars were spilling onto the roadways when the original opening time rolled around.

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"It was kind of like an 'if you building it they will come' moment," Reckert said.

Millie Rios said she lives nearby and was anxious to get a peak, but could not find a parking spot and ended up going home after circling the store for a while.

Rios said she's lived in Mundelein for 26 years and shopped at the Jewel-Osco at Route 45 and Townline Road until Dominick's opened and shortened her trip.

For Molly Uhl, the close proximity is important. She said it's much easier for her two young kids to endure the short car ride to the new Jewel-Osco rather than the several stop lights and heavy traffic between her house and the Mariano's on Milwaukee Avenue in Vernon Hills.

Once in the store, Uhl said the kid-friendly shopping carts that look like cars make touring the building even easier.

"We live about three minutes away so now if we need to run out for something quickly, it doesn't feel like such a burden to leave the house with my two small children," Uhl said.

Doug Cygan, Jewel-Osco's vice president of marketing and merchandising, said that's where the grocery store industry is heading.

"People want fast and quick meals that they can get on the go, including fresh produce," Cygan said. "They want healthy options that are natural, and they don't want processed foods. That's why we're expanding our organic section."

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Shoppers make their way through the new Jewel-Osco at Route 176 and Midlothian Road in Mundelein, site of the former Dominick's that closed in 2013. The new grocery store opened on Nov. 8. (Rick Kambic / Pioneer Press)

Cygan touted the store's meat department, as well as the juice shop and a hot foods bar.

"We have butchers cutting fresh meat," Cygan said. "That was becoming a thing of the past but we're helping to reinvent it."

Brenda Zehner said she lives nearby and after visiting the store she's already putting it on her list of places to stop at in a pinch.

"For someone who works, I could easily run in for quick pre-made salads to the always great Starbucks," Zehner said, noting that she's glad the students at Mundelein High School who get released for lunch now have a good nearby option.

The Starbucks partnership Dominick's had is being included in some of the new Jewel stores, Cygan said, including the new Mundelein store.

Zehner said she's also excited for the small restaurants, beauty stores and pet adoption center that survived the three years without a main store to drive traffic.

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Once fierce rivals, the parent companies of Jewel-Osco and Dominick's were each bought by the same investment firm in the years after Dominick's closed, and that company in January renewed the Dominick's lease in Mundelein for five more years.

In late March, Jewel-Osco officials announced plans to open another store in Mundelein's former Dominick's location.

During that three-year drought, Mundelein officials said other prospective retailers were not interested in the site because of the lower populations  notably due to the cornfield along Route 60/83 northwest of the store.

Cygan said he's not worried about the demographics.

"We feel really good about this spot," Cygan said. "Mundelein is such a personable, great community and we have a niche that Target can't do, and it's pretty much the only other option for people who are spread around that open land."

Mundelein trustees in April agreed to a $2.5 million sales tax rebate deal as representatives from Jewel-Osco described plans to invest about $4 million in repairs and renovations and hire about 150 employees.

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Part of that agreement says the deal is void if either of the two Mundelein stores go out of business. Cygan said he's not worried.

"We're servicing both sides of town. The Lake Street location also serves Long Grove and part of Vernon Hills," Cygan said. "This new store now serves that other side of Mundelein as well as the north side of Libertyville, a little bit of Grayslake and the whole Ivanhoe community that has very limited options."

Cygan said the company spent over that $4 million mark and actually hired closer to 175 employees. But that work comes with some pride, he said, noting that he grew up near Carl Sandburg Middle School and graduated from Mundelein High School in 1981.

Even Reckert, who runs day-to-day store operations, said he's lived in Mundelein for more than 20 years, and his most recent assignment had him driving to Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood every day.

"Yeah, this seems to work out great for everyone," Reckert said.

Of the 175 employees, Cygan said 12 of them used to be Dominick's employees.

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rkambic@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter @Rick_Kambic
Kevin Quinn, director of facilities at MHS and an Air Force combat engineer, tells students that he did bomb damage assessment and prepared airfields for future air operations. (Denys Bucksten / Pioneer Press)

Thirteen veterans and current military members visited Mundelein High School on Veterans Day and were cheered by students in a parade through the halls before visiting classrooms to share their experiences with students.

Entering through the front entrance, the guests passed the school's Wall of Honor, which displays the names and photos of alumni stationed around the world.

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Also displayed are six plaques with the names and images of alums who died in service to their country.

Featured are Marine Cpl. Ernest William Strehle, Army Private Roger William Letto, Marine Private Ronald Charles Jensen, Army SP4 George Anton Hain, Army SP4 Ronald Allen Hill and Army Sgt. Edward Bartholomew Lama.

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Social Studies Chair Chris Lagioia and Kevin Quinn, head of buildings and grounds, organized the event. Quinn, an Air Force veteran, was one of the guests honored.

Lagioia said the veterans' entry into the school with a drum line and a parade through the halls, was a success.

"The kids came out with signs and were shaking the vets' hands as they walked through the halls," Lagioia said. "A lot of students here have been touched by the military. And a lot come from military families, going back several generations with long lines of service to the country."

Lagioia said one challenge in hosting the event, now in its third year, was finding veterans willing to speak in public.

"A lot don't want to share their story and don't feel comfortable speaking in front of people," he said. "I found that what helped was getting one vet who was willing and having them help (recruit) other vets to come on in."

In Ernie Billittier's sophomore honors English class, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Veronica Brown and two veterans spoke.

Brown, who served in the Middle East, is a Peoria native and mother of three and works at a recruiting center in Round Lake. Brown told students that the Army is family "and we joke back and forth, but when you need someone, they are there for you. We all wear the same flag (patch on the uniform)."

Billittier said his students were receptive to the effort.

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"(They are) very socially conscious and take a great deal of interest in their community, their country and in the world," he said. "(The visit) was another opportunity for them to learn from people who've served our country."

Denys Bucksten is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
How members of the Naperville School District 203 community feel about the school calendar and school day will be aired Thursday in two discussion sessions.

Results of 14,500 online surveys last month, plus additional comments, on potential changes to the calendar and to start and end times of the school day will be presented at 8:30 a.m. at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church campus, 919 S. Washington St., and 7 p.m. in the Naperville Central High School cafeteria, 440 Aurora Ave

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The comments will assist the administration in preparing a recommendation to the school board at a future date.

The survey asked such questions as whether the school year calendar should have the first semester end before winter break and whether the district should make the school day longer or teens start their day later in the morning.

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Parents, district employees and community and business members with a current email address on file with the district were invited to participate. Those who did not receive an email could access the survey via a public access link available on the district's website.

Students in grades 6-12 also participated.

The survey is an outgrowth of a work group studying the optimal school day. The panel concluded younger students could benefit from an additional 30 minutes of instruction each day and middle school students could perform better with later start times and an additional 10-20 minutes of daily instruction.

Later start times, which aligns with recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also was suggested for high school students.

The $18,880 survey was conducted by K12 Insight, an independent research and communications firm, which also is publishing the results.

subaker@tribpub.com

Twitter @SBakerSun1
A vacancy on the six-member Harwood Heights Village Board left by last month's early departure of former Trustee Michael Gadzinski has been filled. Mayor Arlene Jezierny appointed Anna Brzozowski Wegrecki to serve out the remaining five months of the term.

"You will find she has a great personality, is always willing to help and goes the extra mile," Jezierny said of her appointment of Brzozowski Wegrecki, a 12-year resident of Harwood Heights.

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Although Brzozowski Wegrecki's appointment to the board marks her first time in public office, she's been involved with the community for years, serving as an adult adviser for the Youth Commission and as the leader of the village's gymnastics program. A first-generation Polish-American, Brzozowski Wegrecki volunteered for the Harwood Heights Summer Festival during the past three years and sings on the choir at St. Rosalie Catholic Church.

"I loved getting involved helping the kids in the Youth Commission," Brzozowski Wegrecki said after her first board meeting as a trustee on Nov. 10. "Being on the board seemed like a natural fit because my outgoing personality means I'm not afraid to talk to people."

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Between her full-time job as a sales representative for steel supplier McNichols Company of Elk Grove Village, Brzozowski Wegrecki plans on finding time to run for office between now and April when voters will fill the three trustee seats expiring next year, along with selecting someone to serve out the two years remaining in Gadzinski's term.

The trustees whose spots on the board will be up for grabs include Annette Brzezniak-Volpe, Larry Steiner and Lester Szlendak. None have announced publicly whether they plan to seek re-election.

Gadzinski resigned in mid-October, citing a decision to leave Harwood Heights for Chicago, where he bought a home last year. Addressing rumors that he may have lied about his residency, Gadzinski insisted he had not occupied the Chicago residence yet and had been living in a home owned by his family on the 4200 block of North Newland Avenue in Harwood Heights.

Natalie Hayes is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Volunteer Lucas Skupien, 9, of Medinah, photobombs fellow volunteers, from left, David Drwal, Eugene Toms, Benny Marti and Fred Toms at Shop with a Cop on Nov. 13. (Karie Angell Luc / Pioneer Press)

Energetic high fives and elf hats added holiday spirit to the atmosphere at Target on Nov. 13 during the annual Shop with a Cop event at Harlem-Irving Plaza in Norridge.

"I'm an elf. I'm Santa's helper!" said Benny Marti, a Norridge patrolman who wore a merry hat, equally capped in festivity by fellow patrolman David Drwal.

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"I'm having fun today," Marti said, with a big smile.

Volunteers welcomed children who represented Union Ridge School District 86 in Harwood Heights. Norridge schools from two districts included John V. Leigh, Pennoyer and Giles.

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"The kids are happy," said parent Perry Sangathit of Harwood Heights.

Norridge Police Chief Dave Disselhorst of Norridge estimated 125 volunteers assisted, which included uniformed, off-duty staff representing Norridge and Rosemont police.

"Thank you from the bottom of my heart, really," Disselhorst said, acknowledging personnel. "It just goes to show that we're invested in the community. It's giving back. We, as officers, we can say, because of our jobs, we are a lot more financially secure that many of the other people who live here. So the opportunity to contribute a little more, to give back to the community, is a big deal."

For 17 years, the Norridge Police Department has hosted Shop with a Cop.

"What's really important, for me, to see, is the relationship with the community and law enforcement," said John McCormick, executive team leader for assets protection of Target. "There's a big presence."

This year's event was held in mid November to take advantage of better stock inventory and milder weather, avoiding snow and icy sidewalk conditions, Disselhorst said.

The Target store at HIP has been part of Shop with a Cop for several years.

Items seen on register conveyor belts included holiday pajamas and a blue Nerf gun. If children selected purchases that could qualify for Black Friday pricing, discounts were honored, Disselhorst said, adding he was grateful for Target's flexibility. Children could spend their $100 on necessities plus one toy.

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Bob Crimmins of Norridge is a retired Norridge police officer who is active with department coordination of senior crime prevention, crossing guards and the annual safety town program, the latter of which was held in October at HIP.

"I've been doing this since the day of its existence," Crimmins said of Shop with a Cop. "It's so good to see the kids get a smile on their face, to get things they're normally not able to. Some of the parents get tears in their eyes with gratitude."

With the slogan, "A Little Change Can Make A Big Difference," Norridge's Shop with a Cop program included a milk and cookies visit with Santa Claus at the Estelle Sieb Community Center at 7774 W. Irving Park Road in Norridge. Children were taken via a bus to Target for chaperoned shopping.

Lucas Skupien, 9, a fourth-grader of Medinah, was among volunteers.

"It feels good to help others," he said.

For 2015, the Shop with a Cop event and annual school supply program had an approximate combined $14,000 budget and assisted 103 children. Also last season, 92 individuals and businesses made monetary contributions.

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This year, the budget for both programs was $8,355, with the support of 40 individuals and 25 businesses, said Terry Peters, records clerk.

"We had 20 families that didn't show up ... I don't know why," Peters said. "I was kind of surprised by all that."

Peters said with financial support down this season, she hopes people will donate so Shop with a Cop and the school supplies drive aren't canceled or scaled back.

"We're still taking donations, and we accept year-round," Peters said. "I'm hoping since we did the Shop with a Cop program earlier this year, people will still give."

To support Shop with a Cop, donate via cash or checks made payable to: "Shop With A Cop" in care of the Norridge Police Department, 4020 N. Olcott Ave., Norridge, IL 60706

Karie Angell Luc is a freelance photographer and reporter for Pioneer Press.
The Northbrook Caucus on Sunday signed off on a slate of candidates which include some newcomers that will likely be on the April 4 ballot.

Caucus President Dan Sideman said the caucus had no objections at the 90-minute town hall meeting to candidates recommended from by the caucus committee and its various subcommittees. The subcommittees screen, interview and identify candidates for the caucus, according to the group.

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"The subcommittees for the village, library, park district and two school districts interviewed every one, looked into their backgrounds, and made recommendations to the caucus committee," Sideman said. "We believe we produced a very fine slate,"

Village President Sandy Frum and Clerk Debbie Ford were unopposed for slating.

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For the three seats on the Village Board, the caucus picked incumbent Kathryn Ciesla and veteran Plan Commission member Muriel Collison, both chosen after Oct. 17 interviews and discussion by the caucus Village Board Subcommittee. One-year Community Relations Commission member Jason Han was slated for the third slot.

Caucus Subcommittee Chairman Amy Kurson said after an October meeting three-term trustee Todd Heller and Han were tied 9 to 9 for the third slot in a subcommittee vote, using three different ways to measure the two men. Alexander Blum came in fifth. Han was chosen for the slate in a 15 to 11 vote of the caucus committee, Kurson said.

Heller, who served on the District 27 School Board before moving to the Village Board, said he was devastated by the caucus action.

"After 22 years of public service, having a group of people that do not appreciate all you've done for 22 years," he said last month. "I suspect that it's part of it is the anti-incumbency that's we're seeing out there. You serve for 22 years, and people are mad at you because you served."

Heller (or other individuals) did not challenge his ousting at Nov.13 meeting, Sideman said.

In District 27, three incumbents were slated: Ed Feld, Laurie Garber-Amram and Helen Melnick, plus newcomer Melissa Copeland for the fourth open spot. The only other candidate was Jonathan Carroll.

In Elementary School District 28, incumbent board members Tony Forchetti, Michael Gilmore and Louis Gross were slated, but board President Josh Prober wasn't tabbed for a third term.

Jennifer Gallinson, a lawyer who grew up in Northbrook and moved back two years ago, was slated instead. The subcommittee liked Gallinson's experience working at a Chicago magnet school, among other things. Other candidates not slated were Ted Gaty, Michael Szpisjak, Paula Kolar and Kayhan Parsi.

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Sideman said that Prober also did not object to the decision to not slate him at the meeting.

The Northbrook Public Library slate includes incumbents Carlos Frum, Jami Xu and Abby Young over lone challenger John Schuman. The three seat park district slate are Michael Schyman, Penelope J. Randel and Lisa Chalem.

The candidates must all still stand for election April 4, and though usually unopposed anybody can run against a caucus slated candidate by filing their own nominating petitions.

Joseph Ruzich is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Father Fawaz Kako, pastor of the Mart Mariam Chaldean Catholic Church in Northbrook, swings a psalter as two time capsules are swapped. (Mark Kodiak Ukena / Pioneer Press)

As one Northbrook church community leaves its building, its congregation has ensured that another church building will survive.

The dwindling St. Peter Community Church is giving away the proceeds of the 2011 sale of its building at 2700 Willow Road, starting with $150,000, to the Northbrook Historical Society. The grant will help the historical society preserve the another church, the historic 1892 downtown Northbrook building it received as a gift from the Christian Science congregation, which had disbanded.

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"My golly, it's amazing," Historical Society President Judy Hughes said. "Instead of holding on to it, they decided to return it to the community."

The grant puts the society over the top of its fundraising goal to take care of Northbrook's oldest church building, at 1812 Chapel Court, she said. The society In August had reached $113,000 of the $200,000 goal set for a maintenance fund for the church it purchased for $10 from the Christian Science church in 2015. That church building, to be used as an annex by the society and for one-time events, is now called the Hope Union Heritage Center, recognizing its original name, Hope Union Church.

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"It couldn't have come at a better time," Hughes said. "We now have a roof leak."

Extra money from the grant will be added to the maintenance fund of the society's main building at 1776 Walters Ave., she said.

The St. Peter congregation formally merged earlier this year into another United Church of Christ congregation, the Northfield Community Church, 400 Wagner Road, Northfield. About two dozen people from the old Northbrook congregation are often seen at Sunday services in Northfield, said longtime church member Gary Eberlein.

Eberlein said they'll get more than satisfaction from the grant: "Part of this is that the historical society will maintain the history and records of the church."

St. Peter's history predates the 1901 incorporation of the village it began in. It was founded as the German Evangelical Calvinistic Reformed United Lutheran Church in 1845, the first Protestant church in the area. A fire in February 1961 destroyed the church building on the 1800 block of Shermer Road, but the congregation rebuilt at 2700 Willow.

Its history was reflected in the contents of a time capsule cemented into the cornerstone at 2700 Willow Road in 1964. Church member Barbara Balch said those contents included a German-language bible used in 1845, newspaper clippings describing the 1961 fire, 50th and 100th church anniversary booklets, and the names and addresses of all those who helped pay for the then-new church.

The time capsule was removed Saturday, and taken to the congregation's new home in Northfield. It probably won't be opened, Balch said, until 2020, the 125th anniversary of the church.

Before the cornerstone was removed, the current owners of 2700 Willow, the Mart Mariam Chaldean Catholic Church, put in their own time capsule.

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"This custom is not used back home in our countries, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey, Lebanon," said the Rev. Fawaz Kako of Mart Mariam Chaldean. "So it's something new, a very enjoyable moment, especially for first generation (American) Chaldeans."

He said religious documents and artifacts would be placed in the capsule, as well as a copy of the Northbrook Star.

He said that his is one of only two Chaldean churches in the Chicago area, and 800 to 900 people attend services weekly.

The Chaldean church paid cash for the property, said Eberlein, who was St. Peter's president at the time of the sale. He said St. Peter Church used the funds to purchase bonds, and as they mature cash will be given to various causes, nominated by members.

Some money also goes to the Northfield Church, which will decide on its final destination, he said.

"There's a lot of God's work we can do in the community," said Linda Eberlein. "That doesn't mean it's church-affiliated."

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St. Peter has set aside $250,000 to transfer to the village of Northbrook to take care of a cemetery at 2785 Shermer Road in perpetuity, according to village documents. Another $35,000 will cover immediate upgrades to the cemetery, Northbrook's oldest.

About four years ago, the historical society donated more than $3,000 to the board of the cemetery  separate from the church  to straighten out the monument there to village pioneer Friederich Schermer, Hughes said. After that donation, the church gave the cemetery board a grant of over $30,000 to restore other monuments and stones.

ileavitt@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter @IrvLeavitt
With votes still coming in, the margin between DuPage County Board Democratic incumbent Elizabeth "Liz" Chaplin and Republican challenger Richard Blass had closed to 110 votes as of Monday afternoon.

The day after the election, when vote tallies showed Blass, an Elmhurst resident, leading Chaplin, who lives in Downers Grove, by more than 300 votes, Chaplin was ready to concede her seat on the County Board representing District 2.

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District 2 includes most of Elmhurst, Oak Brook and Oakbrook Terrace, and parts of Hinsdale and Clarendon Hills. It also includes parts of Downers Grove, Westmont, Naperville, Woodridge, Villa Park and Lombard.

But more mail ballots have been received and the totals as of early afternoon Nov. 14 were 36,515 votes for Blass and 36,405 for Chaplin. They are running for a two-year term.

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"We are waiting for all the ballots to be counted," said Chaplin, who has been a board member since 2012.

Ballots sent by mail and postmarked by Nov. 8 have 14 days to arrive, said Joseph Sobecki, assistant executive director of the DuPage County Election Commission. The mail ballots are being counted and added to the vote counts daily.

"We have a little over 400 ballots that we just received today," Sobecki said Nov. 14.

The election commission sent out 5,666 vote by mail ballots that have not been returned yet, he said. It's possible there could be that many more votes added to the election results.

"History says it's not likely," Sobecki said, because after the first week (after the election), mail ballots slow to a trickle, he said. "But it's possible."

Verification judges have challenged 790 ballots that came in by mail, for reasons such as the signature did not match the one on record.

There also are 1,036 provisional ballots not yet included in the vote totals. Provisional ballots are from voters who registered on Election Day or had some discrepancy between their identification and their voting registration. The election commission will wait the full two weeks after the election before the provisional ballots are evaluated and either rejected or included in the voting totals.

"Voters still have the opportunity to remedy or rectify some of those provisional ballots," by bringing in identification, for example, Sobecki said.

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"We are going to hang tight now and see what that final number is," Chaplin said.

If her vote total is within about 100 votes of Blass', she said, "we may certainly ask for a recount. We worked really hard and people donated a lot of money to my campaign. We want to make sure that the person with the most votes represents the people in our district."

The additional votes could go in Blass' favor, Chaplin said. "You never know."

The Illinois Election Code allows a candidate to file a petition for discovery if the candidate has at least 95 percent as many votes as the apparent winner. The candidate can choose to have ballots examined in up to 25 percent of the precincts for a charge of $10 per precinct. If the person wants to continue the recount beyond that, the charge is $25 per hour for each commission employee and $235 per hour for each commission attorney working on the recount.

Chaplin also noted the problems the election commission had posting results on its website election night. A computer glitch caused the election results to go blank for a time and also showed all the precincts were in when they were not.

Those factors have caused Chaplin to be more wary of the results than she was the day after the election, when the results showed Blass was ahead by 327 votes.

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The close outcome in a one-to-one DuPage County race between a Democrat and a Republican "really does validate that people recognized I really did work hard on the board," she said.

Chaplin opposed the county giving its board members a $50,000 a year salary, healthcare and a pension for part-time work.

Chaplin works in the accounts payable department for Windy City Wire, a cable and technology products company.

She believes the results reflect the stronghold the Republican Party has in DuPage County and voters' loyalty to that party.

Blass, an attorney and former Bellwood police officer, said newly elected members to the board no longer are entitled to a pension when they retire. He pays his own health insurance, he said, but will evaluate the benefits the county offers after he takes his seat.

Blass sees the election outcome as a responsibility to represent all the residents of the district.

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"Obviously, there are Democrats in DuPage County who have a voice," Blass said. "I respect that voice."

In other County Board races, Republic incumbents in Districts 1 and 3, beat Democrat candidates by a 56 percent to 44 percent majority, in unofficial results as of Nov. 14.

Republican Donald Puchalski, an attorney from Addison, received 32,314 votes, compared with 25,716 votes, for Democrat Roland "Rolly" Waller of Bensenville in a race for a four-year term representing District 1. Puchalski has been on the board since 2006.

Fellow Republican incumbent Sam Tornatore, a Roselle attorney, beat Democrat Richard Accomando, a medical insurance broker from Addison, with Tornatore getting 32,573 votes to Accomando's 25,454. They were battling for a two-year term representing District 1, which includes most of Elmhurst and parts of Villa Park, Bensenville, Wood Dale, Addison, Roselle, Itasca and Bloomingdale.

Republican Gary Grasso, who was elected to represent District 3 in 2012, was victorious over Democrat Joseph Heneghan of Woodridge, in the election for a two-year term. Grasso, the former mayor of Burr Ridge, got 39,352 votes, compared to Heneghan's 30,911.

Brian Krajewski of Downers Grove also defeated his Democratic challenger, Anna M. Schiefelbein of Woodridge for a four-year term representing District 3. Krajewski won 39,228 votes, or 56 percent, to Schiefelbein's 31,211 or 44 percent.

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Krajewski has been a member of the board since 2010.

District 3 includes all or parts of Hinsdale, Clarendon Hills, Burr Ridge, Darien, Willowbrook, Woodridge, Westmont, Downers Grove and Naperville.

kfornek@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter @kfdoings
Oakbrook Terrace has been issued a permit to install red light cameras at the intersection of Route 83 and 22nd Street. (Chuck Fieldman / Pioneer Press)

Oak Brook officials are crying foul over the Illinois Department of Transportation issuing a permit to neighboring Oakbrook Terrace for the installation of red light cameras at the intersection of Route 83 and 22nd Street.

"The whole thing, in one word, I would say, is suspicious," Village President Gopal Lalmalani said.

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"The circumstances are too strange; the timelines don't add up," added village manager Rick Ginex."

Oak Brook officials are puzzled and disturbed that within two months, IDOT went from telling Oakbrook Terrace that red light camera enforcement is not supported to approving red light camera enforcement.

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IDOT issued the permit Oct. 28, and Oakbrook Terrace has 180 days to complete the installation. The cameras are for southbound traffic on Illinois Route 83 and for eastbound traffic on 22nd Street.

A March 3 IDOT justification report review denied the camera request and noted that data for 2015-2017 could be submitted for another review. Then, a May 20 letter from IDOT stated approval, based on video files dated November 2015, which "demonstrated a pattern of violations at the intersection."

The intersection is in Oakbrook Terrace's jurisdiction and just outside of Oakbrook Center in Oak Brook.

"It's perplexing," Ginex said. "The document asks for three years of data, up through 2017, but then they give approval two months later, based on a video of a 24-hour period. I find that highly irregular."

Gianna Urgo, a public information officer for IDOT, would not give a detailed explanation, saying in an email "the resubmitted application included new data that was taken after construction was completed at the intersection, as well as video that demonstrated a pattern of violations which IDOT determined to be sufficient for approval."

The Oakbrook Terrace City Council unanimously approved a contract in September 2012 with SafeSpeed, LLC, a Chicago company that handles the installation and maintenance of red light cameras. At that meeting, Oak Brook officials presented a resolution expressing opposition, saying the cameras were not necessary and could have a negative impact on area businesses.

Oakbrook Terrace Mayor Tony Ragucci said at the time that installation of the cameras was about safety, not generating additional revenue for the city.

Installation didn't happen in 2012 because IDOT asked for additional traffic data before making a decision on approval.

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Oak Brook officials also are upset because a letter of notification from Oakbrook Terrace to Oak Brook was part of the installation submittal review process, and Oak Brook officials said they never received such a letter.

Ginex said he first saw the letter earlier this month when he was given a copy of it by IDOT. The letter is dated July 20, 2016, and signed by Casey Calvello as Oakbrook Terrace's acting police chief, though Calvello wasn't named acting chief until July 26, according to city administrator Amy Marrero.

Oak Brook provided IDOT with signed affidavits from Lalmalani and Donna Bettin, executive secretary, swearing the letter from Calvello was never delivered or received.

Urgo didn't answer directly when asked if Oakbrook Terrace would be required to provide proof that the letter was sent, writing only "we are aware of a letter sent from Oakbrook Terrace to the village of Oak Brook on July 20, 2016."

Ginex said Monday that nobody from IDOT has responded to Oak Brook's concerns, which have been expressed in letters and phone calls.

"They're basically ignoring us," he said. "It's sad that we were never given the courtesy of being informed about what's going on."

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Lalmalani said Oak Brook officials are continuing to discuss the situation.

"I don't know what options we have, but we certainly are against the red light cameras there, " he said. "We would, at least, like this to be put on hold until we are able to get to the bottom of it."

Ragucci on Nov. 9 directed questions about the red light cameras to a forthcoming press statement, which as of Tuesday had yet to be received.

Oak Brook Village Board member Mike Manzo didn't hold back with his thoughts about red light cameras.

"It's about additional revenue, period," he said. "I don't believe at all that Oakbrook Terrace's interest in having red light cameras there is about anything other than generating more revenue."

Ginex said if the cameras are installed, Oak Brook officials may consider nearby signage, notifying drivers of the cameras and that they were installed by Oakbrook Terrace.

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cfieldman@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter @chuckwriting
My family moved around a lot when I was a kid. We lived in six different towns before I was 15  in Indiana, Connecticut, New York, suburban Chicago.

Across the country we moved, meeting and mixing with all kinds of different people. As different as all these places and people were, we always found community that made us feel at home. I didn't realize as a kid what a gift it was to learn at such a young age that what bonds us as Americans is far stronger than any differences that might otherwise divide us.

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I've been thinking about this these last few days since Donald Trump was elected to be our next president.

Emotions are running high, and it seems clear there are cultural differences in our country that have been underestimated, or even ignored. Across the country, it seems like these cultural differences have grown stronger than what unites us as Americans.

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This election season also has me wondering if I've been thinking about America in too big and impersonal a way. As I've followed the campaigns of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, I've increasingly felt like the America these candidates fought so bitterly over is not the America I know in the local communities that form the foundation of our great country. They say all politics is local, and now seems like a great time to recommit to that notion, as we reflect on last week's election and look ahead to local elections next February and April.

In all those different places we lived as a kid, my parents subscribed to the local newspaper. They turned to local journalists to inform them and help assimilate our family in every new community we adopted. I can still hear the rattle and shake of my mom and dad turning the pages of the local newspaper as we sat around the TV after dinner.

I can't say these memories are what made me want to grow up and become a journalist, but they probably played a part. After seeing my parents look to local journalists and newspapers as such a basic and valuable resource everywhere we lived, it's surely no coincidence I ended up in the local news business.

In recent weeks, I've had positive interactions with plenty of readers about the election, where our differences seemed (to me at least) less significant than our ability to communicate with one another. My hope is to see that continue, and to show readers that I will listen to them with an open mind and earnest interest. I hope they'll come to believe that above all else, I value their thoughts and interests, and feel privileged to do the local journalism we do.

We as local journalists in your community should have no higher calling than to look out for and fight for your interests.

When I think about these readers I've engaged with, the feeling I've been left with is the great appreciation I have for someone who's spent time reading our work being moved to reach out to me about it. The actual tone or content of that communication matters much less than the simple act of it. I hope that has come across to these readers.

Whatever your thoughts and opinions on the media might be, I believe our local papers have a very clear and simple mission: to inform, entertain and look out for our readers, and even those residents who might not be our readers. We as local journalists in your community should have no higher calling than to look out for and fight for your interests. And I want to reassure you of our total commitment to this calling. I want us to be what my parents always looked to when we moved to a new place, knowing no one and very little about our new chosen community.

But we in the media can't do it alone. The more we hear from and engage with our readers, the better feel we'll have for where we should be putting our journalistic energy in your community. I want you to read and share our work, and to question it. But I also want to ask you to help, by reaching out to share your thoughts, concerns and questions about what's going on in your community, or about something we've published.

And I have a few questions of my own:

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Why do you read your local newspaper (or news website)?

Is there anything you wish we wrote more about? Anything we write too much about?

What concerns do you have about your community, our state or even our country as we look forward to a new year around the corner?

What should we know about our readers that we might not realize?

How can we help strengthen and enrich your community?

I hope you don't take these as rhetorical questions. I'd honestly love to hear from you. And beyond these questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me any other time, simply to talk on the phone, exchange emails or submit a letter to the editor.

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There will always be differences with the potential to divide us, but I hope to serve nothing above the interests that unite us. Thanks for reading, and for choosing us as a local news resource worth your time.

John Puterbaugh is the editor of Chicago Tribune's Pioneer Press local news network. You can reach him at jputerbaugh@chicagotribune.com or 312-222-3331.

Twitter @John_Puterbaugh
Milton Nelson signs his book "Park Ridge: Milestones of History" for Karen Grunschel at the Park Ridge Public Library on Nov. 12. (Kevin Tanaka / Pioneer Press)

The Park Ridge Heritage Committee and the Friends of the Park Ridge Library co-sponsored a history presentation and book signing featuring Milton Nelson and his recently published book "Park Ridge: Milestones of History." The event, which took place Nov. 12, attracted 50-60 attendees.

Nelson, an author and a chairman of the Park Ridge Heritage Committee, gave a detailed history lecture and photo presentation of Park Ridge's historic events, famous residents and detailed information about the Park Ridge community since 1832.

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Nelson, a retired Maine South history teacher, had been working on the book since 2007 after The Park Ridge Heritage Committee had taken on the project to renovate the Camp Fire Girls Fountain in Hodges Park in front of the City Hall. The fountain had mosaic tiles that gave information about history of Park Ridge. Nelson felt there was more information to be shared.

"It's been 60 years since the last [history] book has been written about Park Ridge, and we have to preserve these memories; all these things need to be remembered. If we don't write these things down, we will forget these achievements," Nelson said.

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Suzanne T. Isaacs, of the book's publisher Ampersand Inc., was in attendance and praised Nelson's work.

"It was a beautiful done book, [a] well-written and thoroughly researched book," she said. "Working with Milton was really a pleasure, and he's a guy that really did his homework."

During his presentation, Nelson went over highlights of the city's history and those who were key residents, including composer John Alden Carpenter, sculptor Alfonso Iannelli and artist Clara Barck Welles, as well as showing high school photos of actor Harrison Ford and Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party's candidate for president in 2016. He also talked about the early days of Park Ridge.

Writer Milton Nelson says he visited the Library of Congress to look for information contained in his book "Park Ridge: Milestones of History." (Kevin Tanaka / Pioneer Press)

Mike Hendricks, a Park Ridge retiree, was among those in attendance. He said his parents moved to Park Ridge in 1951 and 14 of his family members had lived in the city throughout the years. He said he is " the last one left of my family."

"I am sure this book will bring back some memories for me and have a more involved interest in the Park Ridge community." Hendricks said.

Bartlett resident Barbara Scott was the first in line to purchase the book.

"I am very anxious to hear this talk, and there are so many interesting things, factures and figures about the Park Ridge people and tidbits," she said. "I am anxious to read this book. I wanted to be the first one in line!"

Karen Grunschel, a longtime Park Ridge resident, was also excited about reading the book.

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"I have always been interested in Park Ridge history, she said.

Dick Dusold, co-president of the Friends of Library, purchased the book earlier in the week, and said he learned about the 1880s heated greenhouses that offered fresh flowers, mint and vegetables for the Chicago and wholesale market.

"I read the whole book in one night, and it was fascinating," Dusold said. "Once I started, I couldn't put it down."

Karen Medina is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
A 1959 photo of Hillary Clinton's class at Field Elementary School in Park Ridge. Clinton is seated in the front row at the far right. Clinton autographed the photo during a 1997 visit to the school. (School District 64 / HANDOUT)

If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball. And if you can dodge a ball, you might go on to become the first woman in U.S. history to be the presidential nominee of a major political party.

The Park Ridge-Niles School District 64 Board of Education honored Hillary Rodham Clinton at its board meeting Monday night at Field Elementary School.

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According to her longtime friends who spoke at the meeting, the secretary of state learned how to roll with the hits from a very early age.

"We used to play killer dodgeball, in this very room (in the school's multipurpose room) about 58 years ago," said Ernie Ricketts, a Field alum. "And we survived. And we had a wonderful, excellent education. Thanks to you on the board, that continues to this day."

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In honor of her public service and historic candidacy, District 64 has named the learning resource center at Field School after alumna Hillary Clinton.

Betsy Ebeling, who sat next to her in Mrs. Elizabeth King's sixth-grade class in room 224 in 1959, said Clinton would be particularly pleased that the board voted to name Field's learning center after her.

"If there's one thing that has always  for both Bill and Hillary  been at the core of their lives, it's learning. They learn every day," Ebeling said. "When I told her it was going to be the learning center, she said it meant a great deal to her."

"Since this afternoon you've spoken to Hillary Clinton?" Superintendent Dr. Laurie Heinz said.

"Yes," Ebeling said. "We have a circle of lifelong friends that started here at Field. You just never know who will be sitting next to you in class."

Ebeling said Ricketts sat behind her and would make her laugh and get in trouble in Mrs. King's class, while Clinton was a bit more studious.

"Mrs. King was an outstanding teacher, and she and Field school really nurtured in us the sense of confidence and sense of fairness  somebody described her as having grit and having grace and having kindness  all the attributes the world admires in her, but that were nurtured right here in these classrooms," Ebeling said.

And teamwork in dodgeball, Ebeling added.

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Heinz said that Clinton entered District 64 as a 4-year-old kindergartener and benefited from a well-rounded educational experience that focused not only on academics, but the arts, extracurricular activities and community service opportunities.

"We know that her historic candidacy will serve as an example to all our students today and tomorrow of the boundless opportunities offered to them as graduates of America's public schools," Heinz said.

"Hillary represents to us the best values of Park Ridge and District 64 and District 207," Ricketts said. "I know she would be delighted to see how hard you work to keep and maintain that high quality of education."

Ebeling said a reporter had earlier asked her what she and Clinton had in common.

"And I'm so pleased to hear your fourth- and fifth-graders talk about reading," Ebeling said. "That has always been something we shard and had in common. Our teacher (Mrs. King) fostered that. I send a book to Hillary just recently  our love of books have been the foundation of our friendship  and that love was stated here. So, on her behalf, Ernie and I thank you."

Mario Bartoletti is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
"...Give me your arm as we cross the street

"Call me at six on the dot

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"A line a day when you're far away

"Little things mean a lot..."

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"Little Things Mean a Lot" (No. 1 single, July of 1954)

Nancy Miller is a widow who lives in Griffith and looks 60, but she's 80. Upon entering her living room, I started to say hello to a man, but then realized it was a life-sized cardboard cutout of her late husband, Louis Miller. It can happen. I know a woman with a reasonably high intelligence quotient who spoke to a mannequin for several minutes while shuffling through sweaters at Southlake Mall before realizing the error of her ways.

**

"I was born at home on Highland Street in East Hammond," Miller began. "My mother had her first four children at home."

High school?

"I didn't want to go to Hammond High or (Bishop) Noll (Institute) because to me they were uppity people. I went to (Hammond) Clark in Robertsdale. In grade school, I went to St. Joseph, so I walked through downtown Hammond. I grew up on Henry Street. Queen Anne Candy was right down the street."

Maiden name?

"Juhahz. It's Hungarian. My father's parents were immigrants. One of my favorite memories of walking to school was looking into the front window of Kresge's dime store. You could watch a machine make fresh doughnuts.

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"As children, 9 or 10 years of age, we were allowed to roam. It was different times back then. At nighttime, a group of us would go to the carnival. The carnival was on the other side of the river off Calumet Avenue. When I was real little, I remember we had an icebox, then we had a refrigerator with a coil on the top."

Life on the home front during World War II?

"When we'd walk past Goldblatt's, we'd see the long lines of women waiting to get nylons. During the war, lots of products were rationed. I also remember seeing men standing in big open-bed trucks with the wood slats on the sides. They had "POW" written on the backs of their shirts. They were traveling south through downtown Hammond. Maybe they were taking them to Lansing, Ill., where there were a lot of truck crops to be weeded or harvested."

You must remember VJ Day.

"Yes, I was living with my grandmother in Hessville at the time. Her street was not paved. The people built this great big bonfire in the middle of the street to celebrate the end of the war."

Other childhood memories of growing up in Hammond during the '40s and early '50s?

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"We had the rags and iron man who would go down the alley with a wagon and a horse. My mother and father had Metropolitan Life Insurance. Whenever my mother had a baby, the nurse would come. At that time, if any of us kids had mumps, measles or chicken pox, the house would be quarantined. My dad would come home from work and he wasn't allowed to come in the house. He'd have to stay somewhere else until the quarantine was over. The nurse fascinated me. It was always the same woman. I think she's the reason I became a nurse."

Did you go to the movies as a kid?

"Oh, yes. The Hohman Theater was right across from St. Joesph School. The Hohman mainly showed cowboy movies. The Paramount was the north theater and the Parthenon was the south theater. We also had the Orpheum theater near Minas'.

"My first job was at Goldblatts. My second job was working at the Parthenon in 1954. I was a popcorn girl. That was back when they had ushers. They would usually show two movies, a coming attraction, the newsreel and a cartoon or two."

The difference between Goldblatts and Minas?

"Minas was more of an upscale department store with a more expansive line of clothing. We used to sew a lot. If you wanted certain fabrics, you would go to Minas, but if you wanted anything under the sun, you could get it at Goldblatts.

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"Walking through downtown Hammond was great as a kid because I saw so many different types of people. There was the little Greek diner on the corner of Hohman and State where the buses stopped. There was a Chinese laundry. There was a man who would walk down the street with his cart and sharpen your knives and scissors with his machine. There were shoe repairmen. Farmers would come around with their trucks to sell produce. If you bought a watermelon, they always plugged the watermelon by making a triangular cut in the melon."

Marriage?

"I got married at 18, 11 days out of high school. Didn't have to. My husband was in the service. He was four years older than me. I met Louis on Whiting Beach. We lived in Whiting for about five years when we were first married. I had four children within five years. Lou's parents had a two-level house; we lived downstairs. After that, we bought a house in Highland and lived there until about 28 years ago when we built this place in Griffith. Louis built both houses."

What did your husband do for a living?

"He worked for the telephone company. There's a picture of Louis over there on the wall of when he first started with the phone company. My granddaughter is an artist. She drew that from a old photograph."

Did your husband have a fatal heart attack?

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"No, he had a strange blood disease. He had it for probably 10 years before he died. We didn't know. I saw changes in him but he had the male problem  "I'm fine, I'm fine. There's nothin' wrong. I'm fine.'"

Nancy, I've been there, done that.

"It was too late. Louis lived for about eight months after being diagnosed. He died on New Year's Day. Lou's father worked for Standard Oil as a pipe fitter. They wrapped pipes with asbestos. He'd bring the asbestos strips home. My mother-in-law would wash them and use them for diapers."

Lord.

"My mother-in-law always had lung problems. Lou couldn't pass a breathing test. It was during the Depression. They didn't know."

When did you become a nurse?

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"At the age of 35. My first job was at Our Lady of Mercy Hospital in Dyer. After two years of that, I worked as the visiting nurse for the county. I took care of people in their homes. We had to use our own cars. I had a real nice Camaro, but it started breaking down. I had to travel to the Kankakee River. What's the name of that place? I always say it wrong  Somova Resorts."

Sumava Resorts.

"That was during the Blizzard of '79. Horrid winter. Then I got a job at St. Margaret Hospital in Hammond working in the dialysis unit. I worked there until I retired."

Final thoughts?

"It hasn't always been an easy life, but life has been good to me."

**

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Jeepers, I'd be lighting up the tilt sign if I told you daddy-os and dolls it wasn't swell shooting the breeze with Nancy. She really razzed my berries with all that Hammond history from the '40s and early '50s.

See ya later, alligator.

Jeff Manes is a freelance columnist for the Post-Tribune.

jeffmanes@sbcglobal.net
Raymond Robinson asks the Gary Common Council for a special use permit to allow him to convert his newly purchased home in Gary into a day care center for up to a dozen children. The council gave its approval on Monday, although state officials have yet to give him final approval. (Gregory Tejeda / Post-Tribune)

A Gary man who is in the process of remodeling a home he recently purchased wants ultimately to convert the structure into a day care center.

Raymond Robinson came a step closer on Monday to achieving that goal, as the Common Council voted without opposition to grant him a special use permit that would allow him to use the house in the 2100 block of West 14th Avenue as a day care facility  even though it technically is zoned solely for residential use.

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Robinson's request previously had been recommended by the city's Board of Zoning Appeals.

Robinson won't be opening the home to children any time soon. Indiana state officials still have to grant him the permit. Robinson said he had been told by state officials they would not act until after the Common Council had given its support to the plan.

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He also has been told he still has to submit to a background check and drug screening by state officials before he can be given final approval for his day care facility.

Support from the city came by an 8-0 vote, with council Vice President Carolyn Rogers absent.

Robinson said he purchased the house on 14th Avenue that had been vacant earlier this year. The facility that would be able to care for about a dozen children at a time, and would be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., he said. The house itself is about 1,100 square feet in size, on a lot of 6,000 square feet, Robinson said.

Robinson plans to live in the house as well, as he says he's remodeling a loft on the top floor to serve as his living quarters  while the rest of the home would be devoted to the day care facility.

Board of Zoning Appeals officials acknowledged some opposition to the plan  they say two neighborhood residents object on the grounds that the presence of young children would be disruptive.

But four other local residents expressed approval for the idea, while the bulk of 57 neighborhood residents contacted by the city expressed no opinion on the proposal whatsoever, officials said.

Councilwoman Mary Brown, D-3rd, said one resident had contacted her, expressing concerns that young children would be noisy and disrupt a quiet neighborhood.

But Robinson said he thinks the house's proximity to the Beveridge Elementary School, 1234 Cleveland St., makes it a prime spot for a day care facility.

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Councilwoman Ragen Hatcher, D-at large, pointed out that no one expressing opposition bothered to show up for either the Planning committee or Common Council sessions Monday.

Councilwoman Rebecca Wyatt, D-1st, said she was pleased to see Robinson make the effort. "I applaud his work and ingenuity in coming in and trying to improve our city," she said.

Gregory Tejeda is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Indiana State Police and the FBI vehicles parked Thursday morning outside the Lake County Government Center in Crown Point. (Javonte Anderson / Post-Tribune)

Investigators who seized records from Lake County offices last week were gathering evidence as part of a federal probe into a possible bribery scheme involving an unidentified local government official, according to a federal search warrant obtained by the Post-Tribune.

Federal agents were investigating a possible "receipt of a bribe by an agent of a local government receiving federal funds," "mail/wire fraud," "conspiracy to commit mail/wire fraud," and "Hobbs Act extortion under the Color of State Authority," according to the search warrant. It was unclear the identity of the local government official under federal scrutiny.

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Nevertheless, investigators who seized records from Lake County offices last week were looking for records relating to the county's towing operations over the last six years, the search warrant said. The search warrant, which was delivered to the county's E-911 department on Thursday, also sought maps, towing logs, a list of tow companies, phone and dispatch call data for police and tow companies, emails from any sheriff's department personnel related to Lake County towing and dispatcher work schedules.

FBI and Indiana State Police officers first visited the Lake County Sheriff's department Thursday before moving over to the main county complex. Ryan Holmes, of the U.S. Department of Justice, confirmed last week that a federal search warrant was served in the vicinity of the Lake County Government Center. Holmes declined to elaborate.

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"The Lake County Sheriff's Department is cooperating with our federal law enforcement partners, fully assisting the FBI with their inquiry," the sheriff's department said in a statement last week. "Regular Sheriff's Department operations are continuing. We assure the citizens of Lake County that their safety remains our top priority."

Sheriff John Buncich did not return calls seeking comment.

After starting at the Sheriff's Department, federal and state authorities moved into the administrative building, at the same time as a Veterans Day ceremony was winding down. Officials stopped by the Board of Elections and Voter Registration, the E-911 office, auditor's office, data processing and the County Commissioners.

"There's more questions than answers," Lake County Commissioner Michael Repay, D-Hammond, said Monday.

Jim Wieser, Lake County election board attorney, confirmed last week that the office was served a subpoena seeking records but did not disclose what records were requested.

Post-Tribune reporter Craig Lyons contributed to this report. Carrie Napoleon is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Following previous rulings in Indiana death penalty cases, a Lake County judge on Tuesday denied local claims arguing that the state's death penalty statute is unconstitutional.

Defense attorneys representing two Lake County inmates made motions in recent months questioning the law's constitutionality after prosecutors decided to pursue the death penalty in the two unrelated cases of Darren Vann and Carl Blount. Vann, of Gary, is charged in connection with the deaths of seven women, while Blount, also of Gary, is accused of the fatal shooting of Gary police Patrolman Jeffrey Westerfield.

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To back up their claims that the death penalty is unconstitutional, the attorneys echoed arguments made in death penalty cases that came before them in the state, focusing on a few points: how a jury is supposed to weigh factors that could influence a death sentence, allowing a judge to determine a defendant's death sentence when the jury can't and that the statute violates the 8th Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

Judge Samuel Cappas went through their main points in his written decision before finally denying their motions to declare the statute unconstitutional. Cappas noted that Indiana's higher courts have upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty, and the statute complies with major death penalty rulings across the country.

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Cappas also referenced rulings in cases that came before Vann and Blount. Another man facing the death penalty in Lake County, Kevin Charles Isom, also questioned the factors a jury is supposed to weigh before sentencing someone to death, but the state's Supreme Court ruled against him in 2015.

The defense teams pointed in their motions to flaws other states found in their own death penalty laws, but Cappas determined those didn't apply locally and, "Indiana's death penalty statute does not share the fatal flaw found in Florida's and Alabama's statutes."

Cappas' decision comes a couple of weeks before the deadline he set for himself in September when the attorneys presented their arguments in his courtroom. With gag orders imposed in both cases, neither Vann's or Blount's attorneys nor the Lake County prosecutor's office could comment on the ruling.

Andrea Lyon, dean of Valparaiso University Law School, said the decision did not come as a shock based on the death penalty cases she has looked at in the state.

"I'm not surprised at the ruling at all," Lyon said.

The precedent set in Indiana death penalty cases indicated how the decision in Vann's and Blount's cases would turn out, she said. Plus, lower courts tend to go with the precedent and what has been set by the law unless there is something "blatantly" off in a case, she said.

Even though the odds were stacked against Blount and Vann, their attorneys still had to make the motions, she said. There is a chance a motion could be at least partially granted in a defendant's favor, she said, as each case is different.

The topic could still come again later in their cases, she said. If a defendant facing the death penalty is convicted, they could appeal their sentence, and questioning the constitutionality of the death penalty now could play into their appeals process later, she said.

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Blount has a hearing Thursday in Lake County court to check in on his case, and he's scheduled to go to trial at the end of January. Meanwhile, Vann's next hearing is scheduled for Dec. 2.

Ruth Ann Krause is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.

rejacobs@post-trib.com

Twitter @ruthyjacobs
The Lake County Council thinks there should be a state consideration of a medical marijuana use law.

A resolution calling for approval was narrowly approved Tuesday.

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The council plans to consider another resolution next month asking state officials to enact the legislation necessary to put the question of medical marijuana a on statewide ballot as a referendum questions.

Councilman Jamal Washington, D-Merrillville, introduced the resolution seeking the state legislature to approve medical marijuana use, and was joined by Council members David Hamm, D-Hammond, Ted Bilski, D-Hobart, and Christine Cid, D-East Chicago.

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Councilwoman Elsie Franklin, D-Gary, was the lone Democrat to join Councilman Eldon Strong, R-Crown Point, in opposing the measure. Councilman Dan Dernulc, R-Highland, was absent.

Washington said he was seeking immediate approval so the resolution could be in legislators' hands for Organization Day Nov. 22 at the statehouse.

Bilski said his approval is contingent on the second resolution seeking the referendum questions.

"This question should be put to Indiana voters," he said.

Strong said he is opposed to the measure for myriad reasons. First and foremost, he said the measure is not one that should be considered on the county level and should be decided by state legislators. He said he does not support the use of the drug for medical purposes because there is no real way to regulate dosage.

Strong said he has suffered from Crohn's disease for 40 years and when through chemotherapy and radiation treatment this summer after a cancer diagnosis earlier this year. He was offered medical marijuana by his Illinois physician where he was treated but declined.

"I am opposed to the medical use of marijuana," Strong said.

Cid made an impassioned statement in support of passage, saying Indiana is behind the times when it comes to providing access to a drug that has been used for 5,000 years and has many known medicinal purposes. She has seen people she loves suffer from the effects of chemotherapy and radiation treatment and said there is no reason they should be denied access to something that would help. Cid said people should have access to whatever medication is available to ease their symptoms.

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"I support this," Cid said.

The measure also received support from the small audience.

Usual county government critic James Nowacki, of Gary, applauded the council's action. Nowacki said it is critical adults are allowed to make their own decisions regarding their healthcare choices and if medical marijuana would help, he sees no reason to prevent its use.

Gary Councilwoman LaVetta Sparks-Wade, D-6th, also spoke out in favor of the measure. She said too many resources are spent on preventing marijuana use when in some cases the drug can be helpful.

She recounted how both she and her sister were diagnosed with breast cancer within days of one another. Sparks-Wade said she was stage one and able to avoid chemotherapy while her sister was stage three and needed both chemotherapy and radiation. Sparks-Wade said it was difficult to see her sister suffer.

"This could have eased her pain," she said.

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Carrie Napoleon is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Old Orchard Junior High School seventh grader Jamie Acido delivers a moving poem she wrote honoring veterans during the school's first Veterans Day assembly. Skokie School District 68 had closed its schools on Veterans Day until this year. (Mike Isaacs / Pioneer Press)

District 68 administrators said that on Veterans Day in 2015, it was unlikely that many Skokie School District 68 students spent much time thinking about those who fought for their country.

So this year, the district changed a long-standing tradition of closing its doors on Veterans Day, partially to combat that indifference, and also to reduce disruptions to the school week since Old Orchard Junior High had closed for Election Day earlier in the week. The result was that for the first time, students attended class on Veterans Day. But administrators said they hoped the day wasn't like a typical school day.

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"The (school board) realized that kids are probably not sitting at home thinking about the veterans when they're off school," Old Orchard Principal Robyn Huemmer said . "This was a really nice way for our students to learn about Veterans Day."

Huemmer oversaw a school-wide assembly Friday afternoon in which 11 veterans attended. The veterans either had a child or a grandchild enrolled at Old Orchard Junior High or they were graduates of the school themselves.

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"The ones that are here are for the most part related to our students," Huemmer said. "We sent out an email to all of our families. We actually have a former student coming back."

Army veteran Ricardo Hardy, dressed in military uniform Friday, was there with daughter Rikayla, an Old Orchard Junior High sixth-grader.

He said he joined the Army in 2010 and was deployed in 2011 to Afghanistan, where he experienced many "difficult things." But Hardy said he loves events such as the one Old Orchard Junior High held Friday.

"Events like these show appreciation for what I did and what others did for our country," he said. "It was not easy for us and so I really appreciate these kind of recognitions."

Sanford Parker, a veteran who said he was born in 1934 and trained by the famous Tuskegee Airmen, attended the assembly with two younger generations of family  his son Eric and his grandson Dylan, a sixth-grader at Old Orchard Junior High.

He said attending the assembly with two other generations of his family holds great meaning to him.

Parker and other veterans were recognized at the Old Orchard Junior High assembly. They were called to the stage, alongside their children or grandchildren, to be given an ovation.

"Your Old Orchard family salutes you," Huemmer said at one point.

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Before the assembly, Huemmer said, students wrote letters and held a candy drive for soldiers.

The event also included the Skokie Police Department Honor Guard, patriotic music from Old Orchard Junior High's student musicians and a video to which different families contributed relating their family member's experience in the military.

Some in the audience  including students  wiped away tears during the showing.

Seventh-grader Jamie Acido read a poem had written titled "Homage to a Great Heart."

"Today is a day where we celebrate the people who protect the soil we stand on," Jamie said. "I'm not only here to talk about how they succeeded; I'm here to talk about how they struggled."

Veterans Day for the next couple of years falls on the weekend, so it's not likely an assembly of this scale will happen again any time soon, Huemmer said.

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"We'll definitely be teaching about this in our social studies classes," she said. "Students really got excited about the whole project. It's been a great learning opportunity for them."

misaacs@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter: @SKReview_Mike
Students at Hawthorn School District 73's Townline Elementary School in Vernon Hills learn to identify bones earlier this year. Administrators now share their thoughts after scores were recently released from the PARCC test. (Yadira Sanchez Olson / Lake County News-Sun)

Educators in central Lake County are reviewing recently released PARCC assessment scores as they look for trends to help guide curriculum decisions and analyze student performance.

The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) has only been administered twice  spring 2015 and spring 2016  since replacing the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) and Prairie State Achievement Exam (PSAE).

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The test includes both an English and math portion.

Hawthorn School District 73 in Vernon Hills had 53 percent of its students meeting or exceeding expectations with 25 percent of students approaching the goal, according to the school's report card. Those numbers are up slightly from last year.

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Lisa Cerauli, Hawthorn 73's assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, said she would prefer not to compare the scores because students had to take the test all at once this year as opposed to last year's two separate sessions. Other timing and technology challenges makes the results hard to compare, she said.

"We're essentially looking at this as a baseline again because it is pretty much a different test with the way it was administered," Cerauli said.

Elementary School North's 2016 scores were slightly above state averages. Results show that 36 percent of Elementary North's students met or exceeded PARCC expectations on the composite score, with 25 percent approaching the goal.

Cerauli said she believes the scores are tied to the school's larger population of low-income students. She said Elementary North, Middle School North and the School of Duel Language all receive federal funding for their low-income demographics.

"There's definitely research that points to affect of poverty on students," Cerauli said. "Even prior to entering school, before we even get them, there's an achievement gap as they first acquire language."

Aside from the limited use of vocabulary in low-income populations, Cerauli said a new language trend is emerging.

"They're not bilingual students that we've seen in the past," Cerauli said. "We used to have more students who were born in another country and only spoke one language until coming here and needing to learn English. That's different than a student who's got two languages going when they get to us."

While teachers work to correct some inconsistencies when learning English, Cerauli said they're also struggling to speak the students' native languages. She said about 80 languages are spoken by students at Hawthorn 73, including Spanish and Russian, among others.

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"How do we find assessments that measure what students really know?" Cerauli said. "A lot of times students come with a lot of knowledge, it's just we sometimes can't access it because of a language barrier."

But while Hawthorn 73 still uses other tools to gauge its curriculum and staff needs, Cerauli said the data PARCC sends back is actually much more useful than some of the statistics generated by the ISAT and Prairie State exams.

Guy Schumacher, superintendent of Libertyville School District 70, said he also likes the extra information. He said the data is showing incremental improvements in reading.

Now, Schumacher said he can try to figure out some variables involved with those successes and apply them to other classes and schools.

Schumacher said Copeland Manor ranked as one of the top five performing schools in Lake County and he plans to do a similar analysis.

"The test is a reason to look at ourselves and do some reflection," Schumacher said. "It tells us what we're doing well and why, and helps us figure out what to focus on."

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About 64 percent of District 70 students met or exceed PARCC expectations, with about 24 percent approaching the goal, according to the district's state report card.

"Can we do better? Yes, we can always do better," Schumacher said. "We've always been a district of continuous improvement. Just like children never stop learning, I don't think our educators will ever stop learning and that will always propel us to more successes."

At Mundelein Elementary School District 75, about 40 percent of students scored in the meet or exceeds expectations range, while 27 percent were approaching the goal, according to results. Those numbers were slightly up from last year.

Math was the main focus for teachers from last year to this year, according to District 75 Director of Teaching and Learning Dan Swartz.

"Teachers made major revisions in math instruction and were rewarded with significant increases in achievement," Swartz said in an email. "In the end, it is not about any one program that we brought in, but the professional development that our teachers attended and the passion they have to see District 75 students achieve at high levels."

Fremont School District 79, which covers unincorporated areas near Mundelein and Libertyville, saw a slight decline. Its state report card shows 56 percent of students met or exceeded expectations, with 26 percent approaching the goal.

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Superintendent Jill Gildea said the PARCC test is still in its "infancy stage" and it's still quite different than the ISAT and Prairie State.

"PARCC questions are much more rigorous than what was seen on similar types of tests in years past with different cut score bands," Gildea said by email, referring to how the scores are interpreted and the inclusion of an extra category for failing students.

Regardless of the PARCC numbers, Gildea said the district tracks its students and over 92 percent of kids who go to Mundelein High School graduate and move on to a two-year college or university.

"Fremont, like the rest of Illinois schools, is teaching our students key concepts while challenging them to think critically and write logically," Gildea said.

rkambic@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter @Rick_Kambic
Bill Guest Jr. (left) sells items at an estate sale to Michal Szymalanski and his wife, Josefa. (Annemarie Mannion / Pioneer Press)

Cindy Schmidt got up before sunrise recently to be first in line at an estate sale in Western Springs.

Schmidt, who is an avid shopper of estate sales, had her eyes on a blue-hued abstract painting that she thought would look nice in her home in Mount Prospect.

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"I've decorated my whole house with them (items found at estate sales). I've gotten some great deals," she said.

Estate sales, in contrast to garage sales, are held within the confines of a home rather than in the garage. They often are held when a person passes away and family members want to dispense of belongings acquired over their loved one's lifetime.

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But they've gown to be more than sales held when a person dies, estate sale operators agree.

"An estate sale is no longer when Aunt Millie dies and you need to sell everything," said Chris Krapil, director of business development for Shop Melee in Willowbrook, which organized the Western Springs sale. "It could be that people moved to a new place and they're selling things they want to get rid of."

Bill Guest Jr., who operates A Moment in Time Estate Sales in Lombard with his father, also named Bill Guest, agrees.

Estate sales are also organized because of divorces, foreclosures and because people are moving.

"There's been a mass exodus from Illinois," said Bill Guest Jr. "People are going to Florida and Arizona. Instead of leaving it for their kids to clear out, they hire us to go in there and sell things and they're going to get a fresh start."

Josefa Szymalanska of Darien and her husband, Michal, recently attended an estate sale held in Darien by Moment in Time.

"I like tools," said Michal Szymalanski as he carted a large box of them from the house.

Schmidt finds the estates sales she attends at www.estatesales.net, a website that provides a list of sales occurring along with photos so people can do their homework.

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She got up at 4 a.m. to be at the Western Springs sale early because she had previewed photographs of what would be sold and knew she wanted the painting.

Krapil explained there is a protocol that estate sale buyers follow to prevent disputes when more than one person wants an item for sale.

"People want to be first in line at an estate sale because we have a sign-in sheet," he said. "The first person on the list will have dibs on it."

That process, he said, "eliminates any negativity toward us. We try to be as fair as possible."

Joanne Shimizu of Westchester and her partner, Gail Maru, have operated Treasures Estate Sales for five years.

Summer is high season for estates sales, Shimizu said.

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"We have a sale every single weekend," she said.

She said their company earns a commission of 30 percent on what is sold, and that's common in the industry.

Estate sale companies research items for sale, clean and organize and shut off any areas of the home where items are not for sale. They also staff the sale.

"We want to sell the items for as much money as possible," she said. "We don't want to put a $100 price tag on it if it should be getting $800."

Though the American Society of Estate Liquidators provides a code of ethics, the industry is largely unregulated. Anyone planning an estate sale needs to do their due diligence, Shimizu said.

She advises getting recommendations from others who have liquidated an estate via the company and attending a sale they organize.

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"Let's face it. This is a trust-based business. You need to find someone who you feel is going to look out for your best interest," she said.

Some of the rules in the code of ethics includes keeping seller's information confidential and taking steps to determine fair value.

Attending estate sales is a regular activity for Schmidt who scored two paintings at the sale in Western Springs. Though she loves the thrill of finding a deal, she is trying to spend less time on the hunt now that her home if fully decorated.

"I'm trying to cut back," she said. "I'm just not going as often. The downfall is you sometimes buy things you don't really need," she said.

amannion@tribpub.com

Twitter @triblocalam
Francisco Espinal-Quiroz, of Leesburg, Ind., was charged with reckless homicide and falsifying his driving log in a 2014 crash that killed five people. (Will County sheriff's office)

An Indiana truck driver charged in a 2014 crash in Will County that killed five people pleaded guilty Tuesday to five counts of reckless homicide and one count of falsifying his driving log.

Francisco Espinal-Quiroz, 53, entered the plea before Will County Judge David Carlson. He faces six to 28 years in prison, but prosecutors have agreed to seek no more than a 15-year sentence.

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A Feb. 15 sentencing hearing is scheduled for Espinal-Quiroz, who remains in Will County Jail with bail set at $1 million.

Espinal-Quiroz, of Leesburg, Ind., was driving a semitruck the afternoon of July 21, 2014, in the northbound lanes of Interstate 55 near Channahon when he entered a construction zone where traffic had slowed to 3-5 mph, authorities said. The trucker, however, had set his cruise control and was driving 65 mph when he entered the construction zone, prosecutors said.

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Espinal-Quiroz's truck struck three vehicles, including a 2012 Kia Soul occupied by Kimberly Britton, 43, and Piper Britton, 11, both of Urbana; and Timothy Osburn, 64, of Channahon. The Brittons were killed immediately and Osburn died 16 days later in a Chicago hospital.

Two other women, Ulrike Blopleh, 48, of Channahon, and Vicky Palacios, 54, of Coal City, also were killed in the crash. Both of the women's vehicles also were struck by Espinal-Quiroz's truck. Three others were hospitalized with injuries from the crash.

According to investigators, Espinal-Quiroz began his workday at 2:30 a.m. when he picked up a load of steel at a warehouse in South Bend, Ind. His log book, however, showed he started later, at 6:15 a.m. Espinal-Quiroz also is blind in his right eye due to a 1984 injury, but had a waiver to drive a truck in Indiana.

"This was a horrific crash that claimed the lives of five innocent people, including a young girl, and injured several others," Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow said. "Our hearts go out to all of the victims and their families who are suffering such a tragic loss."

Will County Judge Daniel Rozak last year denied Espinal-Quiroz's request to drop 10 of the reckless homicide charges that referenced his blindness. In a motion to dismiss the charges, an attorney for Espinal-Quiroz argued that her client's blindness was not reckless because he went through the proper procedures to obtain a waiver to continue to drive.

Attorney Jeffrey Urdangen, who represented Espinal-Quiroz on Tuesday, declined comment on his client's plea.

A civil case filed by the victims' families against Espinal-Quiroz is pending in federal court. The families also are suing Steel Warehouse, the company for which Espinal-Quiroz was hauling freight; and Eagle Transport, the company which leased Espinal-Quiroz the semitrailer he was driving.

The civil case has been on hold pending an outcome for the criminal case. A hearing date is set for Dec. 6 on the civil case.

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"We're very happy that this part of the case is over and we're hoping we can now move toward closure for the families," Joliet attorney Frank Andreano said after Tuesday's plea.

Andreano represents Blopleh's husband and their three children.

Alicia Fabbre is a freelance reporter.
Conspiracy Theory Alleges Trump Was Born In Pakistan

Trending News: President Trump Now Has His Own Birther Scandal To Deal With

Long Story Short

Donald Trump was born in Pakistan as Dawood Ibrahim Khan in 1946. Or so alleges a new conspiracy theory originating from Twitter. In the extremely, EXTREMELY, unlikely case that this is true, Trump wouldn't qualify for the presidency.

Long Story

Birtherism is back. Although this time, Donald Trump may be the one having to provide his birth certificate.

An Urdu-language news site called Neo News reported that the U.S. president-elect isn't who you think he is. Contrary to popular belief, Trump wasn't born in New York, but rather in the now-Taliban-controlled Waziristan region of Pakistan in 1946 (as seen in English via The Times of Israel). Citing Twitter posts, the Pakistani news agency reports that Trump's birth name was Dawood Ibrahim Khan (ironically the same last name as the Gold Star family he humiliated on the campaign trail).

In a video report, Neo News shared a photo of the boy they say Trump was back in Pakistan.

As the conspiracy theory goes, Trump was taken in by a British Indian Army captain following the death of his parents in a tragic car accident. While in London in 1956, Trump was adopted by the American family who we know as his parents.

In the extremely unlikely case that this is true, Trump wouldn't be allowed to sit as president because he wasn't born in the United States.

This is a little taste of Trump's own medicine. He spent years spewing the baseless theory that Barack Obama was born outside of the U.S. and is Muslim. In September, Trump finally said he accepts that Obama was born in America, but refused to apologize.

I mean there have been stranger conspiracy theories, I guess.

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Will Trump respond to these ludicrous allegations?

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As of August, 41% of Republicans believed the birther movement.
By floating an emergency plan for local government debt risks Monday, China has addressed an issue that has made headlines for years.

The four-grade emergency plan, which could mean "fiscal re-balancing" on the part of local government, is a precautionary arrangement rather than an alarm for a crisis, said experts.

"We should make it clear that no crisis has ever occurred. The plan is more like a barrier against risk," said Zhao Quanhou, director of the financial research office of the Research Institute for Fiscal Science at the Ministry of Finance (MOF).

Data from the ministry showed total local government debt in China stood at 16 trillion yuan (about 2.35 trillion U.S. dollars) at the end of 2015 with a 38.9-percent debt-to-GDP ratio -- markedly lower than the 60-percent alert line of the European Union and other major economies.

With Grade I being the most serious, classification is based on the nature and impact of any incident, according to the State Council announcement.

City and county governments will fiscally re-balance if their annual interest payments on general debt are 10 percent higher than their public spending budgets, or if interest on special debts is 10 percent more than their government fund budgets.

"The fiscal rebalancing act is actually a rearrangement of government budgets. It is different from debt restructuring or a government bankruptcy plan," said Zhang Bin, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS).

According to the plan, once the local government launches fiscal rebalancing, it should take a slew of measures -- such as clearing up overdue taxes and owed fees, reducing expenditures and disposal of government assets -- to restore fiscal balance, guaranteed by the basic public service and effective operation of the government.

A senior official with the MOF said the precautionary arrangement is consistent with the nation's Budget Law and serves as a powerful measure to strengthen local government debt management.

Monday's announcement reaffirmed the central government will not become involved in bailouts and local government officials involved in graded incidents will be held accountable, even if they leave office.

While Chinese authorities have said the nation's debt risks are controllable, they still face challenges at the local level featuring illegal financing guarantees and fake public-private partnerships (PPPs).

By the end of 2015, the provinces of Zhejiang, Sichuan, Shandong and Henan had registered a total of 15.35 billion yuan in outstanding debt involving irregularities, according to latest statistics with the National Audit Office.

Local government debts soared during an investment and construction binge following the global financial crisis in 2008.

China has put a ceiling on the amount of local government debt. The total outstanding debt of the nation's local governments must be kept under 17.2 trillion yuan at the end of 2016, according to the central budget for 2016.

Risks will be eased by putting in place accountability mechanisms, said Bai Chongen, a Tsinghua University professor and member of the central bank monetary policy committee.

"The lifelong accountability system for officials will serve as a great deterrent against involvement in foul debts," said Zhang with CASS.

To rein in rising debt risks, China overhauled the management of government debts two years ago, streamlining fund-raising channels for local authorities and putting a cap on their annual bond issuance.

Government bonds are used to raise funds for urban infrastructure construction and public facilities. The nation is ramping up public spending to shore up the economy as private investment turned sluggish this year in fear of a continued slowdown.

A debt-for-bond swap program was introduced to convert outstanding debts. By the end of September, local governments had replaced 7.2 trillion yuan of debts under the program, according to the MOF.

The MOF said the debt level will remain stable for the remainder of the year and beyond thanks to growing fiscal incomes and GDP.

With its economic restructuring showing nascent progress, China's economy grew 6.7 percent in the third quarter, holding steady from the first two quarters of the year.
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A three-day international academic seminar on Sun Yat-sen began on Monday in south China's Guangdong Province to commemorate the 150th anniversary of his birth.

The conference held in Zhongshan City, Sun's birthplace, was attended by more than 130 scholars from nearly 70 research institutions in countries such as China, France, Japan, Russia, Singapore and the United States.

Born in 1866, Sun was the founder of the Kuomintang Party, and is a revered revolutionary leader who played a pivotal role in overthrowing imperial rule in China.

Attendees will discuss Sun's political, military, economic ideas. Some 90 theses were selected from several hundred papers for the seminar.

Sun is important in China's modern historical research and there have been new findings and contributions in study of him in recent years, said Xiong Yuezhi, a Chinese scholar.

Academics should conduct more detailed research on Sun, said Wang Weiguang, president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

A series of events have been held recently across China to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Sun's birth.
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Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim in Ankara, capital of Turkey, on Monday.

Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) shakes hands with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during their meeting in Ankara, capital of Turkey, on Nov. 14, 2016. (Xinhua/Turkish Presidential Office)

Erdogan said that Turkey attaches great importance to China-Turkey relations and is willing to maintain high-level exchanges to address issues concerning partnership through strategic cooperation.

"I'm pleased to see the consensus reached between Chinese President Xi Jinping and me in our previous meetings being effectively implemented," he said.

He also agreed to align China's Belt and Road Initiative with Turkey's "Middle Corridor" project, push ahead with major cooperation projects such as high speed railway construction and strengthen bilateral cooperation in fields such as tourism, culture and education.

The two countries need to deepen cooperation in security and anti-terrorism and support each other in efforts of safeguarding national sovereignty, security and stability, the president added.

In his meeting with Wang, Yildirim said that frequent high-level mutual visits have played a positive role in boosting bilateral relations between Turkey and China.

He expressed the hope that the two countries could bring their respective potential into full play through joint efforts to step up economic and trade cooperation and accelerate strategic alignment.

The prime minister also pointed out the importance of building high-speed railways as a new Silk Road to promote China-Turkey friendship in the new era.

For his part, Wang said the visit is intended to implement the important consensus reached between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Turkish President Recep Erdogan, launching the mechanism for consultation between the Chinese and Turkish foreign ministers.

The Chinese side attaches great importance to China-Turkey relations and is willing to keep high level dialogues and strategic communication, Wang added.

He also expressed the hope that the two countries could uphold the spirit of the ancient Silk Road and make joint efforts to build the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, in order to make new contributions to promoting national development, revitalizing Eurasia and advancing human civilization.

The two sides should also deepen cooperation in security and anti-terrorism and enhance mutual strategic trust to pave the way for all-round cooperation between the two countries, Wang said.

Wang arrived in Ankara on Sunday at the invitation of his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu.
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Hundreds of students from at least four high schools in Portland, Oregon, took to the street on Monday against U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

The protest march, according to Portland Police Bureau, ended hours later in the afternoon without incident.

The bureau, which posted a series of messages on its Twitter social media network account during the protest, once called for parents to "encourage them (kids) to go back to school."

Portland, a city in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, has seen nightly protest since last Tuesday, when Trump was elected next president. And it was the first time that a similar event took place during day time.

No arrests were made on Monday, and students were allowed to gather in front of the City Hall.

The authorities in Portland said in a statement on Monday that it had arrested more than 100 protesters for violating laws.
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A video featuring top Chinese tourist destinations (Top) is broadcast at the Times Square in New York, the United States, on Nov. 14, 2016. (Xinhua/Li Rui)

Americans who have so far never been to China have a "handy channel" to explore the land of endless wonders from Monday to Nov.28.

They could get glimpses of the top natural and historical attractions of the robust country, starting from Monday morning local time, on one of the most visible billboards in the world at the Times Square.

A 50-second advertising video, featuring top Chinese tourist destinations including the Great Wall, the Forbidden City in Beijing, and the Potala Palace in Lhasa, is being posted by China National Tourism Administration and China Public Diplomacy Association on a spectacular at the Times Square.

The video, running 48 to 120 times each day from Nov. 14 to Nov. 28, is a prelude to the launching of the closing ceremony of the 2016 China-U.S. Tourism Year and a grand event with 5,000 Chinese tourists visiting the U.S. in Washing D.C. and other parts of the United States in late November, according to an official with the Chinese Consulate in New York on Monday.

The events and activities hosted during the China-U.S. Tourism Year are aimed at promoting a steady growth of U.S. tourists travelling to China as well as an early realization of the goal of 5 million trips between the two nations in 2016.

China has become the No. 1 travel destination for U.S. tourists in the Asia-Pacific and the U.S. is the third biggest source country travelling to China.
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An Egyptian court has canceled on Tuesday the death sentence conviction against ousted president Mohamed Morsi and ordered retrial in the jailbreak case, official news agency MENA reported.
UN Weather Service Officially Declares 2016 The Hottest Year On Record

Trending News: UN Declares 2016 The Warmest Year Ever Recorded

Long Story Short

As negotiators of the Paris climate agreement meet in Marrakesh, Morocco to work out details of the accord, the UNs World Meteorological Organization has announced that 2016 is the warmest year ever recorded.

Long Story

The WMO doesnt need data from the years final two months to declare this year the hottest since measurements began in the 19th century.

The figures show that the year through October has shown an average global temperature increase of 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. The Paris accord calls for an increase limit of 2 or even 1.5 degrees.

The WMO says the El Nino weather phenomenon did play a role in this years temperature rise, but believes that human activity, in particular the burning of fossil fuels, remains the most important factor in boosting world temperatures.

The WMO released the preliminary report to act as a spur to negotiators meeting in Morocco this week to hash out methods of implementing the Paris treaty, which was adopted in December and signed by 193 countries earlier this year.

This years temperature record breaks the previous record set only last year. 2015 was the hottest year on record after global temperatures surged past 2014s numbers.

Another year. Another record, said WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas. In parts of Arctic Russia, temperatures were 6C to 7C above the long-term average. Many other Arctic and sub-Arctic regions in Russia, Alaska and north-west Canada were at least 3C above average. We are used to measuring temperature records in fractions of a degree, and so this is different.

According to the Reuters news agency, President-elect Donald Trump is looking for a quick way to walk out of the agreement, and believes climate change is a hoax.

The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2012

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For the third year in a row, global carbon emissions were flat. Its believed the ongoing recession in China and declining consumption of coal in the US are the cause.


China Aid: Exclusive Op-Ed



By Professor Terry Halliday, American Bar Foundation







(ChicagoJuly 8, 2016) My friend, Li Heping was disappeared on July 10, 2015. Detained by Chinas security apparatus, Li Heping, a practising Christian, has not been seen for 365 days by his wife or child, or his chosen lawyers, or diplomats rightly concerned about his safety.

Seized in the first wave of Chinas infamous 709 crackdown on hundreds of rights lawyers and activities, for a year Li Heping has been held in isolation, his only company round-the-clock security guards, punctuated by lengthy interrogations. Longtime observers of disappeared lawyers state there is a high probability of intense psychological and probably physical torture.

Prof. Terence Halliday

Who is Li Heping and what does his treatment tell us about Chinas future?

His powerful impulse to defend the weak and vulnerable grew out of Li Hepings early life in nearby populous Henan Province. From a poor family, he started his legal career in 1997 as a commercial lawyer. He moved to Beijing and quickly built the Global Law firm into a powerhouse of rights defense where many of Chinas most vocal rights lawyers concentrated their practices.

Like his rights colleagues, Li Heping took on high profile environmental pollution cases and the

subsequently famous cause of blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng. He got deeply involved in many highly charged cases of property and land seizures by the government, and cases of religious freedom, most controversially defending Falun Gang adherents whose brutal persecution made rights defense dangerous even for the lawyers.

In recent years he pulled back from the front line and led a fight against torture in Chinas justice system. He led workshops on international UN standards that define torture and practices that restrained it.

Joined by other leading China rights lawyers, Li Heping was hosted at the White House by President George W. Bush and he gained international prominence in the media and international human rights organizations.

Now he is confined to a cell.

The wives of lawyers detained in the 709 crackdown and

other activists protest outside the Supreme Peoples

Procuratorate on July 4, 2016.

(Photo courtesy of Wang Qiaoling)

Internationally acclaimed artist Ai Weiwei once told me, China has become a police state built on fear. Those who speak freely are crushed. They become like slaves. By contrast, consider Li Hepings views about his Christian faith, Chinas legal system, and Chinas future.

As a Christian, Li believes passionately in equality. Everyone according to this belief is a sinner, he says, whether you are an ordinary citizen or the president. Yet because all sinners are created by God and in the image of God all sinners have dignities and rights that should be protected.

In a country where the taking of property, of homes and farms, causes widespread anger, Li Heping is moved by the story of King David being publicly rebuked for taking a tiny vineyard from a poor person and adding it to his vast wealth.

Like Martin Luther King, he affirms passionately the Bibles call to love mercy, do justice, walk humbly with your Lord. Love and forgiveness are paramount. He once said that Christians need to be able to forgive even those who persecute them.

And all persons in China, he believes, should be free to worship, to believe or not to believe. The state and the church should be separate. No government should be able to classify certain religions as illegal cults.

Li Hepings Christian beliefs directly influence the way he thinks about Chinas legal system. Christians always need to be asking, not only is this lawful, but is it just? God commands us to understand justice in this world, he has said.

A just legal system requires respect for the constitution and separation of powers. It needs to guarantee President Roosevelts four freedoms: freedom from fear/exemption from fear; freedom of worship; freedom from want; freedom of speech.

Justice, he believes, requires that the law protect property rights.

Li Heping wants major changes in Chinas criminal justice system. Confession by torture has to stop. Judges should not be overruled by Party cadres in sensitivecases. Detainees should have access to lawyers they choose. All persons should be equal before the law  and protected by the law  a fundamental principle, he says, of a rule of law society.

Li Heping loves China and its people. His vision of China would replace violence by love, arbitrary power by rule of law, brutal repression with forgiveness, authoritarian law with just law, unequal treatment with equality before the law.

He speaks love to hear, truth to power, respect for citizens grievances and beliefs, not their suppression.

Christians, like all Chinese, he believes should work patiently and peacefully towards a society that respects universal values, upheld by the UN and rule of law societies.

If these beliefs make him more dangerous than Osama Bin Laden, as he was once told, then this tells the world that China is far outside the values inscribed in international law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

It is time Li Heping and his fellow rights lawyers were released.

It is time for Chinas Communist Party to turn away from violence and fear, torture and disappearances, and follow Li Hepings path of justice and equality, peace and forgiveness, constitutionalism and the rule of law.



Terence Halliday is Research Professor, American Bar Foundation. He is the co-author with Sida Liu of a forthcoming book Criminal Defense in China: The Politics of Lawyers at Work





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A chartered financial analyst offers investment advice to prospective clients at an international financial expo in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Talent shortage in Asia, especially in China, creates opportunities in male-led bastions

For a long time, female fund managers were viewed as something of an endangered species in the investment sector. While that may well be case in some countries, things are quietly changing in Asia as more women move up the ranks in the male-dominated industry.

Research by management consulting firm Oliver Wyman has found that Asia has by far the highest representation of women in asset management, comprising 32 percent of portfolio managers as of December 2015, more than double the global average of 15 percent.

The number in China is also encouraging. Female managers ran nearly a quarter (24.2 percent) of mutual funds in China as of March this year, according to Chinese financial data research firm Wind Info. This compared with only 2 percent of assets and open-end funds in the United States being managed by women, according to a report by data provider Morningstar.

Rapid economic development in Asian countries and the relatively short development history of the financial industry there has resulted in acute skills shortage, which is creating more opportunities for women to move forward in their careers in finance, industry experts said.

They said the demand for skilled and experienced investment professionals may also prompt employers in Asia to overlook concerns about a woman's current or future family commitments.

"The industry here really started taking off only in the last 15 to 20 years and this is a period when the industry needed lots of new professionals quickly and firms were willing to search beyond the traditional talent pool to recruit and promote female investment professionals," said Gillian Kwek, a portfolio manager with Fidelity International in Singapore.

Kwek, who has more than 15 years of experience in the asset management industry, said that easier access to domestic helpincluding support from parents living nearby who were happy to help out with family matters such as baby sittingcould also help to explain the higher female representation in Asia than in the US and Europe.

In addition, the larger talent pool of qualified women in the finance industry was also seen as one of the reasons why there were more female fund managers in Asia than elsewhere.

The latest research on gender diversity in investment management by the CFA Institute found that seven out of the eight countries with the highest percentages of women CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) members were in Asia.

Vietnam has the highest percentage of 43 percent of female CFA members while the Chinese mainland was ranked fourth with 31.3 percent of women CFA members. The number is only 16.4 percent in the US.

"In China, we have seen more women moving up the ranks in the investment management industry," said Jia Lijun, head of the CFA Institute's China branch, noting that there will be more opportunities for women as China's financial industry matures and continues to develop.

"As a veteran with more than 30 years in the financial services industry, I am absolutely positive that leading investment firms in China are starting to actively seek a wide range of perspectives and are gradually realizing that diversity in decision-making is good for clients, teams and business," he said.

The rise of information technology and the boom in the financial technology (fintech) sector in China have also contributed to higher female representation in the finance industry.

"The internet has become a main driver of growth and there is a shortage of good talent. This has created more opportunities for women to move forward in their careers, not because they are women but because they are good managers," Pan Jing, chief marketing officer of the Chinese online financing firm Dianrong.com, was quoted as saying in the survey by Oliver Wyman.

Despite the encouraging trend in Asia, empirical evidence and industry research still point to the trend that woman are scarce in the financial services industry on a global basis and are underrepresented relative to other professions.

Globally, only 18 percent of CFA members are women, well below the percentage of female workers around the world, according to the research by the CFA Institute.

In the financial services industry, women occupied only 16 percent of positions at the executive committee level, the Wyman report showed.

Experts said that the fact that finance is a profession that disproportionately rewards those who work long and inflexible hours, could be a factor that discourages women from entering the industry. Family responsibilities and insufficient flexible working hours often lead to a mid-career conflict and a less attractive "career trade-off" for women than men, they said.

The image of the investment industry, which is often seen as a competitive, aggressive and harsh profession, has also affected its attractiveness as a destination for female graduates, some experts said.

Nonetheless, Fidelity International's Kwek said that it was reasonable to expect the industry to embrace greater gender diversity as her clients are becoming more diverse.

"As women control more financial assets and make more financial decisions about their investments, the expectation is also there for more women portfolio managers to manage their savings," she said.
CHANGSHA - China's leading locomotive maker, CRRC Zhuzhou Institute Co Ltd, has made the country's first bulk export of eight-inch chips to India.

The company, based in Zhuzhou city in Central China's Hunan province, said on Tuesday that it exported eight-inch insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) chips that will be used for upgrading the transformers of 100 locomotives in India to make the electric trains more energy-efficient.

The China-made chips are currently used on the 7,200-kilowatt electric locomotives that power China's high-speed trains.

CRRC Zhuzhou Institute Co Ltd built the world's second eight-inch chip production line in 2014, which has reached annual output of 120,000 chips and 1 million IGBT modules.

The IGBT chip is a key technology of modern electric appliances. It can be used in everything from high-speed rail to the aerospace and aviation industries.

The Chinese locomotive maker expects the chips to have huge export potential.
Alibaba's financial arm, Ant Financial, demonstrates its facial recognition device that features 'smile to pay' function at the Light of the Internet Expo, known as the teaser of the 3rd World Internet Conference, in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, on Nov 15, 2016. [Photo by Liu Zheng/chinadaily.com.cn]
Editor's note: Three years ago, President Xi Jinping launched China's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, to link vast transcontinental swathes with a common economic thread. The initiative brought unprecedented opportunities to companies worldwide to expand their business and access new markets. China Daily will present a series of interviews with top executives of foreign companies, looking at the impact of the initiative on their operations as well as markets. Ondrej Frydrych, chief executive officer of Home Credit Group in China, tells how the international consumer finance provider will work closely with Chinese partners to further diversify their earning ability.

Home Credit Group, an international consumer finance provider based in the Czech Republic, will work closely with Chinese partners to add the number of loan products in Indonesia and India over the next five years to further diversify their earning ability, said its top executive.

Many of these opportunities come from the fast development of the Belt and Road Initiative with growing trade and investment volume, as well as these countries' increasing demand for consumption upgrade, foreign products, public services and flexible financing solutions.

Ondrej Frydrych, chief executive officer of Home Credit Group in China. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Home Credit has formed a strong partnership with Dongguan-based Chinese smartphone manufacturer Oppo Electronics Corp to build a stronger presence in member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, especially in Vietnam and the Philippines, to create new market growth points from the development of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Ondrej Frydrych, chief executive officer of Home Credit Group in China, said the company offers these countries consumer finance solutions which cover the entire process of loans, consumption, payment and credit system construction.

Unlike local dealerships or banks, Home Credit is able to offer customers in the region a smartphone backed by a zero percent interest loan.

According to statistics from oppo's overseas mobile phone sales department, about 40 percent of oppo mobile phones sold in Vietnam in 2015 were through consumer credit services provided by Home Credit.

Oppo's sales in Philippines also jumped to the second place in terms of market share from January to August 2016, with over 30 percent of sales of certain models coming from the consumer credit services provided by Home Credit.

"The collaboration is showing encouraging results, and these two modern trading routes have brought even more opportunities in those markets, and offered a platform where we could better integrate mutual resources," said Frydrych.

Home Credit achieved a robustly fast pace of growth in new loan volumes in Asian countries in the first half of 2016109 percent in Vietnam, 164 percent in India, 321 percent in Indonesia and 466 percent in the Philippines.

Based on its experience in operating in Southeast Asia, Home Credit found that many local residents are still in great need of basic necessities.

"The mobile phone will remain a stable growth point in Southeast Asian markets, while products that meet daily life needs such as household electrical appliances, electric motorcycles and other durable consumer goods with high quality and relatively lower prices may have great market potential in the region," said Frydrych.

The East European company had over 15 million active customers by the end of June this year, with over two-thirds of them in Asia: 7.3 million in China, 1.3 million in Vietnam and 1 million in India.

"The collaboration between Home Credit and Chinese companies well supports the popularization of consumer finance, and facilitates to promote 'Made in China 2025' in global markets, enabling China to serve more foreign consumers while driving domestic industrial restructuring and upgrading," said Zhao Xian, a professor of international trade at the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing.
The media sector is undergoing a transformation driven by new technology.

Piero Scaruffi, known for co-authoring A History of Silicon Valley: The Largest Creation of Wealth in the History of the Planet, shared his view of future media trends at a recent forum hosted by Sina News in Beijing.

These are ten trends Scaruffi highlights in his 2017 The Future of Media Report.

Trend 1: User experience technology

In the future, news won't be just read, but experienced.
MSPs that want to be successful in the long run must look at cybersecurity as a foundational service, one they 
A woman takes pictures of herself with her mobile phone inside an Audi car during the 16th Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition in Shanghai. [Photo/Agencies]

Models to be produced by JV include new-energy vehicles, venture will explore the possibility of smart mobility services

Audi AG has joined hands with China's largest automaker SAIC Motor to localize and sell its models, a move to consolidate its beleaguered lead in the country's premium car market.

Shanghai-listed SAIC Motor said in a letter to investors on Monday that it signed a memorandum of understanding with Audi's parent company Volkswagen AG at its headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, on Friday.

According to the agreement, the Audi models to be produced at SAIC Volkswagen will include new-energy vehicles and the joint venture will explore the possibility of smart mobility services.

Audi was tightlipped about the issue, saying that SAIC Motor "entered cooperation talks with Audi AG to evaluate long-term collaboration in China".

Although neither side offered details about their cooperation, Chinese media reports said SAIC Volkswagen will manufacture Audi models as OEM.

As part of Volkswagen AG, Audi is not allowed to build its own manufacturing joint ventures in China as Volkswagen has already two: SAIC Volkswagen and FAW Volkswagen.

According to the nation's industry policies, a foreign automaker can have no more than two manufacturing joint ventures in China, and if one automaker has controlling stakes in another, they are regarded as one automaker.

Audi has been the champion in China's premium car market, but it is losing steam compared to its competitors.

Statistics show that Audi sold 440,233 cars on the Chinese mainland and in Hong Kong in the first nine months of this year, 6.2 percent growth year-on-year.

In comparison, BMW's sales in the same period rose 10.6 percent year-on-year to 379,000 units, and Mercedes-Benz sold 344,791 units in the same period, a 29.5 percent surge year-on-year.

FAW Volkswagen, in which Audi has a 10 percent stake, is now localizing and selling Audi models in China.

Li Yanwei, an auto analyst at the China Auto Dealers Association, said Ge Shuwen, former deputy general manager of FAW Volkswagen's Audi division, may join SAIC Volkswagen to head its Audi unit.

Industry insiders said Audi has to carefully tackle the problem of how to balance its relations with the two partners.

Audi said on Monday that the two will intensify their cooperation and FAW-Volkswagen will add five locally produced Audi e-tron models to its China portfolioincluding pure battery vehicles with a range of more than 500 kilometers, within five years.

"Audi and FAW have cooperated closely for more than a quarter of a century. With our long-term growth strategy we will build upon this successful partnership," said Rupert Stadler, chairman of the board of management of Audi AG.

Audi dealers, who were not informed of the deal in advance, are voicing their anger, demanding a response from Audi about how to protect their interests.

A public letter from the CADA Audi Dealers Association said some dealers are faced with high inventory and "the interests of Audi dealers will be further damaged if you set up a new sales company".

There are currently around 500 authorized Audi dealers across the country.
German automaker Audi AG has plans to introduce more new energy vehicles into the Chinese market, in an effort to battle for a lead in the growing popular segment.

Audi said on Monday it will add five locally-produced Audi e-tron models to its China portfolio within five years, including pure battery vehicles with a range of more than 500 kilometers.

"Our e-tron offensive lays down a strong marker for the future," said Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management of Audi AG.

By 2025, Audi, with FAW-Volkswagen, will offer at least one locally-produced electrically powered SUV and sedan model in all volume segments and then there will be an e-tron model in each of the six biggest segments.

The electrification of production in China has already begun with the Audi A6 L e-tron. The first locally-manufactured plug-in hybrid will be delivered to dealerships before the end of 2016, said Audi.

Audi said it will strengthen its cooperation with the production and development departments of FAW-Volkswagen in electric mobility, building up key competencies for future technologies in the joint venture.

Audi and FAW also plan to set up a joint company focusing on mobility and digital services.
Photos of missing children are being printed on bottled water by a company in Qingdao. [Photo by Zhang Xiaopeng/CHINA DAILY]

A bottled water company in eastern China has begun printing pictures of missing children on its packaging to help parents and authorities find them.

Qingdao Kingtex International said it has sold 500,000 bottles with information on six children missing since July. The labels also include the child's birth date and a hotline number.

"We just wanted to play our part in helping those parents who might spend their lifetime searching for their missing children," said Shi Yiwei, a marketing manager at the company.

"We're mainly selling the water bottles in Qingdao," she said. "Next, we'd like to expand the program to Beijing and Shanghai, to spread the information nationwide, so as to raise more awareness of missing children."

The project was launched in cooperation with Baobei Huijia (Baby Back Home), a volunteer group that supports parents looking for missing children nationwide.

"It's always a good thing to add another method to help search for lost children. At the very least, these efforts will help to draw people's attention to the problem of child trafficking," said Zhang Baoyan, who founded the group with her husband, Qin Yanyou.

Kingtex's water bottles have received a lot of attention on social media. While some applaud the move, others have questioned the company's motives, not least because its bottled water sells for 5.5 yuan (80 US cents), higher than many domestic brands.

"The water is so expensive. Can't the company lower the price so as to improve sales and spread the information to more people?" wrote one netizen on Sina Weibo, the popular Twitter-like platform.

Shi said Kingtex's prices have remained the same since 2014. "We also distribute a number of bottles for free in order to reach more people," she added.

NGOs are playing an important role in assisting the search for missing children and combating human trafficking in China. Baobei Huijia said it has helped to reunite more than 1,700 families since it was established in 2007. "We're still working on about 31,000 unsolved cases," Zhang said.

A traditional preference for male heirs, particularly in rural areas, has led to a black market, with families willing to spend large sums for a baby boy.

Accurate statistics about China's missing children are difficult to obtain, yet authorities have been clamping down on human trafficking.

Data from the Supreme People's Court show judges at all levels heard more than 7,000 cases involving the abduction of women or children between 2010 and 2014. The trials led to nearly 13,000 convictions. In April 2009, the Ministry of Public Security established a national DNA database to help match recovered children with their biological parents.




Government tackles the growing problem of physical and mental torment on campus, report Xin Dingding in Beijing and Liu Ce in Shenyang.





A police officer teaches students how to avoid being bullied during an awareness-raising class at a middle school in Shenyang, Liaoning province. [Photo by ZHAO JINGDONG/CHINA DAILY]

The government has released a guideline to address the problem of bullying and student violence in primary and middle schools. The measures were released on Friday by nine government departments, including the Ministry of Education, the Supreme People's Court, and the Ministry of Public Security.

Schools have been ordered to strengthen awareness of bullying, to inform students about the consequences and to teach them to protect themselves. Moreover, students with severe behavioral problems face being transferred to special schools appropriate to their needs, and in serious cases, the perpetrators will face administrative or criminal penalties.

Local governments have been instructed to establish teams headed by leading local officials to oversee compliance, and officials will be held accountable for serious incidents or violence in areas under their control.

Widespread problem

The move acknowledges that bullying has become a widespread problem in China's schools, spawning physical violence and mental anguish. In the most extreme cases, students have been forced to drink urine and even threatened with arsenic poisoning.

Xi Leng, (not her real name, but her username on Zhihu, a question-and-answer website) was bullied during her early schooling. Even though she turned 20 this year, she is still traumatized by her experiences during her "nightmare" years at primary school.

"I struggled desperately every day then, and even considered suicide," the Shanghai resident said, recalling how her lunch was dumped on the floor because she refused to fetch a bowl of soup for a classmate in the school dining hall, her books were covered with graffiti and ripped, and her name was deliberately changed on her homework before it reached the teachers.

Xi's problems began after a boy began acting aggressively toward her, but received no punishment except a verbal warning from the teacher. Gradually, she became the target of bullying for the entire class. "I had hay fever and had to use lots of paper tissues to wipe my nose, which many of my classmates found annoying, I guess," she said.

She tried to fight the boy, but lost, so she told her parents about the problem. They spoke with the teacher in charge, but no action was taken.

Xi's suffering didn't stop until her parents said that they would bring the matter to public attention and allow the school and the teacher to suffer the consequences. Feeling the pressure, the teacher warned the students that if they continued to bully Xi, they would not be allowed to graduate from primary school.

"Back then, nobody took school bullying seriously. They thought it was just a nasty spat between kidsafter all, I wasn't beaten up or forced to hand over money," Xi said.

For some victims, the effects of bullying can lead to crippling social dislocation in later life. Zhang Xiaoyu, another Zhihu user, wrote that her middle school classmates ridiculed and humiliated her because she had body odor: "All I thought about in those years was killing myself and killing those who humiliated me. I hated to hang out with people, quit school and suffered depression. Even now, I still have social phobias, a fear of other people's attention and I do not easily trust others."



Related stories:

Growing up is a child's own experience



How Japan and the US deal with the problem




One in every four students in the United States has reported being bullied during the academic year, according to a recent report published by the US National Center for Educational Statistics.

Georgia became the first state to implement anti-bullying legislation in the wake of the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado, one of the worst school-related shootings in US history.

Since then, recognizing the dangerous long-term effects of bullying, the country has made efforts to eradicate it, and more than 120 bills have been adopted by state legislatures.

Hundreds of anti-bullying alerts are broadcast every day, and every state has policies against bullying and cyberbullying that are based on, but not limited to, race, color, national origin, gender, disability or religion.

Every school district must adhere to the policies, which include mandatory teacher training, counseling for victims and severe consequences for bullies when incidents are reported and proved.

School bullying is also a problem in Japan, and has prompted the formulation of more than 30 laws and regulations.

An anti-bullying law that outlines the responsibilities of schools and administrative authorities came into effect in 2013.

Japan's Basic Policy on the Prevention of Bullying has recently worked toward devising policies that emphasize student education in accordance with social norms, greater teacher awareness and mandatory training about children's rights.

Elona Neal contributed to this story.
Retail sector being increasingly driven by e-commerce customers as bricks-and-mortar stores feel the heat amid changing shopping habits

The government has issued a set of new policies to urge traditional retailers to strengthen their links with e-commerce sites, logistics companies, and finance and telecommunications operators, as online shopping sites have become a growing force in China's retail sector.

The State Council, China's Cabinet, said e-commerce operators and bricks-and-mortar shops could integrate market resources and combine their advantages by cross shareholding, mergers and acquisitions and other forms of strategic cooperation, according to the statement it released on Nov 11, or Singles' Day, the country's biggest shopping day of the year.

Traditional retailers should combine their advantages in services and experiences with online data and circulation and expand their intelligent layout.

E-commerce sites may conditionally release data resources to traditional retailers, to help them raise their resources allocation efficiencies and improve their decision-making standards.

"The new policies were released at a key moment during the transformation of the traditional retail industry, and they provide detailed and clear guidance on the integration of online and offline stores," said Zhao Ping, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce.

"Online shopping has been growing rapidly, but the growth rate has slowed down year by year. This signals that the sector has entered a mature growth period, and it creates a growth space for traditional retailers.

"Bricks-and-mortar stores have been discovering the methods of online-to-offline integration. The policies will help them to make new breakthroughs and substantial progress in the data orientation of goods, stores, and customers."

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, which initiated the Singles' Day shopping festival in 2009, reported on-the-day sales of 120.7 billion yuan ($17.7 billion) by midnight Friday.

As the turnover of e-commerce companies surged from 52 million yuan in 2009 to over 120 billion yuan this year, traditional retailers are losing ground.

Because of their low operating efficiencies, high operational costs, the change of consumers' habits and the impact of e-commerce, many Chinese and foreign traditional retailers have posted heavy losses.

The UK home, food and clothing store Marks & Spencer announced last week that it will shut all of its 10 stores in the Chinese mainland. In fact, it has been unable to acclimatize to the China mainland market since its launch eight years ago, and so far, not many Chinese consumers know about the brand.

The English retailer has continued to record sales declines in its international business. It has decided to temporarily keep its online stores on Tmall.com and JD.com, two of the largest shopping websites in China, but considers the rapid growth of e-commerce in the Chinese mainland as the last straw.

In its statement, the government said selling counterfeit and shoddy goods, intellectual property infringement, unfair competition, commercial fraud and other illegal activities will be severely punished. The authorities will focus on inspecting corporate headquarters and distribution centers, it said.

The government suggested that well-performing shopping malls adjust their operating structures, and transfer to a hub that combines functions of social networking, and family, fashion, and culture spending.

Highly saturated department stores with similar functions should move out of the core business areas of cities. Chain stores and brand-named enterprises are encouraged to establish convenience stores and community supermarkets, and expand their value-added services to create convenience for local residents, it said.
A couple of Przewalski's gazelle run in Qinghai province in June last year.Wu Gang / Xinhua

There are now more than 1,400 Przewalski's gazelle, a species even more endangered than the giant panda, living around a lake in Northwest China's Qinghai province, its only habitat. According to a survey by Qinghai Lake National Nature Reserve, there are 1,464 gazelle living around the lake, about 200 more than the number recorded last year.

He Yubang, who works at the reserve, said the survey, which was conducted in August, recorded 324 fawns born this year and 1,140 older gazelle, including 445 males and 695 females.

"This is a record high since our surveys began," He said.

Years of protection has seen the gazelle population quadruple in the past 20 years and lowered its status on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species from "critically endangered" to "endangered".

The local government has set up watering holes and supplied food in the winter, as well as dismantling barbed wire fences, once used to restrict the movement of livestock and mark ownership of grassland, which have killed many gazelle's trying to jump over them.

The provincial forestry authorities tore down 515,000 meters of fencing or barbed wire across four counties around the lake between 2009 and last year, and lowered the height of the remaining fences from 1.5 meters to 1.2 meters.
A worker examines Traveler II before the flying machine starts its maiden flight in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on Thursday.Jiang Wenyao / Xinhua

A flying machine carrying a special "passenger" - a tortoise - reached an altitude of 12,000 meters on its maiden flight on Thursday night in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

Luan Lin, co-founder of the Kuang-Chi Group that invented the device, said her team had expected Traveler II to reach 20,000 meters. However, problems with communication and remote control began when it reached 12,000 meters over Bostan Lake, and the team had to give up.

Luan said the setback would not dampen the team's enthusiasm for inventing vehicles for near-space travel.

The main cabin of Traveler II has a diameter of 2.5 meters and weighs more than 1 metric ton. It has a life-support system capable of providing an environment suitable for humans. The capsule is lifted by a helium balloon 40 meters in diameter. The tortoise was there to provide experimental data, testing the cabin's environment.

"This is our second generation prototype. We can now communicate with near-space from Earth and use solar energy to drive the propeller during the flight," Luan said.

However, as the flight did not reach 20,000 meters, life-support systems and the propeller were not fully tested, she said.

The test site was chosen for its lack of commercial or military flights. However, winter at Bostan Lake is extremely harsh. The test flight was originally scheduled for Sunday, but was postponed due to blizzards and strong gales.

Luan said the Traveler series will give human travelers a superbsense of safety and traveling comfort. The Shenzhen-based company plans to eventually take six people at a time on flights to altitudes between 20,000 meters and 24,000 meters.

In addition to passenger flights, the Traveler II also has potential for communications and meteorological applications through remote sensing. The near-space craft could also capture data for cosmic and solar physics.

"Near space" refers to altitudes between 20,000 and 100,000 meters, an area that has yet to be explored by humankind.

The Kuang-Chi Group began work on the Traveler program in February last year. Its Traveler I reached an altitude of 21,000 meters over New Zealand in June.

Liu Ruopeng, president of Kuang-Chi, said the company plans a test flight with human passengers next year.

Kuang-Chi Group, founded in 2010, is a global innovation company. Originating from a five-person team, the company has expanded to a global community of 1,400 employees involved in industries including aerospace, smart cities and artificial intelligence. Its subsidiary, Kuang-Chi Science, is listed in Hong Kong and Australia. It also has an overseas firm, Martin Jet-pack, making personal flying equipment.
Dong Qiang, professor of French language and literature at Peking University

A Peking University professor has been elected as a correspondent, or tenured foreign associate member, by France's Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, the first Chinese associate member of the Paris academy.

Dong Qiang, chairman of the Department of French Language and Literature at Peking University, is a noted scholar, translator and literary historian and is an expert on Chinese and French culture. He has been engaged in promoting Sino-French cultural communication for decades.

Dong was to take office while attending the annual meeting of the academy this week.

"I studied in Paris at an early age. I deeply felt that Western countries rarely knew China. Thus, it is important to improve the communication between East and West," Dong said.

After earning a bachelor's degree from Peking University in 1987, he went to France to pursue further study. He was in France for 12 years and was once a student of the Czech-born writer Milan Kundera.

In 2001, Dong returned to China and began teaching at Peking University's Department of French Language and Literature.

He has published more than 30 books, including translations of The Analects of Confucius and Kundera's The Art of the Novel, promoting cultural communication between China and France.

In 2013, he received the top award from the French Institute - The Great Medal of the Francophone. Last year, he was awarded the French Legion of Honor by Prime Minister Manuel Valls during a visit to China. This year, he received an honorary doctorate from Free University of Brussels.

The Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, founded in 1795, is one of the five academies of the French Institute.

The academy brings together prominent figures worldwide in various fields, including politics, economics, international relations and religious studies. Renowned fellows of the French Institute have included philosopher Henri-Louis Bergson, winner of the 1927 Nobel Prize in literature; statesman and historian Adolphe Thiers; historian Jules Michelet; and diplomat, political scientist and historian Alexis de Tocqueville.

Luo Wangshu contributed to this story.




BEIJING -- In his role as chairman of the Central Military Commission, Xi Jinping has signed an order to confer a posthumous honorary title on a fighter jet pilot.

Zhang Chao, who died on April 27 when flying a J-15 carrier-based aircraft in a carrier-landing simulation, was given the title "Pioneer in Building a Strong Army."

Zhang, who had participated in several dozen marine patrols, joined the team of carrier-based aircraft pilots in March 2015.

The whole army and armed police forces were asked to learn from Zhang's virtues such as self-discipline and being bold enough to sacrifice everything for the Party and the people.

Zhang should be an example to those who strive for a world-class military, said the order.
BEIJING -- The State Council, China's cabinet, has announced the appointment and removal of several officials, according to a circular issued Tuesday.

Li Xiaohong was removed from the post of president of Wuhan University and named vice minister of education.

Huang Wei will replace Hou Jianguo as vice minister of science and technology.

Xiong Xuanguo was appointed vice minister of justice.

Li Guo was named deputy head of the General Administration of Customs, and Lu Peijun and Lyu Bin will no longer hold this post.

Fu Jianhua was appointed deputy head of the State Administration of Work Safety.

The State Council decided that Chen Shun will no longer hold the post of assistant minister of education and Dou Yupei will be removed from the post of vice minister of civil affairs.

Li Ganjie will no longer hold the posts of vice minister of environmental protection and the head of National Nuclear Safety Administration.

Tong Daochi will no longer serve as the assistant minister of commerce.
Swedish education company EF Education First releases their 2016 English Proficiency Index in Beijing on Nov 15, 2016. [Photo/China Daily]

General English proficiency in China has improved year-on-year, but is still lingering at the intermediate to basic level, according to a new report.

Swedish education company EF Education First released their 2016 English Proficiency Index in Beijing on Tuesday, with China rising eight places to 39th among 72 countries and regions.

Out of the whole country, residents of Shanghai and Hong Kong were found to be the most proficient in English.

The report is based on the EF Standard English Test results of 950,000 adults from 72 countries and regions across the world. The test, which consists of reading and listening, was developed by Education First.

Elsewhere in the world, the report found that adults from the Netherlands are the best English speakers among people from non-English speaking countries. The Danes and Swedes ranked 2nd and 3rd, respectively.

Meanwhile, Singapore ranked first in Asia for English proficiency.
Foreign instructors teach English to residents in a community in Jinzhou, Liaoning province, in April. The teachers were hired by the local community. LI TIECHENG/CHINA DAILY

The English proficiency of the Chinese has improved since last year but is still at a middle level compared with other non-English-speaking countries, said a report released on Tuesday in Beijing.

The ranking of the English proficiency of Chinese rose eight places to 39th among 72 countries and regions, according to the 2016 English Proficiency Index of the Swedish education company EF Education First.

The English ability of residents in Shanghai ranked first in China, followed by that of Hong Kong and Beijing residents, the report said.

Cai Jigang, an English-language professor at Shanghai's Fudan University, said Shanghai has held the leading position for several years, thanks in part to a reform since 2013 of English language courses offered to all college students in the city.

According to Cai, the aim of college English courses in the past was to help students pass the College English Test. "But after the reform, the courses have focused more on meeting students' needs in their professional studies, academic research and job search," he said.

The report is based on the EF Standard English Test results of 950,000 adults from 72 countries and regions. The test developed by the company consists of reading and listening.

In Asia, the English proficiency of people in Singapore ranked first, while Malaysia and the Philippines also ranked high, it said.

Adults from the Netherlands are the best English speakers among people from non-English-speaking countries, followed by Denmark and Sweden, the report said.

Sebastian Magnusson, information officer at the Swedish embassy in Beijing, said the high English proficiency of the Swedish might be the result of an immersion approach to learning the language.

In Sweden, people learn English not only with textbooks or courses at school, but in daily life, such as through TV programs, computer games and movies from English-speaking countries.

He said this might likewise help Chinese learners to improve their English level.

Christopher McCormick, senior vice-president for academic affairs at Education First, said that in China, proficiency in English varies greatly from east to west. Shanghai and Beijing rank high because they are more engaged internationally, he said.

"The challenge is how we bring the rest of the country with them and what can we do nationally to lift everybody to the same kinds of opportunities for language learning. That's a big policy, practice, investment and innovation challenge," he said.

zhaoxinying@chinadaily.com.cn
TUV SUD foundation signs a continuation agreement with the Sino-German College of Tongji University. Photos Provided to China Daily Participants speak at a panel discussion, Growing with the Transforming China, during the company's 150th anniversary celebration.

German global testing, certification and inspection solutions provider TUV SUD has vowed to enhance its commitment to the Chinese market and provide more professional services for China's industrial transformation and upgrade.

The company hosted an event in Shanghai on October 26 to celebrate its 150th anniversary. Since its first branch in China opened in 1991, the company has been providing quality, safety and sustainability solutions to support China's business growth.

"TUV SUD has operated in China for 25 years, and has made many efforts in testing and certification," said Dirk von Wahl, president and CEO of TUV SUD Greater China. "More importantly, we help more Chinese companies improve their awareness of safety and quality. During this process, Chinese companies have learned how to produce products with higher quality and safety."

China is one of TUV SUD's most important markets outside Germany. In addition to continuing to provide objective, professional and quality testing and certification services, von Wahl said the company will introduce more core concepts and details relating to the German Industry 4.0 strategy, and help Chinese companies upgrade and transform their industries under the new normal economic environment.

In 2015, China's State Council released the Made in China 2025, a 10-year-long strategy for the country to boost the development of its manufacturing sector and become a powerful nation. It is often seen as the Chinese version of Germany's Industry 4.0 project.

Von Wahl noted that the adoption of digital technology and tools will support the country's development, as the economy is heading toward high-end manufacturing.

Digital transformation is also among TUV SUD's four strategic themes, with others being sustainable development, consumer protection and urbanization.

Axel Stepken, chairman of the board of management of TUV SUD, said the core of Industry 4.0 is to connect technology with people, the internet and the physical world, and the automatic transmission of information between them. He believes all aspects of our lives can be changed through the intersection of virtual reality and reality.

Stepken said the company believes that the digital transformation will have a profound impact on almost all businesses and social fields. "TUV SUD will help more companies to seize opportunities brought about by the digital transformation," he said.

Meanwhile, the company will work to reduce digital systems' security risks and help companies to build trust and gain a competitive edge during this process.

In March, TUV SUD opened a Digital Service Centre of Excellence in Singapore, following the opening of its Digital Service Centre of Excellence in Munich. With an investment of over S$40 million ($28.4 million) over the next three years, the digital center in Singapore will specialize in providing solutions for new technologies involving predictive data analytics, industrial cyber security and functional safety for evolving smart market segments, such as smart infrastructure and Industry 4.0, according to the company.

The move will help companies realize the potential of today's digital transformation initiatives, while minimizing the risks involved in increased connectivity, the company said.

"The key 30 years of internet industries have arrived. It is bound to subvert the existing industry and produce tremendous economic benefits," said Shen Bin, head of Department for Mechanical Engineering of the Sino-German College for Postgraduate Studies, or CDHK, at Tongji University.

Shen noted that digitalization is an important part of companies' trying to remain relevant.

During the company's 150th anniversary ceremony, the TUV SUD Foundation and CDHK signed an agreement to continue to fund an endowed chair relating to the reliability and safety of technology systems, and to cultivate more young scientists in China and Germany. The signed agreement will extend the existing endowment from 2017 to 2021 and will promote exchange between academia and industry.

wanghongyi@chinadaily.com.cn

Technical assistance around the world

Headquartered in Munich, Germany and founded in 1866, TUV SUD is a global testing, certification and inspection organization.

According to the company's website, it has 24,000 employees at more than 850 locations, and partners with clients all around the world.

TUV SUD aims to work alongside customers to optimize their operations, enable them to access global markets and enhance their competitiveness.

TUV SUD Greater China operates from its headquarters in Shanghai with main offices in Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Taipei, as well as nearly 40 satellite offices throughout the region, according to the website. The company acts as a supporting bridge between international trade partners.

About 3, 000 experts and trained staff support customers in positioning new products, services and systems for global adoption.

TUV SUD says it is closely aligned with several international chambers of commerce and trade development organizations in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

According to the website, TUV SUD is also working closely with several reputable organizations in China's mainland, including the China Inspection and Quarantine, the China Quality Certification Center and the China Certification and Inspection Group.

(China Daily 11/15/2016 page13)
Editor's Note: To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, also known as the Tokyo Trial, Shanghai Jiao Tong University invited 25 scholars from countries such as China, the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom to its International Academic Forum on Tokyo Trial and World Peace, which was held on Nov 12 to 13. Following are excerpts from the speeches delivered by three scholars:

Precedent in international law

The Tokyo Trial is a founding stone of modern international relations in East Asia. By bringing the Japanese war criminals to justice, it set a precedent that people responsible for launching aggressive wars should be punished.
The 2016 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders' Meeting, to be held in Lima, Peru, on Saturday and Sunday, will see the leaders of 21 member economies exchange views on economic integration and trans-Pacific cooperation.

As the only APEC member of the Andean Community and the host of this year's APEC meeting, Peru has enjoyed close economic relations with other economies in the Asia-Pacific region since it joined the 21-member bloc in 1998. And that it has made "quality growth and human development" the theme of the APEC meeting reflects its pursuit of quality and equitable growth in the region.

In other words, APEC members believe economic growth should eventually improve people's livelihoods, which is in line with the quality growth consensus reached by the bloc's leaders at last year's meeting in Manila. This in turn will help developing countries realize their promise to reduce poverty, narrow the income gap and promote inclusive growth with stronger economic performance.
The book cover of Opera in Ink and Wash. [File photo]

Twenty-five kinds of books, including Shuimo Xiju (Opera in Ink and Wash) and The Empire of the Written Symbol for Children, from 18 publishers nationwide have been called "the most beautiful book in China" on Monday, and will compete for "the most beautiful book in the world" in 2017.

The event "the most beautiful book in China" was established in 2003 and hosted by the Shanghai Municipal Press and Publication Bureau. The event invites top book designers worldwide as judges to select the most beautifully designed books which reflects the spirit and essence of Chinese culture.

The "the most beautiful book in China" selection has become a major platform leading fine Chinese book designs and designers to the world. So far, 15 kinds of Chinese books have been honored the laurel of "the most beautiful book in the world".

Opera in Ink and Wash is a book which introduces Chinese opera art through ink and wash paintings. The four parts of the book are wrapped up with different colored papers, resembling curtains on the opera stage. The illustrations in the book reveal the traditional Chinese esthetics and pay respect to the Chinese opera art. The Book of Bugs, designed by Zhu Yingchun, which wins multiple awards including this time, has no characters at all in the whole book, and only has the trail of bugs crawling by with ink on their feet. The book is like a calligraphic album of the nature, which is quite interesting.
Brad Pitt poses for photos with Chinese fans as he arrives at a premiere of director Robert Zemeckis' new film Allied in Shanghai on Nov 14, 2016. [Photo/CRI]

Brad Pitt is in China promoting his latest film, World War II romantic thriller Allied.

Pitt interacted with fans and signed autographs at a media event in Shanghai.

Pitt says in Allied, they paid homage to past films of the same genre and hope it will appeal to all audiences.

"It's a nod to the classic films of the past. It's got good set pieces, good sense of action but ultimately it's one of those really strong romantic thrillers that many of the classics are based in, so it's kind of got everything. We think it's one for everyone, it's why we wanted to bring it here. So it's great to get started."

Allied is directed by Robert Zemeckis of Forrest Gump fame.

In what is argued as "one of the best romantic pictures of the year," Pitt partnered up with Marion Cotillard. Pitt plays an intelligence officer in 1942 who is told his wife is a German spy.

The film debuts in China in two weeks' time along with the United Sates.

Related:

Romanian Film Festival underway in China
[Photo/People's Daily Online]

On Nov 12, an exhibition of China's opera figures paintings was opened in Shanghai. The exhibition remembers the 400th anniversary of the death of Chinese author Tang Xianzu.

Tang Xianzu (1550-1616), a celebrated playwright, whom fans call "China's William Shakespeare".

Tang, who lived in the same era as William Shakespeare, was an outstanding writer during the Ming Dynasty (AD 1368-1644). His masterpieces are collectively called "Four Dreams", since the protagonists' respective dreamlands are key to the plots of each work.

"The Peony Pavilion", one of the Four Dreams and also Tang's most famous work, is renowned worldwide. It is also recognized for its ideological emancipation and anti-feudalism, representing Romanticism in Chinese literature. The work is traditionally performed onstage in the style of Kun opera.

Xie Chunyan, both an artist and chairman of China's Opera Figure Painting Institute, explained that Tang pursued a romantic, spiritual realm, and criticized feudal society. These are the sentiments in Tang's "Four Dreams". The literary treasures that Tang left for future generations should be passed down and illustrated in various forms, including paintings, according to Xie.

The exhibition will remain open until Nov 27. After its close, the paintings will be displayed in the city of Shaoxing, Zhejiang province from Dec 2 to 18.

Related:

Earliest book of Shakespeare's works exhibited in Hong Kong
Thomas's, Burberry, London. [Photo provided to China Daily Asia]

Fashion and food have always enjoyed a sophisticated friendship, from fashion-themed afternoon teas to luxury label chocolates. This year during the various Fashion Weeks, food pop-ups were all the rage. More permanently, fashion-branded restaurants around the world epitomise the essence of luxury  and are the perfect locations for you to showcase the current season's leading looks.

One of the most established luxury labels with a culinary arm is Armani. Giorgio Armani made his first foray into the world of food and beverage in 1989, and the brand now has restaurants and bars in key fashion cities including Tokyo, Milan and Dubai. In Hong Kong, there's the restaurant Armani/Aqua as well as the Armani/Prive bar and club, which boasts stunning views of Central from its rooftop terrace; the brand also has a delicious chocolate line.

Vivienne Westwood is another top brand with a culinary outlet in Hong Kong: the Vivienne Westwood Cafe in Harbour City, well known for its high-tea sets, is the brand's second branch, the first being in the K11 mall in Shanghai. Also in Shanghai, discerning travellers can drop by 1921 Gucci  the world's first Gucci restaurant, which also features a chocolate bar and a cafe.
The Qingdao Symphony Orchestra gave three concerts in the Chilean cities of Santiago, Valparaiso and Lancagua between Oct 31 and Nov 3 as part of a cultural event celebrating the 2016 China-Latin America Cultural Exchange Year.

This was the first visit to Chile by a Chinese symphony orchestra, attracting an audience of nearly 3,000 during Chiles holiday time. The orchestra received widespread acclaim for its superb performance and expert skills.

Qingdao Symphony Orchestra featured famed performers for the Chile performances, including well-known conductor Zhang Guoyong, famous violinist Lv Siqing and soprano Song Yuanming, staging classic Chinese works such as the fantasia from Farewell My Concubine, a Peking Opera excerpt from The Drunken Beauty, and a collection of Northeast China folk ditties.

The Qingdao Symphony Orchestra gives a concert at the music hall of Federico Santa Maria Technical University in Valparaiso, Chile. [Photo/cl.china-embassy.org]

The Qingdao Symphony Orchestra received a standing ovation at the end of the concert. [Photo/cl.china-embassy.org]
President Xi Jinping and guests attend a photo session during the opening ceremony of the first Ministerial Meeting between China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. FENG YONGBIN / CHINA DAILY

President Xi Jinping's upcoming visit to Latin America is expected to improve the all-round cooperative partnership and usher in a new era of bilateral relations. Xi will pay state visits to Ecuador, Peru and Chile from Nov 17 to Nov 23, and attend the 24th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting from Nov 19 to 20 in Lima, Peru.

This will be Xi's third visit to Latin America since he took the presidency in March 2013, and the visit to Ecuador will be the first since diplomatic relations between the two countries began in 1980.

The visit shows that China and Latin America are striving for win-win cooperation and common development under the principles of mutual trust, mutual benefit and mutual learning.

During Xi's visit, China will discuss free trade arrangements and cooperation in e-commerce, production capacity, industrial parks and infrastructure.

At present, affected by a weaker global market and the falling prices of commodities, Latin America needs capital and technology to improve its manufacturing capabilities, reduce its dependence on the export of raw materials and boost economic transformation.

As China has cost-effective equipment, and Latin America needs infrastructure and industrial upgrading, Xi's visit comes at a time when there are ample opportunities to expand the current relationship.

In fact, China-Latin America ties have been improving. Back in July 2014, Xi and leaders from the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) announced the establishment of the China-CELAC Forum. In January 2015, China and the CELAC inked a five-year cooperation plan at the first ministerial meeting of the cooperation forum in Beijing.

The cooperation forum marked a new era of mutual benefit and common development and improved bilateral cooperation in various fields.

In the political sphere, ties have been propelled forward by the exchanges of high-level visits. Peru, the first country in the Latin America to establish a comprehensive strategic partnership with China, will be Xi's second leg of the visit. Xi's visit to Peru comes hot on the heels of Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski's state visit to China in September, which was his first state visit since he assumed the presidency.
LUO JIE/CHINA DAILY

Editor's Note: To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, also known as the Tokyo Trial, Shanghai Jiao Tong University invited 25 scholars from countries such as China, the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom to its International Academic Forum on Tokyo Trial and World Peace, which was held on Nov 12 to 13. Following are excerpts from the speeches delivered by three scholars:

Precedent in international law

The Tokyo Trial is a founding stone of modern international relations in East Asia. By bringing the Japanese war criminals to justice, it set a precedent that people responsible for launching aggressive wars should be punished.

The Tokyo Trial was more than a trial. It is a legal record of the war crimes of imperial Japan, and tells the world what kinds of atrocities the Imperial Japanese Army committed in the name of expanding the Japanese empire.

Today, 71 years after the end of World War II, the trial's records are an essential tool to prevent some Japanese politicians from denying Japan's military past.

The Tokyo Trial also teaches us the lessons of WWII by inscribing them in the form of law.

Despite all this, it has deficiencies. The then Japanese emperor Hirohito was not made to face the trial, nor did it hold accountable the Japanese business tycoons who supported, even advocated, the aggressive war. As a result, some war criminals returned to mainstream politics under the protection of the US.

That's essentially why right-wing Japanese politicians have been trying to reject the Tokyo Trial in recent years. For instance, they have been trying to deny the Nanjing Massacre took place and making efforts to revise Japan's peaceful Constitution.

By reviewing the past, we aim to safeguard the trend of peace and common development today. So we must defeat any designs to challenge the Tokyo Trial, and defend the order established in East Asia based on it. Only on the basis of the Tokyo Trial can East Asian countries build a new type of relationship characterized by peace, development and cooperation.

Wang Xiaoqiu, a professor of history at Peking University
A clerk counts yuan bills at a bank in Huaibei, East China's Anhui province. [Photo/IC]

A contingency guideline for handling local government debts, published on Monday by the State Council, China's Cabinet, works to ensure nationwide fiscal health.

The document defines four grades of debt risks and sets out corresponding emergency responses while setting specific terms for holding local governments accountable if those risks materialize.

And, just as important, it sends a timely and unambiguous message that the central government will not bail out local governments if the latter borrow irregularly or recklessly.

It has been an unspoken belief held by many, including some local policymakers, that if local governments go insolvent the central government will step in to bail them out. Monday's guideline serves to rule out that scenario, thus closing the moral hazard loophole.

Local government debt has piled up after the borrowing binge for investment in response to the 2008 global financial crisis, and it totaled 16 trillion yuan ($2.34 trillion) at the end of 2015.

However, together with the central government debt, that is still less than 40 percent of the country's GDP and markedly lower than the 60-percent alert line adopted by many advanced economies. Moreover, China is reducing the local debt through debt replacement and restructuring. The ratio is set to drop in the coming years.

But, given its sheer amount, local government debt constitutes a realalthough not yet dangerouschallenge that China cannot afford to ignore. The latest guideline, in this sense, serves as a firewall against the potential risks and warns local governments that they must think twice before engaging in any irregular borrowing activities.

China's local government debt problem will not be solved soon, but so far, it has been under control, thanks to the fiscal rebalancing measures introduced in recent years.

The latest move is part of the ongoing reforms aimed at strengthening fiscal discipline and improving budget control to maintain financial security. Properly implementing it and sticking to a balanced budget strategy can ensure continued fiscal health.
Tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents join a rally outside the Legislative Council complex to show support for the NPC Standing Committee's interpretation of the Basic Law on Nov 13. Roy Liu /China Daily

Residents in Hong Kong heaved a sigh of relief on Tuesday after the special administrative region's high court ruled that two legislators-elect have been disqualified for violating the Basic Law in the SAR and the local ordinance concerning the oath-taking process when assuming office.

The verdict ended for the time being the huge controversy surrounding the improper oath-taking of Sixtus Leung Chung-hang and Yau Wai-ching on Oct 12, which had cast a long shadow over Hong Kong.

The ruling was made in a judicial review filed by the chief executive and secretary for justice of the HKSAR government on Oct 15 that asked the court to overrule the decision by the president of the Legislative Council to give the two lawmakers-elect a second chance at swearing-in.

The judge ruled that Leung and Yau clearly violated Article 104 of the Basic law and Section 21 of the Oaths and Declarations Ordinance when taking the LegCo oath on Oct 12, and therefore their swearing-in is invalid and void and has no legal effect. Thus they have been disqualified as LegCo members. This means that unless a higher court overturns the ruling they are not allowed to perform legislative duties or retake the Leg-Co oath.

It should be noted that the judge acknowledged in his eight-page explanation of the verdict that the interpretation of Article 104 of the Basic Law approved by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Nov 7 is legally binding and applies in Hong Kong courts at all levels. It provides a clear exposition of the constitutional authority of the NPC Standing Committee to interpret the Basic Law.

As the judge pointed out, this issue is not just an internal affair of LegCo. The fact that Leung and Yau breached the Basic Law and relevant Hong Kong ordinances rendered the incident a legal matter and the judiciary had every reason to step in.

Which is why the great majority of Hong Kong residents felt relieved after the ruling, for not only is it a slap in the face for those opposition lawmakers who have condoned and even assisted Leung and Yau over the past weeks, more importantly, it also means the rule of law prevails in the SAR despite the efforts of those who would have it otherwise.

Whether Leung and Yau appeal the decision, the ruling shows there is no question the rule of law still works as it should in Hong Kong despite repeated attempts by certain ill-advised parties and individuals to weaken it.
Xu Zhiqiang (L) and his twin brother Xu Zhigang walk through a cedar forest which together they have planted over the past 48 years. [Photo/xinhuanet.com]

An aerial photo of the twin brothers houses, surrounded by trees. [Photo/xinhuanet.com]

Aerial photo of the once barren Zhuangchuan village, now populated with many cedar and cypress trees. [Photo/xinhuanet.com]

Twin brothers from Dingxi city in Northwest Chinas Gansu province have single-handedly decorated a barren mountainside over the past 48 years by planting thousands of trees.

For years, the intensely dry and arid landscape of Zhuangchuan village, located between the Tibetan and Loess plateaus, had been susceptible to mudslides after rain, so Xu Zhiqiang and his brother Xu Zhigang, both 68, decided to plant a forest to improve soil absorption.

Before the trees were planted, a river of mud would flow down the mountainside every time it rained.

In 1968, Xu Zhiqiangs wife almost lost her life in a flood, and so he and his brother got to work planting trees to protect their lives and homes. If it kept on like this, our home would be washed away by the floods, said Xu Zhigang.

Planting trees is one thing, getting them to survive in a inhospitable climate is another. There is a saying in the area that it is easier to raise a child than grow a tree on the Loess Plateau.

In the first year, none of the trees survived.

With more experience, the brothers started to plant cypress and cedar trees in a checkerboard pattern, with a sand barrier to protect the soil. The trees began to thrive.

The village no longer suffers from mudslides, and the two elderly brothers continue planting trees to this day, ensuring the safety of the village. The more we grow, the higher the survival rate will be, said Xu Zhigang.

Edited by Owen Fishwick
The opening ceremony of a cross-border investment and trade fair held in Guizhou from Nov 9 to 11. [Photo/gog.cn]

Overseas companies have invested big in Guizhou, signing on the dotted line for 193 projects worth an estimated 145 billion yuan ($21.39 billion).

The deals were made at a cross-border investment and trade fair held in the province from Nov 9 to 11.

Held at the Guian New Area, the fair aimed to attract more businesses to invest in Guizhous rich natural resources, various ethnic cultures and preferential policies for foreign businesses.

During the two-day event, organized by the Bank of China, Guizhou achieved cooperation agreements with 24 countries, including the UK, the US, and Russia.

The deals covered agricultural products, food, wine, electronics, minerals, household appliances and daily necessities. Companies were also encouraged to invest in the provinces big data, health, tourism, mountain agriculture, equipment manufacturing, modern services and renewable energy industries.

More than 1,000 businesses from Guizhou and overseas enterprises took part in the event. A forum on inland open-economy, dialogues between heads of chambers of commerce and a promotion conference were also held.

Attendees were given the opportunity to visit some of Guizhous scenic spots and development zones in order to gain a better picture of the provinces potential business opportunities.

Bank of China will provide financial services for the signed projects. During the fair, the state-owned banking giant also advised businesses on financial law, accounting, and taxation.
Staff from the Chinese consulate general in Christchurch talk with Chinese tourists trapped in the worst-hit town of Kaikoura, New Zealand, Nov. 14, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

A first batch of six Chinese tourists has been airlifted from the worst-hit town of Kaikoura to Christchurch after a deadly quake rocked much of New Zealand early on Monday.

Staff with the Chinese consulate general in Christchurch, the country's second largest city, said that "altogether 21 Chinese tourists, including one slightly injured in the head, have been found trapped in Kaikoura so far, and they are all safe now".

The six evacuees are three pairs of mother and child and the youngest child is five years old. They arrived at Christchurch at around 3 pm, said Consul General Jin Zhijian.

"The injured has received proper medical treatment and is doing well," he said.

A magnitude-7.8 quake hit just after midnight on Monday, leaving two dead.

Some 1,000 tourists were reported stuck in Kaikoura, a popular tourist destination famed for its coastal scenery and whale-watching activities, which is some 100 km away from the epicenter.

The quake-triggered landslides have left the town isolated. Helicopters are now the only means of transportation available for the outside world with the small town.

The Chinese tourists posted their plight on social media and called for help before their smartphones ran off power. With the information, the consulate general staff, who flew to the town soon after the quake with food and other relief goods, found them later.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (left, front) prays at a ceremony for the new trade route at the port of Gwadar on Sunday. Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Sun Weidong (fourth from right) called the route a win-win solution.Muhammad Yousuf / AP

The deepwater port that is a key to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has received its first large shipment of Chinese goods, validating the trade link between western China and the Arabian Sea.

Pakistan's prime minister and its army chief joined Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Sun Weidong on Sunday in welcoming the first bilateral joint trade convoy to reach the renovated port of Gwadar from China's Kashgar.

Sun said this is the first time such a trade convoy has passed through western Pakistan from the north to the south. The port in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan is key to the CPEC, which also encompasses roads and energy projects.

"It proves the connectivity of local roads, and realization of the concept of 'one corridor with multiple passages'," Sun said.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif praised the corridor at a ceremony on Sunday. "Pakistan is located at the intersection of three engines of growth in Asia - South Asia, China and Central Asia. CPEC will help in integrating these regions into an economic zone offering great opportunities for people of the region as well as investors from all over the world," he said.

Army chief General Raheel Sharif also was at the ceremony at the port, which is expected to see heavy imports of building materials in the next year before becoming a gateway for goods from China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

Sun added that the trade convoy is the best reflection of the spirits of mutual consultation, joint construction, mutual benefits and win-win cooperation, and these will serve as the solid basis for future construction of the CPEC.

Sun said that the CPEC is open for business, with remarkable progress as 16 initial projects are under construction providing tens of thousands of new local jobs.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier arrive for the weekly cabinet meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, November 9, 2016. [Photo/VCG]

BERLIN - After Germany's ruling coalition agreed to support Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier as a candidate for German presidential election, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday that the decision is "a sensible solution".

Merkel said, the decision for backing Steinmeier as German future president is a "signal of stability in times of global unrest and instability".

"I know him as a reliable politician who is always geared towards compensation and solutions," Merkel said, adding that she had personally informed the politician of Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) in the morning about her party's decision to support his candidacy.

After monthly debates, Merkel's Union party, a bloc of Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party Christian Social Union (CSU), agreed to support Steinmeier as the new German president after the SPD.

Following the decision, Steinmeier said that he saw a "giant responsibility" with the office of German president.

"This is, of course, a very special day, and I am grateful for the great support I received," said Steinmeier on Monday evening in Berlin just before his departure to Turkey.
While China-US economic relations under the next US administration have been the topic of much speculation lately, a report released on Monday showed that bilateral investment ties are far stronger and hold greater potential than most people realize.

The report, Two-Way Street: 25 Years of US-China Direct Investment, is a study by the National Committee on US-China Relations (NCUSCR) and Rhodium Group, which tracks Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) in the US.

Based on its own novel dataset, the study finds that the commercial stakes on both sides are two- to four-times higher than commonly used statistics suggest.

While Chinas official statistics put the Chinese FDI stock in the US at $41 billion (twice the official US estimates of $15 billion to $21 billion), the study counted 1,200 individual transactions between 1990 and 2015 with a combined value of $64 billion.

The same goes for US FDI in China. Unlike the US Bureau of Economic Analysis figure of $75 billion in stock of US FDI in China as of 2015  and Chinas Ministry of Commerces number of $70 billion  the study counted some 6,700 US investments in China with a combined value of $228 billion.

We hope this is another contribution we can make to bringing more transparency in US-China investment relations, said Thilo Hanemann, director of Rhodiums cross-border investment practice and one of the authors of the report.

The data show that while some Americans are eager to talk about imposing reciprocity requirements for inward Chinese FDI, the cumulative value of US FDI transactions permitted in China to date is four times that of China in the US.

While many Chinese complain about the lack of openness in the US, the data show that the US is open and welcoming to Chinese investment, and that Chinese companies are now investing more in the US annually than US companies are in China.

These observations emphasize that both sides need to reconsider the data before staking out new policy positions, according to the report.

The study also finds that benefits from FDI are huge for both sides, mostly at local levels. US companies now employ 1.6 million workers in China, while Chinese FDI in the US at an earlier stage has already created more than 100,000 US jobs.

Steve Orlins, president of the NCUSCR, said that unlike trade, which has been controversial in the US election, investment creates jobs.

He recalled a trip four weeks ago to Dayton, Ohio, where Chinese company Fuyao Glass opened the worlds largest automotive glass facility in a closed GM factory, hiring more people than the previous GM factory had.

I watched the rebirth of the community. Thats part of what this story is today, Orlins said.

The new study also finds the new picture of US-China FDI differs from the previous two decades, in terms of industry patterns, motives and investment composition. For example, US investment in China has shifted from the early days of seeking lower manufacturing costs to consumer-oriented objectives.

It said that US-China bilateral investment is nowhere near saturation. Chinese companies have just started to operate overseas while US companies are more than ready to increase investment in China, especially to engage the Chinese consumer and compete in growth sectors such as healthcare, research and development and modern services.

The assumption that FDI flows to China have peaked because it is wealthier today is mistaken, the report said.

Kenneth Jarrett, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, cited a survey early this year that shows that 80 percent of its members said they would increase their investment in China in 2016.

He said the new report came at an important juncture as we contemplate what the agenda for the incoming Trump administration will be.

Jarrett said much work has been done on the Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) between China and the US, and hoped it would be a valuable policy objective for the new administration as well. He argued that in the BIT, China will give much more than the US, because the US investment environment is quite open already.

There has been widespread concern whether or not BIT negotiations will still be viable in the Trump administration given the fate of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Trump and the new Congress have decided to put to death.

President Trump talks about good deals and bad deals. This would fall into the category of good deals, Orlins said of the BIT between China and the US.

John Wadsworth Jr, co-founder of Manitou Ventures, described the BIT as the biggest opportunity on earth for financial services.

In Washington on Nov 21-23, China and the US will meet for the 27th session of their Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, with the Chinese delegation led by Vice-Premier Wang Yang and the US team led by Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and US Trade Representative Michael Froman. The annual meeting, first launched in 1983, will address bilateral investment and trade issues.

chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com
China-US relations will remain healthy, Chinese experts predict

Although he criticized China sharply during the recent election campaign in the United States, Donald Trump, the US president-elect, will likely maintain healthy China-US relations during his term of office.

An Gang, a reporter at the biweekly magazine World Affairs, says the Trump administration will not be too harsh on China in either economics or politics.

An presented his opinion at a recent seminar in Beijing on how the result of US presidential elections will affect future relations. The seminar was hosted by the Center for China & Globalization, an independent, nonprofit think tank based in Beijing that conducts research in social sciences including world affairs and globalization.

"I believe the G2 will see historic times with Trump on the stage," An said. G2, originally initiated in 2005 by Fred Bergsten, is a informal special relationship between China and the United States.

"Trump's America first' foreign policy will drive him to shift his attention more from overseas to domestic affairs, leaving more space for China and the US to negotiate on Asian issues," An said.

Trump has virtually no experience in politics, and he seems to have little interest in the South China Sea issue, so he may either indulge the US military in this area or take a break, An said. "The fewer problems we have around us, the more comfort we will feel. And that will probably soothe tense nerves."

But this does not mean that the US will simply leave Asia to China "It is more likely that China and the US will work together to maintain balance in Asia," An said.

The experts believe that the Trump administration will focus more on China-US economic relations.

Zhou Xiaojing, a senior researcher at the center and former director of the State Council's Development Research Center, said China should make greater efforts to promote globalization, especially when the process encounters barriers in Western countries and the US lists China as a currency manipulator.

During the election campaign, Trump promised to give priority to solving domestic problems the Obama administration failed to address, such as promoting infrastructure construction.

"Now, China has money and is willing to help. So I guess he can't resist," An said. "This may be a chance for Chinese investment to get into the US market."

Trade is the area where China and the US share the most common ground. However, Trump has said he will slap a 45 percent import tax on Chinese goods, which will put more pressure on Chinese enterprises.

"But I don't think he can achieve this," An said. "The Congress may not allow him to do so." Wang Xin, vice-president of CCG, said that the international community, China included, needs to forget Trump's identity as a businessman and not try to forecast his actions based on previous speeches.

"After all, he is the president of United States," Wang said.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) signed agreements of cooperation with Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to co-finance green development projects in June, EIB's vice president told China Daily earlier this week during the UN climate talks.

Jonathan Taylor, vice president of EIB, said the bank is willing to co-finance green development projects similar to the metro line project that EIB stepped in to provide funds in India.

EIB provided a 450 million euros ($501 million) long-term loan earlier in April to finance the first metro line in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh.

"We are discussing projects with AIIB and looking for projects in promising areas such as India, where the country is big enough and there would be enough valuable projects that we can add value on," said Taylor.

Earlier in June, the two banks signed a framework agreement and agreed to broaden cooperation, in an accord seeking to jointly finance strategically important projects.

Taylor said that with similar business models, the two have future opportunities to co-finance projects to address infrastructure financing needs, including climate mitigation, one key financing area of the EIB.

As the world's largest multilateral financer of climate-related projects, EIB is committed to raising the proportion of climate investment in developing countries to 35 percent of its overall lending by 2020
Events and stories coming up in the next few days

International students offered study advice

The China Chamber of Commerce in the UK has teamed up with Ukuni, a website that offers information to international students wanting to find out more about British universities, to host UK Higher Education and Primary and Secondary Education in the UK on Wednesday. The event will focus on explaining the procedural requirements demanded at each stage of entry or progression within the UK education system and compare private and state-funded education, as well as other aspects of UK education, such as ranking tables.

East Asia Network getting together

Academics and staff members at University College London who have an interest in East Asia are being invited to attend meetings of the East Asia Network. Members of the network meet regularly throughout the year to discuss current work in the region, funding and other opportunities, as well as proposals for UCL's future engagement. The next meeting will take place on Wednesday in Elvin Hall, Bedford Way, London. The session will be chaired by Katharine Carruthers, pro-vice-provost of the East Asia section within the university's Institute of Education.

Professor explaining legal system reforms

Stephanie Balme will present a talk on Wednesday about reforms made in recent decades to China's judicial system. Reforming the Judiciary in China (1978-2016) is being hosted by the Dickson Poon School of Law, which is part of King's College London. The event will be held in the East Wing of Somerset House on The Strand in London. Balme's talk will draw from the newly published book China, New Faces of Ordinary Justice: Between Facts& Law.
MEXICO CITY - The upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting, to be held in Lima, Peru later this week, is vital to establishing a free-trade zone in the area to promote integration and globalization, a Mexican expert has said.

Ulises Granados, an expert in international relations and coordinator of the Asia-Pacific Studies Program at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM), made the remarks during an interview with Xinhua as the APEC Economic Leaders' Week kicked off on Monday.

"I think that at this coming meeting, there will certainly be several advances on matters of interest, and certainly also other matters of a political nature will be highlighted, such as the recent US presidential election," said Granados.

At the meeting, APEC's 21 member economies are expected to lay the groundwork for technical negotiations on a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, or FTAAP, as agreed at the 2014 APEC leaders' meeting held in Beijing, China.

APEC's economic integration, within the framework of the FTAAP, is set to make trade more efficient in the region, which accounts for some 57 percent of the world's gross domestic product and 49 percent of all international trade flows.

"It represents an enormous potential market," said Granados, "the bloc has advanced towards its main goals, which are to ease trade, enhance the competitiveness of small and medium-sized companies and increase the flow of trade in services."

"If the agreement is reached, it will without a doubt generate greater benefits," he added.

This year's meeting, Granados noted, follows up on earlier commitments made in the 1994 Leaders' Declaration issued in Bogor, Indonesia.

In that document, APEC members outlined their vision of an Asia-Pacific free-trade and investment zone, and pledged to take the measures needed to liberalize and facilitate trade, by 2010 for the developed members, and by 2020 for the developing economies.

Members are also set to discuss reducing tariffs on services to spur regional trade and using infrastructure development to stimulate growth.

"I firmly believe the 21 member economies will state the measures they should adopt amid the (global economic) slowdown, which should be in keeping with the conclusions reached at the G20, and I am sure that what will stand out is the interest in promoting greater integration ... in the Asia-Pacific through the creation of a free-trade area," Granados said.
(Photo : YouTube Screenshot) China's Great Wall Motors plans to target high-end market through its upscale WEY brand to be launched on Nov. 16.



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Automakers in China are moving to broaden their gap in the sedan market and Great Wall Motors Co. is not being left behind. Under the leadership of billionaire Chairman Wei Jianjun, the company plans to launch its luxury 'WEY' brand on Nov. 16.



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Details of the upcoming line-up and marketing schedule are yet to be released once these are finalized, the company said in a statement.



Meanwhile, Wei managed to make Great Wall one of China's biggest SUV maker, offering Chinese consumers comfortability at a cheaper price as compared with foreign brands like BMW. Such key quality allowed Great Wall to enjoy a 33 percent growth in sales last month, thereby helping the company stay among leading motor companies.



Managing director and researcher at Autoforesight Shanghai Co. Yale Zhang in a statement explained that the company has every necessary aspect that will favor the growth of the company.



"It's time for established local Chinese automakers to go upscale given that they have the technology and product reserves," he explained. "With a new brand, Great Wall will be able to market higher priced models to consumers that it would have otherwise found difficult to attract using existing brands."



Great Wall's H6, arguably the most popular SUV in China today, retails at 88,800 yuan ($12,830), cheaper than half the price of the VW Passat Sedan.



The stereotype of Chinese companies being cheaper is something that both Korean and Japanese car manufacturers are looking to bank on in their new business venture.



Looking for a new rather than an expensive clientele may seem a good business venture for Great Wall. However, Hong Kong-based Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Stephen Man believes that this might be quite challenging than as projected.



In a statement, Man said that the marketing team faces a greater challenge as new versions had yet picked up from the H6. "The automaker has yet to realize the potential of the Haval H8 and H9 SUVs' which have higher price points than its popular H6," he said.



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Tagschina, Great Wall Motors Co., Auto Foresight Shanghai Co.
(Photo : Wikimedia commons) A recent research found that British red squirrels carry to strains of leprosy bacteria; however, researchers note this does not pose a threat to humans.

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A recent study found that British red squirrels are infected with two different strains of bacteria that cause leprosy.



In 2004, researchers studying the population of red squirrels in Scotland noticed that some of the rodents had abnormal growth on their ears, limbs, and snouts.



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"We found that they were suffering from a form of leprosy," Prof. Anna Meredith from the University of Edinburgh said.



The UK population of the red squirrels is under extreme pressure due to habitat loss. The deadly effects of squirrel poxyvirus following the introduction of the North American grey squirrel have made matters worse.



Following the initial report, members of the public reported other cases of lesions that looked liked leprosy in other populations of the red squirrels.



Meredith said that her team took samples from those squirrels, and after extensive investigations, they found that they were also infected with leprosy. Red squirrels on Brownea Island were found to be affected with the human form of leprosy.



Dr. Rachael Tarlinton from the University of Nottingham said it is puzzling why some have one species of the disease, while others don't.



"This may be due to sampling size problems. It's hard to get lots samples from endangered species," Tarlinton who was not involved in the study said.



The findings raise the possibility that animals might be serving as a reservoir for leprosy. There is a possibility that a spillover of bacteria from animals into humans in other areas of the world where human contact with infected animals is more common could occur.



Thousands of new human leprosy cases are reported by the World Health Organization each year. Meredith, however, does not think that the squirrels pose a threat to humans.



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TagsLeprosy, Britain
(Photo : Pool/GettyImages) China hopes to sustain its current cooperation with the United States under Donald Trump's presidency, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said during his visit in Turkey.

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China's foreign minister Wang Yi expressed his optimism that his country and the United States will mend their bilateral ties under Donald Trump's upcoming presidency. Wang made these remarks to the media during his visit to Turkey. He also added that China and the US remain in close contact.



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Speaking at a joint news conference, he said, "We want to improve our relations under the Trump administration. We are ready to improve U.S. ties through mutual understanding." Wang said that both US parties, Democrats and Republics, are willing to have cordial ties with China.



He also said that China will work closely with the Obama administration for smooth transition of relationships. Wang added that China hopes that the current cooperation will be sustained during the new regime as well.



Trump had made explosive remarks about China during his election campaign. Apart from labeling the country as a currency manipulator, he also accused China of 'raping' the US on trade policy. Trump also called climate change a 'hoax' perpetrated by China.



However, in his recent telephonic conversation with Chinese president Xi Jinping, Trump is believed to have said that the two leaders will form one of the strongest relationships. Trump also said both the countries will together move forward.



Chinese foreign minister is currently in Turkey for boosting bilateral relationship. He met his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu in Ankara. Both the ministers said that their countries are willing to step up their cooperation. This year marks the 45th year of establishing diplomatic ties between China and Turkey.



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TagsWang Yi, donald trump, Xi Jinping
(Photo : US Navy) EMALS test on the USS Gerald R. Ford involving the launch into the ocean of large sleds on wheels to simulate the weight of an aircraft.

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The Indian Navy confirms plans to integrate the U.S.-made Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) catapults into its future supercarriers by revealing the dispatch of Letters of Request (LoR) to the U.S. Department of Defense to buy this advanced aircraft launch system.



It said the LoRs cover the purchase of three EMALS under the U.S. Foreign Military Sales Program. Sources in the Indian Navy told media the LoRs were issued last February and are now under consideration by the Pentagon.



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The navy expects the Pentagon to approve the LoRs and to issue its Letters of Acceptance (LoA) approving the deal within the next few months.



EMALS is being developed by U.S. defense contractor General Atomics for the U.S. Navy's newest class of nuclear supercarrier, the Gerald R. Ford. The lead ship of this class, the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), will be the first U.S. Navy carrier equipped with EMALS. The Ford is scheduled for deployment in 2019.



EMALS launches carrier-based aircraft from an aircraft catapult using a linear motor drive instead of the conventional steam piston drive.



Its main advantage is it allows for a more graded acceleration, inducing less stress on the aircraft's airframe. It's also lighter than a steam catapult system and cheaper to operate. In addition, EMALS can launch aircraft that are heavier or lighter than those handled by steam catapults.



"As far as General Atomics is concerned, we will be opening an office in the Indian capital to assist both the governments as required," said Vivek Lall, Chief Executive (Global Commercial Strategic Development) for General Atomics.



INS Vishal will deploy an EMALS catapult assisted take-off but arrested recovery (CATOBAR) aircraft launch system.



Her EMALS CATOBAR system will allow her to launch heavier aircraft like larger fighters; unmanned air combat vehicles (UCAVs); turbo-prop airborne early-warning aircraft and aerial refueling tankers. INS Vishal remains under development, however, and it is unclear when her construction will begin.



With a planned displacement of 65,000 metric tons, INS Vishal is the second ship of the Vikrant-class and the first supercarrier to be built in India.



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TagsIndian Navy, Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, EMALS, INS Vishal, General Atomics, U.S. Foreign Military Sales Program, USS Gerald R. Ford
(Photo : PLAN) Liaoning launches a Shenyang J-15 fighter.

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China's first aircraft carrier, the CNS Liaoning (CV-16), is being praised by its political commissar from the Communist Party of China (CPC) as being "constantly prepared for war" despite the carrier being ruled as only fit for training purposes by the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).



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In what appears to be a bout of political bravado, Li Dongyou, CPC political commissar of the Liaoning, said the Liaoning is "always prepared for war and our combat capacity also needs to be tested by war. At this moment, we are doing our best to promote our strength and use it to prevent war, and are prepared for actual combat at any time."



His excessive and probably unwarranted optimism flies in the face of past PLAN declarations the carrier is only suitable as a training vessel meant to give pilots of the PLAN Naval Air Force experience in ship-borne carrier operations and the ship's crew experience in operating an aircraft carrier under all conditions.



The 60,000 ton Liaoning remains beset by a host of problems, chief among which are its unreliable engines and underpowered aircraft-launching systems. Its engines give it a paltry top speed of only 20 knots or 37 km/h, which will be a problem when it tries to outrun or evade the faster destroyers, cruisers and aircraft carriers of the U.S. Navy.



U.S. Navy Nimitz-class supercarriers can tear through the waves at over 30 knots or 56 km/h while its escorting Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers are just as fast.



That's not to mention the high-speed maneuvering it will have to perform to evade salvoes of U.S. anti-ship missiles and torpedoes.



"As a combat platform, regarding technology and capability to execute missions, China still lags behind the US, but three high-ranking US officials who visited the Liaoning before all gave a positive evaluation on the management affairs on the carrier: officers and soldiers' daily lives and training are well organized and the equipment maintenance is fine" said Li.



The Liaoning can embark 36 aircraft: 24 Shenyang J-15 fighters; 6 Changhe Z-18F anti-submarine warfare helicopters; 4 Changhe Z-18J airborne early warning helicopters and 2 Harbin Z-9C rescue helicopters.



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TagsLiaoning, Aircraft carrier, china, Communist Party of China, Li Dongyou, U.S. Navy
(Photo : Getty Images) China gives its support on the India-Japan nuclear deal.

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China on Monday offered cautious backing to India-Japan nuclear deal, stating that every country has the right to use nuclear energy provided they fulfill all the non-proliferation obligations set by the international community.



The historic nuclear deal was signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Tokyo last week.



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"With regard to nuclear agreement signed between India and Japan and on the use nuclear energy, we believe that under the promise of absorbing international obligation of nuclear non-proliferation, all countries are entitled to the peaceful use of nuclear energy," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told media briefing in Beijing.



Geng, however, made no reference to Chinese media's criticism about the nuclear deal and Japan's commitment to non-proliferation. Tokyo traditionally has taken a tough stance on non-proliferation, mainly because it is the only country in the world till date that has been bombed by a nuclear bomb.



In that context, Japanese government made a special exception for India last week, since New Delhi is not a signatory to Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT). India last week became the first non-NPT country to sign a nuclear deal with Japan.



China, on other hand, is no mood to make any concession on India's membership bid for Nuclear Supplier Group (NSG). It continues to maintain a hardened stance that New Delhi must sign NPT to become member of NSG.



India Reacts Mildly to Inclusion of Maritime Dispute in Joint Statement



On inclusion of South China Sea in the joint statement, China chose to react mildly on the issue. It urged that countries that are not clamant to the dispute must work towards creating conducive environment in the region.



"We hope that the countries outside the region would respect efforts made by countries in the region and safeguard as well as consolidate the sound momentum in the South China Sea and and do more that is conducive to regional peace and stability," Geng said.



Beijing was largely expecting inclusion of the South China Sea dispute in the joint statement, since recent signals suggested that the Indian government will henceforth take an aggressive stance on the maritime dispute.



The aggressive stance is seen as New Delhi's direct response to China's decision to snub India on Masood Azhar and NSG issues, allegedly at the behest of Pakistan.



The snub put a considerable strain on both countries bilateral relationship, with widespread street protest following across India. The protestors accused that China is a main traitor, aligning with India's enemy - Pakistan - and helping the enemy nation in fulfilling its nefarious design against New Delhi.



Several Indian leaders also called for boycott of Chinese goods during Diwali festival. The boycott call reportedly led to substantial decline in the sale of Chinese across Indian cities.



However, these boycott calls and widespread street protest have had little impact on China's stance, as China's stand on NSG and Masood Azhar issue remains unchanged.



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TagsIndia, China and India, India and Japan Nuclear Deal, India and Japan
(Photo : Reuters) Inmates at a drug rehab center in China.

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The wars on drugs worldwide have failed and doctors should lead calls for change, says The BMJ, a weekly peer-reviewed medical journal and one of the world's oldest general medical journals.



The enforcement of prohibition -- a ban on the production, supply, possession and use of some drugs for non-medical purposes -- causes huge harm and doctors should lead calls for drug policy reform, argues The BMJ.



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Prohibition laws, colloquially known as the "War on Drugs," cost at least $100 billion annually but have failed to curb either supply or demand, reduce addiction; minimize harm; reduce violence and limit profits for organized crime, argue The BMJ editor-in-chief, Dr. Fiona Godlee and features and debates editor, Richard Hurley.



Far from diminishing over time, drug use has grown substantially worldwide and continues to exact a tragic toll on individuals and societies.



In 2014, a quarter of a billion adults -- one in 20 worldwide -- may have taken an illegal drug such as cannabis, cocaine or heroin. A quarter of 15 year-olds in the United Kingdom might have taken illegal preparations of unknown quality and potency.



Calls for reform come as no surprise, and at a UN General Assembly last April, many countries asked for health and human right to be prioritized over punitive responses.



Some countries have already removed criminal penalties for personal drug possession, said Dr. Godlee and Hurley. For instance, Portugal replaced criminal sanctions for drug use with civil penalties and health interventions 15 years ago.



The UK's new Psychoactive Substances Act criminalizes the supply but not use of synthetic drugs, while some U.S. states like California have legal cannabis markets. The Netherlands has tolerated regulated cannabis sales for decades.



A recent international evidence review concluded governments should decriminalize minor drug offenses; strengthen health and social sector alternatives to criminal sanctions; move cautiously towards regulated drug markets and scientifically evaluate the outcomes to build pragmatic and rational policy.



"Health should be at the center of this debate, and so, therefore, should healthcare professionals," they write.



"Change is coming, and doctors should use their authority to lead calls for pragmatic reform informed by science and ethics."



Ruth Dreifuss, former President of Switzerland and chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, says the need for more effective and humane drug policies is now more urgent than ever.



She argues for a pragmatic approach to drug policy reform, starting with the recognition that the idealized notion of a "society without drugs" is an unattainable fantasy.



Reforms must prioritize issues of public health, social integration and security, while strictly respecting human rights and due judicial process, she writes.



Decriminalization can and must go further, she adds. In its upcoming report, the Global Commission calls for governments to regulate all illicit drugs. This would curb a massive revenue stream for organized crime, worth an estimated $320 billion.



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Tagswar on drugs, Drug addiction, prohibition, The BMJ, UN General Assembly, Decriminalization
(Photo : Getty Images) China executed the farmer who murdered a communist leader after the local government demolished his house and failed to receive the necessary compensation.

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A Chinese farmer was executed on Tuesday after a court gave him a death penalty for the gruesome murder of communist party leader He Jianhua in February last year.



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Jia Jinglong, a former farmer, shot He Jianhua, 55, on his head with a nail gun early last year. This was after his house was demolished by the local government and not compensated in 2013.



Most of his plans had been put on halt ranging from his marriage plans to his source of daily bread, farming.



Evidently, he developed anger against the local government for its failure to compensate him and bitter feelings engulfed his emotions, thus prompting the need to take 'necessary actions'.



During an official gathering, armed with the nail gun at hand, he approached the communist leader, and with a single nail shot to the head, Jianhua was pronounced dead.



The court gave the verdict and refused his request for an appeal that he had asked for last month.



A report by Xinhua News Agency quoted the Supreme People's Court terming his actions as "cruel in the extreme and the effect on society was extremely negative."



After a final visit from his family, Jia was finally put to death in the Northern City of Shijiazhuang.



On the other hand, the public has mixed opinions with regard to the incident. The greatest concern, however, rose as most argued over the government's misuse of power in matters to do with the lower- and middle-class people of the society.



Chinese media outlets also aired that the Jia actions were from a place of anger and he should be spared.



"Jia would probably not have acted as he did if his loss had been properly taken care off," read a news item by China Daily.



Land possession and corruption are a great source of worry for the Chinese community.



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Tagschina, china judiciary, Murder, death penalty
(Photo : Getty Images) China officially handed over the two type 035g submarines to the Bangladesh Navy.

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Bangladesh Navy received its first submarine delivery from China on Monday, as the country seeks to boost its naval power in the Bay of Bengal.



"With the inclusion of the submarines, Bangladesh Navy has started its journey as a three dimensional force," Admiral Mohammad Nizamuddin Ahmed, Chief of Naval Staff, said during the handover ceremony at Liaonan shipyard Dalian state, China.



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The deal, which reportedly costs $203 million, reflects the growing economic and defense relations between Bangladesh and China, Yahoo! News noted.



The type 035G class submarines, which are the first addition to the country's defense force, are set to be part of the country's naval fleet starting next year, Taposhi Rabeya, spokesperson for Bangladesh's armed forces, said. The submarines will be named BNS Nabajatra and BNS Joyjatra.



Bangladesh initially ordered the two boats from China in 2013. Zee News noted that the Bangladesh Navy opt for the Ming class submarines because of budget constraints. It originally wanted to avail of the S 20 and Type 039 Song class submarine, but these were priced at $250 million each.



Rear Admiral Liu Zizhu represented the Chinese government and handed over the submarines to Admiral Ahmed in the presence of senior naval officials from both parties, the Daily Star reported.



Ahmed also thanked the Chinese naval force for modernizing the submarines and training the Bangladesh Navy personnel to operate and maintain the ship. A sea trial and real training on running the submarines have also been conducted.



The diesel-electric submarines displace 2,110 tons with a surface endurance of up to 8,000 nm, allowing it to stay at sea for about 60 days. It could carry 57 personnel and 18 torpedoes with an option of loading 32 mines as well.



With the new type 035G submarines at hand, the Bangladesh Navy could now ensure maritime border security in the Bay of Bengal, Ahmed said.



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TagsBangladesh, china, type 035g submarines, romeo/ming class submarines
(Photo : Getty images) Many people in China are against the construction of incineration plants because of the stench and toxic emissions.

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Despite public disapproval largely because of the stench and toxic emissions, a Chinese firm has built a new incineration plant that aims to do away with landfills and the burning of waste materials.



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China's Everbright International was contracted to build the Wujiang plant. The Deputy Director of the firm, Cai Shuguang, explained that burning waste comes with many advantages.



"Combustion reduces the volume, turns it into a resource and detoxifies it," he said. He added that the plant has the potential of being explored fully within 20 years.



The Wujiang plant is located in a low-key environment, 100kms away in the Western region of Shanghai. The plant can handle 1500 tons of waste daily.



"With the land scarce and consumption surging, China has little choice but to burn as much trash as it can," Cai said.



At least 200 trucks are expected to dump 10 tons of rubbish each in a 26-meter pit at the plant daily. Furnace slugs will be recycled, and toxic emissions captured with the least amount being wasted.



The plant is able of generating heat which is capable of running turbines that deliver 500,00 kilowatt-hours of electricity to the power network at a commendable tariff.



Everbright made its name in the waste industry over a decade ago in Suzhou when the company launched its first-ever energy plant. China has a total of 223 plants, a number it intends to double by 2020.



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Tagschina, Everbright International, Wujiang Plant, Waste Management, Incineration
(Photo : Getty Images) The state-run Global Times newspaper has warned that China would unleash countermeasures against the US if President-elect Donald Trump launches an all-out trade war against Beijing.

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A Chinese state-backed newspaper on Monday warned US President-elect Donald Trump that American industries stand to lose if he launches an all-out trade war against China as he had promised to do so during his campaign.



In an editorial, the Global Times said Trump would be a "naive fool" and would face disaster if he launches an all-out trade war against Beijing.



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Trump has repeatedly lashed out at China and vowed to slap 45 percent tariffs on Chinese imports. The incoming US leader has even accused Beijing of being a currency manipulator.



Countermeasures



The billionaire president-elect accused Beijing of "cheating" in one of his rallies in August, branding it as "the greatest theft in the history of the world."



The Global Times warned Trump that such measures would be a grave mistake and that China is ready to take countermeasures is he opts to fulfill his campaign promise to impose a "defensive" 45 percent tariff on China-made goods.



The editorial said that If Trump' wrecks trade between Beijing and Washington, numerous American industries stand to suffer and that the new president would be condemned for his incompetence, recklessness, and ignorance.



Trade retaliation



The commentary threatened Trump that he would face retaliation from China if he makes things difficult for Beijing politically. The newspaper warned that China could cut US cars and iPhone sales in the country, halt corn and US soybean imports and even limit the number of Chinese students enrolling in US universities.



China's foreign affairs ministry issued a statement last week reminding Trump to act cautiously in his dealings with Beijing.



In the statement, China's foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said that he believes that any politician who wishes to protect the interests of his people first will have to adopt a policy that is conducive to the trade cooperation between Beijing and Washington.



The Global Times editorial was put out hours after Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke on the phone. Trump reportedly thanked Xi for his well wishes on his election victory.



Trump's staff released a statement to reporters following his talk with President Xi.



"During the call, the leaders established a clear sense of mutual respect for one another, and President-elect Trump stated that he believes the two leaders will have one of the strongest relationships for both countries moving forward," the statement said.



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TagsGlobal Times, US President-elect Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi jinping, Chinese imports, trade war, campaign speeches
(Photo : Getty Images) The six Huawei product designers have been arrested and charged.

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Huawei has confirmed that the company will no longer be part of Googles Pixel smartphone manufacturing.



The confirmation of the news came from Huaweis VP of the Consumer Business Group Colin Giles. Google and Huawei commened their smartphone partnership with the Nexus 6P, and tech analysts believed that this partnership will continue for several years. So, Google asked the Chinese tech firm to manufacture the Pixel phones.



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However, it ended unexpectedly with the Nexus 6P as Google has the firm desire to have no other branding on the devices besides its own or without the direct involvement of an OEM partner, Huawei backed out from the deal, according to Fortune.



Since Google is firm about their decision, it will not work with Huaweis goal, which was to gain more market share in the U.S, and the Taiwan-based tech giant had no desire to build phones for anyone else without getting something out of the partnership. Years ago, Huawei decided it would not be a contract shop for other companies seeking to manufacture handsets.



After the relationship of the companies ended, Google picked HTC in replacement of Huawei. This new partnership may help HTC to gain once more favorable revenue after several years of disappointing sales. The Taoyuan, Taiwan-based mobile phone maker accepted the deal of manufacturing the Pixel and Pixel XL in exchange of Googles money.



Both Pixel and Pixel XL do not contain HTC branding and software anywhere on the devices except on the non-removable battery, but they display the Google logo instead.



On the other hand, Huawei assures that it is still a partner with Google and they are still open for future projects with the two working together. In fact, the search engine giant is currently developing a tablet with Huawei that will likely to preview Googles new OS called Andromeda, 9to5Google reported.



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TagsHuawei, Google, Google for Pixel, Pixel, pixel xl, Google's Pixel Phones, Nexus 6p
(Photo : Getty Images) The US may join the AIIB under the leadership of President-elect Donald Trump, according to the bank's president Jin Liqun.

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The U.S. has so far chosen to stay out of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). However, the American government may overcome its phobia for the China-backed investment bank, according to AIIB's president, Jin Liqun, in an interview with leading Chinese newspaper China Daily.



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Jin claims that he has personally heard many good things about AIIB from Obama officials and that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump may overturn Obama's decision not to join the AIIB.



"I have heard a certain senior official of the President Barack Obama speak good of the AIIB and after Donald Trump won, I was told that many in his team have an opinion that Obama was not right not to join the AIIB," Jin said.



Jin insisted that this change in opinion came about ever after Canada became the newest member of the bank last month. He claims that this helped to increase the creditability of the bank. Canada is the 58th non-Asian country to join the 57-member bank.



Jin admitted that the U.S. sees the AIIB as a competitive threat to American-backed financial institutions including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Both powerful institutions play a very important role in maintaining America's domination in the global financial world, Jin explained.



He lamented the fact that the U.S. has raised doubts over whether the AIIB's functions can be consistent with fundamental human and environmental rights of member nations. Jin said that they tried their best to convince America.



AIIB officially started operation on January 17 this year, with its headquarter in Beijing. The main aim of the bank is to offer affordable credit for infrastructure projects to all member nation.



The capital base of the bank is $100 billion, which is approximately 50 percent of World Bank's capitalization. About 20 new nations have lined up applications to join the bank. Most of these 20 nations are reportedly from outside Asia.



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TagsAsian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), AIIB, Jin Liqun, china, China and US
(Photo : Russian Navy) MiG-29K lands on the Admiral Kuznetsov.

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One of the Cold War-era Mikoyan MiG-29KUB naval multi-role fighters aboard the obsolete Russian aircraft carrier RFS Admiral Kuznetsov (063) crashed into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after take-off on what appeared to be the aging carrier's first bombing mission against anti-Assad Syrian rebels.



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The crash on Nov. 13 was an embarrassing start to the Kremlin's heavily-hyped naval intervention being carried out by an obsolete fleet of Russian Navy warships led by a carrier flying the troubled MiG-29K only operated by Russia and the Indian Navy.



The MiG-29KUB is the two-seat version of the standard single-seat MiG-29K made specifically for the Russian Navy.



The Indian Navy has made a decision to no longer use the MiG-29KUB for its forthcoming INS Vishal nuclear powered supercarrier.



"An air accident involving a sea-based MIG-29K occurred as a result of an equipment fault during an approach for deck landing several kilometers away from the aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov," said the Russian defense ministry in a press release.



"The pilot ejected himself from the aircraft and was taken to the Amidral Kuznetsov by a crew of the search and rescue service."



Western media, however, reported three MiG-29s took off from the Kuznetsov and flew in the direction of Syria. Shortly after take-off, one of the MiGs appeared to have mechanical difficulties and turned back towards the carrier.



The Russian jet didn't make it and crashed into the sea while attempting to land. A Russian rescue helicopter picked up the pilot who safely ejected from his stricken fighter. It wasn't explained why this two-seat jet had only one pilot.



The fiasco is bound to further delay the carrier's already delayed first bombing mission against U.S.-backed Syrian rebel groups fighting to maintain their hold on the rebel-held city of Aleppo.



The stricken fighter belonged to the 100th Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment formed as part of the air group aboard the Kuznetsov.



The deployment aboard the Kuznetsov is the first combat deployment for the MiG-29K and MiG-29KUBR. There are only four MiG-29s aboard the Kuznetsov.



The Russian Navy ordered only 20 MiG-29Ks and 4 MiG-29KUBs in 2009 for the Kuznetsov.



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Displaced Iraqi Christians have finally received the go-ahead to return to their native northern Iraq. Yet the homecoming isnt exactly one youd picture as a Hallmark greeting card or Disney-inspired scene.

In fact, according to a recent CBN News report of the actual arrival, upon the citizens return to their now liberated village in Iraqs Karamlis, the scene which greeted them was one of vast devastation. Local Saint Addai Church, its bells having tolled their first time in over two years, received the brunt of malicious ISIS attacks, and showed the physical signs of brutality (charred remains of torched prayer benches, remnants of tombs long since disrespected and scarred, a now-headless likeness of the sacred Virgin Mary, mountains of splintered glass shards, and more), mirroring much of the darkness of what the hearts of the returning parishioners who had gathered to worship here Sunday now felt within.

And despite that darkness, these Iraqi Christians gathered to lift their voices in unison, singing hymns and hearing a message of lightGods light. Saint Addais Reverend, Thabet Habib, assured his flock of the villages future, saying, "I stress again in the midst of this destruction, that God is always giving us light to spread peace and love and rebuilding.

After falling to ISIS in August 2014, many village residents were displaced, their homes were destroyed, and they were forced to live in nearby Mosul in refugee camps, with myriad others having fled even further abroad. One former village resident, Sahir Shamoun, upon returning to check on his home in Karamlis, explained that he feels great sadness. Shamoun, now having been displaced five times, further explains his trepidation of a full-time relocation to the village, stating that, considering the minority ratio of Christians now living in the Middle East, Im not sure when or if I'll be back. I think of my children. Will they have a future here?"

Photo courtesy: Thinkstockphotos.com

Publication date: November 15, 2016
The most influential womens leader at your church may be someone who has never stepped inside its sanctuary.

It may be someone your pastor has never even heard of.

If you had to ask, Who's Jen Hatmaker? it's time to be more directly invested in the spiritual nurture of half your church, tweeted Jen Wilkin last month. The womens ministry leader was responding to the wave of Christian reactions to news that LifeWay Christian Stores had stopped selling books by Hatmakerone of the biggest writers and speakers among todays generation of evangelical womenafter she spoke out in support of same-sex marriage.

Hatmakers popularity underscores how womens ministry has transformed in the 21st century. Christian women increasingly look to nationally known figures for spiritual formation and inspirationespecially when they dont see leaders who look like them stepping up in their own churches.

While various evangelical subcultures may find different female teachers filling their social media feeds and Amazon recommendations (Austin-based Hatmaker seems especially popular among white women in the South and Midwest), the numbers show that the top names in womens ministry rival or even outdraw high-profile televangelists and megachurch pastors.

Titles by Bible teachers Lysa Terkeurst, Priscilla Shirer, and Beth Moore regularly outsell new releases from pastors such as Max Lucado and T. D. Jakes, according to rankings from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. Bloggers such as Hatmaker and Ann Voskampwith books popular enough to land on TheNew York Times bestseller listshave triple as many Facebook followers as the ...

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Some evangelical leaders around the globe worry that the recent US presidential election has damaged Christian moral witness, and will fuel discord abroad.

In a conference call Tuesday, a week after Donald Trumps win, more than 70 ministry presidents, pastors, and scholars spoke with concern as they discussed the ramifications of the American election on the global church.

The call was organized by Doug Birdsall, a former top leader of the Lausanne Movement and the American Bible Society, as part of his new Civilitas Group. Participants included evangelical representatives from Asia, Europe, and South America, as well as a diverse span of US church leaders.

One of the things that America was stood for in the past was moral leadership and character. Over the past few decades, it has slowly dissipated, said Hwa Yung, longtime bishop of the Methodist Church in Malaysia. In this election you have produced two candidates, both of whom are deeply flawed in character. ...

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On Sunday, June 12, 29-year-old Omar Mateen stormed into Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, and gunned down 49 people and wounded 53 others. Shortly before the attack, Mateen called 9-1-1, pledging allegiance to ISIS. The shooting was the deadliest by a single shooter in history, the deadliest act of violence against LGBT people in US history, and the deadliest terrorist attack in the US since the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

The club was holding its weekly Upscale Latin Saturdays event, attended by about 320 people. When shots were fired just after 2 a.m., some patrons assumed they were firecrackers or loud parts of the music.

People poured into the streets of the surrounding neighborhood, some carrying injured friends to emergency responders. Others were trapped inside, held hostage by Mateen until 5 a.m. when police, led by a SWAT team, entered the building and killed Mateen.

Hundreds of people watched from a distance, waiting to learn if friends and loved ones had survived.

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Hadassah Partners with National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and Hispanic Israel Leadership Coalition on 'National Israel Solidarity Day' - Sunday, Dec. 4th Contact: Renee Young,



NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2016 /



On Sunday, December 4th, the NHCLC and the HILC will invite their pastors, churches and congregations nationwide to participate in a day of special offering in support of Hadassah's Emergency Preparedness Center at its Jerusalem-based hospital.



Ellen Hershkin, Hadassah's National President, states, "This partnership aligns Hadassah with the world's largest and most well-respected Hispanic Christian Evangelical Community. Their support and engagement will play a vital role in HMO's ability to continue to provide world-class medical care to the people of Israel and beyond. Together, we will continue to save lives and build 'bridges to peace.'"



Pastor Samuel Rodriguez, President of the NHCLC, states, "Hadassah reflects the light in a time of darkness, despair, destruction and violence. If there would be more organizations like Hadassah, the world would certainly be a better place."



Pastor Mario Bramnick, President of the HILC states, "The sanctity and security of Israel is of primary importance to the Hispanic Christian Evangelical Community. We are honored to support Hadassah's mission in caring for the country and its people. This partnership enables us to fulfill our founding mission to engage, empower and equip the Latino born-again evangelical community in full support of Israel and the Jewish community around the world."



Founded by HWZOA, the Hadassah Medical Organization's two Jerusalem hospitals  Mount Scopus and Ein Kerem have been pioneers in developing world-class medical services in Israel and the Middle East. The impressive list of trailblazing, lifesaving achievements including Israel's first nursing, medical and dental schools and Israel's first cancer care center, burn unit and neo-natal care center has earned HMO an international reputation for excellence. HMO serves as a model for other hospitals in Israel and around the world and remains the leading trauma unit in Israel and the only Level 1-A trauma unit in Jerusalem. For more information, visit:



The Hispanic Israel Leadership Coalition is a subsidiary of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC/CONEL) and is the largest International Latino Christian organization in America and in the world. The Hispanic Israel Leadership Coalition exists to engage, empower and equip the Latino born-again evangelical community in full support of Israel and the Jewish community around the world. For more information, please visit:



Hadassah, The Women's Zionist Organization of America, Inc. (HWZOA), founded in 1912, is the largest Jewish women's organization in the United States. With 330,000 members, Associates and supporters Hadassah brings Jewish women together to effect change and advocate on critical issues such as medical care and research, women's empowerment, and the health, care and concern of the people of Israel. Through the Hadassah Medical Organization's two hospitals, the world-renowned trauma center and the leading research facility in Jerusalem, Hadassah supports the delivery of exemplary patient care to over a million people every year. HMO serves without regard to race, religion or nationality and earned a Nobel Peace Prize Nomination in 2005 for building "bridges to peace" through equality in medical treatment. For more information, visit

Share Tweet Contact: Renee Young, Hadassah , 212-303-8140, ryoung@hadassah.org NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2016 / Christian Newswire / -- Hadassah, The Women's Zionist Organization of America, Inc., (HWZOA) announces an historic alliance with the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC) and its subsidiary, the Hispanic Israel Leadership Coalition (HILC). The partnership launches Sunday, December 4th with "National Israel Solidarity Day" to mobilize the Hispanic Christian Evangelical Movement in support of Hadassah Medical Organization's (HMO) humanitarian efforts in caring for the people and country of Israel. The Hispanic Christian Evangelical Movement is North America's fastest-growing ethnic and faith community.On Sunday, December 4th, the NHCLC and the HILC will invite their pastors, churches and congregations nationwide to participate in a day of special offering in support of Hadassah's Emergency Preparedness Center at its Jerusalem-based hospital.Ellen Hershkin, Hadassah's National President, states, "This partnership aligns Hadassah with the world's largest and most well-respected Hispanic Christian Evangelical Community. Their support and engagement will play a vital role in HMO's ability to continue to provide world-class medical care to the people of Israel and beyond. Together, we will continue to save lives and build 'bridges to peace.'"Pastor Samuel Rodriguez, President of the NHCLC, states, "Hadassah reflects the light in a time of darkness, despair, destruction and violence. If there would be more organizations like Hadassah, the world would certainly be a better place."Pastor Mario Bramnick, President of the HILC states, "The sanctity and security of Israel is of primary importance to the Hispanic Christian Evangelical Community. We are honored to support Hadassah's mission in caring for the country and its people. This partnership enables us to fulfill our founding mission to engage, empower and equip the Latino born-again evangelical community in full support of Israel and the Jewish community around the world."Founded by HWZOA, the Hadassah Medical Organization's two Jerusalem hospitals  Mount Scopus and Ein Kerem have been pioneers in developing world-class medical services in Israel and the Middle East. The impressive list of trailblazing, lifesaving achievements including Israel's first nursing, medical and dental schools and Israel's first cancer care center, burn unit and neo-natal care center has earned HMO an international reputation for excellence. HMO serves as a model for other hospitals in Israel and around the world and remains the leading trauma unit in Israel and the only Level 1-A trauma unit in Jerusalem. For more information, visit: www.hadassah-med.com The Hispanic Israel Leadership Coalition is a subsidiary of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC/CONEL) and is the largest International Latino Christian organization in America and in the world. The Hispanic Israel Leadership Coalition exists to engage, empower and equip the Latino born-again evangelical community in full support of Israel and the Jewish community around the world. For more information, please visit: www.hispanicisraelcoalition.com Hadassah, The Women's Zionist Organization of America, Inc. (HWZOA), founded in 1912, is the largest Jewish women's organization in the United States. With 330,000 members, Associates and supporters Hadassah brings Jewish women together to effect change and advocate on critical issues such as medical care and research, women's empowerment, and the health, care and concern of the people of Israel. Through the Hadassah Medical Organization's two hospitals, the world-renowned trauma center and the leading research facility in Jerusalem, Hadassah supports the delivery of exemplary patient care to over a million people every year. HMO serves without regard to race, religion or nationality and earned a Nobel Peace Prize Nomination in 2005 for building "bridges to peace" through equality in medical treatment. For more information, visit www.hadassah.org
home US Donald Trump's Secretary of State likely to be Rudy Giuliani

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has emerged as a leading candidate to be U.S. secretary of state for President-elect Donald Trump, a source familiar with the situation said on Monday.

The source said John Bolton, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, was also under consideration to head the State Department.

Giuliani, 72, was one of Trump's most vocal and high-profile supporters on the campaign trail, introducing him frequently at rallies with slashing attacks against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

He was New York's mayor during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and led the city during the crisis after the destruction of the World Trade Center twin towers, working closely with then-President George W. Bush.

Giuliani was an early supporter of Trump, has been his friend for many years, and defended him vigorously through the various controversies that ensnared the New York businessman.

His rhetoric was notable for repeatedly accusing Clinton of having violated laws through her handling of classified information on a private email server while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.

"If Rudy wants it, he'll get it," former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich told "The Kelly File" on Fox News.

Gingrich, who has also been mentioned as possibly having a role in the Trump administration, said he thought Giuliani might have been interested in being nominated instead as the U.S. attorney general or secretary of homeland security.

However, he said Giuliani would do a fabulous job as Trump's secretary of state.

"He's already known worldwide," Gingrich said.

Bolton, 67, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, was U.N. ambassador to the United Nations from August 2005 to December 2006 during the Bush administration.

Before that he was under secretary of state for arms control and international security. He has frequently provided foreign policy advice to Republican presidential candidates.

Trump is working on choosing the people he wants to place in his Cabinet for when he takes over the presidency on Jan. 20.

In a sign that Trump might be getting closer to some decisions, his spokesman Jason Miller said Trump would meet Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who is in charge of Trump's transition effort, at Trump Tower in New York on Tuesday.

Miller said Trump and Pence would be "reviewing a number of names for key jobs."

"If the vice president-elect is getting together with the president-elect to discuss names, then I would say that it's serious, obviously," he said.

U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, a possible pick for defense secretary, was seen entering Trump Tower on Monday.
America Has A Duty To Welcome Refugees, Bishops Tell Trump

Donald Trump must welcome and protect refugees and immigrants as the next President of the United States, the country's Catholic bishops said on Monday.

In a statement posted to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops' website, they said: "We believe the family unit is the cornerstone of society, so it is vital to protect the integrity of the family. For this reason, we are reminded that behind every 'statistic' is a person who is a mother, father, son, daughter, sister or brother and has dignity as a child of God.

"We pray that as the new administration begins its role leading our country, it will recognize the contributions of refugees and immigrants to the overall prosperity and well-being of our nation. We will work to promote humane policies that protect refugee and immigrants' inherent dignity, keep families together, and honor and respect the laws of this nation.

"Serving and welcoming people fleeing violence and conflict in various regions of the world," the statement continued, "is part of our identity as Catholics. The Church will continue this life-saving tradition.

"Today, with more than 65 million people forcibly displaced from their homes, the need to welcome refugees and provide freedom from persecution is more acute than ever and 80 of our dioceses across the country are eager to continue this wonderful act of accompaniment born of our Christian faith."

The bishops said they "stand ready to work with a new administration to continue to ensure that refugees are humanely welcomed without sacrificing our security or our core values as Americans. A duty to welcome and protect newcomers, particularly refugees, is an integral part of our mission to help our neighbors in need.

"We pray for President-elect Trump and all leaders in public life, that they may rise to the responsibilities entrusted to them with grace and courage. And may all of us as Catholics and Americans remain a people of solidarity with others in need and a nation of hospitality which treats others as we would like to be treated."

Catholic dioceses came under fire during the run-up to last week's presidential election after 30 governors asked the Obama administration to suspend the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the US over security concerns in the wake of the Paris attacks in November 2015.

Archbishop Joseph Tobin of Indianapolis was asked by Governor Mike Pence  now Vice President-elect  not to house a family of Syrian refugees in his diocese.

He refused to back down, however, and the family were resettled after offers of private assistance were made to fund the family's relocation, which made up for government aid blocked by Pence.

The chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops released a statement last year saying he was "concerned" by calls to stop welcoming those fleeing persecution in the Middle East.

"These refugees are fleeing terror themselves  violence like we have witnessed in Paris. They are extremely vulnerable families, women, and children who are fleeing for their lives. We cannot and should not blame them for the actions of a terrorist organisation," Bishop Eusebio Elizondo said.

He warned that terror attacks were being used to "scapegoat all refugees".

Trump called throughout his campaign for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States", but the statement promising this has disappeared from his website since his election.

In his victory speech, he toned down his typically divisive rhetoric and called for unity, pledging to stand for civil liberties and to be "president for all Americans".

A majority of Catholics (52 per cent) voted for Trump, while 45 per cent backed his rival Hillary Clinton.
Anti-Muslim Hate Crime Has Soared In The US

Hate crimes against Muslims in the United States have soared by nearly 70 per cent, according to new figures from the FBI.

After a growth in angry rhetoric against Muslims by politicians and commentators, anti-Muslim hate incidents grew by 67 per cent in 2015.

The FBI reports 257 anti-Muslim hate incidents in the US in 2015 compared with 154 in 2014.

But other minority groups have also found themselves targets of hatred and assault.

Among the incidents this year alone, a Florida man pleaded guilty to threatening to firebomb two mosques.

A Virginia man was charged with assaulting a gay victim.

An Iowa man was convicted of stamping on and kicking the head of an African-American victim.

"Hate crimes like these can have a devastating impact upon the communities where they occur," said the FBI, which has made investigating hate crimes that fall under federal jurisdiction the number one priority under its civil rights program.

The latest Hate Crime Statistics report contains figures collected through the uniform crime reporting program of nearly 15,000 law enforcement agencies throughough the country. The report reveals 5,850 criminal incidents and 6,885 related offenses that were motivated by bias against race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender, and gender identity.

The figures have been collected since 1990, under the Hate Crime Statistics Act.

For the first time, the 2015 Hate Crime Statistics has included seven additional religious categories  bias against Buddhists, Eastern Orthodox, Hindu, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, other Christians and Sikhs.

FBI Director James Comey said: "We need to do a better job of tracking and reporting hate crime to fully understand what is happening in our communities and how to stop it."

The Council on American-Islamic-Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organisation, called on America's leaders to repudiate growing Islamophobia.

"We witnessed a sharp jump in anti-Muslim incidents nationwide last year, with that spike in Islamophobia continuing through 2016 and accelerating after the November 8 election," said CAIR government affairs director Robert McCaw. "This unprecedented increase in bigotry of all kinds must be repudiated in the strongest terms possible by all our nation's leaders, beginning with President-elect Donald Trump."

McCaw noted that the FBI statistics confirm CAIR's own report of an unprecedented number of anti-mosque incidents in 2015. The organisation said that since the election, there had been a spike in incidents targeting American Muslims and other minority groups.
Archbishop Of Canterbury: British Values Are Christian, Whether You Believe Or Not

Rabbis and Church of England priests will be urged to work together after a joint Christian-Jewish project was launched at Lambeth Palace on Monday.

The Archbishop of Canterbury spoke alongside the Chief Rabbi on the importance of faith groups in what he described as a "time of particular uncertainty". Justin Welby said despite the Church's past history of antisemitism it should work with Jewish leaders to make "a substantial contribution to the debate around our shared values in this country".

'In Good Faith' pairs rabbis and vicars to discuss shared difficulties and to work together on social action projects.

Welby acknowledged the CofE has "its own history of intolerance and deep-seated antisemism". But, he added, "we have to own that history".

He said his major theme next year would be to emphasise that "we find our values in this country within the Judeo-Christian tradition, whether we are believers or not".

He added: "As members of the Jewish and Christian communities, it is imperative that we remind the nation that our values have not emerged within a secular vacuum; but from the resilient and eternal structure of our Judeo-Christian theological, philosophical and ethical heritage."

He went on: "Our understanding of the rights and responsibilities that flow from our God-given inheritance as human beings, enable us  Jewish and Christian communities together  to be powerful and compelling advocates for freedom in British society."

The Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said he did not want "there to be 'elephants' in the room" as Christians and Jews discussed differences. "If there are issues that we might differ about, let's air them, let's hear what others have to say because it is only with constructive and friendly communication that we have a chance to get on well together and to establish unity and peace."

He added: "The most important part of today is tomorrow. It is what will result as a consequence of our collaboration. Therefore I give this challenge to you: don't just reflect in the future on what a lovely day this was in Lambeth Palace.

"The strength of what we are doing is to encourage us all to work together to guarantee that the outstanding relationships that we have at leadership level will trickle down to the grassroots within our communities, so that indeed as faith leaders, we will make a change in this challenging world of ours."
Christianity Growing in Indonesia Despite Burning of Churches By Islamist Extremists

Not even the torching of their churches could stop Christians in Indonesia from holding services to worship Godeven if they have to do it inside tents or in the forest.

Eleven churches were burned and destroyed in the Indonesian province of Aceh last year, some by Islamist extremists and some others by the police, reports said.

But despite the mounting Christian persecution in Indonesia, church membership is climbing, according to World Watch Monitor (WWM).

Of the 11 churches destroyed last year, the members of six of these churches continue to meet in tents. Other congregants have joined other churches despite fear of more violence, WWM learned.

The extremists started destroying churches in Aceh in October 2015 following clashes between Muslims and Christians in another part of the country. The extremists sought to destroy all unregistered churches in their province, which enforces Sharia law.

Christians in the province said the destroyed churches have not been reconstructed due to ongoing campaign of hatred against them launched by extremists.

Even if the Christians in the province want to rebuild their churches, doing so is considered nearly an impossible task since the law imposes tough requirements. One such requirement is that they have to obtain 60 signatures from persons of another faith and receive a permit from the authorities to build a church.

Christian leaders in the province said it's highly unlikely that the authorities will hand over building permits as to do so would anger Muslim voters ahead of local elections in February 2017.

But despite the threats to their lives, the harsh political climate and the tropical rains that make it more difficult for them to hold gatherings, Christians in Aceh province are still practicing their faith and worshipping God.

"[Rain] has happened many times, but we still continue the service. Even if the tents are leaking and rainwater or mud is splashing in from the outside, no one ever leaves the service," a member of the Indonesian Christian Church told World Watch Monitor.

"I'm sad that we have to worship in tents in the middle of a palm-oil plantation. But we're keeping our spirits high," said another local church member.
Christianity Is Rising Again In Finland

One third of the population of Finland now believes in the Christian God, in a sign that the country is bucking the trend of declining faith.

A new survey finds that after years of steady decline, in common with many other countries in the West, Christian belief in Finland is once more increasing.

Four years ago, just 27 per cent of Finns said they believed in the God of Christianity, Evangelical Focus reports.

Now, that figure stands at 33 per cent. A further 19 per cent of Finns said they believe in God, although this is a different God to that taught by the churches. More than one in ten do not know whether they believe in God or not.

The number of atheists also increased, from 21 per cent to 23 per cent.

The survey, Partaking Lutheranism, was carried out by Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland's research institute. Nearly three-quarters of Finns belong to the Lutheran Church, one of two national churches of Finland. The other, smaller national church is the Finnish Orthodox Church.

"People are thinking about their relationship to the Church. It looks like the opinions have got stronger. The number of those, who are in the middle, who are unsure or who believe differently than the Church teaches, has decreased," said researcher Kimmo Ketola, according to Evangelical Focus.

The report has been produced to help the Church and individual parishes plan their mission strategies over the next few decades. It examines the wider role of faith in society and cultural changes affecting Finland, to help guide clergy about what their priorities should be.

In the preface, the document says the last decade has seen momentous changes of a kind few people predicted.

It mentions the global economic crisis, growing inequality, right-wing populism, the refugee crisis and a growth also in the global political influence of religion.

For Finland, the Russian-Ukrainian crisis and the economic sanctions imposed by the UN in Russia as a result of the takeover of the Crimea have all contributed to a sense "that Europe will never be the same again".

In September last year, Prime Minister Juha Sipila began a speech on live television with the words: "The situation in Finland is an exceptionally serious." He referred in particular to slow economic growth, rising unemployment, state debt, the loss of business competitiveness and the widening gap between rich and poor.

Tapani Simojoki, who is Finnish and is Pastor of Our Saviour Lutheran Church in Fareham UK told Christian Today: "Historically, membership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland has been very high, with the vast majority of the population holding membership. As a result, the majority of children is still baptised. In recent decades, however, the rate of membership has been falling significantly, especially in the larger cities.

"Nevertheless, around 70 per cent of the population still holds membership in the church, paying their church taxes. At the same time, most are passive members. According to recent surveys, a little under 10 per cent of Finns attended a Sunday service at least monthly and 15 per cent on special festival days, while 59 per cent reported that they attend Sunday less than once a year, or never. On the other hand, roughly 45 per cent of the population go to church for baptisms, weddings and funerals."
Evangelical School Gives Away Priceless Manuscript In Amazing Gesture

An ancient New Testament manuscript will be handed to a Greek Orthodox archbishop on Tuesday in a gesture that hopes to spark a worldwide return of artefacts to original owners.

The 9th century document was looted from a monastery in northern Greece 99 years ago and has been Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago's (LSTC) most prized possession. But the president of the tiny seminary will hand over the manuscript worth hundreds of thousands of dollars for free.

The one-building evangelical school, with 225 students, is hoping the move will encourage others to follow suit.

"We want to say, even a little school like ours can do something that makes a difference and that is powerful and right," said LSTC president James Nieman.

"And we'd like to encourage other institutions who are in a similar circumstance to be able to do the same thing. I think that would be a very important part of this for us."

He added: "The most surprising thing to me in this process was that not a single person in any of this said we shouldn't do this.

"They all said, of course we have to do this."

Known as Codex 1424, the 337-page manuscipt was transcribed by a monk named Sabas and added to by others. It is the oldest complete New Testament of the Byzantine text family. Until the 20th century it was one of thousands to be held in the library of the Kosintza Monastery near Drama, Greece.

But after the Bulgarian guerillas looted monasteries across northern Greece in 1917, the treasures were "spread all around the globe," said New York attorney George Tsougarakis, who represents the Greek Church in trying to get the material back.

The Greek Orthodox Church wrote to institutions that held the manuscripts and LSTC was the first to respond. "We hope that others will follow the fine example," said Tsougarakis.

Archbishop Demetrios, head of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, has traveled from New York to Chicago for a handover ceremony on Tuesday morning.

"In the spirit of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday," he said, "our hearts are filled with gratitude to our Lutheran brothers and sisters for this generous and kind gesture."
Faith Is A Force For Good, Says UK Top Politician Sajid Javid

Faith is a "force for good" and parents should not be afraid of raising their children as Christian, Britain's Secretary of State for Communities said last night.

Sajid Javid, who acknowledges a Muslim heritage but doesn't practise any faith, said: "Faith is undoubtedly a force for good."

Faith inspires people into public service and to help people in need, he said, and referred to a recent report that showed parents of all faiths, particularly Christians, were afraid to pass on their faith to their children in case it alienated them. "That does worry me, because religion can be an important factor in a child's upbringing," he added.

Javid's address was significant because it gives a further, clear indication of the importance placed on faith by the government under Prime Minister Theresa May  a vicar's daughter.

Javid, who is married to Laura, a practising Christian, described growing up in his family's Muslim household and complaining to his brother about not getting Christmas presents.

His brother replied: "Look, we might not get one Christmas but we get two Eids."

Javid continued: "Now, with my own kids, growing up in this multi-faith world in a multi-faith household, they celebrate the two major Muslim festivals, they get presents at Eid and they get presents at Christmas. They also get loads of Easter eggs that they demand as well. So things have changed."

Javid was speaking at a meeting at Westminster of Faith Action, a network of faith organisations serving local communities, hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Faith and Society. The event celebrated the "faith covenant", a document that can be signed by local authorities and faith groups to commit to good working practices.

He said Theresa May had talked about the importance of faith in her vicarage childhood and how it had helped her throughout her life.

He was speaking in the Macmillan room in Portcullis House, Westminster, named after former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan who also spoke often about the importance of his Christian upbringing.

"My own experience, the things I learned in mosques, still apply very much to how I see the world today. So I am very proud that this government recognises the value of faith," said Javid.

He noted that the Near Neighbours programme of 1,000 projects was just one example of how people of different faiths can work together to help others in some of the most deprived communities.

Faith communities across the country are also celebrating Interfaith Week this week.

Javid said this was "an excellent opportunity to celebrate the work being done by people of all faiths and to recognise the hugely important role that religion continues to play in our society".

He pledged: "I am standing here to help you in any way I can with the important work you do."

Stephen Timms MP said: "Our APPG on faith and society was set up a few years ago to draw attention to the enormous contribution faith-based organisations are making to well-being across the country."

One aim was to remove "barriers" that sometimes got in the way, Timms said. "It quickly became apparent that a lot of groups have difficult relationships with their local council."

He said that some councils were wary that faith groups might try to convert people instead of delivering a service, or in some way favour people of the same faith. The faith covenant was drawn up to address these fears and to make sure equal opportunities and other obligations were observed.

Timms said the aim is to "build trust" so councils can tap into some of the "unrealised potential" of faith groups.
'Holy Water' Seeping From Feet of Jesus Christ Statue in Mumbai; Some Residents Call It a 'Miracle'

A statue of Jesus Christ seeping water is creating a stir in Mumbai, India.

When news spread last week about the alleged miracle, large crowds began gathering in the village where the statue is located, prompting the police to rush to the area to ensure that no stampede-like situation would develop, the Daily News and Analysis (DNA) reported.

The Jesus statue is located near the Infant Jesus Chapel, which is under the supervision of St. Anthony's Parish in Kharodi village. Locals have been coming to the place, forming long queues, to collect what they believe to be "holy water."

Online pictures and videos of the statue have gone viral, drawing more devotees to the site.

George Mendonca, a village resident, told DNA, "I believe that it is a way that Jesus Christ is trying to make his presence felt to the devotees. We believe that it's a miracle and it depends on the perspective of the individuals. We are receiving pictures and messages from every nook and corner, and larger crowds are expected in the next two days."

When sought for comment, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bombay said they still have to check the report. "We have not confirmed or sought details of the incident, but have received the pictures from the priests regarding the same," said Fr. Nigel Berret, spokesperson for the archdiocese.

A similar incident was reported in 2012, also in Mumbai, The Guardian reported. Water also started trickling down a statue of Jesus Christ at the Church of Our Lady of Velankanni in the Indian city of about 20.7 million people.

Locals quickly declared the incident a miracle and began collecting the alleged holy water.

However, Sanal Edamaruku, a renowned rationalist, later revealed that upon inspection he found out that the water dripping from the feet of the Jesus statue was due to clogged drainage pipes behind the wall where the statue stood, according to The Guardian.

Edamaruku warned believers not to drink the water, which they believed could cure ailments. "This was sewage water seeping through a wall due to faulty plumbing," he said. "It posed a health risk to people who were fooled into believing it was a miracle."

His disclosure was met with death threats from religious zealots. He was then charged with blasphemy in the Mumbai high court, an offence that carries a three-year prison sentence.

The death threats eventually forced him to seek exile in Finland.
Huawei Mate 9 Pro release date, specs news: Three versions of the flagship go live in China

Huawei has made its newest flagship a full lineup as it announces the three versions of the Mate 9 series in China.

In a press event, the China-based tech maker has revealed a new iteration in the series, the Mate 9 Pro. This is welcome news to fans who have been waiting for the step-up version to become official. Although Huawei has already announced the Mate 9 in a press launch in Munich earlier this month, the debut only focused on the Mate 9 base version, as well as the custom-branded Porsche Design edition.

However, many of the observers who are following the Huawei flagship are saying that the Mate 9 Pro may only be a China-exclusive device, though global fans will not be left out since it shares the same specs and features as the Mate 9 Porsche. The Mate 9 Pro also has the same, smaller 5.5-inch screen with Quad HD resolution, while the base version has a phablet-sized, 5.9-inch display. Under the hood, all of the three Mate 9 variants share the same processor, Huawei's homegrown Kirin 960 chipset.

Instead of the Mate 9 Pro being a step-up option like the Porsche Design, the new addition is launching as a full lineup, with both a base version and top-tier model. The Mate 9 Pro has a 4-GB base model with 64 GB of onboard storage, while a 6-GB RAM version has 128 GB of available storage.

The Mate 9 Pro is initially available in China for CNY 5,299 or $775 for the 128-GB storage variant. It is unclear if Huawei will roll out a 256-GB version of the step-up version, much like what it had done with the Mate 9 Porsche. The base version, on the other hand, goes on sale for CNY 4,699 or around $686.

Huawei has yet to comment if it will launch the Mate 9 Pro in other regions.
Iraqi Christians May Not Return To Shattered Villages Till Next Summer

Christians in the shattered villages around Mosul may be unable to return to their homes to live until next summer, according to Open Doors partners in the region.

The organisation is planning how it will support villagers who wish to return after Islamic State is defeated in the city, which is under increasing pressure from government forces. IS has done massive damage to the villages it occupied, deliberately destroying infrastructure as well as damaging and destroying churches.

It said: "Many areas are so badly damaged that a lot of basic building work needs to be done. There are also areas which have been deliberately made unsafe to prevent Christians from returning home."

One local Open Doors partner, John [not his real name], visited the recently liberated city of Qaraqosh, a mainly Christian town before the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) invaded. "The area we visited appeared totally destroyed," he said. "Many houses and buildings were burned, and in some streets the houses were totally collapsed  appearing like a district inside Aleppo. Rubbish and damaged goods were everywhere. Some streets were blocked because of the rubbish."

At the moment it is still unsafe for displaced people to return to liberated areas such as Qaraqosh because IS fighters are still present in the bigger towns. When John was in Qaraqosh, he said: "We constantly heard shooting. Sometimes it appeared nearby, other times a few blocks away, and all the time there were explosions. Fortunately, they sounded a bit further away."

However, he said the liberation of these towns is a sign of hope for the Christians who once lived there. John went to a church building in Qaraqosh with the church leader whose congregation once met there. John said, "With a sad voice [the church leader] remembered how the church had looked before he'd left it two years ago. But although ash and damage was everywhere, what stood out most for me was the faith I saw in his eyes."

Open Doors intends to help make houses habitable again and to provide funds to help restore churches and schools.

John said: "We will continue to support them every step of the way."
MPs Pressure Government On Christian Persecution

MPs pressured the government on Tuesday over support for persecuted Christians around the world.

Tory MPs Chris Green and Fiona Bruce were joined by the DUP's Jim Shannon and others to grill Foreign Office minister Tobias Ellwood on what protections are available for the millions of Christians attacked for their faith.

The debate in Parliament highlighted a campaign to raise awareness of persecuted Christians. The Red Wednesday campaign will take place on November 23 and is run by Aid to the Church in Need. It will ask Christians to wear red or adopt red filters across their social media to highlight the issue. Westminster Cathedral and Westminster Abbey are among a number of prominent sites to say they will light their buildings in red for the cause.

"There were thought to be 1.5 million Christians in Iraq before the invasion in 2003, however that number is now reported to have fallen to 230,000," Green, the Conservative MP for Bolton West, told MPs.

"Whilst many people have been persecuted and have fled from the region, this figure shows the targeted nature of the persecution."

He added that "sometimes the religious context is overlooked or obscured by more dramatic events" but said Christianity was at danger of being eradicated in the Middle East.

In April MPs unanimously voted to declare ISIS crimes a genocide and asked the government to refer the case to the United Nations Security Council. The government has yet to act and Fiona Bruce pressed Ellwood on the lack of progress.

But Ellwood insisted the government was doing all it could to gather evidence of crimes for future legal action. He said that while he agreed a genocide was taking place, it was a matter for judicial courts. "We couldn't get a UNSC resolution put through until the evidence has been gathered," he said. "There is a mechanism we have to go through and that includes the collection of evidence."

He added: "We have to effect change at a pace that will actually work and not have the opposite effect."

Chris Green told Christian Today afterwards the government's response showed how difficult dealing with persecution is.

"If we expect them to behave as we are today when they, as societies, are still evolving - I think that shows a certain arrogance. We have to except they and their cultures will evolve over time."

He added it was crucial the legal process was carried out before declaring genocide.

"We can't be seen to be pushing or usurping the law because we want these societies to recognise law in the same way we do."
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle update, news: 'Suits' star back in Canada, Prince Harry thinking about marriage?

Last Saturday, royal watchers were expecting that Prince Harry and his new girlfriend, "Suits" actress Meghan Markle, were going to make their debut as a couple at England's rugby match against South Africa. But fans were disappointed when the Prince stepped out solo for the outing and was seen sitting beside the Princess of Monaco at the event.

According to the Daily Mail, bookies had slashed their odds that the couple would be seen together at the match after Markle was spotted in London on Thursday. Now, the media outlet claims that the actress is back in Canada to continue filming the legal drama, which is slated to return next year to USA Network.

A source close to the Prince told Express.co.uk that Markle's two-day visit to London was just a "mini-break" as she has some filming commitments.

"There's been a lot of talk of her being introduced to the Queen and Prince Charles but there simply hasn't been time," added the insider.

It was previously reported that Markle was about to meet Prince William and his wife Duchess Kate over the weekend, but royal aides reportedly refused to confirm whether the meeting took place.

The couple is said to have been dating for several months, but have not been seen in public together. Last week, Prince Harry released a statement condemning the press coverage on Markle, and he also confirmed that the actress is his girlfriend.

Reports indicate that the Prince is tipped to propose to Markle next month. According to Mirror.co.uk, bookies and royal fans are expecting the 32-year-old to propose soon, with Ladbrokes slashing the odds on a Christmas proposal to 21.

"They're clearly besotted with each other and we've been left with little option but to slash the odds on an early engagement," Ladbrokes spokesperson Jessica Bridge said to the media outlet.

Stay tuned for more news about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
'The World Has Failed To Protect Us': Assyrian Christians Despair As ISIS Destroys Ancient Pyramid In Iraq

ISIS has destroyed one of the ancient wonders of Iraq by bulldozing the ziggurat pyramid in Nimrud, once the capital of the Assyrian empire stretching from Egypt to parts of modern-day Iran and Turkey.

The discovery of the destroyed temple came as Iraqi troops announced on Sunday that they had liberated Nimrud, and were expected to check the archaeological site for mines and booby traps before opening it up for experts to inspect the damage.

Satellite images published by the Times show that the temple, which dated back 2,900 years and towered over the surrounding desert, was flattened between August and November.

The ziggurat was known as one of the most spectacular sacred structures from ancient Mesopotamia. It was once 60m (200ft) high and wide, though more recently its remains were measured at 42m in height.

The pictures also show what the Times report described as "an enormous hole" where the site's main palace and its collection of Assyrian friezes once stood.

A spokesperson for the Assyrian Confederation, Afram Yakoub, told Christian Today that the destruction of the ziggurat was "a failure for the world community which hasn't been able to protect world heritage sites in war zones", adding that "it's a shame for Iraq which has seen so much destruction [of] ancient heritage."

Yakoub continued: "The Assyrian nation has survived countless attacks, massacres and genocides throughout history, this recent destruction saddens us but it also makes us more determined to fight for our survival as a nation."

Nuri Kino, founder and president of campaign group A Demand For Action, told Christian Today that he had spoken this morning to an Assyrian man who fled Mosul in 2014.

The man said: "We knew the destruction would be more than we believed before but... when the news came about Ziggurat it felt like torture. I don't think people understand what the world is losing here, maybe we need to compare the loss to if something would happen to the pyramids in Egypt.

"ISIS has destroyed a treasury that is thousands and thousands of years old, this is a crime to humanity, they need to be held responsible for their crimes. They are destroying the cradle of civilisation."

A report from the American Schools of Oriental Research confirmed: "Imagery dating to early October shows the almost complete levelling of the ziggurat mound, with the majority of damage occurring between August 31 and October 2, 2016".

The commander of the Mosul operation, Lt Gen Abdul-Amir Raheed Yar Allah, said troops had re-taken Nimrud which was seized by ISIS in 2014, after heavy fighting. He released a statement saying that "the 9th division of the Iraqi army has liberated the town of Nimrud completely and raised the Iraqi flag over its buildings after the enemy suffered heavy casualties".

The soldiers also captured the village of Numaniya, on the edge of the city.

Nimrud was first bulldozed last year as part of what the Iraqi government says is a campaign by ISIS to destroy symbols that militants consider idolatrous.

Unesco described the act as a war crime, while activists, officials and historians condemned ISIS at the time for the destruction of the ancient Assyrian archaeological site.

Video footage released last year by ISIS showed its fighters destroying relics with electric drills and explosives.

Nimrud  which lies on the eastern bank of the Tigris river, around 20 miles south of Mosul  was first excavated in the 1840s by the British explorer Austen Henry Layard.

Many of the site's relics are in the British Museum as well as the Metropolitan Museum in New York and Iraq's national museum in Baghdad.
'They Beat My Husband As We Pleaded For Them To Stop': New Film Highlights Persecution Of Christians Around The World

Christian persecution around the world is the focus of a new documentary short film called Under Caesar's Sword.

The 26-minute film  made in collaboration with Aid to the Church in Need  shows communities in countries such as Turkey and India where Christians suffer threats to religious freedom.

The documentary film was directed by Jason Cohen Productions and produced by the Under Caesar's Sword initiative, a partnership of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture and Georgetown University's Religious Freedom Project, the Catholic News Agency (CNA) reported.

Daniel Philpott, a political science professor at the University of Notre Dame and the movie's co-director said: "What is remarkable about persecuted Christians is their resilience. They are not just victims. Understanding this is the key to being in solidarity with them."

The dissolution of Christian culture in the Middle East is examined in the film, as is human rights activism among Christians in India. In the Kandhamal riots of late 2007 and early 2008, rioters in the eastern India state of Odisha killed 45 people and destroyed more than 80 churches. Christians were targeted there for forced conversion to Hinduism.

In the documentary, the widow of a man who refused to convert recounted how he was tortured and killed in front of her and their two children.

"They beat my husband badly as we pleaded with them to stop," she said. "They dragged him for a kilometre with a cycle chain around his neck."

Timothy Shah, the associate director of Georgetown University's Religious Freedom Project, reflected on how Christians react peacefully to persecution.

"Christians have spontaneously responded to their own suffering by enlarging their concern and compassion and work for justice to include others as well," he told CNA.

"It's important because that's what their faith calls them to, but it's important too in that I think many Christians realise the only world in which they are going to be more secure is a world in which everyone is more secure."

According to Open Doors USA, more than 7,100 Christians were killed for their faith in 2015 and an estimated 100 million Christians endure some form of persecution each year. A report from the US Commission on International Religious Freedom this year warned that religious freedom had come under "serious and sustained assault" across the world.

Under Caesar's Sword and an accompanying discussion guide are available for free online.

The film, its 'teaser' and its trailer can be seen here.
Two Texas Baptist Churches Face Expulsion Over Pro-Gay Stance

Two Baptist churches in Texas could be expelled from their governing body, the Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT), over their welcoming position towards gay people, according to the Baptist Standard and other reports.

Wilshire Baptist in Dallas and First Baptist in Austin reportedly received letters from BGCT officials which stated that because the churches had affirmed LGBTQ people, they were "no longer being in harmonious cooperation with the BGCT."

The BGCT is part of the Southern Baptist Convention, which according to Chron.com holds that homosexual behaviour is a sin.

The letter from the BGCT to the Wilshire Baptist reportedly read: "Should your church choose to publicly affirm same-sex sexual behaviour, the BGCT will no longer be able to accept funds from the church, seat its messengers to the annual meeting, allow the church to express affiliation with the BGCT or allow its members to serve on the BGCT boards, committees or other roles."

Pastor George Mason at Wilshire told the Baptist Standard: "The outcome is not yet known, and it will not be known until after the convention messengers are seated."

First Austin, which received a similar letter, responded to the BGCT by saying: "We do not desire to argue over sexuality any further. As a church, we did our diligent theological work, being guided by the Spirit, meditating on scared scripture and hearing the stories and struggles of our own members. As a result of that thoughtful process, we are proudly and openly welcoming and affirming of all God's beloved children."

According to Chron.com, in 2010 the BGCT openly scolded the Dallas' Royal Lane Baptist Church and stopped its funds for appointing openly gay deacons.

A resolution at the 1982 BGCT annual meeting stated: "The homosexual lifestyle is not normal or acceptable in God's sight and is indeed called sin."

And in 1996, the BGCT Executive Board approved a report from its Messenger Seating Study Committee which said: "The Bible teaches that the ideal for sexual behaviour is the marital union between husband and wife and that all other sexual relationswhether premarital, extramarital or homosexualare contrary to God's purposes and thus sinful. Homosexual practice is therefore in conflict with the Bible."
Why Have Tensions Increased Between Christians And Muslims In Nigeria?

Tensions between Christians and Muslims regarding the balance of power in Nigeria have increased under the presidency of Muhammadu Buhari, according to new research.

Christians are now more likely to say the government is "run for the benefit of only a few groups of people", as opposed to all Nigerians, than they were when former President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian, was in power.

According to a Pew Research, 65 per cent of Nigeria's Christians say the government is run for the benefit of a few groups, up from 58 per cent in 2015.

The share of Muslims expressing this view, has dropped from 64 per cent to 45 per cent.

Pew said this shift may reflect "a transition of power" from Jonathan to Buhari, who is a Muslim, in the March 2015 election.

Buhari met with the Archbishop of Canterbury during a visit to the UK in May this year, during which Justin Welby said Nigeria had "more promise, more opportunity, more potential" than anywhere else in the world.

The Archbishop's words stood in sharp contrast to then-Prime Minister David Cameron's own comments to the Queen, when he described Nigeria as "one of the most corrupt countries in the world", along with Afghanistan.

Welby said afterwards it was "a great honour" to welcome the leader of the largest country in Africa with "the very large Anglican Church in Nigeria."

He continued: "I think it would be fair to say that it is a rare day at this place when we do not pray for Nigeria. We pray for Nigeria, for you personally, for all those, both in government and in opposition, in Nigeria, for the poor in Nigeria and for those who have suffered over the last number of years from the violence that has plagued your country, which you have been tackling so determinedly since you first took office.

"Nigeria is a country which has more promise, more opportunity, more potential than anywhere else that I know in many continents, not just in Africa. Its people are so intelligent, so full of energy, so full of commitment, that when Nigerians work together, the world  not just Africa  is affected by that beneficially. And so we pray for the potential and future of this land, to be a place that has a profound effect for good on our world, and demonstrates what is possible to be achieved."

Jonathan faced sharp criticism while he was in office especially over his government's slow reaction to increasing inter-religious tension and its failure to secure the release of more than 200 schoolgirls who were abducted by Boko Haram in Chibok, Borno state, in April 2014.

Buhari made increasing national security a key tenet of his campaign.

The two candidates had run against each other in a previous election in 2011. After Jonathan won, Buhari claimed that voting had been rigged, and his supporters began targeting Christian communities in widespread attacks that left an estimated 800 dead.

Last year's election, however, was considered to be less divisive along religious lines.
Yazidis Persecuted By ISIS Now Abandoned By UK Asylum Scheme

Persecuted Yazidis who have suffered terrible treatment at the hands of ISIS are denied refuge in the UK if they happen to fall the wrong side of the Iraqi-Syrian border, MPs were told today.

The government's Vulnerable Persons Resettlement programme has seven criteria, one of which is that a refugee must have Syrian identity documents to be granted asylum in Britain. But that means hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Mosul and its surrounding area in northern Iraq are abandoned by the initiative with no hope of being offered safety in the UK.

The Home Office was urged to address this "oversight" in a Parliamentary debate on Tuesday. Brendan O'Hara, SNP MP for Argyll and Bute, told the government it must not allow "one of the most abused and vulnerable groups of people on this earth, simply to be subsumed into the greater refugee crisis".

He called for a specific scheme for persecuted Yazidis, a group which many experts say has been victim of a genocide. Yazidism is an offshoot of Zoroastrianism, which blends ancient religious traditions with both Christianity and Islam. Islamic State believes them to be "devil-worshippers".

UN researchers have confirmed that when ISIS militants took over the Sinjar region in northern Iraq in August 2014, up to 5,000 Yazidi men were killed in a series of massacres that forced more than 400,000 people to flee.

Thousands of women were taken captive and disturbing accounts of have emerged from those who have since managed to escape. Women and children have been brutally raped and abused; bartered and sold among jihadists for as little as a packet of cigarettes.

"I ask the government, please recognise what these women and children have gone through," O'Hara said.

"See them as the unique case that they are and together, let's seek a specific UK response that recognises the unspeakable atrocities they have suffered simply because of who they are and what they believe."

Home Office minister Sarah Newton said the Yazidis' plight was "utterly harrowing" but refused to allow them into the scheme.

She insisted the government was doing "everything we can" on the ground in Iraq which she said was better than offering relocation to the UK.

"We are supporting projects on the ground in Mosul which are particularly targeted on helping the Yazidi community," she said in the debate.

The All-Party Group for Freedom of Religion and Belief backed O'Hara's call and and a spokeswoman told Christian Today "the choice [to relocate] should be available for people". She added that Yazidis were told their situation was not deemed serious enough to be given the option of sanctuary in the UK.

"We think that is an oversight by the government when all the media's attention was on Syria," she said.

O'Hara cited a "Special Quote Programme" that allows Yazidi women and children to receive specialist support in Germany. "Germany offers a safe haven and I see no reason why the UK cannot also provide a safe haven," he told MPs. "We must commit to help and cannot stand by and leave it to others."

Speaking after the debate he told Christian Today: "The UK can be a safehaven if it chooses to be. If we don't do something now, we choose to do nothing.

"And if we do nothing... then history will be our judge and I predict it will pass a particularly harsh judgement upon us."
Specialist May Lim explains why a close encounter with the Ratnaraj  an unusually large ruby of phenomenal colour and clarity, offered in the Magnificent Jewels sale in Hong Kong on 29 November  is such a privilege

Top-quality Burmese rubies are rare, especially ones that are more than 5 carats in size, explains Hong Kong Jewellery specialist May Lim. In recent years weve been lucky enough to find a number of amazing rubies for our sales.

The Ratnaraj, which means king of precious stones in Sanskrit, is one of the most significant pigeons blood rubies ever to be offered at auction. Pigeons blood is the term applied to the most highly saturated colour and natural red fluorescence possible in a ruby. Weighing an impressive 10.05 carats, the Ratnaraj is a wonder of the natural world.

A superb ruby and diamond ring, by Faidee . The oval-shaped ruby, weighing approximately 10.05 carats, within a radiating surround of oval-shaped diamonds, to the circular-cut diamond gallery, extending to the undulating hoop, mounted in platinum and gold, ring size 6. Signed and with makers mark for Faidee. Sold for HK$78,940,000 on 29 November 2016 at Christies in Hong Kong

In December 2015 Christies Hong Kong sold the 15.04-carat Crimson Flame ruby for $18.3 million  the highest price per carat ever paid for a ruby, and still the world record. In May 2016 a pair of ruby and diamond ear pendants, weighing 10.02 carats and 9.09 carats, set another world auction record for a pair of ruby earrings when they were sold at Christies Hong Kong for $11.6 million in May 2016.

The stunning Ratnaraj is designed by Faidee and is set to be the highlight of the Magnificent Jewels sale in Hong Kong on 29 November.

Faidees trophy collection of pigeons blood rubies with a flawless crystal structure is exceptional, says Lim. The houses stones are unique and highly sought-after, and we are delighted that the Ratnaraj comes from this collection. This is a highly significant opportunity for serious collectors, because rubies of this quality only very rarely come to the market.

Mounted on a platinum and gold ring and surrounded by oval-shaped colourless diamonds, the ruby measures approximately 13.65 by 11.50 by 6.55 mm, and hails from the famous Mogok Valley in Burma.

Rubies command higher prices per carat than any other gemstone apart from coloured diamonds. As the mines in Burma and elsewhere produce fewer and fewer stones of important sizes, the arrival of any stone on the market that is more than 5 carats is a cause for celebration among gemstone connoisseurs. The Swiss Gemmological Institute hails the clarity and colour of the stone as entirely natural, and describes it as a true treasure of nature.

Its actually an honour to be able to handle a jewel of this rarity, size and quality, explains Lim. Especially when you bear in mind its potential to set the next world record.
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Less than a week after several other states approved measures weakening marijuana restrictions, some Texas lawmakers are looking to do the same.

On Monday, the first day of bill filing for the 2017 legislative session, Lone Star State legislators submitted several proposals to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana. Among the bills are those that would create a specialty court for certain first-time marijuana possession offenders, reduce criminal penalties for possession of up to an ounce of marijuana and re-classify convictions for possession of small amounts of marijuana.

WEED NATION: What makes marijuana users different from everyone else

On Nov. 8, voters in California, Maine, Nevada and Massachusetts approved recreational marijuana initiatives, adding them to a growing list of states  including Colorado and Washington  that have already approved the drug for recreational use. Voters in Florida, North Dakota and Arkansas also approved medicinal marijuana initiatives. According to the National Conference of State Legislators, 28 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico now allow comprehensive public medical marijuana and cannabis programs.

In 2015, Texas lawmakers proposed a number of unsuccessful bills to decriminalize marijuana, including one by Rep. David Simpson, R-Longview, that would have legalized possessing or using marijuana.



In March 2015, Gov. Greg Abbott said during a press conference that lawmakers would not approve legislation that would legalize marijuana. However, Abbotts office did not respond to an immediate request for comment Monday on his thoughts on the outlook for such legislation in 2017.

MARY JANE IN TEXAS: Texas House panel approves full legalization of marijuana

Despite reservations from Texas lawmakers regarding legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana use, one bill gained traction and was signed into law by Abbott last year. Authored by Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler, Senate Bill 339  the Compassionate Use Act  legalized oils containing CBD, a non-euphoric component of marijuana known to treat epilepsy and other chronic medical conditions.

And Texas lawmakers across the state say they want leniency in how the state prosecutes marijuana crimes. In an interview with Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith Monday, State Rep. Jason Isaac, R-Dripping Springs, said he thinks the Legislature could decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana next year, especially after several states did so on Election Day.

Were spending our tax dollars on incarcerating [people that dont deserve to be incarcerated] because they got caught with a small amount of marijuana, said Isaac, whose district encompasses Texas State University. These are people that we probably subsidize their public education, we probably subsidize where they went to a state school, and now theyre branded as a criminal when they go to do a background check.

Isaac added that last session he was approached by state Rep. Joseph "Joe" Moody, D-El Paso, who asked Isaac to sign on to a decriminalization bill but didnt because he didnt feel like it was the time. During the interview Monday, however, Isaac said it is the time now and publicly pledged to sign on and work to get a bill passed that would decriminalize small amounts of marijuana.

Among the Texas proposals that have been filed thus far:

House Bill 58 by state Rep. James White, R-Woodville, would create a specialty court for certain first-time marijuana possession offenders based on the principle that first-time defendants are often self-correcting. The measure is intended to conserve law enforcement and corrections resources, White said in a news release.

State Rep. Joseph "Joe" Moody, D-El Paso, filed House Bill 81, which aims to replace criminal penalties for possession of up to an ounce of marijuana with a civil fine of up to $250. The bill also allows Texans to avoid arrest and possible jail time for possessing a small amount of marijuana. Moody authored a similar bill during the previous legislative session; it did not pass.

State Rep. Harold Dutton Jr., D-Houston, filed House Bill 82, which aims to classify a conviction for possession of one ounce or less of marijuana as a Class C misdemeanor instead of Class B. However, if a person is convicted three times, it would revert back to a Class B misdemeanor. Dutton co-authored a similar bill last session with Moody.

State Sen. Jose Rodriguez filed Senate Joint Resolution 17 , which would allow voters to decide whether marijuana should be legalized in Texas, following the pattern of a number of states.

Jose Rodriguez Senate Joint Resolution 17 Senate Joint Resolution 18, also authored by Rodriguez, would allow voters to decide whether to legalize marijuana for medical use if recommended by a health care provider. "It is long past time we allow the people to decide," Rodriguez said in a statement.

Rodriguez also filed Senate Bill 170, which would change possession of one ounce or less of marijuana from a criminal offense to a civil one.

Read more of the Tribune's pre-session coverage:
A third Houston location for Hopdoddy Burger Bar, the restaurant that specializes in craft burgers and local beer, will open in spring 2017.

The restaurant will open at Vintage Park, the shopping center along Texas 249 at Louetta Road in northwest Houston, the restaurant chain announced.
"Taste of the Texans" the Houston Texans' annual all-you-can-eat buffet for charity, raised more than $350,000 headed to the Houston Food Bank, Houston Methodist Hospital and the team's foundation.

That was a record haul for the event.
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Since 1917, one hundred years ago, seventeen women have called the White House home.

In fact, First Lady, Edith Bolling Wilson, married Woodrow Wilson (March 04, 1913 - March 04, 1921,) during his presidency on Dec. 18, 1915.

Jacqueline Kennedy was the youngest first lady to move into the White House at 31 years old. Despite her young age, Jackie Kennedy made a mark. She took on a restoration project that helped return the White House to a symbol of American history.

See More: Some 'bigly' changes could come to the White House

The most senior first lady to enter the White House was Barbara Bush at 63. And it may surprise you learn that the average age of the first ladies in the last century is 51.

When Melania Trump moves into the White House she will be on the younger side at 46 years old.

With every administration comes new ideas, new initiatives, and reasons for the first lady to be innovative and determined.

Take a look through the gallery above for a retrospective of the women who lived in the White House.
Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine had begun to notice an unsettling trend.

Among a group of more than 4,000 Houston area patients who'd become ill with West Nile virus since 2002, the vast majority, about 94 percent, survived the infection. But then, as months and years rolled by, many of them became ill again  and died.

"These weren't just 80- or 90-year-old people," said Dr. Kristy Murray, an associate professor of pediatrics at Baylor's National School of Tropical Medicine. "They were in their 50s, 60s, sometimes even their 40s. And we were really concerned, because many of these people were dying at a young age."

Murray and her colleagues have now confirmed their suspicions: West Nile virus is far deadlier than previously believed, with deaths attributable to the mosquito-borne disease occurring not just in the immediate aftermath of an infection, but also years after patients seem to have recovered, according to a study presented Monday at a meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Atlanta.

Stephen Higgs, that organization's president, said the study demonstrates the need for continued federal investments to improve prevention and treatment.

"In much the same way that research into Zika virus is showing a more destructive virus than originally thought, we are still discovering previously unreported long-term destructive effects of West Nile," Higgs said.

Murray and her colleagues looked at 4,144 West Nile infections in Texas between 2002 and 2012, finding that 286 of the patients died within 90 days. But after searching patient names against a registry of deaths maintained by the state health department, they found that another 268 died months or years later.

In those cases, renal failure was a leading cause, confirming previous research that suggests the virus aggressively attacks a patient's kidneys, Murray said. West Nile survivors are 11 times more likely to die of kidney disease compared to the general population, according to the study.

When accounting for those who died later, the researchers found that 13 percent of West Nile patients eventually die as a result of the disease. That's more than three-times higher than the West Nile death rate reported between 1999 and 2015 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Even if you survive the infection, you could still be at risk of premature death because of kidney disease or other secondary diseases," Murray said.

Although media attention over the past year has centered on the spread of Zika virus, Murray said her team's findings is a reminder that West Nile is still a far bigger threat in Texas and across the country. Like Zika, most people infected with West Nile have no symptoms, and those who do often experience a fever, nausea, fatigue or a rash, though in some extreme cases patients experience swelling of the brain and spinal cord. There's no treatment or vaccine for the virus.

The fact that researchers are still learning about the long-term consequences of West Nile nearly two decades after its arrival in the U.S. highlights the need to devote significant resources to studying Zika, Murray said.

"We need to be asking, 'What are the long term effects?'" she said. "We're still asking that for West Nile. That's going to be an important question for Zika, too."
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If the most searched words on Merriam-Webster are any indication, America may be feeling a bit uncomfortable about Donald Trump becoming the next president of the United States.

On Sunday, the dictionary's Twitter account tweeted misogyny, xenophobia and racism are among the top searched words on its website.

CUT IT OUT: Watch Donald Trump's message to bigots: 'stop it'

Other top words include fascism, bigot, socialism, resurgence and xenophobe are other top searched words.



Merriam-Webster wrote on its blog Thursday that misogyny was used in headlines for editorials across the world. On Monday, Merriam-Webster focused on another searched word, fascism. According to the dictionary, fascist is one of the most searched words since December 2015, when Trump was linked to fascism in the news.

Even a Republican strategist linked the incoming president to fascism.

OH CANADA!: Canadian judge under fire after sporting 'Make America Great' hat

Despite the gloom of Merriam-Webster's most searched words, there may be some hope that the new top-searched words are going to change soon. In a Sunday interview with "60 Minutes," Trump said women, immigrants and Muslims should not fear him.

"We are going to bring our country back, but certainly, don't be afraid," Trump said. In that same interview, the president-elect told his followers to stop being violent in his name. Since winning the election, there have been reports about Trump supporters intimidating others.

Click through the slideshow above to see some of the most controversial things Donald Trump has allegedly said to women.
Family-owned Emmons Motor Co. will move from its longtime pre-owned auto dealership base in Pasadena to larger space in the Clear Lake area, according to a Houston Business Journal report.

The company plans to open its new dealership atop 16 acres along Interstate 45 near FM 528 in November 2017, and lease its four-acre complex on South Shaver Street in Pasadena to a new user, co-owner Harvey Emmons told the Journal.
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StarCrest Realty, a real estate brokerage with 50 agents in the Houston and Dallas markets, has aligned with the ERA Real Estate franchise.

The firm, now known as ERA StarCrest Realty, is led by Kevin and Anne Alaimo.

Since being founded 12 years ago, the company has handled nearly 9,000 sales of distressed properties. Last year, it brokered $130 million in sales.
With the upcoming holiday season, we all have much to be thankful for.

I want to express my sincere gratitude and thanks to each of you for making Harris County Precinct 4 the finest precinct in Texas.

During the past year and a half being your Constable I have met many wonderful people who call Precinct 4 home. During this time our department has dealt with some adversity and I witnessed your tremendous outpouring of compassion and encouragement. For this, I am truly thankful to be Constable of Precinct 4.

For the men and women of the Constable's office I want to thank all of you for the courage and bravery you display in keeping the streets of Precinct 4 safe.

From my patrol deputies, to clerks, communications division, investigative units, and all the way up to my staff personnel.

Your commitment and exceptional performance is what makes the Precinct 4 Constable's office so successful.

To the citizens of Precinct 4, please keep all police officers that serve our community in your thoughts and prayers, and know we are in a constant battle between good and evil on our streets. And know we will continue to do the right things here at Precinct 4, and the protection of you and your families is one of our main goals.

We all have so much to be thankful for; the support of the people we serve is paramount to any law enforcement organization, and is never forgotten.

If you see a deputy or first responder working this holiday season, I ask that you please thank them.

While we are enjoying holiday festivities, they are the ones watching our backs.

On behalf of the Precinct 4 Constable's Office, we wish you and yours a blessed and happy holiday season!
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The Katy school district's board will begin Monday to consider changes to local attendance boundaries as it prepares to open three campuses during the 2017-2018 school year.

Among the existing schools being reviewed for attendance boundary changes are Morton Ranch and Katy high schools, Katy and McDonald junior high schools, and Katy and Wolman elementary schools.
After months of planning for the widening of Northpark Drive and an overpass at the railroad, the Lake Houston Redevelopment Authority/Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone #10 is in good shape should the call for projects happen in the first quarter of 2017.

The project itself costs $54 million and the authority is seeking 80 percent of the funding from state and federal monies; the authority would fund the remaining costs, roughly a 20 percent match. To become eligible for these funds, the redevelopment authority has worked for months to put together plans, conduct surveys and studies and put together a complete traffic plan proposal for the widening of Northpark Drive to be included in the Transportation Improvement Project's (TIP) funding which is expected in early 2017.

LHRA has worked with the engineering firm, Edminster Hinshaw Russ and Associates (EHRA,) and The Goodman Corporation (TGC) to ensure they have filed everything correct in TIP they will submit to HGAC for the widening of Northpark Drive. They are also coordinating their efforts with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to make sure the impending project is correct for it to be accepted for funding.

TIRZ 10 consultant Ralph DeLeon added they recently provided a preview of the Northpark widening and overpass projects to the Technical Advisory Committee and the Transportation Policy Council both with the H-GAC.

"We are asking for them to amend the regional transportation plan to add the Northpark project which will clear a way for it to go on to be eligible to be funded and we can go ahead and complete the environmental actions plan," DeLeon said.

They are working to complete surveys and stake high-water markings through Crouch Environmental along the ditches at Northpark Drive, the Kingwood diversion ditch and along Bens Branch then survey with EHRA.

The next step will be to complete the access management study which means they will look at the driveways and curb cuts to see where they can strategically locate them when the widening takes place to make sure they do not impede traffic flow. After they complete the study, EHRA will then make recommendations where they can consolidate some driveways or access points.

Additionally, Lake Houston Authority Chairman Stan Sarman continues to meet with area representative and local business owners especially those along Northpark Drive to explain the process and receive letters of support for the project.

According to data put together by the Texas Department of Transportation and the H-GAC for the October meeting, Northpark Drive is over capacity with approximately 40,000 trips per day and future projections show those numbers will only continue to grow. The data showed 69 crashes reported along Northpark Drive in 2015 and during a five-year period, the data shows there 330 crash records with no fatalities, five incapacitating injuries and 71 non-capacitating injuries reported.

According to data provided by Jim Webb with TGC, "If Northpark Drive is widened to three lanes in each direction and an overpass is constructed over the railroad tracks, Northpark Drive users would save one minute per trip, crashes will reduce by 15 percent, the average Northpark Drive commuter will save over 14.5 hours per year, Kingwood Drive commuters will save 3.5 hours per year and the total value of time saved is nearly $79 million for Kingwood area drivers."

Along with their plans for the proposed widening of Northpark Drive, the Lake Houston Redevelopment Authority/TIRZ #10 board has also worked to put together a proposed annexation plan for portions around already existing within the TIRZ boundaries. They recently submitted their final annexation map to the city of Houston and fellow TIRZ board members.

To view the Northpark Drive Mobility Improvement Project Fact Sheet, visit http://www.houstontx.gov/council/e/kingwood.html.

For more information on these projects, please contact the District E office at 832-393-3008 or via email at districte@houstontx.gov.
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Prosecutors filed additional child sexual assault charges against a Magnolia pastor accused of coercing a 16-year-old congregation member into sex on multiple occasions.

Body of Christ Church pastor Ronald Mitchell, 56, is now facing four second-degree felony counts of sexual assault of a child  one for every time prosecutors say Mitchell had sex with the underage girl over a four-month period from 2015 into 2016. He is facing up to 80 years in prison for those charges, but Montgomery County Sheriff's Office detectives believe there could be more victims.

"As the investigation goes on in any type of case and you learn additional facts and get information from victims and witnesses, we're able to potentially add additional charges as things progress," Assistant District Attorney Tyler Dunman said. "We've had people come forward, and we're still requesting people come forward with more information whether they're victims or witnesses."

Court documents show Mitchell had the girl staying with him at his church in the 40200 block of Garwood Court near Magnolia, telling the girl's mother that she needed to be "watched" and have "more supervision."

DETAILED COURT FILING: Accused pastor said teen 'needed more supervision' (HoustonChronicle.com)

The first instance of the alleged sexual assault happened the weekend before Thanksgiving in 2015, the girl told investigators. About two weeks after that, Mitchell allegedly asked the girl if she was ready for more sexual encounters.

She initially said no but felt threatened by Mitchell, court records show, and eventually succumbed. The sexual assaults continued for months, court records show, including during trips to Las Vegas, San Antonio and Galveston. Mitchell's wife would bring the girl to the Lone Star Clinic in Conroe to receive birth control shots. It is unclear if she could be charged with a crime for doing so. No charges have been filed with either the Montgomery County District Clerk or Montgomery County Clerk's office as of press time.

The girl told a fellow church member about the abuse, court records show. The church member eventually contacted Magnolia police to help retrieve the girl from the church in September, but she did not learn of the abuse until the following month.

The MCSO SWAT raided the compound Nov. 1 and found evidence of the assault, MCSO stated in a press release. They also found a large cache of weapons and ammunition, which Mitchell kept in preparation for the "dark times" and rapture, according to court records.

Dunman said the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office is handling this case like every other child sexual assault case.

"There's some complexity to that because of the nature of the church environment and his role as the pastor," Dunman said. "But at the end of the day, we're concerned for the children."

Anyone with information on this case is encouraged to contact the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office at 936-760-5876 or Montgomery County Crime Stoppers at 800-392-STOP (7867).
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Of all the interesting things to do in Houston, a tour of the Bayou Citys cemeteries is something that we cant recommend enough.

A handful of cemeteries in the Houston-area, including Glenwood Cemetery and Forest Park Cemetery, are the final resting places of some of the people that helped shape the city.

HOUSTON'S PAST: Vintage pictures show Houston as it was in 1977

At Glenwood, just outside of downtown, you can visit the Hughes family plot, where Howard Hughes rests with the rest of his clan. Also at Glenwood you will find the graves of Astrodome mastermind Judge Roy Hofheinz, Dr. Denton Cooley, actress Gene Tierney, and oilman Glenn McCarthy, who built the Shamrock Hotel and inspired James Deans character in Giant.

Elsewhere in Glenwood you will find the Hobbys, William and Oveta, plus Anson Jones, the last President of the Republic of Texas. Hes been buried there since 1858, one of the first major interments.

Also in Glenwood you will see surnames on headstones like Shepherd, Bagby, Binz, Elgin, and Gray all of who have busy streets named after them nearby. Their legacies shine on every time we are stuck in Houston traffic.

EXPLAINED, FINALLY: Why does University of Houston-Downtown have an alligator as a mascot and not a cougar?

Forest Park Cemetery, in southeast Houston at 6900 Lawndale, eternally hosts a who's who of Houston history like Jesse H. Jones, Lloyd Bentsen, Houston Chronicle founder Marcellus E. Foster, and Mama Ninfa Laurenzo.

Eric Kayne/Freelance

Influential Houston bluesman Samuel John "Lightnin'" Hopkins is also buried with the rest of those swells, interred in Section 23 in Jan. 1982. He has simpleton stone with an acoustic guitar carved into it.

WILD HISTORY: The true story of when Dennis Hopper came to Houston and nearly killed himself

We looked for where Houston's Dr. James "Red" Duke is buried only to find that he's at Austin's Texas State Cemetery, where Stephen F. Austin, Barbara Jordan, and Chris Kyle were laid to rest.

Sam Houston is at Huntsville's Oakwood Cemetery, if you feel like going by to say hello to our city's namesake on the way to Dallas.

Joe Holley / Houston Chronicle

Other major cemeteries in Houston like Founders Memorial Park (1217 West Dallas) and Hollywood Cemetery (3506 North Main) are both worth spending an afternoon exploring in. You will likely find some of the names that adorn some of Houstons most-popular streets and institutions.

Over at Hollywood Cemetery you will find the final resting places of Lawrence Shipley Sr. and his wife Lillie Shipley, a couple that helped changed the way we all eat donuts in Houston.

Craig Hlavaty is a reporter for Chron.com and HoustonChronicle.com. He's an intolerable native Texan with too much ink in his skin and too much brisket stuck in his teeth.
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Nearly a month after being acquitted, the man at the center of the "Tinder murder" case, Gable Tostee, is answering some lingering questions.

Tostee was accused of murder in the death of 26-year-old Warriena Wright. The two met on dating app Tinder and went on a date before returning to his Gold Coast apartment on Aug. 7, 2014. They began arguing, and he locked Wright out on his balcony.

Prosecutors said that he intimidated her into attempting to escape by climbing down his 14th floor apartment. Wright fell to her death after dangling from the balcony railing.

In October, the Brisbane Supreme Court acquitted Tostee and set him free after a trial that lasted more than two years.

CHILLING DETAILS: Gable Tostee 'Tinder murder' trial reveals new information

The main piece of evidence that helped him attain a not guilty verdict is an audio recording from that night. Tostee documented the events by recording their conversation on his phone.

Many people are still wondering why he chose to hit the record button. In an interview with "60 Minutes Australia," which aired Sunday, Tostee explains his actions.

"Why wouldn't you do that?" He asks. "I used to go out quite a lot drinking, I don't have the best memory when I drink, and in this day in age, recording your night is as easy as pressing a button and leaving the phone in your pocket. It's more of a just-in-case thing."

(Story continues below.)

He said it was so commonplace that he has hundreds of recordings from nights out.

During the interview with "60 Minutes" the audio from that night is played back for Tostee. In it she can be heard screaming that she wants to go home, and Tostee saying, "I would, but you have been a bad girl." He can also be heard telling her that she's lucky he hasn't "chucked her" off his balcony.

"A horribly, horribly, unfortunate choice of words," he tells "60 Minutes." "I didn't intend that as a threat. I intended it as a figure of speech to say you're lucky I've been so tolerant. To even mention the balcony is the worst choice of words one could've used."

The phone also recorded a scream that is, presumably, Wright falling to her death.

"I didn't hear it with my own ears, no. I only realized that there was a faint scream that my phone audio picked up," he says. "All I saw was her on the other side of the rail for a fleeting moment and then ... and then she was gone."

NOT GUILTY: Tinder date trial's Gable Tostee acquitted of murder

He explains why he fled his apartment instead of checking back.

"Instinctively, I knew that if I ran out there and somebody saw me looking over the edge and she had actually fallen all the way, it would look like, you know, it would not look good," he said.

In the interview, Tostee also admits that he's suffered from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder but says he's not autistic, which was one of the claims made during the trial.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, he was paid up to $150,000 for the interview.
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A community park is coming to Wedgewood Elementary School in Friendswood.

"We're hoping to have a place that not only promotes healthy living, but also promotes family time after school and on weekends," Principal Buffie Johnson said.

Wedgewood, a Clear Creek Independent School District campus at 4000 Friendswood Link Road, was among the first nine schools selected to benefit from a $5 million donation to the SPARK School Park Program from Houston Endowment and Kinder Foundation in September. The foundations' objective is to start eliminating Harris County's park deserts: neighborhoods where the nearest park is more than a half-mile - or a 10-minute walk - away.

Both foundations will contribute $2.5 million during the next three years to construct 25 new SPARK parks and to revamp five existing parks.

With previous funding from the endowment, The Trust for Public Land studied SPARK's program in 2014.

The national nonprofit land conservation organization identified 50 Harris County locations within "park deserts" that would benefit from a SPARK park.

Ultimately, 25 of those sites will be selected for SPARK's new initiative.

"The whole idea was to find schools that are not in the 610 Loop in Houston to spread the park equity in the suburbs," SPARK Executive Director Kathleen Ownby said.

SPARK, a nonprofit, Houston-based organization, develops neighborhood parks on school grounds for shared use. Founded in 1983, it has established 150 community parks in 15 school districts, but most of the parks are within the Loop.

Now, Ownby said, more suburban schools and neighborhoods will reap the benefits of the SPARK program.

Typically, SPARK parks include playground equipment, a walking trail, benches, picnic tables and an outdoor classroom along with unique public art.

It's up to a SPARK committee comprising school and neighborhood representatives to choose designs and features.

Now that Wedgewood has been selected to receive a park, its committee is focusing on finalizing a school design with an architectural firm and meeting its share of the project fundraising, which will be at least $5,000. Depending on the final park design and cost, that figure could rise significantly.

Clear Creek ISD will provide another $5,000, and SPARK will contribute $150,000.

As for the park design and art component, Johnson said they will incorporate Wedgewood's "Six Pillars of Character," one for each of the school's grade levels. Those pillars are caring, citizenship, fairness, respect, responsibility and trustworthiness.

Students in each grade will design and create the art for their pillar.

The closest park to Wedgewood, Oxnard, is an 11-minute walk from the campus.

Wedgewood, which has 760 students, is a Title I campus. About 44 percent of its student qualified for free or reduced lunches, and the school has a 12.5 percent mobility rate, meaning it's not uncommon to see enrollment fluctuate during the school year. Johnson says she has seen it go as high as 801 students.

"Right now, our (school) park facility can't accommodate all of the students," she said.

The playground equipment at Wedgewood dates to the school's 1993 opening.

The all-metal playground at the end of the second-grade hallway is rusting, and the ground gets swampy when it rains.

Another structure has required frequent work by the maintenance department to keep it usable.

"Every year, students have written me letters asking for a new playground," Johnson said.

Now, she says, it feels great to be in a position to say yes.

"The first time I received a SPARK calendar (illustrating existing parks), I was in awe of what we could achieve," Johnson said, adding that she loves the parks' art components.

"Now our students will have the most up-to-date play equipment, and the park will be unique. Our hope is the community will really feel it's their park."

Wedgewood will be the second campus in Clear Creek ISD to get a SPARK Park. The first, Webster-based McWhirter Elementary School, dedicated one in November 2011.

"It is very popular," Ownby said. "I'm excited to be going back to Clear Creek ISD."

In addition to Wedgewood, the first sites selected for the SPARK initiative include:

Ashford Elementary, Houston ISD

Harvey Brown Elementary, Channelview ISD

Audrey Bush Elementary, Alief ISD

Lawson Academy, a charter school

Milne Elementary, Houston ISD

Petersen Elementary, Houston ISD

Winborn Elementary, Katy ISD

Woodview Elementary, Spring Branch ISD

To make donations to Wedgewood's SPARK park project, visit http://wedgewood.ccisd.net/for_parents and click "Wedgewood Spark Park." Wedgewood plans to offer engraved bricks at the park for donations of $500 or more.

For more information, visit Sparkpark.org. Houstonendowment.org; or Kinderfoundation.org
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A man killed Sunday, Nov. 13 in a double hit-and-run accident in Pearland has been identified by the Harris County Medical Examiner as 20-year-old Raul Bardales of Houston.

Pearland police spokesman Officer Jason Wells said Wednesday that Bardales was in the roadway at about 5 a.m. Sunday when he was struck by a vehicle that fled the scene. As the victim lay in the road, he was struck again by a second vehicle that also fled the scene.
A man has been arrested and charged with murder in a double shooting last week that left a Houston rapper dead, police said Tuesday.

Vincent Stredic, 39, was charged in the shooting death of Christopher Barriere, 44, of Houston, at a gas station located at 6610 South Sam Houston Parkway West. Barriere was a pioneer in Houston's rap scene as Mr. 3-2.
A man is charged with capital murder after two men were shot and killed early Monday outside a nightclub in northwest Houston.

Apolinar Aparicio-Mendez, 32, is charged with killing Pedro Sanchez, 24, and Juan Sanchez, 29, of Houston, who died at the scene.
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A 4-year-old girl was killed and her mother and older sister were critically wounded when a robbery in their apartment complex's parking lot turned violent Monday evening.

The girl, Ava Castillo, died after being transported to a hospital by LifeFlight, said Deputy Thomas Gilliland with the Harris County Sheriff's Office. By Tuesday morning, the mother and sister  Diana Gomez, 27, and Betzida Castillo, 10  had been upgraded to stable condition.

Gilliland confirmed Tuesday evening that deputies were interviewing someone in relation to the case. He declined to label the individual as a person of interest.

Family members were unloading groceries at their Greenspoint-area apartment complex near the North Freeway and West Road when the three men drove up in a sedan, Gilliland said. The mother did not give up her purse to assailants, one of whom started shooting at the family. The three suspects remain at large.

The apartment complex has video surveillance cameras that could help police identify the three male robbers or read a license plate, Gilliland said, and witnesses have come forward to talk with police.

In general, the deputy said, it is safest to comply with robbers' demands.

A woman whose apartment sits just yards away from the spot where the mother and her two daughters were shot said she no longer feels safe in the complex where she's lived the past two years.

Demetra Garcia, 31, said her 7-year-old daughter rides the school bus with the girl who was wounded.

"I don't know if I can feel safe even coming outside," Garcia said Tuesday morning as a memorial for the slain child grew near her apartment.

Garcia said the lights along the edge of the property have not worked for a while, and the entry gate has been stuck open for months at the complex.

This year, Garcia said, crime and violence in the area has worsened. Police responded in recent weeks to attempted car thefts in the complex, she said, and a gas station clerk was robbed nearby last month.

The past six months of crime reports at or just outside the complex include five vehicles stolen along with break-ins at homes and vehicles. A robbery was reported in July and an assault with a deadly weapon the month before.

Garcia, who like the injured woman has young daughters, said she is frightened because it easily could have been her robbed and her own young child killed.

Lex and Kindrell White said they heard a barrage of 10 or more gunshots from their third-floor apartment that overlooks the parking lot. Kindrell White said he first thought it was kids playing with paintball guns. Then he heard a girl crying out loudly.

They said the ambulance seemed slow to arrive, getting there five or 10 minutes after the shootings.

Lex White, who saw a black car drive away, said the incident makes her worry about herself and her 3-year-old daughter.

Another woman, who said her husband runs a nearby community center, came to the complex to leave a sign and a stuffed animal at the small memorial.

"Our prayers are with you," the sign reads. "This can't keep happening."

The woman, Sandra Williams, said the shooting does not represent the Greenspoint area.

"It is a good place," she said. "It is a loving place. The images that you are seeing on your television, that is not us."

"I plead to whoever did this," Williams added, speaking before news cameras, "Don't go any further. Turn yourself in. Surely someone will have a conscience. ... I'm praying that God will not allow you to be OK with this."

In the aftermath, friends took to Facebook to exchange words of comfort.

"I'm hurting for her," wrote Lorie Luis Ramos. "I can only imagine what she will feel, how broken she will be when she finds out about her daughter."

A GoFundMe site quickly sprang up to help cover funeral costs for the toddler.

"Any donations will help with the funeral service for Baby Ava," the page notes. "Mother is in critical condition. She has 3 additional kids."

Keri Blakinger contributed to this report
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Everyone get ready to swoon over this presidential pooch.

Former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura visited the Jan Rees-Jones Animal Care Centerin Dallas to get an adorable puppy named Freddy. Well, now he's formerly named Freddy Bush.

The SPCA of Texas boasted the honor of having the former president and first lady adopt one of their rescued dogs with a post on social media. "We were honored to welcome President George W. Bush & Mrs. Laura to Jan Rees-Jones Animal Care Center where they adopted Freddy Bush!"

SHHHH! Don't keep these dogs caged in, since they're likely to bark more

The Bush family formerly owned an official presidential dog while they were in the White House, but in 2013, their pooch, named Barney, died of lymphoma at the age of 12.

DOGS EMOTIONS: Top 30 dog breeds and their personalities

Former President Bush shared an Instagram photo of the new dog saying:

"Laura and I are thrilled to introduce the newest member of our family, Freddy Bush. We visited the SPCA of Texas' Jan Rees-Jones Animal Care Center last Tuesday to thank them for their great work  and came home with a puppy. We already love him, and even our cats Bob and Bernadette are finding Freddy's charm futile to resist. If you could use a little extra joy in your life, consider adopting a pet from an animal shelter or rescue group."

UNDERRATED: The dogs just want to get recognized, but never do
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Wearing rainbow flags, hijab and Black Lives Matter T-shirts, University of Houston students Monday re-created what has become a familiar scene on college campuses since Donald Trump's election.

More than 100 students chanted "my body, my choice," "education not deportation" and "refugees are welcome here" on a grassy area near the steps of the university library. A few attendees discussed the president-elect with a male student wearing a Make America Great Again hat, and several students closed the rally with hugs before scattering around campus.

Monday's rally marked the latest instance of campus activism in Texas since Donald Trump was elected the nation's 45th president last week, following gatherings at universities in Austin, Waco, San Marcos and College Station.

Many college students across Texas and the U.S. are reacting to Trump's win with anger and sadness, causing some to turn toward activism for the first time. Several people Monday said they were attending their first rally and others called battling racism and sexism that might emerge with Trump's presidency a fight of a generation.

"Without a doubt" this is a civil rights moment, said Katy Leonard, a junior from Pearland, as she marched near UH's student center to chants of "Silence is Violence."

For many left-leaning students, Trump's victory is more striking than a standard political disappointment. Several said they see in Trump's win implicit support for his campaign calls to deport immigrants here illegally and ban Muslims from entering the country, as well as his boasts of sexually assaulting women. This marks a sharp departure from the lessons that many have learned on campus on the importance of diversity and sexual consent.

Historic perspective

Higher education and social movement experts say they expect this moment might push students further into protesting for nationwide social-justice issues, including racial equality and immigration, possibly creating a resurgence of campus activism not seen for decades.

"He's singularly ill fit for the diverse and inclusive culture that young people have created for themselves," said Josh Zeitz, a historian who has written books on American political and social history. "He's declared himself in violent opposition to Latinos, to women, to Muslims. That doesn't work with young people."

Zeitz said if students funneled their anger toward voter registration, political organization and canvassing, campus activism would see a resurgence that has the potential to parallel the late 1960s.

"For undocumented students who signed up for (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), I think they have personal stakes now that I think are every bit as high as a 19-year-old draftee" during the Vietnam War, he said.

Trump issued few higher education policies over the course of his presidential campaign, but his consistent criticism of "political correctness" might ripple through universities, as campuses have openly grappled with issues of diversity and access.

Following Trump's surprise victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton, students at the University of Texas at Austin, Baylor University, Texas State University and Texas A&M University held signs and chanted to reject the racism and sexism that emerged from Trump's campaign and victory.

In Austin, hundreds of students took to the streets for hours Wednesday before marching to the state Capitol. At Baylor, protesters were expressing solidarity with a student who said a man called her a racial slur, pushed her off the sidewalk and said, "I'm just trying to make America great again." (Baylor called the behavior "deeply disturbing" in a statement and urged students to report instances of discrimination.)

Texas State unrest

Texas State University erupted in protests Thursday after several fliers were placed in academic buildings advocating "arrest and torture" of university leaders "spouting off all this diversity garbage" after Trump's election. The poster featured a photo of armed men calling themselves "Texas State Vigilantes."

For hours, students assembled in the campus quad with posters that read "less hate more love" and "stop blaming Muslims."

The university's president said in response that "threats absolutely have no place on our campus or in a free society."

Since Thursday, an unspoken divide between students has kept the Texas State campus tense, said junior Nicholas Prejean.

The feelings only heightened when a student said he was assaulted after leaving a gay bar near campus over the weekend.

"I feel like you can feel it a lot more now than in previous semesters or even before last Tuesday," he said.

Students of color and LGBT students, Prejean said, "feel this hopeless sense of whatever someone wants to do, they can get away with."

Natasha Warikoo, a Harvard University professor who studies relationships between education and racial and ethnic diversity in schools and universities, said she expected a sustained galvanizing effect among college students in reaction to Trump's election, particularly because residential college students tend to be more liberal than the population at large.

But she said she is not sure where activism will go or how large it will become, in part because Trump's policies are not yet clear.

"Right now, there's nothing that we can put our finger on that he's going to definitely do," she said.

Future uncertain

Michael Olivas, interim president of the University of Houston-Downtown, reached out to students at the minority-serving institution Wednesday, saying he did "not yet know" what the election means for undocumented or DACA students, of which he said in an interview Monday there are a "substantial number."

"I can't ride the elevator without running into Muslim students, immigrant students, Mexican-American students," he said, later adding that they've been asking the university for technical assistance and emotional support.

Olivas said he's concerned, too, feeling a deep sense of worry.

"On a couple of elevator rides," he said, "they have been consoling me."
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A Texas woman dropped one of her kids off at a grandparent's house in August. Then, the 32-year-old mother of three vanished.

The only sign of Zoey Thomas of Spring since that summer day has been her car. Police found it about a month later abandoned behind a shuttered restaurant in Spring.

No posts on Facebook and no connection at all to anybody, Robin Stephens told KHOU. Shes just a beautiful person. Beautiful outside and beautiful inside too.

A CONCLUSION: Divers find body of missing Baytown teen

Since Aug. 8, Thomas, who has three children ranging in age from 15 to 5, has missed at least one child's birthday.

Stephens said that is out of character for her.

"Especially that she has three children, she would not communicate with them or not be in touch," she added.

But family members later revealed that Thomas had a felony warrant for her arrest out since September, the station reported.

In June 2015, Thomas was charged with burglary of a habitation, according to court documents.

The missing woman allegedly drove the getaway car after another woman broke the lock on an acquaintance's house and walked out with nearly $2,000 worth of property.

Burglary of a habitation is a second-degree felony and carries a sentence of 2 to 20 years in prison.

The mother of three was out on bail as her case worked its way through the court system. But then on Aug. 22, her lawyer resigned, saying his client had failed to communicate with him before an upcoming Sept. 8 court date.

When the court date finally came and Thomas failed to show, a judge issued an order forfeiting her bail and put out a warrant for her arrest.

"Somebody knows. Somebody has some answers, added Stephens. And were just asking for people to come forward.

AN OLD MYSTERY: Man who vanished from stagecoach is oldest active case

Friends on Facebook described Thomas as being 5'3" tall with long blonde hair and multiple tattoos.

Anyone with information may contact the Harris County Sheriffs Office.
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A pair of handcuffs used in the arrest of accused John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald are currently up for grabs in an online auction.

The listing on the Goldin Auctions website states that the cuffs were used by Dallas Police officer Ray Hawkins on Nov. 22, 1963, just hours after President Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally were both shot in Downtown Dallas while their motorcade drove through Dealey Plaza.

Bidding on the cuffs has started out at $50,000 but they will likely fetch considerably more by the time the auction ends in early December.

DARK DAY: JFK motorcade members: What happened after the assassination?

Hawkins used the cuffs to secure Oswald after he was discovered inside the Texas Theater in the Oak Cliff neighborhood. Oswald had fled into the theater in the hopes of hiding out from the police. Officer Nick McDonald was the one who actually made the arrest.

After a brief scuffle with arresting officers Oswald was brought in for questioning in connection with the death of the president, the shooting injuries to Connally, and the shooting death of Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit in the area.

Oswald would be shot and killed by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby within a matter of days while being transported to a country jail. Oswald always maintained his innocence in connection with the killing of the president, Tippit and the wounds suffered by Connally.

According to the auction listing, the Smith & Wesson cuffs were originally issued to Hawkins when he joined the Dallas Police Department in 1953. He kept them in his possession until the day he died. Since he bought the cuffs he was able to keep them after he left the force.

IT'S A TEXAS THING: 17 things we Texans are completely used to

Included in the auction is a 2004 affidavit signed by Hawkins detailing the provenance of the cuffs.

Hawkins died in Nov. 2015, just days before the anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. He was 83.

It's worth noting that this is one of just a few important items from that week that is not in the National Archives for safekeeping.
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Check out the slideshow above to see what former President George W. Bush has been up to since he left the White House nearly eight years ago

It seems that with every passing week former President George W. Bush gets more beloved by the American public.

Though his two terms as the commander-in-chief were fraught with a liberal backlash (culminating with Barack Obama winning the presidency) and coarse anti-war sentiment, the years since he and former First Lady Laura Bush left the White House have been much different.

DOLL HOUSE: Happy 70th birthday, George W. Bush, the most doll-friendly president

Today the 43rd president is known as a smiling painter, a doting grandfather, a staunch ally of the wounded warriors that went to war under his watch and now, the proud owner of a new puppy from his local SPCA in Dallas. His cats seem to approve of the new family member, according to Bush's Instagram photo.

The Bush family had two dogs, Barney and Miss Beazley, while they were in the White House. Barney crossed the Rainbow Bridge in Feb. 2013 and Miss Beazley followed him over in May 2014.

Back in October Bush 43 got one of Texas other famous Georges, George Strait, to play he and his wifes birthday bash at their ranch in Crawford.

TWO GEORGES: George W. Bush, Laura Bush celebrate their birthdays with a private George Strait show

Portraits of Courage, a collection of his oil paintings and the stories of 98 wounded veterans hes met over the years, hits bookstore shelves on Feb. 28, 2017. A deluxe, signed edition of the book will retail for $250.

All proceeds are due to go back to the veterans charities he works with.

Iraq and Afghanistan vets that have had a conflicted image of Bush, now see him as a man who maybe didnt know the weight of choices at the time but is now making amends for them.

On Tuesday morning the ex-president spoke at the 2016 North American Strategy for Competitiveness Continental Reunion at the George W. Bush Presidential Center.

SCHOOL HOUSE: Former President George W. Bush visits the new elementary named after him

When asked about the book, he said that it was especially affecting because the men and women were all injured as a result of my command."

The apparent personal responsibility he feels has many formerly vocal opponents of Bush rethinking his legacy in some respects.

His father, George H.W. Bush, the 41st president, has also seen public opinion of him change since he left the White House in 1992.

BRUSH OF GENIUS: Which of George W. Bush's paintings is your favorite?

The warm, handwritten note he left for incoming President Bill Clinton is always revisited when Americans want to remember the civility that politicians can be capable of after a public defeat.

When it was discovered last week through certain channels that W. hadnt voted for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton (as most had assumed he would) he received accolades by people on both sides of the aisle.

Im out of the political world. Im interested in politics. But I dont think its helpful to have a former president criticize successors, Bush said on Tuesday.

HAMILTON FAN: Who was George W. Bush referring to after watching Hamilton doc?

Many people publicly longed for Bush in the face of a Trump presidency. To be fair, eight years ago both of those things were rather unthinkable.

Earlier this year at the Bush Center Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels appeared at a special event to talk about the impact on politics that his long-running show has had since premiering in 1975. Bush was in attendance and met with Michaels before the event.

Maybe a hosting gig is in the future for Dubya? If that Trump guy can do it...

Guys half his age (he turned 70 years old this past summer) would likely be left in his trail dust.

He might have a few more wrinkles and gray hair than when he left the White House in 2009, but it appears that hes aging backwards, at least in spirit.

OBAMA'S WHITE HOUSE: Obama reveals private living areas of White House

Its hard not to peruse his Instagram  hes too hip for Twitter we guess  and not smile at what appears to be a busy, albeit relaxing retirement. To hang out with him you would probably need to get a mountain bike or take up jogging.

For many the question is now how soon-to-be former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will spend their time after leaving the White House to the incoming Trump family.

We're thinking he's going to take a long, long vacation back in Hawaii before beginning work on his own presidential library and what could be his wife's own presidential run.
Wilshire Baptist Church in northeast Dallas has reportedly voted to extend full rights to all members, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

According to WFAA, the vote passed by a 61 percent majority and became public on Monday.
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The body of a male Texas State student was found on the San Marcos campus early this morning, officials said.

Matt Flores, university spokesman, said the body was found inside the Academic Services Building North in a stairwell around 7:20 a.m. Monday. It appears to be a suicide, he said. Students are being offered counseling services in light of the incident, he said.
AN ANTONIO  A man died Monday afternoon after a drive-by shooting that started when an individual and a suspect exchanged "stink eye," said San Antonio Police Department Chief William McManus.

A group of four people exchanged "looks that neither side appreciated" at a West Side gas station shortly after 2 p.m., McManus said.
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Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz joined the procession of Republican figures from Washington making the journey to Trump Tower in New York Tuesday to meet with President-Elect Donald Trump, his chief antagonist in the GOP primaries earlier this year.

Trump did not stop to talk to reporters staking out the elevator lobby on his way in. But his spokeswoman, Catherine Frazier, released the following statement:
From the "trouble in paradise" department comes news that Canada also apparently has Donald Trump supporters.

That could put the kibosh on disenchanted U.S. residents' plans to move north in the wake of Trump's Election Day victory.
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Houston school board Trustee Jolanda Jones has never been one to back away from controversy.

And that's not the case now with her tweets equating President-elect Donald Trump and Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

"I feel from the core of my being that Donald Trump is going to destroy this country if we don't stand up to him," Jones said Wednesday by phone.

STOP IT: Huffington Post stops calling Trump a racist

"I can't believe that the media somehow believes that I shouldn't say something," she continued. "Donald Trump said a million things more incendiary than I've ever said. I will not sit still and remain silent. He must be challenged."

Sunday, Jones tweeted that "Trump is Hitler 2.0!" The post included a link to a "Raw Story" item about a California Bay Area history teacher who was suspended for a lesson looking at the parallels between the rise of Trump and that of Hitler.

A report Wednesday by KHOU noted that Jones wasn't backing down from the tweet.

"Hitler ended up killing a whole bunch of people because he was racist," Jones told KHOU. "He hated Jewish people. He was an anti-semite. Donald Trump is saying the exact same thing about Jews, about black people, about Mexicans, what's the difference?"

FRINGE BENEFITS: The alt-fright celebrates Donald Trump's victory

In response, Jones posted a second tweet stating that Trump is Hitler 2.0 and included a link to the KHOU story. She added, "Don't be surprised when really bad things happen. There r already more hate crimes than..."

Houston Independent School District spokeswoman Lila Hollin said the district does not comment on things trustees tweet from their personal accounts. She referred a request for comment to Jones' personal media representative.

Jones, a former Houston City Council member, was elected to the school board in November 2015.
AUSTIN -- Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Monday released his list of top-priority bills he is "committed to fighting for" when the next legislative session begins in January, including several that have proven highly controversial in the past.

Included are Voter ID, a ban on so-called "sanctuary cities," transgender restrooms, a ban on selling fetal tissue and a ban on partial-birth abortions. While some have passed the Senate in the past, they have failed to pass the House -- and likely could face a similar fate next year.

On the first day that lawmakers were allowed to file legislation to be considered by the Legislature, Patrick said all of his priorities stick to the "conservative principles that have guided the way we govern in Texas -- life, liberty and lean government that promotes prosperity."

Patrick presides over the Senate, but cannot file bills on his own. Instead, senators file bills that he can then help push through the Upper Chamber.

Patrick's list:

Balanced budget "We will pass a balanced budget that will strengthen the Texas economy and assure that it retains its global competitiveness."

Property tax reform  "Texans pay the sixth highest property taxes in the nation and the high rates are taxing people out of their homes and hampering business growth. This must change."

School choice  "There is broad support for legislation to ensure that every parent has the option to send their child to the school they believe is best for them."

Sanctuary cities  "No city in Texas should be allowed to ignore the law. We will end this practice once and for all this session."

Photo voter ID  "Nothing is more critical to our democracy than the integrity of the voting process. Photo Voter ID is essential."

Women's Privacy Act  "A majority of Texans in both political parties and in every ethnic and demographic group believe that women and girls should have privacy and safety in their restrooms, showers and locker rooms. Unfortunately, legislation is necessary to assure that they do."

Inappropriate teacher-student relationships --"Pass the Trash: With the rapid increase in the number of inappropriate teacher-student relationships, legislation is needed to strengthen the reporting and training requirements, and establish appropriate penalties. Priority must be given to protecting our students at every level of the school system."

Fetal tissue/partial-birth abortion " We will continue to fight to protect the dignity and sanctity of life by increasing criminal penalties for buying or selling human fetal tissue, among other protections, and we will ban partial birth abortion in Texas."

Tighter spending cap  "We will continue to fight to strengthen the state spending limit so our government lives within its means."

Hailstorm lawsuit reform  "We will rein in the hailstorm lawsuit abuse that is damaging local economies around our state."

In addition to his Top 10 priorities, Patrick said he also wants to reduce the handgun-licensing fee, reform the state's troubled Child Protective Services system, reform the method of raising tuition by state colleges and universities, reduce the state franchise tax and prohibit the collection of union dues by government.
When Donald Trump was mulling a run for the White House back in 2000, Fortune magazine reported that he had combined his political appearances with 10 paid speeches for motivational guru Tony Robbins, so he could earn money while assessing a candidacy. "It's very possible that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it," Trump told the magazine. The sentiment may prove prescient.

Electing a U.S. president who is also a billionaire can carry all sorts of novel complications. One, for example, is Donald Trump's fleet of two airplanes and three helicopters (including a Sikorsky S-76 featured last year on a television segment called "Pimp My Chopper").

When it comes to political campaigns, the U.S. Secret Service pays for agent travel, be it on aircraft, trains, boats or automobile. The campaigns of both Trump and Hillary Clinton have been paid a total of $5.45 million for flying agents around, according to the last tally available from the Federal Election Commission. Of that, $2.74 million was attributable to protecting Trump.

Unlike Clinton, Trump didn't need to charter an airplane since he flew on his own jets. As a result, while the Secret Service chipped in for its share of what the Clinton campaign paid to charter a plane, when it came to Trump's campaign, the federal agency effectively just paid him.

For travel on Trump's black-and-red Boeing 757 and Cessna Citation jet, the candidate's aviation company TAG Air Inc. has raked in almost $6 million, Politico reported . These payments, accord with FEC rules specifying that those traveling with a campaign-including the news media-must pay for their travel, Secret Service spokesman Joe Casey said.

Trump's aircraft fleet is just a microcosm of the numerous potential conflicts his transition team must navigate, given the extent of the president-elect's business interests Once they take office, Trump, Vice President-elect Mike Pence and their wives will travel on U.S. military aircraft. What's not clear is how their seven adult children, their spouses or any other relatives will travel if they are under federal protection. If they're traveling with Trump or Pence, they'll likely fly on Air Force One or Air Force Two. At other times, however, Trump's children might fly on a private jet-potentially one Trump owns.

The Secret Service does not discuss the status of protection for specific people, Casey said. The law specifying the Service's duties authorizes protection "for the immediate family members" of the president and vice president. Trump's four oldest children live in New York; Pence has two adult daughters, and a son in the U.S. Marine Corps. Trump also has a 10-year-old son, Barron, who will live at the White House. First lady Michelle Obama's mother, for example, lived at the White House but did not have Secret Service protection unless she was with her daughter or granddaughters.

For any of the Trump or Pence clans assigned a protective detail due to safety risks-and the rancor of the 2016 vote could well produce many-Secret Service travel on a Trump-owned plane means the agency would need to reimburse the aircraft's owner. In this case, the president.

"So then you have government money going into the pockets of the president and his children," said Brett Kappel, a lawyer who specializes in political finance and ethics at Akerman LLP. The Trump transition team did not respond to email requests seeking comment. The Trump family has also hired private security guards, although it is unclear how Trump's election will affect the extent of private security used. The Secret Service has assumed full authority for protecting the president-elect and vice-president elect, including a new no-fly zone the Federal Aviation Administration has established until Jan. 21 over Trump's Manhattan residence.

And unlike the taxpayer funds used to reimburse political campaigns for travel, which the Secret Service reports to the FEC, its security travel costs for an elected official, visiting dignitary or other protectee, are part of its normal operating budget and not subject to disclosure. So the cost of flying agents on Trump planes after the election probably won't be publicly disclosed.

"There's a going to be a bunch of unique situations because of President Trump's extensive business holdings," Kappel said. "We've never had a president in the modern era that has had a situation like this."
President-elect Donald Trump prepared on Tuesday to meet with incoming Vice President Mike Pence to discuss Cabinet selections amid continued uncertainty over who will fill key positions and growing acrimony between Trump advisers and some key Republicans.

In one surprising development, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who has been a confidant to Trump since the end of the Republican primaries, is unlikely to join the administration but will remain an informal adviser.

"The way I'm leaning is to work from the outside and not from the inside," Carson said in an interview Tuesday. "I want to have the freedom to work on many issues and not be pigeonholed into one particular area."

Carson, who is Trump's most high-profile African-American supporter, has been under consideration for several positions in Trump's Cabinet, including secretary of health and human services.

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani appeared to take himself out of the running for attorney general. Giuliani, a former U.S. attorney and a top Trump adviser, had been considered a leading candidate for the prestigious post.

"I won't be attorney general," Giuliani said Monday at a Wall Street Journal event.

Trump's occasionally difficult relationship with Republican members of the Washington establishment also resurfaced.

Former congressman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., a widely respected voice on national security, announced that he is leaving his position as a senior national security adviser to Trump's transition team. Bloomberg Politics, citing people familiar with the matter, said Rogers was asked to leave by senior transition team members.

It was unclear why, and Rogers could not immediately be reached for comment.

Eliot Cohen, a leading voice of opposition to Trump among former national security officials during the campaign, blasted Trump's transition team in a tweet on Tuesday.

"After exchange w Trump transition team, changed my recommendation: stay away. They're angry, arrogant, screaming "you LOST!" Will be ugly,'' tweeted Cohen, who served from 2007 to 2009 as counselor to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He was a driving force behind an open letter last spring - eventually signed by 122 Republican national security leaders - who opposed Trump's candidacy.

Cohen, who last week had urged career officials to serve in Trump's administration, said in an interview that a longtime friend and senior transition team official had asked him to submit names of possible national security appointees. After he suggested several people, Cohen said, his friend emailed him back in terms he described as "very weird, very disturbing."

"It was accusations that 'you guys are trying to insinuate yourselves into the administration. . .all of YOU LOST.'. . .it became clear to me that they view jobs as lollipops, things you give out to good boys and girls," said Cohen, who would not identify his friend.

Cohen also said the transition official was "completely dismissive" of concerns raised about Trump's appointment of former Breitbart News head Stephen Bannon as chief White House strategist. Bannon has been denounced by advocacy groups, commentators and congressional Democrats as a proponent of racist, anti-Semitic and misogynistic views, though Trump advisers have strongly defended him.

His friend's email conveyed the feeling that 'we're so glad to see the bicoastal elites get theirs,'" added Cohen, who described the response as "unhinged.''

Trump transition officials had no immediate comment Tuesday, but Jason Miller, a senior transition communication adviser, told reporters Monday night that Trump and Pence know the urgency of filling key positions.

"Obviously, inauguration day is not getting further away. And people need to get going. This is an absolute top priority understood by the president-elect and the vice president-elect," Miller said.

As for the president-elect, Trump jumped back on Twitter Tuesday morning to argue about his expected loss of the popular vote to Hillary Clinton. Trump was known for his incendiary tweets during the campaign, but has tweeted only sporadically since his victory.

"If the election were based on total popular vote I would have campaigned in N.Y., Florida and California and won even bigger and more easily," Trump wrote at his personal account, @realDonaldTrump.

Six minutes later, Trump changed his tone and defended the electoral college, where his victory was secured. The system is "actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different!" he wrote.

Amid the widespread uncertainty, coordination between Trump's transition team and the Obama White House is now on hold until Trump's team signs a key document, the Associated Press reported. The document, a memorandum of understanding smoothing interaction between the two teams, has yet to be signed by Pence, who recently replaced New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, as head of Trump's transition planning.

White House spokeswoman Brandi Hoffine said the Obama administration is working with Trump advisers to get the document signed.

The cascading developments followed a telephone call Monday between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which they agreed that relations between their countries were "unsatisfactory" and vowed to work together to improve them, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Moscow said the two men discussed combining efforts in the fight against terrorism, talked about "a settlement for the crisis in Syria" and agreed that their aides would begin working on a face-to-face meeting between them.

Trump's office later said that Putin had called to "offer his congratulations" and that they had discussed shared threats and challenges, "strategic economic issues" and the long-term relationship between the two nations.

The president-elect spoke admiringly of Putin during the campaign, praising him as a stronger leader than President Barack Obama and saying the two countries should join together to fight terrorists, particularly the Islamic State in Syria.

Those views put Trump at odds with many GOP defense hawks, who are uniformly suspicious of Moscow and have denounced Russian actions in Eastern Europe, Ukraine and Syria. The offer of cooperation could also immerse Trump in a deep controversy with the Pentagon, where military and civilian leaders have strongly opposed collaboration with Russia, particularly in Syria.

Protests, meanwhile, continued for a sixth straight day in major cities and on college campuses over last week's election results, in which Trump won the electoral college but lost the popular vote to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

He also faced escalating criticism over his appointment of Bannon.

"Bringing Steve Bannon into the White House is an alarming signal that President-elect Trump remains committed to the hateful and divisive vision that defined his campaign," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California said in a statement. "There must be no sugarcoating the reality that a white nationalist has been named chief strategist for the Trump Administration." Trump allies have dismissed the accusation.

Obama, in his first news conference since the election, declined to comment on Bannon and sought to reassure the country and the international community that Trump is committed to governing in a more realistic and pragmatic fashion than he displayed on the campaign trail. Obama said Trump pledged in their conversation last week to maintain U.S. strategic relationships, including the NATO alliance.

At the same time, Obama urged the president-elect to reach out to groups representing minorities and women, many of whom have felt slighted by his candidacy.

"One of the great things about the United States is that when it comes to world affairs, the president, obviously, is the leader of the executive branch, the commander in chief, the spokesperson for the nation, but the influence and the work that we have is the result not just of the president. It is the result of countless interactions and arrangements and relationships," Obama said. ". . . And there is enormous continuity beneath the day-to-day news that makes us that indispensable nation when it comes to maintaining order and promoting prosperity around the world. That will continue."

Trump has signaled in numerous ways that he will not hew to many of the norms of past presidents, from declining to release his tax returns to relying on his family as key advisers. Previously, he has said he would avoid conflicts of interest as president by turning his business over to his children.

Since his victory last week, Trump has received congratulatory calls from a number of foreign leaders, including some he sharply criticized during the presidential race, such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Sunday night, after he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump's office said that he "believes the two leaders will have one of the strongest relationships for both countries moving forward."

Trump's relationship with Russia may be one of his trickiest to navigate.

Although the statement released by his office contained few details and did not mention Syria or other specific issues, it said Trump told Putin "that he is very much looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the People of Russia."

In addition to praising Putin, Trump has indicated that closer relations with Russia would keep the Kremlin from establishing tighter ties with China. He has appeared to absolve Russia from responsibility for intervention in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea, and during the campaign repeatedly questioned the relevance of NATO, which has charged Moscow with engaging in provocative air and sea actions on the alliance's eastern flank.

Giving Putin a free pass on those issues would run directly counter to the Russia policy of the Obama administration, which has, among other things, called for an international war-crimes investigation of Russia's actions in Syria. It could also undermine current European negotiations with Moscow over Ukraine, as well as support for U.S. and European Union sanctions.

Russia is interested not only in getting the sanctions removed but also in obtaining equal status as a player in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Moscow is the primary supporter, along with Iran, of President Bashar al-Assad. In September 2015, one year after the United States began bombing Islamic State targets in Syria, Putin ordered Russian jets into operation against "terrorist" targets there.

Most Russian airstrikes, however, have targeted U.S.-backed opposition forces fighting against Assad and, according to the United Nations, have killed hundreds of civilians. The United States and its European allies have called for an international investigation of Russia for war crimes.

Obama administration offers to coordinate U.S. counterterrorism strikes against the Islamic State in Syria with Russia, if the Russians would stop bombing opposition and civilian targets, have repeatedly failed to stop the carnage. Any cooperation with Russia would also put the United States on the side of Iran, whose activities in the region Trump has vowed to stop.

- - -

The Washington Post's Andrew Roth in Moscow and Elise Viebeck and Jenna Johnson in Washington contributed to this story.
The summers final Live on the Waterfront concert was held Wednesday evening at Prince Arthurs Landing. The popular series in Thunder Bay has completed nine weekly shows that began on July 13. Wednesdays concert was unique as it was held one hour later in the evening to mesh with the 10 p.
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Cherokee Skate Park awaits FEMA okay As opposed to speedy skate board wheels, the wheels of progress grind slowly regarding the citys proposed new skate park...

City ordinance offers guidance for replacing ash trees As Cherokee residents and property owners scramble to identify and remove diseased ash trees dead and dying from the Emerald...

River Valley board president explains discipline controversy Theres more to the story regarding the recent resignation of a River Valley school secretary over alleged violation of school...
IRCC Issues Public Statement on Improvements to Express Entry CIC News Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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Canadas immigration system may be set for further changes

The Express Entry immigration system will undergo important changes that will come into effect later this week on November 19, but that might not be the end of adjustments to be made to the system.

Earlier today, November 14, the department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) issued a press release in which it outlined the changes to be made in the short term.

As CICNews reported last week, these changes include: the awarding of points for certain job offers made to workers in Canada who do not have a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA), additional points for candidates with a Canadian education, and an extension on the validity of Invitations to Apply (ITAs) for permanent residence. (To learn about these changes in more detail, see our previous article on the subject of imminent changes to the Express Entry Comprehensive Ranking System.)

Interestingly, IRCCs press release also states that the reforms are part of a number of improvements the Government is making on a continual basis to bring changes for a more fair and responsive immigration system that will address emerging needs and ensure long-term economic growth for the middle class.

As a consequence, it may well be the case that the changes to be implemented on November 19 are the first in a series of possible changes that may be made over time. For example, the Liberal government has previously said that it would consider the awarding of points to candidates who have prior connections to Canada, such as having a sibling in Canada as a citizen or permanent resident.

At this time, IRCC has not brought in modifications with respect to awarding points having a sibling in Canada. However, that does not necessarily mean that such a change may not take place in the future. Todays press release certainly leaves scope for such a change, or other changes, to be made in the future.

Being proactive

As the governments statement demonstrates, Canadas immigration system is constantly changing. In addition, it is not only the federal government that is in a position to make important changes  the provincial governments also do so through the Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs).

Enhanced PNP categories that are aligned with the Express Entry system open and/or change on an ongoing basis, offering Express Entry candidates an opportunity to submit an application to a PNP and potentially be awarded 600 CRS points. Candidates should note that an enhanced nomination certificate is now the most important factor under the CRS, as a job offer is now worth either 200 or 50 points, depending on the position (to learn more about this change, click here).

The fact that stakeholders are now presented with a federal system (Express Entry) that is undergoing changes, as well as a range of PNP options that have also proven to change over time, highlights the importance for candidates to be proactive and engaged with the system at both the federal and provincial levels.

Speaking of the improvements to Express Entry that have been outlined, Canadas Immigration Minister said that We have committed to doing more to attract highly skilled immigrants to come to Canada and become permanent residents, because this is important to build our economy and strengthen our society. I am confident that the changes to Express Entry will be one of the many positive outcomes of the changes we will be bringing to our immigration system.

What candidates can do to prepare

With only a few days left until the changes that have been outlined are brought into force, it is important for candidates in the pool  as well as other individuals thinking of immigrating to Canada through Express Entry  to understand how this may benefit them and their profile, says Attorney David Cohen.

Candidates should also note that IRCC, as the department itself states, is in a position to make changes to the system on a continual basis. Therefore, candidates who stay up to date and maintain a fully updated Express Entry profile, as well as stay abreast of all PNP options, put themselves in the best possible position to immigrate to Canada successfully. On this basis, I would encourage anybody who is thinking of entering the Express Entry pool to do so as soon as possible.

The new and improved CRS Calculator

Since the changes to the Comprehensive Ranking System were announced last Thursday, November 10, many thousands of people around the world have successfully been able to gauge their CRS points total using the CRS Calculator, which has been updated to reflect the imminent changes to the system.

To find out if you are eligible to immigrate to Canada permanently, fill out a free online assessment form.

 2016 CICNews All Rights Reserved
The death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia likely spared public-employee unions a devastating legal defeat. In Scalias absence, the 4-4 stalemate in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association allowed labor groups to continue charging an agency fee to employees who dont want to join a union. Now, powerful government-employee unions face another legal challenge, this time from disgruntled taxpayers who object to paying the salaries of union officials engaging in political activities.

So-called release time or association business leave, a common provision in public-employee union contracts, allows government workerswho are also union officersto receive their full salaries at taxpayer expense, even if they exclusively perform union business. Release time costs state, local, and federal taxpayers more than $100 million annually. Taxpayers nationwide have begun challenging this subsidy, contending that it constitutes an unconstitutional gift of public funds. Unlike Friedrichs, which alleged a violation of the Constitution, current litigation relies on state constitutions, the interpretation of which doesnt rest on federal precedent, and thus is not dependent on the composition of the High Court. State courts are the final arbiters of their own constitutions, a fact that liberal activists haveironicallyexploited in the past to achieve policy goals not possible under the U.S. Constitution.

Most state constitutions47 out of 50, according to one expertbar gifts of taxpayer funds yielding no public benefit. Texass constitution prohibits the grant of public funds to private parties except for a legitimate public purpose, a clear public benefit, and with adequate contractual controls. Yet, despite a 1979 ruling by the state attorney general that release time constitutes an illegal gift of taxpayer funds, some local governments in Texas grant such subsidies in public-employee union contracts, at an annual cost to taxpayers approaching $1 million.

Texass current attorney general, Ken Paxton, recently intervened in a taxpayer lawsuit in Travis County district court challenging the practice of release time in a contract between the city of Austin and the union representing the citys firefighters, Austin Firefighters Association, Local 975. (Disclosure: I am one of the plaintiffs in that case.) The AFA Local 975 contract provides for 5,600 hours per year of salary subsidies to the union, almost the equivalent of three full-time employees. In Austin alone, the cost of release time for the citys unionized police, firefighters, and emergency medical personnel in 2012 and 2013 exceeded $800,000. (While the terms of public-employee union contracts are not readily available, researchers from the Competitive Enterprise Institute have identified similar provisions in contracts between the City of San Antonio and its public-safety unions, which cost taxpayers about $400,000 annually.)

What exactly are union officers allowed to do on the taxpayers nickel while on release time? Under the current union contract, the officers of AFA Local 975 can participate in negotiations, adjust grievances, attend dispute-resolution proceedings, attend union conferences and meetings, and even engage in partisan political activities related to wages, rates of pay, hours of employment, or conditions of work affecting members of the union. In other words, city officials have empowered officers of AFA Local 975 to lobby against the interests of the taxpayerswhile being paid by the taxpayers.

Public-employee unions mimic the private-sector collective bargaining model created in 1935 by the federal National Labor Relations Act, though the NLRA is predicated on a supposed inequality of bargaining power between capital and labor that doesnt exist in the public sector. The extent and expense of government services are quintessentially political decisions. Due to economic competition, businesses have strong incentives to resist paying overly generous wages and benefits, the costs of which are passed through to consumers in the price of their products. The marketplace constrains private employers generosity.

Public-sector managers responsible for negotiating with public-employee unions face no such constraint. Taxpayers must pay for government services regardless of cost or quality. In fact, public-employee unions campaign for the election of friendly politicians who will reward their support with lavish contracts. The taxpayer has no champion in public-sector collective bargaining; the unions effectively negotiate with themselves. Even the most ardent New Dealer, President Franklin D. Roosevelt himself, opposed collective bargaining in the public sector.

Release time amounts to a direct subsidy of political activity, which Texas attorney general Paxton contends isnt permitted by the state constitution. In Texas, a public purpose has never been defined to include political activity by a private organization, he argues. Moreover, there are no controls on Local 975s use of release time. Local 975, like all public-employee unions, makes contributions to political candidates, lobbies for and against legislation, and endorses candidates for office. Granting public funds to private political entities is not a legitimate public purpose, Paxton maintains.

The union defends the release-time provision as the result of a negotiation, not a gift. Local 975 president Bob Nicks, a full-time union functionary whose six-figure salary is paid by the taxpayers, calls the lawsuit a state-wide attack on all public sector employee groups, not just the AFA. The president of the Texas State Association of Fire Fighters stated that the release-time provision is common practice across the state and the nation. The lawsuit against AFA Local 975 is in its early stages, and the losing party will certainly appeal, making the final outcome years away. In the meantime, similar taxpayer challenges to release time are pending in Idaho and Pennsylvania.

In October, the Arizona Supreme Court upheldby a 3-2 votea release-time provision in the contract between the City of Phoenix and its police union. Phoenix taxpayers won in the trial court and at the intermediate court of appeals, but lost at the state supreme court, because Justice Clint Bolick, whom Governor Doug Ducey recently appointed, was forced to recuse himself. Bolick had handled the litigation while working at the Goldwater Institute (which, along with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, also serves as counsel in the Austin case). The justice assigned to replace Bolick in the case voted in the unions favor, agreeing with the majority that release time served a public purpose. The logic? Release time is part of the overall compensation package negotiated by the city, which benefited from a harmonious and cooperative relationship with its police union.

Public-employee unions are among the most powerful and well-financed interest groups in America, wielding tremendous influence at the state and local level. Elected officials betray the taxpayers they represent by subsidizingand thus further empoweringthese unions with unlawful gifts of public funds. The flukish result in Arizona wont affect the Austin litigation becausethanks to federalismeach state is responsible for interpreting its own constitution. Texas and Arizona gift-clause jurisprudence differ in important respects. Likewise, neither the Supreme Courts stalemate in Friedrichs nor the results of the 2016 presidential election will prevent additional legal challenges to public-employee unions under state constitutions.

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images
Chris Arnade has lived in Trump country for much of the last year, sleeping in motels in Midwestern factory towns, talking up old factory hands at restaurants, sharing laments about how the country has gone to shit.

The 100,000-mile journey put Arnadean independent journalist, former Wall Street trader, and a fan of Bernie Sandersin the position of being less blindsided than most by Trumps presidential win. His reporting, published in The Guardian, added more nuance to the prototypical Trump supporter profilethe frustrated, high-school educated, white, small-town, rural American voter.

What emerges from Arnades boots-on-the-ground reporting is an honest look at brewing hate and anxiety while avoiding the think-piece pitfall that treats Trump voters like an anthropological curiosity. It shows communities facing not only economic ruin, but social ruin; not just loss of jobs, but loss of dignity. The town feels disrupted, Arnade says of his own hometown in Florida, where orange groves have been replaced by retirement communities. It feels like theres no heart anymore.

CJR first spoke with Arnade in June about his travels. We caught up with him this week after the election to help us break down what the media missed about the Trump voter, and where we go from here. The following has been edited for clarity and length.

Since the election, the media has engaged in some self-flagellating over a failure to accurately forecast the outcome, but also of everything weve been missing over the last year. Do you think things would have been different with more reporters on the ground?

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Ultimately, there were people doing that, but it felt very much like parachute journalism. I think people went in with an expectation of what they would find, and they found it. Thats reflective of the fact that they come in from a bubble.

The [national] newspapers used to read the wires, read the local papers. If there was a story that was breaking in Alabama, they knew it because they would read all the Alabama papers. The regional papers were the feeder that gave the bigger papers a sense of what was going on, and those papers arent there anymore.

So theres this real bubble mentality that the media is in, and it was reflected in the coverage. There was no long-term commitment. [The national reporters] went in with no context, almost like anthropologists going on an expedition.

It crept up on people this year, but its been out there for years, the sense of a town feeling frustrated and left behind; the loss of town centers; the loss of mills; the loss of factories; the loss of jobs. There just hasnt been continued reporting on what impact that has had on these communities.

The profiles of the white working class that are being done now should have been done five years ago. Why werent they done five years ago?

Paul, who posed for a photo outside a Dollar Tree in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, told Arnade of his Confederate flag: Im proud of Southern heritage. Im proud of hunting and fishing.

Related: His photos are striking and real. But is Chris Arnade a journalist?

A big blind spot has been this tendency to call anyone who voted or supported Trump a racist. Is it that people are simply putting themselves first, rather than actually hating minorities and women? Is there a better way to be addressing this tension?

Is a larger segment of Trump voters more viscerally and aggressively racist than the average public? Yeah. But is it the main driving force behind Trumpism? No.

Is it part of his appeal? Yes, very much so. But again, I maintain, if you have a group of white people who are feeling frustrated and humiliated, they are going to be a very easy targets for racial-identity politics.

Its kind of a scam to give them meaning, cheap meaning. Trump has been selling scams all his life. This is no different.

Whats one place that youve been that represents the phenomenon of the left-behind white working-class voter?

Ill tell you about Prestonsburg in Floyd County, Kentucky. Its 3,500 people, all white, a coal industry town and hasnt had a good run economically in the last 15 years, since coal has tumbled. The town center, which used to be dominated by local businesses in the seventies and eighties is now basically addiction clinics, and the community center is at the Walmart plaza, or McDonalds, or at the churches.

Theres a real strong sense of community, but the entire community is feeling humiliated. The whole town feels like its suffering, and with the economic decline has come a large increase in the things that follow: addiction, breakup of families. The place feels very hurt.

And in comes Trump with a message of restoring pridepartly through white identitythat resonates there, because from Prestonsburg, Kentucky, America does not seem great.

I feel bad for the peoplebroadly, the poor, frustrated whiteswho voted for him because hes not going to deliver what they think hes going to deliver.

My questions to you thus far have been about how the media has reported on this segment of the population, but theyre same American public that the newspapers are supposed to be writing to, not just writing about. Have you seen, or can you see, any way for the media to speak to and for these communities?

If I walk up to a group of Trump supporters and Im carrying The New York Times or the Washington Postits just not going to be considered, it just isnt valid. There are certain media names that have been so tarnishedI cant tell you whytarnished by talk radio, tarnished by Fox, tarnished by politicians for so long.

It probably doesnt help that those same papers run editorials and opinions that are pretty harsh towards the people that are in these communities. These [newspapers] are places that supported free trade, supported social agendas like gay marriage that arent necessarily popular in these places, so you know, the editorial side hasnt really done anything to help these papers gain credibility in these towns.

How bad is the information divide, and the misinformation thats being spread?

Its gotten further than just a divide; its two separate realities now. There are two separate narratives of how things happen. In red states or red communities that voted for Trump, they digest Fox and conservative talk radio Theres plenty of misinformation too, and you just cant argue with it.

Related: Eight steps reporters should take before Trump assumes office

Was there ever a Trump supporter you spoke to who changed their mind about him because of something he said or did?

Nobody. Nobody. It was amazing. There was nobody who said Im out, Im done, he did blank and Im over. Nobody. In fact I remember going to a crowd of Trump voters the day after the video was releasedthe grab the pussy oneand they were laughing about it, like Oh you know, that guy!

And then I remember speaking to a woman a day later in my hometown, Dade City, Florida, and shes like, Oh men, youve got to learn how to fight them off. Theyre crazy. Thats men!

I didnt know what to say to that.

Trump voters Connie and Fiore Napolitano hang out at a roadside hot-dog stand off Montauk Highway in Shirley, New York.

What are some variations on the generic definition were giving to the white working class Trump voter? Can you complicate the one-size-fits-all definition?

Trump overperformed in communities that were suffering from the decline in industry, in factory jobs, but the people who voted for him were not necessarily directly impacted.

So if youre in a county that has lost a lot of jobs to a factory, and youre a doctor or a lawyer, youre still probably going to vote for Trump. Its very community based; if your community in aggregate has been hurt economically and socially, everybody, rich or poorif youre whiteis gonna vote for Trump.

Did anyone you met defy the stereotype of the white working-class Trump supporter?

One of the things that I wished I had focused more on is the number of white working class men who I would have pegged for a Trump guyyou look at them and they got all the signalsyoure a tired old man in a truckers cap, youve got your cigarettes, sitting there at the McDonalds table, drinking your coffee, looking angry. Im gonna peg you for a Trump guytheres one in particular, Ill never forget, an absolute fan of Bernie Sanders. He called him Old Man Sanders. I love my old-man Sanders. He talks sense!

I met many of them throughout my trip in the same places; Ohio, West Virginia, so yeah thats where I was kind of blown away.

As a writer, how have you navigated being able to understand peoples anger but not justify it? Or try to get other people their anger without justifying the accompanying hatred and racism?

My pet peeve these days is giving context to everything; trying my best to allow the reader to see the ugliness, but at the same time understand the context for which it might come out of. Its not a justification per se of that ugliness, just hopefully a way to help people understand whats the best way to solve it.

Its one thing to call out racism; it should be done. But its not clear to me that just calling it out is going to do anything to solve it.

I wonder if you think we need to differentiate between the coverage of Trump, and the coverage of Trump supporters. Trump was and is pretty outrageous, and reporters werent necessarily wrong to cover him that way. But did we apply that to the voters too much?

I do think the coverage of the supporters was too late, and when it was done it was biased, and eventually it got there. But it went through an ugly period.

I went to the GOP convention in Cleveland. There were 2,000 people from the media in Cleveland that week, and I didnt see any of them. Because I spent my time in the neighborhoods. I split my time between a poor black neighborhood, Central, which was only two miles from where the convention wasyou could see the helicopters; the other was a poor, working class white neighborhood called Parma, and I wanted to see.

I was talking to voters, not voters who had come down to demonstrate. I was talking to people who were just hanging out in bars and hanging out in McDonalds. There was too much focus on the machine of politics and not enough on the voters.

This man in Cleveland who gave his name as Jo Jo said he was a strong Trump supporter.

A recurring theme in your work, and a common denominator among the places you visit, seems to boil down to anger. Can you elaborate on where thats coming from?

I think the bigger word is humiliation, and how that humiliation ends up getting rendered is different from place to place. But at its core its about frustration, humiliation, and anomie, which is basically meaninglessness, feeling like not having a place, drifting.

How that is expressed is very different based on where you are, and its very different based on race. If youre feeling a sense of meaninglessness and frustration and youre a black kid in Milwaukee you express it very differently than if youre a white kid across the park. Also if youre male or female, and thats where our racism and sexism come into the dialogue.

I dont think people understood the full anger out there, and when they did they didnt want to believe it, so the reporting came back was very anthropologicallook at these crazy people and their anger.

What was your feeling on election night, having seen so many different sides of this and having met so many people?

I wasnt surprised when he was elected. Did I expect it? No. Was I surprised? No. I kept saying before the election that I dont know if Donald Trump is going to win this time, but a Trump character will win eventually.

I feel really bad for minorities. I feel awful for them, for the minority communities I spent time in, for places like Milwaukee, Buffalo, Selma, and the Bronx. That was my first reaction.

And I feel bad for the peoplebroadly, the poor, frustrated whiteswho voted for him because hes not going to deliver what they think hes going to deliver.

What gives you hope?

That I personally know that a lot of people who voted for Trump are decent people who I dont think would let some of the nightmare scenarios happen. I just dont see the people I know who voted for him being able to let the world go down that path.

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Chava Gourarie is a freelance writer based in New York and a former CJR Delacorte Fellow. Follow her on Twitter at @ChavaRisa
A new form of predictive analytics offers the ability to detect fraud committed by a group or ring in real time.

According to Philip Rathle, vice president of products for California-based Neo4j, graph analysis dates back to 2000, when the companys CEO and co-founder, Emil Eifrem, created a property graph model.

The idea was, instead of trying to fit all data into these pre defined tables with pre defined attributes and then using relational technology to navigate those, store the data how it looks, the way you would draw it on a whiteboard where you have circles that represent things or nouns, and then lines with arrows pointing at other circles which are groups, and describe relationships between things, explained Rathle. That eventually evolved into Neo4j, and evolved into a generalized data model query language  thats since been adopted by other companies aside from ourselves.

Rathle says this emerging area of predictive analytics takes a couple of different forms, but generally it involves trying to understand behavior before it occurs.

According to Rathle, there are two ways of predicting behavior.

One way is to try to understand all the facts about individual people or things and then make a prediction based on that. That will give you a certain degree of accuracy if you know my age, my height, my weight, and maybe if we are looking say at health insurance youve got all information about my blood work and that kind of thing. That enables a certain quality decision to be made, explained Rathle. The other is if I start bringing in relationships between myself and the people that I interact with in places that I interact in, then you can start to make much more accurate predictions. If you know who my spouse is, who my friends are.

He explained that researcher James Fouler, studying obesity and alcoholism, found that there is a much better chance of predicting whether someone will be obese or an alcoholic based on their social relationships rather than their personal health information.

Rathle co-wrote a white paper with Gorka Sadowski, an IT security expert who has worked in fraud prevention across a number of different industries, on using graph analysis for fraud detection.

If you look at fraud patterns, you can divide them into two, where you have lone individuals out there who might have stolen a credit card out of a wallet and are trying to get by with a more minor individual instance of theft, said Rathle.

He explained that the techniques used to detect the individual fraudster are proven and established.

Theyre constant and companies have systems in place which will lookat someones common transaction patterns, and if all of a sudden you have a set of charges coming from a particular card that within a few hours results in several standard deviations of more transactions ora higher dollar amount will trigger a fraud alert, he said.

Rathle said those patterns are easy to detect since systems review aggregated data around transaction volumes and transaction sizes.

What is harder to detect is when people collude. He offered the example of paper accidents that occur in the car insurance industry.

Accidents that didnt really happen that are the result of multiple people colluding and playing different roles. You might have one person who pretends to be the driver, another person who pretends to be a passenger, and then usually a doctor, sometimes an attorney in on this whole scam, explained Rathle. Oftentimes these people wont just do one of these, theyll do a number. Theyll have a number of paper accidents where different people play different roles. They try to trick the system that way. If you just look at any individual one of these incidents in isolation, its very hard to detect them.

A graph analysis showing the way the data is connected, the people involved and the accidents, Rathle said, will show a pattern.

You can start to see that if I have five different accidents in the last two years and the same person was the driver in two of them, and the passenger in one, and the doctor in a third then that starts to raise some suspicion, said Rathle. A lot of the more serious fraud that occurs in the insurance industry and across other industries as well involves collusion between individuals and criminal gangs or organizations that create multiple events, and depending on the scenario usually you can link these together by looking at the patterns that occur, following the connections and following the relationships.

An insurer can use the graph technology database and build out from it. It can run alongside an existing predictive analytic system to augment existing rules to make them real time and preventative, rather than after the fact.

What well usually see is someone building an application around Neo4j bringing their data and using centered IT integration techniques from other systems Rathle said.

A drawback is that companies cant share information gleaned about connections with other insurers.

An estimated 60 percent of its customers are in the U.S., with the rest located in Europe.

The company sees opportunity in the property/casualty industry, Rathle said, who noted the company has saturated the global banking industry.

From the insurance perspective, Id say we are probably in half a dozen carriers or so, Rathle said.

The system is valuable in any line of insurance, said Rathle, including auto, home and workers compensation.

The database cost is based on data and queries.

It ties back to the amount of computing capacity, so the more data you have and the more things you are doing with it, that drives the need for more machines and bigger machines, he explained.

A trend that the company is at the center of is moving from batch after the fact analysis into real time introduction transaction analysis.

Often times youll catch fraud after it happens by doing this more complex analysis on data thats already transacted. The disadvantage of the latter is I havent made a prediction, said Rathle. Ive just uncovered something thats happened and these people are really good at disappearing, especially if the identities were fictitious which sometimes is the case. The disadvantage of doing your predictive analytics in batch is that youre not always able to respond to the very latest behaviors, which often times are the most interesting or significant.

He offered the example of a credit card scam or first party bank fraud.

Youll have all these real credentials that are combined to create false identities, whichopen all these accounts, charge them up, and then in the span of a few hours theyll essentially liquidatethose accounts, max out the credit lines and then disappear, Rathle explained.

One German insurance provider has built a master data management system behind an interface thats now used by all of their exclusive agents, brokers and house call center, so that across multiple lines of business everyone is getting a unified view of the customer.

Rathle said firms measure savings as top line revenue because it is money the companies werent expecting to get.

Besides its use in fraud detection, Rathle said there is a lot of value in using it to understand and manage risk.

Insurers are better than any other industries at understanding and managing risks. Its actuarial science, but theres a whole wide opportunity of understanding how certain events can cascade through a network, Rathle said. If youre doing property or casualty or business insurance and youre trying to insure against different scenarios, then understanding how physical goods flow through the supply chains, and how a company might be exposed through risks to its suppliers all those areas are opportunities for insurers to differentiate themselves and to improve their businesses.
XL Catlins North America Property Insurance Team Promotes Two in US and Bermuda

XL Catlins North America Property Insurance business announced two promotions. William Volz has been promoted to Southern California regional underwriting leader in Los Angeles while Mark Flanagan has been appointed chief property underwriter in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Most recently serving as vice president, property underwriter in New York, Volz is relocating to Los Angeles. In his new role, he will engage both his underwriting skill and property engineering background to assist brokers and clients throughout the western US insure their most complex property risks. Prior to joining XL Catlin in 2009, he served as an account and loss prevention engineer at FM Global.

In his new role as chief property underwriter in XL Catlins Bermuda Insurance operations, Flanagan reports to Patrick Tannock, chief executive officer, Insurance, XL Bermuda Ltd, and will oversee the underwriting management of XL Catlins quota-share and excess property accounts serviced from Bermuda. Prior to joining XL Catlin in 2012, his career included positions with Jardine Lloyd Thompson and FM Global.

In a separate announcement, XL Catlin announced the appointment of Barbara Luck as president of its Global Excess Casualty business, promoted from her current role as chief underwriting officer of XL Catlins Global Risk Management business. Luck assumes her new leadership role on December 1, reporting to Joe Tocco, chief executive of XL Catlins Americas region.

Luck joined XL Catlin in 2012 from ACE USA where she served as executive vice president and chief underwriting officer of its ACE Risk Management division. She also served as chief underwriting officer for ACEs National Accounts and held positions as branch underwriting manager and vice president of Business Development. Prior to her 11 year- tenure with ACE, she held various casualty management, brokerage and underwriting positions at Marsh, Zurich and AIG.

Brentwood Services Administrators Inc. Hires Callahan-Frye as Litigation Specialist

Tenn.-based Brentwood Services Administrators, announced the hiring of Kelley Callahan-Frye on October 17, 2016, for the position of litigation specialist.

Callahan-Frye will work out of the General Liability Department of the Brentwood office and will report to Teresa Jenkins, general liability claims supervisor.

She will be responsible for handling liability and auto claims.

Prior to joining BSA, Callahan-Frye was a litigation/extended handler III for Permanent General in Nashville, Tenn. She is a multiline liability and property damage adjuster with significant experience handling litigation.

GEICO Elects Kalinsky to Executive Vice President Post

The GEICO Board of Directors elected Greg Kalinsky executive vice president of the GEICO Insurance Companies. He will continue to serve as chief information officer, with responsibilities for IT operations, along with underwriting research and control activities, pricing and product management, centralized services and the companys competitive advantage leadership group.

Kalinsky had most recently served as a senior vice president. He began his career in 1985 in the mailroom, while attending college at night.

During the course of his career, Kalinsky held management assignments in key areas of the company including sales, service and product management. At one time he headed underwriting activities for the companys regional office in Fredericksburg, Va., and served as vice president of the San Diego regional office. In 2004, he was elected to the Board of Directors.

Kalinsky completed his J.D. degree from the George Mason University School of Law in 2000, and also served in GEICOs general counsels office.
trump.jpg

An anti-Trump rally is planned for Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 11 p.m. in Akron's Highland Square to encourage peace.

(John Kuntz, Plain Dealer file photo)

AKRON, Ohio - Organizers of an Akron anti-Trump rally, set for Tuesday from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. in Highland Square, informed Facebook followers the demonstration is about peace, not politics.

According to organizers, the demonstration is "more about the fight against the current stream of violence and hate in our country." The demonstration is intended to encourage love and acceptance, rather than support for Hillary Clinton.

"We do not, and will not need a permit to walk on the sidewalk. No one is going to get arrested," an organizer wrote.

As of Monday afternoon, 580 people planned to attend, with another 1,500 interested in the event.

The Facebook event page says the late-night march will begin in the Highland Square Chipotle parking lot on Market Street, where volunteer leaders and those designated as marshals will be set up to guide and secure the route.

Attendees are instructed to walk on sidewalks only and bring their own signs and banners. Safe places will be established along the route where attendees can gather to regroup and discuss concerns.

Akron food truck, the Square Scullery, will be in the Two Turtles Pet Center parking lot selling food and hot drinks. A second post on the event page states Mr. Zub's Deli on Market Street will hand out free water in its parking lot and stay open until 3 a.m.

Square Scullery also plans to have a first aid kit onsite and will hand out safety pins, which since the election have been designated to show support for vulnerable and minority populations.
AKRON, Ohio - An Akron man has been arrested and charged with trying to rob a Taco Bell at gunpoint.

Tony Cohen, 26, is charged with one count of robbery in Akron Municipal Court, records show. He was arraigned Monday morning.

He remains in Summit County Jail.

The attempted robbery happened about 2:30 a.m. Nov. 5 at a Taco Bell on the 1400 block of South Arlington Street in East Akron, police said. Cohen is accused of driving up to the drive-thru window in a silver Mercury Mountaineer SUV and pointing a gun at the employee at the window.

Cohen is accused of demanding money from the employee, but the employee closed the drive-thru window and ran away. The SUV drove away, and no money was handed over, police said.

Cohen is scheduled to appear with an attorney about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, records show.

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AKRON, Ohio - An Akron man has been charged in connection with the stabbing death of his grandmother.

Nathan Huff, 24, is charged with one count of murder in Akron Municipal Court, court records show. He was arraigned Monday morning, and he remains in Summit County Jail.

Akron police responded about 10 p.m. Friday to the 700 block of Hudson Avenue in South Akron, police said Monday. Officers found Lena Cline, 70, dead with several stab wounds to her chest.

Huff initially told police that he went to Cline's house and found her dead on the living room floor. However, after further interviews, detectives determined that Huff was involved in his grandmother's death, police said.

Investigators have not released a possible motive for Cline's stabbing.

Huff is slated to appear in court again about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, records show.

If you'd like to comment on this post, please visit the cleveland.com crime and courts comments section.
Brain Reads Sentences the Same in English and Portuguese

By Shilo Rea / 412-268-6094 / shilo@cmu.edu

November 15, 2016

An international research team led by Carnegie Mellon University has found that when the brain reads or decodes a sentence in English or Portuguese, its neural activation patterns are the same.

Published in NeuroImage, the study is the first to show that different languages have similar neural signatures for describing events and scenes. The research team did this by using a machine learning algorithm that essentially learns the relationship between sentence meaning and brain activation patterns in English and then recognizes sentence meaning based on activation patterns in Portuguese. The findings can be used to improve machine translation, brain decoding across languages and, potentially, second language instruction.

This tells us that, for the most part, the language we happen to learn to speak does not change the organization of the brain, said Marcel Just, the D.O. Hebb University Professor of Psychology and pioneer in using brain imaging and machine learning techniques to identify how the brain deciphers thoughts and concepts.

Semantic information is represented in the same place in the brain and the same pattern of intensities for everyone. Knowing this means that brain to brain or brain to computer interfaces can probably be the same for speakers of all languages, Just said.

For the study, 15 native Portuguese speakers  eight were bilingual in Portuguese and English  read 60 sentences in Portuguese while in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner. A CMU-developed computational model was able to predict which sentences the participants were reading in Portuguese, based only on activation patterns.

The computational model uses a set of 42 concept-level semantic features and six markers of the concepts roles in the sentence, such as agent or action, to identify brain activation patterns in English.

With 67 percent accuracy, the model predicted which sentences were read in Portuguese. The resulting brain images showed that the activation patterns for the 60 sentences were in the same brain locations and at similar intensity levels for both English and Portuguese sentences.

The results also revealed that the activation patterns could be grouped into four semantic categories, depending on the sentences focus: people, places, action and feelings. The groupings were very similar across languages, reinforcing that the organization of information in the brain is the same regardless of the language in which it is expressed.

The cross-language prediction model captured the concept gist of the described event or state in the sentences, rather than depending on particular language idiosyncrasies. It demonstrated a meta-language prediction capability from neural signals across people, languages and bilingual status, said Ying Yang, a postdoctoral associate in psychology at CMU and first author of the study.

Discovering that the brain decodes sentences the same in different languages is one of the many brain research breakthroughs to happen at Carnegie Mellon. CMU has created some of the first cognitive tutors, helped to develop the Jeopardy-winning Watson, founded a groundbreaking doctoral program in neural computation, and is the birthplace of artificial intelligence and cognitive psychology. Building on its strengths in biology, computer science, psychology, statistics and engineering, CMU launched BrainHub, an initiative that focuses on how the structure and activity of the brain give rise to complex behaviors.

In addition to Just and Yang, the research team consisted of CMUs Jing Wang and Vladimir Cherkassky and the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Brazils Cyntia Bailer.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), via the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), funded this research.

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Cramer boiled down CVS' issues for investors. For years, CVS was the PBM of choice for the California Public Employees Retirement System, but at the end of May it lost that business to OptumRx. Analysts at the time indicated there was increased competition in the PBM space.

Shares of CVS tripled from the summer of 2011 to the summer of 2015, but then fell into free-fall. They closed at $76 on Monday. The business includes both its 7,800 retail pharmacies, and its pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) segments.

"CVS has gone from a market darling to a total dog, as its once-vaunted pharmacy benefit manager business has become an albatross around its neck and the company loses share to its rivals," the " Mad Money " host said.

After years of outperformance, the stock of CVS Health suffered a 10-point straight decline last week, leading Jim Cramer to wonder if it is a broken company or merely a broken stock.

I have to admit, it was pretty confusing given that management had just raised numbers three months ago  it made them seem clueless.

When CVS reported in early August, it had mixed numbers, but management raised full year guidance. It also said that its PBM business had a strong selling season despite the departure of some high-profile clients.

However in August, Walgreens announced it would partner with Prime Therapeutics to better compete with companies like CVS. Just over a month ago, CVS was ousted from the pharmacy network that it runs for the Department of Defense, with Walgreens taking its place.

Thus, when CVS reported last Tuesday and slashed its guidance, leaving Cramer and many investors confused.

"I have to admit, it was pretty confusing given that management had just raised numbers three months ago  it made them seem clueless," Cramer said.

While the company had a top-line miss and a bottom-line beat, it was the guidance that concerned him. CVS said it expects to lose 40 million prescriptions next year. The culprit was competition, particularly from Walgreens, Cramer said.

While CVS outlined various initiatives to help offset the damage, Cramer said they don't fix the core issue of competition.

"Maybe they can turn things around, but for now, CVS remains in the penalty box until we see them take concrete steps to lessen their dependence on what was once the golden goose, now just a turkey headed for a carving," Cramer said.

CVS did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.
A girl recites English letters for other students during class at a kindergarten for children of migrant workers, in Beijing.

Shanghai has pipped Hong Kong in English-language proficiency again, after logging a big improvement over the past five years, according to a new report.

In another standout result from the EF English Proficiency Index (EPI) for 2016, Singapore became the first Asian country to crack the highest proficiency band for English, placing 6th overall in the index. English is the first language in the city-state, which operates a bilingual language policy in state schools.

The Netherlands ranked first in the index, while Scandinavian countries Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland rounded out the top 5.

The EPI, compiled by education company EF Education First, was based on the results of 950,000 adults who took an online English test administered by EF. A total of 72 countries and territories were ranked in this year's edition of the index, which was revealed exclusively to CNBC.

While China was ranked 39th out of 72 countries, compared to Hong Kong's 30th place in the worldwide rankings, the Chinese financial capital Shanghai logged better test scores than Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China and regional financial hub.

Shanghai recorded an EPI score of 55.54, compared to Hong Kong's score of 54.29 in 2016. However, China's capital, Beijing, came in slightly lower than Hong Kong, with a score of 53.49.

In terms of improvement in EPI scores, Shanghai experienced a 5-year score change of 4.35, compared to Hong Kong's 0.64 improvement. Shanghai's scale of improvement was similar to Singapore's, with the latter clocking a 5-year score improvement of 4.87.

Shanghai has previously bested Hong Kong in English proficiency only once before, in 2014.

Minh Tran, senior director of research and academic partnerships at EF, said Shanghai's improvement was due to the growing importance of English in China in response to an increasingly internationalized business and employment world.

"Chinese companies, such as Alibaba and Huawei, that are looking to operate abroad or attract foreign capital are expecting higher English proficiency levels from their applicants," Tran explained.
South Korea's growing influence on popular culture, from beauty products to viral musical hits like "Gangnam Style," has put the country on the world map.

Now Althea, a Seoul-based start-up, is trying to cash in on the trend by making inroads into southeast Asia's growing e-commerce market.

Demand for South Korea-made cosmetics has seen a substantial growth in recent years due to the global appeal of its pop stars and actors, attractive pricing as well as the frequent launching of new products to keep up with consumer demands.

The country's beauty exports globally in 2015 stood at $2.5 billion based on data from Korea Customs service, having seen an average of 37 percent annual growth since 2011, Sunny Um, an analyst at Euromonitor, told CNBC by phone.

One of Althea's co-founders and CFO, Jae Kim, told CNBC the decision to move into the region was a "no-brainer" because of a pent-up demand for Korean beauty products that was being unmet by other companies.



The startup sells more than 100 local brands on their site, from internationally recognizable names like Laneige to quirky ones such as Witch's Pouch and W.Lab.

"To give you a perspective, there are about 8,000 Korean cosmetic brands in (South) Korea alone," according to Kim.



Southeast Asia represents an important market for e-commerce players given a large base of young consumers and growing internet penetration. A study from Google and the Singapore government's investment arm, Temasek Holdings , predicted in May that Southeast Asia's digital economy was set to grow to $200 billion by 2025, driven by a rise in e-commerce.
No matter what course U.S. president-elect Donald Trump takes with China, he starts out with at least one loss in his tangles with Beijing authorities.

Despite waging a long court battle, Trump failed to trademark his own name in the construction industry on the mainland.

A Liaoning construction firm unrelated to Trump's businesses beat him to the punch in November 2006, trademarking the Trump name just two weeks before the U.S. businessman filed his own application, according to a Beijing court ruling last year. The ruling was only recently published in an online court archive.



The Trademark Office of China's State Administration of Industry and Commerce said it turned down Trump's application because it closely resembled the trademark of the Liaoning firm in "construction and factory building," which could provide similar services.

Trump applied to the office for a review of the ruling but the agency upheld its initial finding.
Research indicates there has been a drop in worker productivity and other consequences following the election of Donald Trump. Therapists refer to this as Trump Anxiety Disorder.

With a Donald Trump presidency now imminent, women in tech, a lucrative industry that's already rife with unconscious bias and other challenges for non-white men, are concerned that the barriers of entry to their field may grow even higher.

The 53 million Americans who voted Trump into office were able to accept or at least ignore the president-elect's comments on women  "fat," "slob,"  and allegations from half a dozen women who have accused him of sexual harassment or assault. But female leaders in Silicon Valley are worried about what a national leader with this track record means for women and people of color in their industry. More from Buzzfeed:

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"Electing a President that is openly hostile to women is a threat for women in every industry," wrote Andreessen Horowitz partner Kim Milosevich in an email, though she added that past battles have made progress, and doesn't "think women in this country will easily give up those gains, and I hope that we will fight harder than ever for our future." On Twitter, younger women are voicing concerns about what a Trump victory means for the number of women entering into STEM fields.

Trump's campaign has flip-flopped on the question of equal pay, and he made no statements about creating STEM jobs, or STEM education, facts that Donna Harris, startup CEO and co-founder of DC-based accelerator 1776, finds worrisome in and of itself. But she's also concerned that the things Trump did say on the campaign trail could impact the number of women choosing to enter into a male-dominated field like tech.

"We've seen high profile incidents of harassment [in tech], and we've now elected a president who has been very vocal as to his attitudes about women, and his attitudes about harassment," she said. "Locker room talk, or boys will be boys  that's what causes a lot of women to decide this field is not for them. They see it as offensive, and it creates an atmosphere where they feel they're not welcome."

Joanne Chen, a partner at Foundation Capital whose career has taken her from engineering to Wall Street to venture capital, said she hopes Trump's election won't reverse the incremental improvements gender diversity advocates in Silicon Valley have achieved so far. "It's a wake up call to take action in big and small ways," Chen, who organizes Female Founders events in Silicon Valley, said. "I'm an immigrant, I'm an engineer, and I'm a woman. What does that mean for me? For female entrepreneurs? For investors?  I'm wondering what Trump as president means for things like that."

What Comes Next

Of course, while female venture capitalists, technologists, engineers, and executives do face barriers, especially if they're women of color, they tend to have more political capital (and capital capital) to exert than other Americans. Catherine Bracy, former director of community organizing at Code for America, said women in tech should be thinking about how to leverage that privilege "to prevent as much damage to our nation and our most vulnerable residents as possible from a Trump presidency." Heather West, director of public policy at Mozilla, echoed that sentiment on Twitter.

Some in Silicon Valley are already thinking about what can be done to ensure that Trump's win doesn't discourage members of underrepresented populations from working in tech. Redoubling commitments to diversifying staff, to include both women and people of color, seems like an obvious first step.



Citing Ebay's CEO as one example, Project Include founder Ellen Pao, an outspokenadvocate for diversity in Silicon Valley, said she's hopeful tech firms will take Trump's win as an opportunity to reexamine their commitment to diverse hiring.

"The election was a wake-up call about the amount of work we have to do to give everyone a fair chance to succeed in tech, in STEM education, in all kinds of businesses, and across all areas of the United States," Pao wrote in an email. "I'm hopeful to see people are ready to roll up their sleeves and do the work that still needs to happen." Karla Monterroso is vice president of programs for Code2040, an organization aimed at achieving total equality in the tech industry in the next 24 years. The organization's founder, Laura Weidman Powers, is currently a senior policy advisor in the White House; it seems inevitable that Code2040 won't have the same kind of access to the Trump administration. But Monterroso is hopeful nonetheless. "Our goals  we have a conviction around them happening regardless of this election," she said. Specifically, Monterroso pointed to Pandora, a Code2040 partner and tech company based in Oakland that's just released ambitious diversity goals  the company plans to employ a staff that is 45% people of color by 2020, or the year of the next presidential election.
Apple has spoken to potential suppliers about the product and ordered small quantities of near-eye displays from one supplier but hasn't bought enough quantity of components to suggest the glasses will be going into mass-production soon.

The device would connect wirelessly to an iPhone, and show information and images about objects in the wearer's field of vision. It could use augmented reality  technology that overlays digital images over the real world. The project is still in the exploratory phase, Bloomberg said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Apple is considering expanding into wearable eye gadgets with a pair of glasses that could use augmented reality (AR), as the U.S. technology giant looks for new areas of growth, Bloomberg reported.

People stand outside the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue on August 5, 2015 in New York City.

If the Cupertino, CA-based tech giant green lights the product, it would be introduced in 2018 at the earliest, Bloomberg's report said.

Apple has not responded to CNBC's request for comment.

Plans of the new wearable comes after Apple recently reported its first annual revenue decline in 15 years and is searching for new growth drivers. The Apple Watch hasn't really taken off but chief executive Tim Cook is bullish on the potential of AR.

AR technology imposes digital images over the real world, while virtual reality (VR) is about immersing a user in a computer-generated experience via a headset. In an interview with "Good Morning America" in September, Cook said AR will be bigger than VR "because this gives the capability for both of us to sit and be very present talking to each other, but also have other things visually for both of us to see."

Apple's rivals have been pouring a lot of money into VR with the likes of Samsung , HTC and Google selling their own headsets with the development of AR glasses much less prevalent. Microsoft's HoloLens headset is probably the closest product on the market and imposes holograms onto the real world which users can interact with through gestures.

But Cook said AR has more potential and that VR "encloses and immerses the person into an experience that can be really cool but probably has a lower commercial interest over time."

Digital glasses could prove to be a risky move for Apple. The last attempt came in the form of Google Glass which was killed off by the company last year. Some of the criticisms around Glass included its design and usability. Apple will need to counter these problems to make its version appealing should it ever come to market.

Read the full Bloomberg report here.
Value investor Bill Miller told CNBC on Tuesday that embattled drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceuticals will clean up its act and its stock could double in the next two to three years.



Miller said on "Squawk Box" the Canadian company is a slow-growth specialty pharmaceutical company that for the next few years won't be doing any acquisitions.

"They'll be doing disposals," Miller said. "But they'll be cleaning up the business. They'll be putting money in [research and development]. You know, products will get approved. I think it's going to be a completely different business model from what it had before."



The drugmaker, which has been accused of fraud and price gouging, posted poor earnings and slashed its profit forecast last week. The company has suffered along with the entire industry as pressure from regulators about drug prices intensifies. The added heat has upended business models dependent on raising prices, although the environment could change under a Trump administration.

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The company has recently been trying to sell off its noncore assets to reduce its acquired mass amounts of debt. Miller said the heavily indebted pharma company could easily double, even triple its current price. The investor suggested that the company focus on what most drugmakers don't  free cash flow.

"The free cash flow there is running close to $2 billion and that coupled asset sales will enable them to delever fairly quickly over the next few years," he said. "We'd expect something in the order of $5 [billion] to $10 billion of disposals in the next 12 months and then another couple of billion in free cash flow."
In the aftermath of Trump's surprise presidential victory, the search for post-election news took an unusually intimate route for some Americans: Searches for "Will Trump take away birth control?" spiked 3,550 percent over seven days. (In the chart below, "breakout" indicates a search term grew by more than 5000 percent .)

"The need for this kind of service becomes even greater [after the election], especially in the South," said Hans Gangeskar, co-founder and CEO of Nurx. "Those people are the ones that need it the most and we can really change that. A substantial portion are on Medicaid expansion and could lose their insurance coverage."

The Y Combinator and Union Square Ventures-backed company is expanding operations from three states to six states this year, and aims to be in all 50 states in 2017. On Monday, it launched in Washington D.C.

As Nurx, which bills itself as the "Uber for birth control," works on aggressive plans to go nationwide, the very problems it hoped to address have become top-of-mind for many American women. The app connects patients and doctors and ships birth control directly to users, cutting down the cost and stigma of accessing birth control or HIV prevention.

As Americans wait to see Donald Trump 's plan for the Affordable Care Act, a birth control start-up has seen its market step into the national spotlight.

That wasn't all. Searches for Planned Parenthood, IUDs, Roe v. Wade and "Pence Birth control" all saw searches spike several thousand-fold, according to Google Trends data. Algorithms on Facebook and Twitter also surfaced trending posts about users pondering their options.



Among many other initiatives, the Affordable Care Act required plans in the marketplace to cover doctor-prescribed contraceptive methods and counseling for all women, without copays or coinsurance (except for some religious exceptions.) It also provided health insurance to 16.4 million uninsured people.

If it is repealed, the cost of birth control could go up for women who would be required to meet deductibles, pay copays, or who lose coverage for their preferred birth control method  making cost-saving apps like Nurx more important than ever, said Gangeskar.

Trump has campaigned to repeal Obamacare, though he later said that he would consider leaving some parts intact. His running mate, Mike Pence, has been vocal about women's' health issues, once inspiring a campaign called "Periods for Pence." And because it performs a small number of abortion services, Planned Parenthood has been opposed by congressional Republicans, who now control the legislative branch.

It's unclear whether women's' health will ultimately be affected by the election  Trump has said he doesn't think birth control should require a prescription. But it all comes weeks after Nurx raised another $5.3 million to expand nationwide.

'We've had patients where their [previous] doctor rolls their eyes, will judge them, tell they 'You're stupid if you don't use a condom. You shouldn't be having sex, you need to change your lifestyle,'" Gangeskar said. "The problem that's happening in this election, the rhetoric to attack minorities, Muslims, African Americans, women, legitimizes that kind of judgment. Changing the mood of the national debate can have national consequences."





Infographic courtesy of Nurx

Gangeskar said that while a funding cut to Planned Parenthood or a repeal of the ACA would be emotionally devastating to Nurx, it might help their business. In addition to letting users get birth control and HIV prevention via text-based app and messaging, it also provides out-of-pocket options for as little as $15 per month.

"My prediction is that a lot of users will switch over to cash," Gangeskar said. "For us as a business, demand for our service could increase. Our competitive price difference will be much larger if the ACA is repealed. For those people who no longer have access from Planned Parenthood, our services will be a natural choice. [But] everyone who works here is incredibly upset. There are more scary things that we could go back to if it was repealed. Insurance could refuse cover labor if they didn't want pregnant women working in the company, or things like that, for example."
John Boehner told CNBC on Tuesday he can't predict what type of president Donald Trump will be but believes that Trump realizes he needs to evolve from his campaign trail bluster.

"Donald Trump clearly understands at this point that he's the president-elect. And he has a very different role to play," the Republican former House speaker said on "Fast Money: Halftime Report." "He's still going to be Donald Trump, but I would expect that we're going to see a somewhat different Donald Trump."

Concerns about temperament and divisive rhetoric tracked Trump during his presidential campaign. While the president-elect has aimed to quell some of those fears, he has also attacked media outlets and protesters on Twitter since his election, validating those concerns for some.

While Boehner said that 2016 brought "things we've never heard said in a presidential campaign," he added that he does not have serious concerns about Trump or Stephen Bannon, the president-elect's newly appointed chief advisor. Bannon is the former chairman of Breitbart News, a right-wing news site popular with white nationalists. His appointment prompted strong criticism from Democrats.
watch now

Doctors at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center look after about 600 patients on a typical day, and each of those patients, on average, take 10 different medications during their stay. More than 200 pharmacists and pharmacy technicians ensure patients receive their prescriptions. But behind the scenes is a group of pharmacy robots sorting through various medications, picking pills in the proper dosages and packaging them for nurses to administer. "We've been focused on reducing cost and improving quality for patients for years, and technology really gives us an opportunity to do that," said UCSF Health CEO Mark Laret. "What we now have is a pill picker that fills all of the pharmaceutical orders for our patients.  And what's it really done is improved the reliability of what we do." For years tasks like counting pills and putting them into bottles or individual packages were the purview of pharmacists, especially during the 2000s, with the boom in retail pharmacies. Last decade the number of chain drugstores like CVS and Walgreens increased by 11 percent, to 39,000, nationwide. More than 2.5 billion prescriptions are filled annually by these stores, which employ close to 120,000 pharmacists, according to the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. In addition to filling prescriptions and checking dosages, pharmacists are oftentimes the people who provide counsel to patients who have questions about the medications they've been prescribed. "When you have a pharmacist verbally communicating with you, you're more likely to communicate and understand that information," said Mohamed Jalloh, spokesman of the American Pharmacists Association. But the new robotics pharmacy trend is taking hold at hospitals across the United States and even at community chain drugstores.

PillPick system by SwissLog Source: SwissLog

Fewer errors, better safety

It was an overdose in 2008 that prompted the UCSF Medical Center to look into automating its pharmacy. "A nurse made an error of putting the decimal point in the wrong place and we overdosed a patient, and at that point, we made a commitment to that we didn't ever want that to happen again," Laret said. Since introducing robots to its pharmacy in 2010, the UCSF Medical Center has seen fewer pharmacist errors and better patient safety. During the technology's phase-in period, 350,000 prescriptions were filled with no errors. "A lot of institutions are chasing zero, hoping to get to the point where they have zero patient errors," said Rita Jew, director of the UCSF hospital pharmacy at Mission Bay. "Once you've programmed the robot to do the right thing, it'll always do the same thing over and over again, without errors, unless humans introduce those errors along the way."

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Ford's newest factory floor model isn't a car  it's a co-bot The UCSF Medical Center makes use of one SwissLog PillPick machine, as well as three robots that prepare IV fluids for patients and four robots that find and pick out medications stored away in a system of boxes as opposed to the shelves where pharmacies traditionally store medications. After robots in the hospital pharmacy package pills, wheeled robots called TUGs help deliver them to hospital patients. UCSF Medical Center employs a fleet of 25 of these robots, which are manufactured by Pittsburgh-based Aethon. The Nebraska Medical Center purchased a SwissLog PillPick robot for more than $1 million in 2007. It runs 24 hours filling out about 10,000 prescriptions per day. The benefits have included a 70 percent reduction in calls from nurses regarding missing doses, according to one case study. Prices of PillPick machines vary based on what a hospital pharmacy needs. A hospital that has to dispense 10,000 meds per day, like Nebraska Medical Center, needs a PillPick that can handle more thru-put, which leads to a higher price tag on the robotics investment, because the machines are custom-designed. Swisslog doesn't share a base price and would not discuss pricing for any current clients. Having the robot also speeds things up. Pharmacy manger Melissa Welch said the robot has dramatically reduced the amount of time pharmacists and pharmacy technicians spend preparing medications. Before installing the robot, it took several pharmacists 12 hours to fill the medication cart for overnight patients. With the robot, it now takes only four hours. "The robot takes part of the process out of the human hand of picking the medication and potentially picking the wrong thing," Welch said. "Pharmacists verify those orders  but it adds efficiency to your workflow."

Coming down from a pill-popping decade

The move toward automating pharmacies comes at a time when pharmacy schools nationwide have seen greater enrollment. According to Frank Romanelli, associate dean of the College of Pharmacy at the University of Kentucky, the explosion in community pharmacies  drugstores like CVS  in the 2000s led to an increase in demand for pharmacists. But times are changing. In 2015, Romanelli co-authored an article that predicted an oversupply of about 40,000 pharmacists by 2022. This potential glut in the workforce isn't necessarily due to more automation, but rather a contraction in the number of pharmacies opening up nationwide. "Community pharmacies aren't opening in the same volume they were 10 years ago," Romanelli said. CVS shares fell on Tuesday by 16 percent  though they recovered somewhat along with the market after the post-Election Day rally  after the company provided an earnings and outlook that showed a prescription-business slowdown. CVS said in its earnings, "Very recent pharmacy network changes in the marketplace are expected to cause some retail prescriptions to begin migrating out of our pharmacies this quarter. ... In addition, we are currently experiencing slowing prescription growth in the overall market." In addition, automation in any workplace leads to a conversation about whether robots are stepping in to take jobs away from humans. Before robots were installed in the hospital pharmacy at UCSF Medical Center, it took seven pharmacy technicians supervised by as many as four pharmacists to find medications and dispense the right dosage for each patient. With the robots, the task now requires only two technicians. But according to pharmacists and industry observers, pharmacy robots aren't replacing jobs. Instead, they're taking over menial tasks, such as counting pills, and freeing up pharmacists to do higher-order jobs. "Automation is not replacing jobs but enhancing them," said Melissa Elder, a pharmacy automation analyst for BCC Markets. "Many of the automation technologies were designed to replace technicians and this is not the case to date. Support staff in the pharmacy, namely technicians, are continuing to see increasing demand among employers."

The American Pharmacists Association is actually a supporter of automation in pharmacies around the U.S. Jollah said it's unlikely robots could ever replace pharmacists, who still have an important role to play in not only counseling patients, but also checking for drug-to-drug interactions between prescriptions. "The level of judgment and expertise that pharmacists provide can't be replaced by robots," he said. Today at UCSF Medical Center, pharmacists are able to interact with patients and doctors more, and that's a direct result of the robots now working in the hospital pharmacy. "There's always going to be humans," Jew said. "But now our pharmacists are an integral part of the medical team, going on rounds with physicians and nurses. We wouldn't be able to do that if pharmacists were just tied down checking products."
The energy sector had a nice day on Tuesday.

The Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) traded ended the day up 2.88 percent Tuesday, with Chesapeake rising 10.6 percent to lead advancers. Energy stocks were also some of the best performers in the S&P 500.

The ETF posted its best day since Nov. 7, as oil prices surged on renewed hope that OPEC would strike a deal to cut production later this month.



"While there is no question that the market's fundamentals remain precarious, we see the latest decline as overdone and a reason to believe the market is forcing OPEC to strike a deal at the end of this month," Peter Cardillo, chief market economist, said in a Tuesday note to clients.



Energy stocks had been under pressure when oil prices were declining. Crude hit multi-month lows on Monday on concerns that the oil cartel would fail to come to an agreement on production.



XLE 5-day chart

Source: FactSet
With help from Republican lawmakers, Donald Trump as president will follow through on his campaign promise to get rid of Obamacare, Sen. John Barrasso, an orthopedic surgeon for 24 years, told CNBC on Tuesday.

Barrasso, the fourth-ranking member in the Senate GOP leadership, promised a "smooth transition" for the millions of Americans who receive health insurance through the 2010 Affordable Care Act. They won't be left out in the cold, without coverage, he added.



Trump suggested on CBS's "60 Minutes" on Sunday he might keep two pillars of President Barack Obama's signature health-care law  the prohibition on denials for pre-existing condition and the inclusion of coverage for children in their mid-20s under their parents' insurance.



"Don't get fixated on some of this phraseology. Obamacare is over. We promised to repeal and replace it. And that's what we're going to do," the Wyoming senator said in a "Squawk Box" interview.

Trump has said that even the "good ideas" in Obamacare need to weighed against their costs, added Barrasso, chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, which works to advance conservative ideas.

But until the "sledgehammer" of change happens on this "costly, complicated, and collapsing" law, Barrasso said, there are a number of measures Trump can take on Day 1 of his presidency "with the pen and the phone," including relief for Americans and businesses experiencing tough times because of the mandates.

Open enrollment for Obamacare coverage next year, which began on Nov. 1, ends on Jan. 31  11 days after Trump is set to be inaugurated as the nation's 45th president.



Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told "Fox News Sunday" the president-elect was considering convening a special session of Congress on the day he's sworn in to repeal Obamacare.
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Jose Manuel Barroso, the former president of the European Commission, has told CNBC that there should be an adjustment period in which the world must adapt to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and, just as significantly, Trump must adapt to the world.



Barroso, now non-executive chairman of Goldman Sachs after serving as the chief of one of the central organizations of the European Union, said that although most countries in Europe would likely not have elected Trump, it is important for the region to respect the decision. "(Trump) was not the president that most of us in Europe would have voted for, but he has been elected, so I think now we have to adapt to him. At the same time, I believe Donald Trump also has to adapt to the world," he told CNBC on the outskirts of the Misk Global Forum in Riyadh on Tuesday. "Trump will certainly have to adapt to his office and to some constraints, some realities and some facts of life," Barroso added.

'Biggest economic relationship in the world'

Donald Trump will become the 45th President of the United States and the brash New York businessman will take his Republican ticket to the White House in January. Barroso urged for the European continent to do all they can to continue their working relationship with the U.S. as he claimed this economic connection is the most important in the world. "It would be a big mistake now to try and create an opposition between Europe and the United States. OK, the president-elect in the U.S. was not the favorite in most, or if not almost all, European countries but we have a lot in common. It is by far the biggest economic relationship in the world," Barroso said.

Rocky negotiations?

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In regards to the U.K.'s decision to leave the European Union, Barroso anticipated extremely difficult and rocky negotiations. "I'm concerned of course with the decision taken by the British, but I respect it. I mean, the British have decided to leave the European Union so they will most likely leave the European Union." "I'm anticipating very difficult, bumpy  And sometimes extremely complex negotiations."
General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt spoke at length about what may lie ahead for the business community, the U.S. and the global economy following Donald Trump's presidential victory. "What President Trump will learn is that, as he travels the world, trade deals give him power. The ability to use trade as an economic negotiating technique make him more powerful," said Immelt. "If the President of the United States travels around the world, and has nothing to offer from a standpoint of economic connection, you lose half of your negotiating power. And this guy is a negotiator; he's a dealmaker," said Immelt. In this wide-ranging conversation from the Minds + Machines conference in San Francisco, Immelt also discusses: Policies that could help or impact GE and its businesses How President-elect Trump can jump-start the economy Why globalization cannot be reverted The core values that have allowed GE's culture to flourish To watch the broadcast interview in its entirety, you must be a CNBC PRO subscriber .

General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt spoke at length about what may lie ahead for the business community, the U.S. and the global economy following Donald Trump's presidential victory.

"What President Trump will learn is that, as he travels the world, trade deals give him power. The ability to use trade as an economic negotiating technique make him more powerful," said Immelt. "If the President of the United States travels around the world, and has nothing to offer from a standpoint of economic connection, you lose half of your negotiating power. And this guy is a negotiator; he's a dealmaker," said Immelt. In this wide-ranging conversation from the Minds + Machines conference in San Francisco, Immelt also discusses: Policies that could help or impact GE and its businesses

How President-elect Trump can jump-start the economy

Why globalization cannot be reverted

The core values that have allowed GE's culture to flourish To watch the broadcast interview in its entirety, you must be a CNBC PRO subscriber.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (L) welcomes US President Barack Obama before their meeting in Athens on November 15, 2016. Aris Messinis | Reuters

On Tuesday, as the world begins to recover from the election of Donald Trump, the outgoing President Barack Obama is visiting Greece in his last overseas tour as U.S. president. During his meeting with Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos at the Presidential Palace in Athens, the U.S. president thanked his Greek counterpart and the Greek people on their hospitality and partnership. He reiterated the strong ties between the two countries, adding the need for a collaborative effort by all on the refugee crisis. He underlined his commitment to offering assistance to Greece on the economic crisis, adding, however, that more work lay ahead on the economic front in order for Greece to exit the current crisis. Without mentioning Trump by name, Obama told Pavlopoulos that a strong NATO is of "utmost importance" and would provide "significant continuity even as we see a transition in government in the United States."

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On his part, Pavlopoulos expressed his gratitude to Obama for the solidarity on the humanitarian crisis, adding his belief that President-elect Donald Trump would continue on a similar path. Commenting on the Cypriot problem, Pavlopoulos underlined that a fast solution was necessary, based on international law. He added that challenging the Lausanne Treaty was unacceptable, referring to recent provocative statements by the Turkish leader Recep Erdogan. Obama met subsequently with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. In this meeting, he congratulated the Greek government and the Greek people for moving forward through a very challenging process. "My hope is that given the growth we saw this year, we can build on the process. The reforms have not been easy, but have been necessary to boost the competitiveness of the economy. ... I will continue to emphasize on our view that austerity alone cannot deliver prosperity," he said, adding that he would continue to stress to Greece's European partners that austerity alone will not help the country emerge from crisis and that debt relief is necessary along with reforms. "It is going to be important both with respect to debt relief and other strategies to help Greek people in this period of adjustment," he said. Tsipras said he hopes Obama's last trip to Europe brings about important results. "It is a great honor that you are visiting Greece during your final Europe tour to give a special message to the world," he told Obama. While referring to the economic crisis, he said that "despite the difficulties over the last five years, we're standing strong." President Obama is accompanied by U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, National Security Advisor Susan Rice, senior director for European affairs Charles Kupchan and the new U.S. ambassador to Greece, Geoffrey R. Pyatt.

Initially, Obama planned to deliver a public speech on Wednesday from the Pnyx, a rocky hill beneath the Acropolis; however, it has been rescheduled to take place at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, due to security concerns. The initial setting was highly symbolic, as the hill in the center of the Greek capital hosted popular assemblies in the ancient times and is regarded as one of the most important sites in the evolution of democracy.

White House officials revealed that Obama is planning to execute a "legacy speech" from Athens, comparing it to the one John F. Kennedy delivered in Berlin on June 26, 1963 (Kennedy aimed to underline the support of the United States for West Germany 22 months after Soviet-supported East Germany erected the Berlin Wall). Obama will be covering an array of topics in his speech  from the refugee crisis and ongoing Cyprus peace talks to the need for continued debt relief and structural reform. Following Greece, Obama will visit Germany on Nov. 17 and 18, where he will meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel to review the close cooperation on a wide range of bilateral, regional and trans-Atlantic issues. Among the issues on the agenda will be the common efforts to resolve the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, the campaign to degrade and destroy ISIL, as well as transatlantic economic relations. This visit will mark Obama's sixth visit to Germany, reflecting the strategic importance of the partnership with Germany and the close ties between the American and German people. The president will also have one last opportunity to meet with his "Quint" counterparts, the leaders of Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom and review a range of global issues.
SalesForce CEO Marc Benioff speaking at the Code Enterprise Conference on Nov. 14, 2016. Asa Mathat | ReCode

Silicon Valley wants the next administration to make fiscal reforms, changes to the patent and visa systems, and to give U.S. multinationals the chance to repatriate overseas cash hoards at a reduced tax rate, said Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. Benioff has moderated hundreds of conversations between Silicon Valley executives and President Barack Obama, he said, forecasting that tech's big priorities for President-elect Donald Trump's administration would generally be the same.

Environmental issues, diversity and inclusion were also very important to Silicon Valley, said Benioff, who was speaking on stage at the Code Enterprise conference in San Francisco on Monday night.



A patent troll-killer and a tax holiday

Patent reform was a top priority for tech leaders and was desperately needed to reduce friction in the industry, said Benioff. A patent bill to curtail trolls was killed in the Senate last year, so this remained a top priority, Benioff added. "Patent trolls" acquire patents not to manufacture products but for the express purpose of pursuing compensation for companies that infringe the patent. Tech executives also wanted a tax holiday  something that did not happen during the Obama administration  that would allow them to repatriate overseas profits at a marginal tax rate, perhaps around 20 percent, he said. This would allow those companies to grow faster and do more, he said.

Visa reforms and fiscal reforms

Reform to the visa system to let students who come to the U.S. to study remain in the country after completing a college degree was also needed, he said. One of the country's greatest assets is its school system, said Benioff. "We attract people from all over the world  the best in the world  and right now when they graduate our universities, they're forced out of the country," said Benioff. Lastly, on the government side, Silicon Valley executives  many of whom supported Simpson-Bowles  would like to see a reduction of the national debt through fiscal reforms, he said.

Inclusion, diversity and the environment
Steven Cohen's family office Point72 is bullish on Asia. At least in terms of hiring new talent, that is.

The asset manager, which manages the hedge fund billionaire's personal fortune as well as those of some employees, opened a new office in Singapore this week that can seat up to 60 employees. It's a considerable expansion from Point72's launch in Singapore in 2009 with just six staff.

The firm has more than 1,000 employees globally and $11 billion in assets under management. But it can't accept outside investments in the wake of Cohen's January settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in which the former SAC Capital Advisors boss agreed not to supervise funds that manage money until 2018.

The SEC had accused Cohen of failing to effectively monitor a former SAC portfolio manager who had been convicted separately of insider trading. SAC as a firm had already agreed the previous year to a record $1.8 billion settlement on securities fraud charges, and in 2014 the firm was renamed Point72, having returned all outside investments.

The average hedge fund's value fell by 1 percent in 2015, while Point72 Asset Management rose almost 16 percent. Point 72 did not provide performance numbers for 2016.



Now, the firm's eye is on Asia's growth, as part of its plan to diversify.



"We're still U.S.-centric so the more we can grow outside the U.S. the better it is," Marc Desmidt, CEO of Point72's international business, told CNBC. "This part of the world is very much untapped in terms of the capital market opportunity. There's markets here still relatively early in their maturity."
Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) has taken a stake in three of the four major airlines  American (AAL), United (UAL), and Delta (DAL), according to SEC filings. But CNBC reports the Warren Buffett-run firm also has taken a stake in the fourth major carrier, Southwest Airlines (LUV). (CNBC)

Reynolds American (RAI) is reportedly seeking a higher buyout price from British American Tobacco, after rejecting BAT's $47 billion takeover offer for the rest of the U.S. cigarette maker it does not already own. (Reuters)

Home Depot (HD) reported earnings and revenue that topped expectations, driven by an increase in both the number of people who made purchases in its stores and the amount that shoppers spent. The retailer raised full-year profit outlook. (CNBC)

Security contractors recently discovered preinstalled software in some Android phones that monitors user activity. Authorities said it's unclear whether the backdoor was for secret ad purposes or a Chinese government effort to collect intelligence. (NY Times)

Facebook (FB) and Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google announced steps to curb fake-news websites from generating revenue through their ad-selling services, after false news stories became an issue during the presidential election. (WSJ)

Adult dating service company Friend Finder Network has reportedly been hacked, with over 412 million accounts, e-mail addresses and passwords from their websites made available on criminal marketplaces. (The Verge)

After steady declines over the last four decades, highway fatalities last year recorded the largest annual percentage increase in 50 years. Experts put much of the blame on in-car use of smartphones and dashboard apps. (NY Times)

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a top Trump advisor, emerged as the favorite to serve as secretary of state in Trump's incoming administration, a senior Trump official said, as the president-elect narrowed down his Cabinet picks. (AP)

Before leaving on his final foreign trip, President Barack Obama at a news conference said Donald Trump's temperament could be a problem, but he can correct those issues. He also suggested Democrats didn't focus enough on grassroots in the election. (CNBC)

President Obama arrived in the Greek capital this morning, beginning a week-long foreign trip, in which he will serve as an unlikely emissary of President-elect Trump. (USA Today)

Pioneering TV anchor Gwen Ifill has died after a battle with cancer. She was 61. Ifill was one of the nation's most prominent black journalists and a longtime PBS newscaster. She previously worked at NBC News.
GE CEO Immelt: Believe in trade deals, but don't need them 12:03 PM ET Tue, 15 Nov 2016 | 02:53

Donald Trump got some of his loudest campaign cheers with a simple pledge to "get tough on trade."



Now the president-elect and his supporters will find out how complex that goal will be.



As with many of his proposed policies, Trump spoke only in broad outlines during the 18 months he rallied his support.

As the new Trump administration begins to take shape, the direction of those policies will be heavily determined by the legacy of decades of global trade treaties, occasional disputes and well-established international law.

But a lot will depend on the people he chooses to represent U.S. trade interests.



One of those key appointments will be the U.S. trade representative, a Cabinet-level job overseeing hundreds of employees and offices around the world. Since its formation in 1962, the position has been tasked with overseeing the global flow of trillions of dollars of U.S. goods and services with the rest of the world.



One early indication of where a Trump administration would steer U.S. trade policy came this summer with the appointment of Dan DiMicco, former CEO of Nucor Corporation, as his trade advisor.



Nucor, the largest U.S. steel producer, is a scrappy survivor of the massive consolidation of the American steel industry that shed millions of jobs in the 1970s and 1980s as the nation's backbone supplier of postwar manufacturing fell into decline.



That industry was born in the geographic intersection of rich deposits of steel's two main ingredients: Pennsylvania coal and Michigan iron ore. Those two states sent Trump to the White House on Election Day.



Today, the fiery forges that once melted raw iron to build U.S. skyscrapers, consumer appliances and family station wagons have largely gone cold.

Under CEO DiMicco, Nucor, now North America's largest recycler, survived the decline of Big Steel by building a business melting down scrap steel produced by others  some 17 million tons last year.

Last month, Trump promised to restore the Midwest as the "manufacturing hub of the world again" and "fight for steel businesses that have been taken away."

"We're going to bring back steel," he told a cheering crowd. "Your steel has been stolen from you."
The Donald Trump transition, already off to slow start, bogged down further Tuesday with the abrupt resignation of former Congressman Mike Rogers, who had been coordinating its national security efforts.

Two sources close to Rogers said he had been the victim of what one called a "Stalinesque purge," from the transition of people close to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who left Friday. It was unclear which other aides close to Christie had also been forced out.

The Trump transition did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rogers confirmed his exit in a statement that said that, despite his departure, he planned to continue to "provide advice and counsel as needed to the incoming Trump administration."

More from NBC News:

Donald Trump names Reince Priebus Chief of Staff, Steve Bannon as Chief Strategist

Vladimir Putin phones Donald Trump to discuss Russia-US relations, terrorism

Indiana factory workers expect Trump to fulfill promise on jobs



He and his top aide had been working for months, preparing the groundwork for transition. Two sources close to the situation described an atmosphere of sniping and backbiting as Trump loyalists position themselves for key jobs.

"It was a privilege to prepare and advise the policy, personnel and agency action teams on all aspects of the national security portfolio during the initial pre-election planning phase. Our work will provide a strong foundation for the new transition team leadership as they move into the post-election phase, which naturally is incorporating the campaign team in New York who drove President-elect Trump to an incredible victory last Tuesday," Rogers said in the statement.
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The U.K. commercial real estate market is on "tenterhooks" with investors pricing in even more uncertainty surrounding the British economy than the firms themselves, according to the chief executive of Land Securities . The continued jitters over the U.K.'s decision to leave the European Union come as the largest listed property company in the U.K. blamed Brexit for sinking to a 95 million ($118 million) loss over the six months to September 30 versus a 708 million profit a year ago. CEO Robert Noel warned on CNBC Tuesday morning that more uncertainty was still ahead. "We simply don't know what the reaction of our continental friends is going to be when we serve our notice to leave them," he cautioned.

Oli Scarff | Getty Images

The slump in Land Securities' first-half profit was largely attributable to a 1.8 percent loss in the value of its assets to 14.4 billion. This figure was mitigated by the firm's decision to divest itself of more than 1 billion of property ahead of the EU referendum. Noel told CNBC it was too early to tell if the valuation drops are set to persist. "Whether values fall much further than they have will be a function of where the rental values go, how much tenants are prepared to pay for space and that, in an uncertain environment, we can't tell at the moment, I'm afraid," he said. Despite slipping into the red, better news was seen at the revenue profit level, where a 4.5 percent uptick to 192.5 million was recorded, as well as in the 9.8 percent lift in the first-half dividend to 17.9 pence per share. And the Land Securities board remains very positive, says Noel. According to the CEO, "We are extremely confidentbecause we have a world-class portfolio, we have low gearing in unsettled times and we have great firepower to take advantage of any opportunities that arise." "It's the marginal dollar that becomes more hesitant when markets are unsettled," he explained.

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Also out Tuesday was a survey from professional services firm Deloitte which showed new building activity in the central London office market screeching to a sharp slowdown in the six months to the end of the third quarter. The data revealed a 42 percent tumble in new activity with 2.8 million square feet of new office developments across 40 schemes being added to the pipeline to the end of September versus 4.8 million square feet across 51 projects added in the previous six-month period. The picture on the letting side points to the resilience of new-builds,with nearly 50 percent of recently completed space already let. However,turning to existing space, the picture is far weaker with volume leased in the first nine months of 2016 a significant 37 percent down on last year. The poor leasing figures combined with a jump in space coming online has pushed central London office vacancy rates from near record lows of around 3.9 percent at the end of 2015 to 4.8 percent by the end of September. "Subdued" appetite from financial services firms has driven the spike, says Deloitte. While prime rents have held up to date, should the softness continue, they could be the next shoe to drop. Land Securities' Noel advised watching timetables, observing, "It'll be very interesting to see how many development intentions get moved out." Chris Lewis, head of occupier advisory at Deloitte Real Estate told CNBC via email that it was time for developers to proactively address a changing market. According to Lewis, "There is a very real challenge looming for developers caused by a changing occupier demand pattern resulting from challenges faced not only through political and economic change but also operational disruption relating to aspects like millennials, technology and automation." "The best way for this to be addressed in building terms is to create the most flexible space possible allowing for choice around specification, layout and quantum," he recommended.
The recent collapse in bond prices following Donald Trump's election is signaling the end of the three-decade-old bull market in fixed income, closely followed value investor Bill Miller told CNBC on Tuesday.

The money leaving bonds should find its way into the stock market, the founder, chairman and CIO of Baltimore-based LMM added.

"The over-investment in bonds is going to switch somewhere," he said. "I think a large part is going to go to equities like it did in 2013."

"Stocks are already discounting probably 3 to 4 percent [on the] 10-year [bond yield]," Miller said. "So you have clear sailing for another 75 basis points easy." He noted that "it depends on the growth rate."

But don't expect the stock market bull run that began in March 2009 to last forever, Miller warned. "It will last, as secular bull markets, do until it becomes too expensive, relative to the alternatives."

"If rates move up, as I would expect, over next couple of years to ... 3 or 4 percent on the 10-year [Treasury bond], assuming good economic growth, and if the stock market moves up ... from 18 to 22 [or] 23 times [earnings], it'll be pretty much over," he said.

Bull markets "die of valuation excesses," he stressed.

More from Investor Toolkit:

Battered Valeant stock worth double, Bill Miller says

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Need money tips? Avoid friends, family



In the short term, however, Miller said the surge in stocks in the wake of Trump's unexpected victory was not so surprising and was "sensible."



Trump is not detail orientated, Miller said, so America should get an economic plan driven by House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Miller's LMM, a partially owned subsidiary of Legg Mason, has $2 billion in assets under management. He's also portfolio manager of the top-performing Legg Mason Opportunity Trust fund .


My father has a basic income. As a retired United States Air Force officer, he has received a paycheck from the US government every month for about 30 years now, since he was 42 years old. His government pension is a monthly starting point above the poverty line  an income floor  always guaranteeing that no matter what, he won't starve or end up on the streets. My grandfather had a basic income. His father built up a small fortune and put that fortune into a trust. Upon my great grandfather's death, my grandfather received the income from the interest of that fund on a monthly basis for the rest of his life. That money was his guaranteed basic income floor. No matter what, regardless of anything that happened in the world around him, he never knew poverty. I too now have a basic income. Mine is crowdfunded. Leveraging the Kickstarter-like platform called Patreon, I've grown a large enough base of patrons through my writing and talking about basic income to perpetually start each month with $1,000 in total monthly pledges. I chose $1,000 as my monthly goal because the poverty line in the US is currently defined as $11,880 per year and I wished to create a floor directly above it. More from Vox:

White people: what is your plan for the Trump presidency?

A letter to America from Leslie Knope, regarding Donald Trump

I'm a disabled American. Trump's policies will be a disaster for people like me. Since attaining my basic income, I've learned some things from this new vantage point. The very first thing I learned is possibly the most important of all, and one I guarantee you dear reader won't fully appreciate, until or unless you feel it yourself: basic income is about basic security.

What is basic income? Basic income is money an individual receives regardless of whether he or she works or not, sufficient to meet our most basic human needs for necessities like food, water, shelter, and clothing. It's an amount sufficient to keep us above the poverty line, not living lavishly, but basically. And most importantly, it's a stream of income independent of all other income that functions as a baseline. It enables, and never in any way prevents, additional income. Take my father as an example: Did he stop working the day he retired from the Air Force? No--he went on to pursue multiple jobs before finally retiring, and even then, he started his own small business for the fun of it in his late 60s. Basic income for all people is also a government policy idea being increasingly discussed worldwide, where it's primarily seen as the way to make unemployment brought on by self-driving vehicles and machine learning algorithms work for us all instead of the few. By simply cutting every citizen a monthly check and getting rid of most of the welfare state and tax code complexities we use today, everyone could be better off tomorrow, rich and poor alike. If machines are laboring in our stead, and aren't buying any of the fruits of that labor, should we not receive the paychecks that aren't going to them or us, so as to buy those fruits? Because these technological advances are driving so much of the discussion today, some think basic income is a new idea. It's not, and goes back as far in the US as founding father Thomas Paine. And some fortunate people have received it for decades or even centuries, for example recipients of Social Security, and winners of genetic and state lotteries. Anyone who receives an income regardless of any work they do or other income they receive, sufficient to prevent poverty, has a basic income.

Why I decided to crowdfund my own basic income Three years ago, I read a fascinating discussion on the front page of Reddit about how quickly technology was advancing and how most people just have no idea how fast. Looking for solutions, I came upon basic income, and after looking deeper and deeper into it, I concluded it was the single most important change we needed to make as a civilization, in countries all over the world, for countless more reasons than just a solution to technological unemployment. At the time I was working as a self-employed freelancer. Part of my interest in basic income was the recognition that all other work in my life was now an impediment to the work that truly needed to be done. As long as I was spending time managing websites or social media accounts, or writing about anything else for anyone else, that was a hindrance to far more important work  the work of advancing the adoption of basic income. I couldn't just stop earning money though, because rent, and that's when I came upon Patreon. It hit me that there was the potential through my blogging to crowdfund a basic income that would not only enable me to focus 100% on helping make it a reality for everyone, but also to learn for myself what it was like to have a basic income. It took all of 2014 to go from $0 per month in pledges to $1,000 per month, but I did it, and walking in these shoes is already teaching me there's far more to basic income than I thought.

Basic income is a safety net when terrible things happen A couple months ago, I was driving home and without any warning, a large traffic barricade blew across the street in front of my car, followed by a garbage bin. Then my car started rocking. Then I heard a loud thump on the roof of my car  some debris had apparently fallen on it. As quick as it all started, it was over, and I completed my drive home. To my surprise upon closing my car door and hearing glass fall to the concrete as a result, I found a shattered rear window and even cracks in my windshield that I hadn't noticed in all the rain. When I listened to a news broadcast later that day, I found out that a tornado had passed right behind me. A tornado touching down in the French Quarter of New Orleans is about as likely as an elephant stampede on Bourbon Street. But it happened, and my shattered window was an entirely unexpected and unbudgeted expense. I was able to handle it though, because my basic needs were already covered. I wasn't faced with a decision of a mortgage payment or car repairs. I was faced with a decision of discretionary spending or car repairs, and that kind of decision is something entirely different, with a whole lot less stress involved. Not too long after that tornado, so much rain fell in Louisiana that in some places it was measured as the kind of event that happens only every thousand years. Over 100,000 homes were damaged and 13 people lost their lives. Such flooding was so unexpected that many people didn't have flood insurance. Tens of thousands of people were forced into spending money they didn't have, and just as many were unable to go to work. Federal assistance was given, but such assistance requires many a hoop to be jumped through, effectively excluding many. Nor does it cover everything. It's also only paid when all is said and done. When the flooding happened, though I was not affected, I couldn't help but wish every single person who was affected by it had a basic income too. They could have all more easily paid for emergency shelter and food. For those no longer able to work, they would still have had income, and for businesses left with far fewer customers, they could have had more customers, because people would still have had money to spend. Through a vantage point of freak tornadoes and crazy flooding, universal basic income can also be seen as universal insurance. It's always there. There's no one saying you will be reimbursed, maybe, if you meet all the requirements. It's unconditional, and that lack of conditions makes it the only kind of insurance that covers everyone, universally, all the time. It's therefore also universal peace of mind, because that's what insurance to a large degree is. It's so that we can focus on all the important things in life that can go right, instead of all the terrible things in life that can go wrong.

Basic income transforms your relationship with work Perhaps the most transformative effect of basic income I've personally experienced is the power it gives in any negotiation. For many people, this will be experienced as the power to refuse to work for insufficiently low wages (potentially nullifying the need for minimum wage laws), or unacceptable terms of any kind, be it work conditions, hours, benefits, etc. For freelancers like me, it means asking for what I'm worth, and also being able to choose to work for free on anything I consider important enough. When I didn't have a basic income, I'd accept a writing assignment for $50 even if it took me an entire week to research and write, because $50 is better than $0. If someone wanted to publish something I'd already written, I'd worry about asking for any compensation in case asking meant not only not getting paid but not getting republished. I don't think I'm alone in these ways either. Now that I have a basic income, I know my work has value. I know my time has value. I know Ihave value. I'm never again going to spend a week writing an article for $50 that's going to be owned by someone else, but I will and have done it for $1,000. I'm not going to just allow some publishing company to profit off of something I've previously written without at least asking for a fee. If they say no, that's okay, and we can go from there. But I'm not afraid to ask. Too many people are afraid to stick up for themselves due to economic insecurity. This even affects relationships. How many people aren't confronting their partners about something because of the fear of the economic costs of that confrontation not going well? How many people are in entire relationships only because they effectively can't afford the cost of escaping them? I now think the conditionality of income is a root cause of a lot of society's problems.

What people miss when they ask about the downsides of basic income I get asked often about the potential downsides of basic income. One of the first questions people seem to have is if all prices will rise as a result, nullifying the entire point of it all. This is actually the first question I confronted in-depth. The answer is basically that it depends on a lot of variables, but for the most part not in any way to the degree people fear. Another frequent question is if everyone will stop working once they have that ability. That isanother question I've studied in-depth, where the answer is basically that very few people want to earn and spend only $1,000 per month, and that basic income is not giving people money to do nothing, but enabling people with money to do anything. Immigration is another big concern for people, usually because they're assuming UBI will be given to everyone instead of only citizens, and therefore the potential for UBI to actually incentivize legal immigration is missed. There are many other questions, and most all have likely answers for those willing to spend the necessary time to study the available evidence, but for me personally, these questions are translated in my brain at this point to sound more like, "What are the potential downsides of abolishing slavery? Will cotton get more expensive? Will former slaves just kind of sit around reading and dancing all day? Will the tired, the poor, and the huddled masses yearning to breathe free decide to walk in greater numbers through our lamp-lit golden door?" This is what I hear as someone who already has a basic income, so it's not to say such questions aren't valid, it's that the very fact we're asking them is itself something to question. Why should only the lucky few have any choice but to do paid work? What is our infatuation with work, and why is it only paid work that seems to matter so much? What about unpaid work? Why is it considered valuable work worthy of pay when two people are paying each other to watch each other's kids, but not valuable work when they're each raising their own kids? If one concern is that people given basic incomes will work less, and another concern is that there will be half as many jobs due to automation, then everyone working half as much is exactly what we want so as to better share the available employment, isn't it? Plus productivity tends to increase as hours worked decrease, so we'd accomplish more with less as well. Perhaps most curious of all is the question of consumption without production  this fear that people given basic incomes will do nothing but consume. Why is making bread considered valuable but eating bread considered frivolous? Bertrand Russell once questioned why getting money is good and spending money is bad. He wrote, "Seeing that they are two sides of one transaction, this is absurd; one might as well maintain that keys are good, but keyholes are bad." So if people decide to use their basic incomes to just buy what's being produced (by lots of machines mind you) and we have a problem with that, what's the point of producing it all? There is really but one main thing to consider about the potential downsides of basic income, and we should consider it well. Basic income means more choice, and therefore the ability to take risks and make decisions we might judge to be mistakes made by ourselves or others. Of all potential drawbacks of basic income, I think this one helps further define what basic income is. It's freedom. Freedom is the ability to make our own choices, and therefore our own mistakes. Who better to make choices, and to learn from them, than ourselves? Thomas Edison said he never once failed in making the light bulb. He merely learned thousands of ways of not making one. I think we should consider the possibility that what we currently see as preventing others from making mistakes for "their own good," through the paternalistic application of strict conditions, is actively preventing people from learning how to succeed. It robs people of agency, and it inhibits the pursuit of happiness upon which our country was founded. With basic income, people may make new choices that you personally would not make. You may also make new choices others would not make. Some may decide to sell less of their labor. Some may decide to watch more Netflix. Some may eat more, or smoke more, or forget to pay an important bill, or neglect to plan for retirement, but all of these are choices. Should the government prevent us from making these choices through withholding of basic income? Or are these choices ours to make for ourselves as free men and women?
Larry Kosilla was on his way to the big leagues of finance. After graduating college, he landed a job on Wall Street, trading natural gas commodities at the New York Mercantile Exchange. Money was going to buy him happiness, and, more specifically, expensive cars. But soon, he realized that he didn't actually want to buy happiness. He wanted to do what he loved, which was to be around expensive cars most of the time. So Kosilla decided to forego the hefty paycheck and instead pursue what he was passionate about: washing and caring for cars.

Larry Kosilla, founder of Ammo NYC. Qin Chen/CNBC

"You can't fake enthusiasm," Kosilla tells CNBC. "There's not enough money in the world to fake enthusiasm." He created a website Ammo NYC to sell detailing products online in 2011. From there, he started a business caring for expensive cars.

"Luckily, my girlfriend (now my wife) and my family were pretty cool with that," he says. At first, it was difficult to secure clients. But, after learning more about Kosilla's expertise and passion, a neighbor's father took a chance on him. His excitement helped him succeed. "I just, I really loved cars," he says. "I think everybody sees whether you're enthusiastic or not."

There's not enough money in the world to fake enthusiasm. Larry Kosilla founder, Ammo NYC

He used social media to his advantage as well. With every new client's car, the entrepreneur took photos of his work and posted tutorials online. Now Ammo NYC is a full-fledged business. Each week, Kosilla cares for cars worth millions of dollars, often for CEOs and successful business leaders. For Kosilla, there's no looking back.

"If you're happy and you become the best at whatever you do you, and that can be a garbage man a cabinet maker or a banker or whatever," he says, "if you're passionate, I think people around your customers or clients your friends whoever will see that." Looking back on the Wall Street career that he gave up, the entrepreneur says, "I've been doing this for, gosh, fifteen, sixteen years now and I don't regret it at all."
A health worker fumigates densely populated areas to prevent the spread of Aedes aegypti and possible spread of the Zika virus in Lhokseumawe, Aceh province, Indonesia, on Sept. 16, 2016.

The Zika virus is able to infect people even after sitting out on a counter for several hours, according to new research.

But the good news is that in that state, it is also easy to kill with common household chemicals.

The study, published Tuesday, found that the Zika virus  which can produce severe brain defects in fetuses and young children and has been linked to other harmful conditions  can be highly contagious even after hours of living outside a host.

The research was conducted by scientists from RMC Pharmaceutical Solutions, a consultancy for drug developers, and Microbac Laboratories, a provider of laboratory analytics. The team presented its findings at the annual meeting of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists in Denver, Colorado.



The study also looked at how effective some common laboratory cleaning chemicals were at killing the virus, including isopropyl alcohol, diluted bleach, quaternary ammonium/alcohol, peracetic acid and pH 4 or pH 10 solutions.

More from Modern Medicine:

Chinese first to test CRISPR gene editing in humans

New cancer drugs may damage the heart

The $5.8 billion hidden cost of the flu on the US economy



The most effective solutions in killing the virus on surfaces were isopropyl alcohol and quaternary ammonium/alcohol. The pH 4 or pH 10 solutions were the least effective, while diluted bleach and peracetic acid were found to be effective virus killers, except when the Zika sample was suspended in blood.

"Zika can survive on hard, nonporous surfaces for as long as eight hours, possibly longer when the environment contains blood, which is more likely to occur in the real world," S. Steve Zhou, one of the study's authors and director of virology and molecular biology for MicroBioTest Laboratories (a Microbac unit), said. "The good news is that we found that disinfectants such as isopropyl alcohol and quaternary ammonium/alcohol are generally effective in killing the virus in this type of environment and can do so in a little as 15 seconds."

Zika is usually spread through disease-carrying mosquitoes, as well as from person to person. Getting the disease from the environment is rare, though the research notes there has been at least one case of a person contracting the virus through laboratory exposure.
Halfmoon>>The dream of a hike-bike path between Waterford and Whitehall took another step forward Wednesday with a public information session on trail sections in the towns of Waterford and Halfmoon.

The idea of a Champlain Canalway Trail that uses the historic canals towpath as recreational trail has been around since 2007. After collaboratively planning the trails general route, funding the various sections designs, each municipality must search for funds to complete the section within its borders.

On Wednesday, two planners from CHA, a design and construction firm presented their design plans for the final trail sections in the towns of Waterford and Halfmoon.

The informational meeting was held in the Halfmoon Town Hall and drew about 20 recreational enthusiasts. Many had ties to groups working to plan the 62-mile-long trail.

After discussing the project with interested parties on an individual basis using maps and cross section renderings of the two trail sections, project manager Christina Minkler and project engineer Rene Lipatas gave a formal slide-assisted presentation on the two designs.

This has been a very involved project from the start to get the buy-in from stakeholders for our design, Minkler said.

The one-mile-long, 10-foot-wide, Waterford section will take bicyclists and hikers from South Higgins Road northward toward Bells Lane on an existing maintenance road built for the towns capped landfill. Using Bells Lane, the trail will meet Schoolhouse Lane and then connect to a finished section at the Town of Halfmoon border.

Lipatas said the sections design review dismissed building an off-road trail due to the areas difficult terrain, the presence of the landfill, and the existence of the little-used roads.

The Waterford trail sections design is considered conceptual, which means it needs only permits to make it final. Cost to fully design and build the Waterford section is estimated to be $500,000-$750,000.

The design of the Halfmoon section is in the preliminary stage and still under review. Since the town has completed sections of the trail from its border with Waterford to Upper Newtown Road, Lipatas discussed the design options from that point north to the City of Mechanicville.

After walking several of the proposed routes, Lipatas said the recommended trail route would take hikers and bikers along the canals towpath northward to the southeast corner of the Saratoga County Sewer Authority plant.

From there, Lipatas recommends the trail stay on the south side of the plant follow its footprint, cross a set of railroad tracks and intersect with Hudson River Road (Route 4 & 32).

From that point the trail would follow the road north into the southern section of the City of Mechanicville where it would eventually connect with South Broadway.

Lipatas said following the canal towpath north from where it meets the sewer plant to Route 146 would be cost prohibitive because of numerous wetlands.

The estimated cost to complete the proposed Halfmoon section is $2.5 million.

Neither Minkler nor Lipatas would give a timetable for either sections completion as that responsibility falls on the two towns and their ability to get grant funding.

Several parts of the upriver portion of the trail have been completed and are available for use, though the sections are not all off-road. A seven mile section from the Village of Victory to the Village of Fort Edward has been dedicated and a section from the Schuyler House to Hudson Crossing Park is complete. The latter is a legitimate off-road trail.

CHAs design work for the two sections was paid with a $225,000 Federal Highway Administration grant. The grant application was made by Janet Kennedy, executive director of Lakes to Locks Passage. Upon being awarded the grant Lakes to Locks asked the states Hudson River Valley Greenway to administer it.

Kennedy said her organization comes up with ideas like using an obsolete yet historic canal for recreational purposes, gathers stakeholder support for the projects and then seeks funding.

We take visions and dreams and turn them into reality, she said. We write the plans. We have the ability to find funding. We help municipalities get grants. Funding can be found for this trail. It can be pieced together.
Photo credit: Galaxy Communications website

The New York State Broadcasters Association, Inc. (NYSBA) announced it has elected Ed Levine, president and CEO of Galaxy Communications in Syracuse/Utica, as its board chairman for the coming year.

He replaces Bob Krummenacker, VP and general manager of Quincy Broadcastings WBNG-TV in Binghamton, who has served as the associations board chairman for the last year.

I look forward to working with our incoming Chairman, Ed Levine, CEO of Galaxy Communications, who is one of the most successful and respected radio executives in the country, David Donovan, president and executive director of NYSBA, said in a news release.

The NYSBA also announced other board officers and new board members.

New members joining the board of directors for 2017, include these two Central New York broadcasting executives: Karen Carey, market president/chief revenue officer at WFRG/WIBX/WLZW/WODZ in Marcy; and Amy Collins, general manager of WSTM-TV/WSTQ-TV/WTVH-TV in Syracuse.

Donovan said the NYSBA is an association that seeks to help ensure that that radio and television stations in New York meet the challenges of todays hyper competitive marketplace.

Contact The Business Journal News Network at news@cnybj.com
A closer look at the obverse and reverse of the 1920-S Saint-Gaudens $20 double eagle graded PCGS MS-65 with CAC sticker that sold for $517,000 on Nov. 1.

One of the finest known 1920-S Saint-Gaudens $20 double eagles, graded PCGS MS-65 with CAC sticker, sold for $517,000 at a Nov. 1 auction.

Heritages Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 U.S. Coins Signature Auction in New York brought more than $12.4 million, and leading the sale was the Cherny Collection of Mint State Saint-Gaudens gold $20 double eagles.

Except for the 1927-D double eagle and the noncollectible 1933 coin, the set was complete and was especially noteworthy for its exceptional middle- and late-date issues chosen with aesthetic appeal in mind.

Here is one of three San Francisco Mint $20 coins we're analyzing in this week's Market Analysis that showcase beauty, quality and rarity, and help confirm why the series has remained popular for decades with the wealthiest collectors.

The Lot:

1920-S Saint-Gaudens $20 double eagle, PCGS Mint State 65, CAC sticker

The Price:

$517,000

The Story:

The top lot in the Cherny Collection was this 1920-S Saint-Gaudens double eagle graded Mint State 65 by Professional Coin Grading Service with a green Certified Acceptance Corp. sticker that sold for $517,000. Excluding the noncollectible 1933 double eagle, this date is one of the key rarities in the series in high Mint State grades  along with the 1921 and 1927-D coins.

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Most of the 558,000 examples struck of the 1920-S coin went into Mint storage and were then melted, with most never released into circulation. Few seem to have been sent to Europe, and today perhaps 200 pieces exist. The issues rarity became known in the 1940s and this example was the plate coin for several key reference books in the series.

Saint-Gaudens double eagle: The early 20th century was a golden age of U.S. coin designs, and perhaps the most memorable of these classic designs is the contribution made by the famed sculptor-engraver Augustus Saint-Gaudens. How much are Saint-Gaudens double eagles worth?

The catalog for the 2001 Dallas Bank Collection auction by Sothebys and Stacks described the example in the Cherny auction as The Finest Known, without question. A truly majestic example. Gold expert David Akers said the same of it in 1988, considering it finer than the Louis Eliasberg Sr. example, which today is graded MS-66.

Keep Reading About the Lots of the Cherny Collection:

How much one of the toughest Saint-Gaudens double eagles to find sold for: Each of the five double eagles struck between 1929 and 1932 is expensive and among these the 1930-S coin is considered the most challenging to acquire.

Elite status of 1927-S Saint-Gaudens double eagle leads MS-65 example to healthy price: Like the 1920-S coin, the 1927-S double eagle has not been found in any substantial quantities in European hoards.
A closer look at the death of Kyler Buxton

Two-month-old Kyler Buxton died July 30 from injuries consistent with shaken baby syndrome. Medical providers from MU Women's and Children's Hospital determined the injuries were the result of multiple instances of abuse.

The probable cause statement from the Missouri State Highway Patrol also describes text messages between the childs mother, Mary Buxton, and the childs Boone County pediatrician. On July 6, Mary Buxton texted Laura Weidt a photograph of a bruise on Kylers back.

Highway patrol Corporal Marcus Reynolds wrote in the statement that in her reply, Weidt texted that people lose their temper and that something had to have happened to cause the childs injuries.

Weidt told the Missourian that these texts werent sent on July 6 or about Kylers bruise. She said those texts were sent to Mary Buxton 22 days later, after Kyler was admitted to the intensive care unit.

Reynolds also wrote in the statement that Weidt advised Mary Buxton against going to the emergency room for Kyler's bruise because doing so would trigger an investigation.

Weidt did tell the childs mother to not go to the emergency room, but she said it was because she wanted to assess Kyler herself. She examined Kylers ribs, spine, kidneys and liver, looking for internal injuries that could be a result of physical abuse. With a radiologist in the room with her, she did an ultrasound of his stomach and up his back.

I didnt think he was being abused, but any time you see a bruise on a baby it crosses your mind, she said.

Other than the bruise, nothing else about Kylers condition that day concerned her, the radiologist or Mary Buxton, who is an EMT. Together, they agreed the injury was accidental and that there was nothing suspicious to report.

"Had I known what was going to happen on the 28th, I probably wouldve reported," Weidt said.

The physician said it was possible the bruise was a result of something else from Kylers medical history.

She saw the child multiple times within his first few weeks of life. He was colicky, had trouble gaining weight and wasnt tolerating breast milk or various formulas. She taught his mother several different positions that were supposed to be better for burping him.

Since the bruise appeared on Kylers back, Weidt wondered if it was from being patted on the back too hard. In the highway patrols statement, the bruise is described as extensive. But Weidt said the bruise was not huge  about an inch-and-a-half by two-and-a-half inches.

During one of his newborn screenings, Kyler also tested positive for a metabolic disorder called Pompe disease, which causes rapid muscle weakness and respiratory problems overtime.

The highway patrols statement never mentions Pompe disease or Kylers various health issues. In leaving these factors out, Weidt said the statement provides an inaccurate picture of Kyler and the events leading up to his death.

The highway patrol thought it was possible she didnt report when she should have, Weidt said. "Lord knows I would report if I saw something."

Highway Patrol Public Information Officer Shawn Griggs said he could not comment on the statement or the investigation, which remains open.

We take every investigation extremely seriously, particularly ones that involve a child, Griggs said.

False statements of probable cause are punishable by law. Weidt said she and her attorney, Richard Hicks, decided that as long as her practice doesnt suffer from the highway patrols statement, she won't take legal action.

It hurt my reputation, but I dont want to be the victim here, Weidt said. The victim is poor little Kyler.

Supervising editor is Katherine Reed
The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form
Foundation adds another $25M to Kinder Institute

The Kinder Foundation is giving the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy another $25 million, bringing its total to $60 million.
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What would you do if you were the interim leader of a Party with one MP in the Commons (with whom you werent on speaking terms), but none the less bagged a meeting with a controversial American president-elect despite diplomatic protocol?

Ill tell you what I would do. I would brief that I was surprised to get a meeting at all, thus bolstering an impression of how highly I must be regarded by the president-elect. I wouldnt attack the Prime Minister directly if she were a member of a different party  one doesnt criticise ones Government when abroad  but I would let it be known that, while the president-elect has every confidence in the Prime Minister, he has less in some of the people around her. That would send the Downing Street team scurrying to their social media accounts to check who has tweeted the most disobliging remarks about the president-elect. Has his team read the tweets? Does the president-elect bear grudges? PSYOPS!

Next, I would offer myself as an intermediary between the president-elect and the Government  in the national interest. When the Government rejected the offer  unsurprisingly, since its members are perfectly capable of building a relationship with him themselves, since he apparently has a soft spot for Britain, and there is therefore no need to send for a member of a different party  I could cast myself as Love Locked Out. How unreasonable of the Prime Minister to spurn me! Why must she be so politically partisan, when I am only trying to do my patriotic duty? And finally, I would seek to find a national newspaper that was prepared to project my campaign and keep it running  letting it be known, for example, that the president-elects team will seek my advice before the Prime Ministers.

Cunning old Nigel Farage has followed the textbook to the letter, and today triumphantly succeeds in keeping the story going for the third day running  thanks to the help of the Daily Telegraph, which is giving his campaign a push. You have to take your hat off to him  if, as Enoch Powell once said of a trade union leader, one is wearing a hat at the time. The conventional view is that Farages alliance with Donald Trump will fizzle out. May will gradually build her own relationship with the president-elect. And Trump indeed seems to be well-disposed to Britain and its Government. If he phoned Irelands Prime Minister before our own, that probably means nothing other than that convention means little to him, or that his transition team isnt up and running on all cylinders, or both.

I am not quite sure that the conventional view is right. Sure, May is not going to appoint the leader of another party to an ambassadorial role (and nor should she). And her Government will in time establish a working relationship with the Trump administration: note that the first foreign call of Mike Pence, the Vice-President elect, was to Boris Johnson. But Trump is unlikely to be a conventional president. His appointments to date suggest that he values loyalty highly, and Farage came out for him early. Above all, he is clearly fascinated by Brexit: Team Trump members confirm that the president-elect saw it as model for his own victory. This would all be good news for UKIP, were it not that Farages co-visitors, and perhaps the man himself, are already moving on from it.
Cllr Matt Hartley is Leader of the Conservative Group in the Royal Borough of Greenwich.

Last Thursday, Greenwich Conservatives gained a council seat from Labour in the borough for the first time in ten and a half years. Our result in the Eltham North by-election has been a much-needed tonic after a difficult few years of elections for the Conservatives right across London.

The even better news is that the nature of this victory  the first London Conservative by-election gain from Labour since 2008  should give us hope for further successes across the capital in 2018.

Our candidate, Charlie Davis, ran a hugely energetic campaign for the seat in Eltham North ward  increasing our share of the vote by ten per cent and edging out the Labour candidate by 38 votes at a tense count at Woolwich Town Hall. At 22, Cllr Davis becomes the youngest sitting councillor in the Royal Borough, and one of the youngest candidates ever elected in Greenwich.

Charlies victory also follows the success of our friends in Bexley, who won St Michaels Ward back in the summer. Both results contain reasons for optimism. UKIP support has plunged from its 2014 high water mark and both the Conservatives and the Lib Dems are winning over moderate Labour voters who are quite simply appalled by Jeremy Corbyn.

In Greenwich, our by-election campaign itself was instructive. We had all the ingredients of any successful election  a superb local candidate, a strong track record of action thanks to the wards tireless sitting councillor, Spencer Drury, and a brilliant campaign organised by our agent Roger Tester.

Most importantly, we led with a positive, optimistic message for the voters of what Charlie and the Conservatives could achieve for the ward  and the voters responded accordingly.

It was a campaign based on great teamwork, with more than 50 activists from right across Greenwich joined by our friends from Bexley, Bromley, Tower Hamlets, Lewisham and Southwark. Many made multiple visits, often to return previous cross-border support in their own contests. Syed Kamall MEP and Gareth Bacon AM both made high-profile visits, and the support we received from Lizzie Lumleys team at CCHQ proved invaluable.

By contrast, our main opponents were the deeply divided local Labour Party. On the evening of polling day itself, instead of knocking on doors in Eltham North, more than 30 members of the Greenwich branch of Momentum were instead indoors holding a meeting to discuss deselections. You could not make it up.

Our task is now to ensure that Charlies victory marks the turn of the tide in a borough that desperately needs more Conservative councillors at the Town Hall  to oppose a divided ruling Labour Party that has taken residents votes for granted for far too long.

In Greenwich, our campaign for the next local elections began immediately after the General Election last summer, when we established Team Greenwich 2018  our joint campaign team bringing together the Council Group and the association to win seats in 2018. We selected our first 12 candidates back in the summer  and campaigning is well under way.

As London Conservatives we now have just 18 months left to make these by-election victories the turn of the tide, not just in Greenwich and Bexley, but in boroughs across our great city. After last Thursday, we should all take to this task with a spring in our step.
Chris Grayling is MP for Epsom and Ewell, and Secretary of State for Transport.

Its never easy taking the biggest decisions in politics. For decades, governments have found it easier to kick them into the long grass, or avoid them altogether. But unless we are bold, we will never give ourselves the foundations we need for the future.

In the post-Brexit world, and in a country that is now determined to build new trading ties around the world and a more entrepreneurial economy at home, ducking the big decisions is simply not an option. And we arent.

In the four months since Theresa May took over as Prime Minister we have taken a whole series of key decisions that will shape that future for us.

Our energy needs will be shaped by the confirmation that Hinckley Point will go ahead, and that fracking will now be permitted in the UK. We have watched with envy as US energy prices have fallen and its dependence on imported oil from troubled parts of the world has diminished. Britain has reserves of shale gas too. It would be crazy not to exploit them.

Our decision to recommend the expansion of Heathrow isnt one we have taken on a wing and a prayer. Its vital to our future. We considered all the options and all the issues very carefully. But the trading links that Liam Fox is building will need the best possible connectivity to London, and Heathrow is by far the best placed to meet those future needs.

Many people will say they have heard it all before  and in the case of Heathrow, they have. But this is a government that intends to deliver.

This morning we have announced a similar big step for our railways  with the detail of the preferred route that HS2 will take to the North. Its a decision that create better, faster links between the great cities of the Midlands and the North. Its proof that we are building the 21st Century transport networks our country needs and delivering an economy that works for everyone.

The Northern sections of HS2  from Crewe to Manchester, and from the West Midlands to Leeds  will bring the North and the Midlands together, slash journey times and, perhaps most importantly, give rail passengers on the existing network thousands of extra seats every day. They represent the greatest upgrade to our railway in living memory. Some Conservatives will remain opposed to the project. But those who oppose the route are also those who sit frustrated in traffic jams on our motorways, and wish we could get more of those heavy lorries off the roads.

Well, we can. But we need more capacity on our railways to do it. HS2 is a project that will dramatically expand the capacity of our rail network. At Euston alone it will double the amount of seats for commuters in the morning rush hour, as the express trains move off the current line, leaving more space for freight and rush hour trains. And if we are going to build something new, why wouldnt we build something thats state of the art? Thats the kind of country we need to be for the future.

But where are Labour in all of this? There was a time when they would have shared our view of a dynamic Britain that works for everyone in it. A Britain that unleashes the potential of our people and our enterprises.

But as we have taken the bold decisions, so they have retreated further and further into the past. When we announced the new runway plan for Heathrow, Iain Dale tried and tried to get my counterpart, Andy McDonald, to say whether he supported it or would have chosen Gatwick instead. He couldnt even answer the question.

Jeremy Corbyns Labour have lined up to oppose fracking and say they would ban it  depriving this country of its most plentiful potential source of cheap energy from the cleanest of the fossil fuels.

And as we spend billions on modernising our railways, with new, state of the art trains in the South and the North, more capacity and new ways of working to improve services  a process of modernisation that is affecting most industries  so Labour are lining up with the unions to take this country back a generation and not forward.

Tony Blairs government would have condemned the militant union leaders who are trying to impose their will on the country at the expense of the passengers they simply dont care about. Jeremy Corbyns front bench join them on the protest lines.

And when Nissan announced not only that they were keeping the current models in Sunderland, but would be expanding their plant still further, Labour could barely even bring themselves to welcome the news.

Never has the difference between the two sides been more stark. A Government that is not afraid to take the big decisions, up against an Opposition that wishes we could turn the clock back to their good old days of socialism, state ownership and strikes.

We have won all those arguments before. We did it the last time we had a woman as Prime Minister.

And now we will have to do the same thing all over again  and demonstrate why we have the right path for our futures, and they do not.
Christopher Howarth is a senior researcher working in the House of Commons. Prior to this he worked for Open Europe, as a Conservative Foreign Affairs Adviser and senior researcher to a Shadow Europe Minister.

With EU leaders holding a crisis dinner party and photo opportunity and much of the liberal media in a collective meltdown not seen since a newly elected Obama was mobbed by massed crowds of hysterical Europeans and awarded the Nobel peace prize, it might seem an odd time to address whether President Trump could help Brexit. Here goes:

A US President positive about Brexit must be a good thing

Firstly, it is remarkable for us to be in a position to have a US President who will be an active supporter of Brexit. Clinton was actively opposed to Brexit and would no doubt have carried that view into office. A US President supportive of one of the UKs biggest decisions in decades must be a positive given the process on which we are now embarked.

Secondly, there is a difference between being pro-Brexit and wishing the EU to fail. The UK Government has an interest in the EU succeeding, not least because we wish to come to an agreement with it, and so does the US. The US also has an interest in Brexits success as US companies trade with both the EU and UK. However, for now President Trump seems ambivalent to the EUs fate, and is happy to meet with those who wish to see the EU disintegrate. This may allow the UK to position itself as a helpful intermediary between the EU and the US administration.

EU leaders should now be acutely aware they are on thin ice when considering inflicting a punishment on the UK

One would be forgiven for thinking the existential crisis EU leaders were discussing over dinner was not that of EU/US relations but their own political fate and that of the Europhile liberal establishment. Merkels immediate reaction to Trump was both condescending and hostile. This can only be understood as an emotional reaction to growing German unease at her own mismanagement of the migration crisis and the ever growing bill for the Eurozone crisis written by her and picked up by the German voter. She was effectively saying: Dont vote for the AfD they are like Trump or even Putin.

With domestic opposition growing, and the threat to the political establishment from Trumpian forces clearly visible from across the Atlantic, EU politicians will now be even warier of allowing their own electors to pay a price for Brexit. Who would want to go into a German or French election promising economic pain to their electors in order to punish the UK for leaving a club many of their own electors are in already in the process of falling out of love with? Perhaps it is better to move on and draw a line under Brexit. With Trump the chances of a swift amicable split may have increased.

The EU should and will pay for its own share of NATO defence, and will need the UK

The post-World War Two settlement was very advantageous for the demilitarised European states. They could bank an unearned peace dividend, and rebuild their industry, while the US and UK paid for the Cold War. To some extent this has continued ever since. The US now spends closer to four per cent of its GDP on defence while Germany and Italy spend closer to one per cent, some EU states are not in NATO or are even neutral. For an organisation that relies on mutual deterrence this is unfair. It cannot go on and President Trump is right to say so.

This opens up a possibility for the UK. Despite David Camerons damaging defence cuts, the UK still meets the two per cent target and along with France is the only serious EU military power.

While most EU foreign ministers attacked Trump for US isolationism their solution  the EU isolationism of an unusable EU army  is a nonstarter. The EU does not have the political will or capabilities to stand up to Russia without the US and without the UK the outlook is even grimmer.

This is an opportunity for the UK. By engaging with the US and EU we can help both, help (preferably by example) persuade EU states to increase their defence spending as a matter of urgency (a process already underway) and redouble our commitment to European defence via NATO. This will help persuade the US to remain committed to NATO head off a US withdrawal from Europe as well as foolish ideas for an EU army that would duplicate NATO. The UK will remain a key part of European security and that will carry over into other spheres.

A US/UK trade agreement opens up new opportunities

With EU/US negotiations over the TTIP trade agreement moribund, fate has again given the UK an opportunity. Trump has said that the UK is one trade agreement that he is keen to pursue. The US is our biggest export market, and this is an offer we should take up immediately.

Fortunately a US/UK agreement could be concluded relatively swiftly. We have fewer issues to hold it up by way of the agricultural and audio-visual exemptions of the kinds demanded by other EU states. We also have little reason to have an ISDS (investor tribunal) clause to protect our investors. We are each others biggest investors, with huge investments flows going both directions. Both states trust each others courts in a way not possible with the EU28.

While the EU/US negotiations have been ongoing for many years, the US managed to strike an agreement with Australia in two years  a time period that neatly coincides with the Article 50 process. With US/UK negotiations underway, the EU would have an added reason to move on with its own negotiations with us. An US/UK trade agreement could potentially be a model for the EU or even extended to the EU and Canada increasing the UKs importance as a counter-party to the EU.

This type of arrangement could also have important implications for regulatory co-operation. If the US and UK manage to agree on financial regulations and potentially extend co-operation to other major centres such as Singapore, the UK would be in a good place not only to influence global regulation but use its position as an access point to a global network as an offer in EU talks.

While the election of Trump will continue to stir passions among the liberal establishment we should not let them let us lose sight of the opportunity this could afford the UK. The US is an independent state, we do not need to agree with everything or anything Trump said during his election campaign or might say in the future to see that a keen Brexit supporter in the White House creates more options and influence for the UK in its dealings with the EU.
Last weeks American presidential election pushed back the publication of this months ConHome survey results. So heres the first item this morning, on a subject that featured just a bit in that poll  immigration.

We asked about the importance of a reduction in EU migration as part of an eventual settlement. The result is as follows.

30 per cent of Party member respondents said that a cut is extremely important to me, while 23 per cent said that it is very important. So, then: thats 53 per cent at the more restrictive end of the scale.

Meanwhile, 16 per cent said that it is not very important to me and 13 per cent that it is not important at all. Thats 29 per cent for the less prohibitive view. The remainder plumped for fairly important.

You must make of that what you will. For myself, I would expected that 53 per cent figure to be ten or so points higher, and the 29 per cent lower by roughly the same amount.

None the less, the picture is pretty clear. More respondents plumped for the most severe option than for any other  and over half of all those who replied are plainly hawkish on the subject of control.

Theresa May therefore has the support of a majority of Party members, these results suggest, for insisting as part of her negotiation for a cut in immigration.

As readers will see, 815 people who identified as Party members replied to this question in the survey, with only two skipping it: immigration is a matter of abiding interest to our readers.
On November 15, the Church celebrates St. Albert the Great, "the light of Germany", uniquely named the Universal Doctor because of his vast knowledge and writings. He was the greatest German philosopher and theologian of the Middle Ages. A Dominican priest and the Bishop of Regensburg, Germany, he was the first of the medieval academics to apply Aristotles philosophy to Christian thought.Albert was born in Lauingen on the Danube, near Ulm, Germany in 1206 to a knight from a noble family. As a young man, he studied at the University of Padua and there he met Blessed Jordan of Saxony, the Dominican who made the rounds of the universities of Europe, attracting the best young men of the universities into the Dominicans.At age 16, Albert entered the Dominican Order and was ordained a priest in 1228. He was then sent to teach in Cologne, where he was renown for his lectures on the Sentences of Peter Lombard. After several teaching assignments in his order, he came in 1241 to the University of Paris, where he lectured in theology. While teaching in Paris, he was assigned by his order in 1248 to set up a new house of studies for the order in Cologne.In Paris, he had gathered around him a small band of budding theologians, which included Thomas Aquinas, who became his greatest pupil. Aquinas, exceptionally proficient in theological studies, was silent and reflective, to the point of being christened by his fellow students the Mute Ox of Sicily. But Albert quieted them, saying, The bellowings of this ox will resound throughout the entire world.Later he was sent back to Germany to serve as Provincial of his Order. In this position, he traveled with no money, always on foot, visiting the many monasteries under his jurisdiction, throughout a vast territory which included: Austria, Bavaria, Saxony, and Holland.He was no longer young when he had to submit to the formal order of the Pope to serve as the Bishop of Regensburg. There his zeal was rewarded only by harsh trials, while his virtue was perfected. When he asked to be relieved of his responsibilities, Pope Urban IV permitted him to return to the peace of the monastery.Albert brought Greek, Arabic science, and philosophy to medieval Europe. He was well-known for his broad interest in the natural sciences and wrote and illustrated guides to his observations. His written works on the natural sciences, on philosophy and theology, form from twenty-one to thirty-eight volumes, depending on the edition.He died, apparently of fatigue, at the age of seventy-three, on November 15, 1280, and his body was buried in Cologne in the Dominican church. He was canonized on December 16, 1931. Proclaiming his holiness, Pope Pius XI added the title of Doctor of the Church. He is known as Albert the Great.St. Albert is the patron of: medical technicians, natural sciences, philosophers, scientists, students, students of theology, and World Youth Day."The greater and more persistent your confidence in God, the more abundantly you will receive all that you ask." -- St. Albert the GreatDear Scientist and Doctor of the Church, natural science always led you to the higher science of God. Though you had an encyclopedic knowledge, it never made you proud, for you regarded it as a gift of God. Inspire scientists to use their gifts well in studying the wonders of creation, thus bettering the lot of the human race and rendering greater glory to God. Amen.
Building the Peoples Movement

The ruthless global drive of capital to maximise profits while destroying jobs, seizing public assets, crushing unions and destroying the environment has produced a worldwide wave of public anger and a global fightback. This fightback has seen loose coalitions of people, workers, students, intellectuals, small business people, farmers, struggling in many ways, in particular by taking to the streets, to oppose capitalisms anti-people policies. The latest actions in the US brought tens of thousands together to demonstrate against the Trump administration.

At its 9th Congress, the Communist Party of Australia stated, The worldwide struggle between the people and the transnational corporations is intensifying. The situation in Australia and internationally is marked by this struggle, at the centre of which is the struggle between the capitalist class and the working class.

Every aspect of life on the planet is falling prey to imperialism. Workers, small farmers, agricultural workers and an immense range of social strata, interest groups and NGOs are being forced to confront the big transnational corporations as those forces intensify their exploitation of the worlds people and resources.

This growing movement against corporate globalisation has found expression in Australia with increasing numbers of people rejecting the policies being implemented by both Liberal and right-wing Labor governments.

The peoples movement against corporate globalisation is indeed the broadest contemporary movement objectively confronting the power of capital.

In Australia, the Communist Party believes the best way to strengthen this peoples movement is to draw together all the left and progressive parties, trade unions, community organisations and individuals or elements of these organisations into a popular anti-imperialist, anti-monopoly democratic front.

We see this front as transcending any one party. A front of this nature presupposes agreements, either formal or informal, on issues held in common and not only at grass-roots level. It needs to involve and find agreement at the leadership level of organisations as well.

It is a coalition of this nature which can mobilise thousands and tens of thousands of workers and people from other social groups who are opposed to the corporate agenda of privatisation, the attacks on the living and working conditions of all working people, whether in the cities or the country.

Some in this democratic front will campaign on the environment, others will defend public education and the public health system, others will defend jobs and the industrial rights of the trade union movement (see page 4). Country people will fight for adequate services and against the fleecing of small farmers by the processing companies, the banks and the huge supermarket chains.

A place in the anti-imperialist, anti-monopoly democratic front has to be found for all these streams of opposition to what is being done to the working people, the poor, the unemployed, the homeless, the farmers, pensioners, Indigenous people, migrants and others.

It is vitally important to build such a movement. Only such a broad coalition of left and progressive forces can change the direction of politics in Australia. In building a democratic front, care must be taken not to exclude any potential supportive party, organisation or individual, even though different opinions and policies will inevitably exist on various questions. This movement, which is in embryonic form in Australia, is not the property of any one party or group and to claim otherwise, or any attempt by any political party to capture it for its own purposes, cannot be accepted.

The CPA believe there are some principles which should be accepted by all organisations prepared to work together and to eventually establish a representative coalition or alliance.

These principles include mutual respect and honesty and consultation at every step of the unity-building process. Agreements must be reached by consensus, with voting resorted to only as a last resort and limited to procedural matters.

Where agreement is not reached, this issue should be put aside with each organisation free to express its views using its own facilities. Once agreements are reached all organisations must help to popularise and put them into practice.

Discussion and agreement at leadership level must be backed up and deepened by co-operation at all levels of the organisations involved.

Ideological differences should not stand in the way of co-operation on issues held in common. It is logical to expect that there will be a contest of ideas between co-operating organisations but such a contest should be stated in a manner that does not undermine the unity achieved but contributes to clarity and to strengthening the developing unity.

Of course, each organisation is free to publish its views and carry out activities in support of its own policies that are not the subject of agreements. In this way the autonomy of each organisation is protected.

Through the process of joint struggle, trust will be built between organisations and individuals and this will be the binding force that strengthens the coalition and makes it a viable and lasting organisation. Unity and agreement should grow as a process but they cannot be ordained by certain organisations through their domination over others.

A united left and progressive movement must have as its first major goal the breaking of the two-party system and the formation of a government of a new type. We see the winning of government by an anti-imperialist, anti-monopoly democratic front as a first step in the protracted and historical struggle to wrest power from the capitalist ruling class.
Queries over PMs IAC

Cracks appear to be forming in the Prime Ministers Indigenous Advisory Council (lAC), with chair Warren Mundine having a public swipe at the Turnbull government for not bothering to speak with its own advisors before making an announcement about an inquiry into Indigenous incarceration.

Indigenous Advisory Council chair Warren Mundine.

I dont know who the dickhead is who actually thought up this incredibly brilliant idea. Its just a total waste of taxation money, he told Sky News.

I just find this a joke, and Im getting sick and tired of the crap that is coming out of this government in regard to Indigenous Affairs.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Mr Mundine was wrong in his assessment and Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion told ABC Alice Springs that the governments handpicked top Indigenous advisor was having a bad hair day.

What he said is complete and utter garbage, Senator Scullion said. Now, Warren and me are good mates and we like having robust conversations, and I can see were going to have one.

The Koori Mail also understands that the most recent scheduled meeting of the IAC was cancelled.

From the outset the IAC, which originally had 12 members but has been reduced by two due to resignations, has been plagued with criticism, with many Indigenous leaders saying it was problematic to hand-pick advisors and that the criteria for selection was unknown.

While the original appointments, made in November 2013, were for three-year terms, there has been no official announcement about what happens next from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C, which administers the IAC) website, with the last communique dated February this year.

Earlier in the week, before his spray on Sky, Mr Mundine told the Koori Mail there had been ups and downs, but he felt the IAC was making inroads.

Its been almost like a marriage, and love-hate relationships can be frustrating, he said. At the same time its about getting things to work, making a big difference.

One of the things Im happy with is the Indigenous Procurement Policy (where at least three percent of government contracts are aimed at Indigenous businesses), which has improved Indigenous businesses from $6 million to $220 million, so thats massive.

Ive had conversations with government about dealing with northern Australia development, making sure theres a positive outcome and making sure Indigenous people are at the table, which they werent at first in the White Paper process, which was bizarre, when you think 80% of the land is owned by Aboriginal people.

At the moment, were focusing on economic issues, so looking at this conversation around work for the future. Weve been looking at the mining industry in particular, which is becoming more automatic and robotic, so what does this mean, what are the jobs of the future and how does that affect education.

Weve been dealing with issues around community violence. Is just locking people up the answer, is it about community leadership, going through those types of debates and arguments?

Mr Mundine said the IAC had also been discussing approaches around child abuse, education, particularly for early childhood, governance and climate change for Indigenous communities.

Koori Mail
Our future is shared

ACTU Just Transition Conference

We meet at a crucial time for the energy sector in this nation. The closure of Hazelwood is the sign that we are in a time of great upheaval and momentous changes. It is a time that reminds us that how we adapt to these changes is critical.

Photo: Anna Pha.

In 1986, I was a young nurse. When I joined the ranks of my profession, nurses were at breaking point. My colleagues were sick of being devalued and disrespected, of putting up with low pay and sub-standard conditions. The powers that be conspired to cut our pay and our career pathways.

Traditionally, nurses werent the striking type. We were in it to care: and society, including many of us, really believed that to strike, to stand up, meant leaving our patients behind.

But we saw what the status quo was doing to our patients. We were stretched, understaffed and low pay, gendered pay, was grinding us down.

We had believed the story that it was us or the patients. That told us that our interests were opposed. The nurses were told that we were greedy and selfish for not sacrificing ourselves to care for patients. We experienced an endless barrage of sexist media and political attacks. We were told that it was our fault if patients werent getting the care they needed: that it was up to us to bear the brunt of the governments decisions to not fund our healthcare system properly.

Increasingly, we began to reject that story. And I joined about 5,000 other Victorian nurses in calling an indefinite strike. Our strike came after a decade of similar actions by nurses around the country  lots of voices in the darkness urging us to reject the story of division we had been told. Our strike lasted 50 days, which was a very long strike for the time. It was hard. Not everyone supported it at first. Many still believed the idea we were sold that standing up for ourselves and the dignity of our patients could only come at the cost to those patients.

But we fought hard. We told ourselves the new truth. We rejected a morality that divided our community. And we won.

The result was a radical transformation in the way that nurses are viewed and respected by the public. We went from being seen as passive women, just doing what women do for a bit of family pocket money on the side  to dedicated, knowledgeable professionals. Politicians, the media, the public: they all realised that our interests and the interests of our patients werent antithetical, they were interdependent. Our future is shared.

The nurses strike of 1986 may seem strange to bring up as we gather here in the wake of the recent announcement of Hazelwoods closure**, to discuss a Just Transition for Australias electricity sector.

But there are some striking similarities.

Once again, we are being told a story that tries to pit us against each other. That tries to divide our community. The environmentalists against the unionists, unionists against environmentalists. And lets be honest, many in the past have fallen into the trap of believing that story of division.

But, as with the nurses strike, we have reached a point where we must now take actions that ensure it is a different story that is told, listened to and repeated over and over again until the very idea that there was ever a different way seems unbelievable.

We are told saving the planet is too hard. Supporting workers to build a brighter future is too hard. That we must choose one.

This is a dangerous myth.

New story

The new story that we need to write begins with the clear recognition that we are all in this together. The choice is not between the jobs of electricity sector workers or the environment. It is not between whether our energy bills are affordable, or whether our great reefs perish. It is not between whether the people working at Hazelwood, at Loy Yang, in the Hunter Valley, in Central Queensland, in Port Augusta or in remote Western Australia are supported properly, or whether we fund new clean energy jobs. It is not between the interests of Australians or those in other countries  like our Pacific neighbours, already watching their homes and livelihoods be swallowed by a rising sea. It is not between those of us who live today and those yet to come.

The truth is that we need each other.

A Just Transition is about choosing both.

As we think about how Australia should respond to climate change, we can chart with accuracy and detail, what the impact will be for the most vulnerable sectors, like electricity. And, as the uncertainty and distress brought on by the announcement of Hazelwoods closure last week demonstrates, it is the people working in those industries who bear the brunt of that impact.

Let me remind you that closing Hazelwood was not down to a carbon tax. It was a commercial decision to close that plant. That commercial decision taken in the new reality of a world where real action on climate change is here to stay. This government has signed the Paris Agreement. Living up to those obligations must include a Just Transition for workers and their communities. When there is no plan in place  when we just leave it to the market to make decisions, it is the people, not the companies and certainly not the market, who pay the price.

We saw the effects of a market-based approach in Port Augusta this year. The market said that the South Australian Northern Power Station should be shut, and so it was. It closed without any real consultation with the workers and their community.

Despite large disruptions in the past we have not been good at industry transition in this country.

Just ask the thousands of displaced workers who used to be part of the Australian car manufacturing industry: only a third of ex-Mitsubishi workers were able to move to comparable full time employment when the South Australian plant closed in 2008.

In both of these cases, there was no plan in place to support people to obtain new, relevant jobs or help support the new industries to develop in the community. Helping people update their CVs, or giving them a token payment and a job seeker reference is not a Just Transition.

A fractious, destructive and costly market approach does not have to be the way that Australia moves to a clean energy economy. It isnt too late for Hazelwood: and the Victorian government is applying the principles of a Just Transition plan by setting up a Latrobe Valley Authority led by the Premier. They are putting $266 million into job creation, a Worker Transition Centre in partnership with the Gippsland Trades and Labour council, education, training, counselling and financial support all of which is a promising sign that at least in the Labor government workers can have hope of a Just Transition.

The unapologetic mission of the Australian union movement is a Just Transition for all affected workers, their families and communities into low and zero emission industry with real, decent jobs and a quality of life for their kids better than their own. It is a story in three acts:

First the federal government needs to develop a national plan. The need to deliver a just transition for coal-fired electricity workers and communities is a sector wide, cross-state jurisdiction challenge that can only be met with a national response.

Second, the government should create an independent statutory authority, independent of the election cycle, to guide the transition of the sector. This authority would manage an industry-wide multi-employer job pooling and redeployment scheme, and support workers obtain new decent and secure jobs, including with job assistance support, reskilling, redundancy payments, early retirement options and travel and relocation assistance.

Third, the authority would develop specific plans to diversify regional economys industry base, support existing industries and help create new, secure jobs.

None of this is rocket science; were not claiming to have re-invented the wheel or even the power loom. There are clear examples that provide a road map for us to follow.

The German story tells us that a planned transition can ease the negative burdens on workers  but it wont just happen if left to the market.

In Germany, the government chose to work with unions and workers rather than against them when the decision to downscale their coal mining industry was made.

Importantly, German workers were effectively redeployed across the industry in a systematic approach to avoid the sudden negative impact of single mine closures on the surrounding community.

When the process ends in a few years time, it will have successfully transitioned more than 100,000 workers who could otherwise have simply been left with nothing but a token redundancy payment and a nicely formatted resume.

Workers voices

Im glad we are being joined by workers from Hazelwood and other power stations today, and well hear from one worker, Mark Richards, shortly. The people working in power stations deserve a say about what kinds of opportunities they want, about who they are and where they live, about what they spend their time doing in this short and precious life  just like we all do. We must ensure that their voices and their stories are heard most of all.

Ladies and gentlemen, its time to start telling a new story. A story about working together.

We will stand in solidarity with workers in the electricity sector and we will fight for their jobs, their identities, and their communities. They should not have to bear the brunt of this.

During the nurses strike, we had a slogan: sisters are doing it for themselves  and for us.

This plan for a Just Transition represents the diverse voices of our members  1.8 million of them, from all across Australia. And of course it especially represents the voices of electricity workers. And together we will change the story. We will build a new economy with decent jobs and a clean, protected planet  and we will only build it together.

* Ged Kearney is President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions

** Hundreds of workers will lose their jobs after the announcement that Hazelwood power station in Victoria, Australias dirtiest coal-fired power plant, will officially close by the end of March next year.
A Reflection on conflicts in Sri Lanka

We acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of the land on which we make this reflection, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders, both past and present.

We, individuals who grew up in the south of Sri Lanka, are grateful to the Uniting Church for providing us with this opportunity to reflect upon the conflicts that have taken place in that island. Given time constraints we will not deal with the wider socio-economic factors, but these need to be kept in mind during this reflection.

I grew up in a Sinhala Buddhist lower middle class family in the south, in an environment where the political language used in the public discourse was emotional, and at times abusive. I vividly remember hearing on the government radio KMP Rajaratna, who eloquently said that one could not rest until shoes are made from the skin of the last Tamil. In a similar vein, I had read in print that the wife of a Tamil leader in the north spoke of skinning Sinhalese for the same purpose. In time in language and in deeds the violence and hatred between communities got even worse.

We have been continuously arguing about who arrived first on the island. Instead we need to accept that the Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers and others who live there, have an inalienable birthright to the island, regardless of who arrived first.

Sri Lankas ruling elite has been hedonistic and self-serving. They did not create a single organisation that fought or even pretended to fight for independence. Some of them, in fact, were opposed to extending the franchise to the majority. The only group that opposed colonialism and agitated for independence came from the left, and initially, from the Jaffna Youth Congress.

Due to expanded social welfare reforms since independence, Sri Lanka had very low infant mortality rates, high life expectancy and a high degree of adult literacy. We had a seemingly harmonious society, a relatively well developed infrastructure and a minimum of hunger. Why did all these unravel in less than ten years since gaining independence in 1948?

Since independence, people have witnessed the ripple effects of a stagnant economy, a highly stratified social system and the gradual erosion of human rights, rule of law, and the rise of bribery and corruption. This unpalatable stew brought forth new forces of the left in the south and the north of the island. These young militants demanded their fair share of the political and economic sunshine. Younger generations of Sinhalese and Tamils, who came from very similar socio-economic backgrounds, revolted against the erosion of their rights.

The many conflicts we have had in Sri Lanka not only destroyed people and property, but also blunted peoples morality and sensitivities. Many who took part in these conflicts were educated youth, the cream of our society, and good hearted people. To make any finite conclusions on their struggles is beyond quantification. In an environment where inequality in society was growing, where injustice, selfishness and distrust were lighting the burning flames of discontent, we continuously failed to help unravel pathways to better equity and social justice.

Starting from the general strike in 1953, there have been conflicts in 1956, 1958, 1971, 1977, 1983, and 1987 to 1990 in the south. and from 1983 to 2009 in the north east and also in the south. Sri Lanka had become a valley of death. No proper investigation into any of these have ever been made, including the last phase of the civil war.

When conflicts and the resulting bloodshed, death and destruction condition our living environment, the value of humanity diminishes. In many instances the liberators themselves have become assassins due to this process of desensitisation. By arousing complex emotions, propagandists of patriotism and nationalism play a major role in perpetuating conflicts. Such emotions are exploited by those who wish to acquire and maintain political and social power.

Most of the educated youth rebelled against injustice. Seeing the suffering of the other had deeply affected their sensitivities. Wanting a societal change, they interacted with people to achieve that change through an ideological struggle. Yet, they were aware that many such struggles had been suppressed with guns and chains. The more repressive the state apparatus became the more the youth rebelled. This was the environment in which young people joined the JVP in the south and the LTTE in the north.

Reflecting on the JVP uprising in 1971, for example, the fundamental social changes the Sinhala youth expected from the government they helped to elect in 1970, were not forthcoming. In fact, the government publicly stated that they could not implement their election pledges. So, the youth set about organising to implement that program of radical social change, in the expectation of becoming the harbinger of social progress.

Why did this flare up into an uprising? There had been many limitations, shortcomings, drawbacks and mistakes we committed during that uprising. We also need to reflect upon the roots, and the major flaws in the countrys democratic institutions, and the actions of the government and the state armed forces that led to that conflict.

The ruling elite of Sri Lanka in the 1940s and 1950s was (and still is) a closed and incestuous group. Almost all the leaders came from the same schools and suburbs, and like all good brown sahibs were, regardless of political differences, tolerant and convivial with each other. Crucially, most shared an unthinkingly condescending attitude towards the commoners.

Under colonialism, the language of administration was English. Those who spoke English belonging to any of the communities and willingly adhered to the mores of the colonial masters were given economic privileges and powerful positions and they became the trusted administrators. Ordinary people, whether they were Sinhala Buddhists, Tamil Hindus, or Sinhala or Tamil-speaking Muslims, did not have a place in their administration.

The 50s were like a dress rehearsal to the tragedy that replayed in Sri Lanka in the latter half of the 20th century and the early part the 21st. Sri Lankan nationalism in the 1950s was a phenomenon of the elite and did not blossom among the masses. The new element introduced in 1956 was populist nationalism.

SWRD Bandaranaikes nationalism was based on identity and religion, was connected not only to class inequities but also to Sinhala Buddhism and anti-Tamil feelings. The thought of minority gaining basic rights in linguistic and political matters was enough to drive some sections of the majority into a murderous frenzy, with the police looking on in the 1958 riots.

If there are any lessons to be drawn, it is that we need to recognise our common suffering, the stresses and challenges that we face in light of unequal and unjust global economic issues and our own internal issues. In doing so, we need to recognise and address the injustices and grievances faced by all, be they Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers or others. Elected governments bear a heavy responsibility in this regard, as they have been elected to govern on behalf of all the people, regardless of their ethnicity or political affiliations.

The extent of self-destruction, our land of birth had inflicted on itself should be more than sufficient for us to realise that peace and reconciliation are not options, but necessities. That is why we need to build an environment that can break down barriers towards reconciliation. Creating conditions that allow for genuinely exercising democratic rights within an inclusive and tolerant framework is an essential and necessary condition for working towards peace and reconciliation.

As the UN Secretary General said while in Sri Lanka, rather than sending youngsters to fight wars, provide them with quality education, unite them despite their diverse backgrounds, empower them, and ensure them decent work. This could cool communal tensions and assist communities being engaged in peace building and reconciliation.

Youth is Sri Lankas biggest asset and its future depends on genuinely investing in their hopes and aspirations to create a political and economic system that is conducive to social justice, social harmony and social inclusiveness. That will be one of the guarantees that would ensure achieving reconciliation, peace and unity within the Sri Lankan society.

Let us hope that in the land of our heritage, the sounds of guns and bombs will never be heard again.

* Lionel Bopage was the General Secretary of the JVP during the 1980s. These are comments made at an ecumenical service held in Melbourne in September 2016.

JVP: the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (Peoples Liberation Front)  Communist and MarxistLeninist party in Sri Lanka.

The Beacon
Trumpism, the class struggle and Australia

Statement, Communist Party of Australia

The election of reactionary billionaire Donald Trump as president of the US is a clarion call to the progressive people of the world. It is time to organise and counter-attack. The hand wringing and analysis has begun but it is clear that the outcome is the result of class issues, not identity politics. People in the US (and elsewhere, including Australia) feel disenfranchised by the political establishment  those who manage the two-party system on behalf of the ruling class  and are hurting badly as a result of capitalist crisis and globalisation. Unfortunately, in the absence of a united left with a consistent program, people are looking in the wrong places for answers.

The Trump ascendency has many lessons for Australians.

It would be wrong to downplay the significance of Trumps election. His populist campaign has delivered a stunning result. Notably, it bucked the editorial consensus of much of the corporate media. However, it would be wrong to over-emphasise the magnitude of the shift it represents. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were both candidates pushing variations of the capitalist agenda and US imperialism. Their argument was about how to make both of those institutions stronger.

The results do not support the landslide victory conclusion, either. Hillary Clinton attracted slightly higher total of votes from US citizens than Donald Trump. In 2012, failed Republican candidate Mitt Romney received more votes than Trump did last week. The Electoral College system, to which all candidates are subject, played its part. So did the meddling of the Democratic National Committee, which made sure that reforming Democrat candidate, Bernie Sanders, never stood a chance. There is widespread speculation that Trump would have been defeated by the long-time activist Senator from Vermont.

While Trumps victory may be less crushing than presented in the media that, up until last Tuesday, were happy to dismiss him, it does give encouragement to the most reactionary elements in society. Reports of racist attacks are coming in but people are responding. Recent days have witnessed massive protests against the election of Trump and the sorts of anti-people attitudes expressed during his election campaign. This could be the beginnings of what must become a peoples movement  a movement of workers and other exploited people against the sustained attacks on their basic rights and needs.

Much has been said about Trumps erratic, idiosyncratic and contradictory approach to domestic and foreign policy. We should remember that in politics many a rooster has wound up a feather duster. The president of the US and his counterparts around the world head up a committee for the management of the affairs of the capitalist ruling class. Anybody seeking to buck that status will quickly find themselves an ex-president.

Time will tell if Trump will oversee the nuking of ISIS, the construction of a massive wall along the border with Mexico and a trade war with China. It is noteworthy that Trump has already indicated he will essentially retain the Obamacare health insurance arrangements he previously derided as disastrous.

The Trump ascendency has many lessons for Australians. The nervousness caused by his foreign policy pronouncements underscores just how subservient we are to US diktat. Many Australians who previously felt, incorrectly, that the deployment and activity of the US military was under stable and benevolent leadership will now question those assumptions. The recklessness, extreme danger and cost of US aggression in our region and beyond has been placed in question. The calls for an independent path in relations with nations in our region will get stronger.

Trumps election says a lot about the sense of disenfranchisement and disengagement felt by people in the US, Australia and comparable countries. Trump sold himself as an opponent of the establishment and that appealed. Voter turnout was low and disenchantment was high. Former Australian PM Tony Abbott commented that disillusionment with the political system was already high in Australia.

As he pointed out during his Radio National interview, ten percent of registered voters didnt bother to vote in the most recent federal election. Five percent voted informal. Twenty five percent voted for other than the two major parties of capital.

Abbott says there is the danger of a right populist figure or party establishing themselves in Australia politics. This ignores the fact that many of the right populist attitudes expressed by Trump  sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic, anti-immigrant and anti-working class  already have an elevated place in the Coalition parties. Pauline Hansons One Nation and other right-populist groups do not yet have a large voter base.

Toxic messages like those of Trump and One Nation do encourage dangerous extremists to act on their bigoted ideas. Thats a danger to the community. These forces stand to get stronger because, as stated above, the left and progressive forces of this country are disunited and are not presenting a coherent, alternative program to the people of Australia. The election of Trump may not be as epoch-making as some pundits are claiming but we should extract the positive from this development. People are looking for political direction and engagement as a result. We must be ready to welcome and involve them.

The Communist Party of Australia calls for the formation of a broader alliance of working class, left and progressive forces working towards a new type of government in the interest of the people.
Culture & Life

State-sanctioned murder

There was a time, not very long ago, when governments that wanted to silence a critic who had sought refuge in another country, had to send a small team of assassins to that country and shoot or poison the troublesome person, or run them down with a stolen car in a hit and run accident. The apartheid regime in South Africa made a speciality of planting bombs in the cars of activists who had fled abroad, but they were by no means the only extreme right-wing government to do so.

The MQ-9 REAPER.

However, this method of silencing critics  or teaching enemies to show respect  was fraught with peril: the agents who were to do the deed had to be introduced into the country without arousing suspicion and then got out again after the target had been killed. At any time they risked exposure and arrest which, at the very least, would be embarrassing for their government. At worst, the agents would spend years in jail and their government would have to organise a costly prisoner exchange for them.

But no more  at least for enemies of the US! Now, when the White House considers it expedient to eliminate someone in another country who has incurred its displeasure, instead of sending an agent they send a drone. The US drone campaign carries out missile strikes outside of war zones. The main US outfits that organise drone attacks are the CIA, the NSA and the Pentagons Special Operations Command. The NSA (National Security Agency) has a number of bases in Britain.

A document recently obtained by British journal The Intercept states that targets (those are people, remember) at internet cafes in Yemen are tasked by several target offices at NSA and [its British opposite number] GCHQ.

Deadly drone attacks have become commonplace in countries where the US is interfering but does not wish to openly wage war  yet. So frequent were the drone attacks on targets in Pakistan, supposedly a US ally, that there have been huge demonstrations against them, and against the US for perpetrating them.

Drone attacks are a means of conducting assassinations at a distance, by remote control. By default they lack precision and are dependent on the accuracy of intelligence gathering to determine their targets. Frequently, they kill people who were bystanders or otherwise not the intended targets. Such people are simply written off as collateral damage, just like the civilian victims of US bombing during the Vietnam War.

Across the Middle East, from Somalia to Yemen and beyond, The US drone program, conducted in the shadows, has killed hundreds of civilians without any accountability,  Jennifer Gibson, staff attorney for British civil rights organisation Reprieve.

British civil rights activists are understandably outraged that the US government thinks it has the right to rampage around the world in breach of other countries national sovereignty, killing whomever it decides is its enemy, and lots of innocent bystanders as well. They are doubly outraged to discover that British military personnel at UK bases leased to the US military play a role in drawing up the kill list for these ongoing drone assassinations.

The UK government now needs to come clean on what role the bases we lease to the US are playing in drawing up secretive US assassination lists  and what exactly the UKs own involvement in these lists is, said Jennifer Gibson.

Simply to say that drones are not flown from the UK is missing the point, if it is personnel on British soil that are at the top of the so-called kill chain and British agencies who are feeding targets into those lists, she added.

Reprieve points out that publicly-available documents show that the US Air Force has employed a MQ-9 REAPER [drone] ISR Mission Intelligence Coordinator at RAF Molesworth, a British base in Cambridgeshire leased to the US and that a private military contractor at the same base has advertised for an All Source Analyst  Targeting to work there.

Another advertisement for a job at Molesworth was for someone to provide FMV [full motion video] intelligence analysis in support of USAFRICOM [US military command for Africa]  and Special Operations Command Africa, presumably for covert drone strikes in countries such as Somalia, where the US is not [publicly] at war.

British forces are currently involved in seven different theatres and only one of these has had any democratic scrutiny, Stop the War Coalition deputy chair Chris Nineham told British Communist daily Morning Star, so its not just American imperialism that is running rampant around the world.

The leadership of both Britain and the USA make a point of presenting themselves as the embodiment of morality and humanity  unlike Godless Communism. And yet the US has had to publicly admit to regularly being involved in the conduct of torture to obtain information, and to maintaining a global program of kidnapping people and covertly sending them to countries with extremely brutal prison systems (such as Egypt) for the same purpose. That program became doubly important after the USAs own torture program ran foul of Congress.

But how moral is it to routinely  once a week, in fact  decide to murder enemies of the state? And to brazenly kill hundreds of other people in the process?

Talk about the moral bankruptcy of capitalism!
On January 21, 2016, CCCS filed a motion to dismiss the federal district court action (or in the alternative for summary judgment) arguing, among other things, that by virtue of the execution sale it now owned the FDCPA claim against itself and that Arellano therefore lacked standing. The district court agreed and entered an order dismissing the action. Ms. Arellano has appealed to the Ninth Circuit and the case is pending. Her opening brief (Plaintiff-Appellant's Opening Brief, Arellano v. Clark County Collection Services, LLC, No. 16-15467 (9th Cir. July 29, 2016), ECF No. 9), argues that federal law preempts and therefore precludes this use of the Nevada enforcement procedure by a debt collector because, so used, the procedure undermines the deterrent and remedial purposes of the FDCPA. The brief also argues that an FDCPA claim is akin to a tort claim and that use of the Nevada enforcement procedure to purchase the claim amounts to the assignment of a tort claim that is prohibited by common law.

A week later, on August 4, 2015, CCCS and its lawyers responded with some creative lawyering. CCCS obtained a writ of execution from the Nevada Justice Court. The writ, stating an amount owing of about $825 (including fees, costs, and interest added to the principal amount of the judgment), commanded the sheriff to levy on the Arellano FDCPA cause of action pending in federal district court. Because Nevada law permits execution on a judgment debtor's pending cause of action against another, the sheriff levied the writ, posted notice of sale once each week, for three consecutive weeks, in the Nevada Legal News, and thereafter held a sale of the cause of action on November 19, 2015. CCCS, likely the only bidder at the sale, purchased the cause of action with a credit bid $250.

On May 19, 2015, Clark County Collection Services, LLC ("CCCS"), a Nevada debt collector, obtained a default judgment in Nevada Justice Court against Patricia Arellano on an assigned medical claim of $371.89. Two months later, on July 27, 2015, Arellano filed a class action in federal district court in Nevada, against CCCS and its lawyers, alleging FDCPA violations associated with the state debt collection action.

I shared news of this litigation with the CFPB. A representative of its amicus group studied the issue but indicated that it would not be filing an amicus brief, both because the preemption argument, which it found "novel and interesting," had not been raised in the district court and because, in any event, the time for filing an amicus brief had expired.

At common law, execution could not reach a cause of action. But statutes in at least a few states, including Nevada, Alaska, Washington, Utah, Iowa, and Mississippi, permit execution on a cause of action. In contrast, California, for example, forbids execution on a cause of action that is subject of a pending action, although it permits the fixing of a judicial lien on a pending cause of action. Cal. Code Civ. Pro.  699.720(a)(3), 708.410. The Nevada and the California rules are contrasted in Denham v. Farmer's Insurance Co. (Cal. Ct. App. 1989). California's prohibition, enacted in 1941, reflected concern that a sale of a cause of action might realize far less than its worth. Id. at 1071. This is precisely the result, Ms. Arellano's brief argues, of the CCCS execution sale. Her brief also refers to inconsistent state law governing enforcement of judgment in arguing that deterrence of FDCPA violations would depend upon the state of the debtor's residence, "a 'patchwork scheme of regulation' that Congress clearly did not intend."

In those states permitting execution on a pending cause of action, only a few courts have confronted the question of whether a judgment creditor may execute on a pending cause of action against itself. In Snow, Nuffer, Engstrom & Drake v. Tanasse (Utah 1999), a law firm holding a judgment against a former client for unpaid attorney's fees executed on the former client's malpractice claim against the law firm and then purchased the cause of action at an execution sale. The former client (Tanasse) moved for an order setting aside the execution sale. The Utah Supreme Court acknowledged a judgment creditor's general right to execute on a judgment debtor's pending cause of action, even one pending against the judgment creditor itself, but held that public policy forbade this practice in the context of the lawyer-client relationship. Id. at 211-212. In a subsequent decision, the Utah Supreme Court declined to expand the public policy exception beyond the lawyer-client relationship. Applied Med. Techs v. Eames (Utah 2002). A federal district court magistrate in Utah later seemed sympathetic to the expansion of the public policy exception to a situation involving a debt collector's execution sale purchase of an FDCPA claim against it, but declined to so rule, in part because the judgment debtor seemingly had abandoned its federal district court FDCPA action. Ewell v. Law Offices of Cullimore (D. Utah 2013).

Washington courts have taken a different approach, holding that a trial court has an inherent supervisory power to prevent an execution sale of the type described above, but only if necessary to prevent an inequitable result. See Paglia v. Breskovich (Ct. App. Wash. 1974) and Washington cases citing it. A Texas Court of Appeals has taken yet a third approach: extinguishing a claim against oneself by obtaining a turnover order to enforce a judgment in another action ("turn over the claim you have against me") is unconstitutional because it violates the state constitutional "open court" guarantee. Criswell v. Ginsberg & Foreman (Ct. App. Tex. 1992).

Earlier this year, the American Bankruptcy Institute publicized the district court's holding in the Arellano case. It would therefore not be surprising that news of the tactic employed by CCCS in that case has or will spread among debt collectors and that debt collectors may start employing the tactic with increasing frequency in those states where it would be permissible and in those states where the law on the subject is not yet settled.

Use of the tactic in the relevant states strikes me as fundamentally antithetical to the purposes of the FDCPA. Permitting debt collectors to extinguish possibly meritorious FDCPA claims against themselves for a nominal credit bid (assuming no higher third party bidders) undermines the deterrent value of the FDCPA by reducing a debt collector's fear of FDCPA liability.

A Ninth Circuit holding prohibiting a debt collector from the practice described above would not end a "patchwork scheme of regulation" absent the same holding from the Supreme Court of the United States, or legislation appropriately amending the FDCPA, or rulemaking by the CFPB or FTC, or appropriate amendment of state law by every state that permits execution on a pending cause of action.

Section 1089 of Dodd-Frank (codifed at 15 U.S.C.  1692l(d)) conferred on the CFPB authority to prescribe rules "with respect to collection of debts by debt collectors, as defined in [the FDCPA]." Unless narrowly construed, that language would authorize the CFPB to prohibit the practice described above, because execution of a judgment is part of the process of collection of debts. The Bureau's recently outlined proposals for regulation of debt collectors do not address the practice described above, but time remains for it to do so. Moreover, the CFPB could address the same practice, lest it spread beyond debt collectors to creditors collecting on their own behalf, under its more general power to regulate unfair practices by entities "engaging in offering or providing a consumer financial product or service to consumers for personal, family, or household purposes," (Dodd-Frank  1031, codified at 12 U.S.C.  5531). Indeed, the CFPB has already exercised its enforcement powers in that way, such as against Citibank in connection with sale of debt to a debt buyer or against a small dollar lender for its debt collection practices. (In his recent Credit Slips post, Adam Levitin concluded that CFPB rulemaking and enforcement actions remain valid and unaffected after the decision in PHH Corp. v. CFPB, the DC Circuit case challenging the structure of the CFPB. But the recent federal election results pose a significant threat to the aggressiveness if not the existence of the CFPB.) Were the CFPB to exercise the full range of its powers to address the practice described above, there would remain a relatively small group of entities  those who are neither debt collectors nor providers of financial products or services  uncovered by regulation.

The FTC could fill that gap, such as by amending its long standing Credit Practices Rule. The FTC never had FDCPA rulemaking power (former 15 U.S.C.  1692l(d)), but section 1061 of Dodd-Frank (codified at 12 U.S.C.  5581) preserved the FTC's longstanding general authority under the FTC Act to promulgate other rules prohibiting unfair acts or practices in or affecting commerce other than with respect to an "enumerated consumer law" for which authority has been transferred to the CFPB.

In the meantime, of course, the judgment debtor faced with an execution sale of its pending FDCPA cause of action could preserve its cause of action by paying the judgment or outbidding the debt collector at an execution sale. (Tongue planted firmly in cheek.)
Security News

Report: Symantec May Be Close To Spending $2B For LifeLock, An Identity Theft Protection Service

Sarah Kuranda

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Following its blockbuster Blue Coat Systems acquisition this summer, Symantec may be looking to make another big buy, according to Bloomberg. Published reports say the security vendor is close to buying LifeLock in a deal that could be worth as much as $2 billion.

LifeLock, based in Tempe, Ariz., offers proactive fraudulent activity monitoring and prevention, predictive analytics for fraud potential and theft protection and remediation services. The company adds more than 50 million identity elements a day  unstructured data from a variety of sources, including credit and wireless application, black market websites, and more.

A report in Bloomberg on Monday said Symantec is among a list of companies interested in bidding on LifeLock, citing people familiar with the matter. The report said buyout group Permira and private equity group TPG, which in the process of closing a deal on competitor Intel Security, is also eyeing the company.

[Related: 10 Companies Symantec Could Buy Next]

The report said a LifeLock sale could be worth as much as $2 billion. LifeLock has engaged Goldman Sachs to evaluate its sale options. Elliott Management owns an 11 percent stake in LifeLock. Elliott Management also reportedly has a large stake in Symantec.

Symantec declined to comment, saying it does not comment on rumors or speculation.

The report comes on the heels of Symantec's acquisition of Blue Coat, which closed in August at a price tag of $4.65 billion. CEO Greg Clark has said that Symantec isn't done making acquisitions yet, saying it will "continue to do the inorganic things that we've done for many years." Clark said Symantec plans to build on the four pillars or information, users, web and messaging security.

Robert Keblusek, CTO of Sentinel Technologies, a Downers Grove, Ill.- based Symantec partner, said an acquisition of a company like LifeLock could make a lot of sense for the security vendor if it helps feed their intelligence engine. He said security analytics are a "huge way for security companies to differentiate themselves" in today's marketplace.

"If it would feed more analytics intelligence and make overall security portfolio stronger for zero-day activity, I think that is one of the biggest end games for any of these vendors," Keblusek said.

That security analytics and intelligence capability will prove key as Symantec looks to go head to head with other major security vendors, such as Cisco, which also offer extensive threat intelligence and security capabilities, Keblusek said.

"You can have an excellent product that does a lot of the blocking and protects endpoints but if you don't have the intelligence to know what to block and what to do then thats very difficult," Keblusek said.

The report did not say when the sale in question might occur if it were to go through.
It is more blessed to give than it is to receive. That is what the Lord Jesus said. The Apostle Paul quoted these same words to the Ephesian elders, while reminding them of his own pattern of personal sacrifice on behalf of Gods church (Acts 20:35). This simple statement from the lips of the Son of God serves as a concise summary of a biblical principle; that is, God blesses faithful, generous giving.

This is not the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel so popular today among celebrity preachers; the silly message which says, If, today, you give God $1,000 then He will give you $2,000 tomorrow. That is a false gospel, an unbiblical lie commonly propagated by religious charlatans. However, even if some people abuse and misuse it for their own personal gain, there is a basic biblical principle which we must not ignore. Consider two examples from Gods Word:

Honor the LORD from your wealth and from the first of all your produce; so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. (Proverbs 3:9-10)

From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, How shall we return? Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, How have we robbed you? In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. (Malachi 3:7-10)

There is much to learn about the joy of givingtoo much to teach in a simple blog post. However, let me draw your attention to a key passage that we need to understand and heed. In 2 Corinthians 8:1-9, the apostle instructs the Corinthians by lifting up some specific believers as an example to follow. By doing this, he demonstrates what faithful, generous giving looks like and lays a foundation to build his instruction upon.

We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saintsand this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. But as you excel in everythingin faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for yousee that you excel in this act of grace also. I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

The example of the giving churches in Macedonia provides three admirable qualities of grace-filled giving that we should follow.

Grace-filled giving is sacrificial.

The believers in Macedonia were not wealthy. In fact, the opposite was the case. They experienced a severe test of affliction and lived in extreme poverty. Yet, they overflowed in a wealth of generosity. Faithful, generous giving does not procrastinate. We should not wait until we can afford to give generously to the Lords work through the church, we should give first and then learn to live on the rest.

Grace-filled giving is selfless.

The believers in Macedonia were more concerned about the needs of the apostles than they were about their own dire straits. They did not give merely what they could afford to give, but gave beyond their means. So earnest was their desire to give to the work of the Lord that they begged the apostles for more opportunities to give as a favor.

Grace-filled giving is spiritual.

The believers in Macedonia gave generously because they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. Giving their money to the Lords work was the natural consequence of the surrender of their wills to God in obedient submission. This is really important for us to realize. Our giving is not a financial decision, ultimately. It is first and foremost an issue of our heart. When our hearts have been overcome by the grace of God toward us through Christ Jesus, giving our material resources is no longer a battle.

As the apostle finishes using the Macedonians as an example for us to follow, he lifts up the Lord Jesus as the ultimate example of grace-filled giving. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. Jesus, the Son of God, eternally lived in infinite riches in the glories of heaven. Yet, He left that wealth to live a sinless life on this earth, in poverty, in order to give Himself as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. As a result, you and I may become spiritually rich as we embrace the Lord of the gospel and live in light of His saving grace.

Generous giving is a reflection of the grace of God toward us in Jesus Christ. It is a response to the gospel. Take a moment to consider your giving to the Lords work through your local church. Is it faithful? Is it generous? Is it an accurate reflection of the grace of God?

This post is adapted from last Sunday's sermon, The Joy of Gracious Giving, Part 1.

[Originally published at Counseling One Another.]
Rather than patients finding a train under their tree this holiday season, The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum will present a train to Childrens Hospital at Erlanger. The museum announced it will loan one of its treasured and historic locomotives to be displayed at the new Childrens Hospital at Erlanger.

The public is welcome to attend a special unwrapping ceremony of the locomotive which will take place at The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum Grand Junction on Saturday, at 11 a.m. Childrens Hospital Miracle Children will help with the unveiling and representatives from both the Museum and Childrens Hospital will be available to answer questions about the loan and the new Childrens Hospital.



Built by Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Central of Georgia Railroad, Engine 349 was chosen for display at the new childrens outpatient center because it was built in 1891, the same year Erlanger was founded.



Engine 349, once a wood fired engine and later converted to coal-burning, is an important part of southern railroad history. The engine ran regular freight service throughout Georgia for much of its time on the Central of Georgia Railroad. Later, it ran on two short-lines, the Talbotton Railroad and the Bowdon Railway, before ending its operating years in the 1950s.



The engine is currently non-operational but can serve the community by preserving the history of Chattanooga in a new location, said Tim Andrews, president of TVRM. "The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum is pleased to provide this loan in hopes it will brighten the day of thousands of children and their families who visit Childrens Hospital.



The new Childrens Hospital at Erlanger is designed to engage a childs imagination and to improve and enhance the experience for the children visiting the hospital, said Bruce Komiske, VP, New Hospital Design and Construction. We are thrilled the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum is playing an important role in the healing process by opening the imagination of both children and adults to the history of trains inChattanooga.


Assyrian believers return to pray at their church after it was destroyed by Islamic extremists.

Today's guest blog is from Tami Yeager, EPMs former financial administrator. Because of her passion for the persecuted church, Tami serves as a volunteer community voice coordinator for The Voice of the Martyrs.

Suffering is not a new truth, it is an old truth." Sarah Liu imprisoned and tortured for her Christian witness.

This coming Sunday the 6thday of November, 2016 is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. Christians from around the globe will set aside time to honor, remember, and pray for our persecuted family. I am grateful for the privilege of standing shoulder to shoulder with those of whom the world is not worthy. I pray that this day is the beginning of a deeper fellowship with our persecuted family.

I rarely approach IDOP without remembering my introduction to those who suffer for their faith.

I was reading for the first time a Voice of The Martyrs newsletter. The stories were disturbing and intriguing. I found myself face to face with a reality I couldnt reconcile. The suffering and pain was too difficult to fit into the sterile package I had stuffed my understanding of God into.

The journey I began by reading the true life stories of persecuted Christians would eventually land me at a VOM regional conference in Bartlesville, OK. It was there that a more disturbing truth came to life. That first evening I listened as a man from Pakistan described the road of suffering Pakistani Christians walk. He told of the torture and eventual murder of a young boysomeone's son, brother, and friend. This child died at the hands of his torturershis crime? He was a Christian. For the first time in my life I contemplated the possibility that God would not always intervene--that perhaps suffering was part of His plan.

Being shaken by the very thought of suffering of this kind, I went back to my hotel room and had a heart-to-heart talk with my God. You see, it was up until that time that I had cried send me! Now I was asking Him to not honor my requests. The weight I felt upon my heart was great. Standing securely in my mirage of comfort, safety, and control, I laid out my plan for my life. He graciously listened to me try to tell Him what to do.

Day two of the conference began with me feeling assuredcertainly my oneon-one talk with God had sealed the deal. I had effectively canceled out all those send me prayers! It was then that a young man from the Middle East began to share about his work, which includes traveling great distances into hostile territories controlled by Islamic extremists. These were places where Christians die for their faith. Pictures were displayed on a screen behind him of people receiving the Bibles he delivered. Their expressions of curiosity and delight captivated me. As he spoke, he seemed puzzled by those who ask why he goes to such dangerous places. His response was simply, Since when has the gospel been safe?

I felt as if I were alone with the Lord in that room. I knew He was speaking directly to me. I recalled the list of demands I called a prayer the night before, and heard Him say, I did not create you that way. Im so glad He didnt create me that way.

So, instead of continuing to focus on preventing sufferingwhich we simply wont be very successful at anywayperhaps we should begin entering the suffering, participating insofar as we are ableentering the mystery and looking around for God. In other words, we need to quit feeling sorry for people who suffer and instead look up to them, learn from them and if they will let usjoin them in protest and prayer.  Eugene H. Peterson, Introduction to Job, The Message Bible

Theres a beauty in martyrdom that one can only see through spiritual eyes. Perhaps this is why Hannelie Groenwald can say God prepared her before the Taliban attacked, killing her husband and two children. She and her family had left the comforts of home to serve God in Afghanistan. They knew the risks and refused to deny the call of God. Her family gave it all for Jesus in Afghanistan. You can listen to her story at https://secure.persecution.com/radio. Pray for Hannelie and others who are living martyrs.

We die only once. We might as well die for Christ.  Werner Groenwald

The church in America can join with the body of Christ around the world to pray and remember the persecuted church on November 6th. To learn more please visit www.persecution.com/idop.

And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand (Revelation 8:4).

It was not easy for me to say that I forgive the killers. Semse said later at the memorial service. To be honest, my heart is broken and my life feels shattered. I really loved Necati. He was the love of my life, my closest friend. But there is no one I love more than Jesus. Only because of this, I can bear it.  Semse Aydin from Faithful Until Death.

This article originally appeared on EPM.org, Eternal Perspective Ministries. Used with permission.

Photo credit: VOMUSA

Publication date: November 15, 2016
The AIM Center, a psychosocial rehabilitation center focusing on mental health recovery, is partnering with the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerces Downtown Council for a brainstorming session on how to address issues present in downtown Chattanooga. The discussion will take place on Thursday at 8 a.m. at 472 W M L King Blvd.

Sparking conversation about issues present in downtown including homelessness and panhandling, the partnership between the AIM Center and the Chamber hope to develop an initiative to aid the betterment of downtown dedicated to dialogue over coffee and pastries.

The AIM Center is the only facility in Tennessee utilizing the clubhouse method focusing on the enhancement of living, working and socializing with serious mental illness while striving for mental health equality.

For more information contact Sarah-Grace Battles at 336.402-7290.


It's that time of year again. Santa is making his rounds in southwestern Connecticut.

The legend of Santa Claus can be traced back hundreds of years to a monk named St. Nicholas. According to History.com, "it is said that he gave away all of his inherited wealth and traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick."
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BRIDGEPORT  Revelers gather. Bullets fly. A festive gathering becomes a blood-soaked tragedy.

Twice in three months large private parties in town have turned into crime scenes.

A teenagers Sweet 16 birthday bash that packed the Circolo Sportivo Club in the North End with over 300 guests  some uninvited  erupted in gunfire this weekend, wounding five.

"I'm more than confident we will have this wrapped up very soon," Police Chief Armando A.J. Perez said of the search for suspects.

But another weekend shooting in the backyard of an East Side home in August that injured 13 out of a crowd of over 100 remains unsolved.

Perez said it is time for the city to require police security at these events.

I want to have an ordinance that spells it out, Perez said Monday. Youre going to have a large party? All right. You need a permit. We can scrutinize what it is theyre doing. And youll hire one, two, sometimes three (cops), depending on the amount of people.

He said the idea is to be proactive, rather than reactively responding to complaints about loud parties or crimes at events.

I want to get away from all that, Perez said. You want a party, you need a DJ, x amount of food, a police officer.

Right to party

The details, like the minimum-size crowd requiring a permit and the costs associated with the security, are too be determined.

You never want to make it a police state, Perez said. You want to have a party for kids or picnic, and all of a sudden you need a permit and police. I dont want that.

And Perez emphasized the ordinance would have to apply to all private gatherings, whether in a home, at a club or a business. He recalled the recent grand opening of a local restaurant.

They had a huge, huge opening day party, Perez said. I didnt know about this. And they have security. But they had a huge fight that night. Cars got broken into. It was a mess. Thank God nobody was shot, nobody was hurt. There was a huge, huge potential for worse violence.

Perez has support from some key members of the City Council, which is responsible for drafting and passing new ordinances. This would hardly be the first time that body has crafted laws in response to city violence. The council passed a youth curfew in 2012.

It sounds reasonable if you can find the right balance, said Council President Thomas McCarthy. Clearly we want to make sure that the kids of the city of Bridgeport are protected. At the same time youve got to figure out where is the line where you would require a police officer. The conversation is just beginning here.

Council women Michelle Lyons and Rev. Mary McBride-Lee co-chair the public safety subcommittee. Both agreed it is time to consider Perezs proposal.

If nothing else it would protect our young folks, McBride-Lee said.

Lyons said a party security ordinance could be helpful in the citys North End, where students from Sacred Heart University live in off-campus housing and can throw some pretty big bashes.

It protects the homeowners, neighbors, people at the party, Lyons said. Im totally in agreement with that.

Av Harris, spokesman and senior adviser for public policy to Mayor Joe Ganim, said Perezs proposal is worth a serious look. But, Harris cautioned, city officials would want to hear from residents and the business community.

Gate crashers

Mario Testa, the citys veteran Democratic Town Chairman, also runs Testos restaurant and catering facility in the North End. The venue can host partys of over 300, and Testo said he does not require customers to provide security.

Testo acknowledged it does not take much for an event to get out of hand. He recalled a 16th birthday party that got out of hand after the guest of honor mentioned it on social media.

Uninvited people start coming in, Testo said. What happened is we went up to the father and said, You had more people than your request. ... The father happened to be a police officer. he made sure they were escorted out.

Testo said if the city were to pass a party security ordinance, the costs would have to be borne by his customers.

George Mintz, head of the Bridgeport NAACP, questioned what Perezs proposal would mean for civil rights if passed.

Someone tells me they want to pass an ordinance to force people to hire a cop for an event, I immediately go, Wait. What about my rights? I dont want a cop. Why should I be forced to do it? Mintz said. Thats my gut reaction.

Dan Barrett, the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticuts legal director, said that organization understands the need for safety, especially given what the citys been through.

Barrett said it is important that, whatever is being considered in Bridgeport, be applied fairly and equally.

It cant be the case that every event gets a different answer or that it depends on the officer that assesses (a party), Barrett said. You want to make sure standards are black and white and not so onerous no one can have a private gathering, because we have the right to gather together under the First Amendment.

Staff Writer Daniel Tepfer contributed to this report
BRIDGEPORTPolice are asking for help identifying the driver that allegedly struck a male pedestrian leaving him seriously injured.

The man, Michael Kravitz, 58, of Greenwich, was rushed to Saint Vincents Hospital around 5:45 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 12, according to a statement from city spokesman Av Harris.
HARTFORD  A former top state banking official on Tuesday could not recall whether he edited and deleted social-media posts before or after a request to examine them under Connecticuts public-records law was filed last year.

Bruce H. Adams, former chief counsel for the state Department of Banking, where he briefly was acting commissioner, said that he was sleep-deprived and dealing with the needs of his young family when a Freedom of Information Act request to review his social-media postings arrived shortly after the birth in September, 2015 of his third child.

I really dont remember when I did these things, said Adams, who is now Lt. Gov. Nancy Wymans Capitol legal counsel. Adams said that he became aware of a complaint on the issue after an attorney for the Otoe-Missouria Tribal Nation found social media posts on Twitter, Facebook and Linked-In that disparaged the tribe.

Adams said he was home on family leave, holding a newborn son, when Karen Buffkin, Gov. Dannel P. Malloys legal counsel, called him with the complaint from the tribes attorney. Lawyers for the tribe believe Adams, who used his home computer and mobile phone to post the social media, should be held liable for civil violations of state law requiring the retention of public records, even on otherwise private social-media posts.

During a three-and-a-half-hour-long hearing before Lisa F. Siegel, legal counsel for the Freedom of Information Commission, tribal lawyers tried to pin Adams down on when he knew about the FOIA records request and when he edited, deleted and, as Adams said, took down posts relating to the tribes court battle with the Department of Banking over so-called payday loans.

A Superior Court judge ruled recently that the Ote-Missouria Nation has tribal immunity, but the Department of Banking now has to revisit the issue and determine whether the loan entities of the Oklahoma-based tribe also have sovereign immunity. The companies, located on tribal land, are called Clear Creek Lending and Great Plains Lending.

They were under fire by state officials in recent years for allegedly taking advantage of state residents with short-term, high-interest loans. Connecticut limits such loan amounts to 12 percent, but Great Lakes and Clear Creek charged as much as 449 percent.

Adams posts included swipes at the tribe. Just imagine the public reaction if CT purposefully set up an Internet payday lender to violate tribal lending laws, was one of Adamss posts. While it was eventually deleted, consultants for the tribe saved screen shots of the postings that were introduced as evidence.

The hearing will be continued in January.

kdixon@ctpost.com;
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BRIDGEPORT  Since returning to office last December, Mayor Joe Ganim has become a bit of a jet-setter, visiting other states and countries in the name of professional development.

This week, Bridgeports mayor is in Israel.

Prior to his latest trip, he attended a gathering of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Miami, FL. in January, a National League of Cities conference in Washington D.C. in February, and another Conference of Mayors event in June in Indianapolis, Indiana.

In July Ganim was present when the national Democratic Party nominated its first female presidential candidate  Hillary Clinton  in Philadelphia, PA.

Then last month it was off to South America, specifically Ecuador, for the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development.

It is like Ganim is making up for the travel opportunities he missed over the 13 years since he last served as Bridgeports chief executive.

Ganim and about 30 mayors from around the world are participating in this weeks Israel trip sponsored by the International Conference of Mayors and the American Jewish Congress. The city paid for his $750 airfare but other expenses are covered by the two host organizations, according to Ganims office.

The advantage to this trip is its focus on technological advances that can improve the function of municipal government, as well as security methods to make cities safer, said Av Harris, the mayors spokesman. There are key meetings with mayors of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Nazareth, Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu, the Foreign Ministry and the defense industry, as well as numerous private sector technology firms working on cutting edge programs for municipalities.

Harris said Ganim also hoped to meet with the American Ambassador to Israel to discuss economics and politics.

But it is hardly all business. Ganims itinerary included a private moonlight tour of Nazareth, a dinner with Jerusalems mayor in beautiful city hall, a light festival in Jerusalem, stops at the trendiest bars, restaurants and shopping in Tel Aviv, an afternoon at the Dead Sea, and a tour of Masada National Park.

Harris said Ganim previously toured Israel with other mayors in the 1990s, and has also been to nearby Lebanon to visit family.

Ganims most recent Middle Eastern jaunt drew mixed reactions locally.

Mark Block, executive director of Congregation Rodeph Sholom in Bridgeport, said it is critically important for chief elected officials of diverse cities like Bridgeport to experience other cultures, then return home with a greater understanding of commonalities and differences in their community.

Its a good thing for any elected official to broaden their personal horizons, Block said.

But ex-mayoral candidate Mary-Jane Foster said had she won last Novembers general election rather than Ganim, she would not have taken this trip.

Foster, a Democrat who petitioned her way onto the ballot, led a coalition of anti-Ganim forces who sought to thwart his return to office after Ganim won that Septembers mayoral primary.

Not only are there very pressing issues here at home  weve just had a 29 percent (tax rate) increase and public safety is at least as bad as a year ago  this trip doesnt seem to be offering any immediate opportunity to enhance our security, grow our job base, grow our tax base, Foster said.

Donald Greenberg, a Bridgeport resident who recently retired from teaching politics at Fairfield University, has twice flown to Israel.

There are no cities in Israel comparable to Bridgeport, Greenberg said. It doesnt seem likely he can gain much from it.

But, Greenberg added, the trip is not an expensive one and perhaps Ganim will glean some ideas from the other municipal chief executives.

I dont have a great problem with him going, Greenberg said.
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Ten Connecticut prescribers, including a Derby nurse who is at the center of a federal kickback probe, were responsible for more than 23 percent of the states Medicare spending on opioids in 2014.

The finding suggests that the largest share of those prescriptions is concentrated among a small number of clinicians.

Recently released federal Medicare data show that Heather Alfonso, formerly a nurse with the Comprehensive Pain & Headache Treatment Centers, LLC, in Derby, and four other advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) at the clinic in 2014 dispensed more than $8.4 million in opioids in the Medicare program - accounting for a full 15 percent of all such prescriptions in the state.

They were among the top 10 opioid prescribers in 2014, who accounted for $13 million of the $56 million spent on the drugs, the data show.

More than 4,800 Connecticut clinicians, mostly physicians, wrote Medicare prescriptions for oxycodone, fentanyl and other opioids.

But the prescribing was not evenly spread out - only two-dozen prescribers wrote out more than $250,000 worth of prescriptions. On average, the 4,830 providers billed Medicare for about $11,000 in opioids.

Alfonso has pleaded guilty to accepting kickbacks from Arizona-based Insys Therapeutics in exchange for prescribing Subsys, a powerful fentanyl pain medication intended for patients with cancer. A previous C-HIT story reported that she and three other nurses at the Derby clinic were responsible for nearly all of the states 2014 Medicare spending on Subsys - 279 claims, at a cost of $2.3 million.

None of the other three nurses has been implicated in a federal probe of Insys marketing of Subsys that resulted in criminal charges against Alfonso.

The Derby clinic, located in Griffin Hospital, and a Meriden affiliate remain in operation.

Dr. Mark Thimineur, who runs the treatment clinic, also has not been implicated. He did not return messages seeking comment on the clinics opioid prescribing.

Alfonso topped the list of opioid prescribers, with $3.5 million in prescriptions (6,240 claims). Second on the list was Monika Chaves, a former APRN at the clinic, with $1.85 million (3,664 claims).

Dr. Michael Brennan, a Fairfield pain specialist, was the third highest prescriber, with $1.84 million (4,596 claims). Brennan declined comment, but previously told C-HIT that he specialized in patients with chronic pain and was selective in accepting patients and diligent in monitoring prescriptions.

The three other APRNs who worked at the clinic were: Jean Vulte, with $1.7 million in opioid charges; Ashley Dizney, with $773,000; and Karlene Jean-Pierre, with $594,700.

The other prescribers in the top 10 were: Dr. Vincent Carlesi, medical director of Pain Management Associates of Connecticut, in Stamford, with $817,000; Dr. Mohan Vodapally, of Connecticut Regional Pain Specialists, LLC, in New Haven, with $692,360; Jon Lum, a physician assistant in New Haven, with $639,000; and Dr. Christopher Mastino of Fairfield, with $524,400.

None of them returned messages, but managers at several of their offices noted that the practices specialize in pain management and said prescribing is carefully monitored.

Drug overdose deaths in Connecticut have climbed in recent years, with fentanyl partly to blame. In 2015, 729 people died of accidental overdoses, 188 of them involving fentanyl. Dr. James Gill, the chief state medical examiner, said in a September report that he expects the total for 2016 could reach nearly 900.

The rise in overdose deaths has strained Gills office, which was told in October that it will lose its national accreditation and be placed on probation by the National Association of Medical Examiners.

The state has adopted a number of legislative changes to regulate prescribing of opioids and improve reporting.

In July, the state shifted from weekly to real-time reporting of prescriptions for opioids and other controlled substances. Pharmacies are now required to report controlled substance (Schedule II to V) prescriptions immediately, or at least within 24 hours after they are dispensed, into a central database, known as the Connecticut Prescription Monitoring and Reporting System (CPMRS)..

Alfonso also was the highest prescriber of Schedule II controlled substances in 2013, Medicare data show, accounting for $2.7 million in prescriptions. She is now cooperating with federal investigators in the ongoing probe of Subsys.

C-HIT data analyst Matt Wynn contributed to this story.

This story was reported under a partnership with the Connecticut Health I-Team ( www.c-hit.org ).
BRIDGEPORT  An interfaith prayer service, Prayer for a Path to Peace and Racial Healing will be held Tuesday, Nov. 22, 7 p.m. in St. Augustine Cathedral.

The service is open to people of all faiths and is the beginning of a major interfaith initiative designed to bring together a widely diverse community with a goal toward bringing a new level of dialogue and kinship of people of many faiths and ethnicities, said Brian D. Wallace, spokesman for the Diocese of Bridgeport.

Scheduled speakers include Bishop Frank J. Caggiano; Rev. Cass Shaw, president of the Bridgeport Council of Churches; Rabbi James Prosnit, leader of Congregation Bnai Israel, a Reform temple in Bridgeport; and Pastor Anthony Bennett, lead pastor of Mount Aery Baptist Church in Bridgeport, a local leader of Black Lives Matter.

The Sacred Heart University Choir will provide musical selections at the service, Wallace said in a press release.

The prayer service is the launch of a community-wide effort to promote racial healing, officials said. It is response to a request by Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) president, that a prayer service for peace and for solutions to unresolved racial and criminal justice issues be held in every diocese.

The Rev. Reginald D. Norman, pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Church in Wilton, and episcopal vicar of the Apostolate of African American Catholics, said that given the unrest in the world and the problem of violence at home, the service is meant to bring people of many different faiths and backgrounds together.

It is our hope that as we begin in prayer, we will work together in the weeks and months to come to be a beacon of hope and understanding for all people. Our world needs an open and honest dialogue regarding these issues, Norman said. We are excited to begin this work.

The interfaith team will host listening sessions at 10 Fairfield County sites to discuss the issues and make recommendations on new ways to foster peace, Wallace said.
Dr. Ollie Lee, distinguished professor of sociology at Lee University, will present a culminating lecture titled, Applying the Sociological Imagination: The Intersection of Personal Biography and Societal Change on Wednesday at 6 p.m. in Lees Humanities Building.

This is Dr. Lees final semester of service, and we want to take this special time to honor his excellent work, said Dr. Jeffrey Sargent, chair of the Department of Behavioral & Social Sciences.

Having graduated from Lee College in 1958, Dr. Lee went on to earn a bachelors degree and doctorate in sociology, then returning to Lee in 1967. His career at Lee began with the goal of helping the school transition from a junior college to a four-year liberal arts program. In 1968, he taught sociology to the first class to graduate from the new program.

Since then, Dr. Lee has served as chair of the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences, dean of the Division of Arts and Sciences, associate dean and academic vice president. In 2002, he was named distinguished professor of sociology.

Outside of the classroom, Dr. Lee has participated in the Cleveland Optimist Club, Cleveland Helpline telephone counseling ministry, consulted and was a member of city and county citizens study committees and was a research consultant for the Church of God International Study Commission. He is a member of the Southern Sociological Society, Christian Sociological Society, World Future Society, Alpha Kappa Delta International Sociology Honor Society, and Association of Christians Teaching Sociology.

Dr. Lee and his late wife, fellow Lee alumna Glenna Sheppard, have three sons, three daughters-in-law and five grandchildren. Active in the Westmore Church of God and the ministry of Gideons International, Dr. Lee speaks for the Gideons in many local churches.

This is a free, non-ticketed event.

Prior to the lecture, a reception will be held in Dr. Lees honor from 4-5:30 p.m. on the 3rd floor lobby of the Humanities Building.

For more information, contact the Department of Behavioral & Social Sciences at 614-8125.


GPS Social Justice classes welcomed students from Brainerd High School for conversation and lunch. Members of Brainerds Leadership and Ladies First programs toured the school and chatted about classes, sports, and clubs with GPS girls, initiating the second year of the partnership between the two groups.

Smiling and laughing as they got to know each other better, these girls and boys considered opportunities for future fellowship and collaboration. Meg Marshall, a GPS junior, thought it was cool to see how the girls had the same interests -- and the same worries about college applications.

It was nice to brainstorm about causes we both believe in, added Haven Nguyen, a sophomore member of the class, and to talk about ways to promote those causes together. Not least, it was fun! exclaimed sophomore Megan Burnette.

The partnership between the two schools began last year in an effort to foster communication among the Chattanooga communitys youth, and this years Social Justice students are excited to continue this relationship, said officials. Teacher Callie Hamilton says, If our girls come away from this partnership with an appreciation for diversity, a sense of kinship and shared responsibility with other youth for shaping the future of our city and country, and an ability to view situations from multiple perspectives, then I will be a very happy teacher.
Two men are facing drug and weapons charged after a speeding car was stopped on Dixwell Avenue in Hamden.

Just before midnight Saturday, Officer Justin Thibault observed a motor vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed. Moments later, a motor vehicle stop was conducted.
First Flight of Southwest Airlines arrives in Cuba

The first flight to Cuba by American company Southwest Airlines arrived on Sunday at Juan G. Gomez International Airport, near Varadero resort, with 143 passengers on board, and it starts operations with two daily flights from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The Boeing 737-700 touched Cuban soil yesterday noon and, according to Manuel de Oyarzabal Castellanos, one of the company's 17 executives who traveled on this inaugural flight, this is the beginning of other operations by this airline that will also reach cities like Havana and Santa Clara.

Steve Goldberg, Vice President Ground Operations of the airline, confessed being excited about this opening and stated that the employees worked hard to open that route and a new chapter for people wanting to visit Cuba.

Passengers from Fort Lauderdale International Airport, mostly Cubans based in the United States, wore yarey hats and Cuban flags and expressed their satisfaction to arrive in just 45 minutes, on a comfortable and fast trip.

Juan Gualberto Gomez International Airport, in this so-called high tourism season, receives 140 flights a week from various nations, including four daily flights from the United States.

Southwest Airlines is based in Dallas and has 46 years of experience, distinguishes itself by serving more than 100 million customers each year, and operates more than 3900 flights per day through a network of 99 destinations in the United States and eight other countries, with Cuba among them from now on.

Oyarzabal Castellanos said that although the inhabitants of the United States cannot travel to Cuba because there are laws in their country that do not allow it, the interest of the Americans grows to know and approach the Caribbean island and for this they use the cultural, academic, religious and educational exchange, among other modalities.
Visits by US citizens to Cuba grow 80 percent in 2016

By the end of the first half of this year, 136 913 Americans visited Cuba, 79.7 percent more than in the same period of 2015, although none of them traveled as tourists due to restrictions imposed on Cuba.

The Americans came to the Caribbean island under the 12 categories authorized by President Barack Obama, and were the third largest group that received this nation in that period, according to the National Bureau of Statistics and Information (ONEI by its Spanish acronym).

According to ONEI, in the first six months of this year, 2 147 919 visitors arrived in Cuba, and Canada leads the list of the source markets of tourists, followed by the Cuban community abroad.

The arrival of Americans to Cuba was favored after the new scenario opened between both countries, and from the flexibilizations approved by Obama.

Since last May, cruiser Adonia, owned by Fathom Company, a subsidiary of Carnival, has been traveling to Cuban ports, but without a single tourist on board, since the tour is covered by the general license of educational trips "people to people", one of the 12 categories authorized by Washington.

Studies indicate that the Caribbean has established itself as the main cruise market in the world with a participation quota of 40 percent of the total of this sector; more than half of the tourists' reception is concentrated in the northern part of the region, in which Cuba also occupies a privileged place.

However, the Caribbean island remains excluded from these routes due to the restrictions of the blockade, a reality that begins to acquire other nuances with the granting of exceptional permissions by the US Department of Treasury.

According to the World Tourism Organization, in the first half of 2016 the arrival of international tourists from all over the world increased by 4% in relation to similar stage of the previous year, and the most favored regions were Central and South America, with 7 and 6 percent of growth respectively.

United States were the main contributor to this result as the main tourism source market to the Caribbean.

Experts estimate that when there is no longer a ban on Americans to spend holidays in Cuba, two million of them would arrive per year in this territory, a figure that would increase to five million in the medium term.

The blockade also limits the consumption of Americans on Cuba, because they cannot use their credit cards, or attend certain recreational activities.

So far only MasterCard issued by Stonegate Bank and Banco Popular de Puerto Rico can be used in Cuba.

According to Antonio Martinez, general manager of the emblematic Hotel Nacional, in an environment where the economic, commercial and financial siege does not exist, an American would spend five or 10 times more than what he currently does.
Ninety-eight attorneys with Baker Donelson have been named to the 2016 edition of Mid-South Super Lawyers, which recognizes attorneys in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee.



A total of eight of the Firm's Chattanooga attorneys were named to the list: Richard Faulkner, Russell W. Gray, Thomas O. Helton, Micheline Kelly Johnson, Virginia C. Love, Joshua A. Powers, William E. Robinson, and Clinton P. Sanko.



Micheline Kelly Johnson was also named among the top 50 female attorneys in the Mid-South. A total of eight attorneys from Baker Donelson were named to this list, which is the highest number of honorees from one firm in the 2016 Mid-South Super Lawyers list.



The publication also honored 57 Baker Donelson attorneys in its 2016 list of Mid-South Rising Stars, including five attorneys in the Firm's Chattanooga office: Marcie Bradley, Erno D. Lindner, Sara McManus, Eric D. Setterlund, and Justin M. Sveadas.


Lujan says she filed claims requesting the return of her belongings, but the facility never responded. She was unable to earn enough money working in the kitchen to replace the items and spent the remainder of her time at NMWCF lacking the bare essentials of personal hygiene, clothing and bedding, according to the suit. Her belongings were not returned upon her release from prison.
ATLANTIC SKIES: Stellar asterisms  eye-catching pretenders to the constellation throne and just part of the bigger picture

Most everyone, or at least most amateur astronomers, are familiar with the constellations in the night sky to some degree. Many, however, may not be familiar with the numerous asterisms in the night sky. What is the difference between a constellation ...
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is creating a $4 million fellowship program to help recruit the best and brightest graduate students from around the world, officials said.



The Tennessee Fellowship for Graduate Excellence, administered by UT's Graduate School, will debut in the fall of 2017 as UT's premier graduate fellowship program. It will provide four-year $10,000 annual fellowships for up to 100 graduate students. Over the course of their studies, fellowship recipients will receive $40,000 on top of their college-funded graduate research assistant or graduate teaching assistant stipends.



"Improving graduate education is a priority of our university's Vol Vision 2020 strategic plan," said Dixie Thompson, dean of the Graduate School. "This new program phases out our old top-off program that spread available dollars too thin, diluting the impact of the funding for everyone. This new program provides game-changing awards that will help us recruit the highest caliber graduate students."



The top-off programwhich this year is providing $4 million to graduate students campus-widewill be phased out over the next four years. As that money is freed up, it will be shifted to the Tennessee Fellowship for Graduate Excellence.



"By the 2020-21 academic year, the Tennessee Fellows program will have helped us recruit an elite group of 400 graduate students," Ms. Thompson said. "By monitoring their progress and work, we'll not only document the impact of this investment but also have success stories that will aid in future recruitment of graduate students while enhancing the reputation of our graduate programs."
Democrats saw a surge in new voters in Pennsylvania as midterms near
One of the most common criticisms of Gen. Braxton Bragg on the Army of Tennessee defense of Missionary Ridge is that he ordered, or at least allowed to be ordered, the placement of the rifle pits, or trenches, along the actual crest of the ridge rather than the military crest, which would be on the side facing the enemy but just below the edge of the actual crest. That particular criticism of Bragg is an unfair and inaccurate anachronism. Two other known placements of rifle pits by commanders recognized for their tactical skill demonstrate that this placement of rifle-pits was the standard practice of the time.

After the troops of Maj. Gen. Shermans command, mostly his own 15th Corps of the Army of the Tennessee, dug in the afternoon of 24 November 1863 on Billy Goat and Angora Hills (two hills joined by a short narrow ridge), they did so along the actual crest of the conjoined heights. You can still see the remains of these rifle pits along the crest of the ridge above Battery Heights, along with several well-preserved gun emplacements created at the same time.

When the troops of Cleburnes Division of the Army of Tennessee dug in at first on Trueblood/Tunnel Hill at the north end of Missionary Ridge across Lime Kiln Hollow from Shermans troops, they likewise did so along the actual as opposed to whats now called the military crest.

The reason for the later repositioning of Cleburnes defences had more to do with the fact that his opponent came from the north instead of the west, necessitating the single brigade of his division in active combat (Smiths) dig in perpendicular to the original trench in tighter formation just below the apex of the hill at Shermans Reservation where the cannons and plaques are now.

Recognized by anyone who knows very much about the Civil War as the best division commander of both armies, had placement of trenches along the actual crest not been standard military doctrine at the time, Maj. Gen. Patrick Ronayne Cleburne would not have employed it. The remains of those initial rifles pits along the crest of Tunnel Hill are clearly visible at Shermans Reservation and better preserved than those at Billy Goat-Angora Hill.

The most-often cited as the best division commander of the Union army, by the way, is Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan, then of the Army of the Cumberland.

Notably, one of Braggs brigade commanders, Col. Arthur Manigault of Andersons Division, dissented in the placement of the rifle pits, only to be told by Braggs engineer Capt. John Green that Maj. Gen. Breckenridge, whom Bragg had charged with the belated construction of defense works, had ordered that they be dug along the actual crest.

Disregarding those orders, Manigault had the rifle pits of his brigade placed along the military crest and futilely tried to convince the two commanders on either side as well. As a result, Manigaults line held while those on either side collapsed, though his troops had to withdraw to keep from being overrun.

It was, in fact, about the time of the Battles of Tunnel Hill, Tn., and of Missionary Ridge, that the doctrine of a military crest came into being. I posit that this change in military doctrine came about specifically because to the experience of the quick collapse of the Army of Tennessees line before the onslaught of the Army of the Cumberland on that day (25 November 1863) due in large part to the blind spots created by the traditional placement.

Chuck Hamilton

<natty4bumpo@gmail.com>
Jeff B. Carter | The Daily Helmsman

I hated my roommates. They would always steal my food when I was gone. Their friends would come in the apartment and steal things of mine from the living room, like a 6-foot lamp, an antique sign, and a pizza maker. Then, they broke them. The night before one of my exams, a Tuesday, they let a fraternity throw their party at our place because they would get in trouble if they threw it at their house. The only times I came out of my room were to get food or go to class. Reported by Nick Lingerfelt
Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park invites the public to participate in a free, one hour talk exploring the Georgia Land Lottery and its connection to present-day Chickamauga Battlefield. This program will take place on Saturday, Nov. 26 at the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center at 2 p.m.



Program Overview:

From 1831  1832, The Cherokee Nation, in efforts to keep its much-sought after land out of the

hands of the State of Georgia and its squatters, took its fight all the way to the United States Supreme Court.

In a landmark case overseen by Chief Justice John Marshall, the Court ruled that the Cherokee Nation was sovereign, yet President Andrew Jackson would not enforce the decision laid out in Worcester v. Georgia. Blatantly ignoring the Courts ruling, President Jackson and the State of Georgia continued surveying Cherokee land and allotting it to those who won the sections during the land lottery. Visit the park to learn about the fight over the Cherokee Nations land and how it connects to the battlefield.For more information about programs at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park,contact the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center at 706-866- 9241, the Lookout Mountain Battlefield Visitor Center at 423-821- 7786, or visit the parks website at www.nps.gov/chch
Prince Harry's girlfriend, actress Meghan Markle, 35, who appears in the American TV series Suits as flirty trainee lawyer Rachel Zane, remarked to her love interest and mentor, Mike Ross, in the latest episode shown here: 'The person you wake up with, you stay with.'

Some felt the same when the then 32-year-old Prince of Wales obliged 19-year-old Diana Spencer to join him (driving her Ford Escort) for secret rural trysts. And didn't this push Charles into their unhappy marriage?

Prince Harry's girlfriend, actress Meghan Markle who appears in the American TV series Suits , remarked to her character's love interest: 'The person you wake up with, you stay with'

While boozy Nigel Farage revels in his friendship with Donald Trump, the US president-elect is a lifelong teetotaller.

His alcoholic older brother, Fred, died in 1981 aged 43.

So he's unlikely to agree with Farage's claim that 'if we choose to enjoy a few drinks four or five nights a week after a hard day at work, whether it slightly shortens our lives or not, so what?'.

However, considering what he says while sober, isn't it a mercy that Trump isn't tempted by alcohol?

While boozy Nigel Farage revels in his friendship with Donald Trump, the US president-elect is a lifelong teetotaller

With her husband Ed Balls having qualified for this weekend's prestigious Strictly Come Dancing show in Blackpool, Labour MP Yvette Cooper, praises him 'for bringing joy to everybody in the most bizarre and surreal way'.

Not least herself? Surely the Balls family is now more popular with voters generally than Labour's briefly reigning Milibands or the Corbyns.

With her husband Ed Balls having qualified for this weekend's prestigious Strictly Come Dancing show in Blackpool, Labour MP Yvette Cooper, praised him

Broadcaster Gyles Brandreth, 68, complains on Twitter about a flight from Athens, adding: 'As my old chum [ex Labour deputy premier] John Prescott once said 'Thank God I'm back on terra cotta'. '

Prescott responds crossly: 'Never said it. Urban myth.' But wouldn't we like him better for saying it than denying he did so?

Leonard Cohen's song, Chelsea Hotel, describes how he made love to the late rock star Janis Joplin

Leonard Cohen's song, Chelsea Hotel, describes how he made love to the late rock star Janis Joplin, who died aged 27 in 1970.

His lyric boasts: 'I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel / You were famous, your heart was a legend / You told me again you preferred handsome men / But for me you would make an exception.'

Ms Joplin said in a 1969 interview they were never on such intimate terms, adding: 'He gave me nothing.' Cohen's death at 82 saddened many, but weren't his obituaries rather de trop, as the French would say?

Commonwealth Secretary General Baroness Scotland, famous for her lavish spending  including 338,000 to refurbish her official Mayfair residence  recalls a weekend job as a schoolgirl at Sainsburys in next Sundays episode of BBC2s Black Is The New Black: My teacher said, If you were to work really hard you would perhaps be able to become a supervisor.

Now, theres nothing wrong with being a supervisor at Sainsburys  its a great job. But as I said to [its billionaire ex-chairman] David Sainsbury, I dont think you can afford me. 
During the EU referendum campaign, this newspaper had the distinct impression that Brussels was burying until after the vote a raft of deeply unpopular plans for the future of the bloc. Most significant was the idea  long dreamt of by deluded federalists as part of their plan for a superstate  for an EU army.

No surprises then, that it was resurrected after June 23 and again last week by who else  European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, within hours of Donald Trumps victory in the US presidential election. (More proof, if it were needed, that there is no crisis the EU wont use to try to seize power from member states.)

No one is doubting that Mr Trump made some deeply worrying statements during the campaign about whether the US would continue to protect Nato member states, although the Mail suspects that, as with some of his other eye-catching claims, they may be softened when he enters the White House.

There is no doubt Donald Trump made some deeply worrying statements mid-campaign

But isnt the truth that he had a point? For too long EU nations have scrimped on defence, knowing  or just expecting  that the US will pay for their security.

Just look at the long list of countries which fail to meet the Nato target of spending 2 per cent of GDP on military expenditure, which includes Spain, France, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Eastern European countries such as Latvia and Lithuania.

The right answer to the incoming president isnt, as Mr Juncker would have us believe, yet more EU control. Put to one side the deeply unpalatable idea that this champagne-swilling former prime minister of Luxembourg might have some direct involvement in military matters (Nato member Luxembourg, incidentally, spends 0.4 per cent of its GDP on defence).

Simply put, building an EU army would undermine Nato, which has been the bedrock of Western defence and security since the end of the Second World War. It would also risk provoking Russia.

As Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon quite rightly put it yesterday: Instead of planning expensive new headquarters or dreaming of a European army, what Europe needs to do now is spend more on its own defence.

Europes leaders should publicly disavow the EU army and just put their hands in their pockets.

A posturing fugitive

Lawyers for Julian Assange were yesterday claiming  risibly  that he was prepared to co-operate to the full extent with Swedish prosecutors over an allegation of rape dating back to 2010.

In reality, the WikiLeaks founder is a fugitive, doing everything to avoid facing justice, while posturing as a defender of free speech and the rule of law.

More than four years ago he holed up in Ecuadors London embassy to escape extradition to Sweden. The round-the-clock police guard outside the door  which ended only last year  cost taxpayers an eye-watering 12million.

Swedish prosecutor Ingrid Isgren, centre, met Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in London yesterday , but refuses to be interviewed directly

To compound the outrage he now refuses to be interviewed directly or take follow-up queries, and instead answered to an Ecuadorian prosecutor reading questions from the Swedes. He is making a mockery of justice.

He also knows that the statute of limitations in the rape case expires in 2020, after which he will no longer face charges. What odds that that is when he decides to leave the embassy?
Aneurin Bevan's founding principles for the NHS was care at the point of delivery for everyone from the cradle to the grave

What I am about to say is tantamount to heresy in this country  particularly for a doctor. But Im going to be honest with you: I dont care about the NHS.

Not in the slavish, dogmatic way most people claim to care about the NHS, anyway.

Let me explain. Nothing matters to me more than that we have the most efficient, equitable healthcare system that delivers the best possible care for everyone  for the lowest amount of money.

But what I have absolutely no interest in is ensuring the survival of the current system simply because of ideology. And its hard sometimes to separate the ideology from reality when it comes to the NHS.

Aneurin Bevans founding principles of a national health service  care that is free at the point of delivery, that meets the needs of everyone, from cradle to grave  mean that anyone who suggests change tends to be shouted down.

The only publicly acceptable answer that politicians can give to the NHSs problems seems to be to pledge more and more money  yet this isnt working either. We are running just to stand still.

As the Mail revealed yesterday, health bosses are planning to close hospitals, as well as maternity and casualty units across the country in order to tackle the budget crisis. It has been described as a recipe for disaster. And I agree.

Speak to anyone who works in the NHS and you will hear the same thing: its on its knees. Services are stretched gossamer-thin. Its becoming increasingly unsafe.

This isnt to say the NHS doesnt still perform wonderful, near miraculous, things every single day. But we need to have a grown-up conversation about what the NHS is for, which needs it can realistically meet, and how we pay for it.

Politicians today campaign on giving more funding for the NHS which simply isn't working

All the research shows that a nationalised healthcare model such as the NHS is, broadly speaking, the cheapest and fairest system, so it would be wrong to simply try to move to another model entirely. But we need to stop thinking of it as a free service  it isnt.

You may not have to literally open your wallet for it, but every GP appointment, every referral, every scan costs money  your money.

I fear the endless rhetoric about the unassailable virtue of our free NHS means we have lost sight of its actual value.

Too many people think nothing of failing to show for an appointment or not taking the pills theyve been prescribed in a way Im convinced they wouldnt if they had to hand over the cash for it.

One patient of mine failed to show for a Saturday appointment theyd begged for  and when I rang to chase them, they explained that they couldnt possibly make it because there was a flash sale at House of Fraser.

Ridiculous, but sadly true.

As it happens, I still believe the NHS can be free at the point of delivery. And I dont believe we need to start charging for GP appointments, or asking for an annual subscription fee. But there are steps we can  and must  take to remind people that their medical care comes at a price.

Too many people think nothing of failing to show up to an appointment because they do not have to hand over cash

I suggest that, as well as a national campaign to tell people precisely how much the drugs and treatments they receive actually cost, they are also written to whenever they miss an appointment, telling them how much has been wasted and the impact its had on waiting times.

Doctors and managers, as defenders of the public purse, should feel emboldened to chastise those who waste valuable resources. Some trusts already do this, but I think it should happen everywhere.

I used to have a huge problem with non-attendance at one of my clinics. So much so that I started writing individually to my patients expressing my dismay that they had not attended their appointments and set up a system whereby they could email me directly if they werent going to come.

This meant that other patients who needed to see me urgently could take their appointment. My no-show rate dropped from nearly 50 per cent to less than 10 per cent.

The trust I work for also started texting patients reminders. It did take effort, but over time theres been a noticeable shift and I rarely have to chastise patients for not coming, which, of course, means more time spent actually treating them.

Its not just appointments. It should be easy for patients to return equipment such as wheelchairs and crutches.

At the moment these are often left cluttering up a patients spare room once they no longer need it, as there is no straightforward system in place for people to return them.

Last year the NHS in England spent 18 million on crutches, walking sticks and frames

This costs the NHS millions. According to reports, last year the NHS in England spent around 18 million on crutches, walking sticks and frames alone.

Not only is this a colossal waste of money, it also sends entirely the wrong message that the NHS is wasteful and profligate. If thats the message being sent, then why are we surprised when patients behave in the same way?

A major difficulty is that politicians are afraid to be honest with us about the NHS. The reality is that tough choices do have to be made about what it will and wont pay for. But no politician wants to be accused of rationing health care.

The trouble is this rationing is already happening  and in an entirely inequitable, undemocratic way.

At the moment, decisions about what treatments money is spent on have been put in the hands of Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) which means some will stop funding cataract surgery while in other areas it might be varicose veins. This is grossly unfair.

These are decisions we as a society should have a stake in, they shouldnt be left to faceless managers.

We need to have a serious debate about where we will draw the line for what the NHS can afford. This isnt going to be easy. If we, as a society, want to be able to offer expensive treatments or services to people that we currently cant afford  whether thats multiple rounds of IVF, or gastric band operations for weight loss  then that means well all have to pay for it.

A special payment should be made for the NHS similar to National Insurance in 1911

At the moment, though, politicians dare not increase taxes but equally dont want to admit the NHS has to ration things, so theyre stuck.

The unwelcome truth is that healthcare is costing more and so we have to get the money from somewhere if the NHS is not to be shrunk down.

At present, the health service is largely funded  to the tune of 116 billion last year  from taxation, with a small amount from National Insurance.

Its all a bit nebulous, so here I think politicians could be bold. I believe the solution is to create a specific payment for the NHS and social care in a similar way to how National Insurance was introduced in 1911 to provide a safety net for workers when they fell on hard times.

It would have to come with a cast-iron guarantee that the money was only used for the NHS and social care, and would only work if there were a corresponding drop in general taxation, to account for the new NHS contribution being made.

So, to be clear, people wouldnt be paying more tax overall, but they would be able to see exactly how much they themselves were paying towards the NHS.

Crucially, this would challenge the idea that the NHS was somehow free. Perhaps people would be less likely to skip appointments when they saw the NHS contribution leave their pay packet each month.

And when the national conversation turned to whether or not a particular drug or procedure should be available on the NHS, taxpayers would be more engaged in where the money was being spent.

We have to pay for healthcare one way or another, and this proposal would remind us of that. A national health service comes at a price.
A woman has revealed how she flew 1,200 miles to visit a man she had never met in an ICU - and even pretended to be his fiancee - after falling in love on the phone.

Sheri Schooley, 38, spent two months talking to the stranger, who was to be the best man at her best friend's wedding, before he was involved in a potentially fatal car accident.

Despite never having met John, 43, who she has now been married to for 14 years, Sheri immediately booked a flight from Florida, where she was at college, to visit him in hospital in New York.

Smitten: Sheri Schooley, 38, traveled 1,200 miles to visit John, 43, who was then a stranger, in ICU after falling in love on the phone. The couple are pictured left in 1997 and right this year

Fate? The Florida couple, pictured with their daughters Isabelle, 12, and Reese, four, this year, were introduced by their best friends, who were getting married

For the trip, she wore a diamond ring on her wedding finger and pretended to be his fiancee so that she would be granted access to see him in ICU.

She told Daily Mail Online: 'I felt like I had to be there - I certainly would have been had we established such a connection in person.

'At that point we had grown closer than many couples, so it only felt right to be there to show him how much he meant to me.

'And I needed to see him for myself, as much as to be there for him.'

After her visit they soon became a couple and 20 years since their first conversation they are now happily married and living in Florida with their two daughters Isabelle, 12, and Reese, four.

She said: 'I was definitely nervous, but so excited. Honestly, we both feel like my decision to be there made a huge difference in the course of our lives.

'Had I not taken that leap, we wouldn't be where we are today.'

Sheri, who is a stay-at-home mother, transcriptionist and freelance writer, said she first heard about John, who works in wholesale auto parts, when her best friend Tracy called her to say she was getting married to her boyfriend Scott.

When she asked Sheri to be her maid of honor, she joked that she would not walk down the aisle with a stranger, John, who was the best man.

A week later, he paged her and they later spoke on the phone.

'In spite of my joking around, it was so unexpected. I was intrigued and excited.

'He was actually hanging out with Scott and Tracy, and some other friends that night, and that added to the allure of the whole thing,' she said.

Happily married: Sheri, who is a stay-at-home mother, transcriptionist and freelance writer, and John, who works in auto parts, recently celebrated their 14th wedding anniversary

Deep rooted: The long distance relationship between the couple, pictured left on their wedding day in 2002 and right in 1998, began 20 years ago

Instinct: Despite never having met John, 43, Sheri, 38, pictured with her family in 2013, flew from Florida to New York after he was involved in a potentially fatal car accident

They ended up speaking for 'hours upon hours' every night - clocking up huge phone bills and developing a relationship.

Sheri said: 'We shared secrets and laughs and I think we were able to quickly make a deeper connection because there was no rhyme or reason to why we were even talking.

'There was no agenda - we just liked spending time together and we didn't have to deal with the pressure of impressing one another in person. It was just fun.'

She said as well as falling for his 'sexy voice', she was also attracted by the attention he paid her.

'The way he shared his day with me and the way he made me feel like a priority, even while I was 1,200 miles away,' she added.

The calls continued for the following two months until one night she found a message on her answer phone informing her that John was in ICU after being involved in a potentially fatal car accident.

'He had bleeding on his brain and his pelvis was sheared. They really werent sure if he was going to make it.

'My heart fell out of my chest and I crumbled. I needed to see him, needed to see him with my own eyes to see that he was going to be okay,' she wrote in an article for XO Jane.

After buying a plane ticket using her roommate's credit card, she phoned her parents to tell them that she was going to visit John in two days time.

'Yes, John, the guy I had never actually met. And I was flying 1200 miles to see him.

'To make sure he was OK. To make sure he was going to be okay. He needed to be okay. He just did,' she wrote.

Tactical: To get into ICU, Sheri, pictured with her family in 2005, put a diamond ring on her wedding finger and pretended to be his fiancee

Fast moving: After six weeks in hospital, John went to stay with Sheri in Florida for Spring Break before moving in with her the following summer

Special day: They celebrated their 14th wedding anniversary on November 9 - which also marked 20 years since their first telephone conversation

She told Daily Mail Online: 'I had grown so attached to this man that I just needed to see that he was conscious and aware.

'Even though his condition was uncertain, I just kind of felt that if he and I could interact like we had been, he might actually be okay.

'I thought him knowing how much I cared would help him at a time when he really needed it. I knew it made no sense, but it didn't matter.'

Although he was 'surprised' by her arrival, Sheri said it was also as if he was anticipating it.

She said: 'He was surprised, for sure. He couldn't believe it.

'But it almost felt like he expected me to show up - he had no idea I was coming, but it was like he was waiting for me to walk into that room.

'It felt like it was exactly where I was supposed to be. He was definitely happy to see me.'

After John had spent six weeks in hospital, Sheri went to stay with him in New York for Spring Break and he moved in with her the following summer.

They moved back to Podunk, New York, attended their best friends' wedding and later got married themselves.

They celebrated their 14th wedding anniversary on November 9 - which also marked 20 years since their first telephone conversation.
We've seen beauty bloggers experiment with polka dots, sequins and even succulents, but the latest nail art trend to sweep Instagram is the cosiest yet.

Manicure lovers are using seasonal knitwear as their inspiration and creating 3D 'sweater' nails intricate cable knit patterns and autumnal hues.

The technique sees women creating a 'stitching' effect by piling on the texture using clear varnish beneath a coloured top layer.

Scroll down for video

Beauty beauty blogger Karolina used a hybrid gel/ polish formula for her sweater nail look, using blush pink and grey to match her cosy knitted jumper

Fashion-forward bloggers first experimented with the look last year but as the nights draw in and temperatures drop, the trend is sweeping social media once more and proving more popular than ever.

Thousands of beauty experts and amateur bloggers have tried their hand at sweater nails, with many opting for a subtle matte effect to match their winter clothing.

Others have gone for a high-gloss finish to emphasize the shape and 3D texture of their chosen pattern, experimenting with a range of hues, from pastels to neons.

Claire Charpentier opted for a Christmassy red and white look perfect for the festive season. The 3D 'sweater' nails use intricate cable knit patterns and colourful, autumnal hues

Klaudia Kantorska opted for a similar pink/ grey palette, filing her nails into an elegant 'mountain' shape. The technique sees women creating a textured 'stitching effect'

Zuzu Murda Jasenkova went for a pretty palette of light pastel greens and pinks. Fashionistas first started experimenting with the look last year but it is sweeping social media once more

Katie-Jane Heneghan, owner of Katie Jane Nails in Hair by JFK, Edinburgh, told FEMAIL the trend is a 'fun way' to incorporate a more subtle style into your manicure.

'AW16 nail art has taken a more grown-up and toned-down approach focusing on colours and textures instead of wild funky patterns and neon colours,' she explained.

Katie says it's also a perfect look for Christmas.'As we approach the festive season, fashion is flooded with glitz and glam,' she added.

'So this trend is the perfect way to still show some fashion forward style with texture and without adding to the sparkle-perfect festive nails for clients who don't like glitter. You can easily add some festive vibes to your look by wearing a cosy jumper on your nails.'

Ewa Nails used chocolate cake as her inspiration with a brown, sugary effect offset by lilac. Thousands of beauty experts and amateur bloggers have tried their hand at sweater nails

Justyna Slusarz went for pale grey tones and applied the pattern to alternating fingers. Bloggers have been experimenting with a range of hues, from pastels to neons

Instagram user Irmina opted for two different shades of grey with a silver metallic ring finger. Nail expert Katie-Jane Heneghan calls it a 'fun way' to bring a touch of glamour

Monika Forys contrasted her blue talons against a fluffy pink jumper for her nail art selfie. Katie says the 'sweater nails' trend is also perfect for the Christmas season

'Create the look in the salon by using a variety of 3D gel or acrylic molds; but an easy way to recreate this look at home is playing on a matte and shiny finish to give a 3D look.'

'For this you will need a good quality polish in your favourite colour, a matte top coat, a shiny top coat, a small soft detailing brush and a photo of a knit pattern.

'Apply a couple of coats of polish followed by a matte topcoat. Then, once it has dried, take your detailing brush and dip it into your shiny topcoat and start painting on a series of small brush strokes in a knitted pattern.'

Alternatively you can buy ready-made stick-on nails.

Aldona Jarosz went for an intricate pattern, focusing on her ring and middle finger. Nail expert Katie says the trend adds 'festive vibes to your look by wearing a cosy jumper on your nails'

Milena ochnicka opts for a pale pink, ultra-textured look for her nails. Katie recommends adding a dramatic 3D look my playing with a mix of matte and high-gloss textures

One Instagram user opted for a pale pink and silver look to complete their 'sweater' manicure. You'll need a small soft detailing brush as well as two top coats to recreate the look yourself

Izabela Franas-Kala went for a pink and red look which she compared to 'burgundy wine'. The look can also be achieved by using ready-made stick-on nails

On Instagram, beauty beauty blogger Karolina used a hybrid gel/ polish formula for her sweater nail look, using blush pink and grey to match her cosy knit.

Klaudia Kantorska opted for a similar pink and grey palette, filing her nails into an elegant 'mountain' shape, while Zuzu Murda Jasenkova went for a pretty pastel palette of greens and pinks.

While Ewa Nails used chocolate cake as her inspiration, going for a light brown, sugary effect offset by lilac.
WSMC 90.5 FM, Southern Adventist Universitys radio station, will host its 23rd annual Cowboy Jubilee at the Hullander Farm. The event takes place on Sunday from 5:30-7:30 p.m. and will showcase western music, stories, and poetry.

The evening will feature various musical performances from Fletcher Bright, The Dismembered Tennesseans, In Cahoots Band, and many more.

All are welcome to attend this free concert, although donations are encouraged to fund the Hunter Worley Foundation, a nonprofit offering support to families who have suffered the loss of a child.

Hullander Farm is at 10944 London Lane in Apison. For more information, contact Scott Kornblum at scottk@southern.edu or visit wsmc.org.
Temptation is at every corner in life and some may say it's a weakness that is impossible to resist.

That's certainly the case for the children in the second episode of Channel 4's The Secret Life of Four-Year-Olds, as they are placed in a room with a giant box that is labelled with bold warnings that it should not be opened.

The experiment was set up by experts who watch and analyse their behaviour behind the scenes to further their research on child development.

Children on TV show The Secret Life of Four-Year-Olds are tested with temptation in the second episode as they are presented with a mystery box labelled with the words 'do not open'

In The Secret Life of 4 and 5-Year-Olds, 40 British children of different social backgrounds from around the country spend time playing and learning at a school rigged with secret cameras.

As the children wrestle with finding their place in the group, this week sees just how important language skills and assertiveness can be at four years old.

Expert and one of the commentators for the programme, Doctor Alison Pike, a developmental psychologist at the University of Sussex, explains: This is a twist on the original temptation task.

'Normally we put a temptation in front of children and we explicitly forbid them to touch it. In this case there is no explicit instruction.

Its going to be interesting to see, will the children create their own rules around this box or will they police the rules that they themselves create? Or instead, will they take advantage of the fact that there is no instruction and go wild?

The children are left alone with the box to do whatever they wish - there are no rules apart from the labels

While Megan, left, is keen to have a peek inside, Kahana, right, attempts to police the situation and keep the others from opening the contents of the box

The children can't resist the lure of the box and run wild while Kahana attempts to bring some control back to the situation before the adults return

The first three children - Kahana, Megan and Enzo - are ushered into the room by their teachers with said giant box and unknown to them it is full of colourful helium balloons.

The classic temptation test for the children has no strict rules, they must simply go with their own gut

While Enzo, a bright and confident child, immediately notices the box and questions its existence, he quickly distracts himself from temptation by playing with building blocks.

It's down to Kahana, a blonde, blue eyed youngster who we quickly learn has a speech impediment. This doesn't stop him from being assertive in protecting the box and its contents from his curious fellow playmate Megan, who peeks in and eyes up the balloons.

'Keep it closed!,' he tells her as she explains what is inside. But Kahana wants to be a 'good boy' and won't let anyone go near the box as he begins to police the other children with his own rules.

As more children arrive and make a run straight for the box, Kahana informs them: Dont open it! Because we cant until other children come. Dont! Dont!'

Dr Pike states: Kahana is a real enforcer.'

Megan spots that there are balloons inside but Kahana is firm in his commitment to protect it and tells them not to open it

Unfortunately for Kahana, the moment his back is turned, the other children run and open the box to let the colorful helium balloons free

Doctor Elizabeth Kilbey (left) and Doctor Alison Pike are pleased to see Zahana is able to express his assertiveness

While Doctor Elizabeth Kilbey, a consultant clinical psychologist, who is also watching the children on the monitor, adds of the child's assertive behaviour: Kahana has stopped Sam and Oliver in their tracks. That is an efficient use of a voice.'

But Kahanas back is turned for a minute and Layton gives him the slip and releases one of the balloons, he then gets extremely angry at the children and tries to capture the balloons and place them back inside: No! No! Keep it in there.'

Kahana has shown that even if you struggle with your language skills you can still be really assertive if youre motivated,' comments Dr Kilbey.

It's all too much for Kahana, who was outnumbered by the other children - but he passed the test as far as he was concerned

She continues: Eventually he was outnumbered, but I think this has been a really seminal moment for him. When he wants to he can communicate a message very effectively.'

The children run around screaming and playing with the balloons as Kahana worriedly attempts to bring things under control before the adults return.

It seems that he was the only one able to resist temptation that he placed upon himself, while all the other children went 'wild' with the contents of their box.
From John Lewis' hilarious short film starring Buster the dog to M&S' hugely popular Mrs Claus, retailers have been pulling out all of the stops to create mesmerising Christmas adverts this year.

The latest brand to jump on the festive bandwagon is Mulberry - and they've certainly called in the big guns to make this a showstopper.

The luxury British brand called on director Albert Moya and writer Hugo Guinness - of The Grand Budapest Hotel fame - to create their Christmas campaign film, which is called 'Its whats inside that counts'.

Mulberry is the latest brand to release its show-stopping festive film, which stars an all-child cast and was written by the man behind The Grand Budapest Hotel

The advert tells the story of a traditional British Christmas starring what the brand calls 'a waspish mother, bickering sisters and a son with a secret' - and they're all played by children.

Shot on location at West Horsley Place in Surrey, formerly owned by the Duchess of Roxburghe, the advert aims to portray how the loving spirit of Christmas triggers the family to realise that in the end 'its whats inside that counts'.

This ultimately unfolds on the night before Christmas in an act of endearing generosity, when Rose decides to give her sister her beloved Mulberry Bayswater bag.

A last-minute decision, she only manages to wrap it using pieces of leftover paper.

Admiring the badly wrapped gift, she concludes: 'Its whats inside that counts'.

The advert is a story of redemption and portrays how the loving spirit of Christmas trigger the family to realise that in the end 'its whats inside that counts'. It was shot on location at the plush West Horsley Place in Surrey

Discussing the inspiration behind it, creative director Johnny Coca said: 'Christmas brings out the kid in all of us, and this is what I love about using children to tell our story this year'

One of the children, Rose, is played by Beau Gadson, who starred in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

You might recognise a few of the children; Rose is played by Beau Gadson, who starred in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and Camilla is played by Darcey Brown Sutton of The Railway Children.

Discussing the inspiration behind the film, creative director Johnny Coca said: 'When I was a kid, all that I wanted to do was to be grown up so I could be like my dad.

'Now that I am an adult, I just want to be a kid again! Christmas brings out the kid in all of us, and this is what I love about using children to tell our story this year.'

The creative director, who has been credited with re-vamping the brand, added: 'When I was a kid, all that I wanted to do was to be grown up so I could be like my dad. Now that I am an adult, I just want to be a kid again!'
The friend told the mum she was

There's an old saying that you should never discuss religion or politics at the dinner table. But what about with friends?

One mum-of-two learnt the hard way that personal opinions can ruin friendships, after she lost a friend who was angry that she had chosen to vaccinate her children.

This is what happened to Deborah Douglass, from the Central Coast of NSW, after a fellow mother turned on her for taking medical advice from her doctors.

A mum-of-two, Deborah Douglass, has spoken out about losing a friend over the vaccination debate (stock image)

The mum from the Central Coast of NSW chose to vaccinate her children (above, Ms Douglass' daughter)

Ms Douglass, 45, first met the woman who would become her friend through her home business.

She said the mum was very anti-vaccination from the start, but she brushed it off initially.

Ms Douglass told Daily Mail Australia that the friend claimed a vaccination left her daughter with health conditions. 'I thought "well everyones got an opinion",' she said.

The woman often told Ms Douglass that she didn't trust doctors and didn't take her family to them, which the 45-year-old said she just didn't comment on.

Ms Douglass (above, with her children) had a friend tell her she was poisoning her kids by vaccinating them

IS IT ILLEGAL TO NOT VACCINATE YOUR CHILDREN? There is no law forcing parents to vaccinate their children. However the federal government recently introduced a 'no jab no pay' policy where parents who refuse to immunise their kids will not get family benefit payments. This policy has seen more than 190,000 children who were not fully vaccinated previously get caught up. Some of the areas with the lowest rates of immunisation include the NSW Central Coast, Queensland's Sunshine Coast and Adelaide in South Australia. Advertisement

However things started to escalate when the friend made a post online about vaccinations and started to try and give Ms Douglass advice about how she should raise her children.

'She was sending me all these documents claiming that it was putting poison into your child by giving them antibiotics or vaccinations,' the mum said.

'I said I didnt agree and then she started sending me nasty messages and all this garbage claiming to be evidence.'

She'd had enough, and blocked the woman on social media, cutting off all ties.

Only a couple of weeks later, Ms Douglass was even more glad of her decision to vaccinate her kids, when her daughter was rushed to hospital with a mystery illness. Doctors said that if she hadn't been vaccinated, it could have been much worse.

She ended up cutting off the friendship, and only weeks later her daughter was admitted to hospital with a illness doctors say would have been much worse if she wasn't immunised

The area Ms Douglass lives in has one of the highest percentages of unvaccinated children in Australia, and she says she worries about it a lot more now.

'I know a girl my daughter knows isn't vaccinated. It sounds bad, but I wish my daughter wasnt playing with that girl because of that.'
The filmmaker behind classic films Spirited Away and Howls Moving Castle has revealed he will be coming out of retirement to make one last film.

Oscar winner Hayao Miyazaki, 75, announced his retirement back in 2013 soon after revealing what he announced to be his final feature-length film, The Wind Rises.

But earlier this week, a new television special called Owaranai Hito Miyazaki Hayao. or The Man Who Is Not Done: Hayao Miyazaki on Japan's public broadcasting network NHK revealed that the anime legend will return for one more movie.

A big name: Oscar-winning Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, 75, has revealed that he will be coming out of retirement to make one more film

Legendary work: He is perhaps best known for the movie Spirited Away, which was the first anime film to win an Oscar

Miyazaki is infamously meticulous in his works, with some of his films taking upwards of five years to complete.

This fact in mind, Miyazaki revealed that this would definitely be his final cinematic undertaking, as he will be nearly 80 by the time it is completed.

He hopes to have it ready before his home city of Tokyo is due to host the 2020 Summer Olympic Games.

According to Variety, Miyazaki confessed in the special that: 'I havent said anything to my wife yet. When I do, though, Im ready die in the middle (of production).'

Spirited back: The news was revealed in a TV special on Japan's public broadcasting organization NHK

Body of work: Miyazaki had become one of Japan's premiere filmmakers before retiring from the industry in 2013 (pictured is a scene from 1985's Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind)

Back again: The animator's last film was meant to be 2013's The Wind Rises (pictured)

He added: 'I think its still better to die when you are doing something than dying when you are doing nothing.'

Excitement has already been sparked about the upcoming film after producer Toshio Suzuki revealed that Miyazaki was 'battling with CG', marking a departure from his signature, hand-drawing style.

The announcement is certainly welcome news for the millions of fans of his groundbreaking films, which are among the first anime works to gain renown the world over.

A different look? The animator is said to be 'battling with CG', marking a departure from his regular style

Among the best: In 2014, Miyazaki was honored with the Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievement

Spirited Away was the very first anime film to win an Academy Award in America in 2003.

Miyazaki also won the Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievement in November, 2014.

But the new film will mean a delay will be put on his shorter films he has been creating for the Ghibli museum - a theme park dedicated to his movies - one of which is a 12-minute movie about a bug 'so tiny that it may be easily squished'.
Donald Trump is pro-life. And while he says he is aware that Planned Parenthood has helped millions of women who go for services like breast and cervical-cancer screenings, the President-elect has revealed that he plans to defund the organization because a portion of its services go toward providing abortions.

But his words have sparked anger among some - particularly supporters of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, who was in fact endorsed by Planned Parenthood - while prompting others, including a number of fashion labels, to take a stand against Trump by vowing to do all that they can to protect the organization.

Indeed, following the President-elect's proposals regarding the nonprofit organization, a number of brands announced plans to donate a percentage of their funds to Planned Parenthood, in the hopes of prolonging its existence. Many companies are even marketing specially-designed products aimed solely at raising money for the organization.

Below, FEMAIL rounds up the fashionable items currently being sold in support of Planned Parenthood.

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A generous 50% of proceeds from Google Ghost's Nasty Woman t-shirts (as seen on Katy Perry) are going to Planned Parenthood

For the next 8 days, LB will donate $5 for every pair of their IAMM specs (in signature black as well 3 new colors) sold to Planned Parenthood to join others in helping protect a woman's right to choose.

'As the founder of this brand, I have and will always remain vocal about a woman's right to choose, as well as continuing to break the stereotypes and molds surrounding what motherhood should look like,' says Jenee (Jen) Roberts.

'Modern motherhood is for every mother to define for herself, whether single, gay, married, straight, etc, LB will continue to be vocal and support this vision.'

I Am Modern Motherhood Sunglasses in Black Round by Little Boogaweezin,$38; thelbbrand.com

Left: I Am Modern Motherhood Sunglasses in Lilac Magic Round by Little Boogaweezin, $40; thelbbrand.com. Right: I Am Modern Motherhood Sunglasses in Greige by Little Boogaweezin, $40; thelbbrand.com

I Am Modern Motherhood Sunglasses in Rose by Little Boogaweezin, $40; thelbbrand.com

Little Arrow is an Oregon based design studio founded by Bri Bulski.

20% of every sale of their Nasty Woman Lapel Pin will be donated to Planned Parenthood.

The pin is on pre-order, orders place now will ship in early December. 'Show the world you're a proud feminist! We won't be silenced. We won't be controlled. We WILL break the glass ceiling, together,' says Bri.

20% of every sale of the Little Arrow's Nasty Woman Lapel Pin will be donated to Planned Parenthood

A generous 50% of proceeds from Google Ghost's Nasty Woman t-shirts (as seen on Katy Perry) go to Planned Parenthood.

The form fitting tees are made of 100% fine jersey.

Shirts are made to order. Allow 7-10 business days for your shirt to be made and then applicable shipping time.

Nasty Woman T-shirt (unisex) by Google Ghost, $25; googleghost.com

While campaigning for Hillary Clinton, Academy Award-winning actress Anne Hathaway wore the a 'NASTYWOMAN' pendant by Kanarek.

The sterling silver necklace which has a 1pt diamond, retails for $175 and a $25 donation from each sale will be donated to Planned Parenthood.

While campaigning for Hillary Clinton, Academy Award-winning actress Anne Hathaway wore the a 'NASTYWOMAN' pendant by Kanarek. Sterling Silver Pendant Necklace featuring a 1pt diamond over the T by Kanarek, now $175; kanareknyc.com

The Outrage (a feminist marketplace founded by Rebecca Correa Funk and Claire Schlemme) is donating a whopping 100% of its profits from the sale of its Pantsuit line (including this Pantsuit Nation Tank below) toward Planned Parenthood in Hillary Clinton's name.

Pantsuit Nation Tank by The Outrage, $32; the-outrage.com

They have also pledged to donate 100% of the proceeds from sales from its Nasty Women Unite Collection (including this Nasty Women Unite Crop Top below) in Donald Trump's name to Planned Parenthood, as well as 15% of all other profit from the store.

Nasty Women Unite Crop Top by The Outrage, $28; the-outrage.com

'The Future is Female' slogan was created back in 1972.

Otherwild (a studio, store, community center, workshop and event space based in New York and Los Angeles) is featuring the very powerful and historical slogan on baby, youth and adult clothing.

Baby onesies/kids tees/t-shirts and sweatshirts for men and women are available in white and black and 25% of sale proceeds are donated to Planned Parenthood.

Due to heavy demand, some items are back-ordered and may take up to 2 weeks to ship out.
There are few relationships more intimate than that of a woman and her hairdresser.

As stylist to some of the most high-profile women of the past 40 years, Sam McKnight has created looks that have been copied across Britain  from Princess Dianas gamine crop to Kate Mosss rock- chick bedhead.

Here, he reveals the stories behind some of the iconic styles that have defined his stellar career, which is being showcased in a new book, Hair By Sam McKnight, and exhibition.

The royal crop that shocked the world

This shot of Diana in a white ballgown (above left) was taken in 1990, when I was working with the French photographer Patrick Demarchelier. She later asked to have her hair cut into a crop - That was one of the cuts that women suddenly wanted - you saw it everywhere

This shot of Diana in a white ballgown (above left) was taken in 1990, when I was working with the French photographer Patrick Demarchelier.

Id been told we were shooting someone important for Vogue, and guessed it might be Margaret Thatcher  and then the Princess walked in.

I faked a short style for the shoot, using hair grips to tuck her shoulderlength hair under the tiara.

Afterwards, she asked me: What would you do with my hair if I gave you free rein? Feeling brave, I said: I would cut it all off.

She was convinced immediately.

Lets do it, she said. So I cut it off there and then. I had no idea what was about to ensue. The style became frontpage news and there were journalists camped outside my parents house  they had to move out for two weeks.

'I saw Diana every week when I was in London  wed often watch Channel 4 soap Brookside at the palace together while I was doing her hair and I went on a number of her official trips', says Sam McKnight, pictured

That was one of the cuts that women suddenly wanted. You saw it everywhere  on the High Street, on newsreaders  it was a real counterpoint to big Eighties hair, part of a sportier, more androgynous look, but, because it was Princess Diana, it was still hugely feminine.

I saw Diana every week when I was in London  wed often watch Channel 4 soap Brookside at the palace together while I was doing her hair and I went on a number of her official trips.

She was fascinated by my work with supermodels and asked if she could meet Linda Evangelista and Liz Tilberis, Vogues editor at the time. I got a cafe in Knightsbridge to open specially for the meeting.

Diana would have been mortified if shed known, so Liz got Vogue staff to pretend to be customers.

Linda, Liz and I discussed the private shoot that Diana had done earlier that week with me and Patrick Demarchelier, and how one shot would make a great Vogue cover.

In the end, this iconic image of her in a black turtleneck with short hair, resting her chin on her hands, was the cover in December 1991. She had just stopped biting her nails and was so proud of how they looked!

Monkeying around with Linda

This was at the height of supermodel Linda Evangelistas fame in 1992 (with me on the left). It was a shoot for fashion brand Kenar, on location in LA - Jesse the chimp was perfectly trained

This was at the height of supermodel Linda Evangelistas fame in 1992. It was a shoot for fashion brand Kenar, on location in LA.

Jesse the chimp was perfectly trained  I put a wig on him, and thats how the picture came about! I once styled Linda for a shoot that saw her chased by a dozen Dobermans.

Her mother was there, clinging to me in terror, but all Linda cared about was which diamonds the photographer wanted at the forefront of the frame  the earrings or the bracelet!

Naomi: big attitude, bigger hair

Naomi Campbell was so sweet and beautiful. In this Nineties shoot for a jeans ad campaign, rather than restraining her hair, I gave her a huge hairpiece that was as big as her personality

I met Naomi Campbell when she was only 16. For her first shoot, she arrived on the bus in her school uniform and said her mother didnt know she was here, so we had to be quick!

We took one look at her and booked her straight away. She was so sweet and beautiful. In this Nineties shoot for a jeans ad campaign, rather than restraining her hair, I gave her a huge hairpiece that was as big as her personality.

She can be naughty, dangerous and unpredictable, but I love her to bits.

Gel? No, Coke and sugar!

With this 1993 look, I wanted to take Cindy Crawford away from the all-American big hair shes known for  and she rose gamely to the challenge of this side-swept, masculine style

When this picture was taken, Cindy Crawford was just about the most famous model in the world.

With this 1993 look, I wanted to take her away from the all-American big hair shes known for  and she rose gamely to the challenge of this side-swept, masculine style.

Back in those days, there wasnt anything like the number of products we have today  we used a solution of sugar and water, or even Coca-Cola, to get hair to stay put! It would have been utterly impractical in real life  youd have wasps buzzing around  but, for shoots, it was perfect.

Uma's screen goddess style

Way before Uma Thurman was an actress, we worked together a lot  she was just 22 for this shoot, for German Vogue in 1992, and two years away from her big break in Quentin Tarantinos Pulp Fiction  for which her harsh dark bob was such a bold change from her natural blonde

Ive known Uma Thurman since she was 16 and a tall, gangly schoolgirl.

Way before she was an actress, we worked together a lot  she was just 22 for this shoot, for German Vogue in 1992, and two years away from her big break in Quentin Tarantinos Pulp Fiction  for which her harsh dark bob was such a bold change from her natural blonde.

Around this time, we were on a photoshoot and, just for fun, I threw her in a swimming pool. What I didnt know is that she was wearing a pair of Manolo Blahnik shoes! I always said Id replace them, but I never did  perhaps Ill have to now Ive admitted it.

Kate the very salty girl

We flew to St Barts for three days and the airline lost my luggage with all my kit, so I had to improvise. I found a spray bottle at the hotel, filled it with sea water and used that, along with a bit of backcombing, to give Kate a beachy Bardot look

Kate Moss and I have now done 30 Vogue covers together  including this shot, which was taken by photographer Nick Knight. But there was one that almost went awry. We flew to St Barts for three days and the airline lost my luggage with all my kit, so I had to improvise.

I found a spray bottle at the hotel, filled it with sea water and used that, along with a bit of backcombing, to give Kate a beachy Bardot look. You couldnt tell and, indeed, salt sprays became a popular way of getting a beachy look a few years later!

Kim the chameleon

Kim Kardashian is a beautiful woman, and the ultimate professional.For this shoot, we sprayed her all day with water and put her in front of a wind machine: she didnt flinch

Ive only worked with Kim Kardashian twice. Shes a beautiful woman, and the ultimate professional.

For this shoot, we sprayed her all day with water and put her in front of a wind machine: she didnt flinch.

I admire her because shes not afraid to change her image. Thats part of the massive change social media has wrought. Its created a hunger for a rapid turnover of looks.

But its also an educational platform  it arms people with tricks and tips.

Shoots have changed so much since I started out.

Now, wherever you look theres someone with a camera. Youre on show in a way we werent before.

Hot rollers for Blanchett

For this shoot with Cate Blanchett I used a hot roller set and then teased the hair out using my fingers for a wonderful Old Hollywood glamour look

Cate Blanchett and I first met around 15 years ago and have worked together for film premieres and the Oscars  a few months after this image ran in Vogue in 2014, she won Best Actress for her part in Blue Jasmine.

I didnt do her hair that night, but I did in 2005, when she won Best Supporting Actress for The Aviator. She wore soft curls that framed her face perfectly.

The highlight of that trip was Cate taking me to a postceremony bash at Princes!

For this shoot, I used a hot roller set and then teased the hair out using my fingers for a wonderful Old Hollywood glamour look.

Girl with the best hair in the business

Gisele has the best in the business. That thick, dark blonde Brazilian hair with those light blonde highlights that show up perfectly in this image, shot by Alexei Hay for Harpers Bazaar in 2007

When Gisele Bundchen came on the scene, it was almost as if we were back in the Eighties, with her gorgeous curves and her big hair. And what hair it is!

Gisele has the best in the business. That thick, dark blonde Brazilian hair with those light blonde highlights that show up perfectly in this image, shot by Alexei Hay for Harpers Bazaar in 2007.

Giseles hair has hardly changed in the 15 years shes been modelling  and why should it? Women across Britain still go into the hairdressers clutching her photo and saying: Make me look like this!

Its part nature, part nurture  shes very good at keeping herself in shape, and that extends to her hair.
Little Violet Box had been sick for months. She had bouts of gastro that wouldn't go away, fevers and body aches.

Doctors tested for viruses, but each result came back negative.

A stool sample found Violet had two different parasites and her parents Colleen and Craig Box, of Brisbane, thought they finally had their answer.

But her symptoms returned, and tired of second-guessing herself, Mrs Box took her then six-year-old daughter for further testing.

Violet was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma.

Little Violet Box, seven, was diagnosed with a type of childhood cancer called neuroblastoma

WHAT IS NEUROBLASTOMA? Neuroblastoma is almost exclusively a childhood cancer, most common between the ages of 0-5 years. It may be difficult to diagnose as symptoms often do not become apparent until the tumour has reached a certain size. Even then symptoms may be subtle and similar to other more common non-serious childhood diseases. Visit Neuroblastoma Australia. Advertisement

'You feel really helpless,' Mrs Box told Daily Mail Australia.

'We always thought there was something there, and I think at one point I did think it could be cancer, but in my naivety I thought a blood test would show cancer so I thought we were clear.'

An ultrasound found Violet had an eight centimetre tumour on her left adrenal gland above her kidney that snaked along her major arteries.

The cancer had also spread through her bones, with 'hotspots' in her skull, legs and spine.

Tests showed an eight centimetre tumour on her left adrenal gland and cancer in her bones

'Within a week of us being in hospital she couldn't walk anymore, the cancer in her legs was so bad it was too much pain,' Mrs Box said.

The Grade 1 student was put on morphine, and doctors started the first of what was to be seven rounds of chemotherapy.

She had surgery to remove the tumour, with surgeons able to remove 95 per cent of the mass.

An autologous transplant saw doctor's collect Violet's own stem cells and transplant them back in, treating the cells that were damaged by chemotherapy.

More than a year after her diagnosis, she is still having immunotherapy treatment that uses drugs to boost the body's natural defences to fight cancer.

The long-term effects of these drugs are not known because they are still being trialled.

She underwent surgery to remove the tumour, chemotherapy, an autologous transplant using her own stem cells, immunotherapy and radiation treatment

'There's no cancer in her bone marrow, no tumour left at all and she's had radiation to some of the spots on her bones that remained after chemo,' Mrs Box said.

'We're now left with a very slight spot in her spine, which we're hoping by the time we end this stage of the treatment in January will be gone.'

Doctors initially told the Box family Violet had a five-year survival rate of 25 per cent.

Mrs Box said she hasn't been told if that diagnosis has changed.

'Her chance of relapse is reasonably high,' she said. 'The chance of subsequent cancers from the treatment is also quite high.'

The Brisbane mother said she would like to see an earlier diagnosis available for neuroblastoma.

The chance of relapse is high for Violet. She is pictured with her parents Colleen and Craig, and siblings Piper and Oliver

'It's not the most common of cancers, but if we find it earlier the survival rates are so much better,' she said.

Violet's diagnosis has taken its toll on the entire Box family.

Her siblings, Piper, nine, and Oliver, 10, have often felt like they are 'on the outside' as their parents focus on Violet's recovery.

Camp Quality helped not only Violet, but her brother and sister.

Each Thursday the children's cancer charity would put on puppet shows in the hospital.

The shows became the highlight of Violet's week.

Violet and her family received support from Camp Quality, who even went to her school to educate other children about cancer

ABOUT CAMP QUALITY: CHILDREN'S CANCER CHARITY Camp Quality's purpose is to create a better life for every child living with cancer in Australia. This Christmas, Camp Quality has released a range of Christmas Crack Ups to raise funds, and bring smiles, over the festive season. The Crack Ups are a range of Christmas crackers that contain jokes written by Australian comedians, including Rove McManus and Ronny Chieng. The crackers are available on a Pozible page, and so far $90,520 has been raised of their $100,000 goal. The proceeds will provide 22 families living with cancer access with a range of essential programs for 12 months. To support the Camp Quality Crack Ups campaign, visit the website here. For more information on Camp Quality, visit their website. Advertisement

'The Camp Quality puppets also came in to her school to talk with students and educate them about cancer,' Mrs Box said.

'It was a really big help in resettling at school.'

Her sister, Piper, also went to a camp for siblings of children who have cancer.

'It's time to make a change,' Mrs Box said.
Prince Harry made a public declaration of his affection for his new girlfriend, Meghan Markle, by wearing a love bracelet identical to the one she has to meet people living with HIV today.

The royal was wearing the blue, black and white accessory as he met with staff from NAZ, a London sexual health charity that supports minority communities, and made an impassioned speech to its choir, Joyful Noise, urging the singers to speak out about their illness to help end stigma around the condition.

It was a return to his duties for Prince Harry, 32, following the departure of Meghan, who is understood to have flown back to Canada after a stay with him in London.

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Prince Harry was wearing the bracelet that matches his new love Meghan Markle's as he dropped in on a rehearsal of NAZ's Joyful Noise choir, made up of singers living with HIV

The prince joined the charity's CEO Marion Wadibia at the rehearsal at the Hurlingham Club

The choir was rehearsing ahead of its nOscars event, which aims to shine a spotlight on poor sexual health outcomes among minority groups

It has not been confirmed Prince Harry gave Meghan the bracelet but she has suggested they may have matching 'his and hers' accessories in photo posts on Instagram in which she was wearing a blue and white bracelet identical to the one sported by the royal.

Gifting jewellery is something that Prince Harry is known to do.

When he dated South African socialite Chelsea Davy, it was reported that he gave her jewellery as a token of his affections.

Over the past 12 months, the Prince has stepped up his work helping the fight against HIV, speaking at an international conference in South Africa to warn against the threat of complacency.

After Prince Harry watched members of Joyful Noise as they rehearsed numbers like No Woman No Cry and Everything's Gonna Be Alright before their appearance at an awards ceremony, he urged them to turn around public perceptions.

'I dont believe we can really smash the stigma unless people like yourselves are willing to talk,' he told the singers.

His presence had an instant effect as virtually all of the 29 singers lined up to be publicly photographed with the royal, when earlier only a few said they were willing to be identified.

'I know there are so many issues around family stuff and cultural stuff, I know that, but I really do believe and Ive said this to the really young generation, the kids as well, I know its a sensitive subject but weve got to do this and people need to hear it from you,' Prince Harry said.

'They dont want to hear it from me, they want to hear it from you, and I honestly believe thats the only way we can do it.

It was recently confirmed that Prince Harry has been dating the television star Meghan Markle

Prince Harry, who has stepped up his support of the fight against HIV in recent months, greeted members of the choir at the Hurlingham Club in Fulham

The Prince was clearly in good spirits, as he danced his way into the room to hear the choir

The Prince's visible bracelet seemed to represent a public declaration of affection for Meghan

'I dont want to be here in 10 years time talking to you guys going "oh yeah were making a difference," no, lets do this now. Theres no reason why we cant turn this around in two or three years at the most,' he said.

Prince Harrys relationship with TV star Meghan came to light at the end of last month when fans spotted the matching friendship bracelets the couple has been wearing for months.

Meghan, who is 35, shared a picture of herself wearing her bracelet during a stay at Soho Farmhouse in Oxfordshire, sparking rumours that she was close to the young royal.

Prince Harry, who proved fiercely protective of his new love when he issued a statement condemning the wave of abuse and harassment he said Meghan had been subjected to by the media since rumours began swirling about their relationship, wore his own before the cameras today.

The 32-year-old royal dressed casually to learn more about the work NAZ is doing today

Prince Harry appeared to be relaxed as he chatted with staff from the charity in London today

Prince Harry wore jeans and a blue checked shirt to visit the Hurlingham Club in Fulham

Prince Harry has stepped up his work in support of the battle against HIV over the past year

The royal shared a joke with charity staff ahead of the choir rehearsal today

Prince Harry posed for a group photograph with staff and trustees of NAZ in Fulham

Harry also visited Fulhams Hurlingham Club where he met the Joyful Noise choir, a collection of people of different faiths, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender, all living with HIV.

The choir were rehearsing ahead of their performance at the nOscars, an awards ceremony established by NAZ in 2012 to highlight the programmes, people and media which challenge HIV and homophobic stigma.

A member of the Joyful Noise choir pinned a red awareness ribbon to the Prince's shirt

Prince Harry was gifted with this specially made red ribbon brooch by a member of the choir

Over the past 12 months the prince has stepped up his work helping the fight against HIV and he looked thrilled to be lending his support once again

The Prince made a speech about the threat of complacency to the fight against HIV at a conference in South Africa earlier this year

The nOscars event is one of the largest awards ceremonies of its kind and aims to put a spotlight on the poor sexual health outcomes of minority groups.

Prince Harry also heard about NAZs wider work in providing sexual health promotion and HIV support services to black, Asian and minority ethnic communities in London.

Actress Meghan Markle, 35, inadvertently dropped a hint about her rumoured relationship with Harry by posting a photo in which she's wearing a blue and white bracelet almost identical to one sported by the royal, right. Weeks later, it was confirmed they are dating

Meghan shared an image showcasing her bracelet collection with Instagram fans recently, including a blue, white and black beaded number that looks very much like Prince Harry's

The royal was wearing the blue, black and white bracelet as he met with staff from NAZ, a London sexual health charity that provides support to minority communities, in London

The charity was named NAZ by the late gay rights activist, Shivananda Khan, who established the organisation in memory of a Pakistani man named Nazir who died as a result of health complications related to HIV.

The Prince made his first public appearance since he confirmed he's been dating Meghan for a 'few months' on a visit to the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey last Thursday.

The Mail exclusively revealed images of Meghan this week out in Kensington, near Harry's home at Kensington Palace.

It was also revealed earlier this week that Prince Harry's new girlfriend has not had enough time to meet the Queen because of her acting commitments.

Meghan could only spend two days in London with her prince due to her work schedule.

She has jetted off to Canada to continue filming the legal drama Suits and wasn't around to link up with Harry and attend England's rugby match against South Africa yesterday evening.

Meghan's visit to London followed Harry's own trip to Toronto to spend Halloween with her.

The nOscars event is one of the largest award ceremonies of its kind and aims to put a spotlight on the poor sexual health outcomes of minority groups

A source close to the prince, 32, told the Express: 'It was only a mini-break because she's got filming commitments.

'There's been a lot of talk of her being introduced to the Queen and Prince Charles but there simply hasn't been time.'

Harry had to make do with sitting next to Princess Charlene of Monaco, 38, during the Autumn International - which England won 37-21.

Bookies slashed their odds that the prince and the US actress would be seen together at the 82,000-seater stadium to see the squad take on the Springboks after Ms Markle was spotted in Kensington on Thursday.

The pair are said to have been dating for several months but have not been seen in public together.
She has been staying with beau Prince Harry in his home of Kensington Palace and it seems that Meghan Markle is already making a good impression on the in-laws.

The Prince's sister-in-law the Duchess of Cambridge is reported to be 'thrilled' over the couple's new romance.

New Zealand's Woman's Day claim a royal source told them that: 'Kate is thrilled that Harry has finally found a girlfriend who looks like being a keeper'.

A royal source has revealed that the Duchess of Cambridge is 'thrilled' about her brother-in-law, Prince Harry's relationship with actress Meghan Markle

They added: 'She only wants the very best for her lovely brother-in-law - and Meghan looks like she fits the bill.'

In their report the magazine also claims that the Duchess is doing 'all she can to support Meghan' as she eases into her royal relationship.

However, the palace is yet to make any official comment on the Duchess's relationship with the actress. MailOnline has contacted the Kensington Palace for a comment.

The source said that Kate 'only wants the best for her brother-in-law (left) and Meghan (right) looks like she fits the bill'

The Duchess (pictured with her husband Prince William and Harry) is sure to make a good role model for Meghan having grabbed media attention for her own royal romance

The Duchess should make a good role model for the Suits actress having too attracted ample media attention for dating a prince.

Prince William and Kate may have spent time with Harry and Meghan over the past weekend as they visited the capital for Remembrance Day events.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who live in Norfolk, take up residence in their former home of Kensington Palace while visiting London.

The visit should have provided the perfect opportunity for the two couples to bond while relaxing after their engagements.

Meghan, who has been staying in Kensington Palace with Harry, is likely to have met the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during their visit to London this weekend for Remembrance day

Well-placed sources have told the Mail that contrary to speculation, the actress had not met William and Kate previously.

Prince Charles was also in London over the weekend after flying back from Bahrain with his wife Camilla.

And, unusually, the Queen and Prince Philip will also be in the city for the next few days too. That means Harry could take the opportunity to introduce his girlfriend to his entire family.

Meghan was pictured enjoying the local area on Thursday last week when she was seen returning from a shopping expedition at Whole Foods on High Street Kensington - a short walk from the palace.

The palace officially announced that the pair had been in a relationship 'for months' in a statement from the Prince last week

Meghan staying with Harry in London is the clearest indication yet that the relationship between the divorcee and the fifth in line to the throne is 'serious'.

And the timing of Miss Markle's visit is hugely significant, not least because it appears she was in the UK when Harry publicly declared his love for her.

She is taking time off from filming her popular US television legal drama, Suits, to be with him.

The royal romance was revealed a fortnight ago after they were given away by matching friendship bracelets both have worn for months.

The palace officially announced that the pair had been in a relationship 'for months' in a statement from the Prince last week.
A plus-size mum who left her boyfriend of three years after he told her she was too fat said she has taught herself how to love her body again by looking in the mirror naked every day and telling herself she is beautiful.

Leila Palma, 32, from Melbourne, said she had never felt embarrassed by her curves before until her then boyfriend subjected the size 26 model to repeated body shaming.

Ms Palma, who weighs around 127kg, said the pressure to change forced her to walk away from the relationship and work on appreciating her body again.

Plus-size mum of two Leila Palma (pictured), 32, from Melbourne, said she left her boyfriend of three years after he told her she was too fat and has taught herself how to love her body once again

Ms Palma, who weighs around 127kg, said she had never felt embarrassed by her curves before until her then boyfriend subjected the size 26 model to repeated body shaming (pictured)

Now the confident mum of two looks in the mirror naked every day and tells herself how beautiful she is and is hoping to inspire other women to do the same.

'One day though, I woke up and looked at myself in the mirror and said, "Leila, you're better than this! You're beautiful and if this man can't see that then he doesn't deserve a place in your life",' she said.

'So I left and have never looked back. I taught myself to love what I saw when I looked in the mirror.'

'It didn't happen overnight, but the more I did it, the more I believed the words.'

'Now I want other women to know it's okay to love your body, no matter what size it is.'

Leila - who has been overweight most of her adult life - eats healthily, but says she can't resist sugary soft drinks.

'I drink about three cans of Sprite a day which doctors say is quite bad for me,' she said.

She said she eventually gained her confidence back by looking in the mirror naked every day and tells herself how beautiful she is (pictured)

'One day though, I woke up and looked at myself in the mirror and said, "Leila, you're better than this!' (pictured)

Ms Palma said she is hoping to inspire other women to do the same (pictured)

'But other than that, I'm healthy. I have cereal or a banana smoothie for brekkie and lunch is usually a fresh sandwich. At night I'll make my family steak or spaghetti for dinner and I try to avoid chocolate and biscuits.'

'I know that I'm not in the average BMI range, but I'm happy and that's all that matters.'

Leila said she embraces her body with figure-hugging outfits which can sometimes lead to negative comments from strangers.

'I go to the gym wearing a crop top and leggings. Why shouldn't I flaunt my figure?' she said.

'People look at me, but we're all there for the same thing. I don't let anyone's opinions get me down.'

'Of course, it's not nice to be called 'fat,' or 'ugly,' but I don't let other people get inside my head.'

'I never look at anyone and wish I had their body. I'm blessed with what I have.'

Leila said she embraces her body with figure-hugging outfits which can sometimes lead to negative comments from strangers when she is at the gym (pictured)

'People look at me, but we're all there for the same thing. I don't let anyone's opinions get me down,' she said (pictured)

Leila is in the process of opening her own plus-size clothes shop, Body Beautiful, as she's concerned by how few options there are for the bigger ladies in Australia.

She said: 'When I was on holiday in the UK recently, I went to a plus-sized night club.

'Everyone there was bigger and it was a great, judgement free atmosphere.'

'I'd love to bring a similar event to Australia, but for now, I'm concentrating on my shop which will offer fashionable clothes in sizes 16 and above.'

She's also part of an ongoing campaign called 'I'm Big and I'm Proud,' which helps men and women to say no to body shaming.

'There aren't many proud size 26 women here in Australia, or the world,' she said.

'We're all taught that big is wrong, when in fact it's beautiful.'

Leila is in the process of opening her own plus-size clothes shop, Body Beautiful, as she's concerned by how few options there are for the bigger ladies in Australia (pictured)

She's also part of an ongoing campaign called 'I'm Big and I'm Proud,' which helps men and women to say no to body shaming (pictured)

'But we're not going to get anywhere by putting each other down.'

'The number on the scales does not define your ability to do what you need to do or how you should live your life.

'I'm always out doing things with my two daughters and my size wont hold me back.'

'If I ever thought I was getting too big and putting my health at risk, I would of course, take action.'

'But until then I'm going to celebrate my body and think everyone else should too.'

'Whether you're a size 10 or 26, I want to show people that you don't always have to listen to society. You can be proud of your body no matter how it looks.'
This Thanksgiving, local first responders are protecting and saving lives in the community not only through their daily jobs, but also through donating blood to ensure the holiday blood supply is readily available to hospital patients in need.

Both the Chattanooga Fire Department and the Chattanooga Police Department will be hosting blood drives for officers and cadets on Thanksgiving Eve, Wednesday, Nov. 23.

"Blood Assurance is grateful to the men and women who protect the community and are choosing to set aside this time to give the gift of life while encouraging others to donate blood before the upcoming holiday, when trauma accidents are on the rise and blood donations are historically low," officials said.



"As first responders, we see trauma incidents that require emergency attention on a daily basis, many of which require the use of blood products. It is our duty to do everything in our power to save people's lives, which includes making a simple blood donation that takes very little time out of our day," said Chattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher.



"The entire blood donation process, from registration to post-donation snack, takes less than an hour. Blood Assurance currently needs more than 540 volunteer blood donors each day in order to adequately supply the demand from local hospitals, and just one blood donation can save up to three lives. Each donation of blood contains plasma, red blood cells and platelets that can be used to save lives of any age, including premature babies, oncology patients, trauma victims, surgery patients and many more," officials said.



"Saving lives isn't reserved for first responders, doctors or nurses. The entire community has the same opportunity to save lives by donating blood and making sure hospitals have enough blood on hand for patients," said Chattanooga Fire Chief Chris Adams. "We encourage everyone to stop by a Blood Assurance donor center or bloodmobile before the holiday in order to ensure that the blood supply is readily available to our hospitals."



Blood Assurance's downtown Chattanooga donor center is located at 705 East 4th St., across from the UTC McKenzie Arena.

Blood Assurance's Gunbarrel donor center is located at 1748 Gunbarrel Road, near the Target Shopping Center next to Chick-Fil-A.

Blood Assurance's Hixson donor center is located at 1920 Northpoint Blvd., across from Hobby Lobby between Lowe's and Home Depot.

Blood Assurance's Fort Oglethorpe donor center is located at 2720 Lafayette Road, next to Sear's Shoe Store.



To be eligible to donate blood, you must be at least 18 years old (17 and 16 years old with parental consent), weigh 110 pounds or more and be in good health. Donors are asked to drink plenty of fluids - avoiding caffeine - and eat a meal that is rich in iron prior to donating. Blood donors are not required to make an appointment prior to donating.



For more information on Blood Assurance, donating blood or hosting a blood drive, visit www.bloodassurance.org or call 1-800-962-0628.
A 'beautiful' construction worker who caught the eye of a tourist has been signed up to a top modelling agency after her photo with him went viral.

Nicky Libert, 26, was spotted by British photography student Danika, 21, while she was staying in Amsterdam with friends and agreed to have his picture taken.

After tweeting the snap - and her approval of his chiselled good looks - Danika saw thousands of people agreeing that Libert, from the Dutch capital, should be signed up - with some even tracking him down for their own photo opportunity.

Scroll down for video

When British fashion student Danika, 21, spotted handsome Nicky Libert, 26, working on the streets of Amsterdam, she asked him for a photo - and then posted it on her Twitter account, where it went viral

#someonedidsignhim! Danika's plea to get Libert a modelling contract worked. The Elite agency has since signed the builder up

In just a few days, he saw his Instagram following shoot up to 30,000.

Elite modelling agency has since offered the aspiring catwalk model a contract.

Libert's original spotter, Danika, known as @MaddoLuu on Twitter, told Buzzfeed: 'Even though shooting strangers is what I do on a daily basis, I was still a little apprehensive to approach him because I didnt want to seem strange, but my friends encouraged me to do so and I went over and started talking to him.'

She posted the subsequent image with the message: 'So I randomly stopped this construction worker in Amsterdam and asked him for a photo because he was beautiful af. #someonesignhim'

The ensuing reaction online saw people sharing the image and leaving their own adoring comments. One Twitter user, @rizzzzyyy, said simply: 'I want to marry him.'

Libert says the reaction to the image - 300,000 shares - has been 'crazy'

Other admirers then tracked down the handsome builder and took photos of their own including 19-year-old Instagram user xchrissygrace

He looks different in his civvies! Libert has been busy posting selfies galore on his own Instagram account

Future's bright: With a big online fanbase Libert may soon be swapping the building site for the catwalk

Back on the day job: Libert pictured with his colleagues at the construction site in the Dutch captial

Another implored: 'Don't stop sharing until we find him.'

Others including Instagram user xcjrissygrace actually found him while he was doing his day job and asked for her own picture.

Libert has described the reaction since the photo went viral as 'crazy'.

On his own Twitter account, @Nickyl1990, he wrote: 'Crazy past few days... I want to thank everyone for the wonderful reactions. Much love #appreciated.'

He recalls how Danika first approached him, telling a local website, Parool.nl in Holland: 'They came to me to ask if I was a model. I said: "no, otherwise I would not be here.'".

Last month, a Pakistani tea seller saw his image go viral in a similar fashion after the blue-eyed chaiwala was snapped manning a tea stall.

Arshad Khan, 18, was at the Itwar Bazaar market in Pakistan's capital city, Islamabad, when an aspiring photographer Jiah Ali captured him working.
A mother has told how she was left with no option but to give birth on a gas station floor without medical assistance after she unexpectedly went into labor.

Ashton Seaton, from Pana, Illinois, was on her way to hospital when the pain of her contractions became too much and she asked her mother to pull over.

When she went to the restroom, the mother-of-two was surprised to find she was already crowning and gave birth at the gas station, she told RedBookMag.com.

Sudden arrival: Mother-of-two Ashton Seaton, pictured center with fiance Brad and children Mia Jo Lynne and Cartyr Levi-Anderson, gave birth on the floor of a gas station

Detour: Ashton, from Pana, Illinois, pictured left on a stretcher, had planned to give birth to her daughter, pictured right soon after her birth, in a hospital 30 miles from her home

Video Courtesy WAND

Ashton said her mother stayed in the car as she sprinted past customers at Casey's General Store in Moweaqua into the bathroom after feeling an 'intense need to go'.

'But with my first push downward I felt myself crowning. I reached down and there was my daughter's head, dangling over the toilet,' she told the website.

Her mother recruited employees to help her daughter give birth who laid her down on towels and delivered the baby.

Unfortunately, Ashton, who also has a son, Cartyr Levi-Anderson, said her fiance Brad was 150 miles away working which meant he missed out on the birth.

'My mom was a mess, almost hysterical, so she stayed up by my head while the two ladies  who, I later learned, were named Tonya and Shannon  helped deliver.

'My mother called my Brad when her head came out, and then again just a minute or so later, when Shannon caught my daughter and wrapped her in an old Casey's uniform coat they had found,' she said.

Her daughter Mia Jo Lynne Bennett, who will celebrate her first birthday on Wednesday, was born without complications weighing seen pounds and five ounces.

Gas station drama: But on the way to the hospital, she asked her mother, who was driving, to pull into a gas station after the contractions got too much

Unexpected: She went into the restroom where she discovered that she was crowning and soon after gave birth with the help of staff

By the time the ambulance arrived, Ashton said she was already nursing but she had to wait until she got to hospital to deliver the placenta.

She said: 'If there was a crowd of customers and employees around the bathroom, I don't remember it; all that blood loss and new-baby euphoria will do that to you.

'I do recall getting wheeled past a crew of employees sitting around the coffee area chatting and sipping from their cups as if they saw this all the time.'

She said Brad was disappointed to have missed Mia's arrival but that once he met his daughter he was 'happy and excited'.

The most challenging part of the birth was the 'agonizing' delivery of the placenta for which a doctor had to manually dilate her cervix.

Their baby became a local celebrity following her unusual birth and Ashton said she often gets referred to as 'the Casey's baby'.
The Queen and Sir David Attenborough were spotted sharing a giggle on Tuesday night as they joined forces for a reception at Buckingham Palace.

The event was organised to showcase a range of projects set up as part of a new conservation initiative, but the pair no doubt took a minute to catch up on the the BBC wildlife presenter's storming new series of Planet Earth.

The 90-year-old monarch wore an elegant turquoise skirt suit, accessorised with a pearl necklace and matching earrings. She added black gloves, patent shoes and a purse believed to from her trusted luxury handbag maker, Launer.

The Queen and Sir David Attenborough a giggle on Tuesday night as they joined forces for a meeting on the Commonwealth Canopy at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday night

Speakers discussed forestry initiatives around the world that have been set up as part of the Queen's Commonwealth Canopy (QCC).

According to the Royal Family's official Twitter account, Sir Attenborough, also 90, said in a speech: 'I am immensely grateful to Your Majesty for showing great leadership by putting your name to the Commonwealth Canopy.'

The veteran wildlife presenter added: 'We are fortunate that you are still thinking about the future and how to make this a better world.'

Sir Attenborough, also 90, said in a speech: 'I am immensely grateful to Your Majesty for showing great leadership by putting your name to the Commonwealth Canopy'

The Queen shakes hands with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson

Labour MP Frank Field, the co-founder of Cool Earth charity that works alongside indigenous villages to halt rainforest destruction, meets the Queen during Tuesday night's reception

While the smartly-dressed pair caught up over a glass of wine, they were joined by guests including Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Labour MP Frank Field, who came up with the idea for the project.

The Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Anne also attended the event.

Mr Field said he'd had no interest in the project from past Labour and Conservative administrations, but found Buckingham Palace was interested in his scheme.

He said if the Commonwealth's rainforests were added together they would be second in a league table behind Brazil, which is home to much of the Amazon.

The Queen, joined by Prince Philip and Princess Anne, also presented High Commisioners from countries with certificates recognising their dedication to the Commonwealth Canopy

The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and Sir David listen to a speech during the reception

He added: 'It seemed an obvious way for the Commonwealth to do politics in a different way because now it's the second biggest organisation responsible for rainforests after Brazil.

'So the Commonwealth has a place at the top table when we're discussing the future of rainforests in a way it never had when it was just wonderful pieces of forest here and there."

Mr Field co-founded Cool Earth, a charity that works alongside indigenous villages to halt rainforest destruction, and it is a partner in the project along with the Royal Commonwealth Society, and the Commonwealth Forestry Association.

On display in a number of rooms at the palace were boards illustrating the forests signed up to the project from the UK's Epping Forest and Singapore's Botanic Gardens to the Seychelles which is planting 20,000 trees and Australia which has dedicated a programme to planting 20 million.

The Planet Earth presenter and naturalist, right, told the Queen: 'We are fortunate that you are still thinking about the future and how to make this a better world'

The High Commissioner for Singapore, Her Excellency Ms Foo Chi Hsia, is presented with a certificate recognising her dedication to the Commonwealth Canopy

Singapore's entry was officially acknowledged on behalf of the Queen by Anne during a recent visit to the city state.

Canada's QCC commitment of the Great Bear Rainforest was unveiled by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge when they visited it a few months ago, and Prince Harry will tour a number of QCC dedications during his coming visit to the Caribbean.

The Queen later presented High Commisioners from 20 countries with certificates recognising their dedication to the Commonwealth Canopy.
We often hear about drugs being denied to patients because theyve been judged too costly for the cash-strapped NHS.

But at the other end of the spectrum, patients are missing out on life-transforming drugs that cost just a few pence a day  sometimes simply because doctors dont know about them, even though they are recommended in official guidelines, or feel unsure about handing them out.

Medical innovations and developments in the delivery of health and social care are, of course, vitally important, but sometimes, it is the simple things that are most effective, says Katherine Murphy, chief executive of The Patients Association.

So are you or your loved ones missing out?

Patients are missing out on life-transforming drugs that cost just a few pence a day, sometimes simply because doctors dont know about them

HEART FAILURE

3-6p pills

Heart failure, which affects half-a-million Britons, is caused by irreparable damage to the heart muscle.

Often caused by a heart attack, it means the heart can no longer pump blood efficiently around the body.

In severe cases, patients are breathless doing day-to-day tasks, with a reduced life expectancy that is worse than that of many cancer sufferers.

A third of patients admitted to hospital with heart failure will die within 12 months.

And yet, there are three very cheap drugs  ACE inhibitors and beta-blockers, which both cost 3p a tablet and diuretics known as MRAs, or mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists, costing 6p a pill  that can extend patients lives by up to a quarter.

However, not all patients are getting them, even though they are recommended by NICE (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence).

Figures published in July showed that only 42 per cent of patients who are treated in hospital for heart failure are put on all three drugs, which help by lowering blood pressure, reducing the work of the heart.

Most patients should be on all three medications, but they are quite tricky to use because they lower blood pressure, so they can make patients light-headed, explains Dr Mark Dancy, a consultant cardiologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

Heart failure, which affects half-a-million Britons, is caused by irreparable damage to the heart muscle. It is often caused by a heart attack

Non-specialists  GPs, general physicians and physicians caring for the elderly  tend to back off prescribing all three because of the effect they have, and finding the lowest level someone can operate at is time-consuming and needs experience.

However, taking these drugs not only makes patients feel better, but prolongs life and keeps patients out of hospital  so we should be doing better on this front.

BREAST CANCER

1-19p pills

Three cheap breast cancer drugs  one that stops the disease spreading, and the others that prevent it developing  are being denied to hundreds of thousands of patients.

The first is a group of cheap, life-saving drugs called bisphosphonates.

Costing on average just 19p a day, the drugs, which were designed to treat the crumbly bone condition osteoporosis, prevent the spread of breast cancer to the bones.

The drugs are absorbed by cells called osteoclasts which are responsible for breaking down old bone.

This makes the cells less favourable sites for breast cancers to spread to.

Three cheap breast cancer drugs  one that stops the disease spreading, and the others that prevent it developing  are being denied to hundreds of thousands of patients

Research published in journal The Lancet last year found the drugs reduced the risk of the disease spreading, and reduced deaths from the disease within ten years by 18 per cent, preventing one in ten breast cancer deaths.

The drugs cost, on average, just 19p each, and can be taken either as a daily tablet (ibandronate) costing 34p per day, or intravenously every six months (zoledronate) at 4p per day.

All post-menopausal women with breast cancer that has not spread beyond the breast  at least 35,700 women a year  could benefit.

However, three-quarters of eligible women are being denied the drugs, says the charity Breast Cancer Now.

Thats because three-quarters of cancer specialists are unable to prescribe them amid confusion over which NHS body should fund them.

(The other specialists have been able to prescribe them because their local health authorities have taken responsibility for paying for the treatment.)

One risk factor is having denser-than-normal breast tissue  this means less fat and more breast cells in the breast; more cells means an almost five times higher risk of breast cancer

It is deeply concerning that such an inexpensive treatment known to improve survival for women with breast cancer is not being made available to all who could benefit, says Professor Ian Smith, a consultant medical oncologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and chair of the Breast Cancer Clinical Reference Group.

The second drug, tamoxifen  costing just 6p a day  has been shown to reduce the risk of breast cancer developing in the first place by up to 40 per cent in women at higher risk of the disease.

These include women with a family history (their mother, sister or aunt developed breast cancer at a young age), or who carry faulty BRCA1, BRCA2 or TP53 genes.

It is deeply concerning that such an inexpensive treatment known to improve survival for women with breast cancer is not being made available to all who could benefit. Professor Ian Smith

Another risk factor is having denser-than-normal breast tissue  this means less fat and more breast cells in the breast; more breast cells means an almost five times higher risk of breast cancer.

The daily tamoxifen pill, which blocks out the cancer-triggering hormone oestrogen in breast cells, is recommended by NICE for women at moderate or high risk of breast cancer, who should take it for five years (the effect can last 20 years).

Yet, as the Mail reported last week, hundreds of thousands of women are being denied the pill because three-quarters of family doctors are unaware of the guidelines issued in 2013, and 52 per cent dont know tamoxifen prevents breast cancer.

And four in ten GPs are not happy to prescribe the drug because of possible side-effects, including mood swings and depression.

However, researchers at University College London, Queen Mary University of London and Cancer Research UK, who carried out the survey, say doctors are overestimating the side-effects and the drug could benefit up to 10 per cent of over-50s at high or moderate risk of breast cancer  around a million women.

Currently, most of these women are simply told to undergo an annual mammogram.

Baroness Delyth Morgan, chief executive of Breast Cancer Now, says: It is deeply concerning many women at an increased risk of breast cancer are still not offered the choice of taking tamoxifen.

The daily tamoxifen pill, which blocks out the cancer-triggering hormone oestrogen in breast cells, is recommended by NICE for women at moderate or high risk of breast cancer

Research also suggests metformin, the diabetes drug, which costs as little as 1p per pill, could reduce the risk of breast cancer.

Taking the drug reduces the density of breast tissue by 40 per cent, according to a Danish study.

However, while the drug is used by some private oncologists, few doctors are willing to prescribe it because it has not been evaluated by NICE and is not licensed for use for cancer (so they are legally liable if something goes wrong).

Critics say the pharmaceutical companies are not interested in costly research to get an old 1p pill licensed for cancer when they can invest in new drugs that can be sold at high prices.

HEART ATTACK

1-4p pills

After a heart attack, patients should be prescribed four cheap drugs, according to the British Heart Foundation: ACE inhibitors and beta-blockers, both costing 3p a tablet, aspirin costing 1p a pill, and statins, which cost 4p a day.

Illustration of a healthy human heart. After a heart attack, patients should be prescribed four cheap drugs, according to the British Heart Foundation

These reduce the risk of further heart problems by thinning the blood to prevent clots, reducing the strain on the heart by slowing it down and lowering cholesterol to prevent furring of the arteries.

But research published this year by the University of Leeds shows many patients are missing out on these low-cost, life-saving drugs.

The study looked at 389,000 patients over ten years who had hospital treatment for an NSTEMI heart attack (a partial blockage in blood supply to the heart, which accounts for 60 per cent of heart attacks).

It found that, after a heart attack, only 55 to 88 per cent of patients were prescribed aspirin, 67 per cent an ACE inhibitor, 75 per cent a beta-blocker and 85 per cent a statin.

The study concluded that 33,000 deaths could have been avoided with better prescribing, access to tests and scans, and specialist care.

We need expensive, new technology to advance healthcare, but a greater need is to bring standard care up to scratch, so that everyone who is appropriate for certain drugs receives it, says Dr Chris Gale, an honorary consultant cardiologist at York Teaching Hospital NHS Trust, who carried out the study.

He says studies show these drugs improve patient outcomes.

They are a key component for ensuring heart attack patients reduce their risk of death and ill-health.

ALZHEIMERS

6p pills

While there is no cure for Alzheimers disease, a 6p-a-day drug called donepezil can alleviate symptoms.

Sold under the brand name Aricept, the drug is recommended by NICE for patients with mild to moderate Alzheimers and works by boosting communication chemicals in the brain. It can slow the decline of memory.

Last year, a study in the journal Lancet Neurology by researchers at UCL found that those taking donepezil were twice as likely to still be in their home 12 months later than those not taking the drug.

While there is no cure for Alzheimers disease, a 6p-a-day drug called donepezil can alleviate symptoms. Sold under the brand name Aricept, the drug is recommended by NICE

The findings suggest it may also be suitable for those with advanced disease who are not getting the drug.

Clearly, not all patients who could benefit from this low-cost drug are receiving it.

This is because a third of those affected are undiagnosed; patients who have been diagnosed may also be missing out.

Andrew Boaden, the Alzheimers Societys senior policy officer, told Good Health: A third of people with dementia do not have a diagnosis and are therefore being deprived of the potential symptom relief this treatment can bring.

HEARTBEAT FAULT

3p pills

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common heart rhythm disorder, affecting more than a million people in the UK.

It occurs when chaotic electrical activity develops in the upper chambers of the heart, causing irregular beats and the heart to pump less efficiently.

People with the condition are five times more likely to have a stroke  irregular heart rhythms allow the blood to pool and form into a clot that could block the brain arteries.

To reduce the risk of stroke, NICE recommends patients should be prescribed warfarin  costing 3p a day  to thin the blood.

People with atrial fibrillation are five times more likely to have a stroke. To reduce risks, NICE recommends patients should be prescribed warfarin  costing 3p a day  to thin the blood

But almost half of patients with AF are not on the recommended blood-thinning treatment, according to the Stroke Association.

Dr Mike Knapton, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, explains: Part of the problem is that around 30 per cent of patients with AF in England are undiagnosed.

'However, some patients who have been diagnosed are not being prescribed warfarin.

Many are put on aspirin instead, but aspirin doesnt work.

He suggests patients arent being given warfarin as it involves regular blood tests to check they are on the right dose to prevent the blood becoming too thin and increasing the risk of bleeding.
A teenage girl who was told she would never walk again after she was left paralysed has defied doctors.

Ece Ozcan, 19, from Egham, Surrey, was unable to feel her left leg and had pins and needles when she woke up - but assumed she had just slept in a funny position.

Her parents rushed her to hospital, but doctors were baffled and had no idea how they could help her. They eventually diagnosed her with an isthmic defect.

It had caused scoliosis and a hernia - which pressed on her nerves in her bent spine, squashing them and leaving her unable to move.

Doctors revealed she would never walk again - but she refused to accept their diagnosis and searched for a surgeon who would be willing to operate on her.

Two years and two procedures later, she has defied the odds and is now back on her feet again.

Doctors told Ece Ozcan, 19, she would never walk again when she was left paralysed, but two years and two operations later, she has defied all expectations to be back on her feet

Miss Ozcan said: ' No one would ever think you could just become paralysed overnight. But one day I woke up, and I just couldnt feel my left leg.

'I thought it was pins and needles at first - I thought my leg was asleep because of the position Id slept in, and the feeling would come back. But it never did.

'As time went on I still couldnt move my leg, but I started getting indescribable pain as well. It was agony.'

Although Miss Ozcan had been born with an isthmic defect - she had been unaware of it until it caused her issues when she was 17.

Even her mother, who is a doctor, had never heard of the condition - and because it was so rare, no one knew how to help her.

All of the experts she previously saw warned her there was no chance of her walking ever again.

Doctors diagnosed her with an isthmic defect. It had caused scoliosis and a hernia - which pressed on her nerves in her bent spine, squashing them and leaving her unable to move

'I remember word-for-word what my first doctor said,' Miss Ozcan added. "Look Ece, if I were you, I wouldn't think about walking again."

'I cried for hours and hours, but I was determined to prove them wrong.'

She was given daily injections and pills to take to try and get her walking again - but the pain was unbearable.

Luckily, one of her mothers friends knew a doctor who was an expert on the condition - and he agreed to operate on her.

Two weeks later, she had her first five-hour operation - where medics put a metal rod into her spine, held in place by six screws, to straighten her back and relieve the pressure caused by the hernia.

Just 24 hours after the surgery, doctors tried to make her walk again - but initially she rejected it out of fear.

But when she eventually tried - helped by two nurses - it 'felt amazing', although the pain was more intense than ever.

She spent the next fortnight in hospital, where she had intensive physiotherapy every day and gradually started improving.

Miss Ozcan said: 'No one would ever think you could just become paralysed overnight. But one day I woke up, and I just couldnt feel my left leg' (a scan of her bent spine)

But just six months later, she started to feel numbness in her legs again as one of her screws had come loose.

Thankfully after another surgery, the problem was solved - and since then, she has had minimal pain.

Now, 18 months later, she is finally back on her feet and walking normally again.

Miss Ozcan said: 'It took a while to get back to normal. For the first year I couldnt walk properly, and I couldnt carry anything other than my phone.

'Now I still have pain occasionally, but Im finally on the mend.

'Im so glad Ive finally managed it - many people mightve given up when a doctor told them they wouldnt walk again, but I was stubborn and refused to accept it.

'No matter what people tell you, you can do whatever you want - they told me I didnt have any chance of walking again, but I did it. Never, ever stop believing in yourself.'

All of the experts she previously saw warned her there was no chance of her walking ever again, but Miss Ozcan was determined to prove them wrong

Her surgeon, Professor Dr Ali Fahi Ozer, from the American Hospital in Istanbul, Turkey, said: 'Ece had an abnormality in her spine, which was there when she was born.

'When she started growing, this abnormality caused her spine to slide and caused serious anatomical corruption.

'This serious anatomical damage was squeezing the nerves, and her body reacted with a scoliosis.

'She needed surgery on her back, which was risky as any mistake would have caused permanent paralysis.

'During the surgery, we cleaned the hernias, opened squeezed nerves and screwed her spine with six screws, to make it in line with how it should be in normal anatomy.
Popular over-the-counter heartburn medications increase the risk of having a stroke, scientists warn.

Taking the common drugs leaves adults with up to a 94 per cent higher chance of the deadly blood clot.

But stronger alternatives - H2 blockers - are prescribed if proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) fail to control acid reflux, were found to have no increased risk.

However, experts say there is no reason to avoid them and there is no evidence to suggest one is better than the other.

Taking the common drugs leaves adults with up to a 94 per cent higher chance of the deadly blood clot, scientists claim

PPIs are known to increase the risk of kidney disease and dementia but are often used to treat heartburn and gastro-oesophageal reflux disease.

Researchers from the Danish Heart Foundation, Copenhagen, assessed the risk of stroke in 244,679 patients taking a range of PPIs.

They were omeprazole (Losec), pantoprazole (Protium), lansoprazole (Zoton) and esomeprazole (Nexium).

Over a period of six years, 9,489 of those had an ischemic stroke - the most common type - for the first time in their lives.

Those who took the lowest doses of the PPIs didn't have a higher risk of having a stroke, they found.

But at the highest dose, stroke risk ranged from 30 per cent for those taking lansoprazole to 94 per cent for those on pantoprazole.

The overall stroke risk increased by 21 per cent when patients were taking a PPI.

But stronger alternatives - H2 blockers - prescribed if proton pump inhibitors fail to control acid reflux, were found to have no increased risk of strokes

Lead researcher Dr Thomas Sehested said: 'At one time, PPIs were thought to be safe, without major side effects.

'This study further questions the cardiovascular safety of these drugs.'

However, there was no increased risk of stroke for patients taking another group of acid-reducing medications known as H2 blockers.

This group, which includes famotidine and ranitidine, are prescribed if PPIs don't control symptoms.

Side effects are rare, but can include diarrhoea, headaches, dizziness, a rash and tiredness.

While PPIs are known to cause headaches, diarrhoea, constipation, nausea, abdominal pain, dizziness and a rash.

But Dr Sehested said although the study didn't find a link between H2 blockers and stroke, there is no evidence they are better for patients than PPIs.

The findings were presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2016.
Depression rates are rocketing among young people - and African American female middle schoolers are the worst affected.

However, the number of teenagers being treated for depression remains unchanged, according to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics.

The paper by Washington University has revealed that today 11.3 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds have untreated depression, up from 8.7 percent in 2005.

The figures were overwhelmingly high among black females.

Experts warn the simultaneous rise in cyber-bullying is likely a root cause.

Depression rates are rocketing among young people - and African American female middle schoolers are the worst affected

The authors add that schools, parents, and physicians may be dismissing telltale signs of depression.

'We already know that teens have much more depression than is currently being recognized or treated,' said Dr. Anne Glowinski, a child psychiatry researcher at Washington University in St. Louis who wrote an editorial accompanying the study.

'What this study adds is that rates of youth depression have significantly increased in the last decade and that the proportion of recognized/treated young people appears unchanged despite efforts to encourage pediatricians to focus on suicide prevention which includes more recognition and treatment of youth depression,' Glowinski added.

Each year, about one in 11 teens and young adults suffers at least one episode of major depression, researchers report in Pediatrics.

To examine trends over time in the prevalence of depression and mental health treatment, researchers examined nationally representative survey data from more than 172,000 teens and almost 179,000 young adults.

Among other things, researchers asked participants if they had experienced a variety of symptoms that can point to depression, whether they had experienced an episode of major depression in the past year, and if they had seen a doctor or other health professional about these symptoms.

They also assessed whether the participants received treatments such as counseling or prescription medication.

Compared to teens who didn't report a major depressive episode, those who did were more likely to be older, not in school, unemployed, in households with single parents or no parents, and have substance abuse issues.

Among young adults, those with depression were more likely to be female, black and have a substance abuse issue.

For youth ages 12 to 17, the prevalence of depression increased from 8.7 percent in 2005 to 11.3 percent in 2014, the study found.

Among adults aged 18 to 25, the prevalence climbed from 8.8 percent to 9.6 percent during the study period.

But there hasn't been much change in the proportion of teens and young adults seeking mental health treatment, the study also found.

One limitation of the study is that researchers relied on young people to accurately recall and report any symptoms of depression or treatments for the condition, the authors note.

The study didn't include medical records and researchers couldn't verify whether clinicians diagnosed depression in individual participants who reported symptoms or said they received treatment.

Experts warn the simultaneous rise in cyber-bullying is likely a root cause

Even so, the findings suggest a growing number of teens and young adults have depression and don't receive treatment, the authors conclude.

This suggests there's room for parents, pediatricians and school and college counseling services to step up efforts to identify and help youth with mental health problems, the authors argue.

'Many children do not tell their parents about their depressive symptoms, they may not even recognize them as such,' said lead study author Dr. Ramin Mojtabai, a public health researcher at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Older people may despair that as they age, they get more easily distracted.

But they need not worry that they are unable to show laser-like attention, a study suggests.

Despite older people finding it harder to focus, this makes them more creative - just ask multi-millionaire entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, 66.

And being able to focus intensely on things is not a vital life skill most of the time any way.

Despite older people finding it harder to focus, this actually makes them more creative - just ask Sir Richard Branson, 66

Part of the reason older people are seen as having poorer mental abilities than the young is that laboratory tests tend to involve highly focused tasks, which older adults find harder.

But these tasks often do not mirror real life situations.

The findings would be no surprise to many late bloomers  such as Colonel Sanders, who founded the first Kentucky Fried Chicken shop at 65, or Laura Ingalls Wilder, who wrote the first of the 'Little House on the Prairie' books at the late age.

It has also emerged tycoon Sir Richard has no intention of putting his feet up.

The businessman is as energetic as ever and is currently working with an American startup called Boom in an attempt to create a supersonic plane capable of whizzing passengers from London to New York.

A little younger, but well into middle age, Alexander Fleming only discovered penicillin at age 47.

Researchers from the University of Toronto and Harvard University found that being easily distracted, as tests show older people are, can help in problem solving and learning new information.

Writing in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, they looked at a host of studies and results from brain scans.

Being able to tightly focus on information is known to psychologists as cognitive control.

Despite older people finding it harder to focus and being more easily distracted, this makes them more creative, new research suggests

Tarek Amer, a Phd candidate at Toronto said some tasks benefit from a broad focus of attention  such as creative thinking or using information that was previously considered irrelevant.

'The literature gives us the impression that older adults are essentially doomed as their cognitive abilities decrease, when, in reality, many older adults get along just fine in their day-to-day lives, and we think that shows that aging adults don't always need to have high cognitive control.'

High cognitive control enables people ignoring distractions to get things done  for example it allows you to read more quickly as you get less distracted.

Amer and colleagues found people with lower levels of cognitive control found it easier to solve problems creatively, and were better at spotting patters in the world around them.

It means older adults can outperform younger counterparts on certain problem-solving tasks - as they broadened their attention more easily.

Being able to tightly focus on information is known to psychologists as cognitive control. But researchers found people with lower levels of cognitive control found it easier to solve problems creatively

Most day-to-day tasks, like walking down the street or learning new information, do not benefit from the tight focus in cognitive control, the researchers said.

MAJORITY OF US CONFUSE DEMENTIA WITH 'OLD AGE' Dementia patients are missing out on treatment because most people wrongly think the symptoms are simply a normal side-effect of getting older, previous research found. More than 75 per cent of people cant distinguish between Alzheimers disease and examples of everyday age-related forgetfulness. Researchers from Trinity College Dublin said that misplacing keys, forgetting telephone numbers or forgetting the names of casual acquaintances are all examples of normal forgetfulness. Advertisement

Lab tests like very cognitively controlled tests, as they require participants to complete a specific set of tasks, limiting the role of distraction.

But these experiments tend not to explore situations where being distracted might be helpful, making the conclusions one-sided.

Co-author Lynn Hasher, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto said: 'Many of the tasks that we study in classic cognitive psychology are tasks that require high cognitive control, but these assigned tasks might not accurately mirror what people do in the real world because they limit distractions.

'But a distraction in one setting can actually be useful information in another setting, and the more information you have, the better able you're going to be to address a current problem.'
Women who have migraines are significantly more likely to suffer heart attacks or strokes later in life, experts have warned.

A two-decade study of 115,000 women found that those who complained of migraines were 50 per cent more likely to develop major heart problems.

The scientists, led by experts at Harvard Medical School, said that anyone suffering migraines should have their heart risk assessed.

Around eight million Britons - three quarters of them women - suffer migraine attacks, which involve dizziness, nausea and crippling pain.

A two-decade study of 115,000 women found that those who complained of migraines were 50 per cent more likely to develop major heart problems

Previous research had linked migraines to stroke risk, but few studies have so far linked the severe headaches to more general cardiovascular disease.

The new findings are based on a data from the US Nurses' Health Study, which tracked 115,541 women between 1989 and 2011.

The women, who were aged 25 to 42 years when they were recruited, were free from angina and cardiovascular disease at the beginning of the project.

By the end of the study 1,329 had suffered major cardiovascular events - including 678 heart attacks and 651 strokes.

Some 223 women had died as a result of heart problems.

But those who reported migraines were significantly more likely to suffer heart issues.

Of the group, nearly one in six had been diagnosed with migraines at the beginning of the study.

Over the next years, these women had a 50 per cent increased chance of suffering a major cardiovascular event - including a 39 per cent increased risk of a heart attack, 62 per cent increased risk of stroke and 37 per cent increased chance of cardiovascular death.

Women who have migraines are known to be more likely to have high blood pressure, high cholesterol and be overweight

The researchers said the findings add to findings that migraine should be considered an important risk marker for cardiovascular disease.

They stressed that more research is needed to determine possible causes, and whether treatments to prevent migraines could help to reduce these risks.

Women who have migraines are more likely to have high blood pressure, high cholesterol and be overweight.

But the scientists said that this is not the only link - and it may be that migraines are part of the same underlying biological problems that cause all 'endovascular' issues - those that effect the inside of the blood vessels.

WHY KIDS WITH MIGRAINES MAY NOT NEED DRUGS Sugar pills worked as well at preventing kids' migraines as two commonly used headache medicines - and even had fewer side effects, a study earlier this month revealed. The findings may lead doctors to rethink how they treat a common ailment in children and teens. It's the first rigorous head-to-head test in kids of two generic prescription drugs also used for adults' migraines: topiramate, an anti-seizure medicine, and amitriptyline, an anti-depressant. The idea was to see if either drug could reduce by half the number of days kids had migraines over a month's time. Both drugs worked that well  but so did placebo sugar pills, US researchers found. Advertisement

The team, writing in the British Medical Journal, said: 'Evidence suggest that the pathophysiology of migraine can also be viewed in part as a systemic disorder affecting the endovascular system.'

The authors, who included German scientists from the Institute of Public Health in Berlin, added: 'These results further add to the evidence that migraine should be considered an important risk marker for cardiovascular disease, at least in women.'

In a linked editorial, Rebecca Burch from Harvard Medical School and Melissa Rayhill from the State University of New York at Buffalo cautioned that women should not be worried about the link.

They stressed that individual women were at very low risk - even if they had migraines.

Overall, only 223 women out of 115,000 died of heart problems during the study period - less than 0.2 per cent of all participants. This risk was higher among migraine patients, but still tiny.

'The magnitude of the risk should not be over-emphasized,' they said. 'It is small at the level of the individual patient, but still important at a population level because migraine is so prevalent.'

Experts in the past have called for people who suffer the most severe migraines automatically to be given cholesterol-reducing statins, simply as a precaution to reduce their heart risk.

Dr David Kernick, a GP at the St Thomas Health Centre in Exeter, wrote in the British Journal of General Practice last year that an 'aura' migraine - which involves flashing lights or confusing thoughts - should be considered for statins.
Alongside the skulls and bones of the kennel friends who perished before them, other dead dogs lie lifeless on a filthy concrete floor, still chained at the neck and some partly eaten by maggots.

Quivering in the shadows, four terrified dogs are - only just - alive, but no doubt forever scarred by the lengths they had to go to in order to beat starvation.

Some are thought to have been forced to feed on the carcasses of the fellow canines they managed to outlive, and at least one other survived by eating its own faeces.

VIDEO: WARNING GRAPHIC AND DISTRESSING CONTENT

This is the helpless face of one of the dogs that managed to survive the unimaginable horror

One of the dogs who didn't make it, found curled up in the corner of a filthy kennel beside an empty water bowl

The video also shows skulls and bones strewn on the floor of the abandoned puppy farm

This is the horror that met police and animal rescuers at a dog breeding kennel in Hyderabad earlier this month, after it was deserted by the owners who left their canine dependents - bred for money - to die a slow and painful death.

Six dogs are believed to have lost their lives and an investigation into the appalling case, which has thrown scrutiny on India's dog breeding laws, has been launched.

The survivors include a terrified pug which can be seen in a rescue video depicting the harrowing scenes.

WARNING: DISTRESSING IMAGES

Most of the dogs that were found dead were still chained to their kennel wall, unable to even attempt to break free and save themselves

The shocking case has thrown the spotlight on India's dog breeding laws and the regulation of backyard puppy farms

Some of the dogs found dead at the abandoned kennel were heavily decomposed, partly eaten by maggots

That dog, along with the others that made it, are now in foster care, being treated for severe healthy issues and trauma.

During the rescue, police were accompanied by the Hyderabad arm of the animal charity Blue Cross of India, with a video of their findings later posted to the activist group Animal Warriors of India's Facebook page.

It has left the 33,000 thousand people that have watched it shocked and appalled.

A spokesperson for Blue Cross of India was unable to comment on the case as proceedings are ongoing.




Looking to end child hunger in the Chattanooga area, the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors (GCAR) is getting behind the local Snack Pack movement which puts food in the hands of more than 1,000 students per week in 12 different Hamilton County schools a reach that is only expected to grow. Donating $20,000 to the Snack Pack program this year alone, GCAR will be lending long-term support to the cause with an annual $10,000 donation beginning in 2017.

In the Chattanooga community, there are thousands of students who leave school on Friday without the certainty of knowing where their next meal is coming from, said Janice Robertson, a GCAR member who founded the Snack Pack program in August 2014. We needed a discreet way to make sure these children will not go hungry on days when there are no school lunches to rely on.



Designed to meet the needs of children who may go without meals from Fridays school lunch until Mondays school breakfast, the Snack Pack initiative allows teachers to anonymously and discreetly place a snack pack in a selected childs backpack every Friday. Each pack contains 10 staple food items that help children stay full through the weekend. The Snack Pack program also puts together larger packs of food for spring, fall, and Christmas breaks, providing each student a Christmas gift over the holiday season.



Partnering with the Chattanooga Food Bank to minimize food costs, the Snack Pack program is entirely volunteer-driven with every penny going toward the assembly and distribution of snack packs to Hamilton County schools. The community gathers at least once a month at East Brainerd Church of Christ to assemble snack packs, and new volunteers are always welcome. Just $80 feeds one child for an entire school year, and anyone can sponsor a child by writing a check noted with the Snack Pack initiative to East Brainerd Church of Christ.



Over the past two years, weve grown significantly through the monetary and hands-on support of community members who share our vision of seeing children nourished and equipped to chase their dreams, said Ms. Robertson. Valuable partnerships like GCARs are what keep us going and these children fed.



The Snack Pack program currently provides food for the following schools: Apison Elementary School, Barger Academy, Brown Middle School, Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy, Chattanooga School For The Liberal Arts, East Brainerd Elementary School, Eastside Elementary School, Harrison Elementary School, Hunter Middle School, Red Bank High School, Wolftever Creek Elementary School and Woodmore Elementary School.



Proper nutrition is vital to the growth and development of children, and thats why GCAR stepped up to support this effort to improve the future of Greater Chattanooga, said Nathan Walldorf, Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors president. Janice and the Snack Pack program are making a real difference in the lives of Chattanoogas children, and were honored to partner with her passion and play a role in ending hunger in our community.



To learn more, donate or volunteer with the Snack Pack program, contact Janice Robertson at 423-595-1093 or JaniceRobertsonHomes@gmail.com. Also, for more information about the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors, visit www.GCAR.net or follow GCAR on Facebook and Twitter.


He said the Centre had lost 'all proportion' and 'lacked a concrete plan'

Stepping up his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has called an emergency session of the capital's assembly to discuss the explosive situation arising out of demonetisation.

Kejriwal also promised that his AAP-run Delhi government would deploy 5,000 civil defence volunteers to help those who have been standing at queues outside banks.

Sticking to his demand for demonetisation to be rolled back, the AAP chief lashed out at PM Modi and finance minister Arun Jaitley, saying the Centre has lost all sense of proportion due to lack of any concrete plan in executing the scheme.

Kejriwal said the government has no roadmap to execute the demonitisation scheme

Kejriwal said that a special one day session of the legislative assembly has been called on Tuesday, where the Delhi government will decide on steps to mitigate the present crisis.

Today we convened an emergency cabinet meeting, where it was decided that we will conduct a one day emergency session to analyse the situation and accordingly take decisions, Kejriwal said.

Civil defence volunteers, a part of Delhi government, will be deployed in the state to help people who have been standing in queues with regard to providing refreshments, filling out forms, helping senior citizens and many other things, he added.

Yesterday, Modi fought back tears as he promised that an end is in sight for India's money madness as the exchange limit was raised by Rs 500

Reacting quickly, Delhi BJP questioned the logic of AAP governments decision to call a session of the Assembly on demonetisation and accused Kejriwal of indulging in political drama over the issue.

One fails to understand the logic of calling Delhi Vidhan Sabha session on the issue of demonetisation.

"Kejriwal has often called Vidhan Sabha sessions on issues with no relation to Delhi Government as a part of his political nautanki (drama), said Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay.

People in the queue outside the Reserve Bank of India to exchange their old Rs 500 and 1000 notes in New Delhi on Sunday

Holding Prime Minister Narendra Modi responsible for the present cash crunch, the Delhi Chief Minister said the Centre was unprepared in dealing with the crisis.

Today Centre announced that the Indian Air Force will be used to carry and distribute currency notes. It shows that government did not have any game plane to tackle the crisis.

"The government was unprepared in executing its plan. It shows that the government is in a precarious situation, Kejriwal said.

RWAs offer help to ease long queues

As people continue to stand in queues outside banks and ATMs, several residents have stepped forward in their individual capacity to ease the anxiety among fellow citizens.

From distributing water and offering tea and food to those waiting in line, to helping their neighbours tide over the cash crunch, people are pitching in however they can.

Even political party workers have been roped in to help the people standing in the queues outside banks.

Volunteers have been helping those caught up in long queues outside banks and ATMs

And now, it is the turn of residents welfare associations that have come forward and proposed a helping hand to the banks to assist crowds and bank employees to make the cash swap process a little easier.

The RWAs have reached out to the nationalised banks to assist the crowd and make it convenient for both the stakeholders to carry out the process of exchanging and depositing cash easier by helping customers fulfill all the necessary steps before reaching the window so that queues can move faster.

Although people are currently facing problem during the phase of demonetisation, soon the benefit can be reaped. In the fight against the black money, it is important for the residents to cooperate with the banks, said BS Vohra from East Delhi RWAs Joint Front Federation.

We have reached out to the banks on social media, and expressed our desire to help the banks. The banks can include us after conducting a verification process. We can help the visitors in filling the forms, clearing their doubts, ensuring the completion of the required documents so that bank employees can cater to more and more customers faster, he said.

Vohra also said that the invitations have been sent to several other RWAs across the city to participate in the movement against black money.
Children took their heartfelt please for Delhi to be made cleaner direct to the capital's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal yesterday.

Some 16 pupils from government and private schools went to meet him on what was Children's Day, accompanied by people behind the MyRightToBreathe campaign.

The children took with them individual messages and poems they had written for the chief minister to make Delhi cleaner.

Kejriwal, who was sworn into his position 21 months ago, took an oath with the children, promising to make Delhi pollution-free by the next Childrens Day

They made Kejriwal, who was sworn into his position 21 months ago, take an oath with them to make Delhi pollution-free by the next Childrens Day.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was also present.

Children are the ambassadors of the campaign. Through the children a strong message of pollution free Delhi is being sent, said Ravina Raj Kohli, who is spearheading the campaign along with other prominent personalities of Delhi.

Delhi continues to reel under high content of hazardous particulate matter in the air

Children could influence their parents and make that little difference, which will go a long way in making Delhi pollution-free.

The idea behind the meeting was to send a signal that there is a need to rise above the politics to work for a cleaner Capital.

Its not just about smog as it contributes little to pollution. Smog may last for a few days but the overall air quality of Delhi needs to be cleaned, said Parul Sharma, who is also associated with the campaign.

Delhi continues to reel under high content of hazardous particulate matter in the air.

The campaigners also gave a petition to the CM demanding shutdown of NTPC Badarpur Thermal Plant, subsidised alternative mechanism for crop burning, issuance of subsidised air filter masks, consolidation of pending cases relating to air pollution, cloud seeding to induce rain, stricter action for heavy polluting vehicles plying in Delhi and curbing pollution caused by widespread construction.
Wildlife experts pulled him from the water in a

A seriously injured wild elephant is back on his feet and has regained his appetite after army engineers constructed a special frame to help him.

Fifty military engineers were drafted in last week to build the supportive metal enclosure with a pulley system for Sidda, who broke his leg when he fell into the Manchanabele Dam in Magadi, Karnataka, back in August.

Animal rescue charity Wildlife SOS, which has been instrumental in caring for him, said that the bull, thought to be about 35 years of age, is now improving after weeks spent gravely ill and lying on his side on the river bank, in the Ramanagara district.

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The army sent 50 troops to build a special supportive frame for Sidda after hearing of his plight

His condition has improved over the past few days since being able to stand with the help of the new enclosure

While it is still early days in Sidda's recovery and his prognosis remains poor, the news comes as a huge relief to the thousands of animal lovers who have either flocked to visit the stricken bull to offer prayers or followed his story online.

After sustaining his injury, the partially-blind elephant waded into a nearby ditch, using the natural buoyancy of the water to alleviate the pain in his fractured limb.

Dedicated locals initially tried to nurse Sidda through his injuries, but last month experts from the Karnataka Forest Department and charity Wildlife SOS carried out a grueling four-hour operation to pull the elephant onto the river banks for treatment.

The troops with engineer specialists from the Madras Sappers Division spent days erecting the complex structure, with a pulley mechanism to lift and support Sidda

The stricken elephant was lifted into the new enclosure on Thursday last week after spending weeks lying on his side, deteriorating further

Two trained elephants joined the rescue on October 21 to help calm terrified Sidda, whose story has touched animal lovers across India.

Despite a few signs of promise, the elephant's condition continued to deteriorate and he spent weeks stranded on his side, eating very little, if anything.

After hearing of his plight, Army Chief and current Ministry of External Affairs minister, General V K Singh, called on the military to step in.

Sidda, thought to be around 35 years old, was found stranded in a dam in Magadi, Ramanagara, with a broken leg

For weeks, caring locals had been tending to the stricken bull, bringing him food, before rescue efforts began

Under the command of Brig R K Sachdeva, 50 troops from the Madras Sappers Division constructed a supportive structure to harness the animal and keep him lifted to allow better treatment.

The bespoke steel frame comes complete with a complex mechanism of weight bearing pulleys and support belts, and is lined with gunny bags filled with hay to protect Sidda from any further injuries.

And on Thursday last week he was successfully lifted into the special frame.

In October, after weeks spent treating the animal in the water, a committee of experts was formed by the Karnataka Forest Department with help from charity Wildlife SOS

The experts decided Sidda needed to be pulled from the water for treatment and a gruelling four-hour operation was carried out

A spokesperson for Wildlife SOS said: 'It is important to have him in an erect position to carry out routine checkups, provide intensive treatment for his wounds and feed him with ease.

'We have taken careful measures to ensure that Sidda does not come in direct contact with the metal frames, therefore reducing the chances of him accidentally hurting himself.

'In order to do so, we have placed two layers of wooden beams next to the metal structure and lined the frame with soft bedding materials.

After sustaining his injury, the partially-blind elephant waded into a nearby ditch, using the natural buoyancy of the water to alleviate the pain in his fractured limb

Sidda, who is adored by locals, did start to show promising signs of recovery when he was lifted from the dam but has since deteriorated and was unable to stand

'Sidda will be able to lean against the support beams and the harness belts and pulleys will help support the elephant, allowing him to take the weight off his fractured limb.

'This will enable us to access him safely and at the same time, he will remain comfortable.'

Just two days later, Sidda began to regain his appetite and has been seen bathing himself for the first time in weeks.

Before last Thursday, he had been lying on his side for weeks and Wildlife SOS had said he was clearly suffering with a 'grave' prognosis

Sidda was only been able to stand with the help of a crane until the army came to his aid

Meanwhile, vets are treating his broken limb, a dangerously infected abscess on his back and other sores on his side.

The Wildlife SOS spokesperson added: 'Sidda has regained his appetite and has been munching on green fodder and fruits all morning. He was also seen taking baths and has not shown any signs of resistance so far.'

Up until the frame was erected, vets and wildlife specialists had been using a crane to lift Sidda, whose prognosis was described as 'grave'.

Questions have previously been asked about why euthanasia was not considered as an option if the animal is unlikely to recover.

Reports claim that anything up to 50 locals a day are visiting Sidda and watching the veterinary experts work round-the-clock to save him

But strict rules governing wild animals in India mean that any decision on his welfare lay with the chief wildlife warden in the forest department with jurisdiction.

Geeta Seshamani, co-founder of Wildlife SOS, which has been working round-the-clock to help Sidda, told MailOnline that the case had highlighted the need for changes in wildlife conservation regulations.

Caring locals had been trying to help Sidda for weeks on their own after discovering him in the dam, where he spent more than a month.

But Geeta believes that earlier intervention could have given Sidda a better chance of survival and eventual recovery.

She said: 'Wildlife SOS has been assisting with medical care and treatment of Sidda with the permission of the Karnataka Forest Department and Chief Wildlife Warden.

'Being a young tusker, he is extremely valuable for conservation and this incident highlights a need to change the way we look at wildlife conservation.

'Traditional conservationists do not advocate interventions and feel wild animals should be left to survive or perish as per the laws of nature.

'However, when we consider the shrinking numbers of bulls in the Asian elephant population and the value of a young bull like Sidda, perhaps timely intervention is something to have been considered earlier in the day.'

Kartick Satyanarayan, also a co-founder of the charity, said: 'The Wildlife SOS team is monitoring Sidda round the clock and doing all we can to help this poor elephant by providing him treatment and care.

'We hope and pray for his recovery. We have already invested substantial resources in providing treatment including sending a veterinarian with a portable digital X-ray machine by plane.'
It's been normal practice for many years to buy medicines online. But how can we be sure such medicines are not fake?

A new report reveals that the sale of drugs online has resulted in massive misuse of treatments and that not all sold online are genuine.

There are also question marks about the authenticity of prescriptions which are submitted online for the purchase of medicines.

Online sale of drugs is prohibited in India. The report will look at more stringent laws

The Central Drug Supervision Control Organisation (CDSCO) has taken note of the situation and submitted its report to the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), with some amendments, on whether e-pharmacy should be allowed or not.

Delhi's drug controller Dr Mrinalini Darswal told Mail Today: 'As per the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 and Drug and Cosmetics Rules 1945, online sale of drugs is prohibited in India.

'In our country, drugs are supposed to be sold over the counter with a prescription and the chemist selling the medicine should hold a pharmacy degree'.

'In this regard, the drug consultative committee has submitted its report to the DCGI, with some recommendations over the illegal sale of medicines online.

CDSCO has suggested more stringent laws and rules for e-pharmacy in India as we have received several complaints on fake drugs being sold,' said Darswal.

Question mark: Are many of the prescriptions submitted online for drugs fake as well?

Officials with the drug controller's office are also not too sure about the credibility and authenticity of pharmacists on eplatforms.

'We do not know how many times the same prescription is being used for buying medicine on different e-medicine sites.

'We are not aware about the qualification of the pharmacists selling the medicines to the costumers and what kind of medicines a pharmacist has stored,' Darswal said.

According to an official, people have the habit of self-medication but they often follow the wrong treatment, putting their lives at risk.

'There is no regulation and registration of e-pharmacies at present,' says the report

They use wrong medicines that affect public health in general, the official added.

'Since the consumer is not meeting the pharmacist in person, there are chances that the customer would be cheated.

'There is no regulation and registration of e-pharmacies at present and this has been suggested by the committee,' he said.

Officials said that last year the government had asked the drug regulators to formulate a guideline with strict provisions to scrutinise the sale of medicines online, which regular chemists opposed across the country.

Several suggestions were put forward by the officers from Delhi, Goa, Odisha, Maharashtra and Karnataka, who participated in the high-level drug consultative committee meeting over the ban on e-pharmacy.

The reports will be sent to the Union health ministry soon, informed another senior drug controller official.

'It has also been suggested to form an inter-ministerial committee to deal with legal issues,' said the official.

Moreover, alerts would get reflected on the CDSCO website if a particular prescription was used more than once for buying medicines from a particular online chemist, said the official, adding that all e-pharmacists would be centrally linked to CDSCO.

In India people buy medicines from several e-pharmacy websites such as Netmed.com, MeraPharmcay. com, mChemist.com, pharmeasy.in among others.

Besides the e-pharmacists, the drug department is also keeping a close eye on regular chemists too, because there have beebcomplaints recently that they sell spurious medicines and store psychotropic substances.

Recently, the drug department raided 21 chemists in the national Capital for selling narcotics and habit forming substances.
An American trucking company has agreed to pay more than 200,000 to settle discrimination complaints by four Sikh drivers who were denied jobs for refusing to take drug tests that would have violated their religious beliefs, it's claimed.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. reached the settlement set to be announced on Tuesday with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, according to the agreement provided to The Associated Press.

The trucking company required three men to clip their hair for drug samples and required a fourth to remove his turban before providing a urine sample, said The Sikh Coalition, which represented the men and shared the agreement.

Lakhbir Singh, one of the four truckers in the case against J.B. Hunt Transportation Services Inc outside the Los Angeles Equal Employment Opportunity Commission office in May

The four California men were not offered testing alternatives and were denied jobs when they refused to submit to the tests.

Observant Sikhs never cut their hair and wear turbans in public at all times, said Harsimran Kaur, the group's legal director. It is considered shameful and humiliating to remove a turban in public.

'It's absolutely a challenge for observant Sikhs to maintain unshorn hair,' Kaur said Monday.

'The importance of this settlement is that it sends a message to employers that even drug testing regimens do not fall outside the purview of the federal anti-discrimination law. Employers can't proffer safety as a blanket justification to discriminate.'

Observant Sikhs never cut their hair and wear turbans in public at all times (photo for representation only)

J.B. Hunt agreed to revise its anti-discrimination policies and provide training on accommodating religious beliefs, according to the agreement.

The Arkansas-based company chose not to comment, according to attorney Kevin Lilly, who represented the company in the matter.

The EEOC wouldn't comment Monday, a spokeswoman said.

The Sikh Coalition said the case could have an impact on other trucking companies and industries.

Thousands of Sikhs work as truckers in the US and the group said it has also learned of technology and pharmaceutical companies that asked Sikhs to provide hair samples, which can show the presence of drugs several months after use.

Thousands of Sikhs work as truckers in the US and the group said it has also learned of technology and pharmaceutical companies that asked Sikhs to provide hair samples (photo for representation only)

Employers can generally require a certain appearance at work, even barring beards or hair styles that might be associated with certain racial groups, said Ariela Gross, a law professor at the University of Southern California.

However, those rules don't tend to hold up when applied to religious groups that require a turban or bar them from cutting hair.

'Where they're requiring them to cut a piece of their hair for drug testing it seems odd they wouldn't accept other types of testing alternatives,' Gross said. 'That's what makes it seem like a relatively straightforward case.'

Observant Sikhs abstain from alcohol and drug use. They never cut their hair because it's considered to be in harmony with God's will and is one of five required articles of faith.

One of the truckers in the case, Lakhbir Singh, who emigrated from Punjab, India, 20 years ago, said he always had submitted to urinalysis for drug tests for other jobs.

When J.B. Hunt required a hair clipping for testing while he attended job orientation in 2011, he offered to provide a hair sample from his comb, but wouldn't allow his hair to be clipped.

After losing the job, he struggled for most of the next five years to find permanent, full-time work to support his family. He now works for another trucking company.
The Modi government's demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes got the ultimate boost on Tuesday when the Supreme Court gave its stamp of approval to the controversial measure.

The CJI TS Thakur-headed bench, however, asked the Centre to take urgent additional measures to alleviate the inconvenience faced by people forced into long queues at ATMs for withdrawing cash and banks for exchanging old currency, saying, 'You cannot have a surgical strike against them.'

The big legal victory did not come easy though. Veteran lawyer and senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal, whom the four anti-demonetisation petitioners roped in, vigorously argued challenging its legality and sought its quashing.

The Modi government's demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes, got the ultimate boost on Tuesday when the Supreme Court gave its stamp of approval to the controversial measure

Questioning the manner of implementation, Sibal drew the court's attention to the severe inconvenience people has been put to.

But Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi won the day for the government as he convinced the court about the need for such a step to deal with the 'bigger enemy' - terror funding, black money, counterfeit notes and corruption - and told the court, 'It was a surgical strike against these menaces and during a surgery there will be some pain.

'No pain... no gain.'

The government finally won it when Thakur said: 'We are not granting any stay. We are not going to interfere (with the policy).

'The purpose behind the move seems to be laudable... to prevent hoarding. We all know that black money is being used for terrorism.

'Some collateral damage is being faced by people. But come out with more measures to reduce inconvenience to them. There is a general feeling it is causing a lot of problems.'

The AG had a strong rebuttal for each argument put forth by Sibal.

Rohatgi's focus of argument was that there was no legal basis for opposing the Centre's move to demonetise higher denomination notes aimed at catching the big fish, and the common man in this country has 'waited for 50 years for his Fiat car, phone and gas connection'.

'After demonetisation, black money hoarders do not even have the money they once used to have in their pyjamas,' Rohatgi submitted.

The AG said that Rs 3.25 lakh crore in Rs 500/1,000 notes was deposited out of Rs 15-16 lakh crore in circulation.

'Every day, we will add Rs 10,000 crore,' he submitted.

He argued that the only argument raised against demonetisation is 'inconvenience'.

Rohatgi defended the Centre's decision, saying it was in complete compliance of section 26(2) of the RBI Act.

Sibal had contended that the Centre did not have power under the rule for blanket removal of currency notes of certain denomination but only to cancel a particular series.

'There is complete chaos in the country. Poor are unable to buy rations, people unable to undergo kidney operation. Eleven people have already died. There are long queues at ATMs and banks. In remote areas there are no ATMs, no banks,' Sibal said, which resulted in the bench observing that 'some urgent remedial measures needed to be taken'.

The bench has sought an affidavit from the Centre by November 25 on the additional measures taken to alleviate people's suffering.

Sibal pointed out that demonetisation was done in 1956 and 1978 too but with a proper notice giving sufficient time for preparation.

'But now 86 per cent notes were withdrawn suddenly without any proper plan for replenishment,' he argued.

The AG countered saying that when the government is dealing with terror funding, black money and corruption, such sudden steps are required.

'If we had calibrated ATM machines or printed the new notes in advance, the cat would have been out of the bag. Rules permit such steps,' he said.

Out of the four PILs, two were filed by Delhi-based lawyers Vivek Narayan Sharma and Sangam Lal Pandey, while two others were filed by individuals S Muthukumar and Adil Alvi.

The petitioners alleged that the sudden decision created chaos and harassment to the people and the notification of the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, be either quashed or deferred for some time. The pleas had also sought either quashing of the notification or a direction to the Centre for grant of reasonable timeframe to citizens to exchange the demonetised currency notes to avoid difficulties being faced by the people.
Impeccably-connected: Axa boss Henri de Castries

Axa's impeccably-connected boss Henri de Castries has let it be known he won't be in the running for chairman of HSBC when Douglas Flint departs next year.

The blow-dried Parisian Count, 62, is now keen to pursue a political career after next year's French presidential elections.

Was crafty Henri getting his excuses in early? I'm told the bank ruled out offering him the post months ago.

As Principal of London's 20,000 a-year Harrodian School, Andrew Parmley makes an unusual choice as the new Lord Mayor of London.

The unpaid post, a glorified shop steward for the often vilified City, usually falls to an ex-banker.

Earnest-looking Dr Parmley, 60, should at least be well-versed in defending fat-cat levels of pay. His boss, Harrodian's grandiose founder Sir Alford Houstoun-Boswall, 69, paid himself an extraordinary 9.5m last year.

Goldman Sachs' London offices are losing their head of communications, Fiona Laffan.

A former partner at City spinners Brunswick, mother-of-one Fiona has spent the past eight years defending Goldman's well-remunerated bankers.

She's now off to be communications director at part taxpayer-owned Lloyds Bank, still reeling from Portuguese chief Antonio Horta-Osorio's summer escandalo. Out of the frying pan

Re Goldman, the bank's billionaire chief Lloyd Blankfein reacts graciously to rumours that his great rival , feted JP Morgan boss, Jamie Dimon, 60, was Donald Trump's first choice as Treasury Secretary, remarking: 'He'd be a great Treasury Secretary, and he's been a terrific competitor. In that one move we could kill two birds with one stone.'

Often portrayed as sinister and unscrupulous, Blankfein, 62, privately remains mystified why 18million-a-year Dimon escapes similar odium.

Former Autonomy director Sushovan Hussain, 52, who faces fraud charges over the software firm's 8.7billionn takeover by Hewlett Packard, has hired the services of hotshot US lawyer John Keker.

Brooding, $1,000-an-hour Keker, whose unlovable ex-clients include Enron CFO Andrew Fastow and Tour de France cheat Lance Armstrong, has a tough-as-nails reputation that's been hard-earned.
Merlin Attractions was fined 5m over The Smiler rollercoaster crash in June last year

JOBS THREAT Alton Towers is to make up to 70 staff redundant after a review of the business in the aftermath of a roller-coaster crash.

The resort, which employs 800 full-time staff and an additional 1,500 seasonal workers, confirmed at-risk notices had been sent to those affected.

A spokesman for the Staffordshire theme park said the move was part of Alton Towers continued recovery, and the cuts would fall across all the parks departments.

Park operator Merlin Attractions was fined 5million at Stafford Crown Court in September for a catastrophic failure of health and safety rules over The Smiler crash in June last year.

MILKING PROFITS Agriculture and engineering firm Carrs has posted a boost in pre-tax profits despite a challenging year including low milk prices, low oil prices and floods.

A 2.8 per cent rise in pre-tax profits, from 13.7 to 14.1million, to the year ending September 3, 2016 was helped by a strong performance in the US.

Agriculture operating profit rose 8.6 per cent to 10.3million, driven by a strong sales in feed block in the US, the company said.

PRESSING ON Johnston Press has confirmed it is in late stage talks to sell some of its newspapers to rival Iliffe Media.

It follows reports that the owner of The Yorkshire Post and The Scotsman was in negotiations with Iliffe about the possible sale of its East Anglian brands, including the Newmarket Journal and Suffolk Free Press.

Last week, Johnston reported that total group revenues were down 5.1 per cent year-on-year in the 17 weeks to October 29, as it continues to grapple with the tough advertising market.

BOSS HUNT Interserve is on the hunt for a chief executive after announcing its current boss Adrian Ringrose will step down. He is expected to leave the outsourcing and construction group next year to pursue the next phase of his career.

Ringrose said: It has been a huge privilege to serve on the board of Interserve for the last 15 years, in particular to have led the business as chief executive for the vast majority of that time during which the company has expanded and developed significantly.

BROKER SOLD French insurer Axa has secured a 295million deal to sell its UK insurance broking business Bluefin. The move will see Bluefin, which employs 1,500 staff across 45 sites, sold to US-based Marsh.

PENSION PURCHASE Legal & General has bought a 1.1billion pension programme from Rolls-Royce as it seeks to expand its books.
Convenience food business Greencore soared as it revealed plans to buy US group Peacock Foods.

Peacock makes frozen breakfast sandwiches and meal kits for kids in the US, generating around 800million in revenue a year.

Greencore, which makes sandwiches, soups and desserts, will pay 594.3million for the company. Chief executive Patrick Coveney said the acquisition would transform the firm's US business.

He said the two businesses had the same strategy and values of 'making products that consumers love'.

Analysts at Jefferies said the move could quadruple Greencore's US sales.

Convenience food business Greencore soared as it revealed plans to buy US group Peacock Foods

Currently the region accounts for around 15 per cent of the firm's sales. The deal is to be part funded by a 439.4million rights issue (where shares are offered at a special price to existing investors). Shares soared 9.5 per cent, or 27.8p, to 319.7p.

The FTSE 100 finished up 0.3 per cent, or 22.75 points, at 6753.18. Commodity firms continued to struggle amid lingering doubts about Opec ability's to secure a deal to cut oil production.

The price of the black stuff was down another 2.5 per cent taking it below $44 a barrel.

Metal miners continued to suffer as gold fell a further 0.5 per cent, it's now at a five-month low of $1,217 an ounce.

Polymetal International was the greatest faller on the day, down 4.9 per cent, or 41p, to 795.5p while Randgold Resources lost 2.4 per cent, or 140p, to 5815p.

Asset manager Majedie took advantage of the metals rout to top up its holding in Hummingbird Resources.

Majedie bought 18.5million shares in the Aim-listed gold miner, taking its stake up to 5.4 per cent. It is now the fourth largest shareholder in the business. Third-largest is Odey Asset Management, which has a 6.1 per cent holding.

STOCKWATCH - DEWHURST Dewhurst makes electrical components and control equipment such as push buttons, key pads and displays for lifts. The firm had struggled in the first half of the year and reported a 24 per cent fall in profits back in June and concerns about Brexit. Yesterday it said a recovery had continued through the summer and the fourth quarter of its financial year, with the weaker pound providing a further boost to overseas earnings. Dewhurst said it expects to report revenue exceeding 47million in the full year to September 30. Shares gained 3.8 per cent, or 25p, to 675p.

Hummingbird is due to pour gold from its flagship mine in West Africa next year, where it hopes to produce 132,000 ounces in its first full year.

Shares fell 5 per cent, or 1p, to 19p.

Support services outfit DCC advanced as it revealed operating profit was up by a third.

The business reported operating profit of 117.8million in the six months to September 30, up from 88.4million a year ago.

DCC is involved with sales, marketing and business support across four divisions: energy, technology, health care and environmental.

Yesterday it revealed it had added French natural gas marketing business Gaz Europeen, and Irish pharmaceutical marketing business Medisource to its group.

The acquisitions cost 96million and 27million respectively.

DCC shareholders saw a 12.5 per cent increase in their interim dividend to 37.2p a share.

The group said full year operating profit will be significantly ahead of expectations. Shares leapt 2.8 per cent, or 170p, to 6205p.

Venture Life Group makes personal care products for the ageing population such as mouthwash and face cream.

Shares in the firm had dipped last week when chief financial officer James Hunter revealed he was leaving the company.

But a trading update yesterday turned the tide. Venture said it expects to report record revenue of no less than 14million in 2016, an increase of 50 per cent on 2015.

It said the acquisition of UltraDEX toothpaste and mouthwash products had made good progress and an advertising campaign for the brand at London railway stations had led to an increase in revenue.

The product will launch in Malaysia in January. Shares climbed 2.7 per cent, or 1.5p, to 56.5p.

Transport service provider 21st Century Technology had another contract win to announce yesterday.

Last week the group revealed a contract renewal with Arriva UK buses. The AIM-listed company will provide real-time passenger information and bus systems for OFJ Connections Gatwick Airport in a deal worth around 1million.

OFJ supplies transportation services at airports as well as for corporate customers, schools and universities.
A top software executive fiddled his firm's accounts and sacked staff who opposed him in a bid to secure an 8.7billion sale, court papers claim.

Sushovan Hussain, former finance director of British tech firm Autonomy, is facing fraud charges in the US over his company's ill-fated takeover by industry giant Hewlett-Packard in 2011.

HP wrote off 7.1billion less than a year later, claiming false accounting had effectively lured it into buying a dud business. Autonomy's bosses denied the suggestion, saying HP was seeking to shift the blame for its own mistakes.

Sushovan Hussain, former finance director of British tech firm Autonomy, is facing fraud charges in the US over his company's ill-fated takeover by industry giant Hewlett-Packard

Hussain denies the charges against him, which have been made by US prosecutors. An indictment filed in California claims the 52-year-old deliberately misled auditors and market analysts to secure a higher price.

He allegedly back-dated agreements, improperly recorded transactions and made false claims about sales, contracts and customers.

Hussain is even said to have pushed Autonomy into firing a US finance officer after he raised concerns about the company's accounts.

Prosecutors are seeking 6.2million, which they claim Hussain made from the sale. 'Sushovan Hussain is innocent of wrongdoing.

He defrauded no one and, as Autonomy's CFO, acted at all times with the highest standards of honesty, integrity and competence,' said defence lawyer John Keker. 'He will be acquitted at trial.'

'It is a shame that the Department of Justice is lending its support to HP's attempts to blame others for its own catastrophic failings.'

The staff member fired is not identified in the indictment, although a separate civil case names him as Brent Hogenson.

According to claims lodged with the UK High Court by HP  which is suing Hussain and Autonomy's founder Mike Lynch for 4.1billion  he was dismissed in 2010 after raising concerns with auditor Deloitte and the now-defunct Financial Services Authority.

Lynch is not facing criminal charges and denies HP's claims. He is counter-suing for 128million.
The City of Chattanooga has scheduled sewer line repair work on Lakeview Drive.

Lakeview Drive, between Park Street and Cross Street, will be closed to through traffic beginning

Thursday through Friday.

A detour route will be posted.

"Catoosa County appreciates the patience and cooperation of everyone during this sewer repair project," officials said.
Tesco's sale have grown at their fastest rate in three years as more affluent shoppers return to its stores, snapping up its 'Farm Brands' and 'Finest' ranges.

According to the latest till roll analysis from Kantar Worldpanel, sales at Tesco increased by 2.2 per cent over the quarter to November 6, while customer's average spend was up by 2.1 per cent to 20.69.

The sales figures mean Tesco, which has been gradually returning to health since Dave Lewis took as chief executive in September 2014, has boosted its share of Britain's grocery market to 28.2 per cent, up from 27.9 per cent this time last year.

Posh push: Kantar said affluent shoppers had returned to Tesco, like this store in Kensington

Tesco's advance appears to have come at the expense of previously dominant German discounters Aldi and Lidl - who grew at their slowest rate since 2011.

Nevertheless Aldi and Lidl, who have been eating away at all the major players in recent years, still clocked up sales growth of 10.2 per cent and 6.1 per cent respectively.

Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel, explained: 'In recent years more affluent Tesco shoppers have drifted towards Aldi and Lidl as they have become more mainstream.

'But much of Tesco's recent growth has come from more affluent shoppers returning to the store, and average spend per trip is up by 2.1 per cent to 20.69.

'The 2.2 per cent growth is a considerable improvement on the numbers it was delivering this time last year, and indeed in 2014.'

As a result of the Kantar report, Tesco shares on the FTSE 100 index were up 4 per cent, or 8.1p at 214.0p in lunchtime trading.

Elsewhere Iceland's sales grew well ahead of the market at 8.3 per cent, with the frozen food specialist increasing its market share to 2.1 per cent, as a high-profile store opening in Clapham supported its increasingly upmarket range.

Sticking with the upmarket fightback, sales at Waitrose also rose, up 3 per cent.

But not everyone made gains. Sales at Sainsbury's declined by 0.7 per cent, and Morrisons saw total sales fall by 2.4 per cent, while Asda's recent decline only slowed slightly to 5 per cent.

The research also showed that grocery prices, which have now been falling continuously since September 2014, were still 0.5 per cent cheaper than last year, although there has been a significant reduction in the rate of deflation since this summer reflecting the drop in the pound after June's Brexit vote, which has increased the cost of imported products.

Not cheap: Tesco Finest ranges have helped boost sales and increase average spend

Mr McKevitt said: 'We're likely to see prices starting to creep up again in December, unless retailers choose Christmas to unleash a new round of price cuts.

'Although it's tempting to link any potential price increases to Brexit and the devaluation of sterling, it's worth remembering that deflation has been easing since December last year, well before the referendum.'

At the same time figures from analysts Nielsen reaffirmed Kantar's findings.

Its research showed show sales growth at both Aldi and Lidl hit the lowest level in five years, increasing by 11.3 per cent and 5.2 per cent respectively.

Between them, Aldi and Lidl account for 11.8 per cent of UK grocery sales, up from 11.1 per cent a year ago.

Mike Watkins, Nielsen's UK head of retailer and business insight, said it was 'inevitable' that the discounters would eventually experience a slowing growth rate, noting that Tesco's 2.3 per cent growth continued apace.
VAT is an important issue for many small businesses but many won't realise the vote to leave the EU could impact the tax and them. Rob Janering, Associate Director of Accordance, a specialist VAT consultancy that counsels organisations in Europe on their cross border VAT affairs, explains why

Many business owners are thinking about what the decision to leave the EU will mean for them; unfortunately, at the moment, there are no definitive answers.

It is impossible to predict what the UK's trading relationship with the EU will ultimately look like: formal negotiation will probably only begin in Spring 2017, which the Prime Minister has indicated is the latest date the UK will trigger Article 50.

One thing we do know is that VAT is likely to be one of the major taxes affected by Brexit, because the UKs VAT laws are based on overriding EU legislation.

All change: Britain's VAT laws are currently based on EU legislation

At this stage it is not thought that a major overhaul of the existing rules will take place - but change will be necessary in order to encompass the new trading relationship that will be in place between the EU and UK.

Unless the UK scraps VAT altogether (which is highly unlikely, given that it generated 100billion for HMRC last year), the UK will have to find a way of making our VAT system compatible with the EU.

Despite this uncertain position, there are practical measures that UK business owners can take prior to Article 50 being triggered in the spring and the race to Brexit getting started. We have highlighted some of these below:

Confirm your VAT registrations

Although we dont know how long it will take Britain to officially leave the EU, it is likely to be years rather than months.

Therefore, on the basis that most businesses will want to continue with existing trading patterns in the EU it would be prudent to take stock now and review where you hold any non-UK VAT registrations and the reasons for that.

For example, a UK business with manufacturing plants in Germany would need registrations in that country, on the basis of making and selling the items there. The registration would also allow it to efficiently recover German VAT costs it incurs.

Deadline: EU authorities may want to collect as much VAT as they can before Brexit

As information about Brexit is released, having these details to hand will it make it much easier and efficient to understand any changes required.

It is also very important to remember that EU tax authorities are likely to take a very harsh view on UK businesses who are non-compliant  there is now a limited amount of time for them to collect revenue from UK companies and they therefore will be looking to collect as much as possible before the country exits the EU.

Now is the time to make sure you are fully compliant so as not to incur large fines and penalties.

Review your supply chain

Once you have identified if, and where, you have any non-EU VAT registrations, it is a good idea to review your supply chain. Understanding which companies you deal with, either directly or by association, that are EU registered will help you plan for the future.

This is important as todays supply chains can involve multiple movements of goods across several different borders, which is likely to create VAT registration obligations.

Be upfront: Now is the time to talk to European clients about their future plans

Discuss next steps with your EU clients

If you trade with partners in other EU countries - even if that just involves buying goods or services from them - have you discussed how Brexit will affect you both?

It's a good idea to discuss with your trading partners whether their supply plans may have to change post-Brexit. This is significant as changes made by your business will have consequences for them, just as their changes will affect you. Working together from the outset should help to avoid any potential negative consequences.

Many SMEs havent begun the conversations outside of their own organisations; but knowing the views of your clients and how they see it affecting your trading relationship is an important part of the forward financial planning process.

Having cordial relations with trading partners and discussing matters up front is more likely to help you agree a practical and cost-effective solution.

Be prepared for changes to VAT recovery rules

Now is the time to understand how VAT recovery claims will be managed post-Brexit. At the moment, as the UK is part of the EU it can make claims for VAT incurred across the other member states. This means that VAT on everything from travel and expenses costs to hiring equipment abroad can be recovered, at a minimal cost.

However, post-Brexit the UK will not have access to this mechanism and will instead have to rely on the EUs 13th Directive VAT claim mechanism that allows for a business established outside the EU to recover EU VAT.

This mechanism is more complex, and is subject to additional conditions that change on a country-by-country basis. There are also different time limits for making claims.

Make sure that any claims made now can be transferred across to the new system and where possible, that VAT can continue to be recovered.

Analyse the extent of your operations within the EU

If you operate in any locations inside the EU but outside of the UK, what plans have you in place post Brexit?

Will you continue to keep offices, manufacturing plants or warehouse space in these countries and if you do, what will be the consequence of this?

Many businesses have offices abroad to help with make sales in that country. These facilities you will probably need to review first.
MailOnline went on patrol with armed civilian militia in 4X4 jeep searching for people trying to get into EU

13-ft fence was built last year on orders of right-wing leader Viktor Orban who says migrants 'are poison'

Men carrying batons and leading guard dogs hunt for illegal migrants trying to scale razor wire fence

Hungary's border with Serbia was sealed last year and is now patrolled by border forces and civil militia

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Stretching more than 100 miles, topped by vicious razor wire and patrolled 24 hours a day by guards with German Shepherd police dogs - this is the toughest frontier in Europe.

Migrants claim they are attacked, abused and mauled as they desperately try to crawl through Hungary's impenetrable four-metre fence along its barren southern border with Serbia.

MailOnline went on patrol with the civilian militia tasked with stopping migrants who are attempting to breach the controversial 'wall' built by right-wing leader Viktor Orban.

In squads of five, the camouflage-clad guards drive 4X4 trucks through the wilderness around the fence and boast of discovering huge numbers of illegal arrivals, as they provide support to the government-employed forces who also police the border.

But the migrants claim the guards - a combination of police, border forces and paid civilians - who monitor the razor wire fence have unleashed aggressive German Shepherds and beat them with wooden batons.

Tough: Hungary effectively sealed its borders in September 2015 and at the Serbian border town of Kelebija, Serbia, pictured, just 10 migrants are allowed through a day, leaving a huge backlog of people waiting to head to northern Europe

Patrol: Hungary's border fence is heavily monitored and migrants who have attempted a crossing say they have been badly beaten by dogs and guards with batons. Right-wing leader Viktor Orban has labelled migrants a 'poison' for Europe and claimed the bloc did not need 'a single one'

Final frontier: Guards hunt for migrants along the toughest border in Europe, between Hungary and Serbia where a huge fence has been heavily patrolled since right-wing leader Viktor Orban effectively sealed the border last year

Abuse: Migrants who have attempted the crossing between Serbia and Hungary say they have been viciously attacked and beaten up by the Hungarian border force who operate with German Shepherd guard dogs

Hurt: Migrants such as Quorum (pictured above displaying a bump on his arm) claim that Hungarian guards - a combination of border force and civilian militia - who patrol the razor wire fence have unleashed dogs and hit them with wooden batons

Keep out: Hungary built fences protected with razor wire on its southern borders with Serbia and Croatia last year after hundreds of thousands made their way through Hungary and into central Europe

Final frontier: The closure of Hungary's border with Serbia dramatically slowed the flow of migrants through the country and now up to thirty a day are granted entry

Migrant hunter: At the height of the migrant crisis the small border town of Asotthalmon said it was 'over run' and now its fence is patrolled by an 'anti immigrant militia'. Zoltan Saronger, 25,is one of the guards who keeps watch for illegal breaches of the border fence, but insists he never uses violence

Squalid: Despite the erection of an almost impenetrable border fence, and claims of violence against migrants, families still make the trek to the wasteland around the border where makeshift tents provide the only means of shelter

Hungary effectively sealed its borders in September 2015 and at the Serbian border town of Kelebija, Serbia, just 10 migrants are allowed through a day, leaving a huge backlog of people waiting to head to northern Europe.

The Balkan route was closed entirely in March this year after Croatia, Slovenia, and Macedonia shut their borders to those seeking asylum in Europe.

One day I came across 100 migrants. They were from Kosovo, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Africa  not refugees. They come at night. The cut holes in the fence and then run into the woods. Zoltan Saringer, from the civil militia

Zoltan Saringer, a member of the Hungarian civilian militia, insists he never uses the baton or handcuffs he keeps in his high-powered Toyota 4x4 as he prowls the forest trails.

'When I see immigrants I call the police,' Zoltan said. ' I do not confront the immigrants myself.'

Dressed in camouflage hunting clothes and armed with wooden batons, handcuffs and binoculars, his five-strong squad mount 24-hour patrols throughout their territory, just a stone's throw from Serbia.

'One day I came across 100 migrants. They were from Kosovo, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Africa  not refugees.'

Slum: Migrants trying to cross Europe's most impenetrable border have set up tents in a squalid camp on the Serbian side of the Hungarian border. Very few crossings are currently successful as the border is patrolled so heavily

Dog patrol: Border Guards with German Shepherd guard dogs patrol the razor wire fence that separates Hungary from Serbia in a sign of the heavy monitoring that makes the border one of the toughest in Europe

Blocked: Refugees stand behind a fence at the Hungarian border with Serbia near the town of Horgos on September 16, 2015 in an iconic image of the migrant crisis that appeared to reach its height last year. Nearby Asotthalom has now stepped up border patrols

Bottleneck: Some 7,000 migrants are now trapped in Serbia, living in shelters in the capital Belgrade and makeshift camps close to the borders with Hungary and Croatia. Pictured: Children in Kelebija refugee camp on the Serbian side of the border

Squalid: In the refugee shanty town that has sprung up by the border a bare-foot Iraqi toddler (above) stands in the mud and the dirt next to the razor wire as their diligent parents boil water over an open fire to wash them and keep their children clean at Kelebija refugee camp

Makeshift: Migrants are still arriving at the border with Serbia and Hungary despite the vast border fence that makes it almost impossible to cross. Others come via Macedonia and Bulgaria, hoping to reach the rich northern EU states such as Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands

Razor wire: A fence was erected along Hungary's southern border after 400,000 flooded into the country at the height of the migrant crisis

Guard dogs: Many places along Hungary's southern border are protected by fencing, dogs and guards in a symbol of leader Viktor Orban's zero-tolerance attitude towards migrants

Driving along huntsman's trails and remote farm tracks, Zoltan points out routes regularly used by migrants.

'We follow the tracks close to the border. This is where we find the migrants,' Zoltan told MailOnline.

'They come over at night. They cut the fence and then make their way through the fields and woods to the road.'

His high-powered 4x4 Toyota had powerful headlights which he uses to spot the 'intruders'.

He added: 'We have our regular routine but also we receive information. Local people call us from their farms and homes to tell us where the intruders are.'

But some migrants told MailOnline that they had been the victims of unnecessary force.

'The police beat me up two days ago,' claimed Pakistani migrant Quorum, who left his home country after a feud with a rival family.

They sprayed tear gas into my face and hit me with sticks. There was a group of us. We were all beaten. I don't know why because we didn't try to run away. And they had big dogs. It was very frightening.' Quorum, migrant from Pakistan

'The border guards found me 2km from the border and they beat me with their batons. They sprayed tear gas into my face and hit me with sticks.

'There was a group of us. We were all beaten. I don't know why because we didn't try to run away.

'And they had big dogs. It was very frightening.'

The 22-year-old added: 'One time I was across, 10km from the border in Hungary and someone saw me and called the police. I have done nothing to them, why do they hate us?'

The Belgrade-based migrants' rights group, No Border Serbia, has published photographs which it said showed the victims of alleged attacks, which show bloodied limbs with gaping wounds and torsos covered in bruises.

The Asotthalom town hall, which funds the civil militias, denied that any immigrants were beaten or hit.

Mayor Laszlo Toroczkai added: 'We welcome everyone who respects our laws and enters our country through our international border crossing point.

'But those who try to cross our border illegally may easily end up in prison.'

Hunt: Zoltan Saringer, a member of the Hungarian civilian militia, denied hitting or beating migrants, insisting to MailOnline that he simply reported their presence to the authorities. 'When I see immigrants I call the police,' Zoltan said. ' I do not confront the immigrants myself'

Family home: Mothers of the many children stuck at the border hang out the freshly washed clothes to dry on the fence of the derelict duty-free shop where they are staying

Crossing: One Syrian refugee told MailOnline he was too frightened of Hungary's border guards to attempt to enter the country illegally. He prefers to wait months to cross the border legally  one of only a handful of refugees that are allowed to trickle into the country

Frontier guards: Hungarian soldiers, dressed in full combat clothes, and armed with automatic machine guns and thick leather-coated wooden batons, block any unauthorised entry to Hungary

Journey: Refugees walk between lorries at the border between Serbia and Hungary where a refugee camp is home to migrants trying to cross to western Europe

The mayor of Asotthalom, a village on the Serbian border, Laszlo Toroczkai, said that when the government announced it would build the fence last year it was the 'happiest day of my life'. For more than a year Asotthalom was on the route travelled by tens of thousands of migrants on their way to Germany

The Asotthalom civilian militia - who are paid by the town council - work closely with the Hungarian Police and Border Service and the Hungarian Army who are permanently stationed at the border with Serbia.

Some 7,000 migrants are trapped in Serbia, living in shelters in the capital Belgrade and makeshift camps close to the borders with Hungary and Croatia.

Others are arriving every day via Macedonia and Bulgaria, hoping to reach the rich northern EU states such as Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Quorum and his cousins Zeraib and Mohamed have grappled over the razor wire more than two dozen times, only to be discovered by Hungary's border guards who, they claim, beat and abused them before returning them to Serbia.

Every day the border guards give the names of the ten people who can cross the next day. Everyone has given their name but we must wait. It takes three months for your name to be called. Osama, from Aleppo

Zeriab, 17, told MailOnline: 'They beat me around the backs of my legs. They hit me four or five times. And the dog was snarling and barking at me. I was very frightened.

'They sent me back to Serbia and one guard told me he would kill me if he saw me in Hungary again.

'I have tried to cross the border six times but each time I have been caught.

'One time I was deported back to the border with Macedonia, but I have come back.'

One Syrian refugee told MailOnline he was too frightened of Hungary's border guards to attempt to enter the country illegally. He prefers to wait months to cross the border legally  one of only a handful of refugees that are allowed to trickle into the country.

Osama, 21, from Aleppo, claimed: 'Last night the border guards beat two people up so badly that we had to call an ambulance to take them to hospital when they came back across the border.

'That is why I will not try to climb the fence, to cross illegally.

'Every day the Hungarians let ten people into their country, but no more.

'If they catch you crossing illegally they beat you and attack you with clubs and dogs. They are brutal. They are inhumane.

'I know many people who have been beaten and bitten by dogs.

Refusing to give up: Between them cousins Mohammed, Zeriab and Quorum say they have grappled over the razor wire more than two dozen times, only to be discovered by Hungary's border guards

Squalor: In September 2015 Hungary's controversial nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban closed the country's border with Serbia saying his country did not want Muslims

Desperate: A child waits by a gate surrounded by suitcases at Kelebija refugee camp on the Serbian and Hungarian border where all but a few migrants are now blocked from entry

'Every day the border guards give the names of the ten people who can cross the next day. Everyone has given their name but we must wait.

'It takes three months for your name to be called. I must wait here in this camp for 100 days for this.

'I have been in Serbia for two and a half months. Most of that time I have been here at the border with Hungary waiting to cross.'

Osama, who wants to join family and friends in the Netherlands, added: 'The conditions are very bad here but this is what I must do to cross.

'None of wants to stay in Hungary, we only want to pass through, but still they treat us like we are criminals.'

In the refugee shanty town that has sprung up by the border a bare-foot Iraqi toddler stands in the mud and the dirt next to the razor wire as their parents boil water over an open fire to wash them and keep their children clean.

Her brother looks down at his feet as dirty water seeps into his blue 'Crocs' sandals while he walks out to join his friends.

Her older sister stands in the open sewage in bright green wellies as foul water spills into their tent just inches from the international border with the EU.

A little Syrian boy smiles as he protects his broken arm in a makeshift sling, wrapped up against the bitter cold in warm clothes and a woollen hat.

No stone unturned: Zoltan Saringer, a member of the Hungarian civilian militia, searches through houses and outbuildings close to the border to try to find desperate migrants who may be hiding

Border force: Zoltan Saronger is a member of the new anti-immigration patrol, and says he simply alerts police if he comes across migrants. He is armed with wooden batons and handcuffs and binoculars and works alongside five others per shift

HUNGARY'S RIGHT-WING STRONGMAN LED CALLS TO BAN MIGRANTS In September 2015 Victor Orban closed the country's border with Serbia and built a fence along the country's sprawling border Right-wing Hungarian leader Viktor Orban led calls from across Eastern Europe against the unrestricted immigration of migrants into the EU during the refugee crisis of 2015. More recently he has openly attacked 'the integration of Muslim people in Europe'. He ordered the closure of Hungary's border with Serbia in September last year, disrupting the 'Balkan route' used by hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants trying to reach Germany and other states from Greece. Hungarian border guards fought pitched battles with the hundreds left stranded on the border. Prime Minister Orban ordered the construction of a razor-wire fence with its southern neighbours  Serbia and Croatia - to stop illegal immigration into Hungary. He brought in new laws making it a serious offence to damage the border fence and giving border guards special powers to deport anyone found with 8km of the fence. Croatia and Slovenia soon followed suit, barring refugees and migrants from crossing their territories to reach Austria and Germany. Croatia built a border fence with Serbia and Slovenia strengthened existing barriers with Croatia to deter migrants. However a small trickle of refugees are still allowed into Hungary  up to a total of 30 per day  from the makeshift camps that have sprung up at the official crossing points with Serbia. Those who are accepted  mostly Syrians and Iraqi - must apply for asylum in Hungary or face deportation. Orban, whose populist right-wing Fidesz party was elected for a second term in 2014, narrowly failed to win the two-thirds parliamentary majority needed to reject the EU's refugee resettlement plan that aims to distribute asylum-seekers across states. An earlier referendum on the issue had rejected the EU plan but not enough people voted to make to turn their outcry into law. The Hungarian leader now plans to sue the European Commission as part of his bid to resist Brussel's mandatory migrant resettlement quota plan. He says a Christian-dominated Hungary does not want to take in 'Muslims' in large numbers. In a highly charged speech in September he said: 'The uncontrolled influx destroys Europe and it doesn't even help the migrants. It's better for everyone to stay in their own territory. 'I don't even want to think about the integration of Muslim people in Europe. The most we could hope for is a peaceful life next to each other, which is called a parallel society.' Romania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia also voted against accepting mandatory quotas of migrants. Advertisement

Meanwhile Kamal, 32, from Mosul, cooks potatoes and fried onions on an open fire using a turned-over saucepan as a seat.

And the mothers of the many children stuck at the border hang out the freshly washed clothes to dry on the fence of the derelict duty-free shop where they are staying.

Hungarian soldiers, dressed in full combat clothes, and armed with automatic machine guns and thick leather-coated wooden batons, stand metres from the refugee families, barring their unauthorised entry to Hungary.

The Asotthalom civilian militia border patrol is the brainchild of the town's far-right mayor Laszlo Toroczkai, as part of Hungary's crackdown on illegal immigration following last year's Europe refugee crisis.

Mr Toroczkai warned asylum seekers trying to get into Hungary illegally they will be jailed and expelled from the country.

Mr Toroczkai said the majority of its residents are firmly against accepting refugees, particularly Muslims, whom Hungary's controversial nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban has branded 'rapists' and 'terrorists'.

A little girls peeps out her tent in her bright green wellies as foul water spills out of her family's makeshift tent at the Kelebija refugee camp just inches from the international border with the EU

In the Kelebija refugee camp on the Serbian side of the border, a little boy looks down at his feet as dirty water seeps into his blue crocs sandals while he walks out to join his friends

In a bizarre promotional video Mr Toroczkai warned migrants not to enter the country, describing Hungary as a 'bad choice' for refugees and to stay away from Asotthalom.

He said: 'The borders of Hungary are protected by a fence that is continuously being built, by thousands of policemen and the Hungarian army.

'On the territory of Asotthalom they are supported by the militant field guards and civil guards.

'If you are an illegal immigrant and you want to get to Germany then the shortest journey from Serbia is through Croatia and Slovenia.

'Do not trust the lying human traffickers. Hungary is a bad choice. Asotthalom is the worst.'

Last week Mr Orban said Donald Trump's election as US president marked the end of the 'liberal non-democracy' that has been mainstream for the past 20 years.

Orban, who said migrants were 'poison', also said he would have to build a second, stronger wall if Turkey allows millions of refugees living there to leave for Western Europe.

The Hungarian Police and Border Service declined to comment about the injuries caused to migrants on the border with Serbia when contacted by MailOnline.
The model girlfriend of slain Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov has refused to give evidence at his murder trial after a leak of her 'erotic' pictures discovered by police at his flat.

Glamorous Anna Duritskaya is still traumatised over being with her lover - an outspoken political enemy of Vladimir Putin - at the moment he was gunned down on a bridge close to the Kremlin 21 months ago, say her family.

The 24-year-old gave testimony to state investigators at the time, and was then allowed by the Russian authorities to travel home to Ukraine.

Leaked pictures: Anna Duritskaya, pictured, is the model lover of murdered Russian leader of the opposition Boris Nemtsov, who was shot 200 yards from the Kremlim in February 2015

Refusal to go to Russia: Ms Duritskaya, 24, pictured, gave a statement to police after the killing and was allowed to return home to Ukraine. She has since ignored repeated attempts to return to Russia and give evidence against the men accused of murdering her politician lover

Defiant: Glamorous Ms Duritskaya, above, who is from Ukraine, was with Nemtsov, an outspoken political enemy of Vladimir Putin, when he was gunned down 21 months ago

Upset: Anna Duritskaya's refusal to give evidence follows the leak of lingerie pictures found at her murdered lover's flat

Slain: Father-of-four Nemtsov was shot four times by assailants as he walked across a bridge over the Moskva River Read. Five men, all from Chechnya are on trial accused of his murder

But she has rejected repeated attempts including two subpoenas from the court in Moscow to return to give evidence as a witness in person, not even responding to the judge's demands.

As a Ukrainian citizen now in her own country she cannot be forced to attend the court.

Her refusal follows the leak of lingerie pictures found at his flat which was examined by police immediately after 55-year-old Nemtsov's murder, part of what appears to be a concerted campaign against her in Russia.

The pictures were used prominently by pro-Kremlin Life.ru news website in June which labelled them 'spicy' and 'erotic'.

The model has also faced a succession of attempts by the Moscow media to blacken her name over Nemtsov's death - even though there is no suggestion from Russian prosecutors that she was in any way involved and the court has heard evidence that the pair were 'in love'.

These have included innuendo she is linked to the Ukrainian secret services, yet no shred of evidence has been produced to prove this.

A report by pro-Putin newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda cited statements by one of five defendants on trial for murder, Anzor Gubashev, who alleged that Ms Duritskaya was involved in her lover Nemtsov's death.

Gubashev, who offered no evidence, said: 'It is clear that Duritskaya knew perfectly where to take Nemtsov at a certain time. Everything was planned.'

Claiming that the killing was an SBU Ukrainian secret services plot, it suggested, without any foundation, that the gunman had shot Nemtsov in such a way as not to wound the 'agent' Ms Duritskaya.

Attacks: Ms Duritskaya will not return to Moscow after intimate photos of her wearing lingerie found by police at Nemtsov's flat were leaked in what appears to be a campaign to smear her name in Russia

Claims: A Russian news website has also claimed that Nemtsov's murder was the work of the Ukraine security services and that his lover, above, is an agent - a claim for which there is no evidence

'Smear': Ms Duritskaya has rejected repeated attempts including two subpoenas from the court in Moscow to return to give evidence as a witness in person, not even responding to the judge's demands

Grieving: The model has refused to speak about Nemtsov's death since giving one interview to Russian TV in the days after he was shot, but new pictures of her have emerged on Life.ru news

Traumatised: Ms Duritskaya is grieving at home in Ukraine as the trial into Nemtsov's murder is underway in Moscow with five people, all from Chechnya, on trial over his murder

Another report citing Vladimir Lutsenko, former head of the anti-terrorist department of the FSB, Russia's counterintelligence service, painted her disparagingly as a 'typical blonde'.

Ms Duritskaya's mother Inna was reported as saying last week that her daughter will 'never travel to Russia again' amid claims of family concerns for her wellbeing.

The model has refused to speak about Nemtsov's death since giving one interview to Russian TV in the days after he was shot.

One source said she and her family were upset about a 'campaign' against her and feared for her 'possible arrest' if she returned to Russia after the reports 'attacking her'.

Separately, Life.ru stated: 'Her family believes that the model might go totally insane if she is regularly reminded about what happened.

'That is the reason why she refused to go to Russia to provide testimony.'

They quoted a close family friend as saying: 'It's truly bad with Anna's mental health. The smallest recollections about Boris and she goes into hysterics.'

The trial into Nemtsov's murder is underway in Moscow with five people, all from Chechnya, on trial over his murder.

Enemies: Russian president Vladimir Putin, left, and Nemtsov, right, leader of the opposition were known not to get along. However, the Kremlin has denied involvement in his murder

Moments from death: The final moments of Russian opposition leader Nemtsov were caught on CCTV. Footage allegedly shows a killer on foot jumping into a car after carrying out hit

Assassinated: Nemstov's body lies in a black plastic bag after he was murdered in February last year. Five men, all from Chechnya, are on trial

The Kremlin fiercely denied any part in his killing, and claim his murder was a 'provocation' by Russia's enemies to discredit the Kremlin. Pictured: Nemtsov's casket is carried at his funeral

However a close relative of Duritskaya's in Ukraine strongly denied the Life.ru claims that Anna was suffering psychological problems, and that this explained her refusal to attend court in Russia.

'She is healthy, and she is doing well,' the relative told MailOnline. 'But she won't come to the court in Russia. She won't go anywhere.'

Nemtsov's friends have criticised investigators for failing to identify the mastermind who ordered the killing.

At the time he was killed, there were claims that his death suited Putin's circle because Nemtsov had led efforts to expose corruption in the ruling elite.

The Kremlin fiercely denied any part in his killing, and claim his murder was a 'provocation' by Russia's enemies to discredit the Kremlin.

There were links among those charged to the pro-Putin ruler of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, who also strongly denies any role in the assassination.

All defendants deny any role in plotting and carrying out his murder.

Prosecutors say the five defendants rented apartments in Moscow, bought a pistol and ammunition and used several cars to keep track of him.

On the day of the murder, two of the accused watched Nemtsov through a window as he dined with his girlfriend at a glitzy cafe near Red Square, the court was told.

One of the men caught up with him as he crossed a bridge and fired six shots at him.

After the murder, the group went to their home region of Chechnya in southern Russia. One of the alleged gang was killed while resisting arrest.

This week Russian prosecutor Maria Semenenko said a new effort would be made to call Ms Duritskaya as a witness.

Anger: Nemtsov's daughter Zhanna, above, a journalist for German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle, said there would never be a proper investigation into her father's killing because he was an enemy of Putin

'We will again petition for Anna Duritskaya to be summoned for questioning,' she said.

Meanwhile Nemtsov's daughter Zhanna, a journalist for German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle, said there would never be a proper investigation into her father's killing because he was an enemy of Putin.

She said: 'From the moments after I learned about the murder, I realized that there wouldn't be a thorough and objective investigation of this cruel crime.

'My father was the most consistent and outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin and his regime. So, regardless of the establishment's role in his murdereither in organizing or masterminding itthose truly responsible will remain free as long as the current government is in place. This is the Russian system; it is based on the cover-up.'

Zhanna went on: 'The investigation has been ongoing for more than a year-and-a-half and, all the while, has proven what I feared. It has failed to identify those truly responsible. It has even failed to answer the question 'Why was Boris Nemtsov killed?'
Prosecutors said she was disappointed with the jury's decision on Monday

Victim claimed she saw Moses-EL's face in her dreams and he raped her

L.C. Jackson wrote to Moses-EL in 2013 saying he had had sex with victim

A Colorado man who spent nearly half his life in prison for a rape he did not commit was acquitted of the crime on Monday.

Clarence Moses-EL, 60, walked out of the courtroom as people applauded and chanted 'it's over'.

Moses-EL was freed in December, after a judge overturned his 1988 conviction on rape and assault charges and found that he would likely be acquitted if his case went to trial again.

Another prisoner claimed to be responsible for the attack, but prosecutors chose to try Moses-EL again.

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Clarence Moses-EL (center), 60, who spent nearly half his life in prison for a rape he did not commit was acquitted of the crime on Monday

Moses-EL was freed in December, after a judge overturned his 1988 conviction on rape and assault charges and said he would likely be acquitted if his case went to trial again

Jurors began deliberating the case last Thursday, and they issued their not guilty verdict Monday  leaving Moses-EL beaming and fighting back tears.

Outside court, Moses-EL said he holds no grudges and hoped his case will help improve the criminal justice system. Right now, he said, he wants to enjoy his freedom.

The victim in the case, a neighbor, initially named three other men as possible attackers, including the inmate, L.C. Jackson, who confessed in 2013. But she accused Moses-EL (pictured in 1988), saying his face appeared to her in a dream, and a jury convicted him largely based on her testimony

'You don't know how much freedom really means until you have it taken away from you,' he said, 'And especially if it's taken away from you for something you didn't do.'

Moses-EL had long maintained his innocence.

Several of his efforts to appeal his conviction were unsuccessful, and the legal and political systems repeatedly failed him in his decades-long attempt to win his freedom.

'All I ever wanted from the very beginning was for the truth to come out,' he told reporters, surrounded by his wife and children. 'This moment here is the moment I've fought for for a long time.'

The victim in the case, a neighbor, initially named three other men as possible attackers, including the inmate, L.C. Jackson, who confessed in 2013.

But she accused Moses-EL, saying his face appeared to her in a dream, and a jury convicted him largely based on her testimony.

He won a legal bid for DNA testing on the evidence to clear his name, but Denver police threw it away a month later, saying they did not receive any notice from prosecutors to hold on to it.

Several of his efforts to appeal his conviction were unsuccessful, and the legal and political systems repeatedly failed him in his decades-long attempt to win his freedom

In 2008, then-Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, a former Denver prosecutor, objected to legislation that would have given Moses-EL a new trial, even though lawmakers strongly supported it.

Moses-EL's break came when Jackson wrote to Moses-EL in 2013 saying he had sex with the woman that night. Jackson, who is imprisoned for two other rapes, has not been charged in this case, and prosecutors said Monday he is not a suspect.

Prosecutors challenged the credibility of Jackson's confession and stood by the victim.

'She is very disappointed' with the verdict, Chief Deputy District Attorney Bonnie Benedetti said.

'All I ever wanted from the very beginning was for the truth to come out,' Moses-EL told reporters, surrounded by his wife and children. 'This moment here is the moment I've fought for for a long time.'

'She has maintained for years that she saw and recognized the person who attacked her, and she stands by that.'

Prosecutors chose to pursue the second trial because the victim wanted to proceed with the case, Benedetti said.

Despite being free for nearly a year, Moses-EL said he is still struggling to break habits he formed in prison.

He can't bring himself to walk barefoot inside his home, for example, something he never did while behind bars.
A man's body has been found in the bucket of an excavator at a construction site in Sydney's west.

The body was found about 4.45am on Tuesday morning on Park Road in Homebush, reported the Sydney Morning Herald.

Police and paramedics attended the scene and confirmed the man was deceased.

A man's body has been found in the bucket of an excavator at a construction site in Homebush in Sydney's west

The body was found about 4.45am on Tuesday morning on Park Road in Homebush (pictured)

His body was reportedly found in front of the bucket of the excavator.

NSW Police told Daily Mail Australia the man is believed to be a worker at the construction site.

Police said a crime scene was established, the body was examined and it was not believed to be suspicious.

A report will be prepared for the coroner and if it is workplace related, it will be investigated by NSW Work Health and Safety.
A former attorney who used his hypnotic skills to control unwitting female clients for his own sexual gratification has been jailed after one suspicious woman wore a hidden camera to meet him.

Michael Fine, 59, was sentenced to 12 years in jail on Monday at Lorain County, Ohio after pleading guilty to charges relating to the sexual abuse of six women he had hypnotized.

Police began investigating the married divorce attorney back in 2014 after two women came forward saying they believed they had been hypnotized after losing track of time and being unable to recall meetings and phone calls with Fine.

Former attorney Michael Fine, 59, was sentenced to 12 years in jail on Monday in Ohio after he used hypnotic skills to control unwitting female clients so he could sexually abuse them

One of the six women also recalled being 'wet in her vaginal area' and that 'her bra was disheveled' after she left his office or had conversations with him.

A female client, who had hired the attorney for a custody dispute in 2013, told police she thought Fine had used his hypnotic skills on her several times on the phone and during meetings in his office.

She opted to record two telephone conversations with Fine during which he used explicit sexual language before ending the calls discussing legal matters.

Investigators wired the woman with video and audio recording equipment for a meeting in Fine's office last November, according to court documents.

Police entered the room when Fine began discussing sex acts.

Fine was arrested last year after being accused of hypnotizing six of his female clients and then sexually assaulting them during meetings with him

Another woman, who hired Fine in September to represent her in a divorce, suspected she had been hypnotized after Fine started discussing relaxation and meditation techniques during their first meeting.

She told police the same thing happened in their next three meetings and she felt as though she had lost time.

Police began investigating the married divorce attorney back in 2014 after two women came forward saying they believed they had been hypnotized after losing track of time and being unable to recall meetings and phone calls with Fine

Publicity of Fine's criminal investigation prompted other women to contact authorities with their suspicions.

He pleaded guilty to five counts of kidnapping and one of attempted kidnapping - and each carried a sexual motivation specification.

One of his victims read an impact statement to the court on Monday, describing how Fine manipulated her three weeks after her divorce was finalized.

'I have come to realize it was not my vulnerability that caused this to happen,' she said in court, according to The Chronicle.

'I went to Michael Fine with help in getting out of a terrible and abusive situation. I paid him to help me. He used my trust and his position as my attorney to gain information about my vulnerabilities.

'He then used that information not only to protect and defend me, but also to manipulate, hurt and take advantage of me.'

Statements from his other victims were read out in court, including a woman who now suffers from panic attacks and struggles with relationships.

The 59-year-old was sentenced on Monday in Lorain County, Ohio to 12 years in jail

'He gets a 12-year sentence. I get a life sentence. Is 12 years long enough? Is this enough time for the pain, hurt and suffering that I now have to live with?' it read.

'This will be a part of who I am to become. This is now part of my being  not by choice, but by circumstance. Twelve years compared to a lifetime  just doesnt seem fair, does it?'

The judge ordered Fine to be classified as a registered sex offender.

Fine, who was charged with taking advantage of the six women in August, agreed to permanently surrender his law license, which means he no longer can practice law in the United States.

Defense attorney Robert Housel said Fine had difficulties in his life, voluntarily gave up his law license and acknowledged what he had done by entering guilty pleas.
The mother who posted a photograph of her chance meeting with Hillary Clinton in the woods after the Democrat's election defeat says she has been getting death threats and now wants the story to 'go away'.

Margot Gerster, 30, told the New York Post she has received death threats since the picture went viral.

When the Post contacted her she simply replied 'yes' when asked about the threats but said she didn't want to talk about it anymore.

She also told the paper: 'This story needs to go away. It got a lot of positive feedback from a lot of people, but I dont want this to add on to this (blowback), I dont want to fuel the fire.'

Margot Gerster (left) told the New York Post she has received death threats since the picture of her chance meeting with Hillary Clinton in the woods after the Democrat's election defeat

Gerster didn't say if she had reported the threats to police.

Police in Chappaqua, where the picture was taken, had not had a report from Gerster.

Threats may have steamed from rumors that Gerster 'faked' the encounter in an attempt to boost Clinton's public image after it emerged it was not the first time the pair had met.

But Gerster, from Westchester, New York, insisted the meeting on a Chappaqua hiking trail - the day after the shock result - was a compete coincidence.

'It was very random. In 100,000 years, I would have never expected running into Hillary Clinton in the woods,' she said.

'It was a very positive experience for me and a lot of other people. That's why I posted it.'

She confirmed she had met the politician before when her mother hosted a fundraiser in Clinton's honor at Crabtree's Kittle House in Chappaqua.

Gerster said she was aged 14 or 15 when she was pictured posing for a photo inside the restaurant, which is one of the politician's favorites.

It was this picture that prompted speculation the meeting in the woods may have been set-up.

But the mother dismissed claims she was a long-time ally of the Clintons who had orchestrated the heartwarming snap.

'If I were long-time friends of the Clintons, I wouldn't be keeping that a secret. I'd be bragging about it to everyone I know,' she said.

She confirmed she had met the politician before when her mother hosted a fundraiser in Clinton's honor at Crabtree's Kittle House in Chappaqua

The picture was taken when Gerster was out hiking with her young daughter in the upstate New York town of Chappaqua - where the Clintons have a home.

Clinton was said to have been out walking her dogs with former president Bill Clinton, when Gerster spotted them.

The former first lady was beaming from ear to ear in the picture and appeared to have had the weight of the world lifted from her shoulders.

In her caption, Gerster wrote that she was 'so heartbroken' after the Democrat's loss.

'I've been feeling so heartbroken since yesterday's election and decided what better way to relax than take my girls hiking,' Gerster wrote.

The chance encounter gained national media attention as it was the first time Clinton had been photographed after losing the election (pictured in Chappaqua on Election Day)

'So I decided to take them to one of (our) favorite places in Chappaqua. We were the only ones there and it was so beautiful and relaxing.

'As we were leaving, I heard a bit of rustling coming towards me and as I stepped into the clearing there she was, Hillary Clinton and Bill with their dogs doing exactly the same thing as I was.

'I got to hug her and talk to her and tell her that one of my most proudest moments as a mother was taking Phoebe with me to vote for her.
The embattled Sydney property developer has spent past month in Europe

Salim Mehajer has been welcomed back into the country by his glamourous sisters, on-again-off-again girlfriend Constance Siaflas and a group of family and friends.

His arrival in Sydney late on Monday came shortly after news of his arrest in Ibiza, Spain at the end of a luxurious month-long trip through Europe and the Mediterranean.

But while he didn't appear to be concerned about the arrest as he strolled through the airport, the faces of those gathered and Mehajer himself weren't all smiles despite the flowers and balloons present.

When asked where he'd been taken by police in Ibiza, he said: 'they took me to dinner'.

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Aiisha Mehajer and Constance Siaflas await Salim Mehajer at Sydney airport on Monday

Salim Mehajer arrives in Sydney after flying back to the country from Ibiza, where he was arrested

Salim's family and friends await his arrival at Sydney airport

Salim Mehajer appears from the customs area at the Sydney Airport

The pair were part of a larger group that arrived at the airport to await the embattled property developer's return to Australia

Aiisha Mehajer, Salim Mehajer's sister, and his on-again-off-again girlfriend Constance Siaflas (right), await Salim's arrival in Sydney

Mehajer looks at his iPhone as he is followed by media outside the airport

Mehajer looks at his phone while reporters ask him questions outside the airport

Mehajer was handcuffed and taken into custody after a conversation with Spanish police in Ibiza

Mehajer and two of his friends were reportedly arrested after a heated argument with a local taxi driver, who claimed the trio spilled food inside his car

He said it was 'fantastic' to be back in Australia.

However, he wouldn't comment when asked if money changed hands between his group and Spanish police.

Mehajer's public arrested by local police in the Spanish party island of Ibiza came after an alleged argument with a taxi driver.

Footage obtained by A Current Affair showed the former deputy mayor of Auburn being handcuffed with two friends and then bundled in the back of a police car.

Embattled Sydney property developer Salim Mehajer has been publicly arrested by local police in the Spanish party island of Ibiza

On his Instagram account, Mehajer mocked his arrest, writing: 'Breaking news: Salim Mehajer gets arrested for eating ice-cream in a private Taxi. This goes down as one of the greatest!'

The group arrived at the airport bearing flowers and balloons

Salim Mehajer is all smiles as he is surrounded by awaiting media outside the airport

A large group of well wishers gathered before Salim Mehajer's return from a trip overseas

According to ACA, police were called to the scene after Mehajer reportedly spilled ice cream and takeaway food inside a taxi and then attempted to kick the driver.

The 30-year-old could be seen showing his phone to the officers, who wait for backup to arrive before handcuffing the trio and taking them into custody.

Mehajer has spent the past month travelling Europe, posting countless modelling shots of his time spent in Lebanon, Greece, Italy, France and Spain on Instagram.

It's believed the arrest took place on Friday evening Ibiza time, although it is unclear whether any charges were laid.

Using his Instagram account, Mejaher mocked the situation.

Alongside a photograph of him with an ice cream, he wrote: 'BREAKING NEWS: Salim Mehajer gets arrested for eating ice cream in a private Taxi. This goes down as one of the greatest!'.

The Mejaher family and friends prepare for Salim's return to Australia

Kat Mejaher's husband Ibrahim Sakalaki (right) and Mary Mejaher

As well as a crowd of family and friends, Mejaher was also met by a throng of awaiting media

Mejaher appears to do his best to ignore questions as he is followed through the airport by media

Salim Mehajer has had a tumultuous year, including a public split from his wife Aysha Learmonth - who later filed an apprehended violence order against him.

The nine-month order was taken out by police on Ms Learmonth and her brother-in-law Ben Miller's behalf after she left the couple's marital home earlier this year.

Just days before he left overseas, Mehajer's appeal against an AVO banning him from approaching the father of a Lindt Cafe siege survivor was dismissed.

Last week the Daily Telegraph reported that Salim Mehajer's parents owe almost $10 million in unpaid taxes and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is moving towards declaring them bankrupt.

Mohamad Mehajer, 60, and Amal Mehajer, 56, who are involved in their son's property development business, owe the ATO $9,966,817 in unpaid taxes and interest.

It's believed the arrest took place on Friday evening Ibiza time, although it is unclear whether any charges have been laid

Mehajer has spent the past month travelling Europe, posting countless modelling shots of his time spent in Lebanon, Greece, Italy, France and Spain on Instagram
Horribly tricked: Frida Farrell, pictured, was held captive in Harley Street for three days

On the surface, at least, it had all seemed very plausible. Frida Farrell, a stunning blonde in her 20s, had worked as a professional model so was not remotely surprised when a smartly dressed Englishman handed her his business card in a busy shopping street in Central London. After all, it had happened countless times before.

He had said his name was Peter and he asked if she would do a test shoot for a Harley-Davidson commercial at an eminently respectable address in the West End. Harley Street, in fact  coincidentally, like the motor bike.

Frida did not feel even a frisson of suspicion. She attended the test shoot and everything was in order: fruit and snacks set out, lighting, a female assistant  exactly as it was in the countless photographic studios she had visited.

Peter's client liked the photos, so a return visit was planned: she would earn 7,000 for the modelling commission. Easy money, she reasoned.

So, the next day she arrived at noon and took the lift to the fifth-floor flat, where Peter smiled a welcome. Seconds later, though, as she passed through the hallway, she heard Peter lock the door and saw him pocket the key.

Then he produced a knife. The sudden surge of fear made Frida want to vomit. Peter, it emerged, was not a photographer, but a sinister, sexual predator who had set a trap and lured her to the flat where she was held captive, drugged, forced to perform sex acts on him, then raped by a succession of strangers.

This unspeakable ordeal endured for three days. Frida was held as a sex slave while in the street's elegant Georgian houses the elite of the medical profession went about their daily business and patients attended appointments.

It was only thanks to her own quick thinking and a clumsy error on Peter's part that she escaped. When he left the apartment, forgetting to lock the door, she seized her chance and fled.

Violent: A scene from the film Selling Isobel, which Frida co-wrote about her horrific ordeal. The actress added authenticity to the drama by playing herself in it, pictured above

That a woman could be held prisoner in such squalid circumstances in a respectable street in Central London is profoundly shocking. Indeed, you might be forgiven for thinking that Frida's ordeal could be the plot of one of the dark and luridly violent Scandi TV dramas that have enjoyed enormous popularity over the past few years.

Indeed, Swedish-born Frida, now an actress, has chosen to relive her ordeal some 14 years after it occurred, by co-writing a film script based on the events that took place during the summer of 2002. What is perhaps more extraordinary is that she has added authenticity to the drama by playing herself in it.

The subject is both graphic and disturbing and the film, Selling Isobel, makes no attempt to soften it. The trailer shows a scene in which the actress is lying on a bed with a black leather gag.

Until recently, just a handful of people knew about Frida's kidnapping, including her mother and her British husband, Chris Farrell, a former DJ with Heart FM. Earlier this year, however, she decided to go public with her story. She has given a number of interviews to coincide with the release of the film, which has a screening in London's West End on Thursday.

The film recently won the Indie Award at Britain's biggest independent film event, the Raindance Festival, a prize awarded by judges including Joanna Lumley and Olivia Colman.

Frida says she went to the police after the attack, but was not taken seriously and Peter was never caught.

Trapped: Frida was lured to an address under the pretense of a photo shoot. When she arrived her captor, known only as 'Peter', locked the door. Above, a scene from Selling Isobel

Disturbing: The trailer shows a scene in which the actress is lying on a bed with a black leather gag. Frida says she was raped by 'four or five men' before escaping after three days

So her testimony  and that of her mother, who corroborates her account and has spoken to the Mail  is all the evidence there is.

Frida remembers many curious aspects of her nightmare: the drugged glass of milk that her kidnapper gave her, an egg sandwich that also appears to have been spiked, the kitchen with the drawers removed.

At the time of the kidnapping, she was Frida Sjo, a model from Malmo, the daughter of a journalist and his wife, a medical secretary. Frida's ambition was to be an actress and she had moved to London to study drama at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

An interview she gave to The Times last week gives her age as 36, which would make her 22 at the time. Electoral roll records, however, show her to be 40, so she would have been 26 at the time of the kidnapping.

The police officer just kept asking her if she entered voluntarily and what she was wearing. They seemed to believe that something like that could not happen in such a posh neighbourhood Frida Farrell's mother

As Frida told The Times, she had been shopping in Oxford Street and decided to walk home to her flat in Primrose Hill because it was a warm summer's day. She recalls phoning her boyfriend, a trainee doctor, en route, for a chat.

Not long after this, a man in a grey suit came up to her and introduced himself as Peter. He told her that he was casting for a modelling project and, having seen her pass by as he was having a coffee, decided to approach her.

This sort of thing had happened to Frida many times before. She was tall and stunning  obviously the model type  and she did not find it strange.

Peter was about 50, friendly and 'very, very typically English'. He handed Frida a business card and that night she checked out the details it gave. She says he had 'a proper website'.

Her boyfriend thought he seemed genuine enough, too. The upshot was that Frida called Peter and agreed to meet him the next day. The address he gave was a fifth-floor flat in Harley Street. Frida has not described the exterior of the premises, but she says the lift was small, with a grille. Once inside, she found a 'very fancy' set-up.

There was tea and coffee, snacks, even a female assistant helping with lights. Peter took some test shots. There was nothing remotely amiss.

Attacked: Frida, pictured in Selling Isobe' believes she was given a glass of milk and an egg sandwich that were laced with drugs. She says the loss of consciousness was 'a good thing'

When he called the next day and asked if she would like to return to do a shoot for which she would receive 7,000 for half a day's work, Frida readily agreed. It was arranged that she would be there at noon.

She recalled the moment she walked through the door and saw Peter lock it behind her.

'I turned around, and it went in slow motion in my head. I'm thinking: "Wait, he took the key out and put it in his pocket. Why?" '

Peter walked past her and nonchalantly pulled out a knife. 'He didn't attack me with it, he didn't do anything crazy . . . I just remember standing in the hallway. I saw him walk away and my feet didn't move.'

Fearing she was going to be sick, Frida asked to use the bathroom. Ordering her to leave her bag and phone behind, Peter let her go.

Frida believes she was in this flat for three days, during which time a number of men were brought to the flat to have sex with her. She recalls a black man, a Chinese man and a German

She considered trying to 'squeeze through' the tiny fifth-floor window and jumping, but knew the leap from such a height would mean instant death. She chose to go back to where Peter was waiting, knife in hand.

He handed her a bag of underwear and told her to put it on. Then he gave her a glass of milk, which she believes was drugged. He made her pose for photographs before forcing her to perform a sex act.

At this point, Frida appears to have lost consciousness. The next thing she knew she had woken up in a single bed in a bare room, still wearing the bra, but not the knickers.

Peter came in and gave her an egg sandwich and this also appears to have been laced with a drug of some sort, and from here the story gets even stranger and darker.

Frida's next memory after this is of waking up in a different flat in the basement of the property. Through the bars on the windows she could see the feet of pedestrians walking in Harley Street.

Terrified: Frida, pictured in a scene from Selling Isobel, ran for her life after Peter forgot to lock the door to the basement behind him.It was four days before she went to the police

Alone here, Frida says she searched for something that she might use as a weapon, but Peter had considered every eventuality and removed everything: cupboard doors, drawers  even the toilet seat.

Frida believes she was in this flat for three days, during which time a number of men were brought to the flat to have sex with her. She recalls a black man, a Chinese man and a German. 'It was about four or five guys in total,' she says.

She was 'in and out of drugs a lot, which is, I think, almost a good thing because if I were to remember all the things that happened, it would have taken me a lifetime to recover'.

She feared for her life, but then Peter made his mistake.

Telling Frida 'someone important' was coming and that she had to be at her 'best', he rushed outside, omitting to lock the door. Seizing her chance, Frida says she ran for her life. At the top of the stairs, she recognised the entrance of the property she had entered three days earlier.

'I just ran as fast as I could. I ran through the revolving door, turned right and just ran for streets and streets.'

Respected: The film recently won the Indie Award at Britain's biggest independent film event, the Raindance Festival, a prize awarded by judges including Joanna Lumley and Olivia Colman

Frida says she took a cab to the house of a friend, who tactfully didn't ask too many questions. She didn't want to go home  understandably, she was too frightened to be alone.

Neither, apparently, did it occur to her to contact her boyfriend, who was, it appears, excised from her life after the trauma. Convinced that she could never explain to him what had happened, she told an interviewer that she simply didn't contact him again.

It was four days before she went to the police, who apparently 'lost interest' when they learned she had gone into Peter's flat voluntarily.

However, she did call her mother, Margareta, 67, who told the Mail: 'It was terrible. Frida called me just a few hours after she had fled from the apartment. She was beside herself and cried her eyes out when she told me what had happened.

'I immediately booked a flight to London and went there straight away. To hear that your daughter has had such a horrific experience really breaks a mother's heart.

'After I had arrived in London, we went to the police, but they did not believe her story.

'The officer just kept asking her if she entered voluntarily and what she was wearing. They seemed to believe that something like that could not happen in such a posh neighbourhood.'

Frida's father declined to discuss his daughter's kidnapping ordeal.

Certainly, her story is so incredible that it has led some who have heard it to question its veracity.

The journalist who interviewed Frida in Los Angeles for The Times asked her if 'she ever wonders if her brain has played a trick on her and invented aspects of her story'.

She replied: 'No. I have such a strong visual of what his flat looked like. I can see the handles on the doors and I can see the floors and the furniture and the bathroom. I can draw it for you.'

Frida says the police later told her the flats had been taken on a rent- by-the-week basis and that Peter had paid cash.

The police informed Frida that Peter's fingerprints did not match any in their system and his phone number was attached to a pay-as- you-go sim card that had been shut down. His website was traced to Eastern Europe, but the trail ended there.

So it seems that Peter had committed a heinous crime and had got away with it.

Asked for further details about the kidnapping, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said it was too long ago for them to be able to locate any details.

Frida, meanwhile, moved on with her life. Over the Christmas of 2005, she met Chris Farrell and they married five weeks later. The couple now live in Los Angeles and Chris works in internet marketing.

In 2010, Frida set up a film production company, Development Hell Pictures with Glynn Turner, a Hertfordshire-born film-maker.

Frida told Glynn her story and together they wrote Selling Isobel. Filming began in 2013.

Frida says she decided to make the film and go public in order to warn other women about the dangers of sex-trafficking.

It is indeed a disturbing and curious tale  but doubtless a very compelling film.




The Chattanooga Police Department announces they will be adding new chaplains to their corps and invite anyone who is interested to attend their graduation ceremony on Thursday from 6-7:30 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church, 3224 Navajo Dr. in Chattanooga.Ten chaplain candidates representing Muslim, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, and non-denominational religions/faiths will be graduating.The volunteer chaplain corps provides spiritual support to victims of violence and trauma in the Chattanooga community.The corps also provides ministry to other community members, CPD officers, employees, and their families.This graduating group brings the total active chaplains for CPD to 32.
Big W shoppers have expressed their outrage after the Australian retailer announced they wouldn't have an in-store Santa.

One mum was shocked after calling up her local store, only to find the festive figure would not be posing for pictures.

'What the?? Just rang Parabanks store in Salsibury SA and there's no Santa this year,' Tanya Elliot posted on the Big W Facebook page.

Big W shoppers have expressed their outrage after the Australian retailer announced they wouldn't have an in-store Santa

Big W were not forthcoming with details in response to Ms Elliot's comment.

'Hi Tanya, unfortunately Santa photos will not be available this year however, there will be many other Christmas events in stores.'

Fellow mum Lisa Lamont, was also distressed to learn there would be no appearance of Santa Clause at her South-West Sydney store.

'I am very disappointed with Big W Narellan every year this store always would have Santa come and visit with Mrs Clause and this year there is NO SANTA why?

'My kids always have a photo with Santa ever since they have been born extremely disappointed shame on you,' she wrote.

The retailers spokesperson was even vaguer in response to Lisa Lamont's distress.

'Hi Lisa, thank you for contacting Big W. We are sorry to hear of your disappointment in regards to this. We will be sure to forward your feedback to the relevant team for review. Thanks, BIG W'.

The cause behind the removal of the popular Christmas feature is unknown, undoubtedly fueling frustrated shoppers further.

Fellow mum Lisa Lamont, was also distressed to learn there would be no appearance of Santa Clause at her South-West Sydney store

Earlier this year Big W posted a $14.9 million slump in their earnings, compared with $111.7 million in 2015

A Big W spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia that the decision comes as a result of their work with shopping centres where their stores are located.

'BIG W has a strong tradition of celebrating the festive season,' they said.

We work closely alongside centre management across our store locations and they encourage us to support the official Santa located in the centre.'

The spokesperson added that customers can expect other festive activities at their stores, including book signings, face painting, competitions and one day toy sales.

The news comes as the retailer changed the cut-off date for its Christmas lay-by to December 3, rather than Christmas Eve

The discount department store chain is also facing backlash as it's online site remains unusable, following a privacy breach on Thursday

Earlier this year Big W, which is a division of Woolworths, posted a $14.9 million slump in their earnings, compared with $111.7 million in 2015.

Despite this, 10 new Big W stores were reportedly in the works over the next five years, according to the ABC.

Woolworths said there were plans to revamp Big W stores to improve productivity and overhaul stock.

The organisation added that there was a lack of visibility on how it would perform financially in 2017

'At this stage of the year, and consistent with our previous announcements, we will not provide full-year profit guidance,' Woolworths told the ABC.

The cause behind the removal of the popular Christmas feature is unknown, undoubtedly fueling frustrated shoppers further

A Big W spokesperson said that while Santa photos would not be available this year, there would be many other Christmas events in stores

Big W is also facing backlash currently as it's online site remains unusable, following a privacy breach on Thursday.

Some customers went to the online checkout to find personal information of another customer was already filled in, including their name, phone and address.

To shoppers frustrations, as of Tuesday morning, the website remains on 'browsing mode' only.
Sir Roger Gale (Con, Thanet N) barked that we are talking about police officers  four-legged ones. Sir Roger, seldom knowingly waggy-tailed, was venting forth about the legal status of police dogs.

He had turned purple round the muzzle but that was not necessarily a measure of his emotional involvement. Nor could it be taken as evidence that lunch had been taken. The room was damnably hot. On the press table we were panting. Had Sir Roger been a vintage Morris, he might have had to pull over into a lay-by to cool his radiator for a few minutes.

Welcome to a Westminster Hall debate responding to a public petition about police dogs and horses.

Roger Gale MP and his Newfoundland bitch 'Lulu' after winning the Westminster Dog of the Year in 2003. He is backing calls for protections for police animals

It called for police animals to be given roughly the same protection under law as their handlers.

At present, malefactors who hurt them are unlikely to be charged with anything worse than damaging police property.

This outraged Sir Roger, who has served as a part-time copper.

At no time has anyone of either sex come up and tickled me behind the ears, said Sir Roger. This was hardly a surprise. He is always in a state of such fury, youd not want to risk your fingers.

The petition discussed yesterday was a public reaction to a case in which a Hertfordshire police dog was horribly hurt. It is not possible to report the details as the matter is currently sub judice.

I think we can say, however, that the dog was an Alsatian called Finn and he is making a fair recovery. The public sent him numerous get-well cards.

Finn cannot be with us today, said his local MP, Stephen McPartland (Con, Stevenage), but his handler Constable David Wardel was sitting in the front row of the halls public gallery.

Finn would not have liked the debate. The hall was so overheated that a chap by the door fanned himself like a Mexican border guard.

You could tell it was a doggy crowd. A mobile phone went off and its ringtone was a woof woof.

David Mackintosh (Con, Northampton S) noted that our law made no special provision for protecting police animals. It was different in the United States, he said. There, an attack on a police dog can get you ten years in prison.

Gareth Johnson (Con, Dartford), a lawyer, regretted that this would make little difference. The paper value of a police animal would rarely be considered high enough to trigger such a long prison term, he said.

The debate came after a petition calling for added legal protection was signed by thousands of people when a police dog was hurt

Brandon Lewis, Home Office minister, questioned Mr Johnsons assertion. And we heard Holly Lynch (Lab, Halifax) say that police dogs, over a lifetime, can cost the taxpayer 50,000 each. When I say we heard Holly Lynch say that, I am bending the truth.

Miss Lynch is one of the most soft-spoken mumblers I have encountered in politics. Less a dog than a mouse. Either that or my hearing is disintegrating.

How Hansards reporters cope with her speeches, Heaven knows. She was almost as hard to hear as a dog whistle.

Jason McCartney (Con, Colne Valley), never one to say no to some publicity sausages, demanded exemplary punishment for those that cause ill will to police dogs.

Lyn Brown, MP for West Ham, who took part in the debate in Westminster

Labour frontbencher Lyn Brown started telling a story about a police dog called, of all things, Fuzz. We also heard about police horse Bud, attacked by a drunken Newcastle FC fan.

These are personalities, sentient, beautiful, said Miss Brown. She was referring to police animals, not to Toon fans, though I am sure that some of them, too, are sometimes sentient and even beautiful.

They do rather set their pawprints on our hearts, dont they? said Miss Brown, who told us of her Yorkshire terrier.

Mr Lewis, for his part, used to have a Basset hound. You soon realise Bassets dont have owners, they have staff, he said ruefully.
Trump allegedly only learned full scope of new job from

The 'drain the swamp' pledge clashes with need for political experience

It's been less than a week since Donald Trump was elected, and already his team is at one-another's throats over appointments to his future cabinet, insiders say.

The in-fighting between newly announced chief of staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Stephen Bannon over the choice for Secretary of State has become so vicious that one source described it as a 'knife fight' to CNN.

News of the chaos - which comes less than 24 hours after both men took over their new roles - has taken some of the luster off Trump's triumph at the polls, as have rumors that both he and his transition team were not prepared for his new job.

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'Fight': Donald Trump's campaign is reportedly in a 'knife fight' between traditional politicians like newly named chief of staff Reince Priebus (pictured with Trump) and alternative elements

'War': Insiders say Priebus is at war with chief strategist Stephen Bannon (right) over the choice of Secretary of State, while Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner (left) is a wildcard

Both Priebus and Bannon were announced to have joined the Trump team Sunday, and indicated the two sides of his campaign: the old-school Republicans and the newcomers energized by promises to shake up the status quo.

Priebus has been in politics since 2004, and was chairman of the RNC until he signed up with Trump; Bannon is the controversial executive chairman of Breitbart News, the conservative website linked to the growing alt-right movement.

Neither one will back down in the fight for Secretary of State.

Currently in the running are long-time Republican diplomat John Bolton and controversial ex-New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.

For traditionalists like Priebus, Bolton makes sense: a former UN ambassador and State Department worker under George W Bush, backed by widely read conservative journal National Review.

But outsiders are pushing for Giuliani, who fervently supports Trump but has little foreign policy experience and isn't tainted by associations with Washington.

And the brutal struggle gets even more complicated than that, insiders claim, because there's a wildcard: Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Competition: John Bolton (left) and Rudy Giuliani (right) are both competing for the secretary of state role. Bolton is the more traditional figure, but Giuliani is very close to Trump

Kushner has been at the core of Trump's campaign team from the beginning, and is now on-board the transition team alongside Priebus and Bannon, making vital decisions.

But, sources say, the division of power between the three is unclear and overlapping - and that's resulted in 'buffoonish' confusion and in-fighting, another source said.

If Priebus and Bannon are indeed at each other's throats, they're putting on a brave face.

On Monday Priebus told 'Today' that he and Bannon made an effective pair, and sought to distance Bannon from the incendiary headlines on the Brietbart website.

'Together, we've been able to manage a lot of the decision making in regard to the campaign,' he said. 'It's worked very, very well.'

Trump's problems have been exacerbated by his unfamiliarity with what the job of President actually involves - and what's needed to make it work, insiders told The Wall Street Journal.

His transition team only discovered on Thursday that they have to replace all of President Obama's West Wing staff in the new administration, the Journal reported.

The following day, Chris Christie was dropped as head of the transition team and VP-elect Mike Pence was named his replacement.

'Surprised': Insiders said Trump seemed 'surprised' to learn how much he must do as President in his meeting with Obama Thursday, and that Obama will now take more time to coach him

That in turn delayed the announcement of his 'landing team,' who were supposed to be announced Friday and were scheduled to examine agencies to see what needs to be changed this week.

And Trump himself 'seemed surprised' when he learned from Obama how complex the job of being President actually is, those familiar with the meeting told the Journal.

That's at least in part because he'd refused to plan the transition prior to his win because he didn't want to 'jinx' his election, according to a senior aide.

Insiders said that Obama will now spend more time with Trump than is typical in order to get him up to speed on the job he'll be taking over in January.

Trump is already behind where Obama was at this point in 2008.

The outgoing President named his chief of staff two days after his election; Trump announced Reince Priebus Sunday, five days after his.

The Trump transition team has declined to comment on their boss's reactions and feelings during his meeting with Obama.

Jason Miller, communications director for the Trump transition, told The Post: 'The difference between President-elect Trump and a politician is that Trump puts a premium on making the right decision, not the politically expedient one.

'President-elect Trump's excellent judgment and temperament has served him well in business and in life, and he's not going to be swayed by a bunch of political insiders responsible for filling up the swamp in the first place.'

Staff: Obama's staff (pictured) must be entirely replaced once he leaves office - something Trump's team reportedly didn't know until Thursday

According to insiders, Trump appeared to be taken aback by the duties he must assume as America's President and Commander-in-Chief when he met Obama on Thursday.

That's at least in part because he'd refused to plan the transition prior to the election because he didn't want to 'jinx' his election, according to a senior aide.

His aides, similarly, reportedly hadn't realized they would have to replace all of Obama's staff before he steps into the Oval Office.

Insiders said that Obama will now spend more time with Trump than is typical in order to get him up to speed on the job he'll be taking over in January.
Australia's prime minister has attacked the ABC, saying elite media outlets had underestimated Donald Trump's appeal and didn't deserve to be taken as seriously.

Malcolm Turnbull, a former journalist, slammed the national broadcaster after 7.30 host Leigh Sales asked him about his poor performance in the opinion polls.

'You know, I would have thought, after this last election in the United States, people might focus less on the polls and less on the opinions of commentators on the ABC, or other elite media outlets and focus instead on what people are actually saying,' he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday night.

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Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (pictured) says the failure of the ABC and elite media to predict Donald Trump's victory meant they should be taken less seriously

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump (pictured) surprised pollsters by winning the election and picking up the rust belt states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin

Mr Turnbull deflected criticism he had lost four Newspolls in a row to highlight how American pollsters had failed to predict Mr Trump winning an electoral college majority in last week's U.S. presidential race.

The former Nine Network state political reporter and millionaire merchant banker said media outlets needed to be more reflective of ordinary people's economic concerns.

'The real issue, the real challenge for politicians and dare I say it, journalists is to actually get in touch with the people, listen to the people, focus on what the real concerns are and those concerns are as diverse as 24 million Australians,' Mr Turnbull said.

'Everyone has got slightly different concerns but a big common factor is concern about economic security.

'Will I have a good job, will I keep a good job, will I be able to pay my mortgage, will I be able to pay the bills, will my kids be able to get a good job?

'And the thing that enables that is strong economic growth.'

The prime minister said Mr Trump's promise to restore economic growth had resonated with American voters.

'Now, Donald Trump ... he has been elected and one of his compelling arguments to many Americans was that he was going to make America great again, he was going to do that by driving economic growth,' Mr Turnbull said.

Respected American opinion polls had failed to see Mr Trump picking up the rust belt states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which hadn't voted for a Republican presidential candidate, all at the same time, since 1984 when Ronald Reagan was re-elected in a landslide.

Leigh Sales (pictured) provoked harsh words about the media from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after she asked him about his unpopularity in Newspoll

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says the media needs to listen to people's economic concerns more and step out of their bubble

ABC Insiders host Barrie Cassidy (pictured), a former Labor press secretary, wrongly predicted a comfortable win for Democrat Hillary Clinton

Mr Turnbull said journalists needed to be less insular.

'One of the greatest assets of a politician, indeed, of any leader, is empathy, and of course you have to break out of the bubble,' he said.

'Again, I often get on the elite media like the ABC, I often get criticised or sent up, which I don't object to that, by the way, for catching public transport a lot.'

ABC Insiders host Barrie Cassidy, a press secretary to former Labor prime minister Bob Hawke, had predicted a comfortable win for Democrat Hillary Clinton.

'No chance,' he said of Trump's chances in September.

He even declared Mrs Clinton was winning on election day, only hours before the Republican swept up key battleground states.

'It's going to be an early night after all,' he tweeted just before midday Tuesday, Sydney time.
Harvey Norman co-founder Gerry Harvey has slammed Donald Trump and likened him to Kevin Rudd, who he said tricked the Australian people into voting for him.

The executive chariman said the US President-elect had fooled the American public and like Mr Rudd, he wouldn't deliver on his promised policies, according to the Daily Telegraph.

'Rudd fooled the Australian public, he became another person (after being elected in 2007) and was never true to himself,' Mr Harvey said.

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Harvey Norman co-founder Gerry Harvey (pictured) has slammed Donald Trump and likened him to Kevin Rudd, who he said tricked the Australian people into voting for him

Mr Harvey said: 'Rudd (pictured) fooled the Australian public, he became another person (after being elected in 2007) and was never true to himself.'

'My bet is Trump will now go in and seek all the advice he can, reverse or water down a whole heap of his policies, and in the end it may work out that hes a good president.'

Mr Harvey said he hadn't met Mr Trump and had no desire to.

'I actually dont like the bloke. Hes full of bulls***.'

He said: 'My bet is Trump (pictured centre) will now go in and seek all the advice he can, reverse or water down a whole heap of his policies, and in the end it may work out that hes a good president'

Mr Harvey made the comments on Monday after the company's annual general meeting in Sydney.
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You're unlikely to find a zebra crossing while on safari in deepest Africa.

However, it seems there are occasions when you might feasibly come across zebras crossing.

In this instance photographer Paul Karnstedt snapped five of the creatures lined up on a road close to the Chobe National Park in Botswana as he returned to a nearby safari lodge.

Mr Karnstedt said: 'I work for Africa Albida Tourism, who own and operate Ngoma Safari Lodge. I was just on my way back to the lodge, close to Chobe National Park, when I suddenly saw this pack of zebras lining the road.

'They were just crossing, and didn't hang around for long - it really was a real life zebra crossing! I'm so glad I managed to capture it on camera.'

The zebra is the national animal of Botswana. Zebra they roam in family herds with adult stallions, mares and their foals; other stallion form bachelor herds or roam alone.
A man with cerebral palsy accused of stabbing a five-year-old girl multiple times when she was playing outside her home has pleaded guilty.

Ty Ranger, 24, has admitted to intentionally causing serious injury to Madison Hastings and possessing child pornography in the County Court on Monday.

The little girl suffered stabbed wounds to her face, upper body and torso after she was repeatedly stabbed at a park outside her Ballarat apartment in Mitchell Park, Victoria, in November 2015.

Judge Roy Punshon said he was concerned Ranger may have been sexually motivated when he attacked the youngster after being charged with child pornography offences, Yahoo 7 News reported.

Ty Ranger, 24, (right) has pleaded guilty over the stabbing attack of Madison Hastings (left)

The five-year-old girl suffered stabbed wounds to her face, upper body and torso after she was repeatedly stabbed at a park outside her Ballarat apartment in Victoria, in November 2015

'[Ranger] presents a very great danger,' Justice Punshon said.

'It's an alarming crime.'

Justice Punshon ordered Ranger - who has been in custody for nearly a year - to undergo a forensic psychiatric report to assess whether he is a risk of re-offending before he could proceed with the case.

Defence lawyer Ellen Murphy said Ranger had a 'serious problem with excessive drinking' in the days leading up to the attack.

The disabled man admitted to intentionally causing serious injury and possessing child pornography in the County Court on Monday

The court heard Ranger - who suffers post traumatic stress and depression - had difficulty speaking and moving but his intellectual capacity was 'normal'

The little girl (pictured with her mother Samantha Hastings) was attacked outside her home

The court heard Ranger - who suffers post traumatic stress and depression - had difficulty speaking and moving but his intellectual capacity was 'normal'.

Justice Punshon said he was aware of Ranger's condition but a psychiatric report did not explain the motive behind the attack.

'The real question seems to me...why did this happen and what is the risk of it occurring again?' he said.
The ex-girlfriend of former Bandidos member, Bronson Ellery, was so afraid of the bikie that she quit her job and went on the run in order to hide from him  before the pair were found dead, lying arm-in-arm on Friday.

The slain lovers' deaths were reported as a double-homicide as recently as Monday, but police have now confirmed they are treating the deaths as a tragic murder-suicide.

Queensland police told Daily Mail Australia no charges had been laid, and didn't expect that to change.

Police said they were still deep in investigations with friends and family of the pair, but were convinced it was a murder-suicide, with Ellery the suspected murderer.

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A former bikie enforcer known as 'Solitary Son' (right) and his ex-girlfriend (left) have been found dead in a Gold Coast apartment

Shelsea Schilling, 20, ran in fear of her ex-boyfriend Bronson Ellery, 24, after he breached a domestic violence order she had taken out on him in 2015, according to those who knew her.

The domestic violence order was taken out against Ellery, also known as the 'Lizard Man' due to his heavy tattoos, in September last year, the Gold Coast Bulletin reports.

When he breached the order in November the same year, police and court documents confirmed Ms Schilling reached out for help.

Shelsea Schilling, 20, (right) ran in fear of her ex-boyfriend Bronson Ellery, 24, (left) when he breached a domestic violence order she had taken out on him in 2015

It has been reported Ellery (right) had many enemies through his association with Gold Coast underworld figures when he was found dead alongside Shelsea Schilling (left)

A former work colleague of Ms Schilling said she quit her job at a Harbour Town dress shop, changed jobs, and disappeared in order to run from Ellery.

He was sentenced to three months in jail for the domestic violence order breach, eligible for release in January 2016.

But true to the pair's on-off toxic relationship, they rekindled their love in the weeks before they were found dead.

Ellery (pictured) , 24, is a former Bandido bikie associate who had in recent years been in and out of jail

A source from Gold Coast's underworld confirmed Ms Schilling had taken a domestic violence order out against Ellery in 2015.

The source also said the pair were obsessed with their own demise, and even talked about it in lead up to their death.

But in a tragic twist, he said Ms Schilling wanted to escape from a life with bikie members, and desperately tried to leave.

'She tried to get out and was trying to get help to get out but she didn't get out fast enough,' he said.

Former bikie enforcer Bronson Ellery (pictured) known as 'Solitary Son' and his ex-girlfriend have been found dead in a Gold Coast apartment

Friends of Ms Schilling took to Facebook after their friend's death, claiming it didn't take long for their friend to grow fearful of Ellery.

A former colleague, who worked with Ms Schilling at a store at Harbour Town, said the slain woman was driven to quit her job and go on the run from Ellery almost a year ago.

'I haven't seen or heard much from Shels in quite some time, since she had to quit her job to run away and hide from Bronson,' she told the Gold Coast Bulletin.

Ellery (right) was sentenced to three months in jail for the dv order breach against Ms Schilling (left), eligible for release in January 2016

Another friend of the 20-year-old woman took to Facebook to reveal Ellery's alleged mistreatment of Ms Schilling.

'Whether or not Bronson committed the murder, he abused her physically and emotionally for a long time which ultimately led to her passing,' she said.

Ms Schilling's sister Chloe also took to Facebook to share her disbelief at the tragic situation.

Shelsea Schilling (left) with her sister Chloe (right). Chloe posted this photo to her Facebook pleading for information about her sister's whereabouts when they discovered her missing

'It's still hard to believe what's happening and how someone could brain wash and hurt you this bad physically and mentally for so many years and now take you away from me,' she said.

'I'm sorry he won  rest in paradise my beautiful sister.'

In the days after her death, Ms Schilling's mother also took to Facebook to reveal her daughter's true fear of Ellery.

Her mother, Bonnie Markwell Mobbs, posted a chilling poem to Facebook which her daughter had written while Ellery served time in prison.

'Shelsea wrote this when Bronson was in jail and was scared for her life,' Ms Schilling's mother posted to Facebook

THE POEM SHELSEA SHILLING WROTE The man I want was the man I had. He made me happy but loved to make me sad. Dreams of shadows becoming clear,The man of my dreams is my biggest fear. As cool as can be, nothing gets to him. The ice runs deep from limb to limb. He compliments me and thinks of ways to see my teeth. But I know he only wants what's beneath. Am I the one he wants to keep? He's got me questioning if our love is ocean deep I stayed and I waited Cause I didn't want to walk alone But the longer I stayed, the less it felt like home His first language is liar, not something I desire The man I had has changed me He had hopes to derail me Box me up and chain me The man I had I don't even know anymore So easily he would throw me to the floor and watch me pour Without hesitation, he's unpredictable What he's done is unforgivable Threats and accusations Thought it was all miscommunication Still I think of him, because he's the man i wanted all to myself Girls be careful what you wish for, you might wish for hell He's sitting in a cell I had no other optionI ask myself: Was it all worth it in the end? Will he understand, can we make amends? You won't know until the time has come Where he's looking at you from behind a gun. He showed me the real world and taught me that bad people are out there doing bad things. And what consequence brings How to get away with it Make everyone scared All while pushing away the only ones who cared He's got me wondering how long I've got to live Will It depend on what he's willing to give The crazy lifestyle is more than just a look It's not something you can read in a book Some people are born this way And love every minute of every day They think they're living life right All they want to do is win the fight There's people that act and people that do People that follow through Follow through with thoughts they have in their head The type of thinking where people end up dead The man I want was the man I had. Advertisement

But those closest to Ellery said despite the couple's chequered relationship, they shared a 'crazy love' for each other.

Ellery's sister Talitha Ellery said she understood Ms Schilling was hiding her relationship with the former bikie from her own mother but had indeed rekindled the relationship in recent weeks.

Talitha told the Gold Coast Bulletin she 'really felt like this time it was going to be different'.

Talitha Ellery (left and right) said she thought the pair had secretly rekindled their love in the weeks leading up to their death

But when she and other family members tried to contact Ellery and Ms Schilling, Talitha said her first thought was they'd run away together  like they'd reportedly discussed doing in the past.

Since the chilling discovery of the slain lovers' bodies on Friday, Talitha shared the grief of losing her younger brother.

'I love you, I'm so broken, this can't be real,' she said.

'I love you, I'm so broken, this can't be real,' Talitha posted on Sunday alongside a photo of her brother Bronson Ellery

'Who will make me laugh, who will listen to me, please can this not be real.

'I heart you, for eternity  time does not exist my beautiful soul.'
Caught: Officers stop a trucker using a mobile on the M6 yesterday

Drivers are being recruited to report motorists illegally using mobile phones.

Police are seeking 'spotters' to tip them off about repeat offenders.

Potential volunteers could include driving instructors. They would pass the details of culprits to officers rather than intervene themselves.

The pilot scheme is part of a national crackdown, which includes increased patrols in unmarked vehicles.

It follows a Daily Mail campaign that successfully called for tougher penalties for those using phones at the wheel.

The first day of the crackdown yesterday showed the extent of the problem  with 23 drivers being caught in one town centre inside four hours.

One was caught twice in only 45 minutes, leaving them facing a 200 fine and six points on their licence. Police have faced stinging criticism over a dramatic fall in the number of fines handed out.

Last year only 16,900 were given to motorists caught on their phones in England and Wales, compared with 123,100 in 2011  an 86 per cent drop in five years.

The RAC has blamed the dramatic decline in fines on the lack of dedicated road traffic officers.

The use of driving instructors is favoured because of their expertise and their cars are often equipped with cameras that could be used as evidence.

The current week-long crackdown  with the spotter scheme  is being masterminded by the National Police Chiefs' Council. A similar project to use driving instructors to help police is under way in Essex, where it has been dubbed 'Neighbourhood Watch on Wheels'.

The Mail's End The Mobile Madness campaign began in September after an RAC survey revealed that half of drivers confessed to using a handheld phone while in stationary traffic and a third said they had done so while on the move.

The pilot scheme is part of a national crackdown, which includes increased patrols in unmarked vehicles (stock photo)

The same study found more than a quarter of motorists thought they were unlikely to be caught if they broke motoring laws.

Simon Williams of the RAC said the community spotters scheme would need careful management if it was to succeed.

'Desperate times call for desperate measures,' he added. 'We know this situation is at epidemic proportions and imaginative ways of tackling the problem are clearly needed, although it will need to be carefully managed.'

Offenders caught elsewhere yesterday included several HGV drivers.

One trucker was seen with his smartphone clamped to his ear while steering a 40-ton vehicle on the M6. As his passenger alerted him to the police team watching from an unmarked HGV, the driver snatched the phone away from his head  but was still caught on camera with the phone in his hand. He was given a 100 on-the-spot fine.

PC Karl Lacey, who was part of the patrol, said he had caught a trucker watching YouTube videos on his tablet while driving on the M5 last week.

Another driver was spotted steering with his wrists as he attempted to photograph a hot air balloon.

Mr Lacey said: 'Motorists would be alarmed if they realised how much of a distraction using a phone can be while driving. I've sometimes struggled to pull a driver over because they are so engrossed in what they are doing on the phone.'

Officers from Gloucestershire Constabulary said they caught two drivers last week who were on the phone to each other as they drove along the same stretch of road.

Desperate times call for desperate measures Simon Williams of the RAC

The NPCC said it was using powerful social media videos and messages to inform drivers of the dangers of illegal phone use, and that road signs would display 'Leave Your Phone Alone' warnings.

More than 200 people have been killed on Britain's roads in the last ten years by drivers distracted by their phones.

Increased penalties are expected to come into force next year. Motorists spotted using handheld phones at the wheel currently face a 100 fine and three penalty points. That is due to rise to 200 and six penalty points.
Women should be allowed to take paid breaks to breastfeed when they return to work, according to a new report. File photo

Mothers should be allowed to take regular 'breastfeeding breaks' at work, according to experts.

They must be entitled to leave the office to either breastfeed their child in a creche or express milk into a bottle.

The UK has the worst breastfeeding rates in the world and a report today blames an 'unhelpful culture'.

Only one in 100 babies are exclusively breastfed for the recommended six months and one in 200 for a year.

According to the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative  an international group of doctors  this is partly because mothers give up upon returning to work.

Babies are left in the care of nurseries, childminders or grandparents and given formula milk from a bottle.

The WBTI says women returning to work should be allowed to take paid breastfeeding breaks during the day.

Ideally, they want bosses to set up office creches so new mothers can pop out and breastfeed babies at regular intervals.

Alternatively, they should allocate private rooms to enable women to express their milk into a bottle to give to infants when they get home.

DRAGON SARAH WILLINGHAM: I BREASTFED MY BABIES IN THE BOARDROOM Sarah WIllingham, above, said she took her children into meetings when she was breastfeeding Dragons Den star Sarah Willingham did not take maternity leave and has spoken about how she breastfed her children in meetings. The 42-year-old businesswoman  who said she was too busy to take time off  said her colleagues and clients never objected to her breastfeeding in the boardroom. I asked if anyone had a problem, and they never did, she said earlier this year. In order for me to continue running the businesses, the babies needed to come with me wherever I went. Miss Willingham has four children  aged between five and ten  with her husband Michael Toxvaerd. She made her name turning The Bombay Bicycle Club into a successful Indian restaurant chain and now invests in various businesses from her home. Her business acumen saw her join the line-up for the BBCs Dragons Den last year, alongside Deborah Meaden and Peter Jones. Advertisement

The report also warns that new mothers are not getting enough help from midwives or health visitors to breastfeed in the first place.

Midwives rarely have time as they are so busy dealing with mothers in labour while the number of health visitors has been slashed, it adds.

Breastmilk is hugely beneficial for babies' health and research has shown it protects against infections, prevents obesity and boosts IQ.

Mothers effectively pass on their own immunity to the newborn and the milk is much lower in fat than formula.

Breastfeeding is also beneficial to women and helps them shed babyweight by burning calories  and also bond with the baby.

'The UK has among the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world,' the report states.

'About 80 per cent of mothers in the UK begin to breastfeed, but within weeks, breastfeeding rates plummet due to lack of support and an unhelpful culture. One of the most common reasons mothers give for stopping breastfeeding is their return to paid employment.

'Support to continue exclusive breastfeeding, for example, by provision of a workplace creche, a room for private expression, and paid breaks during working hours would help.'

There should be space for women to privately express milk with a pump, above, to allow them to feed their baby breast milk later

Professor Russell Viner, of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: 'The truth is, women are not getting the support they need in order to sustain breastfeeding over several months and this has a knock-on effect on child health. This lack of support is down to pressures on the workforce with healthcare professionals simply not having the time to spend with mothers following birth.'

Sarah Fox, professional policy adviser at the Royal College of Midwives, said: 'The UK as a whole is not doing as well as it can in promoting and supporting breastfeeding.

'This is worrying given there is a very strong and continually growing global body of evidence about the benefits of breastfeeding for both mother and baby, and its positive impact on public health.'

But there is also concern women are being made to feel guilty by overzealous midwives and health officials. On Saturday a mother revealed how she had been denied a supermarket car parking discount for buying formula milk.

Laura Leeks, 34, who cannot breastfeed her son for medical reasons, was refused free parking at a Tesco store in Braintree, Essex.
Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berkes Council for Women invites all women and the men who support them to join an upcoming luncheon to learn what the council has accomplished so far on issues of economic opportunity, education, health, history, justice, and leadership, and to find out how to get involved.



The luncheon will be held Thursday at 11:30 a.m. at the Bessie Smith Cultural Center, 200 E. M.L. King Blvd.



In attendance will be Mayor Andy Berke, Council for Women co-Cchair: City Councilwoman Dr.

Carol B. Berz, and members of the Council for Women"During his 2015 State of the City Address, Mayor Andy Berke announced the creation of the Council for Women, which has since taken up issues such as domestic violence, justice, education, healthcare, economic opportunity, history, and leadership."Following the councils thorough research and diligent work, the City of Chattanooga adopted three of its recommendations, including a commitment to a family-friendly workplace. Earlier this year, the Tennessee State Legislature passed a bill the Council for Women researched, wrote, and proposed, which helps victims of domestic violence stay in their home when faced with eviction because of the offender."At the luncheon, each subcommittee of the Council for Women will report on a specific issue, and guests will learn how they can get involved in advancing the status of women and families in Chattanooga and beyond," officials said.Thursdays Mayors Council for Women Luncheon is free and open to the public. For more info, visit http://connect.chattanooga.gov/councilforwomen/ . To RSVP, visit http://connect.chattanooga.gov/events/full-council-lunch/
said Mrs May had not been elected by the people

George Osborne last night re-opened his feud with the Prime Minister  warning her she has no direct mandate from the public.

Tensions have been bubbling since Theresa May sacked the former chancellor when she became PM.

Earlier this month, she mocked Mr Osborne by turning up at the Spectator Parliamentary awards dressed in a hi-viz jacket and hard hat  which he had frequently been photographed wearing.

George Osborne last night re-opened his feud with the Prime Minister  warning her she has no direct mandate from the public

Last night he hit back, saying Mrs May had not been elected by the people. Mr Osborne, who was the architect of the failed Project Fear campaign before the EU referendum, also suggested Mrs May should not 'weaken' the UK's economic ties with Brussels in an apparent demand that she should pursue only a 'soft Brexit' strategy.

This would involve continuing to allow free movement of EU workers in return for access to the single market.

Mr Osborne said: 'I actually voted for her to become the Conservative leader and therefore Prime Minister Well, there were votes for the MPs, the rest of the country didn't get a vote.'

He also appeared to put pressure on Mrs May not to quit the single market and to secure the Nato alliance.

He said: 'She now faces some of the most difficult choices our country has faced since the Second World War and I would say, if we choose to weaken our economic relationship with Europe where half of all the things we make and sell abroad go, then the people who are going to pay the price are the very people who were crying out for help, who feel marginalised or economically insecure.

'They will be the first to lose their jobs, or see their income fall, or not have a secure retirement.'

Tensions have been bubbling since Theresa May sacked the former chancellor

Speaking on ITV's The Agenda, he also insisted every time news emerges that Britain could have a closer relationship with Europe, it leads to an upturn in the markets, which helps the economy. But yesterday Mrs May insisted Britain will set its 'own rules' for leaving the EU and striking trade deals. She said the strength of Britain's economy means it will not be dictated to by Brussels.

She also rejected the idea we have to choose between hard Brexit and soft Brexit, saying the UK does not need an 'off the peg' model replicating other countries' deals with the EU.

In her first PM's address to London's Guildhall, Mrs May said her aim was to 'show that our departure from the EU is not  as some people have wrongly argued  Britain stepping back from the world, but an example of how a free, flexible, ambitious country can step up to a new global role in which agile nation states like Britain can trade freely with others according to what's in their own best interests and those of their people'.

Last night it was also claimed the Government has warned the EU could face costly compensation claims from its trading partners around the world if the UK is excluded from the single market.

According to a memo seen by the Irish Times, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox told Irish officials Brussels may have to pay fines to countries such as Mexico and South Korea, who may see Britain's exit from the single market as reducing their trading opportunities.
New York's heart of glam and fashion faces possible closure when president-elect Donald Trump is in town.

Fifth Avenue could be shut down to secure Trump Tower, which serves as Trump's home, a police source told the New York Daily News.

The NYPD and the US Secret Service will reportedly negotiate plans to ensure the safety of the billionaire, which means keeping troublemakers out.

New York's heart of glam and fashion faces possible closure when president-elect Donald Trump is in town, as negotiations to close Fifth Avenue begin on Thursday

Fifth Avenue could be shut down to secure Trump Tower (pictured), which serves as Trump's home, according to a police source. Whenever Trump is in town, the Secret Service wants to keep traffic off of Fifth Ave

Whenever Trump is in town, the Secret Service wants to keep traffic off of Fifth Ave, the source told the newspaper.

But higher officials in the police department feel that shutting the populous avenue down would be a huge mistake and it just 'can't happen'.

'Their job is to keep the president safe. Our job is to keep the president safe, but also let the people who live and work and visit there have some semblance of normality.

'It won't be complete normality, but it'll be adjusted normality,' the source told the Daily News.

The source did not clarify how many blocks of the avenue would be closed.

But security will be heightened at the Fifth Ave and 56th St tower.

Protesters (pictured) have proclaimed 'not my president' and 'dump Trump' outside the tower since the billionaire's victory that shocked the world. For the past five days, the building has been blocked by barriers to keep out protesters

Trump announced his preference for his $100 million New York penthouse Monday. It has called into question who will pay for the 90-minute commute to the capital by helicopter, which spurred the conversation around heightened security at his residence

Protesters have proclaimed 'not my president' and 'dump Trump' outside the tower since the billionaire's victory that shocked the world.

For the past five days, the building has been blocked by barriers to keep out protesters.

The news comes shortly after Trump announced his preference for his $100 million New York penthouse Monday.

It has called into question who will pay for the 90-minute commute to the capital by helicopter.

During the campaign trail, the businessman would often fly back late at night to his gold-bedecked luxury home in Trump Tower so he could wake up in his own bed.

The New York Times claimed that Trump is already having discussions with advisers about how many days of the week he is required to spend in the White House, which spurred the conversation around heightened security at his residence in New York.
Children in Swindon are being failed by their schools despite being a middle class area with high employment rates, Ofsted has warned.

In a scathing open letter, the schools watchdog said it had deepening concerns over the poor performance of primaries and secondaries in the region.

It is understood the relative wealth of the area may be propping up exam results, but schools appear to have become complacent and are failing to stretch pupils.

Results in some tests for six, seven and 11-year-olds are among the worst in the country, the watchdog said.

Children in Swindon are being failed by their schools despite being a middle class area with high employment rates, Ofsted has warned

Parents are likely to be shocked by Ofsteds intervention, which is more often used in areas where pupils are being held back by poverty.

In contrast, Swindon has a low unemployment rate, a low proportion of residents on benefits and the average worker receives a higher wage than average.

Alan Smithers, professor of education at the University of Buckingham said: Swindons results are not as good as might have been expected given its relative affluence.

It looks as though the schools, both primary and academy, have become satisfied with less than the pupils are capable of achieving.

Ofsteds letter is an attempt to shock them out of their complacency.

The letter, addressed to council chiefs, academy bosses, head teachers and MPs, called for immediate action to rapidly improve education standards in the area.

Swindon Council and school leaders said they were surprised to receive the letter, adding it had angered and annoyed many head teachers.

In his letter, Ofsted regional director Bradley Simmons said he had raised concerns about the performance of Swindons schools with the local council on at least three occasions.

He said: I am, therefore, widening the audience of this letter so that no key player in Swindons schools can be in any doubt of the seriousness of the situation.

In short, in 2016, Swindons children were failed by its schools at every key stage.

Primary school performance, which had been showing a trend of improvement, is now a concern, the letter said.

This year, the town had some of the poorest phonics results in England, with 76 per cent of six-year-olds reaching the expected standard.

This puts Swindon in the bottom 10 local authorities nationally.

At the same time, seven-year-olds are the joint lowest performers in reading in the South West, while 44 per cent of 11-year-olds reached the new expected standard in reading, writing and maths - again among the lowest in the country, Ofsted said.

The letter also raises concerns that few secondary school pupils in the area are achieving the English Baccalaureate - a measure which recognises students who score at least a C at GCSE in English, maths, science, history or geography and a language.

Inspections of five secondaries indicate a trend of decline, Mr Simmons said, and the overall proportion of youngsters attending a good secondary school has dropped from 52 per cent in August last year to 47 per cent as of the end of September.

In an open letter in response, Swindon council leaders and head teachers said that Ofsted ratings showed that 92 per cent of primary schools are rated as good or better, and that the council is exceeding its target for a pledge announced last year to increase the proportion of secondaries classed as good or outstanding.

They added: We feel the data that has been released has been used selectively and to say that schools have failed their pupils is overly harsh and indeed unfair.

By making his views so public in this way, Mr Simmons must have recognised the demotivating impact they would have on teachers.

This year, the town had some of the poorest phonics results in England, with 76 per cent of six-year-olds reaching the expected standard (file image)

In fact it has really angered and annoyed many headteachers of good and outstanding schools who are doing an excellent job providing high class education for children and young people whether they are in council maintained schools or academies.

Ofsted has previously criticised deprived towns in the North such as Knowsley, where school leaders say their pupils are being held back by poverty rather than poor teaching.

Swindon has no such excuse, with only 4 per cent of its population unemployed compared with the national average of 5.1 per cent, according to the latest official statistics.

Only 1.3 per cent of its population on benefits, compared with 1.8 per cent nationally, while average earnings per week are 551.60, compared with 541.0 nationally.
A Geelong woman has admitted to biting her boyfriend on the groin, hand and arm, punching him in the face and putting his keys in her pants to stop him leaving after they had a fight.

Nicole Robertson, 29, pleaded guilty to a charge of recklessly causing injury in the Geelong Magistrates Court on Monday and was fined $700 without a conviction, reported the Geelong Advertiser.

The court heard Ms Robertson arrived home on June 5 after visiting friends and got into an argument with her partner.

A Geelong woman has admitted to biting her boyfriend on the groin, hand and arm, punching him in the face and putting his keys in her pants to stop him leaving after they had a fight (stock image)

Police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Alana Groves told the court Ms Robertson was under the influence of alcohol at the time.

Constable Groves said when the victim told her he'd had enough and was leaving, his girlfriend took his keys and put them down her pants.

She said the victim thought his keys were in Ms Robertson's handbag and when he searched for them, she bit him and drew blood and then punched him twice in the face.

The court heard Ms Robertson told the victim his keys were outside, and when he went to look for them she locked him out of the house.

Constable Groves said the victim put his hand through the laundry window asking for his keys so he could go, before Ms Robertson bit his arm multiple times and tried to close the window on it.

She said the victim grabbed her arm and pulled her out the window, where she fell on top of him and then bit him on the groin.

Nicole Robertson, 29, pleaded guilty to a charge of recklessly causing injury in the Geelong Magistrates Court (pictured) on Monday and was fined $700 without a conviction

'The victim suffered large red bite marks to his hand, arm and groin along with swelling, bruising and cuts,' Constable Groves said.

Ms Robertson was arrested and interviewed by police, where she admitted she had smoked two grams of cannabis a day since she was 12 years old and said she had been drinking straight vodka prior to the incident.
Britain might not be able to use its two new aircraft carriers because of a lack of cash to replace power cables at their base.

The Ministry of Defence is spending more than 6billion on the warships, the first of which will arrive in Portsmouth early next year.

But in a scathing assessment of the UKs crumbling military bases, the spending watchdog says failure to renew 80-year-old cabling could leave the vessels without power supplies.

Britain may not be able to use its two new aircraft carriers, artist's impression, because of the 80-year-old power cables at their home base in Portsmouth need an urgent replacement

Problems at RAF Brize Norton mean aircraft cannot be refueled because of safety reasons

It is one of the most farcical examples in todays National Audit Office report, which says the defence infrastructure is dangerously short of funds.

The condition of many bases and depots has deteriorated so badly that the operational readiness of the armed forces is under threat, the report says.

It found that the MoD has a 8.5billion shortfall in the cash needed to maintain and update rundown facilities over the next 30 years.

The NAO found that the appalling quality of soldiers lodgings was leading some personnel to quit.

The report revealed that failure to carry out necessary maintenance meant that aircraft refuelling at RAF Brize Norton had to be stopped for safety reasons.

The Armys main vehicle support and storage site at Ashworth in Gloucestershire was found to lack the capability to keep vehicles at the required high levels of readiness.

Failure to fix a leaking roof at the medical centre at RAF Valley in Anglesey led the building to deteriorate so badly it had to be demolished.

A leaking roof at RAF Valley was so bad the medical centre had to be demolished

The study concluded: There is a significant risk that the poor condition of the estate will affect the departments ability to provide the defence capability needed.

As the estates condition deteriorates, some parts may wholly or partially close. This will exacerbate other risks and could reduce operational readiness.

Despite plans to sell 25 per cent of the defence estate by 2040 to release extra cash, the NAO said there were still huge problems.

A 90million management contract with a private sector consortium led by Capita had failed to deliver the expected transformation, the report said.

The NAO said the extent of the deterioration meant the inability of the MoD to invest sufficient funds in the estate could now jeopardise the delivery of new and existing military capabilites.

The report said: The Ministry of Defence has commissioned two new aircraft carriers, the first of which, HMS Queen Elizabeth, will arrive in Portsmouth in early 2017. The total cost of building the carriers is forecast to be 6.2billion. The department has been working to provide the estate assets necessary to enable the carriers to operate. This includes building a new jetty and dredging a channel deep enough to enable the carriers to sail into the port.

However, because of funding pressures, the department has not invested in ageing estate assets. This may jeopardise the carriers ability to operate.

For example, the cables that supply power to the base and carriers are more than 80 years old. They need replacing but there is no funding available to do this.

Judith Jolly, Lib Dem defence spokesman, said: Our troops are dealing with the chronic underinvestment in defence infrastructure and vital facilities like forces housing. They have threatened to turn carriers worth 6billion into white elephants due their incompetence.

The condition of much of the departments estate is poor and deteriorating. How can we be in a situation that we might have to close buildings and facilities?
The tragic disappearance of flight MH370 may have been a heroic act of sacrifice by pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah (pictured), a new theory has suggested

The tragic disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 may have been a heroic act of sacrifice by the pilot, according to a new theory.

Australian aviation enthusiast Michael Gilbert believes the doomed plane caught fire mid-flight, forcing pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah to plot a course away from heavily populated areas.

Mr Gilbert has spent 18 months investigating the technical problems that led to the mystery disappearance of the jet with 239 passengers and crew on March 8, 2014.

Experts have previously blamed the pilot - accusing him of deliberately crashing the jet into the Southern Indian Ocean.

Mr Gilbert looked into maintenance records and flight history of aircraft 9M-MRO to back up his theory that a faulty windshield heater sparked a fire.

He found the jet 'was at a significantly increased risk of experiencing a windshield heater fire or failure'.

'A windshield heater fire can explain both the loss of the transponder signal and the interruption to the satellite communications link,' Mr Gilbert said.

Australian aviation expert Michael Gilbert believes the pilot may have taken the plane down to avoid crashing into the city of Penang, Malaysia, after the doomed jet caught fire. Pictured: MH370 debris washed up on Reunion Island, off the coast of Africa

He claimed a blaze on board MH370 forced the aircraft to divert to Penang and an oxygen leak in the cockpit caused the fire to intensify rapidly.

'At the first sign of smoke, a burning smell or a fire, the crew's initial reaction would have been to don their oxygen masks,' he explained.

'I suspect that the captain got out of his seat to retrieve the cockpit fire extinguisher and fight the fire.

'The pilot would have realised there was no reasonable chance of manually flying the plane.

'There were no instruments, it was night, there was no moon, he could only occupy the cockpit for short periods of time and oxygen supplies were dwindling.'

With the plane hurtling towards Penang and, with a busy shipping lane straight ahead, Mr Gilbert believes the pilot steered the plane in 'the safest possible direction' - straight down.

He went on: 'I believe that the pilot then elected to do what many pilots in stricken planes had done in the past - steer it clear of populated areas.'

Mr Gilbert claimed the jet's windshield heater was prone to catch fire and an oxygen leak will have intensified the blaze, forcing the pilot to act. Pictured: The Australian Transport Safety Bureau inspect a wing flap from MH370

'I believe the pilot elected to do what many pilots in stricken planes had done in the past - steer it clear of populated areas,' said Mr Gilbert. Pictured: A file photo of a Malaysia Airlines plane

'Moving to the end of flight, I believe that MH370 ran out of fuel... and came down about 200km outside the current search area.'

US aviation safety consultant Captain John Cox said the theory was plausible, telling News Corp: 'Like many theories, I think he has overrun the evidence.'

'But it is worth considering because Mr Gilbert is meticulous in his research.'

A wing flap found in September raised fears the pilot plunged the plane into the ocean on purpose.

Analysis of the wreckage, found off the Tanzanian coast, suggested Shah drove the plane into the Indian Ocean in a terrifying 'death dive'.

Experts said the flap was not deployed which ruled out the possibility of a controlled landing, 7 News reports.

It came amid claims the pilot Shah was 'heartbroken' over an alleged breakdown in a relationship with married woman, Fatima Pardi, who denied the affair.

Another report released this month claimed the doomed jet descended rapidly into the water 'without human intervention' after running out of fuel.

A wing flap found in September raised fears the pilot plunged the plane into the ocean on purpose. Pictured: An Australian search plane searches for MH370 debris

Another report released this month claimed the doomed jet descended rapidly into the water 'without human intervention' after running out of fuel. Pictured: A heartbroken family member of an MH370 victim

Analysis of the wing flap showed the aircraft was not readied for a landing, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said.

It also claimed satellite communications from the aircraft showed it was in a 'high and increasing rate of descent' when it vanished.

'You can draw your own conclusions as to whether that means someone was in control or not,' said ATSB search director Peter Foley.

The question of whether deliberate human action played a part in the crash is important because if the aircraft glided on its own, the debris field could be outside the 46,330-square-mile search zone which has been exhausted.
Cannabis should be legalised in recognition of its medicinal value, Nick Clegg said last night.

The drug is much safer than many medicines already used in the UK - and continuing to criminalise the drug is absurd, he said.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, the former deputy prime minister said ministers should downgrade cannabis in the legal system from schedule one to schedule four - putting it below barbiturates, painkillers such as tramadol and sedatives such as temazepam.

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Former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, pictured, has called for the use of cannabis to be legalised for medicinal use in a letter to the British Medical Journal

Offences involving cannabis currently come with up to 14 years in prison - a schedule four offence would not involve a jail term at all.

The analysis piece, co-authored by Baroness Molly Meacher, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy Reform, said: People have used the cannabis plant for its medicinal properties for centuries, if not millenniums.

Recent years have seen the discovery of the human endocannabinoid system and a growing literature on the medicinal value of cannabis for specific conditions.

Mr Clegg, one of eight Liberal Democrat MPs who retained their seats when their numbers were reduced from 57 at the last election, added: Ministers urgently need to revisit the scheduling of cannabis and move the drug from schedule 1 to schedule 4 - which includes benzodiazepines, for example - in recognition of the limited risks and the medicinal value of the plant and its constituent parts.

This would facilitate research into the many conditions for which cannabis may be an inexpensive but effective treatment.

But above all it would enable patients with a wide range of conditions to obtain cannabis medicines to alleviate their symptoms.

Experts think medical cannabis can help alleviate chronic pain, anxiety and muscle problems - particularly those linked to multiple sclerosis.

But there is a huge volume of evidence that the drug carries severe mental health risks.

Experts believe cannabis can assist with chronic pain but can lead to psychosis or depression

The Royal College of Psychiatrists is very cautious about the campaign to decriminalise the drug, warning that its use increases the risk of developing psychosis, depression and anxiety.

A major review led by Kings College London in 2014 concluded smoking cannabis is highly addictive, can cause mental health problems and opens the door to hard drugs.

That review, led by Professor Wayne Hall, expert drugs advisor to the World Health Organisation, found one in six teenagers who use cannabis become dependent on the drug, as do one in ten adults.

Two drugs already exist in the UK which are based on cannabis  but they are very tightly controlled.

Nabilone, a synthetic cannabis-type drug, has been available since 1982 as a hospital-only treatment for nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy.

And in 2010 Sativex became the first medicine based on herbal cannabis for use in the UK.
Mannequin challenge consists in freezing in action and holding still

Another gymnast manages to remain still while balancing on parallel bars

One athlete is hanging from his feet from a bar, others are on the beam

Texas gymnasts have pulled off an incredible mannequin challenge inside their gyms - a feat that most struggle to achieve in less challenging environments.

A video released last week shows athletes from Texas A&M University in College Station holding completely still while holding on to the rings, hanging from a bar by the toes or posing on the beam.

The video begins with an athlete frozen mid-motion as if she's about to hop on the vault, arms flexed.

Things escalate to another level with the next frame, which features an athlete holding on to the parallel bars, his legs in the air and his body in a diagonal.

Mannequin challenges have multiplied on social media lately - and Texas A&M's gymnasts executed it flawlessly.

The challenge consists in freezing in motion and remaining still while someone records a video - usually hoping it will become viral.

A video released last week shows athletes from Texas A&M University in College Station completing an impressive mannequin challenge. One of them is pictured in the tumbling pit
Australians seeking casual sex on Adult Friend Finder have had their personal details hacked in the world's biggest global data security breach of 2016.

Parent company Friend Finder Network's 412 million user accounts worldwide were compromised, marking the company's second major security breach in just 18 months.

The sites were hacked in October 2016 with 20 years of customer data stolen, breach security website Leaked Source said.

'Sexual secrets of hundreds of millions exposed in largest hack of 2016,' it said.

Adult Friend Finder boasts of 73.7 million user accounts in Australia, in a nation of 24 million.

Adult Friend Finder, which boasts of having 73 million user accounts in Australia, has been caught in a global hacking scandal involving parent company Friend Finder Network

Adult Friend Finder's parent company Friend Finder Network has had the data of 412 million user accounts worldwide hacked into. Stock image

The Friend Finder Network bills itself as the world's leading online site for sex dating, giving it more users than MySpace.

The global data breach affected 339.8 million Adult Friend Finder accounts.

Affiliated sites Cams.com, Penthouse,com, Stripshow.com and iCams.com were also compromised.

The hacking of 412 million user accounts was Friend Finder Network's second major security breach since May 2015.

Its Adult Friend Friend dating site boasts of being able to connect Australians for casual sex.

'AdultFriendFinder.com just happens to be packed with horny women and real swingers looking for free no strings attached hookup sex,' the website said.

'If you are looking for casual encounters, adult chat rooms, sex personals or affair sex then you've come to the right page for free Australia sex dating.

Adult Friend Finder says it can help Australian women find no-strings attached sex

Friend Finder Network has seen users' personal details hacked for the second time in just 18 months with 412 user accounts affected worldwide. Stock image

'If you are visiting or live in Australia and are in search of sex, we can get you connected with other adult friends fast.'

Leaked Source said the Friend Finder Network had stored passwords in insecure formats, making them 'far easier to attack'.

Adult Friend Finder targets promiscuous and sexually frustrated women.

'Sex and dating offerings on this Australia page help you hook up for hot sex quickly with sexy swingers, singles, housewives, MILFs and s**s in and around Australia,' it said.

'As you're probably excited to find a fling and other adult friends, get started today on our adult match site.'

The Friend Finder Network security scare has been compared with the Ashley Madison hack of July 2015, when the account details of 35 million users seeking to have an extramarital affair were stolen from parent company Avid Life Media.

Daily Mail Australia contacted Adult Friend Finder's headquarters in California in the United States.
She thanked officers on Facebook for their response and understanding

Bride Stacey Street said they had informed all the

They then posed either side of the bride in the wedding photobooth

The officers were called to a wedding in Port Kennedy at 10pm on

Two police officers who responded to a noise complaint from a backyard wedding in Perth have joined in on the party, posing in a photo booth with the bride.

The two WA Police officers turned up at the wedding about 10pm on Saturday night in Port Kennedy, in Rockingham south of Perth, after a noise complaint from one of the neighbours.

However, instead of shutting the wedding party down the officers joined in on the celebrations and even posed for photos with the bride.

Two WA Police officers who responded to a noise complaint from a wedding in Perth have joined in on the party, posing in a photo booth with the bride (pictured)

The officers (pictured) turned about at the backyard wedding about 10pm on Saturday night in Port Kennedy, in Rockingham south of Perth, after a noise complaint from one of the neighbours

Bride Stacey Stuart posted a message about the evening on a community Facebook page on Sunday, thanking the officers for understanding and their good spirits.

'We had a wedding party last night, did the notice of an event online with local police station, put letters in all of the neighbours letterboxes giving them a heads up, even had neighbours offer their lawns for parking and had notes put back in our letterbox saying congratulations and thanks for letting them know,' she said.

Ms Street said a neighbour who regularly complains had called the police.

'These two (police) turned up, I showed them my notice of event, they clearly saw it wasn't a crazy party, told us not to stress about complaint, then got in the photobooth with me.

The bride Stacey Stuart posted a message about the evening on a community Facebook page on Sunday, thanking the officers for understanding and their good spirits

Instead of shutting the wedding party down the officers joined in on the celebrations and had a photo with the bride Stacey Street (left). Pictured right is husband Stuart Street

'So good job to the police for following up on a phone call but really, if you had been given a note with the heads up why still call the police at 10pm, what a waste of their time!'
On Oct. 4, 18 students from Boyd-Buchanan School were welcomed by students at Brainerd High School and enjoyed an interactive tour of the schools facilities and programs. Brainerd High School students took on the responsibility of facilitating the tour and introduced their visitors to BHS programs such as JROTC, Automotive Technology, Cosmetology, Bible History, and Criminal Justice. The two groups of students even worked together in the BHSs Health Science classroom to treat patients suffering from Ebola and HIV. The excursion ended with lunch in the student-led BHS Bistro during which the students brainstormed ways for the two schools to work more closely and engage in leadership in their shared community.

"In the fast-paced world in which we live and with all of the communicative technology available to us in this day and age, its not uncommon for people to be less familiar with their neighbors than previous generations. This is not only the case for people, but for schools as well. Brainerd High School and Boyd-Buchanan School in Chattanooga are separated by only 1.2 miles, but the close proximity of the two schools campuses has not necessarily led to much affiliation between the two institutions. However, Boyd-Buchanan School and Brainerd High School are on a mission to bring their students together, and to do so in such a way so that not only the students benefit from the interaction, but the entire community as well.



"The idea of bringing the two schools together into a closer relationship began when President Jill Hartness of Boyd-Buchanan School and Dr. Charles Mitchell, assistant principal of Brainerd High School, met through Leadership Chattanooga. The two administrators agreed that it would it would be eye-opening for students of both schools to step into each others shoes, learn more about the academic programs and facilities of each institution, and collaborate on a variety of service projects. The idea developed into the Student Leadership Exchange Program, and already students of both schools are reaping benefits," officials said. "In the end students of both schools walked away with a deeper understanding of each others school culture and with the determination that this activity would be only the first step towards a long and fruitful relationship."

Emma Rogers, a senior at Boyd-Buchanan had this to say, I had a fantastic visit to Brainerd. Going in, I was extremely nervous. I was not necessarily nervous about going to Brainerd; I was just nervous about going to a new place. However, as soon as we stepped in the door their whole group was warm and inviting! The students were hilarious and fun, and I'm very impressed by their hands-on curriculum and encouraging atmosphere! I was definitely blessed by the experience, and I can't wait to bring them to Boyd! Saint Martin, another BBS student shared similar sentiments: I had a blast viewing BHS. I enjoyed seeing the different kids so dedicated to their own areas of expertise. I gained a friend, Janus, who seemed to have a plan for his life already. I admire that, and personally find the amount of effort he puts forth as very admirable.



Moving forward, the two schools are in the process of making plans to engage in community clean-ups, meet with local politicians and business leaders, and work with community organizations to help those in need.

As BBS Senior May Hartness said, This experience provided me with a deeper sense of community, an understanding that we all have the potential to work together and create the bright future of a hopeful Chattanooga.
The head of Scotland Yard has been accused of destroying the career and health of a senior detective who warned him the VIP sex abuse inquiry was a baseless witch hunt.

The wife of Detective Chief Inspector Paul Settle has said her husbands career has been ruined as a result of standing up to Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe.

In an emotional letter, Sarah Settle demanded an apology from the Metropolitan Police Commissioner for leaving the officer a shadow of his former self.

Detective Chief Inspector Paul Settle: His wife said her husbands career has been ruined as a result of standing up to Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe

In an emotional letter, Sarah Settle demanded an apology from the Metropolitan Police Commissioner for leaving the officer a shadow of his former self

The letter follows a report from Sir Richard Henriques last week that found the detective should be completely exonerated from any wrongdoing over the disastrous sex abuse inquiry.

Mr Settle is thought to be the only detective to have warned the Commissioner that claims made against Lord Brittan were unsubstantiated.

He was forced to step down from his role as head of the Mets paedophile unit after attempting to close the case against the Tory former home secretary.

The investigation was later reopened, which resulted in Mr Settle having to take time off work through stress. He was then forced to face an investigation from the Independent Police Complaint Commission after he was accused of leaking information.

Mrs Settle, who has written to Sir Bernard once before expressing her concern that her husbands health was being affected by the case, said the detective had been treated abysmally.

In the letter, which has been seen by the Daily Telegraph, she demanded an apology for her husband.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe

She said: Given that my husband has been completely exonerated and praised for his actions by a High Court judge I would like to know if you have any intention of apologising to him? If not, why not? This has had an incredible impact upon my husband.

'The blanket of professionalism that he had prided himself on has been needlessly ripped from underneath him, by the very organisation he has loyally served for 25 years.

I would like to know why it took an independent review for you to listen to what my husband had been saying all along?

When contacted by the newspaper, Mrs Settle, who manages a hair and beauty salon, said: Im disgusted by the way my husband has been treated. The impact on him and our family has been incredible; he is a shadow of his former self.

During a 25-year career with the Met, Mr Settle worked in the murder squad, the counter-terror command and was also responsible for running the Olympics intelligence centre.

In 2014 he was put in charge of a unit looking at allegations of sex abuse associated with Parliament.

Among the complainants to come forward was a woman who alleged that Lord Brittan raped her at his London flat in 1967. DCI Settles team looked at the complaint but concluded the allegations did not warrant further investigation.

The case was reopened after Tom Watson, the deputy leader of the Labour Party, complained about it.
Keith Vaz has reportedly been handed a House of Commons job preparing laws to tackle corruption and money laundering

Keith Vaz has been handed a House of Commons job preparing laws to tackle corruption and money laundering, it was reported last night.

The apparent offer comes as police investigate the Labour politician over allegations that he volunteered to pay for drugs for a male escort.

The Member of Parliament for Leicester East has already faced strong criticism after he was appointed a member of the justice select committee, having resigned as chairman of the home affairs committee in the wake of the scandal.

Mr Vaz initially stepped down as result of a Sunday newspaper report that he had paid for the services of two male escorts.

As part of his new role Mr Vaz will reportedly be an integral member of the criminal finance bill committee which will meet for the first time today. It will scrutinise the criminal offences bill and criminal finance bill. It is thought that the legislation will enable improvements in the recovery of the assets of criminals.

The cross-party committee, which comprises 20 members who are selected by party whips, will help shape the bill.

A Labour source told the Times that Mr Vazs selection to the committee was uncontroversial as he had not been found guilty of any crimes or wrongdoing.

It was reported that the bill would bring in unexplained wealth orders that would require those involved in corruption to reveal how they acquired their money.

It would also require those who are under suspicion to comply with the police investigations and allow the seizure of any unaccounted for cash or jewellery.

The plans to appoint Mr Vaz to the committee were met with anger from Conservative MPs after chief whip, Gavin Williamson, announced that they should support the move.

Andrew Bridgen, Tory MP for North West Leicestershire, told the newspaper that Mr Vazs previous history regarding parliamentary standards showed that he was not a fit and proper person and should not be made a member of the justice committee.

Mr Vaz, who stepped down from the home affairs committee in September, had previously been suspended from parliament in 2002 after he was found to have provided misleading information during an investigation into allegations that he helped Indian billionaires gain access to British passports.

Sir Edward Garnier, a former solicitor-general, became the latest person to demand that Mr Vaz stand aside while the investigation into whether he purchased drugs for the escorts continued

Mr Bridgen added that MPs should reject the move otherwise we cannot blame the great British public for having a low opinion of its politicians and politics.

Sir Edward Garnier, a former solicitor-general, became the latest person to demand that Mr Vaz stand aside while the investigation into whether he purchased drugs for the escorts continued.

He said: This is the justice select committee. It is not appropriate for an MP under investigation by the police to be on the committee.

Once the matter is resolved, perhaps he can come back on to it, but for the present, he should come off it.

According to the Sunday Mirror, the MP indicated to one of two escorts that he would pay for cocaine, although he said he would not use the drug himself.

The story included photographs and secret recordings it said were of Mr Vaz with the sex workers in a north London flat he owns.

The undercover recording also included a discussion about using the party drug known as poppers.
Barbaro's friend Marco said 'a lot of people' would want to kill him because he had 'a lot of enemies'

Barbaro's friend Marco said 'a lot of people' would want to kill him because he had 'a lot of enemies'

Barbaro's father and cousin - who shared his name - were also gunned down in gangland related murders

Barbaro's father and cousin - who shared his name - were also gunned down in gangland related murders

A luxury Audi believed to be linked to the underworld murder was found on

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An underworld figure with extensive family links to the Italian mafia was shot at inside his car but tried in vain to run for his life before being executed with a shot to the head outside another criminal associate's house.

Well-known crime kingpin Pasquale Barbaro, 35, tried to flee when two hooded hitmen opened fire at him while he sat inside a silver Mercedes outside the home of underworld figure George Alex in Earlwood, south west of Sydney's CBD, on Monday night.

Terrified neighbours ran outside after the shots rang out in the quiet residential street, but the men had already reached Barbaro and took his life with a final shot to the head - leaving his heavily tattooed body laying on the footpath in a pool of blood, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Barbaro miraculously survived another attempt on his life almost a year to the day before his death - walking away unscathed after dodging a hail of bullets in Leichhardt - but police said the 35-year-old had been 'playing with fire' and his association with Sydney's criminal underworld meant he would always have a target on his back.

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WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Sydney crime figure Pasquale Barbaro has been shot dead in Sydney's south-west on Monday

Mr Barbaro, 35, was a well-known crime kingpin who narrowly avoided an attempted hitman execution in Leichhardt last year

Police were called to Larkhall Avenue in Earlwood at about 9.40pm on Monday night and arrived to find his heavily tattooed body lying on the footpath in a pool of blood

'If you play with fire you were going to get burnt. It could be anything, it could be drugs it could be over sleeping with someone's missus - you never know with these guys,' a police source told the Daily Telegraph.

A friend, identified only as Marco, said 'a lot of people' would want to kill Barbaro.

'He just has a lot of enemies,' Marco told Nine News.

'I guess things just caught up with him.

'He had a good heart. Just because he did bad things, doesn't mean he was a bad person.'

A neighbour said the hail of bullets broke Barbaro's car windows and struck him in the shoulder before he attempted to escape on foot.

'He was in his car when they started shooting at him so he tried to run but they shot him down just two three houses down from where he was,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

The local man said Barbaro often visited the area but had never stopped to speak with him.

'I always see him around, here and down the street at the shops,' he said.

Gabrielle Binton said her husband also saw Barbaro targeted inside the car before he took his last breath on the street.

Blood spatters could be seen on the street as police collected evidence following Monday's murder

An officer lays an evidence markers next to the blood stains before taking a photograph outside George Alex's house

A neighbour said the hail of bullets broke Barbaro's car windows (pictured shattered glass) and struck him in the shoulder before he attempted to escape on foot

'He ran out the back and said he saw another two guys, and they shot him in the car, another four gunshots,' she told Nine News.

Ms Binton told the Daily Telegraph she heard a man 'screaming open the f**king door' and that Barbaro had been seen entering the property owned by George Alex earlier that day.

Alex was convicted of sending death threats to his ex-girlfriend in March 2015 but has denied handing over weekly payments of $2,500 and providing prostitutes to heads of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union in exchange for special treatment, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Islamic State terrorists Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar trained at his home in 2013 and he was also a known associate of gangster Mick Gatto and Hells Angels bikies Steve Mitrovic and Peter Sidirourgos.

Barbaro's family have been heavily involved in the criminal underworld, with his grandfather and cousin - who shared his name - also paying their debts to the crime world with their lives.

Barbaro was shot outside George Alex's home in Earlwood and had been seen coming in and out of his house that day

Witnesses said Barbaro was seen coming in and out of George Alex's home (pictured) on the day he was shot down

More than $250 cash was seen in the centre console of Alex's car the day after the gang-related shooting

Islamic State terrorists Khaled Sharrouf (bottom right) and Mohamed Elomar (bottom left) trained at his home in 2013 and he was also a known associate of gangster Mick Gatto (top left) and Hells Angels bikies Steve Mitrovic (top right)

Police suspect the shooting was motivated by Barbaro's ties with the criminal underworld and say he was 'playing with fire'

Two officers with brown evidence bags take note of an irregularity on the path as the scoured the area on Tuesday

Concerned neighbours watched on as police searched for evidence following the murder in a quiet suburban street

Pasquale 'Peter' Barbaro, 58, was stabbed and shot in 1990 as his new wife begged for his life in Brisbane, while Pasquale 'Little Pat' Barbaro was gunned down in a van next to gangland figure Jason Moran in 2003 as his children wept in the back seat.

Police believe Monday's shooting was another targeted attack following recent a string of underworld shootings in Sydney, including the death of the hitman accused of shooting at Barbaro in 2015.

Underworld stand-over man Hamad Asaad, 29, was gunned down in front of his 12-year-old nephew in his driveway in Sydney's south-west, on October 25.

He was the key suspect in the shooting of gangland boss Walid 'Wally' Ahmad who was executed in broad daylight at Bankstown in April.

Journalist Keith Moor, who has written a book on the Barbaro family, believes the 35-year-old may have been killed for the same reason his grandfather was - talking out of school.

Barbaro's friend, identified only as Marco, said the slain mafia kingpin had 'a lot of enemies'

A stolen car was found torched and abandoned in Concord after the shooting

Underworld stand-over man Hamad Asaad, 29, was gunned down in front of his 12-year-old nephew in his driveway in Sydney's south-west, on October 25 (pictured)

Asaad (pictured left and right) was a key suspect in the attempted hit on Barbaro in Leichhardt in 2015

He was also the key suspect in the shooting of gangland boss Walid 'Wally' Ahmad (pictured) who was executed in broad daylight at Bankstown in April

'The homicide squad will be looking at whether the Calabrian mafia decided themselves to silence Pasquale Barbaro because the suggestion is he was breaking the code of omerta and had become an informer,' the author of Busted told AAP on Tuesday.

Moor said Monday night's shooting will be difficult to solve because traditionally the mafia are reluctant to talk to authorities.

He thinks the Barbaro family will instead conduct their own 'investigation' into what happened.

Police have cordoned off the scene and officers from the New South Wales Riot Squad were seen performing a sweep of the area for any further evidence on Tuesday morning.

According to the the Daily Telegraph, Barbaro was rumoured to be a high-ranking informant to the Crime Commission which could have attracted unwanted attention from his own or other crime syndicates.

Officers from the New South Wales Riot squad were seen arriving at the scene of the shooting on Tuesday morning

The team were ordered to scour the area for any evidence that could lead to an arrest

TIMELINE OF UNDERWORLD SHOOTINGS IN THE LAST EIGHT MONTHS Four underworld figures have been gunned down on Sydney streets in the past eight months, with two of the executed men potentially linked to another shooting 12 months ago. November 14, 2016 Pasquale Barbaro, 35, executed outside an Earlwood home in south west Sydney. Barbaro's grandfather and cousin were both killed in gangland hits and there were unconfirmed rumours he was an informant. October 25, 2016 Hamad Assaad shot dead in broad daylight by at least two gunmen in the driveway of his Georges Hall home. Assaad, 29, was a key suspect in the murder of underworld figure Walid Ahmad. April 29, 2016 Gangland kingpin and convicted killer Walid Ahmad, 40, killed in a spray of bullets on the rooftop car park of Bankstown Central shopping centre. Ahmad's murder was believed to be in retaliation for the fatal shooting of Safwan Charbaji outside a Condell Park panel beater several weeks earlier. April 9, 2015 Safwan Charbaji, 32, fatally wounded and another man seriously injured after a gunfight outside a Condell Park smash repair business linked to Ahmad. An outstanding debt dispute was reportedly one of the possible motives being investigated for the fatal shooting. November 9, 2015 Barbaro targeted in a non-fatal gun attack outside a Leichhardt business. Police reportedly believed Assaad was a suspect in the bungled shooting. Source: AAP Advertisement

Barbaro was jailed in 2004 for his role in an elaborate drug ring supplying methamphetamine.

The 35-year-old appeared in the Downing Centre District Court just last week where he applied to have his bail continued ahead of a court trial for serious drug charges.

He and three others were due to trial early next year on charges of manufacturing two kilograms of the drug 'ice'.

Police allege the group manufactured the drug on properties near Goulburn and at Cobbitty, in Sydney's southwest, between October 2010 and November 2011.

Barbaro has been on bail since he was charged in 2012.

An Audi Q7 - worth at least $100,000 - was found ablaze at nearby Goddard Park half an hour after the shootings.

Police suspect the burnt-out luxury car was involved in the brutal Earlwood murder and are investigating any links between the owner and the Barbaro crime family.

Horrified neighbours piled into the Earlwood street on Monday night after hearing 'five gun shots' echo in the street.

Police have cordoned off the street so investigators can search for evidence

Two officers scrounge through a bush outside the scene of an underworld shooting

Officers have been at the scene since being alerted to the shooting at 9.40pm on Monday

Two officers get down on the ground to search underneath a car on the street where a man was shot on Monday night

Investigators want to leave no stone unturned as they search for evidence relating to the murder of Pasquale Barbaro

Officers continued collecting evidence on Tuesday afternoon but have not indicated if there are any suspects in the murder

A police officer lays down evidence tags at the scene of the shooting which claimed the life of Pasquale Barbaro

The murder took place on Larkhall Avenue in Earlwood, located south west of Sydney's CBD

Neighbours came outside to observe the spectacle, with dozens of police officers remaining on the scene on Tuesday

'I was watching TV inside and just heard what sounded like somebody banging something next door - but it was five gun shots,' neighbour Theo Paraskevaides said.

'By the time I sort of come out, I was half asleep ... I went out to the back yard and didn't see anything. I came out to the front and saw a couple of people outside and that's when I ... realised that somebody had been shot.

'I've been here all my life. It's one of the quietest streets in Earlwood. It's quite shocking to be honest.

An abandoned silver Mercedes believed to be Barbaro's sat in the middle of the road with its brake lights on and front door open not far from where he lay face-down on the footpath.

Half an hour later police responded to reports of a burnt-out luxury Audi Q7 nearby, which they suspect was involved in the brutal murder

Horrified neighbours piled into the Earlwood street on Monday night after hearing 'five gun shots'

Paramedics were called to Earlwood but were unable to revive Mr Barbaro
South Australia's parliamentary speaker has revealed he was attacked after he called police to report graffiti vandalism at a train station in his electorate in Adelaide.

Michael Atkinson, who is also the member for Croydon, posted a photo on his Twitter account showing graffiti on a Croydon train station sign on Monday night, the Adelaide Advertiser reports.

Mr Atkinson said he was attacked after reporting the incident to police on his phone and the graffiti was carried out by a 'gang of three' people.

South Australia's parliamentary speaker Michael Atkinson (pictured) has he was attacked after he called police to report graffiti vandalism at Croydon train station in Adelaide

He had been waiting on the platform when three men in their late twenties began vandalising a sign after coming along from Euston Terrace.

'One vandal stoned me after trying to steal my phone,' Mr Atkinson wrote.

'Although they started spray painting the station, they weren't too comfortable that I was on the phone so they climbed the fence and walked towards the next station [at West Croydon].'

Mr Atkinson also started walking towards the West Croydon stop. Here he saw the vandals spray painting the artwork and blackboard there.

Mr Atkinson tweeted this picture of the graffiti the men did on the sign at Croydon train station

'I rang police again and gave them the details. The graffiti vandals weren't particularly too happy about that,' he told The Advertiser.

'One of them rushed at me from a long distance, tried to snatch my computer tablet... and my mobile phone.

'But in the course of snatching all they got was half of [Liberal MP] Duncan McFetridge's voluntary euthanasia bill ripped in half.'

He said one of the men threw rocks at him and threatened him, but the trio later walked off.

Police are continuing their investigations.
A woman who killed her cheating millionaire husband in a road rage attack was sent thousands of taunting messages by his mistress, including videos of the pair having sex, before she drove him off the road.

Frances Hall, 53, was jailed for just two years in September after being convicted of killing her estranged husband Bill Hall Junior in San Antonio, Texas in 2013.

Her husband's younger lover, Bonnie Contreras, now 34, is accused of taunting Hall with the messages but insists she is 'not a bad person'.

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Frances Hall, 53, has given an emotional interview from jail - to air on Crime Watch Daily - saying she still loves her husband after she killed him in San Antonio, Texas in 2013

Ms Contreras allegedly sent the wife videos of her having sex with Hall's husband and pictures of hysterectomy diagrams saying Hall was broken, disgusting and not a real woman anymore, according to Hall's attorney, Leigh Cutter.

In an emotional interview from behind bars, which is set to air on Crime Watch Daily with Chris Hansen on Tuesday night, Hall said she still loves her slain husband.

'The times he was leading this secret life, he made sure I was his number one,' she told the program.

'I love him and he is the only man I will love this way.

'Sometimes, I tell my kids that all thats left of me is a shell of a woman. But I have to be there for them, they lost their father.'

The couple were married for 34 years and have two adult children. His affair with Ms Contreras lasted three years.

The taunting all came to a head when Hall saw Ms Contreras driving their family Range Rover on a stretch of Texas Highway 1604 on October 10, 2013.

Ms Contreras was being followed by Mr Hall, the owner of Bill Hall Jr. Trucking, on his custom made Harley Davidson motorcycle.

Hall did a u-turn and started to chase Ms Contreras.

The 53-year-old was jailed in September for two years after running him her estranged millionaire husband Bill Hall Junior off the road in 2013

The millionaire's mistress, Bonnie Contreras, is accused of sending thousands of taunting messages to his wife, including videos of Bonnie and Bill having sex

Ms Contreras, who calls herself Bill's girlfriend, is now suing the family for $2.5 million because of the alleged emotional stress from the car chase

She started to ram the car Ms Contreras was driving - in what prosecutors say was a fit of rage - but accidentally hit and killed her husband in the process.

Hall could have been sentenced up to life in prison for the collision but a jury concluded that the woman's 'sudden passion' was a mitigating factor in her guilt in the death of her trucking company husband.

Her attorneys argued the wreck was an accident.

She also got a two-year prison sentence for aggravated assault for hitting the vehicle driven by Ms Contreras.

Ms Contreras is now suing the family for $2.5 million because of the alleged emotional stress from the car chase.

'I know that I never broke up that family. That family was already broken,' she said.

Ms Contreras said Mr Hall told her early on in their relationship that he was separated and going through a divorce.

'I was willing to go through it all with him - the ups, the downs, the divorce, all the hell she was probably going to put both of us through. I loved this man,' she said.

'I'm not a bad person, I just fell in love, I couldn't help it.'

Bill Hall was on his custom made Harley Davidson motorcycle when he was run down by his estranged wife in a road rage attack

Ms Contreras said Mr Hall told her early on in their relationship that he was separated and going through a divorce

At the time Hall was sentenced, Ms Contreras told KENS 5 that she didn't agree with the lenient jail term.

She sat in the courtroom surrounded by authorities for protection.

'I was his girlfriend. I was his love,' Contreras said.

'I was his everything. He couldn't wait to start having children. He couldn't wait to get married,' she told KENS 5.

She said that she still loves Bill Hall and will never regret time spent with him.

'If I had the chance to talk to Frances face to face, I would tell her, "I forgive you."'

'I forgive this woman.

'I know who I am. I'm a good person. I never mean no harm on anybody,' she said.
A Deadliest Catch star was badly assaulted and robbed over the weekend, authorities said.

Reality TV star Jake Harris was brutally attacked Saturday night along Highway 526 in Washington.

His brother, Josh Harris, reportedly wrote on social media that his sibling has been severely injured.

The Everett Police Department said they received a report of 'a male victim of an assault'.

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Deadliest Catch star Jake Harris (right) was brutally attacked Saturday night along Highway 526 in Washington. His brother, Josh Harris (left), reportedly wrote on social media that his sibling has been severely injured

Everett Police Department said Harris (left) was 'conscious, alert and answering questions' at the scene. He and his family, inlcuding his late father Captain Phil Harris (right), have been featured on the Discovery Channel show about fisherman in Alaska for 10 years

Police spokesman Aaron Snell told The Seattle Times the victim was found by a passer-by who called 911.

'At the scene, he was conscious, alert and answering questions,' Snell said.

Snell said Harris had been injured in an altercation.

Police told the newspaper that Harris refused medical attention and was taken home by police.

'He was later taken to the hospital by friends or family members,' Snell said.

Harris remains hospitalized at the Providence Regional Medical Center.

A spokeswoman for the hospital told the Times that Harris was in 'satisfactory condition'.

Jake Harris and his family have been featured on the Discovery Channel show about fisherman in Alaska for 10 years.

Police said that Harris (left) refused medical attention and was taken home by police. He was later taken to the hospital by family members. The siblings are pictured during season six of Deadliest Catch
'He looks nothing like a lizard, he looks like a skeleton if anything'

Ellery's former lawyer said he described his ink as 'front cover of his CD'

Pictures show the young man prior to his physical transformation

Bronson Ellery: As a young man - presumably in his late teenage years - the Bandidos bikie already had an arm sleeve and the words 'committ' and 'lover' etched across his face

Photos have emerged of the slain former bikie enforcer known as 'Lizard Man' before he covered himself head-to-toe in tattoos.

Bronson Ellery, 24, and his ex-girlfriend Shelsea Schilling were found dead in the Gold Coast suburb of Southport last Friday.

Investigators have said the deaths were suspicious, with claims it may have been a murder-suicide or a double hit.

Ellery, a death metal rocker with a criminal past, was famously dubbed 'Lizard Man' by police for his head-to-toe inking.

And pictures obtained by Daily Mail Australia show Ellery has long had a fascination with body art.

The Gold Coast man's face, arms and fingers were already half-covered with ink in his late teenage years when he fell in with a band of 'renegades' associated with the Bandidos bikie gang.

Happy days: A younger Ellery poses for a photograph in a heavy metal inspired T-shirt

Before and after: In an old photo (left) Ellery's distinctive row of tattooed 'teeth' can be seen developing. On right, he can be seen following years of dedicated inking

His body was totally covered in tattoos in what he would describe as his 'hallmark' to friends

He wanted to dedicate his life to death metal. He performed under the name Solitary Son

In a video posted to YouTube, Ellery said he began his tattoo obsession by getting his arms inked when he was 15-years-old.

He tattooed his own chest, while his back and legs were tattooed during his stints behind bars.

His face was done in a tattoo shop - and the entire top of his head was also covered in ink.

'People ask if they hurt,' he said. 'They hurt on your nose, that's probably the worst spot for me.'

In a 2015 interview with Noisy.com, he said he tattooed himself so heavily to dedicate himself to death metal music.

Swastika: Ellery had a tattoo (circled here) of the infamous Nazi symbol - and love hearts and roses - across his body. His former lawyer dismissed any Nazi sympathies

'I knew I was never going to do a normal job or anything.

'I knew I was going to be fully dedicated to music.

'I was going to make it hard for myself and just cover myself in tattoos so there was no other option.

'I just didn't care. I knew I was doing music so it didn't matter what I looked like'.

One of his tattoos included a swastika - which Ellery's defence lawyer dismissed as him being a 'd***head', rather than having Nazi sympathies.

Lawyer Chris Hannay said Ellery had matured and 'grown out' of the bikie lifestyle.

Mr Hannay said Ellery acted the 'opposite' to how people would expect of someone with such an imposing set of tattoos.

'He's not frightening. Once he opens his mouth "hello Mr Hannay"... it's a different person.

'He was just a good bloke. I'd have a cup of coffee with him, talk about his music - he had a little studio.'

Ellery had instead turned his energies towards his death metal career, going by the name Solitary Son.

Ellery was an associate of the Bandidos bikies - before pouring his energies into his music

'He had changed his ways, everything was going well for him,' Mr Hannay said.

'He'd done a CD. He'd loved his music.

'He called into see me probably a week before this incident happened just to say hello, things were great, life was good, he was getting on with things.

He said his client had never been charged with 'serious criminal activities', only street offences and perverting the court of justice.

Mr Hannay believed he was even beginning to remove some of his tattoos.

Ellery most recently four months in jail for trying to bully a man into withdrawing a complaint to police.

He made headlines in 2012 when he was charged with public nuisance following a brawl with members of the Finks outlaw motorcycle gang at Harbour Town shopping centre, the Gold Coast Bulletin reports.

Ellery (pictured right with the late Ms Schilling) claimed the bikie gang turned on him at their clubhouse

It was reported that the couple had 'caused one another a bad energy'

'My son doesn't drink, smoke or do drugs but he's judged by the artwork on his face,' his mother Suzi said at the time.

Police had said Ellery hoped the arrest would be covered in the media to increase exposure to his single, In Memory of Us.

But it received a bad reception, with critics panning the singing, production and quality of it.

Ms Schilling would have been 21 years old on November 30. The quiet Gold Coast girl had completed a diploma in beauty therapy at the Australian National College of Beauty in Brisbane in 2013.

It was reported that in recent months the couple had 'caused one another a bad energy' and had a 'toxic love'.
It is the end-of-exams festival that every teenager longs to be at - a three-week extravaganza of partying on the Gold Coast.

But it seems the locals are less than pleased with seeing the Schoolies come back to town, at least if this elderly man's reaction is anything to go by.

The Surfer's Paradise native was filmed hijacking a press conference for the event before launching into an angry rant about the beach being fenced off.

An elderly man has interrupted a press conference about the Schoolies festival on Queensland's Gold Coast to rant about the beach being fenced off

As Schoolies boss Mark Reaburn was addressing journalists, the man can be heard shouting in the background.

While Mr Reaburn initially tries to keep talking, the man's shouting soon stops him in his tracks.

'Stop fencing off our beach,' he shouts in footage taken by 7 News. 'We paid for it.'

Mr Reaburn attempts to continue, telling the man he will address his concerns 'if you'll let me finish' to which the man replies: 'No.'

He continues: 'You'll only tell it the wrong way. Tell your staff to p*** off with the fence. Kick these bloody kids off this beach.'

The cameras soon pan back to Mr Reaburn on the stage, who continues selling the benefits of the festival, but the man is having none of it.

The man, who has not been identified, told Schoolies boss Mark Reaburn to 'p*** off with the fence', adding: 'Kick these bloody kids off our beach'

While Mr Reaburn did initially address the protester, he soon continued talking over him as he shouted in the background

In the background, he can be heard saying: 'Why do we pay so much money to educate kids, educate them to do wrong things. Get with it.'

Mr Reaburn continues talking over the man, ironically explaining how his company is 'very aware this is public land'.

Eventually the shouting in the background stops, as it appears the elderly man has wandered off.

The Schoolies festival is a source of controversy each year, with violent behaviour often to blame.
A lawsuit has been filed by 18 passengers who were aboard an American Airlines aircraft that caught fire last month on the tarmac of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport after an engine failed.

The lawsuit was filed Monday in Cook County Circuit Court.

The passengers are suing American Airlines, aircraft manufacturer Boeing Inc. and engine manufacturer General Electric Aviation.

The lawsuit claims GE sold a faulty engine that Chicago-based Boeing used to assemble an unsafe aircraft, The Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Passengers walk away from a burning American Airlines jet that aborted takeoff and caught fire on the runway at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in this October 28 photo

The passengers also claim American Airlines employees should have done a better job inspecting the plane.

They contend employees failed to provide 'assistance, supervision and instruction' during evacuation.

Pilots on October 28 aborted the takeoff of American Airlines Flight 383 to Miami.

All 161 passengers and nine crew safely evacuated, with officials saying 20 people suffered minor injuries.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

American Airlines declined to comment on Tuesday morning.

Boeing Inc. and General Electric Aviation did not immediately respond to Tuesday morning requests for comment.
A five-year-old girl was found inside the Port Authority Bus Terminal after her mother was found murdered in Connecticut, officials said.

The girl is believed to have been abandoned by her father Elmer Gomez Ruono, who is a suspect in her mother's death after police said they believe the two were part of a love-triangle gone wrong, according to the New York Post.

The child, who only speaks Spanish, was spotted by an officer on the second-floor concourse of the PABT.

Police took her home to her Stamford, Connecticut, apartment, they discovered her mother had been killed.

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A five-year-old girl (pictured) was found inside the Port Authority Bus Terminal after her mother was found murdered in Connecticut, officials said

The girl is believed to have been abandoned by her father, who is a suspect in her mother's death

Ruono is wanted for questioning by police in connection with the killing.

He was seen leaving the girl at the bus terminal early on Monday on security footage but the 32-year-old has since disappeared.

It was only when his daughter, who described by Port Authority Police as being in a good condition and well fed, let detectives home that they made the grisly discovery.

Elmer Gomez Ruono (pictured), 32, is wanted for questioning by police in connection with the killing

Stamford Police Capt. Richard Conklin said that the victim, who has not been named, was a Guatemalan native in her 30s who moved with her husband and daughter to the Stamford apartment just days ago from New Jersey.

They had celebrated their move with a party for friends and family on Sunday night at the Courtland Avenue apartment.

But a domestic dispute allegedly began after the party, and the victim was killed in the early hours of Sunday morning, police say.

The family's one-bedroom home showed signs of a struggle, according to police.

The state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner investigated the scene and will determine the cause of death today.

However, police are already investigating her death as a murder.

It is not known if the child saw her mother killed.

'We know very, very little because they only moved here within the last day or two from New Jersey,' Conklin said. 'We are struggling to come up to speed on this very rapidly.'

The girl was physically unharmed and is currently in custody of child services in New York City, the station said.

Police say Ruono had been working at the Bedford Street Diner in Stamford. Local media report that authorities have been struggling to track him down because he is undocumented.
A Melbourne pensioner is expected to live in a tiny cell surrounded by his own faeces for possibly being Bali's worst ever paedophile.

Robert Ellis was last month sentenced to 15 years behind bars for molesting at least 11 girls in his rental home on the Indonesian island, in 2014 and 2015.

The 70-year-old bearded criminal was given the heaviest sentence ever imposed on a foreign paedophile.

Paedophile Robert Ellis, 70, is set to spend the first six months of his 15-year prison sentence in solitary confinement, living in his own faeces

The 70-year-old pensioner from Melbourne is regarded as one of Bali's worst ever foreign paedophiles

He is set to spend the first six months of his lengthy sentenced in a tiny cell, in solitary confinement living in his own faeces, for failing to pay a court-ordered fine of $200,000, nine.com.au reports.

Judge Wayan Sukanila imposed harsh conditions for the new inmate of the notorious Kerobokan prison because he was charged just weeks before Indonesia introduced new laws permitting chemical castration and the death penalty for men who sexually abused children.

Former Kerobokan prisoner, Queenslander Paul Conibeer, told nine.com.au his 10 months in the cage-like jail were dirty and soul destroying.

'Solitary confinement is where all the guys who were going to get killed by the [prison] gangs would be kept. It was f***ing horrible, mate,' he said.

'We used to throw food to them. There's no toilet or nothing. They just live in their own muck.'

Ellis abused at least 11 girls, aged from nine to 15, at his rented room in Tabanan near Kuta between 2014 and 2015, after coming to Bali on a single entry visa for retirees and senior citizens in 2013.

Robert Andrew Fiddes Ellis (pictured) will be 85 before he is released from Bali's notorious Kerobokan prison, if he lives that long

He would bathe his victims in exchange for gifts and money, sometimes buying a motorbike for a girl's family or paying for dental braces.

For every shower, he paid between 100,000 to 300,000 rupiah (A$10- A$30).

The prisoner, whose full name is Robert Andrew Fiddes Ellis, expressed disbelief after being sentenced to 15 years' jail in late October.

'I'm 70 now. Fifteen years would take me to 85. I don't know if I will live that long,' he told Australian reporters in Bali.
She is pleading with the Bondi community to help her find a fake boyfriend

The Italian woman said her parents didn't believe she was single and happy

Woman pleads for a stranger to pose as her boyfriend to fool her parents

A woman has taken to the internet in a light-hearted approach for a stranger to pose as her boyfriend, to keep her Italian parents from hassling her about being in her 30s and single.

Valentina Petrillo, an Italian woman living in Sydney's eastern suburbs, reached out to the Bondi community on Tuesday claiming she needed to do something to stop her parents from pressuring her.

Miss Petrillo, 31, said her parents were 'amazing' but simply didn't understand that she could be a single woman and happy, and needed a man to help her temporarily falsify her relationship status.

Valentina posted the comment as a light-hearted attempt to find a fake boyfriend

Valentina Petrillo, an Italian woman living in Sydney's eastern suburbs, reached out to the Bondi community on Tuesday claiming she needed to do something to stop her parents from pressuring her

'I would need someone to introduce them as my boyfriend, obviously via Skype,' she said.

'Take some pictures together, have a profile picture with, just for a few days to make it seem real.

'You know, all that boring stuff couples do.'

But the 31-year-old was quick to clarify the proposed agreement had its boundaries.

'Not everything (couples do), because it's supposed to be a fake relationship,' she said.

Miss Petrillo said her parents were proud of her but it was the only way her parents would stop hassling her to find a partner, and allow her to 'breathe'.

'I'm going back to Europe next May, and doing it this way I can breathe for a few months without complaints,' she said.

In a final pitch, Miss Petrillo said she would even shout the generous man a drink 'or whatever' for their time and effort.

'Please save me from my parents. They don't understand how a woman can be single and happy at the same time,' she said.

And within seconds of publishing her post, Miss Petrillo was bombarded with messages from men willing to donate their time for the cause.

Comments from locals were quick and swift as people recommended friends

'I'll volunteer, also I come with a million excuses for a fake break up,' one user said.

'Happy to help love, (I) will send your family a Christmas card to make it look legitimate,' another said.

Others were also quick to to volunteer their friends for the job.

'This is the best thing I've seen all day. 10/10 would do. Let me know if ... needs an understudy,' one said.

Social media users jumped at the opportunity to recommend someone they knew

The post garnered so much attention, men resorted to listing their qualities in an attempt to be noticed.

'(I) make around $14 per annum, no job, still ask parents for money, no hobbies, no desire to achieve in life, not goal orientated, not a people person but hate being alone, live in a share-room with eight other people sharing one bar of soap  am I the one for you?' one poster said.

And in reply to the overwhelming number of offers, Miss Petrillo said she was actively trawling through Facebook profiles to search for the right man.

'I'm checking some profiles, my parents know me very well and I'd have to be really careful with the guy that I will choose. Much love to all of you,' she said.

But Miss Petrillo told Daily Mail Australia it was 'not a fake post', but despite the light attempt to reach out to the community, her parents were proud of her.
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These are the heartbreaking images that reveal the squalid lives of New York's immigrants more than 100 years ago.

The captivating pictures show how thousands of immigrants arrived in the city everyday looking for a better life in the US.

Many did it make far out of New York with thousands setting up home in Manhattan's Lower East side and other parts of the city.

Heartbreaking photographs reveal the squalid lives of New York's immigrants more than 100 years ago. Pictured is a man was killed by a bomb at an anarchist rally in Union Square in March 1908

Many of the migrants moved into tenement buildings in Manhattan's Lower East side where children often played alongside dead animals left in the street

Two child laborers sleep in the press room of The Sun newspaper in New York in 1892. Working for the newspapers was one dependable way for young boys to earn extra money for their families

Conditions for migrants living in New York City more than 100 years ago were squalid and dangerous. Pictured are dead bodies lying in an alley off Monroe Street following a nearby fire in 1913

In the present day, many of the tenement buildings still remain in Monroe Street with cars parked either side of the road

Captivating photos document the overflowing tenements of New York's Lower East Side and other parts of the city. Pictured left is children playing around a tenement building on Thompson Street, while right is children gathering in Cherry Hill

In the streets of New York, many immigrants lived, worked, and scraped by, including this beggar who holds his hand out for money

Customers and employees are pictured standing outside an Italian immigrant's shop on Mott Street in 1912. The street is now in the modern day Little Italy

Although Mott Street seems different in the present day, the Italian and Chinese shops remain in what is now known as Little Italy

And photogrpaher Jacob A Riis, captured many of the heartbreaking images, which shine some light on how the wave of immigrants from Europe were living in a city which at the same time was the world's economic powerhouse.

Meanwhile other captivating snaps were captured by Lewis Hine, who used his photographs to change child labor laws in the US.

In several of the images, dead bodies can be seen lying in the street, including the carcass of a rotting horse.

By the year 1920, New York had reached two million foreign-born residents.

Crowds of men come on to the street to protest against police during the garbage strike that took place in November 1908

Children wearing signs in English and Yiddish protest child labor conditions on May 1, 1909.At the turn of the century, one-fifth of America's workforce was under the age of 16, and New York was no exception

Hundreds of people crowd the area at Pitt and Rivington Streets in the Lower East Side in 1915. At this time many of the immigrants lived in New York's Lower East Side

Photographer, Jacob A Riis, captured several of these photos, which eventually helped shine some light on how the wave of immigrants from Europe were living in a city which at the same time was the world's economic powerhouse. Hell's Kitchen is pictured just before 1890

Most of those immigrants resided within the neighborhoods in lower Manhattan including Chinatown, Little Italy, and the Lower East Side, leading to overcrowded tenements.

In the streets of New York, many immigrants lived, worked, and scraped by.

The wave of immigration saw many of the immigrants pass through Ellis Island, which opened in 1892 as a federal immigration station, a purpose it served for more than 60 years before closing in 1954.

Some of these captivating images were captured by Lewis Hine, who used his photographs to change child labor laws in the US. Pictured is a youngster walking across Leroy Street in 1912

By the year 1920, New York had reached two million foreign-born residents. Most of those immigrants resided within the neighborhoods in lower Manhattan including Chinatown, Little Italy, and the Lower East Side, leading to overcrowded tenements. Two women and a man stand in front of outhouses at an unspecified location

In the streets of New York, many immigrants lived, worked, and scraped by. The Bowery, a street and eponymous neighborhood running through what is now Manhattan's East Village, was a notorious hotbed of crime and poverty

Traders and shoppers are pictured bargaining on Hester Street, between Allen and Orchard Streets in the Lower East Side in 1938

Although the horses and carts are gone in Hester Street in the present day, it still remains a place people go to do trade

Children lick a massive block of ice to stay cool on July 6, 1912. The wave of immigration saw many of the immigrants pass through Ellis Island, which opened in 1892 as a federal immigration station

Millions of newly arrived immigrants passed through the station during that time.

It has even been estimated that close to 40 per cent of all current US citizens can trace at least one of their ancestors to the island.

Immigrants passed through long lines for medical and legal inspections to determine if they were fit for entry into the US.
Barbaro's father and cousin - who shared his name - were also gunned down in gangland related murders

Barbaro's father and cousin - who shared his name - were also gunned down in gangland related murders

Police sources revealed Barbaro was the main suspect in the fatal drive-by shooting of Assaad in October

Barbaro survived an attempt on his life in 2015 which is believed to have been carried out by Hamad Assaad

A luxury Audi believed to be linked to the underworld murder was found on

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Underworld figure Pasquale Barbaro who was executed in a Sydney street was the key suspect in the fatal drive-by shooting of gangland hitman Hamad Assaad.

Well-known crime kingpin Barbaro, 35, was shot and left in a pool of blood in Earlwood, south west of Sydney's CBD, on Monday night - almost a year to the day he survived a bungle attempt on his life in Leichhardt.

A police source told Daily Mail Australia that Barbaro was the key suspect in the murder of underworld stand-over man Assaad, 29, who was gunned down in front of his 12-year-old nephew in Sydney's south-west, on October 25.

Assaad was believed to be the shooter who pulled out a gun and unleashed a hail of bullets on Barbaro in 2015 prompting suspicions Monday's murder could have been a tit-for-tat retaliation attack.

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Pasquale Barbaro (left) who was executed in a Sydney street was the key suspect in the fatal drive-by shooting of gangland hitman Hamad Assaad (right) who is also believed to have carried out a failed murder attempt on his rival last year

Underworld stand-over man Hamad Assaad, 29, was gunned down in front of his 12-year-old nephew in his driveway in Sydney's south-west, on October 25 (pictured)

Barbaro, 35, was shot and left in a pool of blood in Earlwood, south west of Sydney's CBD, on Monday night - almost a year to the day he survived a bungle attempt on his life in Leichhardt

The rival gangsters who are believed to have competed in a race to take each others lives were both pictured after their murders - eerily laying lifeless in a pool of crimson blood.

Police sources have revealed they believe shooting was another targeted attack following the recent string of underworld shootings in Sydney, which included the daylight execution of gangland boss Walid 'Wally' Ahmad in Bankstown in April.

Witnesses said Barbaro tried to flee when two hooded hitmen opened fire at him while he sat inside a silver Mercedes outside the home of underworld figure George Alex in Earlwood, south west of Sydney's CBD, on Monday night.

Terrified neighbours ran outside after the shots rang out in the quiet residential street, but the men had already reached Barbaro and took his life with a final shot to the head - leaving his heavily tattooed body laying on the footpath, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Barbaro miraculously survived another attempt on his life almost a year to the day before his death - walking away unscathed after being opened fire upon in Leichhardt - but police said the 35-year-old had been 'playing with fire' and his association with Sydney's criminal underworld meant he would always have a target on his back.

'If you play with fire you were going to get burnt. It could be anything, it could be drugs it could be over sleeping with someone's missus - you never know with these guys,' a police source told the Daily Telegraph.

Police were called to Larkhall Avenue in Earlwood at about 9.40pm on Monday night and arrived to find his heavily tattooed body lying on the footpath in a pool of blood

A neighbour said the bullets broke Barbaro's car windows and struck him in the shoulder before he attempted to escape on foot.

'He was in his car when they started shooting at him so he tried to run but they shot him down just two three houses down from where he was,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

The local man said Barbaro often visited the area but had never stopped to speak with him.

'I always see him around, here and down the street at the shops,' he said.

Gabrielle Binton said her husband also saw Barbaro targeted inside the car before he took his last breath on the street.

Blood spatters could be seen on the street as police collected evidence following Monday's murder

An officer lays an evidence markers next to the blood stains before taking a photograph outside George Alex's house

A neighbour said the hail of bullets broke Barbaro's car windows (pictured shattered glass) and struck him in the shoulder before he attempted to escape on foot

'He ran out the back and said he saw another two guys, and they shot him in the car, another four gunshots,' she told Nine News.

Ms Binton told the Daily Telegraph she heard a man 'screaming open the f**king door' and that Barbaro had been seen entering the property owned by Alex George earlier that day.

Alex was convicted of sending death threats to his ex-girlfriend in March 2015 but has denied handing over weekly payments of $2,500 and providing prostitutes to heads of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union in exchange for special treatment, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Islamic State terrorists Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar trained at his home in 2013 and he was also a known associate of gangster Mick Gatto and Hells Angels bikies Steve Mitrovic and Peter Sidirourgos.

Barbaro's family have been heavily involved in the criminal underworld, with his grandfather and cousin - who shared his name - also paid their debts to the crime world with their lives.

Barbaro was shot outside George Alex's home in Earlwood and had been seen coming in and out of his house that day

Witnesses said Barbaro was seen coming in and out of George Alex's home (pictured) on the day he was shot down

More than $250 cash was seen in the centre console of Alex's car the day after the gang-related shooting

Islamic State terrorists Khaled Sharrouf (bottom right) and Mohamed Elomar (bottom left) trained at his home in 2013 and he was also a known associate of gangster Mick Gatto (top left) and Hells Angels bikies Steve Mitrovic (top right)

Police suspect the shooting was motivated by Barbaro's ties with the criminal underworld and say he was 'playing with fire'

Two officers with brown evidence bags take note of an irregularity on the path as the scoured the area on Tuesday

Concerned neighbours watched on as police searched for evidence following the murder in a quiet suburban street

Pasquale 'Peter' Barbaro, 58, was stabbed and shot in 1990 as his new wife begged for his life in Brisbane, while Pasquale 'Little Pat' Barbaro was gunned down in a van next to gangland figure Jason Moran in 2003 as his children wept in the back seat.

Journalist Keith Moor, who has written a book on the Barbaro family, believes the 35-year-old may have been killed for the same reason his grandfather was - talking out of school.

'The homicide squad will be looking at whether the Calabrian mafia decided themselves to silence Pasquale Barbaro because the suggestion is he was breaking the code of omerta and had become an informer,' the author of Busted told AAP on Tuesday.

Moor said Monday night's shooting will be difficult to solve because traditionally the mafia are reluctant to talk to authorities.

He thinks the Barbaro family will instead conduct their own 'investigation' into what happened.

He was also the key suspect in the shooting of gangland boss Walid 'Wally' Ahmad (pictured) who was executed in broad daylight at Bankstown in April

Police have cordoned off the scene and officers from the New South Wales Riot Squad were seen performing a sweep of the area for any further evidence on Tuesday morning.

According to the the Daily Telegraph, Barbaro was rumoured to be a high-ranking informant to the Crime Commission which could have attracted unwanted attention from his own or other crime syndicates.

Barbaro was jailed in 2004 for his role in an elaborate drug ring supplying methamphetamine.

The 35-year-old appeared in the Downing Centre District Court just last week where he applied to have his bail continued ahead of a court trial for serious drug charges.

He and three others were due to trial early next year on charges of manufacturing two kilograms of the drug 'ice'.

Officers from the New South Wales Riot squad were seen arriving at the scene of the shooting on Tuesday morning

The team were ordered to scour the area for any evidence that could lead to an arrest

TIMELINE OF UNDERWORLD SHOOTINGS IN THE LAST EIGHT MONTHS Four underworld figures have been gunned down on Sydney streets in the past eight months, with two of the executed men potentially linked to another shooting 12 months ago. November 14, 2016 Pasquale Barbaro, 35, executed outside an Earlwood home in south west Sydney. Barbaro's grandfather and cousin were both killed in gangland hits and there were unconfirmed rumours he was an informant. October 25, 2016 Hamad Assaad shot dead in broad daylight by at least two gunmen in the driveway of his Georges Hall home. Assaad, 29, was a key suspect in the murder of underworld figure Walid Ahmad. April 29, 2016 Gangland kingpin and convicted killer Walid Ahmad, 40, killed in a spray of bullets on the rooftop car park of Bankstown Central shopping centre. Ahmad's murder was believed to be in retaliation for the fatal shooting of Safwan Charbaji outside a Condell Park panel beater several weeks earlier. April 9, 2015 Safwan Charbaji, 32, fatally wounded and another man seriously injured after a gunfight outside a Condell Park smash repair business linked to Ahmad. An outstanding debt dispute was reportedly one of the possible motives being investigated for the fatal shooting. November 9, 2015 Barbaro targeted in a non-fatal gun attack outside a Leichhardt business. Police reportedly believed Assaad was a suspect in the bungled shooting. Source: AAP Advertisement

Police allege the group manufactured the drug on properties near Goulburn and at Cobbitty, in Sydney's southwest, between October 2010 and November 2011.

Barbaro has been on bail since he was charged in 2012.

An Audi Q7 - worth at least $100,000 - was found ablaze at nearby Goddard Park half an hour after the shootings.

Police suspect the burnt-out luxury car was involved in the brutal Earlwood murder and are investigating any links between the owner and the Barbaro crime family.

Horrified neighbours piled into the Earlwood street on Monday night after hearing 'five gun shots' echo in the street.

Police have cordoned off the street so investigators can search for evidence

Two officers scrounge through a bush outside the scene of an underworld shooting

Officers have been at the scene since being alerted to the shooting at 9.40pm on Monday

Two officers get down on the ground to search underneath a car on the street where a man was shot on Monday night

Investigators want to leave no stone unturned as they search for evidence relating to the murder of Pasquale Barbaro

Officers continued collecting evidence on Tuesday afternoon but have not indicated if there are any suspects in the murder

A police officer lays down evidence tags at the scene of the shooting which claimed the life of Pasquale Barbaro

The murder took place on Larkhall Avenue in Earlwood, located south west of Sydney's CBD

Neighbours came outside to observe the spectacle, with dozens of police officers remaining on the scene on Tuesday

'I was watching TV inside and just heard what sounded like somebody banging something next door - but it was five gun shots,' neighbour Theo Paraskevaides said.

'By the time I sort of come out, I was half asleep ... I went out to the back yard and didn't see anything. I came out to the front and saw a couple of people outside and that's when I ... realised that somebody had been shot.

'I've been here all my life. It's one of the quietest streets in Earlwood. It's quite shocking to be honest.

An abandoned silver Mercedes believed to be Barbaro's sat in the middle of the road with its brake lights on and front door open not far from where he lay face-down on the footpath.

Half an hour later police responded to reports of a burnt-out luxury Audi Q7 nearby, which they suspect was involved in the brutal murder

Horrified neighbours piled into the Earlwood street on Monday night after hearing 'five gun shots'
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It is one of the creepiest malls in America with its eerie lighting, shattered ceilings and deserted shop fronts.

But these apocalyptic images captured by photographer Seph Lawless could possibly be the final look inside Missouri's Metro North Mall in Kansas City.

The abandoned shopping mall is now just weeks away from being demolished.

It was built back in 1976 and operated for almost 40 years. The Metro North Mall closed its doors in April 2014 and has sat abandoned ever since.

The now dilapidated mall is home to decaying escalators and derelict shop fronts.

Lawless has previously documented the decaying beauty of abandoned malls in Ohio for his book Autopsy of America: The Death of a Nation .

He said the Missouri shopping center was 'by far the creepiest mall I've been in.'

A series of eerie photos have captured possibly the final look inside Missouri's Metro North Mall in Kansas City

The now dilapidated shopping mall is home to decaying escalators and derelict shop fronts

The abandoned shopping mall in Missouri is just weeks away from being demolished

The apocalyptic images of the Metro North Mall were captured by by photographer Seph Lawless

It is one of America's creepiest malls with its eerie lighting, shattered ceilings and deserted shop fronts

Signs from when the mall was still in operation two years ago can still be found lying around

Parts of the ceiling have fallen away as the abandoned building is cloaked in darkness

The Kansas City mall, pictured in better days, was once a bright and open shopping center

The mall first opened in 1976 and operated for almost 40 years

It operated for almost 40 years before the mall closed its door in April 2014

Escalators have decayed since the mall stopped business two years ago

The outside of the mall is still intact, despite the decay going on inside

Seph Lawless has been photographing abandoned American cities since 2005

His images are part of an ongoing project that depicts forgotten cities and towns across the United States
Robert F Kennedy Jr is slated to join protesters of the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota on Tuesday

The US government has brought work on the Dakota Access Pipeline to a temporary halt in a bid to get more input from Native Americans.

The Army Corps of Engineers hit the brakes on the controversial project on Monday, handing a partial victory to the protesters and Sioux tribe who have strongly opposed the plans.

The Corps said it needed more time to decide whether to allow the oil pipeline to cross under a Missouri River reservoir in North Dakota.

'While these discussions are ongoing, construction on or under Corps land bordering Lake Oahe cannot occur,' The Army said in a statement.

The move was announced as Robert F Kennedy Jr prepared to join protesters of the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota.

Kennedy, the son of former US Senator Bobby Kennedy, is set to speak at the Oceti Sakowin camp on Tuesday afternoon, the Bismarck Tribune reported.

The 62-year-old will join Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II and Dallas Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network.

Kennedy is an environmental attorney and president of the New York-based Waterkeeper Alliance, which seeks to protect watersheds worldwide.

Kennedy's appearance comes as the Army Corps of Engineers hit the brakes on the controversial oil pipeline on Monday, handing a partial victory to protesting Native Americans. Protesters are pictured confronting heavily-armed police earlier this month

Activists on Tuesday called for demonstrators across US cities to protest at Army Corps of Engineers offices and offices of banks that are financing the pipeline project

Archambault said the decision by the Corps to delay the easement for the pipeline indicates protests against the project are succeeding.

Protests against the controversial pipeline's construction have been ongoing for months.

Archambault said in a statement that the Corps' decision is encouraging and shows the demonstrations are bringing the tribe's concerns to light.

'Millions of people have literally and spiritually stood with us at Standing Rock. And for this, you have our deepest thanks and gratitude,' Archambault said.

'The harmful and dehumanizing tactics by the state of North Dakota and corporate bullies did not go unnoticed because of you.'

Meanwhile, an industry group supporting the pipeline criticized the Corps' decision.

The MAIN Coalition called it an attempt at 'death by delay.'

Kelcy Warren, CEO of Energy Transfer Partners - the main company behind the pipeline, said the decision is 'motivated purely by politics at the expense of a company that has done nothing but play by the rules.'

Protesters demonstrate in solidarity with members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in North Dakota over the construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline in Philadelphia on Tuesday

More than 200 protests are set to take place in a 'Day of Action' on Tuesday for the largest protest against the pipeline since the U.S. government halted the project in September

ETP said in a statement on Monday that it will 'vigorously pursue its legal rights.'

Activists on Tuesday called for demonstrators across US cities to protest at Army Corps of Engineers offices and offices of banks that are financing the pipeline project.

The protesters want President Barack Obama to permanently halt the construction of the $3.8 billion pipeline.

The pipeline is to run beneath a Missouri River reservoir in North Dakota that provides drinking water to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which says the pipeline threatens drinking water and cultural sites.

The pipeline would deliver oil from North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to a shipping point in Illinois.

More than 200 protests are set to take place in a 'Day of Action' on Tuesday for the largest protest against the pipeline since the U.S. government halted the project in September.

Protesters want President Barack Obama to permanently halt the construction of the $3.8 billion pipeline

The conflict between the tribe and the oil pipeline company has galvanized North American native tribes and supporters, who have camped in the thousands near the construction site for months, in order to block it

Once peaceful protests have in recent weeks also included clashes with law enforcement and pipeline workers, resulting in hundreds of arrests

'The purpose is to elevate the issue and to encourage the Army Corps to exert its power to stop this pipeline,' Goldtooth said of Tuesday's protests in which more than 30 groups, including Greenpeace and CREDO Action, are participating.

Construction of the 1,172-mile pipeline is about 85 per cent complete, Phillips 66, one of the pipeline's investors, said last week.

The only outstanding construction work to be done in North Dakota is the segment of the line that would run under the lake, Energy Transfer said last week.

Energy Transfer has said the pipeline would be a more efficient and safer way to transport oil from the Bakken shale of North Dakota to the Midwest and onto the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Protesters are seen holding ceremonial objects during a march at the Dakota Access pipeline site in North Dakota

There have been sympathetic protests nationwide with politicians environmental activists and celebrities joining the cause. Actress Shailene Woodley (pictured left and right) faces charges in North Dakota related to her protest against the Dakota Access pipeline

The company last week said it was confident the Army Corps would grant the easement, allowing it to begin drilling under the lake about two weeks later.

The conflict between the tribe and the oil pipeline company has galvanized North American native tribes and supporters, who have camped in the thousands near the construction site for months, in order to block it.

Once peaceful protests have in recent weeks also included clashes with law enforcement and pipeline workers, resulting in hundreds of arrests.

There have been sympathetic protests nationwide, with celebrities, politicians, and environmental activists joining the cause.

Tuesday's protests will be focused outside Army Corps offices throughout the country, and at major banks financing construction of the pipeline.

Protesters pictured in Philadelphia on Tuesday. Tuesday's protests will be focused outside Army Corps offices throughout the country, and at major banks financing construction of the pipeline

Norwegian bank DNB this month said it would reconsider financing the project if the concerns of the Standing Rock Sioux were not addressed.

In Houston, Texas, demonstrators will gather outside Energy Transfer Partners' office.

Although the protests were planned in advance of the November presidential election, they come as groups opposed to the Dakota Access line could face headwinds following the election of Republican Donald Trump.
Crash took place at Albion Park, south of Wollongong, at 3.40pm Tuesday

Five more children were taken to Wollongong Hospital with other injuries

A horrific crash involving two school buses and three cars at Albion Park on Tuesday afternoon has left 21 people injured, two seriously, including a number of children.

A seven-year-old boy was airlifted to Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney with serious head injuries after he was flung through a window and onto the road when one of the buses 'rear ended another bus at high speed,' the Illawarra Mercury reports.

Another boy, aged 10, was also airlifted to Sydney with serious leg and abdomen injuries after he was 'thrown about' inside one of the buses.

Four children and one adult were taken to Shell Harbour Hospital by road ambulance with injuries including fractures and bruising, while two more children were taken to Wollongong Hospital, a NSW Ambulance spokesman confirmed.

Roughly 15 more 'walking wounded' kids were treated by paramedics at the scene.

The buses had just picked up about 40 children of varying ages from Illawarra Christian School when they collided at about 3.40pm on Tongarra Round at Albion Park, south of Sydney.

A horrific crash involving two school buses and three cars at Albion Park on Tuesday afternoon has left 21 people injured

A nine-year-old boy was airlifted to Wollongong Hospital with serious head injuries after he was 'ejected' from the bus

NSW Police confirmed that the drivers of both buses will be taken to Shellharbour Hospital for mandatory blood and urine testing.

In a statement posted online, the school's principal Dr Kate Bertram confirmed that two children had been airlifted to Sydney hospitals and a number of others taken by ambulance for local treatment.

'Our students' well being is our highest priority at this time. We are taking every precaution to ensure each child is appropriately cared for,'Dr Bertram said.

'ICS staff will provide ongoing support to the school community in the weeks ahead.'

Police from Lake Illawarra Local Area Command are at the scene and will investigate the cause of the crash.

The buses were carrying about 40 children of varying ages from Illawarra Christian School
A koala has been caught on camera visiting an accountant's office, proving once and for all that money does not grow on trees.

The hilarious video shows the adorable marsupial wandering into a tax office on Bair Street in Leongatha, Victoria.

Employees at the accounting firm were left in stitches as the curious koala snooped around under their desks on Monday afternoon.

Can I have some help with my tax return? A koala has been caught on camera visiting an accountant's office, proving once and for all that money does not grow on trees

In the video, the koala is seen wandering up to the front doors of the office, but is too small to make them open automatically

While it appears as if the koala had strolled in for some help filling out its tax return, it was actually shepherded into the office by local Labor MP Harriet Shing.

Ms Shing spotted the koala near a busy road and thought it best to encourage the koala to head inside to safety.

In the video, the koala is seen wandering up to the front doors of the office, but is too small to make them open automatically.

Ms Shing follows behind the friendly animal, opening the door for it and allowing it inside.

'I'm really sorry, there's a koala inside your office. Don't be alarmed, there's a koala coming around the corner,' Ms Shing is heard telling bemused office workers.

The politician later wrote on Facebook that the koala seemed fine when she found it, but she wanted to make sure it did not get hit by a car.

Don't mind me! The hilarious video shows the adorable marsupial wandering into a tax office on Bair Street in Leongatha, Victoria.

Are you koalified to be here? Employees at the accounting firm were left in stitches as the curious koala snooped around under their desks

'S/he seemed to be on a bit of a mission, and wasn't heading towards any of the nearby trees, so I escorted the fuzzy traveller across the road and down the street,' Ms Shing wrote.

'Eventually the little champion decided to go into Fawcett & Pickersgill Accountants, where the vet was called for an office visit.'
The Fox News host will also appear on Dr. Phil Tuesday

Kelly details all this in her memoir Settle For More, which will be released on Tuesday

She also revealed that she and her family had to travel with a bodyguard when they took a vacation to Disney World

Fox anchor Megyn Kelly has opened up about her life in her new book - most particularly her dealings with Donald Trump and former Fox chairman Roger Ailes.

Kelly will appear on Dr. Phil Tuesday to talk about her memoir the and 'sexual harassment' she suffered from former Fox chairman Roger Ailes.

Kelly has also revealed the backstory of her confrontation with Trump and how he 'yelled' at her because he was unhappy about the story she ran on her show about his first marriage.

Kelly, who described Trump as 'vindictive' and 'thin skinned' during an appearance on Good Morning America Tuesday, writes in her memoir that Trump's attorney retweeted a call to 'gut' her and 'strange men turned up outside' her door.

'Death threats were common,' she wrote.

Kelly said she was afraid for her safety and her family's, and for her reputation as a journalist.

She even had to travel with a bodyguard when she and her family took a vacation to Disney World.

Kelly opened up to Dr Phil about the 'sexual harassment' she suffered from former Fox chairman Roger Ailes and how Trump 'yelled' at her because he was unhappy about the story she ran on her show about his first marriage

Fox anchor Megyn Kelly has revealed answers to several burning questions involving president-elect Donald Trump, in what she calls the 'Year of Trump'

Kelly and Trump's feud all started with the GOP primary debate in August 2015.

Kelly explained that Trump was agitated beforehand because he knew she was going to confront him about his insults toward women and about his first wife's claim that he raped her.

She said she didn't believe her question was leaked to Trump, but she did think that 'he was worried about' his divorce from Ivana Trump.

'He was afraid I was going to bring that up,' Kelly said in an exclusive interview with USA Today.

Before the debate Kelly did an interview with a reporter who wrote the article about Ivana Trump's claims that Trump had raped her, an accusation that she later retracted.

Kelly said that after her segment aired, Trump called and told her that 'I almost unleashed my beautiful Twitter account on you, and I still may.'

The Trump and Kelly feud started at the first Republican presidential debate, when the two had a contentious back-and-forth.

In a question directed at Trump, Kelly said: 'You've called women you don't like fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals.'

Trump fired back on Twitter after the debate, telling CNN: 'There was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.'

Kelly told USA Today that the two met the following April.

She said: 'Trump and I are in a better place now. We left things on a good note. He's never come after me the way he had.  Even though he held onto his anger toward me like a dog with a bone, he does have the ability to let things go. He proved that.'

But before the meeting, Trump had called Kelly names like bimbo, liar, crazy and sick.

She wrote in her memoir, which is set to be released Tuesday, that she 'felt like a hostage whose hostage taker was seeing her as a human being for the very first time  who needed to believe that he would let her go'.

The Kelly File host told Dr Phil in a show that her problems with Ailes began when she was a first year reporter and had only been at the company for 12 months.

Kelly said she was called to New York, but at the time she was working in Washington, DC.

'So I went up to New York. But the problem with that meeting and with several that happened over the next six months was, not only was there legitimate professional advice, but there were grossly inappropriate comments.'

She said there were 'specific comments about my body, how he (Ailes) wanted to see me and it grew more severe over time'.

When asked by Dr Phil asked her to elaborate, Kelly added: 'He said he knew I must have some very sexy bras and he'd like to see me in them.'

Roger Ailes (pictured) 'categorically' denied Kelly's allegations on Monday in a statement

She told Dr Phil that she wasn't 'looking to be salacious' and that the conversation wasn't pleasant for her to discuss.

'But I want people to understand this was real, he did do this and I was far from the only one,' she said.

Ailes resigned as Fox News chairman in July after he was first accused of sexual harassment by Fox & Friends co-host Gretchen Carlson.

Carlson accused the 76-year-old in a July 6 lawsuit of firing her for rebuffing his sexual overtures.

By the time Ailes resigned, the number of Fox News women employees reporting Ailes' behavior hit double digits.

On Monday, Ailes issued a strong denial of Kelly's claims.

'I categorically deny the allegations Megyn Kelly makes about me,' said Roger Ailes in a statement released on Monday through his lawyer Susan Estrich.

'I worked tirelessly to promote and advance her career, as Megyn herself admitted to Charlie Rose.'

Earlier this month, Ailes released a public statement denying Kelly's claims that he sexually harassed her when he ran the network.

In her memoir, Kelly claims that Ailes tried to kiss her against her will and made inappropriate sexual comments in her presence.

The two then talked about the events leading up to the presidential debate

She said that Trump wasn't happy that she ran a story on her show four days before the presidential debate

Kelly also claims that Ailes offered to advance her career soon after she was hired as a legal correspondent for the network in 2005 in exchange for sexual favors.

Ailes and his lawyer Susan Estrich swiftly released a response to Kelly's bombshell claims, stating: 'Mr Ailes denies her allegations of sexual harassment or misconduct of any kind.'

Dr Phil went on to ask Kelly about her 'contentious relationship' with Trump and how it's changed or not changed since the billionaire's shocking election victory.

'Well I don't think I did have a contentious relationship with him. And I have a good relationship with his children, with his wife and so he and I, I think, you know we're not 'tight' but I don't think we do have a problem with one another.'

The two then talked about the events leading up to the presidential debate.

'So I tell the story for the first time. I'd never gotten into this, but there was a backstory to that moment.

The Trump and Kelly feud started August 2015, during the first Republican presidential debate, when the two had a contentious back-and-forth

'Once he announced his candidacy for president one of the stories that broke about him was that in his divorce proceeding from his first wife Ivana, she had under oath accused him of raping her and she later recanted that testimony but the news broke that under oath she accused him of it and basically people were just running with it,' she said.

Kelly told Dr Phil that she ran the story on her show and 'Trump was not happy with that interview'.

She said Trump 'wasn't happy that I put the reporter on the show and four days before the presidential debate - that is now become so well-known and well-seen, he called me up and threatened me and made very clear to me that he was extremely displeased'.

Although at this point it's unclear what Kelly means by 'threatened', she went on to add that she flat out told Trump: 'Mr Trump I'm sorry that you are unhappy but you don't control the editorial on the Kelly File.

'And that was it: He started screaming at me; he hung-up the phone and the next time we met was that Thursday night.'

But in the interview with Dr Phil, Kelly insists that she doesn't believe their relationship is 'contentious'.
Feminist writer Clementine Ford has apologised after suggesting Ben Fordham believed people find women's voices 'too annoying', when it was in fact Ford herself who made the suggestion.

The Fairfax columnist had said Fordham wanted 'to debate if women's lack of equality' in radio 'was because our voices are too annoying' during a Sydney 2GB radio interview in 2013.

After reading her column on Monday, Fordham went through the archives and found it was in fact Ford who made the suggestion.

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Clementine Ford has apologised after suggesting Ben Fordham believed people find women's voices 'too annoying', when it was in fact Ford herself who made the suggestion in the 2GB radio interview from 2013

2GB Sydney radio host Ben Fordham was wrongly accused of suggesting people find women's voices annoying

'We went back through our archives, and found the interview  at no time did I ever suggest anything like what Clementine Ford accused me of, not once in the lengthy interview,' Fordham said on his program on Monday.

'Someone did raise the argument that some people might find female voices annoying  it was Clementine Ford. She accused me of raising a point that she raised.'

He did not rule out seeking damages for defamation.

Ford has since edited out the reference and apologised over social media, which Fordham said came after contacting the Fairfax editor.

'Up to 147,000 people would've seen the false story, and only a handful would discover the apology you've made today,' Fordham said.

Ford wrote a 'clarification and unequivocal apology' on Tuesday

'Up to 147,000 people would've seen the false story, and only a handful would discover the apology you've made today,' Fordham said on his radio program

Ford is pictured. The Fairfax columnist had written an opinion piece on Monday referencing the 2013 radio interview

Ford had been writing about controversy regarding Steve Price's recent appearance on Channel 10's The Project, after viewers accused other panellists of interrupting him.

Fordham had written on Twitter: 'Pricey was allowed to speak for approximately 4 seconds before being interrupted. #Freedomofspeech.'

In her article, Ford referenced the tweet before accusing him of sexism.

'It's the same Ben Fordham who once invited me on his show to debate if women's lack of equality in said hosting roles was because our voices are too annoying,' Ford wrote in her article.

The words have since been removed and a correction has been added.

'Correction: This column has been changed to remove the assertion that Ben Fordham thinks women do not get hosting roles on radio because their voices are annoying. He has never expressed that view.'

Fordham had written on Twitter: 'Pricey was allowed to speak for approximately 4 seconds before being interrupted. #Freedomofspeech'

Fordham went through the archives and found the 2013 radio interview with Ford

She wrote a lengthy apology on Facebook on Tuesday.

'My memory was that the invitation was to discuss why women are disproportionately represented in radio and I recall one caller phoning in after I hung up to say that it was because of our voices,' Ford wrote in her apology.

'I didn't explicitly claim Ben had said women's voices were annoying but I can see how it reads differently.

'What I should have said was "discuss why women were disproportionately represented in radio and how some people attributed it to our voices being "annoying", "shrill" or, as an FM station manager once told a comedian with a very distinctive voice, "too hard to tell apart".'

'However, it was incorrect to imply Fordham held the view himself that women's voices were to blame for this lack of representation, and I apologise to him unreservedly for maligning him in this way.'

Clementine Ford made a lengthy apology on Facebook on Tuesday
Students At UIC & UChicago To Stage Walkout Protest Against Trump

By Stephen Gossett in News on Nov 14, 2016 8:31PM



Photo: Tyler LaRiviere

Its been nearly a week since Donald Trump won the presidential election, but the huge subsequent wave of public collective opposition shows no sign of subsiding. Of course, massive protests have blanketed streets in cities nationwide, including here in Chicago, where two major demonstrations attracted thousands of participants. Now, campus walkouts, staged to protest Trumps election and discuss solutions, are picking up steam.

National student network Student Action is encouraging a National Campus Walkout Day on Tuesday Nov. 15. Here in Chicago, students at University of Illinois at Chicago and UChicago are responding to the call, with hundreds of respondents showing interest.

Dominic Marlow, one of the co-organizers of the UIC action, said the walkout will culminate in "solidarity rallies," at which speakers will address concerns about bigotry and establishment politics.

"If the establishment wants our votes, from the largest demographic, they need to adopt an agenda that provides living-wage jobs, protects reproductive rights, the right to marry, diminishes the influence of money on elections and policy, and in general supports the power of working class," Marlow told Chicagoist.

"Were not seeing the establishment work for the people," he added.

Marlow said that since the walkout was only organized a short time ago, he expects a relatively small initial turnout ("probably 50 - 100"), but that organizers are expecting a significantly larger turnout at UChicago.

"Judging from response, I think there will be a lot of folks in Chicago and a lot folks across the country," said Brianna Tong, a UChicago student and lead organizer for Chicago Student Action.

Tong echoed Marlow's desire to move beyond the "reactionary," and use actions to generate solutions. We want to present a vision that's not just against Trump, but for a world where were attacking structural racism and providing long-term job opportunity," she said.

"We need a visionary radical alternative, and to use this moment to build up our movementto not only fight what Trump's going to do, but build up a way forward," Tong added.

So many of us are feeling scared and alone, and still dont understand what Trumps election means for both the future of our movement and our immediate economy and physical security, wrote UChicago Student Action in a post. "The surge in hateful violence and racist abuse sparked by Trumps victory is terrifying, and we need to oppose it firmly, right now.

But in this moment of crisis we also need to hold on to our radical vision of the world we want and need.

Student in Los Angeles, Maryland, Nashville and other cities have staged large-scale walkouts in recent days. Some 400 students took part in such a demonstration on Friday; and hundreds more participated in Los Angeles on Monday.
Hundreds of German police have launched coordinated raids this morning in ten of the country's 16 states hunting for ISIS supporters and recruiters among a Salafist group calling itself 'The True Religion'.

Armed police and elite SEK anti-terror units were involved in the raids on more than 200 apartments and offices belonging to organisers and supporters of the group which publicly backs the aims of ISIS.

At the same time as the raids across Germany at 6.30am, the government announced that the group was being banned for good.

Hundreds of German police have launched coordinated raids this morning in ten of the country's 16 states hunting for ISIS supporters and recruiters among a Salafist group calling itself 'The True Religion'. Police are pictured during raids in Berlin this morning

Many of the 800 Germans who went off to the Middle East for the so-called caliphate declared by ISIS in Syria and Iraq were Salafists. German police launched dawn raids on mosques, apartments and offices in ten German states this morning

Salafists believe in a traditional interpretation of Islam, based on Sharia law. They have caused controversy in Germany with a project called 'Lies!' to hand out 25 million translations of the Koran for free.

Many of the 800 Germans who went off to the Middle East for the so-called caliphate declared by ISIS in Syria and Iraq were Salafists.

One of the places stormed this morning was an apartment in a high-rise building in Bonn where the sect's leader Ibrahim Abou-Nagie, 52, lives.

He was hauled out of bed and off for questioning along with hate preacher Said El Emrani 34, who goes by the name Abu Dujana.

Abou-Nagie has called for worldwide Sharia law to be introduced to replace traditional justice systems.

In Berlin (pictured) almost 20 places were stormed, in Baden-Wurttemberg 15, in Schleswig-Holstein, Rhineland-Palatinate and Hamburg approximately five each

Fifteen searches were carried out at properties in Frankfurt alone and dozens of boxes of ISIS recruiting material and other Jihadist literature seized.

In the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria there were 35 raids while in Lower Saxony searched officials more than 20 properties.

In Berlin almost 20 places were stormed, in Baden-Wurttemberg 15, in Schleswig-Holstein, Rhineland-Palatinate and Hamburg approximately five each.

Search warrants were also issued against a mosque Association in Baden-Wuerttemberg and Hamburg.

The authorities said the group is 'unconstitutional and against the idea of international understanding.' Its propaganda material along with its cash assets are being seized, said the government.

It says the membership 'glorifies Holy War and terrorist attacks as well as building up a unique melting pot for recruitment of Jihadists.'

At least 140 members of The True Religion have travelled to the Middle East to fight with ISIS.

The Federal Office for the Proetection of the Constitution - the BvF or internal intelligence service - estimates the number of radical Islamist Salafis in Germany at 9,200 and continues to rise.
Zachary Benson (pictured) told a Secret Service he was sorry for the tweet but he was not a violent person and had no intention of following through with the threat

A 24-year-old man from Ohio has been charged in a federal court after tweeting a threat to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump on election night.

Zachary Benson, from Fairview Park in Cleveland, posted the remark on Twitter a few minutes before the Republican nominee was declared the winner of last week's election.

Benson tweeted: 'My life goal is to assassinate Trump. Don't care if I serve infinite sentences. That man deserves to decease (sic) existing.'

Seconds earlier he tweeted: 'Diplomacy. F***ing fools. I hate you all. I want to bomb every one of your voting booths and your general areas.'

Benson was arrested a few hours later and interviewed by the Secret Service.

After the results were announced, many of those who opposed Trump rushed to Twitter to call for his assassination. But Benson is believed to be the first person to be charged in connection with one of those tweets.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that Benson told the Secret Service agent he spent election night drinking and eating at a restaurant with his father and a friend.

He got back home and was watching the election results on TV in his bedroom when he tweeted the remarks.

Benson said he had no intention of following through with the threat and was 'just frustrated thinking about how President-elect Trump's policies could affect his job'.

He apparently deleted the tweets when he woke up in the morning, but the Secret Service had already been tipped off about them.

Donald Trump carried the swing state of Ohio, which includes Cleveland, continuing the trend that 'no Republican candidate has ever won the presidency without winning Ohio'

But he has now been charged with making a threat to a successor to the presidency.

Benson made his first appearance in court yesterday and is thought to be in custody, pending a bail hearing.
A leaked memo criticises Theresa May, pictured speaking at last night's Lord Mayor's Banquet in London last night, for micromanaging the Government's Brexit strategy

Furious ministers have disowned a leaked memo that claimed Theresa May has no plan for Brexit because of deep splits in Cabinet.

The document predicted the Government will need to hire an extra 30,000 civil servants to cope with the increased workload of leaving the EU - including negotiators - and criticises the Prime Minister for micromanaging.

But No 10 said the memo came from an external consultant working for the accountancy firm Deloitte, which campaigned for Remain during the EU referendum campaign.

The firm also confirmed that the author had no 'input' from Downing Street or any other part of government.

'This was a note intended primarily for internal audiences,' a spokesman said. 'It was not commissioned by the Cabinet Office, nor any other Government department, and represents a view of the task facing Whitehall.

'This work was conducted without access to Number 10 or input from any other Government departments.'

The Prime Minister's spokeswoman dismissed the memo as an 'unsolicited document that is nothing to do with the Government - the individual is not working for the Cabinet office on this issue'.

Downing Street accused Deloitte of 'touting for business' by leaking the note.

Asked about claims that an extra 30,000 civil servants are needed, Brexit minister David Jones said: 'That is a nonsensical figure that we certainly don't recognise.'

However, Downing Street did reveal that Deloitte was among several firms commissioned by David Cameron to work on Brexit plans immediately after the June 23 referendum - before Mrs May became Prime Minister.

The document, titled 'Brexit Update' and sent to government departments last week, said ministers had a poor understanding of what leaving the EU means for industry.

The November 7 memo obtained by The Times also suggests that Cabinet splits are delaying the Government's ability to agree a negotiating strategy ahead of its goal to begin the Brexit process by April.

It warns that big companies will 'point a gun at the Government's head' after Nissan was given assurances about trading conditions once Britain leaves the EU.

The memo written by a consultant working for the Cabinet Office, said: 'Every department has developed a 'bottom-up' plan of what the impact of Brexit could be - and its plan to cope with the 'worst case'.

'Although necessary, this falls considerably short of having a 'Government plan for Brexit' because it has no prioritisation and no link to the overall negotiation strategy.'

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, left, dismissed reports the Cabinet was split on its plan for Brexit and insisted the Government is 'totally united'. International Secretary Liam Fox, right, is understood to want Theresa May to push for a 'hard' Brexit - at odds with ministers who backed Remain, including Chancellor Philip Hammond

Business Secretary Greg Clark, left, and Home Secretary Amber Rudd, were both keen supporters for staying in the EU and Brexit supporters suggest the high proportion of Remain ministers in the Cabinet is stopping Theresa May pushing for a 'hard' Brexit

The memo, titled 'Brexit Update,' criticises the PM, pictured at the Lord Mayor's Banquet in central London last night, for 'drawing in decisions and details to settle matters herself'

According to The Times, it said the Government could take another six months to decide what its priorities are, adding: 'Despite extended debate among (department) permanent secretaries, no common strategy has emerged.

'It is likely that the senior ranks in the civil service will feel compelled to present potential high level plan(s) to avoid further drift.

'Departments are struggling to come up to speed on the potential Brexit effects on industry.

'This is due to starting from a relatively low base of insight and also due to fragmentation.'

The memo also suggested the Government does not have enough officials to implement Brexit quickly, with departments developing individual plans which have resulted in 'well over 500 projects'.

The 30,000 increase in staff would increase the civil service above the present level of about 440,000, but the memo warns the recruitment process is making slow progress.

Responding to the report, a Government spokesman said: 'This is not a Government report and we don't recognise the claims made in it.

'We are focused on getting on with the job of delivering Brexit and making a success of it.'

The Prime Minister's spokeswoman said the memo was written by an individual working for Deloitte. 'This individual has never been in No 10 or engaged with any officials in No 10 or the Prime Minister.

'No one in No 10 was aware of the existence of this memo - instead it was brought to the attention by others seeking to publicise this memo.'

Culture Secretary Karen Bradley, left, and International Secretary Priti Patel, right, arrive for today's Cabinet meeting in No 10 today

The leaked memo suggested the Government's Brexit strategy is being delayed by splits in the Cabinet. Pictured, the Government's chief whip Gavin Williamson, left, and Tory party chairman Patrick McLoughlin, right, arrive for the Cabinet meeting in No 10

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, pictured left arriving for Cabinet in Downing Street, was a backer of Remain in the referendum, while David Davis, right, was an enthusiastic supporter of leaving the EU and was handed the job of Brexit Secretary by Theresa May

Theresa May, pictured at the Lord Mayor's Banquet in central London last night, has received a boost to her plan to trigger Article 50 to begin the process of leaving the bloc by April after Labour pledged not to block or delay it and called for a 'more positive' view of Brexit

Meanwhile, Mrs May has received a boost to her plan to trigger Article 50 of the EU treaties to begin the process of leaving the bloc by April.

Labour has pledged not to block or delay it and called for a 'more positive' view of Brexit.

In a speech in central London, shadow chancellor John McDonnell will say: 'We must not try to re-fight the referendum or push for a second vote. And if Article 50 needs to be triggered in Parliament, we will not seek to block or delay it.

'To do so would put Labour against the majority will of the British people and on the side of certain corporate elites, who have always had the British people at the back of the queue.'
A town in southern Italy where Robert De Niro's great-grandparents came from has offered the US film star asylum after he made a tongue-in-cheek remark that he'd return there if Donald Trump was elected president.

'If after the disappointment of Trump, he wants to take refuge here, we are ready to welcome him,' said Antonio Cerio, the mayor of Ferrazzano, the little town east of Naples where his great-grandparents emigrated from in 1890.

The star of 'Taxi Driver,' 'Raging Bull' and 'Meet the Fockers' said on the Jimmy Kimmel talk-show on the US ABC channel Wednesday, that the Italian side of his family was originally from Ferrazzano and that he is an Italian citizen.

Ferrazzano is a little town in Southern Italy where Robert De Niro's great-grandparents emigrated from in 1890

'I'm going to probably have to move there,' after Trump's election victory he added, with a smile.

'Naturally it would be an honour and give us great pleasure,' Cerio said, delighted at the publicity for the town of 3,000 residents.

Oscar winner Robert De Niro has been vocal in his criticism of Donald Trump

De Niro hasn't minced his words in his criticism of Trump, describing him as 'a punk', 'a pig' and 'an idiot'.

'I'd like to punch him in he face,' he said before the election.

The Oscar-winning New Yorker said on ABC; 'I can't (punch Trump) now, he's the president. And I have to respect that position.'
A man has been jailed for five years for bringing stun guns into the UK after he posted videos boasting about them on Facebook.

Henry Morton, 37, was stopped by Border Force officers at Glasgow Airport on arrival from Bulgaria in September 2014.

The officers found two stun guns, disguised as iPhones, in his luggage but he claimed he did not know the phones were weapons and had bought them to listen to music.

Henry Morton (left) was stopped by Border Force officers at Glasgow Airport on arrival from Bulgaria in September 2014 with two stun guns disguised as iPhones (right)

Morton initially claimed he did not know the phones were weapons and had bought them to listen to music

However, detectives found messages on his real phone offering to sell the weapons in Scotland.

Officers also found two videos of him using the stun guns in his hotel room in Sunny Beach, Bulgaria.

On one of the videos, which he later posted on Facebook, he told viewers 'f*** with me, you get tasered'.

He had explained on video that he had purchased the items at a supermarket and demonstrated that the devices worked on camera.

On one of the videos, which he later posted on Facebook, Morton told viewers 'f*** with me, you get tasered'. He was also seen showing viewers how the device worked (left and right)

Morton, of St James Street, Paisley, Renfrewshire, was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh on Monday after pleading guilty to firearms charges.

John McGowan, head of the National Crime Agency's border investigation team at the Scottish Crime Campus in Gartcosh, North Lanarkshire, said: 'The videos we recovered were key to securing a guilty plea.

'Once we found them Morton had to admit that he knew exactly what these weapons were capable of.

'They also show that he would have had no qualms about using them himself.

'These weapons have the capacity to cause serious harm, which is why we are determined to do all we can to keep them off the streets.'
An Oxford University student who has been given just six months to live after developing bone cancer is set to travel the world after friends raised more than 30,000 to help him achieve his dreams.

Matt Greenwood, 21, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer in his hip, which has now spread to his lungs.

The engineering student, who was on course for a first after acing his third-year exams last summer, has undergone two cycles of chemotherapy and also had his right leg amputated at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Birmingham, but the treatment has been unsuccessful.

Now he wants to live life to the full by travelling, but needs a special wheelchair and a nurse or carer to accompany him.

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Oxford engineer student Matt Greenwood, 21, pictured, has been given six months to live after developing an aggressive form of bone cancer

Mr Greenwood, who has recently had his right leg amputated, pictured left, now wants to travel the world after previously visiting exotic locations including climbing Mount Huashan in China, pictured far right with friend John Logan in 2015

A charity campaign quickly raised 30,000 for him but now friends have planned further events to take it to 75,000 and cover the costs of his healthcare abroad.

Other challenges he wants to accomplish include driving a racing car, going on a hot air balloon ride and completing a sky-dive.

Mr Greenwood, previously a keen rower and rugby player, said: 'Previously I was very sporty, I rowed in Oxford and played rugby before that. I used to run, play squash, cycle, and get as much time outdoors as I could.

'One of my greatest passions was to travel as much as possible; I have been to Africa, China, and toured Europe. It breaks my heart to have to send out this message.

'What I ask of everyone is to cross all our fingers for a speedy recovery, and then make the absolute most of every single minute that I have left.

Mr Greenwood, of Walsall, does not have any solid plans for travelling at the moment due to concerns over whether he will be accommodated on planes.

He said he would like to visit Disneyland in Paris as well as Rome and Athens.

Back in the UK he hopes to see the Lion King musical in London, complete the Three Peaks challenge and learn to ride a bicycle again.

He added: 'The support of my friends and family is all that has got me through the last 15 weeks, and I am so grateful for everyone who has been there for me.

Friends of the student, pictured at Oxford third from right, have raised 30,000 for him but are targeting 75,000 to cover the costs of travelling with a carer and prosthetics

Mr Greenwood, third from left, was formerly vice captain of the rowing club at St Edmund Hall, his college at Oxford

'I am not just going to lie here and let cancer win; I am going to travel and party and love, and get the most I can out of the remainder of my life.

'Seeing all the messages of support has been really touching. I am in awe of the love that people have and are willing to share when times are desperate.

'I can only thank everyone so much for their amazing support and generosity.'

His mother Michaela added: 'I just can't thank everybody enough. I'm usually not stuck for words, but I'm so overwhelmed with it all.

'All the hard work going into the fundraising has been amazing. I also want to thank everybody for being there so much for Matt over the last few months; the amount of visiting all his friends have done, the cards, gifts, games of monopoly.

'I strongly think that you've all made so much difference to how Matt has coped, and I will always be grateful.'

Mr Greenwood has recently taken his first steps in 100 days after undergoing physiotherapy following the operation to remove his leg.

Mr Greenwood, pictured in China in 2015, said he 'would not let cancer win' and plans to live the rest of his life to the fullest

A wheelchair could cost as much as 4,000 while the 75,000 target would also cover the cost of a prosthetic limb, priced around 55,000.

Friends have planned an 'ergathon' for this Sunday  a rowing event where participants are challenged to row a combined 1,000km, or 621 miles.

It takes place outside St Edmund Hall between 11am and 6pm and members of the public are welcome to attend and asked to row at least 1km for charity.

Prof Keith Gull, principal of St Edmund Hall, added: 'I am delighted by the support given to Matt Greenwood by students, alumni and friends at our college.

'This support and admiration for Matt has spread quickly to fellow students, athletes and friends in Oxford and around the world.

'Matt's predicament, his resolve, bravery and love of life have touched and inspired us. This young man deserves all that we can provide for him.'
A group of lawyers will be attending this year's Strawberry Fields music festival to aid revellers after more than 200 people were caught with drugs at last year's event.

Two attorneys and four staff members with Jones Lawyers and Associates will be giving legal advice at the Tocumwal festival, in southern NSW along the Victorian boarder, as soon as gates open on at 2pm on Thursday, according to The Age.

Police presence at the event will remain heavy this weekend as officers anticipate the arrest of several drug users.

Lawyers will attend this weekend's Strawberry Fields music festival, in southern NSW, to aid punters after more than 200 people were caught with drugs at last year's event (stock image)

Two attorneys and four staff members with Jones Lawyers and Associates will be giving legal advice at the Tocumwal festival as soon as gates open at 2pm on Thursday (stock image)

Last year officers confiscated LSD, magic mushrooms, marijuana, speed, ketamine, ecstasy and doctor prescribed medication from more than 200 festival goers.

A man was arrested with 30 MDMA tablets and a rock, as well as mushrooms.

Another man, from Melbourne, was arrested after police seized 100 ecstasy tablets and speed.

Last year officers confiscated LSD, magic mushrooms, marijuana, speed, ketamine, ecstasy and doctor prescribed medication from hundreds of attendees (stock image)

Solicitor Dominique Leong said it was the first time the law firm had been approached to attend a festival (stock image)

Solicitor Dominique Leong told The Age it was the first time the law firm had been approached to attend a festival.

'A lot of what we're hoping to achieve is to provide preventative legal advice for people so that they're not coming into contact with police and are not having this negative experience,' she said.

'We're not really sure what to expect, but the service will definitely be there for people.

'The whole idea is to keep people safe and make sure they have a really enjoyable experience,' Ms Leong said.

NSW police and about 100 Victorian police officers will join forces to oversee the festival.
Members of Duran Duran are battling with a major publisher over the US rights to some of their most famous songs.

Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and Roger Taylor were at London's High Court yesterday in a bid to end agreements with Gloucester Place Music - which is owned by American firm Sony/ATV.

Fourth group member John Taylor in the US, while Andrew Taylor is also involved in the case but did not attend court.

Nick Rhodes (left), Simon Le Bon (centre), and Roger Taylor (right) were at London's High Court yesterday in a bid to end agreements with Gloucester Place Music

Members of Duran Duran, (left to right) Nick Rhodes, Simon Le Bon and Roger Taylor, as they leave the Rolls Building in central London after attending a US copyright hearing

The band released a string of hits, including Girls On Film, Rio and Hungry Like The Wolf, following the release of their debut self-titled record in 1981.

Lawyers for Gloucester Place, which is part of EMI Music Publishing, are asking a judge to declare that the group members have breached music publishing agreements by serving notices to terminate the grant to the company of US copyrights in Duran Duran works.

Under US law, songwriters have 'an inalienable right' to call for a reversion of copyright after 35 years.

But Gloucester Place says the agreements with the group members are governed by English laws of contract.

If the court agrees, it could prevent the pop group from seeking to take back copyright in their first three albums - Duran Duran, Rio and Seven And The Ragged Tiger - plus A View To A Kill, the Bond film title track.

Rhodes said: 'We sincerely hope that this cynical attempt to deny us the opportunity offered to all songwriters in the US, to reclaim their copyrights after 35 years, will be dismissed outright by the British courts.'

Experts in copyright law say the case is of importance to all other songwriters subject to contracts similar to those Duran Duran members signed.

The band released a string of hits, including Girls On Film, Rio (pictured) and Hungry Like The Wolf, following the release of their debut self-titled record in 1981

Pictured (from left) is pop group Duran Duran members Nick Rhodes, Roger Taylor, Simon Le Bon, Andrew Taylor and John Taylor in August 1981

The 1980 agreements at the centre of the case were made with the band members personally and all are referred to as 'the writers'.

The group members have all given notice of reversion relying on section 203 of the US Copyright Act 1976, which, their lawyers say, allows for the automatic termination of rights after 35 years.

Ian Mill QC, appearing for Gloucester Place, said: 'My clients entered into contracts and agreed to pay these artistes sums of money both by way of royalties in return for which the artistes promised to give them rights to exploit, subject to the payment of those sums, for the full term of copyright.'

Mr Mill told Chancery Division judge Mr Justice Arnold the issue before the court was 'one of pure contractual construction', and he complained that written submissions on behalf of Duran Duran contained 'intemperate language'.

He argued that, on a correct construction, the terms of the contracts meant that 'these writers have agreed that they will not seek to obtain a reversion of their copyrights under section 203 and they are in breach of contract should they do so'.

Michael Bloch QC, for the Duran Duran members (pictured in 1981), argued that the 'shameful' Gloucester Place case was 'as feeble as it is greedy'

Experts in copyright law say the case is of importance to all other songwriters subject to contracts similar to those Duran Duran members signed

Michael Bloch QC, for the Duran Duran members, argued that the 'shameful' Gloucester Place case was 'as feeble as it is greedy'.

He said the implications of the case were potentially far reaching.

'If the publishers were right, the English court may serve as an offshore haven for any of their ilk who wish to defeat the protective provisions of the US - the principal market for popular music in the English language - or any similar legislation elsewhere,' argued Mr Bloch.

Members of Duran Duran (pictured in Birmingham in May 1981) will are battling with a major publisher over the US rights to some of their most famous songs

The publishers were asking the court to attribute a meaning to the 'bland language' of the agreements which would be oppressive and controversial and would create 'a precedent to which they have no right.'

Outside court, Rhodes said: 'US copyright law clearly states that songwriters are permitted to apply for a reversion of their copyrights after a 35 year period.

'This provision was instigated to help re-balance the often unfair deals which artists sign early in their careers when they have little choice to try to get their first break, with no negotiating power and virtually no understanding of what their copyrights really mean for the future.

'When we registered a request, in 2014, for the reversion of our eligible copyrights in America, we understood it to be a formality.

'Regrettably Sony/ATV have decided to challenge our rights under the premise of a contractual technicality in the UK and have elected to take legal action against us.

'We felt we had absolutely no choice but to stand up for ourselves, and indeed all other artists, who are likely to suffer similar circumstances.'
Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck has said he will not change the city's stance on illegal immigration, despite President-elect Donald Trump's threat to remove millions of foreigners when he enters office.

The LAPD's top cop told the Los Angeles Times on Monday that his officers are 'not going to engage in law enforcement activities solely based on somebody's immigration status.'

Beck says it is not the LAPD's job to work in conjunction on deportation with Homeland Security - and that's not going to change.

He also said deportation was a 'monumental' task, considering there are roughly 500,000 illegal immigrants in the city alone.

Beck is the latest official from cities around the country to reveal their defiance in the face of Trump's plans.

The Mayors of New York, Chicago and Seattle have already announced that they will protect their deportees.

Boston has also reaffirmed its status as a 'sanctuary city'. Councilor Tito Jackson has reassured illegal immigrants they will not be turned over to the feds if they ask for help.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, (pictured, in plain clothes, at a murder scene last year) has said his force will not change its stance on illegal immigrants

It has been LAPD department policy for decades not to initiate contact with someone solely to determine whether they are in the country legally.

During Beck's tenure he has avoided turning over people with questionable immigration status who are arrested for low-level crimes.

Beck also told KNX radio: 'We don't make detentions solely based on status, whether it's immigration or any other type of status...and we are not going to change any of that.

'If the federal government takes a more aggressive role in deportation then they will have to do that on their own,' added Chief Beck.

Los Angeles is one of several so-called 'sanctuary cities' where the authorities have chosen not to prosecute people solely for violating immigration laws.

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray was one of the leaders to hit back at Trump.

He said on Monday: 'Seattle has always been a welcoming city. The last thing I want is for us to start turning on our neighbors.'

But the sanctuary city policy was criticized by Trump and many others after 32-year-old Kate Steinle was shot dead by a Mexican national while walking along a pier in San Francisco last year.

It later emerged that Francisco Sanchez, who was facing drugs charges, was in the country illegally and had been deported five times, had been released from San Francisco's jail despite a federal request to keep him in custody for deportation.

Trump was also supported during the election campaign by the parents of 17-year-old Jamiel Shaw Jr, who was was murdered by illegal immigrant Pedro Espinoza, a gang member, in Los Angeles in 2008.

Donald Trump (pictured, left) was elected on a promise of deporting millions of illegal immigrants but Seattle's Ed Murray (right) was one of three mayors of 'sanctuary cities' who said yesterday they would not play ball

His mother Anita Shaw said she supported Trump's stance on illegal immigrants and, speaking of her son's murder, said: 'It felt like an American citizen living in the United States is not worth anything, but my son was worth something.'

Los Angeles was the first of the so-called 'sanctuary cities'. In 1979 then LAPD chief Daryl Gates stopped turning over people arrested for misdemeanors to federal agents for deportation and stopped honoring federal requests to detain illegals at the end of their jail sentences.
The Kremlin has been rocked by a major corruption scandal after the man in charge of the struggling Russian economy was detained on suspicion of accepting a $2million bribe.

Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev, 60, was held by armed officers in a sting operation following a year-long investigation, which Vladimir Putin was aware of throughout.

A spokeswoman for the Investigative Committee - equivalent of the FBI - alleged the senior politician 'was caught red-handed when receiving a bribe'.

In bugged mobile phone calls, Ulyukayev and his entourage gave spoke about the alleged bribe in return for a positive assessment provided by the Economic Development Ministry allowing energy giant Rosneft - headed by close Putin ally and former KGB colleague Igor Sechin - to complete a for a 50 per cent Kremlin stake in oil company Bashneft.

Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev, 60, has been held by armed officers in a sting operation following a year-long investigation

The Minister was accused of making 'threats' to Rosneft officials in order to trigger the bribe.

There was a warning today that Ulyukayev would not go quietly, and that the 'tectonic' repercussions could hit the Russian economy because the Minister 'won't stay quiet - he will turn everyone in'.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Rosneft, which was aware of the sting.

A criminal case has been opened under part 6 Article 290 of the Russian Criminal Code, which covers 'large-scale bribery', but charges have not been laid.

He could face between eight and 15 years in jail, if found guilty.

He is the highest ranking official to be detained since the perpetrators of the 1991 coup as the Soviet Union collapsed, and was due to attend an APEC forum with Putin in Peru this week.

The senior politician was detained on suspicion of accepting a $2million bribe

Rosneft is a state-owned company, and the high-profile arrest will fuel suspicions about the scale of corruption inside what has been branded Putin's 'gangster government'.

However, some sources have raised questions as to whether his arrest could be a 'provocation' among warring factions inside the government ahead of scheduled 2018 presidential elections.

Pro-Western sources claimed the move could signal a purge of the few remaining 'liberals' in Putin's government.

Ulyukayev has held his post for three years, after he moved on from his previous role as deputy chairman of the Russian Central Bank.

He was closely linked the Russia's first post-Communist premier Yegor Gaidar, seen as strongly pro-Western.

Alexander Shokhin head of Russian Union of Manufacturers and Entrepreneurs, said: 'To be honest I am stunned. It is shocking news.

'I have known know Alexei for about 30 years. I worked with him back in Soviet times.

Pro-Western sources claimed the arrest could signal a purge of the few remaining 'liberals' in Putin's government

'Since those times he's been in responsible posts.'

Sergey Schvetsov, deputy chairman of the Central Bank, came out in support of the detailed politician.

'I hold Alexey in great respect,' he said.

'He is the last person I would suspect in anything like this. Reports in the media look absurd. Nothing is clear yet.'

When he was held, Ulyukayev allegedly asked in disbelief: 'What the hell is going on here? What is going on?'

He immediately tried to call 'various high flying people' who were not named.

A source in the investigation said: 'When he was arrested he didn't even understand what had happened at first.

'He thought at first this was a joke, a mistake. He started calling different high flying people.

'He was asking them all 'What the hell is going on?'

'No-one could answer him, some just put the phone down on him.'

Press secretary Dmitry Peskov said the Russian leader 'was told right at the beginning of the investigative activities'

Vladamir Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov said the Russian leader 'was told right at the beginning of the investigative activities', one year ago.

'In other words he was receiving all information.'

Despite the question mark over his Economy Minister, he did not remove him from his post.

It is unclear if prime minister Dmitry Medvedev was told of the investigation into the senior official.

Rosneft has already said that the deal on Bashneft was legal and refused to comment Ulyukayev's arrest.

Ulyukayev, pictured with his wife and daughter, has held his post for three years, after he moved on from his previous role as deputy chairman of the Russian Central Bank

'The company is not commenting on activities of the Investigative Committee. Bashneft shares were bough according to Russian legislation, based on the best commercial offer,' a Rosneft representative said.

Economist Nikita Krichevsky has claimed statistics could be revealed to have been manipulated in the interests of certain companies.

'Ulyukayev won't stay quiet. He will turn everyone in,' he said.

Former senior investigator Pavel Zaitsev has also pointed the finger at murky Kremlin intrigues in the arrest.

'We should be also saying that this could have been an act of provocation or even a trap, a falsification', he said.

'For now it is not clear how was this bribe taken....and how were the money passed over.

'We were not shown the money yet.'

Ulyukayev could face between eight and 15 years in jail, if found guilty under part 6 Article 290 of the Russian Criminal Code

But Communist MP Valery Rashkin said: 'Such monsters get caught on bribes.

'I have been been saying for sometime that our country is ill with a cancer - corruption.'

State cash was 'the people's money', he said.

'Officials think they can simply put this budget money to their pockets,' he added.

He complained that Russia has failed to confiscate property from officials found guilty of corruption in the past.
IL Lawmakers' Reaction To Steve Bannon Pick A Mix Of Silence & Scorn

By Stephen Gossett in News on Nov 15, 2016 9:00PM



Steve Bannon / Getty Images / Photo: Drew Angerer

Update, 8:00 p.m.:

Sen.-elect Tammy Duckworth on Tuesday evening publicly joined the call for Donald Trump to rescind his appointment of Steve Bannon.

100+ colleagues&I are calling on Trump 2 rescind Steve Bannon's apptmt. We cant let divisive rhetoric tear us apart https://t.co/nfFugz0IQd  Tammy Duckworth (@RepDuckworth) November 15, 2016

Original:

In the days since Donald Trump tapped Steve Bannon, former executive chairman of litigious "alt-right" bastion Breitbart News, publisher of lovely work such as this, as White House chief strategist, the critical outcry from Democrats who charge that he promotes white nationalism is finally growing more robust. And while some lawmakers from Illinois have vocalized their strong disapproval of the pick, others have remained mum, including Sen. Dick Durbin and Sen.-elect Tammy Duckworth.

First, heres what the national picture looks like: Most recently, a Congressional letter calling for Trump to withdraw the Bannon pick gathered 120 signatures from the House by 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Rhode Island Rep. David Cicillines office said, according to Politico.

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Sen. Harry Reid represented a few of the more full-throated examples of rebuttal. If the President-elect is serious about rejecting bigotry, hatred, and violence from his supporters, he must rescind Stephen Bannons appointment, Ellison said. This man shouldnt be allowed to visit the White House a let alone run it.

The office of Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), through the Senators spokesperson, Adam Jentleson, said the following in a statement on Monday:



"President-elect Trumps choice of Steve Bannon as his top aide signals that White Supremacists will be represented at the highest levels in Trumps White House. It is easy to see why the KKK views Trump as their champion when Trump appoints one of the foremost peddlers of White Supremacist themes and rhetoric as his top aide. Bannon was the main driver behind Breitbart becoming a white ethno-nationalist propaganda mill, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center."

Closer to Illinois, reps including Rep Mike Quigley (IL-5th) and Rep.-elect Brad Schneider (IL-10th) have answered the call to push back against the Bannon appointment.

Quigley said on Monday:



In the aftermath of such a long, tumultuous campaign, it is the responsibility of President-elect Trump to foster a sense of unity that brings Americans together instead of pulling us further apart. However, Trumps decision to name Steve Bannon his chief strategist sends a very different message to the American people. This disturbing choice demonstrates that the next commander in chief remains unwilling to abandon the hateful and divisive vision that he laid out during his campaign.

Bannons views have no place in our government, much less feet from the Oval Office, added Schneider yesterday.

But so far, US Senators from Illinois have kept their thoughts closer to the vest. Sen. Durbin's office declined to comment and Sen.-elect Duckworth's spokespeople did not return a request for comment on Tuesday, when Chicagoist reached out. The possibility exists, of course, that the two are waiting and coordinating with a larger, collective counter-measure. For instance, some Senate Dems staged a "Fire Bannon" press conference on Tuesday.

Dem senators holding a "Fire Bannon" press conference pic.twitter.com/H5Ra6UwPVj  Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) November 15, 2016

Whatever the case, it seems clear that their constituencies are pushing them toward public action.

When I called Sen. Durbin's Chicago office I asked if lots of folks have been calling re: Bannon. She said "hahaha. My goodness, yes!" More!  Robbie Q. Telfer (@RobbieQT) November 14, 2016

IL call ur senators re: Bannon. Tell them to CONDEMN this appt: Dick Durbin 312.353.4952-Mark Kirk312.886-3506-Tammy Duckworth-202.225-3711  Rebecca O'Neal (@becca_oneal) November 14, 2016

This post will be updated as the story develops.
A brawl broke out between two Ukrainian MPs after one party leader accused another of working for the Russian government.

Oleh Lyashko, the leader of Radical Party, said that leader of the Opposition Bloc, Yuriy Boyko, had travelled to Moscow to receive orders from the Kremlin, during a meeting of parliament faction leaders in Kiev yesterday.

Mr Lyashko said: 'Boyko and (Opposition Bloc lawmaker Sergiy) Lyovochkin travelled to Moscow government cabinets to receive instructions from the Kremlin.

'Instructions must be received from your own people, from Ukrainians.

'By the way, I also want to ask the SBU (Security Service of Ukraine) why they visit Moscow and are not yet in jail?'

After Mr Lyashko made the accusations, Mr Boyko jumped up and grabbed his head before punching him.

Other lawmakers jumped in to break up the fight, however, Mr Lyashko continued speaking, which lead to a second fist fight.

In a statement published on the Opposition Bloc website yesterday, Mr Boyko apologised to those present and said that if 'attacks' on his political force continue, it will cause 'an adequate response'.

He said: 'Patience is exhausted. I want to apologise to the press and everyone except the person involved. Unfortunately, this has happened.'

Oleh Lyashko (centre), the leader of Radical Party, accuses Yuriy Boyko (left) of receiving orders from the Kremlin

This leads to Mr Boyko standing up and confronting Mr Lyashko by grabbing his head

The two men then end up in a scuffle while other lawmakers try to stop them

Mr Boyko subsequently punches Mr Lyashko before he tries to push him away

Mr Boyko continues until the brawl is eventually broken up by other members of the meeting

The politicians returned to their seats before Mr Lyashko continued and another fight broke out

Mr Lyashko said in a statement on the Radical Party's website that the party's position provoked a 'violent reaction' in the meeting and that 'fists are not allowed to move in parliament'.

This is not the first time Lyashko, known for his populist views, has been a part of violent scuffles in parliament, where brawls happen on a regular basis.
Counter terrorism police have arrested a young man who allegedly went to Syria to take part in conflict and for supporting others to travel to the area.

Police have alleged Muhammad Abdul-Karim Musleh went to Syria 2013 planning to take part in conflicts, which lasted only 11 days before he returned home.

An arrest and search warrant were undertaken on Tuesday morning for the 22-year-old who was taken back to Liverpool Police Station and charged with two foreign incursion offences.

An arrest and search warrant were undertaken on Tuesday morning for a 22-year-old who was taken back to Liverpool Police Station and charged (Stock Image)

Counter terrorism police have arrested a young man who allegedly went to Syria to take part in conflict and for supporting others to travel to the area (Stock Image)

Police seized electronic items from Mr Musleh's Wattle Grove home along with his Jordanian and Australian passports, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

Fairfax Media claim a large amount of cash was also taken, but Mr Musleh said he had reason for the money.

The publication claim Mr Musleh was sent to Syria by Hamdi Alqudsi and it is alleged he planned to engage in overseas conflicts and played a role in supporting other men enter the conflict zone.

The charge comes after recruiter Hamdi Alqudsi was jailed for six years back in August for recruiting men to join terrorists in the Middle East.

After appearing in Parramatta Local Court, Mr Musleh was granted bail despite the Magistrate Jennifer Giles having 'great concerns' whether he would show up to future court dates.

Bail was granted on the condition Mr Musleh reports to police daily and his parents pay $250,000 if he fails top show up to court.

Jailed extremist recruiter Hamdi Alqudsi (pictured) recruited men to join Jahbat al-Nusra

Australian Federal Police Acting Assistant Commissioner Counter Terrorism Michael Kelsey said it is hard gathering evidence from overseas countries but their investigation was thorough.

'We will continue to look at those who have returned from foreign countries and put appropriate strategies in place to investigate those who have committed offences against Australian law,' said Kelsey.
The Government has won a High Court bid to end the industrial action that crippled Britain's criminal justice system today.

Scores of trials up and down the country ground to a halt as up to 10,000 prison officers walked out in protest  forcing the delay of the Jo Cox murder trial.

It is illegal for the profession to strike, but the Prison Officers Association said 'protest action' was needed to ensure the safety of staff and inmates.

Workers are unhappy about the 'volatile and dangerous' state of UK jails and claim there has been a 'surge in violence'.

The 24-hour protest, which began at midnight, followed a string of high profile incidents at prisons, including an alleged murder, a riot and two inmates escaping.

However this afternoon High Court judges ruled that prison officers must return to their normal duties.

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Protest: Thousands of prison officers have been 'striking' over the 'dangerous' state of UK jails just days after a riot by inmates and a prisoner escape. Wandsworth prison is pictured

The Prison Officers Association (POA) directed all its members to take part in a day of protest after negotiations with the Government broke down. HMP Liverpool is pictured earlier today

Scores of trials up and down the country ground to a halt as up to 10,000 prison officers walked out in protest (Staff are pictured outside Wakefield prison in West Yorkshire earlier)

The Prison Officers Association (POA) had directed all its members to take part in a day of protest after negotiations with the Government broke down.

Steve Gillan, the POA's general secretary, said as many as 10,000 prison workers would take part in what was effectively a strike over health and safety concerns, where they would only provide emergency cover.

However the Ministry of Justice claimed the industrial action was unjustified and blasted it as 'unlawful'.

The POA later said it had received a formal legal letter on behalf of the Justice Secretary Liz Truss requesting it calls on members to stop the protest.

Hours later the Government launched a legal bid at the High Court in an attempt to halt the 'strike'. It led to the Ministry of Justice being granted an injunction against the POA's industrial action, a ruling which forces prison officers back to work.

Earlier, Mr Gillan said: 'Every prison officer in England is commencing a protest outside their establishment against the disregard for health and safety of our prison officers and prisoners.'

They would provide emergency cover for fires and medical incidents in order to protect prisoners' well-being, he said.

The murder trial of Thomas Mair, 53 (left), who is accused of killing MP Jo Cox (right) outside her constituency surgery in Birstall, near Leeds, was one of the hearings that had to be halted

This is the gun which Thomas Mair allegedly used to shoot MP Jo Cox at point-blank range

On 'strike': Prison officers gather in protest outside Pentonville prison in north London today

The terror-related murder trial of Thomas Mair, who is accused of killing Jo Cox, was one of several major criminal proceedings that did not start this morning because defendants could not be brought to court.

As well as this, the first court appearance of Robert Butler  who is accused of a murder in Pentonville prison  could also not take place.

A thug who stabbed a man on a bus will also have his sentencing delayed - he was due to be jailed weeks ago - while hundreds of courtrooms across the UK are now expected to sit empty for the day.

WHY INDUSTRIAL ACTION IS BANNED FOR PRISON STAFF Prison officers are effectively banned from taking strike action under Section 127 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. The piece of legislation allows legal proceedings to be brought by ministers against anyone who 'induces' a prison officer to 'withhold' their services. A legal injunction was granted the last time a prison 'strike' ended up in the courts, in 2007. This industrial action followed a dispute about pay. Five years later there was a walk out over pension changes, as prison officers joined other public sector workers, but despite threatening to go to the courts ministers never did. Advertisement

Elsewhere, senior judge Mrs Justice McGowan was forced to abandon the sentencing of a man who killed his wife, according to the Evening Standard, just as the distraught children of the couple arrived at court.

Justice at the Old Bailey ground to a halt with just three of the famous London building's 18 courts sitting.

Scores of barristers, judges, clerks and ushers were left with nothing to do at a cost of tens of thousands of pounds to the taxpayer.

Recent estimates put the cost of running trials at the Old Bailey at up to 200 a minute.

Jurors in the trial of Thomas Mair, who is accused of the brutal politically motivated murder of Labour MP for Batley and Spen and mother-of-two Mrs Cox, were sent home for the day.

Mr Justice Wilkie told them: 'What has caused this is obviously acutely disruptive of this trial because there were witnesses who have travelled a great distance to be here.'

The High Court judge explained: 'You will have observed the defendant is not in the dock and he will not be attending court today.

'The reason for this, is that there are circumstances at Belmarsh prison, where he is currently residing, and I understand in prisons all over the country, which have precluded any bringing of prisoners to courts for court proceedings.'

The Ministry of Justice claimed the industrial action was unjustified and blasted it as 'unlawful'

Halted: This afternoon the High Court granted an injunction against the POA's industrial action, a ruling which forces prison officers back to work. Pictured is Wandsworth prison

He added: 'With great reluctance, I am afraid we are unable to proceed today.'

Other trials were similarly disrupted as the law prohibits trials continuing in the absence of a defendant without his or her express consent.

Mair denies murder, inflicting GBH with intent, possession of a firearm and possession of a dagger, and the trial is set to continue tomorrow.

Prison officers cannot by law take part in a strike and Mr Gillan admitted the day of action will be 'interpreted as a strike'.

The protest, which began at midnight, comes after a string of high profile incidents at prisons, including an alleged murder, a riot and two inmates escaping

A union spokesman said: 'The POA has consistently raised the volatile and dangerous state of prisons, as chronic staff shortages and impoverished regimes has resulted in staff no longer being safe, a lack of discipline and prisoners taking control of areas.

'The continued surge in violence and unprecedented levels of suicide and acts of self harm, coupled with the recent (alleged) murder and escapes, demonstrate that the service is in meltdown.'

Two prisoners - including a convicted attempted murderer - managed to escape from Pentonville prison, in north London, on November 7, sparking a manhunt in which they were eventually recaptured.

Weeks earlier, inmate Jamal Mahmoud, 21, died after being stabbed at the jail on October 18 in an attack which left two others injured.

And on November 6, up to 200 prisoners went on a rampage in HMP Bedford.

An MoJ spokesman said: 'There is no justification for this action.

'We have been engaged in constructive talks with the POA over the last two weeks and have provided a comprehensive response to a range of health and safety concerns.

Two prisoners - Matthew Baker (left) and James Whitlock (right) - escaped from Pentonville prison on November 7, sparking a manhunt in which they were eventually recaptured

Weeks earlier, inmate Jamal Mahmoud, 21, died after being stabbed at the jail on October 18

The men are believed to have cut through the bars with a diamond cutter flown in by drone

'The Government has announced an additional 2,500 frontline officers to help reduce violence in prisons.

'We have well-established contingencies in place to manage prisons and keep the public safe, but we are clear that this constitutes unlawful industrial action, and we will seek remedy in the courts.'

About 60 guards gathered in the car park within the gates of HMP Pentonville, in north London.

Dave Todd, POA representative for London, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, said conditions in prisons were 'volatile and dangerous'.

With great reluctance, I am afraid we are unable to proceed today Mr Justice Wilkie at the trial of a man accused of killing MP Jo Cox

'We need to act to protect ourselves,' he said.

'It has not come about quickly - it's a build-up over probably years actually. Three years we have been suffering with recruitment retention issues.

'Last month Lewes prison had a riot, Bedford prison had a riot, assaults are at an all-time high. There's mobile phones and drugs in prisons. It's just unsafe.

'To me, prison officers taking this type of action speaks volumes for what's happening inside.'

Mr Todd also hit back at the MoJ, saying: 'The Ministry of Justice will call it a strike, they will injunct through the courts. Unfortunately that's how they like to conduct industrial relations.

'It's a disgrace that you bully and intimidate working men and women like that.'
Cleared: David Sellu, now 69, was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter in November 2013 and handed a two-and-a-half-year prison term at the Old Bailey - it was overturned today

An experienced surgeon jailed over the death of a patient at a private hospital has today won an appeal against his conviction.

David Sellu, now 69, was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter in November 2013 and handed a two-and-a-half-year prison term at the Old Bailey.

Three Court of Appeal judges in London have agreed to overturn his 'unsafe' conviction over the death of father-of-six James Hughes.

Mr Hughes, 66, died at the Clementine Churchill Hospital in Harrow, north-west London, after falling unexpectedly ill following knee surgery.

Mr Sellu  a colorectal surgeon  did not carry out the operation but was on duty when Mr Hughes, who was in his 60s, started complaining of severe abdominal pain six days later.

Various delays meant Mr Hughes did not undergo surgery to rectify the problem, a perforated bowel, for almost 48 hours. He died after the procedure.

Mr Sellu was present in court to hear Sir Brian Leveson, who heard the case with Lord Justice Irwin and Mr Justice Globe, announce that the conviction should be quashed.

Sir Brian gave the prosecution 24 hours to make an application if they wish to seek a re-trial.

Tragedy: Mr Sellu's conviction followed the death of Mr Hughes (left), a retired builder, in February 2010 following routine knee operation at the private Clementine Churchill Hospital (right) in North-West London

Mark Ellison QC, for Sellu, told Sir Brian Leveson, Lord Justice Irwin and Mr Justice Globe that Sellu, a 'respected consultant colorectal surgeon', treated Mr Hughes between February 11 and 12, 2010.

It was the standard of the doctor's care to Mr Hughes over a period of approximately 25 hours which formed the basis of the case against him.

Mr Ellison said the prosecution case at trial 'essentially reflected' the opinion of its two medical experts 'as to Mr Sellu's care having been in a number of respects grossly negligent, in the context of a dramatically increasing risk of Mr Hughes dying over a 25-hour period leading up to the operation'.

He said the 'essence' of the prosecution case was that the doctor should have performed an operation to repair a perforated bowel 'at a much earlier time'.

After surgery Mr Hughes, from Northern Ireland, was transferred to the intensive care unit but he died on February 14, 2010.

Mr Ellison said that Sellu, of Hillingdon, who served 15 months before being released in February last year, submitted that 'his conviction for gross negligence manslaughter is unsafe' on a number of grounds.

He told the judges that there was now new evidence 'undermining the prosecution case as to Mr Hughes's increasing risk of mortality and the need for an earlier operation to have been carried out'.
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Violent clashes broke out in Athens today as left-wing demonstrators protesting against a visit by President Barack Obama tried to break a police cordon and were repelled with tear gas.

No injuries or arrests were reported, but about 3,000 anarchists and students marched through the city center in a demonstration originally planned to reach the U.S. Embassy in another part of town.

A second planned Athens protest by Communist party supporters was due to start later.

There is a strong anti-American tradition among Greek left-wingers who still resent U.S. support for Greece's 1967-74 military dictatorship.

Police try to detain protesters throwing flame bombs and demonstrating against President Barak Obama's visit to Athens, Greece

About 3,000 anarchists and students marched through the city center in a demonstration originally planned to reach the U.S. Embassy in another part of town

Police set up a cordon and used tear gas in an attempt to disperse the large crowds of people with banners and flags

Fire from a molotov cocktail burns near Greek riot police during clashes around the Polytechnic school

All demonstrations have been banned in a large swathe of central Athens during Obama's two-day visit. Riot police blocked the marchers from the part of the city where Obama will be, parking buses across roads and manning cordons.

Greek authorities have deployed more than 5,000 police for Obama's visit. The riot squad is on high alert for violence, and an armed anarchist group has called for "attacks and clashes" to disrupt the visit.

Riot police blocked the marchers from the part of the city where Obama will be, parking buses across roads and manning cordons

All demonstrations have been banned in a large swathe of central Athens during Obama's two-day visit and authorities had 5,000 police ready

There is a strong anti-American tradition among Greek left-wingers who still resent U.S. support for Greece's 1967-74 military dictatorship

The riot squad is on high alert for violence, and an armed anarchist group has called for 'attacks and clashes' to disrupt the visit

Obama's visit comes just two days before the country's main annual anti-American demonstrations, which commemorate the bloody suppression, by military authorities in 1973, of a pro-democracy student uprising.

The last visit to Greece by a U.S. president was by Bill Clinton in 1999. It was marred by extensive street fighting between anarchists and riot police.

Barack Obama's final foreign tour as U.S. President got off to a frosty start in as members of the presidential guards appeared to shoot him filthy looks as he walked by.

Obama's visit comes just two days before the country's main annual anti-American demonstrations, which commemorate the bloody suppression

The last visit to Greece by a U.S. president was by Bill Clinton in 1999 also saw fighting between anarchists and riot police

A protester throws a molotov cocktail whilst wearing a gas mask during clashes as near as they could get to the American Embassy

A riot policeman attacks protesters during the demonstration, but it wasn't just protesters that seemed to be showing hate towards Obama and the US

A number of the armed Tsoliades or Evzones soldiers scowled at their guest as he walked alongside President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos as outside the Presidential Mansion in Athens, Greece.

The outgoing President appeared nonplussed by his reception as he kept his chin up and looked straight ahead.

Air Force One touched down mid-morning in Athens after an overnight flight from Washington amid planned protests by left-wing and anarchist groups trying to disrupt Obama's visit.

Barack Obama's final foreign tour as U.S. President got off to a frosty start in Greece as members of the presidential guards appeared to shoot him filthy looks as he walked by

A number of the armed Evzones soldiers scowled at their guest as he walked alongside President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos as outside the Presidential Mansion in Athens, Greece

The outgoing President appeared nonplussed by his reception as he kept his chin up and looked straight ahead

U.S. President Barack Obama and his Greek couterpart Prokopis Pavlopoulos (left) review a presidential honour guard during the official welcoming ceremony at the presidental palace in Athens on November 15, 2016

Barack Obama escorted by President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos, walk next to Greek Presidential Guards known as Tsoliades or Evzones

Greek Presidential Guards, or Evzones, take their place for a review by US President Barack Obama and his Greek counterpart Prokopis Pavlopoulos in Athens

Tensions were already high in the capital with major roads shut down, public gatherings banned and boats stopped from sailing near the coastline as 5,000 officers were deployed for the arrival of the first visit to Greece by a sitting U.S. president since Bill Clinton in 1999

Obama opened his trip with reassuring words about the US commitment to NATO and also held talks with prime minister Alexis Tsipras.

As he prepares to hand off to a Donald Trump administration, he said Democratic and Republican administrations alike recognise the importance of the alliance to the transatlantic relationship.

Without mentioning Mr Trump by name, he told the Greek President a strong NATO is of 'utmost importance' and would provide 'significant continuity even as we see a transition in government'.

Mr Pavlopoulos thanked him for the U.S. support of the Greek people in a time of social and economic crisis, and said he was confident Mr Trump 'will continue on the same path'.

The Republican's election has generated significant unease in Europe because of his tough talk during the campaign suggesting the U.S. might pull out of the alliance if other countries do not pay more.

he Air Force One lands at the Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos, Greece

Police patrol outside Zappeio Conference Hall in Athens as 5,000 officers are deployed

Barack Obama has arrived in Greece on his final foreign tour as President amid a security lockdown in the country's capital

A sniper aims his weapon securing the area as President Barack Obama arrives at the Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos

A woman waits to pass a fence outside Zappeio Conferenence Hall in Athens amid heightened security

he Air Force One lands at the Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos on Tuesday, November 15

Riot police officers confront angry protestors demonstrating against U.S. President Bill Clinton's one-day visit to Athens on Friday November 19, 1999

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos (sitting, right) speaks with US President Barack Obama (sitting, left) before their meeting at the Presidential Mansion

Obama's visit comes two days before the November 17 anniversary of the junta's 1973 bloody crackdown on a student uprising, which is marked each year by a protest march to the U.S. Embassy which frequently turns violent

The outgoing President was greeted with a military honor guard in navy and green uniforms and a military band after stepping off his flight this morning.

Among the dignitaries greeting the president were Greece's minister of national defense, 'Panos' Kammenos, and the U.S. ambassador to Greece, Geoffrey Pyatt.

Clinton's visit, almost 17 years ago to the day, came during the height of U.S. intervention in the wars ensuing from the breakup of Yugoslavia, was marked with extensive violent demonstrations.

While anti-American sentiment has been muted over the past few years in Greece, many in the country regard the U.S. with misgivings, a sentiment stemming mostly from America's backing of the military dictatorship that governed the country from 1967 to 1974.

Obama's visit comes two days before the November 17 anniversary of the junta's 1973 bloody crackdown on a student uprising, which is marked each year by a protest march to the U.S. Embassy which frequently turns violent.

U.S. President Barack Obama (right) greeted by Greek Minister of Defence Panagiotis Kommenos (left)

Major roads are shut down, public gatherings have been banned and boats have been banned from sailing near the coastline as 5,000 officers were deployed for the arrival of the first visit to Greece by a sitting U.S. president since Bill Clinton in 1999

U.S. President Barack Obama walks next to Greek National Defence Minister Panos Kammenos, (right) after his arrival at the Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos (left)

U.S. President Bill Clinton followed by his wife Hillary and daughter Chelsea, waves to onlookers from the steps of Air Force One upon his arrival at the Athens International airport 17 years ago

A Greek policeman holds a tear gas canister as he chases protesters after clashes broke out in central Athens between leftist groups and the police in November 1999

The outgoing President was greeted with a military honor guard in navy and green uniforms and a military band after stepping off his flight this morning

Greek and U.S. security officials stand guard before the arrival of the Air Force One carrying US President Barack Obama

Clinton's visit, which came during the height of U.S. intervention in the wars ensuing from the breakup of Yugoslavia, was marked with extensive violent demonstrations

U.S.President Clinton and daughter Chelsea pick their way through the rocks during a tour of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece Saturday, November 20, 1999

U.S. President Barack Obama waves prior to departing on Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington

On Wednesday, Obama is scheduled to tour the Acropolis and give a major speech about democracy and globalization before flying on to Berlin.

From Germany, Obama will travel to Peru for an Asian economic summit before returning to Washington on Saturday.

Obama's trip will be dominated by questions and concerns about President-elect Donald Trump.

Obama has been working to reassure foreign leaders the U.S. won't abandon its partnerships and alliance obligations despite Trump's tough campaign rhetoric.

Greece's government has hailed Obama's visit as being of 'huge importance' for both Greece and Europe.

The country's left-led coalition government has been struggling to pull Greece out of six years of a vicious financial crisis that has devastated its economy and left more than a quarter of the workforce unemployed.

Obama opened his final foreign trip as president with reassuring words about the US commitment to NATO and also held talks with prime minister Alexis Tsipras.

Greece's government has hailed Obama's visit as being of 'huge importance' for both Greece and Europe

Despite the U.S. election, the government has been pinning its hopes on the President to help persuade some of the country's more reluctant international creditors, such as Germany, to grant it significant debt relief

Communist affiliated protesters shout anti-U.S. and anti-NATO slogans, during their protest outside the Ministry of Civil protection in Athens, against the ban for protests during the visit of the US president, Barack Obama in Greece's capital

U.S. President Barack Obama (left) walks on the colonnade with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough (right) prior to his departure

US President Barack Obama talks in the Oval Office prior to his departure to Greece on his final foreign tour as President

Despite the U.S. election, the government has been pinning its hopes on the President to help persuade some of the country's more reluctant international creditors, such as Germany, to grant it significant debt relief.

Without a cut in its debt, Athens says, it cannot hope to recover economically - an argument also supported by the International Monetary Fund.

Greece has been relying on emergency loans from three consecutive multi-billion euro bailouts from other European Union countries using the euro currency, and the IMF, since 2010.

While the United States has not been involved in Greece's bailout, Athens has long seen it as an ally that could apply pressure on creditors.

'The visit of President Obama is a clear message to all of us and to the rest of the world that we need to keep pursuing policies that create growth, employment and social cohesion,' Nikos Pappas, a close associate of Tsipras who was named digital policy minister in a recent reshuffle, said ahead of the visit.

'We are very happy to see that in the recent years the U.S. administration has been on the same page as we are in terms of these policies and this direction.

'We expect this message is going to be reiterated.'

U.S. President Barack Obama and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras during their bilateral meeting at Maximos Mansion in Athens

U.S. President Barack Obama walks out from the White House in Washington, U.S. before his departure to Athens, Greece

Obama's visit comes two days before the November 17 anniversary of the junta's 1973 bloody crackdown on a student uprising, which is marked each year by a protest march to the U.S. Embassy which frequently turns violent as members of the communist-affiliated labour union PAME sing in protest

Policemen guard the entrance of the Ministry of Citizens Protection in Athens, Greece

Members of the Communist-affiliated labour union PAME protest outside the Ministry of Citizens Protection in Athens, Greece

President Obama (left) walking with Denis McDonough (right) departing on his final foreign trip to Athens, Berlin, and Lima, Peru

Human Rights Watch said Obama 'should call on EU leaders to defend universal human rights and show greater responsibility for refugees'

Riot police forms a cordon as thousands of Greek protesters, chanting anti-American slogans march through central Athens in front of the U.S. embassy November 17, 1999, during a rally commemorating the 1973 Polytechnic student uprising against Greece's military junta

An anti-Clinton protestor waves an American flag bearing swastikas instead of stars as thousands of Athenians flooded Athens' constitution square to put U.S. President Bill Clinton on mock trial for his policies in the Balkans just days before he was due to visit the Greek capital November 8, 1999

Demonstrators burn the US flag at a roadblock after they clashed with police, Friday 19 November 1999

Greek protesters march on a main street in Athens November 17, 1999 with a U.S. flag featuring swastikas instead of stars during a rally commemorating the 1973 Polytechnic student uprising against Greece's military junta

An Athenian holds an anti Clinton placard as thousands of Greeks flooded Athens' constitution square to put U.S. President Bill Clinton on mock trial for his policies in the Balkans just days before he was due to visit the Greek capital November 8, 1999

U.S. President Barack Obama walks with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras upon his arrival at Maximos Palace in Athens, Greece, on November 15

The U.S. has praised Greek efforts to overhaul its economy but has repeatedly stressed the country must continue with painful reforms.

The country's bailout funds are disbursed following reviews by international debt inspectors of mandated reforms.

The government will also be looking for recognition of the country's role in Europe's refugee crisis, which saw hundreds of thousands of refugees pass through Greece from Turkey on their way to the more prosperous countries of the European north, and for U.S. pressure on the rest of Europe to help shoulder the burden.

Following the closure of Balkan land borders and the reluctance of some European countries to host refugees, more than 60,000 people are stranded in Greece, most living in often poor conditions in overcrowded camps dotted around the country.

Rights organizations have urged Obama to use his visit to highlight these people's plight and Europe's response to the crisis.

Obama should 'shine the spotlight not only on abysmal conditions for the tens of thousands of refugees stranded in Greece, but also on the failure of world leaders to adequately address the wider global refugee crisis,' John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International's Europe director, said in a statement.

Human Rights Watch said Obama 'should call on EU leaders to defend universal human rights and show greater responsibility for refugees.'

Trump tapped into troubling strain of rhetoric to win U.S. election: Barack Obama attacks the President-elect on the first day of his final foreign tour

President Barack Obama said his successor tapped into a 'pretty troubling' strain of rhetoric to win his seat in the White House.

Speaking at press conference on the first day of his final foreign tour as the leader of his country, he said he the reason he believes the Republican won the presidency race was that 'sometimes people just feel as if we want to try something and see if we can shake things up'.

He did not accept people were rejecting his world views, and added that he'll never apologize for saying the world's future will be defined by what people have in common rather than by what separates nations and leads to conflict.

Obama did not accept people were rejecting his world views, and added that he'll never apologize for saying the world's future will be defined by what people have in common rather than by what separates nations and leads to conflict

He says nations that focus on inclusion will in the long-term be more successful.

Obama also defended Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May when she was compared to Marine Le Pen - president of France's far-right National Front and likened the difficulty in resolving problems in the European Union to the challenges of dealing with Congress.

Describing the election race, he said the rhetoric seen in the is 'pretty troubling and not necessarily connected to the facts'.

President Barack Obama said his successor tapped into a 'pretty troubling' strain of rhetoric to win his seat in the White House
Nigel Farage slammed Theresa May for ignoring his'connections' with Donald Trump today as he called for our US ambassador to be sacked.

Downing Street has ruled out making use of the interim Ukip leader to help build ties with the President-elect after his shock White House victory.

Mr Farage and a group of his close allies became the first British team to meet Mr Trump on Saturday after visiting Trump Tower to see Steve Bannon, the chief of the right wing Breitbart news website and due to join the White House senior staff.

Ukip donor Arron Banks, who was at Saturday's extraordinary summit, today revealed Mr Bannon was likely to consult Mr Farage about Mr Trump's policies before the UK Government.

He claimed Mr Farage and Mr Trump are in daily contact by text or phone in new revelations about the depth of the interim Ukip leader's ties to the next President.

Nigel Farage, pictured on today's Good Morning Britain, has insisted Theresa May should make use of his 'connections' to Donald Trump

Mr Farage told ITV's Piers Morgan he would not take a Cabinet post from Mrs May but would happily help build the US-UK relationship on an informal basis

Mr Farage today repeated his call for Mrs May to make use of the tie in a series of new interviews after his return from the US.

He told Sky News: 'Can you imagine if we were a business and we were looking at Trump in America as someone we thought was very important to form a close relationship with, what would you do?

'You would find somebody who had connections.

'I do have connections with Trump, more particularly with Trump's team many of whom I have known for years.

'Yet the Government don't want in any way to talk to me informally or do anything. It says a lot, actually, about the way we are governed in this country.'

Mr Farage branded Britain's ambassador to Washington, Sir Kim Darroch, a 'fanatical Europhile' and said he should be replaced.

'His world view and the world view of the Trump team are going to be diametrically opposed," the Ukip leader said.

But he ruled out taking on the role himself, joking that he was 'not ambassador material'.

Mr Banks told the Daily Telegraph Mr Trump and Mr Farage were 'old friends' and claimed they were in contact by text or telephone 'every day'.

And he said: 'There is no doubt about it that Steve Bannon will talk to Nigel Farage before any other British politician and run stuff by him.'

Mr Farage took his Ukip team for a meeting with the President-elect at Trump Tower in New York on Saturday, pictured

Raheem Kassam, pictured on BBC Newsnight last night, today revealed new details of the hour-long meeting between Mr Trump and senior Ukip figures - including himself

Mr Farage told ITV he would not be getting a full Cabinet job from Mrs May and would turn one down.

But he added: 'Common sense says that I should be useful somehow to this country in getting that relationship with America back to where it should be.'

The interim Ukip leader said it was 'nonsense' Mr Trump would talk to him before Mrs May but insisted he could still help build links.

More details also emerged today about the extraordinary summit between the Ukip high command and Mr Trump in New York.

Raheem Kassam, a former chief of staff to Mr Farage, told BBC Newsnight he had led the delegation to Trump Tower for a meeting with Mr Bannon, his boss at Breitbart.

He said: 'At one point, Kellyanne Conway, the campaign manager, turned to us and said would you like to go up to the residence and see the President-elect.

'So we thought about it for all of one second and said yes. We were whisked upstairs through the mountains of secret service and the the big golden door swung open.

'Mr Trump was there, he looked at Nigel square in the eye and said ''there he is'', welcoming him to his home with a big hug. We sat there talking with the President-elect for over an hour.'

Mrs May, pictured at last night's Lord Mayor's Banquet, has ruled out using Mr Farage as a go-between to Mr Trump

Mr Kassam said the meeting involved discussion of policy and warned Mr Trump's team were acutely aware of comments made by people who are now Downing Street staffers during the election campaign.

He said: 'This is not about Ukip vs the Conservative Party or Nigel Farage vs Theresa May, this is about making sure we have the best working relationship with the United States, one of our best and closest allies.

'Downing Street needs to really think about whatr it means to shun somebody who is so close to the President-elect like Nigel Farage.

'They should be welcoming him with open arms.'

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, left, and International Secretary Liam Fox, right, both seen in Downing Street today, are both expected to play a role in building ties with Mr Trump

Mr Kassam, who made a brief but unsuccessful bid to be Ukip leader last month using Trump-style tactics, added: 'People like Nigel put their country first, he's done it his entire life, and this would be no different.'

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling today told the BBC: 'First of all lets be clear; Nigel Farage played a significant role in the referendum campaign.

'But, we have a team of people on the ground in Washington who have been building ties with the Trump transition team for many months.

'We have ministers in the current government who have close ties to senior Republicans, who know people in the transition team.
Nikki's stepfather John Torney, 32, was found not guilty of her murder

Nick Coslovich said he would forever want to know who killed his 'angel'

The two-year-old's body was found in roof of her Mildura home in 2015

The biological father of murdered toddler Nikki Francis-Coslovich has spoken of his heartbreak after learning that his 'angel' daughter was forever gone.

The two-year-old girl was found bashed to death and hidden in the roof cavity of her mother's home in Mildura, north-west Victoria, on August 25 last year.

Last week Nikki's de facto stepfather John Torney was acquitted of her murder after a three-week trial, despite admitting he hid the girl's body after 'freaking out'.

With the not guilty verdict finally sinking in, biological father Nick Coslovich told A Current Affair that the worst part now was that he didn't know who 'did it'.

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Nick Coslovich (centre), the father of murdered toddler Nikki Francis-Coslovich, has spoken of his anguish and heartbreak after the man charged with her murder was acquitted

Nikki's de facto stepfather John Torney (pictured) was acquitted of her murder after a three-week trial, despite admitting he hid the girl's body after 'freaking out'

The battered body of Nikki Francis-Coslovich (pictured) was found by police inside the roof cavity of her mother's home in Mildura, north-west Victoria

'I've got two heartaches, sort of, eating me at the same time,' Mr Coslovich said.

'One of them is my little girl's not here and the other is that somebody decided it was a good idea to be violent with a little girl that wouldn't hurt an ant.

Mr Coslovich said that when he found out his precious daughter had disappeared his 'head heard that she was missing' but his 'heart knew that she was gone.'

'She was an angel and to everybody who met her she was like one of those rays of light that ya know, youre having a bad day and ... she would just make you feel good. That was Nikki's little gift,' he said.

He also expressed his anguish at the Victorian Department of Human Services for not stepping in, despite claims he repeatedly told them she was living in an unsafe home in the weeks leading up to her death.

'I've got two heartaches eating me at the same time': Mr Coslovich said not knowing who had murdered his daughter was eating him alive

During the murder trial Mr Torney accused his ex-girlfriend Peta Ann Francis (pictured) of murdering her daughter before asking him to hide her body in the roof cavity. Ms Francis has not been charged and police do not believe she killed her daughter

A Department of Health and Services report showed workers were aware John Torney had a criminal history, but the mother advised workers he was not living at the home, according to The Herald Sun.

Social workers reportedly believed Ms Francis and closed the case on July 13, but nearly one month later on August 17, Nikki's father Nick Coslovich texted a Mallee Family Care social worker claiming Mr Torney was using ice.

Just eight days later after the text, Nikki was found bashed to death.

The Daily Mail is not suggesting John Torney is responsible for Nikki Francis-Coslovich's death.

Torney maintained his innocence throughout the three-week murder trial in the Victorian Supreme Court, vehemently denying he killed the toddler.

During the trial, Mr Torney accused his ex-girlfriend, Peta Ann Francis, of murdering her daughter before asking him to hide her body in the roof cavity.

Ms Francis has not been charged and police do not believe she killed her daughter.

John Clifford Torney walked free from Mildura Magistrates Court after a jury found him not guilty of Nikki's murder last week

The pathologist who conducted the autopsy on Nikki said the fatal blunt force trauma injuries inflicted on her were akin to those seen in high-speed vehicle accidents or a fall from a great height.

Nikki died as a result of repeated blows to her abdomen and chest.

Her liver was split in several places and she lost between one quarter and one third of her total blood volume.

The crown said the damage was caused by the repeated infliction of a clenched fist to the abdomen and chest of the child.

In a video played to the jury, Mr Torney had claimed he 'freaked out' and hid Nikki's body in the roof because he wanted her to be found quickly.

Torney had been dating Ms Francis for about five months at the time of Nikki's death.

Mr Coslovich (pictured right) also expressed his anguish at the Victorian Department of Human Services for not stepping in after claims he told them she was unsafe

JOHN TORNEY'S CONFESSION TO POLICE Police: Gerard said you wanted to speak to us about something? John Torney: Yep. Police: What's the go? Mr Torney: Peta killed Nikki. The mother killed her. Police: Her mother killed her? Mr Torney: Yeah. Later in the conversation Police: What are the circumstances John? Mr Torney: She killed her, then asked me to help her get rid of the body. Police: How did this all take place? Mr Torney: It was whilst we were laying down on the bed that she goes: 'I've gone a bit too far with Nikki' and then 'she's dead'. Later Police: Did she say how, or? Mr Torney: She just said that she threw her on the bed, that, that could I help her get rid of the body... Police: OK, and what did you do? Mr Torney: I put Nikki in the manhole. It's eating me up inside. I can't hold back anymore. I've got to get it out. Later Police: When did you decide to that you'd come clean and tell us what actually happened? Mr Torney: I've been wanting to tell youse for the last two days. Police: Mmm. Mr Torney: I've been having nightmares, waking up in hot and cold sweats. I've got to get it off my chest. Police: Mmm. Mr Torney: It's killing me inside. I loved that little girl like she was my own. Advertisement




He has now been found safe and well, the Metropolitan Police revealed

Luca Goldman-Hudson went missing from his home in Hackney, east London, on Sunday

A 'vulnerable' 15-year-old boy who travelled 150 miles to the Dorset coast from his east London home has been found safe and well.

Luca Goldman-Hudson had gone missing from his home in Hackney, east London, on Sunday.

It is thought he first went to Bournemouth, before going onto Weymouth.

A large-scale operation involving local lifeboat and coastguard crews, as well as police helicopters, were called into action at about 6pm last night.

They undertook an 'extensive search' of the shoreline and cliffs, from Weymouth Pavilion to Osmington Mills.

The operation also moved inland around 3am when an helicopter was seen to concentrate on an area between Preston and Osmington, just outside Weymouth.

Police officers with torches also searched the trees and bushes in an area between the two villages for an hour.

A spokeswoman for Dorset Police said: 'We were searching the area last night to assist the Metropolitan Police in the search of a missing 15 -year-old boy.

'The NPAS helicopter searched from the air last night whilst Dorset Search & Rescue assisted officers on the ground.'

Luca, described as white, approximately 5ft 8ins tall, with brown hair, had last been seen wearing a black leather jacket.
An amateur footage has captured the moment a hapless driver managed to smash into row after row of ceiling pipes while leaving an underground car park.

The roof of the van involved was seen hitting and breaking an overhead pipe at the car park in Glasgow before struggling on and causing damage to five other pipes.

But instead of stopping to inspect the damage, the motorist drove straight out of the car park.

An amateur footage has captured the moment a hapless driver managed to smash into row after row of ceiling pipes while leaving an underground car park

The roof of the van involved was seen hitting and breaking an overhead pipe (above) at the car park in Glasgow before struggling on and causing damage to five other pipes

The bizarre incident took place on November 1 at Glasgow Harbour Terrace car park and was captured on video by James Newton.

He said: 'Think you're having a bad day? Try being a delivery driver that can't read height restrictions.'

The video opens with the van reversing out of a parking bay, screeching as the roof of the vehicle scrapes against the ceiling.

The driver hits the brakes momentarily while the van's suspension is compressed beneath an overhead pipe.

Instead of stopping to inspect the damage, the driver was filmed struggling on despite the repeated obstacles

The van dislodged at least two pipes, which allowed water to leak out from the ceiling (left)

A crunching and groaning noise is heard as the motorist appears to realise what is happening and swerves to the left in an attempt to avoid the pipes.

Despite this, water is seen gushing out of one of the stricken pipes.

Near the exit, the van hits another set of pipes, causing a second gush of water and debris to fall from the ceiling.

The video ends as the driver finally makes it to the exit and speeds out of the car park.

The driver, who lives in the residential apartments above the car park, later came forward to admit the damage and offered to pay the considerable repair bill, which is likely to run into thousands of pounds.

A spokesman for Scotland's Worst Drivers, who obtained the footage, said: 'Every driver should be aware of the height of their vehicle, especially when driving a van or HGV.

The driver is said to be a new resident in the building above the car park (pictured) and had been moving in on the day of the incident

'There are no excuses that this driver could use as I understand there is a sign, clearly stating the maximum headroom as 2.3 metres - a standard Ford Transit LWB is 2.49 metres in height.

'This is a clear case of dangerous driving, which has caused obvious damage to pipework and ceiling of the car park.'

The car park is managed by Newton Property Management who said the incident has been dealt with after the driver, who lives in the building, came forward.

A spokesman said: 'A resident in the building was moving furniture and came forward within 24 hours after the incident. CCTV filmed the driver, but we didn't need it as they came forward.

'We've handled the matter now and have had a plumber in to fix the damage caused.
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A big and bright supermoon has graced Australian skies for the second time in two days as people flocked to catch a glimpse of the rare lunar phenomenon.

The highly anticipated supermoon lit the night sky on Tuesday, coming closer to earth than any full moon since 1948.

With clear skies over most of Australia moon gazers had the chance to snap the extra super supermoon- providing for some stunning images.

The moon was at its biggest and brightest the past two nights because it was 30,000km closer to earth than normal.

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A big and bright supermoon has graced Australian skies for the second time in two days as people flocked to catch a glimpse of the rare lunar phenomenon (Image taken by Jesse Chance - pictured is Western Australia)

A man walks on the top span of the Sydney Harbour Bridge as the supermoon enters its final phase in Sydney on Tuesday

The supermoon rises over the Sydney Opera House on Tuesday night

The supermoon rises through the spans of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Sydney

Conditions for photographers were perfect with clear skies in Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane and Darwin (Sydney Opera House pictured)

The highly anticipated supermoon lit the night sky on Tuesday, coming closer to earth than any full moon since 1948 (pictured is Ipswich, Queensland taken by Gail's Photography)

With clear skies over most of Australia moon gazers had the chance to snap the extra super supermoon- providing for some stunning images

The moon was at its biggest and brightest the past two nights because it was 30,000km closer to earth than normal (pictured is Sydney)

Stunning photographs captured the supermoon from around Australia as skygazers flocked to see the rare lunar phenomenon

Conditions for photographers were perfect with clear skies in Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane and Darwin. There was some slight cloud cover spoiling views in Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide and Hobart (picture taken by Gergo Rugli)

Crowds look on as the supermoon rises behind the Fremantle War Memorial at Monument Hill in Western Australia

In Lennox Head, NSW, sugar cane is burned while the supermoon hangs high above the flames

A supermoon sets over the Brisbane skyline, The event occurs when a full or new moon passes closer to Earth in its monthly orbit

The supermoon could be clearly be seen in Brisbane as it hung clearly above the Brisbane city

The supermoon can be seen peeking through the cloudy sky behind the Sydney Opera House

Stunning image of the supermoon peeking through the clouds and the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge

As the sun sets the supermoon lit up the sky as it towered over Brisbane city on Monday night

Moon gazers had an awesome view at Bronte Beach in Sydney on Monday night

Conditions for photographers were perfect with clear skies in Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane and Darwin. There was some slight cloud cover spoiling views in Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide and Hobart.

On Monday Queenslanders and West Australians claimed bragging rights, while thick clouds blanketed much of the rest of the country.

Thousands of people across Sydney lined the coast near popular landmarks to soak in the dazzling night-time rays, but were left largely disappointed at gazing instead at drab grey clouds.

As for instragramming tips - who better to give advice than NASA's very own senior photographer?

The number one tip from Bill Ingalls is to get some perspective.

'Dont make the mistake of photographing the moon by itself with no reference to anything.

'Instead, think of how to make the image creativethat means tying it into some land-based object. It can be a local landmark or anything to give your photo a sense of place,' Ingalls said.

Mr Ingalls also warned not to take your artistry too seriously.

A commercial airliner is seen in front of the full moon, in Sydney on Tuesday

A supermoon sets over the Brisbane skyline on Tuesday evening

The event occurs when a full or new moon passes closer to Earth in its monthly orbit with this particular one being the closest full moon to date in the 21st century according to NASA (Brisbane pictured)

This Instagram picture of the supermoon in Queensland see it looking out over the mountains

The city of Perth in Western Australia is lit up with the supermoon shining just as bring in the background

In Melbourne the supermoon shone out over the buildings as darkness began to fall

In countryside outside Perth it could clearly be seen in the evening sky with no clouds in sight

At Sydney's Darling Harbour the supermoon breaks through the clouds that had gathered on Monday evening

Brisbane was presented with a stunning view of the supermoon hovering at dusk with a plane taking off

The supermoon - at its biggest and brightest for nearly 70 years -captured in incredible detail on Monday night

'There are lots of great photos of people appearing to be holding the moon in their hand and that kind of thing. You can get really creative with it,' he said.

While the quality might not be quite as good as a camera, Ingalls said a smartphone can do the trick if used properly.

'Tap the screen and hold your finger on the object [in this case, the moon] to lock the focus. Then slide your finger up or down to darken or lighten the exposure,' he said.

There's always a lot of talk about supermoons so is this one really any more special than the others? Yes.

'At perigree - the point at which the moon is closest to Earth - the moon can be as much as 14 percent closer to Earth than at apogee, when the moon is farthest from our planet. The full moon appears that much larger in diameter and because it is larger shines 30% more moonlight onto the Earth,' a statement from NASA said

And if you miss it, you'll have to wait until 2034.

The moon is at its biggest and brightest because it will be 30,000km closer to earth than normal

The dark sky showed the supermoon in full force as photographers from Brisbane jumped at the rare sight

Beautiful shot of the supermoon, in a dark yellow contrast with previous images, hovering above the Sydney Opera House

The supermoon captured by a photographer as it shines brightly through cloud cover on Monday

People watching the rare supermoon in south Sydney as the luminous sight enriches the sky

A crowd gathered in south Sydney on Balg Hill to watch the rare supermoon grace the night sky

The grandeur of the supermoon shown behind a train on the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Monday night

The majestic supermoon graces the beautiful city of Hobart as it appears over the mountain range

The supermoon can be seen captured above Hobart as the sun begins to disappear

Clouds momentarily block the full view of the incredible supermoon that sparkled against the waters of Hobart on Monday

The large supermoon appears a dark luminous yellow on Monday as it hangs in the sky over Perth

People around the world will be eagerly awaiting the moons rise on Monday as it's set to be the biggest supermoon in living memory




Sheriff Wants To Abolish Bail System That Keeps Poor People In Jail

By Emma G. Gallegos in News on Nov 15, 2016 4:49PM



Sheriff Tom Dart

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart is calling for an end to Illinois' cash bail system, which penalizes poor people and sometimes even keeps them in jail long past their actual sentence. His office, which runs the Cook County jails, says that they are drafting legislation to reform the system.

Right now sheriff's officials say that there are as many as 200 inmates in jail right now who can't come up with the $1,000 they need to make bail, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. And 1,024 inmates last year spent more time in jail than their actual sentence, because they couldn't make bail while they awaited trial, the Chicago Tribune says.

Dart is proposing that defendants undergo a more thorough background check, like those done at the federal level, to determine whether defendants should be released from jail as they await trial.

It would be a much more thorough evaluation, Cara Smith, Dart's top policy official told the Sun-Times. "The goal would be to provide judges with much more information."

Washington D.C. has a no-cash bail system and Colorado has considered it.

Civil rights advocates say cash bail, which disproportionally hits people of color, violates the Eighth Amendment that bars excessive bail, fines, and cruel and unusual punishment. Last month they filed a suit challenging cash bail in Cook County.

"Money bail is one of the most senseless, devastating, and anachronistic features of modern American law, and it is shockingly applied in Cook County to keep thousands of people in jail cells at taxpayer expense every day  not because they are dangerous but because they are poor," Alec Karakatsanis of Civil Rights Corps, told Injustice Watch. His organization, which has challenged similar practices in Alabama, Texas and California, teamed up with local firms and the MacArthur Justice Center at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.

Aside from humanitarian concerns, some government officials are pointing out that keeping people locked up because they're too poor to make bail is a poor use of taxpayer money. County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who wants to reduce the number of nonviolent offenders in jail, says she is in favor of bond reform.

The County Board will be hosting a hearing Thursday on its bond practices.
Daniel Adams, 41, was paddling face-down on his surfboard when 'out of nowhere' a shark cut through the surface water and sunk its teeth into his right foot

A surfer feared he was going to lose his foot after he was bitten by an aggressive 6ft long bull shark in waist-deep waters in Florida.

Daniel Adams, 41, was paddling face-down on his surfboard when 'out of nowhere' a shark cut through the surface water and sunk its teeth into his right foot.

The horrified dad-of-one looked down to see his entire foot had disappeared into the enormous shark's mouth as it clung on with a 'death grip' in Florida.

Powerless to move, Daniel simply had to wait until the shark released his grip, before frantically swimming towards the shore with blood pouring from his leg.

Miraculously the shark didn't follow as he pulled himself on to the beach at Mayport Naval Base in northeast Florida, near the popular St Augustine resort.

He suffered 14 knife-like puncture wounds and needed 38 stitches from nurses who gave him the award for 'the worst shark bite of the year'.

Speaking of his ordeal, Daniel said: 'I was laying down on my board and all of a sudden I just felt this horrendous pressure on my foot, it was like a steel trap that just clamped down on my foot.

'The shark put a death grip hold on my leg as my entire foot was in his mouth prior to his teeth sinking into me because the bite marks are closer to my ankle.

'I was powerless to move and it had me for a few seconds.

'The scary thing is that I never saw it coming and had no advance warning.

'The shark then opened his mouth and let me go. I pulled my foot up and all I could see was blood.

'I knew I was in trouble and time was against me, I couldn't stay out in that water bleeding as much as I was, so I quickly paddled for shore.

'My foot looked like it had been filed open by a butcher knife in several places.

'I was dripping blood everywhere.'

He suffered 14 knife-like puncture wounds and needed 38 stitches from nurses who gave him the award for 'the worst shark bite of the year'

Dad-of-one Daniel believes he was bitten by a bull shark (pictured), often found in shallow waters and like to feed near the river mouth (file photo)

Miraculously the shark didn't follow as he pulled himself on to the beach at Mayport Naval Base in northeast Florida, near the popular St Augustine resort

Powerless to move, Daniel simply had to wait until the shark released his grip, before frantically swimming towards the shore with blood pouring from his leg

Daniel had been in the water for around half an hour when the shark attacked him as he was laying down on his surfboard.

Fearing more sharks would be attracted to the trail of blood, he raced to shore and was met by rescue teams who placed a tourniquet around his mangled foot.

Ambulance crews then rushed him to hospital where he claims nurses gave him the award for 'the worst shark bite of the year'.

Dad-of-one Daniel believes he was bitten by a bull shark, often found in shallow waters and like to feed near the river mouth.

And he only thinks the shark let go of his leg because it was a 'territorial' attack.

Daniel says he has surfed in the waters near to the Mayport Naval Base in northeast Florida for 25 years but the incident on October 30 is 'unnerving'

Daniel says he has surfed in the waters near to the Mayport Naval Base in northeast Florida for 25 years but the incident on October 30 is 'unnerving'.

He claims there were no risk factors or typical signs of sharks nearby on the day of the incident.

'I've seen sharks, I've had them swim underneath, I've seen them strike the surface of the water but I've never had one act this way,' he added.
Adrian Stroe, 28, has been jailed for two years after he was snared by a vigilante paedophile group trying to cheat on his pregnant girlfriend with a 13-year-old girl

A Romanian builder has been jailed for two years after he was snared by a vigilante paedophile group while trying to cheat on his pregnant girlfriend with a 13-year-old girl.

Adrian Stroe, 28, was caught on camera by the members of The Hunted One, a paedophile-hunting group, as he waited next to East Croydon train station.

One of the hunters, referred to as B in court, lured him there after talking to him online pretending to be a teenage girl called Lucy Stephens.

'Lucy' had made it clear she was only 13 and had never had sex before but Stroe, 28, had told her it would 'only hurt for one or two minutes'.

The builder messaged Lucy, sent pictures of his penis and told her he was 24, instead of 28.

At a previous hearing Stroe admitted one count of attempting to meet a child after sexual grooming and one count of attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act.

Today at Croydon Crown Court he was jailed for two years and told he would have to sign the sex offenders register.

Prosecutor Grace Ong said: 'B has been using the chat application to pose as prepubescent children under 16.

'He has been doing this in order to catch sexual predators engaging with young people for sexual reasons.

'He does this in the hope to try and make a difference and create awareness for young people and families so they are aware there are sexual predators on the internet.'

The court heard the paedophile hunter posed as 'Lucy Stephens' on the messaging app Waplog, and received a a message from the defendant on August 18.

Lies: The builder sent pictures of his penis and told the 'teenage girl' he was 24, instead of 28

The Romanian builder was caught on camera by the members of The Hunted One as he waited next to East Croydon train station. Police eventually arrived (pictured) and he was arrested

The prosecutor said: 'He (Stroe) sent the message "Hi, how are you?" and he sent a picture of a penis. B then replied "I'm Lucy and I'm 13".'

She added: 'The communication turned sexual very early on with the defendant asking 'Lucy' if she watched porn movies.

'Shortly afterwards he sent a picture of himself in the bath with the message, "You come to me?" and told Lucy he wanted her there "for fun maybe" and so they could shower together.'

The conversations went on and became more and more explicit with Stroe sending pictures of his penis and also pornographic images of men and women having sex.

In one conversation he listed the things he wanted to do with Lucy, saying he wanted her to perform a sex act on him and engage in full intercourse.

At a previous hearing Stroe (shown being caught) admitted one count of attempting to meet a child after sexual grooming and one count of attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act

Ms Ong said: 'He also sent her a picture involving anal sex and asked if she knew about anal sex and said "maybe we try".'

'B' eventually arranged for 'Lucy' to meet with Stroe at East Croydon Railway station in south London on September 3.

In the video of the confrontation a member of The Hunted One said: 'You like meeting children for sex do you?'

Stroe said: 'Really it's not for that.'

When asked, he failed to explain why he had planned to meet the underage girl.

Told he was in 'big trouble', Stroe replied: 'I think so - big trouble.'

Today at Croydon Crown Court Stroe (pictured) was jailed for two years and told he would have to sign the sex offenders register

Police eventually arrived and he was arrested.

In mitigation James Hasslacher for the defence said his client was remorseful and said: 'He had everything going for him, he was employed and his girlfriend was pregnant at the time.

'He is totally distraught at how he got himself into this position.'

The court heard he had been in the country for four years and worked at a building site in Imperial Wharf.

In sentencing, Recorder Richard Merz said: 'You contacted B on August 18 with the message "Hi, how are you?" and you sent a picture of a penis.

'She said she was 13 and you told her you were 24. Right from the start you knew you were dealing with a 13-year-old female.'

He said the offences were 'so serious that no fine or community sentence could be justified'.

For the count of attempting to meet a child after sexual grooming Stroe was sentenced to two years imprisonment, and for one count of attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act he was given 12 months, both to run concurrently.

He was also made the subject of an indefinite sexual harm prevention order preventing him from owning a computer unless approved by police and stopping him from approaching or contacting any female child under the age of 16.

Stroe, of Croydon, south London, bowed his head in the dock as the sentence was read out.

Speaking outside court, a member of The Hunted One said: 'We welcome the conviction and the sentence of two years.
Osborne said he backed May but warned only Tory MPs were consulted

George Osborne has warned Theresa May the country did not vote for her to be Prime Minister.

In a new swipe at his former colleague, the ex-Chancellor warned the un-elected Mrs May she must tackle 'some of the most difficult choices our country has faced since the Second World War'.

Mr Osborne was brutally sacked by Mrs May when she assembled her first Cabinet in July.

Mrs May took the Tory crown and No 10 in July after her final rival dropped out of the Conservative leadership contest before a vote of party members began.

Ex-chancellor George Osborne last night took a swipe at Theresa May, warning no one outside the ranks of Tory MPs had voted for her to be Prime Minister

Mr Osborne made the swipe at the Prime Minister to Tom Bradby on ITV's The Agenda last night, pictured

Speaking on ITV's The Agenda last night, Mr Osborne said: 'I actually voted for her to become the Conservative leader and therefore Prime Minister.

'Well there were votes for the MPs, the rest of the country didn't get a vote.'

Mr Osborne insisted he 'totally respected' Mrs May's decision to sack him after he played a leading role in David Cameron's doomed Remain campaign in the referendum.

And she backed the Prime Minister's refusal to involve Nigel Farage in building ties with Donald Trump in the US.

He said: 'Theresa May is a very sensible person who is not going to do that.

'The British Prime Minister or the British Government cannot contract its foreign policy out to Nigel Farage.'

Mr Osborne was fired from the Government in July but was handed a top gong by David Cameron after the referendum, which he collected on Monday, pictured

Mr Osborne, who has since the referendum insisted he accepts the result, told the programme delivering Brexit would be an era-defining challenge.

He said: ' If we choose to weaken our economic relationship with Europe where half of all the things we make and sell abroad go, then the people who are going to pay the price are indeed the very people who were crying out for help, who feel marginalised or economically insecure.

'They will be the first to lose their job, or see their income fall, or not have a secure retirement.'
A young father is fighting for his life after a car crash which killed two of his friends.

Yousif Al-Mussawi, 26, was driving a BMW near Brentwood, Essex, on Saturday night when it veered off the road and collided with a tree.

The crash instantly killed friends Farhad-Zubair Maqbool and Yahya Sharif, both 25 and from Acton, west London, who were passengers in the vehicle.

It is understood Mr Al-Mussawi, of Maida Vale, London, is currently being treated at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, where he is being kept in an induced coma.

Yousif Al-Mussawi, 26, of Maida Vale, London, is fighting for his life at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge after a crash in Essex on Saturday night

Mr Al-Mussawi was driving friends Farhad-Zubair Maqbool (left) and Yahya Sharif (right), who were instantly killed when his BMW collided with a tree

He is believed to have moved to the UK from Iraq to study engineering at Kingston University, before marrying in 2011 and having a daughter shortly afterwards.

Friends of all three men have set up a GoFundMe page to support their families, with almost 8,000 of a 10,000 target raised so far.

A statement on the page said: 'As most of you may already know, three of our friends were driving to Essex when their car lost control and collided with a tree.

'Farhad and Yayha were pronounced dead at the scene, while Yousief (sic) underwent eight hours of surgery and is currently in critical condition.

'They were driving to drop Yayha at his university and there was no other car involved.

'All three were good natured people, and if you know any of them, you can certainly attest to this.

'They had ambitions for the future, and now the future on this earth is gone - for at least two of them.

'While this is so hard to accept, we must channel our feelings at this time to help support their families who we class as our own.

'Money raised will be shared evenly between their three families for use in these difficult times.

'The money raised can be used to cover things like funeral arrangements, charity in their name for their memory and good deeds to live on.'

The father-of-one, pictured, came to the UK from Iraq and studied engineering at Kingston University

Friends of all three men have been raising money for their families, with 8,000 of a 10,000 target raised so far. Pictured is Mr Al-Mussawi

It is believed they were driving to Anglia Ruskin University's Chelmsford campus where Mr Sharif studied.

Fellow Anglia Ruskin student Omar Elsisi, 23, told the Evening Standard: 'Yahya was a decent man and well-liked among students. He would help anyone without ever asking for something in return.'

He added: 'He was very young, we are broken up about it. He loved his friends and they were very close.'

It is understood the alarm was raised on Saturday night after the trio failed to answer phone messages.

Friends of Mr Maqbool wrote on Facebook he was 'full of life and ambition' and that the 'world is not the same place anymore'.

Essex Police is investigating the incident and is appealing for witnesses who were on the northbound A12 at Ingatestone at around 11.20pm on Saturday night.
The 54-year-old lawyer was gunned down in Brunswick last March

Three sons of Joseph 'Pino' Acquaro suing uncle for larger share of estate

The sons of a murdered gangland lawyer are suing their uncle for a bigger slice of the $1.6 million estate.

Joseph 'Pino' Acquaro was a lawyer for clients linked with notorious gangs such as the Calabrian mafia and Ndrangheta, but was gunned down as he walked towards his car after closing his Gelobar cafe at Brunswick East in the early hours March 15.

Investigations have been ongoing into his death but have come to a plateau even though The Age report a prime suspect was interviewed in the week after the shooting.

Joseph 'Pino' Acquaro was a lawyer for clients linked with notorious gangs such as the Calabrian mafia and Ndrangheta, but was gunned down outside his business in Brunswick in March

It is believed a $200,000 bounty had been put on Mr Acquaro's head before he was killed

The execution-style hit on Mr Acquaro is being investigated by Victoria Police's gangland squad, the Purana Taskforce, which was set up in 2003 in response to the city's underworld war.

It is believed a $200,000 bounty had been put on Mr Acquaro's head before he was killed.

The 54-year-old had been warned by detectives that his life was in danger, just two months before he was murdered.

Now his sons have filed a writ declaring they want a share greater than 20 per cent of the $1.6 million estate.

Nearly eight months after his death his three estranged sons Alfred, Alessio and Adriano are seeking more than their $320,351 in equated shares.

The writ, filed to the Supreme Court, is suing their uncle Massimo Acquaro who is the executor of the will.

The sons all aged in their 20s had been distant from their father for about three years, but are claiming Mr Acquaro's estate failed to uphold its duty to support them.

Daily Mail Australia contacted Aitken Partners, who are representing the sons, but were unable to comment.
Juan Majendie and Ilona Wroblewska outside court

A cheating love rat joined forces with his wife to humiliate his mistress by sending naked photos of her to her boss.

Juan Majendie, 30, from Finchley, North London, had been struggling to decide between the woman and his girlfriend, Ilona Wroblewska, 22.

He had originally told the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, that he loved her and was going to end his relationship.

During a holiday in Africa with his partner, he secretly messaged his mistress and the pair slept together when he returned.

But again struggling to pick between the two, Majendie told his lover he did not want to see her again.

The victim received a letter from Ms Wroblewska on May 25 this year telling her she had got her hands on naked images of the woman.

'On June 7, the victim woke up at 9am to find two fake Facebook accounts with seven pictures of her, one of which was naked,' said prosecutor Tracy Mesmain at an earlier hearing.

'The victim was in states of undress and sexually posing. These pictures were sent to her friends and her employment.

'This was of great embarrassment to her and added difficulty at work with her boss.'

Wroblewska admitted disclosing private photographs back in June, five months before her husband, who confessed last week at Snaresbrook Crown Court.

'This stems from a matter of the heart,' Ms Mesmain said previously.

'Mr Majendie was seeing two women at once, he couldn't make his mind up.'

Juan Majendie, 30, had been struggling to decide between the woman and his girlfriend, Illona Wroblewska, 22

During a holiday in Africa with his girlfriend, he secretly messaged his mistress and the pair slept together when he returned

Judge Caroline English adjourned Majendie's sentence and bailed him ahead of reports.

Majendie, of Lodge Lane, Finchley, north London, admitted disclosing private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress and was bailed ahead of sentence at Snaresbrook Crown Court on December 9.

Wroblewska, also of Lodge Lane, Finchley, north London, admitted disclosing private photographs at a previous hearing and was given a six week prison sentence suspended for 12 months.

She was also handed an indefinite restraining order barring contact with the woman and ordered to pay 250 compensation along with a 115 surcharge.
A judge has ruled American businessman Nick Loeb must name his former lovers at the request of his ex-fiance Sofia Vergara in a bitter row over their frozen embryo.

Mr Loeb wants to raise the frozen embryo as children to realize his dream of becoming a father, but the actress, 44, wants them destroyed.

During a court session to determine the outcome, a California judge ruled he must name two of his former girlfriends who underwent abortions 20 years ago.

A judge has ruled American businessman Nick Loeb (right) must name his former lovers at the request of his ex-fiance Sofia Vergara (left) in a bitter row over their frozen embryo

Mr Loeb wants to raise the frozen embryo as children to realize his dream of becoming a father, but the actress, 44, wants them destroyed

In May 2014, the pair split up and Mr Loeb texted Ms Vergara: 'We still have those 2 frozen babys so I guess we r always going to have some kind of weird connection.'

Mr Loeb, 41, appealed the decision, but his former partner's lawyers want to question both women under oath to investigate his sexual past.

He has appealed the decision and told Page Six he would rather go to jail than reveal the names, saying he fears they would become subjected to scrutiny and shame because of the high-profile nature of the case.

The papers state Mr Loeb told her that although they were no longer a couple, he still wanted to implant the embryos and become a father, but Ms Vergara said she wanted them destroyed

Modern Family actress Ms Vergara said a child needs more than a mother last year, adding: 'It needs a loving relationship. Parents that get along, that don't hate each other.'

In May 2014, the pair split up and Mr Loeb texted Ms Vergara: 'We still have those 2 frozen babys so I guess we r always going to have some kind of weird connection.'

The papers state Mr Loeb told her that although they were no longer a couple, he still wanted to implant the embryos and become a father, but Ms Vergara said she wanted them destroyed.

He tried to get Vergara to agree that if one of them died the other one would have control of the embryos, but she did not respond.

Mr Loeb filed a complaint over the embryos last August in California.

He now wants to have the embryos implanted into a surrogate.

Mr Loeb confessed in a New York Times op-ed that a girlfriend aborted his baby when he was in his 20s without his input and that a second ex-lover terminated her pregnancy when he was 19.

Forbes reported in September that she was the highest earning TV actress on the planet, raking in a reported $43 million in the past year.

She has an adult son called Manolo with her high-school sweetheart, Joe Gonzalez, but a year later in 1993 they divorced.

The Columbia-born actress started dating True Blood co-star Joe Manganiello in July 2014, before getting engaged on Christmas Day 2014 later that year.
A Frenchman has been killed by 'a notoriously aggressive sheep' that local villagers have described as being a 'well known trouble maker'.

The 94-year-old's body was found by the side of an isolated footpath near the village of Cestas, south of Bordeaux.

Police believe the pensioner was killed by a sheep having gone out for a walk in the countryside.

A Frenchman has been killed by 'a notoriously aggressive sheep' that local villagers have described as being a 'well known trouble maker'. The file picture above shows a sheep attacking a man in Brazil

There were wounds across his face and body, and a notoriously violent sheep was found nearby.

The criminal forensics experts now believe the animal charged the man with his head, knocked him to the ground, and then trampled him to death using his hooves.

'The sheep was a well known troublemaker, he was always charging at people,' said a local resident.

'Complaints had been made before about the animal, but he was still roaming free. Now this has happened.'

Police believe the pensioner was killed by a sheep having gone out for a walk in the countryside. The file picture above shows a separate animal attack

Sud Ouest, the local newspaper, confirmed that a number of people had seen the 'aggressive sheep', and that a local politician was also a victim.

She suffered a fracture and heaving bruising after approaching the animal in the wake of the attack, when she was visiting the dead man's family in Cestas.

A police spokesman confirmed that the sheep was later 'rounded up' and has since been put down. The man's body was discovered on Monday afternoon.

Sheep are thought of as passive creatures, but can actually be extremely aggressive.
A ban on second homes could be extended in Cornwall after five picturesque villages called for new builds to be used exclusively as primary residences.

The villages on the Rame peninsula, known as Cornwall's forgotten south east corner, want to follow St Ives and include the ban in their neighbourhood plan.

In May, more than 80 per cent of voters in St Ives backed proposals to stop second homes being built after a rise in the number of holiday properties was blamed for a shortage of affordable housing.

And now officials from the five Rame parishes have submitted plans saying housing developments should only get permission if they are reserved for full-time residents.

Five picturesque Cornish villages are calling for a ban on new-build houses being sold as second homes, pictured is Whitsand Bay on the Rame peninsula

The five parishes of the Rame peninsula - Millbrook, Maker with Rame, St John, Sheviock and Antony - want to follow the lead of St Ives

The move came after the High Court ruled last week that the vote in St Ives was lawful.

George Trubody, Rame Peninsula Cornwall Councillor, said the spiralling numbers of holiday homes must be brought under control.

'In order to give local families a chance of having their own home, our first policy was, and still is, a control on future second homes on the peninsula,' he saidm according to the Plymouth Herald.

'From all the consultation events and evidence gathered, our community is adamant that we have enough second homes and something needs to be done.'

The five parishes of the Rame peninsula - Millbrook, Maker with Rame, St John, Sheviock and Antony - joined forces in 2011 to work together on a plan.

The villages have some of the highest levels of second-home ownership in the UK.

Officials from the five Rame parishes have submitted plans saying housing developments should only get permission if they are reserved for full-time residents

In May, more than 80 per cent of voters in St Ives (shown) backed proposals to stop second homes being built

According to the most recent figures, 39.9 per cent of properties in St John parish are second homes, the second-highest rate in Cornwall.

In Maker with Rame parish, which includes the twin villages of Kingsand and Cawsand, the figure is 33.3 per cent, the fifth highest in the county.

The plans have been submitted to Cornwall Council for consultation.

The five parishes are hoping to follow the example of St Ives which voted overwhelmingly to ban second homes from being built earlier this year.

It came after figures revealed that 48 per cent of homes in the town centre were second homes or holiday lets.

The town has been dubbed Kensington-on-Sea because of the number of rich holidaymakers who own houses there.

Concerns were raised that local people in the town were struggling to stay in the area thanks to increasingly expensive house prices, and rents that spiral during the summer months.

St Ives was not the first to draw a line in the sand as Lynton and Lynmouth in Devon banned any new second homes being built in 2013.
There's a new member of the Bush family: a rescue puppy.

George W. Bush says he and his wife, Laura Bush, visited the Jan Rees-Jones Animal Care Center in Dallas last week just to thank employees for their work, but they ended up leaving with a puppy.

The former president wrote on Facebook that they named the puppy Freddy, adding that 'even our cats Bob and Bernadette are finding Freddy's charm futile to resist.'

New addition: George W. Bush is pictured with his wife, Laura Bush and their new dog Freddy

The SPCA of Texas posted this picture on Twitter and said they were honored to welcome George W. Bush and his wife to the center

'Laura W. Bush and I are thrilled to introduce the newest member of our family, Freddy Bush,' he wrote. 'We visited the SPCA of Texas' Jan Rees-Jones Animal Care Center last Tuesday to thank them for their great work  and came home with a puppy.

'We already love him... If you could use a little extra joy in your life, consider adopting a pet from an animal shelter or rescue group.'

Bush spokesman Freddy Ford told the Dallas Morning News the puppy is an Australian Shepherd mix.

Ford says the pooch is about 12 weeks old and was among several dogs that were abandoned in southern Dallas last month.

George W. Bush carries his dog Barney as Laura Bush holds Miss Beazley after stepping off Air Force One upon arrival in Waco, Texas in December 2005

The SPCA of Texas tweeted: 'We were honored to welcome President George W. Bush & Mrs. Laura Bush to Jan Rees-Jones Animal Care Center where they adopted Freddy Bush!'

The family's most famous pet, a Scottish Terrier named Barney who spent eight years in the White House, died in 2013 at the age of 12.
Fan Xiaoqin, a 9-year-old boy from a destitute family in rural Jiangxi Province, resembles Jack Ma, China's prominent business magnate. [File photo]

Without an asphalt highway in Yanhui Village, Yongfeng, Jiangxi Province, a family that lives at the end of a muddy alley is too destitute to keep lights on even though darkness engulfs the entire town at night.

The poverty-stricken and desolate household of Fan Jiafa, the father who became disabled after losing one of his legs, the mentally impaired mother, the grandma who suffers from Alzheimer 's disease and two sons, may have never become known to society had it not been the resemblance of their youngest son to Jack Ma.

It was not until last year when a cousin of Fan's neighborhood returning from Anhui Province realized the similarities in appearance and posted the boy's photos online.

Fan Xiaoqin, a 9-year-old boy from a destitute family in rural Jiangxi Province, resembles Jack Ma, China's prominent business magnate. [File photo]

The poverty-stricken boy has educational difficulties, said his current head teacher from the Yanhui Primary School, where Fan is a grade-one student this year.

For unclear reasons, Fan stopped attending school a week after he enrolled two years ago and cancelled his schooling the second year when he suffered a hand fracture, the head teacher recalled.

During one extracurricular activity, he stared at his classmates playing eagle and chicks at the playground without any attempt to join in and his classmates seemed to totally ignore his presence.

Fan disagrees with the judgment that his younger son may be less smart than his contemporaries, saying his boy would be more intelligent if the family could send him to better schools. However, living on meager incomes, they are unable to do so.

Fan Xiaoqin and his family. [File photo]

The family relies heavily on the government subsidies, minimum incomes and pensions totaling about 700 yuan (US$102) a month. And the government also compensates them with an extra income of 5,000 yuan.

The turning point of the family began in November, when several philanthropists drove from Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, to Fan's house and helped him arrange electric wires and equipped the family with home appliances.

Urged by a considerable number of netizens, Ma last week agreed to finance Fan to cover his pedagogic costs till the day he graduates from university. But he also highlighted through the announcement issued by Alibaba, his online conglomerate, at their official account on Weibo (China's equivalent to Twitter) that it is easy to reimburse the education and livelihood of a single child, but much more is required to subside thousands of children living in poverty. Systematic change is needed so that a bright future can be brought to thousands of poverty-stricken children, the announcement proclaimed.
Leaders of a notorious Sydney gang ordered a gunman to shoot a 'standover' man in front of his two young daughters, a murder trial as heard.

A Brothers 4 Life boss, Farhad Qaumi, 34, and his brother Mumtaz Qaumi, 31, are accused of hiring a shooter to kill debt collector Joe Antoun after receiving a contract to carry out the hit, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Horrifying footage seen at the judge-alone trial shows a hooded man approach Mr Antoun's Strathfield home, knock on the front door and shoot the victim, before fleeing on foot.

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Horrifying footage seen at the judge-alone trial shows a hooded man approach Mr Antoun's Strathfield home, knock on the front door and shoot the victim, before fleeing on foot

Leaders of a notorious Sydney gang ordered a gunman to shoot Joe Antoun (left), a murder trial as heard.

The Qaumi brothers have pleaded not guilty to murder.

Mr Antoun was at home with his wife and children at 9.35pm on December 16, 2013 when a CCTV monitor in his home showed a man at the front door, Crown Prosecutor Ken McKay SC told the court.

'(Mr Antoun's wife) went to a window and looked out and saw a person and called out to that person, asking who it was.She heard the person say, 'It's Adam. I've got a package for Joe',' Mr Mckay said.

'As he opened the door, Mr Antoun was shot a number of times and died in his house.'

A former business partner of Mr Antoun, Elias 'Les' Elias, was allegedly involved in the arranged murder but is currently living in the Philippines and refuses to come back to Australia until after the trial.

Before Mr Antoun's death Mr Elias had agreed to purchase Mumtaz Qaumi's business Erina Kebab House for $190,000 with a deposit of $40,000, even though the business had previously been advertised online for only $25,000.

Mr Antoun was at home with his wife at 9.35pm on December 16, 2013 when a CCTV monitor in his home showed a man at the front door

A former business partner of Mr Antoun, Elias 'Les' Elias, was allegedly involved in the arranged murder but is currently living in the Philippines and refuses to come back to Australia until after the trial (Mr Antoun pictured left)

'Farhad Qaumi and Mumtaz Qaumi had accepted a contract to kill Joseph Antoun. In conversations, it was indicated that a person, Les Elias or Elias Elias, was a person involved in that contract,' Mr McKay said.

Mr Elias declined to make a statement when police visited him in the Philippines.
Paul Mason, 42, was jailed for ten weeks, given a two-year restraining order and ordered to pay 100 compensation

A 'serial stalker' who was last year jailed for preying on EastEnders' actress Brooke Kinsella has been imprisoned again for targeting another woman.

Paul Mason, 42, was sentenced to six months in jail last January for stalking Ms Kinsella, who is also an active anti-knife crime campaigner.

However he then bombarded Bedford councillor Louise Jackson from his prison cell with hundreds of love letters calling her 'darling' and sending magazine cutouts of dresses he wanted her to wear.

He was jailed for ten weeks, given a two-year restraining order and ordered to pay 100 compensation.

Mason, who is homeless, was sentenced to an additional six weeks in jail for masturbating on a train in January.

The court heard how Mason became obsessed with Ms Jackson after meeting her by chance at London St Pancras station earlier this year.

She took pity on him and gave him her business card after hearing he was homeless.

However she soon received a barrage of letters at her home address and at the Bedford council offices where she worked.

In a victim impact statement, Councillor Jackson said: 'When I came to court to give my evidence, the defence suggested to me that this offence was not that serious as I only received a few letters over a relatively short period of time.

'On the face of it, I suppose you could make that argument. But the impact of that whole episode has been greater than you could have imagined.

'I found the first batch of letters very disturbing and frightening. It was clear the letters were from someone in prison.

'What was written was personal and targeted. Whilst I'm reasonably used to getting communication I'm better to ignore, this did not fall in that category.'

A court heard how Mason first targeted former EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella (left) before preying on Bedford councillor Louise Jackson (right)

Mason had previously been jailed for stalking Ms Kinsella.

He obtained her phone number through a website and messaged her saying: 'Your wedding dress is ready pumpkin.'

Once he even visited her brother's grave.

Ms Jackson said once she identified who Mason was, the situation felt 'even more sinister'.

She said: 'It became even more frightening because it [was] clear his previous convictions did not deter him and he was a serial stalker.

'Despite being a councillor I have always felt safe and secure in my own home.

'After receiving the letters, I felt exposed and vulnerable. I suffered many sleepless nights.'
Deputy First Class Dean Bardes (pictured) was patrolling I-75 in Estero, Florida on Monday when a driver got out of his car and started beating him during a traffic stop

A Good Samaritan saved a sheriff deputy's life on Monday, when an enraged man started beating the police officer during a traffic stop.

The incident happened in the morning, on I-75 in Estero, Florida, near the Corkscrew Road exit.

The officer, identified by WinkNews.com as Deputy First Class Dean Bardes, was working on the freeway when he tried to pull over a man driving a blue Toyota.

Instead, the man took off going more than 100 miles per hour. Bardes, a 12 year veteran of the force, gave chase before the two finally came to a stop on the off-ramp.

That's when the driver got out of his car and got into a confrontation with Bardes, beating the officer on the side of the road. Bardes has allegedly told supervisors that the man was armed.

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A Good Samaritan witnessed the attack, got out of his car and shot the suspect three times. The suspect later died at the hospital, after paramedics tried to revive him at the scene (above)

Another man was driving past the scene and witnessed the brutal beating. So he got out of the car and told the man repeatedly to get off of the officer.

Another witness, Shanta Holditch, told NBC 2 that the suspect 'refused to get off the officer and the officer kept yelling, "shoot him, shoot him, shoot him,"' to the other man.

The other man, who had a concealed weapons license, complied and shot the suspect three times.

'I heard like three shots. He fell down on top of the police officer,' Mr Smith, a witness, said. 'After a moment, the police officer rolled him back over, got on his mic, then rolled over back on the ground besides the guy.'

Neither the Good Samaritan or the suspect have been identified. Above, the scene of the shooting near the Corkscrew Road exit

Police kept the exit closed for more than nine hours on Monday, as they combed the scene for evidence

Both the suspect and the officer were taken to the hospital. The suspect died from his injuries while the officer was treated and released. Deputy Bardes was not shot in the incident.

Neither the suspect or the Good Samaritan have been identified.
The body of a young backpacker who was found dead in a toilet cubicle in Africa after she was raped and murdered will be returned to Australia this weekend.

Elly Rose Warren, 20, from Mordialloc, south-east of Melbourne, was tragically killed last Wednesday while on a volunteer and diving holiday in Mozambique.

Her family were expecting her to return home last Monday before leaving again for a trip to New Zealand with her boyfriend, but she never made it that far.

A statement released by her family and seen by the Herald Sun confirmed that an autopsy had been done and Elly's body would be returned to Australia on Sunday.

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Elly Warren, from Melbourne, was travelling Africa before she tragically died on Wednesday

The 20-year-old had been holidaying and doing a volunteer stint in Mozambique

Step-dad Dave Cafarella said Elly's family hoped that she would be remembered as a 'fiercely determined young woman' who was compassionate and free-spirited.

'She was and will always be much loved by her family and many friends,' Mr Cafarella said.

'Our main focus is to get our girl home now and treat her with dignity and respect she deserves.'

Paul Warren, the distraught father of the avid traveller, flew across to Mozambique this week in an effort to bring his daughter's body home.

On Thursday he revealed his heartbreak over his daughter's terrible death.

A tearful Mr Warren told 7News: 'She even told me, 'It's dangerous dad, I don't know if I should be going over there'.

A GoFundMe page remembering Elly as 'an adventurous, fun loving girl' whose life was 'cut short in the most tragic circumstances' has raised close to $7,000 to support Ms Warren's grieving family.

A portion of that figure will be donated in Elly's honour to International Marine Volunteers.

An autopsy on her body has been conducted and she will be flown back to Australia on Sunday

Mozambique police are still searching for answers, with no suspects, after Elly was last seen dropping her bag off at a beachside hostel.

Ms Warren's family were told she was raped and attacked as she made her way back to the hostel alone after attending a party on Wednesday.

But police say she died a sudden death with no signs of bruising or a struggle, according to The Age.

'It looks like a sudden death,' Inhamabane province Detective Juma Dauto told the publication.

'We are in doubt as to what could have happened.'

Detective Dauto also said there were no suspects, and witnesses allege they saw her go into the toilet for '20 or 30 minutes'.

As investigations continue, an autopsy will be held in Mozambique capital Maputo.

Days before she set off for Africa, the 20-year-old told her father: 'It's dangerous Dad, I don't know if I should be going over there.'

The young woman had booked two nights at the Wuyani Pariango backpackers in Tofo Bay

The young traveller had booked two nights at the beachfront Wuyani Pariango backpackers in the picturesque Tofo Bay but she failed to return to her room.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, the hostel manager, who wished to remain anonymous, said staff members had seen the woman before she went missing.

'She came in alone to drop off her bag and then left to meet a friend,' the hostel manager revealed.

'She had pre-booked her accommodation but never stayed here.'

Ms Warren's body was transported from Tofo Beach to the country's capital Maputo, some 500 kilometres away where a post-mortem was performed.

The hostel manager said staff saw Ms Warren drop her bag off before heading out to see a friend but she failed to return to her room (pictured is one of the rooms at the hostel)

'And I said to her: 'Yes it is, very dangerous'.'

On Thursday evening, hours after paying a moving Facebook tribute to his daughter, Mr Warren also revealed on social media an autopsy would be conducted to determine her cause of death.

'I would just like everyone to pray for our Elly right now,' he wrote on Facebook.

'She is at peace with Sam, our dog, who she grew up with and loved dearly. Thank you all for your thoughts and well wishes Elly touched us all in some special way.

'The funeral is going to take some time as Elly was in a remote fishing village called Pemba.

'There is going to be an investigation and autopsy, which I have been informed can take up to two weeks.

'I will be going over there in a few day to bring my baby back home. God bless you Elly Rose Warren.'

The young traveller had booked two nights at the Wuyani Pariango backpackers in Tofo Bay

Staff members at the hostel claimed they saw Ms Warren drop her bag off before heading back out to meet a friend

Her family, who found out about the young traveller's death in a heartbreaking late-night phone call from another backpacker, believe she became separated from her group before her body was later found in a toilet cubicle, The Age reported.

The revelation comes after her sister Kristy Warren took to Facebook to warn backpackers to be 'careful who they go [travelling] with'.

'My sister was in Africa whilst my mum got a phone call from one of the backpackers saying to her that her daughter has been murdered,' Ms Warren posted to Facebook.

'As I heard that my heart dropped. It is a parent's nightmare to get a phone call like this.'

Describing her sister as 'maybe too ambitious', she urged travellers to be vigilant when overseas.

'I want to say if you are thinking of going travelling or going overseas please be careful who you go with,' she wrote.

Ms Warren had been in the country since late September as part of Underwater Africa, a conservation program that 'helps protect the oceans'.

The volunteer tour's booking manager Graeme Warrack told Daily Mail Australia the young traveller had left their group the day before she was killed.

A room at the backpackers Ms Warren was last seen before her death

Ms Warren (pictured) has been killed while on a volunteer holiday to Mozambique, Africa

The 20-year-old from Mordialloc, in Melbourne's south-east suburbs, pictured with her boyfriend

'Elly arrived with us on the 27th of September and left our program on the November 8,' he said.

'We dropped her at her new accommodation at 5pm, to hear the news the next day has left us as broken as anyone can be, she was our friend and colleague.

'We're trying to find out where exactly she went once she left us, that's something we can't answer.'

Mr Warrack described Ms Warren as 'the life of the party' and said her death had taken a large toll on her fellow volunteers and scientists.

'Elly was an incredible volunteer who was doubtlessly the life and soul of any activity,' he said.

Ms Warren's mother, Nicole Cafarella told The Age her daughter was 'just one of those girls that wanted to travel the world and see everything she could before she was 30'.

Just days earlier Ms Warren had posted a video to Facebook of herself swimming with whale sharks off the Mozambique coast.

Her father Paul also shared a tribute on social media and even passed on his condolences to her boyfriend (right) in the midst of his own grief

Tributes flowed online from Ms Warren's friends and family following news of her death

Ms Warren's sister Kristy took to Facebook to share a tribute to her sister and to tell how her mother had received a call from a fellow backpacker telling her of the terrible news

Just days before her death Ms Warren (third from left) posted a video to Facebook of her diving with whale sharks

Dozens of online tributes flowed from Ms Warren's friends from Wednesday evening when news broke of her death.

'Taken way too soon, a gorgeous girl who had an amazing life ahead,' one girl wrote on Facebook.

'I feel like this is all just a f***ed up dream... It can't be true. Rip Elly Warren I'll never forget your huge infectious smile and crazy stories. I love you,' another posted.
Latino school they would be put into foster care when their parents are deported

A substitute physical education teacher has been fired after he reportedly told sixth graders their parents will be deported now Donald Trump has been elected president.

The staff member at Bret Harte Middle School, who has not been identified, was let go after he was secretly recorded making the racist remarks on a student's cellphone during class - just 24 hours after the historic vote.

He is heard saying: 'If you were born here, then your parents gotta go, then they gonna leave you behind and you will be in foster care.'

When an 11-year-old girl asked the teacher how authorities would find her family, the teacher is heard telling her he has all of her details.

A California substitute teacher at Bret Harte Middle School has been fired after he was caught on audio telling sixth graders their parents will be deported now that Donald Trump has been elected president

'I have your phone numbers, your address, your mama's address, your daddy's address. It's all in the system, sweetie,' the teacher said in audio obtained by NBC Los Angeles.

The teacher has been fired for the comments - but school officials will not reveal his name, insisting it is a 'personnel matter'.

Bret Harte Preparatory Middle School is predominantly made up of Latino students.

Outraged parent Jennifer Reynaga, whose daughter recorded the teacher on her friend's phone, said her daughter was nearly in tears when she told her about it.

In the wake of Trump's election, hate crimes and racist activity reported at some schools across the country.

But Reynaga said she would never expect it to come from a teacher.

'I would think the kids would do it, but I never thought a teacher would do it,' she told NBC.

When one of the students, an 11-year-old girl (who is shown above but not identified), asked the teacher how authorities would find her family, he is heard telling her he has their details

Outraged parent Jennifer Reynaga (pictured), whose daughter recorded the teacher on her friend's phone, said her daughter was nearly in tears when she told her about it

The student told CBS2 she was scared by the teacher's comments.

'I was scared because how can a teacher tell us that. He's just rubbing it in that Trump won. We already know that,' the student said, whose father is undocumented.

'I worry about my dad because I had a nightmare that he wasn't with me any more.'

Luis Reynaga told CBS2 that if parents do not speak up 'this is going to continue to happen.'

The Reynagas along with other students file complaints with the Los Angeles Unified School District.

They have since met with school officials who informed them the substitute teacher has been fired.

President-elect Donald Trump kicked off his presidential campaign by outlining his uncompromising stance on immigration

A district spokeswoman confirmed to Dailymail.com that the substitute teacher was 'immediately pulled from the classroom and put on a do not hire list.'

No further comment was given, citing 'personnel matters are confidential.'

Following the election last week, the school district board president, Steve Zimmer, told NBC that schools were working to reassure students who fearful of Trump's hard stance on immigration.

'You have scared children,' Zimmer said.

'One of most important things you can do is make sure that children who have qualified for (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) know that they are safe and their status is secure.'

Trump has said he plans to deport two to three million undocumented immigrants with criminal records from the country immediately - and has insisted that he will build his wall.

The Reynagas along with other students file complaints with the Los Angeles Unified School District. The district has declined to comment on the issue pending personnel matters

In his first extensive interview since he won the White House, Trump reassured his supporters that he will deport or incarcerate up to three million 'gang members' and 'drug dealers.'

In an interview with CBS's 60 Minutes that airs on Sunday evening - his first since winning the election - Trump insisted that he will build the wall along the US-Mexico border that was a vital part of his presidential campaign.

According to an report by immigration enforcement, fewer than 200,000 undocumented immigrants were deported in 2014 who were convicted of committing crimes.
Donald Trump says he wants to give defense testimony in the lawsuit brought against him by students of the now-defunct Trump University.

Lawyers for the president-elect filed documents on Monday saying that the billionaire wants to be examined by defense counsel, according to papers seen exclusively by DailyMail.com - but that he still needs more time.

They add that they are not seeking 'indefinite immunity' for Trump - just a delay until after his inauguration in January, although they do not give any date as to when the president-elect would be available to stand trial.

And Trump's lawyers add that if required by the court, the real estate mogul would make himself available for trial examination sometime in January  thereby not diverting him from the transition process at an important juncture.

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Donald Trump's lawyers have said the president elect wants to give defense testimony in a lawsuit brought against him by students of the now-defunct Trump University, according to filings seen by DailyMail.com

The former students allege that Trump duped them into paying up to $35,000 each for useless real estate courses

The filings were made just hours after the former students - who allege that Trump duped them into paying up to $35,000 each for useless real estate courses - said that regardless of his circumstances the trial should commence on its scheduled start date of November 28.

The students were responding after Trump's attorneys over the weekend sought to delay the trial process while he organizes the White House transition.

Trump's lawyers have claimed he cannot afford to be distracted by the case - which has dragged on in various iterations for over six and a half years.

The new documents say that despite the students' claims that Trump cannot delay any more because he has no new testimony to add, Trump has in fact only been cross-examined by the prosecution, and has not been examined by his own defense lawyers.

Trump's attorneys go on to declare that the students have not addressed 'the fact that Congress made clear the president-elects unhindered transition into the office of President is a matter of great public importance.'

'Defendants request a brief continuance to allow the president-elect to focus on the enormous responsibility of transitioning to the most demanding and important office in our government,' Trump's lawyers wrote.

'The fundamental failing of plaintiffs position is their unwillingness to acknowledge the extraordinary circumstances and important prudential considerations present here.'

Trump (above with the university president) is fighting the claims which date back to 2010

DailyMail.com reported Monday that Trump's ex-students were protesting the attempted delay , saying they - and their credit card bills - cannot wait any longer.

The plaintiffs say they have been waiting for over six and a half years and cannot delay any longer. They note that one of their group, Sonny Low, is almost 75 years old.

'This is not a separation-of-powers issue. Nor is it any other form of Constitutional issue. It is not even a close call,' the documents state.

'Defendant Donald J. Trump has provided over 10 hours of video-recorded sworn testimony about the facts and circumstances at issue here. There is no reason to believe president-elect Trump has any additional admissible testimony to offer, let alone testimony so important that he would be prejudiced if he is not able to present it at trial.'

The filings said that any delay would be a 'slippery slope' because Trump's schedule will only get more complicated once he is sworn in.

'This trial, like so many Trump University student-victims credit-card bills, is past due,' the documents state. 'For all the foregoing reasons, plaintiffs respectfully request that the Court deny defendants' ex parte application and confirm the November 28, 2016 trial.'

Trump's lawyers have argued that his election victory last week made for 'unprecedented circumstances'.

'The 69 days until inauguration are critical and all-consuming. President-Elect Trump must receive daily security briefings, make executive appointments (ultimately, thousands), and establish relationships with appointees, members of Congress, governors and foreign leaders.

'The time and attention to prepare and testify will take him away from imperative transition work at a critical time,' the documents, which were obtained by CNN, said.

They also suggested he testify only once in a taped recording to be used at both California trials to minimize his court appearances.

Former students say they were lured by false promises that Trump had 'handpicked' tutors for courses in real estate.

Trump, left, launching the university in 2005. His lawyers have argued that his election victory last week made for 'unprecedented circumstances'. U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel (right) is residing over the two California civil cases

Seminars were more akin to infomercials, they said, and they were never given access to the businessman and his industry 'secrets' as promised.

Their complaints date back to 2010 and refute Trump's claim he had little to do the university's operations.

U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel is residing over the two California civil cases.

Earlier this week he advised both parties to settle as the chaos of Trump's election win swept America.

Curiel said he was not likely to postpone the case but allowed lawyers from each side to present briefings on the matter. He has already made concessions for Trump in light of his new role as President-elect, agreeing to allow him to appear by video-link.

Trump's legal team earlier tried to have comments he made throughout the election excluded from the trial, claiming his tweets and outlandish remarks towards women, minorities and other groups could affect his credibility. Their motion was denied.

In June, Trump said he was being unfairly persecuted by the judge because of his Mexican descent.

He said Curiel was a 'hater' who disapproved of his immigration policies and was personally biased because he is 'Hispanic'.
An Ohio mother charged with stabbing and decapitating her baby daughter has turned down a plea deal ahead of her upcoming murder trial.

Deasia Watkins, 21, previously pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the March 2015 death of three-month-old Jayniah Watkins.

If Watkins is found not guilty by reason of insanity, she'd be under the court's jurisdiction for life without parole.

On Monday, Watkins rejected the Hamiltion County prosecutor's plea deal. She is pursuing an insanity defense and wants to stand trial.

Headed for trial: Deasia Watkins (left), 21, the Ohio mother accused of decapitating her infant daughter Jayniah (right), has rejected a plea deal and wants to go to trial

Watkins is due back in court in January, reported the station WCPO. If convicted of aggravated murder, the 21-year-old woman could face a sentence of 15 years to life in prison.

Court records show Watkins was diagnosed with post-partum psychosis and had been prescribed anti-psychotic medication.

Prosecutor Joe Deters has said Watkins looked 'like a zombie' when she was hospitalized in the days after her arrest.

Watkins was ordered to a psychiatric center for treatment and evaluation in April after being charged with slaying her daughter.

While originally found incompetent to stand trial by a Hamilton County, Ohio judge, court documents show that in September, the judge ruled that Watkins was competent to face the charges.

Watkins, pictured in court back in March, previously pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. In September, she was found competent to stand trial

Police responding to a 911 call in March found Watkins' daughter beheaded on the kitchen counter in the College Hill home of an aunt who was temporarily caring for her.

The baby girl had been repeatedly stabbed in the head and face, and had suffered a fractured arm. The knife used to kill her had also been placed in her hands.

When asked how many stab wounds the infant suffered, Hamilton County Coroner Lakshmi Sammarco said she had 'lost count.'

Watkins was found in her bed, covered in blood, and appeared to be suffering from mental issues, authorities said.

The horrific killing came after Watkins had been forbidden to have contact with the child after she was hospitalized for psychiatric problems.

Janiyah was in the custody of her mother's aunt - but the aunt had allowed Watkins to move in with them

She was considered a threat and had been 'acting crazy' and talking about demons and 'speaking in tongues' when a juvenile court judge previously placed the baby in the custody of Hamilton County Job and Family Services.

Social workers later placed the baby in the aunt's care, warning her to keep the mother away from the child unless social workers were present, authorities said.

Prosecutors said the county welfare agency followed court orders in finding a relative to care for the baby and checking on her numerous time, but they said social workers didn't know the mother apparently moved into the aunt's home about a week before the slaying.

Authorities haven't released the name of the aunt, who Deters said may be needed as a witness.

Court documents also show that Watkins was diagnosed with postpartum psychosis, and doctors declared her unsafe around the child unless she took prescribed medication.

Grisly scene: The baby girl was found stabbed and decapitated on a kitchen counter in this College Hill, Ohio, home with the knife placed in her hand

After she was taken into custody, she was taken to hospital for evaluation and Hamilton County prosecutor Joe Deters said that she was not talking to authorities.

'She's like a zombie,' he told WCPO. 'We're hoping to get her some medication so she can begin talking. 'Until she gets in front of some doctors and talks, it's going to be very difficult to know what her motivation was. No matter what the motivation was, no one is going to be able to explain this.'
In the dock: Comedian Rory McGrath, pictured today, appeared in court accused of stalking a married woman for 14 months

Comedian Rory McGrath appeared in court today accused of stalking a married woman for 14 months.

The 60-year-old star is alleged to have harassed the victim despite complaints from the woman, her husband and the police, a court heard.

McGrath made his name on BBC panel show They Think It's All Over and the channel's Three Men in a Boat series, alongside Dara O Briain and Griff Rhys Jones.

His alleged stalking is said to include sending the woman electronic messages and approaching her in the street.

He is also said to have approached the woman and her husband in public and sent letters to the victim's husband, it was said.

The prosecution described the allegations as 'striking and distasteful'.

He appeared at Cambridgeshire Magistrates' Court in Huntingdon today.

Wearing a black coat, green t-shirt and black trousers, he was asked to confirm his name, address.

He then entered a not guilty plea to a charge of stalking against a woman.

His alleged victim cannot be named for legal reasons.

McGrath, from Cambridge, is accused of harassing his unnamed victim in the city between June last year and August this year.

Plea: The former star of They Think It's All Over spoke only to confirm his name, address and to enter a not guilty plea to a charge of stalking against a woman, who cannot be named

Famous: McGrath made his name on the They Think It's All Over panel show, pictured with Gary Lineker

Prosecutor Anthea Harris said: 'It is a stalking offence which continued over a 14-month period, there are a number of aggravating features, these are features which are deliberate and show evidence of pre-planning.'

She added: 'The tenure (of the allegations) is striking and distasteful.'

McGrath was granted conditional bail which bans him from contacting the victim or visiting an address in Cambridge.

He is due to stand trial in January.
Hamad Assaad, killed last month, was suspected to have been behind an attempt on Barbaro's life last year

Hamad Assaad, killed last month, was suspected to have been behind an attempt on Barbaro's life last year

Sources said he regularly wore a bulletproof vest, was an informant, and 'rorted' $1 million from a gang

Sources said he regularly wore a bulletproof vest, was an informant, and 'rorted' $1 million from a gang

Barbaro's friend Marco said 'a lot of people' would want to kill him because he had 'a lot of enemies'

Barbaro's friend Marco said 'a lot of people' would want to kill him because he had 'a lot of enemies'

A stolen Audi believed to be linked to the underworld murder was found a

A stolen Audi believed to be linked to the underworld murder was found a blaze and abandoned nearby

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The underworld figure with extensive family links to the Italian mafia shot dead had 'rorted' $1 million from a gang and wore a bulletproof vest while others called him a 'dog' for apparently working as an informant.

Pasquale Barbaro, 35, had tried in vain to run for his life before he was executed with a shot to the head by two hooded hitmen while he sat in a silver Mercedes outside the home of underworld figure George Alex in Earlwood, south west of Sydney's CBD on Monday.

Friends said Barbaro had many enemies and a police source told Daily Mail Australia the slain kingpin was a key suspect in the murder of gangland hitman Hamad Assaad last month.

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WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Pasquale Barbaro (pictured), 35, was executed with a shot to the head by two hooded hitmen while he sat in a silver Mercedes outside the home of underworld figure George Alex in Earlwood, south west of Sydney's CBD

Barbaro was shot about 10pm on Monday by two hooded hitmen, witnesses said

Barbaro was headed home to see his girlfriend at their Harrington Park home when he was gunned down.

'He was on his way to see me last night but never made it,' his girlfriend said, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

In November 2015, Barbara was shot at six times as he ran down a Leichhardt laneway and started to wear a bulletproof vest to protect himself, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Hamad Assaad, who was shot dead last month outside his Georges Hall home, was suspected of being behind the attempted murder. No one was ever charged.

Barbaro wore the protective vest almost everywhere, except for meetings and with those close to him.

He was not wearing a bulletproof vest when he was shot dead at George Alex's house.

Barbaro was rumoured to be a high-ranking informant to the Crime Commission, which could have attracted unwanted attention from crime syndicates.

He reportedly owed a criminal gang $1 million.

On Tuesday, just hours after his death, phone conversations between Barbaro and a Brothers 4 Life boss were played in court as evidence for a murder trial.

Barbaro is not a suspect in the murder, but was seen on Star City CCTV footage with the man accused of the killing, Brothers 4 Life crime boss Farhad Qaumi, just 18 days before Antoun's death.

Qaumi and his brother Mumtaz are accused of hiring a shooter to kill Antoun after receiving a contract to carry out the hit, but have both pleaded not guilty.

One woman on social media, who claimed to have known him for years, described Barbaro as 'the biggest dog in NSW' for working for the Crime Commission for years.

After news of his death spread, a man wrote on Facebook: 'Dead dogs don't bark.'

Sydney crime figure Pasquale Barbaro was been shot dead in Sydney's south-west on Monday about 10pm

Mr Barbaro, 35, was a well-known crime kingpin who narrowly avoided an attempted execution in Leichhardt last year

Others wrote on social media: 'Nobody called him a dog when he was alive.'

But as one source said, 'it could be anything' that got the 35-year-old killed'.

'If you play with fire you are going to get burnt,' the source told Daily Telegraph.

A friend, identified only as Marco, said 'a lot of people' would want to kill Barbaro.

'He just has a lot of enemies,' Marco told Nine News.

'I guess things just caught up with him.

'He had a good heart. Just because he did bad things, doesn't mean he was a bad person.'

Police were called to Larkhall Avenue in Earlwood at about 9.40pm on Monday night and arrived to find his heavily tattooed body lying on the footpath in a pool of blood

The Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad warned of further hits on underworld figures.

'There'll be four or more bodies before you see the end of this,' an insider told The Daily Telegraph.

Terrified neighbours ran outside after the shots rang out in the quiet residential street, but the men had already taken Barbaro's life with a final shot to the head and left his heavily tattooed body lying on the footpath in a pool of blood.

One neighbour said the hail of bullets broke Barbaro's car windows and struck him in the shoulder before he attempted to escape on foot.

'He was in his car when they started shooting at him so he tried to run but they shot him down just two three houses down from where he was,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

The local man said Barbaro often visited the area but had never stopped to speak with him.

'I always see him around, here and down the street at the shops,' he said.

Gabrielle Binton said her husband also saw Barbaro targeted inside the car before he took his last breath on the street.

'He ran out the back and said he saw another two guys, and they shot him in the car, another four gunshots,' she told Nine News.

Blood spatters could be seen on the street as police collected evidence following Monday's murder

Ms Binton told Daily Telegraph she heard a man 'screaming open the f**king door' and that Barbaro had been seen entering the property owned by George Alex earlier that day.

Alex was convicted of sending death threats to his ex-girlfriend in March 2015 but has denied handing over weekly payments of $2,500 and providing sex workers to heads of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union in exchange for special treatment, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Islamic State terrorists Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar trained at his home in 2013 and he was also a known associate of gangster Mick Gatto and Hells Angels bikies Steve Mitrovic and Peter Sidirourgos.

Barbaro's family have been heavily involved in the criminal underworld, with his grandfather and cousin - who shared his name - also paying their debts to the crime world with their lives.

An officer lays an evidence markers next to the blood stains before taking a photograph outside George Alex's house

A neighbour said the hail of bullets broke Barbaro's car windows (pictured shattered glass) and struck him in the shoulder before he attempted to escape on foot

Pasquale 'Peter' Barbaro, 58, was stabbed and shot in 1990 as his new wife begged for his life in Brisbane, while Pasquale 'Little Pat' Barbaro was gunned down in a van next to gangland figure Jason Moran in 2003 as his children wept in the back seat.

Police believe Monday's shooting was another targeted attack following recent a string of underworld shootings in Sydney, including the death of the hitman accused of shooting at Barbaro in 2015.

Underworld stand-over man Hamad Asaad, 29, was gunned down in front of his 12-year-old nephew in his driveway in Sydney's south-west, on October 25.

He was the key suspect in the shooting of gangland boss Walid 'Wally' Ahmad who was executed in broad daylight at Bankstown in April.

Witnesses said Barbaro was seen coming in and out of George Alex's home (pictured) on the day he was shot down

A stolen car was found torched and abandoned in Concord after the shooting

Journalist Keith Moor, who has written a book on the Barbaro family, believes the 35-year-old may have been killed for the same reason his grandfather was - talking out of school.

'The homicide squad will be looking at whether the Calabrian mafia decided themselves to silence Pasquale Barbaro because the suggestion is he was breaking the code of omerta and had become an informer,' the author of Busted told AAP on Tuesday.

Moor said Monday night's shooting will be difficult to solve because traditionally the mafia are reluctant to talk to authorities.

He thinks the Barbaro family will instead conduct their own 'investigation' into what happened.

Barbaro was shot outside George Alex's home in Earlwood and had been seen coming in and out of his house that day

More than $250 cash was seen in the centre console of Alex's car the day after the gang-related shooting

Police have cordoned off the scene and officers from the New South Wales Riot Squad were seen performing a sweep of the area for any further evidence on Tuesday morning.

Barbaro was jailed in 2004 for his role in an elaborate drug ring supplying methamphetamine.

The 35-year-old appeared in the Downing Centre District Court just last week where he applied to have his bail continued ahead of a court trial for serious drug charges.

He and three others were due to trial early next year on charges of manufacturing two kilograms of the drug 'ice'.

Police allege the group manufactured the drug on properties near Goulburn and at Cobbitty, in Sydney's southwest, between October 2010 and November 2011.

Islamic State terrorists Khaled Sharrouf (bottom right) and Mohamed Elomar (bottom left) trained at his home in 2013 and he was also a known associate of gangster Mick Gatto (top left) and Hells Angels bikies Steve Mitrovic (top right)

Barbaro has been on bail since he was charged in 2012.

An Audi Q7 - worth at least $100,000 - was found ablaze at nearby Goddard Park half an hour after the shootings.

Police suspect the burnt-out luxury car was involved in the brutal Earlwood murder and are investigating any links between the owner and the Barbaro crime family.

Horrified neighbours piled into the Earlwood street on Monday night after hearing 'five gun shots' echo in the street.

Police suspect the shooting was motivated by Barbaro's ties with the criminal underworld and say he was 'playing with fire'

Two officers with brown evidence bags take note of an irregularity on the path as the scoured the area on Tuesday

Concerned neighbours watched on as police searched for evidence following the murder in a quiet suburban street

'I was watching TV inside and just heard what sounded like somebody banging something next door - but it was five gun shots,' neighbour Theo Paraskevaides said.

'By the time I sort of come out, I was half asleep ... I went out to the back yard and didn't see anything. I came out to the front and saw a couple of people outside and that's when I ... realised that somebody had been shot.

'I've been here all my life. It's one of the quietest streets in Earlwood. It's quite shocking to be honest.

An abandoned silver Mercedes believed to be Barbaro's sat in the middle of the road with its brake lights on and front door open not far from where he lay face-down on the footpath.

Barbaro's friend, identified only as Marco, said the slain mafia kingpin had 'a lot of enemies'

Underworld stand-over man Hamad Asaad, 29, was gunned down in front of his 12-year-old nephew in his driveway in Sydney's south-west, on October 25 (pictured)

Asaad (pictured left and right) was a key suspect in the attempted hit on Barbaro in Leichhardt in 2015

He was also the key suspect in the shooting of gangland boss Walid 'Wally' Ahmad (pictured) who was executed in broad daylight at Bankstown in April

Officers from the New South Wales Riot squad were seen arriving at the scene of the shooting on Tuesday morning

The team were ordered to scour the area for any evidence that could lead to an arrest

TIMELINE OF UNDERWORLD SHOOTINGS IN THE LAST EIGHT MONTHS Four underworld figures have been gunned down on Sydney streets in the past eight months, with two of the executed men potentially linked to another shooting 12 months ago. November 14, 2016 Pasquale Barbaro, 35, executed outside an Earlwood home in south west Sydney. Barbaro's grandfather and cousin were both killed in gangland hits and there were unconfirmed rumours he was an informant. October 25, 2016 Hamad Assaad shot dead in broad daylight by at least two gunmen in the driveway of his Georges Hall home. Assaad, 29, was a key suspect in the murder of underworld figure Walid Ahmad. April 29, 2016 Gangland kingpin and convicted killer Walid Ahmad, 40, killed in a spray of bullets on the rooftop car park of Bankstown Central shopping centre. Ahmad's murder was believed to be in retaliation for the fatal shooting of Safwan Charbaji outside a Condell Park panel beater several weeks earlier. April 9, 2015 Safwan Charbaji, 32, fatally wounded and another man seriously injured after a gunfight outside a Condell Park smash repair business linked to Ahmad. An outstanding debt dispute was reportedly one of the possible motives being investigated for the fatal shooting. November 9, 2015 Barbaro targeted in a non-fatal gun attack outside a Leichhardt business. Police reportedly believed Assaad was a suspect in the bungled shooting. Source: AAP Advertisement

Police have cordoned off the street so investigators can search for evidence

Two officers scrounge through a bush outside the scene of an underworld shooting

Officers have been at the scene since being alerted to the shooting at 9.40pm on Monday

Two officers get down on the ground to search underneath a car on the street where a man was shot on Monday night

Investigators want to leave no stone unturned as they search for evidence relating to the murder of Pasquale Barbaro

Officers continued collecting evidence on Tuesday afternoon but have not indicated if there are any suspects in the murder

A police officer lays down evidence tags at the scene of the shooting which claimed the life of Pasquale Barbaro

The murder took place on Larkhall Avenue in Earlwood, located south west of Sydney's CBD

Neighbours came outside to observe the spectacle, with dozens of police officers remaining on the scene on Tuesday

Half an hour later police responded to reports of a burnt-out luxury Audi Q7 nearby, which they suspect was involved in the brutal murder

Horrified neighbours piled into the Earlwood street on Monday night after hearing 'five gun shots'

Paramedics were called to Earlwood but were unable to revive Mr Barbaro
The president of the University of Virginia  which was founded by Thomas Jefferson  has been asked by students and professors to stop quoting him because he owned slaves.

Teresa Sullivan urged students to unite in the wake of Donald Trumps shock victory in a post-election email on November 9.

In the email, she quoted the third president of the United States, writing: Thomas Jefferson wrote to a friend that University of Virginia students are not of ordinary significance only; they are exactly the persons who are to succeed to the government of our country, and to rule its future enmities, its friendships and fortunes.

I urge todays U.Va. students to embrace that responsibility.

But 469 students and professors signed a letter objecting to Sullivan quoting Jefferson because he owned slaves and held other racist beliefs, the Cavalier Daily reports.

Teresa Sullivan (left), the president of the University of Virginia  founded by Thomas Jefferson  has been asked by students and professors to stop quoting him because he owned slaves. Prof Noelle Hurd (right) drafted a letter against quoting Jefferson that attracted 469 signatures

It said: We would like for our administration to understand that although some members of this community may have come to this university because of Thomas Jefferson's legacy, others of us came here in spite of it.

For many of us, the inclusion of Jefferson quotations in these emails undermines the message of unity, equality and civility that you are attempting to convey.

Psychology Professor Noelle Hurd, who drafted the letter, said their intention was to start a dialogue with the schools administration about how to be more inclusive.

In the current climate, we must seize every opportunity to communicate that this university welcomes individuals from all backgrounds, Hurd said.

A statue of Thomas Jefferson stands in front of Rotunda of the University of Virginia (above)

She added: I think that Jefferson is often celebrated for his accomplishments with little or no acknowledgement of the atrocities he committed against hundreds of human beings.

Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, owned slaves despite writing that all men are created equal.

Jefferson (above) wrote 'all men are created equal' but also owned slaves

He founded the University of Virginia in Charlottesville in 1819, the states first truly public university, and remained involved with the institution until his death in 1826.

In a statement in response to the letter, Sullivan said she supported the rights of students and teachers to express their opinions.

However, she said that she agrees with Jeffersons message of unity but that quoting him or any historical figure does not imply an endorsement of all the social structures and beliefs of his time but simply recognizes the potency of that persons words.

She added that Jefferson could not have foreseen the diverse leaders the university would produce.

All of them belong at todays U.Va., whose founders most influential and most quoted words were ...all men are created equal, she said in a statement.

Those words were inherently contradictory in an era of slavery, but because of their power, they became the fundamental expression of a more genuine equality today.
"Snail Skin-lifting Masks" sold in Watsons stores in Shanghai are detected with glucocorticoid hormones. [File photo]

A version of a face mask sold in Watsons stores in Shanghai contains illegal hormones, according to an investigation by the city's food and drug watchdog.

The mask named "Snail Skin-lifting Mask" was produced by Beauty Plus (Shanghai) Cosmetics Company. It was detected to contain clobetasol propionate - a glucocorticoid hormone.

Glucocorticoid hormones are widely used by doctors to reduce skin inflammation as well as for whitening and rejuvenation. However, long-term users may suffer black spots on face, skin atrophy and thinning, or even hormone-dependent dermatitis.

Watsons officials responded that the company has already removed all the unqualified masks from their shelves across the country and promised to implement stricter quality management mechanisms to guarantee all its products are legal and qualified.

In 2013, Watsons China recalled its own brand of a whitening face mask across the country after it was claimed that a 40-year-old woman in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, died after using it.

Although the results of an investigation eventually proved that health problems were the main cause of the woman's death, the mask concerned was removed and recalled by Watsons stores, causing negative publicity for the brand.
to the court for leading police on a 'wild goose chase'

She and her colleague Kenneth Lewis told cops a black man they met at a bar had offered to drive them home but fled after the crash

The attorney was driving in the early hours of June 9, when she lost control and her car hit a utility pole, a court heard

An Ohio attorney who blamed a non-existent black man for a car accident to avoid facing drunken driving charges has been sentenced to 10 days in jail.

Heather Wilsey, 27, of Elyria in Ohio, had pleaded no contest to obstruction of official business and failure to control after apologizing to the court for leading police on a 'wild goose chase'.

Wilsey, who is white, was also fined $1,250 and could also face another 80 days in jail if she violates the terms of three years of good behavior - which includes a ban on drinking alcohol.

Heather Wilsey, 27, (left) of Elyria in Ohio, and fellow attorney Kenneth Lewis (right) were jailed for lying about a car crash

Her driver's license also was suspended, although she will retain occupational driving privileges.

The attorney, who specializes in criminal defense, business and divorce, had been driving a 2012 Acura in the early hours of June 9, when she lost control and her car hit a utility pole at East Avenue and Fourth Street, a court heard.

When police arrived, they found Wilsey and fellow attorney Kenneth Lewis of Brunswick walking away from the scene.

Lewis, 42, told officers that they had met a black man at a nearby bar who had offered to drive them home. But once he crashed, he had fled the scene.

The attorney had been driving a 2012 Acura in the early hours of June 9, when she lost control and her car hit a utility pole at East Avenue and Fourth Street (pictured)

Wilsey gave the same story, adding that she would even try and find out the name of the non-existent black man from a friend, The Chronicle reports.

But when police began to investigate their story, the tale fell apart.

Officers reviewed surveillance footage at the bar which showed Lewis and Wilsey leaving alone - before Wilsey got into the driver's seat and drove off.

Lewis was also sentenced to ten days in jail for lying about the crash.

Both lawyers may also face sanctions from the Ohio Supreme Court following an ethics complaint filed by the Lorain County Bar Association.

The complaint accused the pair of dishonesty, racial discrimination and misconduct that adversely affects their ability to practice law.

Prosecutor Margaret O'Bryon had urged Wilsey to apologize, saying her lie led police 'on a wild goose chase'.

'I would just like to apologize,' Wilsey said a few moments later. 'First to the Elyria Police Department, also to the city of Elyria and its citizens and the legal community.'
A three-bedroom Melbourne home was purchased for $9 million last weekend - almost $2 million more than the asking price  only to be demolished.

A crowd of more than 100 people were shocked on Saturday when last minute bidders offered $1.82 million above the reserve for the circular home with two street frontages located in the centralised suburb of Toorak, according to Domain.

That means each square metre of the 870 square-metre block costs $10,000  breaking land value records for the area.

A three-bedroom Melbourne home was purchased for $9 million last weekend - almost $2 million more than the asking price  only to be demolished (pictured)

A crowd of more than 100 people were shocked on Saturday when last minute bidders offered $1.82 million above the reserve for the Toorak home

The circular home has two street frontages, making it very desirable for bidders

Unlike so many properties that are bulldozed after purchase, it is believed the new owners will build another single home and not apartments on the lot

The price leap even surprised auctioneer Warwick Anderson, who said the home next door sold for $6.65 million.

Unlike so many properties that are bulldozed after purchase, Mr Anderson said he believed another single home and not apartments will be rebuilt on the lot.

'St Georges Road is triple-A real estate,' he told Domain, adding the home's two frontages made the home very appealing for bidders.

The price leap even surprised auctioneer Warwick Anderson, who said the home next door sold for $6.65 million

Each square metre of the 870 square-metre block costs $10,000  breaking land value records for the area after the sale

The purchase land is the best block on the street in a highly valued suburb, Mr Anderson said

Buyers' agent David Morrell said many of the home's bidders were Chinese

'And this block was on the premium part of the road.'

Buyers' agent David Morrell said many of the home's bidders were Chinese.

Mr Morrell told Domain he believed their generous bidding was in response to Donald Trump winning the US presidency.

'The world has changed as we knew it and I think people are reacting to that. As someone said to me recently, "post-Trump, watch them come",' he said.
Guns, meth, steroids and more than $150,000 were seized in

Five people were arrested associated with the Nomads and Finks bikies

Tactical units stormed properties across the Hunter in New South Wales

Heavily armed policeman stormed properties in the Hunter Valley on Tuesday that saw five people arrested associated to outlaw bikie gangs.

Five people associated with the notorious Nomads and Finks bikie gang were arrested on Tuesday morning after Strike Force Wilwendam arrested three men aged 23, 26 and 27, and two women aged 31 and 32.

The tactical raids took place at properties in Gillieston Heights, Raymond Terrace, Rutherford and two homes in Telarah, according to a police statement.

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The tactical raids took place at properties in Gillieston Heights, Raymond Terrace, Rutherford and two homes in Telarah, according to a police statement

The investigations beginning earlier this year led tactical units, dog units and the riot squad to the properties

Multiple drugs were seized during the raids including cannabis, methylamphetamine, steroids and ice

During the investigation, police seized more than $150,000 cash, ammunition and electronic stun guns.

Multiple drugs were also seized including cannabis, methylamphetamine, steroids and ice.

The investigations beginning earlier this year led tactical units, dog units and the riot squad to the properties.

The 23-year-old Raymond Terrace man was charged with 61 offences including charges relating to alleged firearm trafficking.

Two firearms were found at the properties including a shotgun at Gillieston Heights.

Heavily armed policeman stormed properties in the Hunter Valley on Tuesday that saw five people arrested linked to outlaw bikie gangs




A judge has condemned the binge-drinking culture among women after single mother Hannah Slate battered her neighbour after drinking 15 cans of Stella Artois

A judge has condemned the binge-drinking culture among women after jailing a single mother who battered her neighbour while drunk on 15 cans of Stella Artois.

Judge Martin Rudland said he was seeing an increasing number of women coming before the courts for violent offences which had been carried out while they were drunk.

The senior judge made the comments today as he jailed 21-year-old Hannah Slate for repeatedly smashing a coffee mug over her victim's head in a horrific attack which left his skull exposed.

Warning there was 'no alternative' but to jail the mother-of-one, he said Slate was the latest in a line of women who had been jailed after 'drinking too excess'.

He said: 'You are just one of the young women we are seeing who have been brought here on an offence of violence - particularly young women drinking to excess.

'The court is left with no alternative.'

The judge added that the attack had taken place in 'unpleasant and vicious circumstances' when the defendant was 'heavily intoxicated'.

Slate has previous convictions for common assault, violent disorder and assaulting police officers, all of which were committed while drunk.

'You were hostile and used a seemingly harmless object as a weapon and hit with significant force,' he said. 'You were described as being wild with rage.

'This was a vicious attack that was premeditated in the moment of the assault and that cannot be overlooked.'

As she was led to the cells, Slate called out to her mother in the public gallery saying: 'S***, I love you! Look after that baby for me!'

Manchester Crown Court heard how Slate launched the attack in June this year when she was stopped from taking beer from Heskers's house party in Harphurhey, Manchester.

The court heard how she shouted 'come on, do you f****** want some?' before pinning down Mr Heskers on a sofa and launching the attack.

The court heard how the victim Steven Heskers felt unable to retaliate because his attacker was a woman.

Slate, 21, repeatedly smashed a coffee mug over her victim's head in a horrific attack which left his skull exposed. The attack took place after she tried to steal beer from his house party

Slate's lawyer said his client had been drinking the 'wife-beater' lager all day and had consumed more than a dozen cans.

She and her friend then turned up at Mr Heskers's house where she became 'argumentative' and attempted to steal more alcohol.

Prosecutor Lisa Boocock said she fled when a man tried to stop her but that she returned later, banging angrily on the door.

She told the court: 'Mr Heskers was on the settee and describes this defendant as "screaming like a psycho".

Judge Martin Rudland (pictured) said he was seeing an increasing number of women coming before the courts for violent drunken offences

'She jumped onto the settee and straddled him and hit him over the head with a mug which smashed.

'He was hit on the right side of the forehead. There was a cut which immediately started to bleed. Mr Heskers was quite dazed.'

She said the incident had been an unprovoked and frightening attack.

'Mr Heskers himself said that he felt scared and he didn't feel like he could retaliate because she was a woman and he had no idea why he was attacked,' Ms Boocock told the court.

'He did attend hospital, and had a deep laceration to his head. The cut was so deep that you could see his skull through it. '

Her lawyer Paul Darnbrough said the attack had taken place because his client was drunk.

'She had drunk 15 cans of Stella Artois giving result of anti social behaviour,' he told the court.

'There is a history of alcohol misuse and a history or resorting to alcohol and when drinking alcohol the drink goes in and sense goes out.

'It is quite clear there is a propensity to seek recourse to alcohol and that recourse causes the behaviour of this young 21-year-old woman.'

He added that Slate was a long-suffering victim of domestic violence and that she had had a 'chaotic upbringing'.

'She has had no previous animosity with the complainant. She has been wracked with remorse,' he added.

'Stella is known to be called "wife beater" but in this instance it was "Heskers's beater".'

As well as being jailed, Slate was also ordered to pay a 120 victim surcharge.

Her mother and father sobbed and shouted to their daughter that they loved her and they would look after the child.

Last month a global survey which looked at the drinking habits of four million people over a period of over a century said women had caught up with men in the amount of alcohol they drink.
Rudy Giuliani was a constant companion at President-elect Donald Trump's side as he campaigned around the country, and now the former New York City mayor is in leading contention to jet around the world as Trump's secretary of state.

"If Rudy wants it [State] he'll get it," said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has also been mentioned as a contender for the post, told Fox News on Monday.

Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway was more noncommittal in comments on Tuesday.

He could be. He certainly is a very close adviser of President-elect Trumps, she said of Giuliani on NBCs Today show. The mayor has an enormous skill-set, would be an excellent member of the cabinet and that's where Ill leave it, she said.

Giuliani has little foreign policy experience, and his national government work fell under the Justice Department's purview - he was a U.S. attorney and assistant attorney general.

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani is a leading contender to be Donald Trump's secretary of state, although he doesn't have formal diplomatic experience

A senior Trump official told the Associated Press Giuliani is the leading candidate for the job. Former UN Ambassador John Bolton, a frequent Fox News commentator who himself ran for president, is also under consideration.

New York City does have the nation's largest police force, with more than 30,000 officers and it's own intelligence apparatus that tracks security threats.

Giuliani talked his views on global affairs at a Wall Street Journal gathering of CEOs on Monday night, addressing threats around the globe including ISIS. He also declared that he 'won't be attorney general'  a post for which he was thought to be under consideration.

Senate Foreign relations chairman Bob Corker, who would oversee confirmation to the post, got asked if there was any problem with Giuliani on Tuesday.

'Look, I think we let this process complete. We know who the person is. It is gonna be my job to lead the confirmation process, to handicap people at this moment would just be inappropriate. Let's let it play out,' he said.

Rudy Giuliani, vice chairman of the Trump Presidential Transition Team, speaks at the Wall Street Journal CEO Council in Washington Monday

SWEET GIG: Giuliani was s a constant companion of Donald Trump's during the presidential campaign

GOOD COUNSEL: Giuliani was regularly at Trump's side during the campaign, including at a fundraiser in New York City in July

TRANS-ATLANTIC RELATIONS: Giuliani as secretary of state would be expected to maintain U.S. alliances with key European allies, negotiate Trump's favored reconciliation with Moscow, battle Islamist terrorism, and grapple with China. In 2000, then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani revived his smash role as a woman by appearing in drag for his rebuttal to the Inner Circle Show

BUSOM BUDDIES: Giuliani was Trump's frequent confidante on the campaign trail. In the Inner Circle skit, Trump played a very forward suitor as Giuliani played the role of a woman

Giuliani, businessman Donald Trump, and Giuliani's wife, philanthropist Judith Giuliani in 2005

Jockeying for critical domestic and national security posts has intensified within Trump's tight circle, with one source describing it to CNN as a 'knife fight.'

At least one of Giuliani's overseas contacts caused a flap during his failed presidential campaign. His firm provided security advice to the government of Qatar, as theWall Street Journal reported, at a time it was under scrutiny for its relationship with Al Qaeda.

Giuliani's language hasn't always been diplomatic. At a New York dinner in 2015, he said: 'I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America. He doesnt love you. And he doesnt love me. He wasnt brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.'
Conservative radio show host and Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham confirmed this morning that she's talking to President-elect Donald Trump about running his press operation in the White House.

'Things are in flux. We'll see...It's wonderful to be considered,' she told Fox & Friends. 'I've known Donald for a long time, and I know most of the guys who are going to be in the White House with him.'

Two sources familiar with the discussions told The Hill on Sunday that Ingraham was on Trump's short list for White House press secretary.

Conservative radio show host and Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham confirmed this morning that she's talking to President-elect Donald Trump about running his press operation in the White House

Ingraham aided Trump with his debate prep and spoke at the Republican National Convention.

She's close to Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway and her deputy David Bossie - both of whom she called old friends in her appearance on Fox this morning.

They waged war against the Clintons in the '90s, founding what Hillary Clinton would famously describe as the 'vast right wing conspiracy' working to discredit her husband.

Clinton revived the term in her 2016 campaign, saying the same actors were out to get her family now - they're just better funded than they were when her husband held the White House and operating in the open.

Along with Conway, Bossie, and The Drudge Report's Matt Drudge, Ingraham helped publicize allegations of sexual misconduct against Bill Clinton, Ingraham's ex-boyfriend, Keith Olbermann, the liberal commentator told GQ in October.

Conway says she has been offered a job in Trump's administration but has declined to say what she will be doing.

The only positions Trump has formally announced are chief of staff, which he gave to RNC chairman Reince Priebus, and senior counselor, a title he gave to campaign CEO Steve Bannon.

Bannon was on leave from Breitbart News. He was to return to the right-wing publication after the election but accepted the White House job on Sunday instead.

His ex-wife, Mary-Louis Piccard, formally charged him with assault in the '90s. The charges were dropped after she failed to show up for a court hearing. She's also alleged that he 'doesn't like Jews' and says he called their children '"whiny brats"'.

However, he's said through a spokesman that he 'never said anything like that.'

Ingraham said on Fox and Friends that Bannon 'is a good friend, an old friend.'

'We have both have competing kind of media companies. Not really competing, but we're in the same world,' she added. 'I've known Steve for a long time.'

Bringing up ties to Conway and Bossie, too, she said, 'It's kind of an old school week for me. All of them I have enormous respect for, and of course, President-elect Trump.'

President-elect Donald Trump is said to considering conservative radio show host and Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham to be the face of his press operation in the White House

Ingraham aided Trump with his debate prep and spoke at the Republican National Convention (pictured)

It is unknown what role Trump's campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks will have in the administration. She is still managing his media operation.

Throughout the campaign, Trump had a confrontational relationship with the media, frequently referring to national outlets as 'corrupt' and alleging that they were in league with Clinton.

He blacklisted outlets from his events that wrote articles he said were based on lies, though he eventually dropped the ban.

Ingraham assailed the media in her RNC speech for their treatment of the GOP White House candidate.

'To all my friends up there in the press, you all know why in your heart Donald Trump won the Republican nomination. You know it,' she said. 'You know why he won it? Because he dared to call out the phonies, the frauds and the corruption that has gone unexposed and uncovered for too long.'

Ingraham has said nothing publicly to indicate that she's thinking about stepping aside from her own media empire to join Donald Trump's administration and she has not been seen inside Trump Tower by reporters staking out the lobby

Ingraham served as a speech writer in Ronald Reagan's administration. A former defense attorney, she also clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

The conservative pundit has worked for CBS News and MSNBC, where she hosted the program 'Watch It!', and now appears on ABC News' 'This Week' in addition to Fox News.

Her first book, published in 2000, The Hillary Trap: Looking for Power in All the Wrong Places, took aim at the former first lady for pushing a form of feminism that 'rewards dependency' and 'celebrates victimhood.'

The fourth of her five books , The Obama Diaries, satirizes the forty-forth President of the United States through fake journal entries.

The Laura Ingraham Show has aired on the radio since 2001.

She also owns and operates the LifeZette news site.
Leonard Trevino (pictured) is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon

A Texas woman found an accused sex offender hiding under the stairs at her home  and her son shot him in the face after a struggle.

Leonard Trevino had been hiding at the home in the 700 block of Virgin Oak in San Antonio on Thursday, KENS 5 reports.

The mother and her son who live there went to investigate after they heard their dog barking.

Trevino emerged from the stairs, believed to be outside the property, with a gun and demanded they let him inside the home, according to his arrest warrant.

The woman and her son fought with Trevino and the boy ended up shooting the suspect in the face.

He was taken to hospital for his injuries.

Trevino is already facing a child indecency charge in connection with the same family.
Florida saw a dramatic upsurge in the homicide rate after passing a 'Stand Your Ground law allowing people to use lethal force in self-defense, according to the findings of a new study.

Research published on Monday in a special issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine suggests that the murder rate in the Sunshine State spiked 24 per cent between 2005 and 2014, from a mean of 82 homicides per month to 99, whereas national homicide rates have been steadily declining since the 1990s.

Homicides involving guns soared 31 per cent - from a monthly mean of 49 homicides to 69 - during the same time period, international researchers have found.

Data used in the study was collected from the Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER) web portal at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Deadly spike: Study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine suggests that murder rate in Florida spiked 24 per cent between 2005-2014

Lethal weapons: Homicides involving guns soared 31 per cent - from a monthly mean of 49 homicides to 69

Controversial: Florida's 'Stand Your Ground' law says people could use lethal force against home intruders if they believed they faced an imminent threat

This study highlights how Stand Your Ground is likely to be a cause of the rise in Florida murders, and provides crucial information which may influence future decision-making that affects wellbeing in the US and abroad,' said study co-author Antonio Gasparrini, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

In 2005, Florida became the first state in the nation to enact a 'Stand Your Ground law, which said people could use firearms or other lethal force against home intruders if they 'reasonably believed' they faced an imminent threat of death or serious injury.

More than 20 other states followed Florida's lead, passing similar self-defense laws. In all, 23 states currently have 'Stand Your Ground' laws on the books.

'Our findings support the hypothesis that increases in the homicide and homicide by firearm rates in Florida are related to the stand your ground law,' the authors of the study published in JAMA Internal Medicine concluded.

Researchers, however, conceded their their work has 'limitations.'

'Circumstances unique to Florida may have contributed to our findings, including those that we could not identify.,' the report read.

The controversial state legislation, signed into law by then-Florida Governor Jeb Bush, a Republican, extended the law to provide individuals with immunity for using lethal force to defend themselves in public places, as well as on private property.

Flashpoint: Florida's 'Stand Your Ground' law made headlines in 2012 when it was invoked by George Zimmerman (left) after he shot dead unarmed black teenager, Trayvon Martin (right)

Florida's 'Stand Your Ground' law made international headlines in 2012 when it was invoked by murder suspect George Zimmerman after he shot dead an unarmed black teenager, Trayvon Martin, sparking widespread protests that raged for months across the nation.

Zimmerman was ultimately acquitted in the 17-year-old's slaying after successfully arguing self-defense.

According to the latest research, all demographic groups were impacted by the increase in the homicide rate in Florida.

The largest proportional spikes were seen in the 20-34 age group, which went up by 31 per cent, and among the white population, which spiked 28 per cent.

A 20 per cent increase in homicides was found among African-Americans living in Florida.

The largest proportional spikes in homicide rates were seen in the 20-34 age group, which went up by 31 per cent

A 28 per cent increase in homicides was found among whites living in Florida

People in Newark march in 2014 on the second anniversary of the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, shot and killed by George Zimmerman in Florida in a highly controversial case that rested on the state's Stand Your Ground Law

For comparison, researchers looked at murder rates in four control states -- New York, New Jersey, Ohio and Virginia -- that had not passed a Stand Your Ground law during the same time period and found no increase in homicide rates.

The findings are strong evidence that... this change to the law in Florida led to deaths that otherwise would not have occurred, said study co-author Douglas Wiebe, of the University of Pennsylvania.
The group even uncovered the duvet to ensure they were 'having sex'

pressed the bride's naked body against the groom's

The newlyweds were forced to hand their underpants to friends

Chinese couple are told to act passionately at their wedding party

It takes courage to step into marriage - this is especially true in China.

Newlyweds from the country are usually subject to rude wedding games, from stripping down in front of guests to playing with a banana together.

A new video from the Chinese media shows that a couple were forced to have sex as their guests gleefully cheered.

A Chinese couple (pictured) were forced to act passionately in front of their wedding guests

At the beginning of the two-minute clip, a bride and her groom sat under a red 'lucky' duvet, barely dressed.

Their wedding bedroom was decorated with many red ornaments, a lucky colour in China.

Then, several female guests asked the couple to take off their pants.

A pair of grey leggings, believed to belong to the bride, was taken off the bed by an excited friend of hers. The bride then handed her red underwear to her friend.

After a while, the groom followed suit handing his black underpants to the guests.

The bride and groom were told to strip off at the wedding party. They had to hand their underwear for their guests to keep

The wedding guests demanded the couple caress and kiss each other and have sex

Under the pressure from the wedding guests, the naked couple hugged each other in the bed.

But the guests were not satisfied.

'You climb onto his body now!' A female guest can be heard commanding the bride.

Another female guest even pulled the bride's thigh to force her lay on the groom.

'Are you two attached to each other?' A third guest asked.

Afterwards, another female guest tried to help the couple have sex by pressing the bride's buttocks against the groom's body through the duvet.

'You climb onto his body now!' A female guest can be heard commanding the bride

Another female guest tried to help the couple have sex by pressing the bride's backside

The guests could be heard laughing hard.

However, they were still not satisfied.

After they made sure the couple were in a correct position for sex, they pulled away the duvet to expose their naked bodies.

The groom immediately snatched the duvet to cover himself and his wife. The guests again burst into laughter.

After they made sure the couple were in a correct position, they pulled away the blanket

The bizarre video went viral across various social media platforms including YouTube since mid-September.

A Weibo user said the bride and groom were from Zizhou county of Shaanxi province; while many others criticised the wedding game.

'It's so scary. I don't want to get married,' one person said.

'I could not stand watching the video,' another noted.
Daniel McGaughey, 27, was preparing to pop the question to Amy Pinder, 26, at a rooftop restaurant in the romantic Italian resort

A father's plans to propose to his girlfriend at Lake Garda were ruined after Ryanair lost his hand luggage containing the engagement ring.

Daniel McGaughey, 27, was preparing to pop the question to Amy Pinder, 26, at a rooftop restaurant in the romantic Italian resort.

He had spent weeks choosing the white gold ring, with three diamonds and was all set to surprise the teaching assistant - who is mother to their son Zachary, one.

At Manchester Airport, Ryanair staff told him his hand luggage had to be put in the hold.

He was reluctant to give them it, knowing what was inside, but eventually handed it over.

The joiner was furious when he arrived in Italy and his bag was nowhere to be seen.

He told the MEN: 'Amy kept saying "it's only a bag with clothes in", so in the end I had to tell her as she couldn't understand why I was so upset. It ruined the holiday and the proposal. It's underwhelming for both of us.'

'The staff at the Ryanair desk at Manchester said I had to deal with Ryanair direct - even though they were wearing Ryanair uniform and standing beneath a Ryanair banner.'

'All together that bag was worth 1,500 and I don't have receipts for any of my clothes. It's embarrassing for her that she has to tell her friends without a ring. I think Ryanair should take responsibility.'

McGaughey and proposed to his girlfriend when they got home to Manchester, without a ring and the couple have been battling with the budget airline since.

This is a model of the ring a couple say was lost by Ryanair after their hand luggage went missing on a flight to Italy

Daniel McGaughey, 27, was preparing to pop the question to Amy Pinder, 26, at a rooftop restaurant in the romantic Italian resort (file photo)

A father's plans to propose to his girlfriend at Lake Garda were ruined after Ryanair lost his hand luggage containing the engagement ring

Ryanair said it doesn't accept liability for their valuables.

A spokesman said: 'Our customer service team has advised the customer in question to provide receipts for the lost items.
Screenshot of a video that shows astronaut Jing Haipeng drinks tea in Tiangong II space lab. [Xinhua]

One hundred types of food. Seven dishes in breakfast and eight each in lunch and dinner. Is it a king's feast? No. Here is a hint: It's literally out of this world.

When for most of us the food served on planes is just eatable, you might be tempted to think that astronauts eat same bland stuff. Well, not the two Chinese astronauts onboard Tiangong II space lab. For their 33 days' space mission, more than 100 types of food has been packed.

And they are not just everyday dishes. Jing Haipeng, who is on his third space mission, enjoyed a bite of cheese cake on his 50th birthday on Oct 24.

As both Jing and his crewmate Chen Dong love tea, they have taken not only green tea, but also black tea with them to the space.

"We drink tea almost every day," said Jing in his space journal. The tea, which is stored in special bags, can be drunk after water is poured into the bag and both are heated together.

Small bags of vinegar from Shanxi province, his birthplace and home of vinegar, are also part of the goods. It is the first time that he is having vinegar from his hometown in space. For Chen, who comes from Henan province where cooked wheat food is the staple dish, some local popular food has been prepared according to his taste.

In the morning, we eat seven types of food, including porridge, coconut bread, quail eggs and pickles. We have eight choices at lunch, including mixed fried rice, fried noodles with meat, stewed beef with potato and nori and egg soup. And eight dishes at dinner, including fried noodles with beans, rice noodles with beef, fried shrimp with egg as well as canned fruits. Besides, there are five kinds of snacks, such as spicy pork, fried beans and dried bean curd, said Jing on his 17th day in space.

The two astronauts entered Tiangong II on Oct 19 from Shenzhou XI spacecraft after leaving the Earth on Oct 17.

In fact, today's Chinese space food has become much more diversified and tastier than that in 2003 when first astronaut Yang Liwei went to space. There were around 30 dishes in the cuisine for his one-day mission.

And when Jing's and Chen's predecessors went on Shenzhou X, more than 80 dishes were provided, including traditional festival food such as mooncakes and zongzi.
A professor who split from his wife after she 'tried to run him over' is locked in a divorce battle over their 1million home and claims they were never legally married.

Khaled Hayatleh, a lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, ended his relationship with Reem Mofdy after she punched him and 'drove her red convertible BMW at him'.

She was convicted of common assault after the 2012 attack - which arose because she suspected him of cheating - and they each filed for divorce in 2013.

But now they are embroiled in a dispute over the semi-detached home they shared in Sunnymead, northern Oxford.

University lecturer Khaled Hayatleh (left) split up with his wife Reem Mofdy (right) after she 'tried to run him over' and the pair are now locked in a divorce battle over a 1million house

Mr Hayatleh, 50, claimed the 1million house, which he owned before meeting his now ex-wife, should not be included in the divorce settlement.

The electronic engineering lecturer has also asked the Court of Appeal to rule that the pair were in fact never validly married in the first place.

A judge previously declared their marriage was valid in May last year, but Mr Hayatleh is seeking to overturn that ruling at the Court of Appeal.

This has prompted Ms Mofdy, 37, to accuse her ex of 'seeking to avoid his financial responsibilities to her arising out of their marriage'.

Mr Hayatleh, who moved to the UK from Syria in the 1980s and acquired British citizenship, never attended the pair's arranged 'religious marriage' in Syria in 1999.

He instead sent his brother to stand in for him, a valid and legal move under Syrian law.

Ms Mofdy moved to Oxford the same year and they went through another ceremony, this time face-to-face, at Exeter Hall, in Kidlington, Oxon.

Mr Hayatleh claimed the 1million house in Oxford (shown), which he owned before meeting his now ex-wife, should not be included in the divorce settlement

They spent 14 years together, during which they had a daughter, before their relationship fell apart in the aftermath of her conviction in 2012.

Oxford Crown Court was told by prosecutors that she 'drove the car at him' and 'punched him in the side of the face' after accusing him of infidelity.

The attack took place outside their then family home in The Phelps, Kidlington, Oxon, on 25 March 2012.

Ms Mofdy initially faced a charge of dangerous driving, but that was dropped by the prosecution after she pleaded guilty to common assault.

She was handed a two-year conditional discharge.

In the aftermath of the attack, husband and wife both filed divorce papers and clashed during a dispute resolution hearing over whether the husband's 1million home had to be shared with his ex.

A court hearing is still pending on that issue.

Mr Hayatleh then asked the divorce courts to declare that his marriage to Ms Mofdy had never been properly registered and therefore was a 'non-marriage' in the eyes of the law.

But Judge Robin Tolson QC disappointed him, by declaring that the marriage valid, in May last year.

Now the husband is asking Lords Justice McFarlane, Underhill and Briggs to overturn that ruling at the Court of Appeal.

His counsel, Nick Goodwin QC, told the court that Mr Hayatleh had decided to end his relationship with Ms Mofdy 'due to a number of incidents in which the wife was violent towards the husband, including an attempt to run him over.'

The barrister claimed that their religious marriage in Syria had not been properly registered and argued it should not be viewed as valid by the English courts.

He said Syrian documents had been traced 'which record Mr Hayatleh as being single.'

'He contends that the expert evidence has clearly established that the parties' religious marriage had not been properly registered and was not valid.

'There was no evidence of any application having ever been made to the Syrian court for registration. There were no authenticated supporting documents.

'The judge was wrong to find that the marriage was properly registered (and) should have held that this was therefore a 'non-marriage',' said the QC.

William Tyzack, for Ms Mofdy, however, said that Judge Tolson's finding that they are legally married should stand.

He claimed that Mr Hayatleh may have ulterior motives for claiming they were never wed.

'It is suggested the husband's contest to the validity of the marriage, arising only after the financial dispute resolution hearing, brings into focus his strategic conduct in seeking to avoid his financial responsibilities to the wife arising out of the parties' marriage,' he said.

'Judge Tolson found that there was a strong body of evidence pointing to the full validity of this marriage.'

The barrister pointed out that Mr Hayatleh's non-attendance at his own wedding was 'an acceptable practice for marriage in Syria.'

'The marriage was an arranged one but there is no doubt that the marriage ceremony was intended as a binding and valid ceremony according to Syrian law,' he added.

'They continued to live as man and wife for the next decade.

'There was in the whole of that time, no suggestion that they were anything other than a properly married couple.

'The parties' relationship broke down in 2012. In February 2013 the husband petitioned for divorce.

'Shortly afterwards, the wife cross-petitioned. It is common ground that at that stage the husband took no issue as to the validity of the marriage,' said Mr Tyzack.
Gruesome video has emerged of a voodoo witchdoctor 'killing' a man - before apparently 'bringing him back to life' in a bizarre ritual.

Footage shows an African Juju priest appearing to lance a man in the neck before supposedly using his powers to resuscitate him.

The clip appears to show the priest sawing at the victim while he lies on the ground with his legs tied together.

Gruesome video has emerged of a voodoo witchdoctor 'killing' a man - before apparently 'bringing him back to life' in a bizarre ritual

Footage shows an African Juju priest appearing to lance a man in the neck before supposedly using his powers to resuscitate him

The 'victim' - in a white t-shirt - appears to come back to life having been knifed in the neck

The witch doctors, clad in red and covered in body paint, can be seen dancing around the 'body', which is draped with a white cloth.

Footage shows what appears to be blood spurting from the man's wound as onlookers film.

A drum is then played next to the lifeless man as the ringleader carries out the ceremony.

The witch doctors, clad in red and covered in body paint, can be seen dancing around the 'body', which is draped with a white cloth

As the video continues, the man suddenly sits upright prompting gasps from the crowds. He then stands up and manages to walk away unaided

The witch doctors can then be seen dancing with the bloodstained cloth that was used to cover him

But as the video continues, the man suddenly sits upright prompting gasps from the crowds. He then stands up and manages to walk away unaided.

The witch doctors can then be seen dancing with the bloodstained cloth that was used to cover him.

It is not yet clear whether the video was a hoax. It is believed to have been captured in West Africa.

The video has already been widely shared after being posted online.




A pensioner who yelled we voted to take our country back as she smashed a burka sculpture at The Royal College of Art was spared jail today.

Mikaela Haze, 70, shouted Saudi Arabia go home and ripped the veil from the 6,300 artwork before toppling it just six days after the Brexit result.

The sculpture, consisting of a burka over a metal frame, was created by masters student Yasmeen Sabri to promote tolerance and understanding.

Haze claimed she had never been a fan of the Islamic garment - even when she worked as a designer for peace and love champions The Beatles.

Mikaela Haze, 70, pictured, has avoided jail after admitting damaging a sculpture of a burka at the Royal College of Art in London in a 'racially aggravated' incident

Artist Yasmeen Sabri, pictured with the 6,300 sculpture, said she created the artwork to 'promote tolerance and understanding'

She strolled into the gallery in South Kensington clutching a bottle of cider, Westminster Magistrates Court heard.

Ms Sabri was working on her sculpture on the ground floor of the RCA on 29 June when she noticed Haze looking at it and expressing interest in her work.

This person then asked her to take a Muslim head veil from the piece and place it on her head to try it on, said prosecutor Denise Johnson.

She thought at first that this person was drunk because she was holding on to beer but she did not think much of it.

Once the veil was on her head, the female became frantic, screaming out "Go back to Saudi Arabia".

She was rude to the victim.

Someone else came over to try to calm the woman, this defendant, but she kept shouting out "Go back to Saudi Arabia" and "This is my country".

Security staff finally began to escort Haze out when she made one last dash for the sculpture.

[Ms Sabri] said that she then rushed back to the piece of artwork which was a burka on a mesh frame and pulled it away from the stand causing it to fall, said Ms Johnson.

The court heard it took Ms Sabri six months to complete the sculpture.

She said in a statement: I felt very alarmed, I was scared, I was very hurt.

I was really scared that she would become physically violent.

But she said she did not wish to pursue the matter through the courts, instead preferring Haze gets treatment for her drink issues.

Haze, who has had a drinking problem since she was a teenager, apologised after she was escorted from the building by security and arrested.

But she told police she has never been a fan of the burka and claimed to have worked as a designer for the Fab Four.

Westminster Magistrates' Court heard Haze, right, was 'not a fan of the burka', left, and had been drinking on the day of the incident. The court also heard Ms Sabri did not want the pensioner to be punished by the courts and would rather she receive help for her drinking

Ruta Mikailaite, defending, said Haze had been enjoying a belated birthday drink having turned 70 two days before but was celebrating late because the actual date was an extremely upsetting time in her life.

She remembers having a conversation, said Ms Mikailaite.

It was a funny conversation. They were debating.

She has views about the burka, she thinks it is unpleasant on women and they were discussing that.

But what caused the actual damage she cannot explain.

District Judge Timothy King said: This was an awful offence - totally unnecessary.

Whatever your views on whether a burka is oppressive towards Muslim women, your behaviour and taking the action you did in destroying the piece of artwork which had so much effort, time and money invested in it was wholly unnecessary.

Haze, of Bayswater, west London, admitted racially aggravated criminal damage.

She was handed a nine-week jail term, suspended for 12 months and ordered to undertake 15 days rehabilitation activity requirement as directed by probation.

She was also ordered to pay 85 costs and a 115 surcharge.
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This is the scene inside one of Amazon's biggest distribution centres as it prepares for Black Friday and the Christmas period.

More than 1,000 members of staff at the retail giant's warehouse could be seen racing to fill orders in time for one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

Items from electrical goods to children's toys and clothes line miles of shelves, inside the company's 550,000 sq ft warehouse in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.

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Items from electrical goods to children's toys and clothes line miles of shelves, inside the company's 550,000 sq ft warehouse in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire

These were the bustling scenes inside one of Amazon's biggest distribution centres as it prepares for Black Friday and the Christmas period

This year they have created an additional 20,000 seasonal and 3,500 permanent jobs across its offices and began their biggest ever sale on Monday

Bosses said they had the busiest Black Friday to date on November 27 last year, selling more than 7.4 million items - a rate of around 86 items per second.

The firm hired an extra 15,000 temporary staff across its UK distribution centres last year to cope with increased demand.

This year they have created an additional 20,000 seasonal and 3,500 permanent jobs across its offices and began their biggest ever sale on Monday.

The deals - which has seen up to 80 per cent slashed off some items - will run up until Black Friday next week.

Alongside the discounts on popular items, Amazon has also slashed the cost of its Prime subscription service.

Doug Gurr, Amazon's UK country manager, said: 'In response to positive customer feedback for Black Friday deals, we are introducing The Black Friday Sale - 12 days of fantastic deals on must-have gifts and products, saving our customers millions of pounds.

'We're also thrilled to have over a thousand small businesses featuring in our Black Friday Sale, broadening the selection for our customers and enabling those businesses to boost their sales in the run up to Christmas.'

Staff gather products at the Amazon fulfilment centre in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, as preparations get underway for the hectic Christmas period

The Amazon fulfilment centre in Peterborough, Cambs, as preparations get underway for the hectic Christmas period

More than 1,000 members of staff at the retail giant's warehouse could be seen racing to fill orders in time for one of the busiest shopping days of the year

Bosses said they had the busiest Black Friday to date on November 27 last year, selling more than 7.4 million items - a rate of around 86 items per second

The firm hired an extra 15,000 temporary staff across its UK distribution centres last year to cope with increased demand

This year they have created an additional 20,000 seasonal and 3,500 permanent jobs across its offices and began their biggest ever sale on Monday

The centre, which holds millions of items, dispatches packages to customers across the UK and Europe. The company's Black Friday deals are now available online in the UK, including big savings on gifts, televisions, toys and technology
Tragedy: Alex Daniel, from Oxfordshire, hanged himself while out walking the family dog ahead of his A-levels

A former prep school pupil who was dreading his A-levels hanged himself while out walking the family dog, an inquest heard today.

Alex Daniel, 18, from Deddington, Oxfordshire, was severely dyslexic and as the exam season neared his parents, Peter and Caroline, began to remove potential hazards after their son had spoken openly about his suicidal thoughts.

The teenager was speaking regularly to mental health support workers and six months before his death he had unsuccessfully tried to hang himself.

On June 6 this year, the first day back after half term holidays, Alex had refused to go to school and spent most of the day in his bedroom.

But later in the evening he went to take the family dog, Otto, for a walk, but he was found dead by his parents who went looking for him.

Oxfordshire coroner Darren Salter said: 'On June 6 at 10.30pm a call was made by Caroline Daniel saying her son had hanged himself. Her son was removed from a tree but despite the efforts of paramedics life was declared extinct.

'He had been walking the family dog at the time of his death and no signs of other injuries were noted.'

In a statement, bereaved father Peter Daniels wrote: 'Alex was part of a loving and close family. He was born in London and moved to Oxfordshire when he was eight-and-a-half to be close to his prep school, Bruern Abbey.

'At 13 he moved to another school but got disappointing GCSE results and moved to Chipping Norton School to study for his A-levels.'

Mr Daniel said his sporty son, who had two brothers and a sister, had stopped playing rugby after a shoulder injury, and gave up Army Cadets at about the same time.

He wrote: 'Chipping Norton School was concerned about his low mood. He was prescribed anti-depressants but his attendance at school was increasingly sporadic.'

Mental health workers had told the family to remove potential ligature points after Alex confessed his previous attempt to hang himself, the inquest at Oxford Coroner's Court heard today.

Education: His family moved Oxfordshire from London when he was eight-and-a-half to be close to his prep school, Bruern Abbey (pictured)

His parents felt it was good for him to go out and enjoy the fresh air with family pet Otto, who Alex had known since the dog was a puppy, after he played truant from school on the first day back after the May half term break.

Coroner Mr Salter said: 'Alex had spent most of the day in his room and then walked the dog. When he had not returned by 9pm his parents were concerned and Mr Daniel set out to look for him on foot, while Mrs Daniel took the car.

'The couple went to the Windmill Centre, on the common in Deddington, Oxfordshire, and they noticed Otto, their dog, was alone.

'There was a wooded area and Mr Daniel saw his son - it appeared that he was leaning against a tree, but he wasn't leaning, he was hanging'.

A post-mortem examination report, written by Dr Sanjiv Manek, recorded the cause of death as asphyxiation due to hanging.

Alex's GP, Dr Michael D'Souza, noted that in 2015 he had told a school nurse that he had tried to commit suicide by hanging and that he was cutting himself with a penknife.

Jenny Guest, an occupational therapist from the adult mental health team at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, wrote: 'I met Alex and his parents during the three months I worked with him. During the last contact, on May 25, he seemed brighter than before and more spontaneous in manner.

'I asked Alex if he had thoughts about ending his life. He had identified nylon threads in the basement of the family home and I spoke to his parents on his behalf and they agreed to move them to a safe place.'

Alex was seen by one of Ms Guest's colleagues four days before his death, who found him to be in a low mood.

Despite a search of his bedroom at the family home in Deddington, Oxfordshire, no note was found but Mr Salter was satisfied that he intended to kill himself.

The coroner said: 'There were texts or messages in emails which although they did not say explicitly that he intended to take his own life, they talk about being fed up with life.'

For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch, see www.samaritans.org for details.
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It was once a capital city and a landmark in Iraqi history, but now Nimrud lies in ruins after relics were destroyed by ISIS.

The ancient landmark, less than 20 miles south of war-torn Mosul, has been taken from the terror group by the Iraqi army.

But pictures from the site reveal the damage inflicted by the terror group, with once magnificent monuments reduced to rubble.

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Destruction: Iraqi forces have reclaimed the ancient city of Nimrud, where historical treasures have been destroyed by jihadists

Statues and murals, pictured here before ISIS seized the city, have now been reduced to rubble by ISIS

ISIS last year released video showing the ancient city being destroyed, drawing worldwide horror and condemnation

Statues lie shattered, a reconstructed palace is wrecked and the remains of a ziggurat - once one of the tallest structures left from the ancient world at some 50 metres high - has been reduced to a fraction of its height.

The city, which was founded in the 13th century and became the capital of the Assyrian empire, was recaptured on Sunday as part of the massive operation to retake Mosul, the last ISIS-held city in the country.

Jihadists overran Nimrud along with swathes of other territory in 2014.

In April last year, ISIS released a video of its fighters destroying monuments in the city before planting explosives around the site and blowing it up.

Statues lie shattered and monuments have been destroyed in the heartbreaking ISIS campaign against the ancient city of Nimrud

Pictured here in 1977, some of the city's finest historical artifacts have been destroyed by ISIS thugs

Great pieces of art and architecture from the Assyrian empire have been smashed to pieces by jihadists in Nimrud, which is less than 20 miles from Mosul

A statue of a human-headed winged lion, known as a lamassu, pictured in Nimrud before it was destroyed by ISIS

The lamassu statue has now been smashed to pieces by ISIS thugs, who viewed the historic artifacts as un-Islamic

In the video, militants with sledgehammers and power tools broke artefacts before rigging the site with large barrels of what appeared to be explosives.

ISIS said it attacked Nimrud as well as other ancient sites, including Syria's Palmyra and Iraq's Hatra, to eliminate idols that are forbidden by its extreme interpretation of Islam.

But that has not stopped ISIS from looting and selling allegedly forbidden artefacts to fund its operations.

Historical artifacts have been reduced to piles of rocks by ISIS supporters since the ancient city was overrun by the terror group in 2014

An Iraqi soldier looks as the destruction caused by ISIS in the historic city, which has been recaptured from the jihadists

Destruction: Pictures from Nimrud show the monuments which were wrecked by terror group members in the ancient city

The city, which was founded in the 13th century BC, has been destroyed by ISIS thugs

UNESCO has condemned the destruction of Nimrud as a war crime.

Militia commander Ali al-Bayati said after the city was recaptured: 'When you came here before, you could imagine the life as it used to be. Now there is nothing.'

And Bayati, whose native village is just 500 metres away from Nimrud, continued: 'One hundred percent has been destroyed. Losing Nimrud is more painful to me than even losing my own house.'

'They want to make a new picture of Iraq - with nothing before Daesh,' Bayati said, adding he thought ISIS 'destroyed this place because they wanted to destroy Iraq - the new Iraq and old Iraq'.

Jihadists were pictured using tools to dismantle some of Iraq's most treasured artifacts last year

Militia commander Ali al-Bayati said: Losing Nimrud is more painful to me than even losing my own house'

Intricately-designed and carved statues have been reduced to piles of rocks by ISIS thugs in the ancient city

Historians were outraged by the destruction of historical items from Iraq's past

Statues and monuments which were key components of Nimrud's historic role as Assyrian capital have been smashed to pieces by ISIS

Most of Nimrud's priceless artefacts were moved long ago to museums in Mosul, Baghdad, Paris, London and elsewhere, but giant 'lamassu' statues - winged bulls with human heads - and reliefs were still on site.

Now it will take experts to carry out a full evaluation of the damage IS has wrought at Nimrud.

But it may be some time before they can get there: the jihadists that Iraqi forces are fighting to drive back are still just a few miles away, and occasional explosions can be heard in the distance.

A video released by ISIS last year showed supporters of the terror group dismantling treasures in the ancient city

Thugs using sledgehammers were shown smashing murals and statues to pieces in the ancient city last year

Heartbreaking: Much of the ancient city is now reduced to rubble two years after it was overrun by ISIS

Military forces fear that there may still be explosives across Nimrud, and said the city is not yet safe to be be inspected by experts

The once-great city is a shell of its former self after being overrun by ISIS in 2014

The site also still needs to be fully investigated and cleared by security forces of any hidden dangers ISIS may have left behind.

'There are many (bombs) and booby traps suspected,' said Lieutenant Wissam Hamza, a member of an army explosives disposal team.

'So we want to find them and clear the area - then after that it can be called safe.'
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It was the iconic fighter plane that helped Britain triumph in the Falklands War, and now aviation enthusiasts are being given the chance to buy their very own Harrier jump jet.

Famous for its ability to take-off and land vertically, the aircraft for sale has been carefully restored over 18-months, with its engine and bodywork given a full makeover.

Now members of the public have been invited to put forward an offer for the 700mph Harrier GR3, a unique piece of British aviation history that could be yours for a tidy six-figure sum.

For sale: It was the iconic fighter plane that helped Britain triumph in the Falklands War, and now aviation enthusiasts are being given the chance to buy their own Harrier jump jet. The 700mph Harrier GR3 is a unique piece of British aviation history

Famous for its ability to take-off and land almost vertically, the aircraft for sale has been carefully restored over 18-months, with its engine and bodywork given a full makeover. Now members of the public have been invited to put forward an offer

The cockpit: This model was introduced into service in 1976 and was part of the RAF's arsenal of aircraft up until 1990 when it was retired from active service. It spent the next 15 years as an instructional aircraft at the RAF school of technical training

In 2011 a 1971 Harrier T2 XW269 was sold on eBay for 69,999, while another Harrier GR3 fetched 105,800 at an auction in Silverstone, Northamptonshire, in 2014. Jet Art Aviation is looking for bids of at least six figures to secure this aircraft.

The Harrier GR3 was noted for being able to take-off and land near vertically, making it ideal for service on aircraft carriers.

This model was introduced into service in 1976 and was part of the RAF's arsenal of aircraft up until 1990 when it was retired from active service on August 31, 1990.

It spent the next 15 years as an instructional aircraft at the RAF school of technical training.

Before the restoration project was started the jet had stood for more than a decade at the London Air Cadet Squadron, not far from the Kingston Hawker factory where the jet was built in Kingston-upon-Thames, London.

Left idle for 25 years: Before the restoration project was started the jet had stood for more than a decade at the London Air Cadet Squadron, not far from the Kingston Hawker factory where the jet was built in Kingston-upon-Thames, London

But its life as a gate guardian hadn't damaged the aircraft's engine, with it firing up first time after it was left idle for 25 years

Jet Art Aviation, based in North Yorkshire, said the Rolls Royce Pegasus engine ran smoothly during the initial four-and-a-half minute test run. The Harrier's bodywork was then repainted in gloss with its special yellow lightning flash, red and black fin

HARRIER SPECIFICATIONS Harrier Length: 46ft Weight: 6,100kg Maximum range: 2,000 miles - distance from London to Turkey Last flown: August 31, 1990 GR3 Wingspan: 25ft Crew: One Payload: 30mm Aden cannon, bombs and Sidewinder missiles History: Served in the Falklands Advertisement

But its life as a gate guardian hadn't damaged the aircraft's engine, with it firing up first time after it was left idle for 25 years.

Jet Art Aviation, which is based in Selby, North Yorkshire, said the Rolls Royce Pegasus engine ran smoothly during the initial four-and-a-half minute test run.

The Harrier's bodywork was later repainted in gloss with its special yellow lightning flash, red and black fin.

It also had the pilot's name painted on the starboard side of the cockpit, to signify its role in serving with the RAF fourth squadron in Germany.

Chris Wilson, the firm's managing director, said: 'Pricing for this aircraft is available on application.

'Offers in the lower half of the six-figure region will be considered.'

Restoration: The Harrier's bodywork was repainted in gloss with its special yellow lightning flash, red and black fin and pilot's name on the starboard side of the cockpit, to signify its role in serving with the RAF fourth squadron in Germany

In 2011 a 1971 Harrier T2 XW269 was sold on eBay for 69,999, while another Harrier GR3 fetched 105,800 at an auction in Silverstone, Northamptonshire, in 2014. Jet Art Aviation is looking for bids of at least six figures to buy this aircraft (pictured)
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Bill Clinton was spotted relaxing at lunch with a friend and happily taking selfies with fans - days after his wife lost the presidency to Donald Trump.

The former president dined al fresco at Le Jardin Du Roi in Chappaqua, New York, where the Clintons have a home, with an unidentified male companion on Monday.

Though clad in a casual plaid shirt and jacket over a pair of blue jeans at the French bistro, 70-year-old Clinton didn't go unnoticed and was approached by numerous fans during his visit.

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Clinton happily took selfies with a woman and her child when she approached his table at Le Jardin Du Roi restaurant

Clinton was clad in a casual plaid shirt and jeans, but didn't go unnoticed when he went for lunch in the upstate New York town, where he and his wife have a home

He amiably chatted with locals who came to his table, signed autographs and even took the reins when it came to taking selfies.

When one mother asked for a picture, he obliged by taking her phone to snap a picture of himself with the woman and her young child.

Others were pictured approaching the 42nd President of the United Streets on the streets, who happily talked and signed autographs for them.

It comes as DailyMail.com revealed that Bill and Hillary Clinton had an explosive row shortly before Election Day with the former getting so angry that he threw his phone off the roof of his penthouse in Little Rock, Arkansas

Clinton felt that he was ignored by Hillary's top advisers when he had urged them to make the economy the centerpiece of her campaign, a source said.

He repeatedly urged them to connect with working class voters who'd been left behind by the revolutions in technology and globalization rather than constantly attacking Trump and his defects.

'I was with Bill in Little Rock when he had this shouting match with Hillary on the phone and she accused Comey for reviving the investigation into her use of a private email server and reversing her campaign's momentum,' one of Bill Clinton's closest advisers said.

Bill Clinton was spotted relaxing at lunch with a friend and taking selfies with fans - days after his wife lost the presidency

Clinton also happily signed autographs for a woman who approached him on the streets of Chappaqua, New York

The former president took a selfie with a woman who approached his table as he lunched with a male friend on Monday

Despite the argument, the couple were together in Chappaqua in the wake of Hillary's defeat.

Margot Gerster shared a picture, reportedly taken by Bill, of her chance meeting with the former Secretary of State, who was walking her dog on the same trail with her husband.

Gerster said she had decided to take her daughter on a hike to take her mind of the election results when she coincidentally bumped into the Clintons.

'I've been feeling so heartbroken since yesterday's election and decided what better way to relax than take my girls hiking,' Gerster wrote alongside the image on Facebook.

The 70-year-old put on his glasses to take a picture and enjoy a chat with a woman who approached him on Monday

Clinton was also pictured pulling out some cash to pay for lunch and drinks with a male friend in Chappaqua, New York

'So I decided to take them to one of (our) favorite places in Chappaqua. We were the only ones there and it was so beautiful and relaxing.

'As we were leaving, I heard a bit of rustling coming towards me and as I stepped into the clearing there she was, Hillary Clinton and Bill with their dogs doing exactly the same thing as I was.'

But the 30-year-old, of Westchester, New York, has now revealed that she's been getting death threats since her picture with Hillary went viral by people who claim it was a set-up.

'This story needs to go away. It got a lot of positive feedback from a lot of people, but I dont want this to add on to this (blowback), I dont want to fuel the fire,' she told the New York Post.

Clinton reportedly spent the day after Donald Trump's shock victory with Hillary and the pair went hiking in the woods

The former president chats animatedly with a couple of women who approached his table at the French bistro on Monday
Barack Obama believes American voters may have stumbled into electing Donald Trump because of a blind desire for change, despite the Republican's lengthy campaign specifically targeting his policies and actions as president.

And he insisted on Tuesday that even the president-elect's supporters are better off because of his eight years in power.

'At times of significant stress, people are going to be looking for something and they don't always know what they're looking for,' Obama said in Athens, Greece.

'And they may opt for change even if they're not entirely confident what that change will bring.'

NOT MY FAULT: President Barack Obama said Tuesday that Donald Trump's election as his successor was a reaction to a vague desire for change, not a repudiation of his policies

WINNER: Trump rallied tens of thousands of supporters at rally after rally by offering plans to roll back one Obama policy after another

The lame-duck leader spoke during a joint press conference with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

He has begun to communicate more often with the American people in the wake of Trump's surprising victory over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, defending his legacy in the face of a successor who is dead-set on dismantling it.

'A pretty healthy majority of the American people agree with my worldview on a lot of things,' Obama said, citing polls that showed an average 52.6 per cent approval rating as of Monday.

'People seem to think I did a pretty good job,' he added.

'And so there is this mismatch, I think, between frustration and anger  perhaps the view of the American people was that [we] just need to shake things up.'

Trump campaigned aggressively on a promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, Obama's signature legislative achievement that has brought about skyrocketing medical insurance premiums and a reduction in options for consumers.

LAME-DUCK TOUR: Obama was in Greece to talk with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras as part of his final overseas trip as president

He also blasted Obama's foreign policy platform, especially his rapprochement with Cuba and a landmark nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Trump claimed minuscule economic growth and lax attention to the impacts of global trade pacts had left Americans with dwindling incomes and lower standards of living.

And he most famously railed against Obama's immigration policies, calling him an 'open borders' executive with a loose approach that put national security at risk.

Obama, however, insisted Tuesday that Trump's election was not a repudiation of his policies.

BLAME THE GOP: Obama said he could have nipped Trump's populist uprising in the bud if only the Republican Congress hadn't blocked so many of his economic proposals

POWER TO THE PEOPLE? Trump crushed Hillary Clinton by reassuring Americans that help was on the way and brought specifics to back up his promises

He also blamed his GOP opponents in Washington for blocking parts of his agenda that might have solved America's economic woes.

'Raising wages, investing in infrastructure, making sure that people have access to good educations that equip them for the jobs of the future  those are all agenda items that would help alleviate some of those economic pressures that people were experiencing,'Obama told reporters.

'The problem was I couldn't convince the Republican Congress to pass a lot of them.'

Obama came into the White House with Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, yet managed few legislative victories during the two years before a tea party wave swept Republicans into poewr on Capitol Hill and left him facing still opposition in Washington for the first time.

The president also suggested that Trump's charisma, not his policy prescriptions, was a key element in returning the Oval Office to GOP control.

'Presidential elections always turn on personaliies, they turn on how campaigns are run, they turn on natural desires for change if you've had an incumbent who's been there for eight years,' he said.

'There's a temptation to think, "Well, maybe let's make a change." I think there are a whole range of factors involved.'

Obama did credit economic conditions, in part, for Trump's surprising victory. But he argued that globalization and its effects on Americans' jobs and pocketbooks were beyond his control as president.

NO MYSTERY: Trump's cans chanted 'Build that Wall' and 'Drain the Swamp' for months and months and cheered for his promise of an Obamacare repeal

During his campaign Trump successfully linked the White House's trade policies and the Bill Clinton-era North American Free Trade Agreement with the flight of U.S. jobs to Mexico, China, Vietnam and other low-wage nations.

'Globalization combined with technology combined with technology combined with social media and constant information have disrupted people's lives sometimes in very concrete ways  a manufacturing plant closes and suddenly an entire town no longer has what was the primary source of employment  but also psychologically,' Obama observed on Tuesday.

'People are less certain of their national identities or their place in the world. It starts looking different and disorienting.'

And a 'suspicion' of global economic forces can become 'wrapped up in issues of ethnic identity or religious identity or cultural identity. And that can be a volatile mix.'
Lady Hale, one of 11 judges due to hear the Government's appeal, outlined the legal questions surrounding the case in a major speech on the constitution

The Deputy President of the Supreme Court has said ministers could be forced to spend months overhauling EU laws before they can trigger the Brexit process.

The High Court made a landmark ruling earlier this month that Theresa May does not have powers to start the talks with the EU at a time of her choosing but instead needs to pass a law to do so.

Lady Hale, one of 11 judges due to hear a Government appeal from December 5, outlined the legal questions surrounding the case in a major speech on the constitution.

Speaking in Malaysia shortly after the ruling, she said the Supreme Court would have to decide whether a 'comprehensive replacement' for the European Communities Act 1972 is needed before Britain can formally notify the EU of its intent to leave under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.

Previously it had been thought the only requirement would be a simple piece of legislation authorising Mrs May to invoke Article 50.

Lady Hale did not explicitly give her view but the comments have raised fears Brexit could be delayed by months of warfare in Parliament as a rearguard action is fought by Remain campaigners who refuse to accept June's referendum result.

Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg told MailOnline: 'Lady Hale's speculation on a comprehensive replacement for the 1972 European Communities Act is a remarkable one for someone who is about to judge the case.

'It is not an idea that was mentioned in the High Court judgement so it is surprising for a Supreme Court judge to freelance in this way.'

BATTLE BETWEEN MINISTERS' AGE-OLD PREROGATIVE POWERS AND PARLIAMENT The High Court battle turned on whether the age-old royal prerogative rules trumped the sovereignty of parliament. Theresa May's lawyers argued that she is able to invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty - the formal two-year process for leaving the EU - using the powers, which have been at the heart of UK foreign affairs for centuries. Historically, the list of prerogative powers that can be exercised by ministers include declaring war, pardoning criminals, and regulating the Civil Service. But the judges backed the legal challenge brought by Remain supporters, who said the prerogative powers were not sufficient and parliamentary approval was needed for an act that would in effect repeal legislation. The Supreme Court appeal on the issue is due to begin on December 5. Advertisement

Ukip MP Douglas Carswell today warned the Supreme Court against ruling in favour of a major legal overhaul.

He told MailOnline: ' It's hard to see how ordinary voters can have confidence in our democracy if Lady Hale and co are going to start obstructing the process of our lawful disengagement from the EU.'

No 10 today said it remained focused on winning the Supreme Court appeal.

Mrs May has so far insisted the historic legal fight will not stop her starting official Brexit talks by the end of March.

The 1972 Act is a rare piece of written constitutional law and replacing it would take the Government many months.

While the Government is appealing the High Court ruling ministers have reportedly planned a short, simple law that hands Mrs May the necessary powers should they lose.

The BBC reported today a four line Bill handing Mrs May powers has been drafted as a contingency for losing.

Ministers hope to be able to force such a short Bill through the Commons in as little as a fortnight before challenging peers to back down with their objections.

The High Court judgement produced howls of protest the judges were intervening on the political issue of Brexit and trying to delay or halt the process.

The High Court challenge was brought by Gina Miller but after her victory, the former model was accused by Nigel Farage of trying to subvert the referendum result. The pair clashed on the BBC earlier this month, pictured

The case was brought by remain campaigners led by former model Gina Miller, who have insisted their concern is with ensuring Brexit is completed by following the correct process.

In her speech, delivered in Malaysia to an audience of VIPs including members of the royal family last week, Lady Hale laid out the legal case at the centre of the dispute.

She said: 'The argument is that the European Communities Act 1972 grants rights to individuals and others which will automatically be lost if the Treaties cease to apply.

'Such a result, it is said, can only be achieved by an Act of Parliament.

'Another question is whether it would be enough for a simple Act of Parliament to authorise the government to give notice, or whether it would have to be a comprehensive replacement for the 1972 Act.

'The contrary argument is that the conduct of foreign affairs, including the making and unmaking of treaties with foreign powers, lies within the prerogative powers of the Crown.'

Reflecting on the High Court ruling a new law was needed, she added: 'What has to be done instead is perhaps not so clear.

'But the case is destined for our Court, so I must say no more.'

Ukip MP Douglas Carswell (file picture) today warned the Supreme Court against ruling in favour of a major legal overhaul

A Supreme Court spokesman said: 'Lady Hale was simply presenting the arguments from both sides of the Article 50 appeal in an impartial way for an audience of law students, as part of a wider lecture on constitutional law.

'One of the questions raised in these proceedings is what form of legislation would be necessary for Parliament to be able to lawfully trigger Article 50, if the government loses its appeal. A number of politicians have raised the same question.
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The Chinese military has conferred the title of "revolutionary martyr" on pilot Yu Xu.

Yu, the first Chinese woman to fly the J-10 fighter jet, died in an accident during a routine flight training on Saturday.

This file photo shows Chinese female J-10 fighter pilot Yu Xu. Yu died in an accident during a routine flight training on Saturday. (Xinhua/Shen Ling)



Born in 1986, in Chongzhou in southwest China's Sichuan Province, Yu joined the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force in September 2005, and had flown four types of aircraft.

She was one of the pilots selected to fly over Tian'anmen Square during the 2009 National Day parade and had flown the J-10 in air shows at home and abroad, according to Air Force spokesman Shen Jinke.

From country girl to China's first female J-10 pilot, Yu devoted her most precious years to the building of a strong army, Shen said.

Yu's death has sadden the country, with people across the country mourning her in various ways. About 10 million people laid virtual wreaths at an online mourning hall set up for her.
A former boarding school student had a 'sex fest' with her teacher Simon Ball at his home after watching pornography, a court heard

A music teacher 'had a threesome' with two of his pupils and would sneak into one of their houses for sex as her parents slept upstairs, a court heard.

Simon Ball, 42, had an 'all-night sex fest' with the student after watching pornography with her, it was alleged.

He then convinced the girl to take part in a threesome with another young victim from the same boarding school where he taught.

When she appeared upset he allegedly told her: Dont get jealous  come and join in.

On the second day of his trial at Peterborough Crown Court the jury of seven men and five women were shown police interviews with the main alleged victim.

The court previously heard how Ball had sex with the victim on his wife's wedding dress on the floor of a spare room in his small terraced house in North Yorkshire.

But Ball's defence barrister, Ms Claire Matthews, poked holes in the victim's story by saying she had no recollection of what the wedding dress looked like.

The allegations are that Ball abused three schoolgirls aged between 13 and 16 between 2001 and 2004 during his time as a teacher at a private school in Yorkshire.

Ball denies four counts of indecent assault against former students and five counts of engaging in sexual activity while in a position of trust between 2001 and 2004.

It is alleged he had sex with two of the teenagers while they were students at the school, and once had sex with them both at the same time.

The jury were shown a police interview where one of the 'talented' former students described a time she went to Ball's house and had sex with him after watching adult pornography.

In the footage she said: 'I remember him putting pornography on while we were in the living room and it was just like, it was just a sex fest. It was sex all night.'

She added: 'There was a time, I think it was that night, and this is going to make me feel and sound awful.

'He asked me to have sex on his wife's wedding dress and we did.

Ball also 'sneaked' into the victim's home at night to have sex with her while her parents slept in the same house, it was alleged. He is also said to have had sex on his wife's wedding dress

'He got it out and he laid it on the floor and we had sex on top of it and he put it back in the cupboard.'

The alleged victim continued: 'I just remember the whole way through the relationship I hated his wife. I absolutely hated her.

'I just remember she was there sometimes, was around school and I absolutely hated her and he [Ball] just made me have this feeling about her that she was a complete and utter cow.

'And I remember when he suggested doing that on her wedding dress it was like "she's a b****" and "let's do it".

'I just remember the whole way through I just absolutely hated her.'

Hearing: On the second day of his trial at Peterborough Crown Court (pictured) the jury of seven men and five women were shown police interviews with the main alleged victim

The court heard the wedding dress had been kept in a cupboard in a spare room with a plastic cover on it, which Ball took off to have sex on it.

The victim also spoke of a time when she and another victim went to Ball's house after shopping and both of them had sex with him at his home.

She said: 'There was another time that I went over to his house and [female's name] came with me and when we were there he invited me up to his bedroom and he asked [female's name] to come too and he started doing foreplay with both of us.

'I remember feeling really jealous because I didn't realise that is why he got her to come around as well.

'And when he saw me getting jealous he said you know, "don't get jealous, come and join in".

Ball (outside court today) denies four counts of indecent assault against former students and five counts of engaging in sexual activity while in a position of trust from 2001 to 2004

'He started doing foreplay on both of us and got us to touch each other and then had sex with both of us.'

Speaking about a time when the allegations came to light in 2004 she said in a police interview: 'Obviously at the time I didn't want him to go to prison because I thought I loved him.'

Today the alleged female victim, now aged in her late twenties, gave evidence while being cross-examined.

Defending, Ms Matthews, addressed the witness about her version of events in 2004 where she told police 'that nothing sexual whatsoever had happened with Mr Ball'.

She added: 'So one of those stories you gave was a complete pack of lies?'

To which the victim replied: 'One of them yes.'

Ms Matthews also questioned the victim about how Ball managed to get her the morning after pill after an alleged incident where the condom is said to have broke.

Addressing the victim, she said: 'When you were 15 or 16 you described one occasion when the condom split and you say he [Ball] managed to get the morning after pill.'

The female said she remembered getting a phone call from a pharmacist and Ball returned with the morning after pill.

Ms Matthews said: 'So he alone, without your presence, managed to secure for you some medication. Are you sure about that?'

She replied: 'I am 100 per cent sure about that.'

The court also heard how the alleged victim didn't know anything about Ball's relationship with his now ex-wife Hannah Atherton.

She added: 'It's almost like he had absolutely everybody wrapped around his little finger and at times I had inklings that other teachers knew but I don't know.'

The court was told how Ball, of Greenwich, London, would stay at the alleged victim's home for around an hour and their relationship went on for about four months.

The court previously heard how Ball started working at the Yorkshire school from 1999 to 2004 before moving to another school in Cambridgeshire.
John Nuggent, who allegedly blasted an air horn in El Segundo, California, on numerous occasions has been arrested

A man who allegedly blasted an air horn in El Segundo, California, for weeks has been arrested.

John W. Nuggent is accused of using the device, which El Segundo police says is similar to a train horn.

Lt. Ray Garcia told NBC Los Angeles: 'The sound is like a train coming through the neighborhood.'

The El Segundo Police Department said on Facebook Monday: 'On November 13, 2016 at around 4:00 AM, El Segundo Officers heard an extremely loud air-horn being actuated (similar to a train horn) on the west side of town.'

Authorities said 'there have been numerous reports of similar occurrences over the past several weeks involving a blue [four-door] compact vehicle driven by a male white adult.'

Police said there had been multiple reports which involved a four-door vehicle (seen here)

Police said: 'Shortly after hearing the loud horn, El Segundo Officers initiated a traffic-stop in the area of Grand Avenue and Main Street on a [four-door] blue 2006 Chevrolet Aveo.

'The vehicle was driven by John W. Nuggent and officers found air-horn equipment inside his vehicle.'

The ruckus brought citizens out of their homes who said they were victims, and they made a citizen's arrest, NBC Los Angeles reported.

El Segundo police wrote on Facebook: 'Several El Segundo residents, who were alleged victims of the air horn noise, responded to the scene and initiated a citizen's arrest on Nuggent.'

Authorities proceeded to take him into custody, with Nuggent booked on suspicion of disturbing the peace, according to NBC Los Angeles.

Garcia told the station that police think Nuggent feels someone in the area wronged him and the air horn is his retaliation.

He also said that Nuggent used the device close to nightly 'for weeks'.
Boris Johnson, pictured in Downing St today, said claims from EU leaders that freedom of movement is one of the fundamental rights of the European Union is 'b*******s'

Claims from EU leaders that freedom of movement is one of the fundamental rights of the European Union is 'b*******s,' Boris Johnson said today.

The Foreign Secretary lashed out at EU zealots who are refusing to offer a deal that would allow Britain to stay in Europe's single market and restrict immigration.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the most powerful leader in Europe, has described the EU's open borders policy as one of the 'four fundamental freedoms' that 'cannot be separated' from freedom of goods, services and capital.

But Mr Johnson, the Foreign Secretary who championed Brexit during the referendum and will play a key role in the exit process, dismissed this argument as 'nonsense'.

'Everybody now has it in their head that every human being has some fundamental God-given right to move wherever they want,' he told the Czech newspaper Hospodarske noviny: 'It's not true. That was never the case. That was never a founding principle of the EU. Total myth,' he added.

EU leaders fear that allowing Britain an exception to one of the four freedoms would lead to other nation states seeking similar arrangements, which would undermine decades of closer European integration.

Mr Johnson also used the interview to add to the charm offensive he and other UK ministers have launched to win over Donald Trump since his election victory last week.

He insisted there is 'every reason to be positive' about his presidency.

The Foreign Secretary said: 'Donald Trump is dealmaker, he is a guy who believes firmly in values that I believe in too  freedom and democracy.

'As far as I understand he is in many aspects a liberal guy from New York.'

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the most powerful leader in Europe, has described the EU's open borders policy as one of the 'four fundamental freedoms' that 'cannot be separated' from freedom of goods, services and capital

Boris Johnson, pictured leaving No 10 this morning after the Cabinet meeting, lashed out at EU zealots who are refusing to offer a deal that would allow Britain to stay in Europe's single market and restrict immigration

Boris Johnson, pictured jogging near the Mall in central London today, dismissed arguments that freedom of movement is central to the EU project as 'nonsense'

They are the latest warm remarks Mr Johnson has used to describe Mr Trump as he tries to row back on his previous criticism of the Republican.

Less than a year ago he publicly condemned Mr Trump after the Republican claimed some parts of London were 'no-go areas' because of Muslim extremists.

JOHNSON HAILS 'LIBERAL GUY' DONALD TRUMP Boris Johnson has heaped praise on Donald Trump as a 'liberal guy from New York'. The enthusiastic comments are a dramatic volte face a year after Mr Johnson condemned Mr Trump for claiming there were extremist 'no-go areas' in London. In the latest stage of the government's charm offensive on the new president-elect, the Foreign Secretary said there was 'every reason to be positive' about the next inhabitant of the White House. 'Donald Trump is dealmaker, he is a guy who believes firmly in values that I believe in too  freedom and democracy. As far as I understand he is in many aspects a liberal guy from New York.' Advertisement

He described Mr Trump, who had just announced his plan to ban Muslims from entering the US, as 'betraying a quite stupefying ignorance that makes him frankly unfit to hold the office of President of the United States'.

In a remarkably strong public rebuke to Mr Trump, the then London Mayor added: 'The only reason I wouldn't go to some parts of New York is the real risk of meeting Donald Trump.'

On Wednesday he completed a remarkable U-turn in his approach to Mr Trump, becoming one of the first foreign ministers to congratulate Mr Trump and saying he is 'much looking forward to working with his administration'.
Nicholas Mullins, 31, is suing a casino for allegedly serving him too many free drinks before he assaulting his girlfriend in 2012

A man who spent four years in prison for beating his girlfriend at a Pennsylvania casino is suing the casino for allegedly serving him too many free drinks before the assault.

Nicholas Mullins, 31, is still on probation for the January 2012 assault during which he beat his girlfriend Caitlin Shields so badly her brain swelled and she nearly died.

Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem contends Mullins, a Navy veteran, alone is to blame for beating Shields in which he tried to suffocate her with a pillow and sent her to the hospital.

However, Mullins claims he is the long-term victim because he wound up in prison and cannot find a job as a result of his conviction, while Shields moved on and married someone else, according to LeHigh Valley Live.

'His life is the one that got ruined here,' his attorney Stuart Niemtzow said.

Mullins was given at least 15 drinks before he and Shields returned to their room and got into a fight, Niemtzow said.

Mullins told police Shields attacked him on January 22, 2012 after he lost $800 gambling, and contends he only slapped her in self-defense.

Mullins was kneed in the groin and had his nose broken during the argument, Niemtzow said.

Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem (pictured) contends Mullins, a Navy veteran, alone is to blame for beating his girlfriend

A doctor concluded Shields' head trauma was consistent with being punched repeatedly, police said. She was not criminally charged.

Mullins has claimed to have post-traumatic stress disorder and pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in June 2012, though he maintains the fight was mutual.

Niemtzow said Mullins pleaded guilty to avoid a charge of attempted murder and a '40-year exposure.'

Mullins contends the Sands should have known he drank to the point of having alcohol poisoning at another casino four months before - information that was part of a state database the Sands had access to, according to Niemtzow.

Mullins also claims Shields was allowed to drink even though Niemtzow contends Sands security knew she was on probation for drunken driving at the time.

Mullins is suing the Dram Shop Act, a law on the books in Pennsylvania and 37 other states.

Mullins is seeking compensation for lost wages and the time he has spent behind bars

It holds that businesses selling alcohol to visibly intoxicated people can be held liable for injuries they suffer as a result.

Mullins is seeking compensation for lost wages and the time he has spent behind bars, LeHigh Valley Live reported.

A Northampton County jury was picked to hear Mullins' lawsuit on Monday, before which Common Pleas Judge Paula Roscioli expressed 'shock' at Mullins' claim.
A four-year-old girl was shot dead after her mother refused to let go of her purse during a robbery on Monday night, authorities said.

The mother, 27, was unloading groceries with her daughters, aged four and 10, when at least two men tried to steal her purse in Houston, Texas.

The young girl died after she was shot in the head, and both her sister and mother remain in critical condition, ABC 13 reported.

A four-year-old girl was shot dead in Houston, Texas, during an armed robbery that left her sister, aged 10, and mother in critical condition

All three victims were taking their groceries into the home when at least two men emerged from a dark sedan and tried to grab the mother's purse

Three men emerged from a dark sedan before 9pm Monday at the 10400 block of Greens Crossing Boulevard and grabbed the mother's purse after they had returned from grocery shopping, the Harris County Sheriff's Office said.

She refused to let go, and at least nine shots were fired, deputies told ABC.

The 27-year-old tried to protect her children, but her younger daughter was shot in the head.

The mother didn't realize she had been shot in the stomach until a deputy noticed she was bleeding through her shirt, ABC reported.

All three victims were transported to Houston Northwest Hospital, and the four-year-old died after she was airlifted to Memorial Hermann Hospital.

The other two remain in critical condition.

Photographs of the scene show cans of food and other groceries strewn across the ground, with personal items like glasses left behind.

Sheriff's Deputy Thomas Gilliland called the incident 'horrendous' and said they are reviewing surveillance video.

The mother told authorities there were two suspects, but a witness said it was a group of three.

Authorities also advised people to give up their valuables during robberies.

Sheriff's Deputy Thomas Gilliland called the incident 'horrendous' and said they are reviewing surveillance video (pictured, a makeshift memorial outside the apartment)
Last month, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio celebrated the city having it's 'safest October' since the NYPD started digitally tracking crime statistics in the early 1990s.

It couldn't be more of a different story in Chicago, where 18 people were killed in a single weekend last month.

Chi-Town is currently going through one of its most dangerous periods, and has already recorded 625 murders this year as of Monday. That's already more murders than every year since 2002.

Meanwhile, New York, a city that has more than three times the population of Chicago, has only experienced 286 murders this year.

The startling difference between the two cities has been pegged on a variety of issues from politics to the ghettoization of the poor.

Scroll down to see what experts have to say about the differences in the murder rate between the two cities.

While the murder rate has seen a drastic increase in Chicago, New York just keeps getting safer

Rahm Emanuel

Chicago's police department has been plagued by political scandals that may be discouraging officers from doing their jobs, the city's former Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy told the New York Post.

Last year, McCarthy - a former New York City cop - was fired after one of his cops shot an unarmed teen.

He says public blowback from incidents like this have left cops 'hamstrung'

'Theyre not getting out of their cars and stopping people. Thats because of all the politics here,' McCarthy said. 'In Chicago, performance is less important than politics. Its called "The Chicago Way," and the results are horrific.'

Some point directly to Mayor Rahm Emanuel for the political issues with the police force.

'The chief law enforcement officer in any city serves at the pleasure of the mayor, so the mayor in effect sets the agenda for the way in which law enforcements activities will be conducted,' James Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police union, said.

He continued: 'Emanuel has chosen to meddle in police department policies and procedures, and the results are also obvious. Theres been a total politicization of the Chicago Police Departments approach to public safety.'

Some have blamed Chicago's Mayor Rahm Emanuel for 'meddling' in police procedures

Unsolved murders

If a murder goes unsolved, that gives the killer the opportunity to kill again and it can inspire others to kill because they think they can get away with the crime.

Chicago detectives lag far behind the national average in solving murders, and even further behind the New York City average.

Last year, Chicago detectives solved just 46 per cent of homicides compared to the 63 per cent national average and the 68 per cent New York City average.

This year has been even worse, according to a September report in the Chicago Tribune. The report found that just 30 per cent of open murders were solved this year, and that the figure drops to just 21 per cent when old cases are taken into account.

That could be because just eight per cent of Chicago officers are detectives, compared to 15 per cent of NYPD officers.

Easy access to guns

Chicago is also 'much more porous to guns' than New York, Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf said.

Sheinkopf said that there's a 'direct pipeline' from Mississippi up to Chicago that supplies criminals with illegal weapons.

While illegal weapons do find their way to New York City as well, the city has also conducted several successful weapons busts in recent years.

There's also the issue of legal weapons. In Chicago, citizens can have concealed carry licenses, whereas New York City residents are not allowed to carry guns in public - no matter if they are legally owned and licensed.

Destitute neighborhoods

Another major difference between the two cities is in their poorer neighborhoods - where the majority of murders happen.

In New York City, the most desperate areas are in housing projects, relatively small communities spread throughout the five boroughs.

But in Chicago, the city's poor neighborhoods take up large swaths of land to the south and west of the city.

Many families have been stuck in these communities for generations, and with little hope of extricating themselves - some turn to crime.

'Chicagos problem wasnt a day in the making - its 60 years in the making,' Loyola University psychology professor Arthur Lurigio said. 'Working at the jail as a staff psychologist, Ive seen two, maybe three generations pass through.'

Chicago's poorest communities are much larger and wide-spread than New York's. Above, a view of a crime scene on the south side of Chicago, where six people were killed, in February 2016

Superior policing in New York City

One NYPD official who spoke with the Post credited the low murder rate in the city with targeted foot patrols for cops.

'Most cities only place foot posts in business districts. We put our foot posts in the most violent areas of the city, as well as our business district,' the source said.

'Its not a fun assignment, but its critical to keeping people safe.'

And it appears that the Chicago police know there is something they can learn from New York cops.

In October, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Dermot Shea and Chief of Patrol Terence Monahan traveled to Chicago for a one day summit to share crime-fighting tips.

She said that they talked about 'how we've reviewed and managed cases to have the greatest impact on violence in NYC. And at the same time, Terry was there describing what we've been doing on the neighborhood-policing side.'

He added: 'These things complement each other'.
Investigators probing alleged abuses by British soldiers in Iraq have been sacked for falling asleep on the job and lying on their CV, it was claimed today.

The deputy head of the the controversial Iraq Historic Allegations Team (Ihat), Royal Navy Commander Jack Hawkins, said he had 'let go' civilian contractors for a range of misdemeanours.

Several Tory MPs have called for the inquiry to be wound up amid concerns that soldiers have faced investigation even after being cleared of wrongdoing by the criminal courts.

The Ihat probe was set up in November 2010 to look into allegations of murder, abuse and torture of Iraqi civilians by UK military personnel between 2003 and 2009 (File photo)

Appearing before the Commons Defence Sub-Committee, Cdr Hawkins admitted that there had been examples of its civilian investigators not being up to scratch.

Ihat employs around 147 staff, 127 of whom are civilian contractors, complemented by around 12 Royal Navy personnel and around eight civil servants, the committee heard.

Cdr Hawkins said: 'We have had examples of people not coming up to the right standards.

'I let somebody go, or I instigated the letting go of somebody - so we said to the contract provider at the time 'I'm not happy with that' and he was let go, quite quickly.

'It was straightforward, he was asleep on a chair when I walked in the office, I wasn't comfortable with that, so he went the next day.

'Another person wasn't wholly accurate on a CV, I wasn't comfortable with that, so she went very soon afterwards.

'Another person was involved in a civilian incident that wasn't related to Ihat business, we weren't comfortable with that either and so we said we can't take this person forward.

'Another individual did not come up to the standards in terms of taking perhaps the right route in terms of how we wanted a witness to be spoken to in a third country and I wasn't comfortable with that, so he was let go as well.

The deputy head of Ihat, Royal Navy Commander Jack Hawkins, told MPs today that there had been examples of its civilian investigators not being up to scratch

'There have been a number of others who we just didn't renew the contract of.'

The probe was set up in November 2010 to look into allegations of murder, abuse and torture of Iraqi civilians by UK military personnel between 2003 and 2009.

As of October 21, it had already dismissed or closed more than half of the 3,300 allegations submitted to it so far, including unlawful killing and other mistreatment by British soldiers in Iraq.

Those figures showed that of 176 investigations completed or nearing completion so far, just four have prompted any further action.

They also revealed that its costs had reached nearly 35 million.
An Indian politician has attracted the fury of people in the poverty-stricken country by throwing an outrageously extravagant wedding for his daughter.

The lavish bash is said to have cost businessmen and ex-state minister Gali Janardhana Reddy an estimated 5bn rupees - which is equivalent to 59million or $74million.

Guests were invited to daughter Brahmani's wedding with gold-plated invitations, while Bollywood stars performed in a five-day extravaganza that critics have branded an 'obscene display of wealth'.

Scroll down for video

Ex-state minister G Janardhana Reddy is estimated to have spent 5bn rupees on his daughter's wedding - which is equivalent to 59million or $74million

Guests were invited to daughter Brahmani's wedding with gold-plated invitations, while Bollywood stars were believed to have performed

The wedding invitations arrived in a gold-plated box, containing a card setting out details of the affair, and with an LED screen fitted into the lid.

The video that plays on the screen shows Brahmani wearing a series of fancy gowns, while her fiance Rajeev Reddy is flanked by five white horses.

The video that plays on the lavish invitation shows Brahmani wearing a series of fancy gowns

Meanwhile, Janardhan Reddy and his wife lip-synch to a song that was composed especially for the wedding.

The wedding kicked off just days after the Indian government announced an overnight ban on 500 and 1,000 rupee notes in a crackdown on illegal cash holding.

On the video Janardhan Reddy and his wife lip-synch to a song that was composed especially for the wedding

The bride's wedding sari cost 2million, while her jewellery cost another 10million

The government scrapped the two notes, making redundant the vast majority of currency that Indians use on a daily basis in the country's largely cash-based economy.

The move has hit low-income Indians hard, including traders and ordinary savers who rely on the cash economy.

Many have been standing in long queues at banks to deposit expired money and exchange notes for smaller denominations, and frustration in the country is widespread.

His daughter's fiance Rajeev Reddy is shown in the video flanked by five white horses

Weddings in India are often opulent affairs, and it is not unusual for payments for services to be made in cash.

WHAT THE WEDDING COST Gold-plated invitations: 118,296 Bride's wedding sari: 2million Bride's jewellery: 10million Total cost of wedding: 59million Advertisement

Mr Reddy reportedly said he had mortgaged properties in Bangalore and Singapore to fund the celebration, and had made all payments six months ago, when the planning started.

The main event of the almost-week-long celebration will be held tomorrow at sprawling venue the Bangalore Palace.

Preparations for the event began months in advance, and eight Bollywood directors were reportedly hired to create sets resembling ancient Hindu temples, to form a backdrop to the ceremonies.

Mr Reddy has been criticised and ridiculed on social media after details of the wedding became known to the public

Mr Reddy was a former member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka, the state which has Bangalore as its capital

Guests will be ferried about in luxury bullock carts and fed in a purpose-built village inside the grounds, while 3,000 bouncers and 300 policemen will ensure the event is secure, with the help of sniffer dogs and bomb squads.

Mr Reddy has been criticised and ridiculed on social media, with some users joking about how long he had had to queue at the bank to exchange enough money to pay for the expensive wedding.

His political opponents also used it as an opportunity to question whether the prime minister's crackdown on illegal 'black money' would include elites.

Mr Reddy was a former member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka, the state which has Bangalore as its capital.
Death was one of two that led to club being closed in September

He bought more pills in club, triggering cardiac arrest and

Ryan Browne, 18, died of a drugs overdose in hospital in June after he and his friends smuggled MDMA into the world-famous London venue by hiding it in their socks

A teenager who died from a drugs overdose after smuggling ecstasy into Fabric nightclub bought another pill inside the venue because he could not feel the effects, an inquest has heard.

Ryan Browne, 18, died in hospital in June after he and his friends smuggled MDMA into the world-famous London club by hiding it in their socks.

An inquest into his death heard how Ryan - described as a keen sportsman - took the pills inside the club's toilet but later became 'frustrated' at not feeling the effects.

The teenager then decided to buy some more pills inside the club, triggering a cardiac arrest and his eventual death.

Ryan's high-profile death, along with that of teenager Jack Crossley in August, led to the historic club being shut down in September.

Councillors in Islington, north London, ruled to shut down the venue amid claims it had become a 'safe haven' for illegal drug use.

Police warned that further deaths would occur unless changes were made.

During the inquest, Ryan's friend Ben Hole told how the group travelled to the club from St Albans, Hertfordshire, after buying drugs from a friend of a friend.

He said they decided to go to Fabric because it was 'known as the club in London to go to take ecstasy.'

Mr Hole said the group did not plan on buying drugs at the venue, instead hiding the pre-purchased pills between their toes.

Although they were searched at the door, none of the group were asked to take off their shoes and socks despite other punters being asked to do so, the hearing was told.

The friends then went to the club toilets and took the pills before returning to the dance floor.

But the hearing heard how Ryan began saying that he could not feel the drugs taking hold.

Mr Hole told the hearing how he became 'frustrated' and decided to take another one.

'We were dancing and Ryan kept saying he didn't feel it,' he told the hearing. 'Someone came up and said Ryan had gone off to try and get another one (pill) inside.'

Mr Hole told the hearing that he then saw Ryan making an 'exchange' with someone at the back of the club. Shortly after, he took a turn for the worst.

An inquestheard how Ryan took the pills inside the club's toilet but later became 'frustrated' at not feeling the effects. The world-famous club is pictured above

He told the coroner: 'A little while later he didn't look good. We kept asking him if he was okay but he said he was fine. But he got worse and worse.'

The hearing heard how Ryan then began hallucinating and repeatedly said 'Daniel Sturridge'. Friends also described how he was 'twitching when he was speaking'.

Another friend, Ryan Locke, said he then took Ryan outside to get some fresh air, where a bouncer urged him to seek medical treatment.

Esther Finn, a medic at Fabric with over five years' experience, told the inquest she first saw Ryan in the medical room at 1:40am.

She described how he was 'extremely sweaty, very agitated and very confused'.

'He wasn't able to come down the stairs into the room so we had to coax him in there,' she told the hearing.

Ryan's death - along with that of Luke Crossley (pictured) in August - led to the nightclub being shut down

'Ryan Browne's lips were blue from the moment I came into contact with him. I know what to recognise and something was very very wrong.'

The hearing heard how Ms Finn took his internal body temperature which measured 41.6C, rather than 37.5C.

Ms Finn said Ryan then had two seizures. An ambulance crew tried to stabilise him and doctors attempted to intubate him, but he died in hospital less than an hour later.

Toxicology tests revealed Ryan had an MDMA concentration of 2.48 micrograms in his system. The hearing heard the upper limit for recreational use is deemed to be 0.35 micrograms.

The inquest also heard from general manager of Fabric nightclub Luke Laws who said he had seen an 'arms race' among drug makers.

Islington Council revoked the club's licence after finding it had a 'culture of drug use' which staff were 'incapable of controlling'.

But Mr Laws defended the anti-drugs policy and pointed to a lack of education among clubbers about the strength of pills.

He said: 'People making illicit drugs had to up their strength to compete with legal highs.

'I've said it before, this has to stop. I see people popping pills like they're smarties.'

Asked about dealing at the club, Mr Laws insisted drug-taking was not tolerated.

He said: 'In the last four years 83 people have been handed over to the Metropolitan Police Service for prosecution for dealing.'

Giving her conclusion senior coroner Mary Hassell said she was satisfied that Ryan's death was 'recreational drug use gone wrong'.

'I am completely satisfied it was not his intention to end his life,' she said. 'He was a naive drug user, he was naive in life as well.

'The drugs in his system were enough to kill someone who was very habituated. And he was very far from habituated.'

She refused to call it an 'overdose' because she said illegal drugs 'don't come with a dose on the label'.

Speaking directly to Mr Browne's family in court, including his mother Sarah, she added: 'I don't know how to make sense of a completely healthy young man with his life ahead of him succumbing in this way.'

She added that she was 'struggling' to make a prevention of further death report, adding: 'I'm not naive enough to think people will stop taking recreational drugs.'
It was billed as one of the biggest art world discoveries to come out of France in years.

But a retired professor's claim that she was set to reveal 65 of Vincent Van Gogh's never-before-seen drawings in a new book has been shot down by a Dutch museum.

The Van Gogh Museum said a sketchbook described by Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov, a former University of Toronto academic, as the artist's 'lost work' were merely imitations.

The Amsterdam-based museum claimed its experts had long been aware of the sketchbook and insisted the works could not be attributed to Van Gogh.

Retired professor Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov and her publishers claimed they were set to reveal 65 of Vincent Van Gogh's never-before-seen drawings in a new book

The shock revelation came after French publishers Le Seuil announced they were reproducing the drawings in a book titled 'Vincent Van Gogh, the fog of Arles: the rediscovered sketchbook'.

In the book, Ms Welsh-Ovcharov claimed the drawings were jotted in the accounts book of a hotel the artist stayed at for several nights in Arles in the South of France.

Van Gogh was said to have penned the artworks between 1888 and May 1890 - just two months before he fatally shot himself.

It was during this time that Van Gogh suffered serious psychological issues, which led to him cutting off his ear - before apparently presenting the flesh to a prostitute.

But the Van Gogh Museum today said the notebook of drawings were merely imitations

Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov, a former University of Toronto academic, claimed the drawings were jotted in the accounts book of a hotel

Ms Welsh-Ovcharov, a professor at the University of Toronto in Canada, claimed she had 'rediscovered' the drawings three years ago.

She told CBC News how she was in France when she was asked by a local art scholar to look at an album containing some of the artist's material.

'You know they say you have an 'oh my God' moment I had an OMG,' she said.

'I said, it's not possible! I knew straight away, I was a little thrown but I knew ... and it was frightening.'

It was thought the notebook included portraits of his friends - artist Paul Gauguin and Pierre and Marie Ginoux, who owned the Cafe de la Gare where he stayed.

Van Gogh immortalised Marie - with whom he had a strong bond - in one of his most famous paintings, 'L'Arlesienne' (The Arles Woman).

The sketchbook's authenticity was backed by the respected Van Gogh scholar Ronald Pickvance.

Van Gogh was said to have penned the artworks between 1888 and May 1890 - just two months before he fatally shot himself, pictured is a self-portrait by the artist in 1888

The sketchbook's authenticity was backed by the respected Van Gogh scholar Ronald Pickvance

He called it 'the most revolutionary discovery in the entire history of Van Gogh's oeuvre'.

But within minutes of today's press conference, the Van Gogh Museum released a statement saying the drawings were categorically not by the artist.

'Their opinion, based on years of research on Van Gogh's drawings ... is that these album drawings are imitations of Van Gogh's drawings,' the museum said.

'The experts examined its style, technique and iconography, and among their conclusions were that it contains distinctive topographical errors and that its maker based it on discoloured drawings by Van Gogh,' the museum added.

Another clue debunking the authenticity of the notebook was that the drawings 'are executed in brownish ink, and this type of ink has never been found in Van Gogh's drawings from the years 1888-1890.'

The museum, one of Amsterdam's major tourist attractions, holds some 500 Van Gogh drawings and four of his sketchbooks.

Le Seuil had described the sketches as 'a very impressive ensemble' and insisted that 'their authenticity is well established'.

It claimed the accounts book was found in the archives of the Cafe de la Gare in Arles where Van Gogh painted furiously over the period of his year-long stay there.
Harvey Proctor, pictured today, was falsely accused in the VIP sex abuse inquiry

A former Tory MP falsely accused in the VIP sex abuse inquiry said he is considering taking legal action against the Metropolitan Police.

Harvey Proctor said he had asked solicitors to 'look towards taking proceedings' against the force following a meeting with Metropolitan Police chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe in London today.

He could receive up to 1million in compensation over the bungled inquiry.

For more than a year, Harvey Proctor, 69, strenuously denied being part of a VIP paedophile ring that murdered three boys as he was investigated under Scotland Yard's 2.5million Operation Midland.

Mr Proctor's home was raided alongside those of D-Day veteran Lord Bramall and late former home secretary Lord Brittan, after lurid claims were made by a solitary alleged victim, known as 'Nick'.

Operation Midland closed earlier this year without a single arrest.

Last week a damning review of the Metropolitan Police's handling of sex crime claims against high profile suspects found a series of failings.

Retired High Court judge Sir Richard Henriques criticised Scotland Yard over Operation Midland, saying Lord Bramall, Lord Brittan and Mr Proctor's reputations 'were shattered by the word of a single, uncorroborated complainant'.

After meeting with Sir Bernard today, Mr Proctor said the police chief had reiterated his apology for failings in the investigation and the effect it had had on his life.

Speaking to reporters in central London, he said: 'I can say that in the light of the Henriques Report and its findings, the letter of apology which I received from Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe last Tuesday, and the intolerable strain and stress I, my family and friends have borne this last 18 months I have asked my solicitors to look towards taking proceedings against the Metropolitan Police Service and I will comment further shortly.'

Harvey Proctor said he had asked solicitors to 'look towards taking proceedings' against the force following a meeting with Metropolitan Police chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe today

Asked if this could be interpreted as him suing the force, Mr Proctor repeated the phrase 'taking proceedings'.

The accuser 'Nick' is now facing investigation for allegedly attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The Henriques Report found 43 failings in the inquiry, including believing Nick for too long; one officer announcing publicly that his claims were 'credible and true'; and applying for search warrants with flawed information.

Sir Richard, a former judge, said: 'The principal cause of the many failures in this investigation was poor judgment and a failure to accurately evaluate known facts and to react to them.

'A major contributing factor was the culture that 'victims' must be believed.'

Mr Proctors legal move against Scotland Yard came as Wiltshire Police faced scrutiny over its inquiry into alleged child abuse by Sir Edward Heath, who died in 2005.

Commenting on Mr Proctors case, a libel expert said he could now be entitled to a substantial six-figure payout from the Met.

Susan Aslan, a partner in London legal firm ACK Media Law  who is not representing Mr Proctor  said: The fact a police officer would assert that these allegations are credible and true before they had been tested and put before a trial, is so far beyond the norms of professional conduct that I would be thinking Mr Proctor would be looking at potentially a libel action, close to maximum damages, for allegations so serious.
Boris Johnson, pictured leaving No 10 this morning after the Cabinet meeting, has heaped praise on Donald Trump as a 'liberal guy from New York'

Boris Johnson has heaped praise on Donald Trump as a 'liberal guy from New York' with a talent for 'dealmaking'.

The enthusiastic endorsement from the Foreign Secretary is a breathtaking turnaround from just a year ago - when Mr Johnson condemned the billionaire for claiming there were 'no-go areas' in London due to extremism.

As the capital's mayor he described Mr Trump, who had just announced his plan to ban Muslims from entering the US, as 'betraying a quite stupefying ignorance that makes him frankly unfit to hold the office of President of the United States'.

'The only reason I wouldn't go to some parts of New York is the real risk of meeting Donald Trump,' he said.

However, after the Republican's bombshell victory in the race for the White House last week Mr Johnson executed a screeching U-turn.

He became one of the first foreign ministers to congratulate Mr Trump, saying he is 'much looking forward to working with his administration'.

Mr Johnson has also told European politicians such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande to end the 'collective whinge-o-rama' about Mr Trump's win.

Stepping up the charm offensive from ministers today, Mr Johnson said there was 'every reason to be positive' about the next inhabitant of the White House.

'Donald Trump is dealmaker, he is a guy who believes firmly in values that I believe in too  freedom and democracy.

'As far as I understand he is in many aspects a liberal guy from New York.'

Meanwhile, Nigel Farage has slammed Theresa May for ignoring his'connections' with Donald Trump today as he called for our US ambassador to be sacked.

Downing Street has ruled out making use of the interim Ukip leader to help build ties with the President-elect after his shock White House victory.

Mr Farage took his Ukip team for a meeting with the President-elect at Trump Tower in New York on Saturday, pictured

Mr Trump, pictured at a rally last week, was embroiled in a bitter spat with Mr Johnson last year after he said there were 'no go' areas in London

Mr Farage and a group of his close allies became the first British team to meet Mr Trump on Saturday after visiting Trump Tower to see Steve Bannon, the chief of the right wing Breitbart news website and due to join the White House senior staff.

Ukip donor Arron Banks, who was at Saturday's extraordinary summit, today revealed Mr Bannon was likely to consult Mr Farage about Mr Trump's policies before the UK Government.

He claimed Mr Farage and Mr Trump are in daily contact by text or phone in new revelations about the depth of the interim Ukip leader's ties to the next President.
Russia has launched a first wave of air strikes in Syria in nearly a month as cruise missiles with fired at rebel-held parts of Aleppo.

According to activists, between four and 10 people were killed in the strikes using carrier-borne jets and long-range missiles, raising concerns of a return to daily deadly bombardments in Syria's largest city.

The Russian blitz began hours after President Vladimir Putin and US President-elect Donald Trump discussed Syria over the phone and agreed on the need to combine efforts in the fight against what the Kremlin called the number one enemy - 'international terrorism and extremism'.

Russia has launched a first wave of air strikes in Syria in nearly a month as cruise missiles with fired at rebel-held parts of Aleppo

According to activists, between four and 10 people were killed in the strikes using carrier-borne jets and long-range missiles

Russian Bastion coastal missile launchers firing Oniks missiles at Aleppo

The Obama administration has been trying for months to negotiate a ceasefire in Aleppo, a city that has become the epicentre of the war between President Bashar Assad and rebels fighting to topple him, some of whom receive US aid.

From the militants' side, al Qaida's Syrian affiliate is fighting alongside the rebels, but Islamic State has no presence in Aleppo city.

Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Mr Putin that Su-33 jets from the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov are involved in the operation, marking its combat debut.

'We launched a major operation to strike the positions of the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra in the provinces of Idlib and Homs,' Mr Shoigu said at a meeting with Mr Putin, referring to the al Qaida branch in Syria by its old name.

He said the Russian strikes are targeting ammunition depots, training camps and armaments factories.

The Admiral Grigorovich frigate fires a Kalibr cruise missile in the fresh wave of attacks against rebels in Syria

The Russian blitz began hours after President Vladimir Putin and US President-elect Donald Trump discussed Syria over the phone

A Russian combat aircraft taking off from the deck of the Admiral Kuznetsov flagship aircraft carrier

As part of the Russian operation, a navy frigate launched long-range Kalibr cruise missiles and the military also used Bastion missiles stationed in Syria to strike militant targets in the rebel-held northern province of Idlib and the central province of Homs.

Mr Shoigu said that before launching the strikes, military intelligence had thoroughly identified and selected targets, including factories producing toxic chemical agents.

'It's a well-developed, industrial-scale production,' he said, adding that the strikes will continue. He did not mention Aleppo.

Syrian activists reported strikes in Idlib, Homs and Aleppo.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said missiles fired from Russian warships in the Mediterranean struck areas in Aleppo province and on the eastern edge of nearby Idlib.

The Observatory's chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said the areas hit with missiles are strongholds of jihadi groups, including the al Qaida affiliate known as Fatah al-Sham Front.

As part of the Russian operation, a navy frigate launched long-range Kalibr cruise missiles

A view from a Russian combat aircraft after taking off from the deck of the aircraft carrier

The Observatory and other groups said air strikes also hit at least eight neighbourhoods in Aleppo city, killing at least 10 people. The Local Co-ordination Committees, another activist group, said the air strikes on Aleppo killed four and wounded others.

Ibrahim al-Haj, of the Syrian Civil Defence, said that by late afternoon his group had counted 72 air raids in nine neighbourhood of eastern Aleppo. He said four people were killed and 32 were wounded in attacks that mostly hit residential areas in the besieged city.

Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov insisted that the Russian military did not strike any targets in the city of Aleppo, adding that Russian and Syrian warplanes have not conducted any raids on the city for four weeks.

Activist Baraa al-Halaby, based in eastern Aleppo, said warplanes were firing missiles and helicopters were dropping barrel bombs on the eastern part of the city.

A reporter for Syrian state TV, speaking from the government-held western part of the city, said troops were preparing to attack eastern Aleppo from nine directions.

Four weeks ago, Russia said it would halt weeks of air strikes to allow rebels and supporters to leave eastern Aleppo. The rebels refused to take up the offer and the United Nations failed to negotiate the delivery of aid into the besieged area.

On Saturday, Syrian government troops repelled a rebel offensive on the western parts of Aleppo designed to break the siege on the opposition-held east.

Activist Baraa al-Halaby, based in eastern Aleppo, said warplanes were firing missiles and helicopters were dropping barrel bombs on the eastern part of the city

Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Mr Putin that Su-33 jets from the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov are involved in the operation

Four weeks ago, Russia said it would halt weeks of air strikes to allow rebels and supporters to leave eastern Aleppo

The government siege has left about 275,000 people trapped, with no aid allowed in since July, amid a punishing bombing campaign.

In the lead-up to the offensive, a number of air strikes targeted at least three field hospitals in rural western Aleppo province, putting them out of order, the Observatory and Thiqa news agency reported.

Syrian and Russian governments deny attacking hospitals. The UN rights agency, Unicef and other UN agencies have repeatedly condemned air strikes on hospitals and medical facilities.

In Geneva, meanwhile, two UN agencies said food production in Syria has shrunk to 'an all-time low', threatening to drive more people from their homes after more than five years of war.

The World Food Programme and the Food and Agricultural Organisation said factors like rising prices, poor weather, general instability and the lack of fertiliser and seeds could force some farmers to stop producing.

A joint report said the planting area in the 2015-16 season was the smallest ever in zones controlled by the government, ethnic Kurds and the armed opposition.
Joanna Maynard reversed into Elsie Sprague as the pensioner tried to walk past her car

A driver who mowed down and killed an 87-year-old grandmother while doing a three point turn in her Land Rover was spared jail.

Joanna Maynard reversed into Elsie Sprague as the pensioner tried to walk past her car, knocking her down in the road.

But the 45-year-old was oblivious to what she had done, so reversed back over her body, only stopping because she thought she had hit a fox.

The wing mirror on the driver's side of her car was tucked in, and the spare wheel on the back of the car obstructed her view.

Mrs Sprague, who was in 'good health' and 'fiercely independent', was killed by the collision in Leytonstone, east London, on January 12 this year.

Maynard, who is bipolar and has depressive episodes, pleaded guilty to causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving in August.

A judge at the Old Bailey today handed down a six-month suspended sentence and disqualified her from driving for eight years.

Judge Peter Rook QC said he had suspended the sentence because the impact jail would have on her mental health.

He told Maynard's defence barrister earlier: 'This is a very difficult case. It was not a momentary lapse.

'I have been told it was as long as 18 seconds, and your client must have been taking a chance because she was reversing without being able to see properly behind her.

'And it has led to a tragic loss of life.

'Having said that, I now have full medical information as to your client's current state, and I have come to the conclusion that it is appropriate to suspend the sentence today.'

Sentencing Maynard, Judge Rook said: 'Although I do regard this as very serious - quite exceptional - I am going to suspend the sentence.

'Your careless driving resulted in the death of Elsie Sprague, who was aged 87 at the time. She was able to walk briskly without any aid.

'She was well known, and a popular lady.'

A judge at the Old Bailey (pictured) today handed down a six-month suspended sentence and disqualified her from driving for eight years

The victim was in 'good health and still fiercely independent', he added.

Judge Rook continued: 'I have had the statement of her son John Sprague. It is clear that the whole family have been profoundly affected by the loss.

'It was your responsibility to take notice of the clear limitations of your visibility through the rear window.

'You reversed without a wing mirror a distance of about 30 metres.

'So a number of factors affected your visibility to see out of the rear window.'

The driver's side of the wing mirror was tucked in, and the spare wheel on the back of the car obstructed her view, he said.

Maynard sobbed throughout the hearing (pictured arriving at an earlier hearing)

The Land Rover was also quite high, whereas Mrs Sprague was only 5ft 2in, he added.

Judge Rock : 'A prudent driver would have ensured they could have seen behind effectively. You took a chance, when there was an obvious risk. Furthermore, you reversed over her upper torso, forcing the car to go up. You then reversed again.

'Only then did you stop - apparently you thought you had gone over a fox.

'I have no doubt you felt at the time, and you still feel, devastated, and I have no doubt that your remorse is genuine.'

The court heard she had tried to kill herself after the fatal collision.

Elisabeth Acker, defending, said: 'Mrs Maynard at the moment does not intend to ever drive again. She does not see herself driving again afterwards.'

She added: 'The only words we use are tragedy. Mostly a tragedy for the Sprague family above anyone else in this case. The impact on them is unimaginable.

'And it is understating it to say that Mrs Maynard has been impacted as well. She will never get over what she has done.'

Maynard had accepted what she had done 'from the very beginning and could not feel worse about it', she told the court.

But she added: 'People cannot drive in a way that is careless because tragedies happen.'

Ms Acker also expressed Maynard's 'sincere apologies'.

Maynard, of Walthamstow, east London, was allowed to sit with her mother in the court behind her defence barrister. She sobbed loudly throughout the hearing.

Detective Constable Charlie Yexley said: 'This was a tragic incident that has left Elsie's friends and family heartbroken. If Maynard had taken more care when driving on 12 January, Elsie would still be with us today.
A Minnesota man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiring to join the Islamic State group in Syria after telling the judge: 'I am a terrorist, your honor'.

Hanad Musse, 21, is one of nine friends in Minnesota's large Somali community who are being sentenced this week for conspiring to join the militant group.

Earlier Tuesday, one of his co-defendants, Hamza Ahmed, received 15 years on charges connected to the plot.

Behind bars: Hanad Musse (pictured) has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiring to join the Islamic State group

Before he was sentenced on Tuesday, Musse apologized for lying to his family and acknowledged that he committed a serious offense.

The judge asked Musse directly whether he was a terrorist, and Musse replied: 'I am a terrorist, your honor.'

Musse, Ahmed and two other men took a Greyhound bus from Minneapolis to New York in November 2014 and were stopped by federal agents as they tried to travel overseas from JFK Airport.

Prosecutors said they were part of a group of friends who began inspiring and recruiting each other to join the Islamic State group in the spring of 2014. Some of their friends made it to Syria, but the nine who were prosecuted did not.

Three men were sentenced Monday; two who cooperated were given lighter sentences, but another who didn't help prosecutors was sentenced to 10 years.

Musse and Ahmed are among group members who pleaded guilty but did not cooperate with prosecutors.

Four others await sentencing, including three who went to trial and were also convicted on a charge of conspiracy to commit murder outside the U.S., which carries a possible life sentence, though prosecutors are seeking sentences of 30 or 40 years.

During his sentencing hearing Tuesday, Musse's attorney, Andy Birrell, said he wouldn't say his client is reformed, but he did think he could be saved.

When the judge asked Musse why he didn't cooperate with the government, he replied that he felt he would have lost the support of the community.

Co-defendant: Hamza Ahmed (pictured) received 15 years on charges connected to the plot

Before he was sentenced, Ahmed told the court he was grateful he was pulled off the airplane as he was about to head overseas, acknowledging it probably saved his life. He also acknowledged that he has some work to do.

'I want you to understand I am not completely changed,' Ahmed told U.S. District Judge Michael Davis. 'I'm in the process, but nobody changes overnight. I'm trying every day. I want to reach that point.'

Davis, who has handled all of Minnesota's terror conspiracy cases, had the six defendants who pleaded guilty evaluated by a German expert on deradicalization and is taking those findings into consideration.

The sentencings cap a long case that shined a light on terrorism recruitment in Minnesota, the state with the largest concentration of Somali immigrants in the U.S.
A Minnesota man who was previously accused of driving his estranged girlfriend to suicide with domestic abuse has been cleared of murder and manslaughter charges.

Long Vang, 35, was arrested in June for allegedly harassing and staling his long-term girlfriend, 28-year-old Jessica Haban, to the point she killed herself in December 2015.

The couple from Stewartville, Minnesota, were said to have been in a rocky relationship, which lasted 11 years and produced two children.

Dismissed: Long Vang, 35 (left), has been cleared of charges of murder and manslaughter in connection to the suicide of his long-term girlfriend, 28-year-old Jessica Haban (right)

On Thursday, Olmstead County District Judge Debra Jacobson dismissed the most serious charges filed against Vang, including third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter counts, reported Minneapolis Star Tribune.

In her ruling, the judge concluded that there was no sufficient evidence against Vang to proceed to trial on those charges.

The father-of-two is still facing one count of felony stalking, to which he plans to plead not guilty during a court hearing scheduled for Wednesday, according to his defense attorney.

After learning of the judge's decision, Prosecutor Byron Black immediately filed a motion seeking a sentence longer than the recommended 10 years in prison under state guidelines for the remaining stalking count.

Defense attorney Duane Kennedy has filed a motion to have Vang released on his own recognizance after the plea hearing. The 35-year-old has been held in jail on $75,000 bail since his arrest on June 13.

Calling Thursday's ruling 'a huge decision' for his client, Kennedy told the Post-Bulletin Vang is 'glad the court did what we thought was simply to follow the law.

Suicidal: Haban, a mother of two from Minnesota, took her own life in December 2015 after allegedly suffering severe abuse at the hands of her boyfriend

According to Jessica Haban's obituary, she and Vang were 'culturally married' in 2010.

Sgt. Kirby Long, of the Olmsted County Sheriff's Office, told the Post-Bulletin after Vang's arrest this summer that Haban 'was subject to increasing levels of domestic abuse: physical, emotional and mental,' including a traumatic brain injury about six months before she died.

Vang reportedly poured vegetable oil 'all over' Haban because she 'had bad in her' and he was angry that she had a nightmare.

When Haban tried to take a shower, Vang kicked in the shower door, knocked it down and injured his partner.

Vang allegedly grabbed her by the hair when she tried to get out and threw her against a wall.

Prosecutors then say he threw her headfirst into a washing machine. In hospital, Haban told medical staff she fell.

A relative also told police about Vang supposedly throwing a lamp at Haban's head during her pregnancy, causing the lamp to shatter on her.

On May 11, 2015, Haban called 911 to report Vang was throwing things at her, according to the criminal complaint.

A deputy found Vang hiding behind a vehicle near the garage. Haban allegedly told officers he'd overturned a coffee table, then used it to restrain her on a couch.

When she tried to call police, Vang broke the phone.

Less than two weeks later, the couple was at a home in Austin when Vang punched her in the head.

Haban lost consciousness and woke up the next day with a headache, feeling sick to her stomach.

Vang, who fathered two children with Haban (pictured together) over the course of their 11-year relationship, is still facing one count of felony stalking

The couple's son told an adult at the home that day that his mother was being assaulted.

Prosecutors say that witnesses found Vang holding a knife to Haban's throat, but eventually convinced him to put it down.

A few days later after she was hit, Haban sought medical treatment. Doctors diagnosed with a probable traumatic brain injury.

In August 2015, a domestic abuse-no contact order was issued against Vang, the Post Bulletin reported.

But in November, a witness reported to law enforcement that Vang was contacting Haban. They told police they feared he would kill her.

Haban admitted to officers that Vang had been calling and texting her nearly daily

She told an officer that the abuse had taken a 'significant mental toll', court documents say.

During a meeting with a social worker December 7, Haban said she was scared and didn't know what to do.

Haban received in-patient mental health treatment in the months prior to her death; the social worker learned Vang had been 'pressuring (Haban) to leave treatment and go back to work'.

Prosecutors also said he threatened that she would lose custody of her children if she stayed in the facility.

On December 10, 2015, Haban called the social worker and asked to leave treatment. She was discharged three days later.

On December 16, she was found dead at her home.
Allies of defeated Demoratic presidential primary candidate Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren are pushing to elevate Sanders to a Senate leadership post.

New York Senator Charles Schumer, a liberal pragmatist, is expected to assume the post of party leader to succeed retiring Democratic leader Harry Reid.

His elevation will create a vacancy as head of the Democratic Policy and Communications Center, a war room successfully guided by Schumer to battle Republicans on the Senate floor and on the airwaves.

Allies want Sanders in the post, a recognition of Sanders' ability to give Hillary Clinton a tougher-than-expected race, where he won almost 1,900 delegates to Clinton's more than 2,800.

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Senator Bernie Sanders, who is promoting his book 'Our Revolution: a Future to Believe In,' is being pushed for a Senate leadership post, a recognition of the call for a new approach after Hillary Clinton's failure to capture the White House

Clinton's defeat by Donald Trump has renewed calls within the party to compete with a sharper-edged call for dramatic change, more distance from Wall Street, and a focus on combatting income inequality  even as the cracks in Clinton's victory plan appeared in Midwestern battlegrounds like Michigan and Pennsylvania, along with western Pennsylvania.

A few dozen protesters staged a sit-in outside Schumer's office calling on him to give way to Sanders or Warren, The Hill newspaper reported while describing the leadership turf.

Warren offered her own prescription on Monday at a meeting with liberal donors  with a surprising argument that Obamacare  a law now in danger of repeal by Republicans  was insufficiently bolt.

But lets be honest: Its not bold. Its not transformative, she said, the Huffington Post reported.

She said the party would have been better off being more up-front about the law's shortcomings.

Bernie Sanders and wife Jane go for a walk in Central Park, New York City. The Senator left ABC Studios and decided to go for a walk with his wife

Senator Charles Schumer, who is set to take over as Senate Democratic leader, is under pressure to formalize the role of Sanders in the party

BEATS ME: Democrats are grappling for the way forward after Hillary Clinton's loss to Donald Trump

Im OK taking half a loaf if our message was Heres half, now lets go get the rest, Warren said.

Clinton did campaign on efforts to improve Obamacare, and her husband former President Clinton described the law as 'crazy' at one point on the campaign trail.

She also belittled the 2009 stimulus, which President Obama credits with pulling the U.S. economy out of the abyss. 'Can anybody name one thing in the stimulus? she said.

Thats where we failed, not in our messaging, but in our ideology, Warren argued.

A test of what direction Democrats want will occur in the election of head of the Democratic National Committee. Rep. Keith Ellison, a member of the congressional black caucus who is a Muslim, is running for the post.

He has the endorsement of Schumer. Others interested include former DNC chair Howard Dean, who rolled out a '50-state strategy' in an effort to forge widespread appeal.

Giving a formal role to Sanders might give due to his 'revolution,' but it might shut out of leadership a female lawmaker. Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan holds a lower-level vice chair spot, and Senator Patty Murray of Washington hold another conference post.
A Nigerian mother has been arrested after allegedly dumping her newborn baby inside a bin in an airport toilet because she did not want to miss her connecting flight.

The baby was discovered by a cleaner inside a plastic bag at Vienna International Airport, but died later in hospital in the early hours of Thursday.

Authorities identified a 27-year-old woman, who has not been named, as the child's mother.

A Nigerian mother has been arrested after allegedly dumping her newborn baby inside a bin at Vienna International Airport

According to local media reports, she was travelling from Minsk, Belarus, to Washington DC and told authorities that she had not wanted to miss her connecting flight.

A police spokesman said she was 'found bleeding in the waiting area' and taken to hospital.

The mother reportedly said she thought her baby was stillborn, although officials said that the child died in hospital 'due to a prolonged lack of oxygen'.

A post-mortem examination is due to take place to determine the exact cause of death.

The baby was discovered by a cleaner inside a plastic bag but died later in hospital in the early hours of Thursday

The woman, who is a student, is currently being held in custody.

Prosecutor Friedrich Koehl has said that the woman will be investigated on possible charges of 'suspicion of killing a child at birth'.

The offence carries a sentence of up to five years in jail.
A man who broke into a six-year-old girl's Ohio home, snatched her from her bed and raped her in the backyard has pleaded guilty.

Brock Martin, 26, pleaded guilty on Monday to rape, kidnapping and other charges in a plea deal with Ashland County prosecutors, the Mansfield News Journal reported.

In August 2015, Martin pushed a fan out of a window of a home on Ashland's north side and reached in and grabbed the girl from her bed, prosecutors said.

Someone in the house saw Martin assaulting the girl and chased him a short distance before asking a neighbor to call 911, authorities said.

Brock Martin, 26, of Ohio (pictured) pleaded guilty on Monday to rape, kidnapping and other charges in a plea deal with Ashland County prosecutors

Officers used a police dog to find Martin and arrest him.

In a police interview, Martin confessed he also broke into a home in March 2013 and assaulted two 13-year-old girls during a sleepover.

During that incident, he had attempted to drag one of the girls out of the home, but was caught in the act and fled, prosecutors said.

Martin also confessed to another incident in August 2015 when he broke into a home and a woman woke up to him standing over her bed, according to prosecutors.

In August 2015, Martin pushed a fan out of a window of a home on Ashland's north side on Orange Street (pictured), reached in and grabbed a six-year-old girl from her bed and raped her, prosecutors said

He reportedly fled when he saw the woman's husband coming down the hallway after getting home from work.

Martin did not know any of the victims and chose them at random, prosecutors said.

In addition to the other charges, Martin also faces a charge of aggravated burglary.

During Monday's hearing, one of the victim's relatives called Martin 'one sick f***' while leaving the courtroom, according to the Mansfield News Journal.

Martin(left and right) confessed to two other incidents, including one when he assaulted two 13-year-old girls who were having a sleepover, prosecutors said. He will be sentenced on December 19

Martin acknowledged that he was agreeing to a sentence of life in prison without parole and to pay $3,000 in restitution for the victims' medical expenses.

Originally, Martin pleaded innocent by reason of insanity to all counts in the indictment, however a judge determined he was competent to stand trial.

Martin will be sentenced on December 19 following a pre-sentencing investigation into his background.
in DePasquale's story, including the fact her shower was dry, her feet were dirty and she had makeup on

A mother-of-two from Florida has been charged with murder after authorities say she strangled her one-year-old daughter with a string of Halloween lights and then blamed the baby's death on her two-year-old son.

Kristen DePasquale, 27, was arrested on Monday on counts of first-degree murder and child neglect with great bodily harm after investigators with the Oviedo Police Department said they found inconsistencies in her version of events.

At around 10pm last Thursday, police responded to DePasquale's home on Covington Street in Oviedo after getting a report of a child in cardiac arrest with something wrapped around her neck.

mom charged: Kristen DePasquale, 27 (pictured in mugshot, left), has been charged with murder in the strangulation death of her baby daughter, Mia Rice (pictured right in August)

Blaming a child: DePasquale suggested to police that it was her two-year-old son (right) who strangled his baby sister (left) with a strand of Halloween lights

Happy family: DePasquale, the daughter of a sheriff's deputy, is pictured here posing happily with her boyfriend and their two young children

DePasquale told officers she left her one-year-old daughter, Mia Rice, and her two-year-old son in the living room in front of the television while she went to take a shower, according to an arrest reported cited by the Orlando Sentinel.

When she emerged from the bathroom about five minutes later, the mother stated she heard her young son apologizing for hurting his sister and found the little girl unresponsive and partially hanging from a strand of pumpkin-shaped Halloween lights, according to Local 10.

DePasquale suggested that her toddler son might have been the culprit.

But according to detectives, DePasquale's statements did not add up, including the fact that the shower in her home was dry, there were no wet towels in sight and her feet were dirty.

Her version of events: Police say DePasquale (left) told them she went to take a shower, leaving her kids watching TV. Five minutes later, she heard the boy apologizing for hurting his sister

A medical examiner ruled the death of baby Mia, pictured above on the day of her birth, a homicide, saying her injuries 'appeared to be the result of more force than the slightly older brother could have made'

According to the arrest report, DePasquale was still wearing makeup and jewelry when police arrived, and she refused to submit to a drug test.

Responding officers tried to revive Mia and then rushed her to an area hospital, where she was pronounced dead in the emergency room.

The medical examiner later ruled the girls death a homicide caused by strangulation, telling police that her injuries 'appeared to be the result of more force than the slightly older brother could have made.'

According to information available on social media, DePasquales son was born in March 2014 and her daughter in June 2015, putting the age difference between the siblings at just 15 months.

The medical examiner made note of a mark on the back of Mias neck that allegedly indicated someone had used a device to tighten the string of lights, according to the report.

Kristen DePasquale (right) said her boyfriend, Mike Rice (left), is currently in state prison

It would have taken four to six minutes to strangle the child with the decorations, she estimated.

The station WFTV reported that DePasquale, whose father is a Seminole County Sheriffs deputy, was arrested in 2010 on a charge of selling, providing or serving alcoholic beverages to someone, but the count was later dropped.

During a court hearing on Monday, Kristen DePasquale said her boyfriend, Mike Rice, is currently in state prison.

Online court records indicate that the 26-year-old man has a vast rap sheet dating back to at least 2008, which includes charges of DUI, burglary, grand theft, petite theft, fraud, battery on an officer, resisting officer, and others.
When President Xi Jinping announced the ambitious Belt and Road initiative, several analysts and experts may have thought that it might take years and perhaps decades before the grand idea is put into practice. But evidence shows that it is becoming a reality much faster than imagined. The first cargo vessel laden with Chinese and Pakistani goods embarked on its journey from Pakistan's deep seaport of Gwadar on November 13 to deliver around 250 containers to the Middle East and Africa. About 150 of the containers with Chinese goods were transported overland from Kashgar in Xinjiang autonomous region to Gwadar on the Arabian Sea.

The route used in Pakistan for their transportation is being upgraded and developed under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is part of the Belt and Road initiative.

The CPEC was unveiled when President Xi visited Pakistan in early 2015. It is a 46-billion dollar mega-scheme to build a network of roads, railways, energy projects, trading parks and related infrastructure to link up western China to Gwadar. Several projects are being implemented already.

The operational control of Gwadar port is with China, who is also building a modern airport there and other developmental schemes for facilitation of trade under the CPEC.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif accompanied by China's ambassador Sun Weidong and several high ranking officials as well as trade representatives, completed the opening ceremony at the Gwadar port on Sunday to operationalize the trade activities.

Sharif said on the occasion that operationalization of Gwadar port showed Pakistan's commitment to the Belt and Road initiative. "We will leave no stone unturned in ensuring the CPEC and all the projects under its umbrella are materialized within the given time," he said.

Ambassador Sun Weidong commented on the occasion, "This is the first time that a trade convoy has successfully passed through the western part of Pakistan from the north to the souththis is the first time that the Gwadar port is exporting containers to overseas destinationsthis is also the first time that Pakistan and China have co-organized a trade convoy through Pakistan to Gwadar port."

According to Pakistani officials the Belt and Road project integrates with Pakistan's Vision 2025, which seeks to transform Pakistan into a hub of trade and commerce, harnessing its geo-strategic location into a geo-economic advantage. Pakistan is also trying to expand the CPEC to include countries like Iran so that it helps to integrate South Asia, China and Central Asia for greater economic opportunities.

Belt and Road is termed as a platform for win-win cooperation. It has proved so by the close cooperation between Pakistan and China.

For example, the Chinese trade convoy commenced on October 29, from Kashgar and transported the goods to China's border with Pakistan. The next day the cargo of 150 containers was shifted to Pakistani trucks. They transported the goods to Gwadar port on November 12, where two ships - Al Hussain Zanzibar and Cosco Wellington - were already berthed to receive the cargoes.

The CPEC provides the shortest route for China to export its finished goods to the Middle East, Africa and Europe. It can also import oil and other materials through the route. It also provides a reliable alternative trading avenue for China in addition to existing ones. Full operationalization of CPEC would help China to save a lot of time and resources in its trade with the world.

Pakistan is the real beneficiary of the CPEC, as it brings Chinese investment, expertise and trained manpower to undertake several projects of development. Chinese support is provided at a time when only a few nations would be ready to invest or support economic activities in Pakistan due to the law and order situation.

Thus, we have a classic example of cooperation which enhances connectivity, trade, economic development and material welfare. It is happening fast. This is what the world needs; quick developmental projects that can change the economic outlook and bring visible changes to the lives of the people.

Pakistan is poised to reap the benefits of the Belt and Road initiative in the short span of two years. Other countries can also follow.

Sajjad Malik is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/SajjadMalik.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
The officer who shot Reyes, Jason Lawless, has been placed on paid administrative leave while the shooting is

Dash-cam footage shows the moment an armed man holding his estranged wife's two-year-old daughter hostage was shot dead by a police sniper last month.

Tulsa police released the footage of Salvador Reyes being shot as he pointed a gun at the girl's head while holding her hand on the balcony of his wife's home after a three-hour standoff.

The officer who took the shot, Officer Jason Lawless, remains on paid administrative leave after the fatal shooting of 42-year-old Reyes.

The incident started around midnight, when Reyes broke into his estranged wife's home and took her two-year-old daughter.

The couple married in 2009 and had three children together. But Reyes was not the father of the toddler and his wife had filed for divorce less than a week before.

Reyes' wife was able to escape the house with their three children. When police arrived at the scene, Reyes was in the front yard with the girl, but he then escaped inside.

Salvador Reyes, 42, was shot dead by a police sniper last month, after taking his estranged wife's two-year-old daughter hostage inside her house

Dash-cam video released on Monday shows the moment Reyes was shot in the head, after coming out onto the front balcony of the house. In the above still, he has already fallen to the ground

After the shot, police rushed inside and rescued the girl, who was uninjured. Reyes, who was not her father, was pronounced dead at the scene

Over the next hours, he came out multiple times on the front balcony, showing both the girl and his gun.

Reyes did not speak English very well, so a Spanish-speaking officer was called in to negotiate him, which proved to be ineffective. About half-way through the stand-off, orders were issued to shoot Reyes in the head, if he came outside armed with the baby.

That happened at 3:06am, when he came out and pointed the gun at officers and then at the child.

Officer Jason Lawless was the officer who made the shot and remains on paid administrative leave

Fearing for the safety of the child, Lawless took aim at Reyes and hit him in the head.

The video shows Reyes falling to the ground and then officers running into the house.

'Go. He's down, he's down, he's down,' an officer yells in the recording.

'That was a hell of a shot,' another officer says.

The little girl was uninjured in the incident. She was brought out and then handed over to her mother, who was seeking shelter in a police car.

Reyes was pronounced dead at the scene.
Hillary Clinton is at the center of a legal battle between two companies that each sold a bobblehead featuring the former presidential candidate in a black-and-white prison jumpsuit and a ball and chain attached to her ankle.

Bobbleheads.com filed a federal lawsuit against the California real estate company Wright Brothers, on Monday, claiming it is selling a knockoff of its product and are infringing on the company's copyright.

The bobblehead website claims that it designed, advertised, marketed, distributed and licensed a bobblehead known as the Hillary Clinton Striped Pantsuit bobblehead, according to court documents obtained by DailyMail.com.

Bobbleheads.com claims California real estate company Wright Brothers, is selling a knockoff of its 'Hillary Clinton Striped Pantsuit' bobblehead. Pictured above left is the Wright Brothers' work, and right is Bobbleheads.com's original work

The company claims, however, that despite the product being copyrighted, the Wright Brothers copied the design

It featured a figure that looked like Clinton in a black-and-white jumpsuit with a ball and chain attached to her ankle and the words 'Hillary Clinton' etched on the stand.

It was posted on the website in August 2015 and registered for a copyright on the product in September 2015.

The company claims, however, that despite the product being registered, the Wright Brothers copied the design and distributed its own bobblehead that looked strikingly similar to Bobbleheads.com's product.

Court documents say of the two products: 'The Bobbleheads.com Work and Defendant Work 1 both have: (i) a black and white striped prison suit, with the lines oriented in the same manner and the same design, (ii) a tag next to the lapel with the term 'HC2016', (iii) an orange under shirt, (iv) a white pearl necklace.'

The Wright Brothers briefly took the product down from its site, but later started selling another item in which they attempted to 'design around' Bobbleheads.com's work. Pictured left is the Wright Brothers' second design compared to Bobbleheads.com's original product

It also say both products have: '(v) a right arm that runs along the side of the body and a left arm that bends across the mid-section of the body, with the hands and fingers on each arm placed in the same or similar positions, (vi) black shoes, (vii) feet in a similar position, (viii) a straight left leg and a bent right leg, and (ix) a black ball and chain connected to the right ankle.'

In September, the website sent a cease and desist to the real estate company demanding it stop illegally profiting off of the product.

The Wright Brothers briefly took the product down, but later started selling another product in which they attempted to 'design around' Bobbleheads.com's work, which Bobbleheads.com called 'intentional efforts to disguise the blatant and willful copying' of its product.

The website is demanding an injunction against Wright Brothers that would stop the company from profiting off of its Clinton bobblehead, an order for the destruction of all of the defendants' bobbleheads and damages in the amount of all profits the real estate company made form the knockoff Clinton bobbleheads.

Several companies sold Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump-themed toys during the presidential election
'Embarrassed' Trump Place residents have cause for celebration after successfully campaigning to have the name of their Manhattan apartment complex changed.

Renters living at Trump Place - 140, 160 and 180 Riverside Boulevard in New York's Upper West Side - petitioned landlord Equity Residential urging it to 'Dump the Trump'.

The online petition explained residents were 'embarrassed to be living in buildings with the name Trump Place blazoned in front' because of the link with President-elect Donald Trump.

On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that Equity Residential said in an email: 'We are assuming a more neutral building identity that will appeal to all current and future residents.'

Outcry: Residents have cause for celebration after the landlord of Trump Place confirmed the buildings' names would be changed

An online petition signed by 600 people called on the landlord to change the name Trump Place

An online petition signed by 600 people called on the landlord to change the name, highlighting Trump's treatment of women, immigrants and the disabled.

'All are antithetical to the values we and our families believe in,' it stated. 'Many of the staff members of our building are minorities or immigrants; working in a building bearing his name is insulting to them.'

The petition adds: 'Our home is our most personal private space, a building we should feel proud and happy to walk into every day'

Equity Residential was listening to their pleas and large gold letters reading 'Trump Place' will be removed this week. The buildings will named after their street addresses instead.

A spokesman told Bloomberg the company had a contractual obligation regarding the use of the name, but that period of the contract has ended.

He added that they had never paid the Trump Organization to use the name.

The petition highlighted the president-elect's treatment of women, immigrants and the disabled

And last week a real estate broker claimed some wealthy residents of Trump Tower on Manhattans Fifth Avenue are planning to move out of their apartments because theyre annoyed with the protesters and heightened security.

In the wake of Trump's shock victory in the presidential election, crowds of protesters  as well as his supporters and security guards  have swarmed the building.
A teenage couple who called themselves Bonnie and Clyde may have been killed by heavily armed police who stormed their hideaway in northern Russia.

Katya Vlasova and Denis Muravyov, 15, were reported by law enforcement to have shot themselves after special forces troops tracked them down to a village house where they had lived alone for three days after rowing with their parents.

During the clash, they shot at police up to 30 times, and refused to give themselves up, while the Denis vowed: 'I'm going out in style'.

Katya Vlasova and Denis Muravyov, both 15, were reported to have shot themselves after special forces troops tracked them down to a village house where they had lived alone for three days after arguing with their parents

The pair (pictured as they livestreamed their standoff with police online) were involved in a shootout with police before allegedly turning the guns on themselves

Katya's mother Natalia Vlasova (pictured left) was shot in the hip by Denis as she tried to make the couple end their resistance. Denis's mother, Olga Muravyova (pictured right) was also at the scene desperately seeking to broker an end to the stand off

During the standoff Katya's mother (right), begged her daughter (left) before she was shot by Denis: 'Don't you feel sorry for you parents?'

The couple broadcast their gunfight on live video streaming app Periscope, and pictures of them firing at police were also posted to Instagram.

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Katya's distraught mother was shot in the hip by Denis as she tried to make them end their resistance.

Denis's mother Olga Muravyova was also at the scene desperately seeking to broker an end to the stand off.

The two mothers are now 'crushed' by their deaths of their children, and both have been interviewed by police.

The Investigative Committee - the Russian eqivalent of the FBI - (pictured inside the house after the shootout) denied opening fire on their teenagers

Officers claim the couple fired at police before turning the guns on themselves. But people who have analysed the footage online have doubts

But there are now doubts from online analysis in Russia that the couple killed themselves when police stormed the house in Strugi Krasnye, 49 miles from the city of Pskov.

They died as they were negotiating with police who used stun grenades to storm the cottage where they were holed up.

When police entered the premises, they were found dead, officers said.

Quotes from the pair in the final minutes of the tragedy suggest that - at this point - they had no more than a ladle as a weapon.

They also said they did not want to commit suicide.

Earlier in the standoff they had surrendered their extensive weapons collection, throwing them out of a window.

Prosecutors in Pskov region insist they did kill themselves.

Official Andrei Yakovlev said: 'In total, the teenagers shot about 30 times at police.

Denis was seen firing at police in the horror footage, which was live-streamed on Periscope. But the two teens were thought to be unarmed when police stormed the home

Denis and Katya died as they were negotiating with police who used stun grenades to storm the cottage. Quotes from the pair in the final minutes of the tragedy suggest that they did not want to commit suicide

'When SOBR (special forces) officers stormed the building, they found the children already dead with gunshot wounds in the chin area.'

In one exchange on social media, the couple said:

Katya: Did you kill anyone, apart from dogs?

Denis: No, no-one

Katia: No-one yet

Denis: Maybe I got cops, I don't know. I just saw them talking to me on phone, I see cops - and just shoot in their direction. Maybe I got cops. If I did it'll be another 15 years (in jail) approximately.

Katia: Bonnie and Clyde, *****

Denis: Go on it's time to say our last words.

The gunfight happened as police surrounded a home. Denis is believed to have shot Katya's mother in the leg earlier in the day as she begged for them to surrender

The couple transmitted footage of their last hours in which they smoked, drank and answered classmates' messages

In another exchange, Katya's mother, begged her daughter before she was shot by Denis: 'Don't you feel sorry for you parents?'

Katya replied: 'Sorry? And do they feel sorry for us? But now it is too late...'

But, minutes before their death, Denis indicated that they had no guns left, a point seized on by online commentators who claim that the pair did not commit suicide.

In an exchange online Denis said: 'They took away all the weapons, they took away even knives.

Katya: 'They told us that they are giving the time to think.

Denis: 'So we cannot commit suicide.

Katya: 'Yes, we cannot commit suicide.

Denis: 'And we have somehow realised this is not the way out.'

Russians who have analysed the footage say it is likely the pair had no weapons at the time they died.

The teenagers were involved in a police standoff before they died, firing on a police vehicle outside the home they were in

The chilling video shows the couple holed up in the house surrounded by weapons

At one point Denis suggested his mother, who was at the scene before police, had taken away a weapon.

He said: 'She took away the weapon. And there are no more cartridges.

'We threw all into of them out of the window. So we have time to think.'

It appears the police gave them 30 minutes 'to think' and Katya said: 'Only this ladle left [shows the ladle]. I'm afraid we cannot use it. But it could be funny.'

Bloggers have claimed there is a mysterious 'third person' in the background, whose voice is heard.

At another moment, Denis' mother begged her son and his girlfriend to put down their guns which belonged to Katya's stepfather - a trained military sniper - and were kept at the remote house.

But Denis was recorded saying: 'You see, what's the trick?

'Just when my mum wants me to really come back she is cries so hard?'

But then he complained she had called the SOBL armed special forces to storm their hideout.

He complained: 'Now my mother is not so upset, that is just SOBL told her to say it this way.

The duo, who were found dead by police, both held weapons in the chilling footage

The video showed them drinking and smoking in their final hours, as they said they feared decades behind bars if they surrendered

The video shows Denis holding a picture of a man shaking hands with Vladimir Putin. He said the Russian President is 'OK', but said the man with him should be killed

'My parents are standing close, along with SOBL.

'SOBL are also walking around the house so we cannot run away.'

Katya read out a comment from viewers on Periscope: 'And where is your mother, Denis?'

The teenager answers: 'She came to talk to us not so long ago.'

In footage they posted as the tragedy was unfolding, Katya said:

'We were sleeping peacefully, ' said Katya.

'Someone started knocking at the door. We thought it was my granny.

'I came and saw that my mother was standing there. We let them in.

'I just held the knife in my hand, as it was, without implying I was aggressive.

'My grandmother rushed at me: 'Give me the knife, give me the knife.'

The footage showed the couple had access to rifles and a large haul of weapons. But before officers stormed the house they the pair surrendered weapons, throwing them out of a window

A television set was also thrown from the window of the wooden house during the standoff

'Mum tried to stop her and in the end it turned out that they cut my hands with this knife somehow.

'I don't really understand how it has happened.

'I didn't even feel pain.

'And Denis first threatened them, saying: 'Get out - go away'.

'Calmly. But there was no reaction from them.

On the day of the tragedy, Katya and Denis posted identical messages on their Vkontakte social media accounts, which implied they had planned to die

'Then he became nervous and shot into my mum's right hip.'

On the day of the tragedy, the pair both posted identical messages on their Vkontakte social media which implied they had planned death:

'I loved you,

'But you have not noticed how you ruined my psyche and my life.

'Goodbye to all the friends and family, and acquaintances.

'Do not worry, I will go away in a beautiful way.

'Good luck to all in your life and please do not be afraid to live as you want or as you see fit.

'Life for your pleasure is the best life,' they wrote.

The Investigative Committee - eqivalent of the FBI - denied opening fire on their teenagers.

An IC statement said: 'Regional investigators immediately went to the scene.'

'We found that two 15-year-olds, armed with weapons, barricaded in the house in the village of Strugi Krasnye.

'Law enforcement officers had been negotiating with them for the few hours, but no result was achieved.

'Later the teenagers stopped communicating.

'In this connection, a special operation was planned with the involvement of the SOBR division of National Guard in the Pskov region.

'When the special forces officers used stun grenades and stormed the house, the teenagers were found dead with gunshot wounds.'

A school friend of the pair said Denis was, 'an absolutely normal guy. Absolutely normal guy......she was flighty.

The couple (pictured) had fallen in love in May, and parents and teachers had failed to help them, according to their teacher

A school friend of the couple said Denis was 'an absolutely normal guy and Katya was flighty

'They quarrelled about one month ago and parted.'

He won her back, after posting this message of social media:

'Forever in my heart. Despite everything. Sadly, that all happened this way. These were the most memorable 7 months. Only with you I am good. I did not expect this from you. Always believed you. I loved you, love now and will love'

Zhanna Ushkachyova, 45, Katya's classroom teacher, said the teenagers were pleading for help, which was not given.

'If I could have gone there, entered the house, took them by the hand, they would not have resisted, honestly, that's my opinion,' she said.

'They did not know what they should do.

'They did not know.

'They were expecting someone would come and help them. But no-one came...'

'The pair had fallen in love in May, and parents and teachers had failed to help them.
A Guatemalan woman whose dead body was discovered after her daughter was abandoned at a New York bus terminal, had just reunited with her estranged husband - now wanted in connection with her murder.

The victim, whose name is being withheld pending notification of her family and the Guatemalan Consulate, had been living with her daughter, 5, in Flemington, New Jersey.

But last weekend, she had got back together with her estranged husband Elmer Gomez Ruono, 32, and on Sunday, the family had all moved into a one bedroom apartment in Courtland Avenue in Stamford, Connecticut.

Police found her dead body lying inside the home yesterday when the couple's five-year-old daughter, who was abandoned inside the Port Authority Bus Terminal, New York, led them to the property.

Cops are now hunting her husband Ruono, after Stamford Police Capt. Richard Conklin named him a suspect in the murder.

Conklin said the motive for her death appears to be domestic, calling the couple's relationship 'very, very combustible.' He added that there were signs of a struggle around the woman's body.

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A five-year-old girl (pictured) was found inside the Port Authority Bus Terminal after her mother was found murdered in Connecticut, officials said

Police say that the victim was a Guatemalan native in her 30s who moved with her husband and daughter to the Stamford apartment just days ago from New Jersey.

Today, the medical examiner ruled the victim's death a homicide.

Authorities were alerted to the murder after her daughter was found abandoned at the bus terminal.

The child, who only speaks Spanish, was spotted by an officer on the second-floor concourse of the PABT.

When police reviewed surveillance footage, they saw Ruono leaving the girl at the terminal early on Monday before fleeing the scene.

Elmer Gomez Ruono (pictured), 32, is wanted for questioning by police in connection with the killing

The youngster, who described by Port Authority Police as being in a good condition and well fed, was taken home by detectives who made the grisly discovery.

She has now in child services and is expected to be interviewed by the police later today.

Conklin said it was not clear whether she witnessed her mother's murder but he hoped she could give them some clues about the death and her father's whereabouts.

The police captain admits that 'we don't really know where is heading.'

But said that suggestions Ruono could be heading back to Guatemala was a 'distinct possibility.'

'We do desperately want to come into contact with him,' he said.

Conklin said that police were facing additional difficulties because Ruono did not have documentation or a driving licence which could help track him down.

'Someone like this flies under the radar.'

Authorities say that the victim, and her daughter, had moved in with Ruono on Sunday and celebrated their move with a party for friends and family on Sunday night at the Courtland Avenue apartment.

The girl is believed to have been abandoned by her father, who is a suspect in her mother's death

But a domestic dispute allegedly began after the party, and the victim was killed in the early hours of Sunday morning, police say.

The family's one-bedroom home showed signs of a struggle, according to police.

'We know very, very little because they only moved here within the last day or two from New Jersey,' Conklin said. 'We are struggling to come up to speed on this very rapidly.'

The girl was physically unharmed and is currently in custody of child services in New York City, the station said.

Police, who say Ruono had been working at the Bedford Street Diner in Stamford, have applied for an arrest warrant.

Stamford Police will work with New York City police to investigate.
David Cameron and his wife Samantha were spotted shopping for furniture in West London over the weekend - suggesting they have found a new permanent home.

The former Prime Minister, who left Downing Street in July after losing the Brexit vote, was seen at the SCP store in Notting Hill.

It is just a stone's throw away from a property he rents out, as well as the 17million mansion he moved into following his swift and impromptu exit from Number 10, and he is believed to be keen on remaining in the area.

Had it not been for the security guard accompanying him, he could have almost cut an image of an ordinary man as he left the store wearing a black coat zipped all the way, with his hood pulled over his head.

David Cameron and his wife Samantha were spotted shopping for furniture in West London over the weekend - suggesting they have found a new permanent home

Had it not been for the security guard accompanying him, he could have almost cut an image of an ordinary man

Mr Cameron left the store wearing a black coat zipped all the way, with his hood pulled over his head

The former Prime Minister, who left Downing Street in July after losing the Brexit vote, was seen at the SCP store in Notting Hill

The plush seven-bedroom property they moved into after his resignation is owned by PR Mogul Sir Alan Parker, a close friend of the Camerons.

There had been speculation over where the family would live after their abrupt exit from Number 10, as their own 3.6million Notting Hill home is currently being rented out.

At the time, an aide said the Camerons are expected to stay in Sir Alan's property 'for a few days and then moving on', presumably until Nancy, 12, Elwen, 10, and Florence, five, finish the school year.

It is not clear whether they moved out of that property as early as they expected, but his sudden dash for tables and chairs suggests the family may have found a new long-term abode.

As well as the 3.6million four-bedroom property in Notting Hill that he is letting out, he also owns a large country property in Oxfordshire, close to his former constituency of Witney.

Following his resignation as Prime Minister, he remortgaged the Notting Hill home to forge their post-premiership future.

It is just a stone's throw away from a property he rents out, as well as the 17million mansion he moved into following his swift and impromptu exit from Number 10

It is not clear whether they moved out of their Holland Park property as early as they expected, but his sudden dash for furniture suggests the family may have found a new permanent abode

The Camerons moved into a seven-bedroom house in the exclusive Holland Park, in west London. The 16.8million townhouse, pictured, is owned by PR mogul and close family friend Sir Alan Parker
Just hours later, Barbaro phone calls were played in court for murder trial

Phone conversations between underworld figure Pasquale Barbaro and a Brothers 4 Life boss were played in court as evidence for a murder trial, just hours after he was shot dead.

Barbaro, 35, had tried in vain to run for his life before he was executed by two hooded hitmen while he sat in a silver Mercedes in Earlwood, south west of Sydney's CBD on Monday.

Less than 12 hours later, Star Casino CCTV footage of Barbaro speaking with criminal boss Farhad Qaumi, who is accused of killing debt collector Joe Antoun, was played in NSW Supreme Court, the Daily Telegraph reported.

The footage, taken 18 days before the murder of Antoun in 2013, shows the pair scrolling through a mobile phone with their arms around each other.

Barbaro is not a suspect in Antoun's murder.

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Less than 12 hours later, Star Casino CCTV footage of Barbaro speaking with the man accused of Antoun's murder, Brothers 4 Life criminal boss Farhad Qaumi (both pictured), was played in NSW Supreme Court

Barbaro, 35, (pictured) had tried in vain to run for his life before he was executed by two hooded hitmen while he sat in a silver Mercedes in Earlwood

Audio of a conversation between Barbaro and Qaumi was also played in court on Tuesday.

The pair discussed mostly fishing and referred to Qaumi as 'The Afghan'. It has been alleged they were speaking in code about a third man who asked Barbaro questions about Qaumi to intercept the conversations on a phone tap.

Before his death, Barbaro was rumoured to be a high-ranking informant to the Crime Commission, which could have attracted unwanted attention from crime syndicates.

He reportedly owed a criminal gang $1 million.

One woman on social media, who claimed to have known him for years, described Barbaro as 'the biggest dog in NSW' for working for the Crime Commission for years.

After news of his death spread, a man wrote on Facebook: 'Dead dogs don't bark.'

Barbaro was headed home to see his girlfriend at their Harrington Park home when he was gunned down.

'He was on his way to see me last night but never made it,' his girlfriend said on Tuesday, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Phone conversations between underworld figure Pasquale Barbaro and a Brothers 4 Life boss were played in court as evidence for a murder trial of Joe Antoun (pictured)

Sydney crime figure Pasquale Barbaro was been shot dead in Sydney's south-west on Monday about 10pm

Mr Barbaro, 35, was a well-known crime kingpin who narrowly avoided an attempted execution in Leichhardt last year

Horrifying footage seen at the judge-alone trial shows a hooded man approach Antoun's Strathfield home, knock on the front door and shoot the victim, before fleeing on foot

Friends said Barbaro had many enemies and a police source told Daily Mail Australia the slain kingpin was a key suspect in the murder of gangland hitman Hamad Assaad last month.

In November 2015, Barbara was shot at six times as he ran down a Leichhardt laneway and started to wear a bulletproof vest to protect himself, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Hamad Assaad, who was shot dead last month outside his Georges Hall home, was suspected of being behind the attempted murder. No one was ever charged.

Qaumi and his brother Mumtaz are accused of hiring a shooter to kill Antoun after allegedly receiving a contract to carry out the hit, but have both pleaded not guilty.

Mr Antoun was at home with his wife and two young daughters at 9.35pm on December 16, 2013 when a CCTV monitor in his home showed a man at the front door, Crown Prosecutor Ken McKay SC told the court.

Barbaro was shot about 10pm on Monday by two hooded hitmen, witnesses said

A former business partner of Mr Antoun, Elias 'Les' Elias, was allegedly involved in the arranged murder but is currently living in the Philippines and refuses to come back to Australia until after the trial (Mr Antoun pictured left)

'(Mr Antoun's wife) went to a window and looked out and saw a person and called out to that person, asking who it was.She heard the person say, 'It's Adam. I've got a package for Joe',' Mr Mckay said.

'As he opened the door, Mr Antoun was shot a number of times and died in his house.'

The Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad warned of further hits on underworld figures.

'There'll be four or more bodies before you see the end of this,' an insider told The Daily Telegraph.

After Barbaro was shot at associate George Alex's home in Earlwood, terrified neighbours ran outside, but the men had already taken Barbaro's life with a final shot to the head.

Police were called to Larkhall Avenue in Earlwood at about 9.40pm on Monday night and arrived to find his heavily tattooed body lying on the footpath in a pool of blood

Blood spatters could be seen on the street as police collected evidence following Monday's murder

One neighbour said the hail of bullets broke Barbaro's car windows and struck him in the shoulder before he attempted to escape on foot.

'He was in his car when they started shooting at him so he tried to run but they shot him down just two three houses down from where he was,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

Two members of Barbaro's family have been heavily involved in the criminal underworld, with his grandfather and cousin - who shared his name - also killed.

An officer lays an evidence markers next to the blood stains before taking a photograph outside George Alex's house
Haff has been placed on administrative leave while the school investigates

Her 19-year-old daughter Allison was arrested too for obtaining the drug

Ended up hospitalized and was arrested the next day on felony possession

The cookies were laced with cannabis but Haff ate too much of the treat

Donna Lynch Haff wanted to try marijuana for her 50th birthday so her daughter brought home cookies

A Florida vice principal who wanted to try marijuana for the first time on her 50th birthday found herself in a hospital after overdosing on cannabis - and later in jail.

Donna Lynch Haff overdosed Monday on cookies made with cannabis oil after her 19-year-old daughter Allison brought the 'special' treats home, Pasco County Sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll said.

Allison Haff got the cookies from a co-worker and brought them home for her mother, who works as the assistant principal of Anclote High School in Holiday, Florida.

Donna Lynch Haff (pictured), a vice principal who wanted to try marijuana for the first time on her 50th birthday, found herself in a hospital after overdosing on cannabis - and later in jail

Haff's 19 year old daughter Allison (pictured) got the cannabis cookie for her mom. Both were arrested on felony possession charges on Monday

On Sunday, she was rushed to St. Joseph Hospital North in Tampa after eating too much of the drug-laced edible.

The following day both were taken into custody but were released from jail the some day.

They were charged with felony possession of a controlled substance.

Haff did not return to her job on Tuesday and was placed on administrative leave while the matter was investigated.

'We cant have our administrators in a position where theyre facing felony charges for using drugs,' Pasco County School District Spokeswoman Linda Cobbe told WFLA.

Students were floored to learn about the administrator's arrest and said it was completely out of character for her.

'Oh yeah, for sure I was shocked cause I wasnt thinking it wasnt her doing it, especially not her,' Braxton Johnson told WFLA.

Anclote High School (pictured) in Holiday, Florida, where half works, has placed her on administrative leave

Braxton said students have already created memes of the assistant principal and that the day had been 'crazy'.

'She was a good principal. She always wanted you to do the right things,' he said.

It's unclear if the women have retained attorneys.
On Monday, he was flown back to the U.S. on Russia's dime

Prieto pleaded guilty to charges of illegally entering the country and was jailed for six weeks

He told prosecutors he was 'looking for a better life' in Siberia

Julio Prieto, 29, was caught trying to cross the border into Russia from Kazakhstan on September 14

An American man was deported from Russia on Monday, after trying to sneak into the country for a 'better life'.

Julio Prieto, a 29-year-old Colorado insurance salesman, first tried to legally enter the country from Kazakhstan, but was denied entry because he didn't have a visa.

On September 14, he was caught by border agents, trying to cross the border near Karasuk, according to the Siberian Times.

Julio Prieto was deported from Russia on Monday, after trying to sneak into the country illegally. The American man is pictured leaving Russia above

The 29-year-old insurance salesman from Colorado was held for six weeks at a Russian jail before pleading guilty to charges of illegally trying to cross into the country

After his arrest, Prieto - who was born in Mexico - told Russian authorities that he was 'looking for a better life' in the country and wanted to work in Siberia.

Prieto spent about six weeks in a Russian jail before he pleaded guilty to illegally entering the country.

He could have faced up to two years in jail, but instead he was given a fine of 2,000 rubles, or approximately $30 U.S. dollars.

On Monday, he was flown to New York City from Novosibirsk, on flights purchased by the Russian government.

On Monday, Prieto's flight department from Novosibirsk. 'He had been hoping for Russian hospitality, but he failed to get it and was deeply disappointed,' a Russian official said, according to the Tass news agency

'He had been hoping for Russian hospitality, but he failed to get it and was deeply disappointed,' a Russian official said, according to the Tass news agency.

Public records show that Prieto's two most recent addresses were in Englewood and Monte Vista, Colorado.

He also has a long history of run-ins with the law, starting back in 2010 when he pleaded guilty to a federal charge of conspiracy to distribute marijuana in Las Cruces, New Mexico, the Denver Channel reports.

For that crime, he was sentenced to three years of supervised probation, beginning in January 2011.

Then he had a series of traffic infractions in Jefferson County, Colorado in January 2013, followed by an arrest in May 2013, on theft charges and traffic infractions in Aurora, Colorado.

In a probation meeting after that arrest, Prieto admitted to using marijuana, a violation of his probation and a judge decided that he needed 'more guidance, structure and a consequence of his actions'.

So his probation was modified so that he would attend a re-entry program for six months.
A senior banker at ANZ has revealed shocking claims about sexual and racial harassment inside the company's New York office.

Former senior trader Malika Oyo has filed a lawsuit in the US against the Australian bank amid claims she was hounded about the number of sexual partners she'd had.

Ms Oyo also claims her former manager ANZ head of corporate sales America, Ravi Nursey, would 'openly rate the "racks" of women' and 'brag about attending sex bars', Fairfax reported.

Former senior trader Malika Oyo is suing ANZ bank after allegedly being sexually and racially harassed in the company's New York office

The woman, one of four African-American staff working in the department at the time, was fired in 2013, a few months after making a complaint about her treatment.

Ms Oyo's claims she was on more than one occasion called a 'monkey', and her boss also said her job was 'so easy any monkey could do it'.

'Despite lauding itself for its "inclusive and culturally diverse workforce", the reality of the workplace at ANZ painted a far darker picture,' the former trader said in her complaint.

Ms Oyo said she was hounded about how many sexual partners she'd had while at a team dinner, where members of management were present.

She is suing ANZ bank and her former boss, head of corporate sales America, Ravi Nursey

Her complaint also claims her boss Mr Nursey would say offensive things such as a female employee could 'suck my d**k' when she disagreed with his handling of a trade.

When Ms Oyo complained to senior executives and human resources about the alleged behaviour, she was berated by her boss, the complaint states.

ANZ said in a statement to Fairfax that following a thorough investigation they denied the claims and would be 'defending the matter vigorously'.

'ANZ takes allegations of discrimination very seriously and employees who are found to have breached ANZ's anti-discrimination policies are disciplined which may include termination of employment,' the spokesman said.

This week the matter was referred by the judge to mediation
Vietnam and the Philippines have taken pragmatic steps to mend ties with China after new administrations took office in both countries this summer. The newly elected Vietnamese Prime Minister, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, paid his first state visit to Beijing on September 13. Around a month later, from October 18-21, the newly-elected Philippine President, Rodrigo Duterte, made an ice-breaking trip to China. The two official visits, made feasible by diplomatic efforts on both sides, have helped improve both sets of bilateral relations following the strain caused over the last two years over the South China Sea issue.

Cooling tension

The first major breakthrough in China-Vietnam relations took place on the security front. On October 22, the Chinese Navy's 23rd escort fleet berthed in Cam Ranh Bay in central Vietnam, underlining this improvement. The Chinese fleet, consisting of two missile frigates and one supply ship, paid a five-day friendly visit to the strategic port. During the stay, the Chinese Navyon its first visit to Cam Ranh Bayconducted a multi-dimensional exchange with the Vietnamese Navy.

Normally, Vietnam would not allow the military vessels of another nation to berth at Cam Ranh Bay if bilateral relations were poor. In the past, China and Vietnam engaged in several armed conflicts and were embroiled in disputes regarding the South China Sea.

This summer, tension caused by the South China Sea arbitration by a Hague-based tribunal that was unilaterally initiated by the Philippines caught the attention of the international community. Hanoi has been closely watching the development of the arbitration case from the very beginning, but decided to resort to communication and dialogue instead of risking confrontation with China. The bay visit reflects Vietnam's wish to mend ties with China and maintain normal military exchanges and mutual trust in politics and security.

The country walks a fine line between the U.S.-Japan regional alliance and its close neighborChina. The recent political and military visits signal a remarkable change afoot in the South China Sea, meaning the strategic wall built by the United States and its allies against China is not that solid.

Duterte's adjustment

Meanwhile, Duterte has brought flexibility to the rigidity of the country's former administration's handling of the South China Sea. On the one hand, Duterte has often been critical of Philippine-U.S. military ties, asserting that his nation has relied too much on the United States to forge an independent diplomatic policy. On the other hand, he has been working to improve the country's relations with China and has inked a number of deals favorable to the Philippines during his Beijing trip.

Although the Philippine-U.S. relationship is unlikely to be significantly weakened, Duterte's flexible diplomacy will make Washington think twice about trying to use his country as a pawn to implement their Asia-Pacific rebalancing strategy.

The friendly signals from Vietnam and the Philippines and the positive response from China have led to a drop in tension in the South China Sea. The two countries are expected to put aside their disputes with China for the moment, though their territorial claims in the region are likely to remain.

The Obama administration has tried to build a strategic encirclement of nations over the last five years to contain China. The fact that Vietnam and the Philippines have taken steps to relieve tension with China indicates the U.S. attempt to isolate China is failing.

Next year, the Philippines will assume the rotating presidency of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Considering the improvement in relations between China and the two aforementioned member states, China should be able to enhance its relationship with ASEAN as well.

What's next?

Duterte's anti-U.S. rhetoric since has raised concerns from the U.S. side, especially after he spoke of "separation" from the United States during his Beijing trip. Washington remains cautious about what this new Philippine president has to say and offer, while the U.S. President Barack Obama openly claimed Duterte is a "colorful person."

Only three days after Duterte's Beijing visit, U.S. Assistant Secretary Daniel R. Russel made a hasty journey to Manila on October 24. In a meeting with the Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay, Russel complained that the "uncertainty about the Philippine's intentions has created consternation in many countries, not only in mine." "That's not a positive trend," Russel commented.

In response to warming military ties between Vietnam and China, USS Decatur (DDG-73), an Arleigh Burke-class navy destroyer, was deployed in the waters of China's Xisha Islands on October 21. The intrusion of the U.S. warship resulted in Chinese protest and an immediate warning from two Chinese Navy vessels. Such a confrontation is rare on the waters of the Xisha Islands.

Some observers believe the Pentagon made such a bold move for two reasons. First, it demonstrates to the Philippines and Vietnam that the United States is capable of dealing with China in the South China Sea without the collaboration of the two states. Second, the incident shows the United States won't change its policy on issues related to the South China Sea, regardless of objection from regional countries.

Meanwhile, Japan, the U.S.' closest ally in Asia, had been assisting former Philippine President Corazon Aquino III's attempt to stir up tension with China. The Japanese Government has promised much investment to the Philippines and has actively sought to sell arms to the country. The country has been trying to draw more Asia-Pacific countries to its side in regional affairs to keep up pressure on China even after policy readjustment from Vietnam and the Philippines.

According to reports by The Times of India , Japan pushed for Indian involvement in the South China Sea, despite the fact that India has nothing to do with the dispute. In fact, during Abe's India visit at the end of 2015, the two sides had agreed on holding joint military exercises involving India, the United States and Japan in regional waters. By extending its confrontational policy against China to other countries, Japan could complicate the regional situation.

Nonetheless, the current lapse in tension is the result of common efforts by China's good-neighborly policy and the flexible strategy of adjustment from Vietnam and the Philippines. The hard-won stability in the region should be championed by all parties involved.

The author is an op-ed contributor to Beijing Review
The Donald Trump transition team is eyeing former Washington, D.C. public school chancellor Michelle Rhee for Secretary of Education, multiple sources close to the transition tell the Daily Mail.

The appointment of Rhee  who has been dubbed 'Public Enemy No. 1' of the teachers' unions -- would be a bold move by the Trump team, and a signal that his administration is gearing up to take an aggressive stance on education reform.

It would also cut across partisan lines. Rhee is a lifelong Democrat, and a proponent of Common Core, a set of federal education standards that is opposed by many conservatives and Donald Trump.

The appointment of Rhee would be a bold move by the Trump team, and a signal that his administration is gearing up to take an aggressive stance on education reform

Trump has vowed to abolish Common Core in his first 100 days as president and replace it with the School Choice and Education Opportunity Act.

The proposal would increase federal funding for school vouchers and charter schools and end federal education standards. It would also seek to increase college affordability.

As a supporter of Common Core, Rhee would be an unexpected choice to lead such a change. But her history of backing school choice and battling the teachers' unions has also earned her support from many conservatives.

Rhee began her career as a teacher with Teach for America, before founding a non-profit group to train educators in 1997.

She came to national prominence in 2007, during her forceful drive to reform D.C. city schools under former Mayor Adrian Fenty. With Fenty's support, Rhee pushed for stronger teacher accountability standards, including pinning teacher salaries to student achievement and an end to the tenure system.

Rhee chats with 3rd-grade student Charleisha Calde at J. O. Wilson Elementary School. Student standardized test scores increased significantly during Rhee's tenure as D.C. chancellor, but opponents of Rhee's policies claimed these results were due to 'widespread test fraud.'

Despite furious blowback from the teachers' unions and their supporters  who called on Fenty to fire Rhee and nicknamed her the 'Wicked Witch'  she managed to negotiate a contract in 2010 that removed some tenure protections for teachers in exchange for performance-based salary increases. Fenty lost his reelection bid later that year, a defeat some critics blamed on Rhee's reform efforts.

While student standardized test scores increased significantly during Rhee's tenure, opponents of Rhee's policies claimed these results were due to 'widespread test fraud.'
Last week he achieved his post-injury dream of being elected to Congress for Florida's 18th District

He then enrolled in Harvard's online and this year graduated

Mast learned to walk on his prosthetic legs within just two months

From his hospital bed, he pledged to become a Congressman for Florida

After 12 years in the Army, he decided to view his injuries as the beginning of a new chapter in his life

The soldier lost his legs, portion of his forearm and his left index finger

Brian Mast was serving with the Army as a bomb disposal expert in 2010 when he was hit by a roadside bomb

Last week, Brian Mast won the swing state of Florida to take the congressional seat for District 18.

While an incredible achievement in itself, for Mast - a veteran and a father-of-three - it represents overcoming so much more.

Life changed forever for Staff Sgt. Brian Mast in September 2010 while serving as a bomb disposal expert with the elite Joint Special Operations Command in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

His team were closing in on their target when Mast spotted something suspicious among the terrain and stopped his men. He had stepped out to investigate when a roadside bomb ripped through his body.

'I can remember it rattled my teeth,' he told the New York Times. 'I didn't even know if I had teeth left in my mouth because the concussion of this explosion that took off both of my legs and nearly took off my arm.'

Brian Mast, the 36-year-old military vet Harvard grad who lost both of his legs in Afghanistan and has now become a congressman after winning swing state

Brian Mast hugs his son Maverick, four, with the help of supporter Patrick Crow, left, of Palm City after winning the seat

The active soldier lost both legs, plus a portion of his left forearm and his left index finger.

For Mast, who had spent most of his adult life in the Army he was lost.

'I'm a soldier,' Brian said in a release for the Harvard Extension School. 'I define myself in service to our country. That was something that I lost, basically, as a result of injury.'

Rather than wallow in self pity, Mast decided to see the injuries as the beginning of a new chapter in his life.

'I have to find something new to do in life,' Brian had said himself, 'because jumping out of planes and roping out of helicopters and kicking in doors, it's not in the future for somebody who doesn't have any legs.'

Life changed for Mast on September 19, 2010 when he a roadside bomb ripped through his body, while serving in Kandahar, Afghanistan

Mast has refused to let his disabilities hold him back from what he wants to do in life

Lying in his hospital bed, surrounded by his wife and children, he pledged to do the impossible.

If he couldn't carry on serving in the military, he would serve his country another way - by running for Congress.

'I'm not going to let the best defense that I give our country be coming that is in our past,' Mast said. 'I decided then and there I would look for a new battlefield. I knew that would be Washington D.C. one day.'

What followed was months of excruciating rehabilitate as he learned to walk again using prosthetics.

Just two months after the explosion, Mast was able to walk into Thanksgiving dinner with his family.

Finally, on February 1, 2012, he walked out of Walter Reed Army Medical Center and started a career with the Department of Homeland Security.

Yet, after overcoming his debilitating injuries, Mast faced another challenge.

Rather than wallow in self pity, Mast decided to see the injuries as the beginning of a new direction and decided to enter politics (pictured with his wife Brianna, and his three children)

Congressional District 18 candidate Brian Mast smiles as he greets supporters during his campaign gathering at Spoto's Oyster Bar in Stuart, Florida

The 35-year-old had followed in his father's footsteps by enrolling in the army straight out of high school. But to follow his dream of Congress, he would need a degree.

As usual, Mast set his eyes on the very best, Harvard.

In 2013, he enrolled in an online course from his home in Palm Springs, Florida, studying economics.

Something of a class clown back in high school, Mast says the experience of war and being a father had made him grow up and buckle down. Earlier this year he graduated Harvard with a degree in economics.

With an Ivy School degree under his belt, Mast felt ready to enter politics. And never one to pick an easy battle, he decided to enter the race for Florida's Eighteenth District as a Republican - battling it out with 11 other candidates.

There was to be no easy ride, simply because he was a veteran.

He has faced the same tough questions as any other candidate - plus a couple more. Some demanded to know why he always wore shorts, was he trying to leverage his disability?

Rep.-elect Brian Mast, departs after newly-elected House members gathered for a freshman class photo on the Capitol steps

Mast says the real reason is far more mundane; his prosthetic legs rip through every pair of pants.

With a win by no means certain, Mast faced election day like it was any other.

'You have to run through the finish line,' Mast told CBS12. 'You gotta fight like you are in last place every single day.'

On Tuesday, November 8, the Republican candidate was standing with his family; wife Brianna, sons Maverick and Magnum, and daughter Madalyn, when the results were called.

He had beaten Democrat Randy Perkins to be named Florida's next congressman.

'I believe in my heart that the trials we each face have little importance compared to what we do in response to each challenge that we face,' Mast said on his campaign website, where he hopes his story can inspire others.

'We as Americans do not curl up into a corner and quit when life gets tough.

'We own our challenges. We use those challenges as the tool to make us the strongest we have ever been. I believe it is that kind of people we must never cease to be.

'I will serve you in Congress as I did on the battlefield: without regard for personal gain or personal sacrifice.'

Around 20 per cent of House representatives and the same in the Senate have served in the military.
This is the dramatic moment a backpacker couple were rescued from the side of a mountain after getting stuck while trying to see the supermoon.

The pair, from Western Australia, were adventuring in Queensland's Glass House mountains when they decided to scale Mount Tibrogargan - considered the most difficult climb in the region.

But rather than attempt the 364m climb during the day, the unidentified pair decided to try and scale it in the dark with a rope they found at the base.

A red-faced couple had to be rescued from Mount Tibrogargan, in Queensland's Glass House mountains, after attempting to scale the peak in the dark to see the supermoon

The couple did not even make it halfway up the route before getting stuck.

Queensland State Emergency Service workers told 7 News that the woman got stranded first on a small ledge and was unable to move up or down.

But her boyfriend, who was several metres above her, was also unable to come down and help, leaving them both stranded.

The man called 000, and a helicopter and rescue team were dispatched around midnight in order to help the pair down.

It took rescue workers six hours to reach the couple and escort them back to solid ground, with emergency services describing the conditions as 'tough'.

By sunrise the pair were back where they had started, fortunately uninjured except for their wounded pride.

Less than halfway up the sheer climb the woman got stranded on a narrow ledge and her boyfriend was unable to get back down to help her, so they called rescue workers

Even in daylight, Mount Tibrogargan is considered one of the most challenging in the region, with high levels of fitness and rock climbing experience recommended

News footage shows the pair walking to the back of a rescue vehicle looking rather sheepish after their misadventure.

Asked how she was doing, the woman responded: 'Yeah, all right, thanks.'

Mount Tibrogargan is one of five mountains in the Glass House Mountains National Park, and while not the tallest, the climb is considered the most challenging.

The Queensland National Parks website warns that a 'high fitness levels and rock scrambling skills' are required, and cautions to 'leave enough time to descend in daylight'.
Matt Harrigan has resigned from San Diego-based cybersecurity firm PacketSled after going on a post-election tirade

The founder and CEO of a cyber security firm resigned after he threatened to kill president-elect Donald Trump on Facebook.

Matt Harrigan, who started PacketSled in 2013, wrote on election night, 'I'm going to kill the president. Elect', according to screenshots posted to Reddit after his Facebook account was deleted.

Harrigan, who also wrote about 'getting a sniper rifle and perching myself where it counts,' apologized for his statements and stepped down from the company Monday.

On Tuesday, Harrigan first wrote about killing the president-elect on Facebook before adding: 'Bring it secret service.'

When someone said he 'just need[ed] to get high', Harrigan responded: 'Nope, getting a sniper rifle and perching myself where it counts.

'Find a bedroom in the whitehouse that suits you motherf***er. I'll find you,' he wrote.

He also wrote: 'In no uncertain terms, f*** you America. Seriously. F*** off.'

Packetsled, which is based in Del Mar, about miles north of San Diego, California, was flooded with one-star reviews complaining about Harrigan on Google.

On Tuesday, as the results of the election were revealed, Harrigan wrote about killing the president-elect on Facebook

On Sunday, Harrigan issued an apology on Twitter, writing: 'My humble apologies that a flawed joke has become public/out of context.

'My poor judgement [sic] does not represent the views of @packetsled.

He continued: 'Customers, investors or the officers of PacketSled, I have no malicious intention toward the #POTUS and apologize to all for my lack of judgement [sic] and offensive commentary. I wish you all well.'

The company issued a statement on Sunday, saying they reported the information to the Secret Service.

An agent overseeing San Diego declined to comment, the Union-Tribune reported.

Threatening the president and successors to the presidency can result in felony charges under US law.

Packetsled initially said Harrigan was put on administrative leave, before he submitted his resignation on Monday

Packetsled initially said Harrigan was put on administrative leave, before Harrigan submitted his resignation on Monday.

The company said: 'The PacketSled Board of Directors accepted the resignation of President and CEO Matthew Harrigan, effective immediately.
An Apex gang member who led police on a high-speed chase through Melbourne tried to force two students to perform sexual acts on each other during a violent home invasion.

One of three teenagers arrested on the West Gate Bridge, in Melbourne's south-west, on Monday for their alleged involvement in two armed robberies is an Apex gangster who has been involved in a string of other violent crimes.

The 17-year-old boy - who appeared in a children's court on Tuesday - beat two students with a hammer in April and demanded they perform sex acts on each other as he tried to film the incident on his phone, the Herald Sun reported.

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Earlier that night the young offender (not pictured) had been among a group of Apex members who broke into a house and terrorised a family with an umbrella pole

'The victims have pleaded with the offenders, who were laughing and started to record the incident on their mobile phones,' court documents state.

One of the victims - a Chinese international student - said he feared for his life during the terrifying ordeal and had no idea if he would return to his family.

'One or two of them had weapons - hammers. I don't want to die, I thought about that,' he told the Herald Sun.

'I've got no idea why they picked here. I now think Australia's not a safe place. I thought it was safe before, but not now.'

Police arrest one of the men who allegedly led police on a high-speed chase after two armed robberies

The teenagers are accused of breaking into a jewellery store armed with crow bars (pictured)

Police forced the allegedly stolen green Holden Commodore to a stop on top of the bridge

Earlier that night the young offender had been among a group of Apex members who broke into a house and terrorised a family with an umbrella pole - also leaving them fearing for their lives after the incident.

WHO ARE THE APEX GANG? The group originated in, Dandenong, about 30 kilometres south-west of Melbourne

The members are primarily from a Sudanese refugee background

The gang have been involved in a string of carjackings and home invasions in the Melbourne area

They are responsible for the Moomba riots in March

Thirteen teenagers were arrested this week relating to a series of crimes

They were aged between 13 and 17 Advertisement

The father, who tried to protect his family, was injured when he tried to stop the group stealing his car and was dragged along the road as the thief sped away, The Age reported.

The 17-year-old, from Cranbourne, was also involved in the Moomba riot in April when dozens of youths ran the streets damaging property, brawling and terrorising festival goers including young children, according to the Herald Sun.

The boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was charged with a eight offences on Tuesday - including armed robbery, burglary, theft of motor vehicle and reckless conduct.

The 17-year-old was also involved in the Moomba riot (pictured) where dozens of youths ran the streets damaging property, brawling and terrorising festival goers including children

Members of the Apex gang have come to attention of police since an outbreak of crime in Melbourne (Pictured: Apex members who were not involved)

A second 17-year-old faced similar charges in a children's court while the 18-year-old also arrested on the bridge fronted Melbourne Magistrates' Court.

The 18-year-old had failed to answer bail while on youth parole and has been remanded in custody until his next court appearance in August.

Police said the three offenders came to their attention when the owner of a jewellery store in Lalor alleged they stormed into the shop armed with crow bars.

Two members of the balaclava-clad trio were seen on CCTV footage smashing several glass cabinets as the third teenager stood in the Melbourne shop's doorway around 2pm on Monday, according to Nine News.

Two members of the balaclava-clad trio are seen smashing several glass cabinets (pictured)

The men snatched pieces of expensive jewellery from the broken cabinets before fleeing

Within seconds store owner Matt Santoro runs toward the teenagers with a pole in his hand and sent them fleeing into the street after allegedly grabbing some valuable pieces of jewellery.

He said he wants the youths 'held accountable' for their actions.

'I'm trying to earn a living and these people think they have a right to pinch it,' Mr Santoro told the Herald Sun.

'If you're old enough to commit armed burglary, you're old enough to go to jail,' he added.

Mr Santoro (pictured) said he is 'no hero' but wants the teenagers 'held accountable'

Within seconds store owner Matt Santoro runs toward the teenagers with a pole in his hand, sending them fleeing into the street (pictured)

Police allege the boys then drove to a tobacco shop in Preston where they threatened the shop keeper and demanded cash and cigarettes.

'I wasn't scared  I just wanted to get them out,' Jin Mai, manager of TSG Tobacco Station, said.

The police dangerous police pursuit that followed saw the boys allegedly reaching speeds of 150 kilometres an hour - at one point on three busted tyres.

Peak hour traffic was brought to a standstill as dozens of police cars surrounded the green Holden Commodore and hauled the three boys from the car.

Police claim the boys are the same trio arrested later the same day after a pursuit reaching 150km an hour brought peak-hour traffic to a standstill and finished on the West Gate Bridge (pictured)

Traffic was backed up for miles after the incident on Melbourne's West Gate Bridge during peak-hour traffic

A 17-year-old member of the notorious gang, Dru Peterson, recently died in a horrific car accident on November 5, while friend Shok Mou is clinging to life in a Melbourne hospital.

The teenage boys were among six people crammed into an allegedly stolen car which sped through two red lights before flipping when it collided with another car in Melbourne's east.

The 15-year-old driver has been charged.

A 17-year-old member of the notorious gang, Dru Peterson, recently died in a horrific car accident on November 5

Shok Mou was also seriously injured in the crash and is clinging to life in a Melbourne hospital

The teenage boys were among six people crammed into an allegedly stolen car which sped through two red lights before flipping when it collided with a car in Melbourne's east

At least 150 people attended the funeral of Dru Peterson held at Faith City Christian Church

Victoria's Acting Assistant Commissioner Sue Clifford told Daily Mail Australia Police are committed to tackling the underlying causes of youth offending.

'In recent years, Victoria has seen a decrease in the number of young people committing offences,' she said.

'However police have recently been concerned with a rise in a smaller number of repeat youth offenders committing more serious and violent crimes.
Today, Money Mail launches a major campaign to help savers cash in their rip-off pensions.

Under laws introduced last year, everyone aged over 55 should be able to withdraw as much as they want from their pensions.

But five million pensioners who have already turned their pots into a retirement income have been denied these freedoms.

The Government had promised reforms next April to allow retirees to sell their so-called annuities for a lump sum.

Injustice: Five million pensioners who have already turned their pots into a retirement income have been denied pension freedoms

But the plan was axed in a sudden announcement last month that opened up a cruel divide between the generations.

While younger workers will be able to spend their life savings as they want, older pensioners are stuck with useless deals that pay as little as 1 a month.

According to official figures, hundreds of thousands of retirees want to swap these incomes for cash lump sums to pay off debts, carry out house repairs, visit relatives abroad or treat their families.

In an unexpected boost, Money Mail revealed a little-known law was already in place that should at least allow them to cash in pots worth up to 10,000. Yet greedy insurers have refused to pay out.

Meanwhile, around 1.3 million savers have been trapped with rotten annuities that deprive them of up to 40 per cent of the income they were supposed to get.

The City watchdog found evidence savers who were in poor health when they bought annuities were mis-sold the wrong deals.

Yet it is allowing the same firms who ripped off customers to work out who should get compensation  and how much.

In the four weeks since the Government's surprise U-turn, Money Mail has been inundated with letters and emails from devastated pensioners who cannot fathom why they've been left stranded by ministers and the insurance firms they trusted.

So today we embark on a crusade to win fairness for the retired with four key demands:

Extend the law so that any annuity, regardless of size, can be sold back to the insurer that issued it.

Force insurers to offer a quote to any of their customers who want to cash in their annuity.

Protect savers from rip-offs by providing free guidance on cashing in annuities and a cap on fees for professional financial advice.

Ensure fair compensation to the millions who were mis-sold annuities.

For years, most savers with pensions linked to the stock market bought annuities when they retired. That was the only practical way to access your money, unless you were very rich.

Then, in 2015, former Chancellor George Osborne said anyone who was yet to buy an annuity would get unlimited access to their funds.

Money Mail readers who already have an annuity have written eloquent and often heart-breaking letters describing what it would mean if these freedoms were extended to them.

Without exception, they say a lump sum would make a huge difference to their quality of life, while the pathetic monthly income they currently get is practically useless.

This is particularly true where they have other sources of income, such as final-salary pensions or a spouse's pension.

Today we reveal the inside story of how the Government ditched plans to help the retired.

Osborne had originally wanted to create a 'secondary annuity market' where savers could sell their deals to the firm that made the highest cash bid.

But insurers lobbied furiously against the reforms, which proved to be fatally flawed. It has since emerged that the law allows savers with annuities worth less than 10,000 to cash them in.

Poor deal: Many elderly people were locked into annuities against their will because it was the only option before pension freedom

But the rules state that insurers can veto these requests. And most big firms  including Aviva, Standard Life and Prudential  say they'll refuse to pay out.

The Government must extend that law to all savers, putting the ball squarely in the insurers' court.

Then, the giant firms in charge of your retirement cash must be forced offer every customer the chance to cash in. The City watchdog must ensure savers get a fair payout by allowing insurers to deduct only their costs from the lump sums they return to customers.

For example, take a saver who turned a 100,000 pot into an annuity ten years ago, taking 5,000 a year as income.

That would leave 50,000 in their pot. If they sold the annuity back to their insurer, any deductions to cover administration costs should be capped.

Swapping your annual income for a lump sum is a life-changing decision and will not suit everyone.

In fact, the majority of savers with large annuities are likely to be better off keeping their deals  provided they were not mis-sold.

To protect pensioners from rip-offs, the Government must offer free guidance to the pros and cons through its Pension Wise service.

Savers with pots worth more than 30,000 may want to take full financial advice and must be protected from excessive consultation fees.

The retired also deserve a fair deal over the annuity mis-selling scandal. Just four in ten savers who bought annuities shopped around for the best rate  despite the 25 per cent income boost potentially available.

Money Mail repeatedly exposed how profit-hungry firms used underhand tactics to lure customers into shoddy deals.

Today we launch an offer for 50 readers to get an annuity audit worth 175 to see whether they were mis-sold.

The Financial Conduct Authority must force all companies to review all their past sales for mis-selling.

So far it has only demanded full reviews by two firms.

It also plans to allow insurers to work out their own compensation packages for sick customers who were sold deals for healthy people.

There must be a single set of standards for working out whether someone was mis-sold  and how much they should get.
In the aftermath of the presidential election, most voters believe the media coverage of the campaign was biased - but it only influenced a fraction of the votes.

A new poll conducted by Media Research Center and YouGov found that 78 per cent of voters believe the news coverage of the campaign was skewed.

But only three per cent said the bias impacted their decision at the ballot box.

With a nearly three-to-one majority, 59 per cent of respondents thought news outlets favored Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump, compared to 21 per cent who thought the media favored Trump.

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In the aftermath of the presidential election, most voters believe the media coverage of the campaign was biased, particularly leaning in favor of Clinton, findings show.

A new poll found that 78 per cent of voters believe the news coverage of the campaign was biased. Findings showed that 59 per cent thought the media was biased in favor of Clinton compared to 21 per cent who thought it favored Trump (shown above)

The poll also found that 32 per cent of Clinton voters believe the media was 'pro-Clinton'.

If Trump voters had believed what the media was saying about the Republican businessman, eight per cent of them said they would have voted for Clinton.

'Despite the overwhelming and persistent bias of this cycle in particular, I am heartened by the fact that, according to our poll, the American people didn't let it sway their vote,' Media Research Center President Brent Bozell said.

Trump was elected America's 45th president in an astonishing victory last week

Other findings from the poll - conducted on November 9 and 10 - showed that 69 per cent of voters do not believe the news media are honest and truthful.

Trump was elected America's 45th president in an astonishing victory last week.

His triumph over Clinton will end eight years of Democratic dominance of the White House.

The Republican blasted through Democrats' longstanding firewall during the November 8 election, carrying Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, states that had not voted for a GOP presidential candidate since the 1980s.

Research from YouGov found that as America deals with the fallout of the election, 27 per cent of the country is actively trying to avoid the news, particularly Democrats (shown above)

He needed to win nearly all of the competitive battleground states, and he did just that, claiming Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and others.

His election has led to demonstrations across the country, with protesters taking to the streets for to protest against Trump's election.

Research from YouGov found that as America deals with the fallout of the election, 27 per cent of the country is actively trying to avoid the news, particularly Democrats.
were outside the building throughout the day, despite the rain and cold temperatures

Donald Trump has reacted to the ongoing rumors of chaos in his transition team with a bizarre remark that sounded more like an Apprentice line than a message from the President-elect.

'Very organized process taking place as I decide on Cabinet and many other positions,' he tweeted Tuesday night. 'I am the only one who knows who the finalists are!'

Trump's tweet came after a hectic day of meetings with a series of rumored Cabinet hopefuls, including Trump's one-time enemy Senator Ted Cruz - who may, despite his vicious history with the president-elect, become the new attorney general.

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Showman: Trump boasted that only he knows who 'the finalists' for his Cabinet are on Twitter Tuesday, in a remark that seemed more appropriate for The Apprentice than the President

Hired? Ted Cruz is seen here exiting Trump Tower Tuesday. He's one of several who took part in meetings. He said he would work 'closely' with Trump but didn't say he'd been hired

Tower defense: The NYPD were out in force at Trump Tower, keeping the site secure for the President-elect and his guests

Trump likely intended to reassure voters after recent claims his party is descending into in-fighting - including what insiders told CNN was a 'knife-fight' between strategy director Stephen Bannon and chief of staff Reince Priebus.

There have also been claims that his transition team was so disorganized that they didn't even know they had to replace all of Obama's staff when Trump enters the White House.

The tweet was probably intended to show he still has control over the team.

But the Apprentice-style remark recalls Barack Obama's June line: 'This is not entertainment, this is not a reality show.'

The President was warning voters to take the presidency seriously - and tacitly telling the then-flamboyantly outrageous Trump to do the same.

While Trump's camp have not yet revealed the choices he's made for his Cabinet, the appearance of Cruz at Trump Tower Tuesday bodes well for the senator, despite his bitter history with Trump.

The pair traded vicious, personal barbs during the Republican primaries, with Trump insulting the senator's father and wife, and Cruz calling the now-President-elect 'a sniveling coward.'

On exiting the tower at 7:15pm, however, Cruz told reporters he was looking forward to 'working closely' with Trump 'to repeal Obamacare' and confirm 'a strong, conservative Supreme Court justice.'

He made no mention of being on Trump's Cabinet, but in a tweet later in the evening, a Bloomberg reporter claimed he was being mooted for attorney general.

Rumor: This Bloomberg reporter said Tuesday that Cruz was being mooted for the attorney general's role, though no names have been officially released

In session: Senator Jeff Sessions - who has been tipped for a position in the Justice, Defense Homeland Security Departments - arrives for his meeting at Trump Tower

General adviser: Retired Lt General Keith Kellogg, who has advised Trump and was rumored to be in the running for the Defense Secretary position, was also at the tower

Cruz's spokesperson elaborated on the senator's comments in a written statement, but gave no hint as to a possible Cabinet role.

'The American people issued a clear mandate to "drain the swamp" in Washington, repeal Obamacare, and start over with cost-effective, patient-centered health care reform, appoint constitutionalist judges to the Supreme Court, secure our southern border and enforce immigration laws, and enact policies that will create more good-paying jobs for the American people,' it said.

'On behalf of the 27 million Texans he represents, the senator looks forward to assisting the Trump administration in achieving these objectives.'

Cruz wasn't the only political figure spotted at Trump Tower who has been rumored for a Cabinet role.

Retired Lt General Keith Kellogg - who has previously advised Trump - was seen leaving the tower.

He had been tipped for the position of Defense Secretary, although that would require waiving a rule forbidding candidates who have served within the last seven years.

On exiting the building he told Bloomberg that he hasn't been offered a position in the cabinet, and was now going to Washington, DC to help with the transition to the Trump administration.

But until the Cabinet is confirmed, it's not known whether he was speaking openly.

He also commended Bannon - the Brietbart executive who has been accused of sexism and antisemitism - as 'magnificent.'

Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions was also among those present at Trump Tower.

The senator was the first sitting politician to publicly endorse Trump when they appeared onstage together in August 2015, and is one of a number of candidates for Defense Secretary, along with Kellogg.

Finance: Steven Mnuchin (center), national finance chairman for the President-elect gets ready to join the conversations upstairs

Rudy can't fail? Ex-NY mayor Rudy Giuliani, a vocal Trump supporter, has hinted that he might take the Secretary of State job in the new administration

Also spotted was former Goldman Sachs partner-turned-Trump national finance chairman Steven Mnuchin, 53.

According to Bloomberg, Mnuchin has been recommended by Trump's team for Treasury Secretary.

However, as he was in a secret society at Yale and has been linked to liberal philanthropist George Soros, he seems an unlikely fit for Trump, who railed against Wall Street insiders and identified Soros as a 'globalist' in his final campaign video.

Tuesday's meetings came as former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a longtime friend and vocal defender of Trump, emerged as a leading candidate to be US Secretary of State.

'Well, that's possible,' Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway teased on Fox News on Tuesday, when asked about the Giuliani report.

Giuliani had also hinted that he might take the Secretary of State position during a Wall Street Journal-sponsored gathering of CEOs Monday.

At the same meeting, he said that he would not be given the attorney general job that could now go to Cruz.

John Bolton, who served as US ambassador to the United Nations under President George W Bush, was also under consideration for the high-profile job, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Monday.

Meeting of minds: Marla Maples (above) and Tommy Hilfiger, among others, were spotted entering Trump Tower in New York City early Tuesday evening

In and out: Maples was in the building for less than 30 minutes before waving to reporters and making her exit

Design challenge: It is not clear if Hilfiger was there to visit Trump, his wife Melania or someone else in the building

Most of the visitors to Trump Tower on Tuesday were from the military or political spheres, but there were others, too.

They included fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger and Donald's ex-wife Marla Maples, both of whom were photographed heading into Trump Tower within an hour of Cruz.

Maples was only in the building for 30 minutes before leaving the residence, waving to reporters on the way.

She has not been seen much in the past few months. Her daughter Tiffany has been living in New York City since graduating from college last May.

And it is not clear if Hilfiger was visiting Trump, his wife Melania or someone else who was in the building.

But he could have been there to advise Melania or even talk with her about designing future looks, with her new role as first lady requiring she wear more American designers.

Daddy's boy: Donald Trump Jr, who has been an integral part of his dad's campaign and transition teams, waits for the elevator to take him up to the 'party'

Great day: Mike Pence waves to reporters as he leaves Trump Tower on Thursday (above), saying that it had been a 'great day'

Transitioning: Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (above), part of Trump's transition team, arrived on Tuesday

VP-elect Mike Pence, meanwhile, was seen leaving just before 6:00pm and telling one reporter it was a 'great day.'

He had met Trump to discuss key appointments shortly after moderate Republican Mike Rogers was jettisoned from the transition team.

The departure of Rogers, a former congressman who was chairman of the House of Representatives intelligence committee, indicated Trump may be leaning away from some establishment figures as Pence takes over the transition team.

'Our work will provide a strong foundation for the new transition team leadership as they move into the post-election phase, which naturally is incorporating the campaign team in New York who drove President-elect Trump to an incredible victory last Tuesday,' Rogers said in a statement.

Rogers, who worked on the transition team led by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for six months, said he would continue to advise Trump.

Pence took over the transition leadership from Christie last week.

Press gang: Trump press secretary Hope Hicks was seen in the Trump Tower elevator

Thumbs up: Jeff DeWitt, chief operating officer for the Trump campaign, is seen gesturing to press as he arrives in the Trump Tower lobby

Going up: Sean Spicer, communications director for the Republican National Committee, gets into an elevator in the lobby at Trump Tower

Trump and Pence will be 'reviewing a number of names for key jobs' during the meeting at Trump Tower in New York as lists for the leadership positions begin to narrow, Trump spokesman Jason Miller said.

'If the Vice President-elect is getting together with the president-elect to discuss names, then I would say that it's serious, obviously,' he said on Monday.

Trump, a businessman who has never held public office, and the Pence-led transition team are working on picking members of his Cabinet and the heads of federal agencies.

Florida attorney general Pam Bondi was also glimpsed entering the building. She has been rumored to be a likely candidate, alongside Cruz, to take the step up to US attorney general.

As well as Trump campaign staff - including Donald Jr - there were members of the RNC present, including Sean Spicer, its communications director.

Online: Brad Parscale, digital director for the Trump campaign, arrives at Trump Tower on Tuesday

Teamwork: Don McGahn, general counsel for the Trump transition team, gets into an elevator in the lobby at Trump Tower

In communication: Jason Miller (right), Trump communications director, is seen entering the elevator at Trump Tower

Fighting back: Protesters were outside the building throughout the day, despite the rain and cold temperatures

Trump's choice of Republican Party insider Reince Priebus to be White House chief of staff was heralded as an indication he wants to work with members of Congress, where a number of Republicans had opposed his candidacy.

However, Trump's appointment of Steve Bannon as chief strategist was roundly criticized by members of both parties who denounced the former Breitbart News chief as having made the website a forum for the 'alt-right,' a confederation of neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites.

Bannon has been calling Republicans in Congress to build relationships with lawmakers after years of thumbing his nose at establishment figures in the party, according to website Politico.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham is signaling that President-elect Donald Trump's favored reset with Russia may hit a wall in the Republican Senate  and is even calling for Russia hearings that would encompass the nation's alleged backing of hacking into the Democratic National Committee during the presidential election.

'When it comes to all things Russia, I am going to be kind of hard-ass,' Graham told a group of reporters in the Senate Tuesday, when questioned by DailyMail.com about Trump's posture toward Russia.

Graham, a Republican whose presidential run flamed out after getting overrun by Trump and other contenders, said he was planning hearings on Russian 'misadventure' throughout the world.

'I also want to know, were they involved in cyber attacks that had a political component to it in our election? ... Were they involved in hacking into the DNC and other organizations?'

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GOP Senator Lindsey Graham is planning hearings on Russian 'misadventure' that would include charges of hacking into Democratic organizations  and is planning a tour of Eastern European nations fearing Russian incursions

Graham didn't vote for Trump, and says he hasn't had contact with the Trump camp during the transition

He didn't vote for Hillary Clinton, but plans to call his former Senate colleague

Any detente Trump may be planning with Russia  Trump spoke to President Vladimir Putin on Sunday  might well face obstacles in Congress.

'I am in charge of the subcommittee that basically funds foreign assistance for the State Department,' Graham noted, referencing his Appropriations perch.

'I want to do a series of hearings about Russia's misadventures throughout the world. What they are doing in Syria, are they even involved in war crimes? What have they done, what are they up to in terms of cyber attacks on our allies  particularly the Balkan states, their propaganda campaign to whip up Russian speaking people inside the Baltic states, their aggressive behavior in South Ossetia ... what they're doing in Syria.'

Graham said he and Senator John McCain of Arizona were planning a tour to the region soon to 'reassure' the Baltic states. It would take him to Ukraine  where Russia invaded Crimea, prompting sanctions  and Georgia, site of previous Russian adventurism.

A still image taken from a video footage and released by Russia's Defence Ministry on November 15, 2016, shows a jet taking off from Russian Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier near the coast of Syria

Pro-Russian rebels fire artillery grad rockets towards Debaltseve on February 18, 2015, near Vuglegirsk, Ukraine

Graham is planning a tour of eastern Europe along with Senator John McCain intended to reassure allies

Trump has wide latitude to set foreign policy, but will have to contend with Congress, where suspicion of Russia runs high, in order to fund new policies

Defending a probe into Russian-backed hacking into Democratic organizations, which government officials believe occurred, Graham said: 'Here's what I would tell Republicans. We cannot sit on the sidelines as a party and let allegations against a foreign government interfering with our election process go unanswered [just] because it may have been beneficial to our cause for the moment.'

The hack of the DNC and of Clinton campaign chair John Podesta brought to light myriad damaging emails that showed Democrats working to sideline Clinton rival Bernie Sanders and steer debate questions to Clinton in advance. They also exposed all manner of embarrassing internal campaign machinations with emails hacked from Podesta's Gmail account got posted on WikiLeaks in the final weeks of the campaign.

'This is a defining moment I think for the country,' Graham continued. 'I want a good relationship with Russia. But things have to substantially change. [Trump] is the president o the united states and he is the leading diplomat for the county. But Congress has a role.'

He said he wanted to put together an aid 'package' to 'help our Eastern European allies better deal with the threats they face from Russia.'

Summing up his posture toward Russia, Graham said the 'goal is to lay out and make the case. I'm an old prosecutor. Make the case that here's what Russia is doing. Here's fact versus fiction and what should we do about it?'

'Assuming for a moment that we do believe that the Russian government was controlling outside organizations that hacked into our election, they should be punished. Putin should be punished. I think they should pay a price, heavier than they're paying now for what they're doing in Syria,' Graham said.

Told there were things Trump could do now to try to send a signal to Russia as it steps up military action in Syria, Graham responded: 'There's things Lindsey Graham can do.'

The posture puts him on a collision course with Trump. According to a statement placed prominently on Trump's transition website, Trump and Putin spoke Sunday about having a 'strong and enduring' relationship.

'During the call, the two leaders discussed a range of issues including the threats and challenges facing the United States and Russia, strategic economic issues and the historical U.S.-Russia relationship that dates back over 200 years,' said the statement.

'President-elect Trump noted to President Putin that he is very much looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the people of Russia.'

Russia on Tuesday opened up yet another assault on rebel forces in Aleppo, in a move meant to bolster the government of Bashar al Assad.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends his meeting with Defence Ministry's high-ranged officers and other officials, on November, 15, 2016 in Sochi, Russia

A pro-Russian rebel walks by a destroyed Ukrainian military vehicle on February 7, 2015 in Uglegorsk, Ukraine

Graham ally McCain released a tough statement on Monday about Russia. '

'Vladimir Putin has rejoined Bashar Assad in his barbaric war against the Syrian people with the resumption of large-scale Russian air and missile strikes in Idlib and Homs. Another brutal assault on the city of Aleppo could soon follow,' McCain said.
More than 1,300 foreign criminals have avoided being booted out of Britain because it would infringe their human rights.

Many who committed heinous offences, including killers, rapists and paedophiles, won permission to stay in the UK because their family live here, the latest figures show.

But the number of convicts who used the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to evade deportation has plummeted since a shake-up by the Home Office. Since Theresa May, when she was home secretary, introduced a deport first, appeal later system for foreign criminals, those who won their human rights appeal fell from 356 in 2012/13 to just 11 last year.

Foreign criminals had been avoiding deportation by using the European Convention of Human Rights

Mrs May also introduced new rules spelling out to judges that Article 8 of the ECHR, which safeguards family life, was not absolute after it was exploited by foreign criminals.

The number of foreign crooks using the ECHR, which was brought into UK law in 1998 by Labours controversial Human Rights Act, to avoid deportation rose every year from 2006/7 until its peak of 356 in 2012/13.

Former home secretary Theresa May (pictured), now Prime Minister, threw her weight behind calls for the Human Rights Act to be scrapped in 2011 and now foreign convicts who won their human rights appeal fell from 356 in 2012/13 to just 11 last year

This fell to 123 in 2013/14, 38 in 2014/15 and just 11 last year. The figures were disclosed in answer to a parliamentary question tabled by former Tory justice minister Dominic Raab.

Mr Raab said: This data shows a dramatic reduction in criminals avoiding deportation since the Governments reforms kicked in.

Referring to the key Conservative general election pledge to bring in a new British Bill of Rights, he added: By leaving the EU and replacing the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights we can build on this success, and restore some common sense to our skewed human rights laws.

One of the most despicable cases was of Mustafa Abdullah, a Somalian who was jailed for ten years for raping a pregnant woman at knifepoint. Incredibly, immigration judges refused to approve his deportation, saying it would breach his right to a family life.

A Moroccan sex attacker who could only be identified as AB could also not be deported because of his family rights even though his wife says he has left her and their children.

The 52-year-old illegal immigrant, who has cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds, run rings around the Home Office as he has evaded attempts to boot him out of Britain for 16 years.

Former Tory justice minister Dominic Raab (left) and Conservative MP Peter Bone (right) have praised the results of the reforms

Conservative MP Peter Bone said: These people, who come here and commit crimes, should be deported. It is quite wrong they can claim their human rights were affected when they didnt care about the human rights of the people they committed the crime against.

If you come to this country and commit a crime, you should serve your sentence and be deported. There shouldnt be a European court telling our courts these people shouldnt be deported.

Britain is entitled to deport criminals from the European Union if they are sentenced to jail to serve their sentences in their homeland, while non-EU criminals must have served at least one year behind bars.

But there are 5,000-plus foreign offenders living in the community awaiting removal. Instead of being locked up until they are thrown out, they are freed to protect their human rights, and so could abscond or potentially put the public in danger. Nearly a third  1,865 criminals  have been loose for more than five years.

The Home Office (pictured) said it removed a record 5,810 foreign national offenders in 2015/16

The Home Office said it removed a record 5,810 foreign national offenders in 2015/16. The number of appeals against deportation plunged from 2,351 in 2013/14 to 1,440 last year.

A Home Office spokesman said: Any foreign national offender (FNO) who poses a threat to the UK should be in no doubt of our determination to deport them.
The 3rd World Internet Conference takes place in Wuzhen, Zhejiang Province this week. At last year's conference President Xi Jinping explained that China was rolling out broadband services to even the most remote villages to assist rural development. He recognized the increasing importance of the sharing economy as well as the role of international cultural cooperation and innovation in upgrading China's economy and improving people's living standards.

This year several bold initiatives to develop the digital economy have been proposed. All of them recognize that the effective exploitation of the Internet is essential to improving labor productivity and developing the provision of modern public services. At the executive meeting of the State Council on June 24, Premier Li Keqiang said: "We may now stand at the same starting line with the developed countries in information, especially in the Internet, and even have more advantages than them in some aspects." This universal interconnectivity offers China an opportunity to overtake the rest of the world in a decisive field.

Apart from language itself, no better tool for the development of social production and universal connectivity and collaboration has been devised. However, the opportunity to positively reorganize human relations on socialist lines depends whether advances in technology, science, art and culture serve human liberation. And this is a basic criterion by which progress towards socialism can be judged.

China's method of integration with the world market and world culture has produced unprecedented achievements in human development. Indeed, its ability to adopt, assimilate and apply innovations and technologies from all over the world stimulated its extraordinary long-term growth record and brought corresponding improvements in living standards.

China is now the world's number one for Internet users. The exponential development of the Internet was based on two policies. Firstly, its basic infrastructure was developed by massive public investment and remains publicly owned. Secondly, the Chinese state limited the encroachment of international corporate Internet giants. Had China given way to the demands of the world's leading Internet companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon, Yahoo and YouTube; these companies would have distorted the use of China's Internet to serve their own interests and those of the U.S. government's National Security Agency (NSA). It was Edward Snowden who revealed that companies like Google - whose corporate motto was "Don't be evil" - were happy to sell their souls to the NSA and help them to spy on the whole world. Indeed, the NSA created the most intrusive spying apparatus the world has ever known. U.S. hegemony over cyberspace seeks to concentrate decisive influence over the Internet in its own hands and those of a few private companies.

China's scientific and technical development is guided by multiple national development plans, which are designed to form an integrated whole and facilitate innovation. However, the system has been limited by fragmented organizational structures, the duplication of effort and weak systems of oversight. To overcome this, 40 government agencies engaged in managing and resourcing science and technology plans collaborated in formulating the reforming measures to consolidate and restructure the science and technology planning system as a whole.

The demographics of Chinese society increasingly resemble the urban patterns of advanced economies; and the explosive growth of informationization means that today, even those from the most humble backgrounds can be expected to be active on the Internet. This means that in our networked society, the technical means exist to overcome many of the problems that previously hampered the information processing capabilities of planned economic systems.

The potential benefits from the application of Internet services to the social, cultural and economic life of modern China are truly mind-boggling. The Internet provides the material basis to integrate production, distribution and exchange in ways that satisfy the wants and needs of the people. It can also be used to democratize work, administration, accounting, planning, management, the protection of consumer rights, and the provision of public services. A mature and universal Internet offers the technical prerequisite for a mature form of socialism, where the benefits that stem from technology and science will be harnessed to serve the whole of humanity.

Heiko Khoo is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/heikokhoo.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
Patients are a fifth more likely to die on wards where nurses have been replaced by untrained staff, a major study has found.

It has prompted researchers to describe plans to substitute qualified NHS nurses with associates as a risky experiment.

The University of Southampton study found that replacing just one nurse with an untrained employee on a typical ward increased the chance of dying by 21 per cent. On the other hand, for every 10 per cent increase in qualified nurses on wards, the risk of death fell by 11 per cent.

Patients are a fifth more likely to die on wards where nurses have been replaced by untrained staff, a major study has found (file image)

Earlier this month the Government confirmed plans to deploy 2,000 nursing associates in hospitals at 11 NHS trusts from January to ease staffing shortages. Dubbed nurses on the cheap, they will be responsible for the vital monitoring of patients breathing and heart rate to check they are not deteriorating.

But research published in the British Medical Journal warned that diluting the nursing workforce could put lives at risk. The study involved almost 19,000 patients and compared data from 243 hospitals in England, Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Spain and Switzerland. It found that for every 25 patients  a typical ward size  swapping just one nurse with an unqualified assistant increased the risk of death by 21 per cent.

The data also revealed that England has one of the lowest rates of qualified nurses among nursing staff in Europe. On average just 57 per cent of the staff are qualified nurses  the remainder are health care assistants. This compares to a European average of 66 per cent.

Professor Peter Griffiths, one of the study authors, said: Reducing the skill mix of the nursing team is associated with increased mortality. I think this certainly shows that whats currently being proposed needs to be regarded as a risky experiment and needs to be closely evaluated for the impact on patient outcomes.

He said there was a risk that associates did not have the expertise to know when a patient was deteriorating. Most have no medical training, while a nurse has completed a three-year degree.

The NHS is set to train 2,000 'nursing associates' to administer drugs and monitor the sickest patients unsupervised, it has been revealed

Janet Davies, chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said: This research reinforces the stark fact that for patient care to be safe, and high quality, you need the right number of registered nurses.

Substituting registered nurses with support staff quite simply puts patient care and patients lives at risk. Its vital that this is not ignored as the new nursing associate role is developed.

Support staff are crucial in delivering patient care and the NHS could not operate without them, but they cannot and must not become a substitute for registered nurses.
Tenants could reduce the costs of renting a home by hundreds of pounds if a new 'referencing passport' scheme is introduced, it has been claimed.

The costs of renting a home - before a tenant has even stepped over the threshold - can run into thousands of pounds, including a month's rent in advance and paying for a reference.

But a new 'referencing passport' aims to help reduce these costs as the checks could be transferable between letting agents.

Tenants can pay thousands of pounds in fees before they even step foot in a rented home

Some letting agents can charge tenants as much as 500 for the referencing checks to be made.

There is currently no guarantee that the tenant will secure the property once the checks have been made.

It means they may have to pay out again if they lose that property and have to provide a reference for a different rental home.

Rob Ellice, of easyproperty, who is campaigning for the passport idea, said: 'The tenant would be able to buy such a referencing product from a letting agent or even your local convenience store. It would be valid in every lettings agency across the nation.'

He suggested that the referencing passport is designed to be valid for up to three months as long as there is no change to a tenant's circumstances, such as a job loss.

It means that if an individual is not successful with one property, that they can still go on to use the referencing passport at other rental properties.

The scheme could be backed by insurers, who would provide a guarantee.

It would mean that a landlord could be paid for any loss should a tenant fail to comply with terms of their lease or provides incorrect information - such as about their employment.

WE HAD TO FIND 2,800 TO GET IN THE FRONT DOOR Andy and Lucy paid almost 2,800 in fees Andy Ramage, 34, recently rented a one bedroom flat in North London with his girlfriend Lucy Wicks, 30. But before they had even stepped across the threshold, they had paid out more than 2,740 to cover a month's deposit in advance, a reference fee of 360 and six weeks deposit. The total paid by the couple - 2,797.50 - is the equivalent of a month's salary (after tax) for someone earning 45,000. 'Thankfully there are two of us to share the financial burden,' Mr Ramage explained. 'But it is still a large chunk of cash, which we would not be able to afford unless I had been living at home with my parents and had been able to save up.' He added: 'A referencing passport that you can transfer from one lettings agent to another is an excellent idea and could help to keep the rental market moving.' Advertisement

The Association of Residential Letting Agents suggested a passport scheme had potential.

David Cox, managing director of the Association of Residential Letting Agents, said: 'In principle, referencing passports sounds like a good idea, but its success will depend on how it works.

'Anything can change in three months, including professional and personal circumstances, so having a reference which is three months old could yield a very different result to a more recent one.
Governments around the world have stepped up efforts to block or censor social media and messaging applications, in a new blow to internet freedom, a watchdog group has said.

The Freedom on the Net report by the activist group Freedom House said online freedom declined in 2016 for a sixth consecutive year, amid new restrictions on messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and social networks.

A staggering two-thirds of all internet users live in countries where criticism of the government, military, or ruling family are subject to censorship, the report found.

Two-thirds of all internet users live in countries where criticism of the government, military, or ruling family are subject to censorship, the new report found. A map showing the worst offenders (dark red) and the least (pale pink) is shown. Grey countries were not assessed

THE REPORT IN BRIEF Internet freedom around the world declined in 2016 for the sixth consecutive year. Two-thirds of all internet users, 67 per cent, live in countries where criticism of the government, military, or ruling family are subject to censorship. Social media users face unprecedented penalties, as authorities in 38 countries made arrests based on social media posts over the past year. Globally, 27 per cent of all internet users live in countries where people have been arrested for publishing, sharing, or merely 'liking' content on Facebook. Governments are increasingly going after messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram, which can spread information quickly and securely. Advertisement

The US was ranked fourth and the UK eighth in the overall comparison of how 'free' the internet is 65 different countries, while Estonia took the number one spot.

'Popular social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have been subject to growing censorship for several years, but governments are now increasingly going after messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram,' said Sanja Kelly, director of the study.

Messaging apps have become increasingly popular tools for activists, and many of them can offer encrypted communications which make it more difficult for the users to be monitored, the report noted.

'The key reason for the block of these apps is preventing users from disseminating news during periods of unrest,' Kelly said.

The report said 34 of the 65 countries assessed in the report have seen internet freedom deteriorate since June 2015.

Some of the notable declines were in Uganda, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ecuador and Libya, while online freedom improved in Sri Lanka and Zambia and in the United States, due to the passage of a law limiting collection of telecommunications metadata.

Governments in 24 countries limited or blocked access to social media and communication tools, up from 15 in the previous year.

Even some democratic governments have been targeting applications that use encryption features seen as a threat to national security, like WhatsApp.

The report said 34 of the 65 countries assessed in the report have seen internet freedom deteriorate since June 2015. Green countries are free, yellow are partly free and blue are not free

CHINA'S 'DRACONIAN' CYBERSECURITY LAW Last week China passed a controversial cybersecurity bill, tightening restrictions on online freedom of speech. The bill also imposes new rules on online service providers, raising concerns it is further cloistering its heavily controlled internet. The legislation, passed by China's largely rubber-stamp parliament and set to take effect in June 2017, is an 'objective need' of China as a major internet power, a parliament official said. The law is largely focused on protecting the country's networks and private user information. But it also bans internet users from publishing a wide variety of information, including anything that damages 'national honour', 'disturbs economic or social order' or is aimed at 'overthrowing the socialist system'. A provision requiring companies to verify a user's identity effectively makes it illegal to go online anonymously. Companies providing online services in the country must provide 'technical support and help' to public security organs investigating 'crimes', which would normally include those related to speech. Advertisement

WhatsApp, which uses end-to-end encryption on its messages and calls, faced restrictions in 12 of the 65 countries analysed, more than any other app.

'Although the blocking of these tools affects everyone, it has an especially harmful impact on human rights defenders, journalists, and marginalized communities who often depend on these apps to bypass government surveillance,' said Kelly.

China was the world's worst offender for a second year, according to the report, followed by Syria and Iran.

Freedom House criticized a new Chinese law that allows for seven-year prison terms for spreading rumors on social media, a charge often used to imprison political activists.

It said some users in China belonging to minority religious groups were imprisoned for watching religious videos on mobile phones.

The report said authorities in 38 countries made arrests based on social media posts over the past year, an increase of more than 50 per cent since 2013.

Prison sentences imposed in some countries exceeded ten years. Some have been jailed for merely sharing or 'liking' content on Facebook.

'When authorities sentence users to long prison terms for simply criticizing government policies online, almost everyone becomes much more reluctant to post anything that could get them in similar trouble,' Kelly said.

Globally, 27 per cent of all internet users live in countries where people have been arrested for publishing, sharing, or merely 'liking' content on Facebook. Social media users face unprecedented penalties, as authorities in 38 countries made arrests based on posts

At least 15 countries temporarily shut down internet or mobile networks as another way of limiting online activism, the report said.

Some governments broadened the range of censorship to include images, caricatures and even emojis deemed offensive by regimes, Freedom House said.

In Egypt, for example, a student who posted a photo depicting President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi with Mickey Mouse ears got a three-year prison term.

'When faced with humorous memes and cartoons of themselves, some world leaders are thin-skinned and lash out,' said Kelly.
Israel is embarking on a major archaeological expedition to find yet undiscovered Dead Sea Scrolls, an Israeli antiquities official said Monday.

Amir Ganor of the Israel Antiquities Authority said a government research team will spend the next three years surveying hundreds of caves in the Judean Desert near the Dead Sea, the arid region where the Dead Sea Scrolls, the world's oldest biblical manuscripts, were preserved for thousands of years and discovered in 1947.

The collection is considered the crown jewel of Israeli antiquities.

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Israel is embarking on a major archaeological expedition to find yet undiscovered Dead Sea Scrolls, an Israeli antiquities official said Monday. Pictured, Roi Porat, an Israeli student of archaeology, works near remains of a cave found at the West Bank archeological site Qumran

In a move that is bound to stir controversy, the researchers may also excavate Dead Sea-area caves in the West Bank, Ganor said.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast War, and the Palestinians want the territory to establish an independent state.

Some of the scrolls were remarkably in tact (like the War Scroll above), but others were reduced to little more than fragments. This has meant much of the text in the manuscripts still remains a mystery

Ganor discussed details of the project with The Associated Press ahead of an official announcement.

The expedition will begin in December and will be funded by the Israeli prime minister's office, Ganor said.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The upcoming expedition will be the first large-scale archaeological survey of the area since Operation Scroll, an effort in 1993 to find any remaining Dead Sea Scrolls hidden in an area of the West Bank before Israel transferred partial control of the area to the Palestinian Authority.

The Dead Sea Scrolls (The Psalms Scroll pictured) have given researchers an insight into early Biblical texts and key moments in history. Some of the parchments, however, have become damaged and new techniques are revealing text that is hidden beneath blacked edges and damaged corners

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS: THE GREATEST FIND OF THE 20TH CENTURY Discovered between between 1946 and 1956, the Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 ancient manuscripts containing parts of what is now known as the Hebrew Bible, as well as a range of extra-biblical documents. They were first found by shepherd Muhammed Edh-Dhib, as he searched for a stray among the limestone cliffs at Khirbet Qumran on the shores of the Dead Sea in what was then British Mandate Palestine - now the West Bank. The story goes that in a cave in the dark crevice of a steep rocky hillside, Muhammed hurled a stone into the dark interior and was startled to hear the sound of breaking pots. Venturing inside, the young Bedouin found a mysterious collection of large clay jars, in some of which he found old scrolls, some wrapped in linen and blackened with age. The texts are of great historical and religious significance and include the earliest known surviving copies of biblical and extra-biblical documents, as well as preserving evidence of diversity in late Second Temple Judaism. Dated to various ranges between 408BC and 318AD, they are written in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Nabataean, mostly on parchment, but with some written on papyrus and bronze. The scrolls are traditionally divided into three groups. 'Biblical' manuscripts, which are copies of texts from the Hebrew Bible comprise 40 per cent of the haul. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in a caves in the limestone cliffs at Khirbet Qumran (pictured) Other religious manuscripts, including known documents from the Second Temple period like the books of Enoch, Jubilees, Tobit, and Sirach, that were now included in the Bible comprise 30 per cent of the identified scrolls. The so-called 'Sectarian' manuscripts - previously unknown documents that shed light on the beliefs of Jewish groups of the time - like the Community Rule, War Scroll, Pesher on Habakkuk, and the Rule of the Blessing, make up the remaining 30 per cent. While some of the writings have survived as nearly intact scrolls, most of the archive consists of thousands of parchment and papyrus fragments. Advertisement

No scrolls were found in that undertaking.

According to Ganor, archaeologists also hope to find other antiquities dating back to as early as 5,000 years ago, as well as from the 1st-century Jewish-Roman war and the 2nd-century Bar Kochba revolt, when Jewish fighters battling the Roman army sought refuge in the desert.

Last summer, Israel carried out a three-week excavation of the so-called Cave of the Skulls in the Judean Desert, after catching a group of six Palestinian men digging illegally at the site in 2014.

A government research team will spend the next three years surveying hundreds of caves in the Judean Desert near the Dead Sea, where the Scrolls, were preserved for thousands of years and discovered in 1947. Above, Dr. Adolfo Roitman presents a part of the Isaiah Scroll

The Palestinians were believed to be digging for more Dead Sea Scrolls.

In recent years, ancient manuscripts have trickled onto the local antiquities market, and looters are believed to have plundered them from Dead Sea-area caves, prompting the government initiative.

'We know there are more,' Ganor said, speaking of undiscovered Dead Sea Scrolls. 'Most of the places haven't been reached.'
The outcome of the presidential election shocked many people  and they pointed their fingers at misleading polls that didn't do a great job predicting what actually happened.

On Election Day, analyst Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight predicted that Clinton had a 71.4 percent chance of winning and ran the headline 'Final Election Update: There's a Wide Range of Outcomes, and Most of Them Come Up Clinton.'

Economist David Rothschild's PredictWise site gave Hillary Clinton an 89 percent chance that morning.

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Behavioural scientist Aradhna Krishna of the University of Michigan says 'humans emotions' could explain why polls got it so wrong.

And The New York Times' The Upshot set her chances at 85 percent, suggesting that 'Mrs. Clinton's chance of losing is about the same as the probability that an N.F.L. kicker misses a 37-yard field goal'  a low probability event that happens only one or two times out of 10.

But when the votes were counted, expectations were upended and Donald Trump won.

How did so many polls seemingly miss the target? As a behavioural scientist, I study people's emotions and how they affect behavior  and I suspect emotions might have something to do with why the polls were so mistaken.

There are several possible reasons for the misleading poll predictions, and of course a mix of all these issues might have occurred.

Maybe the polls underestimated what turnout would be among demographic groups (such as white voters) who disproportionately supported Trump.

Perhaps Trump supporters were less likely to respond at all to pollsters given how much their candidate attacked polling, calling it rigged.

That would leave them underrepresented in the poll data.

It's also possible polling didn't account well for what 'undecided' respondents would do once in the voting booth  one conjecture is that Trump wound up with more votes from this group than expected.

I think this last option raises an important possibility for what was going on: false data in the polls.

Predictions can be only as good as the data that support them; normally, data have no reason to lie.

Polling data are based on voters answering strangers' questions about who they will vote for, and generally, at least in the U.S., there is no reason to hide the truth.

One is typically proud to vote for the candidate of one's choice. Under normal conditions, when citizens are approached by pollsters about their voting intentions, the assumption is they'll truthfully respond.

In this election, however, I suspect many people who said they were undecided were actually already committed to Trump.

Societal pressures might have kept them from declaring their true intention.

When surrounded by a perceived majority that favored Clinton, declaring that they themselves would vote for Trump might seem disgraceful and cause emotional discomfort. Swimming against the stream can cause distress.

Societal pressures might have kept them from declaring their true intention.

Everyone has felt embarrassed at one time or another. It's that unpleasant sensation we feel when we violate a social norm  for example, if your zipper is down in public, or you stumble down the stairs while people are watching.

Traditionally, psychologists have thought of embarrassment as something that happens in public, in front of others who are taking note of our transgression or blunder.

But in my research, I've found that even actions made in private can lead to embarrassment, if one imagines someone watching.

For instance, buying Viagra, even from the privacy of one's home, can lead some people to feel embarrassed.

They believe unenhanced sexual performance is the social norm.

They imagine other people observing them violate this expectation and judging them, leading to embarrassment for something they're doing in private.

Back to the polling situation. The norm in one voter's social milieu may be voting for Clinton. A vote for Trump would defy that social norm. As such, even if the polling is confidential and private, a citizen may not want to disclose to a pollster his intention to vote for Trump.

He'd rather say he's 'undecided' and spare himself the discomfort of violating a social norm.

If the poll is done over the phone, a less anonymous venue than an online survey, for instance, then this embarrassment is more acute and leads to a greater likelihood of a Trump-leaning respondent claiming she's undecided or even that she'll vote for Clinton. Intending to vote for Trump becomes literally unspeakable.

Trump appealed to different people for a variety of reasons, which would influence how secretive they might be about their candidate preference. In rural America, people may have voted for him because of bad economic circumstances or a lack of confidence in the way different institutions currently function. Nothing too embarrassing behind that. Middle America proudly supported Trump.

But others  namely college students  may have been attracted to Trump because of their own fear of people of different races or from other countries. Racism and xenophobia are clearly against campus social norms.

THE BRADLEY EFFECT Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley lost the 1982 California governor's race, despite leading in pre-election polls. This phenomenon is similar to what pollsters call the Bradley effect. Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, an African-American, lost the 1982 California governor's race, despite leading in pre-election polls. Pollsters suspect that in races between a white and a nonwhite candidate, some voters who intend to vote for the white candidate tell pollsters they're undecided or that they intend to vote for the nonwhite candidate. This happens because of social desirability  one wants to appear to do what is the socially correct thing to do. Advertisement

American universities reflect liberal values and expect students to embrace people from all countries, of all races and of all sexual identities.

As such, students who reject this norm may hide that fact, and may also be embarrassed, ashamed or just plain scared to display their beliefs by publicly acknowledging support for Trump.

If they are polled, especially in a non-anonymous phone interview, they may not declare their intention to vote for him.

This hidden prejudice, and the social stigmas attached to it, may have been one leading cause of the bad predictions for white college graduates, and for those who were undecided.

Support for Clinton may have been exaggerated among both the undecided and even those who declared they'd vote for her.

This logic is corroborated in different ways. At the end of the summer, FiveThirtyEight identified that Clinton's lead over Trump was wider in telephone surveys but couldn't be sure why.

The USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll was an outlier among other polls, consistently placing Trump in the lead.

It relied on an ongoing internet survey. As an LA Times reporter put it on election night:

Trump voters were notably less comfortable about telling a telephone pollster about their vote. Voters who backed a third-party candidate were even less comfortable responding to a poll. Women who said they backed Trump were particularly less likely to say they would be comfortable talking to a pollster about their vote.

The feeling of anonymity offered by online, as opposed to phone, interviews allows for more honest revelation of a Trump vote.

People's embarrassment, shame and fear about showing support for Trump, especially if driven by misogyny, racism or xenophobia, made them lie in the polls and distorted the data

One less easily imagines someone judging them for violating the social norm.

To further test this logic, I asked my undergraduate class the day after the election whether they knew people who had voted for Trump but pretended they had not. There was a large show of hands.

Here at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, the undergraduates are mostly white, and of course, college-going (a group that was mispredicted). My students said they knew of classmates and housemates who had not only voted for Trump, but had even pretended to have voted for Clinton, the popular candidate in their social circle.

Some Trump voters had watched the election returns with friends and cheered along with the others whenever Clinton appeared to be doing well.

Somehow news had spread about individuals who'd voted for Trump (or students could guess by the Trump supporters' somewhat awkward behavior).

Obviously untruthful responses in polls skew the data, leading to inaccurate predictions.

The numbers the pollsters obtained for some undecided voters and some committed Clinton voters appears to have been false data  accepted as correct, but in actually not.

People's embarrassment, shame and fear about showing support for Trump, especially if driven by misogyny, racism or xenophobia, made them lie in the polls and distorted the data.
During the frigid winter months in the Northern Hemisphere, sea ice in the Arctic typically grows thicker and stronger.

But in December 2015, a massive cyclone ripped through the area, bringing enough heat and humidity to thin the ice cover and completely melt it out in some areas.

According to a new NASA study, the cyclone that formed in the middle of the night on Dec 28 caused mean air temperatures in the Kara and Barents seas region to skyrocket to 18F warmer than the averages for the previous 12 years.

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In December 2015, a massive cyclone ripped through the Arctic, bringing enough heat and humidity to dramatically thin the ice cover. The researchers say the area remained warmer than average through January, preventing the ice from recovering

The cyclone originated in the middle of the North Atlantic before making its way to the United Kingdom and Iceland, and eventually, the Arctic on Dec 30, according to NASA.

Sea ice thinned by nearly 4 inches on average, as the energy was equivalent to the power used by half a million American homes in a year was transferred from the atmosphere to the surface of the sea ice in the Kara-Barents region.

And, extreme winds from the storm caused the ice pack to compact as they pushed the edges of the sea ice further north.

During the cyclone, the sea ice retreated northward, causing a loss in coverage equalling the area of the state of Florida, said Linette Boisvert, lead author of the study and a sea ice scientist at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center.

Measured against other extreme winter events that have happened in the Kara-Barents sea region over the AIRS period, this one was the warmest, Boisvert said.

The cyclone originated in the middle of the North Atlantic before making its way to the United Kingdom and Iceland, and eventually, the Arctic on Dec 30, according to NASA . Sea ice thinned by nearly 4 inches on average

WHAT MELTING ICE MEANS FOR POLAR BEARS Nineteen separate polar bear populations live throughout the Arctic, spending their winters and springs roaming on sea ice and hunting. The bears have evolved mainly to eat seals, which provide necessary fats and nutrients in the harsh Arctic environment. Polar bears can't outswim their prey, so instead they perch on the ice as a platform and ambush seals at breathing holes or break through the ice to access their dens. 'Sea ice really is their platform for life,' Doctor Kristin Laidre, co-author of a recent study on the phenomenon. 'They are capable of existing on land for part of the year, but the sea ice is where they obtain their main prey.' Advertisement

The AIRS time period also coincides with the warmest decade on record, so this storm being the hottest is a big deal.

The researchers used data from NASAs Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on the Aqua satellite to study the atmospheric effects of the storm.

They tracked the evolution of air temperature and humidity, and compared this to other extreme winter events since 2003, when AIRS began to collect data.

The team also analyzed wind speeds, satellite passive microwave data of Arctic sea ice concentration, and sea ice thickness.

While Arctic winters usually experience a heat transfer from the ocean to the atmosphere, due to the temperature difference between the warmer, exposed ocean waters and the cold icy surface, the cyclone inverted this pattern.

Instead, the heat travelled from the atmosphere to the surface of the ice.

Arctic sea ice was at its lowest monthly extents in the satellite record during this past January, February, and March largely driven by the reduced ice in the Kara and Barents seas

The researchers say the area remained warmer than average through January, and scientists suspect the cyclone prevented the ice from recovering.

Arctic sea ice was at its lowest monthly extents in the satellite record during this past January, February, and March largely driven by the reduced ice in the Kara and Barents seas.

And, its expected that the thinning effect will continue over the next few decades, putting sea ice cover at greater risk during winter storms.

In our study, we found that the thinnest ice was completely melted out by the storm, said Alek Petty, a co-author of the study and a sea ice researcher at Goddard.

Maybe in the coming years, if we start with a thinner winter ice pack well see extreme events like these cause even bigger melt-outs across the Arctic.
Humans will not survive another 1,000 years on 'fragile' Earth, according to Professor Stephen Hawking.

The renowned theoretical physicist believes that life on Earth is at an ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as a sudden nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus, or the rising threat of artificial intelligence.

He urged people to take more interest in space travel, and said that we must continue to go into space for the future of humanity.

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Humans will not survive another 1,000 years on 'fragile' Earth, according to Professor Stephen Hawking. The renowned theoretical physicist believes that life on Earth is at an ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as the increasing threat of artificial intelligence

STEPHEN HAWKING'S VIEWS ON SPACE TRAVEL In a new book, 'How to Make a Spaceship', the physicist has warned our planet is becoming a dangerous place because of the threat of war or disease. The book, written by journalist Julian Guthrie, contains an afterword by the physicist. In an extract published in The Guardian, Professor Hawking describes his views on the future of space travel. 'I believe that life on Earth is at an ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as a sudden nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus, or other dangers,' he said. 'I think the human race has no future if it doesn't go to space.' Advertisement

Professor Hawking received a standing ovation after he urged a packed audience of scholars at Oxford University Union to take an interest in space travel.

At the talk, Professor Hawking gave a one-hour whirlwind history of man's understanding of the origin of the universe from primordial creation myths to the most cutting edge predictions made by 'M-theory'.

He said: 'Perhaps one day we will be able to use gravitational waves to look back into the heart of the Big Bang.

'Most recent advances in cosmology have been achieved from space where there are uninterrupted views of our Universe but we must also continue to go into space for the future of humanity.

'I don't think we will survive another 1,000 years without escaping our fragile planet.'

Hawking, who has said he wanted to go into space on Virgin boss Richard Branson's Ride Virgin Atlantic spaceship, continued: 'I therefore want to encourage public interest in space, and I have been getting my training in early.'

Professor Hawking added: 'It has been a glorious time to be alive and doing research in theoretical physics.

'Our picture of the universe has changed a great deal in the last 50 years and I am happy if I have made a small contribution.

'The fact that we humans who are ourselves mere collections of fundamental particles of nature have been able to come so close to understanding the laws that are governing us and our universe is a great achievement.'

Professor Hawking said: 'I don't think we will survive another 1,000 years without escaping our fragile planet'

Professor Hawking has previously described his views on the future of space travel, in the afterword of the book, 'How to Make a Spaceship.'

He said: 'I believe that life on Earth is at an ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as a sudden nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus, or other dangers,' he said.

'I think the human race has no future if it doesn't go to space.'

Making a poignant plea to his young audience of students from the University of Oxford, where he himself did his undergraduate degree, he said: 'Remember to look up to the stars and not down at your feet.

'Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist.

'Be curious and however life may seem there's always something you can do and succeed at - it matters that you don't just give up.'

He explained in his talk, titled 'The Origin of the Universe', how he was currently working to prove how the origin of the universe did obey the laws of physics as was understood what modern physicists called M-theory.

Professor Hawking explained in his talk, titled 'The Origin of the Universe', how he was currently working to prove how the origin of the universe did obey the laws of physics as was understood what modern physicists called M-theory (stock image)

The conglomerate of theories incorporated Einstein's General Relativity which combined space and time to allowed him to predict the existence of a black hole - an area of space where gravity is so strong not even light can escape it - and Quantum Theory, which predicted the physics of subatomic particles that were being tested in the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva.

'It is the only unified theories that has all the properties that we think the final theory ought to have,' said the professor.

Hawking said he and fellow scientist James Hartle believed that the Big Bang and start of time could be thought of as the South Pole on the globe, where latitudinal lines were akin to an expanding universe, but with every point, including the South Pole, obeying the same laws of nature.
The mysterious white carcasses that washed up off the Western coast of Scotland may have belonged to dead whales rather than polar bears.

Three sets of badly decomposed remains were spotted by locals on the island of Colonsay in the Inner Hebrides.

Many believed the remains, which washed ashore in August, could be those of a family of polar bears which drowned at sea.

But a marine expert has countered the claims, offering a more likely explanation for the strange amorphous lumps of blubber and 'fur'  they are probably whales.

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Locals on the island of Colonsay in the Inner Hebrides have been trying to identify three sets of badly decomposed remains which washed ashore in August (pictured). While the ilsland's residents claim they are polar bears a marine expert has countered they are likely whales

The giant corpses were found at different points on the west coast of the island during the summer, but were too rotten to examine.

A closer inspection recently led some to be convinced the mystery remains were actually a family of polar bears which may have become stranded on an ice floe before drowning and washing ashore.

But Nick Davison, strandings co-ordinator of the government-funded Scottish Marine Animal Strandings Scheme, said they were in fact either a whale or dolphin.

'They are not polar bears. They are the remains of another species - cetaceans. Most likely a minke or pilot whale, given the size,' he said.

Marine experts explained that rotting whale carcasses can become a mass of blubber and strands form that look like fur, called 'blobsters'. Pictured is one of the sets of remains found on Colonsay

In a post on a Facebook page, Friends of Colonsay said they assume a small family of bears was likely marooned on an ice floe which melted, causing them to drown

'They are known as 'blobsters'. It is when the decomposing animal becomes a mass of blubber and strands form that look like fur.

'There are no legs and no skin - which is black in polar bears - and the head shape is wrong.

'We hope to receive good pictures of the bones to send to the National Museums of Scotland for positive identification of what cetacean they are.'

People were unable to confidently identify the bodies at the time, as they were covered in debris and smelled so bad that nobody wanted to approach them.

The Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme collates all data from stranded marine animals around Scotland. One of the scheme's coordinators, Nick Davison, believes the remains on Colonsay are cetaceans, either a minke whale (picture left) or pilot whale (pictured right)

After a number of months on the shoreline, exposure to the elements has cleaned the carcasses, revealing a white 'pelt' covering them

THE CASE FOR WHALES The Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme collates all data from stranded marine animals around Scotland. One of the scheme's coordinators, Nick Davison, believes the remains on Colonsay are cetaceans, either a minke or pilot whale. Minke whales are relatively common around Scotlands coastline. The animals can grow up to nine metres long and reach 10 tonnes. Long-finned pilot whales are much rarer in Scottish waters, visiting the area in the summer months. These animals are smaller than minkes, reaching just over six metres in length. Pods of pilot whales have been seen off the coast, with numbers of the mammals stranding themselves on the East coast of Scotland, in 2012. Residents on the island said the amorphous rotting blobs were made of blubber, fur and some even reporting hooves. Mr Davison explained whale carcasses can become a mass of blubber and strands form that look like fur, called 'blobsters'. Advertisement

After being left for three months the debris has blown away to reveal the animals have white pelts, and locals are convinced they must be polar bears.

They believe the arrival of the dead creatures on the beach  1,400 miles (2,200 km) from the nearest habitat of the bears  could be a symptom of global warming.

Instances of polar bears drifting from their national habitat on ice floes have been recorded in the past few years as sea ice is breaking up earlier each spring and freezing later each autumn due to global temperatures rising.

After being left on the shores for three months the debris has blown away to reveal the corpses have white pelts (pictured), convincing locals they must be polar bears

POLAR BEARS: A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY? It is unclear whether the remains which washed up in Scotland are those of polar bears. But this is not the first time a polar bear corpse has been reported on the UK's shores. In 2010 a morning TV presenter was left red faced after announcing a polar bear had washed up on a beach in Cornwall. The carcass turned out to be that of a cow which had been bleached by sea water. Scotland's isles have also been the target of polar bear pranksters, with magazine Country Life publishing an April Fool's Day spoof claiming a live polar bear had washed up on the Isle of Mull. Advertisement

Colonsay Islander Kevin Byrne, one of the first people to see the carcasses when they arrived in August, explained that islanders were initially unable to identify them.

He said: 'The bodies came ashore two or three months ago, and we were puzzled immensely.

'They were big lumps that seemed to have hair and limbs, but they were very, very smelly.

'Some people thought they were deep sea creatures and others 'imagined' they had hooves.

'They were dragged up away from the beach, and we thought, when they rotted down we'd get a look at the skeleton. Then, recently, a man called Colin Flower suddenly realised what they were. They are polar bears.'

The 69-year-old added: 'If the icecap is melting, the Arctic will become an open ocean so there will be a change in currents.

'If it melts, one might imagine that water from that open area will flow south, towards the equator, to feed convection and condensation/evaporation.

'That water would be replaced by a converse flow - like the Bosphorus.

Islanders said the remains were big lumps that seemed to have hair and limbs, with a terrible smell

When the remains first washed ashore some thought they were deep sea creatures, while others 'imagined' they had hooves

'If the water flowing south were to be on the surface, it would be the exact opposite of the existing arrangement, and would explain the bears.'

Colin Flower, a 70-year-old working at the farm where one of the 'bears' is now being kept, said that he came to conclude that the animals were polar bears after examining them over the weekend.

Mr Flower said: 'Initially, these were grey blobs, they didn't look like anything. Even a vet who had a look couldn't come to a conclusion.

'Now, this grey coating covering them has blown away, or at least that's my theory, and a white pelt is now visible.

'They are three metres long and you can also make out a head and eye socket now.

'I can't see what else it could be? There's no other sea creature that has that fur.'

The remains washed up on the island of Colonsay (labelled) in the Inner Hebrides in August this year

The mysterious remains have no bear-like shape and locals have reported hair, blubber and even hooves

THE PLIGHT OF THE POLAR BEAR Polar bears are under threat from diminishing ice across their Arctic habitat. As average global temperatures increase, the summer months have seen more areas becoming ice free with bears stranded on ice floes without food. As the ice sheets break apart, bears are having to swim further to reach their prey. This has led to increasing reports of the animals coming into closer contact with humans and even struggling with malnourished bears struggling with the increasing distances. Rod Downie, polar programme manager for wildlife charity WWF, told MailOnline: 'With the rapid rate of climate change and the loss of sea ice that we are witnessing in the Arctic, polar bears are at a crossroads. They face an uncertain future.' 'However, coming ashore on the coast of Scotland, despite being the Arctic's closest neighbour, is a highly unlikely scenario.' Advertisement

The discovery was shared with local people on Saturday via the Friends of Colonsay Facebook page.

The admin for the page shared an image of the polar bear, and wrote: 'Many Friends will remember the four mystery remains that came ashore here.

'They seemed to be covered in hair, had hooves, smelt of blubber. They were examined by doctors and veterinarians, a rumour started that they were horses.'

The admin explained that a local farmer 'hauled one carcass clear of the sea at Port Easdail and it has now begun to reveal its structure.

'Colin Flower has had a close look, it is a polar bear! We must assume that a small family was marooned upon an ice floe which melted, causing them to drown.'

In 2010, British magazine Country Life published a spoof article on April Fool's Day, claiming that a live polar bear had somehow washed up on the Isle of Mull.

Experts have been unable to confirm if the remains are those of a bear or not, but some believe they are likely cetaceans. Bones samples would need to be sent to National Museums Scotland to confirm
Some people consider baby talk to be incredibly annoying, and many believe it can even be harmful to a child's development.

But research has shown speaking slowly in a childish voice is in fact beneficial to children's development.

Scientists claim it kick-starts their learning of language.

Now Dr Catherine Laing, a researcher in psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, explains how baby talk helps children start to learn language, in an article for The Conversation.

Babies first start learning language by listening not to individual words, but to the rhythm and intonation of the speech stream  that is, the changes between high and low pitch, and the rhythm and loudness of syllables in speech (stock image)

IS BABY TALK GOOD? Research has shown that babies prefer to listen to this exaggerated 'baby talk' type of speech than typical adult-like speech: They pay more attention when a parent's speech has a higher pitch and a wider pitch range compared to adult-like speech with less exaggerated pitch features. For example, a mother might say the word 'baby' in an exaggerated 'singsong' voice, which holds an infant's attention longer than it would in a monotonal adult-style voice. Words produced in this way also stand out more from the speech stream, making it easier for babies to pick out smaller chunks of language. Across the vast stream of language that babies hear around them every day, these distinctive pitch features in baby talk help babies to 'tune in' to a small part of the input, making language processing a more manageable task. Advertisement

Babies first start learning language by listening not to individual words, but to the rhythm and intonation of the speech stream  that is, the changes between high and low pitch, and the rhythm and loudness of syllables in speech.

Parents often exaggerate these features of the language when talking with their infants, and this is important for early language learning.

Nevertheless, some may feel that using this exaggerated speech style is condescending, or unrealistic in comparison to adult speech, and as such does not set babies off to a good start.

Is 'baby talk' really good for babies?

HOW BABIES LEARN

Even before a baby is born, the process of learning language has already begun.

In the third trimester of pregnancy, when the infant's ears are sufficiently developed, the intonation patterns of the mother's speech are transmitted through the fluids in the womb.

This is thought to be like listening to someone talking in a swimming pool: It's difficult to make out the individual sounds, but the rhythm and intonation are clear. This has an important effect on language learning.

By the time an infant is born, she already has a preference for her mother's language. At this stage the infant is able to identify language through its intonation patterns.

For example, French and Russian speakers place emphasis on different parts of a word or sentence, so the rhythm of these two languages sounds different.

Even at four days old, babies can use this information to distinguish their own language from an unfamiliar other language.

This means that the newly born infant is ready to start learning the language that surrounds her; she already has an interest in her mother's language, and as her attention is drawn to this language she begins to learn more about the features and patterns within it.

Baby talk tends to be spoken at a slower rate, and key words often appear at the end of a phrase. For example, the sentence, 'Can you see the doggie?' is preferable to 'The doggie is eating a bone' (stock image)

HOW INFANTS PROCESS SPEECH Baby talk tends to be spoken at a slower rate, and key words often appear at the end of a phrase. For example, the sentence, 'Can you see the doggie?' is preferable to 'The doggie is eating a bone': Babies will learn the word 'doggie' more easily when it appears at the end of the phrase. For the same reasons, words produced in isolation  separated from the rest of the phrase by pauses  are also easier for infants to learn. The first words that infants produce are often those heard most frequently in isolation in early development. Babies hear isolated words such as 'bye bye' and 'mummy' very frequently, and these are often some of the earliest words that they learn to produce. When a word is produced separately from running speech, the infant does not have to segment it from a stream of sounds, and so it is easier to determine where the word begins and where it ends. Advertisement

USING A SINGSONG VOICE

Intonation is also very important to infants' language development in the first months of life.

Adults tend to speak to babies using a special type of register that we know as 'baby talk' or 'motherese.'

This typically involves a higher pitch than regular speech, with wide, exaggerated intonation changes.

Research has shown that babies prefer to listen to this exaggerated 'baby talk' type of speech than typical adult-like speech: They pay more attention when a parent's speech has a higher pitch and a wider pitch range compared to adult-like speech with less exaggerated pitch features.

For example, a mother might say the word 'baby' in an exaggerated 'singsong' voice, which holds an infant's attention longer than it would in a monotonal adult-style voice.

Words produced in this way also stand out more from the speech stream, making it easier for babies to pick out smaller chunks of language.

Across the vast stream of language that babies hear around them every day, these distinctive pitch features in baby talk help babies to 'tune in' to a small part of the input, making language processing a more manageable task.

Even before a baby is born, the process of learning language has already begun. In the third trimester of pregnancy, when the infant's ears are sufficiently developed, the intonation patterns of the mother's speech are transmitted through the fluids in the womb (stock image)

HOW INFANTS PROCESS SPEECH

Baby talk tends to be spoken at a slower rate, and key words often appear at the end of a phrase.

For example, the sentence, 'Can you see the doggie?' is preferable to 'The doggie is eating a bone': Babies will learn the word 'doggie' more easily when it appears at the end of the phrase.

For the same reasons, words produced in isolation  separated from the rest of the phrase by pauses  are also easier for infants to learn.

The first words that infants produce are often those heard most frequently in isolation in early development.

HOW 'BABY TALK' HELPS INFANTS Baby talk is not just a way of engaging with infant on a social level  it has important implications for language learning from the very first moments of a newborn's life. Features of baby talk present infants with information about their ambient language, and allow them to break up the speech stream into smaller chunks. While baby talk is not essential to guiding infants' language learning, the use of pitch modulations, repetition and slower speech all allow infants to process the patterns in their language more easily. Speaking in such an exaggerated style might not seem conducive to language learning in the longer term, but ample research shows that this speech style actually provides an optimum input for language learning from the very first days of an infant's life. Advertisement

Babies hear isolated words such as 'bye bye' and 'mummy' very frequently, and these are often some of the earliest words that they learn to produce.

When a word is produced separately from running speech, the infant does not have to segment it from a stream of sounds, and so it is easier to determine where the word begins and where it ends.

Furthermore, infants have been found to recognize words more easily when they are produced more slowly than in typical adult speech.

This is because when speech is slower, it is easier for infants to pick out the individual words and sounds, which may be produced more clearly than in faster speech.

In addition, infants process language much more slowly than adults, and so it is believed that slower speech gives infants more time to process what they hear.

HOW REDUPLICATION HELPS

Word repetition is also beneficial in infants' early word learning. Infants' first words tend to be those which are produced most frequently in caregiver speech, such as 'mummy,' 'bottle' and 'baby.'

The more often an infant hears a word, the easier it is to segment it from the speech stream.

The infant develops a stronger mental representation of frequent words. Eventually she will be more likely to produce frequently heard words with fewer errors.

Furthermore, reduplicated words  that is, words which contain repetition, such as 'woof woof' or 'quack quack'  are typical of baby talk, and are known to have an advantage for early word learning.

Even newborn infants show stronger brain activation when they hear words that contain reduplication.

This suggests that there may be a strong advantage for these words in human language processing.
Tinder crashed last night for five hours leaving millions dateless.

Users across the UK, Europe and parts of the US reported issues, including messages not sending, matches being deleted and problems logging in.

It is the second time in weeks the dating app has gone down.

While it is unclear what caused the problems with the dating app, many people reacted hilariously across social media.

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Users across the UK, Europe and parts of the US reported issues, including messages not sending, matches being deleted and problems logging in. whitofsoph tweeted: '2016 did it again! All my matches on tinder got deleted'

THIS ISN'T THE FIRST TIME This is not the first time Tinder has suffered problems this year. In September, the app crashed causing issues for many of its users. Issues included messages not sending, matches being deleted and problems logging in. Tinder did not comment on what had caused the problem. The app also appears to have regular technical difficulties, with several reports of deleted matches, and problems sending messages. Advertisement

According to website service checker, Down Detector, the problems occurred from around 7pm-1am GMT (2pm-8pm EST) last night.

It is unclear what caused the outage, and Tinder is yet to comment, or reply to tweets on the issue.

This is not the first time Tinder has suffered problems this year.

In September, the app crashed causing issues for many of its users, but again, Tinder did not comment on what had caused the problem.

The app also appears to have regular technical difficulties, with several reports of deleted matches, and problems sending messages.

Social media was flooded with complaints and jokes about the outage.

According to website service checker, Down Detector , the problems occurred from around 7pm-1am GMT (2pm-8pm EST) last night

Gavin Lynn joked 'My tinder is not working, this is seriously getting in the way of my search for a future bride'

WHY PEOPLE SWIPE LEFT People tend to swipe left more frequently if you are: - Not smiling - Covering your face, even a little - In a group of people - Wearing a hat - Wearing any kind of glasses Source: Tinder sociologist Dr. Jess Carbino Advertisement

User whitofsoph tweeted: '2016 did it again! All my matches on tinder got deleted. Keep me and my boys in your prayers, I'm sure many hearts were broken tonight.'

Gavin Lynn tweeted: 'My tinder is not working, this is seriously getting in the way of my search for a future bride.'

Others compared the outage to current events this year, with Tory Vettori tweeting: 'Earthquakes, flooding and Tinder is broken. Oh universe, will you ever stop punishing our country?!'

Tinder first launched in 2012 and has quickly become one of the world's most popular dating platforms.

Others compared the outage to current events this year, with Tory Vettori tweeting: 'Earthquakes, flooding and Tinder is broken. Oh universe, will you ever stop punishing our country?!'

Chase James tweeted: 'First Donald Trump wins the election and now Tinder deletes all of my matches? What is this? What did we do to deserve this?'

Social media was flooded with complaints and jokes about the outage, as users were unable to log in, access their messages and had their matches deleted (stock image)

It currently has around seven million monthly users, with an average age of 26.

The app regularly introduces new updates to its users, including 'Smart Photos', which were released in October.

So @tinder went down and is back but deleted everyone's matches and I was <> THIS CLOSE TO A DATE THIS WEEK. #tinderdown pic.twitter.com/NZE8ajUi2d  Maddie (@maddie_err) November 15, 2016

The feature lends a helping hand by automatically reordering users' photos to display their best profile pictures first.
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Serbian tourism authorities revealed that they plan to begin waiving visa requirements for Chinese visitors to the country starting from 2017, according to a report by China Central Television.

A Serbian tourism official reportedly made the comment at the China International Travel Mart in Shanghai on Sunday.

The development has come after Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's meeting with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic earlier this month.

The two leaders signed a visa-free travel deal during the meeting.

It will make Serbia the first country in Central and Eastern Europe to waive visa requirements for Chinese visitors.

For four years in a row, China has had the largest number of outbound tourists in the world, announced Li Jinzao, the head of China's National Tourism Administration, at the China International Travel Mart in Shanghai.

Latest figures show China's outbound tourists totaled 194 million in the first three quarters this year, up 11% from the same period last year.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, Chinese outbound consumption reached 1.5 trillion yuan ($226.15 billion) in 2015, of which about half was spent on shopping.

The country's tourism sector also generated more than a quarter of the jobs in the world's tourism industry in 2015, according to China Tourism Academy.

Insiders point out easing travel restrictions, good services and attractive prices remain the key drivers underpinning the Chinese outbound tourism growth story.

Visa-free policy is also offering more convenience. On Friday, a new 10-year visa policy has taken effect between China and Israel, allowing Chinese citizens to travel to Israel on multiple occasions for 90-days at a time.
From Oculus Rift to Samsung VR Gear, the range of virtual reality headsets is constantly growing.

But doctors are concerned about the effects of using the headsets on children.

They say that more research needs to be done to test whether these headsets can will change the way young brains process information.

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Doctors are expressing concern over the effects of using the headsets on children. They say that more research needs to be done to test whether exposure to artificial visual stimuli will alter the way the brain processes information (stock image)

HOW DOES VR WORK? VR headsets use either two feeds sent to one display or two LCD displays - one per eye. There are also lenses which are placed between your eyes and the pixels. These lenses focus and reshape the picture for each eye and create a 3D image by angling the two 2D images to mimic how each of our two eyes views the world ever-so-slightly differently. This tricks the eyes and the brain into seeing depth. One important way VR headsets can increase immersion is to increase the field of view. Most high-end headsets have around 100 or 110 degree field of view which is wide enough to do the trick. And for the resulting picture to be at all convincing, a minimum frame rate of around 60 frames per second is needed to avoid stuttering or users feeling sick. Source: Wareable Advertisement

The aim of VR headsets is to immerse users in a game or app, making the experience so real that they forget they have the headgear on at all.

Much of the VR market is focused on video gaming, which is filled with young gamers.

An estimated 26 per cent of all gamers are under 18 - and focus, tracking, and depth perception is still developing into middle childhood.

But while it might not be widely publicised, many of the top selling headsets come with an age limit.

Oculus Rift and Samsung VR Gear say that their devices are only for those over age 13, while the PlayStation VR device is recommended for those over age 12.

Speaking to CBS Boston, Dr Joseph Rizzo, a doctor at Massachusetts Ear and Eye Centre, said: 'This is a big area of both interest and some concern.

'There's a legitimate question about whether that much exposure to artificial visual stimuli will alter the way the brain accepts and processes visual information.

'It's an unknown.'

Virtual reality headsets use lenses to trick the eyes and the brain into seeing depth, even when an image is up close to your face.

Dr Rizzo said: 'The immediate concerns are with the younger users because they will be prone to use them for much longer periods of time.

Oculus Rift and Samsung VR Gear say that their devices are only for those over age 13, while the PlayStation VR device (pictured) is recommended for those over age 12

'You need to understand whether the brain is changing in some permanent way.'

This could also put children at risk for developing early myopia (short-sightedness), or nearsightedness, and digital eye strain.
A Chinese manufacturer has installed 'backdoor' software on 700 million Android phones that shares data without users knowing.

The software forces the phones to send all the device's text messages to a server in China every 72 hours.

A lawyer representing the company that created the firmware said it was designed for a Chinese client and never intended for use on phones elsewhere.

A Chinese manufacturer has installed 'backdoor' software on 700 million Android phones that shares data without users knowing, according to security firm Kryptowire. The software forces phones to send all the device's text messages to a server in China every 72 hours. Stock image

WHAT THE FEATURE DOES The feature was discovered by Virginia-based security firm Kryptowire. The software forces the affected phones to send all the device's text messages to a server in China every 72 hours, the analysts said. The core of the monitoring activities took place using a commercial Firmware Over The Air (FOTA) update software system that was shipped with the affected Android devices. The devices actively transmitted user and device information including 'the full-body of text messages, contact lists, call history with full telephone numbers' and identifiers, Kryptowire said. Advertisement

But one Miami-based phone manufacturer, BLU Products, said 120,000 of its phones had been affected and it has updated the software to eliminate the feature.

The feature was first discovered by Virginia-based security firm Kryptowire.

'Kryptowire has identified several models of Android mobile devices that contained firmware that collected sensitive personal data about their users and transmitted this sensitive data to third-party servers without disclosure or the users' consent,' a statement issued today said.

'These devices were available through major US-based online retailers (Amazon, BestBuy, for example) and included popular smartphones such as the BLU R1 HD.'

The devices actively transmitted user and device information including 'the full-body of text messages, contact lists, call history with full telephone numbers' and identifiers, the company said.

Shanghai Adups Technology Company, a Chinese company, designed the software to help a Chinese phone manufacturer monitor user behaviour.

Adups claims to have a worldwide presence with a market share exceeding 70 per cent across over 150 countries and regions with offices in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing, Tokyo, New Delhi, and Miami.

Its software runs on more than 700 million mostly low-end devices, cars and other smart products worldwide.

The same version of the software was not meant for use on American phones, according to Matt Apuzzo at the New York Times, who first reported the discovery.

International customers and people who use disposable or prepaid phones are most affected by the software, the report says.

Kryptowire first discovered the software because one of its researchers bought the BLU R1 HD, for a trip overseas, when he noticed unusual network activity.

After analysts studied the phone for a week they saw it transmitting text messages to a server in Shanghai.

Kryptowire first discovered the software because one of its researchers bought the BLU R1 HD (pictured), for a trip overseas, when he noticed unusual network activity. After analysts studied the phone for a week they saw it transmitting text messages to a server in Shanghai

THE MIRAI CODE Last month, web security analysts warned of a flood of online attacks from hackers after code for a bot used to carry out a huge hack was published online. The code, which can turn unsecured devices such as web cameras, routers, phones and other hackable internet-connected devices into bots, could be used to target websites, knocking them offline. Security expert Brian Krebs, highlighted the publication of the code and warned of the potential for a huge hike in attacks by internet of things Advertisement

But the software is difficult to detect.

'Even if you wanted to, you wouldn't have known about it,' Tom Karygiannis, a vice president of Kryptowire, told the New York Times.

'This isn't a vulnerability, it's a feature,' he told The Verge.

MailOnline has approached Adups and BLU for comment.

Samuel Ohev-Zion, the chief executive of the Florida-based BLU Products, told the New York Times: 'It was obviously something that we were not aware of.

'We moved very quickly to correct it.'

He added Adups had assured him all of the information taken from BLU customers had been destroyed.

Lily Lim, a lawyer representing Adups, said the software was intended to help an unidentified Chinese client identify junk text messages and calls.

She did not know how many phones were affected.

Last month, a major cyber attack took down a wide range of major websites including Twitter, Spotify and Reddit. The outage was thought to be largely the result of hijacked smart home devices

Earlier this month, China passed a controversial cybersecurity bill, tightening restrictions on online freedom of speech.

The bill also imposes new rules on online service providers, raising concerns it is further cloistering its heavily controlled internet.

The legislation, passed by China's largely rubber-stamp parliament and set to take effect in June 2017, is an 'objective need' of China as a major internet power, a parliament official said.

Chinese authorities have long reserved the right to control and censor online content.

The country stepped up controls in 2013, launching a wide-ranging internet crackdown.

Under regulations announced at the time, Chinese internet users face three years in prison for writing defamatory messages that are re-posted 500 times or more.

They can also be jailed if offending posts are viewed more than 5,000 times.
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A sub-scale prototype of a futuristic supersonic passenger airliner has been revealed for the first time, ahead of its official unveiling tonight.

Created by aerospace company Boom and backed by Virgin tycoon Richard Branson, the 'Baby Boom' jet could usher in a new era of affordable supersonic travel.

Claimed to be the 'world's fastest civil aircraft ever made', the XB-1 Supersonic Demonstrator is due to take off on its first test flight in late 2017 and could take passengers from London to New York in 3.5 hours, its maker claims.

Claimed to be the 'world's fastest civil aircraft ever made', the XB-1 Supersonic Demonstrator is due to take off on its first test flight in late 2017 and could take passengers from London to New York in 3.5 hours. The prototype is pictured ahead of its official unveiling later today

XB-1 SUPERSONIC DEMONSTRATOR SPECS - Crew: Two (pilot + optional flight test engineer or passenger) - Length: 68' - Wingspan: 17' - Maximum Takeoff Weight: 13,500 lb - Powerplant: 3X General Electric J85-21, non-afterburning; proprietary variable-geometry intake and exhaust - Aerodynamics: Chine, refined delta wing with swept trailing edge - Cruise: Mach 2.2 (1,451mph, 2,335 km/h) - Nose Temperature: 307F (345F on ISA+20 day) Range: > 1,000nmi Advertisement

The subsonic flight test will be conducted near Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California in partnership with Virgin Galactic's The Spaceship Company.

The prototype was unveiled today at Centennial Airport in Denver.

The XB-1 is a technically representative -scale version of the future Boom Airliner.

'I have long been passionate about aerospace innovation and the development of high-speed commercial flights,' said Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group.

'As an innovator in the space, Virgin Galactic's decision to work with Boom was an easy one.'

The airline tycoon has confirmed that Virgin has options to buy 10 of the recently revealed supersonic Boom jets, which will be capable of flying at 1,451mph - about 100mph faster than Concorde - and reaching New York from London in three and a half hours.

'Sixty years after the dawn of the jet age, we're still flying at 1960s speeds,' said Blake Scholl, a former Amazon executive and CEO and founder of Boom.

'Concorde's designers didn't have the technology for affordable supersonic travel, but now we do.

'Today, we're proud to unveil our first aircraft as we look forward to first flight late next year.'

The XB-1 Supersonic Demonstrator is due to take off on its first test flight in late 2017 and could take passengers from London to New York in 3.5 hours. The jet is designed to carry two crew members.

The subscale XB-1 'Baby Boom' jet (pictured top) is set to pave the way for the larger Boom Passenger Airliner (pictured bottom)

BOOM PASSENGER AIRLINER SPECS - Crew: Two - Length: 170', Wingspan: 60' - Passengers: 45 standard (up to 55 in high density) - Flight attendants: Up to 4 - Lavatories: 2 - Powerplane: 3X non-afterburning medium bypass turbofan; proprietary variable geometry intake and exhaust - Aerodynamics: Chine, refined delta wing with swept trailing edge Long Range - Cruise: Mach 2.2 (1,451mph, 2,335 km/h) - Nose Temperature: 307F (345F on ISA+20 day) Maximum Design Route: 9,000nm (4,500nm unrefueled) Advertisement

The XB-1 Supersonic Demonstrator features engines developed by General Electric, avionics from Honeywell and a carbon fibre shell from Tencate, with composite structures fabricated by Blue Force.

The Boom jet was created by top aviation experts with collection experience working at NASA, SpaceX and Boeing.

Learning from the Concorde, they combined advanced aerodynamics, efficient engine technology and new composite materials to produce a 'safe and affordable' supersonic aircraft 2.6 times faster than current jetliners.

The prototype has been subjected to more than 1,000 simulated wind tunnel tests and features a tapered carbon fiber fuselage, and efficient turbofan jet engines.

Unlike Concorde, the Boom design requires no afterburner, which should significantly improve fuel efficiency.

In March, Virgin told MailOnline Travel: 'Richard has long expressed interest in developing high speed flight and building high-speed flight R&D through Virgin Galactic and our manufacturing organization, The Spaceship Company.

'We can confirm that The Spaceship Company will provide engineering, design and manufacturing services, flight tests and operations and that we have an option on the first 10 airframes. It is still early days and just the start of what you'll hear about our shared ambitions and efforts.'

Scholl said: 'We're thrilled to be working with Virgin. It's hard to imagine a better partner for bringing supersonics to market.'

When created Boom will have 45 seats - with a ticket costing $5,000 (4,020).

Speaking to Bloomberg earlier this year, Scholl, 35, said: 'The idea is for a plane that goes faster than any other passenger plane built before, but for the same price as business class.'

According to the simulations, Boom's design is quieter and 30 percent more efficient than the Concorde.

It will be split into two single-seat rows, so everybody has a window and an aisle.

To reduce weight, the seats are of the standard domestic first-class variety, so no lay-down beds.

To cut flight time, Boom's plane will cruise at 60,000 feet, where passengers will be able to see the curvature of the earth, while going 2.6 times faster than other passenger planes.

Scholl said about 500 routes fit the craft's market, including a five-hour trip from San Francisco to Tokyo and a six-hour flight from Los Angeles to Sydney.

The firm hopes London to New York could be one of its most popular routes, with a 3.6 hour saving on a normal flight

A concept image shows what the interior of the Boom passenger jet could look like. Test flights of the first subscale prototypes begin in late 2017

A concept drawing shows what the interior of the futuristic passenger jet could look like - all passengers would have a seat that sits both on the window and the aisle

Created by aerospace company Boom, the jet nicknamed 'Baby Boom' could pave the way for the larger Boom passenger jet (pictured) and usher in a new era of affordable supersonic travel

A mockup of the craft at Heathrow - its founders hope it will use existing airports once tests are complete

'Boom was founded on the philosophy that we need to overcome the challenges to supersonic passenger flight, not surrender to them,' the firm says.

The firm hopes London to New York could be one of its most popular routes, with a 3.6 hour saving on a normal flight.

The firm even has record breaking US Astronaut Scott Kelly as an advisor.

It added: 'We're making a supersonic aircraft affordable for business travel. Our ultimate goal is routine supersonic flight for everyone.'

Scholl said about 500 routes fit the craft's market, including a five-hour trip from San Francisco to Tokyo and a six-hour flight from Los Angeles to Sydney

The first test flights will occur at Centennial Airport in Denver, with supersonic testing near Edwards Air Force Base in California

'Today, international travel means jet-lag and days of lost productivity and family time. But imagine leaving New York in the morning, making afternoon meetings in London, and being home to tuck your kids into bed.

'Unlike Concorde, flying Boom is affordable - the same price as business class,' said Boom.




This suggests the birds were able to anticipate how tools would be used

They were able to construct appropriate sized tools to reach the cashew

Parrots have proved they are clever as well as pretty after using their creative bird-brains to make tools from unfamiliar materials.

The Goffin's cockatoo, a native of Indonesia, is not known to use tools in the wild or to have evolved the ability to build nests from twigs.

Yet four captive birds demonstrated a striking level of lateral thinking by constructing tools to retrieve food placed out of their reach, in a new study.

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The Goffin's cockatoo, a native of Indonesia, is not known to use tools in the wild or to have evolved the ability to build nests from twigs. Yet four captive birds demonstrated a striking level of lateral thinking by constructing tools to retrieve food placed out of their reach

COCKATOO CONSTRUCTION The hand-raised parrots, had to fashion a tool at least 2,4 inches (6cm) long that could be poked through a hole to dislodge a tasty piece of cashew nut. Four materials that had to be manipulated in different ways were offered to the birds. Only one, a block of larch wood, was familiar to them. The others were leafy beech twigs, cardboard and a lump of natural beeswax. Astonished researchers watched as the parrots tore off splinters of larch wood, trimmed twigs, and cut out appropriately sized pieces of cardboard which they used to obtain the food. All four parrots created twig tools. Three worked out the splinter trick and two mastered the cardboard. Advertisement

Researchers from the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna and the University of Oxford demonstrated the birds' intelligence in a new study.

The hand-raised parrots, Figaro, Dolittle, Kiwi and Pipin, had to fashion a tool at least 2.4 inches (6cm) long that could be poked through a hole to dislodge a tasty piece of cashew nut.

Success would be rewarded by the nut being knocked off its platform and sliding down a ramp to appear through an opening.

Four materials that had to be manipulated in different ways were offered to the birds.

Only one, a block of larch wood, was familiar to them.

The others were leafy beech twigs, cardboard and a lump of natural beeswax.

Astonished researchers watched as the parrots tore off splinters of larch wood, trimmed twigs, and cut out appropriately sized pieces of cardboard which they used to obtain the food.

The only material none of them had any luck with was the beeswax.

'To us, the tools made from cardboard were the most interesting ones, as this material was not pre-structured and required the birds to shape their tools more actively,' said Dr Alice Auersperg, who led the team at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna.

'They succeeded by placing a large number of parallel bite marks along the edge of the material like a hole punch, using their curved upper beak to cut the elongated piece out of the cardboard block after reaching a certain length.

'Interestingly, this length was usually just above or very close to the minimum length required to reach the food reward placed behind the barrier.'

Figaro had earlier inspired the scientists by spontaneously biting splinters from the wooden beams of his cage to manufacture tools.

He used these to rake up pieces of inaccessible food.

The hand-raised parrots, Figaro, Dolittle (pictured), Kiwi and Pipin, had to fashion a tool at least 2.4 inches (6cm) long that could be poked through a hole to dislodge a tasty piece of cashew nut

Success would be rewarded by the nut being knocked off its platform and sliding down a ramp to appear through an opening. Four materials that had to manipulated in different ways were offered to the birds. Only one, a block of larch wood, was familiar to them

CLEVER BIRDS Parrots and the corvid family of crows, ravens, and jays are considered the most intelligent of birds. Birds have diverse thinking skills that can be applied in different situations. Professor Onur Gunturku, the head of Biopsychology at the University of the Rurh, said earlier this year: 'The mental abilities of corvids and parrots are as sophisticated and diverse as those of apes.' While birds and apes have very different brain structures there are similarities between individual modules of the brains, but it is not known how these similarities have evolved. It is possible the last common ancestor between the species passed the key structure to birds and mammals. Advertisement

All four parrots created twig tools.

Three, including Figaro, worked out the splinter trick and two mastered the cardboard.

The findings appear in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

Tool manufacture was once regarded as a defining feature of being human but has been observed in chimps and other primates as well as birds including crows, vultures and Galapagos finches.

'Ultimately, we want to understand how animals think - namely, to produce the equivalent of explicit computer programs capable of doing what the birds do,' said study co-author Professor Alex Kacelnik, from Oxford University's Department of Zoology.

'We really don't know if the birds can picture in their minds an object that doesn't yet exist and follow this image as a template to build something new, or how their brains elicit the appropriate set of movements to organise their response to novel problems, but this is what we are trying to find out.

'Studying tool-making in species like the Goffin's cockatoo, which does not make tools naturally, is especially revealing, as these birds cannot do it by following pre-programmed instructions evolved to solve this specific problem.

'These cockatoos, like other parrots, offer wonderful research opportunities: their intelligence is flexible and powerful, they can solve physical and logical problems, they can learn from watching the behaviour of others, they can learn about the surrounding objects by playing - and now it seems plausible that they can imagine which object would allow them to solve a new problem and go on to build it.
Life-extension advocates could be one step closer to the biological fountain of youth  a treatment in which the blood of the young and healthy is used to reverse the effects of aging.

In a series of new trials, researchers have found that injecting the blood plasma of 18-year-old humans into old mice rejuvenates both the body and brain, improving cognition and allowing them to frolic about like their younger counterparts.

According to Alkahest, the company behind the experiments, blood plasma may hold the secrets to youth, and a similar technique could one day be used in procedures for humans.

In a series of new trials, researchers have found that injecting the blood plasma of 18-year-old humans into old mice rejuvenates both the body and brain, improving cognition and allowing them to frolic about like their younger counterparts. Stock image

THE 'FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH' In recent years, scientists have experimented with the use of blood from young donors to bring about rejuvenating effects in older subjects. Some have even dubbed it the 'biological Fountain of Youth.' This has previously been tested in mice, and now, clinical trials on humans are underway. In the organ systems of both animals and humans, the procedure has been found to reverse the symptoms of aging. Some researchers have said this could in part be because the blood of a young organism is rich with proteins that improve cell function, and can spur the production of these proteins in the recipients body. Advertisement

The findings were presented at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego, California, New Scientist reports.

The firm, whose mission is to enrich the health and vitality of humankind through transformative therapies that counterbalance the aging process, injected 12-month-old mice with blood samples from 18-year-old humans twice a week for three weeks.

At 12-months, mice have entered a stage roughly equivalent to that of a 50-year-old person, moving more slowly and performing badly on memory tests.

But, after three weeks, the researchers noted improvements in the mices performance on a range of tests, according to New Scientist.

Following the injections, the older mice were better at remembering their way around a maze  and, they ran around an open space like the younger group.

The results were compared to young, 3-month-old mice, and older mice who had not been given the treatment.

The researchers also examined the brains of the treated mice, and found that they appeared to have created new cells in the hippocampus.

This process, known as neurogenesis, is thought to contribute to memory and learning, and the results now show that it can be enhanced through the injection of young human blood, New Scientist reports.

According to Sakura Minami, of Alkahest, some of the factors that give young blood its power have now been identified  but, the team will not reveal them yet.

The researchers say these findings could one day help them to develop anti-aging treatments, and could even help people with Alzheimers disease.

Human trails have already begun to test this hypothesis.

The experiments were conducted by Alkahest, whose mission is to enrich the health and vitality of humankind through transformative therapies that counterbalance the aging process.' Stock image

In recent years, the bizarre practice has caught the attention of many life-extension enthusiasts  including billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel, who said he is looking into 'parabiosis.'

Early studies have shown that the transfusion of blood plasma from a young donor can have age-reversing effects on the body, and it's recently begun clinical trials on humans.

WHAT IS PARABIOSIS? Parabiosis is an experimental procedure in which two living organisms are surgically joined, allowing their physiological systems to combine. The idea dates back more than 150 years, but it has since begun to regain attention. In the 1950s, scientists experimented with parabiosis by stitching young and old mice together, allowing them to share a circulatory system. Doing this facilitated the transfusion of blood plasma from a young donor into an older subject, which was found to have a rejuvenating effect. Advertisement

Human trials were launched recently by a company called Ambrosia, with participants paying $8,000 to get involved, according to Inc.

In the study, Young Donor Plasma Transfusion and Age-Related Biomarkers, healthy individuals aged 35 or older receive a transfusion of blood plasma from donors younger than 25.

And, the firm has been contacted by Thiel Capitals chief medical officer, Jason Camm, Inc. reports, who expressed interest in the work.

In an interview last year with Jeff Bercovici, Peter Thiel explained his interest in life-extension medicine.

Moving on from a discussion on caloric restriction, human growth hormone, and diabetes drug metformin, the investor said he isnt yet convinced that scientists have found the cure-all technique.

But, hes turned his sights to some strangely underexplored fields.

Im looking into parabiosis stuff, which I think is really interesting, Thiel told Bercovici.

This is where they did the young blood into older mice and they found that had a massive rejuvenating effect.

Studies have shown that parabiosis can have age-reversing effects on the body, and its caught the attention of many life-extension enthusiasts  including billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel, pictured

Thiel went on to clarify that the procedure was of interest as a personal-health treatment, and said it would not require FDA approval.

Still, the investor remarked then that he hadnt quite, quite, quite started yet in moving forward with parabiosis, and according to Inc., this is still the case.

Scientists first experimented with parabiosis in the 1950s, and in recent years, its begun to gain attention once again.

In the organ systems of both animals and humans, the procedure has been found to reverse the symptoms of aging, though scientists dont yet understand all of the mechanisms at work.

Jesse Karmazin, founder of Ambrosia, explains to Inc. that the blood of a young organism is rich with proteins that improve cell function, and can spur the production of these proteins in the recipients body.
Last week, a leaked NASA paper appeared to show that scientists had successfully created a working EmDrive prototype.

The radical fuel-free engine defies the laws of physics and has long been dubbed impossible, but if achieved, it could get humans to Mars in just 10 weeks.

While many have cast doubt on the findings, experts now say there may really be something there  but, the cause might be something entirely different than whats been proposed.

Rather than the quantum vacuum theory which was initially cited to explain the findings, a phenomenon known as the Mach effect could be to blame, according to Motherboard.

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A fuel-free engine, described as 'impossible' to create, may now be a step closer to reality, according to leaked Nasa documents. Pictured is a prototype of the EMDrive that some say power a spacecraft to Mars in just 10 weeks

THE 'LEAKED' NASA PAPER A research report, which has appeared online, describes a series of successful tests carried out at Nasas Johnson Space Center in Texas. It outlines a experiments with a 'closed radio frequency cavity'. The paper describes how early tests of the system in a vacuum, recreating the conditions of the engine if were used in space. Engineers carried out controlled bursts at 40, 60 and 80 watts, reporting that the thrust achieved in a vacuum was similar to the performance achieved in air. The tests managed to generate powers of 1.2 millinewtons per kilowatt (mN/Kw), a fraction of the current state of the art Hall thruster, which can achieve a massive 60 mN/Kw. But the researchers say that the lack of fuel consumption could make up for the drop in power. Advertisement

The paper, which has since been accepted for publication in the AIAAs Journal of Propulsion and Power, describes a series of successful tests carried out at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Texas.

Essentially, the EmDrive generates thrust by harnessing particles of light and bouncing microwaves around inside a closed chamber, shaped like a cone.

The movement generates thrust at the slim end of the cone, which drives the engine forward.

But as it has no fuel to eject, this system goes against Newtons Third Law, which states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

The issue involved here is whether the experiment is seeing something real or not, Jim Woodward, a physicist at California State-Fullerton, told Motherboard.

I know Paul [March, one of the lead researchers] does clean work and to be honest, I suspect there may really be something here.

But the result theyre seeing cant actually be explained in terms of the theory theyre proposing. So the question is: what is causing it?

Researchers in the past have proposed both the quantum vacuum theory  which states that the microwaves are pushing off virtual particles in the cavity to generate thrust  and an explanation in which radiation pushes against the machines walls.

But according to Woodward, neither of these are likely to be correct, as they do not follow the laws of physics.

Can any disposition of microwaves inside the cavity produce thrust? Theres a simple answer to that question: No, it cannot, Woodward told Motherboard.

Conservation of momentum dictates that any purely electromagnetic system that is enclosed cannot produce thrust.

This is for both quantum theory and classical electrodynamics. Its physically impossible.

The tests managed to generate powers of 1.2 millinewtons per kilowatt (mN/Kw), a fraction of the current state of the art Hall ion thruster, which can achieve a massive 60 mN/Kw (illustrated)

Instead, the physicist says the seemingly impossible nature of the EmDrive may be explained by the Mach effect without breaking the laws of physics.

By this effect, which Woodward first theorized in the 1990s, some of the force applied to an accelerating body of mass is stored as potential energy in its body rather than generating kinetic energy, according to Motherboard.

This causes fluctuations in the objects resting mass, and this effect could be harnessed to create the type of thrust seen in the experiments.

But, tests to attempt to reproduce the results of the NASA study using the Mach effect theory would be necessary to confirm this.

The propulsion system may make deep space travel as in Star Trek a possibility. However, Nasa's said earlier this year: 'There are many 'absurd' theories that have become reality over the years of scientific research. 'But for the near future, warp drive remains a dream'

WHAT IS THE EMDRIVE? The concept of an EmDrive engine is relatively simple. It provides thrust to a spacecraft by bouncing microwaves around in a closed container. Solar energy provides the electricity to power the microwaves, which means that no propellant is needed. The implications for this could be huge. For instance, current satellites could be half the size they are today without the need to carry fuel. Humans could also travel further into space, generating their own propulsion on the way. But when the concept was first proposed it was considered implausible because it went against the laws of physics. Its allegedly fuel-free nature also means the drive may directly contradict the law of conservation of momentum. It suggests it would produce a forward-facing force without an equal and opposite force acting in the other direction. Advertisement

The controversial paper, was first leaked on a Nasa Spaceflight forum by Australian user Phil Wilson before being taken down by administrators, reports IBTimes.

It was subsequently published by NextBigFuture, and describes how early tests of the system in a vacuum, recreating the conditions of the engine if it were used in space.

Engineers carried out controlled bursts at 40, 60 and 80 watts, reporting the thrust achieved in a vacuum was similar to the performance achieved in air.

The tests managed to generate 1.2 millinewtons per kilowatt (mN/Kw) of power, a fraction of the current state of the art Hall thruster, which can achieve a massive 60 mN/Kw.

But the researchers say the lack of fuel consumption could make up for the drop in power.

In the leaked paper, the researchers explain: for missions with very large delta-v requirements, having a propellant consumption rate of zero could offset the higher power requirements.

Despite Nasas apparent test success, there is no indication the paper has been through peer review  a critical part of the scientific process  and has not been published in a journal.

MailOnline contacted Nasa for comment.
The Obama administration urged the technology industry to secure millions of internet-connected devices from hacking, including fitness trackers, medical implants, surveillance cameras, home appliances, digital video recorders, thermostats, baby monitors and computers in automobiles.

It proposed no specific penalties for manufacturers that do not comply.

In a report obtained by The Associated Press, the Homeland Security Department portrayed runaway security problems with a range of devices that have been made internet-capable in recent years.

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The Obama administration urged the technology industry to secure millions of internet-connected devices from hacking. Previous attacks have targeted devices such as smart lightbulbs, pictured.

WHICH HOUSEHOLD DEVICES ARE AT RISK? Analysts have warned, thanks to malware such as Mirai, millions of vulnerable web-connected devices could be under the control of hackers and used to carry out cyber attacks. Any number of connected devices have been known to have security flaws, where default security settings have not been changed. These include: Baby monitors

Webcams

Printers

Kettles

Washing machines

Lighting

Internet routers

CCTV cameras Security experts advise people to use strong passwords and keep security software up to date. Advertisement

It said they posed 'substantial safety and economic risks' and recommended urgent action by software and hardware developers, service providers, manufacturers and commercial and government buyers.

No blame was placed on consumers who buy and operate such products.

'The growing dependency on network-connected technologies is outpacing the means to secure them,' Homeland Secretary Jeh Johnson said.

The department's strategy represents an early step to organize scattered efforts to focus on cybersecurity for the category of devices known as the 'internet of things.'

It comes less than one month after hackers harnessed an army of 100,000 internet-connected devices around the world, such as DVRs and security cameras, to attack Dyn Co., which helps route internet traffic to its destination.

It caused temporary internet outages to sites that included Twitter, PayPal, Pinterest Reddit and Spotify.

U.S. officials say such an attack is a harbinger of security threats to come in the rapidly-developing next frontier for cybersecurity.

'Securing the internet of things has become a matter of homeland security,' Johnson said. He said Tuesday's guidance should help companies 'make informed security decisions.'

Robert Silvers, the assistant homeland security secretary for cyber policy, led a six-month review, coordinating with cybersecurity experts, industry associations and other branches of the government, such as the Justice and State departments.

Those talks encompassed questions of product liability and making diplomatic efforts to create a uniform rulebook for securing these devices.

'We need to have a very serious national conversation about what the approach is, and we need to do it urgently,' Silvers said.

The internet of things is decentralized and enormously complex, making it difficult to regulate.

A camera with online capabilities may be designed in California, manufactured in China with parts from Taiwan and sold to someone who operates it on Germany's network.

Silvers said there is no benefit to '190 different national approaches.'

Some industrial sectors have moved forward with their own recommendations.

'TENS OF MILLIONS' OF SMART HOME GADGETS IN BOTNET Dyn, the firm at the center of the attack, said it believed tens of millions of IP addresses were being using at the attacks peak to disrupt its systems. It described the events as a 'very sophisticated and complex attack.' Dozens of different systems were believed to have been used. One the the techniques used was a botnet powered by popular malware known as Mirai. This was released by hackers just a few weeks ago, sparking fears it could lead to a major attack such as today's. It is capable of using 'internet of things' (IoT) devices, such as the plethora of smart home gadgets, which can be used to bombard websites with requests, overloading them and effectively shutting them down. In previous attacks using it, security cameras and DVRs in homes and offices around the world have been used. 'We are seeing attacks coming from a number of different locations. 'We're seeing attacks coming from an Internet of Things botnet that we identified called Mirai, also involved in this attack,' Dale Drew, chief security officer at Level 3 Communications, said on a livestream on Friday afternoon. Advertisement

In September, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published guidelines for self-driving cars. T

he Food and Drug Administration published its own guidance for medical devices in January.

For more than a decade, companies have added internet capabilities to devices as an additional feature, sometimes without security considerations. But adding security in wholesale fashion afterward is often more costly.

The government urged companies to ensure security setting are turned on by default.

It recommended requiring unique passwords for each device so hackers can't use a single stolen password to control thousands or more devices.

It encouraged products It encouraged manufacturers to make products whose vulnerabilities can be fixed remotely.

'You can't rely on a consumer to spend three hours to upgrade her toaster software. It's not going to happen,' Silvers said.

The recommendations were released before a congressional hearing Wednesday on the role of connected devices in cyberattacks.
Snapchat has secretly filed for its eagerly awaited IPO, it has been claimed.

Reuters says sources close to the firm confirmed the move.

'Messaging app Snapchat has filed confidentially for an initial public offering (IPO), sources familiar with the situation said on Tuesday,' it claimed.

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In October, the Wall Street Journal reported Snapchat, founded by Evan Speigel (pictured), could start selling shares as early as late March with a valuation of $25 billion or more.

The widely popular messaging app has been rumoured to be preparing to go public for months.

In October, the Wall Street Journal reported Snapchat could start selling shares as early as late March with a valuation of $25 billion or more.

Snapchat filed papers with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission before last weeks U.S. Presidential election, one of the people said, asking not to be identified as the details are private, Reuters said.

The company is targeting a valuation of about $20 billion to $25 billion in a listing that could come as early as March, the person said.

No final decision has been made on the size or timing of the IPO, they said.

Because Snapchat has revenue of less than $1 billion, it was able to file IPO documents confidentially.

However, it is not clear when Snapchat will publicly unveil the news, when it will begin trading, or how much the company is looking to raise in the offering.

Snapchat was valued at nearly $18 billion in its latest round of funding.

If is does go forward as planned, it would be the biggest company to go public on a U.S. exchange since 2014 when Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. made its debut at a $168 billion valuation.

While its finances are not public, the research firm eMarketer has estimated that Snapchat would generate nearly a billion dollars next year from advertising

Snapchat had been talking to investment bankers about an IPO towards the end of this year or early in 2017, technology website The Information reported last month.

While its finances are not public, the research firm eMarketer has estimated that Snapchat would generate nearly a billion dollars next year from advertising.

A September report from eMarketer said: 'Worldwide, it will generate $366.69 million in ad revenues this year, with that figure jumping to $935.46 million in 2017.'

Reports on Snap Inc's IPO come at a time when shares of technology companies such as Square Inc and Box Inc that went public over the last two years are trading below their private market valuation.

Snapchat's valuation has grown in the last few years as the company added advertising and sponsored contents to its messaging service.

The glasses are available in three colours: Black, Coral, and Teal, and users can virtually try them on at the vending machines. They can film 10 second video clips and upload them to the picture messaging app

The company has told investors to expect $1billion in advertising revenue in 2017, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The company received $3.1million in advertising revenue for the first 11 months of 2014, according to financial documents leaked last year.

Snapchat is expected to have 58.6million users in the United States by the end of 2016 and that number is expected to jump 13.6 per cent to 66.6million by next year, according to eMarketer.

Snap estimates it has more than 100million users globally of the service for sending videos, images and text messages which vanish after being viewed.

Some reports say it generates 10billion video views per day.

Snapchat fans queued for hours to get the to the machine, which is the only way to buy the firm's $129 spectacles.

Snapchat's messaging has been a hit, especially with young people, but it has been broadening offerings to include content from media partners in the hope of expanding use and money-making opportunities.

Snap Inc CEO Evan Spiegel said at a May 2015 tech conference: 'We need to IPO, we have a plan to do that. An IPO is really important.'

The firm is believed to have chosen Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc as lead underwriters for an initial public offering.

JPMorgan Chase & Co, Deutsche Bank AG, Allen & Co, Barclays Plc and Credit Suisse Group AG will be joint book runners, the source said, asking not to be named because the information was not yet public.

The company's last round of funding included General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital, T. Rowe Price and Lone Pine. Previous rounds included Fidelity Investment, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Yahoo! Inc.

Huge queues soon formed, and the fuirm covered the machine at one point, before reopening it to continue selling. Around 4:45, Snapchat staff told those in the queue they had run out.

The firm last week revealed a vending machine in Venice Beach selling its new product, a $129 pair of glasses.

It caused a stampede to the area, and huge queues before staff eventually said they had sold out at around 3:30pm - with glasses already on offer on eBay for $900.

The video specs let users post 10 second video clips and upload them straight to Snapchat.

The new gadgets transfer the clips via wi-fi or Bluetooth.

Makers of the glasses, simply called Spectacles, say they will create video which is akin to human vision because the lenses have an angle of 115 degrees.

People queued around the block, hoping to snag a pair of the Snapchat specs

Snapchat announced the product earlier this year, and also revealed it was renaming the company to Snap Inc as it grows to develop further products, stretching beyond the popular app.

It says the vending machine will be the only way to buy them - for now.

'The only way to buy Spectacles is through a Snapbot,' the firm said.

'We cant guarantee the authenticity of Spectacles you buy anywhere else.'

THE SNAPBOT The firm today revealed a vending machine in Venice Beach selling the $129 specs - and says it is the only place to get them for now. Snapbots said the devices are 'our very own vending machines that dispense Spectacles and never seem to stay in one location for too long' To use them, users press one of the larger circular buttons to virtually try on a pair of Black, Coral, and Teal Specs. When they have chosen a color they insert a debit or credit card to purchase. Snapbots take about 10 seconds to process your transaction. 'Once you see the Bots mouth light up, take your Specs and youre all set!' the firm says. Advertisement

Spiegel said the device would be rolled out slowly.

He told the Wall Street Journal: 'We're going to take a slow approach to rolling them out.

'It's about us figuring out if it fits into people's lives and seeing how they like it.'

He said he had tested a prototype while on holiday with his supermodel fiancee Miranda Kerr in California.

When I got the footage back and watched it, I could see my own memory, through my own eyes - it was unbelievable. Evan Spiegel

'It was our first vacation, and we went to Big Sur for a day or two. We were walking through the woods, stepping over logs, looking up at the beautiful trees.

'And when I got the footage back and watched it, I could see my own memory, through my own eyes - it was unbelievable.

'It's one thing to see images of an experience you had, but it's another thing to have an experience of the experience. It was the closest I'd ever come to feeling like I was there again.'

HOW THEY WORK To take a Snap, just press the button on Specs once to take a ten-second video. Theres no need to pair Specs with your phone first. Spectacles are always on and ready to capture the moment, but theyre not always recording. The LED ring on the front of Specs will illuminate when you press the button to start recording. One you pair a phone, the snaps will automatically appear in your memories tab. From there, they can be edited and shared as normal. Advertisement

The machine caused a stampede to the area, and huge queues - with glasses already on eBay for $900

Earlier this year Snapchat introduced a range of new filters, called Lenses, that cadd masks, drawings and other features onto selfies.

As of June this year 10 billion videos are viewed on the app - a sharp rise from eight billion back in February.

It will follow in the footsteps of the hitherto unsuccessful Google Glass, a device launched by Google but beset by problems.

The consumer device failed to take off, partly because of privacy concerns and a steep price tag, with wearers of Glass even branded 'Glassholes'.
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The icily ethereal beauty of Poland has been captured in a stunning series of aerial photographs that 'imagine there are no humans left on Earth'.

The images were taken by acclaimed Polish photographer Kacper Kowalski from 500 feet above the earth in a paraglider, during Poland's coldest days.

Kowalski, 39, from Gdynia, turns everyday locations into perfectly composed yet abstract images. They are scenes in which human presence is felt but never actually seen.

The icily ethereal beauty of Poland has been captured in a stunning series of aerial photographs

The images were taken by acclaimed Polish photographer Kacper Kowalski from 500 feet above the earth in a paraglider, during Poland's coldest days

Kowalski, 39, from Gdynia, turns everyday locations into perfectly composed yet abstract images

And he doesn't caption the shots as he believes that 'the content of the photograph is less important than the questions they make us ask ourselves'.

Kowalski is a qualified architect and told MailOnline Travel that even though he no longer works as one he still sees the world as architects do.

He said: 'I see lines, symmetry, shapes, colors, and I see how what is man-made interacts with the environment. I can see how a city might grow, what is planned and what isn't, and how nature reacts to our building. I frame the pictures very carefully to capture this tension.'

He said that 'for years, my work looked at the complicated relationship between civilization and nature' and that his new project, being showcased in an exhibition called Fade To White in New York's Curator Gallery, 'imagines a time when that struggle is over, when there are no more humans on Earth'.

He said: 'In these pictures, you can see the traces that humans have left on Earth, but that's all.'

Kowalski is a qualified architect and told MailOnline Travel that even though he no longer works as one he still sees the world as architects do. He said: 'I see lines, symmetry, shapes, colors, and I see how what is man-made interacts with the environment'

He said that 'for years, my work looked at the complicated relationship between civilization and nature' and that his new project, being showcased in an exhibition called Fade To White in New York's Curator Gallery, 'imagines a time when that struggle is over, when there are no more humans on Earth'

Kowalski doesn't caption the shots as he believes that 'the content of the photograph is less important than the questions they make us ask ourselves'

Kowalski has been paragliding for 20 years now and describes his photography flights as like 'meditation'

Kowalski said: 'From launch until landing, I have to be very focused  on the landscape, on the airspace, on a place to land in case the engine fails, and so on, and I also have to be focused on making pictures'

Kowalski has been paragliding for 20 years now and describes his photography flights as like 'meditation'.

He said: 'In a single session, I may stay in the air for as long as two hours. Then I have to land, rest, and then I can take off again if the light and weather is right.

'From launch until landing, I have to be very focused  on the landscape, on the airspace, on a place to land in case the engine fails, and so on, and I also have to be focused on making pictures. What to shoot and why? This is like a deep meditation, and it take a lots of energy. And in the winter, in Poland, it can get very cold. But I love to spend my energy in this way.'
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For anyone who ever has taken the misty boat ride across San Francisco bay to the Rock, the legacy of Alcatraz, Americas notorious premier maximum security prison still lingers on the picturesque island.

From 1934 until 1963, the Rock was home to some of the most infamous gangsters in history, including Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly but this is not the only fascinating time period still haunting the eerie destination.

After the prison closed, the General Service Administration debated how to re-purpose the languishing island. A group of five Sioux Indians filed an ownership claim stating that historically Alcatraz island had been used by Native Americans for gathering food.

When the claim was dismissed, up to 90 Native Americans from over 20 tribes decided to occupy the island from 9 November 1969 until 11 June 1971. A press release issued at the time outlined ambitious plans including setting up a Center for Native American Studies, an American Indian Spirtual Center, Indian Center for Ecology, India Training School and an American Indian Museum.

Breathing new life into the mess halls and cramped prison cells which had housed up to 200 convicts at a time as well as the prison staffs' apartments, bowling alley and shops, the new residents of 1969 erected homely teepees in the green bluffs and painted the stark buildings.

Striking images capture their short-lived, controversial occupation, which lasted 19 months until federal marshalls swooped in to remove the last of the settlers - six men, four women and five children. The Rock's final incarnation as a top San Francisco tourist attraction, managed by the National Parks Service, opened to the public in 1973.

Describing themselves as the Indians of all Tribes, a group of over 20 Native Americans occupied Alcatraz between 1969 and 1971. One of their leaders, Richard Oakes, sent a message to the department of interior: 'The choice now lies with the leaders of the American government  to use violence upon us as before to remove us from our Great Spirit's land, or to institute a real change in its dealing with the American Indian.' Above, John Trudell, a Sioux Indian stands next to a teepee on Alcatraz

This view along the gunwale of a boat shows a group of Native Americans, one named Tim Williams (a chief of the Klamath River Hurek tribe), in full headdress and ceremonial attire, as they approach Alcatraz Island with the intention of reclaiming it from the US government in late 1969. The claim was based on their interpretation of a treaty which they believed granted them the right to reclaim any land originally theirs sold to and subsequently abandoned by the US government

Although they were asked by the General Service Administration to leave, at its peak 400 Native Americans resided on the island during its occupation. A band of occupiers gaze over the main cell block of Alcatraz on 19 November 1969

A press release issued at the time outlined ambitious plans for the Rock including setting up a Center for Native American Studies, an American Indian Spirtual Center, Indian Center for Ecology, India Training School and an American Indian Museum. Pictured above, Tim Williams, Chief of Klamath River Hurok Indians of California, addresses a crowd prior to the occupation

The new residents breathed life into the eerie mess halls, 336 cramped prison cells, 36 segregation cells and six solitary confinement cells which had housed up to 200 convicts at a time, during Alcatraz' heyday. The occupiers also made use of the staff's apartments, bowling alley and shops. Pictured above, native Americans in full ceremonial attire tour the cells

The controversial occupation attracted a lot of media attention with celebrities including Marlon Brando and Jane Fonda visiting. There was also a pirate radio station broadcasting from the island. After almost 19 months the government switched off electricity, water and telephone service and in June 1971 federal marshalls swooped in to remove the last of the settlers
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Wind farms in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. [File photo/China.org.cn]

Chinese officials have reaffirmed the country's determination to continue working on climate change despite climate skeptic Donald Trump's win in the U.S. presidential election.

The U.S. President-elect has questioned climate change and vowed to pull out of the landmark Paris Agreement, bringing uncertainties to the future climate agenda of the U.S. and the world as a whole. As the U.S. and China are believed to be the leading forces in the global green process, China's response has been closely watched at the ongoing UN climate change conference in Marrakech, Morocco.

Gou Haibo, deputy chief of the Chinese delegation to the climate conference, said on Nov. 9 that China would continue its effort in combating climate change despite the results of the U.S. presidential election. Two days later, two veteran Chinese negotiators reaffirmed the country's resolve in combating climate change.

"We have to wait and see whether the new U.S. government will withdraw from the Paris Agreement, but no matter what happens in the new government of the United States, I think China will continue our action and will continue participating in the global multilateral process." Chen Zhihua, an official of the Department of Climate Change of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), told a group of Chinese and foreign journalists on Nov.11.

Chen also said that even if the United States withdraws from the Paris Agreement, "the communication and cooperation with the U.S. government will continue."

Gu Zihua, an official from the Department of Treaty and Law under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, emphasized that as the Paris Agreement has already come into force, it would take four years for the U.S. to formally pull out of the Paris Agreement. He said that it would be "politically problematic" if the U.S. decided to withdraw from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which is the internationally recognized climate change framework. He also emphasized that there are disparities between "campaign policies" and "real policies" in the U.S., suggesting that everyone should "wait and see."

Asked whether China would assume the top leadership role in the global transition to a low-carbon economy, Chen said that the leadership role is defined by the UNFCCC and that developed countries are legally bound to contribute more to the mitigation work in climate change and provide financial and technological support to developing countries.

But Chen also said that China has made a lot of effort in combating climate change and that the country is one of the earliest in the world to have launched a national climate change program. The country has also set ambitious carbon reduction targets, he added.

Gu Zihua of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs added that China has not set its sights on asserting the top leadership position in global green action, but is more keen on making its own contribution as well as encouraging other countries to take active actions in the global climate change agenda.
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Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen and Timbuktu in Mali are among the most dangerous countries in the world, according to a new map designed to alert travellers to the level of risk they face when visiting destinations worldwide.

Beyond these volatile, war-torn destinations, hot spots favoured by tourists such as Mexico, Colombia, Pakistan and Egypt also rank as 'high risk' in the new findings.

The safest countries in the world are Norway, Finland, Sweden and Iceland, according to the research.

HOW TO READ THE TRAVEL RISK MAP The key to the map is a colour-coded chart showing the current issues within each country - and their severity. GREEN Insignificant risk Rates of violent crime are very low. There is no significant political violence or civil unrest and little sectarian, communal, racial or targeted violence against foreigners. Security and emergency services are effective and infrastructure is sound. Transport services are of a high standard with good safety records and only occasional travel disruption. Industrial action affecting essential services is rare. YELLOW Low risk Violent crime rates are low and racial, sectarian or political violence or civil unrest is uncommon. If terrorism is a threat, groups have limited operational capabilities, and acts of terrorism are rare. Security and emergency services are adequate and infrastructure is sound. Industrial action and transport disruption are infrequent. ORANGE Medium risk Periodic political unrest, violent protests, insurgency and/or sporadic acts of terrorism occur. Travellers and expatriates may face risk from communal, sectarian or racial violence and violent crime. Capacity of security and emergency services and infrastructure varies. Industrial action can disrupt travel. RED High risk Protests are frequently violent and may target or disrupt foreigners; they may be exacerbated by governance issues, including security or law and order capacity. Violent crime or terrorism pose significant direct or incidental risks to travellers and expatriates. Communal, sectarian or racial violence is common and foreigners may be directly targeted. Certain parts of the country are inaccessible or off-limits to the traveller. DARK RED Extreme risk Government control and law and order may be minimal or non-existent across large areas. Serious threat of violent attacks by armed groups targeting travellers and expatriates. Government and transport services are barely functional. Large parts of the country are inaccessible to foreigners. Advertisement

In a year when terrorism and the Zika virus have blighted travel, 72 per cent of people believe travel risks have increased over the past year and 57 per cent expect it to become even more dangerous next year.

The Travel Risk Map for 2017, launched by medical and security specialists International SOS and Control Risks, is designed to help businesses mitigate their travel risks.

It is released alongside an Ipsos Mori survey, which provides an insight into the different attitudes and experience of travellers around the world.

The research found that potential terror attacks dominate travellers' concerns (51 per cent), followed by civil unrest (36 per cent).

However, in reality the biggest risk for travellers continues to be petty crime and road safety threats, with terrorism being a secondary risk.

Almost a quarter of businesses have changed their travel plans due to Zika despite stomach bugs and pre-medical issues having a greater impact on travellers.

According to the annual travel risk map the most dangerous countries in the world are Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, Darfur, Somalia, South Sudan, Gao, and the Timbuktu and Kidal regions of Mali.

The main criteria for deciding on a country's danger level is the amount of government control being exercised and the threat of violence to travellers.

Yemen rates as one of the most dangerous countries in the world where government control is non-existent and there is a threat of violence to travellers

While Europe, the U.S, Canada and Australia are among the countries offering low levels of risk, there are some popular holiday destinations where travellers are more likely to encounter problems.

High risk countries include parts of Mexico, Honduras, Colombia, Venezuela, Haiti, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, Egypt, Nigeria and Algeria.

The countries deemed to have an insignificant risk rating are Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Switzerland, Slovenia and Denmark.

Hot spots favoured by tourists such as Mexico, Colombia, Pakistan and Egypt (above) have ranked as 'high risk' in the new findings

In a year when terrorism and the Zika virus have blighted travel, 72 per cent of people believe travel risks have increased over the past year and 57 per cent expect it to become even more dangerous next year

While the perceptions of travel risk may have changed, the risk ratings in the main, have not, according to the report.

Europe, for example, is the region where risks are most commonly felt to have increased over the past year, with 50 per cent of respondents saying that risk has increased there, yet the risk rating for European countries remains the same as last year.

The research also centres on travellers' perceptions of the risks they face with experts balancing the chance of encountering extreme danger with the need to be prepared for more common issues.

Rob Walker, security specialist at International SOS and Control Risks, explained: 'Events of 2016 have resulted in a sense of increasing challenges in travel to places once thought secure.

'While risks are changing, organisations must ensure their actions to mitigate those changes are proportionate, and based on reality and not perception.

'Issues like healthcare provision and road safety, which account for over 70 per cent of the assistance services we have provided in the past year, can often be obscured by more prominent, but less likely issues.'

Dr Irene Lai, Medical Director of Information and Analysis for International SOS, added: 'While the Zika virus has had extensive media coverage this year, common medical issues which don't make the headlines, such as traveller's gastric issues or running out of regular medication, are more likely and can destroy a business trip.

'Road accidents are also a major issue and one of the top five causes of medical evacuation. A number of countries showed significant improvement in deaths from road accidents in the past year, but organisations should be mindful that they remain a common major risk.'

The countries deemed to have an insignificant risk rating are Norway, Sweden, Iceland (above), Switzerland, Slovenia and Denmark

The research also centres on travellers' perceptions of the risks they face with experts balancing the chance of encountering extreme danger with the need to be prepared for more common issues




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Whats in a name? Well its the difference between a taking a daytrip to Colchester or Climax.

From Cock Wash in South Australia to Thong in Kent, a comedy website, World Wide Interweb, has revealed the 50 funniest place names in the world.

Featured in the selection are rude entries such as Big Bone Lick State Park in Kentucky, bizarre destinations including Batman in Turkey and some place names that are so shocking youll be left wondering why locals havent opted for an alternative.

But next time you drive through Wetwang, a Yorkshire Wolds village with an unfortunate name, spare a thought for its residents as the historic town featured in the Domesday Book and had respectable origins. It is thought to have originally meant it was a field for a legal trial or a wet field.

Back in 1711, Dildo, in Newfoundland, Canada, may have also been considered a more innocuous name than nowadays.

Amidst these comical destinations sure to provoke a snigger there are also a few warnings to visitors from locals with a wry sense of humour such as Satans Kingdom State Recreation Park in Connecticut and Idiotville in Oregon, which claims only an idiot would live here.

A comedy website, World Wide Interweb, has revealed the 50 funniest place names in the world including Intercourse in Pennsylvania (left) and Delicate Nobby, a picturesque camping ground in New South Wales Australia (right)

Fascinating tourist attraction Big Bone Lick State Park in Kentucky has a museum with displays on ice age mammals

Despite its unusual name this tiny hamlet in Gravesend, Kent, has nothing to do with the item of underwear

Wetwang featured in the Domesday Book and had respectable origins. It is thought to have originally meant it was a field for a legal trial or a wet field'. Back in 1711, Dildo, in Newfoundland, Canada, may have also been considered a more innocuous name than nowadays

Bald Knob in Arkansas was named after a distinctive ridge and served as a landmark identifying the city to travellers

Knob Lick in Missouri is named after a nearby mountain of the same name

Some place names are just bizarre, such as Batman in Turkey for all budding superheroes and Cockburn in South Australia

Lofty town, Climax, in Georgia, has around 300 people and was once the highest point of a railroad. The origins of the name Sugar Tit in South Carolina are not clear

Amidst these comical destinations sure to provoke a snigger there are also a few warnings to visitors from locals with a wry sense of humour such as Satans Kingdom State Recreation Park in Connecticut and Hell in Michigan

Some names have to be seen to be believed such as Cock Wash in South Australia. Light-hearted locals in Idiotville in Oregon have claimed only an idiot would live here

Located in the Alsace region, people from this town are referred to as Bitchois and Bitchoises

Some sources claim that Sweet Lips, Tennessee, was named after a creek that was 'sweet to the lips' for parched travellers passing through. The Japanese destination of Gofuku actually translates as the much less offensive 'draperies'

Businesses in these two towns make the most of their memorable place names. Big Beaver is in Pennsylvania and Beaverlick can be found in Kentucky

Hooker, Oklahoma, has a gift shop and its humorous locals seem to revel in its unique name. Originally inhabited by Cherokee tribes in 1755, now over 100,000 people live in the city of Cumming, Georgia

The town of Sexmoan in the Philippines actually changed its name to Sasmuan in 1991. Horneytown, North Carolina, is named after the first settlers in the area, the Horney family
She recently posed up in a series of nude photographs as part of an artistic series.

And in other snaps from the shoot, Australian model Elyse Taylor leaves little to the imagination as she stripped down to a very sheer bra teamed with jeans.

The 30-year-old former Victoria's Secret Model bares her nipples in the white see-through lingerie, as she poses seductively on a bed.

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Flawless: Australian model Elyse Taylor strips down to a sheer white bra and jeans as part of a new photo shoot

Showing off a golden tan, the stunner stares down the camera as she tugs at her jeans in one raunchy image.

In another, she runs one hand through her messy hair.

Appearing to be wearing very little makeup, she shows off her flawless complexion, with a touch of lip gloss coating her lips.

Stunning: In the raunchy shots, the blonde beauty reclines on a bed as she smolders in front of the camera

The shots was taken by renowned photographer Will Vendramini, who also captured her naked in a series of stunning artistic photographs.

Will is currently working with models in different hotel rooms across the world, aiming for a 'very intimate and sensual' finished product.

'Elyse looks so pretty and natural on this shoot that it's crazy, besides her amazing personality and how great it is to work with her always,' Will said of the nude shots, which can also be seen on his Instagram.

Daring to bare! The images was taken by renowned photographer Will Vendramini , who also captured Elyse naked in a series of stunning artistic photographs

Candid: Will is currently working with models in different hotel rooms across the world, aiming for a 'very intimate and sensual' finished product

Speaking of his new artistic series, he added: 'It's a lot based on my working life, traveling and making those small rooms as home for a couple of days.

'And of course it's a lot of the girls that I've been shooting lives as well, so it's an interesting concept, trying to make them look similar but at a completely set up for each shoot.'

It was previously revealed by Daily Mail Australia that Elyse and her husband Seth Campbell had called time on their marriage.

New beginnings: It was previously revealed by Daily Mail Australia that Elyse and her husband Seth Campbell had called time on their marriage

Close friends confirmed to DMA that the pair - who share one daughter together, Lila Louise, two - had separated many months earlier, though remain on amicable terms.

After giving birth in March 2014, Elyse soon returned to work as one of Australia's most successful international models.

The statuesque star has posed for the likes of Vogue and fronted campaigns for Estee Lauder and walked for brands including Moschino.
She enjoyed a brief holiday in Los Cabos, Mexico with Scott Disick.

And the 37-year-old headed back home to Los Angeles on Sunday, where she was greeted by her mother Kris Jenner.

The reality star, who split with her former beau Scott in July 2015, donned a white T-shirt with black jeans for her plane ride back to the states.

Homebound: Kourtney Kardashian shared on Snapchat she's returning home to Los Angeles following her trip to Mexico with Scott Disick

Kourtney, who wrote 'kiss the plane' as a caption in the Snapchat video, showed off her trim figure in her fitted ensemble.

The E! starlet toted a purse in her hand with her camera slung over her shoulder.

The mother of three kissed her hand and then touched the door of the plane before heading inside.

The brunette beauty styled her tresses loose while opting for a makeup free face.

She's a devoted mom: Kris Jenner greeted her with a warm welcome, which Kourtney posted on her social media

Family time: Kourtney and Scott ended their relationship in July 2015; seen with their kids Penelope and Mason as well as Kris Jenner, Corey Gamble and Kris' mom Mary Jo Shannon on October 29 in Hollywood

Kourtney headed to Kris' house and snapped her mom singing and dancing in her foyer.

Kris donned all black as she showed off her dance moves in the video, which Kourtney captioned with: 'She's my idol.'

There were also balloons at Kourtney's house placed for her that spelled out 'I f***ing love you.'

Before flying back home, the star posted a photo of her derriere to her Instagram Sunday, writing 'views.'

Next stop the City Of Angels: Kourtney, who wrote 'kiss the plane' as a caption in the Snapchat video, showed off her trim figure in her fitted ensemble

Happy to be back: There was also balloons placed for her that spelled out 'I f***ing love you'

'Views': The star posted a photo of her derriere to her Instagram Sunday

What a gorgeous day: The stunner enjoyed a short vacation in stunning Mexico

Kourtney was snapped posing at the end of a pool with her bikini-clad bottom above the water as she faced the ocean.

Hours later, Scott posted a similar image, this time a closer view of Kourtney's backside - adding the same caption.

Their daughter Penelope was also seen in one of her Snapchat photos; the star toted a coconut drink as her four-year-old sat in her bathing suit in front of her.

Also calling it 'views': Hours later, Scott posted a similar image, this time a closer view of Kourtney's backside - adding the same caption

So sweet: Their daughter Penelope was also seen in on of her Snapchat photos

The Kardashian's close family friend Shelli Azoff appeared in another one of Kourtney's videos that she shared on Snapchat.

She stood in front of a wall of Hermes Birkin bags; she pointed out a few as she said 'she has a croc' and then repeating 'croc' several times.

Scott's voice can be heard jokingly saying 'you're a croc of s**t.'

Kourtney also snapped a photo of a sign that read 'need money for Birkin' - which refers to the hefty price tag for the luxurious designer bag.

Kourtney and Scott, 33, are parents to three children: Mason, six, Penelope, and their youngest Reign, one.

While the two did not show affection during their beach getaway, they are on good terms.

Having a laugh: The Kardashian's close family friend Shelli Azoff appeared in another one of Kourtney's videos that she shared on Snapchat

Fancy: Kourtney also snapped a photo of a sign that read 'need money for Birkin' - which refers to the hefty price tag for the luxurious designer bag

Look who's here! Rob Kardashian appeared in Kourtney's Snapchat

Playing around: The star had some fun in the kitchen in her sporty wear

Goofballs: The siblings were having a blast with the Snapchat filters

Shady lady! She also rocked a digital pair of purple tint shades

Making a cameo! Khloe Kardashian popped into frame in her sister's Snapchat

Aww: Kris and her boyfriend Corey Gamble enjoyed some fresh air outside

Bump love: The reality star shared a photo of herself when she was pregnant with son Mason
Music fans are in for a treat when the most iconic acts of the '90s hit Australian shores next year.

From Vanilla Ice and Salt-N-Pepa to Coolio and Young MC, the I Love The '90s Tour is set to be the ultimate trip down memory lane.

Currently taking the US by storm, the throwback concert will be heading to major cities including Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne from June 2017.

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Stop, collaborate and listen! Vanilla Ice is set to hit the stage in Australia along with other iconic acts from the '90s in 2017

Other acts announced in Tuesday's press release include Color Me Badd and Tone Loc.

One of the greatest one-hit-wonders of all time, Vanilla Ice, will be sure to get the party jumping with his track Ice Ice Baby, while Color Me Badd will heat things up with their hit I Wanna Sex You Up.

Having previously toured Australia in 2013, Salt-N-Pepa are looking to spice up the stage once again with energetic performances of Shoop, Push It, Whattaman and more.

Spicing things up: Salt-N-Pepa will be one of the headliners in the I Love The '90s Tour heading Down Under next June

Flashback: Known for their hit I Wanna Sex You Up, hip hop group Color Me Badd will also be performing

11 years after releasing his iconic song Gangsta's Paradise, Coolio's return to Australia will have fans excited, especially those who missed out on seeing the rapper in previous years.

The 53-year-old was last in the country in 2014 after having to postpone his tour in 2013 due to visa issues.

Previous to that, his 2009 tour was cancelled due to pending drug charges after authorities allegedly found cocaine in his luggage at Los Angeles airport.

'90s paradise: Rapper Coolio will be performing his hit Gangsta's Paradise and many more in the Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth shows

Bust A Move! Young MC meanwhile, will get the party started with his Grammy-winning hit

Meanwhile, Young MC will be making his first local appearance since 2012 to perform his Grammy-winning hit Bust A Move.

It will also be Tone Loc's first trip Down Under.

The I Love The '90s Tour will start in Melbourne on June 7th and finish up in Perth on the 13th.

Tickets go on sale on November 17.

Debut: Rapper Tone Loc will be making his first appearance in Australia
She might be well past her due date, but Laura Csortan isn't letting that dampen her spirits.

The Australian model decided to share a bikini snap of a recent trip to the beach, which showcased her baby bump in all its glory.

'Beachin with bump! #40weeks #hardtogetcomfy,' Laura, 40, captioned the image as she continues to await the arrival of her first child.

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Past her due date: Laura Csortan is all smiles as she posts bikini snap while awaiting the arrival of her first child

The TV presenter rocked a black bikini set with a cream and black wide-brimmed fedora that covered her face.

The former Miss Universe Australia is expecting a baby girl and she told The Morning Show on November 4th that she was expecting to give birth in the next couple of days.

Laura also opened up to Women's Day magazine about how she will be raising her child as a single mother.

Late: Laura was expected to give birth around her 40th birthday last week but the little bun is still in the oven

She said: 'I will be a single mum and there's a lot of single mums saying, "I went through it and these are the things you might find difficult or not," so that's really fabulous.'

Laura's former flames include ex-AFL player Chad Cornes and American model Joshua Slack, 28, though it's unclear who the baby's father is.

The subject has caused much speculation after she publicly refused to name him.

Candid: Heavily pregnant Laura has discussed the difficulty she will face in raising her first child as a single mother

Details: Laura has not publicly revealed who the father of her unborn child is

'When the baby's older I'm happy with her finding out who her father is. I'm going into this with an open mind,' she said.

She also shared the difficulty she has faced in having to explain that she is going to be a single mother.

'I didn't know how it would go down, I was terrified but it's certainly been received really well,' she said of sharing her unexpected pregnancy news with friends and family.
There's a reason Christina Hendricks is considered one of Hollywood's foremost fashionistas.

The 41-year-old actress again had the right mix of style, sass and sophistication as she appeared on a panel Monday in New York City to promote her upcoming film, Bad Santa 2.

The Tennessee native, whose go-to is stylist Lawren Sample, had everything clicking at the promotional event in a graphite grey pantsuit with her wavy red tresses parted in the middle. She rounded out the polished look with a silver choker and black heels.

Isn't she lovely: Christina Hendricks, 41, looked sleek at a Bad Santa 2 panel in NYC Monday

Laugh out loud: The Mad Men star promises fans of the first film will have plenty of outlandish chuckles at the sequel

New addition: Christina did not appear in the predecessor, as she's a new addition to the franchise along with Kathy Bates

The Hap and Leonard actress appeared on the dais alongside her co-stars in the film, Oscar winners Billy Bob Thornton and Kathy Bates, along with Tony Cox, Brett Kelly and director Mark Waters.

In the upcoming holiday comedy, a sequel to the 2003 original, Hendricks plays the role of Diane, a charity organizer who crosses paths with Thornton's curmudgeonly, drunken titular character, Willie T. Stokes.

'They are drawn to each other, because I think they have similar hobbies,' Hendricks told the pop culture website FlickeringMyth.com. The actress, who was nominated for six Emmys for her role as Joan on the AMC series Mad Men, said that moviegoers anticipating the same blue humor that made the original a hit will not be disappointed.

Q&A: The redheaded beauty sat on a stool alongside co-star Billy Bob Thornton at the event, which was held at AOL headquarters

Over-the-top: The fair-skinned beauty said that some moments in the upcoming film caused her to blush

'I hope it would be as outrageous as the first one; I read the script certainly was,' she said. 'It was very exciting to be a part of it.'

'That's the fun of it - people are saying and doing things in this film that are outrageous and it's just - you sort of open your mind to these characters and ... you're literally holding your head and sometimes you're blushing and you don't know how to react because it's so wrong.'

The Another Period beauty last month celebrated her seventh wedding anniversary with husband Geoffrey Arend.

Bad Santa 2 hits theaters November 23.

Ensemble: Hendricks (far right) was flanked by her co-stars (left to right) Thornton, Kathy Bates, Brett Kelly and Tony Cox at the Monday event

Chemistry: Hendricks says her character in the film and Thornton's are 'drawn to each other' because they have 'similar hobbies'
John Legend and his wife and All of Me muse Chrissy Teigen arrived, hand-in-hand, at JFK Airport in New York on Monday.

The jet-setting, married couple of three years appeared to be in good spirits as they headed to their car outside the bustling terminal.

The 30-year-old presenter - who relies on stylist Monica Rose - sported a hipster hat, a grey off-the-shoulder top by Rails, black skinny jeans, and booties for their flight.

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Big Apple duo: John Legend and his wife and All of Me muse Chrissy Teigen arrived, hand-in-hand, at JFK Airport in New York on Monday

The 37-year-old Oscar winner - who relies on stylist David Thomas - rocked a quilted bomber jacket with all-black attire and trainers.

It appeared to be a child-free getaway for John and Chrissy, who are parents to seven-month-old daughter Luna and plan on having three more children via IVF.

The 10-time Grammy winner - whose next gig is Friday in Austin - will likely sing his new single Love Me Now on the American Music Awards, which air live this Sunday on ABC.

Loved up: The jet-setting, married couple of three years appeared to be in good spirits as they headed to their car outside the bustling terminal

Casually clad: The 30-year-old presenter - who relies on stylist Monica Rose - sported a hipster hat, a grey off-the-shoulder top, black skinny jeans, and booties for their flight

Summer Nights singer: The 37-year-old Oscar winner - who relies on stylist David Thomas - rocked a quilted bomber jacket with all-black attire and trainers

Princess: It appeared to be a child-free getaway for John and Chrissy, who are parents to seven-month-old daughter Luna and plan on having three more children via IVF

Legend - born Stephens - will then put out his fifth studio album Darkness and Light on December 2.

The Ohio-born R&B belter executive-produced and stars as jazz bandleader Keith in the Ryan Gosling/Emma Stone musical dramedy La La Land, which hits US theaters December 16 and UK theaters January 13.

Meanwhile, Teigen just began developing recipes for the follow-up to her NY Times-Bestselling Cravings cookbook from February.

'Don't miss it!' The 10-time Grammy winner will likely sing his new single Love Me Now on the American Music Awards, which air live this Sunday on ABC (pictured October 12)

Featuring Chance The Rapper, Miguel, and Brittany Howard: Legend - born Stephens - will then put out his fifth studio album Darkness and Light on December 2

'I wrote a song [Start a Fire] for it too!' The Ohio-born R&B belter executive-produced and stars as jazz bandleader Keith in the Ryan Gosling/Emma Stone musical dramedy La La Land, which hits US theaters December 16 and UK theaters January 13

'It's happening! First day of cookbookin' for book two! Let me know if there's anything you'd looooove us to have in Cravings part two!' the former FABLife food stylist wrote on Instagram November 4.

The half-Thai beauty also provides 'colour commentary' for the third season of Lip Sync Battle, which airs Wednesdays on Spike TV.

'Cookbookin' for book two!' Meanwhile, Teigen just began developing recipes for the follow-up to her NY Times-Bestselling Cravings cookbook from February
He's one of the favourites to take the Glitterball on this series of Strictly Come Dancing.

And Danny Mac is embracing every aspect of the hit BBC show - except the constant speculation about the celeb contestants' love lives.

The Hollyoaks hunk has insisted the infamous Strictly curse (which has seen many a celebrity split from their partners during or shortly after competing) isn't even an issue between him and his actress fiancee Carley Stenson.

All about the dancing: Danny Mac has insisted the infamous Strictly curse isn't even an issue despite his sizzling chemistry with Strictly partner Oti Mabuse on the dance floor

The star, who is due to tie the knot next summer, explains to OK! Magazine that's no chance he'll be getting romantically involved with his stunning pro partner Oti Mabuse : Its not even an issue. Carley and I are stronger than weve ever been,' he says.

Oti adds of socialising with the couple alongside her husband Marius Lepure: We all hang out together at the weekends  all four of us are doing this as a family,' while Carley is in the studio audience every weekend cheering on her man.

While there is no chance of romance, Danny and Oti's sizzling chemistry on the dance floor has seen them at the top of the leaderboard this series, with the actor revealing their success is all down to Oti's strict training methods.

Real life love: The Hollyoaks hunk has said things are better than ever with his fiancee Carley Stenson, with the couple due to marry next year

Favourites: While there is no chance of romance, Danny and Oti's sizzling chemistry on the dance floor has seen them at the top of the leaderboard this series

Otis teaching methods really resonate with me, but shes hard and strict,' he says, adding: She commands the best, but I want her to. I want to be as good as I can possibly be when I go out there on a Saturday as I will never get this chance again.

Danny adds that while he's loving his time on Strictly, he's had to build up the courage to compete, revealing that the show asked him to take part three times previously.

The actor, who has starred as Mark 'Dodger' Savage on Channel 4's Hollyoaks since 2011, has discussed the uncomfortable and nerve-wracking prospect of dancing for millions before.

Long road! Danny adds that while he's loving his time on Strictly, he's had to build up the courage to compete, revealing that the show asked him to take part three times previously

Read the full story in this week's OK! Magazine - out now

Appearing on Loose Women last week, Danny confessed of the show: 'I can't explain the nerves. As an actor, I'm performing and I manage to turn it around but I've never known a feeling like it. The anxiety.'

However he has been something of a success story on the reality show so far, proving he has no need for such crippling nerves.

The hunky actor has impressed with his moves since week 1, when he scored a huge 31 from the judges for his Cha Cha. Since then he has never strayed below the 30 mark.

Revealing more about his personal life, the soap star also admitted on Loose Women that he and fiancee Carley, 34, has finally set a date for their wedding.

He announced to the panel: 'There is a date; it's towards the end of the summer  it's going to be at home [in the UK] so everyone can be there,' he revealed, although added; 'We haven't put all our invites out yet.'
School of Rock

by Andrew Lloyd Webber, New London Theatre

Rating:





Time to rename Andrew Lloyd Webber ... Lord Meat Loaf! The veteran composers latest show, just imported from America, is a rooty-tooty, rock-pumpin effort with not a single, warbling ballad to be found.

Instead it gives us a stage full of child-rockers playing electric guitar like shrink-wrapped Jimi Hendrixes. Ear-splitting and rib-tickling, it makes for one of the most merrily liberated romps (or riffs) of the year.

His lordship has collaborated with Downton Abbey script writer Julian Fellowes and lyricist Glenn Slater.

School of Rock gives us a stage full of child-rockers playing electric guitar like shrink-wrapped Jimi Hendrixes

Oliver Jackson (Ned Schneebly) and David Fynn (Dewey Finn) during the curtain call

They have reconstructed a 2003 film about a down-and-out rocker who blags himself a job as music teacher at a prissy American private school.

Wastrel Dewey Finn assumes the name of his best friend Ned Schneebly and corrupts a class of pre-pubescent children by turning them into a rock band. Can they win a local talent show against some adult heavy-metal dudes?

Imagine the Roald Dahl musical Matilda on speed and you may start to picture it. In fact, Im sure they have even borrowed some inspiration from the school uniforms in Matilda.

If you listen carefully you can just about hear a few trademark Lloyd Webber phrases but it is all pretty well disguised amid the cheery din.

A stickler for musical-theatre standards might argue that the song lyrics and even some of the lines are indistinct.

The story takes a while to get going  to show us what a failure and slob Finn is.

Preeya Kalidas (Patty Di Marco): Ear-splitting and rib-tickling, it makes for one of the most merrily liberated romps (or riffs) of the year

Imagine the Roald Dahl musical Matilda on speed and you may start to picture it. In fact, Im sure they have even borrowed some inspiration from the school uniforms in Matilda

There are endless whoop moments but that is the modern American way

In these respects, David Fynn is well cast. He is so out of shape, he puffs and pants and can barely get the words out to match the beat of some early songs. He also sweats buckets. No matter. His character is meant to be a chubster, after all.

Are some of the scenarios corny? Yes. The headmistress of sniffy Horace Green school, played by Florence Andrews, eventually melts, as we knew she would.

Finns hen-pecked best friend (a wondrously chinless Oliver Jackson) finally tells his wife to shut up.

There are endless whoop moments but that is the modern American way. And Lord Fellowes works in some delicious teasing of uptight parents. He even teases a gay couple. What WILL Elton and David say?

Andrew Lloyd Webbers latest show, just imported from America, is a rooty-tooty, rock-pumpin effort with not a single, warbling ballad to be found

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Julian Fellowes, Glenn Slater and director Laurence Connor with the cast

Any faults are balanced by a cast of irresistibly talented pupils. Director Laurence Connor has worked wonders with them.

I loved their incessant leaping, kicking their heels high behind their calves, and their sheer delight in rocking in front of a swanky first-night crowd that included some of the West Ends fattest wallets.

Without wishing to be maudlin, there is also a strong dose of truth in the story. Rock music really can be the making of shy children.

My lad, in his early teens, was at a private school and not doing much. Then he discovered the electric guitar.
 Flash

Iraqi security forces on Monday killed at least 57 militants of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in and near the city of Mosul, as fierce battles continued in the city to drive out the IS militants from their last major stronghold in Iraq.

The commandos of the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) repelled several attacks by IS suicide bombers on the troops' positions in the freed districts in eastern Mosul, including al-Qadsiyah and Zahraa, according to the CTS deputy commander Lieutenant General Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi.

The troops fought fierce clashes with the attackers and managed to kill 26 suicide bombers, Saadi told reporters.

The security forces have been fighting to go deeper into the eastern side of the city, locally known as left bank of the Tigris River, but the troops were slowed by stubborn resistance of the extremist militants who are fighting in small groups of well-trained fighters with snipers, suicide bomb attacks and many landmines, in addition to the heavy presence of civilians in their homes in Mosul districts.

Saadi also said that the CTS commandos will storm the Baker district in the coming hours, while heavy clashes are underway in several other districts.

Separately, the troops of the army's 16th Division and allied Sunni tribal fighters killed 31 IS militants and destroyed two booby-trapped cars when they stormed IS positions in area located some five kilometers in north of Mosul, according to the commander of the security forces in north of Mosul, Lieutenant General Ali al-Freiji.

In south of Mosul, the armored 9th Division freed the village of al-Naiyfa, just west of the town of Nimrud and its nearby archeological site, some 30 km south of Mosul, which the troops liberated them on Sunday, said Lieutenant General Abdul-Amir Yarallah from the Joint Operations Command.

In west of Mosul, the Shiite Hashd Shaabi paramilitary units continued their advance in the vast rugged land in west of Mosul toward the town of Tal-Afar, some 70 km west of Mosul, and managed to recaptured four villages after clashes with the IS militants, Yarallah said in a press release.

Tal Afar, which used to have majority of both Sunni and Shiite Turkoman villagers, as well as other minorities of Kurds and Arabs, fell to IS in 2014.

The advance of the pre-dominantly Shiite paramilitary units was aimed to cut off the supply lines between Mosul and neighboring Syria, but such advance in the ethnically mixed region where Sunni Muslims form a majority, could spark sectarian tension with Sunni Arabs and neighboring Sunni state of Turkey.

The battles in and around Mosul is part of a major offensive announced by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Oct. 17 to retake Mosul, the country's second largest city.

Since then, the Iraqi security forces have inched to the eastern fringes of Mosul and made progress on other routes around the city.

Early in the month, hundreds of the CTS commandos and Iraqi army made a significant progress from three directions at the eastern side of Mosul and managed to recapture some 10 districts, so far, out of about 60 districts on both sides of the city.

Mosul, some 400 km north of Iraqi capital of Baghdad, has been under IS control since June 2014, when Iraqi government forces abandoned their weapons and fled, enabling IS militants to take control of parts of Iraq's northern and western regions.
NW

Rating:

Tricks of the Restaurant Trade

Rating:

Are you sitting miserably? Then we'll begin. NW (BBC2), the much vaunted, one-off drama based on a Zadie Smith novel and set in the Beeb's North London homeland, was a depressing concoction of shallow, hateful characters, lazy story-telling and ludicrous situations.

It was supposed to be an analysis of a friendship between two women who had grown up on the same tough housing estate: one an ambitious barrister with two precocious children, the other a kind-hearted charity worker who was afraid of seeing her life change.

Natalie Blake, left played by Nikki Amuka-Bird, with Leah Hanwell, played by Pheobe Fox in BBC2's NW

NW with Nikki Amuka-Bird as Natalie Blake, which received just one star from the Mail's Christopher Stevens

Boiled down to that short blurb, it sounded quite good  though since I learned that the experimental novel includes 185 numbered paragraphs designed to be read in any order, I'm not planning to take the book on holiday with me.

Nikki Amuka-Bird and Phoebe Fox played the friends, Natalie and Leah, but nothing the actresses did could make their characters seem real. Leah was a whiny, gullible bore who befriended heroin addicts. Natalie was emotionally dead, cheating on her husband in a series of graphic, very seedy encounters.

Neither of them were human beings. They were just a collection of nasty traits and experiences, cobbled together with self-pity.

HAPLESS GUIDE OF THE NIGHT Chris Tarrant was in South Africa to ride the fabled Blue Train, in Extreme Railway Journeys (C5). But he couldn't find the terminus and, when he did scramble aboard, he couldn't think of anything more descriptive to say of the luxurious fittings than: 'Nice carpet!' Advertisement

That was far from the worst of it. Every event was blatantly signposted, leaving no space for surprises or even a moderate amount of interest. As soon as we saw Leah had a dog  a King Charles spaniel, easily the most likeable creature in the show  we knew it was doomed.

In pretentious tales like this, that's all animals are useful for: to be killed in plot twists. The dog was kicked to death in the street by a drug-dealing thug called Tyler (Charles Mnene) who was also a woman beater, a pimp, a thief and finally a knife murderer.

Tyler was even rude to pregnant women on the Tube.

Such a coarse, one-dimensional portrait of a vile youth would be decried as racist, except that Zadie Smith has been anointed as the spokeswoman of Black Britain by the chattering classes.

Halfway through the drama, a new character popped up with no connection to anyone. Played by O-T Fagbenle, Felix was a cheeky wide-boy, who was kind to his old dad. He'd been to prison but he'd turned his life around, and he adored his girlfriend. He whistled in the street.

Obviously, like the poor dog, he was created for no purpose but to be killed off, by the racist stereotype on the Tube train.

The women didn't know Felix, but the news that he was dead was just the impetus they needed to pull their lives together. Leah resolved to stop sulking and having abortions, and Natalie realised she wanted to be a single mother.

It was all summed up by Leah's moment of epiphany: 'I don't wanna have kids and watch them grow up while I grow old and die.' Isn't that heartwarming?

So much wallowing in self-induced unhappiness is enough to make anyone long for comfort food. Unfortunately, you mustn't have any, not even a milky coffee and a biscuit  it'll kill you, Kate Quilton warned on Tricks Of The Restaurant Trade (C4).

Simon Rimmer and Kate Quilton present Tricks of the Restaurant Trade on Channel 4

The Collins family, who appear on tonight's Tricks of the Restaurant Trade on Channel 4, were spending 600 a month on Chinese takeaways every month

The Collins family used to get two takeaways every week because parents Dan and Lisa (on right) said they were too busy to cook

Takeaway food is so laden with calories, fat and salt, she revealed, that before you get a fish 'n' chip supper, you'd better leave a suicide note on the kitchen table.

The worst is Chinese food, apparently. She watched one family gorge on their favourite roasted duck and rice, then told them that they had ordered 15,000 calories between the five of them  enough to last an adult for an entire week.

Just as shocking was the waste: they spent 75 and threw half of it away. I've heard of having money to burn, but this was deep-frying it and smothering it in soy sauce.

A tasty coffee-and-cream in a cafe might seem less excessive, but reporter Adam Pearson had more bad news: 'frappuccinos', 'frappe lattes' and the like contain up to 17 teaspoonsful of sugar. It might be cheaper, and less trouble in the long run, just to have all your teeth out.
Megan Gale has joined the Movember men's health movement and has revealed why the cause is one very close to her and partner Shaun Hampson's heart.

Speaking to the Today show on Tuesday, the 40-year-old spoke of how both of their fathers passed away too soon due to cancer.

'His dad passed away from prostate cancer. My dad sadly passed away a few months later,' she said.

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Heartbreaking: Megan Gale has joined the Movember men's health movement and revealed why the cause is one very close to her and partner Shaun Hampson's heart on the Today show on Tuesday

Megan's father passed away due to asbestos-related lung cancer soon after Shaun's tragic loss.

Appearing to tear up, she added: 'Men's health is very much in the forefront our minds and something we are very passionate about.'

The Movember campaign is committed to changing the face of men's health and encourages people to donate funds and sponsor men who grow mustaches during November in support of the cause.

'Because men are dying too yoiung': The Australian supermodel said she joined the campaign after Shaun (pictured) had been an active ambassador for three years

Half of all Australian men are believed to be diagnosed with cancer by their mid 80s.

The Australian supermodel said she joined the campaign after Shaun had been an active ambassador for three years.

The TV presenter informed the panel that prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among Australian men, but often men are dismissive of their symptoms.

'Men are quite reluctant to talk about health, stay on top of their health, go to the doctor, especially the older generation,' she said.

'Men are quite reluctant to talk about health': The TV presenter said men are often dismissive of their symptoms with a 'she'll be right' attitude

Megan encouraged people to go to the doctor because if they catch something early they can do something about it.

'Listen to your body and not put things off and not think, "She'll be right", and that that kind of attitude,' she pleaded.

As the fashion designer doesn't have the ability to grow a mustache to support the cause, she turned her efforts to sporting another statement piece.

Statement support! The fashion designer revealed her collaboration with Melbourne-based watch brand Uncle Jack, who have designed limited edition watches, on sale for $149, to benefit the cause

During the chat she revealed her collaboration with Melbourne-based watch brand Uncle Jack, who have designed limited edition watches to benefit the cause.

Megan said 10 per cent of the proceeds will go directly to Movember, which she believes is one great way for females to get involved with the campaign.

Today show host Karl Stefanovic broke the ice with a signature comedic outburst as he exaggeratedly posed with the watch on his wrist while sporting a stick-on mustache.

Strike a pose! Megan allowed co-host Karl Stefanovic to model the limited edition design as he comically posed with the watch while sporting a fake mustache

He then cheekily joked he might re-gift the watch to his brother Pete for Christmas, after Megan suggested what a great gift it would make for the festive season.

The watches are hand-crafted with stainless steel and are on sale now for $149.

Megan and her AFL playing started dating in 2011 and while they're yet to wed they share two-year-old son River together.
She has spent most of her life in the limelight, having graced the cover of countless magazines and enjoyed the fanfare of endless red carpet events.

But 17 years ago, Bec Hewitt (nee Cartwright) was an awkward 15-year-old preparing to attend her very first Logie Awards ceremony.

In a rare piece of cringe-inducing home footage uncovered this week by Yahoo7 Be, the then 15-year-old is seen wiggling around her Sydney home in a purple satin gown ahead of her Logies debut.

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Cringe! In a rare piece of cringe-inducing home footage uncovered this week, a 15-year-old Bec Hewitt (nee Cartwright) is seen wiggling around her Sydney home in a purple satin gown ahead of her Logies debut

Parading her slinky dress in front of her mother Michelle and a group of cooing onlookers, the nervous aspiring actor looks worlds away from her current stature.

'Isn't she beautiful?' gasped Michelle as Bec swanned into the living room.

'Stunning', responded several onlookers, while another added: 'She's got a very nice back.'

No shrinking violet! Parading her slinky dress in front of her mother Michelle and a group of cooing onlookers, the nervous aspiring actor looks worlds away from her current stature

'It's dragging on the ground. I've got to take it up a bit,' another viewer remarked.

The man behind the camera then asked Bec to move into the kitchen where the lighting was brighter, before asking: 'Is that how you're going to have your hair up like that?'

'Dunno yet,' Bec replied timidly.

Rise to fame! Bec was nominated in the Logie Award category for Most Popular New Female Talent thanks to her iconic portrayal of Hayley Smith Lawson on Home And Away (pictured at the Logies 2000)

Indeed, images from the 1999 Logie Awards show that Bec did wear her hair in the curled up-do featured in the home movie.

Bec was nominated in the Logie Award category for Most Popular New Female Talent thanks to her iconic portrayal of Hayley Smith Lawson on Home And Away.

While she missed out on taking home the gong in 1999, she finally managed to scoop a Logie for Best Actress in 2005.
Olivia Palermo donned retro flared denim at Monday night's opening of the Letters to Andy Warhol exhibition in Manhattan.

The 30-year-old fashion maven - rocking outdated ombre locks - paired her pleated blue jeans with a chic black cape, matching blouse, necktie, and heels.

Joining the New York socialite was her handsome husband of two years, Johannes Huebl, in a sophisticated grey coat and black jumper.

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Bell bottoms: Olivia Palermo donned retro flared denim at Monday night's opening of the Letters to Andy Warhol exhibition in Manhattan

The City alum: The 30-year-old fashion maven - rocking outdated ombre locks - paired her pleated blue jeans with a chic black cape, matching blouse, necktie, and heels

Attractive couple: Joining the New York socialite was her handsome husband of two years, Johannes Huebl, in a sophisticated grey coat and black jumper

Olivia and the German model - who turns 39 next month - began their romance back in 2008 but they have yet to start a family.

The Models 1 beauty styled Banana Republic's holiday campaign herself, having been made their first women's global style ambassador in September.

'My new @bananarepublic campaign is out #BRHoliday #ItsBanana!' Palermo - who boasts 5.8M followers - announced last Wednesday.

Brooklyn-based duo: Olivia and the German model - who turns 39 next month - began their romance back in 2008 but they have yet to start a family

On her toes: The Models 1 beauty styled Banana Republic's holiday campaign herself, having been made their first women's global style ambassador in September

Also celebrating Warhol at Cadillac House was The Claypool Lennon Delirium frontman Sean Lennon, rocking a hipster hat and diamond-patterned scarf.

The 41-year-old nepotistically-privileged son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono penned a short memoir of the late pop art icon and scored the gallery's interactive VR environments.

Burnt actress Sienna Miller - who relies on stylist Kate Young - turned up in a metallic mini-dress beneath her long black winter coat.

Burly beard: Also celebrating Warhol at Cadillac House was The Claypool Lennon Delirium frontman Sean Lennon, rocking a hipster hat and diamond-patterned scarf

Selfie: The 41-year-old nepotistically-privileged son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono penned a short memoir of the late pop art icon and scored the gallery's interactive VR environments

Leggy: Burnt actress Sienna Miller - who relies on stylist Kate Young - turned up in a metallic mini-dress beneath her long black winter coat

Golden girl: The Golden Globe nominee - who turns 35 next month - paired her golden cocktail frock with matching stilettos and red lipstick

The Golden Globe nominee - who turns 35 next month - paired her golden cocktail frock with matching stilettos and red lipstick.

And British model Poppy Delevingne - whose sister is Cara - bared her taut tummy in a black crop-top and mesh maxi shirt.

The 30-year-old socialite - who's married to James Cook - was joined at the gallery by Vanity Fair's 'Man on the Street' Derek Blasberg.

Blonde ambition: And British model Poppy Delevingne - whose sister is Cara - bared her taut tummy in a black crop-top and mesh maxi shirt
She comes from a family of famous democrats.

So it comes as no surprise that Maria Shriver could look so beautiful in blue.

The 61-year-old journalist was a featured speaker at the Glamour Women Of The Year 2016 LIVE Summit in Los Angeles on Monday.

Lovely lady: Maria Shriver was a featured speaker at the Glamour Women Of The Year 2016 LIVE Summit in Los Angeles on Monday

She looked fantastic in a navy number as she arrived at the event at NeueHouse Hollywood.

Maria wore a dark blue blouse midi dress featuring a belt which wrapped around her waist.

She rocked a pair of black leather heels as she accessorised with silver bracelets and earrings.

Evergreen: The 61-year-old journalist looked fantastic in a navy number as she arrived at the event at NeueHouse Hollywood

Pretty: Maria wore a dark blue blouse midi dress featuring a belt which wrapped around her waist

Her brunette tresses were worn down flowing over her shoulders for the occasion.

The estranged wife of Arnold Schwarzenegger let her evergreen looks show with smokey eye and shiny lip.

At the event she was joined by Cindi Leive as they had a conversation about realising when a change should happen and how to be an architect of that change.

Vital: At the event she talked about realising when a change should happen and how to be an architect of that change

Wise words: She said: 'I would just advocate that it is much better to go with the change than to try to confront it because it is going to happen anyway whether you like it or not'

She said that she believes many people are afraid of change but rolling with the punches is a better way to go about it.

Maria said: 'I would just advocate that it is much better to go with the change than to try to confront it because it is going to happen anyway whether you like it or not.'

One thing that hasn't changed, however, is that her divorce from Arnold Schwarzenegger is still not final although they ended the relationship five years ago.

Sending a message: At the event she was joined by Cindi Leive

They have both moved on romantically while giving no explanation as to why they've not legally changed their marital status.

According to a report on TMZ, neither is interested in ending the marriage and it just continues on that way.

Arnold, 69, is in a relationship with Heather Milligan and Maria seems happy dating Matthew Dowd.
Thor might have Mjolnir to get him around, but his real-life alter ego has a far more 21st century vehicle.

Chris Hemsworth proved that on Tuesday, posting a video of himself whizzing across a beach in Byron Bay on an electric bike.

Chris Hemsworth proved that on Tuesday, posting a video of himself whizzing across a beach in Byron Bay on an electric bike.Thor might have Mjolnir to get him around, but his real-life alter ego has a far more 21st century

Filmed by his PT pal, Luke Zocchi, the Marvel star couldn't have looked more giddy as he glided across the sand.

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Hot wheels: Chris Hemsworth posted a video of himself going for a ride on an electric bike in Byron Bay on Tuesday

Chris went barefoot as he rode the two-wheeler, rocking a simple T-shirt, long shorts and a boyish grin.

He captioned the video: '#bestplaceonearth'.

The actor lives in Byron Bay with his wife Elsa Pataky, 40, and their three children, four-year-old daughter India Rose, and two-year-old twin sons Tristan and Sasha.

Here he goes: Chris is seen whizzing across the beach in the video posted to Instagram

Skills: Chris went barefoot as he glided across the sand on the two-wheeler

'We can walk straight down to the beach, we can have a normal existence and the kids have a hell of a lot more fun than they did back in the States,' the 33-year-old actor told Woman's Day magazine.

Earlier this year, Thor star Chris said he was content with his decision to move the family back Down Under as he found the Hollywood lifestyle 'suffocating'.

'I love what I do as an actor, but when you are surrounded by it constantly, it becomes a bit suffocating,' he told Modern Luxury.

Finished: Chris is free after wrapping on Thor: Ragnarok

He recently wrapped on the third Thor movie, Ragnarok, which was filming on Australia's Gold Coast.

The film is the latest in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and will take place predominantly in Asgard.

Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum and Tessa Thompson joined the cast alongside Mark Ruffalo whose Hulk will make his debut in the Thor film franchise.

Thor: Ragnarok is in cinemas from October 27, 2017
Erika Heynatz looked in great shape on Sunday as she showed off her post-baby body during a beach outing with her family.

The Home And Away actress was spotted on Sydney's Dee Why Beach while enjoying some quality time with husband Andrew Kingston and their son Charlie Kingston.

Erika looked fantastic in a one-piece swimsuit after giving birth to her baby boy in December last year.

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Beach day: Erika Heynatz enjoyed a day on Dee Why Beach on Sunday alongside husband David Kingston and son Charlie

The former Home And Away star donned a colourful suit as the young family built sandcastles before heading for a swim in the sea.

Erika also slipped on a pair of red shorts for warmth, occasionally wrapping a yellow towel around her as she sheltered from the sea breeze.

Her finance broker hubby dressed in the same colourful vein as his other half, sporting a pair of flower-pattern swimming trunks.

Beach bod: Erika looked fantastic in a one-piece swimsuit

Happy family: Erika and David welcomed their first child Charlie into the world when she gave birth in December 2015

Playtime: The trio spent time on the beach playing and building sandcastles

Colourful: Erika and her husband both sported bright bathing suits, with the actress wearing a pair of red shorts for extra warmth

Proud parents: Erika and David tended to their young son's every need as they enjoyed quality time together

Helping hand: Erika helps Charlie to sit-up straight as the toddler enjoys himself at the beach

The couple's little man wore a turquoise bathing suit and a sun hat, leaving him well protected against the elements.

Erika let her long blonde locks flow behind her as she looked happy and contented beside her young family.

The former Australia's Next Top Model host still managed to add a touch of glamour to her beach look with a stylish watch on her left wrist.

Taking a dip: The family moved from the sand into the water as Erika kept the towel ready to wrap her youngster up in

Making a splash: Charlie clung to his dad as David prepared to dip his son in the water

Throw in the towel: When the youngster had had enough of the water, mum was ready with the towel

Tatts the way: The tattooed finance broker showed of inkings on his right and left arms

Helping hand: The young family didn't stray from each other's sides during their day at Dee Why

Carry on: David carried his 11-month-old son in and out of the sea while Erika followed with the towel

Walking tall: Erika and David have been married for nine years after they tied the knot in 2007

Accompanied by an array of buckets and spades, Charlie set about building sand castles with the help of his dad.

In a bid to cool down as temperatures rose, David carried his son into the sea as Erika followed.

The family then retreated to back to their spot on the beach, never straying from each other's sides.

Going in: The mum-of-one kept a watchful eye on her spouse as he took Charlie for a swim

'Cold, Erika?' The 41-year-old seemed to shudder with the chill of the sea as she submerged herself

Mummy's boy: Erika recently revealed she travels all over the country with Charlie for work

Erika, 41, recently revealed she travels all over the country with her 11-month-old son right by her side.

'He started travelling with me three months after he arrived,' the former L.A. Noire star told The Daily Telegraph.

'We started off in Melbourne, went to Sydney and we've just finished up in Brisbane. We have a brief break at home now and then we're off to Adelaide and Perth.'
He's the controversial businessman who had a historic victory in the recent American elections.

And within hours of being named President-elect, Donald Trump sat down for an exclusive interview with US 60 Minutes, which aired in Australia on Monday night.

And it seems Australians were very interested in what the former TV star had to say, with 779,000 people tuning in across Australia's five metropolitan cities to watch the interview on Network Ten.

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Coming up Trumps! Donald Trump's first interview since becoming US President-elect won the ratings in it's timeslot for Network Ten, who aired the US 60 Minutes exclusive in Australia on Monday night - with 779,000 people tuning in across the five metropolitan cities

Trump: First Interview, which originally aired on Ten's US sister network, CBS, comfortably won its 7.30pm slot.

The Project primetime special was primarily anchored by the news show's co-host Waleed Aly, who recently returned from the US, where he covered the election for the show.

The move was a success for the network, edging ahead of Channel Nine's RBT, which scored 744,000 viewers in the same time slot.

It also beat Seven's popular series The X Factor, which only averaged 697,000 viewers in comparison.

Trump's star power appeared to pull rank over the A-list judging panel, including Mel B, Guy Sebastian, Adam Lambert and Iggy Azalea, by a whopping 80,000 viewers.

Battle of star power: Trump appeared to have more 'X Factor' than the Australian talent show featuring Mel B, Guy Sebastian, Adam Lambert and Iggy Azalea, which was beaten in the ratings by 80,000 viewers

In America the exclusive chat was reported to have attracted 19 million viewers - almost 6 per cent of their recorded population.

During Trump's first sit-down TV interview after being elected, he revealed his stance on a number of issues he had campaigned on in the lead up to the election.

He was also joined by his family in the second half of the formal TV special, filmed inside his Trump Tower penthouse in New York, confirming his four eldest children would not have jobs in his administration.

Serious sit down: Trump's first official TV interview since being elected President attracted 19 million viewers in the US

While the Australian edition of 60 Minutes usually airs on the Nine Network, it's the first time rivals Network Ten have screened a US version of the program.

A Ten spokeswoman revealed to The Daily Telegraph the channel has a deal with the American channel who originally aired the overseas interview.

'We have the output deal with CBS for all of their programming and therefore their content,' she said.

A victory for Ten! While the Australian edition of 60 Minutes usually airs on the Nine Network, it's the first time rivals Network Ten have screened a US version of the program, thanks to their output deal with US network, CBS

'Although Nine own the 60 Minutes brand in Australia they do not have a deal with CBS for the American 60 Minutes content,' she added.

Nine apparently relinquished their rights to air the US show several years ago.

With the new deal, Ten now has the ability to stream further 60 Minutes exclusives over its rival.

Rivals! Nine apparently relinquished their rights to air the US show several years ago, and decided to air RBT in the timeslot to compete which fell short of the highest rating by more than 30,000 metro viewers
She recently gave birth to her second child, a baby boy.

So it wouldn't be surprising if busy mother-of-two Lara Bingle (nee Worthington) is having some sleepless nights.

The stunning model and beauty entrepreneur looked a little on the tired side as she stepped out in New York on Monday with her cute son, Rocket Zot.

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Sleepless nights? Lara Bingle looked a little on the sleepy side as she stepped out in New York on Monday with her cute son Rocket Zot after giving birth to her second child

The 29-year-old was seen helping her 19-month-old adjust his black baseball cap as the pair went for a stroll around the Big Apple.

Lara covered up her post-pregnancy figure in an all black ensemble, including a pair of black trousers and a baggy black sweater.

Her accessories were also of the dark shade, with the blonde beauty toting an oversized black leather handbag and wearing a pair of comfortable Yeezy sneakers on her feet.

Meanwhile, Rocket looked as cute as a button almost matching his mother in Adidas tracksuit pants, a Thrasher T-shirt and tiny New Balance sneakers on his feet.

The sighting came shortly after a close friend told OK! magazine that Lara and her husband Sam Worthington are 'just focused on enjoying this special time together, and settling into a new routine,' as they juggle their newborn son with son Rocket.

OK! magazine also claimed that Lara's mother Sharon travelled to New York to assist Lara and Sam during the baby's first few days before jetting back to Australia on October 27.

Taking to Instagram upon her arrival in New York, Sharon proudly shared a selfie on Instagram picturing herself and Lara, accompanied by the telling caption: 'Happy days @laraworthington #ncy#huge.'

Cute: The mother-of-two helped Rocket with his tiny baseball cap

Meanwhile, Lara and Sam have remained tight-lipped on the baby's name.

'Lara was telling some friends from early on that she's having a boy,' a source told Who magazine.

'She was quite open, saying how happy she is,' they added.

In June, the former reality TV star confirmed that she and her actor husband Sam were expecting their second child together.




She announced her engagement to Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel four months ago.

And Miranda Kerr looked to be trying dresses on for size, as she made a stunning arrival at the Jaguar Concept Reveal in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

The 33-year-old highlighted her svelte figure in a white calf-length frock that revealed her taut torso with cut-out detailing.

Trying on for size? Bride-to-be Miranda Kerr, 33, stunned in a form-fitting white frock at Jaguar's Concept Reveal in Los Angeles on Tuesday

While taking to the media wall, Miranda showed off her flawless figure in a form-fitting white frock.

The slim-fitting nature of the ensemble drew attention to her delicate decolletage and toned shoulders, while subtle draping of fabric from the knees down, added a feminine touch.

Cut-out detailing also accentuated her taut torso and slim waist.

Details: The slim-fitting nature of the ensemble drew attention to her delicate decolletage and toned shoulders, while subtle draping of fabric from the knees down, added a feminine touch

Keeping accessories to a minimum, Miranda elongated her statuesque frame with a pair of metallic heels, carried her belongings in a coordinating clutch, and made sure to show off her sparkling engagement ring.

Allowing her short cropped locks to fall effortlessly around her face and shoulders in glamorous curls, the mother-of-one enhanced her striking facial features with a flawless complexion, defined brows, lashings of mascara, a touch of blush on the apples of her cheeks and a bold red lip.

Other celebrity attendees on the night included James Corden, Gavin Rossdale, Mischa Barton, Jay Leno, Michelle Rodriguez, Vinnie Jones, Louise Roe and Niall Horan.

White on the mark: Cut-out detailing also accentuated Miranda's taut torso and slim waist

In style: The mother-of-one elongated her statuesque frame with a pair of metallic heels and carried her belongings in a coordinating clutch, while making sure to show off her sparkling engagement ring

Beauty: The entrepreneur allowed her short cropped locks to fall effortlessly around her face and shoulders in glamorous curls

Actress Mischa Barton, 30, highlighted her slimline figure in a white jumpsuit, with cleverly placed stitching under the bust drawing attention to her slender waist.

Elongating her frame with a pair of black heels, the Dancing With The Stars contestant styled her blonde tresses in loose waves and finished off the look with a pop of red lipstick.

Actress Michelle Rodriguez, 38, opted for a cool and casual figure.

She's all-white! Actress Mischa Barton, 30, highlighted her slimline figure in a white jumpsuit, teamed with a pair of black heels

Black to basics: Actress Michelle Rodriguez, 38, opted for a cool and casual figure in head-to-toe black

Slinky: Television presenter and fashion journalist Louise Roe, 34, opted for a silk black frock that skimmed over her slim curves

The Furious 7 star sported head-to-toe black, a chic blouse skimming over her slim frame, and a pair of skin-tight pants that clung to her trim pins.

Accessorising with black boots and sunglasses left to hang on the neckline of her shirt, the popular personality styled her dark tresses in loose waves.

Celebrity mum Miranda is regarded as one of the world's most beautiful models, while Evan Spiegel, 26, is one of the youngest self-made billionaires in the world.

Effortless: One Direction's Niall Horan, 23, cut a casual figure in a slim-fitting sweater, teamed with a pair of indigo jeans and tan loafers

Suave: Television host and comedian James Corden, 38, sported a tailored black suit, with a crisp white shirt and floral tie

Nice and easy: Musician Gavin Rossdale, 51, opted for a collarless white shirt, black suit jacket and trousers, teamed with a pair of black sneakers

Miranda and Evan went public as a couple in June 2015 after first meeting at a Louis Vuitton dinner in New York City in 2014.

The former Victoria's Secret model said that even though they hit it off together almost immediately, they began their relationship as friends.

Miranda married actor Orlando Bloom, 39, in 2010, but called quits on their marriage in 2013.

The pair share custody of their five-year-old son Flynn as they move on with their new respective partners.

Orlando has since begun a relationship with pop star Katy Perry.

Shades of blue: Television host Jay Leno, 66, cut a casual figure in a double denim ensemble, teamed with tan dress shoes
Kerri-Anne Kennerley broke down in tears on Sunday Night when talking about her husband John's paralysis.

The TV personality confessed she 'hates' her life after her longtime partner suffered a freak accident earlier this year.

And it looks like the situation is taking its toll on the 63-year-old as she appeared downcast in southern Sydney on Monday.

Taking its toll: Kerri-Anne Kennerley looked downcast while shopping in Sydney on Monday, a day she broke down on TV while discussing her husband John's paralysis

The former Good Morning Australia star looked strained during a shopping trip at Flower Power in Taren Point.

Kerri-Ann, who is a household name Down Under, dressed casually for the outing in a yellow zip-up top and white trousers.

She also appeared top go make-up free and styled her shoulder-length blonde hair loose and straight.

Stressful time: The 63-year-old TV personality confessed she 'hates' her life after her longtime partner suffered a freak accident earlier this year

Struggling to cope: The former Good Morning Australia star looked strained during her recent shopping trip at Flower Power in Taren Point

The Midday host was spotted pushing a trolley of flowers to her car while assisted by a Flower Power staff member.

She made an effort to put on a brave face for onlookers and was even photographed smiling briefly.

But a tense phone call possibly betrayed her real emotions as she appeared tired and strained during the conversation.

Retail therapy? The Midday host was spotted pushing a trolley of flowers to her car while assisted by a Flower Power staff member

Keeping it simple: Kerri-Ann, who is a household name Down Under, dressed casually for the outing in a yellow zip-up top and white trousers

Casual style: She also appeared top go make-up free and styled her shoulder-length blonde hair loose and straight

The trip comes a day after her tearful TV interview was broadcast on Channel Seven's Sunday Night.

During the episode, Kerri-Anne wept while discussing the devastating fall that left her husband John paralysed.

Despite being optimistic about his progress, she confessed it was difficult coming to terms with her new reality.

'I hate this new life to be quite frank. I just hate it. It's awful,' she wept.

Is everything okay? Despite putting on a brave face, a tense phone call possibly betrayed her real emotions as she appeared tired and strained during the conversation

Going public: The trip comes a day after Kerri-Ann's tearful TV interview was broadcast on Channel Seven's Sunday Night

Heartbreak: During the episode, Kerri-Anne wept while discussing the devastating fall that left her husband John paralysed

'I think right now, the most difficult thing... is not being able to talk to him,' she added.

John, 76, slipped during a social gathering in Coffs Harbour on the New South Wales north coast.

'It wasn't a particularly big fall,' John said. 'It was only about 800mm, but I just landed on my head and neck - there was a crack.

'It's awful': Kerri-Ann has spoken publicly about her recent family struggle

Strong: She made an effort to put on a brave face for onlookers and was even photographed smiling briefly

Tired: Kerri-Anne, who has been married to English mathematician John for 32 years, says the accident has taken its toll on her

'I hate this new life': Kerri Anne spoke candidly about John's injury on TV on the weekend

'I remember coming to... I couldn't move anything. I couldn't move my arms, I couldn't move my legs.

'And Kerri was with me within a second and I remember saying to her "I think I'm paralysed, I can't move." Soon after that, I fainted.'

Kerri-Anne, who has been married to the Englishman for 32 years, says the accident has taken its toll on her.

Meanwhile, John is now back at the couple's Sydney home after eight months in hospital. Doctors say he is lucky to be alive.

'I couldn't move anything': John was left permanently paralysed after a fall at Coffs Harbour on the New South Wales north coast earlier this year

By his side: John praised his wife for her support throughout his recovery on Sunday Night
He has been documenting his travels around Australia since touching down two weeks ago.

And on Sunday, actor Scott Eastwood left jaws dropping across Bronte Beach in Sydney's east as he enjoyed a beach day out.

While jogging up the coastline, the 30-year-old showed off his very muscular torso as he went shirtless and dressed in nothing but a pair of boardshorts.

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He's a sight for sore eyes: Actor Scott Eastwood left jaws dropping across Bronte Beach in Sydney's east on Sunday as he went shirtless during a beach day out

After taking a dip in the crystal blue eyes, the Fury star's black shorts wrapped tightly around his thigh and rose high above the knees.

As he rocked a clean shaven face, the Hollywood heartthrob spiked his wet brunette hair tall.

After body surfing the crashing waves, Scott was seen soaking up the spring sunshine, sunbaking on the sandy coastline.

Hottie alert: The 30-year-old showed off his very muscular torso as he went shirtless and dressed in nothing but a pair of boardshorts

Coming in: During the outing, the hunk was seen body surfing the waves back to the shoreline

While stretched out on a towel, he protected his eyes with a pair of black sunglasses as he read over notes written on white pieces of paper.

Days beforehand, the son of famous Hollywood star Clint, revealed he has found 'some of the nicest humans on the planet' in the city of Sydney as he films Pacific Rim 2.

Taking to his Instagram account, he spoke in glowing terms about his Australian experience as he sat down to dinner with some of the movie's cast and crew.

The caption read: 'Great dinner tonight with some great people in Sydney. The hospitality here is off the charts!!!'

Feels like home: Days beforehand, the son of famous Hollywood star Clint, revealed he has found 'some of the nicest humans on the planet' in the city of Sydney

He added: 'Some of the nicest humans on the planet here.'

The Suicide Squad star has embraced his time Down Under, tweeting 'this place is the best' as he grabbed a meat pie from a food outlet outside Capitol Theatre in October.

Scott's upcoming film Pacific Rim 2, which is scheduled for release in 2018, charts humanity's battle against Japanese monster Kaiju, who has invaded earth.

Filming has begun at the Fox Studios in Sydney, with some location shooting in Queensland also scheduled.
He's been busy lately filming George Clooney's latest directorial effort, Suburbicon.

And Matt Damon was no doubt more than happy to take an evening off from work to spend some quality time with his gorgeous wife of eleven years, Luciana Barroso.

The couple made a picture perfect sight as they cosied up together during a date night at the premiere of Manchester By The Sea in Beverly Hills on Monday.

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Date night: Matt Damon was no doubt more than happy to take an evening off from work to spend some quality time with his gorgeous wife of eleven years, Luciana Barroso, at the premiere of Manchester By The Sea in Beverly Hills on Monday

Matt, 46, who is a producer for Manchester By The Sea, smartened up in a midnight blue suit, white shirt, and slicked back hairdo that accentuated his dashing features.

But for as handsome as Matt looked, he was once more upstaged by his stunning other half.

Luciana spellbound in a silvery dress that clung to her curves, ensuring not a single eye was off of her.

The sexy dress also flashed some skin, as it featured a cut-out just above her waistline.

Hot metal! For as handsome as Matt looked, he was once more upstaged by his stunning other half in a silvery dress that clung to her curves

Peek-a-boo: The sexy dress also flashed some skin, as it featured a cut-out just above her waistline

The beauty wore her luscious brunette locks in soft waves, while enhancing her naturally good looks with mascara, peachy blush, and baby pink lips.

She strode ahead in her strappy black heels while topping off the look with a simple black clutch.

Also joining Matt on the red carpet was his longtime good friend, Ben Affleck, whose brother Casey Affleck stars in Manchester By The Sea.

Suits you! Matt smartened up in a midnight blue suit, white shirt, and slicked back hairdo that accentuated his dashing features

The Argo actor and Matt pulled each other in for a warm embrace.

Manchester By The Sea is an upcoming film set to be released on November 18 that stars Casey, Michelle Williams, Kyle Chandler, and Lucas Hedges.

The drama is about a man named Lee (Casey), who makes a homecoming to Massachusetts after he becomes the legal guardian of his nephew following the death of his brother.
Fans have loved watching Evan Rachel Wood running around with a pistol in Westworld.

So there will surely be mixed feelings that HBO has now reviewed the science fiction show for a second series, but it may not hit screens for another two years.

The star-studded remake of the classic 70s film where visitors get to live out their fantasies in a Wild West-themed amusement park populated by robots has garnered high ratings, a relief to channel executives as it cost around $100 million to make

Another fistful of dollars: Evan Rachel Wood's HBO show Westworld has been renewed

Its first season average gross audience so far of 11.7 million viewers is beating both Game of Thrones and True Detective was enough to see it continue for at least another year, though it may end up losing its fans by the time it returns.

Getting his excuses in early, HBO programming president Casey Bloys told the Hollywood Reporter: 'Westworld is such a big, ambitious show. I don't know if it will be fall of 2017 or into '18.

'That will depend as we get up and running. With Westworld, because the production is such a big endeavor, I don't exactly know when yet.

'I can't speculate other than to say it'll either be '17 or '18. Probably more like '18, and half-hours in '17 but we're a year away so let's see how it goes.'

Evans above: She plays a robot who discovers her life is an elaborate lie in the programme

'Where can I find some nice Chianti?' Anthony Hopkins also stars as the park's creator

Co-creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy were also pleased, saying: 'Were thrilled that the saga of Westworld will continue for another season. During the lengthy journey to the screen, our incredibly talented actors, staff and crew became a family, and we look forward to the privilege of continuing this experience with them.'

As if that was not exciting enough news for fans of the subscription television channel, another two shows were also renewed.

Divorce, a comedy which stars Sarah Jessica Parker as a woman trying to make a fresh start after the breakdown of her marriage, will return despite mixed reviews and low ratings.

Consider this a Divorce: Sarah Jessica Parker's new show has also been renewed despite tepid reviews

And racially charged comedy Insecure, which stars new face Issa Rae, has also been given a second series after receiving a positive critical reception.

HBO will be hoping the renewals will help it retain its grip at the top of the Emmy nominations board in future years, especially once critical darling Game Of Thrones comes to the end.

This is especially the case after its much hyped show Vinyl, which also cost around $100 million to make and starred Olivia Wilde, was a dismal failure which ended up being cancelled after already being renwed for a second season.
She's the glamorous '90s socialite who found fame as the fiancee of billionaire James Packer, son of Australian media mogul Kerry Packer.

But 18 years after their engagement fell apart, Kate Fischer is determined to have her final say about their heartbreaking split.

The 42-year-old former model appeared to slam the billionaire casino owner AGAIN on social media on Tuesday, saying he treated her 'badly'.

Ouch! Almost two decades after their engagement fell apart, Kate Fischer (R) is determined to have her final say about her split with billionaire James Packer (L). Pictured in 1998

It comes just a day after the Sirens star, now known as T'ziporah Malka bat Israel, branded her ex-boyfriend a 'total w**ker' on Facebook.

T'ziporah shared an Instagram photo of the couple from the late '90s, during her glory days as a model and actress.

But the former Sydney 'It' girl was in no mood for nostalgia, as the caption bluntly stated: 'Talk about an effing waste'.

'It's just a shame that I was treated badly by him': The former model, now known as T'ziporah Malka bat Israel, appeared to slam the billionaire AGAIN on social media on Tuesday

Here she goes again! It comes just a day after the 42-year-old former Sydney socialite branded her ex-boyfriend a 'total w**ker' on Facebook

Responding to fans in the comments section, T'ziporah revealed what first attracted her to the 6ft 6in businessman.

'At the time I found him handsome. I like slanty eyes, high cheek bones and full lips! Plus he's tall,' she wrote.

'We were on & off for 5 years. It's just a shame that I was treated badly by him... We had some good times.

New start: After her break-up with James in 1998, T'ziporah lived in Los Angeles for 15 years. She is now a proud US citizen and Donald Trump supporter. Pictured in 2000

Double the size, but twice as happy! Once known for her model physique, T'ziporah admits she has gained weight but is comfortable in her new body

'However we've both moved on, although the media seem to love to throw us together! Still, after 20 years! Bless.'

Meanwhile, T'ziporah labelled her 49-year-old former fiance a 'total w**ker' in another Facebook rant on Monday afternoon.

In a scathing comment about her time spent with James, she wrote: 'I was 23 then. With a total w**ker who it turns out when I left him'.

Sydney 'It' girl: T'ziporah, then known as Kate, dated James on-and-off for five years before their split in 1998. At the time of the break-up, they were engaged for two years

After her break-up with James in 1998, T'ziporah lived in Los Angeles for 15 years. She is now a proud US citizen.

Once known for her model physique, T'ziporah admits she has gained weight but is comfortable in her new body.

She currently lives in Toorak, Melbourne and works in aged care as a therapist.
His split from wife Jessica Rose Moor was muddied by his fling with Gemma Oaten and his ex's shock cancer diagnosis.

But Nick Knowles has revealed the pair are happily working on their marriage again and are ensuring their two-year-old son remains their priority.

Speaking on Tuesday's episode of Lorraine, the 54-year-old DIY SOS presenter confirmed his wife had accompanied him to the ITV studios for the chat, as he revealed: 'W ere working on our relationship.'

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Still going strong: Nick Knowles has revealed that he and Jessica Rose Moor are happily working on their marriage again and are ensuring their two-year-old son remains their priority

He continued: 'Our essential point has to be our son Eddie, hes a real joy.'

Touching on their reconciliation, he added that they had been keeping busy, explaining: 'Throughout difficulties - Jess went through a terrible time with cancer and now shes an ambassador at Jos Trust and shes doing an incredible job with that - but were always travelling in and out in London...

'We're not going to work out our relationship in the public eyes but we remain the best of friends and first and foremost we are parents to Eddie.'

He said, she said: Nick was seen cosying up to Gemma Oaten at the TV Choice Awards, but shortly afterwards the pair had conflicting stories over the nature of their relationship

Nick and Jessica - who share a 26-year age gap - wed in Rome in 2012, and announced their separation in January, however, yesterday he was spotted moving personal items back into her home.

In July, the 28-year-old TV presenter announced she had been diagnosed with cervical cancer, and later revealed that Nick had been helping her through the illness.

Two months later, Nick was seen cosying up to Gemma Oaten at the TV Choice Awards, but shortly afterwards the pair had conflicting stories over the nature of their relationship.

Gemma claimed she had been 'dropped like a ton of bricks', whilst Nick claimed their fling had been 'exploited'.

Stepping out together: Speaking on Tuesday's episode of Lorraine , the 54-year-old DIY SOS presenter confirmed his wife had accompanied him to the ITV studios for the chat

Back on track: Nick and Jessica - who share a 26-year age gap - wed in Rome in 2012, and announced their separation in January

'Dropped': The Emmerdale star claims she enjoyed a romance with Nick Knowles, which ended suddenly once their relationship became public knowledge

The Emmerdale star claimed they did enjoy a romance, which ended suddenly once their relationship became public knowledge.

The blonde beauty told The Mirror they were in bed together as the pictures of their cosy moment appeared, which allegedly lead him to change his demeanor.

Gemma explained: 'In an instant he completely changed. It was all about him and how it was going to affect his family. It was really cruel as he said it didnt matter for me.'

She continued: 'I felt sick. I said, "do you want to throw away what we have got? We have done nothing wrong." But he just dropped me like a ton of bricks.'

'Exploited': Despite Gemma's claims, Nick said the pair only went on one date, and claimed the Emmerdale star was trying to make money from his personal life

On the move: Touching on their reconciliation, Nick added that they had been keeping busy by focusing on their son and Jessica's work as a cancer charity ambassador

Meanwhile, Nick retaliated in a lengthy Twitter statement, during which he claimed: 'The story is something that happened (in the space of less than one week) during a turbulent, traumatic time and more to the point - whilst we were separated.

'It is unfortunate we are having to relive it purely so someone can financially gain from exploiting our private life. '

He then told The Mirror: 'I have a relationship with Jessica and we are best friends. We are working through things.

'Gemma and I are not dating. We went on a date. The nature of my work means its very difficult to go on a date without everybody making a much bigger deal of it.'
Melbourne businessman Geoffrey Edelsten is known to enjoy the company of much younger women - including ex-wives Brynne Edelsten and Gabi Grecko.

But the 73-year-old unlikely ladies' man was surprised to discover his latest girlfriend Ashley Kirk may not be quite as youthful as he thinks.

Previous media reports have stated the American model is 26 years old, but several reliable sources suggest she is in fact SIX years older.

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Playing with the numbers? Previous media reports have stated Geoffrey Edelsten's (R) latest girlfriend Ashley Kirk (L) is 26 years old, but sources suggest she is in fact SIX years older

Ashley's official profile on the Playboy TV website claims her date of birth is February 2nd 1984, which makes her 32 years old.

Given that Ashley posed for Playboy's Student Bodies series in 2011, it seems unlikely the website's information would be false or inaccurate.

Meanwhile, US directory White Pages claims she is between 30 and 34, and not in her mid-twenties as has been widely reported.

Her REAL birth date? Ashley's official profile on the Playboy TV website claims her date of birth is February 2nd 1984, which makes her 32 years old

Some mistake? Given that Ashley posed for Playboy's Student Bodies series in 2011, it seems unlikely the publication's facts would be false or inaccurate

Meanwhile, it would appear that Ashley - an aspiring Hollywood actress - has tried to shave a few years off her 'actual' age herself.

In a press kit accessible earlier this year on her website AshleyKirkOfficial.com - which is currently inactive - she claimed to be 25.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Dr Geoffrey Edelsten confirmed Ashley 'told (him) she was 26' when they were dating earlier this year.

When alerted to the fact this information may be false, he said on Tuesday: 'Well, she's lying about a lot of things.'

Directory: American directory White Pages claims Ashley is between 30 and 34, and not in her mid-twenties as has been widely reported

Hollywood player: In a press kit accessible this year on her website AshleyKirkOfficial.com - which is currently inactive - Ashley claimed to be 25 years old

Ashley's representative declined to comment when contacted by Daily Mail Australia.

If true, the claims will no doubt cause further embarrassment for Ashley, after she was branded a 'gold digger' by her ex-boyfriend.

Earlier this month, leaked text messages showed the surgically-enhanced model begging the Australian millionaire for money.

'She's lying about a lot of things': Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Geoffrey confirmed Ashley 'told (him) she was 26' when they were dating earlier this year

Ouch! If true, the claims will no doubt cause further embarrassment for Ashley, after she was branded a 'gold digger' by her ex-boyfriend following a leaked text messages scandal

The private exchanges suggested Ashley was hoping to get a $1million payday from a Channel Nine interview with Geoffrey.

She also pleaded with the former Sydney Swans owner to help clear her debts and threatened to leave him if he refused.

The texts prove Ashley and Geoffrey were romantically involved, after she tried to deny their relationship to KIIS FM and the Herald Sun.
She often takes to Instagram to keep her followers up-to-date with her offspring's day-to-day activities.

And Tuesday was no different for Sydney PR queen Roxy Jacenko, sharing an adorable snap of two-year-old son Hunter Curtis.

'When you just need a quick 30 minutes rest,' the 36-year-old penned alongside a photo of the precious toddler sleeping in her lap.

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'When you just need a quick 30 minutes rest': Roxy Jacenko, 36, took to Instagram on Tuesday to share an adorable snap of two-year-old son Hunter Curtis sleeping on her lap

The snap shared with Roxy's 135,000 Instagram followers saw the entrepreneur sitting in a plush carriage in a navy designer number.

Sporting a silver statement watch and delicate jewellery, Roxy's most noticeable accessory was son Hunter, getting some much needed shut-eye on her lap.

Donning a Burberry polo shirt, the adorable tot covered himself with a white blanket, and had one arm rested above his head.

'She thinks she's the only one with a 4 (sic) pack': Just a week prior, Roxy baffled fans on Instagram when she shared a shot of Hunter who appeared to have abs in a poolside photo

A week earlier, Roxy shared a rather hilarious snap of Hunter to Instagram.

The Sydney-based star baffled her fans when she shared a shot of the young boy, on his Instagram account, appearing to have abs.

Making light of the situation, Roxy - who pens her children's social media accounts - captioned the snap: 'She thinks she's the only one with a 4 (sic) pack.'

Family time: Roxy shared another shot of herself holding Hunter in his arms as they posed at the One and Only resort on Hayman Island

Roxy added laughing and crying smiley face emoticons.

In the shot, her tiny tot swims in the water as Roxy looks on.

One fan wrote underneath, writing: 'Abs.'

Roxy also shared another shot of herself holding Hunter in her arms as they posed at the One and Only resort on Hayman Island.

Life's a beach! Her daughter Pixie is seen here swimming in the pool

In the sweet shot she shares a kiss with her son, stunning in a white Melissa Odabash beach dress and brown Hermes sandals.

Roxy recently has been hitting the gym and regularly flashes her abs in various crop tops across social media.

She also recently shared some flashback images of herself at the beach with Hunter and Pixie, where Roxy stuns in a navy one piece.

Working hard: Roxy recently has been hitting the gym and regularly flashes her abs in various crop tops across social media

Apples of her eye! She also recently shared some flashback images of herself at the beach with Hunter and Pixie, in which Roxy stuns in a navy one piece

Family time has become clearly important for the Sweaty Betty PR boss, after husband Oliver Curtis was jailed for two years.

She told 60 Minutes earlier this year her two children were her best friends, and that she often spoke to them about what was going on in her life.

Shortly after Oliver's sentencing, Roxy faced another setback as she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The Bondi-based businesswoman had her last radiation treatment in early October.

Struggles: Family time has become clearly important for the Sweaty Betty PR boss, after husband Oliver Curtis was jailed for two years
She plays reformed criminal Franky Doyle on award-winning Australian television series Wentworth.

But for Nicole da Silva, her biggest break yet comes in the form of independent film Drama, that tells of the bond between a gay man and a straight woman.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, the 35-year-old discussed the reason why she chose to star in the film, insisting that 'people will connect with it.'

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'People will connect with it': Wentworth's Nicole da Silva, 35, revealed to the Daily Telegraph the reason why she chose to star in Australian independent film, Drama

'It is such a beautiful coming of age story that I have no doubt there will be a bunch of people that connect with it,' Nicole shared with the publication.

'And I want to support independent film makes. That's where a lot of really exciting and interesting stuff comes from, so I really wanted to get on board for that reason,' she continued.

Set to be released nationally in select cinemas on Thursday, the story will look at the close relationship between a gay man and a straight woman.

Before landing the role of Wentworth's Franky Doyle, the brunette was cast in shows such as Rush, Dangerous, All Saints and Home And Away.

Coming to attention: Nicole's most noteworthy role is as Wentworth's reformed crim Franky Doyle

Acclaim: The role saw her win an Astra Award in 2014 for the Most Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor

Nicole rose to fame as lesbian inmate Franky Doyle in TV prison drama Wentworth.

Her character often clashed with fellow prisoner Bea Smith, played by Danielle Cormack, for the position of top dog at Wentworth Correction Facility.

The role saw her win an Astra Award in 2014 for the Most Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor.

She was also nominated in 2015 for the same award, as well as a Logie Award for Most Outstanding Actress.

In demand: Nicole also currently stars in Channel Nine drama Doctor Doctor

Nicole also currently stars in Channel Nine drama Doctor Doctor.

The Sydney-born personality recently revealed the plot following her character Charlie's ectopic pregnancy hit close to home for some of her co-stars.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph last week, Nicole confessed: 'I really cherished that storyline.'

'I really cherished that storyline': The Sydney-born personality recently revealed the plot following her character Charlie's ectopic pregnancy hit close to home for some of her co-stars, in an interview with the Daily Telegraph

'That was a pretty personal storyline for some of my fellow co-stars so I really felt the responsibility to do justice to that and make sure that loss was really felt and embodied,' she said.

Nicole also revealed that many fans were 'grateful for having that kind of heartbreak represented on screen,' and claimed she felt she had to deliver an honest portrayal of the pregnancy complication.

Filmed in Sydney's inner west suburb of Rozelle, as well as Mudgee and Camden, the TV drama also stars local talent Rodger Corser, Ryan Johnson, Tina Bursill and Steve Bisley.
She's the glamourous fiancee of Sydney Swans captain Kieren Jack, rumoured to be at the centre of his high-profile family feud.

And after the couple's post-engagement holiday in New York, Charlotte Goodlet has set her sights on planning the perfect wedding.

The 24-year-old TV producer has brushed aside reported 'tensions' with her in-laws Donna and Garry Jack to focus on her special day.

What family feud? After her post-engagement holiday in New York, Charlotte Goodlet (L) has set her sights on planning the perfect wedding day with fiance Kieren Jack (R)

Charlotte, a former Miss Universe contender, shared an Instagram photo on Tuesday of herself reading bridal magazine Hello May.

'Holidays are over and now it's time to start thinking about a wedding,' she wrote in the caption.

'I think I'm almost on the right track... can probably get organised by 2023.'

Young love! Last month, Charlotte and Kieren announced their engagement - following weeks of controversy about a 'family feud' surrouding their relationship

By his side: Charlotte congratulated Kieren in the locker room after his milestone 200th AFL game in July - which his parents Garry and Donna Jack were not invited to attend

It remains to be seen if Kieren's parents will be attending their son's wedding, after they were not invited to his 200th AFL game in July.

The family dispute reportedly started because Garry and Donna did not approve of Charlotte, believing she is a 'gold digger'.

It has also been claimed that Kieren's mother had sent Charlotte, who works for Channel Nine, 'the most appalling' text messages.

Mother knows best? The family dispute reportedly started because Kieren's parents Garry and Donna Jack did not approve of his fiancee Charlotte, believing she is a 'gold digger'

Broken relationship: It has been claimed that Kieren's mother Donna (L) had sent Charlotte 'the most appalling' text messages. Pictured with Kieren's mother Garry (R) in 2010

Happy couple! After getting engaged in October, Kieren and Charlotte flew to New York for a romantic holiday following the end of the AFL season

The feud went public when Donna revealed on Twitter that she and her husband were not invited to Kieren's milestone game.

At a press conference in July, Kieren defended his fiancee after their relationship made national headlines.

The 29-year-old said: 'She doesnt deserve the treatment she has received. She is strong, she is an independent woman and not just a model. I love her very much and I am very proud of her.'

Defending her honour: At a press conference in July, Kieren defended his fiancee after their relationship made national headlines when his mother criticised him on Twitter
She's the only single woman among the I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here team this series.

And Carol Vorderman ensured she caught a few eyes as she stripped down to her swimsuit whilst explaining she was in no rush to find a man.

However, it was Holly Willoughby and Ferne McCann who seemed to be most in awe of the Countdown star's phenomenal physique as they discussed the scenes on Tuesday's episode of This Morning.

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Impressed: Holly Willoughby and Ferne McCann were in awe of Carol Vorderman's phenomenal physique as they discussed the scenes on Tuesday's episode of This Morning

'Her body is rocking at 55! She looks absolutely incredible, how amazing she looks. She looks absolutely insane!' Ferne, 26, gushed.

Meanwhile, Holly nodded along in agreement as she gestured at Carol's chest and sighed: 'The shape of the costume is pretty...'

Still staring at the star, Ferne incredulously remarked: 'Shes single!' to which Holly quipped: 'Not for long, Carol!'

Glamorous: Carol Vorderman, 55, ensured she caught a few eyes as she stripped down to her swimsuit in the I'm A Celeb jungle whilst explaining she was in no rush to find a man

Their comments came as Carol announced in the jungle that she was 'happily single', joking, 'I've had too many!'

Strictly star Ola Jordan asked if Carol was 'single and ready to mingle?' . . . to which the Countdown star cheekily replied 'I do alright!'

But Phillip Schofield remarked that she must 'like' the fellow single star in the camp, 30-year-old Joel Dommett.

Ferne agreed, noting: '[Carol and Joel] were flirting over math, I could see a twinkle in his eye!'

But Holly shut down the rumours, exclaiming: 'No! You guys are getting excited about something that's just not happening!'

What's her secret? The ladies, joined by co-host Phillip Schofield couldn't take their eyes of Carol as they discussed the star's youthful and envy-inducing physique

Single and ready to mingle: Phillip Schofield remarked that Carol must 'like' the fellow single star in the camp, 30-year-old Joel Dommett (R) but Holly was unconvinced

Ferne - who competed on last year's series - also expressed her longing to go back in the jungle, even claiming she would happily eat three spiders to get back into camp.

However, she won't want to chow down on any of the critters currently in the outback, as the jungle has been put on 'lockdown' after eight deadly spiders and a poisonous snake were found lurking in the camp.

The stars only entered into the jungle in Murwillumbah, New South Wales, Australia, a few days ago, but fears for their safety have already been heightened as a number of funnel-webs, the world's deadliest spider, and a brown snake, the world's second most venomous land snake, were discovered in a camera hide.

Ready to return: Ferne who competed on last year's series also expressed her longing to go back in the jungle, even claiming she would happily eat three spiders to get back into camp

The show's doctor Bob told the Daily Telegraph: 'In Australia we have the world's most dangerous spider which is the funnel web. In fact this year in one of the camera hides we found eight. That's the most we've ever found in one day."

However, although security around the base has been kicked up a notch since the eight-legged creatures were found, medic Bob isn't overly worried about the spiders as he has anti-venom on hand in case any of the stars do get bitten by them.

He explained: 'There is an anti-venom and of course none of the celebs have ever been bitten by them - a couple of crew have been bitten in the past.'
She has documented her phenomenal weight loss via social media.

Yet Khloe Kardashian's continued fitness journey appears to be sparking concerns among her 58.5million Instagram followers as her latest selfie caused an influx of worried comments due to her super slimline shape.

The 32-year-old reality starlet shared a mirror selfie in which she flaunted her sucked in waist, diminished with the help of a waist trainer, leading to fans deeming the image 'disturbing' although others lauded her slender physique.

Worries: Khloe Kardashian's continued fitness journey appears to be sparking concerns among her 58.5million Insragram followers as her latest selfie caused an influx of worried comments due to her super slimline shape

Khloe can be seen in the shot taking a break from filming Keeping Up The Kardashians, seizing a moment to promote her favoured waist trainer, which she frequently promotes on social media.

As she sat to the side, she held one hand aloft, while kneeling on the floor and snapping a shot in the mirror, pulling her very best pout in the process.

While the youngest of the Kardashian dynasty has improved her physique and lives a more healthy lifestyle, some of her followers maintain she has gone too far with her weight loss.

A number of users on the photosharing site: ' Khloe, that's enough... it's already snatched....anymore and it'll be your ribs... U use to look so healthy n thick...what happened???

Tiny! The 32-year-old reality starlet shared a sultry selfie in which she flaunted her sucked in waist, diminished with the help of a waist trainer, leading to fans deeming the image 'disturbing'

Changed look: Aside from her general slimline appearance, the concern also sprung from her use of a waist trainer, as many called on the advice of medical professionals in warning against the use of the 'organ crushing' device

'Disturbing... You look really sick please go to a Doctor... I'm hoping young girls are not doing the same stupidity that you're doing...

'Please don't change. We think you are the cutest one of all your sibs. Each part of your body doesn't need to be at its extreme... Head too big with the skinny body... You look pathetic...

'I miss her old body and face. She use to be the prettiest one. Smh :(... Too skinny for me now. Loved u more when u had more meat on your bones.(sic)'

Aside from her general slimline appearance, the concern also sprung from her use of a waist trainer, as many called on the advice of medical professionals in warning against the use of the 'organ crushing' device.

Check her out! Aside from her general slimline appearance, the concern also sprung from her use of a waist trainer, as many called on the advice of medical professionals in warning against the use of the 'organ crushing' device

Worries: Concerned users wrote: 'These are so bad for your body ugh... why do this, it's so bad for you... Well according to Dr. Oz they r not good for ur health???

Concerned users wrote: 'These are so bad for your body ugh... why do this, it's so bad for you... Well according to Dr. Oz they r not good for ur health???

'I think your smashing your organs... That waist thing keeps making your butt bigger also killing your organs, miss the real Klohe she was so cool and fun. Take care of yourself...

'GO GIRL! SQUEEZE UR INSIDE TOGETHERE! U GET SKINNY WITH THE SIDE EFFECTS OF DEATH... Waist trainers do so much damage to your body. Your organs will start to move. It's not healthy at all. Dr. Oz did a segment on waist trainers.

'Yes your figure looks amazing, but the long-term affects aren't so amazing. Still love you though!!! Always be amazing favorite of mine... Seriously dangerous for us woman to wear although I love the look

That was then: Despite concern and worry from a bevvy of followers, the TV favourite naturally enjoyed an influx of positivity from fans who laud her as an inspiration (pictured in 2008)

'Yr beautiful with out this Hun , it's crushing your internal organs and will do damage in the long run , yr blessed with yr looks u definitely don't need this... (sic)'

Despite concern and worry from a bevvy of followers, the TV favourite naturally enjoyed an influx of positive comments from fans who mark her as an inspiration.

Adoring users wrote: 'You look so skinny Khloe good on you... U work so hard koko. You are my inspiration... Shes getting so thin lol but she looks so good... Damn girl I love that body...

'You are giving me life !!!! @khloekardashian... You always look fabulous... You look good girl... You are everything. So Beautiful'.

A new woman: Last year Khloe spoke of her amazing transformation, saying: 'When I'm in L.A I go hard [in the gym] and I've lost about 35 pounds...

'Kloe we love you!... you are beautiful... i love you... Go girl do you! You looked great before and you look great now. Naturally beautiful inside and out... Very very cute girl... you are my favorite one... love u... You look sooo beautiful...'

Last year Khloe spoke of her amazing transformation, saying: 'When I'm in L.A I go hard [in the gym] and I've lost about 35 pounds...
Age ain't nothing but a number for Dennis Quaid and his new girlfriend Santa Auzina.

The 62-year-old actor and his 30-year-old sweetheart were spotted hand in hand while enjoying a romantic evening stroll in New York City on Monday.

The couple both had permanent smiles fixed to their faces and the French-Canadian model held on tightly to her famous Texan, who is 32 years her senior.

Date night: Dennis Quaid, 62, and his new girlfriend Santa Auzina, 30, were spotted hand in hand while enjoying a romantic evening stroll in New York City on Monday

Dennis donned a pair of blue jeans along with a navy button-down shirt and dark suit jacket for his date night with his blonde lover.

Santa bundled up beneath a camel-colored coat which she teamed with a black blouse and coordinating skintight pants.

She opted for comfortable walking shoes and went nearly make-up free while leaving her long blonde locks down to cascade past her shoulders.

Dennis and Santa both appeared to be relaxed and happy as they walked near a construction zone while enjoying each other's company in the Big Apple.

Romantic stroll: The couple both had permanent smiles fixed to their faces and the French-Canadian model held on tightly to her famous Texan, who is 32 years her senior

Jet-setters: Dennis and his much younger love have been traveling the globe together recently. Last week they were spotted at LAX in Los Angeles before jetting off to Mexico

Dennis and his much younger love have been traveling the globe together.

Recently the pair jetted off to Cabo, Mexico, where Dennis made the press rounds during the Los Cabos International Film Festival.

Santa shared a few photos from their trip to her Instagram page where she is dressed in white and flanked by her beau and British actor Cary Elwes.

'My boys': Santa shared a photo of herself in a sexy white dress flanked by her beau and a actor Cary Elwes while at the Los Cabos International Film Festival last week

'Tres amigos': Santa also posted this photo of the threesome sporting sombreros while in Cabo last week

The actor and the model officially made their red carpet debut as a couple at the MIPCOM bash in Cannes on October 17.

The duo were first pictured canoodling July 13 at Montreal's Atwater Cocktail Club, and a month later Santa was calling Quaid her 'soulmate.'

According to Radar Online, Auzina allegedly 'abandoned' her Ecuadorian husband Alejandro Jimenez and his two young daughters upon falling for Dennis.

Stepping out: The Truth actor and the Montage Model officially made their red carpet debut as a couple at the MIPCOM bash in Cannes on October 17

Their whirlwind romance began weeks after the Fortitude star and his second wife Kimberly Buffington filed for divorce after 12 years of marriage.

Quaid shares fraternal twins Thomas & Zoe, 9, with the 45-year-old real estate agent; and he has a 24-year-old son Jack with first wife Meg Ryan.

The Emmy nominee resumes his role as real estate shark Samuel Brukner in the 10-episode second season of The Art Of More streaming on Wednesday on Crackle.
They've been candidly chatting about their love lives whilst promoting, Shout Out To My Ex.

But Little Mix's Jade Thirlwall and Perrie Edwards were less than impressed after being asked about bandmate Jesy Nelson's current relationship status amid rumours she's split from fiance Jake Roche.

In an interview with Nova 969's radio hosts Fitzy & Wippa the duo lost their temper in spectacular fashion after being asked why the bubbly brunette hasn't been wearing her engagement ring recently.

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Too far? Little Mix's Jade Thirlwall and Perrie Edwards were less than impressed after being asked about bandmate Jesy Nelson's current relationship status

Taken aback by the blunt line of questioning, Jade, 23, screeched: 'That's brutal that!' whilst Perrie agreed: 'That's brutal, you just came out with that.'

As the host floundered and claimed: 'I didn't write the questions!' Jade snatched the paper out of his hand and threw it away.

Giggling at her pal's actions, Perrie cackled: 'Next question, sir. What are you going to do without your paper now, smart-a**e?'

Single lady? The questioning came amid increasing speculation Jesy Nelson has split from her fiance of 18 months Jake Roche after being spotted without her engagement ring

Jesy has not commented on the state of her relationship with Jake amid mounting speculation they have called an end to their romance.

The couple have been engaged for 18 months after the 24-year-old hunk, who is the son of Coleen Nolan and Shane Richie, employed the help of Ed Sheeran to propose to Jesy last July, on stage at the Manchester Arena.

However, Jesy has not been wearing her engagement ring during the band's tour of Sydney, and eagle-eyed fans soon spotted that she no longer follows Jake on Instagram.

Sore subject? In an interview with Nova 969 's radio hosts Fitzy & Wippa the duo lost their temper in spectacular fashion after being asked why Jesy hasn't been wearing her ring

'Brutal!': Taken aback by the blunt question, Jade, 23, screeched: 'That's brutal that!' whilst Perrie agreed: 'That's brutal, you just came out with that'

Off it goes! As the host floundered and claimed: 'I didn't write the questions!' Jade snatched the paper out of his hand and threw it away

Good arm! The hosts looked rather taken aback after Jade chucked the paper out of reach

Cheeky! Giggling at her pal's actions, Perrie cackled: 'Next question, sir. What are you going to do without your paper now, smart-a**e?'

It was later reported that the pair had a big falling out before the unfollowing, adding further weight to split rumours, when a source told The Sun: 'Jesy and Jake had a huge barney  it wasn't pretty.

'They're not a couple who avoid rows easily but this was different and could signal the end of their relationship...

'Neither is giving much away as to what caused the fallout but clearly harsh words were said.'
The I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here jungle has reportedly been invaded by 'epidemic levels' of a terrifying flesh-eating eye bug.

Campmates could be at risk of developing the horrific disease called Acanthamoeba keratitis - which causes extreme pain and even blindness - in the jungle in Murwillumbah, Australia.

Celebrities most vulnerable include contact lens wearers, while those taking showers or taking a dip in the lagoon could also be exposed, as the parasite thrives in water.

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Eye-m scared! The I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here jungle has reportedly been invaded by 'epidemic levels' of a terrifying flesh-eating eye bug

UK laser eye surgeon Dr David Allamby told The Sun: 'The biggest risk of exposure to the organism is through water, and in turn poor hygiene.

'The vast majority of cases involve contact lens wearers, particularly where lenses aren't cleaned properly.'

Campers who wear glasses on the show include EastEnders star Larry Lamb, 69, and former Strictly professional Ola Jordan, 34 - though its not known if they also wear contact lenses.

The surgeon added: 'The bad news for those involved with I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! is that they are well and truly in the danger zone - there has been a well-documented 'cluster' of cases in that precise area near Brisbane in recent years, which has had Australian surgeons extremely worried.'

He said that anyone with a corneal injury could be at risk of developing an infection from the parasite - which burrows excruciatingly into the cornea.

Terrrifying: Campmates like Lisa Snowden could be at risk of developing the horrific disease called Acanthamoeba keratitis, which causes extreme pain and even blindness, in the jungle in Murwillumbah, Australia

Wat-er mess! Celebrities most vulnerable include contact lens wearers, while those taking showers or taking a dip in the lagoon could also be exposed - as the parasite thrives in water - pictured here, Sam Quek, Scarlett Moffatt and Ola Jordan

But it's not just the flesh-eating bug that has worried producers of the show, as the camp has also been invaded by deadly spiders and poisonous snakes over the past few days.

Eight funnel-webs, the world's deadliest spider, and a brown snake, the world's second most venomous land snake, were discovered in a camera hide near to where the camp mates sleep.

The show's doctor Bob said: 'In Australia we have the world's most dangerous spider which is the funnel web. In fact this year in one of the camera hides we found eight. That's the most we've ever found in one day.

'There is an anti-venom and of course none of the celebs have ever been bitten by them - a couple of crew have been bitten in the past

Terrifying: Wayne Bridge, Adam Thomas and Joel Dommett, pictured in the jungle could be at risk of exposure through water, and in turn poor hygiene'

'Last week we found one in the top helipad. They are very vicious snakes.'

This year's camp mates consist of Larry Lamb, Carol Vorderman, Lisa Snowdon, Adam Thomas, Scarlett Moffatt, Sam Quek, Ola Jordan, Jordan Banjo, Joel Dommett and Wayne Bridge, although some more celebrities are set to be thrown into the mix this week.

The news that spiders have been roaming the camp surely won't be a welcome surprise for Adam Thomas - who has admitted he nurses a massive fear of them.

'I am so scared of spiders. It got so bad a few years ago that I went to see a hypnotist and that didnt work,' he confessed to OK Magazine

Nightmare: Lisa is one of the celebrities in the jungle at risk from the creepy crawlies

Worrying: An expert said: 'The vast majority of cases involve contact lens wearers, particularly where lenses aren't cleaned properly.'

Im scared of any insects - cockroaches, spiders - anything, Adam, who plays Adam Barton in the Yorkshire-based soap, listed before optimistically proclaiming: Im hoping I can man up.

And the horrid challenges - which has already been attempted by his I'm A Celeb co-stars Scarlett Mofatt, Ola Jordan, Jordan Banjo and Sam Quek - will truly test his willpower as in the past he's has to enlist help from the love of his life.

He also opened up about one embarrassing incident when his fiancee Caroline wanted him to get rid of a spider.

When Caroline was nine months pregnant I spotted one (spider) in our bedroom. I woke her up and asked her to get rid of it. I was nearly crying and it was only small. I am such a wuss, especially with spiders.
Charlotte Riley's latest role has taken her to the top of the social ladder, as she plays the Duchess of Cambridge in the BBC's adaption of King Charles III.

And as the cameras started rolling on Tuesday, in Hull, Yorkshire, the 34-year-old actress stepped out on set in full-costume as Kate Middleton.

Filming scenes for the new drama at Beverley Minster, the 34-year-old Peaky Blinders star looked the spitting image of the Duchess, also 34.

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Is that you Kate? As the cameras started rolling on Tuesday, in Hull, Yorkshire, Charlotte Riley stepped out on set in full-costume as Kate Middleton

The actress, who is married to Hollywood star Tom Hardy, appeared on set alongside her co-stars Oliver Chris (Prince William) and Richard Goulding (Prince Harry).

Beverley Minster has previously been used as a double for West Minster Abbey in the likes of ITV's Victoria, so it is possible the trio were filming a royal funeral or coronation scene.

With a black fascinator cap perched on her brunette mane which was styled into an elegant back-swept affair, completed by a fringe, the actress cut an uncanny likeness to Kate.

Covering up in a black overcoat and warm padded jacket, Charlotte looked to be trying to keep warm outside in the damp Yorkshire weather.

Which is which? With a black fascinator cap perched on her brunette mane, which was styled into an elegant back-swept affair, the actress cut an uncanny likeness to Kate

Shelter from the storm? Covering up in a black overcoat and warm padded jacket, Charlotte looked to be trying to keep warm outside in the damp Yorkshire weather

Working up an appetite: Charlotte kept her energy up by tucking into a banana

All together now: The actress, who is married to Tom Hardy, appeared on set alongside her co-stars Oliver Chris (L as Prince William) and Richard Goulding (R as Prince Harry)

The scenes filmed in Yorkshire are the first time the cast have been seen together at work, following the official announcement of roles last week for the first major broadcast drama featuring the royals.

The inventive drama sees the new king refuse to sign a controversial bill causing political chaos, rioting on the streets and a tank in front of Buckingham Palace.

The 90-minute one-off programme is based on the Laurence Olivier award-winning 2014 play of the same name.

Sophisticated: Margot Leicester dressed in a fine all black ensemble as Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall

A regal role: Tuesday's sightings are the first time the cast have been seen together at work, following the official cast announcement for the broadcast drama featuring the royals

The play also stared Pigott-Smith and Chris, as well as Richard Goulding as Harry and Adam James as the prime minister.

Riley said she was 'excited' to play Kate, adding: 'It's such a unique project, to be both modern and rich in verse and to play someone who is real but yet totally re-imagined for this story.'

The wife of Tom Hardy added: 'Kate Middleton is a really interesting woman, particularly within the context of this play, and it is a challenge I am really looking forward to.'

Portraying royalty: Charlotte will play the mother-of-two in a 90 minute special that nvisions a constitutional crisis with the Prince of Wales as king

Tim Pigott-Smith (left) will star as an imagined King Charles III in the drama based on the Laurence Olivier award-winning 2014 play of the same name

Pigott-Smith said: 'Performing King Charles in Mike Bartlett's astonishing play in London and New York has been one of the high points of my career.

'I am thrilled that we are to film it - it is a drama about us, now, who we are, and the relevance of our monarchy. Television gives it an important democratic voice.'

Directed by Rupert Goold, King Charles won the Best New Play at the 2015 Laurence Olivier Awards.

Writer Mike Bartlett said: 'I couldn't be more excited that King Charles III is now fully, brilliantly cast and about to begin shooting.

'We have an exceptional team, both in front of and behind the camera, and I'm looking forward to bringing this very contemporary royal tragedy to a national television audience.'
She lights up the screen in JK Rowling's wizarding adventure Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

And Jenn Murray certainly looked magical when she arrived on the indigo carpet for the film's European premiere at Leicester Square on Tuesday night.

The pretty redhead slipped into a stunning metallic satin gown for the star-studded event.

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Stunning: Jenn Murray certainly looked magical when she arrived on the indigo carpet for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them's European premiere at Leicester Square on Tuesday night

She teamed the striking garment with metallic peep toe heels and a lavish box clutch for a coordinated finish.

The actress wore her distinctive shoulder-length tresses in classy curls with a sweeping fringe.

Her rosy cheeks lit up as she smiled for the cameras, and her piercing blue peepers sparkled brightly.

Elegant: The pretty redhead slipped into a stunning metallic satin gown for the star-studded event

Radiant: The star wore a vibrant lipstick which contrasted with her pale complexion, and she finished off the glam with a silver necklace

Glamorous: Proudly displaying her figure-hugging frock, Jenn posed confidently with her hand on her hip

The star wore a vibrant lipstick which contrasted with her pale complexion, and she finished off the glam with a silver necklace.

Proudly displaying her figure-hugging frock, Jenn posed confidently with her hand on her hip.

In the Harry Potter prequel, Jenn stars as Chastity Barebone, alongside such Hollywood heavyweights as Eddie Redmayne, Colin Farrell and Johnny Depp.

Looking good: The actress wore her distinctive shoulder-length tresses in classy curls with a sweeping fringe

Standing out: She teamed the striking garment with metallic peep toe heels and a lavish box clutch for a coordinated finish

Silky: Her glamorous garment had a liquid metal effect as it billowed in the breeze

Pack your bag: Jenn posed beside a giant brown leather case

Easy on the eye: The redhead looked every inch the Hollywood bombshell at the premiere

Leading man Eddie plays magizoologist Newt Scamander in the fantasy flick set in New York in 1926, who is left to deal with the chaos when his suitcase full of magical creatures are accidentally released.

Joining Jenn at the launch of the much-anticipated film were novelist JK Rowling, her co-stars and celebrities including Daisy Lowe, Guy Ritchie and Henry Holland.

Fans of the Potter franchise would appear to be in for a treat, with the film garnering rave reviews.

The Mail on Sunday's Matthew Bond gushed: 'Its every bit as good as Potter and quite possibly even better. I absolutely loved it.'

Walk this way: The lightweight material showcased the actress's svelte frame
She's spent much of the past few weeks in Arya Stark's costumes on the set of her smash hit show Game of Thrones.

So Maisie Williams, 19, relished the chance to dress up on Tuesday night as she took a break from shooting to hit the London premiere of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them.

The actress dressed to impress in a racy tartan mini skirt teamed with knee-high socks for her jaunt down the vast blue carpet laid out in Leicester Square.

Letting her hair down: Maisie Williams, 19, took a break from shooting Game of Thrones to hit the London premiere of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them on Tuesday

Maisie flashed her legs under the green tartan skirt, while she added height with her strappy heels, layered under black knee-high socks.

A simple black t-shirt was tucked into her mini, while Maisie accessorised like a pro with a colourful neckscarf.

The finishing touches were a monochrome shoulder bag and a coordinating white manicure.

Leggy: The actress dressed to impress in a racy tartan mini skirt teamed with knee-high socks for her jaunt down the vast blue carpet laid out in Leicester Square

Pop of colour: Maisie accessorised like a pro with a colourful neckscarf

She also showed off her new tattoo, after getting inked with her close pal and GoT co-star Sophie Turner back in September.

The duo, who play sisters on the show, got 'August 7, 2009' inked on their forearms to mark the day they landed roles in the series.

Maisie has been busy shooting the seventh season of Game of Thrones in Northern Ireland.

As the fantasy show draws to its conclusion, the actress recently fanned the flames of anticipation by telling fans that 'nothing will prepare' them for the new series.

Standing out: Maisie flashed her legs under the green tartan skirt, while she added height with her strappy heels, layered under black knee-high socks

Inked: She also showed off her new tattoo, after getting inked with her close pal and GoT co-star Sophie Turner back in September

Taking to Twitter in August, the Somerset native wrote: 'Holy BALLS. Just finished reading season 7. I'd start preparing yourselves now.

'Scratch that, nothing will prepare you for this. S*** gets REAL.'

Arya is set to play a bigger role in the current season, utilising the skills she learned as an apprentice assassin under the deadly Faceless Men after dramatically walking out on the order, seemingly to the delight of mentor Jaqen H'ghar.

After revealing the truth she got a modicum of revenge for the murder of her brother Robb and mother Catelyn at the infamous Red Wedding by slitting his throat.
Oprah Winfrey has put her last piece of Chicago real estate for sale.

The 62-year-old put a 2,250 square foot Colonial-style home on the market for close to $400,000, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The billionaire TV personality, who never lived in the home, resided in Chicago during her lengthy run as the host of The Oprah Winfrey Show. The icon now resides in Montecito, California.

On the market: Oprah Winfrey put her last piece of Chicago real estate for sale

According to Forbes, Oprah has a net worth of $2.9 billion.

Oprah's spokeswoman, Nicole Nichols, told the newspaper via email that 'Ms. Winfrey is selling the property as it's no longer needed. She did not live in the home.'

The TV host purchased the four-bedroom home for $298,000 in 2001.

The yellow colored residence was built in 1941, has two bathrooms and two wood-burning fireplaces.

Moving on: The billionaire, who never lived in the home, resided in Chicago when she hosted The Oprah Winfrey Show; seen on October 17 in LA at the Boo! A Madea Halloween premiere

Up for grabs: The yellow colored residence was built in 1941, has two wood-burning fireplaces

Modest: The 62-year-old put a 2,250 square foot Colonial-style home on the market for $400,000, according to the Chicago Tribune

It is not known why she owned the brick home.

The house has a formal dining room as well as a walk-out basement, hardwood floors and is updated with recessed lighting.

The property was purchased by Oprah's Phoenix Investment Trust, reports the Chicago Tribune.

Views: It is not known why she owned the brick home

Looks good: The TV host purchased the four-bedroom home for $298,000 in 2001

Colorful: The property was purchased by Oprah's Phoenix Investment Trust, reports the Chicago Tribune

In 2003, the ownership of the property was transferred to Overground Railroad Company - which she has used to own residential real estate - reports the newspaper.

The modest sized home features updated bathrooms, with one featuring an elaborately tiled shower.

It also has a large blue-painted room with two levels of living space.

Keeping it simple: Oprah's property has two bathrooms, including this small one that features some storage space

Time to relax: Her property has one bathroom with a shower and a second one with a bath tub

Lovely: The modest sized home features updated bathrooms, with one featuring an elaborately tiled shower

Home: It has has a large blue-painted room with two levels of living space

Bold: The brightly painted room features a lot of livable space as well as storage options

What a good looking home! The upstairs features a bathroom near the staircase

She has sold two other Chicago properties in the last four years.

In 2015, Oprah sold a four-unit duplex for $4.625 million and a co-op unit for $2.8 million in 2012.

She first moved to Chicago in 1983; while in Illinois, she hosted The Oprah Winfrey Show from 1986 until 2011.

The network owner lives in a 23,000 square-feet mansion on 42-acres in Montecito, CA.

In December, she purchased the 23-acre equestrian estate next door - for $28.9 million, reports ET Online.

The TV personality also owns properties in Hawaii, Santa Barbara and Indiana.

Colorful: Also upstairs is a red painted room - across from the large two-level living space

Another angle: The residence has plenty of natural light as well as hardwood floors

What a relaxing place: The bedroom has high ceilings and a fan - perfect for a warm evening

Keeping organized: It also has many storage options, including closets with shelving
He recently made a shocking exit from hit series The Walking Dead following a gruesome season seven opener.

And it seems Steven Yeun was ready for a fresh start in his personal as well as professional life as he listed his Hollywood townhouse for $895k, as reported by Variety.

The listing comes as the 32-year-old and his wife Joanna Pak picked up a $2.3m home in Los Feliz.

Bigger and better things: Steven Yeun and wife Joanna Pak have put their Hollywood town home on the market for $895k after reportedly purchasing a $2.3m home in Los Feliz (pictured at a Talking Dead taping in October)

Bright: The 1900 square foot condo boasts hardwood floors, with a 'Sputnik-style' chandelier in the combination living and dining room

The townhouse is in a secured, contemporary complex on the border between Hollywood and West Hollywood, and had been purchased by the couple in 2012 for $710k.

The two-story property, which is just under 1900 square feet, boasts three bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms.

Hardwood floors and a 'Sputnik-style' chandelier make up the town home's combination living and dining room.

Location, location, location: The townhouse is in a secured, contemporary complex on the border between Hollywood and West Hollywood

Contemporary: Beyond the well-lit living/dining room, sliding glass doors lead to a private, stone-tiled terrace

It boasts a private, stone-tiled terrace, large enough for a barbecue and picnic table, and hidden behind a tall hedge.

Glass sliders lead to the private outdoor area, while the front door leads right into the kitchen, with a raised snack bar, dark-chocolate-colored cabinets, and stainless steel appliances.

There are two guest bedrooms on the second story of the town home, one of which features a walk-in closet.

Sleek: The kitchen features a raised snack bar and stainless steel appliances

Options! The master bathroom features a soaking tub as well as a glass-enclosed shower, while the two guest bedrooms share a hall bathroom

Both rooms, which have wall-to-wall carpeting, share a hall bathroom. However, the master features its own walk-in closet as well as its own bathroom with a soaking tub and glass-enclosed shower.

Meanwhile, the new property that Steven and his photographer wife are said to have purchased boasts just over 3,300 square feet.

The property is a contemporary, single-family home in Los Feliz, and has four bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms.

Spacious: The master bedroom boasts a walk-in closet as well as the private bathroom

Onward: The Walking Dead alum, who was recently killed off in the shocking season seven opener, will next appear in action films Mayhem and Okja

The Walking Dead alum is set to next voice character Tony Chu in animated film Chew.
Below Deck's Nico Scholly is in mourning following the tragic death of his younger brother Tristen.

'My family and I are truly devastated,' the Bravo reality star told the channel's Daily Dish in a statement on Tuesday.

'We ask that our privacy be respected at this tragic and very difficult time.'

So close: Below Deck's Nico Scholly posted this Instagram of himself with his brother Tristen, who passed away Monday, aged 21, at a Chicago Cubs game, captioned, 'My heart is broken'

Tragic hero: Nico also tweeted a thank you for donations to the Tristen Scott Scholly Memorial Fund with a photo of his brother in his hospital bed, hooked up to monitors

The 21-year-old passed away on Monday when Nico took to Twitter to announce the news in the first of a series of tweets that did not reveal the cause of his brother's death.

'My younger brother of 21 is now an [angel]. So please pray for my family,' he wrote.

'I've never felt this pain before. I never understood the term broken-hearted til now. I just want to wake up,' the 23-year-old yachtie wrote in another tweet.

Nico paid tribute to his 'brave' brother's selflessness in an Instagram shot of them suited up at what looked like a wedding.

Announcing the news: The 23-year-old shared the tragic news on Twitter on Monday

Family shot: Nico, left, shared this shot of himself and Tristen, centre, at a family event, saying, 'This brave amazing guy is donating his lungs, heart, and other organs. He will save 4 different individuals' lives. I love u so much'

He captioned it: 'This brave amazing guy is donating his lungs, heart, and other organs. He will save 4 different individuals' lives. I love u so much.'

The other organs also included his eyes and liver.

Nico also tweeted a thank you for all the donations to the Tristen Scott Scholly Memorial Fund with a photo of his brother in his hospital bed, hooked up to monitors and surrounded by friends and family.

And the reality star remembered his 'best friend' and 'other half' in other touching posts on Instagram.

'I miss u so much already': The reality shared this snap on Tuesday, saying, 'Always making me laugh you little smart ass. Never a dull moment. #chicago #brotherlove #tristen #belowdeck'

'My heart is completely broken,' Nico captioned a photo of himself and his late brother. 'I'm going to miss you so much Tristen. [You're too] young to say goodbye so I'll see u again brother.'

Another of them at a Chicago Cubs game he captioned: 'Always making me laugh you little smart ass. Never a dull moment. I miss u so much already #chicago #brotherlove #tristen #belowdeck.'

Two of Nico's fellow Below Deck yachties, chief steward Kate Chastain and alum Adrienne Gang, have sent love and support to the deckhand and his family during this difficult time.

Sending their love: Below Deck alum Adrienne Gang and present chief steward Kate Chastain tweeted their love and support to the Scholly family
His mother Esther passed away two months ago, leaving behind a hefty multi-million dollar estate.

Now controversial businessman Geoffrey Edlelsten, 73, is said to be embroiled in a bitter feud over his late mother's will with younger brother Rodney.

According to the Herald Sun, Rodney is contesting the estate after Geoffrey received the majority share of the fortune.

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'The younger one wants more money and isn't happy with how much he's inherited': Controversial businessman Geoffrey Edelsten, 73, is said to be embroiled in a bitter feud over his late mother's will with younger brother Rodney

'The two brothers are not talking as the younger one wants more money and isn't happy with how much he's inherited,' an insider revealed to the publication.

'[Geoffrey] is thinking of his three children and grandchildren and feels hard done by. Geoffrey has shouldered the burden of looking after his mum over the years, particularly towards the end of her life when she was very ill, they were close.'

In September, Geoffrey revealed to the Daily Telegraph that he had pledged to start making wiser dating decisions upon the request of his late mother.

'My mother was a very wise and knowledgeable woman': In September, Geoffrey revealed to the Daily Telegraph that he had pledged to start making wiser dating decisions upon the request of his late mother

'My mother was a very wise and knowledgeable woman and told me I was making the same mistakes when it came to dating,' he admitted.

'I guess I will have to be a bit more selective about my dalliances', said Geoffrey, who lost his mother last week.

Indeed, the medical entrepreneur has had his fair share of eyebrow-raising relationships.

Geoffrey married his first wife, a 19-year-old model named Leanne Nesbitt, in the early 1980s.

First marriage: Geoffrey married his first wife, a 19-year-old model named Leanne Nesbitt, in the early 1980s (Pictured in 2015)

She and the Melbourne-based entrepreneur were married from 1984 to 1988 and in 2012 she admitted to having an eight-year affair with author and broadcaster, Clive James.

In a jaw-dropping interview in 2012, the then 48-year-old Leanne admitted to the affair with married James, then 73.

At the time she said: 'I have been [in love] for a very long time. We had an instant attraction...'

New flame: In January 2009, Geoffrey announced his engagement to 25-year-old fitness instructor Brynne Gordon (pictured in 2012)

In January 2009, Geoffrey announced his engagement to 25-year-old fitness instructor, Brynne Gordon.

The couple had met while the businessman was in Las Vegas, where Brynne had been working at the time.

The pair wed in a lavish ceremony at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, which was attended by celebrity guests including Jason Alexander from Seinfeld.

Making a splash: The pair wed in a lavish ceremony at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, which was attended by celebrity guests including Jason Alexander from Seinfeld (couple pictured in 2012)

In 2014, Brynne announced she had ended their marriage in a public statement, saying she is leaving her 'publicity-obsessed husband' after 'a reported dalliance with another woman more than 18 months ago.'

Geoff also had some choice words for Brynne, telling News Corp in 2014: 'Brynne is obsessed with making money.'

'She got whatever she wanted when she was married to me and she spent it very readily,' he said.

Splitsville: In 2014, Brynne announced she had ended their marriage in a public statment, saying that she is leaving her: 'publicity-obsessed husband for a reported dalliance with another woman more than 18 months ago' (couple pictured in 2013)

Geoffrey's latest marriage was to former prostitute Gabi Grecko, 27, whom he met in 2014.

According to Gabi, the couple met on the controversial dating site SugarDaddy.com after she joined the site in search of 'someone cultured and in business'.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Gabi claimed Geoffrey had no photograph on his profile, and said she was shocked to discover on their first that he was in fact over 70.

Colourful character: Geoffrey's latest marriage was to former prostitute Gabi Grecko, 27, whom he met in 2014 (couple pictured in 2014)

The couple wed at in June last year before making an appearance on Celebrity Apprentice together.

The couple split just five months later, with Gabi claiming her new husband had fallen in love with his long-term secretary- an assertion vigorously refuted by Geoffrey.

Gabi flew back to her home in New York soon after the marriage ended.

Unconventional meeting: According to Gabi, the couple met on the controversial dating site SugarDaddy.com after she joined the site in search of 'someone cultured and in business' (couple pictured in 2014)

It was in June this year that the wig-wearing socialite was outed as the high-class call girl at the centre of the NYPD in-flight orgy scandal, according to The New York Post.

Gabi allegedly had 'group sex' with disgraced NYPD Deputy Inspector James Grant, since-fired Detective Michael Millici and three other men in February 2013.

Geoffrey spoke to Daily Mail Australia after the shocking news surfaced, saying: 'I can't believe I married a prostitute. She deceived me and made herself out to be something she isn't.'

He went on to add: 'I wish I never had anything to do with her - she makes me feel sick. The sooner we get divorced the better.'
It took the results of the presidential election to finally convince How to Get Away with Murder's Jack Falahee to discuss his sexual orientation.

The 27-year-old heartthrob - who plays Connor Walsh - came out as heterosexual in two Twitter posts Tuesday written in support of his biggest fanbase, the LGBTQ community.

'While I'm not gay, on HTGAWM I play a character who's in an interracial relationship with an HIV positive man,' confirmed the Hillary Clinton supporter, who boasts 1.1M followers.

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'#imwithher': It took the results of the presidential election to finally convince How to Get Away with Murder's Jack Falahee to discuss his sexual orientation

'In the past I've declined to discuss my own sexuality in an attempt to try and dismantle the closet. Opponents to my ambiguous answers to questions surrounding my sexuality argued the importance of visibility.'

Jack continued: 'Ultimately, I think that my stance has been unhelpful in the fight for equality. I Feel that I've sacrificed my ability to support the community for a more theoretical discussion about sexuality. Now more than ever, I want to offer my support to the community as an ally.'

The NYU Tisch grad also vowed to call a gay friend of his, whom he watched 'crying under a table' on election night

'We now have a VP [Mike Pence] who believes in conversion therapy, that homosexuality is a choice and that marriage equality will lead to societal collapse,' Falahee explained.

Announcement: The 27-year-old heartthrob - who plays Connor Walsh - came out as heterosexual in two Twitter posts Tuesday written in support of the LGBTQ community

The Hillary Clinton supporter wrote: 'While I'm not gay, on HTGAWM I play a character who's in an interracial relationship with an HIV positive man' (played by Conrad Ricamora)

Jack continued: 'In the past I've declined to discuss my own sexuality in an attempt to try and dismantle the closet...Ultimately, I think that my stance has been unhelpful in the fight for equality' (pictured October 1)

'I want to offer my support': The NYU Tisch grad also vowed to call a gay friend of his, whom he watched 'crying under a table' on election night

'We have a VP who doesn't believe that my friend should have the same rights as me, and that's scary.'

The Michigan native had previously played coy for his 2015 OUT cover, but admitted he'd 'lost friends to suicide' - some of whom were closeted.

'I don't think answering who I'm sleeping with accomplishes anything other than quenching the thirst of curiosity,' Jack told the mag last year.

'And moreover, it seems reductive...No matter how I answer, someone will say, "No, that's not true." We still live in this hetero-normative, patriarchal society that is intent on placing everything within these binaries. I really hope that - if not in my lifetime, my children's lifetime - this won't be a question, that we won't need this.'

Falahee explained: 'We now have a VP [Mike Pence, R] who believes in conversion therapy, that homosexuality is a choice and that marriage equality will lead to societal collapse. We have a VP who doesn't believe that my friend should have the same rights as me, and that's scary' (pictured Thursday)

'It seems reductive': The Michigan native had previously played coy for his 2015 OUT cover, but admitted he'd 'lost friends to suicide' - some of whom were closeted

'#TBT': The Cardboard Boxer actor has been similarly guarded about his sexuality on social media, aside from a snap of Sadie - his Huron High School prom date in Ann Arbor

Plays Michaela Pratt: The self-described 'jock' also frequently shares #wcw posts with several ladies, especially his HTGAWM co-star Aja Naomi King

The Cardboard Boxer actor has been similarly guarded about his sexuality on social media, aside from a snap of Sadie - his Huron High School prom date in Ann Arbor.

The self-described 'jock' also frequently shares #wcw posts with several ladies, especially his HTGAWM co-star Aja Naomi King.

Catch more of Falahee as the out and proud Annalise Keating Law Firm intern Connor Walsh in the whodunit's third season, which airs Thursdays on ABC.

The Campus Code star will also reprise his role as Confederate soldier scout Frank Stringfellow in the second season of Mercy Street, which premieres next year on PBS.

'Who's dead?' Catch more of Falahee as the out and proud Annalise Keating Law Firm intern Connor Walsh in the whodunit's third season, which airs Thursdays on ABC
Rumours have been swirling about Iggy Azalea's less-than-peachy conduct on the set of The X Factor Australia over recent weeks.

And Little Mix star Leigh-Anne Pinnock, 25, has added flame to the fire by taking a dig at the Australian rapper after meeting her on the set of the X Factor Australia on Monday.

During an interview with KIIS FM's Kyle And Jackie O Show on Wednesday, the British songstress was asked by a fan whether she had experienced any of the rumoured 'diva-like' behaviour among the reality show's judges.

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The claws are out! Little Mix star Leigh-Anne Pinnock, 25, took a dig at Iggy Azalea during an interview with KIIS FM's Kyle And Jackie O Show, after meeting the rapper on the set of the X Factor Australia on Monday

'I didn't see them fighting but I don't really get as much of a good vibe off Iggy Azalea if I'm honest,' Leigh-Anne candidly responded.

She went on to explain that unlike the X Factor judging panel, there isn't 'one big ego' among the stars of Little Mix.

'There isn't someone that just wants to be the main one. We're all even,' she boasted.

'We're all even': She went on to explain that unlike the X Factor judging panel, there isn't 'one big ego' among the stars of Little Mix

Problems behind the scenes? It comes after a source revealed to News Corp that Iggy has become unpopular among her X Factor colleagues due to her 'lateness' and 'lack of enthusiasm'

It comes after a source revealed to the Daily Telegraph that Iggy has become unpopular among her X Factor colleagues due to her 'lateness' and 'lack of enthusiasm'.

Staff have allegedly started calling her names - which News Corp declined to published - in response to her frequent trips to America during filming.

Elsewhere, Guy Sebastian has questioned Iggy's interest in her role on the show, saying her behaviour makes her a bad ambassador for the program.

Unflattering: A source told The Daily Telegraph Iggy is unpopular on the reality TV show because of her 'lateness' and lack of 'enthusiasm'

'I think it reflects poorly': Elsewhere, Guy Sebastian has questioned Iggy's interest in her role on the show, saying her behaviour makes her a bad ambassador for the program

'I think it reflects poorly on the show when it seems someone is not invested in it. That's as narky as I'm going to get,' he said earlier this month.

'I am there all week, Mel is there all week and Adam is there all week.'

Meanwhile, judge Adam Lambert told Nova 96.9's Fitzy & Wippa that Iggy is a 'little crazy'.

'She's just a tough nut to crack... and she is a nut! She's a little crazy,' he said.

Controversy: Staff have allegedly started calling her names - which News Corp declined to published - in response to her frequent trips to America during filming
She has lost a whopping two stone this year alone.

And as Frankie Essex promoted her new weight loss DVD on Tuesday night, she showed off the stunning results of her fitness regime.

The ex-TOWIE star arrived at the London venue looking svelte in a little black dress complete with oversized ruffles on both sleeves.

Slim and trim: Frankie Essex looked stunning in her little black dress complete with oversized ruffles on both arms as she launched her weight loss DVD on Tuesday night

Frankie wore her blonde hair in a low ponytail with a delicate necklace teamed with a silver bracelet.

Bright pink shoes added a striking touch to the look.

She arrived with her rather glamorous looking grandmother Linda Sims who looked almost as striking as her granddaughter in a military-inspired jacket and trousers.

Look at me! Frankie held her hands beside her sleek waist as she tottered into the event

Thinking pink: Frankie wore her blonde hair in a low ponytail with a delicate necklace teamed with a silver bracelet

Me and my gran: Frankie was joined by her glamorous granny Linda Sims who stepped out in an interesting military ensemble

Frankie, who has lost just over 2st in seven months, has been hitting the gym hard, preparing for a one-off ITVBe comeback.

She told MailOnline: 'I've had a year and a half of being sad and depressed and not even wanting to leave the house at times, so I'm definitely not complaining about being busy.

'I just want to make everyone feel good like I do now,' she said, about sharing her fitness tips in new DVD, Frankie Essex Weight Loss Workouts.

Frankie continued: 'Burning calories and getting a sweat on, it just releases the endorphins and it makes you feel better.'

Depressed: Frankie has praised her love of exercise for pulling her out of her depression in 2015

New look: Frankie looks a far cry from her former weightier self

Weight journey: Frankie has been proudly discussing the benefits of the gym

The reality star had to overcome the fear of being judged when she first rejoined a gym and embarked on her weight loss journey.

'Sometimes I think the gym's a bit scary,' she said. 'I didn't go for ages, it's a bit intimidating. Especially being on TV, I felt like everyone was looking at me anyway, and I was bigger and I felt fat.

'Now I talk to all the men about their regimes and we all kind of copy each other's routines.'

Meanwhile, Frankie was also joined at the launch by former TOWIE star Abigail Clarke who arrived in an eclectic crop top and skirt with crossing fabric along the midriff and legs.

Cris cross: Abigail Clarke arrived in an eclectic crop top and skirt with crossing fabric along the midriff and legs
Jordan Barrett is known for being friends with Cheyenne Tozzi, but it looks like her mother Yvonne wants to be part of his gang now.

The former model, 58, posted a picture of herself with the 19-year-old to Instagram with a rather awkward caption.

'Getting my 'smilf on' (sic),' Yvonne wrote with the black and white picture.

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Awkward: Yvonne Tozzie, 58, posts picture with 19-year-old Jordan Barrett

'Smilf' seems to be the single mother version of 'MILF', and it's not often that women describes themselves as one.

Jordan didn't seem to be paying too much attention in the picture, with his eyes closed and him kneeling in what looks like an uncomfortable position.

Yvonne, meanwhile, his hugging him and giving a coquettish look to the camera.

Smilf? Yvonne describes herself as the single mother version of 'MILF'

Off brand: Yvonne shared a racist joke to her Instagram

Jordan and Cheyenne are often seen hanging out together, and considering the close relationship she has with her mother and sister Tahnya, it's no surprise that Yvonne has crossed past with the male model.

Her latest Instagram posts comes three weeks after she shared a rather racist joke.

'On holiday in Spain I saw a sign saying English speaking doctor,' it read.

Close: Yvonne's daughter is model and Australia's Next Top Model judge Cheyenne Tozzi

Pals; Jordan and Cheyenne have been mates for a while

'I thought what a good idea, we should have them in our country!'

'She captioned the image, 'Vengo de la tierra de Australia', which loosely translates as 'come to the land of Australia', and gives the impression that she agrees with the racist sentiment.
Trump vows immigration crackdown, but unclear how far he'll go

Emerging victorious from a campaign rife with vitriolic anti-immigrant rhetoric, President-elect Donald Trump has waffled on the specifics of his looming immigration policy.

The Republican's announcement on CBS's "60 Minutes" that he would immediately deport or jail as many as three million undocumented immigrants with criminal backgrounds seemed at first glance a softening of his incendiary campaign vows -- which included deporting 11 million undocumented people living in the United States, most of them from Mexico and Central America.

But if his team of hardline anti-immigration conservatives and leaders of the extreme right lend insight into Trump's program, the United States may be entering a "radical" era of ramped-up deportations and closed borders.

Students, faculty and supporters gather for a walkout protest against US President-elect Donald Trump at the University of Washington in Seattle on November 14, 2016 Jason Redmond (AFP)

"Deporting two to three million would be a radical measure," Michael Kagan, director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told AFP. "There are signs of a very aggressive and hard approach to immigrants."

The main concern, he said, is how those three million would be chosen: "I fear we'd have to consider people who have very minor, very old criminal records -- maybe even people with traffic violations."

In his Sunday interview, Trump said he would aim to "get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers... out of our country" and "secure our border."

He reaffirmed his signature campaign pledge to build a wall stretching across the nearly 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) border with Mexico -- although he conceded that "fencing" might do the trick in some places.

- 'People should be worried' -

Pressed by conservatives, President Barack Obama deported two million immigrants throughout his eight years in office -- more than any of his predecessors. However, most of those cases involved people detained at the border, not immigrants who had lived and worked in the United States for years.

Trump has pledged to end the Obama-backed DACA program -- Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals -- that granted temporary residency to people who arrived here before the age of 16.

Many of these youth have lived in the US most of their lives and speak only English.

Obama's executive action gave these "dreamers," as they are known, and their families temporary work permits and spared them from deportation, enabling them to study, graduate and get a job.

But Trump has never indicated whether ending DACA would result in the deportation of those already protected by the program, or just the rejection of new applicants.

"People should be worried. It's an awful situation to be in," Kagan said.

"It's very difficult to imagine anything good is coming for immigrants from Trump."

In the aftermath of Trump's shock victory Obama has urged the president-elect and his team "to think long and hard before they are endangering the status of what -- for all practical purposes -- are American kids."

"By definition, if they're part of this program, they are solid, wonderful young people of good character," Obama told journalists. "It is my strong belief that the majority of the American people would not want to see suddenly those kids have to start hiding again."

- Team of hardliners -

Trump's transition team includes Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state and architect of a draconian anti-immigrant law passed in Arizona in 2010 known as "Papers Please" -- which allows authorities to ask citizens their immigration status is if "reasonable doubt" that they have no papers exists.

Kobach is also a proponent of "self-deportation" -- the theory that state and local governments can tighten immigration laws to the extent that undocumented immigrations voluntarily deport themselves out of misery.

Senator Jeff Sessions -- another member of Trump's transition team and a potential Secretary of Defense or Attorney General pick -- also fiercely opposes paths to legal citizenship for undocumented immigrants and has praised Trump's plan to erect a southern border wall.

Beth Werlin, the executive director of the American Immigration Council, said Trump's campaign shows he intends to "move forward with aggressive and punitive actions to deport immigrants -- due process and discretion be damned."

"We take his words seriously, and we're ready to fight," she said in a statement.

"There are limits on his power and mechanisms that allow all of us to push back and challenge unjust and illegal actions."

Trump has also promised to cut federal funding to "sanctuary cities" -- municipalities where local law enforcement officers can choose not to alert US Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities when they encounter residents without papers.

Chicago is one of many cities throughout the country pledging to retain its sanctuary status in defiance of Trump.

"While the administration will change, our values and commitment to inclusion will not," said the city's mayor Rahm Emanuel

"You are safe, you are secure and you are supported in the city of Chicago."

President-elect Donald Trump reaffirmed his signature campaign pledge to build a wall stretching across the nearly 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) border with Mexico -- although he conceded that "fencing" might do the trick in some places Jim Watson (AFP)
Estee Lauder eyes millenials with $1.45 bn Too Faced buy

US cosmetics maker Estee Lauder snapped up the beauty products brand Too Faced, beloved by the younger demographic, for $1.45 billion in its biggest acquisition to date.

The deal aims to "strengthen the company's leadership position in the fast-growing prestige makeup category globally, increase the company's consumer reach in the specialty-multi channel, and win with millennials -- all in strong alignment with the company's strategy," Estee Lauder said in a statement, released on Monday.

The company, which has catered heavily toward older women, was impressed with the brand loyalty Too Faced has generated, and was willing to pay the price to lock in its growth strategy.

US cosmetics maker Estee Lauder has snapped up the beauty products brand Too Faced, beloved by the younger demographic Kena Betancur (Getty/AFP/File)

Like many younger women, fast-growing Too Faced is extremely active on social media.

It uses edgy names for products, such as "better than sex" mascara, and quirky packaging. It has a massive following on Instagram, and offers makeup tutorials on YouTube

Too Faced has had sales of $279 million this year, up 70 percent in one year.
'Take cover!' Tackling IS car bombs in Iraq

It only takes a split second for the expression on the Iraqi soldier's face to transform from relaxed contentment to absolute terror. "Car bomb!"

The scream slices across the otherwise quiet afternoon in Karkukli, a heavily damaged eastern district of Iraq's second city Mosul.

Special operations forces have seized the western half of Karkukli from the Islamic State group, but the eastern half -- like most of Mosul -- remains under IS control.

Soldiers from the Iraqi Special Forces 2nd division carrying rocket propelled grenades (RPG) and anti tank missiles take up positions to prepare for a reported suicide bomb vehicle in Mosul's Karkukli neighbourhood, on November 14, 2016 Odd Andersen (AFP)

IS has repeatedly turned to suicide car bombings as part of its defence against Iraqi forces since the operation to retake Mosul was launched four weeks ago.

Elite army troops are finishing their typical lunch of rice and tomato sauce on Monday afternoon when the warning comes through on the Diyala Regiment's walkie-talkie channel.

"Armoured Kia Sportage coming your way. Take cover now!"

The elite Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) fighters burst into panicked action, shouting at the few civilians on the dusty rubble-strewn road to hide.

Any soldiers carrying weapons lighter than rocket-propelled grenades scramble into abandoned homes, with some kicking through windows to get inside.

"Grab the bazookas!" one unit leader bellows to his forces, several of whom grab anti-tank missiles and take up positions at intersections where they can spot the car.

Drenched in sweat, drivers leap into Humvees and tanks to block off access to the main road.

"Suspicious vehicle is heading north," a voice radios to Lieutenant Abbas of the Diyala Regiment, standing on a rooftop overlooking his unit's forward positions in Karkukli.

The suspected car bomb is about 150 metres (yards) from the CTS's base inside the neighbourhood, he tells AFP.

It is driving slowly along a main thoroughfare dividing the neighbourhood's east and west, likely looking for a route that could bring it closer to CTS forces.

But the troops spent the morning blocking off about a dozen alleyways with tanks and bulldozers, and the Kia Sportage struggles to find a way through.

"It reached our fortified positions and is turning back," the same voice says minutes later.

"Roger. I'll have Hussein set up one (anti-tank missile) for you at the end of the alley," Abbas responds.

- The search is on -

While the imminent danger has subsided, CTS forces remain on high alert -- the search is on.

The gunfire and yelling has died down, and Karkukli's now-deserted streets are eerily quiet as tense CTS soldiers wait for news of the car's location.

As soon as he heard of the suspicious vehicle, Lieutenant Haidar Hussein bounded up the steps to the rooftop of the abandoned three-storey home his unit is using as a base.

The young, clean-shaven soldier is responsible for flying the Mosul Regiment's surveillance drone, which has been instrumental in helping them spot incoming car bombs.

Usually, Hussein locates the booby-trapped cars, which are then targeted by CTS tanks or air strikes from the US-led coalition warplanes circling above.

He isn't so lucky on Monday.

"I put the drone up in the sky as soon as I heard there was a suspicious car, but I can't find it," he says, fixated on the bird's-eye view of Karkukli displayed on the tablet screen in front of him.

The clock is ticking -- the drone's batteries only last 20 minutes and he has no other charged units.

"I'm monitoring this area here, as it's the only way the car can reach us," Hussein explains, pointing to a deserted main road leading into Karkukli from an adjacent industrial zone.

He shakes his head and starts directing the drone back towards his rooftop, sprinkled with broken glass and empty cans of cheap energy drinks guzzled by young fighters.

Minutes later, a pair of grinning CTS soldiers emerge from the staircase. One sets his anti-tank missile in a corner of the rooftop.

"It's gone," the other says, waving his hand to indicate that the car has left their neighbourhood and that they are safe -- for now.

A front line drone operator from the Iraqi Special Forces 2nd division takes cover behind a rooftop wall in Mosul's Karkukli neighbourhood, on November 14, 2016 Odd Andersen (AFP)

Soldiers from the Iraqi Special Forces 2nd division rest during a lull in the fighting against Islamic State (IS) jihadists, in the Karkukli neighbourhood of Mosul, on November 14, 2016 Odd Andersen (AFP)
Attorneys in Trump University lawsuit bicker over trial

Attorneys representing plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against Donald Trump's now-defunct university denounced a request by the president-elect's lawyers to delay the trial and excuse him from testifying in person.

In a motion filed in San Diego's federal court, the attorneys said a request made at the weekend for the November 28 trial to be delayed until after the inauguration in January was no more than a tactic by the defense to postpone the case indefinitely.

"Each of defendants' 'modest' requests to delay this trial has been just a prelude to another request," attorney Jason Forge wrote in the motion.

Donald Trump speaks during the final presidential debate, in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 19, 2016 Saul Loeb (AFP/File)

He added that the plaintiffs in the six-year-old lawsuit, one of whom is nearly 75 years old, "cannot afford any further delays."

"This trial, like so many Trump University student-victims' credit card bills, is past due," Forge wrote.

He also rejected a request by Trump's attorney Daniel Petrocelli that the president-elect be excused from testifying live or in person at the trial.

The class action suit alleges that Trump University fleeced students by tricking them with aggressive marketing that amounted to fraud.

Students paid as much as $35,000 to enroll, believing they would make it big in real estate after being taught by experts hand-picked by Trump, the suit says.

In a motion filed late Saturday, Petrocelli said his client was willing to be questioned by both sides in a videotaped deposition that could be played during the trial.

Forge, however, said there was no need for Trump to be questioned any further in the case given that he has already provided more than 10 hours of video-recorded sworn testimony.

He noted that if, as Petrocelli said, Trump was available to provide additional videotaped testimony before the trial starts, there was no reason he could not take the stand in person.

"Since Trump has complete control over when he makes what decision, he can simply shift his schedule one day, testify, and then pick up with the transition process right where he left off," the motion states.

Petrocelli, however, insisted in a response motion filed Monday that a continuance was necessary "to allow the president-elect to focus on the enormous responsibility of transitioning to the most demanding and important office in our government."

The lawyer indicated during a hearing in the case last Thursday that he was open to settling the matter out of court.

US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel told both sides that another judge had offered to step in and work with them on a possible settlement.

Trump repeatedly hit out against the Indiana-born Curiel during his run for the White House. He claimed that the jurist's Mexican heritage would stand in the way of a fair trial given Trump's controversial stand on illegal immigration and his vow to build a wall along the US-Mexico border.
Du Plessis urges Proteas to go for Aussie jugular

South African captain Faf du Plessis on Tuesday urged his victorious team to keep their foot on Australia's throat and go after a series whitewash in next week's final Adelaide Test.

The Proteas are on the verge of an unprecedented Test series clean sweep in Australia after crushing the home side by an innings and 80 runs before lunch on the fourth day of the second Test in Hobart.

That clinched the South Africans a third consecutive Test series Down Under stretching back to 2008, and they have the chance of cleaning up all three Tests in the day-night game at Adelaide Oval from November 24.

South Africa's captain Faf du Plessis (R) hugs teammate Jean-Paul Duminy as the team celebrates victory against Australia on November 15, 2016 Saeed Khan (AFP)

As far as du Plessis is concerned there will be no easing up on the demoralised Australians.

"Thats the mission for us now. We want to do that very badly," he told reporters after his team effectively beat the Australians in under three days following Sunday's entire wash-out.

"The same with the ODIs (5-0 series win in South Africa in October), we wont just rest on our laurels and be happy with 2-1 or even 2-0.

"Weve got Australia in a position where theyre under pressure and wont let that go. Its hard enough to get them in this position so well do everything we can to keep them there."

- Confidence booster -

Du Plessis, who replaced the injured AB de Villiers as skipper for the Tests in Australia, rated the series win as the highlight of his playing career.

"I didnt expect it to happen (so quickly). To get eight wickets for 32 runs is one of those sessions we will always remember as a team that won us a series," he said.

"That ranks right at the top. To come here and do what weve done is right up there certainly in my career."

The trailblazing series success will act as a spur for younger players watching at home, he added.

"We know how hard it is. Even guys like Dale (Steyn) and Hashim (Amla), they know how hard it is coming here.

"I suppose the younger guys that are looking from back home right now can see that its possible, coming here and to an extent dominating an Australian team, which gives us as a country a lot of confidence when we go and travel.

"But its extremely special for us, we know that this is something that well remember forever as a team and thats exactly what we came here to do. We want to create memories as a team together. Weve done it a few times now but its not done yet."

Du Plessis, said a major part of the Proteas success was keeping the clamps on Australia's senior players David Warner and Steve Smith.

"If you can put a lot of pressure on them you know that the younger and the more inexperienced players in the team wont have the same punch as they would have," he said.

"Weve just made sure those guys have been relatively quiet in the series. Even guys like Mitchell Starc who is a fantastic bowler.
In Malaysia's heartland, a call to action over corruption

With yellow flags waving and vuvuzelas blaring, a convoy of two dozen cars snakes into the sleepy Malaysian town of Batu Gajah, breaking the rural calm with warnings of corruption and national decay.

For nearly seven weeks, Malaysia's leading pro-reform group has waged an information insurgency through towns and villages nationwide, shining light on a scandal involving Prime Minister Najib Razak and state-owned fund 1MDB.

In public speeches, flyers and door-to-door canvassing, the unprecedented campaign attempts to explain a highly complex and seemingly distant affair in what is essentially hostile territory -- Malaysia's pro-government rural heartland.

A child stands behind a placard reading "Please Step Down Najib" as part of a campaign to explain the 1MDB scandal involving Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak Mohd Rasfan (AFP)

"We have planted the seed. The seed where people actually start to ask what is (the) 1MDB scandal all about?" said Maria Chin Abdullah, chair of civil-society alliance Bersih, during a recent swing through rural central Malaysia.

Bersih, an alliance of 93 NGOs and other groups that has staged some of Malaysia's largest-ever protests, caps its pitch with a call to attend a demonstration in the capital Kuala Lumpur on Saturday to demand Najib's resignation.

"There is no turning back. We should not be intimidated, because for 50 years we have been intimidated into silence," Chin said, referring to nearly six decades of control by the corruption-prone ruling coalition.

- Country roads -

Malaysia has been seized for more than a year by allegations that Najib and associates plundered billions of dollars from 1MDB, which he founded and oversaw.

The globe-spanning scandal has sparked investigations in several countries including the United States, which in July filed lawsuits to recover 1MDB-linked ill-gotten gains.

Najib, 63, denies wrongdoing, but last year purged critics and shut down domestic investigations. He says his accusers need to "move on".

Bersih staged large Kuala Lumpur demonstrations in recent years to demand reform, including a peaceful 1MDB protest by tens of thousands in August 2015.

But the current campaign marks its first major rural outreach.

Under a tent in the tiny oil palm hamlet of Kampung Changkat Tualang, villagers listened to lawyer-activist Chin's warnings of a "crisis" of corruption, as palm trees rustled and chickens squawked.

The message resonated with Jamiah Yop Mat Ali, 81.

She quit Najib's ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) years ago, saying it had forsaken its original goal of Malay empowerment in favour of money politics and patronage while poor communities struggled with rising costs.

"We must change our leaders. Our lives now are difficult," said Jamiah, who yearned for "the good old days" of clean government and less divisive politics.

No one expects Saturday's rally to unseat Najib. UMNO has won recent by-elections and he looks secure.

But with general elections looming in the next 18 months, Bersih hopes to raise doubts among rural Malays, multi-cultural Malaysia's majority group and UMNO's bedrock.

Muslim Malays have for decades relied on UMNO handouts and warnings that only the party can protect them from progressive Malays and the industrious Chinese minority.

- Devil in the details -

But apathy and conservative attitudes die hard in the heartland, and only a handful of Jamiah's 150 fellow villagers turned out, though Bersih says the response overall has been strong.

"The (urban) response is fantastic," said opposition parliamentarian Nizar Jamaluddin, who took part in the campaign, but rural Malay areas are an "UMNO fortress".

The complexity and opacity of 1MDB's bewildering fund flows adds to the challenge, said Bersih activist Sandrea Ng.

She said nearly every Malaysian has heard of the now-notorious scandal but "people find it very difficult to understand" what happened and why it matters to them.

Bersih also blames official intimidation for suppressing turnout.

In Kampung Changkat Tualang, dozens of police photographed villagers or recorded their particulars at Chin's appearance.

The "Red Shirts", an UMNO-aligned rightist group has obstructed or assaulted Bersih activists along their route, and its firebrand leader has vowed to disrupt Saturday's rally, raising fears of violence.

Bersih supporters clashed with police in past demonstrations, and authorities have declared Saturday's rally illegal though there is no sign they will crack down.

Chin, 60, who has received death threats including images doctored to depict her family members decapitated, vows to barrel ahead.

"I believe (the) 19th of November is a time where we can send a strong message that the people are ready for change," Chin said.

Malaysia's 1MDB scandal Laurence CHU, John SAEKI (AFP)

Pro-reform group Bersih was in rural central Malaysia to warn about corruption and national decay Mohd Rasfan (AFP)
Under Trump shadow, world leaders tackle climate change

A week after climate change denier Donald Trump's election to the White House, world leaders will on Tuesday address a key UN meeting in Marrakesh to keep a climate rescue plan on track.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon, King Mohammed of conference host Morocco, and France's President Francois Hollande will open a "high-level" segment of the annual UN forum -- the first since last year's adoption of the Paris Agreement to stave off calamitous global warming.

This will be followed by speeches from nearly 60 heads of state and government from mainly African countries, but also some from Europe and several island states.

Activists call for action to protect the planet during a protest in Marrakesh, on the sidelines of the COP22 climate conference, on November 13, 2016 Fadel Senna (AFP/File)

"We expect of the heads of state to reiterate their commitment (to the deal)... and send a strong message to Trump and the rest of the world," Celia Gautier of the Climate Action Network, a grouping of NGOs, told AFP on Monday.

The election of Trump, who has called climate change a "hoax" and has threatened to "cancel" the Paris pact, has been uppermost on the minds of many delegates and negotiators gathered since last Monday to thrash out a roadmap for putting the agreement into action.

The hard-fought deal set an objective of limiting average global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels by cutting planet-heating greenhouse gases from burning coal, oil, and gas.

Many fear that withdrawal by the United States, a champion of the deal under Barack Obama, would shatter the political goodwill built up over years of negotiations, and put the very planet-saving goals of the deal at risk.

While waiting for news from Washington, many now look to the rest of the world to strongly restate their commitment to the pact -- with or without the US.

All eyes will be on Marrakesh, where 39 kings and presidents and 18 prime ministers are scheduled to address the 22nd Conference of Parties (COP22 for short) of the UN's climate convention, which gathers 196 nations and the EU bloc.

- Call to action -

To date, 109 of the 197 parties have officially ratified the Paris Agreement, which entered into force on November 4 after crossing the threshold of 55 ratifications by countries representing 55 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.

They included the United States, which represents about 14 percent of global emissions, and China which accounts for 25 percent.

Beijing's climate envoy Xie Zhenhua stressed Monday that tackling climate was a "common and shared responsibility".

"International cooperation is a must for us to address climate change," he said in Marrakesh.

In Marrakesh, developing nations have been pushing for stronger finance commitments from the developed world, particularly for infrastructure to help them better cope with climate change-induced harms.

Scientists say warming over 2 C will yield dangerous sea level rise, harsher storms and droughts, disease spread and conflict over ever-scarcer resources.

"Now, more than ever, governments meeting in Marrakesh must commit to action to protect millions of vulnerable people from climate change," said Oxfam, which fights for poor people's interests at the climate talks.

Among the speakers on Tuesday's agenda is Sudan's Omar al-Bashir, for whom the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur.

Approached for comment, the UNFCCC said by email on Monday Bashir was invited by Morocco, which is not a party to the court's founding Rome Statute.

"If even al-Bashir can contribute to the global climate effort, then President-elect Donald Trump will have no excuse," commented climate activist Mohamed Adow of ChristianAid.

Morocco's Princess Lalla Hasna arrives at the UN World Climate Change Conference in Marrakesh, on November 14, 2016 Fadel Senna (AFP)
Bangladesh siege cafe to become family home

The owner of the Bangladeshi restaurant where Islamist extremists killed 22 hostages, mostly foreigners, said Tuesday he would turn the building into a home for his family and reopen the eatery elsewhere.

Police have handed the Holey Artisan Bakery back to its owners after completing a four-month investigation into the siege by extremists linked to the Islamic State group.

"Police have handed over the place to us on Sunday. They've cleaned up the debris. We're now going to turn it into a residential home where we'll live," owner Sadat Mehdi told AFP.

The Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's upscale Gulshan neighbourhood was popular with expats and the city's elite Roberto Schmidt (AFP/File)

Mehdi, who lost five friends in the attack, said he wanted to send a message that "we are not defined by terror".

The Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's upscale Gulshan neighbourhood was popular with expats and the city's wealthy.

Japanese and Italian diners were among the 18 foreigners shot and hacked to death in the July attack.

Mehdi said he would open two new outlets in other parts of the city.

The Bakery attack capped a three-year long campaign of murders by Islamist extremists whose targets included foreigners, rights activists and members of religious minorities.

Bangladesh authorities have blamed a local Islamist extremist group for the cafe attack, rejecting claims by the IS that it was behind the carnage.

The siege went on for 10 hours before Bangladesh military commandoes using armoured vehicles stormed the compound to bring it to an end.
Bangkok bomb trial starts after months of delays

The long-delayed trial of two Uighur men accused of bombing a Bangkok shrine finally kicked off Tuesday as a military court allowed Beijing to supply translators for the suspects despite their objections.

Yusufu Mieraili and Bilal Mohammed are accused of planting a bomb in a Hindu shrine in Bangkok's commercial heart in August 2015 that left 20 dead, mostly ethnic Chinese tourists.

The blast came weeks after Thailand's junta forcibly repatriated 109 Uighurs to China, where rights activists say the Muslim minority faces cultural and religious repression.

The bombing of the popular Erawan shrine in Bangkok left 20 dead and more than 100 wounded Christophe Archambault (AFP/File)

The timing prompted speculation that the attack was part of a revenge plot against a country that had been a key transit hub for Uighurs as Thailand's military leaders grew closer to Beijing.

Thai authorities have rejected that theory saying the attackers were part of a people-smuggling network angered by a recent crackdown, a motive most analysts say is simply not compelling.

The trial for the two men, who have been held in military prison for over a year, was delayed several times as the court struggled to find a suitable interpreter and rejected one provided by the defence.

The hearing finally started Tuesday after judges accepted two interpreters provided by the Chinese embassy and waved off objections from the defendants.

"I do not want translators from China because China does not respect Uighurs," Mohammed said through one of the interpreters.

"I want a translator who can speak Uighur from America, Canada, Australia or other countries," added Mieraili.

- 'Real concerns' -

Uighurs, a Turkic minority, hail from China's westernmost province, Xinjiang.

The decision to use translators provided by the Chinese embassy is controversial because Uighurs have fled the region for years alleging they are the victims of state-sponsored persecution and assimilation policies that favour China's ethnic Han majority.

Beijing has also vowed to pursue Uighurs who flee abroad.

But a military judge on Tuesday rejected the defendants' concerns saying that the interpreters were "appropriate as they only do translation" and "speak the same language as the defendants".

Sam Zarifi, Asia director for the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), which is monitoring the trial, said the appointments raised fresh doubts about the prospect of justice in a case being handled by an army tribunal.

"The current translators raise real concerns about the impartiality of the process," he told AFP, calling for the case to be moved to civilian court.

The first witness called by the prosecution on Tuesday was a police officer who was among the earliest to arrive on the scene after the bomb tore through the shrine, scattering debris and body parts.

"There were many deaths and injuries, both Thais and foreigners," police lieutenant colonel Somkiart Ploytabtim recalled.

Thailand's junta has been criticised for a murky investigation that appeared to wind down shortly after the arrest of the two men, leaving more than a dozen named suspects -- including alleged masterminds -- still at large.

Police and army officials also made confusing and often contradictory statements during the investigation.

The trial is expected to last until early 2018 with the court only sitting for a few days each month.

Prosecutors accuse Mohammed of placing the bomb inside a backpack at the shrine and say Mieraili was involved in transporting the device.

Bangkok shrine blast Adrian Leung/gal (AFP)
1MDB: Malaysia's extraordinary financial scandal

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has been under fire since 2014 over allegations that billions of dollars were looted from state investment fund 1MDB in an audacious campaign of fraud and money-laundering.

On Saturday, an influential pro-reform group is planning a rally in downtown Kuala Lumpur to demand Najib's ouster over the affair.

Here are some answers to key questions in the saga.

Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak launched the 1MDB state investment fund in 2009 Mohd Rasfan (AFP/File)

- What is 1MDB? -

1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) is a state investment fund Najib launched in 2009 shortly after assuming office.

Its portfolio has included power plants and other energy assets in Malaysia and the Middle East, and real estate in Kuala Lumpur.

The fund has been closely overseen by Najib.

Whistle-blowers say Low Taek Jho, or "Jho Low", a shadowy, jet-setting Malaysian financier close to Najib but who has no official positions, helped set up 1MDB and made key financial decisions.

- How did the scandal emerge? -

Concerns escalated in 2014 as 1MDB slid into an $11 billion debt hole, and the intensifying public scrutiny led to a string of revelations concerning missing funds.

The issue exploded in July 2015 when the Wall Street Journal published documents showing Najib received at least $681 million in payments to his personal bank accounts.

The US Justice Department piled on the pressure this year by filing lawsuits to seize more than $1 billion in assets it said were purchased with stolen 1MDB money.

- What are some key Justice Department allegations? -

-- US authorities said a figure it calls "Malaysian Official 1" knowingly received huge sums of 1MDB money. A Malaysian Cabinet minister has since confirmed that official was Najib.

-- From 2009-11, at least $1 billion was secretly diverted from a 1MDB joint venture with a Saudi energy firm to bank accounts controlled by Low, who has been photographed partying with the likes of Paris Hilton and Leonardo DiCaprio.

-- $1.37 billion was diverted from a pair of 2012 bond offerings to accounts in the British Virgin Islands and Singapore, believed controlled by Low, as was $1.26 billion raised in a 2013 bond sale.

-- Tens of millions of dollars in stolen money were used in 2012 by Najib's stepson Riza Aziz, an aspiring film producer, to fund the Hollywood film "The Wolf of Wall Street" starring DiCaprio.

-- Hundreds of millions were used, mainly by Riza and Low, to purchase high-end real estate in Beverly Hills, New York, and London, a Monet painting for $35 million, a Van Gogh for $5.5 million, a $35 million Bombardier jet and a $100 million stake in EMI Music Publishing.

- Has anyone faced justice? -

A Singaporean private banker was sentenced last week to 18 weeks in jail for facilitating illicit money flows, and another banker in the city-state has been hit with similar charges.

Singapore has also shut down the local operations of two Swiss-based banks involved in the scheme.

But so far no big fish have been hooked.

Najib shut down domestic Malaysian investigations last year, denying wrongdoing and saying the scandal was concocted by his political enemies.

The US lawsuits do not target any individual for prosecution, but investigations in several countries are continuing.

- What impact has 1MDB had on Malaysia? -

Since the scandal emerged, Najib has purged 1MDB critics from his government, curbed domestic investigations, enacted a tough new security law and generally lurched to the right.

Political analysts say Najib's strengthened hold makes it unlikely he will come clean, but critics accuse him of imperilling Malaysia's already fragile democracy just to save his skin.

Tension over 1MDB simmers, with the pro-reform group Bersih saying it will proceed with its rally in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday despite authorities declaring it illegal. Past Bersih protests have ended in clashes with police.

But pro-government rightists are threatening to disrupt the demonstration, raising fears of violence.

Malaysia's 1MDB scandal Laurence CHU, John SAEKI (AFP)
Iraq Christians tell tales of survival in the 'caliphate'

They were threatened, forced to spit on a crucifix or convert to Islam, but a handful of Iraqi Christians miraculously survived more than two years under Islamic State group rule.

When the jihadists swept across the Nineveh Plain in northern Iraq in August 2014 and told Christians to convert, pay tax, leave or die, around 120,000 of them fled.

Now that Iraqi forces have retaken many of those areas around the city of Mosul, stories are emerging of those who did not get a chance to leave and faced one of the three other options.

Archbishop Yohanna Petros Mouche of Mosul prays at the St. George Syriac Catholic Church in the Christian Iraqi town of Bartella, east of Mosul on October 30, 2016 Safin Hamed (AFP/File)

Ismail Matti was 14 when IS militants stormed his hometown of Bartalla, east of Mosul.

He waited for relatives who had already fled to come back for him and his sick mother, Jandar Nasi, but nobody did.

They tried to flee in taxis but were turned around twice by IS and ended up in a Mosul prison.

"There were Shiite people crammed in a cell next to ours -- they took one, shot him in the head and dragged his body in front of us," he said.

"They told my mother the same thing would happen to me if we refused to convert. So we converted," Ismail recounted from a church-run shelter in the Kurdish capital Arbil.

The pair went back to Bartalla and were then sent to the village of Shurikhan, on the western outskirts of Mosul.

"All our neighbours were Daesh," he said, using an Arab acronym for IS. "They would come to check if I was following the sharia (Islamic law)."

- Reign of terror -

"If they found that I hadn't been to the mosque to pray, I sometimes got lashes," Ismail said.

He suffered the same fate in their next temporary home in Bazwaya, east of Mosul.

Ismail would sometimes get food from friendly residents but his mother never left the house.

Jandar, who suffers from chronic migraines, was reluctant to tell their story as she sat quietly on a bed in the Arbil shelter.

Her dark, haunted gaze sometimes suddenly changed into a broad, loving smile directed at her son, as he recounted their odyssey under IS's reign of terror.

"This boy is the most beautiful gift ever. He and God and Mary saved us from death. We will always be together," she said.

Zarifa Bakoos Daddo stayed in Qaraqosh, once Iraq's largest Christian town, with her sick 90-year-old husband when IS vehicles hurtled in.

"On a Wednesday, his condition worsened, we took him to hospital. On the Thursday he was dead," said Zarifa, a 77-year-old with gnarled hands and decaying teeth.

She lived through more than two years of IS occupation of Qaraqosh in a house with her elderly friend Badriya.

"All that time I stayed with Badriya, we didn't see any of our people, only those fellows," Zarifa said of the IS militants.

"They would bring us food occasionally, leaving it at the door," she said.

"The older men used to tell us not to worry, that we were like sisters to them, but the younger ones were troublesome."

- Told to convert -

They were briefly taken to a prison in Mosul and held there with divorced women and widows, but eventually brought back to their house in Qaraqosh.

"One day, one of them came asking for money and gold. He poked his rifle into my ribs and said 'You have to give to us'," she said.

Zarifa handed over the $300 she had and Badriya gave some 15-carat gold.

"One time, a young one, maybe 20 or 21, came and said we should convert. I told him we had our beliefs and they had theirs," she recalled.

"He told me to spit on a picture of the Virgin Mary and a crucifix. I refused but he made me. The whole time I was telling God in my heart that I did not mean any of this," she said.

"I knew God heard me because he tried to burn the picture and his lighter didn't work," she said, to laughter from her family in their Arbil home.

When Iraqi forces pushed into Qaraqosh late last month, she remained trapped in the house with Badriya and no food.

The security forces found them several days after retaking the town.

"The whole time I prayed for my people, for the town, and also for these Daesh members, that God may open their hearts," she said.

The illiterate widow, whose first language is a Syriac dialect, said the joy of being reunited with her relatives had already erased her suffering.

"My Arabic got better from being around them, so something came out of it, thank God."

When Islamic State jihadists swept across the Nineveh Plain in northern Iraq in August 2014 and told Christians to convert, pay tax, leave or die, around 120,000 of them fled Safin Hamed (AFP/File)
Chinese media praise Trump's 'experience and ideology'

Chinese state-run media lauded Donald Trump Tuesday after a phone call between him and President Xi Jinping, saying that the president-elect's emergence could mark a "reshaping" of Sino-American relations.

The pair spoke Monday, when Xi said that the two powers needed to co-operate and Trump's office said the leaders "established a clear sense of mutual respect for one another".

On the campaign trail Trump frequently demonised Beijing, but questions have been asked whether his conduct in the White House will match his promises as a candidate.

While campaigning during the presidential election, Donald Trump often threatened to impose tariffs of 45 percent on Chinese goods Jim Watson (AFP/File)

Monday's conversation was "diplomatically impeccable and has bolstered optimism over bilateral relations in the next four years", China's frequently nationalistic Global Times newspaper said in an editorial.

Barack Obama, whose foreign policy pivot to Asia alarmed Beijing, was "profoundly affected" by the Cold War-shaped outlook of American elites, the paper said, but Trump's views "have not been kidnapped by Washington's political elites".

"Trump is probably the very American leader who will make strides in reshaping major-power relations in a pragmatic manner," it added, saying his ideology and experience "match well with the new era".

It was a sharp contrast to the same newspaper's editorial the day before, which baldly warned the incoming president not to follow through on campaign-trail promises to levy steep tariffs on Chinese-made goods or Beijing would take a "tit-for-tat approach" and target US autos, aircraft, soybeans, and iPhones.

But the president-elect's ambiguous and sometimes contradictory views on key questions on the relationship between the world's two largest economies, including trade, the South China Sea and North Korea, have cast a pall of uncertainty over how he will manage it.

While campaigning, Trump went as far as calling the Asian giant America's "enemy", accused it of artificially lowering its currency to boost exports, threatened to impose tariffs of 45 percent, and pledged to stand up to a country he says views the US as a pushover.

But he also indicated he is not interested in getting involved in far-off squabbles, and decried the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade deal, which encompasses several other Asian countries and has been seen as an effort to bolster US influence, for costing American jobs.

TPP has been signed by the US but not ratified by the Senate, where its chances are seen as poor.

Tuesday's editorial in the government-published China Daily newspaper called the Xi-Trump chat "propitious", noting that Beijing is "understandably relieved that the exclusive, economically inefficient, politically antagonising TPP is looking ever less likely to materialise".

Instead, Washington should consider joining the China-backed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a free trade area encompassing the Southeast Asian grouping ASEAN, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
Egypt has overturned a death sentence given to ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi - in one of four trials to have taken place since he was overthrown in 2013.

An appeals court ordered that the 65-year-old be retried on the charges of taking part in prison breaks and violence against policemen during the 2011 uprising which toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak.

Five co-defendants, including the supreme guide of the now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, who also received death sentences in June 2015, will be retried too.

Egypt has overturned a death sentence given to ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi (pictured) - in one of four trials to have taken place since he was overthrown in 2013

Nearly 100 others who were tried in absentia are unaffected by the appeals ruling at the Court of Cassation.

Last month, the same appeals court upheld a 20-year jail sentence handed down against Morsi in April in a separate trial on charges of ordering the use of deadly force against protesters during his year in power.

Morsi has also been sentenced to life in prison in two other trials.

In one, he was convicted of spying for Iran, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

An appeals court ordered that the 65-year-old (pictured) be retried on the charges of taking part in prison breaks and violence against policemen during the 2011 uprising which toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak

In the other, he was found guilty of stealing documents relating to national security and handing them over to Qatar, a longstanding supporter of the Brotherhood.

Egypt's first freely elected civilian president, Morsi came to power after Mubarak's overthrow.

He was toppled by then army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi following mass street protests.
Strong Europe 'good' for the US, NATO 'vital': Obama

A strong and unified Europe is "good" for the United States and NATO is "absolutely vital" for US security and prosperity, US President Barack Obama said Tuesday as he launched his final European trip.

"We believe a strong, prosperous and unified Europe is not only good for the people of Europe but good for the world, and good for the United States," Obama told Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos in Athens.

He added that the transatlantic relationship is "the cornerstone of our mutual security as well as prosperity."

US President Barack Obama inspects the presidental guard in Athens on November 15, 2016 Louisa Gouliamaki (AFP)

Obama will seek to calm the nerves of allies concerned by Donald Trump's shock presidential election victory, especially as the brash Republican has downplayed the importance of the NATO military alliance.

Obama stressed that NATO "is something that provides significant continuity even as we see a transition of government in the United States."
Burundi risks genocide in 'descent into hell': rights group

Burundi's brutal regime has set the small central African country on a "descent into hell", a prominent human rights group said Tuesday, warning of the risk of genocide.

"Since April 2015, when large popular protests broke out against the decision of President Pierre Nkurunziza to seek a third term, Burundi has been in violent political crisis," the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) said.

"We must stop this descent into hell," said FIDH president Dimitris Christopoulos. "Let us act before it is too late."

Burundi suffered a brutal civil war from 1993 until 2006 between majority Hutus and minority Tutsis, which claimed an estimated 300,000 lives

In a 200-page report, the FIDH documented how state-sponsored violence and opposing rebel groups have perpetuated a cycle of violence.

"The crackdown by the security services and the (ruling party's youth wing) Imbonerakure... aims primarily at retaining power through any and all means," the report said.

More than 1,000 people have died and up to 800 are missing, said the report titled "Repression and Genocidal Dynamics in Burundi".

Some 8,000 are being held for political reasons and more than 300,000 people have fled the country, it added.

The FIDH, along with leading Burundian rights group the ITEKA League, spent two years investigating rights abuses in the country.

"All the criteria and conditions for the perpetrating of genocide are in place," the report said, listing "ideology, intent, security institutions... identifying populations to be eliminated, and the using of historical justifications."

Burundi suffered a brutal civil war from 1993 until 2006 between majority Hutus and minority Tutsis, which claimed an estimated 300,000 lives.

A failed coup in May 2015 was the "breaking point" after which the authorities adopted a "logic of systematic repression", the report said.

After Nkurunziza's re-election in July 2015, the repression deepened, it said, citing targeted killings and massive arbitrary detentions.

In addition, ethnic Hutus in power "have sought to turn a political crisis into an ethnic one, equating 'opponents' and 'rebels' with Tutsis," the report warned.

Anschaire Nikoyagize, the now exiled president of the rights group, ITEKA League, said in a statement: "The crimes of the regime have become systematic... Crimes against humanity are occurring and there is a risk of genocide."

- 'Admission of guilt' -

Burundian government spokesman Willy Nyamitwe said FIDH was just engaging in "mud slinging and fabricating lies," adding that "there is no genocide in Burundi and neither any risk of it.

"This is yet another attack on the part of these so-called international organisations in the pay of those who want to destabilise the country," he said.

Burundi has become increasingly isolated from the international community, notably by withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The move came after ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said she was mulling a full investigation into allegations of murder, torture, rape and forced disappearances -- in what Bujumbura described as a "plot to do harm to Burundi".

The FIDH labelled Burundi's decision to quit the court as "an admission of guilt" by Nkurunziza's regime.

The ICC, created in 2002, is often accused of bias against Africa and has struggled with a lack of cooperation, including from the United States, which has signed the court's treaty but never ratified it.
India's Tata removes Mistry as beverage giant chairman

Indian conglomerate Tata removed Cyrus Mistry as the chairman of the tea giant Tata Global Beverages Limited Tuesday, weeks after dumping him as group chief in a move that stunned the country's business world.

Mistry was unceremoniously sacked last month as chairman of Tata Sons, the holding company of India's most famous family conglomerate -- the $103 billion steel-to-salt Tata Group.

TGBL said in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange that Harish Bhat had replaced Mistry as the chairman, after seven out of 10 company directors voted for his removal during Tuesday's board meeting.

Cyrus Pallonji Mistry was unceremoniously sacked last month as chairman of Tata Sons, the holding company of India's most famous family conglomerate -- the $103 billion steel-to-salt Tata Group Dibyangshu Sarkar (AFP/File)

"The board of directors resolved to replace Cyrus Mistry as Chairman of the company," TGBL said.

TGBL is the maker of one of India's leading tea brands - Tata Tea and British Tetley Tea and coffee brand - Eight O'Clock.

Last week, IT giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), removed Mistry as the chairman of India's biggest IT outsourcing firm as company patriarch Ratan Tata reasserts his authority over the sprawling conglomerate.

Mistry was sacked on October 24 with Tata unhappy at the direction he was taking the company in. The 78-year-old Tata, who led the group for more than two decades, has taken interim charge until a successor is found.

The pair have traded barbs since Mistry's ouster, plunging the group into bitter infighting with directors firmly placed in either camp.

Removing Mistry from various boards is not going to be easy however as he is heir to the multi-billion-dollar construction giant the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, which is the largest single shareholder in Tata Sons, owning 18.4 percent.
Egypt court overturns Morsi death sentence

An Egyptian appeals court on Tuesday overturned a death sentence handed down against ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in one of four trials since his 2013 overthrow.

The decision is a first victory for the 65-year-old who has been convicted and sentenced in all cases against him since being toppled by then army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi following mass street protests.

Since 2013 his Muslim Brotherhood movement has since been blacklisted and subjected to a crackdown that has killed hundreds of his supporters and jailed thousands.

Egypt's ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi has been wearing the red uniform reserved for prisoners on death row after being condemned to death in June last year over a 2011 prison break STR (AFP/File)

Morsi has been wearing the red uniform reserved for prisoners on death row after being condemned to death in June last year over a 2011 prison break.

"He'll take off the red uniform," one of his lawyers, Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsud, said on Tuesday.

Egypt's first freely elected civilian president, Morsi came to power after the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak.

The Court of Cassation on Tuesday ordered that Morsi be retried on the charges of taking part in prison breaks and violence against policemen during the 2011 revolt, a judicial official said.

Five co-defendants, including the supreme guide of the Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, who also received death sentences in the same case, will be retried too.

Nearly 100 others who were tried in absentia are unaffected by the appeals ruling.

"The initial verdict was marked by judicial flaws so we were expecting this decision from the Court of Cassation," Abdel Maqsud said.

Last month, the same appeals court upheld a 20-year jail sentence handed down against Morsi in April in a separate trial on charges of ordering the use of deadly force against protesters during his year in power.

Morsi has also been sentenced to life in prison in two other trials, both of which his legal team has appealed.

The Court of Cassation is to issue a verdict on Tuesday next week in the appeal against a life sentence on charges of spying for Iran, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

And the same court will from November 27 review Morsi's appeal against the same sentence in another case in which he was found guilty of stealing documents relating to national security and handing them over to Qatar, a longstanding supporter of the Brotherhood.

Morsi is being held at the Borg el-Arab prison near the northern city of Alexandria.

Hundreds of his supporters have been sentenced to death in speedy mass trials that have been condemned by the United Nations and human rights groups.

Some sentences have been overturned by the Court of Cassation on appeal.

Islamist militants have waged an insurgency that has killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since Morsi's ouster.

A judge in one of Morsi's trials earlier this month escaped unharmed when a car bomb exploded in Cairo.

And in September, militants detonated a car bomb as the country's deputy state prosecutor was passing. He was unharmed.
At Iraq's Nimrud, remnants of fabled city IS sought to destroy

Ali al-Bayati clambered onto the remains of a giant winged bull statue that once stood as a protector of Iraq's fabled ancient Nimrud before the Islamic State group came.

"When you came here before, you could imagine the life as it used to be," the local leader and tribal militia commander told AFP on Tuesday.

"Now there is nothing."

Iraqi forces recaptured the ancient town of Nimrud on November 13 Safin Hamed (AFP)

Iraqi forces announced that they had recaptured Nimrud -- located some 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of Mosul, the country's last city still held by the Islamic State group -- two days before.

The capital of the kingdom of Assyria some 3,000 years ago, Nimrud was one of the richest archaeological sites in the region.

But after IS took over the area along with swathes of other territory in 2014, it sought to level what remained of the city for propaganda gain.

The jihadist group released video footage last year of fighters blowing up the remnants of the famed Northwest Palace and smashing stone carvings at the site -- destruction it justified as wiping out un-Islamic idols.

Now it appears that almost nothing is left undamaged.

Statues lie shattered, the reconstructed palace is wrecked and the remains of a ziggurat -- once one of the tallest structures left from the ancient world at some 50 metres (yards) high -- has been reduced to a fraction of its height.

- Bombs and booby traps -

"One hundred percent has been destroyed," Bayati said as he surveyed the hilltop site, just 500 metres from his native village, for the first time in more than two years.

"Losing Nimrud is more painful to me than even losing my own house," he said.

UNESCO has said that the destruction of Nimrud by IS amounts to a war crime.

The group also blew up and looted antiquities in the spectacular Syrian site of Palmyra, smashed sculptures at ancient Hatra in Iraq, which is still under IS control, and rampaged through the Mosul museum.

In Nimrud, the jihadists attacked the antiquities with ferocity as they claimed they represented idols banned under their extreme interpretation of Islam.

But that has not stopped them from looting and selling such allegedly forbidden items to fund their operations.

"They want to make a new picture of Iraq -- with nothing before Daesh," Bayati said, using an Arabic acronym for the group.

He said he thought IS "destroyed this place because they wanted to destroy Iraq -- the new Iraq and old Iraq".

Most of Nimrud's priceless artefacts were moved long ago to museums in Mosul, Baghdad, Paris, London and elsewhere, but giant "lamassu" statues -- winged bulls with human heads -- and reliefs were still on site.

Now it will take experts to carry out a full evaluation of the damage IS has wrought at Nimrud.

But it may be some time before they can get there: the jihadists that Iraqi forces are fighting to drive back are still just a few kilometres (miles) away, and occasional explosions can be heard in the distance.

The site also still needs to be fully investigated and cleared by security forces of any hidden dangers IS may have left behind.

"There are many (bombs) and booby traps suspected," said Lieutenant Wissam Hamza, a member of an army explosives disposal team, as he walked carefully across the site.

"So we want to find them and clear the area -- then after that it can be called safe."

The ancient Iraqi city of Nimrud was founded in the 13th century and became the capital of the Assyrian empire Safin Hamed (AFP)

IS jihadists often target ancient sites like Nimrud to eliminate idols that are forbidden by its extreme interpretation of Islam Safin Hamed (AFP)
VW reaches 3.0-liter diesel agreement with EPA: report

German automaker Volkswagen and US environmental regulators have reached an agreement on the diesel-powered 3.0 liter cars also involved in the company's emissions scandal, according to a news report Tuesday.

Under the terms of the agreement, which still requires court approval, Volkswagen would fix 60,000 vehicles with affected 3.0 liter engines and repurchase 19,000 older models for which repairs would be too complex, Bloomberg reported, citing anonymous sources close to the negotiations.

The settlement would close another major chapter in the company's emissions cheating scandal. Volkswagen last month concluded a record-setting $15 billion settlement concerning 2.0 liter diesel cars.

Volkswagen has found itself in a firestorm and seen sales plummet since admitting last year that it had deliberately configured as many as 11 million diesel-powered cars sold worldwide Josh Edelson (AFP/File)

However, this latest agreement with the US Environmental Protection Agency and California's Air Resources Board does not resolve legal actions brought by owners of 3.0 liter cars or by the Federal Trade Commission, according to the report.

A spokeswoman for Volkswagen told AFP the talks were confidential and the company could not comment ahead of a court hearing scheduled for the end of the month. The Environmental Protection Agency declined to comment.

Elizabeth Cabraser, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, emphasized that there had been no agreement involving owners and lessees of the affected 3.0-liter cars.

"While an agreement between the EPA and Volkswagen may address some of the environmental damage, it does not hold the company accountable for the harm caused to consumers," Cabraser said in a statement. "We will continue to pursue a fair resolution on their behalf."

Any agreement would have to give consumers the same benefits offered in October's 2.0-liter class action settlement, including the choice between buyback and repair, Cabraser said.

The company has found itself in a firestorm and seen sales plummet since admitting last year that it deliberately configured as many as 11 million diesel-powered cars sold worldwide with "defeat devices" that reduced harmful nitrogen oxide output during emissions testing but allowed the cars to produce as much as 40 times permissible amounts during actual driving.
Algeria president returns after France medical trip

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika returned home Tuesday from a trip to France where he underwent medical checks, his office said.

Bouteflika suffered a stroke in 2013, weakening his mobility and forcing him to work from his residence in Zeralda, west of Algiers.

The 79-year-old flew to the southeastern French city of Grenoble on November 7 and returned to Algiers on Tuesday "at the end of a private visit during which he undertook periodic medical checks," the presidency said.

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, pictured on July 5, 2016, suffered a stroke in 2013, weakening his mobility and forcing him to work from his residence in Zeralda, west of Algiers

The statement, carried by the APS news agency, gave no further details about the results of the medical examinations.

In April this year, Bouteflika also underwent "routine medical checks" in Switzerland, the APS news agency reported at the time, again citing a presidency statement.

There are regular rumours in Algeria about the state of the president's health, with opposition leaders quick to evoke the idea of a "power vacuum".

Bouteflika has led Algeria for the past 17 years.
Students in Washington, NY ditch class to protest Trump

Hundreds of students in Washington ditched school Tuesday to protest against US President-elect Donald Trump, marching through the heart of the US capital before descending on the White House.

They joined youth across the country who have staged similar walkouts since Trump's shock victory on November 8, carrying signs with messages like "spread love," "my black is beautiful" and "make America gay again."

The young protesters marched across the Mall, the grassy esplanade that runs from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial.

High school students hold signs in front of the Trump International Hotel in downtown Washington on Tuesday

Anna, a 17-year-old immigrant from El Salvador, said she was "uncertain about my future."

"I'm worried that when this man gets into office we won't be safe on the streets anymore."

Trump has pledged to end Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy protecting youth like Anna who arrived in the country illegally as children.

But the president-elect has not indicated whether ending the program would result in the deportation of those already enrolled.

"Even if we don't make a difference, we'll know that we fought to the end," she said.

Wearing a shirt with the phrase "Nasty Woman" -- a nod to Trump's "such a nasty woman" dig aimed at Clinton during the final presidential debate -- Nell called Trump "an extremely dangerous man in an extremely powerful position."

"There's so much anger and frustration because it's not fair -- almost everyone here who's protesting can't vote," the 13-year-old said.

"This is their way of showing that there needs to be a change and that things aren't right."

- 'Get out of my swamp' -

Eva, 16, said the protests gave hope for the future.

"You're looking at it," she said, motioning to the hundreds of rallying students as they marched toward the White House, Trump's future residence. She hoisted a poster that said "Get out of my swamp" -- a reference to Trump's vow to drain Washington of corruption.

She said candidates in the next election need "to do a better job of actually talking to people who are disaffected, who are upset.

"There needs to be more work in small towns."

Hundreds of high school students also demonstrated in New York Tuesday morning outside Trump Tower, protesting in the pouring rain as the president-elect huddled inside with Vice president-elect Mike Pence to nail down cabinet appointments.

"No Ku Klux Klan, no fascists, no racists" the students shouted in turn, alternating their cries with: "Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here."

Some in the crowd shouted "My body my choice," giving voice to concerns about reverses on women's rights to abortion under Trump, who has vowed to put pro-life justices on the nation's high court.

Trump Tower -- where dozens of police stood guard -- has been the focus of protests every day since the New York billionaire's election.

Secondary school students holds signs in front of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on November 15, 2016 as they protest the election of US President-elect Donald Trump Nicholas Kamm (AFP)
Syrian dictator Assad says Donald Trump is a 'natural ally' to Damascus, Russia and Iran - provided the US president fulfils his pledge to fight 'terrorists'.

In his first reaction to Trump's election victory last week, Assad said he was unsure the American billionaire would be able to keep his word and step up the fight against jihadists.

'We cannot tell anything about what he's going to do, but if... he is going to fight the terrorists, of course we are going to be ally, natural ally in that regard with the Russian, with the Iranian, with many other countries,' he told Portugal's RTP state television.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, pictured in October 2016, called Donald Trump a 'natural ally'

Asked about Trump's campaign comments suggesting the United States should focus more on fighting ISIS, Assad said he would welcome such a move but was cautious.

'I would say this is promising, but can he deliver?' said Assad, who was speaking in English.

'Can he go in that regard? What about the countervailing forces within the administration, the mainstream media that were against him? How can he deal with it?' he said.

'That's why for us it's still dubious whether he can do or live up to his promises or not.

'That's why we are very cautious in judging him, especially as he wasn't in a political position before,' said Assad.

The United States leads an international coalition that is conducting air strikes against ISIS jihadists in Syria and neighbouring Iraq, and also backs rebels fighting the Assad regime.

In his first reaction to Trump's election victory last week, Assad said he was unsure the American billionaire would be able to keep his word and step up the fight against jihadists

In an interview with The New York Times on March 26, Trump said he thought 'the approach of fighting Assad and ISIS simultaneously was madness, and idiocy'.

'You can't be fighting two people that are fighting each other, and fighting them together. You have to pick one or the other,' said Trump.

And during campaigning, Trump also pledged to improve America's ties with Assad's main backer, Russia.

After his election victory, Trump told The Wall Street Journal: 'I've had an opposite view of many people regarding Syria'.

He also said that if the United States attacks Assad 'we end up fighting Russia'.

In his interview with RTP, Assad accused the United States of interfering in the affairs of other countries.

'They think that they are the police of the world. They think they are the judge of the world. They're not,' he said.

Asked to give his assessment of the next UN chief, Antonio Guterres of Portugal, Assad insisted the 'United Nations is not the secretary-general' even if the role is 'important'.

'The United Nations is the states within this organisation, and to be frank, most of the people say only the five permanent members' of the UN Security Council, said Assad.

Jets on the deck of the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier in the eastern Mediterranean off the Syrian coast

Asked to give his assessment of the next UN chief, Antonio Guterres of Portugal, Syria's Bashar al-Assad insisted the 'United Nations is not the secretary-general' even if the role is 'important'

'This is the United Nations because they have the veto, they can do whatever they want and they can refuse whatever they want.

'If you ask me 'what do you expect from such a new official in that important position,' I would say I need two things: the first one is to be objective... the second one... is not to turn his office into a part or branch of the State Department of the United States.

'That's what we expect now,' said Assad.

The Syrian president went on to criticise his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, describing him as a 'sick person'.

'He's (a) megalomaniac... He's out of touch with the reality,' said Assad.

Turkey has embarked on an ambitious operation inside Syria dubbed 'Euphrates Shield' to support Syrian opposition fighters in a bid to remove ISIS fighters from its border and stop the advance of Syrian Kurdish militia.

The conflict in Syria has killed more than 300,000 people since it started in March 2011 with anti-regime protests.
DRCongo transfers mining royalties to Kabila ally: NGO

The Democratic Republic of Congo's state mining firm has signed away royalties from one of the country's most lucrative mining projects to a company owned by a close friend of President Joseph Kabila, Global Witness said on Tuesday, allegations that were swiftly denied.

The NGO, which fights corruption and environmental and rights abuses, said state firm Gecamines signed over the royalties from Swiss mining giant Glencore for a copper project known as KCC to a Cayman Islands company called Africa Horizons Investment Ltd.

Africa Horizons is owned by Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler, who Global Witness said was involved in murky mining deals in DR Congo and was a close friend of Kabila.

Global Witness says Gecamines signed away royalties from Swiss mining giant Glencore for a copper project in the country's southeast to an anonymous Cayman Islands company called Africa Horizons Investment Limited Federico Scoppa (AFP/File)

Gertler's Fleurette group hit back at the Global Witness claim, saying it was "highly misleading" and "based on factually inaccurate information".

The financial calculations are "amateurish to the point of bogus," Fleurette said.

- 'Full value' -

The January 2015 deal related to the Kamoto copper mines in southeastern DR Congo and was signed between Gecamines and the Fleurette Group.

Glencore, which controls and operates KCC, said in an email to AFP that it was "not involved in the negotiations between Gecamines and Africa Horizons" and that KCC "acted in accordance with the instructions it received from Gecamines" to operate the royalty transfer.

Global Witness said the contract "does not explain what, if anything, Congo's state mining company received in compensation for handing over these rights" from the Kamoto mines.

"The royalties could generate as much as $880 million (820 million euros) - more than Congo's annual health spending," it said.

"It's troubling that the state miner Gecamines has signed away rights to potentially huge flows of cash that should go towards building Congo's future," said Global Witness campaigner Pete Jones.

Jones said the contract "provides no reason for Gecamines giving away these royalties".

"It is imperative that Gecamines and Gertler explain what is behind this agreement. If they can't show that this is a good deal for Congo, there should be an investigation into what's really behind the agreement," he said.

However, Fleurette said that the deal "ultimately resulted in Gecamines safeguarding value for the DRC economy and Fleurette making a considerable loss due to the subsequent collapse in commodity prices and suspension of... operations."

Gecamines sold the royalties just before operations were suspended, meaning that Fleurette had to pay "in full for a royalty stream that ceased soon afterwards".

"While Fleurette was left unable to recoup its investment, Gecamines received full value for it," according to the group.

Gecamines director general Deogratias Ngele Masudi told AFP that the firm "does not comment on statements by NGOs even if they are international ones".

And Glencore, in an email to AFP, simply said it was "not involved in the negotiations between Gecamines and Africa Horizons".

DR Congo, a former Belgian territory, has one of Africa's richest mineral reserves but has been wracked by unrest, misrule and corruption since independence.
Team: Brother of Jaguars linebacker killed in south Georgia

VALDOSTA, Ga. (AP)  Authorities say Jacksonville Jaguars linebacker Telvin Smith's brother has been shot to death in south Georgia.

The team on Monday confirmed that Smith's younger brother, Brian, was killed.

Police in Valdosta, Georgia, say in a police report that the 25-year-old man was killed in a homicide, but did not name the victim.

Police said officers responded to a residence Sunday evening after a reported shooting, and found the victim dead with a gunshot wound.

No arrests were reported. Valdosta police Lt. Adam Bembry was urging anyone with information about the case to contact police.
Farm involved in fatal hayride crash reaches plea agreement

AUBURN, Maine (AP)  A Maine farm charged with manslaughter in a fatal Halloween-themed hayride crash has reached a plea agreement that'll end the criminal case against it.

The attorney for Harvest Hill Farms says that the farm will plead guilty Tuesday to driving to endanger and that a manslaughter charge will be dropped. Attorney Michael Whipple says the agreement calls for a $7,500 fine or donation and substantial restitution.

The October 2014 crash in Mechanic Falls claimed the life of 17-year-old Cassidy Charette and injured more than 20 other people. Riders were tossed into trees following a brake failure on a Jeep hauling a wagon.

The driver of the Jeep was acquitted of charges. A charge against a mechanic was dropped last month.
South Africa clinches series with emphatic win in 2nd test

HOBART, Australia (AP)  South Africa clinched its three-test series in Australia with a match to spare on Tuesday, leaving Steve Smith's team facing the prospect of an unprecedented sweep on home soil after yet another woeful batting performance.

With the 177-run win in Perth and the innings and 80-run victory in Hobart, South Africa secured its third consecutive test series win in Australia  following victories in 2008-09 and 2012-13  and handed Smith a fifth straight test defeat as Australia captain.

The Australians were ranked No. 1 until being swept 3-0 in Sri Lanka in July. South Africa entered the series without inspirational captain A.B. de Villiers, was ranked No. 5 and lost strike bowler Dale Steyn early in the opening match in Perth.

South Africa's Kyle Abbott celebrates the last Australian wicket in their cricket test match in Hobart, Australia, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. South Africa wins the match by an innings and 80 runs. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Yet it's the Australians who are in disarray.

Selectors are scrambling to assemble a team that can bat for a day in time for the third test, a day-night match which starts Nov. 24 in Adelaide. It's only the second day-night test ever played in Australia, 12 months after a low-scoring win over New Zealand in the first. It also presents the South African pacemen with an ideal chance to exploit the brittle batting lineup that has been exposed in this series with collapses of 10-86 in Perth, 85 all out on the opening day in Hobart, and 8-32 on Tuesday.

Australia has never been swept in a test series on home soil, and is in grave danger of ending that streak.

"That's the mission for us now, we want to do that very badly," said Faf du Plessis, who was standing in for de Villers as captain. "We won't just rest on our laurels. We've got Australia in a position where they're under pressure and won't let that go.

"It's hard enough to get them in this position, so we'll do everything we can to keep them there."

The Australians resumed on day four of the second test at 121 for two, still needing 120 more to make South Africa bat again.

Usman Khawaja top-scored with 64 but was out swiping at a ball from Kyle Abbott and edging behind, triggering the staggering collapse. Australia slumped from 129-2 to all out for 166 before lunch.

Abbott, who was called up to replace Steyn for the second test, returned 6-77 and Kagiso Rabada, playing his 10th test and already showing promise well beyond his experience, had 4-34 in conditions that were good but not unnaturally advantageous for swing or seam movement.

It was almost a repeat of day one, when South Africa sent Australia in to bat and had the hosts 8-4 before Smith's unbeaten 48 helped the home team narrowly avoid some unwanted records. The South Africans replied with 326, with Quinton de Kock scoring 104 and sharing a 144-run partnership with Temba Bavuma (74), to set up a 241-run lead.

It was all over in 19.2 overs on day four. With rain preventing any play on Sunday, and other disruptions for showers or bad light, the Hobart test was decided inside only seven sessions.

"We've got to find a way to be a bit more resilient and turn things around because we're not in a great place. Whether it's seaming, swinging or spinning we're having some trouble," Smith said. "We've lost five consecutive test matches  that's not good enough for an Australian team.

"We need to find a way to have a bit more fight and hunger, and a bit more pride."

Australia's worst recent run was around the tumultuous end to South African Mickey Arthur's tenure as Australia coach, when it was swept 4-0 in India and the team was riddled with acrimony. Darren Lehmann took over at the start of the 2013 Ashes series and lost the first two tests in England before the losing streak ended at six  with a draw.

Since then, the Australians have been rebuilding but cracks have appeared recently, and South Africa had the right ingredients to exploit them. Now the whole set up, from Lehmann to the top administrators, is under pressure.

"It's definitely attitude. It's an aggressive attitude that makes sure you're always in the opposition's faces," du Plessis explained of South Africa's approach to the series. "If you want to beat Australia, you have to play that sort of game. I think we did that better than them."

South African teammates celebrate defeating Australia in their cricket test match in Hobart, Australia, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. South Africa wins the match by an innings and 80 runs. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

South Africa's Kyle Abbott celebrates after taking the the wicket of Australia's Adam Voges during their cricket test match in Hobart, Australia, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

South Africa's Faf du Plessis, second right, jumps into the arms of teammate Kyle Abbott after they took the wicket of Australia's Adam Voges during their cricket test match in Hobart, Australia, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Australia's Steven Smith drives the ball against South Africa during their cricket test match in Hobart, Australia, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

South Africa's Kyle Abbott, left, celebrates the last Australian wicket with teammate Temba Bavuma in their cricket test match in Hobart, Australia, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. South Africa wins the match by an innings and 80 runs. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Australia's Steven Smith walks off after losing his wicket to South Africa in their cricket test match in Hobart, Australia, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. South Africa wins the match by an innings and 80 runs. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
Walker, Hellickson accept $17.2M qualifying offers

NEW YORK (AP)  Mets second baseman Neil Walker and Philadelphia pitcher Jeremy Hellickson have accepted $17.2 million qualifying offers, giving up free agency to stay with their teams.

Eight other free agents did not accept the offers from their former teams by Monday's deadline: outfielders Jose Bautista (Toronto), Yoenis Cespedes (Mets), Ian Desmond (Texas), Dexter Fowler (Chicago Cubs) and Mark Trumbo (Baltimore), designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion (Toronto); closer Kenley Jansen (Los Angeles Dodgers); and third baseman Justin Turner (Dodgers).

Walker and Hellickson are signed players with Monday's decisions and could be eligible for free agency again after next season.

FILE - In this Aug. 7, 2016, file photo, New York Mets' Neil Walker is congratulated in the dugout after hitting a two-run home run against the Detroit Tigers during the ninth inning of a baseball game in Detroit. Walker has accepted a $17.2 million qualifying offer, Monday, Nov. 14, 2016 giving up free agency to stay with his team. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson, File)

"Happy to say I'm back in Orange and Blue for 2017!! Let's go Mets!" Walker tweeted on Monday.

The Mets got Walker in a trade with Pittsburgh last December. He hit .282 with 23 homers and 55 RBIs in 113 games with New York before his season was cut short by back surgery.

The 31-year-old Walker, a first-round pick in the 2004 amateur draft, broke into the majors with the Pirates in 2009 and is a .273 hitter with 116 homers and 473 RBIs in 949 career games.

Hellickson was traded from Arizona to Philadelphia last November. The 29-year-old right-hander went 12-10 with a 3.71 ERA in 32 starts for the lowly Phillies this year.
China executes farmer who killed official with nail gun

BEIJING (AP)  A Chinese farmer who murdered a local official with a modified nail gun after his house was torn down was executed Tuesday, in a case that had prompted a rare debate about government abuse of power.

Jia Jinglong was put to death in the northern city of Shijiazhuang after a final visit with family members, the official Xinhua News Agency said. That followed the high court's rejection of his final appeal last month.

The February 2015 murder had garnered sympathy among some Chinese angry with haughty officialdom, and two state-run newspapers published calls for Jia to be spared. The China Daily editorialized that "Jia would probably not have acted as he did if his loss had been properly taken care of."

Jia had opposed his home's 2013 demolition to make way for a new development and felt he wasn't adequately compensated. His planned marriage was then called off and, bitter and depressed, he began plotting the killing of the leading Communist Party official in his village, He Jianhua. On Feb. 19 last year, Jia approached the 55-year-old at an official gathering and shot him in the back of the head with a single nail.

He's killing was "cruel in the extreme and the effect on society was extremely negative," Xinhua quoted the Supreme People's Court saying in its ruling issued last month.

Land seizures and government corruption are major sources of discontent in China, where the legal system remains weak and ordinary citizens have few channels to seek redress.
Now you can visit the Rolling Stones' 1962 apartment

NEW YORK (AP)  When Mick Jagger was coming up with ideas for an exhibition highlighting The Rolling Stones' five-decade long career, he wanted to re-create the mood of the band in its early years.

So, he had a team recreate the first London apartment he and his band mates shared in 1962, complete with dirty dishes, beer bottles and blues records placed throughout the flat.

"That was the weirdest thing really. ... The building is still there  it's not a building that's been knocked down or anything, it's right around the corner from where I actually live now," Jagger said. "It's very redolent of the space ... and it smells like it and feels like it.

Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones poses for a portrait on Monday, Nov. 14, 2016, in New York. Jagger was coming up with ideas for an exhibition highlighting The Rolling Stones five-decade long career, he wanted to re-create the mood of the band in their early years. So, he had a team re-make the first - and messy - London apartment he shared with his band mates in 1962, complete with dirty dishes, beer bottles and blues records placed throughout the flat. (Photo by Victoria Will/Invision/AP)

"I just remembered how it really was," he added.

"There were a lot of places like that in the early '60s ... you wouldn't want to live there now," Charlie Watts said.

The Stones also re-created their recording studio, complete with original instruments, for "Exhibitionism  The Rolling Stones," the band's exhibit that debuted at Industria in New York City on Saturday after launching in London earlier this year. It includes colorful tour outfits, Jagger's lyric book, Keith Richards' 1963 diary, Watts' toy drum kit and various photographs, from posters to magazine covers.

"None of it made me cry particularly. Some of it made me laugh," Jagger said of the memorabilia.

The exhibit run in New York through March 12, 2017. Some of the pieces are works by Andy Warhol, Alexander McQueen and John Pasche, who designed the Stones' iconic tongue logo.

"It's like bumping into memories everywhere you look for me," Richards said. "You turn the corner (and say), 'Oh, that's where I left it. Whether it's a guitar or a piece of clothing, everything sort of rings a bell somewhere."

Ronnie Wood, who joined the group in 1975, said he enjoyed seeing the "little motifs" throughout the exhibit, and added that one of his favorite memories was joining the band for his first public performance  on his birthday.

"I had to learn the entire Stones back catalog to get ready to go onstage on June 1, my birthday, for my first public show with them," he said, smiling.

Of his highlights, Richards said, laughing: "I can pick out a few lows but we won't bother with them, but otherwise, it's been pretty much a high all the time."

The Stones will release a new album of blues cover songs called "Blue & Lonesome" on Dec. 2. When asked what his future goals are for the band, Watts said: "Staying alive I think is the biggest thing at the moment, or getting up in the morning."

____

Online:

http://www.rollingstones.com/

http://www.stonesexhibitionism.com/
Mexico weighs grim prospect of deportation wave under Trump

MEXICO CITY (AP)  Mexico is starting to seriously contemplate the possibility that millions of its migrants could be deported, and the picture is not pretty.

Under proposals put forward by President-elect Donald Trump, Mexico could see millions of people streaming back with no jobs available; the country might lose some of the billions of dollars in remittances sent home annually; and some jobless deportees could swell the ranks of drug cartels, sparking more violence.

Gov. Hector Astudillo of the southern state of Guerrero considered the possible scenario over the weekend. At least a million Guerrero residents live in the United States, many without proper documents, and the state is already reeling from drug gang violence and poverty.

Dozens of migrant detention center bracelets and rosaries hang from a cross inside a migrant shelter in Ciudad Juarez, Monday, Nov. 14, 2016. Under proposals put forward by President-elect Donald Trump, the country could face a devastating triple whammy: Mexico would get millions streaming home with no jobs available; the country would lose the billions of dollars in remittances sent home each year, and some jobless deportees could swell the ranks of the drug cartels, worsening the problem of violence. (AP Photo/Christian Torres)

"Of course Guerrero is not in any condition to receive the million or more than one million migrants" in the U.S., Astudillo said. "On the contrary, they have been an important mainstay in supporting the economy of Guerrero."

Migrants sent home almost $25 billion in remittances to Mexico in 2015, and experts say most of that went to support the most basic needs of the poorest Mexicans. Trump has suggested he might somehow seize the funds of those immigrants who are not deported to pay for a border wall.

Mexico already has a shortfall of 800,000 new jobs for youths who join the labor force each year, let alone returning migrants, said Alejandra Barrales, head of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party. "We need to close ranks and create (job) opportunities, not just for people who might be deported, but for the 1.2 million young people who join the labor market each year."

The federal government announced an emergency program this week aimed at encouraging business to hire returning migrants, but Mexico City teacher Armando Osorio doubted that would be enough, given the government's poor track record on job creation. "These people have no moral authority to say they will receive their countrymen with open arms," he said. "They are the ones who are mainly responsible for the forced exodus of millions of Mexicans who don't have enough to eat."

Even if Trump seems to be walking back the idea of mass deportations, the prospect still remains frightening for people in Mexico.

On Sunday, Trump said in an interview on the news program "60 Minutes" that "what we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, a lot of these people  probably two million, it could be three million  and getting them out of our country."

Central America's violent gangs, known as "maras," emerged in the 1980s when migrants who had fled El Salvador's civil war were deported by the U.S. after committing crimes as members of street gangs in Los Angeles. The deportees took their criminal knowhow back with them and started new gangs.

The U.S. government in 2012 estimated about 1.9 million immigrants were criminals and could face deportation. The Migration Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, estimated 820,000 of those are in the United States illegally.

Mike Vigil, former chief of international operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said at least some deportees will likely embrace drug trafficking, using already established U.S. connections to increase the amount of heroin and other drugs sent across the border. Even deporting only the felons would backfire by causing more violence in Mexico and Central America, he said.

"What's going to happen is that these individuals are going to return back to Mexico and they have no jobs, so they are going to feed the ranks of the cartels there," said Vigil, author of the book "Metal Coffins: The Blood Alliance Cartel."

"That would lead to more violence, kidnappings in Mexico, and these areas (of Central America), which would cause a tsunami of undocumented immigrants coming into the United States, probably much more so than what he could actually deport," Vigil said.

There are cases of deported migrants assuming leadership positions in the region's gangs, such as Martin Estrada Luna, a high school dropout from Washington state with a rap sheet of petty crimes such as burglary. Two years after he was sent back to Mexico in 2009, he had transformed himself into a drug baron known as "El Kilo," leader of a ruthless cell of the Zetas gang who masterminded the mass killings of more than 250 people.

While millions of migrants in the United States illegally could ultimately face deportation, the process to find and deport all of them likely won't happen rapidly.

Once in office, Trump could move to have immigration agents quickly start arresting people already under orders to leave for being in the U.S. illegally. There were about 88,000 people in that category as of 2015.

But for immigrants with no criminal history, the wait for a judge's final deportation order could take years. There are about 521,000 cases pending in federal immigration courts currently, according to public data obtained by Transaction Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

Even in Mexico, many believe Trump will have to moderate his plans.

"Political reality will make it clear that many of the proposals against Mexicans are simply not feasible, neither the deportation of all undocumented migrants, nor the construction of the wall," the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico City wrote in an editorial.

A woman carrying a baby arrives at a migrant shelter in Ciudad Juarez, Monday, Nov. 14, 2016. The statue of Christ and the cross next to her have dozens of migrant detention center bracelets and rosaries hanging from them, left by other migrants on their way through. Mexico is starting to seriously contemplate the possibility that millions of its migrants could be deported by the administration of President-elect Trump. (AP Photo/Christian Torres)

Women recently deported from the United States arrive at a migrant shelter in Ciudad Juarez, Monday, Nov. 14, 2016. Under proposals put forward by President-elect Donald Trump, the country could face a devastating triple whammy: Mexico would get millions streaming home with no jobs available; the country would lose the billions of dollars in remittances sent home each year, and some jobless deportees could swell the ranks of the drug cartels, worsening the problem of violence. (AP Photo/Christian Torres)

FILE - In this Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016 file photo, President-elect Donald Trump smiles as he arrives to speak at an election night rally, in New York. Mexico is starting to seriously contemplate the possibility that millions of its migrants could be deported under the proposals put forward by President-elect Trump. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

A U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent passes birdwatcher Nancy Hill, 81, along a section of the border wall Sunday, Nov. 13, 2016, in Hidago, Texas. President-elect Donald Trump is starting to sound a lot more like President Barack Obama on his stance on immigration and easing his pledge to build a wall across the Mexican border. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Migrants, recently deported from the United States, have a meal provided by a migrant shelter in Ciudad Juarez, Monday, Nov. 14, 2016. Under proposals put forward by President-elect Donald Trump, the country could face a devastating triple whammy: Mexico would get millions streaming home with no jobs available; the country would lose the billions of dollars in remittances sent home each year, and some jobless deportees could swell the ranks of the drug cartels, worsening the problem of violence. (AP Photo/Christian Torres)

Guatamalan Elvin Vazquez looks on from a street in front of a shelter for migrants after being deported Monday, Nov. 14, 2016, in Tijuana, Mexico. Vazquez spent more than 13 years in the United States before being deported. In an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" broadcast Sunday night, President-elect Donald Trump said he would focus on deporting people with criminal records beyond their immigration status. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

A man who only gave his first name of Alfonso, center, leans against a mural depicting a coyote at a shelter for migrants after being deported Monday, Nov. 14, 2016, in Tijuana, Mexico. He had lived for 16 years in Southern California before being deported. Mexico is starting to seriously contemplate the possibility that millions of its migrants could be deported under the proposals put forward by President-elect Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

People stand in front of a shelter for migrants on their way to the United States and for deported migrants, Monday, Nov. 14, 2016, in Tijuana, Mexico. In an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" broadcast Sunday night, President-elect Donald Trump said he would focus on deporting people with criminal records beyond their immigration status. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

A Guatamalan woman, recently deported from the United States, who did not give her name, looks on in front of a shelter for migrants Monday, Nov. 14, 2016, in Tijuana, Mexico. In an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" broadcast Sunday night, President-elect Donald Trump said he would focus on deporting people with criminal records beyond their immigration status. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Juan Munoz, of Tijuana, Mexico, carries two-year-old Haitian migrant Juandele at a shelter for migrants on their way to the United States and for deported migrants Monday, Nov. 14, 2016, in Tijuana, Mexico. Munoz is part of a local church group that comes to help and sing for the migrants at the center. In an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" broadcast Sunday night, President-elect Donald Trump said he would focus on deporting people with criminal records beyond their immigration status. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
China says aircraft carrier now ready for combat

BEIJING (AP)  China's first aircraft carrier is now ready to engage in combat, marking a milestone for a navy that has invested heavily in its ability to project power far from China's shores.

The Liaoning's political commissar said in an interview with Tuesday's Global Times newspaper that his ship is "constantly prepared to fight against enemies," signaling a change from its past status as a platform for testing and training.

Senior Captain Li Dongyou's comments appear to indicate that the ship has taken on its full aviation complement. Purchased as an incomplete hull from Ukraine more than a decade ago, it was commissioned in 2013.

FILE - In this May 2012 file photo provided by China's Xinhua News Agency, Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning cruises for a test in the sea. The Liaoning's political commissar Senior Captain Li Dongyou said China's first aircraft carrier is now ready to engage in combat, marking a milestone for a navy that has invested heavily in its ability to project power far from China's shores. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Li Tang, File)

China hasn't described specifically how it intends to use the Liaoning, but it is seen as helping reinforce China's increasingly assertive claims in the South China Sea in the face of challenges from the U.S. Navy and others.

The Liaoning is also seen as a training platform for officers and sailors who will serve on China's rapidly expanding fleet. China is currently building its second, fully "homegrown" aircraft carrier.

Li said the Liaoning's combat capabilities still lag behind U.S. carriers, but its training and maintenance operations have been praised by senior Pentagon officials who have visited during military exchanges.

More than 1,000 non-commissioned officers serve aboard the Liaoning, Li said.

FILE - In this undated file photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, China's aircraft carrier Liaoning berths in a port of China. The Liaoning's political commissar Senior Captain Li Dongyou said China's first aircraft carrier is now ready to engage in combat, marking a milestone for a navy that has invested heavily in its ability to project power far from China's shores. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Li Tang, File)
Russian minister detained over alleged $2 million bribe

MOSCOW (AP)  A senior Russian Cabinet minister has fallen very suddenly from grace, accused of bribery and abuse of office but seen by many observers to be the victim of a Kremlin power play to ensure that President Vladimir Putin remains the ultimate arbiter in Russia.

Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev was detained late Monday, immediately after he allegedly took a $2 million bribe in a sting set up by the FSB domestic security agency, the Investigative Committee said in a statement Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Putin fired Ulyukayev without waiting for the court to determine whether he's guilty, citing a "loss of trust," according to the Kremlin.

FILE- In this Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2016, file photo, Russian Economics Minister Alexei Ulyukayev speaks at the 8th annual VTB Capital "Russia Calling!" Investment Forum in Moscow, Russia. The Investigative Committee said in a statement early Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, that Ulyukayev was detained late Monday after he allegedly received a $2 million bribe in a sting set by the FSB, the KGB's main successor agency. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, File)

Ulyukayev's arrest has been widely seen as part of Putin's ongoing effort to preserve the balance between rival factions in the upper echelons of power in Russia.

The Russian investigators said Ulyukayev accepted the money for having given the green light to state-controlled Rosneft to take part in bidding for another oil company.

Critics, however, questioned why the payment was made a month after Rosneft completed the deal, why it was paid in cash and why the experienced Ulyukayev would be foolish enough to extort money from the super-powerful Rosneft.

Ulyukayev, the highest-ranking Russian official to have been arrested since 1993, was formally charged with extorting a bribe from Rosneft and threatening "to use his powers to put obstacles in the way of the company's activities." He was questioned for hours Tuesday before being taken to court, where the judge put him under house arrest for two months.

Putin had been informed of the FSB operation in its planning stage, his spokesman said, insisting the investigation into Ulyukayev should not affect the Rosneft deal.

"What happened is beyond my understanding," Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at a meeting with lawmakers, adding that no government figure has immunity from prosecution.

Ulyukayev, who was appointed a deputy finance minister in 2000 and has held his current post since 2013, is a liberal who has spoken out against increasing government presence in the Russian economy.

He had originally opposed Rosneft's bidding for the other company, Bashneft, saying it was wrong for a state-owned company to take part in a privatization drive. Putin had defended the deal, saying because Rosneft has minority foreign investors, the sale wasn't simply a transfer of assets from one part of the state to another.

Mikhail Zygar, a prominent journalist and author of a best-selling book on Putin's inner circle, says Putin for years has used the tactic of balancing the influence of liberals in the government with that of the more conservative intelligence and security officers.

"There was a feeling in the wider circle lately that the liberals had got a boost and got a louder voice  here you get a message that it is too early to celebrate," Zygar told The Associated Press. "It seems to be a story entirely in the president's character. ... When he thinks one group gets too weak, he needs to weaken the other side."

Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of the liberal Yabloko party, described Ulyukayev's arrest as a scare tactic to keep officials in check.

"The arrest of such a loyal and major official like Ulyukayev is a strong act of intimidation," he said in a Facebook post. "Everyone should know: anything can happen to you at any moment, that's the main message."

Despite investigators' assurances that Ulyukayev was caught in the act, the circumstances of the case prompted many to scoff at the charges. Bribery is common in Russia but it is unthinkable for a government minister to accept a bribe in cash. Corruption experts also say $2 million is the bribe range of a deputy mayor, not a cabinet minister, who would demand much more.

Ulyukayev's lawyer, Timofei Gridnev, said the minister rejected the charges as a "provocation."

The economic development ministry's approval was necessary to allow Rosneft to bid in the tender for Bashneft but it was just one of several government approvals required to hold the tender and sell the company to Rosneft. The sale to Rosneft was finally agreed upon on Oct. 10 when Medvedev sealed the deal  a month before Ulyukayev received the alleged bribe.

What's more, Rosneft chief Igor Sechin, a key associate of Putin for more than two decades, is believed to wield almost unlimited influence. Industry insiders find laughable the thought that anyone would be cheeky enough to extort money from Rosneft.

Alexander Shokhin, head of a major business lobbying group, said he was convinced Ulyukayev is innocent and said he may have been framed.

"You have to be mad to threaten Rosneft," Shokhin said.

Vladimir Milov, a former deputy energy minister turned opposition activist, said in an opinion piece on the respected RBC news website that Rosneft could be behind the Ulyukayev case.

Milov said Rosneft could be looking to buy more assets in similar "privatization deals."

Russian state-owned Rossiya 24 ran Ulyukayev's detention as the top story headlined "Fight on corruption," featuring comment from lawmakers who lauded the investigation as a major breakthrough in the long-anticipated clampdown on official graft.

But unlike some other officials in high-profile corruption cases, Ulyukayev wasn't wearing handcuffs at the court hearing and state television networks didn't run footage of him accepting the alleged bribe.

___

Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.

Russian Economic Development minister Alexei Ulyukayev, right, is escorted to a court room in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Ulyukayev was detained late Monday after he allegedly received a $2 million bribe in a sting set by the FSB, the KGB's main successor agency, the Investigative Committee said in a statement on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)

Russian Economic Development minister Alexei Ulyukayev, center, is escorted to a court room in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Ulyukayev was detained late Monday after he allegedly received a $2 million bribe in a sting set by the FSB, the KGB's main successor agency, the Investigative Committee said in a statement on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)

FILE- In this file photo taken on Monday, Jan. 25, 2016, Russian Economics Minister Alexei Ulyukayev listens to a journalist's question during his and French Economics Minister Emmanuel Macron news conference during the Russian-French Council of Economic, Financial, Industrial and Trade Issues session in Moscow, Russia. The Investigative Committee said in a statement early Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, that Economic Development Alexei Ulyukayev was detained late Monday after he allegedly received a $2 million bribe in a sting set by the FSB, the KGB's main successor agency. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

FILE In this July 7, 2014 file pool photo Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, listens to Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev in the Kremlin, Moscow, Russia. Ulyukayev was detained late Monday after he allegedly received a $2 million bribe in a sting set by the FSB, the KGB's main successor agency, the Investigative Committee said in a statement on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. (Alexei Nikolsky/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool, Photo via AP, File)

FILE In this file photo taken on Monday, Jan. 25, 2016, Russian Economics Minister Alexei Ulyukayev, left, and French Economics Minister Emmanuel Macron talk during the Russian-French Council of Economic, Financial, Industrial and Trade Issues session in Moscow, Russia.The Investigative Committee said in a statement early Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, that Economic Development Alexei Ulyukayev was detained late Monday after he allegedly received a $2 million bribe in a sting set by the FSB, the KGB's main successor agency. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, file)

Russian Economic Development minister Alexei Ulyukayev, center, is escorted to a court room in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Ulyukayev was detained late Monday after he allegedly received a $2 million bribe in a sting set by the FSB, the KGB's main successor agency, the Investigative Committee said in a statement on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

Journalists gather to wait for Russian Economic Development minister Alexei Ulyukayev who was escorted to a court room in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Ulyukayev was detained late Monday after he allegedly received a $2 million bribe in a sting set by the FSB, the KGB's main successor agency, the Investigative Committee said in a statement on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)
Japan OKs additional role for its troops in South Sudan

TOKYO (AP)  Japan's Cabinet on Tuesday gave its approval for an additional mission for Japanese troops in South Sudan to assist U.N. peacekeepers with rescue operations, a task opponents say would risk embroiling the troops in international fighting in violation of the country's pacifist constitution.

The mission, which comes under a security law enacted last year, begins with the deployment of 350 troops to be dispatched in three waves beginning Sunday. They will replace troops who are returning to Japan.

Japan has dispatched troops to war-torn South Sudan since 2011, but their operation has been limited to construction projects in noncombat areas.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government has been expanding the military's international role, but opponents say this not only puts Japanese soldiers at greater risk, but also violates the country's post-World War II pacifist constitution.

Part of the troops' new assignment is for them to help rescue U.N. staff or nongovernment organization personnel under attack. Tuesday's approval would also allow Japanese soldiers to join their foreign counterparts to defend a shared U.N. peacekeeping camp.

Defense Minister Tomomi Inada told reporters that the new assignment does not require Japanese soldiers to rescue other foreign troops under attack. She said that Japan is not obligated to respond to all urgent calls, and that the troops can refuse in case the situation is deemed too dangerous.

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters that the additional mission is "extremely important" because there might be instances requiring Japanese troops to rescue Japanese civilians.
Report warns of Asia arms race if Trump withdraws US forces

WASHINGTON (AP)  The U.S. approach to Asia faces a major overhaul when Donald Trump takes office, but what will take its place? A new report warns of a leadership vacuum and even a nuclear arms race if the U.S. withdraws from a region threatened by a provocative North Korea.

But authors of the Asia Foundation report provided to The Associated Press ahead of its publication Tuesday also say in some parts of the region there's hope that a shift from President Barack Obama's signature foreign policy could be for the good.

Despite the major diplomatic capital invested by Obama in reaching out to Asia in the past eight years, his so-called "pivot" policy has yielded only modest gains in countering the rise of an assertive China. There's been a slight increase in the U.S. military presence in the region; a political opening in former pariah state Myanmar; and better relations with old enemy Vietnam.

FILE - In this Nov. 8, 2016 file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump casts his ballot, in New York. The U.S. approach to Asia faces a major overhaul when Donald Trump takes office, but what will take its place? A new report warns of a leadership vacuum and even a nuclear arms race if the U.S. withdraws from a region threatened by a provocative North Korea. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

The main economic plank of his policy  the Trans-Pacific Partnership  is in ruins. Trump's election victory has erased chances of early U.S. ratification of the 12-nation trade pact.

Determining what else of Trump's populist campaign rhetoric translates into action remains a guessing game  one with high stakes for Asia.

Trump has raised the specter of withdrawing U.S. forces from South Korea and Japan unless they share more of the burden of hosting the 80,000 troops  even as neighboring North Korea has conducted nuclear and missile tests with unprecedented intensity.

The Asia Foundation report, based on consultations among academics and former officials from 20 Asian nations, warns that withdrawing U.S. forces could compel Tokyo and Seoul to seek their own nuclear deterrents  rather than rely on America's  which in turn would "trigger massive destabilization of the regional order."

"A precipitous reduction of engagement in Asia would be detrimental to the interests of most Asian countries as well as the United States," the report says.

Trump has taken some early steps to allay those fears. He quickly reassured the leaders of Australia, Japan and South Korea of his commitment to U.S. alliances. On Thursday, Trump will meet in New York with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who is traveling to a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in Peru.

Japan's archrival, China, views a Trump presidency with less trepidation. It has viewed the pivot as a U.S. attempt to contain China's rise as a military and economic power.

But Beijing is wary of Trump's threat to impose hefty import tariffs over alleged trade and currency violations, amid fears it could stoke a trade war. President Xi Jinping Monday called Trump and told him that cooperation was needed between the world's two biggest economies.

Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a Thai academic and one of three co-authors of the report, said that despite the uncertainty over Trump's lack of government experience, he has something in his favor  a clean slate.

Thitinan said that's a plus in Southeast Asia, where current U.S. policy has failed to live up to its billing and where criticism on human rights has turned off old allies like the Philippines and Thailand.

"Southeast Asian nations don't want to be dominated by China, they don't want to put all their eggs in the China basket, but they've had to because the pivot and rebalance were shallow and ultimately hollow," he said.

Indian academic C. Raja Mohan said Trump has in his own chaotic way opened a constructive debate about how Asian nations might take a more active role to cope with the rise of China with less dependence on America.

"Unlike the European liberals' reaction in the last few days, Asians are going to accommodate rather than object," Mohan said. "We have to deal with who is in power in Washington."

Once Trump fills top positions on foreign policy and defense, his intentions on Asia should become clearer. A recent commentary by two Trump advisers may offer clues.

Former Republican congressional aide Alexander Gray and University of California economist Peter Navarro advocated an Asia-Pacific policy of "peace through strength." They cited Trump's commitment to increase the U.S. Navy from 274 to 350 ships, saying it will reassure allies that the U.S. "remains committed in the long term to its traditional role as guarantor of the liberal order in Asia."

But they add: "It's only fair - and long past time - for each country to step up to the full cost-sharing plate."

South Korea currently pays about $860 million a year  about 50 percent of non-personnel costs of the U.S. military deployment on its soil  and is paying $9.7 billion more for relocating U.S. military bases. Japan pays about $2 billion a year, about half of the cost of the stationing U.S. forces.

Despite fears of chaos if the U.S. withdraws its military, former South Korean foreign minister, Yoon Young-kwan, there will be "strong reservations" about paying more.

FIEL - In this Dec. 10, 2015 file photo, U.S. tanks cross the Hantan river during a river crossing operation, part of an annual joint military exercise between South Korea and the United States against a possible attack from North Korea, in Yeoncheon, south of the demilitarized zone that divides the two Koreas, South Korea. Donald Trump has raised the specter of withdrawing U.S. forces from South Korea and Japan unless they share more of the burden of hosting the 80,000 troops, even as neighboring North Korea has conducted nuclear and missile tests with unprecedented intensity. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 1, 2015 file photo, sailors of U.S. navy nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan man the rails upon arrival as some U.S. flag-shaped balloons are hoisted to welcome them at the U.S. Navy's Yokosuka base in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo. Donald Trump has raised the specter of withdrawing U.S. forces from South Korea and Japan unless they share more of the burden of hosting the 80,000 troops, even as neighboring North Korea has conducted nuclear and missile tests with unprecedented intensity. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 10, 2016 file photo, a Chinese man holds up a Chinese newspaper with the front page photo of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and the headline "Outsider counter attack" at a newsstand in Beijing, China. China views a Trump presidency with less trepidation. It has viewed the pivot as a U.S. attempt to contain Chinas rise as a military and economic power. But Beijing is wary of Trumps threat to impose hefty import tariffs over alleged trade and currency violations, amid fears it could stoke a trade war. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)
Germany's Steinmeier favors Turkey's continued EU talks

ANKARA, Turkey (AP)  German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Tuesday expressed "serious concerns" over Turkey's crackdown on opponents but said he favors continuing Turkey's European Union membership bid.

Steinmeier was speaking in Ankara a day after EU foreign ministers struggled to forge a common stance on Turkey amid deepening concerns about rights abuses, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested calling a referendum next year on whether his country should join the bloc.

During a joint news conference with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, Steinmeier said some within the EU wanted to break off Turkey's EU membership talks."

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, left, and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu speak before their meeting in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Steinmeier visits Ankara to discuss strained ties with Turkish leaders. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

"Whether Turkey grows closer or distances itself from the EU is not a decision that can be taken in any European capital. It is a decision that needs to be taken by Turkey," Steinmeier said. "I personally favor a good and close cooperation based on trust ... I wish these relations to continue."

Cavusoglu said the Turkish nation was frustrated by what he said was the EU's "hypocrisy and double standards" toward Turkey and that was why the government was considering holding a referendum.

"Every day, one EU foreign minister comes up and says: 'let's throw Turkey out, let's throw them out of the negotiations, let's throw them out of NATO,'" Cavusoglu said.

"We don't deserve this treatment. Therefore let's ask our people and let the people decide. We are truly fed up with this approach that humiliates Turkey," Cavusoglu said.

Ties between Turkey and Germany have become increasingly strained. Erdogan has accused Germany of supporting terrorism after German authorities suggested that Berlin may not extradite suspects wanted by Turkey over the failed coup attempt in July, if it considers the cases are politically motivated. Erdogan has also accused Berlin of failing to clamp down on Kurdish militants allegedly operating in Germany.

Steinmeier said his country failed to understand claims by Erdogan that Germany had become "a safe haven" for terrorists and said Berlin stood with Turkey in its fight against the Islamic State group and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

On Monday in Brussels, EU foreign ministers struggled to find a common position that would balance their need for Ankara's continued support to stop a wave of migrants heading to Europe with concerns about rights abuses in Turkey in the wake of the quashed military coup in July.

Last week, 10 legislators from Turkey's pro-Kurdish party and several senior staff of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper were arrested on terrorism-related charges.

Turkey has arrested tens of thousands of people in its investigation into the failed coup, and dismissed or suspended more than 100,000 people from government jobs for their links to U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is accused of masterminding the attempt.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, second left, arrives for a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Steinmeier visits Ankara to discuss strained ties with Turkish leaders. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, right, and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu walk together before their meeting in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Steinmeier visits Ankara to discuss strained ties with Turkish leaders. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, left, and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu walk together before their meeting in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Steinmeier visits Ankara to discuss strained ties with Turkish leaders. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, left, and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu shake hands before their talks in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Steinmeier visits Ankara to discuss strained ties with Turkish leaders. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, right, and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu walk together before their meeting in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Steinmeier visits Ankara to discuss strained ties with Turkish leaders. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, left, and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu shake hands before their talks in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Steinmeier visits Ankara to discuss strained ties with Turkish leaders. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, left, and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu walk together before their meeting in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Steinmeier visits Ankara to discuss strained ties with Turkish leaders. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)
Firm says this will help riders and drivers to find each other more easily

Smartphone display will light up to match the colour of driver's beacon

Ride-hailing service Lyft, the underdog rival to Uber, is getting rid of its iconic pink moustache logo and replacing it with something more useful  beacons.

The light-up beacons, which Lyft calls 'amps,' will be on the dashboard of Lyft drivers' cars beginning Jan. 1 in New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Beacons can communicate with people's smartphones using Bluetooth technology. In retail stores, this means guiding you to a certain shoe display, for example.

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This undated photo provided by Lyft shows an illuminated Lyft beacon. Ride-hailing service Lyft, the underdog rival to Uber, is getting rid of its iconic pink moustache logo and replacing it with something more useful: a beacon. (Lyft via AP)

With Lyft, it means having your driver's beacon light up a specific color once he or she is near.

You can have your phone light up in that same color, too, then hold it up so the driver can see you.

Lyft says this will make it easier and safer for drivers and riders to find each other. This can be especially helpful at night, or in crowded areas where multiple people might be hailing a ride.

San Francisco-based says it won't use the beacons for ads, though the passenger-facing side might be devoted to sponsored campaigns, such as a beer company warning against drinking and driving.

The Lyft amp can have your driver's beacon light up a specific color once he or she is near.

Lyft's first symbol was a giant, bright pink, fuzzy moustache attached to the front of drivers' cars.

But it soon became cumbersome (it could get quite dirty, for example), and maybe a little too whimsical for a company working to expand.

Next came the 'glowstache,' a compact, pink, glowing plastic moustache.

The amp, while still bright pink, is a clean, oval shape.

Lyft held a retirement party for the 'stache, said Melissa Waters, vice president of marketing. But the pink stays.

'It's loud, proud, quirky, fun,' she said. In upcoming TV ads, Lyft paints itself as just that, in deep contrast to a menacing, slick ride-hailing company called 'Ride Corp.'

Earlier this year, Lyft's co-founder and president revealed that the firm would soon be moving a majority of its rides to self-driving cars.

John Zimmer also said that personal car ownership will come to an end because autonomous rides will become a cheaper way to travel than owning an automobile.

Within five years, a majority of ride-hailing company Lyft's rides will be in self-driving cars, the company's co-founder and president predicted on Sunday

He made the predictions in an essay on the future of transportation in urban areas.

Technology, auto and ride-hailing companies are moving quickly toward self-driving vehicles.

San Francisco-based Lyft is testing autonomous cars on the streets of San Francisco and Phoenix in partnership with General Motors.

UBER ANNOUNCES A NEW REDESIGN TO ITS APP Uber unveiled its biggest redesign since 2012 that is said to be faster, easier to understand and more upfront with costs and travel time. The new update also gets rid of one annoying feature  all the different car options. Uber merged the different vehicles into three groups: Economy (which includes UberPool and UberX), Premium (Uber Select and town cars), Extra Seats (extra-large cars and SUVs), and More (for those who need a childs car seat or a wheelchair-accessible vehicle). Users swipe through the four options and choose which type of car they want  the app also shows how much the ride will cost for each one. The ride-hailing giant said its technology will also remember customer's most visited places in order to increase pick-up and drop-off times - the system taps into digital calendars on your smartphone to learn your daily routine. Advertisement

Its main competitor Uber is starting to carry passengers around Pittsburgh in autonomous cars with a human backup driver.

Zimmer said autonomous cars will start out giving rides at low speeds, around 25 miles per hour, in limited areas with a number of restrictions.

The cars also won't be able to operate in bad weather.

'As technology improves, these cars will be able to drive themselves in more and more situations,' Zimmer said.

Autonomous cars and ride-hailing will be essential to helping cities handle an influx of residents in the coming years as the world becomes more urbanized, he said.
Trump victory could imperil Roe v. Wade abortion ruling

NEW YORK (AP)  Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion nationwide, could be in jeopardy under Donald Trump's presidency. If a reconfigured high court did overturn it, the likely outcome would be a patchwork map: some states protecting abortion access, others enacting tough bans, and many struggling over what new limits they might impose.

Trump, who will have at least one Supreme Court vacancy to fill, has pledged to appoint "pro-life" justices who potentially would be open to weakening or reversing Roe. With one seat vacant, the high court now has a 5-3 majority supporting abortion rights, and thus one of those five would need to vacate his or her seat to give the court an anti-abortion majority.

Trump broached that possibility in an interview aired Sunday night on CBS' "60 Minutes," suggesting that a reversal of Roe would return the matter to the states, leaving it up to their legislatures to decide the future of abortion access.

FILE - In this Jan. 22, 2016, file photo, marchers carry a banner during the March for Life 2016, in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, during the annual rally on the anniversary of 1973 'Roe v. Wade' U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. Roe v. Wade could be in jeopardy under Donald Trump's presidency. If a reconfigured high court did overturn it, the likely outcome would be a patchwork: some states protecting abortion access, others enacting tough bans, and many struggling over what new limits they might impose. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Asked about the likelihood that some women would face abortion bans in their states, Trump replied, "Well, they'll perhaps have to go, they'll have to go to another state."

Supporters of abortion rights concurred with that analysis.

"If Roe were overturned, we would likely return to a patchwork quilt of laws, which would force women onto the road even more than at present," said Dr. David Grimes, a North Carolina obstetrician-gynecologist.

Grimes was alluding to the fact that many states under Republican control already have forced closure of some abortion clinics, confronting some women with the need for long-distance travel in order to obtain an abortion. While affluent women might be able to afford such travel, it can be an insurmountable burden for some low-income women.

"Is that the world we want, where women's ability to get the care she needs depends on her ability to go to another state?" asked Jennifer Dalven, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Reproductive Freedom Project.

Anti-abortion leader Clark Forsythe, acting president and senior counsel for Americans United For Life, predicted that the states would break into three basic categories if Roe were overturned: Perhaps a dozen states would continue to make abortion widely accessible, another dozen or so would ban virtually all abortions unless the mother's life were at stake, and roughly two-dozen more states would thrash out their response with debate among the public and in the legislatures. Forsythe suggested that some of those states might allow abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy, while restricting or banning later abortions.

Among the states likely to maintain full access to abortion are those on the Pacific Coast and in the Northeast. South-central and southeastern states would be among those likely to impose bans, potentially leaving women in a huge, contiguous chunk of the United States with no nearby access to abortion providers.

"For many women, it's not possible to traverse across multiple state lines," said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights. "This could have tragic consequences."

She said one consequence might be an increase in the number of women seeking to self-induce an abortion.

Florida, compared to other Southern states, has a large number of abortion clinics  more than 70, according to the most recent count by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group which supports abortion rights.

Laura Goodhue, executive director of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, said the state legislature has been increasingly hostile to abortion rights, yet she was uncertain what would happen if Roe were overturned.

"A majority of Floridians support access to abortion, and don't want to see it go away," she said.

In the decades since the Roe decision, several states have kept or added anti-abortion laws that could take effect immediately if the ruling were overturned.

Among them is Wisconsin. Nicole Safar, director of government relations for the state's Planned Parenthood affiliate, said a statute has been on the books since 1849 making it a felony for a doctor to perform an abortion in Wisconsin. Abortion is likely to remain legal in neighboring Illinois, but Safar said even that trip might be out of reach for many low-income women in Wisconsin.

"Illinois is and should remain an oasis for abortion care, but we can't be complacent about that," said Brigid Leahy, director of public policy for Planned Parenthood in Illinois. "I don't think our legislature is poised to pass a ban should Roe be overturned. But things can always change."

Vicki Saporta, president of the National Abortion Federation, said a reconfigured Supreme Court might address an abortion case by leaving some aspects of Roe in place, but chipping away at it to allow a broader range of restrictions.

"It's not so easy to overturn Roe," she said. "Women in this country would not stand for it."

Anti-abortion leader Marjorie Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony List also predicted that a "chipping away" of Roe might be more likely than its total reversal. She said Congress was likely to pass a ban on most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, and states would feel more emboldened in passing tough anti-abortion laws.

"Roe is already in shambles," she said.

Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, said Roe's eventual demise would mean even brighter prospects for state anti-abortion legislation.

"Our state affiliates have been working to pass laws, but they run up against Roe," she said. "If Roe were overturned, it would allow us to fight in each state."

Professor Michael New, an abortion opponent who teaches economics at Ave Maria University in Florida, said he would welcome a reversal of Roe even if abortion policy in many states remained unchanged.

"It would restart a serious debate about sanctity of life issues in the United States," he wrote in an email. "This is a debate that pro-lifers welcome."
Republicans have re-nominated Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan to be House speaker when next year's GOP-led Congress starts working on President-elect Donald Trump's agenda.

House Republicans picked the Wisconsin Republican unanimously at a closed-door meeting Tuesday.

'It is a tremendous honor to be nominated by my colleagues to serve as Speaker of the House. Now it's time to go big,' Ryan, 46, tweeted after the vote.

Some hard-right GOP lawmakers say Ryan has not been a sufficiently aggressive champion of conservative causes.

And some ardent backers of Trump's candidacy were unhappy that the speaker refused to campaign for Trump and clashed repeatedly with him.

But a week after Trump's startling election, elated Republicans rallied behind Ryan.

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin was re-nominated for a second term in that leadership position on Tuesday following a unanimous vote among Republicans

Ryan stood a chance of being ousted after sparring with Donald Trump during his campaign and calling one of his controversial comments 'a textbook definition' of racism

Ryan still must win formal election when the full House picks its speaker as the new Congress convenes Jan. 3. Unless a renegade conservative were to challenge him, the result will is a foregone conclusion.

All Democrats are expected to oppose him that day. Ryan will need support of all but around two dozen Republicans to prevail.

At a private meeting of House GOP lawmakers, Ryan told them that in a morning conversation with Vice President-elect Mike Pence, Pence said he and Trump 'are very supportive of the leadership team and are looking forward to working with them,' according to Wyoming Republican Rep. Cynthia Lummis.

Lummis, a member of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus who will retire in January, called Ryan's remarks 'a validating moment.'

Alabama Republican Rep. Mo Brooks, another Freedom Caucus member, said 'Donald Trump controls whether Paul Ryan is the next speaker or not' and said 'all the signals we have' are that the president-elect wants Ryan in the job.

Trump's view on whether Ryan should keep his job was potentially decisive because his shockingly successful White House campaign stirred passionate support from many House Republicans' constituents and helped many of them keep their seats.

Whether Trump would back or seek to oust Ryan was initially unclear after a campaign in which Ryan refused to work for his own party's presidential candidate and frequently lambasted his comments about Hispanics and others. Trump returned the fire with caustic tweets about Ryan.

But since Trump's Election Day victory, the president-elect visited Ryan at the Capitol and the two men have spoken frequently.

In addition, Ryan will have two powerful allies and old friends at the highest levels of the White House: Pence is a former House colleague and Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus, who will be chief of staff, is from Ryan's home state of Wisconsin.

Ryan's election to the speakership will be official on January 3 but it's a foregone conclusion unless a renegade Republican decides to challenge him at the last minute

'Welcome to the dawn of a new unified Republican government,' Ryan told reporters Tuesday.

The tea party-oriented Freedom Caucus has been a thorn in GOP leaders' sides for years and played a major role in forcing the previous speaker, John Boehner, R-Ohio, to leave Congress last year.

But in a sign of healing, New York Republican Rep. Chris Collins, one of Trump's earliest congressional supporters, said he would second Ryan's nomination to be speaker later Tuesday 'as a sign of, if you will, Trump support for Mr. Ryan.'

On the Democratic side, House Democrats postponed leadership elections that had been scheduled for Thursday until Nov. 30 amid signs of dissatisfaction with their veteran leaders, Californian Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer of Maryland. They have led House Democrats for over a decade and are both in their seventies.

After what was a disastrous Election Day for Democrats, the party was on track to gain just six House seats at a time when they were hoping for more.

More than two dozen House Democrats wrote Pelosi this week asking her to delay the elections. They wrote that it is 'vital that our caucus take the time to listen to the American people and learn the lessons of this difficult election.'

House Democrats made the decision to postpone their elections at a closed-door meeting Tuesday.

Ryan and other centrist GOP politicians shunned the president-elect in their own states but ended up benefiting from the wave of voters he brought to the polls

Next year will be the first that the GOP will have unfettered White House and congressional control since 2006. Republicans plan a 2017 agenda headlined by repealing and rewriting Obama's health care law, cutting taxes and curbing federal regulations.

In a letter to administration officials, House GOP leaders warned them not to approve rules curbing oil and gas pollution during the waning days of Barack Obama's presidency and said Congress would overturn them if they did.

Some opposition to Ryan remained.

Senate Republicans and Democrats were meeting separately to pick their leadership teams.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky will also keep his job in a chamber that Republicans will control by a 52-48 margin.
Obama arrives in Greece at start of his final foreign tour

ATHENS, Greece (AP)  President Barack Obama has arrived in Greece on the first stop of his final foreign tour as president.

Air Force One touched down midmorning in Athens after an overnight flight from Washington. On his first day in Greece, Obama will meet with President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, plus hold a news conference with Tsipras.

On Wednesday, he'll tour the Acropolis and give a major speech about democracy and globalization before he flies on to Berlin. From Germany, Obama will travel to Peru for an Asian economic summit before returning to Washington on Saturday.
A look at food policy and potential Trump changes

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Obama administration was the first to significantly raise the profile of food policy, championing laws and pushing through regulation to make food safer, more nutritious and better labeled.

A look at some of those policies, and what may happen to them in a Trump administration:

SCHOOL MEALS: First lady Michelle Obama made healthier school meals one of her signature issues. A Democratic Congress passed legislation expanding healthier standards for school foods in 2010, and Mrs. Obama successfully fended off Republican attempts to scale them back. Trump hasn't weighed in on school meals, but Alabama Rep. Robert Aderholt, a member of his agricultural advisory committee, says there likely will be new efforts to revise the rules.

FOOD SAFETY: A food safety law signed by President Barack Obama five years ago requires farmers to test irrigation water quality, regularly train workers on the best health and hygiene practices and monitor wildlife that may intrude on growing fields, among other measures. It also increases inspections in food manufacturing facilities. A fact sheet issued by the Trump campaign in September criticized the food safety rules, but that language was deleted in a second version of the memo.

NUTRITION FACTS: The Food and Drug Administration issued a new version of the "Nutrition Facts" labels that are on the backs of food packages, the first overhaul of the label since its introduction in 1994. The sugar industry has objected to a new line that breaks out the amount of added sugars. The rules are in place, but most food companies have until July 2018 to comply.

CALORIES ON MENUS: Passed by Congress as part of health care overhaul in 2010, the rules will require restaurants and other establishments that sell prepared foods and have 20 or more locations to post the calorie content of food "clearly and conspicuously" on their menus, menu boards and displays. The supermarket industry has strongly pushed back on the rules, saying they would be more burdensome for them than for restaurants, which typically have more limited offerings. The rules will be enforced starting next May.

PHASING OUT TRANS FATS: The FDA announced in 2015 that it was requiring food companies to largely rid their foods of the artery-clogging fats over several years, calling them a threat to public health. But the rules allow food companies to petition to use trans fats sparingly in some foods, and the agency is currently considering what foods can be exempted.

SODIUM GUIDELINES: The FDA earlier this year proposed long-awaited sodium guidelines in an effort to prevent thousands of deaths each year from heart disease and stroke. The guidelines are voluntary, so food companies won't be required to comply, and the agency hasn't yet announced final guidelines. The food industry has pushed back, saying companies have already reduced sodium in many foods.
Moldovan flees to US to share details of $1 billion theft

WASHINGTON (AP)  The past months of Mihail Gofman's life read like spy fiction: Fearing he's being followed, he flees his native Moldova in a borrowed car, drives to neighboring Romania and flies to Washington. There he gives U.S. officials information he claims links top Moldovan political leaders and possibly U.S. citizens to a $1 billion heist that gutted the tiny eastern European nation's banking system.

Gofman used to be deputy chief of a government anti-money laundering unit in Moldova, a former Soviet republic sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania. He says he was forced out after speaking about people he said were linked to the theft.

He's holed up in Washington trying to make the case that Americans should care what happened in a little-known country 5,000 miles away  and to help it try to recover the missing money.

In this photo taken Oct. 27, 2016, Mihail Gofman of Moldova poses for a photograph at his hotel in Rockville, Md. The past few months of Mihail Gofmans life reads like spy fiction: Fearing hes being followed, he flees his native Moldova in a borrowed car, drives to neighboring Romania and flies to Washington. There he gives U.S. officials information he claims links Moldovan political leaders, and perhaps a U.S. citizen, to a $1 billion heist that gutted the tiny eastern European nations banking system. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The U.S. government already has interests in the former Soviet republic, Gofman argues. The impoverished country has received $44.9 million in U.S. aid this year, plus a $180 million loan from the International Monetary Fund, which is partially supported by U.S. taxpayers. Moreover, Gofman claims to have evidence that at least one American was involved in the theft. His claims could not be independently verified.

Moldova is also important for strategic reasons. The theft has tainted the reputation of the Europe-leaning party that has run Moldova since 2009. Widespread anger kindled support for Igor Dodon, a pro-Russian candidate who won Sunday's presidential runoff election.

Gofman said U.S. authorities reached out to him after he sent documents to the FBI and other federal agencies. He talked with U.S. investigators at least twice in the past couple months. The FBI said it could not comment or confirm the existence of an investigation and it's unclear how deeply it is investigating.

The 2014 theft from the three banks was devastating for Moldova. The amount stolen was equal to more than 12 percent of the country's gross domestic product that year, according to the Congressional Research Service. The money was funneled out of Moldova and laundered through a complex network of offshore entities.

"We understood what they (the thieves) were preparing," Gofman said recently through an interpreter at The Associated Press office in Washington. "They were preparing to steal" the national reserves of Moldova.

So far, authorities have accused only a few individuals as having a role in the theft. One is Ilan Shor, a rich Moldovan businessman named in an independent investigative report on the theft conducted by the Kroll company. The report was commissioned by the National Bank of Moldova.

Another is Vlad Filat, a former prime minister sentenced in July to nine years on charges of taking bribes and influence trafficking. In addition, businessman Veaceslav Platon was arrested in Ukraine and has been extradited to Moldova to face charges.

Gofman says that based on the details he amassed during his work at the money-laundering unit, many more people were involved. His claims are bolstered by former presidential candidate Andrei Nastase, a lawyer and former prosecutor who told AP that he too has met with U.S. investigators, including FBI agents, twice during the past three months.

Nastase said he has seen "evidence that some funds now reside in the U.S. and that some shell companies were created in the U.S."

Among the people that Gofman claims benefited from the theft is Vlad Plahotniuc, a wealthy businessman feared because of his alleged influence over law enforcement and the judiciary. Plahotniuc, who is active in the pro-European party, has repeatedly defended himself, saying he had nothing to do with the theft and had no ties to any of the banks from which the money was stolen. Plahotniuc's name is not mentioned in the Kroll report.

Andrian Candu, speaker of the Moldovan parliament, defended the pro-European party, saying it has worked hard since the theft to fight corruption, implement reforms and arrest judges, customs officials and police officers. He said Plahotniuc has had an active role in helping institute reforms.

Still, many Moldovans were outraged to see photographs of Plahotniuc meeting in May in Washington with Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland. The State Department said Plahotniuc was part of an official delegation visiting from the country.

Gofman decided to leave Moldova after German diplomats advised him to do so in July. "They even told me to photograph what was in my bags so nobody could put something in them, like drugs." Gofman said.

Within an hour of that meeting, after his children helped him photograph the contents of his luggage, he took off unnoticed in a borrowed vehicle. He spent two days in neighboring Romania, where he is a dual citizen, and then flew to the United States.

For now, Gofman is a man without a country. He said U.S. investigators advised him not to return to Moldova  at least not now.

"I hope that in the end we'll solve this," said Gofman, whose wife and three children remain in Moldova. "I'm not going to spend my whole life going from country to country."
Cyprus' biggest bank to list on London Stock Exchange

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP)  Cyprus' biggest bank said Tuesday it's applying for a listing on the London Stock Exchange to boost its profile, attract investors and expand its access to capital.

The Bank of Cyprus said it intends to maintain a listing on the Cyprus Stock Exchange, but won't be listed on the Athens Exchange.

The bank said it has incorporated a holding company for the Bank of Cyprus Group in Ireland in order to be eligible for inclusion in the London Stock Exchange's premium listings.

But the lender's headquarters, management and operations will remain in Cyprus.

"We believe that the Bank and its stakeholders will benefit from the greater profile, liquidity and access to capital that a London listing offers," said Bank of Cyprus Chairman Josef Ackermann in a statement. He added the higher profile would help boost confidence in the bank and help it support economic growth in the east Mediterranean island nation.

The bank was at the center of a multibillion-euro rescue deal Cyprus agreed in 2013 with its eurozone partners that saved it from bankruptcy.

Under the terms of the deal, deposits in the bank over 100,000 euros were seized to help prop up the country's wobbly banking sector. The second largest lender, Laiki, was shut down altogether.

The island nation successfully completed the program in March.

Since 2013, the Bank of Cyprus has shed numerous foreign holdings to concentrate on the local market and managed to boost its coffers with a 1 billion-euro ($1.08 billion) equity raising.
The Latest: Violence breaks out in anti-US protest

ATHENS, Greece (AP)  The Latest on President Barack Obama's final foreign tour as president (all times local):

8:40 p.m.

Riot police are using tear gas and stun grenades in Athens to disperse about 3,000 left-wing marchers protesting President Barack Obama's visit to Greece. This, after they tried to enter an area declared off-limits to demonstrators.

Police officers look at flames from a fire bomb thrown by demonstrators during a protest against the visit of US President Barack Obama in Athens, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Greek riot police used tear gas and stun grenades in central Athens Tuesday to disperse about 3,000 left-wing marchers protesting a visit by President Barack Obama, after they tried to enter an area declared off-limits to demonstrators. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

The violence broke out as youths in motorcycle helmets and gas masks, armed with wooden clubs and petrol bombs, tried to break a police cordon in front of a barrier formed by police buses. Rioters retired to the Athens Polytechnic university complex in the city center and engaged in running street fights with police.

There is a strong anti-American tradition among Greek left-wingers, who still resent U.S. support for Greece's 1967-74 military dictatorship.

Obama's visit comes just two days before the country's main annual anti-American demonstrations. These protests commemorate the bloody suppression, by military authorities, of the Polytechnic pro-democracy uprising.

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8:30 p.m.

President Barack Obama is attending a state dinner hosted by Greece's president, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, in the ballroom of the presidential mansion in central Athens.

Obama stressed the ties of friendship in a brief speech that quoted from ancient Greek statesman and orator Pericles and touched on the Olympic Games originating in ancient Greece.

Obama said the two countries had "stood in solidarity in war and in peace, in good times and in bad, including in these very difficult years for the Greek people." The country is struggling to emerge from a deep six-year financial crisis.

___

5:45 p.m.

President Barack Obama says the prospects for a comprehensive and lasting settlement on the long-running division of Cyprus are "the best they have been for some time."

Cyprus has been divided into an internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south and a breakaway Turkish-Cypriot north since 1974. That's when Turkey invaded and occupied the northern part of the island in response to a coup pushing for a union with Greece.

Peace talks are under way and have been hailed as a real prospect for resolving the division.

Speaking in Athens, Obama says this doesn't mean "success is guaranteed," but the possibility of ending the decades-long conflict is there.

___

5:30 p.m.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras says he hasn't joined some other European leaders in criticizing Donald Trump.

Tsipras told a news conference with President Barack Obama that Trump had an "aggressive manner" in the campaign but he figures Trump will act differently in office.

The Greek leader says many are fearful that Trump will radically change U.S. foreign policy. He says despite those fears, "we should build bridges, not walls."

Tsipras says he knows little about Trump. But he says some people told him before the election that to better understand Trump, he should have read his book, "The Art of the Deal."

___

5:20 p.m.

President Barack Obama says he isn't buying the notion that Donald Trump's election victory is a rejection of his world views.

He says that the last time he checked polling, a pretty healthy majority of Americans agree with him on international affairs.

Speaking at a press conference in Greece, Obama says "sometimes people just feel as if we want to try something and see if we can shake things up."

Obama says he'll never apologize for saying the world's future will be defined by what people have in common rather than by what separates nations and leads to conflict.

He says nations that focus on inclusion will in the long-term be more successful.

___

5:15 p.m.

President Barack Obama is likening the difficulty in resolving problems in the European Union to the challenges of dealing with Congress.

Obama is holding a joint news conference in Athens with Greece's prime minister. He says Congress is hard to deal with, but dealing with multiple parliaments and commissions and other entities is "very complicated."

He says many European leaders have inherited problems and are trying to identify how to resolve them. A number of EU countries are considering their future membership in the bloc.

Obama says the U.S. has urged European countries to resolve banking problems quickly so other solutions can follow. He says that's more complicated because not all countries use the Euro currency.

___

5:10 p.m.

President Barack Obama says one of the lessons he's learned from recent elections is the need to address inequality, economic dislocation and people's fear that their children won't do as well as they have done.

Obama is being asked about what comparisons he draws from Donald Trump's election victory and the vote by Britain to leave the European Union.

Obama says there's a range of factors involved but it's clear that globalization, combined with technology and social media, disrupted people's lives. He says it's critical to address those real concerns and channel them in a positive way.

He also says that some of the rhetoric seen in the elections is "pretty troubling and not necessarily connected to the facts."

___

4:50 p.m.

President Barack Obama is praising Greece for its financial commitment to NATO  specifically, for being one of five NATO allies that dedicated at least 2 percent of its gross domestic product to defense spending.

Obama says Greece has met that threshold despite difficult times, and if it can do so, so should all NATO allies.

Obama has pushed for higher defense spending by NATO members. That issue surfaced during the presidential campaign as Donald Trump suggested that the U.S. would look at whether NATO members had paid their proper share in considering whether to come to their defense.

Trump challenged the strategic underpinnings of the NATO alliance. Obama is on his last foreign trip before Trump becomes president. And Obama is using this trip to try to underscore the U.S. commitment to the alliance.

___

4:40 p.m.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of Greece says the U.S. economy has performed better than Europe's in recent years. He says that's because President Barack Obama committed to policies that promoted employment while Europe focused on austerity.

Tsipras is speaking at a press conference with Obama as the president makes his final foreign trip.

While some in the U.S. are unhappy with economic growth since the 2008 financial crisis, Tsipras is saying that the U.S. has experienced "impressive" growth while European economies have been trapped in "stagnation."

He says Greece is slowly but surely decreasing unemployment and restoring confidence in the nation's economy.

___

2:40 p.m.

President Barack Obama says austerity alone cannot deliver prosperity to the Greek people and that debt relief and other strategies will be needed.

Obama is pushing Europe to grant debt relief to Greece as it continues on its economic recovery. Obama says reforms undertaken by the Greek government haven't been easy but were necessary and will make the nation's economy more competitive in the long-term.

Obama's comments are taking place prior to a meeting with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. The prime minister says he hopes Obama's last trip to Europe brings about important results.

----

2 p.m.

President Barack Obama is assuring the Greek people that the United States considers the NATO alliance a cornerstone of its security and that its commitment to it is unwavering.

President-elect Donald Trump campaigned saying he would look at NATO and complained that the U.S. has been paying more than its fair share. Obama says the strong NATO relationship between the United States and Greece is of the upmost importance.

Obama is meeting with President Prokopis Pavlopoulos as part of his final foreign trip. Obama says he considered it important to visit the birthplace of democracy.

As they begin their meeting, Pavlopoulos is telling Obama that the U.S. has every reason to look forward to a strong and prosperous Europe, and that Greece is committed to the European Union.

___

11 a.m.

President Barack Obama has been greeted with a military honor guard in navy and green uniforms and a military band after stepping off Air Force One on a windy and chilly morning.

Among the dignitaries greeting the president were Greece's minister of national defense, "Panos" Kammenos, and the U.S. ambassador to Greece, Geoffrey Pyatt.

On his first day in Greece, Obama will meet with President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, plus hold a news conference with Tsipras.

___

10:40 a.m.

President Barack Obama has arrived in Greece on the first stop of his final foreign tour as president.

Air Force One touched down midmorning in Athens after an overnight flight from Washington. On his first day in Greece, Obama will meet with President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, plus hold a news conference with Tsipras.

On Wednesday, he'll tour the Acropolis and give a major speech about democracy and globalization before he flies on to Berlin. From Germany, Obama will travel to Peru for an Asian economic summit before returning to Washington on Saturday.

Obama's trip will be dominated by questions and concerns about President-elect Donald Trump. Obama is working to reassure foreign leaders the U.S. won't abandon its partnerships and alliance obligations despite Trump's tough campaign rhetoric.

Police officers look at flames from a fire bomb thrown by demonstrators during a protest against the visit of US President Barack Obama in Athens, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Obama is in Athens for talks with the country's political leadership and is scheduled to deliver a speech on Wednesday before heading to Berlin later the same day as part of his last major trip abroad. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

President Barack Obama toasts with Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, right, and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, left, during the start of a State Dinner at the Presidential Mansion, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

U.S. President Barack Obama smiles during a news conference with the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras at Maximos Mansion in Athens on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Obama is praising Greece for its financial commitment to NATO  specifically, for being one of five NATO allies that dedicated at least 2 percent of its gross domestic product to defense spending. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis, Pool)

U.S. President Barack Obama, left, and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras shake hands after a news conference at Maximos Mansion in Athens on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Obama is praising Greece for its financial commitment to NATO  specifically, for being one of five NATO allies that dedicated at least 2 percent of its gross domestic product to defense spending. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis, Pool)

President Barack Obama speaks during a joint news conference with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras at Maximos Mansion in Athens, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) )

U.S. President Barack Obama, left, is greeted by Greek National Defense Minister Panos Kommenos, right, upon his arrival at the Athens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Obama arrived in Greece Tuesday morning on the first stop of his final foreign tour as president, the first visit to Greece by a sitting U.S. president since Bill Clinton in 1999. At center is Ambassador Aglaia Balta, director of Department of Protocol of the Greek Foreign Ministry. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
A suspect in the assault and subsequent death of the University of Wisconsin-Stout international student from Saudi Arabia has been identified.

On Friday, the findings of the 20-day investigation were sent to the Dunn County District Attorneys Office for charges. Pending the results of the D.A.s review, the suspects name is being withheld.

In a statement, Menomonie Police Chief Eric Atkinson said that no evidence has been found to suggest that the death of Hussain Saeed Alnahdi was a hate crime. Nor is the suspect a UW-Stout student or a resident of Dunn County.

The investigation included interviews of persons out-of-state and examinations of various evidence, Atkinson said.

In response, Doug Mell, executive director of Communications and External Relations at UW-Stout, released the following statement: As a university, we would like to express our appreciation of the efforts of the Menomonie Police Department that have brought this case to this point, and we pledge our support for their efforts to bring this suspect to justice. Our continued thoughts and prayers go out to Hussains family and friends.

Cause of death

Reports show that it was a traumatic brain injury that caused the Alnahdis death.

Shortly after 2 a.m. on Oct. 30, Hussain Saeed Alnahdi, 24, was found unconscious and bleeding from his nose and mouth in the 400 block of Main Street East in Menomonie. Airlifted to Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire, Alnahdi regained consciousness early the following morning, but died that afternoon.

Witnesses reported Alnahdi was assaulted by a 6-foot man who fled the scene. An international student who came to UW-Stout in 2015, he was a junior majoring in business administration.

Late Monday afternoon, Chief Atkinson released the preliminary findings about the cause of Alnahdis death after conferring with Dunn County Chief Deputy Medical Examiner Marcie Rosas. He said the final autopsy report will be released following results of Alnahdis toxicology tests from the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics Anatomic Pathology Laboratory.

Atkinson also asked for the publics help in identifying two people in surveillance photos. By Tuesday morning, both women were identified and interviewed to determine whether they have information relating to the case. They were not taken into custody.

We appreciate the publics continued assistance, patience and support with this death investigation, Atkinson said.

In addition to consulting with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Menomonie police have partnered with UW-Stout police and the Dunn County sheriffs office to investigate Alnahdis death.
In eastern Mosul, civilians clamor for food, cigarettes

MOSUL, Iraq (AP)  Explosions and gunfire rattled parts of eastern Mosul and Islamic State militants fired mortars from apartment windows Tuesday as Iraqi special forces waged fierce urban combat in the country's second-largest city.

Hundreds of civilians filled the streets clamoring for food and cigarettes in recently retaken neighborhoods where supplies were running low. Some of the troops handed over their own rations.

Iraqi forces say they have largely cleared the neighborhoods of Zahra and Qadisiya in eastern Mosul after pushing into the area Nov. 4. The operation to retake the militant-held city began Oct. 17 and troops made swift progress before their advances slowed once they pushed into more densely populated areas.

Internally displaced people flee fighting between Iraqi forces and Islamic State militants on a road in eastern Mosul, Iraq, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Iraqi forces moving in from the south have maintained slow progress and remain more than 20 kilometers (12 miles) from central Mosul.

"This morning, we have like 1,000 people from the civilians, who escape from this area to safer area," said Ali Tahseen, a special forces solider in eastern Mosul.

Mosul has been under the tight control of the extremists for more than two years and is still home to some 1 million civilians. Aid groups have warned of a humanitarian crisis if hundreds of thousands are forced from their homes during the military operation.

"This is a problem for us because the food we have is not enough for them and we're waiting for more food to be sent from the government," said Maj. Salam al-Obeidi. "Now the Iraqi soldier is giving his food to the civilians."

Residents gathered on the streets to exchange news. A long line grew outside a shop selling cigarettes, where people argued and bought dozens of packs each now that the extremists and their smoking bans were gone.

"Before, it was prohibited, cigarettes are prohibited," said one resident, Hani Hamed, laughing happily. "Now we are free to smoke, so they are buying lots of cigarettes."

Near the northeastern Zahra district, explosions and gunfire erupted as the special forces advanced. IS militants fired mortar rounds on the troops from apartment windows in the al-Samah neighborhood, wounding at least seven civilians when the shells landed in the streets below.

The army set up a field clinic with seven beds in a dust-swept open area to treat wounded troops and civilians. Teaming up with foreign volunteers, Iraqi medics administered first aid before sending the wounded to the hospital.

"There was heavy shooting near us. ISIS were there," said Musenna Abdulla, who fled Mosul on foot. "They are not afraid of God, they destroyed us. And the last thing they did is they came to our house and set up a mortar position near our house and started shooting. We told them that there are civilians, but they didn't care."

Warplanes from the U.S.-led coalition flew at low altitude while columns of smoke rose over the city.

In Qadisiya, a district that the special forces repeatedly have declared to be cleared, IS fighters launched a fierce counterattack Monday, said Maj. Gen. Sami al-Aridi. Two dozen men in suicide vests charged the front lines in a three-hour battle that killed 20 militants and severely wounded a special forces soldier.

The Iraqi armed forces do not release casualty figures, but field medics have noted dozens of killed and wounded since the battle for Mosul began.

At a news conference, Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Saad Maan said the military has driven IS out from over a third of the eastern half of the city, which is divided by the Tigris River.

"More than a third of this side has been liberated," Maan told reporters at the Qayara air base, a main port of entry south of the city for forces. Iraqi forces, however, appear to have a fragile hold on much of that territory and have repeatedly suffered heavy casualties from heavy IS counterattacks.

Col. John Dorrian, a spokesman for the U.S.-led forces supporting the operation, said at the same news conference that airstrikes had destroyed 59 suicide car bombs and over 80 tunnels.

"We will continue to strike the enemy for as long as it takes for the Iraqi flag to be raised over Mosul and every other corner of this country," he said, adding that the coalition had conducted over 4,000 strikes with warplanes and artillery since the campaign began.

Smoke from oil wells and a chemical plant torched by IS militants near Mosul has forced over 1,500 people to seek treatment for respiratory problems, the U.N. said.

The fires have spewed toxic smoke for 25 to 60 days, affecting 14 towns, the U.N. humanitarian affairs coordination office said. There could be serious mid- and long-term effects on health, the environment, agriculture and livelihoods, it added.

In late October, IS shelled and set fire to the al-Mishraq Sulfur Gas Factory south of Mosul, and the toxic fumes killed at least four people, the U.N. said, comparing the attack to the use of chemical weapons.

Nearby oil wells set ablaze by IS have been burning uncontrollably since June.

In Baghdad, meanwhile, bombings in and around the city killed at least 14 people Tuesday and wounded more than 50, Iraqi officials said.

The attacks targeted outdoor markets, Shiite pilgrims and Sunni tribal fighters who oppose the Islamic State, police said. The casualty figures were confirmed by medical authorities, who along with the other officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release information.

No group claimed responsibility immediately for the attacks, but they bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State group, which has taken credit for similar bombings. The extremists repeatedly target Iraq's Shiite majority and security forces.

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Associated Press writers Susannah George in Qayara, Iraq, and Sinan Salaheddin and Brian Rohan in Baghdad contributed.

A man injured by a mortar, during fighting between the Iraqi forces and Islamic State militants, is treated at a field hospital in eastern Mosul, Iraq, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

A boy injured during fighting between the Iraqi forces and Islamic State militants sits in an ambulance after being treated at a field hospital in eastern Mosul, Iraq, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

A soldier from the Ninth Armored Division, 109th artillery battalion, covers his ears after a 155mm shell was fired towards an Islamic State militant position in Mosul, from the village of Ali Rash, east of Mosul, Iraq, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Iraq launched a major offensive last month to drive IS out of the northern city, the country's second largest, which is still home to more than 1 million civilians. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Iraqi army soldiers from the Ninth Armored Division, 109th artillery battalion, stand in front their 155mm mobile artillery unit, as they shout slogans and celebrate after they received informaiton that their shell accurately hit an Islamic State militants target, at Ali Rash village east of Mosul, Iraq, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Iraq launched a major offensive last month to drive IS out of the northern city, the country's second largest, which is still home to more than 1 million civilians. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

An Iraqi army soldier from the Ninth Armored Division 109th artillery battalion loads a 155mm shell as he prepares to fire towards Islamic State militant positions in Mosul, from the village of Ali Rash, east of Mosul, Iraq, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Iraq launched a major offensive last month to drive IS out of the northern city, the country's second largest, which is still home to more than 1 million civilians. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

The Iraqi army fires a 155mm shell towards Islamic State militant positions in Mosul, from the village of Ali Rash, east of Mosul, Iraq, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Iraq launched a major offensive last month to drive IS out of the northern city, the country's second largest, which is still home to more than 1 million civilians. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A soldier from the Ninth Armored Division, 109th artillery battalion of the Iraqi army, works on a map to determine a target, as he prepares to fire a 155mm shell toward Islamic State militant positions in Mosul, from thje village of Ali Rash, east of Mosul, Iraq, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Iraq launched a major offensive last month to drive IS out of the northern city, the country's second largest, which is still home to more than 1 million civilians. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

The Iraqi army prepares to fire a 155mm shell towards Islamic State militant positions in Mosul, from the village of Ali Rash, east of Mosul, Iraq, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Iraq launched a major offensive last month to drive IS out of the northern city, the country's second largest, which is still home to more than 1 million civilians. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

The Iraqi army prepares to fire a 155mm shell towards Islamic State militant positions in Mosul, from the village of Ali Rash, east of Mosul, Iraq, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Iraq launched a major offensive last month to drive IS out of the northern city, the country's second largest, which is still home to more than 1 million civilians. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

The Iraqi army fires a 155mm shell towards Islamic State militant positions in Mosul, from the village of Ali Rash, east of Mosul, Iraq, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Iraq launched a major offensive last month to drive IS out of the northern city, the country's second largest, which is still home to more than 1 million civilians. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

FILE - In this Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016, file photo, a boy stands by a house that belonged to an Islamic State militant in Qayara, some 50 kilometers south of Mosul, Iraq. When Iraqi forces drove Islamic State militants from the town of Qayara in August, it was hailed as an early triumph over the extremists. But the government has failed to restore lost services, violent revenge attacks persist, and some residents are bitter and angry. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)

People line up to buy cigarettes in a neighborhood under the control of Iraqi forces, after being recaptured from Islamic State militants, in eastern Mosul, Iraq, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
UK approves the extradition of an alleged hacker to US.

LONDON (AP)  Britain has approved the extradition of an alleged computer hacker who is accused of snatching data from the U.S. Defense Department, the U.S. Army and the FBI.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has authorized the extradition of 31-year-old Lauri Love, who faces 99 years in prison if found guilty on cyber-hacking charges for allegedly compromising networks between October 2012 and October 2013 and stealing data. He has 14 days to appeal the decision.

Love, who has Asperger's syndrome, told the Daily Mail in an interview published Tuesday that the decision was a "kick in the gut." He says he doesn't "think much of my future life prospects."

FILE - In this Sept. 16, 2016 file photo, British national Lauri Love, who is accused of hacking into U.S. government computers, stands with tears in his eyes while speaking to the media after the ruling that he should be extradited, outside Westminster Magistrates' Court in London. Britain has approved the extradition of an alleged computer hacker who is accused of snatching data from the U.S. Defense Department, the U.S. Army and the FBI. Love, who faces 99 years in prison if found guilty on cyber-hacking charges for allegedly compromising networks between October 2012 and October 2013 and stealing data. He has 14 days to appeal the decision. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)

Love's father, the Rev Alexander Love, says "all we are asking for is British justice for a British citizen."
Sikh truckers reach settlement in faith discrimination case

LOS ANGELES (AP)  The trucker with the long white beard and turban faced a dilemma over work he desperately needed that would require him to violate the tenets of his Sikh religion by cutting hair that had never been cropped.

It wasn't about the way Lakhbir Singh looked that was an issue  it was just a clipping for a drug test. When he refused to go against one of Sikhism's five articles of faith, he lost the job.

"It was one of the hardest times of my life," Singh said through an interpreter of the incident five years ago. "My body went numb and I had tears in my eyes."

This May 12, 2015, photo provided by the Sikh Coalition shows Lakhbir Singh, one of the four truckers in the case against J.B. Hunt Transportation Services Inc., taken at the Los Angeles Equal Employment Opportunity Commission office during conciliation in Los Angeles. Four Sikh truckers who could not comply with drug testing that required them to provide clipped hair samples or remove their turban because those violate religious principles reach a settlement with a major national trucking company. (Simran Kaur/The Sikh Coalition via AP)

Singh was one of four Sikh truckers from California who will split a $260,000 settlement from J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. to resolve discrimination charges, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Tuesday.

The trucking company failed to provide a religious accommodation by offering an alternative to Singh and two other men who refused to provide hair clippings for drug testing samples and to a fourth man who wouldn't remove his turban before providing a urine sample for testing, the EEOC said.

Observant Sikhs never cut their hair and wear turbans in public at all times. It is considered shameful and humiliating to remove a turban in public, said Harsimran Kaur, legal director for The Sikh Coalition, a civil rights group that represented the men in the complaint.

"It's absolutely a challenge for observant Sikhs to maintain unshorn hair," Kaur said. "The importance of this settlement is that it sends a message to employers that even drug testing regimens do not fall outside the purview of the federal anti-discrimination law. Employers can't proffer safety as a blanket justification to discriminate."

J.B. Hunt, which didn't admit liability, agreed to offer drug testing alternatives to accommodate religious beliefs, revised its anti-discrimination policies and said it would train employees on hiring practices, the EEOC said.

The Arkansas-based company declined to comment, said attorney Kevin Lilly, who represented the company.

The Sikh Coalition said the case could have an impact on other trucking companies and industries. Thousands of Sikhs work as truckers in the U.S. and the group said it has also learned of technology and pharmaceutical companies that asked Sikhs to provide hair samples.

Analysis of hair can detect the presence of drugs several months after use. Alternatives include fingernail clippings, which can also show drug and alcohol use dating back further in time than urine samples.

Ariela Gross, a law professor at the University of Southern California, said hair or headdress issues in employment discrimination cases are typically about appearance in the workplace. While employers can generally set appearance standards  even barring beards or hair styles sometimes associated with certain racial groups  they don't tend to hold up when applied to religious groups that require a turban or bar them from cutting hair.

Gross said she'd never heard of a case about hair used in drug testing, but said it sounded "relatively straightforward" in requiring an accommodation.

"Where they're requiring them to cut a piece of their hair for drug testing it seems odd they wouldn't accept other types of testing alternatives," Gross said.

Observant Sikhs abstain from alcohol and drug use. They never cut their hair because it's considered to be in harmony with God's will.

Singh, who emigrated 20 years ago from Punjab, India, said he always had submitted to urinalysis for other jobs and has never failed drug tests. When J.B. Hunt required the hair clipping while he attended job orientation in 2011, he offered to provide a sample from his comb, but was told it needed to snipped.

After losing the job, he struggled for most of the next five years to find full-time work to support his family. He now works for another trucking company.
The Latest: Trump goes out for dinner without press in tow

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Latest on Donald Trump's transition to the presidency (all times EST):

10:30 p.m.

President-elect Donald Trump has broken with protocol by leaving his Trump Tower residence without taking along his press contingent.

President-elect Donald Trump, right, kisses his son Eric farewell after dining at the 21 Club, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

The Trump transition team had informed reporters and photographers at Trump Tower that there would be no movement by the president-elect for the rest of the day and evening. Then, less than two hours later, a presidential-style motorcade left the building unannounced.

That sent the press corps scrambling to find out if Trump was indeed in the motorcade and where it was heading.

It turned out that Trump was having dinner at the 21 Club. Reporters and photographers caught up with him at the midtown Manhattan restaurant but were not allowed inside.

A spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, confirmed that Trump was having dinner with his family and she asked that the press respect that.

His motorcade left the area shortly after 9:30 p.m. Daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, were spotted entering a Cadillac SUV at the back of the motorcade. Trump returned to his high-rise home a short time later.

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8:30 p.m.

The White House says Donald Trump's transition team has taken a step toward resolving the paperwork problem that prevented it from communicating with the administration about the transfer of power.

A White House spokeswoman says Vice President-elect Mike Pence signed a key document Tuesday evening.

The formal transition process has been stalled since last week when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was replaced by Pence as the transition chair. The memorandum of understanding must be signed by the transition leader.

White House spokeswoman Brandi Hoffine says the administration is still waiting on more documents required by law before agencies can begin sharing information with the transition team.

Those documents include a list of all transition team members and certification that they meet a code of conduct barring conflicts of interest.

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7:15 p.m.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is departing meetings at Trump Tower but declining to provide details of what he discussed with President-elect Donald Trump and his team.

Cruz tells reporters in New York that the "election was a mandate for change" and it's now time for Republicans to deliver on their conservative agenda.

Asked whether he wants to be considered for a post in the Trump administration, Cruz says he looks forward to working closely with Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence "to repeal Obamacare" and confirm "a strong, conservative Supreme Court justice."

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6:10 p.m.

When Donald Trump announced Stephen Bannon as his top White House strategist, critics erupted once again with allegations that Bannon is racist, sexist and anti-Semitic.

Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway insists that Bannon isn't as scary as people say. But Bannon isn't likely to put those fears to rest anytime soon.

As a conservative media brawler, Bannon has discarded norms for discussing race, gender and religion, often framing even abstract political fights in deliberately inflammatory terms.

Bannon was born into a Norfolk, Virginia, family of Catholic Democrats, and served in the U.S. Navy and attended Harvard Business School. He worked for Goldman Sachs and started a media-focused boutique investment banking firm.

Under his leadership the news site Breitbart became a platform for the "alt-right," a loose group espousing a provocative and reactionary strain of conservatism.

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6:15 p.m.

President-elect Donald Trump has called New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key to pass on his sympathies for the powerful earthquake that killed two people.

Key's office described the conversation on Wednesday as "very warm and cordial."

The magnitude-7.8 quake that struck on Monday has left hundreds of tourists stranded in the coastal town of Kaikoura after landslides blocked off roads. The military is evacuating people in helicopters.

Trump had tried to get in touch earlier in the week but Key had missed the call in the confusion after the quake.

Key's office said in a statement that he had congratulated Trump on his election win. The leaders also discussed the New Zealand economy, trade, and the relationship between the two nations, which they agreed was in great shape.

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6:10 p.m.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham has been one of Donald Trump's strongest critics, once comparing the choice between Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the Republican primary as the difference between being poisoned and shot.

But now that Trump's president-elect, Graham is looking for common ground.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Graham said "count me in" on infrastructure improvements, more military spending, conservative Supreme Court picks and repealing and replacing President Barack Obama's health care law. Though he says the last one will be "harder than we all think."

He did appear to express concerns about Trump's relationship with Russia, and said his Senate panel would hold a series of hearings on that country's role in the world.

Graham said: "They are a bad actor in the world, they need to be reined in."

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6:05 p.m.

Some of the GOP's biggest donors and fundraisers will be leading president-elect Donald Trump's presidential inaugural committee.

Trump's transition team announced Tuesday that investor Tom Barrack will serve as the committee's chairman.

The finance co-chairs include Lew Eisenberg, who ran the Republican National Committee's joint fundraising operations with the Trump campaign.

The committee's vice chairs include a host of the GOP's biggest donors, including casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam, New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, Anthony Scaramucci, Mel Sembler, and casino developers Phil Ruffin and Steve Wynn.

The group is responsible for planning and paying for the activities surrounding Trump's inauguration.

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5:45 p.m.

Sen. Ted Cruz is meeting with President-elect Donald Trump in New York.

Cruz and Trump have had a tortured relationship since the Republican presidential primary. Cruz derided Trump during the primary as a "pathological liar" and "serial philanderer" but came around in September and endorsed him. But even then the senator from Texas said the decision to back Trump was "agonizing."

Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said in a statement Tuesday that Cruz was "pleased" to have the chance to meet with Trump and he looked forward to assisting the Trump administration.

Trump angered Cruz in the primaries by insulting his wife and suggesting, without evidence, that his Cuban-born father could have been linked to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

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4:45 p.m.

Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid says President-elect Donald Trump should rescind Stephen Bannon's appointment as a top White House aide.

Reid says that "as long as a champion of racial division is a step away from the Oval Office, it would be impossible to take Trump's efforts to heal the nation seriously."

Reid made the comment in a Senate floor speech. He joins a growing chorus of Democrats calling on Trump to get rid of Bannon, whose Breitbart website aligns with white nationalist ideologies.

Reid said Trump's election had "sparked a wave of hate crimes." Nonetheless he said Democrats "want to work with Mr. Trump when we can."

Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn then stood and remarked that "we used to call people like that sore losers."

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4:30 p.m.

For nearly the entire week since he became president-elect, Donald Trump has been holed up in his gilded New York skyscraper. A steady stream of visitors has come to him, flooding through metal detectors and getting whisked up to Trump's offices and penthouse residence.

It's good preparation for the insular, security-shrouded bubble that awaits Trump at the White House.

Unlike President Barack Obama, who flew commercial and lived in a dingy Washington apartment within about a year of taking office, Trump has already spent decades living an unusually cloistered life. While Obama often bemoans his inability to take a walk or enjoy a meal at a sidewalk cafe, Trump doesn't appear to have much of an affinity for either.

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3:15 p.m.

A leading Republican voice on national security matters says any attempt by the incoming Trump administration to reset relations with Russia would be "unacceptable."

In a statement Tuesday, Sen. John McCain of Arizona says the price of starting anew with Moscow would be U.S. complicity in the "butchery of the Syrian people" being carried out by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Bashar Assad.

President-elect Donald Trump and Putin spoke by telephone Monday about future efforts to improve U.S.-Russian ties. Trump said in a statement that he is looking forward to having a "strong and enduring relationship with Russia."

McCain, the Armed Services Committee chairman, dismissed Putin as a former KGB agent who has plunged his country into tyranny and murdered his political rivals and threatened U.S. allies.

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2:30 p.m.

Former President George W. Bush says "anger shouldn't drive policy" and is defending encouraging global trade through pacts like the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Bush spoke Tuesday at a Dallas institute named for him. He said he'd refrain from criticizing President-elect Donald Trump and other White House successors.

But he suggested that anger and frustration helped decide last week's presidential election and shouldn't shape future policy.

Instead, he said policy should be influenced by "what's best for the people who are angry."

Bush defended the trade agreement, which Trump has sharply criticized. Bush said expanded trade helped close wage gaps while benefiting Mexico, Canada and the U.S.

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2:20 p.m.

French President Francois Hollande is suggesting he doesn't believe that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump would throw out the Iran nuclear accord.

Trump has called the accord the world's "worst deal." Hollande said in an interview with three French news outlets that Europe must start assuring its own security.

The French president said "Europe doesn't do enough," and that he's told his colleagues across the continent that they "must take charge" of Europe's defense.

Hollande asked rhetorically whether "the United States can, with Donald Trump, throw this accord into question? I don't think so."

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2:06 p.m.

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson will not be taking a position in President-elect Donald Trump's administration.

Carson business manager Armstrong Williams tells The Associated Press that Carson has opted out of being considered for any cabinet or other administration positions, including leading the Department of Health & Human Services and the Department of education.

Carson had never been officially offered a role in the Trump administration, but Williams says the president-elect had made clear he wanted his former rival-turned-adviser in some role.

But he says Carson "always knew that he could be more effective with the president-elect outside the administration."

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1:40 p.m.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says he intends to remain as governor but would consider a Trump administration post if offered.

Christie spoke Tuesday on WPG talk radio from the Republican Governors Association conference in Florida. Christie says he has "every intention" of staying on as governor until 2018 when his term ends.

Christie chaired President-elect Donald Trump's transition team until he was made vice chairman last week.

He says he told Trump that if he is asked to serve he would consider a position in the administration.

Christie was among the earliest backers of Trump, lending his vocal support soon after the businessman's New Hampshire primary victory.

Trump's victory comes after the nearly six-week George Washington Bridge lane-closure trial in which two of Christie's former allies were convicted.

The motorcade of President-elect Donald Trump and security personnel are seen outside 21 Club Restaurant, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Vice President-elect Mike Pence waves to the media as he leaves Trump Tower with his wife Karen, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, pauses to talk with media as he leaves Trump Tower, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

FILE - In this Saturday, Nov. 5, 2016, file photo, Stephen Bannon, campaign CEO for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, looks on as Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Denver. Following the installation of Breitbart's chief executive, Bannon, to a top job in President-elect Trump's administration, the news organization in its infancy when Barack Obama took office has big expansion plans and the goal of being the best source of news on the new administration. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaks with reporters in the Senate Press Gallery on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Graham has been one of Donald Trump's strongest critics, once comparing the choice between Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the Republican primary as the difference between being poisoned and shot. But now that Trumps president-elect, Graham is looking for common ground. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

Vice President-elect Mike Pence carries a briefing binder as he arrives at Trump Tower, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Outgoing Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nev., speaks with reporters along with Nevada's newly elected Congressional Democrats on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Nov. 14, 2016. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
Mayor in West Virginia resigns after racist Obama post

CLAY, W.Va. (AP)  A West Virginia mayor resigned Tuesday following a backlash after she posted a response to a racist comment about first lady Michelle Obama on Facebook.

The Clay Town Council accepted Mayor Beverly Whaling's resignation in a meeting late Tuesday afternoon and said it would act quickly to name a replacement for the remaining three years of her term.

The resignation came after another woman whose racist post Whaling responded to was placed on leave as director of the Clay County Development Corp.

FILE - In this Friday, Oct. 21, 2016, file photo, first lady Michelle Obama speaks to student participants during a Grammy Museum musical workshops hosted by the first lady in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Clay Town, W.Va. Mayor Beverly Whaling resigned her post Tuesday, Nov. 15, following a backlash after she posted a response to a racist comment about the first lady on Facebook. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

Council member Jason Hubbard issued a brief statement condemning the "horrible and indecent" post and said racism and intolerance "isn't what this community is about." He apologized on behalf of the town to Michelle Obama and anyone who was offended.

"This community is a helpful, hopeful, empathetic and God-loving community," Hubbard said. "Please don't judge the entire community for one or two individual acts."

Clay County Development director Pamela Ramsey Taylor made the post following Republican Donald Trump's election as president, saying of incoming first lady Melania Trump: "It will be refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady in the White House. I'm tired of seeing a Ape in heels."

Whaling responded: "Just made my day Pam."

Town council member Joyce Gibson said that after news of the post circled the globe, the small office's voicemail system quickly filled to capacity with irate callers.

An online campaign calling for Taylor and Whaling to resign drew tens of thousands responses.

Gibson wants anyone who judges the town to "come see us. Spend a day with us."

The nonpartisan town council has five members, plus the town recorder and mayor. Whaling's seat was empty during the meeting in a small office attended by a few local residents along with several journalists and some people from outside the area who wanted to see justice served.

Annie Thacker of Barrackville drove 117 miles to the meeting.

"I saw what was happening in small town West Virginia," she said. "I'm from small town West Virginia. I wanted to see hate put down in West Virginia, especially after this election cycle. Everyone's watching."

Lish Greiner of Belpre, Ohio, said she had volunteered during flood cleanup in West Virginia over the summer and returned for the town council meeting because "I will not tolerate hate in my home and in my area."

Whaling earlier issued a written apology to news media outlets saying her comment wasn't intended to be racist.

"I was referring to my day being made for change in the White House! I am truly sorry for any hard feeling this may have caused! Those who know me know that I'm not in any way racist!"

Taylor, who told WCHS-TV on Monday night that she was put on leave, did not return a call seeking comment.

The nonprofit Clay County Development Corp. provides services to elderly and low-income residents in Clay County. It is funded through state and federal grants and local fees. It is not affiliated with the town of Clay, which is about 50 miles east of Charleston.

The uproar occurred as the town of about 500 residents is still trying to recover from severe flooding in late June along the nearby Elk River. Clay County also has been hit by hundreds of layoffs in the coal industry this decade.

Gibson was asked what was worse, the flood or the backlash from the Facebook post.

"I'll have to think about that," she said. "This (backlash) will go away."

Last week in Kentucky, Republican Dan Johnson won state House of Representatives seat from Bullitt Count despite a series of posts he put on Facebook depicting President Barack Obama and his wife as monkeys.

And last month in West York, Pennsylvania, the town council accepted the resignation of Republican Mayor Charles Wasko after an uproar over racist posts on his Facebook page, including two depicting apes with captions referring to Barack Obama and his family.

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Barn fire at Ohio poultry operation kills 22,000 chickens

ASHLAND, Ohio (AP)  More than 22,000 chickens are dead after a fire at a barn in north-central Ohio.

The smoke was visible for miles as the fire burned Monday at a Mennonite poultry operation in Nova Township, north of Ashland. It took hours for crews from several fire departments to fully extinguish the fire.

Owner Matthew Van Pelt says he was cutting the grass when he noticed a fan blowing out smoke from the barn. The 500-foot-long facility was a total loss. All the chickens inside died, and thousands of eggs were destroyed.
The Latest: Judge: Prosecution may present final witness

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP)  The Latest on the trial of a former South Carolina police officer charged with murder in the shooting death of an unarmed black motorist (all times local):

4:50 p.m.

The judge in the murder trial of a former South Carolina patrolman charged in the shooting death of a black motorist has ruled that the prosecution may present its final witness.

Michael Slager, center, sits with his attorneys during his trial in Charleston County Court in Charleston, S.C., Monday, Nov. 14, 2016. Slager, a white police officer is accused in the shooting death of an unarmed black motorist. (Grace Beahm/Post and Courier via AP, Pool)

The prosecution wants crime scene investigator Bill Williams of Georgetown to take the stand. He has created an animation of the shooting of Walter Scott by Michael Slager using cellphone video, dashcam video and police radio calls. Slager, who is white, is charged in the April 2015 shooting death of Scott as he fled a traffic stop.

Williams is largely self-taught and the defense argued he lacked the formal training to be allowed to testify as an expert. The jury was out of the courtroom for more than four hours Tuesday as attorneys argued and Williams showed the judge his presentation.

Finally, Circuit Judge Clifton Newman ruled the witness has expertise in both crime scene recreation and forensic video. Court has adjourned and the jury will see the animation on Wednesday.

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2:50 p.m.

Attorneys at the trial of a former South Carolina patrolman charged with murder in the death of a black motorist are sparring over whether the prosecution's last witness should be allowed to testify.

Slager, who is white, is the former North Charleston patrolman charged in the shooting death of 50-year-old Walter Scott.

Cellphone video recorded by a bystander shows Scott being shot in the back from yards away as he fled after an April 2015 traffic stop. The defense contends the two men wrestled and Scott got hold of Slager's stun gun before the shooting.

With the jury out of the courtroom for more than two hours Tuesday, attorneys have been arguing over whether a crime scene investigator should be allowed to testify.

The investigator, Bill Williams of Georgetown, has created an animation of the shooting using cellphone video, dashcam video and police radio calls. The defense contends that Williams, who is largely self-taught, doesn't have the qualifications to testify as an expert.

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11 a.m.

The jury in the murder trial of a white former South Carolina patrolman who shot an unarmed black motorist is seeing a bystander's cellphone video of the shooting frame by frame.

Anthony Imel is undergoing cross-examination in the trial of Michael Slager, the former North Charleston patrolman charged with murder in the April 2015 shooting death of Walter Scott as Scott fled from a traffic stop.

Imel also testified Monday, and the prosecution made available photo enlargements from the video portraying key moments of the struggle between the two men. On Tuesday, defense attorney Andy Savage asked Imel why photos of other important moments were not produced.

Savage said he wants the jury to see the cellphone video frame-by-frame. Imel said the video he enhanced has 50,000 single frames.

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8:35 a.m.

An interfaith advocacy group is calling for a civil rights investigation of the North Charleston Police Department in South Carolina.

The Post and Courier of Charleston reports (http://bit.ly/2frMR1U) the Charleston Area Justice Ministry announced it had sent a letter to the Department of Justice asking for an investigation of the department's "patterns or practices" of racial discrimination.

Their announcement comes as former North Charleston police officer Michael Slager is on trial for murder in the shooting of Walter Scott, a black man who was shot and killed as he ran from a traffic stop.

Members of about 30 congregations also called for the city of Charleston to hire an external, independent, police auditing firm to audit the Charleston Police Department for "bias-based policing."

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4:30 a.m.

The prosecution is wrapping up its case in the murder trial of Michael Slager, the white former South Carolina patrolman charged in the shooting death of an unarmed black motorist.

Prosecutor Scarlett Wilson says the state plans to rest Tuesday.

The trial in Charleston is in its third week and prosecutors have called 30 witnesses to try to lay out a case that the shooting of 50-year-old Michael Scott as he ran from a traffic stop was murder.

The defense contends the two men wrestled and Scott got ahold of Slager's stun gun before the shooting.

Cellphone video of the shooting recorded by a bystander shows Scott being shot in the back from yards away as he fled the April 2015 traffic stop.

Levi Miles, left, a private investigator, gestures towards Assistant Solicitor Chad Simpson, to demonstrate how Michael Slager said Walter Scott came at him with a taser, in the trial of former North Charleston Police officer Michael Slager at Charleston County court in Charleston, SC., Monday, Nov. 14, 2016. (Grace Beahm/Post and Courier via AP, Pool)

Levi Miles, left, a private investigator, gestures towards Assistant Solicitor Chad Simpson, to demonstrate how Michael Slager said Walter Scott came at him with a taser, in the trial of former North Charleston Police officer Michael Slager at Charleston County court in Charleston, SC., Monday, Nov. 14, 2016. (Grace Beahm/Post and Courier via AP, Pool)

Angela Peterson, a SLED agent in charge of the investigation, speaks during the Michael Slager trial at the Charleston County court in Charleston, S.C., Monday, Nov. 14, 2016. Slager, a white police officer is accused in the shooting death of an unarmed black motorist. (Grace Beahm/Post and Courier via AP, Pool)
Jamaica policeman suspended from duty fatally shot

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP)  A police officer in Jamaica on suspension from duty has been shot to death.

Authorities said Tuesday that 28-year-old Andre Alder was killed in Negril by two men on a motorcycle. Police said Alder was working as a security guard when he was shot Monday night.

Alder was suspended earlier this year after he was charged with corruption.
US Sen. Corker, professor argue about Trump on hike

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP)  A professor says he had a testy exchange about Donald Trump with U.S. Sen. Bob Corker during a weekend hike.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports (http://bit.ly/2fOuAdt) David George Haskell, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his 2012 book "The Forest Unseen," says he challenged Corker on his support for Trump. He says Corker responded by saying, "If you don't like it, leave."

Haskell, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Britain, says Corker challenged him to explain what he has "ever done to contribute to the state."

Corker spokeswoman Micah Johnson says Haskell "aggressively approached" the senator and shouted at him about the election outcome. She says Corker "calmly suggested" that the professor did not have to live in Tennessee if he did not wish to do so.

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Guam prepares events to welcome possible next archbishop

HAGATNAM, Guam (AP)  Guam is preparing a series of events in late November to welcome the man who could become its next archbishop.

Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes will arrive from Detroit on Nov. 28 and be welcomed by Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai and other clergy members, the Archdiocese of Agana told The Pacific Daily News (http://bit.ly/2fcKRrH ).

Hon was sent to Guam in June to temporarily replace current Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron on an administrative basis.

Apuron, 71, has been Guam's highest Catholic leader for 30 years but faces a trial in Rome over multiple allegations of sex abuse of altar boys in the 1970s.

Byrnes, 58, will have the right to succeed Apuron if he resigns, retires or is removed. Byrnes was auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Detroit before Pope Francis appointed him to the Guam post.

Byrnes will spend his first day on the island with Hon and the clergy in a day of recollection and private Mass at the Saint Therese Chapel at the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica in Hagatna. The archdiocese said he will also meet with local religious men's and women's groups.

Island residents will have the opportunity to see and hear Byrnes during the Nov. 30 evening Mass at the cathedral-basilica.
Kerry: Yemen rebels agree to a cease-fire, starting Thursday

SANAA, Yemen (AP)  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday that Yemen's Shiite rebels have agreed to a cease-fire for their war-torn country, starting later this week  on condition their adversaries also agree to it.

However, Kerry's announcement drew an immediate backlash from the internationally-recognized Yemeni government, which dismissed the deal as "unilateral."

Kerry told reporters that the rebels, known as Houthis, have told him they agree to abide by a cessation of hostilities, starting on Thursday, providing the government side does the same, and that they are also willing to participate in a unity government, to be formed by the end of the year.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, meets with the the Omani Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs, Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, center, in Muscat, Oman, Monday, Nov. 14, 2016. (Mark Ralston via AFP, Pool)

"There is a humanitarian disaster in Yemen - (not) just serious security and economic and political and humanitarian challenges," the top American diplomat said after leaving Oman  an Arab country that has been a traditional Mideast go-between  where he held talks with a Houthi delegation

"All the parties we talk to agree that there's no military solution," Kerry said. "So if that's the fact, you've got to get into: What is the political solution?"

President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi's government promptly rejected the cease-fire initiative. Hadi's government is supported by a Saudi-led coalition that has been waging an air campaign in Yemen to dislodge the Houthis after they seized the capital, Sanaa, in 2014.

Foreign Minister Abdel-Malek al-Mekhalfi said the deal has nothing to do with his government.

"The government doesn't know and is not concerned with what Kerry announced; this shows a desire to foil peace efforts by trying to reach a deal with Houthis away from the government," al-Mekhalfi wrote on his Twitter account.

Two top Hadi aides described Kerry's remarks as "unilateral deal." The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Hadi's government has opposed a road map to peace, which Kerry said won support of Houthis. The document, which was drafted last month by the U.N. envoy to Yemen, sidelines Hadi by stipulating the formation of a new unity government. It also transfers the president's powers to a vice president and a new prime minister.

The document says the formation of the unity government would come hand-in-hand with preparations for the Houthis to withdraw from cities they seized and hand over their weapons to a third party.

Hadi's government described the road map as a reward to the rebels though Kerry said it has the support of the Saudi-led coalition.

Yemen has been caught in a deadly conflict since 2014 when the Houthis descended from their northern enclave and seized Saana, forcing Hadi's government to flee and seek military intervention from the Saudi neighbors and Arab Gulf states.

The relentless airstrikes, along with the fighting on the ground, have killed over 4,000 civilians and pushed Yemen, the Arab world's poorest nation, to the brink of famine.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, is greeted by the Omani Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs, Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, in Muscat, Oman, Monday, Nov. 14, 2016. (Mark Ralston via AFP, Pool)
Player says she was filmed in shower at Atletico's grounds

MADRID (AP)  Atletico Madrid says it is helping police investigate a complaint made by a player from a second-division women's team who said someone tried to film her in the shower at the club's grounds on Sunday.

The unidentified player for Torrelodones went to police after noticing that someone tried to sneak a cell phone through a window while she took a shower after playing against Atletico at the team's Ciudad Deportiva complex just outside Madrid.

Atletico Madrid said Tuesday it is doing everything possible to cooperate with authorities investigating what would be a "very serious" occurrence.

The club said it also opened an internal investigation and noted that its employees made themselves available to help the player the moment she raised awareness of the occurrence.

Torrelodones released a statement supporting the player and condemning the incident, saying that it is prepared to take all necessary actions "to defend the dignity of our player" if any images become public.
The sister of a 23-year-old man who dissolved in a scalding pool in Yellowstone National Park has revealed she filmed the horrific accident with her cell phone as the pair searched for a place to soak.

Colin Scott, of Portand, Oregon, had been looking for a place to hot pot  a term for soaking in the parks natural thermal features  this summer.

His sister Sable Scott told investigators that she and her brother left the boardwalk near Pork Chop Geyser on June 7, a report on the incident says.

While she filmed video with her phone, her brother reached down to check the water temperature but accidentally slipped and fell into the scalding pool, she said.

Scroll down for video

Colin Scott (above) had been looking for a place to hot pot' when he accidentally slipped and fell into a scalding pool

Search and rescue rangers spotted his body in the pool on the day of the accident, but a lightning storm prevented their rescue efforts.

By the following day, workers were unable to find any remains.

The National Park Services final report into the accident was obtained by KULR-TV by a Freedom of Information Act request.

Deputy Chief Ranger Lorant Veress called the area where the accident happened - the Norris Geyser basin  very dangerous with boiling acidic waters.

He said that there is a closure in place to prevent people from soaking in the pools for their own safety as well as to protect the parks fragile resources.

Deputy Chief Ranger Lorant Veress called the area where the accident happened - the Norris Geyser basin  very dangerous with boiling acidic waters. Above, rangers near the scene after the horrific accident

Scott is pictured (center) with family at his recent graduation. The 23-year-old had planned to start a doctorate program in psychology

But the official incident report reveals that Colin and Sable Scott left the boardwalk and walked several hundred feet up a hill.

They were specifically moving in that area for a place that they could potentially get into and soak. I think they call it Hot Potting, Veress said.

The report says Sable Scott recorded their journey to the spring and as the accident happened.

But officials are not releasing the video or describing its contents.

Other parts of the reports have been redacted under the Privacy Act, which Veress said was done out of consideration for the Scott family.

Scott's sister filmed as he fell into the hot pool in the Norris Geyser basin (file photo) at Yellowstone National Park

The accident occurred in the hottest, oldest and most volatile area of Yellowstone, where boiling water flows just beneath a think rock crust.

Previous geological surveys found the water under the surface to measure more than 400 degrees.

The Norris Geyser basin is a popular attraction in the nation's first national park, which received a record 4.1 million visitors last year.

Water temperatures there can reach 199 degrees Fahrenheit - the boiling point for water at the park's high elevation.

At least 22 people are known to have died from hot spring-related injuries in and around Yellowstone since 1890, park officials said.
Colombia's president travels to US for prostate cancer exam

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP)  Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said Tuesday that he is making a brief trip to the U.S. for medical exams to guard against a possible return of prostate cancer.

Santos, who won this year's Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end Colombia's five-decade-old civil conflict, said he and his family were surprised when doctors detected an increase in prostate-specific antigen during a routine checkup.

He said he would undergo tests at the Johns Hopkins Institute in Baltimore on Thursday and return home the next day.

The president had surgery in 2012 to remove a tumor in his prostate.
Tear gas as anti-Obama protesters clash with Greek police

ATHENS, Greece (AP)  Greek riot police used tear gas and stun grenades Tuesday in Athens to disperse about 3,000 left-wing marchers protesting a visit by President Barack Obama after they tried to enter an area off-limits to demonstrators.

Police made at least four arrests and said one woman was slightly injured in the clashes, which took place far from Obama's meetings.

The violence broke out as youths in motorcycle helmets and gas masks, armed with wooden clubs and petrol bombs, tried to break a police cordon in front of a barrier formed by police buses. Rioters pulled back to the Athens Polytechnic university complex, site of a 1973 student uprising, and engaged in running street fights with police, throwing dozens of petrol bombs.

Police officers walk past flames from fire bombs thrown by demonstrators during a protest against the visit of US President Barack Obama in Athens, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Greek riot police used tear gas and stun grenades in central Athens Tuesday to disperse about 3,000 left-wing marchers protesting a visit by President Barack Obama, after they tried to enter an area declared off-limits to demonstrators. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis)

Left-wing and anarchist groups who organized the protest had planned to reach the U.S. embassy in Athens. But authorities banned demonstrations in a large swath of the city to ensure that protesters came nowhere near Obama, who was attending a dinner at the residence of Greek President Procopis Pavlopoulos.

About 5,000 Communist party supporters took part in a separate, peaceful protest in central Athens and 1,000 people protested in Greece's second-largest city, Thessaloniki.

Communist party leader Dimitris Koutsoumbas described Obama's visit as a provocation.

"(The U.S.) is a state that causes military coups, interventions and imperialist wars from Ukraine to the eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East, North Africa, Asia and Latin America," he told supporters.

Tuesday's violence placed Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' left-wing Syriza party in an uncomfortable position: Formerly a key participant in anti-American and anti-austerity protests, it is now using the same crowd control measures it used to strongly deplore.

There's a strong anti-American tradition among Greek left-wingers, who still resent U.S. support for Greece's 1967-74 military dictatorship.

Obama's visit comes just two days before the country's main annual anti-American demonstrations, which commemorate the bloody suppression, by military authorities, of the Polytechnic pro-democracy uprising.

The small Popular Unity party, which took part in the main protest Tuesday, described Obama's visit as "a provocation" due to that timing. Party leader Panayiotis Lafazanis also blamed the U.S. for Greece's economic woes.

The debt-crippled country depends on international bailout loans, and has been forced by creditors to implement deep income cuts, tax hikes, welfare cuts and economic reforms.

"American imperialism has not changed," Lafazanis said Tuesday. "The U.S. presidents and administrations have played  and still play  a leading part in the bailout-linked plundering of our country ... and their interventions are drowning our part of the world in blood and creating refugee waves."

The last visit to Greece by a U.S. president was by Bill Clinton in 1999, which was also marred by clashes between anarchists and riot police.

Demonstrators aim a laser beam towards a riot police officer during a protest against the visit of US President Barack Obama in Athens, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Greek riot police used tear gas and stun grenades in central Athens Tuesday to disperse about 3,000 left-wing marchers protesting a visit by President Barack Obama, after they tried to enter an area declared off-limits to demonstrators. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis)

Police officers walk past flames from a fire bomb thrown by demonstrators during a protest against the visit of US President Barack Obama in Athens, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Greek riot police used tear gas and stun grenades in central Athens Tuesday to disperse about 3,000 left-wing marchers protesting a visit by President Barack Obama, after they tried to enter an area declared off-limits to demonstrators. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis)

Police officers walks past flames from a fire bomb thrown by demonstrators during a protest against the visit of US President Barack Obama in Athens, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Greek riot police used tear gas and stun grenades in central Athens Tuesday to disperse about 3,000 left-wing marchers protesting a visit by President Barack Obama, after they tried to enter an area declared off-limits to demonstrators. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis)

Riot police officers take their positions during clashes with demonstrators protesting against the visit of US President Barack Obama in Athens, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Greek riot police used tear gas and stun grenades in central Athens Tuesday to disperse about 3,000 left-wing marchers after they tried to enter an area declared off-limits to demonstrators. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Police and demonstrators clash during a protest against the visit of US President Barack Obama in Athens, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Greek police say about 3,000 anarchists, leftwing group supporters and students are marching through central Athens, to protest President Barack Obama's visit. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis)

Police and demonstrators clash during a protest against the visit of US President Barack Obama in Athens, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Greek police say about 3,000 anarchists, leftwing group supporters and students are marching through central Athens, to protest President Barack Obama's visit. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis)

Police and demonstrators clash during a protest against the visit of US President Barack Obama in Athens, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Greek police say about 3,000 anarchists, leftwing group supporters and students are marching through central Athens, to protest President Barack Obama's visit. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis)

Police officers look at flames from a fire bomb thrown by demonstrators during a protest against the visit of US President Barack Obama in Athens, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Greek riot police used tear gas and stun grenades in central Athens Tuesday to disperse about 3,000 left-wing marchers protesting a visit by President Barack Obama, after they tried to enter an area declared off-limits to demonstrators. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Police officers look at flames from a fire bomb thrown by demonstrators during a protest against the visit of US President Barack Obama in Athens, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Obama is in Athens for talks with the country's political leadership and is scheduled to deliver a speech on Wednesday before heading to Berlin later the same day as part of his last major trip abroad. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Police and demonstrators clash during a protest against the visit of US President Barack Obama in Athens, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Greek police say about 3,000 anarchists, leftwing group supporters and students are marching through central Athens, to protest President Barack Obama's visit. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis)

Demonstrators hold their ranks during a protest against the visit of US President Barack Obama in Athens, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Greek riot police used tear gas and stun grenades in central Athens Tuesday to disperse about 3,000 left-wing marchers after they tried to enter an area declared off-limits to demonstrators. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Demonstrators stand during a protest against the visit of US President Barack Obama in Athens, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Greek riot police used tear gas and stun grenades in central Athens Tuesday to disperse about 3,000 left-wing marchers after they tried to enter an area declared off-limits to demonstrators. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

A protester jumps to avoid tear gas as another one prepares to throw a firebomb during a protest against the visit of US President Barack Obama in Athens, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Greek police say about 3,000 anarchists, leftwing group supporters and students marched through central Athens, to protest President Barack Obama's visit. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Pipeline company seeks court permission to proceed with plan

CANNON BALL, N.D. (AP)  The company building a $3.8 billion oil pipeline sought a federal judge's permission Tuesday to circumvent President Barack Obama's administration and move ahead with a disputed section of the project in North Dakota, as opponents held protests across the country urging it to be rejected.

Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners and a subsidiary asked the court to let them lay pipe under a Missouri River reservoir, a plan the Standing Rock Sioux says threatens its drinking water and cultural sites. The Army Corps of Engineers said Monday it needs more time to study the impact of the plan.

While President-elect Donald Trump, a pipeline supporter, likely would greenlight the project when he takes office in January, the company is trying to win federal approval  or a court order  to allow it to go forward now. The delay has already cost nearly $100 million, the company said in court documents, "and further delay in the consideration of this case would add millions of dollars more each month in costs which cannot be recovered."

Protesters demonstrate in solidarity with members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in North Dakota over the construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

In a statement Tuesday, the company blamed the Obama administration for "political interference" in the pipeline review process.

The Army Corps referred a request for comment to the Justice Department, which declined comment.

Protests were being held Tuesday across the country, from California to Vermont. Activists called for demonstrations at Army Corps of Engineers offices and at banks financing the pipeline construction.

More than two dozen people were arrested near Mandan, North Dakota, after a group of about 400 protesters put a truck and tree branches on BNSF Railway tracks near a pipeline work staging area and tried to set it on fire, Morton County sheriff's spokesman Rob Keller said.

"They had a rope soaked with kerosene," he said. "A (Highway Patrol) trooper with an extinguisher doused it so it wouldn't light."

Trains were delayed three hours, railroad spokeswoman Amy McBeth said. Officers in riot gear used pepper spray and in one instance a stun gun against protesters who refused to leave.

Mandan is about 50 miles north of a camp where hundreds of protesters have gathered in recent months to oppose the pipeline. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental attorney and president of the New York-based Waterkeeper Alliance, which seeks to protect watersheds worldwide, visited the camp Tuesday, speaking out against the arrests of protesters and a project he says will benefit billionaires and not the American people.

"What they are doing here is a crime, an environmental crime, and there are real victims," he said.

In Columbus, Ohio, police reported an activist blocked traffic by handcuffing himself under a vehicle at a downtown intersection. In Montpelier, Vermont, more than 100 people gathered outside a bank, chanting, singing songs and holding signs saying "Water is Life" and "Standing With Standing Rock."

"It may seem hopeless, like David against Goliath, but we believe that if we're persistent and we recruit, that this movement will grow and hopefully these kinds of projects will stop," said protester Lee Shen of Thetford Center, Vermont.

The Corps on Monday called for more study and input from the Standing Rock Sioux before it decides whether to allow the pipeline to cross under Lake Oahe. The 1,200-mile pipeline that's to carry North Dakota oil through South Dakota and Iowa to a shipping point in Illinois is largely complete except for that stretch, which will skirt the tribe's reservation.

Gov. Jack Dalrymple said Tuesday that an additional delay "does nothing but prolong and intensify the public safety issues imposed on Morton County and the state of North Dakota since the beginning of August," when protests against the pipeline broke out. In his statement, Dalrymple said a decision on the project easement "is long overdue" and that the pipeline would be safe.

The Corps in July granted Energy Transfer Partners the permits needed for the project, but it said in September that further analysis was warranted, given the tribe's concerns. Its announcement Monday came amid speculation that federal officials were on the brink of approving the crossing. ETP last week began preparing equipment to bore under the river.

ETP disputes that the pipeline would endanger the tribe, and CEO Kelcy Warren noted earlier that Army Assistant Secretary Jo-Ellen Darcy had informed company officials and Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault that the Corps' previous permit decisions "comported with legal requirements." ETP contends that the Corps has no legal justification for the delay.

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Associated Press writer Dave Kolpack contributed to this story from Fargo, North Dakota. Associated Press writer Dave Gram contributed from Montpelier, Vermont.

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This story has been corrected to reflect updated arrest totals provided by the sheriff's department.

Dakota Pipeline protesters stand arm-in-arm at the intersection of Rosser Avenue and Fourth Street in downtown Bismarck, N.D., after marching from the state Capitol to the William L. Guy Federal Building, Monday, Nov. 14, 2016. (Mike McCleary/The Bismarck Tribune via AP)

Dakota Pipeline protesters stand arm-in-arm in front of the state Capitol in Bismarck, N.D., before marching downtown to the William L. Guy Federal Building, Monday, Nov. 14, 2016. (Mike McCleary/The Bismarck Tribune via AP)

Protesters demonstrate in solidarity with members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in North Dakota over the construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Protesters demonstrate in solidarity with members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in North Dakota over the construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Dakota Pipeline protesters stand arm-in-arm at the intersection of Rosser Avenue and Fourth Street in downtown Bismarck, N.D., after marching from the state Capitol to the William L. Guy Federal Building, Monday, Nov. 14, 2016. (Mike McCleary/The Bismarck Tribune via AP)

A pair of Dakota Pipeline protesters stand in front of a line law enforcement personnel at the intersection of Rosser Avenue and Fourth Street in downtown Bismarck, N.D., as protesters marched from the state Capitol to the William L. Guy Federal Building, Monday, Nov. 14, 2016. (Mike McCleary/The Bismarck Tribune via AP)

Opponents of the Dakota Access oil pipeline gather in the main protest camp Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, near Cannon Ball, N.D. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is an environmental attorney and president of the New York-based Waterkeeper Alliance, which seeks to protect watersheds worldwide, was scheduled to visit the camp Tuesday. (AP Photo/James MacPherson)

Mike Olson, of Milwaukee, joins protesters as they voice their concerns as part of National Day of Solidarity with Standing Rock and against the Dakota Access Pipe Line (DAPL), outside the Wells Fargo Bank, in Milwaukee, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. The group has asked that the bank pull its funding out of the DAPL construction. The company building the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline is urging a federal court to speed up approval of its plan to lay pipe under a Missouri River reservoir, arguing Tuesday that further delays could add millions of dollars each month to the cost. (Rick Wood/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via AP)

Protesters voice their concerns as part of National Day of Solidarity with Standing Rock and against the Dakota Access Pipe Line (DAPL), outside the Wells Fargo Bank, in Milwaukee, Tuesday, Nov.15, 2016. The group has asked that the bank pull its funding out of the DAPL construction. The company building the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline is urging a federal court to speed up approval of its plan to lay pipe under a Missouri River reservoir, arguing Tuesday that further delays could add millions of dollars each month to the cost. (Rick Wood/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via AP)

Protesters voice their concerns as part of National Day of Solidarity with Standing Rock and against the Dakota Access Pipe Line (DAPL), outside the Wells Fargo Bank, in Milwaukee, Tuesday, Nov.15, 2016. The group has asked that the bank pull its funding out of the DAPL construction. The company building the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline is urging a federal court to speed up approval of its plan to lay pipe under a Missouri River reservoir, arguing Tuesday that further delays could add millions of dollars each month to the cost. (Rick Wood/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via AP)

Protesters voice their concerns as part of National Day of Solidarity with Standing Rock and against the Dakota Access Pipe Line (DAPL), outside the Wells Fargo Bank, in Milwaukee, Tuesday, Nov.15, 2016. The group has asked that the bank pull its funding out of the DAPL construction. The company building the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline is urging a federal court to speed up approval of its plan to lay pipe under a Missouri River reservoir, arguing Tuesday that further delays could add millions of dollars each month to the cost. (Rick Wood/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via AP)

Protesters voice their concerns as part of National Day of Solidarity with Standing Rock and against the Dakota Access Pipe Line (DAPL), outside the Wells Fargo Bank, in Milwaukee, Tuesday, Nov.15, 2016. The group has asked that the bank pull its funding out of the DAPL construction. The company building the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline is urging a federal court to speed up approval of its plan to lay pipe under a Missouri River reservoir, arguing Tuesday that further delays could add millions of dollars each month to the cost. (Rick Wood/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via AP)

Protesters demonstrate in solidarity with members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in North Dakota over the construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Protesters demonstrate in solidarity with members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in North Dakota over the construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

A pair of Dakota Pipeline protesters stand in front of a line law enforcement personnel at the intersection of Rosser Avenue and Fourth Street in downtown Bismarck, N.D., as protesters marched from the state Capitol to the William L. Guy Federal Building, Monday, Nov. 14, 2016. (Mike McCleary/The Bismarck Tribune via AP)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., center, an environmental attorney and president of the New York-based Waterkeeper Alliance, speaks with opponents of the Dakota Access oil pipeline at the main protest camp Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016 near Cannon Ball, North Dakota. (AP Photo/James MacPherson)

Protesters demonstrate in front of the Army Corps of Engineers office Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, in downtown St. Paul, Minn., in solidarity with opponents of the Dakota Access oil pipeline. (Peter Cox/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
Lawyer Paul Hetznecker hopes to learn if agencies spied on protesters

The FBI, CIA and National Security Agency have 60 days to comply

A federal judge has ordered the FBI and other federal agencies to turn over any potential evidence they spied on Occupy Philadelphia protesters.

The FBI, CIA and National Security Agency have 60 days to comply with the order from Senior U.S. District Judge Berle M. Schiller.

Paul Hetznecker, a civil rights lawyer in Philadelphia, said press investigations have shown that federal intelligence agencies have infiltrated Muslim groups, civil rights groups and other lawful organizations since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

He filed a right-to-know lawsuit to learn if the agencies spied on demonstrators who encamped outside Philadelphia City Hall for seven weeks in 2011 to protest income inequality.

A federal judge has ordered the FBI and other federal agencies to turn over any potential evidence they spied on Occupy Philadelphia protesters (above, in October 2011)

'The government should not be investigating its citizens simply because they've raised their voices in dissent, whether it's against government or corporate policy,' Hetznecker said.

The FBI has turned over seven redacted pages in response to his lawsuit.

The judge plans to review the unredacted FBI document and information from the CIA and NSA to determine if the material should be made public.

A right-to-know request filed by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund in 2012 led the FBI to disclose its efforts to monitor Occupy Wall Street activities in New York and around the country, he said.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia, which is defending the government, declined to comment on the pending case.

The Philadelphia Inquirer first reported Tuesday on Schiller's order from late last week.

The Occupy Wall Street movement began in New York and spread to cities across the country.

The Philadelphia group spent seven weeks encamped outside City Hall before city officials evicted them to begin a $50 million renovation of the public plaza.

About 80 people arrested during the eviction and other key demonstrations were later acquitted, Hetznecker said.
The Latest: Clemency decision for inmate expected Wednesday

ATLANTA (AP)  The Latest on the scheduled execution of a Georgia man who killed his ex-girlfriend in August 2001 (all times local):

5:45 p.m.

A spokesman says the state parole board is expected to decide Wednesday whether to grant clemency for a Georgia death row inmate set to be executed this week.

FILE - In this undated photo made available by the Georgia Department of Corrections, shows Steven Frederick Spears. Spears is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2016. He has refused efforts to spare his life. Spears was convicted of murder in the August 2001 death of Sherri Holland at her home in Dahlonega, GA. (Georgia Department of Corrections via AP)

Steven Frederick Spears is scheduled to be put to death Wednesday evening. He was convicted in the August 2001 slaying of his ex-girlfriend Sherri Holland at her home in Dahlonega, about 65 miles northeast of Atlanta.

The State Board of Pardons and Paroles, which is the only authority in Georgia with the power to commute a death sentence, on Tuesday held a clemency hearing for Spears. Spokesman Steve Hayes said Tuesday evening that the board was still reviewing materials and would have a decision Wednesday.

Spears would be the eighth inmate executed in Georgia this year, the most in a calendar year in the state since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

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12:05 p.m.

Lawyers for the state of Georgia say a death row inmate set for execution this week should be asked whether he wants an appeal filed on his behalf.

Steven Frederick Spears is set to be put to death Wednesday. He was convicted in the August 2001 slaying of his ex-girlfriend Sherri Holland at her home in Dahlonega, about 65 miles northeast of Atlanta.

A lawyer on Monday filed a "next friend" petition on behalf of his ex-wife, saying that Spears hasn't pursued post-conviction legal options to fight his execution because he's mentally ill. The petition asks a judge to set a hearing to consider problems during his trial and sentencing.

In a filing Tuesday, the state asked the judge to ask Spears whether he wants the petition to go forward. They also ask that an expert examine him by Wednesday "in an abundance of caution" since his competency has been challenged.

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9:30 a.m.

The state parole board is hearing from representatives for a Georgia inmate scheduled for execution this week.

Steven Frederick Spears is to be put to death Wednesday. He was convicted in the August 2001 slaying of his ex-girlfriend Sherri Holland at her home in Dahlonega, about 65 miles northeast of Atlanta.

Lawyers and other representatives for Spears planned to ask the State Board of Pardons and Paroles to spare his life during a clemency hearing Tuesday. Enotah Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jeff Langley says he plans to argue for Spears' execution.

The hearing is closed to the public and media.

The parole board is the only authority in Georgia with power to commute a death sentence.

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4:40 a.m.

The state parole board plans to hold a clemency hearing for a Georgia inmate scheduled for execution this week.

Steven Frederick Spears is to be put to death Wednesday. He was convicted in the August 2001 slaying of his ex-girlfriend Sherri Holland at her home in Dahlonega, about 65 miles northeast of Atlanta.

Lawyers and other representatives for Spears plan to ask the State Board of Pardons and Paroles to spare his life during a hearing Tuesday. Enotah Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jeff Langley says he plans to argue for Spears' execution.

The parole board is the only authority in Georgia with power to commute a death sentence.
Google has designed a new app that transforms dingy family snaps into vibrant digital photos.

Called Photoscan, this technology uses the phone's camera to capture old photos in four sections and stitches them together, much like a panorama shot.

The app then makes adjustments to restore color in faded photos and to align corners when the photo print is bent.

Scroll down for video

 Slide me  Called Photoscan, this technology uses the phone's camera to capture old photos in four sections and stitches them together, much like a panorama shot. The app then makes adjustments to restore color in faded photos and to align corners when the photo print is bent

HOW DOES IT WORK? The app opens to the camera and prompts users to position a photo within the frame. Four dots should appear over the photo if done correctly. The app will automatically crop, rotate and color correct. Google has also made space for these memories in Google Photos, which is accessed using the search scan. This app is available for both iOS and Android users. Advertisement

Before social media and smartphones, people carried around a camera to capture memories, which then had to be developed into prints.

But with the advancement of technology, these photos have been stuffed away in boxes collecting dust.

Now, Google has designed a new system that doesnt require you to mail away the original copy, buy a scanner or attempt to take a picture of the print with your smartphone to add them to an online album.

PhotoScan gets you great looking digital copies in seconds - it detects edges, straightens the image, rotates it to the correct orientation, and removes glare, Jingyu Cui, Google software engineer, shared in a blog post.

Scanned photos can be saved in one tap to Google Photos to be organized, searchable, shared, and safely backed up at high qualityfor free.

The app opens to the camera and prompts users to position a photo within the frame.

Four dots should appear over the photo if done correctly.

To scan the print, move your phone over each of the dots and hold it until the circle appears to be filled in.

Not only is this much cheaper than a scanner, but as soon as youve uploaded one photo you can move right on to the next.

And the app will automatically crop, rotate and color correct.

Google has also made space for these memories in Google Photos, which is accessed using the search scan.

The app opens to the camera and prompts users to position a photo within the frame. Four dots should appear over the photo if done correctly. To scan the print, move your phone over each of the dots and hold it until the circle appears to be filled in

This app is available for both iOS and Android users.

Photoscan is part of a larger update to Google Photos that shares new editing tools.

Users have access to an auto-enhance feature that Google says can touch up photos with just a tap.

Photoscan is part of a larger update (pictured) to Google Photos that shares new editing tools. Users have access to an auto-enhance feature that Google says can touch up photos with just a tap

Today were rolling out three easy ways to get great looking photos in Google Photos: a new and improved auto enhance, unique new looks, and advanced editing tools, explains Cui.
The following editorial appeared in the Wisconsin State Journal on Wednesday, Nov. 9:

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh, has an unusual opportunity during his second term. He can take tough votes without having to worry about those decisions costing him the next election.

Thats because Johnson, who held his seat in Tuesdays race against former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, pledged during his campaign to make this his last term.

Announcing your departure six years before you actually leave comes with risk. Johnson could lose relevancy if the powers that be  both in and out of government  think his days in office are numbered.

But reducing Americas budget deficit and controlling its debt  two of Johnsons biggest goals  will require limits on spending, which isnt popular. Improving the nations finances also will be easier if the economy improves. Johnsons inclination is to support trade and boost exports to help get that done  despite a skeptical public.

We didnt endorse Johnsons campaign. But we wish him well in trying to ensure future generations of Americans arent buried in debt. His business background will help inform congressional efforts to smooth regulation, boost startups and help businesses expand.

Success will require compromise. Johnson should always remember that. Getting important legislation to the presidents desk will require some Democratic votes.

Johnson should stand on his principles, but he also must show more independence, challenging his party to accomplish more through negotiation.

We hope Johnsons second, and apparently last, term proves to be productive for Wisconsin and the nation.
Texas university apologizes for blackface student posting

ABILENE, Texas (AP)  A Christian university in Texas says some students no longer attend the school after images were posted online of a white student in blackface exclaiming: "I'm a strong black woman."

A student wearing an Abilene Christian University shirt and shorts is seen with her face covered in black. She also applies some oversized red lips. Others are heard laughing in the background.

University President Phil Schubert has apologized for the posting and says the school doesn't tolerate harassment

The university said via Twitter that administrators met Monday with those involved and that they are no longer enrolled. It's not clear how many students were involved or whether they were expelled or left the school on their own.

Abilene is about 150 miles west of Fort Worth.

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Online:
Bounce TV to bring back 'Cosby Show' reruns

ATLANTA (AP)  Reruns of "The Cosby Show" are returning to television, even as the comedian's sexual assault trial looms next year.

Bounce TV announced in social media posts that it will resume airing reruns of the 1980s sitcom on Dec. 19. Atlanta-based Bounce, programmed for black audiences, says it takes the allegations against Cosby "seriously," but says its research shows African-Americans "see a distinction between Bill Cosby, the man, and the iconic TV character Cliff Huxtable."

The announcement has drawn criticism from some, including Judd Apatow. The director and producer tweeted Tuesday, "Presenting a violent rapist to viewers like he is a lovable dad is inappropriate."

FILE - In this March 6, 1992, file photo, Phylicia Rashad, as Clair Huxtable, talks on the telephone while Bill Cosby, as Dr. Cliff Huxtable, center, and other cast members of the family sitcom "The Cosby Show," gather around during taping of the final episode in New York. Bounce TV announced Nov. 11, 2016, that it would resume airing reruns of "The Cosby Show" on Dec. 19. (AP Photo, File)

In July 2015, Bounce pulled reruns of the comedian's CBS sitcom "Cosby." Other networks  including TV Land and Centric  dropped "The Cosby Show" after the sexual assault allegations began in 2014.
Naval Academy gets its goat _ 37th mascot joins the herd

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP)  The U.S. Naval Academy has welcomed a new goat to the mascot herd, Bill XXXVII.

Media outlets report that after the death of Bill XXXV due to illness, the Naval Academy decided Bill XXXVI should have a shipmate next to him on the sidelines to keep morale high.

For 126 years, the academy has used a live goat as its mascot.

This undated photo provided by the U.S. Naval Academy shows Bill XXXVII, the USNA's new goat to the mascot herd. Media outlets report that after the death of Bill XXXV due to illness, the Naval Academy decided Bill XXVI should have a shipmate next to him on the sidelines to keep morale high. (Tyler Caswel/USNA via AP)

Bill XXXVII comes from the same farm as predecessors XXXVI and XXXV. He was flown from Texas to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, and from there was taken to the goat mascot residence.

According to a Naval Academy statement, Bill XXXVII is acclimating to Navy life and "is already full of spunk, energy and vitriol toward Army."
The Latest: Airport resumes operations after shooting

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP)  The Latest on a shooting at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City (all times local):

6:55 p.m.

Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City has resumed operations after being closed for several hours following a fatal shooting.

An Oklahoma City police officer looks through tall grass at a checkpoint at Will Rogers World Airport, Tuesday, Nov. 15 2016, in Oklahoma City. The airport was put on lockdown after a shooting at the main terminal. (Steve Gooch/The Oklahoman via AP)

The airport was shut down by police shortly after a Southwest Airlines employee was shot about 1 p.m. Tuesday. Michael Winchester died after being taken to a hospital following the shooting and a suspect was later found dead in a pickup truck in an airport parking garage.

Police and airport spokeswoman Karen Carney said about 6:30 p.m. that the airport had resumed operations.

Hundreds of people were kept inside the airport terminal for hours after the shooting and Carney said about 25 flights were canceled, most of those by Southwest Airlines, which canceled all flights scheduled to depart Oklahoma City for the remainder of the day.

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6:35 p.m.

Police say a suspect in the fatal shooting of a Southwest Airlines employee at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City has been found dead in a pickup truck in an airport parking garage.

Police Capt. Paco Balderrama says the suspect appears to have died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Fifty-two-year-old Michael Winchester was shot shortly before 1 p.m. Tuesday. Winchester died after being taken to a hospital.

Balderrama said the suspect was found with a gunshot wound to the head and has not been positively identified.

Balderrama said police believe the shooting was a premeditated attack.

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4:15 p.m.

Oklahoma City police have identified the victim of a shooting at Will Rogers World Airport as 52-year-old Southwest Airlines employee Michael Winchester.

Winchester died following the shooting Tuesday afternoon at the airport on the city's southwest side.

Police Capt. Paco Balderrama says Winchester was working at the time and police have not determined a motive for the shooting.

Balderrama says police do not believe there is an active shooter and officers are working to fully secure the airport, which has been shut down since the shooting with only a plane carrying prisoners to the Federal Transfer Center on airport property being allowed to land. No suspect has been found.

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3:50 p.m.

A Southwest Airlines employee has died after being shot at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City.

Southwest spokeswoman Brandy King confirmed the victim was an employee and says in a news release that the airline is cancelling all flights scheduled to depart Oklahoma City for the remainder of the day Tuesday.

The victim's name has not been released. Police have said only that the man was shot early Tuesday afternoon.

The news release says Southwest is working to accommodate passengers at the airport affected by the cancellation of flights.

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3:35 p.m.

A man who was shot at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City has died.

Police officer Megan Morgan says the man died Tuesday afternoon after being shot earlier in the day.

The man's name and other information was not released.

The airport was closed by police after the shooting and the only aircraft that has been allowed to land is a Federal Transfer Center aircraft carrying federal prisoners to a transfer center on airport property.

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3:20 p.m.

Will Rogers World Airport remained closed, although a plane carrying federal prison inmates was allowed to land and some of the dozens of vehicles backed up were being allowed to leave.

Police were also searching the vehicles and taking photos of license plates.

The airport was shut down Tuesday afternoon by police after a shooting that wounded at least one person and Police Capt. Paco Balderrama says some airplanes on the runway were stopped from taking off.

Airport spokesman Karen Carney says the facility remains closed, but the Federal Transfer Center aircraft that landed shortly after 3 p.m. has its own security and goes directly to the federal prison that's located on airport property.

The only other aircraft in the sky was a police helicopter that was circling the airport.

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2 p.m.

Oklahoma City Police Capt. Paco Balderrama says police are searching for a possible second victim after a shooting at Oklahoma City's main airport.

Balderrama says police have confirmed one victim in Tuesday afternoon's shooting at the airport. He says police received reports of a possible second victim, but authorities have not yet found that person.

He says he does not know the condition of the confirmed victim.

Balderrama says all streets are blocked off and people should avoid the airport.

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1:45 p.m.

Police say the Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City has been closed following a shooting there.

The Oklahoma City police twitter account says the airport is closed following the Tuesday afternoon shooting and anyone inside should shelter in place.

Airport spokeswoman Karen Carney says all operations are suspended.

Carney says 7,000 to 8,000 travelers go through the airport daily.

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1:30 p.m.

Police say one person has been shot at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City.

The police department's Twitter account confirmed the incident.

Officer Megan Morgan said there was a shooting at the airport Tuesday afternoon, but had no other details.

Police asked people to avoid the airport, which is in southwest Oklahoma City.

This still image taken from an aerial video provided by KWTV shows police responding to a shooting at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City, on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Police say the airport has been closed following a shooting there. Airport spokeswoman Karen Carney says all operations are suspended. (KWTV via AP)

Travelers wait at a police checkpoint at Will Rogers World Airport, Tuesday, Nov. 15 2016, in Oklahoma City. The airport was put on lockdown after a shooting at the main terminal. (Steve Gooch/The Oklahoman via AP)

Oklahoma City police officers gather information from vehicles leaving Will Rogers World Airport, Tuesday, Nov. 15 2016, in Oklahoma City. The airport was put on lockdown after a shooting at the main terminal. (Steve Gooch/The Oklahoman via AP)

Oklahoma City police officers gather information from vehicles leaving Will Rogers World Airport, Tuesday Nov. 15, 2016, in Oklahoma City. The airport was put on lockdown after a shooting in the main terminal. (Steve Gooch/The Oklahoman via AP)
House GOP nominates Ryan as speaker, with Trump's support

WASHINGTON (AP)  Speaker Paul Ryan unanimously won his GOP colleagues' votes on Tuesday for another term at the helm of the House. He told fellow Republicans he had President-elect Donald Trump's support, and heralded "the dawn of a new, unified Republican government."

"It feels really good to say that actually," Ryan told reporters. "This will be a government focused on turning President-elect Trump's victory into real progress for the American people."

While victory was the GOP unifier, Democrats were verging on disarray. House Democrats abruptly announced Tuesday that they were delaying their own leadership elections set for Thursday until Nov. 30 to give lawmakers more time to process disastrous election results.

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., center, speaks with House Republicans before a Special GOP Leadership Election on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

It's not clear whether the election delay might morph into a real challenge to Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. She has led House Democrats for more than 12 years and has consolidated support with strong fundraising and an ability to deliver votes, but there's long been grumbling from Democrats who say new leadership is needed at the top.

As for Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican still has to win a floor vote for speaker in January, when all members of the House will cast ballots, including Democrats.

But he secured the nomination at a closed-door GOP conference vote Tuesday afternoon with the strong backing of his fellow House Republicans, even though a few conservative dissenters pushed unsuccessfully to delay the balloting.

Those grumblings of dissent could hardly be heard over the buzz of enthusiasm as House Republicans convened for their first regular conference meeting since Trump won the presidential election. Even though a number of House Republicans, including Ryan, had opposed Trump or were critical along the way, most said they're now firmly on board and prepared to try to enact Trump's agenda on immigration, infrastructure, energy and jobs.

Republicans also backed California's Kevin McCarthy to continue as majority leader and Steve Scalise of Louisiana to stay on in the No. 3 job of House whip.

Lawmakers trooped out of their morning meeting in the basement of the Capitol smiling, pledging quick action to roll back President Barack Obama's accomplishments and clutching red "Make America Great Again" hats.

"That was a nice fun touch. Now here's my problem: Every member wants it autographed," said GOP Rep. Chris Collins of New York, who has been tapped as congressional liaison to the transition team. "I'm going to have to say, 'President-elect Trump, bring out your Sharpie, we've got to do a lot of autographing.'"

During the meeting, Ryan told colleagues that he'd spoken Tuesday morning with Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who said that he and Trump "are very supportive of the leadership team and are looking forward to working with them," said Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo.

Coming after a campaign full of very public GOP infighting and clashes between Ryan and Trump, it's "a validating moment," said Lummis.

Republicans had widely been seen at risk of losing the Senate and suffering major losses in the House, but instead lost just two Senate seats and a half-dozen in the House, giving them full-scale control of Washington for the first time in a decade.

For Democrats, ill-feeling was only magnified in defeat.

"Everything's not good. Business as usual is not gonna work," said Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz. "This is about our constituents. Saying we have heard you. We have clearly missed the mark with regard to legislation and messaging."

For Republicans, though, it was heady times after they've spent years watching their legislative priorities get stymied, if not by Democrats in the Senate then by Obama's veto pen.

The situation also brings risks since Republicans will have no one to blame but themselves if they can't deliver on Trump's promises. Already GOP leaders and Trump himself have been shifting on some of his pledges, including the border wall and a full repeal of Obama's health care law.

On Tuesday, Ryan refused to answer directly when asked if Congress would go along with Trump's plan to spend $1 trillion on infrastructure. "These are things we're working on. ... The point is Donald Trump wants jobs," he said.

Ryan also avoided a direct answer on Trump's appointment of Stephen Bannon to a senior White House role. Bannon's Breitbart website, which embraces white nationalist currents, has frequently singled out Ryan himself for attacks.

"Look, I would just simply say that the president is going to be judged on his results," Ryan said. "I'm not looking backwards, I'm looking forward."

In the Senate, Republicans and Democrats were meeting separately Wednesday to pick their leadership teams. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is keeping his job in a chamber that Republicans will control by 52-48. Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is retiring after a 30-year Senate career and will be replaced by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

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Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Alan Fram contributed to this report.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of La. displays a "Make America Great Again" hat while speaking with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, after a House Republican leadership meeting. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
American Museum of Natural History to host Cuba exhibit

NEW YORK (AP)  The American Museum of Natural History is presenting a bilingual exhibit that explores Cuba's biodiversity and culture.

The exhibition is called "Cuba!" and opens Nov. 21. It was developed in collaboration with Cuba's National Museum of Natural History under an agreement signed in the summer in Havana.

The wide-ranging exhibition includes photographs and quotes from Cubans, a display on the cultivation of tobacco, a film about Cuba's history and lifelike models representing the island's wildlife.

A 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air is displayed in the exhibit "Cuba!" at the American Museum of Natural History, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, in New York. The show of Cuban biodiversity, people and culture opens Monday, Nov. 21. It was produced with the collaboration of the Cuban National Museum of Natural History. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

"What we wanted with this exhibit is to take people beyond the headlines to what they may not know or expect about Cuba," said curator Ana Luz Porzecanski, director of the museum's Center for Biodiversity and Conservation. "Cuba is much more than its wonderful music or Cuban cigars or old cars. Cuba is also a fascinating nation of remarkable biodiversity."

The exhibit discusses a shrew-like mammal called an almiqui, which secretes venomous saliva through a groove in its front teeth, and the bee hummingbird, considered the smallest bird in the world, among other creatures.

The United States and Cuba, a Caribbean island nation, are just 90 miles apart but had frigid relations for decades. They announced in December 2014 that they were restoring diplomatic ties, which were broken in 1961 after Fidel Castro took power in Cuba and installed a communist government.

Porzecanski said the exhibit is not necessarily a result of the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between the nations although "that was helpful to our joint work." The museum, she said, has been collaborating with Cuban colleagues for more than 100 years.

Esther Perez Lorenzo, director of the Cuban museum, said that cooperation will continue.

The exhibit will run through Aug. 13, 2017.

A visitor to the American Museum of Natural History views posters in the show, "Cuba!," Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, in New York. The show of Cuban biodiversity, people and culture opens Monday, Nov. 21. It was produced with the cooperation of the Cuban National Museum of Natural History. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

A Cuban Carnival costume is displayed at the American Museum of Natural History exhibit, "Cuba!," Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, in New York. The show of Cuban biodiversity, people and culture opens Monday, Nov. 21. It was produced with the cooperation of the Cuban National Museum of Natural History. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Green anoles rest on a branch in a terrarium at the American Museum of Natural History in the exhibit "Cuba!," Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, in New York. The show of Cuban biodiversity, people and culture opens Monday, Nov. 21. It was produced with the cooperation of the Cuban National Museum of Natural History. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

School children play dominoes at the exhibit "Cuba!" in the American Museum of Natural History, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, in New York. The show of Cuban biodiversity, people and culture opens Monday, Nov. 21. It was produced with the cooperation of the Cuban National Museum of Natural History. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

A visitor to the American Museum of Natural History views a display of a tobacco harvest in the exhibit "Cuba!," Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, in New York. The show of Cuban biodiversity, people and culture opens Monday, Nov. 21. It was produced with the cooperation of the Cuban National Museum of Natural History. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
Judge to consider request to delay Trump University trial

SAN DIEGO (AP)  A federal judge on Tuesday scheduled a hearing to consider President-elect Donald Trump's request to delay a civil fraud trial involving his now-defunct Trump University until after his inauguration on Jan. 20.

U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel will consider arguments Friday  10 days before the trial begins. The class-action lawsuit by former customers alleges that Trump University misled them on its promise to teach success in real estate.

Curiel is eager to get the 6-year-old case to trial and gave no sign that he was inclined to grant a delay during a hearing last week at which Trump's lead attorney, Daniel Petrocelli, argued that demands of the transition justified putting it off until early next year. In September, the judge denied Petrocelli's request to postpone the trial five weeks because the attorney had a scheduling conflict.

FILE - In this Nov. 9, 2016, file photo, President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a rally in New York. CEOs of major companies are taking stands about the results of the November 2016 U.S. election, a departure from the traditional model of not mixing politics with business that the major brands have long espoused. The men and woman who head the nations biggest companies know that having a hostile relationship with the incoming Trump Administration could make doing business difficult. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci, File)

Trump's attorneys said in a court filing Saturday that Trump's preparations for the White House were "critical and all-consuming."

"The task is momentous, exceedingly complex, and requires careful coordination involving the respective staffs and teams of both President (Barack) Obama and President-Elect Trump," they wrote. "In fewer than three months, the President-Elect must be prepared to manage 15 executive departments, more than 100 federal agencies, 2 million civilian employees, and a budget of almost $4 trillion."

In May, Petrocelli asked for a trial after Inauguration Day but the judge raised concerns about distractions if Trump won the election. The attorney said then that the period between the election and swearing-in is extremely hectic for a president-elect but that it was preferable to a trial during the campaign.

Plaintiff attorneys oppose a delay, saying in a court filing on Monday that a lead plaintiff, Sonny Low, has medical issues and will be 75 years old when the trial begins.
House OKs bills to renew Iran sanctions, crack down on Syria

WASHINGTON (AP)  The House on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved bipartisan bills to crack down on supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad's government and renew a decades-old Iran sanctions law.

Swift passage underscored broad support on Capitol Hill for punishing financial backers of the Syrian government and maintaining economic pressure on Tehran. Both bills had the firm backing of Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, the panel's top Democrat.

The Senate must now act on the legislation before the bills can be sent to the president.

FILE - In this Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016 photo released by the Syrian Presidency, Syrian President Bashar Assad speaks to The Associated Press at the presidential palace in Damascus, Syria. The House on Nov. 15, overwhelmingly approved bipartisan bills to crack down on supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assads government and renew a decades-old Iran sanctions law. Swift passage underscored broad support on Capitol Hill for punishing financial backers of the Syrian government and maintaining economic pressure on Tehran.(Syrian Presidency via AP)

Lawmakers have accused the Assad government of war crimes as the number of people killed during the violence in Syria continues to mount. The war, now in its sixth year, has killed as many as half a million people, contributed to Europe's worst refugee crisis since World War II and given the Islamic State group room to grow into a global terror threat.

"What we have now is a grim lesson in human suffering," Royce said. "We can see the ethnic cleansing going on. Even the United Nations calls this 'crimes of historic proportions.' Enough's enough."

The Syria legislation targets key backers of Assad such as Russia and Iran, according to Royce, by requiring the president to sanction countries or companies that do business with or provide financing to the Syrian government or the Central Bank of Syria.

Anyone that provides aircraft to Syria's commercial airlines, does business with the transportation and telecom sectors controlled by the Syrian government, or supports the country's energy industry also would be subject to sanctions, according to the legislation.

"If you're acting as a lifeline to the Assad regime, you risk getting caught up in the net of our sanctions," Engel said.

Sanctions could be suspended if internationally recognized negotiations to resolve the war in Syria are making progress and the violence against civilians has ended, according the legislation.

The White House and State Department had previously argued to Congress that new sanctions legislation could undermine efforts with Russia to forge a cease-fire between Assad and rebel groups. While the Russia talks have collapsed, the administration maintained concerns that the sanctions might hurt Iran, another Assad supporter, giving Tehran an excuse to renege on the U.S.-brokered nuclear deal.

The House bill would authorize the State Department to assist in the collection and preservation of evidence for war crimes trials. Secretary of State John Kerry last month called for a war crimes investigation of Russia and Syria, a move that escalated already heated rhetoric against Moscow for its part in a deadly military offensive in Aleppo, Syria's largest city, and its longstanding support of Assad.

The Syria legislation, formally titled the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, is named after a crime scene photographer for the Syrian military who was reassigned to photograph the bodies of imprisoned Syrian rebels and dissidents after the conflict began. He later defected, and his archive of images of more than 10,000 bodies was smuggled out of the country. He went by the pseudonym Caesar, and he testified in disguise in July 2014 year before Foreign Affairs Committee, saying he had witnessed a "genocidal massacre."

The Iran Sanctions Extensions Act cleared the House by a 419-1 vote. The lone "no" vote came from Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who is often an unconventional vote.

The bill's backers say extending the law allows the U.S. to punish Tehran should the country fail to live up the terms of the landmark nuclear deal reached last year. In exchange for Tehran rolling back its nuclear program, the U.S. and other world powers agreed to suspend wide-ranging oil, trade and financial sanctions that had choked the Iranian economy.

"Now is not the time to ease up on the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism," said Rep. Leonard Lance, R-N.J. "Sanctions work."

The act, first passed by Congress in 1996 and renewed several times since then, expires at the end of the year. The bill approved by the House extends the law by 10 years, to 2026. There is widespread support in the Senate for passing the extension.

Kerry signaled earlier this year President Barack Obama would sign the renewal bill.

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Tips on protecting devices from hackers

WASHINGTON (AP)  Billions of fitness trackers, medical implants, surveillance cameras, home appliances, thermostats, baby monitors and computers in automobiles now are connected as part of a rapidly expanding "internet of things."

But many such devices were developed without security considerations. As a result, they are prime targets for hackers.

Tips to protect your devices:

Robert Silvers, Assistant Secretary for Cyber Policy with the Department of Homeland Security, speaks to members of the Coalition for Cybersecurity Policy and Law in San Francisco, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. The Homeland Security Department urged the technology industry to begin immediately securing millions of internet-connected devices that increasingly permeate daily life, including fitness trackers, medical implants, surveillance cameras, home appliances, digital video recorders, thermostats, baby monitors and computers in automobiles. It proposed no penalties for manufacturers that do not comply. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

HOW DO I KNOW IF I HAVE AN "INTERNET OF THINGS" DEVICE?

If you have a device that is capable of connecting to the internet or shares information over a wireless network in your home, it is potentially insecure and can be leveraged for a cyberattack.

Last month, hackers harnessed an army of 100,000 internet-connected devices around the world, such as DVRs and security cameras, to attack Dyn Co., which helps route internet traffic to its destination. It caused temporary internet outages to sites that included Twitter, PayPal, Pinterest, Reddit and Spotify.

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WHY SHOULD I CARE?

Hackers can penetrate devices to directly harm someone or to target critical infrastructure.

They can remotely disable a car, raise the thermostat on refrigerated foods, and toy with internet-enabled medical devices.

In the Dyn attack, hackers used the devices to flood the internet infrastructure company with data and knock it offline.

Such tactics also could be used against electrical and water systems, which are increasingly being put online to allow for remote operation.

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WHAT CAN I DO?

Make sure you are aware of what you are connecting to the internet, and think about what is necessary.

That feature on your new bathroom scale that syncs with your phone is handy, but can you password protect it from getting hacked?

Any device that has the capabilities of remotely sending information elsewhere is vulnerable. Therefore, the software on that device and the network in connects to must be secured.

If a device comes with a default password, make sure you change it. You should also change the password on your wireless network at home. Use complex passphrases to ensure your device is not easily hacked.

The Dyn attack was made possible by devices with default passwords that were never changed.

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WHOM DO I CONTACT IF I AM WORRIED ABOUT A DEVICE?

Contacting the manufacturer or vendor of the device may not always help.

This is especially true because innovation has frequently outpaced cybersecurity education.

The Homeland Security Department sends out public alerts about vulnerabilities through its US-CERT program that you can sign up for on its website .

You can also contact the department directly.

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Bundy brothers back in custody in Nevada for Feb. 6 trial

PAHRUMP, Nev. (AP)  Ammon Bundy and his brother, Ryan, are back in federal custody in Nevada ahead of a February trial on charges stemming from a 2014 standoff with federal agents outside their father's ranch near Bunkerville.

Ammon Bundy's attorney, Daniel Hill, confirmed Tuesday that the sons of Cliven Bundy were transferred Monday from a federal detention center in Seattle to the Nevada Southern Detention Center in Pahrump, about 60 miles west of Las Vegas.

Cliven Bundy also is being held there.

The brothers were acquitted of federal conspiracy charges in federal court in Portland, Oregon, on Nov. 2 after a five-week trial related to an armed takeover at a national wildlife refuge.
The following editorial appeared Sunday in the Wisconsin State Journal:

Donald Trump was right. The system is rigged.

But not the vote for president. Last weeks election for the highest office in the land was legitimate. Even the conspiratorial Trump seems to agree it was fair, now that hes won.

Whats blatantly stacked against the public is the way Wisconsin and many other states select their representatives for the U.S. House. The politicians have strategically shaped Wisconsins eight congressional districts to protect the incumbents of both major political parties.

Its a sham.

The election for House seats should have been hotly contested. After all, the statewide votes for president and U.S. Senate were tight.

Trump, the Republican nominee for president, defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton by just 1 percentage point in the Badger State. At the same time, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh, held his seat by little more than 3 percentage points against Democrat Russ Feingold.

Thats strong evidence Wisconsin is a battleground with lots of healthy competition. Wisconsin swings in favor of Republicans some years, and toward Democrats in other years, depending on the mood of voters.

But when it comes to House seats, blowouts are the norm. None of Wisconsins eight congressional races  not even an open seat in northeastern Wisconsin  was decided by fewer than 20 percentage points this election. And some seats, such as the 3rd District in western Wisconsin, werent even contested.

Top state lawmakers, at the direction of Wisconsins congressional delegation, strategically redrew the seats after the last major census using computers to analyze voting trends over time. The districts, many of which are oddly shaped or crisscross county lines, heavily favor the Republicans in five seats and strongly favor Democrats in three others.

The 3rd District shows how absurd the political plotting has become. The district features a fist-shaped appendage that pulls the Democratic-leaning city of Stevens Point into its boundaries, helping U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, D-La Crosse, get re-elected. At the same time, the district was redrawn to move the GOP stronghold of St. Croix County from the 3rd into the 7th District. That helps protect U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wausau.

Both incumbents enjoy essentially permanent seats in Congress, while the voters in both districts lose influence and choice.

The solution is for Wisconsin to adopt a nonpartisan process, similar to Iowas, in which a neutral state agency draws voting district boundaries, following strict rules requiring districts to be as compact as possible. Two of Iowas four congressional seats were decided Tuesday by fewer than 10 percentage points, which is competitive. And only one was a blowout of more than 20 points.

Wisconsin voters should demand a fair, nonpartisan process for drawing congressional and legislative districts after the 2020 census.
6 Minnesota men sentenced in Islamic State case

MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  Three men were sentenced to prison Tuesday for plotting to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State group, as a federal judge concluded the second day of sentencings in a case that shined a light on terror recruiting in the state.

Adnan Farah, 20, and Hanad Musse, 21, were each sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Hamza Ahmed, 21, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for that count and another count of financial aid fraud.

All three were also given at least 20 years of supervised release.

FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Sherburne County Sheriff's Office in Elk River, Minn., shows Adnan Farah, of Minnesota. Farah was sentenced at U.S. District Court in Minnesota on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, to 10 years in prison for conspiring to join the Islamic State group in Syria. (Sherburne County Sheriff's Office via AP, File)

They are among nine men in Minnesota's large Somali community who prosecutors say were part of a group of friends who inspired and recruited each other to join the militant group. Some of their friends made it to Syria, but the nine who were prosecuted did not.

Their sentencings come a day after three of their co-defendants were sentenced, including two who cooperated with authorities and were given lighter penalties. Farah, Musse, Ahmed, and the other man sentenced Monday all pleaded guilty but did not cooperate with prosecutors.

Three men who went to trial and were convicted on a more serious charge of conspiracy to commit murder outside the U.S. will be sentenced Wednesday. That count carries a possible life sentence, but prosecutors are seeking sentences of 30 or 40 years.

At his hearing, Farah, whose older brother is among those to be sentenced Wednesday, criticized the Somali community for not taking radicalization seriously. But prosecutors said he was shifting blame.

U.S. District Judge Michael Davis addressed the courtroom and said he has no doubt there is a jihadi cell in Minneapolis. He also addressed Farah's parents, telling them their children lied.

"I would never want to be in your place, having two sons that are going to go to prison," Davis said.

During his hearing, Musse apologized for lying to his family and said he committed a serious offense. The judge asked Musse directly whether he was a terrorist, and Musse replied: "I am a terrorist, your honor."

Musse, Ahmed and two other men took a Greyhound bus from Minneapolis to New York in November 2014 and were stopped by federal agents as they tried to travel overseas from JFK Airport, according to authorities. The men were being watched as part of an ongoing investigation into terror recruiting.

Ahmed told the court on Tuesday that he was grateful he was pulled off the airplane, acknowledging it probably saved his life. He also acknowledged that he has some work to do.

"I want you to understand I am not completely changed," Ahmed told Davis. "I'm in the process, but nobody changes overnight. I'm trying every day. I want to reach that point."

Davis, who has handled all of Minnesota's terror conspiracy cases, had the six defendants who pleaded guilty evaluated by a German expert on deradicalization and is taking those findings into consideration.

The investigation into terror recruiting in Minnesota is ongoing. The state has the largest concentration of Somali immigrants in the U.S. numbering 57,000, according to U.S. Census data  which has been a target for recruiters. The FBI has said about a dozen people have left Minnesota to join militant groups in Syria in recent years. Before that, more than 22 men were recruited to al-Shabab in Somalia since 2007.

FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Sherburne County Sheriff's Office in Elk River, Minn., shows Hanad Musse, of Minnesota. At U.S. District Court in Minnesota on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, Musse was sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiring to join the Islamic State group in Syria. (Sherburne County Sheriff's Office via AP, File)

This undated file photo provided by the Sherburne County Sheriff's Office in Elk River, Minn., shows Hamza Ahmed, of Minnesota. On Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, at U.S. District Court in Minnesota, Ahmed was sentenced to 15 years in prison for charges connected to a plot to join the Islamic State group in Syria. (Sherburne County Sheriff's Office via AP)

Following the sentencing of Hanad Musse to 10 years in prison and 20 years supervised release, supporters of Musse became emotional in a hallway inside the Federal courthouse Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, in Minneapolis, Minn. Hanad Musse is one of nine men being sentenced this week in a plot that involved friends in Minnesotas large Somali community, who recruited and inspired each other to join the militant group. (David Joles/Star Tribune via AP)

Following the sentencing of Hanad Musse to 10 years in prison and 20 years supervised release, supporters of Musse became emotional in a hallway inside the Federal courthouse Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, in Minneapolis, Minn. Hanad Musse is one of nine men being sentenced this week in a plot that involved friends in Minnesotas large Somali community, who recruited and inspired each other to join the militant group. (David Joles/Star Tribune via AP)

Following the sentencing of Hanad Musse to 10 years in prison and 20 years supervised release, supporters of Musse became emotional in a hallway inside the Federal courthouse Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, in Minneapolis, Minn. Hanad Musse is one of nine men being sentenced this week in a plot that involved friends in Minnesotas large Somali community, who recruited and inspired each other to join the militant group. (David Joles/Star Tribune via AP)
Man died seeking place to soak in Yellowstone park

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP)  An Oregon man who died after falling into a scalding Yellowstone National Park hot spring in June was looking for a place to "hot pot," the forbidden practice of soaking in one of the park's thermal features, officials said.

Sable Scott told investigators that she and her 23-year-old brother, Colin, left a boardwalk near Pork Chop Geyser and walked several hundred feet up a hill in search of "a place that they could potentially get into and soak," Deputy Chief Ranger Lorant Veress told KULR-TV (bit.ly/2fulh4g) in an interview.

As Sable Scott took video of her brother with her cellphone on June 7, he reached down to check the water temperature and slipped and fell into a thermal pool about 6 feet long, 4 feet wide and 10 feet deep, according to a National Park Service incident record first reported by KULR.

Park officials did not release the video or a description of it, but the report said it also chronicled Sable Scott's efforts to rescue her brother.

Search and rescue rangers spotted Colin Scott's body floating in the pool the day of the accident, but a lightning storm prevented recovery, the report said.

The next day, workers could not find any remains in the boiling, acidic water.

"In very short order, there was a significant amount of dissolving," Veress said.

The report included images of several signs warning people of the dangers of the park's geothermal features and of traveling off walkways in the area where Colin Scott died.

The National Park Service did not issue any citations in the case.

Scott was on a college graduation trip with his sister at the time of his death, which came a day after six people were cited for walking off-trail at the park's Grand Prismatic Spring.

A week later, a tourist from China was fined $1,000 for breaking through the fragile crust in the Mammoth Hot Springs area, apparently to collect water for medicinal purposes.

___
The Latest: Not guilty plea in California deputy's death

MODESTO, Calif. (AP)  The Latest on the fatal shooting of a California sheriff's deputy (all times local):

2:45 p.m.

A Northern California man denies that he gunned down an on-duty Stanislaus County Sheriff's deputy.

Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department Deputy Dennis Wallace is seen in an undated photo provided by the Stanislaus County, Calif., Sheriff's Department. The department says Deputy Dennis Wallace was shot and killed Sunday, Nov. 13, 2016, outside the city of Hughson, Calif., while checking on a suspicious car, and that 36-year-old suspect David Machado was arrested in Tulare County. (Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department via AP) .

David Machado pleaded not guilty Tuesday in a Modesto courtroom. He's charged with the first-degree murder of Deputy Dennis Wallace on Sunday.

Wallace reported to dispatchers that he spotted a parked van. When he learned it was stolen, the deputy requested backup. Fellow deputies found him shot twice in the head.

The charges make 37-year-old Machado eligible for a death sentence. Prosecutors, however, haven't said what punishment they'll seek.

Machado was free on bail at the time of the shooting. He remains in jail on the murder charge with no possibility of release on bail.

A public defender assigned to represent Machado did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

___

1:15 p.m.

A California man with a criminal record was free on bail when prosecutors say he shot and killed a sheriff's deputy in the line of duty, according to charges filed Tuesday.

David Machado, 37, is charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Stanislaus County Sheriff's Deputy Dennis Wallace on Sunday near Modesto, then stealing a car to drive 150 miles to a small town where he was arrested after trying to steal a woman's purse.

The charges make Machado eligible for a death sentence. Prosecutors in the Stanislaus County District Attorney's Office, however, have not said what punishment they intend to seek. Machado is expected in court Tuesday to hear the charges for the first time.

Machado is also charged with first-degree robbery, carjacking and being a felon in possession of a gun. He had been convicted in 2009 of a felony for possessing a dangerous weapon, the complaint says, without specifying the type of weapon.
UN committee votes to condemn Russian occupation of Crimea

UNITED NATIONS (AP)  A key U.N. committee approved a resolution Tuesday condemning Russia's "temporary occupation" of Crimea and reaffirming the United Nations' commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty over the Black Sea peninsula.

Russia urged the General Assembly's human rights committee to vote against the resolution, but it was approved by a vote of 73-23 with 76 abstentions. The resolution is virtually certain to be adopted by a similar vote when it comes before the 193-member assembly next month.

The draft resolution condemns abuses and discrimination "against the residents of the temporarily occupied Crimea, including the Crimean Tatars." The Crimean Tatars are a Turkic ethnic group that formed in the Crimean Peninsula in the 13th-17th centuries.

Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014 following the ouster of Ukraine's former Moscow-friendly president after months of protests  a move that led to crippling Western sanctions. A pro-Russia insurgency erupted in eastern Ukraine the following month.

A February 2015 agreement has helped reduce fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces, but frequent clashes have erupted and efforts to reach a political settlement have stalled.

The draft resolution urges Russia to immediately end all abuses against Crimea residents including "arbitrary detentions, torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment, and to revoke all discriminatory legislation."

It calls on Russia to release Ukrainians who were illegally detained, and to allow cultural and religious institutions to reopen. And it urges Russia to immediately revoke the Supreme Court's Sept. 29 decision declaring the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, the self-governing body of the Crimean Tatars, an extremist organization and banning it.

Ukraine's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya told the committee before the vote that the resolution's main goal "is to ensure that Russia fully complies with its obligations as an occupying power."

"After Russia occupied Crimea, the human rights situation has deteriorated sharply with extra judicial killings, intimidation, arbitrary detentions, torture and abuses to the freedom of expression," Kyslytsya said.

Anatoly Viktorov, who heads the Russian Foreign Ministry department dealing with human rights, called the resolution "politically motivated," saying the people of Crimea "chose to vote in a historic referendum to reunite with Russia."

"The draft is one-sided," he said. "It completely ignores the negative impact that the actions of Ukrainian authorities have had on the residents of Crimea."

Viktorov said "Crimean residents have all the means of judicial protection that are accorded to Russian citizens" and the same human rights.

But rights groups have raised concerns over freedom of speech and association in Crimea. Local authorities have banned at least two Crimean Tatar leaders from entering the peninsula, shut down Crimean Tatar media outlets, and prohibited peaceful gatherings.

U.S. deputy ambassador Sarah Mendelson said "Russia wants to make sure only one voice is heard in Crimea  Russia's."
McDonnell shares Trump's fears over impact of globalisation on workers

John McDonnell said he shares Donald Trump's concerns about the impact of globalisation on workers as he demanded extra support for people struggling to survive on low and middle incomes.

The shadow chancellor is calling on the Government to ditch "failed" austerity policies in next week's mini-budget and look after households struggling to get by instead of giving tax breaks to the rich.

Mr McDonnell insisted he wanted "freedom of trade" but conceded he agreed with fears raised by the US president-elect on the campaign trail about the harm that globalised trade was having on the living standards of workers, though he was quick to distance himself from the Republican billionaire.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell wants a U-turn on welfare cuts

Asked if Mr Trump's claims about the impact of globalisation was one he shared, Mr McDonnell told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Of course it is, but he says it as an election slogan and will not deliver on it. He simply did it to garner votes to win an election."

Mr McDonnell said the austerity measures introduced by former Chancellor George Osborne have "failed" and must be dealt with in next week's Autumn Statement.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "If we want a fair economy we have got to end the austerity measures that were introduced by George Osborne.

"We saw a period of time in which tax cuts were given to the rich and corporations while some of the most deprived in our community, particularly disabled people, were hit with cuts in benefits."

He added: "I would withdraw the capital gains tax benefits that were given to 0.3% of our population, some of the richest people in our country we were given tax cuts while the same time in the same budget we were cutting benefits to disabled people.

"We are reversing the cuts to corporation taxes as well but, more importantly, we want long term stable investment in our economy, which will grow our economy."

Mr McDonnell will use a speech to attack the Government for its "shambolic" approach to Brexit, claiming it risks hitting workers in the UK.

He will highlight reports of a rift between Philip Hammond and his Cabinet colleagues, claiming the "weak" Chancellor has been isolated over the approach to negotiations with the EU.

He will accuse ministers of plotting a "closed-minded Brexit" that "works only for bankers and the rich, instead of one that's based on fairness and works for the rest of us".

M r McDonnell will set three tests for the Chancellor, saying: "We need a credible fiscal framework that supports Brexit; we need actual support for those in work on low and middle incomes; and we need secure and properly funded public services.

"We want to see an end to austerity, with the NHS and social care properly funded and ESA (employment and support allowance) and Universal Credit cuts reversed.

"We want to see an end to tax giveaways for the wealthy.
Second day of questions for Julian Assange in Swedish sex claims case

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will be interviewed for a second day inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London over a sex allegation.

Swedish officials will again be present while questions they have submitted are put to the Australian by a representative of the Ecuadorian government.

Sources said Mr Assange was "fully co-operative" during interviews on Monday.

Julian Assange was said to have been "fully co-operative" during interviews on Monday

The process could take three days, then the Swedish prosecutor will have to decide the next move.

Assistant prosecutor Ingrid Isgren and Swedish police inspector Cecilia Redell will again be present at the interview.

They have said a DNA sample will also be taken if Mr Assange gives his consent.

The results of the interview will be reported from Ecuador to Swedish prosecutors in a written statement, after which the prosecutors will take a view on the continuation of the investigation.

Ms Isgren will not give interviews during her stay in London, it was made clear.

"As the investigation is ongoing, it is subject to confidentiality. This confidentiality also applies according to Ecuadorian legislation for the investigative measures conducted at the embassy. Therefore, the prosecutors cannot provide information concerning details of the investigation after the interview," said a statement.

WikiLeaks said that after six years of offering his statement to Swedish authorities, Mr Assange has finally been given the opportunity to do so.

A statement continued: "There have been numerous irregularities in Sweden's preliminary investigation, which the UN has described as 'excessive and unnecessary'.

"Sweden's failure to progress the preliminary investigation until now has resulted in a gross breach of Mr Assange's right to be presumed innocent and has fatally harmed his ability to meaningfully defend himself.

"Unfortunately, the irregularities with procedure have continued. Mr Assange's Swedish counsel, Per Samuelson, was not notified or summoned to attend the procedure by the relevant prosecution authorities, despite the fact that the process concerns a preliminary investigation in Sweden under Swedish law in the presence of a Swedish prosecutor.

"Mr Assange's Swedish defence counsel had travelled to London in the hope of being able to attend. In spite of the fact that Mr Assange's Ecuadorian counsel, Carlos Poveda Moreno, raised concern that Mr Samuelson was not present at the start of the procedure, the authorities in charge proceeded anyway.

"This clear breach of process did not stop Mr Assange co-operating fully. Mr Assange felt compelled to participate even with these problems.

"For the first time since August 2010, Mr Assange was finally able to give his statement in relation to this allegation. He has done so in part to ensure the Swedish authorities have no further excuse not to discontinue their preliminary investigation.

"In the presence of Swedish prosecutors, but without his Swedish defence counsel, he offered his full co-operation throughout the process.

"These irregularities will be raised in a formal setting in the near future."

Mr Assange has always denied the sex allegation.

He has been living in the embassy for over four years and has been granted political asylum by Ecuador.
US hacking accused Lauri Love: I could die behind bars

Alleged computer hacker Lauri Love fears he will die behind bars after Home Secretary Amber Rudd authorised his extradition to the US.

Mr Love, 31, who has Asperger syndrome, spoke of his fears as his father called for "British justice for a British citizen".

Mr Love is alleged to have stolen huge amounts of data from US agencies including the Federal Reserve, the US Army, the Department of Defence, Nasa and the FBI in a spate of online attacks in 2012 and 2013.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has signed an order for the extradition of Lauri Love to the US

US authorities have been fighting for Mr Love, who lives with his parents near Newmarket in Suffolk, to face trial on charges of cyber-hacking, which his lawyers say could mean a sentence of up to 99 years in prison if he is found guilty.

The Home Office said Ms Rudd had "carefully considered all relevant matters" before signing an order for Mr Love's extradition on Monday.

Mr Love told the Daily Mail: "I don't think much of my future life prospects. I face decades and decades behind bars and at worst I may die.

"We were kind of expecting this but it's still a disappointment and a kick in the gut. I've got to watch my mental health now and make sure I have support. We will put as much as we can into the appeal."

Mr Love, who could face the possibility of three separate trials in different jurisdictions, has 14 days to apply for permission to appeal against the decision.

Responding to the announcement, Mr Love's father, the Rev Alexander Love, told the Press Association: "It was going to happen - it was inevitable - but it's still painful. I cannot begin to express how much sorrow it causes me."

He added: "All we are asking for is British justice for a British citizen."

It is alleged that between October 2012 and October 2013 Mr Love caused "millions of dollars'" worth of damage by placing hidden "backdoors" within the networks he compromised, allowing them to return and steal confidential data.

Mr Love, who also suffers from depression and eczema, has said that a jail term in the US could cause his health to deteriorate and would lead to a mental breakdown or suicide.

Sarah Harrison, director of the Courage Foundation, which runs Mr Love's defence fund and support campaign, said the decision to send him for trial in the US under Donald Trump's command "beggars belief".

Ms Harrison said: "I am dismayed to hear that Lauri Love's extradition request has been approved, as this puts him directly in harm's way and fails to protect his human rights.

"The US has ruthlessly persecuted hackers and digital activists for years and nobody expects that to improve under President Trump. Theresa May set a good example by protecting Gary McKinnon (another alleged hacker with Asperger syndrome) back in 2012.

"For a Home Secretary in her government now to willingly send a brilliant and vulnerable UK citizen to Donald Trump's America beggars belief."

Mr Love refused to say whether he admitted to the allegations during repeated questioning by presenter Sarah Montague on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Asked how he would defend himself against the allegations, he replied: " What I would probably have to say is I'm sorry for the prejudicial questions I was asked on national radio because we do these things in court for a reason."

Mr Love said the extradition decision was an "aberration of justice".

He said: " I'm waiting to be accused in the UK. When I'm charged in the UK then I can see the evidence and then I can form a defence with my legal team and that's what's done in every other criminal prosecution.
Harry set to visit sexual health charity amid HIV awareness campaign

Prince Harry will visit a sexual health charity today as he continues his efforts to raise awareness about HIV.

Harry will meet staff from Naz, an organisation which provides support and advice for various minority communities.

Over the past 12 months the prince has stepped up his work helping the fight against HIV, speaking at an international conference in South Africa to warn against the threat of complacency.

Harry will meet the Joyful Noise choir, a collection of people of different faiths, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender, all living with HIV

He also visited the Mildmay HIV hospital in east London and later, during a visit to a sexual health clinic, publicly took a HIV test.

During the visit to Fulham's Hurlingham Club, Harry will meet the Joyful Noise choir, a collection of people of different faiths, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender, all living with HIV.

The choir are rehearsing to perform that night at the nOscars, an award ceremony established by Naz in 2012 to highlight the programmes, people and media which challenge HIV and homophobic stigma.

The nOscars event is one of the largest award ceremonies of its kind and aims to put a spotlight on the poor sexual health outcomes of minority groups.
Prison officers ordered back to work after 'unlawful' action

Prison officers have been ordered back to work after thousands joined a protest held amid claims jails are "in meltdown".

The Government took the unusual step of launching a High Court bid to block industrial action after guards gathered outside establishments around the country.

Granting an injunction, Mr Justice Kerr said it was a "very urgent" application with evidence of up to 80% of staff taking some sort of action in the majority of prisons.

Prison officers protest outside Liverpool Prison

"A number of incidents have occurred in prisons today and the situation is very concerning indeed," the judge added.

The Prison Officers Association (POA) directed members to protest on Tuesday after talks with the Government over health and safety concerns broke down.

Courts were hit by disruption as a result.

At the Old Bailey, the trial of Thomas Mair, who denies murdering MP Jo Cox, was brought to a halt due to the action, with the case adjourned until Wednesday morning.

Elsewhere, a planned appearance of prison governors at the Commons Justice Committee on Tuesday morning had to be postponed.

Prison officers are effectively banned from going on strike and the move was branded "unlawful" by Justice Secretary Liz Truss.

Answering an urgent question in the Commons, she said she met the POA on November 2 and talks with her team over safety measures continued over the next fortnight.

"These talks were due to continue this morning," Ms Truss told MPs. "Instead the POA failed to respond to our proposals and called this unlawful action without giving any notice."

Ms Truss said the union's position is "unnecessary and unlawful" and "will make the situation in our prisons more dangerous".

Up to 10,000 staff joined the protest after a string of high profile incidents at prisons, including an alleged murder, a riot and the escape of two inmates.

Two prisoners escaped from Pentonville prison in north London earlier this month - sparking a manhunt in which they were eventually recaptured.

Weeks earlier, inmate Jamal Mahmoud, 21, died after being stabbed at the jail on October 18 in an attack which left two others injured. And on November 6, up to 200 prisoners went on a rampage in HMP Bedford.

Announcing the move, the union said the "continued surge in violence and unprecedented levels of suicide and acts of self harm", coupled with the recent alleged murder and escapes "demonstrate that the service is in meltdown".

About 60 guards gathered in the car park within the gates of Pentonville. Dave Todd, POA representative for London, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, said conditions in prisons were "volatile and dangerous".

"We need to act to protect ourselves," he said. "It has not come about quickly - it's a build-up over probably years actually.

"It's just unsafe. To me, prison officers taking this type of action speaks volumes for what's happening inside."

Derek Stanton, a committee member of the Manchester POA, said: "I have been in this job for 28 years, this is the most dangerous I have ever seen it."

Shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon said: "This Tory Government is failing to address a prisons violence crisis which is leaving staff and prisoners in a dangerous situation."

Tory former Justice Secretary Ken Clarke said the action was "quite irresponsible" - but warned the situation in prisons was "scandalous".

He told BBC Radio 4's The World at One programme: "Staff shortages play into it but you have also got to look at why we have got quite so many prisoners there.

"We incarcerate a bigger proportion of our population than anybody else in Europe and it hasn't had any noticeable affect on our crime levels compared to anybody else's."

Earlier this month Ms Truss unveiled her blueprint for prison reform - including a recruitment drive to add 2,500 new officers and "no fly zones" to stop drones dropping drugs and other contraband into jail grounds.

The Prison Governors' Association said it "recognises the extremely tough conditions many of our colleagues and staff are working in", adding: " The decline in safety and increase in violence is a serious concern and our association has gone to some lengths to highlight them.

"However, the PGA will not condone the withdrawal of labour and the significant additional risk this places all staff and prisoners under. The controlled unlocks in place today will have to be relaxed at some point in the future as prison routines are normalised."

In a notice issued on Tuesday night the POA's national executive paid tribute to "the courage shown by all of the members who stood up today to demand a safe working environment".

Following the court action the union said officers should work normally, and earlier instructions were now withdrawn.

A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said: "The Government welcomes the POA decision to stop its unlawful industrial action and the fact that prison officers are returning to work.

"We are committed to improving safety across the prison estate and are already taking action to deal with this."
Duran Duran continuing High Court battle over US copyrights

Members of pop group Duran Duran will today continue their court battle over the rights to some of their most famous songs.

Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and Roger Taylor were at London's High Court on Monday to assert their right to end agreements with major publisher Gloucester Place Music - ultimately owned by US business Sony/ATV.

A fourth group member, John Taylor, is in the US. Former member Andrew Taylor is also involved in the case but did not attend court.

Nick Rhodes, Simon Le Bon and Roger Taylor leave the Rolls Building in central London after a US copyright hearing

The band released a string of hits, including Girls On Film, Rio and Hungry Like The Wolf, following the release of their debut self-titled record in 1981.

Lawyers for Gloucester Place, which is part of EMI Music Publishing, are asking a judge to declare that the group members have breached music publishing agreements by serving notices to terminate the grant to the company of US copyrights in Duran Duran works.

Under US law, songwriters have "an inalienable right" to call for a reversion of copyright after 35 years.

But Gloucester Place says the agreements with the group members are governed by English laws of contract which prevent them seeking to take back copyright in their first three albums - Duran Duran, Rio and Seven And The Ragged Tiger - plus A View To A Kill, the Bond film title track.
WASHINGTON  Speaker Paul Ryan unanimously won his GOP colleagues' votes for another term at the helm of the House on Tuesday. He told fellow Republicans he had President-elect Donald Trump's support, and heralded "the dawn of a new, unified Republican government."

"It feels really good to say that actually," Ryan told reporters. "This will be a government focused on turning President-elect Trump's victory into real progress for the American people."

While victory was the GOP unifier, Democrats were verging on disarray. House Democrats abruptly announced Tuesday that they were delaying their own leadership elections set for Thursday until Nov. 30 to give lawmakers more time to process disastrous election results.

It's not clear whether the election delay might morph into a real challenge to Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. She has led House Democrats for more than 12 years and has consolidated support with strong fundraising and an ability to deliver votes, but there's long been grumbling from Democrats who say new leadership is needed at the top.

As for Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican still has to win a floor vote for speaker in January, when all members of the House will cast ballots, including Democrats.

But he secured the nomination at a closed-door GOP conference vote Tuesday afternoon with the strong backing of his fellow House Republicans, even though a few conservative dissenters pushed unsuccessfully to delay the balloting.

Those grumblings of dissent could hardly be heard over the buzz of enthusiasm as House Republicans convened for their first regular conference meeting since Trump won the presidential election. Even though a number of House Republicans, including Ryan, had opposed Trump or were critical along the way, most said they're now firmly on board and prepared to try to enact Trump's agenda on immigration, infrastructure, energy and jobs.

Lawmakers trooped out of their morning meeting in the basement of the Capitol smiling, pledging quick action to roll back President Barack Obama's accomplishments and clutching red "Make America Great Again" hats.

"That was a nice fun touch. Now here's my problem: Every member wants it autographed," said GOP Rep. Chris Collins of New York, one of Trump's earliest congressional backers, who has been tapped as congressional liaison to the transition team. "I'm going to have to say, 'President-elect Trump, bring out your Sharpie, we've got to do a lot of autographing.'"

During the meeting, Ryan told colleagues that he'd spoken Tuesday morning with Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who said that he and Trump "are very supportive of the leadership team and are looking forward to working with them," said Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo.

Coming after a campaign full of very public GOP infighting and clashes between Ryan and Trump, it's "a validating moment," said Lummis, a member of the hard-right Freedom Caucus.

Republicans had widely been forecast to lose the Senate and suffer major losses in the House, but instead lost just two Senate seats and a half-dozen in the House, giving them full-scale control of Washington for the first time in a decade.

For Democrats, ill-feeling was only magnified in defeat.

"Everything's not good. Business as usual is not gonna work," said Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz. "This is about our constituents. Saying we have heard you. We have clearly missed the mark with regard to legislation and messaging."

For Republicans, though, it was heady times after they've spent years watching their legislative priorities get stymied, if not by Democrats in the Senate then by Obama's veto pen.

The situation also brings stark risks since Republicans will have no one to blame but themselves if they can't deliver on Trump's promises. Already GOP leaders and Trump himself have been shifting on some of his pledges, including the border wall and a full repeal of Obama's health care law.

Ryan refused to answer directly when Congress would go along with Trump's plan to spend $1 trillion on infrastructure. "These are things we're working on. ... The point is Donald Trump wants job," he said.

Paul Ryan defends Steve Bannon as crucial to Trump's victory WASHINGTON  House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., defended Steve Bannon as a top adviser in Donald Trump's White House, praising the political strategist despite critics who note he has provided a platform for white nationalism.

Ryan also avoided a direct answer on Trump's appointment of Stephen Bannon to a senior White House role. Bannon's Breitbart website, which embraces white nationalist currents, has frequently singled out Ryan himself for attacks.

"Look, I would just simply say that the president is going to be judged on his results," Ryan said. "I'm not looking backward, I'm looking forward."

In the Senate, Republicans and Democrats were meeting separately Wednesday to pick their leadership teams.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is keeping his job in a chamber that Republicans will control by 52-48. Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is retiring after a 30-year Senate career and will be replaced by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Alan Fram contributed to this report.
France's far-right Front National winning election 'questionable', says Farage

Victory for far-right leader Marine Le Pen in France's presidential contest would be a "questionable thing", Nigel Farage has said.

The interim Ukip leader said he had "never said a bad word" about Ms Le Pen, but he had "great difficulty" with her Front National party.

His comments came after Ms Le Pen said there was not a "hair's breadth" between her party and Mr Farage's on issues including the European Union and immigration.

Nigel Farage has distanced himself from Marine Le Pen's party.

The surge in support for populist parties and candidates from outside the political mainstream had made 2016 "the year of political revolution", Mr Farage said.

"First Brexit, now the Trump victory and who knows what might happen next year across the rest of Europe," he told ITV's Good Morning Britain.

Ms Le Pen hopes the same wave of anti-establishment politics will help her to victory in 2017's French presidential race.

But Mr Farage said: "That would be a questionable thing."

He added: "She is opposed to the European Union, she wants France to be an independent country, I support that.

"There are elements of her party that I have great difficulty with and I always have had."

At the weekend Ms Le Pen said it was "ridiculous" for Ukip to distance itself from the Front National.

But Mr Farage said: "I have never said a bad word about her, but I have never said a good word about her party."

On BBC's Andrew Marr Show on Sunday Ms Le Pen said: "O bjectively ... on the topic of immigration and the European Union, there is not a hair's breadth of difference between what Ukip thinks and what the National Front thinks, let's be truthful here.
Nigel Farage has attacked Theresa May's refusal to use him as a go-between with US President-elect Donald Trump as "nonsense".

The interim Ukip leader, who was the first British politician to meet the controversial tycoon since his election success, said "petty personal differences" should be set aside.

Number 10 dismissed suggestions that the Ukip leader might become the "third person" in the relationship between Mr Trump and the Prime Minister, insisting that the Government already has "well-established" channels of communication.

Nigel Farage wants to act as a go-between for the UK and US governments.

But Mr Farage told ITV's Good Morning Britain: "Are they suggesting that they sack all civil servants, they sack all ministers and the Prime Minister does everything? It's nonsense, isn't it?

"This Government has got a massive job to do with Brexit .... all I have said is 'I've got some connections, I'd like to help'."

Mr Farage, who claimed he had been "bombarded" with calls from businesses seeking his help to strike up a relationship with the Trump administration, said: " If Government policy is to secure a free trade deal with the USA, if I can help in any way make that happen I will do so.

"If they don't want me, that's fine."

He dismissed reports that Mr Trump's team would talk to him ahead of the British Government, but added: "Commonsense says that I should be useful some how to this country in getting that relationship with America back to where it should be.

"We've had eight years of (Barack) Obama, who didn't like us. Trump likes this country."

The interim Ukip leader said he had made "a couple of bob" as a result of betting on victory for Mr Trump: "I won enough money to buy myself a couple of pints every day for the next year."

Meanwhile, Mr Trump was continuing to piece together the administration that will lead the USA from January 20 when he takes office.

F ormer New York mayor Rudy Giuliani has emerged as the favourite to serve as secretary of state.

John Bolton, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, is also believed to be in the running for the position.

Mrs May and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson briefed Cabinet at its regular weekly meeting in Downing Street on their conversations last week with Mr Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence.

Mrs May and Mr Johnson said they would continue their engagement and build on links with the Trump team established by the UK Embassy in Washington, said the PM's spokeswoman.

The PM said that the UK will want to work with the incoming Trump administration particularly on the importance of Nato, international efforts to bring peace to Syria and standing up for free trade.
Four worst performing mental health trusts named

Regulators have named four organisations that are falling short on caring for patients with mental health problems.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said it was writing to four mental health trusts that performed "significantly worse" than others when service users were questioned about their experiences.

Across the country the survey revealed that people's experiences of being cared for in the community for mental health problems, ranging from depression to psychosis, have not improved since last year.

One in four youngsters referred for mental health treatment are denied access to care, said a commission

One in three reported that their overall experience of care was poor and 32% said they did not know who to contact out of office hours if they had a crisis.

Meanwhile, 24% of people who tried to get help during a mental health crisis - including suicidal thoughts, self harming behaviour, panic attacks and psychotic episodes - said they could not get assistance during their time of need.

The CQC said the survey of more than 13,000 people showed the worst performing trusts were Isle of Wight NHS Trust, West London Mental Health NHS Trust, Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, and Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust.

The CQC's deputy chief inspector of hospitals and the regulator's lead for mental health, Paul Lelliott, has written to the trusts outlining the action they must take to improve.

Dr Lelliott said: "There are around 1.7 million people across the country who are currently being funded by the NHS, for treatment for a mental health condition in the community funded by the NHS.

"These services are vital in supporting their recoveries and preventing their conditions from deteriorating.

"While the survey results highlight many positive aspects of care, I am deeply concerned by the lack of improvement overall in trusts in England.

"I am grateful for the 13,000 people who took the time to share their experiences. Providers of community mental health services must now take the time to review what they have said and to act on any areas of concern.

"I have written to the four providers that have been identified as performing worse than other providers within the survey for their reassurance on what they propose to do in response.

"People's feedback is a vital way of identifying problems and improving care. We will check up on how these trusts are progressing during our next planned inspections."

The CQC survey was published as a new report highlighted that s pecialist mental health services are turning away almost a quarter of youngsters seeking help.

The Education Policy Institute Independent Commission on Children and Young People's Mental Health said such services are turning away 23% of children and young people referred to them, often because there are "high thresholds" for accessing care.

The authors warned that "something has to go drastically wrong before some services will intervene".

One organisation would not accept those who had expressed a desire to commit suicide unless they had done so on more than one occasion.

Some of those who are able to access treatment can wait for months for care .

Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust chief executive Simon Gilby said: "We've had plenty of feedback - some of it in this survey - from people who say we are providing great care.

"We are working hard to provide great care for all our patients."

Michael Scott, chief executive of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, said: "The results of the survey are disappointing and of great concern to us.
UK urges Russia to halt latest Aleppo bombardment

Britain has called on Russia to halt the latest bombardment of Aleppo, amid reports of multiple deaths in the first airstrikes on the war-torn Syrian city in nearly a month.

International Development Secretary Priti Patel denounced "sickening" reported attacks striking hospitals and refugee camps during the renewed assault and said they could constitute violations of humanitarian law.

And Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson warned that the resumption of airstrikes made a resolution to Syria's civil war even more remote.

International Development Secretary Priti Patel has denounced reported attacks striking hospitals and refugee camps in Aleppo

Meanwhile, actress Carey Mulligan added her voice to calls from charity War Child for Prime Minister Theresa May to take action against those responsible for the suffering of a quarter of a million civilians believed to be trapped in eastern Aleppo.

According to reports, Russia used jets from the aircraft carrier which passed through the English Channel last month, as well as long-range missiles, to target rebel-held parts of Aleppo early on Tuesday.

The attack began just hours after a phone conversation between President Vladimir Putin and and US President-elect Donald Trump in which the Kremlin said each spoke of the need to "work together in the struggle against the number one common enemy - international terrorism and extremism" in the context of Syria.

The administration of US President Barack Obama has been trying for months to negotiate a ceasefire in Aleppo, which has become the focus of the long-running struggle between Syrian President Bashar Assad and the rebels seeking to oust him.

In a statement released by the Department for International Development, Ms Patel said: " Russia must call a halt to the new wave of bombs hitting the besieged city of Aleppo.

"More than a quarter of a million people are trapped and running out of food in the city. This will only worsen an already desperate humanitarian situation.

"I urge Russia and the Assad regime to prove that they can show restraint."

Ms Patel added: "Reports of air strikes hitting hospitals and camps full of displaced Syrians are not only sickening but could also violate International Humanitarian Law.

"It is essential that supplies of food and medicine can get through to those who need them, and that aid workers get the access they need to save lives."

Mr Johnson said: "The resumption of airstrikes on the besieged people of east Aleppo increases the terrible suffering of the innocent civilian population and moves us further away from a resolution to this tragic conflict.

"As I have said many times, Russia has a unique opportunity to persuade the Syrian regime to end its destructive military approach, allow full humanitarian access to all besieged areas in Syria, and commit to a political settlement which ends the bloodshed."

War Child called on the UK Government to lead the international community in implementing a robust strategy to end the attacks.

The charity, which supports children affected by conflict, said Mrs May should consider targeted sanctions against those responsible for war crimes, as well as the introduction of 'no-fly' and `no bombing' zones to end attacks on civilian areas.

Miss Mulligan, a War Child global ambassador, said: " How many more children need to die before the world does something to stop these crimes?

"I know that the Prime Minister shares my revulsion at this assault against Aleppo's children - I therefore call on her to work with our international allies to act now and bring these appalling crimes to an end. We cannot stand by and let this happen again."

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and other groups said air strikes hit at least eight neighbourhoods in Aleppo city, killing at least 10 people.
JK Rowling drew upon 'populism politics' for Fantastic Beasts movie

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has revealed that current politics were firmly on her mind as she wrote the script for the franchise's latest film, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them.

Speaking at the film's European premiere in London's Leicester Square on Tuesday, she told the Press Association: "The story was conceived three-and-a-half years ago and at that time I was definitely drawing on what I found was the rise of populism politics and a desire to smash the status quo.

"Certainly those themes remain very strong today as we open."

Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander (Warner Bros/PA)

Written as a prequel to the much-loved series about the boy wizard, the story is set in 1920s New York as British "magizoologist" Newt Scamander, played by Eddie Redmayne, arrives with a case full of magical creatures.

But he has entered a world where the magical authorities are determined to keep witches and wizards separate from ordinary "No-Maj" society.

Rowling said: "When Newt comes in, he messes up pretty badly."

Oscar-winning actor Redmayne, 34, told the Press Association: "One of the amazing things about Jo (Rowling) is that she creates things that are not only entertaining and have humour and warmth, but she reflects a mirror on the state of the world.

"Even though she wrote this film a couple of years ago, all those things about segregation, repression and the fear of the other are so pertinent. Hopefully fans will find many layers in the film."

Born and bred New Yorker Dan Fogler plays Jacob Kowalski, a No-Maj who is faced with the wizarding world when he finds himself embroiled in Newt's story.

He described London as a "cleaner" version of his home town and added: "I think that if you have the right intention, you can manifest some light in this world and I think the message that JK has is really going to help a lot of people escape and give them some wisdom to deal with these strange times we are facing."

David Yates, who directed the film and the four final Harry Potter instalments , said: "I think those (political) ideas within the movie are timeless. They come again throughout history - the notion of people being intolerant or bigoted or not really understanding other communities and trying to persecute them has existed forever.

"Sometimes it goes away, but our concerns as storytellers is to remind people that sometimes those things come back and to be vigilant and stand up against that kind of thing."

The film marks Rowling's debut as a screenwriter and she last month revealed that there would be a further four Fantastic Beasts sequels.

The next one in the series will include an introduction to the much-loved Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore, and will star Johnny Depp in the role of the evil wizard Gellert Grindelwald.

"You don't need to have seen or read Harry Potter to totally get this movie as it is a different story," Rowling said.

"Having said that, for the hardcore fans, there's definitely some interesting stuff coming."
Congo cabinet resigns as part of deal for Kabila to stay

By Kenny Katombe

KINSHASA, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Congo's prime minister and cabinet resigned on Monday as part of a deal that extends the tenure of President Joseph Kabila, who also defended the right of the Congolese people to change the constitution currently barring him from running again.

Kabila is supposed to step down when his mandate runs out on Dec. 19, but his ruling coalition and part of the opposition agreed last month to delay a presidential vote until April 2018, citing logistical problems in registering millions of voters.

"I have just handed in my resignation and that of my government to the president of the republic in line with the spirit of the political accord signed on Oct. 18," Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo said in a statement.

The government's departure should pave the way for a new cabinet with posts for some of those opposition figures who agreed to the election delay and to Kabila staying on as leader of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

However, the main opposition bloc has rejected the accord and more than 50 people died in street protests in September aimed at increasing pressure on Kabila to step down himself.

Kabila's critics say his aim is to change the constitution, which limits him to two terms in office, in order to secure a third. The country's constitutional court has given the go-ahead for the rescheduling of the election.

"SOVEREIGN PEOPLE"

At a press conference on Monday, Communications Minister Lambert Mende quoted Kabila as pledging to respect the constitution, which ruled out running for a third term, after a visit by a U.N. Security Council delegation over the weekend meant to press for a peaceful transition.

"I have never stopped saying that the constitution will be respected and it excludes the possibility of a third term," he said.

But he added: "This does not in any way remove the right of the Congolese, like all sovereign people, to modify the constitution in three, four or five years, if they so desire."

Stephen Hickey, political counselor at the UK Mission to the United Nations, had expressed concern over Kabila's insistence that the constitution could be amended.

Kabila became president following the assassination of his father in 2001, and he won disputed elections in 2006 and 2011.

World powers fear that the political impasse over Kabila's continued rule could reignite chaos in the vast nation spanning Africa's largest forest. Millions died in conflicts in Congo between 1998 and 2003 that sucked in armies from neighbouring states around the region.

As pressure mounts on Kabila, the government has taken a tougher line on media. Radio France International (RFI) and U.N.-funded Radio Okapi have both had their signals jammed for the past two weeks.

"Since (Radio Okapi) has systematically deviated from being a U.N. radio station to become a partisan station," the government judged it to have violated its agreement, Mende told the news conference.
Drones fly over ancient Nimrud to help secure Assyrian ruins

By Ahmed Rasheed

BAGHDAD, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Iraqi soldiers began painstaking work on Monday to secure the remains of the 3,000-year-old city of Nimrud, a day after driving out Islamic State militants who overran and ransacked the ancient Assyrian capital.

Nimrud's palace and temples, once at the heart of an empire which stretched across the Middle East, were razed by the ultra-hardline zealots after they swept through northern Iraq in 2014, destroying historic sites they declared idolatrous.

Whether any treasures at Nimrud can be rescued will be hard to assess until archaeologists can get there. That will take time because of fears the militants have left bombs or even fighters concealed in tunnels among the ruins.

"We are stepping up drone surveillance now over Nimrud to make sure no imminent threat still exists," a colonel in the Ninth Armoured Division told Reuters.

He said troops were in control of the area, but had strict instructions to be "extremely cautious" and were staying out of Nimrud while remaining villages nearby were cleared. The drones overflying the area were unarmed.

"We want to make sure we don't inflict even the least damage to buildings in Nimrud already damaged by the evil Daesh (Islamic State)," he said.

Nimrud lies on the eastern bank of the Tigris river, 30 km (20 miles) south of Mosul where Iraqi soldiers are battling to crush Islamic State. Mosul is the largest city under the militants' control in Iraq and neighbouring Syria.

The Sunni Islamist group still controls the remains of the ancient city of Nineveh, in central Mosul. Khorsabad, another Assyrian site northeast of Mosul, is close to the frontline of the current conflict.

To the south, the 2,000-year-old desert city of Hatra, famed for its pillared temple blending Graeco-Roman and eastern styles, was also seized and damaged by the militants in 2014.

The UN cultural agency UNESCO has condemned the destruction at Nimrud as a war crime and an attack on the world's shared heritage, pointing to ancient Mesopotamia's role as a cradle of civilisation where early urban centres flourished and cuneiform writing on clay was developed.

"Liberation of ancient Iraqi archaeological sites from the control of the forces of dark and evil is a victory not only for Iraqis but for all humanity," Iraq's deputy culture minister Qais Hussain Rasheed told Reuters after the army announced it had taken Nimrud.

NIMRUD DEVASTATION

In neighbouring Syria, Islamic State was driven out of the city of Palmyra eight months ago, after dynamiting monuments including two temples and Palmyra's imposing triumphal arch.

Syria's antiquities chief said much of Palmyra could be restored, but video footage of the destruction carried out by the militants in Nimrud, and a government report issued last year, suggest the devastation in Iraq is extensive.

The report by Iraq's culture ministry said a carved wall panel was stolen from the northern palace at Nimrud in July 2014. Eight months later, far greater damage was inflicted.

The militants destroyed 10 colossal statues of winged bulls, located at the palace gates and at the temple of Ishtar - goddess of love, war, sex and power - and Nabu - god of literature and wisdom.

A month later in April 2015 "the gangs completely blew up the city and its ancient buildings" the report said.

Video released by Islamic State supporters, purporting to show them at work in Nimrud, included footage of the militants using bulldozers and electric drills to tear down murals and statues. They also rigged up barrels full of explosives which they appeared to detonate at the site.

As recently as in the last three months, according to satellite imagery, Islamic State appears to have bulldozed the ziggurat, or step tower, built by Ashurnasirpal II and Shalmaneser III in the 9th century BC.

Pictures released by the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) Cultural Heritages Initiative showed that between late August and early November the towering remains of the ziggurat had been steadily flattened.

What appeared to be scars from bulldozer shovels were visible, and ASOR said there were also signs of machinery tracks at the temple of Ishtar. A picture which ASOR dated Nov. 4 did, however, show contours of the palace and two temples still visible, suggesting they were not entirely erased.

"It's premature to talk about the extent of damage that has been caused by Daesh," a government archaeological source said.

"After the sites have been completely secured by the army, then we will send the archaeology police to cordon off the sites," the source added. "Then we will send our crews to take images and write a detailed report on the damage."

Nimrud was excavated by a series of archaeological missions since the 19th century including in the 1950s by British archaeologist Max Mallowan, who was accompanied by his wife, detective novelist Agatha Christie.
Hague prosecutors say U.S. forces may have committed war crimes

By Thomas Escritt

AMSTERDAM, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in The Hague said on Monday there were preliminary grounds to believe U.S. forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan and at secret detention facilities elsewhere in 2003 and 2004.

In a report, prosecutors said there was a "reasonable basis to believe" that U.S. forces had tortured prisoners in Afghanistan and at Central Intelligence Agency detention facilities elsewhere in 2003 and 2004.

"Members of US armed forces appear to have subjected at least 61 detained persons to torture," the prosecutors' office, wrote. It added that CIA officials appeared to have tortured another 27 detainees.

The prosecutors' office, headed by Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, said it would decide imminently whether to pursue a full investigation.

The results of a full investigation could potentially lead to charges being brought against individuals and the issuing of an arrest warrant. The ICC is a court of last resort, however, meaning it could only bring charges if domestic authorities were not dealing adequately with allegations.

Monday's finding marks a significant step forward in the court's decade-old examination of conflicts in Afghanistan and could draw a sharp response from a U.S. administration that is set to become less internationalist under President-elect Donald Trump.

"These alleged crimes were not the abuses of a few isolated individuals," the report said. "They appear to have been committed as part of approved interrogation techniques in an attempt to extract 'actionable intelligence.'"

The United States occupied and patrolled large parts of Afghanistan during their hunt for the Taliban and al Qaeda forces behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Further crimes may have been committed at CIA facilities in Poland, Lithuania and Romania, prosecutors added, because individuals captured in Afghanistan were allegedly transferred to those sites.

The report, covering all the many preliminary examinations being carried out by the court, found grounds to suspect all belligerents, including the Taliban and the Afghan government, had committed war crimes.

The ICC was set up in 2003 to prosecute the gravest war crimes and crimes against humanity. The United States, which under President George W. Bush was fiercely opposed to the court, is not a member, but Afghanistan, Lithuania, Poland and Romania all are, giving it jurisdiction over crimes committed on their territories.

Under Bush, officials led by U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, now being cited as a potential member of Trump's cabinet, attacked the court and legislation was passed mandating U.S. forces to free any soldiers arrested on the court's authority.

The U.S. Senate Intelligence committee released in 2014 excerpts from a report on the CIA's detention and interrogation program from 2001 to 2006 that it said included torture of detainees.
Russian Economy Minister Ulyukayev detained over bribe allegation

By Svetlana Reiter and Vladimir Soldatkin

MOSCOW, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Russian law enforcement officials detained Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev on corruption charges linked to a $5 billion acquisition by state oil giant Rosneft, in a case that could lay bare the faultlines in President Vladimir Putin's inner circle.

Ulyukayev, a 60-year-old technocrat whose ministry has been overseeing a sell-off of state assets, is the highest-ranking Russian official to be arrested while in office since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The Investigative Committee, the state agency that investigates major crimes, said Ulyukayev received a $2 million bribe in exchange for signing off on Rosneft's purchase of a stake in mid-sized oil producer Bashneft .

"The minister is detained," the Committee said in a statement. "In the near future investigators plan to bring charges against Alexei Ulyukayev."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Putin had been informed about the case when the investigation was launched. "These are serious allegations," Peskov said. "Only a court can deliver a verdict."

He said he did not know whether the detention meant that Rosneft's purchase of Bashneft could be reviewed.

Rosneft's acquisition of Bashneft was the focus of a major turf war between rival Kremlin camps, sources close to the deal and in the government have told Reuters.

Rosneft's chief Igor Sechin, who is also one of Russia's most powerful men and a close Putin lieutenant, lobbied hard for the green light to buy Bashneft.

But the deal was fiercely opposed by economic liberals in the government, some with ties to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who believed Bashneft should go to private investors.

Ulyukayev initially opposed Rosneft buying Bashneft, one of the most lucrative state assets to be privatised in years, but eventually signed off on the deal.

Medvedev and Putin spoke about the detention, according to Medvedev's office. "The prime minister believes that the most painstaking investigation of this case is required," his office said in a statement.

A Rosneft spokesman, Mikhail Leontyev, was quoted as saying by TASS news agency that the company saw no risk to the Bashneft deal stemming from Ulyukayev's arrest. "The deal is absolutely above board," he said.

The minister has been in his job since June 2013. He is not part of Putin's inner circle, which is dominated by people who favour a commanding role for the state in the economy, but neither is he a part of the rival camp of economic liberals.
Old and worn out, U.S. coal-fired power plants easy prey for gas: Kemp

By John Kemp

LONDON, Nov 14 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's administration has been blamed for the closure of a record number of coal-fired power plants across and heavy job losses in the mining industry.

Since the current administration began in January 2009, more than 400 coal-fired power units have closed across the United States and around 33,000 coal-mining jobs have disappeared.

Coal now accounts for only a third of electricity generated in the United States down from almost half when the president took office.

The administration's opponents criticise it for waging a "war on coal" to support cleaner forms of energy including wind, solar and natural gas.

The administration's supporters credit it with forcing the closure of power plants that were a major source of air pollution as well as greenhouse gases (http://tmsnrt.rs/2eT5xUI).

But the reality is most of the coal-fired units that have closed since the president took office were very old and inefficient and would likely have closed anyway.

OLD AND WORN OUT

The average coal-fired power unit closed during the Obama administration started generating electricity in 1960 and almost all of them began generating before 1971.

So most of the retired units were already over 50 years old and had been producing power much longer than the typical generating unit (http://tmsnrt.rs/2eT8oNf).

The average retired unit had a capacity of just 80-100 megawatts, much smaller than the 500-1,000 megawatts now considered the minimum efficient size for a coal plant.

Aging power plants require much more maintenance to keep them running safely which means they are typically available to generate for far fewer hours each year than more modern ones.

Most components in a coal-fired power plant will show wear and tear as a result of prolonged operation and eventually need replacing ("Coal-fired electric power plant life extension", Martin Marietta, 1986).

Power plant components are subjected to high pressures and temperatures, repeated cycles of heating and cooling, constant exposure to steam and corrosive impurities including sulphur.

The result is a range of damage including creep, fatigue, erosion and corrosion.

Boiler tubes and drums, main steam lines, turbine blades and forgings, scrubbers and generator winding supports are among the expensive items that need replacing.

Power companies must make a commercial decision whether to incur large capital costs to extend the life of existing coal plants or replace them with other sources of generation.

MORE FLEXIBLE WITH GAS

In practice, it has been cheaper to replace coal-fired power plants with combined-cycle gas turbines which are quicker and cheaper to build, easier to run, and offer more generation flexibility.

CCGTs can ramp their production up and down much faster than coal-fired units making them much more suitable for load-following and two-shifting operations (running during the day while switching off at night).

CCGTs are therefore much more attractive for generators needing flexibility to operate in deregulated wholesale power markets.

Most new thermal power plants built in the United States since the early 1990s have therefore been fuelled by gas and employ a CCGT design.

Cheaper gas prices thanks to the shale revolution have entrenched the advantage of gas-fired power generation even further.

Coal units might have survived if demand for electricity had continued growing, in which case it might have made sense to keep them running while building gas-fired power stations to meet incremental demand (http://tmsnrt.rs/2fqZiLy).

But growth in electricity demand has been slowing for decades. Consumption has been essentially flat since 2007, according to an analysis of data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (http://tmsnrt.rs/2fhgq6D).

In a stagnant electricity market, coal-fired power generation has been pitted head to head with natural gas, and lost.

CONTINUED DECLINE LIKELY

Most utilities and independent power producers have opted not to extend the life of coal fired units when the time for the next major refit has arrived.

The Obama administration's encouragement of more solar and wind generation, both by utilities and by households, has worsened the predicament for coal-fired generators.

Stricter pollution and emissions regulations for new power coal-fired power plants (finalised) and existing ones (currently being challenged in court) have added to the compliance burden for coal-fired plants.

But most of those power plants would have retired in any case because it was no longer commercially viable to keep them running.

Coal retirements look set to continue in the medium term even if the forthcoming Trump administration ends the "war on coal".

The average age of coal-fired units still in operation is 39 years (the capacity-weighted average unit first operated in 1977).

By contrast, the average age of combined-cycle gas units is just 13 years (the median plant began generating in 2003).

Very few new coal-fired power units have been constructed in recent years and it is hard to see that changing unless gas prices rise significantly or the demand for electricity starts growing faster.

So the coal fleet will continue shrinking as existing plants reach the end of their lives and are replaced by other forms of generation.
Codelco cuts China 2017 copper premium to lowest since 2009

By Yuka Obayashi

KOBE, Japan Nov 15 (Reuters) - The world's leading copper producer Codelco has cut its 2017 term premiums to China by more than a quarter, an executive at the Chilean company said, reducing them to their lowest level since 2009.

Japan's biggest copper smelter Pan Pacific Copper (PPC) also expects its term premiums to China next year to be near Codelco's offer of $72 a tonne, down 31 percent from this year, its president said.

The cut underlines slower demand growth in China and comes despite the recent rally in the industrial metal prices on signs of economic strength in the world's biggest copper consumer.

Codelco's senior commercial vice president Rodrigo Toro, speaking on the sidelines of a conference on Tuesday, said the company had set next year's premium for physical delivery of metal in China at $72 a tonne over the London Metal Exchange benchmark <_0CMCU:_>.

That is down from $98 a tonne for this year's contracts and the lowest since 2009, Reuters data shows.

Traders said it was the first time that Codelco's premium in China has been lower than for Europe. The company has offered to cut premiums there to $80-$85 a tonne.

"Codelco has gone in aggressively for next year to conserve market share," said a trader in Shanghai.

The miner is battling with domestic smelters that have ramped up production of refined metal by 8.4 percent to 6.2 million tonnes this year.

PPC President Yoshihiro Nishiyama told Reuters that Codelco's $72 a tonne was an appropriate level given recent spot premiums that reflected softer Chinese demand and higher inventories.

"Premiums in Asia had been higher than Europe due to strong appetite from China. But that has changed since last year in the face of slower growth in China and increased stock built by speculators who had failed to sell them at a high profit," Nishiyama said.

The lower premiums reflect a tougher environment for metals sales after miners in Peru churned out a bumper year of supply this year. But analysts have recently made a downward revision to forecasts for 2017 mine supply growth to 0-1 percent.

One trader said the premiums represent a bet by Codelco on a drop in copper supply.

"Codelco are trying to sell as much as they can on term deals for 2017 to maximise upside exposure for the spot market," he said.

Copper futures prices have soared in the past week on worries that an expected surplus next year may be smaller than expected or even balanced. But the price spike has also fuelled concerns that it will blunt fragile demand in China.

Investors have piled into copper futures on signs of recovering global economic growth, limiting profit opportunities in other asset classes.
0-Oil prices soar 6 pct on renewed hopes of OPEC output deal

By Devika Krishna Kumar

NEW YORK, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Oil prices jumped 6 percent on Tuesday, with U.S. crude notching its biggest daily percentage gain in seven months, on renewed expectations that OPEC will agree later this month to reduce a global supply glut.

OPEC secretary-general Mohammed Barkindo will travel to member nations, including Iran and Venezuela, over the next several days to discuss the deal ahead of the group's meeting in Vienna on Nov. 30.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to an outline of the deal in September but with two weeks to go before the next meeting, disagreements persist among OPEC members and non-OPEC Russia on the exact details of the deal.

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih is expected to travel to the Qatari capital, Doha, this week for meetings with oil-producing countries, including Russia, on the sidelines of an energy forum, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Traders and analysts also said last ditch efforts by OPEC to reconcile triggered a wave of short covering that helped to boost prices.

"There were a lot of new speculative shorts in the market because of the growing skepticism that they would be able to clinch a deal," said Andrew Lebow, senior partner at Commodity Research Group in Darien, Connecticut, adding that those shorts got squeezed as a deal seemed more likely.

"You add to that some increased optimism over an OPEC deal and you get a $2 a move."

U.S. crude ended the session $2.49 higher at $45.81 per barrel, a 5.8 percent gain, its biggest daily percentage increase since early April.

Brent futures settled at $46.95 a barrel, up $2.52, or 5.7 percent, its biggest percentage gain since Sept. 28.

Both benchmarks also rebounded from three-month lows on Monday.

Prices pared some gains in post-settlement trade after data from industry group American Petroleum Institute (API) showed U.S. crude inventories rose 3.6 million barrels in the week to Nov. 11, versus analysts expectations of a 1.5 million-barrel build.

The U.S. Department of Energy report is due at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT) on Wednesday.

News of an attack on a major oil pipeline in Nigeria, the Nembe Creek Trunk Line in the southern Niger Delta, gave an additional push to prices.

Oil markets have not yet fully determined the effects of a Donald Trump victory in the U.S. presidential elections, analysts have said.

The Financial Times reported that Saudi Arabia warned Trump that the incoming president will risk the health of his country's economy if he acts on his election promises to block oil imports.

From a technical point of view, there was some buying in U.S. crude above the 200-day moving average, said Tony Headrick, an energy market analyst at CHS Hedging LLC.

"The extent of today's move is, I think, based in part on technicals."
Romania - Factors to watch on Nov. 15

Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Romanian financial markets on Tuesday.

Q3 GDP

Romania's National Statistics Board will release flash estimate for the third quarter gross domestic product at 0700 GMT.

DEBT TENDER

Romania sold 160 million lei ($38.18 million) worth of Feb. 2019 treasury bonds on Monday, less than half the planned amount, at an average accepted yield of 1.36 percent, central bank data showed.

Debt managers, who had planned to sell 400 million lei worth of the paper, last tendered it in October at an average yield of 1.22 percent.

CURRENT ACCOUNT

Romania's current account deficit more than doubled to 2.66 billion euros ($2.86 billion) on the year in the first nine months, central bank data showed on Monday.

INDUSTRY

Romania's adjusted industrial output rose 1.0 percent on the month in September compared with August's 0.5 percent rise, and was 1.4 percent up on the year.

CEE MARKETS

Central European assets remained under pressure on Monday, with bonds tracking a post-election slump in U.S. Treasuries and the region's main currencies trading near multi-month lows.

For the long-term Romanian diary, click on

For emerging markets economic events, click on

For an index of all diaries, click on
PRESS DIGEST - Bulgaria - Nov 15

SOFIA, Nov 15 (Reuters) - These are some of the main stories in Bulgarian newspapers on Tuesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

-- Outgoing President Rosen Plevneliev will consult the newly elected President Rumen Radev if he has to appoint an interim government following the resignation of the centre-right government, Radev said after meeting with Plevneliev. (Standart, Duma, Sega, Trud, 24 Chasa, Monitor)

-- The ruling GERB party said it would not withdraw its 2017 budget draft from the parliament, despite the resignation of the government. (Standart)

-- Russian President Vladimir Putin, the U.S. embassy in Sofia and the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker have congratulated President-Elect Rumen Radev for his victory. (Standart, Telegraph, 24 Chasa, Trud)
Hong Kong stocks end up, off 3-1/2-month low

SHANGHAI, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Hong Kong stocks rebounded on Tuesday, recovering from a nearly 3-1/2-month closing low the previous day, as recent sharp gains in U.S. Treasury yields appeared to level off.

The benchmark Hang Seng index ended up 0.5 percent, to 22,323.91, while the Hong Kong China Enterprises Index gained 0.6 percent, to 9,398.10 points.

"In Hong Kong, our eyes were on the U.S. market in the evening and then shifted to China's market in the morning where sentiment has been positive," said Qian Qimin, analyst at Shenwan Hongyuan Securities, adding however that gains would be capped due to recent volatility in global markets.

Treasury prices eased after a surprising victory by Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election sent longer-dated yields soaring, sparking fears of outflows from emerging markets.
Germany bans Islamist "True Religion" group, raiding mosques and flats

By Caroline Copley and Madeline Chambers

BERLIN, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Police launched dawn raids across Germany on Tuesday on about 190 mosques, flats and offices linked to an Islamist group after the government banned the organisation, accusing it of radicalising youngsters.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the DWR "True Religion" group had persuaded about 140 people to join militants in Iraq and Syria.

DWR, also known as "READ!" made no reference to the raids on its website and did not immediately respond to a request for comment. De Maiziere said it had several hundred members.

Pictures showed masked police officers carrying away computers and files from properties.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has come under pressure to harden her line on security after several attacks claimed by Islamic State across Europe, including a bombing and a knifing in Germany that wounded some 20 people in July. She is also under fire for letting in about 900,000 migrants, mostly Muslims, last year.

Some Syrians in Germany say many mosques here are more conservative than those at home, and that they are confronted by Muslims who insist on a literal interpretation of the Koran.

Last month, a Syrian committed suicide in prison after he was arrested on suspicion of planning to bomb an airport. His brother and friends have said he was "brainwashed" by ultra-conservatives imams in Berlin.

The Bundesverfassungsschutz domestic intelligence agency estimates that there are about 40,000 Islamists in Germany, including 9,200 ultra-conservative Islamists known as Salafists, Hans-Georg Maassen, who leads the agency, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.

"There are about 500 people that the police consider dangerous," he said. "We remain a target of Islamic terrorism and we have to assume that Islamic State or other terrorist organisations will carry out an attack in Germany if they can."

De Maiziere said Tuesday's raids in 10 German states were the biggest crackdown on any group since the government shut down a movement known as Kalifatstaat (Caliphate State) in 2001, accusing it of extremist activities.

He said DWR had distributed Korans and other religious material especially to young people, but this was not the reason for the ban.

"Today's ban is rather directed against the abuse of religion by people propagating extremist ideologies and supporting terrorist organizations under the pretext of Islam."

Maassen said the ban - which had been carefully prepared to ensure it could not be overturned by the courts - could prompt large numbers of people to withdraw from the Salafist scene, or at least reduce their missionary work.

"The decisive issue now is that the evidence has to be examined to understand how the organisation funded itself and who else was behind it as supporters and financiers, so that we can take additional measures," he told Reuters.

He said there was evidence that a foundation in Bahrain had paid for Korans used by the group, but did not name the foundation and gave no further details.

DWR members have tried to hand out material in German town centres to passers-by, often holding banners or wearing garments with the word "READ!" emblazoned in gold. The ban means they are now prohibited from running such campaigns.

Fears about the number of migrants entering the country have boosted support for Alternative for Germany (AfD), a populist party that says Islam is incompatible with the constitution and has siphoned off support from Merkel's conservatives.
Egyptian court overturns ex-president Mursi's death sentence

CAIRO, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Egypt's Court of Cassation on Tuesday overturned a death sentence against deposed president Mohammed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood and ordered a retrial.

Mursi was sentenced to death in June 2015 in connection with a mass jail break during Egypt's 2011 uprising.

Mursi, democratically elected after the revolution, was overthrown in mid-2013 by then-general Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, now the president, following mass protests against his rule, and immediately arrested.

Tuesday's court ruling means that Mursi is no longer under threat of execution, although he is serving three lengthy jail sentences.

Since toppling Mursi, Sisi has clamped down on dissent. Mass trials have been held for thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters, and hundreds have received death sentences or lengthy prison terms.

Abdel-Moneim Abdel-Maksoud, the Brotherhood's lawyer, said the Court of Cassation had applied the law correctly.

"The ruling was expected because (Mursi's conviction) was legally flawed, and we are waiting for the retrial."

Mursi is already serving a 20-year prison sentence for a conviction arising from the killings of protesters during demonstrations in 2012. He has also been sentenced to 40 years on charges of spying for Qatar and to life imprisonment on charges of spying for the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

The government deems the Brotherhood, Egypt's oldest opposition movement dating back decades, a terrorist group. The Brotherhood says it is committed to peaceful activism.
Iraq's children of caliphate face stateless future

By Stephen Kalin

DEBAGA, Iraq, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Ali and Sara, born in Islamic State's self-styled caliphate in northern Iraq, escaped to a camp for displaced people only to confront a new challenge -- with no identity documents, they risk joining a generation of stateless children.

After seizing large parts of Iraq and neighbouring Syria in 2014, Islamic State imposed its strict interpretation of Islamic law and began to establish the basic frameworks of statehood such as taxes and regulation.

But that project is collapsing in the face of a military campaign in Iraq to crush the militants, with unexpected consequences for ordinary people escaping their grip.

Births in Islamic State-controlled areas were registered with authorities that are not considered valid outside that shrinking territory - or not registered at all.

That is adding hundreds and perhaps thousands of children under the age of 2-1/2 to the growing numbers of children across the Middle East who are stateless - lacking legal recognition as a citizen of any country.

Stateless children risk missing out on basic rights such as education and healthcare, are likely to face difficulties in adulthood getting a job, and are exposed to abuse and trafficking, according to the United Nations.

The five-year-old civil war in neighbouring Syria, which has uprooted 10 million people, threatens an even greater number of children born in areas outside Syrian government control or in refugee camps beyond its borders.

Sara was born just as the ultra-hardline Islamists stormed across Iraq in 2014. Her little brother Ali was born two years later, days before his family fled to Debaga camp from their village south of Mosul, Islamic State's last major stronghold which Iraqi forces are now battling to retake.

The children's father, Mohamed, says he did not register either birth with Islamic State.

"If you brought them a child, they would issue a birth certificate themselves in the name of their state," he said, spurning that proposition.

Some parents did register their newborns with Islamic State, which issued proprietary birth certificates bearing the group's black-and-white logo declaring "There is no god but God".

Furaq, a 22-year-old from the Mosul area, showed Reuters a lightweight pink document issued by the group when his eight-month-old son Yasser was born. It closely resembles its Iraqi equivalent.

Mahdi Waili, head of the government directorate which deals with nationality, said parents whose children do not have birth certificates would be able to go to the health ministry offices to arrange for their births to be registered.

However, months after some areas in northern Iraq were retaken from Islamic State, local government services have yet to be reinstated.

FEAR OF REPRISALS

Other parents privately say they obtained Islamic State documents for their children but tore them up when Iraqi forces pushed out the militants, fearing reprisals for what could be seen as cooperating with the group.

Ali, a first-time father from inside Mosul, spoke to Reuters last week holding his 19-month-old daughter Amal, who was born with a brain defect that has kept her from learning to walk.

He secured a birth certificate for the girl from a neighbour who worked in the local hospital but refused to let Islamic State authenticate it with their official stamp.

"The doctor told me, 'Don't let anyone know you have the certificate or they will slaughter us both'," Ali said.

Abu Saud, 41-year-old father of five, said he decided not to register his son's birth in October 2014 at a village south of Mosul controlled at the time by Islamic State.

"With my other children, I would go to the residency department to register them with a photo and stamp," he said outside his tent in Debaga. "It proves that this is my child or your child or his child. But now, he doesn't have an ID card."

The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR says it wants Iraqi authorities to issue birth certificates for children born in areas controlled by Islamic State.

Debaga camp manager Ahmed Abdo said his staff is working with the United Nations, a Swedish NGO and the Iraqi government to try to resolve the problem, and so far UNHCR has provided legal assistance to help resolve 175 cases.

But a UNHCR spokesman said a significant increase was anticipated as the roughly 1.5 million people still living inside Mosul emerge from Islamic State rule.

Belkis Wille, Iraq researcher for Human Rights Watch, said Iraqi authorities have an international legal obligation to grant nationality to all people born stateless in their territory.
France says Israeli bill on settlements a risk to two-state solution

PARIS, Nov 15 (Reuters) - France said on Tuesday an Israeli bill supported by a ministerial committee allowing settlers in the occupied West Bank to remain in homes built on private Palestinian land was of a matter of deep concern and jeopardized a two-state solution.

"This proposed law, if it were adopted, would once again jeopardize a two-state solution and would contribute in worsening tensions on the ground. France is deeply concerned by it," Foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said in a daily briefing.

The ministerial committee defied Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and voted on Sunday to back the bill, which will be debated by parliament on Wednesday and is still some distance from becoming law.

Israel's attorney-general, Avihai Mandelblit, has called the bill legally flawed in its current form, saying that it contravened private property rights legislation and did not tally with Israel's international law commitments.
Bangladesh court indicts seven in killing of Japanese man

DHAKA, Nov 15 (Reuters) - A court in Bangladesh on Tuesday indicted seven members of a banned Islamist group in the killing of a Japanese man last year, a prosecutor said.

Kunio Hoshi, 65, was gunned down by motorcycle-borne gunmen while on his way to visit a grass farm project in the northern district of Rangpur, less than a week after an Italian aid worker was similarly killed in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter.

The men were members of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh group, and the court indicted them for the murder of the Japanese man, public prosecutor Rathish Chandra Bhowmik told reporters.

"The court fixed Jan. 4 for recording witnesses in the case," he said.

Five of the men pleaded not guilty in court, while two others are on the run.

Police believe the group, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, carried out a July 1 attack on a cafe in which 22 people were killed, mostly foreigners, before security forces ended a 12-hour siege, killing five gunmen.

Islamic State and al Qaeda have claimed a series of killings of liberals and members of religious minorities in Bangladesh in the past year.

Islamic State also claimed responsibility for the cafe attack but the government has dismissed suggestions the group has a presence in Bangladesh.

While authorities blame the violence on domestic militants, security experts say the scale and sophistication of the cafe attack suggested links to a trans-national network.
AFTAH to Trump: 'Gay Marriage' Not 'Settled' Law LaBarbera Urges President-elect to Honor His Pledge to GOP Voters to Defend Traditional Marriage by Working to Reverse SCOTUS Obergefell Ruling



Contact: Peter LaBarbera or Brad Wallace,



CHICAGO, Nov. 15, 2016 /



[Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (



In an



That directly contradicts what then-candidate



Just prior to the Iowa caucuses, where he was appealing to evangelical voters,



The late Antonin Scalia--whom Trump holds up as the type of Supreme Court Justice he would appoint--ripped into Obergefell in a powerful dissent--saying it was a "naked judicial claim to legislative--indeed, super-legislative--power; a claim fundamentally at odds with our system of government.



"[T]o allow the policy question of same-sex marriage to be considered and resolved by a select, patrician, highly unrepresentative panel of nine is to violate a principle even more fundamental than no taxation without representation: no social transformation without representation,"



AFTAH's LaBarbera described what is at stake with Trump and marriage: "Many millions of evangelical, Catholic and moral-minded voters trusted Mr. Trump with their votes because they did not see him as just another slippery politician. Now it is up to President-elect Trump to show that he is worthy of that trust by clarifying his defeatist statement on Obergefell.



"America cannot become great again by defying God, and homosexuality-based 'marriage' is about as godless as it gets," LaBarbera said. "Trump needs to do all he can to reverse the Supreme Court's unconstitutional Obergefell rulingjust as he pledges to overturn Roe v. Wade and abortion-on-demand.



"It would be a YUUGE mistake for Trump to break his pledge to the pro-marriage Republican voters who put him in the White House. His victory was a stunning rebuke to the arrogant, corrupt and dishonest political-media elites who think they know better than the American electorateeven as they push extremist agendas like allowing men into female restrooms," LaBarbera said. "Trump must not pander to the media on 'gay marriage.'"



In the "60 Minutes" interview, Trump returned to his view expressed in an 2015 interview with the



LGBTQ-identified citizens voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton for president. Even the tiny "gay Republican" group, Log Cabin Republicans, voted NOT to endorse Trump. Meanwhile, evangelicals and traditional Catholics voted overwhelmingly for Trump.



AFTAH is based outside Chicago: AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522

Share Tweet Contact: Peter LaBarbera or Brad Wallace, AFTAH , 312-324-3787CHICAGO, Nov. 15, 2016 / Christian Newswire / -- AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera called on President-elect Donald Trump to revise his estimation that the Supreme Court has "settled" the issue of homosexual "marriage" -- and instead honor his pledge to America's voters to defend natural marriage against the "shocking" 2015 Obergefell ruling.[Americans For Truth About Homosexuality ( AFTAH ) is dedicated to exposing and opposing the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) agenda. Sign up for AFTAH updates .]In an interview with CBS "60 Minutes" Sunday, Trump asserted that the Supreme Court's 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling imposing homosexual "marriage" on all 50 states was "settled" law, and that "gay marriage" as a political issue is "done  And I'm fine with that."That directly contradicts what then-candidate Trump told GOP primary voters in South Carolina last February: that he opposed the "shocking" Obergefell decision and that evangelical voters can trust him to protect real, man-woman marriage. Trump said he favors letting the states decide marriage laws for themselves.Just prior to the Iowa caucuses, where he was appealing to evangelical voters, Trump said he would like to see Obergefell overturned: "If I'm elected I would be very strong in putting certain judges on the bench that maybe could change things, but they have a long way to go."The late Antonin Scalia--whom Trump holds up as the type of Supreme Court Justice he would appoint--ripped into Obergefell in a powerful dissent--saying it was a "naked judicial claim to legislative--indeed, super-legislative--power; a claim fundamentally at odds with our system of government."[T]o allow the policy question of same-sex marriage to be considered and resolved by a select, patrician, highly unrepresentative panel of nine is to violate a principle even more fundamental than no taxation without representation: no social transformation without representation," Scalia wrote AFTAH's LaBarbera described what is at stake with Trump and marriage: "Many millions of evangelical, Catholic and moral-minded voters trusted Mr. Trump with their votes because they did not see him as just another slippery politician. Now it is up to President-elect Trump to show that he is worthy of that trust by clarifying his defeatist statement on Obergefell."America cannot become great again by defying God, and homosexuality-based 'marriage' is about as godless as it gets," LaBarbera said. "Trump needs to do all he can to reverse the Supreme Court's unconstitutional Obergefell rulingjust as he pledges to overturn Roe v. Wade and abortion-on-demand."It would be a YUUGE mistake for Trump to break his pledge to the pro-marriage Republican voters who put him in the White House. His victory was a stunning rebuke to the arrogant, corrupt and dishonest political-media elites who think they know better than the American electorateeven as they push extremist agendas like allowing men into female restrooms," LaBarbera said. "Trump must not pander to the media on 'gay marriage.'"In the "60 Minutes" interview, Trump returned to his view expressed in an 2015 interview with the Hollywood Reporter  which he said: "anybody that's making that an issue [of homosexual 'marriage'] is doing it for political reasons. The Supreme Court ruled on it."LGBTQ-identified citizens voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton for president. Even the tiny "gay Republican" group, Log Cabin Republicans, voted NOT to endorse Trump. Meanwhile, evangelicals and traditional Catholics voted overwhelmingly for Trump.AFTAH is based outside Chicago: AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522
Moldova's pro-Russian president-elect says EU ties will remain

By Alexander Tanas

CHISINAU, Nov 15 (Reuters) - The pro-Russian winner of Moldova's presidential election said on Tuesday the country would not cut ties with the European Union, appearing to row back on campaign comments that it should move closer to Moscow.

Igor Dodon won Sunday's election with just over 50 percent of the vote after calling in the campaign for a referendum on its 2014 political and trade pact with the European bloc and focus on improving relations with Russia.

His stance put him in direct conflict with the ex-Soviet republic's pro-EU government, but his latest comments suggest he is seeking to find a middle ground.

"All ties with the EU remain in effect, all decisions with the external partners of Moldova will be carried out in the future," Dodon told a news conference. "The president should be neither pro-European nor pro-Russian, but only pro-Moldovan."

In contrast to this conciliatory tone, Dodon told a Russian news channel on Monday he would push for early parliamentary elections next year to force out the government.

This would spell yet more instability for the ex-Soviet nation, where a $1 billion graft scandal in 2014 damaged trust in pro-EU leaders and resulted in the prime minister being jailed. The impoverished country has had four premiers since.

Dodon said he had been congratulated on his victory by EU leaders as well as by Russian President Vladimir Putin, adding that he planned to visit Moscow before the end of 2016.

Russia imposed trade bans on key Moldovan farming exports in response to the EU agreement. Dodon's promise to boost relations with Moscow has found favour with the many Moldovans suffering financially from the bans and a broader economic downturn.

The economy of Moldova, the poorest country in Europe, shrank 0.5 percent in 2015 after two years of growth. It is expected to return to modest growth this year, but exports have yet to recover to pre-crisis levels, falling 4.3 percent in the first quarter of 2016.
NATO says Crimea still a concern, day after Trump-Putin call

By Robin Emmott and Philip Blenkinsop

BRUSSELS, Nov 15 (Reuters) - NATO's chief said on Tuesday that Russia's seizure of Crimea remained a major sticking point, sounding a note of caution a day after U.S. president-elect Donald Trump agreed to boost cooperation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The U.S.-led military alliance wanted to keep talking to Moscow, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said before talks with EU defence ministers in Brussels.

But Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea was an unacceptable breach of Ukraine's sovereignty, he added.

His message was echoed by German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen who said she was also concerned about Russia's military activities in eastern Ukraine and Syria. "It is ... important not to forget our principles," she added.

Germany and other European powers have said they are concerned about what Trump's election win will mean for the United States' commitment to NATO.

During campaign speeches, Trump had said Washington might not defend a NATO member who had not paid its contributions to the alliance and told ABC News in July he might recognise Crimea as Russian.

"The message from NATO has been that we want dialogue with Russia," said Stoltenberg, whose country Norway borders Russia.

"Russia is our biggest neighbour, Russia is there to stay and especially when tensions run high and especially when we face many different security challenges, it is important to have dialogue."

Stoltenberg said he hoped NATO envoys and Russia's ambassador to NATO, Alexander Grushko, could meet in the NATO-Russia Council soon.

But he said: "We will never respect or accept the violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine."

The Kremlin says Crimea, where Moscow is building up its military presence, is Russian land and its status non-negotiable. In Putin's call with Trump both men agreed "to normalize relations and pursue constructive cooperation on the broadest possible range of issues," according to a statement from the Kremlin.

The United States and the European Union imposed sanctions on Russia over Crimea in July 2014 and then tightened them in December 2014, banning EU citizens from buying or financing companies in Crimea, whose annexation has prompted the worst East-West stand-off since the Cold War.

Russia hopes the United States under Trump will repeal those measures, potentially pressuring the European Union to do the same.

Von der Leyen described the annexation of Crimea as "an open point".
France's Hollande tells Trump to respect climate deal

MARRAKESH, Morocco, Nov 15 (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande urged U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday to respect a global agreement to limit climate change, saying the deal was irreversible and inaction on global warming would be disastrous.

Hollande told a U.N. conference on climate change in Marrakesh, Morocco, that the 2015 agreement to limit emissions "is irreversible in law and in fact. In addition, it is irreversible in our minds".

"The United States, the largest economic power in the world, the second largest greenhouse gas emitter, must respect the commitments it has undertaken," he said, to applause from an audience of about 80 national leaders.

Trump has called climate change a hoax and has said he wants to withdraw from the accord, which seeks to phase out world greenhouse gas emissions sometime between 2050 and 2100.

Hollande, an architect of the pact, said he would work with Trump, and that the agreement was in the interests of the American people, as well as U.S. companies and cities that were trying to combat climate change.
South Africa's Zuma asks state prosecutor to give reasons why he should not be suspended

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 15 (Reuters) - South African President Jacob Zuma has asked National Director of Public Prosecutions Shaun Abrahams to give reasons by Nov. 28 why he should not be suspended, the president's office said on Tuesday.

The request was made pending an inquiry into Abrahams' fitness to hold office, the president's office said.
France's Sarkozy denies Libya allegations, will take legal action

PARIS, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Nicolas Sarkozy, seeking to return to power as French president, denied on Tuesday receiving money from deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to fund his election bid in 2007, calling claims by a Franco-Lebanese businessman a "crude manipulation".

In a filmed interview released on Tuesday by the news website Mediapart, Ziad Takieddine said he had transferred about 5 million euros ($5.4 million) of illicit funding from Gaddafi's former intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi to Sarkozy and his campaign director Claude Gueant.

Sarkozy, who served as president from 2007 to 2012 and is seeking nomination as the conservative candidate in next year's presidential election, has always denied allegations that he took covert funding from Libya.

"Once more, and always before an election, Mediapart is trying to taint Nicolas Sarkozy with allegations (that are) as untrue today as they were yesterday," Sarkozy's lawyer Thierry Herzog said in a statement sent to Reuters.

Legal proceedings will be launched in response to "this crude manipulation", he added.

Takieddine's statement came just days before the first round of a primary election to pick the centre-right's candidate and risked overshadowing the last days of Sarkozy's campaign.

"Why and how can a guy like this stand for presidency of the Republic? The French people must react. It will explode," Takieddine said.

Gueant's lawyer, Philippe Bouchez El Ghozi, also denied the allegations by Takieddine.

"Claude Gueant has always been very clear. He never received from near or far or heard about a centime of money from Libya to support Nicolas Sarkozy's campaign. He has repeated this multiple times to the judicial authorities," he told Reuters.

Ghozi said Gueant would also sue.

INVESTIGATION

France's public prosecutor opened a judicial investigation into earlier allegations by Takieddine in 2013, but until now, he had never described how the money was transferred or directly pinpointed Sarkozy.

Takieddine said he had given a written deposition to judges on Nov. 12 detailing three separate cash transfers between 2006-2007 and his meetings with Gueant and Sarkozy.

At no point, he says, did he see the two men ever look inside the cases after he dropped them off at the Interior Ministry, where Sarkozy was minister at the time.

In his statement, Herzog also sent a copy of a witness statement made to police by Takieddine in 2012 in which the businessman said he had last seen Sarkozy in November 2003.

"Anyone can deduce a precise idea of the credibility of the account given by Ziad Takieddine," he said.

Libyan officials from the Gaddafi era have previously claimed they helped to finance Sarkozy's election campaign.

Gaddafi was toppled and killed during an uprising against his rule in 2011.
Kenya sets fire to 5,000 illegal weapons in crime fight

By Humphrey Malalo

NAIROBI, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Kenya destroyed some 5,250 illegal firearms by fire on Tuesday as part of efforts to fight crimes like cattle rustling, carjackings and to eliminate threats from terrorism.

The burning destroyed weapons confiscated by law enforcement officials or voluntarily surrendered to agents collecting illegal small arms and light weapons.

"Here in Kenya, small arms are implicated in many deaths, in acts of armed violence, among them inter community conflicts, cattle rustling, violent crimes and poaching," Deputy President William Ruto said before the weapons were set ablaze.

"Their presence has also intensified the threats posed by transnational crimes such as terrorism, human trafficking, piracy and drug trafficking," he said in a speech.

Somalia's al Shabaab, which seeks to overthrow the country's Western-backed government and impose a strict version of sharia law, has carried out regular assaults in neighbouring Kenya in recent years as retaliation for Kenya contributing troops to an African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.
Merkel open to talks on detail of EU free movement, in hint at Brexit wiggle room

By Paul Carrel

BERLIN, Nov 15 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel signalled a readiness on Tuesday to discuss the parameters of the free movement of people in the European Union, suggesting there may be some room for manoeuvre on the issue in talks on Britain's exit from the bloc.

Merkel said the EU could not divide its four freedoms - of movement of goods, capital, people and services - to allow Britain to restrict immigration from the bloc while retaining tariff-free access to the market of close to 500 million people.

But she opened a door to discussions on the framework of the free movement of people, in a potentially significant development for Britain, where controlling immigration was a major issue for many of the 52 percent of Britons who backed leaving the EU.

"Were we to make an exception for the free movement of people with Britain, this would mean we would endanger principles of the whole internal market in the European Union, because everyone else will then want these exceptions," Merkel told a meeting of Germany's BDA employers association.

But on the finer detail of defining the free movement of people, she added: "I personally am of the view that we will have to discuss further with the (European) Commission when this freedom of movement applies from."

Merkel said that if, for example, someone came to Germany from eastern Europe and worked only for a short time but acquired a life-long claim on welfare benefits, "then I see a question about which we must talk again."

"Free movement applies to me in the sense that the employee himself earns the money he needs for himself and his family in the other member state," she said.

The nuance around when to apply the principle of free movement of people could prove welcome to British Prime Minister Theresa May, who has said Britain does not face a "binary choice" between curbing immigration and getting a good trade agreement.

Offering "fair" negotiations, Merkel added: "First, however, Britain must explain in what manner it would like this exit."

A memo written for May's government and leaked to The Times newspaper said that Britain has no overall Brexit strategy and that splits in the cabinet could prevent it from agreeing on a clear negotiating position for six months.

May has promised to trigger divorce proceedings with the EU by the end of March. So far the bloc has portrayed the single market, which Britain may subsequently try to retain membership of, as a set package of principles rather than an a la carte menu that Britain can pick and choose from.

Merkel reiterated that broad principle, telling the BDA: "In my firm view, we cannot wobble on the basic principle of free movement of people."
Italy's Renzi hails return to growth ahead of referendum

By Isla Binnie

ROME, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Matteo Renzi seized on Italy's return to modest economic growth on Tuesday to promote his reform agenda ahead of a constitutional referendum upon which he has staked his political future.

The Italian economy rebounded slightly more strongly than expected in the third quarter after stagnating in April-June - welcome news for Renzi, who opinion polls suggest will lose the Dec. 4 vote.

"With reforms, GDP rises," Renzi wrote on Twitter. "Full steam ahead."

Gross domestic product in the euro zone's third-largest economy rose 0.3 percent in July-September from the previous quarter, statistics institute ISTAT said on Tuesday. Year-on-year growth accelerated to 0.9 percent from a downwardly revised 0.7 percent in the second quarter.

A Reuters survey of 18 analysts had pointed to a 0.2 percent quarterly increase and a 0.8 percent year-on-year rise.

But as Italians get ready to vote on Renzi's plan to reduce the role of the Senate - parliament's upper house - and curb the powers of regional governments, plenty of risks to the economic outlook persist.

"We remain wary that the country is still struggling to develop a more sustainable and broad-based upturn," Raj Badiani, senior economist at IHS Global Insight, said in a note.

Among the biggest concerns is a lack of lending to firms by banks struggling with bad debts of more than 200 billion euros ($214.9 billion) that built up during a slump at the start of the decade.

The risks are also political. "Renzi has threatened to step down if he loses ... throwing Italy into political turmoil at a time when economic pressures are acute," Badiani said.

BOND PRESSURE

Investors are zeroing in on Italy ahead of the referendum, and government bond yields spiked to their highest levels in over a year on Monday after Renzi reiterated that he may step down if his reform is rejected.

The yields investors demand to hold Italian debt shrank back on Tuesday after the forecast-beating GDP data.

With one of the world's largest public debt piles, Italy's borrowing costs are closely watched as a potential flashpoint for market instability in the wider euro zone.

Many Italians feel that Renzi, who came to power in 2014 vowing to "demolish" old political structures and breathe life into a moribund economy, has not delivered on his promises.

"He seemed like something new, but he has betrayed some of that spirit," said Pietro Manetta, a 50 year-old lawyer who lives in Rome and plans to vote 'No' in the referendum.

Promised reforms to the sclerotic public administration, justice system and taxation have not yet brought tangible benefits to people's pockets, and youth unemployment has stayed close to 40 percent despite a 2014 labour market reform.

"The real problem is what people take home at the end of the month ... To get the whole economy going we need to simplify everything," Manetta said.
Canada expects joint trade talks with U.S., Mexico - finance minister

By Helen Reid and Marc Jones

LONDON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Canada aims to hold joint talks with the United States and Mexico over their trade agreements, which U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to scrap, the Canadian finance minister said on Tuesday.

"We have an enormous stake in the success of our relationship with the U.S. and with Mexico: our supply chains are intertwined, we've developed a very successful economic unit over the course of the last twenty years," Bill Morneau said at the London School of Economics.

"We will work with the U.S., and this would go with any U.S. administration, in order to show the benefit of that relationship," he said. "We expect Mexico will be part of that discussion."

Mexico, the United States and Canada trade under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), formed in 1994. Trump has threatened to scrap or renegotiate NAFTA to get a "better deal" from Mexico and Canada.

Exports account for about a third of Canada's GDP. Of these, about three-quarters go to the United States and many Canadian companies are dependent on American imports.

A study by Export Development Canada estimates exports to the United States could drop by as much as 5 percent if a 10 percent tariff were imposed.

"Working together is the right thing to do and we'll get to a conclusion that is mutually advantageous," Morneau said.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said on Tuesday his country would need to show "enormous pragmatism" in its dealings with Trump's government to try and find common ground on trade and immigration.

On economic policy, Morneau said Western economies had been too focused on monetary policy to stimulate growth, but that had largely run out of steam.

Canada said this month it would set up an infrastructure bank with access to C$35 billion ($26 billion) to help fund major projects and the country is also seeking private investors.

"We brought in a point of view that using fiscal policy for long-term investments was the right way to go to enhance our growth," Morneau said.

Trump plans a similar fiscal policy, with $1 trillion of infrastructure spending, relying on investment from the private sector.

Morneau also said Canada would press on with carbon pricing, a plan which is seen at risk from Trump's resistance to measures to tackle climate change.

Last month Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that carbon emissions would cost C$10 a tonne in 2018, rising by C$10 a year and reaching C$50 in 2022.
2-Oklahoma City airport shooting suspect found dead

OKLAHOMA CITY, Nov 15 (Reuters) - The man suspected in the fatal shooting of a Southwest Airlines employee at Oklahoma City's main airport on Tuesday was found dead inside a vehicle hours after flights were halted and a shelter in place order was issued, police said.

Oklahoma City Police announced the discovery of the suspect in a statement on Twitter, but provided no other details.

The shooting victim, Michael Winchester, 52, was the father of football player James Winchester, a long snapper for the Kansas City Chiefs. He was shot in an airport parking lot, Oklahoma City Police Captain Paco Balderrama told reporters.

Police said no information was available about the motive for the shooting.

Ken Sarnoff, the agent for James Winchester, announced the death of the player's father in a Twitter posting.

"Our love and support is with James and the entire Winchester family," the Kansas City Chiefs said in a statement released later.

Will Rogers World Airport officials said on Twitter that the airport was "slowly resuming" operations.

Police armed with rifles swept through the airport parking lot in their search. Police said they expected the airport to be fully operational by Wednesday.

The airport had suspended all arrivals and departures, and Southwest said it canceled all inbound and outbound flights for the remainder of the day.

The airport is the main commercial air hub for Oklahoma City and services an average of 150 flights a day, the airport said.
The Scripture Knowledge Phenomenon of the Year to Broadcast on Facebook Live November 17-19 The 2016 National Bible Bee

Contact: Genee Maxfeldt, National Bible Bee, 210-367-4101



SAN ANTONIO, Texas, Nov. 15, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- The 2016 National Bible Bee will be broadcast on Facebook LIVE beginning November 17th. Viewers will watch the Scripture knowledge phenomenon of the year, from the Opening Ceremony to the Competition Finals, through Facebook Live and BibleBee.org.



This powerful, heart-grabbing proclamation of God's Word culminates a year long journey for the top 362 contestants who arrive this week in San Antonio, Texas from across the Nation. These young people will compete for over $270,000 in prize money. "This competition will have audiences on the edge of their seats," says Emeal Zwayne, master of ceremonies for the National Bible Bee Competition. "We expect an entire new level of engagement with audiences through Facebook Live."



Contestants ranging in age from 7 to 18 have been preparing for months committing to memory more than 800 Bible verses. "All the contestants know that the real prize of the National Bible Bee is the Word of God." says Hannah Leary, the 2015 winner of the National Bible Bee Game Show and one of this year's commentators for the National Bible Bee Competition.



Broadcast Schedule:

Thursday, November 17 at 7:30 PM - Opening Ceremony

Friday, November 18 at 8:00 AM - Qualifier Awards Presentation

Friday, November 18 at 11:00 AM - Junior Semi-Finals

Friday, November 18 at 2:30 PM - Primary Semi-Finals

Friday, November 18 at 6:00 PM - Senior Semi-Finals

Saturday, November 19 at 8:00 AM - Junior Finals

Saturday, November 19 at 11:00 AM - Primary Finals

Saturday, November 19 at 2:00 PM - Senior Finals

Saturday, November 19 at 6:45 PM - Award Celebration and Keynote Speakers

Keynote speakers this year include Steve Green, president of Hobby Lobby and chairman of the Museum of the Bible and Ken Ham president and Chairman of Answers in Genesis, the Creation Museum and the newly opened Ark Encounter.



Learn more about the National Bible Bee at biblebee.org/competition.



WATCH LIVE: www.biblebee.org/live

Or at www.facebook.com/nationalbiblebee



THE NATIONAL BIBLE BEE: A nonprofit ministry that began in 2009 with a vision "to know God's Word and make Him known," the National Bible Bee's mission is to engage young people in the memorization and study of God's Word and provide opportunities to proclaim it through local, national and televised competitions.
Air strike targeting militants kills seven in southern Libya -official

TRIPOLI, Nov 15 (Reuters) - An air strike targeting Islamist militants has killed at least seven people near the southwestern Libyan city of Sabha, a local official and media reports said on Tuesday.

Gunmen later seized the remains of the suspected militants from a morgue, said the official, who did not want to be identified for fear of reprisals.

The early morning strike hit three houses in Gardah, northwest of Sabha, destroying two of them and damaging the third, said the official.

It was not clear who carried out the strike, and military officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Forces on both sides of conflict-ridden Libya's east-west political divide have used warplanes to strike militant targets.

The United States has also conducted air strikes on Islamist militants in Libya, but a U.S. defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said its forces did not carry out the latest strike.

There were conflicting reports about whether the suspected militants were linked to al Qaeda or Islamic State, both of which have a presence in Libya's south.

Libyan news website Press Solidarity said the main target was a militant called Abdulrahman Belhaj Hesnawi, also known as Abu Talha al-Libi, though several reports said he was not among the dead.

The local official, from Gardah, said some of those killed were Libyan and some were foreign, and it was not known whether they included Hesnawi. "After one or two hours a group of gunmen went to a local hospital in Adri, 35 km (22 miles) from Gardah, and they seized the remains of the bodies," he said.

The United States has been conducting air strikes on Islamic State in the group's former bastion of Sirte, 500 km (310 miles) north of Gardah, since Aug. 1, and had previously launched several strikes against militant targets elsewhere in the vast North African country.

France has acknowledged flying intelligence and surveillance flights over Libya.

Some Islamic State militants who were based in Sirte fled south into the desert when a campaign to oust them from the city began six months ago, according to Libyan officials.
Peru asks to join China-led trade deal but still hopeful on TPP

LIMA, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Peru has started talks with China about joining a Beijing-backed trade pact for the Asia Pacific region even as it holds out hopes that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump might renege on his vow to scrap a rival U.S.-led deal, the government said on Tuesday.

Trade Minister Eduardo Ferreyros said he hopes Peru will someday be part of both proposed tariff-slashing deals - the Trans Pacific Partnership with the United States and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) with China.

Peru, which signed the TPP along with 11 other countries early this year, told Beijing in September that it is interested in joining RCEP, which includes India and a dozen more members.

"The problem is that negotiations are well under way," Ferreyros told reporters of talks on RCEP with Chinese officials. "The signal we got was 'let us finish and then we'll see how to incorporate new members.'"

If trade-liberalization proponent Peru joined a final RCEP pact, it would be the only country in the Americas in a free trade area spanning India to New Zealand, possibly encouraging other TPP signatories in Latin America to follow suit.

The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama has warned that RCEP would give China a foothold in fast-growing export markets and allow Beijing to write trade rules unless the TPP were also in force.

"We'll have to see how ambitious the pact is," Ferreyros said of RCEP. "Even if it's not as deep as other agreements, we'll still participate."

Trump's surprise victory last week appeared to jettison years of TPP negotiations during Obama's administration.

Trump called the TPP a "death blow" for U.S. manufacturing jobs and a "rape of our country" as a candidate, and Republican congressional leaders said last week that they would defer to him on trade.

But Ferreyros said he was optimistic Trump might give the TPP a chance, urging the world not to "box in" Trump on his campaign rhetoric.

"Let's let him take office and take a look at what's on the table," Ferreyros said.

The TPP was written so it cannot be implemented without the United States, and Peru's President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said last week that it could be replaced with a new deal that would instead include U.S. rivals China and Russia.
Key Venezuela lawmakers step down in concession to government

CARACAS, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Three opposition lawmakers at the center of a dispute between Venezuela's congress and its top court stepped down on Tuesday following an agreement meant to ease a political standoff between the opposition and President Nicolas Maduro.

Lawmakers Julio Ygarza, Nirma Guarulla and Romel Guzamana submitted their resignations in writing to congress on Tuesday.

The lawmakers, two from the Amazonas jungle state and one who represents indigenous groups, were key to handing the opposition a super majority in December 2015's legislative elections.

But a Supreme Court order banned them on allegations of fraud in January.

The National Assembly defied the government by reinstating them in July, leading authorities to declare congress illegitimate and setting up a power clash with the socialist government.

In Vatican-backed talks between the opposition and the government over the weekend, the two sides agreed the lawmakers would resign to trigger fresh elections for the three seats.

"This is a vote of confidence in the dialogue," opposition lawmaker Angel Alvarado told Reuters during Tuesday's congressional session. "Now (the government) has to call elections."

Hardline opposition party Popular Will and some opposition activists are angry over the deal, fearing the promise of elections will not be kept and that dialogue gives unpopular Maduro a respite.

Maduro, whom the opposition has been seeking to remove in a recall referendum, cheered the removal of the lawmakers.

"The process begins for the National Assembly to respect the Supreme Court, respect the Constitution, meaning that there will be elections in Amazonas (state) very soon," he said during his salsa radio show.
Northern Province Chief Minister C.V.Wigneswaran who had been in the centre of several controversies in the recent times had revealed an important move which was to be taken by his Council with regard to understanding between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamil-speaking people in the country.



During a prize giving ceremony at the Nallur Hindu College in Jaffna on Monday, the Chief Minister said that his administration was going to present an Act in the Council making it compulsory for the students of the Northern and the Eastern Provinces to learn both the official languages of the country -- Sinhala and Tamil. Discussions are underway with the leaders of the Eastern Province on the possibility of presenting a Bill in both Provincial Councils to this effect, according to the Chief Minister.



He also said that the programme to teach both Sinhala and Tamil would be extended to the public servants as well in the two provinces, because both are official languages and knowledge in both would open more opportunities for the future. He pointed out that the lack of interest by Sinhalese and Tamils in learning each others languages led to mistrust among communities.

Many southerners might find it difficult to read Wigneswarans mind which seems to the South to be blowing hot and cold. He presented a resolution in January 2014 in his Council calling for an international investigation into the war crimes allegedly committed during the war. Then last year he adopted another resolution in the Council which claimed that genocide against Tamils had taken place in the North and the East during the war. And in September he irritated the South by holding his much publicized Ezhuga Thamil demonstration. However, he refused to hoist the LTTE flag last month at a function organised by the pro-LTTE Tamil Coordinating Committee (TCC) at Harrow in London. And now he is going to make both official languages compulsory, claiming that they facilitate reconciliation.



Nevertheless, move to teach students and public servants both Sinhala and Tamil should be commended. Though understanding each others languages does not necessarily bring in total reconciliation or understanding between communities, one must accept that it facilitates to that effect. In the light of the media being highly divided on ethnic lines, building bilingual and trilingual capacities among the people is becoming more and more a necessity, in order for them to judge the situations independently. Peoples independence of the media of a particular language would push the media in general to be more objective.



Lack of knowledge in each others language still creates new issues apart from the 30-year long bloody war that claimed thousands of lives. A good case in point is, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congresss demand for a separate Tamil-speaking (serving) Kachcheri in Kalmunai, which has been interpreted by politicians in Colombo as a demand for a separate State.The demand for a separate Kachcheri was a result of the Tamil-speaking people in Amparai District facing many difficulties at the Amparai Kachcheri due to their lack of knowledge in the Sinhala language.



Successive governments have started programmes time and again to teach both the official languages in schools, but with little success. There has always been a trend among Tamil and Muslim students as well as adults to learn Sinhala, while the interest among the Sinhala students in the South to learn Tamil cannot be called a trend, leading to the programmes to come a cropper. The simple reason is that Tamil speaking people -- Tamils and Muslims -- feel the necessity of Sinhala knowledge in their day-to-day life and not vice versa.



However, the case with the people in the North and the East, irrespective of their ethnicity is different where people in those provinces have a propensity to learn Sinhala soon, as they have to interact with their provincial administration in Tamil while doing so with the Central Government in Sinhala.

Nevertheless, all the grounds Wigneswaran had pointed out justifying the bilingualism are, no doubt, sound and acceptable and the Central Government, and more particularly the Provincial Councils, such as the Western, Central, Uva and Sabaragamuwa should take a leaf out of his book.
(Left to Right): Shane Ingram, Director Operations, Colombo Hilton, Nearanjana Dissanayakeand Ajai Vir Singh, Founder and President, Colombo Fashion Week who leads Project Seven

Hilton Colombo partners with this unique Design Development program

The unique cutting edge design development program that encourages designers of any genre and field to fine-tune their creative sensibility, Project Seven completes its first session of 2016. Seven up and coming designers enrolled into 12 weeks of design development modules. The transformation that took place in their approach to design of fashion was heralded by the participating fashion designers and fashion enthusiasts who successfully completed the session.

Hilton Colombo partnered with Project Seven as part of their social initiative that supports youth development and enterprise. The partnership will now continue to the next program.

Project Seven is a designer development program aimed at enhancing the ideation process through a series of workshops and mentoring sessions. The program takes participants through practical and logical steps to refine their creativity. It gets them to view things from a fresh perspective, helping them to become sensitive to the environment of design and the creative structures that are present around them.

Designer development is one of pillars of CFW and its basis. Thats how we started in 2003 and thats how we continue to move ahead. When we started over a decade ago we realized that the fashion design industry was almost non-existent and needed a special kind of effort to unearth and showcase Sri Lankan fashion design talent. It was quite lonely when CFW started, after 13 years it has gathered momentum and the fashion design industry is moving in the right direction and design development has been the basis of this movement, says Ajai Vir Singh  Founder and President, Colombo Fashion Week who leads Project Seven.

(Left to Right):Shane Ingram, Director Operations Colombo Hilton, Asanka de Mel of Lovi Sarongs, and Ajai Vir Singh, Founder and President, Colombo Fashion Week who leads Project Seven

Colombo Fashion Week distinguishes itself with this development project led by the vision to take the fashion design industry of Sri Lanka to a new level using a multi-pronged approach, which includes interaction with international designers and exposure in international markets and international media development projects for designers.

This program is simplistic in terms of pre-requisites for applying, anyone who loves fashion design and is passionate about it qualifies to apply. Its meant to hone their skills regardless of their field of work, says CFW President and Founder Ajai Vir Singh.

Over the years majority of designers who showcase at CFW have gone through mentorship in various forms. Project Seven is a streamlined, compact group version of this development process. New designers such as Asanka from Lovi, Jaish of Jai/ Aashilki, Anushika, Vatsala and others benefitted with the outcome.

"We are extremely privileged to have the opportunity to conduct these mentoring programs at the hotel and now await to see their brilliance unfold in the world of fashion design says Manesh Fernando, General Manager of Hilton Colombo. The Hilton Colombo joins hands with Colombo Fashion Week to host the Project Seven workshops.

Project Seven also gives participants knowledge and insight into the fashion industry as well as what it takes to be successful in both runway and retail today.

"My frames have gone. Project Seven inspired me to be more creative and look at things from a fresh perspective. I now look at the environment as a source of inspiration and design as a medium of expression. I look at design and fashion differently, with expanded horizons, Jaish, one of the designers said.

Asanka who also took part in the program said that Project Seven helped them tremendously to unearth the creativity that was within them. It was an invaluable course. Now my brand LOVI has a clear direction. I learned about fashion design in a refreshing way of branding"

By staying true to its vision, CFW has become the backbone of the Sri Lankan fashion industry and one that is supporting and leading Sri Lankan designers to international platforms.

For further details on Project Seven, please visit www.colombofashionweek.com or follow CFW on Facebook (www.facebook.com/colombofashionweek), Twitter (@colombofw) and Instagram (@colombofw).

Jaish Parathalingam Jayesingha

Vathsala Gunasekara
By Dr. Tanri Abeng

Laying corporate foundation

State-owned enterprise (SOE) reform must be institutionalized to be sustainable. To this end, while restructuring is taking place, a strong corporate foundation is essential to the long-term success of value creation. The following elements need to be looked at when creating strong corporate fundamentals.



Master plan

The master plan is required to outline the general objectives to be achieved in the restructuring process. It should also outline the strategy, policy, guidelines, methodology, process and a system for the implementation of the reform programmes. It should provide timing and in the reform process.

In the context of Indonesia, the first master plan that we produced was developed with the assistance of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the second (which incorporated the creation of holding companies and the mergers) was produced with the help of consultants.



Management system

I learned from my previous professional career with multinational corporations, the importance of developing a uniform system of management that is understandable and acceptable by all members of the organisation throughout the world. Indonesias 144 SOEs and their 1000-plus subsidiaries required a comprehensive management system covering management principles, functions, responsibility, authority, accountability and even a common language for effective communication.

The management system drives the process of change from a bureaucratic culture to a corporate culture. The system also facilitates the exchange or mobility of executives among SOEs. In terms of management development, exchange of executives creates cross-fertilization in the area of management breadth and creativity.



Corporate leadership

My experience in business over the years has made me well aware of how important good leadership is, in corporate management. In the case of Indonesia, transforming 158 SOEs from 17 technical ministries to a single and new ministry was exceptionally difficult. Major SOEs were mostly run by bureaucrats and retired military personnel as well as police force - plus politically connected individuals. Restructuring and management change are time-consuming when dealing with people with the mindset of bureaucrats and the culture of a monopolist. The corporate foundation therefore, must be institutionalized, particularly in the area of governance and leadership development. The only competent leaders can deliver change structurally and culturally.

In my view, the greatest management challenge today and in the future is managing change with all its complexity. Change is necessary if the organisation is to survive, much less grow in the long run. But who can drive the required changes? Only leaders with vision, courage, unquestionable professional competence and integrity.

For SOEs, leadership development is one of the key agendas for the ministry in Indonesia and to this end it has established an Institute for Corporate Leadership through a foundation owned by the SOEs. This institute was modelled after General Electrics Centre of Excellence at Crottonfield, New Jersey, USA. In fact, the first CEO briefing attended by 300 top executives from both SOEs and the private sector featured Jack Welch of General Electric as the keynote speaker. The aim of this institute is to facilitate continuous learning for Indonesian executives to bring their professional competence up to the standard required to be effectively competitive internationally.



Corporate governance and ethics

The stakeholders of SOEs are more complex compared to those of private sector corporations. Politicians, bureaucrats, regulators, customers and the public at large may all claim to be stakeholders. Therefore, corporate governance is the core of the corporate foundation.

Companies must clearly define the structure and the process through which they are managed in order to create value and satisfy the needs of all stakeholders. The relationship between the shareholders, commissioners and directors should be defined through a legal framework. Further, authority, responsibility and accountability of corporate officers are clearly defined in line with the principle of transparency and fairness. SOEs also must consistently follow the ethical way of doing business as a matter of corporate policy.



Remuneration system

The pay scale of executives should be based on responsibility and accountability rather than factors such as status or position. A new system of remuneration should be introduced that is based on equity and fairness internally and competitiveness or attractiveness externally.

The main objective of the system is to motivate people to be committed and to contribute to the achievement of corporate goals. A fair and competitive remuneration system makes it relatively easy to recruit, develop and retain people as the most valuable asset of the corporation.



Lessons learned:Strike while iron is hot

To ensure the success of a programme of SOE reform, it is important to introduce reforms at the appropriate time: that is, when they are needed and resistance to reform is relatively low. This is most likely to occur during an economic crisis.

An economic crisis generates budgetary pressures for governments and in doing so force them to look for ways to make the public sector more efficient and to mobilize new sources of government revenue. At the same time, because such crises expose the flaws of the existing SOE policies, they shift the balance of power and influence within society away from groups that oppose reform and toward groups that favour it. Reformers should thus take advantage of economic crises to promote their cause. If they dont, opportunities will be lost.

The Indonesian case demonstrates this lesson well. As we have seen, the Indonesian government did little to promote SOE reform when the economy was booming during the late 1980s and early 1990s. With the economy in good shape, it did not seem necessary for the government to speed up its SOE reform programme. In addition, anti-reform groups were simply too strong for reform to be politically possible.

The Indonesian case suggests that fast-track privatization is problematic for different reasons. When my ministry tried to push through a series of quick privatizations during 1998-99, it encountered enormous opposition from SOE managers, vested interest groups and nationalistic elements within society. As a matter of policy, the term privatization implied only partial sales of SOEs through strategic partners and/or an IPO through the stock exchange.

In some instances, particularly in the area of strategic infrastructure (port, airports, etc.), concessions were given to private partners. In all instances, the government maintained the majority of the privatized SOEs. This is adapted to allow the government, through the SOEs Ministry to continue value creation programme while empowering the SOEs to become the engine of economic development by the power of synergy.



Go for restructuring and privatization in parallel

At the heart of the second wave of SOE reform was the idea that reform should be tailored to suit the circumstances of the enterprise concerned, with restructuring and privatization done together. Specifically, those enterprises with small improvement gaps should be privatized early, those enterprises with large improvement gaps should be restructured first and then privatized and those enterprises considered vital to the national interests should not be privatized at all.

The focus should be on maximizing value, not on selling assets quickly. Only by following this approach will SOE reform really serves the national interest.

Our restructure and privatize in parallel approach promised to do this. On the one hand, it would enable us to sell state assets at a decent price because the companies being sold would be healthy and efficient after restructuring. On the other, it would also reduce nationalistic concerns because assets would not be sold off quickly and cheaply.



Forge alliance with pro-reform elements in society

Reform is not simply about vanquishing opponents of reform but also about gaining the support of groups that favour reform. It is therefore necessary to do whatever one can to forge alliances with these groups. In our case, we attempted to do this through the establishment of the Public Policy Committee. This body consisted of a collection of leading academic, political and business figures who were asked to provide input in the policymaking process at key points in that process.

Although the Public Policy Committee met only a few times, it proved to be an effective means of mobilizing support in the communities from which representatives were drawn. We also tried to develop a strong relationship with the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and ADB by seeking their input in relation to such key reforms as the development of the step-by-step privatization system.

One group with which we failed to forge a strong alliance, however, was the media. As a member of Golkar and a supporter of Habibie, I became a target for anti-government journalists who doubted our commitment to reform. As a result, we had difficulty in selling our reforms to the public.

No matter what we did, no matter how well-intentioned, the media would criticize us and accuse us either of corruption or of selling the country short. This was an image problem that we were ultimately unable to overcome. Unskilled in the area of public relations and faced with a rapidly changing political environment, we were unable to convince people that we were trying to do the right thing rather than preserve the status quo.



Reform and capital market

The choice of the Indonesian government to maintain control of all SOEs was the correct one. There were a few tools the government used to pursue this objective, out of which listing on the stock exchange, joint venture agreements and offering concession, particularly to foreign investors were common.

SOEs have also contributed to the development of the Indonesian capital market. Twenty SOEs are listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange. While this number represents only 4 percent of total listed companies, with US $ 90 billion capitalization, SOEs represent 25 percent of JSX Market capitalization.

Yes, SOE performance in terms of the level of efficiency and profitability is still not equal to the private sector. However, SOEs are also delivering public service obligations as well as pioneering businesses that are not attractive to the private sector. Critical to the SOE optimum value creation objective is the governments commitment to debureaucraticize and depoliticize the management operation of SOEs, which still is a challenge that looms large on the entire process.



(Dr. Tanri Abeng was Indonesias first State-Owned Enterprises Minister and holds over four decades of experience at the helm of private corporations, serving in government and heading public institutions. He is Chairman of PERTAMINA, an Indonesian state-owned oil and natural gas corporation based in Jakarta, and Newcrest Mining Limited Indonesia. He is also presently Publisher of Globe Asia and President Commissioner of PT Alcatel-Lucent Indonesia)
Says CBs job is to monitor govt.s action on monetary measures

Pledges to revolutionize laws empowering CB

Says CB has been politicized and failed miserably in its duties

They (CB) dont need to be dabbling in how to run a country

By Chandeepa Wettasinghe

In the wake of criticism that the Finance Ministry has invaded the authority and autonomy of the countrys Central Bank (CB) through some of the 2017 budget proposals, the Finance Ministers comments may indicate that the wings of the Central Bank would be further clipped

going forward.

They (CB) should be monitoring governments activities that have been done on monetary measures. So we are certainly restructuring that and ensuring that things go on, because what is there is sometimes undesirable, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake told a budget forum yesterday, organized by CMA

Sri Lanka.

When queried as to what would happen then to the many legislations such as the Banking Act and the Payments and Settlements Acts through which CB is empowered to monitor, regulate and enforce the countrys financial system, Karunanayake replied that these laws would be changed.

All those (laws) would be revolutionized, Karunanayake said after presenting what he termed a revolutionary budget.



Former CB Deputy Governor W. A. Wijewardena recently levelled criticism on budget proposals to set up an alternative electronic payment platform, which bypasses CB regulation, the call for core capital increases to force bank consolidation and direct bank lending to priority areas, which all fall under CBs purview. However, Karunanayake noted that the Central Bank has been stepping out of

its bounds.

The Central Bank is a feature of the Finance Ministry or the Constitution, in order to do certain monetary measures. But the Central Bank has failed miserably on many matters. They have been politicized. They have to be a regulatory force, they dont need to be dabbling in how to run a country, he said.

Under the Monetary Law Act, CB has great autonomy to conduct monetary policy, but the Monetary Board of CB has to act in concert with the Finance Minister.



Current CB Governor Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy, whose appointment was widely accepted by government, opposition and civil society organizations alike, has so far been able to manage the countrys monetary policy in a prudent manner, creating the space for fiscal policy.

He had also said during his appointment that he would not be making public statements on how to run a countrys economy, but would through official channels that have been created for the purpose, advise the government on economic matters.

Meanwhile, Karunanayake said he wanted anyone who has sufficient professional knowledge to help the Finance Ministry restructure the laws related to CB.



I call upon all those having professional knowledge to come to the Treasury and meet our DGs (Director Generals). Your knowledge is very much appreciated. We dont think that the Treasury knows everything. Youre invited, so that youll be a part of the decision making process, he said.
Q What is SYU?



SYU is the youth wing of the JVP. This was originally begun on January 1, 2016. However its activities came to a halt with the proscription of the party by those who ruled the country during that period. We became active once again in 2007. Since then we have been working with the Sri Lankan Youth for nine years. Lately we have been holding the national brotherhood in Jaffna July 23rd to July 25 every year to build up national unity. SYU has been working for peace since its very inception. In February this year we launched a national youth policy.



QTalking of your national youth policy, SYU had called for vast social change with the abolition of the dowry system and to have only mixed schools instead of boys schools and girls schools and many more. Do you think you can achieve these in a society such as Sri Lanka ?



We accept that there may be obstacles to bring these remarks. But we can at least make a start

.

Q How do you see the day to day life in the North since the war ?



One has to accept that it was the people in the North who had to suffer most as a result of the conflict. Also they have been affected by language issues. Life has become difficult in the North as well as in the South. The society has declined. Northern people face issues which are exclusive to them. Many children have lost their parents and wives their husbands. Some have gone missing. At least 15,698 youth are without jobs. The North has become the province with the highest recorded narcotic drugs sales. People in the North have also been hoodwinked by the imperialists.



Q How do you rectify this situation?



People in this country had only felt the heat of communalism during the past years. Many steps have to be taken to bring in national reconciliation. Equality to all ethnic and religious groups should be ensured by the Constitution. The National Unity Promotion Bill should be introduced to ensure national unity. We have been able to instill such an idea in the society during the past few days. A truth commission has to be set up. Issues pertaining to the disappeared and the political prisoners should be resolved.



Q What are your impressions on the recent student clash that took place in the university of Jaffna?



First of all we vehemently condemn this attack. Also we saw that the incident had a face of communal hatred. We are actually saddened by it as we as SYU together with some progressive people are making an effort to establish national unity. No one wants to experience a civil war in this country again.

Some in the North and in the South try to describe this incident as a communal riot. Some politicians including those in the opposition are happy about this incident. In addition some forces in the North also use this incident to fulfill their interests. A child who has been born in and after 1983 had only lived amidst Tamil and Sinhalese communalism. For this reason communalism tendencies have been created in our minds. This is why communalism is spread all over the country. The incident in the Jaffna University is a result of this situation. As a party who works for common interests of the country we condemn this kind of attacks. But we dont provoke anyone just by talking about it over and

over again.



Q The Minister of Higher Education has said the clash in the University of Jaffna was caused by some outsiders and not the students. What are your impressions about

this statement?



We cannot jump the gun and make conclusions. Also this is a sensitive issue which should be resolved with much care. If some one holds some idea about such an issue he or she should make statements with responsibility. If the Government has information to suggest that there is an external force behind the incident, an investigation should be

carried out.



Q Who do you think is behind this incident ?



It is not possible to draw a line and say such a person or persons is or are behind this. One should not allow this incident to go into disastrous proportions. One should not leave room for those who rely on communalism to make use of this incident.



Q Dont you think that such a force should be dealt with?



First of all we dont think this could be resolved only by arresting someone. This is not an isolated incident. It is visible that it is a result of communal tendency which has prevailed in the country for some time. There are laws in the country and rules and regulations in the universities. We believe that investigations should be carried out with this in mind. You cannot resolve this only through punishing someone. One has to be neutral when resolving this, besides the whole society has to play a role in it.



Q What do you think about the concessions given to the youth in this years budget?



The government had pledged to create one million jobs several times. But it does not seem to have an idea as to how it is going to do it. One proposal was to provide tabs for the youth. On the other hand the internet charges have been increased. They say tabs are given to enhance the knowledge of the youth. In order to do that one has to browse the internet. How can a youth browse the internet when charges are high?

This is like giving milk toffees to a man who has been starving for a long time. The university intake increase up to 50,000 is good. However it is will be implemented in 2020. The Government does not seem to have a plan for this. One should have at least an annual target in this endeavour. Where are those

targets?
A 12-member high-powered business/investor delegation from dairy and poultry sectors from Netherlands will be visiting Sri Lanka in end-November 2016.



The Netherlands Export Combination (NEC) in association with the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands in Sri Lanka and Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) will be organising a seminar on Innovative Technological Solutions in Agriculture from the Netherlands, followed by business-to-business meetings on November 28, 2016, at Cinnamon Grand Colombo. These high-powered dairy sector delegates are interested in setting up joint ventures and also partnering for possible trade opportunities in supplying quality cattle, consultancy services, after-sales services for dairy sector, raw milk cooling solutions such as solar coolers for small-scale dairy farmers and technology transfers to track around the clock performance of individual cows and herds.



They are also interested in setting up an education and training centre for development of agro industry, water, urban green and land management, agro business and green technology, horticulture and veterinary nursing, in addition to setting up milk collection centres in Sri Lanka. The poultry sector delegates are interested in processing poultry, building state-of-art poultry processing plants and promotion of range of poultry farm equipment such as feeding, drinking ventilation systems, climate analysing systems for poultry houses, rendering systems to convert beef, pork, poultry and fish slaughter waste into a range of byproducts, such as meal, tallow, poultry oil, blood meal, etc. The dairy sector participating companies include C. vant Riet Dairy Technology, Firma Dekker, European Livestock, Hunland, KUHN-Geldrop BV, Mueller, NEDAP and Wellant College. Amongst the delegates from the poultry sector are Agromax, Mavitec, Meyn and PasReform.

Companies interested in attending the seminar should register before November 22, 2016. For further details contact the Business Information Division of the CCC on Tel. 2329143, 5588869, 5588854 and 5588892 or E-mail info@chamber.lk.
Acting on a tip off from the Sri Lankan Navy, an Indian naval patrol team intercepted a fiberglass boat with two armed men and chased them away when they tried to enter Indian territorial waters.

The team acted on a tip off from the Sri Lankan Navy that the boat with two armed men would try to cross Indian territorial waters, police quoted Coastal Marine Group police and Intelligence Bureau officials as saying.

The incident occurred at Olaikuda area, they said.

There was an exchange of fire between the two but none were injured and the Sri Lankans managed to go back to their territorial waters, they said.

Marine Police and Q branch and also the IB, said they got details from some Indian fishermen who were in the area.

Following the incident, CMG has intensified patrolling.

Police said naval officials had told them that an enquiry was being conducted into the incident. (PTI)
Godrej Sri Lanka and Kandurata Industries exchange partnership agreement to market and distribute Mitu Baby products in Sri Lanka at the event held recently at SSC Grounds Complex.

Pic by Pradeep Dilruckshana

By Supun Dias

Godrej Sri Lanka has partnered with Kandurata Industries to distribute its internationally-acclaimed range of baby care products marketed under the brand of Mitu Baby to provide consumers the access to best of baby care.

Country Manager of Godrej Sri Lanka, Anurag Jain said that they are pleased to appoint Kandurata Industries as the distribution partner for all Mitu Baby products in Sri Lanka.

We believe that Kanduratas extensive distribution network and deep knowledge of the local market segment will help to leverage sales of Mitu Baby products. We want to enhance the bond of a mother and a baby. It is a very popular brand in many countries in this region, and we are hopeful of achieving new heights in the Sri Lankan market as well, he stressed. The Mitu Baby product portfolio available in Sri Lanka includes milk bath, body and hair bath with honey milk, shampoo natural, soap, hair lotion, baby lotion, baby cream, baby oil and baby cologne. The product range encompasses bath, pre bath, post bath and freshening rituals.

Mitu Baby also offers products beyond the infant stage - for children as well as wipes for general purposes. Babies will experience no irritation and no induced delayed contact sensitization because it is a hypoallergenic product.

Deputy General Manager of Kandurata Industries Riza Thahir said that his brands extensive network across the country will help to reach every household with Mitu Baby products.

Higher disposable incomes in the hands of consumers and the desire of a mother to give their infants nothing but the best of care and grooming will attract discerning mothers to reach out for Mitu Baby products, he said.

Kandurata is also planning to invest in a factory in India in the near future and according to the management the deal is in the final stages.
A senior government minister requested the ageing corporate leaders to make way for younger generations to engender innovation and entrepreneurship, but did not seem keen to apply the same logic to the countrys political sphere.



Development Strategies and International Trade Minister Malik Samarawickrama blamed the ageing corporate leadership for the lack of entrepreneurship in the country.

Im aware that there is a lack of entrepreneurship in the private sector, particularly in the recent past, perhaps because most of the people who are at the top of the corporate ladder have been there for a while, and theyre about to retire, so they must be comfortable with where they are, he said.



Sri Lankas exports have declined to 15 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2015 from 36 percent in 2000, due to a growth strategy focusing on debt-fuelled infrastructure development, while the corporate sector has been more than willing to lobby for mercantilist policies.

Those who had benefitted from such policies until now are coming across as Luddites and are calling for the nullifying of advantages enjoyed by disruptive technologies and business models championed by younger generations.

What I would like the private sector particularly is to encourage the younger people. Give them opportunity. Theyre our future, Samarawickrama, who himself is a veteran corporate figure, said.

He noted that the rest of the world, and particularly, the rest of Asia, is progressing rapidly, and Sri Lanka needs to catch up with new ideas.

I would like the next generation to take the lead and come up with the ideas. It cant be business as usual. If its business as usual, were not going to go anywhere. Weve got to think new, think out of the box and certainly come up with new ideas, he said.

He noted that with the incentives provided in the recent budget, the private sector has to step up as the engine of Sri Lankas growth.

However, Samarawickrama did not mention what role younger generations could play in policy making, or whether older politicians should retire and make way for youngsters.

Though, he did invite the retiring corporate figures to take part in the public sector. And at the same time may I invite particularly those who are about to retire, leaders of the corporate sector to please join us, join the government in some form, maybe to help us to undertake some of the major projects we are going ahead with. We invite you to come and help us deliver, he said.

Samarawickrama, who had entered into parliament through the National List, also invited the retirees to take up a political career.



And all those who want to, some of you may also want to come to parliament, so youre most welcome, he said.

Many parliamentarians in the unity governments majority party, the United National Party, of which Samarawickrama is the Chairman, have corporate backgrounds.(CW)
The 25 per cent internet charges should be reduced for schoolchildren and university students, a government minister told Parliament today.

Labour and Trade Union Relations Minister W.D.J. Seneviratne expressed these views during last mornings debate on the second reading of the budget.

"Internet is an information superhighway. A person who browses webpages could access any kind of information at any time. Therefore if some tax concession is given to schoolchildren and university students, it would be possible for the government to fulfil its objective of enhancing the knowledge of the youth and to create a knowledge-based society," he said.

However, the minister lauded the 2017 budget saying its proposals were aimed at increasing tax revenue and strengthen the economy. (Yohan Perera)
Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) yesterday dis-associated itself from the governments decision to increase water bills by 30 per cent.

Partys Research and Technology Minister Susil Premajayantha told Daily Mirror this proposal had been introduced outside the budget.

We have to discuss this matter. We were in the dark about it, he said.

When asked about the SLFP proposals incorporated in the budget, the minister said some of them had been incorporated with modifications.

We are agreeable to that, he said and added that the proposal to provide electronic tablets free of charge to schoolchildren would not serve the intended purpose in the wake of the government deciding to increase internet-usage charges.

Along with progressive proposals, there are some meaningless ones as well, he said. (Kelum Bandara)
Trade talks between Turkey and Sri Lanka re-opened recently in Ankara-after 26 years, in a bid to enhance bilateral trade.

Turkey is a very important trading partner for Sri Lanka. The strong relationship between the two countries has grown steadily over the past years, said Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen in Ankara last week (11th), leading the Sri Lankan delegation.

Minister Bathiudeen delivered his opening statement at the second session of the Sri Lanka Turkey Joint Committee Meeting of Technical and Economic Cooperation on this day. The Turkish side was led by Minister of Education of Turkey Ismet Yilmaz.

Sri Lanka and Turkey have enjoyed 68 years of formally established diplomatic relations in the recent history. The initiative to establish the Sri Lanka- Turkey Joint Committee in 1991, is a land mark in our partnership, said Minister Bathiudeen.

Sri Lankas location in the heart of the Indian Ocean straddling Western and Eastern Asia has made us beneficiaries of inter-regional trade for centuries. The strategic importance of Sri Lanka as a regional hub in the realm of global commercial activity has been widely acknowledged. With a 2 billion population, South Asia is also a considerable market with growing significance. Sri Lanka has already Free Trade Agreements with Pakistan and India. At the moment negotiations are also underway to conclude free trade agreements with China and Singapore. It is evident that through these agreements Sri Lanka provide a stepping stone to reach out to a huge market.

The value of total trade turnover between the two countries has increased from US$ 97 million in 2005 to US $ 230 million in 2015. Tea is a major item and the value of tea export to Turkey in 2015 accounted for 76 percent of Sri Lankas total exports. The value of Sri Lankas imports from Turkey has also been increased in the recent years reaching US$ 50 million in 2015. The major items of imports from Turkey are plastics, miscellaneous edible preparations. Turkey invested US$ 2.5 million FDI in Sri Lanka from 2010 to 2015 and ranks 45th position among FDI sourcing countries to Sri Lanka. Tourism is another area that brought people-to-people contacts as Turkish Airlines flies from Istanbul to Colombo direct.

Let us target trade volume to $500 million by 2020, said the Turkish Minister Ismet Yilmaz, and added: Relations between both countries span a broad range of aspects. During the days meeting we finalised many areas of cooperation, which is a positive development.

Bilateral trade between the two countries is on a growing trend, registering an increase of around 135 percent by 2015 when compared to 2005.
Teejay Marketing and Business Development Chief Operating Officer Rodney Arland, Teejay Non-Executive Director and Brandix Lanka Ltd CFO Hasitha Premaratne, Teejay CEO Sriyan de Silva Wijeyeratne, Teejay Group Chairman Bill Lam and Teejay Corporate Communications Head Samadhi Weerakoon

By Zahara Zuhair Teejay Lanka PLC, the local weft knit textile manufacturing company, which was earlier known as Textured Jersey Lanka PLC, recently shared its latest business strategies, on which it intended to invest over US $ 35 million between 2015-2017. The company revealed that its biggest move would be the capacity expansion planned in India for next year with an investment of US $ 13 million. So as we speak, the capacity is to double in two phases and we expect the first phase to be live and commercial early part of next calendar year.

Its a very aggressive investment plan the team has put together with the support of the board, Teejay CEO Sriyan de Silva Wijeyeratne told a media briefing held to announce its new corporate name.

Teejay Group Chairman Bill Lam said that there is a big market potential, particularly in India, which has one of the largest populations. If you could penetrate the domestic market in India, sky is the limit. We are fully supportive of this investment, he said. The company, which was initiated 16 years ago, expects to double the size in the next three to four years, aspiring to be a US $ 300 million company. Talking about their plans in Sri Lanka, Wijeyeratne said that they have plans to expand their synthetic capabilities and already have invested in digital printing. For Sri Lanka, we are moving into the synthetic and value-added range as well as technology-based innovations. We recently commissioned synthetic manufacturing, one of the core needs of the industry for a long time. A very high percentage, close to 90 percent, synthetic fabric is imported into the country. Teejay has just started manufacturing synthetic in the country and that alone is a US $ 4 million investment, he explained. We have invested already in digital printing.

We spent about another US $ 3-4 million on modern technology, that is an ongoing commitment, he added. With the aim of being the first Sri Lankan multinational brand in fabric and a household name in the entire apparel industry, under the new branding, the group brings three entities together, which will be named after Teejay Lanka, Teejay India and Teejay Prints. Coinciding with its debut as a new brand, the company also announced the launch of its new carbon neutral fabric range. Further, it was noted that they hold close to around 1/3 of market share in Sri Lanka. When it comes to fabric, 47 percent is being currently manufactured in Sri Lanka and 53 percent is imported. Out of the 47 percent, we have roughly about 1/3, the company said. Expressing thoughts on how GSP Plus would impact thee business, the officials said they have built solid foundations and would follow a different growth strategy. Meanwhile, with regard to the Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement (ETCA), they said, as they are dealing with the export market, their business would not get fundamentally changed by the agreement. You bring fabric duty free and some of those things wont be drastically altered if the agreement comes in. But there will be knowledge sharing, people movement, access to Indian domestic market; these are some of the things Teejay can benefit from. On the other hand, we are establishing a footprint in India. For us, it is more about building a global footprint, rather than looking at trade agreements, they said.

They expressed similar sentiments on dropping of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP), which is to be ripped off by the future US administration. Talking about concessions offered on the budget last week, Teejay Non-Executive Director and Brandix Lanka Ltd CFO Hasitha Premaratne said, Concession-wise there are two to three things that have come out. From a tax rate angle, our tax rate, which was 12 percent last year, now has been proposed to stay at 14 percent. So there will be a 2 percent impact if you look at it that way from what has been earlier in the legal system. Apart from that, he said, there will be indirect benefits to the business, particularly the encouragement given to research and development (R&D), innovation-related activities to improve value-added exports. He also mentioned that as the products are predominantly exported through sea freight, the expansion of the southern part of the port has certainly helped to reduce vessel time in the last few years. So, the time has come down to the European market as low as 11 days of shipping, while to the US it takes 17 days vessel time, he said. According to the company, it has reported a net profit increase of 47 percent and a top line increase of 48 percent during the first half, marking nine continual quarters of profit growth for the company. The group is backed by Pacific Textiles, a Hong Kong-based company, and Brandix Lanka.
Toyota Lanka (Private) Limited, the sole authorized distributor for Toyota vehicles in Sri Lanka recently inaugurated its latest Body Repair and Paint Centre (BPC) in Maharagama.

The opening was attended by Managing Director, Toyota Lanka (Private) Limited Shungo Yoshioka, Manohara Athukorala, Director and Chief Operating Officer for Toyota Lanka, and senior management officials.

Managing Director, Toyota Lanka (Private) Limited Shungo Yoshioka speaking at the opening ceremony said, I used to regret that customers had a longer appointment waiting time. But now Im happy that with the new facility expansion our capacity for servicing as well as repairing will increase and thereby provide an improved customer experience.

Manohara Athukorala, Director and Chief Operating Officer for Toyota Lanka also noted, This new expansion despite a large investment is being done in order to reach and provide accessibility to our customers and thereby bring in our international experience to Maharagama by providing the Best in Town experience through the decades of trust

we developed.

This modern facility is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and developed under Toyotas stringent environmentally-friendly guidelines. The workshop is dedicated to ensuring global standards in Toyota vehicle care and is the only centre in the island with the ability to bring Toyota vehicle back to its original elegance. All Toyota Special Service Tools (SST) such as advanced welding machines, infrared heaters for speedy drying and water-borne painting systems are imported specifically to work on Toyota vehicles.

This new addition to the Toyota Lanka family will meet the demands of the Eastern and Southern parts of Colombo, providing shorter appointment waiting times, high quality, and faster repair and delivery time. The center will facilitate paint works and a range of small and medium scale damage repairs.

From an acquisition of a small workshop, the Maharagama branch has grown in to a bigger facility phase by phase, and is now geared up with modern customer lounges making sure the customers are equally comfortable as they wait for their vehicles to be pampered.

Toyota-trained engineers and technicians always ensure the highest quality of workmanship with Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) specified paint

and coatings.
On November 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi bowled a googly that clean-bowled the people of India. The declaration that notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 have ceased to be legal tender took the country by storm.

Some smiled, others ran to jewellery shops, locked themselves up to count cash and chartered accountants' phones kept ringing.

Middlemen designed schemes to circumvent the ban. Some politicians called the move "draconian". Homemakers began to collect Rs 5 and Rs 100 notes and decide how day-to-day expenses would be met. Support staff at home and work, who had not spent their Diwali bonus, wanted leave to exchange notes and collect Rs 100 notes for daily expenditure.

In short, there was chaos, panic and excitement over the biggest reform that any government has undertaken in recent times.

On November 10, I was standing at a vada pav stall where the conversation veered to Modi's latest "surgical strike". The owner was happy that those with black money were left with currency that had no value. His cook from Uttar Pradesh added that their village had got LPG connections, Ujjwala scheme, for the first time.

The next morning, a car cleaner, with a wicked smile, asked our building sweeper to check if the garbage box had Rs 500 notes. Since the announcement was made, there have been reports of cash shortage, long lines outside ATMs, hardships due to inability to buy daily items and so on. Banks have been working overtime and the situation improved somewhat by Sunday.

In order to know first-hand what the people of India thought about Modi's biggest political gamble, the author conducted a WhatsApp survey. While their responses cannot be seen to represent India's 125 crore citizens, they provide insights. Names have been withheld and the responses edited for language only.

1) Leh shop sales lady: A good start towards black money removal. Though there is some chaos, people are happy.

2) Tawang government employee: People welcomed demonetisation. As the population is less and villagers do not have much of cash at home, whatever they needed for daily use was exchanged and deposited in their accounts. There was a huge turnout at banks just as we see while seeking blessings in Gonpa (monastery), locally termed as Wang.

3) Pune real estate broker: My friends are happy about the fact that this will, to a great extent, flush out/kill black money. I saw some poor people in the line trying to put up with inconvenience but they seemed happy.

4) Mumbai shopowner: People are facing problems in buying items of daily needs. But everyone is still happy with it, since they know it is for their betterment. The poor have taken short term loans, for eg I have given Rs 500 each to the maids in office and at home.

5) Trivandrum banker: The common man is upset because he cannot buy milk, vegetables, fish etc. Hospitals especially private ones refused to accept Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. Fisherman could not go fishing as they could not buy kerosene. Black money holders bought gold for Rs 35,000 per 10 gram - happened in Balaramapuram.

6) Kolkata homemaker: Even poor people are happy. All are positive about this bold move.

7) Bengaluru retired MNC professional: Fantastic strategy, bad tactics. If we go past without people breaking out in anger and frustration, we can easily hit 9-10 per cent growth rate.

8) Srinagar economist: The effect is not as intense as it is in the rest of the country. The implications have not yet sunk in. However, the poor seem to be happy because it affects the rich.

9) Moreh, Manipur government employee: Militant groups in Myanmar, who had collected crores of rupees in extortion, are in a fix. They are contacting people in Kolkata for help. Local traders are unhappy over insufficient supply of currency. Problems compounded by the fact that United Naga Council has effected an economic blockade.

10) Delhi software professional: People are responding with a positive attitude. Even my Ola cab-driver, a follower of Ambedkar from Uttar Pradesh, said he was excited with the clean-up and the level playing field it will create for honest and hard-working people.

11) Mumbai human resource professional: While standing in line, a suave customer asked the bank branch manager if they had cash counting machines. He said yes. Within 20 minutes, the customer's wife came with a sack full of notes. The manager asked how much money is in the bag? The customer said: "I do not know, just take out Rs 2,49,000, the rest I am yet to decide what to do."

12) Amritsar government employee: I am in Kerala right now. People are looking happy. I suffered a lot because I was in the train when this happened and did not have a single valid note. A waiter helped and then I exchanged money from a bank. At home, my family is happy. Some people in Amritsar misguided the poor who got Rs 600 for a Rs 1,000 note.

13) Chennai businessman: I live in Chennai and have my business in Hyderabad. My dad told me on day one - son, one thing you cannot do is hide your income and not pay taxes. My auditor called me a day before and said, you are the only one who is relaxing. Your stand stays vindicated.

14) Puri sculptor and businessman: Poor and rich overall happy. Only the corrupt people are in trouble.

15) Swami from Jammu who co-runs a school: People are supporting positively. Sometimes long lines are there but everything is going peacefully.

16) Dehradun NGO employee: On balance, apart from inconvenience, it's too early to speak of outcomes, apart from the political advantage that the ruling elements will gain having caught the opposition off-guard and stuck with lots of worthless paper.

17) Thane homemaker: She went to exchange notes at a private sector bank. Pointing towards four trunks of fake notes, bank staff were telling customers how to distinguish between fake and legal currency.

Why do we forget that money was withdrawn by cheque before ATMs entered the country. (Photo: AP)

18) Udupi self-employed: Been in ATM lines twice now. At least in Udupi, disciplined crowds and overwhelming support for demonetisation move. Even senior citizens are not complaining.

19) Hyderabad professional: Now is the time for the civil society to rise and make this strike on black money successful by stepping forward to support, accommodate and adjust to the system and fellow citizens.

20) Mumbai CEO, MNC services company: I have not detected anger at all against demonetisation. People have taken it cheerfully and in their stride. Although there are lines to collect money, there is a clear sense of pride that they are participitating in something good.

21) Bhopal lawyer and consultant: Lines at banks have reduced considerably. However, the situation in small towns and rural areas is not so good. Logistics problems in supply of currency to ATMs are continuing.

22) Rishikesh driver: He told a friend that he was in favour of this and it will only be a problem for those who have crores of rupees lying with them.

23) Bengaluru cost accountant: Was speaking to my pharmacist. He said people are buying medicines for months together. He said his distributors have stopped accepting cash, moved to banking lines and are giving longer credits.

24) Kolkata senior citizen: I stayed in a line at the bank for three hours yesterday and made a withdrawal. I am a 63-year-old diabetic man. If I can do it, why cannot today's youth?

25) Delhi senior citizen: Had problems with a leading private sector bank on November 10. On 11th, all problems were sorted out, deposits and withdrawals. Do not even need next week's quota of Rs 20,000 or Rs 30,000. This is a great national service, in fact, it is changing the feelings and mindsets of our people.

26) Coimbatore hotel room boy: Dhanda ekdum nahin hai par parwah nahin, accha hai seth log ka hawa tight hai.

27) Chennai management professional: House support staff in our complex is fine with demonetisation. Many residents offered to help them with filling forms, etc.

28) Mumbai aam aadmi: Loving it man. After all these years of paying taxes and gasping at people with 100 per cent more income but not paying a dime, we feel vindicated for sticking to the straight and narrow path.

29) Puri photographer: Foreign tourists did face some problems but efforts are being made to help.

30) Mumbai CA: Bookies shut, gambling dens shut, senior bureaucrats almost confirming they would be burning up their cash, hawala operators have disappeared, plus loads of illegal activity shut forever.

Here are some observations on the events of last week.

One, people of India did not take the prime minister's statements seriously. Note the steps taken by the government to make banking inclusive and disclose black money, etc. First, an opportunity was given to the common man to open a bank account under the Jan Dhan Yojana. The government entered into revised treaties with most countries in which unaccounted money goes through hawala.

Further excise duty was levied on gold and tax collection at the source was made compulsory for cash transactions above Rs 2 lakh. The Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act was passed. And lastly, holders of black money were given a last chance to come clean through the Income Declaration Scheme 2016. Only then was demonetisation introduced. Unfortunately, most Indians assumed that like before, the government talks but does little.

Two, large amounts of fake notes are being reported. It is difficult to quantify but that there is a serious problem is widely acknowledged. The government must start an advertising campaign to enlighten citizens on how to identify a fake note from a genuine one.

Three, poor and compliant citizens have supported this move in large numbers. The business community has supported the move, even if not fully and wholeheartedly.

Four, we first blamed Modi for not effecting big bang reforms. Now that one is effected, we are complaining about the inconvenience and shedding tears for the poor. Do Indians want big change or just use it as an excuse to beat every government with?

Five, we are unable to put up with inconvenience even when we know it is for our good. No pain, no gain.

Six, having lost money and business, many small and medium-size enterprises might now use banking/cashless transactions.

Seven, why do we forget that money was withdrawn by cheque before ATMs entered the country 20-odd years ago? However, the government could have told people that every ATM has to be manually recalibrated, and that it would take at least four working days, so use a cheque book instead.

Eight, the media has stories of kirana stores giving credit to customers, rich and poor. According to a friend, on November 9, Ramashray restaurant in Matunga Mumbai told customers who did not have cash to "pay when able". It is compassion that is the soul of India.

Nine, as a nation we are very good at finding fault but sparingly applaud good work. When customers got impatient at a five-minute delay in opening of my bank branch, the branch manager said "be patient, the team left at 2.30am and reached at 9am". A cross cultural trainer is often told by expatriates who come to work in India that we sparingly use the word "thank you".

How about applauding the hard work of bankers, the Reserve Bank of India and finance ministry officials and raising a toast in their name.
Devon Energy Corporation is an independent oil and gas company headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The company was incorporated in 1971 by John Nichols and his son J. Larry Nichols and later went public in August 2000. The company has since grown to be included in the S&P 500 and is one of the first energy companies to introduce resolutions requiring the company to monitor its impact on global warming. One time a major player in the global oil market, Devon has since sold off its offshore holdings in an effort to focus on US production and its transition to a lower-carbon future.

Devon Energy merged with WPX in early 2021 in an all-stock merger of equals. The new company is primarily engaged in the exploration, development, and production of oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids in the US midwest. The company operates more than 5,100 wells in Oklahomas Delaware Basis, Eagle Ford Group, and the two locations in the Rocky Mountains. As of late 2022, the company laid claim to 1.625 million barrels of reserves including 44% petroleum, 27% natural gas liquids, and 29% natural gas. Daily production was running in the range of 300,000 BPD in petroleum liquids, 125,000 BPD in natural gas liquids, and 920 million cubic feet of natural gas.

Rick Muncrief, formally CEO of WPX, is now the head of Devon Energy. Mr. Muncrief comes to the table with more than 40 years of experience including 27 years with one of the US Big Three Oil Companies. WPX Energy (Williams Production and Exploration) brought properties in the Williston and Permian Basins to the combined company. Its proven reserves were roughly 527 million barrels of oil and equivalents. The company also owns and operates a midstream network of pipelines and storage facilities it uses to market and deliver its products.

Devon Energy Corporation has pledged to reduce its GHG impact to net zero by 2050. This will be done by a variety of methods that include improving efficiency and leakage, a reduction in flaring, and the electrification of its operations. Near-term goals include a 50% reduction in GHG by 2030 including a 65% reduction in methane release and a 100% reduction in flaring. The company is also focused on reducing its environmental impact by relying on recycled water wherever possible and plans to reduce freshwater usage by 90% in the most active areas. Total greenhouse gas emissions have been in decline since 2018 and fell 17% between 2018 and 2020 alone.
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COLUMBUS  Two South Dakota men will be sentenced this week in district court after being convicted of drug charges stemming from an April traffic stop that turned up nearly 2 pounds of marijuana and three loaded handguns.

Tylor Ihnen, 28, and Dean Pitchford, 25, both of Freeman, South Dakota, each pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a controlled substance and will be sentenced Friday in Platte County District Court.

In exchange for their pleas, the Platte County Attorneys Office reduced one of the drug charges against each defendant from possession with intent to deliver while carrying a firearm, a Class II felony offense that carries a penalty of up to 50 years behind bars.

The possession charges are Class IV felonies, each punishable by a maximum of two years imprisonment.

Ihnen and Pitchford have been free from jail since late April after each posted a $75,000 bond, 10 percent allowed for release.

Court documents describe a Columbus Police investigation that was initiated about 10:15 a.m. April 9 when Officer Troy Urkoski observed a maroon Ford Freestyle with South Dakota license plates run the stoplight at 33rd Avenue and 23rd Street.

As the officer approached the car, Urkoski wrote in his probable cause arrest statement, he saw the driver (Ihnen) drop a small baggie into his lap and quickly conceal it between his legs. The officer then called for backup.

While speaking with Ihnen, I could smell the odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle, Urkoski wrote in his statement. Police said the South Dakotans were returning from a trip to Colorado.

During a search of the vehicle, police seized 1.93 pounds of marijuana, a pot plant, growing apparatus and drug paraphernalia. Police also found THC-laced candies and three handguns, one under the front seat, one in a side door and one concealed under blankets on the rear seat.

All three weapons were within reach of both occupants, Urkoski wrote in his statement.
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DE C.V.), Stanley CLP3, Stanley Canada Holdings L.L.C., Stanley Chiro International Ltd, Stanley Convergent Security Solutions Inc., Stanley Engineered Fastening Benelux B.V., Stanley Engineered Fastening France SAS, Stanley Engineered Fastening India Private Limited, Stanley Engineered Fastening Industrial Deutschland GmbH, Stanley Engineered Fastening Italy S.r.l., Stanley Engineered Fastening Spain S.L.U., Stanley Europe BV, Stanley European Holdings B.V., Stanley European Holdings II B.V., Stanley Fastening Systems Investment (Taiwan) Co., Stanley Fastening Systems L.P., Stanley Fastening Systems Poland Sp. z o.o., Stanley Feinwerktechnik GmbH, Stanley Grundstuecksverwaltungs GmbH, Stanley Healthcare Solutions France Sarl, Stanley Housing Fund Inc., Stanley Industrial & Automotive LLC, Stanley Infrastructure LLC Formerly f/k/a International Equipment Solutions ("IES"), Stanley Inspection L.L.C., Stanley Inspection US L.L.C., Stanley International Holdings Inc., Stanley Israel Investments B.V., Stanley Logistics L.L.C., Stanley Pipeline Inspection L.L.C., Stanley Safety Corporation LLC, Stanley Security AS, Stanley Security Alarmcentrale B.V., Stanley Security B.V., Stanley Security Belgium BV, Stanley Security Canada ULC (fka 3xLogic Holdings Inc.), Stanley Security Denmark ApS, Stanley Security Europe BV, Stanley Security Federal Systema LLC, Stanley Security Holding AS, Stanley Security Limited, Stanley Security Malaysia Sdn. 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COLUMBUS  Agriculture is still a male-dominated field, but that doesn't deter a group of young women from Lakeview High School.

FFA officers Erika Loseke, Madison Schwarz, Isabelle Stewart, Brooklyn Wilke and Addie Wilke got an extra shot of encouragement Wednesday at an event celebrating women in agriculture. The Lincoln event, called Grow, was organized by the FarmHer initiative.

Catherine Ripp, Lakeview's new agriculture teacher and FFA adviser, graduated from college less than a year ago. When the 23-year-old saw an email about Grow, she thought it would be a great event for female FFA officers.

Being fresh out of college, I know how important it is to network, said Ripp. It gave the officer team a chance to network with professionals in agriculture and women in agriculture.

Stewart, an 18-year-old senior who wants to work in agriculture, knows its still a male-dominated industry but remains optimistic about her opportunities in the future.

Most males are the ones running agriculture farms, she said. But the amount of women owning their own farms is rapidly growing, which is awesome.

The keynote speaker for last week's event was Amberley Snyder, who became a champion barrel racer by the age of 18. In 2010, Snyder was in a motor-vehicle accident that left her paralyzed from the waist down.

After years of physical therapy, Snyder is back in the saddle, competing again in rodeos. A story in USA Today from March reported Snyders racing times now are better than they were before the accident.

For Schwarz, a sophomore at Lakeview, Snyders story confirmed that women can compete with men in agriculture.

It just helps us realize we can do as much as they can, if we do all we can and give 100 percent, said Schwarz.

Schwarz also liked the experience of being with like-minded young women from across Nebraska.

It was great to see other girls my age trying to figure what they want to do when they grow up. We all went in with an open mind, she said. I know all the girls in my FFA chapter are wanting to go into ag, so to see other girls wanting to do what we want to do and other girls that share our love of agriculture was inspiring.

Schwarz, Stewart and many of the other Lakeview FFA members grew up on farms, most of which were passed down from generation to generation. One of the workshops that stood out to Schwarz focused on how to preserve a family's legacy and take care of the farm after the older generation passes.

Another workshop highlighted the importance of STEM (science, math, technology and engineering) in agriculture.

There was also a networking session so attendees could meet women who are ag professionals.

Although Stewart already knew she wants to go into ag, she said it was eye-opening to network with women from across the Midwest. One woman she met was an agronomist at Monsanto who told Stewart how she started her career and got to where she is now.

It was great to hear from successful women in ag, Stewart said.

Stewart, who plans on attending the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to study agronomics, also met two students who are in the program now.

They were telling me how much they love being on East Campus, how close people were, and how close professors work with you and get to know you, said Stewart. Im even more excited (about going to UNL).
COLUMBUS  Mary Novotne didnt plan on becoming a business owner after retiring in 2011.

But she did what was needed after losing her husband of 47 years and stepped in to fill his shoes.

Novotne, 72, is one of the owners of MasterCare Patient Equipment in Columbus, a company that creates spa-like bathtubs for hospitals and nursing homes. Shes also part owner of Reztec Manufacturing, a plant in Fremont that makes the fiberglass for the tubs. Together, the companies employ about 50 people.

Novotne will receive the 31st annual Ovation Award given to a local businesswoman during next week's Columbus Area Business Hall of Fame banquet, becoming only the second woman connected to the manufacturing industry to receive the honor.

Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce President K.C. Belitz explained how unique Novotne is to the community.

Its obviously rare to have a woman in that professionally dominated male role, and those are the kind of examples we like to hold up and encourage others to follow, Belitz said.

That wasn't always her career path.

The Cedar Rapids native was a field manager for AAA Nebraska before retiring after 18 years. Then her husband, Jim, became ill and passed away in 2013 from complications of Crohn's disease.

Jim worked all over the Midwest for companies before deciding to move his wife and two children, Cassandra and Erik, to a more stable environment in Columbus. He wanted to open his own business in the health care equipment field.

It was exciting, but it was scary. We had a daughter who was still in high school, said Novotne.

MasterCare and Reztec were the companies Jim started 22 years ago, not Novotne, so his death put her in a tough position.

I dont know how I did it. I guess you just do what you have to do, she said. Dont think about it, just do it.

Novotne wasn't keen on the idea of coming out of retirement or trying to run the businesses, but she found a way to make it work.

Belitz praised the award winner for her gumption, crediting Novotne for having the skill set to succeed in several industries during her working career.

Novotne currently works closely with the marketing side, helping train employees on sales and support.

MasterCare Patient Equipment sells about 350 units per year across the United States and Canada. The specialized tubs allow users to walk in, rather than be lifted by a caretaker.

Novotne, who worked as a geriatrics nurse from many years, said the tubs play an important role.

The way they were strapped in and lifted up in the air and put into the tub, it was a very sterile, very institutional environment. Weve come so far with equipment. We try to create a spa-like atmosphere because its people my age who are utilizing these bathing systems, Novotne said. Its meant a lot to me to be able to provide this quality, excellent patient care.

This is the second time Novotne has been nominated for the Ovation Award, but she didn't win in 2015.

When Belitz called to give her the good news this time, while she was at a health care convention in Nashville, Tennessee, Novotne was shocked.

I felt guilty, she said. There are so many deserving people in Columbus that are just wonderful with all the volunteer work they do and the women in business. Its embarrassing. I just try to stay under the radar and do my thing. I am just really, really honored. Columbus is such a wonderful, supportive community.

In addition to running the businesses, Novotne is also an avid volunteer. She serves as president of the Columbus Area United Way board, as a Commodore with the chamber of commerce and with the Civil Service Commission, Nebraska Diplomats and P.E.O. International, a group that promotes educational opportunities for women.

I love doing things for people, she said. Its such a sense of accomplishment. It brings such joy to see others become successful and be happy.
SCHUYLER  All sectors of Schuyler  business, education, religion  are affected by the citys shortage of affordable housing.

Now the faith community is stepping up to address a small piece of the problem by bringing Habitat for Humanity to Schuyler.

The Schuyler Hospitality and Housing Committee and Habitat for Humanity of Columbus signed an agreement Nov. 1 that allows the two groups to work together to build a home in Schuyler.

The hospitality and housing committee is an offshoot of the Schuyler Ministerial Association, which includes representatives from Christ United Methodist, St. Johns Lutheran, Trinity Lutheran, Divine Mercy and First Presbyterian churches. Those churches also operate the Colfax County Food Pantry.

The Rev. Pat Norris of Christ United Methodist said the committee was looking for a faith-based response to the housing shortage, so members reached out to the Habitat for Humanity chapter in Columbus.

While it's a collaboration, Jamie Snyder, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Columbus, said the Schuyler committee will have to do a lot of heavy lifting, from raising money to choosing a family and recruiting volunteers.

The local committee is "very instrumental" in moving the project forward, she said.

Schuyler Hospitality and Housing Committee must raise 75 percent of the cost to build a home, which is estimated at $60,000. Group members sent letters to Schuyler-area businesses and organizations explaining the project and the need for funding.

Cargill is already on board with the plan, though the exact details of the company's commitment are still being ironed out.

Thats a huge shot in the arm, said Norris. (Cargill has) been supportive of other developments in housing in Schuyler, so we didnt know what their response would be to this."

Norris and other committee members plan to push for additional support in the coming months.

Theyve also looked at potential locations for the house, but Norris said they havent spoken with any property owners. Snyder said the lot has to be $10,000 to $12,000 or cheaper to make the home affordable for the eventual owner. The group is also looking outside the flood plain so the owner won't have to purchase flood insurance.

Another task is finding project leaders, who are paid a small stipend but considered volunteers. These include a project leader, construction leader and site supervisors, preferably people who are bilingual.

Well want to have bilingual site supervisors because of our population diversity and all the languages that are spoken in our community, said Norris.

The pastor started recruiting volunteers to construct the house through church groups across the state and another from Kansas.

Snyder said they hope to break ground on the house in June 2017 and have it completed that fall.

Im feeling pretty positive at this point, she said.

The Habitat for Humanity chapter has completed five homes in Columbus since forming in 2010.

On Tuesday, First National Bank of Omaha announced it awarded a $30,000 community development grant to Habitat for Humanity of Columbus to support a future build.
Updated at 8:30 p.m.

A 25-year-old African-American man is in stable condition after he was shot by Charlottesville police Sunday night as they responded to a shooting on 11th Street Northwest.

Police said Joshua Lamar Carter, of Charlottesville, was shot by officers after they arrived on the scene and he displayed a firearm.

At a news conference Monday, city Police Chief Al Thomas said he went down to the scene and spoke with members of the community, who told him they were concerned with the violence in their neighborhoods.

The response from the community was significant, Thomas said. This has been very traumatic on everyone involved, including the community and officers.

Thomas said the officers involved have been placed on paid administrative leave, as per standard procedure and the incident is being investigated. It wasnt clear at press time which agency is handling the investigation.

The incident comes amidst a focus on police officer-involved shootings across the nation, particularly involving young black men. Law enforcement has come under scrutiny for these use-of-force incidents  sometimes caught on citizen cameras  and questions about police training and hiring protocols continue to dominate the headlines.

Police did not say how many officers shot at Carter or how many times he was struck, although at least two officers answered the original call. For a call of that nature, police said it is standard procedure to send more than one officer for safety reasons.

Carter faces charges of malicious wounding in the shooting that occurred just before 8 p.m. Sunday in the 500 block of 11th Street Northwest in which a woman suffered minor injuries to her legs. Emergency medical personnel treated her for graze wounds, police said.

Carter also is charged with displaying a firearm, being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and firing a weapon near a school.

Police said there is a relationship between the wounded woman and Carter, but would not elaborate.

A woman who lives on 12th Street, just behind the scene of the shooting, said she heard several gunshots just before 8 p.m. and went outside to investigate. The woman, who wished to remain anonymous because of concerns for her safety, said she heard a lot of screaming and yelling before the sound of police sirens filled the air. After going back inside, she heard the sound of more gunshots, she said.

At the scene, police said officers recovered a 9 mm handgun and spent shell casings of the same caliber. City police carry .45-caliber service weapons.

Police are asking anyone with information about the shooting to call them at (434) 970-3280 or Crime Stoppers at (434) 970-4000.
Updated at 8:20 p.m.

A letter signed by 469 students, staff and faculty at the University of Virginia is asking administrators to stop quoting founder Thomas Jefferson in university-wide emails.

The letter came in response to an email, sent by university President Teresa A. Sullivan, the day after the election. Sullivan asked students who were upset by the result not to become cynical about Americas democratic system, and instead to affect change.

By coincidence, on this exact day 191 years ago  November 9, 1825, in the first year of classes at UVa  Thomas Jefferson wrote to a friend that University of Virginia students are not of ordinary significance only: they are exactly the persons who are to succeed to the government of our country, and to rule its future enmities, its friendships and fortunes, Sullivan wrote. I encourage todays UVa students to embrace that responsibility.

The petition to Sullivan  which The Cavalier Daily reports originated in the psychology department  says members of the community are disappointed in the use of Thomas Jefferson as a moral compass.

The letter recounts Jeffersons involvement in the universitys racist history  Jefferson and many faculty members owned slaves in the early years of UVas existence  and cites instances in which Jefferson reaffirmed his view that blacks are inferior to the whites in the endowments of body and mind.

Although the letter acknowledges Jeffersons importance and role in UVa tradition, the writers ask Sullivan to reconsider quoting him in emails.

For many of us, the inclusion of Jefferson quotations in these e-mails undermines the message of unity, equality, and civility that you are attempting to convey, the letter reads.

In a response sent out Monday afternoon, Sullivan said she agreed with the idea conveyed by Jefferson in that particular quote  the idea that UVa students would go on to lead our Republic, she wrote.

Quoting Jefferson (or any historical figure) does not imply an endorsement of all the social structures and beliefs of his time, such as slavery and the exclusion of women and people of color from the University, reads Sullivans statement.

Students at a Board of Visitors protest Friday  who were there mainly to demand protection for undocumented students and workers  also were upset about the universitys valorization of Jefferson.

Among their list of demands was that the university stop idolizing slave owners. Later, after the group was asked to leave the Rotunda, third-year student Maria Rincon told the crowd that Sullivans use of a Jefferson quote had the opposite of the intended effect.

Quoting a racist rapist isnt going to make me feel better, Rincon said.

Using Jefferson quotes  in university-wide communications, at the start of ceremonies, at meetings of the Board of Visitors  is a tradition at UVa. People on different sides of a debate at UVa often will both mine quotes from Jeffersons writings to support their points of view.

Sullivan said the ideals of Jefferson live on, even as the university has evolved to include women, gays and people of all religious persuasions and ethnic groups.

All of them belong at todays UVa, whose founders most influential and most quoted words were  all men are created equal, reads Sullivans statement. Those words were inherently contradictory in an era of slavery, but because of their power, they became the fundamental expression of a more genuine equality today.

Peter S. Onuf, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Professor in the department of history, said he doesnt endorse the letter.

We need to engage with Jefferson, not to pretend that this complex, deeply flawed figure did not exist  or has nothing to say to us, Onuf said.
RICHMOND  State funds are about to get scarcer for the Virginia Economic Development Partnership.

Legislators reacted with disbelief and fury Monday to a new report about the quasi-independent state authority by their watchdog agency. It documents a long history of operating with little oversight or accountability for the taxpayer money that VEDP uses to attract new businesses, expand existing ones, and promote Virginias trade interests abroad.

The report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission warns that the partnership has left the state vulnerable to fraud by failing to establish policies for awarding incentive grants to new and expanding businesses or requiring them to perform to their requirements, despite giving out nearly $400 million in incentive grants over the last 10 years.

We spend boatloads of money [on economic development] every year, said House Appropriations Chairman S. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, a member of the legislative commission. To read this really made me sick to my stomach.

Jones made clear that he supports the reports recommendation that the General Assembly withhold $1.5 million in the current state budget for partnership programs and tie future appropriations to improved performance.

Theyve got a lot of proving to do before Im willing to allocate any more dollars to them, he said at the end of a 90-minute presentation of the staffs findings and 35 recommendations.

Political issue

The report immediately became an issue for next years gubernatorial campaign as House Majority Leader M. Kirkland Cox, R-Colonial Heights, denounced the globe-trotting, ribbon-cutting economic development approach of Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, who, fittingly, was on a trade mission to Japan and the Pacific Rim. Ed Gillespie, one of four candidates for the GOP nomination for governor, released a statement calling it a damning critique of McAuliffes administration.

But even Republican members of the commission acknowledged that the problems documented by the report had been rooted in the history of the partnership. It was created in 1995 under then-Gov. George Allen, a Republican, as an authority insulated from much of the oversight required of state agencies.

One of the worst things here is the culture and the pattern over many years, said Del. John M. OBannon III, R-Henrico, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee.

McAuliffe, in a statement his office issued after the reports release, said, As the report makes clear, we have a responsibility to strengthen the management and accountability structure at VEDP so that it can meet its full potential as a driver for economic growth.

It is my hope that we can work collaboratively with members of the General Assembly and other stakeholders to reform VEDP to ensure better management of taxpayer dollars and more accountability throughout the organization, he said.

McAuliffe said he has instructed state Secretary of Commerce and Trade Todd Haymore and other members of his administration to review the JLARC report and identify opportunities, either through legislative or executive action, to maximize the impact of Virginias economic development efforts.

Speaker of the House William J. Howell, R-Stafford, called the report very disappointing.

VEDP lacks the basic practices necessary for effective management and marketing of Virginias economic development activities, Howell said in a statement. It is important that we do everything we can to get VEDP back on the right track so that Virginia can remain competitive when attracting new jobs and investment.

Reorganization plans

The partnerships newly revitalized board of directors is embroiled in a reorganization and search for a new executive director to replace Martin J. Briley, who was dismissed in March in the aftermath of revelations that VEDP had awarded a $1.4 million grant in 2014 to what turned out to be an illegitimate company that had proposed a manufacturing operation in Appomattox County.

While it is humbling for many to see the shortcomings of the old VEDP catalogued in black and white, it is encouraging to see that our vision for an improved VEDP that we embarked on in 2015 is shared by JLARC, said Daniel C. Gundersen, interim president and CEO, in a letter to Orrock on Nov. 4.

The 20-year-old partnership adopted policies in January for the first time to ensure due diligence in vetting prospects after a public furor over the grant to Lindenburg Industry. An investigation published by the Roanoke Times in January found that the partnership had relied in part on a company website that published false information and included a North Carolina address where the company never had been present.

McAuliffe bore the brunt of political blowback from the scandal. However, Briley had been appointed in 2011 under the administration of Gov. Bob McDonnell and the JLARC study said the partnerships internal research staff first raised concerns about the lack of standards for due diligence the same year.

Who did they take it to? Jones asked heatedly. Who made the decision to blow it off?

The lack of written policies and procedures since the partnerships inception for administering its 10 incentive grant funds left the state with little proof that the companies had created the jobs, wages and capital investments promised, or that they were required to repay the money when they failed.

To me, this is just wide open for criminal activity, said JLARC Chairman Robert D. Orrock Sr., R-Caroline.

Troubled grants

The biggest grant program had the worst track record  the Commonwealth Opportunity Fund, formerly called the Governors Opportunity Fund, which governors of both parties have used to close economic development deals they tout for the jobs created and capital invested.

But only 55 percent of the 133 completed projects that received grants from the fund met or exceeded the states requirements for creating jobs, while just under 70 percent met or exceeded requirements for capital investment or wages above the regional average.

In contrast, the Virginia Investment Partnership and Virginia Economic Development Incentive Grant, which are given on the basis of reimbursement instead of an upfront award, met all three goals 90 percent of the time for their 19 completed projects.

VEDPs approach to administering state incentive grants has been highly unstructured and has left the state exposed to avoidable risk of fraud and poor use of limited resources, JLARC staff said.

Proposed solutions

Among its proposed solutions is the creation of a separate division within VEDP to administer incentive programs and ensure compliance with their terms. But the agencys interim leadership and JLARC staff disagree on whether the authority has taken enough steps in that direction.

VEDP said it had created a full-time position for an incentives coordinator in September and had made plans to create an incentives management unit, but JLARC staff said the partnership previously had not revealed such a plan.

Similarly, the partnership said it already has implemented written policies and procedures for tracking incentive performance and verifying that companies perform according to their commitments.

But JLARC said the new policies for four of the 10 incentive programs are too vague to be actionable and to ensure staff are making decisions in a consistent and transparent manner, or consistently monitoring and verifying project performance, enforcing clawbacks (to return money to the state), and granting extensions only to the extent appropriate.

Management critique

The report says VEDP is not an efficiently or effectively managed organization. It said the agencys leadership provides little guidance and training to employees, and exercises lax oversight of whether they are working the hours or producing the results for which they are paid what JLARC described as above-average wages for a state agency.

It also rebukes the board of directors for not meeting its requirements as a body that is supervisory, not merely advisory, or even being aware of four previous consultant reports dating to 2011 that identified many of the management problems documented in the report.

JLARC said the most effective marketing division of VEDP has been its international trade operation, which the General Assembly voted this year to move into a separate executive agency next April. The JLARC report cautions against proceeding with creation of the Virginia International Trade Corp., which it said could worsen already poor coordination between the states primary marketing services and its primary export promotion services.

Its the only one thats working, responded Del. R. Steven Landes, R-Augusta, vice chairman of the Appropriations Committee and sponsor of the legislation to move the trade operation into a separate organization.

New oversight

The new report almost certainly will prompt the General Assembly to extend its oversight of Virginias economic development programs, which it said are poorly coordinated with local and regional initiatives. A new JLARC subcommittee met last week for the first time to begin reviewing more than 75 state economic incentive programs.

The report recommends that the legislature create a board of economic development with an independent staff to oversee the states economic development system to improve coordination of activities and its efficiency and effectiveness.

Legislators said its premature to act on some of the big-picture recommendations, such as creation of a new state board, but OBannon and Sen. Frank M. Ruff Jr., R-Mecklenburg, will oversee the review of the proposals to determine which require quick action.

Jones warned VEDP officials not to act quickly on naming a new CEO. This is not the time to be hiring a new CEO until you know what the structure of the agency is going to look like, he said after the commission meeting.

However, he and other legislators promised to carry out the reports final recommendation of withholding money until they get better results.

We have shown a willingness to hold money, Cox said. Thats really the best tool we have.
LINCOLN  The state may need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on fixing state prison problems, but there's been no indication the executive branch is willing to spend what's needed, a Nebraska state senator said Monday.

"We need to spend money, or we're going to turn some really bad guys out onto the streets, or some of our inmates or employees are going to be killed," said Sen. Paul Schumacher of Columbus.

Schumacher is a member of the Department of Correctional Services Investigative Committee that held an executive session Monday afternoon to discuss a draft of a report it will issue in December.

The report comes after months of hearings and questioning of prisons Director Scott Frakes and other administrators on issues including staffing and salaries, crowding, parole, mental health of inmates, restrictive housing and programming needed so inmates can be successful once they get out.

Schumacher said it became clear to senators, members of a previous corrections investigative committee and this latest one that budgetary constraints were the source of the problems that have festered in the prisons.

In 2006, the state started a program of large tax reductions or credits that have resulted today in having roughly $750 million less to spend on state agencies and their needs, he said. And continuing on that path, by 2024, the state would have $1.1 billion less, Schumacher said.

"So we have an emphasis on cutting taxes, in the face of increased need," he said. "And a lot of that need is generated by the idea that is very popular, that you just have to get tough on crime. And you do that by incarceration. And when you do that you generate more expenses."

It becomes a vicious cycle, he said. And it has come to a head.

While the Legislature can say it will spend the money in the prisons where it's needed, if the governor and his agencies won't spend it, problems don't get solved, or it takes years to solve them, Schumacher said.

That would be OK, he said, if the federal government and the potential of lawsuits being filed by ACLU of Nebraska, because of crowding, weren't breathing down the state's neck.

A federal court order could result in the release of people who should not be out on the streets, he said. Or crowding could trigger large-scale property damage and death in a prison, which happened in 2015 at Tecumseh State Correctional Institution.

As of June, the prisons were at 158 percent of design capacity, with the Community Corrections Center of Lincoln at 192 percent, the Diagnostic and Evaluation Center in Lincoln at 251 percent and Omaha Correctional Center at 194 percent.

"Frakes is an experienced, knowledgeable director who knows what has to be done but is constrained by the political dynamic," he said.

On prison staffing, which has been inadequate for years, Schumacher said a recent attempt to raise the salaries for workers in order to keep them from leaving fell short and won't solve the problem.

The state employees union recently accepted a proposed 4.4 percent average increase in salaries for eight job classifications in the department that will go into effect Nov. 28.

The early negotiations on pay -- there will be another in the spring -- did not address longevity pay and step raises that workers have signaled are needed. Lincoln Sen. Colby Coash urged the committee to put specific pay raises and other salary needs in the report.

The recent raises don't bring salaries up to comparable corrections jobs paid by Lancaster and Douglas counties, Schumacher said.

"This all boils down to trying to delay the spending on this, which has been delayed now for nearly a decade, and only gets worse," he said.

Add to that, this need for spending millions to correct prison problems is intersecting with a projected shortfall in the state budget of close to $1 billion.

Schumacher said all the meetings by the committee and discussions of the report have only served to verify what senators have known for several years.

"Now we doubly know it," he said.
RICHMOND  Virginias general fund revenues rose 3.4 percent in October over October 2015, driven mostly by payroll withholding taxes, according to the McAuliffe administration.

The general fund is the part of the budget over which the governor and lawmakers have discretion. It is made up mostly of income and business taxes and goes toward services such as education, public safety and health care.

This months report is encouraging news as we continue to overcome the effects of sequestration and our historic over-reliance on federal spending by growing and diversifying our economy, Gov. Terry McAuliffe said in a statement.

While we are headed in a positive direction, we still have some difficult decisions to make to close a revenue shortfall in the fiscal year 2018 budget.

Collections of payroll withholding taxes rose 4.8 percent in October compared with October 2015, despite one fewer deposit day.
You could call it Catholic guilt, although it's not known if religion brought about this fit of remorse.

What is known is that someone sent Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers $100 and asked him to pass it on in secret to Creighton University for a book the person borrowed decades past from the school's library, and didn't return.

The confessor was conscience stricken, Chambers said.

The senator, who has become as much poet as lawmaker, sent the money on to the head librarian on Oct. 10, accompanied by rhyme.

"Although not a 'religion-possessor,'

Some treat me like a 'father confessor,'

Which is to say, they show to me

A side they want none else to see.

... 'Place your secret,' say I, 'on my shelf --

'I'll keep it better than you will, yourself.'"

The rhyme continued with the person's plea.

"'Promise you'll see that this CASH will be given

Over to Creighton -- my 'sin' will be riven.

Peace then, again, may inhabit my soul;

Doing the right thing -- though late -- is my goal.'"

Creighton University librarian A. James Bothmer responded to the intermediary a week later.

"I am moved by the act of contrition by the anonymous 'borrower' of the book," he said, "and I am especially moved by your poetic explanation."

He said he would purchase a book in print, in an area of greatest need.

"And, please assure him/her that all is forgiven," Bothmer said.

Chambers then had to write another poem to the librarian on Oct. 20 to ask for a receipt, to assure the person the money was spent as required. He titled the poem, "Embarrassing Oversight."

Another week later, and Chambers got a second letter from Bothmer with the titles of books purchased with the $100. "Phantoms of the Prairie: The Return of Cougars to the Midwest," by John Laundre; "The Cougar: Beautiful, Wild and Dangerous," by Paula Wild; and "Common Law in Colonial America; V.3: The Chesapeake and New England, 1660-1750," by William Edward Nelson.

On Nov. 5, Bothmer got one more poem, "In RE: The Purloined Book."

"'Close the book' -- the Saga is ended;

The Trio of books you purchased is splendid!"

Bothmer asked if he could reprint Chambers' poem in a spring newsletter. Chambers replied, by all means, yes.

"Being totally frank, I am buoyed

By that prospect. Too, I've enjoyed

Communicating with you on 'the sin'

The 'Book Thief' committed. Maybe again

Some suff'ring 'sinner' may 'take the flame'

And once more invoke the 'repentance' game --

Acknowledging remorsefully: Crooks is crooks,

'But the worst crooks of all is them which steals books!'

In which contingency, I may be sought

To aid such poor 'sinner' to do as he ought,

By serving as 'pass-through' to help reach the Goal

Of making both 'sinner' and Library Whole.

In the event such occurs, I shan't shirk

Engaging in doing such 'uplifting' work.

In a small way (and it's small on its face) --

The World, it may make, a somewhat better place ...?"
The Fredericksburg area man accused in a horrific sexual assault of a woman in a ditch along Route 3 in Stafford County on Oct. 31 is in custody.

Roberto Flores Sibrian was arrested Nov. 10 at a construction site in Sanford, N.C., according to the Stafford County Sheriffs Office. The 26-year-old undocumented immigrant has been charged with rape and aggravated sexual battery and was being held in the Lee County Jail on $100,000 secured bond pending extradition to Stafford and a detainer through U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Sibrian has no fixed address, but was living the Fredericksburg area prior to the incident on Halloween, according to authorities.

About 100 leads were developed in the case and the Stafford sheriffs office worked in conjunction with numerous agencies to make the arrest including the Lee County North Carolina Sheriffs Office, North Carolina State Highway Patrol, Spotsylvania County Sheriffs Office, King George County Sheriffs Office, Fredericksburg Police Department, Fredericksburg Sheriffs Office, the Virginia State Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Marshals Service.

According to earlier reports, the female victim was traveling east on Route 3 around 3 a.m. on Halloween when her vehicle was struck by an SUV, causing her vehicle to spin out of control and come to a rest on the shoulder near Sherwood Forest Farm Road.

According to authorities, the woman was forced from her vehicle and dragged to a nearby ditch where she was sexually assaulted over a two-hour period.

Her alleged attacker got back in his vehicle and continued east on Route 3 following the reported incident after leaving behind a shirt and DNA evidence.
Virginia's general fund revenues rose 3.4 percent in October over October 2015, driven mostly by payroll withholding taxes, according to the McAuliffe administration.

The general fund is the part of the budget over which the governor and lawmakers have discretion. It is made up mostly of income and business taxes and goes toward services such as education, public safety and health care.

"This month's report is encouraging news as we continue to overcome the effects of sequestration and our historic over-reliance on federal spending by growing and diversifying our economy," Gov. Terry McAuliffe said in a statement.

"While we are headed in a positive direction, we still have some difficult decisions to make to close a revenue shortfall in the fiscal year 2018 budget."

Collections of payroll withholding taxes  64 percent of General Fund revenues  increased 4.3 percent, ahead of the annual forecast of 3.0 percent growth, according to Mondays news release from the governors office. Finally, collections of wills, suits, deeds, and contracts  mainly recordation tax collections  were $33.0 million in October, compared with $31.8 million in October of last year, a 3.7 percent increase.

Sales tax collections  18 percent of General Fund revenues  decreased 0.3 percent through October, behind the annual forecast calling for a 2.6 percent increase.

The Joint Advisory Board of Economists met Nov/ 9 to assess recent economic developments and the economic outlook for the current and next biennium. The Governors Advisory Council on Revenue Estimates will meet Nov. 28 to evaluate both the joint boards economic recommendations and revenue collections through October. Those will be incorporated into the general fund revenue forecast to be released Dec. 16 when the Governor meets with the money committees of the General Assembly to introduce his budget recommendations.
The first day of the Nebraska Legislature is typically a time to welcome senators and tend to formalities.

But this January, it could also include a showdown when the time comes to elect leadership for the 105th Legislature's dual sessions.

Election of the speaker and committee chairs is, by legislative rules, a secret ballot. Proponents of keeping it that way say it tamps down partisanship. With a secret ballot, they say, the Legislature is more likely to get the best chairperson, especially in a lawmaking body that has a large majority of one party: 32 Republicans, 15 Democrats, one Independent and one Libertarian.

But some senators have been pushing for an open ballot in those elections. They say the unicameral Legislature, which is one of the most accessible in the nation, is deviating from transparency in this one area. Committee leaders have quite a bit of power in determining what bills get forwarded to the full Legislature for debate. And Nebraskans have the right to view the process of selecting those senators.

Secret votes, said Sen. John Kuehn, promote distrust, open the possibility of vote and influence trading and allow back door partisan and special interest influences to impact one of the most important decisions.

Omaha Sen. Bob Krist had some of those same arguments against open ballots. They promote looking out for the party rather than for the Legislature as an institution and Nebraska residents. And they would enable people outside the Legislature to influence who leads committees.

A little more than seven weeks from the start of the session, it's unknown which senator might attempt to offer up a rule change for open ballots. Five senators who are known to support it -- Sens. Laura Ebke of Crete, Mike Groene of North Platte, Merv Riepe of Omaha, Bill Kintner of Papillion and Kuehn of Heartwell -- have said they have no plans to try to push it through on the first day.

"If there's really a desire to do it, we ought to change it in the permanent rules so that it takes effect not this Legislature but the following Legislature (two years from now)," Ebke said.

Riepe said he has mentioned introducing transparency, but for hospital and medical pricing, not for open ballots.

"Because it had the word transparency in there I think people thought that I was going to introduce the rule change for transparency on the voting for committee chairs," he said. "So that's the misunderstanding there."

This isn't the battle Groene is picking this session, either. "I can't lead every fight," he said.

Even Sen. Bill Kintner, who fought for it last session, says he does not plan to introduce a transparency rule change in January.

So that leaves Kuehn.

"I don't have any plans at this point ... of being the champion of it on the first day," Kuehn said Friday. "I think it's something a number of people have talked about."

Both he and Krist have published opinion pieces recently about the open ballot issue. Kuehn says he is asked about it frequently in constituent meetings, he said.

In the past several years, senators who have attempted to change the legislative rules to open up the vote have been shot down, either by the five-member Rules Committee that decides which changes will go to the full Legislature or in debate.

In 2015 the Rules Committee, made up of four Republicans and one Democrat, voted unanimously to kill a proposal by Kintner to make the votes public.

Chairman Tommy Garrett, who was defeated Nov. 8 in his bid to return to the Legislature, said that after rejecting the proposal there was "blowback" from the Douglas County and Sarpy County Republican parties.

In the 2016 session, the proposal was offered again, and again the Rules Committee rejected it. So Kintner attempted to amend it into the permanent rules when they were be debated by the full Legislature, but lost on a 17-30 vote.

A major argument continues to be whether an open vote would turn Nebraska's nonpartisan Legislature more partisan.

Krist, who is chairman of the Executive Board, has opined that most of the people calling for open ballots are partisan ideologues who want what's best for their party and its control of membership, and do not necessarily want to take into consideration who the better candidate might be.

The transparency argument, he says, has been made popular in recent years by outside groups such as Americans for Prosperity. The state Republican Party also has called for open voting in a resolution.

Groene said Democrats have been more partisan in the Legislature than Republicans ever have.

"They (Democrats) vote as a block," Groene said.

Of the 14 standing committee chairs in 2015 and 2016 elected by secret ballot, 10 are Republicans and four are Democrats. The speaker is also Republican. But in 2014, five chairs were Republicans and nine were Democrats. And the speaker was Republican.
ARIZONA - USA - As the Obama administration encouraged illegal immigrants to come over the border, Donald Trump wants to stop this, and send them back.

Thanks to Obamas initiative to acquire a database of illegal immigrants in America, and a pledge of amnesty, which allowed many to sign up, Donald Trump now has a complete list of people to be deported from America.

Every year many people try to gain entry into the United States utilising legal channels of entry, and millions are denied. It is therefore wrong that many others who wish to come to America can just walk across a border, and were encouraged to do so under the Obama administration.

Trump has already outlined a plan to deport 2-3 million illegals who arrived illegally from South American countries and who pose a serious danger to the populace. The deportation of illegals with criminal records and links to gangs will be a first step, however there are still approximately 12 million known illegal aliens residing within the U.S.s border, and these will be rounded up and deported in the next year or so.

The logistics of rounding up these people and putting them on secure buses back to the border will be enormous. Some advisers are saying that there will be elements who try and flee from immigration control officers, however, they will have no place to go. They will not be able to work, or rent out a place to sleep, once they are caught they too will be rounded up and thrown out of the country.

Many illegal immigrants are now going underground or fleeing back across the border, so Trump has a big job in front of him, that is if he does not go back on his word.
Lets start with a game, its really simple, and is called Yes or No. Ill ask some questions, which you answer with either a Yes or a No.

Do you enjoy holiday classics such as A Christmas Carol? Would you like to hear a spine tingling, awesome rendition of O Holy Night? Ready to stuff yourself full with an array of delicious offerings on the buffet? Plus, are you ready for an escape away from politics and the election results?

If you answered Yes, to one or more of those questions, the musical version of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol at La Comedia through December 31 is a cant miss. Attending the production will also allow for the playing of another round of Yes or No, as if any further additional reasons were needed.

Everyone knows the story of A Christmas Carol, in which the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future visits Ebeneezer Scrooge resulting in him having a whole new outlook on life. However, the talent of the entire cast provides a freshness that makes seeing the show like a whole new experience. From George C. Scott to Michael Caine and everyone else who has ever played the role of Scrooge, none has played the grumpy curmudgeon any better than the human chameleon Chris Kramer. Kramer transforms himself to masterfully portray a wide range of characters for La Comedia, he is always a joy to watch and this performance is no different. His utterances of bah humbug are even perfect.

While on the subject of Kramer, in all honesty, without any journalistic hyperbole, a highlight of my holiday season has become the traditional singing of O Holy Night at La Comedia. Not only does Kramer give a splendid performance as Scrooge, he raises the bar of excellence even higher with a pitch perfect rendition of the song. Much like Scrooge becomes generous, Kramer spreads the wealth of his blessed voice providing a beautiful gift. With all due respect to the sweet potato souffle, Norwegian Cod (mixed in a premium beer batter), and the Papaya Chutney Dressing, nothing leaves a better taste in your mouth than the night concluding with this rendition of O Holy Night.

One of the most endearingly sympathetic characters in history is Tiny Tim as you cant help but feel for the big-hearted boy who relies on a crutch to get around. The role is played Sam Kingrey who pulls at your heartstrings and has a stage presence that exceeds his tiny frame, by far. The relationship that Tiny Tim shares with his father, Bob Cratchit (David Goins) is especially moving.

I was also highly impressed by the haunting presence of Jacob Marleys ghost, portrayed by Mark Reuter. The costuming and sound effects were perfect for the character, and nearly had me as frightened as Scrooge. Though the Ghost of Christmas Present (Todd Tucker) was made to closely resemble the Burger King, but the only Whopper he delivered was the news to Scrooge about how others felt about him; all the other visuals were splendid, including Karie-Lee Sutherland as the Ghost of Christmas Past.

Are you still questioning whether or not to attend? The winning answer should be No, with the prize being seeing the spectacular production of A Christmas Carol, which is sure to help make this holiday season a joyous one.
The Irish band, Rend Collective is unique in several ways beyond their distinct sound, such as their collection of instruments which includes some childrens toys and some handmade oddities. They have also recorded a live album on the beach while sitting around a campfire and filmed a video onboard a fishing boat in raucous waters. However, Rend Collective shares the common message of unity, encouraging others to come together under Gods love. Their toe tapping, spirit lifting, high energy musical tour of enlightenment will be at the Christian Life Center for performance on Thursday, November 17 at 7:00 p.m.

While on stage Rend Collective takes great pleasure in a responsive audience as its a confirmation that their message is being heard. My favorite part of performing is hearing other people sing. We dont travel to hear ourselves sings, but to hear others raise their voices to God, said Gareth Gilkeson, drummer and bandleader.

At the age of 11, Gilkeson started playing the drums and at 13, he was encouraged to start playing at church. From there he has seen the hand of God lead him into the development of Rend Collective, which originated as a worship band and after hits such as My Lighthouse, You Will Never Runaway, and Build Your Kingdom Here, is a world renowned Christian, folk rock group. The formation started at Rend, a ministry for spiritually hungry young adults, seeking an authentic, raw, and real expression of church, in a small coastal town named Bangor in Northern Ireland. The ministry has since expanded to many nations through the sound of Rend Collectives music.

The level of success achieved by the band is much more than any of them ever imagined. We never intended to be celebrities, we are just simply being a part of the church, said Gilkeson. Coming from a small town in a small country to now touring the world, could have never happened without God leading the way.

At Christian Life Center, like for all of their performances, Rend Collective encourages all to attend no matter their religious beliefs and be enamored by the sounds. Jesus was all for the outsiders and outcasts, so we want to create a place for all to come and enjoy music that glorifies God, said Gilkeson.

For a one-of-a-kind concert experience, dont miss Rend Collective on Thursday, November 18 at the Christian Life Center, 3489 Little York Rd., in Dayton.
Varies, but you can get a full lunch for under $10!

Waffle Shop is back - to go! Online ordering start 11/7. All proceeds benefit various outreach programs throughout the Dayton area through grants.

The Annual Waffle Shop at Christ Episcopal Church

20 West First Street

November 15 through 18, 2022

11am  2pm

Waffle Shop is back this year - to go! We will take carryout orders online starting November 7.

Christ Church is thrilled for the return of Waffle Shop this year. Since 1929, we have fed Dayton, offering good food for our bodies and returning the profits to feed, clothe, and house our neighbors. Through good times and bad, peace and war, good health, and now a pandemic, we remain committed to nourishing the soul of Dayton.

In addition to all of the great hospitality, friendships, sharing of good food and even better conversation, Waffle Shop profits are given back to the community through a number of grants that are awarded every spring. This year we distributed more than $16,000 to organizations and ministries that benefit others.

Join us at our Annual Waffle Shop this November and follow Waffle Shop on Facebook!

Related: Waffle Shop To-Go returns as a carry-out event
Mumbai: One of the most interesting and unusual collaborations of all time , Aanand L Rai has roped in Anurag Kashyap for two of his upcoming films under his home production, Colour Yellow Productions.

Kashyap, who has deep admiration for Rai and even spoke highly of his last film Tanu Weds Manu Returns, will now direct 2 films for the producer.

While much is not known at this stage, sources close to the duo revealed that the two have met a couple of times and are discussing scripts that interest them.

Going by the track record of these two storytellers, it will be apt to say that this collaboration will yield fruitful results.

While Rai is busy scouting for locations for his next untitled venture with superstar Shah Rukh Khan, Anurag Kashyap recently delivered the hit movie Akira starring Sonakshi Sinha.
The picture of Rajkummar Rao and Nargis Fakhri with the director Namrata Singh Gujral when they met up for a script reading session.

While there are on-screen couples who go on to do several films together after their pairing is loved by people, several filmmakers also give new or unlikely pairings a chance.

One such new pairing is all set to come together. Nargis Fakhri, who is known for commercial films like Housefull 3 among others and Rajkummar Rao, known more for his content-driven films, form the lead pair of the Indo-American film 5 Weddings.

The shooting of the film is scheduled to begin in Chandigarh on Tuesday and the lead pair, even met up with the director of the film, Namrata Singh Gujral for a script reading session a day before to gear up. The cast and crew are slated to shoot for three weeks.

Fans of the two actors would definitely be looking forward for a great film together.
Shahid Kapoor is one of the fittest actors in Bollywood (Pic courtesy: Instagram/shahidkapoor).

Mumbai: Its like Shahid Kapoor is aging in reverse. No, seriously! If you liked Shahid the exuberant youngster, you will love Shahid the mature and uber-fit rockstar.

Just when you thought that Kapoor cannot get any hotter, he throws this picture at you and bowls everyone over.

In a recent Instagram post, Shahid is seen soaking sun wearing nothing!

That sculpted, well-maintained body looks celestial and the black & white filter only adds oomph to his boyish charm.

The Haider star will soon be seen in Vishal Bharadwajs period drama Rangoon.

Power packed performances, big banner movies and very public display of drool-worthy pictures. Shahid Kapoor is undoubtedly the Greek god Bollywood so rightly deserves!
Mumbai: Childrens Day was celebrated on November 14 and the day often gets people to remember some memories about their childhood. Several of our Bollywood celebrities also share some of their pictures from their childhood on this day.

We are all aware that Salman Khan immensely enjoys the company of children as is evident from his pictures with his nephew Ahil and other children. And on Childrens Day this time, the superstar took to social media to share several pictures of him enjoying the company of kids. This includes a picture of Ahil playing with Salmans famous bracelet, Salman posing with his nephews as they climb a tree, his pictures with locals from Manali while recently shooting for Tubelight, holding a newborn baby in his hand and also one where he is involved in a game of arm wrestling with a kid.

Fans of Salman would have loved to see some pictures of Salman as a kid but they would be more than satisfied with these pictures too!
Mumbai: With just few days to go for its release, Shah Rukh Khan and Alia Bhatt starrer Dear Zindagi has successfully made it past Central Board of Film Certification without a single cut. Yes, the film has been cleared just the way it is and has been given a UA certificate by the board.

Directed by Gauri Shinde, the film is all set to hit the theatres on November 25. A daily reported that CBFC complimented the film by saying that it would be a crime to cut a single shot from the film. They also praised Bollywoods King Khan by saying that his movies dont require a lot of cuts.

There were several reports suggesting that Pakistani actor Ali Zafar was replaced in the film by Tahir Raj Bhasin following the ban on Pakistani actors in Bollywood. However, at a recent event, Alia Bhatt cleared the air by saying, Nobody has been replaced and the film is releasing as it is.

Dear Zindagi has Alia Bhatt's character battling serious mental issues, while Shah Rukh Khan plays her quirky yet smart therapist, who gives her a fresh perspective on life.

The film also stars an ensemble of male actors including Aditya Roy Kapoor as a part of the huge male ensemble of stars.
Mumbai: On October 28, Karan Johars Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, which was in the midst of a lot of controversy, finally hit the theatres and went out to become his first film to enter Rs 100 crore club.

Not only the maker but the films leading stars Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan also earned a lot of praise from their fans and people from B-Town. Especially Aishwarya, who was showered with compliments for perfectly portraying the role of a liberal sensual poetess Saba.

As Aishwaryas bold character grabbed eyeballs, there were also several rumours that the entire Bachchan khandaan not only kept away from the noise surrounding the film but also gave it a miss. The reports further revealed that Amitabh and Jaya werent too happy with Aishwarya's steamy scenes with Ranbir Kapoor.

It was also reported that despite Aishwarya hosting a special screening at their house in Mumbai, Bachchans didnt watch Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. However, Amitabh Bachchans recent speech at 22nd Kolkata International Film Festival reveals otherwise.

At the inauguration ceremony, the actor heaped praises at his daughter-in-law by saying that her role in KJos Ae Dil Hai Mushkil has turned the tables on men.

Very recently we saw a liberated and a divorced poetess Saba in Karan Johars Ae Dil Hai Mushkil who turned the tables irrevocably on men when she told her lover Mein kisiki zaroort nahi, khawish bana chahti hoon (I dont want someone to need me, I want him desire me), Big B said.
Mumbai: Vidya Balan is considered as one of the pioneers of women-centric roles in recent times. Be it her portrayal of a very bold character Silk in Dirty Picture or of a docile yet sharp-witted Vidya in Kahaani, this superstar has never hesitated to make bold choices.

The National Award-winning actress was recently approached by a publishing company to pen down the story behind how she climbed up the success ladder. A source close to a leading daily, revealed, The book will encapsulate her journey from a television star to the superstar she is today. It will include highlights from her film career, the trends she started and popularised, and her social endeavours.

Married for over four years now, the source also informed the book will talk about how the actress strikes a balance between work and personal life. It will also talk about how she has maintained a balance between her personal and professional life, as that is an aspect that will interest many readers who work.

Balan, who is busy promoting her upcoming suspense thriller Kahaani 2: Durga Rani Singh, is also keen on telling her tale.

We are eagerly waiting!
Amyra Dasturs debut film in Tamil, Anegan, with Dhanush, established her as an actress to watch out for in the Tamil film industry. She carried the entire film on her shoulders and managed to bring in variations in all the four characters she essayed in the movie. Amyra has been sort of MIA ever since, but made headlines after bagging the opportunity to star alongside Jackie Chan and Sonu Sood in Kung Fu Yoga, an action adventure comedy film.

As we catch up with this vibrant 23-year-old in an exclusive chat, we learn about her role in the ongoing Tamil film with Santhanam, her plans of venturing into production, her admiration for the Hong Kong legend, and much more.

Tamil sabbatical

After Anegan, I got tied up with a Bollywood project, two more Telugu films and a Tamil film. When my hands were full, I got Kung Fu Yoga, so I had to say no to all the offers! From November 2015 to June 2016, I was not even in India  so I lost offers across industries.

Not just a pretty face

If I am included in a film for just being pretty, I dont think I can take it up. I need to play substantial roles. In fact, I dont want to be famous; I want to be a good actor.

Her Role in odi odi Uzhaikanum

In Manikandans Odi Odi Uzhaikanum, I play Divya  a rebellious, stubborn and modern Tamil woman. Her character is a lot like mine. She is not very serious, but funny in her own way.

Knowing santa

I havent really followed his work too much, but Ive heard a lot about him. Ive always wanted to do a comedy flick and Santhanam is extremely funny. This film will be a great opportunity for me to try something different.

Tamil connect

Well, I can learn my lines much easier these days! I still havent learned the language fully and it might take a couple more films for me to master it. (laughs)

Santhanam as a person

He is really sweet and helpful. On the sets, when everybody converses in Tamil, he explains it to me in English, and we get the shot in a couple of takes!

10 years down the line

Hopefully, still acting! (laughs) I will keep working in the film industry no matter what. If not as an actress, I might be a writer or producer. I dont think I will ever leave. I have also started my collaboration with a clothing website as fashion intrigues me. I am keen on producing films  films have the capability to transport you to a different world and I would want to do it.

Acting in a global project

Kung Fu Yoga is slated to release on January 28 across the globe. It is a typical Jackie Chan movie, in which I play Caira, a tough, sporty, fun woman, with a naughty side. You can obviously see a different Amyra in the film.

Chans Honourary Oscar

He deserves all the appreciation. Its about time. He has done 200 movies. As a person, he is very giving, loving and fun to be with. I cant think of anyone else more deserving for this award.

Who does Amyra follow?

I am a big fan of Vijay sir and Vikram. I saw his film I and I was at a loss for words. I loved his work in the movie. Also, I adore Kangna and Tamannaahs work too.

On her dream role

I badly want to do a dance movie. Hopefully with Prabhudeva!

Are you seeing someone?

(chuckles) No, I am happily single.
Ilayathalapathy Vijays interest in politics and his philanthropic social activities are widely documented. While several biggies from Kollywood as well as Bollywood including Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Suriya, Dhanush, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan, reacted to PM Modis demonetisation of 500 and 1000-rupee currency notes by praising the move, Vijay took his own time to voice out his opinion, and finally opened up on Tuesday morning.

He said, The central governments decision is certainly a welcome one and it is a courageous move. Theres no doubt that this would elevate the economy of our country. When the motive is big, there will be repercussions as well  but this should not be bigger than the goal itself. I wish they could have avoided situations wherein people are not able to get food, medicines and essential commodities.

He added that all that he watched the news and it disturbed him  There were reports about an old lady who sold her property for her grand daughters wedding, and was pushed to the extent of committing suicide when the currency she had was rendered invalid. Similarly, a newborn died because the parents could not buy medicines with old currency notes. Because of the 20 per cent of affluent wrongdoers, the remaining 80 per cent are suffering now!

The Thalaivaa actor reiterated though that it was an appreciable move by Modis government  They could have analysed the pros and cons that would arise with such steps. The panic situation has settled now and is not as bad as it was a few days back. But those in the rural setup are still under stress and I hope the government sorts it out soon.
Mumbai: In the wake of demonetisation move by PM Narendra Modi, Telugu actress Shraavya Reddy went live on her Facebook page to share the crucial piece of information with her fans.

While urging her followers to co-operate with the government as this step was taken for a better India and will only benefit the citizens, she lashed out at those who were passing crude comments on her body.

One of such perverts commented on her post asking her breast size to which Shraavya Reddy lashed out at him and gave him a piece of her mind.

Come on yaar, why do you guys see my body when I am telling something very important. India is going down man. F**k that. Yes, I am using vulgar language but you are using and lot of people are seeing your comments. I am not showing my body. Don't praise my b***s. Yes, I have amazing b***s. What's your problem? Will your mother not have? Every girl has b***s, Shraavya is heard saying in the video which went viral on the internet.

She went further on and asked everyone to focus on the matter she is discussing in the video. She added, First take the information, man. Come on! Its enough. I have already replied to a lot of people on my page who ever comments on my b**bs. This is not what I am talking about right now,"

Moving on, she also subtly slammed other biggies from the industry, including Aishwarya Rai Bachchan by saying that 'they are banging their head thinking what to do with the black money.'

"If youre watching, watch the information that I am giving. Im not some big celebrity like Aishwarya Rai or something. They are not giving this information. They are happily sitting at their home and they are watching TV. They are just banging their heads thinking what to do with their black money. I dont have black money. Yes, I do have a lakh or two at my home in Hyderabad, in Mumbai and Guntur. My mom is having Rs. 50,000, so in altogether maximum to maximum I only have 1,50,000 rupees with me, which I am going to give it to bank because that money I already have withdrawn from the ATM. Its not like I took it from someone else. So I dont have to get scared about that. So rather than praising my boobs, go and tell this information at least to your house help, you perverts," she blasted the perverts.

Watch the video here:
A top teen magazine in Singapore is being fiercely criticised over the advice that the agony aunt of its Dear Kelly section gave to a rape victim. Kelly Chopard, who writes an advice column for Teenage magazine, told a reader who wrote to her about an alleged sexual assault her behaviour gave the idea that she was like a girl who had been around and should be grateful he wore a condom.

The controversy erupted when the magazine published a readers letter in the Dear Kelly column under the title Raped after lying to my mum. The girl revealed that her date had raped her after she had drunk alcohol for the first time. In response Chopard wrote: "You gave the idea that everything was OK, you accepted wine, then there was the dancing, kissing. You cant blame him for thinking a sexual connection was all right. Frankly, I understand why the guy misunderstood."

Chopards comments have angered many of the magazines readers who have accused the writer and the magazine of promoting a culture of victim-blaming. They also say that the way she addressed the topic was insensitive and completely unprofessional.

Teenage magazine took to their Facebook page in defense of their columnist and wrote:
Mumbai: Although the police force in our country has often been criticised for various reasons including corruption, incompetence and brutality against people, there are few cops who have been setting examples by their honesty and dedication to serve people and have been praised for the same.

The Mumbai Police department is being lauded for a while on the social media at times for its witty tweets and social media campaigns as well as for its swift action on complains. Its now being praised all over Twitter for reuniting an elderly woman with her family.

The old woman named P Adhikari was separated from her family when she got lost due to her weak memory, as she could speak five languages but wasnt able to find her way home. While such a situation can be scary in a city like Mumbai, Sakinaka police personnel made sure that they took her home despite her inability to recollect anything.

She knew 5 languages bt dint remember her home or fmly. Sakinaka Pstn reunited P.Adhikari with fmly within 4 days. pic.twitter.com/CuVqrlDlOA  Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) November 13, 2016

As soon as this news created a buzz on social media, love and respect for Mumbai Police started pouring in on Twitter.

@MumbaiPolice hatsoff u all..mumbai police is brilliant as every1 knows  Abhishek singh (@survivor03697) November 14, 2016

@MumbaiPolice Proud of Mumbai Police. Other police should emulate such actions.  Sugata Chowdhury (@sc_1174) November 14, 2016

@MumbaiPolice - after so much of negativity all around ...this is the best news i've heard....fantastic job Mumbai Police...keep it real...  Keiths (@Keiths2612) November 13, 2016

While several actions have adversely affected the trust between common people and the police, some actions by authorities are being seen as a ray of hope.
Child rights activists rescued the girl from his house in Green Hills Colony on Tuesday and approached the police. (Representational image)

Hyderabad: A 14-year-old girl was allegedly raped and impregnated by an advocate and his son at Chaitanyapuri. The girl was working at the advocates office and house since six months. Child rights activists rescued the girl from his house in Green Hills Colony on Tuesday and approached the police.

The girl alleged that she was beaten up several times by the rapists and the family when she tried to resist their sexual assault. Police booked a case against advocate M. Sudhakar Reddy, 60, and his son Bharath Kumar Reddy, 30, for raping and assaulting the girl. Both went absconding after finding out about the case. The police has launched a manhunt to arrest them.

The girl, who hails from Suryapet, was brought to the advocates house to do household work and odd jobs. Since the day she came she was subjected to sexual assaults by the suspects, police said.

I was sodomised by the father often and his son repeatedly raped me. When I tried to complain other members of the family beat me up, the girl said. The girl had to suffer torture and sexual assaults for many days till she was rescued by child rights activists.

Activists said the suspects had committed two offenses simultaneously by forcing the child into bonded labour and by raping her. After the rescue, police sent the girl for medical examination to verify the allegations and pregnancy.

Chaitanyapuri inspector G. Guru Raghavendra said that a case under Section 376 and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 were registered.

Child rights group Balala Hakkula Sangham demanded that the girls pregnancy should be medically terminated to save her future. They also demanded that the government should support her by sponsoring her accommodation and education.
Hyderabad: Saroornagar police on Tuesday arrested a bank clerk on the charges of converting demonetised currency notes into new currency without submitting valid proofs.

The accused V Mallesh told police that he saved Rs 6 lakh money for the marriage of his daughter in Rs 1,000 notes and he converted the same into Rs 2,000. Police is verifying his claim.

According to Saroornagar Inspector of police Mr S. Lingaiah the case was booked on November 13 and the accused Mr Vangala Mallesh 56 son of Lakshamaih a cle-rk in Syndicate Bank at Chaitanyapuri in LB Nagar.

The inspector of police said, Mallesh has been working in this branch from 2013. He took 300 notes of Rs 2000 from cashier Radhika by handing over her `6 lakh worth demonetised notes. The manager of the bank while checking the transactions in the evening found this on November 12 and complained to us after internal probe,

The bank has suspended the two employees. A case has been registered under cheating and impersonation. The other accused Radhika is yet to be arrested.
People rush to banks to exchange their old notes and deposit cash in Vijayawada on Friday. (Photo: DC)

Andhra Pradesh Bureau: A majority of ATMs that were supposed to resume functioning to dispense cash from Friday morning remained shut in cities, towns and mandal headquarters across the state. Users in Vizag, Guntur, Vijayawada, Nellore, Kurnool and other parts of Andhra Pradesh were stranded and are struggling to provide basic necessities now that the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes have ceased to be legal tender and have been replaced by new notes that were to be disbursed by banks and their ATMs from Friday.

Banking authorities say that ATMs will be operational from Friday evening or night as cash courier agencies are yet to load the cash in the ATMs. Banks also had to deal with the mad rush as people flocked to exchange or deposit old notes and draw new ones.

Only 30 per cent of the 700-odd ATMs of various banks disbursed cash on Friday in Visakhapatnam city, mostly Rs 100 notes. Even ATMs that had cash ran out of it within an hour of opening as each ATM got just Rs 2 lakh.

Due to technical problems such as software and lack of special bins for new Rs 2,000 currency notes, majority of ATMs were closed. We are hopeful that the problem will be sorted out within two days and all ATMs will be dispensing cash from Monday said D. Sarath Babu, Lead Bank manager.

Very few ATMs functioned in Nellore. State Bank of India officials said that they had started loading Rs 100 notes from Friday evening in their ATMs.

The bank also mobilised more Rs 100, Rs 50 and Rs 20 denomination notes for distribution since people need change. The quantity of the new Rs 2,000 notes they received did not meet the demand.

With banks generally unable to meet the demands of customers and the shutdown of ATMs, there was palpable anger among people and arguments with bank authorities at several places in the state.

In Vijayawada city and surrounding areas people thronged to banks and post offices to exchange their old currency but to their dismay banks accepted only deposits and gave limited exchange of notes. Banks asked those who did not have accounts with them to furnish their Aadhaar cards.

A few banks considered requests from those who had special requirements like an impending marriage. These customers were asked to provide wedding cards as proof and allowed to withdraw `50,000.

In Guntur, many had to return empty handed from ATMs as a majority of the outlets remained closed or were drained of cash.

We had to stand in long queues at bank branches for more than three hours to exchange money as we were in need of cash to manage day-to-day household expenses, said housewives B. Lakshmi Bai and Y. Sirisha

It was the same story in Kurnool. Kirana shops and super markets in several parts of the city like NR Pet, Venkataramana colony, C Camp and B Camp areas, and the old city had to turn down customers who went with debit and credit cards, as they did not have the facility. Kirana and even paan shops in the city are planning to get swipe cards to cater to the demand.
Bihar police on Tuesday arrested two persons in connection with the murder of a journalist in Rohtas district on Saturday. (Photo: AP/Representational)

Sasaram: Two persons were on Tuesday arrested in connection with the recent murder of a journalist of a prominent vernacular daily, police said.

Dharmendra Singh, a journalist with Dainik Bhaskar, was shot dead by some unidentified assailants when he was having tea at a roadside stall in his village Amra talab of Rohtas district on Saturday.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted to probe the murder case, arrested two persons during a raid late Monday night, a statement issued by the office of the Director General of Police (DGP) said.

Those arrested have been identified as Radhika Raman Rai and Manish Singh, Patna Zonal Inspector General N H Khan told PTI.

Both the accused have been arrested from two separate places of Rohtas district, he said.

While Rai is the resident of Rohtas district, Manish, who is wanted by the police in three cases lodged in Rohtas district, is the resident of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, the statement said.

On the basis of information available from those arrested, police has also seized a motorcycle (BR-24 N 9904) which was used in the crime, it said.

Police is interrogating the duo and conducting raids to nab other absconding culprits, the statement said, adding that the matter is being investigated from all angles.

Dharmendra, who is survived by his wife and a son, had an old rivalry with Pappu Singh, currently lodged in a jail and is a resident of Dumariya village under Mufassil police station of the district, it said.

On the basis of a written complaint of Ravindra Singh, brother-in-law of the journalist, police lodged an FIR with Mufassil police station against four named and two unnamed persons in the murder case, the statement said.

"We have already constituted an SIT to probe the case and chargesheet would be submitted against those arrested in the case on a priority basis and would be put to speedy trial," Khan said.

The murder of the journalist in Rohtas has come close on the heels of killing of a scribe of a Hindi daily in Siwan, Rajdeo Ranjan, in May.
New Delhi: The finance ministry on Tuesday asked banks to consider engaging retired employees to deal with the unprecedented rush for exchange of invalid currency notes and ease pressure on existing staff.

In a letter written to Indian Banks' Association (IBA), the financial services department of the finance ministry said it should look into issues, particularly employment of retired bank staff and payment of remuneration and instruct the banks suitably at the earliest.

"In the event of extra business hours implemented to cope up with the situation, banks may require to make deployment plan of staff on shift basis so that the same person does not work for continuous long hours," it said.

Praising commendable work done by the banking fraternity, it said banks may plan and support the officers and employees working in late hours, particularly the safety and security of women employees, with arrangements for food and conveyance.

Additional infrastructure like more terminals, separate arrangement for cash, exchange and dispensation may be implemented and services of retired persons may also be taken so that the pressure of existing staff may ease and a larger customer base is satisfied, it said.

Many employee unions have made representation to the finance ministry and IBA presented the multiple problems being faced by employees and officers on account of implementation of the demonetisation scheme.

"We are happy that the government has addressed some of the issues raised by us," All India Bank Employees' Association General Secretary C H Venkatachalam said in a statement.
New Delhi: Grappling with unending queues and frayed tempers in banks and to check operation of syndicates, government on Tuesday decided to introduce a system of marking customers exchanging defunct currency notes with indelible ink while monitoring suspicious deposits in Jan Dhan accounts.

After a review meeting taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday night to discuss the situation, the government has set-up a high-powered group under the Cabinet Secretary to monitor supply of essential goods in the wake of disruption of trade due to shortage of currency notes.

Besides, a task force has been constituted to monitor circulation of fake currency notes in vulnerable areas and to keep a watch on black money being deposited in the system.

"It has come to notice of the government that in many places the same people are coming back again and again and we have also received reports that certain unscrupulous elements who are trying to convert black money into white have organised groups of innocent people and are sending them from one branch to another branch to exchange notes and get Rs 4500," Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das told reporters.

"As a result what is happening is that the benefit of withdrawal of cash is getting restricted to smaller number of people...to prevent such kind of misuse, the branches of banks to take recourse to use of indelible ink marks for disbursement of cash," he said.

This would prevent certain syndicates and certain kind of people coming to branch again and again, he said.
Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has urged the central government to introduce Rs 200 notes to ease the trouble that the common people are facing following the demonetisation of high value currency.

A majority of ATMs that were supposed to resume functioning to dispense cash from Friday morning remained shut in several parts of the state, causing inconvenience to the people who are struggling to provide basic necessities to their families.

According to reports, Naidu, who had hailed the Centres decision to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes in a move to tackle the menace of black money in the country, on Monday said the public was a facing tough time fetching change for the newly introduced Rs 2000 notes.

The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister was, in fact, the first politician to suggest the scrapping of the two high value notes to curb corruption. He had, in October, reiterated his demand for immediately abolishing currency notes of Rs 1000 and Rs 500 denominations.

"Politics has become a shelter for corrupt people and black money earners. Some people who are in politics are misusing the peoples mandate. Im writing a letter to the Prime Minister today asking that Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes be abolished and total bank transactions be encouraged," he had said at a press conference in his new office at Velagapudi on October 12.

Responding to his statement, the BJP had later said that the party had no objection if Naidu wants to take the credit of initiating the awareness about curtailing the flow of black money.
Bengaluru: Chaos continued near banks and ATMs on Monday with some disbursing only Rs 2000 denomination notes and others running out of cash even as people waited in long queues to collect their money.

A few banks also refused to entertain customers of other banks and stuck to serving their own clients. As the day progressed the situation worsened and several banks closed early owing to lack of cash. Most ATMs too half- downed their shutters and displayed signs saying they were out of money.

Admitted a Punjab National Bank official, There was ruckus at our branch today. I went to the currency chest at 11.30 am but there was no money as it had not arrived from the RBI. I was finally given soiled notes which I had to disburse among the public. As this was the sixth day since the demonetisation move, people were restless.

He claimed RBI officials were favouring bank managers they personally knew. I noticed two managers from other banks, who were also there for cash. Since the RBI official knew them, they both got extra money. I think they got Rs 2 crore extra for their respective branches. This kind of disparity is not at all fair, he added.

A State Bank of Travancore official had similar complaints. Said he,  I called up the currency chest at 6 am to ask when I could send my people to collect cash for disbursing among our customers and was told there was little money available. But I managed to procure some money for my branch and it was disbursed by the afternoon.
Visakhapatnam: Vizagites deposited around Rs 954 crore in various banks since Nov. 10 after the demonetisation of currency was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Around Rs 303 crore have been either withdrawn or exchanged by public in the district since the last four days. Bankers are expecting the deposits may go up in the coming days and they need at least Rs 60 crore per day to keep it available for the public either to withdraw or exchange.

Authorities warned of criminal action if hospitals and the petrol refilling station run by oil companies do not accept Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. Special teams are kept ready for surprise checks on hospitals and also those who hoard essential commodities. Criminal cases will be booked against those who do not accept high-value currency notes at hospitals.

There are around 737 banks, belonging to various nationalised and private banks, in the district. Out of the total 1,104 ATMs across the district, only 50 per cent are dispensing cash. Bankers are giving Rs 2,000 notes easily but imposing restrictions on Rs 100 and Rs 50 notes. We are expecting the situation to ease in another 48 hours as we are expecting such notes in the coming days. We have also advised the banks not to show discrimination towards rural tracts and supply to the rural branches on par with urban areas. Special teams are also ready to conduct surprise checks on hospitals, petrol pumps and also on shops that sell essential commodities, collector, Pravin Kumar told reporters after conducting a review meeting with the bankers.

The district collector asked the bankers to provide basic amenities to the public visiting banks for exchange of notes and hoped the situation will be back to normal in a couple of days.
New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday banned controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik's NGO 'Islamic Research Foundation' for five years terming it illegal.

The law enforcing Agencies will be maintaining strict surveillance of the activities of all the establishments of the Foundation.

This development came after the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) began the cancellation process of Naik's Islamic Research Foundation's Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) registration.

Earlier, the Centre had asserted that Zakir Naik's Islamic Research Foundation is maligning India and, therefore, it is correct to ban it.

"If any person tries to malign society, tries to divide it, create tension between the people and hamper peace in the country then the government and people always will take strict and sever action against them," Minister of State for Parliamentary Affair Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.

Naik came under the scanner after the Bangladeshi newspaper 'Daily Star' revealed that one of the perpetrators of the July 1 terror attack in Dhaka, Rohan Imtiaz, ran propaganda on Facebook that said he was inspired by Naik to carry out the crime.

Naik is banned in both the U.K. and Canada for his alleged hate speeches aimed against other religions.

He is among the 16 banned Islamic scholars in Malaysia. He is also accused of radicalizing and attracting youth for terror acts and has come under the scanner of the security agencies.
The aim of joint training is to share expertise in drills and practices while tackling insurgency and terrorism. (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

Pune: India-China Joint Military Training exercise, 'Hand in Hand 2016' will be held in Pune from tomorrow to November 27.

The exercise is in continuation of the series of joint exercises between India and China, a Defence release issued in Pune said on Monday.

"This will be the sixth joint training exercise by the Indian Army with People's Liberation Army of China. It is held annually, alternately, in India and China," it said.

The first exercise was held in China at Kunming of Yunnan province in 2007 and the last exercise was held in October 2015 in Kunming Military Academy, Yunnan Province in China, it said.

As per the release, the aim of joint training is to share expertise in drills and practices while tackling insurgency and terrorism, thereby promoting healthy military to military relations between the two armies and developing joint strategies for conducting operations in a counter terrorism environment.

It also said forming part of the different levels of the military to military engagement across the entire spectrum of operations, this exercise will enrich the two contingents in further honing basic military skills.

"The exercise is planned at the company level with respective battalion headquarters controlling the training. The exercise is supervised by a Joint Directing Panel comprising senior officials of both the countries," the release said.

'Exercise Hand in Hand 2016' will be conducted in three phases. The first phase consists of familiarisation with the weapons and equipment.

The second phase consists of the conduct of basic training which includes combat conditioning, firing of personal weapon, support weapon and practice of drills like establishment of covert observation post, house clearing, cordon & search and humanitarian and disaster relief operations.

The third phase is the conduct of joint exercise. The exercise will be attended by the senior military observers of both the countries, the release said.
New Delhi: Noting that "failure to act and silence of speech only encourages terrorists", Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said Israel and India have agreed to intensify their cooperation to combat the forces of extremism and radicalisation that threaten all peace-loving nations.

Addressing a joint press conference with Israel President Reuven Rivlin after bilateral talks, Modi said, "We recognise that terrorism is a global challenge, knows no boundaries and has extensive links with other forms of organised crime."

"Regrettably, one of the countries of its origin and spread is in India's neighbourhood," said the Prime Minister in an indirect reference to Pakistan.

Stating that President Rivlin and he deeply value their strong and growing partnership to secure their societies, Prime Minister Modi observed, "Our people are constantly threatened by forces of terrorism and extremism. We agreed that the international community must act with resolve and determination against terror networks and States that harbour them. Failure to act and silence of speech only encourages the terrorists. We agreed to intensify our cooperation to combat the forces of extremism and radicalisation that threaten all peace-loving nations."

Hailing India's defence partnership with Israel, the Prime Minister said, "We noted the strength of our growing defence partnership and agreed on the need to make it more broad-based in production and manufacturing."

Prime Minister Modi also expressed India's gratefulness to Israel for its clear support to India's permanent candidature in a reformed the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

"We have identified water management and conservation, and collaboration in scientific research and development as two areas of priority engagement, whereas our economic initiatives and emphasis on innovation, research and technological development match well with Israel's strengths and capacities," said the Prime Minister.

Speaking on the various aspects of India-Israel cooperation, he said, "Our engagement is multi-dimensional and wide-ranging such as enhancing agricultural productivity and efficiency; boosting research and innovation linkages; employing applications of science and technology for the benefit of our societies; forging strong trade links and investment ties; building defence ties to secure our people; enhancing people to people ties through greater cultural and tourism linkages; and promoting educational exchanges. The growing number of Indian students going to study in Israel and vice versa can be an important bridge in our bilateral partnership."

Noting that President Rivlin's visit provides an opportunity to break new ground and shape new contours of our partnership, the Prime Minister said, "Excellency, your visit will provide crucial push to build new pillars in our partnership. The 2000-year old Jewish community in India represents a thriving link to this past, a vital part of our composite cultural mosaic. As we approach the 25-year milestone in establishment of diplomatic relations, we are committed to advance our engagement on several fronts."

Responding to Prime Minister Modi's statement, President Rivlin affirmed support to India on countering terrorism, while saying, "Terror is terror is terror is terror."

President Rivlin, who is on an eight-day official visit to India, said, "Israel is ready to answer the PM's call; we are ready to 'Make in India' and 'Make with India'."

Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari will call on President Rivlin at 4 p.m. at Hotel Taj Palace, while the visiting President will call on his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhawan 7.30 p.m., which will be followed by a banquet hosted by President Mukherjee at 8 p.m.

Later, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will call on the visiting dignitary.

President Rivlin will be visiting the Taj Mahal at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, followed by a visit to Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam Water Treatment Plant at Sikandra at 12 in the noon.

He will return to New Delhi at 3.45 p.m.

President Rivlin, who is visiting India on an invitation of President Mukherjee, is expected to meet business leaders of both India and Israel. He will also be visiting 'Centre of Excellence' in agriculture in Karnal and will participate in Agro Tech - 2016 on Thursday.
Bengaluru: Coming out in defence of Primary and Secondary Education Minister Tanveer Sait for the first time, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday said his government could not always do what the BJP wanted it to.

Speaking to reporters after paying floral tributes to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on the occasion of his birth anniversary, he said Mr Sait seemed to have done nothing wrong on the face of it.

I have received an explanation from Mr Sait and it appears he was merely scrolling through all the WhatsApp messages on Tipu celebrations and has not committed any crime. But I have asked the CID to investigate the matter, he added.

Responding to a query, he said that he had not directly spoken to the party high command about the incident, but KPCC president Dr G. Parameshwar had briefed party leaders in Delhi about it.

Dr Parameshwar said that he had informed the partys national leadership about the incident over the telephone. I am 100 per cent sure the truth will come out once the Cyber Cell of the police department gives us its report , he added.

Meanwhile, coming out strongly against Mr Sait, a woman party worker, Manjula Nagaraj on Monday publicly demanded that he resign or be dropped from the Cabinet. Interrupting Housing Minister M. Krishnappas speech during the birth anniversary celebrations of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru at the KPCC office here, Ms Nagaraj stood up and raised slogans against Mr Sait.

While several party tried to stop her, she shouted out that the party was led by a woman. This is a party led by Ms Soniaji and Indira Gandhi in the past, whose birth centenary we will be celebrated this weekend.

This is the biggest humiliation heaped on women by none other than a Congress leader and so he should be dropped immediately, she demanded. It was only after Dr Parameshwar signalled her to sit down that Ms Nagaraj relented and allowed the function to go on.
Parents wating outside an examination centre for their wards in Srinagar on Monday. (Photo: PTI)

Srinagar: After the Modi-led government decided to demonetise Rs 500 and 1000 notes in the country, there has been a decline in violence instigated by separatists in Kashmir Valley, sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said.

Sources further added that all arrangements have been made by Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir Government to ensure that exams for Class 10th students are held peacefully.

Meanwhile, calling on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to pay no heed to the barrage of attack by the opposition over the note ban, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday ordered the government to go ahead with the full implementation of demonetisation and ruled out any chance of rolling back the scheme.

The Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to reopen schools in border areas from Tuesday which were closed in the wake of escalation of tension and subsequent increase in the incidents of Pakistani shelling last week.

Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Dr. Pawan Kotwal told the media that decision has been considered based on the improvement in situation in border areas.

Meanwhile, the annual Class 10th and 12th board examinations in the Valley began on Monday and all arrangements were put in place for the smooth conduct of the examinations.

Officials allayed fears of any trouble or inconvenience to the students appearing for the annual examinations.

As per reports, around 480 examination centres were set up for about 48,000 Class 12 candidates, whereas nearly 550 examination centres were established for Class 10 candidates.

State Education Minister Naeem Akhtar said he is hopeful that the examinations would be conducted in a peaceful atmosphere.

The state government on November 1st had ordered closure of government schools in the border areas over repeated shelling and firing from Pakistan.

On November 8th the Jammu and Kashmir High Court had ordered the government to rope in village education committees to curb the burning of schools in Kashmir.

A division bench of Justice Ramalingam Sudhakar and Justice Ali Muhammad Magrey also directed the chief secretary to provide fire safety measures and adequate lighting around the schools, besides enhancing the wages of contingent paid workers so that they could discharge their duties as chowkidars.

Since September 10, more than 30 schools have been burnt by unknown persons in Kashmir which has courted condemnation from various quarters. High Court too has stepped in by taking a suo moto cognizance of the matter.

On October 31, the high court had directed the state government to take all preventive measures to save school buildings from burning by "mysterious enemies of education.

A restive situation in the Kashmir Valley prevails since the killing of Jaish-e-Mohammed militant Burhan Wani on July 8.
Rajkot: Two persons were detained and cash worth Rs. 2.5 crore in demonetised currency notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000, was seized from their vehicle near Virpur town in the district, police said on Monday.

The cash was being transported in a mini truck, which was intercepted by police during a patrol late Sunday night.

"The currency notes were found concealed in ten packets, each containing Rs. 25 lakh. All the cash was kept inside a box in the vehicle," Virpur taluka police station police sub-inspector Ghanshyamsinh Jadeja said.

The vehicle driver, Rajni Khunt, and his assistant Bavanji Patel, have been detained and being interrogated.

The owner of the cash, from where it was being transported and its destination, are being ascertained, police said.
New Delhi: Former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit's son-in-law was on Tuesday sent to two-day police custody by a city court in a case of theft and misappropriating his wife's property.

Syed Mohammad Imran, who was arrested from Bangalore and brought in New Delhi on transit remand, was produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma who remanded him to police custody till November 17.

Delhi Police sought two days custody of Imran saying they have to recover the articles which he had allegedly stolen.

Advocates P Banerjee and Neeraj Kumar, appearing for Imran, opposed the police plea saying the probe agency has violated the provisions of CrPC and he should be released from custody.

The counsel argued that the arrest of accused was not mandatory in this case and the police should have given notice to him to appear before the officer.

According to police, Latika, Dikshit's daughter, had also accused her estranged husband of subjecting her to violence. Latika and Imran had got married in 1996 but were living separately for the last 10 months.

In her complaint filed in June, Latika had alleged that Imran's attitude had changed towards her and had become aggressive and rude towards her after her mother lost in the Delhi Assembly elections.

Latika had alleged that Imran took away papers of a piece of land owned by her in Nainital, despite having been told not to do so in May.

According to police, she also alleged that some of the belongings, kept at her Hailey Road house in central Delhi, had gone missing and whenever she asked, Imran was evasive.

She also alleged that he took away jewellery and other expensive items from there. Latika also accused one of her female relatives of being "in connivance" with Imran, they said.

A case was registered against Imran under Sections 403 (dishonest misappropriation of property), 120 B (Criminal conspiracy), 201 (destruction of evidence)and 420 (cheating) of the IPC and under 66 of the IT Act.
People queue up to withdraw money from a mobile ATM at ITPO, Pragati Maidan in New Delhi on Monday. In an attempt to reduce rush at bank branches and ATMs, banks have pressed into service mobile ATM vans. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: With banks struggling to cope with the rush to get alternative currency, the government has extended use of old defunct Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes for paying household utility bills, fuel, taxes and fees and purchases from co-operative stores till November 24.

While withdrawing Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes from the night of November 8-9, the Centre had allowed use of the old currency at government hospitals, railway ticketing, public transport, airline ticketing at airports, milk booths, crematoria/burial grounds and petrol pumps for 72 hours and payments for metro rail tickets.

Some relief for traders: Centre allows to withdraw Rs 50,000 a week

After Prime minister Narendra Modi held a review meeting on Sunday that lasted past midnight, the finance ministry on Monday announced a series of new measures including to allow small businesses to withdraw Rs 50,000 in a week from banks (to allow them to pay wages), setting up a task force under RBI deputy governor S.S. Mundra to ensue that ATMs are recalibrated fast and increase cash holding limit with banking correspondents to Rs 50,000.

Following the meeting, RBI ordered banks to waive all type of ATM charges on saving bank customers from November 10 to December 30, 2016. Banks will not charge any levy irrespective of number of ATM transactions done by saving bank customers at any branch during this period.

The finance ministry extended use of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes for paying household utility bills, fuel, taxes and fees as well as purchases from co-operative stores till November 24 midnight. In order to facilitate the smooth movement of passengers, collection of parking charges at all airports including Delhi and Hyderabad has been suspended till midnight of 21 November 2016.

The government has extended its order against charging toll at the national highways till November 18 to facilitate movement of trucks and other vehicles. Railways said it has also extended the use of old notes to purchase tickets and for onboard catering till November 24.

Economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das said that ATMs are expected to start dispensing Rs 2,000 notes as soon as Tuesday. At the meeting, the government decided to activate all channels for dispensing cash.

Mr Das said that banking correspondents will now be allowed to replenish cash multiple times in a day against earlier limit of once in a day so that people in rural areas are able to get cash. It was decided that supply of cash to post offices will be enhanced to facilitate cash withdrawals from postal accounts.

Till all ATMs are recalibrated, micro ATMs will be deployed to dispense cash against debit or credit cards up to the cash limits applicable for ATMs. As micro ATMs are mostly handheld it will allow banks to deploy them at places where there is a huge need for cash including hospitals. Mr Das said adequate cash will be made available with District Central Co-operative Banks.
New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who is admitted at AIIMS, is undergoing treatment for kidney-related ailment and is likely to remain in the hospital for a few days.

"Her condition is stable. Her history of chronic diabetes has affected her kidney functioning. She is on dialysis," sources at AIIMS said.

She was admitted to AIIMS on November 7 and is being monitored by a team of doctors.

Swaraj is admitted at the cardio-neuro centre under the supervision of Balram Airan, Chief of the Cardio Thoracic Centre.

She has been suffering from diabetes for almost 20 years. The 64-year-old BJP leader was admitted to AIIMS in April also when she underwent treatment for pneumonia and other health issues.
New Delhi: Muslims of the country will not tolerate an "interference" with their personal law and give a "suitable" reply to the BJP in the coming Assembly elections on the 'triple talaq' issue, the leaders of All India Tanzeem Ulama-e-Islam (AITUI) said on Tuesday.

"The (Narendra) Modi government is trying to push the country towards the RSS agenda. Sunni Muslims oppose the Law Commission's move to seek public opinion on abolishing triple talaq," said president of AITUI Mufti Ashfaq Hussain Qadri,

adding that the minority community will give a "suitable" reply to the saffron party in the upcoming Assembly polls in a few states.

The body of Sunni Muslim scholars will take out a 'Parliament March' from Jantar Mantar on November 18 to express its opposition to the Centre and Uniform Civil Code (UCC), he told a press conference.

"Thousands of Muslims will gather at Jantar Mantar on November 18 and march towards Parliament in protest against the attempts of the Modi government to impose UCC. They oppose the proposals of the government to bring changes in the Shariat in the name of women's safety," said Qadri.

The issues of missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed and rights of Palestinians will also be included in the agenda, said Shujat Qadri, general secretary of the Muslim Students' Organisation of India.
New Delhi: In a huge reprieve, the Chattisgarh government on Monday informed the Supreme Court that human rights activist and Delhi University professor Nandini Sundar and four others accused in a murder case will neither be arrested nor interrogated pursuant to the filing of an FIR against them.

Additional Solicitor General Tuhsar Mehta appearing for Chattisgarh government gave this assurance before a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and AK Goel after senior counsel Ashok Desai appearing for Nandini alleged that FIR had been registered for an offence said to have been committed in November 2016.

When he pressed for stay of the FIR, the ASG said we will not arrest them in this FIR. The court may record my statement.

The ASG produced documents in a sealed cover to indicate the materials based on which the FIR was registered against Nandini Sundar and others.

But the court refused to accept or peruse the documents. Justice Lokur told the ASG when you say that they will not be arrested in this FIR, then where is the need for us to look into the materials.

The Bench said we will dispose of the present application seeking to quash the FIR and an interim stay. But the stay cant be for perpetuity. If new materials come then the State can proceed further to investigate the case on giving four weeks notice to the petitioner. If any such notice is received the petitioner will be at liberty to seek remedy.

Senior counsel Ashok Desai, appearing for Nandini gave a list of suggestions to the ASG for his consideration to resolve the issue.

Counsel said the suggestions are given in the light of the courts observation last Friday, when it observed there is an aggravation of Maoist situation and the government should take a pragmatic view of life and find a peaceful solution.

The Bench was hearing an application filed by Ms Sundar for a stay and quashing of an FIR for the murder of a tribal person in the insurgency-hit Sukma district of Chhattisgarh.

The police claim that the FIR was filed on the basis of a complaint allegedly filed by Baghel's wife.

Desai drew the courts attention to the fact that Nandini and others had visited the area in May and they are booked for a crime committed in November which is absurd.

He also referred to an interview by a police officer in NDTV that Nandini and others will be stoned if they enter Bastar area.

Counsel wondered whether is this the way the State should treat the petitioners.

The ASG said let us not go by media reports. But I have something more to say. Permit me to produce the materials. You go through them and you will find that there is every justification for the FIR.

The Bench, however, did not receive the materials and disposed of the petitioners application with liberty that they can approach the court if further action is sought to be achieved against them.
Jammu/ Islamabad: Army chief Gen. Dalbir Singh Suhag on Tuesday reviewed security situation along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir and asked the troops to be on alert against any inimical activity, in the wake of heightened tension in Indo-Pak ties.

The Chief of Army Staff, General Dalbir Singh visited Headquarters Northern Command at Udhampur on Tuesday, a senior Army officer said.

The visit comes a day after Pakistan said the Indian army killed seven of its soldiers in shelling.

Gen Suhag exhorted the troops to be on the alert against any inimical designs and be aggressive in their approach. The General interacted with the Formation Commanders and reviewed the situation along the Line of Control (LoC) as well as the internal security situation in the Command theatre, he said.

The army chief commended the soldiers for boldly responding to ceasefire violations along the LoC.

He also lauded the synergy and co-operation between the Northern Command, Air Force, Paramilitary Forces, Civil Administration, and Central Police Organisations operating in the region. The firing at the LoC has intensified ever since the surgical strike of September 29.

Meanwhile in Isla-mabad, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday said the escalation of tension along the Line of Control was a threat to regional peace.

The Pakistan Prime Minister stressed that Pakistan was exercising maximum restraint, which should not be misunderstood as our weakness. Pakistan cannot be bullied by such tactics as we are fully capable of defending our soil against any belligerence, underlined the premier.
Bengaluru: Some 25 white horses, leading more than a dozen chariots rolled out into Palace Grounds on Tuesday as Ballaris most famous son, Gali Janardhan Reddy pulled out all the stops for his daughter Brahminis wedding celebrations to South African diamond mine owner Rajeev Reddy, one of the most talked about weddings in recent decades, rivalling the popularity of many actual royal weddings in the country!

On Tuesday, just after 4.30 pm, bride Brahmini zoomed into the mantap in a Black Rolls Royce Phantom followed by the cars of the groom Rajeev Reddy and their respective family members including Mr. Reddy in his SUV.

After a prayer session at the mantap, the family took part in an eye-popping procession - the bride and groom in separate chariots side-by-side along with their respective family members in different chariots that followed behind.

The chariots were preceded with samba dancers from Brazil which was the highlight of the procession ceremony. There was also Chande Vadhya (drummers), Yakshagana dancers along with Nandi Kolu who were leading the procession.

Sadiq Anjum, the Shivajinagar based businessman who rented out his horses for the pre-wedding puja on Tuesday, summed it up: If the rituals and ceremonies that were meant only for the family members of the bride and groom are this grand, imagine what the big fat wedding on Wednesday will be like. Even the gigantic balloons at the entrance had pictures of Janardhan Reddys family welcoming the guests for the wedding.

"The decorations and sets started going up at Palace Grounds on Saturday, when the wedding planners recreated the home village of the mining baron, the bride Brahminis school, the familys palatial house in Ballari and their temple deity at their village, Gaaliavaruhalli, said Sai Prakash, actor and director at Tollywood who was overseeing the wedding arrangements.

On Sunday was the Sangeet, where the family members of both the bride and groom were treated to musical events in which they too participated. Day 3 was Mehendi and Day 4 (Tuesday) was Jante Nalagu according to Telugu rituals which is termed as Vare Puje in Kannada, Mr. Prakash said adding, the wedding was planned keeping in mind all south Indian traditions followed during the time of weddings of royals and nothing has been missed out
Hyderabad: TS energy minister G. Jagadish Reddy on Tuesday accused AP of ditching TS by refusing to supply its share of power to TS as per the AP Reorganisation Act.

As per the Reorganisation Act, AP Discoms have to offer surplus power to power-deficit state (Telangana) at the proposed cost of Rs 3.97 per unit. However, AP has not supplied 300 MW from April 1, 2016 as requested by TS Discoms, even at the AP Discoms-offered tariff of Rs 4.62 per unit, Mr Jagadish Reddy told the media here on Tuesday.

The minister challenged those accusing the TRS government of indulging in scams in power purchase agreements to prove him wrong. TS Discoms waited for two months after writing a letter to AP Discoms, and having got no response from AP, it made alternative arrangements to procure power, he said.

In an apparent reference to TS TD leaders, particularly the partys working president A. Revanth Reddy, Mr Jagadish Reddy said that all those speaking in favour of AP and against the interests of TS should realize that it was the AP Chief Minister who ignited the controversy by canceling the power Purchase Agreements and denied power from Krishnapatnam and Hinduja power plants to TS.

The minister said that the estimated cost of thermal power plant being set up Kothagudem in TS (1x800 MW) was just Rs 3,800 crore, while those being set up in AP were much costlier.

Referring to Congress leaders finding fault with TRS government for opting to construct 4x270 MW thermal plant at Manuguru with subcritical technology, Mr Jagadish Reddy said nearly 30 power plants with subcritical technology were slated for completion by March 2017 under the 12th Five Year Plan as it is allowed.

BHEL is a Government of India undertaking and TS government gave the contract for construction of the 4x270 MW thermal power plant at Manuguru popularly known as Bhadradri Plant, to it to be completed before March 2017 well within the 12 five year plan. Due to anti-TS forces going to National Green Tribunal, the project has been delayed. We also know the difference between subcritical and supercritical technology, he said.

The minister said there were hopeful of getting environmental clearances for both the Bhadradri and Yadadri power plants as new appraisal committee is going to be formed soon, as the term of old panel had expired recently.
New Delhi: Since the big currency ban, terror funding has come down to zero and there hasnt been stone-throwing on security forces in Kashmir, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Monday.

Earlier, there were rates  Rs 500 for stone pelting (on security forces in Kashmir) and Rs 1,000 for doing something else. PM has brought terror funding to zero, Mr Parrikar said at an event organised by BJP lawmaker Atul Bhatkhalkar.

In the last few days after the PMs daring move there hasnt been stone pelting on security forces. I congratulate PM for it, he added.

Meanwhile, reports citing MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) sources said that there has been a sharp decline in violence instigated by separatists in Kashmir Valley after the notes ban.

Last Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a sudden announcement, pulled Rs 500 and 1,000 notes out of circulation. He said the tough move was necessary to crack down on black or untaxed money and choke terror funding. Speaking to reporters, Mr Parrikar said those who sponsor terror will be affected by the notes ban. The problem of new notes circulation will be resolved to a large extent in the next four-five days, he added.

Whether it is border security or economic security, PM Modi has taken daring decisions. Whatever is being done, our jawans on border are the doing it, PM and me are just supporting it, he said. The minister also appeared to take a swipe at its ally Shiv Sena, which has been critical of the demonetisation move. Speaking on the Mumbais BMC election, he said, nobody will be left with the power to bribe voters.

Mr Parrikar was presented a citation that praised him for the surgical strikes. It also thanked him for providing relief to people affected by land development rules near ordnance depots.
Hyderabad: The TRS has decided to back Prime Minister Narendra Modis demonetisation step in the winter session of Parliament, but will ask the Centre to immediately ease problems being faced by the people in exchanging new and smaller denomination notes.

The party has also decided not to support West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and others who have opposed demonetisation, including Mr Kejriwals rollback call.

We welcome the Prime Ministers demonetisation decision, but want the Centre to take steps to ease hardships being faced by the common man due to shortage of currency. We will also urge the Centre to release pending financial assistance and bear the loss incurred by the state due to demonetisation. TS will be badly hit financially, K. Kesava Rao, leader of TRS secretary general told this newspaper.

Sources said Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao briefed the TRS Parliamentary Party leaders on the strategy to be adopted in both Houses of Parliament in the winter session, beginning Wednesday.

We are not aligning with Mamata Banerjee. We will be on our own. Intention of the Prime Minister in curbing black money is welcome, but the way it has been implemented has triggered panic, adversely affected the common man and has hit TS economy, TRS leader in the Lok Sabha A.P. Jitender Reddy said.

He said that Mr Chandrasekhar Rao is working hard to develop the new state of Telangana and has set targets of completing irrigation projects, Mission Bhagiratha, Mission Kakatiya and other mega schemes besides smooth implementation of welfare schemes for the next three to five years.

But the sudden demonetisation has sent shockwaves in the market. State revenues are expected to be badly affected. We have requested the Centre to compensate the loss due to demonetisation, Mr Jitender Reddy said.
Chennai: AIADMK organising secretary Vishalakshi Nedunchezhian passed away on Monday at the age of 93. She is also the wife of R. Nedunchezhian, former state minister and one of the founder members of the DMK along with C.N.Annadurai.

Vishalakshis son Mathivanan told the media that Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa spoke to him over phone and condoled the death of his mother.

The Chief Minister also issued a statement expressing sadness over the demise of Vishalakshi and said she was loyal to the party and its leadership.

Her death is a irreparable loss to the AIADMK, Jayalalithaa said.and expressed her condolences to the family of Vishalakshi. Lok Sabha deputy speaker M. Thambidurai, AIADMK presidium chairman Madhusudanan, senior party leaders C. Ponnaiyan, Panrutti S. Ramachandran and others paid homage to the departed leader.
New Delhi: Since the big currency ban, terror funding has come down to zero and there hasn't been stone-throwing on security forces in Kashmir, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Monday.

"Earlier, there were rates - Rs. 500 for stone pelting (on security forces in Kashmir) and Rs. 1,000 for doing something else. PM has brought terror funding to zero," Mr Parrikar said at an event organized by BJP lawmaker Atul Bhatkhalkar.

"In the last few days after the PM's daring move there hasn't been stone pelting on security forces. I congratulate PM for it," he added.

Meanwhile, reports citing MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) sources said that there has been a sharp decline in violence instigated by separatists in Kashmir Valley after the note ban.

Last Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a sudden announcement, pulled Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes out of circulation. He said the tough move was necessary to crack down on black or untaxed money and choke terror funding.

Speaking to reporters, Parrikar said those who sponsor terror will be affected by the notes ban. "The problem of new notes circulation will be resolved to a large extent in the next four-five days," he added.

He credited PM Modi with daring decisions, "be it border security or economic security", referring to the surgical strike in September targeting terror staging areas in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.

"Whether it is border security or economic security, PM Modi has taken daring decisions. Whatever is being done, our jawans on border are doing it, I and PM are just supporting it," he said.

The minister also appeared to take a swipe at ally Shiv Sena, which has been critical of the demonetisation move. In the next election to Mumbai's civic body BMC or Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, he said, "nobody will be left with the power to bribe voters." The Sena controls the civic body.

Parrikar was presented a citation that praised him for the surgical strikes. It also thanked him for providing relief to people affected by land development rules near ordnance depots. To which, Mr Parrikar quipped: "When I became Defence Minister, I did not think there will be things like this... I thought defence meant bang-bang on the border."
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday restrained a special CBI court in Panchkula from pronouncing its judgement in the trial of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a 14-year-old rape case.

A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Amitava Roy also issued notice to CBI on a plea seeking statements of two victims who had levelled rape charges against the Dera chief.

"Notice issued to CBI. Trial court will continue with the proceedings but will not pronounce the judgement in the case," the bench said.

The apex court had on October 4 allowed Dera chief's plea seeking summoning of a former CBI official, who had recorded the statements of the two alleged rape victims in the case, for his testimony as a court witness.

It had said both parties would appear before the lower court on October 6 to decide the date of hearing for recording of deposition of the former CBI official, after which trial will proceed as per CrPC.

The sect figure-head had said in his appeal filed by Advocate Shakti Singh Dhakray that his right to fair and impartial trial was affected specially when he was denied the statements of two alleged victims as also his plea to examine K L Raina, who was the earlier IO of the case and had recorded the statements of the two women.

The plea said CBI's refusal in examining Raina as a witness before the trial court had resulted in violation of Singh's fundamental rights.

The apex court had earlier dismissed Singh's plea seeking more handwriting samples of an alleged rape victim in the case. The woman who had alleged rape by Singh was an inmate of Ashram of Dera Sacha Sauda at Sirsa in Haryana. While the alleged incident occurred in 1999, the FIR was lodged in 2002.
Chennai: Tamil Nadu is expected to lose around Rs 2,750 crores due to slump in sales tax revenue, stamp duty registration and motor vehicle registration.

Sources in the state government said there has been a 20 to 25 per cent decline in tax collection and other revenue due to demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

While sales tax revenue is expected to go down by over Rs 2,000 crore, the government is likely to lose Rs 85 crore in stamp duty registration and Rs 53.4 crore in motor vehicle registration.

If the situation fails to improve in the next few days, the percentage would increase, the sources said.

TASMAC, the sole liquor vendor in the state, is estimated to have lost Rs 80 crores in the past six days and the decline is expected to continue through November as the cash crunch situation is unlikely to get better by then.

The firm has been reporting an average of 18 to 20 per cent drop in its daily sales because of less money in the hands of tipplers. The reason is not just because we refuse to accept Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, it is also because people dont have money in their hands, a source in the TASMAC said.

However, local bodies and Chennai Metro Water are accepting the older denomination notes for paying taxes and monthly bills. The Corporation and metro water have been receiving additional revenue ranging from Rs 3 crore to Rs 5 crore daily. Interestingly, the Chennai and Coimbatore Corporations recorded an all-time high in property tax collection, raking in nearly Rs 10 crore.
Hyderabad: A 78-year-old man collapsed and died while waiting in a queue at an Andhra Bank branch at West Marredpally in Secunderabad on Tuesday.

K. Lakshminarayana, a retired government employee, collapsed after waiting for a few minutes, due to a heart attack. The person standing next to him said that he was visibly upset seeing the long queue when he arrived and was asking if there was a separate queue for senior citizens.

He was rushed to the hospital where doctors declared him brought dead.

Lakshminarayas daughter K. Sudha said he chose to go to the bank on Tuesday as everybody at home was out for work.

The queue was very long and it had reached the main road. He was asking if there was a separate queue for senior citizens. After he collapsed, we tried to give him water, but he was not responding, said an eyewitness.

Lakshminarayanas kin said they were desperate for fresh money as they had run out of money. He was healthy and had no preexisting heart condition. Since others were busy, he said he would go to the bank and deposit some currency and exchange some, said Ms Sudha.
New Delhi: Terming the allegations that demonetisation decision was already leaked as "totally absurd and mischievous", Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday asked the parties to make it clear whether they are with the common man who is going to benefit from the move or corrupt and black money holders.

"Unfounded allegation that this move has been leaked to some in the BJP is totally absurd and mischievous," Naidu said, adding, "As the line of demarcation between the honest and dishonest is being clearly drawn in the country, some opposition parties are getting rattled and making absurd allegations."

The comments come in the backdrop of Congress, AAP and some other parties accusing the Modi government of "selectively leaking" information about its demonetisation plans to some people and "favourite" corporate houses.

The Union Urban Development and Information and Broadcasting minister said that parties who lived by "corruption" and "electoral malpractices" all these years, cannot make such "baseless allegations" against the Modi government.

By now people have come to know the character of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, adding they know that he will live up to the expectations of the people and to the election promise of rooting out corruption from public life.

"Parties who lived by corruption, opportunism, nepotism, greed, repression, electoral malpractices, self-seeking and sycophancy all these years, can't make such baseless allegations against this government," he said.

Naidu said such irresponsible allegations only expose such parties who are rattled by the consequences of the Government's commitment to get to the bottom of corruption and black money.

"Instead of making constructive suggestions to help people overcome immediate inconveniences in drawing money, some parties are trying to cover up real intention of supporting corruption and black money in the name of hardship caused to people," he alleged.

The government has taken several steps and is willing to take more as required to help people overcome the problems being faced now, Naidu said, adding that situation will become normal "very soon".

If the objection of some parties is over the hardship caused to the people, they should behave in a "constructive manner", he said, adding that they should convey their concerns instead of raking up a "malicious campaign".

"Keeping in view the significant gains to the common man and the poor from the spirited actions of the governments, I would like to ask such parties to make it clear -If they are with the common man or with the corrupt and black money kings," he asked.
New Delhi: Asserting that the government has launched a "crusade" against corruption and black money by demonetisation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today sought opposition's cooperation while his rivals called the decision ill-prepared and hasty, causing "economic chaos".

Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad alleged the decision to invalidate Rs 1000/500 currency notes was leaked in advance to some people, including BJP leaders, and called it probably the "biggest scam".

He, however, added that his party is not for its rollback.

In his concluding remarks at the all-party meeting on the eve of the Winter Session, Modi spoke in support of simultaneous Lok Sabha and state assemblies polls and that there should be state-funding of elections as he asked parties to debate the issue.

The government is willing to discuss all issues and answer the questions raised by the opposition, Modi said, hoping for a fruitful session as he recalled the passage of the GST Bill in the last session with the cooperation of all parties.

"We have launched a crusade against corruption, black money and fake currency, which is also behind cross-border terrorism. All parties should come together on this issue of national interest," he said.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar briefed the reporters about Modi's remarks.

Speaking about simultaneous polls, he said, "A crucial problem is how to make political funding transparent. How to implement state funding of elections. Let all political parties debate it and come to a conclusion. Let's remove the question mark which exists against those in public life.

"Polls happen separately. Let there be one election, simultaneous elections," he said, seeking a consensus on the issue.
Kolkata: Accusing the Modi government of turning the people of the country into beggars by the demonetisation move, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said she would meet President Pranab Mukherjee tomorrow on the issue irrespective of whether other parties join her or not.

"Tomorrow I am meeting the President on demonetisation issue. I will be meeting him with 40 of my MPs. I have spoken to various political parties. I have spoken to Rahul Gandhi, Nitish Kumar, Naveen Patnaik, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Arvind Kejriwal.

"If they want to join me, it is good. If not, then I will go alone with my MPs. National Conference leader Omar Abdullah is likely to join me," Banerjee told reporters at the airport here before leaving for New Delhi.

Asked about some political parties' comments that it was too early to meet the President on the issue, she said, "It is their choice. You need to call the doctor before the patient is dead. There is no use of calling a doctor after a patient expired. You need to meet the President right now. I want all political parties to meet the President," she said.

"I am ready to stand behind. Let them (other political parties) take the front stage but they should meet the President," she said.

Banerjee's move to play a pivotal role in uniting the opposition against BJP has been throttled by CPI(M) with its general secretary Sitaram Yechury yesterday stating that the party will wait to see what position the government takes in the matter in Parliament on the issue and "who stands where".

She remarked, "There are thousands of areas where there are no proper banking or post office facilities. What will the people there do? The people of this country have been turned into beggars due to demonetisation move."

Later, in a tweet, Banerjee charged the central government with pursuing discrimination in dealing with the demonetisation issue.

"Old Rs 500/1,000 notes allowed in railways, petrol pumps. NHAI exempted. But no exemption for state sector agriculture, co-operatives. No exemption for patients in private hospitals, nursing homes or for non-prescription medicines. Why this discrimination? The situation is serious. Very grim. People are suffering," she tweeted.
Mumbai: The Shiv Sena has warned Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rollback the demonetisation scheme or be on the receiving end of an angered public, who are seething with fury after being massively inconvenienced by the Centre's tectonic scheme.

Speaking to the media here, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut asserted that the severe crunch being faced by the people was a very disturbing sign for the government.

When told that the Prime Minister had firmly ruled out any possibility of a roll back, Raut replied saying, "then the government can face a roll back themselves. The Shiv Sena fully stands in the fight against corruption, but if there is so much anger among the masses, then something must be wrong."

Emphasising his party's stand on the matter, Raut further said that it was the common man on whom the scheme had proven to be costly, which the rich and powerful continued to languish in their palaces.

"Not a single one of them has been caught, nor are they standing in the long queues. This is not about siding with the opposition but about being with the masses when they need us. All political parties must join hands and call for a roll back of the scheme," Raut said.

However, calling on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to pay no heed to the barrage of attack by the opposition, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday ordered the government to go full ahead with demonetisation and ruled out any chance whatsoever of rolling back the scheme.

According to sources, the Prime Minister who was chairing the BJP Parliamentary Party executive meeting, told the attendees to not buckle under the opposition's pressure and go ahead with the Centre's policy.

Stating that the opposition was hard at work to sabotage the process of demonetisation, the Prime Minister assured that the nation has welcomed the step.

The Prime Minister's assertion comes in the wake of the all out attack launched by the opposition today, as the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) joined forces in tearing down the scheme of demonetisation.

Earlier on Monday, Mayawati asserted that people, who were expecting good days, are now facing bad days because of the government's strange decision to ban high denomination notes.

Attempting to reach out to the poor and middle class ahead of next year's assembly polls, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said that small and medium businesses have shut down courtesy demonetisation.

"In the name of demonetisation, the common people are being made to suffer. Modi ji has brought miseries and pain for the poor which is extremely wrong. I would like to ask why people of the nation are being troubled like this," said Mayawati.

"The economic affairs of the nation has been hampered by this decision, crores of small and medium scale businesses have been shut in the wake of demonetisation. Its seems like a country wide shutdown is being observed. The people, who were expecting 'achhe din', are now facing 'bure din' and people of the nation want freedom from all this," she added.

On the other hand, holding the Prime Minister responsible for the present cash crunch, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the Centre was unprepared in dealing with the crisis.

"Today Centre announced that Indian Air Force will be used to carry and distribute currency notes, it shows that government did not have any game plane to tackle the crisis, government was unprepared in executing its plan, it shows that the government is in a precarious situation," Kejriwal said.

He said that despite Prime Minister Modi's claim that the demonitisation drive would bring sleepless nights to the rich, the aam aadmi (common man), instead, are having sleepless nights standing outside the ATMs.

Branding the Prime Minister as a "habitual abuser", the Congress said that arrogance of power should not surpass the problems faced by people.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala lashed out at the Prime Minister and said that it has become his "character and style" to taunt others.

"The Prime Minister is a habitual abuser himself. We respect the Prime Minister and the office he holds. Whatever abuses he may heap, which he continues to do every day on the leaders of the opposition parties, let him mock the entire country. The Prime Minister mocks the entire nation. The other day, he was sitting in Japan and mocked everybody who was getting married, who were not able to arrange their marriages. Such has become the character and style of this minister," Surjewala said.

Prime Minister Modi, who has drawn sharp flak from a united opposition post his decision to scrap 500 and 1,000 rupee currency notes, urged all to support his decision and bless him in his war against black or undeclared money.

"There are some political parties that are worried over currency ban. Those against me are strong people. But I will not be scared of them. I will not leave the path of truth and integrity. Some people never say anything on your face, but behind your back they poke other people to oppose and go against you," he added while addressing a mega rally in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh on Monday.
In its previous forecast from June this year, Ericsson had said it expected 6.3 billion smartphone subscriptions by the end of 2021.

Global subscriptions for smartphones will almost double by 2022, helping mobile data traffic to eightfold, telecoms network gear maker Ericsson predicted on Tuesday. The Swedish company said it expected there will be 6.8 billion smartphone subscriptions globally by the end of 2022, up from 3.9 billion in 2016.

In its previous forecast from June this year, Ericsson had said it expected 6.3 billion smartphone subscriptions by the end of 2021.

Ulf Ewaldsson, head of strategy and technology at Ericsson, said the biggest change from its previous report was the jump in 5G subscribers to 550 million in 2022 from 150 million in 2021. "We predict that 25 percent of those will be in North America and 10 percent in Asia," Ewaldsson told Reuters.

The first 5G networks will be launched at the end of 2017 and Ericsson plans to sell 5G equipment on a "larger scale" in 2018, Ewaldsson said.

Ericsson said mobile data traffic continues to grow, driven by an increase in smartphone subscriptions and data volume per subscription, fueled primarily by more viewing of video content.

Ericsson plans to boost efficiency and technology to deal with an expected increase of mobile data traffic of around 40 to 50 percent per year despite roughly flat infrastructure investments by telecom operators, Ewaldsson said.

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Apples iPhone 7 has caused a pregnant woman in Australia second-degree burns on her right arm after falling asleep.

Melanie Tan Pelaez, a pregnant woman based in Australia recently took to Facebook to report about the second-degree burns that were caused by the iPhone 7 after she fell asleep on it.

In her Facebook post, she explains how she was using the iPhone 7 to watch movies in her bed while the device was plugged into a charger.

Apples iPhone 7 has caused a pregnant woman in Australia second-degree burns on her right arm after falling asleep.

I recently purchased an Apple iPhone 7 and accidentally fell asleep with my arm on my phone whilst it was charging, her Facebook post read. I was woken up by sudden pain, pins and needles, numbness and shortness of breath, she further explained in her post.

She immediately rushed to the hospital wherein she was diagnosed with a burn on the upper arm due to a foreign object.

The hospital did a number of tests and told me the mark was a burn from a foreign object and told me to check around my bed to see what could be the cause of the injurt, Pelaez told a local news agency. We matched the markings on my arm to the phone and charger, she said.

The hospital documents confirm that the iPhone 7 was indeed to blame for the second-degree burns. Patient representing for review of superficial thickness burn on right forearm. Burn sustained when patient slept on her mobile telephone, the iPhone 7. Haemo-dynamically stable and afebrile, the hospital documents read.

The pregnant mother said she immediately took the phone to the Apple Store and told the company about the incident.

Apple took my phone and details, but said it couldnt have been the phone because it didnt have a distinct smell. I then got a call from a member of the executive team who told me they were now handing the matter and had sent the phone to a senior technician in California for testing.

Ms Pelaez said she has been offered a new iPhone 7 from Apple but that is all that has come from the tech giant. Apple seems to think the phone isnt to blame as it is designed to shut down, but my injury shows this isnt the case. Im just lucky because it could have been a lot worse, she said.

Pelaez refused to get a new iPhone from Apple, saying that she doesnt trust the device anymore. Apple is yet to issue an official comment on this matter and it remains unknown whether Ms Pelaez will pursue legal action against the company.

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In July, Pistorius, 29, was given a six-year jail term after an appeals court upgraded his manslaughter conviction to murder. (Photo: AFP)

Johannesburg: Jailed Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius has been transferred to a prison adapted for disabled inmates to serve the rest of his sentence for murdering his girlfriend, a South African official said Monday.

The Department of Correctional Services said the double amputee was moved from Kgosi Mampuru II prison in the capital Pretoria to Atteridgeville Correctional Centre, just outside the city.

"The transfer was in line with his special needs," department spokesman Singabakho Nxumalo said.

"The new prison caters for people with special needs, it has been revamped to include facilities like bath tubs."

The smaller facility holds convicts serving sentences of up to six years.

In July, Pistorius, 29, was given a six-year jail term after an appeals court upgraded his manslaughter conviction to murder.

He had been earlier given a five-year jail term and was released on parole after one year.

State prosecutors are still battling to lengthen his sentence, which they have described as "shockingly lenient and disturbingly inappropriate".

The former Paralympic hero shot dead Reeva Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, in the early hours of Valentine's Day 2013.

The "Blade Runner", as he was known, has always maintained that he mistook her for an intruder when he fired four high-calibre bullets through a locked toilet cubicle in his upmarket home in Pretoria.

The South African government news service said Pistorius had requested the transfer, adding that work to renovate the Atteridgeville centre began in May and was not linked to his case.

'Pay For His Crime'

At Pistorius' sentencing, High Court judge Thokozile Masipa said a mitigating factor for giving him less than the 15-year term for murder included his claim he believed he was shooting an intruder.

"He cannot be at peace. I'm of the view that a long term of imprisonment will not serve justice," Masipa said.

At an earlier hearing, a sobbing Pistorius hobbled on his stumps across the courtroom to demonstrate his physical vulnerability.

His lawyers argued he should not be returned to jail on account of an anxiety disorder and depression.

But Steenkamp's father Barry told the court that he wanted Pistorius to "pay for his crime".

The Supreme Court of Appeal last year ruled he was guilty of murder, irrespective of who was behind the door when he opened fire with the pistol he kept under his bed.

The year before he killed Steenkamp, Pistorius became the first double-amputee to race at Olympic level when he appeared at the London 2012 games.

While on parole he gave a television interview saying that an "instant fear" drove him to grab his gun and walk on his stumps towards the bathroom.

"All of a sudden I hear a noise, at the toilet. I presumed it was the toilet door opening and, before I knew it, I'd fired four shots," he said.
Marley Dias created the popular #1000BlackGirlBooks campaign to draw attention to the lack of racial diversity in children's literature. (Photo: Twitter)

Poughkeepsie, New York: A New York school district paid an 11-year-old child advocate $6,500 plus expenses for serving as keynote speaker for staff and hosting a student workshop last week.

The Poughkeepsie Journal reports the Poughkeepsie City School District hired Marley Dias to speak during the superintendent's conference day last Tuesday.

The board voted 3-1 to retroactively approve Dias' consultant agreement at its November 9 meeting.

The girl from West Orange, New Jersey, created the popular #1000BlackGirlBooks campaign to draw attention to the lack of racial diversity in children's literature.

She gave an hour-long speech to staff before leading an hour and a half-long workshop for 50 students.

Superintendent Nicole Williams said at Wednesday's meeting that Dias' resume is "tremendous" and the district shouldn't discriminate because she's 11 years old.

Dias was paid through funding from a federal education program.
Washington: US President-elect Donald Trump is in final stages of giving shape to his Cabinet and announcements in this regard could be made anytime this week, his aides indicated on Monday.

The vice president-elect Mike Pence, who also heads presidential transition team, is arriving in New York on Tuesday to hold meetings with Trump.

"They'll be reviewing a number of names," Jason Miller, a transition communication advisor said.

"If the Vice President-elect is getting together with the President-elect to discuss names, then I would say that its serious, obviously," Miller said.

Meanwhile, the American media was abuzz with speculations on potential Cabinet picks of Trump.

The former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani along with the former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton was speculated to be in the race for being the Secretary of State.

Other potential Cabinet picks being talked about are Senator Jeff Sessions, Senator Bob Corker and Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker to the US House of Representative. However, Miller cautioned against finalising any names as of now.

"You can't believe everything you read. I don't want to play the speculation game as far as names," he said.

"There's a thorough, detailed process that the Vice President-elect and the transition team are going through and the President-elect will make the decision and let us know," he said.

Sessions was seen entering the Trump Towers fuelling the speculation about his role in the Trump Cabinet.

"I'm a huge fan of Senator Sessions and the President-elect will be lucky to have him in any capacity," Miller said.

There were also reports that Laura Ingraham is under consideration for White House Press Secretary.

"You're going to see a number of different names that are ultimately becoming a part of the President-elects administration.

"There will be non-traditional names, a number of people who have had wide-ranging success in a number of different fields; wide-ranging success in business...People will be excited when they see the type of leaders the President-elect brings into this administration," Miller said.

The Trump Campaign Manager Kellyanne Conway also said that Cabinet appointments announcement are likely this week.

"Possibly (this week). Narrowing it down," she said in response to a question.

"I think we'll get more clarity on the senior team and the cabinet," she added.
New York: President-elect Donald Trump meets with running mate Mike Pence in New York on Tuesday to discuss cabinet appointments amid reports of intense infighting over choice posts.

One source described to CNN the fierce lobbying as a "knife fight." Trump and Pence will "be reviewing a number of names" for cabinet positions, Jason Miller, a transition communications adviser, told reporters gathered at Trump Tower.

Trump appears to be torn between a campaign promise to shake up Washington and the need to build a cabinet with political experience and connections with Congress.

Possible candidates for secretary of state include hawkish former diplomat John Bolton and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, US media reported.

Retired General Michael Flynn is a possible national security adviser pick, while Republican Senator Jeff Sessions could be secretary of defense or attorney general, according to CNN.

CBS and CNN also reported that the transition team is seeking top security clearances for Trump's adult children.

Trump however did not request that this step be taken, and the Trump children have not started filling out paperwork for such clearances, a transition official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"That's not something I'm expecting right now," the official said.

Trump on Sunday tapped Steve Bannon, chairman of conservative news platform Breitbart, as his chief strategist, and Reince Priebus, the head of the Republican National Committee, as his chief of staff.

Miller gave few details on the new people under consideration.

"You can't believe everything you read. I don't want to play the speculation game as far as names," Miller said.

He added: "There will be non-traditional names, a number of people who have had wide-ranging success in a number of different fields... People will be excited when they see the type of leaders the president-elect brings into this administration."

Separately, Pence said that he plans to complete his term as Indiana governor even as he helps with the transition of power in Washington, the Indianapolis Star reported.

Pence made the remarks at a cabinet meeting in Indianapolis on Tuesday, an event at which he welcomed the new state governor, who takes over on January 9, the newspaper reported.
Donald Trumps ex-wife wants to become the ambassador of the Czech Republic. (Photo: AP)

Washington : Ivana Trump, the US President-elect's ex-wife, has suggested that she be now made the ambassador of the Czech Republic , where she was born in 1949.

[That] is where Im from and my language and everybody knows me. Im quite known all around the world. Not only in America . I have written three books, and they were translated in 40 countries in 25 languages. Im known by the name Ivana. I really did not need the name Trump, she told New York Post in an interview.

Ivana Zelnickova Winklmayr, a New York model originally from the Czech Republic , was Donalds first wife. They married in 1977 and had three children  Donald Jr, Ivanka and second son Eric Trump. Donald left his wife in 1992 following an affair with actress Marla Maples.

Daughter Ivanka, sons Eric and Donald Jr. and son-in-law Jared Kushner were close advisers to Trump's campaign and are part of his transition team announced on Friday.

The Trump Organization said in a statement it was planning to transfer control of the portfolio of businesses to Donald Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump and other executives.
Donald Trump has suggested he might somehow seize the funds of those immigrants who are not deported to pay for a border wall. (Photo: AP)

Mexico City: Mexico is starting to seriously contemplate the possibility that millions of its migrants could be deported, and the picture is not pretty.

Under proposals put forward by President-elect Donald Trump, Mexico could see millions of people streaming back with no jobs available; the country might lose some of the billions of dollars in remittances sent home annually; and some jobless deportees could swell the ranks of drug cartels, sparking more violence.

Gov. Hector Astudillo of the southern state of Guerrero considered the possible scenario over the weekend. At least a million Guerrero residents live in the United States, many without proper documents, and the state is already reeling from drug gang violence and poverty.

"Of course Guerrero is not in any condition to receive the million or more than one million migrants" in the U.S., Astudillo said. "On the contrary, they have been an important mainstay in supporting the economy of Guerrero."

Migrants sent home almost $25 billion in remittances to Mexico in 2015, and experts say most of that went to support the most basic needs of the poorest Mexicans. Trump has suggested he might somehow seize the funds of those immigrants who are not deported to pay for a border wall.

Mexico already has a shortfall of 800,000 new jobs for youths who join the labour force each year, let alone returning migrants, said Alejandra Barrales, head of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party. "We need to close ranks and create (job) opportunities, not just for people who might be deported, but for the 1.2 million young people who join the labour market each year."

The federal government announced an emergency program this week aimed at encouraging business to hire returning migrants, but Mexico City teacher Armando Osorio doubted that would be enough, given the government's poor track record on job creation. "These people have no moral authority to say they will receive their countrymen with open arms," he said. "They are the ones who are mainly responsible for the forced exodus of millions of Mexicans who don't have enough to eat."

Even if Trump seems to be walking back the idea of mass deportations, the prospect still remains frightening for people in Mexico.

On Sunday, Trump said in an interview on the news program "60 Minutes" that "what we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, a lot of these people - probably two million, it could be three million - and getting them out of our country."

Central America's violent gangs, known as "maras," emerged in the 1980s when migrants who had fled El Salvador's civil war were deported by the U.S. after committing crimes as members of street gangs in Los Angeles. The deportees took their criminal knowhow back with them and started new gangs.

The U.S. government in 2012 estimated about 1.9 million immigrants were criminals and could face deportation. The Migration Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, estimated 820,000 of those are in the United States illegally.

Mike Vigil, former chief of international operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said at least some deportees will likely embrace drug trafficking, using already established U.S. connections to increase the amount of heroin and other drugs sent across the border. Even deporting only the felons would backfire by causing more violence in Mexico and Central America, he said.

"What's going to happen is that these individuals are going to return back to Mexico and they have no jobs, so they are going to feed the ranks of the cartels there," said Vigil, author of the book "Metal Coffins: The Blood Alliance Cartel."

"That would lead to more violence, kidnappings in Mexico, and these areas (of Central America), which would cause a tsunami of undocumented immigrants coming into the United States, probably much more so than what he could actually deport," Vigil said.

There are cases of deported migrants assuming leadership positions in the region's gangs, such as Martin Estrada Luna, a high school dropout from Washington state with a rap sheet of petty crimes such as burglary. Two years after he was sent back to Mexico in 2009, he had transformed himself into a drug baron known as "El Kilo," leader of a ruthless cell of the Zetas gang who masterminded the mass killings of more than 250 people.

While millions of migrants in the United States illegally could ultimately face deportation, the process to find and deport all of them likely won't happen rapidly.

Once in office, Trump could move to have immigration agents quickly start arresting people already under orders to leave for being in the U.S. illegally. There were about 88,000 people in that category as of 2015.

But for immigrants with no criminal history, the wait for a judge's final deportation order could take years. There are about 521,000 cases pending in federal immigration courts currently, according to public data obtained by Transaction Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. Even in Mexico, many believe Trump will have to moderate his plans.

"Political reality will make it clear that many of the proposals against Mexicans are simply not feasible, neither the deportation of all undocumented migrants, nor the construction of the wall," the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico City wrote in an editorial.
Mercer County prosecutors confirmed on Monday that 42-year-old Chong-Hwa Chang was accepted into the courts' pretrial intervention program in August after she was originally charged with sexual assault earlier this year. (Representational image)

Trenton, New Jersey: A New Jersey prison teacher accused of engaging in an ongoing sexual relationship with a convicted murder will not face jail time.

Mercer County prosecutors confirmed on Monday that 42-year-old Chong-Hwa Chang was accepted into the courts' pretrial intervention program in August after she was originally charged with sexual assault earlier this year.

The diversionary program is designed for first-time offenders with little to no criminal history.

The state Department of Corrections launched an investigation after finding that Chang kept a journal detailing the more than 20 times she had sex with a convicted murderer she taught at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton.

The inmate reportedly fathered two of Chang's children.

The Delran woman agreed to forfeit her employment with the corrections department and complete community service.
San Francisco: A 17-year-old Indian-origin Sikh boy was shot dead when he was returning home from work, prompting police to launch an investigation. The incident took place last week at his home in his garage on Kandinsky Way in California. Family of Gurnoor Singh Nahal, who was a high-school student, says he was coming home from work when he was shot. They do not suspect anything was taken and cannot understand why.

We cannot imagine it. We are lost, his uncle Tejinderjit Singh was quoted as saying by the CBS Local News. Nahals grandmother found him lying in the garage. She said he cried for help, but it was too late. She heard it and it was very loud and I think when she heard that, she came out and then she saw him, Singh said. Gurnoor was supposed to graduate this spring.
Beijing: China on Monday cautiously backed India-Japan nuclear deal signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Tokyo visit, saying all countries are entitled to peaceful use of nuclear energy if they meet the international non-proliferation obligations.

Beijing also reacted mildly to the references to the South China Sea in the India-Japan joint statement, reiterating its earlier stand that countries outside the region should respect efforts made by China and other contestants to resolve the dispute.

"With regard to the nuclear agreement signed between India and Japan and on the use nuclear energy, we believe that under the promise of absorbing international obligation of nuclear non-proliferation, all countries are entitled to the peaceful use of nuclear energy," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told media briefing here.

"At the same time, the relevant cooperation should be conducive to safeguard the authority and effectiveness of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime," he said.

Contrary to the write-ups in the official media in Beijing prior to the recent signing of the civil nuclear deal, Geng made no reference to the media criticism of Japan selling its nuclear technology shedding its past objections.

Japan has traditionally adopted a tough stand on proliferation issues having been the only victim of atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.

India is the first country which has not signed nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) with which Japan has signed the civil nuclear agreement.

China opposes India's entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), citing India's refusal to sign NPT.

An article in the state-run Global Times earlier criticised Japan for relaxing its rules to sign the civil nuclear deal for India and said that selling nuclear technology to New Delhi will "taint Tokyo's reputation of advocating for a nuclear weapons-free world".

About the reference to the South China Sea in the joint statement issued at the end of Modi's visit, Geng said: "under the concerted efforts of the countries in the region including China, the situation in the South China Sea is developing in a positive direction".

"We have been repeating that we should come back to the right track of peacefully resolving the relevant dispute through negotiations and consultations.

"We hope that the countries outside the region would respect efforts made by countries in the region and safeguard as well as consolidate the sound momentum in the South China Sea and do more that is conducive to regional peace and stability," he said in a cautious response.
Beijing insists that Taiwanese fraud suspects should be sent to China to face trial because their telecom fraud crimes largely target mainland Chinese. (Photo: AFP)

Taipei: Taiwan passed a bill on Tuesday to crack down on swindlers committing crimes overseas following a spate of deportations of Taiwanese fraud suspects to China from countries that do not recognise the island's government.

Taipei has accused Beijing of "abducting" Taiwanese citizens suspected of committing fraud abroad and taking them to China amid criticism that the island's own judicial system has failed to bring such swindlers to justice due to legal loopholes.

Analysts see the deportation cases as a Chinese bid to pile pressure on Taiwan's new Beijing-sceptic leader Tsai Ing-wen, who took office in May, as relations between the two sides worsen.

But Beijing insists that Taiwanese fraud suspects should be sent to China to face trial because their telecom fraud crimes largely target mainland Chinese.

Chinese officials blamed Taiwan for condoning cross-border fraud after a group of Taiwanese suspects deported by Malaysia back to the island were set free in April.

Taiwanese authorities have also faced criticism at home for handing out light punishments to swindlers, including suspended sentences or a fine in lieu of jail time.

Prior to Tuesday's legislation, the island's laws prevented prosecutors from pressing charges on fraud suspects caught abroad.

Lawmaker Hsu Shu-hua, who proposed the bill, said in a statement Tuesday that the legislation would help Taiwan avoid "the embarrassing situation (when there is)... no law in place to prosecute our nationals implicated in cross-border fraud after they are deported back to our country".

The legislation allows local prosecutors to pursue suspects accused of committing "aggravated fraud" overseas. Aggravated fraud involves posing as civil servants to swindle money or committing online crime.

Since 2011, nearly 2,000 Taiwanese fraud suspects have been arrested abroad, including in Southeast Asia, Greece, Egypt, Armenia and Kenya, but there is no data on the financial losses involved, according to Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau.

In Taiwan, a total of 10,831 telecom fraud cases were reported last year involving $7 million in losses, the bureau said.

Relations between Taiwan and China have grown increasingly frosty since Tsai came to power. China insists that self-ruling Taiwan is part of its territory, even though the two sides split in 1949 after a civil war.
After travelling to Greece, Obama will head to Germany to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and British and Italian prime ministers Theresa May and Matteo Renzi. (Photo: AP)

Athens: US President Barack Obama will arrive in Athens on Tuesday, the first stop on a final foreign trip that will aim to reassure worried Europeans following Donald Trump's surprise presidential election victory.

The 44th president of the United States had likely imagined his farewell visit to Europe coming after eight years in power in different circumstances.

But Trump's defeat of Hillary Clinton last week will be on everybody's minds as the future of several key global deals on issues such as Iran's nuclear programme and the environment looks uncertain.

During a press conference in Washington on Monday, Obama tried to reassure worried allies, stressing that dismantling or unravelling such agreements was not easy.

After travelling to Greece, Obama will head to Germany to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and British and Italian prime ministers Theresa May and Matteo Renzi.

He will conclude his trip with a stop in Peru for a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Among the leaders he is expected to meet there is President Xi Jinping of China.

Obama on Wednesday will visit the Parthenon in Athens, then deliver a speech sure to have considerable resonance, given the recent US elections on the challenges of globalisation.

The question of Greek debt, which is choking the economy, and the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have arrived in Greece fleeing conflict in the Middle East will be the focus of talks during Obama's first visit to the country.

Shortly after his arrival in Athens, where thousands of police officers have been deployed amid tight security in the capital, Obama will hold a joint press conference with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

An uncertain world

"It's a symbolic and rare visit that recognises Greek efforts to manage its debt and to stabilise the country," government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said.

According to Greek Finance Minister Euclide Tsakalotos, the election of Trump could strengthen Greece's position against its creditors.

"We live in an uncertain world and this could help Greece. Because the European Union and the eurozone must show that they can resolve their problems among themselves," he told German newspaper TAZ.

Subjected to tough austerity measures, Greece is struggling to emerge from recession despite a recent upturn in its finances.

"In order for the reforms to be sustainable, people need hope," Obama said in an interview with Greek daily Kathimerini.

He promised to continue urging Greece's creditors to "take the necessary measures, particularly in regard to debt relief, so it can return to robust economic growth".

Obama will also highlight "the compassion and the generosity" that the Greek people have shown to refugees and migrants landing on their shores.

Rights group Amnesty International called on him to take advantage of the visit "to draw attention to the appalling conditions suffered by the tens of thousands of refugees trapped in Greece", and to demand wealthy nations assume responsibility.

Civil servants, communists, far-left groups and anarchists all plan to hold demonstrations as Obama swings through the Greek capital.
Brussels: NATO head Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday said he was sure Donald Trump would live up to all US commitments to the alliance, just days after urging the president-elect not to go it alone.

"President-elect Donald Trump stated during the election campaign that he is a big fan of NATO," Stoltenberg said in Brussels as he arrived for talks with EU defence ministers.

"And I am certain that he will be a president who will live up to all the commitments of the United States in the alliance, because a strong NATO is important for Europe but it's also important for the United States."

Trump's upset election badly rattled nerves in Europe after he appeared to call into question Washington's near 70-year security guarantee by saying he would only help NATO allies if they paid their way.

He also appeared to be much more friendly towards Russia, praising President Vladimir Putin as a strong leader in marked contrast to a weak Barack Obama in Washington.

Asked about a telephone call between Trump and Putin on Monday in which the Kremlin said they agreed to improve relations, Stoltenberg denied this was cause for concern.

"First of of all, I think it is a very normal thing that president-elect Donald Trump speaks to world leaders, including of course the leader of Russia," he said.

"The message from NATO has been that we want dialogue with Russia ... Especially when tensions are high, especially when we face many different challenges, it is important."

Stoltenberg's upbeat tone came despite his stark warning in Britain's Observer newspaper on Sunday, in which he wrote that "going it alone is not an option... this is no time to question the partnership between Europe and the United States."

But the NATO chief noted Tuesday that the two sides were on the same page, saying Trump's call for the allies to increase defence spending was exactly what they were already doing.

"I absolutely agree with him; that has been the message from US leaders for many years," Stoltenberg said.

"The good thing is that we now see that Europeans are actually investing more in defence... therefore contributing to better burden sharing," he said.

Washington accounts for nearly 70 percent of NATO defence spending and has long urged its European allies to do more, stepping up the pressure after Russia's intervention in Ukraine.

The Ukraine crisis shook NATO out of years of complacency and defence cuts, with leaders agreeing to its biggest military build-up since the end of the Cold War based on a commitment to devote two percent of national output to defence.

The European Union of whose 28 members 22 also belong to NATO is also boosting military cooperation and on Monday approved a defence roadmap to boost the bloc's capabilities.

On Monday, US President Barack Obama said he was sure Trump would stand by US security commitments and that he would tell Europe there would be "no weakening" of the relationship.
Russia has been carrying out a bombing campaign in Syria for the past year in support of its ally President Bashar al-Assad and deployed a naval contingent to back up its operation. (Photo: Representational Image)

Moscow: Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday that jets from the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier deployed in the eastern Mediterranean had launched their first strikes on Syria.

"For the first time in our naval history, the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov started taking part in combat," Shoigu said at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea city of Sochi, according to televised footage.

"Today from this carrier, our Sukhoi-33 (bombers) began their operations", he said.

Russia has been carrying out a bombing campaign in Syria for the past year in support of its ally President Bashar al-Assad and deployed a naval contingent to back up its operation.

The Admiral Kuznetsov, Russia's sole aircraft carrier, arrived in the eastern Mediterranean off the Syrian coast as part of a flotilla of ships sent to reinforce Russia's military in the area.

The biggest naval deployment of recent years saw the flotilla sail from Russia's Arctic waters down through the North Sea and along the Channel.

This prompted NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg to warn the ships could be used to take part in air strikes in Syria and "increase human and civilian suffering."

During initial flights from Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, a Russian MiG crashed into the sea while attempting to land, the defence ministry said Monday.

The pilot ejected and was rescued unhurt, it said.

Shoigu said the "major operation" began at 0730 GMT Tuesday aiming to inflict heavy damage on "the Islamic State group and the Al-Nusra Front's positions in Idlib and Homs provinces."

Another ship in the flotilla, the frigate Admiral Grigorovich also fired Kalibr cruise missiles at Syrian targets, the minister said.

The operations targeted stores of ammunition and factories producing chemical warfare agents. "They will continue," Shoigu said.

The naval fleet is protected by S-400 and S-300 air defence systems that "cover the sea area practically to Cyprus" as well as by Bastion missile complexes on shore, the defence chief said.

"Today we are able to hit both sea and land targets across almost 350 kilometres (218 miles) of sea and almost 450 kilometres of land," Shoigu said.
More than 600,000 refugees have returned from Pakistan whereas 300,000 from Iran, according to the MoRR. (Photo: ANI)

Kabul: About 900,000 Afghan refugees have returned this year from Pakistan and Iran surpassing all previous years, said Afghanistan's Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations (MoRR) on Tuesday.

More than 600,000 refugees have returned from Pakistan whereas 300,000 from Iran, according to the MoRR.

"Government has announced the allocation of $100 million USD for the returnees, some financial cooperation has been considered for each returnee," the Tolo News quoted media advisor to MoRR, Hafiz Ahmad Miakhail as saying.

Meanwhile, the World Food Program (WFP) has said that among those return-refugees there are about 23,000 children of which many are suffering from malnutrition.

Spokesman to WFP, Wahidullah Miakhail said, "There are about 23,000 children among the families repatriated and these children either suffer from malnutrition or are threatened with malnutrition and we are trying to help these children."

An Afghan returnee Rozi Khan said, "Government has failed to deliver on its promises regarding the refugees; the refugees are living in very bad conditions."

"We left Pakistan five days ago, now there is no shelter for us to live in and no food to eat, we have a lot of problems," said another refugee Mohammad Jan.
Nearly 70 people have died in clashes with security forces since the Myanmar army swooped into Rakhine state, an area along the border with Bangladesh that is home to the Muslim Rohingya minority. (Photo: AFP)

Dhaka: Around 200 Rohingya Muslims fleeing a surge in violence after security forces took control of Myanmar's Rakhine state last month are stranded at the Bangladesh border, community leaders said Tuesday.

Bangladeshi border guards pushed back the Rohingya, mostly women and children to the Myanmar side on Monday, community leaders told AFP.

"We heard they are 200 in number. They are mostly women and children who were only seeking a safe place to stay. They have no homes to go back," one of the Rohingya leaders told AFP from a refugee camp in Bangladesh's Teknaf border town. A border guard spokesman put the figure at closer to 80.

Nearly 70 people have died in clashes with security forces since the Myanmar army swooped into Rakhine state, an area along the border with Bangladesh that is home to the Muslim Rohingya minority.

Violence escalated over the weekend, with troops killing more than 30 people in two days of fighting, according to the Myanmar army.

Activists say the actual toll could be much higher, accusing troops of killing civilians, raping women and torching homes allegations the army denies.

Authorities have heavily restricted access to the area, making it difficult to independently verify government reports or accusations of army abuse.

The stranded Rohingya crossed the Naf River which divides the two countries by boats in the early hours of Monday and were immediately sent back by Bangladeshi border guards.

"We have stopped and pushed back around 80 Rohingya people yesterday (Monday)," border guard spokesman, Major Abu Russell Siddique, told AFP.

He said the Rohingya who were pushed back were economic migrants "looking for work and treatment", and denied the community leaders' claim that they were victims of recent violence in Rakhine.

Another border guard commander told AFP that Monday's group was the largest number of Rohingya pushed back since violence erupted in early October.

Nineteen-year-old Mohammad Towhid told AFP by phone that he also crossed in the early hours of Monday, but managed to avoid the border guards.

"They (Myanmar army) shot dead my sister before my eyes. I hid underneath heaps of cow dung during the attack. As the night fell, I rushed to the border," Towhid said, speaking from a Teknaf refugee camp.

"I left my mother alone at home. I don't know whether she survived or not," he said, adding that troops had torched hundreds of Rohingya homes.

The UN has labelled the Rohingya as one of the world's most persecuted peoples.

They are branded as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh by Myanmar's majority Buddhist population despite their long roots in the country, where they face apartheid-like restrictions on movement and are denied citizenship.

But the Bangladeshi government also refuses to register the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees living on its side of the border.
Jia Jinglong killed his village chief in the northern province of Hebei last year, state media said. (Photo: Representational Image)

Beijing: A Chinese man who killed a village official with a nail gun after his home was forcibly demolished was executed on Tuesday, a court said, despite a public outcry over his condemnation.

Jia Jinglong killed his village chief in the northern province of Hebei last year, state media said.

Lawyers and online commenters had called for Jia's sentence to be commuted on the grounds that the demolition of his home by local officials constituted extenuating circumstances, and because he confessed to the crime.

The house was pulled down just weeks before his wedding day in 2013, the state-run Global Times reported previously, adding he was beaten and denied compensation.

Tuesday's edition of the paper carried another report on legal experts urging the execution be halted in a letter to China's Supreme People's Court, citing "mismanagement" in rural areas and inadequate judicial procedures.

But the Intermediate People's Court in Shijiazhuang said on a verified social media account: "The execution of the murderer Jia Jinglong has been carried out."

Before being put to death Jia met his relatives "according to the law", the official news agency Xinhua said.

Neither the court nor Xinhua specified how Jia was killed, but executions in China are believed generally to be carried out by lethal injection.

Jia's case had sparked widespread debate on Chinese social media. Hundreds signed an online petition calling for the death sentence to be revoked.

Violent land seizures and forced evictions of villagers by local officials clearing the way for development projects are a major source of social resentment in China, sometimes triggering unrest.

"The reason why this aroused such an intense social reaction is that in the background many people deeply resent forced relocations, so much so that it provoked profound concern," popular commentator Shi Susi said on China's Twitter-like Weibo social media platform.

"Executing Jia Jinglong is easy, but pacifying this feeling that's been accumulating for years on end can't be done overnight. Speed up China's reform, rule of law, and equality."

One well-liked comment responding to his post alleged that the real reason Jia was executed was because the son of the village official he killed had become the local party secretary.

China is widely believed to lead the world in executions with estimates of a few thousand every year although the exact figure is considered a state secret.

They have declined in recent years following the requirement that the Supreme Court review such sentences.

A Chinese court last year commuted the death sentence of a woman who killed her abusive husband after a public outcry, in what was seen as a landmark verdict.
India has been maintaining that NPT membership was not essential for joining the NSG, as was the case with France. (Representational photo: PTI)

Beijing: China, which has been blocking India's NSG bid, on Tuesday maintained its tough stand on the issue and called for a two-step "non-discriminatory" solution to admit non-NPT members into the 48-member elite grouping.

China's remarks came as the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) at its meeting in Vienna November 11 discussed a formula acting on India's application to join it.

"We maintain that we should follow two-step approach. First we should find out a solution that is applicable to all non-NPT members applications to the NSG through consultations and discussions," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a media briefing here outlining China's stand at the Vienna meeting.

The second step is to discuss specific non-NPT (Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty) members' admission into the NSG, he said.

"We believe that the solution should be non-discriminatory and applicable to all non-NPT members and it must not damage the core value of the NSG as well as the authority, effectiveness and integrity of the NPT," he said.

"We hope that we can enter into the second step after finishing the first step at an early date which is to talk about specific non-NPT members joining the NSG," he said.

China's stand for a non-discriminatory criteria is regarded significant as Pakistan, a close ally of Beijing too has applied for the NSG membership along with India.

China, which has blocked earlier India's entry on the ground that India has not signed the NPT, has held two rounds of talks with India and Pakistan about their admission into the group.

India has secured the backing of the US and majority of the NSG members based on its non-proliferation record in comparison to Pakistan which faced serious allegations of nuclear proliferation in the past specially with regard to its nuclear scientist Dr A Q Khan.

Geng said at the Vienna meeting of the NSG, members talked about the technical, legal and political matters relating non-NPT members accession to the NSG.

He said this is the first time the group talked about entry of the new members.

Earlier a statement by the Chinese Foreign Ministry said, "It is the first time a discussion, not only since the Seoul Plenary, but also since the NSG's inception in 1975, for the Group to formally take up the issue of non-NPT states' participation in an open and transparent manner".

Geng said the discussion about the entry of new members is a "good start".

"We believe it is good start and we will continue to support the NSG in following through on the first step and explore the final solution at an early date," he said.

India has been maintaining that NPT membership was not essential for joining the NSG, as was the case with France.
Kathmandu: Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal also known as 'Prachanda' on Tuesday spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over phone on the big currency ban.

Dahal sought an arrangement so that Nepalese holding a huge stock of banned high denomination Indian bank notes could swap them with legal currency in the country.

During his five-minute telephonic conversation with Modi, Dahal told him that Nepalese have quite a big stock of Indian bank notes of 500 and 1,000 denominations that have now been pulled out of circulation.

Hundreds of thousands of Nepalese, who earn a living by working as daily-wage labourers in India, visit the neighbouring country seeking medical treatment or rely on Indian markets to purchase daily essentials, are said to be holding big chunk of scrapped Indian bank notes, Kathmandu Post reported.

Also, those visiting India as pilgrims and those engaged in cross-border trade are said to have a big stock of now-useless Indian bank notes.

Some of these people, according to the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, may lose their entire savings if the now-obsolete notes are not replaced with legal bills.

"Considering this, India should make an arrangement so that Nepalese can exchange the banned notes here in Nepal," a statement posted on Mr Dahal's personal website quoted the prime minister as saying.

In response, PM Modi said he would immediately resolve the issue and would also ask Finance Minister to hold talks with Nepalese counterpart.

Following the Indian government's surprise decision, the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the central bank, also banned the use of those bank notes in Nepal from last Wednesday.

The NRB has said IRs 33.6 million in the denominations of 500 and 1,000 is within the financial system in Nepal, the report said.

The figure includes cash parked at vaults of banks, financial institutions and NRB.

But actual stock of banned Indian bank notes is expected to be much more because Nepalese were previously allowed to carry Indian 500 and 1,000-rupee bank notes worth up to IRs25,000, it said.

Also, those residing in areas bordering India usually stash Indian notes of larger denominations as they have to frequent Indian markets to buy goods.

The Indian government has said people who have accounts in Indian banks need not worry as the financial institutions will provide them the currency exchange facility. But many Nepalese who own the banned notes do not have accounts in Indian banks.

Against this backdrop, the Ministry of Finance wrote to the Indian Finance Ministry on Thursday requesting that arrangements be made so that Nepalese holding banned Indian notes could replace them with legal tenders here in Nepal.

NRB too wrote a letter to the Reserve Bank of India, seeking exchange facility for Nepalese holding banned Indian notes here in Nepal.
Islamabad: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday said Pakistan cannot be bullied by Indian "tactics" and its restraint should not be "misunderstood" as weakness, warning that his country was fully capable of defending against "any belligerence".

His remarks came a day after the Pakistan Army admitted that seven of its soldiers were killed in firing by Indian troops across the Line of Control (LoC) in Bhimber sector.

"Pakistan cannot be bullied by such tactics as we are fully capable of defending our soil against any belligerence," Sharif said while chairing a high-level meeting to review the situation along the LoC.

He said Pakistan was exercising "maximum restraint" in the face of Indian firing, which should not be "misunderstood as our weakness," The Express Tribune reported.

Expressing grief over the death of the seven soldiers, Sharif said deliberate escalation of tension along LoC by Indian forces is a threat to regional peace and security.

"It is also a futile attempt of the Indian authorities to divert the world's attention from the worst kind of atrocities they are committing" in Kashmir, he said in a statement.

He called on the United Nations to take notice of the ceasefire violations along the LoC. "Our armed forces do not initiate fire but will always respond in a befitting manner to any aggression," Sharif said.

On Monday, Army chief General Raheel Sharif ordered troops to "effectively" respond to firing by India across the LoC. Earlier, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz briefed Nawaz Sharif on the increased firing and shelling by India.

He said the recent incidents of firing have led to 26 deaths and 107 injuries in complete violation of the 2003 ceasefire understanding and international law.

The premier was also briefed on Pak-US relations in the backdrop of recently held presidential elections in the US.

Reaffirming to strengthen bilateral relations, Sharif said Pakistan and the US enjoy strong and strategic partnership spanning over a period of seven decades.

"Pakistan looks forward to closely work with the newly elected government for realisation of peace, security and prosperity in the region and beyond," he said.

Pakistan's National Security Adviser General Nasir Khan Janjua and other government officials were present during the meeting.
Islamabad: Pakistan, unlike India, will not demonetise Rs 5,000 notes or withdraw Rs 40,000 prize bonds, with Finance Minister rebuffing media reports, saying "these rumours are baseless and no such proposal is under consideration".

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Monday said made it clear that the government was not considering demonetisation of Rs 5,000 currency notes and withdrawal of Rs 40,000 prize bonds.

The minister said that these rumours are baseless and no such proposal is under consideration of the government, Dawn reported.

Haroon Akhtar Khan, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday had said the proposal to discontinue currency notes and prize bonds of the highest denomination was "under consideration", the daily said.

Khan said the proposal came from the Tax Reforms Commission before the 2016-17 budget but the final decision was postponed and a tax reforms implementation committee was asked to look into it after the budget.

Presently, prize bonds are sold and purchased against cash without recording any identification of the seller and buyer. These are also traded in the open market and remain a major source of fraud and illegal activities.

Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Osman Saifullah Khan last week submitted a resolution in the Senate to demonetise 1,000 and 5,000 rupee notes to tackle corruption, citing the example of India which has withdrew 500 and 1,000 denominations of notes.
Lahore: A pre-Partition gurudwara in Nankana Sahib, the birthplace of Sikhism's founder Guru Nanak, has been reopened in Pakistan's Punjab province.

"Gurudwara Kiyara Sahib which was closed over 75 years ago has finally been reopened for the yatris," Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) spokesman Amer Hashmi said.

He said thousands of Sikhs gathered in Nankana Sahib to attend the festivities on the 548th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak visited Kiyara Sahib on Monday when it was reopened by ETPB chairman Siddiqul Farooq.

Farooq also laid a foundation stone of a memorial of Bhai Mardana, a close associate of Guru Nanak, in Nankana Sahib. He said Gurudwara Kiyara Sahib has been reopened on the wish of Sikh 'yatris'.

He said on November 19, Angetha Sahib at Darbar Sahib Kartarpur will be reopened and the groundbreaking ceremony for the Baba Guru Nanak University in Nankana Sahib is scheduled for January.

On Monday, the main event of Palki was held in Gurudwara Janamasthan Nankana Sahib, 80 kms from Lahore, in which more than 15,000 people mostly Sikh pilgrims from India (2,100), US, Canada, Britain and other European countries participated. Indian Sikhs will also visit other gurudwaras in Punjab province before their departure for home on November 21.
The Qatari prince's letter may prove instrumental to dispel the charges by opposition that the London flats were bought with illegal money transferred by the Sharif family when he was ruling the country. (Photo: AP)

Islamabad: Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday submitted in the Supreme Court the details of his assets which included a letter by a Qatari prince who provided funds for purchase of controversial properties in London, which are now owned by Sharif's children.

Sharif and his daughter Maryam submitted a 397-page document detailing their assets.

The most interesting document given to the court is the letter from Qatari prince Shaikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Hamad bin Abdullah bin Jassim bin Muhammed Al Thani, stating that he gave money to the premier's family for the purchase of flats in London.

Sharif's children's counsel Akram Sheikh submitted the letter addressed to the apex court. It says that Sharif in 1980 invested 12 million Dirhams in the Al Thani company belonging to the Qatari prince's father.

"In the year 2006, the accounts in relation to the above investment were settled between Hussain Nawaz Sharif and Al Thani family, who then delivered the bearer shares of the companies to a representative of Hussain Nawaz Sharif (Sharif's son)," the letter read.

The letter immediately got a terse response from one of the five judges hearing the case who observed that the letter contradicts Sharif's statement in parliament this year when he did not disclosed the source of money or that he got it from a Qatari company.

The court is hearing five identical petitions by Imran Khan and others that Sharif's children were listed in Panama papers as having offshore companies that properties in London. The petitioners asked the court to probe if the properties were purchased with legal money.

The court set November 17 for next hearing and also asked that Sharifs two sons Hassan and Hussain should also submit the details of their assets.

Earlier, Imran's legal team submitted details to prove that Sharif laundered millions out of the country to build assets abroad which are now owned by his children.

The case could be make or break for Sharif who was elected third time Prime Minister in 2013.

The Qatari prince's letter may prove instrumental to dispel the charges by opposition that the London flats were bought with illegal money transferred by the Sharif family when he was ruling the country.
US President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin today spoke over phone for the first time and agreed on the need for jointly working to normalise "extremely unsatisfactory state" of ties between the two nations.





Putin "called to offer his congratulations on winning a historic election," according to a Trump statement. The two leaders discussed issues including shared threats, strategic economic issues and the historical US-Russia relationship.



The Russian President was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Trump last Wednesday, sending him a telegram about an hour after he had emerged the victor, but the two have not met nor had they spoken previously.



"President-elect Trump told President Putin that he is very much looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the people of Russia," a statement by Trump's transition team said.



According to the Kremlin, Trump and Putin agreed on "the extremely unsatisfactory" state of relations between the two countries and "declared the need for active joint work to normalise them."



The two leaders said they would work to "bring them (bilateral ties) to the framework of constructive cooperation.



Citing the Russian leader, the Kremlin statement added that this new relationship will be based "on the principles of equality, mutual respect and respective non-involvement in the other party's domestic affairs."



The statement said that Putin and Trump agreed on combating "global enemy number one"  international terrorism and extremism.



Officials are now working to arrange a personal meeting between the two leaders, the statement said.



During the US presidential campaign, senior American security officials accused Russia of hacking the computers at the Democratic National Committee headquarters and releasing emails that proved embarrassing to Hillary Clinton campaign. Putin denied any state role in the hacking.



Relations between the two countries have soured in recent years, despite President Barack Obama starting his eight years in office by calling for a "reset" with one of the US' long-term rivals.



While Russia and the US have managed to work together on issues like North Korea and Iran, they have openly clashed on Syria.



Obama has also condemned Russia's intervention on the side of pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine, while Russia's decision to grant whistleblower Edward Snowden asylum infuriated Washington.
Supreme Court today refused to stay the government's notification demonetising Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes but asked it to spell out the steps taken to minimise public inconvenience.





"We will not be granting any stay," a bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and D Y Chandrachud said.



The remarks were made after some advocates insisted on a stay.



Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for one of the petitioners, however, said he was not asking for a stay on the notification but seeking answers from the government about the steps taken to remove public inconvenience.



The bench asked Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi to file an affidavit about the measures already undertaken by the government and the RBI to minimise public inconvenience and also the steps likely to be undertaken in future.



Without issuing any notice to the Centre or the RBI, the bench posted the matter for further hearing on November 25.



During the hearing, the Chief Justice said the objective seems to be laudable "but there is some inconvenience also to the public at large."



The bench also said "You (Centre) can have surgical strike against black money but you cannot have surgical strike against people of the country."



At the outset, the Centre which had filed a caveat in the matter, sought dismissal of the petitions challenging demonetisation on several grounds including that they were "misconceived".



Attorney General (AG) Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Centre, outlined the idea behind demonetisation and said large number of fake currency has been used to finance terrorism in various parts of the country including in Jammu and Kashmir and northeastern states.



He, however, agreed with the bench that some inconvenience to common citizens occurs as this kind of "surgical strike" is bound to have "some kind of collateral damage".

He also said there were as many as 24 crore bank accounts including 22 crore opened under the 'Jan Dhan Scheme' and the Centre was hopeful to "ramp up" the outflow of the cash to banks, post offices and two lakh ATMs across the country.



"Two lakh ATM machines could not have been deliberated in advance to be in tune with new notes as the cash would have been out of the banks," Rohatgi said, adding that "secrecy is the key to such actions".



Rohatgi said there were approximately one lakh branches of various banks and two lakh ATMs besides the post offices across the country to dispense cash to common people and the restriction on withdrawal is there to ensure that the money be paid to maximum number of people.



He summed up the submission contending that there was no legal basis for opposing the Centre's move to demonetise the higher denomination currency notes aimed at "catching big fish" which the previous governments failed to do in last 50 years.



He said the Centre has complied with section 26(2) of the RBI Act and the present "surgical strike has to be seen in the context of safety and security of the nation, its border, and financial terrorism unleashed through fake currency."



"The attack is on those who have stashed huge amount of currency," he said, adding that the surgical strike of this nature has to be carried out in complete secrecy and it was not possible to come out with Rs 10 lakh crore of currency in one go as there was a need for recalibration of ATM machines across the country.



The AG was assisted by a team of lawyers, including two Additional Solicitors General, and a senior official from the Finance Ministry.





Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for one of the petitioners Adil Alvi, said the petition has also challenged the constitutional validity of the notification as the provision of the Reserve Bank of India Act has not been complied with.



He referred to section 26(2) of the Act and said the government was not authorised to demonetise all series of currency notes of high denominations in one go.



There has to be a legislation if the government wants to demonetise the entire series of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, Sibal said, adding that in 1978, a law was brought to demonetise the currency notes of particular denominations.



Sibal then highlighted the inconvenience faced by the common people in getting their own money from banks and ATMs and said it was a "surgical strike against the common man."



The apex court, on November 10, had agreed to hear pleas against the November 8 decison of the Narendra Modi government that these notes are no longer a legal tender.

Out of the four PILs on the demonetisation issue, two were filed by Delhi-based lawyers Vivek Narayan Sharma and Sangam Lal Pandey, while two others were filed by individuals, S Muthukumar and Adil Alvi.



The petitioners had alleged that the sudden decision has created chaos and harassment to public at large and the notification of the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance be either quashed or deferred for some time.



Sharma, in his plea, had termed the notification of DEA as "dictatorial", claiming that it did not grant reasonable time to citizens for exchanging the specified bank notes to legitimate notes to avoid "large scale mayhem, life threatening difficulties".



The plea also sought either quashing of the notification or a direction to the Centre for grant of "reasonable time frame" to citizens to exchange the demonetised currency notes to avoid difficulties being faced by the people.



The Prime Minister, in a televised address to the nation, had declared that high denomination notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 will no longer be legal tender from November 8-9 midnight. He had said the Government has declared a "decisive war" against black money and corruption.




Nepal Premier Prachanda has telephoned Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought an arrangement so that Nepalese holding a huge stock of banned high denomination Indian bank notes could swap them with legal currency in the country.





During his five-minute telephonic conversation with Modi, Prachanda told him that Nepalese have quite a big stock of Indian bank notes of 500 and 1,000 denominations that have now been pulled out of circulation.



Hundreds of thousands of Nepalese, who earn a living by working as daily-wage labourers in India, visit the neighbouring country seeking medical treatment or rely on Indian markets to purchase daily essentials, are said to be holding big chunk of scrapped Indian bank notes, Kathmandu Post reported.



Also, those visiting India as pilgrims and those engaged in cross-border trade are said to have a big stock of now-useless Indian bank notes.



Some of these people, according to the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, may lose their entire savings if the now-obsolete notes are not replaced with legal bills.



"Considering this, India should make an arrangement so that Nepalese can exchange the banned notes here in Nepal," a statement posted on Prachanda's personal website quoted the premier as saying.



In response, Modi said he would immediately resolve the issue and would also ask Finance Minister to hold talks with Nepalese counterpart.



Following the Indian government's surprise decision, the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the central bank, also banned the use of those bank notes in Nepal from last Wednesday.

The NRB has said IRs 33.6 million in the denominations of 500 and 1,000 is within the financial system in Nepal, the report said.



The figure includes cash parked at vaults of banks, financial institutions and NRB.

But actual stock of banned Indian bank notes is expected to be much more because Nepalese were previously allowed to carry Indian 500 and 1,000-rupee bank notes worth up to IRs25,000, it said.



Also, those residing in areas bordering India usually stash Indian notes of larger denominations as they have to frequent Indian markets to buy goods.



The Indian government has said people who have accounts in Indian banks need not worry as the financial institutions will provide them the currency exchange facility. But many Nepalese who own the banned notes do not have accounts in Indian banks.



Against this backdrop, the Ministry of Finance wrote to the Indian Finance Ministry on Thursday requesting that arrangements be made so that Nepalese holding banned Indian notes could replace them with legal tenders here in Nepal.



NRB too wrote a letter to the Reserve Bank of India, seeking exchange facility for Nepalese holding banned Indian notes here in Nepal.



The Indian central bank earlier responded saying the NRBs message has been conveyed to the Indian Finance Ministry.



Indian central bank governor Urjit Patel told the same thing to Nepali central bank governor Chiranjibi Nepal during the conversation between the two, a senior NRB official said on condition of anonymity.



This was an indication concrete results may not be achieved by holding talks at the central bank level, as the Reserve Bank of India cannot make any move without getting an instruction from the Indian Finance Ministry, the report said.



This, many said, called for the need to hold talks at higher level.



Earlier, former finance ministers Ram Sharan Mahat and Surendra Pandey had also told Parliament that interventions need to be made at the top Indian government level to reap favourable results.



The urgency was shown by almost everyone to deal with the issue as the Indian government has set a deadline of December 30 to deposit the scrapped notes at banks.


A 17-year-old Indian-origin Sikh boy has been shot dead when he was returning home from work, prompting police to launch an investigation.





The incident took place last week at his home in his garage on Kandinsky Way in California. Famliy of Gurnoor Singh Nahal, who was a high-school student, says he was coming home from work when he was shot.



They do not suspect anything was taken and cannot understand why. "We cannot imagine it. We are lost," his uncle Tejinderjit Singh was quoted as saying by the CBS Local News.



Nahal's grandmother found him lying in the garage. She said he cried for help, but it was too late.

"She heard it and it was very loud and I think when she heard that, she came out and then she saw him," Singh said.



His neighbours say that things like this do not happen in their North Natomas neighbourhood. "It was a young kid. We have kids to a 19-year-old and a 17-year-old, so it's really sad," said a neighbour, Gil Garcia.



Gurnoor went to Inderkum High and was supposed to graduate this spring. Police responded to the scene and investigated the area for hours asking witnesses for help. They have not determined a motive in this case, the report said.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today submitted in the Supreme Court the details of his assets which included a letter by a Qatari prince who provided funds for purchase of controversial properties in London, which are now owned by Sharif's children.



Sharif and his daughter Maryam submitted a 397-page document detailing their assets.



The most interesting document given to the court is the letter from Qatari prince Shaikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Hamad bin Abdullah bin Jassim bin Muhammed Al Thani, stating that he gave money to the premier's family for the purchase of flats in London.



Sharif's children's counsel Akram Sheikh submitted the letter addressed to the apex court.



It says that Sharif in 1980 invested 12 million Dirhams in the Al Thani company belonging to the Qatari prince's father.



"In the year 2006, the accounts in relation to the above investment were settled between Hussain Nawaz Sharif and Al Thani family, who then delivered the bearer shares of the companies...to a representative of Hussain Nawaz Sharif (Sharif's son)," the letter read.



The letter immediately got a terse response from one of the five judges hearing the case who observed that the letter contradicts Sharif's statement in parliament this year when he did not disclosed the source of money or that he got it from a Qatari company.



The court is hearing five identical petitions by Imran Khan and others that Sharif's children were listed in Panama papers as having offshore companies that properties in London.



The petitioners asked the court to probe if the properties were purchased with legal money.



The court set November 17 for next hearing and also asked that Sharifs two sons  Hassan and Hussain should also submit the details of their assets.



Earlier, Imran's legal team submitted details to prove that Sharif laundered millions out of the country to build assets abroad which are now owned by his children.



The case could be make or break for Sharif who was elected third time Prime Minister in 2013.



The Qatari prince's letter may prove instrumental to dispel the charges by opposition that the London flats were bought with illegal money transferred by the Sharif family when he was ruling the country.
The scramble for cash spawned by demonetisation a week ago assumed frantic proportions today as people descended outside banks in droves in the wee hours fearing ATMs may run dry and another death of an elderly man standing in queue being reported from Hyderabad.



Tens of thousands of people lined up hours before banks opened in towns and cities across the country to exchange or deposit or withdraw money, a day after a public holiday in several states, even as the grim situation showed no signs of abating. Small businesses also continued to be hit hard with lack of patrons who were scurrying for small change.



Laxman Rao, a retired government employee who came alone to Marredpally branch of a state-run bank in Hyderabad to deposit Rs 1.5 lakh, collapsed at the bank's entrance.



"He collapsed on the bank's entrance steps and the policemen on duty immediately shifted him to a nearby hospital where doctors declared him brought dead," Deputy Commissioner of Police (North Zone) B Sumathi told PTI.



"He died of heart-ailment...He had once earlier suffered a heart-attack and had been operated upon," the DCP said based on preliminary investigation. He was native of Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh.



As banks opened after a day's break, Mumbai and suburbs witnessed greater scramble for cash with people making a beeline before banks and ATMs to exchange old currency notes and withdraw cash for essential expenses.



The BJP-led Government in Maharashtra decided to set up a cabinet sub-committee to recommend further measures to mitigate the hardships of the people due to demonetisation.



"The cabinet meeting reviewed the situation arising out of the Centre's move to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes," an official in the Chief Minister's office said.



"My wife is admitted in Bethany hospital of Thane. Hospital management is not accepting cheque and insisting only on pay orders. Even medical stores are not accepting Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. I fail to understand what to do? These are the worst days of our life," said Om Prakash Joshi while recounting his ordeal since last week.



To the relief of some customers, the ATMs were found to be working better as compared to previous days.



In the wake of the problems faced by citizens while exchanging demonetised currency, Maharashtra Police also set up grievance cells in all district and commissionerates.



Frustration writ large on their faces, people continued to throng banks and ATMs desperate to exchange or deposit demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes across Tamil Nadu even as there was no let up in the milling crowds a week after withdrawal of the currency.



The famous Koyambedu vegetable market, which receives almost 500 truckloads of vegetables from various southern states every day, wore a deserted look due to lack of patronage from customers and small retailers.



Activists of CPI and DYFI took out separate marches to the RBI office in Thiruvananthapuram protesting against demonetisation of high-value currencies, which they alleged was causing hardship to people.



In Delhi, people in large numbers started queueing up outside ATMs and banks from early morning but with limited success as many cash vending machines were running dry. Police also had to threaten an unruly crowd outside RBI with lathis.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today said Pakistan cannot be bullied by Indian "tactics" and its restraint should not be "misunderstood" as weakness, warning that his country was fully capable of defending against "any belligerence".



His remarks came a day after the Pakistan Army admitted that seven of its soldiers were killed in firing by Indian troops across the Line of Control (LoC) in Bhimber sector.



"Pakistan cannot be bullied by such tactics as we are fully capable of defending our soil against any belligerence," Sharif said while chairing a high-level meeting to review the situation along the LoC.



He said Pakistan was exercising "maximum restraint" in the face of Indian firing, which should not be "misunderstood as our weakness."



Expressing grief over the death of the seven soldiers, Sharif said deliberate escalation of tension along LoC by Indian forces is a threat to regional peace and security.



"It is also a futile attempt of the Indian authorities to divert the world's attention from the worst kind of atrocities they are committing" in Kashmir, he said in a statement.



He called on the United Nations to take notice of the ceasefire violations along the LoC. "Our armed forces do not initiate fire but will always respond in a befitting manner to any aggression," Sharif said.



Yesterday, Army chief General Raheel Sharif ordered troops to "effectively" respond to firing by India across the LoC.



Earlier, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz briefed Nawaz Sharif on the increased firing and shelling by India.



He said the recent incidents of firing have led to 26 deaths and 107 injuries in complete violation of the 2003 ceasefire understanding and international law.



The premier was also briefed on Pak-US relations in the backdrop of recently held presidential elections in the US. Reaffirming to strengthen bilateral relations, Sharif said Pakistan and the US enjoy strong and strategic partnership spanning over a period of seven decades.



"Pakistan looks forward to closely work with the newly elected government for realisation of peace, security and prosperity in the region and beyond," he said.



Pakistan's National Security Adviser General Nasir Khan Janjua and other government officials were present during the meeting.
Russia announced a major air offensive in Syria today as Syrian opposition activists reported the first airstrikes in three weeks in the besieged, rebel-held part of the northern city of Aleppo.



The offensive began hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President-elect Donald Trump discussed Syria over the phone and agreed on the need to combine efforts in the fight against what the Kremlin called their No 1 enemy "international terrorism and extremism."



US President Barack Obama's administration has been trying for months to negotiate a cease-fire in Aleppo, the epicenter of the war between President Bashar Assad and rebels fighting to topple him, some of whom receive US aid.



Al-Qaida's local affiliate fights alongside the rebels, but the Islamic State group has no presence in Aleppo.



Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a meeting with Putin today that the operation involves aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, which made a much-publicized trip to Syria's shores last month.



He said Russian warplanes will target ammunition depots, training camps and armaments factories in the rebel-held province of Idlib and the central province of Homs. He did not immediately mention Aleppo.



The activists reported strikes in all three places. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said missiles fired from Russian warships in the Mediterranean have struck areas in Aleppo and Idlib provinces. The Observatory said airstrikes also struck three neighborhoods in Aleppo city, but had no immediate word on casualties.



Activist Baraa al-Halaby, who is based in eastern Aleppo, said via text messages that warplanes are firing missiles and helicopters are dropping barrel bombs on the eastern part of Syria's largest city.



"People are scared. The bombardment is intense," al-Halaby wrote.



In mid-October, Russia said it would halt weeks of deadly airstrikes to allow rebels and supporters to leave eastern Aleppo. The rebels refused to take up the offer and the United Nations failed to negotiate the delivery of aid into the besieged area.



On Saturday, government troops repelled a rebel offensive on western parts of Aleppo that was designed to break the siege on the opposition-held east. Aleppo has been contested since 2012.



The government siege has left an estimated 275,000 people trapped, with no aid allowed in since July, amid a punishing bombing campaign.
In a major escalation of boardroom brawl at Tata Group, Cyrus Mistry was today ousted as chairman of Tata Global Beverages by a majority vote by board members, a move that Mistry slammed as illegal and inaccurate representation of board proceedings.



Seven out of 10 directors at the board meeting of Tata Global Beverages Ltd (TGBL), which co-owns and runs Starbucks coffee stores across India, voted for removal of Mistry as chairman of the company, the company said in a filing.



Mistry, however, will continue as a director of TGBL. TGBL is the second listed company of the USD 103 billion Tata Group that has removed Mistry as chairman since the October 24 decision of the holding company, Tata Sons, to remove him as the head.



Last week, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) removed Mistry as chairman but that ouster was not through a vote but by virtue of Tata Sons holding a commanding 73.26 per cent stake in the India's largest software services firm.



"The developments at the board meeting of the Tata Global Beverages Ltd is nothing but a repeat of the illegality that the Board of Directors of Tata Sons Ltd did on October 24," Mistry said in a statement issued by his office.



It claimed there was nothing on the agenda of the Board, a meeting of which was called to approve second quarter earnings, "about replacement of the Chairman just as there was nothing in the Tata Sons Board Agenda on October 24," it said.



Two out of the six independent directors on TGBL -- Darius Pandole and Analjit Singh -- voted against the resolution moved for Mistry's ouster. Ireena Vittal is believed to have abstained.



Tata Global Beverages Ltd (TGBL) said Harish Bhat, a non-executive director of the company, has been appointed chairman of the company. Bhat is believed to be a confidant of Ratan Tata, who was brought back from retirement as interim chairman of Tata Sons after Mistry was shown the door.



In the statement, Mistry said Tatas continue to demonstrate the lack of respect for due process of law. "Harish Bhat, an employee of Tata Sons proposed that Mr S K Santhanakrishnan be made Chairman at the meeting. This proposal was ruled out since there was already a Chairman for the meeting, namely, Cyrus Mistry.



"When the proposal to remove Mr Mistry was sought to be moved, it was ruled out by the Chairman since it was not on the agenda. The meeting was conducted by Mr Mistry as Chairman and was concluded," the statement by Mistry's office said.



The TGBL statement to the stock exchanges "is therefore inaccurate and illegal and it is but a repeat of exactly the same illegal acts done by Tata Sons Ltd on October 24," it said. It added that two independent directors Darius Pandole and Analjit Singh "opposed the bid at committing these illegal acts."



Since taking over, the 78-year-old Tata has begun tightening his grip over the conglomerate. Even after his removal as chairman of Tata Sons, Mistry continues to head several listed companies ranging from Tata Motors to Tata Steel and Tata Power.



Tata Sons has asked Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Chemicals and Indian Hotels Co Ltd (IHCL) to call extraordinary general meeting of shareholders to remove Mistry from the board.



"The board of directors of the company considered the continuance of Cyrus P Mistry as chairman of the company at its board meeting held on November 15, 2016," TGBL said in the regulatory filing.



"After extensive deliberations, and keeping in view the long-term interest and alignment of all stakeholders and stability of the company, the board of directors resolved to replace Cyrus P Mistry as chairman of the Company, by a majority vote, with 7 out of the 10 Directors present at the board meeting, voting in favour of the resolution."



The TGBL board has 10 members, excluding ousted chairman Mistry. Mistry's vote was not considered in deciding on the resolution moved by Tata Sons, which holds 35.27 per cent stake in TGBL.



Mistry would however continue on the board of TGBL as board of directors can remove a chairman. For removing a director, a vote by shareholders is necessary.



Sources said Tata Sons may seek an extraordinary general meeting of the shareholders to seek Mistry's removal as director.



TGBL's six independent directors are Darius Pandole, V Leeladhar, Mallika Srinivasan, Analjit Singh, Ranjana Kumar and Ireena Vittal.



The other directors are Harish Bhat, who has been today appointed chairman of the company, Managing Director and CEO Ajoy K Misra, Non-executive Director S Santhanakrishnan and Executive Director L Krishnakumar.



Among independent directors, Pandole is a partner at private equity (PE) fund New Silk Route (NSR) while Leeladhar is former CMD of Vijaya Bank and Union Bank of India.



Mallika Srinivasan is the Chairman and CEO of Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited. Analjit Singh is Chairman of Max India and Ranjana Kumar is former vigilance commissioner of the Central Vigilance Commission.



Ireena Vittal is former partner with McKinsey & Co.



On November 5, seven independent directors of Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) had strongly backed Mistry. Tata Chemicals independent directors had also come out in support of Mistry.



Last week, taking Mistry head on, Tata Sons sought his removal as well as that of the group's friend-turned-foe Nusli N Wadia from the board of three prime listed Tata group companies -- Tata Motors, Tata Chemicals and Tata Steel.



Tata Sons, which holds 26.51 per cent stake in Tata Motors, has asked the manufacturer of Jaguar Land Rover to convene an extra-ordinary general meeting of the company to consider its resolution seeking removal of Mistry and Wadia.



The latest moves are seen as attempts by Ratan Tata, who was brought in as interim head after sudden removal of Mistry, to seize back control of India's largest conglomerate.



In TGBL, the promoters Tata group has 35.72 per cent shares as on September 30, 2016 in which Tata Sons, the holding company of the group has 23.50 per cent stake.



Another Tata group firm Tata Chemicals owns 7.10 per cent stake, followed by Tata Investment Corporation with 4.43 per cent stake.



Two another group entities Tata Industries and its investment arm Ewart Investments owns marginal stake of 0.12 per cent and 0.56 per cent.



TGBL operates in tea, coffee and water segments. It has a portfolio of several global brands which includes Tata Tea, Tetley, Jemca, Vitax, Eight OClock Coffee, Himalayan, Grand Coffee and Joekels.



The company has presence in several markets which includes the US, the UK, Eastern Europe and its over 65 per cent of revenue originates from markets outside India.



Besides, it also operates a joint venture with Starbucks called Tata Starbucks Ltd, which owns and operate Starbucks cafes in India.
The University of Oxford will mark this week the 150th birth anniversary of Cornelia Sorabji, the first Indian woman to study at the world famous university.





Sorabji, who was also the first woman to practise law in India and the UK, was born on November 15 in 1866 and came to study at Somerville College in Oxford between 1889 and 1892.



"November 2016 is the 150th anniversary of her birth. Somerville College is marking this anniversary with an event at India House in London, launching a new scholarship in her name, which has been established in collaboration with the Faculty of Law at Oxford," Somerville College said in a statement today.



Plans for the new scholarship in memory of Cornelia Sorabji had been unveiled in September to support Indian students studying law at Somerville College.



"Cornelia Sorabji was a woman of tremendous spirit and courage and someone who paved the way for many Indian students, including (former Prime Minister) Indira Gandhi at Somerville. India is a key part of our college and this scholarship will pave the way for more graduates to follow in their footsteps," said Prof Alice Prochaska, principal of the college.



The scholarship will cover up to 50 per cent of the entire cost of the degree, which is usually around 36,000 pounds including tuition fees and lodging.



The college is also campaigning for it to eventually become a fully-funded endowment to support bright Indian students who often win admission to Oxford University but are unable to bear the high costs associated with it.



To be successful, the applicant will be expected to demonstrate not only exceptional academic merit but also a commitment ultimately to return to India to put their skills and experience into practice.



While the scholarship is open to any high achieving Indian student, female students will be especially encouraged to carry on Sorabji's ideals.



"Through the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development we are building on the historical links between Oxford and India to ensure that the next generation of Indian students return home with the academic knowledge, networks and wider leadership training that will help them shape the country's development in the 21st century," Prochaska said.



Sorabji was an Indian Parsi Christian who despite standing first in university examinations at the Deccan College was not eligible for the Government of India scholarship to study in England.



But she refused to give up and went on to study at Oxford with the help of funds raised by her British friends.



Her memoir 'India Calling' documents the number of prominent establishment figures she met during her time in Britain. She died in her home at Finsbury Park in London in 1954.
The government today decided to declare an NGO promoted by controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik as an outlawed organisation under the anti-terror law for five years for its alleged terror activities.





The decision has been taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.



The Cabinet approved a proposal to declare Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) as an 'unlawful association' under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for five years, a Home Ministry official said.



A formal notification will be issued by the Home Ministry soon. The move comes after investigation by the Home Ministry found the NGO was allegedly having dubious links with Peace TV, an international Islamic channel, accused of propagating terrorism, the official said.



According to the Home Ministry, Naik, who heads the IRF, has allegedly made many provocative speeches and engaged in terror propaganda.



Maharashtra Police has also registered criminal cases against Naik for his alleged involvement in radicalisation of youths and luring them into terror activities, officials said.



Naik also transferred IRF's foreign funds to Peace TV for making "objectionable"

programmes. Most of the programmes, which were made in India, contained alleged hate speeches of Naik, who had reportedly "urged all Muslims to be terrorists" through Peace TV, they claimed.



An educational trust run by Naik have already been prevented from receiving foreign funds and agencies are looking into their activities.



He came under the scanner of the security agencies after Bangladeshi newspaper 'Daily Star' reported that one of the perpetrators of the July 1 terror attack in Dhaka, Rohan Imtiaz, ran propaganda on Facebook last year quoting Naik.



The Islamic orator is banned in the UK and Canada for his hate speech aimed against other religions. He is among 16 banned Islamic scholars in Malaysia.



He is popular in Bangladesh through his Peace TV, although his preachings often demean other religions and even other Muslim sects. The Mumbai-based preacher who is abroad, has not returned to India ever since the controversy came to light.
There is hope on the horizon with regard to resolution of the conflict between Indian and Sri Lankan fishermen. At a recent ministerial-level meeting, the two sides agreed to set up a Joint Working Group (JWG) to address the fishermens issue. The agreement envisages meetings between the two JWGs, which would include representatives from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Coast Guards and Navies of the two countries, every three months, starting January 2017. In addition, the Indian and Sri Lankan ministers of fisheries are to meet every six months as would the two fishermens associations. Hotlines are to be put in place too between the coast guards of the two countries. Importantly, the two sides have agreed that their navies and coast guards would avoid using violence to deal with fishermen straying into each others waters. Over the past few years, Indian fishermen from Tamil Nadu have been entering Sri Lankan waters much to the anguish of fishermen in Sri Lankas Northern Province. Such entry has been challenged frequently by the Sri Lankan coast guard and navy, who have not hesitated to arrest and even shoot Indian fishermen, and confiscate their boats. While lives and livelihoods on both sides of the Palk Straits were being lost, the conflict over fishing rights simmered. It was adversely affecting the larger India-Sri Lanka relationship too. The recent agreement is therefore welcome as it puts in place mechanisms to manage the conflict. The hotline, for instance, should prevent conflicts from escalating and help defuse crises.



However, fishermen on both sides of the Palk Strait are dissatisfied. Indian fishermen point out that while India has wrested an assurance from Sri Lanka that fishermen will not be attacked, there is no guarantee that they would not be arrested or their boats taken away. Similarly, Sri Lankan fishermen are upset that the agreement does not prevent their Indian counterparts from entering their fishing grounds. It is unfortunate that India did not commit to a clear time-table for ending bottom trawling by its fishermen; the agreement only says that the process towards expediting the transition from trawling will be expedited.



India must act to phase out bottom trawling immediately as only this will address the conflict. With the Indian marine eco-system destroyed thanks to such trawling, Indian fishermen are plundering Lankan coasts; hence the conflict. It is important that the Tamil Nadu government helps its fishermen shift away from trawling. This can be done by training them to undertake deep-sea fishing or alternative livelihood options.




The High Court on Tuesday disposed of a petition seeking directions to ban all forms of chewing tobacco, including flavoured and scented.





A division bench comprising Chief Justice S K Mukherjee and Justice K Somashekar disposed of the petition after the state government issued a notification saying it has banned manufacturing and selling of tobacco. The bench, in the order, said if there had been any violation, the petitioners can approach the authorities.



A PIL was filed by the Cancer Patients Aid Association seeking directions to prohibit the manufacture, storage, sale and distribution of all forms of chewing tobacco including flavoured, scented etc. The petitioner had contended that though there was a ban on sale and distribution of chewing tobacco, the state and the Union governments had failed to implement it. Though Karnataka has banned gutka, still plain chewing tobacco was sold in separate pouches.



The government filed its affidavit along with the order of the Food Safety Commissionerate of October 26, stating that it will enforce the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restriction on Sales) Regulation, 2011. The government submitted to the court that rule 2.3.4 of the Regulation -- Product not to contain any substance which may be injurious to health: Tobacco and nicotine shall not be used as ingredients in any food products -- will be enforced.

DH News Service



Cant hold APMC polls by Nov-end: govt

The state government on Tuesday informed the High Court of Karnataka that it will not be able to conduct elections to 139 Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs) before November-end. It filed an affidavit stating that it would complete the elections by January 20, 2017. The affidavit said the government was busy handling the drought situation in the state and also preparing for the Assembly session from November 21. Justice Aravind Kumar disposed of the petition filed by G Manjunath and others.


The Union government on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that the printing of new notes was on in full swing.





It, however, said the recalibration of ATMs will take some time. Defending the governments decision to scrap the high value currency notes, Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi submitted before a bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice D Y Chandrachud that Rs 3.25 lakh crore has been deposited in banks since November 10.



According to our estimate, the black money size could be around Rs 15-16 lakh crore. We expect people to deposit Rs 10-11 lakh crore in banks. The rest Rs 4-5 lakh crore were being used in northeast and Jammu and Kashmir to fuel trouble in India. That will be neutralised, he said.



Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for a petitioner, contended that the RBI Act did not accord the government authority to demonetise all series of notes of any particular denomination. He said the government could not impose any condition for withdrawing money.



Rohatgi, however, described the contentions as misconceived. A law will have to be brought only by March 31, 2017 to state that possession, transfer and usage of the old currency will be illegal. Yes, I agree there is some inconvenience to people, but if you have an operation of this magnitude, some collateral damage has to happen, he said.



The court agreed that the objective behind demonetisation appeared to be coaxing people, who hoarded black money, to come out and deposit it in banks.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down a plea seeking a stay on the Centres November 8 notification demonetising Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.



However, it advised the government to pay heed to the grievances of citizens. The objective of tackling black money and fake currency may be laudable but not everyone holding old currency can be treated as a hoarder of black money, a bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice D Y Chandrachud said.



It has become traumatic for people to go and stand in queues to get their own money. This could be money which is properly taxed and is in their own bank accounts. The common man should not be made to suffer, the bench said.



Collateral damage

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for one of the four PIL petitioners, said he was not for a stay on the notification. The bench concurred with Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi's observation that some collateral damage was unavoidable in a surgical strike against black money.



The situation is more like carpet bombing than a surgical strike, since everyone is affected, the bench said.

Hearing the PILs challenging the validity of the notification, the bench asked the government to submit by November 25 a comprehensive affidavit stating the legal validity of its orders and explaining measures taken to address peoples concerns.



The court agreed with the Attorney-General's assertion that demonetisation was an economic policy decision.



However, it emphasised that the government should ensure that daily wage workers, carpenters, vegetable vendors and people doing menial jobs for a living were not affected.



There is a general feeling that inconvenience has been caused to people who may have nothing to do with black money. Those standing in long queues are not the ones you want to target for black money. For the present, we are only wondering if you can do something to reduce their suffering. We may understand your objective behind these notifications but instead of forcing the common man to stand in queues for hours, why don't you raise the limit of money? the bench asked the Attorney-General.



Steps to ease pain

Rohatgi submitted the government was ramping up the process and bringing out new notifications.



If we increase the cash withdrawal limit, it will cause more inconvenience, he said, agreeing to take steps to ease hardship.



Sibal, for his part, contended, We support all endeavour to curb black money but not every Rs 500 and Rs 1000 note can be treated as black money. One can have legitimate currency in cash too. It is my tax-paid money and a bank is only a trustee. How can I be stopped from withdrawing my own money? People cannot buy rations. They cannot get proper treatment. What kind of reasonableness is this where you are jeopardising lives of people?



DH News Service



All will not be well in 50 days

CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Tuesday said that the government will not be able to solve the problem of cash crunch in 50 days, DHNS reports from New Delhi.



He said that 2,300 crore notes are needed to maintain current levels and the RBI is currently printing 40 lakh Rs 500 notes a day.



So, how will all be well in 50 days?" Yechury asked on Twitter. In a Facebook post, he said that the prime minister gave a few aims for demonetisation.



First, the black economy: Black economy is only 6% in cash, the rest of the black economy is wired. Demonetisation will barely make a dent, as former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan had explained when he was the governor, Yechury says.



Second, official estimates for counterfeit currency are that it is only 0.025% of the total currency in circulation. The new currency notes, moreover, have no additional security features to prevent counterfeiting. It will not make any difference, he argues.



Black money helpful in recession

Amid the raging debate on demonetisation of high value currency by the Centre, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday said that black money, though bad for the country, helped during the times of recession, DHNS reports from Lucknow.



We too are against black money...stern action should be taken against the offenders but some experts are of the opinion that black money had helped the country during the global recession, Akhilesh said in an informal chat with reporters here on the sidelines of a programme.



He said the demonetisation had deeply hurt the common people. The decision was taken without adequate preparations, he added.
Even as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is determined to knock on President Pranab Mukherjees door to protest demonetisation woes, main Opposition parties refused to play ball, insisting on exhausting other options available in a Parliamentary democracy.





However, Mamata received unexpected support from BJP ally Shiv Sena, which acknowledged her leadership on the issue by declaring that its leaders would join her in the March to Rashtrapati Bhavan to protest against demonetisation.



Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah were also expected to join her.



A meeting of Opposition leaders, convened by Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad to thrash out a joint strategy to corner the Narendra Modi-led government, decided to raise the issue in Parliament first, at its Winter Session starting on Wednesday.



There was a feeling that we should not meet the President on the very first day, Azad, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, told reporters after the meeting of Opposition parties, which was attended by representatives of the Trinamool Congress, BSP, SP, CPM, JD(U), CPI, RJD, JMM, NCP, DMK and RSP.



There were few takers for Mamatas demand for a rollback of demonetisation. We are not for rollback. But we are concerned about the inconvenience caused to the common man. We are objecting to the manner in which the government has implemented the decision, Azad said.



Azad clarified that the differences with Trinamool was only on how to approach the issue. The TMC and we are all together. All are united. Only the chief minister of West Bengal had sought an appointment with the President, he said.



CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury wanted the government to announce that the demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes would be valid tender for payment of dues to government till December 30.



As against TMCs demand for immediate rollback of demonetisation, several parties steered clear of the issue and said they were one with the government in the fight against black money.

DH News Service
A united opposition is all set to attack the Modi government over demonetisation in the Winter Session of Parliament beginning on Wednesday.





Many parties have accused the government of inadequate preparation before it scrapped high-denomination currency.



The Congress, the principal opposition, has rallied the support of 12 other parties, adding heft to the otherwise fragmented Opposition in Parliament, at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought their cooperation like on the GST issue.



The message is clear. All are united, no matter how the government may try to divide us, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters after chairing a meeting of leaders from 12 political parties.



At an all-party meeting on the eve of the Winter Session, Modi introduced two new subjects for discussionsimultaneous polls and state funding of electionsand urged political parties to share their views.



While the Lok Sabha is expected to be adjourned after it mourns the death of its member Renuka Sinha of the Trinamool Congress, the Rajya Sabha is expected to witness intense debates.



Azad, TMC leader Derek OBrien, and JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav have given notices for an adjournment motion over the inconvenience caused to citizens by the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.



To the opposition demand for discussions on demonetisation, unrest in Kashmir, Army pensions, and the delay in judicial appointments, the prime minister said he was ready to respond to questions.



We have launched a crusade against corruption, black money and fake currency, which is also behind cross-border terrorism. All parties should come together on this issue of national interest, he said.



Azad made it clear that the opposition was also against black money and accused the government of failing to bring back money stashed in tax havens abroad.

DH News Service



Government up for debate

The government has lined up a heavy legislative agenda for the month-long Winter Session. Among the 23 items listed are the Central GST Bill, the Integrated GST Bill, the GST (Compensation of Loss of Revenue) Bill, and the Divorce (Amendment) Bill.



The Congress, the principal opposition, has rallied the support of 12 other parties, adding heft to the otherwise fragmented opposition in Parliament, at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought their cooperation like on the GST issue
Ahead of the Parliament session, critics of Genetically Modified (GM) mustard have accused the government of violating regulatory procedures and creating a questionable public document in order to ease the political opposition to the GM crop.





In a 35-page document, the anti-GM advocates not only questioned the reliability of the Assessment of Food/Feed and Environmental Safety (AFES) document on GM mustard, released by the Union Environment Ministry, but also charged the government with ignoring long-term safety issues to expedite the commercial release of GM mustard.



Indian scientists, who developed the genetically engineered crop and officials associated with the trial and regulatory affairs, however, rejected the allegations outright.



These (the activists) are ideologues with no value for data or scientific arguments. We have submitted all the biosafety data to the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC). It is their call now, Delhi University scientist Deepak Pental, who spearheaded the GM mustard development team told DH.



Developed by Delhi University scientists, the genetically engineered mustard varieties are under the governments consideration for commercial launch. If it happens, the GM mustard would be the first GM food crop to be cultivated in Indian farms.



Biosafety regulator, GEAC, under the environment ministry, heard the critics and released the AFES document in the public domain seeking peoples comments.

The regulator received 759 comments, which are now being examined by the experts.



DH News Service
Israel on Tuesday agreed to step up its manufacturing and production partnerships with India to boost bilateral defence cooperation.





Prime Minister Narendra Modis meeting with visiting Israeli President Reuven Rivlin here saw both sides agreeing to give a boost to counterterrorism cooperation.



We recognise that terrorism is a global challenge, knows no boundaries and has extensive links with other forms of organised crime. Regrettably, one of the countries of its origin and spread is in Indias neighbourhood, Modi said without directly referring to Pakistan. He was making a statement before reporters along with Rivlin. He said that India and Israel had also agreed that the international community must act with resolve and determination against terror networks and the states that harboured them.



India and Israel on Tuesday also inked two agreements to step up cooperation in agriculture and water resources management.



Nothing can justify terror. Terror is terror. Terror is terror and terror is terror, said Rivlin, who is on his maiden visit to India. He extended Israels total support to India in the fight against terrorism. He also renewed an invitation to the prime minister to visit Israel.



India and Israel agreed to intensify prioritised practical and specific engagement in the cyber domain as well as in other fields, said Modi.

DH News Service
The Islamic Research Foundation, the NGO run by controversial tele-evangelist Zakir Naik, was on Tuesday banned with the Union Cabinet deciding to declare it an outlawed organisation under the anti-terror law.





The decision to invoke Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against the IRF came at a meeting of the Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.



The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had in late October moved a Cabinet note for declaring the IRF an unlawful association. Earlier this month, the MHA had initiated the process of cancelling the licence for the IRF to collect foreign funds.



The move by the government came after investigations by several agencies found a series illegalities, including IRFs links with Peace TV, an international Islamic channel that is facing charges of abetting terrorism.



Naik was also under the scanner for the provocative speeches, which several terror recruits claimed inspired them. The Cabinet note circulated to ministers had also spoken about Naik transferring IRFs funds collected from abroad to Peace TV.



The renewed focus on Naik came after Bangladeshi newspaper Daily Star reported that Rohan Imtiaz, son of an Awami League leader who was among the five terrorists who targeted a Dhaka restaurant, ran propaganda on Facebook last year quoting him. In his lecture aired on Peace TV, Naik had reportedly urged all Muslims to be terrorists.



A series of investigations followed this and agencies claimed they had found a number of irregularities in the functioning of the NGOs and institutions run by Naik.



The Maharashtra Police also registered cases against Naik for his involvement in radicalisation of youths and luring them into terror activities.



As the heat increased, Naik refused to return to India fearing arrest and stay put in Saudi Arabia. He also did not visit Mumbai when his father died recently.



The MHA had in September issued an order disallowing the IRF to receive foreign funds without prior the RBI approval. The decision to put the NGO under prior permission category came after a preliminary inquiry found that the NGO was carrying out activities contrary to the Foreign Contribution Regulations Act (FCRA) and irregularities in its account books. The 50-year-old is trained as a doctor but had turned evangelist and founded the Islamic Research Foundation in 1991.
A third year law student of National Law School of India University committed suicide by hanging in her hostel room of the university, on Tuesday. Nishi (20) was a native of Jharkhand.





In her death note, she stated that she was suffering from abdominal pain and could no longer bear it. Hence, she decided to commit suicide. She apologised to her parents for this decision. Nishi had not attended classes on Tuesday. The incident came to light when her friends returned to the hostel, said the police.



Youth dies in accident



A 25-year-old youth was killed in a road accident near Begur lake in Electronics City on Monday night. The deceased is Ifthikar, a carpenter and resident of Begur, who was returning home after work when the accident took place.



Police said that the accident occurred at around 9.45 pm when a speeding car hit his two-wheeler from behind. Due to the impact of the collision, Ifthikar fell down and the car ran over his head killing him on the spot. Passersby alerted the Electronics City police who visited the spot and shifted the body for a post-mortem.



Police said that the driver of the car fled the spot abandoning the vehicle. Efforts are on to trace the driver, while the vehicle has been seized.
The state BJP on Tuesday said the party has not issued any diktat to its leaders not to attend the wedding of former minister and mining baron Janardhana Reddys daughter scheduled for Wednesday in Bengaluru.



The central leaders have not given any direction on the wedding. Leaders are free to go anywhere, party spokesperson S Suresh Kumar told reporters who sought his reaction on whether party leaders and workers could attend the wedding.



It was speculated in BJP circles that the party leadership has asked its leaders, especially senior leaders and Union ministers from Karnataka, to keep away from the lavish wedding as it would send a wrong message to the people.



Defends demonetisation

Suresh Kumar defended the Centres decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes. He said that some people were politicising the issue of long queues in fron of banks and ATMs.



People across the country have welcomed the decision and are cooperating with the Centre by silently standing in queues. But some parties are politicising the issue, he added.



Former member of the Legislative Council, G Madhusudan said the Centre has demonestised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes only after making necessary preparations. Such decisions have to be taken secretly. Otherwise, it will be counterproductive. All political parties should shun differences and join hands in the fight against black money, he added.




Despite intervention by the police and the forest department, illegal quarrying, extraction and transportation of sand and stones continue to threaten animals in the Bannerghatta National Park.





After their meeting with Home Minister G Parameshwara yielded no results, angry locals started an online campaign to impress upon the government to stop the illegal activities.



A petition, posted on Change.Org to highlight illegal mining and transportation of minerals in BNP and its vicinity, has gained over 396 hits in just two days. Vishnu Narain, one of the petitioners said that the online petition has been launched to inform people about the lackadaisical attitude of the state government towards the pristine forest patch, just next to Bengaluru. Narain said there was a need to garner support to stop mining, blasting and quarrying.



The areas of BNP, spread across 270 sq km are under immense pressure as blasting, quarrying and extraction of sand and stones have been rampant in the hillocks on the fringes of the park. While the mined granite and sand are being transported illegally through BNP road, trucks carrying over 3,000 to 4,000 loads of sand and stones pass through Shivanahalli-Ragihalli Road, BNP-Kagallipura Road, Mahantalingapura, Anekal, Kannakapura and Bannerghatta road.



Though forest department officials have seized trucks and penalised offenders, trucks continue to pass through the forest patch at night. This poses a threat to animals, especially elephants, as the roads and quarrying sites abut the elephant corridor.



The locals on Monday held a meeting with the home minister but returned disappointed. He sent us away saying that he cannot do anything unless the chief minister intervenes. So we are calling for support online to catch the governments attention, said Suresh, a local and another petitioner. The online activists are also planning to file a contempt petition in the High Court. According to the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and High Court orders, no quarrying, sand mining or excavation is permitted within a radius of one kilometre of the forest patch.


With banks running short of currency notes, traders have started accepting the demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in some parts of the city.





Traders are incurring huge losses every day ever since the notes of the two denominations were scrapped. Muniswamappa, a fruit seller at Subramanyapura in south Bengaluru used to transact a business of about Rs 10,000 a day. Now, the daily business has come down to almost Rs 5,000.



I have no option but to accept the banned currency notes. How long can I run my business, incurring losses? I am not a salaried man to get money even if I do not work for a week or a month, a hapless Muniswamappa said.



He refused to get photographed, fearing that he may be arrested if the government learns that he is accepting the discarded currency notes.



Rural outlook

Grocery stores and street vendors at Vasanthapura, Yadalam Nagar, Uttarahalli, Konanakunte and Anjanapura areas, which still are under-developed and have the rural outlook, are accepting demonetised currency notes.



A medical shop owner at Uttarahalli said, People don't have currency notes of smaller denominations. They need medicines. They do not have ATM cards and me a swiping machine. I have no other option but to accept Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.



Fake currencies

The problem in accepting these notes is that none of these small traders has any machine to check whether the notes are genuine. I have to run the risk of accepting fake currencies. There is no other option, said Muniswamappa. Traders said they will have to continue accepting the discarded currency notes until there is enough cash flow into the market.



We have time till December 30 to deposit the demonetised currency notes in banks. The situation will probably stabilise by November 30, said a street vendor.

DH News Service


Demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes had hit customers of cooperative banks, said Cooperation Minister H S Mahadeva Prasad on Tuesday. Addressing the media in Bengaluru, Prasad said that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had issued a circular to all banks, including urban and rural cooperative banks and district central cooperative banks on November 14, directing them not to entertain deposits in demonetised currency or even exchange them.





As this would adversely affect farmers who have availed of short-term agriculture loans, the state government would request the Centre to make an exemption in this case, he said.



Prasad said that scores of farmers borrow interest-free loans. If a borrower fails to repay it within the stipulated time, the banks will levy interest for the entire credit period, which is an average of 12% for 12 months.



However, the directive of the Reserve Bank of India prevents the farmers from repaying their loans within the stipulated period, as a majority of them were repaying the loan with demonetised currency.



Delayed repayment

If the banks stop accepting these currencies, then farmers will be forced to delay the repayment which would attract heavy interest. Prasad said that the Karnataka State Cooperative Apex Bank Ltd, Bengaluru, had extended loans to the tune of Rs 6,123 crore (from April 1 to November 14), and was yet to recover Rs 1,043 crore.

The bank would also advance loans of Rs 4,255 crore (November 2016 to March 2017). In all, the bank will have to recover Rs 5,299 crore, which would be a huge challenge, the minister added.


The family of an 82-year-old woman has claimed that negligence on the part of Fortis Hospitals, Rajajinagar, claimed her life.





The family claimed that her treatment was delayed as the hospital refused to accept the old currency.



Jayamma was rushed to Fortis Hospital, Rajajinagar, after she complained of chest pain at 9.45 pm on November 13. Upon examination, the hospital staff found that she needed cardiac care and was referred to Fortis Hospital on Cunningham Road. The patients family claimed that as the hospital did not accept demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, they were unable to clear the bills and shift her to another hospital.



In a statement, the hospital said the patients attendants choose to go to another

hospital.



Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that private hospitals should not accept old denominations. However, the bill was settled through credit card at 10.45 pm. Without further delay, the patient was shifted to another hospital at 10:59 pm, the statement said.

DH News Service
People may have to wait for two to three days before banks start dispensing the much-awaited new Rs 500 currency notes in Bengaluru and other towns of the state.





Banks in Karnataka did not receive the new notes on Tuesday from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) even as people continue to struggle to get currency notes of smaller denominations.



Representatives of banks in Karnataka had, on Monday, informed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah that the new Rs 500 notes will be dispensed from Tuesday.



Sources in the State Level Banks Committee (SLBC) said it will take two to three days for the new notes to reach Bengaluru and other towns of Karnataka.

DH News Service
by Bethel Community Services Foundation Staff

Many of us are at home, heeding the instructions given by national, state and city leaders. Others are at work in fields deemed critical infrastructure- health care, grocery stores, banking, law enforcement, utilities, and many other fields upon which we rely, even at a time when many aspects of daily life have slowed down or stopped altogether.

We know that our neighbors, service organizations, educational institutions, and businesses are struggling- and the majority of us are wondering how we can help- how we can do the most good. We are connected (even when maintaining physical distance), we are resilient, and we are thinking of each other.

Here is some advice from Bethel Community Services Foundation on some ways you can help:

1. Pick the nonprofit of your choice that is providing critical services and, if you are able, send them a financial contribution. Bethel Winter House Shelter, Tundra Womens Coalition, Emmonak Womens Shelter, KYUK and ONC Senior Services are examples.

Any organization that provides housing and homeless-related services, shelter, medical services, communications and food assistance is likely to need your support. They are stretching to meet community needs while also developing and implementing their COVID-19 staffing and stakeholder response plans during this time of crisis.

2. Provide a gift to the YK Delta COVID-19 Response Fund at BCSF. This fund was created to provide urgent funding for the most immediate needs that are resulting from COVID-19. It is a good fit for donors who want to make a financial gift to a COVID-19 relief effort but a) are not sure which local group to choose or b) want the funds to be directed to a range of efforts. BCSF is matching the first $5,000 in individual contributions.

This fund will provide support for a number of specific COVID-19 needs in the YK Delta and will be open to nonprofits and community service providers. Prioritization will be given to emergency shelters, homeless prevention efforts (preventing evictions through rent and mortgage assistance and utilities assistance), food security, support for critical communications and other areas of most immediate need resulting from COVID-19 as identified by these responding groups.

Gifts to the fund can be made at bcsfoundation.org- click on the YK Delta COVID-19 Response Fund, via our BCSF Facebook Fundraiser, mailed to PO Box 2189 Bethel AK 99559, or over the phone at 907-543-1812.

3. Remember groups whose budgets have been devastated by cancellation of fundraising events, or who are experiencing an increase in requests by people who have suddenly lost income. Bethel Friends of Canines is an example of such a group that relies upon pancake breakfast fundraisers and other events to raise money- and a group which will likely experience more requests for helping with pet spays/neuters or help with emergency pet care costs from people who are now experiencing financial uncertainty.

Financial donations are critical; volunteering is also important.

4. YKHC is implementing a plan for community members to volunteer to make masks. BCSF is partnering to distribute mask kits from YKHC to volunteers who wish to help sew masks. The kits include medical-grade material and everything except thread, including instructions. Mask kits are available to pick up at our office at 1795 Chief Eddie Hoffman Highway from 10 a.m.  4 p.m., Monday  Friday. Please return completed masks to BCSF.

5. Bethel Friends of Canines needs foster homes for rescued dogs and cats- and with so many people spending their days at home, now is a great time to save an animal or volunteer to walk dogs in the pound or at the BFK9 kennel.

6. Tundra Womens Coalition is expanding its pool of relief advocates in order to ensure that their doors stay open if their existing staff becomes ill or exposed to the virus (while paid, they need people to sign up and be trained).

7. Bethel Winter House is accepting donations of food for lunches served to homeless guests and for evening nightly shelter meals.

8. Call on elders, people with underlying health conditions and quarantined people who cannot leave their homes, grocery shop for others in this situation, check with ONC Senior Services about their needs, and keep an eye on various community Facebook pages where people ask for and offer to help.

9. Virtual volunteerism- ask your favorite organization what more you can do to help them from your home. Maybe theres a tech-based task, or help spreading their messages through your social media channels, or a Do-It-Yourself project theyve just been waiting for someone to offer to do.

Its not just money and time; our providers also need stuff.

Have a fully-stocked closet, shop or bathroom cabinet? For anyone who happened to have a full inventory of sanitizing wipes, paper towels, cleaning supplies, N-95 masks, other styles/types of masks, gloves, thermometers or hand sanitizer, now is a critical time to share. TWC, the Winter House Shelter and Emmonak Womens Shelter- as well as many of our other responding organizations- are in need of many of these materials.

In Bethel, the Lions Club offers a Food Pantry service to respond to individual food needs and space for a monthly Food Bank distribution. At this time, Lions Club International has suspended activity during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Susan Taylor is willing to pick up food or snack donations (using an appropriate social distancing plan) and ensure they get to an organization or group that can utilize them. Susan can be reached at 545-7524.

ONC Senior Services is also accepting donations of subsistence foods and vegetables for their Meals-on-Wheels program which delivers lunches to elders. Call ONC at 543-2608 and ask for Wilson Green to learn more about how to make a donation of food that they can use.

Finally, regardless of our financial, time or pantry resources, we can all offer this: constant support, encouragement and respect to all of the people in our region who are working in health care and as emergency responders and who are deemed essential employees working in critical infrastructure. These role models are implementing plans to keep as many of us as healthy as possible and ensuring we receive essential services during the pandemic. They continue to report to work despite the risk and deserve our gratitude.

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U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, and Congressman Don Young, all R-Alaska, today (June 25, 2021) welcomed a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in Yellen v. Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation that upholds the decades-long inclusion of Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs) as Indian tribes under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDA)also known as ISDEAA, confirming ANC eligibility for the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) tribal set-aside within Title V of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) Act.

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed what we knew all alongthat when Congress used the definition of Indian Tribe from the Indian Self Determination and Education Assistance Act in the CARES Act, it absolutely made Alaska Native Corporations eligible for these coronavirus relief funds. We knew this, because we wrote this language in the CARES Act. In addition to equitable pandemic relief, this decision ensures Alaska Natives will continue to benefit from the unique but effective delivery of health care, housing, and many other public services authorized under numerous statutes using ISDAs definition of an Indian tribe, which the D.C. Circuit ruling threatened to destabilize. Once again, the Supreme Court made it clear: Alaska is different  the exception, not the rule. This 6-3 decision is a big victory for Alaska Natives who have long relied on multiple layers of service delivery, which include the federally-recognized Tribes, ANCs, and other tribal organizations. We were proud to file amicus briefs to support upholding the 45 years of precedent and practice that support our Alaska Native communities.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who wrote the opinion of the court, was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, Justices Stephen Breyer, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, and, in parts, by Justice Samuel Alito.

Timeline:

On March 27, 2020, the CARES Act was signed into law, including an $8 billion set-aside for tribal governments.

On April 14, 2020, the Alaska congressional delegation wrote to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Interior Secretary David Bernhardt detailing the unique legal framework and circumstances for tribal entities in Alaska. The letter provided a historical background on Alaska regional corporations, which are made eligible for CARES Act assistance because of the definition of Indian tribe used in the bill.

In April of 2020 several tribes filed lawsuits to prevent CARES Act funds from being distributed to ANCs.

On April 23, 2020, the delegation penned an op-ed in the Anchorage Daily News to correct the mischaracterizations about ANCs and explain why the entities are eligible for CARES Act funds.

On June 26, 2020, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled ANCs are eligible for the aid. Judge Mehta based his decision on the definition of Indian tribe provided by the 1975 Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act and used in the CARES Act, which included ANCs.

On September 25, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overturned the June 26 ruling and determined ANCs are ineligible for tribal assistance appropriated by the CARES Act.

In November of 2020, the Alaska congressional delegation filed an amicus curiae brief urging the Supreme Court to grant the petition for a writ of certiorari in support of ANC eligibility for tribal assistance appropriated by the CARES Act. The amicus brief warns that the indigenous peoples of Alaska will suffer significant negative consequences as a result of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals September 25, 2020 decision, which held that ANCs are ineligible for the CARES Act CRF tribal set-aside. The D.C. Circuit Courts decision, the delegation argued, destabilizes agency and legislative practice in place for over 40 years as well as systems in place that deliver programs and services to Alaska Natives across the state.

On February 26, 2021, the Alaska delegation filed an amicus brief in support of the ANCs on the merits of the case.

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by Mary Catharine Martin

It was past midnight one night in August, 2018 that the film crew and their Alaskan guides, out shooting for a Netflix documentary series called Night on Earth, found themselves sitting in the dark, surrounded by wolves.

They were next to a salmon stream in the Tongass National Forest, wearing night vision goggles and filming with thermal imaging cameras, attempting to capture something that hadnt yet been previously captured on film: wolves catching salmon at night.

Back in Juneau, I was waiting to hear from them, because this is a personal story, too: the lead guide, Bjorn Dihle, is my partner. Hed been excited to scout out locations for wolves, but was also measured in his optimism about their chance of success. No matter how hungry a wolf is for a salmon, theyre generally exceptionally wary of humans.

Dan Kirkwood is the manager at Pack Creek Bear Tours, where Bjorn works. When Dan first got the call inquiring about the possibility of a night shoot, he was hiking down from a Southeast Alaska mountain, checking a camera trap hed set up for wolves. At first he thought, This is impossible. The odds are just insanely long.

But they agreed to try, and Bjorn headed down early to scout the area theyd chosen.

I didnt know where or if I would find the right spot, so I scouted the majority of the watershed as far as the salmon were spawning, Bjorn told me. Because it was also on a stream with brown bears, I was looking for an area that was relatively open, so that we could mitigate bear encounters by having some time to communicate with them.

Eventually, he came across a spot that seemed pretty promising: he not only saw a wolf there, he saw wolf tracks, wolf scat, wolf beds, and 50 or 60 salmon with their heads removed. (Wolves are more sensitive than bears to parasites that can live in the rest of the salmon.)

All of that was no guarantee, however, that the wolves would emerge when the team of three was there.

When dark fell, the alpha male and the alpha female showed themselves at dusk about 100 yards away. When they saw the three men, the wolves retreated.

And then as soon as it got dark, the wolves came out and felt comfortable coming within 10, 15 yards of us because they believed we couldnt see them, Bjorn said. Without the goggles, you would have said Oh, there was a bird there. Theyre so quiet  you wouldnt have known.

You can see the animals like theyre lit up with the night goggles, because theyre just glowing against nothing, Dan said. Without them, you cant see anything. The trickle of the stream, the finning of the fish as theyre swimming upstream, and pretty constant wolf howling all night it was very surreal, because I was seeing it through a screen the whole time, with the exception of the wolves that came out at dusk and in the morning.

The next morning, as they were hiking out, a small female wolf trailed them.

She kind of turned the tables on us, Bjorn said. When we finally stopped and realized she was trailing us at literally 20 yards, she just hung out for several minutes. Even lay down.

I was really surprised at how some of the wolves decided to really not be too bothered by us, Dan said.

As a guide, Bjorn pointed to the growing importance of experiences like this, and films like this, to Alaskas economy. Bears also feature in the filming.

Wildlife and wild places are going to be a way bigger resource in the future as the world becomes more industrialized, and I think we need to have way more of an emphasis on preserving these wild places, he said. Its ridiculous that Southeast Alaska only has a couple of bear-viewing places. Thats why people come here. Its huge, whether its hunting, fishing, wildlife films or just tourism.

Salmon, he said, were also central to the shoot.

The only reason why we were able to get the footage we were and be safe around bears is because we had such a good salmon run, Bjorn said. Its all about salmon.

Mary Catharine Martin is the communications director of SalmonState, a nonprofit initiative that works to ensure Alaska remains a place wild salmon thrive.

How to watch

Night on Earth is streaming on Netflix. This shoot is part of the last episode in the series, at minute 35.

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Board of Regents votes to locate consolidated University of Alaska College of Education at the University of Alaska Southeast.

Today, the University of Alaska Board of Regents approved unanimously in an 11-0 vote to establish a single University of Alaska (UA) College of Education and to locate the administrative center for the College at the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS).

The board first voted on consolidating the three education schools into one, and then voted on the location recommendation, which was amended by UA President Jim Johnsen to put forward UAS rather than the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) as the administrative home for the college. In doing so, the board directed Johnsen to take the necessary steps to establish a single College of Education for the University of Alaska, including seeking approval from the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) and assembling a planning team.

The selection of one institution is not the denigration of another, said Regent John Davies. We need strong programs at all our universities and UAS is the right choice to lead our College of Education.

Johnsen said he decided to amend his recommendation after listening to the input from many individuals citing the importance of teacher education as a signature program for UAS and expressions of concern over the economic impact of a move. Johnsen also cited UAS innovation and creativity in course delivery, as well as its nimbleness. The University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) and UAF are larger institutions, Johnsen said, with much broader missions. UAS will make the College of Education its number one priority. Although UAS will serve as the lead campus, faculty and courses will still be delivered from UAF and UAA.

UAS is ready, willing and able to work with UAF, UAA, and school districts to ensure that our teacher-graduates are ready to provide a 21st century education for Alaskas students, said UAS Chancellor Rick Caulfield.

Regents noted the strengths of UAS education program, including the successful Preparing Indigenous Teachers for Alaska Schools (PITAAS) program focusing on Alaska Native educators, advanced e-learning programs and staff and facultys passion and commitment to teacher education and innovation.

After a lot of reflection, I realized UAS is the rightful place for the location of the single college of education. They have excellent leadership and are dedicated to our goal of educating 90 percent of Alaskas teachers by 2025, said Regent Jo Heckman.

Regents commended Johnsen for his leadership and willingness to revise his recommendation after listening to concerns, learning from discussions and feedback, and in recognizing the importance of the education program to UAS.

After the November board meeting wherein UAF was suggested as the lead campus, more than 100 letters, emails and comments came in to the university in support of one college/one dean, but petitioning for the administrative home to be located at UAS. The support came from many Juneau residents and UAS faculty, staff and alumni. In a letter to Johnsen and regents, the City & Borough of Juneau pledged a $1 million contribution to endow the program if the College of Education was centered at UAS.

The Juneau community spoke and the university was willing to listen, said Regent Dale Anderson. I thank President Johnsen for stepping up and recognizing the need to engage with the university community.

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Calista (cha-LIS-tah) Corporation has opened the application period for its 34,500 Shareholders to apply for CARES Act financial assistance.

Eligible Shareholders who apply by the Nov. 15 deadline will receive a payment of $325 per Shareholder on December 8. Applications may be filed on behalf of a minor/dependent.

The online application form is located at www.CalistaCorp.com/CARESAct.

All Calista Shareholdersregardless of agewho experienced financial harm due to the COVID-19 pandemic are eligible to apply. The financial harm must have occurred between March 2020 and December 2021.

Calista is using an online application form for quicker processing and reduced costs. The form can be completed quickly and easily on smartphones, tablets or computers. The mobile-friendly application uses less than 2MB of data. Calista encourages Shareholders who have internet access to assist those who do not.

When applying online, Shareholders will need to provide their enrollment number, full name and date of birth. Calista mailed a letter providing each Shareholder with his/her enrollment number in late September. Shareholders can also log into MyCalista.com to view his/her individual enrollment number, and for a designated minor/dependent. A parent/guardian can find a minor/dependent enrollment number under the My Wards section. The enrollment number is stated as Calista ID in the Shareholder Confirmation Report.

Calista Shareholders may get additional information and review frequently asked questions, such as what qualifies as a financial hardship, at: www.CalistaCorp.com/CARESAct.

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By Mike Gaworecki 20 October 2016 (mongabay.com)  Cultivation of coca, the plant from which the drug cocaine is extracted, has long been considered a deforestation multiplier in the Andean Amazon rainforests of Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru. For instance, a 2001 report by the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy stated: Coca cultivation and processing pose serious hazards to Colombias ecology. Several hectares of rain forest are slashed and burned for every hectare of coca planted. Some independent monitoring projects and scientific publications (see here and here , for example) have also cited coca as a driver of deforestation in the Andean Amazon region. But a study published in the journal BioScience last month by a team of researchers with New Yorks Stony Brook University found that most deforestation in Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru isnt caused by coca cultivation. The researchers discovered a close statistical correlation between coca-growing operations and government infrastructure and other projects, leading them to conclude that coca cultivation, like deforestation itself, is actually the result of economic development projects begun in the 1960s to open the Amazon frontier that failed to deliver the promised benefits for local communities. The grand plan since the early 1960s was to build a highway from Bolivia in the south to Venezuela in the north, and encourage migration and agricultural expansion to open up the Amazon, Stony Brook University Professor of Ecology and Evolution Liliana M. Davalos, the lead author of the study, said in a statement . This plan also needed new or improved connector roads between Andean cities and the lowlands. The development plans, with their promise of securing land and food for millions of Andean farmers, had the financial support of both national governments and international development agencies and organizations. After conducting a 2011 study , Davalos found that coca was a good predictor of forest conversion across landscapes in southern Colombia, but that the effect disappeared when controlling for socioeconomic factors like poverty or armed conflict at the municipal scale. The results were puzzling, she said, which is why I wanted to revisit the question in depth. [ more ]

Failed economic development plans drive deforestation in Andean Amazon

STONY BROOK, N.Y., 29 September 2016 (Stony Brook University)  Most of the worlds cocathe plant source of cocainegrows in the Amazon forests of the Andean countries of Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, where many think this illicit crop causes deforestation. However, a team led by Stony Brook University Professor of Ecology and Evolution Liliana M. Davalos, shows most deforestation isnt caused by coca cultivation. In fact, the study, published in Bioscience, found that deforestation and coca both share a common origin in the implementation of an infrastructure plan from the 1960s to open the Amazon frontier through road construction and development projects. For additional perspective on the study, see this video. For over 40 years, the War on Drugs has fought coca by uprooting plants, providing farmers with incentives to grow other crops, and even spraying herbicide from airplanes over Colombian fields. But despite massive international and domestic investment, and economic and security improvements in the region, none of the countries has been able to completely eliminate illegal coca cultivation. Neither forcibly uprooting the plants, nor transient support for growing legal crops has worked as expected. The starting point of Professor Davalos research was a seemingly straightforward question: Why do deforestation and coca overlap in the western Amazon? Professor Davalos explains: In a previous study, we found the location of coca plots helped explain deforestation, but only in the Amazon. This seemed odd, as coca crops were generally thought to cause deforestation because they were so attractive. For example, coca might be so profitable people would move to grow it. However, this was not the case. When the researchers looked at deforestation analyses that included social factors, such as poverty or armed conflict, coca seemed to have no influence on deforestation rates. These puzzling results led them to explore the history of the Andean countries to pinpoint when and where coca cultivation for the global illegal drug market started, and how it related to the growing pace of deforestation in the late 20th-century. The maps, published in the 1970s, looked like coca cultivation and deforestation maps today but they were maps of locations where governments had implemented their infrastructure projects in the 1960s. Both coca and deforestation share a common origin linked to development projects, so what to make of the often-reported role of coca cultivation as a cause of forest loss in the Amazon? By examining every publication over the last decade to measure deforestation in the Amazon frontier from coca crops and from other causes, the researchers found two patterns. First, legal crops and pastures directly cause most deforestation, not coca cultivation. Second, coca cultivation was not associated with higher deforestation rates in almost every study. The single exception was a study that found coca cultivation was linked to more deforestation when armed groups forced farmers from their land. Deforestation and coca cluster together in the Amazon frontier, but frontier dynamics is not a consequence of coca cultivation by itself. Instead, the dynamics sprung from efforts to develop western Amazonia, emphasized Professor Davalos. These analyses are particularly relevant today, as nations and international agencies commit to new development projects, this time aiming to eliminate coca cultivation from the western Amazon. Explaining where, how, and why farmers continue to plant coca requires an integrated understanding of the history, geography, and environment of the region, says Paul Gootenberg, SUNY Distinguished Professor of History and Sociology at Stony Brook University, and a leading historian of cocaine who was not involved in the study. He is directing a parallel study based on archival case studies in the coca valleys of Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia commented on the crucial timing of this study: Davalos and her team have applied an innovative set of methods which have produced powerful and lucid findings for historians and drug. The central finding of the study is finding a statistical relationship between government infrastructure and development projects and coca cultivation today. This points to a history of development plans that failed to deliver: The grand plan since the early 1960s was to build a highway from Bolivia in the south to Venezuela in the north, and encourage migration and agricultural expansion to open up the Amazon. This plan also needed new or improved connector roads between Andean cities and the lowlands, highlighted Davalos. The development plans, with their promise of securing land and food for millions of Andean farmers, had the financial support of both national governments and international development agencies and organizations. However, challenging conditions in the Amazon thwarted the plans from the beginning. As investment dwindled and commitments to the farmers who had moved to the Amazon slopes and lowlands faltered through the 1970s and 1980s, a new form of agriculture emerged in response to international demand. Gootenberg explains: cocaine consumption just exploded during the 1970s, it is unsurprising to find farmers adopting coca as a cash crop around that time, as other options diminished. Once the sites with historical development projects had been identified, the team tested the relationship between location of coca cultivation in 2014 and 20th-century the development projects. The results are compelling. In the Amazon, coca cultivation increases sharply close to the sites of those development projects. These projects began more than 30 years but their landscape footprint endures in the form of coca cultivation and deforestation, added Davalos. The authors add, We hope our analyses help us learn from the past, and avoid repeating mistakes. Development projects must work with Amazonian farmers to set explicit forest conservation goals and plan for decades, and not just years of investment. The research was supported in part by a commission from the Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) to Davalos. All views are exclusively the authors.
SHANGHAI, Nov. 15, 2016 -- Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation ("SMIC"; NYSE: SMI; SEHK: 981), one of the leading semiconductor foundries in the world and the largest and most advanced foundry in mainland China, and The Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences ("IMECAS") announced the signing of a cooperation agreement for a MEMS R&D foundry platform to jointly develop MEMS sensor standard processes and build a complete MEMS supply chain.

According to the agreement, SMIC and IMECAS will work together closely to take advantage of IMECAS's experiences in MEMS Sensor design and packaging technology design and SMIC's standardized process technology platforms, industry and market influence. Starting with the development of a MEMS environmental sensor and combining the features of other types of MEMS Sensors, SMIC and IMECAS will collaborate to create a platform-based standard as well as mass production technologies to shorten the development cycle from design to production,thus helping the MEMS industry grow more effectively and efficiently.

"SMIC's R&D team has made a lot of achievements in developing new sensor technology platforms and introducing new customers. SMIC is willing to open our platforms to support commercialized production and the R&D of universities and research institutions," said Dr. Tzu-Yin Chiu, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of SMIC. "SMIC and IMECAS have cooperated in numerous logic process development projects. This time we will expand our collaboration and promote the R&D of complete standardized MEMS sensor technologies to help integrate and improve the MEMS supply chain."

Ye Tianchun, Director of IMECAS, visited SMIC's middle-end production line of MEMS sensors and said, "Through the cooperation between SMIC and IMECAS, we can exploit our advantages and jointly build an open MEMS technology service platform and an electronic information integration platform for the MEMS supply chain. With the integration of design, manufacturing, packing, testing, public platform and venture investment, we can form a supply chain ecosystem and support the development of a global as well as domestic Chinese MEMS industry."

About SMIC

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation ("SMIC"; NYSE: SMI; SEHK: 981) is one of the leading semiconductor foundries in the world and the largest and most advanced foundry in mainland China. SMIC provides integrated circuit (IC) foundry and technology services on process nodes from 0.35 micron to 28 nanometer. Headquartered in Shanghai, China, SMIC has an international manufacturing and service base. In China, SMIC has a 300mm wafer fabrication facility (fab) and a 200mm mega-fab in Shanghai; a 300mm mega-fab and a majority-owned 300mm fab for advanced nodes in Beijing; 200mm fabs in Tianjin and Shenzhen; and a majority-owned joint-venture 300mm bumping facility in Jiangyin; additionally, in Italy SMIC has a majority-owned 200mm fab. SMIC also has marketing and customer service offices in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and Taiwan, and a representative office in Hong Kong. For more information, please visit www.smics.com.

About IMECAS

The Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences ("IMECAS") has become a key research institution integrated with both fundamental research and technology development, which is quite industry-oriented. It is also an entity of two centers and one college under the name of CAS. They are the CAS R&D Center for The Internet of Things, the CAS EDA Center (Electronic Design Automation Center) and the college of Microelectronics of UCAS (University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences). There are 14 departments at IMECAS including two key CAS Laboratories, four R&D centers for industry service, five R&D centers for typical applications, and three R&D centers for core product development. Among which, the Smart Sensing Center is conducting the research and development of sensor design, fabrication, packaging and testing. The CAS R&D Center for The Internet of Things has also established public service platforms, including a MEMS Design and Manufacture Platform and SIP Packaging Platform, a Communication System and Chip Design Test and Verification Platform, and more. For more information, please visit http://english.ime.cas.cn.








TSUMORI CHISATO is undeniably one of the most influential contemporary Japanese fashion designers who started her independent eponymous label in the early 90s. Till this day Chisato manages to maintain her independence of her fashion house as well as her creative freedom after more than two decades on the market. Chisato worked alongside the legendary Issey Miyake in the seventies as the head designer of Issey Sports which was later rebranded as I.S. Chisato Tsumori Design. Encouraged by Mr Miyake himself she started her own journey in the 1990 presenting her first collection in Tokyo at the Japan Fashion Week.

For this months edition of Design SCENE our Fashion Features Editor KATARINA DJORIC met the designer in Paris and talked about her childhood, difference between Paris and Tokyo and the changes taking over the fashion industry.

Related: Tsumori Chisato Spring Summer 2017 Collection

Read more after the jump:



As a child you wanted to be a manga artist. What made you change your mind and why did you become a fashion designer?

My mother insisted that girls should have specific skills, not only boys.

You attended Tokyos Bunka Fashion College. How much do you think Fashion Design education changed since?

I think the fact that they teach the importance of creativity does not change. Some things naturally changed, today everyone uses Mac computers now, that is something that did not exist in my days.

You grew up in Japan and now you live in Paris. What would you say are the pros and cons of living in each of these cities.

In reality, I have not moved to Paris, I pretty much go back and forth from Tokyo and Paris. There is beauty in both of the cities and I love them both. I like how I can change my mind when traveling between the cities.

Did moving your atelier to Paris in 2003 affect your design aesthetic?

I believe the move did not have a massive influence on my design process.

You worked closely with Issey Miyake in the past, whats the most important thing you learned from working with him?

From working with Issey Miyake I learned the importance of working as a team as well as the importance of being dynamic.

Your latest collection is inspired by your trip to Havana. Could you tell me more about your SS17 inspiration?

For the new collection I was inspired by the unique culture I saw in Havana, like its nature as well as the citys signature Coco Taxis. Also, the way they use colors.

Could you describe for our readers the Tsumori Chisato woman?

No matter how old they are, TSUMORI CHISATO women are independent and sensitive women.

Fast fashion is changing the fashion industry as we know it, with many luxury labels now opting to create in season collections. How do you see the industry changing in the coming decade?

Regarding the See Now Buy Now, from the perspective of a fashion consumer, I understand the point that people want to buy the clothes when they see it. However, in reality, there are many difficulties, especially regarding the schedule.

Paris said no to the the in-season collections, unlike London and New York. Do you think that is about to change?

Maybe a lot of fashion maisons thinks it is too difficult to change the way they work.

Very few young designers are able to maintain their eponymous labels, Tsumori Chisato is holding strong since the 90s and you are holding on to your creative freedom. What advice would you give to young designers dreaming of starting their own business?

Never Give Up.
Facebook's Messenger Rooms is now live in Canada and Australia

Facebook Messenger is getting a new public group chat feature. The world's biggest social media website is introducing a new test version of Messenger Rooms, initially available only in Australia and Canada.

Facebook tells the Courier Mail that Rooms is an addition to Facebook's Messenger app and it is designed to exchange messages with strangers on a specific topic. Facebook Messenger already offers an option to create rooms and communicate with friends in a private communication. With the new announcement, Facebook is making Rooms open for public communication but it promises to keep trolls away.

"Group chats today are focused on people you know  friends and family  and what weve found by talking to users is theres a lot of need for conversations about specific topics. This will be for topic-based conversations and so people can talk with others they may not know," Facebook's Moxon told the Courier Mail.

Facebook says users can search for a particular interest and create their own Rooms via Messenger app. Facebook Messenger users can then invite members, approve new members and configure notifications. Users can also set Rooms to private, and only allow users to join upon approval by an administrator.

With Rooms, Facebook is trying to build a bulletin board style platform where like minded people can discuss on a single subject. Another use case could be set reminders for events or organise events. With Rooms, Facebook is simplying the group communication thread among strangers.
The ThinkPad X1 Yoga ticks most boxes for a well balanced business laptop. But as a hybrid, it does have limited functionality. The OLED display based ThinkPad X1 Yoga is the only variant that we'd recommend from the X1 Yoga lineup. For the rest, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon is a better bet for a 14-inch thin and light business laptop with best in class keyboard and touch pad exprience on Windows platform.

Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Yoga detailed review

Having used the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon for about 4 years (the X1 Carbon first gen is still my daily driver), I went into this review with a lot of expectations and a wee bit bias towards the form factor. A business thin and light with a 14-inch display that manages to offer dimensions, weight and form factor of a 13-inch notebook is pretty much homeland for me.





The ThinkPad X1 Yoga is basically a slimmer and lighter version of the Thinkpad X1 Carbon with a 'Yoga' twist. If you've been following Lenovo's Yoga series of laptops, you'd know exactly what they offer. The ThinkPad X1 Yoga is being marketed as 'World's Lightest 14-inch Business 2-in-1'. Quite a mouthful, but it does satisfy the criterion for the title. The 'Yoga' on the ThinkPad X1 brings hybrid /2-in-1 functionality, allowing you to use the laptop in 4 modes - laptop, tent, stand & tablet. In reality, you'd end up using the X1 Yoga in the 'Laptop' mode for most occasions (more on this later). The Thinkpad X1 Yoga achieves its hybrid powers via a screen that can be folded 360-degrees, allowing you to fold the screen all the way back and use the laptop as a tablet. Though the ThinkPad X1 Yoga ain't a detachable hybrid (you cannot detach the screen from the base to use it as a standalone tablet), you need to fold the screen all the way back to 'convert' it into a tablet. The use of a touch enabled 14.1-inch display allows the ThinkPad Yoga X1 to offer the multi-mode use case scenarios. The images below show how Lenovo sees the ThinkPad Yoga X1 being used in different modes.

Design, build and looks: Classy and understated, won't scream for attention (thankfully)

The X1 Yoga will be sold (and bought) for its looks, build and design and not on the basis of its specs or 'yogic' abilities. ThinkPad fans & loyalists will appreciate the classic ThinkPad persona that the X1 Yoga successfully retains for most parts. The X1 Yoga is a far cry from the current crop of ultrabooks and thin and light laptops that flaunt metallic finish, mixed with a dash of chrome sprinkled around to make the laptop seem premium. The X1 Yoga is matte black all the way, the smooth rubberized finish and an all-black color scheme makes the X1 Yoga come across as a no-nonsense laptop that is clearly competing for the 'most understated premium laptop' tag. For a business laptop however, the ThinkPad X1 Yoga looks the part and feels like a machine that's built to last. Talking about the build quality, the X1 Yoga is very well built, right from the hinges to the magnesium alloy based chassis, the X1 Yoga feels solid. The lid that houses the 14 inch screen is made using carbon fiber, making it durable yet light enough to be able to pull-off the "World's lightest 14 inch 2-in-1" moniker. At 1.27 kilograms, the Thinkpad X1 Yoga is the lightest hybrid business laptop with a 14-inch screen. Step down a bit on the screen size and you will find many 13.3-inch business laptops that weigh well under a kilogram, making the ThinkPad X1 Yoga look rather ordinary. From a screen size to weight and dimensions perspective, the X1 Yoga is quite a unique machine. With slimmer bezels and cleverly balanced keyboard layout, the X1 Yoga manages to offer a 14-inch screen in a 13.3-inch form factor, making it lighter, slimmer and fairly compact.

Display: Pixel dense IPS screen is sharp and punchy

The review unit shipped to us came with a 14-inch 2560x1440 (WQHD) touch enabled display. Unfortunately, our review unit came with an IPS based display and not the OLED version. The ThinkPad X1 Yoga is currently the only laptop in India that comes with an option to choose an OLED display. The IPS based display offers punchy colors and good touch screen performance. Though, the brightness is on the lower side at 395 lux when measured at the center of the screen. The touch screen performance is quite good, the display responds and registers touch commands without any issues. The review unit did not ship with a dock-able stylus pen, which is included in the default package. And hence I wasn't able to test the usability and overall experience of using the ThinkPad X1 Yoga with a stylus pen.

Performance and connectivity: All in place

Running on 6th Generation (Skylake) based Intel Core i5-6200U processor, the X1 Yoga never posed any issues when it came to running business applications and multitasking. Our review unit shipped with only 4GB of RAM which is a pity since most business laptops and ultrabooks in this segment have moved to 8GB RAM as the base spec. As a business laptop, the ThinkPad X1 Yoga offers adequate performance. Storage performance was good, thanks to the 128GB Samsung PCIe based SSD, I never experienced any noticeable lags when opening large files or switching between heavy applications. The performance benchmark comparisons below shows how the ThinkPad X1 Yoga performs in comparison to other ultabooks and convertible laptops in the same price range.

On the connectivity front, the X1 Yoga is well stocked, offering 3 USB 3.0 ports, HDMI out, Mini Display port and a SD card slot. You also get a SIM card slot for LTE connectivity. The X1 Yoga also offers biometric security via a fingerprint reader. What I sorely missed on the X1 Yoga is the array of physical buttons on top of the keyboard from the original ThinkPad X1 Carbon. The X1 Yoga does have some buttons, but they are placed at the edges, which makes it a bit inconvenient in terms of quick access.

The Keyboard and Touchpad: A joy to use (for most parts)

For starters, the keyboard is well spaced, offers very good travel and the feedback is typical ThinkPad. Unlike most modern day thin and light laptops that come with a rather flat keyboard with minimal feedback, the ThinkPad X1 Yoga sticks to the traditional ThinkPad appeal, offering a keyboard that feels a lot more connected. However, there is a slight downside as well. The keyboard is relatively noisy and that can be an issue in silent environments. Just like most ThinkPad keyboards, the function and control keys are swapped, and that can be painful. Though, you can swap the keys by accessing the BIOS settings and selecting the key swap option under the config menu.

Coming to the touch pad, the X1 Yoga literally surprised me with its smooth, stutter-free behavior when using the touch pad. All gestures work well and the response is excellent, whether you are scrolling or swiping or using gestures, everything just works butter smooth. The size of the touchpad isn't class leading but that also helps in keeping the palm rejection issues at bay. The classic track-point with left, right and center buttons has been retained, and it works well. Though, I doubt on how many will choose the legacy input method, especially with a touch pad that works like a charm. The keyboard is back-lit and comes as a standard option for all versions. The keyboard lights up evenly and you can control the intensity of the backlight as well.

Battery life: Good for a convertible but not class leading

Average battery life with mixed use scenarios hovered between seven to eight hours, with no heavy photo/video editing or gaming in the mix. These results might not look very competitive if you were to consider a Dell XPS 13 or a Mac Book Air as competition. But, look at the X1 Yoga as a 14-inch hybrid laptop with a 2K display and the 7-hour battery-life on the X1 Yoga doesn't measure as being 'low'. The fact that it has a larger 14-inch display and weighs a mere 1.27 kilograms makes the X1 Yoga quite a balanced machine in terms of portability, real-estate and battery life. Having said that, I am still not convinced on the hybrid functionality being its selling point. Business laptops with larger displays need to offer detachable screens to qualify as true hybrids in my books. I'd be happier with a non hybrid version that offers double digit battery-life.

Bottom line: Will appeal to a select few

Like I mentioned right at the start of the review, the ThinkPad X1 Yoga will appeal to a specific genre of audience, looking for a business laptop that strictly wears a business look and offers the classic Thinkpad experience, albeit with a hybird twist. Priced at Rs 1,12,000 for the base variant, the ThinkPad X1 Yoga does command a rather stiff premium. You can customize the configuration depending on the choice of display, processor and storage options. I wouldn't recommend base variant of the ThinkPad X1 Yoga. The OLED (display) version along with 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD is the configuration to choose. Though, the OLED version will set you back by at least 50K over an above the price of the base variant. If you have the budget, the Thinkpad X1 Yoga has a lot of unique features to make it stand out from the rest. But, if you are considering the base variant (non-OLED), we suggest you choose the ThinkPad X1 Carbon over the Yoga, which essentially is a non-hybird version with additional business features and is also more rugged while offering the same form factor and weight profile.
OnePlus plans to release a community build of Nougat to beta testers before a full rollout

OnePlus 3( 7389 at amazon), the latest flagship from the Chinese technology startup is getting a taste of Android Nougat this month. The company plans to release a community build of Nougat to beta testers before a full rollout.

Android 7.0 Nougat is the latest mobile operating system from search giant Google. With Nougat, Google adopted a change of heart and made it available in the form of developer beta months ahead of official release. The first device to feature Nougat out of the box was not a Google device but LG's V20, showing the directions for the mobile OS.

OnePlus' head of software, Brian Yoon has confirmed to Engadget that the smartphone will get a Nougat beta this month. Once the flaws have been ironed out, the OS will be made available as an OTA update to all users by the end of the year.

Earlier this year, OnePlus announced plans to bring its HydrogenOS and OxygenOS teams together on order to deliver updates faster. OnePlus users, in the past, have addressed complaints against the company's ability to deliver timely software updates.

Ealier this week, LG started delivering Nougat update for its G5 flagship users in Korea. Following suit, fellow Korean competitor and world's biggest smartphone maker Samsung also announced beta release of Nougat for its 2016 flagship Galaxy S7. Motorola has also started rolling out Android 7.0 Nougat for its Moto Z and Moto G4 lineup of devices.

Nougat is currently running on nearly 0.3 percent Android devices and the number is set to grow exponentially once OEMs like OnePlus and Xiaomi start pushing the update.
Dairy Crest: Jefferies downgrades to underperform with a target price of 500p.

Royal Dutch Shell: HSBC reiterates buy with a 2360p target.

Polymetal: Jefferies stays at underperform with a 700p target.

Tesco: Credit Suisse reiterates underperform with a 130p target.

Paddy Power Betfair: Goldman Sachs keeps at overweight with a 115p target.

Standard Chartered: UBS upgrades to neutral with a target price of 620p.

Vedanta: Credit Suisse downgrades to underperform with a target price of 670p.

Aveva: UBS upgrades to buy with a 2030p target.

Astrazeneca: Deutsche Bank reiterates buy with a target price of 6000p.

British American Tobacco: Jefferies keeps at buy with a 5700p target.

Pearson: Societe Generale upgrades to buy with a 1030p target.
Crude oil futures are charging more than 3% higher on Tuesday afternoon amid renewed hopes and some jawboning on whether cartel OPEC will cut output when it meets later this month, helping to alleviate the chronic global supply glut.

At about 15:08 GMT, Nymex-listed West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up 3.55% to $44.86 a barrel, while Brent Intercontinental Exchange-traded Brent gained 3.47% to $45.97 a barrel.

"Rumours circulate that OPEC is making another push to deliver the output cut agreed in Algiers back in September, said Nicholas Hyett at Hargreaves Lansdown.

eToro's Mati Greenspan said oil futures appeared to be trading completely independently of the US election, which Republican Donald Trump won. OPEC is due to meet in Vienna in two weeks.

"It seems that traders are more concerned with what OPEC is going to do than a yellow haired man," Greenspan said.

"The overall range (of WTI) since April is $42.50 to $50 per barrel, with a $2.50 buffer on either side," Greenspan added.

"It seems every time we get low OPEC comes close to a deal and every time we get high, those talks seem to dissolve."

Accendo Markets' Mike van Dulken and Henry Croft noted that a push from Algeria, Qatar and Venezuela to settle disagreements between heavyweight producers Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq has helped investor confidence.

"However, will this short term-boon be quickly overshadowed by renewed conflict between the notoriously argumentative cartel?" they pondered.

Meantime, on Comex, gold was up 0.37% to $1226.2 an ounce, while silver added 0.72% to $17.02 an ounce and copper retreated 1.63% to 248 cents a pound.

On London Metals Exchange, three-month industrial metals were mixed. Copper was up a jot and aluminum down a bit.

But there were big moves were in zinc and tin. Zinc rose 5.46% to $2607 a MT and tin was down 2.66% to $20,830 a MT

Turning to agricultural futures, Chicago Board of Trade-listed corn popped up 0.65% to 347.5 cents a bushel and wheat added 0.76% to 397 cents a bushel.

ICE-priced cocoa shed 1.12% to $2391 a MT and cotton No.2 accelerated 0.98% to 69.99 cents a pound. Live cattle was down 0.33% to 106.18 cents a pound.
The biggest DIY outfit in the United States, Home Depot , has published its third quarter results for 2016, showing profits and sales which were better than expected by analysts.

Rising demand for new homes in the US has contributed to the company's strong performance in the quarter, leading to Home Depot raising its yearly forecast for earnings per share.

Shares in the company rose 2.7% to $131.09 in early trading on Tuesday.

Sales at established stores rose 5.5% during the three-month period in comparison with the same quarter last year. Analysts had expected the figure to be closer to 4.4%.

Net sales also rose more than expected to 6.1% to $23.15bn. Earnings rose to $1.97bn, or $1.60 a share, ahead of predictions for $1.58.

Home Depot CEO Craig Menear praised the work of his employees in the face of adverse meteorological conditions during the quarter.

"We experienced balanced sales growth in the quarter driven by an increase in both ticket and transactions, and our continued focus on productivity drove double-digit earnings-per-share growth," said Menear, chairman, CEO and president.

"I would like to thank our associates and suppliers for their hard work and dedication to our customers throughout the quarter, and particularly in the face of Hurricane Matthew and the flooding in Louisiana."

Atlanta, Georgia-based Home Depot also reaffirmed its guidance for fiscal 2016 sales, saying it expected them to be roughly 6.3% higher on the previous year, with comparable store sales up by roughly 4.9%.

Full-year EPS on the other hand was now seen up by 15.9% to $6.33.
Outgoing United States president Barack Obama has rushed to reassure Europe and the world that Donald Trump remains committed to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation alliance.

During the Republican's successful election campaign, Trump had repeatedly spouted claims of an isolationist nature, vowing to rip up trade deals in order to "make America great again".

Speaking in the White House ahead of his final foreign tour as president, Obama said Trump had told him last week that he would maintain the US as a key player in Nato.

"There is enormous continuity beneath the day-to-day news that makes us that indispensable nation when it comes to maintaining order and promoting prosperity around the world," Obama said.

"That will continue. In my conversation with the president-elect he expressed a great interest in maintaining our core strategic relationships and so, one of the messages I will be able to deliver is his commitment to Nato and the transatlantic alliance."

Foreign leaders and markets are waiting to see which policies will be implemented by Trump when he moves into the Oval Office in January next year. Obama will visit Greece, Germany and Peru over the next week for meetings with world leaders.

"I think that's one of the most important functions I can serve at this stage during this trip is to let them know that there is no weakening of resolve when it comes to America's commitment to maintaining a strong and robust Nato relationship and a recognition that those alliances aren't just good for Europe, they're good for the United States, and they're vital for the world."

Trump will be the first US president to never have held elected office or served in the military, and Obama also added that he will learn quickly that he has a lot of bridge-building to do after a bitterly divisive campaign.

"I did say to him that because of the nature of the campaigns and the bitterness and ferocity of the campaigns that it's really important to try to send some signals of unity and to reach out to minority groups or women or others that were concerned about the tenor of the campaign," he said.
The US President-elect's advisers shortlisted Steven Mnuchin to become the next US Treasury Secretary, Bloomberg reported.

Mnuchin was Donald Trump's national campaign finance chairman and stood out as one of the few Wall Street veterans who did not shy away from the candidate early in the election.

An ex-Goldman Sachs banker, Mnuchin was credited by some for giving Trump access to the Republican National Committee's fundraising infrastructure.

Some observers describe the ex-banker as a versatile person in his thinking, well-versed in spotting a good opportunity.

He attended Yale University, in New Haven Connecticut, one of the most prestigious in the US, and was reportedly a member of the Skull and Bones secret society.

After leaving Goldman Sachs - where his father was also a trader - in 2002 the banker worked at two hedge funds, under Eddie Lampert and George Soros, before going on to found his own in 2004, Dune Capital Management.

Intriguingly, Dune was among those sued by Trump over a deal to build a skyscraper in Chicago.

Among Mnuchin's ventures were the acquistion of a film library, together with Soros, from DreamWorks, and film-financing more generally, including Hollywood blockbuster Avatar.

Mnuchin was also successful during the past financial crisis, having lined up investors in 2008 to bid $1.6bn for failed lender IndyMac; it was sold in 2015 for $3.4bn.
Commercial passenger aircraft leasing company Avation was holding its annual general meeting on Tuesday, with executive chairman Jeff Chatfield updating investors on the organisations recent trading.

The firm said in the financial year to date, since 1 July, two brand new Airbus A321 jets have been added to the fleet with two midlife Airbus A321 jets and one new Airbus A321 being sold.

Chatfield said the brand-new aircraft was sold on delivery for risk mitigation reasons.

As a result of trading activity, Avation's fleet stands at 38 aircraft.

Importantly, as a result of the acquisition of new aircraft and the sale of older aircraft, Avation's fleet metrics have continued to improve since the end of the financial year.

As at 1 November the weighted average age of the fleet declined to 3.3 years and the weighted average lease term has increased to 7.6 years.

Chatfield said Avation has achieved significant progress in building and diversifying its aircraft fleet, and will continue that growth during the remainder of the current period with a further two new Airbus A321 jets to VietJet Air scheduled for delivery before 31 December.

He said as scale and diversification are delivered into the companys aircraft fleet, the board would strive to lower the cost of debt, improving the profitability of its existing leasing business and enabling Avation to be more competitive in its mission to attract new airline customers.

We continue to deliver economies of scale as the proportion of administration expense to fleet value continues to decline.

We are pleased to report that Avation has a skilled and experienced team in place and a platform that can support further growth in fleet assets.

Last month, Avation announced that it had received an expression of interest for the purchase of 22 of its ATR turboprop aircraft.

Charfield said that portfolio comprises relatively new aircraft with an average remaining lease term of approximately 6.3 years which are leased to a number of airlines in Europe, Asia and Australia.

The portfolio generates high lease yields, he added.

Since the approach, Avation has announced the appointment of a financial adviser to evaluate the proposal and also engage with the wider investor market to determine the value of the portfolio.

The size of the portfolio makes it an attractive acquisition for a range of both strategic industry and financial investors.

For clarity and certainty, the board advises shareholders that no decision had been made to sell this highly valuable portfolio.

Chatfield said the unexpired revenue for the 22 aircraft is in excess of $305m as at 1 November, and the board was considering and responding to the offer.

He explained that Avation remained committed to the ATR turboprop aircraft type, and it was not currently proposing to divest itself of its future order and delivery options for further ATR aircraft which would allow Avation to rebuild a turboprop portfolio.

Should a sale of the portfolio be concluded, the board would consider a dividend for part of the proceeds from the profit on the sale of the portfolio assets to shareholders immediately following conclusion of the transaction.

Avation would then seek to reinvest the remainder of the proceeds into replacement aircraft assets that would rebuild the fleet and add further diversification and new airline customers.

The board had observed that Avation ordinary shares were currently trading at a discount to the net tangible assets, Chatfield said.

It is therefore appropriate and in the interests of shareholders to consider asset sales that generate a premium to book value as a way of delivering enhanced shareholder returns.

The value proposition of a commercial aircraft lessor such as Avation is the ability to trade aircraft, access and acquire aircraft, manage and market aircraft to airlines and attach leases to these assets to produce returns to shareholders.
KLK upped its offer for the company to 740p per share in cash from 640p, valuing the company at around 415.4m.

However, MP Evans said on Tuesday that it rejected the offer on the basis that it very substantially undervalues the company, its unique position and its future growth potential.

The offer price represents a premium of around 74% to the closing price of MP Evans on 24 October, which was the last business day before the commencement of the offer period.

MP Evans said it will make a further announcement in relation to the revised offer and urged its shareholders to take no action.

Earlier, KLK said it continues to believe there is a strategic merit in synergising the operations of MP Evans with KLK's from a geographical and capabilities perspective.

The management of MP Evans will also have opportunities to develop their careers within the larger organisation. Together, KLK and MP Evans should establish best practices for the further growth of both companies and enable the enlarged group to capitalise on economies of scale in the oil palm sector.

At 1252 GMT, MP Evans shares were up 11.5% to 698.50p.
FTSE 250 interdealer broker Tullett Prebon has received approval from the Financial Conduct Authority for its acquisition of ICAPs hybrid voice broking and information business.

The company said it remains subject to regulatory approvals in a number of other jurisdictions and the transaction is on track to complete in 2016.

The deal has been given antitrust approval in the UK, the US and Australia but still needs to be approved by jurisdictions in Spain, Brazil and Hong Kong.

The Competition and Markets Authority gave the green light to the deal after ICAP agreed to sell its UK oil brokerage operations to INTL FCStone and not to take a 20% stake in the new company.

At 1235 GMT, Tullett shares were down 0.5% to 427.50p while ICAP shares were up 0.4% to 530p.
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4 takeaways from Fox News town hall with Tim Ryan, J.D. Vance

Republican J.D. Vance and Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan participated in a town hall in Columbus hosted by Fox News Tuesday night.
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Some schools are scaling back recruiting in China and looking to the Middle East, South Asia and Latin America to boost budgets.



By COLLIN BINKLEY

Associated Press

BOSTON  As a surge of students from China begins to level off, many U.S. colleges are expanding recruiting efforts in the Middle East, South Asia and Latin America in part to boost budgets that have come to rely on tuition dollars from international students.

The number of Chinese students at U.S. colleges rose from 62,000 a decade ago to 328,000 last year, and they still make up 31 percent of all international students in the U.S., but growth is slowing. On Monday, the Institute of International Education released federal data showing that the number of Chinese students at U.S. colleges grew by 8 percent last year, the smallest uptick since 2005.





. . .
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Presidents from Herbert Hoover to Jimmy Carter once entertained dignitaries and diplomats aboard the yacht or simply sought refuge there from the Oval Office.



By RANDALL CHASE

Associated Press

DOVER, Del.  An investment group with ties to a wealthy industrialist family in India can take ownership of the former U.S. presidential yacht Sequoia with no payment to its current owner, a Delaware judge ruled Monday.

Vice Chancellor Sam Glasscock ruled that FE Partners, an investment entity formed by Washington, D.C.-based Equator Capital Group and members of the Timblo family, can exercise an option to acquire the Sequoia at an adjusted option price of zero.





. . .
Letterkenny Institute of Technology (LYIT) is one of five higher education institutions selected to participate in a national student engagement programme.

This collaborative initiative is supported by the Union of Students in Ireland, the Higher Education Authority, and Quality & Qualifications Ireland, in consultation with Student Partnerships in Quality Scotland. LYIT is working with NUI Galway, National College of Ireland, Cork IT and Waterford IT in shaping best practice for students.

The aim of the programme is to ensure that students are centrally involved in the decision-making process in higher education institutions.

At LYIT we are dedicated to providing the best possible experience for our students," Lynn Ramsey, teaching and learning co-ordinator at LYIT, said, "We believe that key to excellent student experience is working in partnership with students. Selection for the national programme ensures that we can continue our commitment to ongoing improvement, strengthening student engagement to better support all students.

The two key strands of work involved in the national programme involve rolling out a national student training programme and developing institutional capacity.

In October, LYIT participated in the first stage of the training programme designed to support student representatives in their role. It proved to be a huge success. Forty LYIT students participated in the initial training, meeting informally with their heads of school and department.

Building bridges between students and staff members in order to achieve positive results is essentially the goal," Dylan McGowan, LYIT Students' Union president, said. "Im very glad and proud for LYIT to be selected for this initiative. This is most definitely a positive step in the right direction for students, staff and LYIT as a whole.

The national programme reflects LYITs strength in student engagement, where the institute staff and students work as equal partners in all aspects of college life.

Further training sessions will be provided this month.
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Home Off beat America Vs Bahrain Godzilla Speed War Continues: New Nissan GT-R Quarter Mile World Record Set oi-Dennis James

The Nissan GT-R has always been an insane car with its sub 3.0-second sprint to 100km/h. For tuners though that 3.8-litre twin-turbo V6 is a monster that can be tuned to deliver crazy times on the drag strip.

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With a global diaspora estimated at almost 70 million people, new mechanisms have been developed for some of the most successful Irish people overseas to connect with Ireland, and identify ways to contribute to Irelands continued recovery and economic development.

Following on from previous work done in the diaspora arena, Louth County Council is now focusing its attention on mobilising new people, building connections and engaging with high-achievers and industry leaders from our local diaspora to benefit local and regional development.

It is hoped that taking a more targeted approach to engaging with our county diaspora will benefit economic development and job creation in the county.

The Governments 2015 Global Irish diaspora policy created a strategic framework to support local initiatives aimed at connecting and engaging with our diaspora communities worldwide, said Mary T Daly, senor executive officer, Economic Development, Louth County Council.

The success of The Gathering in 2013 indicated the potential created in Louth for local initiatives and community enterprise to enhance and strengthen links and affinity between Ireland and our diaspora communities through tourism, culture and heritage.

We now want to see how we can leverage our connections to create further jobs in the county.

One of the main actions of Louth Economic Forums five year Foreign Direct Investment Plan 2015-2020 is to Identify and leverage the County Louth Diaspora to encourage mobile investments into the county.

While Louth is already home to a number of multi-national companies, the LEF seeks to build a stronger Louth brand as a more competitive host location for FDI and intends to maximize on additional investment through the diaspora links which can be further developed with the assistance of IDA Ireland, Connect Ireland and other agencies.

Louth also has a strong base of indigenous companies with international profiles providing considerable employment opportunities in the county.

This successful track record provides incentives for future diaspora - focused initiatives in attracting people back home.

Louth County Council is inviting everyone to contribute to the Louth Diaspora strategy.

Closing date for submissions Friday 25 November.

Observations can be filed via email to marytdaly@louthcoco.ie. or posted to Mary T Daly, Economic Development, Planning and Infrastructure, Louth County Council, Crowe Street, Dundalk, Co. Louth. A91 W20C.

ENDS

Further information: Mary T Daly marytdaly@louthcoco.ie. Telephone: 042 9392961

Note to Editors

Louth Economic Forum

The Councils economic development policy is supported by the work of Louth Economic Forum (LEF), a group of multi-disciplinary stakeholders drawn from industry and business across the county. Chaired by former FORFAS CEO Martin Cronin, the LEF was established in 2009 to identify and promote the conditions conducive to job creation by targeting activities with economic development potential in a manner that would not be possible without the stakeholder partnership enabled by the LEF.

Our Irish Diaspora

The Irish diaspora comprises people of different interests, different beliefs, different reasons for being outside Ireland and holding different views of both Ireland and their host countries. It is young people and old people; those who have found success abroad and those who have not; those who have left Ireland by choice and those who left by compulsion; and those who were not born in Ireland but are descended from those who did. In addition, we also now include a growing number of people who have spent time living, studying and working in Ireland and then returned home to their home countries, often with Irish born children.
Aoife McGeough from St Vincent's School Dundalk won the 18 and under category in the Europe Direct Soapbox Competition for 2016 last week.

All through the autumn, contestants have been battling the length and breadth of the country, passionately defending or attacking the idea of The EU: United in Diversity in the sixth annual Europe Direct National Soapbox Competition.

Eight Europe Direct Information Centres in public libraries around the country held lively discussions on this topical subject, giving the public the chance to have their say.

Fifteen finalists competed in the National Final, which took place at the National Concert Hall on Tuesday, the 8th of November with Aoife, the North-East/Midlands region and Siobhan Fitzgerald from Galway, representing the Midlands region being announced as the National Winners of the Europe Direct Soapbox Competition 2016 in the 18 and under and adult categories respectively.

Mr. Damien English Minister of State, Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government opened the event as guest of honour and the prizes were presented by Mr. Gerard Kiely, Head of Representation, European Commission Representation in Ireland. The Soapbox Final was chaired by Mr. Tim Hayes, Head of Information and Communications, European Commission Representation in Ireland. The panel of judges was chaired by Mr. Donal Singleton, Acting CEO, LGMA.

Highly commended by the judges for their performance on the day were contestants Anna Delaney in the 18 and under category, representing the Midlands region, and Michael Keenan in the adult category, representing the West/Midlands region.

Each contestant had three minutes to make their case, convince the judges and win over the audience.
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In the main channel of the waterlab at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, PhD-student Andres Vargas-Luna simulated the shaping of rivers including the effects of vegetation. He did this by putting 10.000 small plastic plants in the channel.

It is the first time such quantitative data has been collected on the behaviour of rivers.

Vargas defends his PhD-thesis on 15 November.

PhD-student Andres Vargas-Luna is assistant professor at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Colombia

Development of river banks

There is a rising awareness of the need to include the effects of vegetation in studies dealing with the behaviour of rivers.

There are currently multiple models that use the strength of the flow to calculate how the banks erode.

Vargas: But problems arise when trying to calculate their extension as there are no models for this. It is often assumed that the land that erodes from one bank, expands the other. I want to know which role vegetation plays in the development of riverbanks.

The outcomes of his research emphasize the relevance of considering the effects of vegetation on the river management and on the designing, planning and maintaining of restoration projects.

Development of sandbanks

Vargas started his experiment at the lab with a straight, narrow, elongated channel in the large flume. He created scenarios with and without vegetation, allowing sandbanks to develop as well as erosion on the other side. He repeated this and placed vegetation on the flood plains, as well as on the sediment bars.

Lots of work, lots of fun

Vargas opted for small plastic plants to study the role of vegetation. We put 10,000 in the main channel. That was really fun, but an awful lot of work. We did it in one hour shifts. It was impossible to last any longer as you were upside down and this led to cramping arms.

However, according to Vagras it was worth it. We collected unique data! Elsewhere this has only been studied in miniature, with solely qualitative results.

Andres Vargas-Luna is Assistant Professor of the Hydraulic and Environmental group at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Bogota, Colombia).

He is advancing his doctoral studies within the Civil Engineering and Geosciences Faculty at Delft University of Technology.

(top photo by Picture: TU Delft/Frank Auperle)

Read also on this website

 Official opening Metronome tidal facility to simulate river flows at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, 14 January 2016

 Delft University of Technology starts free online course on Building with Nature, 29 November 2015

 Delft coastal researchers win US challenge with spectacular movie Drones at the Beach, 31 March 2015

More information

Civil Engineering and Geosciences Faculty

Delft University of Technology

Delft, the Netherlands

+31 15 27 89 802

www.citg.tudelft.nl/en

Interview with Andres Vargas explaining his study at the waterlab of the Delft university of technology.


Brand new phase coming soon to Taylor Wimpey at Cambourne, Cambridgeshire

House-hunters in Cambridgeshire will soon have a fresh opportunity to snap up their dream place at Taylor Wimpey at Cambourne, with a new phase of homes coming soon at this sought-after development.

The leading local housebuilder is preparing to release another exciting collection of stunning new properties on Saturday 19th November, which will consist of 3 and 4 bedroom homes.

In the meantime, prospective purchasers are being urged to discover the superb homes available to reserve now in the current phase at Taylor Wimpey at Cambourne, which includes a selection of beautiful two, three, four and five-bedroom houses.

Caroline Carter, Regional Sales and Marketing Director for Taylor Wimpey, says: Were incredibly excited about the upcoming launch of our new collection of homes at Taylor Wimpey at Cambourne.

The development has already been a big hit with home-hunters and this next phase is set to be very popular, with a fantastic choice of properties that will cater for a variety of buyers in a range of circumstances.

Id advise anyone hoping to secure one of the new homes at this wonderful development to get in touch without delay, to give themselves the best chance of reserving their pick of the plots when they are released for sale!

There is something for everyone in the current phase at Taylor Wimpey at Cambourne, including two-bedroom terraced homes from 274,995, three-bedroom houses from 359,995, four-bedroom detached properties from 474,995 and five-bedroom designs from 504,995.

To make choosing one of these high-quality homes even easier and more affordable, Taylor Wimpey offers a range of helpful homebuyer incentives, including Help to Buy, Part Exchange and easymover. Full details are available from the Sales Executive.

Cambournes impressive range of local amenities includes three primary schools, a nursery and a secondary school, plus a library, playing fields and play areas, a multi-denominational church and a medical centre.

The community is also home to a selection of high street shops, a supermarket with petrol station, a choice of restaurants, a pharmacy, a dry-cleaners and a coffee shop, while an exceptional range of amenities can be found in Cambridges city centre nine miles away.

For commuters, the A14 is a short drive away, with the M11 also within easy reach. St Neots railway station is seven miles from Upper Cambourne, putting the capital just an hour away by train.

To find out more about the new homes now available and coming soon at Taylor Wimpey at Cambourne, savvy home-hunters can visit the Sales Information Centre, located off Brace Dein, Upper Cambourne, CB23 6DY, and open daily from 10.30am to 5pm (Mondays 1.30pm to 5pm). Alternatively, visit taylorwimpey.co.uk.
Three owners of Galaxy Note7 smartphones this week filed acomplaint in a federal court in Newark, New Jersey, that could become a class action lawsuit against Samsung.

Plaintiffs and the Class have suffered injury in fact, incurred millions of dollars in fees, and have otherwise been harmed by Samsungs conduct, the complaint states.

Samsung recalled the phones and stopped producing them after faulty batteries caused a number of the original products and their replacements to smoke and ignite.

The Department of Transportation last week banned the defective Galaxy Note7s from all U.S. flights.

Samsung on Friday warned that it would lose about $US3 billion during the current quarter and in the first quarter of 2017. The company earlier in the week had warned that it would take a hit of about $2.6 billion due to the recall impact.

The DoT, which oversees federal government policy for all commercial travel in the U.S., announced the ban under an emergency order with the Federal Aviation Administration and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).

The extraordinary move by the agencies means that Galaxy Note7 owners no longer can transport the devices in checked baggage, in carry-on luggage or on their person, when boarding U.S. flights. The ban also eliminate the phones from air cargo, effectively making it almost impossible to use it on long-distance trips.

Fire Hazard Continues

Samsung last week expanded its product recall after several of the reissued phones exhibited the same overheating and fire hazards that were found in the original Galaxy Note7 devices. Samsungs recall allows for customers either to get a new Samsung phone of a different model or a full refund from the retail store or the mobile carrier that issued the phone.

Samsung is offering up to $100 in bill credits for customers exhanging their Galaxy Note7 for another Samsung device, and up to $75 for customers who already exchanged their Note devices for another Samsung phone.

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the federal agency that oversees products recalls, Samsung had received 96 reports of phones overheating in the U.S, including 23 since the original Sept.15 recall. The company received 13 reports of burns and 47 reports of property damage due to the overheating and fire risks.

The DoT recognized the inconvenience of the move, but said that passenger safety must take priority, Secretary Anthony Foxx said.

We are taking this additional step because even one fire incident inflight poses a high risk of severe injury and puts many lives at risk, he added.

Passengers attempting to fly with a Galaxy Note7 phone will be denied boarding, and anyone attempting to evade the ban by placing a device inside checked luggage will be subject to criminal prosecution in addition to fines, the DoT noted.

The PHMSA has issued a special permit to Samsung to ship the devices by ground in order to complete the product recall.

Samsung last week said it would focus on improving product safety by making significant changes to its quality assurance process.

Samsung had self-tested the lithium-ion batteries at a lab that it owns, The Wall Street Journal reported, noting that it is the only phone manufacturer with such a process.

Brand Damage

The second recall likely will do lasting damage to Samsung by pushing some of its longtime customers to other makers of Android devices  or, if they are willing to learn a new OS, to a proven rival in Apple, the maker of the iPhone 7, which just launched last month.

Because the switching time and pain of moving from Android to iOS is so high, they are more likely to lose these customers to Google if theyre on Verizon, or LG or Motorola if theyre on other carriers, observed Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.

Theyll want another top-end phone, he told the E-Commerce Times, its not likely theyll be willing to configure an iPhone from scratch.

Samsung will suffer some short-term brand damage and lose a few customers to the iPhone, but a greater number to rival Android phone makers, said Jitesh Ubrani, a senior research analyst at IDC.

However, over the long haul, he told the E-Commerce Times, Samsungs brand can survive the crisis.
A LinkedIn block in Russia could be imminent, in light of last weeks court ruling that the company broke a law requiring personal data on Russian citizens to be stored on servers within the country.

Roskomnadzor, Russias telecommunications and media authority, is waiting until it has the full text of the ruling before acting on it.

We remain interested in a meeting with Roskomnadzor to discuss their data localization request, said LinkedIn spokesperson May Chow.

The Russian courts decision has the potential to deny access to LinkedIn for the millions of members we have in Russia and the companies that use LinkedIn to grow their business, she told the E-Commerce Times.

Russia had 5 million registered LinkedIn members in Q1. The United States had 128 million, and India had 35 million. Indonesia and the Netherlands were ahead of Russia with 6 million each.

Behind the Scenes

On Sept. 21 last year, Amendments to Russias 2014 law requiring the localization of personal data in the countrys territory went into effect last fall.

Moscows Tagansky Court this summer approved a request from Roskomnadzor to add LinkedIn to a list of Internet sites that had violated the new provisions.

LinkedIns appeal against the ruling was rejected last week.

Why LinkedIn?

Foreign social media firms including Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp gather, process and share Russian users data, but it appears thatnone of them comply with the Russian law.

LinkedIn might serve as a showcase to support Roskomnadzors desire to gain greater control over social networks, which played a major role in street protests in Moscow in 2011 and 2012. Up to now, it hasnt been able to clamp down on them.

LinkedIn is perhaps small enough to tackle, and its relationships with Roskomnadzor apparently are not as strong as those of Facebook and Twitter.

Its possible that a ban on LinkedIn would aim to push larger players to negotiate, and bans on smaller social networking sites might be implemented to ratchet up the pressure.

Russian rights activist Pavel Chikov reportedly has visualized a worst-case scenario in which the ban is the first step in Russias easing out of the global Internet.

The Impact on US Companies

Russias data law is part of a worldwide data localization trend that emerged in the wake of news about the U.S. National Security Agencys PRISM surveillance program, which first came to light several years ago.

The PRISM revelations caused laws to come up all over the world requiring localized storage of citizen data, observed Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.

These laws have already significantly adversely impacted international sales of technology and services across a broad spectrum of firms, and will likely continue hurting domestic revenues, jobs and taxes, he told the E-Commerce Times.

A Ray of Hope

Other countries need us more than we need them, maintained Michael Jude, a program manager at Stratecast/Frost & Sullivan.

If they protect themselves from our technology, they cant use it either, he told the E-Commerce Times. Foreign customers will be denied access to the best technology, which will hurt their economies more than ours.

Microsofts impending acquisition may give LinkedIn a way out, Enderle suggested.

Azure has many localized storage facilities, he said, and I expect LinkedIn will use those resources to better comply with these laws.
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By Jessica Corbett

In an example to the rest of the scientific community and an effort to wake up people  particularly policymakers  worldwide, 17 scientists penned a comprehensive assessment of the current state of the planet and what the future could hold due to biodiversity loss, climate disruption, human consumption and population growth.

Ours is not a call to surrender  we aim to provide leaders with a realistic cold shower of the state of the planet that is essential for planning to avoid a ghastly future, according to the perspective paper, co-authored by experts across Australia, Mexico, and the United States, and published in the journal Frontiers in Conservation Science.

Co-author Paul R. Ehrlich of Stanford Universitys Center for Conservation Biology  who has raised alarm about overpopulation for decades  told Common Dreams his colleagues are all scared about whats to come. Scientists have to learn to be communicators, said Ehrlich, citing James Hansens warning about the consequences of scientific reticence. Hansen, a professor at Columbia Universitys Earth Institute and former director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, testified to Congress about the climate crisis in 1988. Ehrlich was straightforward about how extremely dangerous things are now and the necessity of a World War II-type mobilization to prevent predictions detailed in the paper: a ghastly future of mass extinction, declining health, and climate-disruption upheavals (including looming massive migrations), and resource conflicts. What we are saying might not be popular, and indeed is frightening. But we need to be candid, accurate, and honest if humanity is to understand the enormity of the challenges we face in creating a sustainable future, said co-author Daniel T. Blumstein of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at the University of California, Los Angeles, in a statement about the paper. By scientists telling it like it is, we hope to empower politicians to work to represent their citizen, not corporate, constituents, he said in an email to Common Dreams. The paper, Ehrlich and Blumstein pointed out, comes in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic  which, according to Johns Hopkins University, has killed nearly two million people. Over the past year, the Co-19 crisis has provoked calls for humanity to end its destruction of the natural world to prevent future public health catastrophes. Were all seeing the shocks to our global systems now from Covid and the rise of authoritarian leaders, Blumstein said. Because our current ways of life are ecologically unsustainable (were living in an ecological Ponzi scheme), we fully anticipate more  and more deadly  pandemics in the future. We expect civil unrest, wars, and famines. We are all shaken by the likelihood of the collapse of civilization as we know it.

From extreme hurricanes to droughts to wildfires, the climate crisis killed 262 people and cost $95 billion last year. This is not the new normal. This emergency will continue to get exponentially worse if we maintain the status quo.https://t.co/xRIG0NHzwy  Friends of the Earth (Action) (@foe_us) January 13, 2021 The new warning from scientists, Blumstein noted, cites over 150 other papers documenting the diverse and shocking decline in biodiversity and planetary health and their consequences. Among the cited sources is a World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) report that in September revealed an average 68% decrease in population sizes of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish between 1970 and 2016. In the midst of a global pandemic, it is now more important than ever to take unprecedented and coordinated global action to halt and start to reverse the loss of biodiversity and wildlife populations across the globe by the end of the decade, and protect our future health and livelihoods, WWF International director general Marco Lambertini said at the time. The co-authors  including William J. Ripple of Oregon State University, who last year led thousands of scientists in declaring a climate emergency and earlier this month led a call for a massive-scale mobilization to address the climate crisis  echoed Lambertinis message while also underscoring the importance of increasing awareness about whats actually needed. Humanity is causing a rapid loss of biodiversity and, with it, Earths ability to support complex life. But the mainstream is having difficulty grasping the magnitude of this loss, despite the steady erosion of the fabric of human civilization, the paper says.

Biodiversity is the thread of life on Earth.  Learn more about what #biodiversity is and why it matters for all of us in #GBO5.  https://t.co/ZnTCj1t6AY Video via @IPBESpic.twitter.com/P0rDTrrYQs  UN Biodiversity (@UNBiodiversity) January 9, 2021 In fact, the scale of the threats to the biosphere and all its lifeforms is so great that it is difficult to grasp for even well-informed experts, said lead author Corey Bradshaw of Australias Flinders University in a statement. The problem is compounded by ignorance and short-term self-interest, with the pursuit of wealth and political interests stymieing the action that is crucial for survival. The paper explains that while suggested solutions abound, the current scale of their implementation does not match the relentless progression of biodiversity loss and other existential threats tied to the continuous expansion of the human enterprise. According to its authors, That we are already on the path of a sixth major extinction is now scientifically undeniable. With such a rapid, catastrophic loss of biodiversity, the ecosystem services it provides have also declined, the paper explains. Consequences include reduced carbon sequestration, reduced pollination, soil degradation, poorer water and air quality, more frequent and intense flooding and fires, and compromised human health. Highlighting estimates that the human population will near 10 billion by 2050, the scientists lay out how large population size and continued growth are implicated in many societal problems, from food insecurity, soil degradation, biodiversity loss, and an increased chance of pandemics, to crowding, joblessness, deteriorating infrastructure, and bad governance. The paper also details the planetary impacts of dirty energy and carbon-intensive food production, and says that while climate change demands a full exit from fossil fuel use well before 2050, pressures on the biosphere are likely to mount prior to decarbonization as humanity brings energy alternatives online. A section on failed international goals declares that stopping biodiversity loss is nowhere close to the top of any countrys priorities, trailing far behind other concerns such as employment, healthcare, economic growth, or currency stability. The dangerous effects of climate change are much more evident to people than those of biodiversity loss, but society is still finding it difficult to deal with them effectively, the scientists note, while decrying utterly inadequate efforts by governments to even try to meet the targets of the landmark Paris climate agreement. They further decry the recent rise of right-wing, anti-environment agendas in countries including Australia, Brazil, and the United States  which recently denied President Donald Trump a second term. Ehrlich expressed hope that President-elect Joe Biden will work to deliver on the climate promises he made as a candidate. Bidens vow to rejoin the Paris agreement is positive news, but it is a minuscule gesture given the scale of the challenge, Ehrlich said in a statement. The president-elect is moving in the right direction, Ehrlich told Common Dreams, pointing to the selection of former Secretary of State John Kerry as his climate envoy. However, the Paris goals are increasingly looking inadequate, and Bidens political opportunities to do anything major may be greatly constrained, he added.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced today that it would delay a decision on granting an easement to Energy Transfer Partners for the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Standoffs between the Water Protectors and law enforcement over the Dakota Access Pipeline continue in the area that has become ground zero for opposition to a $3.7 billion project that would move domestic crude oil across four states and destroy tribal lands. Richard Bluecloud Castaneda / Greenpeace USA

The Army Corps determined that discussion with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and analysis are warranted, and construction on or under Corps land bordering Lake Oahe cannot occur because the Army has not made a final decision on whether to grant an easement.

The Army Corps informed the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Energy Transfer Partners and Dakota Access, LLC, that it has completed the review that it launched on September 9, 2016 and determined that additional discussion and analysis are warranted in light of the history of the Great Sioux Nations dispossessions of lands, the importance of Lake Oahe to the Tribe, our government-to-government relationship and the statute governing easements through government property.

The Army Corps went on to say that it invites the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to engage in discussion regarding potential conditions on an easement for the pipeline crossing that would reduce the risk of a spill or rupture, hasten detection and response to any possible spill, or otherwise enhance the protection of Lake Oahe and the Tribes water supplies.

The agencys remarks concluded by saying, We fully support the rights of all Americans to assemble and speak freely, and urge everyone involved in protest or pipeline activities to adhere to the principles of nonviolence.

[facebook https://www.facebook.com/EcoWatch/videos/1333980263281574/ expand=1]

The $3.8 billion pipeline project is now entering its final stretch. More than 80 percent of the pipeline has already been constructed. Last week, Energy Transfer Partnerss Kelcy Warren, the CEO of the parent company of Dakota Access LLC, told CBS News he is confident the pipeline will finish despite the ongoing protests now that Donald Trump will be Americas next president.

It is abundantly clear that the tribe was not adequately consulted in the permitting process, and the administration seems to recognize the need to respect the Tribes rights and sovereignty moving forward, Greenpeace spokesperson Lilian Molina said.

The previous decision to reroute the pipeline from Bismarck, a city that is mostly white, to just north of Standing Rock is a clear case of environmental racism. Pipelines are prone to spills and no matter where this disaster of a project crosses the Missouri River, it will jeopardize precious water supply downstream. We hope that a thorough but expeditious analysis shows that the pipeline must be stopped in order to protect all of our land, water and climate.
The United Nations has announced that 2016 is very likely to be the hottest year on record, surpassing 2015, which had been the warmest year since records began.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports president-elect Donald Trump is seeking quick ways to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris accord to combat climate change. Trump is a longtime climate change denier who has described global warming as a Chinese hoax.

To talk more about the UN climate talks here in Marrakech and the significance Donald Trumps election for the worlds effort to combat climate change, we are joined by Daniel Kammen, science envoy for the State Department and professor of energy at University of California at Berkeley.

Reposted with permission from our media associate Democracy Now!.
ECSU, BCCC Enter into Agreement for Criminal Justice Degree

Elizabeth City State University and Beaufort County Community College (BCCC) have entered into an agreement that will allow students in the Washington, North Carolina area the opportunity to receive a degree from ECSU while attending BCCC.

Beaufort County students who would like to receive a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice from ECSU can now start their coursework at BCCC. The two institutions entered into an articulation agreement on Thursday, Nov. 3.

As we look for ways of providing greater service to the region, opportunities provided through MOU arrangements with community colleges are very important, said ECSU Chancellor Thomas Conway. This particular MOU focuses on linking the Criminal Justice programs at the two institutions to expand opportunities for bachelors degrees through ECSU for students completing associates degrees at BCCC. Our goal is to expand our relationship with BCCC into other curricula areas after demonstrating the effectiveness of this initiative.

Colleges around the state often have slightly different required coursework tied to a major. An articulation agreement acknowledges that the college where the student will finish their coursework, in this case Elizabeth City State University, will accept all of the classes taken at BCCC. Students in the criminal justice program often go on to a four-year institution to complete a bachelors degree.

This gives our students one more option to complete a four-year degree, said BCCC criminal justice instructor Crystal Watts. As the focus changes from incarceration to surveillance, parole and probation, students with a better understanding of the law and technology will be able to get further ahead. Probation and parole positions require a four-year degree.

The criminal justice technology curriculum is designed to provide knowledge of criminal justice systems and operations. Students focus on local, state, and federal law enforcement, judicial processes, corrections and security services. They also look at the criminal justice systems role within society.

As a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina, Elizabeth City State University offers baccalaureate, professional and master's degrees for a diverse student body. Its mission is to promote economic, social and environmental progress for the people of northeastern North Carolina, the state and the nation.

ECSU achieves its commitment to the highest quality education by maintaining a rigorous focus on academic excellence through liberal arts programs and using innovative and flexible technology-based instruction models to enhance its signature areas: integrating technology with education, improving human health and wellness and advancing the natural and aviation sciences.

Beaufort County Community College provides accessible and affordable education, to the people of Beaufort, Hyde, Tyrrell and Washington Counties.

The program is pending SACS approval.
(Photo: REUTERS / Soe Zeya Tun)Rohingya Muslims attend a wrestling festival at Kyaukpannu village in Maungdaw, northern Rakhine state, June 6, 2014. Since international aid groups were forced out of the Rakhine area in February and March, members of the minority Muslim Rohingya community who relied on them say basic health care services have all but disappeared. Worst affected are those in Northern Rakhine State (NRS), home to most of Myanmar's 1.3 million Rohingya who are stalked by sickness and malnourishment and as yet untouched by reforms under a semi-civilian government which took power in 2011.

Buddhist aid workers in Myanmar who are helping the country's beleaguered Rohingya Muslim group are facing a backlash from their own community, so they do not openly show the work they are doing.

Soe Aung who works for an international aid agency in his hometown of Sittwe, the capital of Myanmar's Rakhine State told IRIN, the news agency that covers humanitarian issues and emergencies, that it's a good job.

Yet he isn't eager to discuss it in a public setting or outside his close circle of friends and family. That's because his agency helps Rohingya Muslims.

"I stay low-profile here," said Soe Aung. "In conversations, in the tea shop, I don't talk about it and I don't argue with local people."

Up to 69 members of what Myanmar's government says are members of a Rohingya Muslim militant group and 17 members of the security forces have been killed in an escalation of fighting in ethnically divided Rakhine State, the army said Nov. 15.

The killing is the most serious since hundreds of people were killed in communal clashes in Rakhine in 2012, Reuter's news agency is reporting.

The death toll, announced in the State-owned Global New Light of Myanmar daily newspaper, was significantly higher than that reported by State media at the weekend.

The announcement came as former United Nations chief Kofi Annan, who chairs a commission on resolving Rakhine's problems, expressed concern at the upsurge in violence.

MAJORITY BUDDHISTS

Soe Aung is like most people in the area, a Rakhine, one of Myanmar's officially recognized ethnic groups who are Buddhist, which is the majority religion nationwide.

Muslims in the state make up the second-largest religious group there and mostly identify as Rohingya.

The 1.1 million Rohingya are not officially recognized as one of Myanmar's 135 "national races" and are subject to apartheid-like restrictions, most of them denied citizenship.

Rohingya Muslims are denied citizenship and many of Myanmar's majority Buddhists regard them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

The Rohingya face restrictions on travel and access to healthcare. Many were dependent on regular nutritional and medical aid long before the outbreak of fighting in October.

In 2012 tensions between the two communities turned violent and hundreds of people were killed, most of them Rohingya.

Around 140,000 people were forced out of their communities and close to 120,000 people remain in camps around Sittwe today, almost all of them Rohingya.

Follow the eruption of the 2012 violence international aid agencies arrived to deal with the humanitarian crisis, and there was a high demand for local staff.

Drawn by bigger salaries and the opportunity to do interesting, challenging work, many Rakhine Buddhists applied and were hired.

But IRIN reports their new work drew criticism from members of their local communities, who came to resent the presence of international organizations due to a perception that they are on the "side" of the Rohingya.

That recurring tension between international NGOs and some in the Rakhine community over a number of years is said to have been stoked often by Buddhist nationalist monks.

In 2014, Rakhine Buddhists rioted in Sittwe, damaging the offices of a German medical charity, Malteser International, as well as some UN agencies.

The tension has intensified again in recent weeks during military operations in Maungdaw, a township on the frontier with Bangladesh.

The government in Myanmar accuses members of the Rohingya community for carrying out lethal attacks on border police posts, so the army is now hunting down a militant group.

IRIN cites Gabrielle Aron, the director of programs for the Collaborative for Development Action, the author of a recent report on conflict sensitivity in Rakhine that touches on the relationship between local aid workers and their communities.

She found that Rakhine NGO staff came under pressure.

"Given the perception among much of the ethnic Rakhine community that most international agencies primarily support the Muslim population, working for these agencies as an ethnic Rakhine person can be seen as a betrayal, given the intercommunal tensions," said Aron.

"They are in a tough position. Many staff of international agencies are genuinely dedicated to the work that they do, but they have a difficult line to walk."

IRIN changed the names of Rakhine aid workers for their protection.
Donald Trumps victory in the race for the White House leaves widespread uncertainty about whats in store for public schools under the first Republican administration in eight years. Aside from school choice, Trump, a New York-based real estate developer who has never before held public office, spent little time talking about K-12 education during his campaign. And he has no record to speak of on the issue for insights into what he may propose.

Were all engaging in a lot of speculation because there hasnt been a lot of serious discussion about this, especially in the Trump campaign, Martin R. West, an associate professor of education at Harvard University, said in the run-up to the Nov. 8 presidential election. West has advised Republicans, including 2012 nominee Mitt Romney and Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, on education.

U.S. Senate (Postelection) 52 Republicans

46 Democrats

2 Independents (caucus with Democrats) U.S. House of Representatives (Postelection) 240 Republicans

195 Democrats Source: Associated Press trend data as of Nov. 10

Trump did propose a $20 billion plan to dramatically expand school choice for low-income students. It would use federal money to help them attend private, charter, magnet, and regular public schools of their choice. Its also designed to leverage additional state investments in school choice of up to $100 billion nationwide.

In the campaign, the president-elect also embraced merit pay for teachers, without offering details beyond saying he found it unfair that bad teachers sometimes earned more than the good ones. And, on the early-childhood front, hes pitched offering six weeks of maternity leave to women who do not get it through their employers, expanding the availability of dependent-care savings accounts, and offering tax incentives for employers to provide on-site day care.

But otherwise, the Trump campaign mostly dealt in sound bites with such controversial issues as the Common Core State Standards, the possibility of getting rid of the U.S. Department of Education, and gun-free school zones.

I could really see him trying to minimize any role [of the federal government in education], Nat Malkus, a research fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said in contemplating the implications of a Trump presidency ahead of the vote.

Pressing Issues and Staff

While education is not a high-profile issue politically at the moment, its not as if the Trump administration wont have anything to do on school policy.

See Also Complete Coverage: 2016 Election

At or near the top of the K-12 to-do list is how the new administration handles the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA, the latest version of the flagship federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act that was first passed in 1965. The Education Department under President Barack Obama is relatively close to finalizing ESSA regulations governing how states hold schools accountable and how districts must show they are using federal money to supplement their state and local school budgets.

Republicans in Congress have been critical of both sets of proposals from the department, particularly the one governing the supplemental-money rule. In fact, 25 GOP lawmakers recently asked the department to rescind its proposal for ensuring federal funds are supplemental, not a replacement for state and local money, on the grounds that the proposal would give the department too much power over state and local budget decisions.

The incoming administration may be on the same page as those lawmakers, said Gerard Robinson, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former state schools chief in Virginia and Florida.

I think [Trumps] secretary of education will handle it differently than what weve seen from [current Secretary] John King, regarding the so-called supplement-not-supplant rules, Robinson said. Robinson is serving as a member of the Trump transition team, but spoke only on his own behalf.

However, when it comes to ESSA in general, Robinson said he believes that Trump views the law as a result of a bipartisan coalition and that the president-elect wont get too heavily involved in ESSAs rollout.

And Robinson expects states to have a great deal of flexibility in the ESSA accountability plans that they submit to the Trump administration starting next yearsignificantly more than they enjoyed under Obama-era waivers from the No Child Left Behind Act, the predecessor to ESSA.

This is a great time to be a state chief, Robinson said, adding at the same time that I dont want state chiefs to think that when they turn those [plans] in that, Oh, well, these will just get approved. 

Enforcement Question

Whats more, a lot of policies under the No Child Left Behind Act were part of the law but the George W. Bush or Obama administration didnt do much to enforce them. A couple of examples: the requirement that highly qualified teachers be distributed fairly between poor and less-poor schools, and that districts offer free tutoring to students in schools that werent making progress under the law.

There could be similar examples of provisions that are on the books in ESSA, or in the Obama administrations regulations for the law, said Vic Klatt, a one-time aide to House Republicans who is now a principal at the Penn Hill Group. And since the Trump administration will be the first to enforce ESSA, it could be easier and less disruptive for it to simply ignore parts of the law than it would be for another administration down the line, Klatt said.

Trump could also discard another key piece of the Obama education legacy: The president-elect could significantly curb the role of the departments office for civil rights when it comes to state and local policies, according to Robinson, and thereby return the OCRs role more to how it operated under Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. That could have a big impact on everything from action on racial disparities in school discipline to transgender students rights.

Robinson also said that he expects the OCR to ensure that students rights are not trampled on.

See Also Blog Coverage: Donald Trump

Some civil rights advocates though, are already concerned, given some of Trumps campaign-trail rhetoric on Muslims and Latinos, that the office wont flex its enforcement muscles.

Were worried, said Liz King, the director of education policy for the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Were hearing what everyone else is hearing from teachers and families that kids dont feel safe.

Key Personnel

Much depends on whom Trump picks to lead his Education Departmentassuming that he decides not to seek elimination or drastic cutbacks to the agency, which he has sometimes said he would like to do.

In October, Carl Palladino, a school board member in Buffalo, N.Y., and a Trump campaign surrogate, said he believed that if elected, Trump would pick someone from outside the education policy world to lead the department.

Another critical decision will be on who reviews states proposed accountability plans for ESSA next year.

Who are going to be his people? If he brings in a traditional right-of-center group, you can take it from there, said Maria Ferguson, the executive director of the Center on Education Policy, who worked in the Education Department under President Bill Clinton.

Ferguson suggested a traditional conservative policy agenda of expanded charter schools and other initiatives would probably get traction under Trump.

All these familiar themes that the right-of-center groups have talked about will become a version of his agenda, Ferguson predicted. She mentioned school choice and groups like the Foundation for Excellence in Education, which was founded by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, one of Trumps rivals for the GOP nomination. But I dont think its going to come from him.

Earlier this year, Trump tapped Rob Goad, a staffer for Rep. Luke Messer, R-Ind., to be his education adviser, not long before the Trump campaign released its $20 billion school choice plan. There are some basic similarities between Trumps plan and a push last year to make federal Title I aid portable for disadvantaged students to use at both public and private schools.

And Trumps transition team for education includes Robinson, the former Florida and Virginia state chief, and Williamson M. Evers, a research fellow at Stanford Universitys Hoover Institution, who worked at the Education Department under President George W. Bush.

Working With Congress

Much also depends on Trumps relationship with Congress and to what extent he empowers key GOP lawmakers on education policy.

Besides ESSA, Congress has been fairly active in moving education-related legislation. In recent months, for example, the House of Representatives approved reauthorizations of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act and the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act.

Some, but less, progress has also been made on renewing the Child Nutrition Act. And the Higher Education Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and the Head Start federal preschool program are up for reauthorization in the near future.

Trump has outlined a general plan on college affordability, including capping student-loan repayments at 12.5 percent of income and instituting loan forgiveness after 15 years for certain borrowers. College affordability is a more prominent issue thanks to the 2016 presidential campaign. And since Congress remains sharply divided along partisan lines, Trump and the Republicans likely wont be able to simply roll ahead with all their preferences on higher education.

Youre not doing anything legislatively without bipartisan support, said West, of Harvard. Its not obvious to me that there is a clear Republican agenda in Congress right now with respect to K-12 education, except for trying to ensure that ESSA is implemented in a way consistent with the intent of the law of empowering states to design accountability systems as they see fit.

Regarding Trumps school choice plan, for example, West noted that a more limited pitch to allow students to take Title I funds, targeting disadvantaged students, to the public or private schools of their choice fell flat during negotiations to pass what ultimately became ESSA. Thats a bad sign for a broader initiative like the one Trump has put out, he said. (ESSA does broaden access to grant money distributed through the federal Charter School Program.)

But uncertainty prevails, both over what the new president will take an interest in and how much he will push to get education bills and initiatives over the finish line.
Nearly a decade after she was hired as the first woman to run the Council Bluffs, Iowa, school district, Mary Martha Bruckner is often one of the only women in the room.

That was the case last month when about two dozen superintendents and finance officers from Iowas urban school systems met to set their legislative agenda for the coming year.

Surveying the room, Bruckner spotted two other women.

It was like, Wow, things havent changed much at all,  said Bruckner, who is used to being a pioneer. In 1986, she became the first female high school principal in the Ralston, Neb., district.

Even though K-12 education is largely a female enterprise, men dominate the chief executives office in the nations nearly 14,000 districts, numbers that look especially bleak given that the pool of talent is deep with women. Women make up 76 percent of teachers, 52 percent of principals, and 78 percent of central-office administrators, according to federal data and the results of a recent national survey. Yet they account for less than a quarter of all superintendents, according to a survey conducted this summer by AASA, the School Superintendents Association. But that number represents improvement since 2000, when 13 percent were women.

In Utah, the number of women in superintendents offices can be counted on one hand. Schenectady, N.Y., hasnt had a woman in charge in the districts 162-year history. Just two years ago, Richmond County, Georgias 12th-largest district, hired its first female superintendent.

Its a huge problem, said Margaret Grogan, the dean of the college of educational studies at Chapman University in Orange, Calif. If we have talented administrators, wouldnt you want all of the talented administrators to move into the superintendency? After all, thats the position that has the most power to facilitate the growth and development of all of the children and families in the district.

An Unappealing Job?

Though only a small number make it to the helm, women currently run some of the largest school systems, including those in New York City, Los Angeles, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C., and Albuquerque, N.M.

So why do so few women occupy the top job?

Some simply dont want it. They prefer teaching and being close to students. The hours are punishing, school board politics can be brutal, and public scrutiny is intense. The average superintendent stays on the job less than five years. For some women, that uncertainty is not worth uprooting their families.

SEE ALSO: N.C. Superintendents Philosophy on Being a Woman and a Schools Chief: You Just Do the Work

The search for superintendents also traditionally has pulled from districts pool of secondary school principals. Women, who were more likely to be elementary principals, were less likely to be immediately tapped. Part of the problem stems from districts lack of planning for long-term leadership, which makes it difficult to spot talented educators, including women, who could be groomed to be in charge. Educators also see subtle biases in how school boards and search firms recruit candidates, and negative stereotypes about womens abilities to lead large institutions are still pervasive.

And with so few women in the top job, prospective female leaders have limited opportunities to networklosing out on mentors who can advise them on applying for the job, getting the right experience, and navigating difficulties.

While educators and scholars say its crucial that more women occupy the top leadership positions in K-12, the more than one dozen current or former women superintendents interviewed by Education Week are adamant that they want to be hired because they are qualified.

I dont want to be offered a position because I am a woman; likewise, I dont want to lose a position because I am a woman, said Julie Mitchell, the superintendent of the Rowland Unified district in Southern California. Its really about what you can contribute to the organization, and what you can contribute to the work that can be done, regardless of what your gender is.

At the same time, Mitchell acknowledged: I think it would be naive to think there are not some stereotypes that exist.

It wasnt always that way, said Thomas Glass, a retired professor of education leadership at the University of Memphis.

In 1930, when the education profession was even more female-dominated than now, the American school system was mostly rural, and women ran many of the nations countywide districts, Glass said. With the end of World War II, and male veterans taking advantage of the GI Bill, more men started entering the profession.

Women kind of got shoved to the back of the bus in the 40s, 50s, and 60s, Glass said.

Qualifications, Not Gender

When they do get the job, women often face scrutiny men dont, some superintendents said. They are told to smile more, their appearances are critiqued, and they can face harsh treatment when they assert their authority.

Deborah Jewell-Sherman, a former superintendent in the Richmond, Va., district, recalled a searing moment when she rebuked a colleague at a meeting.

I heard somebody pulling him off to the side, and I heard the B-word, said Jewell-Sherman, now a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

I think [it] was, in part, that I had the audacity to challenge something he was saying, she said. Part of it, I think, is race and gender. I think there is an additional burden for women of color in that role. Jewell-Sherman is African-American.

Gender is not a consideration when hiring a superintendent, some school board members said.

We only pay attention to the qualifications of the candidates, said Judy Nieh, a former school board member in Californias Rowland Unified, who was on the board in 2005 when it hired its first female superintendent, Maria Ott.

As long as the person is a good match with the district, I think thats far more important than whether they are male or female, Nieh added.

But Chapman Universitys Grogan said board members who dont look for diverse backgrounds when they consider candidates are compounding the problem, which also plagues other sectors trying to address underrepresentation of women, African-Americans, Latinos, and other groups. Top executive positions in most fields are defined by what worked for the people whove held the jobs in the past: men. Two prime examples: long and inflexible hours and the types of previous job experiences believed to be stepping stones.

School boards also have more authority than they might think to attract more female candidates to seek superintendents jobs, said Jacinda Jazz Conboy, the general counsel for the New York State Council of School Superintendents.

They can say we value diversity, we want women applicants, we want minority applicants, she said.

Its not that women are better leaders or get better results for students, Grogan and others say. But they may bring attributes that can be huge assets. The majority of women superintendents started their careers in classrooms and bring an expertise on good instruction, and because so many were principals, they know how to set goals and work with many players to achieve them, Grogan said.

Barbara Jenkins, the superintendent of Floridas Orange County district, said those asking for better representation for women are not seeking special preference. The issue, she said, is making sure well-qualified women have a fair shot at landing the job and the right supports to get there.

Jenkins credits Ronald Blocker, her predecessor in Orange County, with persistently pushing her.

Hed say Snatch the pebble from my hand, its time. Its time for you to take on that role,  she said, quoting the 1970s Kung Fu television show.

Women often must make extraordinary personal sacrifices, and having supportive families and friends is essential, superintendents said. Marian Kim-Phelps, the superintendent in Californias Westminster Unified district, commutes weekly from San Diego, where her husband and daughter live.

She Meant Business

In Bruckners case, she was at the right place at the right time.

In 2007, after serving five years as the associate superintendent in the Millard school system in Omaha, Neb., she told her superintendent she was ready for the top job herself in another district.

I didnt have as much influence as I wanted to, and I realized that the only way I was going to have more influence was to become a superintendent, said Bruckner.

At the same time Bruckner was ready to move up, Council Bluffs, a district of about 9,000 students across the Missouri River from Omaha, was looking for a superintendent. It had one of the lowest graduation rates in Iowa. Bruckner officially applied and was the only woman among eight finalists.

The school board hired her.

We needed somebody who could help us as a community turn that around, and she just came across as somebody who would be able to do that, said school board member David Coziahr. To be kind of blunt, she meant business.

Council Bluffs graduation rate has increased during Bruckners tenure, climbing from 68 percent to 88 percent over eight years. In 2015, she was named Iowas superintendent of the year.

Coziahr thinks other Iowa districts may be more willing to hire women based on Bruckners success.

Bruckner herself credits a cast of mentors and former supervisorssome of them menfor encouraging her, and she said the men she works with do not treat her differently. If her gender has been an issue, she hasnt dwelled on it, she said. Her salary, however, which is $225,000 annually, draws attention every year from local news media and the community.

There are people in my life who believe that if I were a male receiving a nice salary, it wouldnt be as big of a story, she said. That may or may not be true. I dont know. I know I make more money [than most people] in a school district thats 70 percent free and reduced lunch. But I know I make less money than the bank presidents and big corporate leaders. I make less money than other superintendents in Iowa, but  just wonder if part of the pushback is [from thinking that] females dont deserve that salary.

Some statesNew Hampshire, California, and New Yorkhave higher-than-average percentages of female superintendents. In sheer numbers, California leads the country, but the state also has the second-largest number of districts, more than 1,000. When the ASSA conducted its survey this summer, California had 335 women running districts.

Finding Solutions

This year, the AASA launched an initiative to find women who are prospective leaders, match them with mentors, and help them become superintendents. The program has enlisted women leaders from education and business to dig deeper into the barriers that women face and how those hurdles can be overcome.

And there are other efforts underway to bring more gender balance to the superintendents office. In California, the Association of California School Administrators added a component to its leadership conference that includes mock interviews for women who are ready to make the leap, resume reviews, and advice about things like maintaining healthy work-life balance. In New York City, Chancellor Carmen Farina launched a leadership development program for stellar principals and others who want to move up. Ten of the 12 fellows currently are women.

Conboy, who is on the AASAs panel, has been spearheading a similar effort in New York state, where about 30 percent of superintendents are women. It grew directly from what Conboy was hearing from women about the challenges they faced, including blatant bias.

I hear a lot from women that they are still being asked inappropriate questions in interviews like, Do you have children? How do you think you can do this job if you have children?  she said. Through the initiative, Conboy hopes to identify future district leaders and find ways for them to fill gaps in their experience.

Superintendents of both genders say men must be part of finding solutions. In New York, male district leaders are key allies, signing up female technology coordinators, teacher-leaders, and other women to be part of the womens leadership development program. Rich Calkins, the superintendent of the 627-student Alfred-Almond district, about 80 miles south of Rochester, N.Y., has recruited five of the districts female teacher-leaders for the initiative.

We have a huge amazing force of women who are working each and every day and doing great things in the classrooms, Calkins said, and I know with the right support and the right leadership,  they will be great leaders in the district.
Massachusetts will keep its status as one of the more restrictive states when it comes to the expansion of charter schools after voters last week solidly rejected a bid to raise the cap on the number of charters allowed to open.

Meanwhile, in Georgia, voters soundly defeated a ballot measure that sought to change the states constitution to allow for the creation of a special district to take over low-performing schools.

In both cases, voters overwhelmingly disagreed with their Republican governors. In Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker was a strong proponent of the charter school expansion, while in Georgia, Gov. Nathan Deal campaigned for the statewide district in personal terms, calling it a moral duty to act on behalf of students in low-performing schools.

Both ballot measures attracted big money and national attention, but particularly so in Massachusetts, where teachers union leaders are claiming a major victory for grassroots organizing.

The ballot question to expand charters in Massachusetts brought a bright national spotlight as it sought to allow the state to approve 12 new charter schools each year.

Millions of dollars poured in from out-of-state organizations and donors to sway voters on the issue, while political heavyweights such as U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and billionaire and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg weighed in on the initiative.

The race was close up until the end, but on Election Day, voters swung decisively toward no on Question 2. Sixty-two percent cast their ballots to block the measure, while 38 percent voted in favor, according to the Associated Press.

Those votes did not come cheap. Campaigns for and against Question 2 together raised nearly $42 million, with groups that favored the measure bringing in more than $26 million, according to the most recent campaign finance records.

Boots on the Ground

But the bigger war chest didnt pay off for charter advocates.

Its a really big win for grassroots organizing, said Barbara Madeloni, the president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, which led the effort against the ballot question. We had a ground game, we had conversations, we had students talking to voters, we had educators knocking on doors. And when we knocked on those doors and said Im an educator and I want to talk about Question 2, the welcome was profound.

Marc Kenen, the executive director of the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association, acknowledged it was hard for charter advocates to match the unions on-the-ground presence.

Were so far from having the numbers in our schools necessary to build a strong, statewide grassroots efforts that can match the teachers unions, said Kenen.

The statewide cap on charter schools is set at 120 campuses under current lawwhich is a fairly restrictive cap compared to many other states. Even though Massachusetts hasnt hit that ceiling of 120 schools yet, some areassuch as Bostonhave reached separate, regional limits.

Despite the defeat of Question 2 and other unsuccessful efforts to expand charters, Kenen said his groups internal polling showed that people believe charters were doing a good job educating students.

I think the debate got framed as a false choice between charters and districts, he said. Voters thought they had to choose between charter schools and district schools, and faced with that choice, they didnt want to do harm to the existing system.

Although elated by the outcome, music teacher and MTA member Deborah Gesualdo said shes trying to practice what shes telling her students about how to conduct themselves after a contentious election.

One thing that Ive reminded myself along the way is that the parents that were involved on the Yes on 2 side, we need to be really respectful of them, said Gesaldo, who teaches at Linden STEAM Academy, a district school in Malden, Mass. I dont believe in gloating when your side prevails. Those parents obviously had some concerns, and Im hoping we can address those.

Formidable Ga. Opposition

In Georgia, where 60 percent of voters cast their ballots against the measure to set up a statewide turnaround district, defeat seemed likely based on recent polling.

The measure drew formidable opposition, including an unlikely coalition of teachers unions, school boards, district administrators, the state PTA, and some conservative Republicans. The governor, the measures chief proponent, had allies that included Democrats and Republicans, as well as national education reform groups such as 50CAN.

More than $7 million had been raised through early November by both sides. Had it been approved, the so-called Opportunity School District would have been modeled in part on Louisianas Recovery School District and Tennessees Achievement School District.
To the Editor:

Harmeet Dhillon, a spokesperson for the California Republican Party, claims that it is common sense that the faster youre required to learn the mainstream language, the better off you are (Bilingual Education Poised for a Comeback in California Schools , Oct. 12, 2016). This is not true. We do not acquire language because we are forced to. We acquire language when we understand what we hear and read in that language, that is, when we get comprehensible input.

When non-native English-speakers in bilingual schools get quality education in their first language, they learn more subject matter. This knowledge helps make the English they hear more comprehensible, which results in more acquisition of English. Bilingual programs are not taught entirely in one language, such as Spanish. Students take English-as-a-second-language classes from the first day of school, and subject matter is taught in English as soon as it can be made comprehensible.

Research consistently shows that students in quality bilingual programs outperform students with similar backgrounds on tests of English reading.

Stephen Krashen

Professor Emeritus of Education

University of Southern California

Los Angeles, Calif.
New Mexicos state education department will now require attendance to be factored into teachers performance evaluations. In previous years, districts were allowed to choose between including teachers attendance or parent and student surveys to make up 10 percent of the evaluation.

Schools chief Hanna Skandera says the state is now requiring both as it moves toward a more uniform evaluation system. The state says including attendance helps reduce teacher absence, saving money and increasing student learning time. Teachers may miss three days before getting penalized. Absences caused by such factors as military or jury duty, bereavement, religious leave, or professional development wont be counted.

But school officials say they dont want teachers to come to work sick.
Graduating from high school is a milestone in students lives. But those diplomas can mean very different things from state to state and district to district. They can indicate that students mastered challenging college-preparation courses, or cruised through a series of watered-down classes.

A new report tries to quantify that variation. The latest edition of How the States Got Their Rates, by the group Achieve, surveyed all the states and found that 95 kinds of diplomas were conferred on graduating students in 2015. The analysis focuses on how many types of diplomas were available and the coursework and tests that students had to complete to earn each type. (The study examines only math and English/language arts coursework.)

Achieve did the same analysis for 2014 and found 93 kinds of diplomas were handed out to students. Its part of the organizations ongoing push to draw attention to the real variation in students accomplishments, even as many celebrate President Barack Obamas announcement last month that the U.S. high school graduation rate had reached an all-time high of 83.2 percent.

For many, 12th grade students performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress implicitly poses a question about the meaning of high school diplomas: How can the graduation rate be rising when high school seniors arent doing any better on the nations report card than they were years ago?

Other studies have found wide variations in the rigor of high school curricula. One, by the Education Trust in April, found that only 8 percent of high school students complete a course of study that prepares them well for both college and careers.

Variation Among States

States confer a wide range of high school diplomas, and some require far more accomplishment than others. Achieve found that while states report their graduation rates, they rarely disclose how many students earn each kind of diploma. That makes it hard to analyze how many are getting a rigorous high school education that sets them up them well for college or work, and how many arent.

Setting Expectations for Graduation Seven states and the District of Columbia expect all students to complete a college- and-career-ready course of study to earn a high school diploma. The rest either allow students to opt for another type of diploma or set the bar lower, according to Achieve. Source: Achieve

The fact that [a diploma] can mean so many different things is a bit alarming, Sandy Boyd, Achieves chief operating officer, said in an interview. In too many places, graduates still have that unwelcome surprise of not being prepared for what they want to do.

Eight states have set the bar high, expecting all students to complete a college- and career-ready set of coursesat least three years of math, through Algebra 2, and four years of college-prep Englishin order to graduate. Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee fell into that category in 2014 and 2015. Minnesota, Nebraska, and West Virginia joined that list in 2015.

For those states, the graduation rates they report publicly match the rates of students earning college- and career-ready diplomas. West Virginia, for instance, reported that 86.5 percent of students graduated, and since there is only one set of diploma requirements for all students, and it meets Achieves college-ready criteria, 86.5 percent of West Virginia students are considered college-ready.

In other states, its not so clear.

Sixteen states dont offer any type of diploma that requires students to complete at least three years of math and four of rigorous English. In 27 states, there are multiple diploma options, and at least one of those options in each state allows students to graduate without completing that college-ready course of study.

At a time when policymakers are looking with renewed interest at career and technical education programs as a promising pathway for students who might not want to attend four-year colleges, its particularly important for states to adhere to diploma requirements that include a college-ready course of study, Boyd said. Most postsecondary options will require that of students, she said.

There is a fundamental level of preparation that kids need, at least in English and math, Boyd said. Its dangerous to think of [a college-ready course of study and career and technical education] as an either-or, because then there is a risk of falling back into old-fashioned tracking. Its possible to be both academically prepared for postsecondary [options] and have that great CTE concentration.

Achieve wants to see states do a better job of explaining their diploma options to parents and students and to publish accessible and clear information about the proportions of students who earn the various kinds of diplomas. Disaggregating those numbers by student subgroup, and pairing them with information about which students are opting out of college- and career-ready diplomas in states that allow them to do so, would shed valuable light on what diplomas mean in each state, Achieve argues.
Over the last eight years, Republican-dominated statehouses and a White House bent on accountability dealt teachers unions a wave of setbacks on their key issues, whittling away at bargaining rights, instituting merit pay, expanding charter school and choice programs, and making budget cuts leading to teacher layoffs.

So this campaign season, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association bolted out the gate early with presidential endorsements, a flood of campaign spending on high-priority races and ballot measures, and plenty of organizational muscle to push their agendas.

But with a few notable exceptions, they came up dry.

Donald Trump, an unpredictable Republican who has expressed support for school choice and merit pay, will reside in the White House next year.

GOP legislators and governors consolidated power in the South and crept into storied union states such as Connecticut and Kentucky.

And voters soundly rejected a ballot measure in Oregon that would have provided millions more dollars to public schoolsan effort on which the NEA spent more than $150,000as well as a ballot measure in Oklahoma that wouldve provided teachers with a $5,000 pay raise.

Teachers unions will likely feel the political reverberations for years.

Its very disappointing, AFT President Randi Weingarten said in an interview after the results were announced. When you are all in on anything and you lose, its heartbreaking. But, she added, you brush yourself off and pull yourself back together again.

Said Lily Eskelsen Garcia, the president of the NEA, in a statement the day after Election Day: We must realize that today is not the end but the beginning of what we do to keep our country strong for our children. ... Dont mourn. Organize.

Helping the Affiliates

Federal Election Commission filings show that the NEAs national office routed more than $21.9 million through its local affiliates PACs in campaign contributions through the third quarter of this years reporting cycle, ending Sept. 30. The AFT spent more than $10.3 million through the third quarter.

Of the more than 18,000 super-PACs in the country, the NEAs was the 10th largest spender in campaign contributions this year, and the AFTs was the 28th largest.

In addition, the NEA and the AFT this year for the first time joined forces with the AFL-CIO and the American Council of State, County and Union Employees to create a super-PAC called For Our Future PAC, which accepts philanthropic money. That super-PAC spent more than $32 million on state and federal races this year.

Together, the two national teachers unions, which both endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, dispatched more than 160,000 foot soldiers to staff phone banks and to canvass. They poured more than $950,000 into presidential-campaign ads in Ohio and Florida, two swing states. And they spent a record $28 million to push their state-level preferences in everything from ballot initiatives to legislative races, FEC filings show.

There were some bright spots. Using more than $16 million collected from their members, unions managed to help defeat two well-funded campaigns. One in Georgia would have let the state take over its worst-performing schools. Another in Massachusetts would have dramatically expanded the presence of charter schools. And they won on several funding ballot measures in California, where affiliates spent more than $35 million in campaign contributions this year. A school funding measure in Maineproposed and funded with $500,000 from the NEAalso passed.

The unions have worked hard to keep up with the pace of political spending supercharged by the U.S. Supreme Courts 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling, which eliminated restrictions on corporate and union spending in elections.

Whats happened since Citizens United is the spigot of money has been opened, and its enabled lots of toxic and negative advertising as opposed to what was the traditional get-out-the-vote operations, Weingarten said. For us, what its meant is that you need to actually do a lot of work and build a lot of your own campaign infrastructure early.

But Mike Antonucci, a frequent union critic, said that as much as union officials begrudge outside spending on local races, the NEA and the AFT participate in the practicein their view, a defensive measure.

Citizens United put them in the same category as corporations, so now they can spend an unlimited amount of money as long as its not coordinated with campaigns, said Mike Antonucci, who runs a private, for-profit, contract research firm focused on the inner workings of the teachers unions. On the one hand, they hate Citizens United, but they said, As long as its the law, were going to take advantage of it and spend as much as we can. 

In 2000, he noted, the NEAs Representative Assembly decided to issue a $20 annual fee to its more than 3 million members to help defeat ballot measures and legislative priorities the union thinks aim to destroy public education. By the start of this campaign season, the union had $82 million in the fund, according to a memo posted on its website.

If you have $82 million in your campaign war chest and you dont spend it, members are going to start asking why arent you spending it, said Antonucci.

Picking Its Shots

A few specific races illustrate the range of contests unions spent on, as well as the local appetite.

In Indiana, the NEA contributed $100,000 to the failed re-election bid of Democratic state schools chief Glenda Ritz and another $300,000 to the losing Democratic gubernatorial candidate, John Gregg. Both campaigned on returning decisionmaking power to local administrators, loosening up the states accountability system, and scrapping its troubled standardized test.

The NEA affiliate in Indiana has suffered a round of financial setbacks in recent years, and lawmakers have made it a felony for teachers to use their work emails to campaign for candidates.

The state government will do everything in their power to put obstacles in our way, said Indiana NEA affiliate President Teresa Meredith.

The NEA also pumped $600,000 into Kentucky to elect Democrats. A battle to expand charter schools has roiled the state for several years.

In the end, however, Democrats lost more than 17 seats they controlled in the Kentucky Senate.
I woke the morning after the election with a sense of clarity, calm, and fierce love.

My student Xiomara, who is Mexican-American, came up to me as soon as she entered my classroom, choking back tears. She asked, Does this mean we have to put all the stuff in our house into bags? I asked what she meant, and she started to cry. Through tears, she explained: When my mom and I have to move back to Mexico. She is 7 years old.

For many of my Latino students, the world they woke to that morning was a terrifying place. It was a world where a man who had denigrated their entire identity, and had threatened to round up and deport undocumented immigrants in staggering numbers, had just been elected to the most powerful office in the land. It was a world where they felt they could be forced from their homes in the night, on any night, or have the people they loved mosttheir mom or dad, sister or brothertorn from them without warning or recourse.

What do we do for these brave but terrified children? Here is a brief list of what I have come up with so far. I would love to hear how any of you are making this path by walking it with your own students, whatever their age.

1. Reassure them.

The first thing I said to my 2nd graders that morning was, This is your home. You are safe here. You have so many people at this school who love you, and we will all make sure you are OK, today and every day.

The children started naming some of those people. Their teachers from last year. Our wonderful principal. The Latino police officer assigned to our school to build relationships with troubled students.

I also responded to some of their misconceptions. Many of them didnt realize that Barack Obama would still be our president until January, or that Donald Trump had to work with lawmakers and could be checked by the Supreme Court, rather than wielding absolute power.

Image courtesy of Justin Minkel.

After Xiomara broke down crying that morning, I gave her a hug, pulled up a chair beside her, and we talked for a little while. I told her that anytime she feels sad or scared, she can talk to me or the school counselor, and we will almost always be able to say something true that will make her feel a little better. At the end of the day, once she had calmed down and started laughing again, she handed me this drawing of the two of us.

2. Keep talking about it.

Our students have heard our president-elect say disparaging things about women, Mexican-Americans, Muslims, and disabled people. We can counter that negativity by teaching respect and civility, but it takes multiple conversations and our own constant example.

Its tempting to avoid or suppress the whole topic. This election has divided the nation, and those deep divisions exist within our own classrooms. But while banning the topic may be easier for us, its hard on kids.

On the morning after Election Day, a Latina aidewho looked visibly shaken herselfkept trying to tamp down the childrens conversations about Trump in the hall before breakfast.

You guys, it doesnt matter, she said, her voice tight. Were not talking about that here.

But it does matter. It matters tremendously. And we need to talk about it in school, which is our students second home.

Children know a lot, and they sense a lot more. We cant forget that kids process things differently than adults do. Some of the effects on our students are immediately apparent, while others may not be clear for months. We have a role to play in guiding them through their thoughts and emotions about the outcome of this election, and that will be a long road to walk.

Our classrooms have to be places where young people can talk about whats on their minds and hearts. We dont need to share our own feelings or political beliefs, but we have to address childrens fears, thoughts, and questions in as clear and gentle a manner as we can.

A friend of mine who teaches at a racially diverse K-12 school in Boston wrote this post following the election:

Yesterday I saw how the kids at my schoolalmost entirely students of colorwere experiencing this election. They werent coping with an abstract sense of betrayal. It was more personal and raw; they felt unsafe. So we cancelled morning classes and gave teachers resources to facilitate conversations, and then I walked from room to room and listened. One young woman broke down as she explained how her mother is undocumented and shes afraid theyll take her away now. A young man asked whether anything had really changed for black people in this country, whether this meant more police shootings. Teachers and students listened and hugged and mourned, and we didnt figure anything out, but it felt like maybe we were all a little bit less alone.

3. Be our best selves.

The most important thing we can do for our students may be to simply ensure that their world in school is peaceful, joyful, and intact. That requires each of us to be the best teacher we can be for themhour after hour, day after day.

My students and I only spent a few minutes that morning discussing the election. But I was gentler with their misbehavior than I would usually be. I was more patient, and talked to them more about their lives outside school.

We had a class meeting, all of us sitting in a big circle at the rug, to talk about their ideas for changes they would like to make to our class. I loved their ideas, like doing Writers Workshop outside in nature sometimes, or buying enough bean bags that every single student could have one during reading time.

We took a walk around the fields behind the playground, just to stretch our legs, bask in the sunshine, and feel the wind on our faces. Much of my students calm and happiness that day came from the comfort of the routine that school provides: Guided Reading groups, Read Aloud, Math.

At its heart, our job as teachers is to make childrens lives bettersafer, more joyful, more meaningful, and more fun. For children of color who woke to a frightening world the day after the election, it is more crucial than ever that we do that job well.
US refusals for antibiotic-laced shrimp in Oct. lowest in 3 years

The US refused entry to 142 seafood entry lines in October, of which only 1 (0.7%) was of shrimp rejected for reasons related to banned antibiotics.

This was the lowest number of antibiotic-related refusals of shrimp since October 2013. For the year, there have been 113 total entry lines of shrimp for banned antibiotics, data from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) showed.

The Southern Shrimp Alliance reported that the shrimp entry line refused by the FDA for antibiotics in October was from a company in Vietnam named Frozen Seafoods Factory No. 32 (F.32), which is not currently listed on Import Alert 16-129 or Import Alert 16-124. It had one entry line refused for shrimp contaminated with veterinary drug residues in the Southwest District.

Continued use of antibiotics

The small number of reported refusals for shrimp contaminated with banned antibiotics does not, however, appear to indicate that the use of antibiotics has been eliminated from shrimp farming. Other major shrimp-importing countries reported significant action regarding shrimp imports in October.

For example, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) reported that last month:

-- A shipment was rejected by the agency from the Huy Nam Seafoods Co. Ltd. (Plant Reg. No. DL 344) of Vietnam for fluoroquinolones;

-- Shunde Bangmin Aquaculture Farms (4400/AC076) of China was added to the CFIA's Mandatory Inspection List for fluoroquinolones; and

-- The shrimp exporter Falcon Marine Exports Ltd. (Plant Reg. No. 430) of India was added to the CFIA's Mandatory Inspection List for nitrofurans.

Of the 61 total shipments refused entry into Japan in October because of violations of the Food Sanitation Law, seven (11.5%) were for shipments of shrimp products contaminated with banned antibiotics. Six of these shipments originated in Vietnam and one in India.
 Eolicas de Portugal

The European Investment Bank today approved financing for investment by small business totalling more than EUR 6.1 billion and a record level of new financing under the Investment Plan for Europe initiative. The EIBs Board of Directors approved more than EUR 15 billion of new lending agreed for projects across Europe and around the world.

Building on the EIBs global climate action engagement

World leaders and international financial institutions are in Marrakesh to implement the Paris climate agreement. Unlocking new climate related investment is now truly recognised as a global goal. The momentum takes the issue beyond the policy of any government and beyond the public sector. The EIB is the largest single source of climate action lending in the world, and we remain committed to making a difference to climate investment on a global scale said Werner Hoyer, European Investment Bank President.

The EIB board approved more than EUR 3 billion of new climate related investment including scaling up use of floating windfarms off the Portuguese coast, helping Czech companies to improve energy efficiency, mitigating flood risks in Italy, supporting small scale renewables in Turkey and large scale solar power plants in India, as well as improving efficient water use in drought stricken Malawi. New projects will also support climate change mitigation investment in Brazil and small scale energy efficiency improvements in North Africa and the Middle East.

Over the past five years the EIB provided over EUR 90bn in financing for mitigation and adaptation to climate change in Europe and across the world.

Record EIB lending under the Investment Plan for Europe

The EIB approved new lending for a total of 21 schemes supported by the EU budget guarantee under the Investment Plan for Europe, for a total of over EUR 4.5 billion of new financing.

These included lending for SMEs through local banks, support for corporate research and development, improved energy infrastructure, and expansion of broadband internet networks. Financing under the Investment Plan for Europe approved today will support public and private investment in 17 European countries.

The Investment Plan for Europe is what we need to put money to work and relaunch investment. The EIB Group is doing its part: we have delivered financing capable of mobilising almost half the Plans target of EUR 315 billion in three years. The Plan allows the Bank to fund an unprecedented number of higher risk projects, projects that would not be financed to the same extent or at the same speed if it werent for this Investment Plan. It is a new initiative, and we constantly work at improving it. But there is no doubt that we are moving in the right direction, said President Hoyer. He added, Financing is only one element of the plan, and the whole will not work if all the parts dont. That is why we need to put as much effort in improving the regulatory context for investment as in financing and advising project promoters. We are fully committed to contributing to this effort in support of the Member States, the Commission and the European Parliament.

Helping companies across Europe expand  including EUR 1.25 billion in Greece

The EIB approved more than EUR 6.1 billion of new lending for credit lines and financing of smaller scale private sector projects. This included new lending programmes in partnership with banks in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Finland, Italy, Poland and Austria, as well as Armenia, Azerbaijan and sub-Saharan Africa.

New lending totalling EUR 1.25 billion to support investment by agriculture, food, tourism and industrial companies in Greece was also approved.

Strengthening local education and improving world-class research

The EUs Bank approved support for construction of a new multi-discipline research facility at the worlds most powerful neutron source in Lund, Sweden.

New financing including development of imaging science and connected homes, very large steam turbines, energy efficient production of electric cars and cleaner manufacturing of wood products were amongst schemes for direct corporate lending backed by the EIB board.

Recognising the crucial need to upgrade and adapt education facilities for modern demand the EIB board also approved new support for school investment in the Netherlands, primary and secondary and higher education in Paris, in French language schools in Belgium, a business school in Portugal and the University of Bristol, as well as 21 technical institutes across Ecuador.

The EIB approved schemes to support research and innovation by companies in the Czech Republic, Germany and the Netherland.

Improving global water, energy, transport and social infrastructure

The EIB Board approved financing for road projects in Bosnia, Bolivia and Tunisia as well as financing electrification and modernization of two key railways in Ukraine.

Better energy management will be made possible by funding for the roll out of smart meters in Italy, France and Greece. New loans in the UK energy sector will improve security of energy supply.

Projects in the field of water included waste water treatment in Bucharest and Nicosia, as well as the Pacific island of Fiji and the Zambian capital Lusaka.

The EIB also agreed support for new social investment to upgrade the main hospital in the Belgian city of Ghent and energy-efficient social housing in the Netherlands.

The board meeting included representatives of the banks 28 EU member state shareholders, as well as the European Commission. This weeks EIB board meeting follows a meeting of the EFSI Investment Committee, held on 10 November. It approved 19 projects which the Investment Committee had cleared for financing under the Investment Plan for Europe guarantee from the EU Budget. Projects approved by the EFSI committee may be submitted to the next or future EIB board meetings.

Negotiations for the approved loans are expected to be finalised in the coming months. All projects, including those earmarked for support under the EU budget guarantee, need to receive approval of the EIB Board prior to loan contracts being finalised. Loans and guarantees approved by the Board of Directors will be finalised in cooperation with promoters and beneficiaries, and figures may vary.

Overview of projects approved by the EIB Board

Overview of projects approved by the EIB Board of Directors following positive assessment by the EFSI Investment Committee
15 November 2016  Geneva  Marrakech  Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledged the elimination of trachoma as a public health problem1 in Morocco.

Trachoma is the leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide. Transmitted through contact with eye and nose discharge of infected people, particularly young children, it affects populations in 42 countries, and is responsible for blindness or visual impairment in around 1.9 million people.

This is an impressive public health achievement for Morocco, said Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General. It demonstrates how strong political will, education, awareness, surveillance and most importantly community engagement, can work to defeat a debilitating disease.

In the 1990s, Morocco began to implement the WHO-endorsed SAFE strategy, which contains a comprehensive package of interventions, including surgery for trichiasis  the blinding stage of trachoma, antibiotics to treat infection, facial cleanliness and environmental improvement to limit transmission.

Thousands of seriously affected people in the provinces of Errachidia, Figuig, Ouarzazate, Tata and Zagora underwent surgery and the vast majority were treated by health workers with the antibiotic azithromycin, donated through the International Trachoma Initiative.

Availability of azithromycin spurred control activities and with the involvement of local communities and the mobilization of health professionals we managed to reach almost every individual be it in villages or schools, said HE Dr El Houssaine Louardi, Minister of Health, Morocco.

To date, 8 countries2 have reported achieving elimination targets and most countries endemic for trachoma are now accelerating the implementation of the SAFE strategy to achieve their elimination targets supported by the WHO Alliance for the Global Elimination of Trachoma by 2020 (GET2020). In 2015, more than 185 000 people with trichiasis received corrective surgery worldwide, and 56 million were treated with azithromycin.

It is estimated that funding of up to US$ 1 billion is required globally to expand and sustain activities to 2020 in order to eliminate the disease as a public health problem.

Morocco has made a significant contribution to our goal to achieve global elimination of trachoma. said Dr Ala Alwan, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean. This success in Morocco gives us hope that similar achievements are possible in our Region to eliminate other neglected tropical diseases.

Validation of the elimination of trachoma as a public health problem

In 2015, the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Neglected Tropical Diseases endorsed standardized processes for confirming and acknowledging success for all neglected tropical diseases targeted for eradication, elimination of transmission, or elimination as a public health problem. The process for diseases targeted for elimination as a public health problem has been defined as validation.

Validation of elimination of trachoma as a public health problem

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HTC is currently working on a new smartphone that may be sold under the name Bolt or 10 Evo in markets outside the United States. The Taiwanese tech company, one known as among the most prominent smartphone makers in the work, is looking to seize an opportunity an at revival of its fortunes.

HTC and Sprint even roped in famous sprinter Usain Bolt for the promotion of the phone. That alone could indicate that the new HTC smartphones are forces to reckon. Here are some details on their specifications.

The HTC 10 Evo might sport a 5.5 inches Super LCD3 capacitive touchscreen-type display with QHD resolution.The body is dustproof and waterproof with Multitouch.

HTC Bolt will have a 16-megapixel camera with an aperture of f/2.0, face-detecting autofocus, 4k video recording, and a dual-LED flash, as well as an 8-megapixel front-facing camera.

This phone also includes a dedicated slot micro SD expandable up to 256 GB, and a 32 GB internal memory with 3 GB RAM.

HTC boasts about the 3x20MHz carrier aggregation of the 10X model, that's why the download speed on Sprint's LET plus network is much faster than Verizon. The HTC 10 Evo will also support GSM and HSDPA.

The HTC 10 Evo will have a Snapdragon 821 onboard instead of 820. The upcoming smartphone will also ditch 3.5 headset jacks, thus becoming the first HTC device to come without a standard audio port.

According to rumors, this device should ship out from Sprint with Android 7.0 Nougat on board and Sense 8.0 on top. The HTC Bolt will have non-removable Li-Ion 3200mAh battery up to 23 hours (3G).

The HCT Bolt will launch in the United States on November 11, 2016 through Sprint and it is now available on Sprint stores. All the colors of the HTC 10 - carbon gray, topaz gold, and glacier silver 64 GB will be available for USD 799. Sprint said that it will be available globally as soon as possible.
In "Madam Secretary" Season 3 Episode 6, Elizabeth (Tea Leoni) tries to determine the terrorist responsible for bombing a coffee shop. Elizabeth learned that the funds that were used for the bombings where from someone who is close to the Saudi Government.

Elizabeth makes a bold move in order to search for answers as she confronts the leader of the Saudi Government during a summit. She learned that the terrorist was the leader's cousin and she was enraged that he did not surrender him to the government. Fortunately, by the end of the episode, the terrorist was arrested and brought to justice.

News Everyday reported that on "Madam Secretary" Season 3 Episode 7, Elizabeth will face another challenge. In the official synopsis for the episode, the president of Venezuela together with his successors is killed in an earthquake. Elizabeth's task is to stop his son from obtaining the power.

Elizabeth makes her way to Venezuela in order to save the people from the imminent danger of having a greedy leader. This is also her opportunity to save an international aide team that was held captive by the president.

Meanwhile, Parent Herald also reported that "Madam Secretary" Season 3 Episode 7 will also bring back Elizabeth's brother, Will (Eric Stoltz). It was said that Will is trying to make a difficult decision about his family life and career.

Will wants to go with Elizabeth to Venezuela in order to help her with the relief efforts after the earthquake. However, he also has a wife who needs him and he should be working on fixing his marriage. Will is now torn between staying and choosing his wife and settling at a job at Walter Reed Medical Center and following his calling and goes to abroad and help those in need.

"Madam Secretary" Season 3 Episode 7 titled "Tectonic Shift" will air on Nov. 20 on CBS.
Reflections on the U.S. presidential election and its implications for American Jewry and the State of Israel By Dr. Steven Windmueller

America has made its presidential choice. The long, divisive campaign has finally ended. What are some of the challenges that the Jewish community and the pro-Israel community must begin to address in the aftermath of this election? The victory of Donald Trump has fundamentally transformed the place of America's Jewish community within the political arena. Traditionally a key Democratic constituency, a portion of the Jewish political base has shifted over time to the political right. Yet, the surprise victory of Donald Trump represents an election tsunami for Jews and other key Democratic constituencies. Similar to the rise of Andrew Jackson in 1828, Trump could be defined by the same type of labels and images depicted in that election campaign. The Jackson-Adams campaign was described by historians of the period as "a good deal of mud was slung on both sides, much of it aimed at Jackson's marriage, his violent escapades, and the incidents of ferocious discipline and of disrespect for civilian authority that dotted his military career. (Jackson) was painted as a grasping and bloodthirsty character, a budding tyrant in the model of Caesar or Napoleon, whose election would spell the death of the republic." Trump won this election without securing the largest number of votes while handily winning the Electoral College. Similarly, the Republican candidate will come into the White House receiving less than 50 percent of the popular vote, making him one of 12 Presidents to receive a plurality of the vote but not a majority (the last being George W. Bush in 2000). A key to this year's results has to do with a significant number of Republican victories across the nation in state and local campaigns that will have a profound long-term impact on elections. America's Changing Demographics: As we digest the outcome of this election, the extraordinary demographic transformation of the American electorate represents one of the most significant realities of this campaign. Indeed, the social fabric of the society will be tested, as many groups feel particularly vulnerable in light of a Trump victory. White working class voters in various parts of the society have transformed the character of America. A fundamentally different composition of voters determined the outcome of this campaign as Presidentelect Trump was able to galvanize the working class constituency and rural voters into a new base of support for his surprising election victory. Traditional Democratic voters in the "rust belt" regions of this nation crossed party lines to embrace the new President's message. Beyond Mr. Trump's victory, new Americans including Latinos, Asian-Americans, and other constituencies through their participation will be redefining the electoral voter rolls within this nation. By 2040, America will cease to be a predominantly Caucasian society; rather, it will reflect the multi-dimensional character of the world's populations. The Jewish community is situated in a unique but critical place to forge a bridge of understanding and engagement between these new constituencies and the American mainstream. This is a role the community relations organizations have undertaken for decades in the United States. Confronting New Threats to the Jewish Community: In the aftermath of this election, the Jewish community faces a challenging agenda. The overwhelming reality for American Jewry in the days following this political campaign will involve an appreciation for the fractured state of this country's electorate. The deep political divide has unmasked a new round of anti-Semitism, and it has demonstrated the presence of hate directed toward other minority communities as well. Just as Jewish organizations have been encountering an assault on Israel driven by the BDS movement on the political Left, the community must now contend with the rise of the "Alt-Right" and its conspiratorial manifestations of Jewish influence and political control. With a Trump victory, these extremists' voices will no doubt increase their messages of religious and ethnic hate. And indeed, social forces on the political Left rejecting the electoral outcome have already begun to manifest their frustration with the Trump victory. As there are political challenges directed against the Jewish community, Jewish public policy organizations will need to address the state of inter-group relations within the United States, seeking ways to breakdown the walls of suspicion and bigotry that contribute to an erosion of democracy and inclusion. Assessing Jewish Political Power There were multiple centers of Jewish political influence represented in this election. Jewish Republicans now have an opportunity to exercise their clout in advancing the pro-Israel agenda, serving as a critical bridge between the new administration and the American Jewish community. The Trump Administration may be prepared to discard the highly controversial Iranian Nuclear Agreement. Similarly, the incoming regime may have fewer concerns about Israeli settlement activities and other issues that may resonate with the Netanyahu Government. Revisiting the Jewish Vote The stark reality is that in this campaign Jews voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton. A New York Times exit poll suggested that 71 percent of American Jews supported the Secretary of State, while some 24 percent of Jewish voters endorsed Donald Trump. A second study, released by J Street, reflects similar numbers in the State of Florida among Jewish voters. Not surprisingly, we note that an uncertain number of Jews decided either not to vote in this campaign or ultimately embraced third party candidates, feeling unprepared to commit to either of the major nominees, as a result of both candidates' very high disapproval ratings. Interestingly, Jewish financial support for Donald Trump among Republican donors was significantly below the levels of commitment to John McCain (2008) and Mitt Romney (2012), in part reflective of a heightened degree of uncertainty on the part of the Republican Jewish establishment over Trump as a viable candidate. Unpacking the Great Social Disconnect Many of the issues that propelled Trump voters were reflective of constituencies that are geographically and culturally detached from the Jewish community. Indeed, the social, political, and economic divisions that separate rural and working class voters from urban, college-educated Americans represent the challenge to the future of the American democracy. The Jewish community could be seen by these angry and disappointed voters as a target of their frustration. If so, it will be essential for Jewish activists, in coalition with others, to respond to the challenges raised by this sector of the electorate. The political credibility of our leaders will likewise be tested. Should government fail to address the pain and disconnect of a significant sector of our citizens, this nation could experience a serious political upheaval, creating even a deeper divide between these very different constituencies. Assessing American Political Behavior The voting record of Americans may be the real issue of 2016; this new reality would ultimately foster a Trump victory. ABC News reported that fewer Democrats (some 4 million) voted in this election. More generically, the percentage of voter participation has been declining for decades. More than a third of eligible voters are not exercising their political franchise. Civics education ought to be on the agenda of American Jewish organizations as a way to encourage and promote an educated, politically engaged, and knowledgeable public about the critical issues associated with American democracy. Building a New American Jewish Agenda Many of America's Jews will be specifically focused on what lays ahead in connection with critical social policy concerns that will include immigration, the environment, health care services, and reproductive rights. How the Trump administration approaches these various Constitutional and public policy concerns central to mainstream Jewish interests will most certainly occupy Jewish attention as Republicans reclaim the White House. As the results of this election set in, some American Jews fear that a Trump Administration may undermine democratic norms while pushing back against minority political interests and rights. The Supreme Court has been a particularly sacred cause of the Jewish community. Undoubtedly, the new president will have occasion to make judicial selections to the Court that can and most likely will alter the balance of power, potentially leading to the revisiting of Roe v. Wade (abortion rights), church-state and religious liberty cases, second amendment rulings, and civil rights issues, among other concerns. Changing the Political Culture The voting record of Americans may be the real issue in 2016; the absence of key voting blocs specifically permitted a Trump victory. ABC News reported that fewer Democrats (some 4 million) voted in this election from 2012. Since 2000, the Democrats have lost a total of 9 million voters, which suggests a major shift in political affiliation. More generic, the percentage of voter participation, in general, has been declining for decades and was again affirmed in the 2016 presidential campaign. The Jewish community has held to the principle that an informed and engaged electorate is essential for this democracy to flourish. People who are invested in the system tend to be more open-minded, embracing diversity, and accepting the pluralistic character of this nation. If responsible and caring citizens leave the public square, whether out of disgust or fear, a dangerous vacuum is likely to occur where extremist voices will dominate the political culture of this society, filling the void left by mainstream activists. Yet, many Americans may be dissatisfied with the current political climate in the country, as reflected by the significantly large number of eligible voters who failed to exercise the franchise of the ballot. Voter education remains an on-going challenge as part of the effort to encourage citizens to believe in the value of democracy and political participation. The reintroduction of civics into our classrooms and in other arenas of American society will be an essential first step in helping our young as well as this country's new citizens to better understand the unique features of the workings of American democracy. Sharing Closing Thoughts Note the extraordinary notion that literally hours after this unexpected victory, the loser (Hillary Clinton) graciously conceded, and the sitting American President had already extended to Mr. Trump an invitation to meet with him as part of the transfer of power. American democracy with all of its complexities continues to serve this nation well. While many American Jews are indeed distraught over this political outcome, they too will embrace the new administration, seeking to find ways to work with President-elect Trump in moving this nation forward. The American story goes on! Dr. Steven Windmueller is the Rabbi Alfred Gottschalk Emeritus Professor of Jewish Communal Studies at the Jack H. Skirball Campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles. His writings can be found on his website: thewindreport.com. Professor Windmueller is a Fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Home
Why voters deserted Hillary Clinton By Rachel Alexander

The left, mainstream media, pundits and even most polls were certain Hillary Clinton was going to win the election. Republicans were in a civil war over Donald Trump winning the nomination  which is why the left had secretly pushed for him to win the nomination. Ultimately, a "Chinese monkey king" ended up doing a better job predicting the election results than the biased media. There were a few signs toward the end of the election that Trump was going to win. IDB/TIPP had the most accurate presidential polling record of pollsters, and showed Trump pulling ahead during the last week. This was no doubt in part due to FBI Director James Comey's announcement that he was renewing the investigation into Clinton's emails, as a result of the discovery of over a thousand emails on a laptop shared by scandal-plagued Anthony Weiner and his wife, Clinton adviser Huma Abedin. At that point, I changed my position on whether or not Trump could win for the first time. Another sign was two college professors with excellent records at predicting presidential elections called it for Trump. Allan Lichtman, a professor at American University, correctly predicted the last eight presidential elections. Helmut Norpoth, a Stonybrook University political science professor, correctly predicted the last five. They looked at factors such as the party which just held the presidency for two consecutive terms is less likely to win a third term and Clinton's lack of charisma. Laugh about her colorful pantsuits all you want, but an unpleasant appearance does influence some undecided voters in the middle. With possibly a couple million votes still left to count, it appears Trump received about the same or slightly fewer votes than Mitt Romney in 2012. The left-leaning media spin that Trump won because more white voters showed up to vote for him is not true, in fact, he received a smaller share of the white vote than Romney. Exit polls reveal that Clinton lost because key Democratic constituencies failed to show up to vote for her  blacks, Latinos, Asians, women, Millennials and lower income voters. A larger share of blacks and Latinos voted for Trump than Romney, evidence the attempts to portray Trump as a racist failed. Similarly, since Clinton lost votes with women, the last-ditch attempt to portray previous off-the-cuff remarks Trump made about women as sexual assault backfired. Younger blacks didn't think Clinton indicated enough support for Black Lives Matter or criminal justice reforms. Additionally, she didn't have the star power Obama had as the first black president. Only 52 percent of voters making $50,000 or less annually voted for her, down from 60 percent for Obama. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) recognized during the race that Clinton was in trouble in Michigan. She observed that middle class voters were discouraged that their economic situation had gotten worse, not better, under Obama. Millennials, who favored Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary, were disgruntled by Clinton's lack of ethics, especially the way her campaign created the caricature of "Bernie Bros" as racist and sexist. They disliked her ties to Wall Street and her interventionist foreign policy. Some Millennials voted instead for third-party candidates, bolstering Libertarian Gary Johnson to 3 percent of the vote, an increase from his 1 percent in 2012. Johnson and the other third-party candidate, Green Party's Jill Stein, took enough of the vote away from Clinton in four swing states to tip the race to Trump. Ironically, Clinton's husband won election as president in 1992 due to third-party candidate Ross Perot taking away enough votes from George H.W. Bush. The left clings to the mantra that Clinton lost due to voter suppression of minority voters  despite the millions George Soros funneled into organizations to combat this allegedly occurring. A writer for Salon wrote a lengthy piece rambling on and on about how the GOP kept minorities from voting and what do about it in the future. As long as the left ignores the real reasons Clinton lost, they can expect another loss in 2020. The voters clearly demonstrated they don't buy into fake stories of racism. Equally ironic is that Clinton lost some of the black vote because she didn't embrace the radical Black Lives Matter agenda enough. The left has manufactured such absurd levels of racist accusations that it's backfiring on them, hurting Democrats who don't breathlessly push the spin. Rachel Alexander and her brother Andrew are co-Editors of Intellectual Conservative. She has been published in the American Spectator, Townhall.com, Fox News, NewsMax, Accuracy in Media, The Americano, ParcBench, and other publications. Home
I was 100 percent wrong about Donald Trump By Michael R. Shannon

It's been a decade or more since I've enjoyed watching election returns on TV. Republicans are always being told not to give up hope; the campaign is gaining momentum in the last week. I remember four years ago there were reports from the Romney campaign that prospects for victory were looking up. Instead of three little old ladies waiting in line for Mitt outside a Florida Golden Corral, there were now four. Even in the midst of such encouraging news I still felt like a German soldier on the Eastern Front waiting for the advent of winter. This year Trump was barnstorming the country like the Great Waldo Pepper with thousands of people packing areas to hear him speak. Yes, it looked very impressive compared to the handful Hillary allowed to stand at her bedside, but how much credence could one give to Trump's reports of eminent victory? I was briefly encouraged when the director of the FBI performed an encore of the HokeyComey, but the last move he busted was to take his right foot out and proclaim Hillary was again disingenuous, negligent and unindictable. Then there was the problem of which network? Could I take hours of smug Megyn Kelly gloating over a Trump defeat she eagerly anticipated? As it turned out, Megyn and I both got a big surprise. Trump extended his record of proving me 100 percent wrong. Once acknowledging a Trump victory was unavoidable, watching the pundits squirm became very entertaining. The pathetic Karl Rove was claiming Trump owed Speaker Paul Ryan for his victory in Wisconsin. If Ryan is the measure of support, then Trump should be equally grateful to illegal aliens for providing the rioters that roughed up his supporters outside rallies. Dana Perino allowed that veterans of the Bush administration might hold their nose and agree to work with Trump, which is quite an understatement. Trump will soon discover it's easier to rid himself of head lice than it is to shed Bush hangerson wanting a place on the Trump train. Many on Fox couldn't rid themselves of their condescending, establishment mindset, even with the results of Trump's victory starring them in the face. Sean Hannity, an early and vocal Trump backer, was asked if he thought Trump could find a way to reach out to Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Hannity injected a note of realism when he observed tartly that those two had better figure out a way to reach out to Trump. Currently the opposition media is speculating regarding what the effects of a Trump victory will be in the next few months. But I say he's already had an impact. The good news is "assault rifles" just became a lot cheaper. On the other hand Hillary Clinton's speaking fees took a big hit. She'll be lucky if she can land a job cutting ribbons for new Chipotles and chances are she'll be paid in burrito bowls. No more demands for private jet transportation. Hillary will have to depend on the coyotes to get her there like the rest of the help does. The exodus from the Clinton Corruption Foundation will look like Occupy protestors fleeing a meth lab explosion. The only jobs Hillary ever created were at the foundation and it took donations to make that possible. Now the charityfunded, administrationinwaiting has the same fund raising potential as Trump University. What does the future look like if your only marketable skill is selecting the pantsuit of the day? Bill will feel the effects, too. He won't be picking up any more hotties on billionaire's executive jets. He'll be back at the bus station scouting talent with the rest of the chicken hawks. Clintons and their hangers on aren't the only economic victims of the Trump victory. Election day was a nationwide experiment in the value of a paid GOTV (Get Out the Vote) ground game. Experts griped that Trump's lack of one was yet another reason he wasn't fit to be the nominee. Today consultants peddling manpowerintensive GOTV programs just saw the market for their services plummet. Trump's "Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey" campaign proved those anecdotal people showing up at a rally also show up at the polls. And speaking of refugees, what about the moreconservativethanthou #NeverTrump crowd? The Weekly Standard and the National Review were both hotbeds of the antitrump commentariat. I wouldn't be surprised if embarkation process for the postelection cruises both magazines sponsor resembles Saigon in 1975. I briefly considered joining one of the cruises to gloat, but then it struck me: Do those embarking on the #NeverTrump cruise plan to come back? Michael R. Shannon is a public relations and advertising consultant with corporate, government and political experience around the globe. He is a dynamic and entertaining keynote speaker. He can be reached at mandate.mmpr (at) gmail.com. He is also the author of Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with added humor Home
Perfect timing:

Just days after Donald J. Trumps surprise presidential victory, the nations professional political forecasters and persuaders  the pollsters, the ad creators, the campaign strategists  gathered in Denver for their annual convention. It was supposed to be a celebration of big data and strategic wizardry for a multibillion-dollar industry that has spent nearly a century packaging political candidates.

Instead, the conference of the International Association of Political Consultants felt like a therapy session for a business in psychological free fall. ...

The industry has ... evolved into a sophisticated army of data analysts, message crafters and others whose firms turn billions of dollars given to candidates and their surrogates into services. Television advertisements. Email lists. Get-out-the-vote strategies.

But everything about this election seemed to throw into question the value of those tactics  and even of the consultants themselves. In the end, Mrs. Clintons battalion of advisers was defeated by a wild, seemingly unchoreographed candidate who, according to the most recent data, spent more money on shirts, hats, signs and similar items than on field consulting, voter lists and data.

Over the weekend, 150 or so participants moved between a high-ceilinged conference room at the Westin hotel and other activities, including the reception at the governors mansion and a dinner at an adobe fort in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. (Organizers nixed a tour of a marijuana grow house after too many people expressed interest.)
Neville Maxwells Olaf Caroes Fabrication of the McMahon Line  (EPW, 6 August 2016) is well written and articulate, but there are too many factual inconsistencies and deliberate silencing of alternate explanations to his claims. Some of these have been deliberate and persistent in all of the authors writings spanning more than half a century. There is nothing that the author has written here, or the charges that he makes, which are different from what he has written 50 years ago. They have only been recycled to make them look current and relevant.

Without any qualification, Maxwell presumes Tibet was Chinese territory all throughout history, and has little use for what the Tibetans themselves think on the matter. China did always claim this, but as early as the closing decade of the 19th century Viceroy Lord Dufferin had come to the conclusion that Chinas claim of control over Tibet was fiction and that Tibetan issues should be pursued with Tibet directly. Dufferin came to this conclusion following Chinas inability to do anything to make Tibet honour two treaties the British signed with China in 1890 and 1893, the first on fixing the boundary of its protectorate state of Sikkim with Tibet and the second on regulation of trade between Tibet and India at Yatung in the Chumbi Valley.
Britain, as everyone knows, voted to leave the EU on 23 June this year. Since that day, the EU27 have clearly come to see defence as an area where progress can be made following the departure of their awkward offshore partner. Such hopes are almost certainly misplaced. Brexit will neither strengthen, nor obviously weaken, the Common Security and Defence Policy. It may, however, reduce the UKs ability to contribute to European security more broadly.

Brexit has triggered a wave of CSDP-related initiatives. The Monday following the referendum, the French and German Foreign Ministers produced a joint contribution arguing in favour of a European Security Compact. Annual European Council meetings should, they argued, be rebranded a European Security Council to address the security and defence issues facing the EU. They also renewed their calls for the creation of a permanent EU chain of command. The following month, German Defence Minister, Ursula von der Leyen, launched Germanys new Defence White Paper, calling for greater integration of EU military capabilities and defence industries. More recently still, the European Commission and European Defence Agency announced that they were planning to launch a preparatory action on CSDP-related research as a means of beefing up European military capabilities.

Von der Leyen argued, when launching the German defence white paper, that Britain had paralysed the EU when it came to foreign and security policy. She is not the only one to assume that, absent this malign influence, real progress might be possible.

Yet the notion that the lack of progress with CSDP has been down to British obstructionism is appealing, but largely misleading. Certainly, London has, since the Chocolate summit of 2003, vetoed the creation of an EU Headquarters. And it is conceivable that such an institution might enhance EU military effectiveness. Equally, the absence of a British veto may allow for more adequate funding for the European Defence Agency.

But institutional tinkering is not the answer to the major shortcomings of CSDP that have conspired to hamper its effectiveness. These can be attributed largely to what we might label a chronic absence of political will on the part of member states. This in turn can be disaggregated into several inter-related phenomena.

First, the EU27 vary tremendously in terms of their appetite for using military force. For all the obvious enthusiasm of Germany for a rejuvenated CSDP, Berlin has never shared the enthusiasm of Paris when it comes to global deployment of force. Second, member states remain somewhat parochial in terms of their approach to security. Not only are many of them firmly focussed on regional rather than global concerns, but there remains a tendency for them to focus on their own priorities rather than seeing threats to one as threats to all. Whilst the southern states are preoccupied with events in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, their Eastern partners remain obsessed with the threat from Moscow.

Third, a lack of political will is reflected in a concomitant failure to invest adequately in military resources. This itself involves not merely insufficient resources committed to defence, but also a reluctance to take difficult decisions to cut redundant capacity rather than to protect inefficient aspects of domestic arms production.

All of which implies that, even absent Britain, plenty of constraints will continue to hamstring attempts to resuscitate the EUs faltering defence policy. Indeed, it is hard to avoid the impression that, just as in several other areas of EU activities, British obstructionism has served as a handy alibi for other member states, using London as a scapegoat to blame for their own inadequacies.

Not that British absence from CSDP will necessarily prove to be a huge blow. London has increasingly stood aside from EU defence initiatives, and its contributions to EU missions has been token at best. Moreover, because defence policy is not an area of EU activity falling under the scope of EU law, flexible ways of ensuring the continued participation of the UK in CSDP activities will be easier to come up with than, say, partial membership of the single market.

Yet, whilst British absence from the formal decision making structures of CSDP will not, in and of itself, necessarily make that much difference, it is quite possible that leaving the EU will impact negatively on any contribution that the UK can make towards European security more broadly. The devaluation of the pound has already had a negative impact on procurement policy. Equally, any post-Brexit economic shock, of the kind most economists still feel to be inevitable, will further constrain the ability of Britain to invest in defence.

Finally, whilst it is all too possible that one implication of Brexit is to make Britain adopt a more activist foreign policy (if only to reassure its partners on that score), its institutional position as a key bridge between the Atlantic and European worlds might well be threatened. It is hard, for instance, to see how London can continue to claim as of right the role of D-SACEUR in leading EU missions once it has left the EU.

In sum, the implications of Brexit for CSDP are neither as positive nor as damaging as many have tried to claim. The EU will doubtless continue to stumble on inchoately even absent Londons presence, whilst there seems no reason to assume that Brexit offers any real opportunity for an effective relaunch. And whilst the UK and EU will doubtless find ways to continue to work together, it is the broader ability of one of the continents two most effective military powers to continue to behave as such that should be the source of anxiety.

The opinions articulated above represent the views of the author(s), and do not necessarily reflect the position of the European Leadership Network or any of its members. The ELNs aim is to encourage debates that will help develop Europes capacity to address the pressing foreign, defence, and security challenges of our time.
The election of a new American president inevitably ushers in a new era for international nuclear policies. That is not because the US can, acting on its own, determine those policies. Such is clearly not the case. But the US is, and will remain, an indispensable participant in any deals to carry forward nuclear disarmament and to strengthen non- proliferation. So we Europeans need to think through carefully the implications in this field of a Trump presidency. We should not rush to judgement simply on the basis of a rag-bag of disparate campaigning statements. But we should not ignore the reality that some of these statements, if turned into policy, could be very damaging both to the US and its allies. We are entering a period of uncertainty, and in no policy field is uncertainty more high risk than that of nuclear weapons.

Looking just at what Donald Trump said during the campaign there is plenty to worry about. Not a word about further moves to negotiate a reduction in strategic nuclear arsenals or the withdrawal of tactical nuclear weapons from Europe. Much hostility towards the P5+1 agreement with Iran constraining for fifteen years that countrys uranium enrichment capability and other aspects of its nuclear programmes. The hints of acquiescence in Japan and South Korea acquiring nuclear weapons, which would surely sound the death knell for the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty. And a good deal of ambiguity about NATO s policy of nuclear deterrence which has helped to maintain the peace in Europe for seventy years.

So what could a European response to these indicators be? I would suggest that we should certainly not resile from our support both for further reductions in the grossly excessive nuclear arsenals which still exist and for the withdrawal of tactical nuclear weapons from Europe where their continued presence responds to no sensible military requirements but does increase risks and fear. But we should be under no illusions that early progress on either of these issues is at all likely. That is not just because the incoming US president has not shown any interest in pursuing them, but also because Russias current policy of uttering veiled threats about the possible use of nuclear weapons and its narrative, completely misguided in the view of most other Europeans, that Russias conventional inferiority makes it vulnerable to aggression by the West, justifies resisting any reduction in its nuclear posture. That mistaken narrative can only be corrected over time and through patient dialogue in which both sides listen to and take account of the others concerns. A resumption of NATO/Russia contacts could be a help in that respect.

Then there is the P5+1 agreement with Iran, reached after so much complex and tough negotiation on both sides and being overseen, so far with no evidence of backsliding on Irans part, by the International Atomic Energy Agency. On this it would surely make sense for all the non-US signatories to the agreement to make it clear to the incoming US administration, quietly and without too much public posturing, that they intend to stand by their commitments and to apply the provisions of the agreement so long as Iran continues to do so too. This would make it clear that, if the US were to back out of its commitments, they would be on their own, as they were for many years in imposing trade sanctions on Cuba  and that was not a huge success. It could also be worthwhile to explore some ways of globalising and generalising the constraints on the enrichment of uranium and on the use of plutonium for civil power generation which are contained in the Iran agreement. Such a widening of the constraints in the Iran agreement would not only be worthwhile in its own right but could make that agreement more sustainable in the long run and more obviously in the general interest.

Any encouragement of, or acquiescence in, the idea that Japan or South Korea should acquire nuclear weapons would not only scupper the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty regime but could also set off a nuclear arms race in East Asia. It will be important therefore that no more is heard of that. If North Koreas growing nuclear weapons capability is to be effectively addressed, and it does need to be, then a necessary condition for that will be close cooperation between the US and China, which parts of the Trump trade policy and climate change agenda seem unlikely to encourage. The Europeans may need to take a less detached view of these dangerous developments in East Asia than they have done in the past.

The single most worrying aspect of the Trump agenda, for Europeans at least , has to be the hints of less than firm commitment to NATOs policy of nuclear deterrence. It is one thing to press Europeans to devote more resources to their own defence which, in current circumstances, is clearly justified; it is quite another to suggest that US commitment to Article 5 of the Atlantic Alliance treaty is in some way conditional on the response to that urging. To allow that uncertainty to continue and to grow would be in no ones long term interest, not even Russias. It will merely act as a temptation to brinkmanship and opportunism, which could end in tears. So some early way of laying that uncertainty to rest, perhaps in President Trumps inaugural address on 20 January 2017, is highly desirable.

The consideration of these issues of nuclear policy cannot sensibly be pursued as if they were entirely separate from a range of other issues. The hard fact is that the whole rules-based structure of international affairs which has been so laboriously built up over the last seventy years since the Second World War and which has contributed so significantly to the worlds prosperity and security, is under challenge, often as much due to inadvertence and the lack of political will to defend it as by the conscious design of those who want to undermine and to overthrow it. Another inaugural event, the installation of the new UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, will also take place in January 2017. It would be good if those five recognised nuclear weapon states who are also the five Permanent Members of the UN Security Council could set about working together, alongside the new UN Secretary-General, in a more purposeful way than they have been doing in recent years.

The opinions articulated above represent the views of the author(s), and do not necessarily reflect the position of the European Leadership Network or any of its members. The ELNs aim is to encourage debates that will help develop Europes capacity to address the pressing foreign, defence, and security challenges of our time.


A senior European scientist who was on hand for the Beyond Materialism conference sponsored by Discovery Institute and the Centre for Intelligent Design (UK) at Cambridge Universitys Hughes Hall says this:

I will concentrate on the truly stunning and encouraging spirit of this event. The audience was extremely interested in the talks, asked very thoughtful questions, and was overwhelmingly sympathetic and supportive of ID.

There were not only people from Great Britain, but also from other European countries (e.g., several people from the Netherlands). It was also not a purely Christian event, as there were at least three young Muslims, who were very friendly and grateful for the presentations, and also other non-Christian ID supporters.

There was a single Theistic Evolutionist, who tried to convert one of our group to TE. After the final panel Q&A the speakers received standing ovations, had to pose for photos, and were surrounded by people who either had further questions or expressed their support and gratitude.

We all were amazed by the organisation of this event and can only say kudos to Peter Loose of the Centre for Intelligent Design UK and all others who made this possible. Discovery Institutes Janine Solfelt did a terrific job as well.

Look here for a full program of the event, which indeed sounds like a splendid success.

Photo: Douglas Axe leads a breakout session at Beyond Materialism conference.

Im on Twitter. Follow me @d_klinghoffer.
Youve just been hired as a software engineer. Your first project is to write code that will operate robotic machines. The robots need to build a high-speed universal joint and fasten it to a shaft that will rotate at high speed. The code needs to select materials that can tolerate the high stresses they will face, and arrange them into flexible, mutually-reinforcing configurations that will provide high performance and fault tolerance over many cycles of switching between prograde and anterograde rotations. Oh, and it needs to be hollow so that other materials can pass through during operation. Good luck.

Would everyone agree a new hire facing this challenge had better have high intelligence, combined with a great deal of experience with materials and Einsteinian knowledge of physics? What if you were told the company is considering farming out the task to a brainless entity with no sensors that can only rely on sheer dumb luck?

New light has been shed on just one part of the molecular machine that started Michael Behe on his revolutionary role as a champion of intelligent design: the bacterial flagellum. We often hear the parts of this iconic molecular machine rattled off in a list: rotor, stator, hook, propeller etc. The elegant animations in our new documentary Revolutionary certainly make the point, but not shown are some additional levels of complexity beneath the exterior that put extra oomph into the case for ID. A new paper opens Darwins black box further.

In Nature Communications, five researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Japans describe the complete structure of the bacterial flagellar hook in Campylobacter jejuni, a bacterium with a single flagellum at one end of its spiral-shaped rod-like cell (some varieties have two flagella, one at each pole). C. jejuni colonizes the digestive tracts of cattle and many birds without apparent harm, but we humans dont want it in our guts, because it is a major cause of food poisoning. Proper cooking of poultry and meat usually prevents disease. But we digress; such matters are beyond the domain of intelligent design theory. The focus is on whether the flagellar hook is designed or not.

Before looking at C. jejunis flagellum, lets compare the outboard motor styles of different bacteria. The authors write:

Flagella are found in both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Although flagellar hooks appear identical at first sight, the diversity of flagellar hook proteins suggests that the hooks have diverged to specifically fit the motility requirements of each bacterium. The cells of the food-borne pathogen, Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni) are spiral-shaped and are able to move using unipolar or bipolar flagella, in comparison with rod-shaped S[almonella] enterica cells, which move using many peritrichous flagella over the cell surface. Uniquely, the C. jejuni flagellar hook is also used to export virulence factors during colonization of the avian or human host. Intriguingly, the C. jejuni hook protein, FlgEcj, has one of the longest amino acid sequences compared with other bacterial FlgE proteins. Compared with FlgE from S. enterica, FlgEcj is about twice as large. We solved the structure of the hook of a fliK null mutant strain derived from C. jejuni strain 81116 (NCTC 11828) by electron cryo-microscopy, using single-particle averaging methods with image segment classification followed by systematic symmetry exploration. [Emphasis added.]

As stated, there appear to be motility requirements behind the different motor styles, even though the authors do not question whether they evolved:

Flagella, although macroscopically similar, have evolved features that will make them specially adapted to particular tasks. The intestinal jejunum is a viscous environment where C. jejuni is adapted for swimming. The results shown here tend to support the idea that additional strengthening of the hook in C. jejuni is necessary to enable motility in this viscous environment.

So they are really talking about adaptation, not evolution. Nowhere do they describe how this extra-strong flagellum originated or how it evolved from another species. One story they tell is beside the point:

Amino acid sequence variability in the central parts of FlgE proteins of C. jejuni strains was proposed to occur because of selection pressure during host invasion to generate variations in surface-exposed antigenic determinants. The variable regions do indeed correspond to the surface-exposed region of C. jejuni hook domains D3 and D4. The variability is tolerated because these regions are not essential for intra-molecular contacts that organize the hook.

That appears to be a case of degeneration, not innovation. Its a type of variation not related to function.

What they really know is that this flagellar hook meets the design requirements for its particular environment. The point of their paper is that the hook region of this species outboard motor, reveals extensive set of stabilizing interactions.

Thats where things get interesting, because a hook is really a universal joint. A universal joint has to be able to transmit rotary power from a shaft through a range of angles. The laws of physics come into play here: torque, angular momentum, and material strain. An outboard motor with a universal joint will have to meet design requirements to handle extra strain, especially when the viscosity of its medium increases. Think of the stresses on a universal joint operating in oil instead of water, for instance. Now rev up the RPMs, and you can see what the software engineer is up against!

Bacterial flagella have long been studied, but many aspects of their structure and function are still eluding us. The structure of the hook can be described as a tubular helical structure. The hook functions like a universal joint. It transmits the torque, produced by the motor located in the cell membrane, to the filament that acts like a propeller. The assembly of about a 100 copies of a single protein, FlgE, makes the bacterial flagellar hook. An exported molecular ruler protein, FliK, controls the hook length. Cells bearing mutations in the fliK gene produce abnormally long polyhook structures. The bacterial flagellar motor rotates at frequencies that vary between 100 Hz and 2,000 Hz depending on bacterial species. The hook undergoes multiple conformational changes while rotating around its axis. During these conformational changes, the interactions between the FlgE molecules must secure the stability while enabling the dynamic nature of the hook.

Get that calculator out. 100 Hz is 6,000 RPM; 2,000 Hz is, lets see, yikes! 120,000 revolutions per minute! Our software engineer is getting really worried. His application only has one shaft, but the universal joint has to handle extreme torque in viscous fluid. The strain on the material is going to be enormous! How can he make it strong enough without compromising its flexibility?

Extra domains in FlgE, found only in Campylobacter and in related bacteria, bring more stability and robustness to the hook. Functional experiments suggest that Campylobacter requires an unusually strong hook to swim without its flagella being torn off.

If the engineer is smart, he will just mimic the elegant solution of the bacterium C. jejuni. Take a look at Figure 2 in the open-access paper. Its beautiful. Multiple strands of the FlgE protein (remember, its twice as long as its counterparts in other species) intertwine in five layers. Each layer contains complex interactions with the other layers, providing the strength needed for the application, while still allowing it to curve. Even more amazing, the interactions between the molecules that make the hook are transient interactions where interacting amino acid residues will constantly change partners during the rotation of the hook.

A committed Darwinist might still be able to weave a just-so story about how this hook evolved. Once upon a time, Campylobacter having a simpler hook with fewer strands of FlgE invaded a new environment that was more viscous. By accident, a mutant with duplicate layers of FlgE succeeded in swimming without its flagella being torn off, so its descendents survived. By another accident, the ones with longer FlgE proteins also survived, perhaps by duplication. Somehow, blindly, complex transient interactions arose etc. Sound convincing?

Evolutionists might argue that the hook only employs FlgE proteins, so it is not irreducibly complex. Nothing about Behes irreducible complexity principle, however, requires multiple types of materials. Its their arrangement for function that matters. All the parts for a mousetrap, for instance, could be made of iron. In the case of the flagellar hook, the arrangement of the proteins in multiple layers with multiple transient interactions is the key to its operation. Remove these layers and interactions, and the flagellum would be torn off when the bacterium tried to swim.

We havent even addressed the issue of how this hook is assembled in the cell. To be heritable, mutations would have had to occur in the DNA. Those mistakes would have to evade the proofreading mechanisms of the cell during transcription and translation. But even if the mutant proteins arrived at the construction site (at the right time and in the right quantities, dont forget), how would other molecular machines know what to do with them? Unless they got assembled correctly so that the transient interactions would take place properly during operation, they would provide no benefit; there would be no selection pressure to maintain them. The evolutionary story seems even more implausible at the level of coding and construction.

So there you have it: even the hook of the famous flagellum is irreducibly complex. It is amazingly well designed for its task within a task, that of being an essential part of a multi-part molecular machine. As Jonathan Wells says, What we have here is irreducible complexity all the way down.

Image: Campylobacter jejuni, by De Wood, Pooley, USDA, ARS, EMU. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
Twitteratis took offence in the content of the ad, as a result of which, the brand withdrew its ad and came up with their latest campaign titled - ATM nahi, Paytm Karo!

Mobile wallet company Paytm which has been in the news ever since the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currencies became public, was recently forced to withdraw their ad after receiving a lot of social media backlash. The ad conceptualised by McCann Delhi created the campaign Drama Bandh KaroPaytm Karo where the upper class is seen asking the lower class citizen to stop over dramatising the situation and to just use Paytm for simple transactions.

Twitteratis took offence in the content of the ad, as a result of which, the brand withdrew the earlier ad and came up with their latest campaign with their tagline -ATM nahi, Paytm Karo! A lot of people had threatened to uninstall the app if the brand fails to take the requisite action and there were also some, who expressed their surprise and called the brand a coward for coming under pressure so easily and withdrawing their creative.

Link:

Following are excerpts of conversations on social media:

In the last few days, along with the other e-wallet brands promoting cashless transactions, Paytm has been advertising aggressively. For their print ads, the brand used Narendra Modis picture and congratulated him for taking the boldest decision in the financial history of independent India. Using the hashtag Ab ATM nahin, #PaytmKaro they ran full page ads in mainline papers.

Delhi CM, Arvind Kejriwal took pot-shots at the brand through his tweet where he talks about it being the biggest beneficiary of PMs announcement. To which, the CEO of the company, Vijay Shekhar even responded.

Paytm saw an overwhelming 435 per cent increase in overall traffic as consumers increasingly took to using the Paytm wallets for their transactions. The company also registered a 200 per cent hike in number of app downloads and 250 per cent surge in number of overall transactions, all this within hours of the decision being made public. According to a recent statement released by the company, Paytm has crossed 50 million downloads on Google Play Store in the second week of November; with this the brands Android user base has now grown to over 75 million.

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Tales of magic, migration and mayhem at storytelling and performance event

The gypsies of Romania, the magical shapeshifting underground inhabitants of Russia and the crying dolls of Poland will be conjured in Exeter through the power of storytelling and performance.

Wonder & Dread: Slavic Tales of Foreign Lands and Wild People is organised by University of Exeter academic Dr Bryan Brown. The event brings together local, national and international artists to reimagine the mythic tales of wild people and uncanny creatures popular in Slavic countries for generations, and explore the themes of migration, knowledge, technology and wildness. Performers include Janina Vigurs, who will tell traditional tales from Poland and Russia, Hedgespoken, an itinerant theatre who will be stepping off their converted Bedford truck for an afternoon descent into a mortal tale of Red Kings and gypsy witches, and ARTEL (American Russian Theatre Ensemble Laboratory).

Wonder & Dread is shown as part of the Being Human Festival of the humanities. It aims to help the audience and performers examine how we learn and what role knowledge has today in the age of smartphones and nanotechnology.

Alongside the myths and folk tales of Eastern Europe, ARTEL will present a short work-in-process performance of a larger collaborative project, The Black Hen Society with Animal Cracker Conspiracy, based on the first childrens story written in Russian - the Black Hen by Antony Pogorelsky. The book tells the story of a young boarding school boy who rescues a chicken with transformational powers. In return for saving the hens life the boy is given a magical hemp seed which allows him to know all of his studies without doing any work. A complex exploration of fantasy, ecological disaster and secret societies, this piece will combine strong visuals, songs, and an accompanying installation.

Dr Brown said: Storytelling has the power to enthrall as well as entertain. A rich heritage exists in Eastern Europe and these stories have migrated to other countries. For many reasons, not least of which is the pervasive rise of digital technologies, these stories speak to that which is missing in people today, all over the world. One of the themes of the event is how knowledge operates and within The Black Hen particularly there is a juxtaposition between moss and migration. Some types of knowledge, it would appear, cannot be rooted for too long.

Wonder & Dread: Slavic Tales of Foreign Lands and Wild People will be held on 20th November at 3pm at The Bike Shed Theatre in Exeter. The show is sold out but there is a waiting list available if you email The Bike Shed Theatre via their website. All are welcome but there is an age appropriate caveat that some of the tales are dark and powerful.
Student



Short term, non immigrant visa



F1 visa, from an accredited school, to get this as a rule of thumb, you have to show that you have means to cover the cost of tuition and other living expenses, so around $10K on top of tuition per year at the very least. This can be from having cash in the bank, loans etc.



This visa doesn't allow you to work whilst studying for the first semester of the course (6 months), and then after that, only for 20 hours a week on campus.



Student visas (F) are non-immigrant AFTER THE COURSE YOU GO HOME
Tuesday, November 15, 2016

(NewsUSA) - These days, there are several ways to get your company's message out. That is, if you have the money to pay for it. The problem is that small, niche companies need the same exposure (if not more) than the Fortune 500 companies, but are hamstrung by limited resources.

Fortunately, advertising doesn't have to be exclusively PR-centric, but can be a blend of traditional and effective strategies, according to PR News.

In this way, Washington D.C.-based NewsUSA does exceptionally well by specializing in writing matte releases -- feature articles that help to fill space in newspapers and online media -- for its clients.

NewsUSA guarantees product placement (around 1,000-1,400 placements per story) for its clients in various media outlets around the world, including television sites and hundreds of digital and print newspapers.

"NewsUSA's strength is that it has all these contracts and relationships with newspapers and online media sources that have been built over years and can be trusted for writing and editorial," said Rick Smith, CEO of NewsUSA. "In terms of mass marketing to the consumer, for some of the budgets that these companies have, there just aren't a lot of options. That's where NewsUSA comes in."

For NewsUSA client Security Equipment Corporation (Sabre), it granted access to media outlets that the company wouldn't have had otherwise.

"As a first-time user of NewsUSA, I was pleasantly surprised, not only with the number of placements we got, but the quality of our placements," said Marisa McKay, marketing manager for Sabre. "Our content was placed in high-profile publications that we wouldn't have been able to afford if we had to buy traditional advertising space."

As a result, the family-owned and -operated manufacturer of the top brand of pepper spray had three stories distributed to more than 3,600 news outlets, both online and in print, for a total reach of more than 90 million readers nationwide. The ad value equivalency of the campaign was more than $1.1 million.

Another client, Star Clippers, also saw a huge return on investment when it engaged NewsUSA to write five stories about its ultimate cruising vacation alternative -- a tall ship mega-yacht experience aboard authentic re-creations of the classic sailing clipper ships that ruled the waves during the 1800s.

In return, Star Clippers garnered more than 6,000 placements that reached more than 319 million readers nationwide, for a total ad equivalency of $3.8 million.

For more information, visit www.newsusaadvantage.com.

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It's now official! The eBook versions of KICKING THE BUCKET LIST: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die are now available in Kindle form at Amazon.com and on iTunes for Apple, both at $7.99. The paperback retails for $15.95.

In KICKING THE BUCKET LIST, death educator Gail Rubin brings a light touch to cleaning out those dark recesses of your home and organizing for end-of-life issues. In these pages, you'll learn how to:

Tackle downsizing without being overwhelmed by the job;

Evaluate what to keep, toss, donate and recycle;

Creatively remove excess goods from your home;

Manage your finances for today and tomorrow;

Organize your funeral and create your legacy.

Author Gail Rubin, CT, will be speaking and signing books at these upcoming events in Albuquerque, NM.

Monday, November 21, 3:00 p.m. -- Speaking to the Professional Organizers of New Mexico group.

Sunday, December 4, 3:30 p.m. -- Speaking and book signing event for KICKING THE BUCKET LIST: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die at Page One Books in the Mountain Run Center, 5850 Eubank Blvd. Suite B-41, Albuquerque, NM.

Monday, December 5, 2:30 p.m. -- Speaking and book signing event for KICKING THE BUCKET LIST: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die at La Vida Llena Community, 10501 Lagrima De Oro Rd NE, Albuquerque, NM.

Thursday, December 8, 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. -- Discussion and book signings for KICKING THE BUCKET LIST at the Horn Family YMCA, 4901 Indian School Rd NE, Albuquerque, NM.

Saturday, December 10, 1:00 p.m. -- Speaking and book signing event for KICKING THE BUCKET LIST: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die at Treasure House Books, 2012 S Plaza St NW, Albuquerque, NM.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017 -- Talk to the Coronado Thunderbirds, retirees from Sandia Laboratories, on "Downsizing and Organizing Before You Die." This event is only open to members of the group.

Friday, January 20, 2017, 2:00 p.m. -- KICKING THE BUCKET LIST: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die talk at Alegria Community, 901 Cottonwood Circle, Bernalillo, NM.

Visit this web page for more information about KICKING THE BUCKET LIST. Gail Rubin is available for interviews on downsizing before the holidays by calling 505-265-7215.
(Bloomberg) -- Oil surged the most in seven months as OPEC members were said to be making a final diplomatic push toward securing a deal to cut output.

U.S. benchmark oil prices rose 5.8 percent on Tuesday, rebounding from an eight-week low. Qatar, Algeria and Venezuela are leading the effort to finalize a deal, a delegate familiar with the talks said. Speculators raised short positions, or bets on lower prices, by the most in more than four years in the week ended Nov. 8, Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. U.S. crude supplies probably rose last week, according to a Bloomberg survey before a government report Wednesday.

Were looking at a combination of short covering and OPEC hopes, said Bill OGrady, chief market strategist at Confluence Investment Management in St. Louis, which oversees $5.2 billion. There are great hopes that OPEC will be able to come up with some sort of an agreement before the end of the month; its in their interest.

Oil has retreated for most of the past four weeks amid skepticism about the ability of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to implement a deal at its Nov. 30 meeting. The group is seeking to trim output for the first time in eight years as Iran boosts production and Iraq seeks an exemption because of its war with Islamic militants. Prices will probably remain around current levels if OPEC fails to cut, according to BP Plc Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley.

West Texas Intermediate oil for December delivery, the benchmark for U.S. crude prices, rose $2.49 to settle at $45.81 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices dropped 9 cents to $43.32 on Monday, the lowest close since Sept. 19. Total volume traded was 36 percent above the 100-day average at 2:45 p.m.

Oil market volatility, as measured by the Chicago Board Options Exchange Crude Oil Volatility Index, climbed to the highest since April on Monday as prices retreated.

Its not a surprise that there would be a rebound after the big drop, said Kyle Cooper, director of research with IAF Advisors in Houston. The size of the gain is surprising though, especially given the lack of news. Its important to remember that were still down more than $6 from last months highs.

Voter Guide: What to know for the midterm election Your guide to the Texas and San Antonio races and candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot.

The S&P 500 Index edged higher with energy companies leading the gains. The S&P Oil & Gas Exploration and Production Select Industry index was up as much as 4.6 percent to the highest in more than a month.

Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran are still at odds over how to share output cuts, according to an OPEC delegate, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private.

Iran is considering a proposal to freeze oil production near the level the nation says it currently pumps -- almost 4 million barrels a day -- rather than OPECs estimate of about 3.7 million, the delegate said. OPEC pledged at a September meeting in Algiers to bring its total output down to a range of 32.5 million to 33 million barrels a day, which compares with output of 33.6 million last month.

Hedge-fund manager Pierre Andurand says OPEC is still likely to agree on an output freeze this month and prompt a sharp rally in prices, despite disputes among members. The supply glut is gone with no sign that production will grow next year, Andurand said in a note to investors obtained by Bloomberg News.
The trucking empire built by Bill Hall Jr. and wife Frances A. Hall apparently is crumbling in the wake of his 2013 death and her recent conviction for his murder.

Bill Hall Jr. Trucking Ltd., started by the couple in 1989 when they were 26, quietly sought protection from creditors in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in San Antonio on Thursday. The filing comes nearly five months after a sister company, Bill Hall Jr. Trucking GP LLC, filed for Chapter 11.

The LLC owns a fleet of trucks and trailers used by the bigger Trucking Ltd. company to haul gravel and other materials for road construction. The trucks are painted in a distinctive power blue.

It recently was disclosed in court papers by an attorney for the estate of Bill Hall Jr. that Frances Hall and the trucking operations have fallen on financial hard times.

Frances Hall was convicted in September for murdering her unfaithful husband of 31 years in a deadly end to a love triangle that attracted national attention. She was sentenced to two years in prison  the lightest sentence possible  for her husbands death. Jurors found she acted with sudden passion when she knocked her husbands Harley-Davidson off a highway while chasing his mistress in another vehicle. Frances Hall, 53, denied she killed her husband, who was 50 at the time.

She is serving a two-year prison sentence at the Christina Melton Crain Unit near Gatesville, about 40 miles west of Waco.

What led Ltd. to file for Chapter 11 last week couldnt immediately be determined. Dominique Nikki Hall, the couples daughter, signed the papers to put Trucking Ltd. into bankruptcy. She and the companys bankruptcy lawyer couldnt immediately be reached for comment Monday.

When LLC entered bankruptcy in June, company bankruptcy lawyer Jesse Blanco attributed the filing to an issue over the quality of the road-building materials that Trucking Ltd. picks up from suppliers and delivers to road-construction companies. Deliveries dried up and left the LLCs trucks and tractors sitting idle, Blanco said. Still, he said the issue was expected to be resolved.

Voter Guide: What to know for the midterm election Your guide to the Texas and San Antonio races and candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Trucking Ltd. reported assets of less than $50,000 and liabilities in the range of $1 million to $10 million. By comparison, LLC, reported $7.5 million in assets and $5.8 million in liabilities.

Among Ltd.s largest unsecured creditors and the amounts owed are: RelaDyne, a provider of lubricants and fuels, $146,815; truck dealer French Ellison Truck Center, $121,205; and the IRS, $27,065.

Meanwhile, the U.S. trustee responsible for administering the LLCs bankruptcy wants the case dismissed because the company has failed to file monthly operating reports. Without the reports, its difficult to know whether the company has the financial wherewithal to reorganize its debts. A hearing on the request is schedule for Nov. 28.

pdanner@express-news.net

Twitter: @AlamoPD
Mary Jo White has stepped to the front of the line of financial regulators moving aside for Donald Trumps administration.

White, a political independent appointed by President Barack Obama, said Monday that she will step down as Securities and Exchange Commission chair in January. Her nearly four-year tenure has been highlighted by high-profile enforcement cases and plagued by internal battles that stalled controversial policies.

With the Senate under Republican control, Trump is likely to have a relatively easy time installing his choices to run the SEC and other agencies, so the vacancy might be filled quickly. The five-seat commission is already two members short, and White has essentially represented a tie-breaking vote between Republican Michael Piwowar and Democrat Kara Stein, who split on major issues.

It remains to be seen what tack the president-elect will take in overseeing the financial industry beyond his campaign pledge to dismantle the Dodd-Frank Act, which has dominated regulators work since it was enacted in 2010. Former Commissioner Paul Atkins, a Republican who left the agency in 2008, is leading the Trump transition teams work on independent regulators like the SEC.

After taking the helm in 2013, White moved to improve morale at an agency that had been assailed by lawmakers over its failure to spot Wall Street abuses in the runup to the financial crisis. Her outreach efforts included handing out coffee and doughnuts to rank-and-file employees, and walking the halls of the agencys sprawling headquarters to chat with workers.

I also looked past Dodd-Frank, past the financial crisis, pushed the mission of the agency as hard as I could, which produced truly game-changing rulemaking, White said in an interview. The efforts strengthened investor protections and our financial system, laying the groundwork for future regulatory regimes and aggressive enforcement.

Major enforcement actions under Whites watch included a September lawsuit accusing hedge fund billionaire Leon Cooperman of insider trading. Policy highlights included pushing through rules designed to make the $18.5 trillion mutual fund industry more resilient.

The SEC also brought first-of-their-kinds cases, such as a settlement with hedge fund Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC over allegations it paid bribes to win business and accords with private-equity firms over claims that they didnt adequately disclose fees to investors.

White sparred with Democratic commissioners after siding with Republicans to waive additional punishments for companies settling enforcement cases. She also drew persistent criticism from Sen. Elizabeth Warren over what the Massachusetts Democrat saw as the agencys failure to hold individuals accountable for Wall Street wrongdoing.

Warren also chided White for not pursuing rules that would force corporations to disclose their political contributions. The lawmaker last month took the unusual step of urging Obama to remove White from the chairmanship.

The criticism, comes with the territory, White said. You take a bullet for the agency.

Voter Guide: What to know for the midterm election Your guide to the Texas and San Antonio races and candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Whites ability to take the punches served the SEC well, said Daniel Gallagher, a former Republican commissioner who left the agency in October 2015. Her biggest accomplishment was pushing through regulations in July 2014 that toughened rules on money-market mutual funds, he said.

The tough persona that shes developed and needed as a prosecutor really helped, said Gallagher, who now serves as president of Patomak Partners LLC.

Whites departure in January would leave Piwowar, the sole sitting Republican, as the likely acting chair until a permanent replacement is confirmed by the Senate.

While its early in the process, a number of names are being floated as possible contenders, according to people close to the transition, finance industry trade groups, congressional aides and SEC staff members. Gallagher and Atkins, who is chief executive officer of Patomak Partners, are both possible contenders as are Proskauer Rose LLP lawyer Ralph Ferrara, a former SEC general counsel; and SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci, whos on the executive committee of Trumps transition team. Representative Scott Garrett, a New Jersey Republican who lost his re-election bid last week, is being pushed as a possibility by tea party Republicans.

White, 68, hasnt said what she plans to do next. After serving as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York under President Bill Clinton, she had a lucrative law career representing banks and other clients. Her husband, former SEC official John White, is a partner at law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP.
If the 64 members of Donald Trumps agricultural advisory committee hold any sway, the New York City billionaire heads into his presidency with a pro-farmer agenda near and dear to many in the flyover states that elected him, according to campaign talking points obtained by the San Antonio Express-News.

You will have the government off your back and out of your pocket, the document reads. You will have a voice in how agricultural issues are addressed and you will have allies in the White House and the agencies that have influence on your business.

High on the groups wish list are Supreme Court justices who will defend private property, water and mineral rights. The advisory panel also wants an Environmental Protection Agency administrator who understands the complexity of agriculture and rural issues as well as a farm bill written by those who are thankful for our remarkable food system in this country, according to the document.

Exit polls show rural voters came out strong for Trump, whose appearances in heavy agricultural areas drew long lines of supporters. Sixty-two percent of rural voters turned out at the polls for the Republican last week, compared with 53 percent in 2008. The Trump appeal was most dramatic among rural voters in tiny communities far from urban centers, where 71 percent went for Trump, compared with 40 percent of voters in cities with a million or more people.

Gene Hall of the Texas Farm Bureau said the margins showed how Hillary Clintons concentration on huge urban voting blocks during the campaign backfired.

That rural folks can make a difference at the polls is now quite obvious, Hall wrote Monday in a TFB blog post. "Rural leaders have long been concerned that national leadership is ignoring the countryside and the people who live there. In the 2016 election, the folly of that strategy came home to roost. These are places where issues like property rights, over-regulation and the second amendment are a lot more than talking points. Its where an out of control federal agency like EPA can ruin your life and livelihood.

To hear Hall and elected representatives from farming and ranching states like Texas say it, the EPAs recast rule on Waters of the United States, or WOTUS, was the poster child of an out of control federal agency.

Under the rule, the subject of a lawsuit by Texas and other states, stock ponds and what farmers view as ditches could be designated as tributaries that feed into rivers and lakes and subject to EPA monitoring. The rule previously covered navigable waterways. While environmental advocates applauded the move as needed oversight to prevent fertilizers and pesticide runoff from polluting the nations water supply, farmers and ranchers envisioned costly paperwork and compliance fines on top of state regulations and their own stewardship.

A Labor Department move to treat rural vendors of anhydrous ammonia fertilizer as wholesalers subject to tens of thousands of dollars in compliance costs was another sore point. The action, which ended up shot down by a federal appeals court, was in reaction to the deadly 2013 West Texas explosion caused by ammonium nitrate, a different fertilizer. But it could have compelled nearly 4,000 fertilizer dealers to no longer carry anhydrous, forcing area farmers to pay more for less effective substitutes.

The talking points also call for an agriculture secretary who will defend American agriculture against its critics, particularly those who have never grown or produced anything beyond a backyard tomato plant. While current Secretary Tom Vilsack was previously governor of the Corn Belt state of Iowa, Texans in particular felt sold out when he declined to designate cotton as an oilseed that would have made the crop eligible for federal subsidies. Those were cut in the 2014 farm bill as a concession in a trade dispute with Brazil, but cotton prices had plunged since 2014 due largely to Chinese stockpiling and paying growers far over the global commodity price.

Food labeling favored by consumer groups was another point of contention. Country of origin labeling for meat, which The World Trade Organization rejected as unfairly favoring U.S. meat over Mexican and Canadian, was unpopular among South Texas ranchers who said labels showing where cattle was born, raised and harvested was an onerous requirement for those with mixed herds.

Genetically modified crops, vilified as a potential corruption of the food supply, are considered advances by row crop producers that allow them to produce far more per acre than they could even a generation ago.

Agriculture will NOT be regulated based on the latest trends on social media, the talking points say.

Trump also called for eliminating the so-called death tax, which taxes values of estates over $5.45 million at up to 40 percent.

I think its a bigger deal for the agriculture community because their biggest asset is their land and because their profit margins are so narrow, said Bill Howe, state legislative director for the Texas Farm Bureau.

Richard Thorpe, president of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, agreed.

I think theres probably been nothing that has caused more fragmentation in dividing up ranches and farms than the death tax, he said. Typically farmers and ranchers are very asset rich from their land value but very cash poor.

Voter Guide: What to know for the midterm election Your guide to the Texas and San Antonio races and candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot.

When theres a death in the family, heirs generally have to sell a portion of the property to cover their taxes, he said, and this is very, very wrong for family farms and ranches.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, former Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Rep. Mike Conaway, a Midland Republican who now chairs the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture, are among the panels more notable members. Texas is the third-largest agriculture producer in the nation, behind California and Iowa, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Its a $115 billion industry in Texas and accounts for one in seven Texas jobs.

Its also an industry that depends largely on immigrants to pick crops and favorable trade policies to access foreign consumers.

Members of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association had high hopes for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an Obama administration trade pact with 12 other Pacific rim countries that would have been a big boost for Texas beef. Tariffs for Japan, the top export market for U.S. beef with $1.6 billion in yearly sales, would drop from 38.5 percent to 9 percent, for example.

Were thinking, good grief, if we can get from 38 and a half percent with a strong dollar  which makes our product very expensive in Japan  and we already sell $1.6 billion, how much more can we sell? Thorpe said.

Though Trump denounced the pact on the campaign trail, cattle raisers hope Trumps business acumen prevails in a softer stance. Theyre also holding out hope for immigration policies, crossing their fingers that Trumps intended crackdown on illegal immigration comes with a more workable agricultural guest worker program.

I think he sees the unique labor challenges of agriculture, just like I know he sees them in his hotel business, finding workers for his hotels, Thorpe said. We have a serious labor problem in Texas on ranches and farms. It would be difficult for us to give up the labor.

lbrezosky@express-news.net
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You probably wont want to cancel Thanksgiving outright this year, but it might be worth scaling down preparations a little bit. Maybe think about serving a few of those 1970s Swansons TV dinners with turkey slices and apple brown betty in the center.

Because Nov. 23 will be a day well spent at the cinema, where three potentially excellent movies will be released: the Robert Zemeckis World War II thriller Allied, Warren Beattys romance/comedy Rules Dont Apply and Disneys animated Moana.

(All that, and a nightcap of Bad Santa 2!)

Thanksgiving Eve encapsulates the holiday movie season pretty well. It has become an eclectic feast of programming and counter-programming  with crowd-pleasers, high-budget releases with art film sensibility, big-name directors grabbing for the Oscars ring and family-oriented blockbusters.

Not every weekend offers a quadruple feature of promising new movies, but theres something to look forward to almost every week from now until Christmas  when Gold, Fences and Why Him? reach theaters.

More Information More movies "Bleed for This": Miles Teller plays Vinny Pazienza, the boxing champion who recovered from a serious neck injury to fight for a championship. (Opens Friday) "The Edge of Seventeen": David Moreton writes and directs a coming-of-age comedy involving two gay students. (Friday) "Bad Santa 2": Billy Bob Thornton and Tony Cox return for more Christmas mayhem. Kathy Bates and Christina Hendricks join the cast. (Nov. 23) "Office Christmas Party": Jason Bateman, Jennifer Aniston and Kate McKinnon headline a huge cast in this comedy about a Christmas party gone awry. (Dec. 9) "Collateral Beauty": Will Smith stars as a depressed man who seeks answers from the universe. (Dec. 16) "The Space Between Us": "The Martian" meets "Romeo and Juliet." Asa Butterfield is a boy who is born on Mars, and falls in love with an Earth girl. (Dec. 16) "Assassin's Creed": Video game adaptations are almost always terrible. Michael Fassbender will try to beat the odds as a time-traveling thief. (Dec. 21) "Passengers": Another romance that starts in space. Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence wake up 90 years early from their spaceship hypersleep, fall in love. (Dec. 21) "Sing": Animals led by a koala bear (voiced by Matthew McConaughey) fight to save a theater in this animated musical. (Dec. 21) "Why Him?": Bryan Cranston and James Franco enter "Meet the Parents" comic territory, as a dad whose daughter falls for an eccentric Silicon Valley icon. (Dec. 23) See More Collapse

Below is expanded coverage of 10 films across several genres that we have the highest hopes for; a sidebar lists 10 more in 25 words or less.

Not included are Oscar contenders Live By Night (directed by Ben Affleck), Silence (Martin Scorsese) and the Boston bombing drama Patriots Day  all of which will screen in a couple big cities in December, then open wide in January.

Please note that release dates are subject to change.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

J.K. Rowling renews her license to print money with this spinoff to the Harry Potter films taking place several generations before the wizard was born. Rowling is planning several movies based on Fantastic Beasts, a textbook mentioned in a Harry Potter book. Potter veteran David Yates returns to direct. Eddie Redmayne plays lead character and beast-wrangler Newt Scamander. Best case scenario: The movie borrows touchstones from the Harry Potter franchise but develops into its own charming vibe. Worst case scenario: Fantastic Beasts is a bloated disappointment like Peter Jacksons The Hobbit trilogy. (Opens Friday)

Billy Lynns Long Halftime Walk

Lees first film since Life of Pi in 2012 features Joe Alwyn as a returning Iraqi war veteran who has mixed feelings as he is celebrated at a Dallas Cowboys game on Thanksgiving Day. Based on a novel by Ben Fountain. Kristen Stewart, Garrett Hedlund, Vin Diesel, Tim Blake Nelson and Steve Martin round out the deep cast. Lees films are well constructed while never falling into a pattern, and he has a sterling track record. Even Lees less-than-great films (The Hulk, Taking Woodstock) were still well shot and watchable. (Friday)

Allied

Theyre watching us  now kiss me. Marion Cotillard is a French resistance fighter who meets Brad Pitts Canadian intelligence agent at the beginning of World War II. They marry and then face a crisis when Cotillards character is accused of being a spy. Back to the Future and Cast Away director Robert Zemeckis has built an incredible career, now coming off the excellent Flight and underrated The Walk. Somehow during nearly two dozen credits, hes never helmed a romantic thriller (were classifying Romancing the Stone as romantic action). The trailers look promising. (Nov. 23)

Moana

Walt Disney Animation Studios has been on a very good streak since Pixars John Lasseter took over creative direction, with eclectic hits including Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, Big Hero 6 and Zootopia. The Polynesian legend Moana brings back Aladdin and The Princess and the Frog directors Ron Clements and John Musker, with some of the music written by Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda. Moana (voiced by newcomer AuliI Cravalho) is the daughter of a chief who sets sail to solve a mystery, and Dwayne Johnson  were done calling him The Rock now, right?  voices the demigod Maui, who helps her along the way. (Nov. 23)

Rules Dont Apply

Warren Beatty surfaces to direct a romantic comedy-drama about a Hollywood starlet and an ambitious executive who fall in love. Beatty plays Howard Hughes, in his first starring role since Town & Country in 2001, and first directorial feature since Bulworth in 1998. Lily Collins and Alden Ehrenreich are the young couple, who are challenged by religious and professional barriers. Half of Hollywood appears to have lined up to work with Beatty. The supporting cast includes Alec Baldwin, Matthew Broderick, Ed Harris, Dabney Coleman, Martin Sheen and Candice Bergen. (Nov. 23)

Manchester by the Sea

Kenneth Lonergan is a solid 2-for-2 as a writer director, releasing the stellar and engaging You Can Count on Me in 2000, and the complex but rewarding Margaret in 2011. Manchester By the Sea features the playwrights hallmarks of small family drama, hard-luck characters with good hearts, a little volatility and unexpected turns that ring true. Casey Affeck is an uncle who returns home and considers a guardianship for his nephew (Lucas Hedges) when his more responsible brother dies. (Dec. 9)

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Nestled between the end of Revenge of the Sith and the beginning of the original Star Wars, a new set of heroes execute a heist of the plans of the Death Star to ensure the explosive finale in the 1977 film. Monsters director Gareth Edwards takes the helm, with Felicity Jones as a rebellious rebel who helps lead the attack. Donnie Yen, Alan Tudyk (voicing a robot), Forest Whitaker and Jiang Wen play a quartet of mercenary types helping the cause. And there ae AT-ATs! (Apparently attacking on a tropical planet.) We have a feeling this ones going to make its money back. (Dec. 16)

Fences

August Wilsons Pulitzer Prize-winning 1983 play Fences took more than three decades for a cinematic release, but the right situations appears to have arrived. Denzel Washington directs and stars, with Washington and Viola Davis reprising their roles as Troy and Rose Maxson from the 2010 Broadway revival of Fences, produced by Carole Shorenstein Hays. The cast and crew are stacked with veteran talent, including editor Hughes Winborne and co-star Mykelti Williamson as Troys brother. Almost certain to be a strong Oscar contender in the acting categories and beyond. (Dec. 25)

Gold

Matthew McConaughey is bald and out of shape, teaming up with Edgar Ramirez to discover an Indonesian gold mine that is worth tens of billions of dollars  but may be more of a curse than a blessing. Syriana writer/director Stephen Gaghan is behind the camera. The trailers have a strong American Hustle period piece vibe, with get rich quick schemes, mental breakdowns, FBI intervention and Styx on the soundtrack. (Dec. 25)

La La Land

Whiplash writer/director Damien Chazelle returns with a musical, featuring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling as an aspiring actress and a jazz musician in modern-day Los Angeles  dealing with struggles and fame as their relationship develops. Whiplash dynamo and Oscar winner J.K. Simmons is a good luck charm in a small supporting role. Stone and Gosling had wonderful chemistry in the romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love, and early reviews from the festival circuit have been outstanding. (Dec. 25)

Peter Hartlaub is The San Francisco Chronicles pop culture critic. Email: phartlaub@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @PeterHartlaub
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Lilia Rios learned she had breast cancer when her oncologist told her, You know, Im a breast cancer survivor. And soon, youll be a breast cancer survivor, too.

It was a gentle, hopeful way to break the devastating news.

Her words gave me comfort, said Rios, who underwent two lumpectomies, three months of chemotherapy and 33 days of radiation that put her cancer in remission.

And, because cancer is rarely simple, a genetic test also revealed Rios had the PALB2 gene, a rare genetic mutation that increases her cancer risk five to ninefold, according to breastcancer.org. To reduce that, she had both breasts removed prophylactically and will also have to have a hysterectomy.

Now, a little more than two years after her initial diagnosis, Rios is close to the end of what many breast cancer patients see as the second stage of their journey: the reconstruction of her surgically maimed breasts.

Breast reconstruction, which can be done either immediately following cancer surgery or months or even years later, has become standard post-treatment care in the United States.

According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, there were 106,300 reconstruction procedures done in 2015, a 4 percent increase from the prior year and up 35 percent since 2000.

For many women, getting their breast reconstructed is an important part of the healing process, said Dr. Amita R. Shah, assistant professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center. For others, having their breasts back is an important part of their identity as a female.

But not for everyone.

Supported by social media, a nascent movement has arisen of women who choose not to undergo reconstruction, to remain breastless.

According to a recent New York Times story, going flat as the decision is sometimes called, is often based on a womans unwillingness to have a foreign object, in this case a saline or silicone implant, placed in their body. Others want to avoid the physical and emotional inconvenience and discomfort of the multistep reconstruction process. And some simply reject the mythos Shah mentioned that breasts are inexplicably tied to what makes a woman, a woman.

Still, the majority of candidates choose to go the reconstruction route.

Anywhere from 63 percent to 80 percent do so, depending on where they live, according to a study published in 2014 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

And breast reconstruction isnt just for younger women.

Another study, this one funded by the National Cancer Institute and published in 2016 in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, showed that it is successful for a vast majority of women, including those 61 and older.

So age alone should not be a disqualifying factor when deciding to have what is sometimes called a reverse mastectomy.

Whether a woman chooses reconstruction or to go flat, the Womens Health and Cancer Rights Act of 1998 requires health plans to cover the cost of surgery or prosthetics for the breast affected by cancer and, if necessary, the other as well.

Rios said her doctors told her she was a good candidate.

Im 46, and they told me I could expect good results, she said. When I heard that, I decided I wanted to have the reconstruction.

Those who do choose reconstruction have several options, although depending on her age, health and other conditions, not every option is open to every woman. Here are some of the most popular procedures:

Sub-pectoral reconstruction: The traditional way to do a breast reconstruction, this involves lifting the pectoral muscle, which sits atop the chest wall, and placing the implant beneath it, so the muscle helps hold the implant in place.

From the inside out, then, the layers are: chest wall, implant and muscle, covered by a thin layer of remaining fat and skin.

One disadvantage of the technique is whats known as animation deformity or dynamic breast deformity.

This means that, when the pectoral muscle contracts or flexes, it can cause the implant to move excessively and unnaturally, or, as Shah puts it, to dance. This can include rippling or taking on an unusual shape.

Pre-pectoral reconstruction: To avoid implant deformity, surgeons will sometimes place the implant on top of the pectoral muscle.

The technique, which Shah said has become more commonplace over the past few years, is also less painful, because it doesnt require lifting the muscle. It also often results in a more natural-looking breast because the implant is covered only by a thin layer of fat and skin, not the thicker muscle.

Patients seem to like the look, Shah said.

Deep Inferior Epigastric Artery Perforator (DIEP) Flap: Instead of using a silicon- or saline-filled implant to re-create the look and feel of a natural breast, the DIEP Flap involves taking fat and skin from the abdominal area and inserting it on top of the pectoral muscle instead.

This is a much more involved procedure requiring microsurgery and a longer recovery time.

But in addition to eliminating the possibility of rejection, since this is an autologous procedure, it also allows more leeway on the size of the finished breast.

Implants are limited to a volume of 800 cubic centimeters, or about 3.3 liquid cups. If a woman wants anything larger, either to match her other breast or simply because thats what she wants, shell likely have to undergo a DIEP Flap procedure.

Plus, youre removing fat from the belly area, which makes a lot of women happy, Shah said.

Before they can receive their permanent implant, however, most must undergo a procedure called tissue expansion.

This involves inserting a temporary, inflatable bladder beneath the skin, often but not always at the time of the cancer surgery.

After several weeks of healing, the expanded bladder is periodically injected with a saline solution through a valve.

As it fills, the bladder grows larger, slowly stretching the skin and muscle of the breast until it reaches the target size, when it is removed and replaced by the permanent implant.

Is expansion painful? Depends on the person. Some women dont feel a thing; others have to go a bit slower.

Lilia Rios had six sets of injections into both breasts but said she felt a little discomfort, a little pain, only after the fourth round. Shes scheduled to get her permanent implants later this week.

Sometimes surgeons must use other techniques to ensure a satisfactory outcome.

For breasts that might have contour irregularities, such as dips or dimpling, the surgeon can liposuction fat from elsewhere in the body  the abs, thighs or buttocks  and use it as a filler to smooth out the problem areas.

Also, as partial mastectomies, or lumpectomies, become more common, so does the risk that the space left behind when the cancer is removed will collapse and cause dimpling.

So, surgeons are increasingly relying on techniques commonly done during breast lifts, such as bringing tissue up from deeper in the breast to fill the hole and provide support the outer surface of the breast.

For Rios, her decision has been a positive one.

I didnt feel less of a woman without my breasts, she said, but now Im very happy. They look pretty.

With a laugh, she added, I was also able to go a little bit bigger  from a 36B to a 36C.
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A citizens committee Monday night voted to cut $2 million in bond funding for construction of a controversial land bridge, connecting the two halves of Hardberger Park, and instead shifted that money to McAllister Park.

The change would reduce the overall bond funding for the land bridge from $15 million to $13 million: $5.5 million from the parks bond package, following Mondays vote, and $7.5 million in bond funding for streets.

The two sides of the 311-acre Hardberger Park are separated by Wurzbach Parkway.

Funding for the land bridge could be slashed even more dramatically in the coming weeks: District 8 representatives on the parks committee said theyd shift the money from Hardberger to McAllister on the condition that the rest of the funding for the land bridge be left alone.

But the committee voted against that suggestion, 21 to seven, said Mike Frisbie, director of the citys Transportation and Capital Improvements Department.

No bond money had previously been allocated for improvements at McAllister, the citys second largest park at nearly 1,000 acres.

Instead, city officials had originally proposed $2 million to build new fields and facilities for Capitol Park Little League at McAllister.

The little league operates on property owned by Capitol Aggregates, a construction and cement company and subsidiary of the Zachry Corp. But the company plans to quarry mine that area, so the little league has to move.

That proposal, first revealed in September, quickly resulted in an uproar among McAllister Park users, due to fears that park trails would be damaged, that congestion in the park could increase and because the Little League program would be open only to people who live within the teams district boundaries.

So the city scrapped the original plan and officials said they would try to find another site where Capitol Park could move.

The city has identified three to four sites for the team, Frisbie said..

After Mondays vote, both McAllister and Capitol Park Little League are each slated to receive $2 million in funding. The money for McAllister would pay for new pavilions, expansion of the dog park, security lighting, trail improvements and trail signage, Frisbie said.

Capitol Park would still have to raise another $4 million to $6 million for its fields.

For now, the land bridge project is still feasible. The Phil Hardberger Park Conservancy has pledged to raise $10 million for the project, which would bring total funding to $23 million, in combination with the new bond funding amounts. Advocates of the project say they believe they can still build the land bridge for this figure.

However, theyre not comfortable that it can be built for less than that, Frisbie said.

The parks bond committee will vote on the final funding allocations at its last meeting, Dec. 5.

The City Council will then get the final say on what slate of projects make it into the parks bond package and the four other bond categories: streets, facilities, drainage and neighborhood improvements.

All of the projects are part of an $850 million municipal bond issue that will go to voters in May. It is the largest bond package in San Antonios history.

vdavila@express-news.net

Twitter: @viannadavila
KERRVILLE  Kerr County commissioners again denied a request Monday by local freethinkers to display a banner outside the Kerr County Courthouse during the Christmas season, albeit by a different vote tally than last time.

In a switch from his vote on Sept. 26, County Judge Tom Pollard cast the lone yes vote in favor of allowing Kerrville Freethought to hang the banner, a faux Nativity scene that it says celebrates the Bill of Rights and Winter Solstice. Christians here see it as mocking their faith.

Pollard predicted the countys refusal to permit the banner on the courthouse lawn  where it already allows the annual display of a nativity scene  would result in a lawsuit that the county would spend $100,000 or more to defend, and still lose.

I just think its foolishness to spend all that money on something that were not going to win, said Pollard, himself a Christian, before a crowd of about 50 that included many who'd also attended the prior meeting where the banner was unanimously rejected.

A woman in the audience declared in response, You just lost my vote.

Before the 4-1 vote to again deny the banner, Commissioner Jonathan Letz said the mocking tone of the banner was inconsistent with the courthouse holiday display. It features likenesses of Benjamin Franklin, the Statute of Liberty, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington arranged around the Bill of Rights.

Let us also honor the birth of our Bill of Rights, which reminds us there can be no freedom OF religion without freedom FROM religion in government, it says beneath the heading Happy Winter Solstice.

David Whitsett, leader of the local freethinker group, told the commissioners it was merely seeking equal access to the courthouse lawn.

It doesnt matter how many people would like to silence atheists and agnostics in the community. We are here. And free speech means nothing if it does not apply to everyone, he said.

But banner opponents like Kenny Bledsoe urged commissioners to stick to your guns and uphold the nations Christian heritage, saying, There's not a violation of our constitution here.

Some also invoked the results of last weeks presidential election outcome in urging commissioners to reject Whitsetts request, contending that local residents and outside groups would likely donate to help defray the countys legal costs.

Our election says were not accepting political correctness any more, former Kerrville Mayor Jack Pratt told commissioners.

Approving the banner would encourage Whitsetts group to next oppose the prayers that open commissioners court meetings, resident Bill White said.

The banner was supplied to the local group by the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, which is currently suing Gov. Greg Abbott over his order to remove a similar display from the Capitol Rotunda in Austin last year.

While not directly threatening the county with a lawsuit, FFRF staff attorney Sam Grover cited legal cases in a Sept. 29 letter to Pollard to assert that the countys denial amounted to unlawful discrimination, urging commissioners to revoke permission for the existing nativity scene or reconsider the banner request.

zeke@express-news.net
Mayor Ivy Taylor held the third meeting of the Council on Police-Community Relations on Monday night at the local FBI field office and for the second time excluded anyone from the public or the media.

Panel members had to undergo an FBI criminal background check in advance to enter the offices on the Northwest Side. A San Antonio Express-News reporter was turned away after receiving no word a week earlier that the meeting would be closed.

The topic of the meeting was said to be about how the FBI handles civil rights complaints and coordinates with local police.

The meeting was closed because it was held at a secure facility, said Michelle Lee, a spokeswoman for the local FBI office.

One former member of the council criticized the choice of the location at Interstate 10 and Loop 1604 and the lack of transparency.

These closed-door meetings are nothing more than the city saying we did something antics that continue to create a divide between its citizens and those whom they are policed by, said Mike Lowe, founder of SATX4, a local community group similar to Black Lives Matter.

This does nothing to build relations, nothing to build trust, he added.

Lowe was appointed to the panel but resigned after the second meeting.

The council was created in September in the wake of a string of police shootings of black men, some unarmed, across the country. In San Antonio, tense community discussions ensued after local activists unsuccessfully pushed City Council to reject a police collective bargaining agreement because of rules that limit how much disciplinary evidence the police chief can consider when punishing officers.

At the same time, the number of homicides in San Antonio, 132 as of Monday, is the highest in 20 years.

The panel has faced criticism for holding its first meeting behind closed doors. Taylor decided to close it on the advice of a University of Texas at San Antonio professor who facilitated the meeting and wanted participants to freely discuss their feelings about law enforcement and policing in San Antonio.

Shortly after that meeting, Taylor spoke to Express-News columnist Brian Chasnoff, telling him all future meetings would be open to the public.

The second meeting was open to the public and the media.

Leslie Garza, the mayors spokeswoman, said the mayor never promised that all meetings would be open to the public. She said the mayor said she would decide on a case-by-case basis, depending on the topic being discussed.

Additionally, no one made a decision to hold the meeting privately, she said.

The only thing that played a factor in this being closed is that the FBI is a closed facility and we have to go by their security measures, Garza said.

Lee, the FBI spokeswoman, said the bureau can host informational sessions, such as the one organized for the council Monday night, at other facilities or in the community, but that type of environment is not always conducive to a successful outcome.

In February, a town hall hosted by the San Antonio chapter of the NAACP at New Light Baptist Church on the East Side, which the FBI attended, angered participants who werent able to speak as long as they wanted.

Toward the end of the meeting, participants walked out of the conversation and returned, shouting for justice and holding signs.

Very few people got the opportunity to discuss the topic and ask questions, Lee said. We have found that the best way to have these conversations is to host them at our headquarters.

Lee said the FBI is committed to transparency and to guaranteeing that all members of the public can attend these meetings.

We would love to be involved in future events and would be open to attending an event in another location as long we create a recipe for success, she said. Were interested in engaging and working with more folks out in the community.

Johnathan-David Jones, a community activist who is part of the council but was unable to attend Mondays meeting, said he had mixed feelings about the meetings closure.

More than anything, he was concerned that the meeting was held at the FBI field office, which is not a central or accessible location.

Additionally, he was concerned that the council is not better at communicating if the meetings are open or closed.

We cant keep going back and forth between open, closed, open, closed, he said.

The Rev. Patrick Jones, pastor of the Greater Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church on the East Side and a council member, said he understood why the meeting was closed. Its to ensure smaller but successful dialogue. Then, from there, the dialogue can be expanded.

In the long run, though, the meetings should be held in the public, he said.

Its senseless to keep it to just us, he said. You have to get outside input.

eeaton@express-news.net

Twitter: @emilieeaton
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AUSTIN  Parents whose children were tormented by online harassment came to the Texas Capitol on Monday to press for more protections for victims of bullying as lawmakers began to set the stage for next years legislative session.

The families stories were a poignant part of the first day on which lawmakers could pre-file legislation for the session, which begins in January.

With legislative leaders staking out their priorities, proposals already run the gamut from tax relief to education to abortion to a new effort to put a statewide ban on texting while driving.

It was the first wave of a flood of measures that will be put before lawmakers. Just a fraction will make it through the process to Gov. Greg Abbotts desk.

For Matt and Maurine Molak, Mondays appearance at the Capitol is part of a long effort to help other children after losing their son, David, to suicide this year.

There are so many children that are suffering silently.  Davids Law is to protect those kids, said Matt Molak, speaking from behind a lectern where his sons photograph was displayed.

More Information Some other bills -House Bill 219 to provide a sales and use tax exemption for certain feminine hygiene products. -Senate Joint Resolution 9 to amend the Texas Constitution to guarantee the right to life to unborn children. -Senate Bill 160 to prohibit the Texas Education Agency from setting a cap on the number of students in special education. -Senate Bill 176 to regulate transportation network companies such as Uber and Lyft at the state level. See More Collapse

The death of the teenager, a former student at Alamo Heights High School, came after an Instagram taunt about his girlfriend escalated into profanity and threats. No one was charged. The district attorney said there was insufficient evidence for a harassment case.

The proposed legislation by San Antonio Democrats Sen. Jose Menendez and Rep. Ina Minjarez is meant to make it easier to intervene in such matters and to gather evidence. They emphasized that it is a work in progress.

Among its provisions, the bill would make it a misdemeanor to electronically harass or bully anyone under age 18 through means such as texts and social media. It would provide for civil liability, paving the way for parents of victims to sue bullies families. Menendez said this would allow subpoena power to discover whos doing the bullying.

The bill would require school districts to include cyberbullying in their policies and to notify parents whose children are victims or alleged aggressors. School districts would be required to develop a system to anonymously report bullying and would be given more latitude to place students in a disciplinary alternative education program or expel them for encouraging suicide or other serious bullying.

There is bipartisan support for addressing the issue, with House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, saying, Davids story continues to have a very big impact on our community, and I hope we will pass legislation that helps bring an end to cyberbullying.

Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Houston, stopped by the news conference to show his support, saying, Were supposed to protect our kids, right? Thats our responsibility.

Bipartisan agreement is tough to find on some other issues, including abortion, which is among the top priorities of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

Patrick wants to increase penalties for buying or selling human fetal tissue and to put a ban on partial birth abortion, while several Republican lawmakers Monday filed measures to restrict abortion, affirm the right of an unborn child to live or govern the disposal of fetal tissue after an abortion.

A number of Democrats voice concern about the effect on womens health if access to abortion is narrowed.

One measure, by Rep. Byron Cook, R-Corsicana, would require Texas health facilities to bury or incinerate fetal tissue after an abortion or miscarriage. The bill echoes rules proposed by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission in July, which drew criticism and concern from abortion providers and reproductive rights organizations.

Abortion-rights organizations said the proposals were the states latest attempt to restrict abortion, and they worry that they will require a death certificate for each fetus and individual disposal. Cook stressed that isnt the case.

This isnt about the issue of access to abortion, Cook said. It has everything to do with humane disposition of fetal remains.

Republican leaders also are focusing on big-picture items ahead of the next session, with Patrick and Straus both citing the importance of the budget at a time when state revenues have been hit by lower-than-expected oil and gas performance.

The proposed state budget will be filed later and is among legislation for which leaders have reserved low bill numbers, to signify that they are important.

Mondays round of filings also extend to how Texans drive.

Rep. Tom Craddick, R-Midland, filed a bill to ban texting while driving. Its the fourth consecutive legislative session he has filed such a measure, and he said he thinks the bill has a chance this time.

When we first tried it (in 2011), only nine states had passed it, Craddick said. Whats changed is weve seen so many other states join, and they are showing statistically that you can save lives and money.

Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, also filed a bill to ban texting while driving Monday. It was among many she filed in advance of the session, with her staffers and intern volunteers camping out over the weekend in front of the Senate secretarys office to ensure that her bills would be first in line.

pfikac@express-news.net

Twitter: @pfikac

Houston Chronicle Staff Writer Dug Begley and Express-News Staff writer Brittney Martin contributed to this report.




AUSTIN  The parents of David Molak, a 16-year-old who killed himself after being harassed online, came to the Texas Capitol on Monday to promote a bill in his memory to try to give more protection to victims of bullying.

There are so many children that are suffering silently  Davids Law is to protect those kids, said Davids father, Matt Molak, speaking from behind a lectern with his sons photograph on it.
AUSTIN  Donald Trumps plan to start deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal records would cover more than 6,700 convicts in Texas prisons, more than in any other state, a move that could save taxpayers millions of dollars a year.

The path for Trump to do so, however, is complicated by opposition to releasing convicts before they finish their sentences, especially if they are deported only to return to commit new crimes, officials said Monday.

Ill put a bow on them if hell come get them, but weve been trying to get them sent home for more than a decade without much success, said Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.

About half of them are eligible for parole, and sending them home would not compromise public safety one iota, the Houston Democrat said. So, lets do it. Its nuts that we spend millions of dollars housing these people like we are.

Of the 6,761 felons in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice prisons who federal officials have determined are in the U.S. illegally  and already have filed paperwork to deport when they are released  almost half were eligible for parole at the end of October, state records show.

Of those eligible, 1,903 are serving time for violent crimes. Prisoners not eligible for parole include 3,537 serving long sentences for violent crimes, including murder, kidnapping, sexual assault, indecency with children and robbery. Ten of those are on death row, and 54 others are serving life without parole.

If all of those eligible for parole were removed from Texas prisons, the annual savings would be $61 million, at the official per-prisoner cost of $52 a day.

With the state facing a budget shortfall when the Legislature convenes in January, I can promise you that this is going to be a major point of discussion, Whitmire said, echoing the sentiments of several colleagues.

In an interview with CBS 60 Minutes that aired Sunday, Trump said his first priority on illegal immigration is to get those with criminal records out of the country.

What we are going to do is to get the people that are criminals and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, it could be 2 million, it could be even 3 million, we are getting them out of this country or we are going to incarcerate, Trump said.

After that, Trump said, his administration will come up with a plan to deal with as many as 8 million or 9 million additional people in this country illegally who have not committed crimes.

For more than 20 years, Texas has worked in a partnership with federal immigration officials to hold hearings at a Huntsville prison as foreign convicts are discharged, so those who are ordered deported can be taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

Prison officials acknowledged Monday that deportation of Texas convicts has been an issue for years.

Almost three decades ago, several lawmakers proposed building a prison on a Caribbean island and transferring the offenders there. More recently, legislative leaders have endorsed deportations to save money, as federal officials drastically cut reimbursements to cover Texas costs. Then-Gov. Rick Perry sidelined that discussion by asserting that since the foreign convicts did their crimes in Texas, they should do their time here.

In 2010, state Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, said the state could save more than $100 million if as many as 5,000 foreigners were removed from state prisons. The Legislature changed state law to allow the state Board of Pardons and Paroles to approve convicts for early release on the condition that they would be deported to their home countries for both violent and nonviolent crimes.

Even so, officials said those paroles mostly stopped over equal-protection questions  whether the parole board should parole someone just because he would be deported and not because he otherwise qualified for early release  and because some offenders were posting immigration bails and then disappearing to avoid deportation.

Reports of paroled convicts who returned to Texas and committed new crimes also raised the anger of lawmakers and slowed parole approvals under the law.

Marc Levin, director of the Austin-based Center for Effective Justice and policy director of Right on Crime, both national conservative advocacy groups, said Trumps proposal is likely to spur new debate on the issue.

But, as we have seen in the past, it gets complicated, he said.

Whitmire said he believes that prison officials do not want to see many of the undocumented immigrant convicts paroled and deported because they are trustees who help cook food, clean and maintain state prisons. Prison officials have denied that.

Gov. Greg Abbott, who appoints members of the parole board, on Monday seemed to be sticking with Perrys policy of requiring convicts to finish their sentences.

Gov. Abbott believes that criminal immigrants who have been convicted of a crime in Texas should serve out their prison sentences and then be deported, said John Wittman, his press secretary.
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Depending on ones point of view, Donald Trumps election as president can be seen as either a chance to pull back on federal regulatory overreach or to undo any recent progress made on the environment.

Experts on both sides say climate change, energy, the Environmental Protection Agencys relationship with the states, endangered species and land use are some of the most important environmental issues that Trumps leadership will alter. That could be especially true in Texas.

Still, nobody knows exactly what Trump will do. Compared with immigration and health care, the environment received little attention from either side in the presidential campaign. Trump also has made conflicting statements about his plans for the EPA.

Trumps pick of transition advisers and possible future Cabinet members offers some clues. He appointed two climate change skeptics: Myron Ebell to head his EPA transition team and a North Dakota Republican congressman, Kevin Cramer, as an energy adviser. Trump is reportedly considering oil executive Forrest Lucas for interior secretary, which would put him in control of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service and other federal agencies with vast land holdings. Other potential picks include Oklahoma oil tycoon Harold Hamm for energy secretary.

As for Trumps policies, environmentalists and business and energy advocates in Texas and elsewhere are looking to his transition website, along with his Twitter account and a few public statements, for clues.

Climate and energy

Most everyone agrees that the Obama administrations policies to address climate change, including cutting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, are doomed.

Trump has vowed to cancel the Paris climate agreement and scrap the Clean Power Plan, the first-ever attempt to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, the highest-emitting sector in the U.S.

Thats good news for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton. Paxtons office joined 24 states in a lawsuit challenging the plan, and the U.S. Supreme Court issued a temporary stay in February.

Texas generates more electricity and produces more greenhouse gas emissions from power plants than any other state and is the only one to operate its own electrical grid. Texas also ranks No. 1 in wind power and No. 10 in solar.

The Clean Power Plan would have required Texas to cut its emissions to 33 percent of 2012 levels by 2030 but would have allowed the state to decide for itself how to do so. As of July, Texas generated 51 percent of its electricity from natural gas, 29 percent from coal, 12 percent from renewable sources and 8 percent from nuclear power, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

If that mix changes, federal mandates will not be the cause.

Texas challenge to the Clean Power Plan will still be underway when Trump takes office, and his administration has several options to change the rules or settle with Texas and the other states, said Scott Segal, head of the policy group at Bracewell, an international law firm that advises San Antonio-based oil refiners Valero Energy and Tesoro.

Besides the Clean Power Plan, Texas has seven other pending lawsuits against the federal government over air regulations covering oil field methane emissions, particulates, sulfur dioxide and more.

For Texas top Republican officeholders, including Abbott, that litigation has been key to keeping the Obama administration in check.

For the first time since 2008, we wont have a White House that we have to constantly sue to protect the rights of Texans, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a statement after Trumps election.

Under Trump, the EPA will settle in Texas favor if they can, said Eric Schaeffer, director of the Environmental Integrity Project, who for five years served as director of the EPAs Office of Civil Enforcement. Im hoping they dont do that every single time on every single issue. That would be foolish if they did because obviously theyll be setting up for a backlash.

Robin Schneider, director of Texas Campaign for the Environment, also has little hope for Obamas fossil-fuel regulations but did not think it would spell the end for renewable energy sources. The thing is, the momentum for clean energy, for wind and solar, is very strong already, she said.

Trade groups that represent Texas power producers offered little insight into their thinking about Trumps administration. The Association of Electric Companies of Texas, which represents generators dominated both by renewable sources and fossil fuels, declined to comment.

Lindsey Hughes, director of Texas Competitive Power Advocates, said in an email that the group will support a market that brings investment in clean and diversified energy resources to provide ample, reliable and affordable electricity choices for Texas consumers. She did not mention Trump.

EPA enforcement

Trumps team mentions the EPA briefly on its transition website, saying it will refocus the EPA on its core mission of ensuring clean air, and clean, safe drinking water for all Americans.

It included one specific measure: The president-elect said he would eliminate the highly invasive Waters of the U.S. rule. Thats shorthand for a rule that said that the Clean Water Act applies to wetlands and ephemeral streams that are headwaters for larger tributaries and rivers. The EPA framed it as clarifying the law, while opponents considered it an overreach.

Schaeffer, whose group often sues the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality over the issue of weak enforcement of environmental laws, thinks Obamas EPA was already fairly soft on the TCEQ. Texans should now expect even less from the EPA and must take matters into their own hands, he said.

If youre living downwind or downriver from polluters, youre less able to depend on some kind of backstop from EPA, he said. Youre going to need to start taking your own agency on and holding them accountable.

There may be one place for common ground. Trump has proposed a $550 billion investment in the countrys infrastructure, though he has not explained how it would be funded. That could include some money to upgrade the nations drinking water systems.

Endangered species

Trump and his advisers have said next to nothing about endangered species, except for one reference on the transition site to protecting habitat.

This is an environmental fight that often plays out in Texas. Recent battles have been waged over the lesser prairie chicken, the dunes sagebrush lizard and the golden-cheeked warbler, whose habitats often overlap with land coveted by oil and gas companies or developers.

With Republicans controlling the White House and both houses of Congress, Robert Henneke, general counsel for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative-leaning think tank, said he was hopeful for what he said is a needed reform of the Endangered Species Act. His group joined a petition last year to take the golden-cheeked warbler off the endangered species list.

The purpose of the Endangered Species Act needs to be restored to protecting endangered and threatened species and not land control and encumbrance of private property, he said, adding that the federal government should still have a role for migratory species that cross state boundaries.

The day after the election, Center for Biological Diversity Director Kieran Suckling called Trumps win a disaster. The environmental group has fought for protection of several Texas species, including the dunes sagebrush lizard, a species of mussel native to the Rio Grande, endangered salamanders and the warbler.

Trumps vision is dark. Dangerous, Suckling said in the statement, adding that his organization will regroup, re-energize and carry on the good fight to save life on Earth.

Use of federal land

One issue that has environmentalists reeling may be less of a concern in Texas: opening up federal lands for energy development.

Unlike most of the West, Texas has few federal lands outside of Big Bend National Park, some U.S. Forest Service land in East Texas, North Texas and the Panhandle, and a smattering of wildlife refuges along the Gulf Coast.

Trumps transition page calls for opening onshore and offshore (energy) leasing on federal lands and waters. It vows to repeal a moratorium on federal coal mining leasing while ensuring proper stewardship of our National Parks crown jewels.

To the extent that the limited federal lands in Texas would be productive economically, Henneke said, then they should be developed with the same types of environmental safeguards that have always existed.

On the other side, Schneider said any extreme ideas such as privatizing national parks will ignite a firestorm.

With Republicans set to control the White House and Congress, perhaps environmentalists across the country can learn a thing or two from those working in Texas.

Weve been dealing with people in power in both houses of the Legislature, in the Governors Mansion, in the lieutenant governors chair and at the Texas Supreme Court, Schneider said. Very few of these people get elected on a pro-environment platform.

She said groups such as hers succeed in this state by finding unlikely allies. Canvassing door to door has taught her that many Republicans and conservatives support certain conservation measures.

We learned how to talk to people across the political spectrum, she said. Not that we always win by a long shot, but we have been very successful on a lot of fronts.

bgibbons@express-news.net

Twitter: @bgibbs
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WASHINGTON  Democratic National Committee Finance Chairman Henry Munoz III of San Antonio said Monday that he's "seriously considering jumping into the race" to be the group's chairman, arguing that the conversation about the party's future must include representation for Latinos, a growing demographic group.

After losing the White House and Congress  and likely the ideological tilt of the Supreme Court  the Democrats' new chief will be one of the party's most visible faces in politics, making the role a far more influential post than it was during the Obama administration.

Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison announced his candidacy for the post Monday afternoon, joining a crowded field of candidates that includes former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who was party chairman during the administration of then-President George W. Bush.

Around a dozen Democrats' names have been publicly floated to succeed interim chairwoman Donna Brazile.

Ellison, a prominent progressive and the first Muslim elected to Congress, has emerged as an early leader, attracting support from Senate leaders and liberal activists.

Former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley, and South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison have also said they're considering bids.

Meanwhile, Democratic leaders delivered pep talks to demoralized supporters Monday, promising to reassess their strategy, message and organization in the wake of last week's devastating defeat.

"You're allowed to mope for a week and half maybe two," President Barack Obama told DNC members on a conference call. "But after that we've got to brush ourselves off and get to work."

The party has entered a period of soul-searching, as Democrats try to chart their direction in the Donald Trump era. An ascendant liberal wing is pushing for a serious shift toward an economic populist message that could win back white working-class voters who backed Trump.

Party activists, donors and politicians are also advocating for significant changes in leadership, with a group of younger House members trying to postpone leadership elections in an effort to force a discussion about the direction of the party.

"There's a general feeling that the Democratic Party itself needs some serious reform and has grown very distant from the kind of communities it represents," said Gara LaMarche, president of the Democracy Alliance, a group of wealthy Democratic donors who gathered in Washington for a three-day strategy session this week.

This is a time of deep unrest for the party. Anti-Trump protests continued this weekend and post-election polls showed a significant minority of Clinton backers question the legitimacy of Trump's win.

The future looks even grimmer.

In two years, Democrats will be defending about two dozen Senate seats, including at least five in deep-red states. That election could hand Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a filibuster-proof majority, further clearing the way for a conservative policy agenda.

Obama's call followed a news conference where Obama delivered a subtle critique of Clinton's campaign, pushing back on the idea that demographic advantages would lead to all-but-assured victories for the party and stressing that Democrats must rebuild on every level.

Clinton kept a relatively light campaign schedule until the final weeks of her campaign, focusing heavily on motivating the Democratic base of women and minority voters, rather than swaying independents.

"We're going to have to show up everywhere," he said, reflecting on his own 2008 win in Iowa, a state that went for Trump.

Clinton, meanwhile, held her own call with House Democrats on Monday afternoon. She urged the members not to be "discouraged or divided," according to a Democrat on the call.

"Heartbreaks don't heal overnight and this one won't," she said.

Associated Press Congressional Correspondent Erica Werner contributed to this report.
By now, journalists should know that President-elect Donald Trump is a threat to the ability of Americans to hold power to account.

As a candidate, Trump vowed to open up our libel laws to sue news organizations more easily for unfavorable coverage. Even after winning the election, he has continued to vent his disfavor.

Wow, Trump tweeted Sunday, the @nytimes is losing thousands of subscribers because of their very poor and highly inaccurate coverage of the Trump phenomena.

Theres irony in Trumps sustained attack on traditional media, considering he owes his Election Day victory in large part to new media sources with eroded, sometimes absent editorial standards.

At its worst, this trend spawns fake news. And the fake news websites that aided in Trumps ascent  sites to which he tweeted links during his campaign  are flouting libel laws that already exist by knowingly publishing falsehoods.

Consider: WTOE 5 News, a self-described fantasy news website that reported that Pope Francis had endorsed Trump; or The Denver Guardian, a website that appeared online a few months before the election to report that an FBI agent connected to Hillary Clintons email scandal had murdered his wife and shot himself.

Both stories, pure fiction, were widely shared on Facebook before the election.

Consider also: Breitbart News, the right-wing news and opinion website whose chairman, Stephen Bannon, Trump has named chief White House strategist and senior counselor  despite the xenophobic, racist and anti-Semitic slant of some of Breitbarts stories.

Beverly Hebert, a 70-year-old San Antonio resident, sees a problem with all of this.

Hebert rejected the idea that Breitbart News is merely a reflection of Trump voters. Rather, these voters are often vessels for Breitbarts worst traits.

More than any other single factor, I believe the reason this country has been moving to the right, and past center-right into radical fringe territory, is because of a successful and relentless propaganda campaign that has been going on for years and is still growing its audience, Hebert wrote in an email.

Social media has expanded the propaganda platform, she continued. People who  get their information from right-wing internet sites and memes instead of mainstream papers with ethical standards of journalism now form the GOP base.

At the same time, these right-wing forces work to denigrate mainstream news sources, much as Trump is doing now with his Twitter megaphone  the better to drown them out.

Propaganda flows from the left, as well  although not as often, according to a Buzzfeed investigation that found 12 percent of stories on right-wing pages were mostly false, compared with 5 percent of stories on left-wing pages.

Regardless of partisan slant, Facebook should not allow itself to become a platform for deception.

Constant vigilance is required. The internet is an example of something philosopher Timothy Morton called a hyperobject: a system too complex, too massively distributed across space and time, for humans to get a grip on.

Morton is right; Facebook users are shaped unconsciously by the social media platform every day. Algorithms steer them to stories based in large part on which ones theyre most likely to enjoy.

As Timothy B. Lee noted in Vox, algorithms also push the most sensational stories to the top of news feeds  and accuracy is not a consideration.

As people turn to Facebook more often for their news, their heads become more firmly lodged in private, reality-warping bubbles. And these bubbles not only can swing elections, they camouflage threats  threats like Trump  until its too late.

Its unfortunate that the best bulwark against this threat to democracy lies with our overlords in Silicon Valley, itself a bubble. Mark Zuckerberg, chairman and chief executive of Facebook, has dismissed the notion that his social network influenced the election, and he cautioned against becoming arbiters of truth.

Dishonest forces have already assumed that mantle. Now, the truth just needs protection.
MACKINAW CITY, Mich.  In early October, just as the leaves were beginning to turn color and people were starting to reach for their thermostat, I traveled through Michigan and Wisconsin with a group of 15 journalists from across the nation, and one from Hungary, to learn about the energy boom thats happening across the Great Lakes region.

This boom is one that includes new sources of oil and gas, like those being drilled in Ohio and its eastern neighbor, Pennsylvania. But it also includes oil coming from Canada and the Dakotas, as well as coal, wind, solar, and energy created from farms, through the use of anaerobic digestion.

With all of these energy sources comes the infrastructure  the pipelines that are being installed or updated, the coal plants that are converting to natural gas, and the wind turbines that are being built for future wind farms.

All of these issues were part of our week-long trip  funded by the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources, a nonprofit that strives to connect journalists with natural resource issues.

Choosing winners

There are many opinions about what our energy future should look like, which sources to champion and which ones will win the race.

At Mackinaw City, we learned about the massive, 4.5-mile stretch of underwater pipeline that runs beneath the Great Lakes, across the Straits of Mackinac, transporting light crude and natural gas liquids.

This pipeline, known as Enbridge Line 5, begins in Superior, Wisconsin, supplying fuels to the upper and lower peninsula of Michigan, extending into Ontario, Canada, and also into Toledo, Ohio via a separate line.

Fueling Michigan

Line 5 is responsible for providing 55 percent of Michigans propane needs, and enough light crude to produce fuel for 1 million passenger cars and trucks a day, in addition to diesel and jet fuel for commercial transportation.

But the aging line, which was installed in 1953, is a major concern for area residents who fear that a leak would devastate the regions fresh water supply, and irrevocably affect the ecosystem.

And their concerns are not without reason. Enbridge, the company that owns the line, suffered a major incident in 2010, when one of its lines ruptured in southern Michigan, spilling oil into a tributary of the Kalamazoo River, and resulting in one of the largest inland oil spills in U.S. history.

It really shook this company to the foundation, said Jason Manshum, manager of public relations.

Over the past few years, Enbridge has increased its inspections, and now inspects the inside and outside of its lines on a regular basis, with more oversight from state government officials. Independent inspections have also been conducted, and the company has added additional anchors to support the line.

Manshum said the line is now the most-inspected pipeline in the world, and its pressure-tested at 1700 psi  more than five times the psi that it sees during use.

You can, and you do have a healthy balance between providing the energy that we need and use on a daily basis, and protecting the natural environment that we all use and love, he said.



Different perspective

But on the other side of the Mackinac bridge, on the shores of the Upper Peninsula, we met a group of environmental leaders and state environmental staff who say residents are still worried.

There are some locations that arent necessarily appropriate for pipelines, and The Great Lakes is considered to be one of those, said Jennifer McKay, policy director for Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council. Cleanup here would be virtually impossible.

Different era

Josh Mogerman, media director with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said a lot has changed since Line 5 was installed 60 years ago, including how we look at our natural resources, and the idea of climate change.

He said new infrastructure projects need to be considered carefully, especially when it comes to petroleum pipelines, which could tie us into using a specific fuel source for decades, particularly a source that is very carbon-heavy.

It wasnt hard to see the range of opinions. Everyone said that they were concerned about the condition of Line 5, but some admitted that what theyd really like to do is shut it down.

What happens next? I couldnt help but ask, what happens if they do shut it down? What would happen to more than half of the people of Michigan who rely on the line to heat their homes? Or the motorists who depend on the transportation fuels?

It was an honest question, and they gave me an honest answer, one that included several alternatives.

One alternative is to move the crude on top of the water, by vessel. This is currently illegal and poses a greater risk of spill.

Secondly, the company could move its oil by truck or by rail, but, as McKay pointed out, that is also risky.

Emergency response

In fact, we met with some Milwaukee-area firemen who said they already fear having oil railcars pass near houses and businesses, because the material is highly explosive.

The company could also replace its 60-year-old pipeline with a new, state-of-the art line, but McKay said even a new line still poses a risk.

The ideal option, she said, is to continue moving toward renewable and alternative energy.

But realistically, she said that cant happen overnight.



Coal power

When we think about replacing one energy form with another, nothing stands out like the move from coal to natural gas.

In coal-producing states, we hear about the war on coal from people who claim environmental regulations are driving coal out of business. But it was encouraging to visit at least one former coal-fired power plant that made the switch to natural gas because its more efficient and saves money for the company and also its customers.

That plant was the We Energies Valley Power Plant, which provides electric and steam to 400 businesses in downtown Milwaukee. The company replaced two coal-fired units at its Valley Power Plant in 2014 and 2015.

It was really a no-brainer for us, said Tom Metcalfe, executive vice president. Just because the cost of gas has come down so far, versus the cost of coal that used to be delivered to this (plant).

Emissions of sulfur dioxide and mercury dropped 99 percent, he said. Nitrogen oxide and promethium are down 80 percent, and carbon dioxide is down 60 percent.

The company has made other conversions, as well, and Metcalfe predicted more plants will convert in the future.

Being diverse

But he said coal is still a big part of his companys energy strategy, and he expects it will remain so for many years to come.

Part of the reason is the need for utility companies to diversify.

Metcalfe, like several other people I met on the trip, said its imperative that energy companies give themselves and their customers options.

Too much reliance on one energy source can put everyone at risk when markets change, or during extreme weather like the polar vortex of 2014 when extreme cold swept across central and eastern U.S.

You have to have a mix of fuels, Metcalfe said. Think about what it would have meant in the polar vortex if we had only had natural gas. It would have been horrendously expensive for our customers. Coal was there to help us through that very, very difficult period.

But depending on where you go, and who you ask, coal is still the biggest polluter.

Pollution concerns

Charles Michna and his family, who live in a rural area along the western shores of Lake Michigan, blame a nearby coal plant for a history of family health problems, and also health issues affecting their pets that drink from the surface water.

Charles, 63, held up a white lawn chair for reporters, covered in a residue that he says is from the coal plant. A window sill on his home bears similar material that hes sure came from the power plant.

His family has pictures of waste material that has washed up onto the shores and theyre convinced it came from the power plant.

We also heard from community and environmental leaders who were concerned about the risk for asthma and respiratory defects near coal plants.

Common ground

Its hard to argue with people who believe power plants are affecting their familys health. Its also hard to argue with power companies that have more money, more science, and are acting within the law.

Because we heard from so many people  sometimes on opposing sides of an issue  I kept trying to find the common ground.

One of the faith leaders who spoke to us said it best: Everyone deserves to live in a safe environment where they can thrive.

Thats really what people want: reliable energy, but in a way that is the least intrusive to their lives.

Theres not an easy answer, and Im leery of anyone who says there is.

Balancing act

As one of our group leaders pointed out, industry gets a lot of blame, but we have to keep in mind, society demands those same things that industry provides. Including the 16 of us journalists, who spent the week riding a fuel-hungry tour bus, and crossed the breadth of Lake Michigan on a coal-fired ship.

The challenge is to find something that works for everyone  humans, environment and industry. I look forward to that challenge, and writing about how we can overcome it.
Farmers are too often bearing the brunt of price volatility says a task force issuing recommendations to tackle unfair trading practices.

The Agricultural Markets Task Force (AMTF) was created by Agricultural Commissioner Phil Hogan in the summer of 2015 following a period of weak agricultural commodity prices.

National Farmers Union (NFU) President Meurig Raymond has called on both the European Commission and the UK government to act on the recommendations which include increasing market transparency, co-operation among farmers and easier access to finance.

Accepting the report, that reflects the result of ten months work, Commissioner Hogan stated: "In view of recent difficulties in some specific sectors, we identified the need to strengthen the role of the farmer in the food chain with the objective of ensuring that he/she gets a fair return for their produce. Strengthening the voice and position of the farmer is a major priority for me."

Unfair trading

Mr Raymond has called on both the European Commission and UK government to act on the recommendations which include increasing market transparency

The NFU President said it's 'extremely positive' that the taskforce has recognised the UK farming union calls for mandatory price reporting in order to increase market transparency across the supply chain.

"The NFU has often raised the issue of the 'black hole' in market data on the processor-buyer end of the supply chain which stifles trust, collaboration and the development of market risk management tools," Mr Raymond said.

"The report highlights how this approach is working well in the United States where price reporting is supported by the whole supply chain and is used by a range of industry stakeholders to support decision making. Adopting this model has the potential to create a much more joined up approach to managing market risk in the UK and the European Union."

The report also calls for new rules at EU level to cover certain Unfair Trading Practices (UTPs) in the food chain, such as contracts being reneged and supply schedules being changed, as well as the implementation of effective enforcement regimes in Member States such as through the use of an adjudicator.

EU 'failings'

Mr Raymond said the UK government needs to act on many of the recommendations to support UK agriculture.

"Many of the failings found in the EU supply chain are also prevalent here in the UK and we must see change. We badly need an improvement in market data collection and auditing, especially in the dairy and livestock sectors and the strengthening of the various voluntary codes that we have seen developed over recent years.

"Some of the proposals could deliver real change for farming here. UK farming is a strategically important industry that grows and produces the raw ingredients for the UKs largest manufacturing industry - food and drink - worth 108 billion to the UK economy. It also provides jobs for nearly four million people.

"I strongly urge both the European Commission and the UK Government to accept these suggestions and come forward with legislative proposals to enact them."
The preferred route for the second phase of HS2 has been published, setting out exactly where the government will build the high-speed rail network through the north of England.

The rural sector has urged HS2 Ltd that todays Phase Two B route announcement 'must mark a turning point' in 'previously poor engagement' with landowners and rural businesses.

The CLA, which represents landowners, farmers and rural businesses, is calling for HS2 Ltd to recognise that it has a duty of care to those affected by compulsory purchase of land or property for the scheme.

HS2 route

CLA President Ross Murray said: Todays announcement confirms for a number of families, farms and rural businesses that they will suffer the devastating impacts of having their property or land taken by compulsory purchase. This follows six years of uncertainty already which has made it near impossible for them to plan for the future of their lives and businesses.

HS2 Ltd has a track record of poor communication with the businesses affected by the railway. Todays announcement of the route for Phase 2 must mark a turning point, there are no excuses now for the usual fog of uncertainty. Those affected must have certainty on what land or property will be taken, when it will be taken, and whether the owners will get it back after construction, so they can plan for the future as best they can.

We have been working with the government for a number of years on proposals to make the compulsory purchase system fairer. Now is the time for Government to turn these proposals into true reform, for example to ensure that HS2 Ltd takes only the land and property that is really needed for construction, and that they minimise the impact on rural businesses along the route. HS2 Ltd must work with farmers and landowners to find the best sites for replacement habitat, rather than arbitrarily allocating land next to the line and worsening the impact on rural businesses. It is our firm belief that HS2 Ltd has a duty of care, which it has to date failed to recognise.

Numerous rural organisations, such as the CLA and the NFU, have been working to support farmers and landowners affected by compulsory purchase acquisitions, and they continue to petition for changes to the law in the HS2 Bill currently before the House of Lords.

The government has said that HS2 would create around 25,000 jobs during construction, as well as 2,000 apprenticeships, and support wider economic growth equating to 100,000 jobs.

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The Trades Union Congress said it would be a much-needed shot in the arm for the British economy.
More than 80 post-graduates from across the UK have convened in Stratford-upon-Avon this week for the first AHDB-wide studentship event.

The four-day event, which started yesterday (14 November), sees AHDB-funded PhD students showcase their work and gain insight into the wider industry and the career opportunities it offers.

The event, being held at Stratford Manor Hotel in Warwickshire, is split into two back-to-back two-day conferences, the first focusing on livestock and the second on crops.

Each part of the event includes keynote speakers, presentations by final year students, a poster session, introductory presentations from new students and team challenges. There will be awards for the best poster and best presentation for each of the crops and livestock categories, with judges drawn from AHDBs technical team, panels and committees and the wider research community.

The conference provides a forum for AHDB-funded students to communicate their research to a wider audience and gain an understanding of the range of topics covered by other students, while allowing knowledge, experience and ideas to be shared and discussed. It also provides an opportunity for the progress of each project to be monitored to ensure they are on track to reach their objectives.

'Fantastic opportunity to interact'

AHDBs Chief Technical Officer Richard Laverick, who is speaking at the event, said: Although weve held similar events in the past, this is the first time weve brought together all our PhD students across the crops and livestock sectors under one roof.

Its a fantastic opportunity for our students to interact with each other and members of the industry, while improving their understanding of how their work contributes to the wider knowledge base and how we can harness that knowledge to deliver positive impacts on farm and take our industry forward.

AHDB invests about 1 million a year in doctoral research at UK universities, colleges and research institutes as part of its work to develop a new tranche of agricultural and horticultural scientific expertise.

Former AHDB-sponsored PhD student Georgina Key, who now works for AHDB as a resource management scientist for the crop sectors, said: Doing an AHDB studentship gave me varied and invaluable exposure to the industry, which has allowed me to make a difference in an area I am passionate about.
A Bedfordshire man has been disqualified from keeping farm animals for life after around 100 cows were found in his barns and fields - many of them emaciated, dying or dead.

The RSPCA was called in January with concern about the cows - all British Whites - kept at Green End Farm, Green Lane, Swineshead, Bedfordshire. The organisation found five of the cows dead, and another nine in such a bad state of health that the vet had to put the cows to sleep to prevent further suffering. A further 85 cows were taken into care.

Andrew Peter Leishman appeared at Luton Magistrates Court on 7 November and pleaded guilty to offences under the Animal Welfare Act.

He admitted causing unnecessary suffering to a number of the cattle, by failing to provide adequate nutrition, and to not providing for their need for a suitable environment.

Leishman was given a life disqualification on keeping all farm animals, including equines, was ordered to pay 94,375 costs to the RSPCA and 240 hours of community service.

'I will never forget the sight'

RSPCA Chief Inspector Mark Thompson said: I will never forget the sight of so many cows lying there dead, or dying, or so ill that they would have gone that way had we not been called to the rescue when we were. It was truly shocking.

There were many animals lying there so still I thought that I thought they were dead at first. These were effectively starved to death. They just had not been given the food they needed to be healthy and survive.

They had also been kept in filthy, completely unsuitable conditions - with deep litter all around them and in some cases up to their bellies. One poor bull in particular was surrounded by so much filth he couldnt move.

What made this case worse for me is that this defendant was very knowledgeable about this breed of cows - and knew what they needed, and yet failed miserably to provide it.

Around 20 of the cows taken into RSPCA care were so unwell that they did not survive, despite being under constant veterinary care. The remaining 66 have now been signed over to RSPCA care and will be rehomed.
A Scottish cheesemaker linked to a fatal E.coli outbreak has dropped a legal challenge against a ban on the sale of all of its products.

Humphrey Errington, founder of Errington Cheese, said that he was no longer seeking a judicial review of the Food Standards Scotland's (FSS) decision to impose a blanket ban on all his products after finding strains of the bacteria.

A child died after contracting the illness, which affected a total of 20 people in July this year. Food Standards Scotland (FSS) said Dunsyre Blue, made by Errington Cheese, was the "most likely cause".

Mr Errington said the firm had also been offered a meeting with FSS to resolve their differences. "We have accepted that," he said.

"It's a major 'back off' off from them," he added. "It's a big, big step but it's far from getting us back in the market. Our aim is get them to see that our cheese is not a risk to health."

Mr Errington always claimed there was "no evidence" linking its cheese to the outbreak and it accused the FSS of opposing the production of unpasteurised milk cheese.

'Significant risk to public health'

After the legal challenge to the order was dropped, the watchdog confirmed it had issued a revised order in relation to Errington Cheese products. It stressed that the full product withdrawal remains in place as the cheeses are "regarded as a risk to health".

A statement from the company said: "Errington Cheese Limited embarked upon a judicial review against Food Standards Scotland for two main reasons.

"Firstly, because we were clear that it was unlawful for FSS to have ordered the destruction of our cheeses on September 14 and secondly because we believed it was incumbent as a matter of fairness for FSS to share the evidence which they have been relying on with us.

"We are pleased to report that it has now been recognised that the destruction of our cheese was unwarranted and unnecessary and that FSS has finally started to share the evidence which they possess with us."

In a statement, Food Standards Scotland confirmed that samples taken from different batches of different cheeses tested positive for E.coli O157 and for other strains of the bacteria.

FSS chief executive Geoff Ogle said: "This outbreak led to one fatality and 11 people being hospitalised. This was a major food incident where there was a significant risk to public health, with a tragic outcome. We have therefore decided to release the three versions of our risk assessment, each undertaken as new information became available, as well as our final risk management decision document."
Food service giants Compass Group USA and Aramark have pledged to use chickens from reduced stocking densities and with environmental enrichment by 2024.

Following the rush of cage-free egg commitments over the summer, many are hoping this could be the start of the next wave of higher welfare company commitments.

The recent cage-free egg revolution began in the US with McDonalds and Walmart pledging to only use cage free eggs in their outlets by 2025. This created a domino effect with almost 200 other US companies from across all sectors following their lead, while in the UK pledges from Tesco, Aldi, Asda, Morrisons, Lidl and Iceland came in rapid succession. In July food service business Sodexo announced a global cage-free commitment for both whole and liquid eggs by 2025, which was followed in September by a similar pledge from their competitor Compass Group.

"The speed with which these announcements were made demonstrates the power of the market when forward thinking brands lead the way and act as a catalyst for change," says Dr Tracey Jones, Director of Food Business, Compassion in World Farming. "We are hoping a similar domino effect will occur now that catering companies Compass and Aramark have made their intentions public about improving the welfare of broilers in the US.

There is already evidence that change is happening in broiler welfare this side of the pond, through national awards. The annual 'Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards', Compassion has recognised companies for their higher welfare standards for broilers through its Good Chicken Award which addresses stocking density, growth rates and the need for environmental enrichment. Of the eight Good Chicken Award winners this year, Compassion recognised Jumbo Supermarkten in the Netherlands for developing their own higher welfare New Standard Chicken. This standard assures that 100 per cent of all the fresh chicken sold in all its stores comes from slower growing breeds, reared in higher welfare systems with a stocking density of 25kg/m.

The US to lead the charge on broiler welfare

Some farming groups are looking towards the US to lead the charge on broiler welfare as it did on cage-free egg commitments. The UK arms of the Compass Group and Aramark might see fit to follow suit and start another wave of higher welfare company commitments across Europe.

"Those producers considering designing new buildings to be ready for the broiler revolution should consider the excellent example of the Windstreek system that has been developed in the Netherlands," Dr Tracey Jones said. "This is a new design of broiler house which incorporates multiple features for improved welfare, such as functional spaces for activity and resting, and which has strong sustainability elements, providing excellent air and litter quality, significantly reduced energy use and low Co2 emissions."

"Another benefit of operating a higher welfare system with good stockmanship is the potential to reduce reliance on antibiotics. For example, Italian Co-operative, Valverde, has successfully reared Gran Selezione chickens that are clearly labelled as raised without antibiotics. This has been achieved not through consciously refusing to use antibiotics but due entirely to using robust breeds and developing higher welfare systems with stricter rules than legislation, regarding stocking density, growth rate and environmental enrichment," Dr Jones concluded.
Innovative Farmers, a not-for-profit network funded by Prince Charless Charitable Foundation, highlights the value of herd observation and analysis using the Obsalim technique, following results from three farms involved in field lab.

This field lab, held over the past two years, suggested the technique reduces feed costs and improves efficiency by making rumen stability better. Three herds participated in the field lab. An important finding for all herds was the need to establish a synchronised eating and ruminating cycle  helping to prevent overeating.

All dairy farmers are constantly observing their herds. But this group of Innovative Farmers used the Obsalim technique to help analyse the physical condition of their animals. This technique allows the farmer to identify everyday signs (e.g. the condition of the coat or composition of their dung) and using a set of symptom cards identify what is happening in the rumen. Following a diagnosis, changes to the distribution or composition of the ration, or to the management of the herd can improve the efficacy of the transformation of the ration, potentially reducing costs and making the herd more productive.

Christine Gosling at Berkley Farm Dairy was involved in the field lab. She said: I had heard about the Obsalim technique, which was developed in France, from my vet Edward De Beukelaer and after using the technique for a while wanted to share my knowledge with other farmers so I initiated a field lab through Innovative Farmers to run a trial.

These Innovative Farmers used the Obsalim technique to help analyse the physical condition of their animals

Through the field lab Edward could teach us how to use the cards effectively and how to recognise the symptoms. It has taken a while to feel really confident in using and applying the system unaided but overall it allows us to reduce input costs whilst improving the efficiency of the herd.

The field lab was run through Innovative Farmers, a not-for-profit network that gives farmers the tools to run their own investigations into common farming problems. Through the Innovative Farmers network farmers are encouraged to share their experiences to improve their farming techniques and farm viability

A large part of this field lab involved training from Obsalim specialist, Edward De Beukelaer. Kate Still of the Soil Association facilitated the group, and together they were able to support the farmers involved in the field lab. Repeated meetings were held at each of the three farms to assess the herds and make suggested changes to management or feed rations.

It was noted that in order for the herd to find their rhythm and ruminate effectively it was important to allow them to synchronise. Splitting the feeds into morning and afternoon and establishing an undisturbed period of rumination in between improved rumen function.

Kate Still animal welfare advisor at the Soil Association said: This field lab has really shown us that to allow cows to make the most of the feed they are given they need both time to digest it effectively and structural fibre to aid that digestion. Establishing a system that allows the herd to feed together and then lie down and ruminate together, undisturbed, enables them to be more efficient at converting feed and healthier as a result. Cows that are disturbed by others feeding or by having feed constantly available are more inclined to snack and over eat, resulting in poor rumen function. Training calves to establish this rhythm early on results in healthy rumen function from the start.

All farmers involved in the field lab reported benefits to the herd and emphasised the importance of understanding their cows. The group is now looking for new members to continue to learn and share experiences.
Northern Ireland dairy farmers have said they will strike before Christmas unless the dairy industry deliver an increase in milk prices immediately.

Around 250 farmers voted in favour of strike action at a crisis meeting held in Cookstown, Co Tyrone, on Monday night (14 November). The meeting was brought together under a Northern Ireland Farm Groups heading, which included representatives from the Northern Ireland Agricultural Producers Association, Fair Price NI, Holstein UK NI and Farmers for Action.

Northern Ireland Farm Groups have jointly issued the following statement: After the news this week that Dairy UK (Northern Ireland) has blocked future engagement with the Ulster Farmers Union over its criticism of the failure of processors to pass on better milk market returns to farmers, the contempt and arrogance that milk co-ops must now have for their producer members is totally unacceptable and should result in co-op farmer board members requesting their co-op withhold levies for now.

We in Northern Ireland Farm Groups on the current farm gate milk price issue extended a warm welcome to the UFU, where a place on the platform was available in Cookstown last night, for them to put their case alongside the current members of NI Farm Groups on an equal basis. UFU members and all dairy farmers are most welcome as a united front to this unprecedented onslaught of abysmal producer milk prices must be shown.

'Processors do not understand how angry farmers feel'

Ulster Farmers Union deputy president, Ivor Ferguson, said dairy processors did not understand how angry farmers feel. After more than 18 months of struggling with prices below the cost of production, the union criticised the failure of processors to pass on better milk market returns to farmers.

Mr Ferguson then said farmers are right to demand that processors 'dig deeper' to give them the full benefit of the fall in the value of sterling and improving global markets.

"If they cannot do so, they need to explain to their members why this is the case and also when they can expect to see price increases. For the organisation that represents processors to respond to criticism by refusing to engage with the body that represents their farmer suppliers is, quite frankly, childish posturing," he said.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visits troops at Fort Bragg

The commander of Fort Bragg and the 18th Airborne Corps said, "Welcome Home," to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin when he arrived on post Tuesday.
How will President Trump and the new administration view compliance officers and their work? Are compliance officers friend or foe?

Its no secret the election has changed almost everything. A big shake out is coming to America. Once again, the times they are a changing, as the Bob Dylan song goes.

So lets have a dialog with the new administration: What are Americans core values and what are core values of the compliance profession? Do they work together? How are we going to protect our legacy of American core values and keep them working for us and for our children? Does America need good compliance officers?

First, fighting corruption through the FCPA is a unique contribution of America to global economic growth and to the common fight of decent communities against criminal networks.

Graft isnt real business at all. Its monkey business. Its stealing and cheating from real business. Decent people around the world building family businesses refuse to pay bribes. They support and like the FCPA; they say, Im trying to make a living and I want a legal life.

When compliance officers summarize compliance in twenty-five words or less, its about how to prevent, detect and repair the damage from corruption and misconduct.

We all want responsible companies and organizations to win, and we want everyone to play by the rules. Thats what makes the whole system function: free and fair markets, stability under law and common decency, But we all must work together. And thats the first rule of compliance.

Writing about VW and Wells Fargo, I said that compliance officers stop the house from burning down  and taking the whole neighborhood with it. Reflecting on the tragedy of world war in my parents generation during a compliance conference in Vienna at the Wittgenstein Villa, I posted: Yes the world has changed. We are assembled here and we are making plans. Speaking out. Seeking the common global good by fighting corruption. Trying to draw the world together, not divide it.

Second, lets hope that restructured, dynamic compliance is seen for the achievement it is  and isnt lumped into a stereotype of business-ending, burdensome government regulation. Compliance officers arent deal-killers from the Department of No, the Anti-Sales Cops. Thats a myth.

And its wrong to see compliance officers and their compliance programs pushed to the curb by old compliance myths. Its not fair to compliance officers and the work they do. And its really bad for business, judging from decades of scandals when organizations dont think they need compliance officers to implement lessons-learned management tools from past wrongdoing.

Its worth repeating at this historic juncture: Compliance is pro business. Restructured compliance, or, Compliance 2.0, is the norm for good management. It exists off the shelf now. Its rolling ahead, adopted by the DOJs Hui Chen, the trillion-dollar healthcare industry, and icons of global commerce.

Compliance officers are new executives with special expertise to help management run productive organizations. Theyre also the eyes and ears of the board. Board oversight needs an urgent upgrade. Well-run compliance programs are part of the checks and balances inside companies that protect profits, brand-name reputation, and all stakeholders ( employees, customers, the public, and so on). Board oversight is still the critical weak link. Compliance officers are a major upgrade when they report to the board. Compliance officers can make board governance, especially for vastly complicated global operations, a reality.

Third, compliance officers also have a mission that has ethical and moral parts, derived from upholding board-created core values and from personal conscience. The contributions of responsible businesses and organizations to a decent, free and growing world are as critical now as they were in past troubled times.

From the Cold War to the civil rights struggle, from Orlando and to wherever the future is taking us, responsible business is a powerful force for stability and core values. Most compliance officers want a sense of mission in their work  or they wouldnt be in a profession where doing your job can still get you fired, not promoted.

Compliance officers choose to work at responsible companies  and vote with their feet by leaving irresponsible companies. They stand up for their values.

If that sounds like a lot, it is. Its been decades in the making. But compliance is still growing, a dynamic work-in-progress with a mission.

Though compliance officers have come far, they are still the underdogs. Every day the compliance profession fights uphill for recognition and the tools to do the job.

Which leads me to my last reason to ask President Trump and the new administration to look carefully at compliance officers and their mission.

Compliance officers and compliance programs are not perfect, but what is? Compliance officers are trying to grow the compliance profession. Theyre using rights and freedom to model and build a speak-up culture thats very American. Moreover, this advocacy by compliance officers is itself important for Americas core values.

If history is a guide, citizens and compliance officers alike must persistently use their freedom to discuss and their right to advocate, or those freedoms and rights might be lost. In the pushing and shoving ahead, lets build on the good things.

____

Michael Scher is a Senior Editor of the FCPA Blog. He has over three decades of experience as a senior compliance officer and attorney for international transactions.
The Securities and Exchange Commission Monday awarded more than $20 million to a whistleblower who helped the SEC act against wrongdoers before they could squander the money.

The $20 million award is the third biggest since the SECs whistleblower program issued its first award in 2012.

Jane Norberg, chief of the SECs Office of the Whistleblower, said,

This whistleblower alerted us with a valuable tip that led to a near total recovery of investor funds. Sizeable awards like this one should encourage whistleblowers everywhere that there are real financial incentives to promptly reporting potential securities law violations to the SEC.

According to the SECs order, two other whistleblowers were denied awards for the same matter. Their information wasnt original, the SEC said, because it came after the first whistleblower filed his or her claim.

The SEC whistleblower program has now awarded more than $130 million.

The agency is required to protect the confidentiality of whistleblowers. It doesnt disclose information that might directly or indirectly reveal their identity.

Whistleblowers can be eligible for an award if they provide the SEC with original information thats unique and useful and leads to an enforcement action with sanctions of at least $1 million.

Awards can range from 10 percent to 30 percent of the money collected.

The biggest SEC whistleblower award was more than $30 million in 2014.

The agency made its second biggest award of $22 million in August.

The first FCPA-related whistleblower award was reportedly paid in May. A BHP Billiton insider collected $3.75 million for information about FCPA offenses during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the reports said.

The SEC said it received about 4,000 tips last year and more than 14,000 since the program started. Tips have come from individuals in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and 95 foreign countries.

* * *

The SECs November 14, 2016 Order Determining Whistleblower Award Claim is here (pdf).

____

Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog
The age-old advice about writing what you know certainly has its merits, I've noticed during my three years as an author. Okay, as an Erotic Romance novelist I'm not going to claim that everything I write comes from experience ( I wish!!) but there are certain elements in my stories which come from my own life. I'm sure this is true of many writers, and an element I shamelessly exploited in my latest novel with Totally Bound, Maggie's Man.

Bella Settarra

This is the second of my Cowboys of Cavern County series and depicts Maggie Welch who works as a waitress in a crummy cafe, scraping to make a meager living on a poor wage with a boss who doesn't value her. I'm sure a lot of us can identify with that scenario, no matter what the circumstances. In Maggie's case, though, her past tells a totally different story. She was born into one of the richest families in the area and wrote a book about what she knew, social etiquette, which sold in its millions. Unfortunately, Maggie was duped by a man who stole all her money and turned her family against her, leaving her broke and alone. ( Sound familiar?)

As she struggles to get her life back together she falls for a local cowboy, Aiden Fielding (both characters appeared in the first book of the series, Carla's Cowboys, although they are stand-alone novels). He is a wealthy rancher whom Maggie fears is now way out of her league.

Her lack of money isn't the only obstacle in her quest for happiness, however; Maggie has lost her confidence and self-belief. As a waitress she feels subservient, although she is well-qualified in the art of waiting-on, and is a connoisseur of fine wine, but none of that helps while she is serving coffee and doughnuts in a Greasy Spoon. Her figure is full and voluptuous, something which she was proud of at one time, but now she feels fat and ugly; another sign of her diminishing self-worth. Without her wealth she is forced to rent a dingy apartment equipped with old furniture and second-hand appliances; certainly not a place she would consider entertaining guests. This leads to a reclusive life-style as she fails to make proper friends. Again, I'm sure we can all relate to at least some of these elements, if only in a small way. Loss of self-confidence has a varying degree on all of us at some time - we wouldn't be human otherwise. But I trust you'll agree that there is a vast difference between feeling a little nervous about meeting someone new, and not being able to leave the house or even answer your phone for fear of any kind of social interaction.

For my part, I know only too well how it feels to lose confidence in a big way. I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009, and have still not been given the all-clear. Chemotherapy robbed me of more than my hair - which was a massive trauma in itself - I was no longer the strong wife and mother I used to be, and was suddenly thrust into a world of relying on other people and having to ask for help which I would rather not need. I was constantly in pain and as weak as a kitten, and hardly recognized my own body following my mastectomy and other surgery. My weight increased, adding to my misery, and I felt like I was living on a knife-edge with all the ambivalence of my condition and what the future held for me and my family.

It was this kind of fear that I assigned Maggie in my book. The consternation of losing everything coupled with the uncertainty of the future propelled her into a perpetual state of dismay and anguish.

Maggie's underlying determination to recover from her situation becomes apparent, however, and she is able to impress Aiden with her knowledge of wine when they finally go out together. Drawing on an experience from her past enables her to make headway in their relationship, adding a glimmer of hope. Unfortunately, when Aiden later sees a copy of her book on the shelf in her living room, he wrongly assumes that this was where her knowledge had come from, not realizing she wrote the book, and a crass remark gets him thrown out of her home.

As in life, the road to romance is rarely a smooth one, and this is reflected in the novel, as with all of my stories. I feel it is important to identify on some level with the emotions and traumas of the characters, and there won't be many readers who want to feel compelled to don their rose-tinted spectacles each time they open a book.

Maggie's knowledge of social etiquette, waiting-on and fine wine all stem from my education at catering college and subsequent related jobs. Anyone familiar with my Collar and Cuffs series (Etopia Press) will see how much I use my catering knowledge to steer the story in an authentic direction, with waitresses using the correct jargon and their jobs being described accurately. The books in that series even include a list of waiting-on terms which may be unfamiliar to some readers, and as I'm British I sought advice from some Americans in the business to help with language and terminology differences - of which there were many more than I expected!

There are times, however, when it is necessary to investigate certain aspects in order to make the story believable. Emotions are familiar to us all, and it is often possible to draw a parallel with the character's experience alongside our own. Facts, however, are a different matter. Research is vital, and perhaps one of the most time-consuming, though enjoyable, parts of a writer's job. For this reason it is imperative to have a genuine interest in what you write. As a British author writing cowboy stories I have spent many pleasant hours studying the business of ranching, practicing to throw a lasso and actually rope an object, being shown how to booby-trap a saddle to make the rider fall off but not kill himself, and mastering how to successfully crack a bullwhip (though that one may have been more to do with my BDSM novels, if I'm honest ;)). For other stories I have learned how to cause a car to explode whilst being driven, how to administer a lethal injection without it being detected, and the art of effectively laying dynamite. (Never mess with an author!)

I think what all this proves is that it is important to write about what you know - but it is equally imperative to write about what you want to know.

Bella Settarra

Relishing Raunchy Romance

About Maggie's Man

Looks can be deceptive-but a deceitful ex with a grudge can be downright dangerous.

Maggie Welch lives in a crummy apartment while working in a run-down cafe in Bracken Ridge, Cavern County. Her days have recently been brightened by the handsome cowboy who has started to frequent her workplace. Unfortunately, Aiden Fielding, the wealthy rancher, can't be anything more than a friend, though, as her demise in social standing has robbed her of the confidence and money she once had.

Aiden Fielding is smitten with Maggie and enjoys her company at the cafe, which has recently become his regular haunt. When he finally plucks up the courage to ask her out, they have a wonderful evening. He suspects there is more to Maggie Welch than meets the eye. A crass remark, however, seems to ruin their chances of a future together, and a later attempt to help Maggie ends in disaster when she is humiliated in front of his family and dinner-party guests.

Just when things had seemed to be looking up for Maggie, it has all come crashing down again. She realizes that Aiden doesn't see her in the way she had hoped, and when she finds him entertaining her ex-fiance, Robert Rossington, she feels that he is certainly not the gentleman she had perceived.

She knows that Rossington is a cheat and a thief. The trouble isthat's only the half of it.

About Bella Settarra:

Bella Settarra is a British Erotic Romance author and lives in the beautiful English countryside.

She has several published novels to date, with subject matter including cowboys, BDSM and Myth/Fantasy. She has also written short stories for anthologies and has even had some raunchy poems published.

She likes to keep busy, cramming as much into each day as she possibly can, while battling-and is determined to win-against breast cancer. She loves to hear from her readers, so please get in touch!

You can read Bella's Blog and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
David Walliams found writing children's books left him feeling "lonely" and tearful.

David Walliams

The 45-year-old actor, who released his debut novel 'The Boy in the Dress' in 2008, has admitted the creative process left him crying because he felt isolated, although he enjoyed penning the script for the comedy sketch show 'Walliams and Friends'.

Speaking about his return to the BBC One show to Radio Times magazine, the 'Britain's Got Talent' judge said: "It's so much more fun than writing books - which is lonely and demoralising and you're often in tears. But I wasn't in tears writing this. I had a good time."

David - who starred in a pilot special of the series in 2015 - has admitted he has found it "quite hard" being left to work on the new programme on his own.

The funnyman - whose marriage to model Lara Stone, whom he has three-year-old son Alfred with, ended in September 2015 -explained: "I just wanted to do a sketch show. It's actually quite hard doing sketch shows on your own."

In the forthcoming Christmas special of 'Walliams and Friends' the funnyman will be joined by 'Funny Girl' actress Sheridan Smith, Harry Enfield, Miranda Richardson and Hugh Bonneville, who played the role of Mr Stink in David's 2009 text of the same name.

Speaking about the 'Downton Abbey' star, he said: "He's really funny. We've got him in the Christmas special because he'll appeal to people like my mum."

Meanwhile, David has revealed he is often overwhelmed with a number of projects to work on there's a "danger" of veering too far away from what he truly wants to do.

He explained: "The problem with being successful is that you get all these other opportunities.

"'Do you want to present a programme about this?'; 'Do you want to do some swimming for charity?' - and suddenly you're in danger of becoming a celebrity at large and you've lost sight of what it is you wanted to do.

"There's nothing like getting back to what I wanted to do in the first place - which is comedy."
Don Broco say supporting Bring Me The Horizon on their arena tour has showed them what's possible.

Don Broco

The 'Automatic' rockers - comprised of Rob Damiani, Simon Delaney, Matt Donnelly and Tom Doyle - have just been on tour with the 'Happy' hitmakers and frontman Rob says it has opened up to them the opportunities available to alternative rock band's if they put the work in.

Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz before they went on stage at The O2 in London, he said: "You see a band like Bring Me The Horizon, who have been a band for 10 years now and they've really put in the graft and built up from one of the most alternative areas of that kind of music. For a band like that to be doing an arena tour is pretty unheard of these days so it's incredible to be doing that and it gives bands like us that confidence and that support, like 'wow, you've put the work in, you really can get there.'"

Meanwhile, the Bedford-based group have said they'd love to get Beyonce on a track.

Rob said: "You have to aim big right. I just love the new Beyonce album. If I could pick anyone right now that would be a dream collaboration."
The Duchess of Cambridge is "thrilled" Prince Harry has found a girlfriend who is a "keeper".

Duchess of Cambridge

The 34-year-old royal is reportedly proud of her 32-year-old brother-in-law for dating Meghan Markle, who she believes will be around for the long haul, because she only wants the best for the flame-haired prince.

Speaking about Catherine - who is also known as Kate Middleton - and her view on Harry's beau to Woman's Day, a source said: "Kate is thrilled Harry has finally found a girlfriend who looks like being a keeper.

"Kate only wants the best for her lovely brother-in-law - and Meghan looks like she fits the bill."

And it is believed Catherine - who married Prince William in 2011 and have three-year-old son Prince George and 18-month-old daughter Princess Charlotte together - "remembers" how it feels to be in the spotlight whilst romancing a royal and wants to pass on her experience and tips to help Meghan cope being in the limelight.

The source continued: "[Catherine] remembers what it was like to date a prince and be the most talked about girl in the country."

And Catherine is allegedly planning to give the 'Suits' star advice on romancing a prince and on how to act around the royal family, including the Queen.

Whilst it has been reported Meghan should act in a "formal" manner, Catherine will supposedly advise the 35-year-old actress to act naturally and just be herself.

The source said: "Meghan will need to keep things formal until invited to relax. Still, ultimately Kate will be telling her just to be herself."

Meanwhile, Kensington Palace has confirmed Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are officially dating last week with a statement.

It read: "His girlfriend, Meghan Markle, has been subject to a wave of abuse and harassment. Some of this has been very public ... the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments.

"Prince Harry is worried about Ms Markle's safety and is deeply disappointed that he has not been able to protect her. It is not right that a few months into a relationship with him that Ms Markle should be subjected to such a storm."
I'm A Celebrity 2016 kicked off in style last night (November 13), as Ant and Dec welcomed 10 new celebrities into the Australian jungle for three weeks of trials, mayhem, chaos and bug-eating. But who made the best first impression? We run down the campmates

Ant and Dec / Credit: ITV

1) Larry Lamb

Credit: ITV

Larry proved he was the ultimate gentleman when he decided to help out his competitor Scarlett during their first challenge in the jungle. Tasked with getting in their individual canoes and rowing out to flags in a huge lake, Larry proved to be a natural in the water, but Scarlett needed more than a little help when it came to navigating her way through. Not only did Larry shout out advice to Scarlett, but when her boat capsized he went back into the lake after completing the task to rescue her, dragging her all the way back to the shore. He also proved himself to be a dab hand at starting a fire, when he put all the younger guys to shame with his fire making skills. It's going to be interesting to see where Larry's journey goes from here.

2) Scarlett Moffatt

Credit: ITV

Gogglebox viewers all knew Scarlett would be hilarious in the jungle, but what some might not have counted on is how quickly she would have brought the laughs. Seeing her float on her back through a lake whilst being dragged to shore by Larry Lamb is a moment that's sure to go down in I'm A Celeb history. "I've been on a pedalo but that's where my skills start and end" she joked upon seeing the canoe she would have to captain. Her quick wit was also showcased when the group were talking about who should be taking on toilet duties - she insisted she was holding out for a day when everybody had constipation so the job would be easier. She should have some hilarious weeks ahead of her.

3) Joel Dommett

Credit: ITV

Though he's not the most instantly recognisable of the cast, there's something utterly endearing and charming about comedian Joel Dommett. Many thought he wouldn't be completing his very first task, as he went to walk out on a plank hundreds of feet in the air and admitted he wasn't a fan of heights, but he proved everybody wrong when he got the job done and even managed to save Wayne Bridge from competing in the very first Bushtucker Trial. Joel's another one who has super quick wit, and should keep his campmates laughing with his gags and, if all else fails, his 'suitcase' impressions of Adam's snoring

4) Adam Thomas

Credit: ITV

Adam seems a sweet guy and a typical run-of-the-mill young adult when it comes to pranks and playing around the camp. His best moment in the premiere came when he was helping Joel into the hammock, aided by Jordan, only for the comedian to throw himself out of it moments later. His snoring may cause trouble down the line if he continues to stop others getting their beauty sleep, but for now he's not stepping on any toes and seems to be one of the most popular people in camp.

5) Carol Vorderman

Credit: ITV

Though she had some major wobbly legs when walking out 300 feet above the city, Carol Vorderman proved she's still great with numbers when she was just one second out from counting to 60. Her tenacity and 'hardcore' spirit (she really does love that word) means that she's going to give everything her all and then some, which is to be admired. She's truly loving her experience and making the most of it, even praising the sounds of the jungle for giving her a moment in time in her life like nothing she's ever done before.

6) Jordan Banjo

Credit: ITV

Jordan is a sweet guy and a part of what looks to be a brilliant trio, alongside Adam and Joel. He's been the quietest of the three so far, but looks to be remaining cool, calm and reserved until he's truly got a hold of his surroundings. Hopefully his personality and integrity remains intact moving forward.

7) Ola Jordan

Credit: ITV

Ola has a reputation for getting involved with drama, much like her fellow dancer husband, James Jordan. For now though she's managed to impress viewers, dominating the 300 feet plank challenge in the city before having a memorable moment with Carol whilst the two got changed into their jungle gear. She seems to be a real girl's girl and could do a major reinvention on her public image through her time on the show.

8) Wayne Bridge

Credit: ITV

Wayne might not be a favourite to win the show, but he could be a major dark horse. Remember when Foggy won? He admits to being scared of most things the jungle houses and so could quickly become a fan favourite if we see him in a few tasks. The fact he has to have someone by his side at all times has so far been brilliant viewing - and totally relatable.

9) Sam Quek

Credit: ITV

Sam unfortunately hasn't yet done much of note. Seeing her skydive out of a helicopter however was a great thing to see. Unfortunately, she didn't quite get the hang of counting to 60 during her descent, and so failed to save her partner in the first task. Being an Olympian, it's going to be good to see exactly what Sam gets up to moving forward. Her skills in trials shouldn't be rivalled by many of her campmates.

10) Lisa Snowdon

Credit: ITV

Like Sam, Lisa hasn't yet made much of an impression. She was brave to skydive out of the helicopter into the jungle, but aside from that, there's still a lot left to see of Lisa.

I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! continues nightly on ITV.

by Daniel Falconer for www.femalefirst.co.uk

find me on and follow me on
With global demand forecast to slow down, the Vietnamese textile and garment industry will continue to face challenges in the next year, mainly due to fierce competition from other exporting countries like India, China, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The election of Donald Trump, who has indicated that he will not support treaties, may also impact exports.This was informed by Le Tien Truong, general director of the National Garment and Textile Group (VINATEX), who also added that garment exports to the EU will also be under negative impact, as a result of Brexit.

With global demand forecast to slow down, the Vietnamese textile and garment industry will continue to face challenges in the next year, mainly due to fierce competition from other exporting countries like India, China, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The election of Donald Trump, who has indicated that he will not support treaties, may also impact exports.#

So, the industry is expecting export growth rate of just between 5-7 per cent, if no appropriate policies are announced, a Vietnamese news agency quoted Truong as saying.The Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) has approached the Ministry of Industry and Trade with several proposals to boost the industry, which include; reviewing policies on minimum wage raises and working hours; and boosting domestic as well as foreign investments in the industry. (AR)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
South Korean company Hyosung Corporation has proposed to invest in a polypropylene (PP) manufacturing plant in Vietnam. The plant which will be set up on an area of 608,910 sq. metres in Ba Ria Vung Tau province, will be set up in two phases. The company will invest $336 million for a capacity of 300 million tons per year in the first phase.In the second phase, Hyosung Corporation will invest $226 million for a capacity of 300,000 tons per year for another PP plant, Vietnamese media reported.

South Korean company Hyosung Corporation has proposed to invest in a polypropylene (PP) manufacturing plant in Vietnam. The plant which will be set up on an area of 608,910 sq. metres in Ba Ria Vung Tau province, will be set up in two phases. The company will invest $336 million for a capacity of 300 million tons per year in the first phase.#

The company already operates a facility in Vietnam which produces various fibres like spandex, nylon polyester , and carpet fibre and also steel fibre for applications in automobile tires, etc. (AR)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
OrganoClick, a Swedish company that develops functional materials based on environmentally friendly fibre chemistry, is participating in a project phasing out PFAS (POPFAS), for phasing out bioaccumulating and potentially hazardous per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) by developing competitive alternatives with reduced environmental footprint.Other project partners include H&M HENNES & MAURITZ GBC AB, Billerud Korsnas AB, and SP Swerea.

OrganoClick, a Swedish company that develops functional materials based on environmentally friendly fibre chemistry, is participating in a project phasing out PFAS (POPFAS), for phasing out bioaccumulating and potentially hazardous per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) by developing competitive alternatives with reduced environmental footprint.#

Today PFAS are present in significant amounts in surface water in many places all over Sweden. Recently, PFAS has been suggested to be the next environmental threat in the same magnitude as PCB or DDT. PFAS have been used for decades in a wide range of applications such as firefighting foams, textile impregnation, food packaging and cosmetics due to their versatile characteristics. Despite this, regulations are currently limited to perfluorooctane-based compounds, largely due to lack of competitive alternatives. One of the alternative in use is the still un-regulated shorter chain PFAS, whose health and environmental impact is still unknown.In this project, a transdisciplinary consortium is set to perform a gap analysis of fluorine-free alternatives and gather information of their health and environmental impact to identify the most promising alternatives. Communication channels, such as websites or social media, will be established to educate manufacturers and consumers and aid them in making educated choices. A life cycle perspective will be taken in the project and water purification and waste streams will be considered. By pushing the development of alternative solutions, this project will facilitate the implementation of new policies and regulations. New technical solutions will contribute to decreased environmental impact, secure pure drinking water and competitive Swedish industrial partners. The project is funded by Vinnova and is executed from November 1, 2016 to July 31, 2017.OrganoClick has researched and developed PFAS-free alternatives for textiles for over 10 years. It has contributed with 'know-how' in projects with many eminent partners, to achieve sustainable industrial development with reduced environmental impact. (GK)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Aishwarya Compares ADHM's Buzz With Dhoom 2

"Well fortunately, there hasn't been that excessive a noise, um, in fact there was probably more chatter during Dhoom 2, and um, there hasn't been around this, which is... which is wonderful, which is what, how many years since Dhoom 2 now, maybe 10 years right? So, that's.. that's saying a lot."

Her Bold Scenes Blown Out Of Proportion?

She was asked whether she feels that when it comes to her, things were blown out of proportion, she told, "No, I think.. in that I'm referring to the fact that when I did Dhoom 2, um, I remember I did that just around the time there was also the talk of possibly working in the West."

'I Wasn't Comfortable With The Idea Of Intimacy'



She added, "I was declining some wonderful work in the West because I personally also wasn't comfortable with the idea of intimacy on celluloid, but I keep referring to everything as, I think to the audience, everything is relative to how much they are exposed to."

We Do Agree With Her Here..



"So when there's this huge influx of (kissing scenes) they've seen so much, that I think somehow (sic) now the audience has also become, pretty uh, they've... they've gotten used to all of this visually. Uh, but at the time, I said okay let me first do, let me kind of maybe explore that turf a little bit, in an Indian movie, and so Dhoom was where you know I kind of explored the area, and um..."

Was She Shocked By The Responses?

In the same interview with India Today, Aishwarya also admitted that she was not at all shocked by the responses and she told, "No, I mean the response of the audience and critics and all was obviously I mean there, you saw the results in the movie itself, people kind of loved the movie and all of that."

It Came From A Place Of Great Love

"But there was some kind of, there was a little bit of uproar that Yashji had shared with us, which at the time was surprising, but it was topical about, (sic) there's just this immense, but it's weird... it came from a place of great love... and towards me," added Aishwarya.

People Felt I Belonged To Everybody..

She concluded by saying, "I mean it's almost like people felt I belonged to everybody, and it was from that protective, possessive love, that there was a bit of, a bit of chatter and talk around, and a bit of a reaction, so what I mean is... it's all relative, when you kind of see with the times, but here we are."
Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif are busy wrapping up the remaining portions of Anurag Basu's Jagga Jasoos, which is slated to release next year. The film, which is currently in its last schedule will wrap up by 24th November.

While we await to hear the pack-up news, the makers of the film know how to raise the excitement level notches higher and gave all Ranbir Kapoor fans a surprise treat by releasing a new still from yesterday's movie shoot. It features the Ae Dil Hai Mushkil actor in a happy zone.

Jagga Jasoos directed by Anurag Basu, has Ranbir playing a detective in search of his missing father.

The movie, which is a co-production of Anurag and Ranbir, was announced in 2014. Ranbir and Katrina, who were in a relationship back then, shot for it intermittently. Initially, it was speculated that Ranbir got busy shooting for Anurag Kashyap's Bombay Velvet (2015), and could shoot for Jagga Jasoos only in 2015, which resulted in the film's delay. However, Anurag had dismissed these as mere rumours and had said that the plan always was to release JJ post Karan Johar's Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (ADHM).

He was quoted saying to Hindustan Times, "I shot JJ in 2015 for 15 days. I didn't shoot most of 2015 even though Ranbir and Katrina gave their dates to me. I knew (back then) that my film would release post Karan's film. I don't like to sit on material (that has been shot). I don't clarify and don't talk (about my projects). I like to release my movies as soon as possible after they are shot."

Finally, Jagga Jasoos produced by Disney India and Picture Shuru Productions, will now hit the big screens on 7th April, 2017.
British-Indian actor Dev Patel said that he had to bring drastic changes in his look to fit in the character for Lion. He added, he had to grow his hair long and facial beard in order to look more masculine and mature for the role.

The 26-year-old talented actor stated, Garth Davis, the director had particularly asked him to bring a drastic change in his look for the character of 'Saroo Brierley' like no one has ever seen before.

"After the audition, Davis said 'If we decide to go with you. I really want you to change.' He said he wanted to see a Dev Patel that no one has ever seen before. I become a man, really," said Dev.

Dev also revealed that he had asked his manager to clear off his schedules for next eight months so that he can concentrate entirely on the role for Lion.

"I called my manager straight after I walked out of the audition and told him that if I get it, don't send me anything for the next eight months. Don't distract me with any other work or audition," Dev added.

The actor said that opportunities like this don't come often,the movie stars Nicole Kidman in the role of Dev's mother Sue Brierley.

"Journeys like this don't come around very often for someone who looks like I do," Dev stated further.
Although Hollywood is now initiating more gender representation on screen, the Universal Pictures Head Donna Langley feels that there's still a lot of work to be done in this respect.

She says, "The needle hasn't been moved at all in the last 20 or 30 years," regarding representation of women in Hollywood.

Donna Langley said that she is trying to have, "many more conversations with many more kinds of people about inclusion and diversity than I ever have in my career, and I'm really encouraged by that."

As a woman heading a major studio house, Langley has made certain efforts to bring in those movies in the front line, which she as a woman would like to watch. She also pointed out that Fifty Shades of Grey and Trainwreck are those films which she played the bet on.

While talking about the ranking system in Hollywood, Langley said, "people being recognized and acknowledged for the things that they've done is a good thing."

While talking about inclusion of China and its impact in Hollywood, Langley said, "China is very important to the movie industry today, the number of movie theaters and filmgoers that has increased in China year-over-year, the numbers are extraordinary."

"China is very important to us, we're also looking at opportunities to potentially co-produce with China. They have an amazing infrastructure of their own, and we're looking to see if there are ways that we can collaborate on local product." Langley added.
TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - November 14, 2016) - Gran Colombia Gold Corp. (TSX: GCM) announced today the release of its unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and accompanying management's discussion and analysis (MD&A) for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016. All financial figures contained herein are expressed in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.

Third Quarter and First Nine Months 2016 Highlights

Gran Colombia's adjusted EBITDA increased to $19.7 million in the third quarter of 2016 bringing the total adjusted EBITDA for the first nine months of 2016 to $49.6 million, a 74% increase over the same period last year. See the Company's MD&A for the computation of this non-IFRS measure. The increased adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter of 2016 led to improved operating cash flow which in turn enabled the Company to continue to take further steps to reduce overdue local financial obligations for amounts owing to suppliers, equity and wealth taxes. The Company also received $4.0 million of overdue VAT refunds in October 2016 that will applied to reduce liabilities within its working capital deficit in the fourth quarter of 2016.

Gold production in the third quarter of 2016 totalled 39,111 ounces, up 14% from the third quarter of 2015, bringing the total for the first nine months of 2016 to 108,829 ounces, a 25% improvement over the first nine months last year led by strong performance at its Segovia Operations. With another 13,088 ounces produced in October, the Company is increasing its annual production guidance for 2016 to a total of 144,000 to 150,000 ounces of gold.

A total of $17.2 million aggregate principal amount of 2018 Debentures (TSX: GCM.DB.U) were converted by holders in the third quarter of 2016 into 132.1 million common shares. In addition, Gran Colombia repurchased and cancelled $0.8 million aggregate principal amount of 2018 Debentures and $0.8 million aggregate principal amount of 2020 Debentures (TSX: GCM.DB.V) under the Normal Course Issuer Bids ("NCIBs") launched on July 21, 2016. To date, debt conversions and repurchases under the NCIBs have reduced the aggregate principal amount of Gran Colombia's senior debt by approximately 18%. The Company currently has 277,727,323 common shares issued and outstanding. Aggregate principal amounts of the 2018 and 2020 Debentures issued and outstanding are $49.7 million and $102.5 million, respectively. The NCIBs are being funded by excess cash flow being deposited into sinking funds for the Senior Debentures. There is currently a balance of $1.1 million in the sinking funds.

Revenue of $51.2 million in the third quarter of 2016, up 30% over the third quarter last year, reflects the stronger spot gold prices in the third quarter of 2016 and the increased gold production this year that contributed to a 10% increase in gold ounces sold. This brings total revenue for the first nine months of 2016 to $133.7 million, up 32% over the first nine months last year.

Gran Colombia's total cash costs and all-in sustaining costs ("AISC") increased to $728 per ounce and $884 per ounce, respectively, in the third quarter of 2016. The third quarter 2016 total cash costs reflected the impact on cash costs of the civil strike at Segovia in September, additional charges related to previous reductions in Segovia's workforce and the adverse impact of lower production at Marmato on its cash cost on a per ounce basis in the current quarter. The third quarter 2016 AISC included an expected increase in capital expenditures associated with the exploration, development and mechanization programs at the Segovia Operations. With total cash costs and AISC averaging $699 per ounce and $832 per ounce, respectively, for the first nine months of 2016, the Company has narrowed its guidance for the 2016 annual averages for total cash costs to a range from $700 to $720 per ounce and for AISC to a range from $825 to $850 per ounce. See the Company's MD&A for the computation of these non-IFRS measures.

The net income attributable to shareholders was $8.1 million, or $0.03 per share, for the third quarter of 2016 compared with $6.7 million, or $0.28 per share, in the third quarter of 2015. For the first nine months of 2016, net income attributable to shareholders amounted to $19.0 million, or $0.12 per share, compared with $6.4 million, or $0.27 per share, in the first nine months last year.

Adjusted net income attributable to shareholders was $8.1 million, or $0.03 per share, in the third quarter of 2016 compared with $2.0 million, or $0.08 per share, in the third quarter of last year. For the first nine months of 2016, adjusted net income attributable to shareholders was $12.2 million, or $0.08 per share, compared with $1.8 million, or $0.08 per share, in the first nine months last year. See the Company's MD&A for the computation of this non-IFRS measure. The increase in adjusted EBITDA, net of an increase in income taxes, in 2016 was the primary driver behind the improved adjusted net income results this year.

Lombardo Paredes Arenas, Chief Executive Officer of Gran Colombia, commenting on the Company's results for the first nine months of 2016, said, "With another quarter of solid operating results, we have been able to firm up our guidance for the full year. We now expect to produce over 144,000 ounces of gold in 2016, a 23% increase over last year. We also expect that our annual AISC for 2016 will be below $850 per ounce compared with $863 per ounce in 2015. The increased level of operating cash flow we are generating is continuing to be dedicated toward improving our balance sheet through reductions in our working capital deficit and to buy back our senior debt through the NCIBs."

Financial and Operating Summary

A summary of the financial and operating results for the third quarter and first nine months of 2016 and 2015 follows:

Third Quarter Nine Months 2016 2015 2016 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operating data: Gold produced (ounces) 39,111 34,339 108,829 86,807 Gold sold (ounces) 39,017 35,501 107,605 87,356 Average realized gold price ($/oz sold) $ 1,296 $ 1,090 $ 1,225 $ 1,142 Total cash costs ($/oz sold) (1) 728 644 699 737 All-in sustaining costs ($/oz sold) (1) 884 789 832 867 Financial data ($000's, except per share amounts): Revenue $ 51,224 $ 39,267 $ 133,708 $ 101,198 Adjusted EBITDA (1) 19,712 13,260 49,597 28,439 Net income attributable to shareholders 8,072 6,679 18,963 6,405 Basic and diluted income per share 0.03 0.28 0.12 0.27 Adjusted net income attributable to shareholders (1) 8,103 1,993 12,211 1,840 Basic and diluted adjusted income per share (1) 0.03 0.08 0.08 0.08 September December 30, 31, 2016 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Balance sheet ($000's): Cash and cash equivalents $ 3,106 $ 3,004 Cash in trust for Senior Debentures (2) 1,117 - Senior debt (3) 80,220 100,740 Other debt, including current portion 2,115 3,012

Refer to "Additional Financial Measures" in the Company's MD&A. Represents amounts deposited into sinking funds for the 2018 and 2020 Debentures, net of cash used for the NCIBs. Represents carrying amounts, which are at a discount to principal amounts, for the 2018 and 2020 Debentures at September 30, 2016 and for the Gold and Silver Notes at December 31, 2015. Refer to Company's Interim Financial Statements for additional details regarding the 2018 and 2020 Debentures.

Segovia Operations

Third quarter 2016 gold production at the Segovia Operations totalled 33,552 ounces, up 20% from the third quarter a year ago, despite some disruption to the Company's operations in the latter part of September due to a civil strike as previously announced. The Company processed an average of 790 tonnes per day ('tpd") with head grades averaging 14.51 g/t at Segovia in the third quarter of 2016, an improvement from 599 tpd at an average head grade of 16.14 g/t in the third quarter a year ago. For the first nine months of 2016, gold production at the Segovia Operations totalled 91,435 ounces, up 32% from the first nine months last year. As of the end of September 2016, the trailing 12 months' gold production from the Segovia Operations totalled 115,303 ounces. With another 11,173 ounces produced in October, the Company now expects its gold production at Segovia to total from 120,000 to 126,000 ounces for the full year 2016, up from a total of 92,894 ounces produced in 2015.

Segovia's total cash costs, which increased to $672 per ounce in the third quarter of 2016, were adversely impacted by the processing of higher cost contract miner material and lower grade stockpiles during the labour disruption in late September 2016 and an increase in its provision for costs to settle labour claims associated with its previous workforce reductions. For the first nine months of 2016, Segovia's total cash costs averaged $652 per ounce, down 7% from the first nine months last year.

Marmato Operations

At the Marmato Operations, tonnes processed averaged 966 tpd in the third quarter of 2016, up 11% compared with the third quarter last year. This helped to partially mitigate the impact of lower head grades, which averaged 2.40 g/t in the third quarter this year, and lower mill recovery on gold production which amounted to 5,559 ounces in the third quarter of 2016, down 13% from the third quarter a year ago. For the first nine months of 2016, gold production at the Marmato Operations totalled 17,394 ounces, down 2% from the first nine months last year. As of the end of September 2016, the trailing 12 months' gold production from the Marmato Operations totalled 23,576 ounces. With another 1,915 ounces produced in October, the Company expects to produce close to 24,000 ounces at its Marmato Operations for the full year 2016.

The adverse impact of lower gold production on cash costs on a per ounce basis and an increase in production taxes as a result of the increase in spot gold prices were the primary contributors to the increase in Marmato's total cash costs per ounce in the third quarter of 2016 to $1,094 per ounce. For the first nine months of 2016, Marmato's total cash costs averaged $963 per ounce, up 11% from the first nine months last year.

Outlook

With a total of 121,917 ounces of gold produced through the first ten months of 2016 and an expectation that the trend in monthly production from the Segovia Operations will continue for the balance of the year, the Company is increasing its annual gold production guidance for 2016 to a range of 144,000 to 150,000 ounces.

Total cash costs averaged $699 per ounce in the first nine months of 2016 and is expected to average between $700 and $720 per ounce for the full year. The Company reported its AISC for the first nine months of 2016 of $832 per ounce, including sustaining capital expenditures of $89 per ounce and G&A expenses of $42 per ounce. The Company anticipates that its average AISC for the full year will be between $825 and $850 per ounce, below the initial guidance range of $850 to $950 per ounce for 2016 as certain capital expenditures associated with the expansion and mechanization of the Segovia Operations are continuing to be evaluated and will be taken forward into the 2017 mine plan update.

The strategic review process announced on September 16, 2016, led by GMP Securities L.P., is ongoing. At this time, there can be no assurance as to what, if any, strategic alternatives might be pursued by the Company. The Company does not intend to disclose further details with respect to its review of strategic alternatives unless and until the Board of Directors has approved a specific transaction or otherwise determines that further disclosure is warranted.

Webcast

As a reminder, the Company will host a conference call and webcast on Tuesday, November 15, 2016 at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss the results.

Webcast and call-in details are as follows:

Live Event link: http://edge.media-server.com/m/p/d9fhybnu

Toronto & International: 1 (514) 841-2157

North America Toll Free: 1 (866) 215-5508

Colombia Toll Free: 01 800 9 156 924

Conference ID: 43623958

A replay of the webcast will be available at www.grancolombiagold.com from Tuesday, November 15, 2016 until Thursday, December 15, 2016.

About Gran Colombia Gold Corp.

Gran Colombia is a Canadian-based gold and silver exploration, development and production company with its primary focus in Colombia. Gran Colombia is currently the largest underground gold and silver producer in Colombia with several underground mines in operation at its Segovia and Marmato Operations. Gran Colombia is in the midst of an expansion and modernization project at its Segovia Operations.

Additional information on Gran Colombia can be found on its website at www.grancolombiagold.com and by reviewing its profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information:

This news release contains "forward-looking information", which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to anticipated business plans or strategies. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or variations (including negative 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 statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Gran Colombia to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements are described under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Information Form dated as of March 30, 2016, which is available for view on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this press release and Gran Colombia disclaims, other than as required by law, any obligation to update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, results, future events, circumstances, or if management's estimates or opinions should change, or otherwise. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

For Further Information, Please Contact:

Mike Davies

Chief Financial Officer

(416) 360-4653

investorrelations@grancolombiagold.com
NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - November 14, 2016) - Index Exchange announced today that it has expanded its management team across global markets. The appointments include Luke Fenney in London as VP, Publisher Development; Melissa Gallo in New York as Senior Director, Client Services; and Ward Flock as Managing Director of Index's West Coast region. The new management hires follow the addition of over 100 employees in the past year and the expansion of all six offices across the U.S., U.K. and Canada.

"As Index continues to grow at a rapid pace, we're expanding our management team to ensure that we can continue to support our clients and partners in the best and most efficient way possible," said Andrew Casale, President and CEO of Index Exchange. "Luke, Melissa and Ward bring significant and varied experience to the table, and we know they'll be integral to our mission of improving the marketplace and bettering the ecosystem for media companies, marketers and end-users alike."

Fenney joins Index from Rubicon Project where he most recently served as Global VP of Customer Experience. During his seven-year tenure at Rubicon, Fenney oversaw several different parts of the business including Seller Cloud, Yield Management and Programmatic Demand. In his new role, he'll be tasked with developing and growing publisher relationships across EMEA, aligning with buy-side counterparts, and steering Index's growing presence in the market.

"I was drawn to Index's excellent product offering, transparent business model, and the company's deep alignment with publishers," said Fenney. "I'm excited about growing the company's presence in the European market and to join them at this stage of their international expansion."

Gallo joins Index from the IAB where she most recently served as Senior Director, Product and oversaw programmatic and data initiatives for the IAB Tech Lab. There, she was responsible for continued development of the OpenRTB protocol, the launch of the Modernizing Measurement Task Force and member engagement. At Index, Gallo will be responsible for managing the client services team to drive seamless executions, improve revenues and master efficiencies for Index's partners.

Gallo said, "I jumped at the opportunity to join Index Exchange because I not only believe in their product but also in their core values of transparency and fairness. My goal is to continue to put our clients first by taking service to the next level."

Flock has over 20 years of ad tech and digital media experience and most recently served as Senior Director, Publisher Platforms at AppNexus. As Managing Director of Index's West Coast operations, Ward will build and grow existing relationships with publishers and enterprise sellers along with buyers in the market while overseeing the growth of Index's footprint within the region.

Said Flock, "Header bidding has rolled-into the programmatic channel with great force, and Index Exchange is leading the trend. I can't think of a better time to join the winning team at Index -- a team that is solely focused on publishers without any conflict of interest."

Fenney and Flock will report into SVP of Partner Development, Alex Gardner. Gallo will report into VP of Partner Success, Steve Sullivan.

About Index Exchange

Index Exchange is the principled ad exchange and a true technology organization with over two-thirds of our staff residing in engineering. Built on the pillars of neutrality, openness, and the most reliable technology, we aspire to be the exchange that media companies can trust. With no other business interests to divide our attention, our sole focus remains connecting media companies with premium demand at massive scale. This allows us to partner with the biggest names in ad tech to develop great technology together with media companies in mind. For more information, follow us @IndexExchange.

Press Contact

Index Exchange

Jaime Levitt

jaime.levitt@indexexchange.com
MOUNTAIN VIEW (dpa-AFX) - Apple Inc. (AAPL) is considering an expansion into digital glasses, a risky but potentially lucrative area of wearable computing, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter. While still in an exploration phase, the device would connect wirelessly to iPhones, show images and other information in the wearer's field of vision, and may use augmented reality, the report said. The report indicated that Apple has talked about its glasses project with potential suppliers. The company has ordered small quantities of near-eye displays from one supplier for testing. Should Apple ultimately decide to proceed with the device, it would be introduced in 2018 at the earliest. The Cupertino, California-based company tests many different products and is known to pivot, pause, or cancel projects without disclosing them, the report said. Previously, Google's attempt to develop internet-connected eye wear flopped in part because its tiny battery ran out quickly. Google Glass, as it was called, also suffered a privacy backlash and poor public perception of its external design. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
New EonStor GS Family Mentioned for Its Powerful Cloud Gateway and Tiering Features

TAIPEI, Taiwan, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Infortrend Technology, Inc. (TWSE: 2495) today announced it has been named in the 2016 Gartner Magic Quadrant for General-Purpose Disk Arrays report. The new EonStor GS family launched this year is particularly recognized and mentioned for its superior native cloud gateway and tiering features.

Gartner recognizes Infortrend's recently launched EonStor GS family, a unified storage platform that offers direct integration with public cloud providers including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud platform as well as China's Alibaba Cloud, for its native cloud gateway features that can leverage cloud storage as a storage tier or for backup, enabling organizations to tap into the flexibility of cloud storage.

As for the tiering function, the EonStor GS family offers four different levels of implementations depending on disk type and flexible allocation of computing resources based on application criticality. That is, companies can have better performance for mission critical applications and save on resources for less critical tasks.

"We are glad to be named again in Gartner's Magic Quadrant report and to advance in the completeness of vision evaluation this year. This is mainly attributing to the introduction of the EonStor GS family, the cloud-integrated unified storage. It represents industry recognition on our continuing efforts to provide innovative storage products with feature sets that map to current and future requirements," commented Thomas Kao, Senior Director of Product Planning at Infortrend.

Also acknowledged by Gartner is Infortrend's industry-verifiable benchmarks that provide performance transparency to the extent practical without actually running customer benchmarks. For the full Gartner Magic Quadrant for General-Purpose Disk Arrays report, click here.

About Infortrend

Infortrend (TWSE: 2495) has been developing and manufacturing storage solutions since 1993. With a strong emphasis on in-house design, testing, and manufacturing, Infortrend storage delivers performance and scalability with the latest standards, user friendly data services, personal after-sales support, and unrivaled value. For more Information, please visit www.infortrend.com

Infortrend and EonStor are trademarks or registered trademarks of Infortrend Technology, Inc., other trademarks property of their respective owners.

Media Contact:

Infortrend Europe Ltd.

Agnieszka Wesolowska

Tel:+44-1256-305-220

E-mail: marketing.eu@infortrend.com










NEW YORK CITY (dpa-AFX) - American International Group, Inc. (AIG) said that it has agreed to sell its Japan life insurance business AIG Fuji Life Insurance Company, Ltd. (AFLI) to FWD Group, the insurance arm of Pacific Century Group. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. AIG said that the transaction does not affect its extensive non-life insurance business in Japan, the largest of any foreign-based insurer in the country. AIG noted that it will continue to focus on Japan's property and casualty (P&C) market through its local subsidiaries Fuji Fire & Marine, Ltd., AIU Insurance Company, Ltd., and American Home Assurance Company, Ltd. These companies provide commercial insurance and services, as well as personal insurance coverage lines, including accident & health, auto, homeowners, and travel insurance. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
RAS AL KHAIMAH, UAE, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

RAKFIF - Announcing Strategic Partners & Sponsors

- Forum to cover Hospitality & Tourism, Real Estate, Manufacturing & Production and Infrastructure sectors

- Over 300 C level, regional and international industry leaders and key RAK entities coming together

Ras Al Khaimah Finance & Investment Forum (RAKFIF), the new platform for uncovering business investment opportunities and set-up in Ras Al Khaimah (RAK), is gearing up for a successful first edition.

To view the Multimedia News Release, please click:

http://www.multivu.com/players/uk/7979351-rakfif-emirates-growth-potential-investment

Taking place from 13-14 December 2016 at the Rixos Bab Al Bahr in Ras Al Khaimah, [UAE], RAKFIF is already attracting huge interest in line with the growing demand for events like this in the region, which focus on markets with high growth rates such as RAK.

Aiming to help business leaders, financiers, and investors navigate this developing landscape, the inaugural event Ras Al Khaimah Finance & Investment Forum provides a platform for information, networking and commercial opportunities.

RAKFIF, hostedunder the patronageand with the presence ofHis Highness Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Supreme Council MemberandRuler of Ras Al Khaimah, is backed by strong government support and key RAK entities.

Commenting on their involvement in the forum, His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Chairman of Ras Al Khaimah Free Trade Zone (RAK FTZ) and Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority (RAKIA), said: "RAK FTZ and RAKIA are proud strategic partners of this unique event as it puts RAK in the limelight. We, together with other government authorities in the emirate, have been committed to reinforce the positioning of the emirate in the global economic map as a premier business destination. RAKFIF is a wonderful platform for the international business community to learn more about the opportunities and advantages available in the emirate."

Mr. Peter England, Chief Executive Officer of RAKBANK, said: "We are delighted to take part in this prestigious business investment and finance forum in our home emirate, Ras Al Khaimah. We fully support any initiative that aims to position Ras Al Khaimah as the investment destination of choice for individuals and businesses in the UAE. This participation offers us a peer-to-peer platform to meet with high profile international and regional investors and financiers and to explore how RAKBANK can cater to their specific banking needs. We always strive to bring more innovation and convenience in order to improve our customers' experience and to support them as they move into a new phase of growth."

As a high-level international business investment and finance forum, RAKFIF is bringing together experts from government and leading industries with international and regional investors and financiers to highlight the numerous investment projects that have been initiated in the emirate, focusing on a number of key economic sectors including hospitality & tourism, real estate, manufacturing & production, infrastructure - ports, airport and utilities.

The event's agenda includes panel discussions, sector specific breakout sessions and plenary sessions and already has a confirmed stellar line up of speakers representing key economic sectors that the forum will focus upon, such as the Ras Al Khaimah Department of Civil Aviation, RAK International Airport, RAK Ports, Al Marjan Island Company, RAK Tourism Development Authority, RAK Free Trade zone & RAK Investment Authority, as well as from leading corporations such as Goldman Sachs International, HSBC, Samena Capital Investments, Colliers International, UTICO, Nabarro LLP, Hilton Worldwide, ADPI, Hutchison Ports to name a few.

Mr. Andy Tsoi, Managing Director, Middle East and Africa of Hutchison Ports, the world's leading port investor, developer and operator, commenting on their participation at the Forum, said: "Ras Al Khaimah is a dynamic economy for investment. The ruler has successfully created a very business-friendly environment, conducive to both international investment as well as supportive of local industries. In the face of slowing economic growth elsewhere in the world, we see good potential in RAK."

The Forum will gather over 300 C level and other industry leaders with RAK entities, showcasing Ras Al Khaimah in its entirety, while offering professional investment assistance and information.

HH Sheikh Ahmed, has a welcome message for businesses interested in Ras Al Khaimah "It is my pleasure to welcome a diverse community of businessmen and financiers to our rising emirate. Ras Al Khaimah's supportive business environment and competitiveness have helped thousands of companies become established players in their respective fields. Investors who are looking for business growth opportunities should look no further as Ras Al Khaimah definitely offers that and more."

Irina Awote, Director of the RAKFIF event said "As we bring together influential business leaders, investors and financiers to discuss the business opportunities and the viable investment projects that are underway for involvement in the emirate, we are extremely pleased to have RAK FTZ & RAKIA as our Strategic partner sponsors as well as the sponsorship support of leading organizations such as Hutchison Ports, RAK Bank, UTICO, HSBC and Archirodon Construction. Their support is a true testament of their understanding of the growth and business potential of the rising emirate."

She added "There is still opportunity for companies interested to get involved, RAKFIF provides an outstanding opportunity for organisations wishing to increase brand awareness or connect with a qualified and targeted group of business leaders and investors. The forum's sponsorship packages are designed to complement individual company's existing marketing mix, whether they are looking to increase visibility in their target market or for the opportunity to develop relationships with potential customers and strengthen existing relationships with current ones, we will ensure that their company stands out, as we promote their involvement with the event."

Alongside the presentations, a number of engaging features and events will take place across the two days of the Forum providing attendees with additional industry related content. RAKFIF has arranged a number of site visits to the locations of new and ongoing developments for delegates to participate in, in order to gain an even greater perspective of all that Ras Al Khaimah has to offer. In addition to these, the Forum provides an opportunity to build professional relationships with its informal gatherings, an evening reception on the 13th of December at the venue, and its networking opportunities. A dedicated onsite exhibition staffed by RAK entities will offer investment advice while showcasing the Emirate fully.

RAKFIF is an industry-only event, open to financiers and investors, and industry professionals with an interest in ongoing and fresh development opportunities in RAK from the surrounding Gulf States and internationally. The two-day Forum will be open on day one from 8.30am to 5.45pm and 8.30am to 4pm on day two, with free access for senior executive professionals who register online until the 21[st] November. Further information on the event, including directions, travel and registration are available at http://www.rakfif.com.

Contact RAKFIF

Enquiries@rakfif.com

http://www.rakfif.com

Marina Jeffery, Tel +971-243-7562

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/439106 )



Video:

http://www.multivu.com/players/uk/7979351-rakfif-emirates-growth-potential-investment


BONN, GERMANY and VIENNA, AUSTRIA -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 --Deutsche Telekom ICSS http://www.telekom-icss.com and DIMOCO Messaging http://www.dimoco.eu today announced their partnership in the Application-to-Person (A2P) SMS business. With a contractual framework affording direct connection to Deutsche Telekom's network, DIMOCO Messaging clients can now quickly, directly and reliably reach 156 million mobile consumers via A2P messaging in 50 countries across the globe.

DIMOCO Messaging powers communications between companies and consumers through their preferred SMS channel. Leveraging direct connectivity to Deutsche Telekom ICSS, DIMOCO Messaging's A2P solutions play a significant role in bringing simplification and efficiency to consumer communications. Marketing campaigns, user authentication as well as alerts and reminders are just a few examples of what is possible in the A2P market.

This deal comes at a time when the A2P market has become increasingly central to the SMS landscape. A2P's percentage of overall worldwide SMS traffic has skyrocketed from 11.7 percent in 2010 to 22.4 percent in 2015 and opened new business possibilities. Not ending there, the number of A2P messages is expected to reach 1.76 trillion annually by 2018, according to Portio Research. In addition, the value of the global A2P messaging market is projected to increase from $55 billion in 2015 to $60 billion by 2020, as Juniper Research reports.

"DIMOCO Messaging continues to strengthen its position on the international A2P mobile messaging market", says Mathias Hollerl, DIMOCO Messaging Managing Director. "We see an increasing demand for communication solutions from our clients that require fast and reliable message delivery. The partnership with Deutsche Telekom ICSS reaffirms the high level of trust in our company among major international players and allows us to expand our offering and fulfill clients' requirements for mission-critical and time-sensitive application-to-person (A2P) messaging using the ICSS global footprint. The excellent experience we've had in our co-operation with ICSS has resulted in another partnership with their SMS+ solution."

"We have had a long-lasting business relationship with DIMOCO as a client for our SMX one-way product, which provides SMS termination to a long list of international networks and also includes P2P as well as A2P traffic", says Gergely Vadas, Head of Mobile World at Deutsche Telekom ICSS. "With our SMS+ transit solution they now receive a solution that perfectly fits DIMOCO's requirements for providing best-in-class A2P messaging products to their global customers base. Thanks to SMS+ transit DIMOCO obtains added-value in terms of more destinations, higher quality and more flexibility regarding billing.

"With SMS+ transit, DIMOCO can now reach the mobile networks of Deutsche Telekom and its partners as well as its affiliates in Europe and outside of Deutsche Telekom's footprint through partner networks. This is a complete, high-availability solution from one provider that offers fast, reliable, secure and quality termination of messages."

About DIMOCO Messaging

DIMOCO Messaging provides carrier-grade, high quality messaging products enabling businesses to communicate to their customers on a truly global scale. DIMOCO leverages relationships with mobile network operators and in-country partners to offer clients direct connectivity while combining local market expertise with fast message delivery. http://www.dimoco.eu/press.html

About Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom is one of the world's leading integrated telecommunications companies with more than 156 million mobile customers, 29 million fixed-network lines and around 18 million broadband lines (as of December 31, 2015). The Group provides fixed-network/broadband, mobile communications, Internet and Internet-based TV products and services for consumers, and ICT solutions for businesses and corporate customers. Deutsche Telekom has a presence in more than 50 countries and employs about 225,200 people worldwide. The Group generated revenues of 69.2 billion euros in the 2015 financial year -- roughly 64 percent of it outside Germany. For further information, see http://www.telekom.com

About International Carrier Sales & Solutions (ICSS)

International Carrier Sales & Solutions (ICSS) is one of the world's leading carriers and an innovation driver for IP-based solutions. As an integral part of Deutsche Telekom's International Wholesale Business Unit, ICSS serves the international wholesale requirements of the DT Group with its international affiliates and more than 860 external customers worldwide. One of the units' core competencies is to focus on building business partnerships around the globe. With years of experience in the international wholesale communication market, ICSS has the expertise to provide clients with tailor-made solutions. The innovative technologies are offered on a global basis with a special emphasis on Europe. The cutting-edge offerings of ICSS include the following business segments: Internet & Transport: Enable a connected society by partnering with one of the premier European Internet and content players. Mobile World: Mobilize your customers' lives with innovative and profitable solutions from ICSS, a premium mobile enabler. Carrier Enterprise Services: Securely connect your customer's global sites with a major European multi-service provider. Global Voice: Excellence and innovation with scale from the international market leader for retail voice termination. For further information, see http://www.telekom-icss.com.

Picture material:

Mathias Hollerl, DIMOCO Messaging Managing Director

High Resolution: http://dimoco.at/fileadmin/user_upload/Presse/2016/160711_ROCCO_report_high_res.jpg

Low Resolution: http://dimoco.at/fileadmin/user_upload/Presse/2016/160711_ROCCO_report_low_res.jpg

DIMOCO

Press contact:

Margit Anglmaier

DIMOCO Europe GmbH

Europaring F15/302, A-2345 Brunn am Gebirge

Tel: +43/1/33 66 888-2059

E-Mail: m.anglmaier@dimoco.eu

http://www.dimoco.eu




LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 -- Land Securities Group PLC (LSE: LAND) (OTCQX: LSGOF)

OTCQX: LSGOF

Forward-looking statements

These half-yearly results, the latest Annual Report and the Land Securities' website may contain certain "forward-looking statements" with respect to Land Securities Group PLC (the Company) and the Group's financial condition, results of its operations and business, and certain plans, strategy, objectives, goals and expectations with respect to these items and the economies and markets in which the Group operates.

Forward-looking statements are sometimes, but not always, identified by their use of a date in the future or such words as "anticipates", "aims", "due", "could", "may", "should", "expects", "believes", "intends", "plans", "targets", "goal" or "estimates" or, in each case, their negative or other variations or comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. By their very nature forward-looking statements are inherently unpredictable, speculative and involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future. Many of these assumptions, risks and uncertainties relate to factors that are beyond the Group's ability to control or estimate precisely. There are a number of such factors that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, changes in the economies and markets in which the Group operates; changes in the legal, regulatory and competition frameworks in which the Group operates; changes in the markets from which the Group raises finance; the impact of legal or other proceedings against or which affect the Group; changes in accounting practices and interpretation of accounting standards under IFRSs, and changes in interest and exchange rates.

Any forward-looking statements, made in these half-yearly results, the latest Annual Report or the Land Securities' website, or made subsequently, which are attributable to the Company or any other member of the Group, or persons acting on their behalf, are expressly qualified in their entirety by the factors referred to above. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date it is made. Except as required by its legal or statutory obligations, the Company does not intend to update any forward-looking statements.

Nothing contained in these half-yearly results, the latest Annual Report or the Land Securities website should be construed as a profit forecast or an invitation to deal in the securities of the Company.

Half-yearly results for the six months ended 30 September 2016

15 November 2016

"Land Securities has produced a resilient performance against the backdrop of current market uncertainty thanks to the actions we've taken to transform our portfolio and reduce gearing over the last few years.

"Our strong leasing performance and lower interest costs have contributed to a 4.5% rise in revenue profit despite the significant disposals made in the second half of last year. While valuations across our markets are under pressure, leading to a 1.8% reduction in our adjusted diluted net assets per share to 1,408p, our portfolio has outperformed its market sectors," said Chief Executive Robert Noel.

"In London, we've entered the final phase of our  2.4 billion development programme. In the City and mid-town, all schemes are now complete and fully let. In Victoria, SW1, our transformation of the area into a vibrant destination is now clear to see, with Nova due to complete in the new year.

"In Retail, we've reinvested the proceeds from the sale of our secondary assets into dominant destinations that attract retailers and deliver the experience consumers want. At our latest destination, Westgate Oxford, we have a fabulous line-up of retailers and restaurants and the scheme is on target for opening this time next year.

"We've followed a clear strategy to transform the quality of our business. And now, with historically low levels of speculative development and conservative financial gearing, we're well-placed to take advantage of any opportunities that may lie ahead."

Results summary ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Six months Six months ended 30 ended 30 September 2016 September 2015 Change ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Revenue profit(1)(2)  192.5m  184.2m Up 4.5% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Valuation (deficit)/surplus(1)(2)  (259.6)m  519.3m Down 1.8%(3) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Loss)/profit before tax  (95.0)m  707.9m ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Basic (loss)/earnings per share (12.1)p 89.7p ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adjusted diluted earnings per share(1)(2) 24.3p 23.2p Up 4.7% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dividend per share 17.9p 16.3p Up 9.8% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30 September 2016 31 March 2016 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Basic net assets per share 1,449p 1,482p Down 2.2% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adjusted diluted net assets per share(1)(4) 1,408p 1,434p Down 1.8% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Group LTV ratio(1)(2) 22.6% 22.0% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. An alternative performance measure. The Group uses a number of financial measures to assess and explain its performance, some of which are considered to be alternative performance measures as they are not defined under IFRSs. For further details, see the Business Analysis section included within the half-yearly results. 2. Including our proportionate share of subsidiaries and joint ventures, as explained in the notes to the financial statements included within the half-yearly results. 3. The% change for the valuation deficit represents the decrease in value of the Combined Portfolio over the six month period, adjusted for net investment. 4. Our key valuation measure.

Activity

 15.0m of investment lettings

 6.9m of development lettings

Acquisitions, development and refurbishment expenditure(1) of  194.0m

Disposals(1) of  90.9m

Supported a further 114 people from disadvantaged backgrounds into jobs through our Community Employment Programme

Performance

Ungeared total property return(1) of 0.5% (IPD Quarterly Universe 0.2%)

Total business return(2)(3) of -0.5%

Combined Portfolio(3) valued at  14.4bn, with a valuation deficit(3) of 1.8%

Voids(1) in the like-for-like portfolio: 2.9% (31 March 2016: 2.4%)

Financials

Group LTV ratio(3) at 22.6%, based on adjusted net debt(3) of  3.3bn

Weighted average maturity of debt at 9.0 years

Weighted average cost of debt at 4.7%

Cash and available facilities of  1.5bn

First half dividend of 17.9p, up 9.8%

Development

1 & 2 New Ludgate, EC4 now fully let

20 Eastbourne Terrace, W2 now completed and 90% let

1 New Street Square, EC4 now completed and fully let

Nova, Victoria, SW1, due to complete in the new year, now 41% pre-let or in solicitors' hands

Westgate Oxford due to open in October 2017, now 64% pre-let or in solicitors' hands

1.2m sq ft future London pipeline including 21 Moorfields, EC2; Nova East, SW1; 1 Sherwood Street, W1; and our Southwark estate, SE1

Recognition

Achieved Carbon Disclosure Project 2016 climate change leadership score of A-

Winner of 2016 Better Society Award for National Commitment to the Community

Shortlisted for Energy Efficient Partnership of the Year at the Energy Awards 2016

1. For further details see the Business Analysis section included within the half-yearly results. 2. Dividend paid per share in the period plus the change in adjusted diluted net assets per share, divided by adjusted diluted net assets per share at the beginning of the period. 3. An alternative performance measure. The Group uses a number of financial measures to assess and explain its performance, some of which are considered to be alternative performance measures as they are not defined under IFRSs. For further details see the Business Analysis section included within the half-yearly results.

All measures above are presented on a proportionate basis, as explained in the notes to the financial statements included within the half-yearly results.

To view the full announcement, please click on the following link.

http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/1503P_1-2016-11-14.pdf

Contacts:

RNS

Customer Services

0044-207797-4400

rns@londonstockexchange.com

http://www.rns.com




Regulatory News:

OSE Immunotherapeutics SA (Paris:OSE) (ISIN: FR0012127173; Mnemo: OSE), a biotechnology company developing immunotherapies of activation and regulation in immuno-oncology, auto-immune diseases and transplantation, today announced that it has received both the First and "Listed Company" prizes as part of the 2016 Deloitte In Extenso Technology Fast 50 Ouest, an initiative that rewards fast growing companies.

Companies are ranked according to the growth of their revenues during the four previous years. OSE Immunotherapeutics was awarded the "Listed Company" prize for the Company's significant growth rate of +1900% between 2012 and 2015.

Maryvonne Hiance, Vice-Chairman and Director of the Strategy of OSE Immunotherapeutics :

"We are very proud to have topped Deloitte's rankings, which signifies that we are one of France's fastest growing companies over the past four years. This prize recognizes our corporate strategy and rewards the expertise of our team and their commitment to the company's development."

Dominique Costantini, Chief Executive Officer of OSE Immunotherapeutics:

"Since the end of 2015, with the continued development of our first-in-class product candidates, ranging from R&D to the clinical registration phase, a first global agreement with Janssen Biotech Inc. and a reinforced cash position, OSE Immunotherapeutics is well-positioned to drive further future growth. 

Laurent Halfon, Deloitte Partner and country manager of the Technology Fast 50 programme in France: "The Technology Fast 50 ranking promotes companies like OSE Immunotherapeutics which reflect the incredible drive for innovation and added value creation of French entrepreneurs. Already in its 16th edition, the Technology Fast 50 France ranking has become a true reference for French and international investors. We are proud to see OSE Immunotherapeutics among the winners for 2016."

The ranking is open to any company that meets the following, cumulative criteria:

The company is an independent, French company;

The company holds patents and/or allocates at least 5% of its annual revenues to Research Development and is active in one of the six following industries: 1) Biotechnology and Life Sciences 2) Energy and Green Technologies 3) Hardware and Electronics 4) Internet, Media and Telecommunications 5) Software and IT services, 6) Aerospace and Defense.

The company was created before January 1 st , 2012, and has successfully concluded at least four financial years of twelve months each;

, 2012, and has successfully concluded at least four financial years of twelve months each; The company reported revenues of at least 50 000 euros in 2012.

ABOUT OSE IMMUNOTHERAPEUTICS

Our ambition is to become a world leader in activation and regulation immunotherapies

OSE Immunotherapeutics is a biotechnology company led by world-class immunologists and focused on the development of innovative immunotherapies for immune activation and regulation in the fields of immuno-oncology, auto-immune diseases and transplantation.

The company has a balanced portfolio of first-in-class products with a diversified risk profile ranging from clinical phase 3 registration trials to R&D:

Tedopi, a combination of 10 optimized neo-epitopes to induce specific T activation in immuno-oncology - currently in registration Phase 3 trial advanced NSCLC HLA A2+ patients EU /US Orphan Status in the US - registration expected in 2019 a Phase 2 with Tedopi in combination with a checkpoint inhibitor in NSCLC is considered in 2017 the product is also considered in other cancer indications.

to induce specific T activation in immuno-oncology - Orphan Status in the US in NSCLC is considered in 2017 the product is also FR104, CD28-antagonist in immunotherapy Phase 1 trial completed - for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and for use with transplantation licensed to Janssen Biotech Inc. to pursue clinical development

CD28-antagonist in immunotherapy - for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and for use with transplantation to pursue clinical development Effi-7, interleukin receptor 7 antagonist in preclinical development for inflammatory bowel diseases and other autoimmune diseases

interleukin receptor 7 antagonist for inflammatory bowel diseases and other autoimmune diseases Effi-DEM, new generation checkpoint inhibitor targeting the SIRP-a receptor in preclinical development for immuno-oncology

targeting the for immuno-oncology R&D: candidates targeting new receptors in immuno-oncology

The portfolio's blockbuster potential gives OSE Immunotherapeutics the ability to enter global agreements at different stages of development with major pharmaceutical players.

Immunotherapy is a highly promising and growing market. By 2023 Immunotherapy of cancer could represent nearly 60% of treatments against less than 3% at present and the projected market is estimated at $67 billion in 2018 **.

There are more than 80 autoimmune diseases that represent a significant market including major players in the pharmaceutical industry with sales towards $10 billion for the main products. The medical need is largely unmet and requires the provision of new innovative products involved in the regulation of the immune system.

*Citi Research Equity

**BCC Research

More information: http://ose-immuno.com

Click and follow us on Twitter and Linkedln

About Deloitte Technology Fast 50 France

Now in its sixteenth year, the Technology Fast 50 France is part of an international programme run by Deloitte. Qualifying entrants of the Fast 50 France will be put forward to the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) programme, along with entrants from other national programmes run by Deloitte in the EMEA region.

The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 awards recognise and profile French technology companies, public or private, including some of the most dynamic players in all areas of technology, from Internet specialists to biotech, digital media technology to life sciences, computers to semiconductors and software to telecommunications.

About Deloitte

Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee, and its network of member firms, each of which is a legally separate and independent entity. Please see www.deloitte.com/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited and its member firms. In France, Deloitte SAS is the member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, and professional services are provided by its subsidiaries and affiliates.

Deloitte provides audit, tax, consulting, and financial advisory services to public and private clients spanning multiple industries. With a globally connected network of member firms in more than 150 countries, Deloitte brings world-class capabilities and high-quality service to clients, delivering the insights they need to address their most complex business challenges. Deloitte's approximately 244,000 professionals are committed to becoming the standard of excellence.

In France, Deloitte calls on diversified expertise to meet the challenges of its clients of all sizes from all industries major multinationals, local micro-companies and medium-sized enterprises. With the expertise of its 10 300 professionals and partners, Deloitte is a leading player in audit, risk advisory, consulting, financial advisory, tax legal and accounting, based on a multidisciplinary offering and a set of action principles attuned to the requirements of our environment.

Forward-looking statements

This press release contains express or implied information and statements that might be deemed forward-looking information and statements in respect of OSE Immunotherapeutics. They do not constitute historical facts. These information and statements include financial projections that are based upon certain assumptions and assessments made by OSE Immunotherapeutics' management in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends, current economic and industry conditions, expected future developments and other factors they believe to be appropriate.

These forward-looking statements include statements typically using conditional and containing verbs such as "expect", "anticipate", "believe", "target", "plan", or "estimate", their declensions and conjugations and words of similar import.

Although the OSE Immunotherapeutics management believes that the forward-looking statements and information are reasonable, the OSE Immunotherapeutics' shareholders and other investors are cautioned that the completion of such expectations is by nature subject to various risks, known or not, and uncertainties which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of OSE Immunotherapeutics. These risks could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in or implied or projected by the forward-looking statements. These risks include those discussed or identified in the public filings made by OSE Immunotherapeutics with the AMF. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance.

This press release includes only summary information and should be read with the OSE Immunotherapeutics Reference Document filed with the AMF on 8 June 2016 under the number R.16-052, the consolidated financial statements and the management report for the fiscal year 2015, as well as the Merger Document registered with the AMF on 26 April 2016 under number E.16-026, all available on the OSE Immunotherapeutics' website.

Other than as required by applicable law, OSE Immunotherapeutics issues this press release at the date hereof and does not undertake any obligation to update or revise the forward-looking information or statements.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161114006277/en/

Contacts:

OSE Immunotherapeutics

Dominique Costantini, +33 613 207 749

CEO

dominique.costantini@ose-immuno.com

or

Maryvonne Hiance, +33 680 060 183

Vice-Chairman and Director of Strategy

maryvonne.hiance@ose-immuno.com

or

Alexis Peyroles, +33 611 511 977

COO, Finance, BD Operations

alexis.peyroles@ose-immuno.com

or

Bernard Vanhove, +33 675 414 008

COO, R&D, International scientific collaborations

Bernard.vanhove@ose-immuno.com

or

Contacts media

Alize RP

Florence Portejoie Caroline Carmagnol

+33 647 389 004

oseimmuno@alizerp.com

or

LifeSci Advisors

Chris Maggos, +41 79 367 6254

chris@lifesciadvisors.com

or

Acorelis

Gilles Petitot, +33 620 276 594

gilles.petitot@acorelis.com

or

Deloitte

Sarah Lheritier, 33 (0) 1 55 61 48 65

Media Relations, Deloitte

slheritier@deloitte.fr


Toronto, Ontario (November 15, 2016) - Lundin Mining Corporation (TSX:LUN) (OMX:LUMI) ("Lundin Mining" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its indirect interest in TF Holdings Limited ("TF Holdings") to an affiliate of BHR Partners, a Chinese private equity firm, for $1.136 billion in cash and contingent consideration of up to $51.4 million, consisting of $25.7 million if the average copper price exceeds $3.50 per pound and $25.7 million if the average cobalt price exceeds $20 per pound, both during a 24-month period beginning on January 1, 2018 (the "Transaction"). The consideration to be received by Lundin Mining is equal to the implied value of the Company's stake in TF Holdings based on the transaction between Freeport-McMoRan Inc. ("Freeport") and China Molybdenum Co., Ltd. ("CMOC") announced on May 9, 2016.TF Holdings is a Bermuda holding company that owns an 80 percent interest in Tenke Fungurume Mining S.A. ("Tenke"). Lundin Mining has an indirect 30 percent interest in TF Holdings and therefore, an effective 24 percent interest in Tenke.In connection with the Transaction, Lundin Mining has waived its right of first offer to acquire Freeport's indirect interest in TF Holdings. The Transaction is subject to the receipt of certain regulatory approvals, the completion of Freeport's sale of its interest in TF Holdings to CMOC and other customary closing conditions. A termination fee of $100 million, which has been secured by a letter of credit that has been received by the Company, is payable to Lundin Mining in certain circumstances, including upon termination of the Transaction due to the failure to obtain necessary regulatory approvals.Mr. Paul Conibear, President and CEO commented: "The decision to sell our minority interest in Tenke has been arrived at following a careful and lengthy consideration of all options open to us. It was a difficult decision, respecting the 20 years of Lundin involvement in Tenke, and the special nature of this world class asset. The sale will enable Lundin Mining to advance its strategy to incrementally grow the company with projects and operations we control, while maintaining a strong balance sheet.We want to thank our long standing partners, Freeport and Gecamines, who have been instrumental in the development of Tenke into a world class operation to be proud of. We are confident that the new Tenke partners will continue to build on Tenke's highly successful record and realize the future development potential of the properties."The Transaction is expected close in the first half of 2017.BMO Capital Markets is acting as financial advisor to Lundin Mining. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP are acting as legal advisors to Lundin Mining.About Lundin MiningLundin Mining is a diversified Canadian base metals mining company with operations in Chile, the USA, Portugal, and Sweden, primarily producing copper, nickel and zinc. In addition, Lundin Mining holds an indirect 24% equity stake in the world-class Tenke Fungurume copper/cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in the Freeport Cobalt Oy business, which includes a cobalt refinery located in Kokkola, Finland.On Behalf of the Board,Paul Conibear, President and CEOThe information in this release is subject to the disclosure requirements of Lundin Mining under the EU Market Abuse Regulation and/or the Swedish Securities Market Act. This information was publicly communicated on November 15, 2016 at 2:00 a.m. Eastern Time.Forward Looking StatementsCertain of the statements made and information contained herein is "forward-looking information" within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation including, without limitation, with respect to the timing of closing of the Transaction, the circumstances in which the termination fee is payable, and the Corporation's strategy to seek out high quality base metal growth globally. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to information with respect to the Company's strategy, plans or future financial or operating performance. Forward-looking statements are characterized by words such as "plan," "expect", "budget", "target", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions, assumptions and estimates of management considered reasonable at the date the statements are made, and are inherently subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other known and unknown factors that could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation: receipt of certain regulatory approvals; the completion of Freeport's sale of its interest in TF Holdings to China Molybdenum Co., Ltd.; the ability of the buyer to secure financing to fund the purchase price; the satisfaction of closing conditions; uncertain political and economic environments; foreign currency fluctuations; risks inherent in mining including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected geological formations, ground control problems and flooding; risks associated with the estimation of mineral resources and reserves and the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations; the potential for and effects of labour disputes or other unanticipated difficulties with or shortages of labour or interruptions in production; actual ore mined varying from estimates of grade, tonnage, dilution and metallurgical and other characteristics; the inherent uncertainty of production and cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses, commodity price fluctuations; changes in laws or policies, foreign taxation, delays or the inability to obtain necessary governmental permits; and other risks and uncertainties, including those described under Risk Factors Relating to the Company's Business in the Company's Annual Information Form and in each management discussion and analysis. Forward-looking information is in addition based on various assumptions including, without limitation, the expectations and beliefs of management, the assumed long term price of copper, nickel, lead and zinc; that the Company can access financing, appropriate equipment and sufficient labour and that the political environment where the Company operates will continue to support the development and operation of mining projects. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:Mark Turner Director, Business Valuations and Investor Relations +1-416-342-5565Sonia Tercas Senior Associate, Investor Relations +1-416-342-5583Robert Eriksson Investor Relations Sweden +46 8 545 015 50Attachment:https://cns.omxgroup.com/cds/DisclosureAttachmentServlet?messageAttachmentId=604400
Regulatory News:

THIS PRESS RELEASE MUST NOT BE PUBLISHED, RELEASED OR DISTRIBUTED, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AUTRALIA, CANADA OR JAPAN.

Groupe SEB (Paris:SK) (the "Company" or "Groupe SEB") announces today the launch of an offering of bonds redeemable in cash and/or existing shares (ORNAEs), due November 2021 (the "Bonds") for a nominal amount of approximately 150 million.

The net proceeds from the issuance of the Bonds will enable Groupe SEB to benefit from current favorable market conditions to partly refinance the acquisition, announced on May 23rd, 2016, of the German group WMF, global leader in professional automatic coffee machines and leader in cookware in Germany.

Terms of the Bonds

The Bonds will bear no interest and will be offered at an issue price comprised between 100.75% and 103.50% of par, corresponding to an annual gross yield to maturity comprised between 0.69% and 0.15%.

The nominal value per Bond will represent an exchange premium comprised between 40% and 45% above SEB's reference share price1 on the regulated market of Euronext in Paris ("Euronext Paris

The final terms of the issue are expected to be set today and the settlement is expected to take place on November 17, 2016.

Unless previously exchanged, early redeemed, or purchased and cancelled, the Bonds will be redeemed at par on November 17, 2021 (or on the following business day if such date is not a business day).

The Bonds may be redeemed prior to the maturity date at the discretion of the Company, under certain conditions. In particular, the Bonds may be fully redeemed earlier at par, at the Company's option from November 17, 2019 until the maturity date of the Bonds, if the arithmetic average, calculated over a period of 20 consecutive trading days from among the 40 consecutive trading days preceding the publication of the early redemption notice, of the products of the Company's opening trading share price on Euronext Paris and the then prevailing exchangeable ratio exceeds 130% of the nominal value of the Bonds.

In addition, any bondholders may require the early redemption of the Bonds in the event of a change of control of the Company.

The Bonds will entitle their holders, under the conditions detailed below, to receive existing SEB shares at a ratio of one share per Bond (subject to any potential subsequent adjustments), at any time from November 17, 2016 until the twenty-eighth trading day (excluded) preceding the maturity date of the Bonds or, as the case may be, the relevant redemption date.

Upon exercise of their exchange right, bondholders will receive an amount in cash and, as the case may be, an amount payable in existing SEB shares. The Company also retains full flexibility to deliver existing SEB shares only. No dilution in terms of capital ownership may result from the exercise of the exchange right attached to the Bonds.

The number of existing SEB shares delivered to bondholders, as the case may be, will in particular depend on the exchange ratio of the Bonds. Initially set at one share per Bond, this ratio may be adjusted in some cases customary for this type of financial instruments. The exchange ratio may notably be adjusted upward and downward in case of dividends distribution by the Company from the issue date until the redemption date.

The Bonds will be offered only by way of a private placement in the meaning of Article L.411-2-II of the French monetary and financial code (Code Monetaire et Financier) in France and outside France (excluding the United States of America, Canada, Australia and Japan).

Lock-up undertaking

In the context of the offering, the Company will agree to a 90-day lock-up undertaking from the settlement date, subject to certain exceptions.

Listing of the Bonds on the Open Market

An application for the listing of the Bonds on the Open Market (Marche Libre) of Euronext Paris will be made. Such listing is expected to occur on November 17, 2016.

Available information

The offering is not subject to a prospectus to be approved by the French Financial Market Authority ("Autorite des marches financiers") (the "AMF"). Detailed information about Groupe SEB, including its business, results, prospects and related risk factors are described in the Company's registration document filed with the AMF on March 31st, 2016 under number D.16-0236 (the  Registration Document ). This document is available together with other regulated information and all the press releases of the Company, on Groupe SEB's website (www.groupeseb.com).

Groupe SEB draws the public's attention to the risk factors presented on page 15 to 22 of the Registration Document.

This press release does not constitute a subscription offer and the offering of the Bonds does not constitute a public offering in any country including in France.

DISCLAIMER

No communication or information relating to the issuance by Groupe SEB of the Bonds may be transmitted to the public in a country where there is a registration obligation or where an approval is required. No action has been or will be taken in any country in which such registration or approval would be required. The issuance or the subscription of the Bonds may be subject to specific legal and regulatory restrictions in certain jurisdictions; Groupe SEB assumes no liability in connection with the breach by any person of such restrictions.

This press release is an advertisement and not a prospectus within the meaning of Directive 2003/71/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 4 November, 2003 as amended, as implemented in each member state of the European Economic Area (the "Prospectus Directive

This press release does not, and shall not, in any circumstances, constitute an offer to the public, an offer to subscribe or designed to solicit interest for purposes of an offer to the public in any jurisdiction, including France.

The Bonds will be offered only by way of a private placement in France and outside France (excluding the United States of America, Canada, Australia and Japan) to persons referred to in Article L.411-2-II of the French monetary and financial code (Code Monetaire et Financier), without an offer to the public in any country (including France).

European Economic Area

With respect to the Member States of the European Economic Area which have implemented the Prospectus Directive (the "Relevant Member States"), no action has been undertaken or will be undertaken to make an offer to the public of the Bonds requiring a publication of a prospectus in any Relevant Member State. As a result, the Bonds may only be offered in Relevant Member States:

(a) to any legal entity which is a qualified investor as defined in the Prospectus Directive;

(b) to fewer than 150 natural or legal persons (other than qualified investors as defined in the Prospectus Directive); or

(c) in any other circumstances falling within Article 3(2) of the Prospectus Directive

and provided that none of the offers mentioned in paragraphs (a) to (c) above require the Company or any institution in charge of the placement to publish a prospectus in accordance with the provisions of the Article 3 of the Prospectus Directive or a supplement to the prospectus in accordance with the provisions of the Article 16 of the Prospectus Directive.

For the purposes of this paragraph, (i) the expression "offer to the public of Bonds" in any Relevant Member States, means any communication, to individuals or legal entities, in any form and by any means, of sufficient information on the terms and conditions of the offering and on the Bonds to be offered, thereby enabling an investor to decide to purchase or subscribe for the Bonds, as the same may be varied in that Member State.

These selling restrictions with respect to Member States apply in addition to any other selling restrictions which may be applicable in the Member States who have implemented the Prospectus Directive.

France

The Bonds have not been and will not be offered or sold or cause to be offered or sold, directly or indirectly, to the public in France. Any offer or sale of the Bonds and distribution of any offering material relating to the Bonds have been and will be made in France only to (a) persons providing investment services relating to portfolio management for the account of third parties (personnes fournissant le service d'investissement de gestion de portefeuille pour compte de tiers), and/or (b) qualified investors (investisseurs qualifies) acting for their own account, as defined in, and in accordance with, Articles L. 411-2 and D.411-1 of the French monetary and financial code (Code Monetaire et Financier

United Kingdom

This press release is addressed only (i) to persons located outside the United Kingdom, (ii) to investment professionals as defined in Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the "Order"), (iii) to people designated by Article 49(2) (a) to (d) of the Order or (iv) to any other person to whom this press release could be addressed pursuant to applicable law (the persons mentioned in paragraphs (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv) all deemed relevant persons ("Relevant Persons"). The Bonds and, if applicable, the SEB shares to be delivered upon exercise of the exchange rights (the "Financial Instruments") are intended only for Relevant Persons and any invitation, offer of contract related to the subscription, tender, or acquisition of the Financial Instruments may be addressed and/or concluded only with Relevant Persons. All persons other than Relevant Persons must abstain from using or relying on this document and all information contained therein.

This press release is not a prospectus which has been approved by the Financial Services Authority or any other United Kingdom regulatory authority for the purposes of Section 85 of the Order.

Each institution in charge of the placement has represented and agreed that:

(i) it has only communicated or caused to be communicated and will only communicate or cause to be communicated invitations or inducements to engage in investment activity (within the meaning of Section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000), received by it in connection with the Financial Instruments, in circumstances in which Section 21(1) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 does not apply to the Company; and

(ii) it has complied and will comply with all applicable provisions of the Financial Services and Market Act 2000 with respect to anything that it has done or will do in relation to the Financial Instruments in the United Kingdom, from the United Kingdom or otherwise involving the United Kingdom.

United States of America

This press release does not constitute or form a part of any offer or solicitation to purchase the Bonds or any other financial securities in the United States of America. The Bonds and, if applicable, the SEB shares to be delivered upon exercise of the exchange rights, have not been, and will not be, registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), the law of any state of the United States of America and may not be offered or sold in the United States of America, except in accordance with an exemption from, or a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act or the law of the above states. The Bonds will be offered or sold only outside of the United States of America in offshore transactions, in accordance with Regulation S of the Securities Act. Groupe SEB does not intend to register all or any portion of the proposed offering in the United States of America or to conduct a public offering in the United States of America.

Canada, Australia and Japan

The Bonds have not been offered or sold and may not be offered, sold or purchased in Canada, Australia or Japan. The information contained in this press release does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in Canada, Australia or Japan.

The distribution of this press release in certain countries may constitute a breach of applicable law. Accordingly, persons physically located in those countries, in which this press release is distributed or published, must inform themselves about and comply with such laws or regulations.

2017 Agenda February 21

2016 full-year results May 11

Annual General Meeting April 27

2017 first-quarter sales and key financial data July 26

2017 first-half sales and results

Find us on www.groupeseb.com

The world leader in small domestic equipment, Groupe SEB operates in nearly 150 countries with a unique portfolio of top brands including Tefal, Rowenta, Moulinex, Krups, Lagostina, All-Clad, and Supor, marketed through multi-format retailing. Selling some 250 million products a year, it deploys a long-term strategy focused on innovation, international development, competitiveness and service to clients. Groupe SEB has nearly 26,000 employees worldwide.

SEB SA

SEB SA N RCS 300 349 636 RCS LYON with a share capital of 50,169,049 Intracommunity VAT: FR 12300349636 ISIN: FR0000054033

1 The reference share price will be equal to the volume-weighted average trading price of the Company's shares recorded on Euronext Paris from the opening of the trading session on November 15, 2016, day of the launch of the transaction, until the determination of the final terms and conditions of the Bonds on the same day.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161114006739/en/

Contacts:

Investor/Analyst Relations

Groupe SEB

Financial Communication

and Investor Relations

Isabelle Posth

Campus SEB

112 chemin du Moulin Carron

69130 Ecully

comfin@groupeseb.com

Phone: +33 (0) 4 72 18 16 40

or

Finance Treasury

Groupe SEB

Finance and Treasury Department

Emmanuel Arabian and Fanny Comeau

Campus SEB

112 chemin du Moulin Carron

69130 Ecully

Phone: +33 (0) 4 72 18 15 04
BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - Destatis is slated to release Germany's GDP data for the third quarter in the pre-European session on Tuesday at 2:00 am ET. The economy is forecast to grow 0.3 percent sequentially following a 0.4 percent rise a quarter ago. Ahead of the data, the euro showed mixed trading against its major rivals. While the euro rise against the pound, it held steady against the U.S. dollar, the Swiss franc and the yen. As of 1:55 am ET, the euro was trading at 0.8615 against the pound, 1.0722 against the Swiss franc, 1.0752 against the U.S. dollar and 116.34 against the yen. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Regulatory News:

Continued strong profitability growth in the third quarter of 2016

Third quarter, July-September 2016

Net sales totalled SEK 708 million (689), an increase of 3 per cent compared with the same period in 2015

The third quarter showed continued good growth in the Nordics and Europe segments, while the Other Markets and Resilient Global segments were somewhat weaker. Organic sales growth was 4 per cent, including a currency impact (net) of SEK -9 million

Operating profit before depreciation, amortisation and non-recurring items (adjusted EBITDA) was SEK 81 million (78), corresponding to an operating margin of 11.4 per cent (11.3)

Operating profit before non-recurring items (adjusted EBIT) for the third quarter increased by 7 per cent to SEK 59 million (55), corresponding to 8.3 per cent (8.0)

Consolidated profit for the quarter was SEK 21 million (-15) and was primarily affected by an increase in operating profit and lower financing costs compared with the same period in 2015

President and CEO Christer Persson comments:

"Kahrs Group continued to develop positively in the third quarter, with sales and profitability growth of 3 and 7 percent respectively. Most of our core markets, including Sweden, Norway, the US and several large markets in Europe performed well, and provided good balance for the markets that currently have a less favourable market situation. The Group's product strategy is working well and our assessment is that we are gaining market share in several core markets.

The implementation of our new business plan is ongoing and initiatives relating to digitalization are of high priority. The transformation, in accordance with our digitalization strategy, is progressing as planned and offer significant opportunities to strengthen our relations with customers and end consumers."

About Kahrs Holding AB (publ)

Kahrs Holding AB (publ) is a world-leading flooring manufacturer in hardwood and resilient flooring with a number of strong brands in its product portfolio, including Kahrs, Karelia and Upofloor. The Company's innovations have shaped the industry throughout history and Kahrs Group is dedicated to providing the market with innovative new flooring solutions. Kahrs Group, which delivers products to more than 70 countries, is the market leader in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Russia and holds a strong position in other key markets, such as the UK and Germany. The Group has approximately 1,600 employees and annual sales of EUR 300 million. www.kahrsgroup.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161111005353/en/

Contacts:

Kahrs Group

Christer Persson, President and CEO

tel: +46 70 271 20 14

or

Helen Johansson, Corporate Communication

tel: +46 70 364 60 30


ESPOO (dpa-AFX) - Finnish network equipment maker Nokia Corp. (NOK) set key financial and strategic targets at Capital Markets Day 2016. The company said it will remain focused on flawlessly executing its 1.2 billion euros cost saving program.



President and CEO Rajeev Suri said at the company's Capital Markets Day event in Barcelona that the pace of change at Nokia has accelerated since the last investor event in 2014, with the company now bigger, stronger and more agile, bolstered especially by the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent.



Nokia targets to grow net sales for Nokia's Networks business faster over the long-term than its primary addressable market through continued industry leadership and disciplined expansion and diversification to adjacent markets. Nokia's primary addressable market size is approximately 113 billion euros in 2016, and is expected to have a 5-year compound annual growth rate of approximately 1%. Nokia's adjacent addressable market size is approximately 18 billion euros in 2016, and is expected to have a 5-year compound annual growth rate of approximately 13%.



Nokia expects cash outflows related to taxes to continue at approximately 400 million euros annually until Nokia's deferred tax assets have been fully utilized.



Nokia targets to maintain total cash and other liquid assets at approximately 30% of its annual net sales over time.



Nokia targets to deliver an earnings-based growing dividend. Nokia targets to grow the dividend by distributing approximately 40% to 70% of non-IFRS EPS, taking into account Nokia's cash position and expected cash flow generation.



For 2016, Nokia targets to propose a dividend of 0.17 euros per share, subject to shareholder approval in 2017.



Nokia expects net sales for Nokia's Networks business to decline in line with its primary addressable market in full year 2017.



Nokia expects operating margin for Nokia's Networks business in full year 2017 to be in the range of 8% to 10%.



Nokia expects annualized net sales related to patent and brand licensing to grow to a run rate of approximately 950 million euros by the end of 2016. License agreements which currently contribute approximately 150 million euros to the annualized net sales run rate are set to expire before the end of 2016. If it does not renew these license agreements, nor sign any new licensing agreements, the annualized net sales run rate for patent and brand licensing would be approximately 800 million euros in early 2017, with approximately 30% of the global smartphone market, by value, under license.



Nokia expects total net sales from Digital Health and Digital Media to grow year-on-year in full year 2017, primarily influenced by increased consumer adoption of our Digital Health and Digital Media products.



Nokia expects its free cash flow in 2016, 2017 and 2018 to be affected by cash outflows related to its EUR 1.2 billion cost savings program and network equipment swaps. Consequently, Nokia's free cash flow is expected to be clearly negative in full year 2016, slightly positive in full year 2017 and clearly positive in full year 2018.



Nokia targets approximately 1.2 billion euros of total annual cost savings in full year 2018 compared to the combined non-IFRS operating costs of Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent for full year 2015, excluding Nokia Technologies. Nokia expects about 800 million euros of the cost savings to come from operating expenses and approximately 400 million euros from cost of sales.



Under this cost savings program, restructuring and associated charges are expected to total approximately 1.7 billion euros, of which approximately 640 million euros was recorded as of third-quarter 2016. Nokia expects approximately 700 million euros of the total restructuring and associated charges to be recorded in full year 2016, approximately 800 million euros to be recorded in full year 2017, and approximately EUR 200 million to be recorded in full year 2018. This is an update to the earlier guidance commentary for expected restructuring and associated charges to total approximately 1.2 billion euros.



Related restructuring and associated cash outflows are expected to total approximately 2.15 billion euros, of which approximately 280 euros million was recorded as of third-quarter 2016. Nokia expects approximately EUR 500 million of the total restructuring and associated cash outflows to be recorded in full year 2016, approximately 700 million euros to be recorded in full year 2017, approximately 500 million euros to be recorded in full year 2018, and approximately 450 million euros of cash outflows in full year 2019 and beyond. This is an update to the earlier guidance commentary for expected restructuring and associated cash outflows to total approximately 1.65 billion euros.



The updated guidance commentary for restructuring and associated charges and cash outflows is primarily related to plans to mitigate the more challenging than expected market environment with additional transformation initiatives.



Nokia expects to record approximately 900 million euros of network equipment swaps in total. The charges and related cash outflows are expected to be recorded as follows: approximately EUR 300 million in full year 2016, approximately 300 million euros in full year 2017, and approximately 300 million euros in full year 2018.



Nokia expects cash outflows related to taxes to be approximately 400 million euros in full year 2017 and 2018. The cash tax amount may vary depending on profit levels in different jurisdictions and the amount of license income potentially subject to withholding tax.



Nokia expects capital expenditures to be approximately 500 million euros in full year 2017, primarily attributable to capital expenditures by Nokia's Networks business.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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ZURICH, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Global survey of 950,000 adults across 72 countries and territories links English proficiency with income, innovation, and quality of life

Adults in the Netherlands are the best non-native English speakers in the world, followed by those in Denmark and Sweden, according to the EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI) released today by EF Education First. Laos, Libya, and Iraq occupy the bottom of the rankings.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150428/740528 )



(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/438872 )



"In a volatile global economy, English proficiency is one of the few skills with proven ability to generate opportunities and strengthen employability," said Minh N. Tran, EF Director of Research. "It takes a great deal of effort and investment to steer a country or company towards a future with an English-speaking workforce. The EF EPI addresses these challenges and prompts global discussions about the best practices of language education."

Highlights of the sixth edition of the EF EPI include:

For the first time, an Asian country, Singapore , is in the highest proficiency band. Malaysia and the Philippines are also in the top 15 countries worldwide.

, is in the highest proficiency band. and are also in the top 15 countries worldwide. English proficiency in Europe remains the strongest in the world by a wide margin, while countries in the Middle East and North Africa continue to occupy the lowest ranks.

remains the strongest in the world by a wide margin, while countries in the and continue to occupy the lowest ranks. Of all the regions surveyed, Latin America is the only region that experienced a decline in English proficiency in the past year.

is the only region that experienced a decline in English proficiency in the past year. Countries making the most progress in English proficiency include France , Qatar , and Singapore ; countries with the steepest declines include Iraq , Japan , and Peru .

, , and ; countries with the steepest declines include , , and . Young adults aged 18-25 have the strongest English proficiency worldwide, although some countries have markedly different national trends.

Women have stronger English skills than men in almost all countries and age groups.

English proficiency remains a key indicator of economic competitiveness at both the individual and national levels. Higher English proficiency correlates with higher incomes, better quality of life, greater connectivity, and more dynamic business environments.

A companion to the EF EPI, the EF EPI for Companies (EF EPI-c), was also released today. The EF EPI-c is an evaluation of global workforce English skills, surveying 510,000 professionals from 40 countries and 16 industries. The report finds that executives lag behind their employees in English skills, and that countries' workforce English scores correlate positively with indicators of global innovation, government transparency, and ease of doing business.

Millions of participants took part in this year's research by completing the EF Standard English Test (EFSET), the world's first free standardized English test. The EFSETwaslaunched in order to serve the world's two billion English language learners, who previously lacked a free, high-quality self-assessment tool. The EFSET also providesschools, companies, and governments with convenient, large-scale testing solutions.

The full reports and country fact sheets are available for download at http://www.ef.com/epi.

About EF Education First:

EF Education First (http://www.ef.com) is an international education company focusing on language, academics, education travel, and cultural experience. Established in 1965 with the mission of opening the world through education, EF has more than 500 schools and offices in over 50 countries.

EF English Proficiency Index Sixth Edition

Rank Country EF EPI Proficiency Band 1 Netherlands Very High 2 Denmark Very High 3 Sweden Very High 4 Norway Very High 5 Finland Very High 6 Singapore Very High 7 Luxembourg Very High 8 Austria High 9 Germany High 10 Poland High 11 Belgium High 12 Malaysia High 13 Philippines High 14 Switzerland High 15 Portugal High 16 Czech Republic High 17 Serbia High 18 Hungary High 19 Argentina High 20 Romania High 21 Slovakia Moderate 22 India Moderate 23 Dominican Republic Moderate 24 Bulgaria Moderate 25 Spain Moderate 26 Bosnia and Herzegovina Moderate 27 South Korea Moderate 28 Italy Moderate 29 France Moderate 30 Hong Kong Moderate 31 Vietnam Moderate 32 Indonesia Moderate 33 Taiwan Moderate 34 Russia Low 35 Japan Low 36 Uruguay Low 37 Macau Low 38 Costa Rica Low 39 China Low 40 Brazil Low 41 Ukraine Low 42 Chile Low 43 Mexico Low 44 Morocco Low 45 Peru Low 46 United Arab Emirates Low 47 Ecuador Low 48 Pakistan Low 49 Colombia Very Low 50 Panama Very Low 51 Turkey Very Low 52 Tunisia Very Low 53 Guatemala Very Low 54 Kazakhstan Very Low 55 Egypt Very Low 56 Thailand Very Low 57 Azerbaijan Very Low 58 Sri Lanka Very Low 59 Qatar Very Low 60 Venezuela Very Low 61 Iran Very Low 62 Jordan Very Low 63 El Salvador Very Low 64 Oman Very Low 65 Kuwait Very Low 66 Mongolia Very Low 67 Algeria Very Low 68 Saudi Arabia Very Low 69 Cambodia Very Low 70 Laos Very Low 71 Libya Very Low 72 Iraq Very Low
LONDON, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Waterman Group is proud to announce its appointment to the Ministry of Defence's Army Basing Programme delivered by Aspire Defence which is set to vastly improve the working/living conditions and quality of life for thousands of Army soldiers.

The work, known as the Army Basing Programme (ABP), is an extension of Project Allenby/Connaught (PAC) and covers garrisons across Salisbury Plain and at Aldershot.



On 1st November, a construction and facilities management amendment worth over 1.1 billion was announced to the existing 35-year long PAC contract, the largest Private Finance Initiative (PFI) for defence estates let by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) to Aspire Defence Limited in 2006.

Over the next four years under the ABP contract variation, new and enhanced garrison facilities will be completed at Bulford, Tidworth, Perham Down, Larkhill and Aldershot by Aspire Defence Capital Works (ADCW). By 2020, 130 new buildings and over 2,600 additional bed spaces for single soldiers will be created.

Waterman will be retained as engineering designer for over 50% of the development programme. The value of the whole construction programme is anticipated to be circa 680 million.

Nick Taylor, CEO of Waterman Group, states; "We are honoured to be involved in this prestigious scheme which will vastly improve the lives of British soldiers and civilians. We look forward to meeting the challenging requirements of the ABP and continuing to work with this experienced team at Aspire Defence, delivering each building on time and to the high level of quality expected of us."

About Waterman Group

Waterman Group is a multidisciplinary consultancy providing sustainable solutions to meet the planning, engineering design and project delivery needs of the property, infrastructure, environment and energy markets. Founded in 1952 and listed on the London Stock Exchange since 1988, Waterman has grown into a leading engineering and environmental consultancy with offices throughout the UK, Europe and Australia. Waterman works with government agencies, local authorities, government-regulated industries and private sector clients to provide innovative, sustainable and economic solutions across a wide spectrum of business activities.The firm has extensive experience in property and buildings, environmental consultancy, power and energy, roads, highways and rail infrastructure, urban and regional planning. Award winning teams provide professional services throughout the complete life cycle of the asset starting from initial surveys and concept planning, through to design, delivery, project management, supervision and on-going maintenance. See more information onhttp://www.watermangroup.com
NEW YORK, LONDON and HONG KONG, 2016-11-15 09:00 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hazeltree, the leading provider of integrated buy-side treasury management solutions, today announced that it has expanded its management team by hiring client service veteran, Ayman Sakr, to lead its worldwide client service organization. Mr. Sakr brings to Hazeltree more than 20 years of experience in professional services, alternative investment industry consultancy, product implementation, client support, and product development. As a client service executive, he oversaw solution implementation and support for a range of alternative investment clients, including hedge fund managers, asset managers, fund administrators, and prime brokers.



"Our industry is focused on effectively managing their counterparties with efficient treasury solutions to ensure win-win relationships with each of them, while minimizing risk and exposure," said Sameer Shalaby, President and Chief Executive Officer of Hazeltree. "Ayman is the exceptional leader who will ensure that we deliver service and satisfaction levels that surpass client expectations, and sustain client service excellence as we scale our organization and client base globally."



Mr. Sakr will be primarily responsible for managing professional services and client implementation, support, and training, with a top priority of ensuring excellent client experience throughout their lifecycle to maximize the value and benefit of Hazeltree's solutions. He joins Sal Ventura, Hazeltree's recently named Head of Client Relationship Management, as members of the company's expanded management team who are directly responsible for ensuring client satisfaction and value realization.



Ayman Sakr most recently was global head of client service and product management of investment management solutions provider, Paladyne Systems, which he co-founded in 2005, and was integral to its global growth until it was eventually acquired by Broadridge Financial Solutions in 2011. As head of client service, Sakr was responsible for all aspects of client implementation and support. He played a key role in building Paladyne's client base in hedge funds, fund administrators, and prime brokers. Under his leadership, Paladyne's global client delivery team grew to over 150 people in the USA, Europe and Asia Pacific, and was widely recognized in the industry as a leader in client responsiveness and support quality.



"My goal is to build a world-class client service organization, and I joined Hazeltree because of their clear commitment to achieving nothing less," said Ayman Sakr, Head of Worldwide Client Service for Hazeltree. "I personally want to ensure that every one of our clients is extremely delighted with the value of our products and the professionalism and effectiveness of our team in helping them achieve strategic advantage through proactive treasury management."



Early in his career, Mr. Sakr led various client service and technology roles at Cogency Software and TenFold Corporation. He has a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree from Cairo University, Egypt.



About Hazeltree Hazeltree is the leading Treasury Management solution provider, serving hedge funds, asset managers, fund administrators, insurance companies and pension funds with powerful, proactive performance enhancement and risk mitigation capabilities that generate operational alpha, reduce a range of risks and streamline operations. Hazeltree's integrated treasury management solution includes comprehensive cash management, securities financing, collateral management, counterparty management and margin management capabilities. Hazeltree is headquartered in New York with offices in London and Hong Kong. For more information, please visit www.hazeltree.com.



Contact: Sameer Shalaby, President & CEO sshalaby@hazeltree.com 646.790.7250

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Breakthrough study from University of Texas researchers and HomeAway reveals science behind creating longer-lasting holiday memories

LONDON, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Good news for selfie addicts, as a new study by leading holiday rentals site, HomeAway, reveals snapping selfies and pics whilst on holiday means holidaymakers are 40% more likely to remember their holidays than those who shun the camera.

Experience the interactive Multimedia News Release here: http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7978351-homeaway-vacation-memories-university-of-texas-study

For those who choose to share photos straight away on their social media channels, Instagram has been revealed as the best channel to use if people want to have clear memories of how they felt during their holidays. Travellers using Instagram were almost a quarter (24%) more likely than Facebook users to remember their holidays with clarity.

The global study interviewed hundreds of holidaymakers several times in the run up to, during and after their holidays, and whilst it found selfies are good memory aides, people who choose to take their work away with them and power up the laptop whilst on holiday are in danger of forgetting some of their precious holiday memories. Those who worked just one hour whilst on holiday were 43% more likely to have trouble remembering their trips than those who worked less or not at all.

"Let's face it-we can't holiday every day, which is why we need great memories to keep us connected to those who matter most," said John Kim, president of HomeAway. "Every holiday is an opportunity to create great memories with the people you love. With this research, we wanted to answer the question, 'What can we do to help our travellers make their holidays even more memorable?"



To better understand how the behaviour of participants impacted their holiday memories, HomeAway teamed up with a team of researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, led by renowned psychologist and author Art Markman.

"The Science of Memories study is the first extensive examination of what makes holidays memorable," said Art Markman, professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and lead researcher on the study. "Before this study, most of the psychological research on holidays focused on the mood and health benefits of going on a trip. The opportunity to investigate the science of holiday memories with HomeAway has yielded valuable insights about how such memories are created, from the scientific impact of selfies to surprising news about who it's best to holiday with."

People who travelled with a mix of family and friends remembered their vacations at least 20% betterthan those who travelled with just family, friends, in a couple, or alone. Better still, if someone is whisked away for a celebration such as a birthday, or if people are attending a friend's wedding or hen/stag do, the research revealed they were 69% better at recalling the memories made on that holiday - and significantly better at recalling how they felt during important moments of their trip.

There's something to be said for getting excited about going away, as holidaymakers who reported feeling happy and excited before their holidays were 73% more likely to have excellent recall of their holiday memories versus those who felt other emotions, including stress, frustration, or even calmness.

"Some people love planning holidays - other people dread them," said Markman. "This research suggests that there is a significant cognitive advantage for people who let themselves get excited prior to their trips: they remember their holidays better than those who don't."

The HomeAway Science of Memories study surveyed hundreds of summer travellers from six countries: United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy. Travellers were surveyed before, during, and after their trips with questions designed to measure memory recall.

More info about the study:

A subset of travellers studied also downloaded an app which tracked the amount of time spent on their devices. In addition to being the first survey of its kind to investigate the factors that create lasting holiday memories, the HomeAway Science of Memories study is one of the first surveys to investigate the impact of technology usage on holiday memory formation. This research study was designed and conducted by HomeAway and researchers at the University of Texas at Austin. Hanover Research aided in the fielding and analysis of the survey. To highlight the survey findings, HomeAway today launched The Vacation Equation-an online resource intended to help travellers engineer their way to a more memorable holiday. It contains helpful tips and interactive insights from the HomeAway Science of Memories Study. To access additional findings from this landmark study, please visit www.homeaway.co.uk/lp/holiday-equation .

About Art Markman

Art Markman, Ph.D., is a renowned expert in human cognition and behaviour and a professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. Markman has published more than 150 scholarly works on topics in higher-level thinking, including the effects of motivation on learning and performance, categorisation, decision-making, consumer behaviour, and creativity.He spent nine years as executive editor of the journal Cognitive Science and currently serves as a member of the editorial board of Cognitive Psychology.

About HomeAway

HomeAway, based in Austin, Texas, is the world leader in holiday rentals with sites representing more than one million online bookable holiday rental homes in 190 countries, and is a part of the Expedia, Inc. family of brands. For more information about HomeAway, please visit http://www.homeaway.com.



 2016 HomeAway.All rights reserved.HomeAway and the HomeAway logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of HomeAway.

For more information please contact:

Yvonne Bonanati

ybonanati@homeaway.co.uk

0044-7525-114-735
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA and HASSELT, BELGIUM -- (Marketwired) -- 01/16/17 -- SpeeDx Pty. Ltd., a developer of innovative molecular diagnostic solutions, and UgenTec NV, a bioinformatics company that develops artificially intelligent PCR interpretation software, today announced the launch of a smart interpretation module for the ResistancePlus MG test for M. genitalium, a rapidly growing sexually transmitted infection (STI) that has developed significant resistance to first-line antibiotic treatment.

SpeeDx's diagnostic test detects both M. genitalium and mutations in the 23S rRNA gene of the bacteria that have been shown to confer resistance to azithromycin, a commonly prescribed macrolide-based antibiotic. UgenTec's solution, called FastFinder, ensures customers can automatically interpret the results and provides automation for incorporation to many laboratory information systems.

"Combining our high performance and reliable assays with UgenTec's software is unique in today's diagnostic landscape," says Colin Denver, CEO of SpeeDx. "We can now provide a validated solution for multiple qPCR instruments to help speed the delivery of results during routine diagnostic use." In the near future, SpeeDx intends to expand the interpretation module to their pipeline of PlexPCR HSV-1&2, VZV, Syphilis and PlexPCR RespiVirus products.

"UgenTec is looking forward to providing the customers of SpeeDx with an artificially intelligent assistant. It will provide them with powerful machine learning algorithms," said Wouter Uten, CEO of UgenTec. "This, combined with automated decision trees, ensures that end-users can maximize measurement certainty and decrease time needed to obtain results."

About SpeeDx

SpeeDx is a privately owned company founded in 2009. Based in Sydney with a subsidiary office in London, SpeeDx specialises in innovative multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) solutions for clinical diagnostics. With CE-IVD multiplex qPCR kits for detection of infectious disease pathogens and antimicrobial resistance markers, SpeeDx has a portfolio of market leading detection and priming technologies to enable new healthcare paradigms based on improved delivery and reduced costs. SpeeDx has a proven track record of scientific discovery and strives to provide cutting edge clinically relevant tools for the clinical diagnostic market. For more information on SpeeDx please see: http://www.speedx.com.au/

About UgenTec

Based in Hasselt, Belgium, UgenTec is the global market leader in independent interpretation software for RT-PCR. The company aims to provide the molecular diagnostic market with an artificially intelligent platform that supports scientists in the interpretation of PCR data. The company also uses its platform to support diagnostic companies in delivering more value to their customer by means of an end-to-end, automated workflow solution.

Visit http://www.ugentec.com/ for more information

Contacts



USA:

Rick Roose

CoActive Communications

+1 415 202 4445

rick@coactivepr.com



Australia:

Andrew Geddes

SeedMedia Pty Ltd.

+61 (408) 677 734

andrew@seedmedia.com.au




Eutelsat's new SmartBeam solution, powered by Broadpeak nanoCDN technology, unlocks opportunity for broadcasters to extend access to OTT services

Regulatory News:

Broadpeak, a leading provider of content delivery network (CDN) technologies, and Eutelsat Communications (Paris:ETL) are combining their complementary skills to offer content providers a satellite-based solution for multiscreen video delivery to connected devices. Their new offer is a gamechanger for extending access to video content on mobile devices beyond terrestrial networks and has a competitive edge for mass market delivery of OTT services.

SmartBeam, Eutelsat's new service is designed to enable broadcasters and pay-TV operators to leverage the ubiquitous coverage of satellites to broadcast video content in IP format, creating a network that is completely dedicated to IP-native terminals, including tablets and smartphones. SmartBeam works with any WiFi-enabled device, supporting instant channel change, DRM security, and low latency.

Broadpeak's industry-leading nanoCDN product is the underlying streaming technology for SmartBeam. It allows operators and content providers to contain their bandwidth requirements to only a few megabits per second in order to multicast high-quality OTT services to millions of simultaneous devices. By effectively managing video consumption peaks that are not supported by terrestrial network infrastructure, nanoCDN makes multiscreen satellite delivery scalable and affordable for content providers, including key live sporting events that create surges in consumption.

"SmartBeam redefines how satellite can extend access to live and on-demand content on mobile devices, enabling an exceptional quality of experience for OTT customers located beyond range of terrestrial networks," said Jacques Dutronc, Chief Development and Innovation Officer at Eutelsat. "In combining our skills with Broadpeak we are ready to support TV broadcasters as they evolve into a multi-platform environment, starting with Tricolor TV, Russia's leading pay-TV operator, that has selected SmartBeam for the first satellite network in Russia to deliver video content to mobile devices."

"By teaming up, Eutelsat and Broadpeak have pioneered the delivery of adaptive streaming over satellite," said Jacques Le Mancq, CEO at Broadpeak. "Combining our nanoCDN technology with SmartBeam gives content providers and operators an opportunity to make a big splash in the OTT multiscreen environment, offering viewers a high quality of experience on connected devices, without making a significant investment in infrastructure.

Visit Eutelsat during AfricaCom (15-17 November) on Eutelsat's booth: stand D6.

About Broadpeak (www.broadpeak.tv

Broadpeak designs and manufactures video delivery components for content providers and network service providers deploying IPTV, cable, OTT, and mobile services. Its portfolio of solutions and technologies powers the delivery of movies, television programming, and other video content over managed networks and the Internet for viewing on any type of device. The company's systems and services help operators increase market share and improve subscriber loyalty with superior quality of experience.

Broadpeak supports all of its customers worldwide, from simple installations to large delivery systems reaching capacities of several million of simultaneous streams. Broadpeak systems leverage the long legacy of Technicolor's excellence in broadcast and broadband content delivery from where the founders and technology originated. The company is headquartered in Rennes, France.

About Eutelsat Communications

Established in 1977, Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL, ISIN code: FR0010221234) is one of the world's leading and most experienced operators of communications satellites. The company provides capacity on 38 satellites to clients that include broadcasters and broadcasting associations, pay-TV operators, video, data and Internet service providers, enterprises and government agencies. Eutelsat's satellites provide ubiquitous coverage of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Americas, enabling video, data, broadband and government communications to be established irrespective of a user's location. Headquartered in Paris, with offices and teleports around the globe, Eutelsat represents a workforce of 1,000 men and women from 37 countries who are experts in their fields and work with clients to deliver the highest quality of service.

For more about Eutelsat please visit www.eutelsat.com

www.eutelsat.fr - Follow us on Twitter @Eutelsat_SA and Facebook Eutelsat.SA

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115005750/en/

Contacts:

Agency Contact:

Anna Bandurska, Tel: +31 646 852 080

202 Communications

Email: anna@202comms.com

or

Broadpeak Contact:

Elodie Levrel, Tel: +33 (0) 7 61 97 19 48

Communication Manager

Email: elodie.levrel@broadpeak.tv

or

Eutelsat Communications

Press

Vanessa O'Connor, Tel: 33 1 53 98 37 91

voconnor@eutelsat.com

Marie-Sophie Ecuer, Tel: 33 1 53 98 37 91

mecuer@eutelsat.com

or

Investors and analysts

Joanna Darlington, Tel.: +33 1 53 98 35 30

jdarlington@eutelsat.com

Cedric Pugni, Tel.: +33 1 53 98 35 30

cpugni@eutelsat.com


BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Shares of Merck KgaA (MKGAY.PK) were gaining around 2 percent in the early morning trading in Germany after the drug major on Tuesday raised its fiscal 2016 earnings view and maintained sales forecast, after reporting strong third-quarter results. Profit and sales climbed from last year, mainly reflecting the Sigma-Aldrich acquisition.



For the year, the company now expects EBITDA pre exceptionals to range between 4.450 billion euros and 4.600 billion euros, compared to the prior outlook of 4.250 billion euros to 4.400 billion euros. The revision reflects primarily the Healthcare business sector, which recorded the previously mentioned release of around 40 million euros in provisions in the third quarter for research projects terminated in previous years.



For 2016, Merck continues to expect net sales of between 14.9 billion euros and 15.1 billion euros. The company continues to expect a moderate organic increase in Group sales.



Owing to the acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich, Merck continues to expect a portfolio-related net sales increase in the low double-digit percentage range in 2016.



In its third quarter, Merck's net income climbed 25.5 percent to 457 million euros from the prior year's 364 million euros. Quarterly earnings per share pre-exceptionals were 1.70 euros, compared to 1.32 euros last year.



Group earnings before interest and tax or EBIT grew 19.9 percent year-over-year to 676 million euros. EBITDA pre exceptionals grew sharply by 24.3 percent to 1.2 billion euros. This was mainly attributable to the Sigma-Aldrich acquisition and the good operating performance in Life Science.



At 31.5 percent, the EBITDA margin pre exceptionals was higher than in the year-earlier quarter's 30.3 percent.



Group sales climbed 19.3 percent to 3.7 billion euros from last year's 3.1 billion euros. Acquisition-related sales growth of 19 percent mainly reflects the Sigma-Aldrich transaction, which closed in November 2015. Meanwhile, negative exchange rate effects caused sales to decline slightly by 0.6 percent. On an organic basis, group sales edged up 0.9 percent.



From a geographic perspective, North America and Latin America fueled organic growth.



Life Science sales climbed 83.1 percent to 1.4 billion euros, thanks to demand from the biotech industry for Merck products, and the acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich.



Meanwhile, Healthcare net sales decreased 1.1 percent to 1.7 billion euros, reflecting negative currency impact of 1.4 percent and the negative portfolio effect of 1 percent was due to the return of the rights to Kuvan to BioMarin Pharmaceutical. Organic sales growth was 1.3 percent.



The multiple sclerosis drug Rebif saw an organic sales decline of 5.5 percent and the oncology drug Erbitux organic sales declined 0.6 percent. Merck achieved very strong organic sales growth of 10.2 percent with the fertility treatment Gonal-f.



In Germany, Merck shares were trading at 96.39 euros, up 1.53 percent.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 -- American Lithium Corp. (TSX VENTURE: LI) (OTCQB: LIACF) (FRANKFURT: 5LA) (WKN: A2AHEL) ("American Lithium" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce that it will acquire 41,860 acres of prospective lithium brine and clay exploration land, located in Clayton Valley, Nevada.

Clayton Valley Land Acquisition

This new acreage totals over 41,860 acres in three separate property packages, all of which is deemed prospective for lithium brines and/or lithium clay potential. This new acreage compliments the Company's current land holding of 1,078 net acres in Clayton Valley, and the Company's highly prospective 18,552 acre land holdings in Fish Lake Nevada.

Mike Kobler, American Lithium's Chief Operating Officer, commented: "We are delighted with this singular largest acquisition of lithium claims in the Clayton Valley in recent years. Limited by geographical factors, with this acquisition, all of the prospective land within this closed sedimentary basin has been fully staked and registered by several major landholders. We look forward to taking advantage of the exponentially growing lithium market by offering our shareholders access to the largest, unencumbered and highly prospective exploratory project in the heart of North America's only established lithium producing basin."

In consideration for the Clayton Valley claim blocks, the Company will issue 11,500,000 common shares on closing (the "Consideration Shares"). Upon issuance, the Consideration Shares will be subject to escrow and will be released quarterly in equal tranches commencing on February 1st, 2017 and extending through to February 1st, 2018. Transfer or resale of the Consideration Shares will be prohibited during such time as they are subject to escrow.

The vendors of the claim blocks will also be eligible to receive a further 4,000,000 bonus shares, contingent on the completion of certain milestones in the development of the Company and the claim blocks. These milestones include the Company having completed further debt or equity financings for proceeds of not less than $10,000,000, the Company reaching a market capitalization of $150,000,000, the Company having received a resource estimate demonstrating 500,000 tonnes of lithium within the claim blocks, and the Company having completed a preliminary economic assessment on the properties comprising the claim blocks.

Completion of the acquisition remains subject to a number of conditions, including the negotiation of definitive documentation, the completion of a $3,000,000 financing, the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange and such other closing conditions as are customary in transactions of this nature. There can be no assurance that such conditions will be satisfied and that the transaction will be completed as disclosed.

Michael Collins, P.Geo. is the Company's designated Qualified Person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101, and has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this news release.

ABOUT American Lithium Corp.

American Lithium Corp. is actively engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of lithium deposits within mining-friendly jurisdictions throughout the Americas. American Lithium holds options to acquire Nevada lithium brine claims totaling 22,332 acres (9,038 ha), including 18,552 contiguous acres (7,508 ha) in Fish Lake Valley, Esmeralda County; 2,240 acre (907 ha) San Emidio Project in Washoe County; and the 1,540 acre (623 ha) Clayton-Valley-1 Project. The Company's Fish Lake Valley lithium brine properties are located approximately 38 kilometers from Albemarle's Silver Peak, the largest lithium operation in the U.S. American Lithium is listed on the TSXV under the trading symbol "Li". For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.americanlithiumcorp.com or call 1-604-689-7422.

On behalf of the Board,

American Lithium Corp.

Michael Kobler, Executive Director, COO

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-looking statements

Statements in this release that are forward-looking information are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning the specific factors disclosed here. Information provided in this document is necessarily summarized and may not contain all available material information. All such forward-looking information and statements are based on certain assumptions and analyses made by American Lithium management in light of their experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors management believes are appropriate in the circumstances. These statements, however, are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information or statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements include those described under the heading "Risks Factors" in American Lithium's most recently filed MD&A. The Company does not intend, and expressly disclaims any obligation to, update or revise the forward-looking information contained in this news release, except as required by law. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information or statements.

Contacts:

American Lithium Corp.

1-604-689-7422

www.americanlithiumcorp.com




The Merger Creates the Largest High Quality Shopping Center REIT in the US with an Enterprise Value of approx. US$ 15.6 BillionThe transaction will generate a net gain of approx. NIS 1 billion for Gazit Globe-- Gazit-Globe will be the largest shareholder in the merged company -- The transaction reflects a premium of approximately 13.7% on EQY sharesTEL-AVIV, Israel, Nov. 15, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gazit-Globe (NYSE:GZT) (TSX:GZT) (TASE:GZT), one of the leading global real estate companies focused on the ownership, management, acquisition, development and redevelopment of supermarket-anchored shopping centers in major urban markets, announced today that its US subsidiary Equity One (NYSE:EQY) has entered into a merger agreement with Regency Centers Corporation (NYSE:REG). The merger will create the largest high quality shopping center REIT in the US with a combined equity market cap of approx. US$ 11.7 billion and enterprise value of approx. US$ 15.6 billion.Gazit-Globe will be the largest shareholder in the merged company and will hold approximately 13.2% of the shares. Chaim Katzman, Chairman of Gazit, who has until now served as Chairman of Equity One, will serve as Vice Chairman of the merged company. Two independent directors from Equity One board will also be added to the board of Regency. The share exchange transaction reflects a US$ 4.6 billion equity value for EQY and represents an approximately 13.7% premium (as of November 14, 2016). The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter or early in the second quarter of 2017, and is anticipated to generate a net gain of approx. NIS 1 billion for Gazit Globe. It is also subject to certain closing conditions, including shareholder approval of both companies.This transaction will create a better, stronger and more diversified company for all shareholders. The merged entity will create additional value through the following key factors:-- The combined company with a portfolio of complimentary assets will have an enhanced presence in both the real estate and capital markets. -- The merged company will have 5.4 million square meters of leased GLA (1) -- Operational efficiencies and synergies in assets and property management, as well as corporate G&A is expected to exceed NIS 100 million annually; -- The merger will strengthen the Company's position vis-a-vis its tenants, as well as its leasing and asset management activities.The transaction will result in the following for Gazit Globe's Shareholders:-- Generates a significant premium above market value of Equity One's shares for all shareholders. -- A net gain of NIS 1 billion to Gazit Globe, NIS 5 per share. -- As a result of the merger transaction the annual dividend from the merged entity will immediately increase by approx. 2.3% for all EQY shareholders. -- Reduces leverage on a stand-alone basis. -- Gazit Globe corporate level cost and accounting expense savings of approximately NIS 6 million NIS annually. -- Improved liquidity of its shares, with an expected combined daily trading liquidity in excess of US $80 million. -- Greater geographic and tenant diversification leading to a significant reduction in the risk profile of the combined company. -- Gazit-Globe will be the largest shareholder in the merged company. -- A merger transaction which does not carry any immediate tax consequences.Chaim Katzman, Chairman of Gazit-Globe and Equity One: "I am very pleased with this merger transaction announced today. This is a major deal that will create the highest quality and largest shopping center company in the US. EQY shares acquired by REG at a premium of 13.7% to the market price is a reflection of the quality of EQY's assets and the faith of REG in the company's full potential. EQY has grown for two and a half decades from a single asset worth US$ 4.5 million to now being merged with REG in a transaction that results in an implied market capitalization of US$ 4.6 billion. The merged company will be the largest of its kind in North America with assets of more than US$ 15 billion and Gazit-Globe will be its largest shareholder. This transaction creates value for EQY's shareholders including Gazit Globe and I am confident that we will continue to maximize value for our shareholders as well as for all shareholders of our subsidiaries in the future."Rachel Lavine, CEO of Gazit-Globe: "This transaction results in a number of compelling benefits for Gazit Globe, including a net gain of NIS 1 billion, NIS 5 per share, as well as annual savings totaling approximately NIS 6 million in Gazit Globe corporate expenses. I am convinced that this transaction will be followed by additional measures taken to further realize our long term objective of creating value for our shareholders."CONFERENCE CALL INFORMATIONGazit-Globe will host a conference call in English on Tuesday, November 15, 2016 at 4:00 pm Israel Time / 3:00 pm Central European Time / 9:00 am Eastern Time.Shareholders, analysts and other interested parties can access the conference call by dialing: United States 1888 281 1167, Canada 1866 485 2399, United Kingdom 0800 917 5108, International / Israel +972 3 9180608FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTSThis release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. In the United States, these statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are outside our control, that could cause our future results, performance or achievements to differ significantly from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include risks detailed in our public filings with the SEC and the Canadian Securities Administrators. Except as required by applicable law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking or other statements herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.About Gazit-GlobeGazit-Globe is one of the largest owners, developers and operators of predominantly supermarket-anchored shopping centers in major urban markets around the world. Gazit-Globe is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:GZT), the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:GZT) and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE:GZT) and is included in the TA-25 and Real-Estate 15 indices in Israel. As of June 30, 2016 Gazit-Globe owns and operates 429 properties in more than 20 countries, with a gross leasable area of approximately 6.5 million square meters and a total value of approximately US$ 21.5 billion.For more information: www.gazit-globe.comAbout Regency Centers CorporationWith more than 50 years of experience, Regency is the preeminent national owner, operator and developer of high-quality, grocery anchored neighborhood and community shopping centers. The Company's portfolio of 307 retail properties encompasses over 42.1 million square feet located in top areas throughout the United States, including co-investment partnerships. Regency has developed 223 shopping centers since 2000, representing an investment at completion of more than $3 billion.For more information: www.regencycenters.comAbout Equity OneAs of September 30, 2016, the company's portfolio comprised 122 properties, including 98 retail properties and five non-retail properties totaling approximately 12.3 million square feet of gross leasable area, or GLA, 13 development or redevelopment properties with approximately 2.8 million square feet of GLA, and six land parcels. As of September 30, 2016, the company's retail occupancy excluding developments and redevelopments was 95.4% and included national, regional and local tenants. Additionally, the company had joint venture interests in six retail properties and two office buildings totaling approximately 1.4 million square feet of GLA.For more information: www.equityone.com.FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATIONInvestors Contact: IR@gazitgroup.com, Media Contact: Press@gazitgroup.com(1) Including 100% of jointly owned properties
BARCELONA, SPAIN -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 --Kaseya Connect Europe -- Kaseya, the leading provider of complete IT management solutions for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs), today announced the immediate availability of the latest release of Kaseya AuthAnvil on-demand. Delivering a new level of security all within a single identity and access management (IAM) solution, the technology now provides easy single sign on (SSO), multifactor authentication (MFA) and automated user provisioning for Microsoft Office 365.

Microsoft Office 365 commercial subscriptions have ballooned in 2016, up 40 percent from the previous year to 85 million subscribers. As companies around the world continue to embrace the shift to the cloud, millions of Microsoft Office 365 corporate users now have access to Kaseya AuthAnvil's patented password management, MFA and SSO capabilities to further secure both employee and customer environments in the cloud.

SSO support for Office 365 adds one of the most popular business applications to Kaseya's growing library of thousands of applications supported by AuthAnvil. The technology provides end users with the simplicity and time savings of securely signing in once to access all applications without having to remember multiple passwords, accounts and login information. With its MFA capabilities, Kaseya AuthAnvil provides an added, easy-to-use layer of security to protect businesses from increasingly common password breaches at popular services and sites, such as LinkedIn, Dropbox, Yahoo and others. Kaseya's MFA supports common end-user devices, such as Apple iOS, Android phones and tablets, Windows 10 or the new U2F protocol, and meets the latest requirements of NIST 800-60 for mobile MFA, HIPAA, FFIEC and PCI standards.

Kaseya AuthAnvil goes beyond security, compliance and usability by automatically provisioning Office 365 user accounts as part of the authentication process. By directly tying into a company's existing Active Directory or other user directory, AuthAnvil can automate both Office 365 user provisioning and privileges assignment. As a result, IT administrators no longer have the burden of having to create user accounts and assign common services and privileges -- such as SharePoint, OneDrive and mail.

Additionally, Kaseya introduces an industry-first with its risk-based network and application authentication process engine. This technology makes it simple for administrators to create fine-grained compliance controls for users, networks and applications. Using a simple, visual, policy interface, administrators can quickly and easily create authentication rules using a risk-based approach. Access can be controlled not only based on any user attribute, but also based on geo-location, time, type of network or individual application usage.

To learn more about the new Kaseya AuthAnvil release, please visit: www.authanvil.com.

Supporting Quotes

"Microsoft Office 365 is at the heart of many of our customers' businesses, as well as our own. So security is paramount for this application. AuthAnvil's latest support for O365 is a game changer. The integration of single sign on, multifactor authentication and automatic user provisioning means our customers can trust that our own environment is as secure as possible, and that we have the capability and know how to safeguard theirs," said Bill Burke, CIO, Corporate IT Solutions. "Plain and simple - AuthAnvil just works."

"It's not easy to strike a balance between a seamless user experience and top notch security, but that is exactly what Kaseya AuthAnvil accomplishes," said Jason Shirdon, vice president of operations, Ease Technologies. "With AuthAnvil, we're able to comprehensively manage our IAM needs both efficiently and consistently. As an MSP, our clients rely on us to be security conscious, which is why we use AuthAnvil."

"The growth of the cloud is in a historic phase right now, and Microsoft Office 365 is one of the leading drivers of this advancement. That said, security remains a leading concern for all organisations as corporate data increasingly resides outside IT firewalls. The latest release of Kaseya AuthAnvil locks down two key threat vectors to hybrid cloud environments: endpoint security and network access," said Mike Puglia, chief product officer for Kaseya. "With Kaseya AuthAnvil, our multiple layers of security checks and balances ensure that access is limited to authorised users only, giving IT leaders peace of mind in the security of their corporate information."

About Kaseya

Kaseya is the leading provider of complete IT Management solutions for Managed Service Providers and small to midsized businesses. Kaseya allows organisations to efficiently manage and secure IT in order to drive IT service and business success. Offered as both an industry-leading cloud solution and on-premise software, Kaseya solutions empower businesses to command all of IT centrally, manage remote and distributed environments with ease, and automate across IT management functions. Kaseya solutions currently manage over 10 million endpoints worldwide and are in use by customers in a wide variety of industries, including retail, manufacturing, healthcare, education, government, media, technology, finance and more. Kaseya, headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, is privately held with a presence in over 20 countries. To learn more, please visit www.kaseya.com.

Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3080265



Media Contact

Liam Sherry

The Whiteoaks Consultancy

Phone +44 1252 727 313

Email: liams@whiteoaks.co.uk




VIENNA (dpa-AFX) - Gazit-Globe (GZT, GZT.TO) announced its US subsidiary Equity One (EQY) has entered into a merger agreement with Regency Centers Corp. (REG). Gazit-Globe will be the largest shareholder in the merged company and will hold approximately 13.2% of the shares. The transaction will generate a net gain of approx. NIS 1 billion for Gazit Globe. As a result of the deal, the annual dividend from the merged entity will immediately increase by approx. 2.3% for all Equity One shareholders. Gazit-Globe said the merger will create the largest high quality shopping center REIT in the US with a combined equity market cap of approx. $11.7 billion and enterprise value of approx. $15.6 billion. Chaim Katzman, Chairman of Gazit-Globe and Equity One, said: 'This is a major deal that will create the highest quality and largest shopping center company in the US. EQY shares acquired by REG at a premium of 13.7% to the market price is a reflection of the quality of EQY's assets and the faith of REG in the company's full potential.' Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
ALBANY, New York, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Transparency Market Research has released a new market report titled "Sulfone Polymers (Polysulfone (PSU), Polyethersulfone (PESU) and Polyphenylsulfone (PPSU)) Market for Medical, Automotive, Aerospace, Consumer Goods, Electrical & Electronics, Industrial and Other Applications - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2016-2024." According to the report, the global sulfone polymer market was valued at US$ 805.4 Mn in 2015 and is projected to reach US$ 1,394.7 Mn by 2024 expanding at a CAGR of 6.4% from 2016 to 2024.

Medical industry has been expanding significantly in North America and Europe in past few years. Sulfone polymers are majorly used in various applications in medical and dental devices. Automotive, is one of the key application industry, which has been escalating steadily since the last few years due to extensive demand from developed and developing regions. Sulfone polymers are widely used in the automotive industry owing to its physical properties such as high temperature sustainability and high impact resistance. It is typically employed in the manufacture of water cooling & oil circuits, rear lamp gaskets, headlights, and oil pistons. Growth in the medical devices is expected to provide the necessary momentum to the sulfone polymer market in the next few years.

Browse Latest Research Report with ToC: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sulfone-polymers-market.html

However, factors such as high cost of raw materials and higher lead times for manufacturing sulfone polymers in the global market are anticipated to hamper market growth during the forecast period. Increasing inclination of automotive manufacturers toward lightweight material for fuel efficiency and better performance, is estimated to boost the demand for sulfone polymers in automotive industry. This, in turn, is projected to offer growth opportunities to the sulfone polymer market during the forecast period.

In terms of applications, medical was the largest segment of the global sulfone polymer market, accounting for more than 20% share in 2015. The segment is anticipated to continue its dominance during the forecast period due to continual growth in the global medical industry. Automotive segment is estimated to witness the moderate growth in the next few years due to the steady increase in demand for automotive components in developed regions. Aerospace is another important segment of the sulfone polymer market. Rise in preference for durable and high performance PPSU in medical applications is also projected to drive the global sulfone polymer market in the next few years. Sulfone polymer membranes are still in the development phase; however, these offer promising potential for usage in several end-use industries.

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North America dominates the sulfone polymer market, followed by Asia Pacific and Europe. Latin America and Middle East & Africa are expected to be the key upcoming markets for sulfone polymers during the forecast period. Significant expansion in the automotive, industrial and membrane application segments in developing regions is anticipated to be a key factor driving the sulfone polymer market in these regions.

The global sulfone polymer market is consolidated. Key players include BASF SE, Solvay S.A., Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd., and Sabic.

The global sulfone polymer market has been segmented as follows:

Sulfone Polymers Market: Product Type Analysis

PSU

PESU

PPSU

Sulfone Polymers Market: Application Analysis

Medical

Automotive

Aerospace

Consumer Goods

Electrical & Electronics

Industrial

Others (membrane, military, plumbing, etc.)

Sulfone Polymers Market: Regional Analysis

North America U.S. Canada

Europe U.K. Germany France Spain Italy Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific China Japan ASEAN India Rest of Asia Pacific

Latin America Brazil Mexico Rest of South America

Middle East & Africa (MEA) GCC South Africa Rest of MEA

& (MEA)

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PHILADELPHIA, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

DirectCourse training helps DSPs improve the lives of people with disabilities, meet compliance requirements, and reduce liability

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, will offer Elsevier's DirectCourse eLearning curricula to the more than 1,200 organizations in the ACCSES network that provide exceptional services to people with disabilities across the United States.

"ACCSES is excited about extending this added member benefit to our network of providers who strive every day to ensure people with the most significant disabilities have the greatest amount of options and opportunities to live work and play," said ACCSES President & CEO Terry R. Farmer. "We look forward to our partnership with DirectCourse and its team to continue to advance the services and supports our members provide."

DirectCourse curricula are research driven, built around a nationally recognized set of competencies from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), are evidence-based and peer reviewed to ensure that support professionals can provide the best guidance in helping people with disabilities reach their full potential through self-determination.

"Elsevier and its university research content partners, led by University of Minnesota Research and Training Center, provide the education and training necessary to enable direct support and peer support professionals help persons with disabilities live fuller and richer lives," said Barbara Cullen, Vice President, Strategy and Product Development, Elsevier. "We look forward to offering this unique educational benefit to ACCSES members."

DirectCourse, a collaboration between Elsevier and the University of Minnesota's Research and Training Center on Community Living and three other recognized research universities, is an online training curriculum designed to empower support and care professionals in helping persons with disabilities lead meaningful lives within their communities. For additional information on DirectCourse program offerings, visit directcourseonline.com.

---

About ACCSES

ACCSES is an elite network of more than 1,200 disability service providers promoting and enhancing community-based solutions that maximize employment and independent living opportunities for people with disabilities. ACCSES provides a voice for these individuals at the highest levels of government. Its advocacy efforts resonate throughout the halls of Congress, executive agencies, and the White House. http://www.accses.org

About Elsevier

Elsevier is a world-leading provider of information solutions that enhance the performance of science, health, and technology professionals, empowering them to make better decisions, deliver better care, and sometimes make groundbreaking discoveries that advance the boundaries of knowledge and human progress. Elsevier provides web-based, digital solutions - among them ScienceDirect, Scopus, Research Intelligenceand ClinicalKey - and publishes over 2,500 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and more than 35,000 book titles, including a number of iconic reference works. Elsevier is part of RELX Group, a world-leading provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries.http://www.elsevier.com

Media contact

Christopher Capot

Director, Corporate Relations, Elsevier

+1 917 704 5174

c.capot@elsevier.com


15 November 2016

Ganapati Plc

("Ganapati" or "the Company")

Trading Statement

The Directors wish to advise shareholders of several developments and are pleased to provide the following trading update:

SiGMA

The Company is preparing to exhibit at SiGMA ('Summit of iGaming') in Malta from 16 to 19 November 2016. This event brings together three distinctive pillars of the industry: B2B, Operators and Affiliates.

Following the successful Super Gaming Show exhibition held in Amsterdam in June 2016, the company will be launching demo version of 3 new games of which are to be launched early 2017 at SiGMA. The Company has successfully obtained its first Letter of Intent for distribution, as such the Director's believe that the Company's vision for the European markets presented by Mitsuya Fujimoto, represent attractive opportunities for growth in the European market place.

http://calvinayre.com/2016/09/12/business/mitsuya-fujimoto-gambling-knows-no-ethnicity-bl-video/

The Company is expecting in the next few days, the demo games will be available to the public and investors on the company's website.

Gambling Licence

Ganapati (Malta) Limited has signed a Letter of Intent with EveryMatrix Limited (Malta). Both parties have agreed to enter into a Confidentiality Agreement which allows both parties to enter into discussions to finalise a contract, wherein Ganapati (Malta) Ltd will provide an online casino licence to EveryMatrix to host their own online casino games. The contract is subject to Ganapati (Malta) Ltd being granted the applicable licence from the British Gambling Commission in the United Kingdom and a Class 4 licence from the Malta Gaming Authority in Malta.

Bond period clarification

Ganapati is privileged to be supported by a number of respected Japanese investors who have underpinned the Company's development by providing funding for its ongoing research and development.

In the Chairman's Statement, made in the Interim Results for the six months ended 31 July 2016, which were released on 28 October 2016, it stated that the bonds bought by Japanese investors have a two-year term.

This requires clarification. The bonds are for three years. Thus the Directors wish to state that the bonds bought by Japanese investors are for three years with an option to renew for a further year.

The Company is informing investors of this error. As yet, there has been no negative feedback from any investor. The directors believe that no damage has been done and the company will maintain its excellent relationship with its investors.

Change of business and registered office address

To spearhead its European developments, the Company has opened its new London offices at, 1st Floor, 6-8, Standard Place, Rivington Street, London, EC2A 3BE, United Kingdom. This also includes the Company's new registered office address. The current contact telephone number is + 44 (0) 20 8004 0888.

Neither this announcement nor the information contained herein constitutes an offer or solicitation by Ganapati Plc for the purchase or sale of any securities, nor does it constitute a solicitation to any person in any jurisdiction where solicitation would be unlawful.

The Directors of Ganapati Plc accept responsibility for this announcement

CORPORATE ADVISER AND CONTACT DETAILS:

Ganapati plc

Tony Drury

Chairman

Telephone: 07973 737284

ISDX CORPORATE ADVISER:

Alexander David Securities Limited

David Scott - Corporate Finance

James Dewhurst - Corporate Broking

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7448 9820
OTTAWA, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

What: Straightline Aviation will make an announcement at the Canadian Aerospace Summit in Ottawa, Canada, about an agreement to bring Lockheed Martin Hybrid Airships to the region.

When: 10:00 a.m. ET, Wednesday, Nov. 16

Where:Shaw Centre, 55 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, Room 209 (Media Room)

Interview/Photo Opportunities:There will be an opportunity to photograph the formal signing agreement and participate in a Q&A session following the announcement.

Background: The Hybrid Airship has the ability to land on virtually any surface including snow, ice, gravel and even water, with little to no runways required. Hybrid Airships combine the technology of lighter than air aircraft with airplanes, helicopters and hovercraft. Helium provides 80 percent of the lift, and the remaining lift comes from the aerodynamic shape of the aircraft and its four thrust vectoring engines. Both the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Transport Canada have agreed on the newly developed Hybrid Airship certification criteria which is being used to complete the type certification. First deliveries are scheduled in 2019.

To Cover: Please contact Mark Dorey at mdorey@straightlineaviation.com to RSVP.

For additional information, visit our website: http://www.straightlineaviation.com/ .

About Straightline Aviation

Headquartered in the United Kingdom with offices in New York and Los Angeles, SLA was co-founded by a team of highly experienced airship and aviation executives with the sole purpose of bringing Hybrids into operation. Chief Executive Officer Mike Kendrick previously founded and ran the Virgin Group's extensive airship interests, including the Virgin Airship and Balloon Company (VABC). Mark Dory was the Chief Operating Officer of VABC and is now SLA's COO. David Tait OBE, the President of SLA's U.S. operations, was a founding member of the team that created Virgin Atlantic Airways and was the Executive Vice President of Virgin Atlantic Airways' U.S. operation for 18 years.

Media Contact: Mark Dorey, +44-1384-904035, mdorey@straightlineaviation.com
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of the Congo, March 3, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Fleurette Group ("Fleurette") notes the statement made by Global Witness, its third such statement in the pst few weeks regarding the sale of royalties from Katanga's KCC project by Gecamines to a Fleurette-owned entity, which again either misunderstands or ignores the basis economics of this deal which produced significant value for Gecamines and a loss to Fleurette. Once again, Fleurette is compelled to set the record straight and protect its reputation from Global Witness' false allegations.

Global Witness continues to seek to criticize Fleurette over the matter of disclosure. Fleurette always discloses anything that is obligated to disclose.

$3billion in tax revenues for the DRC

Fleurette finds it both regrettable that Global Witness did not see fit to offer any endorsement of the $3 billion in tax revenue paid by the Mutanda and KCC assets since Fleurette's initial involvement - both assets in which Fleurette was heavily invested but has now exited. Global Witness' claim that its interests are in "the importance of DRC's mining assets to its economy and the potential benefits from a well-run mining sector to the country's development" clearly don't extend to welcoming precisely that.

Questionable calculations by Global Witness

Fleurette has already identified a series of misleading errors, from the vindictive to the ignorant in Global Witness' coverage of the KCC royalties issue. These errors include:

Amateur, immature financial calculations that do not follow even the basic valuation techniques used by all professionals in this field, and the use of numbers that mislead their readers; The failure to include further discounts (such as withholding tax payments) that are both obvious and important to value a royalty stream; and Failing to note AHIL's royalty right will cease on 1 March 2019 , as the under the terms of the original KCC JV Agreement between Katanga, Gecamines and KCC, Gecamines has to use the royalty to cover off a pre-existing Gecamines debt resulting in a loss to Fleurette. Contrary to what Global Witness is seeking to imply, the DRC Government continues to be entitled to receive royalty payments for KCC and Mutanda irrespective of Fleurette.

Fleurette EITI Reporting

Fleurette confirms that all of its reporting to EITI is accurate and that GW is, once again, attempting to mislead and confuse and is misunderstanding the information at its disposal.

Fleurette's considerable loss

As Fleurette has already made clear publicly, the DRC made a net profit from the deal, Fleurette a net loss. The transaction ultimately resulted in Gecamines safeguarding value for the DRC economy and Fleurette making a considerable loss due to the subsequent collapse in commodity prices and suspension of KCC's operations. This is because Gecamines sold the royalty right before operations at KCC were suspended, meaning Fleurette had paid in full for a royalty stream that that ceased soon afterwards. While Fleurette was left unable to recoup its investment, Gecamines received full value for it.

Katanga has been a poor investment for Fleurette. As disclosed on 13th February 2017, with the sale of its equity stake in Katanga, Fleurette has realised a loss of $190 million, in addition to the loss of the royalty deal. Yet these losses are never referred to by Global Witness, who seem determined to perpetuate the myth that Fleurette is able to generate positive returns on all its investments. This is evidently not the case.

Gecamines' Historic Loan

As has already been disclosed by Fleurette, Gecamines was provided with a $196million loan from Fleurette, which has been paid back in full.Global Witness have once again misunderstood and misinterpreted information in front of them. Gecamines gave payment directions to KCC to make the payments due to it direct to AHIL in partial-satisfaction of the historic loan. There is no question of anything "misleading". It is disappointing that Global Witness consistently choose to jump to conclusions and guess historic narratives rather than accept the veracity of previous transactions involving Fleurette, Gecamines and Glencore.

Global Witness continues to ignore these facts. Instead, it attempts to crititicize a deal which demonstrably and unequivocally benefited both Gecamines and the DRC. Despite these continued unjustified attacks, Fleurette remains committed to investing in the DRC.

About Fleurette -www.fleurettegroup.com/ LinkedIn / Twitter

The Fleurette Group of Companies ("Fleurette") is an entrepreneurial business with significant investment in diverse sectors, including natural resources, infrastructure, agriculture and technology. Fleurette has substantial investments and operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The parent company of the group, Fleurette Properties Limited, is owned by Line Trust Corporation Limited strictly and solely as trustees of the Ashdale Settlement, a trust established in 2006 for the benefit of the family of Dan Gertler. Mr Gertler is a citizen and resident of Israel and the DRC (and honorary counsel to the DRC) and is committed to developing the country's natural resources and infrastructure, while investing in the Congolese people and their communities.

Fleurette has a proven track record of successful co-operation with diverse parties, including the DRC State-owned mining company Gecamines, and to date has brought more than USD $7billion of investment into the DRC, on top of its USD $2 billion in private investment. As a result, Fleurette's subsidiaries and partnerships support around 30,000 jobs in the DRC and are amongst the DRC's leading taxpayers, contributing significant revenues to the State.

Fleurette is also a major contributor to social development in the DRC through the Gertler Family Foundation (GFF) and through direct investment in social infrastructure. The GFF is the largest charitable organization in the DRC, funding more than 50 programs and projects across the DRC, which help tens of thousands of Congolese every year. These include rebuilding key hospitals, notably the Kisangini "Hospital du Cinquantenaire"; supporting the Operation Smile campaign in Lubumbashi and Kinshasa; rebuilding Blaise Pascal School in Lubumbashi; and supporting the Lubumbashi Zoo.



Media enquiries

Powerscourt

+44(0)20-7250-1446


LA JOLLA, CA and HOUSTON, TX -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 -- Panther Biotechnology, Inc. (OTC PINK: PBYA), or Panther, is pleased to announce today that it has executed a share exchange agreement to merge with Brown Technical Media Corp., or Brown, a privately held corporation in Houston, Texas. Brown and Panther have executed a share exchange agreement whereby all of the outstanding capital stock of Brown will be exchanged for 32,000,000 shares of Panther common stock. Brown will be managed as a second division of Panther. The Board of Directors and Management of both companies voted unanimously to approve the transaction.

Brown Technical Media Corp. is positioning itself to be the leading online aggregator of compliance, career advancement, and training content for tradesman and technical experts in a wide variety of professions. Brown's mission is to disrupt and defragment the many disparate companies in the eLearning, standards and codes market place, which currently is collectively valued at over $100 billion globally and growing. Brown is changing the landscape for small and medium size businesses by providing consistent, high quality training materials usually only available to enterprise level companies. Brown's strategy is to both grow its current revenue base organically while concurrently acquiring synergistic companies in the multiple industries that Brown is currently servicing.

Brown is an established name in the industry of standards and codes, a market which is currently estimated at $1.5 billion in the United States. Brown has developed a technology driven asset and intellectual property portfolio. Further, it has strategically launched into the $100 billion plus synergistic eLearning space to support training, education and certification for the industries purchasing its technical products. This has led to initial growth driven by web conversion from 0.25% to 2.5% in only two years and increased internet based revenue by approximately 300% in year 1 and approximately 700% in year 2. From before 2013 to after 2016, visitors per month increased 169%, orders per month increased 684% and the conversion ratio increased by 186%. From before 2013 to after 2016, annual store sales increased 124% and online sales increased 683%. Brown intends to take advantage of this momentum by growing into one of the leading eLearning companies for vocational industries through both organic growth and strategic acquisitions.

"We are unaware of any other company in our space that is aggregating both eLearning with codes and standards," stated Noah Davis, President and Chief Operating Officer of Panther. "We can now offer synergistic small businesses an opportunity to be part of a larger and growing organization, improve their economies of scale and expand their revenue growth in the industries that they service. We have already identified several companies that share these characteristics and have initiated exploratory discussions to acquire them. Further, we are in the process of launching new websites and online services, initiating new publications and training opportunities, working on several strategic partnerships and hiring additional technology managers and corporate sales reps."

"We are incredibly fortunate to be a part of this unique business opportunity," stated Evan Levine, Chief Executive Officer of Panther. "Panther shareholders will now participate in this inimitable growth area in which we know of no other public company that offers similar sub-industry exposure via the public trading of common stock."

In addition to Brown shareholders exchanging all of their capital stock for shares of Panther, the exchange agreement affords an earn-out provision for the shareholders of Panther whereby they will receive up to 24,000,000 additional shares of Panther common stock if certain clinical milestones are reached in the development of Transferrin Doxorubicin, the Company's lead oncological therapeutic. Panther will set a record date for earn-out shares before the end of 2016.

Steven M. Plumb, the Chief Financial Officer of Panther is the Chief Financial Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors and a shareholder of Brown and owns 36.85% of Brown's outstanding common stock at the time of the Exchange Agreement. Evan M. Levine, the Chief Executive Officer of Panther owns 18.75% of Brown's outstanding common stock.

ABOUT PANTHER BIOTECHNOLOGY, INC.

Panther Biotechnology, Inc. has been an entity focused on the acquisition and development of enhanced therapeutics for the treatment of neoplastic, autoimmune and antiviral disorders for the last two years. Upon completion of the merger with Brown, Panther will continue its regulatory effort with the goal of seeking a partner or financing for its anticipated phase 2a study and also focus its efforts on growing its revenues in the eLearning, standards and codes industries via both organic growth and acquisitions.

Contact:

Evan Levine

Chief Executive Officer

Panther Biotechnology Inc.

info@pantherbiotechnology.com

858-263-2744

1517 San Jacinto Street

Houston, Texas 77002




PUNE, India, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The report "Electrically Conductive Adhesives Market by Type, Chemistry (Epoxy, Silicone, Acrylic, Polyurethane), Application (Automotive, Aerospace, Consumer Electronics, Biosciences), Filler Material - Global Forecast to 2021", published by MarketsandMarkets, the market is estimated to grow from USD 1.56 Billion in 2015 to USD 2.53 Billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 8.48%, in terms of value.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )



Browse 26 market data Tables and 57 Figures spread through 131 pages and in-depth TOC on "Electrically Conductive Adhesives Market"

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Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.

The market is driven by the increase in use of electronic components in automotive, aerospace, and various other industries accompanied with the growing trend in the miniaturization of electronic gadgets.



Epoxy based adhesives accounted for the highest demand in the electrically conductive adhesives market

The epoxy based adhesives segment has been witnessing significant demand in recent years due to the several advantages that these adhesives offer. Epoxy based adhesives provide quicker production throughput due to the shorter processing time and less handling of assemblies required. These adhesives have a short curing time, which makes them suitable for quick cold solder repairs of electronic devices, providing excellent electromagnetic interference (EMI) / radio-frequency interference (RFI) shielding and filling in seams between metal plates. This segment accounted for the largest market share, in terms of value and volume, in 2015.

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Automotive and consumer electronics are major areas of application

The major end-users of electrically conductive adhesives are the automotive, aerospace, biosciences, and consumer electronics industries. Automotive and consumer electronics are the key users of electrically conductive adhesives among all the application areas. ECAs are widely used for anti-lock braking systems, engine control units and transmission control units in automotives. Whereas, in the consumer electronics segment, they are used for flexible connections in various electronic devices.

Asia-Pacific is the largest market for electrically conductive adhesive

The Asia-Pacific region is a large market for electrically conductive adhesives. This is because China is the largest manufacturer of automobiles, the increasing sales of consumer electronics in South Korea and the emerging economies of Vietnam and Thailand.

Make an Inquiry @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=210298995

The key players in the global Electrically Conductive Adhesives Market are Henkel AG & Co. KGaA (Germany), H.B. Fuller Company (U.S.), Master Bond Inc. (U.S.), Panacol-Elosol GmbH (Germany), Aremco Products, Inc. (U.S.), Dow Corning (U.S.), and 3M Company (U.S.).

Browse Related Reports:

Industrial Adhesives Market by Type (Water-based Adhesives, Solvent-based Adhesives, Hot-Melt Adhesives, Pressure Sensitive Adhesives), Material Base (Synthetic, Natural), Composition, End-Use Industry, and Region - Global Forecast to 2021

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/industrial-adhesive-market-168855783.html

Polyurethane Adhesives Market by Technology (Solventborne, Reactive, Dispersion, and Hot Melt), Type (Thermoset & Thermoplastic), Application (Building & Construction, Packaging, Automotive, Footwear, Electrical & Electronics, and Furniture) - Global Forecast to 2021

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/polyurethane-adhesive-market-6587670.html

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Marken Continues Expansion as a Result of Client Demand

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, North Carolina, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Marken announced today the opening of a new operational hub in Chicago, Illinois. The new hub expands Marken's capabilities in the US Northeast region by joining the existing New York, Boston and Philadelphia locations.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110930/NY78064LOGO

With convenient access to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, Marken's Chicago team will strengthen relationships with its pharmaceutical clients and provide more operational flexibility within the Marken network. The new location will work in concert with its clients and investigator sites to collect and ship drug products, clinical trial materials and biological samples. The Chicago station will also facilitate the growing demand for direct to patient services and reliable handling of cell and gene therapy materials.

The opening of Marken's sixth facility in the US is consistent with the company's strategy to grow with the demand for more complex clinical services. Julia Tarasenko, Regional Director, US North East & Canada Operations, said this about the new location, "We are very pleased to be able to expand our footprint and open a new Marken facility in Chicago. By adding Chicago to our New York, Boston and Philadelphia operational centers, we are building a stronger and more nimble network in the United States. We will now be closer to our clients in the Chicago area and offer them the same high-touch, personalised services they have come to expect from us."

The Chicago branch brings the total number of Marken logistics locations to 45, including 10 wholly-owned and dedicated GMP depots built specifically for the clinical trial industry.

About Marken

Marken is the only patient-centric supply chain organization 100% dedicated to the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries. Marken maintains the leading position for Direct to Patient services and biological sample shipments and offers a state-of-the-art GMP-compliant depot network and logistic hubs in 45 locations worldwide for clinical trial material storage and distribution. Marken's more than 650 staff members manage 50,000 drug and biological shipments every month at all temperature ranges in more than 150 countries. Additional services such as biological kit production, ancillary material sourcing, storage and distribution, shipment lane verification and qualifications, as well as GDP, regulatory and compliance consultancy add to Marken's unique position in the pharma and logistics industry.
MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 -- Mason Graphite Inc. ("Mason Graphite" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: LLG) (OTCQX: MGPHF) is pleased to provide details on the progress, and upcoming work schedule, of its detailed study for large scale production of value-added graphite products, which was initiated in 2015. The Company is also pleased to announce obtaining contributions and grant, which will be applied to the related work program.

Value-added processing, or "2nd Transformation", includes micronization, additional purification, spheronization and coating, resulting in graphite products suitable for a wide range of technical applications (including carbon brushes, brake linings, plastics and lubricants), electrochemical applications (including alkaline batteries, Li-ion batteries and fuel cells), as well as other specialized uses. Mason Graphite has been working on product development and manufacturing processes with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), COREM and Hatch.

Specifically for Li-ion anode materials, a Benchmarking Phase, necessary to establish the specifications of the products currently being used, was completed in 2015. Following a new agreement with NRC, the Company has begun the Development Phase in order to design, based on materials coming from its own Lac Gueret deposit, a generic grade for common Li-ion batteries and a grade specifically aimed at the electric vehicle industry. The work done on the latter product is based on information, related to customers' specifications, gathered by the Company and NRC.

Following this Phase, an extensive and thorough Testing Phase will take place and simulate real Li-ion cell environments and equivalent lifetime of a battery. Such tests shall be conducted in parallel at both NRC and at customers' facilities. During that period of tests, Mason Graphite intends to bring the current detailed study to feasibility level, including the plant design and detailed engineering, in order to be construction-ready at the end of the Testing Phase; this plant is aimed to be adjacent to the 1st Transformation plant. As such, at the beginning of the Testing Period, the Company will obtain a sufficient level of understanding regarding the volumes required by those customers in order to design the appropriate production capacity.

The processes described, necessary to the homologation of such materials, are based on more than 20 years of experience in processing and marketing different types of graphite and other carbon products to the alkaline and Li-ion battery industries.

The equipment trials and product testing required for other grades of value-added products requiring only purification and/or micronization are ongoing and embedded in the work program of the battery materials.

The budget allowed for this detailed study amounts to $1,070,000.

In order to finance this work, Mason Graphite is pleased to announce that it has secured the following financial contributions and grant:

-- $107,000 contribution from "Innovation et Developpement Manicouagan", which supports projects that will help the economic diversification of the Manicouagan region, where the Company's project is located; -- A contribution of up to $500,000 from National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP); and -- $50,000 grant from the Quebec government ministry "Economie, Science et Innovation" under the "Passeport innovation" program.

Benoit Gascon, President and CEO of Mason Graphite, commented: "We are very pleased with the work done so far with our partners and very encouraged by the level of collaboration of eventual customers as we continue the product design. The value-added market as a whole, not only battery materials, has the potential to markedly improve the economics of an already very compelling project." The potential of the value-added graphite products is not included in the economics of the definitive feasibility study results published in September 2015 which were based solely on the 1st Transformation.

In 2015, the Quebec Government launched a responsible action plan providing structure and direction aimed at making Quebec, with its abundant supply of clean and affordable energy, an electric transportation leader. More information at: www.transportselectriques.gouv.qc.ca/en/.

Building on this initiative, Mason Graphite has been working since 2015 with NRC and their experts in vehicle propulsion technology and battery materials.

About Mason Graphite and the Lac Gueret Project

Mason Graphite is a Canadian mining and processing company focused on the development of its 100% owned Lac Gueret natural graphite deposit located in northeastern Quebec. The Company is led by a highly experienced team that has over five decades of experience in graphite production, sales, and research and development. For more information, visit www.masongraphite.com.

Mason Graphite Inc. On Behalf of the Board

- Benoit Gascon, CPA, CA, President & Chief Executive Officer

Cautionary Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All information contained herein that is not clearly historical in nature may constitute forward-looking information.

Generally, such 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 based on assumptions management believes to be reasonable at the time such statements are made, including but not limited to, continued exploration activities, graphite and other metals prices, the estimation of initial and sustaining capital requirements, the estimation of labour and operating costs, the estimation of mineral reserves and resources, the assumption with respect to currency fluctuations, the timing and amount of future exploration and development expenditures, receipt of required regulatory approvals, the availability of necessary financing for the project, the completion of the environment assessment process, permitting and such other assumptions and factors as set out herein.

Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: volatile stock price; risks related to changes in graphite prices; sources and cost of power facilities; the estimation of initial and sustaining capital requirements; the estimation of labour and operating costs; the general global markets and economic conditions; the risk associated with exploration, development and operations of mineral deposits; the estimation of mineral reserves and resources; the risks associated with uninsurable risks arising during the course of exploration, development and production; risks associated with currency fluctuations; environmental risks; competition faced in securing experienced personnel; access to adequate infrastructure to support mining, processing, development and exploration activities; the risks associated with changes in the mining regulatory regime governing the Company; completion of the environmental assessment process; risks related to regulatory and permitting delays; risks related to potential conflicts of interest; the reliance on key personnel; financing, capitalization and liquidity risks including the risk that the financing necessary to fund continued exploration and development activities at Lac Gueret may not be available on satisfactory terms, or at all; the risk of potential dilution through the issue of common shares; the risk of litigation.

Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is made as of the date of this press release, and the Company does not undertake to update such forward-looking information except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

For more Information:

Simon Marcotte, CFA

Vice-President Corporate Development

+1 (647) 801-7273

info@masongraphite.com



For more information relating to local communities:

Luc Veilleux, CPA, CA

Executive Vice-President and CFO

+1 (514) 289-3582

info@masongraphite.com




CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 -- Media Advisory - TransCanada Corporation (TSX: TRP) (NYSE: TRP) (TransCanada) today announced it will not proceed at this time with its new, long-term, fixed-price proposal to flow natural gas along the Canadian Mainline from the Empress receipt point in Alberta to the Dawn hub in Southern Ontario.

"The Open Season for the proposed service resulted in bids that fell well short of the volumes required to make the proposal viable," said Stephen Clark, TransCanada's senior vice president and general manager, Canadian Natural Gas Pipelines.

"The Canadian Mainline system continues to be commercially supported and an important piece of energy infrastructure that connects the country's most prolific supply basin with North America's highest value markets," concluded Clark.

With more than 65 years' experience, TransCanada is a leader in the responsible development and reliable operation of North American energy infrastructure including natural gas and liquids pipelines, power generation and gas storage facilities. TransCanada operates a network of natural gas pipelines that extends more than 90,300 kilometres (56,100 miles), tapping into virtually all major gas supply basins in North America. TransCanada is the continent's leading provider of gas storage and related services with 664 billion cubic feet of storage capacity. A large independent power producer, TransCanada currently owns or has interests in over 10,500 megawatts of power generation in Canada and the United States. TransCanada is also the developer and operator of one of North America's leading liquids pipeline systems that extends over 4,300 kilometres (2,700 miles), connecting growing continental oil supplies to key markets and refineries. TransCanada's common shares trade on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges under the symbol TRP. Visit TransCanada.com and our blog to learn more, or connect with us on social media and 3BL Media.

FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION

This publication contains certain information that is forward-looking and is subject to important risks and uncertainties (such statements are usually accompanied by words such as "anticipate", "expect", "believe", "may", "will", "should", "estimate", "intend" or other similar words). Forward-looking statements in this document are intended to provide TransCanada security holders and potential investors with information regarding TransCanada and its subsidiaries, including management's assessment of TransCanada's and its subsidiaries' future plans and financial outlook. All forward-looking statements reflect TransCanada's beliefs and assumptions based on information available at the time the statements were made and as such are not guarantees of future performance. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on this forward-looking information, which is given as of the date it is expressed in this news release, and not to use future-oriented information or financial outlooks for anything other than their intended purpose. TransCanada undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information except as required by law. For additional information on the assumptions made, and the risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ from the anticipated results, refer to TransCanada's Third Quarter Report to Shareholders dated November 1, 2016 and 2015 Annual Report on our website at www.transcanada.com or filed under TransCanada's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov.

Contacts:

Media Enquiries:

Shawn Howard / Tim Duboyce

403.920.7859 or 800.608.7859



TransCanada Investor & Analyst Enquiries:

David Moneta / Stuart Kampel

403.920.7911 or 800.361.6522




SANDY SPRINGS (dpa-AFX) - UPS (UPS) said it plans for record seasonal global delivery volume with an increase of more than 14 per cent above the peak delivery period last year. The company and its customers benefit from two additional delivery days during 2016. This year the company expects to surpass 700 million packages delivered globally in 25 days between American Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve. The company anticipates a record 13 of the 21 delivery days before Christmas to exceed 30 million packages daily. UPS delivers approximately 18 million packages daily during typical non-peak shipping periods. More than 30 million consumers are expected to use the UPS My Choice service to receive text or email alerts letting them know when packages are on the way. UPS My Choice allows members to plan when and where they receive packages. UPS plans to employ approximately 900 temporary seasonal workers in Canada, including delivery walkers. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Wellington, New Zealand--(Newsfile Corp. - November 15, 2016) - New Zealand Energy Corp. (TSXV: NZ) (the "Company") today released the results of its third quarter ended 30 September 2016 and provided an update of the results from recent activities. Details of the Company's financial results are described in the Condensed Consolidated Interim Financial Statements for the period ended 30 September 2016 and Management's Discussion & Analysis which are available on the Company's website at www.newzealandenergy.com and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

The Company made a net loss for the three month period ended 30 September 2016 of $1,126,194. This includes additional costs of $105,000 related to the Copper Moki waterflood and $45,000 in relation to the Waihapa Enhanced Oil project along with non-cash charges of $451,873 for depreciation. By comparison, the loss for the third quarter of 2015 was $806,764 which included the benefit of $175,000 from the back-payment for gas priority processing with Contact together with non-cash charges of $377,857 for depreciation. The Company realized a loss per share for the three month period ended 30 September 2016 of $0.005 (2015: $0.004).

The table following shows the results in terms of "Cash provided by (used in) operating activities ($)":

Period Ended Year to Date 30 September 30 June 31 March 2016 (131,768) (84,143) 5,563 (53,188) 2015 (1,351,631) (227,264) (464,003) (660,364)

In providing an update on Company activities, Mike Adams, the Company Chief Executive Officer said, "In late 2015 the Company announced its key objectives for 2016 were to operate safely, to grow production volumes and to generate a positive operating cash flow. I am delighted in our safety performance, having achieving 604 days harm free as of today. And we are close to generating positive operating cash flow. Our third priority has been to identify and pursue opportunities within the existing Company assets for low cost production growth."

"The TWN licences have seen the implementation of Stage-1 of an enhanced oil recovery project with respect to the Waihapa-Ngaere Tikorangi oil reservoir. Stage-1, involving re-designed high fluid rate gas-lift systems, was completed in late July 2016. The results from Stage-1 well Waihapa-6A have been encouraging with oil production having increased from around 40 boepd (and 630 bwpd) in July 2016 to over 155 boepd (and 2400 bwpd) by early November. This increase and the simultaneous positive response observed in the other producing wells has proven the validity of the Enhanced Oil Project twin concepts; first, increasing fluid rate will increase oil rate and second, reducing reservoir pressure by out-producing the natural aquifer will mobilize oil stranded in low permeability fractures."

"We are pleased to have confirmation of substantially increased oil rates resulting from increasing fluid production volumes. Stage-2 of the project is being finalized now and is expected to involve the installation of an electric submersible pump in one of the production wells in the field. In due course, subject to ongoing positive results, the plan is to implement additional Stages-3 and -4 of the Enhanced Oil Project, which is expected to increase [net] production to more than 300 boepd."

"In Copper Moki the company announced in November 2015 a water flood project using the Waitapu-2 well as a water injector well; and also replacement of a pump at Copper Moki-2. Production performance from Copper Moki-1 and -2 remains stable and substantially above 2015 levels. Also, there are indications that the Waitapu-2 water injection well may be providing support to the Copper Moki-2 oil pool as well as Copper Moki-1. The water injection capacity is in the process of being increased from ~500 bwpd to ~1000 bwpd in order to accelerate the production benefits from the water-flood. "Injected water has not been seen in either production well despite injection being underway for nearly a year, proving the value of managing the water injection program to maintain a gravity stable flood front."

"Daily production from Copper Moki increased (from 48boepd in October/November 2015) to an average of 190 boepd YTD to end September 2016. Copper Moki production in October averaged around 105 boepd."

"In relation to the company's third party processing operations, a further agreement has recently been signed for third party processing services at the Waihapa Production Station. "This is a new revenue stream and brings, on an annualized basis, total third party processing fees to approximately $2 million (NZEC share). We continue to pursue opportunities to increase usage and attract further third parties to use our facilities."

"The Alton Permit (PEP 51151) work programme requires the drilling of an exploration well by 22 November 2016. Following discussions with the New Zealand regulator, and due to current oil prices not supporting drilling of the prospect (Horoi) in this time frame or in the subsequent year, the Joint Venture has decided to relinquish the Alton Permit. The Company will focus our efforts on the projects being undertaken and on other opportunities available in the TWN Licences and in Copper Moki. With respect to our Eltham exploration permit, we await with interest the high resolution ingress seismic data from the recent Kapuni 3D survey acquired by Shell-Todd Oil Services."

On behalf of the Board of Directors

"Mike Adams"

Chief Executive Officer

New Zealand Energy Corp.

New Zealand Energy Contacts

Email: info@newzealandenergy.com

Website: www.newzealandenergy.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as such 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 document, the consolidated interim financial statements for the period ended 30 September 2016 and Management's Discussion and Analysis contain certain forward- looking information, forward-looking statements ("forward-looking statements"). The reader's attention is specifically drawn to the qualifications, disclosure and cautionary statements in these documents regarding forward-looking statements and reserve and resource estimates.

The Company notes that such forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond NZEC's control, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions, volatility of commodity prices, currency fluctuations, imprecision of reserve estimates, environmental risks, operational risks in exploration and development, competition from other industry participants, the lack of availability of qualified personnel or management, stock market volatility and the ability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources. Although the Company believes that the expectations in its forward-looking statements are reasonable, they are based on factors and assumptions concerning future events which may prove to be inaccurate. Those factors and assumptions are based upon currently available information. Such statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could influence actual results or events and cause actual results or events to differ materially from those stated, anticipated or implied in the forward looking information.

As such, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward looking information, as no assurance can be provided as to future results, levels of activity or achievements. All forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this document or the date of the documents referenced above, except as required by applicable law, the Company does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or to revise any of the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 -- Starrex International Ltd. ("Starrex" or the "Company") (CSE: STX)(CSE: STX.CN) filed on Friday, April 8, 2016, restated interim financial statements and a revised management's discussion and analysis ("MD&A") for the third-quarter ended September 30, 2015 which can be found on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) under the Company's profile. This followed the filing on Friday, March 18, 2016 of restated audited financial statements and a revised MD&A for the Company for the year ended December 31, 2014 (see press release dated March 18, 2016) and the filings on Thursday, March 24, 2016 and Friday, April 1, 2016 of restated interim financial statements and revised MD&As for the first and second quarters ended March 31, 2015 and June 30, 2015, respectively (see press releases dated March 28 and April 4, 2016).

As previously announced (see press releases dated December 31, 2015 and January 12, 2016), the Ontario Securities Commission (the "OSC") issued a management cease trade order ("MCTO") prohibiting the Company's Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer from trading, directly or indirectly, in the securities of Starrex until two full business days following the receipt by the OSC of all filings that the Company is required to make under Ontario securities law or other order of the Director of the OSC. The MCTO did not affect the ability of persons who are not insiders of Starrex to trade its securities.

Following the appointment of Matthew Hill as the new Chief Executive Officer of the Company effective as of October 31, 2016 (see news release dated November 1, 2016), the Company made an application to the OSC to amend the MCTO in this regard. On November 14, 2016, the OSC issued a temporary management cease trade order prohibiting Matthew Hill from trading in or making acquisitions of the securities of Starrex, directly or indirectly, for a period of 15 days from that date. The temporary order set November 25, 2016 for a return date to determine whether the order should be extended on a temporary basis or on terms similar to the MCTO or otherwise.

Starrex is currently in discussions with staff of the OSC regarding any comments which such staff may have regarding the refilings made to date. Starrex intends to issue further bi-weekly status reports pending confirmation or other response from staff of the OSC regarding the refilings made to date or other conclusion to this process.

This news release contains forward-looking information. All information (other than statements of historical fact) that address activities, events or developments that Starrex believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties beyond Starrex's ability to control or predict that may cause actual events or results to differ materially from those described in such forward-looking information. Any forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, Starrex disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Although Starrex believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking information are reasonable, forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and, accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking information due to the inherent uncertainty thereof.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities in the United States. The Company's securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

Neither IIROC nor any stock exchange or other securities regulatory authority accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

Contacts:

Starrex International Ltd.

Ronald Mann

Secretary, Chief Operating Officer

and Investor Relations Officer

(647) 981-2782

rmann@starrexintl.com




NORFOLK, VA -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 -- Ophthalmology is constantly evolving as more advanced solutions are developed to treat various eye conditions and diseases. The eye doctors at Virginia Eye Consultants (VEC) are committed to staying at the forefront of these changes and are able to do so through their involvement in clinical research for innovative treatments. This also allows the Norfolk eye care practice to offer their patients the most advanced solutions available.

Most recently, the team has added four new procedures to its comprehensive list of eye care solutions:

Raindrop Near Vision Inlay

KAMRA Corneal Inlay

Corneal Cross-Linking (CXL)

TECNIS Symfony IOL

The ophthalmologists highlight the Raindrop Near Vision Inlay and the KAMRA corneal inlay, saying they are exciting new treatment options for people living with presbyopia. The doctors go on to describe the Raindrop inlay as a clear lens that reshapes the cornea to restore near vision. The KAMRA inlay is also designed to restore near vision but in a different way. They explain the KAMRA works by only allowing focused light through a hole in the center of a small lens implanted in the cornea.

Also new to VEC is the Corneal Cross-Linking (CXL) procedure and the TECNIS Symfony IOL. The doctors note that CXL is a revolutionary advancement that can prevent keratoconus from progressing. During the non-invasive treatment, riboflavin drops are placed in the eye(s), which are then activated by a small amount of UVA light. This helps strengthen the cornea by increasing the crosslinking of its collagen, ultimately preventing the cornea from becoming more misshapen.

Finally, the VEC doctors are pleased to announce the new Symfony IOL as part of their collection of intraocular lenses for cataract surgery. The Symfony IOL is unique in that it can also correct astigmatism and treat presbyopia, improving distance vision and providing a broader range of close-up vision.

VEC is proud to offer the advanced new treatment options for patients living with conditions like presbyopia and keratoconus. They believe the innovative solutions will provide enhanced vision results for the right candidates.

About Virginia Eye Consultants

Virginia Eye Consultants is composed of a team of fellowship-trained and board-certified eye doctors. The practice has been offering high quality eye care solutions to the Hampton Roads area for more than 50 years. The ophthalmologists and optometrists specialize in a wide range of conditions to provide effective treatments for patients with varying eye care needs. These specialties include LASIK, laser cataract surgery, ocular infections, diabetes, macular degeneration, and more. The doctors are available for interview upon request.

For more information about Virginia Eye Consultants, please visit virginiaeyeconsultants.com and facebook.com/virginiaeyeconsultants.

To view the original source of this press release, click here:

https://www.virginiaeyeconsultants.com/news/norfolk-ophthalmologists-offer-new-eye-care-solutions-for-enhanced-results/

Virginia Eye Consultants



Norfolk Office:

241 Corporate Blvd.

Norfolk, VA 23502



Virginia Beach Office:

2020 General Booth Boulevard

Virginia Beach, VA 23454



Hampton Office:

2101 Executive Drive

Suite 160

Hampton, VA 23666



Suffolk Office:

2463 Pruden Boulevard

Suffolk, VA 23434



Smithfield/Carrollton Office:

20209 Sentara Way

Carrollton, VA 23314



(757) 622-2200



Rosemont Media

(858) 200-0044

www.rosemontmedia.com




NANAIMO, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 -- Troymet Exploration Corp. (TSX VENTURE: TYE) ("Troymet" or the Company") is pleased to report the discovery of a significant new zone of copper-rich volcanogenic massive sulphide ("VMS") on the Alpha zone of the Redhill project in British Columbia. Drilling also intersected the extension of the high-grade mineralization in hole RH-06-25, and demonstrated that the mineralization is relatively shallow and open on strike and to depth. The successful 2015-2016 exploration program has advanced the Redhill project and the Company is looking forward to resuming exploration on the significant targets it has identified.

Alpha Zone

Hole RH16-04 intersected a new, near surface, zone of copper mineralization ("Upper Zone"); Figure 1. The hole, drilled from a platform excavated into the side of a hill, intersected mineralization grading 0.72% copper and 6.5 g/t silver over 6.5 metres, starting at a depth of 5.1 metres. The copper mineralization extends upwards an additional 3.8 metres to the base of the casing; however, because of poor recovery in this interval, a reportable mineralized interval cannot be calculated. Secondary copper mineralization (malachite and chrysocolla) is present in the wall of the drill platform. The downhole width of the mineralized zone is estimated to be in excess of 11.5 metres. Troymet plans to strip, map, trench and sample the mineralization prior to further drilling.

Hole RH16-04 also intersected VMS mineralization grading 0.64% copper and 1.5% zinc over 2.0 metres from 206.3-208.3 metres downhole ("Lower Zone"); Figure 2. This intersection is approx. 20 metres laterally and approx. 20 metres higher than the mineralization in hole RH-06-25 (8.75% copper, 4.75% zinc, 1.22 g/t gold & 61.19 g/t silver over 2.04 metres). The mineralization in hole RH-06-25 comprises VMS and stringer zone mineralization. The mineralization in hole RH16-04 consists only of VMS mineralization with durchbewegung texture. The mineralization is crudely bedded and dips approx. 65 degrees to the west. The topography also drops off to the west into a prominent valley. The mineralization is open along strike and to depth, and lies deeper than was tested by previous drilling in the VMS prospect. Additional drilling is required to explore and delimit this significant area of VMS mineralization.

The Upper and Lower zones are approx. 195 metres apart downhole. A 1 metre band (bed?) of massive pyrite was intersected at 161.8 metres. Centimeter-wide bands of pyrite with trace chalcopyrite occur in the overlying and underlying quartz-eye felsic tuffs along with 5-50% disseminated and irregular concentrations of pyrite. The best assay, 0.15% copper and 1.32 g/t silver over 5.0 metres, together with the geology, indicates the potential for the development of significant copper mineralization, off hole, along this horizon.

Troymet has identified a characteristic tuffaceous subaqueous ash flow unit, commonly with pyroclastic fragmental textures, that is associated with the VMS mineralization. The unit contains prominent blue quartz "eyes" (phenocrysts) in a matrix composed mainly of feldspar and quartz. Mafic minerals are minimal. The recognition of this important unit will guide future exploration.

Table 1: Drill Hole Intersections

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From To Width Hole (m) (m) (m) Cu % Zn % Ag g/t Au g/t ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- RH16-04 5.10 11.60 6.50 0.72 6.50 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 156.80 160.80 4.00 0.02 0.27 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- incl. 157.80 158.80 1.00 0.79 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 160.80 165.80 5.00 0.15 1.32 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- incl. 165.30 165.80 0.50 0.46 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 206.30 208.30 2.00 0.64 1.50 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- RH16-03 33.80 34.80 1.00 0.29 1.20 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Widths presented in Table 1 are downhole core lengths; true widths cannot be reliably estimated at this time. Core samples were analysed at ALS Global, Vancouver.

Hole RH16-03 was drilled, in part, to twin hole RH-05-23 and to test for shallow mineralization. The best intersection (0.29% copper and 1.2 g/t gold over 1.0 metre from 33.8-34.8 metres downhole) was obtained from pyrite stringer mineralization. The high-grade mineralization in hole RH-05-23 (2.08% copper and 7.5 g/t gold) was also obtained from pyrite-chalcopyrite stringers but from approx. 45 metres deeper. As in the case of the intersections in holes RH16-04 and RH-06-25, this indicates the better mineralization lies deeper than was previously tested by drilling on the VMS prospect. A new mineralized horizon of bedded pyrite with felsic clasts (cm) as xenoliths in the sulphide was intersected from 8.9-11.3 metres. In the overlying quartz-eye felsic tuff (6.0-8.9 metres) pyrite veins/veinlets (mm - 2 cm) constitute approx. 30% of the core. Copper (255-405 ppm) and silver (1.33-3.62 g/t) are elevated. Along strike or at depth, this mineralized horizon may host significant copper mineralization in this productive environment.

Hole RH16-05 tested a newly identified chargeability anomaly (+/- 100 metre depth), and a copper- and zinc-in-soil anomaly, on Horizon 2. The hole, drilled approx. 100 metres north of the VMS prospect, cut a sequence of quartz-eye felsic tuffs with variably developed pyrite (+ pyrrhotite) as stringers, disseminations and bands to approx. 30%. While the geology appears to be similar to that in the VMS prospect no copper, zinc or precious metal mineralization was intersected.

Hole RH16-01, drilled approx. 350 metres southwest of the VMS prospect to test a large greater than 20 millisecond chargeability anomaly on Horizon 3, identified pyrite as stringers, disseminations and bands (to approx. 60%) in intermediate volcanics as the source of the anomaly. The best assay was 0.08% copper over 0.7 metres. This hole was probed with a Volterra borehole electromagnetic survey; no conductors were identified. Following completion of the drill program it is now recognized that the favourable and prospective VMS geology occurs stratigraphically below this horizon.

Hole RH16-02, drilled to test a chargeability anomaly on Horizon 3, intersected pyritic felsic volcanics. Local intervals, up to 7.0 metres in width, contain increased concentrations of pyrite including bands/seams to 5 cm which are anomalous in copper (to 0.33% over 1.0 metres), and also carry elevated zinc values (to 621 ppm). This mineralization is interpreted to be distal to more significant accumulations of VMS mineralization. Breccia boulders containing massive sulphide blocks representing slump features and/or mechanically transported mineralization have been found in this locale. Their source has not been found. Further drilling is required to evaluate this area.

Downhole TEM surveys are planned prior to further drilling.

Beta Zone

Troymet has now received the final data for the electromagnetic ("EM") and induced polarization ("IP") surveys on the Beta target. The IP survey identified a new, large chargeability anomaly associated with the 40 mho Beta target which is located on a 550 metre long EM conductor. The Beta target, the chargeability anomaly, and the host conductor have never been drilled. The Beta target Is located 200 metres south of borehole S83-4 (2.54% copper, 2.78% zinc, 77.0 g/t Ag, and 0.37 g/t Au over 7.75 metres; see news release of October 25, 2016). The Company plans to drill test this target as part of the next drill program.

Qualified Persons

All technical data, as disclosed in this press release, has been verified by the Company's qualified persons Kieran Downes, Ph.D., P.Geo., and Ronald H. McMillan, Ph.D., P.Geo. Both are Qualified Persons as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About Troymet Exploration Corp.

Troymet Exploration Corp. is a junior exploration company with a solid treasury and with projects in British Columbia (Redhill and Golden Eagle), Manitoba (McClarty Lake) and Utah (Wildcat). Troymet operates the Wildcat, Redhill and Golden Eagle projects. Hudbay Minerals Inc. is the operator of the McClarty Lake joint venture and must contribute $1,151,052 in joint venture expenditures before Troymet is required to fund its participating interest. Troymet retains a 2% net smelter returns royalty (NSR) on the Key property, British Columbia, which was sold to New Gold Inc. in 2013.

TROYMET EXPLORATION CORP.

Kieran Downes, Ph.D., P.Geo., President, CEO & Director

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

This news release contains certain forward-looking information. All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking information and such information involves various risks and uncertainties. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking information in respect of: the Redhill Project, including the possible exploration and development of the Redhill Project; the exploration potential and analogous deposit potential of the Redhill Project; future data analysis, sampling plans and exploration plans on the Redhill Project, including the potential resumption of exploration on identified targets including potential stripping, mapping, trenching and surveying; the timing for exploration and drilling on the Redhill Project; exploration targets and the potential of such exploration targets; and the ability and the timeframe within which the Redhill Project can be advanced. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. This forward-looking information reflects Troymet's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to Troymet and on assumptions Troymet believes are reasonable. These assumptions include, but are not limited to: the current share price of Troymet's common shares and the ability to raise future equity financing, if needed, at prices acceptable to Troymet; Troymet's current and initial understanding and analysis of the Redhill Project; the ability of Troymet to discover viable exploration targets and the results of exploration on the Redhill Project; the cost of exploration, including sampling and drilling, on the Redhill Project; Troymet's general and administrative costs remaining constant; and the market acceptance of Troymet's business strategy. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Troymet to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to: the early stage development of Troymet and its projects, and in particular, the Redhill Project; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; capital market conditions and market prices for securities, junior market securities and mining exploration company securities; commodity prices; the actual results of current exploration and development or operational activities; competition; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; accidents and other risks inherent in the mining industry; lack of insurance; delay or failure to receive board or regulatory approvals; changes in legislation, including environmental legislation, affecting Troymet; timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; conclusions of economic evaluations; and lack of qualified, skilled labour or loss of key individuals. A description of other assumptions used to develop such forward-looking information and a description of other risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information can be found in Troymet's disclosure documents on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. Troymet does not undertake to update any forward-looking information except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Contacts:

Troymet Exploration Corp.

Investor Relations

250-729-0453

info@troymet.com

www.troymet.com




QUEBEC CITY, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 -- Note to editors: An image is included with this press release on Marketwired's website.

H2O Innovation Inc. ("H2O Innovation" or the "Corporation") (TSX VENTURE: HEO)(ALTERNEXT: MNEMO:ALHEO)(OTCQX: HEOFF) is proud to launch a new fiberglass reinforced polyester ("FRP") cartridge filter housing product line under its Piedmont ("Piedmont") brand.

Piedmont's cartridge filter housings are designed to be used in both new and existing water treatment plants. This new product line includes several vertical and horizontal filter styles which distinguish themselves through an operator focused feature set. For example, Piedmont's cartridge filter housings require less space in a water treatment plant compared to conventional filters. The cartridge replacement can be accomplished faster and easier than with any other filters on the market, thanks in part to several design features such as high-speed assembly nuts. These features translate into CAPEX savings and significant OPEX reduction for water utilities.

Piedmont's cartridge filter housings are used regularly in front of nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) water treatment systems as well as CIP (Clean In Place) systems. These filter housings are also designed for temperatures up to 90 degrees C (194 degrees F) and pressures up to 10 bar (150 psi). Made from FRP, Piedmont cartridge filter housings are a cost-effective solution and a reliable pre-treatment protection for reverse osmosis systems that treat brackish and sea water. For more information about the Piedmont's complete line of cartridge filter housings, visit www.piedmontpacific.com.

"This new product line will definitely bring Piedmont further in the water treatment industry. We expect that the FRP cartridge filter housings will significantly enlarge the scope of products Piedmont has to offer OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) and EPC (Engineering Procurement Construction) companies within the desalination industry. Also, it will boost and complement the sales of Piedmont's core product, the flexible coupling. The synergies and cross selling opportunities will scale-up sales within our existing sales network and thus enhance Piedmont's global leadership position as an equipment and component supplier for the desalination market", stated Ties Venema, Commercial Director - Spain of Piedmont.

About Piedmont

Piedmont is a global leader in corrosion resistant equipment for desalination plants and meets critical customer demand for a wide range of applications in the industrial and municipal markets. For more information, visit www.piedmontpacific.com.

About H2O Innovation

H2O Innovation designs and provides state-of-the-art, custom-built and integrated water treatment solutions based on membrane filtration technology for municipal, industrial, energy and natural resources end-users. The Corporation's activities rely on three pillars which are water and wastewater projects, specialty products & services, including a complete line of specialty chemicals, consumables, specialized products for the water treatment industry as well as control & monitoring systems, and operation & maintenance services for water and wastewater treatment systems. For more information, visit www.h2oinnovation.com.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) nor the Alternext Exchange accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the image accompanying this press release, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1076228_Piedmont.jpg

Contacts:

Source:

H2O Innovation Inc.

www.h2oinnovation.com



Contact:

Marc Blanchet

+1 418-688-0170

marc.blanchet@h2oinnovation.com




PERTH, AUSTRALIA -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 -- Mawson West Limited (TSX: MWE) ("Mawson" or the "Company") announces that effective November 15, 2016, Anthony Lloyd and Philippe Monier have resigned as directors of the Company and Bill Jaede has agreed to be appointed as a director of the Company. In addition, Mr. Lloyd has resigned as Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Company effective such date, and Mark Stowell has resigned as a director of the Company effective October 31, 2016.

Mr. Jaede is based in Brisbane, Australia and from 2009 to present has acted as Director, Trafigura Asia. Mr. Jaede has been running Trafigura's base metal concentrate business in the region, dealing with major mining companies in the Asia Pacific and the smelters in Japan and Korea, originating finance deals with mining companies to obtain production commitments and setting up logistic and port solutions for Asian mines. He previously worked for MRI Trading AG (Brisbane), Sempra Commodities (USA - Connecticut), Enron (USA - New York) and BHP Billiton (various locations including Chile, Hong Kong, USA, Australia).

As announced by the Company on October 20, 2016, Galena Private Equity Resources Fund LP ("Galena") intends to compulsorily acquire all of the remaining securities in the Company that it does not already own under the procedure set out in Part 6A.2 of the Australian Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), which is available to Galena as a result of its ownership of at least 90% by value of all of the securities in the Company that are either shares or convertible into shares. The Company will seek to delist from the Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX") once Galena gives the TSX notice that the objection period for the compulsory acquisition has ended and less than 10% of shareholders objected to the acquisition of their ordinary shares. If this has not occurred by November 21, 2016, the Company has been notified by the TSX that the Company will in any event be delisted effective at the close of market on that date due to failure by the Company to meet the continued listing requirements of the TSX.

Jesus Fernandez, a Principal of Galena and nominee of Galena to the Company's board of directors, and Dennis Wilkins remain as directors of the Company.

About Mawson West

Mawson West is a copper and silver-focused resource company with operational and technical support based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The Company's two key projects are the Dikulushi copper-silver mine and the Kapulo copper mine located in the South Eastern province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), both of which are currently on care and maintenance. Mawson West also has multiple prospective targets located within its significant land holding of approximately 7,300km2 in the DRC's rich copper belt.

About Galena Private Equity Resources Fund

Galena Private Equity Resources Fund LP is a US$400 million closed end Cayman Islands limited partnership designed to invest in the natural resources sector. Galena is managed by Galena Asset Management S.A., a Switzerland based fund manager operated by independent specialist management as part of the Trafigura Group. Galena seeks to draw on the commodity, metals and mining and technical expertise of the Trafigura Group, investing in late stage and producing assets in a variety of jurisdictions and commodities around the globe.

The Toronto Stock Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this press release.

Contacts:

Dennis Wilkins

Corporate Secretary and Non-Executive Director

+61 8 9389 2111

dennis@dwcorporate.com




MOSCOW, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Mobile TeleSystems PJSC ("MTS" or "the Company" - NYSE: MBT; MOEX: MTSS), the leading telecommunications provider in Russia and the CIS, and Samsung Electronics, the global consumer electronics and IT company, announce the launch of Wi-Fi calling in Russia enabling subscribers to make voice calls wherever there is a Wi-Fi connection (Voice over Wi-Fi).

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121115/AQ14468LOGO )



Voice calls using the Wi-Fi calling technology do not require customers to install any applications. Once customers enable the Wi-Fi calling option on their smartphone, voice calls will be automatically redirected to the Voice over Wi-Fi format, with the Wi-Fi connection acting as a base station for the customer. The key difference from existing OTT services is that a voice call is still processed using a mobile operator's network and for the subscriber it appears as an ordinary call from one mobile number to another.

Wi-Fi Calling technology enables users to make calls from locations that may be less well served by traditional cellular networks but where there is a stable Wi-Fi connection. The service is priced under current tariff plans as an ordinary call.

The service will launch in Moscow and the Moscow Region first and will be available initially to Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge users. The service will then be rolled out over wider geographical coverage and an increasing range of devices over the course of 2017.

Commenting on the launch of Wi-Fi Calling, MTS Vice President for Strategy and Marketing, Vasyl Latsanych, said: "Wi-Fi Calling represents a new step in the development of telecoms infrastructure. This is one of the most promising technological solutions aimed at enhancing network quality and expanding the coverage of mobile services for subscribers. The technology means that every Wi-Fi connection point can act as one of our base stations. It enables us to provide our clients with high-quality services even in places without access to a cellular network, without costly investments in improving indoor coverage. MTS is pleased to be the first operator to launch Wi-Fi Calling in Russia and the timing is not accidental. We have closely examined the roll-out of Wi-Fi calling by our foreign partners, and as one of the most innovative global companies, we strived to be the first to provide this kind of service for our clients in Russia. Samsung was deliberately chosen as our partner to introduce Wi-Fi Calling as Samsung smartphones are traditionally among the most popular in Russia, so we are confident that this new service will be in high demand."

"Samsung Electronics' mission is to create advanced products and services. We welcome the launch of innovative Wi-Fi Calling technology by our long-standing partner - MTS. Through this service, users of our flagship devices, Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, will be able to appreciate the high quality of the Wi-Fi modules installed in their smartphones for yet another purpose. In fact, it utilizes the same high-speed internet access but is aimed at solving a different problem - providing voice services in places where a traditional cellular network is not accessible for a variety of reasons," - commented the Head of Samsung Mobile in Russia, Arkady Graf.

* * *

For further information, please contact in Moscow:



Joshua B. Tulgan

Director, Department of Corporate Finance and Investor Relations

Mobile TeleSystems PJSC

Tel: +7 495 223 2025

E-mail: ir@mts.ru





Learn more about MTS. Visit the official blog of the Investor Relations Department at http://www.mtsgsm.com/blog/



* * *

Mobile TeleSystems PJSC ("MTS" - NYSE:MBT; MOEX:MTSS) is the leading telecommunications group in Russia and the CIS. We provide wireless Internet access and fixed voice, broadband and pay-TV to over 100 million customers who value high quality of service at a competitive price. Our wireless and fixed-line networks deliver best-in-class speeds and coverage throughout Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Turkmenistan and Belarus. To keep pace with evolving customer demand, we continue to grow through innovative products, investments in our market-leading retail platform, mobile payment services, e-commerce and IT solutions. For more information, please visit: http://www.mtsgsm.com.



* * *



Some of the information in this press release may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of MTS, as defined in the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify forward looking statements by terms such as "expect," "believe," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "will," "could," "may" or "might," and the negative of such terms or other similar expressions.We wish to caution you that these statements are only predictions and that actual events or results may differ materially. We do not undertake or intend to update these statements to reflect events and circumstances occurring after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. We refer you to the documents MTS files from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically the Company's most recent Form 20-F. These documents contain and identify important factors, including those contained in the section captioned "Risk Factors" that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections or forward-looking statements, including, among others, the severity and duration of current economic and financial conditions, including volatility in interest and exchange rates, commodity and equity prices and the value of financial assets; the impact of Russian, U.S. and other foreign government programs to restore liquidity and stimulate national and global economies, our ability to maintain our current credit rating and the impact on our funding costs and competitive position if we do not do so, strategic actions, including acquisitions and dispositions and our success in integrating acquired businesses, potential fluctuations in quarterly results, our competitive environment, dependence on new service development and tariff structures, rapid technological and market change, acquisition strategy, risks associated with telecommunications infrastructure, governmental regulation of the telecommunications industries and other risks associated with operating in Russia and the CIS, volatility of stock price, financial risk management and future growth subject to risks.



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Halle (ots) - Europa wei seit langem, dass es mehr fur seine Sicherheit tun muss. Doch bisher bremsten die Briten konsequent alle Versuche aus, die auf eine bessere Kooperation hinausgelaufen waren. Bei der Befehlsgewalt uber die eigene Truppe, die Ausrustung und das Kommando horte der Wille zum europaischen Miteinander stets auf. Das kann sich die EU kunftig ebenso wenig leisten wie die Nato. OTS: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung newsroom: http://www.presseportal.de/nr/47409 newsroom via RSS: http://www.presseportal.de/rss/pm_47409.rss2 Pressekontakt: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung Hartmut Augustin Telefon: 0345 565 4200

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
DEARBORN (dpa-AFX) - Ford Motor Co. (F) said that it is introducing its next-generation Fusion Hybrid autonomous development vehicle, just in time for CES and the North American International Auto Show in January. The company noted that the new vehicle uses the current Ford autonomous vehicle platform, but ups the processing power with new computer hardware. Electrical controls are closer to production-ready, and adjustments to the sensor technology, including placement, allow the car to better see what's around it. New LiDAR sensors have a sleeker design and more targeted field of vision, which enables the car to now use just two sensors rather than four, while still getting just as much data. The company said the next-gen Fusion Hybrid autonomous development vehicle follows the company's current generation, which hit the streets three years ago. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 -- Identillect Technologies Corp. (the "Company" or "Identillect") (TSX VENTURE: ID) is pleased to announced it has signed a European partnership with Safe Data Shop to bring a B2B encrypted email solution to their network of business clients in various industries across Europe. Their focus will be in the legal, financial, government, and real-estate industries.

Safe Data Shop, which specializes in secured data communication, has its head office in Bussum, Netherlands and also has offices throughout Europe. They currently have tens of thousands of users across Europe and anticipate this to grow by more than 30% in 2017.

This is a significant account for Identillect as it will see subscriber volume increase in the European market and is expected to provide substantial growth in 2017.

The partnership with Identillect enables Safe Data Shop clients to ensure the ability to protect its client's communications with Identillect's Delivery Trust email encryption technology.

Safe Data Shop provides security for its customers and the ability to comply with the EU Data Protection Directive to protect communication in transit. As the advancement of the EU Directive 95/46/EC, the EU Data Protection Directive progresses the demands for securing information while in transit. As of May 2016, this regulation was renamed The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which is a more stringent form of the regulation and contains more significant consequences for non-compliance. If a business is in violation they can experience fines of up to 4% of gross revenue or 20 Million Euro whichever is greater.

Safe Data Shop VP of Operations Germain van Stek states, "We have selected Identillect as our business email security provider based on their stringent security precautions and simplicity to deploy for business and personal use. Safe Data Shop has placed a tremendous amount of importance on security measures to ensure our customer's data is protected at all times and the partnership with Identillect brings an additional layer to our suite of security products."

Todd Sexton, CEO of Identillect states, "Safe Data Shop has been a long standing provider of secure communication and as the necessity to secure information has expanded to businesses of all types as well as personal communication Identillect is pleased to be a major security provider for Safe Data Shop. The growth into the European market shows the need to provide security is a worldwide issue and Identillect intends to continually expand its reach to European and Asian countries."

In 2015, Europe's security breaches comprised 12% of the world's data breach and had greater than 84 million records compromised. Europe is trending to see similar statistics for 2016 which enforces the need for security and the fact this is still a significant issue. With these breaches on the rise and the EU Protective Directive with more stringent, regulations for communicating data, the requirement to protect one's personal and business communications are critical.

About Identillect

Identillect's Delivery Trust proprietary e-mail encryption technology targets organizations of all sizes, and is sold to medical professionals on a monthly subscription basis. Delivery Trust can be accessed by medical professionals on a vast array of electronic communication devices. All messages and their attachments are secured with patented, state-of-the-art encryption technology while providing complete control of the message with the click of a button, ensuring safety and control while in transit.

Since commercializing the product, Identillect has quickly grown its subscriber base and is becoming recognized in the security industry as a top e-mail security provider. Visit https://identillect.com/ to learn more.

About Safe Data Shop

Safe Data Shop specializes in secure data communication and is headquartered in Bussum, Netherlands with various branches at home and abroad. With its products and services Safe Data Shop contributes to ensuring the privacy of its customers. Safe Data Shop only uses products with the qualification "Highest Level of Security". All products are extensively tested to ensure they meet the relevant qualification before they are offered by Safe Data Shop. This allows them to contribute to a safe working environment to transfer their customer's information securely.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements within, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward looking. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such statements will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required under the applicable laws.

Contacts:

Identillect Technologies Corp.

Todd Sexton

Chief Executive Officer

Tel: (949) 468-7878

Email: todd.sexton@identillect.com



Investor Relations:

Arlen Hansen

Kin Communications

1-866-684-6730

id@kincommunications.com




TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 -- Metals Creek Resources Corp. (TSX VENTURE: MEK) (the "Company") is pleased to announce drill results from the first hole of a recently completed six hole drill program on the Ogden Gold Project in Timmins, Ontario.(see MEK news release dated September 20, 2016). A total of 2382 m was drilled, targeting the down dip extension of the Thomas Ogden Zone (TOG) as well as testing for secondary fold structures. This initial hole intersected the TOG horizon and returned an intersection of 5.73 grams per ton (g/t) gold over 8.2 meters (m). Assay results from the other five holes are pending. The Property is held under a joint venture in which Metals Creek owns 50%, and Goldcorp Canada Ltd. ("Goldcorp") owns 50% (as manager and on behalf of the Porcupine Joint Venture, a joint venture between Goldcorp Inc. and Goldcorp Canada Ltd.) with MEK being the operator of the project. The Ogden claims cover eight kilometers of strike length of the Porcupine-Destor Fault between Goldcorp's 16 million oz. Dome Mine and Tahoe Resources West Timmins Mine. The vast majority of the Porcupine-Destor Fault on the property is underexplored, compared to other properties in the Timmins Gold camp.

TOG-16-47 was designed to further define the TOG horizon along an interpreted primary fold structure which appears to be an important structural control for the location of high grade gold mineralization. The TOG horizon was intersected at a down-hole depth of 222.3 m and assayed 5.73 g/t gold over 8.2 m, visible gold was noted in this intersection. This intersection is described as a strongly altered conglomerate characterized by strong albitization and silicification associated with 1 to 5% disseminated pyrite, with local arsenopyrite. A second zone of similar mineralization was intersected, from 281.35 to 288.64m and returned 1.27 g/t gold over 7.29m. This lower gold zone is interpreted to represent a new parallel fold structure south of and below the primary fold structure. It is described as having similar geology, mineralization and alteration to that of the primary fold structure.

Reported drill intercepts are not true widths. At this time there is insufficient data to calculate true orientations.

Results from the remaining 5 holes will be released once they are received and compiled.

All split core samples were sent to Accurassay, an accredited laboratory in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The precious metals were analyzed utilizing a standard fire assay with an atomic absorption finish. As part of the Corporations QAQC protocol, approximately 10% of the samples submitted for assay were also sent for check assays. Standards and blanks were inserted randomly into the sample shipments as part of the sampling protocol. Samples with fire assay results above 1.0 g/t gold are re-analyzed using a gravimetric finish and samples with fire assay results above 5.0 g/t gold or samples showing visible gold are analyzed using the pulp metallic method.

Metals Creek has been accepted to participate in the Junior Exploration Assistance Program (JEAP) grant of upto 33.3% of approved exploration expenses up to a maximum of $100,000 on the Ogden Project. MEK would like to thank the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund and the Ontario Prospectors Association for the opportunity to participate in this program.

Michael MacIsaac, P.Geo and VP Exploration for the Corporation and a qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, is responsible for this release, and supervised the preparation of the information forming the basis for this release.

About Metals Creek Resources Corp.

Metals Creek Resources Corp. is a junior exploration company incorporated under the laws of the Province of Ontario, is a reporting issuer in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario, and has its common shares listed for trading on the Exchange under the symbol "MEK". Metals Creek has earned a 50% interest in the Ogden Gold Property, including the former Naybob Gold mine, located 6 km south of Timmins, Ontario and has a 8 km strike length of the prolific Porcupine-Destor Fault (P-DF) that stretches between Timmins, Ontario and Val d'Or, Quebec. The Company has also recently entered into a JV with Benton Resources on Metals Creeks Staghorn Gold Project in Newfoundland. Metals Creek has also made a new gold/silver discovery in the "White Gold District" on the Squid East project in the Yukon and is also engaged in the identification, acquisition, exploration and development of other mineral resource properties, and presently has mining interests in Ontario, Yukon and Newfoundland and Labrador. Additional information concerning the Corporation is contained in documents filed by the Corporation with securities regulators, available under its profile at www.sedar.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Twitter.com/MetalsCreekRes

Facebook.com/MetalsCreek

Contacts:

Metals Creek Resources Corp.

Alexander (Sandy) Stares

President and CEO

Telephone: (709)-256-6060

(709)-256-6061 (FAX)

Email: astares@metalscreek.com

www.MetalsCreek.com




NEW YORK CITY (dpa-AFX) - Pfizer Inc. (PFE) said that new results from the Phase 3 Oral Psoriatic Arthritis TriaL (OPAL) studies, Broaden and Beyond, will be presented at the 2016 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting from November 11 to 16 in Washington, DC. OPAL Broaden and OPAL Beyond evaluated the efficacy and safety of Xeljanz, or tofacitinib citrate, in adult patients with active psoriatic arthritis or PsA who had an inadequate response (IR) to conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs or to tumor necrosis factor inhibitors, respectively. Pfizer noted that OPAL Broaden and OPAL Beyond met their primary efficacy endpoints, showing a statistically significant improvement with tofacitinib 5 mg and 10 mg twice daily compared to treatment with placebo at three months as measured by American College of Rheumatology 20 (ACR20) response. OPAL Broaden, which was a 12-month duration trial with a three month placebo-controlled period, evaluated the efficacy and safety of tofacitinib 5 mg and 10 mg BID compared to placebo in adult patients with active PsA who had an IR to at least one csDMARD and who were TNFi-naive. OPAL Beyond focused exclusively on the TNFi-IR patient population. In both studies, patients who were initially randomized to placebo advanced to tofacitinib 5 or 10 mg BID in a blinded manner at three months. Michael Corbo, Chief Development Officer, Inflammation & Immunology, Pfizer Global Product Development said, 'As the only JAK inhibitor being investigated in psoriatic arthritis, tofacitinib, if approved, would provide patients and healthcare professionals the first medicine in a new class to treat this disease. We continue to progress the OPAL clinical development program globally and look forward to possible future regulatory filings.' Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --In high schools across the world, most students graduate without any exposure to the concepts of market economics. The Lithuanian Free Market Institute (LFMI), based in Vilnius, sought to change that by developing its Economics in 31 Hours textbook, which has been awarded this year's prestigious Templeton Freedom Award. The award, generously supported by the Templeton Religion Trust, was presented during Atlas Network's Freedom Dinner on Nov. 10 in New York City at the historic Capitale.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161115/439465

"The importance of economic thinking cannot be underestimated," said Ailvinas A ilA-nas, CEO ofLithuanian Free Market Institute. "Our individual and societal well-being depends on it. Unfortunately, economic education in schools is shallow at best, and incorrect at worst. Our aspiration is to win the battle for freedom of young minds. We are happy we have accomplished so much in pursuing this goal in an area where free-market ideas normally are not heard, in public schools and within the national school curriculum."

Economics in 31 Hours teaches how property rights, free exchange, profit, and competition shape decision-making in everyday life. Released in August 2015, the textbook is already used as part of the compulsory national curriculum by more than 60 percent of Lithuania's 9th and 10th graders, which amounts to more than 20,000 students. Instrumental in this success was official approval of Economics in 31 Hours by the Ministry of Education and Science and its registration as a recommended textbook for secondary schools.

Awarded since 2004, the Templeton Freedom Award is named for the late investor and philanthropist Sir John Templeton. The award annually honors his legacy by identifying and recognizing the most exceptional and innovative contributions to the understanding of free enterprise, and the public policies that encourage prosperity, innovation, and human fulfillment via free competition.

"Sir John was probably most famous for his foresight in making investments that bear fruit in the long run," said Brad Lips, CEO of Atlas Network. "LFMI's ability to immerse nearly an entire country's young people in sound economic ideas represents an investment that is sure to bear immeasurable fruit both now and long into the future."

LFMI set out to produce an alternative curriculum that would build a solid foundation for free enterprise education and elevate the profile, relevance, and quality of economics education in Lithuania's upper secondary schools. The textbook includes lessons that develop an understanding of free enterprise and free competition among the younger generation as keys to advancing prosperity, innovation, and human fulfillment; and shape the way both students and teachers understand economics as an integral and inherent part of a complex social reality.

In a country that only a short time ago was under communist control, Economics in 31 Hours is giving the next generation of Lithuanian youth a fighting chance to learn the economics of freedom.

LFMI received a $100,000 prize for winning the award and the five runners-up each received $25,000. LFMI also won the 2014 Templeton Freedom Award for its Municipal Performance Index for Freedom and Free Enterprise, which measures and ranks the performance of municipal governments in three overarching categories: municipalities for citizens, municipalities for investors, and municipal governance and administration.

About Atlas Network

Washington-based Atlas Network is a nonprofit organization that strengthens the worldwide freedom movement by connecting more than 450 independent partners in over 90 countries that share the vision of a free, prosperous, and peaceful world where limited governments defend the rule of law, private property, and free markets. AtlasNetwork.org
Zurich - F10, Switzerland's premiere Fintech Incubator and Accelerator offers two, six-month "Prototype to Product (P2)" programs per year which assist up to 20 selected, promising Startups to transition their prototype into a sellable product.

After a really successful Grand Opening of the P2 program's winter session on November 7th, which included such prominent guests as Member of the Swiss National Council Fathi Derder (FDP), F10 is now opening up applications for the next batch of Startups to join the next session in 2017!

Markus Graf, Head of F10, was deeply impressed at the level of the pitches that were presented by the fi rst batch and is looking forward to the new applications. As for what the current batch of Startups will produce in the next six months the members of the F10 Association, Julius Bar Bank and PwC Switzerland had this to ...

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Cardlytics, a purchase intelligence platform, today announced that Peter Gleason has joined the company as President of International Operations. Gleason will lead sales and operations of international markets, based in Cardlytics' European headquarters in London.

"Peter has a record of successfully growing international teams, which aligns well with our corporate goals," said Scott Grimes, CEO of Cardlytics. "Peter will be a key part of our company's future growth, and we're excited to have him as part of our team."

A nearly 25-year veteran of the analytics-driven marketing industry, Gleason was most recently the Managing Director and President of Intelligence Shopper Solutions for Aimia, a data-driven marketing and loyalty analytics company. Gleason has also led and grown sales teams at dunnhumby, Catalina Marketing UK, Kimberly-Clark, Mars Confectionery, and Gillette.

About Cardlytics

Cardlytics uses purchase-based intelligence to make marketing more relevant and measurable. We partner with more than 1,500 financial institutions to run their banking rewards programs that promote customer loyalty and deepen banking relationships. In turn, we have a secure view into where and when consumers are spending their money. We use these insights to help marketers identify, reach and influence likely buyers at scale, as well as measure the true sales impact of marketing campaigns. Headquartered in Atlanta, Cardlytics has offices in London, New York, Chicago and San Francisco. Learn more at www.cardlytics.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115005356/en/

Contacts:

Headland Consultancy

Tom James, +44 207 367 5240

tjames@headlandconsultancy.com

or

Ingrid Valk, +44 20 3805 4841

ivalk@headlandconsultancy.com
LONDON, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Google SponsoredAds.Partners is a certified partner offering small to medium size businesses cost effective Google products, without any forms of contract. Established in 2008 - Offices in London, Manchester & Florida.

It looks like Google Ad Doctor is testing a new local ads format in the search results and it could be a game changer. What Google Ad Doctor is testing is captured on the website link https://sponsoredads.partners/game-changer-google-ad-doctor-new-local-ads/

You can see theyadded 3 local paid ad listings above the fold with a map. This newlocal sponsored ads Google is testing doesn't even look like a sponsored ads.It's very sneaky and blends in very well with the organic search results.

We believe this change is pretty drastic change if it gets released, so we decided to run a click test on the two search results.Below is the click test for the new ad format, on the website - https://sponsoredads.partners/game-changer-google-ad-doctor-new-local-ads/

You can see that with the new local search results, Google Ad Doctor has the local ads at the top of the page and this seems to be receiving the majority of the clicks based on our click test.If this change comes into play, local ads will become super important to any query that serves up these kinds of ads. As we've said over and over, it's a "pay to play" environment with Google.

Here are the click results from the current search result - please visit https://sponsoredads.partners/game-changer-google-ad-doctor-new-local-ads/

Notice with the current search results page we see more clicks on the organic (free) parts of the page.

Now if I was Google and wanted to increase revenues through our paid advertising platform, which search results page would I serve up....?

You bet,it'd be the new one!

My guess is this new search result test will soon become the new norm. Get ready to pay for your visibility in local search.

Google Ad Doctor is managed by SponsoredAds.Partners, and only offered to selected companies, so look out for a call, as they come on a first come first serve basis.

To find out more, visit http://www.sponsoredads.partners

Tom Woodland | accounts@sponsoredads.partners
ST. JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 -- Altius Minerals Corporation ("Altius") (TSX: ALS) is pleased to report the execution of a Heads of Agreement ("HOA") with an ASX listed company, Emu NL ("Emu"), related to the Vidalita gold project in Chile. As consideration for the option of the Project, Altius' 49% owned Chilean subsidiaries will receive up to 15 million Emu shares (with 2.5M issued on signing and shareholder approval) and retain a 1% NSR royalty. Minimum exploration expenditures of US$1.0M have been committed to the project over the initial 24 months of the agreement.

The Vidalita gold project, located approximately 200 km east from the city of Copiapo in the Atacama Region of Chile, comprises 2,800 hectares of mineral exploration concessions that host alteration and mineralization styles that are considered geologically similar to other high sulphidation oxide gold deposits of the Maricunga gold belt. No known previous exploration has occurred on the project. The project is accessed using a network of roads that link Copiapo with the Refugio mine (Kinross) and the Caspiche project (Kinross/Barrick). Vidalita is located 30 km to the southeast of Refugio.

Geological mapping has defined a 2 km2 area of combined advanced argillic alteration and intense silicification coincident with mercury, bismuth and arsenic, characteristic of Maricunga style epithermal gold deposits. Preliminary rock sampling carried out on the claims included a total of 113 rock chip and grab samples, of which 51 assayed over the gold detection limit, 14 contained over 0.1 g/t, with a maximum of 5.5 g/t gold. Mineralization appears to be hosted within Oligocene (30 to 35 Ma) andesitic lava flows and is partly obscured by late Miocene (7 to 8 Ma) andesite cover rocks. Emu plans to commence its exploration program in early 2017.

The Vidalita concessions are directly wholly held by Altius subsidiaries, Prospex SpA and BLC SpA, both of which are supported by the Chilean Government's Fenix Program. Other portions of the project are held pursuant to an underlying option agreement with a local private company entitling the Altius subsidiaries to purchase a 100% interest.

Lawrence Winter, Ph.D., P.Geo., VP Exploration for Altius, and Diego Charchaflie, M.Sc., P.Geo., Exploration Manager for Prospex SpA and BLC SpA, are the qualified persons as defined by NI 43-101 guidelines responsible for the technical data presented herein and have reviewed and approved this release.

About Altius

Altius diversified royalties and streams generate revenue from 14 operating mines located throughout Canada and, more recently, Brazil, from copper, zinc, nickel, cobalt, precious metals, potash and thermal (electrical) and metallurgical coal. The portfolio also includes numerous pre-development stage royalties covering a wide spectrum of mineral commodities and jurisdictions. Altius also has a broad portfolio of precious and base metals exploration projects in North America, Europe and South America and is dedicated to attracting partners to these projects for the purpose of advancing them towards discovery and development, consistent with its proven project generation business model.

Altius has 43,373,854 shares issued and outstanding that are listed on Canada's Toronto Stock Exchange. It is a member of both the S&P/TSX Small Cap and S&P/TSX Global Mining Indices.

Contacts:

Altius Minerals Corporation

Chad Wells

Vice President Corporate Development

Toll Free: 1-877-576-2209

709-576-3441 (FAX)

info@altiusminerals.com

www.altiusminerals.com




IRVING, TX -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 -- The company formerly known as B2-USA in the United States, and its group company, Beyontec Solutions, have consolidated their corporate brand under the name, Beyontec. In addition, the company's product, formerly known as EZ*Insure, is re-branded as the Beyontec Suite. As part of the overall re-branding effort, Beyontec also has launched a new website and stepped up its communications efforts to promote its recent successes. The new site is just one element in a comprehensive program of marketing communications to appear in a variety of media.

"Since 2008, we've been committed to creating a platform for processing property/casualty business that is as comprehensive as it is efficient," said Vivek Sethia, co-founder and CEO at Beyontec Solutions, Inc. "After bringing the Beyontec Suite to the US market through B2-USA, we're now ready to consolidate our global brands, unify our operations, and market the Suite more aggressively. We're encouraged by our success to date, and we look forward to helping more P&C insurers achieve competitive operational edges."

The Beyontec Suite is a fully developed, highly configurable, real-time, multi-line administration system for carriers and MGAs in the property/casualty insurance industry. It implements quickly with secure, scalable web delivery. It comprises modules for policy, claims, billing, portals, reinsurance, financial accounting, reports, and configuration tools. Its configurability doesn't require programming or IT intervention. The configurability of its Workflow Engine lets insurers and their constituents do business the way they want to do it. And with the Suite's intuitive interfaces and portals, employees and agents are more productive, while policyholders have access to the information they need and want.

About Beyontec

Beyontec, with US headquarters in Irving, Texas, is a privately held company that provides its workflow-driven, fully configurable software, the Beyontec Suite, to the property/casualty insurance industry. The fully configurable Beyontec Suite gives insurers the independence and self-sufficiency they want, letting them configure products, processes, and workflows to suit their needs and preferences. For more information, please visit www.beyontec.com, email sales@beyontec.com, or call 940-294-8080.

Media contact:

JoAnna Bennett

860-333-5009

Email Contact




PUNE, India, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The report "Smart Connected Assets and Operations Market by Module (Hardware-Sensors, Processors, Network Connectivity- Wired & Wireless; APM Software & Platform, and Services- Professional & Managed), Industry, and Geography - Global Forecast to 2022", published by MarketsandMarkets, was valued at USD 103.82 Billion in 2015 and is expected to reach USD 215.53 Billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 10.26% during the forecast period.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )

Browse 65 market data Tables and 74 Figures spread through 198 Pages and in-depth TOC on"Smart Connected Assets and Operations Market"

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/smart-connected-assets-and-operations-market-131281533.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.

Factors such as growing demand for better operational performance, reduction in cost & energy, and increase in manufacturing agility are driving the growth of the smart connected assets and operations market.

Automotive and transportation expected to hold the largest market share during the forecast period

The automotive and transportation sector held the largest share in the smart connected assets and operations market in 2015, followed by the healthcare sector. The IoT platform in transportation application provides a range of infotainment, traffic, navigation, vehicle maintenance, security, and safety features. IoT in transportation forms an entirely novel mobile platform by bringing together component suppliers, auto manufacturers, telecom vendors, and content providers.

APM Software and platform for smart connected assets and operations market expected to grow at the highest rate between 2016 and 2022

The APM software and platform plays an important role in the Smart Connected Assets and Operations Market. The companies have already installed, set up with the traditional equipment and hardware. For connecting the assets and operations smartly, IIoT platform and software is required, which is used to manage the asset's performance (APM software) to generate better operational performance. Therefore, the APM software and platform market is expected to grow at a higher rate than the hardware components.

Smart connected assets and operations market in APAC likely to grow at a high rate during the forecast period

Several initiatives have been taken up by the Government of India such as Make in India and Digital India is one of the major factors supporting the growth of the smart connected assets and operations market in APAC. As China and Japan are the leading countries in semiconductor and electronics industry, due to this the scope for smart connected assets and operations system is high. Such initiatives by the government and companies are driving the smart connected assets and operations market.

Inquiry Before Buying: http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=131281533

Major players operating in the smart connected assets and operations market include Intel Corporation (U.S.), Cisco System Inc. (U.S), IBM Corporation (U.S.), ARM holding plc (U.K.), General Electric Company (U.S.), Texas Instruments (U.S.), Cypress Semiconductor (U.S.), Rockwell Automation (U.S.), NXP Semiconductor (Netherlands), and STMicroelectronics N.V. (Switzerland).

Browse Related Reports

IoT Sensors Market by Type (Pressure, Temperature, Humidity, Magnetometer, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Inertial, Image), Network Technology (Wired & Wireless), Vertical (Consumer IoT, Commercial IoT, Industrial IoT), and Region - Global Forecast to 2022

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/sensors-iot-market-26520972.html

Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Connections Market by Technology (Wired, Wireless), Industry (Healthcare, Utilities, Retail, Consumer Electronics, Automotive & Transportation, Security & Surveillance, Others), and by Geography - Forecast to 2020

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/machine-to-machine-market-732.html

Subscribe Reports from Semiconductor Domain @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Knowledgestore.asp

About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets is the largest market research firm worldwide in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to a multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors.

M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical info graphics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers.

We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository.

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Westport Capital Partners LLC ("Westport" or "WCP"), the independent real estate investment advisor, today announced that it has named two new executives to its team. Erin Kerr has joined the firm as Vice President, Investor Relations, and Kevin McTavish has been named a Director of Westport Capital Partners (UK) LLP.

Ms. Kerr will focus on managing investor relations for the WCP Special Core Plus Fund, as well as expanding investor relations and investment opportunities at Westport. She is based in the firm's Wilton, CT office and reports to Hy Adelman, Senior Vice President, Marketing/Client Relations.

Most recently, from 2012 to 2016, Ms. Kerr focused on raising global capital for both funds and direct investment joint ventures as a Senior Director at Tishman Speyer in New York, NY. Prior to that, she was a Director at Eurohypo AG. Ms. Kerr has also worked at The Bank of New York and the Citigroup Private Bank. She holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Rochester.

Mr. McTavish, who has over 30 years of experience in the real estate industry, will be based in the firm's London office. He will be responsible for Westport's European endeavors and will report to Jordan Socaransky, who is a Principal at Westport.

Prior to joining Westport, Mr. McTavish spent twelve years as the Managing Partner of Summit Capital, LLC, where he acquired and managed distressed and value-added real estate assets. Before that, he was a Principal and the Chief Operating Officer of Colony Capital, LLC. Earlier, he was an Acquisitions and Portfolio Manager at Brazos Asset Management, which became Lone Star Opportunity Fund. Mr. McTavish served in the United States Navy for seven years. He holds a B.S. from the United States Naval Academy and an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business.

"We are very pleased to welcome Erin and Kevin to our team," said Russel S. Bernard, Managing Principal of WCP. "We believe Erin's deep industry knowledge will bring meaningful value to Westport as we enhance our communication with investors. Kevin's wide-ranging experience in due diligence, acquisitions, development, portfolio and asset management, and dispositions will enhance our overseas efforts."

About Westport Capital Partners

Westport Capital Partners LLC is a real estate investment firm which provides domestic and international real estate related investment opportunities to institutional and private clients. Through its various funds, the firm invests in a wide variety of distressed, opportunistic and core plus real estate assets. As of September 30, 2016, Westport Capital Partners LLC has approximately $1.8 billion in assets under management. The firm has offices in Los Angeles, California; Wilton, Connecticut; Bozeman, Montana; and London, England. For more information regarding Westport Capital Partners LLC, please visit www.westportcp.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115006093/en/

Contacts:

Media:

Owen Blicksilver Public Relations, Inc.

Caroline Luz, 203-656-2829

caroline@blicksilverpr.com
OSLO, NORWAY and LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM and STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN and PARIS, FRANCE and NEW YORK, NY -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 -- Varnish Software, a pioneer in caching software and high-performance content delivery, today announced Varnish Plus with parallel ESI and Edgestash, new features that significantly improve content delivery on mobile, enhancing user experience and content engagement. The new release of Varnish Plus also includes highly scalable TCP acceleration to speed up application and content delivery by up to 40 percent.

As the percentage of consumers accessing the web via mobile devices continues to climb, increasing the speed of mobile content delivery is a bigger priority than ever before. This new version of Varnish Plus, built on the best-in-class caching software, Varnish Cache, includes two new groundbreaking features that deliver significant improvements to users' web performance on mobile devices:

Parallel ESI -- Addressing the challenges of web infrastructure scaling, this feature enables a web page to immediately seek out and fetch needed fragments all at the same time which kills latency and provides excellent responsiveness for ESI-heavy pages. The result is a significant performance increase, delivering dynamic webpages up to 75 percent faster.

Edgestash -- A pure templating language that quickly does the actual page assembly at the network edge, speeding up delivery for mobile web pages. This feature allows for content rendering "on the wire" by moving the page assemble logic from the browser to the edge (server side). Client-side logic and page assembly can still exist, but when complemented with this kind of edge-side rendering, it becomes much more manageable and high performance, especially on mobile.

These two new features will be gradually rolled out during the coming weeks.

The new version of Varnish Plus is also ideal for dynamic content transmission across a wide range of web applications and streaming content accessed by a broad set of users and devices. New features include:

Highly scalable intelligent TCP -- Improves application and content delivery and relieves congestion on networks with high latency.

High-performance software load balancing -- Distributes web traffic requests among different servers to ensure high availability and optimal traffic management while avoiding overload of any one server and defending against denial of service attacks.

Truly dynamic backends -- Makes cloud deployments easy by providing flexible DNS-driven backend definitions.

SSL-TLS to backend servers -- Provides one modern, minimalistic and fast TLS proxy that improves website security by encrypting communication without relying on third-party solutions.

Enhanced persistence -- Massive Storage Engine (MSE) cache contents persist through intentional or unintentional restarts, avoiding costly retransmission of large video or data sets.

"We are living in a new digital era where consumers are demanding a more personalized and instant web experience accessible from any device over any network. If your service is not living up to these expectations your users will move their online time and business elsewhere. This evolution presents new challenges to your content delivery architecture. We are now introducing a series of innovations to help businesses overcome these challenges," said Lars Larsson CEO, Varnish Software.

Availability and pricing

Varnish Plus is available from Varnish-Software.com on a subscription-based pricing model starting at $31,000 for a three-node cluster. The Varnish Plus Intelligent TCP accelerator component is priced separately, starting at $4,000. Varnish Plus is also available on the AWS marketplace. Learn more about the Varnish Plus cloud offering here.

Interactive resources

Join our live webinar 4 ways to speed your web & mobile, January 17th at 4pm CET/ 10am EST.

Contact Varnish Software to find out more about this latest release of Varnish Plus and to try it for yourself in a free, no-risk trial.

Find out more about Varnish Plus: https://www.varnish-software.com/products/varnish-plus/

About Varnish Software

Varnish Software is a pioneer in high-performance digital content delivery including web scaling, API management and content distribution. Powered by a uniquely flexible caching technology, Varnish Software's products, are the indispensable common denominators among the world's most popular websites and brands, such as The New York Times, Vimeo, Tesco, Nikon, and Tesla. Varnish Software's solutions enable organizations worldwide to provide fast and reliable digital content delivery at any scale while giving them the flexibility to maintain control over their content and make the technology their own. Varnish Software has offices in London, New York, Los Angeles, Stockholm, Oslo and Paris.

Varnish Software press contact:

Hildur Smaradottir

Global VP - Marketing

Varnish Software Group

E-mail: Email Contact

Tel: +47 90 18 17 50




OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 -- Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. ("Cornerstone" or "the Company") (TSX VENTURE: CGP)(FRANKFURT: GWN)(BERLIN: GWN)(OTCBB: CTNXF) announces that the Board of Directors of the Company has approved the granting of stock options totaling 9.4 million to directors, officers, consultants and employees of the Company effective November 15, 2016. These options have been priced at $0.15 and have an expiry date of November 15, 2021. As per the Company's Stock Option Plan, these options vest in three equal tranches over an eighteen-month period from the date of issue.

Following this stock option grant the Company has a total of 24,245,333 stock options outstanding, which represents approximately 8% of the Company's issued and outstanding common shares.

About Cornerstone:

Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. is a well-funded mineral exploration company with a diversified portfolio of projects in Ecuador and Chile, and a proven ability to identify, acquire and advance properties of merit. The company's business model is based on generating exploration projects whose subsequent development is funded primarily through partnerships.

Further information is available on Cornerstone's website: www.cornerstoneresources.com and on Twitter.

Cautionary Notice:

This news release may contain 'Forward-Looking Statements' that involve risks and uncertainties, such as statements of Cornerstone's plans, objectives, strategies, intentions and expectations. The words "potential," "anticipate," "forecast," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "may," "project," "plan," and similar expressions are intended to be among the statements that identify 'Forward-Looking Statements.' Although Cornerstone believes that its expectations reflected in these 'Forward-Looking Statements' are reasonable, such statements may involve unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors disclosed in our regulatory filings, viewed on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. For us, uncertainties arise from the behaviour of financial and metals markets, predicting natural geological phenomena and from numerous other matters of national, regional, and global scale, including those of an environmental, climatic, natural, political, economic, business, competitive, or regulatory nature. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our Forward-Looking Statements. Although Cornerstone believes the facts and information contained in this news release to be as correct and current as possible, Cornerstone does not warrant or make any representation as to the accuracy, validity or completeness of any facts or information contained herein and these statements should not be relied upon as representing its views subsequent to the date of this news release. While Cornerstone anticipates that subsequent events may cause its views to change, it expressly disclaims any obligation to update the Forward-Looking Statements contained herein except where outcomes have varied materially from the original statements.

On Behalf of the Board,

Brooke Macdonald, President and 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.

Contacts:

For investor, corporate or media inquiries, please contact:

Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc.

Investor Relations

(613) 421-6923

ir@cornerstoneresources.ca

www.cornerstoneresources.com






WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The number of international students enrolled in U.S. higher education increased by 7.1 percent and topped one million mark for the first time, figures from 2015-2016 show.



The 2016 Open Doors data shows that the number of international students reached 1,043,839 students in 2015/16, with 69,000 more students than the prior year at colleges and universities across the United States. This marks the tenth consecutive year that Open Doors reported expansion in the total number of international students in U.S. higher education. There are now 85 percent more international students studying at U.S. colleges and universities than were reported a decade ago, it said Monday.



International students now represent just over five percent of the more than 20 million students enrolled in U.S. higher education, up from around four percent in previous years. This increase is due to both the growing numbers of international students and a small decline in the number of American students enrolled in U.S. higher education.



For the second year in a row, the largest growth was in the number of students from India, primarily at the graduate level and in optional practical training (OPT). It soared by 25 percent to a record high. China remains the top sending country, with almost twice the number of students in the U.S. as India, but India's rate of growth and absolute increases outpaced China's.



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CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 -- STORAGEVAULT CANADA INC. ("StorageVault" or the "Corporation") (TSX VENTURE: SVI) reported the Corporation's 2016 third quarter and nine months year to date results. Iqbal Khan, Chief Financial Officer, commented:

"We continue to achieve and exceed our acquisition plan, having closed or announced $114.5 million in acquisitions so far this year, combined with success on improving our operational results. With Q3 traditionally being the strongest quarter of the year, and with the performance of the stores acquired in 2015 being solid, we are on pace to achieve our expected annual results. To the end of quarter, we closed $78.7 million in acquisitions, closed a bought deal raise for gross proceeds of $57.5 million, issued an additional $7.1 in common shares to vendors in asset acquisitions, declared our third quarter dividend and increased net operating income from the prior quarter by 19.1%."

2016 Third Quarter Results

Revenue for the third quarter increased to $7.3 million compared to $6.3 million in Q2 2016 and net operating income grew to $4.5 million in the third quarter from $3.8 million in Q2 2016. The strong growth in revenue and NOI is the result of execution of our revenue management program, continued integration of acquired stores, and as well Q3 being the strongest quarter of the year. We continue to see increases in Q3 2016 revenue and NOI from existing self storage stores when compared to the same period last year, with revenue increasing by 18.5% and NOI increasing by 22.4%. The net loss of $0.5 million in Q3 2016 is the result of $0.4 million in acquisition and integration costs and $2.9 million of depreciation. Funds from operations (FFO) were $2.4 million for Q3 2016 compared to $1.7 million in Q2 2016.

2016 Nine Months Year to Date Results

Revenue for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 increased to $18.9 million compared to $6.3 million and NOI grew to $11.3 million from $3.2 million, for the same comparative period. Our revenue management program and continued integration of assets resulted in revenue and NOI from existing self storage increasing by 14.2% and 20.4%, respectively, compared to the same period last year. The net loss of $2.5 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 is a result of $0.9 million in acquisition and integration costs and $7.6 million of depreciation. FFO was $5.0 million for the nine months compared to the 2015 full year FFO of $1.4 million.

Our Strategy

StorageVault is focused on owning and operating stores in the top markets in Canada. Our goal is to have multiple stores in each market, with complementary portable storage units, to take advantage of economies of scale. Our growth strategy is focused on acquisitions, organic growth, expansion of our existing stores and expansion of our portable storage business.

Further Information

For comprehensive disclosure of StorageVault's performance for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 and its financial position as at such date, please see StorageVault's Interim Consolidated Financial Statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Non-IFRS Financial Measures

Management uses both IFRS and Non-IFRS Measures to assess the financial and operating performance of the Corporation's operations. These Non-IFRS Measures are not recognized measures under IFRS, do not have a standardized meaning under IFRS and are unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. The Non-IFRS Measures referenced in this news release include the following:

i. Net Operating Income ("NOI") - NOI is defined as storage and related services less related operating costs. NOI does not include interest expense or income, depreciation and amortization, selling, general and administrative costs, acquisition and integration costs, stock based compensation costs or taxes. NOI assists management in assessing profitability and valuation from principal business activities. ii. Funds from Operations ("FFO") - FFO is defined as net income (loss) excluding gains or losses from the sale of depreciable real estate, plus depreciation and amortization, stock based compensation expenses, and deferred income taxes; and after adjustments for equity accounted entities and non-controlling interests. The Corporation believes that FFO can be a beneficial measure, when combined with primary IFRS measures, to assist in the evaluation of the Corporation's ability to generate cash and evaluate its return on investments as it excludes the effects of real estate amortization and gains and losses from the sale of real estate, all of which are based on historical cost accounting and which may be of limited significance in evaluating current performance. iii.Existing Self Storage - means stores that the StorageVault has owned or leased since the beginning of the previous fiscal year.

NOI and FFO, and Existing Self Storage, should not be viewed as an alternative to, in isolation from, or superior to, net income or cash flow from operations, or results from StorageVault's comprehensive operations, respectively, or other measures calculated in accordance with IFRS. NOI and FFO should not be interpreted as an indicator of cash generated from operating activities and is not indicative of cash available to fund operating expenditures, or for the payment of cash distributions. Existing Self Storage should not be considered a measure of StorageVault's comprehensive operations. NOI, FFO and Existing Self Storage are simply additional measures of operating performance which highlight trends in StorageVault's core business that may not otherwise be apparent when relying solely on IFRS financial measures. StorageVault's management also uses these non-IFRS measures in order to facilitate operating performance comparisons from period to period and to prepare operating budgets.

About StorageVault Canada Inc.

StorageVault owns and operates storage locations in the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia.

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" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward-looking information. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking information regarding: the Corporation's strategic objectives, focus, goals and growth strategy; and statements regarding StorageVault's expected future performance, including revenue and NOI growth, and the ability to achieve this future performance. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. This forward-looking information reflects StorageVault's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to StorageVault and on assumptions StorageVault believes are reasonable. These assumptions include, but are not limited to: the level of activity in the storage business and the economy generally; consumer interest in the Corporation's services and products; competition and SVI's competitive advantages; the continued positive impact of the integration of previous acquisitions on StorageVault's operating and financial performance; and trends in the storage industry, including, increased growth and growth in the portable storage business. 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 StorageVault to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information.

Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; general capital market conditions and market prices for securities; delay or failure to receive board or regulatory approvals; the actual results of future operations; competition; changes in legislation, including environmental legislation, affecting StorageVault; the timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; conclusions of economic evaluations and appraisals; and lack of qualified, skilled labour or loss of key individuals. A description of additional assumptions used to develop such forward-looking information and a description of additional risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information can be found in StorageVault's disclosure documents on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. Although StorageVault has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the expectations of StorageVault as of the date of this news release and, accordingly, is subject to change after such date. However, StorageVault expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities law.

Contacts:

StorageVault Canada Inc.

Mr. Steven Scott or Mr. Iqbal Khan

1-877-622-0205

ir@storagevaultcanada.com




MUNICH, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Once again a MESSRING facility receives the renowned award

CARISSMA, the Center of Automotive Research on Integrated Safety Systems at the Ingolstadt University of Applied Sciences receives the renowned "Crashtest Facility of the Year" award from the English publishing company UKIP. The facility, which was built and designed by the German crash test manufacturer MESSRING, is one of the core elements in Europe's unique test and research center.

In receiving this award, MESSRING continues to build on its success in previous years. For the fifth time a MESSRING facility succeeded in beating out the competition. "Wee are really happy, that CARISSMA won the award. Even for us a system of this size at a university was a challenge. The award demonstrates that we aced it and positioned ourselves as a forward-looking partner", says Dierk Arp, CEO at MESSRING.

The renowned English publishing company UKIP has presented the coveted award since 2006 to honor outstanding projects and innovations in the automotive industry. The independent jury is comprised of automotive experts and experienced industry journalists from different media outlets in the automotive and safety testing industry.

For CARISSMA MESSRING delivered a MicroTrack system, an electric propulsion system especially designed for crash-test facilities, a mobile impact block, a film pit with transparent cover panels, and a variety of barriers and structures for a number of different impact scenarios to Ingolstadt.

The 77-meter crash test facility at CARISSMA was equipped with the proven MESSRING MicroTrack system. The system offers a major benefit: the guide channel is much narrower than in conventional systems, allowing for many more details to be captured in high speed video footage from below in the film pit - a key factor in evaluating vehicle crashing behavior. The special barriers supplied by MESSRING allow the university's engineers to conduct offset tests and small overlap tests, as well as pole tests. These are all mandatory crash-test variations required by individual public testing authorities (such as the well-known NCAP program with the star rating) from North America, Europe, and Asia.

The sled-test facility is powered by an electric power train developed by MESSRING especially for use in crash tests. The electric motor for the center will have a power rating of 400 kilowatts. This allows vehicles weighing a total of up to 3.0 tons to be accelerated to a speed of 65 km/h before they collide with the impact block. The special feature of this block is that it can be completely removed to clear the entire space. This allows active-safety tests, e.g. tests with braking assistance systems of vehicles, which require more space.

In June 2016 the research facility officially opened its doors at the Ingolstadt University of Applied Sciences. Beside the crash test facility the center, with total floor space of 4,000 square meters, houses a drop-tower lab, a simulation lab, a HiL (hardware-in-the-loop) laboratory as well as a multitude of networked special laboratories and institutions. For the first time, passive, active and cooperative safety systems can be tested in cooperation with each other. CARISSMA is open for joint research projects with scientists, automobile manufacturers and suppliers from all over the world.

About MESSRING

MESSRING in Krailling, close to Munich is the world's leading manufacturer of crash test systems and components. The mid-size company designs and builds turnkey test systems for customers in all relevant markets and on nearly all continents. To date, MESSRING has implemented more than 100 large crash test systems for automotive OEMs, automotive suppliers, governmental authorities and insurance companies - more than any other company. In the process, the global market leader continues to astonish the industry time and again with innovative advances and revolutionary new solutions, whether in system design, the actual measurement equipment, or in documentation and recording of individual tests.

For more information, go to http://www.messring.de

Press Contact:

Petra Schlingensiepen

Talk of Town. Wachter & Wachter

Lindwurmstrasse. 88, 80337 Munich

Phone: +49-89-747242 - 96, Fax: 60

p.schlingensiepen@waechter-waechter.de

http://www.talkoftown.de

http://www.twitter.com/talkoftown.de

http://www.facebook.com/talkoftownpr


QPACE3 Research Project to be One of the First Intel Knights Landing Installations in Europe

Asetek (OSE:ASETEK) today announced that The University of Regensburg has selected Asetek InRackCDU technology to cool one of the first Intel Xeon Phi based HPC clusters in Europe. The Fujitsu installation is a joint research project (SFB/TRR-55) with The University of Wuppertal and Julich Supercomputing Center. This installation was first disclosed by Asetek on June 22nd, 2016.

Fujitsu continues to demonstrate growing success in HPC and vision as thought leaders in high density and HPC (High Performance Computing) by utilizing liquid cooling. As a result of utilizing Asetek InRackCDU liquid cooling, the research project led by University of Regensburg will benefit from increased density and energy savings.

"Our first installation using Asetek InRackCDU highlights the flexibility of Asetek technology to address the specific needs of data centers worldwide," said John Hamill, Vice President of WW Sales and Marketing.

"With Asetek liquid cooling, we are able to provide our customers targeted solutions to their cooling problems," said Eric Schnepf, Senior Sales Specialist at Fujitsu. "InRackCDU provides the density benefits and energy savings that University of Regensburg requires in a cost effective manner."

RackCDU D2C is a hot water liquid cooling solutions that capture between 60% and 80% of server heat, reducing data center cooling cost by over 50% and allowing 2.5x-5x increases in data center server density. As deployed by Fujitsu, InRackCDU is mounted in the server rack (along with the servers themselves) and collects the heat from the servers. A key advantage of InRackCDU is that it does not take up any additional aisle space as it is mounted in the top 3U of the rack.

About Asetek

Asetek (ASETEK.OL) is the global leader in liquid cooling solutions for data centers, servers and PCs. Asetek's server products enable OEMs to offer cost effective, high performance liquid cooling data center solutions. Its PC products are targeted at the gaming and high performance desktop PC segments. With over 3.5 million liquid cooling units deployed, Asetek's patented technology is being adopted by a growing portfolio of OEMs and channel partners. Founded in 2000, Asetek is headquartered in Denmark and has operations in California, Texas, China and Taiwan.

For more information visit http://www.asetek.com.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115006162/en/

Contacts:

Asetek

Zack Fanning

Marketing Communications Manager

+1-408-256-3118

zack.fanning@asetek.com
Elektrenai, Lithuania, 2016-12-23 15:00 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB (business ID 302648707, registered office address Elektrines g. 21, Elektrenai (hereinafter referred to as the Company) hereby informs that on 23 December 2016 the Company received a notification of resignation of Mr. Adomas Birulis from the post of a member of the Company's Board. Pursuant to the Republic of Lithuania Law on Companies, the last day of Mr. Adomas Birulis term of office in the Company's Board will be 6 January 2017. Mr. Adomas Birulis was elected to the Company's Board on 17 September 2013 upon desicion of the Company's Supervisory Board. The Company will notify of the actions regarding a new member of the Company's Board election in accordance with the procedure prescribed by legislation. Valentas Neviera, Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB, Head of Corporate Communications Division, tel. +370 670 25997, e-mail: valentas.neviera@le.lt

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 15, 2016) - Pancontinental Gold Corporation (TSXV: PUC) ("Pancon Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the commencement, on Monday, November 14, 2016, of its drill program at the Company's flagship Jefferson Gold Project in Chesterfield County, South Carolina, United States. After compiling and reviewing the historic exploration data from the Jefferson Project, Pancon Gold's strategic objective is to develop an initial gold resource through a staged drilling program. This initial stage, consisting of approximately 5,000 feet (1,524 metres) of diamond drilling, will continue into early 2017.

Pancon Gold's initial drill program at Jefferson builds on the very positive results from drilling in 2011 by the previous project owners. All four holes in 2011 were drilled on Anomaly A and encountered mineralization, with the best hole averaging 1.27 grams of gold per tonne over 539 feet (164.3 metres), true width unknown. Detailed drill results for all four holes drilled in 2011 were included in Pancon Gold's news release of May 25, 2016.

Pancon Gold's drill program will again focus on the Anomaly A area, stepping out from the 2011 drill section in both directions along the east-west gold trend. Two new fences will be drilled approximately 200 feet (75 metres) west and east of the 2011 drill section. All new holes will be angled toward the south, and will range in depth from 400-600 feet (135-200 metres). Core samples will be shipped to ALS Chemex for fire assay and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) multi-element analyses. Dr. Margaret Venable, a seasoned exploration geologist with more than 30 years of experience managing and directing projects around the world, is supervising Pancon Gold's initial drill program.

Dr. Laurie Curtis, Chair of Pancon Gold's Technical Advisory Committee states "We are now ready to begin our drilling at Jefferson. I would like to compliment our team on their thorough analytical process. We fully expect this first drill program will advance the highly mineralized Jefferson Project towards achieving the Company's goal of defining an attractive initial gold resource."

The Jefferson Project is located six miles east of the Haile gold mine, which, according to its owner OceanaGold, will commence commercial production in early 2017 after completing its $380 million construction phase. Like Haile, which is a proven multi-million ounce gold resource, the Jefferson Project is part of the exceptional Carolina terrane, extending from Georgia to Virginia. The Carolina terrane spawned the first gold rush in the United States in the early 1800s, has been mined by well known producing companies until the 1990s, is host to gold deposits in South Carolina and four other States, and continues to be actively explored today.

Dr. Dennis LaPoint, PhD, LGeo, the Company's Vice-President of Exploration, is a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, and has verified and approved the technical information contained in this news release.

About Pancontinental Gold Corporation

Pancontinental Gold Corporation is a Canadian-based mining company focused on the exploration and development of the Jefferson Gold Project and on acquiring additional prospective gold properties. The Company's shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, trading under the symbol PUC. In 2015, Pancon Gold sold its interest in its Australian rare earth element (REE) and uranium properties, formerly held through a joint venture, and retains a 1% gross overriding royalty on 100% of future production.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Rick Mark

President & CEO

For further information, please contact:

Rick Mark

President and CEO

1-416-293-8437 or info@panconu.com

For additional information, please visit our website at www.PanconU.com.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Language and Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking information which is not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking information is characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, changes in the state of equity and debt markets, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in obtaining required regulatory or governmental approvals, and other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, including those risks set out in the Company's management's discussion and analysis as filed under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking information in this news release is based on the opinions and assumptions of management considered reasonable as of the date hereof, including that all necessary governmental and regulatory approvals will be received as and when expected. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, other than as required by applicable securities laws.
MOSCOW (dpa-AFX) - US President-elect Donald Trump spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time after he won the election last week. The Trump Transition team said in a statement that Putin called Trump to offer his congratulations on winning a historic election. 'During the call, the two leaders discussed a range of issues including the threats and challenges facing the United States and Russia, strategic economic issues and the historical U.S.-Russia relationship that dates back over 200 years.' The US President-elect, who had praised Putin during the election campaign, told the Russian President that he is very much looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and its people. A Kremlin statement said the two leaders will try to normalize US-Russia relationship, which is currently 'extremely unsatisfactory'. Putin, who was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Trump last Wednesday, agreed with the President-elect to stay in touch by phone and arrange to meet in person at a later date, the Kremlin added. The top-level conversation coincided with a statement from US President Barack Obama, who said his successor is committed to maintaining the United States' core strategic relationships, including NATO. The multi-nation western military alliance considers Russia as one of its potential threats, and maintains military bases in key European countries. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
ST HELIER, Jersey, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Consolidated Minerals is pleased to announce that it has been agreed that it will be acquired by the world's largest electrolytic manganese metals producer

On 15 November 2016, Consolidated Minerals' ("Consmin", the "Group" or the "Company") ultimate beneficial owner and direct shareholders ("Sellers") entered into a share purchase agreement ("SPA") with China Tian Yuan Manganese Limited ("Purchaser"), a subsidiary of Ningxia Tianyuan Manganese Industry Co., Ltd. ("TMI") pursuant to which the Sellers agreed to sell and transfer to the Purchaser all of their respective right and title to both the entire share capital of the Company and the shareholders funding given by them to the Company (the "Transaction")

The Transaction

The directors of ConsMin believe that the acquisition of the Company by the Purchaser will provide significant benefits to the Company. The Purchaser is a subsidiary of TMI, the Company's largest customer and the world's largest electrolytic manganese metals (EMM) producer. TMI has indicated its willingness to invest significant resources in developing the infrastructure supporting ConsMin's Ghanaian operations. Such investment will allow the Company to further increase the manganese ore export capacity to meet expected increasing demand for Ghanaian quality manganese ore.

The Transaction is conditional upon a number of conditions which are set out in the SPA, including, but not limited to:

certain government consents;

certain consents from the holders of the then outstanding US$400,000,000 8% Senior Secured Notes due 2020 (the " Notes "); and

8% Senior Secured Notes due 2020 (the " "); and the execution of an offtake agreement between Manganese Trading Limited ("MTL"), a subsidiary of ConsMin, and Grizal Enterprises Limited (a "Seller" in the Transaction) ("Grizal") which will become effective simultaneously with completion of the Transaction (the "Offtake Agreement").

If the conditions to the Transaction are not satisfied or waived within the period of six months from 15 November 2016 (the "Longstop Date"), the SPA shall terminate and the Transaction will not complete. The Purchaser and the ultimate beneficial owner of the Company may agree to extend the Longstop Date. Should the Longstop Date be extended, then the Company shall make a further announcement to include the revised Longstop Date.

The Company intends to solicit holders of the Notes for any required consents by initiating a consent process as soon as practicable.

Offtake Agreement

The Offtake Agreement provides that Grizal may, in its absolute discretion, purchase from MTL, in any calendar year, not more than 600,000 MT +/- 10% of Ghanaian Manganese Ore (the "Product") for a period of ten (10) years from completion of the Transaction, subject to the terms and conditions of the Offtake Agreement. The provisional price for the Product is based upon market rates, subject to a discount depending on price achieved and deductions based on quality of the delivered Product.

Mr Tianjiang Jia, the President of TMI said, "We are excited to invest in Consolidated Minerals and look forward to partnering with the existing management team in developing the company's operations for the benefit of all stakeholders".

Mr Gennadiy Bogolyubov, the ultimate beneficial owner of the Company added, "I am delighted that TMI wish to invest in ConsMin. TMI, as ConsMin's largest customer, has extensive experience in this industry and I believe that ConsMin will be well-positioned to achieve its next phase of growth and development under the ownership of TMI after the Transaction."

About Consolidated Minerals Limited

Consmin is a leading manganese ore producer with mining assets in Australia and Ghana. The principal activities of the Company and its subsidiaries (the "Group") are the exploration, mining, processing and sale of manganese products. The Group's operations are primarily conducted through four major operating/trading subsidiaries: Consolidated Minerals Pty Limited (Australia), Ghana Manganese Company Limited (Ghana), Manganese Trading Limited (Jersey) and Pilbara Trading Limited (Jersey).

Consolidated Minerals Limited is headquartered in Jersey and the address of its office is Commercial House, 3 Commercial Street, St Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands, JE2 3RU.

Important Notice



These materials may contain forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of Consolidated Minerals Limited (the "Company"). You can identify forward looking statements by terms such as "expect", "believe", "estimate", "anticipate", "intend", "will", "could", "may", or "might", the negative of such terms or other similar expressions. These forward-looking statements include matters that are not historical facts and statements regarding the Company's intentions, beliefs or current expectations concerning, among other things, the Company's results of operations, financial condition, liquidity, prospects, growth, strategies, and the industry in which the Company operates. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. The Company cautions you that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and that the Company's actual results of operations, financial condition, liquidity, prospects, growth, strategies and the development of the industry in which the Company operates may differ materially from those described in or suggested by the forward-looking statements contained in these materials. In addition, even if the Company's results of operations, financial condition, liquidity, prospects, growth, strategies and the development of the industry in which the Company operates are consistent with the forward-looking statements contained in these materials, those results or developments may not be indicative of results or developments in future periods. The Company does not intend to update these statements to reflect events and circumstances occurring after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Many factors could cause the actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements of the Company, including, among others, general economic conditions, the competitive environment, as well as many other risks specifically related to the Company and its operations, including those discussed in these materials.
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 -- Simavita Limited (ASX: SVA) today announced the release of AssessPLUS, the Company's new automated incontinence assessment solution for use by carers helping National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants and seniors living in the community and receiving Home Care Packages. AssessPLUS is simultaneously being launched in Europe and North America.

Simavita also announced today that it had been approved as an NDIS Provider under the NDIS scheme in Australia. This approval will greatly assist Simavita in delivering product to carers and directly to NDIS participants via the NDIS portal.

AssessPLUS is a new and easy to use product developed by Simavita to help people and their carers who live at home and struggle with the management of incontinence.

AssessPLUS:

-- Easy for carers to use, right out of the box, no training required; -- Highly cost effective and designed to reduce the ongoing cost of managing incontinence; -- Delivers fast and automated care plans; and -- Delivers real improvements in quality of life expectations including complications associated with dehydration, falls and injuries, skin ulcers and urinary infections.

Simavita anticipates major market opportunities nationally as well as internationally for AssessPLUS. Governments and insurance agencies are moving toward service programs designed to better assist people in need, to stay in their family homes longer. These programs incorporate the cost effective provision of services to a rapidly growing population who are incontinent and struggle with costs as well as the many care related problems that are associated with incontinence.

We believe that Simavita's new AssessPLUS product is focused on significantly improving the management of incontinence and associated problems, as a key criteria in helping people stay in their homes longer, whilst reducing the overall cost of incontinence.

Australian government agencies are rapidly rolling out the AUD$22bn NDIS, whilst the federal government has implemented Home Care Packages designed to deliver greater assistance to seniors, so as to keep them living at home.

The NDIS is anticipated to invest significantly in helping participants with incontinence. In field testing AssessPLUS, Simavita has worked closely with carers and agencies who deliver services to NDIS and Home Care Package recipients. We are excited by the opportunity that this new product represents.

AssessPLUS was delivered in 5 months and is the first deliverable in Simavita's product roadmap for the rapid delivery of new product to areas of significant and unmet need in the field of smart, wearable and disposable sensors for the health care industry.

Simavita remains committed to our existing SIM technology and to extending our sales and support of incontinence management products to sophisticated seniors care operators, hospitals and to rehabilitation centers. We continue to upgrade our offering of SIM (Version 4.12) and to meet new and existing customer needs. We will strive to maintain our position as the leader in this field.

For further information, please visit the Company's website (www.simavita.com).

About Simavita

Simavita is focused upon the rapid delivery of smart, wearable and disposable sensors for the health care industry.

With the support of our shareholders, customers and employees, Simavita is focused upon the business at hand; creating a commercially successful and growing corporation.

To date we have developed and are actively selling automated sensors and systems for the assessment and management of incontinence. Incontinence and the management of incontinence is a major and rapidly growing challenge. The annual cost to the global economy is in the billions of dollars and rising. It is an enormous cost that includes both incontinence materials as well as the significant time spent by carers in helping people suffering from incontinence. Most significantly, it impacts a growing community of seniors as well as people of any age who may be affected by disability and illness.

Simavita operates directly in Australia, Europe and North America where we see significant and growing demand for product that delivers real cost benefit to the health care industry and particularly for people in need.

Forward-Looking Information

This document may contain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities laws ("forward-looking information"). This forward-looking information is given as of the date of this document.

Forward-looking information relates to future events or future performance and reflects Simavita management's expectations or beliefs regarding future events. Assumptions upon which such forward-looking information is based include that Simavita will be able to successfully execute on its business plans. Many of these assumptions are based on factors and events that are not within the control of Simavita and there is no assurance they will prove to be correct.

In certain cases, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "potential", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or information that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative of these terms or comparable terminology. By its very nature forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Simavita to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others, risks related to actual results of current business activities; changes in business plans and strategy as plans continue to be refined; other risks of the medical devices and technology industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing or in the completion of development activities; as well as those factors detailed from time to time in Simavita's interim and annual financial statements and management's discussion and analysis of those statements. Although Simavita has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Simavita provides no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information.

Contacts:

Simavita Limited

Ms Peta Jurd

Chief Commercial Officer

+61 421 466 653

pjurd@simavita.com



Investor Centre:

http://www.simavita.com/irm/content/investors2.aspx?RID=417&




NEW YORK, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Growing infrastructure sector, coupled with rising development projects in residential, commercial and manufacturing sectors to drive demand for diesel gensets in Saudi Arabia in the coming years

According to a recently published TechSci Research report "Saudi Arabia Diesel Gensets Market By Rating, By End User Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2021",the market for diesel gensets in Saudi Arabia is projected to witness decline in growth during next five years. Though owing topoor grid infrastructure in the country, coupled with rising need for consistent and reliable source of electricity the demand for diesel gensets will growth but marginally.Diesel gensets are deployed in building modern infrastructure to provide prime, back-up and peak powerfor the entire setup. Moreover,as per Ministry of Water and Electricity, Saudi Arabia's peak electricity is projected to reach 90,000MW by 2022, coupled with growing crude oil production to drive demand for diesel gensets in the coming years. Crude oil production in Saudi Arabia is forecast to exhibit a CAGR of 1.29% during 2011-2020, and is projected to reach 12.5 million barrels per day by 2020. Thus, rising crude oil production, coupled with increasinginfrastructure activities to drive the market of diesel gensets in the country through 2021.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140117/663730 )



Browse 10 market data Tables and 47 Figures spread through155 Pages and an in-depth TOC on

"Saudi Arabia Diesel Gensets Market"

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Saudi Arabia diesel gensets market was dominated by northern andcentral region, as both the region cumulatively accounted for highest volume shares in 2015, and the regions are anticipated to continue to dominate the market through 2021, owing tofavourable government support that are fueling infrastructural development activities in this region, particularly in cities like Riyadh and Jeddah. Moreover, residential and commercialsectors were leading the end users in thediesel gensets market in Saudi Arabia in 2015, and are further anticipated to lead the market in during the forecast period as well, owing to rapidly expanding population base, increasing purchasing power parity,coupled with rising construction activities in commercial sector and growing tourism industry in the country.

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"Growing demand from construction and industrial sectors located inremoteareas like, petrochemical plants, refineries, oil & gas exploration sites, border posts and educational institutes are driving demand for diesel gensets in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, global crude oil prices are expected to recover by end of 2017, which are further anticipated to fuel oil & gas production. Thereby, driving growth in Saudi Arabia diesel gensets market during the forecast period."Said Mr. Karan Chechi, Research Director with TechSci Research, a research based global management consulting firm.

"Saudi Arabia Diesel Gensets Market By Rating, By End User Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2021" has evaluated the diesel gensets market across Saudi Arabia, and provides statistics and information on market structure, industry behaviour and trends driving the market. The report is intended to provide cutting-edge market intelligence and help decision makers to take sound investment evaluation. Besides, the report also identifies and analyses emerging trends along with essential drivers, challenges and opportunities in Saudi Arabiadiesel gensetsmarket.

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TechSci Research is a leading global market research firm publishing premium market research reports. Serving 700 global clients with more than 600 premium market research studies, TechSci Research is serving clients across 11 different industrial verticals. TechSci Research specializes in research based consulting assignments in high growth and emerging markets, leading technologies and niche applications. Our workforce of more than 100 fulltime Analysts and Consultants employing innovative research solutions and tracking global and country specific high growth markets helps TechSci clients to lead rather than follow market trends.

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LONDON, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

In an effort to stave off a worse-than-expected deficit this year, Russian authorities have written a decree ordering the sale of a large slice of state-run oil titan Rosneft which will, they hope, bring in funds by the end of 2016.

Igor Shuvalov, First Deputy Prime Minister, signed off on the decree and stated that he wanted the sale of the 20 percent chunk of the energy firm to be completed by early next month.

Economic experts at the Kremlin forecast the nation's deficit to be around 3.8 percent of gross domestic product this year; however the figure is now looking like it will be much higher than that unless more privatization deals can be pushed through in the next two months.

"We've seen massive deals go through recently with large slices of oil company Bashneft and diamond specialists Alrosa being offloaded," said Steve Rogers, Director of Asset Allocation at Orix Capital Trading in an interview on Friday.

"Those two sales have raised around 380 billion rubles so the government will be looking for one, maybe two more deals possibly in the chemical or coal sectors," Rogers added.

Analysts say the sale of nearly a quarter of Rosneft is likely to bring in over 750 billion rubles and would be equivalent to around 700 billion rubles coming into the budget once a 0.96 coefficient had been dialled in.

The idea would be for the Rosneft board to purchase the 20 percent stake themselves, with assistance from private equity firms which would be the easiest way to push the deal through in time for end-of-year reports.

The company's gas arm, Rosneftegaz, currently has a 70 percent stake in the firm and according to inside sources, the company's CEO is likely to be re-elected as chairman of the Rosneftegaz board come the New Year.

The deal still needs to be passed by sector watchdogs and if it does Rosneftegaz will need to raise funds quickly, with many observers saying that the only way would be to offload their minority stake in major gas company Verkhnechonskneftegaz to a Chinese interest.

For more information, please contact: press@orixtrading.com
In a continuing effort to produce the best-trained flight crews in the regional airline industry, Republic Airways Holdings Inc. (RJETQ/OTC) has taken delivery of a new state-of-the-art Cabin Trainer at the Indianapolis Training Center, where thousands of Pilots and Flight Attendants will use the facility each year.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115006325/en/

Republic Airways' new 170/175 Cabin Trainer, a 15-ton, 60-foot-long facility housed in the Indianapolis Training Center, is the newest and most sophisticated such module in the regional airline industry today. In addition to a cockpit with working seats, windows and oxygen masks, the unit has a galley, two-class seating, a lavatory, working cabin doors, an emergency escape slide, a smoke-generating machine and audio devices in the floor to replicate flight sounds. The facility was built by RP Aero Systems of England and delivered in October. Republic will begin using the new facility to train crewmembers in January 2017. (Photo: Business Wire)

The 15-ton, 60-foot-long Cabin Trainer is a scaled-down version of an Embraer 170/175 interior, complete with a cockpit, galley, two-class seating, lavatory, emergency escape slide and more. Among the facility's special features:

smoke-generating machines to simulate fires throughout the cabin (and extensive ventilation system to clear the entire facility within minutes);

ultrasonic "fire extinguishers" to point at sensors throughout the cabin to extinguish virtual blazes;

sound amplification devices under the floor to replicate the noise and vibration of takeoff, cruising and landing;

An attached inflated emergency escape slide and working cabin doors to practice evacuation logistics and emergency protocols; and

A cockpit with functional flight deck seats, windows and oxygen masks.

Instructors control the training environment via a computer screen hidden inside the wardrobe closet or a Wi-Fi tablet.

It is the first of its kind in the regional industry and the newest anywhere in the U.S., according to manufacturer RP Aero of England. Only a handful of countries have cabin trainers as complete, including Russia, Australia, Singapore and France. RP Aero has done similar modules for Republic's codeshare partners American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, but none equals the size or functionality of Republic's.

"Without a doubt it's the most advanced piece of aircraft training equipment of its kind in the U.S.," Republic COO Paul Kinstedt said. "This investment will allow us to simulate cabin functions with incredible detail, from boarding to gallery service to crisis situations like fires and evacuations. Safety and training is the focal point for us, and Republic continues to set the bar high for the industry."

The Cabin Trainer interior is constructed like an actual aircraft so Flight Attendants can perform their service routine, eliminating heavy reliance on classroom instruction. This includes boarding, galley service with full meal carts, passenger interaction and deplaning, as well as situational opportunities to practice communication coordination.

"This new Cabin Trainer will completely change how we prepare our Inflight team members, allowing us to provide a real-life experience for our new hire and recurrent classes," said Amy Chiappe, Republic's Director of Inflight. "We'll be able to do so many more things, and improve the overall training experience. The timing couldn't be better, because it aligns perfectly with our plans for a single fleet type."

The Cabin Trainer will provide crewmembers with the most sophisticated learning environment in the history of the Company, Chiappe added. "This will allow us to continue producing the industry's best-prepared and best-trained crews anywhere. That's a high standard, but that's something Republic is always striving for," she said.

Click here for a Cabin Trainer video on YouTube. Click here for more Cabin Trainer photos on Flickr.

About the Company: Republic Airways Holdings Inc. (RJETQ/OTC), based in Indianapolis, Indiana, is an airline holding company that owns Republic Airlines and Shuttle America, collectively called "the airlines." The airlines operate a combined fleet of about 165 aircraft and offer scheduled passenger service with approximately 850 flights daily to about 105 cities in 38 U.S. states, Canada, the Caribbean and Latin America. The airlines provide fixed-fee flights operated under our major airline partner brands of American Eagle, Delta Connection and United Express. The airlines employ about 5,200 aviation professionals. For more information, visit www.rjet.com, follow @RepublicAirways on Twitter and Instagram or connect on Facebook or LinkedIn.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115006325/en/

Contacts:

Republic Airways Holdings

Bob Birge, Director, Corporate Communications, 317-471-2470

CorpComm@rjet.com
Selexis SA, a pioneering life sciences company and a global leader in mammalian (suspension-adapted CHO-K1) cell line generation, and OSE Immunotherapeutics SA (ISIN: FR0012127173; Mnemo: OSE), announced today the signing of two service agreements that provide OSE Immunotherapeutics with access to high performance research cell banks (RCBs) from the Selexis SUREtechnology Platform.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115005508/en/

The agreements are designed to help OSE Immunotherapeutics advance two of its preclinical products based on immune activation and regulation. Effi-DEM is a new-generation checkpoint inhibitor that blocks the Signal Regulatory Protein-a (SIRP-alpha) receptor expressed by myeloid suppressor cells (MDSC) and tumor-associated macrophages (TAM). MDSC and TAM play a key role in tumor growth. By specifically targeting the SIRP-alpha receptor, Effi-DEM transforms suppressive cells into effector anti-tumor cells. Effi-7 is a humanized monoclonal antibody targeting the CD127 receptor (the alpha chain of the Interleukin 7 receptor (IL-7R)). It induces a powerful antagonist effect for better control of the pathogenic T lymphocytes involved in autoimmune diseases. The strategy of blocking the IL-7 has demonstrated efficacy in restoring the impaired immune balance in autoimmune diseases of the bowel in several preclinical models, such as ulcerative colitis.

Selexis' proprietary SUREtechnology Platform facilitates the rapid, stable, and cost-effective production of virtually any recombinant protein and provides seamless integration of the biologics development continuum, spanning discovery to commercialization.

"Our SUREtechnology Platform plays a key role in helping companies, such as OSE Immunotherapeutics, use the body's own immune system to fight disease and address immune disorders," said Marco Bocci, PhD, DPharm, Selexis vice president, licensing and business development. "By targeting immune activation and regulation, OSE Immunotherapeutics has the potential through its investigational candidates to address significant unmet needs in cancer, autoimmune diseases and transplantation. We look forward to providing OSE Immunotherapeutics with robust cell lines to support the clinical progression of Effi-DEM and Effi-7."

"Collaborations are a key component of our growth strategy, and we are pleased to begin a long-term relationship with Selexis to advance two of our promising immunotherapies into the next phases of development," said Dominique Costantini, chief executive officer of OSE Immunotherapeutics. "With the assistance of our partners and innovative technologies, we are developing a new generation of first-in-class products that are optimized to better target key receptors of the activation or regulation of immune response."

About OSE Immunotherapeutics

Our ambition is to become a world leader in activation and regulation immunotherapies: OSE Immunotherapeutics is a biotechnology company led by world-class immunologists and focused on the development of innovative immunotherapies of activation and regulation in immuno-oncology, autoimmune diseases and transplantation. The company has a balanced portfolio of first-in-class products with a diversified risk profile ranging from clinical Phase 3 registration trials to R&D:

Tedopi, a combination of 10 optimized neo-epitopes to induce specific T activation in immuno-oncology - currently in registration Phase 3 trial advanced NSCLC HLA A2+ patients EU /US Orphan Status in the US - registration expected in 2019 a Phase 2 with Tedopi in combination with a checkpoint inhibitor in NSCLC is considered in 2017 the product is also considered in other cancer indications.

to induce specific T activation in immuno-oncology - Orphan Status in the US in NSCLC is considered in 2017 the product is also FR104, CD28-antagonist in immunotherapy Phase 1 trial completed for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and for use with transplantation licensed to Janssen Biotech Inc. to pursue clinical development

CD28-antagonist in immunotherapy for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and for use with transplantation to pursue clinical development Effi-7, interleukin receptor 7 antagonist in preclinical development for inflammatory bowel diseases and other autoimmune diseases

interleukin receptor 7 antagonist for inflammatory bowel diseases and other autoimmune diseases Effi-DEM, new-generation checkpoint inhibitor targeting the SIRP-a receptor in preclinical development for immuno-oncology

targeting the for immuno-oncology R&D: candidates targeting new receptors in immuno-oncology

The portfolio's blockbuster potential gives OSE Immunotherapeutics the ability to enter into global agreements at different stages of development with major pharmaceutical players.

Immunotherapy is a highly promising and growing market. By 2023 Immunotherapy of cancer could represent nearly 60 percent of treatments against less than 3 percent at present* and the projected market is estimated at $67 billion in 2018.**

There are more than 80 autoimmune diseases that represent a significant market including major players in the pharmaceutical industry with sales of towards $10 billion for the main products. The medical need is largely unmet and requires the provision of new innovative products involved in the regulation of the immune system. More information: http://ose-immuno.com

Citi Research Equity

** BCC Research

About Selexis SA

Selexis SA is a pioneering life sciences company and a global leader in mammalian (suspension-adapted CHO-K1) cell line generation, providing unparalleled proprietary technology and the highly specialized expertise that is necessary to translate scientific innovation into life-saving medicines for patients. Selexis' SUREtechnology Platform facilitates the rapid, stable, and cost-effective production of virtually any recombinant protein and provides seamless integration of the bioproduction continuum, spanning discovery to commercialization. With more than 95 partners worldwide, nearly 80 drug products in clinical manufacturing and two commercial products utilizing its cell lines, Selexis has a history of empowering scientists and biopharmaceutical companies around the world to realize the full potential of their research. More information is available at www.selexis.com.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Web www.selexis.com LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/selexis-sa Twitter www.twitter.com/SelexisSA Facebook www.facebook.com/SelexisSA

Forward-looking statements

This press release contains express or implied information and statements that might be deemed forward-looking information and statements in respect of OSE Immunotherapeutics. They do not constitute historical facts. These information and statements include financial projections that are based upon certain assumptions and assessments made by OSE Immunotherapeutics' management in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends, current economic and industry conditions, expected future developments and other factors they believe to be appropriate.

These forward-looking statements include statements typically using conditional and containing verbs such as "expect", "anticipate", "believe", "target", "plan", or "estimate", their declensions and conjugations and words of similar import.

Although the OSE Immunotherapeutics management believes that the forward-looking statements and information are reasonable, the OSE Immunotherapeutics' shareholders and other investors are cautioned that the completion of such expectations is by nature subject to various risks, known or not, and uncertainties which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of OSE Immunotherapeutics. These risks could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in or implied or projected by the forward-looking statements. These risks include those discussed or identified in the public filings made by OSE Immunotherapeutics with the AMF. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance.

This press release includes only summary information and should be read with the OSE Immunotherapeutics Reference Document filed with the AMF on 8 June 2016 under the number R.16-052, the consolidated financial statements and the management report for the fiscal year 2015, as well as the Merger Document registered with the AMF on 26 April 2016 under number E.16-026, all available on the OSE Immunotherapeutics' website.

Other than as required by applicable law, OSE Immunotherapeutics issues this press release at the date hereof and does not undertake any obligation to update or revise the forward-looking information or statements.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115005508/en/

Contacts:

Media Inquiries for Selexis

Sam Brown Inc.

Mike Beyer

+1 312-961-2502

mikebeyer@sambrown.com

or

Company Inquiries for Selexis

Robert Meister

Head, Corporate Communications

+1 602-953-1716

robert.meister@selexis.com

or

Company Inquiries for OSE Immunotherapeutics

Dominique Costantini, CEO

dominique.costantini@ose-immuno.com

+33 613 207 749

or

Maryvonne Hiance, Vice-Chairman and Director of Strategy

maryvonne.hiance@ose-immuno.com

+33 680 060 183

or

Alexis Peyroles, COO, Finance, BD Operations

alexis.peyroles@ose-immuno.com

+33 611 511 977

or

Bernard Vanhove, COO, R&D, International Scientific Collaborations

Bernard.vanhove@ose-immuno.com

+33 675 414 008

or

Media Inquiries for OSE Immunotherapeutics

Alize RP

Florence Portejoie Caroline Carmagnol

oseimmuno@alizerp.com

+33 647 389 004

or

LifeSci Advisors

Chris Maggos

chris@lifesciadvisors.com

+41 79 367 6254

or

Acorelis

Gilles Petitot

+33 620 276 594

gilles.petitot@acorelis.com
6.9 Million Raised

Regulatory News:

IMPLANET (Paris:IMPL) (OTCQX:IMPZY)(Euronext: IMPL, FR0010458729, PEA-PME eligible, hereinafter the "Company"), a medical technology company specializing in vertebral and knee-surgery implants, is announcing the success of its capital increase with shareholders' preferential subscription rights for gross proceeds of approximately 6.9 million.

Ludovic Lastennet, Implanet's Chief Executive Officer, commented: "This fund-raising success is a testament to the support of our shareholders and new investors for our Jazz technology platform. Jazz brings undisputed clinical benefits for spinal surgery patients, driving continued growth in France, the rest of Europe and the United States. On behalf of the entire team, I would like to express our sincere appreciation to our shareholders in France and elsewhere for the success of this fund-raising, which will enable us to continue to innovate and drive our expansion."

At the close of the subscription period, which ended November 9, 2016, the total demand was 6.83 million, or an overall subscription rate of 99.21%:

7,055,490 new shares were subscribed through irrevocable entitlement (" a titre irreductible "), representing 71.75% of the new shares issued

"), representing 71.75% of the new shares issued Demand subject to reduction ("a titre reductible") accounted for the subscription of 2,700,084 new shares.

The initial subscription commitments of the three A Investors1 for a total number of 2,928,570 shares will be fully allocated in connection with the capital increase with preferential subscription rights, and the Company will not proceed to a capital increase reserved to the latter. In addition, the four investors who had undertaken to subscribe for the shares remaining unsubscribed at the close of the subscription period were only allotted 0.79% of the new shares, or a total of 77,531 new shares.

The Company's share capital post capital increase will amount to 14,913,542.70, divided into 21,305,061 shares, each with a par value of 0.70.

Settlement-delivery and admission of the new shares to trading on Euronext's regulated market in Paris are scheduled for November 17, 2016. The new shares will carry dividend rights for the current year. They will be immediately fungible with the Company's existing shares and will be traded on the same line under ISIN code FR0010458729.

SwissLife Banque Privee acted as Lead Manager and Bookrunner for the issue and Maxim Group LLC as placing agent in the United States.

To the Company's knowledge, the distribution of the share capital of the Company on an undiluted basis after the transaction is as follows:

Number of shares of capital

and voting rights** Founders and historical investors 193,189 0.91% Financial investors* 4,716,717 22.14% Corporate officers, employees and consultants 84,635 0.40% Other physical shareholder 8,921 0.04% Floating 16,199,124 76.03% Autocontrol 102,475 0.48% Total 21,305,061 100.00%

(*): Taking into account the subscription commitments of investors A and B

(**): The percentage of voting rights is identical to the percentage of capital held

Information for investors

The prospectus approved by the Autorite des marches financiers (the "AMF") on October 19, 2016 under no. 16-493 consists of Implanet's registration document filed on April 28, 2016 under no. R.16-035, a securities note and a summary prospectus (included in the securities note).

Availability of the prospectus - Copies of the prospectus may be obtained free of charge from Implanet, Technopole Bordeaux Montesquieu, Allee Francois Magendie, 33650 Martillac (www.implanet.com) and from the AMF (www.amf-france.org).

Risk factors - Implanet draws investors' attention to chapter 4 "Risk factors" of the registration document filed with the AMF and section 2 "Risk factors" of the securities note.

About IMPLANET

Founded in 2007, IMPLANET is a medical technology company that manufactures high-quality implants for orthopedic surgery. Its flagship product, the JAZZ latest-generation implant, aims to treat spinal pathologies requiring vertebral fusion surgery. Protected by four families of international patents, JAZZ has obtained 510(k) regulatory clearance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States and the CE mark. IMPLANET employs 48 staff and recorded 2015 sales of 6.7 million. For further information, please visit www.implanet.com.

Based near Bordeaux in France, IMPLANET established a US subsidiary in Boston in 2013.

IMPLANET is listed on Compartment C of the Euronext regulated market in Paris.

Disclaimer

The distribution of this press release may be subject to legal or regulatory restrictions in certain jurisdictions. Any person who comes into possession of this press release must inform him or herself of and comply with any such restrictions.

This announcement is an advertisement and not a prospectus within the meaning of Directive 2003/71/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 November 2003, as amended (the "Prospectus Directive

With respect to Member States of the European Economic Area that have transposed the Prospectus Directive, no action has been taken or will be taken to permit a public offering of the securities referred to in this press release requiring the publication of a prospectus in any Member State other than France. Therefore, such securities may not be and shall not be offered in any Member State (other than in France) other than in accordance with the exemptions of Article 3(2) of the Prospectus Directive to the extent they have been transposed by the relevant Member State or, otherwise, in cases not requiring the publication of a prospectus by Implanet under Article 3(2) of the Prospective Directive and/or the applicable regulations in such Member State.

This press release and the information it contains are being distributed to and are only intended for persons who are (i) outside the United Kingdom, (ii) investment professionals falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the "Order"), (iii) high net worth entities and other such persons falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order ("high net worth companies", "unincorporated associations", etc.) or (iv) other persons to whom an invitation or inducement to engage in investment activity (within the meaning of Section 21 of the Financial Services and Market Act 2000) may otherwise lawfully be communicated or caused to be communicated (all such persons in (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv) together being referred to as "Relevant Persons"). Any invitation, offer or agreement to subscribe, purchase or otherwise acquire securities to which this press release relates will only be engaged with Relevant Persons. Any person who is not a Relevant Person should not act or rely on this press release or any of its contents.

This press release and the information it contains do not, and will not, constitute an offer to subscribe for or sell, nor the solicitation of an offer to subscribe for or buy, securities of Implanet in the United States of America or any other jurisdiction where restrictions may apply. Securities may not be offered or sold in the United States of America absent registration or an exemption from registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), it being specified that the securities of Implanet have not been and will not be registered within the US Securities Act. Implanet does not intend to register securities or conduct a public offering in the United States of America.

Any decision to subscribe for or purchase the shares or other securities of Implanet must be made solely based on information publicly available about Implanet. Such information is not the responsibility of SwissLife Banque Privee and has not been independently verified by SwissLife Banque Privee.

Not for distribution or release, directly or indirectly, in the United States of America, Canada, Australia or Japan.

1 See press release of the Company dated October 20, 2016

Not for distribution or release, directly or indirectly, in the United States of America, Canada, Australia or Japan.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115006330/en/

Contacts:

IMPLANET

Ludovic Lastennet

CEO

Tel.: +33 (0)5 57 99 55 55

investors@implanet.com

or

NewCap

Investor Relations

Florent Alba

Tel.: +33 (0)1 44 71 94 94

implanet@newcap.eu

or

NewCap

Media Relations

Nicolas Merigeau

Tel.: +33 (0)1 44 71 94 98

implanet@newcap.eu

or

AlphaBronze

US-Investor Relations

Pascal Nigen

Tel.: +1 917 385 21 60

implanet@alphabronze.net
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 15, 2016) - CardioComm Solutions, Inc. (TSXV: EKG) ("CardioComm Solutions" or the "Company"), a global medical provider of consumer heart monitoring and medical electrocardiogram ("ECG") software solutions, today announced it has entered into a three year agreement for sales of the Company's Global ECG Management Software (GEMS WIN), handheld HeartCheck ECG devices and SMART Monitoring ECG services into physician practices, pharmacies and hospital markets in the United States of America ("USA").

The CardioComm Solutions' USA sales program (the "Representative") will utilize a network of channel partners and sales representatives that are already actively selling medical devices into the healthcare market. The CardioComm products have been identified as being of particular interest as there is a growing need for the introduction of reliable new and emerging ECG monitoring solutions to provide additional physician billing opportunities. Similar opportunities exist in the allied health markets, such as pharmacy banner groups, which will also be targeted by the Representative.

What is unique about CardioComm Solutions' HeartCheck and GEMS WIN products is that all are cleared for sale and use as Class II medical devices in the USA. This allows for the CardioComm Solutions' products to be used in reimbursable medical services by healthcare providers and health service organizations. Services supported include long-term ECG monitoring such as mobile cardiac telemetry, arrhythmia and prolonged QT interval screening/monitoring as an extention to in-hospital and in-clinic services as well as supporting long-term managed care support for people living with chronic medical conditions. Under the agreement, CardioComm Solutions will provide training of the Representative's sales force and for supporting new customer installations.

Managed by a central sales manager, the Representative's syndicate of channel partners will work towards annual revenue targets and be provided fees exclusively on a success basis. Fees will be provided under a standard commission structure as well as an inducement of share options. Under the inducement, the Representative will be provided 100,000 options for each $100,000 in NET revenue generated by the Representative for CardioComm Solutions. Each option will permit the Representative to purchase one common share of CardioComm Solutions at an exercise price equal to the closing market price of the Company's shares on the date preceding the date of grant. All grants of stock options shall be subject to the terms and conditions of CardioComm Solutions stock option plan and compliance with the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange.

The Company believes this structure will achieve a higher commitment level for expanded sales opportunities with ongoing support of CardioComm Solutions' products and technologies. The issuance of options will also provide a future strategic shareholder with a vested interest to grow progressively over the three year term of the agreement. Further, the Representative's sales fees will only be based on the addition of new accounts.

To learn more about the CardioComm Solutions' products please see the Company's websites www.theheartcheck.com and www.cardiocommsolutions.com or contact the Company at sales@cardiocommsolutions.com.

About CardioComm Solutions

CardioComm Solutions' patented and proprietary technology is used in products for recording, viewing, analyzing and storing electrocardiograms (ECGs) for diagnosis and management of cardiac patients. Products are sold worldwide through a combination of an external distribution network and a North American-based sales team. The Company has earned the ISO 13485 certification, is HPB approved, HIPAA compliant, and has received FDA market clearance for its software devices. CardioComm Solutions is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Etienne Grima, Chief Executive Officer

1-877-977-9425 x 227

investor.relations@cardiocommsolutions.com

www.cardiocommsolutions.com

Forward-looking statements

This release may contain certain forward-looking statements and forward looking information with respect to the financial condition, results of operations and business of CardioComm Solutions and certain of the plans and objectives of CardioComm Solutions with respect to these items. Such statements and information reflect management's current beliefs and are based on information currently available to management. By their nature, forward-looking statements and forward-looking information involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future and there are many factors that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements and forward-looking information.

In evaluating these statements, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. The Company does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements and forward-looking information contained in this release other than as required by applicable laws, including without limitation, Section 5.8(2) of National Instrument 51-102 (Continuous Disclosure Obligations).

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
OMAHA, NE--(Marketwired - November 15, 2016) - When Fortune 500 company Mutual of Omaha sold its travel insurance subsidiary Tele Trip Company in 1996, it probably didn't realize how successful the business would be just 20 years later.*

Travelex Insurance Services celebrates its 20 th anniversary of business this month. From humble beginnings with only about 10 employees to being an award-winning, leading supplier of travel products and distribution services today, President Michael Ambrose attributes the company's success to loyal travel partners and suppliers.

"Without our partners' support, confidence and trust, Travelex Insurance Services would not be the industry leader it is today," Ambrose said. "When people look at Travelex Insurance Services, they see an incredibly successful company with excellent travel protection plans, exceptional service and great people."

As a long-time partner, Virtuoso Travel Network's Chairman and CEO Matthew D. Upchurch congratulated Travelex on the 20-year milestone.

"Virtuoso member agencies trust Travelex Insurance Services with their clients because Travelex consistently provides excellent service and the quality travel protection that travelers need," Upchurch said.

Travelex is a nine-time recipient of Virtuoso's Best Specialty Partner award and has been the luxury travel network's preferred travel protection provider for the past 18 years.

Highlights from the past 20 years:

Signature Travel Network endorsement as a preferred travel insurance partner for their 6,000 travel consultants for 10 years

Travelex protection plans now have up to 20 covered reasons to cancel a trip, depending on the plan

Travelex expanded and designed protection plans for all types of travel, including leisure, group, business, and custom specialty markets

Travelex listened to requests from travelers and added an optional Cancel for Any Reason upgrade to certain plans along with other contemporary protection plan features

Have a prediction for how travel advisors and the industry will continue to grow and meet travelers' needs over the next 20 years? The Travelex team invites everyone to share their expectations on Facebook and Twitter this week and include Travelex20.

Travelex Insurance Services, headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is a leading travel insurance provider in the United States. The company was founded in 1996 when the Travelex Group purchased travel insurance distribution services from Mutual of Omaha Companies. In 2016, Travelex Insurance Services became part of the Cover-More Group, Australia's leading travel insurance provider. Travelex delivers a wide range of travel protection plans through travel agencies and tour operators, in major airports and online at www.travelexinsurance.com.

*Mutual of Omaha was first named a Fortune 500 company in 1995, just a year prior to selling its travel insurance division, which became Travelex Insurance Services in November 1996.

Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/11/15/11G122163/Images/tis_20_year_anniversary_logo_horizontal-0d7ec6a7f730bc7281c10fad420e9db7.jpg

Media Contact

Christine Buggy

402.505.7006 or 800.865.6068

chris.buggy@travelexinsurance.com
MAJURO, MARSHALL ISLANDS -- (Marketwired) -- 05/19/16 -- Pioneer Marine Inc. and its subsidiaries (OSLO-OTC: PNRM) ("Pioneer Marine," or the "Company") a leading shipowner and global drybulk handysize transportation service provider announced its financial and operating results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2016.

Financial Highlights:

For the first quarter of 2016 the Company reported a net loss of $13.9 million, or $0.46 basic and diluted per share which includes charges amounting to $8.7 million as a result of the termination of five newbuilding contracts ("newbuilding contract termination agreement").

Excluding these charges, the Company's adjusted net loss for the first quarter of 2016 is $5.3 million or $0.17 per share basic and diluted.

Liquidity & Capital Resources:

As of March 31, 2016, the Company had cash and cash equivalents of $43.8 million and restricted cash of $12.5 million. The Company's commitments on its newbuilding program amount to $30.1 million which will be funded from committed loan facilities available on delivery of the newbuildings and from existing cash and cash equivalents.

Recent events:

Within Q2 2016 the Company received an amount of $44.4 million representing all instalments paid for the construction of the eight cancelled newbuildings and the interest as per newbuilding contract termination agreement.

Pankaj Khanna, Chief Executive Officer, commented, "Drybulk freight rates in the first quarter of 2016 proved to be the worst experienced over the previous four decades. The major difference being that in the 1980s operating costs were half of what they are today so the ships were still cash flow positive. In the first quarter Owners were virtually paying charterers to move their cargo with some fixtures for Capesize vessels being done at close to zero TCE rates as owners were just paid for bunkers. The weakness in freight rates was mainly a result of anaemic demand and excess supply built over the previous years compounded by an increase in speed for some of the smaller vessels.

"The extreme weakness in freight rates has produced an almost immediate response on scrapping with 18.3 million tonnes sold for scrap as of early May resulting in net fleet growth of 0.3% so far this year. In addition, some owners have also chosen to idle or lay-up their vessels in hot, warm or cold lay-up, further depleting the fleet. The other big positive is that we have seen virtually zero newbuilding orders this year. During this period, we have also seen the return of port congestion at grain load ports in Brazil and Argentina, who combined exported a record 44.3 million tonnes in Q1 2016, up 19% on Q1 2015. On the demand side, the rise in real estate prices in China along with various stimulus measures provided a fillip to steel consumption and consequently prices. Chinese steel production showed its first year-on-year increase in March and iron ore imports into China for the first four months of 2016 are up 6% as compared to 2015. Freight rates in Q2 2016 have responded to these positive changes but remain barely above operating costs and have so far stagnated at this level. The industry still needs concerted scrapping of older tonnage before we see a sustained recovery.

"We have focussed on cost efficiencies for the past six months and pared our running costs to the most efficient levels possible without affecting the safe and reliable operations of our vessels or the well-being of our seafarers. We have been proactive in managing the cycle and ensuring that we maintain a long enough runway to survive the drastically low rates that we are experiencing. As part of this effort, we reached an agreement with Guoyu Shipyard to cancel five newbuilding contracts. This cancellation not only eliminated future capital expenditure but also saw the return of all of our instalments that were paid. We now have two newbuildings remaining on the orderbook that are delayed beyond their scheduled delivery dates and we are considering options on those. Our strong balance sheet allows us to be opportunistic in the current weak market and we are assessing our strategic options."

Financial Review: First quarter of 2016

Time Charter Equivalent ("TCE") revenue amounted to $4.9 million in the first quarter of 2016 compared to $6.3 million for the first quarter of 2015. TCE per day for the first quarter of 2016 amounted to $3,654 as compared to $5,488 per day for the first quarter of 2015. The decrease of the TCE per day is attributed to the weaker market prevailing in the first quarter of 2016 as compared to same period in 2015.

Vessel Operating Expenses ("OPEX") amounted to $6.2 million for the first quarter of 2016 as compared to $5.6 million in the first quarter of 2015. The increase is attributable to the increased number of ship days from 1,170 days in the first quarter of 2015 as compared to 1,358 ship days for the same period in 2016.

OPEX per day for the first quarter of 2016 amounted to $4,533 as compared to $4,771 for the first quarter of 2015. The decrease in daily OPEX is attributed to operating efficiencies achieved due to cost reduction measures.

Depreciation expense for the first quarter ended March 31, 2016 decreased to $2.0 million as compared to $2.7 million during the same period in 2015. The decrease is attributable to the reduced depreciated vessel values as a result of the impairment charge taken at December 31, 2015.

General and administration expenses for the first quarter of 2016 decreased to $1.1 million from $1.3 million during the same period in 2015. G&A expenses per day for the first quarter of 2016 amounted to $815 as compared to $1,096 for the first quarter of 2015. The decrease of G&A expenses per day is attributed to cost reduction measures.

Write off of capitalised expenses and fees amounting to $8.7 million during the three months ended March 31, 2016 is due to the cancellation of five shipbuilding contracts on March 17, 2016. The amount consists of capitalised expenses during the construction period, cancellation costs net of interest for the instalments paid and deferred finance and loan fees attributable to the post-delivery financing of these newbuildings.

Fleet List

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Type DWT Year Built Delivery Date (1) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Current fleet: Paradise Bay Handymax 46,232 2003 Nov 11, 2013 Azure Bay Handysize 31,700 2005 Mar 10, 2014 Fortune Bay Handysize 28,671 2006 Mar 4, 2014 Calm Bay Handysize 37,534 2006 Mar 4, 2014 Reunion Bay Handysize 32,354 2006 Nov 1, 2013 Ha Long Bay Handysize 32,311 2007 Feb 14, 2014 Teal Bay Handysize 32,327 2007 Jan 17, 2014 Eden Bay Handysize 28,342 2008 Dec 2, 2013 Emerald Bay Handysize 32,258 2008 Jan 27, 2014 Mykonos Bay Handysize 32,411 2009 Dec 2, 2013 Venus Bay Handysize 30,003 2012 Mar 31, 2014 Jupiter Bay Handysize 30,153 2012 Apr 22, 2014 Orion Bay Handysize 30,009 2012 Mar 25, 2014 Falcon Bay Handysize 38,464 2015 Aug 28, 2015 Kite Bay Handysize 38,419 2016 Jan 7, 2016 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Type DWT Delivery Date ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vessels under construction: GY313(2) Handysize 38,800 - 2016 GY314(2) Handysize 38,800 - 2017 (1) Date vessel delivered to Pioneer Marine. (2) Green Dolphin Newbuilding under construction by Yangzhou Guoyu Shipbuilding Co., LTD (Guoyu). Summary of Operating Data (unaudited) (In thousands of U.S. Dollars except per share data) Three Months Three Months Ended March Ended March 31, 2016 31, 2015 ------------- ------------- Revenue, net 6,317 10,304 Voyage expenses (1,384) (4,020) ------------- ------------- Time charter equivalent revenue 4,933 6,284 Vessel operating expense (6,156) (5,582) Drydock expense - (228) Depreciation expense (1,966) (2,693) General and administration expense (1,107) (1,282) Write off of capitalised expenses and fees (8,660) - Interest expense and finance cost (953) (735) Interest income 33 18 Other expenses and taxes, net (55) (161) ------------- ------------- Net loss (13,931) (4,379) ------------- ------------- Adjusted net loss(2) (5,271) (4,379) ------------- ------------- ------------- ------------- Net loss per share, basic and diluted (0.46) (0.19) ------------- ------------- Adjusted net loss per share, basic and diluted(2) (0.17) (0.19) ------------- ------------- Three Months Three Months Ended March Ended March 31, 2016 31, 2015 ------------- ------------- Net loss (13,931) (4,379) Add: Write off of capitalised expenses and fees 8,660 - ------------- ------------- Adjusted Net loss (5,271) (4,379) Add: Depreciation expense 1,966 2,693 Add: Drydock expense - 228 Add: Interest expense and finance cost 953 735 Add: Other taxes 20 33 Less: Interest income (33) (18) ------------- ------------- Adjusted EBITDA(1) (2,365) (708) (1) Adjusted EBITDA represents net loss before interest, other taxes, depreciation and amortization, drydock expense, and write off capitalised expenses and fees and is used as a supplemental financial measure by management to assess our financial and operating performance. We believe that Adjusted EBITDA assists our management and investors by increasing the comparability of our performance from period to period. We believe that including Adjusted EBITDA as a financial and operating measure benefits investors in selecting between investing in us and other investment alternatives. Adjusted EBITDA does not represent and should not be considered as an alternative to net income/(loss) or cash flow from operations, as determined by United States generally accepted accounting principles, or U.S. GAAP, and our calculation of Adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to that reported by other companies. (2) Adjusted net loss and related per share amounts is not a measure prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP and should not be used in isolation or substitution of Company's results. Three Months Three Months Ended March Ended March Vessel Utilization: 31, 2016 31, 2015 ------------- ------------- Ship days (2) 1,358 1,170 Less: Off-hire days 8 15 Less: Off-hire days due to drydock - 10 ------------- ------------- Operating days (3) 1,350 1,145 ------------- ------------- Fleet Utilization (4) 99% 98% ------------- ------------- TCE per day- $ (1) 3,654 5,488 Opex per day- $ (6) 4,533 4,771 G&A expenses per day- $ (7) 815 1,096 Vessels at period end 15 13 Average number of vessels during the period (5) 15 13 ------------- ------------- (1) Time Charter Equivalent, or TCE revenue, are non-GAAP measures. Our method of computing TCE revenue is determined by voyage revenues less voyage expenses (including bunkers and port charges). Such TCE revenue, divided by the number of our operating days during the period, is TCE per day, which is consistent with industry practice. TCE revenue is included because it is a standard shipping industry performance measure used primarily to compare period-to-period changes in a shipping company's performance irrespective of changes in the mix of charter types (i.e., spot charters and time charters), and it provides useful information to investors and management. (2) Ship days: We define ship days as the aggregate number of days in a period during which each vessel in our fleet has been owned by us. Ship days are an indicator of the size of our fleet over a period and affect both the amount of revenues and the amount of expenses that we record during a period. (3) Operating days: We define operating days as the number of our ship days in a period less days required to prepare vessels acquired for their initial voyage and off-hire days associated with off-hire for undergoing repairs, drydocks or special surveys. The Company uses operating days to measure the number of days in a relevant period during which vessels should be capable of generating revenues. (4) Fleet utilization is defined as the ratio of operating days to ship days. (5) Average number of vessels is the number of vessels that constituted our fleet for the relevant period, as measured by the sum of the number of ship days divided by the number of calendar days in that period. (6) Opex per day: is calculated by dividing vessel operating expenses by ship days for the relevant time period. (7) G&A expenses per day: is calculated by dividing general and administrative expenses by ship days for the relevant time period. Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (Unaudited) (In thousands of U.S. Dollars) ------------- -------------- March 31, December 31, As at 2016 2015 ------------- -------------- ASSETS Cash & cash equivalents 42,625 60,003 Restricted cash (current and noncurrent) 13,667 12,890 Vessels, net 177,834 157,103 Advances for vessel acquisition and vessels under construction 14,703 69,484 Other receivables 41,222 - Other assets 4,582 6,466 ------------- -------------- Total assets 294,633 305,946 ============= ============== LIABILITIES AND EQUITY Accounts payable and accrued liabilities 5,174 5,216 Deferred revenue 354 286 Total debt, net of deferred finance costs 113,017 114,320 Other current liabilities 3,895 - ------------- -------------- Total liabilities 122,440 119,822 ------------- -------------- Shareholders' equity 172,193 186,124 ------------- -------------- Total liabilities and shareholders' equity 294,633 305,946 ============= ============== Condensed Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows (Unaudited) (In thousands of U.S. Dollars) ------------- ------------- Three Months Three Months Ended March Ended March 31, 2016 31, 2015 ------------- ------------- Cash flows from operating activities Net Loss (13,931) (4,379) Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating activities: Depreciation 1,966 2,693 Amortization of deferred finance fees 245 196 Write off of capitalised expenses and fees 8,660 - Changes in operating assets and liabilities 421 (1,800) ------------- ------------- Net cash used in operating activities (2,639) (3,290) ------------- ------------- Cash flows from investing activities Payments for vessel acquisition and vessels under construction (11,802) (9,833) Purchase of other fixed assets (14) (15) Increase in restricted cash (777) (2,371) ------------- ------------- Net cash used in investing activities (12,593) (12,219) ------------- ------------- Cash flows from financing activities Loan repayments (1,515) (1,158) Payment of deferred finance fees and other loan fees (631) - ------------- ------------- Net cash used in financing activities (2,146) (1,158) ------------- ------------- Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents (17,378) (16,667) Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the period 60,003 98,829 ------------- ------------- Cash and cash equivalents at period end 42,625 82,162 ============= =============

About Pioneer Marine Inc.

Pioneer Marine is a leading ship owner and global drybulk handysize transportation service provider. Pioneer Marine currently owns fourteen Handysize and one Handymax drybulk carriers with an additional two Handysize newbuildings on order for delivery through 2016 and 2017. The Handysize Green Dolphins newbuildings are 'Eco' vessels designed by SDARI.

Forward-Looking Statements

Matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides safe harbor protections for forward-looking statements in order to encourage companies to provide prospective information about their business. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements, which are other than statements of historical facts. The Company desires to take advantage of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is including this cautionary statement in connection with this safe harbor legislation. The words "believe," "anticipate," "intends," "estimate," "forecast," "project," "plan," "potential," "may," "should," "expect," "pending" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, including without limitation, our management's examination of historical operating trends, data contained in our records and other data available from third parties. Although we believe that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond our control, we cannot assure you that we will achieve or accomplish these expectations, beliefs or projections.

In addition to these important factors, other important factors that, in our view, could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include the failure of counterparties to fully perform their contracts with us, the strength of world economies and currencies, general market conditions, including fluctuations in charter rates and vessel values, changes in demand for dry bulk vessel capacity, changes in our operating expenses, including bunker prices, drydock and insurance costs, the market for our vessels, availability of financing and refinancing, charter counterparty performance, ability to obtain financing and comply with covenants in such financing arrangements, changes in governmental rules and regulations or actions taken by regulatory authorities, potential liability from pending or future litigation, general domestic and international political conditions, potential disruption of shipping routes due to accidents or political events, vessels breakdowns and instances of off-hires and other factors.

Contact:

Pioneer Marine Inc.

Pankaj Khanna

President and CEO

+65 6513 8761

admin@pioneermarine.com



Investor Relations / Media

Capital Link, Inc.

Paul Lampoutis

+212 661 7566

pioneermarine@capitallink.com




BELLINGHAM, WA --(Marketwired - April 03, 2017) - eXp World Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: EXPI), the holding company for eXp Realty LLC, The Agent-Owned Cloud Brokerage, has provided a corporate update and its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2016.

2016 Company Highlights

Revenues in 2016 increased 137% to $54.2 million compared to $22.9 million in 2015.

Net loss in 2016 increased to $(26.0) million, or $(0.51) per diluted share, compared to net loss of $(4.6) million, or $(0.09) per diluted share in 2015. The net loss in 2016 was primarily due to non-cash charges as a result of a $20.5 million valuation increase of the intrinsic value of certain options due to an increase in share price during the period, and a $4.3 million increase in stock compensation expense. This compares to a $3.4 million valuation increase of the intrinsic value of certain options and a $1.2 million increase in stock compensation expense in 2015.

Adjusted EBITDA (a non-GAAP financial measure) increased 397% to $1.6 million in 2016, compared to $0.3 million in 2015.

Agents and brokers on the eXp Realty platform increased 178% to 2,401 in 2016, compared to 864 at the end of 2015. On March 15, 2017, the number of agents and brokers surpassed 3,000.

Management Commentary

"2016 established us as one of the largest and fastest growing brokerages in North America as we nearly tripled in size over the past year," said Glenn Sanford, Founder, CEO and Chairman of eXp World Holdings, Inc. "Our strong revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth in 2016 showcases the leverage in our model, which we expect to continue to be evident as we execute on our overall strategy.

"Driving this is our cloud-based brokerage model, which creates a strong value proposition for agents and has allowed us to attract some of the top producers, as well as some of the highest ranking teams, throughout the U.S. and Canada. We have become a leading brokerage of choice for agents due to eXp Realty's unique value proposition.

"Throughout 2016 and into 2017, we have continued to focus on investing in the infrastructure and tools necessary to support our growth and ensure scalability of eXp's Realty's business model. The investments we are making today will allow us to support a much larger, more mature organization well into the future. We expect our robust growth to continue to increase both in terms of agent count and revenues, along with our value proposition to our agent-owners and shareholders."

Fourth Quarter 2016 Financial Results

Revenues increased 181% to a record $18.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2016, compared to $6.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2015. Sequentially, revenues increased 14% when compared to revenue of $15.8 million in the third quarter of 2016. This growth is a direct result of the increased agent count and corresponding higher revenues realized by the Company's real estate brokerage division, eXp Realty.

In the fourth quarter of 2016, eXp Realty added 585 agents and brokers to its platform, an increase of 309% when compared to 143 agents and brokers added in the fourth quarter of 2015. This represents a sequential increase of 32% when compared to 418 agents added in the third quarter of 2016. eXp Realty ended 2016 with 2,401 real estate professionals on its platform across 42 states, the District of Columbia and Alberta, Canada. On March 15, 2017, eXp Realty surpassed the 3,000 agent milestone on its platform.

During the fourth quarter of 2016, operating loss was $4.7 million, compared to a $1.0 million operating loss in the same quarter of 2015. The increase in operating loss was primarily due to a significant increase in non-cash stock compensation expense of $3.7 million, and an increase in non-cash stock option expense of $0.04 million, due to an increase in share price during the period.

Adjusted EBITDA (a non-GAAP financial measure) in the fourth quarter of 2016 totaled $94,000, compared to $40,000 in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Net loss for the three months ended December 31, 2016 was $4.6 million, or $(0.09) per diluted share, compared to net loss of $7.1 million, or $(0.14) per basic and diluted share, for the fourth quarter of 2015. The increased net loss was primarily attributed to the significant increase in aforementioned non-cash stock option and stock compensation expenses.

Full Year 2016 Financial Results

eXp World Holdings reported revenue of $54.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2016, an increase of 137% compared to the prior year. This increase was mainly attributable to the 178% growth of the agent base during 2016, as eXp Realty grew from 864 to 2,401 agents.

In 2016, eXp Realty added 1,537 agents and brokers to its platform, an increase of 287% when compared to the 397 agents and brokers added in 2015. eXp Realty had 2,401 brokers and agents on its platform on December 31, 2016.

Operating loss for the full year 2016 was $26.0 million, an increase from $4.5 million in the same period in 2015. The increase in operating loss was primarily due to a significant increase in non-cash stock option expense of $20.5 million due to an increase in share price during the period, as well as a significant increase in non-cash stock compensation expense of $4.3 million as a result of agents joining the eXp Realty platform.

Adjusted EBITDA in 2016 increased 397% to $1.6 million, compared to $0.3 million in 2015.

Net loss in 2016 was $(26.0) million, or $(0.51) per diluted share, compared to net loss of $(4.6) million, or $(0.09) per diluted share in 2015. The increased net loss was primarily attributed to the aforementioned significant increase in non-cash stock option and stock compensation expenses.

Cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2016 were $1.7 million compared with $0.6 million as of December 31, 2015. Net operating cash flow for the year ended December 31, 2016 was $1.0 million, an increase of 195% from the last year.

About eXp World Holdings, Inc.

eXp World Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: EXPI) is the holding company for eXp Realty LLC, the Agent-Owned Cloud Brokerage. As a full-service real estate brokerage, eXp Realty provides 24/7 access to collaborative tools, training, and socialization for real estate brokers and agents through its 3-D, fully-immersive, cloud office environment. eXp Realty, LLC and eXp Realty of Canada, Inc. also feature an attractive revenue sharing program that pays agents a percentage of gross commission income earned by fellow real estate professionals who they attract into the Company.

As a publicly-traded company, eXp World Holdings, Inc. uniquely offers real estate professionals within its ranks opportunities to earn company stock for production and contributions to overall company growth.

For more information, please visit the Company's Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, or visit www.eXpRealty.com.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To provide investors with additional information regarding our financial results, this press release includes references to Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure. We view Adjusted EBITDA as an operating performance measure and, as such, we believe that the GAAP financial measure most directly comparable to it is net income (loss). We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income excluding interest, income taxes, depreciation, amortization, and stock based compensation. We believe that Adjusted EBITDA provides us an important measure of operating performance, primarily from a cash flow standpoint, and enhances comparability while providing investors with useful insight into the underlying trends of the business. Our use of Adjusted EBITDA has limitations as an analytical tool, and this measure should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for an analysis of our results as reported under GAAP, as the excluded items may have significant effects on our operating results and financial condition. Additionally, our measure of Adjusted EBITDA may differ from other companies' measure of Adjusted EBITDA. When evaluating our performance, Adjusted EBITDA should be considered with other financial performance measures, including various cash flow metrics, net income and other GAAP results. In the future, we may disclose different non-GAAP financial measures in order to help our investors and others more meaningfully evaluate and compare our future results of operations to our previously reported results of operations.

Safe Harbor Statement

The statements contained herein may include statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements that are based on management's current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof, and the Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update them. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements about the Company's expansion, revenue growth, operating results, financial performance and net income changes. Such statements are not guarantees of future performance. Important factors that may cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those expressed in forward-looking statements include changes in business or other market conditions; the difficulty of keeping expense growth at modest levels while increasing revenues; and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including but not limited to the most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K.

EXP WORLD HOLDINGS, INC. CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS December 31, December 31, ------------- ------------- 2016 2015 ------------- ------------- ASSETS CURRENT ASSETS Cash and cash equivalents $ 1,684,608 $ 571,814 Restricted cash 481,704 148,613 Accounts receivable, net of allowance $133,845 and $2,342, respectively 3,015,767 341,643 Prepaids and other assets 383,563 84,451 ------------- ------------- TOTAL CURRENT ASSETS 5,565,642 1,146,521 OTHER ASSETS Fixed assets, net 538,405 110,195 ------------- ------------- TOTAL OTHER ASSETS 538,405 110,195 TOTAL ASSETS $ 6,104,047 $ 1,256,716 ============= ============= LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY CURRENT LIABILITIES Accounts payable $ 317,420 $ 89,984 Customer deposits 481,704 148,613 Accrued expenses 2,742,119 425,613 Current portion of notes payable 35,778 - ------------- ------------- TOTAL CURRENT LIABILITIES 3,577,021 664,210 Commitments and contingencies - - STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY eXp World Holdings, Inc. Stockholders' Equity: Common Stock, $0.00001 par value 220,000,000 shares authorized; 52,316,679 shares and 50,168,195 shares issued and outstanding at December 31, 2016 and December 31, 2015, respectively 523 502 Additional paid-in capital 34,526,859 6,611,781 Accumulated deficit (32,004,561) (5,991,088) Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) 4,205 (9,113) ------------- ------------- Total eXp World Holdings, Inc. stockholders' equity 2,527,026 612,082 Non-controlling interests in subsidiary - (19,576) ------------- ------------- TOTAL STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY 2,527,026 592,506 TOTAL LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY $ 6,104,047 $ 1,256,716 ============= ============= The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

EXP WORLD HOLDINGS, INC. CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS Year Ended December 31, ---------------------------- 2016 2015 ------------- ------------- Net revenues $ 54,179,511 $ 22,866,787 ------------- ------------- Operating expenses Cost of revenues 46,726,533 19,456,409 General and administrative 32,237,501 7,257,961 Professional fees 645,024 439,763 Sales and marketing 570,844 211,456 ------------- ------------- Total expenses 80,179,902 27,365,589 Net income (loss) from operations (26,000,391) (4,498,802) Other income and (expenses) Other income 15 23 Interest expense (370) (1,127) ------------- ------------- Total other income and (expenses) (355) (1,104) ------------- ------------- Income (loss) from before income tax expense (26,000,746) (4,499,906) Income tax expense (42,528) (103,069) ------------- ------------- Net income (loss) (26,043,274) (4,602,975) Net loss attributable to non-controlling interest in subsidiary 29,801 21,526 ------------- ------------- Net income (loss) attributable to common shareholders $ (26,013,473) $ (4,581,449) ============= ============= Net income (loss) per share attributable to common shareholders Basic from continuing operations $ (0.51) $ (0.09) ------------- ------------- Diluted from continuing operations $ (0.51) $ (0.09) ------------- ------------- Weighted average shares outstanding Basic 51,081,949 49,409,266 ------------- ------------- Diluted 51,081,949 49,409,266 ------------- ------------- The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

EXP WORLD HOLDINGS, INC. RECONCILIATION OF NET LOSS TO ADJUSTED EBITDA US-GAAP NET INCOME (LOSS) TO ADJUSTED EBITDA RECONCILIATION Fiscal Year Ended, December 31, 2015 2016 Adjusted EBITDA reconciliation ---------------------------------------------- -------------- -------------- Net Income / (Loss) $ (4,602,975) $ (26,043,274) Interest 1,127 370 Taxes 103,069 42,528 Depreciation & Amortization 26,304 58,374 Stock Compensation 1,293,077 5,559,898 Stock Option 3,497,491 21,964,472 ------------- ------------- Adjusted EBITDA $ 318,093 $ 1,582,368

US-GAAP NET INCOME (LOSS) TO ADJUSTED EBITDA RECONCILIATION

Quarter Ended, Adjusted EBITDA reconciliation Mar-15 Jun-15 Sep-15 Dec-15 ---------------------- ---------- ----------- ------------ ------------ Net Income / (Loss) (16,817) (4,998,154) $ 1,509,720 $ (1,097,724) Interest 461 464 202 - Taxes 18,643 7,080 1,244 76,102 Depreciation & Amortization 5,323 7,824 5,863 7,294 Stock Compensation 99,798 672,327 212,951 308,001 Stock Option (171,807) 4,384,538 (1,461,593) 746,353 ---------- ----------- ------------ ------------ Adjusted EBITDA (64,399) 74,079 $ 268,387 $ 40,026 Adjusted EBITDA reconciliation Mar-16 Jun-16 Sep-16 Dec-16 --------------------------------- ------------ ------------ ------------ Net Income / (Loss) $ (625,447) $ (6,012,627) $(14,655,711) $ (4,749,489) Interest - - - 370 Taxes 11,603 13,968 7,444 9,513 Depreciation & Amortization 12,626 12,929 12,555 20,264 Stock Compensation 248,725 482,984 795,401 4,032,788 Stock Option 433,530 6,117,510 14,632,458 780,974 ----------- ------------ ------------ ------------ Adjusted EBITDA $ 81,037 $ 614,764 $ 792,147 $ 94,420

Investor Relations Contact:

Greg Falesnik

Managing Director

MZ Group - MZ North America

949-385-6449

Email contact



www.mzgroup.us
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 -- Versatile Systems Inc. (TSX VENTURE: VV) ( the "Company") is providing this bi-weekly default status report in accordance with National Policy 12-203 Management Cease Trade Orders ("NP 12-203") for the Management Cease Trade Order ("MCTO") issued by the British Columbia Securities Commission on October 31, 2016. On November 1st, 2016, the Company announced by way of press release that the filings of the Company's annual financial statements for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2016 and the related management's discussion and analysis (collectively, the "2016 Annual Financial Statements") were not completed by the legal deadline of October 28, 2016. The Company made an application to the provincial securities commissions under NP 12-203 and on October 31, 2016, received the MCTO in respect of the late filing. The MCTO does not affect the ability of other shareholders of the Company to trade their securities, however, Bertrande des Pallieres, the Executive Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and acting Chief Financial Officer of the Company and Andrew Lynch, the President of the Company, will not be able to trade the Company's shares.

As previously reported, the Company's failure to file the 2016 Annual Financial Statements by the prescribed deadline is due to a data corruption issue with its inventory count and the Company's management, together with its audit committee will continue to cooperate with its auditors to provide the information as soon as possible.

The Company expects to file the 2016 Annual Financial Statements by December 2nd, 2016. The Company confirms that it intends to satisfy the provisions of the alternative information guidelines found in NP 12-203 for so long as it is delayed in filing the 2016 Annual Financial Statements. The Company further reports that since October 31, 2016, except as stated in this default status report, there have not been any material changes to the information contained in its press release dated November 1st, 2016; nor any failure by Company to fulfill its intentions as stated therein with respect to satisfying the provisions of NP 12-203, and there are no additional defaults or anticipated defaults subsequent to the disclosure therein, other than the delay in filing the 2016 Annual Financial Statements. Further, the Company confirms that, at the date hereof, it is not aware of any other material information concerning its affairs which has not been generally disclosed.

About Versatile

Versatile is a multi-disciplinary technology company with solutions across the mobile software and hardware landscape. The company's products are utilized by Fortune 500 retailers, as well as large and small distribution companies representing grocery, dairy, beverage and consumer packaged goods. For more information please visit www.versatile.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This document may contain forward-looking statements relating to Versatile's operations, filing of annual financial statements for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2016 and the related management's discussion and analysis or to the environment in which it operates, which are based on Versatile's operations, estimates, forecasts and projections. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict or are beyond Versatile's control. A number of important factors including those set forth in other public filings could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements. Consequently, readers should not place any undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. In addition, these forward-looking statements relate to the date on which they are made. Versatile disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

Andrew Lynch

President

(425) 778-8577

inquiries@versatile.com




HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 -- Note to editors: There are three maps associated with this press release.

Erdene Resource Development Corp. (TSX: ERD) ("Erdene" or "Company") is pleased to provide an update on third quarter corporate and project activities and to announce the receipt of $1.08 million in proceeds through the exercise of warrants.

Corporate Highlights

-- Company receives $1.08 million from the exercise of 5.6 million warrants, subsequent to quarter end. -- Realized $481,000 gain on sale of securities. -- Current cash position of $2.1 million. -- Working capital sufficient to fund remaining 2016 drill program and G&A through Q1-2017.

Bayan Khundii Gold Project Highlights - 100% Erdene

-- A total of 87 holes completed since late 2015 totaling 9,784 m with an average vertical drill depth of 87.4 m. -- Assays currently pending for 26 holes with results expected in two separate press releases between mid-November and early December. -- Additional drilling will continue through mid-December with additional results anticipated through to Q1-2017. -- Drilling continues to establish very good continuity of high-grade gold mineralization within the main Striker Zone including: -- 63 m of 5.3 g/t gold (BKD-17) -- 24 m of 7.5 g/t gold (BKD-49) -- 31 m of 6.8 g/t gold (BKD-57) -- Striker Zone continuing to demonstrate good size potential as drilling also returns very wide zones of lower-grade mineralization, including: -- 78 m of 1.0 g/t gold (BKD-28) -- 66 m of 1.0 g/t gold (BKD-34) -- 112 m of 1.2 g/t gold (BKD-51) -- Drilling results announced October 18, 2016 confirmed the presence of wide gold mineralized zones under thin, post mineralization cover, north of Striker Zone; -- BKD-60, a step-out reconnaissance hole, 170 m north of the Striker Zone under 20 m of younger Cretaceous cover, intersected a new gold zone with 68 m of 2.0 g/t gold. -- BKD-60 is the most continuous gold-mineralized hole intersected to date at Bayan Khundii; 123 m of 1.3 g/t gold from the top of the zone (20 m depth) to the bottom of hole. -- Geophysical surveys support extensive zone of alteration continuing beneath the younger Cretaceous units, suggesting that Bayan Khundii's epithermal system may be more widespread than the main exposed areas at surface; -- Strong induced polarization resistivity response (typical of Striker Zone) extends at depth to the north and west. -- Q4-2016 drilling includes continued expansion of mineralization within the Striker Zone, and the drilling of expansion/perimeter holes within the larger 1.7 km trend in order to establish potential extensions and boundaries to the gold system in advance of a resource drilling program in 2017. -- Gold mineralization begins at surface and generally dips at a 35 to 50 degree angle, to the southwest with the majority of the drilling oriented perpendicular to that dip. -- Visible gold has been observed in multiple holes. -- Sulfide minerals are largely oxidized to approximately 100 m depth, benefitting gold recovery; -- Metallurgical testwork (completed Q1-2016) indicates 99% recovery (gravity followed by cyanide leach of the tails) in a high-grade (24.9 g/t gold) composite, and 92% recovery from a low-grade (0.7 g/t gold) composite. -- Project confirmed as low-sulphidation epithermal gold system; -- As part of Erdene's Q3-2016 exploration program, several independent studies were commissioned, including an evaluation and site visit by consultant, Dr. Jeffrey Hedenquist, one of the world's leading experts on epithermal gold systems. -- Gold mineralization is hosted within altered Devonian volcanic units overlain in part by younger Cretaceous and Quaternary units, extending over a 1.7 km by 0.7 km trend. -- See attached maps and cross sections for reference.

Teck Alliance

-- In Q2-2016, the Company closed a $500,000 private placement with Teck Resources Limited ("Teck"); 1,063,830 shares issued to Teck at $0.47 per share. -- The 2016 Teck Alliance regional exploration program commenced in Q3- 2016, and consists of regional-scale stream sediment surveys, geological mapping and prospecting, as well as analysis of remote sensing data.

Financing and Corporate

-- In April 2016, the Company closed a transaction with Sandstorm Gold Ltd. ("Sandstorm") and received total consideration valued at $2.5 million. -- In May 2016, the Company issued 1,801,475 shares to Tian Poh Resources Limited and discharged the convertible debenture of $252,207. -- In June 2016, the Company appointed Dr. Anna Biolik and David Mosher to its board of directors; -- Dr. Anna Biolik has over thirty years of public and private sector experience and is one of the foremost Canadian experts on Central Asian business and diplomacy, having acted as Canada's first resident Ambassador in Mongolia; and -- David Mosher is a gold mining executive with over thirty-five years of experience in mine and company building in foreign jurisdictions, including Russia and Burkina Faso. -- During 2016, the Company received gross proceeds of $2.6 million from the exercise of 13.9 million warrants and options at an average price of $0.19 per share. -- Erdene filed its Q3-2016 Financial Statements and MD&A on SEDAR on November 14, 2016.

Drilling Update and Plans

Between September 5, 2016, and November 3, 2016, Erdene completed 42 drill holes at Bayan Khundii for a total of 5,243 m. Assays are pending for 26 of these holes (2,869 m), with results expected to be issued in two separate press releases between mid-November and early December.

With the Company's improved cash position and the recently announced success of hole BKD-60 (step-out hole 170 m north of Striker Zone, targeting a geophysical anomaly), which represents the most continuous gold-mineralized hole to date at Bayan Khundii, the Company is currently re-evaluating the balance of this year's drill program. Geophysical targets, similar to that within the Striker Zone, extend at depth beneath the younger Cretaceous units suggesting that Bayan Khundii's epithermal system may be more widespread than the main exposed areas at surface where the majority of drilling has focused.

Additional drill results and an update on planned drilling for the remainder of the 4th quarter will be included in an upcoming press release.

Drilling to date at Bayan Khundii has identified very good continuity of multiple, near-surface, high-grade gold zones, as demonstrated by the table below.

Table summarizing high-grade and broad, lower grade intersections at Bayan Khundii.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Interval Drill Hole From (m) To (m) (m)(i) Gold (g/t) Results Reported ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BKD-01 14 21 7 27.5 Dec 9, 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BKD-09 33 59 26 5.90 Dec 14, 2015 incl 34 49 15 9.90 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BKD-10 0 35 35 5.70 Dec 14, 2015 incl 11 23 12 16.2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BKD-17 50 113 63 5.31 May 9, 2016 incl 54 69 15 11.5 incl 82 95 13 11.3 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BKD-28 42 120(ii) 78 1.00 May 24, 2016 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BKD-34 76 142 66 1.01 June 14, 2016 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BKD-44 0.7 9 8.3 14.2 June 22, 2016 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BKD-46 2.3 19 16.7 4.65 October 4, 2016 incl 8 15 7 10.2 and 100 108 8 5.61 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BKD-49 45 116 71 3.06 October 4, 2016 incl 74 98 24 7.52 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BKD-51 0 112 112 1.17 October 4, 2016 incl 76 106 30 3.23 incl 100 103 3 19.8 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BKD-57 36 126(ii) 90 2.51 October 18, 2016 incl 62 93 31 6.80 incl 66 73 7 26.0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BKD-60 20 143 123 1.32 October 18, 2016 incl 24 92 68 1.96 incl 29 59 30 2.98 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (i) Reported intervals are not true width. At this time there is insufficient data with respect to the shape of the mineralized system to calculate true orientations in space. They represent drill intersection widths from holes drilled at a 45 to 90 degree angle. The Bayan Khundii mineralization is interpreted to be moderately dipping (approximately 35 to 50 degrees). (ii) End of hole

Altan Arrow and Altan Nar Gold Projects - 100% Erdene

The Company plans to drill test its Altan Arrow epithermal gold prospect ("Altan Arrow") in Q4-2016 with shallow, low-angle holes to test continuity of the high-grade zones from surface. Altan Arrow is situated on the Bayan Khundii license, 3.5 km north of the Bayan Khundii project, and 15 km southeast of the Company's Altan Nar gold-polymetallic project ("Altan Nar"). Previous exploration at Altan Arrow identified an approximately one square-km area of anomalous gold-silver mineralization in quartz veins that returned up to 57 g/t gold in hand samples and 1 m of 31.4 g/t gold and 6 m of 4.5 g/t gold in trenching.

The Company also plans to drill at Altan Nar in Q4-2016 targeting both resource expansion and the testing of new targets. Exploration carried out by Erdene over the past four years has established Altan Nar as a significant new epithermal gold-silver-lead-zinc mineralized system. Exploration work, specifically the 2013 through 2015 programs, including mapping, geochemical and geophysical survey programs, and a multi-stage scout and resource delineation drilling program, have greatly expanded the areas of known mineralization with 20 target areas now documented over a 6 km x 10 km area, with the main mineralized, structural trend and primary location of carbonate, gold-silver-base metal mineralization being approximately 5.6 km x 1.5 km, consisting of 18 of the 20 target areas.

Financial Results Summary

Erdene's Q3-2016 financial statements and Management Discussion and Analysis were filed with regulatory authorities on November 14, 2016 and are available on the Company's website here, and on SEDAR.

At September 30, 2016 the Company had cash of $2,088,323 compared with $675,790 on the same date in the prior year. Working capital was $1,764,625 at September 30, 2016 compared with $308,341 on the same date in the prior year.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2016, the Company recorded a net loss of $2,008,148 or $0.02 per basic and fully diluted share compared to $1,131,628 or $0.01 per share for the same period in 2015. Included in the results for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 is a gain of $481,064 on the sale of Sandstorm Gold Ltd. ("Sandstorm") shares, received as consideration for the sale of a royalty to Sandstorm in Q2-2016.

Exploration expenditures, including capitalized costs, totaled $3,020,794 for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 compared to $1,441,018 for the same period in 2015. Expenditures in 2016 have primarily been directed toward Bayan Khundii and, to a lesser extent, the Teck Alliance work.

Corporate and administrative costs were $1,165,907 for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 compared to $536,234 for the same period in 2015.

Please refer to the Company's Q3-2016 Management's Discussion and Analysis for further commentary on the Company's results.

Background on Erdene's Emerging Gold District in Southwest Mongolia

Since 2008, Erdene has undertaken systematic regional exploration work in southwest Mongolia, an underexplored region of the prolific Tian Shan Gold Belt, part of the Central Asian Orogeny that is host to some of the world's largest gold deposits. This work has resulted in the discovery of multiple gold and copper occurrences by the Erdene team, including Bayan Khundii, Altan Nar and Altan Arrow. Project summaries are provided below.

Bayan Khundii Gold Project

In Q2-2015, Erdene conducted an initial exploration program on the southern portion of the Company's 100%-owned Khundii license in southwest Mongolia. This reconnaissance work led to the discovery of Bayan Khundii, a low sulphidation epithermal gold prospect. Gold mineralization at Bayan Khundii has been identified over a 1.7 km trend, with detailed exploration only taking place over a 500 m by 350 m zone in the southwest portion of the prospect area, where the Company's drill programs have focused. Recent step-out drilling to the north of this area, targeting geophysical anomalies under younger cover, has significantly enlarged the prospect area. Erdene's near-term objective at Bayan Khundii is to continue to expand mineralization within the Striker Zone, and to continue drilling expansion and perimeter holes throughout the 1.7 km Bayan Khundii trend in order to establish potential extensions and boundaries to the gold system in advance of a resource drilling program in 2017.

Visible gold has been observed in multiple drill holes, and results include several high-grade intersections within a series of parallel structures exposed at surface. Results include up to 35 m of 5.9 g/t gold in hole BKD-10 from surface to the bottom of the hole (including 12 m of 16.2 g/t gold), and 63 m of 5.3 g/t gold in hole BKD-17 starting at 50 m. Drill results and program details are included in Erdene's press releases (click here).

In Q1-2016, the Company concluded preliminary metallurgical test work at Bayan Khundii, indicating that gravity concentration and cyanidation of the gravity tails yield very good overall gold recoveries for both high-grade and low-grade composites: 99% gold recovery from the high-grade composite (24.9 g/t gold), and 92% gold recovery from the low-grade composite (0.7 g/t gold). The license has a 2% net smelter returns royalty ("NSR Royalty") in favour of Sandstorm Gold Ltd. with a buy-back option to reduce the NSR Royalty to 1%.

Altan Nar Gold-Polymetallic Project

The Company's Altan Nar gold-polymetallic project, located 19 km northwest of Bayan Khundii, hosts a total of 18 mineralized gold-silver-lead-zinc target areas within a 5.6 km by 1.5 km mineralized corridor. Two of the early discoveries, Discovery Zone ("DZ") and Union North ("UN"), are the most advanced targets, hosting wide zones of high-grade, near-surface mineralization over variable widths (up to 53 m apparent width) averaging in excess of 1 g/t gold, including intervals up to 19 m averaging 5.8 g/t gold (7.8 g/t gold equivalent(i)). The DZ and UN targets were the focus of an initial National Instrument 43-101 resource estimate released by the Company in Q1-2015. Altan Nar remains at an early stage of exploration with only shallow, detailed drilling of DZ and UN with the remaining 16 targets either undrilled or scout-drilled, and are considered by the Company to have good potential for hosting additional resources. The license has a 2% NSR Royalty in favour of Sandstorm Gold Ltd. with a buy-back option to reduce the NSR Royalty to 1%.

(i)Gold equivalent has been used to express the combined value of gold, silver, lead and zinc at Altan Nar as a percentage of gold, and is provided for illustrative purposes only. No allowances have been made for recovery losses that may occur should mining eventually result. Calculations use metal prices of US $1200/ounce gold, $18/ounce silver, and $0.90/pound for lead and zinc.

Altan Arrow Gold Project

The Altan Arrow gold prospect is situated on the Bayan Khundii license, 3.5 km north of the Bayan Khundii project and 15 km southeast of Altan Nar. Previous exploration by Erdene in the Altan Arrow prospect area confirmed the presence of high-grade gold within epithermal quartz veins and the potential for broader mineralized zones. Erdene geologists identified an approximate one square-km area of anomalous gold-silver mineralization in quartz veins that returned up to 57 g/t gold in hand samples and 1 m of 31.4 g/t gold and 6 m of 4.5 g/t gold in trenching. The license has a 2% net smelter returns royalty ("NSR Royalty") in favour of Sandstorm Gold Ltd. with a buy-back option to reduce the NSR Royalty to 1%.

Qualified Person and Sample Protocol

Michael MacDonald, P.Geo. (Nova Scotia), Director of Exploration for Erdene, is a Qualified Person as that term is defined in National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this news release. All samples have been assayed at SGS Laboratory in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. In addition to internal checks by SGS Laboratory, the Company incorporates a QA/QC sample protocol utilizing prepared standards and blanks.

Erdene's sampling protocol for drill core consisted of collection of samples over 1 m or 2 m intervals (depending on the lithology and style of mineralization) over the entire length of the drill hole, excluding minor post-mineral lithologies and un-mineralized granitoids. Sample intervals were based on meterage, not geological controls or mineralization. All drill core was cut in half with a diamond saw, with half of the core placed in sample bags and the remaining half securely retained in core boxes at Erdene's Bayan Khundii exploration camp. All samples were organized into batches of 20 samples including a commercially prepared standard and blank. Sample batches were periodically shipped directly to SGS in Ulaanbaatar via Erdene's logistical contractor, Monrud Co. Ltd.

About Erdene

Erdene Resource Development Corp. is a Canada-based resource company focused on the acquisition, exploration, and development of base and precious metals in underexplored and highly prospective Mongolia. In addition to Bayan Khundii, Altan Nar, and Altan Arrow, the Company has two other exploration licenses and a mining license in southwest Mongolia. Other deposits and prospects within these licenses include: Khuvyn Khar - an early-stage, copper-silver porphyry project with multiple drill targets and significant copper intersections; Nomin Tal - a narrow, high grade copper-gold discovery; and Zuun Mod - a large molybdenum-copper porphyry deposit. In addition to the above properties, the Company has an Alliance with Teck Resources Limited on regional copper-gold exploration in the prospective Trans Altay region of southwest Mongolia. For further information on the Company, please visit www.erdene.com. Erdene has 126,810,031issued and outstanding common shares and a fully diluted position of 134,431,281 common shares.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information regarding Erdene contained herein may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements may include estimates, plans, expectations, opinions, forecasts, projections, guidance or other statements that are not statements of fact. Although Erdene believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. Erdene cautions that actual performance will be affected by a number of factors, most of which are beyond its control, and that future events and results may vary substantially from what Erdene currently foresees. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration results, continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. The forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The information contained herein is stated as of the current date and is subject to change after that date. The Company does not assume the obligation to revise or update these forward-looking statements, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.

NO REGULATORY AUTHORITY HAS APPROVED OR DISAPPROVED THE CONTENTS OF THIS RELEASE

To view the maps associated with this press release, please visit the following links:

http://www.marketwire.com/library/20161115-1076587_fig1_800.jpg

http://www.marketwire.com/library/20161115-1076587_fig2_800.jpg

http://www.marketwire.com/library/20161115-1076587_fig3_800.jpg

Contacts:

Erdene Resource Development Corp.

Peter C. Akerley, President and CEO

(902) 423-6419



Erdene Resource Development Corp.

Ken W. MacDonald, Vice President and CFO

(902) 423-6419

info@erdene.com

www.erdene.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ErdeneRes




CARLSBAD, California and COLOGNE, Germany, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Cologne, Germany was the center of drug development partnering last week where 3,700 high level executives from the life science/drug development industry attendedBIO-Europe 2016 global life science partnering event, held November 7-9, 2016.

BIO-Europe 2016 broke records for number of delegates and number of one-to-one partnering meetings which reached 20,833, an all-time high and up 9% from 2015. CEOs and decision makers from 1,982 companies and 63 countries discussed asset deals and strategic collaborations. There were 4,734 licensing opportunities on offer, 153 company presentations and 97 exhibitors.

"The incredible success of BIO-Europe in Cologne is both a testament to the region's key central European location and its strong biopharma sector, as well as the increased need for partnering as a critical ingredient in successful strategic planning by companies spanning the drug development spectrum, " said Anna Chrisman, Group Managing Director, EBD Group. "This spectrum has grown to include early stage academia, startup biotech companies, innovators in cell and gene therapy and digital medicine, and many more, making BIO-Europe a fully integrated partnering event that has real relevance in the future of healthcare."

A Startup Slam pitching competition took place during the course of the event, offering emerging entrepreneurs a chance to pitch their company to business development executives, venture capitalists and industry experts. The event, sponsored by Johnson & Johnson Innovation with support from Innovation Forum and BIO.NRW, was won by Jeremy Chrisp of EpiAxis Therapeutics Pty Ltd, a new startup company spun out from the University of Canberra in Australia. They aim to commercialize their novel approach to prevent the recurrence of metastasis, with an initial focus on breast cancer.

Planning is already underway for BIO-Europe 2017 which will take place in Berlin, Germany, November 6-8, 2017 in partnership with Berlin Partner and Berlin-Brandenberg HealthCapital. As a leading hub for life sciences, the German capital region will welcome biotech experts from Europe and abroad. The region's biotech sector in particular has registered steady growth and high startup dynamism, with 90% of the 240 biotech cluster companies working in biomedicine. A strength of the region its unique research landscape, the close links between science and industry and the excellent infrastructure for clinical trials with more than 130 clinics, including Europe's largest university hospital, the Charite.

"As a leading location for innovation in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, we are delighted that BIO-Europe 2017 is returning to Berlin," said Dr. Kai Uwe Bindseil, Cluster Manager for Healthcare Industries in Berlin-Brandenburg - HealthCapital. "Every day, over 240 biotech companies in the capital region are working on the development of new active substances and diagnostics-at BIO-Europe, we place this excellence at the forefront and are creating the foundation for new international cooperations."

Early planning is now in place to bring BIO-Europe to Copenhagen, Denmark in 2018 in partnership with Invest in Skane and Copenhagen Capacity. Copenhagen is an important biotech and life science location for a global audience. The region's life science cluster, Medicon Valley, spanning Eastern Denmark and Southern Sweden, is world leader within cancer, metabolic diseases, inflammation and brain/central nervous system diseases, and it is highly recognized for its strong patents and product pipeline as well as for the unique and successful collaboration between industry, academia and government.

Watch video coverage from BIO-Europe and other key partnering events, including interviews with executives and thought leaders from the life science industry, on EBD Group's Insight, a premier news source for the biopharma industry, or by following the BIOEurope event hashtag on Twitter.

Additional links and information:

Follow BIO-Europe on Twitter: @EBDGroup (hashtag: BioEurope).

About EBD Group

EBD Group is the leading partnering firm for the global life science industry. Since 1993, biotech, pharma and medical device companies have leveraged EBD Group's partnering conferences, technology and services to identify business opportunities and develop strategic relationships essential to their success.

EBD Group's conferences are run with the support of leading corporations and international trade associations and include:

BIO-Europe and BIO-Europe Spring, Europe's largest life science partnering conferences, supported by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO)

largest life science partnering conferences, supported by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) BioPharm America', the fastest growing partnering event in North America

Biotech Showcase', a unique forum in San Francisco for presenting to investors and business development executives, co-produced with Demy-Colton Life Science Advisors

for presenting to investors and business development executives, co-produced with Demy-Colton Life Science Advisors BioEquity Europe, the investor conference co-organized with BioCentury Publications and BIO

ChinaBio Partnering Forum, the first dedicated biotech/pharma partnering conference in China , co-produced with ChinaBio Group

, co-produced with ChinaBio Group Biolatam, facilitating partnering among global life sciences executives in Latin America's vibrant life science hubs

vibrant life science hubs Cell & Gene Exchange, a partnering forum focused on the patient community in cell and gene therapy sectors, co-produced with Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM).

EBD Group's sophisticated web-based partnering service, partneringONE, is used as the partnering engine at numerous third-party events around the world, and partnering360 is the open online community of life science dealmakers that enhances partnering experiences throughout the year.

Tune into EBD Group's Insight for timely coverage of news that influences the business strategies of the life science industry.

EBD Group is an Informa company. Informa is the largest publicly-owned organizer of exhibitions, conferences and training in the world.

EBD Group has offices in the USA and Europe.

For more information please visit http://www.ebdgroup.com.
WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwired - November 15, 2016) - Fifteen nonprofit community development organizations were recognized today for their excellence in sustainable business and housing practices that are designed to save people money by NeighborWorks America. To date, 95 network members have earned the NeighborWorks Green Organization designation.

This is the fifth year of the NeighborWorks Green Organization program, which recognizes community development nonprofits in its network of more than 240 organizations that demonstrate a comprehensive commitment to sustainable operations -- both in their lines of business and the corporate operations they run.

"Operating under green practices provides a triple win -- residents, businesses and organizations all win," said Paul Weech, chief executive officer of NeighborWorks America. "The organizations that earn this designation from NeighborWorks America show that green business practices not only support a nonprofit's bottom line and further its mission, but also protect people's pocketbooks and their well-being."

NeighborWorks America, which creates opportunities for people to live in affordable homes, improve their lives and strengthen their communities, supports a network of more than 240 nonprofits, located in every state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

The new NeighborWorks Green Organizations are: A Community of Friends (Los Angeles, California), Avesta Housing Development Corp. (Portland, Maine), Chinatown Community Development Center (San Francisco, CA), Community Housing Development Corporation of North Richmond (Richmond, California), Community Resources and Housing Development Corp. (Westminster, Colorado), Famicos Foundation (Cleveland, Ohio), Housing Partnership for Morris County (Dover, New Jersey), Housing Partnership (Riviera Beach, Florida), Neighborhood Housing Services of Birmingham (Birmingham, Alabama), Neighborhood Housing Services of New Britain (New Britain, Connecticut), Neighborhood Housing Services of the Inland Empire (San Bernardino, California), Neighborhood of Affordable Housing (East Boston, Massachusetts), NeighborWorks Toledo Region (Toledo, Ohio), Urban Edge Housing Corp.(Roxbury, Massachusetts), and Windham & Windsor Housing Trust (Brattleboro, Vermont.)

For fiscal year 2014-2015, the 95 NeighborWorks Green Organizations together owned more than 72,000 affordable apartments and built or rehabilitated more than 3,800 green rental and for-sale homes. Through the organizations' participation in this program, more than 6,300 employees are experiencing a healthier, greener working environment. Last year, they educated more than 18,000 households seeking to purchase or owning a home on the core elements of healthy and sustainable homes.

For more information about the green designation, go to NeighborWorks.org/Green.

For more information about NeighborWorks America, go to NeighborWorks.org.

About NeighborWorks America

For more than 35 years, NeighborWorks America has created opportunities for people to improve their lives and strengthen their communities by providing access to homeownership and to safe and affordable rental housing. In the last five years, NeighborWorks organizations have generated more than $24.5 billion in reinvestment in these communities. NeighborWorks America is the nation's leading trainer of community development and affordable housing professionals.

Contact:

Lindsay Moore

lmoore@nw.org

202-760-4059

@neighborworkspr
LE HAVRE, France, November 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The initial jet engine exhaust system component for Boeing's new 777X airplane has been delivered by Safran Nacelles, achieving another on-time milestone in this Safran group company's first major role as a supplier to the U.S. aircraft manufacturer.

Provided to Boeing was the exhaust system's center body - a complex-shaped unit that contributes to the proper aerodynamic flow of exhaust from the 777X's General Electric GE9X turbofan engines.

"On-time deliveries and meeting Boeing's high expectations are Safran Nacelles' priorities for this program, and we are fully committed to meeting our commitments on the 777X exhaust system," said Jean-Paul Alary, the President of Safran Nacelles. "We're building a strong and valued relationship with Boeing based on our experience in nacelle integration, and we look forward to additional opportunities to grow our association in the future."

The two-piece exhaust system center body was delivered from Safran Nacelles' Le Havre, France, production facility. It is composed primarily of titanium and incorporates an acoustically treated area for reduced engine noise levels.

A second development unit is in production at Safran Nacelles for delivery to Boeing before year-end, involving the center body, the nozzle and the center vent tube - representing a complete exhaust system.

The 777X's exhaust systems are among the largest of their type ever manufactured for civil aircraft, and fully benefit from titanium's lower mass and increased resistance to heat in jet engine applications.

Safran is a leading international high-technology group with three core businesses: Aerospace (propulsion and equipment), Defence and Security. Operating worldwide, the Group has 70,000 employees and generated sales of 17.4 billion euros in 2015. Safran is listed on Euronext Paris and is part of the CAC40 index, as well as the Euro Stoxx 50 European index.

Safran Nacelles is the world's second leading supplier of aircraft engine nacelles, with more than 17,000 in service, logging over 100,000 flight-hours per day. It supplies nacelles and components for all segments of the aviation market, from business and regional jets to mainline commercial jets.

For more information: http://www.safran-group.com and http://www.safran-nacelles.com / Follow @Safran and @SafranNacelles on Twitter
MORGAN HILL, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 -- Van Daele Homes and Presidio Residential Capital have purchased 9.4 acres at the northwest corner of Watsonville Road and Monterey Road, where it will develop a neighborhood with 37 homes ranging from 1,400 to 2,105 square feet.

The community called Watsonville is located close to major employment centers, recreation and two-and-a-half miles from a Caltrans station. The new development will include a bocce ball court and a playground. The joint venture partners expect the community to be open for sale by September 2017 and completed by December 2018.

"As a family-owned development company, we always strive to build high-quality homes with exceptional value," said Jeffrey Hack, president and CEO of Van Daele Homes. "This is why we are thrilled to offer Watsonville to new homeowners."

This project is Van Daele Homes' second joint venture with Presidio. The joint venture partners recently purchased 1.7 acres at the northwest corner of San Pedro and Church streets in Morgan Hill to build a 12-home community called The Commons.

About Van Daele Homes

Van Daele Homes is a well-respected family-owned home development company located in Southern California with a strong presence in the Bay area since 2013. The management team is comprised of some of the most respected and experienced homebuilding professionals in the industry. Since 1987, Van Daele Homes has created exceptional new home communities for more than 15,000 families. Van Daele won BIA Builder of the Year and its innovative community in the Irvine area, Sevilla at Portola Springs, won the Golden Nugget Award for design. www.vandaele.com

About Presidio Residential Capital

Presidio Residential Capital is a real estate investment company focused on the residential housing sector. Headquartered in San Diego, Calif., the firm provides capital in the form of joint ventures for the entitlement, development and build-out of for-sale residential projects throughout the Western United States. Presidio has infused more than $1 billion into the economy to capitalize the housing industry. The firm's goal is to fund an additional $250 million in capital for home-building projects in the Western United States through 2017. It currently has investments in Arizona, California, Nevada, Colorado, Idaho and Washington with current committed capital of $650 million focused on 95+ projects. The firm is affiliated with a privately held registered investment advisor specializing in alternative investment strategies who has a long history of investing in the home-building sector. Current assets under management total more than $2.5 billion. Presidio is a member of the Building Industry Association of San Diego. Online and social media: www.presidioresidential.com, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Media Contacts:

Anton Communications

Vanessa Showalter

vshowalter@antonpr.com

Genevieve Anton

ganton@antonpr.com




SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - November 15, 2016) - Automotive Grade Linux (AGL), a collaborative open source project developing a Linux-based, open platform for the connected car, today announced five new members have joined Automotive Grade Linux and The Linux Foundation.

"The industry is beginning to realize that an open platform can lead to tangible business results and significantly reduce production times, development costs and improve product design," said Dan Cauchy, Executive Director of Automotive Grade Linux. "We've seen tremendous growth over the past year, and we plan to build on that momentum with the next release of the AGL Unified Code Base later this year."

The AGL Unified Code Base (UCB) distribution was built from the ground up by a broad community of automakers, suppliers and technology companies. The in-vehicle infotainment platform is ideal for deploying navigation, communications, safety, security and connectivity and is in a unique position to become the de facto standard for the industry. The third release of the UCB will be on display at CES 2017; details will be shared later this year.

AGL has close to 90 members representing various business interests, from semiconductors and in-vehicle software to IoT and connected cloud services. The newest AGL members include: Audiokinetic, Sasken Communication Technologies, Star Lab, Toyota Tsusho Corporation and Witekio.

New Member Quotes:

Audiokinetic

"Our solutions empower booth audio creators and programmers to create interactive audio experiences," said Martin H. Klein, President and CEO of Audiokinetic. "The vehicle is the next major consumer platform, and we look forward to contributing our expertise and technology in developing interactive audio solutions to Automotive Grade Linux."

Sasken Communication Technologies Ltd

"Sasken has a deep understanding of the software solutions and processes needed to help OEMs and Tier 1s keep pace with the evolution of consumer technology," said Ram Ramaseshan, Senior Vice President at Sasken Communication Technologies. "Open industry standards can speed up production, enable rapid innovation and reduce software development costs for everyone, which is why we look forward to contributing to AGL."

Star Lab

"Joining Automotive Grade Linux and The Linux Foundation is a positive step forward for Star Lab. As an embedded security company that primarily deals with Linux-based operating systems, we value the contribution the Foundation and its volunteers provide to making Linux better for everyone," said Irby Thompson, President/CEO of Star Lab. "Star Lab is also involved in various LF collaborative projects including Xen Project, and we aim to make an even bigger contribution and play a more vital role in the open source community through our collaboration with Automotive Grade Linux."

Toyota Tsusho Corporation

"An open platform for the connected car can help speed up the development of the next-generation of in-car technology," said Yasuhiro Kakihara, General Manager, Future Mobility Business Development Department, Toyota Tsusho Corporation. "We look forward to applying our knowledge of software development, semiconductors and electronic components to help accelerate the development and adoption of Automotive Grade Linux."

Witekio

"As embedded systems become more complex, system software integration is a key success factor for any embedded and connected devices development," said Yannick Chammings, CEO at Witekio. "Working with Automotive Grade Linux provides us an opportunity to help create a platform that can adapt and keep pace with consumer technology as new devices hit the market."

The full list of AGL members is available here.

About Automotive Grade Linux (AGL)

Automotive Grade Linux is a collaborative open source project that is bringing together automakers, suppliers and technologies to accelerate the development and adoption of a fully open software stack for the connected car. With Linux at its core, AGL is developing an open platform from the ground up that can serve as the de facto industry standard to enable rapid development of new features and technologies. Although initially focused on In-Vehicle-Infotainment (IVI), AGL is the only organization planning to address all software in the vehicle, including instrument cluster, heads up display, telematics, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving. The AGL platform is available to all, and anyone can participate in its development. Learn more: https://www.automotivelinux.org/

Automotive Grade Linux is a Collaborative Project at The Linux Foundation. Linux Foundation Collaborative Projects are independently funded software projects that harness the power of collaborative development to fuel innovation across industries and ecosystems. www.linuxfoundation.org

Additional Resources

Developer Resources

About the AGL Community

Participating in Automotive Grade Linux

The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see our trademark usage page: https://www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

Media Inquiries

Emily Olin

Automotive Grade Linux

eolin@linuxfoundation.org
MONTREAL, CANADA -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 -- Note to editors: An image is included with this press release on Marketwired's website.

Beyond Technologies today announced that it is adding SAP S/4HANA Cloud to its service offering. Beyond Technologies now provides more deployment flexibility to clients looking for quicker implementation times and reduced total cost of ownership. Beyond Technologies will also be deploying SAP S/4HANA Cloud to run its own organization.

SAP S/4HANA is designed for in-memory computing, allowing companies to "Run Live" by gaining instant access to detailed, real-time information. SAP S/4HANA Cloud delivers the power of a digital core with the key benefits expected from a cloud solution, including the scalability, ease of management and security businesses need to excel in today's fast-paced digital economy.

"Beyond Technologies has been listening to the market and its need for cloud-based services for a wide range of applications, including ERP," said Leonardo De Araujo, SAP Mentor and CTO at Beyond Technologies. "Many organizations continue to run on older outdated systems due to the perception that ERP projects can be large and resource-intensive. By adding SAP S/4HANA to our portfolio, we answer the market's demand for digital-centric services and offer our customers the opportunity to have access to subscription-based ERP solutions rapidly and cost-effectively."

Alain Dubois, Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer at Beyond Technologies, added, "One of our important objectives is to align directly with the SAP strategic roadmap for cloud-based applications. These include best-of-breed cloud applications from companies recently acquired by SAP, including Ariba, Hybris, Success Factors and Concur. The natural next step was ERP in the cloud."

"Beyond Technologies has been a customer and partner of SAP for over 10 years," said Ross Wainwright, chief customer officer, SAP S/4HANA Cloud at SAP. "Our colleagues at Beyond understand the cloud business model and how it drives business outcomes at the lowest possible TCO. We are excited to get started and pleased to have Beyond Technologies on board,"

About Beyond Technologies

Beyond Technologies is a professional service firm, specialized in SAP solution integration and business process optimization. We have extensive experience across a wide range of industries. Founded by a team of consultants with over 20 years of integrated business management system experience, we know how to leverage business best practices and SAP solutions to deliver real and sustainable benefits to our clients. We offer intelligent, practical and innovative solutions that give our clients a competitive edge, in a timely and cost-effective manner.

https://www.beyondtechnologies.com

SAP, SAP S/4HANA, Ariba, Concur, Hybris, SuccessFactors and SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE (or an SAP affiliate company) in Germany and other countries. See http://www.sap.com/corporate-en/legal/copyright/index.epx for additional trademark information and notices. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

SAP Forward-looking Statement

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

To view the image accompanying this press release, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/SAPLighthouseImage_LinkedIn-EN.jpg

Contacts:

Kurt Ramcharan

Marketing and Communication Director

514-227-7323

kramcharan@beyondtechnologies.ca




VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 -- PNG Gold Corporation (the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: PGK) The Company announces that after having followed an extensive sales process for the sale of its drilling equipment over the past two years and in the absence of any other concrete offers, it has sold its drilling equipment for CAD$229,950. The sale is a related-party transaction as two directors of the Company, John Detmold and Bryan Nethery, have a relationship with the purchaser. Both Messrs. Detmold and Nethery disclosed their interest in the transaction to the Company's board of directors, and abstained from voting. The transaction was unanimously approved by the Company's remaining directors.

The related-party transaction is exempt from formal valuation requirements pursuant to section 5.5(a) of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 and is exempt from minority's approval requirements pursuant to section 5.7(a). The transaction was negotiated and subsequently closed within days, as the Company required working capital pending completion of the private placement, hence the Company did not file a Material Change Report 21 days prior to the completion of the transaction.

On Behalf of the Board of PNG Gold Corporation

Greg Clarkes, Chief Executive Officer

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.

Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of PNG Gold Corporation. These include, but are not limited to, completion of the Financing, completion of the Consolidation, the receipt of TSXV acceptance of the Financing, the proposed use of proceeds of the Financing, the estimated construction costs of a processing plant, the validation of the throughput of the second stage of the ReGen process, the future production of oil products, the potential results of engineering studies, potential savings that may accrue from a potential plant location, potential offtake agreements, the availability of potential carbon credits, the potential payback timeline for a potential plant. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable law.

Contacts:

PNG Gold Corporation

Greg Clarkes

Chief Executive Officer

(604) 374-6783




MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 -- Prevtec Microbia Inc. is pleased to announce that its German subsidiary, Prevtec Microbia GmbH, received a positive opinion from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Veterinary Use (CVMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), recommending the granting of a marketing authorization for Coliprotec F4/F18 in the European Union. Coliprotec F4/F18 will be the first single dose oral vaccine intended for active immunization of pigs against enterotoxigenic F4- and F18-positive E. coli, a causative agent of post-weaning diarrhea (PWD), a major cause of economic loss for swine producers.

Through preventative immunization, Coliprotec F4/F18 contributes to the health of piglets by reducing the incidence of moderate to severe post-weaning diarrhea (PWD) and the fecal shedding of enterotoxigenic F4- and F18-positive Escherichia coli from infected pigs.

"The adoption of the positive opinion by the CVMP represents an important milestone towards the registration of Coliprotec F4/F18 in the European Union," says Michel Fortin, President and CEO of Prevtec Microbia Inc. "We believe our product will be very well received by veterinarians and swine producers in the European Union and will contribute to the responsible use of antibiotics for Escherichia coli control, enabling a shift towards more sustainable farming", added Dr. Eric Nadeau, Vice-President Scientific Affairs.

Following the adoption of the market authorization by the European Commission, Coliprotec F4/F18 will be distributed in the European Union giving access for European Veterinarians and Swine Producers to an innovative product to better prevent both F4 and F18 E. coli causing post-weaning diarrhea.

A temporary use authorization for Coliprotec F4/F18 was recently released by the French Agency for Veterinary Medicinal Products (ANMV).

Coliprotec F4/F18 has been developed by Prevtec Microbia.

About Prevtec Microbia

Prevtec Microbia is a Canadian biotechnology company developing biological products for the prevention of diseases in food animals and as an alternative to antibiotics. The Company's mission is to find better ways to feed the planet by developing technologies that improve animal health and increase animal production performance.

Prevtec Microbia's first commercial product, ColiprotecF4, a swine E. coli vaccine, has been sold across Canada since 2007. In March 2015, the European Commission granted a marketing authorization for for Coliprotec F4 in the European Union. See more information at www.prevtecmicrobia.com.

Contacts:

Michel Fortin

President and CEO

+1 514-905-0401

mfortin@prevtecmicrobia.com



Christian Roy

Finance Manager

+1 514-905-0402

croy@prevtecmicrobia.com



Nicole Blanchard

Spokesperson

Nicole.blanchard@isuncomm.com

450-973-6600




VANCOUVER, BC -- (Marketwired) -- 11/15/16 -- Fundamental Applications Corp. ("Fundamental" or the "Company") (CSE: FUN) (FSE: 2FA) (OTCQB: FUAPF), a leading developer of innovative smartphone applications targeted toward millennials, announces 20,000 new downloads of its revolutionary Foro Student Marketplace app by Foro Technologies Inc., the Company's wholly owned subsidiary, as of November 15, 2016, following a charity campaign.

Fundamental recorded 20,000 new user downloads after television personality, Jack Griffo, star of "The Thundermans", used the Foro Student MarketPlace app to sell a signed copy of the show's Season Three finale script. Mr. Griffo had posted the script for sale on the Foro app and promoted it to his more than 1.4 million social media followers with the proceeds of the winning bid being donated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital ("St. Jude"). Fundamental will match and donate the value of the bid to St. Jude.

Fundamental's CEO Brad Moore states, "We were honored to have the Foro app used by Mr. Griffo for such a worthwhile cause. Fundamental is committed to giving back and being of service to others whenever it can."

About Fundamental

Fundamental Applications Corp. (CSE: FUN) (FSE: 2FA) (OTCQB: FUAPF) designs, develops, markets, and acquires innovative mobile applications targeted at the "Millennials" generation, people born in an age of digital technology, internet access, and smart phones. This demographic is an early adopter of mobile technology, has significant discretionary income, and is lifestyle driven with a willingness to try new things. Fundamental's three leading mobile platforms are Foro, a peer-to-peer mobile ecommerce marketplace; Truth, a one-to-one anonymous messaging app; and Opinit, an app that enables users to create and share emotion driven content.

To learn more about Fundamental Applications Corp., please visit www.FunAppCorp.com, or review its company profile on the SEDAR website (www.sedar.com) and on the CSE website (www.thecse.com).

Forward-Looking Information:

This press release may include forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, concerning the business of Fundamental. Forward-looking information is based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the management of Fundamental. Although Fundamental 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 because Fundamental can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. Fundamental 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.

Investor Relations Contact:

Bradley Moore

Chief Executive Officer

514.561.9091

Email Contact

www.FunAppCorp.com



Media Contact:

Richard Krueger

TallGrass Public Relations

Email Contact




CHICAGO, IL--(Marketwired - November 15, 2016) - Continental Materials Corporation (NYSE MKT: CUO) today reported net income of $1,042,000, or 62 cents per share for the third quarter ended October 1, 2016 compared to net income of $562,000 for the third quarter ended October 3, 2015 or 34 cents per share.

Consolidated sales in the third quarter of 2016 were $37,647,000 or $1,482,000 (4.1%) higher than the third quarter of 2015. The most significant increase was generated by the Concrete, Aggregates and Construction Supplies (CACS) segment which reported a $1,397,000 increase in sales. The increase is attributable to strengthening in both the Colorado Springs and Pueblo construction markets and increased pricing in both markets. The Door and Heating and Cooling segments reported sales increases of $196,000 and $132,000, respectively. The Evaporative Cooler segment reported a decline in sales of $242,000 in the third quarter of 2016 compared to the same period in 2015.

The operating income in the third quarter of 2016 was $1,361,000 compared to $965,000 in the third quarter of 2015. The majority of the improvement was seen in the CACS segment which reported a current quarter operating income of $1,010,000 compared to $686,000 in the third quarter of 2015. As previously disclosed, on September 15, 2016 the Company received a Partial Summary Judgment on its litigation related to a sand and gravel lease between the Company and Valco, Inc. Based upon the Partial Summary Judgment, the Company recorded a write-down of $632,000 during the third quarter of 2016 against prepaid royalties included in other long-term assets.

Consolidated sales in the first nine months of 2016 were $114,569,000, an increase of $12,881,000 or 12.7% compared to the first nine months of 2015. Sales in the CACS segment increased by $9,853,000 (23.8%) for the same reasons noted in the quarter discussion above and a windmill job that was serviced by a portable plant which provided $2,837,000 in sales during the second quarter of 2016. Sales in the Heating and Cooling segment increased $2,897,000 (11.8%) as both furnace and fan-coil sales exceeded prior year levels. Sales in the Door segment increased $72,000 (0.6%) while sales in the Evaporative Cooling segment increased by $59,000 (0.3%).

The operating income for the first nine months of 2016 was $5,043,000 compared to $1,377,000 in the first nine months of 2015. The improved operating results are attributable primarily to the CACS segment which reported an increase of $3,051,000. The improvement was the result of increased concrete sales volume and higher sales prices. The Door, Evaporative Cooler and Heating and Cooling segments reported increases of $322,000, $227,000 and $211,000, respectively.

Income taxes are recorded based upon the effective rate for the year estimated at the end of each quarter. The effective rate estimated as of October 1, 2016 was 34.0% compared to 38.0% for the first nine months of 2015.

For further information, see the Company's Form 10-Q report for the quarterly period ended October 1, 2016.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT-- Statements in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. It is important to note that the company's actual results could differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested in the forward-looking statements is contained in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 2, 2016 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as the same may be amended from time to time. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. The future results and shareholder values of the company may differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements. Many of the factors that will determine these results and values are beyond the company's ability to control or predict. Shareholders are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. In addition, the company does not have any intention or obligation to update forward-looking statements after the date hereof, even if new information, future events, or other circumstances have made them incorrect or misleading. For those statements, the company claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

CONTINENTAL MATERIALS CORPORATION SUMMARY OF SALES AND EARNINGS (Unaudited) Three Months Ended Nine Months Ended October 1, October 3, October 1, October 3, 2016 2015 2016 2015 --------------------------- --------------------------- Sales $ 37,647,000 $ 36,165,000 $114,596,000 $101,715,000 Operating income 1,361,000 965,000 5,043,000 1,377,000 Interest income 285,000 9,000 310,000 28,000 Interest expense (83,000) (111,000) (316,000) (327,000) Other income, net 16,000 43,000 41,000 70,000 --------------------------- --------------------------- Income before income taxes 1,579,000 906,000 5,078,000 1,148,000 Provision for income taxes 537,000 344,000 1,727,000 436,000 --------------------------- --------------------------- Net income $ 1,042,000 $ 562,000 $ 3,351,000 $ 712,000 =========================== =========================== Net income per basic and diluted share: $ .62 $ .34 $ 2.01 $ .43 =========================== =========================== Average shares outstanding 1,672,000 1,662,000 1,669,000 1,661,000 =========================== ===========================

Contact:

Mark S. Nichter

(312) 541-7207
Getty Images, a world leader in visual communications, and VICE Media, the world's leading youth media brand, today announced a global content partnership that sees clips from VICE's award-winning content made available to Getty Images customers worldwide. VICE, renowned for its distinct documentary reporting style and popularity among young people, brings its unique footage to Getty Images' nearly one million customers in almost 200 countries, significantly expanding its global reach.

The Vice Media Collection launches with video clips from VICE's archival footage, with clips from VICE's owned and operated digital channels continuing to be added to Getty Images' comprehensive video library of over five million assets.

Getty Images customers will have access to clips from stories such as Broadly's, VICE's women's interest channel, documentary short spotlighting the living Kumari goddesses of Nepal, and Motherboard's VICE's channel exploring the intersection of culture and technology, in-depth coverage of biohacking, as well as content from other VICE digital channels, with many more clips to come as content from VICE's editorial line up continues to be added.

"At Getty Images, we've seen a significant demand from both media and brands for authentic, real-world visual content that has only grown over the last few years," said Peter Orlowsky, Vice President of Business Development at Getty Images. "As the leading editorial voice for today's millennial audience, VICE Media are experts at creating dynamic content through a lens of authenticity that will enrich Getty Images' extensive video offering, and enable our customers to connect with a broad global audience in new ways."

"This partnership will expand our global presence, bringing clips of our award-winning content covering culture, food, fashion, music, sports, tech and more, to Getty's nearly one million customers all across the world," said VICE Head of Content Ciel Hunter. "The clips we are providing will allow Getty customers to connect with a young audience, utilizing our unique footage that resonates strongly with viewers."

The live collection is available today on gettyimages.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115006802/en/

Contacts:

Getty Images, New York

Kelly Goucher

Manager, Communications

external.communications@gettyimages.com
CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 02/01/17 -- Chinook Energy Inc. (TSX: CKE) ("Chinook") is pleased to announce that, further to its news release dated January 4, 2017, it has completed the disposition of certain assets located in the Gold Creek area of Alberta ahead of its previously announced closing date of February 20, 2017. The disposition included 15.6 net sections of land and related pipeline and production facilities for aggregate consideration of approximately $10.5 million, subject to customary closing adjustments, with an effective date of February 1, 2017.

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Userlane, a Munich, Germany-based navigation system for software, closed a seed funding round of undisclosed amount.

Backers included High-Tech Grunderfonds Commerzbanks subsidiary main incubator and business angel Robert A. Kabs.

Co-founded by Felix Eichler, Kajetan Uhlig and Hartmut Hahn, Founder and Managing Director, Userlane provides a SaaS-based navigation system which guides users through software allowing them to operate in complex enviroments without any previous knowledge.

Its interactive step-by-step guides, which can be implemented on top of every existing web-based software or e-commerce website, lead users through all processes and show them real-time where to click next within the software  advicing on how to optimally reach the destination.

Userlanes technology is integrated into the software with users receiving interactive guidance while they are already working in the application itself.

Applications include software training automation in numerous SaaS- and E-Commerce companies and several international enterprises.

FinSMEs

15/11/2016
xAd, Inc., a NYC-based location intelligence platform, raised $42.5m in Series E funding.

The round was led by Eminence Capital with participation from W Capital and existing investors Institutional Venture Partners and Emergence Capital.

The company also bought Germantown, Md.-based WeatherBug (a division of Earth Networks which provides accurate IoT sensor data), for an undisclosed amount.

The acquisition, which includes WeatherBug mobile, desktop and iWatch apps, WeatherBug.com, and WeatherBug connected TV assets, will bring together xAds intelligence and contextual database with WeatherBugs daily user reach and engagement and a data infrastructure built from a large IoT network across ten thousand private weather stations.

The deal will expand xAds mobile user visibility to 50 million users, who have opted in to share their location data many times a day, and will enable it to build deeper data sets to predict patterns and trends for marketers.

FinSMEs

15/11/2016
The 2016 season of the MRF Challenge will begin this weekend at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir. It will be the first of four rounds, with the FIA sanctioned series then heading to Dubai, New Delhi and Chennai.

The grid of drivers for the 2016 season appears to be promising. Harrison Newey, son of F1 designer Adrian Newey will make a return to the series, as will Mick Schumacher, son of 7-time F1 world champion, Michael Schumacher. Other drivers of note will be German F4 Champion Joey Mawson, 2015 Italian F4 Champion and F3...
Achcham Yenbadhu Madamaiyada (AYM) will be associated with the weekend India went cashless.

In fact this demonetisation has given us an extra two week run. There are no other releases for awhile. Yes people in smaller towns wont be able to prioritise spending on a film and in view of the larger good, but it is okay if my film does well only in A and B centres, says an unperturbed Gautham Vasudev Menon.

He is aware of the polarised reviews of his film; hes been to theatres to witness feedback.

We released AYM against all sorts of hurdles and it is thanks to Rahmans music and our combination with Simbu, we have seen a 10 crore collection so far, he says. Gauthams silent demeanour always contains a storm of words. Excerpts from an interview:

Does it bother you? This diverse range of reviews and negative butchering of your films even before a majority have even seen it?



It doesnt bother me as much as it bothers the people around me. I seriously cant fathom why people love to hate me (laughs). I understand the last ten minutes of AYM is debatable and given all my constraints only I know why the scene unfolds that way in the film. I accept complete responsibility for my films  youre free to like or dislike it but dont clip my feathers even before I take-off.

Im here as much for the love of cinema as anyone else. If Im labelled elitist because I prefer to make Yennai Arindhaal with Ajith as against a Vedalam, then Id rather be branded thus than be known as a filmmaker who has bad taste or zero sensibility.

Its been 15 years and 16 films so far, what goes through your mind when you see the first copy?



I shoot only what I write, so whats out there is what I want show you,. I watch trial-screenings with my team and we debate almost all aspects which critics are likely to pin-point but ultimately the film is my vision. The silver lining to our efforts is the high we get when we finally see our collective work get applauded in theatres. Sometimes we get it right from the start and at other times we do struggle but then, thats the joy in this journey

Youre even judged as a lazy filmmaker for using voice-overs to explain a scene.

(smiles) How is it lazy filmmaking when I write my scripts with voice-overs? It is not an after-thought or an edit-table decision. No one asked this question when Morgan Freemans voice begins Shawshank Redemption? Voice-overs are not a must-have but given a choice Id like to write my leads with a parallel track running right through.

I can send you my scripts as proof (laughs) the song montages and even my stunt sequences are detailed-out. I even practice the fight-punches at home so the action is realistic. The fist-fights and mangled gun-shots in AYM were all written and filmed. Nothing is off the cuff.

So do you really work with just 80% of the script?



Not always. Only when I am pushed to work with actors, in this case Simbu. With him, I don't know if I will be able to shoot a particular scene because I don't know if he'll show up or not! The climax portion in the Telugu version of AYM - Sahasam Swasaga Saagipo has detailed scenes  of how Nagachaitanya brings Manjima to the old mans family who they meet in the 'Raasaali' song, how he trains himself in the 700-odd days that Inspector Kamath searches for him, and how he deposes his statement to the Commissioner, just so he can take on Kamath in the climax.

I couldnt shoot those scenes with Simbu for Tamil, but I want to know why is it so important to cut away when two people are talking (like Baba Sehgal and Simbu do in Tamil)? The Godfather has two people talk for most of the film, but the danger lurking and the menacing nature of the enemy is all portrayed via conversation. My tamil climax may feel rushed but its not wrong film-making.

A big relief must be the unanimous appreciation on the placement of the 'Thallipogathey' song.

Yes. Thankfully it's a universal appeal on that one. Rahman composed the tune after I narrated the situation exactly as you see it on-screen. (spoiler alert) It is a juxtaposed moment between reality and the heros fantasy. He wants to tell her Dont go away from me and then the lorry hits their bike and she is already gone.

Rahman gave us a tune which went like this (he sings the tune without lyrics) and I had to break it down to set-beats and put in dummy words and sing it like a song (sings) for Thamarai. When she came up with the final lyrics, Rahman loved it in a single reading.

Rahmans BGM is equally great but the screenplay format has all songs in the first half and all fights in the second half. Isnt it experimental? Were you advised against it?



Ask the audience in Chrompet Vetri, Rakki and Devi theatres in Chennai whether they feel this divide? Yes I was given all sorts of advice but this format was a calculated call taken way ahead of shoot. Ive literally woven a tale around Simbus availability. This mish-mash of genres doesnt happen to you in your life? Dont we all feel different emotions on any given day? Is your mood in the morning the same as it is when you go to bed?

Rahman saw the film with me and loved this format because we were following the heros character (whose name in the film is the epitome of the word Mass). He gave me interludes for songs and did the background score with a lot of interest after seeing the scenes. To us, AYM is a gripping love story.

Is your legacy of being this star-filmmaker getting in the way of making the kind of films you want to make?

I hope not! But Id rather live with the burden of this legacy (laughs) than just be vaguely popular. Because I wouldve then created a world where a certain kind of people inhabit; where there is love, family, emotions and fine living. This world will also have my name on it.
By Guy Faulconbridge

| LONDON

LONDON Britain has no overall strategy for leaving the European Union and splits in Prime Minister Theresa May's cabinet could delay a clear negotiating position for six months, according to a memo for the government that was leaked to The Times newspaper.The document, prepared by consultancy firm Deloitte for the government department that supports the prime minister and her cabinet, casts Britain's top team in a chaotic light: May is trying to control key Brexit questions herself while her senior ministers are divided and the civil service is in turmoil."The Prime Minister is rapidly acquiring the reputation of drawing in decisions and details to settle matters herself - which is unlikely to be sustainable," according to the document, dated Nov. 7 and published by The Times."It may be 6 months before there is a view on priorities/negotiation strategy as the political situation in the UK and the EU evolves," said the document, titled "Brexit Update".May's spokeswoman said the Deloitte memo was unsolicited, had nothing to do with the government and had no credence. Deloitte declined immediate comment."It was not commissioned by the government," May's spokeswoman told reporters. "It does seem as though this is a firm touting for business now aided by the media."But such a disorderly portrayal of the government underscores both the extent of the turmoil unleashed by the June 23 vote to leave the EU and the uncertainties ahead as May tries to pull Britain out of the world's biggest trading bloc.Like the Brexit vote, Donald Trump's victory in the United States has underscored how swiftly assumptions are being turned upside down, pushing governments, investors and chief executives into the unknown.

The pound fell as much as 1.3 percent to 87.07 pence per euro following the memo leak before recovering to 86.92 pence. It also lost more than half a percent to $1.2417.'NO COMMON STRATEGY'

The memo said no common strategy had emerged, partly as a result of splits within the government and partly due to the evolving political situation in the rest of the EU where both France and Germany face major elections in 2017.

May's cabinet is split, with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Trade Minister Liam Fox and Brexit Minister David Davis - who all campaigned to leave the EU - on one side and finance minister Philip Hammond and Business Secretary Greg Clark - who wanted to remain - on the other, according to the memo.May's priority, it said, is survival and keeping her ruling Conservative Party together, rather than business or economic considerations. "Industry has 2 unpleasant realisations - first, that the Government's priority remains its political survival, not the economy," the memo said. "Second, that there will be no clear economic-Brexit strategy any time soon because it is being developed on a case-by-case basis as specific decisions are forced on Government."

The document also said that "major players" in industry were likely to "point a gun at government's head" to secure assurances similar to that given to carmaker Nissan that it would not suffer from Brexit."The public stance of Government is orientated primarily to its own supporters, with industry in particular barely being on the radar screen - yet," it said.Government departments were working on more than 500 Brexit-related projects and might require an additional 30,000 civil servants, it said.If the Supreme Court forces the government to give lawmakers a say on triggering the formal talks to leave the bloc, some ministers might be happy to see more radical Brexit options watered down, the memo said.May has promised to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which kicks off two years of talks with Brussels, by the end of March but she has so far given little away about her plans for Britain's future relationship with the bloc.German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that Britain must be clear about its aims for Brexit by the end of March. (Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Pravin Char)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
I have no problem with prime minister's choking up with emotion. See it as a sign of strength, not weakness.

It's okay. Just not too often or else it becomes theatrical. Jawaharlal Nehru cried when Lata Mangeshkar sang, Aye mere watan ke logo. Lal Bahadur Shastri not only wept when he had to sign Tashkent Pact, he died of a broken heart. Even Chief Justice TS Thakur broke down over the stress the judiciary was under.

Here is a man who has put all his a notes in one basket. He can get choked up. He can feel the pain.

I also think we could take a step back from the flawed implementation of the current fiscal exercise, the rights and wrongs of it, and talk about the public and their conduct.

We are a nation of good people. We are having a tough time, we are yelling a bit but, by and large, the line is holding. There is very little violence, not much looting in the greater sense and no mob frenzy.

That means we have a moral fiber, the so-called common man has enormous patience and maybe he can see the greater good fifty days ahead with more clarity than we give him credit for.

Even though there have been provocations, mostly unproven, about violence and death by despair linked to the wiping out of the Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes and an occasional scream for vengeance and outrage, it hasnt caught fire.

Good for the people.

I get a video of a lady leaping from the top of a building. No money and her wedding next week. Horrific but is it true. A baby dies in a hospital because they would not take a Rs 500 note. If that has happened, arrest the Dean. A farmer kills himself in Raigarh because he had no small notes to send to his two sons. Unverified.

Now almost every act of despair is linked to the demonetisation. But there is no spike in self-destruction. Indian are taking the punches, rolling with the blows, doing a heroic job of helping each other, walking together and showing the world what mettle they are made of, traits to celebrate.

We tend to let ourselves down very easily. At the very same time that we, the largest democracy in the world, loaded to the gills with poverty, unemployment, hunger, over-population and a hundred other warts are showing immense grace and patience and an almost historic fortitude, there is another democracy, far more advanced as a nation and seen as the leader of the free world that is engaged in rioting at this very moment.

And why? Because it does not like the outcome of a democratically held election done with total transparency.

Two democracies in action. One displaying a maturity that demands attention because it is so easy when there is no money in the pocket and the tinder is dry to light a match and let it go whoosh. And yet, despite the efforts of some professional political arsonists to ignite the keg, the people have not fallen for it.

On the other hand, a refusal to accept the constitutionally granted rights of the winner, an immaturity that compromises the dedication to fundamental rights as enshrined by their founding fathers and makes a mockery of the electoral process.

So even if we are suffering in relative silence and will continue to bear the hardships for a while longer lets take heart in the starch in our spine and the calm we have shown under fire.

Imagine a nation of 1.2 billion hanging in there.

For once, Indians have conducted themselves in exemplary fashion and we should be proud of ourselves.

Perhaps because even the poorest, most illiterate are inwardly happy that the dirty money, hafta making, mobster-run parallel economy and the seeds of that poisoned tree are being crushed.
A senior politician in Telangana was a relieved man on the evening of 8 November, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared 500 and 1000 rupee notes were no longer legal tender. He was to receive Rs 2 crore that morning in cash but the person had delivered only Rs 30 lakh. The neta ji immediately called up the person and asked him to give the rest in new currency notes only.

Another phone call and the process of converting Rs 30 lakh given in 1000 rupee notes into 100 rupee notes also was taken care of.

"It is only the common man who is troubled by having to spend hours just to withdraw Rs 4500 from a bank. Politicians know how to deal with big amounts,'' said a politician. "Modi is wrong. The rich are sleeping peacefully while the poor are queuing up in front of ATMs from 5 am, with their quilts,'' said another.

Another neta is mulling over whether to get his Rs 2 crore cash converted with a 30 percent commission or use the hawala route to send it out and get it back sometime next year.

These are voices from different ends of the political spectrum  BJP, Congress and regional parties. Some of them may take a minor hit, some of their money will come into the banking system. But anyone telling you that India will be 'Swachh Bharat' post 30 December, is only pulling wool over your eyes.

"Ba ba black sheep, have you any wool? Yes sir, Yes sir, three bags full.''

Frankly, anyone who understands how political parties operate in India knows that distributing money among say, 200 cadre is not a big deal for a politician. Political parties are most organised when it comes to distribution of money, with loyalty an obvious corollary of the caste factor, and greed because of personal gain.

A survey conducted by In Shorts among 2.69 lakh app users reveals that 82 percent of Indians support Modi's demonetisation move. But Narendra Modi cannot become 'Robinhood' Modi unless he cleans up the political system. Because the black buck stops at the political party table.

Remember a comment made by former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, a month before the assembly elections this summer? He red-flagged a massive surge in cash circulation during the elections in Tamil Nadu, Bengal, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry. Rajan said money in people's hands had gone up by over Rs 60000 crore. He noted that this is "not normal'' and needs to be probed.

Let us not forget that in a dubious first for Indian elections, assembly elections to two constituencies in Tamil Nadu were cancelled by the Election Commission because of rampant use of money power to bribe votes.

Jayaprakash Narayan of the Loksatta Party who espouses clean politics says the election system is to blame for the black economy that thrives in India. "A Lok Sabha election costs close to Rs 20000 crore. An assembly election costs double the amount and the same goes for local bodies. And a bulk of that amount is towards buying of votes,'' says Narayan.

So while Modi talks of serving a kadak (strong) chai, he should serve it to his brethren first. The political ecosystem of which he is a part, is no Surf Excel washed. Funding to political parties is most opaque. Every MP and MLA starts with a lie about the crores he or she has spent to win the election. And the Modi government, filed an affidavit in August 2015 in the Supreme court opposing bringing political parties under RTI.

But I am turned into a pauper of sorts, made to run from bank to ATM, for Rs 4500 producing my PAN and Aadhaar cards and told, "Bhai, tum line me khade hoge ya nahi?''

In a couple of months from now, the election campaign in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab will be in full swing. Does the BJP want the people of India to believe that every penny spent on its choppers, advertisements, rallies, food is accounted for, given by cheque and not sourced with black money? If so, put it out in the public domain.

I am all for Modi ensuring a more clean India. But the clean-up drive, like charity, should start at home.

Today the small trader indulges in petty sales tax corruption because the system encourages him to do so. He has to ensure he has unaccounted for cash because when a candidate at the local ward level or an assembly election comes knocking at his door soliciting election funds, he has to shell out the moolah. It is this compromised system, blessed by the seedy political culture that encourages black money.

It would have been far more effective an assault on black money if the prime minister had started with going after the benami land deals. That is where most of Modi's political brethren, cutting across party lines, have parked their ill-gotten wealth. The advance warning would only help them find a way out of the mess.
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"You have 50 days to return the old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 to your respective bank from 10 November 2016 to 30 December 2016. The banks, however, will have a cap on how much cash can be withdrawn  Rs 10,000 daily and Rs 20,000 weekly."

"And no one should blame me if I take tough decisions after the 30th. This money belongs to the countrys poor. No one has the right to loot this. This is my commitment. I am working with full force and will continue the effort," he had said.

Apparently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given a fair warning to all the black money hoarders in this interview with CNN-News18 in September this year. Replying to a question on if he intended to carry forward his tough line on curbing black money, Modi had urged those with undeclared wealth to take advantage of the disclosure scheme before the deadline of September 30 and return to into the mainstream.

A lawyer by profession, Kamboj said that he understands the legal consequences of doing any such thing. "I know I can land up in big trouble if I do something so foolish. What Kejriwal is doing is nothing more than dirty politics. He will see what will happen to him in Punjab."

There were various news reports about the probable introduction of new notes. What was new in that? Kamboj added.

Rubbishing Kejriwal's claims, Kejriwal said: I had only written that new notes would soon be introduced. But nowhere I had talked about or even mentioned banning of the old notes.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday alleged that BJP had informed its 'friends' beforehand about its decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, to help them fix their black money.

Firstpost reporter Amitesh Singh spoke to Sanjeev Kamboj, co-convener of BJP's law and legal affairs department in Punjab, who had tweeted the picture of Rs 2,000 notes on 6 November.

The step is being taken after it was observed that same people have been withdrawing money, again and again, misusing the facility and not giving a chance to others to exchange their money. 

The government has decided to use indelible ink to mark people who exchange cash over the counter in the banks.

"Government should allow old Rs 500 notes to remain in circulation along with the new notes. Also, Rs 100/50/10 notes must be made easily available. Rs 1,000 notes may be withdrawn when circulation improves by 30 December, or at your discretion. No need for anymore faltu, action-less announcements. Sometimes blunders lead to more more blunders," says the West Bengal Chief Minister.

In a series of tweets on Friday, Mamata Banerjee said that there are ways that the government can restore normalcy and help people.

"Such tax evasion activities can be made subject to income tax and penalty," ANI reported. The ministry added that thos who allow their accounts to be misused will be prosecuted."However, genuine people having their own household savings in cash and depositing the same will not be questioned," the ministry was quoted as saying by ANI.

Announcing that small deposits made in banks of artisans, workers, housewives will not be questioned by Income Tax Department, the finance ministry said that there are reports that a few people were "using other's accounts to convert their black money into new denomination notes."

The Opposition parties are not wrong  this could have been planned better and the government is not giving us all the facts. The truth is the government did have a plan. Not for recalibration  for which it has come under severe attack  but for the preemptive calibration of ATMs. If this plan had run its course, it could have considerably smoothened the currency exchange at ATMs. But the plan ground to a halt even before it took off. But more on that later.

An entire population of 1.25 billion is living in misery, craving something they already have: A strange contradiction of shortage in abundance. The only question that everyone is asking is: Did Prime Minister Narendra Modi send a country into war against black money without planning?

"What is the difficulty? " the bench asked Rohatgi. The AG explained the situation by stating that after printing, the currency has to be moved to thousands of centres across the country and ATMs have to be re-calibrated. "There is no shortage of funds," he said.

At the outset, the bench questioned the relief measures undertaken by the Centre by saying, "Last time you said there will be relief for people in the coming days but you have squeezed the exchange limit to Rs 2,000 only."

"It's a political attempt in the court. I have seen your (Sibal's) press conference also. You are not appearing for a political party, but for an advocate. You are turning the apex court into a political platform," Rohatgi said.

The Attorney General (AG) Mukul Rohatgi in his response, said there is no dispute, but the queues are getting shorter and even suggested that the Chief Justice of India can go out during lunch and himself look at the queue. "Kindly go in the lunch time," the AG told the bench and took objection to senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for a private party, for allegedly exaggerating the situation.

"We have also come to know that corruption through new notes has already started. Such reports are surfacing in newspapers and especially on the social media," he said, claiming the goal of unearthing black money and weeding out fake currency notes will not be achieved.

On the Centre's stand that demonetisation will check corruption, Akhilesh said cases of graft involving new currency notes are already making news in some parts of the country.

Talking to reporters in Lucknow on Friday after presiding over a Cabinet meeting, Akhilesh Yadav said, "The meeting was of the opinion that farmers should get relaxation in use of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes...cooperative banks to which farmers are directly linked should get relaxation as money is not promptly reaching bank branches."

SC made the remarks as Attorney General (AG) Mukul Rohatgi submitted that any matter relating to challenge to the demonetisation issue be heard by the apex court only.

"Some measures are required. See the kind of problems people are facing. People have to go to the high court. If we shut them from going to the high court, how can we know the magnitude of the problem. People going to different courts indicates the magnitude of the problem," the bench said.

"It is a serious issue which requires consideration," a bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice A R Dave said, while asking the parties to be ready with data and other issues in writing. The apex court also refused Centre's request to put on hold petitions pending in various high courts challenging the decision to demonetise.

Coming down heavily on the Narendra Modi government for not taking the issue seriously, the Supreme Court on Friday questioned the move to reduce the exchange limit of old notes from Rs 4,500 to Rs 2,000. The apex court added that the situation was serious and there are possibilities of riots breaking out.

"We are not against demonetisation. We are against the hardships being faced by poor people due to mismanagement in implementing this scheme," Ravat said, when he was detained and taken away by police.

In Vadodara, at least 100 Congress workers were detained from different parts for trying to block the roads. While two Congress workers were detained for setting fire to tyres on Ahmedabad-Vadodara highway on the city outskirts, around 100 have been detained for blocking an internal city road at Dandiya Bazar area.

Slamming the Centre over faulty implementation of the demonetisation drive, Mayawati said that the government has unleashed an Economic Emergency on the nation and the party does not care how people of the nation are suffering.

He then said that India trusts its citizens who will make the country emerge successful after "this test of fire".

"But I see your support. Despite so many attempts to dissuade you, you have understood this move for the welfare of this nation," said the Prime Minister. "The entire world is watching this move. Every economist is analysing this move. The world is watching whether 1.25 crore Indians, despite difficulties, will achieve success."

"But for 70 years, we have been tolerating the disease of corruption and black money. The cure to that disease cannot be simple," he said.

"When I had taken this decision, I had said that this is full of difficulties. And the implementation of this decision was also bound to be difficult. I knew about the kind of difficulties people would have to face," Modi said. "I knew that it will definitely take 50 days to come out of the effect [of demonetisation]," he added.

"A lot of people have asked me to talk more about the currency ban," said the Prime Minister, as he began talking about demonetisation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday talked about the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on the radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat' and appealed to the people of India to help him create a "less-cash society".

Sources have told CNN-News18 that the central government has stepped up the printing of the new Rs 500 notes. The news channel also reported that the shortage in Rs 500 notes will be over by the end of December.

Old Rs 500 notes at petrol pumps and for airline tickets will be accepted till 2 December as against 15 December announced earlier, reports PTI.

Exactly a month ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced scrapping of high denomination notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000. On Thursday, Opposition parties and Members of Parliament protested outside the Parliament House.

Modi said, "The government's decision has several gains for farmers, traders, labourers, who are the economic backbone of our nation. I always said that the government's measure will bring a degree of inconvenience but this short term pain will pave way for long term gains. No longer will the progress and prosperity of rural India be curtailed by corruption and black money. Our villages must get their due. We also have a historic opportunity to embrace increased cashless payments and integrate latest technology in economic transactions."

In a series of tweets, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the government never denied that the demonetisation drive will not be inconvenient, but "this short term pain will pave way for long term gains."

Slamming the government, West Bengal Chief Minister on her Facebook page slammed the move and said, "One month of harassment, pain, hopelessness, financial insecurity and utter chaos."

Leading members of Opposition took to social media to speak on demonetisation. 8 December marks one month since the Modi government scrapped high-denomination notes and introduced the new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes.

The Opposition parties will meet with BJP leaders as well at around 12 pm on Thursday to discuss demonetisation.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has announced that it will hold a party meet at 9.30 am on Thursday. According to CNN-News18, the party meet will discuss demonetisation and will be broadcast live. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing the nation as well, the news channel said.

'It's a pity that this opposition party, who fought against the Congres both inside the Congress and outside the Congress are ready to work with Congress. Trinamool Congress, CPI (M) are with Congress. Even DMK who had taken talaq from Congress are rallying behind it. They don't even know what their leader is going to talk about. The congress regime was filled with scams. They will have to explain it to the people," he added.

'It's ironic to see that government is fighting corruption, and the opposition is opposing it. Many people are shaken because vested interests are shaken. They are trying to create panic in the public. And therefore, they are trying to tarnish Prime Minster's image,' Venkaiah Naidu said.

Unlike Gandhi, who in a letter dated 24 August, 1974, to all chief ministers, sought selective action against bigger people that could be publicised to counter the perception in the public mind and in Parliament, Modi and his officers were well prepared in advance to scrutinise the shades of unaccounted stash in the country, even if that meant severe criticism of his government.

Modi is not Indira Gandhi and 2016 is not 1974 when TA Pai, the then Union Minister for heavy industry told Gandhi: "Currency has no complexion and it is neither white nor black." (Declassified black money files of prime ministers office, no 37 (465)/74 PMS).

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a televised address on 8 November, told the nation that the existing Rs 500 and 1,000 notes can no longer be used for transactions and they are now mere pieces of papers, he very well knew that a huge number of zero-balance accounts were going to witness sudden activity from the very next morning.

Narendra Modi did what Indira suggested was not for her to do

This means that these notes will not be acceptable for transactions from midnight onwards. The 500 and 1,000 rupee notes hoarded by anti-national and anti-social elements will become just worthless pieces of paper.

To break the grip of corruption and black money, we have decided that the 500 rupee and 1,000 rupee currency notes presently in use will no longer be legal tender from midnight tonight, that is 8th November 2016.

As (Narendra) Modi gets ready to address the nation on 31 December in a stock-taking speech, sober watchers of the game may find no nail-biting finish or clear winner. We might need to use something resembling the Duckworth-Lewis method that cricket scorers use when rains or disruptions mar a match.

The government is also planning to come out with an Ordinance making possession of old Rs 500/1,000 notes beyond a specified limit for numismatic purposes illegal and punishable.

People, however, will still have time to exchange the currency notes at designated RBI counters till 31 March after giving valid reasons for not depositing defunct notes in their accounts by 30 December.

The 50-day deadline to deposit the old Rs 500/1,000 notes in banks comes to an end today, but the cash crunch and queues before ATMs are likely to continue for some more time as currency printing presses have failed to meet the huge demand for new bills.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address the nation on Saturday after his self-imposed deadline of 50-days for the situation to return to normal ends. While some people are hoping for an extension in the deadline, the government maintained it had no plans to do so.

The deadline to deposit old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in banks ends today. From next week onward, those still holding the scrapped currency can deposit it only with the Reserve Bank of India till 31 March, 2017. After 31 March, holding demonetised notes would be illegal and could invite hefty fines and even jail, according to an ordinance passed by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday.

Post #DeMonetisation Govt. to roll out massive campaign. PM's address to the nation on Dec 31st will be beginning of this campaign: Sources

Meanwhile, the RBI's image seems to have been dented significantly during the period. Post the announcement, the action mostly happened in Delhi and the central bank was relegated to the background. Moreover, the frequent rule changes, mostly dictated by the political bosses in Delhi, unfairly affected the central bank's image.

The man who is complaining the most is the one who is affected and that is not the common man, believes Bijoor. He places Modis popularity on a ratio of 80:20 with 80 percent having welcomed the bold move of the PM.

The common man is in the mood to forgive the prime minister as he realises that demonetisation is a big task that irritants like more than 60 policy flip-flops after the announcement of the scheme can be tolerated, says Harish Bijoor, chief executive officer of brand and business strategy firm Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.

The brand Modi might have received a good boost after the demonetisation drive, however, the brand RBI, the monetary authority in charge of the Indian currency, may have taken a huge drubbing, brand experts told Firstpost's Sulekha Nair .

The cash crunch in cities seems to be easing. Just for a lark i went to 5-10 different ATMs on diff days and all yielded cash Queues shorter

(Cont) to deposit the same in any Issue Office of Reserve Bank or a currency chest on December 31, 2016 itself: RBI

SBNs (Specified bank notes) cannot form part of banks cash balances from the close of business as on December 31, 2016: RBI

Specified bank notes (SBNs) cannot form part of banks' cash balances from the close of business as on 31 December, 2016 to deposit the same in any Issue Office of Reserve Bank or a currency chest on 31 December, 2016 itself, RBI said.

Common people across India continued to suffer, with millions scrambling for cash to meet basic needs, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi defended the ban on high-value notes, saying the move had given sleepless nights to those with ill-gotten wealth.

Two major bank unions have said the demonetisation scheme was announced without proper preparedness by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and has put the common man to immense difficulties.

In a joint letter to Indian Banks' Association, a copy of which was issued to the media, the All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) and All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC) said: "While we do not wish to go at this stage into the merits or otherwise of the scheme announced by the Government in achieving the purpose for which it has been intended, we would definitely like to point out that the scheme has been announced but without proper preparedness by the RBI to meet the situation.

"There is so much of a chaotic condition prevailing in the bank branches and the situation is unbearable, both for the customers and the general public as well as for the bank officers and employees."

According to the unions, the government and RBI must be fully aware that already there is a huge gap between the indent and supply of Rs 100 notes, noting that in 2015-16, as against the indent of 535 crore pieces of Rs 100 notes, the supply was only to the tune of 490 crores pieces.

"Even till now, new Rs 500 notes have not been issued by RBI or received the bank branches or currency chests. One cannot understand the reason behind banning the existing Rs. 500 notes and not providing new supply of Rs 500 notes in time," they said.

Expressing their apprehension that the two lakh ATMs in the country including the 35,000 machines located in rural areas would start dispensing cash in another three weeks time, the unions said the machines have to be recalibrated with proper cash trays.

With an acute shortage of Rs 100 notes, the ATMs are likely to be dead machines for quite some time, which would add to the ire of the people and this anger is bound to be shown on the branch staff thus making their life further miserable, they said.

The two unions have asked the IBA to approach the RBI/Government to allow all government departments, agencies and institutions to exchange the banned 500/1,000 rupee notes; the RBI should immediately ensure adequate supply of cash in denominations of Rs 100 and new Rs 500 notes and ATMs should be re-calibrated on a top priority basis and made ready for use within the shortest possible time.

They also sought deployment of bank staff on shift basis, uniform instructions to be sent by IBA to all banks on payment of overtime wages/compensation amount and special care to be taken by banks while asking lady employees/officers to work in late hours.

With inputs from IANS
New Delhi: Reflecting on their growing proximity, India and Israel, on Tuesday, decided to further "broad-base" their already close defence partnership and intensify cooperation in combating radicalisation and extremism, while calling upon the global community to act tough against terror networks and states harbouring them.

The two countries also agreed to deepen their cooperation in a variety of areas including trade and investment, agriculture, water resources and cyber crime during extensive talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, who is on his first visit to India.

Giving a gist of his talks with the Israeli leader, Modi, in a media statement, said people of both countries were constantly threatened by forces of terrorism and extremism and both sides agreed to intensify cooperation in combating them effectively, particularly having "practical and specific" engagement such as in the cyber domain.

"We recognize that terrorism is a global challenge, knows no boundaries and has extensive links with other forms of organized crime," he said.

In an obvious reference to Pakistan, the Prime Minister said, "Regrettably, one of the countries of its origin and spread is in India's neighbourhood."

"We agreed that the international community must act with resolve and determination against terror networks and States that harbour them. Failure to act and silence of speech only encourages the terrorists," he said.

Noting that Rivlin's visit has given a "crucial push" to efforts to build new pillars in bilateral ties, Modi said both sides noted the strength of the growing defence partnership and agreed on the need to make it "more broad-based" through production and manufacturing partnerships.

India is Israel's largest buyer of military hardware and the latter has been supplying various weapons systems, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles over the last few years but the transactions have largely remained behind the curtains.

The two sides inked two pacts to strengthen cooperation in agriculture and water resources management sectors.

Referring to growing collaboration between the two countries, particularly in defence sector, Rivlin, the first Israeli President to visit India in two decades, said his country is ready to "make in India and make with India".

Also asserting that nothing can justify terrorism, Rivlin said: "We stand together in defending our people and our values."

Referring to Israel's expertise in micro-irrigation in drought-prone areas, Modi said that water management and conservation, and collaboration in scientific research were identified as areas for priority engagement.

He said both sides agreed that the current trajectory of the Indian economy has opened up many promising opportunities for Israeli companies which can scale up their tie-ups with our India's flagship schemes like Make in India, Digital India, Skill India, and Smart Cities.

"Indian and Israeli companies can also work together in high-technology manufacturing, and services sectors. Make in India and as President Rivlin told me in our discussion, Make with India can generate jobs and benefit both geographies. Our partnership can generate jobs and benefit both geographies," he said.

Modi said India was also grateful to Israel for its "clear support" to India's bid for permanent membership in a reformed UN Security Council.

On people-to-people ties, the Prime Minister said the 2000-year old Jewish community in India represents a thriving link to this past, adding people of the two countries were "biggest strength and the biggest beneficiaries" of the strong Indo-Israel partnership.

"Two-and-a-half decades of our friendship has brought rich dividends for both our nations. It has also strengthened voices of peace, stability and democracy globally. Your visit provides an opportunity to break new ground and shape new contours of our partnership," Modi said.

In his remarks, Rivlin hoped Modi will visit Israel soon.

There were indications that Modi may visit Tel Aviv in first part of 2017 which will be 25th year of formal diplomatic ties between the two countries. India had established "full" diplomatic relationship with Israel in 1992 though it had recognised the country in 1950.

"As we approach this big milestone, we are both committed to advance our engagement on several fronts. And, build on convergences and commonalities in our interests and concerns on regional and global issues," Modi said.

Rivlin was given a ceremonial reception at Rashtrapati Bhavan earlier in the day. The Israeli leader also visited Raj Ghat and paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi, after arrival.
Marrakech: India wants a broad outline or roadmap for the implementation of the Paris agreement to be finalised at the crucial climate change conference in Marrakech, Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave said on Monday.

The Environment Minister, who arrived in Marrakech to attend the high-level segment of the ongoing Conference of Parties (CoP22) which begins on Tuesday, said India will push the world for adopting a low carbon lifestyle during discussions.

Asked about India's stand on pressure from civil society groups on governments to put an end to coal usage especially with the country's heavy dependence on it, Dave said a decision cannot be reached by becoming an activist but one has to think "holistically".

"Whatever goals were fixed in Paris, the countries need to make route maps of that (here). Off course it will be for the post 2020 period. But if we do not talk and decide about it today (in Marrakech) how will such big nations form their policies," Dave said.

"If the Marrakech conference makes even a broad outline of it, it will be a big achievement for us and for the world as we will at least finalise the routes of the Paris agreement. We can do the detailing in the next two years. But major goals should be finalised. These are the expectations," he said on the sidelines of an event at the India Pavilion in Marrakech.

The CoP22 started on 7 November and will go on till 18 November as nations continue their work on strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, with the central focus on enhancing ambition, promoting implementation and providing support.

Before the start of the conference, the Environment Ministry had said India will push the agenda of sustainable lifestyle at the global climate conference apart from focusing on the issue of mobilising finances, which has been its "overriding" concern, to tackle climate change.

Dave said India will push the issue of following a low carbon lifestyle during the summit which all nations including developed and developing countries need to follow and asserted that unless all the countries do this, talks will not yield results.

He also referred to the example of Delhi where he said despite pollution levels being high, people continue to burst crackers.

"We will push for low carbon lifestyles. We had taken it up in pre-CoP meetings as well. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in Paris also talked about it (that countries need to decrease carbon emissions)," Dave said. "...Its like that Delhi situation, you are bursting crackers even in marriage processions but you know breathing has become a problem then how it will work. Everybody (nations) has to decrease (emissions)," Dave said.

"We want to bring this issue to the notice of both developed as well as developing countries. All (countries) have to contribute," he said.

India is likely to stress the urgency to take adaptation action as adaptation in the agriculture sector from the point of view of food security is a key priority for developing countries. India is also likely to push operationalisation and meaningful outcomes from the new bodies set up under the Paris agreement which includes technology framework and Paris committee on capacity building.

Asked about India's stand on civil society groups urging governments to put an end to the usage of coal, Dave said, "They are raising their own points. But when you make policies for your country or for the world, one cannot do that by being activists."

"One has to think about it holistically. You cannot shut down all the machinery like railways etc. They are putting up their point that is good. We will think about it in totality and then take a decision," he said.

Asked how India will work on the issue of water in terms of climate change adaptation measures, Dave said India will coming out with a full agenda "exclusively" on water in 2017.
Islamabad: Pakistan, unlike India, will not demonetise Rs 5,000 notes or withdraw Rs 40,000 prize bonds, with Finance Minister rebuffing media reports, saying "these rumours are baseless and no such proposal is under consideration."

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Monday made it clear that the government was not considering demonetisation of Rs 5,000 currency notes and withdrawal of Rs 40,000 prize bonds.

The minister said that these rumours are baseless and no such proposal is under consideration of the government, Dawn reported.

Haroon Akhtar Khan, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday had said the proposal to discontinue currency notes and prize bonds of the highest denomination was "under consideration", the daily said.

Khan said the proposal came from the Tax Reforms Commission before the 2016-17 budget but the final decision was postponed and a tax reforms implementation committee was asked to look into it after the budget.

Presently, prize bonds are sold and purchased against cash without recording any identification of the seller and buyer. These are also traded in the open market and remain a major source of fraud and illegal activities.

Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Osman Saifullah Khan last week submitted a resolution in the Senate to demonetise 1,000 and 5,000 rupee notes to tackle corruption, citing the example of India which has withdrew 500 and 1,000 denominations of notes.
Jammu: Pakistani troops on Tuesday targeted Indian posts with heavy firing and shelling for four hours along the LoC in Rajouri in Jammu and Kashmir, forcing Indian troops to retaliate.

"There has been unprovoked ceasefire violations by Pakistani Army in Sunderbani sector of Rajouri district from 0710 hours today," a defence spokesman said.

Pakistani troops used mortar bombs and automatic weapons on Indian positions, which continued till 11 am, he said.

Indian security forces gave a befitting reply to the Pakistani troops, he said.

There was also overnight firing along LoC in Pallanwala sector of Jammu district.

On Monday, Pakistani troops resorted to shelling and firing on Indian posts in four sectors along the LoC in Pallanwala sector of Jammu, Sunderbani and Naushera sectors of Rajouri and Khadi sector of Poonch district, in which two persons including a jawan were injured.

Pakistan on Monday said seven of its soldiers were killed in firing by Indian troops across the LoC.

The 2003 India-Pakistan ceasefire agreement has virtually become redundant with a whopping 286 incidents of firing and shelling along LoC and IB in Jammu and Kashmir by Pakistani troops that resulted in death of 26 people, including 14 security personnel, since the surgical strike on terrorist launch pads in PoK.
Contradictory statements issued in quick succession by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on one hand and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley along with Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das on the other, in regard to the permissible non-penalty cash deposits in banks, has raised a pertinent question: Whose word should the people of India believe?

The question gains importance in lieu of the recent demonetisation move by the government as it is unclear how the Income Tax department is going to pursue the deposits made by individuals under the Jan Dhan Yojana and in other dormant or non-existent accounts; including those opened for women.

Consider the following contradictory statements on the deposits:

While addressing a public rally in Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh on Monday, Modi, in his characteristic style, asserted: "Kuch afwah failai ja rahi hai, grahniyon ko bhadkaya ja raha hai...Meri matayen, bahane jab tak tumharaa ye bhai zinda hai. Meri mayaten, jab tak tumhara ye ladla jinda hai. Aap viswas kijiye aapne kadi mehnat karke jo panch pachas rupeya bachaya hai, uspar ek bhi sarkari officer ankh bhi nahi laga payega. Aap himmat ke saath bank me jama karwa dijiye, khata khulwa dijiye, vyaj bhi ayega. Mera Income Tax department aisi mata bahno ko puchega nahi ki ye dhai lakh rupa aya kahan se. (Rumours are rife that housewives are being provoked...My mothers and sisters, till such time this brother is alive, my mothers till such time your beloved son is alive, you have faith that the money you have saved by hard work...collecting five, fifty rupees...no government official would look towards that. You just show the courage to go to the bank, open your account and deposit it. You will get interest as well. My Income Tax department will not ask such mothers and sisters where did you get the Rs 2.5 lakhs from.)"

Contrast this with what Das said a day later on Tuesday. He claimed that all deposits were being closely scrutinised by the government and that those forcing the poor from across the country to make deposits  whose accounts were opened under the Jan Dhan scheme  particularly need to be beware.

After establishing that a "close watch" was being kept on the Jan Dhan accounts, he mentioned that in spite of an upper limit of Rs 50,000 on deposits, several instances were reported where Rs 49,000 were added to such accounts. These persons, according to Das, would be questioned and an investigation would be opened as per due provisions.

On Saturday, Jaitley too had focused on the spike in Jan Dhan account deposits, adding that they were being closely monitored by the revenue departments, including the Income Tax department.

Das' statement, which appears to be in contravention with Modi's assurance, is bound to create confusion, even panic among people at large; especially at a time when rumour mills are already keeping people on their tenterhooks.

The huge crowd that gathered for Modi's rally, applauded his stand against black money and cheered following his assurances to the poor and women folk. The rally comprised mostly of Jan Dhan account holders. Any deviation by Modi's bureaucrats on his assurances would not be taken kindly by people in these testing times.

More so, those who thought that they could bear the daily long queues to exchange Rs 4,500 per day have been deterred by the latest development. The government has now decided that if you have exchanged the notes once, then you are not at liberty to stand in the queues again to exchange the now demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes. To ensure this, the government has decided to put indelible ink on the finger of the person transacting, just as is done during voting in the elections.

The government's decision to restrict repeat exchanges by the same individual comes following a feedback, as explained by Das, that the crowds at banks were not thinning because the black money hoarders were sending their people from one bank to the next on a daily or even hourly basis, to convert their black money into white.

Whatever be the rationale behind the government's move, it will surely add to the load of the already over-burdened banking staff, potentially unleashing even more chaos in various parts of the country.

Even if the government has strong reasons to back its latest measure, the fact remains that a portion of black money was coming in hidden among other valid bank transactions  thereby defeating one of the main aims behind the demonetisation move.

Besides, there can't be any empirical data on how big of an army of retainers or daily wagers a black money hoarder can deploy to exchange his otherwise invalid notes, and how big that amount can be, even if he continues to do so till the 30 December deadline.

The collateral damage in terms of the suffering of some genuine and needy people bearing the brunt of this move would only be known in due course of time. The consequent chaos and bad publicity would not endear the Modi government to the people, who have broadly supported its bold demonetisation move so far.

In his opening statement, Das said that the prime minister and the finance minister, along with other senior officials, had reviewed the situation. He effectively said that whatever he was saying at the press conference came after the deliberations and decisions made at the high level meet.

On Saturday, Jaitley had said that there was no bar on people standing in queues for a second time, but had added that ideally he or she should deposit his money in bank accounts and withdraw through cheque or ATM.
New Delhi: Congress on Tuesday discussed its strategy for winter session of Parliament starting from Wednesday, where it is likely to forcefully take on the government on implementation of demonetisation and other issues.

The Congress leaders met ahead of an all-party meeting called by the government and a separate meeting of all opposition parties.

Sources said during the meeting chaired by the Congress president Sonia Gandhi, top party leaders were of the view that implementation of demonetisation move along with its alleged leakage to BJP should be questioned in both houses of Parliament.

Congress leaders had on Monday alleged that prior information of demonetisation was given by the Prime Minister to his own party leaders and termed it as a "scam".

Congress is seeking to corner the government on this issue and is trying to bring all opposition parties together.

A meeting of many opposition parties with Congress leaders is slated on Tuesday.

Congress has given notices for adjournment, short duration discussions and calling attention motion on various issues including demonetisation, surgical strikes and government's policy towards Pakistan, a senior party leader.

Among other issues on which Congress has sought discussion are Orop, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and plight of farmers, besides proposed merger of Railway and Union budgets.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi along with top party leaders AK Antony, Ahmed Patel, Gulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, Anand Sharma, Jairam Ramesh and Satyavrat Chaturvedi attended the meeting.
The BJP top brass has been directed to stay away from former Karanataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy's daughter's extravagant wedding in Bengaluru to keep in line with the Narendra Modi's campaign against black money, reported India Today.

The Centre's demonetisation move has led to mounting frustration among the common man due to the cash crunch and political backlash from the Opposition parties. The report added that many BJP ministers from Karnataka will not be attending the wedding so as not to cause any dent to the party's image.

According to News 18, Reddy was arrested on 5 September, 2011, in connection with cases of corruption and illegal mining. The cases are being investigated by the CBI and the Supreme Court appointed Special Investigating Team. After spending four years in jail, he was released on bail last year. His daughter's wedding is touted to be his big ticket to the party. The report added that he had personally invited former prime minister HD Deve Gowda and chief minister Siddaramaiah.

In fact, the lavish wedding has under the scanner of the Income Tax Department, reported The Indian Express. The report added: "The I-T department is monitoring the source of funds following reports that the wedding will cost more than Rs 100 crore, sources in the department said."

TS Sudhir writes for Firstpost: "Though it is very tough now for Reddy to make a return to active politics, it will be of interest to see how the political who's who of Karnataka responds to his invite...The only person who seems set to be part of the entire ceremony is Bellary MP of the BJP, B Sriramulu."
Mumbai: Anger over the sudden demonetisation move is now not limited only to the serpentine queues outside ATMs or to the crowded counters at banks but it has become a political hot potato for the political parties to exploit for their benefit.

With the cash crisis getting worse with each passing day, in a surprise move National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ally both at the Centre and in the state Shiv Sena decided to participate in a protest march to the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wednesday after getting a call from West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.

The parties would apprise President Pranab Mukherjee on the incomprehensible currency crisis situation that the country plunged into soon after the dramatic abolishment of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 on the midnight of 8 November as a legal tender.

In an urgent meeting of party leaders, that was called by Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray, the party chief reasoned that if PM Modi could share the dais with their political bete noire and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, there is no reason for them not to go with Bannerjee. Thackeray told his party members that the Trinamool Congress head was taking the step after seeing the plight of the country's citizens.

Although the Shiv Sena chief made it clear that the party is with the government's effort to tackle black money, he came down heavily on PM Modi for leaving people in the lurch with the sudden demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes. Thackeray reportedly said that instead of going behind those people with accounts in Swiss banks PM Modi pushed the country's poor into trouble. He also took potshots at the Prime Minister for leaving for Japan soon after.

"Modi did a surgical strike along the LoC and deserved praise. However, his demonetisation decision could bounce back on him," Thackeray had said earlier in a press conference last week.

Even as the party is openly going against the BJP, it did prepare a cushion for its drastic actions to keep the alliance intact.

"Mamata Banerjee and Uddhav Thackeray had a talk. This is not power and politics. It concerns the citizens of India. We have no issue to knock the door of any party for the cause of poor, needy people of India," Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut told the media.

Senior journalist and political analyst Abhay Deshpande felt that the Shiv Sena was moving on a well-thought out plan.

"Thackerays criticism is a clear indication that Sena is taking distance from the political consequences of Modi. Sena strategists are feeling that BJP will face the wrath of Mumbaikars during the upcoming civic elections in the 10 Municipal corporation elections," Deshpande said.

However, it is not for the first time the Shiv Sena is not on the same page with the NDA.

In 2007, the party supported Congress candidate Pratibha Patil for the office of the country's president. Citing reasons for not going with the NDA nominee, then Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray had taken the stand that since Patil was the first woman candidate to contest the poll for the country's highest office and that she is from Maharashtra as well, were reasons enough for the party to support her. The late Bhairon Singh Shekhawat was the NDA candidate in the presidential race in 2007.

Despite being a Congress candidate incumbent President Pranab Mukherjee also got support from Balasaheb Thackeray during the 2012 presidential poll. Ironically, Mukherjee dined with the then Shiv Sena chief in the presence of Pawar at Matoshree  the Thackeray residence and Shiv Sena headquarters. The reason for backing Mukherjee by Shiv Sena was that he was a good candidate.

Although the Shiv Sena shared a formidable relationship with the BJP, it had severed its ties of 25 years ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly election in 2014. In the last years, despite being in the government both at the Centre and in the state, the party spared no opportunity to harshly criticise PM Modi.
Narendra Modi government on Tuesday surpassed a major legal hurdle after the Supreme Court refused to stay its notification demonetising Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes but told it to reduce the inconvenience of the people, saying "you cannot have surgical strike" against them.

"You (Centre) can have a surgical strike against blackmoney but you cannot have surgical strike against the people of the country," a bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice D Y Chandrachud said, pointing to the long queues at banks and ATMs.

"Carpenters, maids, vegetable sellers are dependent on cash. Are you capable of reducing their trauma? Your aim is to wipe out blackmoney but people are traumatised standing in queues for hours doing nothing," the bench said.

"They (Centre) call it surgical strike. You (Kapil Sibal appearing for a petitioner) call it carpet bombing. The object of such measures is against the people hoarding cash,"it said.

Earlier, Livelaw had reported that Sangam Lal Pandey, an advocate, had filed a writ in the Supreme Court to quash the "illegal and arbitrary announcement". It sought to commanding the opposing party (centre) to provide stipulated time to the citizens of India for their necessary activities like medical, marriage ceremonies, farmers and middle and lower class citizens for their necessary requirements and education etc.

While observing that fighting the blackmoney menace was a "laudable" step, it asked the Centre to "consider taking steps to ease the pain of the common people" and also consider raising the limit of cash withdrawals.

"Why can't it be raised to a reasonable level so that there is less number of people standing in the queue," the bench said, adding that the inconvenience part has to be looked into.

The government told the apex court that the situation was being constantly monitored at the highest level and just now, it has been decided that the banks would allow from today the withdrawal of Rs 50,000 per current account per week and the facilities would also be available to companies.

The apex court did not issue notices to the Centre or the RBI and asked them file a comprehensive affidavit detailing steps taken so far and other proposed measures to ameliorate the harassment and inconvenience caused to citizens due to demonetisation of the high value currency notes.

The government, represented by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, came fully prepared to defend its ambitious step aimed at curbing blackmoney and counterfeit currency used in financing terror and extremist violence saying the target was to "catch the big fish" which the previous governments could not do in last 50 years.

The bench concluded the day's hearing by asking the Centre and the RBI to be open to suggestions from various stakeholders and posted the matter for further hearing on November 25 of four PILs questioning the 8 November demonetisation notification.

While senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for one of the PIL petitioners, was candid that he was not seeking any stay on the notification but was highlighting the harassment and inconvenience caused to common people particularly in the remote parts of the country, other petitioners insisted on their demand for stay, even at the fag end of the hearing.

"We will not be granting any stay," the bench bluntly said while observing that "the real purpose is to force those who have hoarded cash at home to deposit in bank and explain the source of money. But in the process, collateral damage is being faced by common men who have to stand in queue for hours together."

The succour to the Modi government came when the bench remarked that the Centre's objective was not "illegal" but appeared to be "laudable", though there was inconvenience and "collateral damage" to the common people by the so-called "surgical strike" against the blackmoney and fake currency.

Rohatgi's focus of argument was that there was no legal basis for opposing the Centre's move to demonetise the higher denomination currency notes aimed at "catching big fish" and the common man in this country have waited for 50 years for his Fiat car, his phone and gas connection.

"The people are willing to wait," Rohatgi said, adding that some amount of pain will be there as detection of fraud is also the emphasis of the government, as he defended the Centre's decision which was in complete compliance of section 26(2) of the Reserve Bank of India Act.

The present "surgical strike has to be seen in the context of safety and security of the nation, its border, and financial terrorism unleashed through fake currency," he argued.

"The attack is on those who have stashed huge amount of currency," he said, adding that the surgical strike of this nature has to be carried out in complete secrecy and it was not possible to come out with Rs 10 lakh crore worth of currency in one go as there was a need for recalibration of ATM machines across the country.

The Centre, which had filed a caveat in the matters, sought dismissal of the pleas saying they were "misconceived" as the idea behind demonetisation was the circulation of large number of fake currency, used to finance terrorism in various parts of the country including Jammu and Kashmir and northeastern states.

Rohatgi said there were as many as 24 crore bank accounts including 22 crore opened under the 'Jan Dhan Scheme' and the Centre was hopeful to "ramp up" the outflow of cash to banks, post offices and two lakh ATMs across the country.

"Two lakh ATM machines could not have been re-calibrated in advance to be in tune with the new notes as the cat would have been out of the bag," Rohatgi said, adding that "secrecy is the key to such actions".

The Attorney General said there were approximately one lakh branches of various banks and two lakh ATMs besides the post offices across the country to dispense cash to the people and restriction on withdrawal was there to ensure that the money be paid to maximum number of people.

He responded to the submission of Sibal by stating that the senior Congress leader was advancing arguements on "complete misconception" that demonetisation was against RBI provisions.

When Rohatgi said that economic policy matters should not be interfered with by the courts, the bench responded saying "We will not interfere with the economic policy of government, but are only bothered about the hardship caused to people".

Sibal, appearing for one Adil Alvi, said he has also challenged the constitutional validity of the notification as the provision of the RBI has not been complied with.

He referred to section 26(2) of RBI Act and said the government was not authorised to demonetise all series of currency notes of high denominations in one go.

There has to be a legislation if the government wants to demonetise the entire series of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, Sibal said, adding that in 1978, a law was brought to demonetise the currency notes of particular denominations.

Sibal then highlighted the inconvenience faced by the common people in remote areas like Bastar in Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and northeastern states in getting their own money from banks and ATMs and said it was a "surgical strike against the common man."

"How can there be a cap in withdrawing my own money, which is also taxed," he said and referred to the promise written on a Rs 500 currency note.

He said that 11 people have died so far and private hospitals are not taking cash for treatment.

"Government says it is a surgical strike on black money. It is a carpet bombing on the common man," Sibal said.

During the hearing, Rohatgi, who was asked about the quantum of new currency that can be printed in a day for infusion in the banking system, said he could not answer it in "open court for security reasons. I can only say they are working 24 hours a day to reach every part of the country".

The court, which agreed with his concern, was told by the AG that till now Rs 3.25 lakh crore have been deposited in banks since 9 November. Notes worth Rs 55,000 crore were currently in circulation through banks, ATMs and post offices.

He said according to the Centre, the size of blackmoney was around Rs 15-16 lakh crore and it was expected that people would deposit Rs 10-11 lakh crore in the banks while the remaining Rs 4-5 lakh crore was being used to foment terror and other nefarious activities which has been neutralised.

The apex court, on 10 November, had agreed to hear pleas against the 8 November decison of the Narendra Modi government that these notes are no longer a legal tender.

Out of the four PILs on the demonetisation issue, two were filed by Delhi-based lawyers Vivek Narayan Sharma and Sangam Lal Pandey, while two others were filed by individuals, S Muthukumar and Adil Alvi.

The petitioners had alleged that the sudden decision had created chaos and harassment to public at large and the notification of the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance be either quashed or deferred for some time.

The pleas had also sought either quashing of the notification or a direction to the Centre for grant of "reasonable time frame" to citizens to exchange the demonetised currency notes to avoid difficulties being faced by the people.

The Prime Minister, in a televised address to the nation, had declared that high denomination notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 will no longer be legal tender from 8-9 November midnight. He had said the government has declared a "decisive war" against black money and corruption.

With inputs from PTI
The Madras High Court has directed Election Commission to file an affidavit of expenses incurred for conduct of assembly elections to Aravakurichi and Thanjavur constituencies, which were cancelled in May following evidence by the poll panel of money used to bribe voters. The court passed the interim orders on petitions by PMK candidates M Baskaran, who contested from Aravakurichi and G Kunjithapatham, who contested from Thanjavur, seeking to recover all expenses from AIADMK and DMK candidates, who allegedly distributed money and gifts to the voters.

The EC had initially deferred the elections in the two constituencies in May when the state went for polls. The polls were bound to take place in June but were cancelled again. The polls will now be held on 19 November.

When the matter came up to the bench, the court directed EC to file an affidavit within four weeks, setting forth the expenses incurred for conduct of the election under different heads. The petitioners submitted that the amount expended in the election process should be recovered from the 'delinquent candidates'. They also suggested the court that the EC may file an affidavit on the money spent towards these two constituencies so that the amount is quantified. Later on, it may be debated if the amount can be recovered from the candidates or not.

Additional Solicitor General submitted that cash seized from the constituencies was deposited in the permanent deposit account and that they were awaiting some information from the tax department, which may take up about three months. The court took note of the suggestions of the petitioners, directed the EC to submit the result of enquiry in a sealed cover before it and posted the matter for further hearing on 6 March, 2017.
Mumbai: Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray has discussed the fallout of demonetisation with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, party MP Sanjay Raut said in Mumbai on Tuesday.

"This is not anti-government or against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is a issue concerning the 125 crore people of India and their sufferings, their ongoing torture, about which every political party is concerned," Raut said, without divulging the content of the conversation between Thackeray-Banerjee.

The Shiv Sena is a constituent of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA at the centre and in Maharashtra and has virulently criticised the demonetisation.

Raut argued that last Tuesday's (8 November) demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes had created "financial anarchy" in the country and people across all sections of society are the worst-hit since seven days.

Criticising demonetisation as "a cure being worse than the disease", the Rajya Sabha MP said the party will not remain a silent spectator to peoples' sufferings and will announce its next course of action.

Later, at a hurriedly convened meeting of top party leaders and lawmakers, Thackeray said the Shiv Sena is not against Modi, but now it is a matter of life and death for the people of the country.

In another veiled attack, Thackeray said sarcastically: "If Modi can go with (NCP President) Sharad Pawar, then why Shiv Sena can't join Banerjee?"

He even expressed willingness to join Banerjee who is planning to take a multi-party delegation to meet President Pranab Mukherjee on the post-demonetisation scenario "in the interest of the common masses."

Sena's Lok Sabha MP Arvind Sawant announced that Shiv Sena would join the delegation to Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wednesday afternoon, following an invitation by Banerjee.

Sawant said that the situation in rural and moffusil areas is even worse where farmers and general people are in a state of panic without money and the matter compounded with the fresh restrictions on district banks for financial transactions.
As the winter session of Parliament begins tomorrow (Wednesday), the nation is still in the painful process of swallowing a bitter pill administered by Narendra Modi in the form of an abrupt ban of Rs 500, Rs 1,000 notes announced on 8 November. The side effects of this pill are still being manifested across the country in the form of severe disruptions to normal life and cash crunch.

It is a peculiar situation.

The demonetisation process initiated by the Modi government is the biggest ever crackdown on fake currency dalals and black money hoarders in this country after a similar crackdown by the Morarji Desai government in 1978. Many are lauding PM Modi for showing the political will and courage to take on the parallel economy announcing what was sure to be an unpopular step.

Remember, in the hours after the announcement, even the biggest political enemies of Modi, the Congress camp, didnt have solid arguments against the demonetisation. So were other regional satraps. Modi stood victorious in the eyes of everyone who saw the move using the yardsticks of a big economic reform and show of political will to cleanse the deep-routed parallel economy in this country, long exploited by corrupt politicians, cronies and crooks.

But, the public veneration soon gave way to anger and agony, when the cash-drought began to hit the system, still continuing even after a week post the demonitisation announcement. The mad rush at ATMs and bank branches, the logic of new Rs 2,000 bills (more of a showcase item for common man at this stage), the absence of proper planning and the governments clue-lessness on how to bring back normalcy in public life, changed the public perception of the the exercise.

It is this mood of public unrest that the opposition political parties will exploit to their best as they step into Parliament building tomorrow. One can expect heavy exchange of arguments and counter arguments on the issue of public agony post the demonetisation announcement. Political parties have surely done their homework on how to corner the government on the issue.

The signs of this were amply evident when Congress Vice president Rahul Gandhi joined an ATM queue in Delhi, Mamta Banerjee made a war cry from West Bengal and Akhilesh Yadav cried foul from Uttar Pradesh. All this will reflect in Parliament beginning tomorrow.

What one needs to watch out is how effectively the Modi government can counter the onslaught of accusations and get over it, to progress to the business of house, mainly passage of remaining crucial bills in Parliament for the much awaited 1 April rollout of the GST  Central and integrated GST Bills.

Political accusations

But, besides the pain caused to the public on account of cash drought, the other big charge the government will likely face in the House is the allegation Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal raised last week  that the government allegedly leaked out the information to the BJP and its friends well in advance.

Kejriwal accused that the government, thus, facilitated the hoarders of unaccounted cash to push their money into safer destinations, including whitening part of it by depositing in the banking system. Kejriwal also cited an incident involving Sanjeev Kamboj, co-convenor, BJP law and legal affairs, Punjab, revealing on Twitter pictures of Rs 2,000 notes on 6 November, two days ahead of PM Modi's announcement on 8 November. This part, Kejriwal also raised concerns over an unusual surge in bank deposits in the July-September quarter.

The government needs to tell us who they had warned among friends about this announcement about black money, said the Delhi CM.

It is a fact that there has been record surge in bank deposits in the July-September quarter. During the quarter, the bank deposits rose by a record Rs 6.65 lakh crore to Rs 102.08 lakh crore, a record level which has surprised economists given that in the previous quarters most banks have reported a negative growth in deposits.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley has, however, pointed out that the rise in the deposit was because of 7th Pay Commission arrears that may have been channelled into the bank accounts. But this arrears around to Rs 70,000 crore and add any other inflows including subsidies, this amount will not go beyond Rs 1-1.5 lakh crore at the most.

This is something intriguing to me, said D K Joshi, chief economist at Crisil. Devendra Pant, chief economist at India Ratings and Research too said the sharp growth in bank deposits during July-September is baffling. This is perplexing. Anticipating some tough measures, there is a possibility that black money hoarders would have pushed part of their money into the banking system, said Pant.

The logical question here is why someone should deposit his illicit money into the banking system and get exposed to the taxman even if he knew the demonetisation in advance?

Economists and financial experts point out the following reasons: It is naive to imagine that the entire blackmoney is pushed to the banking system, but it is quite possible that part of would have arrived there. The black money hoarder who knows about the measures coming soon would have used benamis to put the unaccounted cash into different bank accounts to escape tight scrutiny and tax/ penalty implication that will happen on such deposits post the demonetisation announcement.

The government has warned that cash deposits above Rs 2.5 lakh threshold during the 50-day window could attract tax plus a 200 percent penalty in case of income mismatch.

"We would be getting reports of all cash deposited during the period of November 10 to December 30, 2016, above a threshold of Rs 2.5 lakh in every account. The (tax) department would do matching of this with income returns filed by the depositors. And suitable action may follow," revenue secretary Hashmukh Adhia had said last week.

In this backdrop, someone who knew about the ensuing measures could have very well used different persons to put money in various accounts and make the black money legit, said an economist who didnt want to be named. For instance, if I split this money and give in small lots to many of my employees asking them to deposit in different bank accounts before demonetisation kicks in, the funds become white and their salary burden is taken care of, say for next six months, the economist said.

For sure, there is no hard evidence to say that select few were tipped off, except Kambojs twitter picture. Also, the tax department can anytime go back to these transactions and seek the source. But, the point here is that there has been a dubious surge in bank deposits in the 3 months to September.

The opposition will most likely take up this issue and allege tipping off of information in Parliament. This is likely to put the ruling NDA in a spot. It is likely to be difficult for the ruling parties to conduct the legislative business normally.

But not everyone agrees with this conspiracy theory. Rajesh Mokashi, managing director and CEO of CARE Ratings, said the deposit surge is not related to monetisation. First, the pay commission effect is there. Second, the IDS would have led to conversion of large amounts (into bank accounts)," Mokashi said.

There are charges and counter charges. One thing is for sure. Demonetisation is likely to steal the show in Winter session. PM Modi will have to use his charisma, which he is known for, to get the business going countering allegations. The critical part to watch is whether the government will be able to contain the uproar to the initial days and get back to business, mainly GST Bills passage, at the earliest.
By Ellen Francis and Angus McDowall

| BEIRUT

BEIRUT Intense air strikes resumed in rebel-held districts of eastern Aleppo after a weeks-long pause on Tuesday, killing at least three people, residents and a war monitor said. Syrian state television said the Damascus government's air force took part in strikes against "terrorist strongholds" in Aleppo's Old City while Russia said it had struck Islamic State and former Nusra Front sites elsewhere in Syria, without mentioning Aleppo. The bombardment appeared to mark the end of a pause in strikes on targets inside the city declared by Syria's government and Russia on Oct 18. "Our houses are shaking from the pressure. Planes are soaring above us and the bombardment is around us," said Modar Shekho, a resident of eastern Aleppo. Both rocket strikes by jets and barrel bombs dropped by helicopters were used, residents and a war monitor said. The renewed violence in Aleppo will be closely followed in Washington where President-elect Donald Trump has signalled he intends to take a different approach to Syria from that of President Barack Obama, who has backed some rebel groups. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose approach in Syria has been praised by the U.S. president-elect, spoke by phone on Monday and agreed to "combine efforts to tackle international terrorism and extremism", the Kremlin said.Aleppo has become the fiercest front in Syria's five-and-a-half-year war, pitting President Bashar al-Assad, supported by Russia, Iran and Shi'ite militias against Sunni rebels including groups backed by Turkey, the United States and Gulf monarchies. Damascus describes all the rebels fighting to oust Assad, which include both jihadist factions banned by Western countries and nationalist groups, as terrorists. Islamic State does not operate in rebel-held areas, including eastern Aleppo, but the former Nusra Front, now known as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, does.

Aleppo has for years been divided into government-held western and rebel-held eastern sectors but the Syrian army and its allies managed to isolate and besiege the insurgent districts during the summer. Its allies include Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iraqi Shi'ite militias. OFFENSIVE

A government offensive to retake eastern districts raged from late September to late October, backed by an intense aerial bombardment that the United Nations said killed hundreds and drew condemnation from western countries and rights groups.

However, after Damascus and Moscow announced their pause in strikes last month, a move they said was to let those who wished to quit besieged areas, rebels launched their own assault that killed dozens of civilians in west Aleppo according to the U.N. Syria's army and its allies reversed all the gains made by the rebels, who had attacked Aleppo's government-held western fringes from outside the city, and then intensified their bombardment in insurgent-held areas nearby, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said. On Monday and early Tuesday, air strikes hit hospitals in three towns and villages in rebel-held areas to the west of Aleppo, putting them all out of action. Damascus and Moscow both deny targeting hospitals.Other strikes, including some by suspected Russian cruise missiles, hit Saraqeb in Idlib, a province near Aleppo where many of the rebel factions have a large presence. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday Russia had launched attacks in Idlib and Homs provinces using missiles and jets from the country's only aircraft carrier, which recently arrived in the eastern Mediterranean.

"We carried out exhaustive advance research on all targets," said Shoigu. "We are talking about warehouses with ammunition, terrorist training centres ... and factories," said Shoigu, adding the strikes would continue.Rebels and residents in eastern Aleppo have said for more than a week that they expected a resumption in air strikes and a new assault by the army and its allies after the aircraft carrier arrived near Syria and Moscow said the pause would end.Strikes hit the Haidariya, Hanano and Sakhour neighbourhoods, said civil defence official Ibrahim Abu al-Laith. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes also hit the Sheikh Faris, Bab al-Nairab, Qadi Askar and Qaterji districts. The Observatory and the Civil Defence rescue organisation both reported that three people had been killed and others wounded in the air strikes. "It's all air strikes and parachute bombs. Today, the bombing is violent... There hasn't been this kind of attack in more than 15 days," said Abu al-Laith in Aleppo. (Reporting By Ellen Francis; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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By Nina Chestney and Alister Doyle

| MARRAKESH, Morocco

MARRAKESH, Morocco France and the United Nations on Tuesday stepped up warnings to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump about the risks of quitting a 2015 global plan to combat climate change, saying a historic shift from fossil fuels is unstoppable.French President Francois Hollande, addressing almost 200 nations meeting in Morocco on ways to slow global warming, said that inaction would be "disastrous for future generations and it would be dangerous for peace". Both he and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Trump, who has called man-made global warming a hoax, to drop a campaign pledge to cancel the global 2015 Paris Agreement that aims to shift from fossil fuels to cleaner energies."The United States, the largest economic power in the world, the second largest greenhouse gas emitter, must respect the commitments it has undertaken," Hollande said to applause. The agreement was "irreversible", he said.In such U.N. meetings, it is very rare for leaders to single out others for even veiled criticism. Both Hollande and Ban were among the architects of the Paris Agreement."What was once unthinkable has become unstoppable," Ban said at a news conference of the Paris deal, agreed by almost 200 governments last year after two decades of tortuous negotiations. The accord formally entered into force on Nov. 4 after a record swift ratification.Ban said Trump, as a "very successful business person", would understand that market forces were driving the world economy towards cleaner energies such as wind and solar power, which are becoming cheaper, and away from fossil fuels."I am sure he will make a fast and wise decision" on the Paris Agreement, Ban said, saying he had spoken to Trump by telephone after his victory and planned to meet him.Ban, who has made climate change a core part of his 10-year U.N. stewardship ending this year, said climate change was having severe impacts from the Arctic to Antarctica and that 2016 is on track to be the warmest year on record.

Trump has said he wants to boost the U.S. coal, oil and shale industries, abandoning President Barack Obama's plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.KERRY TO SPEAK

The Paris accord, aiming to phase out net greenhouse gas emissions this century, was driven by increased scientific certainty that man-made emissions drive heat waves, floods and rising sea levels.Ban said that companies including General Mills (GIS.N) and Kellogg (K.N), states such as California and cities such as Nashville and Las Vegas were working to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.

Trump's victory has overshadowed the Nov. 7-18 Marrakesh meeting, which had opened with congratulations after the entry into force of the agreement on Nov. 4. It now has formal backing from 110 nations including the United States.Dozens of nations, from Chile to Liberia, reaffirmed support for the Paris Agreement at the talks, with many saying they were already suffering from rising temperatures.Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said that OPEC's biggest producer was "committed to meeting the worlds energy needs via the gradual transition towards a more environmentally sustainable future.""It's a matter of life and death," Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe said of tackling climate change, accusing rich nations of often ignoring the needs of the poor. "Let's not squander the Paris Agreement through old bad habits," he said.U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will be among those addressing the conference on Wednesday.

Trump's victory has lifted shares in coal producers, while knocking renewable energies.Shares in coal producer Peabody, in bankruptcy proceedings,[BTUUQ.PK] have surged 63 percent since the election, and shares in Arch Coal in the United States ARCH.N were up 19 percent.By contrast, the S&P Global Clean Energy Index .SPGTCLEE has fallen to around its lowest level since June. Shares in Denmark's Vestas (VWS.CO), the world's biggest wind turbine maker, are down 6 percent from the U.S. election day on Nov. 8.Benjamin Sporton, chief executive of the World Coal Association, told Reuters that although Trump would "make life a little bit better for coal in the United States" it would not solve many underlying problems."The fundamental pressure is from the low prices of shale gas and that means that there will be a lot of challenges to the expansion of coal," he said.A source on Trump's transition team said the president-elect is seeking ways of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement within a year, by-passing a theoretical four-year wait.Delegates in Marrakesh say that U.S. withdrawal could dent other nations' willingness to work with Trump on other issues he cares about, such as immigration, trade or terrorism. (Reporting By Aziz El Yaakoubi, Nina Chestney and Megan Rowling; Writing by Alister Doyle; Editing by Richard Balmforth and Robin Pomeroy)

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By Caroline Copley and Madeline Chambers

| BERLIN

BERLIN Police launched dawn raids across Germany on Tuesday on about 190 mosques, flats and offices linked to an Islamist group after the government banned the organisation, accusing it of radicalising youngsters.Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the DWR "True Religion" group had persuaded about 140 people to join militants in Iraq and Syria.DWR, also known as "READ!" made no reference to the raids on its website and did not immediately respond to a request for comment. De Maiziere said it had several hundred members.Pictures showed masked police officers carrying away computers and files from properties.Chancellor Angela Merkel has come under pressure to harden her line on security after several attacks claimed by Islamic State across Europe, including a bombing and a knifing in Germany that wounded some 20 people in July. She is also under fire for letting in about 900,000 migrants, mostly Muslims, last year.Some Syrians in Germany say many mosques here are more conservative than those at home, and that they are confronted by Muslims who insist on a literal interpretation of the Koran.Last month, a Syrian committed suicide in prison after he was arrested on suspicion of planning to bomb an airport. His brother and friends have said he was "brainwashed" by ultra-conservatives imams in Berlin.

The Bundesverfassungsschutz domestic intelligence agency estimates that there are about 40,000 Islamists in Germany, including 9,200 ultra-conservative Islamists known as Salafists, Hans-Georg Maassen, who leads the agency, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday."There are about 500 people that the police consider dangerous," he said. "We remain a target of Islamic terrorism and we have to assume that Islamic State or other terrorist organisations will carry out an attack in Germany if they can."De Maiziere said Tuesday's raids in 10 German states were the biggest crackdown on any group since the government shut down a movement known as Kalifatstaat (Caliphate State) in 2001, accusing it of extremist activities.

He said DWR had distributed Korans and other religious material especially to young people, but this was not the reason for the ban."Today's ban is rather directed against the abuse of religion by people propagating extremist ideologies and supporting terrorist organizations under the pretext of Islam." Maassen said the ban - which had been carefully prepared to ensure it could not be overturned by the courts - could prompt large numbers of people to withdraw from the Salafist scene, or at least reduce their missionary work."The decisive issue now is that the evidence has to be examined to understand how the organisation funded itself and who else was behind it as supporters and financiers, so that we can take additional measures," he told Reuters.

He said there was evidence that a foundation in Bahrain had paid for Korans used by the group, but did not name the foundation and gave no further details. DWR members have tried to hand out material in German town centres to passers-by, often holding banners or wearing garments with the word "READ!" emblazoned in gold. The ban means they are now prohibited from running such campaigns.Fears about the number of migrants entering the country have boosted support for Alternative for Germany (AfD), a populist party that says Islam is incompatible with the constitution and has siphoned off support from Merkel's conservatives.A spokeswoman for the interior ministry said there was no indication that DWR was planning attacks itself. Overall, some 820 people have left Germany for war zones in Syria and Iraq, and officials fear they may pose a security threat on their return. (Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal and Gernot Heller; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Robin Pomeroy)

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Berlin: Hundreds of police officers searched about 190 offices, mosques and apartments of members and supporters of the Islamic group "The true religion" as the German government announced a ban of the organization Tuesday.

Police raided places in 60 cities in western Germany and also in Berlin seizing documents and files, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said. Nobody was detained.

The group  also known as "Read!"  has been distributing German-language copies of the Quran across the country. The interior minister said that more than 140 youths had traveled to Syria and Iraq to join fighters there after having participated in the group's campaigns in Germany.

"The translations of the Quran are being distributed along with messages of hatred and unconstitutional ideologies," de Maiziere told reporters in Berlin. "Teenagers are being radicalized with conspiracy theories."

Young men in long robes and bushy beards handing out German copies of the Quran has been a common sight in downtown and shopping areas across Germany for several years.

The ban of the group comes a week after security authorities arrested five men who allegedly aided the Islamic State group in Germany by recruiting members and providing financial and logistical help. The recent operations suggest that the German government is trying to clamp down hard on radical Islamists.

The German interior minister stressed that the ban does not restrict the freedom of religion in Germany or the peaceful practice of Islam in any way, but that the group had glorified terrorism and the fight against the German constitution in videos and meetings.

"We don't want terrorism in Germany ... and we don't want to export terrorism," de Maiziere said adding that the ban was also a measure to help protect peaceful Islam in the country.
ERBIL, Iraq Iraqi Kurdish authorities on Monday denied that the destruction of Arab homes in areas recaptured from Islamic State was part of a strategic plan.The comments came in response to a report by Human Rights Watch which said Iraqi Kurdish fighters battling the jihadists in northern Iraq unlawfully destroyed Arab homes in scores of towns and villages in what may amount to a war crime."There was no strategic intention" for the destruction of homes, Dindar Zebari, the head of a Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) committee tasked with responding to international reports, told Reuters.

"KRG security forces may destroy a property if there is an assured presence of IEDs, with the destruction of the home being the last possible resort when defusing this explosive device proves too difficult or a large risk to our engineering teams," he said.

Zebari had responded to the Human Rights Watch report on Sunday, but said he wished to clarify the KRG's position.

(Reporting by John Davison; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

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London: The British government has no concrete plan for leaving the European Union and may need six more months to form a negotiating strategy for Brexit (Britain Exit) apart from nearly 30,000 extra staff, a leaked memo published on Tuesday claimed.

The memo, obtained by The Times, warns that civil servants are working on 500 Brexit-related projects and could need as many as 30,000 extra staff in the wake of the June referendum in favour of an exit from the 28-nation European Union.

"Every department has developed a 'bottom-up' plan of what the impact of Brexit could be - and its plan to cope with the 'worst case'. Although necessary, this falls considerably short of having a 'government plan for Brexit' because it has no prioritisation and no link to the overall negotiation strategy," the memo says.

The document, written by an unnamed consultant, is titled "Brexit Update" of 7 November and claims it will take another six months before the government decides precisely what it wants to achieve from Brexit or agrees on its priorities.

It criticises Prime Minister Theresa May, who it says is "acquiring a reputation of drawing in decisions and details to settle matters herself" - an approach it describes as being "unlikely to be sustainable". The document also identifies cabinet splits between UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Brexit secretary David Davis and international trade secretary Liam Fox on one side, and UK chancellor Philip Hammond and business secretary Greg Clark on the other.

The UK government has dismissed the claims of the leaked Cabinet Office memo. A UK government spokesperson said: "This unsolicited document has nothing to do with the government at all. "It was produced by an individual from an external accountancy firm. It has no authority and we don't recognise any of the claims it makes. We are getting on with the job of delivering Brexit and making a success of it."

It is understood the memo was written by a consultant at the professional services firm Deloitte. It remains unclear as to who commissioned it but no ministers are believed to have seen it so far.

Chris Grayling, UK transport secretary who sits on the government's Brexit Cabinet Committee, said he had no idea where the report had come from and denied it had been commissioned by ministers.

"The process is complex but by no means the challenge that is set out in today's newspaper story. I have a team of people in my department who are working with David Davis on issues like aviation, but I do not see the scale of the challenge that is in today's newspaper," he told BBC.

The note follows a string of recent leaks highlighting dissent among senior figures about how May should approach Brexit. May has promised to start the process of leaving the EU by the end of March next year.
By Gopal Sharma

KATHMANDU (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Nepali police have detained 41 Tibetans trying to cross the border into India, officials said on Tuesday, in a crackdown on people fleeing the disputed region where opposition to Chinese control persists.The detention comes as China strengthens its foothold in Nepal, rapidly building roads and hospitals while becoming a major aid donor and trading partner to the Himalayan nation.Fewer than 200 Tibetans arrived in 2013, trekking for days to cross treacherous mountainous passes to reach Nepal before seeking political asylum in India - down from an annual average of 2,000 before 2008.Human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch say Nepal faces intense Chinese pressure to limit the flow of Tibetans crossing the border and restrictions have helped stem the number of those fleeing Tibet.Police officer Rajendra Bista said the Tibetans were stopped on Monday at Dhangadi, 430 km (270 miles) southwest of Kathmandu as they travelled on a bus to India where the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, lives in exile.

"They did not possess passports nor had they any other travel documents," Bista told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Dhangadi. "We have taken them into custody and handed (them) over to immigration authorities."Basudev Ghimire, director at the Immigration Department in Kathmandu, said the refugees, including Buddhist nuns and monks, were being brought back to the Nepali capital where an investigation would be conducted on how they had entered Nepal."If they are genuine refugees they may be handed over to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Otherwise they may be deported to the country they came from," said Ghimire.

Officials from the Chinese embassy in Kathmandu were not immediately available for comment.Nepal is home to more than 20,000 Tibetans - many who fled after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. Beijing describes the incorporation of Tibet into its territory in 1951 as a "peaceful liberation". It says it has brought development to what was a backward region, and regards the Dalai Lama as a separatist.

Approximately 128,000 Tibetans live in exile around the world - according to an estimate based on a 2009 census by the Central Tibetan Administration, a body based in Dharamsala, India. Other estimates have placed the number higher.Tibetans accuse China of eroding their Buddhist culture and flooding the region with ethnic Han Chinese.Many Tibetans in exile have fought for a greater say within China, but Beijing says the region already has autonomy and that the exiled groups are trying to split the country. (Reporting by Gopal Sharma. Editing by Nita Bhalla and Katie Nguyen. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit news.trust.org)

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By Jeff Mason

| ATHENS

ATHENS Barack Obama offered solidarity with Greece over its debt and migrant crises on Tuesday during his final trip to Europe as U.S. president before handing over power to Donald Trump.Obama delighted his Greek hosts by supporting debt relief for the recession-battered country, which has seen its economy shrink by a quarter in just seven years, but riot police had to use teargas to quell anti-U.S. protesters in central Athens.Greece hopes Obama will be able to persuade its foreign creditors to restructure some of its debt, which stands at nearly 180 percent of national output."We cannot simply look to austerity as a strategy," Obama said after talks with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras."Our argument has always been that when the economy contracted this fast, when unemployment is this high, that there also has to be a growth agenda to go with it and it is very difficult to imagine the kind of growth strategy that's needed without some debt relief mechanism," Obama said.Athens signed up to a third economic bailout package of up to 86 billion euros ($93 billion) in mid-2015 but says it needs a long-term debt restructuring to exit the crisis - a message repeated on Tuesday by Tsipras, a leftist whose popularity is waning.Obama, who said the United States would stand "shoulder to shoulder" with Greece, a NATO ally, was due to visit Germany on Wednesday, the main champion of economic austerity in Europe.

"YANKEES GO HOME!"

Leftist groups are angry that Obama, the first U.S. leader to visit Athens since Bill Clinton in 1999, is visiting just two days before the anniversary of a bloody 1973 student revolt that helped topple a Greek military junta backed by Washington.The clashes, just a few km (miles) from where Greek leaders were hosting Obama at a state dinner, erupted after about 7,000 people, some of them hooded, marched through central Athens and tried to reach the parliament and the U.S. embassy.

The protesters waved banners that read: "We don't need protectors!" and "Yankees go home!"As well as its economic travails, Greece, a country of 11 million, has been grappling with a migrant crisis engulfing Europe. More than 60,000 people are stranded in Greece after their onwards journey into Europe was sealed off this year as borders were shut in the Balkans."It is important that we don't have any single country bear the entire burden of these challenges," Obama said.

Humanitarian organisations have called on Obama to press the need for a European response to the problem and to demand wealthier countries take in a bigger share of refugees.Obama, who is in Athens until Wednesday afternoon, was staying at a luxury seaside resort on a peninsula south of Athens, less than 15 km (9 miles) from a disused airport that is temporarily housing hundreds of migrants and refugees.Children played outside the abandoned terminal through washing lines strung with laundry. Some sat on a battered old sofa as Obama's motorcade sped past them."We want Obama to come and see us here, how we are living like prisoners," said Hatzi Naser, 42, from Afghanistan, still mired in conflict more than a decade after U.S. forces ousted the Taliban following the 9/11 attacks on the United States. "He is the reason we are here, because of his army's war. We want him to come and see the filth we are living in." (Additional reporting by Lefteris Papadimas, Renee Maltezou, Karolina Tagaris, Michele Kambas; Writing By Michele Kambas and Karolina Tagaris; Editing by Gareth Jones)

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SOCHI, Russia Russia launched coordinated missile strikes against rebels in Syria on Tuesday and Moscow for the first time used its only aircraft carrier in combat, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said.Shoigu said a frigate had fired cruise missiles, jets from the Admiral Kuznetsov, Russia's sole aircraft carrier, had been involved in action, and missiles had been loosed from a mobile land-based missile system inside Syria.In Washington, Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said he was aware of the announcement, but was still looking into the strikes."From a pure military perspective, Russia already has significant capabilities inside Syria," Davis said. "Anything that they bring in from the outside, if it's aircraft carriers or if it's cruise missiles launching from ships or if it's long-range strike bombers flying in from Russia, those are done for show," Davis added.

Reporting to President Vladimir Putin in southern Russia, Shoigu said Russia had targeted sites associated with Islamic State and the Nusra Front, which has changed its name to Fateh al-Sham, in the Homs and Idlib provinces."We carried out exhaustive advance research on all targets," said Shoigu. "We are talking about warehouses with ammunition, terrorist training centres ... and factories."

Shoigu said the strikes would continue. He made no mention of Aleppo, where a civil defence official and a resident said air strikes had struck several districts in the rebel-held east of the city for the first time in weeks.

Syrian state television said Syria's air force carried out strikes on Aleppo on Tuesday. Russia says its air force is for now honouring a unilateral moratorium on hitting rebel targets inside Aleppo. (Reporting by Denis Pinchuk in Sochi and Katya Golubkoba in Moscow; Additional reporting by Idrees Ali in Washington; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Jack Stubbs and James Dalgleish)

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By Sebastien Malo

NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Roughly a third of children in developing nations are forced to miss school because they must work, and the same number say their schools are unsafe, according to research released on Monday.The highest rate of absenteeism among the 41 nations surveyed was in Afghanistan, where nine out of 10 children said work made them unable to go to school, said the ChildFund Alliance, a global network that promote children's rights.Globally, some 59 million children do not attend primary school, according to UNICEF, the United Nations' children's agency.November 20 marks Universal Children's Day, designed to promote the U.N.'s Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989.

The ChildFund Alliance survey questioned about 6,200 children ages 10 to 12."As they do so often and with such clarity, children are telling us what the problem is," said Anne Lynam Goddard, president of ChildFund International, part of the network that conducted the poll."It's up to adults to enact solutions," she said in a statement.

Nearly a third of the children said their schools were not always safe. Danger was reported most in Burkina Faso, where one in five children said school was never safe.The impoverished West African nation was rocked in January by an attack in its capital, Ouagadougou, claimed by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, that killed 30 people, and it has continued to suffer sporadic attacks.

U.N. member nations last year approved a global goal that by 2030 all children should be able to complete free quality primary and secondary education, but chronic under-funding is holding back progress, a U.N. report said this year. (Reporting by Sebastien Malo, Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit news.trust.org)

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By Timothy Mclaughlin

Three Somali-American men in Minnesota were sentenced to prison terms on Tuesday for conspiring to support the Islamic State militant group, the U.S. Department of Justice said. The three men are part of a larger group of nine Somali-Americans from Minnesota who are being sentenced this week on charges of trying to aid Islamic State, which holds territory in Iraq and Syria and has sympathizers and recruits around the world who have carried out shootings and bombings of civilians. On Monday, three men were handed sentences ranging from time served to 10 years in prison in federal court in Minneapolis. Three others will be sentenced on Wednesday.Hamza Ahmed, 21, was sentenced on Tuesday to 15 years in prison, the Justice Department said in a statement. In November 2014, Ahmed was stopped at JFK International Airport in New York as he sought to travel to Turkey. Ahmed was indicted in February 2015 on charges of conspiring to support Islamic State and lying to federal agents. He pleaded guilty in April.

"I want you to understand I am not completely changed," the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper quoted Ahmed as saying in court on Tuesday. "I'm in the process, but nobody changes overnight. I'm trying every day."After Ahmed's sentencing hearing, Hanad Mustafe Musse, 21, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Prosecutors accused Musse of trying to leave the United States twice to join Islamic State, first in November 2014 in New York and again in April 2015 when he was arrested in Minnesota.

He pleaded guilty to the charges of attempting to support the Islamic State in September 2015. Adnan Farah, 20, was the final man sentenced on Tuesday. He received a 10 year prison sentence. All three men also received 20 years supervised release. Farah was arrested in April 2015. He pleaded guilty a year later.

The sentences handed down today reflect the true gravity of the defendants crimes to betray their country, travel overseas, and ultimately join a terrorist organisation dedicated to the murder of innocent people, FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard Thornton said."We hope these sentences will serve as a strong message that those who support terrorism will face justice."The Minneapolis area is home to a large population of Somali expatriates. In 2014, FBI officials said they had begun tracking a trickle of Somali-Americans from the Minneapolis area to Syria in general and to Islamic State-held areas in particular. (Reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin in Chicago; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, David Gregorio and Grant McCool)

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By Nick Tattersall and Orhan Coskun

| ANKARA

ANKARA In the hours after Donald Trump secured the U.S. presidency, supporters of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan triumphantly took to social media, hailing the election of a man who had threatened to ban Muslims from entering the United States.At first glance, Trump seemed an unlikely hero for millions of Turks who support the Islamist-rooted AK Party founded by Erdogan in the predominantly Muslim nation. But in his victory, many saw a blow to a Washington establishment they say has failed Turkey as an ally and worked against its interests. Anti-American sentiment in Turkey - a NATO ally key to the U.S.-led fight against Islamic State in neighbouring Syria and Iraq - has risen sharply since a failed military coup in July.Erdogan and the government blame the abortive coup on Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic cleric who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999. Government supporters have been incensed by what they see as U.S. reluctance to extradite Gulen, who denies involvement in the plot, as well as Western criticism of a crackdown on his suspected followers."We can't hide the disappointments we've felt during the Obama term," said one senior member of the AK Party, speaking on condition of anonymity because Erdogan, who sets the tone of Turkish policy, has himself made little comment so far, beyond congratulating Trump."Trump's pre-election comments on Muslims disappointed us, but these will be relegated to the context of campaigning. Real politics is different ... I think there will be much better dialogue between our president and Trump than with the previous administration," the official said.But Erdogan, like other leaders in the region, will be kept guessing by a Republican U.S. president-elect who has yet to make his policies in the Middle East clear.Many Turks have also been angered by U.S. support for a Kurdish militia fighting Islamic State in Syria, seeing them as an extension of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants who have waged a bloody three-decade insurgency in Turkey. Trump's policy on this is unclear. He has indicated, though, that his priority in the multi-sided Syrian conflict will be fighting Islamic State - not forcing President Bashar al-Assad to leave power as Ankara has long desired. This could not only put him at odds with Erdogan, but help shift the course of the Syrian civil war in favour of Assad and his allies. [nL8N1DB69G]'CONTROLLING HAND'

In Ankara's corridors of power, few had expected Trump to win. But in his victory, senior officials sense an opportunity to reset an alliance that has been strained under Barack Obama, with whom Erdogan has had increasingly testy relations.Trump, a real estate billionaire, and Erdogan, the son of a poor sea captain, are from different worlds but their leadership styles bear striking similarities - both are populists who command a devoted following but are deeply polarising, and are not afraid to speak their mind.There is a "high chance" of good chemistry between the two leaders, said a second senior Turkish official, even if they are unlikely to always see eye to eye."They'll sit down without any pretence. Berlusconi was a bit like that," the official said, referring to the former Italian prime minister, who enjoyed close relations with Erdogan.Following Trump's victory, Hilal Kaplan - a prominent journalist with the pro-government Sabah newspaper, which is run by the brother of Erdogan's son-in-law - tweeted: "We're happy to see the U.S. establishment cracking." "Turkey is one of those countries that rejects America's controlling hand across the globe," she later told Reuters. "Trump's election is a blow to this international status quo."

But deep divisions are likely to persist.There may not be any swift progress on Gulen to remove a significant obstacle to smooth Turkish-U.S. tiesTurkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has already urged Trump to extradite the cleric, but that will ultimately be an issue for the U.S. judiciary, not the president, and a legal deliberation process that could take years.Disagreements over Syria could also test relations.Trump has questioned the wisdom of backing rebels fighting Assad and has suggested cooperating with Russia - the Syrian leader's most powerful military ally - against Islamic State.And while Hillary Clinton, the Democratic U.S. presidential candidate, stoked Turkish anger during the campaign by suggesting she would arm Kurdish militias fighting the jihadists, Trump has not explicitly ruled out such a move.

'HONEYMOON'

"We'll witness a period of honeymoon, post the end of the Obama period, where the relationship had become quite acrimonious," Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat and analyst at Carnegie Europe, said of Turkish-U.S. ties."Going forward, however, we are likely to see points of divergence," he added. "Trump policies would certainly empower both the regime in Syria, the regime-friendly forces, and also Russia. That is against what Turkey has tried to do since 2011 in terms of regime change and backing the opposition."Trump's backing of Israel will also worry Ankara, a major supporter of the Palestinians and a donor to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. [nL8N1DA89T]During campaigning, Trump won support in Israel with a promise that Washington would recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Palestinians want East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in a 1967 war, as capital of the state they aim to establish alongside Israel in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.Trump's threat to abandon NATO allies in Europe if they do not spend enough on defence, and his arguments against international trade agreements of the kind that could benefit Turkey, are also cause for concern in Ankara.But as the world waits to see how Trump will shape his foreign policy, Ankara officialdom is remaining cautiously optimistic. "Generally, Turkish governments are more at ease with Republican administrations in the United States than they are with Democrats," said Halil Karaveli, managing editor of The Turkey Analyst, a policy journal. "A new administration is a whole new ball game," he added. "The Trump presidency represents, from the Turkish perspective, a chance for a restart." (Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and David Dolan in Istanbul, Ercan Gurses and Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Pravin Char)

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WASHINGTON The United States on Monday described as "troubling" an Israeli bill supported by a ministerial committee allowing settlers in the occupied West Bank to remain in homes built on private Palestinian land and said it hoped the law does not pass. "We are deeply concerned about the advancement of legislation that would allow for the legalization of illegal Israeli outposts located on private Palestinian land," State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau told a briefing.If the law were enacted it could pave the way for the legalization of dozens of illegal outposts deep in the West Bank, she said, adding:"This would represent an unprecedented and troubling step that's inconsistent with prior Israeli legal opinion and also break longstanding policy of not building on private Palestinian land," Trudeau said.

The U.S. believes settlements endangered prospects for a two-state solution and Israeli-Palestinian peace, she said. "We hope it doesn't become law," Trudeau added.

The ministerial committee defied Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and voted on Sunday to back the bill, which will be debated by parliament on Wednesday and is still some distance from becoming law.Israel's attorney-general, Avihai Mandelblit, has called the bill legally flawed in its current form, saying that it contravened private property rights legislation and did not tally with Israel's international law commitments.

(Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by James Dalgleish)

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New York: Students from India, China and Saudi Arabia, made a beeline straight for American universities, fuelling a college rush and pushing the number of international students at US colleges and universities by 7.1 percent, to top one million in the 2015-2016 academic year, according to the annual Open Doors report released on Monday by the Institute of International Education, in New York.

The report that tracks the US' place in the global college admissions sweepstakes, arrives amid concerns that president-elect Donald Trump could tamp down some of the enthusiasm that we are seeing in foreign student enrolments. For the most part, anti-Trump protests have rocked US college campuses, but there have been incidents of racism, hostility and hate crimes directed at non-white foreign students.

However, the new Open Doors report does not reflect the post-election political environment vitiating US campus life, but instead underscores 10 straight years of robust growth in foreign student enrollment numbers on US college campuses.

China sent the most students of any country to America  nearly 328,547 in the latest school year, up 8.1 percent from the year before while India was second, tailed by Saudi Arabia.

"Higher education continues to be the bedrock of our people-to-people ties. More students from India studied in the United States than ever before  at all levels  and I am especially pleased to see the record back-to-back, year-on-year growth in student numbers," said US Ambassador Richard Verma in statement.

"The total number of Indian students on US campuses grew by 24.9 percent to 165,918 in 2015-16 from 132,888 in 2014-15," according to the Open Doors survey.

The Indian student expansion to 165,918 comes on the back of a 29.4 percent growth spurt the year before, and a 6.1 percent growth rate in 2014 after a three-year decline. Indian students in the US had dropped to 96,754 in the 2012-2013 academic year due to the draw of other education markets like Canada, Britain, Australia, and Europe. However, the Open Doors findings  funded by the US Department of State  show that American universities are in robust health, exerting great pulling power on foreign students who pay full tuition unlike in-state students from the US.

According to the US Department of Commerce, international students poured $30 billion into the US economy in 2014. It's de rigueur for US admissions officers to launch recruiting drives aimed at foreign students who inevitably pay the full sticker price to go to college in the US. Typically, foreign and out-of-state students wind up paying an extra $25,000 to $30,000 a year. This helps smaller US colleges cork the budget gaps caused by reductions in state funding. Of course, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and other Ivy League colleges are superbly wealthy, boasting multi-billion dollar endowments, so they are only concerned with finding the best brains in the world.

Indian students regard a US degree as a badge of honor, but for many Indian parents, who partly or wholly fund the exercise, expense is the operative word. The weak Indian rupee makes it difficult for some Indian students to pursue their dreams. The average American college tuition and fees of $48,870 for upperclassmen is expensive for most middle class Indian families.

The good news is that more Americans are studying abroad and choosing India as their destination. The Open Door report ranked India 13th among 25 countries that drew American students.

"With efforts such as our Passport to India initiative, we are also seeing the number of American students in India beginning to grow," added Verma.

The appeal of a US education is also firmly rooted in job opportunities and internships. In May this year, the US government issued a rule expanding the period for which students in the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) can work on Optional Practical Training (OPT) after graduation, from 29 to 36 months.

"The OPT extension gives us unparalleled opportunities to work in the United States. I have a great internship with Cargill Bioengineering. This will help me to pick up the tab for a lot of my education costs," said Rajesh Singhal, who is studying at the Nancy E and Peter C Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, in Cornell University, at Ithaca.

In keeping with established trends, the report ranked STEM fields, physical or life sciences, health professions, engineering, math and computer science, agriculture, business and management, and social studies as the most popular courses with international students.
Following the financial downfall, the Chinese technology conglomerate LeEco has appointed a new top executive for Asia-Pacific region. With this deal, the company will get around US$600 million as funding from the investors.

Anthony Gao will take the position as a President of LeEco APAC and will be responsible for operational management and meet various business targets.

Previously, Gao spent around 17 years in Huawei in various senior executive positions including CEO of Huawei Device in China, President of Global Sales and Technical Service Department, and President of Global Strategy and Marketing Department.

Currently, Anthony Gao heads LeEcos VR, AR and MFL (Made for LeEco) company. Through the US$600 million fund, the company will closely work on LeEco Global and LeEcos electric vehicle business.

Hank Liu Hong, Co-Founder and Vice Chairman of LeEco, said:
The controversial Dakota Access Pipeline hit another roadblock this week after the federal government deferred making a final decision on a key permit. Driving the delay is the need for more time to review the project in light of increasing opposition from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe as well as environmental groups, which are concerned about the pipeline's route through a culturally and environmentally sensitive area of North Dakota. The delay is another setback for the pipeline's developer, Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), which had initially hoped to complete it this year.

Drilling down into the latest delay

Driving this latest delay, according to a joint statement from the Departments of the Army and Interior, is a desire to have additional discussions with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe due to their concerns about protecting Lake Oahe. They did admit, though, that their prior decisions to approve the project were consistent with legal requirements. However, given the intense opposition to the project, they felt they needed to take another look.

At issue is the permit that Energy Transfer and its partners, Sunoco Logistics Partners (NYSE: SXL) and Phillips 66 (PSX 2.96%), need to drill an easement tunnel beneath the lake to finish the pipeline. That tunnel is the final step to completing the 1,172-mile project, which is already 84% complete.

The Army Corps of Engineers said that its discussions with the tribe would include conditions in the easement for the pipeline that might reduce the risk of spills. Furthermore, it plans to complete an assessment that would detail how a spill might impact the tribe. It intends to work with the tribe on a timeline to complete the discussion and analysis quickly.

Denouncing the delay

The decision did not sit well with Energy Transfer and Sunoco Logistics, which put out a joint statement condemning the review as "unjust," citing no "legal or factual justification" for the delay. It also said that the Corps "knows full well that it is seeking additional consultation with a party that has steadfastly refused to consult. Rather than holding Standing Rock Sioux Tribe accountable for its decisions over the past three years, it seeks to reward them at this late date."

Meanwhile, Energy Transfer CEO Kelsey Warren did not mince words in the release, saying:

This action is motivated purely by politics at the expense of a company that has done nothing but play by the rules it was given. To propose, as the Corps now does, to further delay this pipeline and to engage in what can only be described as a sham process sends a frightening message about the rule of law.

One of the problems is that those opposed to the pipeline are not just objecting to this section of the route due to concerns about protecting Lake Oahe but to pipeline projects in general. They want the pipeline's construction permanently halted because it increases the country's access to fossil fuels, thus hurting demand for renewables. For example, in a Reuters report on the additional review, Amada Starbuck, the climate and energy program director for the environmental group Rainforest Action Network, said, "This delay provides an opportunity for the U.S. government to resolve outstanding issues to the full satisfaction of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and end this pipeline project."

It's a case where activists are seizing on an opportunity to stop a project they do not want to see completed.

A permanent halt to the project is not a fate that Energy Transfer Partners can afford given that it and its partners are investing $3.8 billion in the nearly complete project. In addition, the company has customers signed up to long-term contracts for most of its 470,000-barrel-a-day of capacity. These contracts will generate steady fee-based cash flow that Energy Transfer needs to support and grow investor distributions.

Investor takeaway

Energy Transfer continues to face a major roadblock in its attempts to complete its critical Bakken pipeline. This latest review will likely set the company back several months given the time it will take to finish the project once it has the final permits in place. That is, of course, if it gets those approvals, though given the results of the recent election, and President-elect Donald Trump's desire to make America energy independent, it is very likely that Energy Transfer will be able to complete this project next year.
Jonathan Gruber, a well-known architect of President Obamas Affordable Care Act, caused a ruckus two years ago after he was caught on tape saying the stupidity of the American voter led us to hide Obamacares true costs from the public. He told the FOX Business Networks Maria Bartiromo that CEOs are wrong about Obamacare.

The MIT professor sparked a heated debate with Bartiromo after she stated that businesses are not hiring workers because the legislation is too expensive.

Gruber had a different take:

Please dont use the word fact because youre not saying facts, youre saying antidotes.

Ill tell you what is a fact, said Bartiromo. A fact is economic growth is 2% or lower and the fact is, one of the reasons that economic growth is as low as it is, is because businesses are not hiring workers and not doing activity because of the cost of Obamacare. That is a fact. Do you dispute economic growth? she asked.

Economic growth is as rapid as its been in eight yearsWere coming out of recession and Obamacare is irrelevant to economic growth. Please, there is no evidence at all, you are totally making a non-facts-based argument, answered Gruber.

More From Gruber's Interview on FBN Obamacare architect: Premiums have actually gone down

After a back and forth over his comments during the academic conference two years ago, which he said were taken out of context, Gruber maintained that doesnt excuse Bartiromo from denying true facts.

All I need are 10 CEOs to come on this show and tell me thats the reason and then it becomes fact, said Bartiromo.

Who cares if some CEO comes on the show and tells you thats the reason? Look at the data, said Gruber.

I dont need data when I have the CEO telling me, Im not adding workers because of the cost of Obamacare. That is my data. I just spoke to the boss and he gave me the reason, replied Maria.

Well Maria, that is absolutely wrong. Thats not how you consider data, he retorted.
Despite reports of a decline, real estate experts say Trump-branded properties are thrivingand some say they will grow even more after his historic win.

Take for example, Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago.

The building has already gone up a minimum of 25% to 75% of its value. And, I know in New York City, it went up about 200%, Chezi Rafaeli, a realtor at Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage tells FOXBusiness.com.

Rafaeli has sold over 200 apartments in Chicagos Trump Tower and says that since Trumps win, he has been receiving numerous calls internationally from people looking to buy.

Its a huge honor for them. Buyers from Russia, Asia, and Brazil have been calling me saying they are interested in Trump property, he adds. The property in my opinion will go up tremendously especially if he does well in office.

As far as his businesses go, President-elect Donald Trump told 60 Minutes Lesley Stahl that he doesnt care what happens to The Trump Organization now that hes going to be the 45th President of the United States.

Who cares? This is big league stuff. This is our country and our country is going bad. Were going to save our country. I dont care about hotel occupancy. Its peanuts compared to what were doing, Trump said.

According to a July study by residential real estate company Redfin, Trump-branded buildings did take a little bit of hit while he was campaigning. The website found that in the first five months of 2016, his buildings outside of Manhattanin places like Hollywood Beach, Florida; Las Vegas; Chicago and Hawaii lost a 7% price premium over the year before compared to non-Trump buildings.

Trump-branded products also suffered throughout his campaign. Landmark Groups luxury home decor brand Lifestyle, which is based in the Middle East, stopped selling Trump Home products in December 2015, when Trump made disparaging comments about Muslims. And Macys also dumped Trumps clothing line last year after he called most Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals.

Trumps three eldest children, Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka are expected to take over the management of The Trump Organization as well as its portfolio of other businesses bearing their namesake, as Trump shifts his focus to the presidency.

This is a top priority at the Organization and the structure that is ultimately selected will comply with all applicable rules and regulations, a Trump Organization official told FOXBusiness.com.

Brad Thomas, an editor of the Forbes Real Estate Investor and author of The Trump Factor said its incalculable how much brand equity can now be generated post-election.

The moat for the business has become much wider, no other brand in the world enjoys such an advantage.

Thomas says to simplify it, you can compare Trump brand to Henry Ford, who also had very controversial political views.

More than 110 years after the companys founding, the Ford brand remains the strongest in the U.S. auto industry, with Henry Fords great-grandson at the helm. Like the Ford brand, the Trump brand can live on as an extension of the founders dominant and exacting personality. Because of the brands emphasis on quality and luxury, the brand narrative has the power to transform itself repeatedly in the years to come, he added.
Volkswagen AG has reached an agreement with U.S. regulators for a mix of buybacks and fixes for 80,000 polluting Audi, Porsche and VW 3.0-liter vehicles, two sources briefed on the matter said Tuesday.

The agreement includes a buyback offer for about 20,000 older Audi and VW SUVs and a software fix for 60,000 newer Porsche, Audi and VW cars and SUVs, the sources said. A separate, more complex fix is expected to be offered for the older vehicles. Talks are ongoing between lawyers for the owners and Volkswagen over compensation for the owners ahead of a Nov. 30 court hearing.

Volkswagen, which has already agreed to spend up to $16.5 billion to resolve U.S. diesel emissions cheating allegations, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declined to comment Wednesday.

Audi spokesman Mark Clothier said the company is "working hard to make things right... As noted in court we are making substantial progress in our efforts to reach an approved resolution," but declined to discuss the status of the vehicles.

VW previously agreed to spend up to $10.3 billion to buy back as many as 475,000 polluting 2.0 diesel vehicles. Court documents show that at least 60 percent of those owners have already signaled they plan to sell the vehicles back.

That included compensation of $5,100 to $10,000 per vehicle. Volkswagen wants to offer significantly less compensation to 3.0 liter owners, the sources said.

The 2.0-liter diesel vehicles have software that allowed them to evade emissions rules in testing and emit up to 40 times legally allowable emissions in onroad driving. The 3.0 liter vehicles have an undeclared auxiliary emissions system that allowed the vehicles to emit up to nine times allowable limits.

Audi has also come under scrutiny over whether some gasoline vehicles have separate software that lowered carbon dioxide emissions by detecting whether a car's steering wheel was turned as it would be when driving on a road.

VW has been barred from selling diesel vehicles in the United States since 2015 and has said it has not decided whether it will resume U.S. diesel sales.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Nick Zieminski)
SavingsCelebrity Net Worth

President-Elect Donald Trump

Net worth: $3.7 billion (as of November 2016)

Year of birth: 1946

Education: Fordham University, The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania

How Donald Trump's Net Worth Was Built

America's next president, Donald Trump, started his unusual path to the White House in Brooklyn, New York, working with his father and making deals in the real estate development business. From there, he entered the world of Manhattan real estate and eventually branched out into properties throughout the world. And he reportedly banked $3 million per episode during his 11-year run as host of TV's "The Apprentice."

Trump claimed in a presidential campaign disclosure form that he was worth in excess of $10 billion. But Forbes calculates that his current net worth is actually $3.7 billion.

You can use this net worth calculator to see how your net worth compares to the president-elect.

What He's Been Up To (As If You Didn't Know)

During his presidential run, Trump continued to promote his business ventures, including his new Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.'s Old Post Office building, less than a mile from the White House on Pennsylvania Ave.

New business lines he has worked to develop in recent years have included fragrances and home furniture and d cor.

Trump has lost some wealth since earlier this year, when Forbes said he was worth $4.5 billion.

Accolades

In 1984, Trump's alma mater The Wharton School honored him with its "Entrepreneur of the Year" award. And other organizations have publicly recognized his achievements in the world of business and real estate.

In addition, his celebrity status has been cemented with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. During the campaign, a protester with a sledgehammer vandalized the star, but it has since been repaired.

RATE SEARCH: Get some interest on your savings starting today! Shop money market accounts at Bankrate.com.

Copyright 2016, Bankrate Inc.
As a surge of students from China begins to level off, many U.S. colleges are expanding recruiting efforts in the Middle East, South Asia and Latin America in part to boost budgets that have come to rely on tuition dollars from international students.

The number of Chinese students at U.S. colleges rose from 62,000 a decade ago to 328,000 last year, and they still make up 31 percent of all international students in the U.S., but growth is slowing. On Monday, the Institute of International Education released federal data showing that the number of Chinese students at U.S. colleges grew by 8 percent last year, the smallest uptick since 2005.

Some schools are bracing for a decline, citing China's sluggish economy and sharper competition from colleges in Australia and other countries.

"For a variety of factors, we're seeing a slowdown in Chinese enrollment," said Todd Maurer, a California analyst who advises schools and education companies on trends in Asia. "I think we're seeing the last years of double-digit growth."

Colleges seek international students partly to boost diversity, but they also bring a financial perk. Most schools don't offer scholarships for international students, and charge them full tuition costs. Losing foreign students could hurt college budgets, especially at a time when some public universities are struggling with long-term drops in state funding.

Stephen Dunnett, vice provost for international education at the University at Buffalo, said many colleges worry they depend too heavily on revenue from Chinese students.

"They would be severely hurt if there was a contraction," he said. "There's no Plan B. There's no other country that would send students in those numbers."

Buffalo is among many universities that have expanded global recruiting efforts in part to hedge against a possible decline from China. Along with continued work in China, Dunnett's office has turned its attention to growing countries such as Vietnam and Burma. Next year, the college plans to recruit in Iran for the first time.

This year, the University of Massachusetts Amherst made its first recruiting trip to Mexico and also bolstered its work in Singapore and Vietnam. Instead of sending recruiters to China this year, Bucknell University in Pennsylvania focused on India and sent admissions officials to South America for the first time in about a decade.

Other schools are exploring whether there could be a boom from sub-Saharan Africa. Nations such as Uganda, Ethiopia and Angola have growing youth populations and middle classes, two of the factors that U.S. colleges look for, but some say the region's governments don't offer enough funding to help students study abroad.

Rising tuition at U.S. colleges, meanwhile, has raised the barrier for many African families, said Kelechi Kalu, vice president of international affairs at the University of California-Riverside.

"When I was in the continent earlier in the summer, some of the parents and students were telling me they can spend less to go to Australia or the UK," he said.

Australia in particular has rapidly grown as a destination for foreign students, attracting 240,000 students to its colleges last year, a yearly uptick of 6 percent, according to national data. But experts say that U.S. colleges, which attracted 1 million international students last year, still have space to host far more students than other nations.

"We still have a lot of capacity," said Peggy Blumenthal, senior counselor to the president at the nonprofit Institute of International Education. "Chinese students are going to keep finding America the best place in the world to study."

Other countries where U.S. schools see recruiting promise include Cuba, Nigeria and India, which sent 165,000 students to the United States last year, a 25 percent jump in a year. According to the new data from Blumenthal's group, students from Nepal and Vietnam are also among the fastest-growing groups coming to the U.S.

Although colleges are expanding their reach, they don't expect any single country to deliver as many students as China. Last year, Chinese students in the U.S. outnumbered their peers from the top four following countries combined. Instead, colleges say they aim to diversify their global enrollment to shield it from national swings.

And even though some schools are scaling back their recruiting in China, many say it will remain a centerpiece of their recruiting plans for years to come.

"We've made some real progress over the last five years," said James Roche, associate provost for enrollment management at UMass Amherst. "It would be just short of ridiculous to stop doing that kind of work."

___

Online:

The Institute of International Education's Open Doors report: http://www.iie.org/Research-and-Publications/Open-Doors
The Market Foolery crew dives into uncharted waters with Seaspan Corporation (NYSE: SSW), a major owner and operator of cargo ships. While shipping companies previously thrived moving vast quantities of goods from low-cost production centers to major consumer markets, the industry is now largely overbuilt, which hurts the value of Seaspan's key assets.

Where will the winds blow this company next?A full transcript follows the video.

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.

This podcast was recorded on Nov. 1, 2016.

Chris Hill: Talk to me aboutSeaspan. Not the cable network, but Sea-, S-E-A, Seaspan, the shipping company.

Jim Gillies:The shipping company, yes.

Hill:We were chatting briefly this morning. This is a company that I'm almost entirely unfamiliar with, but it's a company that has certainly been on your radar. I'm curious where is it right now, and what is the backstory on the CEO leaving?

Gillies:It wasn't the CEO.

Hill:Oh, OK.

Gillies:When Seaspan, it's SSW on the New York Stock Exchange. It's largely domiciled in Vancouver, Canada, but it's incorporated in the Marshall Islands, because of course it is.

Hill:Where are the Marshall Islands?

Gillies:Somewhere in the Pacific, I think.

Hill:OK.

Gillies:Basically, they own container ships. You see the pictures of these giant container ships with thousands of containers on them? They own the ships, they lease them out, and they operate them for the big shipping companies.

They reported earnings last night, and they have been struggling because the industry as a whole is overbuilt. There's too many ships, there's too much tonnage of the ships that are on the sea, and so what that's done is it's kind of knocked down the value of the ships that are coming out of the shipyards.

They used to come off the line, and the minute they'd hit the water, they're paired up with a 12-year contract, where you have 12 years of revenue already known, already guaranteed.

The problem is, lots of ships, lots of floating tonnage. You've still got the trend of moving everything from the production centers of the world -- Asia -- to the consumption centers of the world -- North America, Europe -- but there's so many ships and they've gotten so large, that the value of the shipping has gone down.

They are struggling. They're about 50% insider-owned. There's some quasi-strange deals that go on in the industry with the insiders, you're never quite sure. It's nice to see the insiders owning 50%, but you're not entirely sure whether they're aligned with you.

The CEO, he's got a job to run the business, but he gets finder's fees when the company puts a new ship on the water, so maybe they shouldn't be putting a new ship on the water because of the aforementioned overbuilding of the industry, but if he gets 1% of whatever ...

Hill:If he's got a financial incentive to get ships on the water, guess what?

Gillies:If he's got a stake, get the incentives right. Seaspan, tied to a little bit, I guess, to Valeant, with their executive departures. The most fun executive departure I've ever seen, and I say "fun" perhaps in air quotes, was with Seaspan and their now-former CFO, who departed almost a year ago.

This was basically a press release that hit the wires Monday morning, 7 a.m., backdated to Friday afternoon, 5:30 p.m., announcing the sudden retirement of the CFO as of Friday. He was 48 years old.

Now that doesn't smell at all, right? He's gone off to run his equestrian farm or something like that, but it's like oh, hang on. A 48-year-old man who has been doing really, really well in this company, well-thought of, well-spoken, suddenly retires out of the blue, and they backdate it?

You kind of wonder if this is a business, it always needs financing. In financing, it's kind of important to have a well-respected, well-thought-of CFO. Did he walk the plank, was he tossed overboard, did he leave of his own volition because he saw something bad happening? We've never gotten any answers.

But it just, to me, has always been a very odd departure.

Hill:Is that even legal? If you're a public company, can you backdate a press release on an executive departure?

Gillies:He's retired.

Bill Barker has no position in any stocks mentioned. Chris Hill has no position in any stocks mentioned. Jim Gillies owns shares of Seaspan. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Valeant Pharmaceuticals. The Motley Fool recommends Seaspan. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The dramatic growth in the aerospace industry has played a massive role in lifting shares of industry supplier TransDigm Group (NYSE: TDG) and its business in producing the components and systems that go into many aircraft. Strong demand for commercial airplanes has filtered down to boost TransDigm's results for years now, and coming into Monday's fiscal fourth-quarter financial report, TransDigm investors had no reason to expect anything but more of the same. Yet even though TransDigm's results were relatively solid, its guidance for fiscal 2017 left many investors wondering if the best of times might be ending for the aerospace supplier. Let's look more closely at how TransDigm Group did and whether it can maintain altitude going forward.

Image source: Getty Images.

TransDigm sees growth slow

TransDigm Group's fiscal fourth-quarter results were strong, but they didn't entirely live up to everything that investors have grown used to seeing in recent quarters. Revenue was up just 8% to $875.2 million, and although that was only slightly less than the 9% growth rate that those following the stock were looking to see, it was a substantial deceleration from the high-teens percentage growth that TransDigm has managed recently. Similarly, adjusted net income was up again, but only by 15% to $183.6 million, which was less than half the pace of growth last quarter. That figure produced adjusted earnings of $3.29 per share, topping the consensus forecast by $0.09 per share.

Looking more closely at TransDigm's results, the company dealt with headwinds that it hasn't faced very often in the past few years. Organic sales actually fell from year-ago levels, with only TransDigm's acquisitions over the past year producing positive sales growth. Without the roughly $89 million in sales contributions from acquisitions, TransDigm would have seen sales drop by about $24 million, or around 3%.

Income gains came from several sources. Higher sales drove some of the increase on the bottom line, but TransDigm also reported that its proprietary products did quite well, helping to boost the company's operating margin. Productivity efforts and a more favorable overall product mix also helped increase margin figures, and a decline in tax rates also helped generate greater profit. Only higher interest expenses held back TransDigm's earnings growth.

TransDigm CEO Nicholas Howley celebrated the news. "Fiscal 2016 was another good year for TransDigm," Howley said. "We once again saw a number of attractive M&A opportunities that results in the acquisition of three good proprietary aerospace businesses." The CEO also pointed to the coming special dividend and some stock repurchase activity that combined to help shareholders.

What's ahead for TransDigm?

The problem for TransDigm, however, is that its fiscal 2017 outlook didn't give investors everything that they had hoped to see. The company said that it anticipated annual net sales of between $3.515 billion and $3.565 billion, which would be up roughly 11% to 12% from fiscal 2016 figures. However, that's slower growth than the 13% consensus forecast among those following the stock.

Moreover, although the revenue shortfall would be somewhat minor, more dramatic slowdowns in earnings growth could be more troubling. TransDigm predicted adjusted earnings of $11.84 to $12.12 per share, which would be up just 3% to 5% from 2016's final numbers. By contrast, investors wanted to see 12% growth to $12.80 per share, and that was therefore a big adjustment in many shareholders' eyes.

In response, TransDigm shares lost ground, falling 7% in the day's session following the morning announcement. Low expectations leave TransDigm in a good position to exceed them if the aerospace industry remains strong, but uncertainty about the future is clearly holding some investors back in their optimism about TransDigm's prospects for the coming fiscal year.

Forget the 2016 Election and find out why TransDigm Group is one of the 10 best stocks to buy nowDonald Trump is the new president, and you're naturally wondering how best to protect your portfolio and profit in the process. Well, Motley Fool co-founders Tom and David Gardner have spent more than a decade beating the market. (In fact, the newsletter they run, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has nearly tripled the market!*)

With their record of winning in up and down markets, David and Tom know how to invest profitably no matter who occupies the White House.

Tom and David just revealed their ten top stock picks for investors to buy right now. TransDigm Group is on the list-but there are nine others you may be overlooking.

Click here to get access to the full list!

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Dan Caplinger has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends TransDigm Group. 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.
Shareholders of Carmike Cinemas approved the movie theater operator's sale to Chinese-owned AMC Theatres, cementing the buyer's stature as the largest movie theater operator in the world.

The deal includes $585 million in cash and $250 million in AMC's Class A common stock. AMC is also assuming about $367 million in debt in the deal.

Carmike shareholders can take $33.06 per share or 1.0819 AMC shares for each share of Carmike. The cash offer is $3.06 more per share than AMC's prior bid in March.

AMC, based in Leawood, Kansas, was bought by Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group in 2012. AMC bought European movie theater operator Odeon & UCI Cinemas Group in July, making it the world's largest movie theater operator.

Carmike, based in Columbus, Georgia, expects the deal to close late this year or early next year.

.
Image source: Getty Images.

Throughout their presidential campaigns, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were rarely on the same page. So when both candidates promised to prioritize rebuilding America's deteriorating infrastructure if elected, it wasn't surprising to see infrastructure stocks jump. From engineering companies such as Jacobs Engineering Group (NYSE: JEC) to building-material companies such asVulcan Materials Company (NYSE: VMC) and Martin Marietta Materials (NYSE: MLM) to construction-equipment manufacturers such as Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) and Manitowoc (NYSE: MTW), nearly every stock exposed to infrastructure has shot through the roof this year.

But can these stocks continue to rally, or could investors have gotten a little too excited too early?

Trump's stance on infrastructure

Investors first turned hopeful last December, when Congress passed the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act, better known as the FAST Act, authorizing $305 billion in spending on highways and other surface transportation through 2020. Then when both presidential candidates called for great amounts of spending on infrastructure, investors knew they could expect some real action on that front. Trump mentioned a topic that affects every American during his victory speech:

Trump's campaign website also elucidates his vision of pursuing an"America's Infrastructure First" policy and "transform[ing] America's crumbling infrastructure into a golden opportunity for accelerated economic growth." His website mentions transportation, water, electricity, security, and telecommunications as focus areas. And of course, who can forget Trump's most-debated campaign promise of building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, a potential megainfrastructure project?

Trump even put a figure to his plans: $1 trillion worth of spending on infrastructure over the next decade. That's a big number.

Does that mean infrastructure stocks will explode?

Most infrastructure stocks are already on fire.

VMC data by YCharts.

One thing is clear: America can't afford to ignore its crumbling infrastructure anymore. But no one knows yet how much Trump will spend on the initiative, or how. His $1 trillion proposal is ambitious and could hit funding hurdles. Trump mentioned implementing tax breaks to attract capital, but that's about as much as we know for now. I think Trump will most likely spend at least as much as Hillary Clinton's proposed $275 billion in spending over the next five years, if not more. That itself should be a big opportunity for infrastructure companies.

As the nation's largest producer of basic building materials such as crushed stone, gravel, asphalt, and concrete, Vulcan Materials is poised to become a major beneficiary. Texas, California, Virginia, Georgia, and Florida accounted for 59% of Vulcan's revenues last year.A National Stone, Sand, & Gravel Association (NSSGA) report released earlier this year pegs these to be among the top aggregates markets through 2020.

Image source: NSSGA U.S. National & States Aggregates Forecast 2015-2020.

Another potential beneficiary is Jacobs Engineering, which provides a wide range of construction services, from feasibility studies to construction and maintenance. Within infrastructure, Jacobs' core competency lies in transportation -- primarily highways, bridges, tunnels, railroads, and ports. The company derived almost 60% of its revenue from the U.S. last year. More important, the U.S. federal government happens to be Jacob's largest customer, accounting for 21.7% of its total revenue in 2015.

Sales of construction equipment should also gather steam once spending on infrastructure picks up, benefiting leading manufacturers such as Caterpillar and Manitowoc. While Manitowoc is a pure-play construction-equipment company, Caterpillar has significant exposure to the mining and oil and gas sectors. Caterpillar, however, might have an upper hand given Trump's affinity to the company, as was evident during some of his speeches.

So should you buy infrastructure stocks now?

Only if you're a long-term investor who can stomach the volatility that might come along if Trump's plans hit opposition. Given the recent rally in infrastructure stocks, it's hard to see why they should continue to trend higher, unless Trump provides a blueprint of his spending plans that gives investors a clearer picture of which infrastructure company could stand to gain and how. For now, most of the infrastructure stocks are already trading at lofty valuations without any sense of direction regarding the companies' sales and profits. So investors might want to wait for some clarity before jumping in, to avoid getting burnt.

Forget the 2016 Election: 10 stocks we like better than Caterpillar Donald Trump was just elected president, and volatility is up. But here's why you should ignore the election:

Investing geniuses Tom and David Gardner have spent a long time beating the market no matter who's in the White House. In fact, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*

David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Caterpillar wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.

Click here to learn about these picks!

*Stock Advisor returns as of November 7, 2016

Neha Chamaria 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.
The past months of Mihail Gofman's life read like spy fiction: Fearing he's being followed, he flees his native Moldova in a borrowed car, drives to neighboring Romania and flies to Washington. There he gives U.S. officials information he claims links top Moldovan political leaders and possibly U.S. citizens to a $1 billion heist that gutted the tiny eastern European nation's banking system.

Gofman used to be deputy chief of a government anti-money laundering unit in Moldova, a former Soviet republic sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania. He says he was forced out after speaking about people he said were linked to the theft.

He's holed up in Washington trying to make the case that Americans should care what happened in a little-known country 5,000 miles away  and to help it try to recover the missing money.

The U.S. government already has interests in the former Soviet republic, Gofman argues. The impoverished country has received $44.9 million in U.S. aid this year, plus a $180 million loan from the International Monetary Fund, which is partially supported by U.S. taxpayers. Moreover, Gofman claims to have evidence that at least one American was involved in the theft. His claims could not be independently verified.

Moldova is also important for strategic reasons. The theft has tainted the reputation of the Europe-leaning party that has run Moldova since 2009. Widespread anger kindled support for Igor Dodon, a pro-Russian candidate who won Sunday's presidential runoff election.

Gofman said U.S. authorities reached out to him after he sent documents to the FBI and other federal agencies. He talked with U.S. investigators at least twice in the past couple months. The FBI said it could not comment or confirm the existence of an investigation and it's unclear how deeply it is investigating.

The 2014 theft from the three banks was devastating for Moldova. The amount stolen was equal to more than 12 percent of the country's gross domestic product that year, according to the Congressional Research Service. The money was funneled out of Moldova and laundered through a complex network of offshore entities.

"We understood what they (the thieves) were preparing," Gofman said recently through an interpreter at The Associated Press office in Washington. "They were preparing to steal" the national reserves of Moldova.

So far, authorities have accused only a few individuals as having a role in the theft. One is Ilan Shor, a rich Moldovan businessman named in an independent investigative report on the theft conducted by the Kroll company. The report was commissioned by the National Bank of Moldova.

Another is Vlad Filat, a former prime minister sentenced in July to nine years on charges of taking bribes and influence trafficking. In addition, businessman Veaceslav Platon was arrested in Ukraine and has been extradited to Moldova to face charges.

Gofman says that based on the details he amassed during his work at the money-laundering unit, many more people were involved. His claims are bolstered by former presidential candidate Andrei Nastase, a lawyer and former prosecutor who told AP that he too has met with U.S. investigators, including FBI agents, twice during the past three months.

Nastase said he has seen "evidence that some funds now reside in the U.S. and that some shell companies were created in the U.S."

Among the people that Gofman claims benefited from the theft is Vlad Plahotniuc, a wealthy businessman feared because of his alleged influence over law enforcement and the judiciary. Plahotniuc, who is active in the pro-European party, has repeatedly defended himself, saying he had nothing to do with the theft and had no ties to any of the banks from which the money was stolen. Plahotniuc's name is not mentioned in the Kroll report.

Andrian Candu, speaker of the Moldovan parliament, defended the pro-European party, saying it has worked hard since the theft to fight corruption, implement reforms and arrest judges, customs officials and police officers. He said Plahotniuc has had an active role in helping institute reforms.

Still, many Moldovans were outraged to see photographs of Plahotniuc meeting in May in Washington with Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland. The State Department said Plahotniuc was part of an official delegation visiting from the country.

Gofman decided to leave Moldova after German diplomats advised him to do so in July. "They even told me to photograph what was in my bags so nobody could put something in them, like drugs." Gofman said.

Within an hour of that meeting, after his children helped him photograph the contents of his luggage, he took off unnoticed in a borrowed vehicle. He spent two days in neighboring Romania, where he is a dual citizen, and then flew to the United States.

For now, Gofman is a man without a country. He said U.S. investigators advised him not to return to Moldova  at least not now.

"I hope that in the end we'll solve this," said Gofman, whose wife and three children remain in Moldova. "I'm not going to spend my whole life going from country to country."
Cardboard boxes might not seem like the sexiest place to invest in the stock market. Butboxes can contain big surprises -- such as the surprise success of cardboard box company Packaging Corporation of America (NYSE: PKG), whose stock is up 33% over the past year, six times better than the performance of the S&P 500.

Packaging Corp stock has worked out pretty well for banker BMO Capital, which recommended the stock to its clients back in July 2015. But today, BMO has had a rethink about Packaging Corp stock, and just downgraded the stock from outperform to market perform.

Here are three things BMO says it doesn't like about the stock.

Should you stock up on Packaging Corp stock? BMO Capital thinks not. Image source: Getty Images.

1. The U.S. dollar

The first thing BMO doesn't like about Packaging Corp stock is...the U.S. dollar. As StreetInsider.com reports, BMO worries that a strong U.S. Dollar is bad news for U.S. companies doing business abroad. But if you ask me, this is a trumped-up worry.

According to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, Packaging Corp actually gets only about 3% of its annual revenue from foreign sources, with the bulk of its business being done right here in the U.S. of A. While foreign exchange headwinds might affect the business somewhat, I don't think this should overly concern investors.

2. Pricing power

A second concern BMO raises is Packaging Corp's ability to stick its customers with a $50 increase in the price of containerboard. In a still-iffy economy, that could be a concern. One thing that's reassuring, though, is the fact that $50 price hikes have gone into effect pretty much across the (container) board.

In September, Midland Paper confirmed that "major containerboard producers" including not just Packaging Corp, but WestRock (NYSE: WRK), Georgia-Pacific, and even International Paper (NYSE: IP) all instituted $50/ton increases in the price of their containerboard products last month -- the first such wide-scale increase in nearly four years. While it's still early innings in the effort to make this price hike stick, the widespread support for the price increase among so many competitors suggests no one is breaking ranks and trying to fight a price war. That increases the chance that the price hike will stay.

3. Valuation

BMO's third objection to Packaging Corp stock -- and the one I actually agree with -- is the valuation of the stock. While BMO calls Packaging Corp "best-in-class" for its profit margins, and praises the stock's balance sheet as "strong," BMO worries that "the stock [is] trading within 3.5% of our price target," and sees little room for it to grow past this.

And that's the most important thing

On this point I agree. Priced at more than 18 times earnings, and 15 times free cash flow, Packaging Corp doesn't look drastically overvalued. Rival International Paper sells for more than 22 times earnings after all (and 16.5 times free cash flow). WestRock stock costs only 13.7 times free cash flow, but is GAAP-unprofitable and carries a debt load roughly twice as large as Packaging Corp's.

Viewed in this context, Packaging Corp appears to be valued more or less in line with its peers. Nonetheless, the stock's slow projected growth rate (just 8% compared to International Paper's 10%) doesn't seem to me fast enough to justify Packaging Corp stock's P/E or price-to-free-cash-flow ratio, either one.

At the same time, Packaging Corp's 2.9% dividend yield seems a bit stingy in light of the better yields available at its competitors -- 3.2% at WestRock, 3.9% at International Paper. All things considered, I have to agree with BMO Capital on this one: There are better places to put your money than in Packaging Corp's box.

Forget the 2016 Election: 10 stocks we like better than Packaging Corporation of America Donald Trump was just elected president, and volatility is up. But here's why you should ignore the election:

Investing geniuses Tom and David Gardner have spent a long time beating the market no matter who's in the White House. In fact, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*

David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Packaging Corporation of America wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.

Click here to learn about these picks!

*Stock Advisor returns as of November 7, 2016.

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 currently ranks No. 314 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.
A New York State law that makes its attorney general a de facto federal regulator with enormous power to charge and fine banks and financial firms could be neutered in an upcoming Trump administration, the Fox Business Network has learned.

The states Martin Act has been the bane of Wall Street banks in recent years, particularly as a group of ambitious New York state attorneys general, beginning with Eliot Spitzer nearly 15 years ago, began using the law to crack down on alleged financial improprieties that had previously been the territory of federal regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Commission.

But there is a movement afoot inside the Trump transition team to target the Martin Actand other similar state regulations known as blue-sky laws  for extinction, by crafting legislation that would supersede them with existing federal statutes, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.

The point man of this effort, former SEC commissioner and Trump transition team member Paul Atkins, has been discussing ways to ensure that federal securities laws preempt state laws by enacting new legislation that could pass considering the GOP now controls both the legislative and executive branches.

Atkins, currently the CEO of Wall Street consulting firm Patomak Global Partners, is also considered a leading contender to run the SEC in a Trump Administration. He has long advocated against state officials over-stepping their authority through such statutes. Atkins declined comment and referred all questions to the Trump transition team, which also declined to provide a comment.

Getting rid of state laws such as the Martin Act would likely lead to a surge in bank stocks, which have been rallying since Trump defeated his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton in last weeks presidential contest. Shares of JP Morgan have risen 8 percent since the election, while shares of Bank of America and Citigroup have risen 12 percent and 7 percent respectively. Bank stocks are up based on the notion that the new Trump administration would weaken costly bank rules.

Meanwhile, banks, many of which are located in New York or have major offices there, have long complained that clauses in the Martin Act give the state AG more power than federal regulators. This is because of the lower bar required to bring both civil and criminal fraud cases, which has led to a series of high-profile regulatory settlements and hefty fines. Banks have complained that many Democratic state AGs have used these laws to overregulate the financial sector.

Still, legal experts say it would be nearly impossible for Congress to repeal state laws. Congress could write a statute that explicitly preempts or overrides state laws in favor of federal securities statutes, but even a preemption carries risks.

Preemption is possible but it may attract a filibuster by Democrats in congress, delaying its passage and creating negative publicity around the issue, said Columbia law school professor John Coffee. And also many Republicans believe in state regulation.

Despite the disdain banks and other businesses have for laws like the Martin Act, seeking the laws removal could be politically treacherous for a new presidential administration. The Trump economic team is gearing up to pass major legislation such as tax reform, and the recrafting of such big ticket regulations could be a misuse of political capital.

Indeed, Trump economic advisers are likely to focus on reforming Obamacare, which is debilitating middle-class Americans with huge premium increases, and the Dodd-Frank banking laws, passed after the 2008 financial crisis that economists contend have made it more difficult for banks to lend to small businesses.

The Trump administration would also be taking on a large and politically ambitious contingent of state attorneys general, such as Democratic New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, and Democratic California State AG Kamala Harris, who successfully used her officeand the cases she brought against banksto become a U.S. Senator this election cycle, replacing Barbara Boxer who is retiring.

The state AGs would argue that they provide a degree of consumer protection in the event that federal officials miss a potential financial fraud.

For Trump there is an added political calculation because Schneiderman is already suing the New York billionaire, and real estate magnate, for civil fraud, alleging that a for-profit real estate school he created known as Trump University deceived students about its benefits.

Part of the allegations in the civil suit, which Trump has vigorously denied, involved potential Martin Act violations. Thus any effort to ditch the law would be perceived as directly benefitting Trumps business interests.

A Trump spokeswoman didnt return a call for comment; a spokesman for Schneiderman said our Trump University case does not rely on the Martin Act. He declined further comment.
Image source: Globant.

What happened

Shares ofGlobant SA (NYSE: GLOB), the Luxembourg-based digital servicescompany, got hammered today after the company reported third-quarter earnings that missed analyst earnings estimates. As of 11:30 a.m. EST, the stock is down more than 15%.

So what

For the third quarter ended Sept. 30, Globant SA reported sales of $82.4 million,up 23% year over year, and earnings of $10.5 million, up 15% over Q3 2015.On a per-share basis, Globant reported earnings of $0.30, which, though up from $0.26 a year ago, were slightly below analysts estimates. As a result, the stock is now selling.

Management still seems happy with its growth and future growth prospects. According to CFOAlejandro Scannapieco,"I am delighted with our financial performance for this quarter. Both our revenue growth and our gross, operating and net income margins continue to be very healthy. Growth is evenly spread among our customer base, with top 10 accounts increasing over 25% year over year, and not top 10 accounts growing above 20%."The company announced this week that it has acquired L4, a digital services company that Globant says will "strengthen its lead position in the digital services space."

Now what

For full-year 2016, Globant maintained its guidance for revenue of $320 million to $332 million and earnings per share in the range of $1.12 to $1.15. The high end of that guidance would represent 30% and 17% growth year over year, respectively.

Globant SA has not been a cheap stock, trading at over 40 times earnings for most of the last few quarters. That optimism seemed to get a little ahead of a company that does still look to have growth ahead of it, as forward estimates for next year's earnings place the stock at just 26 times those expected earnings.Now at a cheaper price after this sell-off today, and with what looks to be plenty of growth ahead, the stock certainly looks more attractive as a potential buy.

Forget the 2016 Election: 10 stocks we like better than Globant Donald Trump was just elected president, and volatility is up. But here's why you should ignore the election:

Investing geniuses Tom and David Gardner have spent a long time beating the market no matter who's in the White House. In fact, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*

David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Globant wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.

Click here to learn about these picks!

*Stock Advisor returns as of November 7, 2016

Seth McNew 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.
Could the resurrection of The Cosby Show reruns on cable TV signal a possible career comeback for disgraced comedian Bill Cosby?

Bounce TV has bounced their July 2015 decision to stop airing old episodes of The Cosby Show after the fallen comics sexual abuse allegations and upcoming trial. The network will start running episodes again on December 19th.

While we take very seriously the accusations against Bill Cosby, our research showed that African-American consumers see a distinction between Bill Cosby, the man, and the iconic TV character Cliff Huxtable, a network rep told FOX411 in a statement. Research and direct viewer feedback were the deciding factors in the networks decision to move forward. The desire among African Americans to see the show on TV again is being reinforced on social media based upon overwhelmingly positive viewer response since the announcement.

One former television executive agreed with the move.

What Bill Cosby was doing in his personal life is not relevant to this show, its messages and its values, the industry insider said. Remember, The Cosby Show was the work of a lot of talented actors, writers, directors and producers, and it was entertaining and inspirational to a lot of people. It would be unfair to everyone who created the show to take it out of circulation just because Bill Cosby was doing terrible things in his personal life.

But branding and crisis communications expert Scott Pinsker disagrees.

The kind of content that a network airs isnt just about ratings, but about its social ethos: What it values, who its audience is, and what its brand stands for, Pinsker said. Bringing The Cosby Show to Bounce might do well in the ratings, at least for a little while, but is it worth the loss of sponsors wholl flee the network because they dont want their brand to be associated with a company that profits from the humor of a serial rapist?

Dan Gainor, vice president of business and culture at the Media Research Center, said while Cosby has been demonized in the court of public opinion, he has not been convicted of any crime.

It's easy to forget now, but he and Sidney Poitier were among the first black actors who gained widespread acceptance, Gainor said. To many, he's still Alexander Scott from I Spy, Dr. Huxtable or the voice of Fat Albert. These charges will follow him to the grave, but that doesn't mean people won't watch him.

SiriusXM radio host Rich Davis said we live in time where anything goes, and Bounce's decision could be the first stage of a Cosby comeback, should he be acquitted.

All bets are off. Donald Trump is going to be our President. Perhaps Bill Cosby promised to make the Bounce network great again, Davis said. People have a unique ability to separate celebrities personal flaws no matter how huge if they love the product which is sad. Its a sad reflection of our society.

Cosby, for one, seems to agree. His lawyer argued in court documents last week that Cosby is going to make a comeback.

"When Mr. Cosby is cleared from all liability and charges ... he expects to resume his career, and there is no reason to believe otherwise," his lawyer wrote, according to the Associated Press.

But Pinsker expects Bounce's move is probably the first and last time youll be seeing more Cosby on TV.

To rehab a client, you need to give the audience a reasonable explanation for why the bad thing happened, make amends, show contrition, and give a reason to believe that it will never happen again, Pinkser said.  With dozens and dozens of credible women all making the same awful allegations, thats just impossible for Cosby. PR is a tool for managing negativity, but its not a magical elixir that erases the past.

Cosby has a tentative trial date for June 5, 2017 in Pennsylvania. He has been accused of sexually assaulting former Temple University employee Andrea Constand, who claimed she was drugged and raped by the now 79-year-old. He has pleaded not guilty. Approximately 50 women have accused the fallen comic of similar sexual assaults.
A long time ago, on a movie set far, far away, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford hooked up  but he didnt exactly rock her world, the Stars Wars actress says.

Fisher, who played Princess Leia in the classic space flick, says in a new book that while Ford, a.k.a. Han Solo, complained that she was a bad kisser, the married father of two wasnt so hot in bed himself, according to Radar Online.

But Fisher, 60, says she let it slide because he was really handsome.

In her tome The Princess Diarist, the actress recalls how she first met the then-34-year-old Ford on the London set of the 1977 blockbuster classic when she was just 19 years old.

While Fisher has hinted in the past that the pair may have fooled around, she gets down and dirty in the book, revealing that he allegedly got her drunk and seduced her during filming, part of which took place in Tunisia.

The pair wound up in bed after Ford, who is now 74, offered to drive a wine sodden Fisher home, she says.

The book contains excerpts from a diary that Fisher kept of the affair, Radar said. The website is owned by the same company as the National Enquirer, which obtained the book ahead of its Nov. 22 release date.

In one entry, she says she tried relentlessly to make Ford love her and came up with fantasies of Ford proposing to her with a gold band with diamonds (inscribed) Carrison.'

In her book, Fisher notes that shes fuzzy on the details of her and Fords three-month relationship because of the brutal strength of Harrisons preferred strain of pot.

In a 2008 interview, Fisher admitted, I went on the film saying, Im going to have an affair, like it was a kiwi, an exotic fruit  because Id never had one. I had a crush on Harrison for sure. Harrison is great fun when hes had a few drinks.

Fisher added, Im going to get in so much trouble  Once I left the room and came back, and he was in the closet not wearing a lot of clothes.

A rep for Ford did not immediately return a request for comment.

This story first appeared in the NYPost.
Authorities are investigating after a family member says one of the stars of the hit reality TV series "Deadliest Catch" was assaulted over the weekend.

Josh Harris took to social media to share that his brother Jake Harris was "jumped" and severely injured Saturday night. Josh Harris said in a video on Sunday that his brother was, at some point, in the intensive care unit after his skull was cracked.

"He's pretty messed up," Josh Harris said in an additional video posted to Facebook on Monday. "Hopefully, one day, we'll get him back fishing again."

The Everett Police Department says they received a report of "a male victim of an assault."

Everett is about 30 miles north of Seattle.

Police spokesman Aaron Snell told The Seattle Times the victim was found by a passer-by who called 911. The man refused medical attention and was taken home by police.

He was later taken to the hospital by friends or family members, Snell told the newspaper.

Jake Harris and his family were featured on the Discovery Channel show about fisherman in Alaska for many years.

In 2010, Jake and Josh Harris' father, Phil Harris, died after suffering a stroke. An episode of "Deadliest Catch" captured Phil Harris' last moments. The brothers released a book about their father in 2013.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The unsolved murder of "Hogan's Heroes" star Bob Crane remains a mystery.

Phoenix's Fox 10 reporter John Hook attempted to crack the case after authorities gave him permission to retest DNA samples found on suspect John Henry Carpenter's car.

Hook revealed the DNA results Monday night in front of Crane's son, the case prosecutor, the jury foreman and Carpenter's defense attorney.

"The DNA found on the door of John Carpenter's rental car is not... from Bob Crane," Hook said. "The tests actually picked up two DNA profiles. A major contributor is from a man, his identity is unknown. Second DNA profile is a partial profile too degraded to reach any conclusions."

Crane's son Robert Crane Jr. said he was in shock after hearing the results.

"There were always two people in my mind: John Carpenter and my stepmother, for different reasons. But it was on John's car," he shared.

Crane was found bludgeoned to death in his Scottsdale apartment in 1978 and his friend Carpenter was suspected in his death. Carpenter was tried for Cranes murder in 1994, but he was found not guilty. He died in 1998.

Carpenter's defense attorney was happy to hear the results of the DNA test.

"This is wonderful news for his family," attorney Steve Avilla said on the show. "This is wonderful news for John who has passed away to know that he has finally been vindicated, not only in a court of law but in a court of public opinion."

Bob Crane's murder reexamined on TV


Various foods and beverages are banned in countries around the world for numerous reasons, but food regulatory policy is far from objective. Some countries have a preventative approach to food safety and implement regulatory laws based on the potential dangers of certain additives, production processes, or ingredients  whereas other governments might ban foods based on environmental, economic, ethical, or cultural concerns.

But what makes food regulation such an interesting topic is that it represents not only the intersection of culture, science, and politics, but also the mindset of a particular era. What was deemed safe one year may be found to be dangerous the next, just as an animal production system once considered ethical might later be perceived as immoral.

Food regulatory laws are not set in stone, nor have they been passed down from the heavens. Just like any other legislation, they can be subjective, biased, and flat-out irrational.

Here are 5 foods it may surprise you to learn are banned around the world.

Absinthe

A high-proofed, licorice-flavored spirit, absinthe has long been the subject of folklore (and horrifying drinking stories) for its hallucinogenic properties, and it was banned in many countries for much of the twentieth century. In 2007, the United States removed its long-standing ban on the sale and production of absinthe, but has since required that the beverage be flavored not with its original defining ingredient, wormwood, or Artemisia absinthium (which contains the psychedelic ingredient thujone), but with a related species, Artemisia abrotanum.

Beluga Caviar

Possibly the most upper-class-sounding food on the planet, beluga caviar comes from the eggs of the beluga sturgeon, a critically endangered fish that exists only in the Caspian, Black, and Adriatic seas. It is banned through much of the world by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) because most the countries that border the sturgeon's native seas fail to prevent their poaching. Perhaps counterintuitively, Iran, which borders the Caspian, is exempt from the ban, as it follows sustainable conservation practices.

Chewing Gum

Singapore takes its 2004 ban on chewing gum very seriously. Apparently, vandals had been wreaking havoc on Singapores infrastructure with chewing gum by clogging key holes, jamming elevator buttons, and deactivating subway door sensors. The ban has since been revised to permit the sale of fortified chewing gum by a doctor or dentist.

Foie Gras

To make foie gras, duck or geese are force-fed corn through a feeding tube (the process is known as gavage). Over-feeding the poultry causes their livers to grow up to 10 times the normal size, and although foie gras is considered a delicacy is most regions of the world, its questionable production methods have angered animal rights activists. India has banned the importation of foie gras, while its production is illegal in more than 20 countries including Germany, Israel, and Switzerland. Foie gras was also banned for a time in both Chicago and California, but both bans were later rescinded.

Haggis

Haggis is the second-most famous Scottish product (behind whisky, of course). Its made of sheep heart, liver, and lungs, mixed with oatmeal, suet, and spices and stuffed  at least traditionally  into a sheep's stomach. It sounds awful but is actually delicious, especially with a dram of Scotch on the side. Its banned in the U.S. because of a rather arbitrary ban on the lungs of the sheep (though not the heart or liver). The U.K. government is trying to get its American counterpart to overturn the ban; meanwhile, lungless versions are sold here, in cans or wrapped in plastic.

Here are the rest of the 12 Foods and Beverages That are Banned Around the World for Reasons Both Sane and Silly
Traumatic events may affect the brains of boys and girls differently, a new study finds.

Among boys in the study, a brain area called the anterior circular sulcus was larger among those who had symptoms of a trauma, compared with a control group of boys who did not have any trauma symptoms. But among girls in the study, this brain region was smaller among those who had trauma symptoms.

The region is associated with emotional awareness and empathy, the researchers said.

The scientists said they were surprised to see that "the boys and girls were so clearly on different ends of the spectrum," said Megan Klabunde, the lead author of the study and a psychologist and neuroscience researcher at Stanford University School of Medicine.

The researchers compared the size of this brain region in the boys in the control group with that of the girls in the control group, finding that the region was of approximately similar size in both groups.

A potential explanation for these results is that "exposure to traumatic stress may impact brain development rates" differently in boys than in girls, the researchers said. However, because the study was conducted at a single point in time, it's not possible to know whether there is a cause-and-effect relationship  in either girls or boys  between trauma and the size of this brain region, the investigators said.

In the study, the researchers scanned the brains of 59 children ages 9 to 17, using a type of scan called structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI). There were 29 children total in the control group, and there were 30 children in the group that had symptoms of trauma, such as mood changes, and mentally re-living their traumautic events. These children had experienced a traumatic event more than 6 months prior to the start of the study.

The researchers compared the size of the anterior circular sulcus, located within a brain region called the insula, which plays a role in people's emotions, awareness and empathy.

However, "the insula doesn't work in isolation," Klabunde told Live Science. Rather, this region is connected to other parts of the brain, which are also involved in emotion processing and empathy, she said.

Previous studies have shown that about 8 percent of girls and 2 percent of boys develop post-traumatic stress disorder sometime during their lifetime. Girls, in general, are more likely to develop the condition than boys are.

The researchers noted that their study had a relatively small number of participants. In addition, the research did not specifically study the impact of factors such as the time since the trauma, the age of the participant when the trauma first occurred, the severity of the trauma and other potential stressors that may also affect changes in the brain.

Future studies may shed light on how trauma affects other brain structures related to empathy, and whether these effects also show gender differences, the researchers said.

Additionally, further research may also help scientists determine whether these physical differences in the brain in turn lead to behavioral differences between boys and girls, the scientists said. Such research could help psychiatrists develop gender-specific treatments for boys and girls who have suffered traumatic events, the researchers said.

Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
For the past year, a Minnesota woman has lived in the confines of her bedroom, away from her husband, because the plastic-wrapped room is the safest place for her to be.

After receiving numerous misdiagnoses, Johanna Watkins, 29, was diagnosed with mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) about nine years ago, Fox 9 reported. The bodys mast cells are meant to release chemicals that dictate immune system reactions, but Watkins release the wrong chemicals, to the wrong place, at the wrong time.

Were just entering a new era here where physicians just need to be aware that theres a new kid on the inflammatory block so to speak, Dr. Lawrence Afrin, a medicine professor in the University of Minnesota Division of Hematology, Oncology and Transplantation, who diagnosed Watkins, told Fox 9. So when they see a patient who has multiple inflammatory problems, theyre having a hard time putting the whole package together and having a hard time finding effective therapy.

One to 15 percent of the general population could have MCAS, but most people are undiagnosed and instead told they have multiple inflammatory disorders, like fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome and chronic fatigue.

While most patients will respond to a cocktail of medication, Watkins case is so severe that she has not responded to any treatment. Johanna and her husband, Scott Watkins, moved in with Dan and Lucy Olson, who invited them to stay with their four children. Johanna only leaves her upstairs bedroom for emergency room and scheduled doctors visits. Scott must stay in a room downstairs and wear a mask whenever he sees her.

I cant get too close, Scott told the news channel. I cant hug her safely. I cant hug her without hurting her.

The space outside her room has an instantaneous effect on Johanna, Fox 9 reported.

As soon as that door opens, I can feel it. My body goes into complete attack mode, Johanna told the news station. It feels like my body is waging war on itself. My throat automatically tightens. It kind of feels like Darth Vader doing a chokehold.

The Olson family has adapted their lifestyle for the couple, including ceasing cooking in their own kitchen when Johanna became sensitive to odors. Five of their neighbors gave the host couple keys so they can use their kitchens instead.

Scott, a second grade teacher, is renovating a house with an apartment upstairs so Johanna can live comfortably downstairs. He hopes to move in in December. He also started a GoFundMe campaign to help fundraise for a custom safe living space for his wife.

Every time I come back from those appointments, I feel grateful just extremely grateful for everyones help to me, Johanna said, and the fact that I made it, and Im back, and I got another day.
Watching a loved one with Alzheimers disease drift away can be devastating, and for young children, this turn of events is often punctuated by confusion. But a new book called Why Cant Grandma Remember My Name? aims to help youngsters better understand the incurable neurodegenerative condition through art.

[The book is] made up of kindergarten art and juxtaposed to art done by Alzheimers patients, author Kent Karosen, president of the Fisher Center for Alzheimers Research Foundation, recently told FoxNews.coms Dr. Manny Alvarez during an appearance on Health Talk. So it kind of  explains, or book-ends  life.

Along with artwork, Karosens new book features questions from real-life children and answers from patients who have firsthand experience with Alzheimers.

Art therapy has proven beneficial for people living with Alzheimers and other dementias by stimulating the brain, memories and even language that had been lost in some patients. For patients who can no longer communicate verbally, creating or viewing art can serve as a form of expression and in some cases boost cognitive function, according to research published in the Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences.

The Alzheimers Association estimates 5.4 million Americans suffer from Alzheimers, but experts believe the disease objectively affects about 20 million people when considering patients loved ones as well, Karosen explained.

I felt that it was necessary to provide something to parents whose [childrens] grandparents have Alzheimers, and I thought it would be helpful to them, he said.

For more information, visit AlzInfo.org.


A single species of mosquitoAedes aegyptinow spreads multiple viruses in the Western Hemisphere, including Zika, chikungunya, and dengue. That has prompted researchers to examine whether it may transmit more than one type of virus at once to peopleand if so, what consequences that may have.

In a new study presented Monday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene, scientists from Colorado State University said they had evidence that Aedes aegypti mosquitoes could be infected with Zika and chikungunya simultaneously and could potentially transmit both viruses to humans in a single bite.

A mosquito in theory could give you both viruses at once, said Claudia Rueckert, a Colorado State researcher involved in the work.

The findings add to evidence that people may commonly be infected simultaneously with more than one mosquito-borne virus. A study last year by other researchers found that the mosquitoes can transmit chikungunya and dengue at the same time. Another recent study in Nicaragua found that about one in five patients who tested positive for dengue, chikungunya or Zika actually had two or three of the viruses.

Click for more from The Wall Street Journal.
Donald Trump's announcement on "60 Minutes" Sunday night, that he supports marriage equality, shocked almost as many on the left as his stunning victory at the polls last week. If they would have been paying attention, however, neither of these events would have come as a surprise.

Despite the left's attempts to demonize Donald Trump as a homophobe during the campaign, the truth was and is that Donald Trump is unquestionably, the Republican Party's most pro-gay presidential nominee in history.

Since the awful terrorist attacks in Orlando, Donald Trump made a passionate and sincere outreach to the LGBT community -- promising to do something that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton would not do: protect LGBT Americans from the barbarism of radical Islam.

Orlando was not the beginning of Trump's outreach to the LGBT community, indeed it is much more of a natural continuation of Trump's long-time record of treating LGBT people with fairness and equality in the business sector.

While Hillary Clinton was busy supporting Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act, Donald Trump was hiring LGBT Americans, promoting LGBT Americans and offering benefits to the partners and families of LGBT Americans

While Hillary Clinton was busy supporting Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act, Donald Trump was hiring LGBT Americans, promoting LGBT Americans and offering benefits to the partners and families of LGBT Americans.

Donald Trump has long been a friend, an ally and an advocate for the LGBT community.

It was at Donald Trump's Republican National Convention that an openly gay speaker -- PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel -- spoke in prime time. Not only did he speak in prime time, he spoke about being a proud gay man, about how the party needed to avoid the fake culture wars and he did this all to a standing ovation from Republican delegates.

It didn't end with just Thiel's speech, in his speech accepting the Republican nomination -- the most important speech he has ever given in his life -- Donald Trump chose to do something that no other Republican nominee has ever done before: to speak out on behalf of LGBT Americans.

Again, just as with Thiel's speech, Trump's impassioned defense of the LGBT community was met with thunderous applause from the Republican delegates. Trump paused as the crowd came to its feet that night and then said, in a moment of revealing candor, "I have to say as a Republican, it is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said. Thank you."

It is clear from that ad-libbed line that Trump wasn't sure how the crowd would react, which makes his decision to defend the LGBT community in his speech even more powerful.

Trump repeatedly attacked Hillary Clinton during the campaign for her hypocrisy on LGBT issues. Noting in the debates that Clinton has taken tens of millions of dollars from regimes that kill people for being LGBT.

Since his election, not only has Trump made it clear that marriage equality is settled law, he also selected an openly gay man for his transition team (another GOP first) and may be on the cusp of selecting the first openly gay cabinet member.

The arguments against LGBT people voting for Trump generally had absolutely nothing to do with Trump's record or position on LGBT issues. Instead, we were treated to attacks on the record of his running mate and the words contained in the GOP's party platform.

Neither the platform nor the vice presidential nominee matters -- what matters is where the nominee of the party stands -- and Mr. Trump has made it clear, in both words and deeds, where he stands on LGBT issues.

The Republican Party platform is a meaningless document. It carries no legal weight. Nothing in the platform is binding on the candidate or the party, and for decades the presidential nominees of both parties have routinely distanced themselves from their official platforms.

As for the selection of Indiana Governor Mike Pence for vice president? The vice president's position on LGBT issues doesn't matter, either.

Don't believe me? Just ask the gay left that spent eight years telling us that Vice President Dick Cheney's position on LGBT issues did not matter because he was the vice president and it was the president who set policy.

This is Donald Trump's GOP now and his new Republican Party is one that is not only open and accepting of LGBT Americans, it is a party committed to defending us.

The self-appointed LGBT elites might not like Donald Trump, but rank and file LGBT Americans should know that Donald Trump's victory last week is a victory for our community.


After doing The Five on Election Night, I headed to a bar across the street for something to eat. The doorman, a tall Jamaican wearing a suit, recognized me and launched into a determined, passionate defense of Donald Trump.

He swore Trump would triumph. If he lost, this smart, charming dude said, it would send the worst message to the world  that America was no longer governed by honorable people.

He looked brokenhearted when I told him that early returns were suggesting a Hillary win. I went inside and ate some overpriced lettuce wraps, then I checked my phone and saw the direction of the election beginning to turn.

I went outside and showed the doorman this weird little gauge the New York Times was using to assess the odds of winning. It still had Hillary projected to win, but it looked less certain with every passing minute. It went from 90 percent to 60 percent and it kept dropping, like an ACME safe on Wile E. Coyote's head.

While we were talking, two British tourists  pale and older-middle aged, but dressed like they were backpackers in their 20s  approached us.

"Who's winning?" the bearded husband asked. I looked at the gauge on my phone and said, "Looks like Hillary ... for now."

Their immediate reaction was to shout "Thank God!" and "Yes!" to each other, while thrusting their fists triumphantly into the air as if they had just won a hundred bucks on a blackjack hand. It was an ostentatious display meant for our approval  an appeasement signal tourists do in order to appear that they are following the customs of the land. It's likely an evolutionary thing so the natives won't eat you, but it came off as fake and insulting.

It was insulting because they assumed everyone felt as they did. It's the same attitude you find in publishing companies, yoga and spin classes and school campuses  where you can be obnoxious about your leftism, because you assume everyone thinks the same way you do.

But  how many didn't think like that and just bit their tongues this year?

When the doorman did not nod in approval, the tourists went from confused to awkward. They had expected high fives and welcoming smiles. Sensing cold shoulders, they meandered toward the lights and commotion of Time Square, and inevitably to the shock of their post-Brexit lives.

They were a microcosm of the media academic complex.

In the next hour the results really shifted. The New York Times gauge showed a Trump victory at 90 percent certainty. I went out to the doorman and said, "Jesus, I think Trump is pulling it off," and he was ecstatic.

That night, a half dozen of my friends and family who were always certain of Trump's coming victory contacted me. Terry Schappert, a retired Green Beret, texted me a simple, "See?" My sisters liberal friends raged on Facebook, some angrily spitting out blame at others for not supporting Hillary. I imagine that if Hillary had won, they would not have accepted that kind of petulance from anyone who had been rooting for Trump.

Remember, it was the media who expected Trump voters to riot after the inevitable loss. The deplorables were already condemned for a crime not committed! But when activists broke windows in places that supported Clinton, the really crappy behavior came from the party of the "greater good."

The media, the campuses, the celebrities all reacted as though an asteroid had hit  but it took out only their favorite cafes, movie houses and organic groceries, leaving the pickup trucks, country music and hayseed hicks unscathed. Suddenly, their America died, replaced by Deliverance. The hysteria was just that  overblown, unnecessary and unhealthy.

For people who always worry "about the children," they were doing their absolute best to scare the crap out of them  with their ominous, hollow-eyed moaning. They might as well tell their kids that a zombie virus infected half the country (isn't that how they really felt anyway?).

The bottom line: All of those upset people were living in a fog of ignorance. Few of them knew a Trump supporter, and those who did dismissed them as jokes. I lived among a pretty even mix: one-third Trump, one-third Not Trump, one third Hillary. Then, over time, that first third started chipping away at the other two.

This comical hysteria reminds me of 1980, and how easily manipulated I was when I was 16. After the election, everyone in the media was frantic that Ronald Reagan  a Satan/Hitler hybrid bent on destroying the world  had won. The media scared the hell out of people.

Then, nothing.

Life magically went on, and the planet powered through the 1980s as if it woke from some sleep paralysis that was called the 1970s.

I am pretty sure thats why this meltdown bodes well for America. The protests and media crackup  it's like a child crying after a flu shot.

Speaking of  So many media hand-wringers are writing "What do we tell the children?" articles about Trump's win. I'd tell my kid: "Imagine you went to a toy store to buy a squirt gun, and you came out with a bazooka. Hillary was the squirt gun; Trump was the bazooka."

The most encouraging sign: Left-wing icon Noam Chomsky saying the Republican Party is the most dangerous organization on earth. Why is this encouraging? Because everything Chomsky deems evil usually turns out the opposite. If he ever had a kind word for America, I must have missed it.

The celebrity reactions kill me. Yoko Ono recorded herself screaming after Trump won. But that is at least a more considered and cogent response than we're getting from Paul Krugman and some of these other socialist toolbags. Every day I watch the reactions, I say to myself: "This is a good thing."

I know that could change  and I still abhor the sycophants and opportunists  but the sanctimony among the pained faces is as thick as pea soup. Among the celebrity masses, there is absolutely no recognition at all of even the basic fact that there are families all across the Midwest who have not heard anyone in Washington speak to their desperation.

That is not racism or sexism. That's survival.

A lot of dragons were slain on Tuesday. One was fear. When I was at Hofstra for the first presidential debate, I saw college kids demonstrating who weren't liberal. That was new. If you weren't a leftist on campus, you kept your head down and your mouth shut. No more.

My stance during the election has been the same. Electrified by Trump's candidacy, I was steadfast in providing guardrails of criticism. I would not be a cheerleader for anyone. I wanted to win  but more importantly, I did not want to see issues I care about get soiled by the careless handling of neophytes. I'm for a strong border (I pushed for the wall on The Five years ago) but sloppy rhetoric gave Trump's adversaries the edge  which bummed me out. I've raised money for wounded warriors and have been a defender of our nation's veterans, so sloppy rhetoric about POWs bugs me.

You see my point? One way to be persuadable on an issue you care about is to establish a fence around it  and demand that those who enter be damn good on the subject. Because when you screw up, you screw it up for us, too.

Lastly, to my liberal friends: Here's an analogy to offer perspective. Think of the American people as children in a divorce. They spend eight years or so with mommy, then eight years or so with daddy. And for some reason, most of America is fine with it. Eight years with Clinton, eight with Bush, eight with Obama and now you get Trump. It's a custody battle, and the children control the outcome. Mommy are the Dems, Daddy  thats the Republicans.

So, liberals  It's not the end of the world. It's just America getting tired of you. In eight years, itll get tired of the Republicans, too.
The liberal media is setting Donald Trump up to succeed. How? By making Trump out to be such a vile, erratic, destructive loon that unless he reenacts the Slaughter of the Innocents he will outperform expectations.

The New York Times, CNN, the New Yorker and other mainstream outlets have set the bar absurdly low for Trump. He enters office with no yoke of optimism hung around his neck. By contrast, when Barack Obama was elected, people expected miracles, which was strange given his meager resume. It was also damaging, as it opened the young president to ridicule. That Nobel peace prize? Premature at best. Those tens of thousands cheering at the Brandenburg Gates? Soon to be disappointed.

Much of America is pessimistic about the four years ahead. They are being told that Trump threatens their very well being, that his presidency will endanger Muslims and gays and women, for instance. These charges are scary, and they are ill-founded  political hyperbole that has left a bitter residue. Trump has sometimes spoken injudiciously, (and offensively), but he has never been unsupportive of the LGBT community, and has a solid record of hiring and promoting women, including Kellyanne Conway, the first female to successfully run a national campaign. As for Muslims, suggesting that we limit refugees from countries fomenting Jihad is not an assault on people living in this country.

Those who should be nervous about Trumps election are the people at the top of the political food chain. Trump vowed to Drain the Swamp, after all, and the swamp rats could hardly rejoice. Whether he will be able to lessen the grip of big-money donors, lifetime politicians and lobbyists on the workings of our government remains to be seen. But, trying to rein in the offensive spread of federal intrusion into the lives of everyday Americans appears high on his to-do list; good for him.

But, it is not those political elites who are gathering each day in front of Trump buildings in New York and across the country. Instead, it appears to be groups organized by numerous outfits like Black Lives Matter and the National Action Network. Some of the gatherings do not appear organic, since buses deliver the crowds to designated hot spots, and buses must be hired by someone.

Perhaps the organizers want to underscore that Trump has only a weak mandate to rule. That message stems from his failure to win the popular vote. However, since the GOP has won the majority of seats in the House and the Senate, occupies 31 of 50 governors mansions and controls two-thirds of state legislatures, the charge to Republicans seems clear. One Democrat strategist commented on Fox News the other night that his party was in the worst shape it had been in since Reconstruction. That looks like a mandate.

Asked to explain their protestations, demonstrators would likely fall back on charges that Trump is a bigot, a fascist, that he threatens their well-being in some way. For this perception we can thank Trumps carelessness and we can also thank the media.

The over-the-top defamation of Donald Trump by the mainstream media has been extremely damaging to the reputations of once-admired newspapers and networks. They were on Hillarys side and by the end of the campaign, made no effort to disguise their bias.

In the New Yorker, David Remnick published an extraordinary rant the morning after under the title An American Tragedy, in which he describes Trumps election as a sickening event and a triumphof nativism, authoritarianism, misogyny, and racism. He describes the president-elect as vulgarity unbounded and a leader who will strike fear in the hearts of the vulnerable, the weak, and, above all, the many varieties of Other whom he has so deeply insulted.

Remnick warns that commentators will try to rationalize the election outcome and downplay the virulence of the nationalism displayed; in that one sentence Remnick shows how far removed he is from those who celebrate nationalism -- but call it patriotism.

It is fair to say that the New Yorker editor will never understand how people could have rejected Hillary Clinton and instead voted for Trump. In New York, more than any other place, the echo chamber is iron-clad. Manhattan liberals counted on a Hillary win, because thats all they read in the New York Times and heard on CBS.

Remnick says that the election will cast the country into a period of economic, political and social uncertainty. For many of us, that sounds like the past 8 years.

Trump may surprise people like Remnick; lets hope so. One thing is for certain, thanks to voices like his, expectations are very low, and relatively easy to beat.
Two days after Donald Trumps election victory, environmental regulators in Wyoming debunked one of the biggest claims of anti-oil and gas activists: That hydraulic fracturing  also known as fracking  contaminated drinking water in Pavillion, Wyoming, a small town of roughly 240 people.

For years, anti-fracking activists have cited Pavillions plight over and over again as proof that hydraulic fracturing must be banned. Josh Fox, director of the anti-fracking movie Gasland, has probably done more than anyone to spread this assertion. Fox even got himself arrested at a 2012 congressional hearing on the Pavillion case. I got to watch that happen: I was a witness at the hearing for the oil and gas industry

It was all a myth. Not even President Obamas Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) believed it was true. In fact, the so-called contamination in Pavillion  announced to the world in 2011  was almost certainly caused by the EPA itself.

Nonetheless, it was a myth with a purpose, to play on American fears that the nations amazing energy revolution would poison our environment unless we kept those oil and gas resources forever underground.

The anti-fracking campaign was never about public safety or grounded in fact. It has since morphed into the keep it in the ground movement, which opposes any kind of oil, natural gas or coal project, no matter how its developed or where.

Throughout the entire Pavillion saga, activists used campaign-style tactics and media spin to stoke controversy. They staged protests, lobbied the news media to cover the story in the most alarming way possible, distorted the facts and produced their own highly misleading reports on the case.

Such tactics were necessary because the EPAs draft report on Pavillion  released five years ago  was never what the activists claimed. It was supposed to investigate taste and odor complaints tied to a number of shallow water wells in Pavillion. But EPA investigators drilled their own monitoring wells incorrectly, actually introducing contaminants which were later detected in water samples.

Based on those tainted samples, the EPA floated a loose theory that fracking could have been the cause. But the draft report could not verify or refute this theory.

When the first wave of headlines hit, suggesting that fracking was the cause, EPA declared there was absolutely no indication  that drinking water is at risk. But the EPA did not do enough to correct inflammatory claims made about the report. Activists took full advantage, calling the Pavillion case a smoking gun against fracking.

But that wasnt true. As state regulators and other federal agencies including the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Geological Survey dug further into EPAs draft report, they found less and less reason to blame hydraulic fracturing.

Instead, they found major problems with the EPAs water-quality monitoring wells. But in response to criticism, EPA officials stonewalled and never submitted the draft report for peer review. The EPA dragged its feet until 2013, when it finally dropped the Pavillion case and handed the investigation over to the state experts at Wyomings Department of Environmental quality.

When state officials released their findings on Nov. 10, they concluded in an 80,000-page report that there was no evidence fracking fluids had risen to shallow depths utilized by water-supply wells, as a summary of the report put it.

A more likely cause of taste and odor complaints from residents, the experts said, was bacteria buildup in their groundwater wells. The experts also called for EPAs monitoring wells to be shut down, because of the potential hazard they pose in relation to groundwater supplies and physical safety.

Thats right: EPAs own monitoring wells were the real problem after all.

It took five years for the facts to prevail in Pavillion. But if the EPA had admitted its mistakes, and dared to criticize the fear tactics of the environmental lobby, the truth would have been known much sooner.

Fear is no substitute for science and good public policy. The EPA must do better in the future, and with new leadership, I hope and believe it will.
Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton told Fox News' Tucker Carlson Monday that President-elect Donald Trump and the next Congress must work to reduce legal immigration as well as illegal immigration.

"People who work on their feet and work with their hands in this country, they havent seen a pay raise in a long time," Cotton said on the premiere of "Tucker Carlson Tonight," "and part of that is because legal immigration has been at such high levels and its driven down wages and taken a lot of jobs. Thats why Donald Trump ran pretty well with Hispanics compared to some past Republicans as well."

TRUMP REPEATS VOW TO BUILD BORDER WALL, BUT ADMITS THERE 'COULD BE SOME FENCING'

Trump told CBS' "60 Minutes" over the weekend that his first immigration-related priority was securing the southern border, followed by the deportation of criminal illegal aliens.

"I think Donald Trump has got the right approach to immigration," Cotton said. "You heard that some on 60 Minutes last night and thats one reason why he appealed to so many working voters all across the country."

Cotton also played down the possibility of tension between Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., saying the two agreed on most issues.

"On those small areas where we might have some disagreements, we can work those out in private, between ourselves," he said.

"But, immediately, the most important thing we can do to get all of our government back on stable financial footing, to reduce our deficits and get the debt under control," Cotton added, "is to have a healthy growing economy, which we havent had under the Obama administration [and] I believe we will have now."
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was the favorite to be secretary of state in President-elect Donald Trump's administration, a senior Trump transition official said Monday.

The official told the Associated Press there was no real competition for the job and that it was Giuliani's if he wanted it. However, a second official cautioned that John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, remained in contention for the job.

A senior source told Fox News that Giuliani was being considered for the secretary of state job, but said the choice was not locked in. The source added that Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., one of Trump's earliest Washington supporters, was getting a lot of say in the selection of officeholders.

GINGRICH: I WANT TO BE TRUMP'S 'GENERAL PLANNER'

Giuliani, a top Trump surrogate, said he "won't be attorney general" in a Trump administration at a Washington event sponsored by the Wall Street Journal. The former federal prosecutor had been seen as a top contender for the Justice Department post before Trump's election last week.

Giuliani said he thought Bolton "would be a very good choice" for secretary of state. But asked if there was anyone better, he replied with a mischievous smile: "Maybe me, I don't know."

During the event, Giuliani said that defeating the ISIS terror group was Trump's top foreign policy priority, though he did not go into specifics of the president-elect's plan. The former mayor also discussed Russia's global power and influence.

"Russia thinks its a military competitor, it really isnt," Giuliani said. "Its our unwillingness under Obama to even threaten the use of our military that makes Russia so powerful."

Giuliani, 72, would be an out-of-box choice to lead the State Department due to his lack of extensive foreign policy experience. Known for his hard-line law-and-order views and brusque manner, he would set a very different tone than previous holders of the job, including Trump's ex-rival Hillary Clinton, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice.

Bolton has years of federal government experience, but he has also raised eyebrows with some of his hawkish stances, including a 2015 op-ed in The New York Times in which he advocated bombing Iran to halt the country's development of nuclear weapons.

Trump was also considering Monday whether to inject new diversity into the GOP by recommending a woman to lead the Republican Party and an openly gay man to represent the United States at the United Nations.

The moves, among dozens under consideration from his transition team, follow an intense and extended backlash from Trump's decision on Sunday to appoint Steve Bannon, a man celebrated by the white nationalist movement, to serve as his chief strategist and senior adviser.

"After winning the presidency but losing the popular vote, President-elect Trump must try to bring Americans together  not continue to fan the flames of division and bigotry," said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. She called Bannon's appointment "an alarming signal" that Trump "remains committed to the hateful and divisive vision that defined his campaign."

His inauguration just 66 days away, however, Trump focused on building his team and speaking to foreign leaders. He remained sequestered in Trump Tower in New York.

Inexperienced on the international stage, the Republican president-elect spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone. His transition office said in a readout that "he is very much looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the people of Russia." Trump has spoken in recent days with the leaders of China, Mexico, South Korea and Canada.

At the same time, Trump was considering tapping Richard Grenell as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He would be the first openly gay person to fill a Cabinet-level foreign policy post. Grenell, known in part for aggressive criticism of rivals on Twitter, previously served as U.S. spokesman at the U.N. under President George W. Bush.

Trump was also weighing whether to select Michigan GOP chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel, a niece of chief Trump critic and 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney. She would be the second woman ever to lead the Republican National Committee  and the first in four decades.

"I'll be interested in whatever Mr. Trump wants," McDaniel told The Associated Press on Monday, adding that she was planning to seek the Michigan GOP chairmanship again.

Appointing McDaniel to run the GOP's political arm could be an effort to help the party heal the anger after a campaign in which Trump demeaned women. The appointment of Grenell, who has openly supported same-sex marriage, could begin to ease concerns by the gay community about Vice President-elect Mike Pence's opposition to same-sex marriage during his time as Indiana governor.

The personnel moves under consideration were confirmed by people with direct knowledge of Trump's thinking who were not authorized to publicly disclose private discussions. They stressed that the decisions were not final.

Fox News' Serafin Gomez and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from the Wall Street Journal.
A fired up President Obama vowed Monday that Donald Trump will find its not so easy to roll back his myriad regulatory policies, previewing a long fight ahead between his allies and majority Republicans taking control next year.

President-elect Trump has vowed to repeal and replace ObamaCare, while canceling every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama.

Trump also pledges to sharply increase oil and gas drilling on federal lands while opening up offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean and other areas where it is blocked. Further, he wants to repeal the Clean Power Plan, Obama's signature effort to limit carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants. The plan -- the linchpin of Obama's strategy to fight global warming -- is currently on hold awaiting a court ruling.

It is all but assured that Trump, together with the Republican-controlled Congress, will try anew next year to repeal or significantly change ObamaCare, formally known as the Affordable Care Act.

But in a conference call with Democrats Monday, Obama warned that unraveling his policies is not as easy as some say. Plus, he said even if the Trump administration rolls back 15-20 percent of his work, theyre still 80 percent ahead.

The outgoing president did not specify what his post-presidency role will be, but hinted hed be involved and said hed be working shoulder to shoulder with Democrats for many years.

Obama said hed be in a position to make the case for why policies like ObamaCare should be preserved and said, Im still fired up, referencing his 2008 campaign catch phrase.

In an earlier White House press conference before he left the country for his final overseas trip as president, Obama specifically addressed Republican plans to upend ObamaCare.

Now that Republicans are in charge, they got to take a look and say, let's see. We got 20 million people who have health insurance who didn't have it before, he said. Health care costs generally have gone up at a significantly slower rate since ObamaCare was passed than they did before, which has saved the federal Treasury hundreds of billions of dollars.

Some Democrats, though, have acknowledged a need to at least change the system to address rapidly rising premiums and other issues.

Trump has indicated a willingness to keep certain elements of the law in place.

His potential picks for key positions, meanwhile, signal big changes ahead for environmental and energy policies.

Those under consideration for energy secretary include Harold Hamm, an Oklahoma oil tycoon and leading proponent of fracking, and North Dakota Rep. Kevin Cramer, an early Trump supporter from a major oil drilling state, according to transition planning documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Venture capitalist Robert Grady, who worked in President George H.W. Bush's administration, is listed as a contender to lead both the Energy and Interior departments.

It's unclear whether the list is exhaustive or has been reviewed by Trump. The Republican is in the early stages of setting up his administration.

A coalition of conservative states has challenged both the Clean Power Plan and a controversial water rule, which expanded the definition of waters protected under the Clean Water Act to smaller non-navigable waters and seasonal tributaries.

The administration says the rule would safeguard drinking water for 117 million people, but Republicans and some Democrats representing rural areas say the regulations are costly, confusing and amount to a government power grab. Federal courts have put the rules on hold as judges review lawsuits.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
During his sitdown with Lesley Stahl, a new Donald Trump seemed to be emerging.

He spoke more slowly and more soberly, seemingly aware that every word could send shock waves around the world. The bombast was largely gone. It was as if, three days after the election that virtually no one thought he would win, the weight of the office was now sitting squarely on his shoulders.

Every president-elect goes through some version of this realization, but perhaps especially one who has never held political office.

What was striking about the 60 Minutes interviewand Stahl did a good job, pressing him without being confrontationalwas the way Trump appeared to be deliberately sending signals. One interview does not a presidency make, but the clear impression was of a man trying to reconcile his rhetoric with the realities of Washington.

On same-sex marriage, Trump said the Supreme Court had spoken and he was fine with that. His answer didnt surprise me, because I asked him about the ruling last year and he didnt want to make an issue of it.

On abortion, he declined to say he wanted Roe v. Wade overturned. Trump said he would appoint pro-life justices and perhaps at some point abortion would be returned to the states.

On naming a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton, Trump deflected the question by saying he hadnt given it much thought. I dont think it will happen.

On immigration, he said he would build a wallperhaps it will include some fencesand would deport criminal aliens who are gang members and drug dealers. Nothing about mass deportations of the 11 million living here illegally.

Now perhaps this softening, if you want to call it that, will upset some of his core supporters, the same ones who might object to Reince Priebus as White House chief of staff.

But I suspect they will give the new president some leeway, understanding that every president has to work within the system. Ronald Reagan shook up Washington, but he also compromised with Democrats.

Obviously there will be some issues that Trump wont compromise on, and then the two sides will slug it out. But thats why we have elections.

And then there was Twitter. Trump told Stahl that while tweeting was a very effective campaign weapon, he will be restrained as president, if he uses it at all.

After the interview, he uncorked a series of tweets about unfair coverage by the failing New York Times, claiming the paper has lost thousands of subscribers. (The Times says its actually gained subscribers since the election.)

Will President Trump keep on doing this and whacking the media whenever he feels like it? Or will he be too busy trying to carry out his agenda and deal with world leaders?

That, at the moment, is a question that hangs over the incoming administration.


Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel promised Monday to defy President-elect Donald Trumps deportation orders and vowed that the city will always be a so-called sanctuary city.

Chicago laws prohibit government workers and police officers from asking the locals about their immigration status, according to the Chicago Tribune. Emanuel reaffirmed that the policy will continue.

"To all those who are, after Tuesday's election, very nervous and filled with anxiety as we've spoken to, you are safe in Chicago, you are secure in Chicago and you are supported in Chicago," Emanuel said. "Chicago will always be a sanctuary city."

Rahm Emanuel: Chicago "always will be a sanctuary city." pic.twitter.com/V2HFK1lNqm  Fox News (@FoxNews) November 14, 2016

WIKILEAKS: CHICAGO MAYOR USED PERSONAL EMAIL ACCOUNTS

Emanuels vow is likely to go head-to-head with Trumps campaign promises to depot millions of illegal immigrants and block federal funding to sanctuary cities as well as building a wall along the Mexican border.

In an interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday, Trump doubled down once again on his vow to build a wall along the southern border and to deport illegal immigrants.

"What we are going to do is get the people that are [criminals] and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers," Trump said. "We have a lot of these people. Probably two million, it could be even three million. We are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate.

After the border is secured and after everything gets normalized," Trump added, "we're going to make a determination on [other undocumented immigrants] ... But before we make that determination ... we want to secure our border.

Emanuel didnt address any of Trumps campaign promises directly, but this was the most hes spoken on the immigration issue as he tries to bolster support that had sharply decreased with the handling of the Laquan McDonald police shooting investigation.

"Now, administrations may change, but our values and principles as it relates to inclusion does not," Emanuel added. People from all faiths, all backgrounds and all parts of the world have beaten their path to the city of Chicago because Chicago offers them and  more importantly, as the son and the grandson of an immigrant  their children and grandchildren a chance at the American dream."

Emanuel had urged any immigrants who are fearful of their legal status to contact the citys 311 center to get information about legal resources and other programs.

Click for more from the Chicago Tribune.
Calling the office of the presidency bigger than any one person, President Obama on Monday said the influence America has on a global scale will not be erased by the outcome of one election and added that Donald Trump told him the U.S. would reaffirm its commitment to the NATO alliance.

As a candidate for president, Trump said other members of the treaty organization did not contribute enough for the protections it gets in return. Trumps position seemed to change on the topic in recent days.

Obama called the president-elects new support of NATO one of the most important functions he will be able to relay during his upcoming three-country tour.

There is no weakening of resolve, Obama said.

HOW PRESIDENT TRUMP COULD SAVE BREXIT

Domestically, Obama admitted last weeks major losses for the Democratic Party across the country were a political blow but encouraged his party not to waver on our core beliefs and principles.

When your team loses, everybody gets deflated, Obama said. He added, Its important for me not to be bigfooting that conversation.

Monday marked the first time Obama has taken questions from the press since Trumps election win last week.

The president was also questioned on the status of his legacy laws, including ObamaCare, under a Trump administration and a Republican House and Senate.

Now that Republicans are in charge, theyve got to take a look and say, lets see, Obama said. We got 20 million people who have health insurance who didnt have it before. Health care costs generally have gone up at a significantly slower rate since ObamaCare was passed than they did before, which has saved the federal Treasury hundreds of billions of dollars.

The president then dodged a question about concerns some minorities and other groups have about Trumps decision to name Steve Bannon as his chief strategist and economic adviser.

I think its fair to say that it would not be appropriate for me to comment on every appointment that the president-elect starts making if I want to be consistent with the notion that we are going to try to facilitate a smooth transition, he said.

However, he did note that during his 90-minute meeting with Trump last week, he told him it was important to send signals of unity early on.

But the people have spoken, Obama said. Donald Trump will be the next president, the 45th president of the United States. And it will be up to him to set up a team that he thinks will serve him well and reflects his politics. Those who didnt vote for him will have to recognize that thats how democracy works. Thats how this system operates.

Just days ago, Obama and Trump were attacking one another on policy issues.

Trump ran his campaign on promises to gut most of Obamas signature policies. The president spent the majority of the 2016 presidential election season calling out his now-successor, saying he was temperamentally unfit for the job. Since then, Obama has said his main goal going forward would be to facilitate a smooth transition of power.

Following the press conference, the president will head out on his last major trip abroad where hell likely face similar questions from his foreign counterparts. And though Obama has urged unity and said the U.S. must root for Trumps success, the presidents trip to Greece, Germany and Peru forces him to confront global concerns about the future of Americas leadership.

"The mood of Greek people for this political change is 'wait and see,'" said Nikos Pappas, a minister of state with close ties to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, in an interview. He said there was surprise in Greece, as elsewhere, about Trump's victory, but added: "Everybody would be expecting the U.S. government is going to continue to be on our side."

Obama's trip, planned when it seemed certain Hillary Clinton would win, had been designed to reassure the world that the U.S. had regained its footing after a toxic campaign that unnerved foreign capitals, noted Heather Conley, a Europe scholar at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"Now the president has the unenviable task of telling his counterparts and explaining what Europeans are now coining 'the Trump effect,'" Conley said.

For months, Obama lent credence to those concerns as he urged Americans to reject Trump. Standing alongside Singapore's prime minister in August, Obama said Trump was "woefully unprepared" because he lacked "basic knowledge" about critical issues in Europe, Asia and the Mideast. And during a visit to Japan, Obama said world leaders were rightfully "rattled" by Trump.

Now, Obama must reassure the U.S. and other countries that somehow, it will all be OK.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid resumed his attack on Donald Trump Tuesday, saying the Republican president-elect has made sexual assault a laughing matter and calling on him to rescind the appointment of top White House adviser Steve Bannon, whom Reid called a "champion of white supremacists.

Its not normal for the KKK to celebrate the election of a president who is their champion, Reid, a retiring Nevada Democrat, said on the Senate floor.

Reid renewed his attack on Trump after saying last week, after Trump upset Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, that he was a sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fueled his campaign with bigotry and hate.

Kellyanne Conway, a senior Trump adviser, on Sunday warned Reid about his attacks on Trump, which resulted in a quick response from Reids Senate office and set up Reids much-anticipated speech on the Senate floor.

Be very careful about characterizing someone in a legal sense, Conway said to Reid on Fox News Sunday.

Within minutes, a Reid staffer issued a statement that in part read: "It only took five days for President-elect Trump to try to silence his critics with the threat of legal action. This should shock and concern all Americans.  The KKK is planning a parade to celebrate Trump's victory.

On Tuesday, Reid said congressional Democrats would work with Mr. Trump when we can.

If Trump wants to work on policies that will help working people, we will take a pragmatic approach, he added.

However, Reids roughly 18-minute speech was largely a condemnation of Trump, in which Reid held Trump responsible for the current national unrest and a called on him to remove Bannon, the CEO of conservative Breitbart News, from his appointed post.

The man who lost the election by two million votes is now president, Reid said. The election has sparked a wave of hate crimes across America.  Rescind the appointment of Steve Bannon. Dont do it. I say to Donald Trump, Take responsibility, rise to the dignity of the office instead of hiding behind your Twitter account and show Americans that racism and bigotry have no place in America. 
The internal wrangling in the parties over who will lead House lawmakers next year shifted dramatically Tuesday to the Democratic side, as party members delayed a vote on whether to keep Nancy Pelosi as minority leader -- while Republicans nominated Paul Ryan for a second term as speaker with little drama.

House Republicans chose to keep Ryan as the leader of the GOP-controlled chamber, after rumbling in recent weeks that his leadership position could be in jeopardy.

However, after Donald Trump upset Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the White House race last week, and Republicans held onto their majorities in Congress, opposition to Ryan melted away.

Ryan, House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.; House GOP Whip Steve Scalise, R-La.; and Chair of the Republican Conference Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., all ran unopposed and were unanimously reelected on Tuesday.

Rather, House Democrats are the ones who are restive following their stinging defeats last week, calling into question Pelosi's longtime position as their leader.

Pelosi, a dynamo fundraiser who has been the top House Democrat since 2002, had predicted her party would retake the House but won only a handful of the roughly 30 seats needed.

House Democrats publicly insisted Tuesday that delaying the voting -- from Thursday to Nov. 30 -- is not necessarily a signal of a leadership change.

But they made clear the move was indeed over concerns about the future of their party.

Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., said they were going to take the extra time to talk about where we go as a party.

We need to decide where we want to fight President-elect Trump and where we want to compromise, said Boyle, whose home state last week voted for a Republican presidential nominee for the first time since 1988.

Ohio Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan has emerged as a possible Pelosi challenger. He is talking privately with other House members but has not made an official bid.

Ohio Rep. Marcy Kaptur, the longest-serving female House Democrat, said Tuesday that shes signed a letter in support of Pelosi but that she might reconsider if someone her region would come into our race.

This is a moment for us to listen to American people, she said.

Congressional Black Caucus Chairman G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., said the decision to delay came after considerable discussion and was a result of his party getting a "shellacking" and the need to "recalibrate."

Butterfield and Boyle each said they intend to vote for Pelosi but made clear that the party has lost touch with its working-class electorate, which feels desperately left behind in the new economy.

Meanwhile, other House Democrats privately made clear the delayed vote was an indication that rank-and-file members are considering a new direction.

If I were on the side of the road, thats how Id look at it, said a Capitol Hill Democratic source who also argued congressional Republicans consistently raise less money than congressional Democrats but still hold historic House majorities.

The full House vote for speaker is scheduled for January.

The conservative House Freedom Caucus has been a critic of Ryans leadership since he took over in fall 2015. The Wisconsin lawmakers political future was further called into question when he distanced himself from Trump in late October, after the release of a 2005 audiotape in which Trump is heard making lewd comments regarding women.

However, any effort to oust Ryan appeared damped Sunday when Ryans Wisconsin hometown friend and Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus was tapped to be Trumps White House chief of staff -- and after Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., a leader of the Freedom caucus, said Monday he'd back Ryan for the post.

The last time a House Democrat mounted a serious challenge was after the 2010 wave election when Republican swept the House and then-Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., garnered just 43 votes.

Pelosi and other House Democratic leaders have said that they originally planned to have the vote on Nov. 30 to include all of the incoming freshmen for the new Congress, not just existing members.

Its not a delay, Pelosi said Tuesday as she was trailed by a pack of reporters and photographers.

The postponement push effectively started with two post-election letters to Pelosi from a coalition of 34 House Democrats pressing her to delay the vote.

In a letter last week to the House Democratic Caucus, the California lawmaker resisted attempts for a postponement, writing that other members have indicated a strong desire to proceed with elections next week in order to prepare forcefully for the lame duck session and the challenges we will face in January.

However, Pelosi told fellow House members at a meeting Tuesday: We've been through hell, and "I don't care when the election is," according to a source in the room.

Fox News Chad Pergram and Joseph Weber contributed to this report.
The director of a West Virginia development group lost her job and a mayor was facing heavy scrutiny after a racist post about first lady Michelle Obama caused backlash.

Clay County Development Corp. director Pamela Ramsey Taylor made the post following Donald Trumps election win, saying: "It will be refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady in the White House. I'm tired of seeing a Ape in heels."

OKLAHOMA HS TEACHER TELLS CLASS: 'TO BE WHITE IS TO BE RACIST'

Clay Mayor Beverly Whaling responded: "Just made my day Pam."

According to the Charleston Gazette-Mail, Taylor had been removed from her position.

The Facebook pages of both women appeared to be deactivated Monday. An online petition seeks to remove Whaling and Taylor from their positions.

GERMANY: 3 HURT IN APPARENT RACIST ATTACK AT HOME

The nonprofit development group provides services to elderly and low-income residents in Clay County. It is funded through state and federal grants and local fees. It is not affiliated with the town of Clay

Owens Brown, director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's West Virginia chapter, called for the removal of both women.

"I feel so it's unfortunate that people still have these racist undertones," Brown said. "Unfortunately, this is a reality that we are dealing with in America today. There's no place for these types of attitudes in our state."

The paper reported that state Democratic Party Chairwoman Belinda Biafore offered an apology to the first family.

On behalf of my fellow Mountaineers I would like extend my sincerest apologies to first lady Michelle Obama, Biafore said in an emailed statement to the Gazette-Mail. West Virginia truly is better than this. These radical, hateful, and racist ideals are exactly what we at the West Virginia Democratic Party will continue to fight against. These words and actions do not represent West Virginia values.

We will continue to fight for a West Virginia that is inclusive, not divisive and a home for all to feel safe, welcome, and protected. In a time when we are at a crossroads and many fear the future we must stand together against hate of all forms.

African-Americans make up about 4 percent of West Virginia's 1.8 million residents, according to the U.S. Census.

About 77 percent of Clay County residents supported Trump in the Nov. 8 election. In 2012, President Barack Obama received 31 percent of the county vote when Republican Mitt Romney easily carried the state.

The town council has a previously scheduled meeting Tuesday.

Last week in Kentucky, Republican Dan Johnson defeated incumbent Democrat Linda Belcher in Bullitt County despite a series of Facebook posts that depicted Barack Obama and his wife as monkeys. Republican officials, including likely new House Speaker Jeff Hoover, had called on Johnson to drop out of the race. But Hoover declared last week that Johnson would be "welcome in our caucus."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
While President-elect Donald Trump hasnt spoken much about his technology policy, especially as it relates to broadband expansion, its expected his plan will involve removing some of the regulations that have stymied high-speed internet investment.

On his campaign website, Trump vowed to issue a temporary moratorium on new agency regulations not compelled by Congress or public safety. The website says the move would help with private investment and jobs.

We will no longer regulate our companies and our jobs out of existence, it reads.

Berin Szoka, president of TechFreedom, said private enterprise has invested nearly $1.5 trillion over the years in broadband deployment.

Yet broadband deployment remains unnecessarily difficult because of red tape, high fees and poor infrastructure planning at all levels of government, he said. Fixing that could bring faster, cheaper broadband to millions of Americans, especially in rural areas.

Click for more from Watchdog.org
A large, unidentified metal object fell from the sky Nov. 10 in the remote mountainous region of Myanmar.

The cylindrical object, which is about 12 feet long and 5 feet in diameter, blasted into the village of Lone Khin, near a jade mine. Villagers woke early in the morning to a loud boom and vibrations, when the object fell to the ground. Though no one was injured, the UFO ripped through a jade miner's tent, and afterwards, the smell of burning filled the air, according to The Myanmar Times.

"Initially, we thought it was a battle. The explosion made our houses shake. We saw the smoke from our village," Lone Khin villager Daw Ma Kyi told The Myanmar Times.

Unidentified piece of an aircraft, believed to be an engine, falls near Hpakant jade mine | #Myanmar https://t.co/W2im1NOCdh pic.twitter.com/NFRCJiAYM5  The Myanmar Times (@TheMyanmarTimes) November 11, 2016

Aerial object

At first glance, the object looks like it may have come from an aircraft.

"I think it was an engine because I found a diode and many copper wires at the tail of the body," villager Ko Maung Myo told The Myanmar Times. "It also looks like a jet engine block."

However, government officials say that they haven't identified the object and are sending experts to examine it. One former government official with the Department of Aviation said that the image shown on Facebook of the metal "UFO" looked more like a rocket booster than part of a commercial plane.

Just yesterday China announced the successful launch of a Long March Rocket 11 into space, along with five satellites and an experimental X-ray pulsar navigation spacecraft, Spaceflight Insider reported. The XPNAV-1 (an acronym for Maichong Xing Shiyan Weixing), a 530-pound spacecraft fitted with solar arrays and two detectors that use X-ray emissions from pulsars to navigate, is meant to identify the locations of spacecraft in deep space.

Space debris is a regular part of satellite and rocket launches. Though the odds of any individual person getting struck by detritus is low, the odds that it hits one of the 7 billion people on Earth is surprisingly high: After the launch of a school bus-sized satellite in 2011, Mark Matney, a scientist in the Orbital Debris Program Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, previously told Live Science that the odds of anyone being hit by that debris immediately after the launch were approximately one in 3,200.

Space is littered with junk from past exploration. All told, there were at least 500,00 pieces of space junk marble-size or larger that are orbiting our planet in 2010, though most pieces are on the small side. Of that space junk, more than 20,000 pieces are larger than a softball, according to NASA. In 2012, Switzerland proposed building a kind of space janitor to clean up some of that debris.

Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A newly described fossil skull from one of the largest of the saber-toothed cats, Machairodus horribilis, is the biggest saber-toothed skull ever found, and is helping scientists understand the diversity of killing techniques used by these extinct and fearsome predators.

The skull was excavated from the Longjiagou Basin in Gansu Province, China, but languished in storage for decades before researchers rediscovered it in a collection room and identified it in the new study.

And while M. horribilis may have had the biggest skull of the saber-toothed cats, it didn't necessarily have the biggest bite. When scientists analyzed the skull alongside its saber-toothed cousins, they estimated that it couldn't stretch its jaws as wide as some of the other extinct cats, which likely affected what type of prey it hunted and how it brought them down. [My, What Sharp Teeth! 12 Living and Extinct Saber-Toothed Animals]

M. horribilis lived in the steppes and forests of northwestern China during the late Miocene epoch (11.6 million to 5.3 million years ago). The skull's upper surface measures 1.4 feet in length, and likely represents an adult male. Its incisors are arranged in a "gentle arch" and its signature upper canines are serrated on both edges, the study authors wrote.

Reconstructing an ancient bite

They noted that some of the fossil's features resembled those seen in primitive saber-toothed cats. But certain aspects of the skull shape were more like the skulls of modern lions and leopards, suggesting that M. horribilis may have had a range of motion in its jaw similar to large cats alive today.

Clues in both the shape and the surface texture of the fossil helped the scientists determine how the jaw may have moved in life, according to study co-author Z. Jack Tseng, a professor of pathology and anatomical sciences at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

"The surface of bones preserves ridges and bumps that indicate where muscles once attached, so paleontologists and anatomists can reconstruct the lines of action of the major muscle groups," Tseng told Live Science in an email.

"The joints of the jaw  one on each side between the upper and lower jaws, and one down the middle between the two halves of the lower jaw  provide clues as to the mobility and range of motion possible in the animals bite."

But when it came to using its knife-like teeth for killing, M. horribilis was "a lightweight" compared with some other saber-tooths, Tseng added. It lacked the shallower jaw joints that allowed other cats' jaws to open wider  to enclose and rip out the throats of large prey. The jaws of M. horribilis just didn't stretch wide enough to do that, he said.

A burly predator

However, M. horribilis probably made up for that disadvantage with its bulk, Tseng said. The researchers estimated that it weighed nearly 900 pounds, which would have given it a size and strength advantage over even large prey, which it probably killed by ripping open the throat "and causing massive blood loss," the study authors wrote.

"We found evidence of short-legged, probably slower-running horses in the same fossil assemblage," Tseng said. "Those horses are good candidates as this cat's main prey."

Their findings emphasize how even highly specialized adaptations  like extra-long canines  can be used by different species in different ways, even in closely related groups such as saber-toothed cats.

"Cats continue to surprise us," Tseng added. "We now think gigantism is one of those mechanisms for intermediate saber-tooths to get by as predators."

The findings were published online Oct. 25 in the journal Vertebrata PalAsiatica.

Original article on Live Science.
In response to a $596 million lawsuit, the U.S. Navy has denied that it pirated copies of a tech companys virtual reality software on more than 558,000 computers.

The suit against the U.S. Government, filed by Bitmanagement Software in July, alleges that the Navy copied and installed the companys virtual reality software on hundreds of thousands of computers for which it does not have a license. The Navy was authorized to install the software on just 38 computers for testing, trial runs and integration with other Navy systems, the suit says.

The lawsuit alleges that the software has been deployed on at least 558,466 Navy computers and says it is likely that unauthorized copying has taken place on an even larger scale.

TECH COMPANY ACCUSES US NAVY OF SOFTWARE PIRACY, SEEKS $596 MILLION DAMAGES

In court documents filed Monday, the U.S. Government says that the Navy installed the BS Contact GEO software on hundreds of thousands of computers within its network but denies that the installation occurred without Bitmanagements advance knowledge or consent.

Defendant denies that Bitmanagement did not license or otherwise authorize the installation, the lawsuit added. Defendant admits that the Navy has never directly compensated Bitmanagement for the Navys installation of BS Contact GEO, but defendant denies that Bitmanagement is entitled to any compensation for the Navys installation of the software.

The Navy has compensated Bitmanagements authorized retailer for BS Contact Geo, the court documents say.

NAVY REPORTEDLY BALKS AT $800K PROJECTILES FOR NEW WARSHIP

A contract executed with Bitmanagements reseller in 2012 provided the Navy with 38 licenses of BS Contact GEO, according to the documents filed Monday. Defendant denies that the licenses were limited to installation of BS Contact GEO on a total of 38 Navy personal computers, and Defendant further avers that the Navy procured conurrent-use network-installation licenses of BS Contact Geo, the documents said.

The Navy began installing the software on hundreds of thousands of computers within its network starting around August 2013, the government says, with emails sent to Bitmanagement in the summer and fall of 2013 regarding the deployment. One such email indicated a successful deployment to 104,922 Navy computers, the court documents say.

BS Contact Geo enables the visualization of geographic information, according to Berg, Germany-based Bitmanagement. The software lets users visualize a virtual military base, according to court documents from the lawsuit filed in July.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers
Tucked inside a restored colonial residence in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, is the Doce 18 Concept House. Here visitors will find high-end galleries, bespoke millinery, and, perhaps most special of all, a six-seat tequila bar known as Casa Dragones Tasting Room. Its the smallest tequila bar on Earth, though theres nothing diminutive about the design or the liquor served inside.

Considered by many to be the finest sipping tequila, Casa Dragones is known for its hand-numbered and signed bottles of small batch sipping tequilas. The original Joven blend (100 percent blue agave silver and extra aged tequila that can cost $300) is designed exclusively for sipping neatyou wont find it polluted by cheap margarita mix.

But as of this week, Casa Dragones is also a reservations-only tequila bar.

Design firm Meyer Davis and interior designer Gloria Cortina were tasked with creating the intimate space. To do so, they traveled to the agave fields in Tequila, Jalisco, where Casa Dragones produces their tequila. Massive obsidian stones were collected from the volcanic belt and transformed into no less than 4,000 glittering black tiles.

Casa Dragones Tasting Room will take visitors on a journey, the brands CEO and co-founder, Bertha Gonzalez Nieves, told Travel + Leisure. She described it not as a bar, but as a one-of-a-kind destination, where tequila aficionados will be able to truly experience the liquors craftsmanship.

In addition to the official tastings of Casa Dragones Joven Sipping Tequila and the Casa Dragones Blanco, guests will be able to order signature cocktails from a rotating roster of mixologists. Renowned bar masters (Mexico Citys Isaac Martinez, Dave Arnold of New York Citys Booker & Dax) will be among the first to helm the bar at Casa Dragones Tasting Room. Reservations to visit must be made in advance at Concierge@CasaDragones.com.
The number of people visiting Disneyland Paris has dropped precipitously in the past year.

The theme park reported a 10 percent drop in guests and 7 percent decline in revenue.

"Disneyland Paris had an exceptionally challenging year. We have been impacted by various external factors that have significantly affected the tourism business in the Paris region," said Euro Disney president Catherine Powell in the statement, according to The Local.

DISNEYLAND EXPANDING SECURITY CHECKPOINT ZONE TO DOWNTOWN DISNEY COMPLEX

The company pointed to a recent adverse environment as the cause behind the decline, Express reported.

Disney's announcement comes as the region acknowledged the one-year anniversary of the terror attacks in Paris in November of last year where 130 people were killed.

In July, at least 84 people were killed in Nice during Bastille Day celebrations.

Its not just Disneyland thats experienced the tourism decline, however. By August, the city of Paris reportedly lost $850 million in tourism revenue.

FRENCH TOURISM STRUGGLES AS OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES EXPECT RISE IN VISITORS

Tourism in Paris accounts for seven-percent of Frances national gross domestic product and 13 percent in the Ile-de-France region. In the Ile-de-France area alone, 500,000 people hold jobs linked to tourism but hotel stays fell by 8.5percent over the summer.

Disneyland Paris is set to celebrate its 25th anniversary in next year.
Reported hate crimes against Muslims rose in 2015 to their highest number since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to FBI statistics released Monday.



Overall, the total number of hate crimes against all groups reported by law enforcement agencies to the FBI increased from 5,479 in 2014 to 5,850 last year. That remains far lower than the numbers seen in the early 2000s.

CHRISTIAN SCHOOL GOES TO COURT TO DEFEND A 30-SECOND PREGAME PRAYER



The most recent reporting covers calendar year 2015, which included the terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., as well as Republican Donald Trump's call for a ban on all Muslims entering the U.S. All of those, however, did not occur until the final two months of the year.



It's not yet known whether Trump plans to implement such a ban now that he has won the presidency. Critics say his pledge has contributed to anti-Muslim sentiment.



"We've seen how words from public figures like Donald Trump translate into violence," said Mark Potok with the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups in the U.S.

TUMULT TO TRANQUILITY: REFUGEE FAMILY FINDS PEACE IN GERMANY



Last year, there were 257 reported incidents of anti-Muslim bias compared to 154 the year before, a 67 percent increase. The number of reported hate crimes against Muslims peaked at 481 in 2001.



Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said he was not surprised to see the large increase in 2015 and said he expects the trend to continue.



"We saw a spike in anti-Muslim incidents nationwide beginning toward the end of 2015. That spike has continued until today and even accelerated after the election of President-elect Trump," Hooper said.



According to the FBI report, the majority of hate crimes were motivated by bias against race or ethnicity. Of the 4,216 victims of a hate crime motivated by race or ethnicity, 52 percent were black, 18.7 percent were white and 9.3 percent were Hispanic or Latino. Crimes against Jews increased about 9 percent, while bias incidents involving sexual orientation were up 3.5 percent.



Civil rights groups have expressed concern that a Trump administration could radically reshape the U.S. Department of Justice, particularly when it comes to policing but also in terms of the priority placed on hate crimes. Those concerns were compounded over the weekend after Trump named as his chief White House strategist Steve Bannon, who came to his campaign from Breitbart News. Under his leadership, the Breitbart website became one of the leading outlets of the so-called alt-right, a movement often associated with far-right efforts to preserve "white identity" and oppose multiculturalism.



Michael Lieberman with the Anti-Defamation League said there have been "unprecedented efforts" to address hate crimes in recent years, from outreach to law enforcement, community meetings and an emphasis on cooperation among federal agencies.



Any increases, including the ones seen in anti-Muslim crimes, could be due in part to more reporting by victims as well as better reporting and tracking by law enforcement agencies. The number of law enforcement agencies sending data on hate crimes to the FBI decreased by about 3 percent in 2015.



An AP investigation earlier this year found 17 percent of local law enforcement agencies had not submitted a single hate crime report during the past six years as part of the FBI's tracking program, prompting concerns that an undercount was masking the true scope of hate and bias crimes in the U.S.



"Gaps in participation and incomplete reporting demonstrate materially that this work must continue, and we will be pressing the Trump Justice Department and U.S. attorneys so this important work will be ongoing," Lieberman said.
The Latest on arrest of a woman accused of killing her twin sister when she drove off a Maui cliff. (all times local):

____

4:45 p.m.

A Hawaii court has made public the indictment of a woman accused of killing of her sister by driving their vehicle over a Maui cliff.

The indictment was filed on Oct. 31, but it was only made public on Monday after New York state police arrested Alexandria Duval on Friday.

State police say the 38-year-old was arrested after being tracked down at an Albany home. Maui police issued a warrant for the arrest after the indictment.

Duval is accused of killing her sister Anastasia by driving their SUV off a cliff.

She's being held in an Albany jail awaiting extradition to Hawaii. Duval spent three weeks in an upstate jail after being charged with DWI in August.

Duval was initially jailed on a murder charge after the crash. A judge later determined there was no probable cause to support the charge.

_____

6:30 a.m.

A woman being held in a New York jail is again facing charges she killed her twin sister after their vehicle plunged off a Hawaii cliff in May.

State police say 38-year-old Alexandria Duval was arrested Friday after being tracked down at an Albany home.

The arrest comes after the Maui Police Department issued a warrant for Duval's arrest when a grand jury indicted her on a second-degree murder charge late last month. She's accused of killing her sister Anastasia by driving their SUV off a cliff.

Duval was initially jailed on a murder charge after the crash. A judge later determined there was no probable cause to support the charge.

She's being held in an Albany jail awaiting extradition to Hawaii. Duval spent three weeks in an upstate jail after being charged with DWI in August.
Hundreds of people attended Monday's funeral for a Show Low police officer who was killed in the line of duty last week.

"He died a hero," says Show Low Officer Darrin Reed's family. He was gunned down last week,will be laid to rest today #fox10phoenix pic.twitter.com/aChndyqqJO  Nicole Garcia Fox10 (@Fox10_NicoleG) November 14, 2016

Officer Darrin Reed was fatally shot after responding to a disturbance at a restaurant Wednesday in the town of about 10,000 people in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest.

Authorities say the gunman was later killed during a barricade situation at a rental cabin in the nearby community of Pinetop-Lakeside.

The 50-year-old Reed had been with Show Low police since 2006 and was scheduled to retire in February.

He's survived by a wife and two children.

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office says its honor guard attended the funeral and gave Reed's widow a $25,000 check from the agency's memorial fund to help with any financial needs of the officer's family.

Click for more from Fox 10.
A woman in Iowa who streamed video live on Facebook showing her berating police in a cafe last week got a calm reaction from the officers, but critics called it "vulgar," "narcissistic" and full of hatred.

WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS GRAPHIC LANGUAGE

Melyssa Jo Kelly streamed the video from the cafe in Cedar Rapids on Nov. 6 -- just days after investigators said a gunman shot and killed 24-year-old Urbandale Officer Justin Martin and 38-year-old Des Moines police Sgt. Anthony Beminio in the Des Moines area.

The officers in the video displayed black bands over their badges in remembrance of the fallen policemen.

After Kelly was heard taunting the police for several minutes, an officer approached her and asked her to leave, saying the cafe had requested it. The woman initially refused, calling it "unjust discrimination." One officer called Kelly's behavior "childish."

"Dont pretend like you serve and protect, you bi---... out of my way, popo," Kelly said in the video.

She also claimed she had a disability, without elaborating. Kelly previously faced charges including disorderly conduct and trespassing, The Des Moines Register reported.

She had made people uncomfortable to a certain degree because shes very outspoken," Brewhemia coffee shop manager Brad Danielson told the newspaper. "She's been known to use harsh language in the past like it's normal."
A judge will hear more arguments Tuesday about whether injuries to soldiers on a search mission should be allowed as evidence that U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl endangered comrades by walking off his post in Afghanistan.

On Monday, the judge, Army. Col. Jeffery Nance, also agreed to delay Bergdahl's trial by several months until May 15, 2017. Prosecutors asked for the delay because of the slow pace at which they're getting approval to turn over classified evidence.

Prosecutors are arguing that two wounded soldiers' injuries should be allowed as evidence to show that Bergdahl's disappearance effectively put other military members in harm's way.

Bergdahl is charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, the latter of which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

U.S. Air Force Maj. John Marx testified about a firefight that occurred after he and several others joined about 50 members of the Afghan National Army on a search for Bergdahl. They were attacked by enemy fighters after setting up a checkpoint near a town in Afghanistan on July 8, 2009.

Marx testified about fighting alongside U.S. Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Mark Allen, who was shot in the head during the firefight. Prosecutors said Allen suffered a traumatic brain injury that has left him in a wheelchair and unable to communicate. Another soldier had hand injuries and required surgery because of a rocket-propelled grenade.

Marx, who said the mission's sole purpose was to search for Bergdahl, testified that he was next to Allen as bullets flew around them.

"I looked at him, then I see a trickle of blood coming down his head," Marx testified. Asked where Allen was wounded, Marx pointed at his temples and said: "Right through his head."

Bergdahl, dressed in a white shirt and blue pants, appeared stoic as he listened.

Marx and two others involved in the firefight said they came from another part of Afghanistan to take part in a hastily planned search mission. They had been embedded with Afghan soldiers to help train them.

Prosecutors have said evidence of the injuries will help them show that Bergdahl endangered his comrades, one of the elements of the misbehavior before the enemy charge.

Defense attorneys have argued that Bergdahl was not responsible for the injuries, writing in a motion earlier this year that: "Allen's injuries were directly caused by the Taliban, not by SGT Bergdahl."

After at least one more witness Tuesday, both sides are set to finish their arguments on the matter.

Bergdahl, who's from Hailey, Idaho, walked off his post in Afghanistan in 2009 and was held captive by the Taliban and its allies for five years. He has said he wanted to cause an alarm and draw attention to what he saw as problems with his unit. The Obama administration's decision to swap prisoners for his return was heavily criticized by some Republicans.

___

Follow Drew on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jonldrew .
The Latest on a stabbing spree at a Utah high school that injured five students (all times local):

9:20 a.m.

Utah police say a 16-year-old boy is in custody after five male students were stabbed at a high school.

Orem police Lt. Craig Martinez told reporters on Tuesday each victim was stabbed at least once at Mountain View High school and their conditions range from critical to fair.

Martinez says it isn't yet clear if any of the victims' injuries are life-threatening.

He says the stabbing happened in the gym area shortly before 8 a.m. in Orem, about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City.

Martinez says the teen was taken into custody by a school resource officer. The victims are being treated at local hospitals.

He says the school's other students are safe after the suspect was caught.

The school was put on lockdown after the stabbing.

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8:15 a.m.

A Utah high school is under lockdown while police investigate at least one stabbing and possibly more.

Police in Orem say they responded to the scene at Mountain View High School north of Provo at about 8 a.m. Tuesday.

KSL-TV reports (http://tinyurl.com/ju29za3) that a suspect is in custody.

No details have been released about how many people were stabbed or the seriousness of any injuries.

It's not known if any students were involved.

Police say the school remains under lockdown until further notice.

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Information from: KSL-TV, http://www.ksl.com/
Police say they've arrested a man accused of firing a gunshot that panicked hundreds of people at a New York mall over the weekend.

Guilderland police said Monday that 20-year-old Albany resident Tasheem Maeweather was arguing with another person when he fired a gun at the Crossgates Mall on Saturday. The mall is one of the largest in New York, with 250 stores and restaurants.

Some shoppers fled the mall, just outside Albany. Police swarmed while other shoppers and employees sheltered inside businesses. No injuries were reported.

Maeweather is to be arraigned on felony reckless endangerment and weapon possession charges. It's unknown if he has a lawyer.
A man already in jail in another case has been charged in the death of a 2-year-old northern Illinois boy whose dismembered remains were found in a park lagoon last year, Chicago police said Tuesday.

Kamel Harris faces a first-degree murder charge in the death of Kyrian Knox of Rockford. Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Harris was once a caretaker for the boy.

GUN USED TO SHOOT ALASKA POLICE OFFICER TIED TO FIVE MURDERS

Police Cmdr. Kevin Duffin said Harris was being held on an unrelated charge at the Winnebago County Jail in northern Illinois when arrested Monday night in the boy's death.

Kyrian's remains were found in September 2015 in the Garfield Park lagoon on Chicago's West Side. The FBI positively matched the boy's DNA with that of a dismembered body found in the lagoon two weeks before he was reported missing.

The toddler's mother told police last year the child was staying with Harris and his girlfriend while she moved from Rockford to Iowa. In November 2015, police said Harris and his girlfriend had been uncooperative with the investigation.

MAN DENIES KILLING NORTHERN CALIFORNIA SHERIFF'S DEPUTY

Duffin said investigators found blood in the carpeting of a vehicle connected to Harris, and received a DNA match to the boy over the summer. He said police also spoke with witnesses who had information only those close to the killer would know.

He said Kyrian is believed to have been killed in Rockford, but that Harris is charged in Cook County because the child's body was found in Chicago and police in that city did extensive work on the case.
An Alabama man has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for killing his daughter's sexual abuser.

The Cullman Times (http://bit.ly/2fTtGPn ) reports that the 43-year-old man was sentenced Monday in a Cullman County courtroom after pleading guilty to murder in the June 2014 slaying of 59-year-old Raymond Earl Brooks.

Brooks pleaded guilty in 2002 to sexually abusing the man's young daughter. He served 27 months of a five-year sentence and paid restitution.

Authorities say the father shot at a man who had been dating his stepdaughter, but the man was able to hide inside a convenience store. The father then drove to Brooks' home, where he killed him. The man was also sentenced to 20 years in prison for the first shooting.

The Associated Press typically does not name victims of sexual assault and is not using the father's name to protect his daughter's identity.

___

Information from: The Cullman Times, http://www.cullmantimes.com
A mom in Texas made a stunning find when she discovered an accused sex offender hiding under the stairs of her house -- and after a fight, her son shot the man in the face, an arrest warrant revealed Tuesday.

The family's barking dog first alerted the mother to the suspect, 56-year-old Leonard Trevino, hiding under the stairs outside the San Antonio home last week, KENS reported.

Trevino burst out with a gun and demanded the family let him into their home, according to the warrant. The son ultimately shot the suspect, who was beating him on the head with a pipe-like object, investigators said.

Trevino was recovering in a hospital and facing an aggravated assault charge, the warrant continued.

It's not clear whether any of the family members were hurt.

The suspect also faced a child indecency charge connected to that family, KENS added.
A gunman murdered a Southwest Airlines employee, then killed himself Tuesday at Oklahoma City's Will Rogers World Airport in what police described as a premeditated attack.

Michael Winchester, 52, was shot while walking between a crowded terminal and the airport employee parking area. The unidentified suspect was later found dead in a pickup truck in public parking garage overlooking the scene. Police said the suspect appeared to die of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

PIZZA SHOP CUSTOMER SHOOTS 2 ROBBERS, KILLING 1, OFFICIALS SAY

Oklahoma City Police Capt. Paco Balderrama said the shooter apparently knew the victim's schedule and routine.



Talking w/ man inside the airport - Christian is live on @OKCFOX. He sent me these photos from inside Will Rogers Airport - shelter in place pic.twitter.com/dpQDX3pLBy  Bill Schammert (@BillSchammert) November 15, 2016

"This individual went there and waited for the employee to either be coming or going to take this opportunity," Balderrama said. He wouldn't say conclusively that it was a "sniper-type" attack.

INTOXICATION CHARGE AGAINST SKYWEST PILOT IS DISMISSED

A LinkedIn page with Winchester's name described him as a ramp supervisor for Southwest and said he was from Washington, Okla., about 35 miles south of the airport.

Southwest spokeswoman Brandy King said in a statement that the airline would cancel all flights scheduled to depart Oklahoma City for the remainder of the day Tuesday.

The 1 p.m. shooting set off a scramble at the airport, with police immediately closing the sprawling complex and asking passengers inside to seek cover.



They diverted incoming flights and refused to give already-loaded aircraft permission to leave. There were concerns the gunman might have entered the terminal and mingled among passengers or employees.



"We have a heightened level of security all the time. These people have access to aircraft so we're very concerned about that," airport spokeswoman Karen Carney said.



Hundreds of people were stranded inside the terminal for more than three hours before officers began letting them leave slowly. Carney said about 300 people were held on aircraft away from the terminal after their planes landed ahead of a ground stop.



Once police determined that a suspect found in a red pickup truck on the second floor of a public parking garage was dead, officers gave an all-clear.



The airport handles between 7,000 and 8,000 passengers daily for Alaska, Delta, Southwest and United airlines and has a separate terminal that serves as a transfer center for federal inmates. A jet carrying inmates to the transfer site was allowed to land while the rest of the airport was shuttered.



Video from a television station helicopter showed what appeared to be a pool of blood about 100 feet from the airport's employee parking area -- and about 100 yards from the airport's ticket counters and departure area.



While airports have high security, it wasn't immediately known whether surveillance cameras might show the shooting, Balderrama said.



Balderrama initially said police had received reports of a possible second victim, but no one was found.



Police found the suspect's truck in the garage about three hours after the shooting and determined that someone was inside. They were not sure whether he was dead or alive. After about 75 minutes, using a robot, officers determined the suspect was dead.



A number of inbound flights were diverted to other airports after Will Rogers suspended operations. Southwest redirected one flight back to Dallas while a Las Vegas to Houston flight that stops in Oklahoma City went to Amarillo, Texas, instead. Two commercial flights from Chicago's O'Hare Airport were directed to Tulsa, about 100 miles away.



Michael Winchester was a punter on the University of Oklahoma's 1985 national championship team. His son, James, also played for the school and currently plays for the Kansas City Chiefs.



"Our hearts are truly heavy for the entire Winchester Family. Mike was a former Sooner student athlete as was his son James/daughter Carolyn," the school's athletic director, Joe Castiglione, tweeted Tuesday afternoon. He added "daughter Becca was also a student athlete. Please keep this beautiful family in your prayers" in a later tweet.



Click for more from Fox 25.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The gunfire had the makings for controversy when three white police officers shot a black man multiple times last year in a downtown Reno casino parking garage.

The trio of Reno officers said Arthur Richardson Jr. pointed his gun at them while he suggested he wanted them to kill him.

But Richardson didn't die after they fired their 9mm revolvers a total of 14 times.

In fact, they ended up helping save his life, and he later apologized for putting them in the "precarious position of doing what they had to do."

The unusual outcome in a so-called attempted "suicide by cop" unfolds in a 40-page investigative report clearing the officers last week of any wrongdoing in the June 2015 shooting. Casino surveillance video shows Richardson pull a .45 caliber handgun from his waist band and point it at police, their guns drawn 20 feet away with bystanders nearby.

PASSERBY SHOOTS, KILLS MOTORIST ASSAULTING OFFICER

Officer Wesley Leedy, a six-year veteran of the force, said in an interview his partner once shot a suspect, but he'd never personally pulled the trigger. Moments later, the ex-helicopter pilot for an Army National Guard medivac unit that served in Afghanistan experienced another "first."

"I have applied first aid to gunshot victims numerous times, but it was the first time I applied first aid to a gunshot wound I personally caused," Leedy told The Associated Press.

The officers responded to the scene after Richardson pointed a gun at another man's head. When he refused to comply with multiple commands to show his hands and get on the ground, they eventually fired until Richardson collapsed, the report said.

Officer Aaron Flickinger kicked his gun away and Officer Christopher Good handcuffed him as some in a crowd of onlookers became agitated.

"It was apparent they did not approve of what we had just done and made it very well known," Leedy said.

As the other officers quieted the crowd and Richardson slipped in and out of consciousness, Leedy un-cuffed him and initiated first aid. According to the investigative report, Richardson asked, "What are you doing?"

Leedy told Richardson he was "putting pressure on your wound." He said Richardson responded, "Just let me die."

"I'll never forget that," Leedy told AP on Monday.

Richardson later told detectives from his hospital bed they were "good guys." A nurse said Richardson told her he wanted police to shoot him because he "wanted to die" but "was too afraid to do it myself."

In subsequent statements to police, Richardson  who was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder in 2000  said he knew he'd "be in big trouble because I'm a felon."

"My intentions weren't to hurt anybody. My intentions were to not go to jail," he said. "So I chose for them to kill me, and obviously that part didn't work."

Richardson pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including assault with a deadly weapon upon an officer and felon in possession of a firearm. He apologized in December before Judge Janet Berry sentenced him to six years in prison.

"Words can't express the remorse or regret I feel for the intolerable acts that put me here and for the police that I respect that I put in the precarious position of doing what they had to do given their profession," Richardson said.

"Whether it was self-loathing, self-pity, or depression, the sort of exploits that were going through my mind that night don't excuse my actions," he said. "Suicide by cop is not only a vulgar term, it's a vulgar idea."

Leedy said he was glad it was proven to be "a good shooting."

Officers increasingly face "tough crowds" quick to judge their actions, he said. He remembers being welcomed home from Afghanistan as "a hero, no matter what I had done."

"But then, when I take off that uniform and put on a blue uniform, it doesn't matter what I do or what life-saving efforts I provide on a daily basis, many people believe we are truly racially motivated and corrupt," he said. "I hope this helps show there are good officers in this town trying to make a difference."
A Christian university in Texas says some students no longer attend the school after images were posted online of a white student in blackface exclaiming: "I'm a strong black woman."

A student wearing an Abilene Christian University shirt and shorts is seen with her face covered in black. She also applies some oversized red lips. Others are heard laughing in the background.

University President Phil Schubert has apologized for the posting and says the school doesn't tolerate harassment

The university said via Twitter that administrators met Monday with those involved and that they are no longer enrolled. It's not clear how many students were involved or whether they were expelled or left the school on their own.

Abilene is about 150 miles west of Fort Worth.

___

Online:

http://www.acu.edu/
Two Detroit police officers killed more than 100 dogs in total during the course of their careers, one of the starkest examples of what critics call puppycide, Reason.com reported on Tuesday.

There are no police requirements to report the shooting of an animal, but the website was able to obtain the totals for several departments: Detroit officers shot 46 dogs in 2015 and 2016; Chicago cops fired a weapon at an animal 84 times during that same time span; The NYPD was responsible for killing nine dogs in 2014; and the LAPD reported killing eight dogs in 2015.

TWO DOGS DONATE BLOOD TO SAVE POLICE DOG

A Justice Department official estimated in a 2012 interview for Police magazine that up to 30 dogs were killed every day by law enforcement officers. Many of the shootings reported by Reason, which obtained police records related to the incidents, involved encounters during drug raids. But while police have claimed justification in the 40 cases reviewed by Reason  and were cleared by supervisors each time  the statements of some of the dogs owners contradicted the official line.

In one instance, on Jan. 27, 2016, Detroit officers shot and killed two of Joel Castros and Nicole Motykas three pit bulls while raiding a marijuana growing operation. The officers stories about the incident differed slightly, but all agreed the dogs were coming viciously towards the cops. Motyka, however, said the cops deliberately shot the dogs  including one puppy  while they were cowering in a corner of her kitchen, sealed in behind a wooden barrier. Charges against Castro and Motyka were later dropped when it was found that Castro was a state-licensed medical marijuana caregiver and the 26 plants discovered by police were, in fact, legally owned, Reason reported.

I don't want anything to do with the Detroit police anymore, Motyka said. You grow up being taught these are the people you're supposed to trust, and then they come in and kill your family. I have no love for them. None. They probably sleep well at night. We don't.
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A Georgia man faces life in prison after he was convicted of malice murder in the 2014 death of his toddler son, who was left in a hot car for hours.

A jury found Justin Ross Harris guilty on all eight counts against him Monday, ending a month-long trial. The malice murder conviction means jurors ultimately agreed with prosecutors that Harris left his 22-month-old son, Cooper, to die on purpose. District Attorney Vic Reynolds said justice was done but "it's not a verdict we celebrate."

The judge scheduled a sentencing hearing for Dec. 5.

Harris' defense lawyers said they plan to appeal. His lead attorney, Maddox Kilgore, said he has no doubt Harris was wrongly convicted.

Harris moved to Georgia from Alabama in 2012.
U.S. armed forces and the CIA may have committed war crimes by torturing detainees in Afghanistan, the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor said in a report Monday, raising the possibility that American citizens could be indicted even though Washington has not joined the global court.



"Members of US armed forces appear to have subjected at least 61 detained persons to torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity on the territory of Afghanistan between 1 May 2003 and 31 December 2014," according to the report issued by Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda's office.

AMERICAN SOLDIERS KILLED IN SUICIDE BOMBING AT BAGRAM AIRFIELD IDENTIFIED



The report added that CIA operatives may have subjected at least 27 detainees in Afghanistan, Poland, Romania and Lithuania to "torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity and/or rape" between December 2002 and March 2008.



Most of the alleged abuse happened in 2003-2004, the report said.

JUDGE HEARS TESTIMONY ABOUT INJURIES DURING SEARCH FOR BOWE BERGDAHL



Prosecutors said they will decide "imminently" whether to seek authorization to open a full-scale investigation in Afghanistan that could lead to war crimes charges.



State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said the U.S. does not believe an ICC investigation is "warranted or appropriate."



"The United States is deeply committed to complying with the law of war, and we have a robust national system of investigation and accountability that more than meets international standards," Trudeau said.



A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, said officials were awaiting more details about the ICC findings before commenting.



Established in 2002, the International Criminal Court is the world's first permanent court set up to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. More than 120 countries around the world are members, but superpowers including the United States, Russia and China have not signed up.



Former U.S. President Bill Clinton signed the Rome treaty that established the court on Dec. 31, 2000, but President George W. Bush renounced the signature, citing fears that Americans would be unfairly prosecuted for political reasons.



Even though the United States is not a member of the court, Americans could still face prosecution at its headquarters in The Hague if they commit crimes within its jurisdiction in a country that is a member, such as Afghanistan, and are not prosecuted at home.



So far, all of the ICC's trials have dealt with crimes committed in Africa.



Prosecutors say investigations also are reportedly under way in Poland, Romania and Lithuania -- all signatories to the Rome Statute -- into possible crimes at CIA detention facilities in those countries.



The abuse allegations came in a wide-ranging annual report into the prosecution office's so-called preliminary examinations, which involve studying reports of possible crimes to establish if they fall under the court's jurisdiction.



The same report said that Taliban and Afghan government forces also may have used torture and committed other atrocities in that country's long and bitter conflict. The report says that the Taliban and its affiliates killed thousands of people and are suspected of committing war crimes including murder, recruiting and conscripting child soldiers and attacking civilians and humanitarian workers.



Referring to the alleged U.S. war crimes, the report said they "were not the abuses of a few isolated individuals. Rather, they appear to have been committed as part of approved interrogation techniques in an attempt to extract `actionable intelligence' from detainees."



The report adds that, "The information available suggests that victims were deliberately subjected to physical and psychological violence, and that crimes were allegedly committed with particular cruelty and in a manner that debased the basic human dignity of the victims."



Before deciding to open a full-scale investigation, ICC prosecutors have to establish whether they have jurisdiction and whether the alleged crimes are being investigated and prosecuted in the countries involved. The ICC is a court of last resort that takes on cases only when other countries are unable or unwilling to prosecute.



The report noted that U.S. authorities have conducted dozens of investigations and court-martial cases and says ICC prosecutors are seeking further clarifications on their scope before deciding whether any American cases would be admissible at the ICC.



After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the administration of President George W. Bush allowed the use of waterboarding, which simulates drowning, and other so-called enhanced interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists. President Barack Obama banned such practices after taking office in 2009.



During the presidential campaign, Republican nominee Donald Trump suggested that as president he would push to change laws that prohibit waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques, arguing that banning them puts the U.S. at a strategic disadvantage against ISIS militants.
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A group of 188 Eritreans are heading to Germany in the first big batch of refugee relocations from Italy to other EU countries.

The migrants danced and cheered before boarding buses on Tuesday taking them from the migrant center in Castelnuovo di Porto north of Rome to the airport. They were bound for Munich.

The transfer is the first tranche of the 500 people that Germany pledged in September to take monthly from Italy, which is on the front lines of the migrant crisis and has demanded that other EU countries help ease the burden.

A European Union plan calls for relocating 160,000 asylum-seekers by September 2017 from Italy and hard-hit Greece. But as of last week, only 1,549 refugees had been transferred from Italy and 5,437 from Greece.
As Greece struggles to rebuild its economy crippled by massive debt, some governments around Athens reportedly face a tough mandate: pay your debt by the next century, or else.

Some top-level government officials signed off on the plan last year, a consultant told the Kathimerini newspaper. It reportedly gave the city of Piraeus 13 years, the municipality of Maroussi 166 years, and the municipality of Fyli 2,129 years to pay all their bills.

GRENADE THROWN AT POLICE AT FRENCH EMBASSY IN ATHENS

The far-off deadlines emerged from their debt repayment plans, siphoning off 5 percent from what the interior ministry paid each month, according to the newspaper.

Fyli, which reportedly has a population below 50,000, managed to rack up more than $500 million in debt. Maroussi owed more than $60 million and Piraeus had to pay more than $10 million, the newspaper added.

GREECE STARTS NEW TALKS WITH CREDITORS, EYEING DEBT RELIEF

It's not clear what sort of punishment they'd face for missing the deadline, but Fyli has until the year 4144 to become debt-free. The landlocked region was formed by a merger of three municipalities in 2011.

Greece's left-led coalition government has been struggling to pull the country out of six years of a vicious financial crisis that has devastated its economy and left more than a quarter of the workforce unemployed. Greek officials have pinned their hopes on the U.S. to help persuade some of the country's more reluctant international creditors, such as Germany, to grant it significant debt relief.

Without a cut in its debt, Athens claims, it cannot hope to recover economically -- an argument also supported by the International Monetary Fund.

Greece has been relying on emergency loans from three consecutive multi-billion euro bailouts from other European Union countries using the euro currency, and the IMF, since 2010. While the United States has not been involved in Greece's bailout, Athens has long seen it as an ally that could apply pressure on creditors, according to analysts.

The U.S. has praised Greek efforts to overhaul its economy but has repeatedly stressed the country must continue with painful reforms. The country's bailout funds are disbursed after reviews by international debt inspectors of mandated reforms.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker says he's worried about U.S. president-elect Donald Trump's stance on trans-Atlantic ties, especially given what Juncker called Trump's "disgusting" campaign remarks.

Juncker told Belgian RTL radio Tuesday that "it worries me in the sense that I have trouble believing, but perhaps I should start believing, that the newly elected president of the United States would put in place everything he said during the electoral campaign."

The head of the EU's executive arm described some of Trump's comments as "entirely disgusting. It was not a time of glory in American democracy."

Juncker raised concern about Trump's leanings "toward total isolationism. It is neither in the interest of the United States nor in the interest of Europe."
Hundreds of German police officers searched about 190 offices, mosques and apartments of members and supporters of the Islamic group "The true religion" as the government announced a ban of the organization Tuesday.

Police raided places in 60 cities in western Germany and also in Berlin seizing documents and files, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said. Police made no arrests, government officials told Fox News.

GERMAN AUTHORITIES RAID ISLAMIC GROUP'S 200+ SITES

Police said they also found communications equipment, machetes, tasers, knives and knuckle dusters.

The group  also known as "Read!"  has been distributing German-language copies of the Quran across the country. The interior minister said that more than 140 youths had traveled to Syria and Iraq to join fighters there after having participated in the group's campaigns in Germany.

REPORTS: GERMANY TO INCREASE SECURITY, ESPIONAGE SPENDING

"The translations of the Quran are being distributed along with messages of hatred and unconstitutional ideologies," de Maiziere told reporters in Berlin. "Teenagers are being radicalized with conspiracy theories."

Young men in long robes and bushy beards handing out German copies of the Quran has been a common sight in downtown and shopping areas across Germany for several years.

The ban of the group comes a week after security authorities arrested five men who allegedly aided the Islamic State group in Germany by recruiting members and providing financial and logistical help. The recent operations suggest that the German government is trying to clamp down hard on radical Islamists.

The German interior minister stressed that the ban does not restrict the freedom of religion in Germany or the peaceful practice of Islam in any way, but that the group had glorified terrorism and the fight against the German constitution in videos and meetings.

"We don't want terrorism in Germany ... and we don't want to export terrorism," de Maiziere said adding that the ban was also a measure to help protect peaceful Islam in the country.

Fox News' Kitty Logan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Germany's foreign minister is meeting Turkish officials to discuss strained relations and concerns over the Turkish government's crackdown on the media and political opponents.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier is scheduled to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other leaders on Tuesday.

Erdogan has accused Germany of supporting terrorism after German authorities suggested that Berlin may not extradite suspects wanted by Turkey over the failed coup attempt in July, if it considers the cases are politically motivated. Erdogan has also accused Berlin of failing to clampdown on Kurdish militants allegedly operating in Germany.

Steinmeier arrived from Brussels where top European Union diplomats expressed concerns over the arrests of opposition figures.

Last week, legislators from Turkey's pro-Kurdish party and several senior staff of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper were arrested on terrorism-related charges.
North Korea has made a state request to officials in China pleading for them to stop referring to glorious leader Kim Jong-un as fat.

Ministers have reportedly asked their neighbours to refrain from referring to the chunky Swiss cheese fan as Jin San Pang or Kim Fatty III in media or conversations.

Apparently Kim Fatty III is a widely used nickname for Kim in China along with Jin Pang Pang (Kim Fat Fatty) or Jin San Fei (Kim Abundant III).

Now According to the Apple Daily in Hong Kong, terrified North Korean government officials have called on their old comrades to take action before heads roll.

They are terrified the tyrant will find out about the insult and look for someone to blame.

In recent years, those that have fallen foul of the double-chinned despot have found themselves at the wrong end of a military firing range.

The bloated dictator is said to have piled on the pounds in recent years bingeing on swiss cheese, whiskey and scallops.

Click for more from The Sun.
A global human rights umbrella organization is urging Africa, Europe and the United Nations to send a civilian protection force to Burundi to prevent a possible civil war and genocide.

The International Federation for Human Rights, known as FIDH, and Burundian Human Rights League ITEKA said in a report Tuesday that the government's recent break with the international community "heralds a new intensification of repression and crimes against citizens who are considered hostile to the regime."

The 200-page report, entitled "Repression and Genocidal Dynamics in Burundi," cited several "dramatic actions" by Burundi's government in October.

They include the government's denunciation of a U.N. human rights report "quite damning of the regime," its expulsion of the African Union and three U.N. experts, its withdrawal from the International Criminal Court, and its suspension of five Burundi organizations defending human rights, including ITEKA.

War in Burundi  which is overwhelmingly Hutu  started in 1993 when Tutsi paratroopers assassinated the country's first democratically elected president, a Hutu. Fighting mainly between Hutu rebels and the Tutsi-dominated army resulted in the deaths of 300,000 people. A cease-fire was declared in 2006 but took several years for fighting to end.

The latest unrest began in April 2015 when Burundi's president, Pierre Nkurunziza, announced his decision to seek a third term, which some called unconstitutional. He won re-election, but protests turned to violence.

According to Tuesday's report, the human toll to date is more than 1,000 dead, 8,000 detained on political grounds, between 300 and 800 people missing, hundreds tortured, thousands of arbitrary arrests, and hundreds of women subjected to sexual violence.

"These abuses, committed mainly by Burundian security forces, have already forced more than 310,000 people to flee the country," it said.

FIDH and ITEKA, which have a network of observers in the country, said "crimes against humanity are being committed in Burundi today."

It cited systematic arrests, summary and extrajudicial executions, acts of torture and other acts that are "manifest" in Burundi and constitute crimes against humanity.

The rights groups then addressed the possibility of genocide.

They said the government viewed protests against a third term for Nkurunziza as a threat but after an attempted coup in May 2015, the ruling party "started to use the classic rhetoric of defending the Hutu majority as being persecuted and threatened by the risk of the return of an oppressive Tutsi military."

Soldiers from the former Tutsi-dominated army are being purged and dozens have been murdered, arrested or transferred this year, the rights groups said.

Senior officials from the defense and security forces and the ruling party also "increasingly and brazenly denounce 'Tutsis' as enemies of the regime," they said.

In a late development, FIDH released a circular from Burundi's Senate requiring every government office and public enterprise to classify employees by their ethnicity  Tutsi, Hutu or Twa  saying this was to conform with the Arusha Agreement which ended the civil war.

The rights group said that such ethnic classification isn't required under the accord.

FIDH and ITEKA said "all the criteria and conditions for perpetrating of genocide are in place: ideology, intent, security institutions and relaying ... the identifying populations to be eliminated, and the using of historical justifications."

"Our organizations warn that these dynamics are intensifying and could lead to genocide in Burundi," the rights groups said.

They also warned that "any reaction of armed opposition groups or neighboring countries  in particular Rwanda  to ensure the protection of civilian populations could signal mass murder, genocide or a new and deadly civil war."

In the 1994 Rwanda genocide, more than 500,000 minority Tutsis and moderate members of the Hutu majority were killed by Hutu extremists. It ended after Tutsi-led rebels ousted the extremist Hutu government that orchestrated the killings. Rwanda's government remains Tutsi-led.

This year, Burundi has refused to allow the African Union to send 5,000 peacekeepers and the United Nations to deploy 228 international police.

FIDH and ITEKA urged the AU, U.N., European Union and international community to "send a civilian protection force to Burundi," impose sanctions against perpetrators of serious human rights violations, and "make every effort to resume political dialogue and find a peaceful solution to the crisis."
Nigeria's Senate has rejected all 47 nominees for ambassador posts presented by President Muhammadu Buhari, saying it is besieged by complaints.

The rejection, apparently based on lack of consultation, came in a motion Tuesday moved by Senate leader Ali Ndume and seconded by minority leader Godswill Akpabio. The senate received more than 250 petitions against the proposed political appointees.

Nigeria has been without ambassadors in places like Washington, London, Beijing and Brussels for more than a year.

Tuesday's move comes after the Senate refused Buhari's request to pursue $30 billion in foreign loans  a surprising rejection from a legislature controlled by the president's party.

It highlights fractures in the coalition which, in the 2015 elections, brought Buhari to become the first Nigerian to defeat a sitting president.
It was supposed to be Serena Shim's last assignment inside Turkey reporting for an Iranian news agency when the Lebanese-American journalist died in what her family claims was a "targeted hit."

Two years after Shim's October 2014 death, her family is renewing its call for the U.S. government to investigate her case -- claiming the 29-year-old mother from Michigan was deliberately driven off the road in a staged car accident.

"Ive heard nothing from the State Department or the Turkish government," Judy Poe, Shim's mother, told FoxNews.com Tuesday from her home in Harrison Township, a suburb of Detroit.

Shim, who had reported extensively on the alleged smuggling of ISIS militants across the Syrian-Turkish border, was killed for "telling the truth," according to Poe.

Shim was working for Iran's state-owned network Press TV on Oct. 19, 2014 when she riding in the passenger seat of a rental car, driven by her cousin, Judy Irish -- who was 16 at the time -- in the Turkish town of Suruc, near the Turkish-Syrian border.

Turkish media outlets initially said Shim died after her car collided head-on with a large cement mixer -- despite traveling along a one-way highway -- and showed photos that appeared to support such reports.

But Shim's mother and cousin -- who suffered only a broken nose in the crash -- said they believe the scene was staged to look like an accident.

Irish, who blacked out after the car's airbags deployed, said she did not collide head-on with a cement truck. Instead, she said, a truck hit them from behind and ran their car off the road.

"I was driving on a three-lane, one-way highway in the fast lane," she told FoxNews.com. "I could see the semi-truck that was behind me in the middle lane. And he was going very quickly and he sped up in front of me and cut me off, making me crash into him."

The accident came just days after Shim said she had been threatened by Turkish intelligence services, who accused her of being a spy, according to her mother.

Poe, who claims she was in regular contact with Shim, said her daughter had been threatened by Turkish officials after reporting ISIS militants were being smuggled back and forth across the Syrian-Turkish border in the back of aid vehicles.

"Turkish officials wanted to speak with her  they went to her hotel and they went to local shops she had frequented," she said.

Poe, citing Turkish media reports, said Irish was transported to a refugee hospital some 15 minutes away from the scene. Her daughter, whom she affectionately referred to as "Sassy," was transported to a hospital nearly three hours away -- one where ISIS members were receiving free medical care, Poe claims.

"Initial reports said my daughter had died at the scene," Poe said. "Then they said she died from a heart attack."

The family also claims that the car pictured in the crash scene photos online is not the one Shim and her cousin had rented.

Shim was buried in Lebanon on Oct. 26.

"There was not a single mark on Sassy," said Poe, who was able to view her daughter's body inside a Beirut morgue before she was buried.

The State Department told FoxNews.com it does not conduct investigations into deaths overseas. It referred all questions regarding the investigation to local authorities in Turkey.

"We extend our deepest condolences to her family and friends," a State Department official said Tuesday.

"Generally speaking, we may monitor local authorities' investigations into the causes of non-natural deaths of U.S. citizens overseas, but we cannot conduct our own investigations," the official said.

Turkish media outlets reported that Shim's cousin was responsible for the crash. An official report obtained by Hurriyet Daily News claimed Irish was the "sole culprit" and the truck driver was not in any way responsible.

Shim was born in Michigan and raised in both Dearborn and Livonia, where she graduated from Clarenceville High School. She went on to attend the American University of Technology in Lebanon, where her biological father lives.

"She was a target, without a doubt. She knew too much," Poe said of her daughter.

In a recording saved on Poe's cellphone, Shim said Turkish officials believed she was a spy but did not indicate for whom.

"She was doing very important work over there," Poe said.

"I miss everything about her," she said. "I still can't believe she's not going to walk through the door."
U.S. officials are expressing concern about a budding arms pact between Iran and Russia estimated to be worth more than $10 billion, according to State Department officials who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon and expressed alarm over the increased Iranian military capability.

Irans negotiations with Russia for new weapons and military hardware come after senior officials in Tehran dismissed the recent election of Donald Trump and warned his incoming administration against taking a firmer stance against the Islamic Republics continued military buildup.

Iran is angling to purchase T-90 tanks, artillery systems, and aircraft from Moscow that are expected to keep the Islamic Republic fully armed over the next several years, according to reports in Irans state-controlled media.

The new military talks concern U.S. officials who have long been working behind the scenes to convince Moscow against arming Iran in the wake of last years nuclear pact that paved the way for the Islamic Republic to pursue these types of weapons deals.

Russia recently delivered its advanced S-300 missile defense system to Iran after years of debate over the purchase and warnings from the United States.

A U.S. State Department official confirmed that the Obama administration is aware of the new weapons talks and has expressed its reservations through diplomatic channels.

Click for more from the Washington Free Beacon.
EXCLUSIVE: The United Nations is quietly urging its agencies and non-governmental organizations operating in Syria to scale back their multibillion-dollar requests for aid for next year by more than 20 percent, according to an internal document examined by Fox News.

The main reasons: acute donor fatigue, and an inability to actually deliver on the expanding wish list of projects to ease the plight of millions of suffering Syrians. The document also cites bans on delivering aid, either by ISIS militants or, more often, the Bashar Al-Assad dictatorship, that are, it states, now the main impediment to U.N. relief activities.

ASSAD: TRUMP COULD BE A 'NATURAL ALLY'

The funding document suggests that, considering these trends, relief organizations aim for a maximum of $2.5 billion, vs. this years $3.2 billion, for what is known as the Syria Humanitarian Relief Plan (HRP), a U.N.-coordinated appeal that would still likely be the worlds largest humanitarian relief operation next year.

Reading between the lines, the document also is an adjustment to a chorus of internal and external complaints about U.N.-led relief efforts in Syria, which also may be reflected in the funding shortfalls that the document tries to address.

RUSSIA BOMBARDS SYRIA HOURS AFTER PUTIN SPEAKS WITH TRUMP

It notes, for example, that a reduced funding appeal could lead to a more thorough and credible selection of projects for Syria -- where currently, some 390 relief projects with a collective price tag of about $1 billion are not funded at all. That is 74 percent of all the projects in the 2016 appeal, the document notes.

The relief effort could benefit from stronger evidence that projects approved are those required to implement their strategies and that partners have the capacity to implement such large number of activities and proposed interventions, the document says.

Coincidentally or not, that aspect of downsizing seems to address tough criticism of the U.N.s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, in an internal evaluation earlier this year for having only a limited understanding of real need in Syria, due to government blockages of its field inspections. The result: no systematic and scientific data-gathering on needs within government territory, nor of the impact of the work done to date, or even, arguably, where the majority of assistance has gone.

The latest funding document notes that the inhumane denials of relief supplies to besieged Syrian communities -- which many NGOs blame on the U.N.s too-close ties with Assad -- are also limitations that need to be acknowledged as part of the scaling-down effort.

All told, the U.N. document estimates that 5.4 million Syrians -- 34 percent of all people in need in the country, are out of regular reach.

The assertion suggests that Assads ugly surrender or starve strategy toward beleaguered opposition centers -- most savagely being carried out against the beleaguered city of Aleppo -- is tacitly being acknowledged as a success. Certainly, U.N. pleas for the situation to change have made little dent in Assads tactics, which are backed by Russian and Iranian military support.

As the document summarizes it: Given the multiple access and capacity constraints humanitarian actors are facing, it is unclear that greater financial asks could be easily absorbed and implemented by humanitarian actors.

Beyond that, however, is another bottom line: an admission that a U.N. strategy of annually laying out ever-larger appeals for greater financial requirements have not led to increased funding.

Indeed, the overall Humanitarian Relief Plan strategy of a coordinated mega-appeal for Syria, first unveiled by the U.N. in 2013, has been slowly losing ground each year, as the Syrian civil war has expanded in scope and ferocity, and the appeals for more money have grown sharply in magnitude.

The first full-year appeal -- which was launched in explicit partnership with the Assad government, was for $1.4 billion and was 68 percent funded, while the most recent, $3.2 billion plan, had reached only 36 percent funding when the U.N. internal document was published. OCHAs website says it is now up to 41.2 percent.

(Overall, the U.S. is by far the biggest aid donor to the Syrian crisis, having donated more than $5.9 billion to the country and its neighbors since 2011. In 2017, the U.S. State Department is asking for another $175 million in economic support funds for Syria.)

Taking all those facts together, the document notes, in typically sludgy prose, that the U.N.s top humanitarian coordinators have requested that the overall envelope of the 2017 response plan be lowered to a maximum of $2.5 billion to more accurately describe the priority response to assessed needs that can meaningfully be implemented by the humanitarian community.

The notion that lack of capacity -- a nebulous term conveying lack of effective manpower or expertise -- is the problem is strongly disputed by at least some important humanitarian organizations in the region.

They point instead to lack of international political will to enforce basic humanitarian measures, such as the distribution of food and medical supplies to contested areas.

The reason we are not meeting needs is due to politics and security reasons, says Ashley Proud, Syria humanitarian director for Mercy Corps, a U.S. based, independent humanitarian organization that spends about $136 million annually to bring relief supplies to some 470,000 Syrians per month.

It is the lack of decisive political action and the lack of progress on the peace process, Proud added. There is no intellectual commitment to changing the situation.

Mercy Corps has 283 relief workers in Syria, along with a variety of local Syrian partners. It was expelled from the Syrian capital of Damascus -- the U.N.s main, in-country relief hub -- by the Assad regime in 2014 after refusing to stop cross-border relief operations into opposition territory and still conducts major cross-border relief efforts.

We are about to launch our own planning process, Proud said. We are looking to expand our responsibilities where we can.

The very notion of any planned or suggested cutbacks to future Syrian appeals, however, is strongly denied, in a blizzard of equally bureaucratic verbiage, by officials with the U.N.s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA.

It is premature to talk about an amount for the 2017 appeal, an OCHA spokesperson told Fox News -- even though such appeals are typically unveiled early in the New Year. Some numbers have been suggested as a baseline, the spokesperson added, to help partners prioritize their most critical programming. But there is no official cap as such.

Instead, OCHA and its partners are finalizing a shared understanding of the actual and anticipated needs in Syria, as well as a common strategic framework to address the needs of millions of people in Syria within a very complex operating environment.

CLICK HERE FOR THE DOCUMENT

Behind the muffled language is the likelihood, according to non-U.N. aid workers, that the entire U.N. fundraising process for Syria this year will be delayed, while the refugee situation in the entire region grows much worse. One cause is the intensifying Iraqi government military offensive against the ISIS stronghold of Mosul, where more than 1 million residents could become refugees, spilling over, in some cases, into Syria.

A $264 million U.N. flash appeal for humanitarian relief for Mosul is so far only 64 percent funded.

George Russell is Editor-at-Large of Fox News. He is reachable on Twitter at @GeorgeRussell and on Facebook at Facebook.com/George.Russell
We are here for you and your loved ones beyond your cancer diagnosis.

Find information related to your care at Fred Hutch. Our team members

will help you with your medical records, financial assistance, housing

questions and other services.
Kornblatt, who began her career as a registered nurse and later became an attorney, is currently the chief human resources officer at Einstein Healthcare Network in Philadelphia, where she oversees human resource operations for a 9,000-person employee and physician network. She was hired for Fred Hutch and SCCA after a national search.

What set Lynne apart in a very competitive search was her warm, authentic and direct leadership and communication style, and her wide-ranging human resources experience, including in the most senior HR position, said Steve Stadum, Fred Hutchs executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Fred Hutch President and Director Dr. Gary Gilliland said hes looking forward to having Kornblatt lead the Human Resources Department. Shes incredibly talented and Im thrilled to have someone of her caliber at the helm of Human Resources, he said. She brings a wide range of knowledge and expertise and will be critical in helping us hire the right people  and support those who are here  as we work for cures for cancer.

Norm Hubbard, executive vice president of SCCA, said Kornblatts experience gives her a unique perspective.

"At SCCA, we are known for providing the best care for patients, he said. That means hiring excellent people to help us do that. Lynnes unique education and background, informed by her own bedside experiences of being a nurse and having a loved one with cancer, gives her special insight into what key traits, abilities and skills are needed. She will play a vital role in finding outstanding candidates to hire and supporting our employees as we focus on caring for patients and finding cures.

The chance to work for organizations with the mission of changing the course of medicine and curing cancer  its pretty motivating, Kornblatt said.

Other ways of helping

Kornblatt said she sees her new role as a natural culmination of a life and career devoted to helping others.

Growing up as the daughter of a high school teacher and a legal assistant, she always liked listening to people and hearing about the challenges they faced. She wanted to find a way to make that type of caring her life's work.

I had a few friends and mentors who were going to nursing school and I thought thats another way of listening and helping in a really up-close way, she said.

She began her career as a nurse by working in the medical-surgical intensive care unit of Einstein Healthcare Network and then later in labor and delivery, including developing a maternal-fetal intensive care unit for high-risk mothers. Being a nurse in those two areas allowed her to witness the full spectrum of birth and death, she said.

Later Kornblatt left bedside care and moved into hospital risk management. As she learned more about health care law, it sparked an interest in law itself and a desire to learn more about patients who had no one to make medical decisions for them, as well as those who were affected by unintentional medical harm. She earned her Juris Doctor degree from Temple University and later wrote her thesis, "First Do No Harm," as a Master of Laws student at Widener University, where she earned a masters degree in health care law. I saw my whole career coming together in those programs and experiences," she said.

She moved into human resources at Einstein in 1998, applying her training as both a nurse and an attorney in a variety of human resources disciplines. She has held the top position in HR there since she became vice president in 2003. She was named Einstein's first chief human resources officer in 2013.

Kornblatt sees her work in human resources as a natural extension of the care she gave as a nurse. Hiring great people to do and support medical research and care means better options for patients, she said.

Our first responsibility is to be there when people need us, she said. How we treat people, the kind of people we have in the organization and how we support them ties in to being a nurse for me. Its another way for me to continue taking care of patients.

Our most miraculous asset

In the next few years, Fred Hutch and SCCA plan to increase faculty positions by more than 40 and are committed to increasing diversity. Kornblatt plans to spend time in the community connecting and asking different groups about whats important to them and what would make Fred Hutch feel more inclusive and accessible.

She also knows that in a competitive industry, Human Resources has to be nimble and act quickly to hire the best candidates and create the best possible workplace experience.

Kornblatt has been visiting Seattle to get familiar with the area. Its the beginning of a new chapter in a variety of ways. Last winter, after 10 years together, she married Kazin, whom she met the minute she arrived at a party at a mutual friends house the year after Shuman died.

We met in the driveway, and that was it, she said of Kazin. She is smart, quick, funny and warm.

Kazin is a Ph.D. educator, attorney, chief academic officer and architect of a cutting-edge new competency-based program, College for America, which is part of Southern New Hampshire University.

Like her wife, Kazin shares a commitment to making the world better. Despite having an all-Ivy League pedigree, she is committed to making high quality, affordable education accessible to students who would otherwise not have the time or resources to better themselves by furthering their education while working, Kornblatt said.

Kornblatt has two grown sons, Noah and Eiren Shuman, and two toy poodles, Frida and Diego.

As Kornblatt comes to Fred Hutch and SCCA and starts her new life in Seattle with her family, shes eager to see whats next and to be part of Gillilands vision of curing cancer and related diseases.

Miracles happen and will continue to happen at Fred Hutch and SCCA, not only in laboratories and clinical settings, she said, but also in the ways we care for, engage and develop the organizations most miraculous asset: our people.
Heroin-Related Deaths Drop in Massachusetts, Drug and Alcohol Rehab Boston Comments

( November 12, 2016 ) Boston, MA -- Sentinel and Enterprise reports that recent study show a decrease in heroin-related deaths across Massachusetts. The quarterly report from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health also showed an increase in Fentanyl-related deaths. Research showed that more accidental opioid deaths occurred in the first nine months of 2016 than in the same time period of 2015.

Staying up to date on public health and safety issues related to substance abuse is important, especially to providers of heroin rehab in Boston. As a leader in the industry, Drug and Alcohol Rehab Boston finds these findings both encouraging and enlightening.

A representative of Drug and Alcohol Rehab Boston comments,

"The Massachusetts Department of Public Health found that nearly three-quarters of deaths in the third quarter of 2016 had a positive toxicology report for Fentanyl. This ultra powerful opioid medication is claiming lives across the United States at an alarming rate- typically in combination with heroin, but also on its own. It's highly addictive, lethal, and should be closely monitored. That it is so easily accessible on the streets is something we must and are addressing. However, on the ground level, it's important to be observant and know the signs of addiction. If you suspect your loved ones are experiencing Fentanyl addiction, reach out to them and encourage their journeys to sobriety."

About Drug and Alcohol Rehab Boston 58845:

Through the dedication of a highly-trained and professional staff, Drug and Alcohol Rehab Boston provides 24-hour monitoring through medically-aided detox as well as intensive therapy options to uncover the underlying causes of addiction. In addition to traditional methods of treatment, Drug and Alcohol Rehab Boston offers holistic options such as reiki, acupuncture, meditation, and yoga practices. Beyond treatment, clients of Drug and Alcohol Rehab Boston attend weekly outings to sporting events, concerts, and shows, and enjoy a spacious facility which includes a spa with salon services and access to a full gym.

For more information about Drug and Alcohol Rehab Boston call (857) 267-5049 or visit http://drugandalcoholrehabboston.com/.

For more information visit r



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Johannesburg SEO's Mobile Apps Developers Service Starts 16 November 2017

Johannesburg SEO announced the availability of their new Mobile Apps Developers Service beginning 16 November 2017. More information can be found at http://www.johannesburgseo.net.

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Johannesburg SEO today announced the release of their new Mobile Apps Developers Service. Customers in need of a good Mobile Apps Developers Service will soon be able to get everything they need when it goes live 16 November 2017.

This marks one of Johannesburg SEO's biggest milestones. Everyone within the business is looking forward to launch of the service, especially since those within Johannesburg SEO feel that "They are the first in the industry."

Rocco Gagiano, CEO at Johannesburg SEO, when asked about the Mobile Apps Developers Service said:

"They are making it affordable for the small to medium Business"

Consumers active in the Mobile Apps Development market will be interested to know the Mobile Apps Developers Service has been planned and developed with Johannesburg in mind.

For example, it will feature "Analyze Their Business Thoroughly". This was included because they always recommend they analyse their business in question and look at its current assets. By assets they mean: does they have a website; does they have a fan page; does it have a twitter account? What content is on their website? What do they list on their website ads?. Consumers should be pleased with this since When they do a thorough analysis they can get a more complete picture of the business and it also gives them a great starting point for building their draft app for that company and preparing their sales pitch.

Johannesburg SEO Mobile Apps Developers Service will also have Translate Their Business Needs To App Features. Developers behind their service decided this was critical to the final service because The next question they have to ask yourself is: What services can they add into the mobile app that will be good for their client's business? Do they sell products that are suitable for some kind of loyalty program - like a coffee shop? For most businesses, they can create a loyalty card program and it's a great selling point when approaching a local client.. Customers should enjoy this particularly, as Could the business make use of coupons? Coupons can be used in virtually every business model so again it's another great selling point. What about their client that doesn't have a bricks and mortar business? Maybe they have an online e-commerce store? They can also build an app for that now because they can use their catalog on their store and turn it into a mobile app for them.

One final piece of information being released, states that their new service will also have Push Notifications Are A Major Feature - Rocco Gagiano said "This was important because Then they need to think of a rough idea of how push notifications could be utilised for their business in question. Once they have an idea they will be able to explain to their client about push notifications and what exactly they can do for them. The basic thrust of this part of their pitch will be that with push notifications they will have instant communication with anyone who's installed their client's app on their phone. This will be great news for their buyers because they will enable their client, via a white label push notifications area, to log in and to send notices to their customers. Maybe they are running a special offer on a Thursday? Maybe they want to let their customer about a new product or service that they've added? With push notifications their client can update customers instantly with quite literally a push of a button. Their client can send them a notification and when their customer clicks on the notification they are navigated to wherever their client wants their attention to be drawn to. It's a fantastic way to communicate with their customers."

Those interested in learning more about their business can do so on the business website at http://www.johannesburgseo.net

Those interested in learning more about Johannesburg SEO and their Mobile Apps Developers Service scan do so on the website at http://www.johannesburgseo.net

For more information, please visit http://www.johannesburgseo.net

Contact Info:

Name: Rocco Gagiano

Organization: Johannesburg SEO

Address: 396 Jan Smuts Avenue Valley Centre Suite 205 Craighall

Phone: 0833778812

Release ID: 145607

For more information visit r



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Medellin SEO's Mobile Apps Development Service Starts 17 November 2016

Medellin SEO announced the availability of their new Mobile Apps Development Service beginning 17 November 2016. More information can be found at http://www.medellinseo.com.

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Medellin SEO today announced their release of their new Mobile Apps Development Service. Customers in need of a good Mobile Apps Development Service will soon be able to get everything they need when it goes live 17 November 2016.

This marks one of Medellin SEO's biggest milestones. Everyone within the business is looking forward to launch of the service, especially since those within Medellin SEO feel that "We are the industries leaders."

Rocco Gagiano, CEO at Medellin SEO, when asked about the Mobile Apps Development Service said:

"Affordable and cheap mobile apps for everyone"

Consumers active in the Mobile Apps Developers market will be interested to know their Mobile Apps Development Service has been planned and developed with Medellin in mind.

For example, they will feature "Translate Their Business Needs To App Features". This was included because their next question they have to ask their self is: What services can they add into their mobile app that will be good for their client's business? Do they sell products that are suitable for some kind of loyalty program - like a coffee shop? For most businesses, they can create a loyalty card program and it's a great selling point when approaching a local client.. Consumers should be pleased with this since Could their business make use of coupons? Coupons can be used in virtually every business model so again it's another great selling point. What about a client that doesn't have a bricks and mortar business? Maybe they have an online e-commerce store? they can also build an app for that now because they can use their catalog on their store and turn it into a mobile app for them..

Their Mobile Apps Development Service will also have Push Notifications Are A Major Feature. Developers behind their service decided this was critical to the final service because then they need to think of a rough idea of how push notifications could be utilised for their business in question. Once they have an idea they will be able to explain to their client about push notifications and what exactly they can do for them. The basic thrust of this part of their pitch will be that with push notifications they will have instant communication with anyone who's installed their client's app on their phone. they will enable their client, via a white label push notifications area, to log in and to send notices to their customers. Maybe they are running a special offer on a Thursday? Maybe they want to let the customer about a new product or service that they've added? . Customers should enjoy this particularly, as with push notifications their client can update customers instantly with quite literally a push of a button. Their client can send them a notification and when the customer clicks on the notification they are navigated to wherever the client wants their attention to be drawn to. It's a fantastic way to communicate with their customers.

One final piece of information being released, states that their new service will also have General Functionality (Showcase) Apps - Rocco Gagiano said "This was important because It can be time consuming to build a draft app for every business they pitch to. So we recommend a general functionality app already published (alpha or beta) on Google play. Something they can use to show people how their app could look. This will be great news for their buyers because so if they are pitching to a restaurant owner, they have a general purpose restaurant app already published as an alpha/beta app on the Google play store. Then they take their Android device to the meeting and showcase the functionality their client could make use of. Show some of the features that they can offer and look at some of the content and the different ways they can display it on the app. Show that it works.."

Those interested in learning more about the business can do so on the business website at http://www.medellinseo.com

Those interested in learning more about Medellin SEO and their Mobile Apps Development Service scan do so on the website at http://www.medellinseo.com

For more information, please visit http://www.medellinseo.com

Contact Info:

Name: Rocco Gagiano

Email: roccogagiano@icloud.com

Organization: Medellin SEO

Address: Carrera 35 No.8a 87Medellin Antioquia

Phone: (574) 204-0768

Release ID: 145613

For more information visit r



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Global Coating Pretreatment Market will cross USD 4,230 Million Mark by 2022

Coating Pretreatment Market Research Report, By Product Type (Phosphate, Chromate, Blast Clean and Others), By Application (Consumer Appliances, Automotive & Transportation, Construction and others) - Forecast To 2022

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Market Highlights

Global Coating Pretreatment Market is expected to grow with the CAGR of 6.3% from 2016 to 2022, and with this it is predictable to cross USD 4,230 Million by 2022

Over the past few years, the global coating pretreatment market has seen a considerable growth due to increasing demand of from its application industries which has resulted into a higher growth rate at the end of forecasted period. As per the market analysis, different factors have created boom in the global coating pretreatment market are rising application segment, increasing demand for consumer appliances, growing number of manufacturers, emerging economies, growing powder coating market and others.

Major Key Player

o 3M Company

o Chemetall GmbH

o Kansai Paint

o Akzonobel

o Nippon Paint

o PPG Industries

o Henkel

o Axalta Coating Systems

o Sherwin-Williams Company

o Nihon Parkerizing

Request a Sample Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample-request/coating-pretreatment-research-report-global-forecast-to-2022

Regional Analysis

"Asia-Pacific is anticipated to be the largest market during the forecast period"

Geographically, Asia-Pacific is expected to be the largest market for coating pretreatment and China is one of the largest manufacturer of coating pretreatment which has also created a platform for the APAC countries. Along with this, the rapid emerging economy have been a major growing factors which has fueled the demand for coating pretreatment in the regional as well as global market.

Scope of the study

The scope of the study categorizes the coating pretreatment market as product type and applications.

By Product Type

o Phosphate

o Chromate

o Blast Clean

o Others

By Application

o Consumer Appliances

o Automotive & Transportation

o Construction

o Others

Test the market data and market information presented through more than 50 market data tables and figures spread over 141 numbers of pages of the project report. Avail the in-depth table of content TOC & market synopsis on "Coating Pretreatment Market Research Report - Global Forecast to 2022"

Market Synopsis of Coating Pretreatment Market

The global coating pretreatment market has witnessed a positive growth over the past few years and as per MRFR analysis, the global market is expected to rise at the same growth during the forecast period. The global coating pretreatment market is expected to touch more than USD 4,230 Million by 2022 with a CAGR of around 6.3%.

The global coating pretreatment market has been majorly driven by its rising demand from the application industries such as consumer appliances, automotive & transportation, construction and others. Consumer appliance industry has been expected to become the major contributor to the global market. Geographically, Asia-Pacific is expected to be the largest market in terms of value, where China's contribution to the market is worth appreciating as China is one of the leading producer.

Browse Full Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/coating-pretreatment-research-report-global-forecast-to-2022

Brief TOC

1 Executive Summary

2 Scope Of The Report

2.1 Market Definition

2.2 Scope Of The Study

2.2.1 Research Objectives

2.2.2 Assumptions & Limitations

2.3 Markets Structure

3 Market Research Methodology

3.1 Research Process

3.2 Secondary Research

3.3 Primary Research

3.4 Forecast Model

4 Market Landscape

4.1 Five Forces Analysis

4.1.1 Threat Of New Entrants

4.1.2 Bargaining power of buyers

4.1.3 Threat of substitutes

4.1.4 Segment rivalry

4.2 Value Chain/Supply Chain of Global Coating Pretreatment Market

5 Industry Overview of Global Coating Pretreatment Market

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Growth Drivers

5.3 Impact analysis

5.4 Market Challenges

5.5 Impact analysis

6 Market Trends

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Growth Trends

6.3 Impact analysis

7. Global Coating Pretreatment Market by Region

8. Global Coating Pretreatment Market by Product Type (Phosphate, Chromate, Blast Clean and Others)

9. Global Coating Pretreatment Market by Application (Consumer Appliances, Automotive & Transportation, Construction and others)

10. Company Profiles

10.1 3M Company

10.1.1 Overview

10.1.2 Financials

10.1.3 Product Portfolio

10.1.4 Business Strategies

10.1.5 Recent Development

Continued...

Browse Related Report

Global Monocalcium Phosphate Market Information, by forms (Powdered form and Liquid Form), by application (fertilizers, food production, beverages, animal feed and other industries) - Forecast To 2022

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/monocalcium-phosphate-market-research-report-global-forecast-to-2022

About Market Research Future:

At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.

MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.

For more information, please visit https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/coating-pretreatment-research-report-global-forecast-to-2022

Contact Info:

Name: Akash Anand

Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com

Organization: Market Research Future

Address: Hadapsar Pune, India - 411028

Phone: +1 646 845 9312

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/global-coating-pretreatment-market-will-cross-usd-4230-million-mark-by-2022/145816

Release ID: 145816

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Abu Dhabi Ship Building Global Market Segmentation and Major Players Analysis 2022

WiseGuyReports.com adds "Abu Dhabi Ship Building PJSC : Aerospace and Defense - Company Profile, SWOT & Financial Analysis" reports to its database.

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"Abu Dhabi Ship Building PJSC : Aerospace and Defense - Company Profile, SWOT & Financial Analysis" contains in depth information and data about the company and its operations. The profile contains a company overview, key facts, major products and services, SWOT analysis, business description, company history, financial analysis, mergers & acquisitions, recent developments, key employees, company locations and subsidiaries as well as competitive benchmarking data.

Get Sample Report @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/659696-abu-dhabi-ship-building-swot-financial-analysis

Key Findings

This report is a crucial resource for industry executives and anyone looking to access key information about "Abu Dhabi Ship Building PJSC"

The report utilizes a wide range of primary and secondary sources, which are analyzed and presented in a consistent and easily accessible format. Strategic Defence Intelligence strictly follows a standardized research methodology to ensure high levels of data quality and these characteristics guarantee a unique report.

Synopsis

Abu Dhabi Ship Building PJSC (ADSB) is a ship building company based in Abu Dhabi. The company constructs military or naval ships such as assault boats, corvettes, missile boats, interceptors, fast troop carriers, fast supply vessels, landing craft and fast patrol boats. Its Mussafah Industrial Area facility is the only shipyard in the Middle East with capabilities of construction and maintenance of naval ships. It also provides various services such as combat system integration, and repairs and refits services to the customers. The company along with its joint ventures provides systems integration, logistics, engineering and life support services. ADSB is headquartered in Abu Dhabi, the UAE.

o This business intelligence report presents the key company information, essential to understanding industry challenges and competitors.

o The SWOT analysis identifies the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities for growth and threats. The key competitors are dissected alongside the larger challenges that the industry is facing.

o The company profile relays all current information about the business operations, including key employees, major products and services, company history, locations and subsidiaries alongside a supporting statement from the Chairman and Managing Director.

Reasons to Buy

o Quickly enhance your understanding of "Abu Dhabi Ship Building PJSC"

o Gain insight into the marketplace and a better understanding of internal and external factors which could impact the industry.

o Increase business/sales activities by understanding your competitors' businesses better.

o Recognize potential partnerships and suppliers.

Key Highlights

Abu Dhabi Ship Building PJSC (ADSB) is a ship building company based in Abu Dhabi. The company constructs military or naval ships such as assault boats, corvettes, missile boats, interceptors, fast troop carriers, fast supply vessels, landing craft and fast patrol boats. Its Mussafah Industrial Area facility is the only shipyard in the Middle East with capabilities of construction and maintenance of naval ships. It also provides various services such as combat system integration, and repairs and refits services to the customers. The company along with its joint ventures provides systems integration, logistics, engineering and life support services. ADSB is headquartered in Abu Dhabi, the UAE.

Table of Contents

1 Abu Dhabi Ship Building PJSC - Key Employees

2 Abu Dhabi Ship Building PJSC - Key Employees Biographies

3 Abu Dhabi Ship Building PJSC - Major Products and Services

4 Abu Dhabi Ship Building PJSC - History

5 Abu Dhabi Ship Building PJSC - Company Statement

6 Abu Dhabi Ship Building PJSC - Locations and Subsidiaries

6.1 Abu Dhabi Ship Building PJSC - Head Office

7 Abu Dhabi Ship Building PJSC - Business Analysis

7.1 Abu Dhabi Ship Building PJSC - Company Overview

7.2 Abu Dhabi Ship Building PJSC - Business Description

8 Abu Dhabi Ship Building PJSC - SWOT Analysis

8.1 Abu Dhabi Ship Building PJSC - SWOT Analysis - Overview

8.2 Abu Dhabi Ship Building PJSC - Strengths

8.2.1 Strength - Strong Customer Base

8.2.2 Strength - Wide Offerings

8.2.3 Strength - Strong Financial Performance

8.3 Abu Dhabi Ship Building PJSC - Weaknesses

8.3.1 Weakness - Limited Scale of Operations

8.4 Abu Dhabi Ship Building PJSC - Opportunities

8.4.1 Opportunity - New Contracts

8.4.2 Opportunity - Growing Global Naval Surface Combatants Market

8.4.3 Opportunity - Growing Global Defense Spending

8.5 Abu Dhabi Ship Building PJSC - Threats

8.5.1 Threat - Changing Technology

8.5.2 Threat - Government Contract Compliance

9 Abu Dhabi Ship Building PJSC - Company Financial Analysis

9.1 Abu Dhabi Ship Building PJSC - Five Year Snapshot: Overview of Financial and Operational Performance Indicators

Access Report @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/659696-abu-dhabi-ship-building-swot-financial-analysis

Get in touch:

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/4828928

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WiseGuyReports

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Wiseguyreports-1009007869213183/?fref=ts

For more information, please visit http://www.wiseguyreports.com

Contact Info:

Name: Norah Trent

Organization: WiseGuy Reports

Address: Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar Pune - 411028 Maharashtra, India

Phone: +1-646-845-9349

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/abu-dhabi-ship-building-global-market-segmentation-and-major-players-analysis-2022/145803

Release ID: 145803

For more information visit r



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China Confectionery Market to reach 1,077kg million with 5.1% CAGR Key Player, Regions and Forecast to 2022

WiseGuyReports.com adds "Consumer and Market Insights: Confectionery in China" reports to its database.

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The Chinese Confectionery market has seen large and constant growth in recent years as consumers increasingly turn away from traditional sweets and instead purchase more Western-style Confectionery products such as Gum, Sugar Confectionery, and Chocolate. This is highlighted by the high market growth rates, the second highest in world behind India, with a CAGR of 5.6% during 2010-2015. This is forecast to reach a CAGR of 5.1% between 2016-2020 as consumers opt for more Confectionery products instead of traditional offerings. Rising disposable incomes and increased awareness about foreign treats are also driving the market, with volumes now standing at 1,077kg million in 2015, compared to 821.4kg million in 2010. Additionally, women consume the most Confectionery products in China due to their strong desire for indulgent treats; they account for over 30 billion consumption occasions annually compared to men, who account for 28.7 billion as of 2015.

Get Sample Report @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/737644-consumer-and-market-insights-confectionery-in-china

Key Findings

- Women account for the most Confectionery consumption occasions at 30.4 billion, and the highest per capita consumption, at 45.8 per year as of 2015.

- The Chocolate segment is the largest in the market, accounting for a 76.7% share by volume in 2015.

- The Gum segment is forecast to grow the fastest in volume terms between 2015-2020, at a CAGR of 8.5%.

- By 2020, China will become the second biggest Confectionery market in the world, at 1,378.8 kg million in volume terms, behind only the US.

Synopsis

Consumer and Market Insights: Confectionery in China is an analytical report by Canadean that provides extensive and highly detailed current and future market trends in the Chinese market. It covers market size and structure along with per capita and overall consumption. Additionally, it focuses on brand data, retail pricing, prospects and forecasts for sales and consumption till 2025.

Reasons to Buy

- Get a detailed understanding of consumption to align your sales and marketing efforts with the latest trends in the market.

- Identify the areas of growth and opportunities, which will aid effective marketing planning.

- The differing growth rates in regional product sales drive fundamental shifts in the market.

- This report provides detailed, authoritative data on these changes - prime intelligence for marketers. Understand the market dynamics and essential data to benchmark your position and to identify where to compete in the future.

Table of Contents

Introduction

- Report Scope

Country Context

- Macroeconomic indicators - GDP Per Capita, Population, Consumer Price Index and Age Profile

- Retail and foodservice figures - Key Takeaways

Market Overview, Consumer Demographics and Pricing Analysis

- Value and volume analysis for the Chinese Confectionery market

- Impact of exchange rate fluctuations on Chinese Confectionery market

- Volume analysis by category

- Market value and growth rates, by category

- Historic and forecast value analysis by category

- Winners and losers by categories with change in market share

- Segment share in a category (value terms) and change in market share

- Volume consumption analysis by gender, age, education and urbanization - at category level

- Inter-country comparison of Average Unit Price by category

- Top variants and pack size distribution analysis

- Retailer Price Dynamics (includes % difference from average price)

Retail Landscape and Key Distribution Channels

- Leading retailers in the Chinese Food market

- Leading distribution channels (value terms) in the Chinese Confectionery market

- Leading distribution channels (value terms) by category

Competitive Landscape

-Market share of leading brands (in value and volume terms) by category and segment

-Penetration of private label by category in the Chinese Confectionery market

-Private label growth (in value terms) compared to brands

Health and Wellness analysis

- Key Health & Wellness product attributes driving sales

- Key Health & Wellness consumer benefits driving sales

- Key Health & Wellness companies and market share

Packaging

-Confectionery market by type of packaging material/container (in volume terms)

-Confectionery market by type of packaging closure (in volume terms)

-Confectionery market by type of packaging, forecast(in volume terms)

Demographic Cohort Consumption Patterns

- Overall consumption occasions by age and gender in the Chinese Confectionery market

- Private Label consumption occasions by age and gender in the Chinese Confectionery market

- Under/Over-consumption levels in the Chinese Confectionery market by gender and age

- Consumption frequency by type of consumer in the Chinese Confectionery market by gender and age

- Private label consumption by age and gender and comparison to overall consumption levels in the Chinese Confectionery

Consumer trend analysis

- consumer trend framework and explanation of the sub-trends

- For key trends in the Chinese Confectionery market:

- How the trend is influencing consumption in the Chinese Confectionery market

- How to target the trend in the Chinese Confectionery market

- How the trend will evolve in the Chinese Confectionery market

- Key target demographic and the rate and which the trend will evolve

- What are the key drivers that will influence growth of confectionery market in the future

Examples of New Product Development

-New products launched in the Chinese Confectionery market

-New products launched in global Confectionery market

Actions and Recommendations

- How to successfully target key trends in the Chinese Confectionery market

Access Report @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/737644-consumer-and-market-insights-confectionery-in-china

Get in touch:

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/4828928

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WiseGuyReports

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Wiseguyreports-1009007869213183/?fref=ts

For more information, please visit http://www.wiseguyreports.com

Contact Info:

Name: Norah Trent

Organization: WiseGuy Reports

Address: Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar Pune - 411028 Maharashtra, India

Phone: +1-646-845-9349

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/china-confectionery-market-to-reach-1077kg-million-with-5-1-cagr-key-player-regions-and-forecast-to-2022/145765

Release ID: 145765

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Cohort plc Global Market Segmentation and Major Players Analysis 2022

WiseGuyReports.com adds "Cohort plc : Aerospace and Defense - Company Profile, SWOT & Financial Analysis" reports to its database.

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"Cohort plc: Aerospace and Defense - Company Profile, SWOT & Financial Analysis" contains in depth information and data about the company and its operations. The profile contains a company overview, key facts, major products and services, SWOT analysis, business description, company history, key competitors, financial analysis, mergers & acquisitions, recent developments, key employees as well as company locations and subsidiaries.

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Key Findings

This report is a crucial resource for industry executives and anyone looking to access key information about "Cohort plc"

The report utilizes a wide range of primary and secondary sources, which are analyzed and presented in a consistent and easily accessible format. Report follows a standardized research methodology to ensure high levels of data quality and these characteristics guarantee a unique report.

Synopsis

Cohort plc (Cohort) is an investment holding firm providing advisory and technical services for defense, security, space and transport applications. The company designs and manufactures electronic systems and software, and provides specialist services and training. Cohort manages, exercises and provides technical input to projects, and tests the integrity of overseas national lottery systems. It provides systems engineering, software and electronic engineering services and solutions to government and industry. The clients of the company include the UK Ministry of Defense and other government departments, European Space Agency, NATO and industrial customers. Cohort is headquartered in Berkshire, the UK.

o This business intelligence report presents the key company information, essential to understanding industry challenges and competitors.

o The SWOT analysis identifies the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities for growth and threats. The key competitors are dissected alongside the larger challenges that the industry is facing.

o The company profile relays all current information about the business operations, including key employees, major products and services, company history, locations and subsidiaries alongside a supporting statement from the Chairman and Managing Director.

Reasons to Buy

o Quickly enhance your understanding of "Cohort plc"

o Gain insight into the marketplace and a better understanding of internal and external factors which could impact the industry.

o Increase business/sales activities by understanding your competitors' businesses better.

o Recognize potential partnerships and suppliers.

Key Highlights

Cohort plc (Cohort) is an investment holding firm providing advisory and technical services for defense, security, space and transport applications. The company designs and manufactures electronic systems and software, and provides specialist services and training. Cohort manages, exercises and provides technical input to projects, and tests the integrity of overseas national lottery systems. It provides systems engineering, software and electronic engineering services and solutions to government and industry. The clients of the company include the UK Ministry of Defense and other government departments, European Space Agency, NATO and industrial customers. Cohort is headquartered in Berkshire, the UK.

Table of Contents

1 Cohort plc - Key Employees

2 Cohort plc - Key Employees Biographies

3 Cohort plc - Major Products and Services

4 Cohort plc - History

5 Cohort plc - Company Statement

6 Cohort plc - Locations and Subsidiaries

6.1 Cohort plc - Head Office

6.2 Cohort plc - Other Locations and Subsidiaries

7 Cohort plc - Business Analysis

7.1 Cohort plc - Company Overview

7.2 Cohort plc - Business Description

8 Cohort plc - SWOT Analysis

8.1 Cohort plc - SWOT Analysis - Overview

8.2 Cohort plc - Strengths

8.2.1 Strength - Focus on Research and Development

8.2.2 Strength - Broad Service Offerings

8.2.3 Strength - Increased Revenues

8.3 Cohort plc - Weaknesses

8.3.1 Weakness - Geographic Concentration of Revenue

8.4 Cohort plc - Opportunities

8.4.1 Opportunity - New Contracts

8.4.2 Opportunity - Strategic Acquisition

8.4.3 Opportunity - Positive outlook for UAVs

8.4.4 Opportunity - Growing Global Defense Spending

8.5 Cohort plc - Threats

8.5.1 Threat - Government Contract Compliance

8.5.2 Threat - Changing Technology

8.5.3 Threat - Fixed Price Contracts

9 Cohort plc - Company Financial Analysis

9.1 Cohort plc - Five Year Snapshot: Overview of Financial and Operational Performance Indicators

10 Cohort plc - Interim ratios

10.1.1 Cohort plc - Financial ratios: Capital Market Ratios

10.2 Cohort plc - Financial Performance and Ratio Charts

10.2.1 Cohort plc - Revenue and Operating margin

10.2.2 Cohort plc - Asset and Liabilities

10.2.3 Cohort plc - Operational Efficiency

10.2.4 Cohort plc - Solvency

10.2.5 Cohort plc - Valuation

10.3 Cohort plc - Key Competitors

11 Cohort plc - Mergers & Acquisitions and Partnerships

11.1 Cohort plc - M&A and Partnerships Strategy

12 Cohort plc - Recent Developments

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5G Equipment Market to Grow at 32.06% CAGR to 2020

The 2016 5G equipment market report has taken into consideration the R&D investments in developing 5G technology from several bodies such as equipment providers, telecom carrier providers, government organizations, and telecommunication unions.

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The 5G equipment market research report 2016 is available at RnRMarketResearch.com. 5G mobile wireless technology is the key component of a connected society. The aim of 5G is to provide ubiquitous connectivity to all connected devices and connected applications. 5G enables real-time and reliable communication for mission-critical applications. 5G wireless technology evolution requires several relevant components such as backhaul integration, device-to-device communication, multi-antenna transmission, and flexible usage spectrum to perform operations at higher frequencies.

Complete report on 5G equipment market spread across 76 pages, analyzing 6 major companies and providing 36 data exhibits is now available at http://www.rnrmarketresearch.com/global-5g-equipment-market-2016-2020-market-report.html .

The analysts forecast global 5G equipment market to grow at a CAGR of 32.06% during the period 2016-2020. Commenting on the report, an analyst said: "that the rapid deployment of smart grids is one of the trends spurring growth for the market. Smart grids are being increasingly deployed in countries like India, the US, China, France, Spain, and Germany. Smart grids include grid applications such as supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, smart energy meters IT, and other communication networks. These devices enable utilities complete control in managing digital assets present in the field. The shift to smart grid means that utilities will have to manage the complex smart devices and reduce the risk of grid failure and outages.

According to the 5G equipment market report, growth of complementary technologies such as SDN and NFV is a key driver aiding to the growth of this market. By 2020, approximately 2.2 billion mobile connections will be using LTE technology out of the total 8.5 billion mobile connections. This growth in mobile data traffic is driven by an increase in the number of data capable devices and high bandwidth applications. SDN enables new revenue streams to telecom operators by re-examining network architectures, introducing virtualization, and providing intelligence solutions. SDN and NFV provide more flexibility and seamless integration with infrastructure layers. NFV leverages advancements in server virtualization and enterprise IT virtualization whereas, SDN allows logical centralization of control functions. Moreover, SDN and NFV enable telecom carriers to reduce their dependency on hardware-based network equipment by focusing on software and server-based infrastructure, fostering the market for 5G equipment.

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Key players in the global 5G equipment market: Ericsson, Huawei Technologies, Nokia, Qualcomm, Samsung, and ZTE. Other Prominent Vendors in the market are: AT&T, China Mobile, KT, NTT DOCOMO, Orange Business Services, Singtel, SK Telecom, Sprint, Telenor, TeliaSonera, Verizon, and Vodafone.

This report, Global 5G Equipment Market 2016-2020, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.

Further, the report states that growing security concerns is a major challenge the market is facing. Encryption, authentication, and validation are key techniques that are required to solve security issues. Cloud RAN has to be closely monitored for effective disaster management. Also, the cloud network that is connected to M2M and IoT devices is to be securely monitored to avoid theft of confidential national information. This monitoring involves high OPEX. User equipment, access networks, and mobile core and external IP networks are potential targets in 5G networks that have to be designed effectively to eliminate security threats.

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Transformer Monitoring System Market worth 2.68 Billion USD by 2021, registering a CAGR of 12.77%

Digitalization of utilities, renewable investments, and smart grid initiatives are the major factors driving the transformer monitoring system market.

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The report "Transformer Monitoring System Market by Type (Hardware Solutions and IT Solutions), Application (Distribution Transformers, and Power Transformers), Service (Oil/Gas Monitoring, and Bushing Monitoring), and Region - Global Forecast to 2021", The transformer monitoring system market is expected to grow from an estimated USD 1.47 Billion in 2016 to USD 2.68 Billion by 2021, registering a CAGR of 12.77% from 2016 to 2021. The global market is witnessing significant growth due to digitalization of utilities, renewable investments, and smart grid initiatives. Digitalization of utilities is the major factor driving the demand for transformer monitoring solutions.

Browse 73 market data tables and 58 figures spread through 198 pages and in-depth TOC on "Transformer Monitoring System Market"

Download Free PDF Brochure: http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=197443553

The power transformer segment is expected to hold the largest share of the transformer monitoring system market, by application, during the forecast period

The power transformers segment is the largest in the applications of the transformer monitoring system market. This share is attributed to grow because of government regulations targeting the monitoring and control of the transmission networks. Remote monitoring is also a key focus area in most countries, which is driving the market.

Oil/Gas monitoring is the largest segment for services in the global transformer monitoring system market

Oil/Gas monitoring, also known as Dissolved Gas Analysis (DGA), is the most common monitoring services for transformers, and has the largest share in the transformer monitoring system market. Other key services in the market include bushing monitoring and partial discharge monitoring, which are expected to have high-growth opportunities during the forecast period. Partial discharge analysis offers predictive maintenance instead of reactive maintenance before the actual fault occurs, leading to lesser downtime.

Asia-Pacific: The leading market for transformer monitoring system

In this report, the transformer monitoring system market has been analyzed with respect to six regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, the Middle East, and Africa. Asia-Pacific is expected to be the largest market for transformer monitoring solutions; the region has the most number of developing economies with high capacity addition planned during the forecast period. Utilities are expected to adopt monitoring solutions as part of their plans for installing new transformers. Moreover, countries such as India and China have invested heavily in smart grids, in turn boosting the demand for transformer monitoring solutions.

To enable an in-depth understanding of the competitive landscape, the report includes profiles of some of the leading players in the transformer monitoring system market. These players include ABB Ltd. (Switzerland), Eaton Corporation Plc. (Ireland), General Electric (U.S.), Schneider Electric (France), and Siemens AG (Germany). Leading players are trying to penetrate the markets in developing economies and are adopting various strategies to increase their market share.

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Market Ecosystem:

The ecosystem of the global transformer monitoring system market starts with the manufacturer of electronics/electrical components and software development. The manufactured parts are then assembled by the OEM (ABB Ltd., Eaton Corporation Plc., General Electric, and so on) to form a transformer monitoring system, which is then tested. This stage is followed by marketing & sales and post-sale services, respectively.

The end-users of transformer monitoring system are public and private utility companies and electricity transmission companies.

Target Audience:

The report's target audience includes:

o Transformer Manufacturing Companies

o Builders and Contractors

o Government and Industry Associations

o Investment and Consulting Firms

o Power Distribution Utilities

o Process and Manufacturing Plants

o State and National Regulatory Authorities

o State- or Government-Owned Corporations

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About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets is the largest market research firm worldwide in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to a multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors.

M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical infographics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers.

We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository.

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Specialty Malt Market worth 3.01 Billion USD by 2022

The specialty malt market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.0%, in terms of value, from 2016 to reach a projected value of USD 3.01 Billion by 2022.

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The report "Specialty Malt Market by Type (Roasted, Crystal, and Dark), Application (Brewing, Distilling, Non-alcoholic Malt Beverages, Bakery), Source (Barley, Wheat, and Rye), Form (Dry & Liquid) and Region - Global Forecast to 2022", The global specialty malt market is projected to reach USD 3.01 Billion by 2022 in terms of value, at a CAGR of 5.0% from 2017.

Specialty malts are widely accepted in food & beverage applications, mainly for brewing, owing to their functional properties. They play an important role in determining the desired attributes such as taste, mouthfeel, texture, appearance, and flavor in beverage applications. Flavored malts such as chocolate, coffee, and caramel have expanded the application areas of malt in the food industry, thus driving the overall market for specialty malt.

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Roasted specialty malts projected to be the largest segment

Roasted malts, comprising of specialty malts such as Munich Malt, Vienna Malt, and Belgian malt varieties accounted for the largest market share in the specialty malt market due to their wide range of applications in the beverage industry. Roasted malts have been used for brewing alcohol for centuries using traditional methods to derive varieties of beer.

Brewing: The most widely accepted use of specialty malt

The brewing application segment accounted for the largest share in the specialty malt market, in terms of value, in 2016. The extensive requirement of flavored malt in beer brewing has been one of the key drivers of the specialty malt market. With recent developments of independent breweries and the introduction of several craft beers, industrial manufacturers of specialty malt are compelled to optimize their yield and processing capabilities, to cater to the changing consumer tastes & preferences.

Asia-Pacific projected to be the most lucrative market for specialty malt

In 2016, the Asia-Pacific region accounted for a significant share of the global specialty malt market and is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The rise in population, per capita beer consumption, growing local breweries, increase in awareness of craft beers, buying power of population, and rapid growth in malting technologies have led to the growth in opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region for specialty malt.

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Automotive Electric Motor Market Size, Share and Industry Outlook 2016-2020 With Leading Manufacturers

Latest report on Automotive Electric Motor Industry provides essential information for business growth. It shows the market trends, manufacturing processes, cost structures, import-export, supply, production, revenue growth rate, major manufacturers and more.

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In 2015, the global automotive market continued to grow, with the total sales volume hitting 89.68 million units, up 2.0% year on year. It is anticipated that the numbers will reach 91.3 million units in 2016 and approach 105 million units in 2020. Specifically, China, as the world's largest automobile market, contributed the sales volume of 24.6 million units in 2015, sharing 27.4% of the global total; and the sales figure is expected to rise to 26 million units in 2016, with an estimated CAGR of around 5.0% during 2016-2020.

In 2015, the global automotive electric motor shipments approximated 3.47 billion units, up 6.7% from a year ago; the figure will go up to 3.64 billion units in 2016. With the development of intelligent and new energy vehicles, the global shipments of automotive electric motor are expected to grow at a compound annual rate of around 9.0% during 2016-2020.

By installation position, automotive electric motors can be divided into body motors, chassis motors, and powertrain motors, of which body motors find widest applications, including in power seats, electric windows, and electric rearview mirrors, etc. On average, one car needs about 24 units of body motor. In 2015, the global shipments of automotive body motor totaled 2.16 billion units, accounting for 62.3% of those of automotive electric motor. We project that the figure will rise to 2.31 billion units in 2016 and 3.18 billion units in 2020.

Complete Report Spread across 109 pages and 179 Charts Now Available. Order a Copy of This Report at http://www.rnrmarketresearch.com/contacts/purchase?rname=755255

Automotive electric motors mainly fall into small-sized automotive electric motors, automotive starters and generators according to function.

Globally, relatively more competitive manufacturers of small-sized automotive electric motors consist of Japan's ASMO, Mitsuba, Nidec, Mabuchi, and Denso, etc., and some European and American companies like Valeo and Bosch. Besides, the Chinese player Johnson Electric also enjoys strong competitiveness in the international market, seizing a market share of around 10% in 2015.

As a key manufacturer of small-sized automotive electric motors such as ETC motor, EPS motor, and wiper motor, Mitsuba launched a drive motor for small-sized electric vehicles in January 2016. In April 2016, the company invested EUR13.5 million in expanding production capacity of wiper components at Hungary plant. The expansion is expected to be completed in 2017, when 90% of the capacity will be for export.

As China's largest manufacturer of small-sized automotive electric motors, Johnson Electric is developing towards smaller and more lightweight products to gradually satisfy the market requirements on the vehicle's energy saving & emission reduction and fuel efficiency improvement. For instance, the company's power windows adopt "Curve" motor technology, thus leading to a 30% reduction both in volume and weight.

Global starters and alternators have higher level of market concentration, and leading producers include Valeo, Denso, Bosch, and Remy, which held an aggregate market share of around 90% in 2015. Among these companies, Valeo's business is concentrated in China and Europe while Denso focuses on the Japanese market.

As one of the major suppliers of automotive starter and alternators, Valeoboasts a market share of about 30%. The company entered China in the 1980s and set up production bases of wiper motors and starters & alternators in Shanghai, with the annual capacity of 1.8 million units and 15 million units, respectively. And the starters and alternators can be used to support cars, light-duty trucks, and diesel engines, etc.

The report focuses on the following aspects:

Market size, industry landscape, etc. of global and Chinese automobile industry;

Market size, market structure, etc. of automotive electric motor industry;

Market size, competitive landscape, etc. of small-sized automotive motors, automotive starters and alternators, as well as motors for new energy vehicles;

Operation, automotive electric motor business, etc. of 21 global automotive electric motor manufacturers.

More Details about this Report available at http://www.rnrmarketresearch.com/contacts/inquire-before-buying?rname=755255

Major Points from Table of Contents

1. Global and Chinese Automobile Markets

2. Chinese Automobile Market

3. Auto Motor Market

4. Major Automotive Motor Manufacturers

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RnRMarketResearch.com is your single source for all market research needs. Our database includes 100,000+ market research reports from over 95 leading global publishers & in-depth market research studies of over 5000 micro markets. With comprehensive information about the publishers and the industries for which they publish market research reports, we help you in your purchase decision by mapping your information needs with our huge collection of reports.

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Flint Industry Analysis, Development, Chain Structure and Opportunities for 2021

The Flint Industry Research Report of 150 pages and providing rich tables and figures to support the Flint market analysis is now available.

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For people who are keen on the Flint Market the Global and Chinese Flint Industry, 2010-2021 Market Research Report would be a useful report to refer to as it is an exhaustive study on the present market scenario of this industry. The report also gives a special insight into the growing Global & Chinese market of this industry. The report summarizes key statistics of the market and the overall status of the manufacturers in this industry. The report is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry.

The report encapsulates all the latest news and developments in the industry along with the progress in the technology front. The information summary helps the reader of this report to be updated on all the activities of the industry. It mentions the recent trend in this market along with a market outlook both at the Global and Chinese market level. The report mentions top eight manufacturers of this market. The details covered in this portion include a detailed profiling of the company along with its products offerings, product information over the period of 2010-2016 along with the key contact person in the firm. So a person looking to diversify the business knows his competitors and also has a fair idea on the business offerings of its competitors. The Flint Market report covers the capacity of production of this industry along with production value, supply and consumption. It includes the level of competition in this market and the performance of the players in specific geography like USA, EU, Japan and China.

Order a copy of this report at http://www.market-research-reports.com/contacts/purchase.php?name=428555

The total market analysed in this report is divided by company, by country, and by application or type for the competitive landscape analysis. The report also estimates 2016-2021 market development trends of Flint industry. Analysis of upstream raw materials, downstream demand, and current market dynamics is also carried out. To end with the Flint Industry report includes ten proposals which cover the market entry strategies, suggestions on managing economic challenges and various marketing channels. This section of information is very useful for a prospective market player who is planning to startup something new in this industry. In order to prevent the new players in the market from any unpleasant experiences and safeguard against market giants there is a feasibility analysis of New Project Investment. The investment research gives a snapshot of all the pros and cons of this industry as well as speaks about the opportunities and threats. Overall, the report provides an in-depth insight of 2010-2021 Global and Chinese Flint market covering all important parameters.

Major Points from Table of Contents

Chapter One Introduction of Flint Industry

1.1 Brief Introduction of Flint

1.2 Development of Flint Industry

1.3 Status of Flint Industry

Chapter Two Manufacturing Technology of Flint

2.1 Development of Flint Manufacturing Technology

2.2 Analysis of Flint Manufacturing Technology

2.3 Trends of Flint Manufacturing Technology

Chapter Three Analysis of Global Key Manufacturers

Chapter Four 2010-2016 Global and Chinese Market of Flint

4.1 2010-2016 Global Capacity, Production and Production Value of Flint Industry

4.2 2010-2016 Global Cost and Profit of Flint Industry

4.3 Market Comparison of Global and Chinese Flint Industry

4.4 2010-2016 Global and Chinese Supply and Consumption of Flint

4.5 2010-2016 Chinese Import and Export of Flint

Chapter Five Market Status of Flint Industry

5.1 Market Competition of Flint Industry by Company

5.2 Market Competition of Flint Industry by Country (USA, EU, Japan, Chinese etc.)

5.3 Market Analysis of Flint Consumption by Application/Type

Chapter Six 2016-2021 Market Forecast of Global and Chinese Flint Industry

6.1 2016-2021 Global and Chinese Capacity, Production, and Production Value of Flint

6.2 2016-2021 Flint Industry Cost and Profit Estimation

6.3 2016-2021 Global and Chinese Market Share of Flint

6.4 2016-2021 Global and Chinese Supply and Consumption of Flint

6.5 2016-2021 Chinese Import and Export of Flint

Chapter Seven Analysis of Flint Industry Chain

7.1 Industry Chain Structure

7.2 Upstream Raw Materials

7.3 Downstream Industry

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Market Research Reports is an aggregator of syndicated market research studies that offer current and future market intelligence across multiple industrial verticals through is high quality database. Additionally, with help of our sales and research experts focus, Market Research Reports aims to help you take business decisions accurately and on time, every time.

For more information, please visit http://www.market-research-reports.com/428555-flint-industry

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Email: sales@market-research-reports.com

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Source: http://marketersmedia.com/flint-industry-analysis-development-chain-structure-and-opportunities-for-2021/145869

Release ID: 145869

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The Organic Baby Bee Company is Now Zack & Ali

Zack & Ali has now announced that they are the new name of the toddler pillow company formerly known as Organic Baby Bee. This change has come with a much broader product range.

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Zack & Ali is proud to announce that they are the new name for the company formerly known as Organic Baby Bee.

The change was made after the team behind the brand's premium toddler pillows decided they wanted their name to reflect a new direction they were excited to take. This new path will include a far greater spectrum of products for a new generation of both parents and their little ones. The first addition being their official launch of their organic toddler pillowcases. They come in 6 different prints and are made specifically to fit the 13" X 18" toddler pillows.

At the same time, Zack & Ali will continue to offer the toddler pillows for which they've become known and loved. They will still be sold both on the official website, ZackAndAli.com, as well as on Amazon.com. That said, the change in name will also bring several new offerings over time.

The Zack & Ali name was chosen to reflect a much more all-inclusive brand. This company is designed for today's moms and dads. While they remain proud of their past and the strong foundation they have created, the changing needs and wants of parents cannot be ignored.

The team behind this brand has embraced this change and is representing that in everything from the new Zack & Ali name to the fun and hip designs in the products being offered. Parents can still count on the exceptional quality they have always expected from this company. The Zack & Ali mission continues to be an ongoing offering of healthy and perfect items, the majority of which are organic, but some of which are chosen because they are simply outstandingly fun and cute.

Naturally, every item - organic or not - is meticulously selected for its safety and appropriateness for little ones. In that, Zack & Ali is determined never to change. In fact, the pillowcases just added to the company's product lineup are GOTS certified organic pillowcases.

For more information, please visit http://zackandali.com

Contact Info:

Name: Jordan

Organization: Zack & Ali

Address: 27240 Turnberry Lane #200, Valencia, CA 91355



Source: http://marketersmedia.com/the-organic-baby-bee-company-is-now-zack-ali/146058

Release ID: 146058

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Celebrate Diversity #Celebrate Diversity Campaign Launched by Language Lizard

Language Lizard launches Celebrate Diversity (#CelebrateDiversity) campaign in response to the increase in hate crimes and racist incidents since the election. The company provides educational resources and encourages people to embrace diverse religions and cultures, and support those who are anxious and fearful.

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Language Lizard LLC, a company that supports educators working with linguistically and ethnically diverse students, launched a non-partisan Celebrate Diversity campaign today in response to the increase in hate crimes and racist incidents since the election.

Anneke Forzani, President of Language Lizard, says: "It is clear that some of the rhetoric during this campaign encouraged an ignorance about various ethnic groups and religions. It also empowered white-supremacists and gave a voice to those who exploit minorities." This is evidenced by the more than 200 complaints of hate crimes counted by the Southern Poverty Law Center since November 8th.

Building on the quote by Nelson Mandela that "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world," Language Lizard is calling on people to use their knowledge to educate children and adults about different cultures and religions. "We need to show them the beauty of a diverse society; the strength we derive when we all work together to solve problems. We need to support those who are struggling and fearful, and show them that they are valued, appreciated and heard," says Ms. Forzani.

As part of the campaign, Language Lizard shares articles and resources for educators and parents such as: 10 Tips on Celebrating Diversity this Winter Season; Teaching Tolerance in Turbulent Times; 5 Fun and Easy Ways to Celebrate Diversity; Understanding and Appreciating Cultural Differences: Tips and Lesson Plan. The company also encourages people to share their own suggestions and experiences in educating others about diverse religions and cultures. It asks for input on how others are supporting those who are fearful and anxious about their future.

Ideas can be shared on the Language Lizard blog, or via Facebook and Twitter using the hashtag #CelebrateDiversity. People should also post their images of diversity on Instagram and share their videos about diversity on YouTube. Those who need encouragement can look at the images and ideas that others have shared using #CelebrateDiversity on social media.

As author T.H. White wrote, "I can imagine nothing more terrifying than an Eternity filled with men who were all the same. The only thing which has made life bearable... has been the diversity of creatures on the surface of the globe."

To learn more about the #CelebrateDiversity campaign, and to post ideas and thoughts on the topic, visit the Language Lizard blog.

For more information, please visit http://www.LanguageLizard.com

Contact Info:

Name: Anneke Forzani

Email: info@LanguageLizard.com

Organization: Language Lizard, LLC

Address: PO Box 421

Phone: (888) 554-9273

Release ID: 146078

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Calgary General Dental Clinic Announces Self-Ligating Speed Braces

Holistic Calgary general dental clinic Friends & Family Dental Health announced the launch of its speed braces in Calgary SE. The treatments include an invisible tooth alignment tray called Invisialign and a well-established speed braces treatment. Other dental services are also available by appointment.

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Friends & Family Dental Health announced the launch of its orthodontic services provided by a general dentist for dental health in Calgary as an affordable and effective alternative to a specialist orthodontics consultation.

More information about Friends & Family Dental Health and the treatment options they offer can be found at http://friendsandfamilydentalhealth.com.

Friends & Family Dental Health provides general dentistry, but also focuses on the delivery of effective and affordable orthodontic solutions such as alignment and straightening of teeth, and early intervention of dental malocclusions. Well-aligned teeth are less susceptible to cavities and trapped food. Orthodontic treatment usually requires the use of dental braces and retainers to contour the patient's jaw and teeth. These braces require periodic adjustments over several appointments. The treatment at Friends & Family Dental Health features the use clear tray retainers, sometimes called Invisalign. a system that avoids the use of metal braces.

Speed braces are also an orthodontic treatment option that can be provided by this Calgary SE dentist. A relatively recent development in the world of dental devices, speed braces accomplish the task of realigning a patient's teeth with precision for an aesthetically pleasing smile, a harmonious alignment of teeth for chewing, and skeletal jaw alignment. Using a combination of self-ligating brackets and wires that retain "memory" of their tension, this procedure moves misaligned teeth into the desired position gently.

According to a spokesperson for the Calgary dentist, "We offer orthodontic treatment to patients as young as seven years of age. We believe in holistic and timely interventions to solve orthodontic issues. Speed braces and novel new technologies such as Invisalign help our patients enjoy aesthetically pleasing smiles and functionally sound teeth for many years. Our continued commitment is to provide excellent dental health to the people of Calgary."

Friends & Family Dental Health is a leading provider of dental healthcare in Calgary SE. Headed by Calgary dentist Dr. Jeffrey Ma, the facility is located by Riverbend and Quarry Park in Calgary. Dr. Ma is dedicated to providing dental care to improve the health of the whole body, mind, and spirit.

For more information, please visit http://friendsandfamilydentalhealth.com

Contact Info:

Name: Jeffrey Ma

Email: admin@FFdental.ca

Organization: Friends & Family Dental Health

Address: 2880 Glenmore Trail SE, Suite 105

Phone: (403) 236-5171

Release ID: 146039

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American Foxhound & Eskimo Dog Mom Necklaces Tees Tank Hoodie & Mugs Released

THS Enterprises and their new eCommerce site Your Doggie Styles have announced the release of their American Foxhound and Eskimo Dog Mom Necklaces. The sterling silver necklace is available in various breeds. The company also offers tees, tanks, hoodies and mugs for pet lovers.

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THS Enterprises has announced the release of their American Foxhound and Eskimo Dog Mom Necklaces along with the launch of their new eCommerce store Your Doggie Styles. The site offers tees, tanks, hoodies, mugs, jewelry, apparel and accessories for dog lovers.

More information on Your Doggie Styles and the American Foxhound and Eskimo Dog Mom Necklaces is available at: http://yourdoggiestyles.com.

Dog people seem to take a great deal of pride in their canine friends, and a bit of research may reveal why. According to Mental Floss, people with dogs seem to get ill less frequently than people with no pets, and interaction with their dog can help them stay positive. Just looking at their pet can increase the amount of Oxytocin, the "feel good" chemical, in the brain.

Mental Floss also reports that the act of petting a dog has been shown to lower a person's heart rate and blood pressure. The results of a Chinese study show that people who own dogs get better sleep at night and are sick less often. They also have slightly lower cholesterol and are more likely to survive a heart attack.

Your Doggie Styles offers dog lovers a variety of items and accessories to help them show off their affection for their four-legged companions. Their newly released American Foxhound and Eskimo Dog Mom Necklaces come in jewelry grade stainless steel with etched text.

The necklace size is about 30 mm with a dog picture, jewels and a paw print. They also come available for other dog breeds including Airedale Terriers, Beagles, Bulldogs, Chihuahuas, Huskies, Labs, Pit Bulls, Stafford Shires and Water Spaniels.

Your Doggie Styles offers a variety of items including tees, tanks, hoodies and mugs with catchy phrases like "I Just Wanna Sip Coffee And Pet My Dog." This tee that showcases the combination and warm comfort of caffeine and canine companionship is available breed specific including Bulldog, Boxer, Golden Retriever, Labrador Retriever, French Bulldog and Poodle. The apparel is available in men's and women's styles and sizes.

The company's pet themed products include quality brands such as American Apparel and Bella Canvas, high-quality USA brands. All apparel is designed and shipped from the United States. Raw materials are obtained from a variety of distributors and manufacturers located in the US and some from abroad. Customization and decorating are done in the United States.

The company offers a diverse number of products including T-shirts, tank tops, v-necks and long sleeve shirts in baby, kids and youth models; sweatshirts, hoodies and raglans; embroidery hats and caps in snap-backs, 5 panel camper, 5 panel flat bills, knit and slouch beanies with up to 16 different thread colors; fingerprint resistant posters in ultra premium photo paper, gloss and matte finish; framed posters and canvas; tote bags; throw pillows; and mugs.

More information on Your Doggie Styles, their American Foxhound and Eskimo Dog Mom Necklaces and how to register for their newsletter is available at the website listed above and also at: http://yourdoggiestyles.com.

For more information, please visit https://www.yourdoggiestyles.com/

Contact Info:

Name: Stan Alvidrez

Organization: THS Enterprises LLC

Address: 2548 Colby Ave

Phone: 4243242474

Release ID: 146041

For more information visit r



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Seattle Court Reporters Receive Great Reviews In Google+

Seattle Court Reporting firm, Naegeli Deposition and Trial is proud to announce that they have received a number of rave reviews on Google Plus. These reviews highlight the level of service the location is giving their customers.

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Naegeli Deposition and Trial, a court reporting firm headquartered in Portland, Oregon, is proud to announce that they have received a number of rave reviews on Google Plus for their Seattle location (https://naegeliusa.com/seattle/). This highlights just how effective their court reporting services truly are.

Richard Teraci from Naegeli Deposition and Trial says: "Having an excellent online reputation is vital to our success. These reviews show our potential clients that we are professional, fast, and accurate. We encourage legal firms that have not done business with us yet to read the reviews and see what our customers are saying about us."

At the heart of Naegeli Deposition and Trial, as shown on their website at https://naegeliusa.com, lies the idea of helping legal firms with their court reporting, transcriptions, and trial support in a professional manner. To achieve this, the company offers twenty-four-hour service, verbatim reporting, and a dedicated case manager. Also, the company is HIPPA certified. This and more is something that has been greatly appreciated by their customers. "I recently conducted an all-day deposition at Naegeli-Seattle. It was my first experience with them and not only did they provide a first class facility, the staff provides a courteous and professional service. Highly recommend." says Richard A. on the Google+ site.

"Our firm uses a number of transcription services from all around our area (sometimes outside our area). However, my experience is that Naegeli is the best to work with. They are professional, fast, accurate and are so wonderful to work with. They are easy to reach at any time and are always helpful! Everyone at Naegeli is personable and friendly. I have the benefit of being located close to their Seattle office and we get personal delivery when our transcripts or projects are completed. I highly recommend that you reach out to Naegeli for your case needs." Stacey H. says on the Google+ site. Other reviews on Google+ are similar to Stacey H. and Richard A. They also mention that they were impressed at how fast their service was and the high level of accuracy.

For more information, please visit https://naegeliusa.com/

Contact Info:

Name: Lisa Hardman

Organization: Naegeli Deposition and Trial

Address: 111 SW 5th Ave #2020

Phone: (800) 528-3335

Release ID: 146063

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alexawynter.tv launches breakthrough new photobook service from Alexa Wynter

alexawynter.tv is celebrating the launch of its new online artists' book that explores universal human experiences through the intersections of fashion and culture. The new photobook will first explore the "celebrity gaze" in the post-internet age with "Celebutante". Further information is available at alexawynter.tv.

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In a contemporary and timely change of pace, "alexawynter.tv" will be celebrating the launch of its new online artists' book that explores universal human experiences through the intersections of fashion and culture. The launch instalment will explore the "celebrity gaze" in the post-internet age with "Celebutante" the photobook's first entry. "Celebutante" marks the first of four instalments within the websites introductory theme of "Exile". Like subsequent instalments, the launch exploration will consist of five photographs, each representing a common aspect of urban culture and each reporting a personal experience in the world of fashion and culture. The photobook launch will take place on December 1, 2016.

In a space where most competitors simply create self-indulgent photobooks which lack a truly immersive reader experience and fail to cause much of a stir, alexawynter.tv has opted to be simultaneously more commercial, more contemporary and more unique with the inception of its new online artists' book that explores universal human experiences at the nexus of fashion and culture.

Alexa Wynter, freelance creative director, marketing consultant and photographer at alexawynter.tv, says: "It was essential to be contemporary and novel with this new online artists' book. It explores deep into universal human experiences through multiple intersections of fashion and culture. Every instalment offers a performative, philosophical point of view on fashion and culture in real time."

Wynter added, "It should be really engaging for those working throughout the fashion and creative sectors. The first theme, "Exile" is truly dynamic with its four diversely creative instalments. The hope is that it will introduce a new way to explore and see today's world of fashion and contemporary culture. It should go great unless the entire internet crashes down on launch day!"

With 4 new instalments promised every month, alexawynter.tv will cover multiple aspects of the industry in just a few short months. Future updates will use interviews, essays and features to cover topics impacting fashion and culture from advanced technology and democratized art, to more taboo subjects including post-election news and the future of the economy.

alexawynter.tv will thrive on the idea of standing out and making the online photobook service less self-indulgent and more useful for readers and customers. Wynter explains that getting that right in this fast growing sector is all part of the fun. She believes her new service will help her readers and customers in discovering their own personal ethos and spirit by engaging them with photographer's ideologies, experiences and dogmas. That, she says, "is better than businesses that choose to do things the 'regular' way." The online launch on December 1 is just one of the many ways alexawynter.tv will achieve that goal.

When asked why this online artists' book would be a success, creative director and photographer Wynter said: "It's going to be a real hit because it's simultaneously visually captivating and mentally stretching. Our readers will find far more than stunning fashion photography. It's an open invitation to look deeper into fashion and our every day culture."

According to Futuresource Consulting, a specialist research and knowledge-based consulting company, photobooks are one of the more "robust segments" in the photo imaging market, with a combined retail value of $1.4 billion in 2013, up over $120 million in the previous year. Data from the research and consulting firm show that photobooks will continue to gain traction. The report indicates the value of the photobook market will exceed $1.6 billion by the end of 2016. These findings were calculated based upon the worth of the United States ($979 million), Western Europe ($625 million) and Eastern Europe ($37 million) regions, particularly in Czech, Hungary, Poland, and Russia in 2016.

Founder, Alexa Wynter is a freelance creative director, marketing consultant, and photographer, specializing in social media content creation and connecting consumers with fashion companies. Previously, she worked for photographer and director Bon Duke at Art+Commerce, where she helped produced content for publications including Paper and W. Most recently, Wynter has worked for TANK magazine's creative agency Tankform, where she produced content for brands, including Hugo Boss and Lane Crawford. The burgeoning creative director has a strong commitment to bringing a progressive sensibility to the luxury retail experience.

In 2009, Ms. Wynter started her career in fashion, at the tender age of 14. To date, her credentials includes working for international brands, including Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, Peter Som, Yigal Azrouel, Rick Owens, Saks Fifth Avenue, Black Frame, Barney's New York, and LANVIN. Her professional memberships include the International Center of Photography and Aperture.

In 2013, Ms. Wynter graduated from The High School of Fashion Industries, where she studied to receive her certificate in Fashion Merchandising and Marketing. She currently attends the Fashion Institute of Technology, where she is studying to receive her bachelor's degree in Advertising and Marketing Communications.

alexawynter.tv is an online artists' book that explores universal human experiences through the intersections of fashion and culture. It is set to 'go live' December 1, 2016. To find out more about the photobook service and alexawynter.tv itself, visit alexawynter.tv

For more information, please visit http://www.alexawynter.tv

Contact Info:

Name: Alexa Wynter

Email: connect@alexawynter.tv

Organization: alexawynter.tv

Address: 257 Grand Street #501

Phone: (929) 266-5981

Release ID: 146067

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Best Article Auto Generator To Spin Human Quality Content Software Launched

Aaron Sustar has launched a new, powerful and unique language simulation software for generating content. It creates huge numbers of articles in quick fashion, but does so with a human quality.

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A new content creation product has launched called Spin Rewriter, which offers customers the opportunity to auto create content, copy and text that is described as human quality. This means that online businesses that need to publish large quantities of text can afford to do so with fewer in house writers, and also ensures they don't have to hire expensive copywriters.

More information can be found at: http://connecttrend.com/SpinRewriter.

The site explains that the simple program allows users to create 500 totally unique, human quality articles in just 45 seconds. Described by creator Aaron Sustar as the holy grail, Spin Rewriter has defied expectations and established itself as something a lot of people thought they would never see: an automatic content generation system that works.

One of the common problems with auto text generators is that they produce such mechanical sounding copy that companies have to rewrite it themselves anyway, costing time as well as money. The benefit of Spin Rewriter is that the software focuses on proper spelling and language.

The software is getting positive reviews for its ease of use, with many people saying it has turned their business around. Often companies spend thousands of dollars on getting content developed, but with Spin Rewriter, they can afford to cut back on that and use their funding elsewhere.

The Spin Rewriter website emphasises that content is of utmost importance in today's climate. The more good content a site has, the more keywords it can rank for, which means the more customers it can attract and the higher it will be in search rankings.

Small businesses and one man teams are often limited by the amount of content they can produce. Spin Rewriter was designed to help these businesses succeed, by putting a powerful content generation tool in their hands.

Aaron Sustar explains that Spin Rewriter offers an entirely new level of sophistication that hasn't been seen before with article generation software. Full details are provided on the site, along with useful info graphics breaking down the differences between the software's emulated natural language spinning and other options out there.

For more information, please visit http://www.ConnectTrend.com

Contact Info:

Name: Rob Hoerntlein

Email: Trend@ConnectTrend.com

Organization: Connect Trend

Address: PO Box Sonora, CA 95370

Phone: (209) 206-2549

Release ID: 145959

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IC Media Direct - Experts In Attendance at Affiliate Summit East 2016

Team at IC Media Direct spoke on the importance of building an unparalleled online brand for businesses and individuals and tackled some of the forward-thinking strategies ICMD utilizes for successful content marketing.

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One of the world's most renowned leaders in online reputation management and a public relations powerhouse, IC Media Direct joined other companies, industry leaders, and influencers at Affiliate Summit East 2016 to share invaluable market insights with participants and hear their views on most trending issues nationwide and internationally. The annual conference and tradeshow took place July 31 through August 2 at the New York Marriott Marquis in New York and brought together over 5,000 marketers, vendors, networks and media outlets. Team at IC Media Direct spoke on the importance of building an unparalleled online brand for businesses and individuals and tackled some of the forward-thinking strategies ICMD utilizes for successful content marketing.

Established in 2003, Affiliate Summit Inc. has a proven track record in managing highly successful marketing projects and delivering numerous insightful events, educational sessions, and tradeshows. With combined experience of more than 30 years in affiliate marketing, founders of the company Shawn Collins and Missy Ward believe in the power of interpersonal networking and information exchange in today's fast-paced digital world. Their landmark events create an invaluable learning and sharing environment for thought leaders, start-ups, merchants, and vendors to discuss new opportunities for effective business development and digital innovations. With an established expertise in providing state-of-the art solutions to customers who aim to showcase their brand online in the best light, IC Media Direct was delighted to bring first-class advice and tips on effective reputation management to affiliates and merchants at the renowned conference. Experts at IC Media Direct reinforced confidence in search engine optimization (SEO) techniques and emphasized the need for every brand to regularly put out content and use technological advancement to develop and maintain captivating online presence.

This year's edition of Affiliate Summit featured a collection of keynotes from most influential and thought-provoking public figures in the field of digital platforms and marketing. Speaker Scott Stratten, a social media and relationship marketing expert, President of Un-Marketing and the author of four best-selling business books, is one of "America's 10 Marketing Gurus", according to Business Review USA. The final and concluding day of Affiliate Summit East 2016 saw an SEO keynote panel, featuring Bruce Clay (President of Bruce Clay, Inc.), Duane Forrester (VP at Bruce Clay, Inc.), and Stephan Spencer (Co-Author of The Art of SEO).

Founded in 1996, IC Media Direct is an award-winning PR and online reputation management company, dedicated to brand repair for customers across the globe. Its cutting-edge technological solutions and highly competitive and unmatched online reputation packages have vastly improved the Internet presence of numerous businesses, professional athletes, politicians, fortune top 500 CEOs, celebrities, among many others. Major marketing conferences and events frequently benefit from IC Media Direct's participation and sponsorships, including Affiliate Summit, Leadscon, SES, and ad:tech conferences.

ICMediaDirect - PR and Marketing News: http://icmediadirectnews.com

ICMediaDirect.com - Google Reputation Management - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/icmediadirect

IC Media Direct -- Reputation Management -- to Attend ad:tech 2016 New York Conference: http://www.streetinsider.com/Press+Releases/IC+Media+Direct+--+Reputation+Management+--+to+Attend+ad%3Atech+2016+New+York+Conference/11434531.html

For more information, please visit http://www.ICMediaDirect.com

Contact Info:

Name: ICMD

Email: pr@icmediadirect.com

Organization: ICMediaDirect.com

Phone: (800) 595-0821

Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3QHOeY8qAM

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/ic-media-direct-experts-in-attendance-at-affiliate-summit-east-2016/146197

Release ID: 146197

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Jacob Frydman - To Attend the NCFJE 76th Annual Awards Dinner

Jacob Frydman will be in attendance at the gala celebrating the NCFJE's many achievements and volunteers making a positive impact within the local and national Jewish community

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The National Committee for Furtherance of Jewish Education's (NCFJE) 76th annual awards dinner will take place at the Edison Ballroom on November 20-21, 2016. New York real estate and private equities expert, Jacob Frydman will be in attendance at the gala celebrating the NCFJE's many achievements and volunteers making a positive impact within the local and national Jewish community.

Founded in 1940 by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson, the NCFJE assists Jewish participants through meal programs and educational initiatives. During its 76 years of operation, the NCFJE has served

thousands as a means of promoting humanitarianism. "I have had the privilege of working with the NCFJE for the past several years," Frydman said. "I have seen firsthand the impact this group has made throughout New York's Jewish community and am looking forward to attending this year's annual dinner to celebrate everything this uplifting organization offers."

Jacob Frydman has personally participated in several NCFJE charities, including its Released Time Program and Toys for Hospitalized Children project. The Released Time Program teaches Jewish students about their distinctive heritage through exposure to prayers, traditions, and the Torah. Frydman, a long-time educational activist who founded a scholarship fund in 2013, supports the Released Time Program's goal of using synagogues to teach modern-day public school children to embrace Judaism. The program works in joint with NYC public schools, offering Jewish classes for the students once a week in the last hour of school at a Jewish center nearby.

Frydman has also worked alongside the organization's Toys for Hospitalized Children initiative, directed by Mrs. Baila Hecht. This 50-year-old NCFJE project services numerous hospitals, senior residences and special needs facilities as it collects and distributes over 10,000 toys and gifts to young patients each year. As an active contributor to the Toys for Hospitalized Children, Frydman helps families across New York and New Jersey, while assisting NCFJE participants develop deep, sustainable roots within their Judaic faith.

Jacob Frydman has built a successful 30-year career in real estate investments and development. A Boston University graduate with a Bachelors of Science in Finance, and a Juris Doctor degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law. Frydman left his mark throughout the United States by developing over five million square feet of commercial properties. As an innovator in the property investment market, he often lends his insight as a speaker, panelist, and consultant at industry events and televised news broadcasts. Frydman is an avid humanitarian dedicated to a wide range of charitable organizations. In addition to the NCFJE, he also contributes to The Brem Foundation and The Chabad of Duchess County. For the event's ticket's, visit: https://ncfjeorg.clhosting.org/tools/events/register_cdo/eventid/5361/lang/en

Jacob Frydman - Property Expert and Consultant: http://jacobfrydmannews.com

Jacob Frydman - Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/jacob-frydman

Jacob Frydman (@jacobfrydman) - Twitter: https://twitter.com/jacobfrydman

For more information, please visit http://www.JacobFrydmanNews.com

Contact Info:

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Email: contact@jacobfrydmannews.com

Organization: JacobFrydmanNews.com



Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpgwu_U5liM

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NYC Chiropractor Joins Olympians as a Wellness Champion for Corporate Health

NYC Chiropractor Dr. Matt Glass of Manhattan Upper Cervical Chiropractic selected as exclusive Wellness Champion for New York City. Dr. Glass joins top Olympic athletes and Doctors throughout the country to educate and entertain New York City corporations and businesses in the workplace wellness space.

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Corporations and small business in New York City will soon be able to enhance their corporate wellness programs with events and services from Dr. Matt Glass who has been selected as an exclusive Wellness Champion in NYC. Today Dr. Matt Glass, NYC Chiropractor at Manhattan Upper Cervical Chiropractic PLLC releases details of his selection as a Wellness Champions.

Wellness Champions are a group of Doctors and Olympic athletes throughout the country that serve to enhance Corporate Wellness programs. The Wellness Champions bring cutting edge health programming in the form of trademarked talks and events to educate and entertain, or as they call it edu-tain. The Wellness Champions programs increase health engagement and work productivity for the companies and employees it partners with.

Workplace wellness programs in New York City are of interest to an increasing number of businesses and civic organizations. Healthier workers are more productive when they are at work and miss less work due to sick days. Bringing in special programming that is focused on natural healthcare and prevention also enhances corporate culture and employee satisfaction. It is also a great opportunity for New York City HR directors, and Wellness Coordinators to enhance their benefits to their employees.

As a Wellness Champion, Dr. Glass will be focused on building relationships with business leaders throughout New York City. His ability to educate and create unique corporate talks and events will impact not only the health of the employees as individuals, but the bottom line of the corporation.

Dr. Matt Glass, when asked about being the exclusive NYC Chiropractor selected as a Wellness Champion said :

"Being selected as the exclusive NYC Chiropractor to join the Wellness Champions is a great honor. Joining such a progressive organization will increase our ability to transform the lives of employees throughout New York City. Our mission is to educate and entertain with cutting edge healthcare information so that we can help more people live with health and vitality and to prevent unnecessary disease and suffering. Being selected to join with some of the top Olympic Athletes and Doctors in our country to accomplish this mission is a very special opportunity for Manhattan Upper Cervical Chiropractic and the businesses and employees in New York City."

This is the latest offering from NYC Chiropractor Dr. Matt Glass of Manhattan Upper Cervical Chiropractic PLLC. He is particularly excited about this partnership because being selected as a Wellness Champion is going to help more people live healthier lives and suffer less.

For more information, please visit https://ucmanhattan.com/

Contact Info:

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Organization: Manhattan Upper Cervical Chiropractic PLLC

Address: 594 Broadway #911, New York, NY

Phone: (212) 334-1933

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Larry Pitt Named to Top 100 List by Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group for Three Consecutive Years

Philadelphia attorney Larry Pitt has been named to Top 100 List by the Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group for the third consecutive year.

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Larry Pitt & Associates is proud to announce that the firm's founder, Larry Pitt, has been honored by the Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group for three consecutive years as one of the "Nation's Top 100 Injured Workers Attorneys." Mr. Pitt was named to the list for his advocacy on behalf of injured workers in Philadelphia and throughout the state.

"This is really an extraordinary honor," said firm founder Larry Pitt. "When I opened this firm back in 1981, I saw a real need in Philadelphia for advocacy on behalf of people who were seriously hurt while on the job. Since then, we have grown to six separate offices, all serving the greater Philly metro area and beyond, and had the privilege of working with some of the hardest-working attorneys there are. The Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group is an incredible group of advocates, and I am truly honored to be a part of what they do."

Larry Pitt & Associates is a Philadelphia-based law firm which primarily focuses on workers' compensation and Social Security Disability. The firm also provides personal injury services to clients throughout Pennsylvania.

About the Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group

The Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group began in 1995 as a "national non-profit membership organization dedicated to representing the interests of millions of workers and their families who, each year, suffer the consequences of work-related injuries or occupational illnesses and who need expert legal assistance to obtain medical care and other relief under workers' compensation programs." Membership is invitation only, and the group boasts close to 1,000 members throughout the U.S.

Every year, WILG creates a list of Top 100 Injured Workers' Attorneys. Honorees are selected from firms around the country, and the list serves to help people in need of workers' compensation benefits make informed decisions about who should represent them. It also offers a number of benefits to members, including access to depositions, affinity partnerships and industry publications.

The Philadelphia law firm of Larry Pitt & Associates focuses entirely on workers' compensation, Social Security Disability and personal injury. The firm maintains multiple office locations in Philadelphia, Lansdowne, Reading and Bensalem.

For more information, please visit http://www.larrypitt.com

Contact Info:

Name: Larry Pitt

Organization: Larry Pitt & Associates, P.C.

Address: 409 South 20th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103

Phone: (215) 546-0011

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/larry-pitt-named-to-top-100-list-by-workers-injury-law-advocacy-group-for-three-consecutive-years/146071

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Boris Mizhen - Joins the NMHC Apartment Strategies Outlook Forum

The NMHC Apartment Strategies Outlook Conference takes place just before Council's annual meeting, ensuring that the greatest minds in the apartment industry will be present.

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The National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) has long provided a forum for the apartment industry's leaders to discuss insights and drive innovation. It has also represented the industry as a whole and allowed it to speak with a unified voice. One of their most important events, the NMHC Apartment Strategies Outlook Conference is set to take place on January 19 at the Hilton Bonnet Creek/Waldorf Astoria in Florida. As a leader in the real estate industry, Boris Mizhen is proud to be attending the conference and looks forward to sharing his ideas and gaining valuable knowledge from his colleagues.

While his entrepreneurship spans many fields and industries, Boris Mizhen has shown an admiration for and interest in real estate, paying particular attention to multifamily housing. The innovative marketing services he developed early in his career have been instrumental to his success in the real estate world, and has used his talents to improve the quality of housing for thousands of people from varying economic backgrounds. He has also actively pursued the discovery of new strategies and kept a close watch on promising trends within the industry, taking direction from inspirations such as Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. Last year, decisions such as making a considerable investment in a new mobile app that could have an incredible impact on the real estate industry showed his dedication to further innovation. Mizhen believes that the NMHC Apartment Strategies Outlook Conference is the perfect symposium in which to meet like-minded individuals and organizations who are similarly driven to maximize the success of multifamily real estate.

The NMHC Apartment Strategies Outlook Conference takes place just before Council's annual meeting, ensuring that the greatest minds in the apartment industry will be present. It is an excellent opportunity for all who are involved, connected to or simply interested in the field, as unlike the NMHC members-only annual meeting, the conference is open to the public. It will be a full day of networking and panels, featuring the industry's most respected leaders as keynote speakers and moderators. Discussions of trends, statistics and new developments will help illuminate what we can expect to see from the industry and the economy in 2017.

Boris Mizhen is a New York-based entrepreneur that has proven himself as one of the country's leading property developers, business strategists and investors. His career in real estate was achieved when he demonstrated to be one of the most innovative online marketers in the world. He owns and manages dozens of successful properties across the North Eastern United States, and is continuously looking for new ways to advance the workings of the real estate industry. His passion for buying and improving housing for people of differing economic backgrounds parallels his love for charitable work, including the Jewish Foundation of Greater New Haven and Chabad of the Shoreline, whose festival they have acted as the primary sponsors for a decade.

Boris Mizhen - Property Developer and Philanthropist: http://borismizhennews.com

Boris Mizhen -- Generously Donates to the Jewish Foundation of Greater New Haven: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/boris-mizhen-generously-donates-jewish-000443932.html

Boris Mizhen -- Proud to Donate to Yale-New Haven Hospital: http://www.streetinsider.com/Press+Releases/Boris+Mizhen+--+Proud+to+Donate+to+Yale-New+Haven+Hospital/11166539.html

For more information, please visit http://www.BorisMizhenNews.com

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Email: boris@borismizhennews.com

Organization: BorisMizhenNews.com



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Digital Printing Packaging Market worth 42.11 Billion USD by 2026,at a CAGR of 13.9%

The digital printing packaging market is expected to witness high growth as a result of the growing demand for suitable printing & increasing demand for digital printing packaging.

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The report "Digital Printing Packaging Market by Packaging Technology (Thermal Transfer, Electrophotography & Electrostatic, Inkjet), Packaging Type (Labels, Flexible Packaging), Ink Type, Printing Format, Application, and Region - Global Forecast to 2026" Published by MarketsandMarkets, The Digital Printing Packaging Market size is projected to grow from USD 11.42 Billion in 2016 to reach USD 42.11 Billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 13.9%

Browse 113 market data tables and 53 figures spread through 174 pages and in-depth TOC on "Digital Printing Packaging Market"

Sample Pages: http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsample.asp?id=249244591

The global Digital Printing Packaging Market is witnessing demand owing to the rise in manufacturing activities. The market is driven by factors such as strong growth in the demand from the food and homecare sectors. The growing healthcare industry and the popularity of using convenient packaging are major drivers of the Digital Printing Packaging Market.

Food & beverage segment is estimated to be the fastest-growing segment in 2015

The food & beverages segment is estimated to be the fastest-growing segment in 2015. The demand for digital printing packaging is experiencing high demand from the food & beverage industry, mainly because of the growing demand for packaged and branded products. Increase in demand for product differentiation and labelling for their authentication drives the market growth for printing in the food & beverage packaging segment

Labels is projected to be the largest segment during the forecast period in packaging type segment

The Digital Printing Packaging Market, on the basis of packaging type, is classified into labels, flexible packaging, corrugated, folding cartons, and others, which includes rigid plastic packaging and metal packaging. The labels segment accounted for the largest share in 2015 due to its numerous application such as displaying sequential barcodes and numbering, variable text, titles, or graphics, and add substantial value to the product.

Asia-Pacific projected to account for the largest share in the Digital Printing Packaging Market in 2021

Asia-Pacific, with emerging economies such as China and India, is expected to drive the Digital Printing Packaging Market. China is projected to account for the largest market share and dominate the Asia-Pacific Digital Printing Packaging Market in 2021. The growing healthcare and food & beverage industries are likely to drive the demand for digital printing packaging in China. In addition to this, the country's large consumer base, overall positive economic environment, and increase in manufacturing activities will drive demand in the packaging industry.

The major players include HP Inc. (U.S.), E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (U.S.), Xerox Corporation (U.S.), Mondi Plc (South Africa), Quad/Graphics, Inc. (U.S.), and WS Packaging Group (U.S.). Companies have adopted strategies such as mergers & acquisitions to cope with the increasing demand in the emerging markets.

Speak to Analyst: http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/speaktoanalyst.asp?id=249244591

The market ecosystem involves various stakeholders in the digital printing packaging market. It starts with the raw material suppliers such as Eastman Kodak Co. (U.S.), Quantum Print and Packaging Ltd. (U.K.), Quad/Graphics Inc. (U.S.), and Traco Manufacturing, Inc. (U.S.), who provide the required raw materials to the manufacturing companies. The next level in the chain involves the manufacturing and the assembly team. This is taken care of by the manufacturers such as HP Inc. (U.S.), E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (U.S.), Xerox Corporation (U.S.), WS Packaging Group, Inc. (U.S.), Mondi plc (South Africa), and Xeikon N.V. (Netherlands). It is followed by the marketing and sales of the finished products, which is only possible if an efficient distribution channel is developed. Finally, the end products are distributed to the consumers.

Target Audience

o Manufacturers of digital printing packaging

o Importers and exporters of digital printing packaging

o Traders, distributors, and suppliers of digital printing packaging

o End users (food & beverage, healthcare, and cosmetics & toiletries industries)

Request for Customization: http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestCustomization.asp?id=249244591

About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets is the largest market research firm worldwide in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to a multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors.

M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical infographics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers.

We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository.

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E-Cigarette and Vaporizer 2016 Global Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 21% and Forecast to 2021

WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On - "E-Cigarette and Vaporizer 2016 Global Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 21% and Forecast to 2021".

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Vape Market (e-Cigarette and Vaporizer) Market - Report Insights

A vape product or broadly known as e-cigarette, electronic cigarette, and vaporizer is a battery operated device and has been reckoned as an alternative to traditional tobacco cigarettes by many vendors. Without the inhalation of smoke, it gives the experience of tobacco smoking where the user inhales the vaporized nicotine emitted by the device. Vape products are smoke and tobacco-free consumer products. These are also designed and used as a tobacco harm reduction (THR) product and are sold as medical devices in many countries. The major turning point for the vape product market was the year 2014 as the market witnessed a record number of major acquisitions, the launch of technologically advanced product, patent warfare, and the introduction of government regulations.

The effects of vaping on the human body are not yet fully known. However, they are considered less toxic than traditional tobacco cigarettes because they produce vapor instead of smoke. They are considered as an effective method that helps smokers quit smoking, though there is no scientifically grounded evidence for this.

Vape market (e-Cigarette and Vaporizer) research report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the Worldwide Vape Products (e-Cigarette and Vaporizer) Market for the period 2015-2021. The report provides in-depth analysis of market size and growth of Worldwide Vape market. This market research report includes a detailed market segmentation of the Worldwide Vapor Products Market by

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Vape (e-Cigarette and Vaporizer) Products Segmentation

1) Closed System Vape Products

1.1) Cigalikes (also known as disposables/first-generation e-cigarette)

1.2) Rechargeables (also known as second-generation e-cigarette)

1.3) Refill Cartridges

2) Open System Vape Products

2.1) Vapor/tanks/mods or VTMs (also called personal vaporizer/modulars/electronic cigarette/third-generation e-cigarette)

2.2) E-liquids/e-juices

Vape (e-Cigarette and Vaporizer) Products Geographic Segmentation

1) North America

2) Europe

3) APAC

4) ROW

Vape (e-Cigarette and Vaporizer) Products Distribution Channels

1) Online

2) Retail

2.1) Convenience stores

2.2) Vape shops

2.3) Tobacco shops

2.4) Grocery

2.5) Drug stores

2.6) Others

The report also provides market share and profiles the key vendors operating in the Worldwide Vape Products Market and also provides the detailed competitive landscape of key players.

Vape (e-Cigarette and Vaporizer) Products - Market Size and Dynamics

A vaping device or vapor product is a battery-powered inhaler that simulates tobacco smoking. It is designed to provide inhaled doses of e-juice by vaporizing the flavored liquid, and then simulating the effects of smoking by vaporizing the liquid, which the user inhales and exhales. A vaping device, also known as an e-vaping device, a personal vaporizer, or an ENDS uses a heating element to vaporize the flavored liquid. The e-juices in the market are available in more than 3,000 flavors with many more being added every month.

Vape products are broadly classified into two categories: closed systems (cigalikes, rechargeables, and refill cartridges) and open systems (VTMs and e-liquids). Market research analysts at Beige Market Intelligence, expect the Worldwide Vape Products Market to reach approx. US$32.11 billion by 2021.

The Worldwide Vape Products market has been segmented on the basis of distribution channels and geographical region. North America accounted for the largest market share of more than 40% of the market in 2015; it is expected to grow at a high CAGR of around 27% between 2015 and 2021. However, APAC market is expected to account for a share of around 21% of the market in 2021.

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Vape (e-Cigarette and Vaporizer) Products - Drivers and Trends

This market research report provides market overview of the factors driving and restraining the growth of the market. The report also outlines the key trends emerging in the market that will contribute to the growth of Worldwide Vape Products (e-Cigarette and Vaporizer) Market during the forecast period. The factors driving the growth of the market include consumers' perception of vapor products as an alternative to traditional tobacco cigarettes. There is increased desire among consumers worldwide to quit smoking tobacco and this has made vaping a rapidly growing concept worldwide. The global sales volume of traditional cigarettes has declined owing to an increase in sales of e-cigarette and vaping. The US witnessed about 19% decline altogether in traditional cigarette sales among adults, i.e., a drop from 20 of every 100 adults (19.8%) in 2008 to nearly 16 of every 100 adults (15.7%) in 2015. Due to this, the majority of the global players in the tobacco industry witnessed a massive decline in the shipment of traditional cigarettes in 2015, prompting bigger tobacco companies like Altria Group, Imperial Tobacco, and Reynolds American to rush into the vapor products market. Also, the increasing number of deaths caused by smoking-related cancer has propelled people to stop smoking traditional cigarettes. For instance, as per the US government, approximately 480,000 people, due to active smoking, and nearly 42,000 people, due to passive smoking, die in the country every year. The tobacco smoking is attributed to one in every five deaths in the US.

Some of the major challenges confronting the Worldwide Vape Products (e-Cigarette and Vaporizer) Market include governments introducing stringent norms to regulate vapor products. Vape products are banned in many major economies such as Brazil, Japan, and Indonesia. Also, the governments of Poland and India are considering imposing a complete ban on the sale and use of these products. In March 2016, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) banned the use of e-cigarette, vape pens and vaporizer or vapes in flights. Moreover, growing health concerns related to the use of vapor products is acting as a challenge to the growth of the market. Regulatory bodies are still not clear on how much nicotine or other chemicals are actually being inhaled by the body while vaping. In addition, the effectiveness of these products in helping people quit smoking has not been fully studied. Researchers have indicated that e-liquids containing chemical flavoring have substances which cause lung diseases. About 90% of the flavored e-liquid or e-juice in the market contain an organic compound called Diacetyl. This flavoring chemical, i.e., Diacetyl has also been linked to severe lung diseases. Exposure to this chemical leads to Bronchiolitis obliterans, spirometry abnormalities and other harmful respiratory symptoms.

The market research report also provides the Porter's five forces analysis along with a description of each of the forces and its impact on the market.

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Interactive Display in the Education Sector 2016 Global Market Share,Growth,Trends & Forecast to 2021

WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On - "Interactive Display in the Education Sector 2016 Global Market Share,Growth,Trends & Forecast to 2021".

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Interactive Display in the Education Sector

An interactive display is a dynamic information display device which can be operated by the means of touch. It is used for imparting information through connectivity with other technology products such as personal laptop, tablet etc. They amalgamate input devices, output devices, software and electronic hardware to provide an interactive experience. These comprise of networking elements, memory, processors, application software, and the OS. Interactive displays are used mainly in educational institutions, retail outlets, corporate meeting rooms, healthcare institutes, and government venues.

Interactive Display in the Education Sector market research report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the Strategic Assessment of the Worldwide Interactive Display Market in the Education sector for the period 2013-2021. The report provides in-depth analysis of market size, growth, trends, and market share analysis of Worldwide Interactive Display in the Education Sector market. This market research report includes a detailed market segmentation of the Worldwide Interactive Display in the Education Sector market by

Type of Components

o Interactive Whiteboard

o Interactive Projector

o Interactive Flat Pane

Geographic Segmentation

o APAC

o Europe

o Latin America

o Middle East and Africa

o North America

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Country Segmentation

o Leading Country 1 (for each of the above regions)

o Leading Country 2 (for each of the above regions)

o Leading Country 3 (for each of the above regions)

Market Share Analysis of Key Vendors

o NEC Corp

o Promethean World PLC

o Seiko Epson Corp

o SMART Technologies Inc

o Vestel Elektronik Sanayi ve Ticaret AS

Interactive Display market in the Education sector - Market Size and Dynamics

Market research analysts at Beige Market Intelligence, forecast the Worldwide Interactive Display market in the Education sector to grow at a CAGR of more than 17% during the forecast period. The increasing development in the education sector especially in terms of investment is a key factor that is driving the market. Numerous counties around the world are looking at new and innovative means in the education sector and the interactive display is just one such innovation that fits the bill. Further to this, interactive displays allow for content to be streamed from other devices such a smartphones and tablets. Numerous studies have shown that there is a child`s learning ability increases considerably with interactive sessions which interactive display is able to address. Language learning in particular is one facet of education that needs continuous interaction for a proper grasp of the subject at hand.

Worldwide Interactive Display market in the Education sector can be segmented based on the products which go to make an interactive display, i.e, an interactive whiteboard, an interactive flat panel and an interactive projector. Interactive whiteboards are expected to account for approximately US$ 1.2 billion of the interactive display market in the education sector by 2021. This contribution of this product has been declining slowly since 2013 and is expected to decline till the end of the forecast period. However, interactive whiteboards will still be the leading contributor to the interactive display market in the education sector. Interactive panels are expected to record the highest CAGR during the forecast period of approximately 20 percent.

Interactive Display market in the Education sector - Geographic Analysis

North America as of 2015 accounted for the highest share of the interactive display market in the education sector. The region is expected to account for more than US$ 1 billion by 2021. School enrolment is an indicator of the Interactive Display market in the education sector. Advanced technology is required to reach out to large group of students, thus, leading to adoption of interactive displays, projectors, and flat panels. These devices assist in demonstration with the help of colorful imagery. Also, varied learning styles can be incorporated in these devices according to the instructors' style of teaching, leading to student engagement for effective learning

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In terms of unit shipments, Europe is expected to account for a little over 1000 units by the end of the forecast period. One of the largest triggers for the market in Europe is the FATIH project. The project aimed at installing tablet computers in the hands of the students along with interactive whiteboards in every classroom. By 2015, more than 84 thousand classrooms have been equipped with interactive whiteboards. Thus, this region faces demand for interactive whiteboard in the era of emerging interactive flat panels.

The APAC region is expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 20 percent during the forecast period. Interactive Display market in the Education sector in the APAC region is largely led by the digital media market. Digital media refers to the visual, audio, and photo content which is compressed digitally. The ease of mobility of digital content and its effectiveness in reaching out to masses is the key driver of the digital media market. Digital spend is recorded the highest in Asia Pacific. It comprises of 20.1 percent of the global digital spend.

Interactive Display market in the Education sector - Drivers, Restrains and Trends

This market research report provides market overview of the factors driving and restraining the growth of the market. The report also outlines the key trends emerging in the market that will contribute to the growth of Worldwide Interactive Display market in the Education sector during the forecast period. The factors driving the growth of the market include the deployment of digital learning. In 2015, digital textbook sales were 25 percent of the US Textbook market. This is expected to grow to 35 percent by 2016. The department of Education of the US has an ongoing project called the Federal Registry for Educational Excellence which provides digital library for the education experts. The growth in digital content in the education sector is just a small part of overall digital learning through the aid of interactive displays. Learning through interaction has always been more effective than standard one-way teaching. As such, an increase in digital content in any country will have a strong effect on the interactive display market.

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Tube Packaging Market is expected to cross USD 9 Billion by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 7.2% in 2016-2022

Market research future published a half cooked research report on global tube packaging market. The global tube packaging market is expected to grow over the CAGR of around 7.2% during the period 2016 to 2022

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Market Highlights

A tube is a hollow container, made up of plastic, aluminum or paperboard. A tube packaging is used majorly for containing sticky liquids such as lotions, ointment, pastes and adhesive among others. The key drivers of the market are growth in flexible packaging, innovative packaging, and various barrier properties. The global Tube Packaging Market is witnessing intense competition due to presence of large number of manufacturers. Growing consumption of cosmetics and oral care products across all age groups globally is primarily driving the market.

The food & beverages industries accounts for a major share of the market after personal care. Packaging is very crucial to these industries as lot of chemical components are at play which needs very secured packaging for the product to retain its properties for which it is designed for. Both the food & beverages and the personal care are directly or in directly applied or consumed by the human body, which makes it even more important for the product to deliver the right results. Thus, these industries are highly packaging driven. The global tube packaging market is expected to cross USD 9 Billion by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of 7.2% in the forecasted period.

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Key Players

o Amcor Ltd.

o Albea Group

o Essel Propack Limited

o Huhtamaki OYJ

o Montebello Packaging

o Sonoco Products Company

o Unette Corporation

o Worldwide Packaging

o 3D Technopack SARL

o Maynard & Harris Plastics

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Market Research Analysis

The market is highly application based. The key driver for market growth is increased emphasis on packaging across all industries. This is backed by the need for packaging that retains the product value and form. It is expected that the global tube packaging market will advance with higher growth rate as compared to previous years. However the current challenge for the market is heavy competition.

On the basis of material, laminate leads the market in all the major regions across the globe. It is the most preferred material when it comes to packaging due to its excellent barrier property. On the basis of applications, personal care accounts for the largest share in the market. In coming years, due to improved lifestyle globally the cosmetics and oral care is expected to witness huge growth.

On the basis of region, Europe takes the lead as fastest growing market, followed by North America and APAC majorly due to increasing per capita income and consumer spending. The European region is marked with informed and quality conscious consumers. This widens the scope for full proof packaging technology that retains the properties and texture of the product in any segment: food, beverage, cosmetics, medicines, lotions, pastes, etc.

List of Figures

FIGURE 1 Global Tube Packaging market segmentation

FIGURE 2 Forecast Methodology

FIGURE 3 Five Forces Analysis of Global Tube Packaging Market

FIGURE 4 Value Chain of Global Tube Packaging Market

FIGURE 5 Share of Global Tube Packaging Market in 2014, by country (in %)

FIGURE 6 Global Tube Packaging Market, 2015-2022, (USD billion)

FIGURE 7 Sub-segments of Global Tube Packaging Market

FIGURE 8 Global Tube Packaging Market size by Material

FIGURE 9 Share of Laminate in Global Tube Packaging industry, 2012 to 2022

FIGURE 10 Share of Plastics in Global Tube Packaging industry, 2012 to 2022

FIGURE 11 Share of aluminum in Global Tube Packaging industry, 2012 to 2022

FIGURE 12 Share of Paperboard in Global Tube Packaging industry, 2012 to 2022

FIGURE 14 Global Tube Packaging Market size by Product

FIGURE 15 Share of Bottles in Global Tube Packaging industry, 2012 to 2022

Continue...........

Target Audience

o Manufactures

o Raw Materials Suppliers

o Aftermarket suppliers

o Research Institute / Education Institute

o Potential Investors

o Key executive (CEO and COO) and strategy growth manager

Taste the market data and market information presented through more than 85 market data tables and figures spread in 125 numbers of pages of the project report. Avail the in-depth table of content TOC & market synopsis on "Global Tube Packaging Market Information from 2014 to 2022"

Scope of the Report

This study provides an overview of the global tube packaging industry, tracking three market segments across four geographic regions. The report studies key players, providing a five-year annual trend analysis that highlights market size, volume and share for North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. The report also provides a forecast, focusing on the market opportunities for the next five years for each region. The scope of the study segments the global tube packaging market as material, product and application. On the basis of material it is segmented as laminate, plastic, aluminum, paperboard, and others. On the basis of product it is segmented as squeeze tubes, twist tubes, cartridges and others. On the basis of application it is segmented as personal care, pharmaceuticals, food & beverages, consumer goods and others.

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Table of Content

1 Executive Summary

2 Scope Of The Report

2.1 Market Definition

2.2 Scope Of The Study

2.2.1 Research Objectives

2.2.2 Assumptions & Limitations

2.3 Markets Structure

3 Market Research Methodologies

3.1 Research Process

3.2 Secondary Research

3.3 Primary Research

3.4 Forecast Model

4 Market Landscape

4.1 Five Forces Analysis

4.1.1 Threat Of New Entrants

4.1.2 Bargaining power of buyers

4.1.3 Threat of substitutes

4.1.4 Segment rivalry

4.2 Value Chain of Global Tube Packaging Market

5 Industry Overview of Global Tube Packaging Market

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Growth Drivers

5.3 Impact analysis

5.4 Market Challenges

5.5 Impact analysis

Continue.........

Furthermore in the regions of APAC, there have been various government initiatives taken for healthcare reforms. This augments the demand for such packaging that preserves the medicinal value of the product throughout its shelf life and during usage. The region has also seen a lot of investment in R&D towards the technological advancement in packaging industries.

Related Report

Global Glass Packaging Market Information by Application (Alcoholic beverages, food & beverages, pharmaceuticals and others) and by Region - Forecast to 2021 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/global-glass-packaging-market-research-report-forecast-to-2021

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At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.

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Cloud Migration Services Market Projected to Reach 7.06 Billion USD by 2021

Cloud migration services market categorizes the global market by service type as cloud integration, application management & monitoring, disaster recovery, application load & testing, professional service & managed service, by application, and region.

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According to report "Cloud Migration Services Market by Service Type (Cloud Integration, Application Management & Monitoring, Disaster Recovery, Application Load & Testing, Professional Service & Managed Service), Application, and Region - Global forecast to 2021", market size is estimated to grow from USD 2.42 Billion in 2016 to USD 7.06 Billion by 2021, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 23.9% from 2016 to 2021.

Rising need to move workloads to the cloud environment, necessity of effective disaster recovery, and growing adoption of cloud-based solutions are increasing the demand for cloud migration services in the market.

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Browse 66 market data Tables and 51 Figures spread through 147 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Cloud Migration Services Market"

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"Cloud integration is expected to have the largest market size during the forecast period"

The cloud migration services market is expected to grow at an impressive CAGR during the forecast period. As enterprises are focusing on migrating their existing workloads on virtual environment, the cloud integration segment is expected to contribute maximum during the forecast period. Moreover, cloud migration services help increase revenues and enhance productivity & business agility.

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"Retail & consumer goods, travel & hospitality, and manufacturing verticals are expected to grow at significant CAGRs during the forecast period."

The cloud migration services market is witnessing a potential growth in the retail and consumer goods industry across various regions owing to the increase in the adoption of cloud-based applications. Moreover, travel & hospitality and manufacturing sectors have been early adopters of cloud-based technologies as they help in offering enhanced customer services.

"Asia-Pacific (APAC) is expected to witness the highest growth rate during the forecast period"

North America is expected to hold the largest market share in 2016, while Asia-Pacific (APAC) would be the fastest growing market in terms of CAGR. Factors such as improved IT infrastructure, growing internet penetration, and increasing number of connected devices are driving the growth of the cloud migration services market in APAC.

The major application providers in the cloud migration services market include AWS (U.S.), IBM Corporation (U.S.), Microsoft Corporation (U.S.), Google, Inc. (U.S.), Cisco Systems, Inc. (U.S.), NTT Data Corporation (Japan), and VMware, Inc. (U.S.).

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M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical infographics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers.

We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository.

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New Radon Testing and Mitigation YouTube Channel Launches For Homeowners

Radon Service Pros launches a new YouTube Channel aimed at Homeowners that plans to cover Radon Testing and Mitigation. The channel and the extensive video content can be found at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6a5nYmDp-rZ3wJl4YhLJCA

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Homeowners looking for the latest information on Radon Testing and Mitigation are invited to subscribe to the all-new YouTube channel by Radon Service Pros . This new channel promises to provide expert guidance and information on Radon Testing and Mitigation, on a regular basis.

This new YouTube channel was created specifically with the needs of Homeowners that are live in Utah and are looking for information on Radon Mitigation and Testing. in mind, and Radon Service Pros welcomes input on which topics to explore.

Dave , Mitigation Specailist at Radon Service Pros said: "Having a reliable source to learn about Radon Mitigation and testing is something that the community was missing. Radon Service Pros are happy to announce a Youtube channel to fill this gap. ."

Radon Service Pros 's Mitigation Specailist goes on to say: "The aim of the new YouTube Channel is to To help customers understand the dangers of Radon Gas and how to properly mitigate the naturally occurring gas from their home . The more feedback we can get, the better we can serve our audience.

Anybody interested in Radon Testing and Mitigation and current Radon Service Pros fans and supporters, can subscribe to the YouTube channel here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6a5nYmDp-rZ3wJl4YhLJCA

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Radon Mitigation - Radon is a naturally-occurring substance, which is found to some extent almost everywhere; it can never be completely eliminated. Mitigation can reduce it to levels lower than those of the average outdoor exposure level. Radon Testing - There is no part of the continuous United States which is entirely free of this gas, but the most problematic areas include the northeast, the Midwest, and the Pacific northwest. Homeowners in these areas should invest in testing in order to ensure safe levels. It is possible to test for it yourself, and monitoring devices are available. Radon Detection Systems - Long-term monitoring devices usually work by filtering electrically-charged particles from the air within a house. These particles are then analyzed for radon content. They are locally reliable, and are relatively small and unobtrusive.

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The University of Tokyo, the University of Tsukuba, and Fujitsu Limited today announced that the Oakforest-PACS massively parallel cluster-type supercomputer, built by Fujitsu and operated by the Joint Center for Advanced High Performance Computing (JCAHPC), has achieved a LINPACK performance result of 13.55 petaflops, as ranked in the November Top500 list for supercomputer performance. Given this, Oakforest-PACS has surpassed the K computer to officially become the highest performance supercomputer in Japan. The system's peak performance is 25 petaflops, which is about 2.2 times that of the K computer.

The Oakforest-PACS system is located in the Information Technology Center on the University of Tokyo's Kashiwa Campus, but everything is carried out jointly by the University of Tokyo and the University of Tsukuba, including financing, implementation and operation of the system, as well as the majority of program usage.

The system is made up of 8,208 computational nodes using Intel Xeon Phi high performance processors with Knights Landing architecture that uses many-core processor technology. The nodes are connected by Intel Omni-Path Architecture. Because of the progress in semiconductor and interconnect technology over the past five years, the system, which uses commercially available processors, has been able to achieve the highest level of performance in Japan.

The Oakforest-PACS system is being made available under various programs, specifically, the innovative Japan's High Performance Computing Infrastructure (HPCI) Initiative and those that are carried out individually by the two universities. As Japan's highest performance supercomputer resources for joint use, it will dramatically advance research and development in a variety of next-generation science and technology fields. In addition, it will not only be used for cutting edge computational science research, but also to develop talent in the computational science and high performance computing fields, contributing to the future development of each field. By implementing and operating this system, the University of Tokyo's Information Technology Center and the Center for Computational Sciences at the University of Tsukuba are making yet another contribution to society.
We started into spring very concerned about the record all-time low levels of our deep wells here at Valetta, a concern shared across much of Canterbury after two very dry years and a winter of minimal snowfall and no aquifer recharge.

We are in the upper plains near to the foothills of the southern Alps and traditionally receive a higher rainfall than the coastal areas and that has certainly been the case here for the past six weeks.

It is best not to tell anyone farming down-country just how much rain we have had up here this spring as they have been irrigating for few weeks now.

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Our autumn wheats are now at full flag leaf and the soil profile is near enough to field capacity.

As of yet we havent needed to start the irrigators, which is very unusual as we would normally be up and running in mid-October and be heading for moisture deficits by now.

The silage guys are flat out conserving surplus feed with their peak season coming a month early and our ewes here are swimming in tucker.

None of this generates a demand for feed, even though there is renewed optimism in the dairy industry with recent strong Global Dairy Trade auction results, but still cereal prices are still at miserable levels.

Our situation would be best described as: The cereals look a million dollars, its just a shame they arent worth a million dollars.

The trading lambs have now all met their destiny with the vacuum packing machine  well, all bar those that decided to have lambs.

It seems we have gained an additional ewe flock of 260 lambing hoggets which could only be put down to immaculate conception prior to our purchase.

We hit our grazing levels at closing date for the ryegrass spot on and those crops have received their last nitrogen fertiliser dressings.

They will receive growth regulation with Moddus (trinexapac) over the coming days. Peas, clover and oilseed rape look brilliant, but will want to see some sunshine as we move into flowering.

Things look pretty tidy here at this stage, but Canterbury is always only 10 days away from a drought and it is only a good harvest when it is safely in the tin can.

David Clark runs a 463ha fully irrigated mixed farm with his wife Jayne at Valetta, on the Canterbury Plains of New Zealands south island. He grows 400ha of cereals, pulses, forage and vegetable seed crops, runs 1,000 Romney breeding ewes and finishes 8,000 lambs annually.
Welsh dairy farmers are being encouraged to establish a network of producer organisations (DPOs), across the principality, to bolster their negotiating strength.

But producers who gathered in Aberystwyth this week for a special summit were warned DPOs were not a short-term fix for low milk prices.

Contracts between existing DPOs and their buyers excluded milk prices, which had to be negotiated separately.

What DPOs did provide, however, was vital leverage for negotiating contract terms and conditions, and this directly influenced farmgate prices.

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The push to encourage Welsh milk producers to form DPOs aligned to their own buyer is being led by an organisation known as DPO Cymru, a group of farmers who supply several processors across Wales.

Group member Aled Jones, who is also chairman of the NFU Cymru Dairy Board, believed that, with milk in short supply, now was the time for farmers to act.

It is farmers themselves that can make producer organisations a reality and it rests on the individual to have the courage and the passion to bring about change, he insisted.

Having gone through such a terrible crisis in the past 18 months, producer organisations offer an opportunity for farmers to create a more stable future. Are we up for change or are we going to bow down and accept whats to come?

Questions

The meeting at Aberystwyth, hosted by Farming Connect, gave farmers an opportunity to question Rory Christie, chairman of the Stranraer-based Lactalis DPO, and Steve Bone, chairman of Dairy Crest Direct (DCD) DPO.

Mr Christie cautioned that DPOs could not remove price volatility.

You will continue to get price shocks because everything is tied to the butter and powder markets, you cant get away from that.

But a DPO can provide stability between the peaks and troughs.

A producer organisation is about much more than price. Its about getting terms and conditions, and the negotiating power to secure the best possible price that your buyer can pay.

By pooling resources, farmers could afford to pay for better legal advice to analyse contracts than they could individually.

If the terms of a contract are bad, DPOs can negotiate for change, said Mr Bone.

Regional meetings will now be held across Wales to give farmers advice on how they can form DPOs with their own buyers.
Story Highlights 60% of Americans think Trump administration will improve the economy

Just over a third think Trump will improve race relations

Portion who think president-elect can avoid war is lower than in the past

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Six in 10 Americans say President-elect Donald Trump's administration will be able to reduce unemployment and create new jobs (62%) and improve the economy (60%). On the other hand, about one in three believe he will improve race relations (35%) and improve the environment (35%), and 38% think he will keep the nation out of war.

Expectations of Donald Trump After the Election Regardless of which presidential candidate you preferred, do you think the Trump administration will or will not be able to do each of the following? Yes, will No, will not No opinion % % % Reduce unemployment and create new jobs 62 35 3 Improve the economy 60 37 2 Control illegal immigration 59 38 3 Keep the U.S. safe from terrorism 57 40 3 Improve education 53 45 2 Improve the healthcare system 52 46 3 Appoint good justices to the U.S. Supreme Court 52 46 3 Cut your taxes 51 46 3 Improve the way the federal government works 49 48 3 Increase respect for the United States abroad 47 51 2 Substantially reduce the federal budget deficit 46 52 2 Improve conditions for minorities and the poor 44 53 2 Reduce the crime rate 43 54 3 Heal political divisions in this country 39 57 4 Keep the nation out of war 38 57 5 Improve the quality of the environment 35 61 4 Improve race relations 35 62 3 Gallup, Nov. 10-11, 2016

In addition to Trump's stronger scores on economic issues, Gallup's Nov. 10-11 poll finds Americans generally positive about the Trump administration's ability to control illegal immigration (59%) and keep the U.S. safe from terrorism (57%).

While Americans are optimistic about Trump's prospects of improving the economy overall, they are more divided on whether he will be able to improve education (53%), cut taxes (51%) and substantially reduce the federal deficit (46%). Americans are also divided on whether the Trump administration will improve healthcare (52%), appoint good U.S. Supreme Court justices (52%) and improve the way the federal government works (49%).

In addition to Americans' skepticism about Trump's ability to improve race relations, improve the environment and avoid war, Americans seem pessimistic that he will be able to heal political divisions (39%). Slightly more Americans believe he will improve conditions for minorities and the poor (44%) and reduce the crime rate (43%).

Economic Prospects Similar to Past; Immigration Expectations Higher

After presidential elections, Americans are typically positive about the prospect of an improved economy -- and this year is no different, with large majorities expressing optimism about the economy and job growth. In elections dating back to 1988, Gallup has asked Americans about their economic expectations in several different ways, sometimes right after the election and other times after an inauguration. Americans' views about the prospect of a better economy range from a low of 54% in 2012 after Barack Obama's second election to a high of 74% in 1989 after the inauguration of George H.W. Bush.

Historic Expectations for the Economy After Elections or Inaugurations Regardless of which presidential candidate you preferred, do you think the administration will or will not be able to do each of the following? Yes, will No, will not No opinion % % % Create a strong economic recovery 54 45 2 Barack Obama (2012) Create a strong economic recovery 64 34 2 Barack Obama (2008) Keep America prosperous 62 35 3 George W. Bush (2005) Keep America prosperous 63 33 4 George W. Bush (2001) Improve the economy 59 35 6 Bill Clinton (1992) Keep America prosperous 74 15 10 George H.W. Bush (1989) Gallup

The 59% of Americans who believe Trump will curb illegal immigration marks an issue where he gets high marks compared with Obama. In 2008, a third of Americans (35%) thought the Obama administration would do so.

The 39% who expect Trump to be able to heal political divisions is similar to the 41% recorded in 2001 after George W. Bush's election, but lower than the 54% who believed this of Obama in 2008, before his first term.

Compared With Predecessors, Expectations Low on Many Issues

Americans are more pessimistic about Trump's potential on several issues than they were in surveys conducted after the election of his predecessors. These include:

Improving the environment: Americans express the least optimism about Trump's potential to improve the quality of the environment since Gallup first asked this question in 1988 after the election of George H.W. Bush.

Improving education: While 53% think the Trump administration will improve education, that figure is the lowest of all of his predecessors dating back to George H.W. Bush in 1988.

Keeping the U.S. safe from terrorism: Expectations for Trump's ability to keep the U.S. safe from terrorism (57%) are lower than those for his two most recent predecessors. In 2008, 62% thought Obama would keep the country safe from terrorists. And in 2005, after George W. Bush's election to a second term, the comparable figure was 68% (the terrorism question was not asked following the 2000 election).

Increasing respect for the U.S.: The 47% of Americans who think that Trump will increase respect for the U.S. is low compared with expectations for Obama and George H.W. Bush. In 2008, 76% expected Obama to enhance the international reputation of the country. In 1988, 64% thought Bush would increase respect for the U.S. abroad.

Keeping the nation out of war: The 38% of Americans who think the Trump administration can avoid war is sharply lower than the 70% and 60%, respectively, who thought George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton would keep the nation out of war.

A complete summary of public expectations from past elections can be found here.

Bottom Line

U.S. elections over the past several decades have come with generally buoyant expectations for an improved economy, regardless of the party taking office. This year is no different, as a solid majority of Americans think the economy will improve under President-elect Trump as he lowers unemployment and creates new jobs.

Expectations for a Trump presidency regarding race relations, the environment and foreign policy, however, are much lower than after past elections. These are all issues for which the Hillary Clinton campaign and Trump critics raised substantial doubt regarding his competence. Perhaps as a result, Americans show historically low levels of optimism that he can improve racial tensions and have a positive impact on the environment. Of note, public opinions of Trump's prospects are even more negative than those of his Republican predecessors.

In particular, the often-repeated refrain about the danger of Trump having access to the nuclear codes represented a main argument of Clinton's campaign against her opponent. Former officials of the two Bush administrations also publicly challenged Trump's foreign policy credentials.

Few Americans think Trump can avoid war. This suggests that despite Trump's election victory, the skepticism his critics created during the campaign remains.

Historical data are available in Gallup Analytics.

Survey Methods

These results are based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,000 U.S. adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, conducted Nov. 10-11, 2016. Each respondent rated 12 of 17 items, and each item was asked of approximately 700 adults. The margin of error for each item is 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting.

Each sample of national adults in the 2016 data includes a minimum quota of 60% cellphone respondents and 40% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods.

View complete question responses and trends.

Learn more about how the Gallup U.S. Daily works.
PlayStation 5 Release Date, Specs & Updates: Consoles to Keep Coming, Sony Says; PS5 Giving Way to PS4 Pro & Slim?

The PlayStation 5 may be Sony's next best promise to the fans, more vital that console competition is moving quickly into the open. That being said, whatever might be rumored on the hardware so far could play the biggest part to Sony.

Some may know Sony's prime hardware offerings for the time being, namely the PlayStation 4 Pro and the PlayStation 4 Slim as the best ever done so far. Competition-wise, the Xbox One Scorpio by Microsoft seems to pose the biggest threat, followed by the supposed proposed Nintendo NX which is said to be a handheld-console hybrid. Nevertheless, the company may have other plans up their sleeves now that they refuse to officially disclose.

According to a tweet by Takashi Mochizuki that talked of the potential release of the PlayStation 5-which unfortunately, may not be anytime soon. At the earliest, it could happen around the second half or even beyond 2018, since there is a way being paved for the progression of the PlayStation 4 Pro and the PlayStation 4 Slim. This, in particular, is Damian Thong who accurately predicted the two aforementioned consoles' release.

While the talk of a launch might be interesting, the competition and upper hands of the PlayStation 5 is still considerably more vital. Having the capacity for 4K gaming, the said hardware is expected to topple the others with also a presumed compatibility to the Virtual Reality headset. Contrary to what most people have thought of, the PlayStation 5 will not be the last in line as well, as console technology also progresses drastically through the years, as reports claimed.

For the moment, the company is still under a testing phase that does not necessarily involve the PlayStation 5, especially as Sony wishes to deliver better graphic upgrades from thereon. Until Sony finally announces a fixed release date, the 2018 marker is still to be taken as a grain of salt. Stay tuned for more news and updates only here at GamenGuide.
South Middleton School District is all set to launch a new dimension in education as soon as teachers are comfortable with the interface.

The district in late September acquired two zSpace virtual reality learning stations paid for by a $10,000 grant from PPG Industries.

Each station will allow up to three students at a time to use special glasses and a stylus to manipulate 3-D graphics on a computer screen as they learn lessons in a variety of subjects.

The system gives users the ability to zoom in, zoom out, rotate and dissect graphics while following step-by-step directions listed in an activity guide in the upper left corner of the screen.

Depending on the step, students may be asked to read content, dissect a graphic or answer a question by typing a response on the keyboard. Some steps require students to photograph a portion of the screen and then email the image to their teacher to verify that they understand the lesson.

Its basically building a lab report for you, said Maryalice Bond, librarian at Boiling Springs High School where the learning stations are stored on carts that can be moved to other buildings.

Since the zSpace stations became operational in early October, high school teachers have come in during preparation time before or after school to train on the system, Bond said.

She added the plan going forward is to invite teachers from Iron Forge Elementary School and Yellow Breeches Middle School to the high school to train as they have time available.

We dont want these units to just be for the high school, Bond said.

The zSpace stations can be used as soon as a teacher feels comfortable enough working with the interface to demonstrate the technology to their students, Assistant Superintendent Joseph W. Mancuso III said. There is also software that connects to the Smart Board that allows for whole class instruction before students get on the units.

The zSpace carts can either be signed out for use in a classroom or kept in the high school library. Either way, Bond envisions a scenario where students can be divided into groups and take turns on the learning stations while classmates work on research and other projects.

Much of the course material on the zSpace stations is organized into modules of study with a focus on the STEM subjects  science, technology, engineering and math. Subject areas include anatomy, botany, ecosystems, physics, earth science and biochemistry.

There are also modules on U.S. geography, world geography, U.S. history and world history. The zSpace website offers a range of subject areas and modules either as downloadable content or lesson plans for purchase.

Some teachers within Boiling Springs High School have expressed an interest in virtual field trips, Bond said.

In the future, South Middleton School District would like to equip a lab of 12 zSpace learning stations using either additional grant money or other funds, Mancuso said. For now, the district is in the process of ordering additional sets of glasses so that each of the two stations can accommodate three students.

As far as Mancuso knows, South Middleton may be only the second school district in Pennsylvania to be equipped with zSpace technology. The other is Montour School District near Pittsburgh, which has a full lab that was funded by a grant from its local intermediate unit.

In a related development, South Middleton School District is in the process of developing a MakerSpace at Boiling Springs High School.

An emerging trend in public education, MakerSpaces or Innovation Stations are areas within a school building where students can go and explore a topic of interest or create something.

MakerSpace equipment can range from low-tech origami kits to LEGO Robotics and Ozobots  smart toy robots that can teach students how to code.

We want the kids to own their own learning, said Sharonn Williams, district director of instructional technology. We want them to think outside the box and to problem solve.

Students today need permission to stretch boundaries in order to compete in a modern global market that emphasizes creative thinking and innovation, Williams said.
'Samsung Galaxy S8' Series Release Date, News & Update: All New Designs For The New Device, What We Know So Far!

"Samsung Galaxy S8" series is set to be launched next year. In the meantime, there are already leaks of the information about the features of the new smartphone.

In a report from Tech Times, the model numbers for the "Samsung Galaxy S8" series are leaked. It is indicated that SM-G950 and SM-G955 make up the new smartphone. There are already leaked features that are to be expected in this latest device.

The "Samsung Galaxy S8" is known to have a new slick design. It also features a new artificial intelligence which can be at par with the Google Assistant and the Siri. The new device will also come in with new double edged designs for the two models.

According to a report in Mirror the new "Samsung Galaxy S8" series comes in two sizes. The new smartphone from Samsung is going to be released in a 5.7 inch model and a 6.2 inch model design. Another feature that can be expected in the latest device is that there will not be a Home Button any longer.

Meanwhile, Samsung has always been praised especially with the S7 designs that were previously released according to a report in Pocket-lint. The previous designs for Samsung had been released in March. With "Samsung Galaxy S8" series, it is possible that the new smartphone is going to be released before the Mobile World Congress which will take place on February 27 - March 2, 2017. It is likely that the new smartphones are to be launched by February 26, 2017.

Additional rumors indicate that the new "Samsung Galaxy S8" series is to be released together with the Samsung Gear 369 Pro camera. With the latest device to be launched it is expected that a higher resolution is incorporated in these smartphones.

There is no official launch date for the "Samsung Galaxy S8" series as of yet.
Kourtney is Giving Scott Another Shot, He Is Texting & Calling Saying He Still Loves Her?

Kourtney and Scott may be trying to make their relationship work again. Scott who was in the rehab for a month and now he is out. According to Hollywood Life, the couple is giving their relationship a chance. Kourtney is thinking of giving Scott another shot as he has been texting and calling her confessing his love.

The source revealed that Kourtney and Scott could not stay apart for a long time. During their breakup, Scott was contacting her via phone messages and expressed his emotions by saying that he still loves her.

ET reported that Kourtney and Scott are presently on good terms. They celebrated Thanksgiving together and attended dinner at Khloe Kardashian's home. They also shared pictures of them hanging out with three children Mason, Penelope, and Reign. They are also enjoying a vacation sans the children. However, ET stated that the two are not living together for now.

"He's hurt her so many times that she wanted to believe she was done with him for good, but the truth is she's still in love with him too. Right now, they're trying things out, but Kourtney is insisting on taking things slowly and making sure Scott can behave himself", a source informed Hollywood Life.

Although Kourtney is still not very sure about the relationship, Kris Jenner is apparently supporting Scott. She visited in rehab in October and spotted having dinner with him last month. Kris in a very emotional Instagram post called Scott "one of the true loves of [her] life."

The rumors of their reunion sparked when the two were spotted having lunch at Marmalade Cafe in Calabasas, California. Kourtney looked happy while the controversial reality TV star appeared confident and snug.
Amazon Echo Vs Google Home Specs & Features Review: Google Smart Speaker Catches Up

Amazon and Google compete in the market through their Amazon Echo and Google home speakers. Comparison between the two is revealed to assist users what to choose.

Google has presented a device speaker intended and prepared for those who want to connect using a smart home. Through it, you can check the internet, listen to music or manage systems home automation. The company said during its conference in San Francisco that it will be released in the fall of 2016 but it already has a direct competitor: Amazon Echo. This is a well connected and intelligent speaker that allows many actions model of Google. Let us see what both speakers differ.

Amazon Echo Vs Google Home Features: Comparison Of Specs Revealed

Both speakers are Eco Home and require a power connection cable. They have similar aspects and allows surfing the Internet. They also allow music from different platforms, add calendar appointments and even show a film.

Amazon Echo is constantly updated because it already has spent two years on the market. For the new Google device, it must wait for its release to see how we will be surprised in future updates.

Columbian said that Home is smarter in a few other ways because it taps what it knows about you. This includes information from Gmail, Maps and other Google services. It is also $50 cheaper, at about $130.

Amazon Eco Vs Google Home Update: Assistant Smarter Voice Revealed

One of the most features of Google Home is your choice of answering to voice commands. In the show presented at the conference, we could see how this speaker responded to the questions. The questions include how many stars are in the galaxy, or what the television program at the time.

However, Amazon Echo uses the Alexa assistant that may be more limited in responding to orders or requires greater precision when executing them. According to Google, its assistant has the ability to be more conversational than the others. Alexa, on the other hand, has made great improvements. It can even a pizza or take control of smart bulbs in your home.

Amazon Echo Vs Google Home Features: Audio Support Chromecast

Google Home lets you play music from Chrome cast Audio or connect it to any TV if you have a Chrome cast Video Streamer. In fact, you can connect multiple devices at once, which will be able to mount an entire music party at your house.

According to Androidguys, Google Home is more expensive when putting up against the entire line of the Echo family. For its part, the different devices of Amazon Echo are not synchronized with each other. In this case, Google takes an advantage.
'Battlefield 1' Release Date, News & Update: EA Game Going Offline Today for Fall Update; Other Details Find Out Here!

"Battlefield 1" fans will have to hit pause for a moment in leiu of the EA game going offline today for the Fall Update. Fans of the October-released first-person shooter video game from EA DICE should know that the servers are going offline today so that they can roll out the Fall Update, which promises to bring some awesome content as well.

The "Battlefield 1" Fall Update will require the multiplayer servers to go offline today for just an hour. According to PC Gamer, those playing on PC won't be able to access the multiplayer for an hour beginning 8 UTC / 12 a.m. PT. For those on PlayStation 4, the multiplayer won't be available at 10 UTC / 2 a.m. PT. Finally, Xbox One players will find that the multiplayer will be offline beginning 12 UTC / 4 a.m.

Gamespot is reporting that EA DICE hasn't released the patch notes for the "Battefield 1" Fall Update yet. However, the studio promises to publish it in the "Battlefield" forums once the rollout is done.

In other "Battlefield 1" news, the creators of the highly acclaimed, positively-reviewed game have taken to Twitter to share some amazing news. Aside from the fact that the EA game going offline today for the Fall Update, there's something else to look forward to.

It's true - Battlefest is coming and we highly recommend tuning in at https://t.co/KZHqGdDAtc for all the details this Wednesday. pic.twitter.com/COysgIWJwf  Battlefield (@Battlefield) November 14, 2016

According to a Twitter post, the Battlefest for "Battlefield 1" will take tomorrow, November 16. Fans are highly encouraged to visit twitch.tv/battlefield to check out the details of the global event. Fans from Los Angeles are encouraged to tune in at 1 p.m., while New Yorkers must tune in at 4 p.m. For those in London, tune in at 9 p.m., and for Stockholm, tune in at 10 p.m. As for fans in Sydney, Tune in on November 17 at 8 a.m., and for Tokyo, 6 a.m. on the same day.

For more on the latest on the Fall Update for "Battlefield 1," make sure to keep checking back. Also comment below on your feedback about the newly released "Battlefield 1" on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
'Baby Daddy' Season 6 Updates: Danny Is Going To Be A Daddy

A completely new season of America's favorite parenting comedies, "Baby Daddy" is near. Production for "Baby Daddy" Season 6 is in the process. Adventures of Ben Wheeler (Jean-Luc Bilodeau), Riley (Chelsea Kane), Danny (Derek Theler) and others will continue from the same spot where ended season 5. Rileys pregnancy will be a starting point, which will be an excellent addition to the show.

According to Jobs N Hire, New season of "Baby Daddy" continues with Riley announcing her pregnancy. This is the biggest news of the show so far, but it does not mean that it will stay biggest. Besides the pregnancy itself, viewers should expect a reaction from future parents when they find out that Emma's messing with the condoms is reason for the pregnancy. One of the shows executive producers, Dan Brendsen, hinted that fans should look forward to seeing what kind of father Danny would be.

That the crew is quite satisfied with the beginnings of the "Baby Daddy" Season 6, Just Jared reported. Photos of the set were released and cast members themselves posted updates on various social media platforms.

An inside look from the set of "Baby Daddy" can be found on Hollywood Life, where you can witness that the cast and even the crew couldnt stay immune to Mannequin challenge. They all had fun making a video under for Derek Thelers Instagram account. You can see that the entire set froze for a minute including the audience in the strangest poses and they done it like professionals. They are latest in a series of viral celebrity videos that respond to the Mannequin challenge. Dont forget about Rob Kardashian and his partner Black Chyna who made this kind of video during giving birth to their daughter. It shows that it is not easy not to be a part of this global trend.
Days of Our Lives' Spoilers for Nov. 15-18: Abigail Has Returned! How Will Chad Feel About This New Revelation?

This week on "Days of Our Lives" spoilers, the town of Salem will again witness the return of one of its town folks. Abigail (Marci Miller), who has been missing and believed to have died from a plane crash is back in town. But how will Chad (Billy Flynn) will react to her reappearance remains a mystery.

Chad and Gabi (Camila Banus) has formed a special bond during Abby's absence and her return will implicate their relationship. It's not that Chad has forgotten about his wife, but her long absence and unconfirmed cause of disappearance made things even harder for Chad.

DOOL spoilers reveal that, Abby hasn't been in her right state of mind when she disappeared and the crash the allegedly claimed her life is now becoming a blurred occurrence when it comes to her disappearance.

When she tried to sneak in the DiMera mansion, "Days of Our Lives" spoilers revealed that, she was confronted by Andrei (Thaao Penghlis) and his revelations couldn't surprise her more. Her return in the town of Salem is unwelcome, at least in the eyes of Andrei and the other people who helped her get out from Salem.

Her days on the Psych Ward may have ended, but Abigail is back without any concrete plans on how she will make the big revelation. Sneaking through town, DOOL spoilers say, Abby worked on finding more about her husband Chad and when her mother Jennifer Horton (Melissa Reeves) discovers she's back, the surprise was tangible.

Meanwhile, Theresa's (Jen Lilley) emotional stress has reached its limit and "Days of Our Lives' spoilers reveal, she will be rushed to the hospital. DOOL spoilers this week leads to new height of emotional stress, revelation and compassion to members of family who returned in the most unexpected way.

Do you want to know more about the latest "Days of Our Lives" spoilers? Make sure to read us here on GameNGuide.
MacBook Pro 2016 Latest News: Nothing Beats The Best, Apple's Newest MacBook Pro Is Best Selling Laptop

With a lot of criticisms and negative comments in the release of the 2016 MacBook Pro, Apple just proved that they are still the most loved brand when it comes to mobile and technology.

According to the report of Slice, Apple's newest MacBook Pro is the most saleable laptop, five days after its release online. As compared to their 12-inch MacBook, its revenue is seven times higher than the latter's launch last April.

With the introduction of the latest MacBook Pro, few of the MacBook fans who switched to another laptop brand may have returned, thus, the increase of its sales. The majority of those came from Dell and Asus laptop users.

Apple's newest MacBook Pro has generated more revenue than any other laptop this year.- Slice Intelligence https://t.co/KsPWg4UTiq  Thomas Bosboom (@thomasbosboom) November 10, 2016

Aside from the brand, loyal MacBook enthusiasts' continued patronage is brought by its state-of-the-art features and specs like the addition of a touch bar, new graphic chips, enhanced design, louder speakers, etc.

Apple declined Intel's integrated Iris Pro graphics and switched to AMD graphics across its new MacBook Pro. In the article of MacRumors, this decision resulted in performance improvements as it delivers expanded external Ultrafine 5k display at 60Hz which many MacBook supporters are waiting for.

As explained by Andrew Cunningham of Ars Technica, the latest MacBook Pro is much faster compared to the 2016 12-inch MacBook and its previous models due to the inclusion of the Radeon Pro 455 graphics chip. However, he also said that this is still not suitable for VR and high-end gaming. MacBook Pro's price starts at $1,299.
South Park Makes A Mistake: Quickly Changes An Episode Predicting Clinton As President

In the recent episodes of "South Park", one episode has to be re-written quickly to reflect the incoming President of the United States, Donald Trump. Just like most people, the series initially thought Hillary Clinton will win the election so they had to quickly correct the script before the episode aired.

The episode is now titled "Biggest Election Upset in the US History" and aired last Wednesday, November 9. The episode was supposed to be titled "The Very First Gentleman" wherein the episode plans to tackle the election results. For fans who wish to read the complete logline of the supposed episode, Comedy Central has given access via their website.

Now the new episode has been edited and is called "Oh Jeez" in the episode trailer. The teaser shows everyone talking about the newly elected president but none of them mentions Trump's name but has been quoted for his favorite campaign line "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I sure am excited. America's going to be great again". Afterwards, Randy Marsh is seen asking his family if they're excited with the new president and his family answers negatively. Shelly, his daughter, is heard saying "This country is going to suck for four years."

Towards the end of the trailer, Randy tells his daughter, "Oh come on Shelly. We've learned that women can be anything- except for president." The next day, the spokesperson of Comedy Central said in an interview that while Trump's victory came really fast, their writers also worked until date.

"South Park" is an adult animated sitcom created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker for TV Network, Comedy Central. The show features four naughty boys namely Kyle Broflovski, Stan Marsh, Kenny McCormick and Eric Cartman and their life in the town of Colorado. The show is said to be similar to The Simpsons but has a bigger cast and is intended for mature audiences.
Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Release Date, Latest News & Update: Going All In For 2017! Specs, Features & New Safer Design Revealed!

Renowned tipster Evan Blass has leaked model numbers for Samsung's forthcoming flagship for 2017. Blass also claimed that this smartphone is underdeveloped. Samsung is still reeling with the fiasco it faced with the launch of Galaxy Note 7. Nonetheless, Samsung, in an upgraded program targeting the South Korean users, has confirmed that it will work on Galaxy Note 8, reported The Indian Express.

Apparently, Samsung is not disappointed with the latest disastrous explosions. The Galaxy S7 range's model numbers are SM-G930 and SM-G935, while Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Edge have model numbers SM-G950 and SM-G955. Logically Samsung Galaxy 8 should have the model number G-940, as Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge had model numbers SM-G920 and SM-G925. But, Samsung is skipping numbers, as Koreans consider number 4 as unlucky, as per Value Walk.

Korean media is suggesting that Samsung Galaxy Note 8 would have a 6.2-inch screen size and a bezel-less design which will give it a 90% screen-to-body ratio. Interestingly, it has been speculated that Samsung Galaxy Note 8 would incorporate artificial intelligence functionality. Subsequently, this will be converted into a future Android operating system release, which will help users in activating commands via voice activation.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 could have a 4k resolution which would be the first time in the history of the smartphone. The Galaxy Note 8 will also have the provision of removing the battery for more flexible use. The camera will also be upgraded and reports are hinting that it might have a 30-megapixel snapper.

It is almost confirmed that there will be a dual-camera setup, perhaps for both front and rear facing lenses. Earlier, there were reports that Samsung will launch the Galaxy S8 in April and not introduce it in the annual Mobile World Congress which will be held in Barcelona.
Blackberry New Smartphone Release Date & Latest News: Final BlackBerry Smartphone Out Soon? Company To Shift To Software Development

BlackBerry was once the king of a smartphone era until it was trumped by competition that resulted to it later officially stopping the production of its own phones. However, the company would not be disappearing without a trace, as it has been confirmed that it will be releasing one last treat for its fans. That is, a phone that has a distinguishing physical keyboard.

Blackberry CEO John Chen teased the phone last September but had not confirmed it until recently. However, he refused to reveal more details about the phone's features or when it would be released.

Chen spoke with Bloomberg wherein he stated that "we have one keyboard phone I promised people" and when describing when it can be expected, he said that "it is coming." Under Chen's leadership, BlackBerry has not actually fallen off the market, but has shifted from a premier smartphone producer to a software developer.

Last September, the company announced that it would completely halt producing and distributing BlackBerry phones. Instead, it will allow the brand to be used by third-party companies to use on phones that they have built on their own.

BlackBerry's most distinguishing standout feature is its physical keyboard with former users reportedly still missing it as they tap out their ways to get through everyday tasks on newer full touchscreen smartphones. Phone Arena reports that even though BlackBerry's last smartphone, the DTEK50, had lower sales than expected, it will still be releasing a new model soon.

However, this final dance will just be a treat for all its fans that will be missing it instead of being a flagship BlackBerry model to compete with others in the market like how it did before. As the Canadian company will be totally shifting to software production very soon, its license will be made available for all other smartphone developers who will pay them for its use.

Blackberry's DTEK60 is the result of a collaboration with Alcatel, but it will definitely not be the last BlackBerry smartphone on the market. This upcoming model had actually been promised even long before the DTEK60 was announced. Chen had also revealed that the company is currently in talks with two companies from China and India for the launch of the upcoming Blackberry smartphone.
A second route, which will service downtown to Alamitos Beach, will launch on Nov. 10.
Recent developments may have finally opened up some space for progress in Corvallis' struggle to find effective ways to cope with homelessness, but time to find solutions remains at a premium.

First, the city and the county have agreed to pay $20,000 each to fund a project manager for the Homeless Opportunities Action Council. Shawn Collins, a former HP Inc. research manager, has started work in the new position, which is housed with the United Way of Benton & Lincoln Counties.

Collins' job is to attempt to coordinate the efforts of the many different agencies that are represented on the council. Although relations are somewhat warmer now among those agencies, they have been decidedly frosty in the past.

Collins understands something that Corvallis residents need to keep in mind: Homelessness is a multifaceted problem involving a number of different populations. That means there are important roles for many different agencies, but at a time when resources are getting tighter, sparks are inevitable. Part of Collins' job will be keeping those sparks from igniting a fire and keeping the council on track.

Collins told a Gazette-Times reporter that he plans to work with council members to develop ways to measure the organization's effectiveness.

One possible measurement: Will homeless men in Corvallis have a cold weather shelter open for their use at this time next year?

In recent weeks, a lawsuit over the men's shelter in downtown Corvallis has been settled, which is good news. The shelter, now in its fifth year on Fourth Street, opened at the start of November to offer a refuge from Oregon's wet and chilly winter.

But it appears unlikely that the shelter will be able to open next year in that Fourth Street location, which has attracted considerable opposition from area residents and businesses, not to mention that lawsuit.

And, in fact, Willamette Neighborhood Housing Services, a mid-valley nonprofit agency that works on affordable housing, put an exclamation point on that last week when it announced an agreement to buy the building from Corvallis Housing First, which operates the shelter. The plan is to raze the building and construct affordable housing there. It's exactly the type of project that Willamette Neighborhood Housing Services does extremely well. The central location was particularly appealing to the agency, in that it allows residents to get by without a car. Overall, this is good news for the community.

Except for this nagging question: Where will the cold weather shelter be located next year?

Earlier this year, a last-minute effort spearheaded by Mayor Biff Traber and County Commissioner Anne Schuster to find another potential location for the shelter fizzled, in large part because of unforgiving deadlines: The shelter has to be ready when the weather changes.

With the Fourth Street shelter opening for another season, that deadline has been rolled back another year. But the big question of location  and the issue of which agency will take over shelter duties, especially with Housing First wanting to focus its efforts on permanent housing projects  remains unresolved. It's possible that, depending on the construction schedule for the downtown project, the Fourth Street location might be available for another season, but that just postpones the inevitable. And it could potentially be disastrous if we let six or eight months go by without finding a location.

We have an opportunity now to make real progress on one of the toughest issues facing Corvallis. But the window of opportunity is narrower than we think, and it closes a bit with every passing day. (mm)
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Bonnorange : City works is prepared for winter

Bonn 18 vehicles and tons of salt stand ready for the oncoming of winter. A system for road prioritization is in place.

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Winter season has already begun for those charged with keeping Bonns streets and sidewalks clear of snow and ice. This task falls to the city works department called Bonnorange and there are around 140 employees there who will be responsible for responding to snow, ice and slippery sleet.

Bonnorange says it has 18 vehicles at its disposal. Approximately 900 tons of salt is ready to go and there is another 20,000 liters in two other storage facilities. Since November 1, Bonnorange has been in constant contact with the weather service. When temperatures near freezing and there is moisture in the air, roads are tested for safety.

Roads are prioritized in four categories. First priority are around 322 streets which are important arteries and contain dangerous spots, as well as direct entrances to hospitals, uphill areas on public transportation routes, main through-roads and bike paths in the inner city.
Bonn Greeters : Come as a guest - leave as a friend

Experience Bonn through the eyes of a local, is the aim of Bonn Greeters. Melanie von Seht, Matthias Ohm, Marisa de Luca. Foto: Barbara Frommann

BONN Experience Bonn through the eyes of a local. This is the motto of a new initiative to give a personal welcome to visitors in Bonn.

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We show visitors around our city - just like we would show a friend around, someone who is here visiting, said the man in the promotion film. Matthias Ohm held a news conference on Monday to announce the start of the new project Bonn Greeters. Its a welcome initiative which is already up and running in other cities in Germany; Berlin, Hamburg, Kassel and Munich, but also in American cities such as Chicago and New York.

The idea for the greeting program was started in 1992 by New Yorker Lynn Brooks who wanted to extend a personal welcome to visitors in her native city. According to the website, a Greet in Bonn should be requested at least two weeks before arrival and it doesnt cost anything . Further, All of our Greeters are volunteers and follow an individual and spontaneous walk with a friend philosophy. This is why we limited the maximum group size to six persons.

Melanie von Seht, director of the citys Bonn Information said she welcomes the initiative of the Bonn Greeters. She sees it as a complement to official tourism efforts to welcome visitors. She finds Bonn to be a very endearing city and feels the best way to convey that message is through personal contact. Ohm adds, A personal greeting with individual tips offers much more than any travel guide. The program tries to match up interests of the visitor with those of the greeter.

There will be an opening event on November 22 at Podium 49, Schlostrae 49 for volunteers.
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BSNL to Conduct a Mega Sale on Wednesday with Offers That Will Lure You Features oi -Chakri Kudikala In order to provide affordable service to the customers, BSNL is conducting a mega sale tomorrow in Tamil Nadu. Heres what you get in the sale!

BSNL, the state telecom network has much fanfare in the country. The company, in a press note, said that they will be conducting a mega sale tomorrow in the entire Tamil Nadu region.

The press note further states that BSNL is taking this move, especially to offer affordable service to the existing and new users. In recent times, the telecom company has released way too many affordable plans to combat the Reliance Jio.

SEE ALSO: 5 Most Frequently Used Apps That Work Seamlessly With Apple's Siri in India

However, this mega sale is only for the people of Tamil Nadu and people apart from Tamil Nadu region are not eligible for this sale. Here's what BSNL will offer on the mega sale.

Experience LL49 BSNL will offer the same LL49 pack at the mega sale, however, the company is offering a free BSNL prepaid SIM card to the users who register in the plan on the sale day. No Installation Charges In order to get the BSNL LL49 offer, you have to pay a one-time installation charge of Rs. 600. However, as a part of the sale, the company is removing the installation charges and you can get the service for free by just paying the plan charges. Click Here for New Android Smartphones Best Online Deals Unlimited BB 249 Plan! Another offer in this sale is that, if you register in the BSNL BB 249 plan, if offers you an unlimited data for first six months and later on, the plan will be converted to BBG Combo ULD 499 plan for free. BSNL Combo ULD 1199 The third offer in the sale is BSNL Combo ULD 1199 with which you can get download speed up to 2Mbps and unlimited free calling. Valid Only on Wednesday Do make a note that, BSNL is conducting the mega sale only on Wednesday and if you're going to register in any BSNL network, go and register it tomorrow. Click Here for New Smartphones Best Online Deals

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Reliance Jio DTH vs Airtel DTH: Will the New Entrant Give Tough Competition? Features oi -Chakri Kudikala Reliance Jio turned out to be a sensation with its free welcome offer. Now, the company is planning to introduce DTH service in India. Heres how it goes against the Airtels DTH service.

Lately, we have been hearing a lot about the Reliance Jio's DTH service which is due to launch in the country. As of now, there are no words officially from the company when they are planning to launch the service, but we are expecting it to roll out by the end of December.

We all know about how Reliance Jio created waves in the telecom industry and made other telecom services some insane competition. And now, the company is getting ready to repeat the same in the DTH service.

SEE ALSO: Reliance Jio SIM Common Problems: How to Escalate Complaints

The biggest threat for the new company is Bharti Airtel. We have already seen what Airtel can do to attract their customers. After Reliance Jio's entry itself, the India's largest telecom service introduced several offers to attract the customers.

SEE ALSO: Reliance Jio MNP: Terms and Conditions You Should Know Before Porting

Having said that, Airtel is also one of the big players in DTH service in India. Will the Reliance Jio's DTH service be able to create disrupt in the Airtel's DTH plot? Let's find out.

Uber Cheap Plans As per the sources, the monthly estimation for Reliance Jio's DTH is widely expected to be starting from Rs. 185. If compared to Airtel's DTH, the normal plans start from Rs. 300 and Airtel DTH is regarded as the costliest DTH service in India. Cheapest DTH Service? If the rumors are believed to be true, then Reliance Jio's DTH service will be the cheapest DTH service in India. Beware Airtel, Jio is coming again. Reliance Jio Needs to Work Hard on DTH Service! In order to go against the Airtel DTH, Reliance Jio has to setup a massive base in the country before enrolling the service to general public. If we consider the same with Reliance Jio's 4G services, apart from the free offerings, people have already lost the faith on the service due to low data speeds and barely connecting voice calls. Welcome Offer for DTH as Well? Same as the case with Jio's 4G services, their DTH service is also said to be offered in Welcome Offer where users will be able to enjoy free services for three months. Also, Jio is planning to offer their broadband service in welcome offer as well. Reliance Jio DTH Service Will be Live in Coming Months According to the sources, Reliance Jio will start offering the DTH service in coming months or by the end of this year. Airtel already has massive fan following in the country for its DTH service and is widely regarded as the best DTH service in India. Click Here for New Smartphones Best Online Deals

Best Mobiles in India

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Telecom Operators Rolled Out Plans to Compete With Reliance Jio

Soon after Reliance Jio hit the market, the other telecom giants have had spent several sleepless nights strategizing on how to take on Jio, and retain back their customers who are being attracted by the Jio's unlimited offers.

To take on Jio, starting from Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Idea Cellular and other telcos have introduced several entry-level tariff plans offering more data at low cost. Although not on par with Airtel, Vodafone and Idea, RComm is not quite far away in the race.

Started to Offer Unlimited Voice Calls

Soon after Reliance Communications announced its collaboration with wireless operators like Aircel and MTS, it has recently rolled out unlimited voice calls for its customers. This initiative has been taken up by the telecom operator in order to compete with Reliance Jio's exciting data and other offers.

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Rcomm's Unlimited Voice Calls At Just Rs. 153

RComm users can avail the unlimited voice calls on their Reliance numbers at just Rs 153. Although, the telecom operator had offered unlimited calling benefits earlier, what's new about the Rs. 153 plans are that it offers similar benefits at a much cheaper rate, to retain back their customers, as a majority of them are moving to Jio for unlimited voice calling benefits, under the Welcome Offer, valid until 31 December.

Unlimited Voice Calls Restricted To Reliance Number

Unlike Bharti Airtel, RComm's unlimited voice calls are limited to just Reliance users in the country. Yes, like the other telecom operators are allowing users to make calls between networks, Reliance has restricted the offer to just Reliance numbers.

However, the plan is also clubbed with 1000 Minutes, allowing the customers to make calls to any other number in India, valid for 28 days.

Offer Limited to a Few Subscribers

RComm has rolled out this offer for just a few circles including, Kolkata, Delhi and Tamil Nadu. However, the company is said to extend the offer to more customers in next few weeks as an initiative to attract old customers, and retain the existing ones from moving to Reliance Jio.

Click Here for New Smartphones Best Online Deals
Manning Seeks Commuted Sentence for Leaks

VOA News November 14, 2016

U.S. soldier Chelsea Manning, who is serving 35 years in prison for leaking classified documents, is asking President Obama to commute her sentence to time served.

The transgender soldier said in her application to the president, released by her attorneys, that there is no historical precedent for such an extreme sentence for leaking documents.

Manning, a former intelligence analyst in Iraq, has served more than six years of a 35-year sentence for leaking more than 700,000 secret military documents as well as battlefield videos to WikiLeaks.

Since being convicted, the soldier, originally called Bradley Manning, has said she identifies as a women. She tried to commit suicide last month while in solitary confinement, where she was placed after an earlier suicide attempt.

Manning wrote in her application to the president that she is living through "a cycle of anxiety, anger, hopelessness, loss and depression."

"The sole relief I am asking for is to be released from military prison after serving six years of confinement as a person who did not intend to harm the interests of the United States or harm any service members," Manning said.

She is being held at the Fort Leavenworth military prison in Kansas. Manning is not asking for a pardon, meaning her conviction will stay on her record.

Manning's petition includes letters of support from Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers about the Vietnam war, as well as journalist Glenn Greenwald and former military commissions chief prosecutor Morris Davis.

Davis said in a letter accompanying Manning's petition that much of the information Manning leaked had little value and could be found through open sources on the Internet.

Manning has said she released the information to raise public awareness about the impact of the Iraq war on civilians. Prosecutors say Manning is a traitor who put the United States and U.S. armed forces at risk.

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Inherent Resolve Strikes Target ISIL in Syria, Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, Nov. 14, 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

Attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted eight strikes in Syria:

-- Near Abu Kamal, a strike destroyed an ISIL oil wellhead.

-- Near Ayn Isa, six strikes engaged five ISIL tactical units and destroyed a vehicle, a mortar system, a fighting position and an anti-aircraft weapons system.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, a strike destroyed an ISIL oil wellhead.

Strikes in Iraq

Attack, fighter, bomber and remotely piloted aircraft and rocket artillery conducted 13 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of the Iraqi government:

-- Near Qaim, a strike engaged an ISIL tactical unit.

-- Near Haditha, a strike engaged an ISIL tactical unit and staging area and destroyed a heavy machine gun, a vehicle and a rocket cache.

-- Near Mosul, 10 strikes engaged five ISIL tactical units; destroyed three mortar systems, three storage containers, two vehicles, two ISIL-held buildings, two vehicle-borne bombs, two heavy machine guns, a bulldozer and a communications tower; damaged a fighting position, a command-and-control node and three tunnels; and suppressed an ISIL tactical unit.

-- Near Tal Afar, a strike destroyed an ISIL-held repeater tower.

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 Syria include the United States, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

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Makin Island, 11th MEU, Malaysian Armed Forces Conduct Exercise Tiger Strike

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS161114-24

Release Date: 11/14/2016 12:56:00 PM

By Petty Officer 1st Class Mathew J. Diendorf, USS Makin Island (LHD 8) Public Affairs

LAHAD DATU, Malaysia (NNS) -- Sailors aboard amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island (LHD 8) and Marines with the embarked 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) joined members of the Malaysian armed forces for Exercise Tiger Strike 16 in Lahad Datu, Malaysia, Nov. 10-13.

Tiger Strike 16, formally known as Malaysia-United States Amphibious Exercise (MALFEX), is a Malaysia-led, bilateral training exercise between the Malaysian forces and U.S. forces with emphasis on increasing combat readiness and conducting amphibious operations within the context of a stability and security operations. Tiger Strike allows participating forces to share their best training practices across a wide variety of military skills, conduct a bilateral amphibious landing, and improve communication and coordination.

Makin Island Commanding Officer Capt. Mark Melson said the amphibious assault ship brought added training value to the exercise.

"With Makin Island's ship-to-shore capability, U.S. and Malaysian forces were able to rehearse the planning and execution of a variety of amphibious scenarios, whether that was a combat operation or humanitarian assistance mission," said Melson. "It was an honor to participate in this exercise with Malaysia, and I am confident both countries learned a great deal from one another."

Members of the Makin Island and 11th MEU medical departments, along with embarked Fleet Surgical Team 5 personnel, provided medical facility tours and familiarization events aboard Makin Island. U.S. and Malaysian medical personnel also conducted a bilateral medical civil affairs project at a local clinic near Lahad Datu.

"Our ability to receive patients via air and surface, and provide life-saving surgical treatment here on board means we bring a critical capability to any area we operate within," said FST 5 Officer-in-Charge Capt. John Crabill. "The embarked team of medical professionals and Makin Island's full medical suite allowed U.S. and Malaysian forces to exchange best practices and lessons learned about at-sea medical operations, including casualty reception, combat trauma care, and operational stress."

Aboard Makin Island, the 11th MEU conducted operational planning evolutions with their counterparts of the 7th Battalion, Royal Malay Regiment. While training ashore, Marines and soldiers focused on jungle survival, non-lethal weapons, the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program, helicopter loading and off-loading drills, landing zone security and control, and combat service support.

"Tiger Strike was an opportunity for U.S. Marines and Sailors to interact with soldiers from the Malaysian armed forces and share best training practices across a wide variety of military skills," said Col. Clay C. Tipton, commanding officer, 11th MEU. "These bilateral exercises allow our militaries to increase combat readiness and enhance coordination and communication between forces, which are important steps to maintaining regional security and stability."

The exercise included approximately 300 soldiers from the 7th Battalion, Royal Malay Regiment, and 300 U.S. Marines and Sailors from the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group and 11th MEU.

"This side-by-side training with our counterparts is invaluable," said Melson. "Relationships become stronger, and both sides gain skills and knowledge that enable coordinated and effective bilateral operations."

Makin Island, the flagship of the Makin Island ARG, is operating with the embarked 11th MEU in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations in support of security and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

The MKI ARG/11th MEU provides senior U.S. military leadership and coalition partners with a flexible force which can rapidly respond to contingencies and crises within a region. With ships, aircraft, troops, and logistical equipment, the ARG/MEU is a self-contained and self-sustained task force capable of conducting everything from combat operations to providing humanitarian assistance.

The 7th Fleet area of operations includes more than 48 million square miles of the Pacific Ocean, running from the international dateline to the eastern coast of Africa, and from the Antarctic to the Kuril Islands, northeast of Japan.

While in 7th Fleet, the Makin Island ARG and 11th MEU will be assigned to Commander, Amphibious Force U.S. 7th Fleet, the Navy's only forward-deployed amphibious force, headquartered at White Beach Naval Facility, Okinawa.

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Pro-Russia presidential candidate declares victory in Moldova

Iran Press TV

Mon Nov 14, 2016 6:12AM

Moldova's pro-Russian candidate Igor Dodon has declared victory in the presidential runoff after beating his West-leaning rival.

"I am president for the whole country, for those who voted for me and those who voted against," Dodon told reporters late Sunday as near-final results showed the socialist-backed opposition candidate being ahead with a considerable margin.

With 98 percent of ballots counted, Dodon garnered 54 percent of the votes while his West-leaning rival Maia Sandu had just under 45 percent, according to the electoral commission.

Final results are expected to be announced at 0800 GMT on Monday.

The first round of the election was held on October 30, giving Dodon, a former economy minister during the Communist rule and the current head of the Socialist Party, 48 percent and pro-Europe Sandu, a center-right former education minister who worked for the World Bank, 38.

Moldova is located on the fault line separating Russia from Europe. Dodon has pledged to pursue closer ties with Russia rather than the European Union.

He argues that the recent gravitation towards the European Union, marked by its signing of an EU association agreement in 2014, has cost the country its ties with neighboring Russia.

Sandu, on the other hand, wants the country to move toward Europe. She argues that Moldova will have a more prosperous future in the European Union.

Moldova's current Prime Minister Pavel Filip, a pro-European, said the two candidates would need to work together in the country's best interest.

"This includes key reforms needed for the country's modernization and continued EU path, which cannot be reversed," he said in emailed comments after polls closed.

Filip, who has served since January, has introduced political changes, including the direct presidential vote.

The election marks the first time in 16 years which has the national vote, instead of the parliament, elect the head of state.

Dodon's apparent victory comes alongside that of nearby Bulgaria's pro-Russian presidential candidate Gen Rumen Radev, who claimed victory in Sunday's election.

The eastern European state of 3.5 million plunged into political and economic crisis after a corruption scandal came to light recently.

In 2014, some $1 billion-- the equivalent of an eighth of Moldova's economic output, mysteriously disappeared from three banks, sparking huge street protests and the arrest of the former prime minister Vlad Filat.

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Obama Reassures Allies That Trump Is Committed To NATO

Mike Eckel November 14, 2016

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama says Donald Trump has indicated strong backing for NATO, despite statements to the contrary made by the Republican during his successful election campaign.

Obama said on November 14 that he and Trump had a useful and "free-flowing conversation" when the two met last week, two days after Trump's stunning victory over Hillary Clinton.

Speaking to reporters ahead of his final foreign trip as president, Obama was asked what he will tell foreign leaders about Trump's faith in the NATO military alliance.

Obama replied: "There is no weakening of resolve when it comes to America's commitment to maintaining a strong and robust NATO relationship."

During the election campaign, Trump suggested that NATO members need to invest more into the alliance. He also suggested that the United States might not come to the defense of NATO members if they didn't increase their military spending.

Obama said that during their meeting Trump "expressed a great interest in maintaining our core strategic relationships." He said that included "strong and robust NATO" partnerships.

Obama's remarks contrast with those he made during the final weeks of the election campaign, when he derided Trump as a man unfit to handle the codes that U.S. presidents use to authorize nuclear missile attacks.

The outgoing president was also asked about past criticism by Trump and some Republicans in Congress that the landmark deal that curbed Iran's nuclear ambitions should be torn up. Iran's president, and other officials, have voiced repeated concern in the days since Trump's election that the agreement might be rejected.

Obama said the deal was successful and continued to curtail Tehran's ability to build nuclear weapons.

"It becomes more difficult to undo something that's working, then undo something that isn't working," Obama said. "When you're not responsible for [the agreement], you can call it a terrible deal. But when you are responsible for it...you are more likely to look at the facts."

Obama will travel to Germany, Greece, and Peru during his final trip as president.

Source: http://www.rferl.org/a/obama-reassures-western-european- allies-trump-committed-to-nato/28117336.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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Poland Forming New Defense Force To Ward Off Threats From Russia

November 14, 2016

Poland says it will build a new territorial defense force of 53,000 volunteers by 2019 in order to guard against threats from Russia.

Defense Minister Atoni Macierewicz said on November 14 that the force will be similar to the U.S. National Guard in that it is comprised of civilians who undergo military training.

Macierewicz said the force would deter Russia from seizing Polish territory by infiltration, as it is accused of having done in eastern Ukraine.

"It is also the best response to the dangers of a hybrid war like the one...following Russia's aggression in Ukraine," Macierewicz said, giving Moscow's illegal annexation in 2014 of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula as an example.

Military experts say hybrid warfare is a tactic employed by Russia that uses deception rather than a formal declaration of war.

Based on reporting by AFP and PPA

Source: http://www.rferl.org/a/poland-forming-new- defense-force-russia-threats/28116760.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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Moldovans Protest Election Of Pro-Russia President

RFE/RL's Moldovan Service November 14, 2016

CHISINAU -- Hundreds of people took to the streets of Moldova's capital on November 14 after a pro-Russia politician was declared the winner of the country's presidential runoff election.

With 99.9 percent of the votes counted, Igor Dodon won 52.3 percent of the vote in the November 13 poll. Maia Sandu, who ran on an anticorruption ticket, took 47.7 percent.

Dodon vowed to be a president to all Moldovans and said he would seek good relations with the country's neighbors, Romania and Ukraine.

He also said he wanted to restore ties with Russia, which placed a trade embargo on Moldovan wine, fruit, and vegetables in 2014 -- arguing that the products failed to meet health and safety standards -- after Moldova signed an Association Agreement with the European Union.

Dodon's election to the largely ceremonial position -- executive power will ultimately be in the hands of the prime minister and legislature -- took place the same day a pro-Russia candidate won the same post in Bulgaria, prompting questions whether Eastern Europe may be tilting back toward Moscow amid a growing wave of euroskepticism.

Later on November 14, hundreds of mostly young Moldovans marched to the offices of the Central Election Committee in Chisinau, shouting: "Down with the mafia!" With police looking on, the protesters, many waving Moldovan flags, were peaceful.

Speaking to RFE/RL on the sidelines of an EU meeting in Brussels, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto expressed hope that Moldova would "continue the path regarding European integration."

"The success of the Eastern Partnership program depends greatly on how we can continue cooperation," Szijjarto said.

Analysts say that the 41-year-old Dodon, who described himself as a traditional Moldovan with conservative values, tapped into popular anger over the approximately $1 billion that vanished from Moldovan banks before the 2014 parliamentary elections. The fraud, which took place under the watch of a pro-EU government, is seen as harming the reputations of pro-Western politicians.

Dodon says he wants to scrap a law adopted by parliament that obligates taxpayers to reimburse the $1 billion lost in the fraud, although experts doubt he will be able to keep the pledge.

During the campaign, Sandu, a former education minister who heads the Action and Solidarity Party, said Moldova would have a more prosperous future in the EU.

Sandu needed a high turnout to hope to win, and the final turnout of 53.3 percent was less than she had hoped.

Moldovans voting in Britain, Ireland, France, and Italy lined up for hours and ballot papers ran out. Sandu said the elections had been badly organized and demanded that electoral officials resign.

"Hundreds of people were not able to vote," she said. "Hundreds of citizens that traveled a long journey, that waited in the cold and rain, were not able to vote. Moldovan authorities didn't respect the constitutional right of Moldovan citizens...to be able to vote."

Sandu also complained about the high number of people who voted in breakaway Transdniester, a pro-Russia region where a reported 9,000 people cast ballots.

People residing in Transdniester, which has proclaimed itself an independent country, usually boycott Moldovan elections.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which deployed monitors for the election, said balloting was held in a "competitive" atmosphere, with "fundamental freedoms" respected. The OSCE noted, however, that "increasing polarized media coverage" leading up to the vote had "detracted from the process."

"The more intense campaign in the lead-up to the second round succeeded in mobilizing a greater number of voters and offered an opportunity for citizens to express their choice," said Arta Dade, the special coordinator and leader of the short-term OSCE observer mission. "This underlines a desire for continued civic mobilization, and I encourage the newly elected president to support the reforms needed to restore public confidence in state institutions."

Dodon told Russian broadcaster Rossiya 24 in a phone interview on November 14 that voters "united and voted for friendship with Russia, for neutrality, for our Orthodoxy, for the country's union."

"Very serious combat is ahead, but we are ready for this combat," he said, referring to parliamentary elections that he wants to bring forward to next year rather than wait until 2018.

On November 13, Prime Minister Pavel Filip said the government and new president would need to work together in the country's best interests, adding that its path toward greater EU integration "cannot be reversed."

Russia imposed trade restrictions on Moldovan agricultural exports after it signed the political and trade agreement with the European bloc in 2014.

Moscow fears Moldova moving closer to the European Union, a reaction that has drawn comparisons to its opposition to Ukraine's efforts to tighten ties with the bloc in 2013.

Russia also has thousands of troops stationed as part of a disputed military presence in the mainly Russian-speaking territory of Transdniester, which broke away from Moldova following a short war that killed several hundred people.

Russia still keeps a contingent of troops in the breakaway region, ostensibly as peacekeepers.

Sandu has called for Russia to withdraw the troops.

Dodon's Socialist Party wants to scrap the EU agreement in favor of joining a Eurasian economic union dominated by Russia -- a position that has backing in Moldova where many have suffered financially from the goods embargo and a broader economic downturn.

In October, an ambassador from one EU member state, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Dodon had privately told diplomats his party would not discard the EU accord.

Source: http://www.rferl.org/a/moldova -presidential-election-dodan-sandu-russia- protests/28116385.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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Update: air strikes against Daesh

14 November 2016

British forces have continued to conduct air operations in the fight against Daesh

Latest update

- Thursday 10 November  Tornados, Typhoons and a Reaper attacked four terrorist positions in support of operations to liberate Mosul.

- Friday 11 November  Typhoons destroyed an armoured vehicle in Syria, Tornados demolished a Daesh strongpoint south of Mosul.

- Saturday 12 November  A Reaper attacked three terrorist groups near Mosul, including a mortar team.

- Sunday 13 November  Typhoons bombed an anti-aircraft gun in Syria, while Tornados and a Reaper struck four targets near Mosul.

Detail

The primary focus for Royal Air Force aircraft, flying as part of the coalition air campaign against Daesh, has continued to be support to the Iraqi operation to liberate Mosul. Missions have however also been flown to assist the Syrian Democratic Forces advancing towards Raqqa.

On Thursday 10 November, a Reaper provided overwatch to Iraqi troops engaged in street fighting at Abasi in northern Iraq. Its crew used Hellfire missiles against two groups of terrorists, including a light machine-gun team. In Mosul itself, a mortar was spotted in an area of heavily wooded parkland. It was destroyed by a Paveway IV guided bomb from a Typhoon flight. North of the city, Tornados used a Brimstone missile to kill several terrorists as they manoeuvred along a street.

A pair of Typhoons patrolled over Syria on Friday 11 November, supporting the Syrian Democratic Forces north of Raqqa. Another coalition aircraft was able to identify a Daesh armoured vehicle well concealed under trees, and was able to direct the Typhoon onto the target, which was duly destroyed with a Paveway IV. Meanwhile, south of Mosul, Tornados used another Paveway IV to demolish a terrorist strongpoint on the banks of the Tigris.

A Reaper maintained surveillance around Mosul on Saturday 12 November. As well as supporting a coalition air strike that eliminated a recoilless anti-tank gun team, our aircraft used three Hellfire missiles against a mortar and two groups of terrorists engaged in combat with Iraqi troops.

On Sunday 13 November, Typhoons again operated north of Raqqa and were able to destroy an anti-aircraft gun near Thulth Khunayz. Some miles to the north-east of Mosul, Tornados used a Paveway IV to collapse a tunnel system, while closer to the city, a Hellfire from a Reaper destroyed a large weapon mounted on the rear of a lorry. The Reaper then used a GBU-12 laser guided bomb to attack successfully both a buried weapons cache and a nearby terrorist vehicle.

Previous air strikes

Saturday 1 October: A Reaper provided surveillance support to a coalition air strike north-west of Mosul. It then used one of its own Hellfires to attack a Daesh position.

Sunday 2 October: A Reaper was again active north of Mosul, near Tall Kayf. A Hellfire destroyed a digger which was being used by the terrorists to construct a defensive position. To the east of Mosul, Tornados used an Enhanced Paveway II bomb and a Paveway IV to attack a headquarters building and a group of Daesh extremists. The same day, to the south-east of Mosul, near Qaraqosh, Typhoons used Paveway IVs in a simultaneous attack on three Daesh-held buildings where a large group of fighters had assembled, including local commanders. A second Typhoon pair meanwhile operated over a large swathe of Iraqi territory. North of Ramadi, they destroyed a mortar team. They then headed north to the Bayji area where further Paveway attacks dealt with a terrorist strongpoint and transport vehicle.

Monday 3 October: Royal Air Force Typhoons provided close air support to Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), attacking Daesh positions in eastern Syria. A group of terrorists were identified holding a building in a rural area. The SDF held back while the Typhoons conducted a successful strike, demolishing the target with Paveway IV guided bombs. Across the border in northern Iraq, Tornados provided support to Iraqi forces clearing Daesh from the Tigris valley south of Mosul. The aircraft used another Paveway IV to destroy a terrorist communications installation north of Al Hawd.

Tuesday 4 October: A Reaper remotely piloted aircraft conducted armed reconnaissance north of Mosul. The Reaper's crew located a large fuel tanker dug-in as part of the defensive positions constructed by Daesh near Batnay. The tanker was burning oil to create a smoke screen in order to shield Daesh fighters against attacking ground forces. The Reaper scored a direct hit with a GBU-12 guided bomb. The Reaper then provided surveillance support to a coalition air strike against nearby positions.

Wednesday 5 October: Tornados were again in action south of Mosul, where they bombed an armed truck. In central Iraq, Typhoons attacked a small group of terrorists who had been spotted north of Taji. Working in close concert with a coalition surveillance aircraft, the Typhoons successfully killed the extremists with two Paveway IV attacks.

Thursday 6 October: With Iraqi operations to isolate Mosul continuing, Royal Air Force aircraft continued to provide close air support on. To the north and west of the city, a Reaper successfully engaged with Hellfire missiles both a mortar team and a group of terrorists caught in the open. The same day, a Tornado mission used an Enhanced Paveway II guided bomb against the entrance to a Daesh tunnel network. In eastern Syria, Typhoons used a Paveway IV guided bomb in a successful attack on a Daesh command post.

Friday 7 October: Typhoons patrolled over western Iraq, where they used Paveway IVs to destroy two trucks carrying Daesh extremists as they drove along a desert track. In the Tigris valley south of Mosul, two Tornado flights supported Iraqi troops near Al Hawd and Sharqat. A Brimstone missile attack from one Tornado pair eliminated a mortar position, while the second pair used two Paveway IVs and a Brimstone in three attacks which accounted for a large, dispersed group of terrorists on the river bank.

Sunday 9 October: Tornados continued their work over the Tigris, when they destroyed a mortar team and a nearby ammunition stockpile near Qayyarah, with a pair of Paveway IVs. North of Mosul, a Reaper worked alongside two Typhoons. The Reaper provided surveillance support to a highly effective artillery bombardment that destroyed a Daesh training camp. It then tracked two terrorists as they moved to a rocket launching position, where they were seen working under the cover of some trees. A Hellfire missile killed the terrorists and the Typhoons then followed up with a Paveway IV attack to destroy the rockets.

Coalition aircraft have been providing intensive air support to Iraqi ground forces as they work to isolate Daesh terrorists holding Mosul. The Royal Air Force has been heavily committed to this operation, with Tornado, Typhoon and Reaper aircraft providing close air support, and Airseeker and Sentinel strategic surveillance aircraft gathering intelligence. On the ground British military instructors are, with coalition colleagues, helping train, mentor and equip many of the forces engaged in the Mosul operation.

Welcoming the start of operations to liberate Mosul, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said:

"Daesh are on the back foot. The beginning of the encirclement of Mosul today is a big moment in our efforts to rid Iraq of Daesh. Mosul is a large and complex city and operations there will be tough but with Coalition support Iraqi forces will prevail."

"Alongside our Coalition partners, the UK will continue to play a leading role in the air and on the ground, including through our strike missions, specialised surveillance, humanitarian support and the mentoring and training of Iraqi forces."

Monday 10 October: A pair of Typhoons from RAF Akrotiri used two Paveway IV guided bombs to destroy the entrances to tunnels beneath an embankment near Qaraqosh. They then flew to the north-west of Mosul where they used another Paveway to silence a mortar team on the northern bank of the Tigris, which had been firing on the advancing Kurdish forces. To the north-east of the city, two Tornados used an Enhanced Paveway II to destroy a terrorist anti-tank missile position. They then followed up with a Paveway IV to ensure the destruction of an associated ammunition supply point.

Tuesday 11 October: Tornados conducted another successful attack north-west of Mosul on a tunnel, which had been identified as a weapons cache.

Wednesday 12 October: An intensive series of strikes in northern Iraq. North of Mosul, near Tall Kayf, a Reaper scored a direct hit with a Hellfire missile on an artillery piece hidden beneath a tarpaulin. A Tornado pair used a Brimstone missile to destroy a rocket-armed truck in the Qayyarah region, while Typhoons bombed a mortar team north-east of Mosul. The Tornado and Typhoon flights then combined for a joint attack near Qaraqosh on a set of workshops manufacturing explosives. Seven Enhanced Paveway II and Paveway IV bombs, plus a Brimstone, were used to destroy the facility and a number of Daesh vehicles at the site. A second combined Tornado and Typhoon flight meanwhile headed to the south-west of Kirkuk, where they destroyed a truck-bomb facility with Enhanced Paveway II and Paveway IV weapons.

Friday 14 October: North-west of Mosul, Paveway IV-armed Typhoons successfully bombed five rocket launchers. They then moved to support a Reaper which had located a terrorist mortar position and ammunition stockpile. The Reaper attacked the mortar with a GBU-12 guided bomb, and the Typhoons followed up with a strike on the munitions stockpile.

Sunday 16 October: A Reaper again patrolled to the north-west of Mosul, where it engaged an artillery piece with a Hellfire, then provided targeting support to three attacks by coalition fast jets on terrorist mortar positions. One flight of Typhoons operated to the west of Mosul, using Paveway IVs to destroy two Daesh-held buildings, while a second flight operated to the east, attacking four terrorist positions.

Monday 17 October: A Reaper kept close watch on Daesh positions near Qaraqosh to the south-east of Mosul. Our aircraft provided surveillance support to a coalition fast jet attack on a terrorist mortar team. The Reaper then conducted attacks using its own weapons on four targets. These attacks included a GBU-12 guided bomb, which accounted for a mortar. Hellfire missiles also destroyed an armed truck and two heavy weapons teams, including one armed with a recoilless anti-tank gun which had opened fire on the advancing Iraqis. To the south of the city, a Typhoon flight was able to use a Paveway IV guided bomb to dispose safely of a large truck-bomb before it could be used.

Tuesday 18 October: A Reaper was again in action south-east of Mosul on Tuesday 18 October. A Hellfire missile killed a group of terrorists engaged in combat with Iraqi troops. A second Hellfire also accounted for another group of extremists as they moved between positions, and a third destroyed an armed truck. North-east of the city, a pair of Typhoons used Paveway IVs to destroy a number of improvised explosive devices laid in a defensive belt, as well as a weapons stockpile and a Daesh strong-point.

Wednesday 19 October: A Reaper scouted ahead of Iraqi troops advancing to the south-east of the city. A terrorist rocket-propelled grenade team were identified and eliminated using a Hellfire missile. The Reaper then provided surveillance support to two successful attacks by coalition fast jets on larger groups of terrorists, before conducting a further Hellfire attack itself. The aircraft's surveillance sensors then spotted a large armoured truck-bomb emerging from cover and being driven at speed towards an Iraqi unit. An immediate attack with a Hellfire missile struck the vehicle, which crashed out of control, and the would-be suicide bomber abandoned the truck and fled. Another group of terrorists were later identified and attacked with a fourth Hellfire. Meanwhile, to the north of Mosul, Paveway IV-armed Typhoons destroyed two Daesh-held buildings.

Thursday 20 October: Reaper support to the south-east of Mosul continued. Hellfire missiles destroyed a truck-mounted heavy machine-gun and another vehicle which had been spotted being loaded with a mortar and ammunition. Two more Daesh mortar teams were destroyed with a further Hellfire and a GBU-12 guided bomb. In the Tigris valley south of Mosul, a Tornado flight intervened in a combat between Iraqi troops and a dispersed group of terrorists. Two Paveway IVs accounted for the extremists. Meanwhile, two flights of Typhoons patrolled the northern arc around Mosul, where they engaged seven terrorist targets with Paveway IVs. These included: a rocket-launcher north-west of the city, a sniper team and a Daesh-held building to the north, and to the north-east a pair of heavy machine-guns, a strongpoint, and a command post which was controlling truck-bomb attacks.

Friday 21 October: A Reaper remotely piloted aircraft patrolled north of Mosul, using a Hellfire missile to destroy a Daesh mortar that had opened fire on Kurdish troops. The Reaper then moved south-east to support operations around Qaraqosh, where a coalition aircraft had spotted a fortified tunnel entrance. The Reaper's crew were able to destroy this with a direct hit from a GBU-12 guided bomb. Meanwhile, Typhoons from RAF Akrotiri, operated to the north and east of the city. Near Khursabad, they worked in close cooperation with a coalition surveillance aircraft to destroy a second tunnel entrance, in which terrorists were known to be hiding. To the north of Mosul, they attacked two mortar teams and a heavy machine-gun, and, near Bartallah, they destroyed an armoured truck-bomb positioned in the path of the advancing Iraqi troops. Further south, in the Tigris valley, a pair of Tornados used a Brimstone missile to destroy an armed truck. They then used a second Brimstone to engage a group of terrorists operating amongst houses south-east of Mosul. No collateral damage was caused.

Saturday 22 October: a Reaper flew overwatch for the Iraqi troops in and around Qaraqosh as they cleared remaining Daesh positions. The Reaper's crew used a Hellfire missile against several terrorists engaged in a firefight with the Iraqis. A second Hellfire then destroyed an anti-aircraft gun positioned in the street. A terrorist mortar was reported firing on friendly forces, and the Reaper successfully hunted this down and eliminated the threat with a GBU-12 guided bomb. A van was spotted supplying terrorist positions and was destroyed with a Hellfire, and a fourth missile accounted for another group of extremists caught in the open.

Sunday 23 October: Reaper operations continued, where one of our aircraft conducted a Hellfire attack on a truck loaded with terrorists. A second Hellfire killed other terrorists as they attempted to hide from the aircraft beneath a staircase in a ruined building. The Reaper employed a GBU-12 bomb to destroy a heavy machine-gun that was firing on Iraqi troops, then used a third Hellfire to destroy a well dug-in mortar near Bartallah. North-east of Mosul, a pair of Typhoons used two Paveway IVs to destroy a pair of machine-gun positions, then carried out a simultaneous attack against a total of five Daesh positions  two sniper teams, two mortars and another machine-gun  spread across a couple of miles of the front line. All five targets were struck accurately by Paveway IVs. An eighth Paveway was then used to destroy another mortar team. A second Typhoon flight was also active in the area, working closely with coalition surveillance aircraft, and dropped Paveway IVs against two Daesh strongpoints. Tornados also patrolled north-east of Mosul. The aircraft delivered attacks with an Enhanced Paveway II and two Paveway IVs that destroyed a machine-gun team, a terrorist defensive position and an armed truck.

Monday 24 October: A Tornado armed reconnaissance mission north-east of Mosul was diverted to deal with a terrorist team which a coalition aircraft had spotted planting booby-traps and improvised explosive devices. The team were struck by a 1000 lb Enhanced Paveway II bomb. Typhoons flew in the same area, using a Paveway IV against terrorists engaged in close combat with friendly forces, then, through heavy cloud, delivering a simultaneous strike against four sniper positions. The Iraqi forces reported direct hits on all four targets. Meanwhile, a Reaper flew further support as the Iraqis pushed on from Qaraqosh and Bartallah, and in the course of its mission the aircraft delivered five attacks. Two Hellfire missiles accounted for a terrorist group and a dug-in mortar. The Reaper then observed a number of Daesh fighters travelling on motorcycles, and followed them until they joined forces with a number of other extremists. The group were then struck with a Hellfire as they gathered outside a building. On the outskirts of Mosul, a total of six rocket-launchers were spotted by the Reaper, ready for firing. Four were destroyed by a GBU-12 bomb, then the other two by a Hellfire.

Tuesday 25 October: A Reaper patrolled the area around the village of Ali Rash, home to the Shabak minority, and destroyed an armed truck using a GBU-12 guided bomb. The Reaper's crew then tracked a group of Daesh fighters on foot and attacked them with a Hellfire missile. Before returning to base, the Reaper also provided targeting support to a coalition strike on a further Daesh position.

Wednesday 26 October: Reaper operations around Ali Rash continued. Our aircraft successfully located three terrorist mortar teams which were firing on Iraqi forces. The Reaper directed coalition fast jets to two of the mortars, both of which were subsequently destroyed, and took care of the third itself using a Hellfire. The Reaper's crew then tracked a terrorist in a car, who led them to a large group of extremists manning a defensive position. The Reaper was again able to call in coalition jets which eliminated the group with a salvo of precision guided bombs. A second Hellfire attack by the Reaper accounted for a smaller group of terrorists spotted moving on foot. North-east of Mosul, Typhoons provided close air support to an Iraqi advance and successfully used Paveway IV guided bombs to destroy four buildings which Daesh had fortified as strong-points.

Thursday 27 October: A Reaper patrolled to the north of Mosul. It kept a sustained watch on the area around a known Daesh supply point and tunnel entrance, ensuring no civilians were present in the area before coalition jets delivered a successful attack on both targets. It then provided surveillance support to a further coalition strike which destroyed a large truck-bomb. The Reaper later observed and destroyed three armed terrorists moving on a pair of motorcycles, using a single Hellfire missile.

Friday 28 October: With Iraqi forces closing in on the eastern edge of Mosul, a pair of Royal Air Force Tornados and a Reaper remotely piloted aircraft targeted Daesh terrorists in the area. The Reaper identified an artillery piece which several extremists were loading onto a large flat-bed lorry. The Reaper provided targeting support which allowed the Paveway-armed Tornados to destroy both the gun and the vehicle. The Reaper also supported a follow-up attack by coalition aircraft which destroyed an ammunition truck nearby. It then delivered its own strike with a Hellfire missile, which safely detonated a large truck-bomb hidden in trees.

Saturday 29 October: A Reaper patrolled south of Mosul, along the Tigris valley. West of Guwayr, the Reaper spotted a group of terrorists with rocket-propelled grenades firing at Iraqi troops, and was able to deliver a successful attack with a Hellfire. A second Hellfire accounted for a Daesh heavy weapons team, and our aircraft was also able to provide targeting for a coalition aircraft which killed a number of terrorists manoeuvring through woodland.

Sunday 30 October: A Reaper was again in action east of Mosul. Its crew successfully hunted down a mortar which had been firing on Iraqi positions. The mortar was subsequently destroyed by coalition fast jets. The Reaper used Hellfire missiles against a pair of terrorists moving at high speed on a motorcycle and a team armed with a recoilless anti-tank gun. It then facilitated three further coalition attacks against groups of terrorists, including another recoilless anti-tank weapon crew.

Monday 31 October: Tornados joined coalition aircraft from a number of other countries in a major coordinated attack on a former Iraqi military depot near Haditha in western Iraq. Intelligence had established that Daesh had set up workshops manufacturing weapons in a number of the bunkers at the site. The Tornados used Storm Shadow missiles, chosen because of their enhanced penetrative capabilities, to target several of these bunkers. Initial reports indicate that this large-scale coalition attack was a success. Operations around Mosul were not neglected however, with a Reaper supporting Iraqi troops as they cleared the village of Bazwaya, just to the east of the city. A Hellfire missile destroyed an armed truck, and the Reaper was also able to assist coalition air attacks against a mortar team and another Daesh position.

Tuesday 1 November: Tornados patrolled north of Mosul where they supported advancing Kurdish forces. A Paveway IV guided bomb destroyed a Daesh heavy machine-gun position when it opened fire on the Peshmerga, while an Enhanced Paveway II demolished a building in which a light machine-gun was sited. Meanwhile, to the south-east of the city, a Reaper provided further close air support to Iraqi troops. It conducted Hellfire attacks on a mortar team who were spotted firing, and two groups of terrorists, including individuals with rocket-propelled grenades. The Reaper also directed a successful coalition air attack onto a number of terrorists defending a trench network.

Wednesday 2 November: A combination of Typhoon and Tornado aircraft patrolled to the east of the city. Some distance to the south-east, they used a Paveway IV guided bomb to destroy a building from which a terrorist mortar team was operating. They then flew north to eliminate a sniper position with a second Paveway.

Thursday 3 November: Tornados struck two further targets north-east of Mosul. A Paveway IV destroyed a building from which Daesh extremists were firing on advancing ground forces, while a Brimstone missile accounted for a terrorist vehicle. South-east of the city, a Reaper flew overwatch for Iraqi troops as they pressed forwards. The Reaper's crew used all four of its Hellfire missiles against a mortar team seen firing from amidst trees, and three groups of terrorists as they fired on the Iraqis with rocket-propelled grenades, as well as attempting to set fire to piles of tyres to create a smokescreen. The Reaper was also able to provide surveillance support to two air strikes by coalition aircraft which destroyed a fortified position and an armed truck.

Friday 4 November: Reaper operations continued south-east of Mosul, with our aircraft directing a successful coalition air attack onto its target, a weapons dump, and using one of its own Hellfires to engage a group of terrorists on foot. Two Tornados struck close air support targets inside eastern Mosul itself, using Brimstone missiles to destroy an armed vehicle and a large truck-bomb. A Paveway also hit a group of terrorists which another coalition aircraft had been carefully tracking as they manoeuvred towards Iraqi troops. A second Tornado flight supported Iraqi operations elsewhere in the country, and north-east of Mosul used Paveway IV and Enhanced Paveway II bombs to destroy a cave occupied by Daesh in the hills above Bayji, as well as a nearby stock of equipment.

Saturday 5 November: Three Hellfire attacks were launched by a Reaper near Mosul, against a truck-bomb, a mortar and a rocket-propelled grenade team. The Reaper also assisted in a coalition strike against a second mortar. On Sunday 6 November, Paveway IV-armed Typhoons bombed a terrorist group in the Tigris valley south of Mosul, while Tornados used a Brimstone missile to destroy an armoured personnel carrier inside the city. On the outskirts, a Reaper tracked a terrorist driving a truck-bomb towards Iraqi troops, but the truck exploded prematurely as it drove over rough ground, negating any need for the Reaper to fire at it. The Reaper instead used its Hellfires against a truck being loaded with spare weapons, a recoilless anti-tank gun, a rocket-propelled grenade team and an armed truck.

Monday 7 November: A Typhoon mission armed with Paveway IV guided bombs destroyed a stockpile of rocket and mortar equipment to the north of Bayji, and a Reaper conducting armed reconnaissance near Raqqah struck a Daesh vehicle with a Hellfire missile. Near Mosul, a Reaper provided close air support to Iraqi forces. Daesh fighters were observed firing a recoilless anti-tank gun at the Iraqi troops, then loading the weapon into a vehicle. As the vehicle pulled away, it was destroyed by a Hellfire. The Reaper's crew then used a further three Hellfires, which have a very low risk of collateral damage, in successful attacks on groups of extremists as they engaged in street fighting with the Iraqi troops.

Tuesday 8 November: Reaper operations in the area continued, with our aircraft conducting three further Hellfire attacks on terrorist fighters, as well as providing targeting support to a coalition air strike which destroyed a mortar team. To the north-east of Mosul, a pair of Typhoon FGR4s used Paveway IVs to destroy seven Daesh positions.

Wednesday 9 November: A Reaper spotted an armoured vehicle firing on Iraqi troops on the outskirts of Mosul, and destroyed it with a Hellfire.

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Trump Expected to Take Tough but Brief Action in South China Sea

Ralph Jennings November 14, 2016

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump did not make the maritime disputes in South China Sea a major part of his election campaign and his approach to Asia's most expansive sovereignty disagreement is still not clear.

Some experts predict, however, that he will make a few strident anti-Beijing military moves in the area to prove a point and then back off to engage the Chinese economically.

Trump South China Sea policy

People who follow U.S. policy in Asia expect Trump to make a quick show of force. That show might include passage of U.S. naval ships through the 3.5 million-square-km (1.4 million-square-mile) sea to show it is open to all countries despite China's claim to the entire body of water, said Sean King, senior vice president with the New York political consultancy Park Strategies.

They say a military move would support anti-China campaign remarks by Trump, who ran on the Republican Party ticket, and let him appear tougher than current President Barack Obama of the rival Democratic Party. Some in Trump's camp may see a loss to the United States as the Philippines, a sea claimant and traditional U.S. ally, has moved closer to Beijing since June.

"He has to flex American muscle," said Eduardo Araral, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore's public policy school. "He has to tell his domestic constituency he has won back the Philippines that was lost to China. So he needs to show his constituency that he has won where Obama has failed."

Trump has yet to roll out a formal South China Sea policy. The United States is not among the six claimant governments, but Obama has used verbal warnings and periodic military movements to check China, the biggest force in the dispute.

The New York real estate billionaire said on his campaign website that a stronger U.S. military deployment in the South China Sea would counter Chinese "adventurism" as Beijing tries to expand its influence. Trump also criticized China for taking disputed islets in the sea and reclaiming land for others. China has reclaimed an estimated 3,200 acres (1,295 hectares).

"A strong military presence will be a clear signal to China and other nations in Asia and around the world that America is back in the global leadership business," the campaign website said.

Economic reality

Once Trump has shown initial force in the sea, his government will probably drop military action in favor of a practical business partnership with China, analysts say.

"Details are scarce as to what Trump's policy approach to the Asia Pacific might look like, and many of his off-the-cuff remarks have sent mixed signals about how the administration might proceed," said Jonathan Spangler, director of the Taipei-based South China Sea Think Tank. "Had Clinton won the election, there's little doubt that she would have continued to prioritize the Asia Pacific region."

Cabinet an indicator

An Asia policy might become clearer when Trump picks policy architects such as the next secretaries of state and defense, King said.

"China will likely find a business-minded leader like Trump to be easier to influence than a political and ideologically minded leader like Clinton," Spangler forecast.

Trump takes a cold view toward free trade, a core part of Sino-U.S. ties today. He has called China a "cheater" and a "currency manipulator." But ultimately he will reach out to the Communist leadership in the interest of American businesses that rely on Asia's biggest market and manufacturing base, analysts believe.

Exports of American goods to China totaled $113 billion in 2015. That figure made China the third biggest destination for American products after Canada and Mexico, the nonprofit advocacy group US-China Business Council said in a report this year.

"At the end of the day Trump is a marketing man," Araral says. "He wants to make deals. If it brings domestic benefits to the U.S., he will do it."

Trump may also cut the military budget as part of a refocus on domestic policy, limiting action in the South China Sea, said Lin Chong-pin, a retired strategic affairs professor in Taipei.

"When Donald Trump ascends to the presidency, he will scale back the military presence in [the] South China Sea for sure," Lin said. "Of course Beijing is silently smiling now."

China has irritated Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines by passing vessels through their claimed exclusive economic zones of 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) off their coastlines and occupying islets in those zones.

Beijing, which claims about 95 percent of the sea that extends from Taiwan to Singapore, began a visible expansion push in 2010 into the tropical body of water prized for fisheries, gas, oil and commercial shipping lanes.

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Flicker of Hope Still Burning for Yemen Peace Plan

Steve Herman November 14, 2016

Ending the war in Yemen was a "prime topic of discussion" for Secretary of State John Kerry in Oman, according to a senior administration official.

Kerry told reporters Monday he held a "very constructive discussion" with Yusuf bin Alawi, the minister responsible for foreign affairs, before also talking about the bloody and desperate situation in neighboring Yemen with Oman's Sultan Qaboos bin Said.

The absolute monarch and Kerry discussed "the importance of peace talks and getting a framework in place," the official said. "But neither side in past weeks has been willing to stop fighting."

The monarch and the U.S. secretary of state "welcomed the road map, including its sequencing, put forward by the United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, to end the conflict," said State Department spokesman John Kirby in a statement.

Oman is the only Gulf state that is not part of the Saudi-led coalition against Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

The Omani road map, based on an initiative by Kerry, calls for Yemeni President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi to hand power to a less divisive deputy in exchange for the Houthis withdrawing from Yemen's main cities.

"Progress is possible but only if the U.S. can exert enough pressure on Saudi Arabia to stop its aerial campaign in Yemen. This might in turn convince the Houthis and their allies that the international community is serious about wanting to bring an end to the conflict," said Michael Horton, senior analyst for Arabian affairs at The Jamestown Foundation.

Previous cease-fires have seen almost immediate violations by all sides in the conflict.

Oman as peace broker

Oman, with treaty ties to the United States stretching back to 1833, served as a bridge in secret talks between Tehran and Washington that led to last year's controversial nuclear deal between Iran and a group of world powers.

Oman has also hosted behind-the-scenes discussions between U.S. officials and the Houthis.

Horton told VOA there is "a real risk that Saudi Arabia will view the incoming Trump administration as being less well disposed to the House of Saud and in particular to its war in Yemen. This might mean that Saudi Arabia intensifies its aerial campaign in Yemen before Trump takes office."

The tempo of bombings in northwestern Yemen has been reported to have intensified in the last few days.

Oman is expected to have a key role in any negotiations, as it is viewed to some degree as a neutral and honest broker.

Oman challenges

Oman faces its own challenges, and time may be running short.

Oman's Sultan Qaboos, a veteran of the British Army, is the Middle East's longest-serving ruler since overthrowing his father in 1970. But the monarch, who turns 76 on Friday, spent most of last year undergoing medical treatment in Germany for an undisclosed illness. The sultan is divorced with no children or brothers, raising questions about who will succeed him as the head of the Busaid dynasty.

The conflict in Yemen in the past 20 months has killed an estimated 10,000 people and millions are in need of food with starvation setting in, according to the United Nations.

The majority of Yemen's 27 million people are also in urgent need of health services and the country is at risk for a significant cholera outbreak, according to U.N. agencies.

"Stabilizing Yemen is critical to regional stability and for U.S. national security," according to Horton of the independent, non-partisan Jamestown Foundation. He asserts the only ultimate beneficiary of a protracted war in Yemen would be the Sunni extremist al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which has orchestrated numerous high-profile terrorist attacks in the divided country.

VOA's Nike Ching at the State Department contributed to this report.

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Pakistan Blames India for Cross-border Shelling; 7 Troops Dead

Ayaz Gul November 14, 2016

Pakistan says that "unprovoked" overnight shelling by India across the disputed Kashmir frontier killed seven Pakistani troops.

The incident occurred in Bhimber sector along the "Line of Control," which separates Pakistani and Indian portions of the divided Himalayan region, according to a military statement issued Monday.

Pakistani troops retaliated and "effectively" targeted Indian posts, it said, without giving further details.

The Pakistan government condemned the deadly attack, adding that 26 civilians have died in recent Indian shelling, while more than 100 have been wounded.

"We are fully capable of defending our soil against any aggression. The Indian Forces have resorted to escalating tension on LoC (Line of Control) only to detract the world's attention from the grave human rights situation in the Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK)", an official statement quoted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif as saying.

Pakistan has summoned the Indian High Commissioner to the Foreign Ministry to formally protest the killings of its soldiers.

The government in New Delhi has not yet responded to the allegation.

Locked in clashes

India and Pakistan have been locked in intense, intermittent military clashes in Kashmir for weeks but Monday's causalities are the highest troop death toll any side has suffered so far.

The skirmishes have also caused civilian casualties on both sides, forcing thousands of villagers near the LoC to flee for safety.

The fighting has torn apart a 2003 mutual cease-fire in Kashmir, raising fears the current tensions could escalate into another war between India and Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's High Commissioner in New Delhi, Abdul Basit, has called for the restoration of the Kashmir cease-fire deal and the resumption of a sustained and irreversible peace dialogue to improve bilateral ties.

"I want to emphasize that war is not the solution to our problems. And I hope you would agree with me that if we have to find a solution to our disputes, we will have to do it only through sustained peace talks," noted Basit as part of a public talk in the Indian city of Lucknow.

A wide-ranging dialogue between India and Pakistan to normalize relations remains suspended. New Delhi wants Islamabad to condemn groups allegedly plotting terrorist attacks in India from the Pakistani side.

Basit urged India to desist from attaching any preconditions for resuming the dialogue process.

Indian officials want Pakistan to expedite the trial of several suspected Islamists linked to the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks in which 166 people were killed.

But Islamabad insists New Delhi has not provided substantive evidence linking the suspects to the carnage in order to further the judicial process.

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Nigeria's Biafra Separatists See Hope in Trump

Chika Oduah November 14, 2016

The head of the Biafra separatist movement in Nigeria has written an open letter to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. The movement hopes Trump, who backed British voters' decision to leave the European Union, will also support a push for Biafra to win independence.

The letter, sent by a Nigerian activist named Nnamdi Kanu, contains a forceful appeal to the U.S. president-elect.

It says Trump's victory placed upon him a "historic and moral burden ... to liberate the enslaved nations in Africa," which it says are trapped in artificial boundaries designed to reinforce colonial domination.

Kanu currently sits in a prison in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, charged with treason for supporting a movement calling for territories in southeastern Nigeria to break away and form a country called Biafra.

Biafra tried to break away once before  in a three-year war starting in 1967 that left at least 1 million people dead, mostly from starvation.

Kanu and other activists hope Trump will be sympathetic to a new push for Biafran independence.

"[Trump] believes in the inalienable right of an indigenous people to self-determination and he has spoken it," said Clifford Iroanya, a spokesman for the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra organization. "He has written it. He has acted it. We believe he will support indigenous people all over the world to self-determine."

Disappointed in Obama

Iroanya says he was pleased when Trump expressed support for Britain's decision to leave the European Union with a tweet on June 24 that said, "Self-determination is the sacred right of all free people."

Biafra supporters say they too have self-determination, and should be allowed to break away from Nigeria.

The Biafran movement was disappointed with outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama, who they saw as a supporter of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.

"Then we felt that there is no point proceeding with talking to Mr. Obama because it will be like preaching to the choir. He is the backbone of Muhammadu Buhari," Iroanya said.

Buhari was the one who ordered Kanu to be held in custody.

Buhari, who had a long career in the Nigerian military, fought against Biafran independence when he was a young soldier and maintains a hard line against the Biafra movement.

Kanu remains in custody on instructions from Buhari, despite orders from Nigerian courts and a regional West African court to release him.

Opposition to war

Many Biafra supporters do not want to return to war.

Ifeanyi Nsionu was a 6-year-old boy when the Biafra War broke out in 1967.

"We really suffered," Nsionu said. "We were in a refugee camp. And then they were feeding us in the camp. It was horrible. We had to eat lizards. All these guys that are agitating for this Biafra thing, a majority of them are those who may not have witnessed this war. They do not understand what it is to be in a civil war."

Nsionu says reaching out to Trump is not a bad idea, although he doesn't expect the U.S. president-elect to do much for Nigeria.

"I did support Trump right from the beginning," he said. "I wanted a complete change from Obama's policy. Obama's policy for Africa was not encouraging. I don't know the ideology of Trump now, but I know that Trump will be after America first. By the time he stays the next four years and he must have done what he wanted to do for America, he may begin to see what else is happening elsewhere."

Nsionu can only hope that when that time comes, Trump will throw his support behind the Biafra movement.

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US 'Deeply Concerned' Over Proposal to Legalize Settlements on Private Palestinian Land

VOA News November 14, 2016

The United States says it is "deeply concerned" over an Israeli measure that would legalize Jewish settlement outposts built on private Palestinian land.

A committee of Israeli government ministers approved the bill Sunday. It now goes to the Israeli parliament for the first of three separate readings and possible approval by the Supreme Court.

"If this law were enacted, it could pave the way for the legalization of dozens of illegal outposts deep in the West Bank," State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said Monday. "This would represent an unprecedented and troubling step that's inconsistent with prior Israeli legal opinion and also break longstanding Israeli policy of not building on private Palestinian land."

Trudeau added the Jewish settlements are "corrosive to the cause of peace."

The controversial measure is aimed at stopping the Supreme Court-ordered evacuation of the West Bank settlement of Amona by December 25.

The bill is causing a split in Israel's coalition government, with religious hardliners supporting it and others condemning it as land theft, even though the Palestinians are compensated.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also opposes the measure, accusing ministers of acting hastily before the Supreme Court has a chance to consider postponing the December 25 evacuation.

The United States and human rights groups have consistently condemned Jewish settlements on land Palestinians want as part of a future state. The Palestinians call it a major roadblock to peace.

Israel regards the settlements as part of its security and says the Palestinian refusal to recognize a Jewish state is the impediment to peace.

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Moscow Clout Rises as Bulgaria, Moldova Elect Pro-Russia Leaders

Daniel Schearf November 14, 2016

Voters in Europe's poorest country, Moldova, and the European Union's poorest member, Bulgaria, elected Russia-leaning presidents Sunday.

In Bulgaria, Socialist-backed General Rumen Radev, a former air force commander who wants to lift EU sanctions against Russia, won by a wide margin against the ruling center-right GERB Party candidate Tsetska Tsacheva, securing 59 percent of the vote compared to Tsacheva's 36 percent. Prime Minister Boyko Borisov resigned his post after the defeat.

In Moldova, the staunch pro-Russia leader Igor Dodon, who has in the past threatened to tear up an EU association agreement in favor of a trade deal with Russia, won by a narrower margin. In a second round runoff, Dodon received 52 percent of the vote compared to pro-Europe rival Maia Sandu's 48 percent according to the Moldovan Central Election Commission.

While the post of president is mainly ceremonial in both countries, the election of candidates who favor closer ties to Russia is significant, says political analyst at the Moscow State Institute of International Affairs Victor Mizin.

"You cannot ignore the fact that this shows at least a very important, substantial part of the constituencies in both countries is leaning more to the position which is favorable to the major principles or major slogans of Russian foreign policy or just the image of Russia," he says.

Leaning back toward Moscow?

Both Bulgaria and Moldova are largely dependent on Russian energy exports. They maintain trade relations, despite EU sanctions against Russia over its actions in Ukraine and the ban Moscow imposed on imports of Moldovan wine and other agricultural products after Moldova signed an EU association agreement.

The EU's image has been damaged in both countries, where the public perceives economic progress as too slow and sees a failure to tackle corruption by nominally pro-EU leaders.

In Moldova, the backlash was particularly pronounced after a billion dollars, 12 percent of GDP, disappeared from banks.

Many young people left the former Soviet republic and Soviet bloc countries for better opportunities in Russia and Europe. Those left behind, mostly the older generation, still strongly identify with Russia.

"And my prediction is that it's just the beginning, that more and more candidates who are, how to say, anti-European Union, and that means unfortunately, logically, more pro-Moscow, that we'll see this trend of more and more of the people of this sort coming to power in the future," says Mizin.

Russia's Interfax news agency Monday quoted Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the International Affairs Committee of the Federation Council, the upper chamber of Russia's parliament, as saying the "'visually powerful' liberal-Atlantic system has now failed in Bulgaria and Moldova."

Russia's Foreign Ministry said it was too early to call either presidents "pro-Russian," but that it counts on Moldova to strengthen neutrality when the next president takes office.

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated the new Bulgarian President-elect Radev, saying in a statement he was confident that joint efforts would give new impetus to bilateral dialogue and broaden cooperation in various fields for the benefit of both their peoples.

But analysts say the elections are more a reaction to internal problems of governance than a wholesale rejection of the EU in favor of Russia.

Balancing act

The public in Bulgaria and Moldova is divided between Europe and Russia, says Leonid Gusev of the Institute of International Studies at the Moscow Institute of International Relations: "One part wants to be with Russia more and [the] other part wants to have [a] pro-European direction."

Striking a balance between East and West will be key for the new presidents to succeed, says Gusev. "Especially in Bulgaria because Bulgaria, as you know, is a member of [the] European Union, is a member of NATO," he says. "Even Rumov, during his campaign, also said that Bulgaria will be in these two blocs - in NATO, in [the] European Union."

Gusev says president-elect Dodon will face resistance from Moldova's pro-EU parliament if he goes ahead with an earlier call to withdraw from the 2014 EU association agreement, risking visa-free EU entry for Moldovans.

"I don't think that Mr. Dodon will take away this no visa regime with [the] European Union because I personally saw in Brussels, in Germany, a lot of people from Moldova who work there for a long time," he says. "I think he will try to have balance between connections with Russia and between connections with European Union."

Dodon told Russian state media Monday that his election victory was a vote for rapprochement with Russia and for resolving the frozen conflict in Trans-Dniester - the breakaway region of Moldova also known as Transnistria that wants to be part of Russia, and where Moscow has stationed thousands of troops.

Some 1,500 people died in a conflict between pro-Russian Transnistrian separatists and the Moldovan government in 1992.

There's no pragmatic and acceptable solution for Trans-Dniester that would satisfy all sides, says Mizin: "And, of course, as I understand it, Russia has no intention to withdraw its troops from Transnistria because some people I know in the Russian Ministry of Defense are afraid that it would immediately spark the beginning of, once again, the military conflict there."

Political analysts say the ongoing fighting in neighboring Ukraine has left leaders across Moldova, Russia, and the West wary of spreading conflict.

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DRC Government Resigns in Deal Extending Kabila Presidency

William Clowes November 14, 2016

In line with last month's agreement between supporters of Congolese President Joseph Kabila and an opposition faction, the country's prime minister, Augustin Matata Ponyo, announced his resignation Monday. A new government of national unity is expected to be named shortly, even though many opposition members are still against the agreement.

The dissolution of the government had been expected since October 18 when Kabila supporters and an opposition faction led by Vital Kamerhe reached a deal for managing the country after December 19, the final day of the president's second and, under the current constitution, final term.

The deal stated Kabila can stay in office until the organization of elections  which have been provisionally scheduled for April 2018  and Kamerhe's opposition faction will join a government of national unity. A larger opposition coalition, known as the Rassemblement, has rejected the agreement.

It is unclear when Kabila will name a new prime minister, but the president will give a rare address to the two chambers of parliament Tuesday.

After meeting Monday with the president, Kamerhe, considered a favorite to become prime minister, said his faction and Kabila "will manage the country together" to organize elections.

During the weekend, Kabila met with a U.N. Security Council delegation that urged Congolese political and social actors to work toward consensual and inclusive elections.

Lambert Mende, DRC's minister of communications who announced that Monday's press conference would be his last one, had firm words for the U.N. delegation, which asked Kabila about the lack of clarity around the date of the next election.

According to Mende, Kabila was surprised to be asked about election dates when that area is the constitutional prerogative of the independent electoral commission.

The Rassemblement accuses the president of deliberately undermining the commission to postpone elections.

Mende also criticized the delegation's focus on whether Kabila intends to change the constitution to allow him to stand for a third term.

Quoting Kabila, Mende said it is curious that such questions about possible third terms are so often put to the president of the DRC, a country where no one has ever considered changing the constitution  unlike several other countries in Africa. Mende, still quoting Kabila, also said the president has repeatedly said the constitution, which excludes a third term, will be respected.

The Rassemblement accuses the president of planning to remove term limits before the next election.

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Bulgaria - Presidential Election - 13 Nov 2016

The Bulgarian presidency is largely ceremonial but he or she is still a respected figure with some influence. The West-friendly presidential incumbent, Rossen Plevneliev declined to seek another five-year term. He had been an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The presidential elections in Bulgaria were a tempting opportunity for Russia to try to drag a 'vulnerable' East European country back into its strategic orbit, Politico wrote. The newspaper asserted that Washington was concerned about a new candidate Radev. And some Jasen Bojadjiev from the Deutsche Welle mocks presidential program of the Socialists 'For Bulgaria, which we love'. The Socialists, according to him, will apologize for 'shameful' and 'treacherous' statement of the current president on annexation of Crimea, will purchase Russian aircraft, join the Eurasian Union and will 'serve the Russian authorities and interests'.

Bulgarian Socialist Party presidential candidate and former air force commander Roumen Radev may have made a significant sortie into the conspiracy theorist vote on 03 October 2016 with a promise that if concerns about chemtrails strengthen among the public we can arrange a check. The chemtrail  a word made up from chemical and trail - conspiracy theory is that chemical or biological agents are sprayed at high altitudes by aircraft for sinister purposes concealed from the public. Scientists and governments repeatedly have rejected allegations that chemtrails exist, and that what is seen by the public are in fact contrails, condensation from the exhaust of high altitude aircraft. In a video posted online on YouTube of a campaign meeting, Radev is heard saying, if there is such a thing we will take steps, but at the moment I am not aware that there is such a thing such as deliberately, consciously spraying.

The results of an Alpha Research poll released on 17 October 2016 showed that GERB candidate Tsetska Tsacheva had the most support, 29.3 percent, BSP candidate Roumen Radev in second place (21.4 percent)  and I dont support anyone was in third place, at 10.8 percent. If the I dont support anyone option is discounted, in third place is Krassimir Karakachanov, presidential candidate for the nationalist Patriotic Front-Ataka electoral coalition the United Patriots, with 8.7 percent. Alpha Research said that it was highly likely that the November 2016 presidential elections would go to a second-round runoff, most probably between Tsacheva and Radev.

GERB Prime Minister Boiko Borissov repeated statements that should his partys candidate not place top at the first round of the presidential elections on November 6, he and his government would resign. GERB, according to every poll, had the most support, by far, among Bulgarias electorate. It had the largest financial resources, by far, among Bulgarias political parties. The next-largest party, the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party, was known to have been undergoing financial woes.

Former Bulgarian air force commander Rumen Radev won the first round of voting 06 November 2016, but failed to secure an overall majority. Radev stunned pollsters by sweeping 25.44 percent of the vote to Tsacheva's 21.96 percent in the first round of the election on November 6. A defeat for Tsacheva was an embarrassing setback for the center-right Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, a former police chief who had been premier since late 2014. Borisov had vowed to resign if his ally Tsacheva failed in the first round but later appeared to walk back that promise. New elections could plunge the EU's poorest - and certainly one of its most corrupt - members into renewed political turmoil where wages average just 480 euros ($535) a month. A victory for Radev could also see ex-communist Bulgaria, which has long walked a tightrope between Russia and the EU, tilt toward Moscow.

Radev won the decisive second round of the 13 November 2016 presidential elections in Bulgaria, exit polls by Alpha Research and Gallup International showed. Radev, 53, backed by the opposition Socialists, won 58.1-58.5 percent of the vote, compared with 35.3-35.7 percent for Tsetska Tsacheva, the 58-year-old candidate of the ruling center-right GERB party.

The win for Radev would signal a change in direction from outgoing President Rosen Pleneviev, a strong critic of Russia. Radev's election as president could see Bulgaria strengthening ties with Russia, potentially putting the country at odds with its European Union and NATO allies. Radev repeatedly insisted that "being a member of the EU and NATO does not mean that Bulgaria must be an enemy of Russia." During his election campaign, he also called for sanctions imposed on Russia over its role in the eastern Ukraine conflict to be lifted and pledged to support tougher border security to prevent an influx of migrants. While most power in the country rests with the prime minister and parliament, the president leads the armed forces and can veto legislation, sign international treaties and appoint top security and judicial officials.

Boyko Borisov announced that he will step down as Bulgarian prime minister. His resignation was prompted by the victory of Socialist ally Rumen Radev in the presidential election. The collapse of Borisov's minority government plunged the Black Sea state into months of political uncertainty and most likely triggered early elections in the spring of 2017. Halfway into its four-year term, Borisov's coalition government has managed to restore political stability after months of anti-corruption protests, but its popularity faded due to the slow pace of reforms.







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Choi Soon-sil Scandal

After the 70-day-long investigation, independent counsel Park Young-soo on 06 March 2017 announced his team's findings. "The core subject of this team's investigation has been the abuse of power to monopolize state affairs for personal interest and the collusive links between business and politics. To truly unify public opinion, it is important that every bit of the truth comes to light."

During the press conference, the independent counsel confirmed the bribery charges against President Park Geun-hye. He said the president and her confidante Choi Soon-sil colluded to pressure Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong to give more than 37 million U.S. dollars to two foundations controlled by Choi in exchange for support for a critical merger that was seen as cementing Lee's succession at Samsung.

According to a press release that accompanied the announcement, it was President Park who instructed the National Pension Service to vote for the controversial merger at a 2015 shareholders' meeting. The counsel also said that Choi Soon-sil meddled in state affairs, including personnel appointments and diplomacy. The counsel also concluded that President Park and Choi Soon-sil created a blacklist of more than nine-thousand cultural figures deemed critical of the government, in conjunction with former culture minister Cho Yoon-sun and former presidential chief of staff Kim Ki-choon.

Shortly after the press conference, both Samsung and the presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae responded, rejecting all allegations.

Choi Soon-sil and Park became friends in the 1970s when Choi's father Choi Tae-min, founder of an obscure sect called the Church of Eternal Life, emerged as a mentor to Park. At the time she was serving as acting first lady after the 1974 assassination of her mother, Yuk Young-soo. Claiming himself to be a psychic and messenger of God, Choi asserted he was receiving messages from the late first lady and that Park, too, could reach out to her mother. His alleged influence angered several key aides to her father, the country's then military strongman Park Chung-hee, who was assassinated by his spy chief in 1979.

In the 2007 Presidential campaign, when Park made her initial bid as the partys presidential candidate, rumors were rife that the charismatic pastor had complete control over Park's body and soul during her formative years and that his children accumulated enormous wealth as a result.

October 2016

By October 2016 the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office was investigating charges that Choi Sun-sil used her personal relationship with the president to elicit over $68 million from large Korean corporations to fund two sports foundations. She then allegedly funneled the money into a German sports company called Widec Sports, that was operated by Choi and her daughter.

Corruption scandals have been rampant in South Koreas political history, mostly involving family members or those close to the president. People completely lost faith in the president, which would make it difficult for her to pursue any real policy for the remainder of her term. Her five-year term was to finish in 2018, but Park had lost her authority as president.

If Park resigned, an election would have to be held within 60 days to choose a new president, who would serve a full five-year term. This would plunge the state into chaos - but it would be a swift way of relieving the government paralysis. But the chances of Park stepping down herself are slim.

As to impeachment, the National Assembly would pass motion for impeachment, suspending the President from performing her duties. While the Constitutional Court was holding its hearing, an acting President would be brought in. Depending on how the Court rulled, either Park would be reinstated or an early election would be held. South Koreans of all political stripes recall the trauma of the 2004 impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun (2003-2008). An impeachment motion would have be passed by two-thirds of more of the National Assembly, or 200 members. By late 2016, it was unclear whether more than 29 of the Saenuri Partys 129 lawmakers would even agree to a vote.

In October 2016 embattled South Korean leader Park Geun-hye faced a political crisis that was rather difficult for Westerners to understand, since much of the controverial activity seemed normal by American standards. The scandal erupted after cable channel journalists JTBC pulled out of the garbage bin of one of the hotels in Seoul a tablet computer, which stored 200 secret documents from 2012-2014, including 44 draft President's speeches. The files contained major changes and had dates earlier than those in which these speeches afterwards were given by the head of state. As it turned out, the tablet belonged to a friend - Choi Sung Sil. She, the investigators suggested, had for a long time actually taken part in the Government without any public office.

It was claimed that that President Park let longtime friend Choi Soon-sil enjoy inappropriate influence over the presidency. The opposition believed that the situation is much more serious. "Choi Sung Sil told the president that North Korea will collapse in two years," said chairman of the opposition Democratic Party faction U San Ho. "This woman, as it turns out, was a shaman, a fortune-teller. If it is confirmed that the foreign policy Pak guided her predictions, we are in big trouble."

Choi Soon-sil was given access to confidential government documents, including first drafts of policy speeches. Alleged wrongdoings committed by Choi involve her interference with the appointments of ministers, the shutdown of the inter-Korean factory park in Kaesong, the privatization of two non-profit foundations and pressures on a prestigious university to get her daughter granted special treatment. She also allegedly used her links to the presidency for financial gain, pressuring companies into donating tens of millions of dollars to non-profit foundations she controls. Presidential aides were accused of allegedly helping or at least tolerating Ms Chois alleged meddling in state affairs.

Choi, who held no official position in the government, is believed to have exerted regular influence over Ms Parks decision-making between December 2012 and March 2014. This included subjects ranging from Seouls policy towards North Korea to the appointment of presidential staff and government posts. According to Korean-language media reports, Ms Choi offered counsel to Ms Park on a wide array of issues, from what color clothes to wear to how she could contact her dead mother.

With the scandal Park's popularity plummet to an all-time low. According to a Gallup Korea poll released on 28 October 2016, after Park issued a 90-second apology days earlier, public rage snowballed and her approval rating nosedived to 14 percent, the lowest ever. The approval rating in Parks political strongholds of Daegu and North Gyeongsang plunged to 19 percent, and older voters, considered key supporters of Park, also withdrew their backing. The Saenuri Partys approval rating was 26 percent in the latest survey, the lowest ever since the Park administration was launched. The Minjoo Party of Korea recorded 29 percent, beating the ruling party for the first time since February 2013. The abrupt collapse of her ironclad approval rating  which had remained steady despite a variety of unfavorable developments - showed just how severe and overwhelming a crisis she faced. Meanwhile, 42.3 percent of respondents in another Realmeter survey that polled 532 people said President Park should resign or be impeached to take responsibility for the controversy, while 21.5 percent favored carrying out an extensive reshuffle of her senior secretaries and Cabinet.

Choi had no government post but is nevertheless alleged to have had enormous sway over the president's policy decisions. The 60-year old friend of the president, who was seen as an elusive, Rasputin-like figure in South Korea, was accused of wielding influence in policy and personnel decisions and being involved in illicit business practices tied to two private foundations which, some argued, were to be used as the basis of the president's post-retirement activities.

Doubts remain about prosecutors' investigation into the Choi Soon-sil scandal as she was arrested belatedly. Many South Koreans believed that time was enough for Choi to destroy evidence given that months had passed since the allegations surrounding her surfaced in media reports. When investigators stormed offices of the two foundations presumably controlled by Choi, the offices were almost empty, TV footage showed. All of computers in the K-Sports foundation were reportedly replaced.

Park issued a public apology in which she admitted giving Choi access to draft speeches for editing. The televised address sparked huge criticism about her leadership style and mismanagement of national information. In central Seoul on 29 October 2016, an estimated 30,000 citizens joined a mass demonstration, jointly organized by several civic groups. Civic groups have called for criminal charges to be brought against her aides and others who helped release government documents to Choi. Amid the growing controversy and public outrage over President Park Geun-hye's longtime friend Choi Soon-sil, on 29 October 2016 the president ordered all ten of her senior secretaries to step down. Mired in the largest political scandal it ever faced, the president was under enormous pressure to dismiss key aides and Cabinet ministers to turn over a new leaf.

Widely criticized as the three door knobs to the president who have aided her since 1998, Private Presidential Secretary Jeong Ho-seong, Secretary for General Affairs Lee Jae-man and PR Secretary Ahn Bong-geun were also blamed for their parts in the current scandal. One of the three secretaries is suspected of bringing the copies of confidential presidential reports, including Park's schedule for overseas trip and secret military contacts with the DPRK under former President Lee Myung-bak, daily to Choi for review. The senior presidential advisor on policy coordination has been accused of pressuring conglomerates into donating tens of millions of U.S. dollars into recently established nonprofit foundations controlled by Choi.

November 2016

Three opposition parties in South Korea on 03 November 2016 submitted a motion to impeach President Park Geun-hye. The motion was expected to be laid before the plenary session of the National Assembly on 08 December 2016, and put to a vote the following day. If impeached, Park would be immediately suspended from office and the prime minister would act as the interim head of government. The Constitutional Court would have to first review the impeachment motion, which could take up to 180 days. If the motion is approved, lawmakers would then have 60 days to schedule a new election.

The motion cited an influence-peddling scandal involving the president's long-time friend, Choi Soon-sil. The motion says Park disrupted the market system by forcing companies to donate funds for the benefit of Choi and others. It also referred to Park's handling of the Sewol ferry disaster in 2014, saying she failed to take active measures for the lives and safety of the people. The motion says these actions violate the Constitution.

Opposition leaders earlier indicated they had the two-thirds majority support needed in the 300-member National Assembly to impeach the president. To reach the 200-vote threshold, the two main opposition parties, the Democratic Party of Korea and the People's Party, which hold 159 seats in parliament, will need support from a number of independent legislators and disaffected members of the ruling Saenuri Party. Lawmakers of the governing Saenuri Party said there's no need for impeachment if Park announced she will step down at the end of April 2017. But non-Park members in the party planned to vote for the motion unless Park announced by 6 PM Wednesday 07 December 2016 when she intended to resign.

Lawmakers from the Saenuri Party backed a plan to meet the conditions for her resignation set by Park  specifically, that the National Assembly first arrange for a stable transfer of power. That could include naming a new prime minister and other interim officials to run the government after she resigned and until a newly elected president was sworn in. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had widely been considered a top contender to replace Park before the scandal erupted.

By November 2016 expectations were high for forming a so-called "third playground", with neutral political figures from both ruling and opposition parties gathering in a third place for the 2017 presidential election. The possibility remained for part of Saenuri members to bolt from the embattled party and join the third bloc. Traditional supporters for President Park turned their backs rapidly. Park's approval rating dropped to a single-digit number for the first time during her four years in power. Most noticeable was an alienation of those in their 60s or above living in southeastern South Korea. According to a Naeil Shinmun newspaper survey conducted on 31 October 2015, over 80 percent of respondents said the presidential personnel reshuffle will not contain public uproar, while about two-thirds of respondents agreed on the resignation of President Park.

On 02 November 2016 the presidential office announced the nomination of former President Roh Moo-hyun's chief policy adviser Kim Byong-joon as the new prime minister. Kim stressed that a collapse of the state governance must be prevented. Presidential officials said that he will become what they called the "internal affairs president." President Park's designation of a liberal prime minister could mark the beginning of a politically neutral cabinet, in which the new prime minister would have greater power over domestic affairs and the head of state would focus on external affairs, including diplomacy and defense.

A presidential official said that the nominee will be able to stage the politics of his own color and many of the administration's policies can be overturned. He was former chief policy secretary of late former President Roh Moo-hyun, her previous archrival. Prime minister nominee Kim Byong-joon vowed to fully exercise his authority to create a bipartisan, neutral Cabinet in close consultation with the opposition camp. The new layout of the Park Geun-hye administration emerged 03 November 2016 as the president tapped the former chief of staff to late former President Kim Dae-jung to serve the same post again under her administration. The former four-term lawmaker served as the chairman of the New Millennium Democratic Party, which has become the current main opposition Democratic Party.

Park named journalist-turned-politician Hur Won-je as her chief political affairs secretary. President Park has also named former vice minister of Gender Equality & Family, Park Seung-joo, to serve as the new minister for Public Safety and Security, based on a recommendation from the new prime minister nominee.

But the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea said the Presidential Office hadn't changed in its lack of communication with the parliament and the opposition bloc. Democratic Party (DP) Spokesman Keum Tae-sup strongly criticized Park's latest personnel decision, calling Han a "scarecrow chief of staff." Political opponents of President Park Geun-hye had harsh words for President Park's Prime Minister-designate, Kim Byong-joon, and vowed to block his confirmation. The main opposition Democratic Party Chairwoman Choo Mi-ae said Kim's nomination was in total disregard of the National Assembly. Minor opposition Peoples Party Floor Leader Park Jie-won said that the only way the president can survive the current situation is to appoint a prime minister through a meeting of the ruling and the two opposition parties.

Park Geun-hye, said 08 November 016 she will allow the country's parliament to select a new prime minister, a major political concession as she sought to survive a growing political scandal. President Park announced her decision after meeting with Chung Sye-kyun, the speaker of South Korea's opposition-controlled National Assembly. In addition to allowing parliament select a new prime minister, Park also agreed to allow that person control of the cabinet. A new Gallup poll of voter opinion shows the president had plunged to an anemic five percent approval rating.

A question-and-answer session was held at the National Assembly on 11 November 2016 against the prime minister and other state council members over the Choi Soon-sil scandal. Opposition lawmakers at the session raised various allegations related to the influence-peddling scandal, including suspicions that President Park Geun-hye had a mobile phone under a borrowed name to communicate with her friend Choi Soon-sil. Lawmakers also questioned Cabinet ministers if the president's friend intervened in the government's policy decisions related to weapons procurement and the shutdown of the inter-Korean Gaeseong Industrial Complex earlier this year. Lawmakers also pressed the Cabinet to clarify rumors related to the whereabouts of the president during the 2014 sinking of the Sewol ferry.

Over 1 million South Koreans staged peaceful rallies across central Seoul on 12 November 2016 to demand President Park Geun-hye step down over the scandal involving her longtime confidante and former aides. Organizers estimated that the number of participants in the rally, the third since the scandal came into focus last month, topped 1 million in Seoul alone, according to local media reports. A week earlier, some 200,000 people turned out in the capital city. It would be the country's largest mass rally at least since June 1987 when about 1 million demonstrators gathered to ouster the military dictatorship. In 2008, some 700,000 protested against then-President Lee Myung-bak who resumed US beef imports during the outbreak of mad cow disease. Police said around 260,000 people turned out in Seoul, beating its earlier expectation of up to 170,000. Police estimates are usually far lower than figures released by organizers as it does not include people coming back home after early participation.

Saenuri Party Spokesman Yeom Dong-yeol said 12 November 2016 that following the public rally, parties must return to parliament to discuss forming a neutral Cabinet, recommending a new prime minister and arranging talks between top political leaders. The non-pro-Park faction rejected the chair's decision and called on the party leadership to immediately resign. They also issued a statement saying they would forge ahead to dissolve the party and recommended a public vote on whether President Park Geun-hye should stay in office. Saenuri's former chief and potential presidential candidate, Kim Moo-sung, went so far as to say that President Park should face impeachment.

Opposition parties had been slow to raise the possibility of impeaching the President, purportedly in fear that her resignation could negatively affect their own election chances for the 2017 presidential elections. Main opposition Democratic Party Spokesman Youn Kwan-suk meanwhile said that President Park had lost the trust and qualification to lead. He said she must transfer all powers in order to normalize state affairs. The Democratic Party of Korea said the president must now listen to the people and the only solution is for President Park to step down. The party also called for establishing a parliamentary committee to deal with the current political emergency and to outline a roadmap to a peaceful and safe resignation of the president.

Minor opposition People's Party Spokesman Son Kum-ju said the Constitution had been violated due to President Park's blunders. Son said the president should respond to the public's call and voluntarily step down."The left-wing Justice Party said parliament should prepare a motion to impeach President Park and called on the opposition bloc to hold a meeting soon to discuss the matter.

The prosecution summoned chiefs of the countrys conglomerates to question them about one-on-one meetings with President Park Geun-hye in relation to donations they made to two controversial foundations - Mir and K-Sports foundations - controlled by Parks scandal-ridden confidant, Choi Soon-sil. The president had invited 17 local conglomerate leaders to the presidential office for lunch on 24 July 2015 and asked them to extend support for creating two foundations to promote the spread of the hallyu or the Korean wave around the world. Park reportedly held separate one-on-one meetings with seven of the leaders the day of the Cheong Wa Dae meeting and the following day at the top office and other locations.

The wing of the ruling Saneuri Party that doesn't support President Park Geun-hye launched its own committee 16 November 2016. Twelve members-- including former party chair Kim Moo-sung and former Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon -- plan to discuss ways to overhaul the party and stabilize the current situation. They also called on the current Saenuri leadership to resign immediately.

The parliamentary judiciary committee began reviewing a bill that would allow for an independent counsel probe into the Choi Soon-sil scandal. The bill was signed by 209 lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties, but the committee failed to pass the bill, due to differing opinions on the independent counsel recommendation. If the bill is passed, a team will be formed consisting of an independent counsel, four assistant prosecutors, 20 dispatched prosecutors and 40 special investigators. The investigation period will last for a maximum of 120 days. Lawmakers also agreed to a separate parliamentary probe into the case, with a team of 18 lawmakers and a investigative period of up to 90 days.

President Park was back to the business of presiding over state affairs, despite the scandal that's roiling her administration and the country. Eight days after a summit with the president of Kazakhstan, President Park made her first official appearance 18 November 2016 , demonstrating that her place in the top office is still intact. President Park conferred appointment letters on to new government officials, including her chief of staff, new vice ministers and new ambassadors to be sent overseas.

Rallies were held for the fourth weekend in a row in 46 locations nationwide on 19 November 2016 demanding the president's resignation over the Choi Soon-sil scandal. According to police and civic groups, some 1,500 civic and social organizations came together for the rallies. Organizers estimated some 500,000 demonstrators would gather in Seoul and one million nationwide.

Korea's three opposition parties urged the President to resign. The presidential office dismissed the idea of President Park stepping down, despite growing calls for her resignation nationwide. The top office was firm on its view that it would be unconstitutional for the president to abandon her post, and said she is committed to fulfilling her responsibilities.

South Korean prosecutors said 20 November 2016 they believe President Park Geun-hye conspired with a secretive confidante who allegedly manipulated government affairs and exploited her presidential ties to amass an illicit fortune. The damning revelation came as prosecutors indicted Parks longtime friend Choi Soon-sil on suspicion of interfering with state affairs and bullying companies into giving tens of millions of dollars to foundations she controlled. The main opposition Democratic Party said on Sunday that the grounds for impeaching President Park Geun-hye had been met after the prosecution announced that the president played a role in the corruption and influence-peddling scandal. The minor opposition Peoples Party also said that with the probe results, the grounds for impeaching the president had been met.

On 27 Novemer 2016, a group of former parliamentary speakers, retired prime ministers and religious leaders called on Park to resign by April at the latest. While pressing the president, the group also advised lawmakers to create an environment that will allow her to exit the office in an honorable manner. On 28 Novemer 2016, Rep. Suh Chung-won, former Deputy Prime Minister Choi Kyung-hwan and six other pro-Park lawmakers delivered to the president that it would be a better option for her to honorably resign before being impeached.

Korea's opposition bloc vowed to go ahead with their original plan to impeach the president. The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea said immediate resignation is the only way for the president to get state affairs back on track. Considering the opposition parties' strong reactions, and the similarly critical responses by Saenuri lawmakers who are known to be from the non-President Park faction, it seemed like the prospect of delaying or cancelling the president's impeachment was unlikely.

Without using the words impeachment or resignation, South Korean President Park Geun-hye on 29 November 2016 expressed her willingness to step down from office in an orderly manner, once and if the National Assembly passes a measure requiring her to do so. "I will leave my future course of action, including the shortening of my presidential term, to the decision of the National Assembly, Park said during a hastily scheduled televised address to the nation. She also added what seemed to be vague conditions and an uncertain timeline to her exit, saying she would leave my presidential position according to the schedule and legal procedure, and in accordance with measures to be developed by the ruling and opposition parties to minimize the chaos and gap in state affairs, and to stably transfer power."

December 2016

On 09 December 2016, South Korean lawmakers approved an impeachment motion against President Park Geun-hye. The measure was passed by a margin of 234 votes for, 56 against, two abstentions, and seven ballots considered spoilt.

As a result of the vote, President Park Geun-hye's duties were temporarily transferred to the country's Prime Minister, until South Korea's Constitutional Court decides within the following 180 days on whether to validate or reject the motion and end President Park's term.

On 09 December 2016 the National Assembly voted 234 to 56 in favor of the impeachment motion. Two lawmakers abstained and seven votes were invalidated. A total of 299 lawmakers out of the total 300 attended the session. Representative Choi Kyung-hwan of the ruling Saenuri Party, a confidant of President Park, attended the voting session, but did not cast a vote. A total of 172 opposition and independent lawmakers were vocal in their support for impeachment, which meant at least 62 Saenuri lawmakers must have joined them in backing the motion.

The passage of the motion meant President Parks duties as the chief executive were suspended, leaving Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn in charge as acting president. South Korea's Constitutional Court now had six months to rule whether Park must leave office altogether, or whether she should be reinstated as president. Park was only the second president to be impeached since the South Korean government was established in 1948. Former President Roh Moo-hyun was reinstated to presidency after the Constitutional Court rejected his 2004 impeachment.

The successful impeachment motion accused Park of violating the Constitution on a number of different counts. It said she allowed close aides, and confidant Choi Soon-sil, to intervene in policies and to exercise influence in Cabinet meetings. It said she forced private companies to pay bribes. And it said she neglected a constitutional duty to protect lives during the Sewol ferry disaster in 2014.

Cho Won-dong, a former senior presidential secretary for economic affairs under President Park, was charged by prosecutors 10 December 2016 for allegedly working with Park in an attempt to force the CEO of a Seoul-based conglomerate to quit. Cho was accused of demanding that CJ Group Chairman Sohn Kyung-shik to dismiss the group's vice-chairwoman, threatening that otherwise the group would face "big problems". Cho was charged with "attempted" coercion because CJ Group did not respond to his demand. Lee Mi-kyung raised the ire of the president because CJs media arm produced a number of movies deemed to be liberal or left-wing.

Prosecutors also indicted Kim Chong, a former vice culture minister, on charges of working together with Choi Soon-sil, colluding with officials to extort money and favors from South Korea's biggest companies. The prosecution also found that former presidential secretary Jeong Ho-seong leaked a total of a-hundred-and-80 official documents to Choi Soon-sil, including papers related to the nomination of top officials and confidential documents on the nation's security and foreign policies.

The National Assembly's impeachment motion explains that the president has failed to be the servant of the entire people, to secure people's property rights and abide by the constitution citing allegations of her long-time confidant Choi Soon-sil interfering in state affairs and funneling funds from corporate entities. The motion also lists bribery, abuse of authority and coercion as what President Park has violated in terms of criminal law.

The Constitutional Court has up to six months to either uphold or overturn the motion. But two justices will see their terms expire in February and March 2017, respectively, so this may act as a variable. Out of the nine justices, six are considered as conservatives, two are in favor of the opposition, and one is seen as neutral. At least six of the nine justices must rule in favor for the president to be impeached, and they will be required to make their decision public. Justices at the constitutional court will firstly examine whether she violated the basic principles of constitutional law, and then, the other issues will be whether she violated basic principles of other laws not minor issues.. but in terms of big, and significant, important issues. Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, who became South Korea's acting president, reported to work at the Seoul Government Complex on 10 December 2016 and focused on pending state affairs. In a meeting with deputy prime ministers and key ministers, Hwang said the financial and foreign exchange markets have been relatively calm and that no particular moves have yet been detected in North Korea. But he urged all public officials not to lower their guard and focus on their duties. He said that as acting president, he will put top priority on national security, the economy and public safety. Hwang also said that national security is the most important and urgent task. He stressed that through various diplomatic channels, South Korea must maintain its level of trust in foreign relations with other countries, especially key allies, through sufficient briefings on the steadiness in state affairs in Seoul.

If the court affirmed the legitimacy of the impeachment motion, a new presidential election will be scheduled within two months of the ruling. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon consistently ranked first in various opinion polls about who is the most qualified for the presidency. In the governing Saenuri Party, Chairman Rep. Kim Moo-sung, who secured a seat in Yeongdo, Busan; and Yoo Seong-min, who was elected as an independent in Daegu after leaving the ruling party, were mentioned as potential candidates. Yoo quit the ruling party 23 March 2016 after failing to be nominated for the election due to his conflict with President Park's loyalists who dominated the nominations committee.

Moon Jae-in, former chairman of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) was a presidential hopeful. Other presidential runners include Rep. Kim Boo-kyum from the MPK, and MPK interim leader Kim Chong-in. Moon is considered a leader of the pro-Roh faction - he served as chief of staff under the Roh administration. Kim Chong-in represents a new face of the party. Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo of the minor opposition Peoples Party, who ran in the 2012 presidential election as an independent candidate, has been mentioned as one of the leading liberal runners for the next presidential poll.

On 28 December 2016 the independent counsel team's spokesperson Lee Kyu-chul said they had asked the Financial Supervisory Service to hand over information on the personal assets of Choi Soon-sil, the jailed confidante of President Park, and 40 of her associates. Lee said the team cannot disclose the selection criteria used for the 40 people.

The counsel planned to summon Korean Ambassador to France Mo Chul-min for questioning after his return to Korea. Mo was suspected of involvement in connection to allegations that the Park administration compiled a blacklist of artists and cultural figures critical of the president and then sent it to the culture ministry. Mo was serving as the presidential senior secretary for education and culture in 2014, when it's suspected the list was compiled.

The counsel also questioned Kim Sang-ryul, President Park's former senior secretary for education and culture, on the same matter. Kim is the uncle of Cha Eun-taek, a former music video director and a friend of Choi Soon-sil.

The team detained Moon Hyung-pyo, who is the chief of the National Pension Service, on suspicions he pressured the NPS to green-light a controversial merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries. NPS is the main shareholder of Samsung C&T. The merger was completed last year during Moon's term as Korea's health minister. Moon denied the charge.

As the independent counsel continued its probe into various aspects of the presidential corruption scandal, it was moving forward with its investigation into possible attempts to cover up the so-called "cultural blacklist." Key figures who had previously testified as witnesses were called back as suspects. Kim Jong-deok, the former culture minister, and Kim Sang-ryul, a former presidential secretary for education and culture, were questioned on their involvement in the making and running of the blacklist. The blacklist refers to a secret list of cultural figures that had criticized the President Park's administration and were subsequently denied sponsorship or recommendations. The former culture minister had denied any knowledge of such a list at a parliamentary hearing, but his claims csme under suspicion and he was charged with perjury.

Interim Chief Justice Lee Jung-mi announced the impeachment verdict of President Park Geun-hye as scheduled on 10 March 2017 saying the decision by the eight justices was unanimous. "The respondent President Park Geun-hye is expelled from office. The respondent has violated the responsibility to diligently carry out her duty as stipulated in the Constitution." Chief Justice Lee said it was unconstitutional for Park to have let her confidante, Choi Soon-sil, a civilian with no official government position, meddle in state affairs, and that Park abused her power to collude with Choi to extort money from conglomerates.

South Korean prosecutors formally indicted ousted President Park Geun-hye on bribery charges in a high-profile corruption scandal. The prosecutors' office made the indictment 17 APril 2017, sending her case to a criminal court.

Choi Soon-sil, the close confidante of impeached South Korean President Park Geun-hye, on June 23, 2017 got a three-year prison term for one of her corruption charges involving her daughter. The Seoul Central District Court sentenced Choi, 61, to three years' imprisonment for soliciting illicit favors for her daughter to enter a prestigious college and earn effortless grades. It was the first conviction among several legal cases embroiling Choi and the ousted president Park. Other cases are still under trial. Three more college officials, including the former head of the Ewha Womans University in Seoul, were sentenced to a suspended sentence, one and a half years in prison and two years' imprisonment.





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Cooperation only choice for US, China: Xi tells Trump

Iran Press TV

Mon Nov 14, 2016 10:4AM

Chinese President Xi Jinping has advised US President-elect Donald Trump to pursue cooperation as the only means to maintain bilateral relations between the world's two largest economies.

"The facts prove that cooperation is the only correct choice for China and the United States," China Central Television (CCTV) cited Xi as telling Trump on Monday in a telephone talk between the two leaders.

Xi added the two sided needed to make efforts for better China-US relations and "promote the two countries' economic development and global economic growth," according to media reports.

The Chinese leader then congratulated Trump on his election and said that in 37 years since China and the United States established diplomatic relations, bilateral ties have been continuously growing and moving forward.

Xi said cooperation between the two countries has promoted world and regional peace, stability and prosperity.

"The leaders established a clear sense of mutual respect for one another, and President-elect Trump stated that he believes the two leaders will have one of the strongest relationships," a statement from Trump's presidential transition office said after the call.

The two leaders agreed to maintain close communications with one another and meet up soon, CCTV said.

Xi had already congratulated Trump in a message delivered shortly after his election victory on Wednesday.

In his congratulatory note, Xi said both shared common interest as the world's top economies, bearing special responsibility in maintaining world peace and stability and boosting global development and prosperity.

China-US relation is one of the most important conflicting relationships in the world as the two view each other as a potential adversary and, at the same time, a strategic partner.

Relations between the two economic heavyweights have generally been stable with some periods of open conflict, most notably during the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

The two countries remain divided in territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas, in which Washington has sided with Beijing's rivals.

However, China is a strategic business partner and the largest exporter of goods to the US, holding hundreds of billions of US national debt.

During his election campaign, Trump had lambasted China, drumming up headlines with his pledges to slap 45-percent tariffs on imported Chinese goods and to label the country a currency manipulator on his first day in office.

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Xi Tells Trump: US-China Cooperation Is Key

Aline Barros November 14, 2016

China's president has offered the U.S. president-elect congratulations on his recent win at the polls in their first telephone conversation.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said Xi Jinping and Donald Trump agreed Monday to meet "at an early date" to discuss the relationship between the two countries.

A statement from Trump's office in New York said, "During the call, the leaders established a clear sense of mutual respect for one another and President-elect Trump stated that he believes the two leaders will have one of the strongest relationships for both countries moving forward."

Xi told Trump, according to CCTV, that "the facts prove that cooperation is the only correct choice for China and the United States."

"The two sides must strengthen coordination, promote the two countries' economic development and global economic growth, expand all areas of exchange and cooperation, ensure the two countries' people obtain more tangible benefits, and push for better development going forward in China-U.S. relations," CCTV reported.

During the recent U.S. presidential campaign, Trump was highly critical of China's trade practices and currency manipulations. He said China viewed the United States as a pushover.

But much less is known about how Trump might seek to address worsening human rights conditions, China's trade practices and geopolitical issues in the world's second-largest economy.

Peter Navarro, said to be one of Trump's top China advisers during the campaign, wrote an article on the website Foreign Policy hinting the two countries' relations might change with the new administration.

He said under President Barack Obama, the U.S. refocus on Asia has been "a failure."

The "weak pivot follow-through has invited the Chinese aggression in the East and South China Seas," Navarro wrote, contending a Trump administration would address these issues by pursuing a "strategy of peace through strength."

Some experts predict Trump will make a few strident anti-Beijing military moves in the area to prove a point and then back off to engage the Chinese economically.

"He has to flex American muscle," said Eduardo Araral, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore's public policy school. "He has to tell his domestic constituency he has won back the Philippines that was lost to China. So he needs to show his constituency that he has won where Obama has failed."

But Trump has yet to officially define a position on the South China Sea disputes. China has separate maritime sovereignty disputes with Philippines and Japan. The country also accuses the United States of trying to contain its expansion.

Economically, during his campaign, Trump targeted Beijing's trade practices, threatening to slap 45 percent tariffs on Chinese imports. Experts said the move would affect first China, ripple across the world and then rebound on the United States.

The 45 percent tax would have Chinese exports to the world's largest economy decrease by 87 percent or $420 billion, according to Daiwa Capital Markets analyst Kevin Lai. A smaller rate, 15 percent or so, Lai said would see a fall in exports by 31 percent and eventually cost China 1.75 percent of its GDP.

"I don't think it is feasible as a matter of politics, and I don't think it is feasible as a matter of legal authority," Christopher Balding of Perkins University Business School told AFP. "Even if it seems that with Trump there is nothing you can't rule out."

Meanwhile, right activists and regional political analysts are wondering whether traditional American support for rights could soften at a time when they say the Chinese public needs an advocate more than ever.

"It seems that these attitudes probably [could] spill over to a generally hostile attitude toward human rights in other countries as well," says Maya Wang, a China researcher with Human Rights Watch based in Hong Kong. "It is worrying, given that the U.S. government has been largely a consistent supporter of pressing human rights in China and we fear we might lose an important ally."

Hu Jia, a prominent activist, was sentenced to jail for more than three years in 2008 and released before Xi came to power. He told VOA that for many in China, Trump is an unknown quantity.

"His remarks about foreign policy, religion and rights on the campaign trail and all the other comments he's made don't instill us with confidence," Hu Jia said.

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For more than a month Dorothy Lee Johnston, The Christmas Lady, has been working hard toward her mission of delivering gifts to area residents and veterans in nursing homes for her 20th year.

Johnston said this has become such a large project that they not only are working it right now, but they have to work it all year long now.

We have to do it all year long because we cant buy some of our products anytime but the middle of the summer, said Johnston. Also we buy items during the school sales and when Country Mart has a sale on the body lotions. There is a lot of these items we get throughout the year and we need year-round support. A lot of these items have to be bought in the middle of the year in order to get them at a reduced price.

Johnston said they have already been buying sweatshirts because they have to start early so they able to get the correct sizes.

We have already purchased writing material, pens and Crayons, said Johnston. We are in need of coloring books and all kinds of crew socks for men and women. We dont have just the veterans home, there are vets in the nursing homes as well. We get things that are needed the most and we are in the process of getting all of this right now.

Johnston said they need to get the larger sized items as soon as possible because there is a clearance sale at Walmart and they have 3X sleepwear things and they cant find 3Xs for these women right at Christmas time.

So we are basically shopping for nightwear, mens sweatshirts and sweatpants, said Johnston. Anyone who wants to donate sweat suits cant go wrong if they get from large up to 2X and on the crew socks we are in need of mens and womens crew socks only.

Johnston said they served more than 1,000 people last year and plan to serve about the same this year. She added they have to purchase the bags they use from an Illinois factory just to be able to afford them.

We are always in need of deodorant, lap throws, body lotion and crew socks, said Johnston. Those are the items we are always in need of and we are doing more clothing than we have ever done before. The local nursing homes are letting us know of those who are in need of nightwear. There was a dire need of nightwear last year and we were buying it by the rack. The pajamas and the gowns.

Johnston added one nursing home alone had 28 people that they bought nightwear for and that was in addition to the basic things they give.

They also look forward to getting a box of cherry chocolates, said Johnston. So anyone who wants to donate a case of cherry chocolates it would be a big help. You can buy them by the box for $1 at Dollar Tree. They havent had any all year long and some of them will open it up and eat the whole first layer when we give it to them.

Johnston explained that all the money raised stays right here in the community

She said Belgrade State Bank has been such a blessing in her ministry.

Once again this year they will be using their van, with their own driver, supporting this Christmas project, said Johnston. This has saved me enough on the money part that I have been able to contribute back into the community with clothing for those in need in the nursing and veterans homes. I thank the Lord for it, but last year was the first year that we have received enough donations that we could buy the needs and I didnt have to end up supplying $2,000-3,000 myself.

A-1 Home Care in Bonne Terre is also helping out again this year. Normally they collects items within their business, but this year they are reaching out to the community to help support the cause.

A-1 Home Care Owner Amy Keller said they are going to take donations from the community this year to help because it seems every year Johnston needs more help. Keller said anybody who wants to help or donate can drop the items off at the A-1 Home Care office and they will take the items to Johnston after Dec. 2.

There are so many residents in the homes she serves and she has been picking up more nursing homes, said Keller. So I think reaching out to the community will definitely get her some more items that she is needing and I feel just being active in the community getting the community involved at Christmas is very important.

We will be taking donations through Dec. 2 and she is really needing items as far as soap, lotion, deodorant, body spray and crew socks for men and women, said Keller. Also she did mention sweatpants and sweat shirts in sizes XL and XXL.

Johnston said they help a number of facilities.

We service the developmentally on Route D, Southbrook, Desloge Health Care, The Peach, Country Meadows and then I come up and do the homeless center, said Johnston. Up until this last year I have never spent Christmas at home. I have always been out delivering.

She said one year, the evening of Christmas day she had Hardees fix her up enough sack lunches for the homeless shelter before they closed.

My rest was sitting down in a chair, with my feet up on an old ottoman and I just spread everything out on the coffee table, said Johnston. I ate a burger and french fries on Christmas day. Last year was the first year that we have arranged it where I could be home and have my Christmas. I normally would have our families' Christmas Eve an evening or two before because I spent the days delivering.

Johnston stressed that now since Belgrade State Bank is helping them, they have it arranged that she can be home for Christmas.

Everybody who helps me that day, I will take them out to lunch and I pay the bill out of my pocket, said Johnston. This past year that was the only thing I paid out for and the Lord has been good and the Lord has been blessed. There shouldnt be anyone being forgotten, not just during the holidays, but all year long. We help those with no family support.

Johnston said Caseys in Bonne Terre has always been faithful to what she does and they always set jars out to collect change to help.

Anyone who would like to donate to the cause can contact Dorothy Lee Johnston at 573-358-3226 or check donations can be made out to The Christmas Lady and mailed to 8718 Mostiller Rd. Bonne Terre, MO 63628.
Former US Envoy: Don't Expect Strategic Patience on N. Korea From Trump

Brian Padden November 14, 2016

A former senior diplomat under President George W. Bush says President-elect U.S. Donald Trump would quickly and unilaterally approve a preemptive military strike against North Korea to take out a standing inter-continental ballistic missile armed with a nuclear warhead.

Ambassador Christopher Hill, who led the U.S. delegation to the Six Party Talks on the North Korean nuclear issues a decade ago, said, "North Korea needs to understand that there will be a new sheriff in town in Washington."

Hill, who currently is the Dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, was in Seoul on Monday to address a South Korean government conference on the prospects for peace and unification on the Korean Peninsula.

By emphasizing the President-elect's willingness to act against a perceived North Korean threat, Hill was trying to reassure friends in East Asia that the U.S. will remain committed to the region under Trump.

But Gareth Evans, a former Foreign Minister of Australia who also participated in the conference, said it is actually worrisome to think that Trump would act impulsively against an aggressive but rational adversary who understands a nuclear attack against the U.S. is suicide, and without regard for the possibility that it could trigger a wider conflict.

"Where is that going to take us, a preemptive military strike? I mean, that is premised on the assumption that if the North Koreans have a nuclear weapon and have a missile delivery capability, the United States and everyone else is at real risk. But what on Earth is ever going to encourage the North Koreans to use such a missile in that situation?" Evans asked.

North Korea has accelerated its nuclear development program this year by conducting two nuclear tests and numerous missile launches. Experts believe that within the next five years Pyongyang will develop the capability to launch a long-range inter-continental missile armed with a miniaturized nuclear warhead.

Alliances

The surprising U.S. presidential election victory of Donald Trump has raised concern and anxiety throughout Asia that the new president will radically and recklessly alter established U.S. policy on North Korea.

As a presidential candidate Trump threatened to pull troops from allies and instead allow them to acquire their own nuclear weapons, if they did not agree to pay more for the U.S. military stationed in their counties.

There are over 28,000 American troops in South Korea and close to 50,000 in Japan.

Evans said candidate Trump instilled doubt over the U.S. commitment to maintain regional security by sending competing signals that he would take strong measures to confront China on trade while also indicating he may retreat from foreign entanglements.

"No one knows which way Trump will jump on these issues, including no doubt Donald Trump himself, because he's obviously never studied or thought through any of them," he said.

Continuity

Hill said moderate Republican foreign policy advisers on Trump's national security transition team, like Mike Rogers, former Michigan congressmen and chairmen of the House Intelligence Committee, are prioritizing stability and continuity on North Korea policy in the incoming administration.

In the final presidential debate in October, Trump denied he voiced support for allowing allies to acquire nuclear weapons, contradicting statements he made earlier in the year.

After the election, the President-elect pledged his commitment to defending the region during phone calls with South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

His post-election actions reflect a growing appreciation for the U.S. military presence in Asia and the importance of strong alliances with Japan and South Korea, said Hill, to counter both the North Korean threat but also the growing military power of China.

"I have no doubt that the U.S. administration, the Trump administration, we'll be able to continue what is really one of our best relationships in the world," he said.

Hill also voiced his opposition to the U.S. offering unconditional talks, concessions or engagement with North Korea until the Kim Jong Un leadership agrees to live up to its past promises to halt its nuclear program.

However, he concedes that under President-elect Trump, relations with China could suffer over trade and maintaining international cooperation on North Korean sanctions could become more difficult.

Youmi Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.

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Iran defense might not open to talks, compromise: Qassemi

Iran Press TV

Mon Nov 14, 2016 5:40PM

The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman says the Islamic Republic's missile power is a matter of defense, which is not open to any negotiations or compromise at all.

"Iran's missile tests are carried out within the framework of the country's defense policies and Iran's defense capabilities are not open to negotiation or compromise at all," Bahram Qassemi said on Monday in reaction to a statement issued by the European Union's foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday.

In their statement, the EU foreign ministers expressed concern over Iran's missile program and called upon the Islamic Republic to refrain from activities "which may deepen mistrust, such as ballistic missile tests, which they say are inconsistent with" the Security Council Resolution 2231 and the associated statements.

Iran has repeatedly announced that its missile launches are not against the UN Security Council Resolution 2231 that endorsed a nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), reached between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany on July 14, 2015.

Under the JCPOA, which took effect in January, Iran undertook to put limitations on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related bans imposed against Tehran.

Resolution 2231 (2015) provides for the termination of the provisions of previous Security Council resolutions on the Iranian nuclear program, and calls on Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.

Elsewhere, Qassemi welcomed EU's keenness to further expand relations with Iran and the bloc's reaffirmation of its commitment to the JCPOA but called for the complete removal of banking restrictions.

"Despite considerable achievements made at different levels of cooperation and the existing enormous potential to deepen and expand relations, the definitive settlement of banking issues will be a key and decisive factor in the expansion of trade and economic cooperation and the implementation of joint projects," the Iranian spokesperson said.

The EU statement had said it would keep pushing to restore ties with Iran in line with the JCPOA, adding, "The European Union reiterates its resolute commitment to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action."

"The European Union reiterates the need for continued full and effective implementation of the JCPOA throughout the lifetime of the agreement," the bloc's foreign ministers said.

"The European Union is committed to support the full and effective implementation of the JCPOA including by the lifting of nuclear related economic and financial sanctions and engaging with the private sector and economic operators, especially banks, to promote growth in trade and investment."

Also in his comments, Qassemi said the EU should take "practical measures" to advance the processes of Iran joining the World Trade Organization.

He also dismissed allegations leveled by the EU over the human rights situation in Iran and expressed the country's readiness to hold mutual talks on the issue in a peaceful atmosphere.

The spokesman said Iran has always played a decisive role in establishing stability and security in the region and made great efforts to solve the existing crises in the Middle East through peaceful and political approaches.

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Iran, China sign agreement to boost defense-military cooperation

Iran Press TV

Mon Nov 14, 2016 1:50PM

Iran and China have signed an agreement to boost defense-military cooperation and fight terrorism.

The agreement was inked by Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan and his Chinese counterpart General Chang Wanquan in Tehran on Monday at the end of an earlier meeting between the two sides.

"The development of [Iran's] long-term defense-military relations and cooperation with China is among the top priorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran's defense diplomacy," Dehqan said in the meeting.

He added that the two countries' defense-military cooperation would guarantee regional and international peace and security.

He emphasized that all countries in Asia and the Oceania shoulder the responsibility to maintain peace and stability.

"Today, foreign meddling and lack of respect for the national sovereignty of countries have turned the Middle East region into a hotbed of crisis and insecurity in the world and led to [the emergence of] terrorism and its spread throughout the world," Dehqan said.

He added that the US and some regional countries are supporting terrorism and the scourge is overflowing into Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus as well as other regions.

"Today, the threat of Daesh and terrorism has turned into an important regional and international challenge," the Iranian defense minister said.

He called for a genuine and efficient campaign against terrorism by all countries which are exposed to the threat of the malicious phenomenon.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran, with the great experience that it has acquired over the recent years in the anti-terror campaign, expresses its readiness to make a collective move in order to fight this threat and believes that China can play a very important role in this regard," Dehqan said.

For his part, the Chinese defense minister said Iran has an important position in the region in political, economic, security, military and cultural fields.

He added that the two countries have common interests in many regional and global issues which have prepared the ground for the expansion of defense-military cooperation.

Heading a high-ranking delegation, Chang arrived in Tehran on Sunday for an official three-day visit at the invitation of his Iranian counterpart.

He plans to hold talks with senior Iranian officials about Tehran-Beijing cooperation and the latest regional and international developments.

Dehqan had traveled to China in May 2014 to negotiate mutual visits and personnel training cooperation between the two countries.

Back in April 2015, the Iranian and Chinese defense ministers, who were in the Russian capital to attend the fourth Moscow International Security Conference, held a meeting and discussed Tehran-Beijing relations as well as the issue of the Daesh Takfiri terrorists and the extent of their activities in East Asia.
Tens of Thousands Displaced in Mosul as Battle Intensifies

VOA News November 14, 2016

The United Nations says more than 54,000 people have been displaced in Mosul, where a massive Iraqi military operation is underway to free the city from Islamic State militants.

A U.N. spokesman, Farhan Haq, said Monday the number of displaced people has increased by 6,600 since Friday, with most of them fleeing to displaced persons camps.

Iraqi special forces say they are checking all displaced people for suspected links to Islamic State before allowing them into the camps. They say they have also cleared the Qadisiya and Zahra neighborhoods in Mosul.

The Iraqi troops, backed by a U.S.-led coalition of airstrikes, are moving slowly through the city, trying to avoid casualties to armed forces and civilians as IS militants detonate suicide bombs.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said in a discussion Monday in Washington with The Atlantic magazine and 1776, a global business incubator, that the Iraqi cities of Mosul and Raqqa are the "two central nodes" of Islamic State.

"They have to be destroyed. Our plan early on involved the systematic envelopment of those two forces of those two cities and the destruction of ISIL within them," he said, using an acronym for Islamic State. "For a year now, we have been planning that and working with Iraqi forces and the peshmerga."

The World Food Program says it has provided food assistance to more than 100,000 people in Mosul and the surrounding areas. It said that includes a distribution on Sunday to 25,000 people in Gogjali, the first neighborhood inside Mosul retaken by Iraqi's army.

The U.N. agency said it is providing family food rations that include rice, wheat flour, chickpeas, vegetable oil, sugar and salt to people in both camps and neighborhoods.

"WFP is concerned about the food security of people trapped inside Mosul, and in areas surrounding the city," said Sally Haydock, WFP Country Director in Iraq. "Together with our partners, we are monitoring frontlines and working to reach families in need as soon as there is safe access."

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30 killed as Myanmar's army intensifies crackdown on Muslims

Iran Press TV

Mon Nov 14, 2016 9:29AM

Myanmar's forces have killed dozens of Rohinya Muslims in its latest wave of crackdown on the country's most persecuted minority in western Rakhine State.

The military said in a statement on Monday that about 30 members of what it called a Rohingya Muslim "militant group" during clashes that erupted in the border town of Maungdaw over the weekend.

Authorities have blocked access to the area, making it difficult to independently verify government reports or accusations of army abuse.

Northern Rakhine has been under a military lockdown since an alleged attack on the country's border guards on October 9 left nine police officers dead, with the government accusing Rohingyas of being behind the assault.

Soldiers have killed scores and arrested many more in their hunt for the alleged attackers.

According to a Reuters estimate, the latest fatalities brought the total number of Rohnigya Muslims killed since October 9 to 60.

Rakhine, home to around one million Rohingya Muslims, has been the scene of communal violence at the hands of Buddhist extremists since 2012.

Hundreds of people have been killed, while tens of thousands have been forced to flee their homes and live in squalid camps in dire situations in Myanmar and other countries in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

According to the UN, Rohingyas are one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.

The government denies full citizenship to 1.1 million-strong Rohingya population, branding them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even as many trace their lineage in Myanmar back generations.

There have been numerous accounts by eyewitnesses of summary executions, rapes and arson attacks against houses by security forces.

Human Rights Watch said Sunday that high-definition satellite images showed a widespread fire-related destruction of Rohingya villages, adding the destruction was worse than initially feared.

The government and the army have rejected the accusations, saying they have simply been conducting a "clearance operation" in the region.

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Russian fighter jet crashes near Syria shores, pilot survives: Defence Ministry

Iran Press TV

Mon Nov 14, 2016 7:7PM

A Russian fighter jet has crashed into the Mediterranean Sea during a training mission near the Syrian shores, Russia's Defense Ministry says.

The Russian ministry said in an official statement that the incident occurred when the MiG-29K fighter was attempting to land on the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov off the coast of Syria on Monday.

The ministry said the fighter jet crashed due to a "technical fault" a few kilometers from the carrier during a training flight, adding that the pilot survived after ejecting safely.

"The pilot catapulted was delivered to the air carrier Admiral Kuznetsov by a rescue crew. The pilot was not hurt, and is ready for future missions," the statement said.

The flagship aircraft carrier leads a fleet positioned in the eastern Mediterranean, which has been conducting reconnaissance missions over Syria since mid-October.

Russia has been engaged in an anti-terror campaign through conducting airstrikes against the positions of terrorists in Syria since September 30, 2015, at the request of the government in Damascus.

According to analysts, the campaign has largely been successful in helping Syrian government forces dislodge foreign-sponsored militants from many regions across the country.

Backed by Russia's aerial campaign, the Syrian troops have retaken several militant-held areas in the Arab country.

The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria, which started in March 2011, has claimed the lives of more than 400,000 people, according to an estimate by UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura.

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Kremlin: Putin, Trump Speak, Pledge 'Constructive Cooperation'

RFE/RL November 14, 2016

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on November 14 discussed battered bilateral ties between their countries in the first phone call between the two men since Trump's election last week.

Trump's team said in a statement that Putin called him earlier in the day and congratulated him on his November 8 win against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and that the Republican president-elect is "very much looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia."

"During the call, the two leaders discussed a range of issues including the threats and challenges facing the United States and Russia, strategic economic issues, and the historical U.S.-Russia relationship that dates back over 200 years," the statement said.

The Kremlin said earlier on November 14 that Putin and Trump both agreed that the current state of relations is "extremely unsatisfactory."

Putin told Trump in the call that he was ready to have a dialogue on the basis of "mutual respect" and "nonintervention into each other's internal affairs," the Kremlin statement said.

It added that Putin and Trump had agreed to work to "channel bilateral relationships into constructive cooperation."

Relations between the two sides have deteriorated sharply over Russia's illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimea territory in 2014, its backing of armed separatists in eastern Ukraine, and its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

The outgoing administration of U.S. President Barack Obama has imposed several waves of sanctions against Russia over its role in Ukraine's conflict -- punitive measures that have enraged Moscow.

Since Trump's election, Russian officials have voiced optimism that his administration could roll back the Ukraine-related sanctions Obama has issued by executive order.

The national emergency that Obama declared in connection with Crimea's seizure and illegal annexation by Russia serves as the foundation for sanctions. The executive order declaring that emergency is set to expire in early March.

Trump, who is set to succeed Obama in January, said repeatedly during his campaign that he wants to mend the frayed ties between the two countries. He also said he might think twice about defending NATO allies unless they increase their defense spending.

Trump's statements about Russia -- including positive words about Putin and the suggestion that he may recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea -- triggered criticism from political opponents and some in his own party that he was advocating an appeasement policy with Moscow.

His comments about NATO, meanwhile, have sparked fear in Europe, where some have called for the European Union to bolster its own common defense plan.

Eastern European members of NATO that were previously under Moscow's domain during Soviet times -- such as the Baltic nations -- have voiced particular concern over Russian expansionism in Ukraine and potential Kremlin designs on their territory.

That prompted the outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama on November 14 to reassure NATO allies that Trump has indicated strong backing for the alliance, despite his statements during the election campaign.

Obama said he and Trump had a useful and "free-flowing conversation" when the two met at the White House last week following Trump's election victory.

Asked what he would tell foreign leaders about Trump's faith in the alliance, Obama replied: "There is no weakening of resolve when it comes to America's commitment to maintaining a strong and robust NATO relationship."

Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on November 14 advised NATO countries worried about Trump's commitment to the alliance that they should talk to members of Trump's incoming administration.

Carter said he could not speak for Trump's incoming administration, but urged NATO partners to take advantage of the opportunity to air their concerns with Trump's team.

"The only thing I would say is, engage with the new administration," Carter said. "Work with them. Stay committed to the values and the principles that we have stood for. We're much better at protecting ourselves if we can find a way to work together."

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on November 13 that "this is no time to question the partnership between Europe and the United States," and that "going it alone is not an option."

With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, TASS, and Interfax

Source: http://www.rferl.org/a/putin-trump-telephone- talk-constructive-cooperation/28116773.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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Russia confirms militants used chemical weapons in Aleppo

Iran Press TV

Mon Nov 14, 2016 4:23PM

The Russian Defense Ministry confirms that militants in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo have carried out a chemical attack on members of the Syrian army.

"Terrorists in Aleppo are using chlorine against Syrian servicemen and civilians ever more frequently," Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a Monday statement, adding that at least 30 Syrian servicemen had been affected in the attack in eastern Aleppo on Sunday.

Konashenkov criticized Western governments, especially France and Britain, for keeping silent on crimes committed by militants in Aleppo, saying that those governments only insist on blaming the Syrian government and its allies for the continued bloodshed in the war-torn city.

"To be more exact, they want to see only Syrian authorities as the culprits," he said.

The West toughened its rhetoric on Russia over the country's involvement in the Syrian conflict when Russian Air Force intensified attacks on the militant-held part of Aleppo last month. The Westerners accused Russia of committing war crimes, alleging Moscow targeted civilians.

He said that Russian specialists working for a watchdog in Syria have detected samples from eastern parts of Aleppo, which indicate militants had attacked Syrian troops in Aleppo using chlorine.

"The samples taken by Russian officers of the Research Center for Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection on the site confirm the use of chlorine by militants as a chemical warfare agent," Konashenkov said, adding that the Syrian servicemen have also confirmed that they were poisoned by chemical agents after their positions were hit by mine explosions and rockets on Sunday.

He said 30 Syrian soldiers were affected by the attack in Aleppo's eastern district of Karim Jazmati and that most of the servicemen were admitted to a nearby hospital for gas inhalation treatment.

The official also called on the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to immediately send its experts to Aleppo to find the truth about the use of banned agents by militants.

On Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry also urged the OPCW to send a mission to Aleppo to investigate a separate attack by militants involving chemical weapons.

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Syrian Arab Forces Trained to Join Kurdish-led Offensive on Raqqa

Sirwan Kajjo November 14, 2016

A local force of Arab tribesmen in northern Syria has been trained to fight alongside Kurdish fighters who are slowly advancing to recapture Raqqa, the de facto capital of Islamic State, according to Kurdish commanders and tribal leaders.

The Arab force, composed of more than 2,000 men, will fight IS under the command of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who are in their second week of a long offensive toward Raqqa.

"These are young men from Raqqa who will be battling [IS] inside the city when our forces get near there," said Nasir Hajji Mansur, a commander with SDF on the front lines, told VOA Monday.

The Arabs are from villages and areas recently cleared of IS north of Raqqa. Many of them come from Raqqa city and fled after IS took over in 2014. They will be wearing the SDF uniforms and using weapons supplied by the Kurds, commanders said.

Many villages cleared

With the help of U.S. air support, the SDF has cleared dozens of villages in northern Raqqa from IS militants. More than 30,000 SDF fighters are in the operation that likely will take months before nearing the limits of Raqqa, Kurdish military sources told VOA. They are about 30 kilometers away from the IS stronghold.

Turkey objects to the Kurdish offensive, however, saying Turkish-backed rebels should take the lead to free Raqqa. Turkey also has voiced objections about the makeup of the SDF, almost two-thirds of which is Kurdish. Some of the most capable and effective of those Kurdish forces are People's Protection Units, or YPG, which Ankara regards as a terrorist organization. The inclusion of non-Kurdish Arab tribesmen in the fight for Raqqa is an attempt to mollify fears that a Kurdish-led offensive could escalate tensions with residents, locals say.

Raqqa had a pre-war population of about 500,000 people with a Sunni Arab majority, but now it is estimated to have around 200,000 people. There have been tensions between Arab and Kurdish groups in the past in some areas after IS has been cleared out, according to locals and Kurdish fighters.

Kurdish troops won't stay

"There is an anti-Kurdish propaganda that says the [Kurds] will carry out abuses against civilians in Raqqa," said Mohammed Shlash, an Arab and former member of the city council in Raqqa.

But Kurdish military officials say their forces do not plan to stay in the city after Raqqa is freed from IS control.

"It makes no sense for us to stay there," Kurdish commander Mansur said. "Once we have liberated Raqqa, a local administration will assume governance."

Kurdish forces also need the expertise of Arab tribesmen, whose ancestors have lived in the region for centuries.

"Kurds have to make sure they don't provoke the locals," said Qusai Hwaidi, a political activist from Raqqa, who regularly advises tribal leaders. "To do so, they need to have the tribes on their side. Only that will guarantee peace in Raqqa after IS."

Meeting in Turkey

U.S. military officials met with their counterparts early this month in Turkey to discuss the Raqqa operation and "to find the right mix of forces" to liberate the city, said U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford.

The U.S. is sure, however, that Kurdish-led forces are capable of leading the charge.

"We do believe that they have the expertise," U.S. Col. John Dorrian told Pentagon reporters recently.

"They were very successful in developing a plan for the liberation of Manbij," he said of a town in northern Syria freed from IS in August. "And we believe that, certainly, with coalition help, they can do the same in Raqqa."

Kurdish forces withdrew from Manbij weeks after they freed the town from IS fighters.

"Kurdish forces have liberated other Sunni Arab areas such as Manbij where they were welcomed by locals," said Sadradeen Kinno, a Syrian reporter covering developments in Raqqa. "The Raqqa operation will be similar to that in Manbij in this regard."

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Nation makes final call on Turkey's EU membership: Erdogan

Iran Press TV

Tue Nov 15, 2016 1:31AM

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says a referendum may be held in the country next year over the continuation of membership talks with the EU.

"Let's wait until the end of the year and then go to the people. Let's go to the people since they will make the final call. Even Britain went to the people. Britain said 'let's exit', and they left," said Erdogan during a televised speech on Monday.

Britons voted to leave the European Union on June 23. The vote, called Brexit, sent shockwaves throughout the world and prompted the EU members to call on the UK to officially begin the withdrawal process as soon as possible.

He made the remarks after EU foreign ministers censured Turkey over its post-coup crackdown and European Parliament President Martin Schulz recently threatened to end Turkey's EU membership process.

"Who are you? Since when do you have the authority to decide on behalf of Turkey?" Erdogan said referring to Schulz's threats.

"How can you, who have not taken Turkey into the EU for 53 years, find the authority to make such a decision?" he added.

During an exclusive interview with English-language newspaper Hurriyet Daily News on Sunday, Erdogan slammed the 28-member EU over "attempts to compel" Ankara to drop its accession bid, while hinting that continuation of the talks with the EU may be decided in a referendum.

Turkey has been attempting to become part of the EU since the 1960s. Formal EU accession negotiations began in 2005. But the process has been mired in problems, and only 16 chapters of the 35-chapter accession procedure have been opened for Ankara so far.

The relations between Turkey and the EU further soured after the July 15 botched putsch, which Ankara claims was organized by US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen.

The coup began when a faction of the military declared it was in control of the country and the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was no more in charge.

Tanks, helicopters, and soldiers clashed with police and people on the streets of Ankara and Istanbul. Between 200 and 300 people were killed on all sides in the attempted coup d'etat.

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Congratulations on your victory @realDonaldTrump. As our President, Columba and I will pray for you in the days and months to come.
November 2016 by Marc Jacob

Amnesty International Finland has chosen F-Secure to help defend itself from advanced threats. The nonprofit organization is taking into use F-Secure Rapid Detection Service, which detects and responds to advanced attacks in an organizations network. The managed detection and response service combines the best of human and machine intelligence with a promise to alert the customer within just 30 minutes of a breach detection.

Non-government organizations (NGOs) are prime targets for cyber attacks due to their active role in exposing government and corporate malpractices as well as criminal structures. NGOs sometimes work in high-risk environments that can expose their staff and information sources to active attacks. Typically equipped with only light organizational support, NGOs are often perceived as soft targets. Attacker motivations could range from hacktivists trying to make a statement, to nation states engaging in espionage or coercion, to criminals after money or influence. With attackers known to lurk inside networks for weeks, months and even years siphoning data, quick detection and response is key. It is only natural for an NGO to begin from an assumption that they have been breached or are being actively targeted.

F-Secure Rapid Detection Service leverages the strengths of both human and machine intelligence to provide an all-in-one intrusion detection and response service thats easy to deploy and ready to go immediately. The service consists of three major components: Endpoint and network decoy sensors that collect data about events and activities; F-Secures threat intelligence and behavioral analytics, which analyze the data to identify anomalies; and the Rapid Detection Center, which is staffed 24/7 by a team of cyber security experts who identify and handle incidents. When a breach is detected, an expert from the Rapid Detection Center will contact the customer within just 30 minutes with actionable data and to offer optional onsite investigative services if needed.

Were very glad to be working with F-Secure to defend our networks, says Jukka Vallisto, IT Specialist at Amnesty International Finland. The people we help and work with around the world, as well as our donors and partners, depend on our ability to protect their sensitive data. Partnering with F-Secure helps us considerably in watching for and handling possible advanced attacks.

F-Secure is pleased to provide our service to Amnesty International, says Pekka Usva, VP, Advanced Threat Protection at F-Secure. Politics and cyberspace are increasingly enmeshing and directly influencing one another, even as weve seen in recent months. In this climate, its important for organizations like Amnesty to have the right network defenses in place so they can continue to focus on carrying out their core mission, fighting for human rights.
Gulf Bridge International (GBI) has updated the North Route of its subsea cable through Iraq, improving route diversification and enhancing the resilience of internet connectivity to and from the region.
Country

Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Canada Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cuba, Republic of Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Dominican Republic Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Haiti, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Jamaica Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Mexico, United Mexican States Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu US Virgin Islands Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland United States Minor Outlying Islands United States of America Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe
Veterans, their families and supporters jammed Golden Corral restaurant in Danville on Monday night for its annual Military Appreciation Night, serving up free meals to all veterans and active duty military.

Venus Harris, the front of the house manager, said she has enjoyed every one of the events since the restaurant in Danville opened seven years ago.

As she directed incoming customers to empty tables, Harris looked over the crowd and noted, Its a good crowd tonight. Patrons often greeted Harris with a hug.

Bobby Nichols and his wife, Loretta, said they look forward to events around Veterans Day that honor Bobbys six years in the Navy and 17 years in the Virginia National Guard.

The Nichols know their way around various events, with Bobby laughing as he recounted his day Friday which included a free haircut, donuts and meals.

We saw lots and lots of veterans everywhere, Bobby said.

A few tables away, the Wright brothers  Hugh and Ray, of Chatham  said they look forward to the meal at Golden Corral each year.

Hugh said he spent three years in the Army, serving at Fort Wainwright in Alaska, while Ray said he spend a total of six years in the Army, serving tours in Europe and Honduras before ending his military career in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Every year we appreciate what these establishments do for us veterans, Ray said. We look forward to this every year; its a real treat.

Janet Roberson, commander of the Archer T. Gammon chapter of the Disabled American Veterans, said the DAV teams up with Golden Corral each year to raise money for local chapters.

Roberson said the weeks leading up to Military Appreciation Night at the restaurant are the groups biggest fundraiser of the year, raising more than $5,000 last year selling raffle tickets and collecting donations at Golden Corral.

Weve already passed that this year, Roberson said, smiling. Weve sold a lot of raffle tickets and gotten a lot of donations.

Golden Corral General Manager Kenny Waller said this year marks his third Military Appreciation Night at the Danville location and he looks forward to it each year.

We definitely enjoy celebrating our veterans because of their service to this country, Waller said, noting that he recognizes many of the veterans who return each year. Its always good to see familiar faces.
To the editor:

With cognition of mind and my sons text message question from California at 3 a.m. on Nov. 9 still ringing loudly in my ears (Hows that Buffet theory working out for you?) accompanied with lol, let me share my answer with you.

I turned in my unordained prophetic credentials and agreed with my late pastor sister: aint nobody called me to preach. Though I know he did the same thing in the voting booth as did I  voted for Hillary Rodham Clinton  so much for the introduction.

You will recall my letter of Aug. 16, (Warren Buffett has spoken) and the comment, This ballgame is over  seal up John, dont write no more  the voice of authority has spoken, let thy word be law 

Of course it was my prophetic perception of Donald Trumps defeat in the 2016 presidential campaign.

In spite of my philosophical, religious belief in the presence of disbelief (God moves in mysterious ways), we only need to accept the reality of two enabling contributors of fact  the role of the news media throughout, and the role of FBI Director James B. Comey on Oct. 29.

Make no mistake about it, many in the news media were more interested in making money than providing the American people with a substantial debate format of questions and answers on the part of Donald Trump. You can go back and review all of the debates of his performance and see or remember he was wanting in substance in every exchange of qualitative discourse. But many in the news media earned a ton of money promoting the perpetuation of more of the same until he was the last one standing and all others were wiped out not for lack of better qualification for the job or quality of debate skills, no, but theatrical showmanship which never has been a requirement for the position of president.

Leading up to Oct. 29, Hillary was more than the odds on favorite to win the general election without any reasonable doubt, but then came Comeys irreversible harmful bombshell. Comeys comments to Congress and opened to the public on an ongoing investigation 11 days before a presidential election about his bureaus review of emails related to Clintons personal server that were not to or from Clinton, and contained information that appeared to be more of what agents already had uncovered, and over the objection of the attorney general and deputy attorney general, and several notable bipartisan of various political persuasions, all to no avail, it is said.

Her favorable-ship dropped like a bolder across the nation never to be recovered. Her goal of becoming president was doomed and failed more likely than not because of his action.

Consequently, it can be said, the moral of this story is dont count your chickens before they hatch. There is always a money-craving media and a James Comey with a bombshell ready to impede your goal.

GEORGE V. DILLARD

Danville
Advance Auto Parts replacement of top executives launched roughly a year ago, when the publicly traded company, a leading seller of aftermarket automotive parts, announced its CEO at the time would retire in early 2016.

Since then, Advance has hired a new CEO and a new chief financial officer. The company said in July that George Sherman would leave the presidents job in August and depart at years end and not be replaced.

On Monday, Advance reported financial results for the companys third quarter, which ended Oct. 8. The report showed that sales and profits dropped when compared with the same period in 2015.

Total sales fell 2 percent to $2.25 billion, a decline the company attributed to a 1 percent drop in sales in stores open at least one year, some store closings in 2015 and the consolidation of some Carquest stores.

Profit for the third quarter totaled about $113.8 million, or $1.53 per diluted share, down from about $120.5 million, or $1.63 per diluted share during the same period last year.

Tom Greco, CEO and president, said in a news release that our results are not where we want them to be but said Advance remains relentlessly focused on improving sales and performance.

Advance, founded in Roanoke in 1932 by Arthur Taubman, still lists the city as its headquarters. Yet most of the companys key executives work in Raleigh, North Carolina.

In January 2014, Advance acquired former competitor General Parts International, based in Raleigh. Advance has said the integration of GPI and its brands, including Worldpac and Carquest, has been challenging at times.

Advances customers include professional mechanics and their employers as well as do-it-yourself clients. The company has been working to increase its share of the commercial market as the DIY market has waned, partly because of the increased sophistication of modern automo- biles.

In 2015, Starboard Value, a hedge fund, acquired a 3.7 percent stake in Advance, suggesting the company was underperforming when compared with peers OReilly Auto Parts and AutoZone.

Jeffrey Smith, Starboard Values CEO, often described as an activist investor, is chairman of Advances board of directors.

As of Oct. 8, Advance operated 5,058 stores and 127 Worldpac branches and served about 1,250 independently owned Carquest stores.

The company said it employs about 74,000 people, with about 1,300 working in the Roanoke region.
BOONES MILL  Franklin Countys moonshine heritage, once discussed privately in hushed tones, soon will be proudly on display in the small town that serves as the entrance to the county.

Franklin County Distilleries, which has a small production facility in Boones Mill, is working toward opening a tasting room off U.S. 220 and backing up to Maggodee Creek.

Christopher Reynolds, brand ambassador for Franklin County Distilleries, said the plan is to align the tasting rooms opening with an April race at Martinsville Speedway.

The company wants to root itself in the Franklin County community its named for, and a tasting room is one way to do that, Reynolds said.

The tasting room will bring people, and their money, into the community. Reynolds said he believes it has tourism value, and would be a good way to bring young folks from Roanoke into the town or get visitors to Smith Mountain Lake to explore other parts of the county.

Though its based in Boones Mill, the distillery is looking to expand outside of the town as well. Reynolds said company officials are talking about establishing some kind of relationship with the Harvester Performance Center in Rocky Mount and are also developing a signature drink for the Hotel Roanoke. He said theyd be interested in opening a tasting room in Roanoke at some point too.

Right now, the company uses just one still and makes only one product, the White Label Corn Whiskey. But Reynolds said demand is high, and theyll need to grow  adding more stills and more products  to meet it. The product is only available in Virginia, but Reynolds said that will change soon.

Were already expanding way faster than we thought we would with this product, Reynolds said. I cant sign distribution deals for sure this week because I have to make sure we have enough liquor made.

The company is in talks with officials from Boones Mill about renting space in a two-story industrial building undergoing renovations located on property owned by the town. Town Manager Matt Lawless said the renovations should be completed in April.

Though a lease hasnt been signed yet, Lawless said the distillery is a top prospect for the building.

He said the distillery and Titan Trains, a manufacturer of 1/8 scale trains that is also set to go into the building, both play on the towns history, making them ideal tenants.

When we think about the kind of manufacturing that can work here, you want to have a niche product that holds value well and can be exported more widely. And so Franklin County Distilleries and Titan Trains both fit that bill, Lawless said.

The company is blowing through the inventory, Lawless said, so it will need more space soon. The town could provide it to them by next spring.

The timing might work out real well for us, Lawless said.
With more than 1,000 shoppers and 130 spaces for vendors, Pat Yancey of the Business Womans Association of Halifax County estimated on Sunday that the Holiday Living Show at Halifax County High School had raked in approximately $9,000 over the weekend.

Money raised will go toward the associations efforts of providing scholarships, and according to Yancey, each year they try to give $10,000 in scholarships to deserving Halifax County High School students.

We appreciate the vendors. They spend a lot of time getting their crafts ready. Also, we like for the customers to come out and support them, and the scholarships for deserving students of Halifax County, said Yancey.

Year after year, she said the vendors seem to grow, and each year, she sees returning vendors like The Cake Lady, Barbara Durbin and her husband, Mike, of Danville, and this year, she witnessed several new vendors such as Carol Metz Bowman, a deejay at WAKG who makes wreaths, Felside Woodworking and Adrienne Chesbro with her patriotic knitted lap afghans.

For Chesbro, this was her first craft show, and she was enjoying selling her knitted blankets that she had been making for 10 years now.

She began making her craft after meeting veterans during his time as a hospice nurse, and she thought it would be best to honor veterans at the Holiday Living Show.

Next to Chesbro was another newcomer, Deon Calloway, a 17-year-old autistic artist from Altavista Combined School. Hes been drawing since he was 5, and at the Holiday Living Show, he displayed arts drawn from pencils and colored pencils of a variety of scenes ranging from beaches to the woods and everything in between.

Although it wasnt the first year Monica Mears of LuLaRoe attended the Holiday Living Show, she said traffic had surely picked up from last year with Mears saying LuLaRoe had really caught on.

Our second year has really been busier. Weve tripled our business. Its been great. Even if some people dont shop, it helps us get our name out and to introduce the product, said Mears who said she could be found on Facebook under MandMSisters.

Returning favorites such as The Cake Lady and The Crispie Pig with Ronnie, Mandy and McKenzie Meador brought inviting aromas of pork rings, kettle corn and 11 different types of cakes.

Durban said she started off with 107 cakes filling up three tables, and by Sunday, over 86 had been sold with 12 cakes being sold within the first 10 minutes Sunday.

Each year she said she enjoys meeting the shoppers more than anything.

The people are so nice and so friendly. I love Halifax. Its so peaceful, said Durbin, who also sells her products in Clarksville, Bassett, Gretna and where she resides, Danville.

Out front, Mandy Meador of The Crispie Pig scooped up fresh, hot kettle corn as customers poured in to buy it fresh or take a try of their pork rinds.

The Franklin County family took over The Crispie Pig three years ago solely selling kettle corn but added the pork rinds last year.

Its a part-time weekend gig for the lively family, and according to daughter McKenzie, mom makes the popcorn, dad makes the pork rinds, and shes in charge to make sure the work gets done.

Whether the vendors were new or familiar faces, shoppers from all over filled the high school all weekend searching for secret finds for themselves or the perfect homemade Christmas gift for family and friends.
VANCOUVER, Nov. 14, 2016 /CNW/ - International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. (the "Company") - (TSX: ITH) (NYSE-MKT: THM) today announced that it has filed its unaudited third quarter Financial Statements and associated Management Discussion and Analysis and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three-month and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2016.

Including consideration of the January 2017 derivative payment of USD 14.8 million, the Company's working capital at September 30, 2016 was negative USD 13.4 million. At September 30, 2016, the Company had a cash balance of $1.8 million. The Company believes the current cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient for it to complete its anticipated 2016 work plan at the Livengood Gold Project.

Shareholders can obtain copies of the Company's unaudited third quarter Financial Statements and associated Management Discussion and Analysis and Form 10-Q on SEDAR at: www.sedar.com, EDGAR at www.sec.gov and on the Company's website at: www.ithmines.com. The Company will also provide hard copies of these documents, free of charge, to shareholders who request a copy directly from the Company.

About International Tower Hill Mines Ltd.

International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. controls 100% of the Livengood Gold Project located along the paved Elliott Highway, 70 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska.

On behalf of

International Tower Hill Mines Ltd.

(signed) Thomas E. Irwin

Chief Executive Officer

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and US securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, including statements with respect to the mine plan, economic analysis (including CAPEX and OPEX) and production and design details described in the Pre-Feasibility Study; the potential to convert mineral resources to mineral reserves; additional optimization and exploration efforts and the results thereof; the ability of the Company to satisfy the derivative liability and the consequences of any failure to do so; the ability of the Company to potentially include refined and updated results in a subsequent full feasibility study; the ability of the Company to advance environmental baseline work in support of future permitting; the ability of the Company to advance the Livengood Project either as projected or at all; the potential for the Company to make a construction decision, whether when warranted by market conditions or at all; the potential for market conditions to be such that they warrant the making of a production decision; the potential development of any mine at the Livengood Project; business and financing plans and business trends are forward-looking statements. Information concerning mineral reserve/resource estimates and the economic analysis thereof contained in the Pre-Feasibility Study also may be deemed to be forward-looking statements in that it reflects a prediction of the mineralization that would be encountered, and the results of mining it, if a mineral deposit were developed and mined. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate, proposed, planned, potential and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, variations in the nature, quality and quantity of any mineral deposits that may be located, variations in the market price of any mineral products the Company may produce or plan to produce, the inability of the Company to obtain any necessary permits, consents or authorizations required for its activities, the inability of the Company to produce minerals from its properties successfully or profitably, to continue its projected growth, to raise the necessary capital (including, as required, to satisfy the derivative liability) or to be fully able to implement its business strategies, and other risks and uncertainties disclosed in the Company's Annual Information Form filed with certain securities commissions in Canada and the Company's annual report on Form 10-K filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), and other information released by the Company and filed with the appropriate regulatory agencies. All of the Company's Canadian public disclosure filings may be accessed via www.sedar.com and its United States public disclosure filings may be accessed via www.sec.gov, and readers are urged to review these materials, including the latest technical report filed with respect to the Company's Livengood property.

This news release is not, and is not to be construed in any way as, an offer to buy or sell securities in the United States.

SOURCE International Tower Hill Mines Ltd.
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Nov. 14, 2016) -

THIS PRESS RELEASE IS NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWS SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES.

Satori Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE:BUD) ("Satori" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. William Ansley as President and Chief Executive Officer, and as a director of the Company.

Mr. Ansley is a Chartered Professional Accountant with over 12 years of mining experience and was a member of two teams that placed 6 mines into production over an 8 year period in Sudbury and Timmins Ontario.

Formerly, Mr. Ansley held the positions of Director of Business Development for FNX Mining Inc., and Vice President of Corporate Planning and Strategy for Lakeshore Gold Corp. Most recently, Mr. Ansley was Chief Operating Officer of Mineral Streams Inc., which was acquired by AuRico Metals Inc. in September 2015.

Mr. Reid will continue to serve the Company in the capacity of Executive Chair of the board of directors.

Bruce Reid would like to welcome Mr. Ansley to the position of President and Chief Executive Ofiicer. "This is a welcome opportunity for Satori to bring on board a new individual who will help the Company focus on its current assets while looking to expand the asset base. As a significant shareholder of the Company I look forward to working closely with Will to see Satori reach its full potential."

Mr. Ansley states, "I am excited about the opportunity to work with Bruce Reid and the other Satori directors on advancing the Tartan Lake Gold Mine Project. The asset is a former producing gold mine with historical recovered grades of approximately 6 grams per tonne, has certain key infrastructure in place, including on-site power, and is located in Flin Flon, Manitoba, a world class mining camp. In addition to the known Main gold zone, the land package boasts 2,670 hectares of the prolific Flin Flon Greenstone belt hosting numerous gold occurances worthy of exploration."

The Company also intends to complete a private placement offering of 1,000,000 common shares, subscribed solely by Mr. Ansley, at $0.10 per share for net proceeds of $100,000. The private placement is subject to TSX Venture Exchange and regulatory approval.

Satori has also granted 500,000 incentive stock options to Mr. Ansley. The stock options have an exercise price of $0.10 per share and are exercisable in tranches for a period of up to five years.

ABOUT SATORI RESOURCES INC.

Satori is a Toronto-based mineral exploration and development company whose primary property is the Tartan Lake Gold Mine Project (100% interest), located in the prolific Flin Flon Greenstone Belt, Manitoba. The Tatran Lake Gold Mine produced 48,000 ounces of gold from 1987-1989 at approximately 6 grams per tonne gold (recovered). The Project hosts a 440 tonne/day gold concentrator, largely intact, related infrastructure, and a decline providing access to developed mining blocks within the Main and South Zones to a vertical depth of 320 metres. For further information, please visit www.satoriresources.ca.

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.

CAUTION REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This news release of Satori contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements." Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Satori's actual results, performance or achievements, or developments in the industry to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
/THIS PRESS RELEASE IS NOT TO BE DISTRIBUTED TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR TO BE DISSEMINATED IN THE UNITED STATES. ANY FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THIS RESTRICTION MAY CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF U.S. SECURITIES LAWS./

VANCOUVER, Nov. 15, 2016 /CNW/ - Brazil Resources Inc. (the "Company" or "Brazil Resources") (TSX-V: BRI; OTCQX: BRIZF) is pleased to announce that, further to its press releases dated November 14, 2016, it has completed the third and final tranche (the "Final Tranche") of its previously announced private placement (the "Private Placement") for additional gross proceeds of $1,636,625, issuing 654,650 units (the "Units") at a price of $2.50 per Unit. The Company received total gross proceeds of $12,393,145 and issued an aggregate of 4,957,258 Units under all tranches of the Private Placement.

Amir Adnani, Chairman of the Company, stated: "We are very pleased with the strong level of support shown by existing and new individual and institutional investors in this oversubscribed Private Placement. With more than $21.0 million of cash on hand, we have a strong balance sheet and are positioned well to further execute our growth and acquisition strategy."

Each Unit consists of one common share of the Company and one half of a common share purchase warrant, with each full warrant entitling the holder thereof to acquire one common share of the Company at an exercise price of $3.50 up to three years after the issuance thereof.

In connection with the Private Placement, the Company has agreed to pay finder's fees of $77,805, being equal to 6% of the gross proceeds in connection with 518,700 Units issued thereunder, to arm's length parties in accordance with the policies, and subject to approval, of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV"). The Company intends to use proceeds from the Private Placement to bolster its ongoing acquisition strategy and for general working capital needs.

The securities issued under the Private Placement will be subject to a four month hold period from the date of issuance, in the case of the Final Tranche, expiring March 16, 2017, in addition to any other restrictions under applicable law.

The Units, common shares and warrants, including common shares issuable upon valid exercise of the warrants, have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any U.S. state securities laws and may not be offered or sold in the United States, absent registration or an available exemption from the registration requirement of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable U.S. state securities laws.

THIS PRESS RELEASE SHALL NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL OR THE SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO BUY, NOR SHALL THERE BE ANY SALE OF THE UNITS, COMMON SHARES OR WARRANTS, IN ANY JURISDICTION IN WHICH SUCH OFFER, SOLICITATION OR SALE WOULD BE UNLAWFUL.

About Brazil Resources Inc.

Brazil Resources Inc. is a public mineral exploration company with a focus on the acquisition, exploration and development of projects in Brazil, United States, Canada and other regions of the Americas. Brazil Resources is advancing its Titiribi Gold Copper Project, located in Colombia, Whistler Gold-Copper Project, located in Alaska, United States, Cachoeira and Sao Jorge Gold Projects, located in the State of Para, northeastern Brazil and Rea Uranium Project, located in the western Athabasca Basin in northeast Alberta, Canada.

Forward Looking Statements



This news release contains certain forward-looking statements that reflect the current views and/or expectations of the Company with respect to its performance, business and future events, including statements regarding the Company's long-term growth strategy. Forward-looking statements are based on the then-current expectations, beliefs, assumptions, estimates and forecasts about the business and the industry and markets in which the Company operates, including that: the current price of and demand for minerals being targeted by the Company will be sustained or will improve; the Company's current exploration programs and objectives can be achieved; the Company will be able to obtain required exploration licences and other permits; general business and economic conditions will not change in a material adverse manner; financing will be available if and when needed on reasonable terms; the Company will not experience any material accident; the Company will be able to identify and acquire additional mineral interests on reasonable terms or at all; and the Company will be able to carry out its acquisition strategy. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions which are difficult to predict. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including: that the Company has a limited operating history; that resource exploration and development is a speculative business; that the Company may lose or abandon its property interests or may fail to receive necessary licenses and permits; that the Company's properties are in the exploration stage and are without known bodies of commercial ore; that the Company may not be able to obtain all necessary permits and approvals on any of its properties; that environmental laws and regulations may become more onerous; that the Company may not be able to raise additional funds when necessary; potential defects in title to the Company's properties; fluctuations in currency exchange rates; fluctuating prices of commodities; operating hazards and risks; competition; potential inability to find suitable acquisition opportunities and/or complete the same; that the Company will not be able to carry out its acquisition strategy; and other risks and uncertainties listed in the Company's public filings. These risks, as well as others, could cause actual results and events to vary significantly. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information, which are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information, or the material factors or assumptions used to develop such forward-looking information, will prove to be accurate. The Company does not undertake any obligations to release publicly any revisions for updating any voluntary forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable securities law.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

SOURCE Brazil Resources Inc.
Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCwire) - Astorius Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: ASQ, Frankfurt: 47AF) (Astorius or the Company) announced today that the Company is moving into its next phase of work on the 100%-owned Condor gold project in southeast Ecuador, with geologists and technical crews preparing to resample the propertys alluvial gold deposits. The near-term objective of this program is to resume alluvial gold production in 2017, followed by a self-funded drill program to explore gold anomalies related to nearby major gold discoveries.

Within One of Ecuadors Most Important Copper-Gold Regions

The Condor Project is part of a metallogenic copper and gold belt that extends for more than 150 kilometers in Ecuadors Cordillera del Condor. This belt includes Corriente Resources Mirador, Panantza and San Carlos copper projects. More importantly, the Condor Property is situated just four kilometers east of the world class Fruta del Norte gold discovery under development by Lundin Gold and only 100 meters south of that projects El Tigre gold anomaly. Production is expected to begin at Fruta del Norte in Q1 2020.

Within Fruta del Nortes entire 90,000-hectare area, Condor is one of the few remaining claim blocks not held by Lundin, noted Sandy MacDougall, Astorius Chairman of the Board.

Exploring Extensive Alluvial Gold with At Least Eight Gold Anomalies

Previous exploration at Condor has established the presence of extensive alluvial gold1 and at least eight anomalous gold zones identified in soil surveys.2 The geochemical signatures of the anomalies are consistent with those at both Fruta del Norte and El Tigre. Most importantly, said MacDougall, work at Condor to date indicates that the main anomaly at Fruta del Norte runs beneath our ground. This is a crucial premise, and one we will investigate much further during this next round of exploration. This work will also help us identify which anomalies to drill first.

Options for Near-Term Extraction of Alluvial Gold

Alluvial gold found in many areas of the Condor property provides options for near-term production. A 2014 study by alluvial mining consultants Velrub Ltd. of Quito, Ecuador, determined the existence of alluvial gold in the propertys low terraces. Follow-up work on the medium and high terraces, conducted in February 2016, identified additional alluvial gold that will be tested further in the upcoming program. This work will include resampling of the alluvial deposits of the low and medium terraces on both sides of the Rio Machinaza as well as other quebradas (ravines) where alluvial gold has been identified. The intent is to re-start alluvial extraction as soon as the environmental license is in place.3

1. From NI 43-101 sampling and studies conducted in 2007 by Ryan Grywul, P.Geo, and 2014 and 2016 studies by Velrub Consultora Minera & Suministros of Quito, Ecuador.

2. From the NI 43-101 Technical Report on the El Condor Property prepared by Luc Pigeon, B.Sc., M.Sc, P.Geo, October 6, 2007

3. UPDATED REPORT CONDOR CONCESSION (CODE 500682) REFERENCE TO ALUVIAL PLACERS, February 6, 2016 prepared by IVelrub Consultora Minera & Suministros of Quito, Ecuador.

The technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Chris Cherrywell Q.P. who is a Qualified Person with respect to the Condor property as defined under N.I. 43-101.

About Astorius Resources Ltd.

Astorius (TSX.V:ASQ) is a junior mineral exploration and development company with a mandate to build a significant portfolio of advanced exploration and near production properties with world class potential in Latin America. Astoriuss 1st major project is the El Condor a large Gold - Copper anomaly covering an area of 15 hectares is located in the north central region of the property immediately south of Aurelian's El Tigre anomaly. Further information can be found at the Companys web site http://www.astoriusresources.com/

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

/s/ Arthur Brown

President & Director

This news release contains projections and forward-looking information that involve various risks and uncertainties regarding future events. Such forward-looking information can include without limitation statements based on current expectations involving a number of risks and uncertainties and are not guarantees of future performance of the Company. The following are important factors that could cause the Companys actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements; the uncertainty of future profitability; and the uncertainty of access to additional capital. These risks and uncertainties could cause actual results and the Company's plans and objectives to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information. Actual results and future events could differ materially from anticipated in such information. These and all subsequent written and oral forward-looking information are based on estimates and opinions of management on the dates they are made and expressed qualified in their entirety by this notice. The Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking information should circumstance or management's estimates or opinions change.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view this press release as a PDF file, click onto the following link:public://news_release_pdf/AstoriusNov152016.pdfSource: Astorius Resources Ltd. (TSX Venture:ASQ)

To follow Astorius Resources Ltd. on your favorite social media platform or financial websites, please click on the icons below.

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Copyright  2016 Filing Services Canada Inc.
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 15, 2016) - Pancontinental Gold Corp. (TSXV: PUC) ("Pancon Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the commencement, on Monday, November 14, 2016, of its drill program at the Company's flagship Jefferson Gold Project in Chesterfield County, South Carolina, United States. After compiling and reviewing the historic exploration data from the Jefferson Project, Pancon Gold's strategic objective is to develop an initial gold resource through a staged drilling program. This initial stage, consisting of approximately 5,000 feet (1,524 metres) of diamond drilling, will continue into early 2017.

Pancon Gold's initial drill program at Jefferson builds on the very positive results from drilling in 2011 by the previous project owners. All four holes in 2011 were drilled on Anomaly A and encountered mineralization, with the best hole averaging 1.27 grams of gold per tonne over 539 feet (164.3 metres), true width unknown. Detailed drill results for all four holes drilled in 2011 were included in Pancon Gold's news release of May 25, 2016.

Pancon Gold's drill program will again focus on the Anomaly A area, stepping out from the 2011 drill section in both directions along the east-west gold trend. Two new fences will be drilled approximately 200 feet (75 metres) west and east of the 2011 drill section. All new holes will be angled toward the south, and will range in depth from 400-600 feet (135-200 metres). Core samples will be shipped to ALS Chemex for fire assay and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) multi-element analyses. Dr. Margaret Venable, a seasoned exploration geologist with more than 30 years of experience managing and directing projects around the world, is supervising Pancon Gold's initial drill program.

Dr. Laurie Curtis, Chair of Pancon Gold's Technical Advisory Committee states "We are now ready to begin our drilling at Jefferson. I would like to compliment our team on their thorough analytical process. We fully expect this first drill program will advance the highly mineralized Jefferson Project towards achieving the Company's goal of defining an attractive initial gold resource."

The Jefferson Project is located six miles east of the Haile gold mine, which, according to its owner OceanaGold, will commence commercial production in early 2017 after completing its $380 million construction phase. Like Haile, which is a proven multi-million ounce gold resource, the Jefferson Project is part of the exceptional Carolina terrane, extending from Georgia to Virginia. The Carolina terrane spawned the first gold rush in the United States in the early 1800s, has been mined by well known producing companies until the 1990s, is host to gold deposits in South Carolina and four other States, and continues to be actively explored today.

Dr. Dennis LaPoint, PhD, LGeo, the Company's Vice-President of Exploration, is a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, and has verified and approved the technical information contained in this news release.

About Pancontinental Gold Corporation

Pancontinental Gold Corp. is a Canadian-based mining company focused on the exploration and development of the Jefferson Gold Project and on acquiring additional prospective gold properties. The Company's shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, trading under the symbol PUC. In 2015, Pancon Gold sold its interest in its Australian rare earth element (REE) and uranium properties, formerly held through a joint venture, and retains a 1% gross overriding royalty on 100% of future production.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Rick Mark

President & CEO

For further information, please contact:

Rick Mark

President and CEO

1-416-293-8437 or info@panconu.com

For additional information, please visit our website at www.PanconU.com.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Language and Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking information which is not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking information is characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, changes in the state of equity and debt markets, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in obtaining required regulatory or governmental approvals, and other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, including those risks set out in the Company's management's discussion and analysis as filed under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking information in this news release is based on the opinions and assumptions of management considered reasonable as of the date hereof, including that all necessary governmental and regulatory approvals will be received as and when expected. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, other than as required by applicable securities laws.
/NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION OR DISSEMINATION DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES/

VANCOUVER, Nov. 15, 2016 /CNW/ - Tinka Resources Limited ("Tinka" or the "Company") (TSXV: TK) (OTCPK: TKRFF) is pleased to announce that it has closed the second and final tranche (the "Second Tranche") of the previously announced private placement offering of common shares of the Company (the "Shares") which was upsized for gross proceeds of C$11 million (the "Offering"). Under the Second Tranche, the Company issued 10,326,750 Shares at an issue price of C$0.20 per share (the "Issue Price") for gross proceeds of C$2,065,350. The first tranche of the Offering closed on November 7, 2016 for gross proceeds to the Company of $8,934,650 (the "First Tranche").

Two insiders of the Company participated in the Second Tranche in connection with the exercise of pre-existing participation rights. International Finance Corporation ("IFC"), a member of the World Bank Group, purchased 7,750,000 Shares at the Issue Price for gross proceeds of $1,550,000. IFC now has control over an aggregate of 28,680,232 common shares of Tinka or approximately 14.0% of the issued and outstanding common shares of Tinka, and 20.1% assuming the exercise of all of IFC's 15,697,674 warrants.

Sentient Global Resources Fund IV, LP ("Sentient IV"), who also participated in the First Tranche, purchased an additional 2,576,750 Shares under the Second Tranche for gross proceeds of C$515,350, resulting in Sentient IV owning an aggregate of 45,867,893 common shares of the Company following the closing of the Second Tranche or approximately 22.4% of the Company's basic shares outstanding, and 24.9% assuming the exercise of all of Sentient's 6,976,744 warrants.

The Company plans to use the net proceeds from the Offering to fund exploration expenditures at the Company's Ayawilca Project in Peru, as well as for other corporate purposes and general working capital. No commissions or finder's fees were paid by Tinka in respect of the closing of the Second Tranche.

Dr. Graham Carman, President and CEO of Tinka states: "We are pleased to close the second and final tranche of the Offering, and wish to thank IFC and the Sentient Group for their continued support. We are looking forward to commencing our 10,000 to 15,000 metres drill campaign at the Ayawilca property within a matter of weeks. This drill program will initially focus on drill testing the extensions of the high grade zinc mineralization previously discovered at West and South Ayawilca; followed by the drill testing of new targets east and north of the existing resources at Zone 3 and Chaucha."

Participation by Insiders of the Company in the Offering is considered a "related party transaction" pursuant to Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Company is exempt from the requirements to obtain a formal valuation or minority shareholder approval in connection with the Insiders' participation in the Offering in reliance of sections 5.5(b) and 5.7(a) of MI 61-101.

All securities issued pursuant to the Second Tranche of the Offering are subject to a four-month and one day hold period under applicable securities laws in Canada expiring on March 16, 2017.

This press release is not an offer or a solicitation of an offer of securities for sale in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration.

About Tinka Resources Limited

Tinka is an exploration and development company with projects in Peru. Tinka's focus is on its 100%-owned Ayawilca Property in the highly mineralized zinc-lead-silver belt of central Peru, 200 kilometres north of Lima and 40 kilometres from Peru's largest historic zinc mine at Cerro de Pasco. Ayawilca has two separate Inferred Mineral Resource Zones of 18.8 Mt at 8.2% Zinc Eq, and 5.4 Mt at 0.89% Tin Eq, both open for expansion (news release of May 25, 2016). The Colquipucro silver deposit, located 2km north of the Zinc Zone, has Indicated Mineral Resources of 2.9 Mt at 112g/t Ag for 10.4 Moz Ag and Inferred Mineral Resources of 2.2 Mt at 105g/t Ag for 7.5 Moz Ag in 'higher-grade lenses' within a lower-grade resource envelope of 7.4 Mt at 60g/t Ag for 14.3 Moz Ag (Indicated) and 8.5 Mt at 48g/t Ag for 13.2 Moz Ag (Inferred) (news release of Feb' 26, 2015). Dr. Graham Carman, Tinka's President and CEO is a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical disclosure contained in this press release.

On behalf of the Board,

"Graham Carman"

Dr. Graham Carman, President & CEO

FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

Certain information in this news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively "forward-looking statements"). All statements, other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and expectations of Tinka as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to Tinka's management. Such statements reflect the current risks, uncertainties and assumptions related to certain factors including, without limitation, the anticipated use of proceeds of the Offering, the Company's expectations regarding mineral resource calculations, the successful completion of the Company's proposed drilling program, capital and other costs varying significantly from estimates, production rates varying from estimates, changes in world metal markets, changes in equity markets, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, equipment failure, unexpected geological conditions, imprecision in resource estimates or metal recoveries, success of future development initiatives, competition, operating performance, environmental and safety risks, delays in obtaining or failure to obtain necessary permits and approvals from local authorities, community relations, and other development and operating risks. Should any one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein. Although Tinka believes that assumptions inherent in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein. Except as may be required by applicable securities laws, Tinka disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

SOURCE Tinka Resources Ltd.
A top Wall Street credit-rating agency downgraded New Jersey once again on Monday, warning that the states fiscal health will deteriorate quickly unless it launches new reforms.S&P Global Ratings downgraded the states bond rating from A to A- because of New Jerseys severely underfunded pension system and a recent deal between Governor Christie and Democratic lawmakers to cut more than $1 billion in taxes at a time when the state lacks the revenue to cover its bills.Although its bonds are still considered investment grade, New Jersey is the second worst-rated state after Illinois. Each downgrade could drive away investors and make it more difficult for New Jersey to borrow money.Hours after S&P announced its downgrade, Senate President Stephen Sweeney told reporters that he will reintroduce legislation mandating that the state make quarterly payments into the pension system for 800,000 public workers and retirees. Christie vetoed a similar bill last year.Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said he was confident the governor would sign the bill this time around, and he added that he will fast-track the legislation. A vote in the full Senate is expected Monday, he said.The three top credit-rating agencies -- S&P, Fitch Ratings and Moodys Investors Service  have downgraded New Jersey a combined 10 times under Christie, repeatedly citing the pension woes. No governor in the United States has ever amassed that many downgrades.
Missouri

New Hampshire

Vermont

The presidential election sent shock waves throughout the country. But there was another notable, quieter shift last week: Republicans increased their domination of state government.The GOP now controls the state House, state Senate and governor's office in 25 states. Democrats, by contrast, fully control just five states. In addition, three states shifted from Democratic governors to Republican ones. After inauguration, there will be 15 Democratic governors and 33 Republican governors (Alaska's governor is an independent, and the results of North Carolina's race are still unknown).President-elect Donald Trump ran on a campaign pledge to repeal and replace Obamacare. Since his election, however, he has expressed willingness to keep parts of Barack Obama's signature health reform law. What he will actually do is unpredictable, much like him.In the meantime, Missouri, New Hampshire and Vermont -- which will all have GOP governors come January -- may be dealing with their own health-care overhauls.We talked to health policy experts in those states about what they expect for the future in terms of Medicaid expansion, abortion and more.In the Show Me State, Democrat Jay Nixon presided over Missouri politics for the past eight years with a centrist touch, largely because he had a Republican Senate and House to contend with.Nixon favored Medicaid expansion, one of the tenets of Obamacare, and urged the legislature to pass it. But he dropped the issue once it was clear it didnt have the support.Gov.-elect Eric Greitens, a former Navy SEAL who has never held political office, ran on the outsider platform that also helped Trump sail to victory in the state. His anti-Obamacare stances will likely keep much of Missouri's health-care policies running business as usual.Even if the federal government decides to cut funding for Medicaid [expansion], thats not going to impact us much since we never expanded, said Karen Edison, director of the Center for Health Policy at the University of Missouri.And even if the Trump administration retains Medicaid expansion, the chances of Missouri adopting it would likely be next to none.Health policy experts in the state, however, will be watching abortion access. The state is down to only one abortion provider. Nixon vetoed a bill mandating a 72-hour waiting period before women can get an abortion, but the GOP-controlled legislature overrode it.Any more anti-abortion legislation coming down the pike, though, is likely to get signed -- this time by Greitens, who campaigned on an anti-abortion platform.The Granite State made history by picking Chris Sununu. At 42, he's the youngest person in the country to be elected governor. Though he's a Republican, he's not health policy experts' biggest concern in the state.Brendan Williams, president of the New Hampshire Health Care Association, said his federal worries are transcendent right now.D.C. is very remote for us most of the time. Sometimes things will come out of Centers for Medicare [and Medicaid] Services that concern us, but were never really worried about Congress. Now we are, he said.If Trump changes Obamacare, Williams at the least expects him to instate work requirements for Medicaid -- a request that Republican-led states continually got rejected from the Obama administration.New Hampshire expanded Medicaid using a waiver that enrolled newly-eligible recipients into the private marketplace. Though Sununu has been a documented critic of the state's Medicaid expansion, it's unlikely that it would crumble in New Hampshire if the federal government upheld it because the Republican-controlled legislature largely favors it. New Hampshire state Senate majority leader Jeb Bradley has said that expansion is "part of the cure" of the state's opioid epidemic.On abortion, Sununu voted against state funding of Planned Parenthood after now-discredited videos were released of a Planned Parenthood official discussing the sale of fetal tissue. But he walked back his stance this year and voted in favor of funding Planned Parenthood.Vermonters say that party affiliations dont mean much to them. The state that just elected Republican Phil Scott as governor is also home to Bernie Sanders, an independent senator who ran a presidential campaign on a socialist-inspired platform.Vermont has the second lowest rate of uninsured residents in the country at only 3.8 percent. So health officials there have shifted their attention to the cost of health care.Just before the election, the state finalized plans to become the first in the country with a comprehensive all-payer model. That means health providers, if they choose, can be paid a fixed rate instead of for each service they provide.Were moving to a population health model, where were promoting wellness, said Jeff Tieman, president of Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems.But the state's new governor has criticized the plan, signaling that its future may be in jeopardy.We simply cannot afford any more expensive and unsuccessful health-care experiments, he said in October. (The state recently spent years of time and money trying to shift to a universal single-payer form of health care but eventually abandoned the effort.)Still, Tieman isnt worried about Scott upending the states health care.Scott is pro-abortion rights and for the preservation of Medicaid expansion.I do imagine hell address the all-payer model in one way or another. There are disagreements here, but people are just more collaborative. Politicians are more focused on making life better for all Vermonters, he said.
He has been cited by Rush Limbaugh, quoted in the New York Times, featured at Real Clear Politics and Lucianne.com and interviewed on radio, TV and in social media.





Inducted into the Philadelphia Public Relations Hall of Fame, for many years he served as a Lecturer in Corporate Communication at Penn State University. A former President of the Philadelphia Public Relations Association (PPRA) he has lectured at Rowan University, Temple University, The College of New Jersey and Arcadia University. He has conducted workshops on public relations for thousands of participants throughout the nation and has taught countless others the art of public speaking. He has also advised numerous lawyers, judges, public officials and political candidates.





Cirucci is a prolific writer and his op-ed pieces have appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia Inquirer, Courier-Post and other publications.



A native of Camden NJ, Cirucci is a former President of the Philadelphia chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators. Cirucci served as Associate Executive Director of the Philadelphia Bar Association for nearly 30 years. He served as Chair of Penn State University's Professional Advisory Board for the Corporate Communication major at Penn State Abington and on the Pennsylvania Bar Association's Judicial Selection Commission.



He received his MA degree from Rowan University and his BA from Villanova University. He has been named a Distinguished Alumnus of Rowan's public relations program and received the E. A. "Wally" Richter Leadership Award, the highest honor from the National Association of Bar Executives' Communications Section. He has also been honored by numerous other local, state and national groups.









Cirucci's passions include politics, the popular culture, books and authors, art, communication, music, theatre, movies, dining and travel. In his hometown of Camden, Cirucci taught fifth grade at the Ulysses Wiggins Elementary School named for the founder of the Camden NAACP. There he was one of the first teachers in the country to teach African-American history to inner city students. He later served as editor of a local weekly newspaper, as Assistant to the Township Manager of Cherry Hill Township and as Associate Director of Communications at the New Jersey State Bar Association.

He's Dan Cirucci, the founder and editor-in chief of the Dan Cirucci Blog, Matt Rooney's sidekick on Save Jersey's videocasts and one of the most widely honored public relations professionals in his field. He's also been a public relations consultant to numerous organizations and individuals and hosted The Advocates on RVN-TV.
State Medicaid Chief John McCarthy, who oversaw Gov. John Kasich's overhaul and expansion of the health-insurance program covering nearly 3 million poor and disabled Ohioans, is resigning.The announcement comes less than a week after the victory of President-elect Donald Trump raised uncertainty about the future of the tax-funded Medicaid program, including the 2014 expansion of eligibility that added about 650,000 low-income adults on to the rolls in Ohio.Kasich has named former state Rep. Barbara Sears, of Sylvania, to replace McCarthy. Sears resigned from the House in June to work in the governor's Office of Health Transformation, which oversees the state's health-care programs. While in the House, Sears was the most outspoken Republican supporter of Medicaid expansion as Kasich pushed to implement it.She'll start in her new post when McCarthy steps down sometime in December for "opportunities in the private sector."McCarthy has served as director of Medicaid since the beginning of Kasich's administration in 2011. He led its restructure to an independent cabinet agency, expanded use of managed care and home and community-based services, and led Medicaid expansion under Obamacare.Kasich called McCarthy "an invaluable member of my cabinet and a key driver behind our efforts to modernize Ohio's Medicaid program."McCarthy's leadership, he said, helped ensure the most vulnerable Ohioans are better served and put the Medicaid program on strong financial footing."He is an outstanding thinker, leader and professional whose work has improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of Ohioans and made our state better," Kasich said.Under McCarthy's leadership, the Ohio Department of Medicaid has saved Ohio taxpayers more than $3 billion and the annual growth rate of the program has dropped to 3.3 percent -- down from nearly 9 percent growth over the three years prior to Kasich assuming office.McCarthy previously served as medicaid director for the District of Columbia, and was a private-sector consultant working with many states to help reform Medicaid programs through home- and community-based waiver programs, new coverage initiatives, and rate setting.Kasich said Sears brings the needed expertise and leadership to the job."She has consistently been someone who has shared my vision for health care and worked closely with our team to achieve it. She knows the health care and insurance spaces very well and has outstanding relationships with the General Assembly," Kasich said.While a legislator, Sears served as majority floor leader and chairwoman of both the House Insurance Committee and Joint Medicaid Oversight Committee.
An official at a Clay County agency lost her job Monday after publishing a racist Facebook post criticizing first lady Michelle Obama.The mayor of Clay also was strongly criticized for commenting in approval of the post.Pamela Ramsey Taylor, an employee of the Clay Development Corporation, referred to the first lady as an "ape in heels" in the Facebook post. A person who answered the phone at the Clay Development Corporation said Monday afternoon that Taylor has been removed from her post, but refused to comment further.Clay Mayor Beverly Whaling commented on the post soon after, saying, "Just made my day Pam."Neither Taylor nor Whaling could be reached for comment Monday. Their Facebook pages have been deleted.The Clay Development Corporation is not affiliated with the city of Clay, said Clay Town Councilman Jason Hubbard. He said the controversy would be addressed at a previously scheduled town council meeting at 5 p.m. Tuesday.West Virginia state code says a municipal officer can be removed from office only if he or she has participated in official misconduct, neglect of duty or incompetence.Joe Murphy, vice chairman of the Clay Democratic Executive Committee, said he was disappointed when he heard about the post. Murphy said Michelle Obama is one of the most graceful and articulate first ladies in American history."While we respect Ms. Taylor's right to free speech, we strongly oppose any form of racism or hate speech," Murphy said. "We fully support our president and the first lady."An online petition calling for both women to be ousted for the racist post and the comment was started over the weekend. About 9,000 people had signed the petition, as of Monday afternoon. Clay has a population of 648, according to 2013 statistics from the U.S. Census.A peition for a recall of Whaling would require signatures from registered voters within the city.Reach Ali Schmitz at ali.schmitz@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4843 or follow @SchmitzMedia on Twitter.
On Monday, in the morning, at Government House, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC received Major General the Honourable Michael Jeffery AC, AO(Mil), CVO, MC (Retd).

In the afternoon, at Government House, the Governor and Mrs Kaye de Jersey hosted an afternoon tea for the Queensland Family History Society where His Excellency addressed guests and presented Fellow Awards.
Description

GIS - 15 November, 2016: A delegation, led by the Minister of Civil Service and Administrative Reforms and Minister of Environment, Sustainable Development, and Disaster and Beach Management, Mr Alain Wong, is participating in t he 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 22) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Conference is being held from 14 to 18 November 2016 in Marrakesh, Morocco. A delegation, led byis participating

One of the main objectives of the Conference is to determine what action needs to be taken so as to meet the global goals of combating climate change once the Paris Agreement comes into effect. Minister Wong is expected to participate in discussions to explore avenues for capacity building, technology development and transfer, as well as climate funds, to support the countrys climate action. The Paris Agreement was adopted on 4 November 2016 and Mauritius was one of the first fifteen countries that signed and ratified the Paris Agreement on 22 April 2016.

During the Conference, Minister Wong will have meetings with various key stakeholders and representatives of the World Bank, Commonwealth and Green Climate Fund for funding from developed countries. India, Japan, China and Australia, are among the countries which can provide climate finance to support Mauritius tackle the adverse impacts of climate change.

The UN conference will address climate-related challenges and ways to harness and bolster collective efforts to combat climate change which is a global threat. The World Climate Conference also aims to encourage various countries to adhere to the Paris Agreement and to implement concrete actions in reducing their CO2 emissions as well as to mobilise support and strengthen resilience for the most vulnerable countries, like Mauritius, to fight climate change. Delegates from some 195 countries are attending the Conference.

COP22 will be crucial in helping countries to better equip themselves in order to manage the effects of climate change. The Conference will set out to enhance climate action by igniting national and international contributions.
Description

GIS  15 November 2016 : The National Health Accounts (NHA), an internationally accepted tool for summarising, describing, and analysing the financing of national health systems, are in the process of institutionalisation in Mauritius.

The institutionalisation of NHA entails conducting the estimation of health expenditures on a regular and sustained basis. It is an ongoing process in which NHA activities, structures, and values become an integral and sustainable part of government operations.

In this context, the Ministry of Health and Quality of Life in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO) is organising, in Ebene, a six-day capacity building session on Health Accounts Production Tool (HAPT). The HAPT is a software application developed by WHO and USAID to guide health accounts teams through the entire production process of NHA reports, thereby reducing the need for technical assistance and increasing local capacity for health account production.

At the opening ceremony of the session this morning, the Minister of Health and Quality of Life, Mr Anil Gayan, stressed that expenditure on health services must be reasonable, quantifiable, measurable, and accountable, with the necessity to reap positive outcome out of every cent spent.

The Minister recalled that Household Out-of-pocket Expenditure on Health in the Republic of Mauritius were estimated at Rs 10.81 billion in the 2015 Survey, and highlighted that health services will be much better if wastage could be avoided. Me dication wastage has direct and indirect consequences namely the economic implications arising from costs of unused medications such as those related to procure the medication, expenses required to dispose of unused medication as well as environmental implications associated with wastage disposal, pointed out Mr Gayan. He urged Regional Health Directors to ensure transparency and monitor closely expenditure relating to the health services.

The benefits of the National Health Accounts

NHA are deemed important in providing better information about health system financing for the design of health care policy and to improve health system performance. Through a standard set of tables, the NHA present various aspects of a nations health expenditures including public, private, and donor expenditures. NHA are also used to monitor progress towards Universal Health Coverage and the targets of the health-related Sustainable Development Goals.

In Mauritius, t he first phase of the NHA project, which comprised data collection from all stakeholders, has been completed. The second phase, which consists in analysing the data and institutionalising data reporting requirements, is at present being implemented.

During the capacity building session, participants from the Ministry of Health and Quality of Life, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Statistics Mauritius and the Mauritius Institute of Health will be engaging in hands-on practice on HAPT, through data collected from all stakeholders involved either directly or indirectly in the provision of health services. The NHA Report 2015 will also be formulated at the session.
Description

GIS - 15 November, 2016: The Prime Minister, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, was conferred the Gawtam Budh award on 12 November 2016 for his pledge in favour of peace across the world during his participation as Chief Guest at the 17th International Conference of Chief Justices of the world on Article 51 of the Constitution of India, held at the City Montessori School in Lucknow, India. the theme of the conference was: Uniting the World for Children through Enforceable World Law and Effective Global Governance. The Prime Minister, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, was conferred the Gawtam Budh award on 12 November 2016 for his pledge in favour of peace across the world during his participation as

On this occasion, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, expressed his appreciation with regards the Conference which has grouped together Chief Justices and judges of apex courts to reflect in a judiciary perspective on the issue of world peace and security with a view to leave the best possible legacy to the more than 2.5 billion children of the world and future generations.

He reiterated his full support to the appeal made by the students of City Montessori School to the World Judiciary to discuss and map out the best way forward to combat the threats facing the international community. On this score, he called upon each and every one to join hands for the interest of mankind in safeguarding the children of the world and generations yet to be born from the so many disastrous happenings across the world such as, myriad threats of international terrorism, possible wars and nuclear holocausts, global warming and climate change. All these threats are of great concern to our children, he added.

Sir Anerood Jugnauth also stressed on the importance of action-oriented cooperation among judicial and law enforcement institutions within a rule of law framework based on due process and respect for human rights while adding that the codification of international law, with an effective machinery to enforce it, would be the greatest achievement of the present century.

He further dwelt on the responsibility of the United Nations (UN) at a time when it is itself reviewing its peace and security agenda whereby he underpinned the crucial role of the UN in ensuring international policy coherence for peace and security, protection of human rights, disarmament and destruction of all the nuclear weapons.

According to him, it is imperative, to empower the International Court of Justice so that decisions given by the Court may become binding on all nations. This, he said will help in preventing wars.

In line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which emphasises that peace, security, climate change and development are closely interlinked, Prime Minister Jugnauth appealed to the International Community to support Small Island Developing States like Mauritius, which are vulnerable towards such calamities by providing long-term development assistance and international funding to strengthen institutional resilience against both man-made and natural disasters. He also spoke of a more reinforced commitment with focus on gender equality worldwide adding that Gender sensitive approaches will no doubt enhance the effectiveness of peace and nation building.

He concluded by recalling the universality of mankind as one family, encapsulated in the Sanskrit phrase Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, as the guiding philosophy of the provisions of Article 51 of the Constitution of India which promotes understanding between peoples of the world for peace, security to prevail globally.
(TNS) -- The California bullet train agency has begun a legal effort to import a significant amount of foreign equipment for its future Los Angeles-to-San Francisco system, a move that could prove politically controversial.The Federal Railroad Administration disclosed last week that the states High-Speed Rail Authority was seeking exemptions from the Buy American Act on more than a dozen critical train parts including motors, gearboxes, axles, wheels, brakes, derailment mitigation devices, undercarriages and even the entire aluminum car body shells.The rail authoritys 2016 business plan estimated the trains would cost about $3.4 billion, making them one of the most expensive parts of the system.While advanced bullet trains currently cannot be made in the U.S., the exemption could make it less likely that the country ever develops such an industry, according to academic experts and trade groups.Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, said the train exemptions would fall into the same dynamic as Californias decision to use imported Chinese steel components for the Bay Bridge  a decision that caused engineering problems, delays and cost increases.If this waiver is granted, it virtually guarantees that there will be no chance for a domestic high-speed rail industry to take root in this country, Paul said. California could be a nationwide leader in this industry.According to the group, a collaboration of U.S. manufacturing companies and labor unions, the original intent of the federal government investing billions of dollars into the states high-speed rail program was to develop a domestic industry in the first place.Importing something as important as the trains could further jeopardize any chance of additional federal funding, Paul said. I find it hard to believe that the Trump administration would fund a project that would be made in China, he said. Why not make it here?In a Sept. 16 letter to Sarah Feinberg, chief of the Federal Railroad Administration, the rail authority said that the needed train equipment was not being manufactured in the U.S., that safety was at issue and trying to build the components here would increase the cost of each train.The authority asked for a separate exemption for rail car bogies, the massive undercarriages that connect the wheels and axles to the car body. The request indicates that the rail authority plans eventually to assemble undercarriages in the U.S. with foreign-made parts. The exemption application for other parts does not make that explicit commitment.The authority has always stated that this high-speed rail project and the Buy America provision will make it worthwhile for high-speed train manufacturers to transfer knowledge and be located in the U.S., create jobs and deliver 21st century, state-of-the-art trainsets, spokeswoman Lisa Marie Alley said in an email.The exemption request for high-speed electric train parts was the second one to land at the agency, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Officials granted Amtrak a waiver last year to purchase equipment to be used on its Acela line along the East Coast. The California authority cited the Amtrak exemption as a basis for its request. Amtrak had claimed setting up a domestic factory for the components would add $2 million to the cost of each train it purchased.The authority said a review of potential risks and hazards associated with an imperfect transfer of technology could result in errors, arguing that the work should be conducted at existing facilities of foreign vendors.Matthew Lehner, a spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration, said a panel of experts on safety, policy and legal matters would review the request. Even if the exemption were granted, the trains will still have to be assembled in the U.S., he said.Lehner said the waiver represents likely less than 20% of the cost of each train.The review includes a public comment period that closes Nov. 28, and federal officials could take months to reach a decision. That timing leaves it unclear whether the Obama administration will act on the request or leave it to the incoming Trump administration.The Bay Bridge often is held up as an example of a poor decision to use foreign suppliers for U.S. infrastructure projects.Under a carefully crafted political deal, the bridge was divided into two separate projects  one under federal jurisdiction close to Oakland and a central span that the state would pay for. The move bypassed the Buy American Act for the central span and allowed the bridge sections to be outsourced to China. The attempt to save money backfired and contributed to a tripling of the cost to more than $6 billion.Foreign nations often are more forceful in requiring U.S. companies to share their technology in exchange for supply contracts. Many experts say the U.S. should have even greater leverage, given the size of its economy.A 2015 study led by Robert Pollin, a University of Massachusetts-Amherst economics professor, concluded that the Buy American Act could be a significant catalyst for strengthening U.S. manufacturing, including a rail car industry.Of course, we can build high-speed rail trains, Pollin said. We have massive manufacturing capacity.Obama administration officials have acknowledged that too many waivers had been granted in the past and that they intended to tighten the practice, Pollin said, adding he had found little documentation to show that that was happening. In general, state and local agencies want the waivers in order to get lowball bids on projects, he said.The law should be seen as an opportunity to advance U.S manufacturing, he said.
(TNS) -- AUSTIN  The parents of David Molak, a 16-year-old who killed himself after being harassed online, came to the Texas Capitol on Monday to promote a bill in his memory to try to give more protection to victims of bullying.There are so many children that are suffering silently  Davids Law is to protect those kids, said Davids father, Matt Molak, speaking from behind a lectern with his sons photograph on it.By his side was Davids mother, Maurine, with a button with her sons photo on her jacket. They were joined by supporters including other parents of bullied children. David had been a student at Alamo Heights High School in Bexar County.Texas Sen. Jose Menendez and state Rep. Ina Minjarez, Democrats from San Antonio, said theyd file the bill with family members on hand right after Mondays news conference about it. Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Houston, attended the news conference in a show of support, illustrating bipartisan support. House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, also has said he supports anti-bullying legislation.Monday is the first day lawmakers can file bills in advance of the legislative session that begins in January.Among its provisions, the bill would make it a misdemeanor to electronically harass or bully anyone under age 18 through means such as texts and social media.It would require school districts to include cyber bullying in their school district policies and notify parents whose children are victims or alleged aggressors. The bill also provides for civil liability, allowing parents of victims to sue bullies families, w hich Menendez said would allow subpoeana power to discover whos doing the bullyingSchool districts would be required to develop a system to anonymously report bullying and would be given more latitude to place students in a disciplinary alternative education program or expel them for encouraging suicide or other serious bullying.
(TNS) -- While area police departments and firefighters are using social media to reach out to the community, social media groups are doing their part to support local public safety agencies.A few months back, Nick Howard posted a message on the Fall River Scanner Talk Facebook group about Fall River police officer Charles Souza. The officer helped with Howards mother, who was rushed to the hospital, and a few days later, Souza stopped by the house to see how she was doing. Howards thank you to the police officer started a lengthy dialogue praising the citys public safety officials.Sometimes, the discussions on the Scanner Talk page turn into heated debates about whats proper to post and what isnt. When a group member posted a series of photos of the Sept. 28 multi-vehicle accident on Interstate 195 that resulted in the death of three people, the discussion was clearly divided between those who agreed or disagreed with the post. Some said it was the way things are in the era of social media, while others expressed concerns about loved ones seeing photos and recognizing a family members car, without having been officially notified. One of the groupss administrators, Melissa St.Laurent reminded the string of posters the group is focused on anything scanner related.Rob Leeds founded the Fall River Scanner Talk Facebook group two years ago after he was blasted in another group for posts about pit bulls on the loose in the city, based on information he heard on the scanner.I thought, theres got to be some people out there who like to listen to the scanner, said Leeds in recent phone interview. That was back in October, 2014.It appears Leeds hunch was right. The closed group has 12,722 members. It didnt turn out how I envisioned it; I expected thered be about 12 people, he said.Leeds said he listens to the scanner all the time, and so do the other administrators: StLaurent, Ken Paiva, Dawn Trahan and Jacquelyn Gagne-Bouchard. Their hobby, he said, is pretty much a second full-time job as they take turns posting from scanner calls and keeping a close eye on members posts.We try to keep the rules consistent: no names, no house addresses and no disrespect, he said.The last rule can be a tough one, he said, especially when it comes to hot button issues such as the opioid epidemic and peoples views on drug abuse amid numerous calls for overdoses.The administrators have a list of about 2,000 people who have been blocked because they didnt want to follow the rules. Some of those who where blocked formed spinoff groups that do post names and addresses heard on scanner calls, said Leeds.Taking part in online conversation strings in various online groups can have its pitfalls though, said Dana Mayhew, a sociology and criminal justice professor at Bristol Community College. Without the visual cues of facial expressions, body language and tone of voice from face-to-face conversations, online discussions are more likely to result in mixed signals. Ive had students write in all caps not realizing thats the online version of yelling. Theres the potential for misconstruing what people are saying in online discussions, he said.Additionally, online discussions embolden people to be more aggressive than they would be face-to-face, said Mayhew. Its easier to be meaner when youre not face to face, added Mayhew.But its not all bad, he added. Someone whos very shy can feel like they have more of a voice and feel more confident posting online.As for those who dont agree with some of the posts, such as the accident photos, he said they put a statement up stating, If you dont like it, you dont have to be here.Leeds said he saw no problem with posting the photos of the accident, as there were no bodies showing. Additionally, the person who took the photos got out of his car to help at the scene of the accident. My view? It happened, its better for people to know about it as soon as possible. People could also very quickly rule out that it wasnt their family member.As the founder of the page, Leeds said he has been the target of threats. They were going far enough to access my pictures and post them of my wife and kids for months with derogatory remarks.... It eventually went away.But theres one group  public safety officials  that they make an effort to support.When I first started it, and when it started to get bigger and bigger, I was afraid of what the police and firefighters would think about it. We wanted to earn their respect. We do our best to support the police, EMS and fire and we have many of them in the group, said Leeds.It also took some time for Metro Fall River Fire Alerts founder Chris MacKenzie to gain the trust of local fire officials. Now when he shows up at fire with his camera, firefighters appreciate his work, he said. Sometimes, they even ask him to take their photos at the fire scenes.MacKenzie, who was a volunteer firefighter for a time in Florida, started going to fires in Fall River in 2010 to take photos. At first, he started the page back in 2010 as a way to keep a record of the photos, but it took off with followers. MacKenzie and co-administrator Kevin Ratcliffe, a retired Tiverton Fire Captain and a staff of eight or nine others post information and photos from fires and the occasional bad accidents mostly focusing on Greater Fall River.His motivation: To support local fire departments. Now they look forward to it, when I dont post something, they ask why I didnt post it, he said.After a devastating fire on Hood Street destroyed three houses and left 20 people homeless, Sharon Furtado, wife of James Furtado, a 20-year Fall River firefighter, and Karen Santos started the Firefighters Wives Association Facebook Group to help the victims of the 2012 fire. The groups initial mission was to aid victims with donations of clothing and household goods. Donations started flooding in and eventually they collected enough to fill a warehouse space, said Furtado. Now, she said, rather than trying to sort through all the donations to find items that might fit with victims needs, they sell the items to Savers, which buys in bulk and they use they money to buy gift cards so the fire victims can buy items to suit their needs.
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Max Verstappen hopes F1's 2017 regulations will mean the sport can return to racing properly in wet weather.

In Brazil, paying spectators booed and jeered at the multiple and lengthy safety car and red flag periods triggered by the rainy conditions.

"I believe the (Jules) Bianchi case is a factor," German-language pundit Marc Surer told Bild newspaper.

"The FIA is worried they will again be blamed for an accident."

But while there is certainly an element of caution to Charlie Whiting's decisions in wet races, Carlos Sainz insists the conditions were very poor on Sunday.

"I understand the decisions of race control," he told Spain's El Mundo Deportivo, "because there really was a lot of aquaplaning.

"From home it's very easy to see 'Why are they not racing!' But it was really tough. Kimi Raikkonen spun 10 metres in front of me at 300 kilometres per hour -- can you imagine what a crash that could have been?"

What he doesn't agree with was how many laps the cars circulated behind the safety car for.

"In the end we should race or not -- many laps behind the safety car was the worst thing," said the Spaniard.

Fingers of blame have pointed at Pirelli's wet weather tyre, and Max Verstappen thinks the situation should improve for 2017 as downforce increases.

"Of course I think next year we can improve the tyres but I think it's a combination of having more horse power and torque now and less downforce," he said.

"I think next year it should be solved -- it should be much easier to drive the cars in the wet because of having quite a lot more downforce," said Max.

(GMM)
Bernie Ecclestone has given a cool reception to some of Liberty Media's apparent plans for the future of F1.

One rumoured change is that the sport will move into the realm of internet streaming, even though the commercial success of F1 was built on the F1 supremo's insistence that exclusive TV rights be sold to broadcasters.

When asked about that, Ecclestone told Brazil's Globo: "I have no idea how they can do both. If I had known how, I would have done it."

Ecclestone, 86, admitted that Liberty's methods seem almost diametrically opposed to the way that predecessor CVC ran F1.

"Absolutely. The way the Americans do business is very different to what we do in Europe," he said.

Currently, F1 is in uncertain times, with the Liberty deal not yet complete and Ecclestone apparently resisting the changeover.

He said: "If they buy the rest of the company, they can do what they want, although the regulations also involve the FIA."

Ecclestone remains a highly controversial figure, even supporting the recent election of Donald Trump in the US.

"Trump's election is the best thing that could have happened to the world," he insists.

"I have met him a few times and, believe me, it will be better for the world."

He is less sure about F1's next move to faster and more aggressive cars for 2017.

"We need to wait for the tests to see how the cars are," said Ecclestone. "But one thing will not change: I'm sure Mercedes will continue to dominate F1."

(GMM)
Bernie Ecclestone has admitted the future of the long-running Brazilian grand prix at Interlagos remains "absolutely" uncertain.

With the Sao Paulo race having only a provisional date on the 2017 calendar, the F1 supremo met with new Brazilian president Michel Temer last week.

When asked why the Interlagos race is under a cloud, Ecclestone told Globo Esporte: "Financial reasons."

So when asked about his meeting in Brasilia with president Temer, the 86-year-old answered: "It was very good. We talked about general matters, nothing in particular. It was a good visit."

As for whether Interlagos' troubles were brought up, Ecclestone said: "He knows more or less what we need, and what we would like to happen."

One theory is that, with Sao Paulo's new mayor Joao Doria saying he would like to privatise Interlagos, Ecclestone could buy the historic track.

"It depends on how he wants to sell it," Ecclestone answered. "Maybe I'm interested in doing business.

"If they sell to someone else it could be more difficult to keep the race here," he added.

When asked if he is planning to meet with the new mayor, Ecclestone answered: "No, I'm returning to Europe but before Christmas I will be in Brazil.

"I do want to meet him, yes."

(GMM)
Esteban Gutierrez has denied his relationship with Haas is breaking down.

After the parties confirmed the Mexican is being replaced by Kevin Magnussen next year, Gutierrez was spotted in a heated garage exchange with boss Gunther Steiner during the Brazilian grand prix.

Footage showed a furious Gutierrez being grabbed by the arm by Steiner after the driver threw his gloves.

Gutierrez is quoted by Spain's Marca: "I was very angry about the situation but not with anyone. It was just the wrong time and we laughed about it afterwards.

"It seemed that something serious had happened, but it was nothing like that," he added.

Gutierrez had retired from the race with a technical problem, just days after saying his exit from Haas was "not fair" given the troubles he has had in 2016.

It is believed switching to Sauber or Manor, or returning to be third driver at Ferrari, are his options for 2017.

"I was angry with the situation because it has been the case all year, it is not a nice place to be in but I will never give up," Gutierrez said.

His last race for Haas will be next weekend in Abu Dhabi.

"I will do the best job possible," said the 25-year-old. "I am a professional and I want the best for the team as well.

"I still have a lot ahead of me in my career, so I want to leave the team in a good position."

(GMM)
Pascal Wehrlein has not denied that he is now in the running to switch to Sauber for 2017.

With Felipe Nasr reportedly having sponsor trouble, it is reported the Mercedes-backed Wehrlein could be a contender to replace him at Sauber.

German Wehrlein, 22, admitted that he was disappointed to be overlooked for the more competitive Force India seat that went to his fellow Mercedes junior Esteban Ocon.

"It's written in the press that I am very upset and want explanations from Force India, but it's untrue," Wehrlein is quoted by Germany's motorsport-magazin.com.

"The only thing I said is that I wanted to know why they didn't take me. That's all."

As for the new Sauber rumours, he insisted: "I don't know about that.

"Mercedes negotiate on my behalf. What is true is that there is one empty seat at Sauber and one at Manor."

When asked if he is confident he will be on the grid in 2017, Wehrlein added: "It does not depend on me."

(GMM)
F1 and McLaren this week look set to farewell Ron Dennis.

Reports have circulated for some time that the Woking team's 'supremo' has lost a power struggle with fellow shareholders and will be imminently ousted.

Britain's Daily Mail claims the 69-year-old will be told on Tuesday that he must accept a lesser role or be axed altogether.

When asked to comment, team boss Eric Boullier said: "Ron is chairman and group CEO of McLaren today."

But F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone appeared to confirm Dennis' impending departure in conversation with the Spanish broadcaster Movistar.

"It's a shame because Ron is part of formula one. I hate to see him go.

"Maybe the board will change its mind and Ron will stay," he added.

(GMM)
Mudragada House-Arrested; No Padayatra For Now!

As expected, the Telugu Desam Party government in Andhra Pradesh stalled the proposed padayatra by Kapu strongman and former minister Mudragada Padmanabham across the state demanding reservations for Kapus on Tuesday.

Though the Hyderabad High Court in the morning gave clearance to Mudragada to take out padayatra stating that the government had no right to stop the yatra, the Chandrababu Naidu government was hell bent on stopping him from doing so.

The court said there was no need for any permission, the government said it would pass through sensitive areas and there was every possibility of anti-social elements to enter the yatra and create troubles.

The court said it was the responsibility of the government to provide police protection to yatra to see that there were no untoward incidents.

However, Naidu government did not allow Mudragada to come out of his house and kept him under house arrest. This led to unrest in the tense Kirlampudi village in East Godavari.

Having no option, Mudragada declared that he was postponing padayatra and the next date would be announced shortly.
The intention of the initiative is to galvanize experts and data to accelerate cities planning efforts, and to produce a set of principles and tools that participating cities, as well as cities around the world, can use to chart their own paths forward. The inaugural cities in the initiative include Austin, Texas; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Los Angeles, California; Paris, France; and Nashville, Tennessee. Five additional cities will be announced later this year. At AutoMobility LA, Ford CEO Mark Fields announced that his company is working with Bloomberg in this initiative.

Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Aspen Institute recently launched the Bloomberg Aspen Initiative on Cities and Autonomous Vehicles, a new program for leading global mayors who will work together to prepare their cities for the emergence of autonomous vehicles.

Im proud to announce that Ford is beginning to collaborate with Mike Bloomberg in his philanthropic work with a coalition of mayors worldwide. Were discussing how we can work together to help create the City of Tomorrow, incubating ideas around mobility and to accelerate solutions in cities. Working with Bloomberg, we will collect the best ideas from around the world and put them into action. Mark Fields

At the CityLab 2016 conference in October, philanthropist and three-term New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg called the advent of autonomous cars one of the most exciting developments ever to happen to cities.

If mayors collaborate with one another, and with partners in the private sector, they can improve peoples lives in ways we can only imagine today. Mike Bloomberg

The Bloomberg Aspen Initiative will accelerate preparedness in 10 leading global cities for the era of autonomous vehicles. Over the course of the year, Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Aspen Institute will convene leading global experts, marshal cutting edge data and insights, and facilitate an innovation process that helps city leaders consider the many ways this technology could solve chronic urban challenges, and improve the lives of citizens. By helping participant cities plan for their own future, the initiative will produce and release a set of principles, resources and tools that many other cities can use in their own efforts.

This new initiative responds to discussions with mayors from around the world who are already beginning to feel the impacts of this technology. As regular conveners of mayors, Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Aspen Institute are positioned to connect mayors with experts, data and other resources to plan for this shift.

The Initiative will create a cross sector public dialogue around autonomous vehicles, leveraging the Aspen Institutes history of convening leading thinkers and policy makers to address the most complex issues of our time, and Bloomberg Philanthropies experience working in more than 400 cities around the globe to solve major problems and improve city life. The initiative will tap experts across a wide range of practice areas and concerns, from technologists to urban planners to experts in the areas of inequality and mobility.

Greater residential segregation is strongly associated with lower levels of upward economic mobility. Driverless cars could potentially reduce segregation and improve upward mobility by connecting many low-income families to areas of opportunity. But this technology also has the potential to increase segregation by allowing higher income families to live in more distant suburbs. Ensuring that a shift to driverless cars increases opportunity and improves the lives of urban residents across the world will require carefully designed social and economic policies. The Bloomberg Aspen Initiative on Autonomous Vehicles takes a valuable step in this direction by bringing mayors and city leaders together to discuss these issues. Raj Chetty, Professor of Economics, Stanford University

Ford has decided to take an expansive view of mobility. Let me give you some examples of what that looks like. Imagine if we focused on optimizing roads for the total number of people on them instead of the total number of vehicles. How would that affect the transportation solutions we develop? Or what if we could transform a commute from something painful into an opportunity to take a class, watch a movie or play a game?
Thumbs up to a new grass-roots program in Stamford that pairs military veterans with at-risk youth to combat gun violence. The 2015 killing of Maxine Gooden inspired city resident Marlene Wilden to create the First Light Project at the Boys and Girls Club of Stamford. The 10-week program meets for two hours on Tuesdays with 10 volunteer veterans, including Wildens husband, Matthew, who was twice deployed to Iraq.

Thumbs up to the group Women on Watch that provided I Voted stickers at Stamford polling locations for the first Election Day in several years. The tradition ended in the wake of a ridiculous 2004 incident in which a city resident filed a claim against the city for the price of a jacket that was marked when he pulled off the sticker. These activists have now left a mark in a positive way.
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STAMFORD  An 83-year-old retired developer who considers himself a savvy businessman has lost his entire life savings in what police have called a black money scam.

The Stamford resident, who requested not to be identified, said he lost nearly $450,000 in cash that he kept in his home and is now surviving on food stamps and may soon get evicted. He said his blood pressure is off the charts and needs to find state-subsidized housing.

I got caught in something very, very foolish, the former Greenwich resident said. I consider myself a reasonably astute businessman and investor. Now I feel like a total fool.

The two Liberian men charged in the scam have been extradited from Pennsylvania and each entered not guilty pleas this week in Stamford. A third man believed to be involved in the scheme was murdered in Indianapolis earlier this year.

Justin Jusu Kennedy, 30, and Soko Kanneh, 27, both of Upper Darby, Pa., appeared Tuesday in front of Judge Auden Grogins, who reduced Kannehs court appearance bond because he has no prior criminal record. Grogins transferred their case to the Stamford courthouses Part A docket where the most serious offenses are adjudicated and set their next appearance for Dec. 6.

Kennedy and Kanneh have been accused of meeting the Stamford man over the summer at an East Side hotel. They initially wanted to sell the man uncut diamonds from Sierra Leone, police said. However, the victim was skeptical of the idea and the men instead began pitching the black money scam, police said.

They told the man they had millions of dollars in money that had been coated with a black substance the U.S. Government used to keep American currency out of the hands of African rebels, police said.

The victim was hooked once the men performed a demonstration that turned two white slips of paper into genuine $100 bills with the help of some sort of chemical, police said. The men convinced the victim that helping them buy more of the chemical will make them all rich, police said.

They did the process to show it was real. It was amazing, the victim said.

Police said the men told the victim they had tons of the bills and needed money to buy the chemical dye that would remove the coating, a scheme that law enforcement has dubbed for more than a decade as the black money scam.

The men told the victim they needed a loan to purchase the dye and real cash to help with the chemical reaction to convert the bills, police said. They convinced the man to give them more than $400,000 that they wrapped in foil, a process they claimed would help the chemical reaction, police said.

The men gave the victim the bundles of what he believed contained his actual cash, police said. However, the victim became suspicious when he stopped hearing from the men and opened the foil wrappers and found black construction paper, police said.

I was very comfortable. I was a successful businessman, but this literally wiped out 60 years of my working life, he said.

Kennedy and Kanneh have been accused of defrauding the Stamford man out of two wire transfers totaling $43,500. The theft of the $400,000 occurred at a relatives home in northern Fairfield County, police said. State Police are investigating those accusations.

The judge ordered Kennedy, who has two fraud arrests on his record, be held on a $43,500 court appearance bond that can only be paid in cash.

Grogins reduced Kannehs bond to $25,000 bond that also can only be paid in cash. Kanneh, Grogins noted, has no criminal record, but because of the seriousness of the charges and because he has no ties to the state, required that he still be held on a significant bond.

JNICKERSON@SCNI.COM;
Aska is the highest-ranking new restaurant on this years list. Photo: Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for Michelin

Christmas has come early for several New York chefs. Michelins annual guide to New York Citys restaurants is set for release later this week, but Eater snagged a copy of the physical edition a couple of days ahead of schedule. Michelin confirms for Grub that the copy is legit, and it looks like there are a few surprises on this years list.



For starters, Bushwick pasta palace Faro has been upgraded from Bib Gourmand status to a star. Sushi Zo, Contra, Agern, and Gunter Seeger NY are all newcomers on the list as well, and Fredrik Berseliuss revamped Aska debuts with two stars. Maybe the biggest outlier to make the cut this year is Harlems Sushi Inoue, a solid spot thats almost been entirely off the critical radar.

As always, there are perceived snubs as well: notably Jean-Georges Vongerichtens ABC Kitchen, Daniel Bouluds DBGB, and Danny Meyers Untitled, as well as Daniel Roses Le Coucou, which has received universal praise from the citys other critics. And, alas, some things never change: Del Posto, as ever, retains its one-star status.

Three Stars (Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey)

Chefs Table at Brooklyn Fare

Eleven Madison Park

Jean Georges

Le Bernardin

Masa

Per Se



Two Stars (Excellent cuisine, worth a detour)

Aquavit

Aska

Atera

Blanca

Daniel

Jungsik

Ko

Marea

The Modern

Soto



One Star (A very good restaurant in its category)

Agern

Ai Fiori

Aldea

Andanada

Aureole

Babbo

Batard

Betony

Blue Hill

The Breslin

Cafe Boulud

Cafe China

Cagen

Carbone

Casa Enrique

Casa Mono

Caviar Russe

Contra

Delaware and Hudson

Del Posto

Dovetail

Faro

The Finch

Gabriel Kreuther

Gotham Bar and Grill

Gunter Seeger NY

Hirohisa

Jewel Bako

Junoon

Kajitsu

Kanoyama

Kyo Ya

LAppart

La Sirena

La Vara

Luksus

Meadowsweet

Minetta Tavern

The Musket Room

Nix

NoMad

Peter Luger

Piora

Public

Rebelle

The River Cafe

Semilla

Sushi Ginza Onodera

Sushi Inoue

Sushi of Gari

Sushi Yasuda

Sushi Zo

Take Root

Tempura Matsui

Tori Shin

Tulsi

Uncle Boons

Ushiwakamaru

Wallse

ZZs Clam Bar
Shocker: Not a premium food. Photo: Courtesy of Krispy Kreme

A man in California has filed a lawsuit that accuses Krispy Kreme of engaging in false and misleading business practices because its doughnuts contain  an artificial ingredient or two. In fairness, the complaint in Jason Saidians proposed class action is that its the chains Raspberry Filled, Maple Bar, and Blueberry Cake doughnuts that dont contain the ingredients used to advertise them, which at bare minimum suggests some subpar pastries. His suit claims they get their flavoring instead from things like imitation maple icing and blueberry flavored bits made from dyed corn syrup. Per the law, nutrition facts are available online and via a 1-800 number, but Saidian is more of an old-fashioned printed-nutrition-facts kind of guy: The donuts  are displayed in a tray behind a glass counter, along with a small placard in front of each tray that provides the name of the donut variety. No ingredients list is provided or available to customers in-store.



Krispy Kreme is slyly cutting corners, Saidian argues, because not every ingredient it uses is fake  the apple-cinnamon and lemon- and strawberry-filled doughnuts have real premium ingredients (a.k.a. legit fruit). Also, he feels the deception is cause for a side concern, which is that Krispy Kremes nutritionally inferior ingredients could be helping to kill off its customers, an obviously poor business decision: Saidian believes the company is recklessly depriving them of superfoods like blueberries that have the potential to limit the development and severity of certain cancers and vascular diseases  and neurodegenerative diseases of aging. Thats all fine and well, but it pays to remember these are still freaking doughnuts. When Dominique Ansel made blackberry his third Cronut flavor, you damn well know it had real blackberries  but consuming one of those 1,300-ish-calorie, saturated-fat-oozing gut busters was no help to the bodys vascular system, to say the very least.


We just reported about the impending release of the Galaxy S7 edge in a Blue Coral paint job on T-Mobile. There was no concrete evidence of exactly when the Coral Blue version of the phone would become available through the carrier. The Coral Blue comes to the S7 edge model as the Note7 was unfortunately unable to carry the exclusive color combo.

A new leak comes from TmoNews which confirms the new model will arrive at the US carrier starting on November 18. The leak in question comes from T-Mobiles internal messaging system that notifies retail stores and their employees about incoming promotions and new smartphone models.

Samsungs popular Galaxy S7 edge is launching in a smooth new color. Coral Blue! Currently, the Silver and Gold versions of the Galaxy S7 edge are being sold for $70 down and $30 per month for 24 months, which equates to the same price ($789) it held when the phone launched on the UN-Carrier earlier this year.

We also hope that the price of the S7 edge drops once the Blue Coral model hits retails stores. Sadly, this will likely not happen as the S7 edge is the Note7s backup plan, which is why the phone has retained its value this far into its life cycle. We sure hope the Buy-one-get-one-free offer comes back for Black Friday, as it helped boost sales of the phone, leading to its worldwide domination in H1 of 2016.

Source
Last month a report surfaced claiming that Google had talked to Huawei about building its Pixel phones before choosing HTC as the contract manufacturer. However, the Chinese company reportedly turned Google down because the search giant insisted that its brand should be the only one adorning the Pixels. When Huawei execs heard that the Huawei logo wouldn't be on the phones, they turned Google down.

That was all rumored information, however, up until now. German publication WinFuture spoke to Colin Giles, Huawei's Vice President of the Consumer Business Group, about the matter. And he pretty much confirmed the earlier report. Simply put, the fact that Google wanted the Pixels to only bear its own brand was found unacceptable by Huawei, a company that is striving to make its name more well known in developed markets.

That aim would not have been helped in any way if Huawei were to act as a mere contract manufacturer for the Google Pixel phones, so the company chose not to further the hardware development cooperation it started with Google last year, when working on the Nexus 6P. Interestingly, Giles says Huawei doesn't see Google as a direct competitor. Of course, if the Pixel line becomes even remotely successful sales-wise, that perception may change.

Source (in German)
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Published on 2016/11/15 | Source

Added episodes 23 and 24 captures for the Korean drama "The Gentlemen of Wolgyesu Tailor Shop" (2016)

Advertisement

Directed by Hwang In-hyeok

Written by Koo Hyeon-sook

Network : KBS

With Lee Dong-gun, Jo Yoon-hee, Shin Goo, Kim Young-ae, Oh Hyun-kyung, Cha In-pyo,...

Sat, Sun 19:55

Synopsis

"Suited Gentlemen In Yanggye-dong" is based on a traditional tailor's with history. The drama depicts the tears, friendship, success and romance of four men.

Broadcast starting date in Korea : 2016/08/27

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Harlow is a former New Town in Essex with a population of 86,000. Located in the upper Stort Valley, it was built in the decades after the Second World War to ease overcrowding and London and provide homes for people bombed out during the Blitz. It includes Britain's first pedestrian precinct and first modern residential tower block, The Lawn. Old Harlow, the historic part of the town, was mentioned in the Domesday Book. David and Victoria Beckham's former home, Rowneybury House, nicknamed 'Beckingham Palace', is nearby.

09:44, 30 OCT 2022
On Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 3:30 PM, Boone Stands with Standing Rock will lead a march from Sanford Mall on Appalachian State University campus to Wells Fargo, one of the financial institutions funding the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). Upon arrival at 4:15 p.m., the group will conduct a teach-in in front of the bank to provide information on how Wells Fargo is supporting the construction of the pipeline and how Boone can best support the protectors efforts.

The march and teach-in are part of a National Day of Action in solidarity with the water protectors in Standing Rock. Marchers will declare #MniWiconi #WaterisLife as they demand that financial institutions stop bankrolling the DAPL.

There will be also be public demonstrations held today in Asheville, NC; Charlotte, NC; Greensboro, NC; Raleigh, NC; Johnson City, TN; Knoxville, TN; and across the country.

Since April, over 200 indigenous nations have come together to block the construction of DAPL, a $3.8 billion 1,172 mile fracked-oil pipeline.

Wells Fargo is one of the 17 financial institutions that have loaned Dakota Access LLC $2.5 billion to construct the pipeline. Wells Fargo has invested $467 million in the Dakota Access Pipeline and has also committed substantial resources to the Energy Transfer Family of companies in order to construct more oil and gas infrastructure.

Construction of the DAPL would endanger a source of fresh water for the Standing Rock Sioux and 8 million people living downstream. DAPL would also impact many sites that are sacred to the Standing Rock Sioux and other indigenous nations.

Facebook Event

Who: Boone Stands With Standing Rock

What: March to Wells Fargo, Teach-in

When: Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 3:30 PM

Where: Sanford Mall to Wells Fargo

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CURRENT SITUATION

Acreage of all large fires increased by 1,658 acres to over 40,000 acres. Cloudy conditions yesterday allowed firefighters to make additional progress on containment. The low pressure system that brought cloudy and favorable conditions moved out of the area this morning, and a high pressure system returned to the region that will bring clearing skies and lower relative humidity. Ground-level smoke will remain a concern over the next few days. Winds along ridge tops are expected to increase tomorrow into Thursday and may increase fire behavior.

AIR QUALITY INFORMATION

A code red air quality alert remains in effect today for Asheville Valleys (under 4,000ft in elevation). A code red alert for AQI (Air Quality Index) means everyone may begin to experience health effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects. Limit your time outdoors today. Keep windows and doors closed in your home and run your HVAC.

BURNING RESTRICTIONS

A total fire ban is in effect for all lands in the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests; however, commercially available heating equipment, portable lanterns, or stoves that use gas or pressurized liquid fuel are allowed. More information is at www.fs.usda.gov/detail/nfsnc/alerts-notices/?cid=fseprd524246.

A North Carolina Forest Service ban on all open burning in all 25 Western NC counties. More information is at ncforestservice.gov/news_pubs/newsdesk_2016.htm# 1107161.

TODAYS UPDATES ON MAJOR AREA FIRES

MAPLE SPRINGS AND OLD ROUGHY FIRES (USFS-LAKE SANTEELAH AREA, GRAHAM COUNTY)

Firefighters are mopping up and securing containment lines on the Maple Springs and Old Roughy fires. On Monday, aircraft were able to drop over 70,000 gallons of water on the western and southern flanks of the Maple Springs fire in the Joyce Kilmer Slickrock Wilderness. Those two areas remain the most active portions of the fire, which is creeping west into the wilderness area toward the Tennessee border.

Maple Springs: Acreage: 7,515  Containment: 15%  Personnel: 355  Start Date: November 4

Old Roughy: Acreage: 657  Containment: 80%  Start Date: November 8

Tellico Fire (USFS-NANTAHALA GORGE AREA, Swain and Macon Counties)

Crews accomplished a lot yesterday, holding, mopping up, and patrolling containment lines around the fires perimeter. In the last remaining places where the fire was moving downslope to firelines-on the south side near Shields Creek Road, on the southwest side near Queens Creek, and on the northwest side by Johnson Cove-the fire has reached the containment lines and is no longer progressing.

Acreage: 13,679  Containment: 68%  Personnel: 464  Start Date: November 3

Boteler Fire (USFS-CHUNKY GAL AREA, Clay County)

Yesterday, firefighters had another productive day, completing fireline on the northeast corner of the fire and mopping up remaining hot spots along Hwy 64. Today, firefighters will continue to improve containment lines and search for heat sources, such as smoldering stumps. The blasting crew plans to remove more hazard trees along the fire line between Passmore Spur and Nelson Ridge Road.

Acreage: 8,967  Containment: 43%  Personnel: 366  Start Date: October 25

PARTY ROCK FIRE (NCFS-LAKE LURE AREA, RUTHERFORD, BUNCOMBE, AND HENDERSON COUNTIES)

The weather has not been conducive for large fire growth the past couple days, but those conditions will change later this week. Fire managers are now planning for this fire growth potential by establishing contingency lines should primary containment lines not hold. In addition, they are working with the structure protection group to ensure fire department engines are strategically placed within communities in the fires projected path to protect homes.

Acreage: 3,744  Containment: 15%  Personnel: 334  Start Date: November 5

CHESTNUT KNOB FIRE (NCFS-SOUTH MOUNTAINS STATE PARK, BURKE COUNTY)

20 bucket drops were made with a helicopter and 10 drops were made with fixed-wing aircraft yesterday which helped with containment efforts. Today, crews will continue to establish and improve containment lines. Smokey conditions are expected to persist in the area over the next few days, with the heaviest ground-level smoke in the morning hours.

Acreage: 3,900  Containment: 20%  Personnel: 118  Start Date: November 6

ROCK MOUNTAIN FIRE (NORTHWEST OF CLAYTON, GA)

6,487 acre fire is 10% contained and is moving north towards the Southern Nantahala Wilderness. More info at: http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5100/

EVACUATIONS AND CLOSURES  NO CHANGES TODAY

Please visit Inciweb websites for the most up to date information:

http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/state/34/

HENDERSON COUNTY Mandatory Evacuations: communities located along Highway 64/74-A from Henderson County Line to Highway 9, Highway 9 to Shumont Road and all Henderson County homes located on Shumont Road.

Evacuation Shelter: Bat Cave Baptist Church located at 5095 Chimney Rock Road, Hendersonville, NC

SWAIN COUNTY Evacuations Lifted: Only residents are allowed on the following roads: Big Dog, Gassaway, Licklog, Long Branch, Luther Bingham, Mason, Morgan, Northern Partridge, Silver Mine, East Silver Ridge, Wesser Creek, Wilkes.

MACON COUNTY Evacuations Lifted: Only residents are allowed on Deweese and Partridge Creek Roads.

CLAY COUNTY Evacuations Lifted.

NANTAHALA NATIONAL FOREST CLOSURES

Major closures on the Nantahala include:

Joyce Kilmer Slickrock Wilderness

Wesser Creek Trail

Chunky Gal Trail from Glade Gap to Tusquitee Gap

Whitewater Falls Trail and portions of Foothills Trail

Benton MacKaye Trail east of Beech Gap

Appalachian Trail from the Nantahala River at Wesser south to Rock Gap Trailhead on Forest Road 67

Call the US Forest Service office for more information on road and trail closures: 828-257-4200

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Below are Watauga County Board of Education recognitions for November:

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By Jesse Wood

Issued by the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality on Monday afternoon, an air quality alert is in effect for much of Western North Carolina, including the counties in the High Country, due to the wildfire smoke.

This particular Code Red alert expires Tuesday afternoon.

Numerous wildfires are affecting the North Carolina foothills and mountains and smoke plumes are creating unhealthy breathing conditions, the alert states. A Code Red air quality action day means that fine particulates concentrations within the region may approach or exceed unhealthy standards.

Everyone, including healthy, active people, and particularly, elderly and children and those with heart and lung disease who may be more susceptible to the smoke, is advised to limit prolonged and heavy exertion outdoors.

Smoke from the wildfires began infiltrating Watauga County, likely from the South Mountains State Park fire, which is still burning, a week ago. Other fires, including the Boteler Fire and others in the Nantahala district were burning, too. Several of these fires are still burning.

Late last week, Gov. Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency and emergency officials instituted a total fire ban, including campfire grills, across the western North Carolina counties. Then on Sunday, McCrory announced FEMA assistance to fight the raging fires, which, his office said, means that FEMAs Fire Management Assistance Grant will cover 75 percent of the emergency protective measures taken to fight the fires.

This is good news in our continued efforts to protect lives and property as teams continue to try to get these fires under control, said Governor McCrory. It is imperative that we use all of the resources at our disposal to handle this serious and dangerous situation in western North Carolina.

Throughout this time, little rain has fallen to dampen the grounds and little to none is in the forecast either.

Since we last spoke on Election Day, Assistant District Forester Justin Query of N.C. Forest District 2, which covers an eight-county territory in Western North Carolina, including the High Country, said progress of fighting the fires has been somewhat mixed.

We arent seeing as many debris burning fires right now with the burn ban we enacted last week, so I guess our overall number of fires have slowed down, but our large fires that are becoming established are growing in acreage pretty quick, Query said.

According to the N.C. Forest Service incident website, preliminary reports showed that 38 wildfires burned about 41.6 acres on private and state-owned land on Sunday. This didnt include the more established fires, which are described below as of Monday morning:

Party Rock Fire in Rutherford County, 15 percent contained, 3,457 acres

Maple Springs Fire in Graham County, 15 percent contained, 7,177 acres

Tellico Fire in Swain County, 39 percent contained, 13,676 acres

Boteler Fire in Clay County, 37 percent contained, 8,695 acres

Knob Fire in Macon County, 94 percent, 1,130 acres

Query added that each county is keeping extra staff on call, so as soon as a fire is reported, We are throwing everything at it to keep it from getting established because once they get established pretty good, we are really having a hard time.

The U.S. Forest Service released the following update on Monday at 5:30 p.m.:

CURRENT SITUATION

Fire crews are making progress on containing fires around the region. Acreage burned continues to increase, but containment is also increasing. The weather system that moved through the region yesterday brought higher relative humidity but no significant rainfall to the fire areas. Cloud cover is expected to remain today, and any fire activity and potential will be significantly muted. These favorable weather conditions are allowing firefighters to make progress on containment. However, a high-pressure system is expected to return to the area tomorrow, with no significant chance of rain forecasted in the next 10 days.

AIR QUALITY INFORMATION

A code red air quality alert is in effect today for Asheville Valleys (under 4,000 feet in elevation). A code red alert for AQI (Air Quality Index) means everyone may begin to experience health effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects. Limit your time outdoors today. Keep windows and doors closed in your home and run your HVAC.

BURNING RESTRICTIONS

A total fire ban is in effect for all lands in the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests; however, commercially available heating equipment, portable lanterns, or stoves that use gas or pressurized liquid fuel are allowed. More information is at www.fs.usda.gov/detail/nfsnc/alerts-notices/?cid=fseprd524246.

A North Carolina Forest Service ban is in effect on all open burning in all 25 Western NC counties. More information is at ncforestservice.gov/news_pubs/newsdesk_2016.htm# 1107161.

TODAYS UPDATES ON MAJOR AREA FIRES

MAPLE SPRINGS AND OLD ROUGHY FIRES (USFS-LAKE SANTEELAH AREA, GRAHAM COUNTY)

Crews are making progress on containment of both fires. The most intense heat on the Maple Springs fire remains on the south and west corner of the fire in the Joyce Kilmer Slickrock Wilderness. If weather and smoke conditions allow, fire managers will use helicopters and water-scooping aircraft to drop water on that section of the fire today.

Maple Springs: Acreage: 7,177  Containment: 15%  Personnel: 410  Start Date: November 4

Old Roughy: Acreage: 657  Containment: 60%  Start Date: November 8

TELLICO FIRE (USFS-NANTAHALA GORGE AREA, SWAIN AND MACON COUNTIES)

The southwest side-where the fire is backing downslope to Queens Creek near the community of Fairview-is the last remaining area of active fire on the Tellico Fire. On the west side, crews will monitor and mop up the fire along Highway 19/74 but limit their exposure as falling rocks and trees present a significant hazard.

Acreage: 13,676  Containment: 39%  Personnel: 464  Start Date: November 3

BOTELER FIRE (USFS-CHUNKY GAL AREA, CLAY COUNTY)

Today, crews continue to construct a contingency line on the northern end of Buck Creek Road. They will also conduct burnout operations to strengthen firelines in the area north of Jackie Cove Road.

Acreage: 8,695  Containment: 37%  Personnel: 284  Start Date: October 25

PARTY ROCK FIRE (NCFS-LAKE LURE AREA, RUTHERFORD, BUNCOMBE, AND HENDERSON COUNTIES)

The fire continues to slowly burn down to the woods line within the Village of Chimney Rock Villages homes and businesses located just below Round Top Mountain. Structure protection firefighters are in place in multiple communities. Smoke from the fire is impacting the Asheville area. A stretch of Highway 74-A leading into Chimney Rock Village from the north and south remains closed.

Acreage: 3,457  Containment: 15%  Personnel: 334  Start Date: November 5

CHESTNUT KNOB FIRE (NCFS-SOUTH MOUNTAINS STATE PARK, BURKE COUNTY)

An Incident Management Team from the Florida Forest Service assumed command of the fire today. Several state parks in western North Carolina have been closed to allow the state to deploy additional resources to assist in fighting fires. In addition to South Mountains and Chimney Rock parks, New River, Elk Knob, Mount Mitchell, Lake James and Gorges state parks and Mount Jefferson State Natural Area will be closed until the fire is contained and staff can return to their assigned parks.

Acreage: 3,100  Containment: 20%  Personnel: 118  Start Date: November 6

ROCK MOUNTAIN FIRE (NORTHWEST OF CLAYTON, GA)

4,100 acre fire is close to the NC State Line, more info at: http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5100/

EVACUATIONS AND CLOSURES

Please visit Inciweb websites for the most up to date information:

http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/state/34/

HENDERSON COUNTY Mandatory Evacuations: communities located along Highway 64/74-A from Henderson County Line to Highway 9, Highway 9 to Shumont Road and all Henderson County homes located on Shumont Road.

Evacuation Shelter: Bat Cave Baptist Church located at 5095 Chimney Rock Road, Hendersonville, NC

SWAIN COUNTY Evacuations Lifted: Only residents are allowed on the following roads: Big Dog, Gassaway, Licklog, Long Branch, Luther Bingham, Mason, Morgan, Northern Partridge, Silver Mine, East Silver Ridge, Wesser Creek, Wilkes.

MACON COUNTY Evacuations Lifted: Only residents are allowed on Deweese and Partridge Creek Roads.

CLAY COUNTY Evacuations Lifted.

NANTAHALA NATIONAL FOREST CLOSURES

Major closures on the Nantahala include:

Joyce Kilmer Slickrock Wilderness

Wesser Creek Trail

Chunky Gal Trail from Glade Gap to Tusquitee Gap

Whitewater Falls Trail and portions of Foothills Trail

Benton MacKaye Trail east of Beech Gap

Appalachian Trail from the Nantahala River at Wesser south to Rock Gap Trailhead on Forest Road 67

Call the US Forest Service office for more information on road and trail closures: 828-257-4200

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We're a family of seven living in Georgia where Andrew's working as a professor at GSU. You can read more about us here
The Government of Prime Minister Juha Sipila (Centre) is planning on incorporating some of the services provided by the Employment and Economic Development Offices (TE Offices) as part of the upcoming regional government reform, Helsingin Sanomat reported on Sunday .

The Green League and the Left Alliance have reacted with dismay to a plan to outsource the provision of employment services in Finland.

The new regional governments will according to the newspaper remain responsible for guaranteeing the availability of services but will be allowed to do so by procuring the services from public or private service providers.

The Government's main objective seems to be to dismantle the welfare state and transfer whatever is left of basic public services to the shoulders of private companies  the sooner the better, states Li Andersson, the chairperson of the Left Alliance.

Ville Niinisto, the chairperson of the Green League, describes the plan as an eye-opener.

Government to establish 18 counties - The autonomous counties will be assigned a wide variety of responsibilities as of 2019, such as the provision of health care and social services. - The counties will also take over some of the responsibilities of the Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY Centres), the Employment and Economic Development Offices (TE Offices), the Regional State Administrative Agencies (AVI) and local governments. - The ELY Centres and TE Offices will be abolished altogether as a result of the reform.

The Government's [definition] of regional governance will not translate to an increase in democracy but rather to its deliberate erosion. The Government plans to forcibly incorporate all health care and social welfare services, employment services and even every road, railway and sea lane in Finland, he writes on Facebook.

This dangerous development must be stopped.

The Left Alliance similarly interprets the new plan as part of a bigger trend. The main objective of the reform of health care and social welfare services, it argues, seems to be to privatise public welfare services rather than to improve the availability and quality of the services.

Antti Rinne, the chairperson of the Social Democrats, also referred to forcible incorporations while commenting on the care reform last weekend.

The Centre decided to push through its age-old dream of establishing counties, and the National Coalition demanded a high price for it: forced incorporations and extensive freedom of choice, he said in an interview with Lannen Media.

Rinne also warned that maintaining co-operation between various authorities may prove challenging after the proposed incorporations.

The same applies to employment services, estimates Niinisto. Official decisions cannot be delegated to private companies or even to public companies; it is prohibited under the constitution, he wrote.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Heikki Saukkomaa  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi
Bazzle fine with election delivered like 'a 2x4 to the head'

Ervin Bazzle

The Henderson County School Board honored two colleagues Monday night who were serving in their last board meeting  longtime Chair Ervin Bazzle and first-term member Josh Houston.



Bazzle, who finished seventh in the eight-candidate contest for four School Board seats, told the board and audience that he accepted the will of the voters even if it was delivered by a 2x4 to the head."

Houston came in fifth. Challengers Blair Craven and Michael Absher, both products of Henderson County schools, won seats while incumbents Mary Louise Corn and Rick Wood won re-election.

Corn, the top vote getter in the School Board election, praised Houston for his thoughtful reserved comments that were often eye-opening.

We might not have always agreed but there was always the respect and thought- provoking things that Josh brought to the table, she said.

She thanked Bazzle for your steady guiding hand that youve given us for 16 years. You let us talk. Youve given us that model so that we trust each other and trust how you have led us. You always bring us back to that guiding principal of what is best for our county and the kids that we serve.

I want to add how privileged its been to work with Josh and Baz, Wood said. I thank them for their service. Youre going to be missed.

Colby Coren said that before the meeting he had been talking with administrator Jan King, a former teacher and principal, about Bazzles departure from the board.

We didnt remember Henderson County public schools without chairman Bazzle, Coren said. He got emotional when he recalled Bazzles encouragement to him, when he was a high school senior in 2003, to come back and be a part of Henderson County.

Josh HoustonAmy Lynn Holt also dabbed tears as she described getting to know Houston.

Hes such a teddy bear, she said.

She thanked Bazzle for your leadership, your example to us. Its going to be so hard to look over and not see sort of how to act.

Former board member Melissa Maurer stood at the lectern during the public comment period to praise and thank the departing members.

Hes never missed a meeting in 20 years I dont think, she said of Bazzle, who served as chair for 16 years. Maybe one, and I think he was almost dead that night. But he did miss his anniversary four times in 20 years.

Bazzle was chair when the board hired five schools superintendents  Frank Yeager, Tom Burnham, Stephen Page, David Jones and Bo Caldwell  weathered political fights with the Board of Commissioners over funding, helped find a path to detente and presided over an unprecedented run of new school construction.

Its been a privilege for me to serve you about a third of my life, Bazzle told his colleagues, administrators and the audience. Its been a labor that we have enjoyed. I told someone this week that when a voice in your head starts talking to you and its not your wife and it tells you its time to move on, listen. I grew up on a farm so I know what a 2x4 to the head is. Sometimes, you have to be told that way.

I am personally fine with the decision the county made in the Nov. 8 election, he said. The two people that are sitting in front of me (Craven and Absher) are well qualified to do this job and I feel they will, because I know where you live. I have no regrets. Its been a pleasure.
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Bedding salesman and internet sensation Mattress Mick has been ordered to pay 900 for unwittingly renting a taxi to a driver with an expired public service vehicle licence.

Prosecuted by the National Transport Authority (NTA) under his real name, Michael Flynn, the 65-year-old was summonsed to appear at Dublin District Court yesterday.

Mr Flynn, of Kincora Road, Dublin 3, pleaded guilty to not keeping a record of the driver's licence.

Judge John O'Neill was told that during a compliance check a taxi was stopped in Stillorgan in Dublin on March 8.

It then took off at speed but the driver's home was later placed under surveillance. When questioned, the driver admitted he had been the driver and his licence had expired in January last year.

He had rented the taxi from Mr Flynn, who was later interviewed by the NTA.

Professional

Judge O'Neill was told that Mr Flynn had been incredibly co-operative and professional.

Mr Flynn, who represented himself, told the judge he did not know that the driver who rented the taxi from him did not have a licence.

He said he had paid for him to get one reissued, and that he no longer rented a taxi to him.

Judge O'Neill noted his explanation and ordered him to donate 500 to the Simon Community and to pay 400 in prosecution costs.

Adjourning the case, Judge O'Neill indicated that Mr Flynn will be spared a court conviction if the sums have been paid ahead of next month's hearing.

Mr Flynn, who has become a fixture on northside Dublin billboards, is better known as Mattress Mick to fans of his cult comedy advertising and videos that went viral, boosting sales in his mattress shop in Dublin.

He has also gone on to star in a documentary, called Mattress Men, which has received critical acclaim.
A teenager who crashed a stolen car into the River Liffey at Celbridge while being chased from a burglary scene by gardai has been given one year's detention.

The court heard the 17-year-old was arrested after being taken from the water but later released on bail because there was no suitable place for him to stay. Within 48 hours, he had assaulted a man in his 80s, knocking him to the ground as he stole the man's car.

The teenager, who cannot be identified as he is a minor, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to burglary, dangerous driving and criminal damage to a bridge on April 13, 2016.

He further pleaded guilty to unlawful use of a car, assault and driving without a licence or insurance on April 15, 2016.

The teen has 11 previous convictions including public order offences, criminal damage, assault and possession of stolen property.

Judge Pauline Codd noted that a probation report outlined that, although the defendant had initially indicated he was willing to engage with the probation services, he later said he had no interest in doing so and his only motivation was a possible reduction in the sentence.

The accused told his defence counsel, Anne Marie Lawlor, he was in "real bad humour" when he met the probation officer who prepared the report. He said he had been on 23-hour lock-up for the two days prior to the meeting and was not in the mood for answering questions.

He said he was now drug-free and was willing to go to a drug counsellor or give urine samples. "Whatever it takes," he told the judge.

Intervention

He told Judge Codd he would fully co-operate and was willing to address his anger issues.

Ms Lawlor told the court the teen has ADHD and needs intervention and assistance in his life. She said he was remorseful for what happened to the elderly man.

The judge said that in the first offence it was lucky neither himself nor a member of the public was seriously injured. In the second, he had preyed on an easy target but she noted his guilty plea and expressions of remorse. She imposed a three-year sentence but suspended the final two years.
Yana Shmatova (23) had only worked in the store for four weeks by November 17, 2013, when a box of cereal boxes fell on her nose. Stock Picture

A student who suffered a broken nose when a box toppled over while she was working in a "dangerous" stockroom in a Dunnes Stores outlet has been awarded 35,000 damages in the Circuit Civil Court.

Judge Sarah Berkeley said she was satisfied the container system used to stock goods on pallets at Dunnes Stores, Swan Shopping Centre, Rathmines, Dublin, could be described as temporary as it lacked shelving and racking.

Yana Shmatova (23) had only worked in the store for four weeks by November 17, 2013, when a box of cereal boxes fell on her nose.

Surgery

Shmatova, of Deer Park, Newbridge, Co Kildare, told the court she had been lifting a container of soya milk packs in the stockroom when the heavy box above her fell.

Shmatova told the court she suffered a fracture to her nose and had undergone surgery to reduce a deviation.

The court also heard Shmatova was conscious her nose shape had changed and she was considering undergoing a rhinoplasty procedure.

Dunnes Stores had denied liability, claiming Shmatova had failed to take reasonable care for her own safety.

Barry Tennyson, a forensic engineer who inspected the stockroom, said it was a dangerous and very congested area, with goods stacked in a haphazard fashion.

Judge Berkeley said she was satisfied Dunnes Stores had not carried out a proper risk assessment of the stockroom.
A teenage girl who lunged at a garda and dragged her to the floor by her hair during an attack in a Dublin garda station has been given a chance to avoid a conviction.

Then aged 16, she had been missing from care when she attacked a garda who was trying to help her get back to her accommodation.

The young woman, now aged 18 but who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty at Dublin Children's Court to assault causing harm to Garda Aoife Moroney, who is attached to the child protection unit, at Mountjoy Garda Station on April 30, 2014.

Judge John O'Connor noted that she has been co-operating with the Probation Service, who furnished the court with a positive report on the young woman.

The defendant has no prior criminal convictions.

Apology

A letter of apology from the girl was also handed in to court and defence counsel Damian McKeone pleaded for her to be given an opportunity to avoid a criminal record for the attack.

The judge adjourned sentencing until May and indicated that - if she does not come to further garda attention - she could be spared a conviction in the case.

Earlier, he described the injured garda's victim impact evidence as brave and moving, and added that the case showed how gardai frequently risk their own lives and safety.

Garda Carl Byrne told the court at an earlier hearing that the teen and another girl presented at Mountjoy Garda Station.

They had been reported as missing from care and were being dealt with by Gda Moroney, who was trying to contact a care home and social workers.

The second girl shouldered her, knocking her back into a table and another garda went to arrest her, but she resisted and Gda Moroney tried to assist her colleague.

Then the teenage defendant, who had been sitting at the rear of the room, "lunged and caught her by the hair, dragging her forcefully to the ground".

Impact

She refused to let go and "it took a number of gardai in order to be able to release her grip, after which she was arrested", said Gda Byrne.

In a victim impact statement, Gda Moroney said she had been attacked while trying to help the girl. She had said she did not think she would feel safe again at work.

After the attack, she suffered pain in her back, chest and arms and had some bruising. She suffered headaches and pins and needles around the area where her head had been pulled.

She said she had nightmares and her family are now constantly worried about her. She had also said she remains extra cautious when dealing with young people.

The girl also admitted possessing 20 of cannabis in her room at her care home on a date last October.
Mr Justice Raymond Fullam was satisfied the woman had exaggerated her symptoms and their connection with the accident. Stock picture (Stock picture)

The Irish Taxi Drivers' Federation is supporting calls for the introduction of an English language test for cab drivers.

James Maguire, a director of the group, said drivers were often the first point of contact for tourists arriving in Dublin and as such, should be able to converse and to recommend points of interest.

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His comments came after it emerged that the National Transport Authority (NTA) was reviewing the need for a knowledge test for taxi drivers, and considering whether they should have to pass an English test.

"You can't have people driving taxis who can't speak English properly," said Mr Maguire.

Pubs

"When tourists arrive at the airport, the first person they meet is their taxi driver.

"If I go to the airport for a pick-up, I can converse. I can recommend places to stay or pubs. I can tell them about the city."

As part of its review, the NTA has been looking into practices in other countries, such as Australia.

Mr Maguire said the federation would be making a submission as part of the NTA's public consultation process.

He also supported the idea that taxi drivers should adhere to a dress code while at work and that vehicles being used as taxis should be held to a standard of cleanliness.

"You should have a clean and spotless car and you should be dressed neat and tidy," he said.

Asked about the possibility that English language tests could be seen as discriminatory, or complaints that some customers purposely reject taxis driven by foreign nationals, Mr Maguire disagreed there was racism in the industry.

"A lot of people don't keep their taxis tidy. If a customer has a choice of a Mercedes or a rust bucket, they'll walk past the rust bucket."

"People are not going to want to get into a car like that. It's not racism," he said.

The number of active taxi licences last year was 22,440, down from 47,529 in 2009.

Mr Maguire believed the reduction was down to increasing costs, such as insurance, some drivers failing to secure tax clearance certificates and a pick up in the economy.

The NTA consultation process has been opened until the end of this month, for members of the public who want to make their views known on the issue.

According to the organisation, there has been a 42pc drop in the number of licensed drivers since the 2009 introduction of a knowledge test for drivers.

It also released figures showing that more than a fifth of taxi drivers are aged in their 60s and 6pc are older than 70. Just 1pc are under 30.
"My question to the American public is: How many people need to be exonerated before we realize we do not need a death row in this country?"





This was the focus of Anthony Ray Hinton's presentation at the UNM Law School on Thursday, where he was invited by UNM's Innocence and Justice Project.





Hinton was on death row in Alabama for 30 years until he was exonerated in 2015.





"I was, when I was released, the 152nd person that had been exonerated from death row. Just in a year and a half, 4 more were exonerated," he said. "That brings the total to 156."





Hinton said he was released on Good Friday, and was able to attend an Easter service 2 days after.





"Every day the government kills in your name. Do you really want the government killing innocent people in your name?" Hinton asked. "If you don't, then you should take a stand,".





He said 1 execution of an innocent person is 1 too many, and that politics plays a role in where the death penalty is imposed. He accused the death penalty - which New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez has recently said she wants to bring back - of installing a false sense of security.





Many anti-death penalty proponents cite the often overlooked price tag of performing an execution, saying it's something more people should be concerned about.





"Nobody, no government, no prosecutor, can look you in the eye and tell you that you are more safe with the death penalty on the book than not," he said.





Hinton explained there are studies which show, in states without the death penalty, the murder rate is low, as opposed to states that have the death penalty, where the murder rate is higher.





"The governors would tell you that is because we don't use it enough. That is a political answer. We need to wise up in America and see things for what they truly are," he said, adding that the justice system is in need of an overhaul.





Hinton said the first step to dealing with the problem is admitting there is one.





"I'm telling you how many death row inmates have been released. I don't even have a figure on how many regular general population people have been released," he said. "That alone should tell you we have a problem."





He said race and class both play a role in who gets incarcerated.





"They would have you to believe that justice is blind. But I promise you she can see. She sees what race you are. She sees what college you went to. She sees financial status. She sees what neighborhood you live in," Hinton said. "And all of that plays a part in whether you will go to prison or not."





He said organizations like the Innocence Project are so important, because income affects who is sent to prison.





"I sat on death row for 30 years. Not once have I ever heard (of) a rich man, or a rich person that was sat on death row. Money determines who goes and who doesn't go," he said.





But, Hinton said, these organizations cannot save everyone.





"We need to come in and we need to strike down the death penalty as a whole in this country," he said.





Gordon Rahn, a research professor at the UNM Law School and director of the Innocence and Justice Project, said that Hinton's story is one everyone should hear.





"When the wrong person goes to prison, the person who actually committed the crime is left to prey on society, which more times than not leads to even more victims," he said. "So it's important for the students and the public to know that we need to do everything we can to avoid these wrongful convictions in the first place."





The project reviews and investigates post-conviction factual claims of innocence, Rahn said, which gives students an opportunity to make a difference while they are still in school.





"They're the future of the legal community in New Mexico, whether they're going to be criminal defense attorneys or prosecutors," Rahn said. "In their investigations and as part of the seminar, they're learning how these wrongful convictions happen and they're also learning how they can be avoided in the future."

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Source: Daily Lobo, Cathy Cook, November 14, 2016
Jia Jinglong, 'a villager who became a symbol of injustices endured

by the countrys disenfranchised masses.' Villager convicted of murdering official said he was driven to it by the man ordering the illegal demolition of his home on eve of his wedding





Chinese authorities faced a bitter outcry after executing a villager who became a symbol of injustices endured by the countrys disenfranchised masses.





Jia Jinglong, a farmer from the northern province of Hebei, was put to death on Tuesday for the murder of a Communist party official he blamed for destroying his life.





Jia had been convicted in 2015 of using an adapted nail gun to kill He Jianhua, the 55-year-old chief of the village where he lived.





Jia, 29, claimed he carried out the killing in February 2015 in retribution after the official masterminded the illegal demolition of his home two years earlier on the eve of his wedding, which Jias fiancee subsequently called off.





Jias lawyers did not dispute that he was responsible for the killing but instead sought to portray him as the victim of an unjust and ineffective judicial system that frequently fails Chinas poor.





The countrys legal community rallied behind the farmer as he waited on death row and, unusually, state-run newspapers also attempted to stave of the threat of execution.





Jia would probably not have acted as he did if his loss had been properly taken care of, the China Daily argued in a recent editorial which urged authorities to halt the execution and avoid the double tragedy to which we are dangerously close.





The newspaper claimed Jia had killed the official in response to the ruthless, illicit forced demolition of his home, adding: We feel strongly that the [execution] order must not be carried out.





Those pleas for mercy fell on deaf ears, to the dismay of campaigners and supporters who viewed his sentence as a travesty of justice.





Xinhua, Chinas official news agency, said Jia was executed on Tuesday morning in the northern city of Shijiazhuang after a local court ruled the sentence should be carried out. The prisoner was reportedly allowed to meet relatives shortly before being executed.





Zhang Qianfan, a Peking University law scholar who was among those calling for Jias life to be spared, said he felt disappointed and heartbroken.





The legal community and the whole of society have been calling for the death penalty not to be carried out. But in the end even this wasnt able to change the courts decision. I think it shows indifference towards a citizens right to life.





Zhang noted that the wife of the disgraced Communist party politician Bo Xilai had escaped execution for the 2011 murder of British businessman Neil Heywood and her attempts to cover up the crime.





She was not sentenced to death so what is the reason to sentence an ordinary person to death? Zhang asked.





Criticism also rained down from the general public who saw Jia as a symbol of the commoners struggle against rampant injustice.





Writing on Weibo social media, one critic said the decision to follow through with the punishment made clear the stance of Zhou Qiang, the president of Chinas supreme court: If it is an ordinary person who we can choose to execute or not execute, then we will choose to execute him; if it is an official  we will choose not to.





Zhang, the legal scholar, said many Chinese citizens empathised with how Jia appeared to have believed that such drastic action was the only way to vent his emotions having failed to secure compensation through legal channels.





In an interview on the eve of his execution, Jias sister, Jia Jingyuan, said the wrongdoing he had suffered resonated with many citizens who felt justice was beyond their reach.





Because my brother is part of this societys underclass, he represents the lives of many ordinary people, she told the Associated Press.





What he has experienced is what many are going through or will be going through  There is a lot of injustice in society and peoples basic rights havent been upheld.





Forced demolitions and evictions have become a recurrent feature of Chinas breakneck urbanisation process, with corrupt local officials often acting in cahoots with property developers.





A 2012 Amnesty International report claimed there had been a spike in such demolitions, with local authorities using suspect land deals to offset huge debts.





The result was a wave of deaths, beatings, harassment and imprisonment of residents who have been forced from their homes across the country in both rural and urban areas, Amnesty said.





Some were in such despair they set themselves on fire in drastic protests of last resort.

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Source: The Guardian , Tom Phillips, November 15, 2016
The Defcon Warning System, a private organisation which monitors world events and estimates the nuclear threat against America, is now at Level 5 - its lowest possible state.



Just weeks ago the warning was accelerated to Level 3 following increased tensions between US and Russia, with insiders fearing the West was creeping closer to nuclear war.



Level 3 means US troops could be mobilised in as little as 15 minutes.



...




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ASHEVILLE  Firefighters say higher humidity is helping them fight and contain more than a dozen wildfires across western North Carolina.

The state Forest Service said in a news release most of the rain across central and eastern North Carolina on Sunday won't make it to the mountains.

But the agency says more moist air over the area should give firefighters a chance to make significant progress.

Officials closed a 10-mile section of U.S. 19/74 in the Nantahala Gorge because they worry the Tellico Fire will cause rocks and debris to fall.

The Tellico Fire is the largest blaze in the state, covering 21 square miles in Macon and Swain counties. It is about 33 percent contained.

Firefighters say the fire danger will rise as drier weather returns and more leaves fall.
WASHINGTON  Even before Donald Trump chooses a Supreme Court nominee, the new president can take steps to make several contentious court cases go away.

Legal challenges involving immigration, climate change, cost-free contraceptive care and transgender rights all could be affected, without any help from Congress.

The cases turn on Obama administration policies that rely on the president's pen, regulations or decisions made by federal agencies. And what one administration can do, the next can undo.

It is not uncommon for the court's docket to change when one party replaces the other in the White House. That change in direction is magnified by the high-court seat Trump will get to fill after Senate Republicans refused to consider President Barack Obama's nomination of Judge Merrick Garland.

"We were hoping we'd be looking forward to a progressive majority on the Supreme Court. After the election results, there is a new reality," said Elizabeth Wydra, president of the liberal Constitutional Accountability Center.

The Supreme Court already is set to consider a case involving a transgender teen who was born female, but identifies as a male and wants to use the boys' bathroom at his Virginia high school. When the federal appeals court in Richmond ruled in student Gavin Grimm's favor this year, it relied on a determination by the U.S. Education Department that federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education also applies to gender identity.

The new administration could withdraw the department's guidance, which could cause the justices to return the case to the lower courts to reach their own decision about whether the law requires schools to allow students to use bathrooms and locker rooms based on their gender identity.

"It is possible, maybe even likely, that if the first question went away, then the court would send case back to the 4th circuit" in Richmond, said Steven Shapiro, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents Grimm.

Trump already has pledged to undo Obama's plan to shield millions of people living in the country illegally from deportation and to make them eligible for work permits. The Supreme Court, down to eight members after Justice Antonin Scalia's death in February, split 4 to 4 in June over the plan. The tie vote effectively killed the plan for Obama's presidency because lower federal courts had previously blocked it.

But the issue remains a live one in the legal system, and supporters of the Obama plan had hoped that a new Clinton administration would press forward.

Now, though, all Trump has to do is rescind the Obama team's actions, which would leave the courts with nothing to decide.

A similar fate may be in store for the current administration's efforts to get cost-free birth control to women who are covered by health plans from religiously-affiliated educational and charitable organizations. The justices issued an unusual order in the spring that directed lower courts across the country to seek a compromise to end the legal dispute. The groups already can opt out of paying for contraception, but they say that option leaves them complicit in providing government-approved contraceptives to women covered by their plans.

The new administration could be more willing to meet the groups' demands, which would end the controversy.

Women's contraceptives are among a range of preventive services that the Obama health overhaul requires employers to cover in their health plans. All of that now is at risk, since Trump has called for repeal of the health care law.

Obama's Clean Power Plan, calling for cuts in carbon emissions from coal-burning power plants, also could be rolled back once Trump is in office.

The federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., is considering a challenge by two-dozen mostly Republican-led states that say Obama overstepped his authority. The Trump team could seek to undo the rules put in place by the Environmental Protection Agency and it could seek a delay in the litigation while doing so, said Sean Donahue, a lawyer for the Environmental Defense Fund. Trump's EPA would have to propose its own rules, which allow for public comment and legal challenges from those who object, Donahue said.

Environmental groups effectively fought rules that they said eased pollution limits during George W. Bush's presidency.

As some issues pushed by Obama recede in importance, others that have been important to conservatives may get renewed interest at the court. Among those are efforts to impose new restrictions on public-sector labor unions and to strike down more campaign-finance limits, including the ban on unlimited contributions to political parties.
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I know that some of you are still scrambling to wrap your heads around how the media, corporate America and basically everyone that you get your information from could have been so terribly wrong but it happened. So before you go flipping through pages looking for another excuse as to how/why this happened or searching of ways that the guy who hasn't even started the job yet has gone back on proposed policies. Take a little time, relax and enjoy the short. Everything will be OK-S
Chhattisgarhs inspector-general of police SRP Kalluri is once again in the news, and like before, its for the wrong reasons. The controversial officer in charge of Bastars insurgency-ridden six districts threatened HTs Raipur-based reporter for having the temerity to question him over academic Nandini Sundars alleged involvement in a recent murder in the region.

The police case against Sundar is palpably flimsy and has triggered nationwide outrage. The murdered tribal mans widow has denied naming Sundar, who was nowhere in Chhattisgarh during the killing. The last time the Delhi University professor and author visited the region was in May in her capacity as a rights activist and had advised the locals to stay clear of both the police and Maoists.

Activists have slammed the police for their unabashed abuse of power. But, however shameful, the excesses by the Chhattisgarh police are not surprising. They have gone on for too long and too many people have been at their receiving end. The trumped up cases and the threats do shake us up, but no more startle us.

But what definitely hurts is our collective incapacity to checkmate the rampaging police of Bastar. Every time they abused the system and wronged a person, the civil society reacted angrily, took to the streets, launched signature campaigns and knocked the doors of the judiciary. The courts too have censured the police, but ultimately the law enforcers have shown us their thumb.

Last month, they even burned on the streets of Bastar the effigies of rights activists critical of them.

Their brazenness should be food for thought. Where do they draw their strength from? Who protects them? How do they get away with what they do?

Even Chhattisgarhs chief minister Raman Singh seems incapable of reining in the forces. The regular violations are a PR disaster for the career-politician concerned about his image. Following a spate of arrests of journalists last year, he cracked the whip and curtailed the powers of the police by stipulating that they would have to seek prior approval of a committee before throwing a media person behind bars.

This small mercy apart, Singh hasnt succeeded in helping his cause.

But we have reasons to be concerned. The impunity of the Bastar police holds up the mirror to our collective impotency. India needs to ponder over what can be done differently to stand up to a force that wants us broken.

Also Read | Bastars IGP Kalluri: Both lauded as a hero and damned as a villain

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Most analyses of the increasingly close relationship between India and Japan assume it is about common concerns about China. Beijings bellicosity contributes a large slice of the bilateral pie, but the utility of the relationship to the domestic agendas of Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Shinzo Abe is the real filling.

Tokyo and New Delhi began moving closer even before the global financial crisis of 2008, roughly when China became the geopolitical migraine it is today. Abe, in particular, has had a vision of India going back a decade.

Modis predecessor Manmohan Singh, a known Japanophile, laid the foundations. He used the label transformational to describe Indias relations with only two countries  the US and Japan.

In other words, only these had the ability to boost Indias development trajectory to a completely different orbit. When Abe proposed in 2007 the building of massive industrial corridors in India to kick start its dormant manufacturing sector, Singh quickly embraced the idea.

But the Singh government was warier of embracing a closer strategic relationship with Japan. He avoided direct use of the term Indo-Pacific, code for saying the two countries were in the same geopolitical space.

Read | Modi bats for better ties with Japanese industries, rides bullet train with Abe

Modi has proved less inhibited on all fronts. Senior Indian officials say Japan and Israel were the two foreign governments uppermost in his mind when he was elected.

He understood Japans plans for mega-infrastructure projects such as the 1,500-km Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor would provide the concrete base for his Make in India programme for industrial revival. Build the rails, roads and electronic tagging for containers and the factories will follow.

Abe too has an ambitious domestic agenda. The nationalist school he comes from seeks to end Japans post-war pacificism. As he likes to say, he wants Japan to become a normal country in diplomacy and defence. China provided the provocation, but even earlier he looked to India for legitimacy.

In 2007, Abe wrote it would not be a surprise if in another decade, Japan-India relations overtake Japan-US and Japan-China ties. He sees India as the largest Asian democracy, his public generally sees it in a positive light and, most important, as one of his political aides said, the two countries have no World War 2 baggage.

Read | India will not become pawn for Japan to contain China: Chinese state media

Abe believes India can provide political blessings to his moves to make Japan a normal geopolitical player. Speaking to the Indian parliament in 2012, he noted how his grandfather, then Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, visited a welcoming New Delhi in the 1950s before he went to Washington because as a pragmatic politician he knew that India would give him some political capital in a US that had not shed its wartime hostility.

India accepts this role. It has become Japans most important military partner among Asian states that are not US allies. Modi and Abe have been slowly pushing towards completing the purchase of US-2 seaplanes, to break Japans long-standing taboo against the export of military equipment.

The recently concluded nuclear deal signals Tokyos willingness to share its state-of-the art atomic technology with a country that has not signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

When Modi went to Japan last week, this two-way domestic tie-up was tightened with Tokyo agreeing to help his flagship projects such as Digital India and Skill India. As Indian officials note, these are social and technical problems that Japan solved years ago. Japan, they like to say, through successes such as the Delhi Metro and Maruti Suzuki, has helped India expand its mindset.

Western analysts assume Abe is exaggerating when he says India is his countrys most important bilateral relationship. They miss not only what Indian and Japanese officials call the perfect chemistry between Modi and Abe but also the belief both have that the other country is crucial to their ambitious plans on the home front. China is just the icing on the cake.

Read | Modi, Abe seal historic civil nuclear pact: What it means for India
The registration of grave charges of murder and criminal conspiracy against respected academics and human rights defenders Nandini Sundar of Delhi University and Archana Prasad of JNU, and Sanjay Parate (Chhattisgarh CPI (M) state secretary), among others, is the latest chapter in a long ignoble saga of open police bullying of journalists, rights workers and dissenters in the troubled Bastar region.

They are charged with organising on the night of November 4 2016, the murder with sharp weapons of a tribal man Shamnath Baghel in his village Nama. The police claims that the murder was to avenge Baghels protests against Maoist violence in his village.

The charge has been rejected by Sundar as absurd, bizarre and patently malafide, and as fabricated and a direct assault on our democratic polity which indicates the growing trend of authoritarianism in the state by the CPI (M). This is the latest in a long roll-call of cases filed by the local police against those who tried to record the truth of what was happening in this troubled region.

Bastar is one of the most dispossessed enclaves of the country. Outsider settlers savagely dispossessed local tribal communities of their lands and forest produce, trapping them in cycles of debt.

Dispossession from their lands and forests continued in the hands of the developmental state, for roads, factories, mines and the so-called scientific management of forests. This dispossession became even more acute with the advance of the neo-liberal state, as for-profit powerful companies grew impatient to extract the forest and mineral wealth of the lands occupied by indigenous tribal communities.

This ferocious, sustained and multi-armed oppression and dispossession led some tribal people to support and join far-left Maoist groups, who promised them justice and protection.

The state responded, not by addressing the massive injustices and exploitation, but by constructing this in the public discourse as a grave security challenge to the integrity of the nation. It unleashed what is not less than a civil war, with various arms of the state using every weapon in their arsenals. It is now standard drill for villages to be routinely raided and for villagers to be rounded up and detained for alleged Maoist sympathies. Some do support the Maoists against what they see as an oppressive state, whereas many of them are only by-standers and persons coerced into support.

Read| Bastar villagers reject Chhattisgarh cops charge against Nandini Sundar

Their predicament and insecurity was aggravated further, when the state encouraged armed vigilante groups of surrendered Maoists to turn upon their own people with rape, arson, intimidation and killings, silently or openly supported by the police. The Salwa Judum for four bloody years between 2005 and 2008, undertook mass burning of villages and forced the residents into camps, as well as unleashed massive killings and rapes. Although Salwa Judum is banned by the Supreme Court, new vigilante groups are being openly encouraged by the police administration.

The Maoists in the meanwhile have also splintered into rival factions, and often are riddled with violent rivalries and corruption. They enjoy some real support from oppressed tribal people, especially some young people, but are also known to resort to brutal intimidation, targeted killings of alleged informers, and periodic violent assaults on security forces, leading to the tragic loss of life of large numbers of usually junior members of the forces.

The crime of Nandini Sundar and her colleagues has been that they have bravely both documented the recurring human rights violations of the security forces and vigilante groups propped up by the state; and challenged these in the countrys highest courts. It was Sundars petition in the Supreme Court that led it to ban the Salwa Judum. But especially since the IG Police (Bastar range) SRP Kalluri took charge, new vigilante formations like the Salwa Judum have surfaced. Baghel who was killed belonged to one such vigilante formation called Tangiya (meaning axe).

Caught in the unending cycles of violence of a security state and of militants of the extreme left, there seems no end to the suffering of the indigenous communities which have long inhabited the forested plateau and hills of Bastar. Attempts to silence independent and credible voices like those of Sundar and Prasad will only leave them even more isolated and hopeless.

Read| Bastar murder: Academics rally behind Delhi profs, say they are being targeted

(Writer is the author of Looking Away: Inequality, Prejudice and Indifference in New India)
For five days straight in June last year, Mumbai-based Dalit-feminist poet Pradnya Daya Pawar translated the works of two German poets  Ulrike Draesner and Thomas Kunst  into Marathi. Three of Pawars Marathi poems were also transformed into German verses. Ive been writing Marathi poetry and translating Hindi poems into Marathi for 25 years now, but this experience was challenging. I have never visited Germany or read the work of contemporary German poets. Normally, you translate a poem after it has been translated into English. But here, we sat together and helped each other out, says Pawar.

She is one of the 51 South Asian and German poets, who, for the past two years, have been meeting other poets across nine cities in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and in 14 cities in Germany, to translate each others poetry. The result of this cultural initiative by the Goethe-Institut  also known as the Max Mueller Bhavan (MMB)  is a collection of 280 translations in 20 languages, including Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bengali, Kashmiri, Odia, German and Marathi. Four of Jeet Thayils poems have also been translated into German.

A still from Amar Kanwars documentary, A Night Of Prophecy. A Night Of Prophecy (2002), a film by documentary film-maker Amar Kanwar, will be screened at the festival.

The enterprise is culminating in Mumbai at the Poets Translating Poets festival, which will take place in the city from November 25 to November 27. Besides several poetry-reading sessions, the festival will feature discussions on varied subjects such as the difference between feminist poetry and the works of female writers. It will also have a session on how Bengali poetry from Bangladesh and West Bengal, respectively, is different from each other. There is even a talk on the market for poetry and translations in South Asia and Germany.

However, Dr Martin Walde, the director of MMB, says, the focus of the festival is to enable poets and readers to understand and accept the worlds diversity. Some of the questions that will arise and those we seek to debate on are: How can we preserve the diversity of cultures and languages when wars and conflicts enforce only one identity, which creates marginalisation and dislocation of refugees? asks Walde.

Bridging the gap

The festival, in effect, addresses the issue of identity politics (peoples tendency to form particular religious, racial and social alliances). Pawar says that translation as a practice helps understand people from different religious and ethnic backgrounds and removes these barricades. Translation, by definition, stands for something [that is] cross-cultural. Otherwise, there is a wall between the people of different countries, because you dont know anything about their culture. Translation is that bridge, she says.

Dalit-feminist poet Pradnya Daya Pawar translated the works of two German poets  Ulrike Draesner and Thomas Kunst  into Marathi. (Andrea Fernandes/Goethe-Institut)

She adds that the more the number of initiatives taken to translate, the better it is. She also talks about Donald Trump. With something like this happening (Donald Trump winning the US election), its important for people from different nations to come together. Liberal thought is coming to an end [because of Trump being elected]. So, we need to make sure that translation stays strong, and that more events like these are organised, she adds.

Kashmiri poet Naseem Shafaie, who is a Sahitya Akademi Award winner, says she found the experience enthralling. She translated two poems, but says that the oft-repeated critique of translation as a practice  that it can never portray the true essence of the original work  is true. The heart that pours out as ink out of pen of the writer is absent in a translation. So, it will never hold the same magic as the original, she says, adding, Having said that, it is important for the idea to be understood by everyone. Translations make a regional work global. The world needs that more than ever before.
The 5th annual symposium of Indian Society of Transfusion Medicine on the subject Safe Blood, Healthy India with each life providing drop will be held here at Noor us Sabah hotel in Bhopal from November 18 to 20.

Giving this information secretary of the organizing committee Dr Manisha Shrivastava said the symposium would provide a platform to the participating doctors and students associated with blood bank to meet new experts of this field and take a proper guidance regarding safe storage of blood.

It is our aim to make available proper blood to proper person all the time and to make success this aim this symposium is being organized. In this symposium various national and international delegates will express their views, she said talking to news persons.

She said their aim was to how to keep blood safely and how to deliver it not only to the big cities but also to small towns and villages. All the specialists associated with blood banks, heads of all the departments and students were also invited to attend the symposium, she said.

She said professor JP Allen from Cambridge University, Dr Anup Chand from New Zealand, Dr Andreas from Germany and Dr Marina would be the main participants in the symposium.

Before this symposium a workshop will be held on November 17 at Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre (BMHRC) in which students will be educated on various techniques and important aspects of safe storage of blood.
An attempt by a high-profile scrap dealer from Madhya Pradesh to convert the now-defunct Rs 500 and Rs 1000 banknotes into liquid assets worth Rs 50 lakh was busted by the Rajasthan anti-terror squad in Jaipur on Monday.

The Rajasthan ATS team, under the supervision of SP Vikas Kumar, detained Ratlam-based Gaurav Ajmera, his younger sister and his close aide Dilip. Ajmera deals in railway and shipping port scrap and connections in various political parties. He is also a member of the Railway Consultative Committee, Rajasthan ATS sources said.

A thorough frisking of the three, detained from the Mumbai-Jaipur Express at Durgapura (Jaipur) railway station, led the Rajasthan ATS and a government railway police team to the demonetized Rs 500 and Rs 1000 banknotes, totalling Rs 50 lakh. Sustained grilling revealed that the three had brought the defunct currency to Jaipur to convert it into gold jewellery in Jaipur.

The plot was meticulously planned with the help of Ajmeras network in Jaipur. The three, who arrived in Jaipur, were carrying fake documents like sales tax bills pertaining to fictitious companies in Kota and Sawai Madhopur districts of Rajasthan to ensure that everything was done sans any hiccup, Kumar told HT.

With Ratlam being a major commercial centre of Madhya Pradesh and five suspected ISIS operatives having been held from there by the MP police in 2015, the Rajasthan ATS was keeping a constant eye on the movement of people from the district to Rajasthan.

We acted on an input from our intelligence network dealing with suspected terror financing and detained the three. They have been handed over to the income tax department in Jaipur for further questioning and action, said Kumar.

The Rajasthan ATS is now zeroing on tracking Ajmeras network in Jaipur and other parts of Rajasthan.
A retired army man accidentally killed his 24-year-old son in an argument with their neighbour over a dead rat on Tuesday in Gwalior.

Police said the mishap occurred when 55-year-old Mordhwaj Bhadauria allegedly aimed to shoot his neighbour but instead hit his son while arguing over disposal of the rat, police said.

Mordhwaj, though, accused his neighbours of killing his son.

According to Maharajpura Police, an argument broke out when the deceased, Vivek Bhadauria, had gone outside the house to dispose of the rat, but faced objections from his neighbour, Shailendra Bhadauria, who didnt want it near his house.

As the argument grew, with family members of both households getting involved, Mordhwaj went to the terrace and fired his rifle. Vivek was killed on the spot.

A team of police personnel was also present at the time, having come to sort out the dispute after receiving a complaint. One of the,policemen claimed to see Mordhwaj fire his rifle.

Superintendent of police, Gwalior, Harinarayanchari Mishra said an investigation was on.
Tata Global Beverages on Tuesday removed Cyrus Mistry as chairman of the company which co-owns and runs Starbucks coffee stores across India, escalating a boardroom battle that erupted after his sacking as head of the $103-billion business empire.

Non-executive director Harish Bhat has replaced Mistry, the company said in regulatory filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

In a sharp retort, Mistry described the decision as inaccurate and illegal.

Mistrys removal came within hours of his office issuing a point-by-point rebuttal of the allegations made by Tata Sons, the conglomerates holding company.

Read: Tata Motors board steers clear of Mistry feud, clears all decisions by company

In the statement, Mistry levelled charges against patriarch Ratan Tata, ranging from prompting group investments into friendly companies, to frittering away scarce resources on expensive public relations exercises.

The Tatas had said that under Mistrys watch, expenses and impairments  write-downs in values of assets  had risen sharply. Mistry shot back saying expenditure and erosion were legacy issues.

It is a brazen attempt to mislead the public and shareholders, started Mistrys response on the Tata charges, before going on to describe some of the investments made by Tata Sons before his tenure, as questionable.

One investment in Piaggio Aero, a company in the aerospace sector with a friend of Mr Tata, was especially distressing. Tata Sons decided to exit the company at a commercial loss of Rs 1,150 crore, said the statement without elaborating on the associate of Tata, or the company.

Read: Ratan Tata meets FM Arun Jaitley, keeps North Block abuzz

The website of Piaggio Aerospace describes it as a company dedicated to cutting edge aviation technology.

Mistrys office also questioned a Rs 400 crore investment in Nagarjuna Refineries and in energy and chemical firm Sasol.

This is the second time that the ousted chairman has made charges against Ratan Tata. In an October 25 letter to Tata Sons board, Mistry had mentioned about supplies from Tata Motors Nano project being sent to an auto unit where Ratan Tata has investments.

Tata Sons did not respond to Mistrys charges.

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Those exchanging recalled banknotes will have indelible ink put on their finger from Wednesday to deter repeat transactions and the crowding of banks.

The government had allowed the exchange of old 500-and 1000-rupee notes worth up to Rs 4,500, but some people are exchanging currency beyond the limit at multiple banks. The inking idea is the same as the one used to prevent repeat voting.

Economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das said on Tuesday the government will also examine Jan Dhan accounts  opened mostly by the poor  following worries that cash hoarders might be inducing account holders to deposit illicit money.

Read: Govt clears confusion over ink: Right hand for banks, left hand for bypolls

A week into the surprise decision by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to scrap high-value banknotes to fight black money and counterfeiting, queues outside ATMs and banks remain long and are more unruly.

The move has disrupted life. Over the week, elderly people have collapsed in queues, patients denied treatment and at least 23 deaths have been linked to panic over the crisis.

But government sources said the Reserve Bank of India was now using cargo flights to move cash swiftly from its mints in Dewas and Nashik. And it has set up a task force to ensure smooth disposal of dead currency.

Read: Cong stashed Rs 12L cr during UPA rule, PM Modi turned it into scrap: Amit Shah

Das also quashed rumours that the new Rs 2,000 note was fake because it was bleeding colour. He said all genuine currency, including Rs 100 notes, will bleed some colour because of the nature of the ink.

When you rub a piece of cotton with a note, if it doesnt leave some colour, it is a sign that the note is fake.

Top government sources said a taskforce was to meet on Tuesday to discuss ways to prioritise ATMs so that the busiest ones are refilled first.

Meanwhile, Modi urged the opposition to send out a message against black money when Parliament opens on Wednesday. The appeal was made at an all-party meeting on Tuesday.

But signalling a stormy session, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said the opposition was united against the demonetisation move, which he said will turn out to be a big scam.

Read: Modi talks of crusade against graft, but united Oppn readies to up the ante
Hyundai Motor Company, the Korean auto major, is building a sub-four meter SUV that will compete with Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, as more drivers in India are buying vehicles that have high-seating positions, offering impregnable road presence.

Brezza sells more than 8,000 units in a month. Hyundais slightly bigger and more expensive Creta sells almost equal numbers, but the company thinks that there is enough room to launch another SUV in between the Rs 4-9 lakh price band. Apart from the Brezza, Hyundai will face competition from Mahindra and Ford in that segment.

Cretas most selling models are available at Rs 15 lakh for a car. SUVs make for 22.7% of all passenger vehicle sales.

The compact cars have grown at 15%, while SUVs grew at 37% in the first 10 months SUVs, we think, will continue to grow at 25-30% till 2020, Y.K. Koo, managing director of Hyundai Motor India, told HT before he launched the premium SUV, Tucson on Monday.

QXi, the project name of the sub-four meter SUV, will hit the road early 2019, and will be powered by a one-litre turbo engine.

The year Hyundai will launch the QXi, Koo expects that SUVs will contribute about 25% of Hyundais overall volumes. The company is targeting sales of 700,000 units from India by 2020.

Koo also said that, while electric vehicles will eventually make into Hyundais portfolio in India, the immediate plan is to have a host of hybrid vehicles in the mid-to-high end vehicles, including the SUVs. Electric vehicles have the constraints of infrastructure in the country We will introduce mild-hybrid technology in Verna and the SUVs, he said.

Maruti also has mild hybrids  the Ertiga multi-utility vehicle and the Ciaz sedan  which apart from having better ecological impact, also offers better mileage of about 18% higher for both the Maruti models.

The cars will be manufactured in Hyundais plant in Sriperumbudur, in Tamil Nadu. We will bring in our own technology, and will not do any outsourcing Its our direct investment, Koo said.

Globally, the carmaker is shifting towards green cars, as consumers are expected to steer towards alternative fuel vehicles. World over, sales of eco-cars are expected to touch five million in the next few years as consumers opt for including hybrid, electric and then to fuel cell cars.

Hyundai will also showcase the 1.6-litre Ioniq, the companys first-ever specifically developed with electric powertrains car. The car, Koo said, will compete with Toyota Prius.

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Cash in circulation in an economy has little correlation with corruption, a comparative analysis of World Bank and Transparency International data suggests, deepening suspicion that those with black money prefer to keep their ill-gotten wealth in other forms of assets.

While figures show that India holds 11.8% of its economy in cash and is ranked a poor 76th in the global corruption ranking. Germany, at 9th in the graft ranking, has an 8.7% cash economy.

Sweden, one of the worlds top three least corrupt countries, and Nigeria, one of the worst, has near similar proportion of cash in their economies.

The findings raise further doubts over the efficacy of the Centres drive against black money by demonetising 500 and 1,000 currencies since most of the unaccounted for wealth in the country is perhaps not held in cash.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8 announced the recalling of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 with the twin purpose of absorbing black money held in cash and to check counterfeit currencies.

Read: Why govts demonetisation move may fail to win the war against black money

Critics of the demonetising scheme argued the move would do little to unearth black money hoarded by the rich who park their cash in different asset classes than keep it idle. Hindustan Times on Saturday reported that cash recovery has been less than 6% of the undisclosed income seized from tax evaders.

Hindustan Times analysed the cash in circulation and GDP of 26 countries  12 top economies barring the US and China, 12 very corrupt countries with stable governments, and three mid-sized economies with varying corruption ranks.

The findings suggested Indias cash in circulation as a portion of GDP was near about international standards.

France, for example, holds 9.4% in cash and is ranked 23 by the anti-graft body, Transparency International. Experts said Indias marginally more cash proportion could be because a majority of Indians depend on cash for daily transactions in absence of inadequate banking facilities.

Japan, the worlds third largest economy and ranked 18th on the corruption index, has 20.7% cash economy.

The analysis of data showed up another interesting fact: Russia, the worlds 13 largest economy and Spain, the 14th largest, shared the same proportion of cash economy.

Yet, Russia is ranked 119 on the corruption index while Spain is a lot cleaner at 36. Corruption, the data suggested, had little impact on their cash in circulation.

Read: Opposition rattled, criticism of demonetisation move baseless: Venkaiah

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A bank holiday in about 18 states and dry ATMs on Monday exacerbated the agony of those in desperate need to exchange demonetized currency and sparked fears of a monstrous rush when the banks reopen on Tuesday.

A few state-run banks ran skeletal branches on Monday, said a banker with the State Bank of India. Banks were also open in Gujarat, Tripura, Mizoram, Goa and Kerala among others.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday assured people that banks would operate at full capacity on November 14 in states where Guru Nanaks birthday is not a holiday. But in more than half of Indian states and union territories, Monday was a bank holiday.

Our bank branches are operational in 18 states to serve the customers uninterrupted after the demonetisation was announced, an Axis Bank spokesperson told Hindustan Times.

Mondays holiday might throw the entire process of currency circulation out of gear. It may also take more time to replenish ATMs once they reopen on Tuesday, leading to more chaos.

This bank holiday is one of the many contingencies that government, perhaps, had not foreseen before the demonetisation announcement on November 8.

The time required to recalibrate ATMs to dispense Rs 2000 notes, the absence of new currency notes Rs 500 for the first 5 days, the repeated extensions of the deadline and additions to the list of places to use old currency notes, give credence to the theory of governments unpreparedness.

In New Delhi, people who had planned to queue up outside ATMs early in the morning, had to return disappointed as shutters at many locations were down.

Why did they allow the bank to shut down when they know how people are struggling to even buy basic grocery items? How long are they going to take us for granted? I woke up at 4:30 am to rush to the ATM so as to avoid queues, but did not get cash anywhere, Ankit Girdhar, a resident of south Delhis Lajpat Nagar said.

ATMs inside metro stations in the national capital also disappointed those who made a dash for cash early morning.

People commuting to work were the most affected as they were hoping to withdraw some money before starting out

for work.

In Mumbai, the cash crunch has hit Mumbais auto rickshaws and cab drivers. Drivers of black and yellow taxis, three-wheelers and taxi fleets complained of falling business as people are avoiding travel due to lack of liquid cash.

In Kolkata, authorities of most banks stacked up a few cash vans on Sunday beyond their daily quota, so that they could pump the money in the ATMs on Monday. Still, it was only a fraction of the need of the common people.

It was a similar story in Chandigarh with ATMs running out of money.

In smaller towns such as Karnal, it was even worse with people scrambling to find ATMs which had cash in them.

But while dry ATMs drove customers up the wall, little children in many homes have turned out to be saviours, thanks to their piggy banks.
You dont have to be a womens rights activist to see Hillary Clintons failure break through the worlds highest glass ceiling as a defeat for women everywhere, specifically for the hope that their gender would get a fairer share of political power and responsibility. But perhaps the greater setback to that cause came a few weeks before, on October 13, when the male-dominated United Nations General Assembly disregarded the claims of a broad field of women candidates to elect, by acclaim, Antonio Guterres as the UNs next secretary-general.

Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal, is the opposite of Donald Trump: He is a somewhat colourless career politician, a socialist, to boot. He is not known to be a sexual predator, and his views about women are rather more evolved that those of the American president-elect. (I know, thats a low, low bar.) His profile on the world stage is nondescript, the very quality that also characterised his two immediate predecessors, Ban Ki-moon and Kofi Annan.

Read | Trump will get wake-up call when he takes office, Obama says

American voters only had one credible female candidate in the general election: The Green Partys Jill Stein was never more than a joke. But the UN had several strong women to choose from: Helen Clark, former prime minister of New Zealand; two Bulgarians, Unesco director general Irina Bokova and European commissioner for the budget, Kristalina Georgieva; former foreign minister of Moldova Natalia Gherman; and Argentinas foreign minister Susana Malcorra. All the greater the shame, then, that the glass ceiling at the general assembly remains unbroken.

With a misogynist soon to occupy the White House, its worth a moments self-indulgence to think of what might have been. As recently as the start of October, there was the tantalisingly real prospect that, in addition to a female secretary-general, women would soon be at the helm of three out of the five countries which wield veto power in the UN Security Council. This fantasy became plausible in July when Theresa May became Britains prime minister; to come to full fruition, it would have required Clark, say, to succeed Ban, followed by a Clinton win on November 8, and finally, on Marine Le Pen being elected president of France next spring. Add to this Germanys chancellor Angela Merkel, and we might have

Read | Putin, Trump spoke by phone, discussed cooperation, Kremlin says

Ok, back to reality. Clintons defeat may have weakened Merkel, and at the same time improved the chances of Le Pen, whose politics in many ways mirrors Trumps. Her ultra-Right-wing French National Front is unabashedly racist and xenophobic, and would like to abrogate treaties that bind France to the European Union. (Not Nato, though: Conveniently, Le Pens Gallic pride doesnt require France to bear the responsibility of its own protection.)

Le Pen has welcomed Trumps victory with enthusiasm, just as she did the Brexit referendum in June, when British voters elected to take their country out of the European Union. Both are good auguries for Le Pens own chances in the spring. Until recently, the conventional wisdom in France was that the National Front would fare better than before, perhaps getting a third of the vote and forcing a second round in the early summer. But at that point, the French tradition of Left and Right coalescing to keep out the extremists was expected to kick in, leaving Le Pen exactly where her father, Jean-Marie, was in 2002. Nicolas Sarkozy, the former president, is counting on this, and has embraced some of Le Pens positions in hopes of peeling away some of her supporters.

Read | US may have committed war crimes in Afghanistan: International Criminal Court

Now, however, theres talk of a Trump factor, a coalition of traditional Right-wing voters and extremists gathering under Le Pens banner, leaving Sarkozy foundering in the manner of so many Republican Party stalwarts in Trumps wake. (The incumbent, Francois Hollande, is held with such contempt across the political spectrum, his chances of re-election is infinitesimal.)

Le Pen told the BBC in an interview this week that Trump had made possible what had previously been presented as impossible. She sounded very Trumpesque throughout the interview, checking off issues he raised to such great effect in the US election: Economic disparity, the need for protectionism, an end to immigration, and the growing fear of Islam, especially in the aftermath of terrorist attacks on Paris and Nice.

Read | The US is protesting against a system that normalises Donald Trump

For the worlds most powerful woman, a Trump effect on voters would be very bad news, indeed. An all-too-familiar wave of anti-immigrant sentiment is already hurting Merkel in the polls, and could leave her Christian Democratic Union vulnerable in Germanys general election, scheduled for next autumn. The Alternative for Germany party, modelled loosely on Le Pens French National Front, has been drawing support for a populist platform laced with anti-Muslim and anti-immigration rhetoric.

Germans as a whole want to remain in the European Union (it helps that they practically run it), and generally approve of Merkels handling of the countrys economy for the past 11 years. But her warm embrace of Syrian refugees, acclaimed around the world, has been unpopular at home. As in Britain, France and other parts of Europe, anti-immigration feelings are often laced with growing Islamophobia.

Read | Did social media drive the US presidential election 2016?

Unlike Le Pen, Merkel has greeted Trumps election with caution, congratulating the president-elect, but also reminding him of the democratic and humanist values that bind the US and Germany together.

What does Trump make of the two women whose political futures he might now influence? He has criticised Merkels immigration policies, but praised her leadership qualities. Le Pen doesnt seem to have featured prominently in his thinking. That, at least, is about to change.

Bobby Ghosh is editor-in-chief of Hindustan Times

Twitter: @ghoshworld

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The industrial scale plunder of Indian antiquities over the three decades is shocking to say the least. Since 1980, around 20,000 idols, sculptures and other antiquities have been stolen and sold in foreign countries. Their market value is estimated at $10 billion although, in cultural terms, many of the pieces are priceless. This excludes those items looted during the colonial era and in the decades immediately after independence.

It is important to recognise that the systematic plunder of our antiquities is not the work of small-time thieves acting independently but part of a sophisticated international mafia that includes criminal gangs, corrupt government officials, well-known art experts, and auction houses. These are often the same global networks used in recent years by the Islamic State (IS) to sell artifacts stolen from sites in Syria and Iraq.

Note that items are systematically identified and targeted. They were often taken from iconic, protected monuments such as the Jain temples on Mount Abu, and visitors will be shocked to know that they are frequently shown modern replicas.

Read: How Indian sleuths tracked 2000-year old artifacts in US

Unfortunately, there was almost no effort till recently to stop the plunder. Not a single artifact was brought back between 2000 and 2012. The situation has since improved a bit with the Indian police, particularly Tamil Nadus Idol Wing, arresting a few kingpins. The role of the trade in funding the IS has made foreign governments more vigilant. Authorities have also been helped by a network of art history enthusiasts led by Singapore-based Vijay Kumar who have tracked down several pieces in galleries and museums around the world.

As a result, around 20 pieces have been retrieved from abroad in the last two years. Another 2,900 seized items are currently lying with United States authorities alone. Hundreds more have been identified in Switzerland and Britain. However, this is barely a drop in the ocean and the flow of stolen items, on balance, is still outward. Repatriation is often hampered by the slow pace at which paperwork is processed by the Indian bureaucracy.

Read: Indias museums need more love from its citizens, government

Even as criminal investigations are expanded, there is growing debate about what the authorities should do with the antiquities that have been retrieved? For some, it is obvious that the pieces should be given back to the individuals or institutions from whom they were stolen. However, there are others who feel that the pieces should be kept under the custody of the government and the best pieces should be displayed in museums.

Having considered the matter from different angles, I have concluded that the artifacts should be sent back to their place of origin unless there is an overriding reason for not doing so. First of all, there is a simple principle that applies to all stolen goods. Whether it is a car or a piece of jewellery, the first claim remains with the original owner. No one else, including the government, has a natural claim. This should apply to antiquities as well. Expropriation by the State is not justice.

In pics: From bronze Ganesh to Bahubali, US returns stolen artefacts to India

Second, it is not obvious that the government will prove to be a more responsible custodian. Indeed, many pieces have been stolen from archaeological sites, monuments, and other sites managed by the government. For instance, crores of rupees worth of Vakataka-era coins were stolen from Nagpur University. Even the report on the theft went missing till it was finally traced in April this year. Indeed, it has been alleged that the slow pace of repatriation paperwork is partly due to the fact that government agencies do not want to acknowledge that certain pieces were stolen from under their noses.

Third, the experience is that retrieved antiquities are rarely displayed and end up in a warehouse. Indian museums are in a poor state and unable to exhibit even their existing collections. The famous Pathur Nataraja, for instance, was retrieved from Britain in 1991 but has not been seen since. Such an approach serves no purpose. Art history lovers have no access to the artifacts even as there is continued risk that the pieces will be stolen again and/or replaced with replicas.

Read: India wants UK to return Kohinoor, other artifacts

Finally, one needs to recognise that many of the items, particularly the temple idols, are part of a living tradition. Their creators did not see them as isolated pieces of art but as part of a broader cultural ecosystem. This is different from how we treat ancient Greek or Roman statues that were part of a dead culture. In contrast, returning temple idols to their place origin is important for preserving the associated culture and tradition. In fact, the real beauty and meaning of these idols are only apparent when they are seen in this context.

It is not enough to end the plunder of our antiquities. We need to let our gods return home. The only sensible way to prevent future theft is to document them carefully in a publicly accessible National Antiquities Register. A properly documented artifact is worth little in the international black market and consequently much less likely to be stolen.

Sanjeev Sanyal is the author of The Ocean of Churn: How the Indian Ocean shaped Human History

The views are personal

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Have you laid your hands on a freshly minted Rs 2,000 note yet? Have you tried spending it? Chances are most shopkeepers will turn you away.

After banks started exchanging the old Rs 500 and Rs1,000 notes after the Prime Ministers sudden ban, a few account holders have managed to get the new denomination.

But with a shortage of intermediate denominations of Rs 100, Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, the Rs 2,000 note  acquired most likely after hours in queues  proves unusable to buy even basic items.

HTs three-hour journey in central Delhi, trying to spend the purple note, took the correspondent to 13 vendors, grocery store owners, eateries and even a popular coffee shop.

All that she could buy with it was a bottle of water worth Rs 20.

AN AUTO RIDE

Armed with a crisp Rs 2,000 note, this correspondent took an auto in the noon from KG Marg to go to Connaught Place. When she handed out the note for the R-60 ride, driver Rakesh refused to touch it. Itna bada note. Kyu mazak kar rahin hain? Iska chhuta kahan se launga? (Such a big sum? Are you joking? From where will I get the change?) With neither an answer nor the change to pay him, she had to accept his suggestion of paying him later.

GROCERY STORE IN CP

At the next stop, our correspondent picked up a few packets of chips, a jar of sweets, a handful of noodles and cereal packets. Her effort to use the new note to pay a bill of ..was in vain again.

With an apologetic smile, the shopkeeper said, Sorry madam. No change. I will not be able to give you the balance. Please come back with change.

His wife, a senior citizen, said she went to the bank the previous day, but was forced to return empty-handed after five hours of waiting. I literally cried. How do I help you when I myself do not have the money? she said.

The reporter left without buying anything.

Exhausted trying to spend Rs 2,000 on a warm day, the reporter wanted a drink of water. A bottle of cold water, a juice bottle and a pack of cigarettes sounded good. A bunk shop nearby had it all. But the Rs 2,000 note failed her again.

Arey baap re! I can sell my entire shop to you for this much money. Will you buy them all? said the irked shopkeeper, pushing away the note.

The next two hours were no better. Fruit vendors, sweetshop owners and auto drivers -- there were no takers for the note along the stretch from CP through Bengali Market to Shankar market.

Desperate to get rid of the note, the reporter got ready to pay Rs 500 on fruits. You can take the oranges and pay later. What will I do with a note of such a high denomination? the vendor said.

He said sales were dipping and the few customers were flashing big notes. The government should have first released R500 and R1,000 notes for our convenience. Why issue such a big note when there is no change?

The next stop was an international coffee chain.

If your bill is around R1,500 we can take the note. We do not have any change. Please pay by card, the cashier said.

A customer in the queue muttered, These R2,000 notes are of no use until R 500 and R 100 notes are released. It is like a certificate. You can frame it and keep it at home or may be flaunt it, forget using it, he summarised.

The last stop, for a water bottle at a paan vendor, held a big surprise. The vendor gladly took the note, opened his draw and pulled out a stack of notes -- all in hundreds. Please take the bottle and drink water. You seem thirsty. I will count the change and give it to you. It will take a while, he said.

He counted Rs 1,980 and handed it to this correspondent. She can hopefully survive the next 49 days.

Read: In dearth of cash, Delhis local shops run on trust, credit and generosity

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The effect of currency ban has hit those running shelter homes for animals in Noida, Ghaziabad and Delhi. The owners complained the move has left the animals starving as cash crunch doesnt allow them to buy food.

Geeta Seshamani, co-founder of Friendicoes, which runs animals shelters in Delhi, says pets are suffering as much as humans. In hospital for humans, the government has allowed use of old notes. For animal hospitals, it is a grey area. The government should do something about it, Seshamani said.

House of Stray Animals, an NGO at sector 134 in Noida, is going through a major crisis due to lack of cash.

On November 9 and 10, we had to literally beg the shop owners to lend us some bread to feed the animals. They were getting very cranky and aggressive because of hunger, said Sanjay Mahapatra, founder of the NGO.

Mahapatra started House of Stray Animals eight years ago in sector 134 with around 20 dogs. Currently, there are over 125 dogs and two monkeys at the shelter.

Read: In absence of change, Rs 2,000 note is like having no money

Mahapatra said that he appealed to residents to donate to the shelter home in kind and not cash. A private bread manufacturing company finally came to his rescue on November 11.

The company has agreed to supply us bread every day which we will feed the dogs. Though our requirement is 150 packets of bread, the company is providing us with 70-75 packets every day and we are extremely grateful to them, said the Noida resident. He said that his daily expense on food for animals is Rs2,500.

Similarly in Ghaziabad, animal activists are managing on credit from the local shopkeepers.

I have been feeding 15-20 dogs in my locality daily and buying biscuits for them every day for the past 10 years. Since we do not have cash anymore, the shop owner has agreed to supply it for the next 10-15 days on credit, said Saurabh Gupta, a resident of Raj Nagar and an officer at People For Animals, an animal welfare organisation.

He spends Rs 250 per day on feeding biscuits to the canine in his locality.

It took them two days to arrange cash.

One of our staff members stood in a queue the entire day at the post office to get cash for feeding the animals at our shelter, said Sumathi Iyer, who runs a shelter home for stray animals at Raj Nagar Extension.

Her shelter home houses 66 cows, 45 dogs and seven equines since the past five years. The daily expense on food is about Rs1,000 per day.

But some like Delhi-based animal rights activist, Sonia Ghosh, were lucky. Ghosh, who feeds 350 dogs daily, says she is yet to face any problem buying food.

I have already stocked up, as I usually do, for a month. People who buy daily from stores, they might be facing problems, Ghosh, a resident of Vasant Kunj, said. She is, however, having problems in paying her staff.

With HTC inputs
The Delhi government on Tuesday sought President Pranab Mukherjees intervention, urging him to direct the Centre to immediately withdraw the draconian scheme to scrap Rs 500 and 1,000 notes.

A resolution was adopted by the Delhi assembly that requested the President to institute a court-monitored probe to look into the allegations that the demonetisation scheme is a fraud on the nation.

A one-day session of the assembly was called by the government on Tuesday to discuss the fallout of the decision to scrap high-value currency notes, beginning November 8 midnight. The session lasted for about two-and-half-hours with a single business on its agenda of adopting the resolution moved by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

The development comes on a day the Centre announced more measures to improve cash flow, including marking peoples fingers with indelible ink to manage crowds outside banks. The queue outside banks and ATMs swelled on Tuesday, a day after the banks opened after a holiday.

Replying to the discussion on the resolution, Kejriwal claimed the scheme was a war against the countrys poor and not against black money, as claimed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Common men are lectured about patriotism. The question is whether peoples money in banks is safe? They take money from the rich and force people to queue up outside banks. In the name of strong tea, you have fed them poison. You are the PM of black money holders and the rich but enemy of the poor, Kejriwal said.

The AAP national convenor said while the common people are facing hardships in depositing and withdrawing their own money, the rich and friends of the Prime Minister were having no hassles at all in exchanging their currency.

The PM is not acting against people named in the Panama List as many of them are his friendsCentre waived Rs 1.14 lakh crore loan of industrialists, but common people are being threatened (of action) if they deposit more than Rs 2.5 lakh in their account, Kejriwal said.

The resolution deplored the Prime Minister for punishing the common people of India instead of fulfilling his promise of bringing back black money lodged in foreign banks, besides condoling the loss of lives of honest Indians while struggling for hours together in unending queues to get back just a few hundred rupees of their own hard earned money through banks and ATMs.

Soon after the resolution was tabled in the assembly, leader of opposition Vijender Gupta opposed the move arguing that the resolution contained objectionable words. The objection was, however, overruled by speaker Ram Niwas Goel. Earlier, Gupta has also objected to Manish Sisodias statement that 25 people had died countrywide due to the crisis precipitated by the demonetization scheme.

Gupta was later marshaled out of the House as he continued to raise hi objections repeatedly as the chief minister delivered his speech. The chief minister delivered most part of his speech in absence of the opposition MLAs, as the other BJP legislator walked out after Guptas exit.
In a bid to bring down pollution levels, lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung has shifted the entry time of trucks into the city from 10pm to 12 midnight till January 31 next year.

Reviewing measures taken by each government agency to curb air pollution on Tuesday, Jung said thousands of trucks enter the citys borders every night, adding to the toxic smog.

To control their numbers, the window of time allotted to these trucks will be shortened, he said.

In the meeting, the L-G ordered the Delhi governments transport department and Delhi Traffic Police to continue the crackdown against overloaded and non-destined commercial vehicles entering the city.

Over 2600 non-destined vehicles have been turned away since the order was passed against their entry on November 7. Apart from this, 3,033 visibly polluting vehicles and vehicles not carrying pollution under control (PUC) certificates were also challaned, the report submitted in the meeting read.

The transport department issued 390 fines to vehicles for not carrying PUC certificates, 1795 for visibly polluting, and 164 vehicles for overloading.

The LG took stock of the ban on the 15-year-old diesel vehicles. Transport department officials said a notification regarding the deregistration of these vehicles had been issued and 763 vehicles had been deregistered.

The officials said that 1,795 fines had been issued.

To keep the momentum of the drive, the L-G ordered the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to give their empty parks and pits to Delhi Traffic Police to temporarily park the impounded vehicles.

In the meeting, Jung lifted the week-long ban on construction and demolition activities in the city. The ban was issued on November 7, after the pollution levels in the city reached alarming levels.

Over Rs 1.5 crore was collected as fine by all the agencies from violators. Of this, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) collected Rs 85 lakh, the revenue department collected Rs 42.9 lakh, and the north and east Delhi municipal corporations collected Rs 11.5 lakh and Rs 30 lakh as fine.

Delhi Traffic Police registered 29 cases against violators and stopped construction activities in 539 sites were stopped.
The India International Trade Fair (IITF) opened on Monday amid fears that the ban on Rs 500 and Rs1,000 notes may hit business hard this year.

Some traders at the IITF have hit the panic button about their prospects at the event. We are scared. We dont know what we will do if customers dont have Rs 100 notes to spend because we cant accept the old Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes. Poor, smaller vendors like me will not have the option of swiping cards at their stalls. We have invested a lot in the stall rentals and purchase of the goods. Will we even be able to sell our goods? asked Vimla Bhat, a vendor who sells hand-embroidered kurtas.

Other traders were not sure how the ban would affect their sales. It is still too early to tell. This is just the first day. But yes. I am a little worried, said Mukesh Kumar, who has a stall in the Delhi pavilion where he sells handicrafts.

The IITF was inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday at Pragati Madian. Traders from 24 countries and 27 Indian states and four union territories are participating.

International vendors are also disappointed. Hakan Karpuz from Istanbul is part of the Turkey Grand Bazaar, which has elaborately decorated lights on offer, among other trinkets and things. These items can cost anywhere between Rs100 and Rs15,000.

We have a lot to offer, but we do not have many customers. We have come all the way from Turkey, with a lot of hope and if our trade does not go too well, we will have to face a loss. As of now only 30% customers, who visit our stalls, are buying because most others do not have the money to spend. They come with Rs500 and Rs1000 notes, which we cant accept, explained Karpuz.

The fair is open till November 27 though only business visitors will be allowed till November 18.

The minister of state for Commerce and Industry, Nirmala Sitharaman, assured that the India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) had made many provisions to ensure that demonetisation plan does not hurt people during the fair. The ITPO has installed new ATMs, and has also made arrangements for cashless payments at the IITF this year, she said while speaking at the inauguration ceremony.

Shoppers at the fair, however, were left wanting for more provisions to ease buying. Preeti Mandera, a resident of West Delhi, said even if some of the larger stalls had the option of card payment, most small stalls dealt exclusively in cash. I dont have cash on me for food right now. The ATM machine (in hall 18) is not working either. Where will I get cash from? she asked.

Anjali Brar, also from West Delhi, complained that though she had cash, she still found it difficult to shop. Nobody has change for the new Rs2000 notes, she lamented.

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I have sinned and God will punish me, is what Ram Kumar, 24, has been repeating to police officers interrogating him at the Dwarka North police station in south-west Delhi.

A priest during the day, Ram Kumar, a Mathura resident, allegedly stole bikes for a living. He was arrested by a police team along with his associate Harish,23, for stealing two-wheelers in Delhi.

So far, police have recovered eight stolen bikes from them.

On Sunday night, police officers at the Kakrola road in south-west Delhi spotted two men in a bike. Their style of riding appeared suspicious. We stopped the bike and asked them for papers, which they failed to show. We checked the registration number and found it was stolen from Uttam Nagar in October. They were arrested from the spot, said a police officer.

The two were taken to the police station where they reportedly confessed they stole bikes for a living. Ram Kumar told the police that around a year ago, he had come to Delhi from Mathura to work as a priest. He brought along Harish, who is from Aligarh.

They visited colonies in south-west Delhi offering to read the Bhagwad Gita and read religious scriptures. He had bought a priests dress, a loudspeaker, carpet and tent.

Around seven months ago, Harish found an abandoned bike while returning from a scripture reading session. The two rode to Mathura and sold it there.

For 2-3 hours during the day, Ramkumar worked as a priest. After this they looked around for two-wheelers. They stole mostly at night, said an officer.

The two told police they stole bikes from outside parks and metro stations. In Mathura, the bikes were sold for R 5000-10,000 depending on the year they were manufactured.

They claim to use a master key to open the steering of old bikes. Harish claimed all he needs is to connect two wires after opening the bikes engine casket to start the bike.

More than 24 hours after the two were arrested, police sources said it was Harish who revealed the location of the eight bikes they had stolen. Ram Kumar is mostly silent.

Ram Kumar says he has realized he is a priest by birth and not a thief. He has gone into a shell and talks about God and his sins. Maybe he will speak before the judge tomorrow, an officer said.
For those who keep a track of the ongoing war between the security forces and the Maoists in Chhattisgarhs Bastar region, inspector general of police SRP Kalluri is a known face. He is (in)famous for the strategies he employs to tackle the red army and his critics.

According to a profile published in this paper, the 1994 batch Indian Police Service officers gameplan to tackle the Maoists rests on five critical pillars: Surrender, arrests, encounters, development, and empowering people. As for critics, Mr Kalluri has only disdain and threats.

Read: Chhattisgarh top cop threatens HT journalist over Bastar reporting

Last week, he threatened to arrest Delhi University professor Nandini Sundar and 10 others after booking them for the murder of a tribal in the states insurgency-hit Sukma district. But his plan was cut short after the Supreme Court said it was inclined to stay the FIR registered against Ms Sundar and others. This forced the Chhattisgarh government to say that it will not arrest them without giving advance notice. Mr Kalluri suffered one more setback when the family of the tribal man who was killed said that Ms Sundar and others were not involved in the incident.

Mr Kalluri did not take these setbacks kindly. So when HTs correspondent asked for his comments ---- a proper journalistic practice ---- he threatened him with dire consequences. Aap log aise karenge to hum aapko jaane hi nahi denge ..mere reference se aap gaye the, (If you all do like this, we will not let you visit you went with my reference to Bastar), a wounded Mr Kalluri told the correspondent, Ritesh Mishra.

Read: Bastars IGP Kalluri: Both lauded as a hero and damned as a villain

This is not an empty threat. In Mr Kalluris Bastar, journalists have been at the receiving end of what activists say are persistent attempts by the local police to intimidate the media. Four local journalists have been arrested since last year while a visiting BBC newsman was forced to leave the district. Another was forced to flee the region after being accused of having Maoist links.

Read: The crime of documenting human rights violations

Mr Kalluris actions prove that he has scant regard for the Indian Penal Code, Constitution and human rights. But lets not forget that the senior police officer can behave in this arbitrary fashion because he is allowed to do so by the Raman Singh government ---- and the Centre. By allowing policemen such as Mr Kalluri to become a law unto themselves and misuse their power, the Chhattisgarh government, as Ramachandra Guha aptly put it, is only displaying its undemocratic instincts.
Indian students who have obtained a degree at the masters or higher level in France can work part-time in France for up to two years after their studies. France provides many opportunities for companies to grow, and Paris is a hub for start-up companies from around the world. Students can work part-time (for up to 20 hours a week) on a student visa for France.

As of 2015, every Indian student who has completed a degree at the masters or a higher level in France can extend his or her stay for up to one year. This measure has been introduced to enable Indian students to seek suitable employment in France in line with their studies. Students are allowed to work part-time to support themselves during this period.

Earlier, in 2013, the Embassy of France in India decided to facilitate travel to France for all Indian citizens residing in India who have studied in France, including those doing Indo-French dual degree programmes. As of July 2013, all such alumni subsequently applying for a tourist or business visa for France, are eligible for a visa with a long period of validity (up to five years, subject to passport validity) if the degree obtained in France is at the masters or a higher level.

This visa allows applicants to stay in the Schengen Area for up to 90 days, with a 90-day gap between stays. Students who graduated have before July 2013 can also apply, for this rule is being applied with retroactive effect.

Germany gives you unlimited work and residence permit

The German parliament has implemented a European Union (EU) Blue Card and a new unlimited work and residence permit to grant foreign graduates of German universities unrestricted access to the job market. After completing the degree in Germany, one can stay on in the country for up to 18 months to look for a job that is in keeping with ones education. Once one finds a job, the residence permit issued for the purpose of studying, can be converted into a residence permit for taking gainful employment. Germany has always had a very strong industry-academia linkage. A lot of scientific research is funded by the industry as well. During studies, one can get the opportunity to do internships with German companies.

Read more: Visa policies for Indians in the UK must focus on post study work opportunities

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Concerns over the United Kingdoms tough visa regime and immigration policies of US president-elect Donald Trump are likely to send more international students to Europe even as France and Germany show up prominently on the list of their preferred countries. In the last three years, Germany has inched closer to the UK as a higher studies destination for Indians.

Why France?

France is a major gateway to Europes work and business culture. International students often enjoy access to leading academics, with small class sizes and intensive teaching, and that too for a low fee (compared to US and UK). French engineering and business schools fare well in European rankings. With their international faculty as well as student body, French institutes enable Indian students to develop their own international networks of contacts.

Data for academic years September 2013-August 2014, September 2014-August 2015, and September 2015-August 2016 indicates that the number of Indian students in France has increased. While it was 3,037 in 2013-2014, it increased to 3,481 in 2014-15 and 4,231 in 2015-16.

Why Indian students go to France, Germany for higher studies

Management, finance and economics are the most popular programmes among Indians with 60% of students opting for these courses in France. This is followed by engineering courses with 18% Indians opting for these programmes.

According to Alexandre Ziegler, ambassador of France to India, this year, the French Embassy offered nearly 400 scholarships under its flagship Charpak programme for masters degrees, exchange semesters and research internships. French companies, such as MBDA, also offer scholarships to Indian students, including tuition fee waivers and a monthly stipend.

Run by the Embassy of France in India, the Charpak scholarship offers three types of funding for bachelors and masters levels. This includes the Research Internship Programme designed for all students with an economics, engineering or science background at the bachelors or masters levels who plan to do an internship at a French laboratory during their academic break (May to July). The Exchange Programme (January-June or September-December semester) is designed for exchange students for a period of one to four months (duration of one academic semester) at the bachelors or masters degree level, says Ziegler.

Germany and France offer quality education to international students.

The masters programme is designed for one to two years of studies in France at the masters degree level. Applications are selected on the basis of academic excellence, as well as the consistency and quality of the statement of purpose. Knowledge of French is an advantage. The Eiffel Excellence grants enable awardees to earn a masters degree or, for doctoral candidates enrolled in dual-degree programmes, to travel for up to 10 months. Candidates are nominated by French institutions. All scholarships are merit-based.

Every Indian student who comes to study in France in a public university benefits from tuition fee waivers by the government.

In 2017, the Embassy will foster stronger links between Indian and French higher education institutions, by organising visits of more than 40 representatives of Indian institutions to France and hosting representatives of French institutions in India.

The embassy will open three new Campus France desks in Lucknow, Jaipur and Indore to help students choose the institutions best suited to their areas of academic interest next year. It will also conduct the Admission Tour in India, a higher education fair, in February 2017. In the four months spanning November 2017 to February 2018, Bonjour India, the festival of France in India, will highlight what our countries can do together in terms of technological, social and environmental innovations.

Onward to Germany

Indian student mobility in Germany is on the rise. The number of Indian students in the country has more than doubled in the last five years. The latest figures released by the Federal Statistical Office reveal the number of Indian students in Germany growing by 15.8% over the last one year to 13,740 (winter semester 2015-16). Indians form the second largest group of international students enrolled at German universities with engineering programmes accounting for the maximum number of Indians (72%), followed by mathematics and natural sciences (13%), law and social studies (10%).

A decade back both France and Germany were attracting less than 5,000 students every year clubbed together.

Maria Mathai, director, MM Advisory Services (that released the India Students Mobility Report 2016), says that Germany in 2009 had about 3,200 Indian students and France had 1,200. Last year, Germany crossed the11,000 students mark and France close to 4,000 students. So it is clear that Germany has left its fellow European neighbour behind, she says.

The changes France has made to its post study visa requirements for Indian students has had a positive impact on the numbers. For Germany, the biggest factor has been the decision by Germanys universities to waive off tuition fee for international students. Thats a huge pull, says Mathai.

In Germany, every university is autonomous. This means that every university/study programme has its own set of criteria for admitting students. University websites always list the exact admission requirements. Some generalisation is, however, possible and one can say that as a four-year bachelors degree holder India is eligible for admission to a masters programme.

We are projecting that if Germany maintains this growth rate, and if UK continues to clamp down on foreign students, Germany will overtake UK numbers by 2020-21.Our Indian Student Mobility Report 2016 shares this projection data. Germany has been growing at 6.6% for the past three years and could emerge as the European leader in three years, says Mathai.

Germany has a focused engagement plan within India which covers all levels  from schools to colleges to Indian institutes of excellence. But what is worth noting is the success of German Language programmes with schools in India and the corresponding student exchange programmes, she adds. Every year the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) provides about 1,500 scholarships to students and scholars from India to study and research in Germany. The DAAD provides merit-based scholarships in all subject fields. A wide range of scholarships is available at all career levels, right from students to mid-career researchers or established scientists and academicians.

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British actor of Indian descent Dev Patel had to incorporate changes in his appearance by growing his hair and beard to look more mature and masculine for his role in the film Lion.

The 26-year-old actor says the films director Garth Davis asked him to undergo a drastic change for his role as Saroo Brierley as he was required to look like a Dev Patel no one had ever seen before, reports hollywoodreporter.com.

After the audition, Davis said If we decide to go with you. I really want you to change. He said he wanted to see a Dev Patel that no one has ever seen before. I become a man, really, Dev said.

Dev told his manager to clear his schedule for the next eight months so he wouldnt get distracted by other jobs while shooting scenes for the production.

I called my manager straight after I walked out of the audition and told him that if I get it, dont send me anything for the next eight months. Dont distract me with any other work or audition, he said.

The actor says that opportunities such as Lion -- which stars Nicole Kidman -- dont come around very often.

Journeys like this dont come around very often for someone who looks like I do, he said.

Kidman plays the his on screen mother Sue Brierley. It also features Rooney Mara and David Wenham.

Lion is set to hit the big screens on November 25.

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She is famous for jealously guarding her privacy, favouring a small wedding to a lavish celebrity ceremony and taking her grandmothers maiden name to shield her family from the limelight.

But Natalie Portman said Monday portraying grief-stricken Jacqueline Kennedy had taught her the virtue of celebrities giving more of themselves to the public.

Jackie, Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrains first English-language feature, is a searing and intimate portrait of the first lady in the week after John F Kennedys assassination in 1963.

Portman told journalists at the American Film Institutes AFI Fest in Los Angeles, where Jackie was getting its US premiere, how she admired the stoic and dignified face Jackie put on for the public.

Its understanding that even when she was going through something incredibly private, it meant something to other people how she presented herself publicly, Portman, 35, said.

Its like other people share in whatever youre going through and thats really impressive that she was able to do that, she added.

Born Neta-Lee Hershlag in Jerusalem to a doctor father and an artist mother, Portman has taken on tough roles since starting her big-screen career.

She got her break at age 11 in The Professional, the tale of a hitman-for-hire (Jean Reno) who becomes the mentor to a young girl.

But she turned down 1996s Romeo + Juliet because of the age difference between her and Leonardo DiCaprio, and rejected the 1997 remake of Lolita, which she deemed sleazy.

She also signed on to Anywhere But Here (1999) with Susan Sarandon only after a nude scene was dropped.

I value my private life and security way more than getting parts by flashing my boobs on some magazine or being a sex symbol in films, she said in a 2000 interview.

Portman won a best actress Oscar for 2010s psychological ballet thriller Black Swan.

It was on the set of that film she met her future husband, French dancer and choreographer Benjamin Millepied, with whom she is expecting a second child.

She has been tipped for a second Oscar for her performance in Jackie, with critics raving about how accurately she managed to capture Kennedys voice and personality.

The easier things were... the more superficial details like the way she talked and the way she moved and looked, Portman said on the red carpet at Hollywoods TCL Chinese Theatre.

Director Pablo Larrain, right, and Natalie Portman, arrive at the 2016 AFI Festival Jackie Centrepiece Gala at the TCL Chinese Theatre on Monday. (Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP)

Those are things you spend a lot of time on but its really the way she felt that takes the imagination and the real searching. The other stuff is like learning a skill as opposed to exploring your own depths.

Jackie peaks with the first ladys real-life strategy of painting a fairy-tale picture of JFK by using Camelot as a sobriquet for the Kennedy administration, an epitaph which stuck.

I loved that she defined herself as a wife primarily, but then lived a life that was very counter to that where she was her own woman, said Portman.

It was like she didnt know how to be any other way, except exactly herself -- very strong, very able to author her own story. And (she) really became the author of her own story and his story.

Fox Searchlight Pictures is scheduled to release Jackie in the United States on December 2.

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A Bihar court on Tuesday sentenced 10 people to death for the massacre of 34 people in Bihars Senari village in 1999. It also awarded life imprisonment to three convicts. The pronouncement of judgment on two others was withheld for November 18.

The three awarded life imprisonment have also been penalised Rs 1 lakh each.

Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) cadres had on March 18, 1999, killed 34 people of a particular caste by slitting their throats with sharp objects after forcing them to gather near Thakurbari in Senari village under Karpi police station area --- then part of Jehanabad district and now under the jurisdiction of Arwal district.



The Jehanabad civil court had on October 27 convicted 15 and acquitted 23 others for the lack of evidence. There were in all 66 witnesses in the case. Of them, 32 deposed before the court.

Chinta Devi, whose husband Awadh Kishore Sharma and son Madhukar, were among those massacred by the MCC, was an informer in the case. She died five years ago.

The police had subsequently lodged an FIR against one Vyas Yadav, alias Naresh Yadav, and 500 unidentified people.

The chargesheet was filed against 84 accused in 2002 and the trial was held against 56 people, as 18 others were absconding. Charges were later framed against 45 accused, four of whom died during pendency of the case.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday said he was opposed to black money but cited experts as saying that the parallel economy helped India tide over the global economic meltdown when even developed countries faced a crisis.

The Samajwadi Party (SP) leaders comments could add fuel to the growing debate over the Narendra Modi governments shock decision to demonetise the old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 banknotes in a move to stamp out illicit cash.

I am very clear on this...black money should not be generated. Economic experts say the magnitude of the global economic crisis at times is not felt in India because of strong (parallel) economy of black money, he told reporters after flagging off a three-nation motorcar rally.

Read: UP polls: BJP seeks gain from demonetisation; Cong, SP rework strategy

...Ab buaji ko dekho, note ki mala kaun pehenta hai sab jaante hai (Look at buaji. Everybody knows who wears garland of banknotes), he added in a reference to BSP chief Mayawati, who had faced corruption allegations during her tenures as chief minister.

Though not opposed to the demonetisation, Akhilesh had earlier written to the Centre seeking relaxations for exchanging and using old banknotes, especially for the rural populace of the poll-bound state.

He reiterated on Tuesday the Centre was unprepared for the challenges of scrapping the high-value banknotes, leaving the countrys citizens struggling to meet their daily cash needs.

Relaxations should have been made, at least for the farmers who often deal in cash and do not often carry out bank transactions, he said.

Read: Check against repeated exchange of notes: Banks to use indelible ink

It would take over six months for the situation to normalise, he added.

Jo sarkar janata ko dukh deti, janta usko hata deti (The government that makes people unhappy, is thrown out of power by the masses).

On the BJPs Parivartan Rally, the CM said people were not turning up for the programmes as most of the people were queuing up at banks and ATMs for exchange and deposit of defunct currency.

The rally is being taken out to stress the importance of the proposed IMT Motor Vehicle Agreement for regional connectivity and integration. The rally began from New Delhi on November 13, and will conclude in Bangkok on December 3.

The proposed agreement between India, Myanmar and Thailand is expected to ease movement of cargo and passenger vehicles between the three nations.

Read: UP: Retired teacher dies after standing in bank queue for 8 hours

Read: Opposition rattled, criticism of demonetisation move baseless: Venkaiah
The government announced on Tuesday a raft of measures to unclog the replacement of withdrawn currency with new banknotes, a less-than-smooth process that has seen millions queue up outside banks and ATMs for cash.

Economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das said banks will mark with indelible ink the fingers of people exchanging old currency at counters to stop them from coming back repeatedly and choking queues.

The process  similar to the indelible ink used in elections to tag voters  will start in major cities from Tuesday. The government has blamed the long lines outside banks on unscrupulous elements using ordinary citizens to exchange illegal cash by multiple transactions.

Indelible ink is only for exchange of old notes.  Shaktikanta Das (@DasShaktikanta) November 15, 2016

Das also said Jan Dhan accounts with deposits above Rs 50,000 will be closely monitored following reports that many were using the accounts  opened by mostly the poor people  to park illegal incomes.

He also quashed rumours that the new Rs 2000 note was fake because it was bleeding colour. He said all genuine currency, including Rs 100 notes, would bleed some colour because of the nature of the ink. When you rub a piece of cotton with a note, if it doesnt leave some colour, it is a sign that the note is fake.

The government is struggling to deal with the deluge of people lined up to exchange or deposit cash after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a surprise recall of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes last Tuesday.

The move was aimed at draining illegal wealth from the economy but has caused massive hardships for ordinary citizens, especially in remote areas with little financial network.

Read| In course correction after demonetisation, govt eases cash withdrawal norms

For full coverage on black money crackdown, click here
ALBANY POLICE

Menacing arrest, assault arrests  10:20 p.m. Friday, 1400 block Salem Avenue S.E. Robert Anthony Gable, 35, of Albany, was booked, cited and released on charges of unlawful use of a weapon and menacing. He allegedly accosted two men in a car, pointing a pistol at one mans head and asking whom he voted for, according to an initial report. He also asked what day it was, added that he was a veteran, and said the victims had no respect for veterans. As an officer was interviewing the victims, Gable was assaulted on Cleveland Street. Javier Mateo Gomez, 23, of Albany, was arrested on charges of third-degree assault and fourth-degree assault and Angel Gomez, 20, of Corvallis, was arrested on a charge of third-degree assault. Gable and the Gomezes were scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 30.

Vehicle recovered  8:58 a.m. Sunday, 1600 block 28th Avenue S.E. A 1991 Honda Civic, reported stolen out of Corvallis, was recovered. The vehicle had been at the location since Thursday night.

Stolen truck recovered truck  11:16 a.m. Sunday, 2600 block Pine Street S.E. A 1999 Ford F-150 was stolen from a residence. It was recovered after the culprit crashed it into a utility pole on Brewster Road.

LINN COUNTY SHERIFF

Burglary  9:23 a.m. Sunday, 38400 block Scravel Hill Road. Jewelry and firearms were taken from a residence during a burglary. An estimated loss value wasnt immediately available.

Accidental shooting  12:50 p.m. Sunday, 36400 block Gore Road. A 17-year-old shot himself in the finger with a .22 rifle when he was loading the firearm. He was taken to Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital.

LEBANON POLICE

Stun gun  2:33 p.m. Sunday, Lebanon Skate Park. A boy reported that another juvenile shocked him with a stun gun. Investigation is continuing into the incident.

OREGON STATE POLICE

Menacing, weapon cite  5:44 p.m. Saturday, Interstate 5 northbound near Albany. A caller complained that he was trying to merge into traffic and then was rear-ended by a motor home. The victim stated that the driver of the motor home closed the gap and didnt allow him to merge, and then in the aftermath of the crash, pulled out a pistol and pointed it at him, saying, I will kill you. The driver of the motor home, Terry Wayne Fessenden, 56, of Seattle, admitted to brandishing a pistol and was booked, cited and released at the Linn County Jail on charges of unlawful use of a weapon, menacing and reckless driving. He was scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 21.
The government decided to declare controversial TV evangelist Zakir Naiks outfit Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) an unlawful association under The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) on Tuesday.

Following the government notification, the National Investigation Agency (NIA)  that was waiting for a final go-ahead from the Union home ministry  may register an FIR against Naik and IRF on charges of alleged violation of the UAPA.

The Mumbai police may also move against the state-based organisation if it continues with its activities.

The government declaration, in effect, means no person can hold meetings, collect funds or become a member or office bearer of the IRF whose website says it is a registered, non-profit, public charitable trust. A ban under UAPA is valid for five years.

The decision to declare the IRF unlawful was approved by the cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi

on Tuesday, home ministry sources said.

HT had first reported on August 8 that the government was planning to declare Naiks outfit unlawful.

Naik, who is in Thailand at present, is accused of dodging the police after charges that his sermons allegedly influenced the Dhaka cafe attackers. Bangladesh has also banned Naiks Peace TV.

Once we get a copy of the government notification, we may challenge in it court. Mr Naik is supposed to return to India in January or February next year. There is no change in his plan to come back to India, said Naiks spokesperson Aarif Malik.

Naiks trouble compounded after suspicion that his speeches inspired 20-odd people, who disappeared from Kerala, and are feared to have joined terror outfit Islamic State.

HT Exclusive | Zakir Naiks foundation converted many to Islam: Police

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With reports of Jan Dhan accounts being used by other people to deposit their unaccounted cash, the finance ministry on Tuesday set an upper limit of Rs 50,000 for deposits into these accounts.

Some people are using Jan Dhan accounts to deposit black money. Up to Rs 50,000 can be deposited in Jan-Dhan accounts, economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das told reporters here.

The decision was taken after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a second review meeting on Monday night on demonetisation with officials of the finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Das said the legitimate Jan Dhan account holders would not be put to any kind of difficulty. However, the source of deposits of above Rs 50,000 into these accounts will be verified, he added.

A close watch is being kept on them (deposits in Jan Dhan accounts), he said.

Das added: Jan Dhan account holders should not allow other people to use their accounts to convert their black money into white. Banks have been advised to keep a close watch on cash movement.

For other accounts, finance minister Arun Jaitley had earlier said the administration will not bother to make inquiry into small deposits of up to Rs 2.5 lakh.

At the review meet, it was also decided that bank counters will use indelible ink from Tuesday in major cities to prevent people from making more than the permissible number of times cash withdrawal.

At the moment, the daily withdrawal limit from ATMs is Rs 2,500, and exchange of old notes from bank counters is Rs 4,500. This apart, the upper limit for weekly withdrawal from bank accounts stands at Rs 24,000.

Read | Jan Dhan account deposits will be monitored to probe any misuse: Jaitley
The Chhattisgarh government gave an undertaking before the Supreme Court on Tuesday to not arrest and investigate Delhi University professor Nandini Sundars role in the alleged murder of a tribal man in Maoist-affected area of the state.

Additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta and lawyer Atul Jha assured the court the state police would not take any action against the six people named in the FIR without the top courts permission.

The submission was made before a bench headed by Justice MB Lokur, which recorded the statement in its order and said the Chhattisgarh government will give advance notice of four weeks to Sundar and five others before proceeding against them.

Read | DU professor Nandini Sundar booked for murder of Chhattisgarh tribal

They (Sundar and others) can approach the court after notice is served to them, the bench said, declining the plea asking the state to take SCs permission before arresting or interrogating the human rights activists.

No, they cant be stopped perpetually. If there is a crime, they need to proceed. It is their statutory right. They will first give you notice and then they can proceed, the bench said, adding it wont go into the merits of the case now. It did not take Chhattisgarh governments sealed cover report on the case.

We dont need to look at everything. You have made a statement. Now it is on record. You will have to give advance notice. As and when you want to proceed, show us the material, the bench told Mehta when he insisted the court must peruse the documents.

On November 7, Sundar, JNU professor Archana Prasad and four more including two villagers were booked on charges of murder of a tribal villager in the insurgency-hit Sukma district of Chhattisgarh.

Read | Bastar villagers reject Chhattisgarh cops charge against Nandini Sundar

Police claimed that alleged armed Maoists had killed the villager, Shamnath Baghel, with sharp weapons on the night of November 4 at his residence in Nama village in Tongpal area, around 450 kms from Raipur. Baghel and some of others were spearheading protests against Maoist activities in their village since April. The case was registered at the behest of the victims wife.

Sundar moved the apex court challenging the criminal case. Her counsel, senior advocate Ashok Desai, flashed newspaper clips and complained that inspector general, Bastar range, K Sivarama Prasad Kalluri, had recently made a statement that Sundar and others will not be able to enter Bastar as people will stone them. This should not be allowed. In fact, they have not gone to the area since May, Desai said.

Read | Murder charge is absurd, top cops attempt to harass us: DU professor Sundar

Sundar also submitted a proposal to the court, suggesting involvement of a former SC judge to mediate between Left-wing extremists and the government. The court, however, refused to pass any orders on her proposal and asked the state to look into it.

Also read | Chhattisgarh top cop threatens HT journalist over Bastar reporting
Karnataka minister and mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy is in the eye of a political storm, a day before his daughters wedding on Wednesday.

An activist has filed a complaint with the directorate general of income tax (investigations) questioning the extravagant nature of the wedding.

In the complaint, RTI activist T Narasimha Murthy said the arrangements have already raised eyebrows, while people are standing in long queues after the demonetisation

Tax officials refused to comment on the issue.

According to reports, Reddy has planned to recreate a model of the 16th century Vijayanagara palace at the Bengaluru Palace Grounds for the November 16 wedding.

Lavish replicas of Hampi and Tirumala temples have been erected for the wedding of Reddys daughter. (HT Photo)

Local media is abuzz with rumours that Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan will perform at a wedding function on Tuesday but the claim could not be confirmed.

The Bellary mining baron was arrested in 2011 on charges of illegally mining iron ore and was in prison for over three years. His company, Obulapuram Mining Company, was alleged to have shifted the borders that separated the neighbouring districts of Ballary in Karnataka and Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh to extract ore. He was granted bail in January 2015 by the Supreme Court.

The wedding of Reddys daughter Brahmani hit the headlines for lavish replicas of Hampi and Tirumala temples erected at the venue. Reportedly, Reddy hired art directors from Bollywood to design the sets.

All eyes are now on the guests, who will attend the wedding, to be held in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

Reddy was formerly a part of the BJP. He and his two brothers shot to limelight during the 1999 Lok Sabha elections by helping Sushma Swarajs campaign, who lost to Sonia Gandhi in the Bellary seat.

Local media in the state was rife with speculation that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders might have been asked to stay away from the event.

Reddy was the state tourism minister in BS Yeddyurappas government before his arrest on graft charges related to the iron ore mining industry.

However, BJP national general secretary P Muralidhar Rao told Hindustan Times that no official diktat had been issued by the partys central leadership. Why would the party get involved in someones private function? It is not a party function for us to issue any orders, he said.

The wedding is set to be exclusively telecast by Janasri TV, which was launched by Reddy and his close associate B Sriramulu, who is the MP from Bellary, even though media persons from across the publications have been invited to the event.

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Launching a fierce attack on the Congress, especially party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, BJP chief Amit Shah on Tuesday alleged that leaders of the grand old party had accumulated Rs 12 lakh crore during the UPA rule through corrupt means.

Setting the tone for the winter session of Parliament amid the demonetisation debate, Shah claimed that the Congress was unhappy with the withdrawal of the high-value currency notes as its fortune was reduced to paper scrap overnight by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Read | Dont be defensive over demonetisation, PM tells allies as oppn mounts pressure

Shah also mocked the Congress vice-president for going to a bank in a Rs-4 crore car to exchange Rs 4,000.

During their 10-year rule, the Sonia-Manmohan government did one scam every month, be it 2G, CWG, coal allocation, Adarsh Society, aircraft purchase and many other. With such large-scale corruption, Congress leaders accumulated Rs 12 lakh crore which is equal to the size of three Union budgets.

They parked this huge amount of money in their houses, godowns and at their friends places thinking that it was safe. But, Modi turned it into paper scrap by announcing demonetisation on November 8. This has taken away all the charm from the faces of the Congressmen, he said.

Shah was addressing party workers and citizens at Bharuch in Gujarat where he inaugurated the Bharuch district cooperative bank building.

Read | Modi scripted Indias financial chaos: Oppn rally against demonetisation move

The BJP president was also unsparing in his attack on Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, claiming that everyone was in deep trouble due to the demonetisation move, but no one was ready to reveal the reason behind their discontent.

Shahs comments came on a day when the Congress-led opposition closed ranks to pin down the government over the demonetisation issue in Parliament.

The situation is like a flood which sweeps away everything. Now, Congress leaders, Kejriwal, Mamata and Mulayam Singh have joined hands to save themselves from this flood. I am sure that those present here are not worried at all because we do not have black money. Only those who have black money are worried, he said.

Read | Rahul queues up at bank, says it is to show solidarity with common man

Shah also took a dig at Rahul for his criticism of the prime minister, and said, Rahul baba went to withdraw Rs 4,000 in a Rs-4 crore car. Do you think these people ever need Rs 4,000 cash? Rahul baba talks about the poor. I want to tell him that if he and his party were so concerned, then the Congress leaders should not have stashed away the Rs 12 lakh crore.

Acknowledging that the cash crunch was causing hardships to the common man, the BJP chief said they will benefit in the long run.

Also read | Opposition rattled, criticism of demonetisation move baseless: Venkaiah
Prime Minister Narendra Modi used his nonagenarian mother for politics by letting her stand in queue to exchange old currency, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Tuesday.

In a tweet, Kejriwal said Modi didnt do the right thing by letting his 97-year-old mother Hiraben Modi stand in queue at a local bank in Gandhinagar  images of which were beamed live on national television.

If there was a need to stand in line, I would stand myself, not my mother.

Kejriwal and Modi have a bitter history of confrontation and the Delhi CM has often blamed the prime minister for not letting the city government work. He has also called Modi a coward in the past.

Earlier in the day, Hiraben  lives with Modis younger brother Pankaj -- came to a branch of Oriental Bank of Commerce at Raisan village to get banknotes worth 4,500 exchanged.

She was one of millions of similar consumers who lined up outside banks and ATMs to get cash following a surprise recall of high-value currency by Modi last Tuesday.

Agencies reported that Hiraben came to the bank with 500 notes, got the mandatory form filled, put her thumb impression on the form and exchanged her money.

After receiving a new note of 2,000, she also displayed it in front of the mediapersons.

Hitting out at Modi, Kejriwal accused that the Prime Ministers rich friends were not facing problems in exchanging notes. PM is not acting against people named in Panama List as many are his friends, Kejriwal said during the Delhi assembly.

PMs war is against the countrys poor and not against black money. The Centre waived 1.14 lakh crore loan of industrialists, but are threatening people if they deposit more than 2.5 lakh in account, the Delhi chief minister further raged.

There was some commotion during the proceedings as leader of opposition, Vijender Gupta, objected to Kejriwal raising Modis name. Speaker Ram Niwas Goel ordered marshals to escort Gupta out of the assembly.

Full coverage on demonetisation, click here
Thousands of people lined up outside banks and ATMs across India on Tuesday, a day after a bank holiday left people stranded with no way to access cash or exchange money.

The queues in front of ATMs were longer as people feared the machines will run out of money soon, a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the scrapping of Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes to drain illegal cash from the economy.

Why did they allow banks to stay shut when they know how people are struggling to even buy basic grocery items? How long are they going to take us for granted? I woke up at 4.30 am to rush to the ATM so as to avoid queues, but did not get cash anywhere, Ankit Girdhar, a resident of south Delhis Lajpat Nagar, said.

In West Bengal and the Northeast, reports poured in that ATMs in many remote areas havent been restocked since November 9 -- a day after the demonitisation scheme was announced.

You cant depend on ATMs as they are running out of money in no time. But when I came at 7:30 am I was standing in a queue behind more than 50 people, said Ashish Poddar a school teacher in south Kolkata.

Many traders and middlemen in Assam and other parts of Northeast resorted to earning commission to exchange 500 and 1000 rupee notes with those of smaller denomination.The Assam Tribune reported that small traders in eastern Mizoram resorted to using paper coupons to trade due to scarcity of currency notes of lower denominations.

In Hyderabad, many travellers said bus operaters were accepting devalued currency but not returning the change. Other passengers said they had to go hungry for hours as they had no change to buy even snacks and tea Suryapet. Our business has come down by 70 per cent, lamented Laxman, the supplier at a roadside restaurant.

In Allahabad, ATMs evacuated of old notes are still being loaded with the 100, and 500 and 2000 . So, the ATMs are not expected to function smoothly for one more week, said a senior bank officer Ashwini Tewari.

This bank holiday has clearly hit the governments plans to ease the currency flow: It will take time to load notes in ATMs on Tuesday morning and the governments easing of restrictions on small businesses and certain rural sectors will add to the rush of people at bank counters.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley had assured people that banks would operate at full capacity on November 14 in states where Guru Nanaks birthday is not a holiday. But in more than half of the states and union territories, Monday was a bank holiday. Banks were open in some states, including Gujarat, Tripura, Mizoram, Goa and Kerala.

A few state-run bank branches operated with skeletal staff on Monday, said a banker with the State Bank of India.

Our bank branches are operational in 18 states to serve the customers uninterrupted after the demonetisation was announced, an Axis Bank spokesperson told Hindustan Times.

In New Delhi, people who had planned to queue up outside ATMs early in the morning, had to return disappointed as shutters at many locations were down.

ATMs inside metro stations in the national capital also disappointed those who made a dash for cash early morning.

Read| In course correction after demonetisation, govt eases cash withdrawal norms

People commuting to work were the most affected as they were hoping to withdraw some money before starting out for work.

In Mumbai, the cash crunch has hit autorickshaw and cab drivers. Drivers of black and yellow taxis, three-wheelers and taxi fleets complained of falling business as people are avoiding travel due to lack of liquid cash.

In Kolkata, authorities of most banks loaded cash in more vans than usual on Sunday so that they could pump the money into the ATMs on Monday. Still, it was enough to meet just a fraction of the demand.

In smaller towns such as Karnal, it was even worse with people scrambling to find ATMS which had cash in them.

With ATMs drying up, little children in many homes have turned out to be saviours, thanks to their piggy banks. The change they saved has helped their parents buy grocery.

If the chaos worsens on Tuesday, criticism that the government was underprepared to manage the demonetisation exercise will grow.

Read| New notes in ATMs soon, withdrawal limit raised: 10 updates on demonetisation

For full coverage on black money crackdown, click here
Nature continues to be unkind to the farmers of Maharashtra. After three successive years of hailstorms and drought, this year a good rainfall brought them some hope for their kharif crop. But the parting kick of the retreating monsoon flooded their villages and farms and destroyed much of their produce. Now the unprecedented chill spreading across the state too early this season is fast destroying the hope of one section of farmers in Nashikthe grape growers.

Last week, grape producers from across the district had submitted a memorandum to Union roads and transport minister Nitin Gadkari to seek his intervention with the government and the Nashik District Central Co-operative Bank (NDCC) for extension of crop loans to one lakh farmers who had been left without funds at all. The NDCC has disbursed Rs 1740 crore worth of loans to farmers but fell short of funds following the governments failure to make good the subsidy.

Nearly 75% of the grapes grown in Nashik, which is Indias grape county, finds its way to markets in Europe, making for about 60% of the total exports from India.

This is the month when farmers have to prune the vines to help the clusters to grow in proper proportion and without loans from the NDCC they do not have enough funds for these operations including for labour charges and pesticides. But while this man-made hurdle can be overcome, what is now worrying farmers majorly is the dipping mercury in the district which, on Monday was at 8.6 degree Celsius, the coldest after Ahmednagar at seven degrees Celcius.

Says Dinkarnath Aher, a farmer who has been in the business since 1985 with 25 acres of grape farms stretched across the Niphad tehsil, which is the main grape growing area in the country: We cannot afford to have the temperature drop so suddenly. It damages the berries on the cluster which crack and this renders them useless for export. Moreover, if the temperature drops below eight degrees celsius, there is danger of powder mildew and other fungi taking over the crop which will lead to complete destruction of the produce which will not be fit for even the domestic market.

Farmers at the moment are doing their best to save their crop by covering the vines in jute sacks and blankets, burning dead leaves beneath the vines to provide them warmth or using warm water to sprinkle the crop in the hope it will take away the chill. But these are temporary remedial measures.

The weather observatory has forecast further dips in temperature and that is worrying farmers about the future of their crops which will be ready to harvest in a month. But according to Jagannath Khapre, president of the Grape Exporters Association of India, the increasing frost in the air can cause injury to the berries and also slow down the metabolism of the vine. The grape crop is generally harvested in 120 days. But the increasing cold slows down the metabolism and it can take about 160 days to harvest the crop, provided it has not been damaged by the chill. Anything further than five degrees Celsius can condemn the entire crop to destruction, he adds.

Already the excess rainfall in some areas has left farmers with the prospect of less yields across the two lakh acres in the Banganga valley in Niphad tehsil which is all given over to the crop. Any further vagaries of weather would condemn them to virtually no yields at all, adds Aher.

Maharashtra is Indias largest grape producer and nearly 80% of the produce comes from Niphad in Nashik district though Pune and Solapur also grow some quantities of grape as does Bangalore in Karnataka. Normally such severe chill does not set in so early in the grape season and much of the clusters are fully grown before temperatures dip below 10 degrees Celsius. This year, however, the mercury has been falling steadily since Diwali. Farmers are left with little but to pray to the weather and sun god to save their crop.

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Under fire for scrapping high-value banknotes without a back-up plan, the BJP-led NDA government has decided to aggressively counter any resistance from Opposition against the move. After a meeting of NDA constituents on Monday, the government ruled out any rethink.

The assessment in the ruling camp is that though people are facing inconvenience they have supported the PMs move in the larger national interest and for long term gains. Hence, there is no need to be defensive.

Opposition parties are rattled by the move, Union minister Venkaiah Naidu said. Those who lived by corruption, opportunism, nepotism, greed, repression, electoral malpractices, self-seeking and sycophancy all these years, cant make baseless allegations against this government, he said.

But the challenge for the government will be to counter a combative opposition that is showing the signs of resilience seen nearly 18 months ago about the land reforms bill. The government was forced to abandon that bill. But that unity was short-lived and Opposition parties remained fragmented March 2015 onwards. The BJP may have been able to smoothen over controversies surrounding its CMs  Shivraj Singh Chauhan (Madhya Pradesh), Vasundhara Raje (Rajasthan) and Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh) besides external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, in the previous sessions of Parliament because of this.

The BJP also has to tackle its ally Shiv Sena which is opposing the move. The Sena had warned the PM to roll back the drive or be on the receiving end.

On its part, the government is also ready for a discussion on demonetisation and has asked NDA members to argue with facts and figures, not only in Parliament but outside as well.

The Prime Ministers remarks at a public meeting at Belagavi in Karnataka on Sunday, indicated that more steps are in the offing.

For 70 years the country has been looted, give me 70 months and Ill clean up the entire nation, he said.

Naidu dismissed allegations that the government had leaked details of the move to insiders and friends, a charge levelled by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and the Congress

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Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has convened a meeting of all political parties in Haryana on the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal on November 17. The move to hold the meeting at Haryana Niwas in Chandigarh was announced by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government on Tuesday. The decision came barely two hours before the Parkash Singh Badal-led SAD-BJP government in Punjab decided to return the 5,376 acres of land acquired for the canal more than three decades ago to its original owners.

The Badal government, which has refused to share water with Haryana and other neighbouring states, will hold an emergency session of the state assembly on Wednesday on the contentious canal. It had announced the session immediately after the Supreme Court gave its view on SYL on November 10, declaring the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004, as invalid.

The Haryana government, which had welcomed the apex courts verdict, is under pressure from the opposition parties in the state to take quick steps for completion of the canal so that Haryana can get its share of river water. While the state Congress has already announced district-level protests and gherao of the state assembly on day one of the next session to mount pressure on the government, the INLD has also given an ultimatum to the Centre, asking it to start the construction work by February 23, 2017, or else its workers would dig the canal in the Punjab area.
Reflecting a rapid upswing in ties, India and Israel on Tuesday decided to broad-base their already close defence partnership and agreed to intensify cooperation in combating radicalism and extremism while calling for tough global action against terror networks and states harbouring them.

In wide-ranging talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, the two sides also resolved to deepen their overall engagement in key areas of trade and investment, agriculture, water resources, education and research.

The two sides also inked two pacts to strengthen cooperation in agriculture and water resources management.

In a media statement after the talks, Modi made a veiled attack on Pakistan, saying one of the countries in Indias neighbourhood has been supporting terrorism, adding that he and Rivlin agreed to intensify bilateral cooperation in combating terror.

We recognise that terrorism is a global challenge, knows no boundaries and has extensive links with other forms of organized crime. Regrettably, one of the countries of its origin and spread is in Indias neighbourhood, Modi said.

India is delighted to have @PresidentRuvi visit us. Our talks have provided a crucial push to the efforts to strengthen India-Israel ties. pic.twitter.com/vQHDeQR9de  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 15, 2016

On his part, Rivlin, the first Israeli President to visit India in nearly 20 years, said both India and Israel were threatened by terrorism as the two countries uphold values of freedom and that nothing can justify terror. He said India and Israel will be together in fighting the menace.

Referring to growing collaboration between the two countries, particularly in the defence sector, Rivlin said his country is ready to make in India and make with India.

The Prime Minister said both the countries agreed that the international community must act with resolve and determination against terror networks and states that harbour them.

Failure to act and silence of speech only encourages the terrorists. We agreed to intensify our cooperation to combat the forces of extremism and radicalisation that threaten all peace loving nations, he said.

Noting that Rivlins visit has given a crucial push to efforts to build new pillars in ties, Modi said both sides noted the strength of the growing defence partnership and agreed on the need to make it more broad-based through production and manufacturing partnerships.

India is Israels largest buyer of military hardware and the latter has been supplying various weapons systems, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles over the last few years but the transactions have largely remained behind the curtains.
India and Israel on Tuesday decided to step up their defence partnership and counter terrorism cooperation, and called upon the global community to act tough against terror networks and states harbouring them.

The two countries will also broaden their ties in areas such as trade and investment, agriculture, water resources and cyber crime during the talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.

Rivlin is on a six day visit to India and his trip is expected to pave way for Modis visit to Israel, possibly next year.

This is the second presidential visit to India since both countries established diplomatic ties in 1992.

Modi said people of both countries were constantly threatened by forces of terrorism and extremism in and both sides agreed to intensify cooperation in combating them effectively, particularly having practical and specific engagement such as in the cyber domain.

Read | Israeli prez in India: 5 things you should know about the bilateral relations

We recognise that terrorism is a global challenge, knows no boundaries and has extensive links with other forms of organized crime, he said.

In an obvious reference to Pakistan, the Prime Minister said, Regrettably, one of the countries of its origin and spread is in Indias neighbourhood.

We agreed that the international community must act with resolve and determination against terror networks and States that harbour them. Failure to act and silence of speech only encourages the terrorists, he said.

Rivlin asserted that nothing can justify terrorism.

We stand together in defending our people and our values.

India is Israels largest buyer of military hardware and the latter has been supplying various weapons systems, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles over the last few years but the transactions have largely remained behind the curtains.

The Israeli president also said his country is ready to make in India and make with India.

Stating that Rivlins visit gives a crucial push to efforts to build new pillars in bilateral ties, Modi said both sides noted the strength of the growing defence partnership and agreed on the need to make it more broad-based through production and manufacturing partnerships.

The two sides inked two pacts to strengthen cooperation in agriculture and water resources management sectors.

Also read | Narendra Modis Israel visit and its meaning for the Jews in India

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Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, who is in India on a six-day visit, will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday.

Rivlin is the first Israeli head of state to visit India in nearly 20 years, in a sign of growing partnership between the two nations. The last Israeli president to visit India was Ezer Weizman, in January 1997.

He is being accompanied by a large business delegation, which will also visit Agra, Karnal, Chandigarh and Mumbai.

Heres everything you need to know about India-Israel relations:

1 What is the immediate significance of the visit?

Rivlin is the second president of Israel to visit India in almost two decades. The first president to visit India was Ezer Weizman and he visited New Delhi in 1997. The visit comes after President Pranab Mukherjees Israel trip last year. Rivlins visit marks 25 years of formal diplomatic ties with Israel set in motion by the PV Narasimha Rao government in 1992, and it is expected to pave the way for Prime Minister Modis Israel visit, possibly next year.

Read | Israel Presidents India visit to set stage for PM Modis Tel Aviv trip

2 What is the political messaging enshrined in the visit?

After the visit of then Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to India in 2003, no head of government or the state from Israel has even come here, and no Indian Prime Minister has visited Israel. Filled with pride as I depart for State visit to India to see how Israeli innovation is improving the lives of millions, President Rivlin tweeted before leaving for India. The political messaging, however, is clear  Israel has emerged as a key partner for India in the spheres of security, defence and agriculture among others. Political sensitivity over Indias longstanding ties with Palestine had forced successive governments to keep the ties low-key. But, not anymore. Last year, Mukherjee became the first Indian head of state to visit Israel.

Read | India-Israel ties on upswing despite support for Palestinian cause

3 What are the areas of cooperation between India and Israel other than security and defence?

Agriculture cooperation has emerged as a key focus area for the two countries. Mikhael Mirilashvili, chairman of Water Gen, one of the most important futuristic companies of Israel that specialises in water resource, is accompanying the president. Rivlin will also visit Chandigarh and Karnal. In Karnal, he will visit the Centre of Excellence of Indo-Israeli Agricultural Project. Fifteen centres of excellence in agriculture have already been commissioned in these states and India has benefited from Israeli expertise and technologies in horticulture mechanisation, protected cultivation, orchard and canopy management, nursery management, micro-irrigation and post-harvest management particularly in Haryana and Maharashtra. Israeli drip irrigation technologies and products are now widely used in India.

Read | Modi praises Indian Army for surgical strikes, compares it to Israel

4 What is the history of India-Israel ties?

India formally recognised Israel on September 17, 1950. Soon thereafter, the Jewish Agency established an immigration office in Bombay. This was later converted into a trade office and subsequently into a consulate. Embassies were opened in 1992 when full diplomatic relations were established. Since the upgradation of relations in 1992, defence and agriculture have been the main pillars of bilateral engagement. In recent years, ties have expanded to areas such as science and technology, education and homeland security. The future vision of the cooperation is of a strong hi-tech partnership as befits two leading knowledge economies. Political ties between the two countries are friendly.

Read | Narendra Modis Israel visit and its meaning for the Jews in India

5 What are the trade and economic ties between the two countries?

From $200 million in 1992 (comprising primarily trade in diamonds), bilateral merchandise reached $5.19 billion in 2011. It has stagnated around $4.5 billion since then. Though trade in diamonds constitutes close to 50% of bilateral trade, trade has diversified into several sectors such as pharmaceuticals, agriculture, IT and telecom, and homeland security in recent years. Major exports from India to Israel include precious stones and metals, chemical products, textiles and textile articles, plants and vegetable products, and mineral products. Major imports by India from Israel include precious stones and metals, chemicals (mainly potash) and mineral products, base metals and machinery and transport equipment. In recent years, Israel has taken a strategic decision to strengthen economic relations with China, Japan and India. Investment during April 2000 and November 2013, foreign direct investment (FDI) from Israel in India was $73.7 million. The data does not capture FDI flows from Israel to India that flow through the US, Europe and Singapore.

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Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday denied that the November 8 demonetisation was announced without proper preparations which is putting the common man through immense difficulties.

The government was fully prepared before announcing the decision despite the requirement of strict secrecy, Jaitley said at an all-party meeting convened by the government on the eve of the winter session of Parliament, which begins in New Delhi from Wednesday.

He said the decision was only part of the larger government strategy to tackle corruption and unaccounted money.

It started with the governments decision to set up a Special Investigation Team on unaccounted money right after assumption of office, Jaitley said.

Read | Demonetisation Day 7: Rahul attacks PM, says move initiated without much thought

He said opening the bank accounts of a large number of people was the central piece of the broad strategy to checkmate the flow of unaccounted money.

Round tripping of monies through Mauritius, Cyprus and now Singapore was effectively checked, he said.

The minister said while currency accounts for only 4% of gross domestic product across the world, it comes to 12% in India and hence the government is working towards effective currency management.

The opposition parties, including the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Left parties and the Samajwadi Party, accused the central government of not ensuring that they were fully prepared for the drastic move.

Read | Modi scripted Indias financial chaos: Oppn rally against demonetisation move

Delhi chief minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said demonetisation will not bring black money into the banking system but only lead to changing hands.

West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee termed it as a hasty decision while Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav said it was a very badly executed move.

Also read | Battle lines drawn over demonetisation, govt braces for stormy winter session
The winter session of Parliament appeared headed for a stormy start on Wednesday with the government and opposition parties bracing for what could be a game of political brinkmanship over the hardship faced by people following the recall of high-value banknotes.

At an all-party meeting here on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said political parties must send a message from Parliament that they are opposed to black money.

We have launched a crusade against corruption, black money and fake currency, which is also behind cross-border terrorism. All parties should come together on this issue of national interest, he said.

But the opposition parties stuck to their stand, charging the government for faulty implementation of demonetisation  scrapping 500- and 1,000-rupee notes  that has forced people to stand in long queues outside banks and ATMs to exchange old notes and withdraw fresh ones.

The government has accused the opposition of defending black money hoarders by opposing the move.

Read | Check against repeated exchange of notes: Banks to use indelible ink

Briefing the leaders, finance minister Arun Jaitley said secrecy was needed to roll out the scheme. Otherwise, its purpose would have been defeated.

Opposition parties such as the Congress, the Trinamool Congress and the JD (U) have moved adjournments motions in both Houses to discuss the issue on Wednesday.

KEY BILLS PENDING The Consumer Protection Bill, 2015: To make redressal of consumer complaints easier. Also provides for recall of goods and action against misleading advertisements The Whistle Blowers Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2015: Specifies grounds under which disclosures related to corruption may not be made The Labour code on Wages: Introduce a code that amalgamates four wage-related laws on minimum wages, bonus and equal remuneration Factories (Amendment) Bill, 2016: Raises limit of overtime work hours and empowers Centre to exempt establishments (pending in RS) Maternity Benefits (Amendment) Bill, 2016: Raises maternity leave to 26 weeks, requires establishments with 50 employees to provide creche facilities (Pending in LS) Raises maternity leave to 26 weeks, requires establishments with 50 employees to provide creche facilities (Pending in LS)

There were hectic parleys among opposition parties in the past two days to put up a united front and corner the government on the issue, which could be a potential game-changer in the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur two months later.

West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee arrived in the national capital Tuesday evening to try and rally the opposition around the issue. A united opposition could imperil the governments plan to pass two bills that will enable the roll out of the long-delayed goods and services tax (GST) from April 1 next year.

The NDA government also hopes to get parliamentary approval for other important bills in this session, including the labour code on wages, the first in a series of proposed reforms in the labour sector.

What could give a breather to the government is a division in the opposition camp.

The CPI(M) is not with the Trinamool Congress on its demand for rollback of demonetization even as the Left party is preparing to join others in attacking the government for the harassment caused to people and for not recovering the money owed by industrialists to banks, termed non-performing assets.

Read | Battle lines drawn over demonetisation, govt braces for stormy winter session

The government could hope to exploit the chinks in the opposition camp to get the GST-related bills passed. But Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansaris insistence that no bill can be passed in a din could be a hurdle. The NDA is in a minority in the Upper House.

We are consulting opposition parties to conduct the legislative business in a constructive and positive manner. The government is ready to discuss everything that they want, minister of state for parliamentary affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told HT.

The Congress has been holding parleys with other opposition parties to launch a united attack on the NDA government on demonetisation, one-rank-one-pension scheme in the wake of the suicide by an ex-serviceman, suppression of the freedom of speech following the proposed daylong ban on NDTV and plight of farmers.

Opposition parties with stakes in poll-bound states would like to use the winter session to set the tone against the BJP in the run up to the assembly polls.

Read | In course correction after demonetisation, govt eases cash withdrawal norms
The Delhi High Court today refused to entertain a PIL seeking a ban on burqas and other face veils in public places because it is a security threat to the capital, saying it is not a public interest matter.

A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangeeta Dhingra Sehgal dismissed the plea saying, If it is a policy decision, the government will take care of it. How can we entertain it under Article 226 (power of High Courts to issue certain writs).

We cannot interfere in this writ petition. The same is dismissed. It is not an issue which deserves consideration by this court under the Article. It is not a matter of public interest.

The plea sought a ban on wearing face veils including burqas, helmets, hoods etc at public places such as transport, government buildings and heritage sites in the capital on the grounds that they pose a terror threat.

The plea, filed by Sardar Ravi Ranjan Singh, alleged, the use of face coverings and wearing of full body cover like the burqa is a serious security issue and citizens are put to constant risk and fear in the capital which is in violation of Article 21(protection of life and personal liberty) of the Constitution of India.

It said, There is a rapid growth in terrorist activities and that the perpetrators of these criminal acts show no respect to burqa and ruthlessly use it as an instrument to carry out fidayeen attacks.

The petitioner also referred to the recent attacks in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir and said public safety and the government offices in the capital are at constant risk.

Face veils, burqas can be used to prevent identification at border check-posts etc. Further, criminals and extremists can use burqas to skip checking at police posts and barricades, the PIL which made Centre, Delhi government and National Security Council as parties, said.
After a fancy wedding invite from former Karnataka minister and mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy created waves on the internet, all eyes will now be on the guests at his daughters wedding, to be held in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

Local media in the state was rife with speculation that local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders might have been asked to stay away from the event. Reddy was a BJP member and the state tourism minister in BS Yeddyurappas government before his arrest on graft charges related to the iron ore mining industry in Ballary district of the state.

However, BJP national general secretary P Muralidhar Rao told Hindustan Times that no official diktat had been issued by the partys central leadership. Why would the party get involved in someones private function? It is not a party function for us to issue any orders, he said.

Lavish replicas of Hampi and Tirumala temples have been erected for the wedding of Reddys daughter. (HT Photo)

The wedding has been in the news because of the lavish replicas of Hampi and Tirumala temples erected for the function, which many say dwarfs the Bangalore Palace. The state government and income tax officials said they will keep an eye on the wedding, especially because Reddy is out on bail in the graft case.

The wedding is set to be exclusively telecast by Janasri TV, which was launched by Reddy and his close associate B Sriramulu, who is the MP from Ballary, even though media persons from the across publications have been invited to the event.

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Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday accused Indian troops of deliberately escalating tensions on the Line of Control, saying it posed a threat to regional peace and security.

Sharif made the remarks while chairing a meeting in Islamabad to review the deteriorating situation on the LoC a day after seven Pakistani soldiers were killed in firing by Indian forces.

He contended the exchange of fire on the LoC was a futile attempt of the Indian authorities to divert the worlds attention from alleged atrocities in Jammu and Kashmir, state-run Radio Pakistan reported.

Pakistan cannot be bullied by such tactics as it is fully capable of defending our soil against any belligerence, Sharif was quoted as saying. He asked the United Nations to take notice of ceasefire violations on the LoC.

Indian and Pakistani troops have repeatedly exchanged fire on the LoC since bilateral ties plunged to a low after a terror attack on an Indian Army camp at Uri killed 19 soldiers. Both sides have accused each other of violating the 1993 ceasefire on the LoC and international border in Kashmir.

Pakistans Foreign Office had summoned Indian envoy Gautam Bambawale on Monday to protest against the death of the seven soldiers.

Sartaj Aziz, Sharifs adviser on foreign affairs, briefed the premier on the situation along the LoC. He said recent incidents of firing by Indian forces have resulted in the death of 26 people and injured 107 civilians.

The premier was also briefed on Pakistan-US relations against the backdrop of the recent presidential elections. Sharif said Pakistan looks forward to working closely with the newly elected government for peace, security and prosperity in the region and beyond.
Pakistan foreign policy chief Sartaj Aziz has said he plans to attend the Heart of Asia conference on Afghanistan to be hosted by India next month, suggesting the visit could be an opportunity to defuse bilateral tensions.

Aziz will be the first senior Pakistani official to visit India since the terror attack on an army camp at Uri in September, blamed on Pakistan-based militants, that left 19 Indian soldiers dead and prompted New Delhi to pull out of the SAARC Summit in Islamabad.

Unlike India, which sabotaged the SAARC Summit in Pakistan by pulling out, Pakistan will participate in the Heart of Asia meet in India, Aziz told journalists in Islamabad on Tuesday.

India, for bilateral reasons, damaged a multilateral process such as SAARC. Heart of Asia is a multilateral process for Afghanistan, which is a priority for us, so we want to be part of that conference, he said.

Its a good opportunity to defuse the tension, Aziz, the adviser on foreign affairs to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, was quoted as saying by PTV.

Read: No surgical strike can isolate Pakistan, says high commissioner Abdul Basit

A decision on a bilateral meeting with Indian officials on the margins of the Heart of Asia conference, to be held in Amritsar during December 3-4, will be made if there is a request from New Delhi and according to the situation, Aziz said.

Replying to a question on US president-elect Donald Trumps offer to mediate between India and Pakistan on Kashmir, Aziz said the real estate mogul deserved the Nobel Peace Prize if he could settle the contentious issue.

India-Pakistan ties will be better when the Kashmir issue is settled. So if you can resolve this, you will get the Nobel Prize, he quipped.

Bilateral ties have witnessed several ups and downs this year since the terror attack on Pathankot airbase, which was blamed by India on the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed. Unrest in Kashmir sparked by the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani added to the tensions, as New Delhi accused Islamabad of backing terror groups.

Read: Uri attackers from Jaish, Pak markings on arms they carried, says India

In recent weeks, both sides have expelled officials on charges of espionage and troops have exchanged fire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir.

Aziz said the escalation of tensions along the LoC can destabilise peace in the region. He accused India of increasing escalations along the border to divert attention from its internal affairs.

Pakistan is fully committed to the ceasefire agreement with India but New Delhi is not fulfilling its commitment, he said.

The Heart of Asia conference will identify ways to improve security and bring peace to Afghanistan, which has been mired in conflict since a US-led coalition toppled the Taliban government in 2001.

Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan too have been strained over the past year, with Kabul accusing Islamabad of harbouring Taliban leaders and seeking to meddle in Afghan affairs.
Pakistan will not attend a meeting of the press councils of Saarc nations on Wednesday to be held in the Capital, since the delegation has not been given visas to travel to New Delhi.

Representatives from seven of eight South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) countries will meet to chalk out the strategy for forming a collective of press councils from the region proposed by India.

Sources said the delegation from Pakistan that had been extended an invitation to join in July was not given travel sanction.

The Press Council of India has proposed the setting up of Saarc Asia Press Council to form an alliance for protection of press freedom, safety of journalists and setting guidelines for ensuring ethics. The alliance is also expected to help in fostering better ties through media coordination.

Press Council representative from Nepal, Maldives, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka will meet on Wednesday to discuss the domain of the proposed Council that will be lead by India. Since, Bhutan and Afghanistan do not have a press council, they will be represented by officials of the diplomatic missions.

The meeting will be held on the sidelines of the golden jubilee celebration of the Press Council of India on Wednesday, which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The PCI, instituted in 1966 by Parliament on the recommendations of the First Press Commission, was set up with the object of preserving the freedom of the press and of maintaining and improving the standards of press in India.

PCI chairperson, justice CK Prasad, said the council pitched the idea of setting up a media council and extending the ambit of the PCI to include electronic media  broadcast as well as social media.

Batting for more powers for the PCI, justice Prasad said there is a misconception that it is a paper tiger. He was, however, quick to add that it is not a regulator to police the media either.

In media, we are often described as a paper tiger...this is not true. He cited examples of how state governments were forced to reverse orders impinging press freedom.

(With inputs from Jayanth Jacob)

Also read | Saarc summit collapses after India and three other members pull out

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Will the Oppositions onslaught against the Centre over the demonetisation affect the passage of the goods and service tax (GST) bill?

A confident government may bring the GST bill by early next week in Rajya Sabha, indicating it is not perturbed at the ongoing protests against another of its financial reforms  the demonetisation scheme.

The Centre wants to pass the GST bill to roll out the new tax regime from April 1, 2017. The proposed tax, which will absorb local levies and indirect taxes, has already missed many deadlines.

We are getting the Constitution amended for GST on which discussions have been on since long since Congress time. I am confident that we will do those amendments and pass the GST, home minister Rajnath Singh said recently.

But for the Congress, the priority is to corner the BJP-led NDA over the demonetisation of 1,000 and 500 rupee notes. Right now, the main issue is the surgical jumla (drama) of the demonetisation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The GST is not in our radar screen, said Congress strategist and Rajya Sabha MP, Jairam Ramesh.

Even as the government may not require the Oppositions support to pass the GST legislation, a united opposition might as well delay the passage of the bill through chaos and ruckus in the House. The Rajya Sabha may not get a chance to vote on the GST bill as the government is likely to introduce it as a money bill -- such bills do not require the approval of the Upper House.

I think the GST is a forgotten issue. Let us first see if the session runs or not. Then only the possibility of GST being passed arises, said Ramesh.

In the last session, the government managed to pass the Constitution amendment bill on the GST as the Congress and other opposition parties came on board. Now, with a hostile opposition gunning for the BJP-led government, it might be a tricky situation for pushing the GST bill.

Thousands of rich and corrupt persons standing in queue. The poor are cheering from their homes! Banks are doling out cash to citizens. That is proof that Achhe Din has arrived! Millions of working people standing in queue. Long live productivity, former finance minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday tweeted, taking potshots at the government.

Also read | Oppn meets to chalk out plan to corner Modi over demonetisation in Parliament
Launching a scathing attack on Narendra Modi on the demonetisation issue, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday that the Prime Minister was laughing while people were dying in queues outside banks and ATMs to withdraw money.

On the eve of the winter session of Parliament, he said many economists, including former prime minister Manmohan Singh, had found the decision to withdraw the high-value tenders was without rationale. Gandhi alleged that the governments move could turn out to be a big scam.

Nearly 18 to 20 people died in queues and PM Narendra Modi was laughing. He should clarify whether he was laughing or crying, Gandhi said, in an apparent reference to the PMs remarks in Japan and Goa.

He also claimed that BJP members were alerted beforehand about the demonetisation.

How can one explain the BJP people in West Bengal depositing crores in high-denomination notes just before PMs announcement on November 8? he asked.

BJP workers were seen holding up bundles of the new Rs 2,000 notes, as seen from images on the internet, before Modi announced this decision, Gandhi told reporters in suburban Bandra.

This move by the Modi government will turn out to be a big scam, Rahul said, adding I dont think even Finance Minister knew about demonetisation announcement. PM does not believe in his own people.

The PM took decision without thinking. We dont want to reverse it, but at least resolve the difficulties people are facing, he said.

The Congress Party is for taking on corruption &black money.The Q is why should millions of poor people be inconvenienced in this manner? pic.twitter.com/s9Yv7tw6wS  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) November 15, 2016

Gandhi also questioned the logic behind introducing Rs 2,000 note after scrapping the Rs 1,000 note.

The entire Opposition is united against Modi governments demonetisation move which has resulted in massive inconvenience for people, he said.

We want the government to sort this out expeditiously. The rural population has borne the maximum brunt. What will happen to a farmer who might have saved cash for daughters marriage? Banking network is not very strong in remote areas. The transition should have been smooth, he said.

Asked about his own visit to a bank to exchange old notes, Gandhi said, My sense was to be with the people in their hardship and be with them.

On Modis jibe at him and Congress that those involved in 2G spectrum scam were now standing in queue to exchange Rs 4,000, Rahul said, Modiji is always attacking me. Those waiting in line outside banks are poor, small traders, government employees. Are they thieves?

Some planning should have been there. What to do when crores of people line up outside banks to withdraw cash and new 2,000 rupee notes dont fit into the ATMs, he said.

Most of them say this is an opportunistic decision taken by Modi ji and this will cost the country tremendously  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) November 15, 2016
Nepal Premier Prachanda telephoned Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought an arrangement so that Nepali people holding scrapped high-denomination Indian banknotes could swap them with legal currency in the country.

During his five-minute telephonic conversation with Modi, Prachanda told him that the Nepal citizens have quite a large stock of Indian banknotes of Rs 500 and 1,000 denominations that have now been pulled out of circulation.

Hundreds of thousands of people, who earn a living by working as daily-wage labourers in India, visit the neighbouring country seeking medical treatment or rely on Indian markets to purchase daily essentials, are said to be holding big chunk of scrapped Indian bank notes, Kathmandu Post reported.

Also, those visiting India as pilgrims and those engaged in cross-border trade are said to have a big stock of now-useless Indian banknotes.

Some of these people, according to the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, may lose their entire savings if the now-obsolete notes are not replaced with legal bills.

Facilitating exchange

Considering this, India should make an arrangement so that Nepalese can exchange the banned notes here in Nepal, a statement posted on Prachandas personal website quoted the premier as saying.

In response, Modi said he would immediately resolve the issue and would also ask the finance minister to hold talks with his Nepalese counterpart.

Following the Indian governments surprise decision, the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the central bank, also banned the use of those bank notes in Nepal from last Wednesday.

The NRB has said Rs 33.6 million in the denominations of 500 and 1,000 is within the financial system in Nepal, the report said.

The figure includes cash parked at vaults of banks, financial institutions and NRB.

But actual stock of banned Indian bank notes is expected to be much more because Nepalese were previously allowed to carry Indian 500 and 1,000-rupee bank notes worth up to Rs 25,000, it said.

Also, those residing in areas bordering India usually stash Indian notes of larger denominations as they have to frequent Indian markets to buy goods.

The Indian government has said people who have accounts in Indian banks need not worry as the financial institutions will provide them the currency exchange facility. But many Nepalese who own the banned notes do not have accounts in Indian banks.

Legal tender

Against this backdrop, the Ministry of Finance wrote to the Indian Finance Ministry on Thursday requesting that arrangements be made so that Nepalese holding banned Indian notes could replace them with legal tenders here in Nepal.

NRB too wrote a letter to the Reserve Bank of India, seeking exchange facility for Nepalese holding banned Indian notes here in Nepal.

The Indian central bank earlier responded saying the NRBs message has been conveyed to the Indian Finance Ministry.

Indian central bank governor Urjit Patel told the same thing to Nepali central bank governor Chiranjibi Nepal during the conversation between the two, a senior NRB official said on condition of anonymity.

This was an indication concrete results may not be achieved by holding talks at the central bank level, as the Reserve Bank of India cannot make any move without getting an instruction from the Indian Finance Ministry, the report said.

This, many said, called for the need to hold talks at higher level.

Earlier, former finance ministers Ram Sharan Mahat and Surendra Pandey had also told Parliament that interventions need to be made at the top Indian government level to reap favourable results.

The urgency was shown by almost everyone to deal with the issue as the Indian government has set a deadline of December 30 to deposit the scrapped notes at banks.

For the complete coverage of the demonetisation drive in India, click here.
Are you surprised to see Rahul Gandhi frequently hitting the streets of latestanding in a queue at an ATM in New Delhi last Friday and spending hours in police detention a week before to protest against the Centres one-rank-one-pension scheme? Be prepared to see more of him in action.

The Congress has finally found a way to counter the mass appeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Or so the opposition leaders believe. The idea is to try to neutralise his personality cult with persistent attacks on his government on issues concerning the common man, a Congress leader told HT. Rahuls 2,000 km kisan yatra in Uttar Pradesh in September-October was a part of this strategy. He will embark on a similar tour in poll-bound Punjab to highlight the plight of farmers.

Congress sources said the party would counter the personality-driven politics of the ruling BJP with what they call issue-based politics. They cite the Congress unexpected return to power in 2004 when then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayees popularity was at its peak. In 2004 general elections, few foresaw the Congress coming to power. Vajpayeeji, a great orator, was still a popular leader and the then NDA government had many achievements to showcase. Soniaji was no match to him in terms of his oratorical skill. Yet you saw what happened, said a Congress functionary who was involved in formulating the partys election strategy then. The Congress chose to focus on issues concerning the poor, the farmers, and the underprivileged, whose concerns found no echo in the then NDAs India Shining campaign.

Read | Rahul queues up at bank, says it is to show solidarity with common man

The principal opposition party finds itself in a similar situation now. Rahul, though unencumbered by any language problem that his mother faced, cant match Modis oratorical skill-- or rhetorical flourish as political rivals describe it. The party seems to be in disarray with leaders in different states switching their loyalty to the ruling camp. Leaders remain insecure about their roles in future. The Congress gave up its grand revival plan in Bihar to play a second fiddle to regional parties and stay on the winning side, but continuous erosion of its support base is evident- from Jammu & Kashmir in the north to Kerala in the south and from Maharashtra in the west to Assam in the east.

Rahul Gandhi comes out after exchanging old 500 and 1000 rupee notes at the Parliament Street SBI branch in New Delhi. (PTI Photo)

Congress sources say that the strategy to focus on issues came in place after Rahuls success in putting the government on the mat on net neutrality and land acquisition bill. Subsequent weeks and months saw him joining agitating students at the film institute in Pune, at Hyderabad university and at Jawaharlal Nehru University. The Congress vice-president has stayed in headlinessometimes with the help of Delhi police that recently chose to detain him for protesting against OROP that allegedly drove an ex-serviceman to commit suicide and often with help from members of the ruling dispensation who showed a penchant for courting controversies.

The Congress represents a certain ideology that captures the essence of Indiaequitable distribution of resources, welfare of the poor and the downtrodden, social justice, secularism, pluralism. We will continue to fight for that. We will oppose the government whenever it tries to trample that ideology. Its not a fight between individuals; its a fight between ideologies, said a Congress office-bearer.

Read | Rahul attacks PM Modi, says he is hiding behind the blood of soldiers

Political scientist Suhas Palshikar endorses the Congress move to do issue-based politics, but says that the party has to first decide where it stands. Its opposing Modi for everything-- forgetting that it was a party to many of his initiatives such as the GST, demonetization, and liberalization of the economy. Dont expect that one leader or one family will be able to change the Congress fortune.

Rahuls actions have brought the Congress back into headlines but there is no indication of a reversal in partys fortune yet. Congress leaders cited organizational weaknesses as the reason for the partys downslide but there is no remedial action yet. Instead, the Congress Working Committee recently sought another years extension to hold organizational elections, further deepening anxiety and suspense in the party rank and file who want clarity about their own roles as also those of top leaders.

Read | PM Modi is lying about OROP, its just enhanced pension: Rahul Gandhi
Rumours have been rife for weeks that Ratan Tata will meet top government officials following the infamous battle between Tata Sons and ousted chairman Cyrus Mistry. But such meetings are rarely conformed by the government, and are generally sources of juicy bites and reports for the media.

Tuesday was not a lean day at north block anyway. The governments move to demonetise notes of R500 and R1,000 last week had kept everyone -- from policymakers to bankers to the general public to media -- busy. So while people queued up outside banks and ATMs, reporters lined up outside offices of top bureaucrats in the finance ministry and fired salvos at bankers, RBI officials or whoever they could find coming out of the north block, which houses the ministry.

So when the band of reporters from television channels, newspapers and digital media caught sight of top banker KV Kamath, everyone quickly gathered around him, and soon, questions were flying from all directions.

Suddenly a voice from the crowd rose above the others: Ratan Tata is here to meet finance minister.

In no time, the entire press crew was running towards finance minister Arun Jaitleys office.

Ratan Tata emerged out of the elevator and slowly walked towards Jaitleys office, giving a deaf ear to the flood of questions that came his way .

The meeting went on for almost an hour.

Finance ministry officials were quick to dodge the questions on the outcome of the Tata-Jaitley meeting. But reporters had found their story -- after all, this is one of the biggest, if not the biggest boardroom battle in Indias corporate history. The statements and counter statements from Tata Sons and Cyrus Mistry have already taken up a considerable amount of news time, with everyone trying to give a new twist to the tale.

This was also the first meeting between the Tatas and the government (there have been rumours that the 78-year-old Tata patriarch had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier, though it could not be confirmed).

The government has already made it clear that in the event of a complaint from a shareholder or an independent director, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs will launch a probe into the allegations made by Cyrus Mistry about corporate governance violations at the Tata Group. Market regulator Sebi is also said to be looking into the issue to avoid violations of corporate governance rules.

But there have been speculations that independent directors of Tata group companies have sought appointments with Jaitley, at a time when Tata Sons has reportedly initiated moves to oust veteran industrialist Nusli Wadia as an independent director, for siding with Mistry.

Did Tatas meeting with Jaitley was a precursor to that meeting?

Thats a question Ratan Tata was best suited to answer. But he chose not to do so as he walked out of the north block and rode away.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government on a plea challenging a state law that allots bungalows to former Chief Ministers on their request.

Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre issued the notice on a plea by NGO Lok Prahari challenging the amended law.

The NGO was represented by its General Secretary and former bureaucrat SN Shukla.

Apparently, the amended law was brought to nullify the top courts verdict that barred the allotment of bungalows to former Chief Ministers.

The court directed six former Chief Ministers to vacate their bungalows.
Demonetisation will be the BJPs key theme of an upcoming publicity blitzkrieg in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, where its three major rival parties have been forced to slow down political activities ever since the centres withdrawal of two high-value banknotes last week.

If the ruling Samajwadi Party, the Congress and former chief minister Mayawatis BSP criticised the BJP-led Narendra Modi government invalidating Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes from November 9, two of them have either cancelled or deferred campaign programmes in the countrys most populous state that will elect a new assembly early next year.

In contrast, the BJP believes the currency-scrapping has helped the political discourse change in its favour on black money, and is claiming a positive feedback from people.

Read | Dont be defensive over demonetisation, PM tells allies as oppn mounts pressure

The saffron party has launched 75 video vans to know UPs Mann ki Baat, which the BJP now thinks will help its strategists analyse the public mood. The BJP could even ask its cadre to undertake a quick survey on the issue, sources said.

Four Parivartan Raths the party has rolled out in UP are also playing up the union governments fight against black money. BJP strategists are not unduly worried about people queuing up outside banks and ATMs to get new currency.

If anything, the party is hoping the political criticism over the demonetisation will lead to a polarisation in its favour by positioning itself as a force keen to fight black money, terror funding, hawala and fake currency.

Before November 8, the NDA government at the Centre was dealing with a political onslaught over the pre-poll promise of bringing back black money and depositing Rs 15 lakh in the bank account of every citizen. The attack was expected to intensify in poll-bound states, including UP. However, by scrapping high-value banknotes, the party has tried to take the moral high ground by saying the move would cleanse politics.

Read | Tackling Behenji: Ahead of UP polls, PM Modi wary of Mayawatis influence

It is in public knowledge that black money was majorly used in politics, state BJP general secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak said. The decision will result in cleaner elections and politics. It is a historic decision by the prime minister.

While the UP government has appealed to the Centre to relax the deadline of demonetisation in public interest, the BSP has dubbed the move as anti-poor.

Chief minister Akhilesh Yadavs SP is now reworking the dates for a second leg of its Vikas se Vijay Rath Yatra that was scheduled to start from Jhansi on Monday to cover the Bundelkhand region.

We will release the revised schedule of the rath yatra in a day or two, SP spokesperson and cabinet minister Rajendra Chowdhary told HT. The campaign to highlight the achievements of the Akhilesh regime, which was flagged off by SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav from Lucknow on November 3, will restart by end-November.

The party has two other important events lined up: the November 22 birthday celebrations of SP founder-president president Mulayam, who is to turn 78. A day after that event in Lucknow, the top leader was to launch of his poll campaign from Ghazipur in eastern UP.

The birthday celebrations are now expected to be low-key. The Akhilesh-headed Janeshwar Mishra Trust, which decided to organise the birthday bash, has just one billboard outside its office congratulating netaji (Mulayam) on his 78th birthday.

As for the Congress, its move for early distribution of party tickets for the 2017 assembly elections will also be delayed to the middle or end of December or even later. Initially, the Congress proposed to begin distribution of tickets by November-end or early December.

Read | Demonetisation slows down political activities in UP ahead of polls

Yes, we wanted to declare our tickets early, said state Congress chief Raj Babbar. But we will delay the announcement of tickets by a week or two in the wake of the demonetisation. We are concerned about peoples problems.

He told HT that the situation is going from bad to worse, adding the party will begin distributing tickets after watching the situation for some time.

Also, there is a delay in the partys plan to send 200 teams of Dalit leaders to reach out state-wide to nearly 8,000 villages dominated by that community.

We are concerned about the problems the people are facing, said a senior Congress leader. We do not want to further upset them now. We will rework our programme.

The Congress Rahul Sandesh Yatra had ended in different districts on November 10.

BJP chief Amit Shah had on Saturday said demonetisation will help the countrys economy. The decision will bring down the prices of essential commodities and make flats affordable for the common people, he added.

Read | BJP not yet decided on projecting CM face in UP polls: Amit Shah

A day after the PM announced the decision, Union home minister Rajnath Singh, who was on a visit to western UP, was the first leader to describe the move as surgical strike II that will cripple terror funding.

More union ministers and CMs of BJP-ruled states are expected to whip up patriotic fervour in poll-bound states and dub those opposing the move as corrupt.

Also read | For BJP, Cong, Uttar Pradesh election a dress rehearsal for Lok Sabha polls
Supreme Court refused to stay on Monday the governments notification demonetising Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes but asked it to spell out the steps taken to minimise public inconvenience.

We will not be granting any stay, a bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and D Y Chandrachud said.

The remarks were made when the court was hearing petitions challenging governments demonetisation decision.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for one of the petitioners, however, said he was not asking for a stay on the notification but seeking answers from the government about the steps taken to remove public inconvenience.

The bench asked Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi to file an affidavit about the measures already undertaken by the government and the RBI to minimise public inconvenience and also the steps likely to be undertaken in future.

Without issuing any notice to the Centre or the RBI, the bench posted the matter for further hearing on November 25.

During the hearing, the Chief Justice said the objective seems to be laudable but there is some inconvenience also to the public at large.

The bench also said, You (Centre) can have surgical strike against black money but you cannot have surgical strike against people of the country.

At the outset, the Centre which had filed a caveat in the matter, sought dismissal of the petitions challenging demonetisation on several grounds including that they were misconceived.

Attorney General (AG) Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Centre, outlined the idea behind demonetisation and said large number of fake currency has been used to finance terrorism in various parts of the country including in Jammu and Kashmir and northeastern states.

He, however, agreed with the bench that some inconvenience to common citizens occurs as this kind of surgical strike is bound to have some kind of collateral damage.

He also said there were as many as 24 crore bank accounts including 22 crore opened under the Jan Dhan Scheme and the Centre was hopeful to ramp up the outflow of the cash to banks, post offices and two lakh ATMs across the country.

Two lakh ATM machines could not have been deliberated in advance to be in tune with new notes as the cash would have been out of the banks, Rohatgi said, adding that secrecy is the key to such actions.

Rohatgi said there were approximately one lakh branches of various banks and two lakh ATMs besides the post offices across the country to dispense cash to common people and the restriction on withdrawal is there to ensure that the money be paid to maximum number of people.

He summed up the submission contending that there was no legal basis for opposing the Centres move to demonetise the higher denomination currency notes aimed at catching big fish which the previous governments failed to do in last 50 years.

He said the Centre has complied with section 26(2) of the RBI Act and the present surgical strike has to be seen in the context of safety and security of the nation, its border, and financial terrorism unleashed through fake currency.

The attack is on those who have stashed huge amount of currency, he said, adding that the surgical strike of this nature has to be carried out in complete secrecy and it was not possible to come out with Rs 10 lakh crore of currency in one go as there was a need for recalibration of ATM machines across the country.

Read| Check against repeated exchange of notes: Banks to use indelible ink

The AG was assisted by a team of lawyers, including two Additional Solicitors General, and a senior official from the finance ministry.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for one of the petitioners Adil Alvi, said the petition has also challenged the constitutional validity of the notification as the provision of the Reserve Bank of India Act has not been complied with.

He referred to section 26(2) of the Act and said the government was not authorised to demonetise all series of currency notes of high denominations in one go.

There has to be a legislation if the government wants to demonetise the entire series of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, Sibal said, adding that in 1978, a law was brought to demonetise the currency notes of particular denominations.

Sibal then highlighted the inconvenience faced by the common people in getting their own money from banks and ATMs and said it was a surgical strike against the common man.

The apex court, on November 10, had agreed to hear pleas against the November 8 decision of the Narendra Modi government that these notes are no longer a legal tender.

Out of the four PILs on the demonetisation issue, two were filed by Delhi-based lawyers Vivek Narayan Sharma and Sangam Lal Pandey, while two others were filed by individuals, S Muthukumar and Adil Alvi.

Read| Bleeding notes to temple cash: 5 things govt wants you to know on demonetisation

The petitioners had alleged that the sudden decision has created chaos and harassment to public at large and the notification of the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance be either quashed or deferred for some time.

Sharma, in his plea, had termed the notification of DEA as dictatorial, claiming that it did not grant reasonable time to citizens for exchanging the specified bank notes to legitimate notes to avoid large scale mayhem, life threatening difficulties.

The plea also sought either quashing of the notification or a direction to the Centre for grant of reasonable time frame to citizens to exchange the demonetised currency notes to avoid difficulties being faced by the people.

The Prime Minister, in a televised address to the nation, had declared that high denomination notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 will no longer be legal tender from November 8-9 midnight. He had said the Government has declared a decisive war against black money and corruption.

For full coverage on crackdown on black money, click here
Former Karnataka minister G Janardhana Reddy appears to have pulled out all the stops to organise a lavish wedding for his daughter, going to the extent of recreating the 16th century Vijayanagara palace.

A model of the palace will be built at the Bengaluru Palace Grounds for the November 16 wedding. The Bellary mining baron, who is an accused in several money laundering cases, has also constructed a replica of the Tirumala temple at the ground.

While guests were allowed to enter the wedding venue on Monday, an army of private security personnel prowled the compound to ensure that nobody clicked photographs of the sets, believed to have been designed by Bollywood art directors.

Local media is abuzz with rumours that Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan will perform at a wedding function on Tuesday but the claim could not be confirmed.

However, there are already voices of dissent emerging with state health and family welfare minister KR Ramesh Kumar stating that he will not attend the wedding. Kumar had tabled a private members Bill in the state assembly seeking to discourage lavish weddings.

The Reddy brothers have so far remained tight lipped over the matter despite repeated queries.

Eyebrows have been raised over the extravagant nature of the wedding, especially due to the fact that Janardhana is currently out on bail in graft cases. Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, however, downplayed the opposition to the grand affair, stating it was for the I-T department to look into the matter.
A retired school teacher died on Sunday after he waited outside a bank for eight hours in Jalaun, 200 km from Kanpur, to withdraw money for his daughters wedding.

70-year-old Raghunath Verma was expected to travel to Bhind in Madhya Pradesh to preside over his daughters Tilak ceremony on November 16, after securing enough cash for marriage expenses.

Verma went to the State Bank of Indias Madhogarh branch early Sunday morning but was beaten to the counter by least 1,000 people. He had to wait until evening for his turn.

All through the day he pleaded the bank officials to help him withdraw the amount early.

Raghunath Vermas son Ravi Verma said, We needed Rs 2 lakh for the marriage expenses. My father went to the bank for three days. He had spoken to the bank manager many times asking him to help with the withdrawal and exchange. The manager did not listen to him.

He even fell on the managers feet on Saturday, Ravi added.

After eight straight hours, Raghunath slumped to the ground after he suffered a cardiac arrest and was rushed to a community health centre (CHC) nearby.

He was declared dead on arrival.

My father was restless when I spoke to him over the phone. There was so much to do. He was worried to carry on with the marriage as we were unable to meet the expenses. This decision of the government has been a double whammy, my sisters marriage has been postponed and we have lost our father.

Madhogarh circle officer, Naveen Kumar, has confirmed the incident. He said he was informed about the death of the person while he was standing in a queue.

Raghunath resided in Ambedkar Nagar in Madhogarh with his family after he retired from a local primary school. His daughter is the youngest of his two children.

Thousands of people lined up hours before banks opened in towns and cities across the country, prompted by fears that ATMs would soon run dry, on day 7 of the demonetisation drive.

According to official statements, the situation is unlikely to improve for at least two-three weeks, which is the time it will take banks to recalibrate ATMs to start dispensing the new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 banknotes.
In 2014, the Delhi high court granted divorce to an 85-year-old man after a legal battle spanning 32 years that ruined all hopes of resuming a married life.

This is an unfortunate case where the parties have spent more than half of their (married) lives in the alleys of the courts, the high court had said, expressing anguish over the slow process of justice.

But instead of being an exception, this case is part of a larger malaise afflicting the Indian judicial system.

Delay in disposal of cases, not only creates disillusionment amongst the litigants, but also undermines the capability of the system to impart justice in an efficient and effective manner, former Supreme Court judge BN Agrawal had said.

At times, delay in justice delivery can have serious consequences as has been witnessed in the case of a minor rape victim from Bareilly who gave birth to an unwanted child after being denied permission to abort her foetus.

Vacancies of judges

With about 30 million cases pending in various courts across the country, Indian judiciary is struggling to clear a huge backlog. If on an average three persons are involved in a case, then there are at least 90 million people waiting for justice. Bulk of these cases is pending in subordinate courts thronged by poor litigants  who bear the brunt of the snail-paced system.Bulk of these cases is pending in subordinate courts thronged by poor litigants  who bear the brunt of the snail-paced system.

Of late, the problem has been compounded by the unprecedented increase in judicial vacancies across the three tiers of Judiciary.

Official figures show, the SC is short of five judges, 24 HCs have 464 vacant judges post and 4,166 at the subordinate courts. Two more SC judges are due to retire this month.

Appointment to the Supreme Court and high courts are done by a collegium of the top court. But judges in the subordinate courts are appointed by the state high court.

The stand-off between the government and the Supreme Court collegium over a memorandum of procedure has made things worse for judicial appointments in the higher judiciary.

Noted senior advocate and former Law Commission member KTS Tusli told HT that the tussle between the government and the Supreme Court has adversely affected the efficiency of the judiciary.

The arrears are mounting and new appointments are not being made, Tusli said.

While the judiciary has been targeting the government over appointment of judges in the Supreme Court and high courts, it could well be held responsible for the huge vacancy of subordinate court judges.

Judge-population ratio

In 2010, justice VV Rao of the Andhra Pradesh high court said it would take 320 years for the Indian judiciary to clear the millions of pending cases.

This is primarily due to poor-judge-population ratio. With a sanctioned strength of 21,000-odd judges, subordinate courts are under tremendous pressure as almost a quarter of the posts remain vacant, thanks to lack of advance planning and a poor recruitment policy.

Despite the Law Commission and the Supreme Court recommending that India should have 50 judges per one million people, the ratio continues to be abysmally low at 17 judges per one million people.

This is nothing compared to the US, the UK and Australia which have a judge-population ratio of 107, 51 and 41 respectively.

The Department of Justice has said the problem of shortage of judges is being addressed through a two-pronged strategy. Firstly, by filling up the large number of vacancies and secondly, increasing the sanctioned strength of judges.

In April, 2012 the Supreme Court issued a direction for creation of 10% additional posts in the subordinate judiciary.

Why is it getting worse?

Although the number of judges increased six-fold in the last three decades, the number of cases too shot up 12-fold, said a 2012 report of the National Court Management Systems (NCMS).

Even by conservative estimates, the number of cases reaching courts will touch 15 crore, requiring at least 75,000 judges in the next three decades, the report said.

With growing literacy and income, more and more people are likely to approach courts, contributing to the burgeoning backlog of cases.

States such as Delhi, Kerala and Haryana -- which fare better on the socio-economic scales -- have a relatively higher rate of institution than states such as Jharkhand and Bihar which have low institution per annum.

India needs 70,000 judges

Perhaps, it was for this reason that chief justice TS Thakur said the country needed more than 70,000 judges to clear the arrears.

While speaking about the problem, the CJI almost broke down in April in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a large number of judges and advocates.

You cant shift the entire blame onto judges. If you compare the performance of Indian judges with those in other countries, we are head and shoulders above them. The entire US Supreme Court - nine judges sitting together - decides 81 cases in a year. But an Indian judge -- a munsif or a Supreme Court judge  decides 2,600 cases a year, Thakur said.

The government and the judiciary need to sort out their differences over appointments before the common man loses his faith in the justice dispensation system.

This is the first instalment of our three-part on what ails the Indian judiciary. Look out for the second part which looks at the crumbling infrastructure.
Maintaining that the state of panic among people is on the decline following the constant flow of cash at banks and ATMs, State Bank of India (SBI) chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya said the bank will soon start dispensing Rs 50 and Rs 20 notes to further help the public.

The SBI chief told ANI that in all of their branches in the southern states, the workload has dropped to almost 50%, which is a sure sign that people are assured that they will receive the money at their own convenience.

However, talking about the inconvenience caused to the masses with ATMs running out of cash faster than expected, Bhattacharya said ATMs are emptying out fast because it has a fixed space for notes of Rs 100 and also the dimension of the new notes has changed.

But what takes the most time is manual recalibration. A person has to come and physically add the money when it runs out. We hope and are trying that we can sort this problem by end of November. And if the chaos subsides by then, we will also start dispensing Rs 50 and 20 notes in coming days, she said.

Read | In dearth of cash, Delhis local shops run on trust, credit and generosity

The government has set up a special task force headed by the deputy governor of the RBI to expedite the process of recalibrating the ATMs to make them fully functional. The task force will work with banks in this direction.

Addressing the media in New Delhi about Prime Ministers meeting on Sunday to review the demonetisation and its impact, economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das on Monday said the ATM recalibration has started and some of the ATMs will start dispensing higher denominations, including Rs 2000 notes, from Tuesday or Wednesday.

The ATM limit has also been increased to Rs 2,500, but it will be disbursed from only recalibrated machines.

Saying that there is no need for the public to panic, Das assured that there was enough cash available in the system and the situation will ease in the coming days.

Also, toll tax will not be collected till the midnight of November 18 to ensure smooth traffic movement across all national highways, given the cash crunch.

Read | In course correction after demonetisation, govt eases cash withdrawal norms

On Sunday night, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting at his residence with senior ministers to review demonetisation and its impact.

The meeting was attended by home minister Rajnath Singh, finance minister Arun Jaitley, information and broadcasting minister Venkaiah Naidu, power, coal and mines minister Piyush Goyal and top officials of the finance ministry.

After a review by the finance ministry, the limit of old Rs 500 and 1,000 notes that can be exchanged was increased from Rs 4,000 to Rs 4,500 per day.

The time limit for certain transactions using scrapped Rs 500 and 1,000 notes was also extended to November 24 midnight. Old currency will be accepted at government hospitals, railways and bus ticket counters, airports, petrol pumps, milk booths authorised by state governments, crematoria and burial grounds.

Cash withdrawal limit at ATMs was hiked to Rs 2,500 from 2,000 a day. The weekly limit of Rs 20,000 for withdrawal from bank counters was increased to Rs 24,000, the daily withdrawal limited of Rs 10,000 was scrapped.

The finance ministry has also extended the last date for submission of the annual life certificate for pensioners from November to January 15 next year.

Also Read | By hook or by cook: 10 smart ways people are using to get cash
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would hear the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue in due course of time, but didnt fix a date for the same.

Hearing a petition filed by a lawyer on behalf of a NGO for criminal contempt of court against Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son and deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal, a bench headed by Chief Justice of India TS Thakur decided to take up the SYL matter in due course of time.

According to the petitioner, both the Badals said they would not follow the apex courts order on the SYL canal issue.

The court on Thursday termed the law passed by Punjab in 2004 to terminate the SYL canal water sharing agreement with neighbouring states as unconstitutional.

Holding that the Punjab Termination of Agreement Act 2004 was not in conformity with the provisions of the Constitution, the court answered in the negative all the four questions referred to it in a presidential reference.

A constitution bench of the court ruled that Punjab could not have taken a unilateral decision to terminate the agreement with Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Chandigarh to share of the Ravi-Beas river waters.

Read | Punjab defies Supreme Court, to return SYL land to farmers

Responding to the apex courts order, Sukhbir had said that Punjab would not share water with any other state.

A decision taken at an emergency meeting of the Punjab cabinet said that Punjab Government would not allow the SYL to be built at any cost nor a single brick would be allowed to be laid for its construction by any agency, said Sukhbir.

Badal said, As far as legal steps are concerned, advocate will advise us on what can be legally done. Our main aim is to not let the water go, and we will do anything for that. We want to assure people of Punjab that only we can do this, and resignation in Congress is just a drama.

Read | Will not accept court verdict on sharing river water with Haryana: Badal

Punjab plunged into a political crisis after the Supreme Court ruled that a state law scrapping water-sharing agreements with other states is unconstitutional.

The court also ruled that the SYL canal, which is at the centre of a row between Punjab and Haryana, has to be completed.

After the apex courts order, Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh resigned from his Lok Sabha seat.

Also read | Why SYL is a canal of controversy between Punjab and Haryana
The BJPs ally, Shiv Sena, has decided register its disapproval of the Union governments demonetisation plan on a national level  by joining a protest led by the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, which has been one of the fiercest critics of the Narendra Modi-led government.

Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray spoke to Banerjee on the phone on Monday night. In a meeting with his partys MPs on Tuesday, Thackeray directed them to join the protest march of several opposition parties to Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wednesday.

Uddhavsaheb told us that the party is not against Modi, but this is a question of peoples life. Moreover, he said, if Modi can walk along Sharad Pawar, why cant Shiv Sena walk along Mamata Banerjee? a Sena leader said. Besides, he is not just talking to Banerjee. He is also talking to the BJP and recently voiced the Senas concerns to finance minister Arun Jaitley as well.

Sanjay Raut, a Rajya Sabha MP from Shiv Sena, said the party will knock on all doors possible to ensure people are not inconvenienced in the demonetisation process. We will also seek an appointment with the prime minister for this. We are not looking at who is in the opposition and who the ruling party is. We are looking at 1.25 billion Indians.

The Trinamool Congress has been getting in touch with opposition and regional parties, attempting to unite them against the governments flash decision of decommissioning currency of the denomination of Rs500 and Rs1,000, which has inconvenienced several citizens. Banerjee plans to meet President Pranab Mukherjee along with Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders.

BJP is a national party and it has completely marginalised and dominated regional parties. It is time that regional parties start uniting on issues concerning public welfare, a Sena MP said.

One of Shiv Senas main demands is that the government should allow district cooperative banks to accept old decommissioned Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes for new currency. As of now, the Reserve Bank of India has said district cooperative banks will not be allowed to exchange old currency for new one.

Shiv Sena MP from south central Mumbai Rahul Shewale said, There are at least 14,000 villages in the country where nationalised banks are not there. In many other places, there is one nationalised bank for as many as 25 villages. Demonetisation has disrupted all activity here. Similarly, even private hospitals should be allowed to accept the decommissioned currency.

This is not the first time the Sena is joining forces with the opposition against the BJP-led government, despite being an ally. Last year, too, the Sena, which had reservations against the land acquisition bill, joined a meeting of opposition parties to work out a strategy of how to best quash proposed changes in the 2013 law. At the state level too, the Sena has sided with the opposition to stall proceedings of the legislature, the most recent being over the issue of a separate statehood for Vidarbha.

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Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday called the demonetisation as a massive scam and asked the BJP-led central government what would it do to reduce the inconvenience caused to the common people. He also alleged that the decision was a knee-jerk move by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and was doubtful on whether finance minister Arun Jaitley was aware of the same.

Referring to various posts on the internet, Gandhi alleged that several high and mighty people already knew about the decision. He pointed out that the West Bengal unit of the BJP had deposited large sums just before the decision was announced. There were pictures of some BJP workers showing new currency of Rs 2,000 on internet. There needs to be an inquiry into it,he said.

I spoke to (former prime minister) Manmohan Singh and other economists. They said there is no economic rationale behind the move. The big people with black money are let scot free while the common man is suffering. Mallya and Lalit Modi are sitting abroad, said Gandhi. Are you seeing any black-money players like builders standing in the queue. It is only the common man and poor farmers who are there..the entire issue is handled without any planning, rued Gandhi. There will be consequences of this decision which may hurt everybody,he said.

Gandhi questioned the logic of issuing Rs2,000 currency notes. You have cancelled Rs1,000 notes saying it encourages black money and at the same time introduced Rs 2000 currency..

Gandhi reached Mumbai in the evening to attend proceedings of a court in Bhiwandi in connection with a private complaint filed in 2014 by a RSS worker Rajesh Kunte who alleged that Rahul Gandhi had defamed the Rashtriya Swayamseval Sangh (RSS) by linking it to Mahatma Gandhis assassination.

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The Maharashtra police have released a list of helpline numbers to redress complaints over the demonetisation of Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes in the state.

The police have appealed to cash-strapped people to report their grievances through phone call, SMS or WhatsApp on mobile numbers made available for all cities and districts.

The police will forward complaints to the respective departments for the redressal.

Read: Accept cheques for medical emergencies:Maharashtra to pvt hospitals

Satish Mathur, Maharashtra director general of police, said they have decided to lend a helping hand to the people who have been inconvenienced at ATMs and banks.

Since the Modi government announced the shock decision to scrap the high-value denominations on November 8, there have been instances wherein hospitals and petrol pumps have refused to accept the demonetised banknotes.

Although the Mumbai police do not have a WhatsApp number, they can be contacted via their Twitter account, website and the control room numbers on the site.

Here are the helpline numbers of major cities in the state

State police control room

7506777100 / 7506888100

Mumbai

22621855/3054 /5020, 2263333

Navi Mumbai

8424820665 / 8428820686

Thane

9769724127/ 9969365100

Pune

8975283100 / 8975953100

Nagpur

8055876773 / 8055472422

Nashik

2305233 / 2305234

Amravati

9923078646 / 9923078696

Aurangabad

8390022222 / 7741022222

Solapur

9422950003 / 9423880004
After a 13-hour rescue operation, three two-month-old leopard cubs were reunited with their mother by forest officials on Sunday at a farm near Vadgaon Rasai village in Shirur district of Maharashtra, almost 80 kilometres from Pune.

The farmers from the village spotted the leopard cubs  two male and a female  huddled together in a sugarcane field during the early hours of Sunday morning.

We are used to spotting leopards in our field but were surprised to see the cubs all alone, said a farmer adding, We immediately informed the forest department.

A team of seven people from the Junnar forest division and members of Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre (MLRC), a part of non-profit organisation Wildlife SOS, reached the spot and carried out a medical test and began the search for their mother.

According to forest officers, the villagers spotted the mother in the vicinity, and by the evening, the team arranged for the cubs to be returned close to the field where they were first spotted, adjacent to a dense forest.

Veterinarians checked the cubs for ticks and injuries and the examination confirmed that they were healthy. If a leopard is unable to locate her cubs, she can turn defensive or aggressive, which can result in man-leopard conflict incidents for villagers in the area, said Dr Ajay Deshmukh, senior veterinarian, MLRC, adding that the group tracked the location where the mother last left the cubs through her pug-marks, left the cubs there and waited till she returned.

Later in the evening, the mother was spotted entering the farm from the forest area to the same spot and on finding that her cubs were safe; she quickly rushed them towards the forest.

The Shirur region has a significant leopard population and due to the rapid loss of the forest cover, these animals have found safe cover in the dense sugarcane fields, said SR Unde, forest guard. Dogs, goats and other livestock, easily available in these areas, make up the prey base for these animals.

Members of Wildlife SOS said, over the years, more than 40 lost or injured leopard cubs were reunited with their mother by the group from densely forested areas in Maharashtra. The tall sugarcane fields provide a safe cover for these animals but this also triggers conflict situations when the farmers move into the fields to cut down the stalks, said Kartick Satyanarayan, cofounder, Wildlife SOS.

Instances of leopard cubs being reunited with their mother

September 17, 2016: A one-and-half-month-old male leopard cub, separated from its mother, was rescued and reunited from a sugarcane field near Sangamner, Ahmednagar, by forest officials

July 5, 2015: Forest officials rescued a three-month-old leopard cub from a dry well at Vadgaon, Anand village, in Junnar taluka of Pune district. It was reunited with its mother after a 10-hour search and rescue operation

May 4, 2015: Wildlife authorities at Narayangaon range in Junnar in Pune district reunited four leopard cubs, separated from their mother early, after treating them at a local rescue centre

Man-animal conflicts at Junnar have decreased

The population of leopards is more in non-forest areas, which are full of sugarcane and banana farms. Due to the availability of dogs and pigs in the area, they are frequently sighted. However, with several different rescue teams functioning, the number of conflicts has decreased, said VA Dhokte, deputy conservator of Junnar forests.

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The Mumbai police has not received any notification pertaining to the ban on televangelist Zakir Naiks Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) and awaits one to initiate further action. The IRF headquarter is located in Dongri and its activities were investigated on chief minister Devendra Fadnavis orders.

We are yet to receive a notification of the order. Only once we get it, can we decide upon the execution of the action ordered. There is still no clarity on the specifics of the action and technically what has been banned, joint police commissioner Deven Bharti told Hindustan Times.

A separate probe was initiated by the Special Branch (SB), Mumbai polices intelligence wing and the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) focusing on the managerial and monetary aspects of the IRF. The SB rummaged through several published material and audio records of Naiks sermons that were in public domain and the cops found it controversial after studying it.

The EOW, on the other hand, found funds to the tune of several lakhs that were received by the IRF as religious funds and were allegedly being used for other purposes, which amounted to Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) violations. Central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) were also part of the enquiry against Naik and the IRF.

During the course of investigation, the SB had also unearthed the editing studio of Naiks banned Peace TV channel which operated from another building near the IRFs office in Dongri. The studio, which operated under the name Harmony Media Pvt Ltd, compiled Naiks sermons which were to be shipped to other countries and aired in at least half a dozen foreign languages. The channel was banned is India few years ago.

The probe also linked one of the IRFs employees Arshi Qureshi, a guest relationship manager, to a group of 22 men who went missing from Kerala. The probe was being conducted by the Kerala police and was assisted by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), which led to startling revelations of how IRF was also part of the conversion rackets in the city.

Hindustan Times had reported that over 800 people, who mainly belonged to Kerala and Tamil Nadu, were indoctrinated by IRF with the help of their local operatives and were brought to Mumbai. Here they were taken to different places in Dongri-Mazgaon belt and were converted to Islam with the help of maulvi Rizwan Khan.

Both Khan and Qureshi were arrested and a radicalisation case was registered with the Nagpada police in Mumbai after Abdul Majeed Kadar Khan, 60, father of Ashfaq  one of the missing Kerala youth  lodged a complaint. Mumbai crime branch, which probed the case, later had recovered the conversion documents of 60 persons from Khans Kalyan home. These included papers of Bestin Vincent (now Yayha), Merin Jacob (Marriyam) and Nimisha (Fatima), who were part of the group of 22 feared to have joined ISIS. Bestin, Merin and Nimisha travelled to Dubai and then to Tehran. They are believed to have entered ISIS-controlled territory via the Afghanistan border.

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When Uddhav Thackeray first expressed his ire against the Union governments demonetisation policy, the Shiv Senas detractors made out that Bal Thackeray had loads of money in Swiss banks and his heirs had been put to a lot of trouble to change the biometrics on the accounts to gain access after him.

But having observed the Sena for decades, I know as a matter of fact that Thackeray did not believe in banks, let alone Swiss banks. And even if his former daughter-in-laws name may have come up in one such Swiss account, Thackeray never needed to hoard his money in such manner.

For the Shiv Sena has been the only party in the country where workers fund party activities, unlike all others in the country where leaders disburse money to workers to contest elections and for other purposes. Now Uddhav has hardened his stance against the demonetisation by openly declaring that the Union government has triggered an economic crisis by outlawing notes of Rs500 and Rs1,000 denomination. Saamna has been immensely critical of the policy and even Aditya Thackeray has tweeted about its bad execution. The general feeling is that with a series of local self government elections underway in the state at the moment and those to the bigger municipal corporations due in a couple of months, most political parties, including the Shiv Sena which stood a better chance than the BJP at these polls, have had their noses rubbed out of the business.

But that is too simplistic an understanding of how enterprising our political parties and leaders really are. A day after the policy announcement, there was indeed a lot of panic among the contestants across districts going to the polls. Campaigns even came to a halt. But, as I discovered. it did not take very long for them to bounce back and turn the situation to their advantage. It was business as usual in a day or two. The trouble that the poorer people in this country and those from the hinterland  who will be the main voters at these elections  were put to in accessing their own money, has been cynically seen as a bonus by most opposition parties.

The BJP was already at a disadvantage at the grassroots before the demonetisation and many Congress and NCP workers were placing bets that they would together win at least 70 per cent of the rural and semi-urban seats in the state. Now they are giving themselves a better chance because peoples  and particularly farmers  ire against the government is at its peak and not likely to subside before at least the first round of elections being held at the end of this month.

Even with regard to the worthless cash that the contestants might now be holding in large amounts, it is apparent that these elections are offering an opportunity for painless conversion. For example, a friends maid in one of these non-metro towns had already given notice that she would not be around for a few days during the polls because she did not want to miss out on the sari, dhoti and cash that was expected to be distributed to all voters in her village in the week before the elections. But she hit a jackpot after the demonetisation  she was expecting to get only Rs500 from each candidate but now bundles of useless notes are being fobbed off on voters like her who do not even have a bank account or an ATM card. She is now happily queuing up at the post office to change that money.

From stories like hers, I gather that all contestants of all political hues are being extra generous to their voters at these elections. In addition, the Congress and the NCP are being extra solicitous about helping the people through the conversion of their currency and Shiv Sena workers too have caught on to the act.

Perhaps that is why it took a few days for the partys leaders, who are in alliance with the government both at the Centre and in the state, to work out a position that does not oppose the policy and yet seems to stand alongside others critical of the demonetisation.

But, I suspect, secretly all at these elections are pleased at the situation  even they could not have ordered it better in their own interest.

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The district police are reportedly under pressure from leaders of the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) to give a clean chit to liquor contractors booked for allegedly murdering an ex-serviceman at Thathi Bhai village in Smalsar here. It is learnt that the police have decided to exclude the names of the liquor contractors from the first information report (FIR).

On the night of November 3, Beant Singh, 35, a retired army havaldar and a resident of Cheeda village, had gone to a liquor vend owned by Sunny Gill and Harjinder Singh. He objected to liquor being sold at a higher price. Following this, three workers beat him up to death at the behest of their contractors.

The liquor shop had reportedly been sealed by the excise department recently because of non-renewal of its licence. Notwithstanding, the contractors continued to openly sell liquor from a vehicle parked outside their shop at exorbitant rates.

On November 4, Smalsar police had booked five people, including Sunny Gill and Harjinder Singh, and their aides Sant Ram, Jagdeep Singh alias Giani of Moga and Jeet Singh of Smalsar, on charges of murder.

Sources say Gill, who is said to be close to some SAD leaders, has meddled in the investigation to clear his name from the case. Gill has liquor business interests in Moga, Ludhiana, and Sangrur and reportedly also owns shares in Fastway Cable Network Company that is allegedly owned by the Badals.

The police have failed to arrest any of the five accused booked in the case even after 10 days. When asked about no arrest in the case, Bhupinder Singh, station house officer, Smalsar, said the police would arrest the accused after completing the investigation and this will take another week. He added, There is no role of the liquor contractors in the crime as they were not present on the spot when the crime took place. The police are still investigating the case. However, Jaspal Singh, deputy superintendent of police, Baghapurana, confirmed that the accused have managed to arrange the inquiry in the case.

Snehdeep Sharma, senior superintendent of police, Moga. was not available for comments.

Meanwhile, the deceaseds cousin Jaswant said he was not aware of any development in the case as the family was busy in the bhog ceremony of Beant, which concluded on Sunday.

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Most of the automated teller machines (ATMs) in the tricity and its neighbourhood were running out of cash by noon on Monday, a bank holiday, forcing people to rush from one place to other to get banknotes of denomination other than Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.

The Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre had pulled these banknotes out of circulation last Tuesday. People had to wait at least for half an hour to withdraw cash from a few ATMs that were still dispensing cash.

At Bank Square in Sector 17, Chandigarh, all ATMs expect one ran out of cash by noon. Long queues were seen outside the lone working ATM of State Bank of India (SBI) there.

Bank holiday: No cash filled in ATMs

The machines were filled with cash yesterday so that they could cater to the rush of people on Monday. But people kept visiting the ATMs last night to withdraw cash, leaving these machines empty by morning, said a security guard at the Bank of Baroda (BoB) ATM in Sector 17.

A closed Bank of Baroda ATM in SAS Nagar. (Keshav Singh/HT Photo)

In Panchkula, all ATMs, barring a few, ran out of cash. The banks and post offices were closed due to Gurpurb, a gazetted holiday. Yes Bank, SBI and HDFC ATMs in Sector 6 were empty at 1pm. The situation was similar at the ATMs of these three banks in Sector 8. An HDFC ATM was made functional at around 3pm.

The ATM is not functioning since morning as there is no cash. We are referring people to other branches, said a guard at Bank of India in Sector 17, Chandigarh. I cannot stand in the queue any longer and therefore I have asked my friend to pitch in for me, said Sonal Dua, a student.

Also read| Desperate housewives forced to reveal secret savings to hubbies

Patients at the receiving end

At the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), among those waiting in a queue was MD Salim, a kidney patient who was leaving for Bihar, his home state, without buying sufficient medicines.

I had come to PGI for check-up on November 7. Doctors prescribed me some medicines, which cost around Rs 35,000 per month. The PGI chemists are not accepting debit cards and I cannot withdraw this much amount from ATMs, said Salim.

ATMs of SBI and ICICI Bank in Sector 11 were also out of cash. Only one the HDFC Bank ATM was working and there were long queues outside it.

In Sector 11, Panchkula, a long queue spilling onto the road at the ICICI ATM. It was the only ATM working in the market at that time. ATMs of Yes Bank, Corporation Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Vijaya Bank, Bank of Baroda and Syndicate Bank in Sector 11 were not working.

Around 2pm, only the Axis Bank ATM was operational at the Sector 10 market while those of IndusInd Bank, State Bank of India (SBI), Canara Bank and Central Bank of India were out of cash.

The ATMs of Andhra Bank and ICICI Bank in the Sector 7 market were not working.
Despite missing several deadlines, the construction work under southern bypass (from Ludhiana-Doraha), the state governments dream project launched in 2009 with much fanfare, is still going on at snails pace.Though the pending construction of the flyover near Doraha has been resumed recently, the work for construction of slip road from Pakhowal Road, Dugri Road, and near railway crossing is yet to be completed.

The speed limit and other caution boards have not been installed at various places on southern bypass roads despite some persons losing their lives in accidents. Even the unwanted diversions have not been closed, the road safety experts said.

In May, the PWD officials had claimed that the pending work on slip roads will be completed within one month, but to no avail. Even the construction of slipway from Pakhowal Road is pending.

The commuters from Pakhowal Road take a turn towards Jawaddi but they are using the wrong side to cover the distance of around 200 meters. Similarly, they drive vehicles on a wrong side from Dugri Bridge as the work on slipway towards Gill Road has not been completed till date.

Earlier, the public works department had claimed that it will be completed by December 2014 and then the officials claimed that it would take one more year but it is still incomplete.

Sources said the dream project with estimated cost of around Rs 328 crore was delayed due to lack of funds. Deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had also posted photos of the Southern Bypass on his Facebook page. However, the fact is that the project is still incomplete.

The department should ensure completion of the project at the earliest. The traffic jam is generally witnessed close to the old bridge near Doraha. The government should ensure installation of caution boards to avoid accidents,said Inderjit Raipur, a resident of Pakhowal Road.

In March, the cracks appeared on a railway overbridge (over Ludhiana-Ferozepur railway line) that is also part of Southern Bypass.

We are forced to travel in a wrong direction as the construction of slipway is not being completed. It is the responsibility of the authorities concerned to complete the work at the earliest,said Manjit Singh of Urban Estate.I will check the status of the project. Minor works on slip roads will be completed within next 20 days,said PWD superintending engineer Varinderjit Singh.

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Prem Mittal, 67, Shiromani Akali Dal

Prem Mittal (HT PHoto)

Constituency: Mansa

Education: Class 8

Assets declared in last polls: Rs 2 cr

Electoral record

2012: Defeated Congs Gurpreet Kaur Gagowal by 1,305 votes

2007: Did not contest; Sher Singh won the seat for the Congress

Assembly record

Questions asked: 12

Call attention moved: 0

Power punch From dominant trading community; risen from councillor level

What next Looking to contest from Ludhiana, his native area

How he performed

Mittal claims that his association with the top leadership got him a lot of grants which he distributed to NGOs, clubs, and schools. A first-time MLA, on the ground he was sidelined by the top SAD leadership. Most of the development work, including the construction of a Panchayat Bhawan, Mata Sundri Girls College; relinking of canals in villages, was anchored by Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal. Once in a public function he was publicly asked by CM Parkash Singh Badal to focus on attending bhogs (memorial) and weddings while developmental projects would be taken care of by Harsimrat. Despite having a business in Ludhiana, he shifted to Mansa and was accessible to people in his constituency. Now, though, he is looking to shift back to Ludhiana.

Voter speak

There are many projects related to education in limbo. Though he attended foundation-laying functions of the projects, none of them could get operational in his tenure.

Vishwadeep Singh Brar, 40, banker

Our MLA is always accessible in the constituency. Due to his close association with the ruling Badal family, the area has seen some development too.

Pawan Bansal, 50, cable operator.

By the way

An avid consumer of news across mediums

Janmeja Singh Sekhon,72,Shiromani Akali Dal

Janmeja Singh Sekhon (HT Photo)

Constituency: Maur

Education: Class 12

Assets declared in last polls: Rs 10 cr

Electoral record

2012: Defeated Mangat Rai Bansal of Congress by 1,387 votes

2007: Won from Ferozepur Cantt; this segment came up later in delimitation

Assembly record Minister of PWD

Power punch Related to CM Badal; is part of the SAD core team

What next Likely to get ticket again from this segment

How he performed

Factionalism in the SAD here and the behaviour of some people in his coterie have hit his image. He also suffered loss of face when some SAD men clashed with traders in the main town, Maur, on Diwali in 2014. People say he is not a very social figure, while opponents say the police targeted them due to political vendetta. However, as a senior minister in the Punjab cabinet, he managed to bring some development projects in the segment, including a sub-divisional office and complex. Being in-charge of the public works department (PWD), he has got work done on improving the roads, a new building for a girls school in Maur, paving of streets, and construction of drains in villages, besides sewerage in several areas.

Voter speak

The state of education and health hasnt seen improvement. Laying roads is not the only form of development. Opposition political workers have been targeted by police.

Mangat Rai, 40, electronics trader

The MLA has succeeded in pursuing several development works. Sewerage, streetlights and water supply works have witnessed visible progress.

Mohit Attri, 32, lawyer

By the way

Has a library at home; reads Sikh history

Tomorrow: Lehra, Dirba, Sunam, Bhadaur
Ajit Inder Singh Mofar, 66, Congress

Bathinda,India-November14,2016:Sardulgarh Ajit Inder Singh Mofar.Photo HT.

Constituency: Sardulgarh

Education: Class12

Assets declared in last polls: Rs 3 cr

Electoral record

2012: Defeated SAD candidate Dilraj Singh Bhunder by 2,732 votes

2007: Defeated SADs Balwinder Singh Bhunder by 4,552 votes

Assembly record

Questions asked: 92

Call attention moved: 2

Power punch His son is married to ex-CM Beant Singhs grand-daughter

What next Likely to get the ticket this time too

How he performed

Mofar is seen as a lone Congress voice opposing the Akalis and their strong leader Balwinder Singh Bhunder in the area. He has strong connect with the people as he often eats and drinks with ordinary folks. Being from the opposition, he has not been able to carry out major developmental work, though he claims to have set up a waterworks and also got done repair of roads in most villages. He says he managed to get funds from Congress MPs and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) to initiate development projects. He has been very vocal over the pollution of the river Ghaggar that flows through Sardulgarh; and blames the SAD-BJP government for it. His son is district unit chief of the Congress, and they have been active in protests against the government.

Voter speak

He is an opposition MLA, so could not do much. Most of the development work in the region was done by leaders of the ruling SAD-BJP alliance.

Jitender Singh Sodhi, 45, educationist

Our MLA has a grounded personality and, despite being a Congress MLA, he has been able to bring projects for development. He stood by the people against injustice by the government.

Sarban Bindal, 42, businessman.

By the way

An avid skater; athlete since young days

Chitan Singh Samao, 74, Shiromani Akali Dal

Chatan Singh Samao (HT photo)

Constituency: Budhlada (SC)

Education: Literate

Assets declared in last polls: Rs 6 lakh

Electoral record

2012: Defeated Congress candidate Satpal Singh by 6,448 votes

2007: Did not contest; Mangat Rai Bansal won this seat for Congress

Assembly record

Questions asked: 24

Call attention moved: 0

Power punch Rose from panchayat level as SC leader; ex-MP, was in SGPC

What next Wants to get his son to contest in his place

How he performed

Samao represents a seat that is a part of the Bathinda Lok Sabha segment of Union minister and SAD leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal. His tenure saw free flow of funds from the MP, and that led to construction of drain and canal distributaries in almost the entire rural area of Budhlada. In the last two years, his supporters and he have had repeated run-ins with officials of the police and district administration for which he has been publicly rebuked by deputy CM Sukhbir Badal and Harsimrat. Despite being a leader from Scheduled Castes (SC), he was rarely involved in SC issues in his constituency. Through his political clout, he has managed to place his own men in the local civic body of Budhlada. His critics claim that he has been eclipsed by some of his coterie members who call the shots.

Voter speak

The MLA has been very supportive and accessible to the people, and, being from the ruling party, he could manage to draw funds for some projects to the constituency.

Darshan Kumar, 62, retd banker

Nothing worth appreciation has been done in the last five years by the MLA as such. Broken roads, dying businesses and lack of education facilities remain.

Kailash Prashar, 50, doctor

By the way

Was once a dhadi (religious ballad singer).

Tomorrow: Lehra, Dirba, Sunam, Bhadaur
The Congress is in no mood to return any favours, at least not when the elections are barely three months away. When the Captain Amarinder Singh-led Congress government had brought the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004, over the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal, the Shiromani Akali Dal had no choice but to support it as elections were years away.

But 12 years down, as Punjab Congress chief, Amarinder is not willing to let the water war he waged for Punjab go down the drain.

The party pre-empted the move of the Parkash Singh Badal government of calling a special session of the Punjab assembly and asking the opposition to unite in the interest of Punjab, through en masse resignation of all its 42 MLAs on the day the adverse Supreme Court ruling came.

Also read | Punjab govt decides to return land acquired for SYL project to farmers

Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh listening to a participant during Halke Vich Captain programme at Balachaur in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district in July. (HT File Photo)

As the battle of one-upmanship moves to Delhi  both parties will separately meet President Pranab Mukherjee and have asked their MPs to raise the issue in the Parliament  Amarinder has turned down Badals appeal to the Congress MLAs to attend the session. Instead, he intends to steal Badals thunder by embarking on roadshows from next week.

Starting November 21, the Congress campaign will move into poll gear as Amarinder holds roadshows across Punjab, adding SYL to the list of woes inherited from the 10-year-long Badal legacy.

Talking to HT on Tuesday, Amarinder said Congress MLAs have already resigned in protest against Badals failure to protect Punjabs water rights.

Badal could not defend the case for 10 years and failed to give true picture of Punjabs depleted water resources to the Supreme Court. In the budget session, he passed the bill to denotify land acquired for the SYL but failed to secure the governors assent. We do not want to be a part of this farce, he said.

He said their party has sought legal opinion and Punjab can bring in a legislation to remove the very foundation of the verdict after the Congress government is at the helm.

One up on AAP too

The Congress is also cashing in on the issue to project itself as a bigger well-wisher of Punjab than not just ruling Akali Dal but also the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Hardly a day has passed since the SC ruling when Amarinder has not questioned the silence of AAP chief and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on the issue.

It is another matter that even Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had chosen to steer clear of answering the media queries on SYL during his Punjab visit in April after the state assembly had annulled the land notification for SYL as the Congress is rooting for SYL in Haryana. Like Rahul, Kejriwal cannot overlook Delhis concerns but a poll-bound state gets the right to be the first among equals and Amarinder knows that.

The showdown

In the first week, roadshows will be held at 15 cities and towns in the first leg, starting from Ropar, Nawanshahar and Jalandhar

The other towns and cities to be covered include Khanna, Fatehgarh Sahib, Ludhiana city, Mansa, Sangrur, Bhadaur, Kapurthala, Tarn Taran, Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Pathankot

After roadshow at Hoshiarpur on November 28, the next leg will start next month

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Setting the stage for a constitutional confrontation with the Supreme Court, the Punjab cabinet on Tuesday decided to denotify 5,376 acres of land that was acquired for the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal and return it to its original owners free of cost.

The Parkash Singh Badal-led SAD-BJP governments ground-altering move, which came a day before an emergency session of the Vidhan Sabha on SYL, is being widely seen as defiance of the apex court and might lead to a constitutional crisis of sorts with just days to go for the assembly elections in the state. The decision taken in public interest came into effect immediately and necessary orders were being passed by the government to deputy commissioners at the time of going to press.

The probability of Badal government bringing in a bill appears highly unlikely. However, plans are afoot to introduce a strongly-worded resolution on the contentious inter-state water dispute, making Punjabs position absolutely clear.

Also read: Centre cant do much in SYL canal case, says Punjab CM

The Supreme Court had in March 2016 ordered the state to maintain status quo on the SYL canal land after the Punjab assembly had unanimously approved the Punjab Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal (Transfer of Proprietary Rights) Bill 2016 to return it to its owners. The order was passed on an application moved by the Haryana government.

The top court, in its interim order, also appointed Union home secretary and Punjabs chief secretary and director general of police as joint receivers of land and other property associated with the canal. While the bill is still awaiting assent of the governor, the state cabinet went ahead and issued the executive decision, denotifying the canal land.

The land acquired for SYL canal project, which is presently vested in the Punjab government, free from all encumbrances, stands denotified with immediate effect and shall forthwith vest in the original land owners of their lineal descendants/legal representatives, free of cost, reads the statement released by the state government after the meeting.

The chief minister refused to add to the statement, his son, deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, also ducked queries. This is only the first step todayfor the cause of our people and to protect their interests, we will take every necessary step. Water is the lifeline of every citizen of Punjab, he said.

The land-denotification move left the ruling BJP in Haryana stunned. The Haryana BJP Legislature Party, which met in the evening, decided to take a delegation to Punjab governor VP Singh Badnore on Wednesday (Nov 16) to urge not to approve any unconstitutional step of the state government. Even as chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar is still to comment on the denotification move, he has convened an all-party meeting to discuss all issues relating to the contentious canal.

Also read: Kejriwal not supporting Punjab on SYL issue: Capt Amarinder

In Punjab, the Congress dismissed the state cabinets decision as political gimmickry. Earlier, the core committee of the SAD, which was closeted for two hours to decide the contours of this political gambit, declared that it would neither allow the construction of the SYL canal, nor had any water to spare for any other state. We stand by the Constitution of India, which guarantees us absolute and exclusive right over the waters of rivers that flow through our state, it said.

The denotification decision came within a week of the Supreme Court verdict, invalidating the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act-2004 passed by the then Congress government to unilaterally annul all water-sharing agreements with the neighbouring states. The SAD, making its intentions of taking the SC head on, said: The opinion (on Presidential reference) finally given by the apex court has further deepened the belief that Punjab cannot get justice from the top constitutional institutions in the country.

Also read: Assure any new SYL law will get governors nod: Amarinder to Punjab CM

The court verdict has brought the emotive river-water dispute between Punjab and Haryana to the centre-stage, raising the political temperature in the poll-bound state. The Akali Dal and Congress, acting as the true flag bearers of the cause, are trying to outdo each other for electoral dividends.

Govts return gift

July 12, 2004: The then Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh gets the assembly to pass Punjab Termination of Agreements Act 2004, annulling the 1981 agreement and all subsequent ones

Feb 29, 2016: Supreme Court resumes hearing on presidential reference on the validity of Punjab Termination of Agreements Act-2004. Centre contends the Act was not valid

March 14: Punjab Vidhan Sabha unanimously clears SYL bill to return land to owners, Haryana House resolution flays move. Two days later, the apex court directs Punjab to maintain status quo

March 16: Haryana CM requests Punjab governor not to clear SYL bill. Punjab sends cheque for `192 crore to Haryana against latters contribution for the canal

November 10: Supreme Court holds invalid Termination of Agreements Act-2004

November 15: Punjab cabinet de-notifies and decides to return land acquired for SYL canal to owners

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The ruling Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party combine will petition the President of India to stop construction of the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal, a move aimed at pitching the contentious interstate water dispute at the centre stage.

The Akali Dal-BJP on Tuesday decided that their cadre will facilitate people, under this campaign, to file a comprehensive petition against the SYL canal construction.

The petition will be handed over to Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal during Paani Bachao, Punjab Bachao (Save Water, Save Punjab) mega rally at Moga on December 8, for sending it to President Pranab Mukherjee.

Tough talk by SAD think tank

Declaring that not a single drop of Punjabs river waters will be allowed to flow out of the state, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Tuesday asked the President to ignore the Supreme Court (SC) advice on the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004.

Not even a single drop of water belonging to Punjab will be allowed to flow out of the state. Nor will we allow canal construction, the SAD declared after its core group meeting, chaired by the chief minister here.

Also read| Centre cant do much in SYL canal case, says Punjab CM

Stating that the apex court did not answer any of the issues raised in the Presidential reference, partys chief spokesperson Harcharan Bains said: The party is deeply concerned and surprised over the advice of the SC to the President, which completely overlooks the purpose for which the President had sought the apex courts opinion. The advice does not answer the four issues addressed to it by the President.

The first of these issues was whether the Termination of Agreements Act 2004 was illegal and unconstitutional. The apex court did not answer that, Bains said, adding, The court was required to give details of provisions to support its opinion. It did not offer any.

Also read| Assure any new SYL law will get governors nod: Amarinder to Punjab CM

Bains said the opinion finally given by the SC had further deepened the belief that Punjab cannot get justice from the top constitutional institutions in the country.

The core committee found the SCs observation that Punjab should first have sought the setting up of a tribunal as most intriguing, because a plea from Punjab requesting precisely the setting up of such a tribunal is already lying before the SC.

Instead of asking Punjab to make such a demand, the court should have decided that petition, said Bains.

We stand by the Constitution of India, and it guarantees us absolute and exclusive right over the Punjab river waters, states the SADs core panel, which passed a resolution describing the SYL canal construction unnecessary and not feasible.
It has been 11 days since they started their protest atop a 100-foot mobile tower in the heart of the city.

The two aspiring teachers  Rakesh Kumar (29) from Gurdaspur and Deepak Kumar (35) from Fazilka district  have passed the elementary teacher training (ETT) and teacher eligibility test (TET) and are demanding government jobs. They are demanding audience with Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal and refuse to come down unless they get job letters from the state government.

They are members of the Unemployed Teachers Union of Punjab.

Surviving on dry fruits, biscuits and water while answering the natures call from atop the tower, going by their claims, the duo is carrying power banks for charging their mobile phones.

The two climbed the tower, located near Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badals official residence in Sector 3, in the wee hours of November 3 despite the area has significant security presence. They have been lying on a maintenance platform with two blankets and a bottle of petrol.

Police on Monday sent them a message that a doctor will carry out their medical check-up, but the two refused.

Talking to HT, Rakesh said, We had climbed up the tower on November 3, and two days after that the cops had allowed the union members to supply

us food and water in the evening. After that we have not got any food.

We answer natures call from atop the tower at night. We are carrying one phone that does not require charging for a week as it does not have any applications. For the second, we have power banks, he said.

We are not blackmailing anyone but just want our right. It is a democratic country and protest is our right.

Two fire tenders and ambulances have been deployed at the spot.Area station house officer (SHO) Poonam Dilawari said, We tried many times to convince them, but to no avail. We are unable to send anyone fearing the two may self-immolate or jump down. They are in contact with their families over phone and have been sending their selfies to the union and the media.

Rakesh said, Punjab government officials have been dodging our union members and are not meeting them even after calling them. It is a do-or-die situation and we will not budge unless our demand is met.

Even as the two claim that they are answering natures call from atop the tower, police say no discharge has been found beneath. It is possibile that they come down in the wee hours to answer natures call, the police said.

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With Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh giving cold shoulder to his rejoining the Congress, former deputy speaker Bir Devinder Singh on Sunday fired another salvo on him and questioned, Why Amarinder didnt resign in 2004 when the President, at the behest of UPA government, sent the SYL case to the apex court for reference? He also blamed late prime minister Indira Gandhi for the entire SYL issue and trap the Shiromani Akali Dal in it.

I was a legislator when Indira Gandhi forced the then Congress chief minister Darbara Singh to sign a treaty by threatening him  either sign the SYL papers or tender your resignation as CM and PPCC president. Darbara Singh buckled under pressure and signed the documents. I am also witness to the event along with the then minister Kanshi Ram, with whom Darbara Singh had discussed the issue in my presence,, said Bir Devinder in a press release.

Indira Gandhi intentionally entrapped the Akali leadership on the waters issue at the time of reorganisation of Punjab in November 1966, he asserted.

Instead of doing theatrics like resigning from the Lok Sabha, and taking political mileage out of it, Amarinder must clarify that the Presidential reference to the apex court was sent by the President at the behest of the UPA government, led by Dr Manmohan Singh. I wonder, why Amarinder did not take up the issue then with the central government and resign from the post of the CM, he said.

As we go into the details on SYL, one can easily sum up that that the ill-conceived sense of vengeance of Congress against Punjab is the root cause of all the troubles of Punjab. Why Amarinder is feigning ignorance about all these facts of betrayal against Punjab?, he said.

Bir Devinder, who was sacked from membership of Congress in April 2016, also advised the Congress MLAs to attend the upcoming special assembly session. Collective resignation of the Congress legislators from the assembly offers no solution to the river waters dispute between Punjab and Haryana. They should rather attend the special session to discuss the situation.
A US judge ordered on Monday the release from prison of Brendan Dassey, one of two men convicted of murder in a case featured in the Netflix series Making a Murderer.

The US federal judge in Wisconsin, William Duffin, said that Dassey, 27, should be released while prosecutors appeal his August ruling that overturned Dasseys murder conviction.

The attorney general in Wisconsin, Brad Schimel, quickly said he would move to block the release of Dassey.

Dassey and his uncle Steven Avery were sentenced to life terms in 2007 for the murder of a female photographer, Teresa Halbach, in 2005.

Their story was featured in the Netflix documentary series Making a Murderer, launched in December 2015, that raised questions about the US legal system and prompted many viewers to believe the pair were improperly convicted.

Judge Duffins order in August overturning Dasseys conviction and ordering his release had included harsh rebukes of the investigating police and of Leonard Kachinsky, the public defender appointed in 2006 to represent Dassey -- a 16-year-old minor at the time.

Brendan Dassey is pictured in this undated booking photo obtained by Reuters January 29, 2016. (REUTERS)

Dassey has intellectual deficits and was unfairly pushed into a confession during a controversial interrogation, and his defense was inadequate, supporters of his release argue.

Following the Netflix series, fans called for the two men to be freed and almost 130,000 people signed a White House petition asking for a presidential pardon.

The White House explained that because the men were not convicted of federal crimes and are both state prisoners, pardoning them was outside the scope of the presidents power.

The documentary was prompted by the unusual story of Avery. He was exonerated of a rape case through DNA evidence and freed from prison in 2003 after serving 18 years behind bars.

Two years later, while he was suing Manitowoc County in Wisconsin over wrongful imprisonment, he was arrested over the death of the 25-year-old Halbach.

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Prosecutors concluded a two-day interview with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Tuesday as part of an inquiry to determine whether to charge him with a possible sex crime dating back six years.

No decision on a possible prosecution was made public after the questioning and prosecutors didnt comment on the substance of the interview, which took place at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London where Assange sought refuge more than four years ago.

Ecuadorean prosecutors asked the questions of Assange in the presence of a Swedish prosecutor and police investigator.

Prosecutors are focusing on an allegation of possible rape dating back to an incident in Sweden in 2010. Assange hasnt been indicted and denies wrongdoing.

Swedish prosecutors will weigh his version of events before deciding whether to charge him with a crime. They will first receive a written report from Ecuadorean officials.

The investigation began after two women Assange met in Sweden complained to authorities about his behavior.

Officials said before the hearing began Monday that they would seek a DNA sample from Assange. Its not clear if Assange gave his consent and provided a sample.

WikiLeaks officials complained that Assanges Swedish lawyer wasnt allowed to take part in the interview. He was represented by a lawyer from Ecuador.

Despite being cooped up in the embassy in a posh district in central London, Assange has remained at the helm of WikiLeaks, which recently released a trove of hacked emails related to Hillary Clintons presidential campaign.

Assange has said for years that his main legal concern is being extradited to the U.S. to face possible charges there related to WikiLeaks role in releasing classified documents.

US officials havent indicated whether there is a grand jury indictment against Assange. Grand jury proceedings are secret in the U.S.
Canada has announced new immigration measures that are likely to prove beneficial to international students in the country, a fair percentage of whom are from India.

The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada department has outlined changes to the Express Entry programme, which enhance the process of granting permanent residency to highly skilled immigrants and students who graduate from Canadian institutions.

The changes will be implemented from November 18.

Read | Canadas 2017 immigration plan to benefit Indians

According to estimates, students from India comprise about 14% of the total international students in Canada, ranking behind only China among the top source countries.

The number of international students in Canada rose 88% between 2004-2005 and 2013-2014, according to the latest available data. The increase has been from 66,000 students nearly a decade ago to 124,000, and international students now represent nearly 11% of the total on Canadian campuses.

The changes, the department noted in a statement, are part of a number of improvements the government is making on a continual basis to bring changes for a more fair and responsive immigration system that will address emerging needs and ensure long-term economic growth for the middle class.

The Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) will award 15 points for a one- or two-year diploma or certificate and 30 points for a degree, diploma or certificate of three years or longer including a masters, professional or doctoral degree.

The department further said: With these changes, more former international students will be able to transition to permanent residence using the Express Entry system. Former international students are a key source of candidates in Express Entry because of their age, education, skills and experience.

In addition to the time already spent in Canada, integrating into Canadian society permanently will be easier because they will have established social networks and familiarised themselves with life in Canada.

Read | Why should Indian students be looking at Canada now?

Immigration, refugees and citizenship minister John MacCallum said: We have committed to doing more to attract highly skilled immigrants to come to Canada and become permanent residents, because this is important to build our economy and strengthen our society.

I am confident that the changes to Express Entry will be one of the many positive outcomes of the changes we will be bringing to our immigration system.

MacCallum was in India recently on an official visit.

According to the 2016 Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration, the department pointed out it had issued 125,783 new study permits for international students, a 5.4% increase from 2014. In addition, 5,829 international study permit holders transitioned to permanent residence through the economic streams.

The Canadian government has also forecast its overall intake of newcomers in 2017 will remain at the levels seen this year, but prospective migrants from countries such as India have reason for cheer as targets for categories under which they are admitted have been raised.

Read | India is 2nd largest source country for migrants in Canada

The government expects to welcome 300,000 new immigrants next year, the same figure as 2016. However, a drop in the intake of refugees means the quotas for the economic and family reunification classes will be enhanced.

In 2016, the target for the economic class  the category most used by Indian immigrants  was at 160,600. This was recently upped to 172,500. The family reunification class was increased by 4,000 to 84,000.

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Chinas first aircraft carrier is now ready to engage in combat, marking a milestone for a navy that has invested heavily in its ability to project power far from Chinas shores.

The Liaonings political commissar said in an interview with Tuesdays Global Times newspaper that his ship is constantly prepared to fight against enemies, signalling a change from its past status as a platform for testing and training.

Senior Captain Li Dongyous comments appear to indicate that the ship has taken on its full aviation complement. Purchased as an incomplete hull from Ukraine more than a decade ago, it was commissioned in 2013.

China hasnt described specifically how it intends to use the Liaoning, but it is seen as helping reinforce Chinas increasingly assertive claims in the South China Sea in the face of challenges from the U.S. Navy and others.

The Liaoning is also seen as a training platform for officers and sailors who will serve on Chinas rapidly expanding fleet. China is currently building its second, fully home-grown aircraft carrier.

Li said the Liaonings combat capabilities still lag behind U.S. carriers, but its training and maintenance operations have been praised by senior Pentagon officials who have visited during military exchanges.

More than 1,000 non-commissioned officers serve aboard the Liaoning, Li said.
China, which has been blocking Indias NSG bid, on Tuesday maintained its tough stand on the issue and called for a two-step non-discriminatory solution to admit non-NPT members into the 48-member elite grouping.

Chinas remarks came as the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) at its meeting in Vienna November 11 discussed a formula acting on Indias application to join it.

We maintain that we should follow two-step approach. First we should find out a solution that is applicable to all non-NPT members applications to the NSG through consultations and discussions, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a media briefing here outlining Chinas stand at the Vienna meeting.

The second step is to discuss specific non-NPT (Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty) members admission into the NSG, he said.

We believe that the solution should be non-discriminatory and applicable to all non-NPT members and it must not damage the core value of the NSG as well as the authority, effectiveness and integrity of the NPT, he said.

We hope that we can enter into the second step after finishing the first step at an early date which is to talk about specific non-NPT members joining the NSG, he said.

Chinas stand for a non-discriminatory criteria is regarded significant as Pakistan, a close ally of Beijing too has applied for the NSG membership along with India.

China, which has blocked earlier Indias entry on the ground that India has not signed the NPT, has held two rounds of talks with India and Pakistan about their admission into the group.

India has secured the backing of the US and majority of the NSG members based on its non-proliferation record in comparison to Pakistan which faced serious allegations of nuclear proliferation in the past specially with regard to its nuclear scientist Dr A Q Khan.

Geng said at the Vienna meeting of the NSG, members talked about the technical, legal and political matters relating non-NPT members accession to the NSG.

He said this is the first time the group talked about entry of the new members.

Earlier a statement by the Chinese foreign ministry said, It is the first time a discussion, not only since the Seoul Plenary, but also since the NSGs inception in 1975, for the Group to formally take up the issue of non-NPT states participation in an open and transparent manner.

Geng said the discussion about the entry of new members is a good start.

We believe it is good start and we will continue to support the NSG in following through on the first step and explore the final solution at an early date, he said.

India has been maintaining that NPT membership was not essential for joining the NSG, as was the case with France.

Read more| China moots two-step approach for Indias NSG membership
Chinese state-run media lauded Donald Trump Tuesday after a phone call between him and President Xi Jinping, saying that the president-elects emergence could mark a reshaping of Sino-American relations.

The pair spoke Monday, when Xi said that the two powers needed to co-operate and Trumps office said the leaders established a clear sense of mutual respect for one another.

On the campaign trail Trump frequently demonised Beijing, but questions have been asked whether his conduct in the White House will match his promises as a candidate.

Mondays conversation was diplomatically impeccable and has bolstered optimism over bilateral relations in the next four years, Chinas frequently nationalistic Global Times newspaper said in an editorial.

Barack Obama, whose foreign policy pivot to Asia alarmed Beijing, was profoundly affected by the Cold War-shaped outlook of American elites, the paper said, but Trumps views have not been kidnapped by Washingtons political elites.

Trump is probably the very American leader who will make strides in reshaping major-power relations in a pragmatic manner, it added, saying his ideology and experience match well with the new era.

It was a sharp contrast to the same newspapers editorial the day before, which baldly warned the incoming president not to follow through on campaign-trail promises to levy steep tariffs on Chinese-made goods or Beijing would take a tit-for-tat approach and target US autos, aircraft, soybeans, and iPhones.

But the president-elects ambiguous and sometimes contradictory views on key questions on the relationship between the worlds two largest economies, including trade, the South China Sea and North Korea, have cast a pall of uncertainty over how he will manage it.

While campaigning, Trump went as far as calling the Asian giant Americas enemy, accused it of artificially lowering its currency to boost exports, threatened to impose tariffs of 45 percent, and pledged to stand up to a country he says views the US as a pushover.

But he also indicated he is not interested in getting involved in far-off squabbles, and decried the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade deal, which encompasses several other Asian countries and has been seen as an effort to bolster US influence, for costing American jobs.

TPP has been signed by the US but not ratified by the Senate, where its chances are seen as poor.

Tuesdays editorial in the government-published China Daily newspaper called the Xi-Trump chat propitious, noting that Beijing is understandably relieved that the exclusive, economically inefficient, politically antagonising TPP is looking ever less likely to materialise.

Instead, Washington should consider joining the China-backed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a free trade area encompassing the Southeast Asian grouping ASEAN, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Something of a mirror image to the TPP, it includes six of the putative Washington-led groupings 12 members.
Days before a crucial French presidential primary, Nicolas Sarkozy is facing new allegations that he received millions of euros in illegal financing from late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafis regime.

Sarkozy has denied wrongdoing in the case, which involves funding for his winning 2007 presidential campaign. An investigation has been underway since 2013.

In a video interview with investigative website Mediapart released Tuesday, French-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine said he delivered suitcases from Libya containing 5 million euros in cash to Sarkozy and his former chief of staff. Takieddine describes three alleged handovers in unusual detail.

Investigators are examining claims that Gadhafis regime secretly gave Sarkozy 50 million euros overall for the 2007 campaign. Such a sum would be more than double the legal campaign funding limit at the time of 21 million euros; in addition the alleged payments would violate rules against foreign financing and declaring the sources of campaign funds.

Officials in Sarkozys campaign did not respond to requests for comment on the latest allegations.

Sarkozy faces conservative rivals in a primary Sunday as he seeks the presidency again after losing it in 2012 to Socialist Francois Hollande. Polls suggest he and former Prime Minister Alain Juppe are the frontrunners for their conservative party, the Republicans.

In the Mediapart interview, Takieddine says he was given 5 million euros in Tripoli by Gadhafis intelligence chief on trips in late 2006 and 2007. He says he gave the money in suitcases full of cash to Sarkozy and Claude Gueant on three occasions. He says the handovers took place in the Interior Ministry, while Sarkozy was interior minister and Gueant was his chief of staff. Gueant has also denied wrongdoing.

Sarkozy had a complex relationship with Gadhafi. Soon after becoming president, Sarkozy invited the Libyan leader to France for a state visit and welcomed him with high honors. But Sarkozy then put France in the forefront of NATO-led airstrikes against Gadhafis troops that helped rebel fighters topple his regime in 2011.

Sarkozy faces other legal troubles, too, though nothing prevents him from seeking office while they are still under investigation.

Prosecutors notably want him and 13 others sent to trial for another campaign financing case, involving his failed 2012 presidential bid.
US armed forces and the CIA may have committed war crimes by torturing detainees in Afghanistan, the International Criminal Courts chief prosecutor said in a report, raising the possibility that American citizens could be indicted even though Washington has not joined the global court.

Members of US armed forces appear to have subjected at least 61 detained persons to torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity on the territory of Afghanistan between 1 May 2003 and 31 December 2014, according to the report issued late Monday by Prosecutor Fatou Bensoudas office.

The report added that CIA operatives may have subjected at least 27 detainees in Afghanistan, Poland, Romania and Lithuania to torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity and/or rape between December 2002 and March 2008.

Most of the alleged abuse happened in 2003-2004, the report said.

Prosecutors said they will decide imminently whether to seek authorization to open a full-scale investigation in Afghanistan that could lead to war crimes charges.

State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said the US does not believe an ICC investigation is warranted or appropriate.

The United States is deeply committed to complying with the law of war, and we have a robust national system of investigation and accountability that more than meets international standards, Trudeau said.

A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, said officials were awaiting more details about the ICC findings before commenting.

Established in 2002, the International Criminal Court is the worlds first permanent court set up to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. More than 120 countries around the world are members, but superpowers including the United States, Russia and China have not signed up.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton signed the Rome treaty that established the court on Dec. 31, 2000, but President George W. Bush renounced the signature, citing fears that Americans would be unfairly prosecuted for political reasons.

Even though the United States is not a member of the court, Americans could still face prosecution at its headquarters in The Hague if they commit crimes within its jurisdiction in a country that is a member, such as Afghanistan, and are not prosecuted at home.

So far, all of the ICCs trials have dealt with crimes committed in Africa.

Prosecutors say investigations also are reportedly under way in Poland, Romania and Lithuania  all signatories to the Rome Statute  into possible crimes at CIA detention facilities in those countries.

The abuse allegations came in a wide-ranging annual report into the prosecution offices so-called preliminary examinations, which involve studying reports of possible crimes to establish if they fall under the courts jurisdiction.

The same report said that Taliban and Afghan government forces also may have used torture and committed other atrocities in that countrys long and bitter conflict. The report says that the Taliban and its affiliates killed thousands of people and are suspected of committing war crimes including murder, recruiting and conscripting child soldiers and attacking civilians and humanitarian workers.

Referring to the alleged U.S. war crimes, the report said they were not the abuses of a few isolated individuals. Rather, they appear to have been committed as part of approved interrogation techniques in an attempt to extract actionable intelligence from detainees.

The report adds that, The information available suggests that victims were deliberately subjected to physical and psychological violence, and that crimes were allegedly committed with particular cruelty and in a manner that debased the basic human dignity of the victims.

Before deciding to open a full-scale investigation, ICC prosecutors have to establish whether they have jurisdiction and whether the alleged crimes are being investigated and prosecuted in the countries involved. The ICC is a court of last resort that takes on cases only when other countries are unable or unwilling to prosecute.

The report noted that U.S. authorities have conducted dozens of investigations and court-martial cases and says ICC prosecutors are seeking further clarifications on their scope before deciding whether any American cases would be admissible at the ICC.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the administration of President George W. Bush allowed the use of waterboarding, which simulates drowning, and other so-called enhanced interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists. President Barack Obama banned such practices after taking office in 2009.

During the presidential campaign, Republican nominee Donald Trump suggested that as president he would push to change laws that prohibit waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques, arguing that banning them puts the U.S. at a strategic disadvantage against Islamic State militants.
Iraqi forces have retaken the ancient city of Nimrud, but it has been heavily damaged by the Islamic State group, an journalist who visited the site today said.

Statues lie shattered, a reconstructed palace is wrecked and the remains of a ziggurat -- once one of the tallest structures left from the ancient world at some 50 metres (yards) high -- has been reduced to a fraction of its height, the AFP journalist said.

Iraqi forces announced that Nimrud, which was founded in the 13th century and became the capital of the Assyrian empire, was recaptured on Sunday as part of the massive operation to retake Mosul, the last IS-held city in the country.

IS overran Nimrud along with swathes of other territory in 2014, but Iraqi forces have since regained much of the territory they lost to the jihadists.

Map of the Mosul region showing the latest developments, including the capture by government forces of Nimrud. (AFP)

In April last year, IS released a video of its fighters destroying monuments there before planting explosives around the site and blowing it up.

In the video, militants with sledgehammers and power tools broke artefacts before rigging the site with large barrels of what appeared to be explosives.

IS said it attacked Nimrud as well as other ancient sites, including Syrias Palmyra and Iraqs Hatra, to eliminate idols that are forbidden by its extreme interpretation of Islam.

But that has not stopped IS from looting and selling allegedly forbidden artefacts to fund its operations.

UNESCO has condemned the destruction of Nimrud as a war crime.

Iraqi forces announced the start of the operation to retake Mosul on October 17, and have closed in on the city from the north, east and south.

The elite Counter-Terrorism Service has recaptured a series of areas inside eastern Mosul, and is still battling the jihadists in the city.

Meanwhile, interior ministry forces have advanced on Mosul from the south, and are nearing the airport on the citys southern outskirts.

Iraqi forces have gained significant ground from IS in the four weeks since the operation began, but there are still weeks if not months of tough fighting ahead.(AFP) APK
Israel appointed an ambassador to Turkey on Tuesday, its first since both countries recalled their envoys five years ago amid a spat over a deadly Israeli raid on a Turkish vessel trying to reach the Gaza Strip.

The Foreign Ministry named Eitan Naeh as the new envoy to Ankara. Local media reported that Naeh is a diplomat currently serving in London but that he has served in Turkey in the past.

The return of ambassadors is part of a reconciliation deal that Israel and Turkey struck earlier this year, ending six years of animosity between the once-close allies.

Israeli-Turkish ties began to decline after Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose party has roots in Turkeys Islamist movement, became prime minister in 2003.

Relations imploded in 2010 after an Israeli naval raid on a Turkish ship trying to breach the blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Nine Turkish activists were killed in the raid and one later died of wounds sustained in the incident.

Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on Gaza after the Islamic militant group Hamas took power there in 2007.

The Israeli and Turkish ambassadors were recalled a year after the incident at sea.

It was not immediately clear on Tuesday when Turkey would appoint its ambassador to Israel.
The past months of Mihail Gofmans life read like spy fiction: Fearing hes being followed, he flees his native Moldova in a borrowed car, drives to neighbouring Romania and flies to Washington. There he gives US officials information he claims links top Moldovan political leaders and possibly US citizens to a $1 billion heist that gutted the tiny eastern European nations banking system.

Gofman used to be deputy chief of a government anti-money laundering unit in Moldova, a former Soviet republic sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania. He says he was forced out after speaking about people he said were linked to the theft.

Hes holed up in Washington trying to make the case that Americans should care what happened in a little-known country 5,000 miles away  and to help it try to recover the missing money.

The US government already has interests in the former Soviet republic, Gofman argues. The impoverished country has received $44.9 million in US aid this year, plus a $180 million loan from the International Monetary Fund, which is partially supported by US taxpayers. Moreover, Gofman claims to have evidence that at least one American was involved in the theft. His claims could not be independently verified.

Moldova is also important for strategic reasons. The theft has tainted the reputation of the Europe-leaning party that has run Moldova since 2009. Widespread anger kindled support for Igor Dodon, a pro-Russian candidate who won Sundays presidential runoff election.

Gofman said US authorities reached out to him after he sent documents to the FBI and other federal agencies. He talked with US investigators at least twice in the past couple months. The FBI said it could not comment or confirm the existence of an investigation and its unclear how deeply it is investigating.

The 2014 theft from the three banks was devastating for Moldova. The amount stolen was equal to more than 12 percent of the countrys gross domestic product that year, according to the Congressional Research Service. The money was funneled out of Moldova and laundered through a complex network of offshore entities.

We understood what they (the thieves) were preparing, Gofman said recently through an interpreter at The Associated Press office in Washington. They were preparing to steal the national reserves of Moldova.

So far, authorities have accused only a few individuals as having a role in the theft. One is Ilan Shor, a rich Moldovan businessman named in an independent investigative report on the theft conducted by the Kroll company. The report was commissioned by the National Bank of Moldova.

Another is Vlad Filat, a former prime minister sentenced in July to nine years on charges of taking bribes and influence trafficking. In addition, businessman Veaceslav Platon was arrested in Ukraine and has been extradited to Moldova to face charges.

Gofman says that based on the details he amassed during his work at the money-laundering unit, many more people were involved. His claims are bolstered by former presidential candidate Andrei Nastase, a lawyer and former prosecutor who told AP that he too has met with US investigators, including FBI agents, twice during the past three months.

Nastase said he has seen evidence that some funds now reside in the US and that some shell companies were created in the US

Among the people that Gofman claims benefited from the theft is Vlad Plahotniuc, a wealthy businessman feared because of his alleged influence over law enforcement and the judiciary. Plahotniuc, who is active in the pro-European party, has repeatedly defended himself, saying he had nothing to do with the theft and had no ties to any of the banks from which the money was stolen. Plahotniucs name is not mentioned in the Kroll report.

Andrian Candu, speaker of the Moldovan parliament, defended the pro-European party, saying it has worked hard since the theft to fight corruption, implement reforms and arrest judges, customs officials and police officers. He said Plahotniuc has had an active role in helping institute reforms.

Still, many Moldovans were outraged to see photographs of Plahotniuc meeting in May in Washington with Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland. The State Department said Plahotniuc was part of an official delegation visiting from the country.

Gofman decided to leave Moldova after German diplomats advised him to do so in July. They even told me to photograph what was in my bags so nobody could put something in them, like drugs. Gofman said.

Within an hour of that meeting, after his children helped him photograph the contents of his luggage, he took off unnoticed in a borrowed vehicle. He spent two days in neighboring Romania, where he is a dual citizen, and then flew to the United States.

For now, Gofman is a man without a country. He said US investigators advised him not to return to Moldova  at least not now.

I hope that in the end well solve this, said Gofman, whose wife and three children remain in Moldova. Im not going to spend my whole life going from country to country.
Nato head Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday said he was sure Donald Trump would live up to all US commitments to the alliance, just days after urging the president-elect not to go it alone.

President-elect Donald Trump stated during the election campaign that he is a big fan of Nato, Stoltenberg said in Brussels as he arrived for talks with EU defence ministers.

And I am certain that he will be a president... who will live up to all the commitments of the United States in the alliance, because a strong Nato is important for Europe but its also important for the United States.

Trumps upset election badly rattled nerves in Europe after he appeared to call into question Washingtons near 70-year security guarantee by saying he would only help Nato allies if they paid their way.

He also appeared to be much more friendly towards Russia, praising President Vladimir Putin as a strong leader in marked contrast to a weak Barack Obama in Washington.

Asked about a telephone call between Trump and Putin on Monday in which the Kremlin said they agreed to improve relations, Stoltenberg denied this was cause for concern.

First of of all, I think it is a very normal thing that president-elect Donald Trump speaks to world leaders, including of course the leader of Russia, he said.

The message from Nato has been that we want dialogue with Russia ... Especially when tensions are high, especially when we face many different challenges, it is important.

Stoltenbergs upbeat tone came despite his stark warning in Britains Observer newspaper on Sunday, in which he wrote that going it alone is not an option... this is no time to question the partnership between Europe and the United States.

But the Nato chief noted Tuesday that the two sides were on the same page, saying Trumps call for the allies to increase defence spending was exactly what they were already doing.

I absolutely agree with him; that has been the message from US leaders for many years, Stoltenberg said.

The good thing is that we now see that Europeans are actually investing more in defence... therefore contributing to better burden sharing, he said.

Washington accounts for nearly 70 percent of Nato defence spending and has long urged its European allies to do more, stepping up the pressure after Russias intervention in Ukraine.

The Ukraine crisis shook Nato out of years of complacency and defence cuts, with leaders agreeing to its biggest military build-up since the end of the Cold War based on a commitment to devote two percent of national output to defence.

The European Union -- of whose 28 members 22 also belong to Nato -- is also boosting military cooperation and on Monday approved a defence roadmap to boost the blocs capabilities.

On Monday, US President Barack Obama said he was sure Trump would stand by US security commitments and that he would tell Europe there would be no weakening of the relationship.
The NATO alliance is absolutely vital to US interests, President Barack Obama said Tuesday, as he flew in to Europe to reassure jittery allies concerned by Donald Trumps shock presidential election win.

Speaking in Athens on the first leg of his last foreign trip as leader, Obama stressed that a strong Europe was good for the world and the US, after Trump appeared to downplay the importance of historic transatlantic ties.

Europeans, especially in eastern countries closest to Russias orbit, have been shaken after Trump appeared to call into question Washingtons near 70-year security guarantee by saying he would only help NATO allies if they paid their way.

But Obama stressed that the transatlantic relationship was the cornerstone of our mutual security as well as prosperity and that was the case regardless of who was sitting in the Oval Office.

Across Democratic and Republican administrations there is a recognition that the NATO alliance is absolutely vital, he said.

As Obama touched down in Athens, NATO head Jens Stoltenberg said he was confident Trump would live up to US commitments to the alliance.

I am certain that he will be a president... who will live up to all the commitments of the United States in the alliance, because a strong NATO is important for Europe but its also important for the United States, Stoltenberg said.

- Challenge of globalisation -

The fourth president to travel to Greece, Obama will visit the Acropolis before delivering a speech on the challenges of globalisation.

He is also holding talks with Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

Security was tight in central Athens, with thousands of police officers on the streets and traffic set to be disrupted for several hours.

On Wednesday, Obama travels to Germany, where he will speak with close ally Chancellor Angela Merkel as well as the French and British leaders.

He concludes his trip with a stop in Peru for a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) where he is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Meanwhile, Trump was set for another meeting with running mate Mike Pence to discuss cabinet appointments amid reports of intense infighting over choice posts.

Trump appears torn between a campaign promise to shake up Washington and the need to build a cabinet with political experience and connections with Congress.

Possible candidates for secretary of state include hawkish former diplomat John Bolton and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, US media reported.

Retired General Michael Flynn is a possible national security advisor pick, while Republican Senator Jeff Sessions could be defence secretary or attorney general, according to CNN.

Speaking to reporters on the eve of the trip, Obama cautioned his brash successor that he faces a reality check if he tries to enact some of his more controversial campaign promises.

This office has a way of waking you up, Obama said.
President Barack Obama arrived in Greece Tuesday morning on the first stop of his final foreign tour as president, the first visit to Greece by a sitting US president since Bill Clinton in 1999.

Air Force One touched down midmorning in Athens after an overnight flight from Washington. Security was tight, with major roads shut down along Obamas motorcade route and a ban on public gatherings and demonstrations in swathes of central Athens and a southern suburb near a seaside luxury hotel where Obama was staying. Boats were also banned from sailing near the coastline at the hotels location.

More than 5,000 police were deployed in the capitals streets for the two-day visit. Left-wing and anarchist groups have planned protest demonstrations for Tuesday afternoon, while an armed anarchist group has called for attacks and clashes to disrupt Obamas visit. Clintons visit, which came during the height of US intervention in the wars ensuing from the breakup of Yugoslavia, was marked with extensive violent demonstrations.

While anti-American sentiment has been muted over the past few years in Greece, many in the country regard the US with misgivings, a sentiment stemming mostly from Americas backing of the military dictatorship that governed the country from 1967 to 1974. Obamas visit comes two days before the Nov. 17 anniversary of the juntas 1973 bloody crackdown on a student uprising, which is marked each year by a protest march to the U.S. Embassy which frequently turns violent.

Defense Minister Panos Kammenos and the US Ambassador to Greece, Geoffrey Pyatt, were on the tarmac at the airport to greet Obama, who stepped off Air Force One onto a red carpet. About 100 members of a military honor guard were waiting, in navy and green uniforms, some with bayonets.

US President Barack Obama reviews an honor guard upon his arrival in Athens, Greece on Tuesday. (Reuters)

Obama then headed to his hotel ahead of his first meeting with President Prokopis Pavlopoulos. He was then to hold talks with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, followed by a joint news conference. Pavlopoulos will host an official dinner for Obama at the presidential mansion in the evening.

On Wednesday, Obama is scheduled to tour the Acropolis and give a major speech about democracy and globalization before flying on to Berlin. From Germany, Obama will travel to Peru for an Asian economic summit before returning to Washington on Saturday.

Obamas trip will be dominated by questions and concerns about President-elect Donald Trump. Obama has been working to reassure foreign leaders the U.S. wont abandon its partnerships and alliance obligations despite Trumps tough campaign rhetoric.

Greeces government has hailed Obamas visit as being of huge importance for both Greece and Europe. The countrys left-led coalition government has been struggling to pull Greece out of six years of a vicious financial crisis that has devastated its economy and left more than a quarter of the workforce unemployed. Despite the U.S. election, the government has been pinning its hopes on the U.S. president to help persuade some of the countrys more reluctant international creditors, such as Germany, to grant it significant debt relief.

Without a cut in its debt, Athens says, it cannot hope to recover economically  an argument also supported by the International Monetary Fund.

Greece has been relying on emergency loans from three consecutive multi-billion euro bailouts from other European Union countries using the euro currency, and the IMF, since 2010. While the United States has not been involved in Greeces bailout, Athens has long seen it as an ally that could apply pressure on creditors.

US President Barack Obama, center, walks with Greek National Defense Minister Panos Kommenos, right, during the arrival ceremony at the Athens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport on Tuesday. (AP)

The visit of President Obama is a clear message to all of us and to the rest of the world that we need to keep pursuing policies that create growth, employment and social cohesion, Nikos Pappas, a close associate of Tsipras who was named digital policy minister in a recent reshuffle, told the AP ahead of the visit. We are very happy to see that in the recent years the U.S. administration has been on the same page as we are in terms of these policies and this direction. We expect this message is going to be reiterated.

The US has praised Greek efforts to overhaul its economy but has repeatedly stressed the country must continue with painful reforms. The countrys bailout funds are disbursed following reviews by international debt inspectors of mandated reforms.

The government will also be looking for recognition of the countrys role in Europes refugee crisis, which saw hundreds of thousands of refugees pass through Greece from Turkey on their way to the more prosperous countries of the European north, and for US pressure on the rest of Europe to help shoulder the burden. Following the closure of Balkan land borders and the reluctance of some European countries to host refugees, more than 60,000 people are stranded in Greece, most living in often poor conditions in overcrowded camps dotted around the country.

Rights organizations have urged Obama to use his visit to highlight these peoples plight and Europes response to the crisis.

Obama should shine the spotlight not only on abysmal conditions for the tens of thousands of refugees stranded in Greece, but also on the failure of world leaders to adequately address the wider global refugee crisis, John Dalhuisen, Amnesty Internationals Europe director, said in a statement.

Read more| Trump will get wake-up call when he takes office, Obama says
Police say an Ohio State University student shoved a man down a flight of stairs during an anti-Donald Trump rally on the Columbus campus.

University police say they arrested 24-year-old Shane Stanton yesterday and charged him with a misdemeanour count of assault after he threw himself into protester Timothy Adams and sent the man hurtling down the steps.

Adams was giving a speech from a staircase landing in the student union building when the incident occurred shortly before 6 p.m (ET). He wasnt seriously injured in the attack.

University president Michael Drake tells the schools student newspaper, The Lantern, that OSU protects First Amendment rights actively but does not tolerate intimidation or threats to students, faculty or campus visitors.

Court records dont list an attorney for Stanton.
Rare details of how Cornelia Sorabji overcame gender bias emerged as leading members of the University of Oxford and others commemorated the 150th birth anniversary of Indias first woman lawyer and first Indian woman student in Britain on Tuesday.

Born in Nashik, Sorabji (November 15, 1866  July 6, 1954) became the first Indian woman student at Oxford when she arrived at Somerville College in the autumn of 1889. She had already broken the glass ceiling by becoming the first woman matriculate in erstwhile Bombay in 1883.

Somerville College, which launched a postgraduate scholarship for Indian women in Sorabjis memory in September, and the Indian high commission will hold a special celebration on Thursday to mark the birth anniversary.

Richard Sorabji, Sorabjis 82-year-old England-based nephew, told Hindustan Times that after gaining a first class degree from Bombay University in 1887, she was denied government scholarship to study in Britain. But some leading women, including Florence Nightingale, put together a scholarship for her.

There were more hurdles at Oxford, which for centuries was considered a bastion of male privilege.

(On arriving) at Somerville College in autumn 1889, she was denied permission to study law, again because she was a woman. But England's leading academic, Benjamin Jowett, came to see her, and by February 1890, he had got permission for her to study law, Richard Sorabji said.

In 1892, the external examiner from London refused, with a week's notice, to examine a woman. But Jowett, with a day to spare, had Oxford University's Council override him, under the motion 'Oxford University shall examine Cornelia Sorabji'.

Knighted in 2014 for his academic study of philosophy, Richard Sorabji said his aunt would have been very pleased to know that law scholarships for Indian women were now being offered by her college, 129 years after her own struggles.

On return to India, it took a 10-year campaign from 1894 for Sorabji to persuade anyone to give her full-time employment in law. In Allahabad in 1899, she was refused, by one casting vote, a call to the bar, despite passing all the examinations asked of her.

So she invented her own desired job description, and obtained the role she wanted of adviser to the government of India on women in purdah. These women were first child brides and then widows, with children of their own, and large estates, which in widowhood they could not protect, because they could see no lawyer, since all lawyers were male, Richard Sorabji said.

Once Cornelia started work, she gained the trust of both sides, of the Indian Civil Service and of the widows, and the love of the widows, since she transformed not only their legal rights, but their health and the education of their children.

Sorabji had up to 600 wards at any time, widows and children, spread over Bengal (West and East), Orissa, Assam and Bihar. She opened doors for Indian woman, as English women had opened doors for her to come to Oxford, Richard Sorabji recalled.

Sorabji retired from government service in 1922, by when the status of women had improved in Oxford and England, and she was allowed to collect the degree passed, but not awarded, 30 years earlier.

She was called to the bar in Lincoln's Inn, London, so that she was able to return to India as a barrister, defending her women in purdah from 1922 to 1929 and organising social work by them from 1924 to 1931. She continued reporting on social conditions in India until 1938.

Throughout World War 2 from 1939, she lived in Lincoln's Inn, staying there until her final illness in 1946. She died in London in 1954.

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Pakistans Supreme Court was not satisfied with a claim by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam on Tuesday that their flats in London were purchased with the proceeds of real estate investments in Qatar.

Sharif and his family, facing pressure from the opposition since the Panama Papers leaks showed the premiers three children owned offshore assets worth millions of dollars, informed the court that their London apartments were bought through investments in Qatar and were not gifts.

Along with 397 pages of documents providing details of transactions and receipts for payments since 2011, the Sharif family submitted a letter from Qatari prince Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani that said the flats were purchased through the settlement of accounts between the Al Thani familys real estate business and the Sharif family.

Akram Sheikh, the counsel for Sharifs children, submitted the letter from the prince to the top courts larger bench. The letter, addressed to the apex court, stated that Mian Muhammad Sharif (Nawaz Sharifs father) invested 12 million dirhams in the Al Thani company in 1980.

In the year 2006, the accounts in relation to the above investment were settled between (Nawaz Sharifs son) Hussain Nawaz Sharif and Al Thani family, who then delivered the bearer shares of the companies referred in para 4 above to a representative of Hussain Nawaz Sharif, the letter said.

Maryam told the court that she was only a trustee and not a shareholder or beneficiary of the properties.

Responding to Al Thanis letter, Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa asked the Sharif familys counsel whether the prince would appear in court as a witness. Khosa also observed the letter contradicted Sharifs earlier stance on the London flats.

The premiers family submitted the documents hours before a bench resumed hearing a slew of petitions filed against Sharif on the basis of the Panama Papers leaks. The documents include details of the premiers wealth tax for 2011 and 2012.

The apex court had directed all parties to submit documentary evidence in support of their claims in connection with the Panama Papers leaks case by November 15.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan had a meeting with his counsel Hamid Khan to prepare for the case. Party leaders said 686 pages of documents that chronicled the alleged wrongdoings of the Sharif family had been submitted in court on Monday.

But the Supreme Court expressed its reservations about claims made by Khans party because it had not submitted relevant documentary evidence. You have disappointed us by filing a huge number of documents which have no relevance to this case, the bench said.

The media too reported that most of the documents submitted by Khans party were reproductions of records already published in the media or submitted to different forums in the past.
Pakistan, unlike India, will not demonetise Rs 5,000 notes or withdraw Rs 40,000 prize bonds, the finance minister said, rebuffing media reports.

These rumours are baseless and no such proposal is under consideration, finance minister Ishaq Dar was quoted as saying by Dawn newspaper on Monday.

Haroon Akhtar Khan, special assistant to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday had said the proposal to discontinue currency notes and prize bonds of the highest denomination was under consideration, the daily said.

Khan said the proposal came from the Tax Reforms Commission before the 2016-17 budget but the final decision was postponed and a tax reforms implementation committee was asked to look into it after the budget.

Presently, prize bonds are sold and purchased against cash without recording any identification of the seller and buyer. These are also traded in the open market and remain a major source of fraud and illegal activities.

Pakistan Peoples Party senator Osman Saifullah Khan last week submitted a resolution in the Senate to demonetise Rs 1,000 and 5,000 notes to tackle corruption, citing the example of India, which withdrew Rs 500 and 1,000 denominations notes recently.

Read | Pakistani Hindu refugees face brunt of demonetization
The US approach to Asia faces a major overhaul when Donald Trump takes office, but what will take its place? A new report warns of a leadership vacuum and even a nuclear arms race if the US withdraws from a region threatened by a provocative North Korea.

But authors of the Asia Foundation report provided to The Associated Press ahead of its publication Tuesday also say in some parts of the region theres hope that a shift from President Barack Obamas signature foreign policy could be for the good.

Read | NKorea vows nuclear response to US-SKorea drills

Despite the major diplomatic capital invested by Obama in reaching out to Asia in the past eight years, his so-called pivot policy has yielded only modest gains in countering the rise of an assertive China. Theres been a slight increase in the US military presence in the region; a political opening in former pariah state Myanmar; and better relations with old enemy Vietnam.

The main economic plank of his policy  the Trans-Pacific Partnership  is in ruins. Trumps election victory has erased chances of early US ratification of the 12-nation trade pact.

Determining what else of Trumps populist campaign rhetoric translates into action remains a guessing game  one with high stakes for Asia.

Trump has raised the spectre of withdrawing US forces from South Korea and Japan unless they share more of the burden of hosting the 80,000 troops  even as neighbouring North Korea has conducted nuclear and missile tests with unprecedented intensity.

The Asia Foundation report, based on consultations among academics and former officials from 20 Asian nations, warns that withdrawing US forces could compel Tokyo and Seoul to seek their own nuclear deterrents  rather than rely on Americas  which in turn would trigger massive destabilization of the regional order.

Read | Trump not an unlikely candidate in US politics, he is the outsiders outsider

A precipitous reduction of engagement in Asia would be detrimental to the interests of most Asian countries as well as the United States, the report says.

Trump has taken some early steps to allay those fears. He quickly reassured the leaders of Australia, Japan and South Korea of his commitment to US alliances. On Thursday, Trump will meet in New York with Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who is travelling to a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in Peru.

Japans archrival, China, views a Trump presidency with less trepidation. It has viewed the pivot as a US attempt to contain Chinas rise as a military and economic power.

But Beijing is wary of Trumps threat to impose hefty import tariffs over alleged trade and currency violations, amid fears it could stoke a trade war. President Xi Jinping Monday called Trump and told him that cooperation was needed between the worlds two biggest economies.

Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a Thai academic and one of three co-authors of the report, said that despite the uncertainty over Trumps lack of government experience, he has something in his favor  a clean slate.

Thitinan said thats a plus in Southeast Asia, where current US policy has failed to live up to its billing and where criticism on human rights has turned off old allies like the Philippines and Thailand.

Read | North Korea says Trump isnt screwy at all, a wise choice for US president

Southeast Asian nations dont want to be dominated by China, they dont want to put all their eggs in the China basket, but theyve had to because the pivot and rebalance were shallow and ultimately hollow, he said.

Indian academic C Raja Mohan said Trump has in his own chaotic way opened a constructive debate about how Asian nations might take a more active role to cope with the rise of China with less dependence on America.

Unlike the European liberals reaction in the last few days, Asians are going to accommodate rather than object, Mohan said. We have to deal with who is in power in Washington.

Once Trump fills top positions on foreign policy and defense, his intentions on Asia should become clearer. A recent commentary by two Trump advisers may offer clues.

Former Republican congressional aide Alexander Gray and University of California economist Peter Navarro advocated an Asia-Pacific policy of peace through strength. They cited Trumps commitment to increase the US Navy from 274 to 350 ships, saying it will reassure allies that the US remains committed in the long term to its traditional role as guarantor of the liberal order in Asia.

But they add: Its only fair  and long past time  for each country to step up to the full cost-sharing plate.

South Korea currently pays about $860 million a year  about 50 percent of non-personnel costs of the US military deployment on its soil  and is paying $9.7 billion more for relocating US military bases. Japan pays about $2 billion a year, about half of the cost of the stationing US forces.

Despite fears of chaos if the US withdraws its military, former South Korean foreign minister, Yoon Young-kwan, there will be strong reservations about paying more.

Also Read | US-China cooperation is the only choice: Xi tells Trump during phone call
Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor, and John Bolton, former ambassador to UN, have emerged as leading contenders for the position of president-elect Donald Trumps top diplomat as his secretary of state.

Giuliani had earlier stated there was no one more qualified than him for the position of attorney general - he is a former prosecutor - but he has now said he wants to be the next secretary of state, a surprising choice if he gets the job.

As a prosecutor and mayor of New York City, which brought him international recognition during the September 11, 2001 terror attacks and the sobriquet Americas Mayor, Giuliani has held no foreign policy or security positions.

But auditioning publicly for the position at a dinner on Monday, he repeatedly said he wanted the job, and went on to state that the Trump administrations first foreign policy goal would be destroy the Islamic State, also called ISIS.

ISIS, short-term I believe, is the greatest danger and not because ISIS is in Iraq and in Syria, but because ISIS did something al Qaeda never did - ISIS was able to spread itself around the world, Giuliani said.

Giuliani is part of Trumps innermost circle, and frequently accompanied him on the campaign trail. He introduced Trump at rallies and speeches and kept the then nominee on message, focussed on the task at hand.

If Rudy wants it, he'll get it (the secretary of state position), Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker who is also a member of the Trump inner circle, told a TV anchor. He was himself in the running for the post in the initial stages of speculation.

Bolton, the second strongest contender, is a conservative diplomat known for hawkish positions and remarks  he called for bombing Iran in 2015. He is also a strident critic of President Barack Obama.

John Bolton (right), former ambassador to the UN, has also emerged as a leading contender for the position. (AP)

Trumps secretary of state will have the task, as envisioned by the president-elect, of steering the US towards a more muscular presence in the world based on an expanded military, but without embroiling it in conflicts.

Others in the race are Senate foreign relations committee chairman Bob Corker, former US ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, retired general Stanley McChrystal and, in some lists, Gingrich.

Trump will be going through the list, and others, with Mike Pence, the vice-president-elect who is heading the transition team, at Trump Tower on Tuesday but a announcement was not immediately expected.

Trump has already announced Reince Priebus and Steven Bannon as his chief of staff, the most powerful White Hous position controlling access to the president, and chief strategist and senior counsel.

But efforts are underway to fill the rest of the top positions such as secretaries of state, defence, treasury, interior and health, attorney general, director of homeland security and the national security adviser.

Senator Jeff Sessions, an early Trump supporter and an immigration hawk, is the leading contender for the post of defence secretary, along with retired general Michael Flynn and Stephen Hadley, a former national security adviser.

The race for treasury is led by long-time Trump friends Steven Mnuchin and Tom Barrack, and Sessions and Chris Christie are in contention for the post of attorney general, according to some lists.
Russia announced a major air offensive in Syria on Tuesday as Syrian opposition activists reported the first airstrikes in three weeks in the besieged, rebel-held part of the northern city of Aleppo.

The offensive began hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President-elect Donald Trump discussed Syria over the phone and agreed on the need to combine efforts in the fight against what the Kremlin called their No 1 enemy international terrorism and extremism.

US President Barack Obamas administration has been trying for months to negotiate a cease-fire in Aleppo, the epicentre of the war between President Bashar Assad and rebels fighting to topple him, some of whom receive US aid.

Al-Qaidas local affiliate fights alongside the rebels, but the Islamic State group has no presence in Aleppo.

Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu said in a meeting with Putin today that the operation involves aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, which made a much-publicized trip to Syrias shores last month.

Read more| Raids hit three hospitals in northern Syria: monitor

He said Russian warplanes will target ammunition depots, training camps and armaments factories in the rebel-held province of Idlib and the central province of Homs. He did not immediately mention Aleppo.

The activists reported strikes in all three places. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said missiles fired from Russian warships in the Mediterranean have struck areas in Aleppo and Idlib provinces. The Observatory said airstrikes also struck three neighbourhoods in Aleppo city, but had no immediate word on casualties.

Activist Baraa al-Halaby, who is based in eastern Aleppo, said via text messages that warplanes are firing missiles and helicopters are dropping barrel bombs on the eastern part of Syrias largest city.

People are scared. The bombardment is intense, al-Halaby wrote.

In mid-October, Russia said it would halt weeks of deadly airstrikes to allow rebels and supporters to leave eastern Aleppo. The rebels refused to take up the offer and the United Nations failed to negotiate the delivery of aid into the besieged area.

On Saturday, government troops repelled a rebel offensive on western parts of Aleppo that was designed to break the siege on the opposition-held east. Aleppo has been contested since 2012.

The government siege has left an estimated 275,000 people trapped, with no aid allowed in since July, amid a punishing bombing campaign.
A long-serving Russian minister has been detained over an alleged $2 million (Rs 13.4 cr) bribe in an investigation of the most senior government official to face charges in years, investigators said Tuesday.

Economic development minister Alexei Ulyukayev was detained late Monday after he allegedly received a $2 million bribe in a sting set by the FSB, the KGBs main successor agency, the Investigative Committee said in a statement on Tuesday. The investigators said Ulyukayev took the bribe for giving the green light to state-controlled oil giant Rosneft to take part in bidding for another oil company.

Ulyukayev, who held the post since 2013 and worked in the government since 2000, is a known liberal figure who has spoken against an increasing government presence in the Russian economy. He has opposed Rosnefts bidding for Bashneft, saying it was wrong for a state-owned company to take part in the privatization drive.

President Vladimir Putin had defended the deal, saying that because Rosneft has minority foreign investors, the sale was not simply a transfer of assets from one part of the state to another.

The lucrative Bashneft was transferred to government ownership in 2014 after its owner Vladimir Yevtushenkov, was charged with money-laundering and accused of acquiring the company illegally. The charges were soon dropped. Yevtushenkovs arrest was then widely seen as Rosnefts move to take control of Bashneft which was posting an industry-leading growth in oil production.

The government put 50.1 percent of Bashneft on the market earlier this year but the tender was postponed in August over the opposition of the governments liberal ministers, including Ulyukayev, to Rosnefts potential bidding. Rosneft won the tender with a $5 billion bid when the bidding was held last month.

The 60-year old minister is expected to face a court hearing later on Tuesday where he could be formally arrested and charged.

Russian state-owned television early on Tuesday ran Ulyukayevs detention as the top story headlined Fight on corruption.

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, told the RIA Novosti news agency that the president had been informed of the FSB operation in its planning stage. Peskov would not say if the bribery case could affect Rosnefts deal.

Rosnefts spokesman Mikhail Leontyev said in televised comments that he doesnt expect the investigation to affect the deal.

There cannot be any threat of the cancellation of the deal, Leontyev said on Rossiya 24 on Tuesday. No one including the Investigative Committee has expressed any questions about the legality of the deal.

Banking and finance professionals were aghast at the Ulyukayev case.

This is a big tragedy, Bella Zlatkis, deputy chairwoman of Russias biggest lender Sberbank, told Russia news agencies. I feel really sorry about what happened and even the very fact that such an investigation is taking place.

Alexander Shokhin, head of a major business lobbying group, told the RBC television channel that he was convinced Ulyukayev was innocent and said he may have been framed.
South Africas main opposition party filed a criminal complaint on Tuesday accusing President Jacob Zuma of corruption, after an anti-graft agency released a report listing allegations of influence peddling in his government.

The report, titled State of Capture, stopped short of reaching conclusive findings against the president, some of his ministers and heads of state-owned companies. But it plunged Zuma into the latest crisis of his scandal-plagued presidency.

The DA will make sure Jacob Zuma, and all those who aid and abet him, are held accountable for their flagrant abuse of power to make themselves rich  at the expense of the poor and the jobless, said Mmusi Maimane, the leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA) party. He urged police to investigate.

The affair has rattled markets in Africas most industrialised economy, which faces possible ratings downgrades later this year, and given even more ammunition to the opposition to try to unseat Zuma.

Zuma -- who survived a no-confidence vote in parliament on Thursday over the allegations of influence-peddling -- was studying the report and reserved the right to challenge it in court, the presidents office said in a statement after the document was released on Nov. 2.

The carefully worded report by Thuli Madonsela, who reached the end of her tenure as Public Protector on Oct. 14, stopped short of asserting that crimes had been committed and called for a judge to investigate the allegations.

It focused on allegations that the brothers Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta influenced the appointment of ministers, and called for an investigation into whether Zuma, some of his cabinet members and some state companies acted improperly.

Zuma, 74, denies providing special favours for wealthy friends, including the Guptas, who run a business empire from media to mining. They also deny wrongdoing.

The chief executive of the state power utility, Brian Molefe, announced his resignation, a week after he was implicated in the anti-graft report. Molefe denied any wrongdoing but said he was leaving his post in the companys interest.
Still reeling from a devastating defeat in last weeks election, Democrats are beginning the process of charting the direction of their party in the Donald Trump era.

With Hillary Clinton and her team staying out of the public eye, liberal politicians have begun jockeying for control of the partys future. While they all backed Clinton, theyre now pushing for a serious shift in the partys policy positions, financial resources and grassroots organizing to focus more on an economic populist message that could win back white working class voters who went for Trump.

The soul searching took a more urgent tone on Monday, when some party activists, donors and politicians began advocating for changes in leadership.

Read | Trump victory: Towards an inward-looking America

High school students protest against the upset election of Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton in the race for President of the United States. (AFP Photo)

Minnesota Rep Keith Ellison announced his candidacy to be chairman of the Democratic National Committee on Monday afternoon, joining a crowded field of candidates seeking to head up the partys national organisation.

In the House, a group of largely younger Democrats is pushing to postpone leadership elections in an effort to force a discussion about the direction of the party. Minority leader Nancy Pelosi and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer have led the caucus for more than a decade.

Wealthy Democratic donors, gathered in Washington for a three-day strategy session, began laying plans for what they hoped would be a resurgence of the party, starting with its economic message.

Theres a general feeling that the Democratic party itself needs some serious reform and has grown very distant from the kind of communities it represents, said Gara LaMarche, president of the Democracy Alliance.

After losing the White House and Congress  and likely the ideological tilt of the Supreme Court  the Democrats new chief will be one of the partys most visible faces in politics, making the role a far more influential post than it was during the Obama administration.

Already, around a dozen Democrats names have been publicly floated to succeed interim chairwoman Donna Brazile.

Ellison, a prominent progressive and the first Muslim elected to Congress, has emerged as an early contender, backed by much of the partys leadership wing.

Read | How Donald Trump crushed his critics with a coalition of the forgotten Americans

Hundreds of Angelenos have been arrested in recent days and some have vandalised property but the vast majority of the thousands of protesters have remained peaceful. (AFP Photo)

Former Vermont governer Howard Dean announced his intention Thursday to reclaim a post he held during the Bush administration. Former Maryland governor Martin OMalley, DNC national finance chairman Henry Munoz III, and South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison have also said theyre considering bids.

The contest comes at a time of deep unrest for the party. Anti-Trump protests continued this weekend and post-election polls showed a significant minority of Clinton backers question the legitimacy of Trumps win.

The future looks even grimmer. In two years, Democrats will be defending about two dozen Senate seats, including at least five in deep-red states. That election could hand Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a filibuster-proof majority, further clearing the way for a conservative policy agenda.

Read | Hillary Rodham Clinton: A tale of thwarted ambition

I come from the white working class, and I am deeply humiliated that the Democratic Party cannot talk to the people where I came from, tweeted Bernie Sanders, who mounted a fierce challenge to Clinton in the primary.

Top party leaders are urging Democrats not to despair.

Its time to brush ourselves off, get back in the arena, and get ready to fight, President Barack Obama said in an email to supporters inviting them to join a call with him on Monday evening.

Clinton, meanwhile, has offered little advice to supporters after her concession speech on Wednesday. On a weekend call with top donors, she blamed her loss largely on the FBIs decision to revive its examination of her email accounts.

Shes expected to address House Democrats on a Monday afternoon call.

US Presidential Election 2016 full coverage
Suicide bombers targeted two major cities in Iraq on Monday, striking security forces in the Sunni city of Fallujah and Shia pilgrims in the holy city of Karbala in the countrys south, killing at least six people in each attack.

The bombings are an apparent attempt by the Islamic State group to strike back as government troops advance on their stronghold in the northern city of Mosul. The Sunni militant group claimed responsibility for both bombings.

In Fallujah, the attack was carried out by twin suicide car bombers in the city center  the first such incidents since Iraqi forces in late June declared it fully liberated of Islamic State militants after a monthlong operation aided by US-led airstrikes.

Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen Saad Maan said one of the Fallujah bombers killed two policemen and wounded 17 people, including nine civilians.

They hit a security checkpoint, he said, adding that traffic had been heavy in the area and around 10 vehicles including an ambulance had been damaged. The second bomber killed four people, including two policemen.

IS claimed responsibility for the attack, posting videos online of the bombers before the attack, their faces masked and brandishing assault rifles. Fallujah was the first Iraqi city to fall to IS, in January 2014. Since IS was driven out, families have begun returning to the city, 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Baghdad.

Earlier in the day, a suicide bombing targeted the sacred Shia city of Karbala, killing at least six civilians in an attack also claimed by IS.

According to Maan, the ministry spokesman, six suicide bombers tried to sneak into Karbala from its western outskirts but security forces detected and killed five of them. The sixth attacker broke into a house in the citys Ayn al-Tamer neighborhood, where he detonated his suicide vest, killing six people and wounding another six, Maan said.

The attack came as hundreds of thousands of faithful Shias have been walking to Karbala to commemorate the 7th century death of Imam Hussein, Prophet Muhammads grandson and an iconic Shia martyr. The city, where Imam Hussein and his brother are buried, is located some 90 kilometers south of Baghdad. On Sunday, pilgrims are expected to converge on the city for the climax of a 40-day mourning period, known as al-Arbaeen.

In an online statement, the Islamic State group said it targeted polytheists ... in filthy Karbala. It put the number of the suicide bombers at five, saying they clashed for hours with the security forces and set off their explosives consecutively when they ran out ammunition.

The militants often exaggerate their claims. The Associated Press could not verify the authenticity of the statement, but it was posted on a militant website commonly used by the extremist group.

Like other Sunni extremist groups, IS considers the Shias heretics and has frequently targeted Shia civilians and places of worship.

We are walking all these long distances, we are not afraid of terrorists, we are not afraid of Daesh, said 56-year-old pilgrim Sattar Hussein, using the Arabic acronym for IS. We are not afraid of anyone who defames Islam. And especially those who are targeting the al-Arbaeen.

Wearing a black traditional Arab dress, Hussein was among hundreds of pilgrims leaving Baghdad on foot to head to Karbala under tight security measures. Some of the marchers were carrying religious flags, including some with a portrait depicting Imam Hussein, as security forces set up check points to search them.

In southern Iraqs Shia heartland, Karbala is far from Mosul, where a massive Iraqi military operation  launched last month and backed by US-led coalition airstrikes and paramilitary militias  is underway to free the city, Iraqs second-largest, from IS.

A UN spokesman said Monday that more than 54,000 people have fled their homes as a result of the Iraqi military operation to retake Mosul from IS militants. Farhan Haq said that number represented an increase of 6,600 people since four days ago.

On Sunday, a wave of attacks in and around Baghdad killed at least 23 people and wounded 70 others. Many of the assaults targeted Shiite pilgrims walking toward Karbala.

Also read | Suicide attack kills at least 6 civilians south of Baghdad
A Whitehall memo leaked on Tuesday appeared to confirm what many allege  that the Theresa May government does not yet have a strategy to leave the European Union, and its refusal to spell out details is because it does not have a plan.

The Cabinet Office memo dated November 7, leaked to The Times, claims the bureaucracy is struggling to cope with the scale of work generated by the June 23 vote by Britons to exit the EU and the lack of a common strategy among cabinet ministers.

The government promptly rubbished the memo reportedly prepared by a consultant, saying it did not recognise it.

The leak appeared within hours of Prime MinisterTheresa May setting out an optimistic case for a post-Brexit Britain in the Lord Mayor's banquet speech at Guildhall on Monday night.

According to the memo, departments were working on more than 500 projects related to leaving the EU and may need to hire an extra 30,000 civil servants to deal with the additional burden of work.

The Times reported the memo also identified a tendency by May to draw in decisions and settle matters herself as a strategy that cannot be sustained, and highlighted a split between the three Brexit ministers  Liam Fox, Boris Johnson and David Davis  and the chancellor, Philip Hammond, and his ally Greg Clark, the business secretary.

Transport secretary Chris Grayling, a member of the governments Brexit cabinet committee, said he had no idea where the report had come from and denied it had been commissioned by ministers.

The process is complex but by no means the challenge that is set out in todays newspaper story. I have a team of people in my department who are working with David Davis on issues like aviation, but I do not see the scale of the challenge that is in todays newspaper, he told BBC.

Asked if the government is planning to hire 30,000 civil servants to cope with the extra pressures of the negotiations, Grayling said: I have not seen anything to suggest that is the case. We have got people in my department (and) in other departments working with the Brexit department. I dont know what 30,000 extra people would do.

A government spokesman said: This is not a government report and we dont recognise the claims made in it. We are focused on getting on with the job of delivering Brexit and making a success of it.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said the leaked report showed a shambles at the heart of government over the direction of Brexit. Its time for the prime minister to stop being led astray by her warring cabinet, he said.

Otherwise her government is heading for the worst possible outcome: a reckless, destructive Brexit that will do untold damage to British jobs and the economy.

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President-elect Donald Trump is in for a quick wake-up call and will have to adjust his temperament when he confronts the realities of his new job on Jan. 20, President Barack Obama said on Monday.

In a news conference at the White House, Obama said the freewheeling Trump could not be as outspoken as he was during the long and bitter campaign that ended last week with the Republicans surprise win over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Subdued and carefully choosing his words, Obama gave what appeared to be dispassionate advice to his successor free of much of the partisan rancour that marked the election campaign.

This office has a way of waking you up, Obama said. Those aspects of his positions or predispositions that dont match up with reality, he will find shaken up pretty quick because reality has a way of asserting itself.

The two men met in the Oval Office last week to begin the transition of power. Obama said on Monday he believed Trump would be pragmatic in office and not approach the countrys problems from an ideological perspective.

There are going to be certain elements of his temperament that will not serve him well, unless he recognizes them and corrects them, Obama said.

Because when youre a candidate and you say something that is inaccurate or controversial it has less impact than it does when youre president of the United States. Everybody around the world is paying attention. Markets move, he said.

Obama declined to wade into a controversy over Trumps appointment of right-wing firebrand Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist, saying it would not be appropriate for him to comment on Trumps appointments.

But Obama, who criticized Trumps temperament during the campaign, said it was important for Trump to send signals of unity after the hard-fought campaign. He said the political gifts that allowed the Republican to upset Clinton would be put to good use in the White House.

Ive been encouraged by his statements on election night about the need for unity, his interest in being president for all people, Obama said. In an election like this that was so hotly contested and so divided, gestures matter.

Giuliani to State?

The president-elect, a businessman who has never held public office, and his transition team are working on picking members of his Cabinet and the heads of federal agencies.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has emerged as a leading candidate for secretary of state, a source familiar with the process said. John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is also being considered for the job of the nations top diplomat, the source added.

Giuliani became one of Trumps closest advisers during the campaign, functioning as his most vocal defender on cable news programs and introducing him at many rallies. Giuliani has also been mentioned as a possible attorney general or homeland security secretary.

A Trump transition team official denied media reports on Monday that Trump was seeking security clearance for three of his children and his son-in-law.

Such clearance would allow Trump to discuss matters of national security with his daughter Ivanka, sons Eric and Donald Jr. and son-in-law Jared Kushner. Federal law prohibits him from hiring family members to serve in his administration, but all four played key advisory roles through the campaign.

Trump has insisted that to avoid conflicts of interest, his children would run his sprawling business operations once he assumed the presidency.

Anger over Bannon

Democrats, civil rights groups and even some Republicans slammed Trump for choosing Bannon as a key aide, saying it would elevate the white nationalist movement into the top levels of the White House.

Making his first appointments since last weeks upset win, Trump picked Bannon as his chief strategist and counselor, and Washington insider Reince Priebus as his chief of staff on Sunday, saying the two would share the task of steering his administration as equal partners.

The choice of Priebus was seen as a conciliatory signal of Trumps willingness to work with Congress. But critics blasted the selection of Bannon, who spearheaded a shift of the Breitbart News website into a forum for the alt-right, a loose online group of neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites.

There should be no sugarcoating the truth here: Donald Trump just invited a white nationalist into the highest reaches of the government, said Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, who called on Trump to rescind the choice.

The Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said Bannons appointment sent an alarming signal that President-elect Trump remains committed to the hateful and divisive vision that defined his campaign.

Even some conservatives and Republicans voiced dismay on Bannon. Evan McMullin, who ran as a conservative independent presidential candidate, wondered on Twitter if any national Republican leaders would condemn the pick of anti-Semite Bannon.

John Weaver, a top strategist for Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich, tweeted that the racist, fascist extreme right is represented footsteps from the Oval Office. Be very vigilant America. Kasich was one of 16 Republican presidential hopefuls Trump defeated in the party primaries.

Priebus defended Bannon on Monday, calling him a wise and well-educated former naval officer and saying he had not encountered the sort of extremist or racist views that critics are assailing.

He was a force for good on the campaign, Priebus said on Fox News, adding they were in agreement on almost everything in terms of advising the president-elect.

Kellyanne Conway, Trumps former campaign manager and a senior adviser, told reporters in New York she was offended by the reaction to Bannon, describing him as a brilliant tactician.

Police in New York on Monday were investigating two cases involving swastikas drawn or painted in public spaces, as civil rights activists said there had been a surge in hate crimes following last weeks election.

Local media reported hundreds of students walked out of a high school to protest Trump on Monday in Silver Spring, Maryland, and students gathered at the University of Washington in Seattle to protest Trump.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon voiced hope today that Donald Trump will vary his stance denying climate change as world leaders gathered in Morocco to keep a planetary rescue plan on track.

A week after the election to the White House of Trump, who has called global warming a hoax and has threatened to cancel the global pact, Ban said: I am sure he will make a good, wise decision.

He has spoken to the president-elect, the UN secretary-general said, and he was optimistic that the business mogul will hear and understand the seriousness and urgency of addressing climate change.

Ban was addressing journalists in Marrakesh before opening the high-level segment of an annual UN climate meeting -- the first since last years adoption of the Paris Agreement to stave off calamitous global warming.

Trumps election has been uppermost on the minds of many delegates and negotiators gathered since last Monday to thrash out a roadmap for putting the agreement into action.

I have explained at length about our expectations and our hope that... president-elect Mr Trump will hear and understand the seriousness and urgency of addressing climate change, said Ban.

As the president of the US I am sure he will understand this, he will listen, he will vary his campaign remarks, he added.

It was usual for campaigning politicians to engage in rhetoric, but a president had to understand the reality of the whole worlds problems, said the UN chief.

No country, however resourceful or powerful, is immune from the impacts of climate change, he added.

My sense is that as a very successful business person in the past... I believe that he understands that there are market forces already at work on this issue.

The hard-fought Paris Agreement set an objective of limiting average global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels by cutting planet-heating greenhouse gases from burning coal, oil, and gas.

Many fear that withdrawal by the United States, a champion of the deal under President Barack Obama, would shatter the political goodwill built up over years of negotiations, and put the very planet-saving goals of the deal at risk.
US forces may have committed war crimes in Afghanistan from 2003-2004 by torturing prisoners in what appeared to be a deliberate policy, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has said.

Unveiling the results of a lengthy initial probe into atrocities in Afghanistan, prosecutor Fatou Bensouda yesterday said she would decide imminently whether to ask to launch a full-blown investigation -- and take the worlds only permanent war crimes court into uncharted territory.

She stressed that the Taliban militia and the affiliated Haqqani network, Afghan government forces and US troops as well as the CIA all appeared to have carried out war crimes since the Islamic militia was ousted by a US-led invasion in 2001.

And she blamed the Taliban and its allies for the deaths of some 17,000 civilians since 2007 to December 2015 in a brutal insurgency with numerous attacks on schools, hospitals and mosques.

But for the first time, Bensouda highlighted allegations of war crimes of torture and related ill-treatment, by US military forces deployed to Afghanistan and in secret detention facilities operated by the Central Intelligence Agency.

There was a reasonable basis to believe that during the interrogation of detainees, members of the US armed forces and the US Central Intelligence Agency resorted to techniques amounting to the commission of the war crimes of torture as well as cruel treatment and rape.

If Bensouda does ask judges to authorise a full-scale inquiry, the tribunal would be taking on its most complex and politically controversial investigations to date.

The former administration of president George W. Bush authorised the use of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, including waterboarding after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Their use was abolished by President Barack Obama when he took over the White House in January 2009.

War crimes allegedly carried out by US forces were not the abuses of a few isolated individuals, Bensouda insisted in her annual report to the 124 states that belong to the ICC.

Rather it appeared these alleged crimes were committed as part of a policy or policies aimed at eliciting information through the use of interrogation techniques involving cruel or violent methods.

The aim was to support US objectives in the conflict in Afghanistan.

Detailing her offices initial findings, Bensouda said at least 61 detainees were subjected to torture (and) cruel treatment by US armed forces in Afghanistan between May 1, 2003 and December 31, 2014.

Members of the CIA also appeared to have subjected at least 27 detained persons to torture, cruel treatment... and/or rape on the territory of Afghanistan as well as in secret detention centres in Poland, Romania and Lithuania between December 2002 and March 2008.
Shrapnel split open Amir Faros face a few days ago in an explosion near the frontline. He knows that he needs treatment, and that there is barely any food for his family in the city. But he is not leaving Mosul.

Weve escaped death. Why should we go live somewhere else where our lives are finished anyway? he said, as gunfire and the explosions of mortars could be heard nearby.

As long as Daesh (Islamic State) arent coming back - which they wont - Ill be here, the 39-year-old said, his head and face wrapped in a crude makeshift bandage to cover up his wound. If I go to the camps, Ill have nothing. My house is here and Ive always lived here. My family and I will stay.

Read | IS uses wooden tanks and bearded mannequins in decoy attempts in Mosul

The army entered Zahra, Faros district in eastern Mosul, 11 days ago, and commanders say they now have the area under full control. But shooting is still constant across the frontline, which runs along the boundary with a neighbouring district.

As a Reuters reporting team toured the area, a boy of around 11 years old was hit by shrapnel from a mortar round which sliced through part of his groin. A relative carried him towards a position near the frontline manned by elite soldiers from the Counter Terrorism Service. Troops bandaged the wound and rushed him off in an armoured vehicle.

Some 100,000 government troops, Kurdish security forces and Shia militiamen have joined the battle for Mosul, by far the biggest city in the hands of Islamic State fighters. The campaign to win it back from the jihadists is the biggest battle in Iraq since the 2003 US invasion.

Read | No more counting bullets as children reclaim school once under IS

So far, 56,000 people have fled their homes in Mosul for camps in the surrounding desert or safer areas during the battle. The United Nations and Iraqi government say hundreds of thousands more may be uprooted as the frontline presses deeper into the city.

Displaced Iraqis flee from their homes at Shahrezad village east of Mosul, Iraq. (REUTERS)

Many houses have already been abandoned by families who fled during Islamic States two and a half years of brutal rule. In Zahra, practically every second home is spray painted with the words house for sale; offered up by families for a pittance for the funds to escape.

But as many as 1.5 million civilians are still in harms way, huddling in hunger and fear, beyond the reach of aid.

We cant send our partners into an area where theres active fighting, said World Food Programme spokeswoman Inger Marie Vennize. The WFP has so far reached 100,000 people.

Watch this now: WFP brings food and hope to men, women and kids who have fled #Mosul, #Iraq. pic.twitter.com/cPMldxDBlc  World Food Programme (@WFP) November 14, 2016

Which market?

In Samah district next door to Zahra, 62-year-old Talal Selim was dragging a red chequered bag through the dust in search of food.

Im going to the market, he said.

Which market? asked a Reuters reporter, surprised to hear of a place where food was for sale.

I dont know, the man said. Im trying to find one.

The closest semblance of a marketplace in Zahra was a crowd of people gathered outside a home, waving cash at men who handed out tomatoes and eggs, apparently brought in as government aid.

This should be given out for free but people are selling it, and its expensive, said Abu Mohammed, 43, as he peered over the throng.

A few weeks ago eggs were around one dollar. Now its $3.50, he said. Some people have money saved, but it will run out quickly. Most have nothing. So some get food and some go hungry.

Read | Heavy fighting continues as Iraqi forces push towards IS-held Mosul
When the phone rang, novelist Nelson Algren was cooking dinner in his two-room, $10-a-month slum apartment in Chicago. He picked up the receiver and heard a woman speaking in a foreign accent.

You have the wrong number, he said and hung up.

Simone de Beauvoir checked the number and redialed. Again the man answered and she tried to explain herself.

Wrong number! the man barked, then hung up.

What should I do? Beauvoir wondered.

Back in France, she was a famous writer, author of three novels and essays that had helped define Existentialism, the school of philosophy that she and her lover, playwright Jean-Paul Sartre, had popularized. In Paris, their circle included the expatriate African-American writer Richard Wright, a pal of Algrens who made his Chicago friend sound interesting to Beauvoir. Now, in February of 1947, Beauvoir was touring America for the first time, sightseeing and delivering lectures. In New York, a writer had given her Algrens phone number. A Chicago factory workers son, Algren had spent the Depression hoboing around, selling goods door-to-door, pumping gas, and working as a carnival barker, until he stole a typewriter in Texas and landed in jail for four months. During the war, hed fought in Europe. By 1947, hed published two novels and dozens of short stories, most of them gritty, grim, funny tales of misfits, losers, and petty criminals.

Beauvoir wanted to meet Algren, and she didnt know anybody else in Chicago. From her room at the Palmer House, she rang the hotel operator and asked her to dial Algrens number.

Please be patient and stay on the line, the operator told Algren when he answered. He agreed and Beauvoir explained who she was and mentioned Richard Wright.

Where are you? Algren asked, his voice friendlier. Ill come down.

They met in the Palmer House lobby and repaired to the bar. Algren, 37, was tall, thin, handsome, and witty. Beauvoir, 39, was petite, energetic, and curious, with eyes that were, Algren later wrote, lit by a light-blue intelligence. He bought her a drink, told her about his days fighting in France, and asked what she wanted to see. She deferred to him: Chicago was his town. He told her that he wrote about Chicagos lowlife and offered to show her his world. She was game.

On West Madison Street, Chicagos skid row, Algren led his guest into a seedy bar. The place was full of bums, drunks, old ruined beauties, Beauvoir wrote in her diary, and Algren seemed to know them all. A black jazz band started up. A sign read Absolutely No Dancing, but the barflies danced anyway. A drunk asleep at a table wakes up and grabs the arm of a fat crone dressed in rags, Beauvoir wrote in her diary. They dance with a joyous abandon that verges on madness and ecstasy.

Beauvoir watched, then turned to Algren. It is beautiful, she said. Algren found her comment very French. With us, beautiful and ugly, grotesque and tragic, and also good and evileach has its place, he explained. Americans dont like to think that these extremes can mingle. He did not add, though he could have, that those extremes frequently mingled in his writing, creating his unique mixture of tragedy and comedy.

Im going to show you something even better, Algren said, escorting Beauvoir to a combination bar and flophouse. Drunks could buy a beer, then stagger upstairs to sleep in a big, empty room lined with mats. Algren introduced Beauvoir to Lorraine Kimion, who ran the place. Everything I know about modern French literature is thanks to her, he told Beauvoir. She is very up-to-date.

Beauvoir thought he was kidding.

How is Malraux doing on his latest novel? Kimion asked Beauvoir. Is there a second volume? And Sartre? Has he finished Les Chemins de la Liberte? Is Existentialism still in vogue?

A flophouse bartender who read Malraux and Sartre? Im stupefied, Beauvoir wrote in her diary.

Late that night, Algren took Beauvoir to his apartment, and they made love. I think he initially wanted to comfort me, she later said, but then it became passion.

The next day, their exploration continued. I showed her the electric chair, the psychiatric wards, neighborhood bars where I told her everybody sitting around was a sinister character, Algren later recalled. She looked around a while and then told me, I think you are the only sinister thing around here. Then I took her to a midnight mission. I thought it was time to save her soul.

The next day, Beauvoir resumed her journey, traveling to California, Nevada, Texas, and New Orleans. When she returned to New York, she invited Algren to join her. He did, moving into her room at the Brevoort Hotel in Greenwich Village. They went to a few literary parties but spent most of their time in bed. Before Beauvoir flew home, Algren slipped a ring on her finger. It wasnt a wedding band, but she did write letters in which she addressed him as my beloved husband. And he wrote back: I did not think I could ever miss anyone so badly. The affair continued, on and off, for more than a decade. He visited her in Paris, she visited him in Chicago, and they traveled together in Mexico and North Africa.

In 1947, Beauvoir showed Algren an essay shed written about women. He urged her to expand her thoughts into a book. She did, and The Second Sex became a feminist classic. In 1949, Algren published a novel about a Chicago junkie, The Man With the Golden Arm, which won the National Book Award. In 1955, Otto Preminger directed a movie version starring Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak.

Algren and Beauvoir exchanged torrid love letters but never lived together. Devoted to their work, they were not willing to move away from the cities that inspired their writing. In 1954, Beauvoir wrote an autobiographical novel, The Mandarins, featuring a moody American writer much like Algren. She dedicated the book to him, but he disliked the way she portrayed him, and mocked her in essays, asking: Will she ever stop talking?

Its dangerous to fall in love with a novelist.

As the decades passed, Algrens career faded while Beauvoir and Sartre, her companion and collaborator, evolved into literary celebrities. She and Sartre became the Gracie Allen and George Burns of international left-wingism, novelist Clancy Sigal joked in his review of a book of Beauvoirs love letters to Algren.

Algren died in 1981, largely forgotten by American readers. Beauvoir died five years later, famous worldwide. She was buried next to Sartre in a Paris cemetery, wearing the ring that the interesting fellow in Chicago had given her 39 years earlier. 

This story was originally published in the November/December 2016 issue of American History magazine. Subscribe here.
The angel of disease and death, ascending from his oozy bed, along the marshy margins of the bottom groundsfloats in his aerial chariot, and in seasons favorable to his progress, spreads mortal desolations as he flies. Place: Ohio. Date: 1820. Disease: intermittent fevers, the ague, the chills19th-century terms for the parasitic infection today called malaria. No threat now in the United States, the ailment was then mysterious, widespread, and often fatal.

To combat the scourge, John Sappington, a country doctor in Arrow Rock, Missouri, bucked medical convention to concoct and prescribe pills containing quinine. His salesmen peddled the product far and wide, helping to prove the treatment worked by sporadically dosing themselves and never falling ill. If not for Sappingtons popular Anti-Fever Pills, settlers might never have pushed so successfully into the Midwest, validating President Thomas Jeffersons 1803 gamble on the Louisiana Purchase.

John Sappington, born in 1776, grew up in Tennessee and apprenticed with his physician father, becoming a doctor himself. He headed to Philadelphia for more training but did not complete the course, turned off by bloodletting and other common methods. In 1819, having heard his friend Thomas Hart Benton, an attorney and aspiring politician, talk up opportunities in the Missouri Territory, Sappington, 43, settled in Arrow Rock, a stop on the fur-trade route between St. Louis and Santa Fe. Among his many successful enterprises was a medical practice that would become a platform for challenging healthcare orthodoxy.

Prolonged chills and fevers often signal the onset of malaria. At the time nobody knew a parasite caused the ague or that mosquito bites transmitted the blood-borne infection. Now we know that malaria is an Old World disease carried to the New World by European colonists and African slaves. In North America, the parasite thrived among mosquitoes in swampy waters like those in the coastal Carolinas, the Mississippi River Valley bottomlands, and the valleys of the Ohio and Missouri Rivers. In the South, malaria was so widespread that its effects may have fostered the image of the lazybones Southerner, but cases also occurred as far north as Michigan, where doggerel warned: Dont go to Michigan, the land of ills/the word means ague, fever and chills.

In Europe, physicians caring for aristocrats had long treated the syndrome with a remedy from the Andes, where Jesuit missionaries had seen Incas use the bark of an evergreen, the cinchona, to treat shivering. In powder form, the bark saw sparing use in America, usually only after a fever had broken.

In 1823, Sappington experimented with the controversial substance. Reading an old pamphlet touting the wonders of Peruvian bark prompted him to try it on himself. None of the adverse effects were major, and he started using the bark to treat fever patients at the onset of symptoms. Soon commercial production of a concentrated form of the barkknown as quinine from the Quechua quinamade possible precise dosages. By 1832, Sappington was having his slaves mass-produce in pill form a blend of one grain of quinine,  grain of myrrh, and  grain of licorice, with sassafras added to mask quinines bitter flavor; parallel tweaking by British colonials in the tropics led to the gin and tonic. Sappington did not hype his pills quinine content because the ingredient was thought to be costly and risky, and medical opinion viewed bloodletting and purging as the best tools against disease.

In the course of two decades, Sappington established a sales network so successful that rivals commonly counterfeited his pills. In 1844, he published The Theory and Treatment of Fevers, which revealed the formula for his famous pills as well as offering patients testimonials. Unmasking quinine as the main ingredient, Sappington wrote, would be the most effective way of destigmatizing the drug. His treatise was the first medical book to be published west of the Mississippi. He gave away all copies.

Sappington and his anti-malaria campaign have nearly faded from memory, but a few details flesh out the man. He carried bluegrass seeds that he scattered over bald patches of land. He so dreaded the thought of burial that he ordered a lead-clad coffin, which the physician kept under his bed and filled with applesexcept when Sappington occasionally climbed in to check the fit. By the time he died in 1856, at 80, quinine was accepted as a powerful anti-malarial weapon. His coffin still stands aboveground in Arrow Rock at the family cemetery, having withstood damage done by Confederate soldiers scavenging lead for bullets.

Civil war was pivotal to malarias spread in North America. Troop movements involving parasite-riddled regions of the Chesapeake Bay and the Mississippi Valley dispersed the organism. During 1861-65, about a million cases of malaria were tallied, and quinine became a fixture in the American militarys drug armamentarium. The disease again threatened American soldiers in World War II due to shortages of quinine, hastening development of substitutes. A DDT spray campaign curbed exposure to mosquitoes among soldiers training in the southern United States and its tropical possessions. By 1946, deaths from the disease had dropped from 60 per 1,000 in 1920 to 2 per 1,000. In 1965, only two deaths were reported in the entire country. Malaria in the United States was no more. Virtually all domestic cases today involve infections acquired abroad. 

This story was originally published in the November/December 2016 issue of American History magazine. Subscribe here.
Boy Wonder:

Stephen Decatur Jr. was 25 when he led the boarding party that destroyed the captured American frigate Philadelphia. (Orlando S. Lagman/U.S Naval Historical Center) (Orlando S. Lagman/U.S Naval Historical Center)

In recent years, piracy and hostage-taking off East Africa and the response by the

United States and allies have recalled the First Barbary War. During that 1801-05 conflict on the Mediterranean Sea off North Africa, President Thomas Jefferson, after many years of the United States paying ransoms rather than standing up to maritime brigands, forged a new national approach to foreign affairs. An electrifying episode in February 1804 reversed that pattern, crystallized Jeffersons new policies, forcefully illustrated the maturation of American will and ferocity, and made a hero of a young U.S. Navy officer. In burning the U.S. Navy frigate Philadelphia, captured the year before and held by pirates in Tripoli Harbor, Stephen Decatur Jr. set a benchmark for audacity and martial enterprise.

The American shipping industry, which prospered in colonial times under the protection of the Royal Navy, entered the era of independence under French naval guardianshipuntil 1793. When the United States remained neutral in the French Revolution, France withdrew its protection at sea. Lacking a navy, the new nation now had to cope with ocean-borne outlaws who threatened American credibility and commerce. American merchant crews came under particular pressure along the Barbary Coasttodays Morocco, Libya, Tunisia, and Algeriaat the time, home base for pirates sailing out of the Ottoman Empires North African holdings.

Piracy was a longstanding and persistent Mediterranean practice. Maritime outlaws, known as corsairs, had sailed there since the ninth century, taking ships and cargoes, and enslaving crews. The 1700s brought corsairs into contact with European pirates, who shared their techniques. Operating from ports like Algiers, Sale, Rabat, Tunis, and Tripoli, pirates aboard dhows, galleys, and captured European vesselssometimes freebooting, sometimes allied with this European power or thatplundered at will.

Historically, Europeans had accepted as a cost of doing business the ransoming of crews, cargoes, and vessels, and the United States did the same. Short on cash and ill equipped to wage war, Presidents George Washington and John Adams authorized payments to free enslaved merchant crewmen.

In 1794, under Adams, Congress established the Department of the Navy and approved construction of six frigates for defense. Across the Atlantic, the hijackings, kidnappings, and ransom payments continued. As minister to France, Jefferson personally commissioned envoys to negotiate treaties and payoffs. In 1800, the United States paid tribute of $1 million10 percent of annual government revenueto Algiers alone.

Taking office as president in March 1801, Jefferson faced a populace weary of Americans being taken hostage and of paying dearly to free them. For their part, the pirates chafed at laggard American tribute. That May, the pasha of Tripoli, Yusuf Karamanli, angry at not being bought off more quickly, had his forces cut down the flagstaff at the American consulate. A waffling Jefferson authorized the Navy to send a squadron to the Barbary Coast, bearing gifts for various pashas but also orders to patrol the Mediterranean to protect American citizens and shipping. Giftsand the display of naval powermollified Morocco, Algiers, and Tunis. Tripoli stood alone.

Among that expeditions five vessels was the 36-gun, 1,240-ton frigate Philadelphia, commissioned the year before at its namesake city, where in a week citizens had raised more than half the vessels $179,000 construction cost. The frigates first voyage, commanded by Captain Stephen Decatur Sr., was to the Caribbean, a scene of naval conflict with France. Under Captain William Bainbridge, the ship and its cohort then spent a year in the Mediterranean, after which Philadelphia returned stateside.

No Surrender:

From a prison ashore, William Bainbridge, Philadelphias captain, sent intelligence to countrymen. (Getty Images) (Getty Images)

In February 1802, Jefferson, irate at continuing pir-acy, got Senate approval to use force against Tripoli. A new squadron commander, Commodore Edward Preble, negotiated with King Ferdinand IV of the Kingdom of Naples to base American ships at the Sicilian ports of Syracuse, Palermo, and Messina. Ferdinand also provided sailors, ships carpenters, and supplies. In Tripoli, the pasha seized the U.S. consulate and made it a prison.

Philadelphia again sailed to the Mediterranean, taking up a position off Tripoli. Chasing a pirate vessel on Halloween 1803, the frigate ran aground less than two miles from shore, near enough to come under fire from enemy land batteries and pirate vessels. Bainbridge and crew attempted to free, then to scuttle the beleaguered ship, but pirates overpowered the American sailors, imprisoning them at the former consulate.

Pirates salvaged and refitted Philadelphia, planning to rename the ship Gift of Allah and make it their fleets largest, most heavily armed element. The frigate loomed in Tripoli Harbor, a symbol of American disgrace, as Karamanli demanded the United States return Tripolitan ships and property the Americans had seized.

The rest of the American squadron remained on station nearby in the Mediterranean, periodically returning to Syracuse, 272 nautical miles and, under clear conditions, a five-day sail north. Constitution, commanded by Preble, blockaded Tripoli Harbor in tandem with Enterprise, a 12-gun schooner that had Lieutenant Stephen Decatur Jr., 25, at its helm. On December 23, 1803, the American warships stopped Mastico, a two-master departing Tripoli. Masticos crew carried questionable papers and had aboard items from Philadelphia. Claiming the would-be merchantman as a prize of war, the Americans armed the vessel and rechristened it Intrepid.

Preble and Decatur, each for his own reasons, itched to deal with Philadelphia. Preble, who would have preferred Bainbridge and crew fight to the death, thought Karamanlis aggressiveness would encourage other Barbary states to break treaties with the Americans. Decatur, like his seafaring father a Philadelphian, wanted to free the vessel named for his hometown. Meanwhile, Preble and U.S. Consul General Tobias Lear were negotiating to obtain the crews release.

Preble and Decatur had unlikely assistance onshore. From captivity in the seized consulate, Bainbridge was gathering information. Using a spyglass he got from the Danish consul, who also carried his lettersthe pasha believed free flow of prisoner mail encouraged ransom paymentsBainbridge monitored Philadelphia. In coded messages the Dane delivered to Preble, Bainbridge made clear the frigate was in no shape to sail. He also reported on other vessels and defenses in Tripoli Harbor.

Preble considered swooping into the harbor to seize, tow, and, once his men made repairs, sail Philadelphia out of enemy hands. But Intrepid was too small and Philadelphia too ragged. The better approach would be to burn the captured vessel.

The eager Decatur hatched a plan. He would lead a contingent of sappers including his brother James, all skilled at demolition, and U.S. Marines from the squadrons ships. All were volunteers and, like their commander, ambitious as well as patriotic. Combat was a ticket not only to glory but also to promotion, and this mission promised plenty of fighting and no shortage of casualties.

Intrepid might have been too small to serve as a towboatand leaky and rat-infested to bootbut it was the perfect vessel for a sneak attack. The Americans would disguise the former Mastico with short masts and triangular lateen sails to simulate a Tripolitan dhow. Flying Union Jacks, the little ship might fool pirates and guards into thinking it British. Crewmen did the makeover dockside at Syracuse.

Board the frigate Philadelphia, burn her, and make your retreat good, Preble told his force. After the ship is well on fire, point two of the 18-pounders shotted [sic] down the main hatch and blow her bottom out.

The 16-gun Syren, under Lieutenant Charles Stewart, accompanied Intrepid out of Syracuse on February 3. Aboard the disguised vessel were five Sicilian volunteers, including Salvador Catalano, an Arabic-speaking pilot who would do the talking once they entered Tripoli Harbor. Thomas McDonough, a Philadelphia crewman who had been on shore leave when his shipmates ran aground, would lead the team working below decks; he knew the frigates interior in the dark.

Decatur concocted a cover story: They were a British transport bound for Malta that had lost its anchors in a storm and needed to dock at Tripoli for repairs. To support the tale, the 85 or so men aboard dressed as Barbary Coast civilian sailors. To torch Philadelphia, the team brought fuses and candles made of spermaceti, a waxy, highly flammable substance found in sperm whale skulls. For additional flammability, the spermaceti candles rode in a bath of turpentine.

Board!

Decatur and his men scramble over Philadelphias rail. (U.S. Naval Historical Center) (U.S. Naval Historical Center)

Delayed by a gale en route, the force needed eight days to cross from Syracuse to Tripoli. Intrepid, built to carry 24 men, now had more than three times as many aboard. Heavy seas threatened to swamp the ship; seasickness slicked the decks with vomit. Decatur, however, was the picture of serene confidence. The gale subsided on February 12; three days later the ships linked up and Decatur ordered the attack for the night of February 16. The ships resumed course for Tripoli with Intrepid in the van and Syren in support.

The Americans were within sight of the African coast when the wind dropped, leaving the heavier Syren lagging in deeper water. Waiting for Syren would delay the attack and perhaps arouse suspicion. Decatur decided Intrepid would proceed alone. The fewer the number, the greater the glory, he told his men.

The bogus British vessel made Tripoli too early; unless he slowed down, Decatur would be sailing into an enemy harbor in broad daylight. Suddenly trimming sails would alarm watchmen ashore. Decatur had the crew tie ladders, spars, buckets, and other gear to a line and heave the impromptu sea anchor overboard to

retard their progress. Intrepid arrived at Tripoli Harbor after 7 p.m. beneath a waxing crescent moon. As if to endorse the ships disguise, personnel at the British consulate, seeing those false colors, raised their stations flag to Intrepid. The impostor ship sailed along the coast toward Philadelphia, moored about a mile southwest of the consulate, in front of the pashas castle.

In his instructions, Decatur reminded Catalano, the Arabic speaker, which lies he was about to tell. The men of the boarding party, carrying only swords and pikes, would work in silence. As Intrepid neared Philadelphia, whose deck loomed 10 feet above the smaller vessels, Catalano called up to the frigate, spinning his yarn and asking if he and his mates could tie off Philadelphia for a night. Aboard the captured American frigate, the mood was suspicious. Someone spied Intrepids anchors. Others noticed knots of men lying on its deck, too many for a merchant ship of that size.

Americanos! a man shouted.

The closer Intrepid got, the more fraught the sceneuntil Decatur shouted Board! and leaped for chains dangling along the frigates hull. His men followed, some climbing over the rail, others shinnying through gun ports. Pirates panicked, scrambling overboard and screaming from the water to harbor watchmen; a few rowed for shore. About 20 Arabs stood and fought. All but one diedand he expired within hours. The attackers hacked the corpses to pieces and dumped them into the harbor. In 10 minutes, Decaturs men, only one with wounds, and those minor, had secured Philadelphia.

Up in Flames:

The boarding party withdraws, having torched the Philadelphia, too badly damaged to save, to keep it from being used as a pirate warship. (Edward Moran/ U.S. Naval Historical Center) (Edward Moran/ U.S. Naval Historical Center)

There was no salvaging the ravaged frigate. Decatur instructed the below-decks team to get cracking. Men passed spermaceti candles up from Intrepid and positioned them around Philadelphias gunroom, berth deck, and cockpit storerooms. Walking the frigates deck, Decatur shouted Fire! into each open hatch. Flames licked planking and beams. Decatur gave the order to withdraw; he was the last to go, inches ahead of the fire. But the sappers luck did not hold. The night was dead calm, and the draft from the burning Philadelphia threatened to suck Intrepid into the blaze. Decatur had men drop rowboats tied to his little ship and put their backs into their business; the sailors towed Intrepid far enough away for a breeze to fill its sails.

Tripoli came alive. By the burning frigates glow, gunners at shore batteries and in Karamanlis castle aimed for Intrepid; their rounds passed above the sails and between the masts but generally missed the mark. Soon the attackers were out of range and clear of the blazing Philadelphia. As they reached open water, Intrepids occupants gave three cheers.

By 11 p.m., Philadelphias last mast was collapsing. The mooring cables parted; the flaming hulk began to drift, visible to Syren, 40 miles north. The attackers ships met the next day. A two-day sail brought them near enough Syracuse that Decatur could signal Constitution, Business, I have completed, that I was sent on.

The business Decatur had completed proved a morale boost for his service and his country. The most bold and daring act of the age, declared British Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson. President Jefferson barely had time to seethe about Philadelphias capture when he was called upon to rejoice at its destruction. He made Decatur a captain, the Navys youngest ever, effective the date of the raid. Congress awarded him a ceremonial sword and voted his men two months pay as a bonus.

The United States was not done with pirates. A second, conclusive Battle of Tripoli Harbor would take place in August 1804, again featuring dramatic martial flourishes by Decatur. A painting of that engagement made decades later by artist Dennis Malone Carter would cement the young captain in the publics imagination as the very model of an American fighting man. The shores of Tripoliby way of the Battle of Derne in 1805would

enter the American musical lexicon. There would be another Barbary War against Tripoli, Algiers, and Tunis, in which Decatur would reprise his leadership rolebut the daring and deftness of the Philadelphia mission would make Stephen Decatur a household name. 

This story was originally published in the September/October 2016 issue of American History magazine. Subscribe here.
Planet Earth can see an invasion by UFOs as early as September 2017. This prediction follows sighting of a large number of UFOs entering the solar system.

In a report published by Parentherald.com, Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden had a conversation had a conversation on the matter.

A leaked document revealed that a large influx of UFOs entered into the solar system was sighted by an unconfirmed NASA report, leading to a possible invasion of Earth as early as September 2017.

In another report, Scot C Waring, a UFO researcher living in Taiwan, has identified an ancient alien hand while viewing images captured by Curiosity, NASA's rover space craft to Mars. The UFO hunter believed the hand to be similar to the ones of Earth's humans, leading him to conclude that Martians were humanoid.

He and other alien hunters believed that humans on Earth are actually descendants of Martians, who were humanoids a long time ago. These humanoids in Mars were destroyed by aliens by using nuclear warfare. Some of the survivors of that war arrived on Earth in UFOs and colonized our planet.

The prediction that UFOs would invade earth is supported by the views of Stephen Hawking, an authoritarian, renowned physicist who believed in aliens. His belief is that aliens would search for planets to conquer and colonize.

The possibility of invasion of Earth by aliens is further strengthened by the increasing reports of UFOs being witnessed by various UFOlogists, including the ones sighted in Peru, Italy and Lake Michigan in the U.S. during the recent elections. These increased sightings give rise to the suspicion that aliens may already be invading Earth.

If these reports are to be believed then it appears that Earth is on the verge of being colonized yet again by invasion of aliens, and come September 2017, Putin and Biden may be proved right in what they heard from unconfirmed reports from NASA.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV has said that US President-elect Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will meet very soon in order to address the relations status of the two superpower nations.

It can be recalled that Trump has been critical about China during the campaign process. Part of his outspoken threat is to implement a 45 percent tariff on goods manufactured in the Mainland.

Just recently, however, Xi has called his new American counterpart about needing cooperation to keep the two countries on the same page considering that there are many factors where both sides can work together.

This has been confirmed by China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang who says that Beijing puts great significance on its relations with Washington.

The government-owned Chinese outlet adds that the two presidents have promised to maintain close relations in order to institute a harmonious working relationship.

While on the trail to woo voters, Trump calls China as the enemy of the United States. He further goes on a rampage, asserting that Washington will stand up to the giant nation that belittled America. In reference to a surge in Chinese exports, he blames the Politburo for adjusting its currency in order to bolster China's economy.

Trump has also reiterated his promise to reinforce the US Navy with a policy of peace through strength. However, the President-elect shares that involvement in faraway issues is of no significance to him. For instance, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade pact, which is participated by various Asian nations and seen as an approach to fortify US influence, has antagonized the prospects of creating American jobs.

Shortly after the elections, Barack Obama's successor quips that he looks forward to working with China. The Republican President thinks that a win-win situation can be achieved by both sides.

However, Donald Trump's take on strengthening US position in the international scene can lead to uncertainty especially where its military is involved.

The nationalist Global Times news agency has cautioned that Beijing will institute necessary responses should the Americans make good on its threat to heavily levy Chinese goods.

Part of the countermeasures will probably focus on the imposition of high taxes against US exports and related trade operations. In addition, China will tone down the number of its students attending US schools.

With the way things are running now, Trump has offered no clear agenda with regards to foreign policy. Approaches on Beijing's territorial claims, North Korea's nuclear program and Taiwan's future remain in the dark.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A flaming flying object has been taped traveling across the sky above Lima, Peru. The residents were surprised as they saw an orange light zipped across the dark skies. The video reportedly lasts a minute and was put out by Peruvian media.

The mirror reported that other South American countries too witnessed such a sight, from the highlands to the southeast of Lima, to the area around the Amazon rainforests.

The Express added that the UFO left a trail of light behind it, as the object hurtled across the sky at dusk. Peruvian news website Canaln put out the footage first. The object reportedly disappeared behind the trees in the clip.

Popular UFO blogger Scott Waring reportedly wrote that a UFO was sighted over Lima, Peru this week, and while it passes, he said he could see a street light suddenly turn on. Hundreds of UFO reports suggest electrical problems when a UFO is close by.

According to Express, the theory put forward is that the burning object could be high altitude balloons, used by Google's project Loon, which enhances internet access in remote areas. These balloons reportedly contain lights and hover around Earth.

The mirror reports that there are a number of people who actually believe that Peru is a stop off for aliens since they have so many ancient sites, which includes Machu Picchu citadel in the Andes Mountains.

Larry Maxwell reportedly said on UFOsightingsdaily.com that he would have believed it more if that particular street light in the picture switched on, and there is a strong chance that the light automatically turns on at dusk.

There is a lot of speculation that UFO's and South America is closely linked, because it is believed that the ancient civilizations of Latin America have all been visited by aliens, because of various things that are believed to be evidences.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
In his first ever televised interview since winning the US Presidential Elections, Donald Trump directly called on his supporters to cease tormenting all minorities.

When informed by Lesley Stahl on the CBS segment '60 Minutes' about the predicament Muslims and Hispanics are currently facing, the President-elect said he is saddened to hear about the harassments.

After Trump won the presidency over Hillary Clinton, demonstrators have come out to protest against the results of the recent US polls. Judging from the real estate mogul's racial stance during his campaign, many democrats have been troubled about the direction the country will be heading. Considering that racist messages and slogans are almost everywhere, there is a strong reason to be concerned.

Trump said that he'd observed demeaning statements against minorities in white schools after the elections. Even though he has admitted that some incidents of bigotry have surfaced, he announces that he remains unaware about most of what is actually going on.

In line with this, several protesters have lobbied for Trump on Twitter to eschew the incidents.

The new top guy in Washington feels that these besmirching declarations are grave. Stopping it is part of his goal to unite the nation.

According to Richard Cohen, President of the Southern Poverty Law Center, around 300 such incidents have already been reported.

In addition, Trump finds the protests against him horrifying. He thinks that the incident may have been manipulated by the press. It is possible that small situations have been blown out of proportion to simply make it look big.

According to the billionaire businessman, the wave of criticisms signifies that people don't really know him. Aside from giving him time, Trump has called on all protesters not be fearful because all Americans will come together.

It is apparent that the new US President has been saddened by the double standard being reflected by the demonstrations. He thinks that the atmosphere would have been different if Hillary Clinton won the polls.

Protests continue for the fifth straight day as more anti-Trump activists surfaced on the streets from Manhattan to San Francisco. A 3.4-mile human chain has been observed in Oakland's Lake Merritt.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Snapchat is getting niftier every day and its value-added capacities have allowed it to present Snapchat Spectacles. The camera equipped sunglasses are called as Spectacles and allow users to record videos wirelessly, to be shared among Snapchat friends.

Now rather than taking out your phone and documenting Snapchat videos, sharing moments have become even easier for now. The website notes, that Snapchat Spectacles allow users to "make memories, from your perspective."

The Snapchat Spectacles, also known as the technological eyewear were first announced in September and were available for use this Thursday.

Here's everything you need to know while using Snapchat Spectacles

Snapchat Spectacles cost $130 and are available in three colors: Black, Teal and Coral.

Snapchat Spectacles have the capacity to record 10 second video clips with a 115 degree angle lens. This is an exact representation of how a human eye tends to capture images through a circular field of view.

CEO of Snapchat Evan Spiegel gave a trial and documented a hiking trip using the Spectacles and described the experience to The Journal:

"I could see my own memory, through my own eyes-it was unbelievable. It's one thing to see images of an experience you had, but it's another thing to have an experience of the experience. It was the closest I'd ever come to feeling like I was there again."

Videos taken by the Snapchat Spectacles are automatically saved to the Memories section of the app. Videos can be easily edited and sent to the friends or added on the story.

To record a snap, simply tap a button at the top left hand corner of the Spectacles. The Spectacles will stop recording after ten seconds, but you can tap again and add another 10 second video. In a nutshell, a total video of 30 seconds can be added at a time. You will also see an inward facing light when using the Snapchat Spectacles, and an outward facing light is also present just to show others that you are recording.

Snapchat Spectacles work well with Android and iOS devices. Android users can transfer snaps through Wi-Fi, but iPhone users can transfer the snaps through the Spectacles using the sunglasses' Bluetooth connection and Wi-Fi.

The Snapchat Spectacles are supposed to go one for a day. Meaning their battery life is quite durable. The outward facing light has a dual purpose; the second function is to specify how much battery is left. Each pair is accompanied with a charging case that can recharge the frame up to four times.

The Snapchat Spectacle costs around $129.99. Snapchat maintained that it is only making "limited number" of the spectacles. According to Ad Week, Snapchat Spectacles are only being sold in vending machines (Snapbots) and users can't buy them from the site.

The first machine came out in Venice Beach, California. Only 100+ people can get through a 3 hour wait.

The Spectacles are not waterproof and the manufacturing giant have discouraged its use in extreme, harsh temperatures.

As for now CEO Evan Spiegel actually wants the Snapchat Spectacles to be considered as a toy for now.

"We're going to take a slow approach to rolling them out," he told The Journal. "It's about us figuring out if it fits into people's lives and seeing how they like it."

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A filed patent has recently revealed that Samsung is creating a smartphone which will look like an elongated slab that has an intriguing automatic hinge and look similar to Microsoft's Surface Book.

According to Phone Arena, it was more detailed than anything they've seen from Samsung and end concluding that Galaxy X might be nearing the end of its development stages.

Latest report from Sammobile noted that a patent application has revealed a number of renders and illustrates the Smartphone's hinge from different angles.

The Galaxy S8 smartphone has been downplayed by Samsung, which has now reconfirmed that the launch for the Galaxy X is still in question after the company is having second thoughts on releasing the rumored upcoming smartphone.

A tip from a supply chain speculated that with Samsung Galaxy Note 7 mishaps, Samsung has taken a careful approach to releasing statements regarding the hardware of the new products.

According to the leaked information, Samsung Galaxy X will be a narrow flip phone with a foldable display and will be having a special hinge that will keep the phone completely upright. As per leaked diagrams, a clamshell-like device that resembles a makeup compact could be fold out into a rectangular smartphone shape.

According to TechNewsInc, the new Galaxy X will be equipped with an impressive camera and cutting edge display. The Samsung's next flagship will enrich AMOLED screen. It will also feature a resolution of 4K (2160 x 3840) and a dual rear-facing camera. The dual rear facing shooter is not a surprise in the package, as all new premium smartphones are havingwith this feature.

It is also speculated that Samsung is testing with two models with different processors for the Galaxy X. One with Qualcomm 620 processor and other with Qualcomm 820 or 830 processor. The upcoming rumored device may be having a 3GB RAM or higher and will have Micro SD slot for storage expansion.

For the release some reports suggests that the phone is planned to release at the end of coming year i.e. 2017.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The UFO debate keeps on cropping up and avid UFOlogists lose no opportunity to provide proof of aliens by sighting UFOs, never mind even if it was not by an alien hunter.

This time they have not spared even the great celestial spectacle of a supermoon. Not only that, they have even abrogated a supermoon gazer's filming of the moon two days before the actual event to support their claims of proof of aliens.

According to a report published by Express.co.uk, a supermoon enthusiast, Rondomon, in Surprise, Arizona in the U.S. was filming the supermoon two days before the event and happened to capture on film a disc-shaped UFO flitting across the moon not once but twice in a short span of time.

The stargazer uploaded the film on Youtube claiming that two UFOs did a fly-by across the moon in quick succession. He went on to describe what he captured on film as two UFOs appearing to have distortion surrounding them, and surmising the distortion as bending of light.

Elsewhere, UFOlogists were quick to latch on to Rondomon's claims to provide their own interpretation of the film. They went on to cite this as yet another proof of aliens.

In a related report published by Mirror.co.uk, Scot C Waring, a UFO researcher living in Taiwan, interpreted the description of distortion by Rondomon as a haze mist. He added that the haze, also seen in other UFOs, was due to alien propulsion. He went on to add that a UFO in orbit with a haze mist around it as odd.

Contradicting what the UFO researcher from Taiwan interpreted, a user, Jugganaut7 simply dismissed it as out of focus leaves blowing in the wind. He went on to defend his interpretation by saying that there was a discrepancy in the blur of the moon and the blur on the UFOs. He would probably have also called the UFOs as proof of aliens if the blurs were similar.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Up to 200 children could die in a day in north-eastern Nigeria due to the ongoing conflict in the country, a humanitarian agency warned.

Almost half of all children under five years of age are severely malnourished, international charity Save the Children reported on Monday. They screened the health of children from June to October of this year and came to the conclusion of malnourishment.

The result could get worse as there are areas which are unreachable in the state and current situation doesn't bode well for them too.

According to Aljazeera, the Save the Children country director Ben Foot said, "Children are presenting in desperate conditions and facing severe malnutrition, often in combination with other life-threatening diseases like pneumonia, malaria and diarrhoea".

Violent attacks on civilians since 2009 by an armed group Boko Haram have affected almost 15 million lives in North-eastern Nigeria, the World Health Organisation said.

Almost 2.2 million people have shifted their homes in the region, while up to 7 million are in need of humanitarian assistance and roughly 3 million people are living in remote areas which are practically impossible to reach, an astounding stat which can give goosebumps to anybody.

According to DW, UN has claimed that more than 80,000 people will die without even getting any assistance from funds or the charity. Further, the UN has requested $739 million to provide much-needed assistance. Assistant general-secretary Toby Lanzer has appealed for funds to help these endangered population.

However, they've received $197 million, which is way below the commitments from various governments and international helping organisations.

Nigerian military have removed the Boko Haram group from several of it's strong holds, allowing humanitarian and charity works to process nicely in affected areas.

More than 6 million are described as "food insecure" across the lake in Chad, UN figures suggested.

It's a very peculiar situation and needs to be perfectly dealt with, the assault has been taking place since 2009 so it is pretty evident that severe actions have not been taken and needs a quick turnaround to save many lives in Nigeria.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
During a summit of 'extra-terrestrial' analysts, Shi-Li Sun, well-known UFO expert, earlier a diplomat, made a ground-breaking claim to a panel of six former members of the US Congress.

"After years of research, a large number of Chinese UFO scholars, including myself, are convinced of the authenticity of UFOs and the existence of UFOs and aliens," Sun told the panel at The Citizen Hearing, according to The Daily Star.

"I have also written articles that have appeared in China's encyclopaedia, which is a very prestigious encyclopaedia that was edited by Shen Shituan, a famous scientist in my country. Some of these sightings are real, some are fake and with others it's unclear," he said. "All these phenomena are worth researching."

Chinese UFO expert, Dr Sun Shili, helped to begin China's UFO research body. He even lobbied to get the government to print his first UFO journals.

With improved technology and upgraded means of recording aliens, UFO and alien sightings have shot up in recent years, said Shi-Li-Sun.

Just two days ago, HNGN reported that a couple of UFOs were spotted flying by the supermoon.

A number of objects in other planets, such as a brick wall on Mars, also seems to indicate extra-terrestrial activity.

UFO disclosure activist Stephen Bassett, of the Paradigm Research Group, had claimed before the elections that 2016 will be the year "the truth out there" is out. Earlier, with Hillary Clinton determined to reveal UFO truths, he had been convinced that the public will get to know about it. He had said: "You will see a shift in focus from the world. More transparency, more communication among countries, an age of reform."

After Clinton's defeat, the truth does not seem to be so poised to get revealed.

Did the alien world have a hand in her downfall, to prevent the truth from coming out?

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
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Kimpton Seafire Resort + Spa Opens Its Doors In Grand Cayman

Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants makes waves today as it opens the doors to its first Caribbean property Kimpton Seafire Resort + Spa along the famed Seven Mile Beach in Grand Cayman. Seafire marks the boutique hotel company's first foray into the international luxury resort market and Grand Cayman's first new hotel in more than a decade.

The resort pays tribute to the classic Caymanian culture and authentic aesthetic while introducing modern elements and sophisticated-yet-playful amenities for an enriching and innovative stay experience for leisure and business travelers alike.

Immediately upon arrival, Seafire welcomes guests with its Kimpton-signature heartfelt care and "luxury without the attitude" service. On top of feeling warmly welcomed and attended to, guests are greeted by the sea and sand the moment they arrive. Seafire's open-air design and water vistas at every turn provide front-row seats to glorious sunsets that seem to set the ocean ablaze. Perched 24-feet-above sea level, nearly every one of Seafire's 266 guestrooms boasts a private balcony and pinch-me-I'm-dreaming views of turquoise pool and ocean waters and lush landscapes. Seafire's three freestanding beachside bungalows offer loft-like one- and two-bedroom layouts, enhanced amenities and exclusive vantage points of the beach and ocean.

"Grand Cayman was the perfect choice for Kimpton's first island resort, with an ideal location right on Seven Mile Beach," said Steven Andre, Seafire General Manager. "Seafire embodies the spirit and culture of the destination, and will allow guests the opportunity to truly immerse themselves in island life."

From its signature restaurant Ave to its casual beach bar Coccoloba, all three of Seafire's diverse destination restaurants are helmed by Executive Chef Massimo De Francesca and share a common love of fresh, uncomplicated ingredients. Foodies will especially love Avecita's nine-seat chefs' bar, featuring an ever-changing, seasonally significant dining experience prepared around a wood-fired grill and plancha. Additionally, Seafire's two pool bars serve up creative cocktails for surfside sipping and light bites for open-air noshing.

Kimpton Seafire provides the perfect tropical backdrop for business or social gatherings. The resort's indoor and outdoor meeting space includes the 7,076-square-foot Aurea Ballroom with soaring ceilings and refined design, the 10th-floor Presidential Suite, overlooking the beach and Caribbean Sea, and the expansive Seabridge Green event lawn for beachside daytime or evening occasions. Seafire's culinary team brings Caymanian flair to all events, with inspired menus brimming with locally sourced, sustainable ingredients, paired with top wines and craft cocktails.

The resort's amenities continue with the 8,500-square-foot Spa at Seafire, which features seven treatment rooms with a full array of soothing services. The spa also features a Turkish style Hammam, the only one of its kind in Grand Cayman. Staying fit while traveling is possible Seafire's 1,770-square-foot state-of the-art fitness center and weekly group fitness classes. And, parents can truly relax thanks to Camp Seafire, the property's interactive and well-planned programs for children ages 4 to 12.

Kimpton Seafire Resort + Spa, along with the 62 adjacent Residences at Seafire, marks the first resort and residential property from Dart Real Estate in partnership with Dart Development. Seafire is the result of the cinematic vision of Dayna Lee and Ted Berner of Los Angeles' Powerstrip Studio, Mark Sopp of San Francisco's SB Architects and Craig Stoner of EDSA, in collaboration with Ave Bradley, Kimpton's Global SVP Design & Creative Director. On track to be the first Grand Cayman hotel to achieve LEED Silver certification, Seafire takes sustainability to a new level with its use of recycled materials, energy efficiencies and respect for the natural environment.


Boost the visibility of your reviews on the worlds search engine

Users of Customer Alliances online reputation management solution Review Analytics, can now take advantage of a Google API, allowing hotels to direct their guests directly to a Google questionnaire in one click.

Google auto-populates the form with the review data from your questionnaire powered by Review Analytics, simplifying the process for your customer to leave their review in both places.

The API also provides more detailed statistics, such as return rate, similar to the data available on HolidayCheck, TripAdvisor and Customer Alliance.

Click here to read our step-by-step guide on how to optimize your Google review potential.

About the company

Customer Alliance is a Berlin-based company offering smart solutions for hotels. Customer Alliances Review Analytics is the official tool of the German Hotel Association (IHA) for hotel reputation management. More than 35.000 hotels in over 35 countries are already improving their workflow with the 360 reputation management software.

Review Analytics helps hoteliers get more authentic reviews to improve their online reputation. Hoteliers can keep track of how they are doing in relation to their competitors, as well as more effectively increase their sales by generating commission-free bookings through their own distribution channels.

Since officially starting in 2009, the fast-growing company has become a 90+ person international team composed of members coming from various backgrounds in the tourism & hotel industry.
Changes to the way we work, live and travel is leading to the creation of a new species of consumer  the Roamie  a 21st century nomad who travels the world and craves all mod-cons wherever he or she stays, reveals the WTM Global Trends Report 2016, in association with Euromonitor International.

The phenomenon is most prevalent in the Americas, reveals the report  released at World Travel Market London  and is a natural step on from the co-living community movement, which has been around for decades in one form or another.

In the US, there has been a rise in start-ups offering co-living with all mod-cons and attracting a younger generation lured by the cheaper rents in desirable locations.

Spotting how the move towards flexible working is leading to more work-life integration, communal office provider We Work is taking its concept a step further with We Live, a subdivision offering co-living apartments in New York and Washington.

Coupled with the rise in popularity of solo travel, this trend is now moving into the travel arena and one start-up, called Roam, is offering co-living spaces in three locations around the world, creating the concept of co-living nomads, or Roamies.

For a fee of US$1,800 per month, members can live in its outlets in Miami, Madrid or Bali, and there are plans to expand Roam to London and Buenos Aires.

Roam Co-Founder Bruno Haid explained: The Roam co-living community is a diverse mix, from your typical late-20s Millennials, through to sabbaticals in their late 30s, possibly couples, possibly with kids, [to] Baby Boomers.

Another company, Pure House, offers community living for creative types in New York, with plans to expand to Paris.

Pure House Founder Ryan Fix said: Our aim is to create a globalised network of locations which will be able to blend short, medium and long-term stays in a community that offers a nurturing and supportive environment.

The aspect of community is common to all co-living companies, but there are some that have focused on plush interior design, leading to the notion of the hotelification of housing rather than just co-living. Some offer a fully self-sufficient environment often including work spaces. Many vet potential members to ensure they will fit the desired profile.

The co-living travel concept is also catching the attention of sharing sites and mainstream accommodation providers.

Airbnb, for example, is planning to create community centres that will host travellers with the aim of revitalising small towns, while Commune Hotels and Marriott Moxy already offer guests small rooms but spacious communal areas encouraging a more social stay.

Tru by Hilton will offer a similar concept and is actively targeting Millennials with its lobby Hive area offering four zones for guests to lounge, work, eat or play.

Euromonitor International, Head of Travel, Caroline Bremner said: With expectations of work and life changing, travelling around the world while staying in co-living communities is only going to get more popular.

The expected future blurring of boundaries between work and private lives, as well as business and leisure travel, will benefit players who can respond to these changing trends.

Offering flexible and multi-purpose spaces will become increasingly important.

WTM London, Senior Director, Simon Press, said: Once again, the sharing society is impacting on mainstream travel, with demand for convenient, social, flexible live/work spaces among people who travel the world on business or for pleasure.

With these changes in how we work, live and travel, its good to see accommodation providers are changing their products and services to cater to this new breed of mod-con nomad.

WTM London is the event where the travel and tourism industry conducts its business deals. Buyers from the WTM Buyers Club have a combined purchasing responsibility of $22.6 billion (15.8bn) and sign deals at the event worth $3.6 billion (2.5bn).
New Room Hold Feature Brings Abandoned Guests Back to Direct Channel to Complete Bookings

TravelClick, a global provider of innovative, cloud-based and data-driven solutions for hotels to maximize revenue, announced the launch of its new, interactive Booking Engine 4.0, designed to increase conversion and reduce guest abandonment with a transformative new reservation experience.

Booking Engine 4.0 is a user-friendly, responsive platform that drives direct bookings and incremental spend. The new platform is designed to optimize the user experience across devices and engage a growing mobile-first audience with increased spending power and travel bookings.

As part of the beta program, over 500 hotels worldwide have utilized the new booking engine and seen excellent results. Hotels that migrated to the new platform increased direct bookings by nearly 23 percent on average and saw a 155 percent increase in bookings on mobile devices  doubling prior mobile conversion rates. TravelClick also found that 44 percent of traffic to its clients booking engines came from mobile devices, demonstrating how important it is now more than ever for hoteliers to be set up for success on mobile.

The new user interface is extremely intuitive and appeals to guests, said Matt Black, Director of Brand and Guest Experience at One King West Hotel & Residence in Toronto. The user interactions make Booking Engine 4.0 feel more like a mobile app, with instant feedback and lots of visuals. Images, icons and videos are prominent and incorporated seamlessly. As a result, instead of merely reading through the material, guests can actually see and feel what the hotel experience would be like. This gives us more opportunities to upsell and upgrade guests than ever before.

Unique to Booking Engine 4.0 is the platforms Room Hold option, which locks inventory and prices for up to 72 hours to reduce abandonment and continue guest engagement. The new platform also incorporates fully integrated high-definition video to entice users to upgrade and extend their stays. In addition, the booking engine has incorporated e-commerce best practices to simplify the booking process. For example, mobile users now have the ability to scan credit cards instead of keying in credit card numbers to make a purchase.

Direct bookings grew more than any other booking channel in the second quarter of 2016 as hotel websites continue to be critical booking and marketing tools, said Curtis Brewer, Senior Vice President, Reservations and Web Solutions at TravelClick. While large brands invest millions of dollars into their Book Direct marketing and web strategies, it has been difficult for smaller brands and independent hotels to generate the same kind of results on their own. TravelClicks Booking Engine 4.0 aims to solve this problem for hoteliers around the globe.

About TravelClick

TravelClick offers innovative, cloud-based and data-driven solutions for hotels around the globe to maximize revenue. TravelClick enables over 38,000 hoteliers to drive better business decisions and know, acquire, convert and retain guests. The Companys interconnected suite of solutions includes Business Intelligence, Reservations & Booking Engine, Media, Web & Video and Guest Management. As a trusted hotel partner with more than 30 years of industry experience, TravelClick operates in 176 countries, with local experts in 39 countries and 14 offices in New York, Atlanta, Bucharest, Chicago, Barcelona, Dubai, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Myrtle Beach, Orlando, Ottawa, Paris, Shanghai and Singapore. Additionally, the Company fosters more than 600 travel-focused partnerships for hotels to leverage. Follow TravelClick on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
The Top 5 Myths In Hotel Marketing Right Now

This article originally appeared on Tambourine.

Sometimes, ignorance is not bliss.

In hotel marketing, having outdated assumptions or incorrect information can cost your hotels millions in lost revenue and perhaps even cost you your job. So weve put together a quick list of 5 current myths we see being perpetuated in the hotel marketing world:

Myth #1: OTA Revenue Has No Cost



We placed this at the top of our list because it couldnt be any further from the truth. With commissions ranging 15-30% for each reservation, OTAs are the most expensive distribution channel you have. But, its easy to miss. After all, OTAs send you money, not the other way around. However, remember that OTAs are taking out your expense BEFORE they send your hotel a check. Meaning, younever see how much they are taking out of your room revenue.

Remind yourself of that each time you get money from your OTAs partners. They are not cost-free. And too many hotel marketers have no idea how much their OTA revenues actually cost.

Myth # 2: Your Flag Provides All Your Marketing Needs

Your brands marketing team is servicing hundreds of hotels (often in the same city!) and providing the same tools to all of its properties. Think about that  every hotel in their family is getting the same marketing templates, the same access to the loyalty database, the same website and reservation system.

Whether you are a seaside property in Santa Monica, a mountain resort in Breckenridge, or an urban high-rise in Seattle, every property is given the same assets to market their property, regardless of target market or unique facets.

And, if you have a period of need or want to target a specific segment with a customized campaign? Your far away brand team is often unable to deploy an effective campaign that captures the unique essence of your property in a reasonable amount of time.

Smart hoteliers have wrestled back the marketing responsibility. Read Why Are So Many Flagged Hotels Taking Marketing Into Their Own Hands? to find out if its time for your hotel to augment your brands marketing efforts.

Myth # 3: Your Competition is Dumb



On the contrary  your competition is brilliant. After all, YOU are someones competition and youre not dumb!

Always assume they are one step ahead of you and are always working on new ways to entice guests and group business away from your property. Marketing tools and knowledge are open to everyone, and just because your comp set didnt put up much of a fight before, doesnt mean that they couldnt turn things around any day now.

Theres never a good time for hotel marketers to sit back smugly and relax, assuming the competition is too far behind to catch up. Never stop hustling.

Myth #4: Dropping Rates Solves Everything



We see the appeal of this one, but dont fall into the trap. It comes down to the economics of supply and demand, a concept that even some revenue managers may not fully understand. Leverage business intelligence tools that can now look at future demand. This will allow you to hold rate in order to keep price integrity versus what the market is doing. We also suggest to only consider qualified (fenced) discounts and opaque channels during need periods, if you need to lower rates. This way, the lower rates are not announced to your entire target market, just a select group.

There is always another hotel that is more than willing to go even lower to undercut you. Instead of hastily changing your pricing strategy, increase your perceived value to guests. Research your comp sets guest experience, paying close attention to whats missing. Then offer services and local experiences that no other property in your city offers. Position your hotel as higher value and a property that is worth paying more to stay at.

Myth # 5: Your Hotel Will Be the #1 Ranked Hotel by Google



Think of everything you know about SEO, then throw it out the window. Every year, Google makes changes that massively impact how easily a hotel can rank #1 in a Google search for their destination name.

It is extremely difficult to get on the first page and virtually impossible to conquer the OTAs as the first or second listing at the top of the results page. Check out this example of the organic search results for hotels in Miami, the first 6 are for metasearch and OTA portals:

Making matters worse, those same behemoths are also usurping rankings for your own hotel name itself!

Its not all doom and gloom though. Here are ways hotels can still get discovered within the confines of this new SEO landscape.

About Tambourine

Tambourine uses technology and creativity to increase revenue for hotels and destinations worldwide. The firm, now in its 30th year, is located in New York City and Fort Lauderdale. Please visit: www.Tambourine.com
What a time to be a hacker. According to The Mirror, Hackers have acquired the private data of 8 million British accounts on AdultFriendFinder, the worlds largest adult dating and swinger site. This hack has revealed the users email addresses, IP addresses, date of last visit, and more.

To gain some context into the nature of the website, this is how AdultFriendFinder markets itself: With so many sexy members looking for sex with adult friends, is the place to find adult no strings fun  Hook up easily tonight if youre looking for an adult friend, swinging partner or just a casual sex date.

An online sex empire, the company that owns AdultFriendFinder also runs Cams.com, Penthouse.com, and Stripshow.com. Its been reported that of the 8.6 million accounts that have been hacked, 3 million are still active.

Adult Friend Finder
It looks like Bruno Mars is ready to take his talents all over the world again. On Monday night, Bruno took to his IG to announce that hes hitting the road next year for the 24K Magic World Tour, named after his forthcoming album dropping November 18.

Kicking off overseas in Europe in March, the first leg of the tour will trek through London, Paris, Madrid, Zurich, Copenhagen, & Berlin, before wrapping up in Milan on June 15. After taking a month off, Bruno will then start the second leg of his 52-date tour in North America, kicking off in Las Vegas on July 15 and running through November 11, 2017.

If you wish to attend, tickets for the 24K Magic World Tour go on sale next Monday, Nov. 21. Peep dates below.

Bruno Mars
Immortal Technique has been an unflinching advocate for the proletariat for the past fifteen years and is generally considered one of the greatest underground rappers ever. According to Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, Technique was a high school bully before he ever picked up the mic.

During his guest appearance on Marc Marons WTF podcast, Miranda revealed that Technique terrorized his classmates while they both attended Manhattans Hunter College High School in the 90s.

He was our school bully, Miranda said. He terrorized kids, he threw them in the garbage. I got thrown in the garbage by him.

Miranda says Technique showed an early interest in the arts when he successfully auditioned for a school play. He got a part senior year and I was like, Oh my god, Im in a fucking play with the dude that scares the shit out of all my friends!' Miranda recalls.

Hes one of the most political, ideological [rappers], Miranda told Maron. He really made an incredible life for himself as a rapper He was a really angry kid and its been wonderful to watch him grow up and find a political outlet for that anger.

Listen to Mirandas Immortal Technique story at the 39:00 mark here.

Immortal Technique
Since his humble origins as the frontman of Kids These Days,Vic Mensa has grown into the role of rapper-activist using his platform to fight for the underclass. Hes marched for Laquan McDonald, delivered water to Flint, and made police brutality the focus of his recent EP Theres A Lot Going On. This morning, he released an essay in Billboard on the topics of race, mass incarceration, and how we can make it through the Trump presidency.

The full text of Mensas essay is included below, via Billboard:

I was kind of woozy when I first found out. Just to see such a symbol of hatred and opposition to equality be put in our nations highest office.

I was in Atlanta working with The-Dream on some things. I had to remind myself that this wasnt my election to win or lose. Then, when I woke up in the morning, I realized that this had to happen because weve been pacified by having Barack [Obama] in office. That pacification would have only continued by having Hillary elected.

My fight doesnt end here no matter the outcome. I could have felt a bit more comfortable but a felt sense of security had Hillary won, because the things that Ive been talking about this year and going hard on are the same. Those things have not changed. Theyve just manifested themselves in slavery, Jim Crow Laws, segregation and mass incarceration. Even the conversations people have about mass incarceration dont get to the issue. They always talk about nonviolent crimes. They dont even get the issue and how different this nation treats its prison system. Its not just nonviolent offenders that need to be re-evaluated. Its the entire mother-ing system.

To people who have been led to believe you are white, race is the child of racism; racism is not the child of race. Race is a fairly new idea thats been used to divide and conquer. If you look at a lot of historical texts, when youre describing Italian war generals, it wasnt described as black. Might have been North African. People had real backgrounds. We have Irish people, English people, Polish people, Russians, and Chinese people, and Indians from India, Native Americans. All of this brown, black and white has stolen the true identity of humanity and been used to categorize people so they can focus on their differences more than their similarities.

This is not the first time in American history where poor people have been led to believe theyre white and have also been led to believe that their problems are the result of Mexicans, Muslims and black people. Its just a scapegoat technique to keep them confused and keep them from looking at their real enemies, who really propagate their state of disenfranchisement and major corporations like the president-elect. Theyre just pawns in a bigger capitalist and imperialist game. Until we can regroup and re-identify the real issues in our society  which I think Bernie Sanders started to get people focused on  were gonna have all of this pointless fighting in this country thats not taking us anywhere positive.

We cant solve the problems of the poor by blaming other poor people. Its not poor people taking each others jobs; its major corporations. Its shipping companies overseas, technology changing and factory positions being done by machines. But, right now, its just a hoax. I feel like thats gonna bring out the worst in a lot of people in America because hurt people hurt people. I know that. Some people in these small towns with heroin epidemics and lack of employment  theyre hurt  and the easiest way to approach that is to blame somebody of a different race; to blame the others. Its a lot more difficult to identify the real structural issues that have us disenfranchised all across this nation. I think when you start getting at those things, thats when the assassinations happen.

When Martin Luther King starts working on a poor peoples movement and he starts organizing people of all races to recognize how theyre being oppressed, police start cutting him off. Like Fred Hampton, when he was in Chicago, and the Black Panthers were uniting with Latinos and Asian revolutionary groups, they kill you in your sleep. So obviously, theres something to be found there.

Ive been having conversations with people from a movement right now about creating something a lot bigger than a Black Lives Matter campaign  something very inclusive. For us to make real change, were gonna need everyone and people of all different walks of life to recognize the part that they play and how these powers at hand affect them too. I feel like these ideas of racism, bigotry, xenophobia, Islamophobia and homophobia are so damaging to both the hater and the hated because having that type of energy on your heart and on your mind [is hard]. I know how it feels to really fing feel like I hate somebody and it is fing tiring. Its exhausting and its so hard to think rationally. It skews your perspective and I think that people are hurting all over this nation for different reasons and theyre only leading themselves to more pain.

Its discouraging getting on the phone with my sisters and listening to them crying because they dont feel safe as black women in America right now. Theyre not with the family. Theyre not in Chicago. I got a sister in Memphis, Tennessee, right now and a sister in Rhode Island, and it hurts to hear them cry because they fear that theyll be the victims of assault or abuse. As much as I wish I didnt have to tell them this, Im telling them, Well, you know what? You should have already been on your toes. You have to be looking over your shoulders and watching your back before this election if Hillary was elected, because this nation was not built to serve your interests.

I dont sing the national anthem. This is not my country, tis of thee. This is not a sweet land of liberty for people who look like me and not has been. So, yeah, the white nationalist groups and the KKK are being empowered right now and theyre getting bolder, but they were there. Theyve been there. Weve been getting killed in the streets by police like dogs with a black president in the White House and theres no accountability for those white officers. We already had to mother-ing watch our back. This was not a safe place for us to begin with.

The advice that Ive been giving to my friends is that if you know someone thats a Trump supporter, you need to have conversations with them because its wrong and needs to be proven wrong. Weve been preaching to the crowd this whole time. Weve been talking to a lot of people thats been agreeing with us, but were seeing now that thats not the state of America. The state of America is a lot more volatile than The New York Times or The Huffington Post and New York City, L.A. and Chicago. This gigantic massive land built on the backs of slaves and stolen from its native people with disease, massacre and Trail of Tears, the state of America is far more in the dark than us.

The reason that Trump was able to empower so many people was because it was all affirmative. You know, my brother Malik Yusef is always telling me that, The power of yes is so much more than the power of no. So when Trump tells a lot of people, Were gonna make America great again. Were gonna make America yours again. Were gonna bring you back to your position, hes basically telling them, Yes, white supremacy is the answer to their white nation. Our whole fing approach was, No, thats wrong. No, thats not right. We cant do that anymore. Weve seen how thats not powerful enough. We need to unify and decide what it is that we really believe in  thats what we need to fight for. We cant just fight against injustice. We gotta fight for justice.

Vic Mensa
The band is "Alllllmost done" with new album.

Yesterday, the Fleet Foxes announced on social media that their new music is nearly on the way to listeners' ears! The last time they produced new music was back in 2011 with Helplessness Blues.

Not only do fans have a record to look forward to, but live tour dates as well. The first of the dates has been announced for the BBK Live festival in Bilbao, Spain next July. Unfortunately, the new album and tour will not feature former drummer Father John Misty.

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The American indie folk band, fronted by Robin Pecknold, have also confirmed the album title: Crack-Up. Apparently, the title is taken from a collection of F. Scott Fitzgerald essays written in 1945 of the same name. If the album title denotes any similarities to the essays, then the famous line from the main essay may sum up one of the themes, "Of course all life is a process of breaking down."
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WASHINGTON - In July, the Greek tanker Maran Gas Appollonia set off on a monthlong voyage from the Louisiana Gulf Coast, filled with more than 3 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas from Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass terminal.

Bound for a port in southern China, the gas - which equaled about half the daily output of Oklahoma - was scheduled for delivery at an auspicious time for the Chinese government. Two years earlier, Beijing had signed a major pipeline deal with the Russian energy company Gazprom, but with economic growth slowing, so were the nation's energy needs. Chinese officials eyed LNG shipped from abroad as a flexible and lower cost alternative to Russian gas.

This competition for China's business is part of a dramatic change in the workings of natural gas markets and potentially the beginning of fundamental shift in the way the world buys, sells and consumes energy.

For decades, natural gas has been bought and sold in a murky realm in which prices are determined in long-term contract negotiations between buyers and sellers and supplies essentially limited to what could be produced in areas close enough to be connected by pipeline.

But with the development of liquefied natural gas projects here and abroad, countries are gaining access to gas supplies long out of reach, in some cases forcing long-time suppliers to compete on price in a way they never had to in the past.

That has raised the promise of something that American political leaders - Republicans and Democrats alike - and U.S. allies have sought for years: a global, free-flowing and transparent gas market like the one for oil. In the process, that could reduce prices for trading partners in Asia and Europe and cut carbon emissions by replacing coal-fired electricity with gas - all while undercutting the stranglehold that petro-states such as Russia, Saudi Arabia, and a handful of countries in Middle East, Africa and South America have on energy markets.

"We have tended to think of energy security as synonymous with oil supplies," Paula Gant, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Department of Energy's Office of International Affairs, told natural gas executives at a conference in Washington last month. "Oil supplies remain core to our thinking, but we also have the opportunity to meet our energy security challenges with a variety of resources, including natural gas, renewables, and efficiency."

Betting big

The world has run almost exclusively on oil and coal for more than century. Both are abundant and cheap to transport and store - important factors for countries with limited energy sources of their own. But with climate change regulation taking hold internationally, oilgiant BP is projecting that demand for cleaner burning natural gas will increase at twice the rate of oil over the next two decades.

Gas is forecast to make up about 25 percent of the world's energy supply by 2035, exceeding the share of coal and only a few percentage points below that of oil. For Houston and Texas, such a shift could mean an ugly fallout for those oil companies that don't take steps to adjust. But for those that do, it could create incredible opportunity.

The Eagle Ford and the Barnett are not the only shale deposits in the world - China, Argentina, Algeria and Mexico are among countries with significant fields containing natural gas. With so much of the world's brain power on freeing gas from rock concentrated in Houston and Texas, companies here could play a significant role in helping those countries tap their deposits.

"We're just about the only country in the world with the necessary infrastructure to provide all the things you need to frack, like chemicals, equipment, expertise and sand," said Charles McConnell, executive director of Rice University's Energy and Environment Initiative. "We have a tremendous lead on the rest of the world."

To gauge the growing importance of gas, look no further than the nearly $50 billion Shell paid this year for the LNG giant BG Group, formerly known as British Gas. Or to the $36 billion Exxon Mobil paid for the Fort Worth-based gas giant XTO Energy in 2010.

"In terms of future resources there's probably more gas than oil, and climate policy impacts gas differently than oil," said Edward Chow, a former Chevron executive and now a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. "So, there's a lot to be said for gas in the long run."

BP estimates the world's proven gas reserves at more than 600 trillion cubic meters, enough to run the world at current consumption for more than 50 years. But what worries U.S. officials is where the natural gas is located.

By far the largest share of those reserves are in Russia and Iran, two countries that have strained relations with the United States. Tensions reached their peak in early 2014, when Russia sent troops into neighboring Ukraine, eventually shutting off a natural gas pipeline that not only supplied Ukraine but much of Europe as well.

Swimming in gas

In May of that year, leaders from the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom met in Rome to discuss the problem of Europe's outsized dependence on Russia for gas. The countries signed an agreement to improve global energy security by both diversifying the mix of countries from which energy comes and developing "flexible, transparent and competitive energy markets, including gas markets."

Fortunately for Europe, the United States and some allies were swimming in natural gas. With the advent of hydraulic fracturing, U.S. production has increased 50 percent since 2005. Even as domestic prices remain at historic lows for years, U.S. production keeps increasing, hitting a record high last year.

In addition to Sabine Pass, which opened earlier this year, three more U.S. LNG terminals are under construction on the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast - in addition to one on Maryland's Atlantic coast. With more under construction in Australia and Malaysia, countries in Asia and Europe have a an increasing number of gas sources from which to choose.

The shift is already having an impact across the world's highly regionalized gas markets - where prices have historically been determined by the price of oil or long-term contracts negotiated between buyers and sellers. Three years ago, the average price of LNG on markets across South America, Europe and Asia ran close to five times that on the U.S. Gulf Coast. By last month, the spread had narrowed to less than two times the Gulf price.

In 2014, the Baltic nation of Lithuania, which had long relied on Russia for all its gas, announced it had renegotiated a 20 percent rate cut with Gazprom - not coincidentally at the same time Lithuania was awaiting delivery on a new floating terminal that would convert LNG back into gas for use by factories and power plants.

"Even before Sabine Pass opened, the prospect of U.S. LNG exports had already enabled European and Asian purchasers to renegotiate contracts," said Tim Boersma, director of global Natural Gas Markets at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy. "What we're hoping is natural gas becomes a global commodity, and you'll have a global market, more like crude oil."

Slow going

But that is likely a long ways off, experts say.

Right now LNG represents about 10 percent of the global gas supply. Even with all the new LNG terminals coming online in the years ahead, that share is only expected to reach 15 percent by 2020.

The challenge is that liquefying natural gas and putting it on to a tanker is fairly expensive And between all the new LNG and a weaker economic forecast for China, the high prices in Asia that set off the LNG construction boom are moderating.

Even with increased demand due to climate change regulation, any LNG project not already under construction will struggle to find investors for at least the next few years, said Robert Ineson, managing director of global LNG for the research firm IHS Markit.

"Oversupply, especially as it grows, will put a lot of pressure on everybody in the market," he said.

In the meantime, countries are rushing to establish future markets for their gas. Despite U.S. opposition, plans for Russia's Nord Stream II pipeline, which would run beneath the Baltic Sea connecting Russia with Germany, have the support of Western European countries eager to get as much available gas supply as possible. In addition to the pipeline to China - the future of which remains in question - Russia is constructing its own LNG export facility in the northern reaches of Siberia.

As competition for gas customers intensifies, Cheniere is investing in an LNG import terminal in Chile to support a new power plant project there. In a presentation to investors in September, the company said it would pursue "similar LNG to power projects to stimulate new LNG demand," pointing to small but developing markets as diverse as Panama, Bangladesh and Ireland.
Iran says its oil production has almost fully recovered since western powers lifted sanctions earlier this year, a development that could ease tension at OPEC's crucial gathering this month.

The Islamic Republic claimed its daily output surged nearly 300,000 barrels over two months to 3.9 million barrels in October, according to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' latest oil-market report. If that's true, then it represents a new dynamic in international oil politics coming just weeks before OPEC's self-imposed Nov. 30 deadline to come up with a plan to curb the global oil glut.

Iran has long held it has a right to bring its crude production back up to about 4 million barrels a day, its production level four years ago, before the sanctions were implemented. Since it has reached that point, it could remove a major sticking point that led Iran and Saudi Arabia to scuttle OPEC's previous attempt to form a pact in April and freeze output.

"Iran's production was way below their comfort level, and it was absolutely pre-ordained there would be no agreement" in April, said Praveen Kumar, executive director of the Gutierrez Energy Management Institute at the University of Houston. "Things will be less antagonistic between Saudi Arabia and Iran this time. Iran will be more and more cooperative."

It's not uncommon for OPEC nations to claim that output surged in the months before negotiating oil-production quotas, as Iran did. Iran's report to OPEC on October production was about 230,000 barrels a day higher than estimates by independent analysts.

In fact, oil production estimates by the cartel's six biggest members  Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela  were a combined 1.1 million barrels a day above independent estimates in October, according to OPEC's monthly oil-market report released Friday. The disparity in the estimates is almost as large as the one seen in the months before the producers met in Qatar in April.

Inflating production numbers is a well-worn tactic within the cartel, because producers have an incentive to negotiate an output cut from the highest starting point possible.

If OPEC takes its first step to reduce the oversupply later this month, it could hand the U.S. oil industry a chance at a comeback after scores of drillers went bankrupt and laid off thousands of workers. Another OPEC failure, though, could push oil prices down further and lead to a third grim year for the industry.

Crude settled Monday at $43.32 a barrel in New York, down 9 cents.

The International Energy Agency believes if OPEC cuts production by around 700,000 barrels a day, as it has proposed, global oil supply would fall enough to match demand early in the first half of next year. But if OPEC keeps pumping oil at current levels, the glut will continue and the market isn't likely to rebalance at all in 2017, said Neil Atkinson, head of the oil market division of the International Energy Agency.

"It's difficult to see prices recovering if there is no deal," he said, "simply because the market will remain in surplus."
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The service workers union that represents 3,500 janitors in Houston says it doesn't have the millions of dollars it needs to appeal a $7.8 million jury verdict that found it had unfairly maligned and hurt the business of a local cleaning company.

In September, a jury awarded Professional Janitorial Service $5.3 million in damages after finding that the Houston local of the Service Employees International Union engaged in aggressive organizing tactics that went too far, particularly when it falsely claimed the cleaning company had violated wage, overtime and other labor laws. The court also awarded $2.5 million in interest in the case that stretches back a decade.

Interest continues to accrue at more than $1,000 per day.

Under Texas law, parties that appeal a jury verdict in a civil case must post a bond that essentially sets aside money for the award should they lose the appeal. The law, however, allows the parties to seek a lower amount for the bond if posting the full amount would put it out of business.

In this case, the SEIU local said all it can afford to post for an appeal bond is $100,000. Anything more, according to court documents, "would likely trigger its liquidation or bankruptcy."

Earlier this month, the trial judge, Harris County district judge Erin Lunceford ordered the union to turn over a decade's worth of financial records to determine the financial condition of the union. Brent Southwell, the chief executive of Professional Janitorial Service, said he looks forward to "combing through its finances" to pay for the damages the union caused his company.

"You cannot pay 10 lawyers to try to stop me from beating you in a courtroom and then claim you have no money," he said in a statement.

The union declined to comment.

The SEIU international set its sights on organizing Professional Janitorial Service as part of the union's nationwide Justice for Janitors campaign. By 2005, the union, which chose Houston to be its first toe-hold in the South, had already organized the 5,300 janitors at the city's five largest commercial cleaning companies and was seeking to expand its bargaining power by adding Professional Janitorial Service employees to the mix.

SEIU Texas is currently operating at loss, according to the union's court filing. The international union has been providing SEIU Texas an average of more than $3 million each year since 2013, according to an accountant's report prepared on behalf of the union. As of Aug. 31, SEIU Texas had 1,700 members.

The subsidies are set to expire on Dec. 31 and the international, whose most recent report to the Labor Department showed annual revenues of $321 million, is under no more obligation to provide further financial support to the statewide union, court documents said.

In other instances where local unions faced "comparable, bankruptcy-inducing judgments," the affiliated international unions made the "economically rational decision" not to intervene to prevent bankruptcy, according to the union's bond request.

SEIU Texas took over the assets and liabilities of SEIU Local 5, according to the court documents which didn't specify when the transfer occurred. The statewide union has $2 million in net worth, according to documents the union filed with the court.

A hearing on the appeal bond is set for Dec. 5.
MEXICO CITY - For Mexico, the nightmare came true.

Perhaps no country aside from the United States itself had as much at stake in the U.S. presidential election as Mexico did.

Then early on Wednesday, it watched as Donald Trump became the next U.S. president: a man whose central campaign promises included building a wall between the two countries, upending decades-old trade deals and deporting millions of Mexican immigrants.

The peso suffered its largest drop in nearly 20 years, and for many, the election set back years of carefully cultivated efforts to improve the cross-border relationship, one that has been historically fraught. The outcome promises a turbulent financial future for Mexico, which relies on the U.S. as an economic lifeline, both in terms of trade and remittances.

"It's an unmitigated disaster," said Jorge Castaneda, a former foreign minister of Mexico and professor of politics and Latin American studies at New York University. "There are very few tools to fix the relationship."

For months, Mexico watched the campaign with a mix of fear and bemusement, forced to stare down a raw undercurrent of American vitriol unleashed by Trump's candidacy. Now, the election seems a harbinger of hard days to come for the country, its economy, migration and even its state of mind.

"This election reminded us of the bad image Mexico has in the U.S.," said Jesus Silva-Herzog, a columnist and professor at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Mexico. "It has also served as a mirror in which we have painfully seen our reflection."

Trump's vow to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement could affect Canada, too. As a result of the pact, much of Canada's industry produces for export.

But for Canada and Mexico, the election was a study in contrasts. Canadians reacted to Trump's election with concern, even anxiety, but also a whiff of pride.

Move-to-Canada memes started spreading as Trump looked increasingly likely to win Florida: "Election Night Starter Kit," read a post on Instagram, above photos of U.S. passports and an Air Canada plane. Another post depicted a machine-gun-toting man riding a moose, with the words "Canadian Border Patrol Watching for Illegal Americans."

Later Tuesday night, the website of Canada's immigration department crashed. Lisa Filipps, a spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada, said the site had failed "as a result of a significant increase in the volume of traffic."

In Mexico City, the vote felt like something else entirely: a broad statement of disrespect.

"Imagine what the U.S. will look like from now," said Angelina Gonzalez, who sells cosmetics in Mexico City. "A big wave of discrimination is coming."

Among journalists from Horizontal, a cultural and political online magazine in Mexico City, spirits were low, and confusion reigned. Antonio Martinez Velazquez, a co-founder, reflected on the outcome with shock and a deep sense of uncertainty.

"This moment forces the world, including Mexico, to rethink its relationship with the U.S.," he said. "This moment, which really is the end of an era, the end of the U.S. hegemony, is also the beginning of a new chapter for us in Mexico."

Trump has been among the most powerful forces at play in Mexico this year, infuriating citizens of all stripes and even government officials with his anti-Mexican campaign. Anger surged when the Mexican president, Enrique Pena Nieto, invited Trump to visit Mexico, an offer the candidate accepted.

Weeks of vitriol and betrayal ensued, with many Mexicans denouncing Pena Nieto's invitation as a needless capitulation from the leader of an insulted nation.

Now, it turns out Pena Nieto was right: Trump was not simply a candidate who could be ignored.

In a series of Twitter posts on Wednesday morning, Pena Nieto congratulated "the people of the United States for their electoral process" and reiterated his willingness to work with Trump "in favor of the bilateral relationship."

"Mexico and the USA are friends, partners and allies, who must continue collaborating for the competitiveness and development of North America," he wrote. "I trust that Mexico and the United States will continue to strengthen their bonds of cooperation and mutual respect."
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For years the backers of the Affordable Care Act have fretted over how best to stimulate insurance enrollment on the exchanges so the law could work as designed. They might have finally found a way from the unlikeliest of sources: the election of Donald Trump as president.

During the campaign, Trump and Republicans in Congress vowed to immediately "repeal and replace" the health care law known as Obamacare, calling it a failure. Yet now that dismantlement is possible and maybe even likely, people across Houston and the nation are rushing to lock in coverage for next year.

A record 100,000 Americans signed up the day after the election and one company offering plans in Houston said business continues to be "brisk." The enrollments continued Monday at places like the Ahmed and Roshan Virani Children's Clinic in west Houston.

"He wants to get rid of it, so that's why I'm here," Dishae Wimbush, a self-employed mother of three young sons, said just after 9 a.m.

Currently uninsured, she said the election shook her into taking the plunge: "I want to go ahead and get locked in because you never know what's going to happen." The 27-year-old chose a Community Health Choice silver plan and will pay $97 a month after a $148 subsidy that is part of the law to keep premiums low. She has no deductible.

More Information FAQ: Affordable Care Act Q: If I sign up now, will I lose coverage if the law is repealed before the end of the year? A: No, at least according to insurance executives who explain that as long as people pay their premiums, they have a contract for coverage that probably cannot be broken, even if the Affordable Care Act is repealed. Q: What about the subsidy that lowers premiums? Will those go away if law is repealed? A: That is not as clear. It is possible to defund those midyear, but again not likely as it would make premiums suddenly rise and throw the market into chaos, insurance experts said. Q: When and how could the ACA be repealed? A: A complete repeal would take an act of Congress, which Republicans now control, and the veto threat has probably been lifted with a Republican in the White House. But Democrats still have enough members to filibuster a complete repeal. Another course could be to pass a repeal through a budgetary action called a reconciliation which could remove the subsidies and the individual mandate portion of the law. Some of the infrastructure of the law could also be removed by a new Secretary of Health and Human Services. All of these steps take time, and the prevailing wisdom is that, even if successful, they would not fully go into effect for at least one year, maybe two. Q: If I don't sign up for insurance for next year, will I still be penalized? A: Yes, because the penalty is for not having insurance the prior year. See More Collapse

"I feel relieved," she said as she completed enrollment. She will now schedule for early January the biopsy her doctor says she needs but she has put off because she was uninsured.

Enrollment for 2017 began Nov. 1, a week before the election. It will end Jan. 31, 11 days after Trump is inaugurated. At times he has promised to completely repeal the ACA on his first day in office, although most experts say that is unlikely and probably not even possible.

Advocates and even some critics of the Affordable Care Act are urging people to go ahead and sign up for a plan for next year despite the fiery campaign rhetoric.

"It is virtually certain that people who sign up now will remain insured through the end of 2017," said Dr. J. Mario Molina, president and CEO of California-based Molina Healthcare, a Fortune 500 company that has had a strong presence on the exchanges. His is one of three insurance carriers offering plans on the exchange in Houston and said signups have been "brisk" since Nov. 9.

On Monday he said he was sympathetic to the nervousness among those wanting policies. About 11 million people currently get their coverage through the exchange.

"They have good reason to be worried," Molina said, noting the irony that it took the election of someone who wants to kill the law to get people to sign up for it.

'Best day yet'

After reporting that 100,000 people signed up for a plan under the ACA the day after the election, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell tweeted, "Best day yet."

At the same time, a Facebook group called "Saving Affordable Health Insurance" bubbled up out of another group populated with self-employed writers and editors. The national invitation-only group was created by one woman on Thursday night. By Monday it had more than 1,800 members.

Part of the anxiety is being fueled by the fact no one knows what the replacement piece of repeal and replace will look like, with some wanting a quick and complete gutting while others preferring a slower, piecemeal approach.

"I'm not sure they know," Molina said about Trump and Congress.

In recent days Trump has softened his stance on the ACA and said he favors keeping certain parts, such as allowing young adults to remain on their parents' policies until age 26 and prohibiting insurers from denying anyone for a pre-existing condition.

The latter could prove the thorniest since he and others have also vowed to discard the individual mandate, which forces nearly all to buy health coverage. The requirement for universal coverage was baked into the law to expand the risk pool and make it possible to cover people no matter their health. It may be difficult to achieve one without the other.

High-risk pools?

Adding another layer of confusion was a reference on Trump's presidential transition website late last week to a return of high-risk pools, a solution U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan has favored.

High-risk pools, once in place in Texas and other states with varying success, were a way to offer coverage typically at a much higher price to people who otherwise could not get insurance. Talk of their return set off concerns over the protection for people with pre-existing conditions.

"That's not going away without a fight," said Mimi Garcia, Texas state director for Enroll America.

Molina cautioned against reading too much into any one piece of the puzzle too soon. He speculated that any wholesale changes, even if the law is repealed, would probably not be abrupt and any Republican replacement law could take a year, maybe two, to take effect. He said he believes changes will come from Congress rather than the White House.

"The biggest problem is that Trump has said so little about health care. We have to be confident that he will work with smart people to come up with a plan," Molina said. "I don't think they want 25 million people to go back on the rolls of the uninsured. It wouldn't be in the Republicans' best interest to pull the rug out for all of those people."

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, the state's largest insurer, similarly sought to offer reassurance.

"We recognize our customers may have questions about how the change in administration could impact their health care benefits. For now, nothing changes," the company said in an emailed statement.

"We were worried the election would have a chilling effect," admitted Ken Janda, president and CEO of Community Health Choice, also an insurer on the exchange in Houston. "That has not been true," he said Monday, although he declined to provide enrollment numbers.

Mark Wischkaemper, a 36-year-old cancer survivor living in Austin, will be signing up for coverage in coming days to hedge his bets.

"My theory is that I will then have a contractual arrangement," he said.

'It was a good first step'

The music director for a church was diagnosed with cancer at age 28 and has been cancer-free for eight years. But prior to the ACA, as a self-employed musician he was first considered uninsurable. Then once he could get a policy, the cost was out of reach. "I was uninsured," he said, fearing he might be again.

For the past three years he has bought a policy from the exchange. It has been a mixed bag. Although glad to have coverage, he has noticed the plans have become skimpier.

"I think it was a good first step," he said of the law, now in its fourth enrollment period.

He finds it foolish to throw it all out and start over, but he is trying to reserve judgment.

"We need to give the new president the benefit of the doubt," he said. "If they come up with a plan that allows everyone to get insurance and it's fair, I will listen to what they have to say. But I'm not hopeful."
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The 2,000 engineers and entrepreneurs converging on downtown this week to plan for the commercialization of space want to get more private businesses to the stars, and the organizers of SpaceCom want to make sure that Houston retains its central role in the nation's extraterrestrial enterprises.

"If we don't seize it, another community is going to try to grab it," said Michael Heckman, senior vice president of partnerships and event development for the quasi-public Houston First Corp., one of the creators of the 2-year-old conference.

Houston has a five-decade history with government-sponsored space exploration, the influential Johnson Space Center headquarters and a licensed spaceport in the works. Yet competition for commercial work is fierce as spaceports and other aerospace businesses crop up around the country. Local business leaders say the city must build on its own head start.

"We cannot afford to be shy," said Arturo Machuca, general manager of Ellington Airport and the Houston Spaceport.

The Space Commerce Conference and Exposition was created largely to connect aerospace businesses with those in energy, medical, maritime, advanced manufacturing and agribusiness. About 1,700 people attended last year. The three-day event this year begins Tuesday.

Its immediate mission is helping terrestrial companies harness data from satellites and the International Space Station. But it also gives NASA a platform to explain its technical challenges to other industries and appeal for help.

"The foundations are being built to try and be more attractive to this new version of the space industry," said David Alexander, director of the Rice Space Institute at Rice University and a member of the SpaceCom advisory board.

After the shuttle program ended and the Constellation Program to return to the moon was canceled, roughly 4,000 NASA contractors were laid off locally. Many left aerospace for the then-booming energy sector.

The community had to figure out its new role as NASA shifted from a government-led to a commercial-led approach in low-earth orbit, where the space station resides, said Steven Gonzalez, associate manager for the strategic partnership office at Johnson Space Center.

After companies like SpaceX and Orbital ATK began showing success, he said businesses began seeing opportunities. The Greater Houston Partnership, the Houston Spaceport, the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau and industry leaders are promoting aerospace, too.

"Before, it was NASA carrying the burden for that by itself. Now, the rest of the community is coming together," he said. "They see that this is the future. They see the opportunity for Houston."

Bob Mitchell, president of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership, said Boeing, Sierra Nevada, SpaceX and other big players created opportunities for smaller companies to enter the space business. But in Houston, he said the creation of commercial space companies was largely driven by a need to test experiments on the space station.

He said the region has 47 space-related aerospace companies, with anywhere from five to 1,700 employees. The Greater Houston Partnership counts more than 150 companies involved in aircraft or space vehicle manufacturing, space research and technology, or other air transportation support activities.

"We've got a base, and we're going to continue to grow that base," Mitchell said. "Commercial space, it really is new."

Gonzalez said businesses using data from satellites to assist companies on Earth are already cropping up around town.

Looking beyond this commercialization of low-earth orbit and to deep-space exploration, he said Houston's power industries could help NASA find solutions. Health care companies, for instance, can keep astronauts healthy as they travel to Mars. And oil companies have tools for drilling that could be useful on the Red Planet.

The founders of Sparx Engineering recognized that need for technology from other industries. So they left NASA contracting positions and opened the Houston engineering firm to focus on energy, health care and other sectors.

"Being exposed to industries that operate in rugged environments similar to space, for instance like oil and gas, and environments that require critical life support systems that can't fail translate directly into space and space travel," said Paul Hoopingarner, co-founder at Sparx Engineering.

Having developed this experience, they're looking to re-enter the space race. Sparx will have a booth and video displays to showcase its work at SpaceCom.

Last year, SpaceCom focused on why businesses should be interested in space. This year will focus on how to get into space and "take advantage of the opportunities," said James Causey, executive director of SpaceCom. It will also focus on developing business opportunities with the space station and other space-based assets.

Alexander said SpaceCom's focus on connecting various industries is a fresh take for space conferences. SpaceCom was created by Houston First, the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau and National Trade Productions. It's hosted in partnership with NASA.

"It brings people to Houston and gets people to start thinking about commercialization and how they can get payloads to the space station," said Marcia Blount, director of Houston operations for NanoRacks.

Webster-based NanoRacks initially focused on getting educational experiments to the International Space Station, but it has since expanded to deploy small satellites. Its next feats include testing robotic technology on the space station that the company can control from Earth to conduct experiments, building an air lock for the space station and conducting a study with other companies to convert rocket components into space habitats.

The Houston Spaceport will also be represented at SpaceCom. Ellington Airport became the country's 10th licensed commercial spaceport on June 30, 2015.

"We have to be aggressive," Machuca said. "And when I say we, I'm talking about every single organization in the Houston area. Everybody has the potential to make this a reality in a faster way."
A Caprese salad is such a simple thing, so easily misdone.

But not on my first visit to Arthur Ave, the new Italian American joint in the Heights, where a smooth hemisphere of pulled-to-order mozzarella centered the plate. The cheese was all soft stretch and milky roundness; it actually tasted as if it were freshly born.

The ripe cherry tomatoes ringed at its edge added just the right tart bounce. Instead of the usual basil leaves, a crown of peppery arugula microgreens wreathed the cheese, and a puddle of basil-flavored olive oil gleamed below. The flavors and contrasts captivated - to the point where I fantasized about eating this salad every day of the week.

I tried to. Or rather, I kept ordering the Caprese on every visit, hardly my usual practice while reviewing. I couldn't seem to help myself. On my second visit, the salad was every bit as good as it was the first time. But on my third, disaster: the marinated cherry tomatoes had absorbed so much vinegar the results were inedible, even for a tartness fiend like me.

That same evening, the braised-meat festival that is the restaurant's signature Sunday gravy, a traditional Italian American favorite, was served with spaghetti so fiercely salty that it, too, was inedible. My guests and I sent the noodles back for another try with less salty water. By the time we had spaghetti again, the Sunday gravy had turned tepid. It was a letdown for a winey, intense red sauce packed with pork belly, pork shoulder, beef deckle and goodness knows what other cuts, which at $42 for a platter that feeds two or three could and should be one of Arthur Ave's best dishes.

More Information Arthur Ave x 1111 Studewood 832-582-7146 Hours: 5-9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; 5-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Credit cards: all major Prices: starters $5-$16; entrees $14-$42; desserts $8 Must-orders: focaccia; penne a la vodka; lasagna; scarola salad; eggplant parm; Sunday gravy with spaghetti; cannoli; White Russian soft serve; Amaro Fizz cocktail; Fernet Daiquiri Reservations: suggested; walk-ins welcome; bar seating Noise level: moderate to very loud Website: arthuravehou.com STAR RATINGS xxxx: superlative; can hold its own on a national stage. xxx: excellent; one of the best restaurants in the city. xx: very good; one of the best restaurants of its kind. x: a good restaurant that we recommend. No stars: Restaurant cannot be recommended at this time. See More Collapse

Such are the serious errors that keep this promising restaurant from its two-star potential.

Yes, the concept is derivative: a clear tapping into the Major Food Group mojo of New York City's Mario Carbone, Rich Torrisi and Jeff Zelaznick, who since the 2009 opening of Torrisi Italian Specialties have made immigrant Italian-American food chic again. And yes, the speed with which the investors and brain trust of Helen Greek Food & Wine put together Arthur Ave, striking while the Helen buzz was hot, may have been too precipitous for the restaurant's and the staff's own good.

Yet despite these demerits, chef William Wright's food and the interesting bar program can be inspired enough to earn regular visits. I cannot get enough of the sumptuous and spunky penne alla vodka, a wonderfully retrograde pasta dish with just enough bite to its pink-tinted sauce, smoothed and enriched by creamy mascarpone cheese.

I actively crave the eggplant parm, its long slices of Japanese eggplant sheathed in a brittle bread-crumb crust that gives immaculate definition to what is often an oozy mess of a dish. A bit of mozzarella, a bit of red sauce, and that's all it needs for takeoff.

Maybe I got burned by my beloved Caprese salad once, but I applaud the effort that goes into pulling that slightly warm blob of mozzarella by hand for every order. That's beyond old school. And I dote on the salad of spiky escarole wilted under a walnut-and-pancetta vinaigrette, with a scatter of green peas and runny farm egg for softness, plus salty gorgonzola dolce for sass. It's the kind of salad that's satisfying enough to serve as a light supper, perched at the long, hospitable bar with one of the good Italian wines by the glass.

Mostly the clientele that crowds the dimly lit wooden cavern of a room in the evenings is family groups, couples and empty nesters from the surrounding Heights neighborhood, or clusters of professionals in their 30s and 40s. They make noise as the room fills, sometimes a great deal of it. The wooden chairs and unclad tables are less about comfort than practicality and a telegraphed message of casual ease.

The portions tend to be big: group-sized, if not family-sized, so that it's tricky to dine here solo. I could not dispatch an entire order of eggplant parm by myself, having ordered a salad first. A delicate square of lasagna, each of its thin house-made pasta leaves toasted brown and crisp well past the edges, proved both delicious and impossible to finish in one sitting, despite its lightness.

Still, I longed to eat every bite. Chef Wright once studied and cooked in Italy, and he has taken the liberty, on a mostly Southern-inflected menu in tune with Italian-American immigrant cuisine's popular leanings, of crafting a lasagna that's more Northern in spirit. It's layered with a bolognese made from pancetta, prosciutto, pork and beef; a neutral creaminess of ricotta-laced bechamel; a touch of red sauce and an enlivening scatter of green and dark olive slices. Gossamer fennel fronds add a surprise herbal twinge. It's wonderful stuff, especially with a glass of Italian red like the 2011 Castello Romitorio Rosso di Montalcino.

Except for the eggplant parm, I find it's better to skip the fried items here. Much as happens at Helen, I find the kitchen at Arthur Ave tends to over-fry, resulting in deeply bronzed breading and - in the case of the calamari rings - rubbery or otherwise texturally compromised interiors. The thin and very crisp pizzas can be good, like a white clam pie with pecorino, charred thyme and lemon ricotta on an early visit; or inexplicably off, like a Fra Diavola pie with spicy salami that was so salty that it was (you guessed it) downright inedible.

A few dishes seemed almost but not quite there yet. Spaghettini with baby clams came rolled into one of the long, twisty braids that are big presentation deals here, glorious to look at and pleasant to eat. More lemon breadcrumbs to set off its white-wine-and-garlic sauce would have been welcome. (Lemon zest is used to fine, unexpected advantage in a fusilli Alfredo dish.) And I would have enjoyed the thick knobs of grilled chicken marsala more had they been pounded scallopini, a better match to their marsala cream sauce.

Service is notably friendly and informative here, with an effort made to familiarize first-timers with the family-style format of some dishes. The mostly Italian and Cal-Ital wine list has neither the finesse nor the surprise of sibling Helen's stunning all-Greek list, but it's good enough, they're more than willing to let you sample by the glass choices, and there are decent reds and whites that will not break the budget.

Cocktails under Josh Bearden make good use of Italian bitters and the bright, clean aperitifs Italy does so well, including the sacred Aperol spritz with prosecco and soda; or a Bicicleta of Campari, white wine and soda with an orange slice. My favorite cocktails have been a dusky/musky Fernet Daiquiri made with blackstrap rum, as burnished as autumn; and an Amaro Fizz with a high cap of shaken meringue. It could supplant the Ramos Gin Fizz in my affections.

For dessert, do ask about the daily gelato and the refreshing granita flavors of Italian ice. Or go big with one of the best desserts in town: a graceful, horn-shaped cannoli pastry spilling a cornucopia of lightly-sweetened-but-still-savory ricotta, and a rubble of bittersweet chocolate chunks and glaceed citrus rind.

That cannoli represents all the considerable promise of Arthur Ave. It's fine enough to make me more than willing to take my chances there.
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Let's be frank: Pies are not easy to make. In fact, if you've never mastered the complexities of crust and of vagaries of fruit fillings and wobbly custards, pies can be downright terrifying.

This may explain why at this time of year we see supermarkets, restaurants and neighborhood bakeries overrun with pie orders. After all, what's Thanksgiving without a slice or two at the end of a turkey dinner?

Still, if there's one time of year we should conquer pie fears it's now. We're already in the kitchen with our holiday cooking/baking chores so there's no reason not to get our hands busy with some pie. Go ahead, and give it a try.

We asked three local pastry chefs to share some new ideas on traditional flavor profiles for holiday pies. Vanessa O'Donnell of Ooh La La Dessert Boutique offered her recipe for White Chocolate Bourbon Bread Pudding Pie served with a white chocolate sauce - an indulgent, creamy pie that calls to mind visits to grand New Orleans restaurants. Julia Doran, pastry chef at Bernadine's, takes pumpkin pie in a pretty new direction with her Purple Sweet Potato Pie, topped by a mile-high mantle of meringue. And Petite Sweets' Susan Molzan imparts savory elements into a classic fruit pie with her recipe for Rosemary Infused Caramel Apple Pie in a Cheddar Cheese Crust.

Now, let's get baking.

Rosemary Infused Caramel Apple Pie in a Cheddar Cheese Crust

From Susan Molzan, Petite Sweets

Crust

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

6 ounces cheddar cheese, finely grated

1 cup cold unsalted butter

Ice cold water

Instructions: In a food processor, or by hand, mix the flour, salt, sugar and cheese.

Cut the butter into small chunks and add to the flour mixture, pulsing just until the mixture resembles corn meal.

Add enough water to hold the crust together.

Divide the dough in half and roll out two 12-inch circles. Line a 9-inch pie pan with one and reserve the second disc for the top of the pie.

Chill both for at least 1 hour.

Filling

1 cups caramel sauce (homemade or store bought)

4 sprigs fresh rosemary

2 teaspoons cinnamon

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon kosher salt

3-4 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced

1 egg, slightly beaten with 1 tablespoon water (egg wash)

Assembly: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Heat caramel in a saucepan on the stovetop until very hot, remove from the heat and add the rosemary sprigs.

Let steep in the caramel for about an hour or more. Remove the rosemary sprigs and strain if necessary.

In a large bowl combine 1 cup of the rosemary caramel, cinnamon, cornstarch and salt. Add the sliced apples and toss to coat evenly.

Fill the chilled pastry-lined pan with the apple mixture. Brush egg wash on the rim of the crust. Using the reserved rolled pastry disc, cover the pie filling.

Seal all the edges well.

Cut a few vents in the top of the pie. Brush with egg wash to cover entire top pie crust.

Bake about 50 minutes to an hour. Remove from the oven, and pour the rest of the rosemary caramel over the top of the pie, making sure the entire pie is coated. Let cool.

Purple Sweet Potato Pie with Torched Meringue

From Julia Doran, Bernadine's

Note: Ingredients for this pie are presented in metric weight instead of traditional volume measurements. Best baking results, according to pastry chefs, are achieved by weight measure. If you own a digital scale, great. If not, they start at about $20.

Pie Dough

15 milliliters vodka

65 milliliters very cold water

125 grams very cold butter

235 grams all purpose flour

15 grams cornstarch

 teaspoon salt

 teaspoon sugar

Instructions: Scale together vodka and water, keep in freezer. Scale out butter, cut into -inch cubes, keep in freezer. Pulse flour, cornstarch, salt and sugar in a food processor until well combined. Add very cold butter cubes and pulse in until butter is broken up into lentil-sized pieces. Add water and vodka, and pulse until dough just comes together. Turn out onto plastic wrap, wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes to allow gluten to relax.

Filling

2 cups purple sweet potato puree (from about 3-4 purple sweet potatoes, instructions follow)

28 grams butter, melted

3 eggs

2 egg yolks

200 grams sugar

 tablespoon salt

 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated

 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons bourbon

160 grams milk

To make the sweet potato puree: Prick sweet potatoes with a fork, wrap in foil, and bake in oven for about an hour, checking to make sure they're tender. Alternatively, prick with a fork and microwave on medium in 2 minute intervals until tender. Once cooked, cut in half and scoop out the insides. Run the sweet potato through a ricer, food mill or mesh strainer to make a consistent puree.

Measure out 2 cups of the puree in a large bowl, and add melted butter. Whisk in eggs, egg yolks, sugar, salt, nutmeg, vanilla extract and bourbon to make a smooth batter. Whisk in milk.

Assembly: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place a half sheet pan in oven. Roll dough out evenly to about a 16-inch even round. Use flour to keep from sticking. Carefully lift the dough up (use rolling pin as an aid) and place on a 9-inch pie plate, centered. Carefully work the dough into the corners, lifting the dough up and placing, rather than stretching. Create a decorative edge around the top by folding excess dough over, and either crimp or leave straight. Freeze dough in pie tin for at least 20 minutes. Take pie from freezer, line with aluminum foil, and fill with pie weights (alternatively use dried beans or rice), making sure to press weights into corners and up sides. Place pie on baking sheet in the oven. Bake for about 15 minutes, just until some color forms. Remove pie from oven and remove weights and foil. Place back in the oven until crust is light golden brown - the pie won't brown much during the last bake, so it's important to get proper color during par bake. Prick any rising dough with a fork. Remove pie from oven, and turn oven down to 325. Brush pie shell gently with an egg wash (1 egg, whisked with a pinch of salt). Let sit for 5 minutes. Pour filling into shell. Spreading evenly. Place pie back on sheet pan in the oven until just set, about 20-25 minutes. Check often. Once set, remove pie from oven and allow to cool.

Meringue topping

37 grams sugar

1 pinch salt

100 grams egg whites

165 grams sugar

42 grams water

1 splash vanilla extract

Instructions: Combine first amount of sugar with salt and egg whites in a stand mixer with whip attachment. Start mixing on medium low. Combine second amount of sugar with water in a small saucepan, and begin heating on medium. Cook sugar until 238 degrees. Whip egg whites until soft peaks form. Pour sugar syrup down side of mixing bowl with mixer going on medium into egg whites. Whip for at least 10 minutes, until thick and glossy. Add vanilla. Whip until incorporated. Spoon meringue onto pie, and with an offset spatula, create elegant peaks. Have fun with decorating! Alternatively, place meringue in a piping bag and pipe spikes and swirls. You have about 5 minutes to play until the meringue loses its smooth texture. Once you've settled on a design, use a torch to toast. Alternatively, place under broiler and watch closely.

White Chocolate Bourbon Bread Pudding Pie with White Chocolate Sauce

From Vanessa O'Donnell, Ooh La La Dessert Boutique

Crust

1 cups all purpose flour

 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

10 tablespoons butter, unsalted, cold, chopped

3 tablespoons ice cold water

Filling

8 average-size croissants

5 egg yolks

53 ounces sugar

 cup bourbon

3 cup whole milk

13 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 cup chopped pecans

53 ounces white chocolate chunks

Sauce

1 pound white chocolate chunks

3 cups heavy cream

For the crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, pulse flour, salt and sugar to combine.

Add butter and pulse until crumbly. Sprinkle water over mixture and pulse until it sticks together when pressed with fingers. Roll dough into a round circle about 1-inch thick.

Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least one hour. Roll thin on a floured surface and fill 9-inch pie pan overhanging about 1 inch.

Fold overhang and pinch with fingers to make a uniform edge.

Place finished pie crust in refrigerator to chill 1 hour. Place wax paper in pie shell and fill with uncooked beans or pie weights.

Bake for 10 minutes. Remove wax paper and beans and bake for another 10-15 minutes until bottom is crispy but still pale in color.

For the filling: Tear up croissants into small/medium pieces and set aside in a large bowl. In a mixing bowl, combine egg yolks and sugar and whisk until creamy. In a separate bowl, mix bourbon, milk, heavy cream and vanilla. Add the liquids to the egg yolk mixture. Mix until well combined. Pour the liquid mixture over the croissants and mix well. Allow the bread to soak for two hours in the refrigerator.

Mix chopped pecans and white chocolate chunks into the bread mixture to combine. Place the bread mixture in the cooled, blind-baked shell and bake for 25-30 minutes or until custard is set and the top is golden brown.

For the sauce: Place chocolate in a medium bowl. Bring heavy cream to a boil in a small sauce pan. Pour cream over white chocolate and stir until smooth. Drizzle white chocolate sauce over the warm baked pie.
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On an early fall day, with just a hint of red tinting the maples, the view from the summit of Deasey Mountain is spectacular.

To the west stand the rugged, treeless basins and knife-edge spine of Mount Katahdin. Off to the south, you see Wassataquoik Valley in the near distance, the peaks of the 100 Mile Wilderness beyond. To the east and north, more wild Maine woods and hills rolling for miles, to the Canadian border.

It's a fascinating view, partly because until recently, this mountain and most of the foreground were owned by one person. In August, entrepreneur Roxanne Quimby donated it to the federal government, and President Barack Obama designated the area the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument.

Now the 87,500-acre monument - adjacent to Baxter State Park - is Maine's largest parcel of federal land, nearly twice the size of Acadia National Park, and I've come to explore.

I started the trip to Deasey by following a rough road to a trailhead inside the monument, then mountain biking along an old logging road that parallels Wassataquoik Stream. A beaver clambered along the bank of a small stream. A bit farther along, hoofs clattered on river cobbles, and a cow moose trotted off into the birches.

Eventually, I found a sign for the International Appalachian Trial, or IAT, that extends the concept of the Appalachian Trail (which itself ends at Katahdin) to Canada and beyond. (One indication of the size of the new monument is that it includes 31 miles of the trail, about the distance between New York City and Greenwich, Connecticut.)

The trail crossed the Wassataquoik at a knee-deep ford, meandered through mixed woods and skirted a massive glacial erratic before turning steeply uphill for a mile toward the summit of Deasey.

Hiking out, it seemed I had the place to myself. On 10 miles of trail, I had flushed several grouse and stepped over moose, coyote and bear scat, but I had not encountered another soul.

In fact, the only person I talked to that day was a man at the trailhead who said he had grown up fishing and hiking in the area. He hated the idea of a park and said, "I'm just coming to say goodbye to it for the very last time." It's not surprising, really: The park and Quimby have been controversial for years.

Quimby's story is by now familiar. A single mom and a back-to-the-lander, she teamed up with grizzled backwoods beekeeper Burt Shavitz to cook up a line of personal-care products on her wood stove. By the time Clorox bought Burt's Bees in 2007, Quimby had made hundreds of millions of dollars.

She used some of that money to buy strategic conservation lands, much of it heavily logged, and sat on the board of an organization that aspired to create a 3-million-acre Maine Woods National Park, encircling Baxter State Park.

The park proposal was opposed by the timber industry and locals accustomed to virtually unrestricted access to private timberlands for hunting, fishing, snowmobiling and riding ATVs.

Even though the National Park Service designated the region a national monument, which is less restrictive than a national park, tensions remain. Driving to the monument from Route 11, on a gravel logging road, one passes a sign bolted to a pine tree next to the one-lane wooden bridge over the East Branch of the Penobscot River: "This bridge owner says NATIONAL PARK, NO!"

The monument aims to commemorate the area's cultural history, including the logging that has transformed Maine's woods. Over several centuries, timber interests felled trees, dammed rivers and built thousands of miles of roads.

Some elements of the new monument feel perfunctory, like the sketched-in outlines of a park. There is a loop road, for example, leading to a couple of spots with fine views of Kathadin.

There's also just one car-accessible campsite in the park, and it is really a glorified gravel pit. But it is comfortable, with picnic benches, fire pits, a few sandy tent sites, a new outhouse, and a marshy pond.

If there's plenty of room for improvements, the National Park Service has the cash to pay for them. In addition to the land, Quimby donated $20 million for an endowment and pledged another $20 million in future support.

I also wanted to see the northern end of the monument. There are two ways to get there. You can hike the IAT and continue 20 miles past the Deasey summit, or drive a 40-mile loop through Patten (where the Patten Lumbermen's Museum doubles as another visitors' center for the monument) and past Shin Pond. Just before the northern entrance of Baxter State Park, a dirt road heading south features a small sign marking the International Appalachian Trail, but no sign for the monument. A half-mile down the road, there is an information kiosk with a map.

That evening, I biked down toward the East Branch seeking a campsite. A mile and a half in, I found something better. Haskell Hut is a bright, spacious log cabin with six bunks, perched on a bluff over a wide, slow reach of the river.

I perused the large topo map on the wall to plan the next day's adventure. It looked as though it would be fun to bike downriver, then hike to a pond for some trout.

So I set off early, fully caffeinated with a fly rod in my backpack. By early afternoon, I had found a path to a small, scenic pond.

Someone had left a canoe neatly stowed among the moss and wintergreen near shore. Sliding the boat, I could see a trail through the aquatic plants left by a moose.

Another angler had left a fly in the canoe, a well-proportioned brown woolly bugger. Taking it as a sign, I tied it on and began casting but found no evidence of trout.

Still, it was as fine a place as you could be while not catching fish. The rugged mountains of Baxter stood off to the west. Pickerel frogs patrolled the damp fringes, and dragonflies and damselflies darted among the lily pads. A kingfisher flew over the shallows.

In the solitude, I wondered how this may change under National Park Service management. Acadia National Park hosts 2 million tourists each year. Baxter State Park sees 75,000 visitors annually and is struggling to meet its "forever wild" management mandate, exemplified by recent criticism over celebrations at the summit of Katahdin. The monument is less dramatic than either of the two, but it will likely attract thousands of visitors. But with just a few parking areas and one car-accessible campsite, it is not yet ready for them.
The Mexican undersecretary of foreign affairs for North America, Jose Paulo Carreno King, said in an interview during a two-day visit to Texas that, now that Donald Trump is president-elect, Mexico is not going to duel about the anti-Mexican rhetoric that characterized his campaign.

Instead, Carreno said, his government is going to be vigilant about the policies implemented as Trump becomes president. He urged the 11 Mexican consuls from Texas, with whom he met in Austin, to be positive.

Here's an edited excerpt of the Chronicle's interview with Carreno:

QUESTION: What was the purpose of this meeting?

ANSWER: We have 50 consulates in the U.S., which is the largest consular body of any country inside another. But Texas is the state where we have the most consulates, with 11. In the meetings in Austin, we discussed the most important themes they are working in their consulates now, and the issues that are important for the Mexican government now.

Q: What are the important issues?

A: The issues haven't changed, so far, because the presidency hasn't changed yet. We believe that the important issues for both countries are more or less the same: border security, migration flows, economic development and competitiveness.

There are always new challenges with every new administration. We know that there is, and there will be new challenges with this new administration. But we also think that new opportunities come as well with every new government, and we are willing to build on mutual interests with the upcoming government.

Q: The president-elect hasn't backed away from things he said during his campaign, such as that Mexico will pay for a border wall, or that he is going to deport Mexicans, who he called criminals and rapists. Do you expect the same relationship with Trump as with previous presidents?

A: This electoral process has been very atypical. Mexico and Mexicans were at the center of the agenda, and Mexico and the Mexican people didn't like that. We were treated in a way that doesn't match with the reality of the Mexico-U.S. relations or of the Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in the U.S.

We have realized that we should be much more proactive and emphatic and effective in coming to the United States and explaining the large scale of our relations and the importance in this country of people with Mexican origins.

Q: What is the Mexican government doing in that direction?

A: We believe the Mexican history in their own society and in partnership with the United States hasn't been properly told. So we are in a task to update the narrative, the perceptions, and the realities of the relationship between the two countries. We are talking with the private sector, with the civil society, organizations...

The secretary (of foreign affairs, Claudia Ruiz Massieu) has visited the United States more than 30 times this year, either alone or with me.

I am also leaving to Los Angeles [Tuesday] to meet with organizations there.

The Mexican government is not going to duel on the rhetoric of the [Trump] campaign. We are going to focus on what we could build.

Q: There have been reports about nervousness among some immigrants and their families...

A: One of the messages I brought to the consuls from the Secretary Claudia Ruiz Massieu is, let's be patient and wait to see what exactly the government is going to do [when Trump takes office].

And the message from the Mexican government is that we are going to be very vigilant, and very close to all the Mexican people. We are going to go to everywhere where they are to reiterate that we are with them. We are going to use all the resources possible and use every legal tool to support them and to safeguard their rights.

But until we don't know for sure what the upcoming government is going to do....

I believe we should work on an agenda that builds over what we already have, not just from the Obama administration but from the last three or four decades.

I would say that the fastest way to put it is, wherever we have acted together, we have done better.

We are optimistic that we will be able to convey this same message to President-elect Trump's team so they can understand it promptly, and we can move on and keep working in the same direction.

Olivia.Tallet@chron.com

Twitter: @oliviaptallet
It happens all the time. At the taco truck, Raul Orlando Edwards placed his fajita order: "Senorita por favor, pongale la cebolla bien cocida" ("I'd like the onions well-done.")

"Man," said the African-American behind him in line, "how did you learn to do that?" Meaning: Why, for a black man, is your Spanish so good?

"I'm Latino," Edwards answered. The director of the Strictly Street Salsa Studio and founder of the Afro-Latino Festival of Houston, he's a Panamanian-Jamaican immigrant.

The guy stated the obvious: "I thought you were black!"

"I'm blacker than you are!" replied Edwards. And, he says, they laughed.

These days, in both Texas and the U.S. at large, skin color is an ever less reliable indicator of identity. According to a 2015 Pew survey, about a quarter of U.S. Hispanics identify themselves as Afro-Latino. Like Edwards, the vast majority (70 percent) are foreign-born.

Afro-Latinos are generally descendants of African slaves brought to Spanish and Portuguese colonies in Latin America and the Caribbean. Most are biracial or multiracial. Being Afro-Latino, says Alain Lawo-Sukam, professor of Hispanic and Africana Studies at Texas A&M University, is less about skin color than about identity and a sense of belonging.

By their very existence, Afro-Latinos challenge the traditional "one-drop" view of race in the United States: the idea that one drop of African blood makes a person black. Afro-Latinos like Edwards aren't simply black, white or Hispanic. They're a combination -- and as such, a vision of the United States' racially and ethnically complex future. They're a minority inside a minority; a melting pot within the melting pot.

"Our identity," says Edwards, "is like the drop that is spilling the glass of the black-and-white system."

"Here is a group that we don't think of much, but that's an expression of the new America in the 21st century," says Stephen Klineberg of the Rice University's Kinder Institute for Urban studies.

What are you?

In Texas, says Jasminne Mendez, "people always ask me, 'What are you?', 'How did you get here?'  as opposed to in New York or Florida, where they are more familiar with Afro-Latinos." A poet and teacher, Mendez was born in the U.S. to Dominican parents.

"For African-Americans, whites, and even some Latino people, I am just another black girl until they hear me speaking in Spanish, and then they don't know what to make out of me," she says.

Often, Afro-Latinos' English attracts attention as well. Whites, Edwards says, sometimes tell him, "Oh, you speak so well." They do not say "for being black," but he feels sure that's what they mean.

"I learned English from books and don't speak with the slang they associate with wrong stereotypes of a black person," he says.

"I don't understand the slang yet," he laughs. "I am barely Googling the meaning of LOL."

"I had never thought of myself as belonging to a specific community based on racial factors," says Heydel Cepero, a video producer from Cuba who now lives in Houston. On the island, he notes, as well as in many Latin American countries, it's common to see a wide range of skin colors.

Yi-Chin Lee/Houston Chronicle

Spanish speakers use many matter-of-fact descriptors for mestizos, or mixed-race people -- words commonly considered no more insulting than "blue-eyed" or "dark-haired." "Mulatos" have black and white parents or grandparents, sometimes with Asians in the mix. "Jabaos" have light skin, and often blue or green eyes, but African features. "Morenos" describe dark skin and dark eyes in some countries or a brunette, a la Eva Longoria, in others.

And in Latin America, different attitudes go along with the different language. Though skin-tone words exist, the question "what are you?" is almost always answered not with one of them, but with a reference to geography. A person from Monterrey would tell another Mexican that he's a "regiomontano"; a woman from Havana would tell another Cuban she's a "habanera."

But here in Texas, Cepero says, Americans seem unsatisfied with the answer that he's Cuban, or Caribbean, or Latino, or American. "I am a product of la mezcla (the mixture)," he says. "I have never thought in terms of racial percentages, but here I would have to explain that I have an unknown percentage of black with 40 percent Spanish, 10 percent Asian."

Obsolete labels

It's difficult to know how many Afro-Latinos are in the U.S. and Houston. As Lawo-Sukam explains, the concept "Afro-Latino" has only recently begun to gain traction as a recognized American identity.

The U.S. Census doesn't track Afro-Latinos. In part, that's because the census doesn't count "Hispanic" as a racial category, but as a separate ethnic category  which, everyone seems to agree, leads to confusion. (For 2020, the Census plans a revamp of its racial categories.)

Asked to name their race, many Afro-Latinos chose to check "white alone." In the U.S., says professor Lawo-Sukam, Afro-Latinos often wish to avoid negative stereotypes that they don't believe fit them.

But there's another factor at play as well. In Spanish-speaking countries, being white doesn't necessarily mean being Caucasian. Whiteness, there, is considered not an absolute matter, but one of degrees. The difference in attitude is rooted in history. Though both British and Spanish colonizers brutally exploited African slaves and indigenous populations, the British had a more segregated model than the Spaniards; in Spanish and Portuguese colonies, the races were more prone to mix. When mestizo families began to ascend the social ladder in many Latin American countries, "white" evolved as a term more related to class.

Yi-Chin Lee/Houston Chronicle

In the Pew survey, more Afro-Latinos identify themselves as white (39 percent) than black (18 percent). A majority say their racial background is Hispanic (67 percent).

Still, in the city of Houston, a sizable number of Hispanics do not declare themselves to be white: 27 percent of Hispanics identified themselves as "black alone," "some other race alone," or "two or more races" combined.

A transracial world

Afro-Latinos are an example of the richer identities that are molding the new America.

"We are falling in love with each other's and making multiracial babies in a way that has never seen before," says professor Klineberg.

Between 1990 and 2010, black-white intermarriage in the U.S. has increased 600 percent, says Klineberg. Among U.S.-born Latinos, 28 percent of marriages are with non-Latinos.

Houston reflects that trend. Asians, for example, are also intermarrying. In the last three years in this city, a third have been tying the knot with non-Asians, he says.

While racism is a great social concern in the current America, "We are moving to what some people are calling a transracial world," Klineberg says. "We are going beyond race because ethnicity and race (identities) become less and less important (as we mix), and the great challenge in Houston and America is not going to be an ethnic divide. It's a class divide."

Afro-Latinos, says Lawo-Sukam, are uniquely able to bridge the gaps between the United States' largest racial groups. They can connect blacks and whites, Latinos and African-Americans.

Mendez agreesparticularly in light of racial tensions unleashed in the presidential election. "We could be a nightmare for some politicians if we forge a unity among races by using our natural affinity with all of them," Mendez says. "I feel that I can speak for the experiences of many people."

Bookmark Gray Matters. It is barely Googling the meaning of LOL.
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A teenage suspected intruder who was shot to death on Tuesday after allegedly bursting into a Rosharon woman's home was already facing a felony charge of aggravated robbery.

D'Andre Jamal Fanniel, 18, was out on bond and awaiting a January trial for a 2015 armed robbery in Pearland's Southgate subdivision.

Fanniel was shot to death during a Rosharon home invasion, when the victim's family member ran into the home to protect the homeowner against Fanniel and another suspect, sheriff's deputies said earlier this week.

DEADLY HIT-AND-RUN: Police say 2 drivers struck the victim, then left him lying on the road

Deputies were dispatched to a home in the 5100 block of Apollo Lane around 8:40 a.m. to investigate reports of a robbery in progress, Brazoria County Sheriff's Department spokesman Lt. Varon Snelgrove said.

"The homeowner told deputies that two men wearing masks with guns kicked in the back door and demanded money," Snelgrove said.

"As it happens, at the time of the break-in, the homeowner was on the phone with her son in-law, who lives across the street, and when he heard what was happening he came to the house to protect her."

Detectives say a shootout ensued, leaving Fanniel dead. The other suspect escaped and is still at large, although Snelgrove said two men were being interviewed by police.

Fanniel was accused in a Sept. 4, 2015, robbery at 11417 Harris Avenue in Pearland, where a victim said two men held him at gunpoint while they stole his phone and cash and rummaged through the victim's vehicle.

Fanniel was later found by police near Pearland Town Center and was allegedly in possession of the victim's phone. The other suspect, Xavier Lavallais, was also detained. Both were charged with aggravated robbery, a felony.

Dana Guthrie contributed to this report.
THE WOODLANDS - Dr. Ann Snyder, former president and CEO of Interfaith of The Woodlands and a current board member of The Woodlands Township, will join the staff of The Woodlands United Methodist Church as executive director of Generosity as of Dec. 1.

In the newly created role, Snyder will oversee all fundraising and donor relations activities on behalf of the church and The Woodlands UMC Foundation.

"It really encompasses people giving out of the kindness of their heart to make good things happen in our church, be it missions, our stewardship, our foundation, our school, or our capital campaign," said Snyder, who has been a member of the church with her family for over two decades.

The Woodlands UMC Senior Pastor Dr. Ed Robb, looks forward to the impact Snyder will have on the church's approach to giving.

"We're honored to have someone with Dr. Snyder's experience and renown join our team as we aim to enhance the culture of generosity here at The Woodlands UMC and beyond," Robb said. "For us, generosity goes beyond a financial response to the ministries and mission of the church - it's a call for us to be visible demonstrations of God's love and grace to our community."

Snyder retired from Interfaith earlier in 2016 after 12 years of service overseeing the $24 million nonprofit's staff of more than 450 employees in 18 locations throughout the greater Houston area.

"I left Interfaith because everything I had hoped to happen had come to fruition," Snyder said. "When this opportunity came up and the church visited with me about it, I knew it was the perfect fit. I have a passion for helping others and have always had a passion to be a part of our church."

In addition to her work at Interfaith, Snyder has been active on the boards of numerous organizations for many years, including being elected to The Woodlands Township Board of Directors in November 2015 and as The Woodlands Convention and Visitors board secretary. Other boards she has served on include The Woodlands Area Chamber of Commerce, CHI St. Luke's Health-The Woodlands Hospital, Education for Tomorrow Alliance, Graduate Center for Houston's Future Leadership, National Charity League and YMCA.

After 15 years of service on Conroe ISD's board, which included two terms as the board's president, the district honored her for her work in the community by opening Ann K. Snyder Elementary School in 2013.
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Houston-area Democrats struggling to say the words "President-elect Donald Trump" have found a measure of comfort in their success at the local level. Their candidates swept Harris County last week, and Democrat Hillary Clinton defeated Trump in neighboring Fort Bend County by 7 percentage points.

For Democrats in greater Houston, though, the good news stops there.

In the six other counties adjacent to Harris County - Montgomery, Galveston, Brazoria, Chambers, Liberty and Waller - Trump prevailed with an average of 69 percent of the vote.

Republicans remained dominant in local suburban races as well. Even in Fort Bend County, Democratic Commissioner Richard Morrison was ousted by GOP challenger Vincent Morales, as Republicans held on to the sheriff's office and two district judgeships. In the other six counties, Republican candidates prevailed consistently in races ranging from seats in the state Legislature to judgeships.

In suburban counties, University of Houston political science professor Brandon Rottinghaus said, "there is still a strong Republican undercurrent because they've got the numbers and they've got a deeper bench."

"It's hard to unseat those trends because it means that the Democrats have to spend resources, time and staff to reach out to the suburbs," he added. "That can be a tall order when you are constantly fighting for your political life in a state that's dominated by Republicans."

On a map of Texas showing which counties favored which presidential ticket, Fort Bend - perhaps the most diverse county in the country - is the only speck of blue alongside the Clinton-supporting urban counties of Harris, Dallas, Travis (Austin) and Bexar (San Antonio). And if support for Trump is a reliable measure of broader Republican strength, the margin of the GOP's advantage in each Houston-area county correlates with its level of racial and ethnic diversity.

The area's highest margins for Trump were recorded in Chambers (80 percent) and Liberty (78 percent) counties. Those are also the whitest counties in the group adjacent to Harris County; Chambers County is 87 percent Anglo and Liberty County is 86 percent.

The population of fast-growing Montgomery County is 68 percent Anglo, 23 percent Latino and 5 percent black; the heavily conservative county favored Trump over Clinton, 74 percent to 23 percent. Democrats didn't even field candidates in elections for sheriff, county attorney, district attorney and two commissioners' seats, sparing the incumbent Republicans the inconvenience of campaigning.

Marc Meyer, the Montgomery County Democratic Party chairman, noted that Clinton's share of the county's vote total was higher than Barack Obama's proportion of the 2012 vote, though somewhat less than what Obama received in 2008.

"It's a bright spot, but not a big bright spot," Meyer said. Compared to Fort Bend County, he said, "we don't have the advantage of a much more diverse electorate."

Galveston County was once a Democratic Party stronghold, but the GOP has become ascendant as the county's center of gravity has moved from Galveston Island to fast-growing mainland communities like League City, with a population approaching 100,000. County voters favored Trump over Clinton, 59 percent to 37 percent, and Republicans prevailed in local races as well.

John Young, the Galveston County Democratic Party chairman, said he hadn't yet seen precinct-level data that would help him analyze the results. He acknowledged that voters in fast-growing towns like League City are more likely to vote as "traditional Republicans," but he said this trend might not be permanent.

"As more young people move into League City, you might see a shift back toward them being more susceptible to a Democratic message - if that message addresses concerns like economic security," Young said.

Meyer, in Montgomery County, sounded a similarly hopeful note.

"If this county ever gets to 30 percent Democratic," he said, "the whole state's blue."

For the area's Democratic Party leaders, it seems, the dream lives.
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AUSTIN - Parents whose children were tormented by online harassment came to the Texas Capitol on Monday to press for more protections for victims of bullying as lawmakers began to set the stage for next year's legislative session.

The families' stories were a poignant part of the first day on which lawmakers could pre-file legislation for the session that begins in January.

With legislative leaders staking out their priorities, proposals run the gamut from tax relief to education to abortion to a new effort to put a statewide ban on texting while driving. Lawmakers filed more than 500 bills.

It was the first wave of a flood of measures that will be put before lawmakers. Just a fraction will make it through the process to Gov. Greg Abbott's desk.

For Matt and Maurine Molak, Monday's appearance at the Capitol is part of a long effort to help other children after losing their son, David, to suicide this year.

"There are so many children that are suffering silently.  David's Law is to protect those kids," said Matt Molak, speaking from behind a lectern where his son's photograph was displayed.

More Information Other bills filed Monday House Bill 219, by Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, to provide a sales and use tax exemption for certain feminine hygiene products. Senate Bill 72, by Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, to reduce the franchise tax rate 2.5% per year as long as the Comptroller certifies there are available funds over the biennial revenue estimate. Senate Bill 160, by Sen. Jose Rodriguez, D-El Paso, to bar the Texas Education Agency from setting a cap on the number of students in special education. Senate Bill 176, by Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, to regulate transportation network companies such as Uber and Lyft at the state level, as opposed to city by city. The bill requires a national background check but does not specify the fingerprint-based background check. House Bill 93, by Rep. Matt Krause, R-Fort Worth, to eliminate "insupportability" as grounds for no-fault divorce. Senate Bill 109, by Sen. Don Huffines, R-Dallas, to limit Texas judges and justices to 18 years on the bench. House Bill 158, by Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, to make public any grand jury transcript involving a peace officer who is no-billed. House Bill 95, by Rep. Dan Flynn, R-Canton, to exempt Texas from daylight saving time. See More Collapse

The death of the teenager, a former student at Alamo Heights High School, came after an Instagram taunt about his girlfriend escalated into profanity and threats. No one was charged. The district attorney said there was insufficient evidence for a harassment case.

The proposed legislation by San Antonio Democrats Sen. Jose Menendez and state Rep. Ina Minjarez, is aimed at making it easier to intervene in such matters and to gather evidence.

The bill would make it a misdemeanor to electronically harass or bully anyone under age 18 through means such as texts and social media. It would provide for civil liability, paving the way for parents of victims to sue bullies' families. Menendez said this would allow subpoena power to discover who's doing the bullying.

The bill would require school districts to include cyberbullying in their policies and notify parents whose children are victims or alleged aggressors. School districts would be required to develop a system to anonymously report bullying and would be given more latitude to place students in disciplinary alternative education programs or expel them for encouraging suicide or other serious bullying.

'Protect our kids'

There is bipartisan support for addressing the issue, with House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, saying, "David's story continues to have a very big impact on our community, and I hope we will pass legislation that helps bring an end to cyberbullying."

Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Houston, stopped by the news conference to show his support, saying, "We're supposed to protect our kids, right? That's our responsibility."

Bipartisan agreement is tough to find on some other issues, including abortion, which is among the top priorities of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

Patrick wants to increase penalties for buying or selling human fetal tissue and to put a ban on partial birth abortion, while several Republican lawmakers Monday filed measures to restrict abortion, affirm the right of an unborn child to live or govern the disposal of fetal tissue after an abortion.

A number of Democrats voiced concern about the effect on women's health if access to abortion is narrowed.

One measure, by Rep. Byron Cook, R-Corsicana, would require Texas health facilities to bury or incinerate fetal tissue following an abortion or miscarriage. The bill echoes rules proposed by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission in July, which drew criticism and concern from abortion providers and reproductive rights organizations.

Abortion-rights organizations said the proposals were the state's latest attempt to restrict abortion, and they worry that they will require a death certificate for each fetus and individual disposal. Cook stressed that is not the case.

"This isn't about the issue of access to abortion," Cook said. "It has everything to do with humane disposition of fetal remains."

Republican leaders also are focusing on big-picture items ahead of the next session, with Patrick and Straus both citing the importance of the budget at a time when state revenues have been hit by lower-than-expected oil-and-gas performance.

The proposed state budget will be filed later and is among legislation for which leaders have reserved low bill numbers to signify their important.

Another try on texting

Monday's round of filings also extends to how Texans drive.

Rep. Tom Craddick, R-Midland, filed a bill to ban texting while driving. It is the fourth consecutive legislative session he has filed such a measure, and he said he thinks the bill has a chance this time.

"When we first tried it (in 2011), only nine states had passed it," Craddick said. "What's changed is, we've seen so many other states join, and they are showing statistically that you can save lives and money."

Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, also filed a bill to ban texting while driving Monday. It was among many she filed in advance of the session, with her staffers and intern volunteers camping out over the weekend in front of the Senate secretary's office to ensure her bills would be first in line.

Dug Begley and Brittney Martin contributed to this story.
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AUSTIN - Donald Trump's plan to start deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal records would cover more than 6,700 convicts in Texas prisons, more than any other state, in a move that could save taxpayers millions of dollars a year.

The path for Trump to do so, however, is complicated by opposition to releasing convicts before they finish their sentences, especially if they are deported only to return to commit new crimes, officials said Monday.

"I'll put a bow on them if he'll come get them, but we've been trying to get them sent home for more than a decade without much success," said Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat who has been among the leading legislative proponents of deporting some undocumented immigrants.

"About half of them are eligible for parole, and sending them home would not compromise public safety one iota," he said. "So, let's do it. It's nuts that we spend millions of dollars housing these people like we are."

Of the 6,761 felons in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice who federal officials have determined are in the United States illegally - and already have filed paperwork to deport them when they are released from prison - almost half were eligible for parole at the end of October, state records show.

More Information Undocumented immigrants in Texas prisons Number eligible for deportation: 6,761 Of those, number eligible for parole, as of end of October: 3,224 Parole-eligible include 1,903 serving time for violent crimes, 567 for drug crimes, 231 for property crimes, such as burglary, forgery and car theft, and 523 for other offenses, including escape, drunken driving and weapons crimes. Source: Texas Department of Criminal Justice See More Collapse

Of those who are parole-eligible, 1,903 are serving time for violent crimes. Prisoners not eligible for parole include 3,537 convicts serving long sentences for violent crimes, including murder, kidnapping, sexual assault, indecency with children and robbery. Ten of those are on death row and 54 others are serving life without a chance at parole.

If all of those eligible for parole were emptied from Texas prisons, the annual savings would be $61 million, at the official per-prisoner cost of $52 a day.

With the state facing a budget shortfall when the Legislature convenes in January, "I can promise you that this is going to be a major point of discussion," Whitmire said, echoing the sentiments of several colleagues.

An issue for decades

In an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday, Trump said his first priority on illegal immigration is to get those with criminal records out of the country.

"What we are going to do is to get the people that are criminals and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, it could be two million, it could be even three million, we are getting them out of this country or we are going to incarcerate," Trump told CBS correspondent Leslie Stahl. "We're getting them out of our country. They're here illegally."

After that, Trump said, his administration will come up with a plan to deal with as many as eight million or nine million additional people in this country illegally who have not committed crimes.

For more than 20 years, Texas has worked in a partnership with federal immigration officials to hold hearings at a Huntsville prison as foreign convicts are discharged, so those who are ordered deported immediately can be taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

Prison officials acknowledged Monday that deportation of Texas convicts has been an issue for years.

Almost three decades ago, several lawmakers proposed building a prison on a Caribbean island and transferring the offenders there. More recently, legislative leaders have endorsed deportations to save money, as federal officials drastically cut reimbursements to cover Texas' costs. Then-Gov. Rick Perry sidelined that discussion by asserting that since the foreign convicts did their crimes in Texas, they should do their time here, as well.

In 2010, state Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, said the state could save more than $100 million if as many as 5,000 foreigners were removed from state prisons. The Legislature changed state law to allow the state Board of Pardons and Paroles to approve convicts for early release on the condition that they would be deported to their home countries, for both violent and non-violent crimes.

'It gets complicated'

Even so, officials said those paroles mostly stopped over equal-protection questions - whether the parole board should parole someone just because he would be deported, and not because he otherwise qualified for early release - and because some offenders were posting immigration bonds and then disappearing to avoid deportation.

Reports of paroled convicts who returned to Texas and committed new crimes also raised the ire of lawmakers and slowed parole approvals under the law.

Marc Levin, director of the Austin-based Center for Effective Justice and policy director of Right on Crime, national conservative advocacy groups for criminal justice reform, said Trump's proposal is likely to spur new debate on the issue of deporting convicted felons.

"But, as we have seen in the past, it gets complicated," he said.

Whitmire said he believes prison officials do not want to see many of the undocumented immigrant convicts paroled and deported because they are trustees who help cook food, clean and help maintain state prisons. Prison officials have denied that.

For his part, Gov. Greg Abbott, who appoints members of the parole board, on Monday seemed to be sticking with Perry's policy of requiring convicts to finish their sentences before being sent home.

"Gov. Abbott believes that criminal immigrants who have been convicted of a crime in Texas should serve out their prison sentences and then be deported," said John Wittman, his press secretary.
President-elect Donald Trump and establishment Republicans did not really get along during the campaign. The last time we counted, earlier this fall, we calculated that House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., disagreed with or denounced Trump on average every week-and-a-half or so.

But the campaign is over, and Republicans and Trump are trying to play nice. In interviews since the election, they've stressed they agree with their president on tax reform, repealing Obamacare and securing the border.

It's not uncommon for the party in the White House to have some disagreements with its own members in Congress. But if you take Trump's campaign promises at his word, Republicans have fundamental disagreements with their incoming president on his proposals to spend billions on infrastructure, deport millions of immigrants in the country illegally and institute more protectionist trade policies.

And the cracks on those issues are starting to show. Here are six areas where Republicans have given Trump's agenda a lukewarm response.

1. Deportation

Trump: "What we are going to do is get the people that are criminals and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, a lot of these people, probably 2 million. It could even be 3 million," he told CBS' Lesley Stahl in a "60 Minutes" interview that aired Sunday. "After the border is secured and after everything gets normalized, we're going to make a determination on the people that you're talking about, who are terrific people."

Ryan: "We are not planning on erecting a deportation force," he told Jake Tapper on Sunday's CNN "State of the Union." "Donald Trump is not planning on that."

(To that, hard-right news site Breitbart.com - whose former chief will be a top strategist to Trump - blasted out an article declaring: "Paul Ryan: No Deportations")

Newt Gingrich: "There are going to be substantial deportations. They're called criminals," the former House speaker and Trump ally told John Dickerson on Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation." "I mean, 2 million people would be a lot of people to deport."

Kevin McCarthy: "Well, I think it's difficult to do," the House majority leader, R-Calif., said Sunday in response to a question by Fox News's Chris Wallace on whether he'd get behind Trump's proposal for mass deportations.

2. A border wall

Trump: "Yes." (In response to a question by Stahl: "Are you really going to build a wall?") Trump did say he'd accept some proposals circulating in Congress for some fencing: "For certain areas, I would. But certain areas, a wall is more appropriate."

McCarthy: "You have to put a wall, it could be all virtual with the UAV airplanes as well, but I think that is doable and one of the first things that needs to be done. The terrain is different, so you can't always build in just a specific place, but you can protect it."

3. Trade

Trump: Has repeatedly said he'd like to renegotiate or rip up trade deals. And he has promised to establish tariffs in his first 100 days.

Ryan: "Well, I think there's a better way of dealing with that particular issue," Ryan said on CNN in response to a question about Trump's tariffs plan. "We think there are better ways of dealing with making American products and workers more competitive, and really it's fixing our tax code."

4. Term limits for members of Congress

Trump: "We're going to put on term limits, which a lot of people aren't happy about, but we're putting on term limits," he said on "60 Minutes."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.: "I say we have term limits now. They're called elections. It will not be on the agenda in the Senate," McConnell told reporters the day after the election.

5. Infrastructure spending

Trump: "We're going to rebuild our infrastructure, which will become, by the way, second to none," Trump said on "60 Minutes." During the campaign, Trump pitched a 10-year, $500 billion infrastructure plan. "And we will put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it."

Ryan: In September, Ryan indicated such a plan as proposed by Trump would be too expensive. "We passed the biggest highway bill, the long-term highway bill, for the first time since the 1990s just a few months ago. That's already in place at 10 percent above baseline spending on mass transit and highways."

McCarthy: McCarthy said on Fox News that "there is a place we could find common ground with Republicans and Democrats" on infrastructure. But he seemed unable to explain how Trump's infrastructure spending plan differs from President Obama's 2009 stimulus. "Obama never had infrastructure in his stimulus," he said. (Infrastructure spending was a major part of Obama's stimulus.)

6. Whether Republicans have a mandate

Ryan: "He just earned a mandate, and we now just have a unified Republican government. The opportunity is to go big, to go bold and to get things done," he said in a news conference Wednesday.

McConnell: " I think it's always a mistake to misread your mandate, and frequently new majorities think it's going to be forever," he told reporters Wednesday. "Nothing is forever in this country."

Where Trump and Republicans are in agreement

There are a handful of areas that Trump and Republicans seem genuinely in agreement on. They are:

Obamacare: Trump wants to repeal it; Republicans want to repeal it. Trump wants to keep the parts of the law that allow people under the age of 26 to stay on their parents' health-care plans and that require insurance companies to insure people with preexisting conditions. It looks like Republicans do, too.

Ryan on CNN said: "We need to have a solution for people with preexisting conditions. In our plan is allowing younger people up to the age of 26 to stay on their parents' plan."

Secure the border: Republicans and Trump agree this is a priority, perhaps even before deporting immigrants in the country illegally.

Trump on 60 Minutes: "But before we make that determination, Lesley, it's very important - we want to secure our border."

Ryan on CNN: "We think that's first and foremost. Before we get into any other immigration issue, we have got to know who's coming and going in the country. We have got to secure the border."

Tax reform: Ryan's top policy priority appears to be one of Trump's as well.

"We're going to substantially simplify and lower the taxes," Trump said.

Steve Bannon: Trump tapped the controversial Breitbart chief Sunday to make him his chief strategist. On Sunday, Ryan said: "I don't know Steve Bannon, so I have no concerns. I trust Donald's judgment." On Monday in an interview with MSNBC, Trump's incoming chief of staff, Reince Priebus, said Bannon is "a force for good."

But on this key appointment, there is the potential for division between Republicans and Trump.

Hill Republicans were effusive in their praise and congratulations Sunday for Priebus - currently the head of the Republican National Committee and a buddy of Ryan's - getting the top job. But they were nearly silent on Bannon's appointment.
Wellness programs are leaving their mark on the workplace by increasing productivity, impacting healthy behaviors and positive financial ROI. Last spring, I wrote about the five best practices for health & wellness programs. Today, Im diving into tips to maximize wellness engagement across your company to engage employees long term and drive ultimate returns, positive outcomes and ROI. 1. Choose an engagement strategy, not just a wellness program. Wellness is about so much more than programs. Your company should have a strategic approach to a series of programs and initiatives that make up your wellness engagement strategy. Your strategy should aim to engage employees and create true behavioral changes across the board, and focus on optimal outcomes you can measure. 2. Assess employee needs. Offer a company-wide health assessment to identify opportunities for health status improvement. With this information, customize your program based on your findings to ensure your strategy is on par with employee needs. 3. Go beyond incentives. Its important to reward and incentivize achievement as employees find value in these programs. Its crucial to remember that these programs arent all about tangible rewards; theyre often about health benefits and available support. 4. Go beyond activity and nutrition. Focus on a holistic approach. Wellness goes beyond a healthy BMI and exercise. Dont overlook a holistic approach, which enco...
OTTAWA  Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch isnt concerned that her campaign is attracting racists, she suggested to a Toronto radio station on Monday.

Asked twice by Kelly Cutrara, a host on Talk Radio AM640, if Leitch is worried she might get, or is getting, support from racists, the Ontario Conservative MP said it wasnt her concern.

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Im not one [a racist] myself. It is not for me to speak about other individuals, she said.

When pressed, Leitch said:

I have a wide range of individuals across the country that are getting involved in my campaign. And Im delighted by that. As I say, I can only speak for myself, but what I can tell you is I am delighted that we have literally hundreds of people coming on board to support my candidacy  average Canadians that just want to make sure that they can be prosperous in the future  and that they support the policy views that I am putting forward.

Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch, MP for the riding of Simcoe-Grey, talks with reporters at the national Conservative summer caucus retreat in Halifax on Sept. 14, 2016. (Photo: Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press)

Leitch wants to be sure she is talking about what mainstreet Canada is talking about, she told Cutrara, as she pledged to press on with her campaigns main theme of screening all newcomers for what she calls anti-Canadian values.

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Two-thirds of Canadians agree with her, Leitch said, most likely referring to a Forum poll from September.

Cutrara asked Leitch if it werent slightly naive to think potential immigrants could not learn what Canadian values are and regurgitate them during their face-to-face interviews. Leitch responded that she puts a lot of faith in trained immigration officials but also suggested that right now they are just pushing papers through and trying to make quotas.

Leitch missed Conservative debate on Sunday

Leitch was interviewed after what her campaign called a security incident in her home in Collingwood, Ont., over the weekend. The former Conservative cabinet minister was expected to take part in a leadership debate in the Ottawa-area Sunday but skipped it to meet a consultant about security enhancement to her home. She said that right now she is fine.

Campaign manager Nick Kouvalis seemed to suggest that her home had been broken into by people on the left.

Some people were quite upset again last week when I was so bold as to congratulate president-elect Trump ..."

Leitch told Cutrara that some people were upset about her plans to screen new immigrants.

Some people were quite upset again last week when I was so bold as to congratulate president-elect [Donald] Trump on winning the presidential election, and those are concerning things, she said. Whether or not these things are related or not, that is for the OPP to determine, and I think it is in good hands with them.

The OPP said it had determined that there was no break-in at her home.

Listen to Cutrara's interview with Leitch here:

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OTTAWA  MPs will soon study the effects of easily viewing violent, sexually explicit and degrading content online on the behaviour of children, women and men.

Alberta Conservative MP Arnold Viersen noted in the Commons Monday that he has received all-party support for his motion. The motion, M-47, is the result of mail from several parents and groups in Viersens riding to the first time MP urging him to do something that could lead to better protection of young people online.

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Conservative MP Arnold Viersen speaks in the House of Commons in Ottawa.

When most people think of the term pornography, they think of nude pictures Playboy started publishing throughout the 1960s and onward, he said during a debate in the House.

Today's pornography is much different. In fact, it is telling that only a year ago, Playboy announced it would stop publishing nude pictures because it was not profitable any more. The market has shifted to much more explicit material, and the vast majority of it features violence and degradation.

'Let that sink in for a moment'

Viersen, a father of two young children, said sexually explicit websites get more traffic each month than Netflix, Amazon, and Twitter, combined. Thirty-five per cent of all Internet downloads are sexually explicit, he said. And nearly 90 per cent of mainstream sexually explicit content features violence against women, he said in his speech.

Sexually explicit material has become the primary source of information about sex and is a significant factor on influencing sexual behaviours of children and adolescents.

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Let that sink in for a moment, he said.

"Boys and girls are taught that violent and degrading sexual behaviour is acceptable and expected.

A $97-billion industry that makes up 35 per cent of all internet downloads, that is easily accessible by the click of a button, that primarily features violence and degradation of women, is the primary sexual educator of our youth, starting from the age of 12, he said.

As a result, boys and girls are taught that violent and degrading sexual behaviour is acceptable and expected.

As he researched the issue, Viersen said, he was reminded of the heartbreaking story of Rehtaeh Parsons, the teenager who committed suicide after being raped and then humiliated online.

I remember asking myself: What gave these boys the idea that it was okay to objectify and assault a heavily intoxicated young woman and what gave them the idea that sharing the pictures of this event online was normal?, he said. It was a story that moved me deeply.

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A woman holds a photo as several hundred people attend a community vigil to remember Rehtaeh Parsons at Victoria Park in Halifax on April 11, 2013. (Photo: Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press)

He reached out to Parsons mother, Leah, who was one of the first people to support his motion.

Quebec NDP MP Christine Moore, a former nurse, said the advent of online pornography has caused public health concerns, such as addiction to viewing it.

"Unfortunately, these people will often go looking for more and more explicit content, she said.

Health professionals have also noticed, she said, that more and more young males are developing erectile problems when they find themselves in real life and in a real sexual relationship.

"Unfortunately, these people will often go looking for more and more explicit content.

They are unable to obtain an erection because they are used to being sexual excited with other materials, she said. So it becomes even more problematic.

Viersen said he hopes his motion will come to a vote before the Christmas break.

Translation by Althia Raj

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COLLECTIVE MADNESS



Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
We all know who Emily Doe is, even if we don't know her real identity.

In January 2015, Emily Doe was sexually assaulted by Stanford student Brock Turner while she lay unconscious behind a dumpster. Turner was sentenced to only six months in prison, and released after just three. Before his sentencing, Emily Doe addressed the court, reading a victim impact statement that ended up being read more than 11 million times in just a few days.

Emily Doe was named a Woman of the Year by Glamour magazine. On Monday night's Glamour Women of the Year Awards, part of her statement, as well as an essay she wrote for Glamour, was read aloud on stage by Gabourey Sidibe, Freida Pinto, and Amber Heard, with an introduction by Lena Dunham.

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Gabourey Sidibe, Freida Pinto and Amber Heard speak onstage during Glamour Women Of The Year 2016 on November 14, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images for Glamour)

"Emily, wherever you are, thank you for your words. Thank you for your courage. We carry it with us every day," Heard said before Stanford Law School professor Michelle Dauber went on stage to accept the award on Emily Doe's behalf. Doe wrote the acceptance speech which Dauber delivered to the audience.

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Gabourey Sidibe, Freida Pinto, honoree Michelle Dauber and Amber Heard and Lena Dunham attend Glamour Women Of The Year 2016. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Glamour)

"The past year has been hard but through the worst times I've discovered I'm indestructible," the speech read in part. "I was slow to learn, but now I can't forget it.

"I am one of so many who have fought before me... so many who have had enough. I stand among millions of groundbreaking Emily Does. I have seen them speaking. I have seen the strength that accompanies healing."

It concluded: "Every story is our power. Together, we are louder than any system or person who threatens to silence us. Together we are countless and unstoppable. Now, we are indignantly rising. Be excited. Keep going. I'll be fighting alongside you."

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Gabourey Sidibe, Freida Pinto and Amber Heard attend Glamour Women Of The Year 2016 on November 14, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Glamour)

Since Turner's sentencing, Dauber has been working to have judge Aaron Persky recalled, and, at his own request, Persky will no longer hear criminal cases.

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40 Powerful Images Of Surviving Sexual Assault See Gallery
BERLIN  Hundreds of police officers searched about 190 offices, mosques and apartments of members and supporters of the Islamic group "The true religion'' as the German government announced a ban of the organization Tuesday.

Police raided places in 60 cities in western Germany and also in Berlin seizing documents and files, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said. Nobody was detained.

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The group  also known as "Read!''  has been distributing German-language copies of the Qur'an across the country. The interior minister said that more than 140 youths had travelled to Syria and Iraq to join fighters there after having participated in the group's campaigns in Germany.

"The translations of the Qur'an are being distributed along with messages of hatred and unconstitutional ideologies,'' de Maiziere told reporters in Berlin. "Teenagers are being radicalized with conspiracy theories.''

Police officers walk towards a warehouse of the 'Lies! Verlag Gesellschaft' (Read! Publishing Company) that publishes an edition of the Quran in German language and that is backed by a group called The True Religion (Die wahre Religion) in Pulheim, Nov. 15, 2016. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

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Young men in long robes and bushy beards handing out German copies of the Qur'an has been a common sight in downtown and shopping areas across Germany for several years.

The ban of the group comes a week after security authorities arrested five men who allegedly aided the Islamic State group in Germany by recruiting members and providing financial and logistical help. The recent operations suggest that the German government is trying to clamp down hard on radical Islamists.

The German interior minister stressed that the ban does not restrict the freedom of religion in Germany or the peaceful practice of Islam in any way, but that the group had glorified terrorism and the fight against the German constitution in videos and meetings.
Canadas immigration minister says he knows there are risks involved with lifting the visa requirement for Mexican visitors early next month but maintains the benefits are worth it.

John McCallum faced questions in the House of Commons Tuesday over testimony a senior official from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada delivered at a parliamentary committee earlier in the day.

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Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel said the testimony revealed the government was advised about possible hazards with its rush to lift the restriction for Mexicans on Dec. 1. The previous Tory government imposed the controversial visas in 2009 to stop thousands of false asylum claims.

Canadians deserve to know  this is really important  what were these risks? Rempel asked. Why were the Liberals hiding them from Canadians and why did the Liberals blatantly ignore them?

McCallum shot back by saying that unlike the last government, Liberals are pleased to welcome Mexicans to Canada and foster stronger relations with the country.

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Of course we knew there were risks, he said. There are risks when you do anything.

The immigration minister said Liberals will work with the Mexican government to minimize problems and monitor the situation.

But we are very happy to welcome more Mexican tourists to this country and accept the jobs that go along with that, McCallum said.

Rempel asks official about 'red flags'

At committee Tuesday morning, Rempel asked Olivier Jacques, area director of Latin America for the department of Citizenship and Immigration, if any red flags were raised before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the change at the Three Amigos summit last June.

Certainly theres a number of risks that have been identified, which is the case every time we conduct a visa review, he said.

So, just to clarify what you just said, there were in fact risks that were flagged for the government but you cant comment on them here, she said.

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When Canada does a visa review, we balance risk, Jacques said.

Sure, but my question was very specific. You just mentioned there were risks that were flagged for the government but you cant comment on them. Is that correct?

Thats correct. Theres some risk. I think for every visa exemption heres always some risk.

Trump win changes things?

Rempel also asked him about a report from CBC News that officials were concerned about a potential surge of Mexican migrants into Canada as a result of the American election.

U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has vowed to build a border wall with Mexico and deport millions of undocumented immigrants.

Jacques said he wasnt personally aware of meetings on the matter but admitted such a scenario is a concern.

CBC News reported last week that officials ramped up discussions to deal with a potential spike in asylum-seekers from Mexico in light of Trumps win.

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Rempel accused the prime minister this week of failing to protect the integrity of the immigration system by moving ahead with the policy at this time.

McCallum again suggested the move will strengthen ties with Mexico and boost tourism traffic to Canada.

We are monitoring the situation very closely, of course, but this project stands to bring major jobs and benefits to the country, he said.

McCallum also told CBC News Tuesday that the visa could return if Mexican asylum claims spike too much.

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Trudeau said last summer that the visa changes, promised by Liberals on the campaign trail, will make it easier for our Mexican friends to visit Canada while growing our local economies and strengthening our communities.

In return, Mexico agreed to end long-standing restrictions on Canadian beef imports.

With files from The Canadian Press

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A few years ago Blue America's list of endorsed candidates had the biggest success rate of any PAC recruiting and endorsing candidates. We beat NARAL, the Sierra Club, the Human Rights Campaign and the League of Conservation Voters that year-- not to mention the NRA and Club for Growth. I laughed when I read the stats. Blue America isn't about picking candidates who will make the PAC look good. Blue America is about endorsing and working with the candidates-- like unlikely winners Donna Edwards, Alan Grayson and Elizabeth Warren-- who will fight for the legitimate aspirations of working families.





Last year, for example, we worked hard to elect Eloise Reyes to Congress in the Inland Empire. The DCCC had their own candidate, corrupt conservative Pete Aguilar. Aguilar won-- and promptly joined the New Dems and ran up one of the worst voting records of any Democrat in Congress. ProgressivePunch-- whose CEO argued with me wen I told him how terrible Aguilar would be before the election-- gave him an "F" this year and, according to their algorithm, shows his crucial vote score for his one term to be less progressive than all but 10 Democrats, 2 of whom (reactionary Blue Dogs Gwen Graham and Brad Ashford) are leaving Congress in January. Meanwhile, Eloise took stock of her loss, learned the appropriate lessons from it and one week ago absolutely clobbered one of the most corrupt conservative Democrats in the California state legislature, Chevron Cheryl Brown, beating her decisively and spectacularly catapulting herself into a position where she can do a lot of good for the working families she represents (and who Brown ignored).



Reyes' whip-smart campaign manager, David Keith, told us this morning that she "proved you can be outspent by large margins-- in her case from an enormous corporate super PAC running negative communications against her-- by running an efficient grassroots campaign that communicates to voters what in fact electing the challenger (Eloise) will do for them and their families." We count that as a big Blue America win, even though it isn't something you'll read about in the Washington Post or NY Times or hear about on MSNBC.





Eventually, all the progressive groups came around and endorsed state Senator Pramila Jayapal for an open seat in Seattle and we all worked to raise her the money she would need to win a tough primary and then the general election. Blue America was the first to endorse her and encourage her compelling leadership style and emphasize it to other national progressives, some of whom whined about how it was "unfair" to take sides because the other candidates were good too. Last week Pramila made history, as the first America with South Asian roots to win a congressional seat.





When Nanette Barragan, a small town mayor and environmental activist, decided to take on the entire stinking California Democratic Party establishment by challenging their handpicked conservaDem candidate to fill a deep blue seat in one of Los Angeles' poorest congressional districts, Digby, John and I invited her to dinner, got to know her and Blue America became one of the first national PACs to endorse her and help make her case and raise her the money she needed to beat the "impossible" odds she faced in beating the establishment-- impossible odds she overcame to win a jaw-dropping victory last week.





Blue America didn't look for candidates who were likely to win; we looked for candidates who had a reasonable chance to win-- with help-- but who would be likely to be great legislators. We look forward to seeing Ruben Kihuen (NV), Jamie Raskin (MD), Carol Shea-Porter (NH)-- along with Nanette-- and possibly Doug Applegate (ballots in his tight race against arch-villain Darrell Issa are still being counted today) take eventual leadership roles in a House Democratic minority that sorely lacks cohesive and inspiring leaders.





And this was a good year for Blue America in terms of helping build a progressive, activist Democratic bench on the state legislative level. Aside from Eloise, we helped elect Marcia Ranglin-Vassell and Mike Connolly, both of whom beat powerful, entrenched corrupt Democrats to win seats, respectively in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Stanley Chang-- like Eloise, a 2014 Blue America congressional candidate-- came roaring back this year and beat the last remaining Republican in the Hawaii Senate-- and in the reddest district in Hawaii! Justin Bamberg, our Berniecrat candidate in South Carolina, was reelected and Wenona Benally, another 2014 congressional candidate, introduced to us by Raul Grijalva, won a hard-fought Arizona congressional seat last week. And our Berniecrat legislator in Colorado, Joe Salazar, not only won his state House seat but was already leading the Denver mass anti-Trump protests this weekend.





L.A. Times ad we ran twice in the final two weeks of the campaign, above.) Ted won, was elected congressional freshman class president, has been one of the most outspoken and successful bipartisan advocates on a series of crucial issues, from cyber-security to peace and climate change, and this weekend was in the news again, standing up against Trump But before we say thanks for helping make this possible with your generous contributions, I want to point to one more victory-- an old one. When Sheldon Adelson suddenly struck in 2014 in the open CA-33 seat, pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into a last minute sneak attack, then-candidate Ted Lieu went to Steve Israel at the DCCC for help in responding. Israel flat out refused-- not one dime, not one nickel to answer Adelson's half million dollar SuperPAC. So Blue America did it instead. (That's thead we ran twice in the final two weeks of the campaign, above.) Ted won, was elected congressional freshman class president, has been one of the most outspoken and successful bipartisan advocates on a series of crucial issues, from cyber-security to peace and climate change, and this weekend was in the news again, standing up against Trump "crazy shit" , urging concerned Americans to follow him in becoming a supporter of the ACLU, while other congressional Democrats just cower in fear or plot personal career advancement. Ted Lieu-- one of Blue America's best ever investments!





So, from the bottom of our hearts, we want to thank the mind-boggling generosity of the Blue America members who gave-- and then gave again and again-- and helped progressive champions get into office when they are needed more than ever. And, fyi, right now we're busier than ever recruiting progressive candidates to run for what could be a really good 2018 cycle.








BOSTON  A white supremacist website has declared the Boston-based footwear manufacturer New Balance the ``Official Shoes of White People.''

The Boston Globe reports the alt-right website The Daily Stormer made the proclamation Saturday after New Balance vice-president Matt LeBretton praised Republican President-elect Donald Trump.

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LeBretton told the Wall Street Journal that Trump's election was a move in the "right direction.''

People who don't like Trump burned their New Balance shoes in protest. The company later said LeBretton's comment was referencing Trump's opposition to a proposed international trade agreement.

The Daily Stormer founder Andrew Anglin says the website is encouraging people to buy New Balance products.

New Balance couldn't be reached for comment Monday. It said after the shoes were burned it believes in "acting with the utmost integrity'' and welcomes "all walks of life.''

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Oprah Winfrey found herself in hot water recently after she shared her optimistic views of president-elect Donald Trump.

Last week, the media mogul, who openly supported Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, tweeted out, "Everybody take a deep breath! #HopeLives," with a screenshot of Obama and Trump's first meeting.

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Winfrey later revealed in an interview with the Associated Press that she saw a positive change in Trump.

"I could sense, maybe I'm wrong, but I could sense from Donald Trump's body language even when he came out for the acceptance speech, that brotha has been humbled by this whole thing," she said. "I think it's a humbling process that now you literally have the weight of the world on your shoulders."

However many didn't agree with her stance, and made no qualms about sharing their sentiments online.

@Oprah Take a deep breath how ? And also why?  June by Alene Too (@MsJuneDiane) November 12, 2016

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@MsJuneDiane@Oprah For real Oprah.. Your class privilege is showing.  The Nerdy Panda (@Rimzzzeee) November 12, 2016

Trump has chosen Steve Bannon as his presidential consigliere. I wonder if Oprah is still full of hope about the future?  Chris Prince (@ChrisPrincey) November 13, 2016

No @Oprah we're not going to take a deep breath, love you but with all due respect, the hatred that man has released won't touch your life. https://t.co/CNjOnCSuoW  S. Maxx Mahaffey (@smaxxmahaffey) November 11, 2016

Yikes.

Winfrey later explained her comments during a Q&A following a screening of Ava DuVernays documentary "13th" in Los Angeles on Sunday.

"I couldnt breathe after the election," the 62-year-old said. "So when I saw [Trump and Obama] sitting together, I actually took a picture of the screen that said president-elect Trump honoured to meet Obama. And President Obama was being so gracious, and I heard Donald Trump say, Hes a good man. I heard Donald Trump say, Im going to be seeking his counsel. I literally went, 'I can breathe now.'"

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She later added, My mistake, and this is what I know to be true: you can never talk about 'everybody.' Even in your arguments with your husband and your children. Dont talk about what you should do, what you ought to do. You can only speak for yourself. So what I should have said was, I just took a breath. What I said was, Everybody take a breath  #HopeLives.'"

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Canadas young scientists arent satisfied with the way the federal government reviews energy projects, saying the current process lacks high scientific standards.

An open letter addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday urged him to make a more concerted effort in rebuilding public trust in the environmental assessment process.

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We are concerned that current environmental assessments and regulatory decision-making processes lack scientific rigour, with significant consequences for the health and environment of all Canadians.

More than 1,300 researchers signed the letter urging Trudeau and six of his cabinet ministers to improve the current environmental assessment and regulatory processes in which all natural resource project proposals must undergo.

Hundreds of scholars have decried weak Canadian environmental assessments and regulatory reviews and cautioned about the risks involved in large-scale energy projects, reads the letter.

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We are concerned that current environmental assessments and regulatory decision-making processes lack scientific rigour.

It referenced incidents such as the Calgary floods of 2013 and B.C.s Mount Polley mine spill as examples of environmental and health tragedies that followed inadequate reviews.

One of the actions the letter suggests the government to adopt is the release of a full, public disclosure of how science, facts, and evidence provided in the review process are actually weighed in final decisions.

Its this fifth recommendation that open letter co-author Aerin Jacob, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Victoria, stresses is crucial to peeling back the curtain on how these major decisions are made.

Acknowledging how additional factors  such as indigenous knowledge  also play an important role, Jacob says full-disclosure releases of decisions behind major projects will give them more legitimacy.

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Right now its kind of a black box and we want to see how the decisions were made and what role science plays into that, she told The Huffington Post Canada.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Jacob said she has not heard from the Liberal government.

The Prime Ministers Office did not respond to a request for comment about the open letter.

In January, the Liberal government launched a review of the countrys environmental laws to reverse changes made by the former Conservative government and rebuild trust in the assessment process.

Scholars deeply concerned

More than 200 scholars urged the prime minister back in May to suspend construction of the contentious Site C hydroelectric dam in northern British Columbia.

Royal Society of Canada president Maryse Lassonde told Trudeau her group is deeply concerned about major gaps and inadequacies in the environmental assessment and regulatory review process the Site C Project proposal underwent.

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Past projects often neglected or ignored Aboriginal peoples and their concernswith adverse and lingering consequences. Those days are supposed to be over, wrote Lassonde at the time.

The $9-billion dam project proposed to flood farmland in traditional First Nations territory to create an 83-kilometre reservoir.

Despite protests and outcry from scientists, the indigenous community and its supporters, the project was quietly approved by the federal government in the summer.

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Vancouver International Airport (YVR) has become the first in Canada to launch a program to help travellers with autism get through airports faster.

The I CAN Fly program, announced Monday, will be rolling out resources to make air travel easier for those on the autism spectrum, including the YVR Austism Access Sticker.

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The badge is placed on a passenger's boarding pass, and guarantees quicker processing through customs and security screenings.

Individuals on the autism spectrum are often dependent on routine, and travelling can often disrupt that. The bustle of airports can be particularly overwhelming.

YVR's sticker, launched in partnership with the Canucks Autism Network, is meant to help flying be a little more seamless.

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Airport 'rehearsals'

Several American airports have offered "rehearsal programs" for flyers with autism. Each terminal runs its program a little differently, but passengers are generally able to practice steps like packing a bag, going through security, boarding, "flying", and disembarking.

Last fall, the Calgary Airport Authority invited families with children on the autism spectrum for an airport experience test-run.

The program was a hit with parents.

"In the past five years I couldn't travel anywhere with the family just because I know I am going to get extremely frustrated with the flight," Raed Jan, whose six-year-old son has autism, told CBC News in May.

"This is one of the showstoppers for me."

For the past three years, YVR has offered accessibility tours with a similar goal for individuals with autism.

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Dad's Photo Series Highlights The Many Faces Of Autism See Gallery
Have you ever shopped at Zara before? If the answer is yes, then you may want to check out the quality of your clothes, because you might just find a dead rodent stitched in the seams.

In news that's terrifying to fashionistas around the globe, 24-year-old Cailey Fiesel popped into a Zara store in Greenwich, Connecticut back in July and picked up two dresses off the rack.

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Normal, right? Wrong.

A few weeks later, Fiesel wore one of the dresses to work for the first time. And that's when she knew something was ... off. She noticed a "disturbingly pungent odour." Get ready to gag, because that's when Fiesel discovered a dead mouse in the lining of her $40 little black dress.

"I saw the little leg that was coming out of the seam that I had touched, which was really horrifying," Fiesel told the NY Post. "I froze  I was paralyzed with fear."

A woman says she found a dead mouse sewn into a dress she bought at Zara https://t.co/FBHvYDy1Hwpic.twitter.com/7Mxc5CYjL5  Kattey Ortiz (@KatteyOrtizTV) November 15, 2016

NOPPPPPE. NOT HERE FOR THIS.

The court papers included some pretty disturbing black and white photos of the dress, which was made in Turkey, "conspicuously depicting the dead rodent with at least one of its appendages protruding."

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Once again, NOPPPPPPE.

According to NY Post, Fiesel's suit says she not only suffered emotional distress (so did we just reading this, TBH), but she also developed a large rash that was diagnosed as a "rodent-born disease." Therefore, she is suing for unspecified damages, saying the retailer owed her a "duty of care" to manufacture dresses that were "free from defects, including rodent infestations."

Headline writers had field day w/ my @nypost wood about a woman who found a dead mouse sewn into her new Zara dress https://t.co/TuPgvItbDQpic.twitter.com/xwACwvqgFK  Julia Marsh (@juliakmarsh) November 15, 2016

Zara did not immediately respond to a request for a comment on the incident, but a spokesperson told TMZ, "Zara USA is aware of the suit, and we are investigating the matter further. Zara USA has stringent health and safety standards, and we are committed to ensuring that all of our products meet these rigorous requirements."

As Cosmo so delicately put it, "deceased rodents are definitely not this fall's hottest fashion accessory."

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We couldn't agree more.

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Niall_Majury via Getty Images Statue of Alexander von Humboldt. Photograph taken on Unter den Linden at the entrance of Humboldt-UniversitAt zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

On September 14, 1869, 25,000 people marched through New York to celebrate the centennial of the birth of German scientist Alexander von Humboldt. Manhattan's cobbled streets were lined with flags and even the ships on the Hudson River were garlanded in colourful bunting. By early afternoon the revelers had assembled in Central Park where a large bronze of Humboldt was unveiled. Though Humboldt had died 10 years previously, he was still the most celebrated scientist of his age. There were street parades everywhere in the United States, from San Francisco to Philadelphia, and from Chicago to Charleston, but also across the world in Australia, Germany, Mexico, Russia, and Egypt.

Almost forgotten today -- at least in the English-speaking world -- in his day Humboldt was described by Ralph Waldo Emerson as the most famous man after Napoleon and "one of those wonders of the world." His name still lingers everywhere from the Humboldt Current running along the west coast of South America to the Humboldt penguin. In North America alone there are four counties, 13 towns, a river, bays, lakes, and mountains named after him -- and the state of Nevada was almost called Humboldt when its name was debated in the 1860s.

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So who was this man? Alexander von Humboldt was born in 1769 into a wealthy Prussian aristocratic family, but he later left his life of privilege to explore Latin America for five years -- a voyage that made him legendary across the world. Humboldt threw himself into physical exertion, pushing his body to the limits. He ventured deep into the mysterious world of the rainforest in Venezuela and crawled onto narrow rock ledges at a precarious height in the Andes to see the flames inside an active volcano. Even as a 60-year-old, he traveled more than 10,000 miles to the remotest corners of Russia. He was curious, charismatic, and incredibly restless -- impelled by a "perpetual drive," he admitted, as if chased by "10,000 pigs."

Humboldt inspired thinkers, writers, scientists, and poets alike.

He risked his life many times, experimented on his own body to learn more about the world and believed that knowledge had to be shared and made accessible for everybody. He was handsome, adventurous, and worked at a frenzied pace -- fuelled by his love for nature and science but also by large amounts of coffee which he called "concentrated sunshine."

Humboldt visited Thomas Jefferson in Washington and briefed the president on Mexico and South America. He called himself for the rest of his life "half an American," but was a staunch abolitionist. He lived in Paris and Berlin where he became the center of scientific inquiry. He was so famous that Parisian cab-drivers didn't need an address, just the information "chez Monsieur de Humboldt" to know where to take visitors.

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Humboldt inspired thinkers, writers, scientists, and poets alike. Thomas Jefferson remained a lifelong friend and pronounced him "the most scientific man of his age," while John Muir's ecological thinking was heavily influenced by Humboldt. Charles Darwin said that Humboldt was the reason why he boarded the Beagle, and Germany's greatest poet, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, declared that spending a few days with him was like "having lived several years."

Humboldt revolutionized the way Westerners see the natural world. He came up with the idea that nature was a web of life and described Earth as a "living whole" where organisms were bound together in a "net-like intricate fabric." Nothing, not even the tiniest insect or fleck of moss, was looked at on its own. "In this great chain of causes and effects," Humboldt said, "no single fact can be considered in isolation." When nature is perceived as a web, its vulnerability also becomes obvious. Everything hangs together. If one thread is pulled, the whole tapestry might unravel.

After he saw the disastrous environmental effects of colonial plantations -- cash crops, monoculture, irrigation, and deforestation -- in Venezuela in 1800, Humboldt became the first scientist to talk about harmful human-induced climate change. Humboldt was also the first to explain the forest's ability to enrich the atmosphere with moisture and its cooling effect, as well as its importance for water retention and protection against soil erosion.

Humboldt's nature was a global force and he was a prescient proto-environmentalist who should be restored in the pantheon of nature.

At the Rio Apure in Venezuela, Humboldt commented on the devastation caused by the Spanish who had tried to control the annual flooding by building a dam. To make matters worse, they had also felled the trees that had held the riverbanks together like "a very tight wall," with the result that the raging river carried more land away each year. At the Venezuelan coast, Humboldt noted how extensive pearl fishing had completely depleted oyster stocks. He warned that humans were meddling with the environment and that this could have an unforeseeable impact on "future generations." It was all an ecological chain reaction.

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"Everything," Humboldt later said, "is interaction and reciprocal." Towards the end of his life, he even prophetically warned about deleterious gas emissions at industrial centers. There were moments when he was so pessimistic that he painted a bleak future of voyages into space, when humans would spread their lethal mix of vice and greed even across other planets.

All this makes Humboldt the forgotten father of environmentalism and it's time to remember him again. In a time when scientists are trying to understand and predict the global consequences of climate change, Humboldt's interdisciplinary approach to science and nature is more relevant than ever. He refused to be tied to one discipline and insisted that all and everything was linked -- humans, land clearing, plants, oceans, geography, atmospheric changes, temperature, and so on. Humboldt's nature was a global force and he was a prescient proto-environmentalist who should be restored in the pantheon of nature. He was, after all, as one contemporary said, "the greatest man since the Deluge."

Andrea Wulf's new biography about Humboldt, "The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World," is shortlisted for the World's largest history award, the 2016 Cundill Prize in Historical Literature. The $100,000 prize will be awarded in Toronto, Canada later this month. Portions of this blog appeared in an article written by Andrea Wulf for The Atlantic Magazine in the U.S.

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Much has already been written about the significance of Donald Trumps victory for the environment, with particular emphasis on climate change. There is some speculation that Trump, based on campaign promises, will try to undo some of President Obamas signature achievements, namely some scuttle that hes looking for a fast exit from the 2015 Paris climate agreement that recently entered into force.

The noted climate denier Myron Ebell was named to lead Trumps transition at the EPA. President Obama in his press conference today made a vigorous case for why his efforts to green the economy could and should live on under a Trump administration. Most analysts fear the worst, though a few see some of the changes, like the fading role of coal, as more long-lived and less subject to presidential influence. Im going to focus on climate change here.

WHAT DID TRUMP PROMISE

We dont really know much about Trumps intentions. He has said climate change is a hoax, hes lambasted the war on coal, and hes said he wants to cancel the Paris climate agreement. Beyond that, he didnt really offer too many specifics (Brad Plumer surveyed Trumps energy policies here). Several more concrete items were prominent in the one hundred day plan Trump offered near the end of the campaign:

 FIFTH, I will lift the restrictions on the production of $50 trillion dollars worth of job-producing American energy reserves, including shale, oil, natural gas and clean coal.  SIXTH, lift the Obama-Clinton roadblocks and allow vital energy infrastructure projects, like the Keystone Pipeline, to move forward.  SEVENTH, cancel billions in payments to U.N. climate change programs and use the money to fi x Americas water and environmental infrastructure.

While things like Keystone were big flashpoints for grassroots organizing, they are somewhat incidental to the larger trends in terms of U.S. climate diplomacy and national level policy, so Im going to focus on those.

REASONS TO BE PESSIMISTIC

David Roberts at Vox thinks it was always a long shot that we could restrain greenhouse emissions enough to keep global temperatures from rising 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. There was an outside change that a President Hillary Clinton could have led the charge for even stronger commitments in a few years as countries ratcheted up their ambitions. Roberts sees that as over now:

That story is gone now. Dead. The US will not provide leadership  it will be an active, and very powerful, impediment. Under unified Republican leadership, progress on lowering emissions in the US will halt and reverse and US participation in international efforts to combat climate change will cease.

He sees this as a sea change like the 1960s and 1970s when environmental rules were first adopted but in the opposite direction as Congressional Republicans have plans to scale back the EPA and climate policy writ large:

If Donald Trump and the GOP actually follow through on what theyve promised, this time around will be a lurch in the opposite direction. Federal climate policy will all but disappear; participation in international environmental or climate treaties will end; pollution regulations will be reversed, frozen in place, or not enforced; clean energy research, development, and deployment assistance will decline; protections for sensitive areas and ecosystems will be lifted; federal leasing of fossil fuels will expand and accelerate; new Supreme Court appointees will crack down on EPA discretion.

Can Trump Pull out of the Paris Agreement?

No. Not right away. As I detailed in a post in April, the rules of the Paris Agreement require three years before Trump formally withdraws from the agreement, so thats 2019 or 2020 (and even once he signals intent to withdraw, that wouldnt take effect for another year according to Article 28 of the Paris Agreement).

Lets say the Paris Agreement goes into effect before Obama leaves office, then even if a Republican is elected, under Article 28 of the Paris Agreement, they cant formally withdraw for three years after the agreement has gone into force.

More seriously, Trump could pull out of the 1992 Framework Convention on climate change which would be a far bigger deal since this is the overarching treaty agreement. This would make the U.S. an international scofflaw and a source of global scorn and derision and likely result in much heavier diplomatic costs than U.S. rejection of Kyoto. We wouldnt have a seat at the table to defend our interests (some speculation here how the world may react). Even George W. Bush sustained U.S. involvement in the framework convention after repudiating the Kyoto Protocol (which the U.S. had signed but not ratified).

David Victor was quoted on this possibility in Science:

Trump could have the United States immediately submit a written notice to the Secretary General of the United Nations that it is leaving the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, which includes nearly all the worlds nations among its membership and coordinates international deals on climate. After a year, the departure would take effect. Victor suspects this as the most likely step. It would be the most symbolic antiestablishment move, he says.

What Else Can He Do?

Trump has threatened to withdraw funding for climate-related mitigation and adaptation activities. It has not been an easy slog for President Obama to extract money from Congress for climate purposes so if President Trump doesnt want to fund them, they probably wont be, barring a shift in Congress in the mid-term elections. As Paul Voosen noted:

The United States had promised $800 million a year to help finance climate adaptation for the least developed nations, and that money is unlikely to come through in a Trump presidencyalthough Congress has the final say on how money is spent. Without that incentive, nations could see little reason to meet their pledges.

The consequences of this move, as David Victor notes, are likely to damage the confidence of other countries in the process:

Nobody really knows what counts as new money, but as a sign of good faith, the developed nations put up $10 billion to get started  one-third from the U.S., and one-third from China. America has not yet paid all of its commitment, and it seems clear that Trump will not. For the developing countries, this will be a sign that America is unreliable and that the benefits of staying engaged in climate negotiations are fleeting. While these countries are generally not large greenhouse gas emitters, having their support is essential to making formal decisions  including adoption of the Paris agreement.

What about the Clean Power Plan?

The Clean Power Plan is the signature domestic climate policy that emerged during the Obama Administration. The Obama Administration used existing regulatory authority to regulate carbon as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act and then established the Clean Power Plan to give states guidelines how they could meet their regulatory burdens.

The EPAs ability to regulate carbon has been hotly contested in the courts. The Supreme Court blocked implementation in February in a 5-4 decision just before Justice Antonin Scalia died. That decision sent the case back to the DC Circuit Court for further review. The Supreme Court has already ruled that the EPA has the authority to regulate carbon dioxide, but the question is whether the agency exceeded its mandate in how the rules were applied.

Whatever happens at the District Court, the case will likely make its way to the Supreme Court which current is down a member and stalemated at 4-4. Barring some miraculous appointment of Merrick Garland before President Obamas tenure ends, President Trump will probably get a chance to appoint a conservative justice and perhaps break the tie. Whether the case will make its way to the Supreme Court before it is at full strength is unknown, as the case appears that it could drag on for a while.

Trump might decline to defend the EPA rule when it comes before the Court. There could be some other attempts to rewrite the rule, but observers see this as time-consuming since the rule has been finalized:

EPA has finalized this rule, this rule is now law  its not as if EPA can say nevermind, Lienke said. It would have to go through a new notice and comment rule-making process as it did when it first issued the rule, and it would need to have rational reasons for undoing it. And that itself would inevitably be litigated.

Since the EPA has regulatory authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon, Gary Yohe is more optimistic that this is a measure that is harder to undo:

It should be noted that carbon emissions were identified as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act (that was passed by Congress under the Nixon Administration and amended under Clinton). This finding was confirmed by the Supreme Court. All three branches of the federal government therefore agree that the Administration, through the E.P.A. must, by law, do as much as it can to reduce emissions to reduce damages and minimize human health risks. This is what the Obama Administration has been doing. Were the Trump Administration to ignore this legal imperative, it would be sued by the E.D.F., the Nature Conservancy, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and/or. for being derelict in meeting their statutory obligations.

Another reason to be optimistic is that many states are already moving forward on implementing the rules so those efforts will likely continue even as the case goes on. Roberts, however, is more pessimistic:

The simplest way for the GOP to destroy the CPP would be to take away the EPAs ability to regulate greenhouse gases at all. Its a simple bill: The Clean Air Act shall not apply to greenhouse gases.

How about other rules on automobile fuel efficiency and methane?

Several advancements were achieved with executive action and could be undone the same way.

In 2010, Obama was able to get the automakers to voluntarily agree to fuel efficiency standards in the wake of the Detroit bailout, but theyve been itching to loosen those regulations. They are up review in 2018. David Roberts and Brad Plumer worry that Trump will be their accomplice:

But those numbers arent set in stone. The CAFE rules come up for a scheduled review in 2018. Automakers are now lobbying for Trump to relax the standards, purportedly because sales of fuel-efficient vehicles have been sluggish due to low gasoline prices. While Trump hasnt commented on this, he has plenty of leeway to weaken these rules.

California still can set its own rules due to a wrinkle in the Clean Air Act, which serves as a disincentive for industry to have to make different cars for different regulatory markets, but we shall see.

As for methane, the Obama administration last year announced a goal and identified a variety of policy measures to reduce methane from the oil and gas sector by 40 to 45 percent below 2012 levels by 2025. One rule  to reduce leaks from new and modified oil and gas equipment  has already been finalized. Other policies about methane from public lands are in process but have to be finalized, and might be easier to kill. Chris Mooney writes that undoing the methane leak provisions would be possible but require some heavy lifting:

It would be no easy thing for the incoming administration to revisit the new source rule, as it is now an adopted regulation, he said. So it would require rule-making, and the same standards of administrative procedure that led to the adoption of the rule would apply to any effort to modify it our repeal it. In other words, you cant simply propose changes in an arbitrary and capricious way. So this regulation might be the hardest to reverse.

This doesnt cover the full suite of things a determined Trump administration could do. Roberts and Plumer survey other things including opening up of public lands to fossil fuel exploration, removal of subsidies for renewables, cuts in basic research, and wider efforts to scale back EPAs regulatory authority and cut its funding.

Beyond these, there are reasons to think that the nascent effort to incorporate climate change broadly and climate change and security specifically in to the fabric of Executive Branch agencies as President Obama ordered might get shelved or only receive lip service.

REASONS FOR OPTIMISM

China and India have incentives to deal with pollution.

While there is the worry that other countries will lower their climate ambitions if the worlds second largest emitter backtracks on its commitments, some of the leading countries may have strong incentives to stay the course, independent of what the U.S. does. China, whose emissions are now about double those of the United States, has been vocal saying the U.S. should stay in the Paris Agreement. Zou Ji, deputy director of Chinas National Centre for Climate Change Strategy, told reporters:

If Trump were to insist on doing things his own way, then he would pay a heavy price both politically and diplomatically, Zou said.

India, whose emissions are set to rise rapidly with economic development, is facing such grave air pollution problems in its capital city Delhi that schools recently were closed. The concentration of particulate matter was 16 times safe levels. China faces similar problems.

Both governments face pressure to deal with air pollution including coal plant closures, more efficient automobiles, and restrictions on burning of agriculture waste. While intended to reduce air pollution such as particulate matter, these measures could also produce co-benefits for climate change in the form of lower emissions of greenhouse gases.

Coal in this country may be dying of natural causes.

Even Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell was uncertain that coal jobs are coming back under President Trump. As Andrew Revkin noted in one of his final DotEarth blogs (hes moving to ProPublica), fracking, renewables, and efficiency are making coal uncompetitive and that is unlikely to change:

The decline in the United States has mainly been due to market forces shifting electricity generation from coal to abundant and cheaper natural gas, along with environmental regulations built around the traditional basket of pollutants that even conservatives agreed were worth restricting.

David Spence makes a similar point:

Utility-scale wind, solar and natural gas-fired power are each cheaper today than coal-fired power and that gap is growing wider. Irrespective of federal regulation, these competitors will continue to crowd out coal.

The changes are baked into the economic cake.

David Victor makes the argument Donald Trump will have difficulty shifting patterns in the US economy as major structural changes have largely been set in motion and dont change quickly. That doesnt mean further advance, nor does it mean dramatic backsliding either:

Despite claims of trashing regulations, rolling back the Clean Power Plan, and a big shift toward fossil fuels, four years of Trump will actually have very little impact on national energy investment patterns and policy that are already largely grounded. Thats because the energy sector is slow to change, most policies are enshrined in law and difficult to unseat, and the very thought of a Trump administration overseeing national energy policy will inevitably shift more of the action to the states.

Progressive states like California will stay the course.

While Brad Plumer is pretty pessimistic overall, he does note that states like California and New York are committed to climate action. These are large states whose economies would be among the worlds largest if independent countries. Plumer writes:

States like California and New York are still pursuing their own ambitious climate policies, and its possible those efforts could be so successful that other states decide to follow suit.

The grassroots climate movement is stronger now.

As I tweeted the other day, unlike the days of Kyoto, we actually have a grassroots movement of activists who are eager to defend the climate. True, most of their activism has been dedicated to stopping things like the Keystone pipeline, the DAPL pipeline, and investments in fossil fuels. Still, their willingness to engage in civil disobedience and street actions may be an important lever that advocates can credibly threaten to mobilize. Unfortunately, they may have to.

Chris Mooney made a similar argument, reporting on Secretary of State John Kerrys trip to Antarctica, where ice melt is proceeding rapidly:

Its not clear if the secretary of state was nodding to the Bill McKibbens of the world, environmentalists who are likely to turn to more grassroots activism against fossil fuel projects, like the Dakota Access Pipeline, as the mechanisms of policy become unavailable to them. Their keep it in the ground movement is likely to grow in force if President-elect Trump carries out his campaign pledges to unleash the oil, gas, and coal industries and withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.

Revkin worries that pushing too hard in this way might alienate voters before the 2018 mid-term elections. The strategy is likely going to be a big debate going forward.

Concluding Thoughts

At the end of the day, we have entered into a profound period of uncertainty and Kremlinology, where the leaders intent is not yet clear. We read the tea leaves based on appointments and initial public utterances, but President Trump will have many priorities and whether scaling back climate action and other environmental policies are among them are not yet known.

Republicans have an anti-regulatory agenda which Trump has glommed onto so we might expect freezes, roll-backs, but then again, who really knows? Its early days yet, but the news isnt good. In 2008, I contributed to a volume on Cooperating without America. My chapter was on climate change in which I reflected on the possibilities for climate leadership without the United States.

On some level, the situation is more favorable because the U.S. is no longer the leader of global emissions. But, in other respects, things have gotten worse. Despite flat emissions of greenhouse gases for three years running, 2016 was still the hottest year on record. We actually need to move towards decarbonization not just flat emissions so we dont really have time for the U.S. to go wobbly for four or eight years under Donald Trump. But thats where we are.
Hi, Canada. Have you had more than your fill of presidential politics? I have. Don't get me wrong, developments south of the border are huge for Canada, too. And stateside news will no doubt Trump domestic stories for a while.

As always, I feel really good to live in Canada. We're the nation that opened our doors to Syrian refugees, aren't we? Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has declared in his speeches that "we're Canadian and we're here to help." Generosity and giving are fundamental Canadian values -- and the world knows it.

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How do Canadians feel?

Many of the average Canucks we spoke to recently felt exactly the same way. A World Vision team headed to the streets with a microphone and camera, then produced this video. What do Canadians think about what their government is doing to help vulnerable people in other countries, a.k.a. foreign aid? How well are we doing it?

The general sentiment was pretty consistent: Canada is a kind, open and generous global citizen. People told us they feel good about what we're doing around the globe to help the less fortunate. Many shared the view that Canada is a leader on the global humanitarian and development front.

Although the vote wasn't unanimous, the overall consensus jived with our own supporter surveys, as well as similar checks by other organizations.

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Here's the down side...

Spoiler alert! Unfortunately, our current foreign aid spending does not fully reflect Canada's generous nature. Turns out, Canada gives a lot less than most Canadians think we do. Here's a sample:

Our rank is 14th on the list of 28 major donor countries

Our commitments and contributions are actually below average

Our commitment is only 28 cents of foreign aid for every $100 of Canada's Gross National Income. The international gold standard for donor countries is at least 70 cents!

When we broke this news to the Canadians we interviewed, many were shocked and disappointed. But there was some good news, too: Canadian funding is doing some remarkable things to ending extreme poverty and preventable diseases as part of a global movement. And when it comes to the all-important United Nations Sustainable Development Goals -- which include the universal call to tackle the root causes of poverty -- Canada's made some strong commitments.

Whether in the surveys or on the streets, Canadians are pretty clear. They want our country to be a global leader in helping the less fortunate. Canadians want "more Canada" in the world. Canada is capable of doing more and should do more. And for Canada to do its part to meet the UN's Sustainable Development Goals by the 2030 deadline, we need to significantly increase our foreign aid commitments in the 2017 federal budget.

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Want to help move the needle on foreign aid spending? Canadians can take action by joining the conversation on social media at #MoreCanada and also tell Canada that they want our country to be a foreign aid leader. Visit World Vision's "Voices" web site to learn how you can get involved.

Never has the need, and the opportunity, for Canadian leadership been greater. Children's lives depend on it. Join the national conversation on Canadian foreign aid!

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Roel Smart via Getty Images A bottle with a hydrocodone (the generic name for drug sold under other names by various pharmaceutical companies) label and hydrocodone tablets spilling out isolated on white background. Hydrocodone is a popular prescription semi-synthetic opioid that is used to treat moderate to severe pain. Hydrocodone is said to be one of the most common recreational prescription drugs in America.

Adderall is a prescription drug used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children and adults, but the drug has gained popularity among post-secondary students who use the medication as a "study drug". When used for its intended purposes, Adderall helps increase one's ability to focus.

When people who do not suffer from ADHD use the drug, they experience laser-sharp concentration, making it a popular study tool for stressed students. According to the American Journal of College Health, 76% of students will be offered the prescription drug throughout their four years of university, and about 30% will accept it.

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As students are currently in the middle of writing midterms and possibly using the drug to support their studies, I'd like to provide information on how dangerous this study trick really is.

When a person who does not suffer from ADHD uses Adderall, the result is a lot greater than that of someone uses it for medical purposes. People who have used the drug for studying purposes report feeling focused and motivated to complete their work. Spending hours in the library studying for an exam can be mind numbing, but because Adderall was designed to lengthen your attention span, students can spend all day cramming without feeling the strain.

Adderall is one of the most addictive drugs on the market. When a student uses it and receives a great mark on a paper or exam, it can be difficult not to resort back to the method that helped them achieve it. A lot of students carry the mantra, "I'll just use it this once to get through this tough exam period", but if a student is relying on Adderall for their brain power, what's to stop them from using it in the working world as well?

Adderall can affect your body in a number of ways. Short-term, students who take Adderall experience feelings of nervousness, nausea and agitation. Since the drug maintains your focus, it inadvertently eliminates your appetite. Consequently, students often miss important meals after taking the drug. Abuse of the drug has been linked to eating disorders and other associated mental health issues.

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Adderall is also used to treat narcolepsy, a condition where people fall asleep sporadically. Thus, students who take Adderall often experience insomnia.

After abusing the drug for long periods of time, the consequences can be dire. After taking excessive amounts of Adderall over a period of time, your body begins to depend on it, just like any other drug. Suddenly it can be difficult to accomplish daily tasks without popping a few pills first.

As mentioned in my previous blog about Fentanyl, people often begin abusing one drug and move on to more powerful substances to get a more intensified high. Last year, the Toronto Star published an article discussing the link between Adderall use and suicide.

So how is it so easy for students to get their hands on this drug? It is estimated that only 1 in 20 children in Canada have ADHD, but that doesn't stop students desperate to improve their grades. A quick Google search can expose hundreds of articles with titles like, "How to trick your doctor into prescribing you Adderall."

Faking symptoms of ADHD can lead doctors to a misdiagnosis, and students are able to walk away with a powerful prescription. Even without a doctor's note, students can still access the drug on campus. Students who have received prescriptions are known to sell the drug to their peers for up to $25 a pill.

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Have you or a loved one recently started using Adderall to combat school stress? Here are my tips on how you can deal with the problem now:

1.Get organized without the use of prescription medication. Talk to your teachers if you are feeling stressed, and surround yourself with positive people who want to help you succeed.

2.If you are experiencing physical symptoms from Adderall use, talk to a medical professional. Talking about drug use can be difficult, but living with an addiction is harder.

3.Talk to your campus mental health or SAP provider for assistance on managing drug use and stress levels. They have the tools to assist you through an Adderall dependency.

Post-secondary life is difficult. I remember staying up late to finish papers and stressing over exams. While taking Adderall might seem like a short-term solution to your stress, working hard to get a good grade is a lot more rewarding.

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NurPhoto via Getty Images People gather in front of the Bataclan concert hall as France commemorates one year since the Paris terrorist attacks on November 13, 2016 in Paris, France. France pay tributes to the victims of the 2015 Paris terrorists attacks which left at least 130 dead and many others injured by gunmen and suicide bombers from the Islamic State. (Photo by Mehdi Taamallah/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

On a dark and blustery November evening, I remember being on the train, making my way home to the sleepy suburbs from our bustling metropolis. The train had just left downtown Montreal when my phone illuminated with multiple notifications from the BBC, saying a bomb had gone off outside Stade de France in Paris.

Then more news started to trickle in, as reports of multiple gunmen opening fire at citizens in a bar in the 10th arrondissement of the French capital. Minutes later, another notification came in, saying a restaurant was under siege. My heart began to race, as I knew something sinister was unfolding in the city of lights.

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By the time I got home, another suicide bomber had caused an explosion at a restaurant, and Le Bataclan -- a popular concert hall -- was besieged by multiple gunmen who sprayed countless bullets on the unsuspecting crowd. I spent the rest of the evening with my family huddled around the television watching CNN, as the images and reports shocked the entire world to the core.

Anxiety and fear has spread like the plague, and several right-wing political parties have gained a lot of popularity in Europe and America.

Nov. 13 marked the one-year anniversary of the Paris attacks, where 130 individuals lost their lives as several Islamic State (ISIS) militants brought an onslaught of violence and chaos. The bloodshed and terror was a symbolic and ruthless attack against the western world, as Paris is the epitome of occidental culture, and has represented western ideals since the French Revolution in the 18th century.

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A photo of a vigil held in Montreal in the days following the terror attack. Photo courtesy of Marie-Pierre Savard.

Twelve months since the attack, and the world has drastically changed beyond recognition. ISIS has launched more terror attacks in multiple countries including Belgium, Germany, Turkey, the U.S and France once again, just to name a few. Anxiety and fear has spread like the plague, and several right-wing political parties have gained a lot of popularity in Europe and America.

Look no further than our southerly neighbours who've just elected a man who has publicly made xenophobic, Islamophobic and anti-immigration comments towards American citizens.

People are scared to leave their houses, to travel and to enjoy their lives as they did before. A 2015 poll commissioned by the New York Times/CBS News revealed 79 per cent of participants believed a terror attack would be imminent. These aforementioned figures are higher than post-9/11 statistics according to the International Business Times.

We're not immune over here in Canada either, as the RCMP has foiled multiple terror plots within the last year. This includes Aaron Driver, a 23-year-old from Strathroy-Caradoc, Ont., who was in the final stages of planning a bomb attack before he was discovered by the authorities, according to the National Post.

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ISIS even declared "our wolves will come to you," in a chilling propaganda photo circulated widely on the Internet, which pictured downtown Toronto burning in the background.

By submitting to fear, we are succumbing to these terrorists who seek to disrupt and embed terror into our lives. Yes, tragedy may strike at any second, but now is the time to remain defiant in order to protect our autonomy and our rights.

Let Paris be a reminder to all that our freedom is constantly being challenged, from both outside and within.

This also means we cannot buy into extreme right wing politics, that seek to marginalize, isolate and eradicate minorities and those on the fringes of society. The upcoming year will no doubt be challenging for the western world to say the least, as several European nations are set to hold elections, with each country having a right-wing political party vying for power.

There's no doubt ISIS is spreading fear amongst the general population. Citizens want to feel protected and see their liberal governments as incapable of dealing with this threat. Therefore they react by supporting right wing political parties, who pander and extort their fears, whilst also promising immediate action against the threat.

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The same parallels can be seen right after WWII, when socialist parties suddenly appeared in several countries around the world. Socialist ideology pandered to their darkest anxieties, and the people were tired of the old system, which brought war and devastation to their front doorstep.

Let Paris be a reminder to all that our freedom is constantly being challenged, from both outside and within. We may be battling ISIS, but we must also gather the courage and strength to tackle another ferocious foe: fear.

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josefkubes via Getty Images Dramatic clouds behind barbed wire fence on a prison wall

Prison rape: it's a common trope in television and movies. How often is the "don't drop the soap," joke casually tossed around?

But what's the reality for sexual violence survivors in prisons? We spoke with El Jones and Mooky Cherian to learn more.

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El Jones is a spoken word activist and teacher, and a former Halifax poet laureate. She is dedicated to using poetry in prison outreach and youth engagement.

Mooky Cherian has worked with Prisoner's HIV/AIDS Support Action Network (PASAN) since 2002, doing harm reduction work in Ontario with the prisoner/ex-prisoner population.

Interviewer: What conversations in the media have you heard -- if any -- on sexual assault in prisons?

El: "I can't say that I've seen anything in the media. What you tend to see is prison rape as a joke. People frequently saying comments like, 'Oh, I hope he drops the soap...' Prison rape is treated as always male-on-male... [But] sometimes there's coercion between female prisoners and male guards. I don't think people know that or think too hard about it."

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Interviewer: How are prisoners affected by rape culture?

Mooky: "Rape culture trivializes [peoples'] experiences. It turns into a joke. There's this idea that [sexual violence] is a part of your punishment, and that you should get whatever you deserve in prison... Things like deprivation from health care or being placed in an environment where you become hyper-vulnerable to sexual assault -- there's not a lot of compassion from people who aren't affected."

"It['s] isolating for someone who's experiencing sexual violence inside because society is saying, 'you deserve that because you're in prison'... There's hyper-believing that rape happens to everyone inside prison, but also invalidating it and not believing and saying that, 'Well, you're just gay; you just want to have sex with guys'... And for people at the receiving end of [violence], there's no option, no recourse, no support... And it doesn't do you well to... try to hold people accountable, or press charges because your life becomes so much worse."

El: "It's hard to get accounts, certainly, from men, because of homophobia. Homophobia is a kind of control mechanism in prison... But at the same time, people have this idea of masculinity being very violent in prison -- it's not that way either. There's a lot of hope... generosity between people, people helping each other out. This dehumanizing idea that prisoners must be animals, therefore they just go around raping each other -- that nobody can control themselves, nobody has any kind of standards -- that's not true either."

Mooky: "There's a misconception that every single sexual act that happens inside is rape, that there's no such thing as consent inside, which is completely not true. There is sex going on inside that is consensual and that people do want to have.... Because sex is criminalized, it makes it very difficult for people wanting it to try to get harm reduction supplies... It also creates this environment where a lot of people are having sex but no one's talking about it."

Interviewer: What are the challenges you have seen in media reporting on sexual violence against incarcerated people?

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El: "I can't recall seeing any stories... A lot of women who are getting raped by guards, coerced by corrections officers, are certainly not going to talk about that. Especially people who are on parole: they can go back in... So it's not coming from the inmates... There's no conversation on rape or sexuality in prisons."

Mooky: "When you look at rape culture in the prison system and how that intersects with folks who are trans, it's really complicated... Essentially, folks are housed based on their genitals up until recently [in Ontario]... What that does for a lot of trans women is... that they'll go inside and they're being referred to by [men's names and male pronouns] and subject to all kinds of abuse, discrimination, transphobia, violence -- including sexual violence -- from other prisoners or from staff."

"The system was designed off of this gender binary model, and if you're not someone who fits into either box 'A' or 'B,' or if you're a genderfluid person or genderqueer person -- those types of institutions are really not made to meet anyone's needs -- but they're certainly not meant to meet your needs. I also don't want to see trans people inside as victims only."

Interviewer: Most survivors do not report. Why is it important to show diverse representations of survivorship?

Mooky: "I've never worked closely with anyone inside who has not experienced a lot of abuse growing up, or extreme neglect: violence, sexual violence, incest... I'm working with a population who has experienced such a disproportionate amount of unaddressed and unacknowledged trauma... It's an intense thing to put people who have those collective experiences inside of an environment where they're more likely to experience things like that, and without any type of support or recourse whatsoever."

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El: "We have this huge population of indigenous inmates, which is a result of colonization and sexual violence, and then the violence of the prison system is put on top of that... There's 500 years of violence, including sexual violence."

Interviewer: There's been a swell in media coverage of rape culture recently. What do we still need to address?

El: "The way [many feminists] think of combatting rape is through the prison system... But we don't talk about what happens to someone who's convicted of rape [once they're] in prison and how vulnerable that person is... Is the way to hold rapists accountable through the prison system, knowing what our prison system does?... I'm not pro-rape. But I'm also not pro-prison."

"Prisoners need to be centred and given that space to be recognized as people that are capable of speaking."

Mooky: "Talking about sexual assault in prisons is important. It doesn't always fit in neatly with talking about other types of sexual assault. But we need to keep it on the table."

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This blog is part of a series of interviews femifesto is publishing on media reporting and sexual violence in diverse communities across Canada.

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With sincere apologies to William Shakespeare for messing with his words, but "me thinks they doth protest too late."

And with all due respect to all those, all over the U.S., who are exercising their First Amendment rights and protesting Donald Trump's presidency, let me say this:

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This is what happens when your "principles" get the better of you, when they get in the way, when they drown out that little voice inside your head begging you to think rationally, when they impair your judgement, when they replace common sense.

This is what happens when "idealism" blocks you from seeing or caring about what the real risks are.

This is what happens when you think you're making a point by sitting out an election instead of casting your vote.

This is what happens when you stubbornly vote for a third party candidate -- but your country has a two-party system.

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This is what happens when you spitefully write in your preferred candidate's name on the ballot (even though he lost the primary), or when your write in your favourite aunt's name or your pet puppy's.

This is what happens.

You don't win. You lose. And you lose big.

This is what happens.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for protests. I participated in a few myself in my youth. More to the point, I'm all for peaceful protests, which most of these have been, at least so far. They should all be peaceful, but that's another story for another day.

But protests are not a replacement for speaking up when and where it truly counts, when it can make a positive impact, when it can help determine an outcome. When you make sure your voice is heard at the voting booth.

Protesting is what you do later, once the party's in power, when your elected officials don't do their jobs, when they make mistakes, when they don't deliver on their campaign promises, when they ignore you and your concerns and issues, when they let you down.

Protests are not a replacement for speaking up when and where it truly counts.

I have to tell you, the fact that there weren't any protests for the eight years Barack Obama was in office really shocked and surprised me. I said over and over again to my friends, and anyone else who was around, that I didn't understand why the American people were putting up with it. Why they let Congress get away with their obstructionist ways.

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That's when we needed protests and marches on Washington. Now, when it won't change a thing, not so much.

Life sucks sometimes.

You don't always get the perfect candidate. You don't always get the candidate you want. No one can deny that Hillary Clinton is flawed. No one can deny that establishment politicians have not listened to their voters, have ignored all the signs that have been pointing to this repudiation of the status quo for a long time. No one can deny that dramatic change is needed.

However, this particular fiasco could have been avoided.

And by the way, before we Canadians become too sanctimonious, our voter turnout (prior to our most recent federal election) has also left a lot to be desired.

So what just happened south of the border this past November 8 should be a reminder, and lesson, to all of us, of exactly what's at stake and what can happen when we think we're making a powerful statement by electing not to vote. When we think our absence at the polls will punish the politicians.

Well, think again my friends.

We punish ourselves.

If you enjoyed this story click on "become a fan" at the top of the article, right next to my name. You'll be notified every time I post.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE - In this Nov. 8, 2016 file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump casts his ballot, in New York. The U.S. approach to Asia faces a major overhaul when Donald Trump takes office, but what will take its place? A new report warns of a leadership vacuum and even a nuclear arms race if the U.S. withdraws from a region threatened by a provocative North Korea. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

I have just returned from a ten-day pre-election tour through the U.S., hosted by the State Department. I watched the results come in from Cleveland, Ohio, after stopping first in D.C. and New Orleans.

Being there left me reasonably well-positioned to try to answer the big question on many people's minds -- why did Trump win?

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First, though, a few points as background.

There are, as one speaker pointed out to us, many paths to Trump. This is probably always true for political candidates, and truer the fewer candidates there are. However, it is particularly true when the actual nature of a candidate is so hard to pin down. What Trump will actually do remains a real mystery, and different people got to voting for him by assuming he'd do different kinds of things.

Secondly, it's worth underlining that any post-election analysis should never assume that the winner did everything right, or that the loser did everything wrong. Trump did a lot of things wrong that hurt his campaign, and winning does not vindicate all his choices, morally or strategically.

On to the substance.

Trump won for two principle reasons. Republicans 'came home;' and, Trump made additional gains in key states because of the narrative he built around trade and manufacturing.

Many traditional, conservative Republicans were naturally suspicious of Trump. Whether you are an economic conservative, a social conservative, a national security conservative, or some combination thereof, there are things about Trump to make you raise your eyebrows.

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Most of the Republicans I spoke with did not seriously believe he would implement or try to implement his full agenda. But in the end, even many of those who could not bring themselves to publically endorse him still voted for him.

He was better than the alternative, he was their guy, he was teachable/controllable, he would surround himself with the right people, and various other such suggestions were cited as the basis for their support.

For Evangelical Christians, I think there was a particular willingness to take him at his word on his apology after the release of the Access Hollywood tape. They believe in forgiveness and redemption. I think many Christian voters believed that indeed the campaign had changed him.

Of course, being a forgiving person does not mean believing every shyster who promises that they have changed; but, I think many believed (or wanted to believe) that a genuine transformation had taken place.

For whatever set of reasons -- wishful thinking, an identification of real synergies, or just a strong desire to stop Clinton -- the vast majority of Republicans 'came home' and voted for their candidate.

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There are many roads to Trump -- and partisanship was one of them.

Secondly, Trump's anti-trade message and promise to bring back jobs to certain economically depressed areas resonated enough in key battlegrounds and historically safe Democrat states. Democrats in Ohio expected Trump to win there, even if they expected him to lose overall.

Trump ended up taking Ohio, but surprisingly also Wisconsin and Michigan. Those states had not gone Republican since the 1980s (84 for Wisconsin, 88 for Michigan).

This obviously spells trouble for Canada, since swing voters in key states have now been convinced that trade deals are the cause of their economic struggles, and since these voters now make up a critical part of the Trump coalition.

It may be difficult to maintain a political coalition which includes these voters AND traditional Republicans, although the Democrats have something of the same divisions when it comes to these issues.

Canada will still have many allies on these issues, but it will be a challenging road ahead.

Many people are asking what the Trump win means for bigotry in the US, and in politics in general. While bigotry likely motivated some Trump supporters, I do not see much evidence that it was an important factor in his win.

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In Louisiana, the southern state we visited on our election swing-through, Donald Trump received about 58% of the vote. David Duke, former (and unrepentant) 'Imperial Wizard' of the Ku Klux Klan, was also on the ballot, running for Senate -- he got 3%.

That is still alarmingly high; however, the gap between Trump and Duke suggests that, even in the south, the vast majority of Trump supporters were looking for something other than white nationalism.

What is the lesson for Canada's Conservatives in this? Given the strong negatives around both U.S. presidential candidates, I suggest not electing a leader too much like either of them.

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Trump worked his way to the White House by waging a war on political correctness. In Canada, Jordan Peterson, the University of Toronto professor who has spoken against gender neutral pronouns and anti-racist training, seems eager to join Trump in the trenches. With Trump in power and his supporters roaming the streets, Peterson is also reaching new heights, as the university decided to meet his demands for holding a public debate, set for this Saturday.

The debate is yet another chance to plant fear of trans and racialized communities in the heart of the public by making it look as if they pose a threat to freedom of speech. The university is dangerously buying into Peterson's false narrative -- that this is an issue concerning his freedom of speech and not the freedom of identity expression for others.

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Trump's meteoric rise should serve as a warning sign about the danger of the maldistribution of freedom of expression. In other words, if we will go to bed with Peterson, we should not be surprised to wake up with Trump.

Peterson, like Trump, has unleashed an arsenal of hate from his supporters. Peterson's Trump-like supporters have bullied trans, gender non-conforming and racialized members of the university community, making severe threats to their safety. But this has not been enough.

Peterson and his supporters have demanded that the university stage a public debate, and despite opposition it seems to be on its way. Unlike the other experts invited to the debate, Peterson is not an expert on law or gender -- so why is he going to debate about these issues? Because he keeps claiming that trans and racialized people are threatening his freedom of speech.

If we will go to bed with Peterson, we should not be surprised to wake up with Trump.

Peterson's arguments can incite the public against trans and racialized communities by painting their struggles for inclusion as undermining freedom of speech. This is a well-known tactic of creating an image of a "public threat" to justify the maldistribution of life chances.

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The way First Nations communities are unfairly associated with alcoholism and criminalization is used to justify policies that still allow for their children to be taken away from families. In the same avail, contrasting gender expression to freedom of speech functions to question the trans right for inclusion. In fact, gender and racial diversity are forms of speech. Do not be fooled by these current phantoms of hate. If anything, it is trans and racialized communities' freedom of expression that is at stake, not Peterson's and his Trump-like supporters'.

Freedom of speech, like other freedoms, is a resource. While Peterson uses his almost unlimited tenured freedom to monger fear of trans and racialized people, he limits by default those peoples' freedom of expression. Peterson fails to contextualize freedom of speech within the realities of social disparities, making invisible the maldistribution of the right to express oneself.

It is trans and racialized communities' freedom of expression that is at stake, not Peterson's and his Trump-like supporters'.

The right for gender self-determination is already granted without question to non-trans people, such as Peterson, but it is continuously denied to those who do not fit within the norms -- through refusing to respect the way they see themselves, through discrimination and through direct violence. Not surprisingly, there are very few racialized trans students and faculty at U of T.

Freedom of speech does not only protect one's right to be offensive, it also protects individual and communities' right to express their diversity. By staging the debate, focusing on anti-trans and anti-black freedom of speech, the university is inflaming the toxic environment its trans and racialized students are facing.

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U of T is providing yet another stage for spreading uninformed fear and hate, instead of supporting their students' right for expression. At the dreadful dawn of Trump's America, abusing freedom of speech to further push marginalized communities toward social exclusion, cannot be up for debate.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE - In this Nov. 9, 2016, file photo, President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a rally in New York. CEOs of major companies are taking stands about the results of the November 2016 U.S. election, a departure from the traditional model of not mixing politics with business that the major brands have long espoused. The men and woman who head the nationas biggest companies know that having a hostile relationship with the incoming Trump Administration could make doing business difficult. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci, File)

At the ripe old age of 34, I have sat through many elections. I worked on a few, ran in an election as a candidate myself. Needless to say, the election that took place in the United States on Nov 8, shook me to the core in so many ways.

First of all, when my smug 16-year-old nephew comes up to me and tells me that "If I insult black people, Asians, Muslims, Latinos and make fun of women, be a bully, I too, can be the president of the United States." I wouldn't know what to say to that, not anymore.

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In some ways, he is absolutely right. If he adopts your tactics in an increasingly divisive and crude society, he very well could run for president, and possibly win, just like you.

Donald, please know that, more Americans voted for your opponent on November 8. However, I give you props on your win while millions of Americans riot on the streets as we speak. I know, maybe you are just really a Huge, Successful real estate mogul from New York who saw that 1000 dollar bill called the "Republican Nomination" and picked it up.

Maybe deep down, like you said, you are not really a racist since you made so many great deals with people from different countries. But during this campaign, Team Trump has left no stone unturned when it comes to insulting Americans.

It is hard for me to name a group that you did not make vicious fun of already, except the white American males. Wait a minute, actually, I think you might have insulted them too, when you asked the rhetorical question "How Stupid Are The People of Iowa?" the night you lost your primary there.

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This election has been INSANE and it is bringing out the real housewives in all of us!

Now, you must have the courage to show, that not only you are Not a racist, you have the leadership, dignity, temperament, compassion and grace to bring people together and heal. I'd like you to go on an apology tour, preferably on your own Trump jet because I know, even as the 45th president of America, personal branding is important to you.

Here is what I like you to do. I'd like you to start by saying how sorry you are when you began that toxic crusade called the "birther movement" against President Obama 5 years ago. I knew you never believed in that nonsense yourself. But because it attracted eye balls and gave you tons of air time, you pushed hard for it. I guess little did you know or care that it would create so much hatred against the first black president. It also ended up giving legitimacy to the xenophobia some of your supporters brewed.

Donald, trust me, I know white privilege is amazing. In fact, I got jealous of Ivanka for having a rich, white dad. But for folks like us, and the Obamas, the civil rights movement is what gave us a seat at the table, finally. Over the years, I disagreed with President Obama on so many issues like Health Care, The Economy, Immigration and foreign policy. But I tear up every time I saw the Obamas and the Bushes walked hand in hand on the 50th Anniversary of the Marches from Selma to Montgomery.

I know deep down, you are just a New York Liberal who was looking for air time. You were never expected to win the presidency. But remember this, as a Presidential candidate, your words had meanings. They were powerful. People listened to them. When you said China is stealing American jobs, the Klan's men took it to the street after you victory and took it out on Chinese Americans. They called them Chinks and told them to go back to China even though they have probably been in America as long as your family has.

Sadly after your victory, some of those rhetoric have come to self-actualization. As people of color, we would like to think after decades of struggle, that we have finally made it. But apparently, not so. Just a couple of days, ago, in a public school in California, someone wrote "white only " and "colored" on the water fountain. In other incidents, there was a swastika painted on properties, there were Muslim students who had knives pulled on them for wearing their hijab. More than 200 incidents of hate crimes have been filed with the police since you took office. We, as minorities were not tone deaf to the undercurrent of racism and bigotry in your campaign rhetoric.

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Donald, you tapped into the anger of a declining middle class that is sick and tired of establishment economics, establishment politics and the establishment media. But you also opened the Pandora box of hatred xenophobia and bigotry. Your campaign slogan "Make America Great Again" feels a lot like "Make America White Again" these days.

You saw racism, poured gasoline on it and lit a match. As the President Elect, you need to realize, there is no difference between your words and your actions anymore. Your words, are your actions from now on.

I am somewhat relieved to hear that recently, you denounced the hate crime waged on minorities by white supremacists. That is a step in the right direction. But it is not enough. America has struggled too many decades in the fight against discrimination, bigotry and sexism. We are not going to accept a President who is trying to divide us. The hard working Chinese restaurant workers in Flushing, the Mexican farmers picking grapes in California, the black women catching a 5 am bus in DC to go to work are not our enemies.

Donald, I did not want you to win. But at the same time, I did not want those millions of middle class hard working Americans to lose either. After rounds of cheap wine, chicken nuggets, 3 medium sized pizza, 2 lbs of chocolate coated espresso beans, I am slowly getting over my own denial. Finally, I am getting ready to call you President Trump.

President Trump, you need to go on an apology tour, so people from the left, right and center can all start the healing process. Making America great again, must include all Americans. And ya betcha I will be present.

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I'm a second-year graduate student at the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, the first university in the United States to offer a graduate program in international affairs. The Fletcher School is recognized as one of the world's top master's programs for a policy career in international relations, where building bridges between stakeholders is essential. I don't say this to boast, I just want to give you an idea of the context in which I study.

As a Canadian studying international relations in the United States, I have followed the elections closely. I saw these elections as a symbol. A symbol of the world's polarization between equality and inclusion, versus protectionism and radicalization.

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On election night, I chose not to follow the race and go for a drink with a friend instead. I was cheerful to notice that the Montreal Canadiens beat their rival Boston Bruins. With a little luck, I thought I could avoid the whole election-media bonanza. By 10 p.m., I started feeling jittery and I couldn't help but look at my phone to track the results. Key swing states like Florida were on the cusp of turning red. Unable to resist any longer, I paid the bill and left to watch the elections at a friend's house.

The mood was dire. I tried pulling a few jokes like: "Oh look, the Canadian Immigration website crashed!" but clearly that didn't work out very well. As the New York Times and Bloomberg announced Trump's anticipated success by 11 p.m., most of my American friends were in denial. Just thinking about the possibility of Trump as president was unfathomable. They stared blankly at the screen.

The following morning, dejected classmates were offering free hugs in the school's corridors. Upon entrance in class, I noticed worn-out, disheartened expressions all around. Our professor threw out the Xerox case study and we spent the next hour and a half talking about the results. Things quickly took an emotional turn. The entire room was tearful. "I don't recognize myself anymore in this America I hold so dear," one friend said passionately.

Massachusetts' liberal "bubble" prevented us from seeing the dynamics at play in the rest of the country. For most of my classmates, the prospect of working for an American government under Donald J. Trump is broken. Our professor asked us: "What are the next steps?"

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The term "mediation" was on many lips, a term which we often use as a remedy for seemingly intractable conflicts. Is mediation possible with a president-elect whose vision clashes so blatantly with inclusivity and access to equal opportunity?

What about the implications on the Northern neighbour? I cannot help but reflect on Jean Chretien's comments prior to the Canadian elections in 2015. "Canada must reclaim its role as world leader," he alleged. His words take on a whole new meaning today.

Canada, the so-called "example to the world," is far from perfect, but it will be crucial for our country's leaders to act as mediators in foreign affairs. We need to promote values of tolerance and equality. We need bridges, not walls.

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Mike Segar / Reuters Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks as his son-in-law Jared Kushner (L), daughter Ivanka listen at a campaign event at the Trump National Golf Club Westchester in Briarcliff Manor, New York, U.S., June 7, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

They say there's a special place in hell for women who put down other women. After this week I think we're going to have to make some room for the Jews who support Donald Trump.

I've watched "friends" on Facebook and in the media cheer for Trump's win. Because it will be good for America, good for Israel or whatever other asinine reason they are delusional enough to believe.

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To them: you are the company you keep and a million other cliches. How can you possibly think anything good will come this for you, your friends, your family, your community? It defies all logic that something celebrated by the KKK and comfortably "out" anti-Semites could also benefit any single Jewish person.

Do you have no sense of outrage for the hate he's spewed against other religions?

I'm disappointed. I'm terribly angry. Especially so the week after Remembrance Day. My grandfather was a Canadian Jew who fought in the Canadian Army in the second World War. He went to Europe and fought the Nazis. On Remembrance Day, I posted about him on Instagram and my aunt wrote, "he taught me to be proud of my heritage and to respect all of humanity no matter their colour, religion or culture as he personally fought for freedom." Well said. What did your grandparents teach you?

Jews are told to remember all the time -- not just on Remembrance Day -- the horrors of the Holocaust. Unfortunately, the support that comes from all that remembering typically seems to just reverberate around a somewhat insulated community. That's not good enough for me. I need to know that my community is supporting not just our community but any community that's marginalized or suffering from the hate of others.

A rise in hate crimes and an alarming acceptance of racism should be warning bells enough that nothing good will come from this.

A few months ago, Jared Kushner, Trump's Jewish son-in-law, wrote an opinion piece in his paper the Observer, explaining how his father-in-law is not an anti-Semite. In the wake of Trump's election win, some of my Facebook friends have been posting this letter to social media, with a sense of relief. "Phew," I imagine they're telling themselves, "he's not going to go after me." Do you have no sense of outrage for the hate he's spewed against other religions? Against other races? Other sexual orientations? I guess gay Jews aren't a concern of yours either.

To those who take comfort in the assurance that "it's not us, this time" I fear the lessons of history are already lost. While much is still uncertain, this bizarre mutual acquaintanceship between Jews and the hateful, racist supporters of Trump terrifies me most.

By no means am I suggesting that another Holocaust is upon us or that America just voted Hitler to power. But the absence of those things doesn't mean that we shouldn't be vigilant. A rise in hate crimes and an alarming acceptance of racism should be warning bells enough that nothing good will come from this. Especially for the children and grandchildren of the people who suffered the worst atrocity of the twentieth century. Because if we can't remember how to do the right thing, who will?

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Vietnam is currently listed in the top five in Asia and ranked 11th globally in terms of growth rate of the retail market. Photo by VnExpress/Quang Dinh

The Thai retailer is expanding rapidly in Vietnam with a focus on the growing middle class.

Central Group plans to invest about $30 million in Vietnam over the next five years, marking the latest move in its expansion strategy across the country, said the retail giant in an official statement on Monday.

The family-owned business said it aims to double the number of supermarkets in Vietnam to around 70 and develop 13 commercial complexes by 2021.

Central has been expanding its presence in Vietnam since 2013, when it started investing under the Robinson Department Store brand.

Central has acquired new operations in Vietnam since then as part of a broader trend of companies eyeing the potential of a single market of 600 million people in the Southeast Asian region.

In an effort to tap into the Vietnamese retail market, Central managed to acquire Big C earlier this year, one of the biggest supermarket chains in the country, which pulls in more than 50 million customers annually.

In April, Frances Casino Group sold its entire stake in hypermarket Big C Vietnam to Central for 1 billion euros ($1.14 billion), according to an online statement released by the French retailer.

Central has been on an acquisition spree to gain a strong foothold in Vietnam which, with a population of more than 90 million, has posted the worlds second-fastest growth rate per person since 1990, behind only China, and is forecast to reach $109 billion by 2017, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Last year, Central Group acquired a 49 percent stake in major Vietnamese electronics retailer Nguyen Kim, which has a network of 21 stores across the country and posted sales of $400 million in 2014.

The Thai conglomerate, run by the billionaire Chirathiwat family, has also announced the purchase of online fashion marketplace Zalora's operations in Vietnam in a move to combine e-commerce with its existing department stores, supermarket chains and shopping malls around the country.

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> Vietnams rapidly growing retail industry partially offsets economic slowdown

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Recently, UNICEF gained a rare access to Razeh district in Yemen's northern governorate of Saada along the country's border with Saudi Arabia. Razeh has witnessed intensive fighting, including some of the fiercest airstrikes and shelling in the ongoing conflict in Yemen.

Many health facilities around the country and in Saada, including the hospital in Razeh have been damaged in the conflict. Having been cut off by the conflict, the local population in Razeh finds itself in desperate need of health care. This was why a UNICEF team headed for the frontier district to assess how it could help the Razeh hospital resume its critical operations.

Claude Dunn, a Canadian, is the Chief of Field Operations for UNICEF Yemen. He led the team and writes about the journey and what he saw.

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In view of the fragile security situation I was all along skeptical about getting permission to travel. But what finally paid off is UNICEF's political neutrality and the resourcefulness of our colleagues from the Zonal office in Saada who did the groundwork to facilitate the trip. Despite the parties to the conflict in Yemen not having fully confirmed the extended ceasefire called for by the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy, we still managed to get authorizations for our travel to Razeh on 26 October. That, in itself, was no mean feat.

I was travelling to Razeh with a Yemeni colleague, Anes Al-Arashi, a UNICEF Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Officer who knew the language and layout of the land well. We were also accompanied by local counterparts from the Saada Governorate Health Office. Their presence was particularly helpful. It ensured that we got through the numerous check points along the road. The bumpy road was rough and long. But it also offered some incredible Yemeni scenery as we passed through dry landscapes and rugged mountain terrains.

I was keen to talk to the people in Razeh hoping to understand the enormity of their tragedy.

It was not long before we were at Razeh. The town looked battered. A visit to the town's hospital was even more saddening. A part of the Razeh hospital had been reduced to rubble. It was heartrending to walk over the debris of a building that was once a lifeline to the ill and ailing. Another portion of the hospital building was partially damaged. This part was something that could be repaired and brought back to use. That is why during my visit, we confirmed that UNICEF will first support rehabilitation of the partially-damaged hospital building. We also agreed to soon reopen the nutrition unit and rehabilitate the water and sanitation facilities, including toilets.

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Razeh was just one of several hospitals that have been damaged in the ongoing hostilities. According to the World Health Organization, more than half of Yemen's hospitals in 16 governorates are functioning either partially or not at all. That makes it all the more important to get Razeh hospital up and running so that the integrated health outreach activities can resume. When restored, teams of health workers will be able to pick supplies from the hospital and head into communities to vaccinate children, treat diseases, screen for malnutrition and refer critical cases to the hospital.

Between 24 to 29 September this year, during the second round of the outreach campaign, UNICEF and other partners had reached out to over 600,000 children under five and 180,000 pregnant and breastfeeding mothers in 333 districts of Yemen. The feat was made possible with the help of over 34,000 health workers supported by 880 program monitors who fanned out across the country.

I was keen to talk to the people in Razeh hoping to understand the enormity of their tragedy. That's one of the reasons why I had brought along Anes Al-Arashi, to also be my translator. Unfortunately, there was little time to interact with the local community as we had to return to Saada without violating the stringent time restrictions imposed by the parties to the conflict. Indeed, the ceasefire appears very fragile -- nay over!

Even as I sat writing this in the evening, having returned to the UNICEF office in Saada, which also doubles as our residence, in the distance I could hear muffled sounds of bombs. The ominous sounds continued punctuating the otherwise quiet night, until sleep overcame me. As we took the return journey to the capital, Sana'a, my thoughts were with the children of the country, particularly the ill and infirm who have nowhere to go.

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It's not just Razeh hospital that needs urgent attention. The primary health care system is itself just hanging by a thread of support provided by the international humanitarian community, including UNICEF. With the system having literally grounded to a halt, more children are likely to die. Already the number of children at risk is staggering: 2.5 million children are at risk of diarrhoea, 1.3 million at risk of acute respiratory tract infections and 2.6 million under age 15 are at risk of measles.

Malnutrition continues to stalk children: 1.5 million children under five years are suffering from acute malnutrition, 370,000 of them are severely acutely malnourished (SAM). It needs reiterating, a SAM child, due to a weakened immune system, is at a ten-fold higher risk of dying compared to normal children. UNICEF is scaling up its response in Yemen but the needs are so enormous.

For me and my colleagues, our immediate mission is to save lives. But for that to happen in earnest, the conflict has to end. During the visit to Razeh, I saw very few such encouraging signs.

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The man accused of the terror-related murder of Labour MP Jo Cox will stand trial at the Old Bailey later.

Thomas Mair, 53, allegedly shot and stabbed the 41-year-old outside her constituency surgery in Birstall, near Leeds, on June 16.

He is charged with Mrs Cox's murder, possession of a firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence and possession of an offensive weapon - a dagger.

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Mair, from Birstall, is also charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Bernard Carter-Kenny on the same date.

At a hearing last month, not guilty pleas were entered on all the charges.

The trial is being heard by senior judge Mr Justice Wilkie and is expected to go on for up to three weeks.
November 4th represents a "bittersweet date" for Patti Smith. It is the birthday of her ex-lover Robert Mapplethorpe, who died of complications due to AIDS in 1989. It is also the anniversary of the death of her husband Fred "Sonic" Smith. Thirdly, it marks the birth of her Grandson. It was November 4th, this month, that Patti Smith arrived in Dublin to collect the Burke Medal for Outstanding Contribution to the Arts, in Trinity College Dublin.

Smith was bestowed with the Burke Medal for Outstanding Contribution to the Arts, because she has been a woman who, as described by the President of the Historical Society, Ronan Mac Giolla Rua, broadened "our understanding of the world". Indeed.

Really wonderful to see Patti Smith again. This time back in Dublin's Trinity College where she was awarded Edmund Burke Award by @TheHistpic.twitter.com/eSABg3khK7  Aaron Vallely (@Vallmeister) November 4, 2016

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Patti Smith sings today at @thehist Trinity! Best afternoon I've had in ages. pic.twitter.com/0uRbUJGX0E  Roisin Page (@roisingreta) November 4, 2016

Robert #Mapplethorpe would have turned 70 today! "He was a ray of light where darkness fell." - Patti Smith #mbamhttps://t.co/PzZJWJgXPnpic.twitter.com/84THkOPYVa  MBAM (@mbamtl) November 4, 2016

It had been a year since I seen her last, in New York's Public library, where I gave her a copy of Brendan Kennelly's essay collection "Journey Into Joy". Brendan is another Trinity alumni and held the post of Literary Professor there for decades. Brendan also recently celebrated his 80th birthday in the very place I actually first met Patti many years ago, The Abbey Theatre, in Dublin City Centre.

Another recent Dublin artistic connection with Patti, was her involvement in the Reading Gaol Prison project in the UK. Reading Gaol prison has recently been opened to the public for the first time this year. Since July, artists, writers, and performers have courted audiences inside the prison to celebrate, remember and invoke the legend of Oscar Wilde, a legendary Dubliner. Smith held an event reading "De Profundis", the notorious and profound prison letter Wilde himself wrote.

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November 4th, in this context, could do with a little instruction on how to cope with suffering. Taking occasion to review Wilde, it is rather illuminating to see how apt his work is. "Nothing in the whole world," he wrote, "is meaningless, and suffering least of all."

In 1967, Patti Smith moved to New York City from South Jersey. The rest has become legend. The photographs, the iconic black and white snapshots, captured by Smith's lover, soul mate, and partner-in-crime, Robert Mapplethorpe, still hold their potency. It is almost impossible to negotiate through the margins of social and artistic history of late '60s and '70s New York, without chancing upon either of them.

Mapplethorpe's legacy has been reinvigorated partly due to Smith's successful first memoir, "Just Kids", but also the recent HBO documentary "Mapplethorpe: Look At The Pictures". That initial memoir traced their relationship from their first meeting in a shop that Patti worked in, all the way to their days in the Chelsea Hotel, their tumultuous love life, intensely felt creative collaborations, the rock gigs, and that now lost Downtown New York Scene. My friend, and Chelsea Hotel resident to this day, retired Dancer, Merle Lister, many times told me how kindly and cheerful a neighbor Patti was. And Sam Shepard, too. She didn't like Sid Vicious, though. Vicious by name, Vicious by nature.

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Patti is one of the leading critics of the cultural decline of the Downtown New York scene. Producing endless luminaries from Andy Warhol to RuPaul, Lou Reed to Susan Sarandon, Gary Indiana to Michael Musto, Vivian Gornick to Susan Sontag. And on. And on. She herself spent a decade living in Detroit when she opted out of public life to adhere to the duties and integrity Motherhood requires. In an interview with NME, Smith mourns the fact her daughter does not have the opportunities she herself had in the 60's and 70's. The formerly derelict areas she lived in have become high-end shopping areas. The ensuing prosperity of New York City has engendered in creating a difficulty for young creative people to develop a cultural voice there.

Penny Arcade, another New York counter-cultural icon, and who I recently caught up with in Dublin, described it. "This is the first time in the city that an entire population, the working poor, has been displaced," she once told the New York Times. "We're living in a world that hates individuality. It's heartbreaking. We're living in the golden age of stupidity, and while queers have taken up all their time with identity politics, and the biggest issue they see in the world is pronouns, there has been an unrelenting march to the right that they're completely unaware of."

"God made the world," wrote Oscar Wilde, "just as much for me as for anyone else."

Smith has become a champion for outsiders, empowering them to be themselves and to discard the stereotypes of gender that have been foisted on younger generations. Historically changing, socially constructed labels that have insufficiently served people for decades. Mapplethorpe, who died at the peak of his international acclaim, died of AIDS. His memory and work seems almost to be infused with Patti's time in New York. Mapplethorpe caused a sensation in particular with his nude photographs, which defined eroticism and homosexuality with a virtually relentless insistence and courage. The accessibility and fearlessness that Mapplethorpe approached the male figure, and in which they disclosed his own sexual fluidity, freedom, and complexity, even resulted in the confiscation of his photographs after an exhibition.

It was in Mappletorpe's memory, that Smith decided "Just Kids" should be written. As she promised him on his death-bed. To tell the story of their lives and work.

Smith, back in Trinity College, encouraged students to reflect on the difficulties and challenges that the world will present them, whether it is suffering and loss, hunger or being misunderstood. She invoked the advice she similarly issued to young people in a clip that went viral online, shot by the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.

On maintaining creative integrity and refusing to compromise - the best advice she ever got, was from none other than the late William S. Burroughs:

"Build a good name." She told the crowd. "Keep your name clean. Don't make compromises, don't worry about making a bunch of money or being successful -- be concerned with doing good work and make the right choices and protect your work. And if you build a good name, eventually, that name will be its own currency."

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Like a flash, Smith came and went. As I looked around, there were many students enamoured with her presence and electrified with her benedictions. They reminded me of when I was younger and more susceptible to feeling overwhelmed with admiration in the presence of people I so irresistibly admired.
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Like many, I was surprised to see that Andrew Marr was interviewing Marine Le Pen on his Remembrance Sunday programme. I really can't get on board with her view of the world - it's divisive, narrow, and polarised.

And many Brits clearly feel the same. There's outrage that the BBC chose to air her views on Remembrance Sunday of all days - a day when we remember those who gave their lives in the fight against fascism.

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I understand the outrage about this being on Remembrance Sunday. Should someone that many would regard as a fascist be given air time on that day?

But it's important to note that this wasn't just an opportunity for Le Pen to promote her views and the Front National. Marr hardly gave Le Pen an easy time - she was defensive through much of the interview. And the BBC did balance the rest of the programme - it opened with Jeremy Corbyn, and the Le Pen interview was followed by a response from Crispin Blunt MP and a further interview with Sir Stuart Peach, Chief of the Defence Staff. All of them had the opportunity to challenge views like Le Pen's, and to acknowledge why Remembrance Sunday is so important.

So the question is - is this really about the timing? Or is it more that we don't want to hear views like Le Pen's at any time, thank you very much?

Like many, my instinct with views like hers is to shut my eyes and ears. I don't feel comfortable listening to people whose views I think are genuinely hurtful to many - especially foreign-born French citizens. In my ideal world, the Front National wouldn't exist, and people wouldn't hold those views. Or at best, it would be a tiny fringe group that no one took seriously.

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But in the real world, the Front National is gaining support. Clearly, Le Pen promotes a view of the world that resonates with some people. Indeed, according to some polls, she's more popular than current president Hollande. Her's is clearly not as much of a fringe view as I would like.

I can relate to the fear that many people feel, that by airing views like Le Pen's, they spread like a pandemic and become dominant.

But the fact is, they're already spreading. Just look at what's happened in the US. National, international and social media attempted to eradicate his extreme views in every possible way: silence, ridicule, warnings. The result? President-elect Donald Trump.

As Marr rightly says, future President Marine Le Pen is well within the realms of possibility. If French people don't want that, they need to listen. If the rest of Europe and the world don't want that, we can't afford to shut our ears any more either.

The only way to tackle the rise of movements like the Front National is to listen and understand. Only when you properly understand what their views are, can you identify why they're gaining support. Only then can you address people's concerns and persuade them that the way forward is not to elect these extreme figures and parties.

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In 2009 the BBC also faced controversy for featuring Nick Griffin, former MEP and leader of the British National Party (BNP), on Question Time. People were furious. But where is the BNP now? Since that appearance, during which Griffin demonstrated his astonishing ignorance, the party has lost most of its support.
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Who The Flip Is Dad 2.0?

Fatherhood is a scary thing. Combine that with the onslaught of an average mid-life crisis, then life as a Dad in 2016 is a pretty daunting task.

We're a generation raised by Dad 1.0. Our role models were hard-grafting providers who did little of the actual day to day hands-on childcare. They splashed on the Brut, dished out the discipline and ruled over the remote control of a three-channel world with a rod of iron.

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Now in 2016, as Dad 2.0, we're not only expected to but are proud to do more than our fair share of bum and tear-wiping because being a dad is quite possibly the best job in the world. We're the Grange Hill generation that came of age while raving and Britpoppin' in the 90s. Imagine the date when New Lad became New Dad, and you will be halfway there.

Now as responsible child-rearing grown-ups with careers and mortgages, we expect more out of family life and we want to look good and have fun while we are doing it.

Unfortunately, the marketing world has yet to catch up with the reality of modern parenting. In advertising, dad is still the hapless sap who simply can't get anything right. He burns any foodstuff that dares venture close to the oven, stares blankly at the mere mention of putting the washing on as if he had never visited his own utility room and returns from the supermarket with 15 pomegranates and a party pack of Twiglets when he was supposed to have hunter-gathered the Christmas dinner. That is, of course, when he is not encamped on his sofa, lounging in a cloud of his flatulence and barking orders at his put-upon spouse.

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Image courtesy of Bewildereddad.com

When major food companies like Heinz release a line of baby foods with slogans emblazoned on the side declaring the product is "inspired by a recipe from Sophie, a mum just like you",t hey instantly dismiss the possibility that dads can take an active part in feeding their children. They then feel the wrath.

Image courtesy of Sudocrem Ireland Facebook page

The concept of women being the decision makers, the shoppers, the child carers may once have held water, but the tide is turning, and marketing types need to realise that. If we feel you don't take us seriously, we will not take you seriously. Consumers always have a choice and those brands that dismiss dads risk being left behind.

Amazon had to perform a volte-face in the US when, for some unknown reason, it decided to brand the discount scheme called Amazon Family around the world as Amazon Mom in its home market. A petition started by Kansas-based stay-at-home dad Jeffrey Harrington was supported by the Dad Bloggers Facebook group and topped 13,000 signatures before the online giant quietly changed the name to finally recognise the contribution of dads, grandparents and other guardians.

Asda's line of foods "chosen by kids - approved by mums" showed the contempt in which dads' opinions are held by the supermarket. Coppertone's children's suntan lotions were marketed in the US on the basis that the protection they offered against harmful rays made it "easy for moms to love".

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The implication here is that it is the mother's responsibility to ensure a child eats well and stays out of danger. What dad is up to while these decisions are being taken never fully explained, but presumably he's about to be distracted while bodging a long-standing DIY job, falling off his ladder as he lusts after a woman at least three leagues above his? The punchline will inevitably see his wife roll her eyes and a team of ad execs will high five, celebrating the fact that they have successfully recycled the plot of most 1970s sitcoms once again, and been paid handsomely for it.

So if you are a brand that wants to get in our hearts, minds, pants and ultimately our pockets, then help entertain, inform or educate us.

Don't patronise us, telling us how to change a nappy.

Don't tell us we babysit; we parent.

Don't snigger at the fact that you think we can't dance. Believe me; we can.

You've just been looking in the wrong places.

If you want to start looking in the right places, then we just might be the people you want to talk to.
The infamous case of Paolo Macchiarini has been making headlines around the world as the investigation continues into how one of the world's most respected 'super-surgeons' was allowed to begin an experimental, untested treatment that led to the deaths of seven of the nine people placed at risk.

The full details of the case are widely available, but in summary; Paolo Macchiarini is one of the world's most famous surgeons, who previously worked at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, the august body whose professors choose the recipient of the Nobel Prize for medicine each year.

Macchiarini was intrinsic in the development and introduction of a new and experimental treatment to use synthetic organs when replacing a patient's trachea (or windpipe). The treatment promised to save lives of those having to wait for a donor organ before a transplant could be carried out.

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It also promised to set a precedent for other transplants, establishing a method by which organs could be manufactured rather than harvested from donors - a breakthrough that would revolutionise treatment for a wide range of conditions.

However, five years later, the reputation of both Macchiarini and his former employers is in tatters, with revelations emerging that the vital animal and scientific testing stages were skipped; negative reactions to the treatment ignored; and failures to seek necessary ethical approvals - all safeguards that would have saved lives.

However, the dilemma at the heart of this case is ever-present within medical treatment.

In his defence, Macchiarini explained, "We had a human being that we wanted to save." He also asked, "And in these circumstances what would you do? Do you just leave him dying at that young age? I don't think it's correct."

This is a grey area - where does experimental research end and the medical innovation to save a life begin. Most of us might agree to the longest of long shots if we had no alternative.

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This dilemma is at the heart of proposed legislation in the UK - the Medical Treatments (Innovation) Bill. The proposal, which (according to reports) has Government backing, plans to create a national database of seriously ill patients willing to volunteer for experimental treatment.

The proposals stop short of protecting such treatment from clinical negligence litigation - indicating that doctors won't be given 'carte blanche' - but clearly it opens the door for the normal safeguards to be watered down in return for speeding up the path to bringing experimental treatments into use.

Despite the potential benefits of such an approach, Macchiarini's example should give us serious pause for thought. A concern shared by many observers. For example, the previous incarnation of this Bill was vetoed by the Liberal Democrats in the last days of the coalition Government before being resurrected by Conservative backbencher Chris Heaton-Harris MP.

The new legislation has the potential to seriously speed up the path for new drugs to reach the market. We shouldn't underestimate that this also has the potential to make serious money for those involved in research and development.

So how do we strike the right balance?

Firstly, we need to ensure that any treatments offered through such a system have passed through the rigorous legal, medical and ethical checks that ensure risks are recognised and managed. There's a clear distinction between a risk worth taking and turning ill and desperate patients into human guinea pigs.

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We also need to establish a means to gain genuine, informed consent from patients and families. If offered experimental treatment, which by its very nature carries increased risk (some of which may be unknown), how can they realistically weigh up the pros and cons to give 'informed consent.'

A very significant burden will be placed on medical professionals to help guide patients through this process, helping them to see past their immediate fear and pain while a potential 'miracle cure' is dangled in front of them.

We must also ensure that medical professionals do not get lost in the desire for innovation and the opportunity to write their names into medical history. Many observers commenting on Macchiarini's case would suggest it was his human flaws that were as much to blame as a breakdown in correct procedure.

In the UK we have an excellent system of safeguards - the MHRA, stringent ethical reviews, specific legislation and a very proactive GMC. We shouldn't simply surrender these without question, driven by the very emotive cases medical professionals see every day.
A country steeped in skill and craftsmanship

Alpaca fibre, often touted as the new luxury, has been on my radar a while, but as a fibre with such foreign roots, it has had to remain a distant thought. A few weeks ago however, I was fortunate enough to be invited to Arequipa, Peru to improve my knowledge of its most prominent export and meet some of the country's top spinning mills.

A yarn card from Inca Tops, one of Peru's major spinning mills (own photograph)

The long-term goal of study 34 is to develop a fully sustainable and transparent supply chain - beginning with the manufacture of the garments in the UK but eventually, back to the very origins of the fibres used and the animals that produce them. Having witnessed first hand the care and compassion of the Peruvian people towards their land, animals and ancient traditions, my trip certainly ignited a new feeling of hope.

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'Quality begins with people, not things', a sign in a Peruvian factory I visited

(own photograph)

The overwhelming impression I took away from my short trip was Peru's deep sense of community, something that I think is undervalued in western society today. Leading mills like Michell Group and Inca Tops right down to the smaller players including La Republica del Tejido seek to work with local communities to preserve their knowledge and skills - and they all wanted to shout about it.

Alpaca fibre

A Suri Alpaca (own photograph)

Peru hosts some 75% of the world's total alpaca population, of which there are two kinds: the Huacayo and the Suri. The Huacayo, hardwearing and characterised by its fluffiness, is the more common variety, making up approximately 93% of the alpaca population. The rarer Suri (pictured above) makes up the rest and has a dreadlock type fleece with more silky fibres.

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Re-creation of a breakdown of an alpaca fleece based on an explanation from Andres Chaves at Inca Tops (own drawing)

When an alpaca is sheared (once a year) the fibres are sorted by hand. These are then classified by their thickness and colour in a process that can never be mechanised as 'the variable characteristics of the fibre can be assessed only by experienced hands and eyes'.

Fleece sorting (own photograph)

The wide range of natural colours afforded by the alpaca (not found among any other natural fibres) encourages less dying, which in turn results in less risk of damage to the environment. It is also non-flammable, has relatively high elasticity and strength, does not felt as readily as other animal fibres, has an excellent drape and natural lustre and is very soft to handle. It's also easy to launder.

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Living in an atmosphere where temperatures can fluctuate as much as 30C in one day, the alpaca possesses a high tolerance to temperature change, a quality which is transferred to clothing made with its fibre.

Clearly, this material packs a serious punch. But the animal itself also possesses extraordinary qualities to admire...

Sustainability

If we needed a lesson in a sustainable lifestyle, we might look to the alpaca for inspiration.

Alpaca tops, pre spinning (own photograph)

As one of the oldest domesticated animal species in the world, it was relocated from the more succulent pastures of the lower Andes regions at the time of the Spanish conquest, to higher mountainous areas with altitudes over 4000 metres above sea level. The alpaca was able to adapt to these less favourable living conditions and this adaptability is surely the key to its success:

'It is precisely the reality of climate change, affecting particularly the habitat of the alpaca, that highlights one of the most interesting aspects of breeding these animals. The Andean glaciers have been shrinking faster and faster in recent decades. Weather cycles are now extremely variable and water resources will end up insufficient for the development of the impoverished high-altitude pastures. This is how the genetic adaptation of the alpaca, with its great capacity to live on poor pastures, its cushioned paws that do not damage the soil, and its peculiar manner of grazing without pulling plants up by the roots, plays an incomparable role in the conservation of these fragile ecosystems. No other animal could be kinder than the alpaca with regard to preserving the habitat of the high mountain regions of the Andes.' - Alonso Burgos

An alpaca looks after the land it lives on and its breeder looks after the beloved animal it guards. So it is only right that we, as consumers, should treasure and value anything made from this supremely sustainable animal.

But we should also follow its example, by looking after our own living environment, and adapting to its natural limitations by taking no more from it and putting no more into it than it can naturally sustain.
Jonathan Bachman via Getty Images

The left has, once again, lost a must-win election. The wholly unsurprising victory of Donald Trump and his installation in the White House is a cataclysm decades in the making. Trump himself probably does not have a fixed political ideology, but the populist right vote he represents has proven strong enough to seize power and challenge the social and economic consensus that emerged after the Second World War ended. Much type has been spent describing this resurgence of nationalist vitriol as a sign of how the economic Orthodoxy of our age has failed. Yet this is a battle over identity, culture and values as much as economic systems.

As ever, the right needs an economic crisis, hence Trump, Marine Le Pen, Nigel Farage and others. Globalization has created millions of 'left behind' voters who are disenfranchised from the liberal democracies that represent them. This is why it cannot do to dismiss all those who vote for right-wing parties as crackpots and racists: some undoubtedly fit such a description, but the struggles of many, rooted in reality and experience, do not necessarily lead them to these conclusions. In any event it is not just the extreme right but huge numbers of ordinary fed-up voters looking askance for solutions - one must remember many white people who voted Obama in 2008 and 2012 voted Trump in 2016. The realities of agency work, economic insecurity and lack of in-work benefits has created a global crisis of confidence in the status quo, and any insurgency that threatens it - be it Trump, Brexit or something else - proves attractive.

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But, as important as this is, it is not merely a working-class revolt. In fact, the 'working class', never a homogenous group, has had its identity hijacked by forces on the populist right that rely on a cross class appeal. Like Mussolini in the 1920s, the right seeks to break down traditional class ties and replace it with something different. Economic realities are the same for minorities that right-wing groups direct their ire towards: in the US poor Black and Hispanic voters have borne the brunt of relative decline. Poverty alone is an inadequate explanation: many rich people voted Trump - more than voted for Hillary Clinton - and UKIP started out as a protest from disaffected but well-heeled Tory rightists. Large numbers of relatively wealthy people will be voting Le Pen in the next French election, inspired by opposition to globalism and the EU. One must therefore identify migration, the defining political challenge of our age, as a key factor, and in particular the challenges it poses to the construction of national identity. The alien 'other' that threatens the national community has a number of forms: in the UK, it can be anything from refugees fleeing persecution, EU nationals threatening jobs, or ISIS supporters. Le Pen, Geert Wilders and others will be using these issues and more.

Securing the core ethnos explains why railing against the establishment - the constant enemy of the long-suffering people, controlled by shadowy elites - is another key point of reference. But look a little deeper and it is clear that the big state - the enemy of the right in the late twentieth century - would be safeguarded, even enlarged, by the economic projects of the right that emphasize spending on law, order and the military. The Conservative government of Theresa May has also grasped the potential electoral benefits of supporting a state with transformative power.

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On the other hand, anti-intellectualism and fear of the elites is constantly expounded, triggering insecurities over the cultural capital that money, wealth and learning brings in an inter-connected world. In certain respects the essential point of tension is not economics but education: there is a stronger correlation between those supporting right-wing movements having no tertiary education than there is between support for them and a low income. Shouting, as they often do, from a position of privilege, it is all too easy to pin left liberals as sneering 'experts' - which, we have been informed, the British people have had enough of.

The changing media climate has given the right a key advantage, whose exponents are often adept at using new technologies. Trump's campaign slogan - 'make America great again' - is suited to the age of sound bite politics, much more than the uninspiring 'stronger together'. Similarly, who would not want to 'take back control'? Personalities also matter - the bumptious Farage is an extremely effective political communicator: his pint-drinking persona has never been entrusted with domestic power but he knows exactly how to get a message across, hence the Brexit vote. Facing insipid and compromised opponents has also helped rightists. The prospect of a Clinton presidency excited few voters - only 17% according to one exit poll - and Trump's election lies more in her unpopularity than his own popularity. One does wonder what would have happened had Trump been up against the fiery and charismatic Bernie Sanders. But he is a different vintage: where are the young visionaries on the left?
I did not think much about how life was going to be like before moving to Finland. Kati and I are highly compatible; our communication lines are wide open. Intellectually we are on the same wavelength and so is our sense of humour. We have a very similar attitude towards life, and it did not matter that she was paralysed. She could not move at all and needed assistance with everything. I knew deep in my heart that we could make it work.

I did consider the fact that that she would be relying on me for most things. Our relationship would have to be balanced very differently in comparison to a traditional relationship. Adaptation would be on the front row; I felt full of energy ready to face up to the challenge. I felt excited.

Things are not always, how you expect them to be. The first lesson in adaptation; lower your speed. Energy and excitement will work against you and only lead you to frustration and disappointment. The lessons go on, all with one thing in common; instead of raising the standards the thing to do would be to lower them.

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The culture shock was a disappointing one. However, it did not matter because the most important which was our relationship what was flourishing and growing stronger.

My biggest problem in Finland would come to be one that I did not think about at all, discrimination.

Not much direct discrimination. All though you don't see it much, it does linger in the shadows waiting for a chance to jump out and bite you. Anyone who has suffered discrimination knows that it is one of the worst feelings; like a heartbreak.

The most common kind of discrimination is not the obvious one. Its ugly face comes out when you try to speak their language. Keep in my mind that the Finnish language is one of the most difficult languages to learn and the Finnish people are reserved and do not speak to strangers easily. One tries to speak their language knowing that it is going to be full of grammar mistakes. Still one hopes that he/she can open the communication lines.

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The reward or should I say punishment for doing this you receive a higher-level discrimination form. They get a power trip and take advantage of the situation and become abusive. They treat as if you are less than nothing, just because you cannot speak the language like a native. Although this only shows their low self-esteem it still hurts like hell.

Do not get me wrong; not all Finnish are like this, not even the majority. Nevertheless, there are too much of these bad seeds around to make your hair rise.

My journey here in Finland sometimes seems as if it is a trip to learn about different kinds of discrimination. I have experienced at first hand the discrimination against foreigners. I also had the luck to work with various kinds of refugees, and have seen from up close what they go through which at times is horrible.

An attitude of "we will tolerate you as long as you know your place in the society and you keep yourself there". You are lower and no matter how hard you work you should keep yourself there living in a crappy house, driving an old car and wearing rags.

I have seen with my own eyes how even people that are trying to help them treat them in such condescending and a patronising way that it made my blood boil.

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One sort discrimination that I knew that I would have to deal with was the discrimination against the disabled. Witnessing a disabled person treated as if they are three years old, mentally less abled or simply stupid. Sad, but true.

Of all these forms of discrimination, I have experienced in the last years, the one that infuriates me the most is none of the above.

Since Kati and I are working together on all our projects such as blogs, articles and so on. I keep myself in the background and do the creative work, and Kati does the socialising, promoting, public relationships, etc.

We share the workload and when she is approached about the subject that is more my area she asks me to deal with the person. When it is a crucial topic, I introduce myself before a continuing the conversation. Sometimes I do not do this and reply as if it is Kati answering.

I have heard about it but I never had an idea how some men speak to women. In a degrading way as if, they were stupid or lesser human beings. Not just strangers, but also people who call themselves friends.

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A demeaning approach as if; it is a woman and that means that she is DUMB, STUPID, a THING not a PERSON. When I call them up on the way, they behave and speak, as they cannot comprehend that their comportment is not appropriate. They think that it is the right way to conduct towards a woman.

I ask Kati if this does not bother her and she tells me that she is used to it and does not care anymore. She does not let this ruin her day or her life. She reminds me that she used to be a model and that in that environment it is the normal way to treat a woman and it is a matter of taking or be thrown out.

It makes me sick to my stomach.

At moments, I look at my female friends that came as refugees to Finland. On the streets, they must deal with a condescending discriminating attitude towards them. At school, as they try to make something for themselves they must deal with the patronising discriminating attitude from the ones that should be helping. In their community they are discriminated by the males for they should not be anything more than just vessels to carry their children and slaves that take care of the house.
Vietnams Ministry of Industry and Trade may oppose the move.

Turkey will soon apply anti-dumping duties of up to 72.56 percent on polyester textured yarn products from Vietnam.

The decision, made by Turkey's General Directorate of Imports, was confirmed by the trade office of the Vietnamese Embassy in Turkey on Monday.

Turkish authorities are expected to announce when the duties take effect soon.

Four Vietnamese companies will be subject to lower rates of between 34.81 percent and 68.98 percent -- Hualon Corporation Vietnam, Formosa Industries Corporation, Century Synthetic Fiber Corporation, and PetroVietnam Petrochemical and Textile Fiber JSC. The rest will face the maximum rate of 72.56 percent.

According to the Saigon Times, Century Synthetic Fiber Corp has protested the duties and Vietnams Ministry of Industry and Trade may file a complaint with the World Trade Organization.

Century Synthetic said it cooperated with Turkish agencies during their anti-dumping investigation. The company also hired a Turkish consulting firm to prepare data, proving that the company was not dumping its products. And yet the company is now facing a 34.81 percent anti-dumping duty.

Turkey is a primary market of Vietnamese yarn, accounting for a third of Vietnamese exports. Local enterprises, however, have been shifting to China and South Korea due to high anti-dumping duties imposed by Turkey in recent years, according to the Vietnam Competition Authority and the Vietnam Cotton and Spinning Association.

Last month the Turkish Ministry of Economy imposed an anti-dumping duty on plywood imported from Vietnam following an investigation. A rate of $240 per cubic meter has been applied since October 28.

Related news

> Turkey officially slaps anti-dumping duty on Vietnamese plywood

> Turkey nails anti-dumping duty on Vietnamese plywood

> Vietnamese steel faces anti-dumping lawsuits
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Casting our minds back to 24 June, it was hard to ignore the split between London and the rest of the country for Brexit. With 59% of London's population voting to remain, this in turn triggered calls from members of the public and some business figures for London to declare itself a separate "state" to the rest of the UK.

The theme of immigration played a large role in the division and to an extent, it's no surprise when it comes to London. London's population is diverse and cosmopolitan and arguably, relies more heavily on immigration than any other region in the country. In particular, EU nationals contribute more than 26bn to London's Gross Value Added and they pay direct taxes of about 7bn a year, offering skills and staff that make them highly valued members of the London business community.

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So it was interesting to see yesterday that in response to this sentiment, the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has called for a new visa initiative in a post-Brexit world to protect immigration in the City. In essence, employers in London would be able to sponsor skilled foreign workers for visas after Britain leaves the EU. The scheme would permit EU workers to receive London-specific national insurance numbers that prevent them from working elsewhere in the country.

Taking a closer look at the proposed visa, it is a bold proposition, and one that will undoubtedly divide opinion. For businesses in London this would provide the reassurance they need that they will not lose the skills and staff that are vital to the capital's future. It also highlights to businesses that the government acknowledges the importance of migrant workers in London is very different to the rest of the UK. Businesses need to be able to attract and retain workers and they need the government's support for workers to encourage this in the future.

On paper, it offers a glimmer of hope for the future of London. However, as always in this post-referendum world, we are shrouded in uncertainty. The City requires more clarity on specific policies, how this visa would roll out and associates timings before this can get the green light. Whatever happens with immigration and passporting rights between the UK and Europe, the system needs to be transparent and demonstrate to businesses the direction in which immigration policies are going. London (and other parts of the country) must give business access to skills and talent while they also recruit and train local workers.
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As the dust settles on last week's US elections, the air on social media has become thick with unanswered questions. How did Trump win? How many of the promises hurled from his podium will he be able or inclined to fulfil? What does all this mean for the UK, asides from the fact that we're probably going to be hearing a lot more from Nigel Farage?

Amongst these discussions, one may prove particularly important, and it's got nothing to do with America's nuclear codes. This is a question of identity - more specifically, that of Facebook, and many platforms like it. If a large number (say, 62% of American adults) use your software to get their news, are you a news company?

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So far, Facebook's response to this has been an emphatic no. The head of their News Feed feature, Adam Mosseri, explained their stance in September: "We think of ourselves as a technology company, because the problems that we deal with on a day to day basis are technological problems." In the case of Facebook's 'Trending' section, which appears on the side of your screen with a list of articles you might like to read next, this technological problem is as follows: How can we present content which will best keep people on the site; which they will share, and comment on, and generate the froth of activity which keeps the platform alive? This doesn't mean, of course, that Facebook will show absolutely anything - posts must live up to the company's community standards, which prohibit 'sensitive content' such as nudity - but for content which passes this bar, clicks are king.

This approach has not damaged Facebook's revenue stream - the company's net income for Q2 2016 was $2bn. Some, however, are beginning to question the effect it is having on public discourse. Not only are you more likely to interact with, and thus be presented, content you agree with, but also that much of this content bears little resemblance to any objective truth.

One sobering story which emerged during the 2016 presidential campaign concerned a group of teenagers in Macedonia, running a network of pro-Trump sites. These churned out extraordinary pieces peppered with emotive language, often entirely false or purloined from other far-right sites, in an attempt to get them talked about on Facebook. The fact that much of the content their sites was sharing was untrue, of course, didn't bother the Macedonians - they were simply trying to maximise the advertising revenue gained from all those American clicks. Like Facebook, their goal was not to inform, but to engage.

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It is tempting to see this as a problem limited to the right, or to social media. The need to compete for attention online has put pressure on news sources from all political persuasions to make their content more impulsively sharable. Traditionally, however, these stories have come from sites with editorial oversight, with a readership to maintain and some motivation not to publish outright falsehoods. This respectability, however, is becoming increasingly easy to fake. At first glance, the Macedonian sites cheering on Trump resemble any other blog. When shared, the link seen by users on social media looks identical.

We may be about to see Facebook's approach to fake news changing soon - there is talk of a secret task force being formed to address the problem. Even a strong editorial stance by Facebook, however, would miss the core issue here - that people are either increasingly unable to discern truth from hoax, or, as seems more likely, simply don't care if the articles they are sharing are untrue.

It is impossible to purge the internet of false or misleading material, and we shouldn't expect it to be absent from social media. The challenge here is to equip people with the tools to deal with this material when they inevitably come across it. People need to understand the role their likes and shares play in generating the content they see, and remember that, at the root of all this, the platforms they use are private companies who depend on activity to survive. There are certainly ways in which social media sites can help here - Google's recent addition of fact check links to certain articles may prove a useful tool - but the responsibility must in the end fall on the users themselves.
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Many of us will have grown up knowing variations of the playground rhyme

Patience is a virtue, virtue is a grace, and grace is a little girl who would not wash her face (Dick King-Smith)

I don't recall ever considering what this really meant, but the saying has sprung to mind today as I am struggling with patience.

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Patience is apparently a quality I am going to need to hone as I continue to engage with the NHS and move from the superlatively brilliant delivery of emergency medicine into a more prosaic but convoluted pathway that will hopefully, someday soon, see me treated for Stage 3 Bowel cancer.

Over the years, parenthood and travelling have improved my patience somewhat. There is nothing like hours sat next to a potty desperately willing your offspring to produce something...anything, or waiting by a dusty roadside in the arse-end-of-nowhere in Africa or South-Amercia for a bus that may never come, to test your temperament in the days before digital diversions like the iPhone and iPad became commonplace.

In 2005 in Zambia, I once boarded a train on the Tazara line that was scheduled to depart on a Tuesday and take two days to reach Tanzania. When originally conceived in the 1970s with Chinese money and might, it made several trips a day in each direction, efficient and cheap travel for the masses. Sadly it has fallen prey to disrepair and the laissez-faire culture of the continent. When I travelled, the then-weekly train did not, in fact, leave until Thursday and could take a week...only no one knew, and mostly no one cared, so you had to get into that mindset and out of a traditional Western one before being rendered clinically insane.

Even given all of that, I can still sense my subconscious beating a little drum of impatience. Like the equivalent of a tapping foot, or fingernails drumming on a table top. Quiet external signs of the frustration that is building inside.

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In our consumer society our demands and expectations are consistently growing. If delivery is not next day I may not purchase from your company. If you don't reply to my email within 24 hours I will be unimpressed. If you keep me waiting on hold, delay my train, overbook my flight there will be repercussions and often anger either in person or on social media.

My husband has done fantastic work in recent years helping me moderate my inner, perhaps childish and volatile sensibilities. He has taught me that courtesy, calm and disappointment are far more powerful weapons to achieving the desired result than foot-stamping, swearing and tears. Well done him. Vital groundwork that will serve me well in the months to come.

The NHS is fantastic in so many ways. I already owe some of its staff my life. The surgical team at St. George's and the nurses, registrars, porters and tea-ladies who supported me afterwards all deserve medals in my book. BUT...and this is a reasonably big BUT as an organisation not the most effective and efficient at times. We all know it's true, so let's not beat around the bush.

All the stories of lost clinical notes, things not turning up on time, delays issuing prescriptions. These stories are all true and there are millions of anecdotes pertaining to the frustrations of the system and the pain it sometimes causes. This is not necessarily about negligence, it's about inefficiency.

Let's be honest, it is a behemoth of an organisation. Sayings speak of the challenges slowing a juggernaut down, of turning a tanker around...but the NHS is bigger than that. It's a monster in terms of debts, complexity and number of employees. I don't want to say the word 'Titantic' as I hope it will never share such a fate, but size-wise, it's a similar and unique beast.

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Currently I'm playing the waiting game. There is no more I can do to try and ensure that my notes, pathology report, CT scans, MDT recommendation and physical histology slides make it from St George's in London to Shrewsbury, Shropshire in time for a further MDT meeting on Monday.

For the clinicians I suspect the repercussions if this 'black box' feat into which no one can give me much insight, are not important. Medically there is no risk. My name will simply go on the list for discussion the following week, when things will 'hopefully' have turned up.

But that's not how it feels to me. It means me waiting another week to know my fate. Another week lost before progressing to chemo and an oncologist. Clinically my expectations have been well managed, I'm still recovering from surgery and not eligible for chemo yet...but that doesn't change the mental and psychological impact of waiting and of uncertainty.

That uncertainty creates doubt and fear. The feeling of impotence is unpleasant, especially for someone who has always liked to feel 'in control.' In the days where supermarkets and retailers can process an order and deliver it within hours, where you can request a private GP consultation online and have a prescription and the drugs sent to your local post office in 24 hours, and where the internet and social media offer immediate advice and answers to almost any challenge the world may throw at you...why oh why is the NHS still struggling with basic logistics?

Having worked in pharma for years I know that the medical area is fraught with legal hurdles and restrictions, and rightly so. When things go wrong, lives really are at stake. This is no exaggeration and I would not wish it any other way.

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HOWEVER, having worked in several big corporates, and indeed in smaller organisations, it seems ludicrous to me that there is a dependence on paper and the postal service when digital technology seems to serve the rest of the universe quite well, in healthcare and beyond. If in Kenya I can pay my taxi driver by text (mPesa), and if the couriers and taxi service practically allow me to GPS my delivery minute by minute, then please can someone get the NHS on track for my mental wellbeing as well as that of many others? Surely mental health is just as important to the treatment process as the medication itself.

Maybe I'm being unkind and unjust and all will work out well on Monday morning. But I won't know, and maybe no one will tell me until Tuesday. And even if it works out this time I've been warned to expect frustrations around the corner; turning up for chemo to find the drugs have not been countersigned and have not arrived from the pharmacy, the unexpected hurdles as my body reacts badly and chemo has to been postponed. Some of these will be my 'fault', some will be inefficiencies of the system. Either way it's going to be challenge for someone with my background and temperament. I meditate already, but I think I better up my game. If anyone has any tips, I'm all ears, and maybe you could help the NHS whilst you're at it?

If you'd like to read more about my journey from normality to cancer diagnosis and beyond, but please see my blog as I try to channel positivity and gratitude throughout the months ahead.

http://mytakeonfeelinggrateful.blogspot.co.uk
When my dad was nipping out to the pub, he'd say he was going to see a man about a dog.

Four years ago I nipped out to see a man with a dog. The young man was 25, his wife was younger, the lovely golden Labrador was a service dog. Pete, not his name, but let's call him that, was being pushed in a wheelchair by his wife, a portable ventilator on his chest to do his breathing for him.

Pete had been on patrol in Helmand when he was shot through the neck. He is now paralysed from the neck down and his hopes and dreams, and those of his lovely wife, are very different.

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Once he was back 'on his feet' as he said, he and his wife dreamed of having a service dog. Perhaps it could be trained to bring the phone, or the TV remote, or just to be there for Pete while his wife did what wives do. Their friends and relations rallied round to raise the money. Pete and his wife got their dog - their friend, who does all of that.

As he spoke I realised that I was thinking, 'someone should do something'. But for heaven's sake, why not me? Pete and his supporters had shown me that a charity doesn't have to be big. It just has to have a focus, and raise enough money to help whoever it is you want to help. Baby steps...

How to begin? I am an author writing sagas for Random House under my own name, Margaret Graham and also as Milly Adams - two a year. I was once a beginner and know how hard it is for aspiring writers to become visible so why not create a charity that raises money whilst giving opportunities to writers?

Others came on board: another writing granny, Penny Deacon, a reading granny, Jan Speedie and stepping in when needed, short story writer granny Tracy Baines - yes, we are all old ducks - retirement, what's that?. 'Him indoors' set about the IT without which we couldn't manage. Josh, a youngster helps with social media.

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Words for the Wounded began to raise money - through writing competitions and events, and once a year something absurd. One year we jumped out of planes, complete with parachutes and clutched in the arms of young tandem instructors. Tough, but someone has to do it.

Last year we, and our families, did a military assault course. The SAS did it in 5 minutes, we did it in 55, but we'll gloss over that. Next year we're walking the length of Hadrian's Wall. 84 miles is a long way but we eat too many buns and need to lose weight.

Our main plank is the WforW Independent Author Book Award, (fiction and non-fiction) which opens on 11 November each year, and closes on 11 March, with results published on 6th June. The inaugural winner, Jane Cable , attracted a literary agent, Felicity Trew of the Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency and is just about to be published by Endeavour Press - The Seahorse Summer. This year's winner is Dr Kathleen Thompson with From Both Ends of the Stethoscope, who is now selling internationally, and is a sought after speaker at cancer conferences.

We hold an annual WforW Literary Festival with agents, editors, and authors speaking, all of whom donate their time. My kids and grandkids run the foodie side. We hold writing workshops, and now have help from my fantastic Chesham mentoring group.

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100% of the money we raise goes to projects we admire, and to individuals in need - you see, the grannies absorb all expenses. Frost Magazine is wonderful and offers the competition prize of a review for the top three indie Book Award winners and publication of A Day in the Life.

The Grannies are getting to grips with social media to help Josh, We mailshot writing groups. We talk it up whenever we can, and it is never far from our thoughts.

We have noticed in particular that we are helping an increasing number of ex-service personnel with MS. It is seems that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder might make a person vulnerable to MS. This is worrying. As writers we also help several wounded personnel by working with them on their own creative writing.

Frankly, we'll do everything we can to make their lives easier.

One of our many patrons, Julian Fellowes, says: 'Emma and I feel so strongly that we must never forget the debt we all owe to these brave men and women.'
It's fair to say that pollsters won't be looking back on 2016 with any fondness. Wrong on Brexit and spectacularly wrong on Trump, the polling industry has taken such a dent to its reputation that it will likely take a long time before it's fully trusted again. But just why did the pollsters get it so wrong when, in the past, they have got it so right ? It's a complex question to answer but let me try to explain...

Firstly, for many reasons, it's really hard to get a representative sample. The decline in use of landlines and the fact that people would seemingly rather take a poll about the colour of Donald Trump's hair than a legitimate poll are just two contributing factors.

Creating a representative sample given the complex factors that go into people's decision-making is a challenge! You can no longer assume a 35 year old with a certain income and lifestyle is going to vote a certain way. The days when people just voted their party's full ticket like their parents did are gone! It's a time of individual choice, so the segments being used are too broad. For example, if you were to take a group of 1,000 35 year old unmarried males who like sports; could you predict how they would vote? Probably not, because in that segment are straight people, LGBT people, republicans that will vote democrat and vice versa, etc. So you need to segment into smaller and smaller categories for accurate results.

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The problem is that it's almost impossible to poll microsegments using traditional technology like telephone and mail. You'd have to do it on the internet in a way that would attract a non-biased sample. If you just create a poll on the internet, it's hard to control who joins. Friends of friends will join and friends tend to think alike so the results will be biased. To do it correctly, an organisation would have to create a poll of known people in many micro-segments that would agree to participate. And this would be an enormously expensive endeavor.

Using broad segments, polls and commentators predicted the outcome of the 2015 UK General Election would be too close to call and would result in a second hung Parliament; similar to the 2010 election. But the polls were eventually proven to have underestimated the Conservative vote as they won a surprise outright majority; which bore resemblance to their victory in the 1992 general election. The British Polling Council began an inquiry into the substantial variance between opinion polls and the actual result, with George Osborne announcing that pollsters would face a 'big post-mortem.' Perhaps it was just external forces (eg: late swing) and no fault of the polling companies, but more likely the miss was due to the difficulties in polling micro segments using traditional technology.

Next, capturing sentiment is hard. How hard? Look at the spectacular failure of HP's acquisition of Autonomy. They paid $11.7B and within 12 months wrote off $8.8 billion of the value. It's really very, very hard to understand sentiment using data science. Can we take a sample of the population, ask them how they will vote, capture characteristics about them such as income, race, etc and then extend that assumption over a bigger population? Technically yes, but besides the fact that we would still have a macro vs micro segmentation problem, we wouldn't capture their level of passion or how fresh news affects their behaviour. Subjective questions in polls try to do that, but rarely do they have the level of detail needed.

Look at what happened with Brexit. Sixty-one percent of people older than 65 voted to exit and the vote to leave was much higher for people with lower education. Could the polls have predicted that those groups of people would mostly vote to leave? Yes, but did the polls capture the level of sheer frustration of those groups? No, they didn't. For a few reasons. One, people lie. Yep. How many beers did you tell your doctor you drank in a week? Two is the most common, but rarely an accurate answer. Similarly, in election polls, if a person has some pretty unpopular ideas, they are unlikely to give that information to the pollster (unless they are super passionate). Because of inaccurate quantitative and subjective measures, this small, very vocal group will now look like a minority when, in fact, many more people feel the same way but won't admit it. Using sentiment to predict election results can create a very unstable foundation on which to build predictions.

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The final reason pollsters got it wrong is that they over-relied on data science. For a simple problem - such as forecasting sales that only vary by 10% monthly - data science can be used to predict future sales with a high degree of accuracy. For a slightly more complex problem, such as finding hidden opiate abusers for an insurance company, a large amount of data is needed in both size and number of data elements needed to produce a valuable, but slightly hazier answer. For example, a result of this type of modelling could be "this person has a greater than 83% chance of being an opiate abuser." Now, take a complex problem such as predicting an election. Collect the best, but imperfect set of data available, add some historic data and assumptions and a hazy view on sentiment. Mix in things that can't be modeled - such as the surprise FBI announcement of a new investigation - and the result will be directionally correct, but practically inaccurate.

Look at the US election. Poll after poll showed a tight race with Clinton winning. Like Brexit, the polls show an older generation longing for something that doesn't exist... "the good old days" and focused on Trump voters who have lower education levels. But they missed something: a hidden portion of educated, young and middle aged people who voted for Trump. American political activist Van Jones called it "Whitelash." A word that captures an incredibly complex set of issues, but I think there's more to it. Despite the polls showing very high dissatisfaction with all of congress for both candidates; data scientists may not have accounted for the ferocity of that sentiment for many Americans. They simply couldn't see it in the data. Without that information, how could they have predicted that people are so dissatisfied that they would see a corporation-owning billionaire playboy as the anti-establishment choice? Really hard to put that in model.
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History repeats itself. The day after the Brexit referendum, left-leaning publications rushed to justify the vote as an anti-establishment revolt by the "victims and malcontents of the 21st century's callous model of capitalism". As soon as @realdonaldtrump was declared president, the very same publications explained Clinton's defeat as the "repudiation of the American power structure" that no longer met the needs of the working class. If we lived somewhere in the outer space and only had these sources to go on, we would indeed believe that both Brexit and Trump were progressive milestones of proletarian emancipation from Capitalist oppression.

This is simply not the case. Let's look at the statistics - 88% of Black Americans and 67% of Latinos voted for Hillary. Now, nobody in their right mind would deny that these are the people [on the whole] at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder. Somehow they didn't vote for Trump. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that no person with the slightest regard for gender and race quality, the LGBT community and simple human decency could have voted for him. Especially, since the man changes his mind about policies on a daily basis. From banning all Muslims from the US to repealing Obamacare and putting Hillary Clinton in jail, he has backtracked on most claims since November 9th - just like Vote Leave did on June 24th.

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What's more white working class people are still better off than most ethnic minorities in the US, without even mentioning native communities. The key difference is - the cultural capital of ethnic and other minorities has grown continuously since the 1960s, culminating in Obama as president and the US Supreme Court ruling on Marriage Equality. We are no longer anthropological curiosities or shock-therapy patients, but people just as capable of defending our rights and shaping policy as Trump's average American.

Many white Americans have become angry with social change that directly contradicts their beliefs. More importantly they are angry that this change is being made by people they see as unpatriotic, un-American and non-White. To use the words of David Attenborough - "it's very easy, as we all know, to be very tolerant of minorities until they become majorities and you find yourself a minority." This is precisely the mentality that explains the rise of Trump.

And unlike the liberal press, his supporters are not shy to tell us what is the true motivation behind their vote. As one put it - "Conservative laws...because I'm against abortion." Do they want an education system free from religious bias in line with the 1st Amendment? - No, says a mother from Tennessee. Nor did they hesitate to turn their words into actions as soon as Trump's victory was declared, just like their friends Brexiteers. To paraphrase their leader himself, they are ready to grab us by the pussy - banning abortions and harassing women in Hijabs seems like a good start.

When journalists try to excuse these people, they are not only guilty of complicity in the neo-liberal reduction of all political processes to the economy, they are actively helping the New Right to normalise their bigoted views and behaviour. The only good news is that 55% of my generation voted for Clinton and now it is up to us to push against the intolerance and xenophobia both Trump and Brexit represent.

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Even if it was true that these votes are just an expression of pent-up frustration with Capitalism, the likes of Corbyn and Owen Jones are missing a crucial point. Those who have been hit the hardest by neo-liberalism are also those who will be hit the hardest by Brexit and Trump - incidentally they aren't the traditional white working class. We should think about the Lithuanian farmer working seasonal jobs in the north of England and the Mexican immigrant living under the constant threat of eviction. These are the people left-wing media is meant to defend, not some racist old bigot in Wales or Montana.

When Theresa May repeats her claim that immigration pushes down wages, we should remember the real sacrifices these people make to edge out some form of living away from their families. We should also remember that we do not choose the country we are born in and in many cases, 'economic migrants' come from places that have been betrayed repeatedly by the West. No American can be justified in saying "we will keep them out" about Syrian refugees, as long as American bombs keep falling on Syrian cities. Every time we hear someone talk about Polish vermin we should remind them that Churchill and Roosevelt handed Poland over to Stalin at the Yalta Conference in 1945, stunting its economic development for the next 50 years.
We should believe that there is no such a thing as eternal happiness - or struggle. The things we tend to take for granted - nutritious food, laughing with friends and family, or the unconditional love of our parents, may be the sole wish in the prayers of Syrian children.

They do not ask for much. But one thing for sure, their dreams are to be return once again to their normal lives that were mercilessly taken from them. They have missed out on normality for almost six years, since the outbreak of bloody civil war in their beloved motherland.

This vicious war spares no one. It destroyed thousands of homes and neighborhoods, turned people into widowers and orphans, shattered hopes, and left civilians with no choice then to seek safe refuge in neighboring countries. In our opinion, children are the members of Syrian society who are the least deserving victims of all the unimaginable aftermaths from this devastating man-made disaster; a war whose finale remains unpredictable.

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No fewer than 6 million of Syria's young generation, the majority of whom are under 17 years of age, have become accustomed to seeing and being the target of abuse and violence. They are witnessing an incomparable nightmare we cannot even begin to imagine. It is a tragedy that is difficult to comprehend. Despite their young age, the great exposure to terror, torment, abduction and massacres has scarred their adolescent memories for life. In the country where life expectancy has fallen by 20 years, it is no exaggeration that Syria is the most unsafe country in which to live, especially for minors.

Living in a hostile environment that clouds the minds with sorrow, misery, and grief elevates the risk of mental health problems. Syrian children are not prepared to endure high levels of trauma, like children of their age in other parts of the world. Terribly frightened, many of these children reportedly suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and emotional depression.

Being children, their biggest worry should be making friends and achieving good grades in school. Instead, growing up in a warzone means that they have to be continuously vigilant of life-threatening situations. They could be fired at by snipers who shoot anyone who stands in their way, or blown up by cold-blooded bombers who have taken the lives of their dearest families and friends in the name of a cause unknown to them.

Every day, they witness horrifying violence, exploitation, and abuse. They have been exposed to the cruelty of monsters who kidnap, wound, and kill the people dear to their hearts. The immense suffering arising from losing a family is immeasurable. The deaths of their loved-ones render them vulnerable to threats and danger. Moreover, their homes and schools have vanished, alongside the bright future their parents once promised.

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At the same time, bombing and rocket attacks that occur without warning have torn-apart public buildings like school and hospitals, causing excessive damage and death. If they are not killed on the spot, it is very likely many victims will suffer physical injuries causing chronic disability. Educational disruptions exist because approximately 6000 schools in Syria are no longer safe to use.

We have repeatedly been presented with the news of children being treated for the wounds and burn injuries from explosions. The medical procedures required to save their lives by amputating limbs results in lifelong disability.

Accepting disability is hard, and it is even more difficult to bear when there is no family around to offer support. The distress is too overwhelming to be put on the shoulders of a child who is supposed to grow up having all the things needed to accomplish whatever dreams they set for themselves.

Meanwhile, a quarter of a million children have successfully fled to neighboring countries and live as refugees in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey; however, their relief may be short-lived. In those countries, 70% of Syrian child refugees do not attend school. One of the reasons is because the countries that open their borders to Syrian refugees are not prepared to enroll hundreds of thousands school-age children to their education facilities.

Even though in some situations access to education is available, the next major issue is the mental readiness of the children to go back to school. Hence, emotional distress and trauma are believed to play a significant part in demotivating them to focus on their schooling, risking them being unable to pick up their learning if their grief is not treated with adequate psychological support.

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The situation experienced by Syrian children is deteriorating daily as the conflict escalates. Very little, if any, effort is being made to end to the deteriorating condition. Despite the fact that many reports have been released to acquaint people about the gravity and the urgency of the situation, it is unsure if anyone is paying attention.

It is undeniable that the Syrian children need real, serious, and genuine efforts to end this continuing disaster. It is hard to predict when it will end, but we all need to realise that if steps are not taken, each of us will eventually incur the responsibility.
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"In today's world, higher standards are demanded than were required yesterday and there are simply fewer jobs for those without skill. Therefore we demand more from our schools than did our grandparents." (Rt Hon James Callaghan, Prime Minister, speech at Ruskin College, Oxford 18 October 1976)

Jim Callaghan's speech at Ruskin College was a landmark in our nation's educational history but his words surely resonate even more deeply today than they did 40 years ago. In a rapidly changing world, with all the challenges and opportunities posed by a modern economy increasingly focused on digital developments and automation, we place ever greater demands on our schools to prepare our young people for adult life. If we throw into the mix the challenges posed to our prosperity by our departure from the European Union, the question of how we shape our education system to develop the confidence, skills, and resilience of young people to meet these tests is one which is more important than ever.

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It was in this speech that the then Prime Minister posed the question: what is the purpose of education? The House of Commons Education Committee, which I Chair, decided soon after the 2015 Election to revisit this fundamental question. A variety of answers have already been suggested; employability certainly features prominently in many views of what the goal of our education system should be. Others will, of course, argue there should be greater emphasis on broader academic knowledge, on greater value being placed on the idea of the intrinsic value of education, while still others will believe that schools should do more to foster social mobility.

Of course, we know it isn't possible to discover one satisfactory, definitive answer to the question, 'what is the purpose of education? ' but it's important that Government has the issue of goals in mind when considering policy. Too often policymakers of all political stripes embark on major educational reforms without appearing to engage, or at least acknowledge, the fundamental question of what the purpose of education should be. As Michael Barber notes in his recent TESessay, the impact of Callaghan's speech stemmed largely from its desire to move away from an education policy which looked only at inputs (for example, teacher numbers) to a policy which shifted to outcomes, asking questions about what knowledge and skills were needed and how might they be acquired.

In an increasingly competitive world there is much we can learn from education systems in other countries. Certainly the Department for Education picks up on international examples, such as South Asian maths teaching. However, the DfE's approach is often rather faddish. Education, like so many other areas of policy, depends on many factors--society, culture, economy--and it can be problematic to cherry-pick individual initiatives in the hope that they can effectively slot into our own system. For our part, the Education Committee has tried to take a more holistic approach, considering how other countries have defined the purposes of their education systems and taking a look at the structures these countries have created to fulfil these purposes.

We identified Finland and South Korea as countries with strong but different contrasting conceptions of the purpose of education and high performing but very different education systems. The South Korean system has historically prioritised teacher-led learning and intensive study as a means to socio-economic progress. The Finnish system has traditionally emphasised the development of students as individuals and focused on instilling creativity, ethics and social responsibility. An interesting facet of both countries, however, is that while not abandoning these central themes, the Governments of both countries are now in the process of re-examining some aspects of their systems. South Korea is seeking to introduce greater student freedom in order to reorient its economy towards more knowledge-based industries. Finland is experimenting with a more holistic approach to teaching with discrete subjects replaced by more topic-based learning.

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The priority for the Committee's visit to Finland and South Korea over these coming days will be to investigate how these countries are carrying out their current reform programmes and whether there are any aspects of Finnish and South Korean practice that could usefully be adapted into English policy. While there has been plenty of noise in recent months on side-show issues such as the expansion of grammar schools, it is important that politicians and policy-makers take a broader look at what our education system is for to help them in setting policy. With a clearer sense of purpose, we can be better equipped to build an education system which provides young people with the well-rounded skills and capacity to meet the challenges of modern life.
Our youngest host (19) and oldest (94) at the first meeting of a hosts hub in Kingston

This week Refugees At Home found one asylum-seeker a generous host in a Benedictine Monastery, a recent refugee somewhere to stay in Bournemouth so he can keep his part-time job and English language classes. We placed a couple of young men with families in west London and another in Kingston-on-Thames. Plus we found hosts for two more in Bristol, after a rather successful Facebook appeal for more hosts. Guests placed this week included several from Syria and others from Sudan, Pakistan and Afghanistan

So far we have made 222 placements. These could be one person for one night or three people for eight months. So it's maybe more informative to say that by November 14th, Refugees At Home had sheltered people for 8,082 person nights. That's a lot of nights not spent sleeping rough in parks, on night buses or accepting a bed for the night from a stranger - with all that implies. It's definitely better to be somewhere safe, warm and dry than on the demeaning and downright dangerous streets.

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Plus we topped 9,000 votes in the Aviva Community Award challenge to help fund travel cards for our guests. We hope this will help prevent isolation and enable hosts, who have a spare room but no spare money, to feel they can support a refugee.

Of course, we need more votes and the poll close this Friday, November 18th.

This is huge progress from the summer of 2015, when my brother and sister-in-law decided they would start hosting refugees in their comfortable home in Surrey, England. Their nest was empty and his mother-in-law had come to England from Vienna in the thirties as a refugee. It seemed compelling and they thought it would be straight-forward. But hardly anyone was organising hosting in London and south-east England.

So we started with a Facebook group - to test the water - and were surprised by the response. Fortunately, we found a combination of skills in data-bases, refugee issues, charity governance, communications and, very soon, in legal advice.

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Lunch for hosts and guests at the Surrey hub at the zig zag cafe in Epsom Surrey

Pilots started last autumn with a placement of Ahmad with my brother, which lasted over four happy months. Ahmad, a Syrian Kurd, had made his way to them via Calais, a lorry on a boat to Hull, Yorkshire and then dispersal to grim hostels in Wakefield and Macclesfield. When he got refugee status he had, as everyone does, to leave the hostel in 28 days, in spite of having nowhere to go, no National Insurance number yet, so he couldn't work or claim benefits or find accommodation, or even open a bank account. What he did have was unlimited energy and determination and fluent English. He found Refugees At Home, stayed in Surrey and worked to get his wife and two babies out of Aleppo. He managed that by February and moved on to a rented flat in High Wycombe, north of London. Now he has a scholarship to study at the School of Oriental and African Studies. The man and his story are a triumph.

While Ahmad was extracting his family from the horrors of Aleppo in Syria, we were thinking through how we would run this, what systems and safeguards needed to be built in, what we could do about strangers living together in the same home so as to limit vulnerability for both guests and hosts.

We rolled out in early February 2016 and have been growing rapidly ever since. Our hosts offer anything from a sofa-bed in the living room of a little flat above a shop in the edgy part of North London, to spacious suites with bathrooms in Notting Hill. What each does offer though is a generous heart and a desire to do something to those, and it could be any of us, fleeing war and persecution and facing a deeply uncertain future

The refugee crisis swamps our capacity to respond. What can we do that will make a difference? What can any individual do? Most of us can't go and work in a refugee camp, we can't board a ship and fish desperate people out of the sea. We can give money of course, but that doesn't feel enough of a response to a human tragedy.

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What Refugees At Home offers is the opportunity to make a practical difference to someone's life, to offer temporary shelter, to bridge the gaps. And we do bridge gaps: we have observant Jews hosting practicing Muslims, agnostics hosting Iranian Christians, almost vegetarians hosting Halal meat eaters and all sorts from a variety of faiths and none, offering the hand of friendship, in a practical way at a difficult time, to strangers, because they can.
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So here we are. The most powerful office in the world is going to be occupied by a man whose history of abuse towards women is well documented, yet somehow doesn't matter to those who elected him. Millions of voters, including women, know what he has been accused of and chose not to care.

What kind of message does this send to anyone who has suffered a sexual assault? That it's ok to refer to grabbing a woman in an unwanted way? That the thirteen (and counting) women who have accused him of sexual assault should be ignored, or mistrusted? That these things do not disqualify a man from being handed the keys to the White House? A whole new world of misogyny and discrimination has opened up before our very eyes.

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There are obviously dozens of reasons why a Trump presidency is an appalling prospect for many minorities, but as a victim of sexual assault, this is the aspect of his campaign that has scared me the most. I have found a lot of the media coverage difficult to deal with: it's not easy to be confronted with such attitudes on a daily basis.

So now the campaign is over and this is our new reality, what do we do?

I can tell you what we don't do, and that's do nothing. Now isn't the time to roll over and give up. For many of us it feels that politics is far removed from our daily lives, and we have little or no power over the world around us. I believe that now is the time to wrestle some of that power back. The struggle to make this world a fair and just place for all of us has to come from those of us that the likes of Trump seeks to marginalise.

Those of us who have the opportunity to make our voice heard need to do so, and we also need to speak up for those who can't. It's easy to accept the injustice that surrounds us, or think that somebody will else will change the world for you. That's the easy option. It's time to stand up and be counted. Go and join a political party (I have), or a movement for social justice, and fight for something you believe in.

Do you really want to live in a world where Donald Trump and Nigel Farage dictate the political agenda? I certainly don't. Those of us who are seen as 'other' for whatever reason need to try and make society inclusive for us all.

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Vietnam struggles to find buyers for over 1 million tons of rice

Farmers work on a terraced paddy field for the new rice season in Vietnam's northern Mu Cang Chai district, 360 km northwest of Hanoi. Photo by Reuters

For the first time in eight years, rice exports are projected to fall below 6 million tons.

Vietnam is sitting on a stockpile of 1.2 million tons of rice, according to the Vietnam Food Association (VFA).

In addition to excessive supplies from other rivals like Thailand, Pakistan and India, the country has recorded lower rice demand from key export markets.

Data from Vietnam Customs showed that China, Vietnams largest buyer, imported 153,000 tons of rice for $66.2 million in October, down 10 percent in volume and 12 percent in value against September.

The country also saw falls in rice export volumes to other main markets such as the Philippines (91 percent), Hong Kong (26.3 percent) and Singapore (8.1 percent).

Rice traders say they are unlikely to reach this years export target with global demand falling behind supply.

China has already used up its official rice import quota for this year, while the Phillippines is unlikely to purchase any more before the year-end.

The Philippines is going to call for bids for an additional 250,000 tons of rice, but bidders will have to wait until late November to find out about deliveries scheduled for early 2017.

Other markets have yet to send any clear signals so far.

At present, its impossible to foresee the picture for Vietnams rice exports. Apart from small contracts from China and the Philippines, the country is going through a quiet phase, the VFA said.

Vietnams rice exports in the first 10 months hit 4.2 million tons, jumping by 21.2 percent on-year, but export value fell by 16.9 percent to about $1.9 billion.

For the first time in eight years, the VFA has lowered its annual forecast for rice exports to under six million tons.

Related news:

> Fruit and veg outgrow rice to become Vietnam's third largest foreign-currency earner

> In Africa, Vietnam's rice exporters see a rising market
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If anyone was to browse through the stories featured about British Muslim women in the media, you could be forgiven for assuming that we are all an oppressed lot who suffer endless forced marriages, female genital mutilation and domestic violence. Admittedly, 50% of the posts on my blog are about such subjects, and yet I make no apology for wanting to highlight the plight of my more vulnerable of sisters. There is no denying that the written word and debate encourages change, and we British Muslim women are constantly evolving as we try to balance our rich cultural heritage and Islamic faith with the freedom and rights afforded to us by the land we call home.

To counter some of this negativity about British Muslim women, the Muslim Women Network UK, a leading women's support charity, has launched a digital role model campaign called '#AndMuslim' to promote the diversity of the female Muslim community in Britain, and celebrates their successes, achievements and contributions.

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Faeeza Vaid, Executive Director of MWNUK, said: "The central message of this campaign is that Muslim women are active contributors to Britain in so many different ways. The campaign highlights that we all have multiple identities, and for many faith is an important and enabling one."

The MWNUK is also involved in another campaign. On the 1st of November they issued an open letter aimed at both the Government and the Home Affairs Select Committee, which are both investigating the treatment of Muslim women by Sharia Councils. The signatories urged the prioritization of Muslim women's voices, as we must be at the forefront of informing the solutions that work for us. The letter was signed by over 100 Muslim women and can be read here.

The Chair of the MWNUK, Shaista Gohair OBE, also gave evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee on the same day arguing that a Sharia Council ban would be wrong as they would drive them underground. The argument for a Sharia Council ban was presented by Southall Black Sister's Pragna Patel, a highly respected activist with a historical record of fighting for women's rights.

For those unsure as to why a Muslim woman would want or need to approach a Sharia Council when she lives in Britain, let me spell it out. Regardless of whether a Muslim woman is a high flying career woman or a socially disadvantaged one with little money, she will require a Sharia Council to move on from a broken marriage. If she separates from her husband, she is still bound to him under the rules of her faith unless they divorce. If her husband refuses to divorce her, she must ask a Sharia Council to issue the divorce decree. Without this decree she cannot marry another man. To do so, under the rules of her faith which GUIDES her life decisions, she would be committing a sin. A Muslim woman cannot be married to two men at once. She needs closure from the first husband to move on with her life.

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Perhaps this is the point that is being missed by the feminists arguing against the Sharia Councils. Obtaining a divorce decree is not a cultural practice which can be dismissed as another example of patriarchal control of women. A woman who believes in God wants to live her life according to His guidelines. A comparison cannot be made with forced marriages and Female Genital Mutilation which are both cultural practices completely forbidden by the faith.

If Sharia Councils are banned, the fear is that they will be driven underground with zero regulation and accountability. Instead, I want them to be reformed and I believe Aina Khan, Head of the Islamic Department at the law firm Duncan Lewis and campaigner for better protection for women offers solutions worth considering. She says: "The Marriage Act 1949 must be updated to require all faiths to register their marriages. This would mean Muslims must register religious ceremonies under civil law, just like they do in every Muslim country. This change in our law will give British Muslim women the right to a civil divorce and a share of matrimonial finances. This civil divorce can be simply mirrored by an Islamic divorce from a Sharia Council within a few weeks and at low cost. There must be a central governing body to ensure Best Practice including astandardised application form, fee, divorce certificate and timescales, so the service is the same across the UK."

These are solutions that could work and should be taken into consideration by the two Inquiries. If implemented, they would eventually lead to an end to Sharia Councils as Muslim marriages would be registered under civil law and therefore protect women. It would be a win-win for those on opposing sides at the moment. Instead, what we have had is a campaign from some secular feminists calling for an outright ban on Sharia Councils. Admittedly, there are some Muslim women who want them to be banned and would never dream of using their divorce service in a million years. In all seriousness, however, what right do they have to take that right away from other Muslim women who require the Islamic divorce to move on with their lives?

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Read Sufiya's first article on Sharia Councils: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/sufiya-ahmed/sharia-councils-a-paralle_b_12116586.html
I reckon, if I really think about it, I was ill maybe three times in ten years before Archie was born. Since then, it is as if we have opened our doors to some contagious pathogen, part of a government experiment gone wrong. For the past two months it genuinely feels as though every possible strain of illness has made its way into our house.

There is only one explanation. It's that vault of doom. That shining beacon of innocence that wraps its bacteria-laden arms around you with a big happy smile. Otherwise known as a nursery.

It is a building that holds more potential for biological warfare than the average Iraqi bunker. I find myself walking away from it and thinking: if terrorists really did want to trigger the downfall of western society, all they'd have to do is just push a load of scarf-clad adults into Baby Snapdragon room; they'd soon start to drop like diseased flies.

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Archie started at nursery a couple of months ago and already we've seen the changes start to filter through him like some great awakening. He's sniffled his way though most of it and come away some days as if he's been stranded in an abandoned warehouse. But his personality, already sociable and confident, seems to have added an extra dimension. He's learning so fast that the changes are remarkable. He can't yet say full words but he's learning to communicate and gauge reaction; everyday he comes home and he's learnt something new. I don't think I'll ever get over the speed of change.

It's a magical time, next week he will be a year old. 365 days in which our our whole outlook on life has changed. A year in which the stability at home has been upstaged by the instability in the world around us; Brexit, Trump, an aggressive Russia, an imploding Middle East, an unceasing migrant crises. They are all exterior factors - things you can't individually affect - but you can't help but look inwards, at the life you are building, the beautiful boy you are trying so hard to raise and think when, not if, it will all be for nothing. A country at war with itself, a society divided.

Or at least that's what they want you to think. Media outlets owned by billionaires with tentacles into Government; covert Government operations to engineer debate on social media feeds. We have become willing participants in a machine which uses fear and division to control us - to keep us confused - with no idea of what is real and what is fake. We are all so much easier to control if we live in perpetual worry.

But we carry on, its all we can do, isn't it? I look at my little boy and see the wonder in his eyes, the cheekiness in his smile that tells me in about 6 months time he is going to be hiding my shoes on purpose and watching me run around the house in my pants in panic - and laugh with a glint in his eye. I see the questions already starting to form in his brain and the answers I'm preparing to give him. The innocence is beautiful, the inquisitiveness beguiling. I want to prepare him for the future, a future that even myself, as his father, have no idea what will bring.

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It is an indescribable feeling seeing someone you embrace with love so deep it makes you nauseous, developing and changing with the passing weeks. That you've somehow managed to create this gentle creature that is untouched by the bitterness and cynicism of modern life. Whose beauty and view of the world is untainted, who knows nothing but love from the people around him. He is lucky. When he is old enough he will understand how privileged he is to be brought up in such security and warmth. How at the time he passed his first birthday thousands of Aleppo children will be spending their nights without food or shelter - scarred by a life where all they've known is war. How when he opens his presents on his birthday, villagers in northern Iraq will be brutally massacred by fanatics breeding nothing but hate in the name of a bastardised version of religion. How a week before he turned one, the leaders of the free world elected a President who has promised to build a wall to keep out other human beings.

It's a lot to think about. So maybe we shouldn't. Maybe it's easier to live in ignorance, to raise a child without even thinking about the complexities that surround our lives. It is hard enough anyway, the juggling of work and childcare, the constant negotiating of obstacles: illness, money, time, commitments. Having a child is no easy business when we seem to live in a society that punishes those who dare to have children and work.

I look at myself in the mirror and I see where the past year has gone. It has formed in the bags under my eyes, the deeply borrowed lines in my forehead and the twitch in my eye. For the two of us, my wife and I, it has brought us closer together despite keeping us further apart: focus is needed, structure and routine vital. The days of spontaneity long since passed.

Still, one year in we are unbelievably lucky. Our boy is beautiful, healthy and above all, happy. It goes without saying that we love him dearly but with him here life's complexities seem, well, less complex. He is the reason we exist, the reason we battle through the delays, the worries, the lack of time or energy for anything other than working and caring.

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Since sitting and watching Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania fall beneath the crimson wave of the Trump Campaign, I've spent a lot of time thinking about whose responsible for the Donald Trump's election to the presidency and for Brexit come to that. Obviously the people who voted for them are, but in a way I think we are too. And by we I mean liberal lefty millennials like me.

Think about it, the internet was supposed to bring us together and help unite us has actually made us more divided than ever. We move inside our little liberal/conservative bubbles and we block out and unfriend and ignore anyone who disagrees with us, to the point we find ourselves unable to comprehend the reasons people might vote a different way to us. And because the media hates complexity we swallow whole the idea that Trump or Farage are racists - which I think they are but that's neither here or there - and therefore anyone who votes for them must also be a bunch of racist ignorant misogynists. And in the end all we have is a divided toxic political system where nothing gets done, because we can't even bear to be in the same room as someone on the other side of the aisle.

But If you honestly think that Trump won or we voted to leave the EU because the majority of the American/British population are by nature racist then I have a bank account in Guinea-Bissau I need your help accessing. If you genuinely believe that 60,116,240 Americans or 17,410,742 British people are racist then you really need to reconsider what media you are consuming. Maybe some are, but I'm willing to bet that a vast majority voted for Trump and for Brexit because there are no jobs to be had and there haven't been for years. The town you've lived in your whole life is dying and it doesn't matter how many times you drag yourself to the job centre or how many times some sixth former in the nice suit tells you that "recovery is just around the corner" and "unemployment is going down" cause there still aren't any jobs and you feel utterly useless because you have a family and you want to provide for them and you can't. And now another politician is coming round talking about things you don't understand and they care more about the blacks, or the gays or the Hispanics than they seem to about bringing back jobs to your little town and you know what you'll be damned if you're going to vote for another professional politician bought and paid for by the unions or the hemp lobby.

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And then Trump steps up and opens his mouth and Farage starts talking and here is a guy who understands. This is a guy who cares. This is a guy who says he can make things better. And you know deep down that he probably can't but hey it's not like things can get any worse. So you vote for him. Because you've been neglected and looked down on and forgotten for too long and you are going to make people listen to you for once. It's like Lewis says in the film The American President.

People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand.

Trump offers premium grade sand. But when that's all that's on offer is it any surprise people lap it up?

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Last week Sierra Leone marked the first anniversary of the declaration of the end of the Ebola outbreak by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

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A total of 28,616 confirmed, probable and suspected cases were reported in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, resulting in 11,310 deaths. Sierra Leone accounted for 14,124 cases and 3,956 confirmed deaths according to the WHO.

Local health workers, as well as international volunteers, fought with great bravery against the epidemic. They risked (and sometimes gave) their own lives in the process. I was honoured to have helped look after two British health workers, infected with Ebola in the course of their duties, on their repatriation to the UK. The bravery of health workers in Sierra Leone, as well as the resilience of the people of Sierra Leone should never be forgotten.

However, at the level of international relations, the epidemic exposed real flaws in the structures of global health governance. A criticism which has regularly been voiced is of the perceived slowness of the WHO response to the epidemic. However, in my view, the problematic nature of the global health response goes far deeper. There are some hard questions that need to be asked. And now, a year on, those hard questions are still far from being asked, let alone answered.

The aim of this brief blog article is to at least pose some of those questions. Before those questions are posed however, it is important to get a few things straight.

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Ebola is well recognised as one of the most virulent infectious diseases yet identified. But its high mortality rates are not intrinsic to the jumble of biochemical data contained within its viral-envelope. The unprecedented mortality observed was just as importantly a function of the socioeconomic environment in which the virus was operating. It was Pasteur who said "le microbe n'est rien, c'est le terrain qui est tout".

The epidemic's strain of Ebola was no more "transmissible" than previously recognised Zaire Ebola Virus (ZEBOV) strains. It also followed the same clinical course as previously known strains. Yet it claimed victims on a scale two orders of magnitude greater than previous outbreaks.

Mortality rates of around 70% were observed in West Africa whilst the mortality of repatriated patients in "first-world" setting was around 25%. The proximal reasons for this difference in mortality were due to a combination of factors, including most crucially the provision of basic nursing and supportive care.

Stepping back and taking a wider view however; what processes ultimately determined who had access to a bag of fluids and who did not, or whether adequate "Infection Control" systems were in place? And why had a hitherto parochial and sporadic infection become a sustained international epidemic?

Rudolf Virchow, founder of cellular pathology and public health pioneer, conceptualised the idea of an "artificial epidemic". Outbreaks become epidemics as a result of failures in the underlying political economy.

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Too often in the medical community (as well as in the mainstream media) the social aspects of the Ebola epidemic were discussed in a very circumscribed manner. Overwhelming focus had been on issues such as entrenched social practices or local mistrust directed towards health workers. These were real and serious phenomena but they only tell half the story. The suspicion, fatalism and conspiracy theories which emerged amongst some portions of the population in Sierra Leone in the course of the crisis did not arise from nothing. They had roots in recent history. Many in West Africa had hitherto had little contact with comprehensive medical care. And any experience that they had was often of poorly trained health care workers, achieving poor results, working in under-resourced contexts and with a proliferation of profit driven care services (private providers being dominant in most African countries).

In Sierra Leone, on the eve of the epidemic, there were 2 physicians per 100,000 population (compared to, for example, 270 per 100,000 in UK). The maternal mortality rate, a proxy indicator of health system coverage, was one of the worst in Africa with 890 per 100,000 live births (compared to under 10 per 100,000 live births in developed countries).

Combine all of this with the fact that, especially at the start of the epidemic, Ebola treatment centres were often perceived as centres of palliation, isolation and (on occasion) even as amplifiers of disease. Infection control infrastructure was almost non-existent and personal protective equipment for health workers inadequate. The ability of the health service to care for patients with non-Ebola illnesses also suffered a catastrophic break down. Seen in this light the psychological attitudes of the affected populations can be better understood.

But describing the inadequate health care system in these terms can only go so far. The tragedy goes even deeper than this. At a national and international level the reasons for the poor resilience of Sierra Leone's health system was not, as is so often claimed, due to a lack of "political will" in addressing health deficiencies and inequalities. Rather, it seems that there was often substantial "political will" focused on deprioritising access to universal healthcare. Structures of power and economic subordination have directed the evolution of the Sierra Leone health system over the decade since the end of the civil war. The post-war period was overseen by, amongst other actors, Britain's Department for International Development (DfID, the largest bilateral aid donor to Sierra Leone).

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Government health spending per capita on the eve of the epidemic in 2014 remained at the level it had been since the end of the civil war more than ten years previously. As a result, in one of the poorest countries in the world, nearly 80% of health care costs were "Out-Of-Pocket"; paid for by patients or their families.

Over the same period (2002 - 2014) Sierra Leone had, year-on-year, enjoyed robust economic growth, significantly above the continents average. Yet, this solid economic performance failed to translate into investments in health. Most revealingly, the "Total Government Spend on Health" as a proportion of both Total Government Spending and as a proportion of Total Health Spend declined over the same period, with the latter figure standing at around 10%. This is far below the levels of about 80% seen in developed countries.

So despite the end of civil war, and in the context of greater integration into the global and regional economy via the involvement of international institutions such as the IMF and DfID, Sierra Leone still had some of the lowest public investment in healthcare in Africa. What we had seen in the run-up to the epidemic was a retreat of the State's role in health since the end of the war, not an increase as should have been expected.

At the same time, the Sierra Leone government was risking its future ability to invest in public infrastructure. In 2012 alone its policy (encouraged by DfID) of tax incentives for foreign mining corporations and other businesses resulted in a loss of tax revenues equivalent to more than 8 times that year's health budget. This mirrored a wider regional problem; the WHO's initially stated figure of $1bn needed to control the Ebola epidemic was dwarfed by the yearly net loss of around $58bn dollars in evaded tax and capital flows from Africa to First-World countries.

Professor Paul Farmer, an internationally recognised authority on sustainable health development, has rightly pointed out that the Ebola crisis should serve as a "rebuke to those that tolerate anaemic state funding of, or even cutbacks in, public health and healthcare delivery".

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The tragedy of the epidemic was that it had predictably localised to countries where economic development is chiefly geared towards the extraction of profit and where health governance has focused on "minimum care packages", "cost effectiveness" and vertical donor-dominated models of care.

And these strategies have been at the expense of any establishment of publicly-funded, publicly-provided health systems which are committed, capable and adequately financed.

The Ebola crisis should have prompted a far-reaching interrogation of the whole model of health provision in Africa. This epidemic should have been a "Never-Event". It signified a negligence at the heart of a currently dominant health governance model which is beholden to an economic ideology which generates ever deepening inequality and a hollowing out the public sphere.

The decades-old assumptions at the heart of our very own Department for International Development (DfID), as well as the Sierra Leone Government, and the IMF were instrumental in unthinkingly and blindly preparing the conditions which allowed the Ebola epidemic to flourish.
In March of this year, an Oklahoma County judge was "appalled" to learn that inmates at the Oklahoma County jail were expected to pay not only their costs of incarceration, but they are also being overcharged to accommodate indirect costs of incarceration--footing the bill for things like sentencing programs, court clerk and juvenile justice salaries, and payroll of the Oklahoma County public defender's office--something that outraged Oklahoma County Public Defender Bob Ravitz, who neither knew of the situation nor wanted inmate fees to pay his staff's salaries.

I wrote about this previously in my article regarding "The Economics of Incarceration." Oklahoma County Sheriff John Whetsel seemed caught off guard by the criticism, saying that no one had complained before. He said that he had done nothing wrong, and that his office had "absolutely nothing to hide."

Well, surprise, surprise. On the same day the Huffington Post published my criticism, Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater requested an audit of jail funds. Now, the results of the audit are in, and they are highly critical of Sheriff Whetsel's use of funds in managing the Oklahoma County Jail.

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The audit found that the Sheriff's Office did utilize unallowable costs used in calculating the inmate average daily rate of incarceration. Additionally, inmate incarceration fees were invoiced and collected by the Sheriff's Office itself, rather than through the Court Clerk's office, as required by state law.

Other key findings include the following:

The Sheriff's Office did not pay inmate healthcare even though funds were available to do so at the time the contracts were due.

The Office spent about $900,000 to purchase Sheriff vehicles, even though the Office's other financial obligations were unmet.

The office used subsequent year funds to pay obligations from the previous fiscal year in violation of state law.

Unallowable costs may have been charged against the 'Aggregate Limit' of the Armor Correctional Health Services, Inc. contract.

Two outside organizations, HOPE Team and FOP Lodge #155 activities are managed by Sheriff Office employees during County work hours.

Donations received by the County Sheriff's Office were not presented and accepted by the Board of County Commissioners.

For the FY2015, the Oklahoma County Reserve Deputy program cost approximately $263,855.39. There is some question about whether there is an inappropriate relationship between individuals granted a Special or Reserve Deputy position and campaign contributions made by the individual to the Sheriff's campaign fund. The audit shows that donations were not properly presented or approved by the Board of County Commissioners, and that the Sheriff's Office allowed use of facilities for unauthorized groups.

The Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office accepted a donation of Sheriff Whetsel's personal vehicle, after a $28,000 payment was made to a trust in Whetsel's wife's name. This and two other vehicle donations were neither handled appropriately nor approved by the Board of County Commissioners.

After reading the audit, the sheriff issued the

:

I encourage citizens to read the full report and, while doing so, keep three fundamental things in mind.

There is no allegation or finding that I or anyone else misappropriated money or benefitted [sic] in any way,

Every decision made by me or the leadership of the Sheriff's Office was made in an effort to best serve our County, and,

I take full responsibility for the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office and pledge that we will work tirelessly to seek continued improvement in every area of our operation.

The Sheriff also claimed that many of the audit's findings were already being remedied prior to the release of the report, and that any findings of wrongdoing were unintentional errors.

However, soon after the audit results were made available to the public, the chairman of the Oklahoma County Republican Party asked the Sheriff to suspend himself pending the outcome of the investigation in light of the audit's findings.

Oklahoma County GOP Chairman Daren Ward said, "The audit released last week shows instances of possible embezzlement, bribery and corruption. If this suspected behavior is proven to be true, it is not only inexcusable, but a complete violation of the trust the citizens of Oklahoma County have invested in the sheriff for the past two decades."

Well, Whetsel didn't suspend himself. In fact, on November 8, 2016, we was elected to his 6th consecutive term as the Oklahoma County Sheriff. Despite the fact that he is a Democrat running for election in one of the reddest states in the nation, and despite the fact that he is currently under investigation as a result of the audit, Oklahomans felt safe and secure in keeping the Sheriff in office.

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This comes at a time when the Oklahoma County Jail is under constant national scrutiny for its overcrowded and overcharged prisoners. Tack on the fact that Oklahomans also passed two State Questions which will drastically change the state's laws regarding drug charges, and the potential fallout just keeps compounding on itself.

Oklahoma State Questions 780 and 781 were approved the same night Sheriff Whetsel was reelected. State Question 780 focuses on reclassifiying most drug charges for simple possession of a controlled dangerous substance from felonies to misdemeanors. Consequently drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamine, and PCP which were previously classified as felonies for simple possession will now be reclassified as misdemeanors.

Now, don't get me wrong. I love the fact that my state's electorate felt strongly about the mental health of many of my clients; however, I don't think this was the best question the legislature could have provided. Are Oklahoma's drug crime laws extremely archaic? Sure. But was this the best way to catch up with a much more progressive landscape involving the "war on drugs"? That, I'm not so sure of.

In all truth, these new measures are most likely the state's best alternative right now as opposed to the status quo. Oklahoma's prisons are simply too crowded. But here is the potential problem: misdemeanor sentences are served in county jail as opposed to state prison. Oklahoma's largest county just reelected a sheriff that has proven to be irresponsible with his department and the fees he charges his inmates. Now, he will potentially have even more criminal defendants confined in his jail.
You may be surprised to learn that air travel is already efficient. In fact, a flight between New York and Los Angeles achieves the equivalent of about 80 miles per gallon per passenger. Airplane manufacturers, such as Boeing and Airbus, prioritized reducing fuel consumption because jet fuel is the number one expense for airlines, and they have achieved great success in doing so.

However, travel demand is rising faster than annual efficiency improvements (5 percent passenger growth vs. 1.5 percent efficiency gains). Air transport emissions are projected to triple within the next three decades, surpassing automobile emissions. Unlike buildings and cars, aircraft cannot replace fuel-burning technology with zero-carbon technology.



That's why at Carbon War Room, a Rocky Mountain Institute business unit, we are focused on the decarbonization of aviation fuel, especially since doing so can reduce CO2 emissions by up to 80 percent. Despite the biofuel industry being relatively nascent, we have access to several sustainable feedstocks, including waste oils, plants grown on marginal lands, and cover crops. These biofuels are also certified by both governments and aircraft manufacturers.

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However, even with these positive developments, biofuels are not yet cost-effective for airlines. This becomes even more challenging when oil is cheap, as it has been for the last 18 months. But we look at solving the cost barrier as a huge opportunity, and one that could be decisive for the longevity and success of the aviation industry. In figuring out how to overcome the price-premium issue, we decided to build a program that relies on airports taking the lead in accelerating the deployment of biofuels. We refined the model with our partner SkyNRG, a global market leader in the blending, distribution, and sale of sustainable jet fuel worldwide.



These efforts have led to a groundbreaking partnership between the Port of Seattle, SkyNRG, and Carbon War Room to investigate long-term financing mechanisms that could supply all airlines at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac) with sustainable aviation fuels. Sea-Tac is the first airport in North America to initiate this step to provide an airport-wide sustainable aviation fuel supply for all routine airline operations.

Currently, biofuel supply agreements in the U.S. are made through expensive individual contracts between producers and airlines. While the goal is cost parity with conventional fuel, competitive pricing for delivered sustainable fuel has not yet been achieved. We are also a long way from reaching published industry goals for biofuel adoption. Our partnership aims to help sustainable aviation fuel go from an alternative product used by a few select airlines, to a standard product that is used by all airlines at the airport. That would be a game changer for the aviation industry.

We will work with Sea-Tac to evaluate funding mechanisms to cover the cost difference between sustainable aviation fuels and conventional fuels. The long-term ambition includes strategizing with decision makers regarding locally sourced fuel and future regional economic investments, identifying supply routes for the sustainable aviation fuel, and ensuring that any alternative fuels used at Sea-Tac are truly sustainable.



These kinds of efforts, alongside the International Civil Aviation Organization's global market-based measure, can help the industry reach the global goals defined by the COP21 Paris Agreement. Also, by integrating the fuel directly into the on-airport fueling infrastructure, at an airport-wide blend ratio, this initiative will send a strong and consistent demand signal to the sustainable aviation fuel industry, which will boost investor confidence and catalyze industry growth.

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In 2012, my family and I had a series of conversations around our finances. I was fortunate to supporting family. Sure, they have to work a several years in order to receive pension benefits, but it freed me to be more entrepreneurial; taking greater risk without threatening our financial future as a young family.

Turns out, I was a dreamer with enough persistence and focus to actually get a business off the ground. The gamble, for me, paid off. Of course, it only paid off after a whole lot of failure, but I eventually reached the point where my business could support my family; beating the odds with sheer grit.

When my company started to produce serious cash-flow, my parents and I sat down to discuss their options for retiring early (without a large portion of their pension). What's interesting, is that simple conversation turned into something much broader.

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The question was raised: How do we want to live in retirement? I knew that I wanted to be financially independent (i.e. debt free with enough assets to generate a ROI that could support us for the rest of our lives). My family was onboard, and we decided to keep active in our careers, working towards multi-millionaire status.

1. Online Brokerage Platforms

We continued to work hard, which led to one more question. What should we do with the money we had earned so far? Yes, of course we would continue to save as much as we could manage. But, where would we invest our money, so that we could cash in on the magic of compounding interest?

Your probably familiar with the likes of Scottrade, Fidelity, E-Trade and TD Ameritrade. These giant platforms offer investors access to all of the tools that traditional brokers use, including instant trading and breaking industry news.

While an online brokerage platform was an enticing option, we were more interested in letting our money operate on auto-pilot. The last thing I wanted to do after coming home from a long day at work, was fire up the computer and stress about a stock portfolio.

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2. Short-Term Options and Binary Trading Platforms

I knew we needed a diverse portfolio, so my solution was to invest 60% of our savings into Vanguard Index Funds and high-growth Mutual Funds with a track-record (at least 12 years) of long-term growth. This allowed me to set my distribution and then promptly forget about the headache of keeping up with individual stocks.

Although, the more I read about the markets, the more the different types of trades peaked my curiosity. Instead of buying and re-positioning stocks among sets of companies, I began to investigate ways to take advantage of short-term gains, without the investment of long research hours.

I had the opportunity to speak with Adam Green, the Founder and CEO of Signals 365. He advised that "...virtually every type of investment carries risk, so if you're going to invest in the stock market, you have to be prepared to lose everything. That's a real potential. But, there are a variety of signals that could help indicate which direction an industry, or specific company is headed. Investment instruments, like binary options, allow casual investors to quickly cash-in on these signals if they turn out to be accurate."

The challenge for me was finding reliable information. This is where the investment platforms came into play. Analyzing the trends and seeing how the market was reacting to news helped me to identify patterns. It became less about investing, and more about figuring out the pieces to a puzzle.

Find Ways to Make Investing Fun, Which Encourages Additional Savings

It was weird, because I knew I hated "watching the stock market". But, I loved reading about the movers and shakers in the industries, and how they were making moves that started waves in the market. To make managing my investments less of a chore, I tried to make my research time personal. Who was doing what, and how would that impact my portfolio?

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If it was an especially significant event, I'd attempt to cash-in on the movement with binary options and other types of short-term positions. While the majority of my savings were safely managed by the index and mutual fund market, I was free to invest more aggressively with the remaining portion.

And, most importantly, I found the more I spent time investing, the more motivated I was to save. As Warren Buffet is fond of saying: "If you don't find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die."
Personalized investment services are starting to get a foothold in the investment world due to the harsh realization that one-size-fits-all investment strategies don't just work for investors again. Now, investors are embracing the emerging trend of personalized investment services that considers your age, employment status, risk quotient, income, and targets to build a portfolio. This article explores some of the factors behind the emergence of personalized investment and wealth management services.

Here's why traditional wealth management is losing its shine

One of the reasons for the migration away from tradition wealth management is the unjustified high costs of using such services. For instance, most financial advisors charge a 'low' rate of 1% of assets per year - but you could easily pay $750,000 in 30 years on a $500,000 portfolio. Some wealth managers could charge between 3% and 6% in commission-based fees on any asset you buy.

Secondly, regulators are clamping down on the activities of unscrupulous wealth managers with new rules and regulations. For instance, in the UK, the new Retail Distribution Review serves the purpose of raising the quality of advice that investors get from wealth managers. However, it doesn't seem profitable for most wealth managers to offer such top-notch services to everyone. Hence, most wealth managers now ask for a minimum portfolio of about $500,000 -, which easily prices many potential investors out of the market.

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Thirdly, the legend of the superstar wealth manager is starting to fade off and investors are coming to the harsh reality that most wealth managers do not have the proverbial Midas' touch. In a bull market, it is quite easy for wealth managers to claim superstar status and mask their failings by playing it safe with market funds and indexes. However, the current bull market in the U.S. is tapering out and it is becoming obvious that most wealth managers can't live up to their hype.

Here's why personalized investment services have come to stay

The first reason for the emergence of personalized wealth management services is that quantum leap recorded in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. To start with, many firms are investing heavily in AI - Tesla wants AI to drive its cars with Autopilot, Google has self-driving cars as well, Apple is turning Siri into a digital personal assistant, and hundreds of startups are working on AI.

Secondly, AI is becoming more ingrained into even the most mundane activities and humans are becoming familiarized with computer-generated recommendations. If want to binge watch movies on Netflix, you can trust AI to recommend movies you'll love to watch and the recommendations will mostly be spot on. Spotify uses AI to help you create playlists, Amazon uses AI to help you shop smarter and get the best deals.

Thirdly, supercomputing and cloud computing is becoming all the more affordable, all thanks to the effect of Moore's Law. Supercomputing power is now cheap because of access to the cloud; hence, big traditional firms no longer have the monopoly of technological edge. In fact, the massive size and ancient corporate cultures of traditional financial institutions place them at a disadvantage in embracing cloud computing to deliver personalized wealth management services.

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Meet some super-smart personalized wealth management services:

Swanest

Swanest is an emerging personalized wealth management startup that prides itself on offering "intelligent investing made simple." Founded in 2014, by four Swiss and Belgian entrepreneurs, Swanest is out to create a simplified personalized wealth management platform because "traditionally, do-it-yourself investing is complex and time-consuming."

Silvan Schumacher, Co-founder and CEO of Swanest said "we look at the questions self-directed investors face along their investmentjourneys and then automate advice and use algorithms to provide meaningful guidancealong the way. We call it an investment assistant." Interestingly, Swanest is coming out strong and fast as it enjoys broad support from early stage investors and reviewers. In fact, the firm recently closed a seed funding in which Belgian early-stage investor, Philippe Gillion invested 750'000.

An interesting point that makes Swanest uniquely different from robo-advisors is that it merges the best of robo-advisor services and traditional brokerage to offer investors a competitive edge in the market. Many of the banks, investment advisor and robo-advisor offering personalized wealth management services tend to promote model portfolios only. Swanest however focuses on helping investors that value truly personalized investment portfolios that may consist of any stock, ETF or mutual fund.

Wealthfront

Wealthfront is another personalized investing service that prides itself on investing "your money for you with a minimal amount of work. We monitor your portfolio every day to look for opportunities to rebalance or harvest tax losses." Interestingly, wealthfront charges 0.25% per year for accounts with more than $10,000 in assets. If your portfolio is not worth up to $10,000, you might not pay the annual charge. The best part is that you can make a minimum investment of $500 on Wealthfront.

Betterment
This is the first sequel to the opening statement of this series, which laid out this basic idea:

In this extremely dangerous moment in our nation's history, we owe it to ourselves and our posterity to seek best-case scenarios with the new president, rather than merely assuming that all that we fear will come to pass. Because we have good reason to fear the worst, we also need to prepare to fight this dreadful new president to protect all those things that are vital to our values and our interests.What this calls for is moves that simultaneously test for the possibility of peace, and that also -- failing that -- position us advantageously for political war.



That strategy is applied, below, to the issue of climate change. For surely, with science telling us that climate change may be the biggest threat to our species in our history, and with Trump already moving in an absolutely calamitous direction on the issue, this is a matter on which we should strive for the best while being committed never to surrender to the worst.

*******************************

Climate change deniers come in two main varieties: the corrupt and the ignorant.

The corrupt are people who know the truth of what the scientists are saying, but choose out of greed and/or ambition to sacrifice the future of our planet to serve the interests of the fossil fuel industries.

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If Donald Trump is one of these corrupt deniers, then there is no chance for peace, and we will be compelled to fight him, to use Elizabeth Warren's recent mantra, "every step of the way."

But if Donald Trump is ignorant, then it is at least possible that if his ignorance were to be replaced by greater understanding, he might be induced to take a different path. And with Trump, who has displayed stunning ignorance on a great many issues, it seems to be a real possibility that he really doesn't know what science has so clearly established. Although he may be not only ignorant but ineducable, the possibility of education should at least be tested.

So the "seek peace" part of the strategy raises the question: is there a way that Trump's (presumed) ignorance on climate change might be dispelled?

Here's what I propose as a possible way:

Assemble a delegation consisting of some of the world's most outstanding and prestigious scientists -- presumably Nobel Prize winners, perhaps a half dozen in number -- accompanied by, say, three of the world's greatest climate scientists. In other words, a delegation that could present itself, and be seen by the public, as "the Voice of Science," and "the Voice of Science on Climate Change."

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(I would hope that any scientist worth his or her salt would be willing to participate, the stakes are that huge, the urgency that pressing.)

Have this group begin with a public request for an audience with the President-Elect.

Their statement in which this request is made would, of course, call attention to the vital importance of this issue, and how crucial it is that a person shouldering the responsibilities of the American presidency understands fully the nature of the crisis we face. And so they request a chance to discuss with the President-Elect what science can tell us about what is happening on our planet, and what is at stake in the policy course the nation takes.

Either these eminent people -- representing the Voice of Science -- will be granted such a meeting with Trump or they will not. (Given the people around Trump, one must guess it's more likely that they will not.)

If Trump refuses to meet with this delegation, then the war begins.

Two salvos come to mind. First, from the delegation: a statement -- again delivered to get maximal media attention -- that denounces Trump's refusal in whatever are the terms that will be both appropriate and damaging to Trump in his intransigence. And second, Elizabeth Warren should step up onto center stage to take him to challenge him on this issue in the powerful ways for which she has already displayed considerable talent.

If Trump does meet with the delegation, here is an approach that might be effective: the delegation might make a pitch to Trump that appeals to his vanity.

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They could propose to the President-Elect that he could secure his place in history by launching what might be called "Trump's Manhattan Project." Just as the United States accomplished extraordinary things (at Los Alamos, in the Manhattan Project) during World War II, drawing on the brilliance of its scientists and engineers, so also now, Donald Trump as president can harness that same great American pool of talent to meet the major challenges posed by climate change: create the technologies of a clean energy future, and devise the ways by which the United States can lead the world in making a smooth and speedy transition to that future.
The beaches that line the Gold Coast region in Australia are picturesque, with the blue mosaic colors of the ocean slowly rolling together and crashing onto white sand, while the sky transforms into colors of pink, purple and orange like our beloved lava lamp from junior high. Unseen from the shore, hidden in the depths of the ocean, are busted balloons mimicking the figures of jellyfish, which sea turtles often fall ill to. Carly Wilson is committed to fighting this fight and we at The Pollination Project excitedly provide seed grants to her and others who help make our world a more compassionate and safe space for all.

Please help us welcoming our seven recent grantees to the Pollination Project family!

Mariia Kalashnik, The Strawberry Project, Nagyloc, Hungary. Youth come together to learn about our environment and Mother Earth while planting and harvesting strawberries.

Carly Wilson, Rubber Jellyfish - The Movie, Gold Coast, Australia. A documentary enlightens and empowers viewers on the dangers of helium balloons and their impact on ocean life.

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Jecinter Atieno Bonyo, Tusome Project, Kisumu, Kenya. Teachers provide after-school assistance to students performing at lower level while offering families resources in the community.

Elliot Kale Edmiston and Lauren Mitchell, The Trans Buddy Program, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Transgender people seeking health services are paired with trained advocates to provide referrals, support and trainings.

Felix Iziomoh and Adedoyin Adedeji, Mowe Youth Leadership Empowerment Project, Mowe, Nigeria. A four-week intensive leadership training inspires and motivates youth in achieving their best selves.

Cianne Tima Jones, Teen Voices Uganda!, Busembatia, Uganda. Teenage girls participate in workshops focused on writing and using social media for advocacy on their rights.

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Aviram Rozin and Yorit Rozin, Sadhana Forest Animal Sanctuary, Auroville, India. People and animals interact in a safe space while learning about reforestation efforts and the cruelty that animals undergo.
Low-tech and low-added value production is putting the brakes on the industry.

Vietnam is targeting car manufacturing as a spearhead industry that could help it move up the global value chain.

Official data compiled by the Trade Ministry shows that Vietnam has more than 400 small-and medium-sized enterprises involved either in assembly or spare parts production, and nearly half of them are foreign-invested companies.

Experts forecast domestic car makers will produce 50,000 units annually by 2035, spurred by rising demand and strong government support.

Vietnamese people last year bought a record-breaking number of 244,914 cars, said the Vietnam Association of Automobile Manufacturers, a 55 percent increase from 2014 sales.

Statistics show Vietnam imported more than 125,000 units in 2015, a 77 percent jump from 2014. For 9-seat cars and smaller vehicles, the number reached more than 31,000 units, a significant increase of 104 percent compared to the previous year.

However, the fact that Vietnam still heavily relies on imported automobiles to meet the demand at home has put a tremendous burden on its local car industry, which is set to be faced with more challenges in the era of new-generation free trade agreements.

Following the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreements, Vietnam will cut car import tariffs incrementally over the next four years for imported cars from ASEAN countries. The current tariff of 50 percent will be cut to zero by 2018. As a result, imports from ASEAN neighbors are expected to increase exponentially.

That means Vietnam's car industry could be significantly affected when a variety of free trade agreements come into effect, putting local manufacturers under more intense competition from imports.

The fact that Vietnams support industries are evidently weak is the main reason for the sluggish development of the automobile industry, said Pham Tuan Anh, deputy head of the Heavy Industries Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The ministry said local companies can produce some simple parts, such as mirrors, glass, seats, wiring, batteries, tubes and plastic products, but few have invested in the advanced technology used to manufacture auto bodies.

Vietnam failed to reach a target set for 2010 that local support industries would meet up to 60 percent of automobile manufacturers' demands. For example, local suppliers currently can only meet 7-10 percent of manufacturing orders for 9-seat cars.

The government has a plan to shake up the support industries, including incentive policies for automobile suppliers, to remedy the situation.

According to the plan, Vietnams support industries will be able to meet from 55 to 80 percent of local car markers' demands by 2035, increasing the number of completely-built-up cars to 50,000 units, or 20 percent of market demand.

Related News:

> Vietnam to shake up supporting industries to seize TPP opportunities

> Automobile firms struggle with latest changes to Vietnams tax policy
The US presidential election aside, the build-up to the latest round of climate talks now under way in Morocco was dominated by two events: the entry into force of the Paris Agreement, and the release of the UN's Emissions Gap report.

The first was a moment to cheer the international community for recognizing the gravity of climate change and the urgent need to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The second was a stark reminder that the action pledged so far is not nearly enough.

Both were important and deservedly drew global attention to the need to mitigate climate change. But they shouldn't obscure another very pressing need: helping developing countries adapt to the impacts from climate change that we cannot prevent.

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Developing nations carry little responsibility for the vast amounts of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere since the industrial revolution. Yet they are forecast to bear the brunt of changing weather patterns and rising sea levels, and they lack the resources to cope. Indeed, many communities are already facing impacts, from more-frequent droughts in East Africa to increased coastal flooding in low-lying Bangladesh.

This year is on course to be the hottest since modern record keeping began, breaking the record set in 2005. Global temperatures are already 1.2 Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Regardless of how well we do on reducing emissions, developing nations need help, and they need it now.

We are at least seeing movement on that front. Developed countries have committed to mobilizing $100 billion a year in climate finance by 2020. The Paris Agreement called for those funds to be equally split between mitigating climate change and adapting to its impacts.

However, the latest UN Environment study of adaptation costs in developing countries indicates that they could be up to five times higher than previously estimated, especially if the pledges made in Paris to cut emissions are not quickly implemented and stepped up significantly.

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To put that in figures: previous estimates put the cost of adaptation at $70-$100 billion a year from 2010 to 2050. But a fresh review of national and sector studies suggests the cost could range from $140-$300 billion by 2030, and from $280-$500 billion by 2050.

To be sure, significant adaptation finance is beginning to flow.

According to our research, total bilateral and multilateral finance for climate change adaptation reached $25 billion in 2014. $22.5 billion went to help regions including South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa with projects such as water and wastewater management.

Most public finance is likely to flow through development and climate finance institutions such as the UNFCCC's Green Climate Fund. By the end of 2015, just over $35 billion, or 76 per cent of the resources pledged to such adaptation-focused climate funds, had been approved for disbursement.

As well as needing more funds for adaptation, developing countries want the money already pledged to be released more quickly.

The Least Developed Countries Fund has cleared projects worth more than $170 million but does not have funding available. However, the Green Climate Fund says it is on course to meet its target of committing $2.5 billion by the end of the year.

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With the Paris Agreement in force, it is right to salute its historic importance, and to urge the signatories to re-double their efforts to head off the worst of global warming. But that should be matched by a more ambitious and faster-moving effort to adapt the planet to unavoidable impacts.

In many cases, it is the poorest countries - and their poorest communities - who will be hit the hardest. Unless they are helped in time, the future could bring a surge in climate-change-induced hunger, mass displacement, and economic and political breakdown.

That could push the already high cost of addressing climate change up much, much higher.
First, Bahraini authorities hit human rights defender Nabeel Rajab with charges for writing an oped in the New York Times, and now they have charged secular opposition leader Ebrahim Sharif after an interview he gave to the Associated Press a few days ago.

Stifling negative press is a classic hallmark of a repressive regime, and Bahrain is increasingly touchy about anyone revealing its ugly truth. Up until mass protests for democracy broke out in 2011, and even for a while after, Bahrain was relatively accessible for media and human rights organizations. Now it's virtually impossible for us to get in.

Some journalists were allowed in to cover last week's visit of Britain's Prince Charles to the island monarchy. Sharif told visiting AP reporter Jon Gambrell that he feared the royal visit might be used to "whitewash" Bahrain's human rights record--apparently this is what has landed Sharif in so much trouble, and he is now facing charges of "inciting hatred against the regime."

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The regime is so sensitive to criticism that it even prevents lesser-known dissidents from leaving the country, fearful they will tell the outside world what's happening inside the dictatorship. Last week 26 year-old Fatima Al Halwachi was told at the airport she was banned from traveling and had been since August. This was news to her. "I wasn't even going anywhere for human rights reasons," she told me.

Fatima grew up largely in exile in Sweden (she is a Swedish citizen) and her strong international ties are presumably something the Bahraini government fears.

She remembers arriving from abroad at the February 2011 protests a few days after they started. "It was night when I got there, and so cold. But I was so proud to be standing with people, amazed at the the numbers prepared to stand up for freedom against tyranny--old people, children, women, men. I remember thinking how brave they were because some protesters had already been killed and we knew what might happen, that they might get attacked."

The crowds were attacked and the demonstrations violently suppressed in mid-March. Reprisals swiftly followed. Thousands of people were arrested, some tortured to death in custody. Leading human rights activists and opposition figures were framed and sentenced in military courts.

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Fatima's father is the political opposition figure Khalil Al Halwachi. He was one of those rounded up, and arrested in May 2011. He was released a few months later, only to be rearrested in September 2014. He has now been in jail for more than two years and is awaiting another court hearing on November 27 for his a sham trial run by notorious judge Ebrahim Zayed.

Fatima was one of the students expelled from the country's polytechnic in 2011, suspected of showing disloyalty to the ruling family on Facebook (later reinstated following an international outcry, she graduated in business management).

She now works for the European-Bahraini Organization for Human Rights, and explains her work in recent years has been documenting human rights violations, "visiting the families of political detainees, and torture survivors, and supporting and advocating for families' rights."

Fatima finds herself suspended in an all too familiar Kafkaesque administrative repression. "Officials at the airport told me I couldn't travel by order of the public prosecution, but my lawyer has checked with that office and there is no ban shown at the public prosecution records," she said.

She estimates over 100 people suspected of dissent against the ruling family have been banned from travel, including several dozen in recent months.

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Following Prince Charles's visit last week Fatima and several others heard there are new cases being brought against them, although she has yet to be informed of details of what's going to happen.
The term "fringe" in describing the Alt-Right, KKK, and American Neo-Nazi, Neofascist movements, has passed. As President-Elect Donald J. Trump prepares to arrive in the White House, CNN reports that Trump is seriously considering bringing Breitbart News publisher Stephen Bannon on board as his Chief of Staff, which would be the first time in American history an open and avowed supporter of neofascism occupied a position in the White House.

The Alt-Right is a conglomeration of white supremacists who believe that 'polticial correctness' and 'social justice' degrade 'their' America, "respectible racism," as Wired dubs it.

"We're the platform for the alt-right," Bannon told Mother Jones' David Korn at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in July, speaking of his publication, Breitbart News Network, the dog-whistlers of white power and white nationalism in America and the UK.

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While the late Andrew Breitbart was declaratively anti-racist, Mother Jones reports:

"Under Bannon's leadership, the site has plunged into the fever swamps of conservatism, cheering white nationalist groups as an "eclectic mix of renegades," accusing President Barack Obama of importing "more hating Muslims," and waging an incessant war against the purveyors of "political correctness."

The Alt-Right helped elect Donald Trump. The media's account of Trump's unusually strong showing in the Rust Belt and the South with mostly blue collar and poor rural whites was that he voiced their anger about the loss of non-degree jobs in manufacturing and trades. Perhaps. How he channeled the extensive networks of Alt-Right pundits, websites, message boards, and organizations like the Klu Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party to get out the vote. Trump refused to disavow the KKK and other hate groups.

The Klan operated Trump get out the vote operations in Southern and Rustbelt states, distributing flyers like this:

Other messages included distortions aimed at Black Lives Matter:

As well as an anti-Transgender flyer in Towne Lake, Georgia.

The American Nazi Party turned out votes for Trump, seeing an opportunity to mainstream. Chairman Rocky Suhayda told the Guardian that Trump's victory would be "a real opportunity for people like white nationalists to start 'acting intelligently', with the aim of building a mainstream political presence similar to that of the Congressional Black Caucus."

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"It's kinda hard to go and call us bigots," said party chairman Rocky Suhayda, "If we don't go around and act like a bigot."

Increased rural support, and with middle and upper class voters who responded to Trump's race and gender baiting, lifted Trump in the toss-up states.

Now they will be watching to see that they get their due, and Bannon, Dog-Whistler-In-Chief, whether inside the White House or out, is responsible for pulling together the resources for Trump's surprise win, and is owed.

"It is now up to us to keep the heat on Congress and Trump, to fulfill the promises that were made by Mr. Trump," writes Oath Keepers' Shorty Dawkins. "We have won a battle, but not the war against globalism. We cannot rest."

America has crashed through the "Overton Window" named after a former vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, an ultra-conservative think-tank sponsored by Tea Party-stokers like AmWay's DeVos family, among others.

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The concept is that the "window" of what is politically acceptable can be moved, as liberals did in the 1960s and 1970s, so it can also be moved increasingly rightward.

Trump's election win proves that the window has been moved to a place where, what once was fringe thinking, is now capturing more white Americans. The Great Recession left its scars on rust belt and rural communities, and both Hillary Clinton and the Democratic party ignored them, to the peril of not only their election hopes, but to the preventing American fascism from going mainstream.
I was going to write about my involvement in fashion and activism with ARMS CONTROL, the super-long gloves that were going to become a fashion sensation so popular they would take care of funding the entire gun control movement. I couldn't write it.



For the last four days my sister Lynne and I have been in Pennsylvania canvassing for Hillary Clinton. We brought our dogs Scoop and Virgil with us. We thought it might be nice to have them. And there was no place else we could leave them. So we piled into Lynne's Prius and off we went.



Lynne and I are hopeless when it comes to driving to a new destination. We are completely dependent on the GPS. We often marvel that we ever got anywhere before we had one, even though we spend a lot of time second guessing it. Neither of us has any idea where places are geographically located so we're paranoid because we could drive for hours in the wrong direction and not know it. I am driving, Lynne is manning the GPS on her cell phone. She has been repeating all the GPS directions very loudly to make sure I can hear them. "Take exit 16 in 1 mile to the New Jersey turnpike...THE NEW JERSEY TURNPIKE?! CAN THAT BE RIGHT?!" We're heading from New York to Pennsylvania so I suspect that New Jersey isn't that farfetched but I'm not confident. We panic too often just as we get to the exit. We're morons. We can't read maps and we both have a terrible sense of direction. Lynne's sense of direction is a little worse than mine.



So after a harrowing trip of about three hours that should have been an hour and a half, we arrived at the democratic office we'd been told to go to. When you're doing this kind of canvassing you are given a list of addresses with the name, age, and gender of the registered voter who lives there. You are given a script of what to say. You are not trying to convince anyone who to vote for but you are trying to make sure they vote. They are all registered democrats. The first neighborhood we went to was predominantly African American and they were inconsistent voters, we were told. Don't let them off until they've told you their plan for voting: Do they know where to go, how to get there, what time they're going, and what they need to have with them if anything. This seemed a little condescending but we tried to do it. But be sure to seal the deal with a commitment from them. "Can Hillary count on you on election day?"



All the people who were home were very nice even if they were feeling harassed by the election, like we all were. One woman who was 90-years-old and slightly forgetful told us she knew Hillary. That Hillary had been in her home. Maybe, but we weren't sure about that or that she had the ride to the polling place that she claimed she had, so we got her name and number and gave it to the office and they were going to get her a ride. It felt good to have facilitated that. Nobody but us knew it but we had effectively gotten one vote for Hillary. And who knew how many more we could take credit for?



The next day we had our second opportunity. This adorable 25-year-old guy (Lynne remembers him as black, I remember him as white ) wearing a loose wife beater t-shirt and sporting tons of tattoos on his naturally muscular arms, opened his door. He told us he hated both Trump and Hillary. He's heard stuff about her. She's a liar. She can't be trusted. Trump's not good either. "What has she done, what have you heard?" We asked and then he kinda smiled like he knew he didn't know what he was talking about. That maybe he hadn't really been paying attention. He just didn't think either of them would change his life. So we started asking him about what issues he cared about. Did he think if the 1 percent were given more tax breaks there would be more good jobs and opportunities for him? He laughed. Did he think women should be told by the government what they had to do if they got pregnant? Hell no! Did he think the Mexicans were all rapists and murderers and were taking away his jobs? No of course not. We talked for 10 minutes at least. And finally thinking he seemed pretty swayed, I dropped the bomb. "Can Hillary count on you?" and after a moments consideration he said "alright." We felt euphoric.



Then we went to a rally for all the down ballot candidates; Katy McGinty for Senate, Leanne Krueger-Brankeky for State Representative, a powerhouse who had brought in a slew of female candidates who all seemed to have great values and were very energized to support the democratic Governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Wolf, who was there. They were excited about turning Pennsylvania into a progressive blue state. We were impressed with them and swept up in their enthusiasm.



The next day we hit the streets with renewed energy. We went to low income housing neighborhood where, again, everyone we found at home was very polite and so sweet. I knocked on one door where I could smell the pot wafting out from under it. And then a male voice boomed out in a scary way. "WHO'S THERE?" "I'm canvassing um ... for Hillary" in a much softer voice "Come around the front" and I realized I was at the back door. When he opened his front door he was this big, warm, stoned, black guy and it was obvious he was relieved. He was laughing "I forgot that door was even there" more laughter, then I started to laugh and we enjoyed a good chuckle together. Then I introduced myself and Lynne to him and we had a long (15-minute) talk about politics. It turned out he was from Afghanistan but had lived here for 25 years. He had an American accent. He knew pretty much everything I knew about the two candidates. He says he saw Hillary at a rally and he looked into her eyes and he believed her. He knew she was going to try to help the middle class and he also knew that Trump was a monster. But he just somehow was against voting for either of them. We kept pushing. And he kept saying "I can't explain it... I just can't." finally downhearted we left wishing him luck. We crossed the street and began our ridiculously difficult search for the next house when he came out of his house with a bag of garbage and crossed over to us announcing "Okay, I'll vote, You ladies got me." Practically crying I asked the question and he said begrudgingly "yeah, Hillary can count on me." I wanted to throw my arms around him but I don't think I did. It was an ecstatic moment that was the perfect end of our day. We walked away that day certain we were going to win this one.



To be continued tomorrow...
This past August with the silent efficiency of a sharpened guillotine, 28 eviction notices were placed on the doors of Renton Woods apartment home residents, most of whom were single, black women with children.

On the surface, the Renton Woods apartments in Renton, Washington, (suburb of Seattle), is the kind of sprawling A-Z, non-descript, passive taupe with burgundy accent, complexes that commuters drive by without a glance.

A sad irony in the Pacific Northwest these days, is that these types of large apartment complexes represent a dwindling resource: safe harbor for low income citizens in a tight Seattle housing market.

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Every January an organized homeless count occurs and this year 160 people were tallied living on the streets of Renton, a sharp increase from the previous year, but a far cry from the thousands living homeless in Seattle.

And that change in Renton in large part is due to a lack of affordable housing.

The tech boom in Seattle is blowing back to the surburbs...which is a good thing, if we had legislation in place to protect our most vulnerable citizens...all of us.

As anyone in Seattle knows, homelessness doesn't just hurt the homeless...poor leadership, squandered opportunities and bureaucracy over the long term, hurts the taxpayer as well.

By not foreseeing low income housing as an important resource and protecting it as such in a high tech boom, Seattle leadership has been reactive and has effectively given the foxes carte blanch to the hen house by not forcing real estate conglomerates to be accountable to a fair portion of the financial burden and social responsibility of gentrification, not the taxpayer.

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And yet, in the last two years, less than twenty miles away in the suburbs of Renton, billion dollar out-of-state real estate conglomerates using data mining analytics to determine that multifamily properties like Renton Woods are precious plumbs ripe for the picking because of their proximity to Seattle.

According to land records, Renton Woods Apartments, consists of 27 buildings with a total of 260 units. In December 2015 Renton Woods was purchased from AMFP111 Emerald Heights LL for over 40 million.

Asking who is AMFP111 LL is like trying to find Waldo.

Generally these companies have third parties or "resident agents" who broker deals for anonymity. AMFP111Emerald Heights LL is Abacus Capital Group a New York based consortium.

Abacus Capital Group is one of three real estate conglomerates responsible for gobbling up multi family properties in Renton and spitting out 70 low income familes.

Legally they are not being evicted, but rather being notified that their Section 8 housing vouchers will not be "renewed."

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Between the three real estate conglomerates: Abacus Capital Group, TruAmerican Multifamily out of Delaware and California company Fairfield Residential they have purchased 6 multifamily units represent over a thousand apartment units in Renton that are critical for low income families and the city of Renton.

According to Jill Richardson from the Renton Housing Authority, "We have seen this trend of out of state owners purchasing the large apartment complexes. They ask for local property management firms to manage the properties. The local property management companies are very aggressive in getting the business of these out of state owners and promising they can get very high returns and they know how to do it. The property management companies know that by terminating Section 8 tenants - they can raise the rents more aggressively for new renters. One tenant told me they were going to raise the rent of her apartment to $3,000 from $2000 for new Amazon workers that are coming in from out of state. There is a new Amazon warehouse in Auburn."

Neighbor to Renton Woods, Gramercy Apartments, purchased in June 2016 by the Fairfield Residential a California real estate conglomerate for over 61 million and in September issued 42 Section 8 evictions and absolutely no one paid attention.

In Renton, TruAmerican Multifamily out of Delaware, purchased Windsor Place Apartments for over 36 million in September 2015 and has served 7 Section 8 evictions without any press.

Additionally, TruAmerican Multifamily also purchased Carriages at Fairwood Downs in 2014, Montclair Heights and Constellation Apartments. It is unclear if any Section 8 residences have been issued non renewals at those locations.

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What is crystal clear to anyone paying attention is that these companies are like mercenaries, they have zero connection to the community with one goal: to make money for their investors.

They have the property managers do their dirty work like kicking out the low income so they can rebrand the apartments with a name change and new signage, upgrade common areas and units, raise rents, boot out the Section 8 residents and ultimately wipe out affordable housing.

The horrible reality in Seattle, and the surrounding suburbs, is a real estate market that has very limited affordable housing. And without the protection of the "powers that be" these families will be facing homelessness and that burden will ultimately fall to the tax payer and these real estate tycoons walk away with billions.

And right now, the only reason anyone is even paying attention to these folks is because the story broke of the evictions that would put these families with small children out on October 31st, Halloween.

As a result, the media attention and the plea by the residents at Renton Woods effected by the "non-renewals" to the city council and Mayor was cause for the government to consider a "Source of Income Discrimination" ordinance protecting renters whose income comes from Social Security, Social Security Income, Disability, TANF or Section 8 subsidy.

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But why did the city leaders, given the state of homelessness in Seattle, wait so long?

The problem isn't capitalism, it's greed that goes unchecked.

Renton Woods is a horrible symptom of this seemingly incurable disease of homelessness in Seattle...like chopping down the rain forest, once all the low income housing is gone, it's been nearly impossible with all the politicizing, bureaucracy and failure of leadership to get it back.

The city of Renton is in a unique position to learn from our big sis in Seattle and put proactive measures into place BEFORE all affordable housing is gone...these real estate tycoons use data to see the signs that will make them millions and so do our city officials.

According to a recent quote from a Seattle Times article, Jill Richardson from the Renton Housing Authority was quoted, "We are very disturbed, as some of these are landlords that we've partnered with for years," Richardson told council members at the Monday night meeting.

The Times piece went on to say, "How small the pool of participating Renton landlords has shrunk is also unclear. The authority does not track over time the number of units available to Section 8 renters, or the number of landlords who accept Section 8 vouchers."

This isn't exactly correct.

This situation is happening in real time. The city is alerted with the tax windfall when one of these multifamily complexes have been sold and the Renton Housing Authority sends monthly checks and yearly 1099's to the new out of state owners, so it is possible to track.

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According to Richardson, "We give these complexes Housing Assistance Payments each month and yes - we get paperwork showing the new ownership change so that we can process the checks with the new owner name. We give all landlords a year end 1099 that reports all the money that we paid them for the year."

When will government entities move past bureaucracy, pry up a few boards and see the very clear picture that has already emerged in Seattle and is spilling into its suburbs...Out of state conglomerates coming in with the same emotional removal and distance of drone operators who see profits, not people, netting millions for their shareholders leaving suffering in the form of homelessness and taxpayers to pay for it.

At what point do they say, "Hey, maybe we should talk to the Mayor and the City Council, BEFORE, these evictions happen?"

As a result of the media attention, the 41 eviction notices given out to the apartment complex next door to Renton Woods, Grammercy Apartment Homes have been mitigated, for the moment, according to the Renton Housing Authority.

As of today, the 28 Renton Woods Section 8 residents have been given an additional month reprieve and a one thousand dollars pay out toward moving expenses.

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Darren Criss at the Pantages Curtain Call Opening Night, Photos by Chelsea Lauren

The world is not new to being in shock on November 9th. In 2016, the worldwide shock was that Donald Trump could garner over 59 million votes and even though getting less votes than Hillary Clinton, seal the Electoral College and become President Elect. In 1989 the world sat with mouths open as one symbol of communism, oppression, of dictators fell, the Berlin Wall. Yes, the irony of Trump claiming victory on the day the Berlin Wall fell is not lost on me, nor would it be on Hedwig.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch is currently on tour and has stopped at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood until November 27th. In fact, I have seen deals at various outlets giving as much as 30% off tickets for the rest of the extended run, so there's no time like the present if you're in Southern California.

I almost didn't want to see it. My history with Hedwig is long and meaningful; and the play holds a very dear place in my heart. In 1999 I was the soundtrack editor at Billboard Magazine, doing a weekly column on movie, TV, stage and all sorts of soundtracks. I got CDs daily to review. One day one came in without much hoopla. It was from a play that was yet to open in New York, written by John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask. Neither were big names in music or theatre at the time. When I put it on and the blaring Rock began, I instinctively tuned out. I'm not a big rock fan. Especially Punk Rock. But my late husband Andrew Howard loved alternative music and insisted we listen. And listen. And listen. And soon I was singing along. Soon we were having a time with the songs, the lyrics about this poor person who had become a "gender of one." The songs became part of my life.

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Late-early-to-mid-1998-1999 Andrew and I had big jobs in afternoon radio at KFI AM 640 Los Angeles and were making OK money. We decided to go to NYC and see the play. And see it we did, in the basement of the hotel where the Titanic survivors were taken. John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask were in the play and it was beyond sublime. It spoke to anyone that had ever been on the outside; anyone that had ever experienced great love and loss; it spoke of identity and how we tie it to various things, like our gender. It was brash and brazen for the era and the hard-edged music matched the raw emotion and sentiment of the play. The theme of duality, of being one once we've found THE one, sitting next to my husband, my on and off air partner, my life, being history-making openly gay people in traditionally straight media...the play spoke to our cores.

We would see it again with Michael Cerveris, and then, in 2001, Andrew would die unexpectedly. I felt so lost, so like the characters Hedwig sings about in Origins of Love that I had a tattoo from the artwork in the play and subsequent film, two halves, split in two, forever apart, forever searching. My half had been cut from me not by Zeus' lighting bolts but by mistakes ending in a hospital emergency room in Long Beach.

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And every time I hear the music, I think of Andrew, of the time. I think of the fight I had to change the laws so domestic partners could sue...I thought of Hedwig's battle to have both sides of her loved.

Hedwig was a small play with a huge voice, a large heart and a soul, the souls of John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask. When it went big time in 2014 on Broadway, I had my reservations. Was it meant to be a slick production with major stars? Was Hedwig the play, to become like Tommy Gnosis, the character, the slick, produced, soulless sellout that leaves behind the gritty, real, earthy true Hedwig?

Yes, and no.

I went with my friend Daniel Charleston, 29, who had not seen the play. He loved it. The Pantages knows how to throw a red, or in this case, pink carpet. Demi Moore showed up, Taylor Lautner, John Stamos said hello to me and asked if he knew me. I said probably not, but he does know my friend James Mulligan who had introduced us before. Yes, that's it. I was the envy of every girl, and some men, around for speaking with him. How funny, I thought, during the original run off-Broadway bodies of dead junkies were taken out around those in line. Now, there's Hollywood elite lined up.



Darren Criss, Lena Hall and cast of Hedwig Photos by Chelsea Lauren

Darren Criss, of Glee fame, is Hedwig this time out (he's done it before). Again, how did I feel about a non-gay person playing Hedwig? Broadway had Neil Patrick-Harris, America's favorite gay. But also Taye Diggs and Michael C. Hall; each, if the internet is correct, brilliant in their own way. Well seeing how Hedwig is indeed a gender of one, it means any one of any gender or sexuality should and could play Hedwig. In fact, the Tony-winning star Lena Hall, famous for playing Yitzhak in the play, often plays Hedwig. So I quickly got over that.

How would a one-man-glam-punk-rock-musical (because it basically is a one man(?) show) that could easily be seen at CBGB (if still open) play at one of the grandest theatres in the world to an audience of Glitteratti? Coco Peru was there, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, heck, me!

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Effortlessly. It appears Hedwig's personna is so large it can fill any theatre and still make it seem like it's all just for you, that you are, in fact, at a Sizzler or some diner watching this spectacle unfold.

The plot ? Just a typical love story about a young man yearning for freedom, living in the oppressive world of a split Berlin, behind a wall over which he cannot escape. He's gay, we think and finds a sugar daddy who wants to marry him and take him to the USA. Except HE has to become SHE. The surgery goes horribly wrong, thus the angry inch, or the "one inch mound of flesh, where my penis used to be where my vagina never was, it was a one inch mound of flesh...." It becomes "what he has to work with..."

But leave Hedwig does, to a trailer park in the Midwest where she's abandoned for another man and a year later the wall falls and none of this would have been necessary at all. Along the way there's the story of a young teenage soon-to-be-heart throb, Tommy Gnosis. Tommy sells out after being taught rock's basics by Hedwig who learned them in an oven in a kitchen in Berlin over armed forces radio...and Hedwig is bitter. Hedwig is married to Yitzhak, an illegal immigrant, and exerts power and control over him; a sense of control Hedwig has no where else. But Yitzhak isn't Hedwig's true love, Tommy is. But who is Tommy, really? And Yitzhak? And Hedwig him/her self?

The music is still as raw, emotional and shocking as it was in 1998 when it was written and auditioned at the local drag punk bar in NYC by Mitchell and Trask. And as Trump was claiming victory, the themes of the play rang even more true. In fact, between their last production of "Cabaret" and now this, the Pantages is bringing theatre so extraordinarily relevant to our times to the public. Add in the upcoming "Hamilton" and who says Broadway can't spread social messages?

Criss, who has played Hedwig before, camps his way through the monologues just enough, because Hedwig's biggest defense mechanisms are wit and tongue combined. Hedwig's observations and commentaries are biting and often tragic and as he almost screams and demands his way to love and acceptance the audience gets a feel for the vast loneliness that can inhabit a soul.

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Lena Hall as Yitzhak Photos by Chelsea Lauren

And perhaps the biggest moment of freedom of the evening comes when Lena Hall's Yitzhak finally has acceptance and love from Hedwig, and from inside, and blossoms on stage from caterpillar to butterfly. Hall has played this enough time sot have it down as second nature, and it provides one of the most moving moments of the evening.

Hedwig redefined the stage and film version of the Rock musical. Now that it is one of the touring productions, the multi-million dollar big-ticket shows, it hasn't lost the small theatre honesty and the music remains some of the best written for theatre, ever. The production value is increased, with moving sets and bigger animations for "Origins of Love" but the heart, and soul, has remained.
Local students and their supporters march during a walkout protest against US President-elect Donald Trump in Seattle, Washington on November 14, 2016. / AFP / Jason Redmond (Photo credit should read JASON REDMOND/AFP/Getty Images)

In the past week, Democrats lost the presidential election while America suffered the ultimate loss of two unique public voices: Leonard Cohen and Gwen Ifill. Ifill was co-anchor of the nightly news show PBS NewsHour (which some still refer to by its original name, the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, showing how influential this show's anchors have been in the past). Ifill will be greatly missed, as she was not only a voice of reason with great intelligence behind it, but also a voice for people not normally heard from in broadcast news.

Ifill once remarked that she made more money in a week than her father made in a year, and she never forgot her humble beginnings in her reporting, as she consistently pressured politicians on what their policy positions actually meant for people on the lower economic rungs of the ladder. She was, in a word, authentic -- something even rarer in national journalism than it is in the world of politics.

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I join millions of Americans now mourning the loss of one of the most relatable journalists on the national scene. Ifill will be greatly missed, that much is certain.

So will Leonard Cohen, for different reasons. Cohen's music spoke to millions, and provided the most moving tribute to both his work and the campaign of Hillary Clinton this weekend, when Saturday Night Live opened with Kate McKinnon (dressed as Hillary Clinton) playing the piano and singing Cohen's best-known work, "Hallelujah."

I did my best, it wasn't much I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool ya And even though it all went wrong I'll stand before the Lord of Song With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

To me, at least, this was one of the most poignant "cold open" scenes ever, in the long and storied history of SNL -- right up there with Rudy Giuliani and Lorne Michaels addressing the nation after 9/11. In one heartfelt moment, McKinnon summed up the loss millions were feeling not only because of Cohen's death, but also because of the outcome of the election.

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Now, losing elections is a part of the political process. Nobody wins all the time -- and shouldn't. It's what keeps parties from getting out of touch, to be blunt. But I was reminded today of not just Hillary Clinton's loss for the Democrats, but of the inevitable loss for our country of the presidency of Barack Obama. I say this because I just finished watching Obama's press conference, and couldn't help but wonder what Donald Trump press conferences will be like in the near future.

The end of Obama's presidency has been completely overshadowed by the presidential race, for over a year now. But a remarkable thing has happened during that time period. Obama's job approval has skyrocketed. On New Year's Day, Obama's average daily job approval at RealClearPolitics.com stood at 43.6 percent. Over half of America -- 52.0 percent -- disapproved of the job he was doing. Since that time, Obama has won back a large portion of the public and completely flipped those numbers.

His daily job approval rating today is 52.6 percent, to only 44.0 percent disapproval. The Gallup daily tracking poll actually has Obama at 57 percent approval today -- a whopping 17 points higher than his disapproval rating. That is an astounding turnaround, and it shows that while everyone was obsessing over the race for his successor, more and more people decided that they're going to miss Obama when he's gone.

This was on my mind while I watched Obama field questions from the press today. All presidents have their own style when talking to the press, of course. Some are better in some ways, others excel in different ways. Almost all presidents come into office promising much more press accessibility, but then soon discover it's easier not to answer questions in a live press conference. Obama was no different in this regard, as he entered office promising all sorts of high standards for accessibility (such as holding live town hall meetings on a monthly basis, in different parts of the country). Most of these ideas soon fell by the wayside. There were indeed very long periods during Obama's term in office where no press conferences were held at all (much to the annoyance of the White House press corps).

But when he did hold pressers, Obama's style was to give extremely long answers to each question, and (for the most part) to do so in as sober and calm a manner as possible. "No-Drama Obama" was the one who showed up to talk to the press, to put this another way. We saw this today, as Obama fielded questions about the transition to the Trump presidency.

Obama was obviously feeling the rejection of the election personally. I'd have to check the transcript, but I don't believe Obama even managed to say the name "Donald Trump" at any point, using "the president-elect" or "the next president" instead. That's pretty revealing, when you can't even utter the guy's name. But at the same time, it was subtle. In no way did Obama otherwise express his disappointment with the country's choice of Trump -- in fact, Obama refused to rise to multiple baited questions on this subject today. After all, while other Democrats are free to speak their minds on Donald Trump, Obama has to actually work with the guy for the next few months. And Obama knows that the outgoing transition to power is as much a part of his legacy as what came before it.

What will President Trump be like in press conferences? How will they be different than Obama press conferences? Well, if history is any guide, Trump will do more press conferences at the very start than he will later on. In the early days of his campaign, Trump used to love jousting with the press, and would answer all their questions without limit. Later on, not so much. As president, he'll probably be able to tell those who would stifle his voice that the people deserved to hear from their president, so he'll be doing press conferences once again.

The biggest question I have about Trump speaking to the press as president is who is going to be in that audience? Will Trump himself pick and choose which journalists get press credentials for the White House press pool? Such a question would be almost unthinkable for anyone else entering the job, but it's not exactly a stretch of the imagination to see Trump banning journalists he didn't personally approve of. So will the room be filled only with Fox News reporters (with a few Breitbart "reporters" for flavor, perhaps)? Or will the media continue to be able to pick who represents them in the White House? As far as I can see, that is still a very open question.

Trump is likely to get more questions per press conference than Obama, unless he cuts the press conferences off a lot shorter. Obama, as mentioned, likes to "filibuster" questions by providing long and detailed answers, complete with many pauses and reflection. The upshot of this is that fewer questions fit into a one-hour period. I somehow can't see Trump doing the same thing. Trump's pressers will be a lot closer to George W. Bush's press conferences in this particular regard, with lots of short and snappy answers to specific questions. Again, I say this with a fair amount of confidence due to the style Trump displayed during the campaign. Press conference answers, by their very nature, cannot be scripted. No TelePrompTer help is available. Meaning Trump will answer as Trump, and not as his speechwriters. And Trump-as-Trump is a lot more succinct and to the point.

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At some point, Trump is going to stumble badly during an answer. This too is inevitable, and would be no matter who was taking the job. Obama stumbled badly on a few answers early on in his term, and he paid a political price for doing so (see: "beer summit," for an example). Trump will likely do the same, although it is impossible to predict on what issue he'll stumble. But Trump is the master of blustering through faux pas moments, and also of directly attacking the press corps itself when uncomfortable questions arise. His supporters see both of these as strengths, and will likely continue to do so when he's president. Trump's freewheeling style has gotten him to where he is, and he'll be relying on it when he does his first White House press conferences as well.

This all brings me back to where I began, because watching Obama today filled me with a sense of loss. We're not going to get detailed and multifaceted answers to questions anymore from our president -- at least, not for the next four years. Trump may be closer to "all-drama" than Obama's "no-drama" style. This will, doubtlessly, prove to be more entertaining, but also less instructive.

Even if Hillary Clinton had won the presidency, we'd still be on the brink of the end of Obama's time in office. Clinton's style is different from Obama's as well, so either way we'd be missing Obama next year (although, for Democrats, much less acutely). Presidential job approval ratings usually jump upwards during their lame-duck period (this was even true for George W. Bush, whose dismal ratings actually moved up a bit, once the 2008 election was over). It is even now possible that Obama could leave office with job approval ratings close to where he entered office -- with over six in ten Americans approving of him. When I attended the Democratic National Convention this year and heard President Obama speak, there were a few "impossible dream" chants from the crowd, of: "Four more years!" Due to term limits, this is simply not possible, but it certainly gave rise to the thought of how Obama would have done against Trump in the campaign.

President Obama will be missed when he's gone from office. The loss of the Obama presidency would have happened no matter who had won last week, but few in the media have been focusing on it. But while the campaign consumed all available media attention, something interesting was happening with the public. Their approval for President Obama grew significantly, and now stands at the highest point Obama has seen during his entire second term. The loss of Obama running the country was inevitable, but now more and more people are going to come to the same conclusion. We're going to miss President Barack Obama when he's gone.

Chris Weigant blogs at:
Whenever I see that post making its rounds on Facebook that says, "One of the truest signs of maturity is the ability to disagree with someone while still remaining respectful" I want to dig up the bodies of the half a million dead Iraqis and demand that they start showing some damn respect.

The people who are demanding that we, "reach out," and, "politically engage," or even worse, the completely cringe inducing, "raise the vibration," are completely and utterly missing the point. Let's gloss over the fact that the alt-right (which is a political euphemism of epic mental acrobatics to rename what can only be called white supremacists, and who were also one of the driving forces behind the President-elect) has still never acknowledged President Obama as legitimate, or allowed that folks should be free to choose whom they marry. Let's instead jump to the following scenario:

Two carpenters are discussing how to frame a house.

Carpenter one says, "We should use studs every 14 inches and joist hangers for strength and longevity."

Carpenter two says, "Nope, we can toenail those studs in because it's quicker and cheaper but we'll put them on 12 inch centers to make up for it."

That's polite disagreement. That's respectful discourse.

Then Carpenter three shows up.

Carpenter three says, "Guys, guys, let's hold the whole thing together with bubblegum. It will be fast and cheap and make the entire place smell like cinnamon. We'll save a fortune on holiday potpourri!" Now the polite discourse should end. The first two carpenters should send the third one packing, with exactly as much respect as he or she deserves, which is none at all.

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Or imagine two rocket scientists discussing a Mars landing. Scientist one says, "Let's go with a controlled descent for safety."

Scientist two goes, "Nope, let's drop it like a rock, but use an inflatable landing bubble." Respectful discussion follows.

Then Scientist three shows up and is all, "Fellas, you got it all wrong. The sun goes AROUND the earth, not the other way around. We can get to Mars based on our faith in God."

End of polite discussion. That third voice does not deserve a place at the table. Not even remotely.

More on topic, pretend two policy wonks are discussing the AIDS epidemic and one says that we should encourage condom use, and the other says we should have more sex education in schools. Then a third wonk comes in and says, "What epidemic? AIDS is God's punishment for those who are gay. And by the way, homosexuality can be cured!" Kick that third guy out of the discussion. Do not "respect" his point of view, do not have "polite discourse" with him. Do not even acknowledge that his ideas are worthy of discussion or consideration. They are not, not when people are dying in agony, not when families are being torn apart by sexual politics. Respecting this guys is NOT a sign of maturity, it is a sign of cowardice.

When the third person walks into the climate change discussion and says, "What climate change? That's a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese," then we are right to discount that person's point of view, the same as we should discount someone who doesn't believe in gravity or insists that lizard people live among us (about 12 million Americans believe this, by the way).

When you're trying to work through the complicated and subtly nuanced minefield of immigration and someone comes in and says, "Yo, build a wall, a big, beautiful wall," does that guy deserve "respectful discourse?" If you're having trouble deciding, and need some precedent to push you over the edge, remind yourself that the same guy suggested that it's not only acceptable but worthy of bragging rights to grab half the population by the genitals. Give that guy the "mature discussion" that he deserves, which is exactly zero.

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After medical school, the new graduates are required to do further training in residency programs which can last from 3 to 8 years. This training takes place in hospitals around the country and is overseen by the Accreditation Counsel on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). During this training, the residents spend long hours in the hospitals and clinics where they learn from attending physicians. This added training is essential as the four years of medical school is just not enough to learn all the material and skill sets necessary to safely and independently take care of the multitude of problems that these physicians will face from the patient population.

Unlike medical school where the student is paying a tuition for the education, the resident physicians are paid a salary. They are providing valuable work for the hospitals and clinics as they are taking care of patients and providing coverage day and night, weekends and holidays. This salary is about $50,000 per year. In comparison, a physician assistant salary is about $86,000 per year. Surprisingly, most of a resident's salary is funded by the United States government. This funding emanated from Congressional hearings which occurred during the formation of Medicare in 1965.

"Educational activities enhance the quality of care in an institution, and it is intended, until the community undertakes to bear such education costs in some other way, that a part of the net cost of such activities (including stipends of trainees, as well as compensation of teachers and other costs) should be borne to an appropriate extent by the hospital insurance program." (House Report, Number 213, 89th Congress, 1st session 32 (1965) and Senate Report, Number 404, Pt. 1 89th Congress 1 Session 36 (1965))

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Under President Lyndon Johnson, the Social Security Act of 1965, established Medicare. A part of Medicare was funding for the residency positions throughout the country. Since there are about 100,000 residents in training, the salary for these residents is about $5 billion. There are other costs associated with educating residents such as malpractice coverage, attending salaries attached to the teaching component of the practice, and the added costs of the clinical tests ordered by the residents who have a tendency to order more than a more senior physician may be inclined to do. Other costs include a Graduate Medical Education office to administer the training programs, accreditation fees, and educational space. Medicare also pays for a portion of these added costs so that, today, about $10 billion is distributed to the various teaching hospitals in the country to cover the costs of this graduate medical education.

Medicare payments for these Direct Graduate Medical Education (DGME) costs go directly to the hospitals that train the residents. Payments to the residents come from the hospitals. In many states, Medicaid also provides some funding for Graduate Medical Education. Veterans Administration Hospitals also provide funding for residents in their hospitals.

Teaching hospitals also receive an Indirect Medical Education (IME) payment from Medicare for the increased medical costs associated with treating more complex patients. This payment is directed for maintaining a standby capacity for such things as burn units and trauma centers; these payments are not for resident training costs.

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The United States funding of graduate medical education serves a strong public interest. A knowledgeable, trained, experienced, and skilled physician work force is essential to provide the health care needed for our society.

Prior to the establishment of Medicare, residents would work for the hospital but they were paid very little. They would generally live in the hospital, thus the term "resident." They would rarely get time off but they would usually be fed and have their uniforms and malpractice insurance premiums paid for by the hospital. The elite residency programs like Johns Hopkins, Massachusetts General, the University of Chicago, and Mayo were highly sought after and, as a result, the salary could be kept low. In a way, the prestige of the training institution led to a de facto tuition payment, in the form of work provided, by those seeking to do the residency.

It may seem like the costs for resident education are high, but the return on investment is significant. With the present duty hour restrictions which limits the resident to just 80 hours in the hospital per week, doing the math reveals that the resident is being paid about $12 per hour. Since residents actually do a significant amount of the patient care in the hospitals and clinics, those facilities with residents can actually take care of many more patients and they are better able to manage patients with highly complex (and expensive) disease processes.

In 1997, Congress put a 100,000 cap on the number of residents it was willing to fund. This cap has been one of the reasons that the United States is facing a physician shortage. Existing medical schools have increased their capacity and new medical schools have been started to help address the projected shortage, but the cap on residency slots may prevent some of these new medical school graduates from getting the residency training they will need to, eventually, go into practice.

Since the hospitals are making money on the resident's labor, perhaps they should contribute more to resident salaries. As there are more medical students graduating each year than there are residency slots available to them, perhaps it is time to refigure the graduate medical education funding which could help alleviate the projected physician shortages being projected in the near future. Perhaps, the United States can only afford to fund 100,000 residency slots per year. If so, it is time for the hospitals, the states and the cities to contribute to this essential graduate medical education. Let's pay our medical school graduates for the work that they do and this pay should better reflect the value they bring to our health care industry.

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Becoming a physician is a costly endeavor. A four year public university medical tuition is about $208,000; a private school medical tuition is about $280,000 (Association of American Medical Colleges 2013 data). The four years of medical school would result in lost salary ($57,000 per year for a bachelor degree holding American). Assuming no tuition support, this leaves a typical medical school graduate over $400,000 in debt. Now, with physician pay cuts resulting from an artificial health care market mandated by Obamacare, it will be years before a physician starts seeing a reasonable return on the investment which may allow him to justify the years of study, lost sleep, aggravation from a contentious malpractice environment, and loss of esteem held by an unknowing public. It is not surprising that many of our best students are opting out of a potential career as a physician.

The added pay which our medical and surgical residents deserve should go a long way in helping these young physicians get out from the debt they have accrued in getting their undergraduate and medical education. This pay adjustment may not be enough to keep our best and brightest interested in pursuing a medical career, but it would be a good start.
The good news about the civil rights struggle, suggests a new PBS special, is that we're winning it.

The less good news is that it will never be won.

The price of human dignity remains eternal vigilance.

Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise, a two-part, four-hour production that starts this Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET and finishes the following Tuesday, uses a wide range of commentators and perspectives to deliver that mixed message.

"We are making progress," says Charlayne Hunter-Gault, the long-time journalist who is one of the commentators. "There's just a lot still to be done."

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If that sounds amorphous, it's the only conclusion the show could reach, says the man who put it together, Dr. Henry Louis Gates.

"Our premise," says Gates, "was that if Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came back and said, 'What's happened over the last 50 years?', what would you tell him?"

On the encouraging side, says Gates, "The black middle class has quadrupled since 1970. In 1966, Yale's graduating class had six black males. In my class (1973), there were 96.

"On the other side, the child poverty rate today is about the same as it was in 1968. Almost half of black children live in poverty.

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"So if you made it to the middle class, these are the best of times. If you're in poverty, it's still the worst of times."

That situation in turn has created another new twist for in black America, the show suggests.

"In the 'good old days' of segregation," says Gates, "black janitors and doctors lived in the same community. Now there are two black Americas."

The larger challenge with And Still I Rise, then, says Gates, was "how you write a narrative that's not all negative or not all pie in the sky."

Hunter-Gault says the best way to get perspective is to return to the premise Dr. King famously laid out in his 1963 March on Washington speech.

"The ultimate aim is what Dr. King said there," says Hunter-Gault. "That we be judged by the content of our character, not the color of our skin."

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She says she sees some of that these days. More of that. Just not enough.

Part of the reason, she says, remains institutional.

"We're seeing a resegregation of the schools," she says. "That's troubling. And something like 85% of the teachers are white and don't always understand the history of the black experience in America."

Just as important, though, she says, are the unspoken barriers between individuals, even friends.

Hunter-Gault (above) recounts being picked up for a speaking engagement at the University of Mississippi by a local black high school student. He told her about having a white friend who was riding with him one night and when the conversation turned to race, the white friend said, "Let me out."

"The white friend later came back and started talking about it," she says. "The point is that we all have to get past the difficult parts."

Sadly, suggests Hunter-Gault, that wasn't an isolated incident.

"I went to a party on Martha's Vineyard," she says. "It was an integrated party. But the white and black people there didn't know each other. It's just our way of living. We don't always have areas of mutual interest.

"Is that ever going to end? I doubt it. But it will get better. We have to make the effort. In order to become better citizens, sometimes we have to be willing to be uncomfortable."

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As the Mississippi-and-Massachusetts examples suggest, Hunter-Gault also looks on race relations as a national concern, not the relatively isolated regional issue some wanted to make it back in the 1950s and 1960s.

"It's not just the South," she says, noting that incidents like police shootings over the last couple of years have happened in the North as well. "What's happening now is that the lid has come off the entire country."
Vietnamese gov't to squeeze more cash out of major cities

Ho Chi Minh City has protested the budget cuts, citing its strained infrastructure and large population. Photo by VnExpress/Minh Tri

Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Da Nang will all have to chip in more to the state coffers.

Despite opposition, Vietnams top legislative body has decided that major cities have to share more of their revenues with the central government starting next year.

Ho Chi Minh City, the countrys largest economic hub, will have to contribute 82 percent of its income to the state budget in 2017, compared to the current 77 percent, the National Assembly decided on Monday.

Hanoi will also have to share 68 percent of its revenue instead of 58 percent; and Da Nang 32 percent compared to the current 15 percent.

Last month, HCMC leaders bristled at the governments proposal to cut the rate of income the city is allowed to retain from the current 23 percent to 17 percent.

Officials said that theyre already grappling to address major infrastructure problems like traffic and flooding and cannot afford to lose further revenue.

The countrys largest city, with around 12 million people, is among 20 percent of the cities and provinces in Vietnam that can cover their own expenditure and contribute to the national coffers. The city took in nearly $12 billion last year as the countrys largest moneymaker.

Nguyen Thi Quyet Tam, Ho Chi Minh Citys legislature chairwoman, said theyve already cut spending to the bone and would struggle with less money.

Tam described the proposed cuts as too abrupt for the city to handle.

City officials have suggested more gradual cuts so it can keep 21 percent of its income next year.

Vietnams government has flaunted its borrowing limits in recent years.

Figures released in June showed a state budget deficit of more than VND260.14 trillion ($11.5 billion) in 2014 -- a figure equivalent to 6.61 percent of the countrys gross domestic product that year. In 2013, the countrys legislators set a 5.3 percent cap on debt, but the deficit amounted to roughly VND236.76 trillion, or 6.6 percent of GDP.

The countrys accumulated public debt is forecast to rise to 63.8 percent of GDP at the end of this year, and then 64.7 percent in 2018, according to World Bank projections.

The countrys legislature has capped accumulated debt at 65 percent.

Related news:

>HCMC warns proposed budget cuts could have 'dire consequences'

>Vietnam raises debt ceiling
What can Japan expect during the next four years with Donald Trump at the helm? More of the same. Although many in Japan are bracing for the worst, I contend not much will change. Despite all his rhetoric, Mr. Trump is coming back down to earth quickly.

Defense - As promised, the Trump administration will seek more money to maintain US defense forces in Japan. Japan pays around 190 billion yen to help defray the costs associated with having US bases within its borders. (1) This will surely go up. That having been said, anticipate not much else to change including his previous inclination toward encouraging Japan to have its own nuclear weapons. Both nations want and need each other to contain Chinese expansionist efforts. Japan will remain America's staunchest non-nuclear ally in the Pacific.

Trade - Pronouncements of the death of TPP are premature. The agreement serves the interests of too many nations to disappear. But the idea of TPP without the United States is a possibility. Alternatively, with a few changes to its charter, TPP could well survive a Congressional vote. That's where I am putting my money. There is the possibility for a changed landscape regarding tariffs and other trade barriers. For Japan, this would hurt even though Japan has done a superb job of relocating many production facilities inside the USA since the 1980's. Even so, a tit-for-tat tariff war will never happen as Mr. Trump hears from his business supporters and constituents.

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Visa - Whereas Japan will continue to open its doors to people with the right skills, the US will in all likelihood eliminate the J-1 visa which is issued to research scholars, professors and exchange visitors who participate in programs that promote cultural exchange, especially medical or business, Not good news for college and university students, but not that dramatic an impact on Japan which has seen the number of Japanese students dwindle in recent decades. The total last year was roughly 20,000 Japanese. (2) Mr. Trump may also alter the H-1B visa program. That program permits employers to hire overseas nationals in specialty occupations temporarily. If the worker is dismissed or the job discontinued, the worker must leave the U.S. Again, large numbers of Japanese do not work in the USA to begin with, so the impact will be limited. The surprise may come in the number of Americans who flee America under a Trump Administration with some ending up in Japan.

Overall - Mr. Trump was a master at using social media to target his audience with the vitriol and fear needed to win. However, I anticipate a very different type of leadership once he is in office. We are already seeing signs of conciliation and an air of partnership. As the gravity of his responsibility sets in, his huff and puff will disappear. For Japan, not much will change as it remains a strong partner in prosperity with the USA.

(1) http://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20160530/p2a/00m/0na/017000c
Federal trial judge Gonzalo Curiel has set November 28 as the trial date for a lawsuit in which former students allege they were defrauded by Trump University. But over the weekend, lawyers for Trump filed papers asking Curiel to delay the trial, to be held in San Diego, until after January 20, when Donald Trump, the former president of Trump University, is set to be inaugurated as President of the United States.

Trump's lawyers, alleging that Trump is busy with the transition, also requested that Trump be permitted to testify through a videotaped deposition conducted at a secret location, rather than having to appear live in the courtroom.

As an advocate for students, that latter request suits me fine.

Former Trump University students are suing Trump in two separate class action lawsuits, alleging that Trump University, an unaccredited real estate training program operating in California, Florida, and New York, promised students they would be taught by instructors "hand-picked" by Trump, when in fact Trump did not select the teachers. The suit also contends that Trump should not have called his program a "university" because the New York State Education Department had warned Trump it was illegal to do so. Trump denies doing anything wrong.

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In a separate case in New York, that state's attorney general is suing Trump University, alleging brazen fraud, as recounted by the New York Court of Appeals:"The Attorney General averred that although Trump University speakers represented that the three-day seminar would teach students all they needed to know to be successful real estate investors, the instructors at those three-day seminars then engaged in a 'bait and switch,' telling students that they needed to attend yet another seminar for an additional $5,000 in order to learn more about particular lenders. Instructors at the three-day seminars are also alleged to have engaged in a bait-and-switch by urging students to sign up for 'Trump mentorship packages, which ranged anywhere from $10,000 to $35,000' and supposedly provided 'the only way to succeed in real estate investment.'"

The New York attorney general alleges that even if Trump had nothing to do with picking the hand-picked instructors, he was deeply involved in developing the advertising and recruiting materials designed to separate students from their money.

Lawyers for the students, who filed their case in 2010, told Judge Curiel in papers filed on Monday that Trump is stalling, and that it's time to move ahead with the case, even if it means they won't have any new testimony from Trump; they say they can instead rely on ten hours of videotaped pre-trial depositions they already have taken of Trump.

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But if Trump's lawyers insist that their client should be allowed to testify again, I really do hope they get their wish and have it be on videotape, rather than in the courtroom.

If Trump was not demanding to be able to testify by videotape, and instead showed up at the courthouse in San Diego, the only people who would see his testimony would be the people in the room. The federal courts do not permit video recording of trials.

But if Trump tapes his testimony, there will be a strong public interest argument in favor of the judge releasing the tape.

I want to see that testimony, because I think it will help educate the public not only about their new president, but also how predatory colleges operate -- reeling in students with deceptive and coercive recruiting playbooks.

To add to the drama of Trump having to defend himself against lawyers charging him with fraud, there is of course the added dimension that Trump has attacked Judge Curiel, charging the judge is "a hater of Donald Trump" and had "a conflict" because "he's a Mexican." (Curiel was born in Indiana.) The judge would need to attend the session in order to rule on objections.

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So whether or not the Trump University trial gets delayed, I hope Judge Curiel will grant Donald Trump's motion to testify on videotape, rather than in person.

I wrote an op-ed about this very issue in the New York Times 20 years ago, addressing the trial testimony of two presidents: Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan. You can read it below.
Voter Registration Application for presidential election 2016

In the aftermath of one of the most controversial and emotional U.S. presidential elections, there are at least half of Americans feeling angry, fearful and hopeless about the results. I've encountered people who are crying, popping pills and protesting to ease their pain. Given the deep wounds created over the last campaign year, healing will take time and a conscious effort.

If you're in a funk because your candidate didn't win, here are 7 ways to shift your emotions in a more positive direction.

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1. Replace anger with acknowledgement

Anger is a natural reaction when expectations aren't met, but holding on to anger too long will only hurt your health. As my Italian-born mother would say, it will give you "agita". So, punch a pillow or scream at the top of your lungs, and get all that agita out of your system. Then take a deep breathe and accept that nothing can change the past. That doesn't mean you have to like it, but you do have to acknowledge that what is...is.

2. Replace skepticism with trust



There's been a lot of talk about corruption within our political system, and I have no doubt it exists and has probably existed at various levels since our nation was born. It is far from a perfect system, but it is still a democracy based on giving all adult citizens the right to vote. That process is what gave us our candidates and ultimately our president. Keep in mind that in a democracy, the president is not a dictator with full reign to do whatever he wants. Regain your trust in our democratic process.

3. Replace blame with action



When you complain and blame, you're either preaching to the choir or falling on deaf ears--neither one is a productive use of your time. A more positive strategy going forward would be to take action on those issues that are most important to you, your family and your community. As these issues come up during the next four years, let your voice be heard by writing letters to your Congressperson or Senator, signing petitions, voting and supporting candidates aligned with your beliefs.

4. Replace stagnation with movement

If you've ever been in an auto accident or have lost a loved one, you know how shock feels. It's immobilizing. Yet while you're in a standstill, the sun continues to come up every day, and life goes on. Eventually, your life will too. While it may be hard to imagine, the shock will diminish over time. If you want to kick start the process, start getting back to life and work as usual.

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5. Replace fixation with release



If you're caught in a continuous loop of negative thoughts, words and actions relative to the election, snap out of it by letting go! Stop talking about it. Change the channel in your head from CNN to Disney, or whatever creates happy emotions for you. By redirecting your focus, you'll be able to jump off the insanity-induced cycle of hate and anger.

6. Replace judgment with understanding

Judgment separates. Understanding unifies. Every person has the right to their own opinion or belief system. It doesn't mean you have to agree with them, but you can and should respect their rights. This understanding is the foundation America was built upon. Division, whether it's among the people or within the government only serves to weaken and destroy a nation.

7. Replace worry with faith
Most people tend to think dogs are just naturally happy creatures, always ready for a good time. But an Australian study suggests that some dogs are actually pessimists based on the theory that animals who show heightened expectation of positive outcomes are optimistic, while those who are more inclined to expect negative outcomes are pessimistic.

Optimistic Dogs Expect Good Things to Happen to Them

For the study, which was conducted at the University of Sydney and involved 40 dogs of various breeds and ages, researchers played two tones for the dogs that were two octaves apart. The dogs were taught that if they touched a target when one of the tones played, they would get milk (which they preferred) as a reward. Touching the target when the other tone sounded produced only water.

Once the dogs learned to discriminate between the two tones, the researchers played tones that fell between the two octaves. Some dogs touched the target repeatedly when they heard the ambiguous tones. They were considered optimists, because they continued to be hopeful that the ambiguous tones would result in a reward.

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But some of the dogs grew anxious when the ambiguous tones didn't produce a milk reward, and they quickly gave up. Dr. Melissa Starling of the Faculty of Veterinary Science at the University of Sydney, and lead author of the study told ScienceDaily:

"Pessimistic dogs appeared to be much more stressed by failing a task than optimistic dogs. They would whine and pace and avoid repeating the task while the optimistic dogs would appear unfazed and continue."



The study authors believe that pessimistic dogs aren't unhappy; they're just more comfortable with a predictable routine and need to be encouraged to try new things.

Optimistic Working Dogs Are Better at Some Tasks, While Pessimists Excel at Others

Understanding more about a dog's general outlook can be beneficial to the animal's guardian, trainer, veterinarian, and other caretakers. And knowing whether a dog is more of an optimist or pessimist can also help trainers of working dogs determine which dogs would be best for a particular task.

"This research could help working dog trainers select dogs best suited to working roles. If we knew how optimistic or pessimistic the best candidates for a working role are, we could test dogs' optimism early and identify good candidates for training for that role," said Dr. Starling. "A pessimistic dog that avoids risks would be better as a guide dog while an optimistic, persistent dog would be more suited to detecting drugs or explosives."



Pessimists ... or Realists?

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Marc Bekoff, professor emeritus at the University of Colorado and a world-renowned animal behaviorist, told the Washington Post he isn't sure the dogs who gave up trying to respond to the ambiguous tones should be labeled pessimists. He theorizes that perhaps they were simply realists who stopped looking for milk that would never come.

Bekoff suggests that a truly pathologically pessimistic dog might generalize his failure at the milk and water task, and go on to show less interest in other unrelated reward-based tasks. However, he does believe dogs demonstrate optimistic or pessimistic personality traits - especially dogs who have been abused early in their lives. Those animals, says Bekoff, "just really won't work that hard to get love or affection, having failed before."



"I think it's perfectly legitimate to say that there are optimistic and pessimistic dogs -- and that you can change their behavior," Bekoff concludes.

Research May Help Us Better Understand How Our Dogs Are Feeling

According to Dr. Starling, this research may be invaluable in addressing how animal welfare is assessed. Knowing how optimistic or pessimistic an animal normally is means we can track changes to determine when there are significant variations in emotional state.

"The remarkable power of this is the opportunity to essentially ask a dog 'How are you feeling?' and get an answer," says Starling. "It could be used to monitor their welfare in any environment, to assess how effective enrichment activities might be in improving welfare, and pinpoint exactly what a dog finds emotionally distressing."



Dr. Karen Becker is a proactive and integrative wellness veterinarian. You can visit her site at: MercolaHealthyPets.com

Her goal is to help you create wellness in order to prevent illness in the lives of your pets. This proactive approach seeks to save you and your pet from unnecessary stress and suffering by identifying and removing health obstacles even before disease occurs. Unfortunately, most veterinarians in the United States are trained to be reactive. They wait for symptoms to occur, and often treat those symptoms without addressing the root cause.

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By reading Dr. Becker's information, you'll learn how to make impactful, consistent lifestyle choices to improve your pet's quality of life.
Earlier this summer, the HIV/AIDS effort achieved a notable accomplishment that the rest of the public health community may have overlooked, missing an important learning opportunity. In June, the World Health Organization certified that Thailand achieved what was inconceivable just 20 years ago: elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.Thailand is the first country with a generalized HIV epidemic to achieve this milestone, one that is crucial to epidemic control.

Two decades ago, the HIV epidemic was expanding in Thailand. Use of antiretroviral drugs to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission was an expensive, newly discovered intervention that had barely been implemented in areas of the world where resources were limited and the disease burden was greatest.

Despite these challenges, only 85 children were born with HIV infection in Thailand in 2015, compared to 1,000 children in 2000. This remarkable achievement resulted from a combination of essential factors:

Strong national leadership

A solid, functional health care system

A commitment to extending health care services to all people in the country, including undocumented individuals

What can Thailand's success teach us?

The foundation of Thailand's HIV success story is a decades-long commitment to disease control, a model that other countries can assess and adapt to other global infectious disease threats. Key elements of this successful model include:

Development of a health care system with broad national reach to include people at all socioeconomic levels

Investments in laboratories and surveillance systems

Training of public health officials in epidemiology

Support for collaborative research

A commitment to affordable universal health coverage for all, including documented and undocumented migrant workers

These elements have helped Thailand effectively control other recent emerging health threats, such as SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), avian and H1N1 influenza, multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, border health and noncommunicable diseases. And now, Thailand is redirecting its HIV control efforts to focus on marginalized key populations , including men who have sex with men, transgender individuals, sex workers and people who inject drugs.

A proactive response to epidemics is possible

The global response to emerging infectious disease threats, including Ebola virus and Zika virus, is largely reactive and usually depends on external, international organizations and funding. West Africa was unprepared to respond to the outbreak of Ebola virus, because even the most fundamental elements of a health care system were inadequate in that region. The steps that the international community took to respond to this outbreak were extraordinary.

We can and must do more to respond proactively

The Global Health Security Agenda is a partnership of more than 50 nations, international organizations and nongovernmental stakeholders whose goal is to build countries' capacity to create a world safe from infectious disease threats. Countries and global health leaders are adapting the agenda at a record pace to strengthen the health systems in many resource-constrained countries to prevent and control emerging pandemic threats. World leaders must sustain this effort, because it will require decades (not just years) of commitment and investment, as we saw in Thailand.

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Nearly 40 years ago Close Encounters of the Third Kind set the bar very high for sci-fi films that eschewed conventional all-out action sequences and garnered their strength from immense suspense, evocative visuals and mind-numbing mystery. Arrival is in that same elite category. Brainy. Intense. Scary. It joins a very exclusive club.



(Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

Amy Adams stars in the sci-fi/thriller Arrival.

The source material for this endeavor is the science-fiction short story by Ted Chiang, "Story of Your Life," which was published in 1998 and won a Nebula Award for Best Novella in 2000. That award is given out by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), which verifies this story's geeky pedigree. It was up to executive producer and screenwriter Eric Heisserer (Final Destination 5) to turn Chiang's lofty thoughts on language, linguistics and cognitive science, as they pertain to the worldview of people or aliens in this case, into a cohesive screenplay that uses a very scrambled method of storytelling to disseminate the plot and characters.

Aliens arrive in massive floating vertical pods that land in 12 locations around the world. They actually float just above the ground astounding governments, the military and all who gaze. Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams), a noted linguistics professor, is asked to head a team that will try to communicate with the interlopers. She is helped by the physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) and guided by the military Colonel Weber (Forrest Whitaker), the latter being very intent on making a quick connection with the aliens or possibly annihilating them before anyone has ascertained why they've ventured to earth.

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Dressed in orange hazmat suits, and looking quite strange themselves, the earthlings head into the tall cylinder day after day, hoping to communicate with a being that does not speak in linear terms, sentences or easily discernible patterns. Banks is having a tough time making a breakthrough.

The government is losing patience with the whole endeavor. It has occurred to everyone that the planet may suffer grave consequences beyond anyone's imagination if a meeting of the minds is not imminent. Also, world leaders are antsy and are pointing fingers at each another--especially the Russians and Chinese. Banks: "I know something is going to happen."

Chiang's novella is not for the casual reader. It is complex, told in bits and pieces, in the past, present, and future. Heisserer's ingenious script lays out all the plot pieces as coherently as possible, but it is the brilliant work and guidance by Quebec director Denis Villeneuve, the A-list filmmaker of the thriller Prisoners and the crime/drama/thriller Sicario, that takes this far-fetched and heady sci-fi story to another stratosphere.

Villeneuve turns the Banks character, who is tasked with a near impossible mission, into an everywoman that the audience will root for. Her exceedingly slow and minimal progress, day after day, becomes tedious and disheartening. By the time she makes minimal advances with the unearthly guests, it's so dramatic it's as if she has discovered the cure for cancer. The intensity of her attempted accomplishments, under the threat of the military taking harsh measures, is so nerve-racking at times your heart will stop, then rev, stop then rev, stop...

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Add in the unfathomable visuals of an alien being that defies anything any viewer has ever seen and the sojourn Banks takes you on becomes so mind-boggling even the most hardened sci-fi fans will be impressed. Credit production designer Patrice Vermette (Sicario), supervising art director Isabelle Guay (The Revenant) and set decorators Paul Hotte (300) and Andre Valade for visuals that leave indelible impressions. All the aforementioned will likely receive Oscar nominations for their tech contributions.

The weight of this film is clearly also on the shoulders of Amy Adams, who lets the character revel in strengths and attributes that are often associated with mothering. Patience. Perseverance. Understanding when no one else can. The story is written and directed by men, but the themes are very feminist. Banks grapples with a force that is mightier than anything anyone has every imagined. At the same time she is dealing with an inner conflict she can't understand that has to do with her daughter. That intimate seed is a very personalizing device that claws at Banks' soul. Chiang created this dilemma in his short story, and it augments this very intellectual, science-heavy movie, adding a very sensitive and humane undercurrent.

The cast is filled out with Jeremy Renner as Banks' partner and fellow decipherer who believes in her when all others have abandoned her investigation methods. Whittaker, as the sledgehammer over her head, adds to the blistering pressure of the situation.

Johann Johannsson's (Sicario) mesmerizing score intensifies the drama at every turn. Editor Joe Walker (12 Years A Slave, Sicario) is not afraid to let the footage run long enough to tell the complex story. Bradford Young (Selma, A Most Violent Year) lights crucial interior scenes perfectly, positions the camera in the most opportune places on the countryside that surrounds the space ship and makes scenes of the pods floating precariously above the earth look like ominous vehicles of mass destruction. Young could easily become the first African American cinematographer to be nominated for an Oscar.

If you're up for a sci-fi thriller that expects you to think outside of the box, you won't be disappointed. Don't be dismayed if you can't grasp every plot point quickly and easily. The images you see and things you hear need time to ruminate and be savored.

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At the end of 2 hours and 5 riveting minutes you may feel your brainpower has been tested. Don't' worry. That's what mind-numbing science fiction will do to you. That's what Close Encounters of the Third Kind did to audiences almost 40 years ago.
It is a tragic fact that those who are the most moderate in this world are also the ones who are persecuted most violently. Pacifists like Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi were murdered. Yitzhak Rabin and Malcolm X were killed once their views turned to peace between races. Jewish/Palestinian actor Juliano Mer-Khamis was assassinated for trying to promote a conversation between warring sides. Non-extremist bloggers are incarcerated and murdered throughout the Middle and Far East every day.

Even the disaster of our recent American presidential election can easily be blamed on the fact that a middle-ground, voice-of-reason candidate like Bernie Sanders was quieted swiftly and energetically by more militant politicians within his own party.

My own experience? Stand on the side of peace and understanding and the bullies will come after you. Guaranteed.

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In this year's Austrian entry to the Foreign Language Oscars race, a masterpiece titled Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe, filmmaker Maria Schrader poetically exposes the life, loves, struggles, works and death of one of the most peaceful and moderate artistic voices of the 20th Century. Austrian Jewish writer Stefan Zweig himself fell victim to the extremist Nazi views of the mid-Thirties and in 1936 left his beloved country at the peak of his fame, never to return to Europe again.

Schrader, who also co-wrote and produced Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe, tells the writer's tale from the year of his departure until... Well, I usually don't want to give the ending of a film away, but this is public knowledge, so yes, until the day of Zweig's death. Schrader masterfully paints a picture of a temperate humanist, using scenes drawn from the photographs of the time, with the help of illustrious cinematographer Wolfgang Thaler (who filmed the 2016 Oscar-nominated Jordanian entry Theeb). She allows for the stillness of the camera, the colors of the frames and the nuances of her charismatic leading man Josef Hader to bring us, her audience along on a wondrous journey.

I'll admit when Schrader pointed out to me that it almost seemed I'd watched the film with three different sets of eyes, she touched on a truth. A part of me was moved to tears by the story of a man, a writer, a much-needed intellectual who left Austria at the same time as my own grandfather Hans left his home in Germany due to the same persecution, and whose destiny ran parallel to his in never seeing their homeland again. As a writer who believes deeply in a much needed peaceful conversation to resolve the chaos of the world, I also watched Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe with the hope things would turn out OK, which of course didn't happen in Zweig's case. Even if you are familiar with his story, the way Schrader tells it with such personal investment and infusing it with freshness, there is a haunting uncertainty that makes it feel almost like a thriller. Will Zweig, at least in this story, turn out to save the world after all with his calm, poetic, peaceful views? Will humanity make it to the 21st Century? And once they do, will they know how to handle democracy and freedom.

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Finally, I watched Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe through the eyes of an audience member, the way we should all go to the movies -- and that's where the joy of watching such a beautifully made film comes in. Watching this exceptional figure, keeping me company in our own moments of political uncertainty, felt reassuring. Even if just for the fact that someone like Zweig existed during such a crucial time, and therefore can exist again. I dare to say Schrader's film should be recommended viewing for anyone kicking and screaming their way through democracy (on social media) these days.

I caught up with Maria Schrader via email, not my favorite vessel for getting to know someone. But through her answers, her own kind reminder of the beloved theater where my grandfather spent some of his most fruitful days in Berlin (which she discovered after taking the time to look him up!) and her no-nonsense description of herself -- you'll find that at the bottom of this piece -- I feel I know her. And I deeply like her, more than most people I've met in person.

Her interview is a connection I'll cherish, her film a gem to hold dear in my heart, for the long days ahead.

It's a leitmotif I notice throughout history, the moderate and peace-seeking are those most often attacked. Stefan Zweig was no exception. Why do you think this is?

Maria Schrader: The monstrosity of German fascism, maybe any kind of radicalism seem to demand opponents and critical voices who are no less radical. But how to put a humanistic and peace-seeking stand in equally loud words? You need a fine brush to paint a nuanced picture.

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For a long time Stefan Zweig refused to condemn Hitler's Germany. He was accused of cowardice, but that accusation falls short. Behind Zweig's position there is a greater, more fundamental point of view. He describes a pacifist's concept when he declares: "I cannot attack. I will not write out of hatred. When my silence is a sign of weakness, I fear I must live with that stigma."

You've explained within the press kit your intellectual reasons for choosing to portray Zweig in your film, instead of other writers in a similar predicament before WWII. But I'm more interested in the emotional spark, what made you think, "I've got to make this film!" about him?

Schrader: There is something mysterious and unpredictable about those moments of decision, as if a door opens. We'd been researching for weeks before the first bits of the movie evoked in my phantasy. I was fascinated by the image of Stefan Zweig, this intellectual, European, urban and world famous figure standing in the midst of endless tropical vegetation, as beautiful as fierce. The difficulty of being torn between two worlds, the contradiction of having a paradise in front of his eyes and -- at the same time -- being permanently haunted by the ferocious pictures of what was going on in Europe, was a crucial part of his life in exile and is probably something every exile has to cope with. At the same time I was intrigued by the cinematic challenge of combining visible and invisible images. We all are able to share his brutal phantasies. I was intrigued by the idea of making a movie about the war, about Europe without being there, without actually filming it.

At one point, during his P.E.N. Congress interviews, Zweig says "politics is becoming the opposite of justice." Is that still true today?

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Schrader: It depends on where to look at, who to listen to. I believed that we would have had the chance of positive change with Bernie Sanders as President. [Slavoj] Zizek recommends that Sanders should withdraw completely, remain silent until the loss of his voice becomes evident and powerful. Maybe he is right, maybe radicalism evokes stronger and 'more authentic' democratic powers. The question is what will we live through until then...

If Zweig lived today, what do you think would be his view of Europe at this point in time? And of the Middle East?

Schrader: That's a hypothetic question. Zweig is considered one of the masterminds of the European Union. He didn't want to survive Europe's catastrophic downfall and committed suicide. He believed in the peacemaking power of cultural exchange and variety. Of course he would be appalled by the fact that we who have experienced his utopia of a united and peaceful Europe are willing to abandon that achievement and are pulling up walls and fences again and close national borders. But I think he meets with Zizek praising the withdrawal, the pullback, and to only " invest hope in the big movements which sweep through the centuries."

How did you cast your leads? In particular the magnificent Josef Hader?

Schrader: Josef Hader is one of the most renowned Austrians nowadays. I was familiar with his work as a writer and comedian since a long time. I was always fascinated by his acting powers, his emotional depth, his sensitivity and intelligence, and I knew he would be at eye level with Zweig. I was thrilled to offer him something completely new in his career and I am grateful and stunned by his performance. Generally I consider myself very lucky to work with the finest casting directors and actors from so many different countries and to gather -- just in the sense of Zweig -- such a multinational, colorful and extraordinary cast of more than 80 actors and actresses. They are the beauty and richness of the movie.

And your cinematographer, Wolfgang Thaler, how did you decide to work with him?

Schrader: I wanted to create a sensual, immediate visual language which was, at the same time, elegant. Besides being one of the most acclaimed European cinematographers Wolfgang is most experienced with shooting in all parts of the world. We discovered the African Island Sao Tome, a virgin territory in terms of movies. Despite the fact that there was no infrastructure, no harbor, no stable electricity and just one flight a week he put all the effort into convincing the producers that this was the most enormous and enriching location for us. He is an adventurer, he makes the impossible possible and he is just a fine person.

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Is there a lesson to be learned from Zweig, apart from his thinking and ideas? Do you think he offers a view into the current asylum seekers crisis? Are there "no islands left" today, as Joseph Brainin pointed out to Zweig during the P.E.N. Congress in Buenos Aires?

Schrader: We all were struck by the sudden actuality of the movie. We shot during the summer of 2015 when the current exodus started and so many refugees arrived in Europe. Now the dialogues in the movie, the 70 years-old historic quotes seem to echo the problems and headlines of our time. When Barbara Sukowa as Zweig's first wife tells him about the thousands of people trying to get onto ships in the harbor of Marseille, we are inevitably reminded of the same scenes happening on the other side of the Mediterranean right now. And yes, I do think, that the movie offers a view into the hardships of current asylum seekers. It might be easier to identify with Zweig because we share a cultural background with him. But the threats and dangers which make people leave a whole existence behind, the fear and the uncertainty are the same, no matter where people come from.

Finally, how would you describe yourself to someone who doesn't know you?

Schrader: Actress, writer, director, mother, sister, daughter, dark curls, light skin.
Not Going to Get Over It

by Em Powers Hunter

"You had better get over it."

Those words written to me on Facebook by a "friend" felt menacing after the election of a man who bragged about sexual assault and has threatened and insulted women, Latinos, Muslims, people of color, disabled people, and anyone that has dared to use their voice and disagree with him. A man who stands for nothing but revels in degradation and destruction. A man who is proud he cheated the government on his taxes by abusing a loophole and happily carries a trail of debts, bankruptcies, and thefts from hard-working people. A man whose life is devoid of giving, kindness, tolerance, selflessness, wisdom, and character.

To my Facebook "friend," I want you to know I will never "get over it." I will never support bigotry and ignorance. I will never get over the fact that an overwhelming number of Americans voted for this man who lacks successful leadership experience, is inarticulate, lies constantly, foments violence and bigotry, lacks self-control, and in a word, is unfit, for the highest office in the land.

I can't get over it, can't forget this. If we do, we are destined to repeat it. As Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Chilling echoes of Hitler and infamous dictators have been evident in Trump's actions and words so I will hold on to the lessons of history and use them because my children's future is in the hands of a narcissistic sociopath with a hair-trigger temper.

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When I woke up this morning, I remembered. It was that sinking, dark feeling you have when you have lost someone you love or a tragedy has occurred and in those first few moments of wakefulness, you remember the horrible memory. In your sleep, you are sometimes set free from the deep sadness but upon awaking, you remember.

I could barely get out of bed as the hopelessness pushed me down. In addition to the hopelessness, I felt swept back 70 or more years to a time where people of color and women were second-class citizens. But I got up. I got up because I have a family to take care of and I have students to teach.

I wondered how I would face my students, students who had told me of their incredulity that Trump could be running for President, that Americans supported him.

All day long, students in my classroom voiced their fears, saying "I can't live here anymore. Trump is going to get rid of me and my family. Goodbye, Mrs. Hunter." Over and over they expressed their worries and feelings that somehow this was no longer their country. Some of my female students actually shared that they felt unsafe because Trump had said such horrible things about women and what he could do to them.

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Others wanted to know how this could happen. They expressed disgust and anger and confusion. They worried about all the people that had voted for a man that seemed to hate Mexicans.

I tried to answer their questions.

I was bolstered by two articles I read this morning. One was entitled "What do we Tell the Children?" by Ali Michael. This was important because for many of us, the idea of a Trump future is a dystopian nightmare. The idea that we will be led and represented by such an ignorant, bigoted, angry person is terrifying. How do we handle it in front of our children? And kids are not stupid. They innately know good and evil. They know bullies. They sensed something was very wrong.

They recognized the incongruity between what they had been taught about anti-bullying, tolerance, and what the President-elect has said and done. As one student told me today, "Mrs. Hunter, everything my parents and teachers taught me means nothing now. Trump bullies people, hurts people, assaults women, wants to deport people, builds walls! That is not what I was taught. Kids are going to think that is the way to treat people."

As I listened to them, I remembered Michael's article and it helped calm my spirit by reminding me of a few key points: 1) our children are afraid and want to be reassured that they will be safe and that their friends will be safe 2) we have a government that has checks and balances so that one despot cannot destroy our country or our people 3) we have to "honor the outcome of the election" but we don't have to support bigotry 4) we can continue to teach our children to stand up for what is right and to speak up and use their voices.

I can teach my students to think critically, question, participate, care, and create a better world. I can share inspiration and truth that will cut through rhetoric and deception. Words have power...in good and bad ways.

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In my classroom, it felt like a decade of work was undone in an instant. It felt as if years of creating positive classroom environments and delivering impassioned lessons about tolerance and equality and kindness were being obliterated in one fell swoop. Already, one student taunted another saying "you are going to be deported" and another boldly announced in a classroom with many students with Mexican heritage that all Mexicans had to be rounded up and thrown out. It was mind-boggling. Yes, teaching just got harder.

Still, I persevered this week and when my students left one of my classes, their spirits seemed brighter. They had debated and argued and begged to share. There was so much that they wanted to say and figure out. It is that spirit of speaking up and thinking that can transform us. I had to smile as one student left, saying, "we should do this more often and Mrs. Hunter, you should run for President."

The second article that encouraged me, "Don't Mourn, Fight Like Hell," was written by Clara Jeffery. She reminded me that Americans are resilient and we are fighters. Her cogent summary of what happened in the last year and where we stand today was a much-needed splash of cold water. The biggest jolt was the reminder of how Trump would have access to our nuclear weapons and how he had discussed this monumental power so carelessly. I needed that jarring reminder to wake up from the despair I felt and realize that we have an undeniable battle ahead. A battle yes, but a winnable battle.

In speaking the truth, Jeffery identified the very real demons that have emerged. What happened on election day was "not just a protest vote by rural whites who feel left behind, but the coming out of a burgeoning white nationalist, authoritarian movement." I don't have to accept that America and neither do my children.

Today, I began the fight. I got up from the ground where I felt knocked down and gathered my strength. I reassured my children and students and sought sustenance, truth, and hope from wiser people. Most importantly, I used my voice and Facebook "friend," guess what? I'm not going to "get over it." Ever. And I'm going to "fight like hell."



Em Powers Hunter is a writer and an educator whose writing has appeared in over 50 publications including the Washington Post, USA Today, and the Christian Science Monitor.
Democratic presidential candidate US Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) is lit by the flash from an audience member's camera at a campaign stop at the University of Arizona in Tuscon, Arizona February 2, 2008. REUTERS/Brian Snyder (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008 (USA)

"It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS. ... The money's rolling in and this is fun." -- CBS CEO Les Moonves discussing Donald Trump, February 2016.

While reporters and pundits sift through their harassing and sometimes anti-Semitic letters and emails from Trump supporters -- and contemplate what the future holds if radio show host Laura Ingraham becomes the next White House press secretary -- few seem to be in the mood to reflect on their just-concluded campaign effort. And even fewer scribes seem willing to accept that the media made serious missteps in their election coverage -- and that those mistakes helped elect Donald Trump president.

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Any implications drawn from the media's broken performance in 2016, a year when Trump's former campaign manager was hired by CNN while still cashing Trump campaign paychecks, have been largely waved off. Much of the media's message today is that the press simply played no significant role in tipping the election to Trump.

Detailing "The Democratic Coalition's Epic Fail," The New York Times' Thomas Edsall cataloged what he saw as the many shortcomings of the Hillary Clinton campaign. What was notably absent from the list of hurdles that Clinton and Democrats failed to clear? The press. It's not even worth discussing, apparently.

There seems to be little interest in acknowledging that the press virtually extinguished policy and issue coverage this campaign cycle. That journalists were bullied by Trump yet often held him to a lower, softer standard than Clinton (see Clinton Foundation vs. Trump Foundation coverage). That the press somehow managed to help normalize a bigoted Republican nominee who openly embraces white nationalism, while showering him with nonstop attention. Or that the press's relentlessly caustic Clinton coverage became a hallmark of the campaign.

Immediately following the election, New York Times Editor Dean Baquet and Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. assured readers that "We believe we reported on both candidates fairly during the presidential campaign." So no, journalists don't seem interested in self-examination, and they certainly don't seem open to admitting that their occasionally colossal blunders helped tip the scales in Trump's favor.

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In fact, quite the contrary. "The press succeeded in exposing Trump for what he was. Voters just decided they didn't care," Politico announced.

Question: How well did the press succeed in getting Trump to release his tax returns? In getting him to release relevant health information about himself? In getting him to hold a press conference during the final months of the campaign?

Answer: The press failed, categorically, in all those routine pursuits. But many journalists today remain certain everything was fine in 2016.

As Media Matters pointed out, in the week after FBI Director James Comey announced that the bureau would be assessing newly discovered emails to find out if they were relevant to its investigation of Clinton's use of a private email server, five of the country's top newspaper published a total of 100 (100!) stories about or mentioning the emails, 46 of them on the front page. Additionally, the three network evening newscasts devoted a total of 25 minutes to the FBI email story during two crucial weeks late in the campaign, compared to just three minutes of policy coverage.

On Twitter, Patrick LaForge, senior editor at The New York Times, suggested it was the FBI that made the Clinton emails such a big issue late in the campaign, and that the paper simply followed the bureau's lead. But it was Times newsroom bosses, not the FBI director, who decided to run seven front-page email stories in three days late last month while millions of Americans were casting early ballots.

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It was Times editors who decided to publish 22 articles mentioning Clinton's email server in the week after the FBI announcement -- over-the-top coverage that at times looked like man-landing-on-the-moon reporting. Just like it was cable news producers who cultivated a manic, hothouse environment in which the term "email" or "emails" was mentioned thousands of times on air in the days following the FBI's email announcement.

All of this for a vague statement regarding, at the time, unseen emails that may or may not prove significant to any investigation. (They ended up not being significant.)

What are some of the consequences of the media's failed campaign coverage? And specifically, its failure to hold Trump to the same transparency and disclosure standard as Clinton?

From The Guardian, November 12 (emphasis added):

"When President-elect Donald Trump enters the White House next year he will bring with him potential conflicts of interest across all areas of government that are unprecedented in American history. Trump, who manages a sprawling, international network of businesses, has thus far refused to put his businesses into a blind trust the way his predecessors in the nation's highest office have traditionally done. Instead he has said his businesses will be run by his own adult children."

The prospect of the president of the United States becoming deeply entangled in business conflicts while trying to lead the world's most powerful nation is stunning.

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But here's the thing: Journalists knew that many, many months ago. They all knew that if Trump won the presidency he would be wallowing in unprecedented conflicts of interest and that Americans likely wouldn't be able to tell where Trump's foreign policy priorities ended and his business goals began.

The looming conflicts were an open secret. So why did that unprecedented threat to transparency generate so little political press attention before the election?

Short answer: Media were too busy hyperventilating about Clinton's emails. And that's when they weren't utterly devoted to undercutting the landmark Clinton charity by hyping supposed conflicts of interest.

Remember when editorial boards lectured Clinton about the need to banish the family's charity in order to placate the always lurking optics police?

"Even if they've done nothing illegal, the foundation will always look too much like a conflict of interest for comfort." (The Boston Globe)

"[T]he only way to eliminate the odor surrounding the foundation is to wind it down and put it in mothballs." (USA Today)

"Impressions such as these are corrosive to national institutions." (The Washington Post)

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By contrast, the press basically gave Trump a pass regarding the land mine of concrete, for-profit conflicts he'd have as president.

Looking back, large, ranging portions of the 2016 campaign coverage were wildly irresponsible. It's equally negligent now for journalists to pretend they played no role in Trump's victory.
With the rise of the modern digital computer, engineers and other cyber experts have tried to add intelligence to machines. Some of the experts even talk of machine consciousness, almost daring to suggest that machines can be programmed to think.

True, computers and other machines do things that appear miraculous. My email to any person anywhere in the world is almost instantaneous. But behind every machine miracle there's lots of science and technology. Programs instruct a computer to play chest, for example. In 1996, an IBM computer program, Deep Blue, played chess with the world chess champion, Gary Kasparov, and defeated him.

Such a technical achievement has been boosting the claims of artificial intelligence. This is a computer field in search of a mission. To this day there's not a widely acceptable definition of what it is.

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Yet artificial intelligence advocates behave as if they are mighty magicians. They make pronouncements about a future of mechanical-human bliss when, like Jesus, they would be cooking immortality and resurrection of human beings -- with enough cash. They also engineer "virtual reality" in the cyberspace. They are even searching for the "immortal mind."

Advanced artificial intelligence programs make computers speak almost like humans. Digital criminals take advantage of these advances ("chatbot technologies"). They put them to work for them: spreading propaganda, fraud, deceiving people to do things that are likely against their own interests or giving the computer criminals confidential information.

Malicious programs enable artificial intelligence avatars to spy and even extract ransom money.

The owners of artificial intelligence are well aware of its malevolent uses. They don't seem to mind that criminals are benefiting from their handiwork. They work primarily for the military and corporations, engineering weapons of surveillance and control. The military and "intelligence" agencies use these artificial intelligence programs for spying and corporations for dis-skilling, disciplining, and managing workers.

It was not always like this. Artificial intelligence was not born in crime and danger. A recent book, "Artificial Intelligence" by John Kontos and Poly Kasda (Notios Anemos, 2015), reveals a very interesting and telling early history of how and why engineers invented artificial intelligence.

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Kontos, professor emeritus of artificial intelligence at the University of Athens, proudly says he was the first Greek engineer who constructed the first digital computer in Greece. This was in 1970. He mentions the world's oldest computer, the Antikythera Mechanism, which was a product of ancient Greek genius. This was a digital astronomical gear clockwork device, flourishing more than twenty-one-and-a-half centuries before 1970, that is, in the second century BCE.

Kontos bemoans the interruption of the golden age of Greek science that gave birth to the Antikythera computer. Westerners and Christianity in particular stifled more than fifteen centuries of Greek technological developments: from the first century BCE until the Turks captured the Greek capital, Constantinople, in 1453. Just imagine, he says, where the Greeks and the world would have been if only the Greeks had been left alone.

He describes the changes in Greece in near apocalyptic terms. "This civilization catastrophe may cost our planet the ecological catastrophe that the persisting barbarism of irrational environmental abuse may cause. Let us hope that the use of Aristotelian logic may prevail and save humankind from the imminent ecological catastrophe," he writes.

Kontos credits Aristotle for introspection and syllogisms. Aristotle's syllogisms triggered the evolution of artificial intelligence.

Kontos joined forces with Poly Kasda, an artist who studied "the self-combustive frenzy of 20th century art." Her 1985 booklet, "Conscious Eye," foresaw developments in artificial intelligence. Kasda noticed painters in the twentieth century were obsessed with introspection: paying more attention to the workings of their minds than the products of their art. Introspection was also in the background of the rising computer programs in artificial intelligence. So Kontos grasped the ingenuity of Kasda and expanded it into this broad understanding of what artificial intelligence is all about.

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Kontos included a translation from the Greek of Kasda's the "Conscious Eye" into this book, one text seeding and illuminating the other. Indeed, Kontos updates and rejuvenates the insights of Kasda, and, in this innovation, creates an exciting, timely, refreshing, and fascinating history of artificial intelligence - of what it could have become.
Authorities in Nghe An Province are investigating why the tower crane collapsed on Monday afternoon.

A tower crane came crashing down into a high school in the central province of Nghe An at around 4:45 p.m. on Monday, killing a student on the playground.

Tran Van Hai, a 10th grader at Le Viet Thuat High School, died instantly after the crane fell right on top of him. He was sitting with his friends, who were not hurt in the incident.

The crane also destroyed part of the school's roof. Some students fainted.

The crane was operated by Truong Thanh, a construction company which is building a new housing project next to the school.

"I was cooking and suddenly heard loud noises outside. As I ran out to check, the crane had collapsed across the fences of the construction site," said Hoa, a witness.

"People were screaming and running in panic," another witness said.

Local authorities have cordoned off the area to investigate the cause of the incident. It is believed that construction work was not going on at the time, with sudden land subsidence suspected to be the cause.

In May, a construction crane toppled into a kindergarten in Ho Chi Minh City due to technical problems and landed right next to a classroom, leaving dozens of children and teachers in panic.

Le Viet Thuat High School was closed after the incident. Photo by VnExpress/Hai Binh

Related news:

> Children led screaming from school after crane truck topples inches from classroom

> Crane truck topples into HCM City pre-school; no injuries reported
The recent US presidential elections have stunned the world, particularly those currently participating in the climate change negotiations in Marrakesh (COP 22). Though the newly elected US president should be received with an open mind, his statements on the environment have already sent shivers across the climate change community.

The arrival of the Trump presidency also provides an opportunity to take stock of the last decade of efforts to decrease emissions, including those from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+). Have the time and money been well invested? Are there reasons for optimism? This article provides a summary of some important emerging lessons to date on REDD+ from the Latin American region.

REDD+ has already proven to be successful, but under certain conditions

A number of lessons on REDD+ can be learnt from the agreement between Norway and Brazil. First, REDD+ can achieve measurable results. While the deforestation trend in the Latin American country picked up a bit recently, the decrease from historical deforestation trends is clear. Second, a minimum level of readiness is required. Brazil had the in-house capacities on policy design, policy implementation, monitoring, and enforcement. If these capacities are not there, external support is needed. The UN-REDD programme provides this type of support. Third, high-level political backing is key. The president and the minister of environment of Brazil threw their full political support behind REDD+. Fourth, the payments must be worth the effort. Norway shelled out not an insignificant amount (1 billion USD) in results-based payments. The results are there for all to see.

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A payment of 5 USD/TnCO2e is below an optimal price; yet, much can still be accomplished

REDD+ payments are at the moment set at 5 USD /TnCO2e. This level of payments dominates the negotiations at the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), the agreements between Norway and countries like Colombia and Peru, and the carbon tax in Chile and Mexico. The figure of 5 USD/TnCO2e is not grounded on forecasts about the price of carbon or estimates of the social cost of emissions. Many practitioners, myself included, hope the price will be revised upwards but it is safe to assume that it will stick at that level in the short and medium run.

How effective these payments can be for transforming landscapes? Based on a series of benefits/costs analyses in Argentina, Paraguay, Ecuador and Panama, the short answer is that REDD+ payments seem capable of promoting transformational change and result in avoided emissions.

A payment of 5 USD/TnCO2e may not be optimal but it does provide sufficient incentives to start addressing some of the most important drivers of deforestation. In Argentina, the expansion of cattle ranching is taking place at the expense of the Chaco ecosystem, the second largest forest type in South America. A payment of 5 USD/TnCO2e is competitive with the returns of the cattle ranching sector and leave a buffer to support implementation costs. A similar result can be observed in Paraguay, a country in which cattle ranching cleans up 300,000 ha of Chaco forest per year. A mechanism that provides payments of USD/TnCO2e would be an effective incentive to address the advance of the biggest driver of deforestation in the Paraguayan Chaco. We observe similar results for tropical forests. In Ecuador, the transformation of forests to cattle ranching (for both meat and milk products) produces benefits below 5 USD/TnCO2e independently of the location of the activity. In Panama, similar levels of payments provide incentives to address more than 40% of emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

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Incentives of 5 USD/TnCO2e leave some drivers off the net

A price of forest carbon set a 5USD/TnCO2e leaves outside land uses like soy cultivation in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, palm oil in Ecuador, and intensive agriculture in tropical countries like Panama. The returns from these activities are above 5 USD/TnCO2e. Yet, as mentioned above, the scope for action is nevertheless significant. Under current technology, soy cannot extent to the whole Chaco Ecosystem leaving cattle ranching as the most significant and immediate driver to address. Palm oil is too profitable but its advance can be directed to already deforested or non-forest lands. In the tropics, the transformation of native forests to intensive agriculture and cattle ranching usually passes first through a stage of secondary forest and Panama shows that REDD+ payments provide sufficient incentives to avoid this change.

Avoid the transformation of primary into secondary forests

The economic benefits of this transition are low and have opportunity costs well below 5USD/TnCO2. Once there is a transformation to secondary forest, the opportunity cost of preventing a transition to agriculture or cattle ranching increases significantly. Secondary forests are often in unstable equilibria and generally represent a first step in a transition to other, non-forested land uses.

A landscape approach that combines conservation and agricultural policies can result in negative opportunity costs (i.e., overall positive economic benefits)

Lessons from Panama show that even in the absence of carbon payments, a combined implementation of forest conservation, restoration and increased carbon content in productive systems have substantial positive economic benefits. Provided that implementation and transaction costs are maintained at reasonable levels, the result is positive economic benefits overall.

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Speculation on land tenure calls for a mix of enforcement and incentives policies

The decision to convert forest may not only be influenced by the profitability of alternative economic activities but also by expectations of achieving land tenure security. Often, land use transitions that do not seem economically attractive become so when the value of land is taken into account. REDD+ has to combine incentives for conservation with actions that support enforcement of laws, particularly those that prohibit forest conversion without legal permit.

Success on increasing carbon stocks in forest and agricultural lands will depend on policies that diminish the perceived risk of these activities and the influence of high discount rates

Increasing carbon stocks in degraded and agricultural lands is dependent on the participation of the private sector and the economic benefits of these activities are highly sensitive to perceptions of risks and temporal preferences. In Panama, for example, the net present value of a sustainably managed forest or a silvopastoril system can increase by a factor of 2 when the discount rate is 4% instead of 12%. This result pales in comparison with that of a forest plantation, where the NPV can increase by a factor of 10.

The definition of monitoring and governance structures should undergo a rigorous cost-benefit analysis

Countries net income from REDD+ will be dependent on implementation and transaction costs. The available experience shows that these cost, if unattended, can be significant and in some contexts can easily surpass opportunity costs. Ignoring these costs can wipe out net national benefits and derail REDD+.

There may be tough times ahead but the potential for change is real

There are fears that Brexit and the results of the US elections are heralding a new era in which a myopic pursuit of national self-interest derails efforts to tackle global problems, like climate change. Time will tell whether these fears proved right. But for the time being, there are reasons to maintain optimism in the field of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

The trend is clear. REDD+ may not provide, at the moment, sufficient incentives to address all drivers of deforestation but it does provide enough ammunition to begin implementing transformational change. For several key drivers, the options are no longer restricted to command, control and penalties but include the establishment of potentially attractive incentives schemes for whole sectors. And REDD+ is not alone. Argentina, for example, has an established framework to provide compensation for avoided deforestation. Paraguay has a law on payments for ecosystem services that can complement REDD+. Ecuador and Costa Rica have already established systems of payments for forest conservation. Panama is embarking on a major forest restoration programme paid by the national government and local partners. The region as a whole has committed more than 20 million hectares for restoration programs.

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A positive user-experience with your brand online is a critical component to your company's credibility. In a study from Econsultancy, almost 50% of users expressed an overall less positive perception of a company after one bad onsite experience. Generally speaking, customers that grow frustrated after engaging with a brand online are not very likely to return back to that site for a 2nd or 3rd time, or to make a purchase.

Too often, I've seen companies make seemingly trivial mistakes with their website design that end up being costly to developing and maintaining a loyal and long-term customer base. For most brands, the way that you lay out your content, including the format, style, and overall design, is linked to how users engage with your organization. When creating a website strategy, and determining how you want to lay out important design features that are connected to your content, keep in mind the following guidelines to ensure that you're optimizing your website for your customers and their respective needs.

1. Small Sizing and Style

One of the most important elements to think about with the way you lay out your onsite content is how you visually display your copy. Onsite copy is essential for users, as it allows them to better understand your services, products, or brand overall. That being said, if you use a small font size or a hard to read font, users will find it difficult to absorb the content, and thus likely fail to grasp what your brand offers.

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Email provider Constant Contact is a great example of appropriate font and styling size, especially on their service pages. Font choice is readable and large enough so that users on smaller devices (like an iPhone) can easily read it. To ensure that text is quick and easy-to-read, limit each line to no more than 13 words. The use of iconography next to each small block of text helps to differentiate each thought and make it simple to read.

2. Too Much Content

Similarly to the sizing and style of your content, it's important that you consider how much content is too much content. For the most part, users don't want to read through paragraph after paragraph of text. Using concise wording that is simple and to the point is without a doubt the most effective way to get your message across. Succinct messaging makes it much easier for your thoughts to resonate with consumers, whether it is about what products you sell, or a particular offering that your company is highlighting.





If you take a look at the above, you'll find the Apple 'support' page. The brand uses an incredibly simple message to convey the objective of the page and how it can help users with their respective needs. If customers want to learn more about their support services they can scroll down and if they want to search for a particular issue, the prominent search bar is easy to use.

Instead of presenting users with excessive amounts of copy immediately when they land on a given page, consider using a bold call-to-action (read more, view more, search here) to lead interested users to a page where they can find more content. This brings us to the next point.

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3. No Call-To-Action for Additional Content

Once you have your core messaging laid out appropriately (from both a content and visual perspective), using a call-to-action that leads users to a separate portion of the page or new landing page is a good way to continue engagement. As mentioned above, users generally don't want to read line after line of text right when they land on a page. By leaving it up to the user to click on a button such as "read more" you're crafting an experience that is on the user's terms. Don't showcase all of your content right away, allow the user to pursue more information about your company's offerings at their own pace throughout their online experience.





Marketo's marketing automation offerings are plentiful. Their solutions are broken into different solutions based on user needs. Instead of showing users a list of possible solutions (9 separate sections) right on the homepage, they present users with the option to "see products" on a different page. Showing the 9 different categories on the homepage certainly would have fit in terms of size, but it would have been too overwhelming for the user.

4. Social Media Signals Where It Doesn't Make Sense

When thinking about how you lay out your content, blog content should definitely be a focal point. However, aside from the format in which you display those posts, the placement and design of your social media signals is crucial. Social media gives your content extended reach, allowing you to engage a much wider audience than you normally would with a normal post. Placing social media signals or share buttons in arbitrary places on your website doesn't make sense.





If you look at the example above from our company's website, Blue Fountain Media, you'll find social media share buttons incorporated to the design of each blog post. Instead of placing this on the homepage, we chose to include this for each article that is published, since this is the type of content that users are most likely to share across their social platforms.



5. Copy That Fails To Entice

There are many brands that use email marketing as one of their tactics to both engage and reengage customers. While this can be incredibly effective at driving conversions, before you begin your email marketing, you need to capture email addresses for interested users. Simply encouraging users to "sign up here" to receive email notifications generally is not very effective. However, using language that is compelling in nature, and incentivizing the experience can be highly effective at driving sign ups.





As you can see above, Best Buy uses compelling copy to highlight an upcoming sale that users will have "inside" knowledge about should they sign up. This content is concise and succinct while still fulfilling its ultimate goal of capturing the interest of users.

Building a Site For Success

The onsite experience you offer your potential and existing customers is so incredibly important to your long term success. The way you display your content is critical to how users will engage with your brand, and how credible they will find your products or services when it comes time to make a purchase or convert. Without a user-experience that offers a seamless interaction online, you'll miss out on countless opportunities to win over new business.
I know my title sounds a bit dismal, and, maybe even unappreciative. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is just hard for me to leave "home."

I am so content living in my beautiful Chicago, in my apartment in the sky, with my husband, Shelly, and my delicious pooch, Orchid.

I am a homebody, and yet, when I venture out, which I often do, I am a city woman who revels in the delight about everything in Chicago.

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I love and enjoy everything about my lifestyle. I live in the heartland of America. I live in a condominium in the middle of the city, one block from Lake Michigan... a lake so huge that it reminds me of my past lovely life, Honolulu, where I was able to gaze daily at the Pacific Ocean.

I look out our windows in my beautiful condominium and I see the city skyscrapers, Navy Pier, lake harbors and parks. What is not to love?

So, I don't feel the need to pack up our bags and move to our second home in California, because I am content. And being content is a marvelous state of mind.

Many of you, dear readers, pack up your bags and travel during the winter months, too. I am sure that many of you feel as I do... that there is no place like home.

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Despite this, we are grateful that we are afforded the time and good fortune to pack up our bags, leave our nest and take off for warm weather during the winter months to either second residences or to family or the unknown.

My husband, Shelly and I travel to our beautiful home in California. I am over the top grateful and never forget my blessings.

My lifestyle in California is 100% different than it is in Chicago. What do I love about Rancho Mirage? Our home.

It is also the place where I found my later in life purpose and passion... to become a writer. If I had not lived in such a sleepy little Hamlet, I know I would have never picked up "pen and paper," so to speak, and begun musing about life after fifty.

My husband and I live in a home in Rancho Mirage that we built from scratch. There was not a blade of grass on the property. I am not bragging when I tell you that everyone says, "The Good home is a home you never want to leave."

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The colors throughout are celadon green, representing God's gift of nature and Chinese red representing the vitality of life. I wanted -- and got -- a rock crystal fire pit because of my spiritual side.

Throughout our home are several very tall live trees and Orchid plants; nothing fake for me! They grace every room because I am a nature lover. It is a Feng Shui home. It is our home and we, to include Orchid, dwell in it with a feeling of total Zen.

My writing began within our home's four walls. It was the natural place. Over the past four years, since I began writing, I have concluded that every one of us, dear readers, has unique life experiences.

Have you ever considered picking up pen and paper within a quiet place in your home and preserving your life experiences for future generations?

Here is what you can do.

1. Research. Keep a journal. Talk with older family members and friends about times past. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) has genealogical resources available to the public. Check their web site at familysearch.org.

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2. Organize your gathered information.

3. WRITE!

4. Edit.

5. Publish for your grands.

Please give thought to preserving your thoughts.

Our bags are packed. We are leaving Wednesday for a totally different lifestyle. I won't hear the fire engines and airplanes overhead. I won't see magnificent architecture and people racing down Michigan Avenue. I will miss my mom and friends left behind. I will miss the people in our building to include the kind concierges and doormen.
It's no secret that New York is one of the best locations in US to launch a new venture, given its robust startup ecosystems. Startups always seek publicity but existing companies have an equal need to gain constant exposure, especially online. Increasingly many companies are using city domains to stake out their digital presence. The New York City (.nyc) is new on the scene, and is one of the most popular domains out there, since New York's top industries -- finance, media, telecom, advertising, real estate, and tech -- ascribe value, define culture, and drive popularity.



Since the domain itself is only three letters long, its concision makes it an attractive buy for any New York City startup, whether for a main site, or for a memorable marketing campaign. In addition, outsider companies looking to do business here are looking for an alternative to the exorbitantly priced .com. that will also have major SEO value.



Ranking high on Google is a key priority for both startups and businesses, as it helps them increase traffic and traction, as well as acquire customers for free. There are strong indicators that .nyc domains allow businesses to target NYC customers with marketing campaigns, using a memorable and very clean sounding name for a fraction of the .com price.



Millennials and venture capitalists alike are increasingly looking locally for new experiences and new investment opportunities -- the common refrain "everything is here" holds even stronger in the 21st century. For both types of people, localization is key. But the emphasis here is on the investor, who wants not only companies with hip new ideas, but those that will last as well.



So increasingly, for companies of all stages and locations, the .nyc domain is a long-term marketing investment. It showcases companies' connection to New York City and its iconic status, and signals to investors that companies with this domain are on the cutting edge, and here to stay.



"With the public launch of .nyc, we broke ground on a new type of real estate in New York City - a unique digital space created for New Yorkers and by New Yorkers." Mayor Bill de Blasio said, ".nyc has become a thriving online community where small businesses, organizations and entrepreneurs across the five boroughs are prospering."

Mayor Bill de Blasio. New York City Mayor



Companies are flocking to the New York City domain for both digital exposure to the NYC market and coverage as new, but savvy, entities. Being a New Yorker has high intrinsic value, as well as high business value, and many feel that working in New York is a highly valuable experience. Outsider companies are taking note. A Google search for "nyc domain names" yields what is essentially all advertising and marketing results -- New York domains are "premium", and "exclusively for New Yorkers." Heard of upgrade.nyc? It's a digital marketplace solely concerned with helping companies get with the eponymous .nyc domain, showing the value of these domains isn't just momentary glitter: It's growing.



One might wonder what the big deal is -- why would any company forego any opportunity to register as a .com, the most popular domain type out there? The answer: .com domains are either all gone or exorbitantly priced. The average three letter .com sells for over $ 100,000! Thus the market for these short .nyc domains is robust. To prove this, as with everything, follow the money. Last week shows domainnamewire.com, an OwnIt.nyc domain name registry auction topped $70,000, with RealEstate.NYC selling highest for $21,300.



Not surprising: Real estate is everything in New York City, and, the website notes, "the numbers would have been higher if .nyc ownership wasn't restricted." (As an aside, also proving the struggle for housing is real here, Apartments.nyc came at a close second, selling for $16,155!)



Having .nyc in the domain title gives added meaning to the domain over .com, allowing for a more clean and precise name targeting a specific audience which ranks better on Google. In addition, the NYC government is fully behind .nyc, and constantly uses it to promote city wide projects, such as MadeInNYFashion.nyc, where they spent $5 million on marketing it all across the city this past Fall.



"The .nyc domain is the ideal top-level domain for NYC-focused businesses and communities. The domain says it all, and serves as an inherent branding device,"

Justin Cina, Marketing Director at Gust.com and Digital.NYC.



For foreign companies looking to stake their roots here, the domain name is even more valuable: the top .nyc domain, outlier.nyc, though headquartered in Brooklyn, showcases German models and German fashion labels. This shows that though only NYC-based companies can buy the domain, those lucky enough to do business with them can share in the value of American purchasing power and the power of great branding with a clean and short .nyc domain.



Companies native to New York and steeped in its markets are taking advantage of this. NYC-based digital agency NeedGrowth has achieved remarkable growth for a wide variety of companies using .nyc and other domains as one of its key tools for growing followership, marketing presence and search engine optimization (SEO), and companies themselves. Concerning search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, and many others, shorter and location specific domain names increase the ranking of websites in search results, resulting in great ROI (return on investment) for companies..



"A lot of people still haven't realized the SEO power behind the .nyc domain."

Dmitry Dragilev, SEO Expert



How to gauge popularity? Alexa.com, the definitive website popularity ranking clearinghouse, determines website popularity by rank, reach, and page views per million data based on global 1-month averages. On average, NYC domains regularly rank in the top 350,000 websites on the internet, giving the .nyc domain a high ROI in terms of page ranking. Of course, higher page ranks increase inbound website traffic, which in turn increases the customer retention percentage a company's website will bring. In terms of marketing, this is gold to companies like MageMojo, whose digital marketing was handled by NeedGrowth to triple the company's growth.



Another example of this kind of marketing lies in redirection. Postcard, a localized social app that shows people where their friends are and where to have fun with them, has utilized uncover.nyc as a memorable call to action and easy to remeber link shortener from which searchers and prospective users can be redirected to their site. As a rule, the better a company can use redirecting links to their parent website, the higher their customer pageviews, clicks, and retention, helping companies like MageMojo and Postcard increase their overall SEO and sales by double-digit, if not triple-digit, percentages.



For foreign companies, therefore, this is not just gold, but necessary going into 2017, where web traffic is the new standard-bearer for customer retention and sales, and a digital presence is everything.



The .nyc domain is the latest digital tool that companies all over the world are using to market their products in New York City, increase their customer base, sell their products, and capitalize on the purchasing power of New Yorkers. It's not to be taken lightly by any New York-based savvy marketing expert, and is becoming the gold standard for web marketing in the Big Apple.
Read The Political Garbage Chute for daily, totally fake news.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Less than 48 hours after alleged billionaire Donald J. Trump was elected as the 45th President of the United States of America, some of the nation's top scientists have made a rather momentous announcement. Speaking at a press conference outside the National Science Institute's headquarters, Dr. Glenda Halsey told reporters the NSI's initial tests confirm an "uptick" in the country's Greatness Quotient -- a measurement the science community has relied upon for centuries to empirically measure just how great a country is or isn't.

"As soon as Mr. Trump was declared the winner," Dr. Halsey told reporters, "the nation's GQ -- that's Greatness Quotient -- went up by 4.8%."



Halsey says that the NSI uses an evaluative battery of tests to determine the GQ of any nation. The tests look to see how many guns are owned per citizen, how much freedom "libtards and other Commies" have, in addition to a multitude of other variables. The results are measured against the optimal levels and then the GQ is calculated. Dr. Halsey, when reporters asked what factors caused or contributed to the uptick in America's GQ, hedged a bit.

"We're not really one hundred percent sure," Dr. Halsey said, "we just know that magically, overnight, America was greater again. Nothing specific happened, but we do have some interesting hypotheses."

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One theory, Halsey said, is that the country's colors stopped running. Another is that a large number of Americans who didn't love it, left it. Still another theory is that Americans en masse began contributing their daily $1.05 to the Freedom Fund started after 9/11 by the George W. Bush administration. Her colleagues told Dr. Halsey they have another theory that involves "millions of true, red-blooded, ammo hoarding patriots" replacing the words "France" or "French" with "freedom" in their common vernacular.
"(A)s is so often the case with outliers, buried in that setback was a golden opportunity...But first we have to be frank about a subject that we would all too often rather ignore." Malcolm Gladwell, "Outliers"

I remember looking out the window of my hotel in Bangkok, Thailand years ago and marveling at the skyscrapers and high-rise stores, shopping centers, and office buildings, with neat sidewalks between the buildings as in any other city.

Then I looked closer and realized those are not sidewalks. They are huts where people live, where very poor people live, mostly the street vendors that line Bangkok's busy streets. These are the people who barely survive on the pittance they earn from international tourists who think it's cool to bargain and pay them as close to nothing as possible.

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Just as it was easy to miss seeing those poor Thai people in their huts, it was easy for American elites to dismiss the struggling rural voters. These rural and small town folks didn't fit neatly into the common narrative and "research." We hear them now.

Those people are so angry and hurting - especially since the financial crisis in 2008 from which they have yet recovered - that they slapped "leaders" across the proverbial face with their ballots on November 8th, 2016 by voting for an outsider who would break Washington at its core for president, even if they question that outsider's personal behavior.

By electing Donald Trump to be the 45th President of the United States the American electorate issued "a primal scream," as Republican strategist Steve Schmidt put it on MSNBC the next day, demanding to be heard, respected and served - and no longer dismissed or treated as an outlier in the research. Schmidt said that this vote reflects "a collapse of trust in institutions" of all kinds, and I would add, in their "leaders": business, government, financial, you name it. Trump connected with these folks, heard their scream, responded to it, was lifted by it. (Bernie Sanders heard it too during the primaries.)

But the "experts" and "leaders" missed it completely, including the polling systems. The "experts" created an echo chamber of what they wanted to hear.

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Therefore, the over-arching lesson of this election result, in my view, is: It's not what you say or do that inspires people to follow you - or vote for you, become your client, hire you for a job, buy your product, or pass your agenda. It's what you hear that matters, because what you hear drives how you read your audience, and what you say and do in response drives how they feel.

So, here are 12 takeaways:

1.Open your eyes and ears to what you aren't seeing and hearing.

2.Notice if they have a different definition to words than you do.

3.Ask people who disagree with you what you're missing. And listen to them.

4.Pay attention to outliers, such as the research that seems like an anomaly, or the voice that is dissonant from the rest.

5.Ask someone to argue the opposite point of view to yours.

6.Catch yourself being judgmental and dismissive - you could be missing something very important.

7.Attend to what you resent and let it go, because it's inevitably in your way, seeping into your communication. Listen to what your audience might resent.

8.Be an active listener, for tone of voice, values, and priorities.

9.Catch yourself when you find yourself tuning out in a conversation, because you might be assuming you already know what they want to tell you.



10.Accept what you don't want to hear. Pay attention to what your "gut" tells you, especially when it does not fit the "data."

11.Challenge your assumptions that underlie your decisions and perspectives.

12.Be wary of market research "summaries" and ask what doesn't fit neatly into their overview.

We tend to dismiss what makes us uncomfortable or doesn't jive with our values or beliefs or assumptions, consciously or unconsciously. Just look at the 2016 U.S. election.

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But that's what we need to listen to most keenly, especially when they make our stomachs churn, or we find ourselves saying "that'll never happen." We have to make an effort to clearly see things that make us want to avert our eyes. That's how we connect with our audience or market.

So, it's not what you say that matters; it's what you hear.



What you hear drives what you say and do - and how you make them feel. How you make them feel drives whether they will follow you, buy from you, work with you or vote for you.

What are you not hearing?


(Protesters are the "Love Trumps Hate" march in Chicago on November 12, 2016)

This is going to be a glass-half-full post. If you're not ready for that, I understand and I beg your indulgence. But what I need right now is some optimism. Winston Churchill once said that an optimist is someone who sees opportunity in every difficulty.

So today, I have decided to be grateful for ... struggle.

I was raised Mormon and one of the most of their most popular scripture verses comes from the Book of Mormon (paraphrased): "For there must needs be opposition in all things. If not so, righteousness could not be brought to pass."

I took that scripture to heart at a young age. And so my whole life I've been looking for a fight. Some grand struggle to throw myself into, to give my little life greater meaning. And yet, I have found myself to be a "rebel without a cause" for the greater portion of my life.

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As an adolescent, I sought that struggle in a stereotypical rebellion against all adult authority. And as a young adult, I sought it in the struggle for the souls of the "unconverted" in South America. Not long after, I sought that struggle in rebellion against the religion I had recently been proselytizing for. But these struggles carried me only so far and left me empty in the end.

It seemed to me that I had been born too late, having missed the great social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s. As a young adult, I read with longing and envy Theodore Roszak's description of the generation that had hoped to change the world. I was too young even to participate in the anti-nuclear movement of the '80s, not to mention having been born into a household on the wrong side of the political spectrum. That bias blinded me to the little revolutions going on all around me (some televised and some not).

It was not until recently, that I found my struggle. Having children gave me a certain perspective, one that stretched beyond the limits of my individual life. And then I had a series of experiences which culminated in what you might call a transcendent moment. In that moment, I saw myself (and all of us) as a small, but paradoxically significant, part of an unimaginably vast universe. My day-to-day concerns and even my natural fear of death melted away. And in their place rose a new sense of responsibility and care for the human species and for all life on Spaceship Earth.

Since then, I have found the struggle that I long sought in fighting for ecological sanity, for the rights of LGBT people, people of color, and women. I have First Unitarian of Hobart and Unitarian Universalism generally to thank for this. Without the UU, I may not have heard some of these calls for justice. My Unitarian friends and those who came before them have been examples to point my way.

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This past Tuesday night, I realized that these struggles have only begun. If I had been tempted to complacency, I found new motivation in the outcome of this last presidential election.

Whatever you think of the neoliberal alternative offered by the Democrats, next year we will have a President who has denied climate change and who may withdraw our country from the Paris climate agreement, which was barely adequate to begin with. A President who is willfully blind to systematic racism and speaks the coded language of white supremacy. And we will have a Vice President who has signed legislation which deprives LGBT citizens of basic rights and respect, and women of the fundamental right to control over their bodies.

We will now have a Republican-controlled Senate and House of Representatives, and in short order, a Republican-controlled Supreme Court and federal judiciary, -- all of whom will likely support the racist, homophobic, xenophobic, misogynistic, and eco-illogical policies of the President-elect and the Vice President, and try to reverse the gains that have been made in recent years.

But let's not forget that the majority of voters did not vote for this outcome, and many who did, did so in spite of, not because of, racism, misogyny, homophobia, and the rest. We are not alone.

We are in for a monumental struggle, one which may define the generations of those now living. I wish it weren't happening, but it is. And so I am looking forward to the fight.

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I realize that this can seem like very privileged attitude. As a white, heterosexual male, living in an industrialized nation, I am in a position of privilege. And many of the policies of the new administration will not impact me directly or immediately.

But I believe there is wisdom in that Mormon scripture: "There must needs be opposition in all things. If not so, righteousness could not be brought to pass." It is my hope that out of this opposition, a deep and widespread righteousness never before seen will spring forth.

Last week in an article at Mother Jones entitled, "Don't Mourn, Fight Like Hell", Clara Jeffrey wrote:

"Just as videos of police shootings shoved the most heinous forms of structural racism into the feeds of white America, ... the actions of Trump and his most virulent supporters cast a light on an ugliness that needed to be confronted to be overcome."

Like draining the puss from an infection -- it's disgusting and painful, but a step toward a healthy body politic.

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I believe -- I must hope -- that having such an obvious and arrogant example of prejudice and meanness ensconced in our highest offices will spur those who have hitherto been complacent into action. And if not, I intend to rouse them with my own voice.

Yesterday, I marched with thousands of people through the streets of Chicago, chanting "Love Trumps Hate". I saw a little Latina girl, maybe 8 years old, carrying a sign which read:

Mr. Trump. I won't be afraid. I'll be loud!!!

I can't think of any better words to close with today: Don't mourn. Fight like hell! Don't be afraid. Be loud!
The anti-Israel left, which supports boycott and sanctions of Israel, paints it as a repressive, apartheid and militarist state. While Israel is hardly perfect, it is a democratic, First World, high-tech, modern state governed by the rule of law that applies to Jews and Arabs, men and women.

By contrast, from 1789 to the Jacksonian revolution of 1828, American voting was restricted to property-owning white males who paid taxes. In some areas these requirements remained until 1856. The great majority of African-Americans were slaves until 1865 and the vast majority could not vote until 1965. Universal suffrage for women did not come until 1920.

In 1917 the October Revolution transformed authoritarian Russia into a repressive Communist state until 1991. Germany, semi-democratic after 1871, devolved into Nazi Germany (1933-1945) that carried out the Holocaust and killed 27 million Russians in World War II. Italy, ruled by a fascist government from 1922-1943, fought on the side of Nazi Germany and became democratic only after World War II. China, after the 1949 Revolution, was and remains a one party authoritarian regime.

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The vast majority of new states after 1945 were poor, authoritarian regimes that often repressed their minorities. Israel was one of only two of over 100 new states (the other being India), that remained democratic from the start. Hebrew and Arabic were the official languages and all Jews and Arabs could vote. An Arab party existed from the start and today an Arab party has the third largest number of delegates (16) in the Knesset.

Israel, unlike authoritarian states, won the wars for survival and then made, or was prepared to make, withdrawals from Arab territory. In 1948, 1956 and 1967 Israel conquered Gaza yet in 1949, 1957 and 2005 unilaterally withdrew from Gaza. In the 1967 Six Day War it took the Sinai peninsula from Egypt and withdrew in 1982 after the Camp David peace conference in 1979. After driving the PLO out of Lebanon and defeating the Syrians in 1982 Israel withdrew from Southern Lebanon in 2000.

As for the two remaining Arab areas under Israeli control, Israel has repeatedly made offers to yield the Golan Heights rejected by Syria. It has made generous offers to withdraw from the West Bank in 2000 and 2008 and trade territory in exchange for small territories it wishes to keep.

This willingness to negotiate came even before it became a state. In 1937 the small Zionist movement considered a proposal of the British Peel Commission, even though the vast majority oft he disputed territory (88%) would go to the Arabs. The Arabs refused to accept it. In November 1947 the United Nations voted to create a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jews accepted and the Arabs not only rejected the UN proposal but five Arab states invaded the new state of Israel in May, 1948.

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After victory in the 1967 Six Day War the Israelis offered to negotiate with the Arabs but the Arabs responded with three nos--no peace, no negotiations and no recognition. In 1979 the American sponsored Camp David Accords led to peace with Egypt and Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai peninsula. In 1994 Israel signed a peace agreement with Jordan. In 2000 at Camp David II the Israelis offered a generous resolution of the conflict. Arafat refused to take the deal. And again in 2008 Ehud Olmert offered to return over 90% of the West Bank and part of Israeli territory but the Arabs refused the deal.

Finally how are Israeli Arabs treated by Israel? Hardly as an apartheid state. In the early years (1949-1965) they were under military occupation though still having rights. There remain job discrimination and a feeling that they are a minority. Polling shows that 55% of Israeli Arabs would rather live in Israel than any other country. They like the rule of law, democracy, citizenship, longer life expectation, good universities and schools, universal health insurance and First World economy. Over 100,000 West Bank Arabs have moved into Israel over the years while 25% of West Bank Arabs and nearly 50% of Gaza Arabs want to leave the Arab world altogether.
As the aftermath of the U.S. election fixes our attention internationally, and will continue to do so as we wait to see what happens next, the issue of climate change is only accelerating in urgency. We must not allow ourselves to lose focus, particularly on the climate talks currently underway in Marrakech (COP22). Like so many other parties to the Paris Accords, the government of my country, Timor-Leste, has been diligently developing our Nationally Determined Contribution, our country's response outlining our commitment to work with the global community to fulfill the Paris Agreement in achieving our shared goals to hold the increase in global average temperature to well below 2C, to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5C, and to achieve net zero emissions in the second half of this century. The idea that climate change is a "hoax invented by China" would be laughable if it weren't for the fact that so many Americans seem to have been swept up into the jet stream behind the person promoting the idea. As the rest of us know, including those in the world's poorest countries, who will suffer the earliest and the most, it is not just a matter of losing animal species. Climate change posts serious humanitarian and security risks for us all. Hindering the progress made to date threatens our collective future. Global education on the facts of climate change is a key to achieving the change required. And it must encompass everyone, from those sitting around the boardroom tables of our world's business communities to the subsistence farming communities in the developing world. Every community can play a part, and every community has a stake in doing so. I am proud to be the patron of an innovative community reforestation and environmental education program in the mountains of Timor-Leste, one of the world's small developing nations, that is enabling subsistence farmers to generate income while taking action on climate change. The program, WithOneSeed, has four commitments: to address environmental degradation through community reforestation, to build village economies through payment to small landholder farmers who grow and maintain forest trees, to educate communities about the importance of trees for climate adaptation and mitigation measures, and to build regional partnerships to collaborate on climate change. Rural communities in Timor-Leste have relied on subsistence farming for generations, with many subsistence families living on less than a dollar per day. Since the country achieved independence in 2002, our community leaders have been acutely aware of the negative impact of environmental degradation and the importance of environmental regeneration for human survival.
Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney, the U.S. Representative for New York's 12th congressional district, recently visited Greece in order to celebrate the fact that two Greek-American friends of hers, businessman John Catsimatidis and journalist George Stefanopoulos, had stamps issued in their honor by the Hellenic Post Office.





Carolyn Maloney accepting the commemorative stamp on behalf of George Stefanopoulos at the Acropolis Museum

Ms.Maloney retains very close ties with the Greek-American community as she represents a region with a large Greek-speaking electorate, is the co-chair and co-founder of the Congressional Caucus on Hellenic issues and is a ranking member of Congress' Joint Economic Committee. She is an avid supporter of the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece and retains a clear view of the so-called "Macedonian" issue, a long-standing dispute between the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Greece concerning the name and history of the region.

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In an interview regarding her recent visit, Congresswoman Maloney, whom her friends and constituents call "Bouboulina," (a legendary heroine of the Greek War of Independence in 1921) outlines her thoughts about everything Greek.



1) Congresswoman Maloney, kindly tell us the purpose of your visit to Greece.



The main reason I made the visit was to pay honor to and to celebrate the lives of some great Greek-Americans, including some friends of mine, like John Catsimatidis and George Stephanopoulos.



But, I also serve as the Ranking Member of the Joint Economic Committee and co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Hellenic Issues so I have been closely monitoring Greece's debt crisis and recovery. I am happy to have the opportunity to meet Greek officials and citizens to hear from them, first-hand, about how daily life has been affected by years of economic depression and how they feel about their country's future. Greece is a critical ally to the U.S. and its strong recovery benefits the global economy. That is why I have strongly advocated for U.S. and international support for Greece as it regains its financial footing.





2) You are very close to the Greek Community of New York. How did this come about and how do you view your fellow Greek-Americans?



I have the honor to represent one of the largest Hellenic communities in the US outside of Greece and Cyprus in Astoria, Queens.



My constituents have taught me that the fates and the well-being of our two countries - these two amazing democracies - are inextricably linked. America has a role to play and interest in helping Greece.



3) One of the issues confronting Greece is the country's dispute with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and its use of the name "Macedonia." What is your take on the matter?



While this issue is one that must ultimately be resolved between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, scholars agree that ancient Macedonians were indeed Greek. The outrage over the Olympic coverage implying that Alexander the Great and Phillip II descended from the FYROM shows why this needs to be resolved and that any permanent name for what is today the FYROM must be mutually agreeable and historically accurate.



When Congress comes back into session, I will re-introduce a resolution that urges the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to work within the framework of the United Nations process and to work in good faith with Greece to achieve longstanding United States and United Nations policy goals of resolving the name dispute.



My resolution also encourages the United States Government to work with its NATO allies to uphold previous decisions at NATO summits, with regard to the enlargement issue.



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4) Where do you stand with respect to Greece's quest to have the Parthenon Marbles returned to their country of origin?



I would like to add my voice to the swelling chorus of people who respectfully request that the British Museum return the Elgin Marbles to their rightful owners: The people of Greece.



They were originally sculpted by ancient Greek artists and meant to be displayed in the Parthenon temple of the Acropolis. The Parthenon is one of the greatest cultural monuments in the history of the world - and the world deserves the chance to see it as it once stood - complete with its Marbles.



I know it will be painful for the Trustees of the British Museum to part with the Elgin Marbles. After all, they have been on display in London for nearly two centuries now. But compare that loss to the great sense of loss that haunts the Greek people. They have been deprived of a breathtaking national treasure that was central to their culture, and that was created solely by them, 2,500 years ago.



I urge my counterparts in the British Government to do the all that is in their power to return these statues to where they rightfully belong.



5) You have called for U.S. government action to help boost Greece's economy as part of the "Hellenic Initiative." Could you elaborate on this?



I co-founded the Congressional Caucus on Hellenic Issues in 1996. The Caucus's main purpose is to strengthen the ties between the U.S. and Greece and Cyprus, which have been among our staunchest allies throughout history. In recent years, we have focused our efforts in directing U.S. support to Greece in particular while it faces great challenges of economic depression and the influx of refugees who are fleeing to Europe through the Greek islands in numbers unprecedented since World War II. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, Hellenic Caucus co-chair, and I have written to the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Johnson to offer assistance to his Greek counterparts in receiving and registering refugees and appealed to the Overseas Private Investment Corporation to help attract foreign investment to Greece. I have worked with the U.S. Department of Treasury to enable Greek Americans to send remittances to friends and family in Greece, but were prevented from doing so due to capital controls. I believe it is important for Greeks to know that the U.S. government will stand by them during their recovery and I continue to call on the Administration to provide support wherever possible.


Vietnamese authorities destroy seized elephant ivory and rhino horns in Hanoi on Saturday. Photo by Reuters/Nguyen Thanh Cao

A village in Vietnam is accused of being 'an industrial-scale crime hub' for rhino horn and elephant products.

A Vietnamese village has become "a supermarket for illegal wildlife trafficking" raking in millions of dollars, a special hearing was told Monday.

The two-day public hearing in The Hague is laying out the findings of a year-long undercover investigation by the new Wildlife Justice Commission.

The probe has provided "clear and irrefutable evidence of an industrial-scale crime hub in the village of Nhi Khe in Vietnam," said the commission's executive director Olivia Swaak-Goldman.

"Urgent, decisive action" was needed, she told about 200 people gathered at The Hague's imposing Peace Palace.

The commission, set up last year, has no power to bring charges, but hopes the hearing will push Vietnam and other countries to crack down on the global $20-billion poaching.

Five experts, including international judges, will set out recommendations on Tuesday for further action.

But it seems Hanoi has already been spurred into action ahead of a major international conference on wildlife trafficking it is hosting later this week.

On Saturday, Vietnamese authorities destroyed a stockpile of two tons of ivory and 70 kilos (154 pounds) of rhino horn, which had been uncovered by the commission.

Former U.S. assistant New York attorney Marcus Asner, an advisor on wildlife trafficking to U.S. President Barack Obama, said it was "a good step" but more was needed.

Nhi Khe had become "a supermarket for illegal wildlife" with "massive quantities of rhino horn for sale and huge quantities of elephant products" openly on display, he said.

The commission says it has identified 51 people involved in the illegal trade in Nhi Khe, operating out of 16 shops dotted around the small village. The names have been given to Hanoi.

But "justice has not been activated in this case by the authorities in Vietnam, despite months of discussions and clear and detailed evidence," said Swaak-Goldman.

During five return visits in 2015 and 2016, the undercover operation found $53.1 million worth of parts from rhinos, elephants and tigers in Nhi Khe, just 17 kilometres (10 miles) south of Hanoi.

There were parts from up to 907 elephants, 579 rhinos and 225 tigers. But there were also other dead animals for sale, including pangolin, bear, hawksbill turtles and helmeted hornbills.

They were smuggled to the Southeast Asian country mostly from Africa and overwhelmingly destined for customers in China.

According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, customs officers have discovered 45 cases of wildlife smuggling between 2015 and June 2016.

Since last year, the department has brought eight criminal charges related to illegal wildlife trade. Five were for ivory trade.

Massive profits

After a sale is agreed, business is then conducted on WeChat, a Chinese mobile phone messaging service, with the buyers providing account details of Chinese banks for payment.

"What is most lacking is enforcement, and this is based on the absence of political will," said international judge Motoo Noguchi.

"The culture of impunity prevails."

A series of undercover videos showed shopkeepers weighing piles of ivory and rhino horn. There were also hundreds of bangles, necklaces and figurines.

One elephant tusk was estimated at $29,000 -- a fortune in the country where the average monthly salary is $210.

One woman trafficked an estimated $2.2 million in products over 12 months from her mansion, with a brand new Mercedes outside, the commission's senior legal investigator Pauline Verheij told the hearing.

Related news:

> Vietnam destroys huge ivory, rhino horn cache

> WWF starts petition to end wildlife trade in Vietnam, decries lack of action

> Vietnam to beef up fight against illegal wildlife trade
United Village Transformation (UVT) has been working in Malawi since 2010 with a focus on education, nutrition and women's empowerment in Dothi Village in Lilongwe, Malawi. UVT's mission is to work with villagers to assist further development in their communities by imparting skills that will help maximize their potential and in turn transform their lives, guide them towards sustainable development through the provisions of education; promoting income generating activities; increasing knowledge and accessibility of information on social, economic and health issues while promoting diverse agricultural farming.

In October, 2016 UVT met the Ambassador of The Republic of Malawi, Mr. Edward Yakobe Sawerengera in Washington, DC who connected the team to the First Lady Gertrude Mutharika. UVT was very privileged to visit the Presidential Palace and meet with the First Lady who showed so much interest in UVT's programs. This meeting led to a sought after union between UVT and Beautify Malawi program as well as young women's monthly sanitary care. UVT realizes the value of focusing on the entire village as opposed to one particular area. Going by these quotes "Food is life and Education is the Seed" and "it takes a village", through experience these have indeed become true.



UVT founders are members of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, UN Malawi delegation and the UN NGO Commission. In accordance with the Malawi Growth and Development Strategies (MGDS), UVT is partnering with villagers, social service providers, non-governmental and charitable organizations with the intent of assisting in improving the lives of people living in rural communities in accordance with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
I have never thought of myself as a political activist. It is true that growing up in the Vietnam war era I signed up against the war as millions of American did at that time and I protested against it. However, as I grew up beyond that era, I thought of myself as a busy, progressive, professional woman who struggled to integrate work with family life. I was too busy raising two children and building a career to become an activist around the issues that mattered to me the most.

Yet, now, being a 62-year-old woman who is looking to her grandchildren more than to her career, I have found myself really anxious about the future of my children and their children. Providing women with the same liberties as men, is the foundation on which the new administration could "Make America Great". However, the rhetoric does not much the actions taken early in the transition of the new administration, or the actions this President-elect intends to take.

The right of women to choose should not be a political, religious, racial or cultural issue. The right of women to enjoy the same freedoms as men should be the foundation of a democracy we all aspire to in our country. Saying no to the right of women to choose, is not very different from the 1916-1919 efforts to block the right of women to vote.

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Saying that overturning Row vs. Wade or relinquishing the constitutionality of the right-to-choose to the political establishment of the states will prevent late term abortions is not different from calling women irresponsible or unable to act ethically. It also shows a complete ignorance of the facts or complete corruption of thought. Complete ignorance, because according to the facts only 1% of the total abortions are near term and they happen for medical reasons, and complete corruption of thought, because the argument implies that women have to be prevented from willingly killing their children. There are more children who are killed because of the illegal use of guns than late term abortions, yet the politically corrupt mind speaks of one but not the other.
Georgia's capital city, Atlanta, is considered as one of the top ten largest metro areas in the United States. With a growing economy 8th in the nation for GDP of 339.20 billion dollars, it is a home to various Fortune 500 companies such as Home Depot, Chick-Fil-A, Delta, Coca-Cola, among others.



Image Credit: Jack Kennard

Atlanta plays a crucial role in the U.S. economy and consistently a thriving place for business and transportation. The Atlanta metro area has a population of over 5.5 million, making this area a great place to invest in single family rentals. As investing in real estate has been one of the most popular forms of investments, real estate investors are always on the lookout for great investment opportunities. In a conversation with Melissa Wakamo of Red Robin Realtors, she mentioned that Atlanta would be one of those great cities that makes sense to invest in this year. If you are looking for a good piece of property to buy in Atlanta, here are some great areas to your search with.

Atlanta Beltline

The Atlanta Beltline is one of the best places to invest in property because of its good location. Before it became a residential area, it used to be a railroad corridor that was under construction for quite some time. As some parts are already finished and some parts not, this piece of land has a lot of opportunity for growth. What makes this area really good is that the beltline is the area that is going to be used to improve transportation and also infrastructure improvement as a whole. As the infrastructure and transportation development plans progress, the value of houses in the area would definitely go up. This is why it is a good time to buy a house here while everything is not yet fully complete.

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This place is also great for investment opportunities as property right now is very cheap. In the future, the value of the lot is expected to grow and you can sell it off by then. You may also choose to rent out your house when the area is fully developed as the area is expected to become a prime area in the future.

Village Creek Landing

Another great area to look for property would be Village Creek Landing. It is a great place for residency and also for renting out because of its location. The town is very near Grant park as well as many restaurants and shopping malls. For those who want to rent out properties in this area, it is a great opportunity to take because houses here are not very expensive.

McGill Park Avenue

McGill Park Avenue is another great place for investing in a house or property. There are already existing condo units in the area at very affordable prices. The location is very good because it is in the middle of of Edgewood, Freedom Barkway, and the Beltline which means residents can access all the other areas easily. Condo units here are very beautifully made to be luxurious. Condo units are great for both living in and renting out to interested parties because of the prime location.
Many critics and skeptics have made the bold claim that classical music is dead.

It's true that classical music isn't what it used to be -- but neither is music in general. It isn't consumed in the same way and its dedicated fan-base is primarily white and old in a country whose population is increasingly neither.

It is also no secret that financial troubles have plagued the genre. The Philadelphia Orchestra, for example, declared for bankruptcy in 2011; New York City Opera filed in 2014, ultimately shutting down, and Boston Classical Orchestra canceled the remainder of its 2015-16 concert season after bankruptcy. Additionally, Chicago, San Francisco and Minnesota symphonic orchestra musicians have all gone on strike in recent years after failing to resolve contract disputes.

Yet, despite the economic woes of these and other orchestras and far too many classical music institutions across the country, the genre is actually thriving. And it is doing so by not remaining static, but by evolving.

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Take the newly launched Groupmuse, an online social network that brings young classical musicians to local audiences through concert house parties. Also referred to as "Uber, But for Millennials Who Want Orchestras in Their Living Rooms," it is part of a larger trend to not only transform how music is consumed, but make it relevant to new and younger audiences. Somewhat ironically, it is challenging the current concert hall format by playing homage to former centuries when almost all concerts took place in private homes and venues were smaller. Only now, classical music can be ordered in the same fashion as a car service or your Friday night Pad Thai on Seamless -- on demand, delivered to your door, and with expectations of quality. This is just one example that shows that the musical landscape is changing.

This indicates that it's not the genre that is dying, rather it is aged-out forms and methods of delivery and consumption. Large concert venues are incredibly expensive to stage and often become a causality of increased costs and decreased demand. This is a shame. The antidote, however, is innovation. Online ticketing and apps have made purchasing easier and less expensive for both customers and venues. And now, business models like that of Groupmuse's is just one new way that millennials have embraced Bach and Beethoven, rather than rejecting classical music all together.

New generations are also experimenting with the genre itself. We have seen new iterations of classical music firsthand through Kaufman Music Center's Face the Music, the country's only youth ensemble dedicated to studying and performing music by living composers.

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Through collective music-making, young and committed musicians use the music of today as a vehicle to explore collaborative decision-making and develop leadership skills. With two orchestras, a jazz big band, an experimental-improvisation collective, string quartets, a composer program, and many chamber music ensembles, Face the Music encourages young musicians to contribute to the vibrant texture of today's contemporary music scene.

Collaboration is also the hallmark of our Ecstatic Music Festival. Launching its seventh season in January, it has achieved significant recognition and praise for its innovative exploration of music with more than 80 artists performing across the sonic spectrum for nine collaborative, unique shows.

We also see the benefits of classical music and its many forms at our Special Music School. Here, at the only New York K-12 public school with music as a core curriculum subject, music education and private instrumental lessons are integrated into the regular school day, and the impact on learning is very significant.

Students are empowered to compose their own music -- and even perform it alongside acclaimed musicians such as Kronos Quartet. They also have the opportunity to take classes such as "Music Entrepreneurship" to learn how to market themselves using rapidly changing technology and mediums of communication. These skills are applicable not only for a musical career, but also teach students how to be a leader in any and all endeavors no matter their chosen profession or path.

Programs like these focus on classical music, but embrace many genres. Because of this, I am frequently asked if classical music is getting phased out by the popularity of hip-hop, pop, electronic, and even jazz. My answer is always no. Indie music is not diminishing the demand for classical; instead they are all intertwined and informing each other, while broadening access to new audiences.

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We can see this perhaps best through famous artists across the popular spectrum who not only credit classical music as early inspiration, but also appropriate works in their own singles. For example, Beyonce's "Ave Maria" references Schubert; The Beatles "Because" was influenced by Beethoven, and Radiohead's "Idioteque" is considered to be inspired by Wagner.
In the United States, small businesses are often called the backbone of the economy. Policies that encourage the growth of small businesses and the role of entrepreneurship in the market are considered to be healthy for the economy at large. What is the link between entrepreneurship and job creation?

For a capitalist economy to thrive, there must be competition, growth, and innovation. Successful entrepreneurs tend to be naturally competitive, think outside of the box, and see through many of the easy answers to see how an industry could benefit from a fresh take. When the SBA said in 2012, for example, that small businesses had created 64% of the new jobs in the previous decade, this is how they got it done.

New businesses challenge the existing market

When a new business enters the local or global market, they begin to shake things up. Very few businesses open and try to be an exact replica of another company. Even if they have a similar mission statement and unique value propositions, they target a new niche or are expressing their brand differently.

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New businesses may start by bringing an existing product to a new group of customers, but at some point, they will begin to draw customers away from other businesses if they are going to succeed. Older companies are forced to make changes or lose market share. Competition is generally agreed to be necessary for a healthy capitalist economy.

Market disruption can cause new job fields to open

In the field of manufacturing, much has been made about how robotics has disrupted and continues to disrupt traditional manufacturing jobs. As these line jobs have been reduced, however, other fields have opened up to respond to alerts, program systems, and repair and maintain systems as they are used.

Netflix, for example, disrupted the video rental industry to the point that the neighborhood video store is basically a thing of the past. In its place, people stream movies and television to their TVs through a subscription service, occasionally get DVDs in the mail, or pick up a movie from a kiosk at the grocery store.

While jobs did move from one area to another, and it is possible that the industry as a whole saw a net decrease in positions, there was also a substantial shift from one area to another. New warehouses opened up in new locations to allow for processing of DVDs, and all those grocery store kiosks require maintenance and upkeep.

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Small businesses are more flexible

Small businesses operate with fewer employees, less overhead, and less infrastructure than large companies. In typical market conditions, this can be a disadvantage. A small business might lack the clout to organize a discount on a particular supply, or be unable to attract the very best talent because they can't offer the same kind of compensation package as a very large company.

But small businesses are much more flexible and nimble in terms of adjusting to changing market conditions than big businesses. Small businesses might operate on a time scale of weeks or months, whereas big businesses need to talk years in advance in order to get things done.

When they see an opportunity, a small business is able to quickly react to take advantage of it. By the time a big business has enough meetings and approvals to act, the chance may very well have passed.

Competition pushes companies to streamline

While small businesses are more nimble overall, big businesses that survive disruption generally push to become more streamlined, to maintain their power while reducing their bulk. Streamlining big businesses can drive innovation just as much as nimble small businesses can.

When big businesses streamline in order to respond to small businesses, they end up pushing other big businesses to move in a different direction as well.

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When experts look at small businesses on the whole, they say that small businesses create jobs in an S wave. A large number of people are hired at the beginning of a business, then there is a period of flat growth as competition right-sizes or closes, and then an increase as the smaller business grows.
As world leaders convene in Marrakesh for COP22, the United Nation's annual climate change conference, they are focused on the implementation of the groundbreaking Paris Agreement to adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change. A critical component of their deliberations was the adoption of a decision for gender responsive climate policy.

Women are particularly affected by climate change, yet their vulnerabilities and the critical leadership role that they play in responding to the impacts of climate change are rarely addressed in climate policies. Moreover, they systematically lack equal representation in climate decision-making.

The recently adopted gender and climate change decision at COP22 is a step in the right direction to ensure that the implementation of the Paris Agreement is gender responsive.

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The effects of climate change affect women in myriad ways. Whether it is violent weather conditions or the slower process of erosion that changes landscapes over time, women are more vulnerable to the impact of climate change than men. Droughts disenfranchise women farmers, who are the majority of the agricultural workforce in Africa and elsewhere. Water scarcity undermines hygiene and sanitation, affecting maternal health. Flooding leaves women without homes and vulnerable to sexual violence. As landscapes around them change, women spend more and more time gathering resources for their families, resulting in a significant amount of potentially productive time lost. Women are disproportionately threatened by climate change and their economic and political status is further marginalized.

Consider cooking which remains a traditional activity for women globally. Nearly 3 billion people, mostly women, use dirty, smoke producing cook stoves powered by solid fuels. The time that women and girls spend collecting wood and other materials to burn affects their schooling and ultimately affects their education. And the process of cooking harms their health and the health of their families (some 4 million deaths each year), as the black carbon that is released dangerously impacts the environment.

But women are much more than victims of climate change. Today there is a growing evidenced based case and awareness that they are also problem solvers and local decision-makers in the adaptation to and mitigation of climate change given their on-the-ground experience and knowledge as well as leadership in their communities.

Around the world, women are creating innovative and localized responses to building resilient communities. In Senegal, women banded together to address the consequences of sea level rise, including the salinization of rice fields. Women worked with national and local institutions to construct a 3,300-meter anti-salt dyke to reclaim lands and revitalize rice-growing activities. In Kenya, women responded to the need for more easily accessible water and firewood by growing seedlings and planting trees to bind the soil, store rainwater, and provide food for firewood. In Bangladesh, through Grameen Shakti, women are installing millions of solar panels and contributing to renewable energy. In India and China, women entrepreneurs have created viable enterprises in clean cooks stoves.

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Projects like these demonstrate that women, who are the most adversely affected by climate change, can also be catalysts for combating and adapting to new climate realities.

Yet in spite of their unique experiences and valuable perspectives, gender is often missing from climate change policies, and women are often absent from the decision-making process.

Past UN climate change conferences have acknowledged the link between gender and climate change. At COP18 in Doha, delegations committed to strive towards gender balance in their delegations, in recognition of the unique role of women for climate action. Two years later the Lima Work Program on Gender was launched at COP20. It aimed to advance the implementation of gender-responsive climate policies and mandate gender balance across all areas of the negotiations.

But little has been done to implement these commitments. Women delegates at UN climate meetings are still a minority and no binding language had been adopted regarding gender in climate change mitigation and adaptation plans.

COP22 delegations just agreed to do more.

The world leaders gathered in Morocco addressed a range of gender-related climate issues, from women's increased representation at the decision tables at all levels--national, regional and local--to the perspectives and initiatives of civil society that must be acknowledged and included in policy and strategy development.

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We must continue working to ensure that the implementation of the Paris Agreement is indeed gender responsive in all aspects, including funding, the development of indicators, and time frames for measuring progress on adaptation and mitigation.

This is not an option but a necessity. After all, women are critical to increasing the effectiveness of climate change actions around the globe. The stakes could not be higher.
Just a few years ago, your computer files were pretty much limited to the finite amount of memory on your hard drive and could only be accessed from one machine.

Then along came cloud computing. Your storage space expanded and so did your access to it. Now you can tap into your cloud-based files anywhere with an internet connection.

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That quantum leap sure came quickly. Wouldn't it be great for something like that to happen in the fight against heart disease and stroke?

On Sunday, my organization - the American Heart Association (AHA) - announced a new collaboration with cloud computing pioneer Amazon Web Services (AWS) that we believe will be a similar advancement.

It's called the AHA Precision Medicine Platform, and it's a way for the scientific community working in cardiovascular medicine to harness the power of the cloud in an exciting new way ... and in an exciting new field.

Think of the Platform as a data marketplace, a vehicle for researchers to give-and-take the data that powers their work. It also brings them together in a new way, one that pulls them from their usual, individual laboratories and harnesses them into a collective environment.

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As the name implies, the Platform is part of the thrilling new wave of science known as precision medicine - or, as some people call it, personalized medicine because the aim is to treat each patient based on his or her unique genetics, environment and lifestyle. Precision cardiovascular medicine brings this approach to fighting heart disease and stroke, the two leading causes of death worldwide.

Researchers in this field are going beyond the aim of finding the drugs, devices and treatments to combat a particular type of cardiovascular disease. Their goal is finding the drugs, devices and treatments for a particular cardiovascular patient: you.

For more details on this cutting-edge project, I'm thrilled to turn this spot over to Teresa Carlson, the Vice President of the Worldwide Public Sector for AWS.

***

Imagine if all the greatest books ever written were scattered at various institutions around the world.

Think of how valuable it would be to store them all in a single library.

Now imagine yourself at this mythical building - and you're there to find something specific.

Maybe you need every book by one author. Or all the chapters about a certain subject. You could even be seeking every use of a particular phrase or word.

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It would be challenging, of course, but doable because all the information would be in one place. And if this library offered a way to search, analyze, and access everything in its collection, then it could handle any request.

Now imagine that instead of novels, biographies, and other types of literature, the shelves are crammed with volumes of rich and deep data from many researchers, physicians, computational biologists, computer engineers, and trainees.

And instead of one-of-a-kind hard copies, there are digital versions that can be regularly uploaded and downloaded ... by all researchers.

This analogy gives you an idea of the vision for the AHA Precision Data Platform, powered by the cloud.

The longtime way of doing things in the science world is for institutions to hold tightly to their information. It makes sense - a lot of time, effort and expense went into collecting it, so they want to keep it for themselves.

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But a shift is underway. Collaboration is becoming more common as researchers realize that sharing can help accelerate the path to breakthroughs. Technology, of course, plays a huge role.

Such as using the cloud to power this Platform.

Let's look at the two key ways this solution will help.

First, like building a library, we're creating a single place to store all this valuable material. And our secure cloud storage is not limited by how much we can cram into the building; our digital shelves can hold an endless supply of information.

Second, we have the tools needed to sort through all those massive piles of data and pluck out the pieces they need.

For instance, instead of our imaginary search for an author or subject, Platform users could search for every document by a researcher or in an area of research. The real treasure could be buried deeper - in the scientific equivalent of paragraphs and words; that is, the data sets and laboratory reports used in each project.

No wonder Dr. Eric Peterson, head of the Duke Clinical Research Institute, calls this "a game-changer."

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Dr. Joseph Wu, head of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, says this project will pull scientists out of silos and put them all in the same room. More colorfully, he calls it inviting everyone "to the same party."
Karla Jo Helms, CEO of Tampa Bay-based international PR firm JoTo PR, says many companies are missing opportunities to tie national or community-focused programs to the company's bottom line.

She says that 91% of global consumers will switch to brands that support a social or environmental cause. Another 90 percent will boycott a company if they think its business practices are immoral or irresponsible. Companies like Wells Fargo and Volkswagen have suffered incalculable damage to their reputations -- and their brands -- due to legal and ethical violations. The trust of the consumer is as vitally important as the value of its products. Helms says that 42% of a company's reputation is based on consumer perceptions of the firm's corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts. She strongly encourages companies to not only give back, but communicate their CSR activities to increase the trust and public perception.

In an interview, Helms explained what helps consumers and shareholders evaluate a company's social/environmental record and what companies can do to use CSR to enhance their brands and strengthen their relationships with the people who buy from and invest in them.

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How do consumers and shareholders find out about corporate social/environmental records?

Google and other Search Engines tell the story of a company's persona. Goodwill stories, publicity pieces, news clips of stories and social media that push out those stories, videos and pictures of corporate social responsibility efforts with comments and kudos are a big social proof factor - good news spreads.

There is no better return on investment (ROI) than third-party credibility. Media articles carrying unbiased stories about a company's greater good efforts are one of the biggest brand strengtheners and corporate reputation protectors today. In a world where everyone is looking for their news and information from credible online sources, publicizing CSR on digital platforms gains the best word of mouth.



55% of global online consumers in 60 countries pay more for products and services provided by companies that are committed to positive social and environmental impact.

Publicity and social media are key to retaining that "memory" in the search engines.

What do data show about how they respond to companies that they feel are not in line with their social and environmental views?

Actions taken by internet users worldwide in response to a company's CSR efforts have been studied extensively:

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Bought a product with a social and/or environmental benefit 63%

Boycotted a company's product/services upon learning it behaved irresponsibly 53%

Told friends or family about a company's corporate responsibility efforts 47%

Researched a company's business practices or support of social/environmental issues 37%

Again - without publicity and social media, how would consumers know?

What are some examples of companies that have lost market share due to consumer social/environmental concerns?

Volkswagen: September 2015, the EPA discovered that many diesel engines of VW cars sold in America had a "defeated software" that was able to detect when cars were being tested and to change the performance of the engine, to improve the results of the test. The company at the highest levels deliberately set out to deceive emissions control to give the company an unfair advantage over its competitors; meanwhile it was poisoning the planet.

Wells Fargo: It was found that their customers nationwide were paying fees on a ghost account they didn't even sign up for. Federal regulators said Wells Fargo (WFC) employees secretly created millions of unauthorized bank and credit card accounts - without their customers knowing it - since 2011.

Monsanto: Monsanto has a long history of generating public ill will. Today, Monsanto is perhaps most hated for its role in creating and utilizing GMO seeds and herbicides. Just look up any memes about Monsanto or the Millions Against Monsanto on Facebook and you see the public distrust and discord.

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GrubHub: A 300-word email sent to the online food-ordering company's 1,400 employees last week by the CEO led to a viral backlash with calls to boycott the food delivery service. The hashtag #boycottgrubhub was trending on Twitter through much of the next day. Whether Matt Maloney meant to or not, he made a statement about employees' most basic social responsibility, which was their freedom and right to vote for whom they choose.

What are the social and environmental issues that matter most to consumers?

In the New Economy, studies show that being socially responsible has become essential for companies looking to meet consumer demand. Consumers say being socially responsible is an influence in their purchase decisions, rating

o"Being green" (83%);

oReducing consumption (81%) and

oContributing financially to nonprofits (65%) as important actions.

A study by Cone Communications and Echo Research of 10,000 global consumers found that 91 percent of shoppers worldwide will likely switch to brands that support a social or environmental cause. On the other hand, 90 percent of shoppers will boycott a company based off moral or irresponsible business practices. Hence the backlash on GrubHub.

What are some examples of companies that have incorporated social and environmental sensitivity in their brand messaging?

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Starbucks: Starbucks did practically no advertising, but built its brand through good PR efforts. When annual sales hit around $1.3 billion, their advertising expenditures over a 10-year period totaled less than $10 million. See their site for all their CSR efforts and awards they do around the globe.

TOMS: Privately-owned shoe maker TOMS built its business model around social responsibility, giving a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair purchased. Tom's has given over 60 million pairs of shoes to children in need. (NOTE: Tom's Shoes sell for $40 - $140 per pair.)

Nutiva: Nutiva aligns their CSR program with environmental and sustainability issues. Before 'social responsibility' was a Silicon Valley buzzword meant to put a face on faceless companies, John Roulac, CEO of Nutiva, has not only been outspoken about health fads and mainstream environmental causes, but has thrived on them, creating an empire.

Should CSR branding be closely tied to the industry or product?

What does your company do that can help in a broader way throughout the nation or in your own community? Does it align with your passions and the purpose of your company? What is your story for supporting it? If it doesn't align with your company's direction, you are really going to have to tell your story for getting behind it even better. CSR for the sake of CSR is as distasteful to the consumer public as lying, so companies need to have their CSR efforts make sense to the consumers and easily connect the dots on WHY they are doing it.

But sometimes it is the passion of the CEO that drives it - or a nationwide issue that employees get behind. Like with Outback Steakhouse (OSI Partners, LLC) when they made a $1 million donation in 2010 to Operation Homefront, a non-profit organization providing everyday and emergency support for active troops, veterans and their families. In June 2002, OSI launched Operation Feeding Freedom, sending a team of 15 Outbackers to Afghanistan to feed American troops stationed there. Over 100 members of the OSI team made another six trips serving troops in Djibouti, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait and aboard the USS Nimitz in Bahrain. Overall, 137,000 troops were served at numerous bases and forward command locations. But as you can see, it still involved feeding people, so aligned with Outback Steakhouse' line of business.

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It Did Happen Here

Cross-posted with TomDispatch.com

So is he going to win?

The question washed over me as I slumped in my hard plastic chair. I had passed the day walking through a town where most homes lay in ruins and human remains were strewn across a field, a day spent looking over my shoulder for soldiers and melting in the 110-degree heat. My mind was as spent as my body.

Under an inky sky ablaze with stars, the type of night you see only in the rural world, I looked toward the man who asked the question and half-shrugged. Everyone including me, I said, thought Donald Trump was going to flame out long ago. And he hadnt. So what did I know?

At that point, I couldnt bear to talk about it anymore, so the two of us sat speechless for a time. Finally, my companion looked back at me and broke his silence. It cant happen, can it? he asked.

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I had no answer then -- March of this year -- sitting in that ruined town in South Sudan.

I do now.

I thought about that March night as the election results rolled in, as the New York Times forecast showed Hillary Clintons chances of winning the presidency plummet from about 80% to less than 5%, while Trumps fortunes skyrocketed by the minute.

As Clintons future in the Oval Office evaporated, leaving only a whiff of her stale dreams, I saw all the foreign-policy certainties, all the hawkish policies and military interventions, all the would-be bin Laden raids and drone strikes shed preside over as commander-in-chief similarly vanish into the ether.

With her failed candidacy went the no-fly escalation in Syria that she was sure to pursue as president with the vigor she had applied to the disastrous Libyan intervention of 2011 while secretary of state. So, too, went her continued pursuit of the now-nameless war on terror, the attendant gray-zone conflicts -- marked by small contingents of U.S. troops, drone strikes, and bombing campaigns -- and all those munitions she would ship to Saudi Arabia for its war in Yemen.

As the life drained from Clintons candidacy, I saw her rabid pursuit of a new Cold War start to wither and Russo-phobic comparisons of Putins rickety Russian petro-state to Stalins Soviet Union begin to die. I saw the end, too, of her Iron Curtain-clouded vision of NATO, of her blind faith in an alliance more in line with 1957 than 2017.

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As Clintons political fortunes collapsed, so did her Israel-Palestine policy -- rooted in the fiction that American and Israeli security interests overlap -- and her commitment to what was clearly an unworkable peace process. Just as, for domestic considerations, she would blindly support that Middle Eastern nuclear power, so was she likely to follow President Obamas trillion-dollar path to modernizing Americas nuclear arsenal. All that, along with her sure-to-be-gargantuan military budget requests, were scattered to the winds by her ringing defeat.

The Dismal Tide

As I watched CNN, Twitter, and the Times website, what came to mind was that March night in South Sudan, after that exchange about Donald Trump, when the camp went quiet and I dragged my reeking body from my tent to the shower -- water in a plastic bucket that I had earlier pumped from a borehole. I picked my way across the camp with a flashlight so tiny it barely illuminated one step at a time. It was like driving at night without headlights, a sojourn into the unknown, a journey into an airless, enveloping darkness.

All that seemed certain suddenly wasnt. What would come next was a mystery. That March night, I was trying to avoid falling into an open pit that was to serve as a shelter if shooting started near the camp. As election night proceeded, a potentially more dangerous abyss seemed to be opening in the darkness before me.

Clintons foreign policy future had been a certainty. Trumps was another story entirely. He had, for instance, called for a raft of military spending: growing the Army and Marines to a ridiculous size, building a Navy to reach a seemingly arbitrary and budget-busting number of ships, creating a mammoth air armada of fighter jets, pouring money into a missile defense boondoggle, and recruiting a legion of (presumably overweight) hackers to wage cyber war. All of it to be paid for by cutting unnamed waste, ending unspecified federal programs, or somehow conjuring up dollars from hither and yon. But was any of it serious? Was any of it true? Would President Trump actually make good on the promises of candidate Trump? Or would he simply bark Wrong! when somebody accused him of pledging to field an army of 540,000 active duty soldiers or build a Navy of 350 ships.

Would Trump actually attempt to implement his plan to defeat ISIS -- that is, bomb the shit out of them and then take the oil of Iraq? Or was that just the bellicose bluster of the campaign trail? Would he be the reckless hawk Clinton promised to be, waging wars like the Libyan intervention? Or would he follow the dictum of candidate Trump who said, The current strategy of toppling regimes, with no plan for what to do the day after, only produces power vacuums that are filled by terrorists.

Outgoing representative Randy Forbes of Virginia, a contender to be secretary of the Navy in the new administration, recently said that the president elect would employ an international defense strategy that is driven by the Pentagon and not by the political National Security Council... Because if you look around the globe, over the last eight years, the National Security Council has been writing that. And find one country anywhere that we are better off than we were eight years [ago], you cannot find it.

Such a plan might actually blunt armed adventurism, since it was war-weary military officials who reportedly pushed back against President Obamas plans to escalate Iraq War 3.0. According to some Pentagon-watchers, a potentially hostile bureaucracy might also put the brakes on even fielding a national security team in a timely fashion.

While Wall Street investors seemed convinced that the president elect would be good for defense industry giants like Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, whose stocks surged in the wake of Trumps win, its unclear whether that indicates a belief in more armed conflicts or simply more bloated military spending.

Under President Obama, the U.S. has waged war in or carried out attacks on at least eight nations -- Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Libya, and Syria. A Clinton presidency promised more, perhaps markedly more, of the same -- an attitude summed up in her infamous comment about the late Libyan autocrat Muammar Gaddafi: We came, we saw, he died. Trump advisor Senator Jeff Sessions said, Trump does not believe in war. He sees war as bad, destructive, death and a wealth destruction. Of course, Trump himself said he favors committing war crimes like torture and murder. Hes also suggested that he would risk war over the sort of naval provocations -- like Iranian ships sailing close to U.S. vessels -- that are currently met with nothing graver than warning shots.

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So theres good reason to assume Trump will be a Clintonesque hawk or even worse, but some reason to believe -- due to his propensity for lies, bluster, and backing down -- that he could also turn out to be less bellicose.

Given his penchant for running businesses into the ground and for economic proposals expected to rack up trillions of dollars in debt, its possible that, in the end, Trump will inadvertently cripple the U.S. military. And given that the government is, in many ways, a national security state bonded with a mass of money and orbited by satellite departments and agencies of far lesser import, Trump could even kneecap the entire government. If so, what could be catastrophic for Americans -- a battered, bankrupt United States -- might, ironically, bode well for the wider world.

In his victory speech, Trump struck a conciliatory note. I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans, he intoned. Every single American will have the opportunity to realize his or her fullest potential. This stood at odds with a year and a half of rancid rhetoric that was denounced far and wide as racist, sexist and xenophobic. That said, racism, sexism and xenophobia have long been embraced by American presidents -- anti-immigrant presidents, presidents who oppressed, forcibly displaced, imprisoned, or killed their fellow men on the basis of race or ethnicity, presidents who were dismissive when it came to a womans right to vote, or even owned women outright.

Such behavior is wired into the DNA of the United States. Indeed, these traits form the bedrock of a land born of the twin evils of settler colonialism and slavery. Progress since -- rights movements, strides toward equal protections under the law, even the notion of the arc of the moral universe bending toward justice -- may not ultimately be linear or even lasting. The high-water mark of the American experiment may well have already been reached. Looking out from this city on a hill, it may soon be possible to glimpse the spot where the wave crested, before it ebbed and headed back out to sea. So much that was fought for with such bravery may be swept away in the dismal tide and drowned in the depths.

Or perhaps not.

What was dragged under may struggle to the surface. Castaways clinging to a lifeboat in the tempest may, one day, find themselves aboard a sea-splitting ship -- its sails full, its many-hued flags flying, its decks teeming; its crew poised to thunder ashore, securing a new American beachhead.

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We simply cannot know.

It Can Happen Here

That dark, sultry night in South Sudan, I thought a great deal about rights and oppression, about what happens when the worst impulses of men are stoked and sharpened, about what it means when a government turns on its own people. There, in that ruined town, young girls and women had been kidnapped and gang-raped with regularity; men and boys had been locked in a shipping container to wither and die; homes had been razed; corpses abandoned to snarling, scavenging hyenas; and skeletal remains left unburied. It was a horrorscape, a place of suffering almost beyond imagining, one that puts the problems of Americas forgotten men and women and their economic disenfranchisement, as well as the rage many white working-class people feel into perspective.

At the time, I told my questioner just what I thought a Hillary Clinton presidency might mean for America and the world: more saber-rattling, more drone strikes, more military interventions, among other things. Our just-ended election aborted those would-be wars, though Clintons legacy can still be seen, among other places, in the rubble of Iraq, the battered remains of Libya, and the faces of South Sudans child soldiers. Donald Trump has the opportunity to forge a new path, one that could be marked by bombast instead of bombs. If ever there was a politician with the ability to simply declare victory and go home -- regardless of the facts on the ground -- its him. Why go to war when you can simply say that you did, big league, and you won?

The odds, of course, are against this. The United States has been embroiled in foreign military actions, almost continuously, since its birth and in 64 conflicts, large and small, according to the military, in the last century alone. Its a country that, since 9/11, has been remarkably content to wage winless, endless wars with little debate or popular outcry. Its a country in which Barack Obama won election, in large measure, due to dissatisfaction with the prior commander-in-chiefs signature war and then, after winning a Nobel Peace Prize and overseeing the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, reengaged in an updated version of that very same war -- bequeathing it now to Donald J. Trump.

This Trump. Hes a crazy man! the African aid worker insisted to me that March night. He says some things and you wonder: Are you going to be president? Really? It turns out the answer is yes.

It cant happen, can it? That question still echoes in my mind.

I know all the things that now cant happen, Clintons wars among them. The Trump era looms ahead like a dark mystery, cold and hard. We may well be witnessing the rebirth of a bitter nation, the fruit of a land poisoned at its root by evils too fundamental to overcome; a country exceptional for its squandered gifts and forsaken providence, its shattered promises and moral squalor.

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It cant happen, can it?

Indeed, my friend, it just did.

Nick Turse is the managing editor of TomDispatch, a fellow at the Nation Institute, and a contributing writer for the Intercept. His book Tomorrow's Battlefield: U.S. Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa recently received an American Book Award. His latest book is Next Time Theyll Come to Count the Dead: War and Survival in South Sudan. His website is NickTurse.com. Reporting for this story was made possible through the generous support of Lannan Foundation.
It was a bright and icy morning in the early fall of 2014. I had spent two days by the serene Holland Lake, Montana, sheltered by the incomparable majesty of the high Rockies. During the long drive home, the return of cellular reception suddenly unleashed a multitude of shocking texts.

My friend Bill was making a desperate attempt to ask for prayers. His wife Susan, a uniquely capable, energetic and deeply spiritual woman had just suffered a devastating stroke. It was life-threatening. Thanks to God's grace and remarkable medical care she survived. Thanks to her tirelessly loving husband, she, eventually, flourished.

Survival, though, was only the first step on a long and arduous path. The brave and intelligent Susan had to relearn all the simple gestures of daily life.

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Everything progressed with heartening ease, except for speech. Observing Susan slowly learning to talk again was both inspiring and incredibly painful.

Since the beginning of our presidential electoral cycle I have often thought of Susan and Bill and their heroic efforts to reconquer communication.

As a nation we have lost the ability to communicate to one another. We speak and we listen only to those with whom we agree. Essentially we are only talking to ourselves in a culturally impoverished sort of self-preoccupied stupor.

We are exclusively interested in arguments that confirm our firmly held convictions. They are not arguments, of course, but simply repetitive reinforcements.

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When I was a student in Rome, an old man shared with me this ancient Roman wisdom: "The person in Rome who possesses real power is not the Pope but the one who reports the news to the Pope." Intriguingly, he said this in front of the stunning Farnese Palace, historically notorious for heights of Renaissance architecture and depths of political corruption.

By choosing only one source of news, we have essentially surrendered our electoral power to large businesses whose degree of success depends largely on how angry we are at each other. The truth is that cultivating rage is an effective business model.

All the Election Day exit polls have clearly demonstrated that the only bipartisanship of this presidential race was in the widespread dissatisfaction of the electorate with both candidates. Even if one takes into account the intricacies of the primary system, it is fair to deduce that if the majority is unhappy with the choice, then the choice was somehow imposed on the majority. It defines "understatement" to consider this situation harmful to democracy.

Much of the Media are becoming "opinion" Media, whose objective is more conditioning than informing. Many dark historical precedents remind us that this environment suppresses conversation and, as a result, gives rise to extremism, almost irreversibly.

Without dialogue our thoughts evolve in isolation. Our ideas of society and nation form without the refining effect of the dialectic process. We drift further and further apart as vessels in an increasingly turbulent ocean until our views become literally irreconcilable.

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The community of Butte, Montana that I have the great honor of serving, is, for a variety of fascinating historical factors, an intensely political town. It cherishes strong opinions and even more the strongest articulation of them. Butte never shies away from a political fight. It is part of the DNA of a mining town with a fierce tradition of labor struggles. Butte did not survive a history of hardship by being timid.

Three years ago, I met Greg and Susan. It was at a fundraiser for a great cause at which Susan was a very entertaining MC. I had no idea of their politics. Most importantly, I did not care. Over time, we became friends.

Last year Greg became a GOP candidate for Governor of Montana. He is a brilliant high-tech businessman and a compelling speaker, so I invited him to speak to our Catholic High School seniors about entrepreneurship. The students were captivated. I also introduced him and his wife to my congregation at one Mass as good friends visiting from nearby Bozeman. There was not a hint of campaigning in these occasions.

In a hyper-partisan society, a priest is effective only when strictly non-partisan. However, when you live authentically within a community the boundaries are not so distinct. Several friends told me, very politely, that my association with Greg and Susan was politically sensitive. I would never have suspected it. In fact it confirmed to me that we have, unwisely, allowed politics to overreach much too far into our lives. Friends are friends in and out of political season.

Regardless of political opinions, I remain, unshakably, committed to welcoming everyone who respects the sacredness of our "House of Prayer." In this, I answer to a Higher Authority.

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Every week I address my congregation. In order to remain meaningful, as well as satisfy my curiosity, I read incessantly, including a wide variety of diverging opinions. Sometimes they offend me. Most of the time, the opinions challenge me to sharpen my message.

As a priest in an intensely political town, I have reached the following conclusions. The future health of our Democracy depends on three attitude shifts by the electorate:

_Reacquiring a healthy skepticism with all sources of news.

_Committing to listen respectfully to those with whom we disagree.

_Accepting the discomfort of being challenged by new and different ideas as a responsibility and a privilege of living in a free society.

As long as we do not give up on this privilege and meet our responsibilities, we can remain optimistic about the kind of country we will pass on to our children.

As Susan and Bill, brilliantly, taught me, learning to speak to each other again will be the hardest accomplishment. It will also be the most rewarding because, with it, the elusive electoral power will be restored to the people.

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The 10-day option has been turned down for the upcoming Tet.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has approved a 7-day Lunar New Year break after reviewing proposals made by the ministries of labor and social affairs last month, which included a 10-day option.

Phucs decision means that most members of the public will have seven days off for the New Year holiday from January 26 to February 1. During this period, government offices and state-owned companies will close, as well as schools and other businesses in the country.

The labor ministry proposed the 10-day option last month and a survey by VnExpress found that 81 percent of the 16,500 respondents favored a long break. The seven-day break may be too short for many, especially after the nine-day holidays the country has enjoyed for Tet over the past five years.

PM Phuc has yet to decide on the break for the Hung Kings Festival, which commemorates the kings considered to be the founding fathers of Vietnam. The home affairs ministry favored the longer option of a four-day break that starts on Thursday, April 6 and will run through the weekend. Workers will have to make up for the Friday off on the Saturday of the week before or after. The other option was a single day on April 6, or the 10th day of the third lunar month.

If the PM approves the longer option, Vietnam will have a total of 21 holidays in 2017.

The remaining holidays approved for 2017 include: three days off for the New Year holiday from December 31, 2016 to January 2, 2017; four days for Reunification Day and Labor Day from April 29 to May 2; and three days for Independence Day from September 2-4.

Related news:

> Where in Asia people get the longest Lunar New Year break?

> Vietnam all set for long holidays in 2017
PHILADELPHIA, PA - NOVEMBER 13: A protestor demonstrates against President-elect Donald Trump outside Independence Hall with a sign stating 'Love Trumps Hate' on one side, and his child's drawing on the other side, November 13, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Republican candidate lost the popular vote by more than a million votes, but won the electoral college. (Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images)

It has been a deeply challenging week for me and for my family and for my communities. I woke up on Wednesday morning and I understood that the world I thought I knew had changed and I have been wrestling with the significance of that change for my life and for my faith.

Preaching is testimony and testimony is an act of articulation of who we are and what we believe at any given point in our lives, with the hope that with more experiences our testimony continues to grow and evolve. This is a time for each of us to clarify our faith and to remember who it is we call Lord. So, here is what I believe today.

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I am a follower of Jesus, who was the embodiment of love, the word of love made flesh. I am a follower of Jesus, whose mother gave birth to him in a manger and whose very birth was so threatening to the powerful that they plotted to kill him as an infant. I follow a dark skinned, Palestinian Jew whose first sermon preached liberation for the oppressed, release to the captives and good news to the poor.

Jesus, whose best followers were women, who praised people of other faiths, who tenderly washed the feet of those around him, and who angrily cleansed the temple of hypocrisy.

I call Lord, the one who stood up to bullies who would stone a woman for adultery and condemned the righteous piety of those who would judge but had no mercy. I follow the Jesus who gave dignity to those degraded, invited repentance for our trespasses against God and neighbor and draws us into right relation.

I follow Jesus, our leader of a rag-tag band of outcasts who were despised and blessed. Jesus, who showed compassion to the hurting, healing to the suffering and life to the dead. I follow Jesus who was such a threat to an empire that he was killed on the cross and yet who rose again and whose spirit continues to live even on this day, in this room, where people are gathered in his name.

I follow Jesus who, before he died, gave a commandment that those who would be his followers must love one another in the same way that he loved them. Who warned us that it was only by their love that people would be able to know that they were Jesus followers.

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So what does loving as Jesus loves mean in a time when we have elected a man whose candidacy was built upon an us vs them mentality, whose very motto evoked a time when people who weren't white, Christian, straight and male knew their place. A candidate who derided the differently abled, who threatened the immigrant, whose career has been built on the backs of the weaker, who denigrated and assaulted women because he could get away with it, who normalized racism against black and brown bodies, and whose rhetoric has given permission for violence against Muslims and Jews and queers.

Already since Tuesday the attacks have begun. Young people in middle school are being targeted with chants of 'build the wall' and 'go back to where you came from', at NYU a Muslim prayer room was vandalized, at Baylor a white student shoved a black student off the sidewalk telling her to know her place. "The Southern Poverty Law Center has reported at least 201 verified racist incidents since early Wednesday, when Trump's victory became apparent." I'm thinking of the queer kids who are scared now, alone and more vulnerable than they were just a few days ago. Of immigrant friends who fear that their status will be changed and that they will be deported. I fear for black men and women whose lives are already targeted on the streets. I fear for my family and how gay marriage is a recent and fragile gain, and we have a child, and I fear for our safety.

So how do I love as Jesus loved in this time of fear and hate and fracture? Just saying you are a Christian is not enough. No. Christianity is suspect. White Christians voted 2 to 1 for the president elect. There is no cover in religious labels.

Yet still I will follow Jesus and I will try to love as he would have me love and for me that is a call to resistance.

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I will resist by drawing upon the spiritual power given to me by Jesus the brown savior who demanded justice, who stood up to bullies, who called the most vulnerable the most blessed. I will follow Jesus, the loving resister, who called for the deep repentance that precedes reconciliation rather an easy grace that leads to nothing. The cuts already go deep and the knives are still being sharpened as we speak. I will resist in Jesus' name and I will resist using the power of love.

I will resist against the hate, but I will not hate, I will resist against the violence but I will not be violent, I will resist against the bitterness and despair by building loving communities and practicing the spiritual discipline of non-violence taught by the American prophet Martin Luther King, Jr.

We find ourselves in a moment when we need King more than ever. In 1958, he wrote about the pillars of non-violent resistance in an essay called "An experiment in love." He wrote:

"The nonviolent resister not only refuses to shoot his opponent but he also refuses to hate him. At the center of nonviolence stands the principle of love. The nonviolent resister would contend that in the struggle for human dignity, the oppressed people of the world must not succumb to the temptation of becoming bitter or indulging in hate campaigns. To retaliate in kind would do nothing but intensify the existence of hate in the universe. Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate. This can only be done by projecting the ethic of love to the center of our lives."

King's love centered, non-violent resistance also makes space deep engagement with the other. While the next president exploited and promoted fear, there is real suffering happening across America. White men, who were the bulk of his support, also have skyrocketing rates of addiction, suicide and health decline. Change has happened fast and there is a sense of alienation rather than a bringing along. Part of my resistance must be extending a hand, seeing with the eyes of Jesus into the eyes of my neighbor with compassion and empathy.

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I also have my own spiritual work to do. Those who participated with Dr. King and the civil rights' non-violent movement underwent a deep process of spiritual preparation to safe guard their hearts against hate. I confess, that work is incomplete in me at this time. I still have deep anger and fear and I must resist the hate in my own heart if I am to be effective in resisting the hate in the world.

For me to be successful I require community. We cannot follow Jesus and be individualists. It is only when two or three are gathered that Christ is with us. So, I hope that this community and churches across the country will rise up in the deep spiritual work of engagement with the other and fierce resistance to the hate that we are seeing in our country today.

The good news is that we are not alone. That in doing this work of loving resistance we have Jesus who is within us and among us, who is always calling us, and whose spirit will sustain us until our living and loving on this earth is done.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump gestures as he speaks at election night rally in Manhattan, New York, U.S., November 9, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar

Before everyone gets overly upset about Donald Trump and climate change consider this one thing: Donald Trump's denial of climate change is irrelevant.



Climate change is a scientific reality and the denial of climate change as a problem does not make the threat go away. The reality cannot be changed by the personal beliefs of the President of the United States. This is akin to King Canute demanding that the tide cease to rise. When he failed to force the Ocean to his will, he proclaimed, "let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings."



Presidents, like kings, have no authority over Nature.



And when you really think about, just what is the difference between a president that denies climate change and a Prime Minister who acknowledges it, yet acts as if he is denying it?



It is of course the politically correct thing to acknowledge climate change as a reality but none of these world leaders are actually doing the ecologically correct thing and doing something about it.



Greenpeace sent me, and thousands of others, a message yesterday. They see Trump as an opportunity to raise funds. This was the Greenpeace message:



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This week, so many people have reached out about how they can help -- and there are many ways you can get involved, but one of the most direct ways for us to prepare for the threats to our climate, communities, and planet is by making a donation to Greenpeace today. The road ahead will not be easy. Trump's upcoming presidency poses a direct and real danger to our climate, our environment, and our democracy. But, Greenpeace is not going anywhere. We're not giving up -- and we are ready for this fight.

Today I received this message from the Environmental Defense Fund:



Everything that we've fought so hard to accomplish in the past eight years is under attack, and we must not waste any time fighting back. Join the fight to protect our environmental legacy by making your first online gift to EDF this weekend.

Also today, there was a message from the Sierra Club:



The next four years will be decided by how hard we fight right now. We are launching an emergency campaign to stop Trump's efforts to derail everything we've achieved. Monthly giving is the best way to support our fight. Become a Wilderness Guardian today.

I'm not sure how making contributions to Greenpeace, the Sierra Club and EDF is going to stop Trump. Not much was accomplished over the last eight years outside of promises on paper and some nice speeches by some politicians.



What will people receive in return for their donations? Certainly not any influence over Trump or the Republican Congress.



My question is this. Just how is President-elect Donald Trump any different than Prime Minister Justin Trudeau?



There is this myth that Trudeau is doing something to address climate change. He's not. His energy policies are not much different than former Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Trudeau has not stopped development and extraction in the Tar Sands, he's pro-pipeline, pro West Coast tanker traffic and pretty much pro anything that is going to profit the energy corporations. He even denied that the devastating fires earlier this year in Alberta were linked to climate change and chastised Canadian Green Party leader Elizabeth May for suggesting that it was.



But at COP 21 he said he was going to take real action on climate change.... like someday -- maybe, or maybe not.



What has the U.S. under Obama done? I mean really! Trump will not diminish the Obama, Bush and Clinton efforts. He would actually have to try hard to do less than they did.



I very vividly remember that it was Al Gore who refused to sign the Kyoto Accord and I also remember everyone in Canada and Australia giving the Americans hell for not signing that accord, yet the Canadians and the Australians were creating more greenhouse gas emissions per capita than the Americans at the time and continued to do so.



So it seems that signing a climate change agreement is more important than actually doing something about the problem and acknowledging climate change and doing nothing about it appears to be more significant than denying it and doing nothing about it.



Many people will now throw their energies into fighting Trump on this issue and this will make leaders like Turnbull in Australia and Trudeau in Canada look relatively good while they do nothing more substantial than Trump in reality.



We humans do love our illusions.



Fighting Trump on this issue will also serve to send a message to all those who voted for him that he's their man. Making the Libs, the Greenies and the Lefties angry is something that will endear him even more in their minds. They want him to be seen as the climate change denying hero. Instead we need to ignore him because climate change deniers are irrelevant to reality. By challenging the deniers, we validate them, we engage them and thus they are taken even more seriously.

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"Climate change deniers are irrelevant to reality." - Captain Paul Watson



Donald Trump is not really a stupid man, although he plays the role quite well. He knows damn well that climate change is real but he needs to tell his base what they want to hear and challenging him on this helps him to send that message even stronger.



Trump is not a scientist and therefore does not need to score any points with science. He is a politician wooing people who he knew wanted to hear the message that climate change is a hoax and, as is his way, he embellished it with a silly explanation that the Chinese created it. Does he really believe that? Of course not, but he wanted the people who want to hear him deny climate change to think that he does. It's called politics, also known as the 'art of the possible'.



Confronting Trump on climate change achieves less traction than ignoring him. Saying he is a dunce with the science does not hurt him, in fact it only makes him stronger with his base and his base has demonstrated that science pulls very little weight when it comes to their self interested priorities.



What he and his climate change denying constituents will not be able to ignore is when Mother Nature continues to slap them in the face harder and harder than the year before. They can only ignore super-storms, floods, drought, rising sea levels, devastating fires, etc., for so long until the realization that something is not quite right sinks through their hard skulls into that area of their brain that can comprehend consequences



Trying to get a politician, any politician, to actually withdraw from energy addiction is akin to trying to get a hardcore junkie to lay off the needle.



The Greenpeace, Sierra Club and EDF message state that Trump poses a direct and real danger to our climate, our environment, and our democracy.



But does he? The threats to our climate, our environment and our democracy have been the same threats for decades, well before Trump. He did not just jump out of the bushes to scare us with these threats. Are the Native Americans at Standing Rock being pepper sprayed and beaten because of Trump? Did the Deepwater Horizon disaster happen because of Trump? And what could be a greater threat to our environment than BP's disaster in the Gulf and the fact that they were never really punished. If I deliberately or even accidentally poured just one barrel of oil into the harbor I would be in jail. This double standard is not Trump's creation.

I think the oligarchs would love nothing better than to scapegoat Donald Trump for their sins. He is, after all, a loose cannon in their eyes. They would much rather replace him and most likely they will. Mike Pence would be a better fit for them and they know it. Not as good as Hillary Clinton, but more manageable than Trump.



These COP conferences are accomplishing absolutely nothing but talk, talk, talk and more freaking talk. We're up to COP 22 now with this recent meeting in Morocco and without the charisma and energy of a Nichola Hulot with COP 21, hardly anyone has even heard of COP 22.



How many COP'S will there be before anything substantial is actually done. COP 33? COP 57? These charades are simply cop-outs from action.



Not one of these COP gab-fests has shut down a single coal fired generating plant or a single pipeline. Not one.



The only thing that excites any government appears to be the possibility of imposing a tax. Politicians love taxes and carbon taxes are just another scam to secure tax dollars. Carbon trading is yet another scam.

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"The threats to our climate, our environment and our democracy have been the same threats for decades, well before Trump." - Captain Paul Watson

There is not a single nation that is undertaking the effort to realistically and effectively address climate change.



Is anyone shutting down fracking, drilling, open pit mining, deep water exploration? No. Is there a single nation cutting subsidies to energy companies or to the destructive fishing industries? No. Will we stop slaughtering 65 billion animals a year to reduce a carbon footprint that is even greater than that of transportation? Hell no, "I like my hamburger" is the answer.



Is there a single world leader ready to make economic sacrifices for the environment? Absolutely not.



"Oh but....," say my critics, "there are great educational programs underway." How's that working? Not that great?



Some want us to waste our energies battling Trump The climate change Denier as if that's going to accomplish anything. It won't. When will we stop reacting to the circuses so we can actually focus on taking the initiative?



My point is that Donald Trump simply is no worse and no better than all the rest of these so-called leaders whose agenda is to serve the corporations and to enrich themselves.



He won't do much but he will most likely do just as much meaning very little as Trudeau, Turnbull and May have done, or will do.

The North American Free Trade Deal happened under Clinton. The Trans-Pacific Trade Deal was an Obama goal. Trump is against it. Fracking was initiated and supported by Obama and Clinton. The embarrassment of the Dakota Access Pipeline is happening under the Obama administration.

Would Hillary Clinton have stopped it if elected? Would she actually do a damn thing to address climate change if she had won? The evidence indicates that she would have done everything to maintain the status quo which has brought all these problems to us and will present much greater problems in the near future.



I did not vote for Trump but I'm not going to pretend that on this issue, i.e. climate change, anyone else would mean anything different.



I can see fighting Trump on women's issues, LGBT+ issues, immigration issues and many more important social issues. I will support any such efforts with both passion and action BUT I have no intention of fighting Trump on climate change. To do so would simply be a distraction away from the fact that not one goddamn world leader is actually doing anything at all to address the problem. I have no intention of contributing to making them all look good compared to Trump.



Because when it comes to climate change Trump is on par with Trudeau, Turnbull, May, Hollande, Abe, Putin, and the leaders of China, Brazil, Mexico and everyone else meaning that they all are pursuing agendas that are contrary to the reality of climate change.



So where do we look for answers?



People of passion, of imagination, courage and commitment. People like Elon Musk, Gildo Pastor, Leonardo DiCaprio, James Cameron, Ethan Brown, Cyrill Gutch, John Paul DiJoria, Chief Raoni, Dale Vince, Naomi Klein, Jasmine Thomas, Wangari Maathai and so many others.



Individual passion. Individual imagination. Individual initiative. Individual courage. These are the keys to our survival.



Depending on a politician to solve any of these problems is like depending on an oil executive to promote solar energy. It is simply not in their interest or as Bill Clinton once put it, "It's the economy stupid."



That is a fact. Politicians serve the economy. They do not serve the Environment. It's like asking a high school history teacher to teach advanced math. They won't do it because they can't do it.

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Now that Republicans are running Congress, the White House and two-thirds of the states, we will find out whether conservative government will be good for school kids. If their record on issues like standards, choice and accountability are any indication, however, I'm skeptical.

Standards

For decades, Republicans and Democrats called for higher standards and governors on both sides of the aisle rose to the challenge, creating the Common Core State Standards.

The Obama administration offered financial incentives for states to adopt college- and career-ready standards, and all but a few states adopted Common Core with little to no debate.

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Then the pushback started. Red state politicians perpetuated the myth that the state standards were an attempt by President Obama to nationalize curriculum and began repealing, renaming or rewriting them.

Indiana Governor and now Vice-President elect Mike Pence was the first to bolt, followed quickly by GOP governors in Oklahoma, Iowa, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana and New Jersey.

Most of these efforts fizzled and the standards remain in place in most states. Nevertheless, it is clear that many Republicans will not defend standards they helped create because of politics. Moreover, the President-elect Trump has called the standards a "disaster." He will soon find out that he has no authority to remove them.

Republicans have long favored the use of competition to drive government reform. The Obama administration seized on this idea with the extraordinary opportunity presented by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, which made $100 billion available to the U.S. Department of Education.

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While most of that money was handed out with no strings attached simply to protect teaching jobs and boost funding for low-income schools and students with disabilities, $5 billion was set aside for reform.

Through competitive grants, the Obama administration spurred states to adopt a set of reforms that Republicans mostly support, and helped scale up good ideas that came from the local level. But, Republicans in Congress eliminated the largest of these programs, Race to the Top, and cut back the other one.

Choice

Another issue is choice. For some traditional Democrats, any choice other than the neighborhood school is bad. For progressive Democrats, like Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and many others, some choice is good, especially high-quality public charter schools that are finding new and better ways to improve educational outcomes for low-income kids.

Republicans generally prefer to let 1,000 flowers bloom and allow the market to drive charter quality. Unfortunately, it isn't working out that way in many places and is leading to the death of 1,000 cuts as low performance and mismanagement plague the charter sector in places like Michigan, Ohio, Arizona, Florida and elsewhere.

In fairness, some Republicans have embraced more charter school oversight, but most pay it lip service at best.

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Meanwhile, the teacher unions have launched a war on charter schools, blocking expansion in states like Massachusetts, Washington and Illinois. Unions have helped elect anti-charter school boards in places like Nashville and Minneapolis.

Voters also denied the state of Georgia the right to shut down low-performing schools and convert them to charters.

For many Republicans, and a few Democrats, choice is also about vouchers and education tax credits or savings accounts that allow public dollars to be spent in private schools. Despite very uneven results for students in voucher programs, over 30 states now have some kind of school voucher or tax credit initiative.

These programs mostly target low-income children, but one state, Nevada, has approved vouchers for middle-class kids. If other states follow suit, we may see more middle-class families leaving the system with ominous political implications for public education.

Given the pushback on charters, will Republicans go soft on them and just double down on vouchers? During the campaign, President-elect Trump vowed to increase federal funding for charters by nearly a hundred-fold.

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At some point soon, his new friends in Washington may sit him down and explain why vouchers are a better bet, given that so many states are now under Republican control and education battles are best fought at the state level.

Accountability

The last and final issue is accountability. In the face of an obstructionist Congress unwilling to work with the Obama administration to reform the national education law, No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the administration provided incentives to embrace reforms Republicans had long dreamed of. Specifically, in exchange for flexibility from NCLB, states adopted new systems of evaluating teachers and holding them accountable based in part on student achievement.

Because Obama did it, however, Republicans opposed it and this time, the pushback came from both sides. Local control conservatives on the right joined with teacher unions on the left to undermine federally-driven teacher evaluation.

Despite the drama, teacher evaluation policies remain in effect in about 40 states, though they are likely to fade since conservatives and teacher unions joined forces to pass a new education law, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which explicitly prohibit these kinds of incentives.

Teacher unions and conservatives are also conspiring to block efforts by the Obama administration to ensure that federal dollars meant for poor children are actually spent on poor children. The unions don't like it because it would require districts to address inequities in funding and teacher quality.

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Republicans don't like it because it would prevent them from diverting dollars away from schools serving poor people to schools serving their middle class constituents. The Trump administration most certainly will not fight this battle.

The same left-right bedfellows also conspired to weaken federal oversight of accountability under the new law. It pushes back to states' responsibility for protecting low-income children, children of color, children with disabilities and other groups of at-risk kids, from homeless to migrants to those learning English.

There is little evidence to suggest that states, left to themselves, will protect these children. There is no organized political constituency for accountability based, even in part, on standardized testing.

Teacher unions, school administrators and school boards resist it. Many middle-class parents who think their schools are fine resist it. Local control zealots oppose anything that smacks of centralized oversight.

Some parents of at-risk kids will fight for accountability but they won't get much help from the U.S. Department of Education. The dedicated civil servants in the department will soon be reporting to Trump appointees who openly fantasize about eliminating the department altogether.

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This kind of talk plays well for Republican politicians, but won't be good for kids.

The record of the last eight years is clear. More children have access to high quality pre-K. High school graduation rates are at an all-time high of 82 percent and have risen for all sub-groups of students. Drop-out rates are down dramatically and the number of "dropout factories" has shrunk from about 2000 to about 800. An additional 1.1 million students of color are in college.

President Obama's goals include more access to pre-K, getting high school grad rates to 90 percent, insuring all high school graduates are truly college- and career-ready when they get their high school diplomas, and leading the world in college completion.

Will the Trump administration build on these goals or abandon them? We'll see.
The PeadeThe riveting documentary Disturbing the Peace takes a hard look at the Middle East conflict from the perspective of former enemy combatants, some of whom have spent significant prison time, who are now challenging the status quo and finding ways to shatter a destructive narrative of war. You'd think forging a path toward peace would be a boon to all. Last month, at the Hamptons International Film Festival, I had the opportunity to sit down with a delegation, filmmakers Stephen Apkon and Marcina Hale, and several of their subjects from Combatants for Peace: Sulaiman Khatib, Palestinian co-founder, Chen Alon and Avner Wishnitzer, Israeli co-founders, and Mohammed Ouedah, Palestinian General Director. Middle East politics arouse intense passions, but to engage with this group it became imperative to look beyond my own given history.



Q: After decades of observing the conflicts in Israel, I don't believe in peace anymore. Your film seems to present a view of peace. How can peace be achieved?

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Sulaiman: Instead of looking for differences, we ask, how can we help? How do we come to light from darkness? It takes visionary people. That's not easy. People feel hopeless. I was in jail; in a hunger strike, you believe in something spiritual. I see despair as a privilege. Hope is a mode of survival. Every time I feel hopeless, I ask, who profits from my despair?

Q: Who profits from keeping the status quo?

Stephen: Hamas and the Israeli government collaborate on a new war in Gaza. Netanyahu believes that change is dangerous. He is trapped in a narrative. He is not willing to step outside. It is our role to show the possibility of stepping out of that narrative of fear.

Q: Who benefits from fear?

Stephen: Look at our election, look at the way leaders run for office, Trump, for example, instills fear. The way leaders come to power is through fear, the way they perpetuate power is through fear. The US just gave $38 million package to Israel. If you look at where the money goes, there is a direct benefit to many companies, and conflict continues. Where does it take us?

Q: Do you think this film will create an awareness of that particular problem?

Stephen: Look at the way we do this in our own lives. We create out of fear. This is not just about Israel or Palestine, this is what we are bringing into the world.

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Q: As a mother of daughters, I was struck by the decision of the Palestinian woman in your film to put on a vest of explosives, and the heart-wrenching moment she chose to say goodbye to her daughter before setting out on her mission.

Mohammed: We spoke to that woman this morning. Her mother did not want her to grow up in the occupation, and now it's her children. You would think the daughter is most important for the mother. But she is not: When she lost hope, she lost her daughter. She did not care. Hope is more important to us than our children.

Marcina: What's unique about Israel is the occupation. I don't think there's a person who wants to live under occupation. As human beings, we must agree, there are things we cannot allow. This is not the world we have to live in. We have other options.

Q: What about the idea of Israel as a Jewish state, so the Holocaust would never happen again?

Chen: When I began this project 4 years ago, I had to confront my upbringing just as all of these people did. If you were born where they were born, you were taught what they were taught, you believe what they believe, so it is painful to go through all the places where a particular narrative is embedded. Understand it is not reality. The narrative is constructed for us. There's a freedom when you can transcend the narrative.

I'm a grandchild of Holocaust survivors. They lost all their relatives in WWII. I grew up in Israel, became a major in the army. My father taught, this is the only shelter that we have. I thought if I serve in the occupied territories, defending the only shelter that the Jewish people have, I realized that what I was doing it boils down to certain actions that violate international law like collective punishment, arresting people without an order, violation of human rights, arresting children, bulldozing houses with no order, it is a massive violation of human rights by the Israeli people. I realized I was violating human rights and also destroying my own ends, the shelter of the Jewish people.

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Q: Is a one-state or two-state solution a solution for you?

Sulaiman: One state or two state, we don't have the privilege to think about this. We try every day; it is not us or you. We need courageous groups of people. My family living in Jordan loves Palestine. What we try to do is legitimize these feelings. We struggle for moral values we can both share. We all need to live in peace.

Q: What made you want to make a film on this subject, and was it hard to fund?

Stephen: Meeting people like Mohamed, Sulaiman, Chen and Avner. When we came back with the story of these people who had done an amazing transformation of themselves --this is the only bi-national group working together for non violence-- that was a compelling story.

Q: What do you hope audiences will get from your film?

Stephen: We come from violence. And still we choose to believe. So much is about believing, about hope. This is our call to the people who come to the movie. Join us.
Jeff DeWit arrives at Republican president-elect Donald Trump's Trump Tower in New York, U.S. November 13, 2016. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

It's already a Washington truism that Donald Trump, who promised to "drain the swamp" of lobbyists and others who exploit government for personal gain, has turned to it instead for his key appointments.

It's true. The reptiles are taking over. Let's take a tour of the place while we still can.

Welcome to Trump Swamp. Join us on the glass-bottom boat as we gaze on the denizens below. Keep your hands inside the railings -- and please don't feed the gators.

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It's hard to get past the white nationalist in any discussion of Trump's team. Sure, they call Steve Bannon's worldview "alt-right," but that's deceptive. That makes it sound like something new, when hatred is as old as the hills.

White supremacist Jared Taylor cheered Bannon's hire, saying he suspected Bannon will serve as an "anti-waffler" to maintain Trump's ideological and racial purity. (Taylor's most recent tweet, as of this writing is, "Excellent Boston Globe article about the Hispanic invasion. This is how we throw away our country.")

"I think that's excellent," said former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke of Bannon's hire.

"Perhaps The Donald IS for 'REAL'," the chairman of the American Nazi Party exulted, adding: "Time will tell."

Admittedly, when one of the President-elect's appointments gets positive responses from the KKK and the Nazis, it's hard to focus on his other hires. But it's important. If "personnel is policy," as Sen. Elizabeth Warren says, then Trump's policy is plunder.

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Billionaire Steve Mnuchin is a leading contender for Secretary of the Treasury. As we first noted last August, Mnuchin ran a mortgage-lending outfit called One West, which was investigated for its abusive treatment of borrowers. The California Reinvestment Coalition asked authorities to investigate One West's pattern of racial discrimination in foreclosures, and specifically cited its "foreclosures of widows."

Looks like the proprietor of Trump University has found a soul mate. There are others.

Trump also sought out JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon for Treasury Secretary. Dimon has presided over a truly epic orgy of fraud during his tenure. Dimon is a generous campaign donor to politicians from both parties, which may explain why he has escaped serious investigation.

(Dimon wisely took his name out of consideration for the job. Elizabeth Warren would have humiliated him.)

Then there's billionaire Wilbur Ross, a leading contender for Commerce Secretary. Ross, who is already reassuring investors that Trump won't do anything rash on trade, invests in "distressed assets." What the aliens in "Independence Day" do to planets like Earth, Ross does to troubled companies. He plunders them for anything of value and then leaves them in ruins.

And speaking of plundering a planet and leaving it in ruins, here are the leading contenders for Trump's top energy and environmental slots:

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Oil tycoon Forrest Lucas is a frontrunner for Secretary of the Interior. He makes his money by digging up the land he would be tasked to protect. But Lucas is not a one-dimensional candidate. He also hates animals.

Lucas is, as Politico reports, "one of the biggest donors to groups that attack the Humane Society and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and (who) defend animal agriculture, hunting, meat consumption, rodeos and circuses."

Like dogs? Lucas reportedly spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending puppy mills from a ballot initiative.

And you'll get two for the price of one: his wife and Lucas Oil co-founder Charlotte Lucas has attacked atheists and Muslims on Facebook, writing, "I'm sick and tired of minorities running this country!"

Feel like you're in a swamp yet?

Trump's considering a real mother-fracker for Energy Secretary: Oklahoma oil billionaire Harold Hamm has extensive holdings in corporations that use fracking and other techniques to extract oil from Mother Earth. (What did you think I meant?) Hamm's spent years trying to get federal lands turned over to companies like his for exploitation.

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Bloomberg News reported that Hamm tried to get some earthquake researchers fired from the University of Oklahoma, where he's a major donor, because they were investigating the connection between oil and gas extraction and Oklahoma's "nearly 400-fold increase in earthquakes."

Expect more man-made earthquakes under a Trump/Hamm regime.

Trump is also reportedly planning to turn leadership of the Environmental Protection Agency to far-right environmental nemesis Myron Ebell. Ebell has parlayed his extreme anti-government views and his refusal to accept climate science's findings -- a refusal grounded in absolutely no scientific qualifications whatsoever -- into a lucrative gig as the head of a fossil-fuel industry front group he calls the "Competitive Enterprise Institute."

Today the institute, tomorrow the world -- destroying it, that is.

(Note to media: "Climate contrarian" is a weasel phrase. It's like calling Flat-Earthers "geography contrarians." The right term for Ebell is "industry-funded crank.")

There are more cold-blooded creatures like these in Trump's world, but it's time for our tour to end.

What we're seeing here is nothing new. Trump's only doing what his fellow developers did in the Florida Land Rush of the 1920s: He's selling people paradise, but giving them swampland instead.

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Trump's "contract with the American voter" promised that he would "clean up corruption and special interest collusion" in Washington in his first hundred days as president.
Sex trafficking is a $100 billion industry worldwide. Victims, many of whom are as young as 11-, 12- and 13-years old, face unspeakable horrors. They are abused mentally and physically, forced to take drugs, forbidden from going out in public and even denied food and water.

California is a top destination state for sex-trafficking victims and our big cities are major hubs for moving girls throughout the state and around the world. That's why combating sex-trafficking is one of my top priorities.

We've recently taken significant steps forward to combat this heinous crime at the local, state and federal levels, and it's important to take stock of the progress we've made and the work that remains.



Last year, Congress passed the Justice for Victims of Human Trafficking Act--a major piece of legislation that garnered unanimous support in the Senate. Working with Republican colleagues, I was able to include two important provisions to encourage the prosecution of buyers to decrease demand and stop the advertising of juvenile victims on the Internet. Addressing these two areas is key to reducing sex trafficking.

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According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, reports of child sex trafficking have increased eight-fold in just the past five years. High demand and the proliferation of Internet advertisements are the main reasons.

With just a few clicks, buyers are anonymously connected to victims. These trafficking ads are incredibly profitable--generating millions of dollars for websites like Backpage.com and others.

The first provision I drafted with Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) would help ensure buyers are held accountable for their actions and prosecuted. It makes buyers criminally liable for purchasing sex from trafficking victims, expands reporting on trafficking prosecutions and requires training for law enforcement officials on how to target and prosecute buyers.

The second provision I put together with Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) makes it a crime for a person, including the owner of a website, to knowingly advertise a commercial sex act with a minor. Website owners would be much less likely to turn a blind eye to trafficking ads if they could be prosecuted for them.

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Since the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act was signed into law, I've pushed the Justice Department to use these new legal tools and will continue to do so.

The U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles--Eileen Decker--has shown real leadership in this area, prosecuting several buyers in the past year. One buyer--a 59-year-old man--was sentenced to nearly five years in prison. He lied to federal investigators about his conduct with a 16-year-old girl he met, and later advertised, on Backpage.com.

Another area where we've seen progress is increased coordination between local, state and federal law enforcement.

Three weeks ago, there was a nationwide operation led by the FBI to arrest buyers and traffickers and rescue victims--Operation Cross Country.

That operation was very successful in the Bay Area. Nearly 40 local law enforcement organizations and victims' service providers participated. Six underage victims and three adult victims were rescued. Fourteen traffickers and 83 buyers were arrested.

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Law enforcement collaboration also led to the recent arrest of Carl Ferrer, the CEO of Backpage.com, for various state felony offenses. The charges stem from Ferrer's participation in profiting off the selling of young girls for sex on Backpage. California Attorney General Kamala Harris deserves a lot of credit for bringing these charges. In addition, Mr. Ferrer obstructed a Senate investigation into his company's practices, opting to not comply with subpoena requests.

It's also encouraging that San Francisco is taking steps to increase penalties for buyers.

The San Francisco Police Department is considering changing its protocols so all buyers arrested for purchasing sex will be booked in jail, rather than given citations at the scene. Citations are unlikely to deter these individuals from purchasing sex again, perpetuating the sky-high demand for victims.

This policy change would bring San Francisco in line with Alameda County, which, under the leadership of District Attorney Nancy O'Malley, has cracked down on demand and helped survivors.

I've worked with Nancy and Catholic Charities of the East Bay to address one of the biggest gaps in helping victims get their lives back: safe and stable housing. Without a roof over their heads, victims are much more likely to return to their traffickers.

A safe house for child victims of sex trafficking, Claire's House, will open in 2017. It will have around a dozen beds--there aren't currently any beds reserved for trafficking victims in San Francisco or the East Bay.

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Survivors helped design the home to ensure it meets girls' needs. They have also provided guidance on everything from program curricula to safety measures. Empowering survivors to help make progress on this issue is so important.

Lastly, more must be done for trafficking victims abroad. For example, Yazidi women in Syria and Iraq have been subjected to unspeakable sexual violence by ISIL. It has been reported that ISIL uses a variety of Internet websites and apps to advertise these women--just like traffickers in the United States. That's why I am working on legislation to ensure ISIL terrorists can't use social media platforms to sell girls for sex.
I hate that my mother voted for Donald Trump. But I love my mom.



As we look at the fierce division between Trump's supporters and everyone else, the fear of the unknown is paralyzing. There's a reason the hair on the back of our neck sticks up when we find ourselves in a dangerous situation. Our body is screaming out that something is wrong. But when we take on our parents, friends, family, and people we love to right that instinctive wrong, we risk shattering our home core.

Historically, this election is one of the few times the electoral vote and popular vote are different. The resulting message to both parties should be that we need to work together now more than ever - but that isn't happening.

People are fearful. We've elected someone who's obsessed with Twitter bigotry and hate. I take to heart what Bernie Sanders said: "Our job now is to hold him accountable."

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But my mother disagrees. Seeing the rising number of anti-Trump riots and protests on the news, she has pledged her support. "They should round up the protesters and arrest them," she believes.

My colleague is Latino. He's always full of cheer, but today, he's afraid. He is leery of what the future may hold. And like many others, I see how afraid he is. It's hard for me to sympathize with people like my mother who support Trump.

Our president-elect has threatened to use presidential rights to take away the rights of many Americans. But if we become hateful, we will, in turn, become like our oppressors - and just like Trump.

We do need to fight forward, but not at the cost of losing friends and family.

We can face discrimination in workplaces, schools. and as well in the state. But it's doubtful we'll keep the public fight if we're raging the war alone. Burning bridges with people we love will get us nowhere.

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In an attempt to communicate, I listened to the rants of my mother. I talked about the importance of civil rights in America. Still, her hostile emails continued. I felt hurt. And like many of us whose families are politically split, we needed to find common ground. But how?

When we stop communicating with people we love, our relationships decay. The smallest slight can fire up our emotions.

I was afraid of becoming hateful. There's always a moment where you face the option of breaking all the rules. Where you know that no matter how bad things are now, you can always make them worse with one choice.

Then I remembered when First Lady Michelle Obama addressed that same choice this election:

"When someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you don't stoop to their level. No, our motto is: when they go low, we go high."

Michelle Obama touched a chord with her words. Faced with the proposition of becoming full of hate, I decided to 'go high.'

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I reached out and told my mother that I loved her, that I cared about her. I explained that nothing outside of us is more important than our relationship.

She took a breath and said, "I love you so much." And as of late, she has ceased to talk about the president-elect.

There was no way I could have reached middle ground with my mother. We were both trying to make each other understand, instead of understanding the other. Now we have the opportunity to build a more communicative relationship. Or perhaps we will agree to remain respectful and go silent.

Let's go with our gut instincts and follow our heart. Whatever our future holds, or hardships we're facing, we will never succeed without the love of family and friends.

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word." --Martin Luther King, Jr.

* * * * *

Suzannah's work is about giving individuals (like you!) dynamic insight into what agonizes them most and offering breakthrough solutions. She offers instant, real-time solutions to what troubles her clients -- all delivered with a large shot of compassion. Schedule an Appointment Today.
By Brendan Bures

Some days, you're just not loving it. That is the case for many specifically disgruntled McDonald's customers over the years. There's been 911 calls and lawsuits and media reports.

We would like to commemorate these people. They may be brave fighters of innocuous causes, but that does not dismiss their attempted heroics. And so we have constructed this list of common folk battling McDonald's in various, trivial ways.

Before we do, however, we have to say one thing: Most of you folks should've known what you're getting into when you walk into a McDonald's. It is not Nobu. When you enter a McDonald's, you're also accepting that something not-great can happen. A blue plastic ball might hit you in the face. Your McDouble with Cheese might look like someone sat on it. Pretending these are not possibilities within McDonald's is a lie to only one person: Yourself.

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A 911 McNugget emergency

lost it when she ordered a 10-piece McNuggets, paid for her meal, then was told they were out of McNuggets and refused a refund. Furious, she called 911 three times to help recover her money, despite employees apparently offering her a McDouble.

"This is an emergency," Goodman told a Fort Pierce police dispatcher in one of the calls.

She was eventually received a citation for misusing 911. Meanwhile, McDonald's offered her a full refund and a free meal of her choosing.

Crunchy McChicken's

A bite into a spicy McChicken sandwich could be described in the following ways: savory, juicy, spicy, salty, not good for you. But one woman experienced a crunch and discovered a shard of glass inside.

According to Reuter's, "Vjollca Lecaj said she suffered severe and permanent oral injuries, as well as 'great pain and anguish' after biting into and chewing the glass."

The cause of the contamination? Apparently an overheated coffee pot that had exploded in the kitchen.

Customers paying in fake money

A McDonald's employee hosted a Reddit AMA a few years ago, revealing some horror and comedic stories alike.

if you're interested, but one worthy bit was the time a customer attempted to

. The employee suspected it was Life.

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Vegetarians vs. Beefy McFries

Back in 2002, McDonald's labeled it fries and hash browns as a vegetarian menu item. The fast-food chain had made a switch to using pure vegetable oil to fry their fries, removing the beef fat the previously cooked with.

But it was discovered McDonald's wasn't using pure oil as they claimed. They were still including a form of beef flavoring for their fries. This raised some serious ire among the vegetarian and Hindu communities, the latter of which considers the cow a sacred animal.

The company eventually settled with the plaintiffs and donated $10 million to Hindu and other groups.

Hey McDonald's, Don't Supersize me

The first lawsuit of its kind, Caesar Barber sued McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, and Kentucky Fried Chicken. His claim: Their food was making them fat. He sought damages for the medical conditions consuming their food had wrought, including his obesity, diabetes, and both of his heart attacks.

"Those people in the advertisements don't tell you what's in the food," Barber told the Guardian. "It's all fat, fat and more fat. Now I'm obese. The fast-food industry has wrecked my life. They said 100% beef. I thought that meant it was good for you."

His case was dismissed "without prejudice" back in 2003 and he didn't re-file.



Napkin Please?

One man filed a $1.5 million lawsuit against McDonald's after receiving just one napkin with his meal.

Webster Lucas alleged that he returned to the counter asking for more, but was refused. According to the New York Daily News, "Lucas alleges the debate took a racist turn when the Mexican-American boss mumbled something about 'you people'--which Lucas took to be a reference to him being black."

When offered free burgers as an apology, Lucas took it as an insult, and claimed the incident caused him "undue mental anguish."


By Aaron Kinsey, Harvard Business School, Class of '17 & Harbus Contributing Writer

The mood on the Harvard Business School campus last week was incredibly somber. The entire institution appeared to be paralyzed. Undoubtedly, some of this was driven by the fear and uncertainty around what a Trump administration will look like. A substantial portion of the underlying despair was, and still is, driven by disbelief. Disbelief that a race which was presumably "in the bag" was turned on its head by a candidate that almost every news outlet had written off. Personally, I knew many were not expecting this outcome, but I was shocked at the extent of the surprise that Donald Trump would be our next president.

Two of my Tuesday classes - one at HBS and one at HKS - asked students for election predictions. I twice predicted a Trump victory, and each time, I received looks that implied I couldn't possibly be serious. Many of my classmates could not fathom the American public voting Donald Trump in as our next President. In their minds (and per the HBS student election poll published in the Harbus), Hillary would run away with a landslide victory. It was then no surprise that there was absolutely no curiosity around why I could have arrived at such an opinion.

So how could a man, down in almost every major poll and written off by a media eager to see him fail, pull off one of the biggest upsets in electoral history? More importantly, how could the pollsters have gotten this so wrong? One can argue that a major contributor to the deviation in predictions was because Trump supporters did not feel comfortable opening up to pollsters. In fact, according to Frank Luntz, a renowned pollster, and CEO of Luntz Global, many people who supported Trump declined to even answer the exit polls, thus further contributing to the skew.

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This topic brings up a few pertinent questions for us to consider:

Why would some of Trump's supporters refuse to talk to the pollsters?

Over the past few years, our country has embraced a culture of political correctness. Viewpoints against progressive thought are swiftly attacked, oftentimes with an "ist" or "ism" labeling attached. These attacks have severely undermined the ability and willingness of those with opposing views to openly discuss their differences. Once a label has been inserted, the conversation takes on a different theme in which one must defend their character instead of debate the political issue at hand. Thus, they never get the opportunity to present and defend their stance. In fact, it causes those who were threatened to check out of future discourse! If their opinion is not even allowed a seat at the table, there is no purpose in voicing it. The result is that even in a society which claims to embrace discourse and differing views, people do not feel free to share their true perspectives. It's simply not a battle in which most people want to engage. For them, the risk is just too high that someone will use a false narrative or unconscious bias to punish them socially. This is precisely why some Trump voters declined participation in exit polling.

Does a similar phenomenon play out at HBS?

In our own community at HBS, the decision on whether to fully engage is one that conservatives face every day. I know this to be true because it has been my experience over the last year and a half. I came to HBS with an open mind for the opportunity and genuinely wanted to enhance my ability to see things from the perspective of a diverse group of people whose backgrounds were much different than mine. I spent my first semester somewhat guarded in expressing my opinions and beliefs or challenging those with whom I disagreed. The social risks seemed very high. After Christmas break, I decided I could not do it anymore. I would be more outspoken and portray a contrarian argument. I simply could no longer allow myself to be suppressed. Once I started to openly express my views, I noticed a series of "strange" occurrences happening at school. Several of my classmates would either text me or discretely approach me in the hallway to tell me that they agreed with my opinions. Honestly, I had no idea that they shared the same opinions on many issues. You see, those with differing beliefs were afraid to speak out in class, out of fear of social retribution, even though their beliefs would have represented a voice frequently unheard by HBS students. Even worse, many of these same people continue to remain silent about their beliefs to this day. Perhaps if dialogue around these beliefs would have been previously welcomed at HBS, the community would have been much less surprised by Trump's victory This begs us to ask the question, is this the open and inclusive community for which we strive at Harvard?

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What can we all learn from this that can help us in our HBS studies and in our careers after graduation?

In many ways, this controversial time can serve as a great opportunity for self-reflection and improvement. First, on an individual level, we should strive to hear the viewpoints of others, withhold judgment, and consider the views based on their merits. It sounds easy, but it's extremely hard. I know because I've spent the past year building this skill within myself. It doesn't require us to change our own views, but teaches us to withhold labels and resist inserting them into debates in lieu of logic and proven facts. Making these adjustments can help us become better-informed members of a community in which we strive toward better ideas and solutions to the challenges of our societies.

Additionally, as future business leaders, we should pause to appreciate the value in creating culture. The current cultural climate made many voters reluctant to speak up about what they truly believed. In our future businesses, can we afford the cost of not receiving legitimate and accurate feedback from those in our organizations? What are those costs and who are the stakeholders who must bear them? Our challenge is to create an environment where ALL views are justly considered, not just the loudest or most persistent.

Finally, to fellow conservatives in the HBS student body, your classmates need you to share your experiences and opinions. The first time you stand up for your beliefs in class is the hardest, but at least you can sleep at night knowing you've been true to yourself. You might even be the one that spurs the discussion forward and helps our institution in its mission to educate leaders who make a difference in the world. By speaking up, you do yourself and your fellow classmates a service. To hear open, honest debate is a rarity today; let's make sure we start by fostering it here.

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Aaron Kinsey (HBS '17) is an EC student from Section D who prides himself on his Texas roots. Prior to HBS, he spent 9 years as a U.S. Air Force pilot and worked for Deloitte and the San Antonio Area Foundation. He spent the past summer at MetLife Real Estate Investors. Aaron is a Senator, Co-President of the Republican Club, Co-President of the Free Enterprise Club, and CFO of the Armed Forces Alumni Association.
Like it or not, Donald J. Trump will become leader of the free world. Where do we go from here?



By Terrance Rogers, Harvard Business School, Class of '17 & Harbus Contributing Writer

Losing sucks, but this election felt markedly different than anything most of us had ever faced. As Americans, we were fighting to define the soul of our country, and the man supported by the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) won the fight. The man that's been accused of physically assaulting our daughters, mothers and sisters swept the Southern "Bible Belt". The man whose businesses failed so often that he could barely get a business loan stole states like Michigan and Pennsylvania, which both have deep histories of global entrepreneurship and industrialism.

How could this have happened? What did we not seeing coming?

Most people on campus, Republicans included, were dazed and confused yesterday. Tears ran down people's faces, not just because their candidate lost, but because they have no idea if they'll be safe in their own country. Through dog-whistle politics and straight up demagoguery, Donald Trump insulted his way through the American electorate: wounded veterans, the disabled, almost every race and ethnicity, the LGBT community, and working women. Now, he'll get to be the most powerful man in the world.

Am I upset? Yes.

Am I shocked? Yes

Will America fall apart? No.

America will not and cannot be broken, certainly not by one man. As a people, we are too strong to let anyone destroy our great nation. He may not be able to destroy it, but you know he'll change it. The GOP controlled Congress will gut many progressive policies that were ushered in during the Obama era. The normalization of Trump-like rhetoric may cause an increase in hate crimes, and unfriendly press will be censured if his actions from the campaign spill over into the White House. It's doom and gloom if you're a progressive, moderate, or even a compassionate conservative, but the million-dollar question is:

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Where do we go from here?

Honestly, I don't have all the answers, but here are three things I think all Americans can start doing today: debrief and define, listen and love, and organize, organize, organize.

Debrief and Define - Americans on both sides of the electorate need to ask themselves who they want to be.

For Americans that lean left, you have to ask yourself why Secretary Clinton was not able to hold together the Obama coalition. What does this mean for the progressive movement? What issues will need to be addressed to gain the trust of young voters and bring back the rust belt (Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania)?

For Americans that lean right, you have to decide if you want to be defined by Trump's rhetoric. The country's demographics will not allow this type of hate to continue on for much longer.

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Listen and Love - We all need to break out of our own bubbles. On social media, our views are constantly being reinforced by algorithms that are designed to keep us happy and engaged with like-minded people. Good democracies feed off of people having a baseline understanding of each other.

My suggestion: reach out to someone with a completely different view than you. Ask one of your friends that supported Trump this year to grab a beer, and ask them why they supported him. Do the same with Johnson and Stein voters, and if you know someone who didn't vote, ask them why they didn't vote. If you're a Trump supporter, ask one of your friends why they're so scared of a Trump presidency. The key to successfully learning something from these conversations will be to listen. Don't try to prove your point. Don't quote facts, studies or statistics. Just sit back and listen for understanding.

In the end, we're all just Americans who want what's best for the country.

Organize, Organize, Organize - This is what makes our country so great. When we elect a president, we are not electing a dictator that is going to rule over us for decades to come. There will be multiple elections while Trump is in power, so if you disagree with Trump, you'll have many opportunities to chip away at his majority. Democracy is a game of inches. You gain a few and lose a few, but the key is to never stop pushing forward on your causes. For example, the Tea Party movement rose out of the ashes of Ron Paul's presidential campaign back in 2007, and President Obama's rise to power fueled their movement. If you're a progressive, don't sit back and call Donald Trump supporters ugly names. Get up and organize. Rally your troops and start gathering momentum for the elections ahead. You'll get another shot, but you'll have to be ready to take it when it comes.

No matter how crazy the odds or unsavory the situation, I still refuse to bet against America.

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Terrance Rogers (HBS '17) - Born and raised in Lawrenceville, GA, Terrance worked in New York City and London before coming to Harvard Business School. He's a proud public school kid from a blue collar family, and he's passionate about bringing people together to figure out how to use business and public policy to improve people's lives. You can follow him on Twitter (@terrance_rogers) and Instagram (@bigtrogers).
Go green: Electric buses to hit Hoi An streets next year

The famous town in central Vietnam will unveil its fleet of around 50 environmentally friendly buses in January.

Hoi An, the little charming town in central Vietnam, will have a new fleet of electric buses to serve visitors next year.

Under the piloted program, starting January 1, there will be some 50 buses running at low speed between 6 a.m. to 10 p.m, taking tourists around the Old Quarter and to the beaches, according to a post on the government's website.

Further details have not been provided but the post said the buses will be quiet and environmentally friendly.

Hoi An, one of the top picks for tourists, is already bicycle friendly.

In October, the town started a new project to use solar power for its major attractions, with funding from the German government.

It aims to attract 2.2 million tourists this year, up 10 percent from last year.

Related news:

> Vietnam's ancient town to light up main attractions with solar power

> Vietnam's ancient town limits visitors to Japanese bridge to save old icon

> Hoi An plans to dismantle iconic 400-year-old bridge
What do iron and fish have in common? Answer: Mauritania, a largely desert country of less than four million people in north-western Africa, is immensely rich in both. At the same time, most Mauritanians are poor. Last year, I spent several months doing research in Mauritania, and below will share some personal impressions from the edge of the global periphery.

Deep in the Sahara, a cluster of small mountains rises above the depressing monotone of seemingly endless sandy plains. Some of them are more metal than rock, consisting of up to 75% iron, one of the highest concentrations in the world. Mauritania nationalized the iron mines in 1974, creating the state-owned monopoly company SNIM. Its workers blast the slopes to rubble, which conveyor belts then tip into waiting railway waggons. Zouerate, the mining town from which the train sets off, is a dystopian hellhole straight out of Mad Max that is as grim as it is hot. Every single day, the longest train in the world - according to locals, lengths vary between 80 and 150 waggons - slowly chugs its way across 700 kilometres of desert, until the line terminates at a special seaside quay. There, the ore is directly loaded onto a giant foreign ship, which subsequently carries the precious cargo of minerals away over the horizon, never to be seen again.

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Meanwhile, in the rich suburbs of the capital city of Nouakchott, which produces virtually nothing, giant villas rise out of the sand, and oversized SUVs cruise the streets. In the poor suburbs, families living five to a room have to pay for their drinking water by the barrel. The education system is so bad that 70% of Nouakchott secondary students are attending private schools, and as for the health system - well, when the president got "accidentally" shot not so long ago, he preferred to fly to Paris to receive treatment.

Yet, Mauritania works, sort of. Some people are very rich, many are hungry, but nobody is starving to death (as people did in my native Germany in 1948). The iron train runs across the Sahara every day, terrorists be damned. There's reliable electricity in the biggest cities (a feat that the entire U.S. occupation force in Iraq never managed to achieve). Many of the major roads are in a good state, and more are somehow getting built - albeit usually by international donors (the same donors never managed to complete major Afghan roads). People get up in the mornings, go about their business, and go to sleep without having to fear for their lives. Despite severe ethnic animosities, glaring inequalities, rampant corruption and nepotism, administrative narcolepsy, and a military-dominated polity that is democratic more in form than in substance, the country and its inhabitants keep muddling through, from one day to the next.

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Interestingly, this lack of democracy and good governance coexists with a remarkable amount of freedom of speech. Mauritanian intellectuals and even opposition politicians repeatedly told me that "you can say what you like here". The country is both far more corrupt and far more politically free than its northern neighbour Morocco. Critical media outlets frequently run stories attacking the president, ministers, and top generals - but little if anything changes as a result. The watchdogs bark, the caravan moves on.

Why?

I'll share two stories that a friend told me. There's a power transformer on his street corner. Every rainy season, a pool of water forms around the metal box, and one or two by-passers get electrocuted. The problem could easily be solved by raising the transformer above the ground, but to the surprise of nobody, that somehow never happens. Nearby, there's a government school that has five classrooms. The school director has let out two of those rooms as private accommodation and pockets the rent. The mayor of the suburb, whose office is only hundreds of yards away, didn't find out for years, not least because the poor people who send their kids there never thought to complain.

To me, the moral of these stories is that Mauritania is what it is. Only two generations ago, most of its population lived in the desert or in small villages, where the very concept of government was unknown. We need to acknowledge that in this particular context, for the foreseeable future, Mauritania will not witness the emergence of Western-style accountability dynamics. If 'citizens' fail to hold their 'representatives' down the street accountable for what is happening in their children's school next door, they will certainly not start holding their distant national government to account for invisible, intangible, unimaginable billion-dollar revenue flows any time soon.

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Compliance-tracking paperwork compiled by NGOs most certainly will not prevent the same few families who have been looting the state with impunity for decades from continuing to 'eat'. Increasing extractives revenue transparency will not increase accountability or reduce corruption in Mauritania. In this sense, the impact of these groups is zero. For every donor dollar invested, the theft of extractive revenues decreases by zilch. In terms of measurable impact, it is the least effective form of foreign aid known to man.

Nevertheless, these tiny groups are playing an incredibly valuable - if unquantifiable - role by accelerating the spread of novel ideas like transparency and rational-legal accountability throughout Mauritania, setting new standards and introducing useful tools along the way. "There's this organization called 'Publish What You Pay'," a lawyer in sleepy Nouadhibou told me, while complaining about a general lack of access to information in his country.

Publish what you pay? Access to information?!? Now, there's two truly radical new memes. You never know what might happen when they start to catch on.
It wasn't to be, but had it been, Hillary Clinton would have become not only the first woman president, but the first president to enter the Oval Office as a lame duck. For Republicans in (and out) of a Congress they totally controlled, it would have been scorched-earth tactics all the way. Not a law, not a Supreme Court justice, not an achievement would they have allowed her. The investigations, which never really ended, would have revved up instantly. Impeachment was already on the table before Election Day. And yet, in one area she would have been on the job and had a free hand from day one: foreign policy, especially in America's wars and conflicts in the Greater Middle East and Africa.

For that, a president no longer really needs a Congress for which "war powers" are a thing of the past, a Congress that, in twenty-first-century America, couldn't defund a war if the planet's future depended on it. Wars, assassination campaigns, military "pivots," and Special Ops raids across significant parts of the planet are now really just the commander-in-chief's business. From Washington to Detroit, Kansas City to Portland, Hillary Clinton would have been dead in the water, but from Syria to Afghanistan, Yemen to Libya, Iraq to Somalia, the Clinton White House would have been on the job.

Of course, in Donald Trump's America, in those first 100 days, there will be no lame ducks. Anything will, after a fashion, be possible. Any corporate or 1% dream will be imaginable. Taxes? Don't fret for a sec if you're already raking it in. Environmental protections? What in the world were they for anyway? Climate change? A footnote at best in a Washington to be ruled by Big Energy and its lobbyists. The first woman president has already been obliterated. Domestically speaking, once Trump & Co. have done their damnedest, the first black president will, in essence, never have existed.

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K-State students get to 'Hang with Tang' on Tuesday

Cat Zone
November 15, 2016 | 01:51 am PT

See The Hunt, The Circus Dynasty, the Silent Heart and more.

From November 19-27 the Danish Film Weeks will screen eight films: A Royal Affair, The Candidate, Freddy Frogface, A Hijacking , Mini and the Mozzies, The Hunt, The Circus Dynasty and Silent Heart. The screening will take place during these two weekends in Hanoi at the National Cinema Center, 87 Lang Ha, and Ho Chi Minh city at Cinebox, 212 Ly Chinh Thang, District 3. The selected films are internationally acclaimed with various awards and nominations.

Via the Danish Film Weeks, Vietnamese audience will have an opportunity to better understand the Danish modern life and experience Danish contemporary film industry that has created a lot of talented actors and film makers with worldwide reputation.

Film-lovers can win tickets by visiting the Embassy of Denmark on Facebook and joining an online competition before Monday 14 November at 12 p.m. Winners will be announced Wednesday 16 November.
Buenos Aires Bans All Synthesizers and Samplers

After five people died of apparent drug overdoses, the city of Buenos Aires decided to ban all EDM concerts in the city. But the authorities seem intent on extending the ban to anything with a beat and a synth.

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A decision in April by government officials in Buenos Aires to ban electronic music dance festivals has forced promoters to cancel a previously scheduled Kraftwerk concert.

Officials made the decision to block future EDM events after five people died of drug overdoses following the Time Warp music festival. At the time, the city's mayor Horacio Rodriguez said the ban would be a temporary measure until a law could be crafted to deter drug use at such events, however, no progress has been made in the intervening period.

Unfortunately, for Kraftwerk fans, the devil is in the details and the ban appears to have included their show as the wording of the ban included events where "synthesizers and samplers" were primary instruments.

Promoter Move Concerts argued that the concert would not be like an EDM festival as it would be alcohol-free, open to all ages and only last for two hours, but their pleas fell on deaf ears.

According to Exclaim, Move Concerts said they had already sold 70% of the available tickets for the show, which was slated to take place on Nov. 23rd at Luna Park. They are presently considering their options, including a move, Consequence of Sound said.

via Celebrity Access

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Jake Schneider Of Madison House [INTERVIEW]

Here Jake Schneider Partner and Director of Agency Development at Madison House Inc. and booking agent for high-profile artists like Bassnectar and Keys N Krates gives his side of the story based on his ten years of experience working in the EDM side of the music industry.

________________________

Guest post by Kevin Cornell of TuneCore

No matter what genres of music you love to make or listen to, its nearly impossible to have missed the unprecedented rise of electronic dance music in popular culture over the past decade. Derived from electronic and house genres, EDM has become a mainstay on college campuses, at major music festivals, and in clubs and venues across America. In fact, for a lot of us, the soaring popularity of this specific subgenre seems to have come out of thin air. Of course, any independent artist dedicating their lives to the grind can trust that there was a lot more behind it.

Enter Jake Schneider, Partner and Director of Agency Development at Madison House Inc., a Boulder, CO-based booking and management company. Jake is the booking agent for some of the most successful and cutting-edge acts in electronic music, including BASSNECTAR, Keys N Krates, Paper Diamond, Lotus and more. At just 33-years old, hes got over ten years of industry experience that also includes event coordination and booking, as well as DJing.

Given his unique perspective on the rise of this genre, and keeping in mind how much advice he has to offer TuneCore producers and artists, we interviewed Jake to get his side of the story from the middle of America:

You began booking electronic artists at an interesting time in the genres history. What kind of opportunities did you see in midwestern markets that werent being capitalized on?

Jake Schneider: Uh-oh. This is a long answer so bear with me here!

Electronic music, like every genre, has been so cyclical in its nature. There are some legends in the electronic world hailing from places like Detroit or Chicago that have been doing this since I was in diapers. Thats actually pretty disgusting to imagine me in diapers, but I want people to know that I dont think myself or any of my artists reinvented the wheel or anything here.

One of the main factors to the success of many of our clients in the midwest was the fact that there wasnt any larger scale outlets or ways to bridge electronic music with my generation on a live touring level in the late 90s early 00s. I mean yes there were raves around that time, more so prior to that, and even more so in specific pockets of America, however that scene had cooled off a bit. If that wasnt part of your world, you and the rest of the Midwestern masses maybe knew about dance music, and had listened to some of the big European artists like Paul Oakenfold, or enjoyed singles like Sandstorm by Darude, etc, but it was tough because there really wasnt a radio format that was pushing it. It wasnt as accessible as it was in Europe and other places around the globe. Im from the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul) and went to the University of Iowa and everyone that I knew just hilariously lumped dance music together and called it techno.

Then, it all changed for me in 2000, when I was a freshman in college, had my own PC that could burn CDs (SICK!!!!!), Napster was JUST blowing up and Im in a dorm with KILLER download speeds and just shredding through music to play and experiment with. I would say 2000 or 2001 was the wild wild west of music with the ability to so freely obtain albums and tracks from any artist, from anywhere in the world so quickly. I started listening to some dance music, but really as I began working with SCOPE Productions at the University of Iowa, where I was the Talent Buyer and Director of Operations, booking concerts for the University, my musical tastes were quickly broadening. Soon I was booking concerts that need to cater to an entire student population with different musical agendas as well as servicing the people in Iowa City, IA and the surrounding areas who wanted to see big name marquee artists. The school was essentially the main hub for the majority of concerts that could accommodate over 300-400 people because all of those venues were on-campus. That was a pretty crazy experience.

I DO remember though exactly when I first realized that electronic music had a ton going on in the background and would continue to grow, especially in the midwest where it hadnt recently been prevalent outside of certain markets and straightforward dance clubs  I was DJing four to five nights a week at a huge Big Ten bar (Go Hawkeyes) called One-Eyed Jakes (my name was Jake so that was always fun explaining to drunk bachelorette parties that both of my eyes are fine and that no, I cannot play Yeah by Usher for the THIRD time tonight because I just played it two songs ago, and Im sorry that the bachelorette is crying because she likes that song, but she missed it and can you please tell your friends to stop throwing bachelorette party penis straws at me.). ANYWAYS, that got pretty unruly, and I would occasionally fill in at its sister club, The Summit, where there was a taste for those four on the floor dance tracks and if I were to DJ there I had to play some of that stuff, but at the end of the day I was much more of a Hip-Hop, R&B and Dancehall guy spinning records at those types speeds which were obviously a bit slower than the Tiesto tracks that a couple of my buddies were interweaving into their sets.

Towards the end of my tenure in Iowa City at one of our SCOPE meetings, a buddy of mine, Josh, who was working with us at the organization, had taken the time to burn me some music with The Disco Biscuits and LTJ Bukem. I didnt know what the hell I was listening to, but I knew that there was a fan base, and it was being driven pretty heavily from the East Coast, and that The Disco Biscuits were classified as a jam band, but had electronic leaning sounds, and eventually learned that LTJ Bukem was a Drum & Bass electronic artist. I didnt know what the hell to do with DnB, where to put it, and what it meant until I made the transition to the Boulder/Denver area in 2005.

I had been hired as a Booking Agent, by an amazing outfit of people running a boutique booking agency and management company, amongst many other artist services, called Madison House. The roster was very jam-band heavy then, and one of the first acts that they let me work on was called LOTUS, but unlike other improvisational jammy acts, their albums, were significantly different. The electronic aspect of the album stuck out to me more. I thought to myself, Whoa, this is a band playing dope dance music with a bunch of ridiculously gifted musicians. I started to go out in Denver and Boulder more and realize that there was a full on crossing over of jam bands, hip-hop and electronic music.

Then after seeing them up at JazzAspen, I picked up a band, Pnuma Trio, who were a super young threesome of kids inspired by electronic artists and other similar bands, one being, Sound Tribe Sector 9 and was fascinated with their love of these various worlds. The thing about all these bands is that they had Grateful Dead-esque followings where people would record the sets, look at the setlists every night on one of dozens of message boards and because those set lists were different every night, and the fans were so passionate about the music and the LIVE SHOW, you had kids touring across the country to see them night-after-night, like many did with The Dead, Phish, Dave Matthews Band, etc.

Because of this ability to sell hard tickets, it meant they packed venues, and because they packed venues, promoters starting catching on and understanding that this was a whole new untapped world and when the multi-genre festivals started popping up all over the US, more and more acts like these were included in the lineups. On top of that the traditional jam festivals started booking more straightforward DJs and producers, many of whom were influential for this new jam-tronica sound being utilized by the bands of this newer generation. It just started snowballing. Bands like, The Disco Biscuits, began throwing their own festival called Camp Bisco. It was a hybrid of anything and everything Jam, Electronic, Indie, Hip-Hop, etc. DJs and producers were being flown in from across the globe to the US for the first time ever (or maybe for the first time in a long while) to be a part of these events. More and more began to pop up and I realized we had a whole new scene of fans willing to dig into all of these genres.

And all the while during this time, youve got a whole West Coast scene, with underground parties, raves, beach gatherings, etc and along comes Burning Man. So many acts came out of that movement. Im talking less about the Vegas or Los Angeles rave artists and more about these underground and grassroots DJ/producers were had cult-like followings. Burning Man also attracted some of the more free-spirited jam artists as well so there was some cross-pollination there also. One of the larger and lovable bands on our roster is The String Cheese Incident, who has been a Madison House client since day one. They did an amazing job creating awesome music and a touring fanbase, but even they interweaved electronic music throughout their sets. There was some collaboration and friendship between them and an act that I signed, Bassnectar, whose live show was unprecedented. If you asked any of his fans if it was techno, you might get spanked. He was playing and melding all different genres of music like Breaks, some DnB at times, later Dubstep, but could not be pigeon-holed into any such genre. He had long hair like some guy out of a metal band and he was head-banging for most of the set. This wasnt what people thought was TECHNO coming from Los Angeles or Las Vegas, this was a completely different beast.

The midwest had a ton of different festivals and music fans, and because not all of the fans were raised in this rave era, they were just blown away that this type of music could be executed onstage. Moes Summer Camp is an excellent example of crossing the bridges between live music and electronic music. Ian Goldberg from Jay Goldberg Events was watching the trends closely and booking the stuff that these kids wanted to see! There were fledgling promoters that are now BIG promoters who took a risk on this stuff and the kids just couldnt get enough. They wanted a LIVE show and they were getting it with these bands and the DJs and producers that were affiliated with them. These DJs started adopting the touring mentalities of the bands and next thing you know you have Bassnectar or The Glitch Mob going on tour and kids doing EVERY date on it. And it grew at a healthy rate. It wasnt overnight. There were SO MANY cities to service that hadnt been paid attention to, and now was the time to give them love. Those European mega-club DJs who were getting paid crazy money to fly to Ibiza once a week werent coming across the pond to play in places like Bloomington, IN or Madison, WI  two amazing college towns and just a SMALL fraction of the midwest in general. It spread like wild-fire and the adding of festivals continue to perpetuate it.

When developing, some of these acts could be touring for 8 weeks and giving THREE of those weeks to the midwest if they wanted to. So many college towns, so many underserviced markets. It was realizing and paying attention to the fans in these secondary and tertiary markets and cities that helped propel electronic music in the Midwest. As soon as this stuff started coming to the Midwest, kids just ate it up. They were hungry for a change of pace. The record industry was becoming stale and it was all about the LIVE SHOW and now there were electronic bands and DJs that had an actual LIVE SHOW. It wasnt just a little guy onstage amidst pyro drinking champagne  it was something completely different.

Explain the importance of any artists live performance in your opinion, and how you feel thats evolved in the past 10 years.

When it comes to electronic music, if you want to be a producer and have no live show or stage presence, then thats what you should be. But if you are going to become an artist with a live show aspect, then the sound needs to be better each and every time you come back to a city or venue. It was to the point where there became sort of an arms race with production and technological improvements and this mentality that the more bass and subs, lights, LED panels, etc. that you had, the better. That was sustainable for a bit, but the music had to get better and progress and stay with the times. The amount of genres within electronic music is nearly comical, but again theyre cyclical, so you need to stay relevant and one of the ways of doing that is by delivering sets that the fans are NOT going to forget.

From a professional perspective, what are some of the challenges you face today when trying to coordinate/curate/book the perfect event experience?

I think one of the toughest challenges we face is the fact that for many straightforward bands, fans have become accustomed to a very stale experience in shitty under-serviced venues, stale arenas, or awkward amphitheatres. There has got to be more than that to stick out, which is why you are seeing so many artists (and festivals of course) focus on the experiential stuff. How do you get the consumer to forget the fact that they are in a venue named after a mega corporation? There are so many ways to do it, be it production like Ive talked about already, video content, ancillary performers, dancers, the list goes on.

At first it was a struggle with promoters to understand the need to spend extra on these types of things, but as they saw the artists grow and the fanbase engage more, they were more likely to increase the experiential or production budgets for the shows in the future. Theres too many bands out there right now and at the end of the day most of them are just a name in a venues strip ad on the back page of your local newspaper.

How do you become MORE than that?

You get your artist to help promote the show. Theres this saying that promoters dont promote any more. Thats true sometimes, but its complete nonsense other times, however in this digital age its on the artist very much so to get the word out too. If I am working with acts like that, who are capturing the audience, and that artist starts selling loads of tickets, you better believe that all of the promoters around are going to want to help with the next show, and are going to either meet your needs for transforming the venue, creating a room within a room, or spending the extra money to bring in the correct support artists to compliment the show.

What do you consider to be some underrated advice for newer electronic artists who are looking to connect with fans among all the static?

Pay your dues. If you make music that people like, keep doing it, but figure out where it all came from. Just because you have a single, doesnt entitle you to endless success. Keep the creativity juices flowing and study what has worked and what hasnt worked in the past because there are lessons learned from the stories of EVERY major artist ranging from Jimi Hendrix to The Beatles to DJ AM!

Similarly, what are common mistakes you see artists in this space making on a daily basis?

Not paying their dues. Lacking humility. Take it down a notch, too. Youre only 22!! Remember, there are other artists who have a 15-passenger van filled with 8 stinky band members playing rock clubs each and every night, splitting their money. You have got it good!

At what point do you suggest an indie DJ/producer begin to seek a booking agent? What booking abilities should they work on before then?

Its great if an act can be garnering a scene for themselves in the region they call home. There is no steadfast rule, but being able to sell 500+ tickets to a show in your hometown, or being able to add worth when added to a bill with one of my acts because youll help the show sell better, and being able to sell 100-200 tickets in some surrounding cities  all of this can create the basis for needing and attracting an agent. There are anomalies though. Maybe one of your promoter partners has someone in their market that isnt doing a bunch of business yet, but is making crazy music. Ive picked up acts on that level before. Its a slow build, but it can be done.

Quick: What are some of the biggest pet peeves of booking agents in your space and how can folks avoid being that artist?

Oh wow, this is an interesting one. My attention isnt to come across mean about any with this, but in no certain order:

I dont use my CD player and everyone knows that CDs dont really fit properly in anyones pockets. Theyre just a pain-in-the-ass.

Stop making up your own sub-genres of music. Its insane how often I get something like Ive created some new tunes and its kind of got that World-Step vibe. Ugh.

Be humble and dont cause problems for the bands that youre supporting. Weve had acts that were supporting a band that complaining about their green rooms and other trivial things. If you create a disturbance then youre not doing it right.

Same goes with the staff at venues. BE NICE. These people are busting their asses for you and are naturally going to be crabby at times. And youll probably have to work with them again. We dont want bad feedback on you.

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Producers of the rebooted Broadway hit Shuffle Along filed a lawsuit last week against Lloyds of London for refusing to cover losses stemming from shows that were cancelled due to the pregnancy of star actress Audra McDonald.Shuffle Along had taken out two insurance policies totalling US$14 million which were supposed to reimburse the producers if McDonalds death, accident or illness prevented her from performing or stopped the entire production.McDonald, who had missed several performances, announced her pregnancy on April 24 - less than a week before the shows opening night. According to a report by Forbes, the producers had insisted that her pregnancy is an accident, and her associated medical conditions constitute an illness.The producers lodged the complaint on November 3 in New York against certain underwriters at Lloyds, who turned down the insurance claims three times.According to the complaint reported by Court House News, the underwriters denied the insurance coverage arguing that McDonalds pregnancy and her associated medical conditions were neither an accident nor an illness under the policies.The underwriters further claimed that the show could continue without its star actress. They reportedly wrote: By virtue of the all-star cast, Ms. McDonalds temporary absence does not appear fatal to the shows continued success.The producers, on the other hand, had maintained McDonalds critical importance to the show and its success.Alleging breach of contract, the producers are seeking about US$700,000 under the nonappearance policy and US$12 million under the abandonment policy, according to Court House News.Lloyds of London has yet to respond to the Broadway producers complaint, the media reports said.
Many of us are still trying to wrap our heads around the fact that Bill Cosby, a much beloved comedian in his heyday, is now at the center of so many disturbing allegations. However, our shock and disappointment aside, there are many lessons to be learned from the latest Cosby-case from an insurance perspective.It was just last week that the US District Court ruled that AIG must defend Bill Cosby (see article ) as part of three defamation lawsuits brought against him by women who previously accused him of rape. However, the federal judges ruling prompted one Chicago attorney to reach out to Insurance Business to stress the implications for the insured in fully understanding exclusions from coverage within their policies  and on brokers to ensure their clients clearly know what they are and are not covered for.Cosbys alleged sexual assaults are not the underlying issue in these lawsuits  its the alleged defamation, says David B. Goodman, Chicago managing officer of law firm Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale, P.C.Its common for businesses to find themselves in parallel situations of having to defend against the insurers action seeking to avoid providing a defense while simultaneously having to defend themselves in the underlying case. This insurer brought the case against Cosby in two different jurisdictions, which demonstrates the high value of the coverage itself and especially the defense clauses, since the cost of litigation is so high.The federal judge ruled that, under Massachusetts and California laws, the sexual misconduct exclusions in Cosbys homeowners policy are at least ambiguous and do not excuse the insurer from providing a defense to Cosby in the defamation lawsuits tied to his comments about his accusers concerning the alleged sexual assaults.AIG filed a suit in June of last year seeking declarations that it does not need to defend Cosby in suits over the womens claim that he defamed them by calling them liars when they took their rape accusations public.The key to these disputes is to be able to view the conduct in question from multiple perspectives where litigation may present a mix of covered and excluded claims, Goodman explained. It is common for carriers to contest coverage for actions that present a mix of potentially covered and clearly excluded claims. Under this ruling, the insurance company will be required to provide a defense for the defamation including the allegations of sexual assault because the defense against both matters is so intertwined.While homeowner policies typically cover for personal injuries, excess policies like Cosbys carry enhanced protections.AIG pushed for declarations that Cosbys policies excused the company from defending and indemnifying him against personal injury claims arising out of sexual misconduct, distinct from personal injury claims such as defamation.Whats clear is that while few will find themselves in situations as extreme as Cosbys, the theory still applies  and brokers need to ensure that insured parties fully understanding the exclusions from coverage in their policies.Related Stories:
November 14, 2016 | 09:20 pm PT

Eclectic sets from deep and groovy house to nostalgic and emotional techno.

DJ Miki

Vinyl Junkie Ninja has been rocking dance music for 18 years. Now based in Hanoi, the Tokyo-originated DJ is sure to pump the hardest beats for Wednesday night.



AGATA

Originally from Paris, Agata was moved by the smooth waves of analog sound while living in Berlin seven years ago. She began building up a nice collection of house, deep house and techno records. Ever since she kept on developing an intense love for music of all kinds inspired by her diverse experiences in Europe, South America and Asia.

She started DJing in Paris in house and techno bars and small clubs, since then she settled in Southeast Asia, and has been playing at the most renowned venues in Bangkok as well as at intimate Japanese bars, helping to develop the house and techno scene there.

Now, based in Hanoi, she plays very eclectic sets from deep and groovy house to nostalgic and emotional techno. Beyond music and as a crate digger, vinyl is for Agata synonym of travel, spending days in record shops to find the musical gem that could bring her audience into sensitive discovery trip.

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Protesters march around Field Park on Saturday morning to oppose the election of Donald J. Trump. PreviousNext

Williamstown Joins Nationwide Protests Against Trump

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  Nearly one week ago, Donald J. Trump was elected president of the United States.



On Saturday morning in Williamstown, a group of several hundred students and community members joined protesters all over the country in denouncing the results of the election.



Demonstrators of all ages filled Field Park with signs reading "Not Our President," "Love Trumps Hate" and "Black Lives Matter." Cars driving by honked, eliciting cheers from those at the demonstration, which was organized by North Berkshires for Racial Justice in conjunction with students and staff from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and Williams College, Buxton School, and other community members.

"I hope that people who weren't active before will use this as a jumping off point," Jane Berger of North Berkshire for Racial Justice said Monday. "It is important to stay angry and fight the temptation to return to business as usual. That sort of privilege is what brought us here in the first place."



iBerkshires.com posted some pictures of the protest to Facebook, which immediately started filling up with comments criticizing the protesters.



"Why don't you all put that energy to work doing something positive for the community. Go out and support our veterans or help with the homeless or donate your time serving meals to the less fortunate, grow up," one commenter said.



"Anti democratic communists protesting. People like that used to be called enemies of our country and traitors and were punished as such," another said on Facebook.



Indeed, Trump himself denounced the demonstrations, first on Twitter claiming the protesters were incited by and paid by the media, then expressing admiration for their passion for the country, before telling CBS' Lesley Stahl on "60 Minutes" on Sunday night that he thinks it's "horrible" and blaming "the press."



Protests were held Sunday in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia and more cities. Protests in Portand, Ore., saw some violence, but overall reports show the majority of demonstrations have been peaceful.



Many are protesting not just the election of Trump and his campaign rhetoric, but the incidents of racial unrest in the aftermath of the election attributed to Trump supporters, accused of harassing Latinos and Muslims. Trump also told Stahl on "60 Minutes" he wanted to see that end, as well.

Locally, Berger said North Berkshires for Racial Justice will be holding another meeting soon to discuss future endeavors, which will be posted on its Facebook page.
The abutments for a pedestrian bridge linking the Redwood Motel to the north side of the river are expected to be completed this fall. The plan presented to the Conservation Commission shows the bridge placement over the river. The motel project includes some 47 rooms that are expected to be completed by next spring. PreviousNext

Redwood Motel Project Lays Groundwork for Bridge, Trails

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  The Redwood Motel developers are laying the groundwork for a pedestrian bridge over the Hoosic River and hiking trails on the river's north side.



The Conservation Commission on Monday night accepted a notice of intent for the construction of the bridge, which will be in the "inner raparian zone" of the river and bordering the floodplain, vegetated wetland and in the buffer zone. It also found that the Wetlands Protection Act was not applicable to test excavations around the former wastewater treatment plant property where the hiking trails are proposed.



The redevelopment of the old motor court by a partnership largely based in Boston has grown to encompass the former Blackinton Mill and some 45 acres on the north side of the river and the motor court and a single-family home on the south side.



The affiliated projects are operating under different names  in these cases, The Beyond Place LLC for the bridge and Blackinton Backwoods LLC for the trails area  but the completed project envisions an nature-infused motel/hotel experience with a connected rural park and access to the river, the Appalachian Trail and a proposed bike path.



The 210-foot bridge, 300 feet total from side to side, will span the river from behind the 200-year-old farmhouse on State Road at a slight angle to the north side to connect to the proposed trails and park area. The bridge is designed by Daniel Proper of Proper & O'Leary Engineering.



"The bridge itself will have on each end a concrete support as well as a platform that will raise the bridge above the river itself," Brent M. White of White Engineering Inc. of Pittsfield said. "The profile has changed very little from what was originally given to you ... the changes occurred had more to do with the placement of the southwestern abutment."



That had been relocated over concerns by the commission of wetland disturbances on that end of the bridge.



"We actually preserved more mature trees on this side here," he said. "The other alternative had been to move it 30 feet east, get it completely outside this wetlands network but what we found as we were walking along the banks on either side, we would actually have both more disturbance of the bank itself."



White said there would be 1,705 square feet of restoration and a "massive amount of soil removal" for one of the concrete abutments because of poor soil conditions. Wetlands replication would be a 1-1 ratio with an additional 120 square feet. The goal was to disturb as little as possible. The north side is a mowed and mostly cleared area where the former wastewater treatment plant had been located. A set of sycamore trees on an island in the river will be trimmed; a letter from the state's Natural Heritage division is being submitted to support that.



The concrete abutments are expected to be in place this fall. Proper said access on the north side would be easy through an existing dirt road; actual construction of the 25-foot towers and the metal span will require a small boom crane. Construction of the bridge will require approval from the state.



Environmental engineers from Tighe & Bond will begin testing in the former wastewater treatment plant property immediately. A dozen exploratory test pits will be dug for soil testing and be covered back in within an hour or two of being opened. Testing results are expected back in about two weeks, which will allow engineers to focus on any troublesome areas for remediation.



"The site has a long history of dumping but we have no new data," said Jason Perry, an environmental scientist with Tighe & Bond. "We're going out to really assess this property to see what we have, or don't have, so we can use that information to move forward."
A bird's-eye view of the massive solar array being built off Reservoir Road. View of the array using from the top of East Quincy Street. Clean Energy's Director and Project Manager Michael Whigham and Director of Real Estate and Permitting Joseph Shanahan told the board they will try to acquire the renderings. PreviousNext

North Adams Planners Want Original Solar Array Renderings



Building Inspector William Meranti said he does not know what happened to the original renderings after the meeting.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  The Planning Board called a solar array developer on the carpet Monday for failing to comply with the visual renderings it presented.



But no one can find the plans that the board approved.



A 1.32-megawatt solar array off Reservoir Road has sparked complaints because of its high visibility from numerous points on the city's east side. The board says the plans submitted last year portrayed a much different view with a far less visible array.



Clean Energy Collective representatives were asked to return on Monday with the original renderings of the project.



"We certainly have been hearing from many people in the community and based on our memory of the original hearing that we held on this, the actual view we are seeing of the site is far more intrusive than what we had thought we have been promised," Chairman Michael Leary said.



Joseph Shanahan, Clean Energy's director of real estate and permitting, said he was not part of the original approval and planning of the array and wanted to see the renderings for himself because he was unfamiliar with them. He said he went over the minutes from the original meeting last year and he understood that the renderings were given to the board. He added that he requested the original renderings from the city but they were unavailable.



Building Inspector William Meranti said the renderings were presented to the board during the initial meeting but they were not part of the applicant's package. He said he does not know where the renderings are.



Shanahan added that the employee who drew up the renderings is no longer with the company and he is trying to get in touch with the landscape architect who aided in the project to see if he has any copies.



However, he said his company's engineers have indicated that the project is "right on the money" in terms of what they were supposed to do. Clean Energy has 30 projects throughout the state, he said, and has never run into this situation.



Shanahan asked for specific complaints and said because the project is built on an elevated spot above a valley it will be visible at higher elevations on the other side of the valley. He added that the site was picked because it was the least obtrusive.



"If someone is on the other side of the valley looking down they are going to get a different perspective and our main concern is to be as unobtrusive as we can to roadways, residential abutters, and the community at large," he said. "It has a significant natural buffer and screening but if you get in an aircraft obviously, you are going to see it."



Leary disagreed and said the area can be seen from the Mohawk Trail and even from lower elevations. The cleared area above the so-called Coca-Cola Ledge can be seen from Church Street campus of Massachusetts College of Liberal Art and neighborhoods on the east side of Church.



"Most people that come here and view the mountains don't fly over the mountains in an airplane but they do come down the Mohawk Trail and the view from the trail is, in their opinion, blighted now," he said. "I have heard from people down below that your description was not accurate and there has been more work done than they thought would be done."



Leary suggested the board call Clean Energy Collective back to a December meeting after Shanahan obtains the original renderings so they can be compared to what the site actually looks like now.



"I think we need to find the artwork that we are talking about and take a comparative look," he said. "We may have some recommendations to alleviate the situation that we are in right now or move towards a resolution."



Shanahan agreed.
Jay Green of Berkshire Scenic Railway, left, 1Berkshire President Jonathan Butler, Selectmen John Duval and Arthur Harrington, Town Administrator Tony Mazzucco, Mayor Richard Alcombright, Secretary Jay Ash and Selectme Jeffrey Snooniann and John Nowak. Secretary Jay Ash said he will be back to ride the scenic rail. The MassWorks announcements were made at the new Adams Station on Hoosac Street on Tuesday morning. 1Berkshires' Jonathan Butler, who pushed for train station's development as town administrator. PreviousNext

State Awards Grant to Finish Berkshire Scenic Railway



Mayor Richard Alcombright, left, and Town Administrator Tony Mazzucco teamed up on advocating for the MassWorks grant to complete the scenic rail.

ADAMS, Mass.  The state has awarded $2.6 million to make the final mile connecting the town to North Adams by rail a reality.



The MassWorks funding for the Berkshire Scenic Railway was part of the more than $4 million in grants awarded on Tuesday morning for projects in the two communities.



Housing and Economic Development Secretary Jay Ash was at the Adams Station at 3 Hoosac St. on Tuesday morning to tell officials that the last 6/10th of a mile of track to bring the rail to the station was a go.



"The last time I was here I had to drive out and look down and imagine what the possibilities were," Ash said. "Now I am excited to get on the train ... and I hope to be able to take the first train ride."



Ash said once the track is complete, both communities will benefit from each other's downtowns, making both communities stronger.



"By connecting the two communities and letting tourists go back and forth we think you are going to see a great deal of ... interest in the special attractions, shops and restaurants that both of you have," he said. "I would congratulate you for being so passionate about this project."



The project began in 2013 with an agreement between North Adams, Adams and the Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum. The train has been operational since fall 2015 after the state Department of Transportation purchased and refurbished the line for $2.8 million. But the rail ended at Renfrew in Adams because the funding wasn't in place to complete the last section to Hoosac Street. The project came to a grinding halt in May when the completion of the track was nowhere to be found in MassDOT's five-year capital plan.



Ash noted that it was not easy to finish the track but said the Baker administration saw the importance of the rail. He added that the tracks may have never reached the ready and waiting Adams Station if it wasn't for the efforts of the region's state representatives and the community leadership.



"Frankly if it wasn't for Mayor Alcombright, Tony [Adams Town Administrator Tony Mazzucco], Senator Downing and Representative Cariddi we would not have been reminded over and over again, some might say harassed but I'll use the word reminded, of the importance of this project," Ash joked.



North Adams Mayor Richard Alcombright thanked Ash, Gov. Charlie Baker and his administration, and Mazzucco for their efforts and support.



"What a wonderful day for the town of Adams and the city of North Adams," Alcombright said. "I want to thank the town of Adams for their faith in their leadership and certainly for their faith in me to bring this project to completion."


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Montreal and Geneva, 15 November 2016  The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that formalises closer collaboration on shared priorities, which include enhanced global mobility and traveller identity management.



MOU signatory Dr. Fang Liu, ICAO Secretary General, commented that the new agreement would serve to raise awareness on the close connection between aviation, migratory movements, and border management and facilitation. ICAO will continue to promote the safe and orderly development of international civil aviation, including the adoption of international standards for customs and immigration documents and procedures.



IOM Director General William Lacy Swing said The management of borders, travel facilitation and security, and in particular travel document security as well as identity management are of great importance for all international travelers and among them, of course, migrants and refugees who cross international borders. Strengthened close cooperation between ICAO and IOM is a much welcome step forward.



ICAO Air Transport Bureau Director Boubacar Djibo and IOMs Head of Immigration and Border Management, Florian G. Forster made the exchange of the signed agreement during a special ceremony on the sidelines of ICAOs Traveller Identification Programme (TRIP) Symposium at ICAO Headquarters in Montreal today (15/11).



The new agreement will aid the two global agencies efforts to respond in a coordinated way to new and emerging challenges such as security requirements, accessibility to safe transport modes for migrants and refugees, increased international cross border mobility, health challenges linked to international mobility, as well as security and facilitation in global air travel.



It also recognizes their shared interest in sustainable improvements in the field of travel facilitation including the security of travel documents and related identity management challenges, highly relevant topics for the efficiency of global civil aviation and effective border and migration management.



The IOM will henceforth participate as an observer in ICAO's Technical Advisory Group on the Traveller Identification Programme (TAG/TRIP), and as a member of the ICAO TRIP Implementation and Capacity Building Working Group (ICBWG) and the New Technologies Working Group (NTWG), as well as any new ICAO deliberative bodies relevant to its mandate.



Cooperation will also be intensified toward enhanced support to States regarding travel documents and related border and identity management challenges, harmonizing passenger data exchange programmes and in promoting data-driven security. The agreement will also ensure more integrated identity and border management programmes, the mobility of migrants, resettlement of refugees as well as voluntary returns via air, support to stateless persons and other persons, and travel health assistance, pandemic management and other travel health related emergencies.

Resources for Editors

About ICAO

A specialized agency of the United Nations, ICAO was created in 1944 to promote the safe and orderly development of international civil aviation throughout the world. It sets standards and regulations necessary for aviation safety, security, efficiency, capacity and environmental protection, amongst many other priorities. The Organization serves as the forum for cooperation in all fields of civil aviation among its 191 Member States.

Security and Facilitation at ICAO

ICAOs Traveller Identification Programme (TRIP) Symposium





About IOM

Established in 1951, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a UN related agency, is the leading inter-governmental organization in the field of migration. IOM works closely with governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental partners. With 165 member states around 10000 staff and offices in over 100 countries, IOM is dedicated to promoting humane and orderly migration for the benefit of all. It does so by providing services and advice to governments and migrants. IOM works to help ensure the orderly and humane management of migration, to promote international cooperation on migration issues, to assist in the search for practical solutions to migration problems and to provide humanitarian assistance to migrants in need, including refugees and internally displaced people.



Contacts



ICAO

Anthony Philbin

Chief, Communications

aphilbin@icao.int

+1 514-954-8220

+1 438-402-8886 (mobile)

Twitter: @ICAO



William Raillant-Clark

Communications Officer

wraillantclark@icao.int

+1 514-954-6705

+1 514-409-0705 (mobile)

Twitter: @wraillantclark

IOM

Leonard Doyle

Spokesperson and Head of Media and Communications Division

ldoyle@iom.int

+41 79 285 71 23

Florian G. Forster

Head, Immigration and Border Management

fforster@iom.int

+41 22 7179 386

+41 79 433 5867 (mobile)


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
November 15, 2016 | 03:00 pm PT

One last screening to farewell Hanoi Cinematheque, Hanoi's 14-year-old theater.

Hanoi Cinematheque is facing an imminent end - the quaint, beautiful oasis they've been based in for the past 14 years soon to be demolished to make way for yet another shopping mall.

Hanoi Cinematheque is where the first ever Onion Cellar gathering unfolded (December 16, 2011, a particularly dry, cold winter evening).



Since then, a great number of other memorable evenings (and afternoons) have been had: for The Onion Cellar - OTO|EIGA, Sad & Beautiful World, Bill Morrison, the list goes on; on a personal level, certain memories stand out: feeling all elevated after The Great Beauty, the soundtrack playing on a loop in my head; hearing Emad Burnad speak about 5 Broken Cameras and the Palestinians' struggles; Duck Season one sleepy, hung-over Sunday afternoon; amongst many others.



Needless to say, Hanoi Cinematheque means a lot to film lovers in Hanoi. Before the place disappears forever, meet the team on the evening of November 21 for one last Onion Cellar screening at the Cinematheque - to travel back in time to that very first Onion Cellar event nearly five years ago - a public Vietnam premiere of the then new Sigur Ros concert film. All proceeds and donations from this screening will go towards Hanoi Cinematheque.

Please contact the Cinematheque for more info (hanoicinema22@gmail.com)



INNI

2011, Vincent Morriset, 74 minutes, concert film



INNI is Sigur Ros' second live film, after the modern classic Heima (2007).



Directed by the Canadian filmmaker Vincent Morriset, INNI captures the band's 2008 concerts at the iconic Alexandra Palace in London.



A work of art in its own right, INNI was shot in HD digital and re-filmed (twice) on 16mm, creatively utilizing prisms and various found objects, "allowing INNI to look and feel like something recovered from the past."



The editing process saw Morriset work with Karl Lemiux (who produces live visuals for Godspeed You! Black Emperor) and Nick Fenton (Heima editor).



When shown on the big screen, INNI is the closest you would get to a Sigur Ros' concert.

Tickets (available from November 14): VND50,000 ($2.2)
Election day not only brought America a new president, but also voter decisions on a variety of state policies. Specifically, voters largely rejected increases in state tobacco taxes. Of four tobacco tax increase initiatives on the ballot last weekin California, Colorado, Missouri, and North Dakotaall but the initiative in California failed. Golden State voters may come to regret their decision.

As I wrote in Forbes recently, tobacco taxes constitute an unreliable source of revenue. Taxes with broad basesthose which are levied on a wide variety of economic transactionsare the most efficient. Taxes with narrow basesthose which are levied on a specific product, such as cigarettesare less efficient, as they will nudge cause consumers to buy other products instead and reduce the revenue intake from the tax.

In the case of tobacco taxes, a narrow base makes sensethe government has an interest in deterring people from smoking. Nudging consumers to buy goods other than cigarettes is a feature, not a bug. But this phenomenon also means that if the tax serves its intended purpose, it will not raise as much revenue as anticipated. If fewer people smoke, fewer people will pay tobacco taxes.

The tobacco tax increases on the ballot last week were earmarked for specific projects. Given that tobacco taxes are by construction an unreliable source of revenue, the funding for those projects would have been unreliable. When states pass tobacco tax increases, it would be better to simply direct the funds into general revenues rather than use them to support specific programs.

Voters across most of the country appeared to recognize this, or at least were skeptical of any kind of tax increase. The initiative in North Dakota would have quintupled the states tobacco tax, while the taxes in Missouri and Colorado would have doubled and tripled, respectively.

The one initiative which succeeded, in California, will more than triple the states current tobacco tax, from 87 cents per pack to $2.87 per pack. The funds are earmarked for a variety of programs, including tobacco prevention initiatives, early childhood development, physician training at the University of California system, and public health programs.

Quizzically, the initiative both increased cigarette taxes and also implemented equivalent taxes on e-cigarettes, which are not tobacco products but do contain nicotine. According to the Royal College of Physicians, e-cigarettes are about 95 percent safer for the user than traditional cigarettes.

The rationale for increasing Californias tobacco tax thus stands on thin ice. If the tax is intended to reduce smoking rates, its success is dubiousthe tax increase on e-cigarettes will neutralize one of the most promising avenues available to help smokers quit. But even if the tax succeeds in driving people away from nicotine products entirely, California will be stuck with the unreliable revenue problem. A tax with a narrow base will not raise as much revenue as anticipated due to people shifting their consumption habits elsewhere.

The only sensible interpretation of Californias ballot initiative is a highly cynical one: California wants its tobacco tax to be a lucrative source of revenue, but economics gets in the way. Policymakers are therefore willing to trap smokers into their bad habits by instituting similar taxes on safer alternatives to tobacco such as e-cigarettes.

This is irresponsible. States should pursue broad-based taxes to raise revenue, and only use narrow-based taxes to achieve specific social ends, such as reducing cigarette use. California hardly needs the moneyit ran a $4.9 billion surplus in the 2015 fiscal year, and Governor Jerry Brown signed a $167 billion budget into law earlier this year without making any cuts. The long term is a different storythe state has hefty pension liabilities that appear to grow by the daybut a revenue source as unreliable as tobacco taxes would hardly put a dent in that problem.

Poor tax policy is not unique to California, and the tobacco tax increase may come to be repealed. But in three out of four states, at least, the voters appear to be smarter than the politicians.

Preston Cooper is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute. You can follow him on Twitter here.

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Governor and First Lady Honor Sgt. John W. Perry

Sacramento, California - On behalf of all Californians, Governor Brown and First Lady Anne Gust Brown honor Sgt. John W. Perry, who bravely gave his life in service to our state and nation. The Governor and First Lady extend their deepest condolences to his family and friends at this difficult time.

Sgt. John W. Perry, 30, of Stockton, California, died November 12 in Bagram, Afghanistan, from injuries sustained in an improvised explosive device blast. He was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Special Troops Battalion, 1st Sustainment Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, TX. Sgt. Perry was supporting Operation Freedoms Sentinel.

In memorial, Governor Brown ordered that flags be flown at half-staff over the State Capitol. Sgt. Perrys family will receive a letter of condolence from the Governor.
Communication key to dealing with grief during the holidays

West Lafayette, Indiana - Grief regarding the death of a loved one can be as big a part of the holidays as celebration for some families, a Purdue University professor said.

Heather Servaty-Seib, a professor in the College of Education, specializes in grief. She said the traditional gatherings of family and friends around this time of year can understandably highlight the absence of someone who has died.

"Some of it is the absence of that person, some of it may be that family traditions and rituals just cannot be the same," Servaty-Seib said.

The resulting emotions can be difficult for people who think the rise of grief means they didn't find closure from the loss, which can be months or years prior. Servaty-Seib disputes the idea of closure and said one thing to remember is that grief does not end.

"It shifts and changes over time and is unpredictable," she said. "Sometimes people who are grieving will talk about it being a roller coaster. You don't really know when it will hit you and when it won't."

For family members who experience holiday grief in connection with a loved one, communication and self-awareness are keys. Not everyone grieves in the same way and Servaty-Seib said it is important that everyone's grief-related needs are met.

"The more families can talk about their differences and hopes and their expectations, the more they might be able to work on a sense of compromise or a sense of how each family member can get their needs met," she said. "Some actions may be done collectively; whereas some may need to be done individually."

It is important to remember children and teenagers, including through their college years, when discussing grief. Teenagers will avoid the subject so as not to burden parents or relatives while children mature in their ability to understand death and then shift in their grief based on that developing understanding.

Servaty-Seib said dealing with grief is difficult because everyone handles it in a different way.

"If there was a linear path people could follow, grief would not be as challenging as it is," she said. "But there isn't. You have to keep in mind not only the uniqueness of each person but also unique relationship they had with the person who died."
Software to protect IoT devices from colluding in DDoS attacks

West Lafayette, Indiana - The recent distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) that caused website outages for Twitter, Reddit, Spotify and many more companies, has left the population wondering if they can expect another attack and what organizations can do to prepare.

SensorHound Inc., a Purdue-based startup, develops software products that could increase the reliability and security of the embedded software that drives IoT devices and thus protect them from being used in attacks, known as DDoS. The company also provides products and services that reduce developmental and operational costs for large networked systems of internet-connected devices.

DDoS is a type of denial of service attack where multiple compromised devices, often infected with a Trojan, are used to target a single website, causing it to crash. Victims of a DDoS attack consist of both the end-targeted system and all devices maliciously used and controlled by the hacker in the distributed attack. In recent outages, attackers exploited the vulnerable IoT devices, such as internet-connected webcams and DVRs, to orchestrate some of the biggest DDoS attacks known so far, the company said.

Vinai Sundaram, co-founder and CEO of SensorHound, said the company has developed "vertical-agnostic operations monitoring solutions and a secure data communication stack" for Internet of Things devices.

"Our Hound Solution software constantly monitors these small but critical devices to proactively detect threats and automatically send alerts with detailed diagnostic data to IoT device OEMs and solution providers. It continuously tracks the health of deployed IoT devices and achieves a level of visibility previously possible only in a laboratory setting at an unbelievably tiny footprint," he said. "Tracking the health of IoT edge devices continuously allows early detection and quick resolution of operational bugs and threats, thus, significantly reducing their impact both in terms of physical damage and costs."

SensorHound has also developed a complementary product to protect the data being sent to and from IoT devices. Its MARS communication stack enables users to connect their IoT devices and gateways to their cloud databases without having to worry about security, reliability or scalability issues.

The technology has been licensed through the Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization. More than 20 startups based on Purdue intellectual property were launched in the 2014 fiscal year. A video about SensorHound is available at

About SensorHound, Inc.

SensorHound offers Internet of Things specific software products and services that significantly reduce development and operational costs of the IoT. Our solutions are based on award-winning and patent-pending technology developed over a decade by leading IoT researchers.
Atomic Beltway Could Solve Problems of Cosmic Gravity

Washington, DC - When is a traffic jam not a traffic jam? When it's a quantum traffic jam, of course. Only in quantum physics can traffic be standing still and moving at the same time.

A new theoretical paper from scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland suggests that intentionally creating just such a traffic jam out of a ring of several thousand ultracold atoms could enable precise measurements of motion. If implemented with the right experimental setup, the atoms could provide a measurement of gravity, possibly even at distances as short as 10 micrometersabout a tenth of a human hair's width.

While the authors stress that a great deal of work remains to show that such a measurement would be attainable, the potential payoff would be a clarification of gravity's pull at very short length scales. Anomalies could provide major clues on gravitys behavior, including why our universe appears to be expanding at an accelerating rate.

In addition to potentially answering deep fundamental questions, these atom rings may have practical applications, too. They could lead to motion sensors far more precise than previously possible, or serve as switches for quantum computers, with 0 represented by atomic gridlock and 1 by moving atom traffic.

The authors of the paper are affiliated with the Joint Quantum Institute and the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science, both of which are partnerships between NIST and the University of Maryland.

Over the past two decades, physicists have explored an exotic state of matter called a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), which exists when atoms overlap one another at frigid temperatures a smidgen of a degree away from absolute zero. Under these conditions, a tiny cloud of atoms can essentially become one large quantum superatom, allowing scientists to explore potentially useful properties like superconductivity and superfluidity more easily.

Theoretical physicists Stephen Ragole and Jake Taylor, the papers authors, have now suggested that a variation on the BEC idea could be used to sense rotation or even explore gravity over short distances, where other forces such as electromagnetism generally overwhelm gravity's effects. The idea is to use laser beamsalready commonly used to manipulate cold atomsto string together a few thousand atoms into a ring 10 to 20 micrometers in diameter.

Once the ring is formed, the lasers would gently stir it into motion, making the atoms circulate around it like cars traveling one after another down a single-lane beltway. And just as car tires spin as they travel along the pavement, the atoms' properties would pick up the influence of the world around themincluding the effects of gravity from masses just a few micrometers away.

The ring would take advantage of one of quantum mechanics' counterintuitive behaviors to help scientists actually measure what its atoms pick up about gravity. The lasers could stir the atoms into what is called a "superposition," meaning, in effect, they would be both circulating about the ring and simultaneously at a standstill. This superposition of flow and gridlock would help maintain the relationships among the ring's atoms for a few crucial milliseconds after removing their laser constraints, enough time to measure their properties before they scatter.

Not only might this quantum traffic jam overcome a difficult gravity measurement challenge, but it might help physicists discard some of the many competing theories about the universepotentially helping clear up a longstanding traffic jam of ideas.

One of the great mysteries of the cosmos, for example, is why it is expanding at an apparently accelerating rate. Physicists have suggested an outward force, dubbed dark energy, causes this expansion, but they have yet to discover its origin. One among many theories is that in the vacuum of space, short-lived virtual particles constantly appear and wink out of existence, and their mutual repulsion creates dark energy's effects. While it's a reasonable enough explanation on some levels, physicists calculate that these particles would create so much repulsive force that it would immediately blow the universe apart. So how can they reconcile observations with the virtual particle idea?

"One possibility is that the basic fabric of space-time only responds to virtual particles that are more than a few micrometers apart," Taylor said, "and that's just the sort of separation we could explore with this ring of cold atoms. So if it turns out you can ignore the effect of particles that operate over these short length scales, you can account for a lot of this unobserved repulsive energy. It would be there, it just wouldn't be affecting anything on a cosmic scale."
Meeting of the Small Group of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL in Germany

Washington, DC - Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL Brett McGurk will lead an interagency delegation to Berlin, Germany for a meeting on November 17 with key members of the Counter ISIL Coalition. This meeting will be an opportunity for Coalition partners to discuss ongoing efforts for Mosul and Raqqah and to explore ways to further accelerate the campaign against Daesh in Iraq and Syria and its network outside those geographic borders.

It will include a detailed discussion on the priorities needed to sustain the momentum of the campaign along our multiple lines of effort, including military, foreign terrorist fighters, counterterrorist financing, counter-messaging and stabilization of liberated areas.

The Coalitions Small Group regularly meets to coordinate and enhance combined efforts to counter Daesh. The last meeting of the Small Group took place in Washington, D.C. on July 21, 2016, at the Ministerial level.
Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights Sarah Sewall visited Chad recently. The visit focused on stabilization challenges resulting from the campaign against Boko Haram, in addition to the humanitarian needs of the refugees that Boko Haram attacks have generated, and strategies for addressing violent extremism more broadly.

In NDjamena, the Under Secretary met with U.N. officials and urban refugees to learn about the humanitarian situation in Chad and to explore opportunities for additional support beyond the $106 million in humanitarian assistance the U.S. provided Chad in 2016.

In meetings with President Idriss Deby and other government officials, the Under Secretary praised the countrys leadership in hosting over 300,000 refugees from its various neighbors and for participating in the Multinational Joint Task Force against Boko Haram. She also underscored how civilian security and respect for human rights are vital to reinforcing military gains against the terrorist group. She applauded efforts of local governments in the Lac region to de-radicalize and reintegrate Boko Haram defectors, which underscore the need for a credible path to leave from the battlefield.

The Under Secretary met with staff at Radio al-Quoran and imams from the High Islamic Council, which use positive messages to strengthen the resilience of communities across Chad to counter the lure of violent extremism.

The United States is committed to working with its partner, Chad, to help protect the people of Chad and the men, women and children refugees it humanely shelters from the continuing threat of violent extremists.
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It's nearly time to return to the Wizard World - Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is right around the corner.

The Harry Potter spin-off will receive its European premiere in London tonight; as the likes of Eddie Redmayne, Ezra Miller, and J.K. Rowling walk the red carpet into order to launch the very first in the planned five film franchise.

The film sees Redmayne's young wizard Newt Scamander arrive in 1920s New York with a sense of adventure in his heart, and an obsession with magical beasties. However, an unfortunate incident with his case containing all his finest specimens unleashes said beasts onto an unknowing muggle population, threatening to tear the fabric of magical/non-magical society apart.

Cast members Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Samantha Morton, and Carmen Ejogo will also be attending; alongside director David Yates, and producer David Heyman.

Fantastic Beasts has so far received universally positive reviews; putting the franchise in good stead for its 2018 sequel, which already has an appearance from young Dumbledore in the works, with the potential to finally explore his sexuality.

You can watch the livestream below, starting from 5.45pm.



Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them hits UK cinemas 18 November.
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Emerging with a mission statement to challenge and ridicule sexism, whilst also exploring wider political themes such as alienation, mental health and the current anti-austerity movement, Petrol Girls are due to unleash their debut album Talk of Violence through Bomber Music on Friday 18th November. Recorded in May earlier this year, the album is a ten-track tour-de-force of savage vitriol directed at capitalism, greed and ignorance. Talk of Violence is available to stream exclusively with The Independent 3 days before its official release below.

Petrol Girls derive their name from the myth of Petroleuses, a group of women from the Paris Commune who allegedly set fire to private property with Molotov cocktails made out of milk bottles in a deliberate act of spite against the government. Taking this anarchic spirit as inspiration, the band formed and played their first show in 2012 after just two practises at a house party hosted by vocalist / guitarist Ren Aldridge to celebrate International Womens Day. This explicitly feminist context was essential for the bands formation, providing them a safe space to nurture their musical direction.

Setting out its stall immediately, Talk of Violence begins with a sample from a demonstration led by Sisters Uncut, a direct action group opposed to the cuts the British government is making for domestic violence victims. From the pummelling intro of False Peace to the accusatory cries of What do you care about / Have you asked yourself on final track Rewild, the malevolence doesnt let up for a single second of the 1,726 that make up the record. The first lyric of the record We will disturb the false peace is taken directly from a call out for a no borders demo in Freiburg explains Ren. I think 'the false peace' is a perfect way to describe the way resistance gets silenced and inequality maintained in the name of a 'peace' that only protects the wealthy. The chorus lyric I'm feeling disobedient is something I've wanted to get into a song for ages as a way of psyching myself up for civil disobedience and direct actions on demos. It's a good thematic start to the record as it exposes various forms of violence used by the elite to maintain their wealth and power; and threatens that dominance.

Sexual political themes are explored throughout the record, with Harpy looking at the different inconsistent attitudes towards men and women. Harpys after an experience I had when my side of an argument was dismissed because I am bolshy or feisty  both of which are incredibly gendered words. If you disagree with my side of an argument, thats fine but its not fine to dismiss what I'm saying because of how I say it. I thought a lot about why this had pissed me off so much, and realised it was because this is something that happens to me a lot as a woman who consistently stands up for herself. Society still seems to want damsels in distress; men get respect for asserting themselves whereas women just seem to get vilified. I thought about this in the context of women in mythology and the way that women with any kind of power or charisma about them have been treated over centuries: the whole history of witches, harpies and mermaids. These ideas were constructed by a patriarchal society that couldn't deal with powerful women.

Treading Water focuses on the current European migrant crisis and how societys perceptions of those seeking asylum is shaped by the media. Joe (York, guitar / vocals) came up with initial lyrics that used both the literal meaning of 'treading water' and the idea of treading water financially says Ren Obviously it alludes to the current genocide in the Mediterranean sea  I feel completely justified referring to it as genocide, as it is state manufactured slaughter of people on the basis of their national identity; some are allowed safe passage whilst others are not, based purely on where they happen to have been born. But this idea of treading water financially is also massively important, as it is often in economically deprived communities that fascism grows as people are manipulated into scapegoating migrants and other minorities, when its bosses, austerity and capitalism that are the real problem.

Fang explores how the state uses mental health to control the populace as Ren explains, Liepa sent me an article by Laurie Penny just after the Tories won the general election in the UK that described depression as anger defanged and pointed out that a depressed population is much easier to control than an angry one. I think women especially are pushed to deny their anger, but I've found embracing mine essential to getting some control over my mental health. If depression is anger with its teeth taken out, maybe anxiety is fear with its eyes gouged out.

The final lyric of the song If you don't give us space, then we will take it is a direct quote from a feminist intervention that occurred at the Refugee and Migrant conference in Hamburg. A massive group of women and trans people lead by refugee women took over the main stage and started chanting this phrase over and over. I nearly cried because I felt like I was experiencing true solidarity when I joined them; I felt so personally empowered by their action.

Talk of Violence, the debut record by Petrol Girls, is released through Bomber Records on Friday 18th November and is available to pre-order now. The band play a free show in London at Birthdays on 14th December
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The closest we're going to get to a David Bowie international holiday will occur on 8 January 2017 on what would have been the musician's 70th birthday.

Musicians and fans alike are poised to come together for a series of one-off concerts that will take place around the world inspired by the outpouring of tribute shows that occurred in the wake of his passing on 10 January.

Named Celebrating David Bowie, the shows will be played in aid of local charities with London's venue set to be 02 Academy Brixton based in Bowie's hometown.

Following his death, fans flocked to the South London location to commemorate his life, singing his most famous songs late into the evening.

Brixton's David Bowie memorial street party Show all 7 1 /7 Brixton's David Bowie memorial street party Brixton's David Bowie memorial street party (Picture: Alan Schaller) Alan Schaller Brixton's David Bowie memorial street party (Picture: Alan Schaller) Alan Schaller Brixton's David Bowie memorial street party (Picture: Alan Schaller) Alan Schaller Brixton's David Bowie memorial street party (Picture: Alan Schaller) Alan Schaller Brixton's David Bowie memorial street party (Picture: Alan Schaller) (Pic: Alan Schaller) Brixton's David Bowie memorial street party (Picture: Alan Schaller) Alan Schaller Brixton's David Bowie memorial street party (Picture: Alan Schaller) Alan Schaller

Gary Oldman - who paid heartfelt tribute to his friend at this year's BRIT Awards - will attend the London event alongside Bowie's former band members including Mike Garson, Holly Palmer and Gerry Leonard.

Other band members from across the globe are expected to also celebrate the icon's life alongside famous recording musicians and friends.

The concerts, which are due to be announced sporadically over the coming month, will take place in cities with a strong Bowie connection.

David Bowie tribute concert

If you never saw Bowie live, this will undoubtedly be your chance to capture just a small amount of what it was like to see the legend in action.
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What do you look for in a partner? Surely that depends on what the partner is for  youd probably want a business partner to be innovative, a choir buddy to be musical and a romantic partner to be attractive and funny. But how do such qualities and skills compare with simply being decent, as in fair and generous?

Humans are unusually pro-social  we routinely cooperate with non-relatives to an extent that far surpasses that of any other living creature. Nevertheless, there is a significant downside to helping others: the risk of being suckered by a cheating individual  someone who takes the benefits of cooperation without contributing to the pot. Understanding how humans form mutually productive relationships, while at the same time avoiding social parasites, is the key to understanding the evolution of extreme sociality in humans.

Reputation  a signal about your previous behaviour that observers can use to infer how you might behave in the future  lies at the heart of the issue. One major reason why individuals care about and invest in their reputation is because we evaluate and choose partners for social and romantic interactions on the basis of this information.

From an evolutionary point of view, we should use this clue to pick the best partners for whatever interaction we are doing. But what does best actually mean? The best partner could be one who is the most able to give you things, such as a business partner with great wealth, knowledge and contacts. Or the best person may be someone slightly lower achieving who is more open to share the qualities they have  in other words the most generous.

In many cases, ability and willingness to give might be correlated  it is easy to be generous if you have plentiful resources. But what if they dont line up so neatly? Do we prefer the highest quality partners even if theyre a bit stingy, or do we go for lower quality but fairer individuals?

Dictator game

To find out, we recruited 788 participants from an online crowdsourcing website to take part in an online, modified version of a classic anthropological experiment: the dictator game. This is a simple economic task used to gauge pro-social tendency. Individuals interact in pairs as dictators and receivers. Dictators are given some money and told that they can give as much (or as little) as they like to receivers. Receivers have no control over the allocation and must accept any offer the dictator makes.

Our dictator game was modified in a few important ways, to allow us to determine how people trade off ability versus willingness to give when choosing partners. First, we gave rich dictators five times as much money to share with receivers compared to their poorer counterparts, meaning rich ones could offer higher absolute payoffs  even when relatively stingy. We also modified wealth stability. In stable environments, the rich stayed rich and the poor stayed poor, whereas in unstable environments, current wealth was not predictive of wealth in the next game.

Finally, receivers could choose or avoid dictators on the basis of their reputation for having been fair or stingy in the previous game. Receivers observed the decisions made by two different dictators in a first game  and then decided which of these individuals they would like to choose as their own partner in a second game. We were especially interested in how receivers prioritised wealth over fairness in a partner when these traits were opposed to one another.

The results, published in Royal Society Open Science, were striking. As expected, when wealth and fairness were aligned (for example, when choosing between rich-fair and poor-fair partners), receivers typically picked the rich partner  and this preference was especially pronounced in stable environments. When choosing between rich-stingy and poor-fair partners, however, the majority of receivers preferred the poorer partner  even in stable environments where the poor tended to stay poor (57 per cent did this). This was despite the fact that they had an expected payoff reduction of almost 25 per cent. As expected, receivers showed an even stronger preference for poor-fair over rich-stingy dictators in unstable environments, with over 85 per cent choosing the poorer partner.

Generosity in the real world

The decision rules we use to select partners might not be economically rational, but they are probably ecologically rational, in that they somehow increase fitness in the environment that they were selected in.

But is there evidence that humans actually operate like this in the real world? Some evidence from hunter-gatherer societies has shown that generosity is indeed more important than hunting skills in determining the popularity of hunters within their social networks. The best hunters may catch more meat, but it is those who share what they catch who are preferred as hunting partners. Our study supports these findings: ability to give is valuable, but willingness to give is indispensable.

And could it hold true for romantic relationships? Its hard to do the exact same experiment with the most common things we look for in a partner  such as intelligence, humour and good looks  as these tend to be much more stable traits than wealth. But, in the experiment, the majority of people picked poor-fair partners over rich-stingy even when wealth was unchangeable. So there may be a similar pattern in dating where generosity or fairness could trump looks or intelligence. Future work could explore the relative importance of these traits when it comes to dating.

Other qualities, such as wealth or social status, tend to be more changeable over time and therefore a better analogy when it comes to dating. Status may for example change during transitions in life  you may have high status in high school but not in university. Wed certainly predict that people will value fairness more than social status during such transition times, and will value social status more when those successes are stable across time and situations.

So the next time you find yourself in a social situation where youre keen to make an impression, being fair and generous is a good place to start. Theres every chance it could pay off.

This article first appeared on The Conversation (theconversation.com). Nichola Raihani is a senior research associate in life sciences, at UCL
Last month, two newly elected pro-independence lawmakers in Hong Kong, Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-ching, changed the language of their oaths of office. The Legislative Council barred them from assuming their seats. Hong Kongs judiciary took up the matter to decide whether the two would be able to retake their oaths and assume their office. Before the Hong Kong court handed down a decision, Chinas top legislative body issued an interpretation of the Basic Law that in practical terms said no second chance would be allowed. The matter is still with the Hong Kong judiciary.

China resumed the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997 under the one country two systems framework, enshrined in the Basic Law, which vests in Hong Kong executive, legislative, and independent judicial power, and also protects the rights and freedoms of the residents of Hong Kong, including freedom of speech and association.

Regarding the recent developments related to Hong Kongs Legislative Council, Deputy State Department Spokesperson Mark Toner said the United States is disappointed;

The United States strongly supports and values Hong Kongs Legislative Council and independent judiciary, two institutions that play a critically important role in promoting and protecting the special administrative regions high degree of autonomy under the Basic Law and the one country two systems framework that have been in place since 1997.

We urge the Chinese and Hong Kong special administrative region governments, and all elected politicians in Hong Kong, to refrain from any actions that fuel concerns or undermine confidence in the one country two systems principle, said Mr. Toner. Hong Kongs prosperity and stability depends on the successful implementation as provided for by the Joint declaration and Basic Law. We believe that an open society with the highest possible degree of autonomy and governance by the rule of law is essential for Hong Kongs continued stability and prosperity as a special administrative region of the Peoples Republic of China.
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Millionaire movie star and former professional wrestler Dwayne The Rock Johnson could be the next President of the United States.

Electing a celebrity to the US presidency was never quite out of the realm of possibility, at least since the election of former movie star Ronald Reagan in 1980. But as impossible as it seemed that Donald Trump would win with the 2016 election, his star status only helped him during the Republican primaries and, ultimately, in beating former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Coupled with the likelihood of former WWE chief executive Linda McMahon serving in Mr Trump's cabinet, Johnson  who Forbes named the highest paid actor in the world  could have an edge.

President Donald Trump life in pictures Show all 16 1 /16 President Donald Trump life in pictures President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump poses in a rocking chair once used by President John F. Kennedy at his New York City residence Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Developer Donald Trump with his new bride Marla Maples after their wedding at the Plaza hotel in New York Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and Celina Midelfart watch the match between Conchita Martinez and Amanda Coetzer during U.S. Open. She was the date whom Donald Trump was with when he met his current wife Melania at a party in 1996 Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas serving as the grand marshal for the Daytona 500, speaks to Donald Trump and Melania Knauss on the starting grid at the Daytona International Speedwa Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Developer Donald Trump talks with his former wife Ivana Trump during the men's final at the U.S. Open Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and his friend Melania Knauss pose for photographers as they arrive at the New York premiere of Star Wars Episode : 'The Phantom Menace,' Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Billionaire real estate developer Donald Trump talks with host Larry King. Trump told King that he was moving toward a possible bid for the United States presidency with the formation of a presidential exploratory committee Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump answers questions as Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura looks on in Brooklyn Park. Trump said on Friday he 'very well might' make a run for president under the Reform Party banner but had not made a final decision Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Billionaire Donald Trump makes a face at a friend as he sits next to Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso before the start of the 2003 Miss Universe pageant in Panama City Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Entrepreneur Donald Trump is greeted by a Marilyn Monroe character look-a-alike, as he arrives at Universal Studios Hollywood to attend the an open casting call for his NBC television network reality series 'The Apprentice.' Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and Simon Cowell present an Emmy during the 56th annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and Megan Mullally perform at the 57th annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump, poses with his children, son Donald Trump, Jr., and daughters Tiffany and Ivanka Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Billionaire Donald Trump told Miss USA 2006 Tara Conner on Tuesday she would be given a second chance after reported misbehavior Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump holds a replica of his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as his wife Melania holds their son Barron in Los Angeles Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures U.S. property mogul Donald Trump stands next to a bagpiper during a media event on the sand dunes of the Menie estate, the site for Trump's proposed golf resort, near Aberdeen, north east Scotland Reuters

In an interview this week with Vanity Fair, Johnson, 44, said he may consider a possible 2020 run  although it remains unclear whether he is serious about the ambition.

I wouldnt rule it out, he said. It would be a great opportunity to help people, so its possible. This past election shows that anything can happen.

Johnson is not very vocal about his politics, although he had been previously registered as a Republican. In 2000, he appeared in character as his wrestling persona during the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia to encourage voter registration  although, not necessarily in favour of a Republican or Democratic candidate, he said.

In July, Johnson responded to the overwhelming swell of support for his possible candidacy.

As time goes on, [I will] take the temperature of the American people, he told Good Morning America. If it is a very real, overwhelming, positive, strong, We want you to run for president, and I felt that I can step up to the place and become a tremendous leader for our country, and make a real difference and make change, I would do it.

And if each of his 70.3m Instagram followers decided to cast the vote for the former wrestler, Johnson would have no problem getting into the White House.
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Emmy Rossum has revealed that she has been subject to vitriolic, antisemitic abuse by Donald Trumps supporters in the wake of the Republicans presidential victory.

The 30-year-old actor, who is known for her roles in Shameless and The Phantom of the Opera, said Trump supporters had sent her messages threatening to send both her and her ilk to gas chambers alongside hashtags such as Sieg Hiel.

Rossum, who is Jewish, condemned their remarks as disgusting and called for those contacting her to back off.

The actor previously indicated she was a Hilary Clinton supporter and expressed her anger and disappointment over Mr Trumps win last week.

Trump supporters are sending me messages threatening to send me & my ilk to the gas chambers & writing hashtags like #sieg hiel. NOT OK, Rossum tweeted.

President Donald Trump life in pictures Show all 16 1 /16 President Donald Trump life in pictures President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump poses in a rocking chair once used by President John F. Kennedy at his New York City residence Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Developer Donald Trump with his new bride Marla Maples after their wedding at the Plaza hotel in New York Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and Celina Midelfart watch the match between Conchita Martinez and Amanda Coetzer during U.S. Open. She was the date whom Donald Trump was with when he met his current wife Melania at a party in 1996 Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas serving as the grand marshal for the Daytona 500, speaks to Donald Trump and Melania Knauss on the starting grid at the Daytona International Speedwa Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Developer Donald Trump talks with his former wife Ivana Trump during the men's final at the U.S. Open Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and his friend Melania Knauss pose for photographers as they arrive at the New York premiere of Star Wars Episode : 'The Phantom Menace,' Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Billionaire real estate developer Donald Trump talks with host Larry King. Trump told King that he was moving toward a possible bid for the United States presidency with the formation of a presidential exploratory committee Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump answers questions as Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura looks on in Brooklyn Park. Trump said on Friday he 'very well might' make a run for president under the Reform Party banner but had not made a final decision Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Billionaire Donald Trump makes a face at a friend as he sits next to Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso before the start of the 2003 Miss Universe pageant in Panama City Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Entrepreneur Donald Trump is greeted by a Marilyn Monroe character look-a-alike, as he arrives at Universal Studios Hollywood to attend the an open casting call for his NBC television network reality series 'The Apprentice.' Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and Simon Cowell present an Emmy during the 56th annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and Megan Mullally perform at the 57th annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump, poses with his children, son Donald Trump, Jr., and daughters Tiffany and Ivanka Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Billionaire Donald Trump told Miss USA 2006 Tara Conner on Tuesday she would be given a second chance after reported misbehavior Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump holds a replica of his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as his wife Melania holds their son Barron in Los Angeles Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures U.S. property mogul Donald Trump stands next to a bagpiper during a media event on the sand dunes of the Menie estate, the site for Trump's proposed golf resort, near Aberdeen, north east Scotland Reuters

Telling anyone to get ready for the trains in reference to WWII is disgusting & offensive. Reporting you to twitter is not enough. Back off.

Rossum urged the people who had criticised her for drawing attention to the abuse to read the feed of a Twitter follower she claimed had contacted her. But the account in question appears to have been suspended.

I would NEVER make something like this up. I couldn't. For those of you who are shaming me for bringing attention to it, go read his feed.

This doesn't scare me. It doesn't cause me nightmares. I find it sad to recognize that this kind of vicious underbelly was there all along, she said.

Rossum also shared a post by the Anti-Defamation League - an international Jewish non-governmental organisation based in the US which fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry. This is a great organization to pay attention to. This applies to everyone. Hatred on either side of the line is not acceptable. #exposehate, she said.

Since Mr Trumps shock victory, anti-hate crime organisations and schools across America have reported a rise in the persecution of minorities. In an interview with CBS on Sunday, Mr Trump said he was saddened by the news.

Don't do it. It's terrible. I'm going to bring this country together ... I am so saddened to hear that, and I say, 'stop it'. If it helps, I will say this, and I'll say it right to the camera: 'Stop it'.

Soon after learning of Mr Trump's win, Rossum said: I was looking forward to the next four years. To having a child, maybe a daughter, under the first female president".

A representative for Twitter did not immediately respond to request for comment.
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Senior officials in West Virginia have become embroiled in a race row after a county employee published a Facebook post likening Michelle Obama to an ape in heels.

Clay County Development Corporation director Pamela Ramsey Taylor published the post to celebrate Donald Trumps election victory, commenting it would be refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady back in the White House."

She continued to say: I'm tired of seeing a Ape in heels, in the post which was subsequently deleted.

Pamela Ramsey Taylor posted the 'racist' comment to social media (Facebook)

(Facebook)

Clay Mayor Beverly Whaling was also implicated in the scandal when she commented on the post saying: Just made my day Pam.

Both officials are now facing growing pressure to stand down for the remarks, which many called "vile" and "racist".

The women have since apologised for the post and issued public statements, claiming their actions were not intended to be racist.

My comment was not intended to be racist at all. I was referring to my day being made for change in the White House! Ms Whaling told the Washington Post.

I am truly sorry for any hard feeling this may have caused! Those who know me know that I'm not of any way racist! Again, I would like to apologize for this getting out of hand!'

Ms Taylor apologised on her Facebook account before deleting her page entirely. She has since been placed on leave.

A petition calling for the dismissal of both officials had nearly 85,000 signatures on Tuesday.

 Michelle Obama laughs at 'run for president' heckle

A spate of racist incidents broke out across the country following Mr Trump's election victory. At the time of writing, more than 200 incidents had been reported with experts believing the true figures to be much higher.

The Independent has contacted Clay County officials for comment.
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A columnist for The Times of London has accused Donald Trumps opponents of being the bigots and racists amid anger over one of his first appointments to his team.

In a similar manner to Brexit, the discord which began building in the run-up to the US election has only become more pronounced since Mr Trump's shock victory. As a result, Mr Trump's supporters and detractors have become increasingly polarised in their views on his presidency.

His victory was followed by a wave of reported hate crimes across America by attackers allegedly professing support for Mr Trump.

As divisions grow, Melanie Phillips, a broadcaster and columnist for The Times, has accused liberal activists and Mr Trump's opponents of distorting the President-elects message, claiming his supporters are the people being racially abused in the aftermath of his selection.

World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Show all 29 1 /29 World reaction to President Trump: In pictures World reaction to President Trump: In pictures London, England AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures London, England Reuters World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Manila, Philippines Getty Images World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Manila, Philippines Getty World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Mosul , Iraq Getty World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Manila, Philippines AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures New Delhi, India Reuters World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Karachi, Pakistan EPA World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Jakarta, Indonesia Reuters World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Lagos, Nigeria AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Kabul, Afghanistan AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Jerusalem. Israel Reuters World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Moscow, Russia Reuters World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Seoul, South Korea AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Lagos, Nigeria AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Peshawar, Pakistan EPA World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Jakarta, Indonesia Reuters World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Hyderabad, India AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Kolkata, India AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Sydney, Australia Getty World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Sydney, Australia AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Aleppo, Syria Reuters World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Mexico City, Mexico AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago Reuters World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Jerusalem, Israel EPA World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Baghdad, Iraq Rex World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories Rex World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Tokyo, Japan Rex World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Mexico City, Mexico Getty

Trumps victory, it is claimed, will promote hatred, racial violence and an end to democracy, she writes, yet the people being hated and racially attacked are Trump supporters.

The accusations being hurled at Trump are not only distorted and display double standards but in turn smear the millions who voted for him.

Phillips claims Mr Trump's anti-immigration policies, which at one point including banning all Muslims from entering the US and still included deporting millions of undocumented people, are wrongly used to portray him as racist and anti-Muslim. In fact," she continues, "he is against Islamist extremism and terrorism; he merely said Muslims should be stopped from coming to America until it worked out whether or not they had radical ties.

Recommended Some of the worst Breitbart headlines about Muslims and women

Defending him against grotesque claims of anti-Semitism, Phillips pointed to his daughter Ivankas conversion to orthodox Judaism and Mr Trumps Jewish son-in-law, the real estate magnate Jared Kushner.

Her defence of Mr Trump also extended to the controversial appointment to his team of Breitbart executive chairman Steve Bannon, whose four years steering the site has seen headlines such The West Vs Islam is the New Cold War - Heres How We Win and Political correctness protects Muslim rape culture published and disseminated.

Breitbart exposes Islamist violence and intimidation," she went on. "For that it is called racist, hate-fuelled and Islamophobic. Millions of voters who fear Islamist oppression and oppose uncontrolled immigration have been denounced in exactly the same way.

Phillips has already praised Mr Trumps ascension to the White House as an "uprising of the scorned" that has given the Western world a chance of surviving.
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Nearly six out of 10 native people living in a 9,000-year-old community in Canada died when European settlers arrived, bringing diseases to which the local people had no immunity, according to a new genetic study.

Researchers studied the genomes of 25 people who lived between 1,000 and 6,000 years ago on the north coast of British Columbia, then compared this to the DNA of 25 of their descendants who still live in the region.

The research confirmed the oral histories of the Lax Kw'alaams and Metlakatla First Nation peoples, which told how they had lived in the area for millennia.

Scientists were able to show there had been a dramatic decline in population about 175 years ago, when European diseases swept through the local population. Their findings suggested there had been a reduction in effective population size of 57 per cent.

Joycelynn Mitchell, a Metlakatla woman who co-authored a paper about the research in the journal Nature Communications, said: First Nations history mainly consists of oral stories passed from generation to generation.

Our oral history tells of the deaths of a large percentage of our population by diseases from the European settlers.

Smallpox, for our area, was particularly catastrophic. We are pleased to have scientific evidence that corroborates our oral history.

Science news in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Science news in pictures Science news in pictures Pluto has 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen Pluto has a 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen that is doing strange things to its surface, Nasa has found. The mysterious core seems to be the cause of features on its surface that have fascinated scientists since they were spotted by Nasa's New Horizons mission. "Before New Horizons, everyone thought Pluto was going to be a netball - completely flat, almost no diversity," said Tanguy Bertrand, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and the lead author on the new study. "But it's completely different. It has a lot of different landscapes and we are trying to understand what's going on there." Getty Science news in pictures Over 400 species discovered this year by Natural History Museum The ancient invertabrate worm-like species rhenopyrgus viviani (pictured) is one of over 400 species previously unknown to science that were discovered by experts at the Natural History Museum this year PA Science news in pictures Jackdaws can identify 'dangerous' humans Jackdaws can identify dangerous humans from listening to each others warning calls, scientists say. The highly social birds will also remember that person if they come near their nests again, according to researchers from the University of Exeter. In the study, a person unknown to the wild jackdaws approached their nest. At the same time scientists played a recording of a warning call (threatening) or contact calls (non-threatening). The next time jackdaws saw this same person, the birds that had previously heard the warning call were defensive and returned to their nests more than twice as quickly on average. Getty Science news in pictures Turtle embryos influence sex by shaking The sex of the turtle is determined by the temperatures at which they are incubated. Warm temperatures favour females. But by wiggling around the egg, embryos can find the Goldilocks Zone which means they are able to shield themselves against extreme thermal conditions and produce a balanced sex ratio, according to the new study published in Current Biology journal Ye et al/Current Biology Science news in pictures Elephant poaching rates drop in Africa African elephant poaching rates have dropped by 60 per cent in six years, an international study has found. It is thought the decline could be associated with the ivory trade ban introduced in China in 2017. Reuters Science news in pictures Ancient four-legged whale discovered in Peru Scientists have identified a four-legged creature with webbed feet to be an ancestor of the whale. Fossils unearthed in Peru have led scientists to conclude that the enormous creatures that traverse the planets oceans today are descended from small hoofed ancestors that lived in south Asia 50 million years ago A. Gennari Science news in pictures Animal with transient anus discovered A scientist has stumbled upon a creature with a transient anus that appears only when it is needed, before vanishing completely. Dr Sidney Tamm of the Marine Biological Laboratory could not initially find any trace of an anus on the species. However, as the animal gets full, a pore opens up to dispose of waste Steven G Johnson Science news in pictures Giant bee spotted Feared extinct, the Wallace's Giant bee has been spotted for the first time in nearly 40 years. An international team of conservationists spotted the bee, that is four times the size of a typical honeybee, on an expedition to a group of Indonesian Islands Clay Bolt Science news in pictures New mammal species found inside crocodile Fossilised bones digested by crocodiles have revealed the existence of three new mammal species that roamed the Cayman Islands 300 years ago. The bones belonged to two large rodent species and a small shrew-like animal New Mexico Museum of Natural History Science news in pictures Fabric that changes according to temperature created Scientists at the University of Maryland have created a fabric that adapts to heat, expanding to allow more heat to escape the body when warm and compacting to retain more heat when cold Faye Levine, University of Maryland Science news in pictures Baby mice tears could be used in pest control A study from the University of Tokyo has found that the tears of baby mice cause female mice to be less interested in the sexual advances of males Getty Science news in pictures Final warning to limit "climate catastrophe" The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued a report which projects the impact of a rise in global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius and warns against a higher increase Getty Science news in pictures Nobel prize for evolution chemists The nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to three chemists working with evolution. Frances Smith is being awarded the prize for her work on directing the evolution of enzymes, while Gregory Winter and George Smith take the prize for their work on phage display of peptides and antibodies Getty/AFP Science news in pictures Nobel prize for laser physicists The nobel prize for physics has been awarded to three physicists working with lasers. Arthur Ashkin (L) was awarded for his "optical tweezers" which use lasers to grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells. Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou were jointly awarded the prize for developing chirped-pulse amplification of lasers Reuters/AP Science news in pictures Discovery of a new species of dinosaur The Ledumahadi Mafube roamed around 200 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Recently discovered by a team of international scientists, it was the largest land animal of its time, weighing 12 tons and standing at 13 feet. In Sesotho, the South African language of the region in which the dinosaur was discovered, its name means "a giant thunderclap at dawn" Viktor Radermacher / SWNS Science news in pictures Birth of a planet Scientists have witnessed the birth of a planet for the first time ever. This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star. ESO/A. Muller et al Science news in pictures New human organ discovered that was previously missed by scientists Layers long thought to be dense, connective tissue are actually a series of fluid-filled compartments researchers have termed the interstitium. These compartments are found beneath the skin, as well as lining the gut, lungs, blood vessels and muscles, and join together to form a network supported by a mesh of strong, flexible proteins Getty Science news in pictures Previously unknown society lived in Amazon rainforest before Europeans arrived, say archaeologists Working in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a team led by archaeologists at the University of Exeter unearthed hundreds of villages hidden in the depths of the rainforest. These excavations included evidence of fortifications and mysterious earthworks called geoglyphs Jose Iriarte Science news in pictures One in 10 people have traces of cocaine or heroin on fingerprints, study finds More than one in 10 people were found to have traces of class A drugs on their fingers by scientists developing a new fingerprint-based drug test. Using sensitive analysis of the chemical composition of sweat, researchers were able to tell the difference between those who had been directly exposed to heroin and cocaine, and those who had encountered it indirectly. Getty Science news in pictures Nasa releases stunning images of Jupiter's great red spot The storm bigger than the Earth, has been swhirling for 350 years. The image's colours have been enhanced after it was sent back to Earth. Pictures by: Tom Momary

As technology continues to advance, we expect that science will continue to agree with the stories of our ancestors.

The researchers found that a particular gene variant associated with the immune system, part of a group called HLA, had been beneficial for thousands of years, helping the body to identify diseases.

But it proved to be a disadvantage after the arrival of European diseases and has since declined by 64 per cent, a fall described by the researchers as dramatic.

Pennsylvania State University biology professor Michael DeGiorgio, who took part in the study, said: The only scenario compatible with this stark change in diversity is negative [evolutionary] selection, suggesting that previously advantageous HLA-gene variants became disadvantageous, possibly contributing to the population decline that occurred upon European contact.
ELKO  Maribeth Cassinelli has joined RSVP as the Elko County field representative.

Ms. Cassinelli will help Elko County seniors to access the goods and services that they need in order to remain independent and stay in their own homes with dignity, said Susan Haas, executive director and chief executive officer of RSVP. She has been a successful counselor for many years and she brings her wealth of leadership and experience to assist seniors in Elko County. Her personality, experience, education and drive are a tremendous asset to Elko County and to RSVP, said Haas.

The Nevada Rural Counties RSVP Program is a nonprofit service organization that serves senior citizens with basic needs assistance in Elko and throughout rural Nevada by providing volunteers who are well prepared for their assignments. RSVPs flagship programs are the Home Companion, Veterans VIP assistance, Transportation, Lifeline Personal Emergency Response System, Resistance Exercise Training, Respite (breaks for 24/7 care givers) and CARE Law, pro bono legal programs.

All programs are designed to extend the time seniors can remain independent in their own homes, rather than be prematurely institutionalized. Volunteers give the emotional reassurance that is so necessary to the homebound elderly and assist with transportation to the doctor or grocery shopping, provide regular breaks for caregivers, and more.

We hope that you will join us and be a part of something that is truly great, said Haas. Volunteers are needed to help Cassinelli assist seniors in need. A priority right now is help with the personal emergency response system program, Lifeline, and computer support. RSVP volunteers can serve as many hours as they like with volunteer assignments ranging from two to four hours or more.
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Women who have things mansplained to them in the workplace can now report it to a dedicated hotline.

Unionen, Swedens largest union, is encouraging members to call up when male colleagues give them unsolicited lectures on things they already understand.

The organisation, which represents 600,000 private sector workers, launched the advice line on Monday and said it will be open from 10am to 4pm everyday for a week as part of a campaign to highlight and stamp out the insidious and damaging practice.

For those who might not be familiar with the modern portmanteau, the union defined mansplaining as when a man explains something to a woman without being asked, particularly something which she might already know more about than the man.

Unionen said the commonplace practice diminishes women, by making them appear less competent than they are.

A study by the American Psychological Association found that men "tend to overestimate their intelligence to a much greater extent than women" and showed that "self-assurance in men grows with age".

 Sweden's 6 hour work day explained

Unionen said the phone line, which will be staffed by a gender expert and a group of feminist politicians, comedians and scientists, is about equality.

It is about putting your finger on the small everyday problems which become large when they stack up.

When left unchecked, mansplaining can contribute to men earning more than women, and being promoted faster, the organisation said  something most of us, regardless of sex, think is unfair and want to change.

The hotline will advise upset and frustrated callers on what action they should take next, and aims to help them move on. But there are no set answers, instead the people staffing the line will have the freedom to say what they want, based on their own experiences.

Unsurprisingly, the initiative unleashed a flood of negative comments on Unionen's Facebook page, particularly from men.

"How would women react if you used words like 'old biddy chat' or 'female whining'? Equality can't be won using negative invective, but should be built using mutual respect and partnership. But maybe I'm the only one who thinks so," Daniel Bergman of Sundsvall wrote on their Facebook page.

Others, such as Jim Brannlund from Stockholm, were even blunter.

"Just what we need in society, more polarisation. And people wonder why right-wing populism is on the rise. You. Are. Retarded," he wrote.

Others defended the campaign, however. Linda Landgren wrote:

"Good initiative. Judging by the comments, it seems quite a lot of men feel this is aimed at them, so it shows how much this kind of work is needed."

Some said that while they would support a campaign against sexist behaviour, they thought that the references to mansplaining should be removed.

"Change the name of the event, 'Mansplaining' is incredibly sexist," Fanny Uppenberg said.

But Unionen said it was important to look at historical, structural inequality in society.

"The campaign is not intended to single out or add debt to all men," the organisation said in a statement. "The campaign aims to raise awareness among all of us, regardless of gender, about this phenomenon and hopefully begin a joint change. Everyone benefits that we visualise suppression techniques and talk about them."

It added: "There is a structural problem built into the concept mansplaining that can not be ignored. The Union shares the analysis that mansplaining is more often performed by men and we believe it is important to talk about the problem on the basis of the analysis for us to bring about change."

Unionen's gender expert Peter Tai Christensen elaborated on this explanation.

We all react differently to changes in society. Some of us develop and integrate while others of us consciously or unconsciously resists," he said, in a statement. "Mansplaining can be interpreted as a reaction to the fact that traditional gender roles are being renegotiated.

The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood Show all 12 1 /12 The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood Anne Hathaway The 32-year-old actress said she has already experiences job rejections because of her age. Now I'm in my early thirties and I'm like, 'Why did that 24-year-old get that part? I was that 24-year-old once. I can't be upset about it, it's the way things are, she told Glamour. EPA The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood Helen Mirren On news that Maggie Gyllenhaal had been turned down for being too old, aged 37, to play a 55-year-old mans partner: Its f***ing outrageous. Its ridiculous. Honestly, its so annoying. And twas ever thus. We all watched James Bond as he got more and more geriatric, and his girlfriends got younger and younger. Its so annoying. Getty The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood Maggie Gyllenhaal Gyllenhaal revealed she was told by a Hollywood producer that she was too old, aged 37, to play the love interest of a 55-year-old man. It was astonishing to me. It made me feel bad, and then it made feel angry, and then it made me laugh, she said at the time. Getty Images The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood Meryl Streep Meryl Streep has helped fund an all-female screenwriters group called The Writers Lab to encourage more women to pen Hollywood scripts. She previously told Vogue in 2011: Once women pass childbearing age they could only be seen as grotesque on some level. Getty The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood Emma Thompson The actress said she thought Hollywood is still completely s*** when it comes to treating women equally to men. When I was younger, I really did think we were on our way to a better world. And when I look at it now, it is in a worse state than I have known it, particularly for women, and I find that very disturbing and sad. EPA The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood Elizabeth Banks Banks said she was driven from acting to directing due to the lack of roles for older women in Hollywood. "[Industry sexism] drove me to direct for sure. I definitely was feeling that I was unfulfilled and a little bit bored by the things that were coming across my desk. I mean look at Gwyneth Paltrow who has her Oscar [for Shakespeare in Love] and played fifth banana to Iron Man, she told Deadline. PA The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood Viola Davis I had never seen a 49-year-old, dark-skinned woman who is not a size 2 be a sexualised role in TV or film. I'm a sexual woman, but nothing in my career has ever identified me as a sexualised woman. I was the prototype of the mommified role, she told The Hollywood Reporter. Getty The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood Liv Tyler The Lord of the Rings actress said she only get cast in roles where she is treated as a second class citizen at the age of 38. When youre in your teens or twenties, there is an abundance of ingenue parts which are exciting to play. But at [my age], youre usually the wife or the girlfriend - a sort of second-class citizen. There are more interesting roles for women when they get a bit older, she told More magazine. Getty Images The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood Cate Blanchett The actress famously called out sexism on the red carpet at the 2014 Screen Actors Guild Awards. When a camera operator scanned her up and down, she said: Do you do this to the guys? In her Oscar acceptance speech for Blue Jasmine, she reminded the film industry that movies with leading women can still be successful. And thank you to... those of us in the industry who are still foolishly clinging to the idea that female films, with women at the centre, are niche experiences. They are not -- audiences want to see them and, in fact, they earn money. The world is round, people. Gareth Cattermole/Getty The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood Ellen Page Asked if she had ever encountered sexism in Hollywood, Page told The Guardian: Oh my God, yeah! It's constant! It's how you're treated, it's how you're looked at, how you're expected to look in a photoshoot, it's how you're expected to shut up and not have an opinion, it's how you... If you're a girl and you don't fit the very specific vision of what a girl should be, which is always from a man's perspective, then you're a little bit at a loss. Getty Images The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood Zoe Saldana The actress says she refuses roles where she has to play the generic girlfriend, wife or sexy bombshell. "It's very hard being a woman in a man's world, and I recognised it was a man's world even when I was a kid. It's an inequality and injustice that drove me crazy, and which I always spoke out against  and I've always been outspoken, she told Manhattan magazine. Getty The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood Charlize Theron The actress spoke to ELLE about negotiating equal pay for the Snow White and the Huntsman sequel: "This is a good time for us to bring this to a place of fairness, and girls need to know that being a feminist is a good thing. It doesn't mean that you hate men. It means equal rights. If you're doing the same job, you should be compensated and treated in the same way." Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

"Mansplaining is maneuvering, tricks and suppression techniques designed to put women in their place and thereby consolidate or restore a privileged position.

He said whether it was intentional, a form of "misguided benevolence", or just a habit, " the problem is basically that women are assumed to be less knowing, competent, important, or legitimate".

"It is obviously not the case that all men expose women to mansplaining all the time. It would be an absurd assertion that lacks reality. But enough women are exposed to enough mansplaining for it to be a problem that needs to be highlighted, discussed and solved."
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The British Medical Journal has called for the legalisation of illicit drugs for the first time.

Prohibition laws have failed to curb either supply or demand, reduce addiction, cut violence or reduce profits for organised crime, the journal argued, saying the so-called 'War on Drugs' had been a failure.

It said the ban on the production, supply, possession and use of some drugs for non-medical purposes was causing huge harm.

There is an imperative to investigate more effective alternatives to criminalisation of drug use and supply," the BMJ said in an editorial.

The papers editor-in-chief, Dr Fiona Godlee, and features and debates editor, Richard Hurley, pointed to the fact drug use has grown substantially worldwide, with a quarter of a billion adults worldwide having potentially taken illegal drugs such as cannabis, cocaine or heroin in 2014.

World's 10 deadliest street drugs Show all 10 1 /10 World's 10 deadliest street drugs World's 10 deadliest street drugs Whoonga Whoonga is a combination of antiretroviral drugs, used to treat HIV, and various cutting agents such as detergents and poisons. The drug is widely available in South Africa due to South Africas high rate of HIV sufferers, and is believed to be popular due to how cheap it is when compared to prescribed antiretrovirals. The drug is highly addictive and can cause major health issues such as internal bleeding, stomach ulcers and ultimately death Getty World's 10 deadliest street drugs Scopolamine Scopolamine is a derivative from the nightshade plant found in the Northern Indian region of South America (Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela). It is generally found in a refined powder form, but can also be found as a tea. The drug is more often used by criminals due its high toxicity level (one gram is believed to be able to kill up to 20 people) making it a strong poison. However, it is also believed that the drug is blown into the faces of unexpecting victims, later causing them to lose all sense of self-control and becoming incapable of forming memories during the time they are under the influence of the drug. This tactic has reportedly been used by gangs in Colombia where there have been reports of people using scopolamine as way to convince victims to rob their own homes World's 10 deadliest street drugs Heroin Founded in 1874 by C. R. Alder Wright, heroin is one of the worlds oldest drugs. Originally it was prescribed as a strong painkiller used to treat chronic pain and physical trauma. However in 1971 it was made illegal under the Misuse of Drugs Act. Since then it has become one of the most destructive substances in the world, tearing apart communities and destroying families. The side effects of heroin include inflammation of the gums, cold sweats, a weak immune system, muscular weakness and insomnia. It can also damage blood vessels which can later cause gangrene if left untreated World's 10 deadliest street drugs Crack cocaine Crack cocaine first came about in the 1980s when cocaine became a widespread commodity within the drug trafficking world. Originally cocaine would have attracted a high price tag due to its rarity and difficulty to produce, but once it became more widespread the price dropped significantly. This resulted in drug dealers forming their cocaine into rock like shapes by using baking soda as a way of distilling the powder down into rock form. People were doing this because it allowed for them to sell cocaine at a lower quantity and to a higher number of people. The side effects of crack cocaine include liver, kidney and lung damage, as well as permanent damage to blood vessels, which can often lead to heart attacks, strokes, and ultimately death World's 10 deadliest street drugs Crystal meth Not just famous because of a certain Walter H White, but also because it is one of the most destructive drugs in the world. First developed in 1887, it became widely used during the Second World War when both sides would give it to their troops to keep them awake. It is also believed that the Japanese gave it to their Kamikaze pilots before their suicide missions. After the war crystal meth was prescribed as a diet aid and remained legal until the 1970s. Since then it has fallen into the hands of Mexican gangs and has become a worldwide phenomenon, spreading throughout Europe and Asia. The effects of crystal meth are devastating. In the short-term users will become sleep depraved and anxious, and in the long-term it will cause their flesh to sink, as well as brain damage and damage of the blood vessels World's 10 deadliest street drugs AH-7921 AH-7921 is a synthetic opioid that was previously available to legally purchase online from vendors until it became a Class A in January 2015. The drug is believed to have 80% of the potency of morphine, and became known as the legal heroin. While there has only been one death related to AH-7921 in the UK, it is believed to be highly dangerous and capable of causing respiratory arrest and gangrene World's 10 deadliest street drugs Flakka Flakka is a stimulant with a similar chemical make-up to the amphetamine-like drug found in bath salts. While the drug was originally marketed as a legal high alternative to ecstasy, the effects are significantly different. The user will feel an elevated heart rate, enhanced emotions, and, if enough is digested, strong hallucinations. The drug can cause permanent psychological damage due to it affecting the mood regulating neurons that keep the minds serotonin and dopamine in check, as well as possibly causing heart failure World's 10 deadliest street drugs Bath salts Bath salts are a synthetic crystalline drug that is prevalent in the US. While they may sound harmless, they certainly arent the sort of salts you drop into a warm bath when having a relaxing night in, they are most similar to mephedrone, and have recently been featured throughout social media due to the zombification of its. The name comes from the fact that the drug was originally sold online, and widely disguised as bath salts. The side effects include unusual psychiatric behaviour, psychosis, panic attacks and violent behaviour, as well as the possibility of a heart attack and an elevated body temperature World's 10 deadliest street drugs Purple Drank One of the more unusual drugs around at the moment, purple drank was popularised in 90s hip hop culture, with the likes of Jay Z and Big Moe all mentioning it in their songs. It is a concoction of soda water, sweets and cold medicine, and is drunk due to cold medicines high codeine content, which gives the user a woozy feeling. However it can also cause respiratory issues and heart failure World's 10 deadliest street drugs Krokodil Krokodil is Russias secret addiction. It is believed that over one million Russians are addicted to the drug. Users of krokodil are attracted to the drug due to its low price; it is sold at 20 a gram while heroin is sold for 60. However, krokodil is considered more dangerous than heroin because it is often homemade, with ingredients including painkillers, iodine, lighter fluid and industrial cleaning agents. This chemical make-up makes the drug highly dangerous and likely to cause gangrene, and eventually rotting of the flesh

In the UK, a quarter of 15-year-olds may have taken illegal preparations of unknown quality and potency.

The BMJ said some countries have already removed criminal penalties for personal drug possession.

For example, Portugal replaced criminal sanctions for drug use with civil penalties and health interventions 15 years ago, while the UKs new Psychoactive Substances Act criminalises the supply but not the use of synthetic drugs.

Some US states such as California have legal cannabis markets and the Netherlands has tolerated regulated cannabis sales for years.

The editors called for doctors to be at the centre of the debate on alternative policies to promote health and respect peoples dignity.

Health should be at the centre of this debate, and so, therefore, should healthcare professionals, they argued.

Change is coming, and doctors should use their authority to lead calls for pragmatic reform informed by science and ethics.

 Clegg: No prison sentence for possessing drugs

In the same issue, former Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and Baroness Molly Meacher said the UKs drug policy has been irrational for 55 years and argued this was the right time to establish a wider review of drug policy.

They urged the Government to reschedule cannabis for medical use and review policy on heroin-assisted treatment, which they said had shown positive results in Switzerland, such as a decline in drug use and crime and improvements in health and rehabilitation.

The Parliamentarians also called for an end to criminal sanctions for the personal possession and use of all drugs.

British politicians should seriously consider introducing a version of the Portuguese model in the UK, involving a significant transfer of resources from criminal justice to treatment services, they said.

They added that steps towards decriminalisation in the UK have already begun, with the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016, and argued changes to drug prohibition could be good for the UK".

Ruth Dreifuss, former President of Switzerland and chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, said the need for more effective and humane drug policies was more urgent now than ever.

She argued the idealised notion of a society without drugs was an unattainable fantasy and said reforms must prioritise issues of public health, social integration and security, while respecting human rights and judicial process.

Decriminalisation can and must go further, she added.

In an upcoming report, the Global Commission will call for governments to regulate all illicit drugs, which it says would curb a massive revenue for organised crime worth an estimated $320bn.
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UK citizens could be charged to enter the EU if Article 50 is triggered.

As part of an effort to prevent terrorism, European ministers are to consider a plan to introduce a US-style visa waiver programme for the 26-country Schengen Zone. Visitors from countries participating in a Visa Waiver Programme would be required to apply online to be screened in advance of their trip.

The US Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) charges prospective tourists and business travellers 10 for these background checks.

The plan to implement an EU version of ESTA was drafted in September, but the European Commission is set to discuss the proposal this week.

Sir Julian King, a British diplomat currently serving as European commissioner for the security union, is already backing the plan, which he said could play an important part in the war against international terrorism.

We think this is going to be a valuable additional piece of the jigsaw because it will allow us to know more about the people who are planning to come to the EU in advance so that if necessary they raise questions about either security or in some cases migration, he said.

He added: Well be able to intervene even before they arrive in some cases.

The idea has also been backed by France and Germany, following calls for bolstered security throughout Europe after a string of terror attacks on European soil, according to EU sources.

All countries in the Schengen Area have abolished passport checks at their mutual borders.

Although not a member of the zone, British nationals are able to travel freely within it after showing a valid passport upon entry.

But after Britain's exit from the bloc, UK citizens may be forced to apply to visit the zone and pay a fee.

Leave campaigners admitted such a scheme could be a possibility in the build-up to the EU referendum.

But the change is now close to becoming a reality as part of a wider package of counter-terrorism moves that are being tabled one year on from the Paris attacks.

Its that level of present, persistent, indiscriminate threat that led to 80-plus per cent of European citizens saying they want more action in this area, said Mr King. There are a number of elements at the heart of this task  tackling terrorism is one but not the only part of it. Theres work that needs to be done on cybercrime and attacks, and serious and organised crime. On terrorism there were a number of things already in hand.

Terrorism in 2016: Terror attacks in Europe claimed by Isis Show all 9 1 /9 Terrorism in 2016: Terror attacks in Europe claimed by Isis Terrorism in 2016: Terror attacks in Europe claimed by Isis Policemen outside Rouen's cathedral during the funeral of Jacques Hamel, the priest who was killed in a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in Normandy on 26 July during a hostage-taking claimed by Islamic State group Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images Terrorism in 2016: Terror attacks in Europe claimed by Isis Two jihadists, both 19, slit Hamel's throat while he was celebrating mass in an attack that shocked France as well as the Catholic Church Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images Terrorism in 2016: Terror attacks in Europe claimed by Isis Muslims place flowers and hold a minute of silence in front of the church if Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, western France, where French priest Jacques Hamel was killed on 26 July Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images Terrorism in 2016: Terror attacks in Europe claimed by Isis Two people hold each other by the new makeshift memorial in Nice, in tribute to the victims of the deadly Bastille Day attack at the Promenade des Anglais Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images Terrorism in 2016: Terror attacks in Europe claimed by Isis The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the truck attack that killed 84 people in Nice on France's national holiday. Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, 31, smashed a 19-tonne truck into a packed crowd of people in the Riviera city celebrating Bastille Day Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images Terrorism in 2016: Terror attacks in Europe claimed by Isis Police work at a site where a Syrian migrant set off an explosive device in Ansbach, southern Germany, on 25 July, killing himself and wounding a dozen others Daniel Roland/AFP/Getty Images Terrorism in 2016: Terror attacks in Europe claimed by Isis A Syrian migrant set off an explosion at a bar in southern Germany that killed himself and wounded a dozen others in the third attack to hit Bavaria in a week. The 27-year-old, who had spent a stint in a psychiatric facility, had intended to target a music festival in the city of Ansbach but was turned away because he did not have a ticket Friebe/AFP/Getty Images Terrorism in 2016: Terror attacks in Europe claimed by Isis Police officers walk along train tracks in Wuerzburg southern Germany on 19 July, a day after a man attacked train passengers with an axe. German authorities said they had found a hand-painted IS flag among the belongings of the man, an asylum seeker from Afghanistan, who seriously injured four members of a family of tourists from Hong Kong in his rampage Daniel Roland/AFP/Getty Images Terrorism in 2016: Terror attacks in Europe claimed by Isis German police killed a teenage assailant after he attacked passengers on a train in Wuerzburg, southerg Germany with an axe and a knife on 18 July, seriously wounding three people Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/AFP/Getty Images

EU interior ministers, including the British home secretary, Amber Rudd, will consider the European visa waiver scheme alongside the refreshed counter-terrorism package this Friday at a regular meeting of justice and home affairs ministers.

When the plan to charge Britons to visit Europe was first disclosed in September, Ms Rudd said: I dont think its particularly desirable, but we dont rule it out, because we have to be allowed a free hand to get the best negotiations.

My reaction to that is its a reminder that this is a two-way negotiation. The EU and the commissioners may be considering issues, alternatives. They will be considering their negotiations with us, just as we are with them. But Im going to make sure that what we do get is in the best interests of the UK, she said.
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Downing Street has sought to play down a suggestion by Boris Johnson that Britain will "probably" have to leave the EU customs union as a result of the referendum vote for Brexit.

The Foreign Secretary reportedly told the Czech daily Hospodarske noviny newspaper that, while the issue would be the subject of discussion, he did not believe the UK would be able to remain in the customs union.

"We probably will have to come out of the customs union, but that's a question I am sure will be discussed," he said, according to a translation of his comments by the Politico Europe website.

No 10 insisted that the Government's position had not changed and that no decision had been taken on the future membership of the customs union.

Brexit Concerns Show all 26 1 /26 Brexit Concerns Brexit Concerns Brexit will put British patients at 'back of the queue' for new drugs Brexit will put British patients at the back of the queue for vital new drugs, the Government has been warned  forcing them to wait up to two years longer A medicines regulator has raised the alarm over a likely decision to pull out of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), as well as the EU itself. ealth Secretary Jeremy Hunt dropped the bombshell , when he said he expected the UK would quit the EMA  because it is subject to rulings by the European Court of Justice. Getty Images Brexit Concerns London to lose status as 'gateway to Europe' for banks One of Germanys top banking regulators has warned that London could lose its status as gateway to Europe for the banking sector after Britain quits the European trading bloc. Andreas Dombret, who is an executive board member for the BundesbankGermanys central banktold a private meeting of German businesses and banks earlier this week in Frankfurt that even if banking rules were equivalent between the UK and the rest of the EU, that was still miles away from [Britain having] access to the single market, the BBC reports. Jason Hawkes Brexit Concerns Exodus The number of financial sector professionals in Britain and continental Europe looking for jobs in Ireland rocketed in the months after the UK voted to leave the European Union Shutterstock Brexit Concerns Brexit is making FTSE 100 executives richer Pay packages of many FTSE 100 chief executive officers are partly tied to how well share prices are doing rather than the CEOs performance -- and some stocks are soaring. ritish equities got a boost since the June vote because the likes of Rio Tinto, Smiths Group and WPP generate most sales abroad and earn a fortune when they convert these revenues back into the weakened pound. Sterlings fall also made UK stocks more affordable for overseas investors. Rex Brexit Concerns Theresa May: UK to leave single market Theresa May has said the UK "cannot possibly" remain within the European single market, as staying in it would mean "not leaving the EU at all". Getty Brexit Concerns Lead campaigner Gina Miller and her team outside the High Court Getty Brexit Concerns Raymond McCord holds up his newly issued Irish passport alongside his British passport outside the High Court in Belfast following a judges dismissal of the UK's first legal challenges to Brexit PA wire Brexit Concerns SDLP leader Colum Eastwood leaving the High Court in Belfast following a judges dismissal of the UK's first legal challenges to Brexit PA wire Brexit Concerns Migrants with luggage walk past a graffiti on a wall as they leave the 'Jungle' migrant camp, as part of a major three-day operation planned to clear the camp in Calais Getty Brexit Concerns Migrants leave messages on their tents in the Jungle migrant camp Getty Brexit Concerns The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (Adra) which distributes approximately 700 meals daily in the northern Paris camp states that it is noticing a spike in new migrant arrivals this week, potentially linked the the Calais 'jungle' camp closure - with around 1000 meals distributed today EPA Brexit Concerns Migrant workers pick apples at Stocks Farm in Suckley, Britain Reuters Brexit Concerns Many farmers across the country are voicing concerns that Brexit could be a dangerous step into the unknown for the farming industry Getty Brexit Concerns Bank of England governor Mark Carney who said the long-term outlook for the UK economy is positive, but growth was slowing in the wake of the Brexit vote PA Brexit Concerns The Dow Jones industrial average closed down over 600 points on the news with markets around the globe pluninging Getty Brexit Concerns Immigration officers deal with each member of the public seeking entry into the United Kingdom but on average, 10 a day are refused entry at this London airport and between 2008 and 2009, 33,100 people were detained at the airport for mainly passport irregularities Getty Brexit Concerns A number of global investment giants have threatened to move their European operations out of London if Brexit proves to have a negative impact on their businesses Getty Brexit Concerns Following the possibility of a Brexit the UK would be released from its renewable energy targets under the EU Renewable Energy Directive and from EU state aid restrictions, potentially giving the government more freedom both in the design and phasing out of renewable energy support regimes Getty Brexit Concerns A woman looking at a chart showing the drop in the pound (Sterling) against the US Dollar in London after Britain voted to leave the EU Getty Brexit Concerns Young protesters outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, to protest against the United Kingdom's decision to leave the EU following the referendum Getty Brexit Concerns Applications from Northern Ireland citizens for Irish Passports has soared to a record high after the UK Voted in favour of Leaving the EU Getty Brexit Concerns NFU Vice President Minette Batters with Secretary of State, Andrea Leadsome at the National Farmers Union (NFU) took machinery, produce, farmers and staff to Westminster to encourage Members of Parliament to back British farming, post Brexit Getty Brexit Concerns The latest reports released by the UK Cabinet Office warn that expats would lose a range of specific rights to live, to work and to access pensions, healthcare and public services. The same reports added that UK citizens abroad would not be able to assume that these rights will be guaranteed in the future Getty Brexit Concerns A British resident living in Spain asks questions during an informative Brexit talk by the "Brexpats in Spain" group, about Spanish legal issues to become Spanish citizens, at the town hall in Benalmadena, Spain Reuters Brexit Concerns The collapse of Great Britain appears to have been greatly exaggerated given the late summer crowds visiting city museums, hotels, and other important tourist attractions Getty Brexit Concerns The U.K. should maintain European Union regulations covering everything from working hours to chemicals until after the government sets out its plans for Brexit, said British manufacturers anxious to avoid a policy vacuum and safeguard access to their biggest export market Getty

"The Foreign Secretary reflected the Government's position which is that a decision hasn't been taken," Prime Minister Theresa May's official spokeswoman said. "He was very clear that the Government had not taken a decision."

Officials insisted Mr Johnson had been clear that Britain's future membership of the union was among a broad range of issues to be discussed and which had not yet been decided.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "The Foreign Secretary was simply saying that the issue of customs union as well as many others will be a matter for discussion."

 Theresa May: Brexit is an opportunity to make globalisation work for all

Senior Labour MP Chuka Umunna - a member of Open Britain which campaigns for the closest links with the EU post-Brexit - said businesses would be "deeply concerned" by Mr Johnson's comments and called on the Government to clarify its position.

"A decision on whether to leave the customs union is a huge choice that should be debated in Parliament, not decided off the cuff on a visit to Prague," he said.

"Businesses will be deeply concerned. The customs union minimises bureaucracy at borders, which facilitates trade and business expansion. Outside, businesses could face costly delays, which in turn would hit growth and employment.

"The Government must now make clear what its policy is on the customs union and, if they want to leave it, produce rigorous analysis of how future trade deals would offset the very real costs to businesses of leaving it."

Press Association
For more than 100 years, The Star Hotel has provided traditional Basque meals to Elkoans and visitors. Both a home for Basque sheepherders and landmark of local Basque culture, the Stars popularity increased over the decades due to their traditional Basque menu and famous Picon Punch.

Pete and Matilde Jauregui opened the Star in 1910. Both immigrants from Spain and former employees of the Telescope Hotel, the Jaureguis understood the need for Basque sheepherders to have a home and family atmosphere when visiting Elko in between jobs.

The camaraderie and support from other Basques along with traditional dishes such as lamb, steak and baked beans, quickly made the Star a destination for sheepherders and other Basque immigrants.

Pete Jauregui was the first chef of the Star and his standards made the hotels dining room famous. Guests were charged $1.00 for room and board, and drinks for 10 cents.

The Jaureguis sold the Star in 1929 to Joe Corta, who immediately sold it to G.F. Arrascada and Albert Garamendi.

After 14 years, the Jaureguis repurchased the Star. However, rationing during World War II and few employees prompted Pete to sell it again, this time to Fred and Bibiana Bengoa.

The 1950s saw the Star change hands twice to Margurite and Domingo Orzamis and then to Jose Juaristi and Luis Alfonso Esnoz. Another sale took place in the 1960s to Joe and Anita Sarasua, who kept the Hotel until selling it to Miguel and Teresa Leonis and Severiano Lazano in 1989.

In 2004, Star was purchased by Elko native Scott Ygoa.

Owned by 14 different Basque proprietors since 1910, the Star has preserved the traditional family dining style and menu items with some additions over the years. Long-term boarders still reside in the hotel, paying weekly or monthly rates.

In its 106-year history, the Stars popularity never diminished and it is regularly featured in tourist magazines and profiles about Elko.

In 2012, the Star was named TravelNevada.coms Top Treasure in Nevadas Cowboy Country territory. A year later, it was named best rural restaurant by Nevada Magazine.
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The number of children held in youth prisons who feel unsafe has risen significantly in recent years, an official report has warned.

As many as 46 per cent of children in institutions now tell authorities they have felt unsafe at some point during custody, compared to 27 per cent when David Cameron first came to power in 2010.

The steady fall in reported safety by youths in custody comes after inspectors found that actual outcomes for safety were not sufficiently good in all but one youth prison.

Recommended Government to run G4S young offenders unit following abuse claims

The statistics come from a report commissioned by the Governments child prisons watchdog, the Youth Justice Board (YJB), which monitors young offenders institutes.

Most worryingly, the report into youth prisons found there was a strong link between children who had felt unsafe and children who had been abused while in custody.

Children who said they had felt unsafe were significantly more likely to report having been physically abused, at 40 per cent compared with 15 per cent of those who said they felt safe.

Of the children who said they felt unsafe, 11 per cent also reported being sexually abused while in custody, compared to 0 per cent of children who did not report being unsafe.

There was also a racial element to the figures: 17 per cent of children who said they felt unsafe reported being victimised by a member of prison safe due to their race, compared to 1 per cent of children who felt safe.

Colin Allars, the chief executive of the Youth Justice Board, warned that changes were needed to address the findings about a lack of safety in young offenders institutes.

The end of innocence: Inside Britain's child prisons Show all 6 1 /6 The end of innocence: Inside Britain's child prisons The end of innocence: Inside Britain's child prisons The end of innocence: Inside Britain's child prisons GETTY IMAGES The end of innocence: Inside Britain's child prisons GETTY IMAGES The end of innocence: Inside Britain's child prisons The end of innocence: Inside Britain's child prisons PA The end of innocence: Inside Britain's child prisons PA

Parts of this report are uncomfortable to read  trends around safety are concerning, he said.

We will use these findings to support our work with providers of custodial services to address the issues children and young people are telling us about.

The YJB has a role in ensuring young people are looked after whilst in custody, and to do that effectively we must listen to their views.

We commission this independent survey because its findings are important in ensuring that the voices of children and young people in custody are heard and because it helps us to monitor the services provided to them.

Ministers announced more funding for thousands of new prison officers in the last month, effectively a Uturn on the Coalitions longstanding policy of reducing numbers. That change came after warnings from prison officers that adult prisons were becoming unsafe, with the worst teetering on a bloodbath due to staffing cuts.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: These findings are concerning. The welfare of young people in custody is extremely important and the Justice Secretary has been very clear that we need to do more to improve safety and help offenders turn their lives around.

We will be setting out our plans to reform the way we manage young offenders in the coming weeks.
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Donald Trump will run policy proposals affecting the UK past Nigel Farage before consulting Theresa May, a Ukip donor has claimed.

Mr Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon will "run ideas" past interim Ukip leader Mr Farage, prominent Ukip donor Aaron Banks told the Daily Telegraph.

There is no doubt about it that Steve Bannon will talk to Nigel Farage before any other British politician and run stuff by them," Mr Banks said.

Mr Farage became the first British politician to meet the President-elect following his election victory.

Mr Banks and Mr Bannon also met for more than an hour in New York on Sunday.

He said: When he opened the door it was like come on on Nigel. We just sat there chatting for an hour and we ended the meeting.

"They are as close as two people can be in politics.

President Donald Trump life in pictures Show all 16 1 /16 President Donald Trump life in pictures President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump poses in a rocking chair once used by President John F. Kennedy at his New York City residence Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Developer Donald Trump with his new bride Marla Maples after their wedding at the Plaza hotel in New York Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and Celina Midelfart watch the match between Conchita Martinez and Amanda Coetzer during U.S. Open. She was the date whom Donald Trump was with when he met his current wife Melania at a party in 1996 Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas serving as the grand marshal for the Daytona 500, speaks to Donald Trump and Melania Knauss on the starting grid at the Daytona International Speedwa Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Developer Donald Trump talks with his former wife Ivana Trump during the men's final at the U.S. Open Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and his friend Melania Knauss pose for photographers as they arrive at the New York premiere of Star Wars Episode : 'The Phantom Menace,' Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Billionaire real estate developer Donald Trump talks with host Larry King. Trump told King that he was moving toward a possible bid for the United States presidency with the formation of a presidential exploratory committee Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump answers questions as Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura looks on in Brooklyn Park. Trump said on Friday he 'very well might' make a run for president under the Reform Party banner but had not made a final decision Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Billionaire Donald Trump makes a face at a friend as he sits next to Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso before the start of the 2003 Miss Universe pageant in Panama City Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Entrepreneur Donald Trump is greeted by a Marilyn Monroe character look-a-alike, as he arrives at Universal Studios Hollywood to attend the an open casting call for his NBC television network reality series 'The Apprentice.' Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and Simon Cowell present an Emmy during the 56th annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and Megan Mullally perform at the 57th annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump, poses with his children, son Donald Trump, Jr., and daughters Tiffany and Ivanka Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Billionaire Donald Trump told Miss USA 2006 Tara Conner on Tuesday she would be given a second chance after reported misbehavior Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump holds a replica of his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as his wife Melania holds their son Barron in Los Angeles Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures U.S. property mogul Donald Trump stands next to a bagpiper during a media event on the sand dunes of the Menie estate, the site for Trump's proposed golf resort, near Aberdeen, north east Scotland Reuters

After the meeting, Mr Farage shared of photo of himself and the billionaire grinning in front of a golden door.

It was a great honour to spend time with Donald Trump, Mr Farage wrote on Twitter.

He was relaxed and full of good ideas. I'm confident he will be a good President."

He added: "Mr Trump's support for the US-UK relationship is very strong. This is a man with whom we can do business."

The interim Ukip leader was originally scheduled to meet Mr Trump's inner circle rather than the President-elect himself, but party sources later said the pair met and discussed "freedom and winning".
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A Supreme Court judge has suggested comprehensive legislation may be required to trigger Brexit, potentially delaying the move for two years.

In a dramatic intervention, Lady Brenda Hale said a simple Act of Parliament may not be sufficient to start the process, arguing replacement of the 1972 Act that took Britain into the EU in the first place may be needed.

Theresa May has promised a Great Repeal Bill to end the supremacy of that 1972 Act in UK law, but it will not even be brought forward until next Mays Queens Speech.

 Landmark Brexit Ruling: What happened and what happens next?

And, because it will first enshrine all existing EU law into British law, before unwanted parts are repealed  an enormously complex process - it may not be completed until 2019.

The Prime Minister has vowed to invoke the Article 50 notice by the end of March next year, with the aim of leaving the EU altogether within two years and no later than spring 2019.

To add to the controversy, Lady Hale is one of the 11 justices who will hear next months Government appeal to the Supreme Court for the right to bypass Parliament when it triggers Article 50.

Her comments came in a speech delivered in Malaysia, in which she pointed out the referendum was not legally binding on Parliament.

Lady Hale explained how the High Court ruled against the Government on the grounds that it did not have the right to use the Royal Prerogative to invoke Article 50 alone.

She said: The argument is that the European Communities Act 1972 grants rights to individuals and others which will automatically be lost if the Treaties cease to apply.

Such a result, it is said, can only be achieved by an Act of Parliament.

Baroness Hale of Richmond, also known as Lady Hale (PA)

Another question is whether it would be enough for a simple Act of Parliament to authorise the government to give notice, or whether it would have to be a comprehensive replacement for the 1972 Act.

It is the first time any senior person  let alone a Supreme Court judge, about to hear the crucial case  has raised the prospect that it may be legally impossible to kick-start the EU exit next year.

Lady Hale also confirmed that all 11 current serving justices will hear the case, because it is of such fundamental constitutional importance.

And she added: "But the case is destined for our court, so I must say no more."

Iain Duncan Smith reacted with fury to Lady Hales suggestion that it could be legally impossible to kick-start Brexit next year, because repeal of the 1972 Act may not be completed until 2019.

The former Cabinet minister told Sky News that the Supreme Court Deputy President had always been opposed to Britain leaving EU  predicting a constitutional crisis if such a ruling is made.

Brexit Concerns Show all 26 1 /26 Brexit Concerns Brexit Concerns Brexit will put British patients at 'back of the queue' for new drugs Brexit will put British patients at the back of the queue for vital new drugs, the Government has been warned  forcing them to wait up to two years longer A medicines regulator has raised the alarm over a likely decision to pull out of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), as well as the EU itself. ealth Secretary Jeremy Hunt dropped the bombshell , when he said he expected the UK would quit the EMA  because it is subject to rulings by the European Court of Justice. Getty Images Brexit Concerns London to lose status as 'gateway to Europe' for banks One of Germanys top banking regulators has warned that London could lose its status as gateway to Europe for the banking sector after Britain quits the European trading bloc. Andreas Dombret, who is an executive board member for the BundesbankGermanys central banktold a private meeting of German businesses and banks earlier this week in Frankfurt that even if banking rules were equivalent between the UK and the rest of the EU, that was still miles away from [Britain having] access to the single market, the BBC reports. Jason Hawkes Brexit Concerns Exodus The number of financial sector professionals in Britain and continental Europe looking for jobs in Ireland rocketed in the months after the UK voted to leave the European Union Shutterstock Brexit Concerns Brexit is making FTSE 100 executives richer Pay packages of many FTSE 100 chief executive officers are partly tied to how well share prices are doing rather than the CEOs performance -- and some stocks are soaring. ritish equities got a boost since the June vote because the likes of Rio Tinto, Smiths Group and WPP generate most sales abroad and earn a fortune when they convert these revenues back into the weakened pound. Sterlings fall also made UK stocks more affordable for overseas investors. Rex Brexit Concerns Theresa May: UK to leave single market Theresa May has said the UK "cannot possibly" remain within the European single market, as staying in it would mean "not leaving the EU at all". Getty Brexit Concerns Lead campaigner Gina Miller and her team outside the High Court Getty Brexit Concerns Raymond McCord holds up his newly issued Irish passport alongside his British passport outside the High Court in Belfast following a judges dismissal of the UK's first legal challenges to Brexit PA wire Brexit Concerns SDLP leader Colum Eastwood leaving the High Court in Belfast following a judges dismissal of the UK's first legal challenges to Brexit PA wire Brexit Concerns Migrants with luggage walk past a graffiti on a wall as they leave the 'Jungle' migrant camp, as part of a major three-day operation planned to clear the camp in Calais Getty Brexit Concerns Migrants leave messages on their tents in the Jungle migrant camp Getty Brexit Concerns The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (Adra) which distributes approximately 700 meals daily in the northern Paris camp states that it is noticing a spike in new migrant arrivals this week, potentially linked the the Calais 'jungle' camp closure - with around 1000 meals distributed today EPA Brexit Concerns Migrant workers pick apples at Stocks Farm in Suckley, Britain Reuters Brexit Concerns Many farmers across the country are voicing concerns that Brexit could be a dangerous step into the unknown for the farming industry Getty Brexit Concerns Bank of England governor Mark Carney who said the long-term outlook for the UK economy is positive, but growth was slowing in the wake of the Brexit vote PA Brexit Concerns The Dow Jones industrial average closed down over 600 points on the news with markets around the globe pluninging Getty Brexit Concerns Immigration officers deal with each member of the public seeking entry into the United Kingdom but on average, 10 a day are refused entry at this London airport and between 2008 and 2009, 33,100 people were detained at the airport for mainly passport irregularities Getty Brexit Concerns A number of global investment giants have threatened to move their European operations out of London if Brexit proves to have a negative impact on their businesses Getty Brexit Concerns Following the possibility of a Brexit the UK would be released from its renewable energy targets under the EU Renewable Energy Directive and from EU state aid restrictions, potentially giving the government more freedom both in the design and phasing out of renewable energy support regimes Getty Brexit Concerns A woman looking at a chart showing the drop in the pound (Sterling) against the US Dollar in London after Britain voted to leave the EU Getty Brexit Concerns Young protesters outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, to protest against the United Kingdom's decision to leave the EU following the referendum Getty Brexit Concerns Applications from Northern Ireland citizens for Irish Passports has soared to a record high after the UK Voted in favour of Leaving the EU Getty Brexit Concerns NFU Vice President Minette Batters with Secretary of State, Andrea Leadsome at the National Farmers Union (NFU) took machinery, produce, farmers and staff to Westminster to encourage Members of Parliament to back British farming, post Brexit Getty Brexit Concerns The latest reports released by the UK Cabinet Office warn that expats would lose a range of specific rights to live, to work and to access pensions, healthcare and public services. The same reports added that UK citizens abroad would not be able to assume that these rights will be guaranteed in the future Getty Brexit Concerns A British resident living in Spain asks questions during an informative Brexit talk by the "Brexpats in Spain" group, about Spanish legal issues to become Spanish citizens, at the town hall in Benalmadena, Spain Reuters Brexit Concerns The collapse of Great Britain appears to have been greatly exaggerated given the late summer crowds visiting city museums, hotels, and other important tourist attractions Getty Brexit Concerns The U.K. should maintain European Union regulations covering everything from working hours to chemicals until after the government sets out its plans for Brexit, said British manufacturers anxious to avoid a policy vacuum and safeguard access to their biggest export market Getty

A Supreme Court spokesman said: Lady Hale was simply presenting the arguments from both sides of the Article 50 appeal in an impartial way for an audience of law students, as part of a wider lecture on constitutional law.

One of the questions raised in these proceedings is what form of legislation would be necessary for Parliament to be able to lawfully trigger Article 50, if the government loses its appeal.

"A number of politicians have raised the same question. Though it was not dealt with explicitly in the High Court judgment, it is not a new issue. In no way was Lady Hale offering a view on what the likely outcome might be.
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Barack Obama has issued a parting snub to former prime minister David Cameron by saying Angela Merkel was his close international partner during his presidency.

Mr Obama, who will leave the White House in January, said the German Chancellor was one of his closest allies on the world stage during the past eight years, as he was due to set out on his last overseas trip as President.

This has been seen as a snub to the UK's special relationship with the US and to Mr Cameron, who was said to have enjoyed a close working relationship with Mr Obama.

Speaking at the White House ahead of his trip, the Pesident said: In Germany I'll visit with Chancellor Merkel who has probably been my closest international partner these last eight years.

But Mr Obama did not mention that he would also be meeting with Mr Camerons successor, Theresa May, and French President Francois Hollande during his trip.

It is not the first time Mr Obama has provoked tensions with its closest ally. In March he accused Mr Cameron of turning the Libyan intervention into a "s*** show" because he failed to act to avert the civil war which broke out following the fall of Muammar Gaddafi.

This latest remark comes just a few months after he declared that Britain would go to the back of the queue when it came to negotiating a free trade deal if it voted to leave the European Union.

World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Show all 29 1 /29 World reaction to President Trump: In pictures World reaction to President Trump: In pictures London, England AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures London, England Reuters World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Manila, Philippines Getty Images World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Manila, Philippines Getty World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Mosul , Iraq Getty World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Manila, Philippines AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures New Delhi, India Reuters World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Karachi, Pakistan EPA World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Jakarta, Indonesia Reuters World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Lagos, Nigeria AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Kabul, Afghanistan AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Jerusalem. Israel Reuters World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Moscow, Russia Reuters World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Seoul, South Korea AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Lagos, Nigeria AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Peshawar, Pakistan EPA World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Jakarta, Indonesia Reuters World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Hyderabad, India AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Kolkata, India AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Sydney, Australia Getty World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Sydney, Australia AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Aleppo, Syria Reuters World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Mexico City, Mexico AP World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago Reuters World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Jerusalem, Israel EPA World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Baghdad, Iraq Rex World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories Rex World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Tokyo, Japan Rex World reaction to President Trump: In pictures Mexico City, Mexico Getty

He stood by those comments in September during the G20 summit, saying the UK was wrong to vote leave but added that the special relationship would endure.

It follows another perceived slight by the President-elect Donald Trump, after he invited outgoing Ukip leader Nigel Farage to meet him at Trump Tower in Manhattan ahead of any other British politician.

Mr Farage is not an MP and has no official role in negotiations between London and Washington, despite a claim by former Ukip financier Arron Banks that Mr Trump's chief strategist Stephen Bannon will consult Mr Farage before Ms May on UK policy proposals.

He said: "There is no doubt about it that Steve Bannon will talk to Nigel Farage before any other British politician and run stuff by [him]".

Describing the visit to Trump Tower, he added: When he opened the door it was like come on in Nigel. We just sat there chatting for an hour and we ended the meeting.

"They are as close as two people can be in politics.

Mr Farage later tweeted that it was a "great honour" to spend time with the former reality star and said he was "confident" he will be a "good President".
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Donald Trump made some of the most divisive and unlikely pledges ever heard by a presidential nominee during the US election campaign.

The billionaire businessman has already performed a number of U-turns in the week since becoming president-elect - but there are just as many he is plans to follow through on.

1. Building a wall between the US and Mexico

 Trump: Wall between US and Mexico will be fencing

Before becoming president-elect, Mr Trump promised he would build a beautiful and impenetrable wall along the 2,000 mile border between the US and Mexico.

While he has now admitted there could be some fencing, the Republican is sticking to his pledge to start construction the days he gets into office. He also maintains Mexico will pay for it.

2. Limiting abortion rights

 Trump thinks Clinton's abortion policy means you can 'rip the baby out' after being nine months pregnant

During the final presidential debate, Mr Trump hinted he could reverse Roe vs Wade; the Supreme Court ruling that gave all women in the US abortion rights.

In his first prime-time television interview on CBS, Trump reiterated his plan to name a Supreme Court justice who would help overturn the 1973 ruling.

Asked where that would leave women seeking an abortion in states that subsequently banned it, he said: Well, theyll perhaps have to go - theyll have to go to another state.

3. Forming a closer relationship with Russia

 Putin: Russia ready to restore US relations after Trump win

Mr Trump praised Vladimir Putin as strong in the lead up to the election, adding: Hes been a leader, far more than our president has been a leader.

On Wednesday, the Kremlin announced the two had agreed to meet face-to-face during a phone call.

The statement said the both leaders agreed relations had become unsatisfactory and their goal was to open a new era of constructive cooperation on a broad range of issues.

4. Allowing citizens easier access to automatic weapons

Democrats demand gun control

Mr Trump has consistently made clear his commitment to the Consitutions Second Amendment, which gives citizens the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

The 70-year-olds current position on gun bans is made clear on his website. Gun and magazine bans are a total failure, it reads.

Law-abiding people should be allowed to own the firearm of their choice. The government has no business dictating what types of firearms good, honest people are allowed to own.

5. Pulling out of the Paris climate treaty

 Paris Climate Change talks - The Brandalism Project

Before his election, Mr Trump described the Paris Agreement as unbelievable, and promised to remove the US from its list of signatories.

A source from the president-elects new transition team has since confirmed the Republican is looking for a quick escape from the treaty.

6. Increasing the use of the most polluting fossil fuels and scrapping the Clean Power Plan

 Climate change: It's "game over" for planet earth

Mr Trump has previously said global warming is a hoax created by the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive. At campaign rallies he also called for more fossil fuel drilling and fewer environmental regulations.

His latest online policy document states he plans to make the country energy independent by unleashing Americas $50 trillion in untapped shale, oil and natural gas reserves.

He also plans to dig up hundreds of years in coal reserves and ditch Barack Obamas Clean Power Plan to deal with global warming.

7. Banning people from coming to the US

 Amal Clooney undermines Trump's controversial Muslim ban speech

Shortly after the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015, Mr Trump called for a temporary ban on all Muslims from entering the country until he figured out what the hell was going on.

Although that pledge mysteriously disappeared from his website the same day millions of voters went to the polls, it still states he plans to suspend immigration from some of the most dangerous and volatile regions of the world.

8. Repealing Obamacare

 Donald Trump shifts his position on Obamacare during CBS 60 minutes interview

Mr Trump repeatedly denounced President Obamas signature achievement, the Affordable Care Act. Commonly known as Obamacare, the billionaire said it was blowing up and planned to replace it with something much less expesive.

Now on the verge of power, Mr Trump has softened his stance, telling media he will look at President Obamas suggestions after they met at the White House. He maintained though that Obamacare will be amended, or repealed and replaced.

9. Starting a trade war with China

Barack Obama and Xi Jinping finalised the deal at the Apec summit in Beijing (Picture: AP)

Mr Trump has repeatedly accused China of being a currency manipulator, and told supporters the US is going to hell due to his belief other nations are destroying the country's industrial base.

As well as maintaining his commitment to pulling out of Nafta and killing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Mr Trump is also determined to use every lawful presidential power to remedy trade disputes if China does not stop its illegal activities.
CARSON CITY  The Nevada State Treasurers Office announced that open enrollment for Nevada Prepaid Tuition is now available.

Nevadans who sign up before Jan. 31 will be eligible to win a full year of college tuition.

The Nevada Prepaid Tuition program has already helped so many Nevada families, said Dan Schwartz, Nevada State Treasurer. College tuition continues to rise. Dont miss this chance to start saving for your childs future.

Nevada Prepaid Tuition benefits may be used at any eligible school in the country. In-state benefits can be used toward tuition costs at public or private colleges, universities or trade schools that are eligible to participate in federal student aid.

A list of eligible schools can be found at www.FAFSA.ed.gov. The Nevada Prepaid Tuition Program works in conjunction with other 529 college savings plans or scholarships that cover additional college expenses, including books, fees and housing.

Enrollment forms can be completed online at www.NVPrepaid.gov. Payment plans start as low as $38 per month for prepaid tuition at community college and $49 per month for one-year of university tuition. Newborns through 9th graders can be enrolled, and anyone opening an account before January 31, 2017 will automatically be entered to win one year of university tuition, valued at $6,372.

Plans offered by the Nevada State Treasurers Office include the Nevada Prepaid Tuition Program, SSGA Upromise 529 Plan, the Vanguard 529 College Savings Plan, the USAA 529 College Savings Plan, the Putnam 529 for America, and Wealthfront 529 College Savings Plan. Each plan is different and can be used together to offer families complete savings options.

To learn more about any of these programs please visit www.NV529.org.
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Alphabet Inc's Google is working to change their policy to prevent fake news websites from using its AdSense advertising network, the company told Reuters on Monday.

"Moving forward, we will restrict ad serving on pages that misrepresent, misstate, or conceal information about the publisher, the publisher's content, or the primary purpose of the web property," a Google spokesperson told the news agency. This policy includes fake news sites, the spokesperson confirmed. Google already prevents its AdSense program from being used by sites that promote violent videos and imagery, pornography, and hate speech.

The decision comes after Google, Facebook, and Twitter continue to face scrutiny for the role they played in the US presidential election. Critics say that the false information peddled by President-elect Donald Trump may have helped him over the course of his campaign.

However, the company did not say whether they will work to rate the accuracy of the fake news articles or restrict how they display in searches.
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John Bolton, the pro-war and former United Nations ambassador under George W Bush, is a likely contender for Donald Trumps next secretary of state.

The anti-Iran and anti-Russia hawk failed to secure a longer term as UN ambassador after Democrats banded together to prevent him.

He served less than two years, during which there was a rise in anti-US sentiment around the world.

In his latest blog, Mr Bolton named the five "gravest" threats to US security abroad: Isis, Iran, North Korea, Russia and China.

He also said the priority for the US government should be to quell the "proliferation" of nuclear and chemical weapons across the Middle East.

"Destroying ISIS should certainly be a priority, but not Obama's approach, which actually strengthens Iran's hand at the expense of America's traditional allies in the region, Israel and Arab states alike," he wrote.

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani is also speculated to be on the list for the coveted position of secretary of state, after he said he would not be attorney general.

Mr Trump said in August that Mr Bolton was one of his go-to experts on foreign security, and described him as a "tough cookie".

But selecting Mr Bolton for the top job would break Mr Trumps pledge to work peacefully with other countries, and would cast doubt over his seemingly positive relationship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

In 2014, Mr Bolton speculated that Russia was responsible for the downing of a Malaysian plane over Ukraine.

He told Fox News: "I think weve got to begin to treat Russia like the adversary that Putin is currently demonstrating it to be."

This year, Mr Bolton vocally opposed any attempts to "legitimise" Russias efforts to defeat Isis in Syria, contrary to Mr Trump who proposed Russia and Syria should be left alone to "fight it out".

The president-elect has also insisted that he opposed the Iraq War, yet Mr Bolton was responsible as under secretary of state for arms control for peddling ideas that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction as a pretext to invade the country.
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A US judge has ordered the release of Making A Murderer's Brendan Dassey, whose homicide conviction was overturned in a case profiled in the Netflix series, while prosecutors appeal.

US magistrate judge William Duffin ordered Mr Dassey's release from prison contingent upon him meeting multiple conditions.

The judge ruled in August that investigators tricked Mr Dassey into confessing he helped his uncle, Steven Avery, rape, kill and mutilate photographer Teresa Halbach in 2005. The state has appealed that ruling.

Mr Dassey's lawyer, Steve Drizin, said he had not spoken yet with Mr Dassey, but he hoped to have him out of prison in time to spend Thanksgiving with his family.

Brendan Dassey's confession was a crucial part of the case against his uncle (YouTube)

"That's what I'm focused on right now, getting him home, getting him with his family and then helping him to re-integrate back into society while his appeal plays out," Mr Drizin said.

Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel issued a statement saying he would file an emergency motion in the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals to put the release order on hold.

Mr Dassey's supervised release was not immediate. He had until noon on Tuesday to provide the federal probation and parole office with the address of where he planned to live.

Mr Drizin would not say where Mr Dassey plans to live.

Mr Dassey was 16 when Ms Halbach died. He is now 27.

 Making A Murderer- Where are they now?

Judge Duffin ruled in August that investigators made specific promises of leniency to Dassey and that no "fair-minded jurists could disagree".

He cited one investigator's comment early in the interview that "you don't have to worry about things", plus repeated comments like "it's OK" and that they already knew what happened.

Mr Schimel, in his appeal, said investigators did not promise leniency and they specifically told Dassey that no promises could be made.

Ms Halbach was killed on Halloween 2005, after she visited the Avery family's salvage yard in Manitowoc County.

Steven Avery is one of two convicted murderers featured in the Netflix documentary (AP)

Investigators allege Avery lured her there by asking her to take photos of a minivan. Mr Dassey was sentenced to life in prison in 2007.

Court documents describe him as a slow learner who had poor grades and has difficulty understanding language and speaking. Avery was convicted in a separate trial and was also sentenced to life in prison. He is pursuing his own appeal.

Their cases gained national attention after Netflix aired Making A Murderer last year. The series spawned widespread conjecture about the pair's innocence. Authorities who worked on the cases said the series was biased, but it generated calls from the public to free both men.

Associated Press
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The far right in France on Tuesday extended its welcome to the ultra-conservative Breitbart News Network which had earlier revealed plans to launch French and German versions of its site.

Any French incursion by Breitbart, which has already used the ascent of Donald Trump dramatically to widen its US footprint, will be seen as a punt to boost support Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Front party, as well as to build revenue. Ms Le Pen is widely expected to win or come second in the first round of next Aprils presidential vote.

Recommended Some of the worst Breitbart headlines about Muslims and women

On Tuesday, Ms Le Pens niece, Marion Marechal-Le Pen, who has her own seat in the French Assembly, voiced enthusiasm for Breitbart giving her partys supporters new voice in France.

All alternative media are generally positive. Donald Trump is the demonstration of that... they're among the useful tools, she said during a visit to Moscow. Speaking to the Agence France Press, AFP, she added that there had been "some small contacts for some time between the FN and the Trump campaign in the United States.

On Tuesday, President Barack Obama warned of the rise of what he called a crude sort of nationalism in advanced economies around the world as demonstrated by the election of Mr Trump and the Brexit vote. He was speaking in Athens during a one-day state visit to Greece.

Breitbart, which has a record of promoting a right-wing agenda and assailing the Republican establishment as well as the liberal left in the US, has seen its profile explode in the months since Mr Trump began his ultimately successful campaign for the White House.

Also on Tuesday, it said in a statement released to The Hill that it was preparing a lawsuit against another "major" US media outlet for allegedly mischaractersing its mission.

Breitbart News Network, a pro-America, conservative website, is preparing a multi-million dollar lawsuit against a major media company for its baseless and defamatory claim that Breitbart News is a white nationalist website, the statement read.

Breitbart News cannot allow such vicious racial lies to go unchallenged, especially by cynical, politically-motivated competitors seeking to diminish its 42 million monthly readers and its number one in the world political Facebook page. Breitbart News rejects racism in all its varied and ugly forms. Always has, always will, the statement continues.

The relationship between the site and Trump became more than casual when its head, Stephen Bannon, took a leave of absence to become CEO of the Trump campaign last summer. At the weekend, President-elect Trump appointed him as senior advisor to the president, a choice that prompted fury from the left that he would be occupying so influential a post in the White House.

It is now becoming clear that Mr Bannon, who took the reins at Breitbart after its founder, Andrew Breitbart, died in 2012, is convinced that voter disaffection means the site can broaden its horizons quickly, including by trying to tilt the political dynamic to the right in Europe.

The organisation already has a British iteration, set up in 2013, when the company calculated that it could benefit from the rising popularity of the Leave campaign as Britain prepared for the Brexit referendum. It is led by a young conservative activist, Raheem Kassam, who was previously chief advisor to Nigel Farage, another luminary in the alt-right universe.

Andrew Breitbart, the news site's founder, who died in 2012 (GETTY IMAGES)

In an interview with The New York Times at the weekend, the US editor-in-chief, Alex Marlow, confirmed its European ambition. Theres an under-served readership in Europe, he said. It's the same readers who had been ignored in Britain and had been ignored in the United States.

He also basked in the sites new notoriety. So much of the media mocked us, laughed at us, called us all sorts of names, he noted. And then for us to be seen as integral to the election of a president, despite all of that hatred, is something that we certainly enjoy, and savour.

Speaking last week to Reuters, he offered more detail saying that as well as looking at introducing sites in France and Germany, his team was looking to grow operations in the US, hiring new journalists and exploring the possibilities of a television presence also.

Theres going to be more hiring that goes on  Im already picturing more tech reporting, more media reporting, Mr Marlow said. We do a tonne of politics reporting now so I dont know that well need to do more but we certainly arent planning on scaling back with anything.

Plans for some kind of television expansion for Breitbart are being explored by the US sites technology editor, Milo Yiannopoulos, a figure who is regularly excoriated on social media for derogatory comments he has made about Muslims, Black Lives Matter activists and feminists.

Prior to his winning last weeks election there had been speculation that Mr Trump would pick himself up from being defeated by Hillary Clinton and then focus his energies on creating his own television operation to satisfy an alternative-right audience, possibly in harness with Breitbart. Any such plans would have been mothballed in view of his victory.
ELKO  Elkoans paid tribute to the life of Mark Chilton Saturday evening, remembering his love of the community, strong work ethic, and engineering skills that redesigned Elkos infrastructure in the late 1970s and 1980s.

Chilton died Wednesday at the age of 89 after complications from a second hip fracture.

Family and friends gathered for a memorial service at First Presbyterian Church officiated by the Rev. Tom Holslag. A celebration of life followed at the Northeastern Nevada Museum hosted by his wife, children and grandchildren.

His greatest achievement was moving the railroad tracks, said friend and former mayor Jim Polkinghorne, referring to Project Lifesaver, a 10-year endeavor that removed the railroad tracks from downtown Elko and Silver Street and relocated them next to the Humboldt River.

The project also re-constructed Fifth Street and 12th Street bridges and added Ninth Street pedestrian bridge.

A graduate of Colorado University with a civil engineering degree, Chilton worked for Western Pacific Railroad before moving to Elko with his wife Kathy and their three children Cheri, Carey, and Ward. He joined William Settelmeyers engineering and surveying firm, later buying the company and forming Chilton Engineering.

Chris Wooster, who joined the company in 1987, praised Chiltons talents and work ethic.

Mark had a Midas touch regarding projects, he said. It always met or exceeded expectations.

In the 1980s, the company was involved in the supervision and construction of South Fork Reservoir that created a 90-foot high earth-filled dam to hold back 40,000 acre feet of water. It became the South Fork State Recreation Area.

Chilton also developed Elko Heat Company, which uses geothermal energy to heat several downtown buildings including Vogue Dry Cleaners, Elko County Courthouse and the Western Folklife Center.

Outside of engineering, Mark contributed to the founding of the Northeastern Nevada Museum and Elko Community College, now Great Basin College.

He was a great man who did much for Elko and GBC, said GBC President Dr. Mark Curtis. The property the college sits on and Chilton Circle will serve as a reminder to us about his generosity and vision.

Curtis recalled his last meeting with Mark and Kathy when they recently donated an antique bench from a Topeka, Kansas railroad station to the college.

It will be outside the presidents office from now on, said Curtis.

He valued education so significantly, explained daughter Carey Chilton Charyk of her fathers contributions to GBC. It was really important to him.

Board of Regent-elect Cathy McAdoo reflected on Mark and his contemporaries impact on Elko. A friend of the Chiltons for 30 years, she nominated them to be grand marshals of the 2014 Nevada Day Parade.

We as Elko citizens are indebted to the vision and generosity of Mark Chilton, said McAdoo. Because of him and his colleagues, we enjoy a marvelous quality of life in our remote and rural community.

Im so thankful for the legacy of my friend, McAdoo concluded.

Chiltons vision included creating a strong downtown business area, according to his daughter, Cheri Chilton Smith. He bought and renovated the Henderson Bank Building first and then the Pioneer Hotel, which is now the home of the Western Folklife Center.

Mark was a true entrepreneur, said Polkinghorne. He was very prolific with ideas.

Chilton was also known for caring for his employees and treating them like family. Benneith Platerio Tinhorn recalled Chiltons generosity as her father, Benny Platerio, was Marks first employee.

He bought each one of us six children a savings bond when we were born, Tinhorn remembered.

During the evening, many recalled Marks warm personality and can-do attitude that never seemed to dampen under stressful circumstances. These are characteristics of a member of the Greatest Generation who also believed in building a strong community after World War II according to his son, Ward Chilton.

He believed in action, not words, said Ward, noting his father didnt complain or worry.

He had a creative optimism that could get things done, remembered Carey. He loved to work  he loved to fly, and he loved to create games.

At his memorial, Cheri told everyone to please think of my dads boundless energy, his work ethic and approach to life.

To continue his legacy to the community he loved, the family hopes people consider a donation in Marks name to the Mark and Kathy Chilton Endowed Scholarship for pre-engineering, land surveying/geomatics or instrumentation students at Great Basin College through the GBC Foundation office.
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Canadians are inviting the four West Coast US states that voted for Hillary Clinton to secede to their country.

Mocked-up maps of what Canada would look like, if its borders extended from the Arctic down to Mexico, have been widely shared online in the aftermath of Donald Trumps election victory.

A British Columbia reporter has become the latest Canadian to kindly extend an invitation to California, Oregon, Washington and Nevada.

Im sure we can work something out if you want to join Canada, tweeted Chad Harris, a reporter from Kamloops.

To the west coast of the United States, if you want to you can all become Canadaian Provinces, since you voted closer to the experiences we have as Canadian.

Campaigners are already fighting for Californias independence and a Calexit referendum, initially inspired by Catalonia independence attempts, to be held in 2019.

More than 60 per cent of voters opted for Hillary Clinton in The Golden State  the elections bluest patch.

The Yes California Independence Campaign says: On issues ranging from peace and security to natural resources and the environment, it has become increasingly true that California would be better off as an independent country.

Douglas Cole from Beaverton, Oregon, wrote an ironic open letter on the subject to Canada, asking: Just please take us. Pretty please?

The Independent has contacted the office of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party of Canada for comment.
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Government officials in Bangladesh are considering dropping Islam as the countrys national religion after a senior politician claimed Bangladeshi people have embraced a force of secularism.

Dr Abdur Razzak, a leading member of Bangladeshs ruling Awami League party, proposed the religion be withdrawn from the countrys constitution during a discussion at the National Press Club in the capital Dhaka.

Bangladesh is a country of communal harmony. Here we live with people from all religions and Islam should not be accommodated as the state religion in the Bangladeshi constitution, Dr Razzak said in his report.

 Blood runs through streets of Dhaka after Eid animal sacrifices

I have said it abroad and now I am saying it again that Islam will be dropped from Bangladeshs constitution when the time comes.

The force of secularism is within the people of Bangladesh. There is no such thing as a minority in our country.

Dr Razzak added he believed Islam had been maintained as the state religion for strategic reasons, but declined to elaborate on this during the discussion.

Islam is the largest religion in Bangladesh, with a practicing Muslim population of approximately 150 million - making it the fourth largest Muslim population in the world after India, Pakistan and Indonesia.

According to a national survey from 2003, religion was the primary way Bangladeshi citizens identified themselves, and atheism was found to be rare.

During a recent speech, Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina highlighted the importance of taking care of those who follow minority religions.

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

As a Muslim majority country it is the moral responsibility of the Bangladeshi citizens to take care of minorities, she told a conference.

Bangladesh is a country of communal harmony which should be maintained at any cost for development and brighten the countrys image.

The prime minister also condemned the recent actions of the militant group Isis, who have carried out various violent attacks against religious minority communities this year.

You have to remain careful so that no such incidents, which are taking place sporadically in different parts of the country, take place anywhere in the country, she added
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Indian shelling has forced thousands of villagers from their homes in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, a Pakistani politician has said.

The evacuation from villages in the Bhimber district came after seven Pakistani soldiers were killed by Indian shelling on Monday. The two sides have repeatedly traded fire in recent weeks across the Line of Control that divides the Himalayan region.

The nuclear-armed rivals each claim Kashmir in its entirety, and have fought two of their three wars over its fate.

Waqar Noor, a member of Kashmir's Legislative Assembly, said authorities were making arrangements to accommodate thousands of villagers from Bhimber, who are currently sheltering in open fields or the homes of relatives.

Mr Noor said the villagers would most probably shelter in schools, but that the government may set up a tent village if the number of evacuees keeps growing.

Wakalat Hussain, a farmer from the village of Bania, said the shelling and heavy gunfire had forced the villagers to flee, leaving their homes and animals behind.

Like thousands others, I'm lying here under the open sky with five children and my wife, with no arrangements for food and shelter, Mr Hussain said by phone. At least we don't have to fear being killed by the constant Indian shelling.

 Inside Story - What will it take to restore peace in Indian-administered Kashmir?

Another farmer, Muhammad Khadim from the village of Kheruwal, said he, his wife and their seven children passed a sleepless night listening to the shells explode before fleeing from their home near the Line of Control.

Raja Farooq Haider, the Prime Minister of Pakistan-held Kashmir, told reporters that the government may have to provide shelter for up to half a million people if India escalates its aggression across the Line of Control. The Prime Minister said the government has so far made arrangements for sheltering some 50,000 villagers.

India says it has been retaliating for Pakistani violations of a 2003 ceasefire. An Indian army officer said Pakistani troops fired across the frontier for nearly four hours on Tuesday. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to brief reporters. He said there were no Indian casualties.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's top foreign policy official said on Tuesday he plans to attend the Heart of Asia conference in India and suggested the visit could be used to defuse the tension between the neighbours.

Sartaj Aziz's trip to India would be the first by a senior Pakistani official since gunmen raided an army base in Indian-controlled Kashmir and killed 19 soldiers in September, an attack Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militants.

Its a good opportunity to defuse the tension, Mr Aziz, who is an adviser to Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on foreign affairs, told the state-run PTV channel.

Despite hinting at a possible detente, Mr Aziz said there was no official meeting scheduled with Indian officials. It's early to say. Depends upon the situation, he said.

The Heart of Asia conference focusing on Afghanistan is due to be held in the first week of December in the northwestern Indian city of Amritsar, close to the Pakistani border.

Associated Press and Reuters
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Angela Merkel will run for a fourth term as German Chancellor, a senior member of her party has said.

"She will run for chancellor," Norbert Roettgen, of the Christian Democratic Union, told CNN.

"She is absolutely determined, willing, and ready to contribute to strengthen the international liberal order," he said. "But we can't see the chancellor or Germany as last man standing."

 Angela Merkel takes tougher line on Brexit negotiations

When asked whether Ms Merkel desired to hold "the liberal order, in the trans-Atlantic area, together," Mr Roettgen said: "The Chancellor is a cornerstone of this political concept of the West as acting as a global player.

"So she will run, and she will act as a resonsible leader."

He added: "But it would be impossible to rely only on one person. We need the West, and the West is indispensable.

"And this of course means fundamentally and indispensably also the participation and contribution of the strongest part of the West, and this is the United States of America."

Speaking after Donald Trump was voted US president, Ms Merkel offered "close cooperation" with Mr Trump, because Germany and the US are "joined by common values  democracy, freedom, respect for the law and human dignity, regardless of skin colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation or political beliefs".

On Tuesday, she suggested she is prepared to discuss the parameters of free movement of people in the EU as Britain prepares for Brexit.

She said the EU could not divide its four freedoms  movement of goods, capital, people and services  to allow Britain to restrict immigration while retaining tariff-free access to the market of close to 500 million people, but opened the possibility for future discussions.
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French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy has pledged to take revenge on the US if Donald Trump withdraws American support for the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change.

The pact was agreed by 195 nations in December 2015 and aims to limit global warming to no more than 2C. But Donald Trump has promised to withdraw American support for the agreement and said he believes global warming is a hoax invented by the Chinese to damage US trade.

Mr Sarkozy, who was president of France from 2007 to 2012 and is now seeking to become his partys candidate in next years presidential election, called for Europe to impose a 1-3 per cent carbon tax on American imports if Mr Trump sticks to his pledge.

 Climate change: It's "game over" for planet earth

He told French TV station TF1: "Donald Trump has said  well see if he keeps this promise  that he wont respect the conclusions of the Paris climate agreement.

Well, I will demand that Europe put in place a carbon tax at its border, a tax of 1-3 per cent, for all products coming from the United States, if the United States doesnt apply environmental rules that we are imposing on our companies.

Europe could no longer be weak or naive, he added while calling for countries to use more products and materials made in European states.

Mr Sarkozy is battling former French prime minister Alain Juppe for the nomination of the centre-right Republicans Party.

Current opinion polls suggests the final round of the presidential election is likely to see either Mr Sarkozy or Mr Juppe go head-to-head with far right Front National leader Marine Le Pen, with current president Francois Hollande set to lose out.

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

Reports in recent days have suggested Mr Trump is seeking the quickest possible means to extract the US from its obligations under the Paris Agreement and wants to bypass the four-year procedure for leaving the accord.

The President-elect is also reported to be considering making oil industry executive Forrest Lucas his Interior Secretary and has already appointed a climate change sceptic, Myron Ebell, as director of the US Center for Energy and Environment.

Climate negotiators are meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco, this week to try to agree on how the Paris Agreement will be implemented.
ELKO  November is National Adoption Month and according to District Court Judge Nancy Porter there are 100,000 foster children in the country waiting for adoptive families.

Like the rest of the nation, Elko County is in need of more adoptive and foster parents. In an effort to bring awareness to the issue, Porter assembled the Court Improvement Council three years ago and its yearly event, Celebrating Families Through Adoption, will be held Friday at the Elko Indian Colony Gymnasium.

The purpose of the event is to celebrate adoptions and bring awareness to the needs specific to the Elko area. Currently there are 93 children in foster care in the county.

There are different paths to adoption and foster care, and the Court Improvement Council has gathered professionals and community members to help get out the word.

Court Appointed Special Advocates Director Alana McKinney explained how the council hopes to increase awareness.

We have a lot of projects that we do, but our big project for Elko County is National Adoption Day. Were trying to one, increase the number of foster homes, and bring awareness to adoptions. People need to get involved because all these kids linger if theres not an adoptive foster home, said McKinney. Theres private adoptions, and theres also through the foster care system. You can become a foster parent and then thats the route to become an adoptive parent also.

The council has stressed there is a need for forever homes for local children when reunification with the parent is not possible. Porter also noted that being a rural area can have its challenges, particularly for foster children.

In terms of foster families, we dont have enough foster families in Elko. I think thats probably a problem clear across the country but part of the problem we have here, being so remote, is that children have to be placed in another community, then they can be hundreds of miles from their parents, said Porter. So thats a unique problem to this area and thats one of the things were trying to raise awareness of through adoption days and the need for more foster families as well.

Another option for children in need of forever homes is through private adoption. Premier Adoption is the only local adoption agency in Northern Nevada and one of the main sponsors of the upcoming event.

The private adoption route is very different, said Teri Lockie of Premier Adoption. I deal with private adoptions. I deal mainly with infants; we have an occasional toddler.

Thats the difference in private adoptions as well. Now we encourage open adoption and probably 95 percent of our cases are semi-open adoption, said Lockie.

Last year through private adoption, Lockie placed 40 children and has placed 38 so far this year.

This years event will celebrate anyone touched by adoption or foster care. Local agencies that deal with adoption and foster care will be present to give out information to prospective adoptive or foster families. There will be numerous local sponsors and family oriented activities including a photo booth, games and a bounce house.

According to Porter, the community seems to be getting on board with this event and taking more of an interest.

We did have some good results last year. There were five new adoptions, and one new foster family shortly after Adoption Day, so we felt we got our message out somewhat, said Porter.

Celebrating Families Through Adoption will run from 4:30-7 p.m. For more information about the event or to become an adoptive or foster family contact Teri Lockie at 340-0667 or Lori Nichols at 888-426-2659.
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They are nationalist, anti-establishment, Eurosceptic  and delighted by Donald Trumps victory.

In many European countries, outsider parties have seen a surge in support for their populist, often controversial campaigns.

Here are the radical right-wing and centrist candidates hoping to seize power in forthcoming elections.

Norbert Hofer

Freedom Party presidential candidate Norbert Hofer at a rally in May (Getty) (Getty Images)

Norbert Hofer, of Austrias Freedom Party, has recommended the public arm themselves with guns as a logical reaction to the refugee crisis.

He is standing against former Green Party politician Alexander Van der Bellen in a presidential election rerun on 4 December.

It is likely to be a close call: in July, when they last went head to head, Mr Van der Bellen won by less than half a percentage point.

The election is being held again after Mr Hofers Freedom Party  founded in 1956 by former Nazis  challenged the result, saying postal votes had been improperly handled.

Mr Hofer, 45, is a former aeronautical engineer who is said to have carried a Glock pistol with him on the campaign trail.

Those who do not value our country, who fight for Islamic State, or who rape women, I say to these people: this is not your homeland. You cannot stay in Austria, Mr Hofer told supporters in Vienna earlier this year.

Marine Le Pen

Marine Le Pen is the daughter of National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen (Getty) (AFP/Getty Images)

What happened last night was not the end of the world, it was the end of a world, said Marine Le Pen as she congratulated Donald Trump the morning after his surprise victory.

The 48-year-old lawyer and leader of Frances National Front came third in the 2012 election with 17.9 per cent of the vote  the highest result ever achieved by the party in a presidential election.

She told the BBCs Andrew Marr she will become Frances next president when the country votes in May in the third part of a global revolution after Brexit and Donald Trumps election.

The Eurosceptic politician has said she would pull France out of Nato and in 2011 said marine border patrols should push migrants who want to come to Europe back into international waters.

Ms Le Pen is the daughter of National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, who reached the second round of the French elections in 2002 but was beaten in a landslide victory by Jacques Chirac.

She expelled her father from the party last year after he described the gas chambers used in the Holocaust as a historical detail, sparking a vicious public family feud.

Geert Wilders

Geert Wilders is currently on trial for allegedly inciting hatred against Dutch Moroccans (Getty) (ROBERT MICHAEL/AFP/Getty Images)

Overtly anti-Islam Dutch politician Geert Wilders hailed Mr Trumps victory as the beginning of a Patriotic Spring.

Mr Wilderss nationalist Party for Freedom, founded in 2006, is currently topping opinion polls ahead of parliamentary elections in the Netherlands next March.

The 53-year-old has provoked international condemnation for comparing the Koran to Mein Kampf and campaigning to have it banned.

He is currently on trial for allegedly inciting hatred against Dutch Moroccans, having been acquitted of hate charges five years ago after he made anti-Islam remarks.

Prosecutors say Mr Wilders asked supporters at a 2014 rally whether they wanted more or fewer Moroccans living in the Netherlands. When the crowd began to chant Fewer! Fewer! he said: Well take care of that.

Since 2004, he has lived under 24-hour protection after the murder of controversial filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who, like Mr Wilders, had made films criticising Islam.

Frauke Petry

Frauke Petry has compared multiculturalism to a 'compost heap' (Getty) (Getty Images)

Frauke Petry, 41, is chair of Alternative for Germany (AfD), a populist, anti-EU party founded in 2013 that could be Germanys most significant right-wing force since the Thirties.

Since becoming party leader in July last year, Ms Petry has compared multiculturalism to a compost heap and said border police should use firearms if necessary when dealing with refugees.

The former chemist and small business owner was born in east Germany and studied chemistry at the University of Reading.

AfD gained ground in regional elections this year and the party, which opposes Angela Merkels open-door refugee policy, has set its sights on next Septembers parliamentary elections.

Islam is not part of Germany, said its first formal national election manifesto, approved by party delegates in May, which called for a ban on minarets and the burqa.

A recent poll found the AfD would win 16 per cent of votes if the elections were held that week amid warnings the growing success of Ms Fraukes party, which has links to extreme-right group Pegida, could pull mainstream parties to the right.

Jimmie Akesson

Jimmie Akesson, chairman of the Sweden Democrats (Getty Images)

Jimmie Akessons anti-immigration Sweden Democrats became the countrys third largest party when it gained 29 seats in Swedens most recent general election in 2014.

Swedes wont go to the polls again 2018, but while the party remains on the political fringes, debates have been sparked in the two main parties over whether they will cooperate with it to push through policy in parliament.

Two weeks ago, the nationalist party organised a controversial alternative Nobel Prize ceremony at a five-star hotel in Stockholm. In attendence was Nigel Farage, the Ukip interim leader who was the first foreign politician to meet Mr Trump after his election.

Mr Akesson, 37, worked as a web designer before he joined politics and became leader of the Sweden Democrats, which has white supremacist roots, in 2005.

He has advocated an international campaign to warn refugees not to come to Sweden, and has said he doesnt want the country to be a full member of the EU.

A Swedish radio station revealed in 2014 that Mr Akesson had spent more than 500,000 kronor (43,927) on online betting  more than he would have earned in a whole year, according to news website The Local.

Andrej Babis

Multi-millionaire Andrej Babis (Getty) (AFP/Getty)

Billionaire and media mogul Andrej Babis, who is the Czech Republics current finance minister, has been dubbed the Czech Donald Trump.

He started the centrist ANO, which stands for Action of Dissatisfied Citizens in Czech, as an anti-corruption protest movement in 2011 and it became an official political party the following year.

Mr Babis, 62, is the second richest man in the Czech Republic.

In September he was forced to apologise over comments denying the existence of a Second World War concentration camp for Roma people.

In regional elections last month, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotkas centre-left Social Democrats came second behind its coalition partner ANO.

ANO has consistently polled as the favourite to win the Czech Republics general election next October.

Beppe Grillo

Beppe Grillo says his Five Star Movement is neither left nor right wing (Getty) (Getty Images)

Another anti-establishment movement making waves in mainstream politics is Italys populist Five Star Movement, formed in 2009 by TV comedian Beppe Grillo.

Supporters of the eurosceptic, environmentalist movement reject its inclusion in any traditional understanding of left- and right-wing political parties.

Political amateurs are conquering the world, Mr Grillo, 68, told Euronews yesterday.

Mr Grillo, who keeps a lively blog, called Mr Trump a corn cob and was critical of some his policies, but said his victory showed the power of alternative media and was an extraordinary turning point.

With Trump, exactly the same thing has happened as with my Five Star Movement, which was born of the internet: the media were taken aback and asked us where we were before, he said.

The Five Star Movement has won two key mayoral seats in Rome and Turin this year and experts believe a referendum next month could open the door to an eventual Five Star Movement government.

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

On 4 December, Italy will vote on Prime Minister Matteo Renzis plan to strip the upper house of parliament of its power to bring down governments, slashing the number of senators by two-thirds. Mr Renzi has promised to resign if he loses.

The next general election is in 2018, and recent polls predict extremely tight race between pro-Europe and eurosceptic parties.
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Women fleeing Isis have set fire to their black clothes and hung them up on the fencing of a refugee camp in a show of defiance and freedom.

Dozens, after escaping the under-siege Daesh stronghold of Mosul, in Iraq have reportedly pinned burqas and niqabs on the barbed wire perimeter surrounding Khazar refugee camp in Hasan Sham village.

The women, now wearing their more colourful clothes for the first time in two years, have spoken of their relief.

Recommended Syrian women burn burqas after being freed from Isis

I managed to hide a mobile phone in a hole I made on the floor of my bedroom, said Hana, speaking to journalist Francesca Mannocchi for Alaraby, from the United Nations Hasan Sham camp in northern Iraq.

I knew I was risking a lot. Everything was forbidden: television, phones, any form of communication with the outside world.

IS [Isis] did not want us to know what was happening beyond their control.

In pictures: Mosul offensive Show all 40 1 /40 In pictures: Mosul offensive In pictures: Mosul offensive A doctor carries an Iraqi newborn baby at a hospital in Mosul, Iraq July 18, 2017. Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi girls play at a yard of a school in Mosul, Iraq July 18, 2017alal Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive A woman on crutches who is a relative of men accused of being Islamic State militants is seen at a camp in Bartella, east of Mosul, Iraq July 15, 2017. Picture taken July 15, 2017. Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive A displaced girl, who fled from home carries a doll at Hamam al-Alil camp south of Mosul, Iraq July 13, 2017. Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi federal police members and civilians celebrate in the Old City of Mosul on 9 July 2017 after the government's announcement of the "liberation" of the embattled city. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's office said he was in "liberated" Mosul to congratulate "the heroic fighters and the Iraqi people on the achievement of the major victory" AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive A picture taken on 9 July 2017, shows a general view of the destruction in Mosul's Old City. Iraq will announce imminently a final victory in the nearly nine-month offensive to retake Mosul from jihadists, a US general said Saturday, as celebrations broke out among police forces in the city. AFP In pictures: Mosul offensive Members of the Iraqi federal police raise the victory gesture as they ride on a humvee while advancing through the Old City of Mosul on 28 June 2017, as the offensive continues to retake the last district held by Islamic State (IS) group fighters. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Smoke billows as Iraqi forces advance through the Old City of Mosul on 26 June 2017, during the ongoing offensive to retake the last district held by the Islamic State (IS) group. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi man wearing the green scarf of the Shi'ite faith kisses an Iraqi Army soldier on safely reaching the Iraqi forces position as Iraqi civilians flee the Old City of west Mosul where heavy fighting continues on 23 June 2017. Iraqi forces continue to encounter stiff resistance with improvised explosive devices, car bombs, heavy mortar fire and snipers hampering their advance. Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive A picture taken from the inside of an Iraqi forces armoured vehicle shows residents walking through a damaged street as troops advance towards Mosul's Old City on 18 June 2017, during the ongoing offensive to retake the last district still held by the Islamic State (IS) group. Military commanders told AFP the assault had begun at dawn after overnight air strikes by the US-led coalition backing Iraqi forces. They said the jihadists were putting up fierce resistance. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi Army soldiers advance in a destroyed street after an Iraqi forces airstrike targeted an Islamic State sniper position 17 June 2017 in al-Shifa, the last district of west Mosul under Islamic State control. IS snipers, as well as car and suicide bomb attacks continue to hinder the Iraqi forces efforts to retake the final district. A series of airstrikes by Iraqi helicopter gunships attempted to hit multiple Islamic State sniper positions in al-Shifa. Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi soldier frisks a displaced Iraqi man at a temporary camp in the compound of the closed Nineveh International Hotel in Mosul on 16 June 2017 which was recovered by Iraqi troops from Islamic State group fighters earlier in the year. A screening centre set up in the compound's fairgrounds sees a constant stream of Iraqis fleeing the battle for Mosul, awaiting their turn to be checked by the Iraqi forces who are searching for suspected Islamic State (IS) group members. The small fairground lies at the end of a pontoon bridge across the Tigris recently opened to civilians that is the only physical link between the two banks of the river. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqis staying at the al-Khazir camp swim in a river near the camp for internally displaced people, located between Arbil and Mosul on 11 June 2017. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi government forces drive on a road leading to Tal Afar on 9 June 2017, during ongoing battles to retake the city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi policeman carries a poster bearing an image of Mosul's iconic leaning minaret, known as the "Hadba" (Hunchback), on 22 June 2017. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqis stand in line to receive food aid in western Mosul's Zanjili neighbourhood on 7 June 2017, during ongoing battles as Iraqi forces try to retake the city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters. Living conditions in Mosul have again deteriorated since the start of the Iraqi government's offensive on the city in October in which they retook a large part of the west of the city. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Displaced Iraqis carry lightbulbs and sacks as they evacuate from western Mosul's Zanjili neighbourhood as government forces advance in the area during their ongoing battle against Islamic State (IS) group fighters on 13 May 2017 AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive A member of the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) flashes the victory gesture as he patrols in western Mosul's al-Islah al-Zaraye neighbourhood on 13 May 2017 AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi army soldiers from the 9th armoured division on a truck flash the sign of victory as they drive back from Mosul to the town of Qaraqosh (also known as Hamdaniya) Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Members of Iraqi forces flash the sign of victory on their vehicle as they advance towards Hammam al-Alil area south of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive A member of Iraqi security forces gestures in Hammam al-Alil, south of Mosul, Iraq Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi children, one flashing the sign of victory, greet Iraqi army's soldiers from the 9th armoured division in the area of Ali Rash, adjacent to the eastern Al-Intissar neighbourhood of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Peshmerga forces look at a tunnel used by Islamic State militants near the town of Bashiqa, east of Mosul, during an operation to attack Islamic State militants in Mosul, Iraq Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi soldier takes a photograph with his phone as his comrade stands next to a detained man, whom the Iraqi army soldiers accused of being an Islamic State fighter, who was fleeing with his family in the Intisar disrict of eastern Mosul, Iraq Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive Iranian Kurdish female members of the Freedom Party of Kurdistan (PAK) hold a position in an area near the town of Bashiqa, some 25 kilometres north east of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi families, who fled their homes in Hamam al-Alil, gather on the outskirts of their town Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Displaced people walk past a checkpoint near Qayara, south of Mosul, Iraq AP In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi families who were displaced by the ongoing operation by Iraqi forces against jihadists of the Islamic State group to retake the city of Mosul, are seen gathering in an area near Qayyarah In pictures: Mosul offensive A boy who just fled Abu Jarbuah village is seen with his family at a Kurdish Peshmerga position between two front lines near Bashiqa, east of Mosul, Iraq Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi child eats a pomegranate upon the arrival of Iraqi forces in the village of Umm Mahahir, south of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive People who just fled Abu Jarbuah village sit as they eat at a Kurdish Peshmerga position between two front lines near Bashiqa, east of Mosul, Iraq Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive A couple who just fled Abu Jarbuah village are escorted by Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive Women carry a boy over a wall as civilians flee their houses in the village of Tob Zawa, Iraq AP In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi soldier and a civilian ride a motorbike as smoke rises behind them, on the road between Qayyarah and Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive A member of Iraqi forces, wearing a skull mask, waits at a checkpoint for people fleeing the main hub city of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi soldier sits at a checkpoint in an area near Qayyarah Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi men prepare food portions for Iraqi forces deployed in areas south of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi forces celebrate upon the arrival of vehicles bringing food to them Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi childen smoke cigarettes upon the arrival of Iraqi forces in the village of Umm Mahahir, south of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive A member of Iraqi forces distributes drinks to children in the village of Umm Mahahir, south of Mosul Getty

In the last few days I thought I would die. There was no more food, no electricity, even water was scarce.

We knew that staying in Gogjali (in eastern Mosul) was terrible but we also knew that escaping was dangerous too. We have heard that many civilians have been punished because IS found them while fleeing.

 Iraqi forces enter Mosul

An Iraq soldier from Mosul was reunited by chance with his mother who was fleeing Isis and Isis reportedly shot 40 civilians dead in Mosul as allied soldiers closed in.

Hana, who threw her burqa on the fence and now wears a turquoise scarf, added: For two years I have almost never left my house. I could go out only when accompanied by an immediate relative.

They [Isis] do not want citizens. They are looking for soldiers only willing to die.

The Iranian Students News Agency claimed some women set fire to their black dresses.
More than a quarter-century ago, in another election year, the Los Angeles Dodgers star Kirk Gibson hit a walk-off home run in the first game of the World Series. In a year that has been so improbable, the Dodgers iconic announcer Vin Scully said in an unforgettable television riff in the fall of 1988, the impossible has happened.

So it was Tuesday night, when Manhattan businessman Donald J. Trump  a political outsider, possessed of daunting ambition, audacity and an acute sense of the American political climate  emerged as the winner of a raucous presidential election.

An American original  a casino and real estate magnate with an uncanny ability to read the public mood and an unerring ability to discern his rivals vulnerabilities  Trump now takes on his biggest task.

From the start, Trump bellowed that he was determined to make America great again, a theme that was ridiculed by his rivals even as it helped him triumph over them. Today, as president-elect, he must redeem great hopes, even as his election stirred great misgivings among American allies abroad and among about half the nation that voted for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Even had Trump not prevailed Tuesday, he fashioned a remarkable accomplishment, skewing the political calculus, upending all the assumptions of American political life, reshaping the profiles of the two major political parties and altering all the conventions of political comportment.

In defeat, he would have been an important factor in shaping American politics for the rest of the decade and into the next. In triumph, he is a formidable, historic figure.

Sometimes vulgar, always voluble, Trump ran against the political establishment of the Republican Party, against the customs of political life, and against the principal elements of American life  big companies, big media, above all big traditions. He took on the banks, the government bureaucracy, the influence of capital lobbyists, and the prevailing ethos of establishment politics.

When Trump enters the White House in January, he will do so as perhaps the biggest outsider in American history, more than Ronald Reagan, maybe more even than Andrew Jackson in 1828. But like Jackson, who transformed American politics by harnessing the resentments of those outside the political mainstream, Trump has redrawn the contours of politics.

But he also redrew the rules of politics. When he began his campaign, no business executive  not even the automobile executive Lee Iacocca  had been a plausible presidential candidate since Wendell Willkie, who won the Republican nomination in 1940 but lost the election to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. When he began his campaign, searing personal attacks were regarded as beyond the pale, especially among Republicans. When he began his campaign, Republicans had little credibility in blue-collar circles. The GOP was the province of a tightly defined and tightly controlled establishment.

None of that is true today  and all of that is the reason that Trump is preparing to be the 45th president of the United States.

He had the perfect foil in Clinton, a onetime student activist who ran as an insider, an establishment figure without the natural ebullience, or the natural anger, of Trump. The president-elect was able to portray her as the preternatural personification of the status quo  in a year where status was derided, and where politics-as-usual was held in contempt.

In winning one of the wildest, least predictable presidential elections of the age, Trump prevailed despite a fusillade of complaints about his conduct with women; repeated stories detailing irregular business practices; an unusual number of party apostates who declared they would never vote for him; and criticism that he hadnt paid federal income taxes for about two decades.

His election was predicted by almost no one, but his rise as a legitimate Republican candidate was just as unlikely. The GOP had a presidential field of 17 candidates, some of them rising stars, some established figures, some intriguing outsiders. But from the start Trump muscled himself into the center of attention and then used that position to attract even more notoriety. By the time Americans flocked to the polls Tuesday morning, Trump was the underdog  but, still, the big dog in the race.

Indeed, just as Trump made Clintons ethics a major part of his appeal, Clinton made Trumps behavior, especially toward women, a principal part of her campaign. But Trump early identified the signal issues that would move voters and send battleground states into his column. Never before had a Republican made immigration and trade the leitmotif of a presidential campaign, but then again, there never had been a presidential campaign remotely like Trumps.

The election laid bare the countrys raw divisions of race, class and creed. Russia, Mexico and NATO look to America warily. Afghanistan and Iraq are unsettled, ISIS is not conquered. Obamacares future is uncertain.

Id like to think there will be sufficient numbers of people in the Congress willing to cooperate and get some things done, Michael S. Dukakis, the Democrats 1988 presidential nominee, said in an interview.

Trump has had teams working for weeks on the transition, but in fact part of the transition is personal  his transition from candidate to president-elect, from what former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo of New York used to call the poetry of campaigning to the prose of governing, from critic without responsibility to what John F. Kennedy, in the mortifying wake of the Bay of Pigs fiasco of 1961, called the responsible officer of the government.

Now, flush with victory but facing fearsome responsibility, his first task is to calibrate his ambition. If you choose too ambitious an agenda, youll likely be called a failure, said John H. Sununu, chief of staff for George H.W. Bush. But if its not ambitious enough, youll be seen as a lightweight. You have to hit the sweet spot.

With instinct and intuition for the sweet spot, Trump first won the Republican primary, then prevailed in the general election  and now is poised to create his own White House staff and executive-branch administration. Each step along the way was improbable, even considered impossible.

No longer. The man who vowed to make America great again now faces great challenges. But against all the experts and all the expectations he fashioned a great upset, a great comeback and a great achievement.
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A year after the deadly 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris on 13 November and France is still grappling with its relationship with its minorities.

After it emerged that some of those who carried out the attacks were French nationals, many renewed longstanding criticisms that the outdated French republican model of integration and citizenship might be broken. The models objective was to achieve the integration of nationals  Bretons, Corsicans and others  and viewed from this historical perspective, it has proven to be somewhat successful. Most of these groups now feel French, and their cultural heritage and languages are recognised as part of French identity.

But the model was not designed to integrate the diverse range of groups in contemporary France. Instead, it serves to make minorities, and the difficulties they face in French society, almost invisible.

An outdated legal system

The French states policy rejects any references to national, racial, ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities. This model is based on the idea that the state should interact with the individual only, not communities or groups, in order to give equal treatment to everyone. Absolute equality is seen as the best way to ensure the integration of all citizens, to the benefit of both the state and the citizens themselves.

As a result, French authorities have rejected any form of targeted measures for ethnic, religious or linguistic groups. In practise this has rendered minorities invisible and brought systemic forms of discrimination.

Legally, the constitutional principle of equality has been interpreted as prohibiting the government from collecting data or statistics on the racial, ethnic or religious backgrounds of its citizens, in any context. This means for example that the socioeconomic status of groups across any indicators based on racial, ethnic, religious or other grounds is unknown, and that the national census does not include any questions about race or ethnicity.

A 1978 law regarding data files, processing and individual liberties explicitly prohibits the collection and processing of personal data that reveals, directly or indirectly, the racial and ethnic origins, or religion, of any persons.

In practise, there is a dual impact of this prohibition. First, it means that no statistics exist regarding ethnic or religious discrimination, or discrimination on related grounds. Second, it has also been translated by courts and other institutions into rules which prohibit any forms of religious affiliation in the public sphere. It is under this absolute approach to equality and neutrality that the wearing of religious symbols has been prohibited.

Despite the lack of data, some groups feel they are being discriminated against, notably Muslims, black French and Roma populations.

Relatives of Bouna Traore who died in an incident which sparked the 2005 Paris riots, inaugurate a street sign ten years later (EPA)

The level of discrimination against Muslims or other groups is hard to judge in reality, since, these are invisible in the statistics and official rhetoric of the country. While criminal law prohibits public incitement to hatred, there is a lack of a proper legal system to report and punish hate speech which largely remains unreported.

Following the terrorist attacks of 2015, this lack of hate speech monitoring was addressed by the government which launched a large programme to monitor hate speech.. But in general, there is a lack of data regarding ethnic and religious markers. As a result, anti-discrimination policies refer instead to the banlieues (suburbs) or immigrants, even when the concerned populations might be third or fourth generation French citizens.

The lack of proper demographic statistics has often led to unofficial numbers filling the gap, such as the claim that there are 5 million Muslims in France. In reality, these figures are often based on the notion that descendants of people who have migrated from the Maghreb and North Africa are Muslims, creating an amalgamation between individual descendants from immigration and Muslims. Not only does the rejection of racial, ethnic, religious or linguistic data in the name of equality make minorities invisible, it also entraps them into other categorisations that paradoxically render them outsiders to the French process of equal citizenship.

France needs more fraternity

The historical weight of the 1789 French revolution and its approach to citizenship cannot be underestimated in todays political and legal landscape. The absolute nature of equality is part of this legacy, with equality seen as the overarching principle in the constitutional edifice. This has been protected and enforced by the Constitutional Court on many occasions. For example, in 1999 the court decided that ratifying the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages would be unconstitutional on grounds of absolute equality, effectively barring the introduction of any form of minority rights into the French legal system.

But we argue that another founding principle, that of fraternity, could be used to counterbalance the negative effects of this strict interpretation of the law regarding equality. Of the three terms in Frances famous constitutional maxim, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, the legal significance of fraternity is the least understood. From a legal perspective, its definition has always been problematic, and as our new research has highlighted, it is unquestionably the weak link in the trilogy.

But a more flexible interpretation of the term fraternity may make it possible to recognise minority rights within the French Republican model  without going against the existing bloc de constitutionnalite, which comprises all the fundamental constitutional values of the country. So far, the dominant focus on equality has meant a rejection of data collected on origin, race or religion. Arguably, a focus on fraternity, which is also one of the fundamental constitutional values, could allow a much more flexible and encompassing approach to diversity within the country, and play an important role in diffusing the tensions that have been developing over the last few years.

France is a long way off making this legal connection between fraternity and minority rights. But in India, the supreme court has interpreted fraternity, a term introduced into the preamble of its 1950 Constitution by BR Ambedkar, as engaging minority rights to counteract caste-based discrimination and inequalities. Ambedkar believed that without fraternity, equality and liberty will be no deeper than coats of paint.

France needs a new legal approach to its model of republican citizenship that would allow its minorities to feel much more integrated, respected, and protected by the legal system. This has to begin with identifying who those minorities are, on the basis of race, religion, language or related grounds  a message increasingly being relayed by French minority advocacy groups. The dormant constitutional principle of fraternity might hold the legal key to realising such a new departure.

This article first appeared on The Conversation (theconversation.com). Jeremie Gilbert is a professor of international and comparative law, at the University of East London and David Keane is an associate professor in law, at Middlesex University
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A top Isis commander in Afghanistan has called the President-elect Donald Trump a complete maniac and said his utter hate towards Muslims will make it much easier" to recruit thousands more supporters.

Mr Trump was widely condemned for his call, shortly after the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015, to temporarily ban all Muslims from entering the United States until he figured out "what the hell was going on".

The Republican and his allies have consistently defended the ban, insisting the measure was about Americans "safety" and not about discriminating against religion.

 Trump: We're going to deport millions

Mr Trump has since toned down his call for the ban saying he would temporarily suspend immigration from countries that have "a history of exporting terrorism".

But Taliban commanders and Islamic State supporters have said the rhetoric Mr Trump used during his campaign will help their recruitment efforts, especially among disaffected young people in the West.

"This guy is a complete maniac. His utter hate towards Muslims will make our job much easier because we can recruit thousands," Abu Omar Khorasani, a top Isis commander in Afghanistan, told Reuters.

"Our leaders were closely following the US election but it was unexpected that the Americans will dig their own graves and they did so," Khorasani continued, describing President Barack Obama as a moderate infidel with a little more intelligence than Mr Trump.

A senior Taliban commander in Afghanistan said the group had kept track of Mr Trump's speeches and anti-Muslim comments: "If he does what he warned in his election campaign, I am sure it will provoke Muslim Ummah [community] across the world and jihadi organisations can exploit it."

Al-Qaeda, which launched the 11 September attacks on New York and the Pentagon, has not yet commented on Mr Trump's win.

However, Hisham al Hashimi an adviser to the Iraqi government on Sunni jihadist movements, told Reuters that "Al-Qaeda is known for its recruitment strategy that heavily quotes speeches of the White House and other Western officials.

Iraq's powerful Shia Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said in a statement: "He [Donald Trump] does not differentiate between extremist and moderate Islamist trends and, at the same time, he overlooks [the fact] that his extremism will generate extremism in return.

President Trump protests Show all 20 1 /20 President Trump protests President Trump protests Patrons hold a sign as people march by while protesting the election of Republican Donald Trump as the president of the United States in downtown Los Angeles, California Reuters President Trump protests Demonstrators rally following the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States, in Oakland, California Reuters President Trump protests Demonstrators march following the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States Reuters President Trump protests Thousands of protesters rallied across the United States expressing shock and anger over Donald Trump's election, vowing to oppose divisive views they say helped the Republican billionaire win the presidency AFP/Getty Images President Trump protests Demonstrators protest outside the Chicago Theatre in Chicago, Illinois Getty President Trump protests A police officer aims a launcher after demonstrators threw projectiles toward a line of officers during a demonstration in Oakland, California Reuters President Trump protests An officer examines a vandalized police vehicle as demonstrators riot in Oakland, California Reuters President Trump protests Demonstrators take over the Hollywood 101 Freeway just north of Los Angeles City Hall in protest against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States Reuters President Trump protests A woman holds up a sign reading 'Trump you are an Idiot' as demonstrators gather during a protest against President-elect Donald Trump outside the City Hall building in Los Angeles, California EPA President Trump protests A masked demonstrator gestures toward a police line during a demonstration in Oakland, California Reuters President Trump protests Demonstrators protest against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States, near the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Las Vegas, Nevada Reuters President Trump protests Musician Lagy Gaga stages a protest against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on a sanitation truck outside Trump Tower in New York City Getty President Trump protests A woman yells as she takes part in a protest against President-elect Donald Trump in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood AP President Trump protests A man dressed in red-white-and-blue sits on the curb during a protest against President-elect Donald Trump in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood AP President Trump protests A protester sets off fireworks during a protest against President-elect Donald Trumpin Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood AP President Trump protests University of California, Davis students protest on campus in Davis, California, U.S. following the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States Reuters President Trump protests An Oakland police officer checks out damage after a window was broken by protesters at a car dealership in downtown Oakland, Calif AP President Trump protests A protester faces a police line in downtown Oakland, Calif AP President Trump protests President-elect Donald Trumpis victory set off multiple protests AP President Trump protests A fire burns during protests in Oakland, Calif AP

The President-elect vocalised his tough stance on Islamic militants during his campaign, vowing to defeat "radical Islam just as we won the Cold War". However, he has failed to give extensive details on his plans to combat jihadist groups.

The US saw a number of attacks inspired by Islamic militants during Mr Trump's presidential campaign, including the killing of 14 people in December 2015 in San Bernardino, California by Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik, who allegedly pledged allegiance to Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and the June massacre of 49 people in an Orlando nightclub by a gunman who made a phone call before the attack saying, "I pledge my allegiance to [Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi] of the Islamic State.

Officials have warned the US is likely to face similar attacks as Isis calls on its supporters to launch attacks at home rather than making the journey to the Middle East.

Mr Trump's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the statements from the militants.

Even if the President-elect tones down his anti-Muslim comments when he takes office in January, analysts say his statements during the campaign were enough to fuel the militants' propaganda machine.

"Militants will still use those quotes," said Matthew Henman, head of IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Centre. "The key thing militant groups, particularly Islamic State and al-Qaeda, depend on for recruitment purposes is convincing Muslims in the Western world that the West hates them and won't ever accept them as part of their society."
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A luxury double room in four-star hotel in Kensington for only 5 more than twin bunk beds in a nearby backpackers hostel: one consequence of the slump in hotel occupancy and rates for London since the EU referendum.

Sterling has fallen by more than 10 per cent against the euro and dollar since the vote in June to leave the EU, which should make the UK more attractive to foreign tourists  but bookings for London, the engine for UK tourism, have plummeted.

Preliminary figures from the global hotel data firm STR, analysed by The Independent, show that the number of empty hotel beds in the capital increased by more than one-third in October compared with a year earlier. Average rates fell by 7.7 per cent to below 150.

The four-star Copthorne Millennium Hotel in Kensington is selling double rooms for next Sunday night for 87  only 5 more than a basic room with twin bunk beds room at the nearby Safestay hostel in Holland Park. The London-wide occupancy rate in October was 85 per cent, down from 89 per cent the year before. It is the lowest figure for the month since 2008, when the financial crisis began. The falls in October are the steepest for the month since 2001.

Analysts for STR reported that demand fell across both weekday and weekend business. Weekday guests tend to be on business, while weekends are more dependent on leisure travellers. The main metric used by the hospitality industry for assessing performance is revenue per available room (RevPAR), which fell by 11.4 per cent last month compared with the previous year.

 Simon Calder explains the travel consequences of a Trump victory

Outside London, occupancy fell slightly  down 1.4 per cent to 79.7 per cent  but was outweighed by a 1.9 per cent rise in average the rate to 72.16.

Since the 2012 Olympics, the number of international visitors to London has risen by one-fifth. Last year the capital was visited by 36.1m tourists, slightly more than half of them from overseas. Average tourist spending in the city amounts to 1,000 per person. A spokesperson for the capitals promotional body, London & Partners, said: We are working closely with the Mayors office to promote London as the most open and welcoming city in the world. The latest forecasts by London & Partners suggest that London tourism will see stronger long-term growth, with 22.4million overseas tourists predicted to come to the capital by 2020.

Brexit Concerns Show all 26 1 /26 Brexit Concerns Brexit Concerns Brexit will put British patients at 'back of the queue' for new drugs Brexit will put British patients at the back of the queue for vital new drugs, the Government has been warned  forcing them to wait up to two years longer A medicines regulator has raised the alarm over a likely decision to pull out of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), as well as the EU itself. ealth Secretary Jeremy Hunt dropped the bombshell , when he said he expected the UK would quit the EMA  because it is subject to rulings by the European Court of Justice. Getty Images Brexit Concerns London to lose status as 'gateway to Europe' for banks One of Germanys top banking regulators has warned that London could lose its status as gateway to Europe for the banking sector after Britain quits the European trading bloc. Andreas Dombret, who is an executive board member for the BundesbankGermanys central banktold a private meeting of German businesses and banks earlier this week in Frankfurt that even if banking rules were equivalent between the UK and the rest of the EU, that was still miles away from [Britain having] access to the single market, the BBC reports. Jason Hawkes Brexit Concerns Exodus The number of financial sector professionals in Britain and continental Europe looking for jobs in Ireland rocketed in the months after the UK voted to leave the European Union Shutterstock Brexit Concerns Brexit is making FTSE 100 executives richer Pay packages of many FTSE 100 chief executive officers are partly tied to how well share prices are doing rather than the CEOs performance -- and some stocks are soaring. ritish equities got a boost since the June vote because the likes of Rio Tinto, Smiths Group and WPP generate most sales abroad and earn a fortune when they convert these revenues back into the weakened pound. Sterlings fall also made UK stocks more affordable for overseas investors. Rex Brexit Concerns Theresa May: UK to leave single market Theresa May has said the UK "cannot possibly" remain within the European single market, as staying in it would mean "not leaving the EU at all". Getty Brexit Concerns Lead campaigner Gina Miller and her team outside the High Court Getty Brexit Concerns Raymond McCord holds up his newly issued Irish passport alongside his British passport outside the High Court in Belfast following a judges dismissal of the UK's first legal challenges to Brexit PA wire Brexit Concerns SDLP leader Colum Eastwood leaving the High Court in Belfast following a judges dismissal of the UK's first legal challenges to Brexit PA wire Brexit Concerns Migrants with luggage walk past a graffiti on a wall as they leave the 'Jungle' migrant camp, as part of a major three-day operation planned to clear the camp in Calais Getty Brexit Concerns Migrants leave messages on their tents in the Jungle migrant camp Getty Brexit Concerns The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (Adra) which distributes approximately 700 meals daily in the northern Paris camp states that it is noticing a spike in new migrant arrivals this week, potentially linked the the Calais 'jungle' camp closure - with around 1000 meals distributed today EPA Brexit Concerns Migrant workers pick apples at Stocks Farm in Suckley, Britain Reuters Brexit Concerns Many farmers across the country are voicing concerns that Brexit could be a dangerous step into the unknown for the farming industry Getty Brexit Concerns Bank of England governor Mark Carney who said the long-term outlook for the UK economy is positive, but growth was slowing in the wake of the Brexit vote PA Brexit Concerns The Dow Jones industrial average closed down over 600 points on the news with markets around the globe pluninging Getty Brexit Concerns Immigration officers deal with each member of the public seeking entry into the United Kingdom but on average, 10 a day are refused entry at this London airport and between 2008 and 2009, 33,100 people were detained at the airport for mainly passport irregularities Getty Brexit Concerns A number of global investment giants have threatened to move their European operations out of London if Brexit proves to have a negative impact on their businesses Getty Brexit Concerns Following the possibility of a Brexit the UK would be released from its renewable energy targets under the EU Renewable Energy Directive and from EU state aid restrictions, potentially giving the government more freedom both in the design and phasing out of renewable energy support regimes Getty Brexit Concerns A woman looking at a chart showing the drop in the pound (Sterling) against the US Dollar in London after Britain voted to leave the EU Getty Brexit Concerns Young protesters outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, to protest against the United Kingdom's decision to leave the EU following the referendum Getty Brexit Concerns Applications from Northern Ireland citizens for Irish Passports has soared to a record high after the UK Voted in favour of Leaving the EU Getty Brexit Concerns NFU Vice President Minette Batters with Secretary of State, Andrea Leadsome at the National Farmers Union (NFU) took machinery, produce, farmers and staff to Westminster to encourage Members of Parliament to back British farming, post Brexit Getty Brexit Concerns The latest reports released by the UK Cabinet Office warn that expats would lose a range of specific rights to live, to work and to access pensions, healthcare and public services. The same reports added that UK citizens abroad would not be able to assume that these rights will be guaranteed in the future Getty Brexit Concerns A British resident living in Spain asks questions during an informative Brexit talk by the "Brexpats in Spain" group, about Spanish legal issues to become Spanish citizens, at the town hall in Benalmadena, Spain Reuters Brexit Concerns The collapse of Great Britain appears to have been greatly exaggerated given the late summer crowds visiting city museums, hotels, and other important tourist attractions Getty Brexit Concerns The U.K. should maintain European Union regulations covering everything from working hours to chemicals until after the government sets out its plans for Brexit, said British manufacturers anxious to avoid a policy vacuum and safeguard access to their biggest export market Getty

But a hotel business insider said: You cant make a tourism industry on the fluctuations in the pound.

The number of hotel rooms in the capital continues to increase, with the supply of beds on Airbnb and other peer-to-peer accommodation sites also increasing. But London has been replaced by Amsterdam as the most attractive hotel-investment destination in Europe, according to research by Deloitte. For the past two years, the UK capital has been the favoured location, but the Dutch city has now edged London into second place in a survey of hotel owners, operators, developers and investors.

The Deloitte survey measures long-term confidence in destinations. Slightly more than half (52 per cent) of hotel investors cited geopolitical instability in Europe as their main concern for 2017.

Nikola Reid, director of Deloittes Hospitality Advisory team, attributed Londons relative decline to concerns around supply and uncertainty as to corporate sentiment.

The British Hospitality Association, which represents hoteliers, said much of the domestic tourism industry relies upon workers from other European countries. There are fears that when employment restrictions are put in place, costs may rise. Ufi Ibrahim, chief executive of the BHA, has asked the Government to provide a realistic timeline to reduce the number of EU migrants.

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Donald Trump has announced his plans to put the bad hombres of America back where they belong: somewhere vaguely south of Texas.

Speaking to BCSs 60 Minutes, the President-elect said: What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, probably two million, it could be even three million, we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate. Only when these migrants have been dealt with and the US border is secure with his wall-cum-fence, will he then turn his attention to the remaining estimated 8-11 million immigrants residing in the US without proper papers.

During his campaign Trump launched a one-man vendetta against Americas Latino community  calling Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists, and blaming them for the rise in violent crime across the US. Rolling back ever so slightly on his plans to deport all illegal immigrants, he has now decided to focus the most attention on the type of mean desperados Danny Trejo would play in a Nineties action film.

Trump and Ryan contradict each other over immigratio

Take the rhetoric away, and youre left with an immigration policy that is no worse, and perhaps far more lenient  whether through intent or ignorance of policy  than Barack Obamas. The current President, or Deporter in Chief, as some immigration groups have labelled him, has removed more undocumented migrants than the total sum of presidents in the 20th century.

Notwithstanding the 2012 executive action, and its 2014 extension, that granted deportation relief to undocumented migrants who entered the country before their 16th birthday, and to the parents of legal resident children, Obama deported 2.5 million undocumented migrants between 2009 and 2015. This is despite the support that Latinos gave to his election on the grounds that he would pass immigration reform through Congress.

Obamas administration has come down hard on illegal aliens who pose a threat to national security, border security, and public safety. By 2015, 81 per cent of the Obama removals came from this priority one category.

There is no difference between this policy and the one proposed by Trump. In fact, the Republican may be at a loss to find his imaginary three million gang members. There are 1.9 million removable criminal aliens remaining in the US currently facing deportation under the Obama administration. Where Trump plans on finding the other 1.1 million felons is anyones guess.

Then theres the problem with executing his plans, even if he does find them. Under the Due Process Clause all illegal immigrants are afforded rights under the US Constitution and are entitled to full removal proceedings in court. The president cant deport by edict and since the courts are operating under a major backlog, they wont be deported immediately in a rerun of Eisenhowers Operation Wetback, when hundreds of Mexicans were illegally deported without being given the chance to prove their citizenship.

Even Trumps own party has been charged with taming their leaders remarks  a pattern we should start to get used to. According to House Speaker Paul Ryan: We are not planning on erecting a deportation force, Donald Trumps not planning on that.

Right now Trump has made no further plans to deport other undocumented groups  unlike Obama. Both misdemeanants and new immigrants were marked out as priority two and three categories to face deportation by the latters administration. Since 2008 the number of cases of people being deported for traffic violations has quadrupled and in 2014, 121 migrants, mostly women and children, were deported for recently entering the country.

It doesnt sound like it, but on paper Trumps poorly considered soundbite-inspired immigration policy may be a blessing in a very ugly disguise.
Editor:

My husband and I were traveling from California to our new home in Illinois. We stopped in Elko for a break and went to the Burger King for a drink. I became ill and spent a bit of time in the ladies room. In the confusion that ensued I left my wallet in the restroom.

We continued on our way, thinking that I had just put the wallet somewhere in the car. When we reached St. Louis I figured out that I had left the wallet in Elko. I thought maybe if I called someone would have turned it in.

I searched my phone messages and discovered that Margo Kurtz, an employee of Burger King, had found the wallet. I immediately offered her a reward which she refused.

I decided, however, that she was a wonderful employee, someone that Burger King and the citizens of Elko should know about. There are thousands of people who travel through your town each year and here in your midst is a honest, hardworking, kind person. If you know Margot then you already know of her generosity and kind spirit. I cannot express how relieved it felt to receive my wallet, just as I had left it.

Margo, I wish you a wonderful holiday and know that on Thanksgiving, our family will include you in our list of those we are thankful for.

Sharon Wagner

St. Elmo, Illinois
Aer Lingus aircraft will continue being named after saints, despite the advent of an increasingly secular society, the airlines chief executive Stephen Kavanagh has insisted.

The airline, now part of British Airways owner IAG, is adding aircraft to its long-haul fleet and is still naming them after saints.

We have 80 years of heritage and tradition, and that will continue, said Mr Kavanagh, who yesterday confirmed that Aer Lingus will fly between Dublin and Miami from next year.

Asked if they there would be an aircraft dubbed St Stephen, Mr Kavanagh laughed the suggestion away.

I doubt it, he said. If we do a good deal with Ryanair, maybe.

Aer Lingus is hammering out a deal with Ryanair that Mr Kavanagh will probably see the once arch rivals share transfer passengers from each others airlines by next year.

Aer Lingus will have 11 long-haul A330 aircraft in its fleet for next summer, as well as four smaller Boeing 757s.

They carry names such as St Ronan, St Munchin, St Aoife, St Laurence OToole, St Patrick and St Otteran. All are Irish saints.

Aer Lingus will also fly to two new destinations in Europe next year  Porto in Portugal, and Split in Croatia.
The loss of the European Arrest Warrant in the UK following Brexit will impact the ability of police north and south to pursue criminals who use the Border to evade prosecution, the PSNI has warned.

Chief Constable George Hamilton (inset right) said dissident Republicans make extensive use of the Border to frustrate counter terrorism investigations.

He also warned of significant interaction between organised crime gangs on both sides of the Border.

In a detailed note to a House of Lords inquiry looking at the impact of Brexit on Irish-UK relations, the force's top officer said the loss of the European Arrest Warrant, without replacement, will encourage criminals to believe they can escape justice by fleeing from one jurisdiction to another.

Some 43pc of Northern Ireland organised crime groups have a cross-Border dimension, the submission noted.

"The loss of European Arrest Warrants will impact on the Police Service of Northern Ireland and An Garda Siochana's ability to pursue those who use the land Border to evade prosecution," the Chief Constable said.

"This will affect counter terrorism, serious/organised crime and volume crime."

Cooperation exists between the PSNI and gardai at every level, Mr Hamilton wrote, adding that Brexit won't change that. However, he said there were legislative implications from the Brexit vote.

The referendum result means the UK potentially won't be a party to the rules underpinning the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) once it completes the Brexit process.

The EU has used the EAW to speed up extradition procedures since 2004.

"The effect of the withdrawal of the European Arrest Warrant, without replacement, will be to encourage criminals to believe that they can escape justice by fleeing from one jurisdiction to another, which could lead to further abuse of the land Border between the United Kingdom and Ireland," Mr Hamilton said.

The submission points out that the "porous" Border between north and south runs for 360km and that dissident republicans use it to "frustrate counter terrorism efforts".

The Chief Constable said Brexit throws up the potential for "organised abuse" of the common travel area (CTA) as the immigration policy between the UK and Europe diverges.

"There has been a substantial increase in the number of foreign national organised crime groups known to be involved in organised crime across Northern Ireland," he said.

"The nationality of these organised crime groups means they do not operate exclusively in Northern Ireland, but take advantage of the CTA to travel to Ireland and back to Europe. Principal members of some of these organised crime groups reside in Ireland."

Mr Hamilton argued the CTA has "significant vulnerabilities" which can be exploited to enter and exit the UK and Ireland. He said it is essential that bilateral extradition procedures be introduced.

The submission states there that are no other 'external' EU borders that do not come with border controls.

Mr Hamilton stated the introduction of Border controls between north and south is unlikely to help, as it wouldn't be possible to effectively police the minor roads that cross the Border.

"It is also likely to be used by dissident Republican groups as a rationale for continuing violence," he said.

Gardai said they are "actively monitoring" Brexit-related developments, and how it will impact on policing on the island.
The Irish economy will be able to shake off the uncertainty posed by the Brexit vote, Moody's has said.

The ratings giant said Ireland would continue to outperform other European countries, forecasting the economy would increase by 3.4pc this year and 3.1pc in 2017.

That's more conservative that the predictions from the Department of Finance, but Moody's remains upbeat about the prospects for Ireland's economy. "Although the United Kingdom's June 2016 vote to leave the European Union leaves Ireland's economy exposed, Moody's believes that the uncertainty created by the vote is manageable for Ireland over the outlook period," Moody's said, in a note to investors. It also said that the Irish economy would likely perform strongly over the next two to three years.

The impact of the referendum result has already dented the Irish exporting sector due to the dramatic weakness in sterling. Business body Ibec has warned that if the pound weakens further, it could translate into hundreds of millions of euros in losses in the food and drink sector, with thousands of jobs put at risk.

Moody's also maintained its positive outlook for Irish banks, but warned the large stock of bad loans remains a "critical issue". It pointed out that problem loans for rated Irish banks were 41.5bn as of the end of last year, down from 67bn at end of 2014, and that they will fall further over the coming years.

Meanwhile, the Central Bank has named seven banks, including AIB and Bank of Ireland, as being 'Systemically Important Institutions'.

These include Citibank, Ulster Bank, Permanent TSB, Unicredit and Depfa, with capital buffers established for each.

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The battle to lure financial services jobs and business away from London after Brexit is intensifying.

Global financial clearing-house CME Group is examining options in Dublin to ensure it keeps access to European Union customers after the UK leaves the bloc, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Managers at the Chicago-based derivatives exchange are weighing stronger ties to Ireland to ensure its London clearing operations aren't disrupted, but no decisions have been made, said the people, who asked not to be named because the conversations were private.

CME's options in Dublin could include seeking out regulatory licensing or opening offices. A spokesman for CME declined to comment.

The CME clearing business is small, but a shift to Dublin would be a notable coup.

Yesterday, the German finance ministry said it is fielding an increasing number of information requests from financial institutions in Britain considering a move to Germany.

Its financial centre, Frankfurt, is seeking to lure financial institutions from Britain, vying with Dublin, Paris and other European cities to attract business from London, Europe's dominant financial centre.

"Frankfurt is a love at second sight. But a love that lasts all the longer," state secretary Thomas Steffen, a senior finance ministry official, said at a banking conference.

He said he expected a number of decisions to be taken early in 2017.

For CME, the decision on where to base a clearing house, which plays a vital role in derivatives by acting as a firewall from failed trading firms, is important.

Clearing re-emerged as a battleground immediately after the Brexit vote, with French and German leaders arguing that clearing of euro denominated trades should not remain in London once the UK leaves. Regulations since the 2008 crisis boosted the importance of clearing houses, requiring many derivatives transactions to pass through them.

About 83,000 UK jobs are at risk if euro clearing is snatched away from London, according to a report commissioned by London Stock Exchange. (Additional reporting Bloomberg and Reuters)

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The Government remains confident of luring the European Medical Agency (EMA) to Dublin - despite the emergence of major new competition.

Ireland was the early favourite to persuade the medical powerhouse to transfer its headquarters from Britain following the Brexit result.

But several other EU member states are now preparing to launch their own pitches in a bid to attract hundreds of jobs.

The EMA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health across the EU and currently employs 885 staff members.

The organisation is one of several expected to move its headquarters out of the UK as a result of the decision of voters to exit the EU.

While the Government remains confident it can persuade the EMA to move to Dublin, other member states have now mounted their own challenges.

These include Sweden, France, Denmark, Hungary and Bulgaria.

Despite the growing competition, a senior Government source last night said major efforts are being made to ensure Ireland's bid succeeds.

These include the arrangement of a meeting between Health Minister Simon Harris and EMA chiefs in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, the Irish Independent has obtained briefing documents prepared for Mr Harris which detail the Irish bid to lure the EMA to Dublin.

The documents reveal that the Government expects the agency to make the decision soon after British Prime Minister Theresa May unlocks Article 50, which she says she will do by the end of March.

Among the key arguments set to be made by Dublin include the assertion the EMA is more likely to retain key staff members if it chooses to relocate its headquarters to Dublin as a result of Brexit.

"In terms of retention of expertise, Dublin's proximity to London would be a positive for EMA staff with families well established in the UK capital, while commonality of language and other facets of life may make it more likely that staff would remain with the EMA," the documents state.

Other arguments due to be used by the Government to lure the agency include the fact that Dublin has an "international airport 20 to 30 minutes from the city centre, with excellent air connectivity with EU capitals and continuing expansion of routes served."

According to the documents, Dublin also has the advantage of being in close proximity to the Irish medicines regulator - the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA).
David Davies minister for Brexit listens to a speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet, at the Guildhall, London. Photo: Reuters

The UK government wants to maintain "liberal access" to European aviation markets, despite planning to leave the EU by 2019, according to Brexit minister David Davis.

He met aviation executives from companies including Ryanair, Easyjet and Aer Lingus owner IAG at London City Airport yesterday to hear their concerns regarding Brexit.

While Mr Davis, the UK's Aviation Minister Lord Ahmad, and the chief executive of Airlines UK, Tim Aldersale, insisted that Brexit presents opportunities, the impact of the UK's decision to leave the EU and sterling's associated slump has already cast a pall over airlines including Easyjet, Ryanair and IAG-owned British Airways.

"Market access remains a top priority, and we want to make sure we have liberal access to European aviation markets," the three airlines said in their statement.

"We will also work closely to explore new opportunities for further liberalisation. We are clear that Brexit provides greater freedom to seek new agreements between the UK and some third countries."

They said that those agreements could include bilateral agreements to strengthen ties with countries such as the US and Canada.

The EU already has an open skies agreement with the United States, but the UK will now have to negotiate its own deal with America.

Brexit also means that Easyjet, for example, has to secure an air operator certificate in another EU country to ensure it can continue to offer services in the region as an EU carrier.

"We will work closely together to ensure that this international industry continues to be a major success story for the UK economy - contributing around 20bn in 2014 alone - and better understand what risks and opportunities exist," the trio added following the meeting at London City, Airport, which is run by former DAA chief executive Declan Collier.
ESB and Coillte have reached a financial deal on the Castlepook Wind Farm project in Co Cork. The project will be financed with long-term debt from Bank of Ireland representing an overall investment of 64 million.

Located in the Ballyhoura Mountains in Co Cork, the 33.1 MW Castlepook Wind Farm will generate enough power for approximately 17,000 households annually.

The wind farm development was granted planning permission from An Bord Pleanala in 2013 and comprises 14 Nordex wind turbines.

The wind farm will connect to the existing electricity distribution system at Charleville via an underground 38kV cable that will be installed as part of the construction works.

Commenting on the joint venture with Coillte, ESB Chief Executive Pat ODoherty said the project represents ESBs commitment to investing and innovating in low carbon and renewable technologies, including wind energy.

Castlepook windfarm will add to ESBs existing portfolio of 15 wind farms on the island of Ireland, and will help us achieve of our target of 1,600MW of wind generation capacity by 2025.

We believe our wind farm investments should deliver long term social, economic and environmental benefits for everyone and we look forward to working with Coillte to delivering this at Castlepook.

For Coillte it is the fourth wind farm project in the last 12 months, involving a total investment value of 400 million.

Chief Executive Fergal Leamy said the business is well on our way to completing our ambition of having 350MW of installed capacity in coming years providing power for over 300,000 homes.

This project is a great example of two companies partnering to maximise the value of their assets and expertise.
The poultry sector is the subject of a major tax probe following an investigation by the EU Commission.

The move came following a complaint lodged to the Commission by Ireland Midlands-North-West MEP Marian Harkin on behalf of Cavan chicken farmer Alo Mohan.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan has admitted to the European Parliament that "VAT avoidance schemes were being developed and probably [were] in place, particularly in the poultry sector".

Mr Noonan has proposed changes in the Finance Bill to prevent "tax evasion in the poultry industry that gave competitive advantage to those who used it rather than those who didn't".

Mr Mohan, a Nuffield scholar and former IFA poultry committee chair, contends that he lost out on 25,000 per year because did not participate in various VAT arrangements, including reclaiming VAT on inputs for farmers that were unregistered for VAT.

Unregistered farmers are not normally able to avail of a VAT refund on expenses, and are compensated for this with a 5.4pc flat rate addition on their sales.

Ms Harkin said: "This matter needs to be dealt with definitively in order to ensure we have a thriving competitive industry that pays the producers for their service and is not reliant on tax avoidance schemes.

Investigation

"Most people in the industry knew what was going on here and everybody I spoke to told me the same thing but a blind eye was turned by some.

"We informed the Revenue over two and a half years ago, yet it has taken until now and an investigation by the European Commission to move this matter forward," she said.

Mr Mohan ceased trading with his processor late last year, and has failed to find a new purchaser for his birds since then.

Ms Harkin said: "This is a law-abiding man concerned only with doing the right thing and yet his family business of 60 years is no longer trading."

Mr Mohan maintained the practice was not widespread in the poultry sector, but he admitted the set-up was likely in other highly integrated areas of the livestock sector.

"It has massive implications for the whole Irish livestock sector and, if allowed to continue, would completely undermine the ability of honest family farms to stay in business," he said.

Despite the controversy surrounding the VAT schemes in the poultry sector, the IFA is lobbying politicians to stall any change to the laws that would close off the loopholes.

While a policy document from the organisation admits that protecting the integrity of the flat-rate VAT scheme for farmers is "critical", it adds that "there is a concern in the poultry sector that some structures within this sector could be affected" and that affected farmers "will need time to review their structures".
Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election has added "another layer of uncertainty" to an already troubled trading landscape for Irish food and drink exporters, industry representatives have warned.

Paul Kelly of Food and Drink Industry Ireland (FDII), the Ibec group that represents the food and drink sector, said Trump's election had unsettled markets.

Kelly said the continuing volatility in sterling posed new and very serious challenges for food exporters.

He maintained that sterling's repositioning relative to other currencies was now "structural" rather than "cyclical".

This contention was supported by Mark Berrisford-Smith, head of economics at leading British bank HSBC, who predicted in Belfast last week that the British pound could move to parity with the euro.

Kelly said such a scenario would be disastrous for the Irish economy given the UK takes 41pc of the country's exports. The food sector would be particularly exposed, since Britain imports 70pc of our processed consumer foods, 56pc of meat exports and 60pc of cheese.

An FDII report on Brexit found that if sterling was to hold at the 90p mark, it would cost food exporters over 700m and result in the loss of 7,500 jobs.

"A structural shift in the exchange rate relationship, combined with Brexit related trade risks, means that UK buyers are planning significant supply chain restructuring - the real threat is a loss of confidence in Ireland as a competitive supply base resulting in loss of markets and exports," Kelly said.

"The Government's short term objective must be to support companies as they reposition their businesses during this period of uncertainty.

"The focus must be on maintaining markets in the UK, developing other markets as well as ensuring that, in the domestic market, companies remain competitive against imports and the threat of cross-border shopping," he added.

The FDII has called on the Government to:

 Review the impact of Brexit on the objectives contained in FoodWise 2025.

 Re-introduce of the Employment Subsidy Scheme and the Enterprise Stabilisation measures which were last applied in 2009-11.

 Provide 25m in funding for market diversification and product innovation measures.

 Establish a finance package that includes sustainable financing via the Irish Strategic Investment Fund.
TWIN FALLS  Vice has never been too far out of reach for Magic Valley residents. Want to try your luck gambling? Jackpot, Nev., is less than an hours drive south of Twin Falls. And legal prostitution isnt much farther.

And beginning the first of next year, the Magic Valley will be a short drive away from legal recreational marijuana.

Neighboring states legalizing cannabis is nothing new for Idaho. Washington and Oregon legalized recreational pot in recent years, and Montana legalized medical marijuana. The Spokesman-Review reported this week Idaho now shares 80 percent of its border with pot-friendly states and provinces.

But for Magic Valley residents, legal pot has never been closer after Nevada residents voted last week to legalize recreational marijuana. Now, the question for many across southern Idaho is how Nevadas new law will affect the Magic Valley.

I can guarantee my deputies will be paying more attention, Twin Falls County Sheriff Tom Carter said. There very well may be more stops because of it, especially for people getting high while there and then coming home.

Carter said those driving under the influence of marijuana are a bigger concern than people bringing back small amounts of pot. The sheriffs office intends to continue looking for both types of travelers but wont make any significant changes like setting up extra patrols near the border.

Im sure well write more citations for possession of marijuana, Carter said. But as far as doing anything special, probably not.

Idaho State Police troopers will take a similar approach by maintaining vigilance on U.S. 93 near the border without significantly increasing patrols, Lt. Robert Rausch said.

We try to spread our resources out in a way where we use them in the most effective manner, and that area of U.S. 93 has been traditionally an area where we get a lot of crashes, Rausch said. Whether its impairment, people crossing the dividing line or otherwise, it does remain a major concern.

Rausch said ISPs plans are subject to change depending on what actually happens once pot becomes legal Jan. 1 in Nevada, but he said it was business as usual for ISP when Oregon and Washington legalized marijuana.

We enforce drug impaired driving, and we intend to continue that, Rausch said. And, its illegal to possess here, no matter what your medical card says.

Nevadas new law

Nevadas new recreational marijuana law will look similar to the ones already in place in Washington and Oregon, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Adults 21 and older will be able to possess 1 ounce of marijuana or one-eighth of an ounce of cannabis concentrate, but smoking in public and driving while high will still be against the law.

The big question for the Magic Valley, and one that Elko County commissioners dont know, is where pot will be sold. The chances that a marijuana dispensary opens in Jackpot are slim.

According to the Review-Journal, Las Vegas Clark County will be allowed up to 80 stores, Renos Washoe County up to 20 stores, and all other counties will be allowed only two.

That means if a dispensary opened in or near the city of Elko, the county would get only one other dispensary. And Elko County Commissioner Cliff Eklund said theres already interest coming from West Wendover, less than a two-hour drive from Salt Lake City.

Its a no-brainer (someone would want to open a dispensary) in West Wendover, Elko County Commissioner Glen Guttry agreed.

Commissioners Eklund, Guttry and Demar Dahl all told the Times-News theyve yet to look at the new law and how it will be implemented, but they have time. While pot will be become legal to possess and smoke Jan. 1, the state has until 2018 to figure out the best ways to sell it and tax it. The commissioners said theyd be looking for direction from the state about exactly what to do.

But even if a dispensary doesnt open in Jackpot, local law enforcement officials are expecting an increase in marijuana-related crimes.

Whenever a neighboring state passes a law making something legal there thats illegal here and federally, you see more people who cross into our state, Twin Falls County Prosecutor Grant Loebs said.

Many people unintentionally violate the law by bringing back small, personal-use amounts, Loebs said, while others break the law more deliberately by trafficking large amounts across the border.

Weve seen huge increases of marijuana in Twin Falls since Oregon and Washington legalized, Loebs said. In regards to distribution, weve seen huge amounts of trafficking compared to years before.

While stopping trafficking is still a priority, Loebs said, cracking down on people with small, personal-amounts is not.

If a guy just has a marijuana cigarette, well confiscate it and write a citation, but hes not going to jail or prison, Loebs said. But distribution, trafficking large amounts? Five, 10 pounds? Thats a felony and still a big problem.
Today's Global Dairy Trade saw prices jump 4.5%, with some of the key results including butter milk powder up 13.3pc.

The Butter index was up 1.1%, the Cheddar index up 11.0%, and the Skim Milk Powder index up 9.8%.

Predictions had indicated that today's trading would see Whole Milk Powder prices increase as limited supplies impacted on a global price surge.

Kevin Bellamy of Rabobank said dairy-product prices are likely to stabilise at current levels rather than continue to harden and while he said production was unlikely to grow substantially through 2017, he pointed out that demand on world markets remained weak.

Recent price surges on the GDT and other trading platforms was underpinned by restricted supplies rather than improved demand, he said.

A sustained growth in dairy commodity prices would require greater activity from both Chinese and Middle Eastern buyers, and there was no evidence of this happening, he said.

On a more positive note for Irish farmers, he predicted that global supplies would remain tight into 2017 and Ireland would be well placed to capitalise on this.

He said the reaction of French and German farmers to expansion opportunities had been "timid", while further Dutch production growth would be curtailed by "environmental considerations".
Dairygold has set its milk price for October to pay a price of 28 cpl incl. quality bonus (0.5 cpl) and VAT, up 2 cpl on the September price.

It follows decisions by Glanbia and Lakeland Dairies to increase milk prices for October supplies.
It's been a testing few years for the machinery trade and in particular tractor sales. As the British pound continues its post-Brexit slide, increasing numbers of Irish buyers are travelling north in search of tractor deals.

It all puts pressure on Irish machinery dealerships who look to make a living from the trade, but what have tractor sales actually been like so far this year and what can dealers likely expect in 2017?

Someone with 40 odd years of experience in the trade is always worth listening to, and that is exactly what Cathal Sweetman of D & S Machinery Ltd brings to the table. Established in 1985, D & S Machinery originally started importing the Ursus range of tractors into Ireland from Poland.

Thirty years on and they have a country wide network of tractor dealers distributing the McCormick and Landini brands.

"Over the last three years the new Irish tractor market has ranged from 1,900-1,950 units, and I think this year will be the same," said Mr Sweetman.

"I have found it very difficult going for a few years now as prices to farmers have been forced downwards.

"What has really made it difficult is that the pressure has hit every sector of farming - milk, cattle, grain, potatoes and vegetables.

"It feels like there are too many people competing for too few sales, which results in overpriced trade ins and new tractors being sold with little or no margin.

Regulations

"The other side of the coin is that tractors have increased in price due to engine emissions regulations and advances in electronics. This makes it harder for the average farmer to purchase a tractor."

While he acknowledged that no one can blame anyone for shopping around, Mr Sweetman urged farmers to think of the local dealer the next time they decide to buy a new tractor.

"The way sterling is going plenty are taking their business across the border or to Britain, resulting in Irish dealers being left with stock in their yards.

"I would remind farmers that when they support a local dealer they are guaranteed after sales support if something goes wrong.

"They are also supporting jobs, because the dealer will be employing mechanics who all needed training and who earn a living from the sector.

The equipment, software and stock of spare parts - it comes at a cost."

However, Mr Sweetman remains positive and is predicting more or less the same number of new tractors to be sold in Ireland in 2017.

He also has a suggestion to boost sales. "In Ireland about 70pc of farmers are not registered for VAT. A scheme that would allow unregistered farmers claim the VAT back would make a great difference."

And he adds: As I approach 60 years of age I'm nearly 41 years in the business. I still like it; there's so many good people in the trade."
Three Independent News & Media journalist have been shortlisted for the annual UCD Smurfit School Business Journalist Awards.

Irish Independent business editor Donal ODonovan is shortlisted in the economic commentator / business analyst of the year category, John Mulligan, senior business reporter with the Irish Independent is shortlisted in the specialist business reporter category for his coverage of the aviation sector, and Sunday Independent business journalist Simon Rowe has been shortlisted for business feature of the year.

The UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School awards are now in their 10th year, and are run in conjunction with the Business Journalist Association of Ireland (BJAI) and sponsored by Open Eir.

The purpose of the awards scheme is to honour excellence in Irish business journalism across the media spectrum, with entries submitted by nominees themselves or on behalf of journalists by editors or peers and are adjudicated by an independent panel of judges comprising business, journalism, economic and academic leaders.

Commenting on the awards, Professor Ciaran O hOgartaigh, Dean, UCD College of Business said:

This year saw a record number of entries and, once again, the standard of writing and analysis was of an exceptional standard. The shortlist reflects a body of work which contributes to our collective understanding of important business, financial and economic issues that shape our lives, said, Professor Ciaran O hOgartaigh, dean of UCD College of Business.

Carolan Lennon, managing director, Open Eir, awards sponsor and member of the judging panel added: I congratulate all shortlisted journalists for this years awards. The standard of journalism each year continues to impress the judging panel with its insight, analysis and writing that informs the public on key issues of the day.

Since its launch, the UCD Smurfit School Business Journalist Awards scheme has received over 1,000 entries from business journalists across print, broadcast and online media outlets in Ireland. The winner in each category will be honoured at an awards ceremony at The Shelbourne Hotel on Monday, December 5 with each category winner receiving a 1,000 cash prize.

In addition to the seven categories above, an Outstanding Achievement Award will be announced at the awards ceremony. This honorary award recognises a journalist who, throughout his or her career, has enhanced the understanding of business in Ireland and inspired others during their career. The previous winners of this award were: Matt Cooper, Richard Curran, Frank Fitzgibbon, Brendan Keenan, Damien Kiberd, and Cliff Taylor.
Mr Noonan is on a week-long mission to the US where he has a series of face-to-face talks with executives from major firms. Photo: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Finance Minister Michael Noonan has met with US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew as part of a post-Brexit offensive across the Atlantic.

While the meeting in Washington was originally scheduled to assess the fallout from Britain's decision to quit the EU, the election of Donald Trump as president is also understood to have featured.

Mr Noonan is on a week-long mission to the US where he has a series of face-to-face talks with executives from major firms.

Today he will meet with representatives from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

The discussions with Mr Lew will be seen as significant given the treasurer's view that Britain and the EU need to ensure their economies remain "highly integrated" after Brexit.

He has previously said "a transparent, smooth and co-operative process that results in a highly integrated economic relationship is in the best interests of Europe, the United States, and the global economy".

Mr Noonan's visit comes ahead of a similar mission by Taoiseach Enda Kenny at the end of the month.

It is understood that the Taoiseach will travel to Silicon Valley where companies like Google and Facebook have bases.

However, he is not scheduled to have any meetings with outgoing President Barack Obama or Mr Trump.
Northern Irish shopping centres close to the border have seen an increase in the number of southern-registered cars parked outside them. Photo: Getty Images/Moment Open

Shoppers are set to flock across the Border in their thousands to buy Christmas presents.

In addition, the collapse in sterling after the UK's vote to leave the EU is also hitting the sales in shops here.

One-in-four adults has already gone to Northern Ireland or the UK to shop.

These people now intend to buy again in the sterling area in the next three months, according to a survey carried out by iReach for media agency MediaCom.

Sterling is down almost a fifth in value against the euro since the summer referendum, making goods priced in pounds good value.

Most of those planning to head North or go to England will do so to buy presents for Christmas, the survey of 1,000 people shows. Other popular purchases in the sterling zone included clothing, followed by alcohol and groceries.

Electronic devices, cosmetics and toys were lower down on the list.

Northern Irish shopping centres close to the Border have seen an increase in the number of southern-registered cars parked outside them.

Shoppers said they compare prices in euro and sterling online before decided which purchases to travel to buy, the survey indicates. They then research which sterling outlet has the best deal before travelling to buy. This is known as "reverse-showrooming".

"This is alarming when you consider the larger online market, where more people are continuing to spend more money, and spend more often," Head of MediaCom Ireland Ian McGrath said.

Separate research from Visa Ireland shows there has been a sharp fall in the rate of increase in consumer spending.

Cautious

Spending in stores was down 0.4pc when compared with the same month last year, but online spending rose 15pc in the past year, according to the Visa Consumer Spending Index for October. Visa found that spending was up 4.3pc overall in October when account is taken of cash, cheques and electronic payments.

This was the weakest rise since May, 2015.

"There appears to be a Brexit-chill blowing in the Irish data of late. This is likely to be reflected in a more cautious consumer, but we have also seen a surge in cross-border shopping that will impact consumer spending at the margin," Economist with Goodbody Stockbrokers Dermot O'Leary said.
The latest series of surveys show that up to a third of Irelands population do not have access to basic communications. Photo: Yui Mok/PA Wire

We used to sneer about it being a first world problem. But what happens when you can't keep in touch with family over Facebook? Or you don't have the internet speed to Google basic information? Or even email a friend or a business contact?

That's the untenable situation experienced by tens of thousands of Irish homes and businesses today. The latest series of surveys show that up to a third of Ireland's population do not have access to basic communications.

No filing tax returns. No Facetiming loved ones abroad. No extra research for homework assignments.

As a result, a move to cities and large towns now seems inevitable for rural dwellers. Indeed, one in three working people in rural areas now say they face forced migration to urban areas for broadband reasons. Who can blame them? Running a business or keeping kids up to date with the latest digital opportunities is a non-runner in large parts of Ireland.

It's a lose-lose situation, even for those in cities. The more compelled everyone is to crowd into tiny geographical pockets of our country, the more unaffordable rent and house prices become.

As an exercise in national planning, it may turn out to be a cautionary tale. So are things likely to change soon?

Unfortunately, the Government's National Broadband Plan looks as far off as ever, with the first connections now likely to be pushed into 2018 rather than next year (or the end of this year, as was initially promised). It seems with every six months that pass, a further delay pops up as negotiations stall or the criteria changes. Government planners say such a vital project must not be rushed and that it is imperative for conditions to be correct in advance of public tenders. But it's starting to seem interminable.

What of Eir, Virgin and Vodafone, the biggest broadband operators? Only Eir and Vodafone are building more services out themselves, and even then only at a slow pace that favours large towns over more rural areas. Both operators admit there are some 400,000 homes and businesses they will never seek to reach. Virgin, meanwhile, has no solid plans to expand beyond its current city footprint.

In the long run, it is still likely rural Ireland will get connected. When it is, the quality of the State-subsidised service should be second to none, with Minister Denis Naughten pledging all qualifying homes will receive speeds of 1,000Mbs if they want.

But even here, there is a catch. The Government's qualifying criteria for a community's inclusion in the State fibre rollout is 'under 30Mbs'. Those who scrape over that metric won't get access to fibre broadband, meaning they will soon be overtaken by modern life's broadband requirements. Thus the cycle may repeat itself anew in 2023.
Bruno Mars has just announced a world tour which includes an Irish date.

He'll bring his 24K Magic World Tour to Dublin's 3Arena on Saturday, April 29, 2017.

He told his fans about the International tour on Facebook this morning, which includes a massive 85-date stops.

The world tour kicks off in Antwerp, Belgium on March 28 and takes in the rest of Europe before opening its North American leg on July 15 at Las Vegas' T-Mobile Arena.

You can get early access to the tour by pre-ordering his album 24K Magic from his store.

Otherwise, tickets go on general on sale from all usual outlets on November 21 at 9am.
Spanish tax authorities took in 52 million from gambling in 2015. Carlos Rosillo

Oscar Garcia-Pelayo has gambling in his blood. His father, Gonzalo, was the inspiration for the 2012 Spanish comedy, The Pelayos  Winning Streak, which charts his familys real-life success in casinos across the world using a legal system based on wheel bias in roulette.

Oscar plays poker these days, and he wins, although the sums are a little smaller each time. He no longer spends eight hours a day playing, perfecting his game and teaching others. He is no longer in charge of the family operation that once boasted 2,000 signed-up online gamblers a month. In fact, he no longer even plays poker in Spain because the state of play has changed over the last four years.

Spains online gaming regulations were a botch job Oscar Garcia-Pelayo, professional gambler

Since the government regulated online gaming in 2012, theres been no shortage of people willing to spend money on a bet. According to the Directorate General of Gambling Management, the amount of money being wagered has multiplied by four since then, rising to 8.5 billion last year, and thats excluding money spent on the online lottery. And this year promises to trump that. The industry, made up of 52 companies, saw a 32% year-on-rise in the second quarter of 2016, with 2.7 billion being gambled in that period, or the same amount as the total figure for the year the new rules were introduced.

But, as with all gambling, things are not as straightforward as they seem. Before the 2012 law obliged foreign companies to be licensed to operate in Spain, the sector was arguably moving even larger quantities of money: Garcia-Pelayo criticizes the new law for restricting the market. The law also rules that Spaniards cannot play with gamblers in other countries, causing the operators to lose a lot of traffic. It cut out a lot of punters with a lot of money and who weren't any good, Oscar says from Chile. We would call them the suckers and they were usually from Eastern Europe, Turkey and the United States.

Objections to the law

Laura Guillot, an expert on the gambling industry, also attacks the 2012 law. She says Spain has introduced some of the highest taxes on gambling operators in Europe, and business suffers as a result. The fact that you can only play with other Spaniards online reduces international cash flows, making it less attractive to punters. Margins are narrow and small operators find it hard to compete.

The 2012 law prompted four multinationals and another 10 companies to pull out of the Spanish market. One of them was Oscars; he was asked to pay a license fee of 300,000. Sources from the Directorate General of Gambling Management explain that this is part of the natural process of a shift into a more regulated environment.

Currently, betting is the most popular form of gambling in Spain with half of punters money going on horse racing and other sport. Casino gambling is next, accounting for 36%, followed by poker (13.7%), while the share of games such as bingo has dropped to less than 1%.

Government estimates exaggerated the size of the market Sacha Michaud, JDigital President

Guillot explains that younger punters in particular have turned to betting on sport because it is easy and exciting." But JDigital president Sacha Michaud says its also because new businesses are operating in that field without licenses, not just because of Spains addiction to sport.

This shift away from online gaming has meant that the treasurys hopes of filling their coffers with between 80 and 120 million euros have proved overly optimistic. The estimate was fairly accurate in 2012, when they collected 101 million. But the figure has gone into gradual decline with only 52 million collected in 2015.

Their estimates exaggerated the size of the market, says Michaud, who adds that the money going to the treasury does not tally with the amount of money being gambled because the tax is applied to the operators gross gaming revenue. As far as Oscar Garcia-Pelayo is concerned, the regulations introduced for online gaming were a botched job, driven by the need to collect money as fast as possible to cover up for the dreadful handling of the economy by our governments in recent years.

Predictions for 2016 Experts explain that to understand the sector, you have to take into account Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR)  before winnings  rather than the amount of money gambled. The GGR in the second quarter of 2016 was 98.84 million, a 56.34% rise on the same period last year. According to the Directorate General of Gambling Management, if the trend continues, the year will close with a GGR of slightly more than 400 million. And gamers will have won around 11 million.

English version by Heather Galloway.
Bernie Sanders discussed "fixing" the Democratic Party on Monday night's Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

In the wake of last week's shock US presidential election results, the now independent Vermont senator took to the Late Show to express his ideas on the future of America.

As he walked on to the stage, Sanders was greeted with a chorus of "Bernie" chants from enthusiastic audience members, before lamenting that it had been a "tough week".

Sanders lost a hotly contested primary victory against Hillary Clinton to become the Democratic Party's presidential candidate. He then heavily endorsed Clinton during her campaign to keep Trump out of the White House.

But he explained that her loss to Trump signifies that the party needs to change, as it no longer resonates with middle and working class Americans.

The Democratic Party cannot continue to be run by the liberal elite," he said.

"The party has got to transform itself to be a party which, first of all, opens the door, that is the party that feels the pain of working-class people, of the middle class, of low-income people, of young people. (A party that) brings people into the party."

He added: The vast majority of the American people are on our side. Trumps views are a minority. People do not think we should give tax breaks to billionaires. They do believe we should raise the minimum wage and have pay equity for women. They do believe we should make public colleges and universities tuition free. What you do now is get heavily involved in the political process. When millions of people stand up and fight back we will not be denied.

Examining what helped Trump win the election, Sanders explained that the Republican representative was able to tap into the anger and frustration that many working class Americans have felt for a long time.

"A lot of people in this country who are suffering, who are hurting, who are scared to death about tomorrow for their kids and he tapped into that," he said.

Trump was posing as a hero of the working class of America."

Video of the Day

The truth is, Democrats should not be losing to a candidate who insults so many people, Sanders noted, adding that this result clearly implies that there's something fundamentally wrong with the Democratic Party.
Lead by Campaign Director, Lian Bell, Actors, theatre professionals, writers, academics, business and community leaders all gathered on the Rosie Hackett Bridge before the final major public event at the AbbeyTheatre in #WakingTheFeminists year long campaign for gender equality in Irish Theatre.

Love/Hate star Tom Vaughan-Lawlor has slammed the shameful treatment of women in the acting industry.

The Dublin actor, famous for his role as Nidge in the hit RTE crime drama, said women face many obstacles that male actors do not encounter  such as inferior pay, fixation on weight and bit-part roles.

Expand Close Lead by Campaign Director, Lian Bell, Actors, theatre professionals, writers, academics, business and community leaders all gathered on the Rosie Hackett Bridge before the final major public event at the AbbeyTheatre in #WakingTheFeminists year long campaign for gender equality in Irish Theatre. / Facebook

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Whatsapp Lead by Campaign Director, Lian Bell, Actors, theatre professionals, writers, academics, business and community leaders all gathered on the Rosie Hackett Bridge before the final major public event at the AbbeyTheatre in #WakingTheFeminists year long campaign for gender equality in Irish Theatre.

Speaking at the Waking The Feminists event in Dublins Abbey Theatre, Vaughan-Lawlor pointed to a number of subtle differences that make the profession tougher for women.

Over the years it became clearer and clearer to me that acting is a different profession for women, he said. Besides the visible imbalances in terms of pay and available roles, the focus on ageing and weight... there are a myriad of subtle ways that women in rehearsal rooms and on sets are deliberately or otherwise made to feel less.

Once you open your eyes to it, you can see it everywhere, he added.

He said that his wife Claire Cox, also an actor, made a point about the vast differences to him a number of years ago but he did not believe it at the time.

Expand Close Lead by Campaign Director, Lian Bell, Actors, theatre professionals, writers, academics, business and community leaders all gathered on the Rosie Hackett Bridge before the final major public event at the AbbeyTheatre in #WakingTheFeminists year long campaign for gender equality in Irish Theatre. / Facebook

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Whatsapp Lead by Campaign Director, Lian Bell, Actors, theatre professionals, writers, academics, business and community leaders all gathered on the Rosie Hackett Bridge before the final major public event at the AbbeyTheatre in #WakingTheFeminists year long campaign for gender equality in Irish Theatre.

She told me you have no idea how hard it is to be heard in such a masculine environment. I laughed it off at the time and teased her for not being tough enough, he said.

The IFTA award-winning star has said he now wants to be proactive in taking a stand against these issues in order to create a fairer acting environment for both genders.

When you realise the deep profound effects not only on those you love but also colleagues that inspire you and make you want to become an artist in the first place, it is shameful if you dont at least add your voice to the call for change, he said.

The one thing I have resolved to do is to strive to be active in support rather than simply standing on the sidelines playing lip service to an ideal, to be more educated about the intricacies of gender inequality and to use that knowledge to play a part in making real change happen, he added.

Vaughan-Lawlor was among actors, theatre professionals, writers, academics, business and community leaders, who gathered at the Abbey Theatre to mark the final major public event in Waking The Feminists year-long campaign for gender equality in Irish theatre.

Stand-up comedian Alison Spittle also spoke and said her role as a female comic meant she often received backhanded compliments such as I dont like female comedians, but youre funny.

Video of the Day

She said that the lack of women on panel shows meant she would become envious of those that did appear on them, as she knew she had missed an opportunity.

I saw women as rivals. Theres only one place for a woman on that panel show, theres one slot on that night for a woman and theres only one unfunny girlfriend role in that s**t sketch, she said.

Us comedians held our own meeting to encourage more women into comedy. The turnout was class. The amount of support offered was staggering, practical support such as cameras, script advice. Since then Ive seen a lot more speaking out, festivals and comedy nights now get asked, where are the women?, she added.
On a beautiful summer's day in July 2015, Dublin's Liberty Hall was a hive of activity.

An election was taking place - one that would have grave implications for not only the government of the day, but also tens of thousands of hard-working public sector workers.

Just after 3pm, the result was announced. The Lansdowne Road Agreement was approved by 78.5pc of Siptu workers. The electorate had spoken and given an overwhelming endorsement to a deal they were told would run until September 2018.

Of course, the pay increases themselves would be modest. The latest rise is an extra 1,000 for every public servant from next September.

Meanwhile, in the same iconic building last Thursday, the very workers who backed the pay deal were told in no uncertain terms that everything has changed.

They were warned in light of the Labour Court deal secured by the gardai, Siptu needed to change its strategy.

Shortly before 12.30pm, an ultimatum was issued to the Government by the union's president Jack O'Connor: Grant us new pay talks or we will cause industrial unrest.

Of course, Mr O'Connor's solution to faster pay restoration is one that raises more questions than a game of University Challenge.

He says hundreds of millions of euro can be found by clamping down on vulture funds and tax evasion.

Mr O'Connor credits Independent TD Stephen Donnelly for this proposal - a man he admits he hasn't even met let alone spoken to about the idea.

Another possible means of shoring up cash for his own members is increasing the 9pc VAT rate for the hospitality sector. Mr O'Connor doesn't mention what sort of impact this would have on jobs in the tourism industry. One wonders if he even cares.

And so, as a result of Siptu's new-found opposition to a deal its members had overwhelmingly subscribed to, the Government once again finds itself held to ransom by the trade union movement.

Of course, Paschal Donohoe and his colleagues do have options. They can slow down investment in public services, kick to touch plans aimed at tackling the housing crisis, and allow our children to be taught in prefabs for a few more years at least.

Or they could scale back operations tasked with ending the terror brought down on our communities by ruthless thugs such as the Kinihan cartel.

The other option is to stand firm and to deliver a wake-up call to the union movement: stop putting your own interests before the country. Taking one of the former options would prove unforgivable.
A 14-year-old schoolboy, who ripped his right kneecap during a waterslide ride in Italy, has been awarded 29,000 damages in the Circuit Civil Court. Stock Picture

A 14-year-old schoolboy, who ripped his right kneecap during a waterslide ride in Italy, has been awarded 29,000 damages in the Circuit Civil Court.

Ben Connell claimed he was on holiday in July 2014 and had been riding the slide at the Albatros Park in Italy when his knee came in contact with a protruding and unprotected water jet.

Barrister Anthony Lowry, counsel for Ben, told the court that the teenager, who was 12-years-old at the time, lacerated his knee in the accident. He had been bleeding heavily and screaming.

Ben had been attended to by a doctor on site before being taken by ambulance to the Piombino Hospital, where his laceration required 15 stitches. He had also suffered soft-tissue injuries to his right thigh.

Mr Lowry said the stitches were removed once Ben returned to Ireland. The wound had left a significant and visible five centimetre scar on his knee.

Through his mother Claire Connell, Leopardstown, Dublin, Ben sued holiday organiser Greenbank Holidays Ltd, with an address in Cheshire, England.

He claimed the water jet had not been properly installed, maintained or fitted and the defendant had failed to take reasonable care. The court heard that Ben had to stop playing hurling following the accident.

Mr Lowry said the defendant had made a 29,000 settlement offer which he recommended to the court. He said he found it to be low but liability could be an issue if the case proceeded to a full hearing.

Counsel said the proceedings had been issued under the Package Holiday and Travel Trade Act, 1995 but the flights tickets had been purchased separately from the accommodation. He said Greenbank Holidays Ltd could therefore have a defence to Bens claim.

He said Bens scar was significant and although he found the case to have a value of about 40,000 damages, if the 29,000 settlement offer was refused, Ben may have to issue proceedings under Italian law.

Judge Groarke said he was aware of the complexity of the case and he therefore could not refuse the offer.

Having said that, nothing prevents Ben from also issuing proceedings under Italian law, the judge said.
Former Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo during the interview. Julian Rojas (EL PAIS)

Just 10 days after handing over the foreign affairs portfolio to his successor, Alfonso Dastis, Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, 72, is busy promoting his new book Europa y el porvenir (or, Europe and the future), which he co-wrote with Fernando Eguidazu, state secretary for the EU.

Question. You mean to say that Europe has a future?

Answer. It has to, even if it is currently at a crossroads. Some people feel this is because weve moved too fast with European construction. But I defend the opposite theory.

The unity of Spain will be more securely guaranteed if it rests on peoples feelings and not just on the law

Q. Yet the Brexit vote suggests Europe can be deconstructed, that the process is reversible.

A. That is why we either make a leap forward now, or we will find ourselves in a difficult position. There are attempts at renationalizing politics, and europhobe and populist movements are growing.

Q. What do you regret not having done as foreign minister?

A. I did not have time to modernize the Spanish foreign service, which still reflects the world as it was 50 years ago.

Q. And do you wish you had kept quiet on the odd occasion?

A. I think that politics is educational; citizens have the right to have politicians explain what they are doing, and I have tried to fulfill that duty.

Alfonso Dastis is the new Spanish Foreign Minister. STEPHANIE LECOCQ (EFE)

Q. You never got a rap on the knuckles from La Moncloa [the seat of government] for talking too much?

A. No... To be more specific, my idea of reforming the Constitution was not shared. [Prime Minister Mariano] Rajoy felt it was not the right time, and I did not bring it up again. I have been bold with my proposals, but disciplined when a decision was made.

Q. For a long time you were the only minister to openly talk about the Catalan separatist challenge. The general rule seemed to be to ignore the matter rather than tackle it...

A. What worried me from the beginning was that this space was being left wide open for the pro-secession camp to tell their story without an alternative narrative to oppose it. Besides, the Catalan challenge is playing out outside our borders, in the United Nations and the European Union...

Q. But did you feel backed by the government?

A. I felt backed by my conscience. If we had insisted more, separatist sentiment would not have expanded so much, and many Catalans who felt defenseless would have felt protected. I did what I felt I had to do, and I know there was a significant price to pay, I am perfectly aware of it, but I believe that in politics silence is not golden, because it can come across as acquiescence. I am not afraid of defending my ideas.

Q. You did not defend dealing with the Catalan challenge merely through the law.

A. I believe that it is necessary to do politics. The unity of Spain will be much more securely guaranteed if it rests on peoples feelings and not just on the law.

I have been bold with my proposals, but disciplined when a decision was made

Q. Its been said that you held hopes of being Rajoys successor.

A. That is a piece of infamy that was conveniently spread around.

Q. Do you feel that your friendship with Rajoy has deteriorated over the last few years?

A. I very much hope not. It would be very painful if that were the case.

Q. Authorities in Gibraltar will be among those who celebrated that you are no longer the foreign minister.

A. I have no doubt about it, which means that I was right in the first place, but I also think that their joy is premature. I am certain that no Spanish government will waste the opportunity presented by Brexit.

Q. Is Donald Trump a danger?

A. Of course he is. Some of the things he has promised to do are impossible to carry out, and he will not do them. But what scares me is that there are so many people who supported the kind of populist option that he represents.

English version by Susana Urra.
Sentencing Zigelis to seven years at the Central Criminal Court, with the final two years suspended, Mr Justice Paul Butler said when a human being is stabbed to death in such circumstances, the charge should be murder. Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto

A man who fatally stabbed his housemate in the heart after they fought about food during a drinking binge has been jailed for five years.

Deivydas Zigelis (39) was found not guilty of murder but guilty of the manslaughter of Alexander Karpovs (26) by a jury in June this year.

Mr Karpovs, who was originally from Latvia, died of a single stab wound to the heart at his home on Spa Street in Portarlington, Co Laois, on February 15, 2014.

Sentencing Zigelis to seven years at the Central Criminal Court, with the final two years suspended, Mr Justice Paul Butler said when a "human being is stabbed to death in such circumstances, the charge should be murder".

But he acknowledged that the manslaughter conviction had been the correct one as the crime was "clearly not a premeditated killing".

During the trial, jurors were shown photographs taken inside the house the dead man and his killer shared. The images showed the floors littered with mess, broken crockery, drink cans and empty cigarette boxes.

Describing Lithuanian Zigelis as a "functioning alcoholic", Mr Justice Butler said the killing "took place in a hovel".

He said the defendant "appears to be a decent person" who has vowed never to touch alcohol again and has "shown genuine remorse".
The scene of the stabbing on North Strand, Dublin 1.

A murder accused left a row at a chip shop near his home and returned minutes later with a knife, a barrister told a jury at the Central Criminal Court today.

Donal Colgan (65), of Killarney Court, Killarney St, Dublin 1, has pleaded not guilty to murdering 39-year-old David Sheridan outside Luigi's chip shop on the North Strand Road on August 17/18, 2014.

Opening the trial today prosecuting counsel Paul Burns SC said Mr Sheridan met a friend on Summerhill Parade earlier in the day on August 17, bought drink at an off licence and returned to Summerhill.

Later on they went to the chip shop on North Strand Road, taking the drink from the off-licence with them.

Donal Colgan and a number of other young people were already there. At some point Mr Colgan went outside and there was an "altercation" but then Mr Colgan left the area.

When Mr Colgan returned some time later he was "carrying a knife which he used to stab David Sheridan a number of times," Mr Burns said.

Mr Sheridan died the following day and a postmortem showed that a number of stab wounds caused his death.

The trial continues this afternoon in front of Justice Carmel Stewart and a jury of nine men and three women.
Martin Conmey and his wife Ann outside the Court of Criminal Appeal

THE State has apologised "unreservedly" before the High Court to a man whose conviction for the manslaughter of a young woman neighbour more than 40 years ago was certified a miscarriage of justice.

The State has also agreed to pay appropriate compensation to Martin Conmey, the court was told.

Mr Conmey (65), from Ratoath, Co Meath, accompanied by his wife and other family members, was in court when the apology was read by Shane Murphy SC, for the State, before Mr Justice Seamus Noonan.

Mr Conmey was acquitted in 2010 of the manslaughter of civil servant Una Lynskey (19), whose body was discovered in the Dublin mountains about two months after she was last seen getting off a bus near her home at Porterstown Lane, Ratoath, Co Meath.

The acquittal came 38 years after he was jailed for three years for the offence.

After the Court of Criminal Appeal in 2014 certified the conviction amounted to a miscarriage of justice, Mr Conmey brought proceedings seeking compensation.

When his case came before Mr Justice Noonan Tuesday, Hugh Hartnett SC, for Mr Conmey, said it had settled and could be struck out on terms including costs to Mr Conmey and an apology read by Mr Murphy.

It said: The Minister for Justice and Equality, on behalf of the State, wishes to formally acknowledge that Mr Martin Conmey, who was convicted of certain offences in 1973 and served a term of imprisonment in consequence, was a victim of a miscarriage of justice. This has been certified by the Court of Criminal Appeal.

The State apologises unreservedly to Mr Conmey.

"The State regrets the pain and loss experienced by Mr Conmey as a result of his imprisonment and has taken steps to pay appropriate compensation to him in accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Act 1993."

In a statement after the brief court hearing, Mr Conmey said: "I accept and appreciate the State's apology."

He thanked his wife Anne and son Ray for standing by him "through all this" and for the great support they, and other family and friends, provided.

He also thanked his lawyers.

The case arose following the disappearance on October 12, 1971, of Ms Lynskey after she got off a bus from Dublin, less than half a mile from her home.

Her body was discovered two months later near Tibradden in the mountains in an advanced state of decomposition. The cause of her death has never been determined.

Mr Conmey and his friend Dick Donnelly were convicted of Ms Lynskeys manslaughter in July 1972.

A third man, Martin Kerrigan, who was also suspected of having been involved in Ms Lynskeys death, was abducted and killed by her brothers, Sean and James Lynskey, and her cousin John Gaughan, nine days after her body was discovered.

Mr Donnelly won his appeal against his conviction in 1973 but Mr Conmeys conviction was upheld and he served three years in jail.

In November 2010, the Court of Criminal Appeal overturned this conviction after finding early statements taken from witnesses Martin Madden and Sean Reilly  which tended to favour Mr Conmey  were not disclosed to the defence and were radically inconsistent with later statements by the same witnesses and evidence given at the trial.

The court heard the statements in evidence at the trial placed Mr Conmey and Mr Donnelly on Porterstown Lane during the crucial 15-minute period in which Ms Lynskey disappeared, having stepped off her bus at 6.55pm and embarked upon the short walk to her home.

Arising out of the 2010 decision, the Court of Criminal Appeal in 2014 certified Mr Conmey's conviction as a miscarriage of justice.
A YOUNG father fell into a slurry pit and died from inhalation of toxic gases after he took a short cut home across a farmyard last Christmas.

The revelation came as a Cork coroners inquest returned a verdict of accidental death for Diarmuid Twomey (31) who vanished on December 20 while walking home from a family Christmas gathering in Cork city.

Mr Twomeys body was only discovered five weeks later on January 28 in a slurry pit in Whitechurch outside Cork city.

A post mortem examination by Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster revealed the father of two died from inhalation of hydrogen sulphide gases after entering a slurry pit.

He did not drown.

There was no sign of trauma to his body which had to be identified from dental records.

Dr Bolster said he would have died very quickly.

His partner, Ciara Byrne, had made numerous heartfelt appeals for information on his whereabouts last Christmas  but admitted she knew Diarmuid wasnt alive when his mother died on January 6 and nothing was heard from him.

He was the carer for his elderly parents.

The young mother said she had started to fear the worst when there was no sign of Diarmuid by Christmas Eve.

He adored his family and his little girls  it wasnt in him not to be there for Christmas, she said.

She had to tell her daughters that: Daddy got lost in the dark and went to Heaven.

Cork coroner Frank O'Connell described it as "a difficult and tragic case."

"This is a great mystery," he said.

"But I am convinced this was an accident. I think his entry into the slurry was an accident. I don't think he knew what was there....particularly in the darkness of the night."

Mr Twomey vanished after leaving a family Christmas party on December 19/20 to walk some 10km to his home in rural Carrignavar.

He had complained of feeling unwell and wanted to walk rather than take a taxi with his partner.

However, he never reached home.

Concern for his welfare mounted when his mobile phone was discovered by farmer Margaret Leader in her yard in Whitechurch the following day.

However, despite a search of adjacent fields, rivers and forests no trace of him was found.

Four motorists and taxi drivers confirmed having seen a person matching Mr Twomey's description walking on the Whitechurch Road between 3am and 5am.

Mr Twomeys remains were eventually located on January 28 when farmer Pat McAuliffe began work to agitate a slurry pit on his lands.

The slurry pit was located on a different farm, some 400 metres away from where Mr Twomey's mobile phone was recovered on December 20.

The pit was enclosed on three sides by a high fence and wall and, to the front, by gates.

The gates were checked on December 20 by farm worker James Wycherley and were not open.

Ms Byrne said she had lost hope several weeks before the grim discovery.

Mr Twomeys mother died on January 6 as the search for her missing son was at its height.

His father is now in a nursing home.

Hundreds of volunteers had joined with Gardai, Civil Defence and the Irish Coast Guard in combing the Whitechurch, Carrignavar and Ballinahina countryside over five weeks for clues as to what happened to the young man.

Ms Byrne revealed she later had to tell her two daughters, Lily (5) and Katie (3), that their father had gone to Heaven.

What happened is nothing more than a tragic accident, she said.

The outcome was devastating for us all especially considering where he was found.

As time goes on you never really forget it, you just learn to live with it. But he will be forever in our hearts and always with us.

The Twomey family said it is a particularly difficult time at the moment as the first anniversary of the tragedy approaches.

Gardai described Mr Twomeys death as a tragic accident.
Meningitis B is one of the most feared illnesses by parents who may not recognise the symptoms and get their child treated on time.

The rollout of two new vaccines to babies, to protect against meningitis B and the rotavirus, may be delayed if a fee is not agreed with GPs.

Parents were promised the jabs would be added to the childhood vaccines programme for babies from December 1.

However, both the Irish Medical Organisation and the National Association of General Practitioners said this deadline will not be met unless a fee for the extra workload is agreed.

The HSE said it hopes that there will be a timely rollout of the vaccines.

Meningitis B is one of the most feared illnesses by parents who may not recognise the symptoms and get their child treated on time.

It can strike with speed and lead to death or severe complications if untreated.

The rotavirus is a highly infectious stomach bug.

Fianna Fail Dublin West TD, Jack Chambers yesterday strongly criticised the failure of the Health Department to plan for the introduction these vaccines.

He warned of the growing concern by many families of newborn babies nationwide.

"This is another example of the Government committing to a vaccination programme which it is simply not delivering," Mr Chambers said.

"This has the potential to be a serious public health concern. What are the government doing to rectify this situation?"
An inquiry into the care of three mothers by a consultant obstetrician has heard a patient received excessive doses of a labour medication that can lead to foetal distress.

An inquiry into the care of three mothers by a consultant obstetrician has heard a patient received excessive doses of a labour medication that can lead to foetal distress.

The disciplinary hearing, held by the Medical Council in Lucan, Co Dublin, also heard that one of the babies was too high in his mother's pelvis for a vaginal birth to be possible, despite repeated attempts on the part of the doctor.

Dr Salah Aziz Ahmed faces allegations of poor professional performance and professional misconduct relating to three women who gave birth at Cavan General Hospital between November 2012 and April 2014.

Last week, the inquiry heard details involving one of the patients, a 37-year-old woman, referred to as Patient One, whose baby passed away 32 hours after he was born.

The baby was born by emergency caesarean section on the night of November 22, 2012.

It is alleged that Dr Aziz failed to start the procedure in a timely manner.

Expert witness Joanna Gillham, a consultant obstetrician based in St Mary's Hospital in Manchester, told the inquiry yesterday that the increments in which syntocinon, a labour medication, was administered to Patient One during her labour exceeded hospital guidelines.

Dr Gillham said syntocinon, a medication used during labour to strengthen and increase contractions, can be used to very good effect to help progress labour.

However, if used incorrectly, she said, it can cause foetal distress.

In the evening of November, 22 the syntocinon administered to Patient One was increased from 90mls per hour to 180mls.

This increase "was unnecessary and could lead to foetal compromise", Dr Gillham said.

Dr Aziz faces allegations regarding the dosage of syntocinon administered to Patient One.

Dr Gillham also raised concerns regarding the findings of the CTG tracing machine that monitored the baby's heart-rate throughout the afternoon and evening of November 22.

Eileen Barrington SC, representing Dr Aziz, said her client would argue the syntocinon was increased in the hope of facilitating the success of an instrumental vaginal delivery.

But Dr Gillham disagreed with this approach and, referring to the increase, said: "I cannot see it was clinically justified".

Under cross examination, Dr Gillham said she had a number of criticisms of the midwifery care provided to Patient One on the afternoon of November 22, both in regard to the administration of syntocinon and the CTG monitoring.

She said both the dilution of the syntocinon and the increments in which it was given to Patient One were not in accordance with hospital guidelines.

Dr Aziz denies the allegations against him. The inquiry continues today at the Medical Council.
Projected costs for the planned new National Childrens Hospital have more than doubled from 480m to 1bn, the Dail has heard.

Independent TD Mattie McGrath said the costs of the project were now spiralling out of control and were a runaway train.

The Rural Independent Alliance TD for Tipperary said he still opposed plans to locate the hospital at St Jamess Hospital in central Dublin.

But he said the projected cost over-runs could fund a resolution of the public pay crux and fix health service problems like those at Clonmel Hospital.

What is staggering is that these costs exclude fit-out costs for equipment and IT, Mr McGrath argued. He asked the Taoiseach if he wanted to be remembered in the future as the person who presided over such huge cost over-runs.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the planned new hospital would provide childrens health services for the next 50 years. He said the matter would be subject of a memo to Government from Public Spending Minister, Paschal Donohoe, and Health Minister, Simon Harris.

Mr Kenny said value for money would be central to government deliberations.

Replying to Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, the Taosieach said there would be an orderly process to deal with public service pay. But he said nobody wanted to wreck the economic gains made in recent years.

Mr Adams said the Taoiseach had given no indication of when or how new public service pay talks would begin. He urged Mr Kenny to avoid macho posturing on the issue which he said Fianna Fail leader, Micheal Martin, was engaging in.

The Fianna Fail leader focused on what he said was the funding crisis in the Institutes of Technology countrywide. Mr Kenny said a new third level college funding plan was currently being prepared.
Pressure is mounting on Education Minister Richard Bruton to set a clear timeline for the introduction of a new system to assign special need teaching resources after it emerged some children are being unnecessarily "labelled" with disorders.

The head of the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has warned that a practice known as 'diagnosis for dollars' is happening here with professionals making some children "fit a certain category of disability in order for them to get a resource".

In other cases medics over-diagnose because they feel like an advocate for a child.

Under the current system a formal diagnosis of conditions such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is required before extra teaching supports are provided by the Department of Education.

Aine Lynch, CEO of National Parents Council (Primary) said they have been looking for changes to the assessment system for some time.

"We would be absolutely concerned about the assessment and labelling," she said.

"Teachers are the best people to assess children's learning capabilities and that should be reflected in the allocation of resources."

Ms Lynch said a broader range of questions also needed to be asked in relation to whether children should be labelled with certain disabilities from such a young age.

And writing in today's Irish Independent, Fianna Fail's education spokesman Thomas Byrne described as "shocking and worrying" the idea that some professionals could offer a misdiagnosis for money.

Teresa Griffin, the head of the NCSE, has revealed she has been told first-hand by professionals that they had misdiagnosed children in order to help them get extra resources.

Mr Byrne said the relevant professional bodies "need to respond" to this statement.

"Making a child 'fit' into diagnostic category simply for the purpose of gaining access to learning supports, may mean that a temporary behavioural problem can become a more lasting one," the Meath East TD said.

"A wider issue with over-labelling is the effect it is having on the distribution of educational resources across schools.

"There are gross inefficiencies and inequities in the current system of allocating resource teachers across schools."

The Education Department is in the process of creating a new model to distribute resources but a firm timeline for its implementation has not been agreed.

It will remove the link between a diagnosis of a disability and the allocation of resources, instead placing more emphasis on a schools overall needs.

The earliest the changes will be in place is September 2017.

Ms Lynch said this will bring a "better way of looking at resources" as schools are best placed to understand the individual needs of children.

"A disability label doesn't tell us best about the child's educational needs," she said.
Tensions escalated yesterday as thousands of junior doctors in the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) declared they will begin balloting for industrial action  up to and including striking. Photo: Stock

Struggling hospitals may be plunged into chaos in January as junior doctors threaten industrial action in a dispute which would cost over 12m to settle.

The action by trainee medics - who are crucial to the running of hospitals - could hit services early in the new year and coincide with a separate work-to-rule and work stoppages by nurses.

If both disputes clash, hospitals will be almost brought to a standstill with serious risks to patients.

Tensions escalated yesterday as thousands of junior doctors in the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) declared they will begin balloting for industrial action - up to and including striking.

The dispute is over the failure to restore a 3,182 living-out allowance, which was abolished for new recruits in 2012.

Around 4,000 junior doctors currently working in the health service would benefit from the restoration of the allowance.

It is aimed at helping with the rental costs of the young trainees, who must change location every six months.

Talks to settle the dispute were due to get underway with the IMO yesterday - but in a shock move Health Department officials announced they could not proceed.

The union representatives were told they would have to put the claim to the Public Service Pay Commission.

The original invitation to talks had come from the department after the IMO brought High Court proceedings.

Junior doctors' leader Dr John Duddy said last night the ballot will start in the coming weeks.

"It is just a further example of the lack of respect for doctors and ignoring the crisis we have in retaining doctors in Ireland," he said.

"It is typical of Government to reach agreements and breach them within a matter of weeks.

"Doctors will have no choice now but to consider all avenues to have our issues resolved, including industrial action.

"No doctor wants to strike and indeed it would be with great reluctance that we would embark on such an action, but in the face of a Government that behaves in such a manner we will have no choice."

In a joint statement yesterday, Health Minister Simon Harris and Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe said there was no money available to pay the doctors.

They insisted that "restoration of the allowance involves potentially significant Exchequer resources".

These have not been provided for in either the current or next year's budgetary provision, they said.

They said the claim would "need to be considered in the context of wider public sector engagement."

Many doctors who graduated since 2012 are working abroad and would not be eligible.

The restoration would cost over 12m going forward. Retrospection would add another 48m to the bill.

But this retrospection was not going to be pursued.

However, the retrospection may end up potentially being recommended when the case is heard by the High Court in February.

This would pose a massive financial headache for the Government.

Nurses are also to begin balloting later this month in protest at the failure to come up with incentives to recruit and retain staff.

If they vote in favour of action it will trigger in January when hospitals are severely overcrowded due to flu and a post-Christmas influx of patients.

The uncertainty sparked by the two potential disputes will also damage efforts to try to reduce hospital waiting lists which are at record levels.

The trolley crisis is also worsening, with 424 waiting for a bed across the country yesterday morning.

The doctors' sense of grievance is made worse when they point to other precedents for the return of allowances to firefighters and gardai.

The gardai saw their rent allowance of 4,017 returned.

Teachers in the INTO and TUI have also had their honours primary degree allowance, of 4,918, also restored for new entrants.
A cyclist in Barcelona's Clot neighborhood. C. Bautista

Barcelona City Hall has announced it is to press ahead with a pilot scheme to roll out a cashless local currency over the course of 2017 and 2018 in the working class Besos district in the northeast of the city. The idea is for the currency to become legal tender in 2019.

The Bank of Spain has warned against the initiative, which was first mooted by Mayor Ada Colau after she won local elections in May 2015, describing it as informal, with no legal framework, or regulator or adequate supervision.

The idea is for local stores and residents to be able to exchange euros for this new currency

Colau, who made her name campaigning against mortgage foreclosures and home seizures, heads a left-leaning coalition. The idea is for local stores and residents to be able to exchange euros for this new currency, and use it to purchase products and services at a discount or with other kinds of advantages. Municipal workers may also receive part of their salary in the new money. The exchange rate would be one-to-one.

This is a medium-term project, the details of which are still to be completed, its a work in progress, said Jordi Via, Barcelona City Halls commissioner for Social and Cooperative Economy.

There are numerous precedents, both in Spain and elsewhere: the Bristol pound in Britain, the Chiemgauer in the German region of Bavaria, the sol-violette in the French city of Toulouse, the ekhi in Bilbao, the res in Girona, and the puma in Seville.

Barcelona City Hall has not said whether the new currency will be digital or physical, what it will be called, or how businesses that want to use it can sign up to the scheme, simply that the idea is to help keep the wealth generated locally in the city.

Barcelona City Hall has not said whether the new currency will be digital or physical

The scheme will be part of a 24-million initiative to introduce a minimum wage in the city using 4.8 million from EU funds, says Barcelona City Hall, which is also considering tying the currency into the creation of an energy utility whereby money saved from lower energy costs would be pumped back into the community in the form of a local currency to be spent in businesses in the area.

Colaus administration will likely have to put next years budget to a vote of confidence. If it is unable to get them approved before years end, then the opposition will have a month to put together an alternative administration to run City Hall. If it fails to do so, then the budget will be approved automatically. It seems unlikely that the opposition, made up of the conservative Popular Party (PP), the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) and the center-right Convergence and Union (CiU), along with emerging group Ciudadanos, will be able to work together. The proposals will be put to the vote today, Tuesday.

CiU, ERC and the PP, with 18 votes, have said they will vote against the proposals; Colau and her supporters have 16 votes. Ciudadanos has five seats and the left-wing pro-independence Popular United Candidacy (CUP) has three.

English version by Nick Lyne.
A student nurse who saved a little boy from choking on a chocolate sweet says everyone should learn basic first-aid.

Becky Topping (20) was out having frozen yoghurt with a friend when she noticed the toddler in difficulty.

We were only sat about two tables away. I could see his mother looking flustered and saying No, no, no.

"His face was purple, so I just took him off her and slapped his back, she said.

Caiden McCloskey (2) had swallowed the chocolate sweet whole but, thanks to Beckys quick-thinking, he threw it up.

Becky, who is a final-year nursing student at Queens University Belfast, says she is just glad she knew what to do.

All I want out of this is for people to be aware of how important basic first aid skills are, which can be easily available through YouTube. It doesn't have to be through a course, just so they know what to do, she told Independent.ie.

Natasha McCaughey, Caidens mother, hailed Becky as a hero.

Words cant describe how thankful I am for her saving my sons life. You truly are an angel and Ill be forever thankful. Caiden has made a full recovery and is still his cheeky self.

I don't really know what to say other than I owe my life to her. She's a godsend and I can't bear to think what would have happened to my boy if she wasn't there, she told Independent.ie.

Spoon Street, the ice-cream shop where the incident happened, responded by giving the Carrickfergus girl a gift card.

We will all be very lucky to have you as a nurse when you qualify, a spokesperson for Spoon Street said.
Endangered: Curlews have been robbed of their habitat in meadows and bogs, with their nests attacked by crows and foxes Photo: Abi Warner

That the plaintive cry of the curlew is not now just a fading remembrance of those who have lived longest, or merely a crackly recording gathering dust in the sound archives, is something of a miracle.

But now it really is approaching endgame for the harbinger of the hay field, along with its preferred breeding ground of rough pasture, bog and meadows. Our farmers have become too productive and the crow and the fox are taking a cruel harvest.

Yeats's evocative He Reproves the Curlew is now as much prophesy as poem: "O curlew, cry no more in the air/ Or only to the water in the West."

And so there is to be one more attempt to save the curlew and its evocative cry. A task force is to be established to save one of Ireland's most threatened breeding bird species.

The Curlew in Crisis workshop took place in Co Westmeath earlier this month and brought together almost 100 scientists and conservationists to examine the crisis facing breeding curlews in Ireland.

Results from a survey funded by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) over the last two years show that just 130 breeding pairs remain in the Republic and that the species is now facing extinction here within 10 years if emergency action is not taken.

"We hope this voluntary initiative will encourage Heather Humphreys, the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, to find much-needed funds to prevent the imminent extinction of curlews in Ireland," said Dr Anita Donaghy of BirdWatch Ireland.

Most curlews in Ireland nest on bog, but farmland is also a very important nesting habitat for them.

Declines in numbers have been blamed on the loss of bogs, agricultural intensification and predation by foxes and crows. Land abandonment and afforestation are also issues.

Curlews really are home birds and UK research suggests that they remain faithful to the same nesting sites year on year, and so immediate measures to protect known breeding sites must be put in place in advance of the next breeding season in spring 2017.

The Department of Agriculture introduced measures for curlews in the GLAS funding mechanism and farmers, with breeding curlews now having priority access.

However, other measures needed include protection of breeding pairs on bogs and more control of foxes and crows at known sites.

The workshop was initiated by UK-based radio producer and presenter Mary Colwell, who earlier this year walked for 500 miles across Ireland and England to raise awareness of the plight of the curlew.

"The many people I met on my walk showed me how deep the concern is that breeding curlew are fast disappearing from the Irish landscape," she said.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny with Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster at Government Buildings in Dublin, where they are to discuss Brexit. Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster has ruled out attending any future All Ireland Brexit Forums after her first meeting in Government Buildings with Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

Mr Kenny and Ms Foster held a meeting in Dublin to discuss a shared approach to Britains decision to leave the European Union ahead of a crunch North South Ministerial Council meeting in Armagh on Friday.

However, despite both politicians describing the meeting as constructive, Ms Foster insisted she will not attend any Ireland based Brexit forums.

The First Minister caused controversy when she snubbed the forum hosted by Taoiseach in Dublin last month.

Speaking in Government Buildings, Ms Foster said she her position on the Brexit Forum was very clear and insisted she will not be changing her stance.

What I want is to get on with doing the business and thats what we have been doing today and we will continue to do on the North South Ministerial Council, she said.

Its not about a public face its about doing work and thats what we are engaged in here today, she added.

Both Ms Foster and Mr Kenny raised the prospect of holding an early ministerial council meeting next year ahead of the British government triggering Article 50 by the end of March, which will officially begin the Brexit process.

Asked about her claim that Irish State agencies were talking down Northern Ireland as part of an effort to lure jobs from the region, Ms Foster said: We are not going to agree on everything.

We are competitors in terms of foreign direct investment but what tonights meeting was about was those areas we do want to agree on, she added.

However, she said the North and South have a very strong and mature relationship which will develop even more in the future.

Ms Foster also said she would be willing to speak before the Seanad or Dail if she was asked.

The Taoiseach said he will work very closely with Ms Foster throughout the Brexit process.

(We will) work in the terms of the common ground we have here and work in the interest of the people of Ireland with particular reference to the areas of common travel in the border areas and the economies that are interlinked for so many years, he said.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny with Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster at Government Buildings in Dublin, where they are to discuss Brexit. Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Taoiseach Enda Kenny with Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster at Government Buildings in Dublin, where they are to discuss Brexit. Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Taoiseach Enda Kenny with Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster at Government Buildings in Dublin, where they are to discuss Brexit. Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster speaks to the media on her arrival at Government Buildings in Dublin to discuss Brexit with Taoiseach Enda Kenny. Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Taoiseach Enda Kenny with Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster at Government Buildings in Dublin, where they are to discuss Brexit. Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Taoiseach Enda Kenny with Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster at Government Buildings in Dublin, where they are to discuss Brexit. Brian Lawless/PA Wire

TAOISEACH Enda Kenny is currently hosting his first meeting in Government Buildings with Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster since her appointment.

Mr Kenny and Ms Foster are meeting to discuss the all Ireland implications of Brexit ahead of Friday's crunch North South Ministerial Council meeting in Armagh.

The pair clashed at the last council meeting over the Taoiseach's plans to hold a Brexit Forum which Ms Foster ultimately snubbed.

The First Minister has also accused the IDA of poaching jobs from Northern Ireland in the wake of Britain's decision to leave the EU.

Speaking in his office, Mr Kenny welcomed Ms Foster to Government Buildings and said he hoped they would have a constructive meeting.

"I met with the First Minister in Enniskillen on Sunday on the occasion of remembrance there.

"We look forward to a very constructive discussion here about issues that of concern to us, north and south, and we look forward to our meeting for the third week this week on Friday in Armagh at the North-South Ministerial (Council),"he added.

Ms Foster thanked the Taoiseach and said: "We are looking forward now to a constructive, business like meeting. We know that our officials have been working together on some work and we want to discuss some of those issues now."
Children's Minister Katherine Zappone has said she is "very disappointed and angry" that American voters chose Donald Trump as their next president.

Ms Zappone fears that many of the "fundamental freedoms" on which her native USA is built could be undermined by the new administration.

She intends to use her position as a member of Cabinet to raise concerns about many of the policies the president-elect was advocating during the election campaign.

"I acknowledge it was a very bruising campaign," Ms Zappone said.

"I was very disappointed and angry at the choice of president-elect Trump.

"I feel very upset about the choice of the American people.

"At the same time I am a democrat. I have to accept that."

Ms Zappone, who was born in Seattle and studied in Boston College before moving to Ireland with her partner, said the implications of the election will start to become clear when Mr Trump makes appointments to his Supreme Court.

Ms Zappone has long campaigned for Ireland's strict abortion laws to be loosened and now fears that Mr Trump could bring back a ban in the US.

The Republican has said any new judges appointed during his tenure will be "pro-life".

Asked specifically whether he wants the Supreme Court to repeal the landmark Roe versus Wade decision, which legalised abortion nationwide, Mr Trump replied that if the decision were overturned the issue of abortion would be decided by each state.

"If it ever were overturned, it would go back to the states," he said.

Asked to clarify, Mr Trump replied: "Yeah, well, they'll perhaps have to go, they'll have to go to another state."

Ms Zappone said the incoming president's changes "may row back on many of the equalities and fundamental freedoms that as an original citizen of the United States I would say that our country is founded on".

She said it was a "great privilege" for her to be a Cabinet minister in another country "knowing the deep bonds that Ireland shares with America".

But she added: "Regardless of who is in office in Dublin or in Washington I look forward to playing my part in raising our concerns with President Trump in the natural bilateral relations that any government would have."

Ms Zappone's comments will be seen as strong given that ministers have been asked to hold back on criticising the new president.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny was among the first world leaders contacted by Mr Trump after his election last week.

Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan has said: "We need to get on with it."
File photo: The area was declared safe at 1.45pm.

The army were required to disarm a viable explosive device in Kildare earlier today.

The Defence Forces deployed the Army Bomb Disposal Team on request from An Garda Siochana after a suspect device was found in Athy, Co Kildare.

The Army Bomb Disposal Team arrived at 12.45pm and rendered a viable improvised explosive device (IED) safe at the scene.

A number of houses were evacuated to ensure the safety of the residents.

The area was declared safe at 1.45pm.

The device was then removed to a secure military location for further examination.

Material has been handed over to An Garda Siochana to assist them with their investigation.
Gardai have expressed 'serious concerns' for the wellbeing of a missing man this evening.

Gardai in Kells in Co Meath are concerned for the wellbeing of John Tobin (31).

John was last seen at approximately 6am on the 13th November 2016 at Stonebridge in Kells.

He is approximately 5 2 tall, thin build and with short brown hair.

When last seen John was wearing a navy polo shirt, dark blue jeans and a dark green jumper. Gardai and his family have serious concerns for his well being.

Anyone who has seen John or who can assist in locating him is asked to contact Kells Garda Station on 046-9280820, The Garda Confidential Telephone Line 1800 666 111 or any Garda Station.
Ministers urged Paschal Donohoe, the Public Expenditure Minister, to stand firm against an ultimatum issued by SIPTU President Jack OConnor (pictured). Photo: Tony Gavin

TRADE Unions are demanding pay increases of at least four per cent next year for private sector workers.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) today said the claims will be lodged from January on behalf of 300,000 workers.

ICTU official John Douglas said the expectation is that workers would see their pay increase by 1,000.

He said the 4pc figure being sought is based on financial data received from the Department of Finance.

We believe these demands are fair, reasonable and will stand up to scrutiny, Mr Douglas told Independent.ie.

The news comes as the Cabinet today met to discuss the ongoing row over public sector pay.

Ministers urged Paschal Donohoe, the Public Expenditure Minister, to stand firm against an ultimatum issued by SIPTU President Jack OConnor.

Mr OConnor has said that he will authorise sectoral organisers in SIPTU to ballot for industrial action unless new pay talks are announced by Thursday.

Meanwhile, trade union Unite is seeking a restoration of the Croke Park hours and equal pay in advance of the Lansdowne Road Agreement re-negotiation.

Speaking before Wednesday's meeting of the Congress Public Services Committee, Unites Richie Browne said that in the absence of early negotiation, it would consider a return to sectoral bargaining.

It is clear that the Lansdowne Road Agreement is not delivering for workers and must be replaced as soon as possible. To that end, we are calling on the Government to commit to early re-negotiation and, as a token of good faith, to commit now to the principle of equal pay for equal work, and to restoration of the Croke Park hours.

If the Government does not commit to an early re-negotiation of the Lansdowne Road agreement, Unite will need to consider whether our members best interests might not be served by a return to sectoral bargaining.
A single route on the country's rail network is costing the taxpayer 550 per passenger, ministers will be told today.

The extraordinary cost to the State to operate the loss-making Limerick-Ballybrophy line is revealed in a memo being brought to Cabinet by Transport Minister Shane Ross.

It compares to the sum of just 90c it costs per Dart passenger through the Government's subvention to the trouble-hit Irish Rail.

In 2012, Irish Rail added four extra daily services - at a cost of almost 20,000 per day - to the route which is serving the constituency of the then public transport minister Alan Kelly.

At the same time, just 73 people a day used the line, generating a paltry 753 a day in fares. But it now seems likely Mr Ross, an Independent Alliance minister, will close the route in order to save further taxpayers' money from being squandered.

According to the memo, seen by the Irish Independent, Irish Rail's body finances are deteriorating.

It suggests the taxpayer may have to foot the bill to deal with a black hole in the finances of the semi-State body.

The memo has been brought to Cabinet on the back of a review carried out into Irish Rail's finances.

"Until Iarnrod Eireann's financial situation is rectified, the eventual costs to the Exchequer will continue to grow, while performance of the railway deteriorates. In the short-term, bridging the funding gap is necessary to prevent this," the memo states.

"The review identifies wide disparities in the funding requirement for the various routes on the network. It identifies the subvention requirement per passenger journey on each route, based on the running costs for these routes (excluding the capital investment). It shows, for example, that the subvention for each passenger journey on the Dart is 90c and on Limerick-Ballybrophy is 550."

Mr Ross will gain credit if he finally ends some of the network's loss making routes.

According to the memo, decisions on routes won't be taken until a public consultation takes place.

"The minister has stated that no decisions will be taken on any of the options identified in the review in advance of a full process of public consultation and that it is appropriate that the public and all interested parties get an opportunity to contribute to the debate on the future of rail," it states.

The memo adds that the National Transport Authority (NTA) has prepared a short consultation paper which is due to be published shortly.

"This public consultation gives respondents the opportunity to provide the NTA with public and stakeholder opinion on an optimal rail network for Ireland and its funding," according to the memo.
Of the 160 children diagnosed with cancer each year in Ireland, survival rates are positive, according to Dr Robert O'Connor, head of research for the Irish Cancer society.

"Most childhood cancer is genetic and not caused by lifestyle issues," he says. "Leukaemia is the most common form found in children, but while childhood cancer can be aggressive as it grows more rapidly in youngsters, children tend to respond very well to treatment and currently around nine out of every 10 will be cured."

Cliodhna Pearson is one of those children.

Diagnosed with neuroblastoma when she was just four years old, the Dublin girl has spent most of the past year in hospital as she undergoes treatment. Neuroblastoma is a disease in which cancer cells form in nerve tissue of the adrenal gland, neck, chest, or spinal cord. It is the third most common childhood cancer after leukemia and cancer of the central nervous system.

Cliodhna's parents, Alan and Sinead (who also have two other children, Niamh and Darragh) have spent the past year by their daughter's side as they watched their bubbly, lively five-year-old bravely endure the most gruelling experience ever.

"Cliodhna has always been a very active child and was always full of life," says Alan. "So when she started having frequent high temperatures, we just thought it was normal childhood illness. After treating her with over-the-counter medicine, we took her to the GP who said it was probably a virus.

"However she didn't recover and then started to limp, which we initially thought was as a result of playing about. But Cliodhna isn't one to complain, so when she said she felt sore, we took her back to the doctor who referred her to the emergency department as he thought she might have had a problem with her hip."

Over the course of the next month, Alan and Sinead took their daughter back to casualty five times as they believed there was something amiss - but when the diagnosis was finally delivered, the couple were shell-shocked.

"Every time we took Cliodhna to hospital, we were told there was something minor wrong with her, but we weren't convinced and knew something wasn't right," says Alan. "She had tummy pains and an X-ray revealed a mass in her stomach which doctors put down to constipation, but we insisted on further investigations.

On October 16 2015, our little girl was diagnosed with neuroblastoma.

"To say we were utterly devastated would be an understatement. I remember noticing that there was a cup of tea in my hand - I had no idea where it came from and just wanted to get rid of it and get out of the room as quickly as possible. Both Sinead and I thought we had lost her, we thought this was it and she would soon be gone from us - we were heartbroken," says Alan.

Cliodhna, who was just four, was put on chemotherapy straight away and as the cancer was so aggressive, required very intense treatment in order to try and rid her body of the rogue cells.

"We didn't know what to say to Cliodhna as she was so young, but felt that she ought to know what was going on, so explained as best we could in a language she could understand," says Alan.

"She needed to start treatment immediately - chemotherapy and blood transfusions - and she was put on a clinical trial as we wanted her to have the most up-to-date treatment possible because the cancer was extremely aggressive.

"It wasn't only a solid tumour but was also in her bone marrow - she was going to have to be very strong.

"She was the most incredible patient right from the start. She had eight months of intensive chemotherapy but didn't respond well initially, so had four extra rounds until her bone marrow was clear. Then she had surgery to remove the tumour, followed by more treatment.

"She then had to undergo six weeks in isolation in order to have a stem-cell transplant and also had 14 days of radiotherapy.

"It's important to remember children in oncology wards are the highest users of blood transfusions in the country - most people think that when they give blood, it will be used to help someone who has been in an accident, but they aren't the only ones who need it.

"Young people like Cliodhna regularly need blood transfusions, so I would encourage people to consider donating some blood - for the sake of these children.

"Cliodhna has been through so much in the last year and it still isn't over as her next hurdle is immunotherapy, which she will undergo at the end of November. It's impossible to explain how much she has gone through and how fantastic she has been through it all."

For the past 13 months the Pearson family have had their lives turned upside down and there is more to come, but they are hopeful for the future.

"It's been a very difficult time and has been so tough for Cliodhna," says Alan. "But it has also been hard for our other two kids. We've had had so much support from friends and family and are lucky to have two sets of grandparents who have done everything they could to help us.

"Cliodhna has spent 70pc of the past year in hospital but she is a naturally positive child and takes everything in her stride. She went to school for the first time recently and was so excited to put on the uniform and go and meet her teacher - it was a huge leap for her.

"There is still a long road ahead, and we know that there will be good days and bad days, but despite the battering she has taken, Cliodhna is a very strong little girl and together with family, friends and her medical team, we will help her through this."

Professor Owen Smith, consultant paediatric haematologist at OLCHC, says there is a lot of positive news with regard to treatment for childhood cancers.

"The progress made in the treatment of childhood cancer has been a remarkable success story," he says. "From being an almost lethal disease 40 to 50 years ago, more than 80pc of children with cancer are now being cured. This progress has been the result of basic research and the testing of new knowledge through multi-institutional and multi-national randomised peer-reviewed clinical trials.

"The most common cancer in children, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), has become the 'poster child' for cancer cure in childhoo, which has an overall survival rate of approximately 94pc in our most recent trial."

The expert says early detection is vital and once diagnosed, parents should keep informed.

"Unfortunately, childhood cancers are sometimes overlooked or misdiagnosed because early symptoms are mistakenly attributed to more common injuries or illnesses," says Professor Smith. "Therefore, we recommend that children have regular medical check-ups and that parents pay close attention to the development of unusual signs or symptoms that are ongoing.

"Knowledge is a powerful weapon in coming to terms with the diagnosis, but it also allows you to pick up on important treatment side effects should they arise."

Childhood cancer: the facts

 80pc of childhood cancers will be cured

 Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) is the most common form of childhood cancer

 Other types include brain tumours, lymphomas, sarcomas, neuroblastoma and kidney tumours

 Although some of these cancers may not have the same outcomes as with ALL, rates can be improved if they are diagnosed in the early stages of the disease.

 Possible symptoms include: Persistent high temperature, nausea or illness, often accompanied by vomiting, easy bruising, lump or swelling (particularly in neck, chest, armpits, stomach and groin), loss of energy and pale complexion, headaches, constant pain in one area, unexplained limping and weight-loss

* See cancer.ie, and to donate blood see giveblood.ie
Methamphetamine, better known as crystal meth or ice, and notoriously cooked up by high school teacher Walter White and his sidekick Jesse Pinkman in the hit US television series Breaking Bad, is still uncommon in Spain , but could be about to spread, due in part to its widespread use among Barcelonas Filipino community.

Crystal meth seized by Philippines police. EZRA ACAYAN (REUTERS)

The Philippines is the only place in the world where the highly addictive drug is used more widely than the United States, and many Filipinos take their addictions with them when they move around the world to work. Barcelonas Hospital del Mar has detected the substance in at least 10 Filipinos who came in to give birth and who all lost custody of their newborns.

Catalonias regional police says for the moment Filipinos account for 98% of crystal meth users in Spain. The hydrochloride molecule extracted from amphetamine is 15 times stronger than cocaine and far more addictive, while its effect on the nervous system is devastating. The UN estimates it is consumed by 24 million people worldwide. In the case of Spains Filipino community, the drug is not about leisure: most addicts, say police, are using it to get through long shifts working in kitchens or aboard ships.

Catalan police say Filipinos account for 98% of crystal meth users in Spain

When Filipino-staffed vessels drop anchor at Barcelona, crews soon head to the central Raval district near Las Ramblas, where the drug is readily available, say police, who began detecting use among the 9,754-strong Filipino community in Barcelona in early 2011.

The drug was initially shipped in by post, but then Nigerian drug dealers took over its distribution, bringing it from South Africa. The fear now is that its use could spread among other communities in Spain, made easier by production in secret domestic laboratories.

Cris and Robert, two Filipino cooks working in a bar in Ciutat Vella, confirm that use of the drug is on the rise, saying that Raval  Barcelonas Chinatown  is awash with it. Both have taken it regularly: The first day, you cant sleep. You just want to work without a break, then you look for women But the next day, you cant do anything. So you have to take it again, but you end up a mess. You can be awake for many days, they explain.

Crystal meth seized by Spanish police.

Robert says he pays 50 a gram, which is far more expensive than back home in the Philippines. He believes that 60% of Filipinos he knows have taken crystal meth, known as shabu in his home country. Its very common, he says. In any kitchen where Filipinos work, youll find shabu. If you take too much, you turn into a zombie. It starts with the men, but then the women get into it too.

Spanish pediatrician Dr Angeles Lopez-Vilches says she began to notice something was seriously wrong with some Filipinos who came to give birth at the Hospital del Mar where she works. We thought there was some mistake in the results of the tests, but the babies also tested positive, she says. Hospital staff then noticed that the womens partners also looked run down. The effects on them were even more evident, says Lopez-Vilches, who has published an article on the subject and is carrying out a study in collaboration with Barcelonas Hospital de la Maternitat where many Filipinos have been going to give birth. They had what is known as meth mouth and could hardly talk. Lopez-Vilches adds: When we told them we were taking their babies away, they didnt seem concerned. Some of them didnt even ask to see them.

According to Dr Antonio Paya, head of Obstetrics at Hospital del Mar, taking crystal meth during pregnancy can result in brain damage and detachment of the placenta. Its not just about the drug, he says. Its about the lack of sleep and eating habits.

Barcelonas Hospital del Mar has detected the substance in women who came in to give birth

In response to the problem, Catalan police have begun cracking down on distribution. In January this year they seized eight kilograms and arrested 28 people, most of them Filipinos. But police say the ringleaders were Nigerians bringing the crystal meth in from South Africa and using Barcelona as a distribution base for the rest of Europe.

We arrested 12 Filipinos, says a sergeant from the Catalan police about the operation. We found pistols, a home-made shotgun and shabu hidden under a bed. We found a total of eight kilograms, including what we found in Paris, he says, referring to a parallel operation at Charles de Gaulle airport when five kilograms were seized.

Spain has become crystal meths gateway to Europe, says Catalonias police force, which is now worried that use could spread to the rest of the country.

English version by Heather Galloway.
Antibiotic resistance has grown in the past 10 to 15 years to the point where it is now a serious threat to public health

As winter season approaches, many of us will flock to GPs demanding an antibiotic prescription to 'fix' the problem. And many GPs, against their better judgement, will prescribe powerful antibiotics that are useless to fight viral coughs and colds while reducing our ability to fight serious bacterial infections.

For years, a red flag was raised on how deadly 'superbugs' are less responsive to antibiotic drugs. But we have now reached that critical point where powerful drugs relied on for decades are just not working.

"We are actually in a post-antibiotic era because we have bacterial infections that are not treatable using any antibiotic available to us today," says Professor Ramanan Laxminarayan, director and senior fellow at the Centre for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy in Washington DC.

Ahead of European Antibiotic Awareness Day on November 18, experts like Professor Laxminarayan insist that governments must mobilise public campaigns on a similar scale to the battle against smoking in the 60s.

"We have a limited window now - we don't want to regress to the world we had before antibiotics. We always knew this was coming but resistance has grown in the past 10 to 15 years to the point where it is now a serious threat to public health," he says.

Pharmaceutical companies are not investing in new drugs on grounds of high investment costs, and no new antibiotics have been developed since the 1980s.

The burden of infections and global resistance means that a healthy person can unexpectedly succumb to deadly superbugs, although patients receiving cancer treatment and post-surgery, women following childbirth, newborns and the elderly, are at specific risk.

All the experts agree on the need for a major step up in state efforts to reduce antibiotics, not only in hospitals, GP and veterinary surgeries, but also in meat products for supermarket shelves and in waste water supplies. But changing practices is another matter.

Four million patients across the EU are struck down with a healthcare-related infection each year. About 25,000 human deaths yearly are linked to drug-resistant bacteria, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Related health care costs run to 1.5 billion per annum.

"Ireland is in the top third of antibiotic consumption in the EU - and levels of antibiotic resistance and use are closely linked," explains Dr Nuala O'Connor, who is the Irish College of General Practitioners' lead advisor on antibiotic resistance.

Ireland is about mid-way among EU countries in resistance levels; Greece and Italy show high resistance and Sweden is at the lower end.

A major concern is resistance to powerful drugs, for example, carbapenems which are a last line therapy in patients with serious hospital-acquired infections. In the 'hot spots' of China, India and Thailand, resistance to the drug increased from 1pc in 1999 to 40pc in 2010.

"The bug that's really worrying right now is CRE (carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae) which is reported in countries including Ireland, and is highly resistant with a high mortality rate. While the numbers are small, there's evidence it's starting to circulate in the community," O'Connor says.

Ireland has the highest rates in Europe of the bowel bug VRE (vancomycin-resistant enterococcus), she adds.

GPs in Ireland prescribe too many broad-spectrum antibiotics - far more than countries who are achieving low levels of antibiotic resistance and are using more targeted, narrow spectrum antibiotics. "It's like using bleach-type products for everything instead of washing-up liquid for most jobs," O'Connor explains.

Residents of Irish nursing homes are more than twice as likely to be on an antibiotic than in any other European country. Almost 40pc of antibiotics used in nursing homes and long-stay facilities in 2013 were prescribed on a purely preventative basis.

"We are reducing the number of antibiotic prescriptions especially for those under the age of 16 and we are also reducing broad-spectrum antibiotics. But we have a long way to go. Currently Irish patients use twice as many antibiotics as Scottish patients," says O'Connor.

MRSA has decreased somewhat because, as a skin-borne bug, it is easier to manage through hand washing.

"But there are other serious bugs in the bowel on the rise and when you get ill, those bugs can take over. Every single antibiotic used when it's not necessary is a problem. Doctors need to do better and it's important that people listen to medical professionals when they tell them they don't need antibiotics and they're ineffective for the vast majority of colds which are viral."

There is frustration in the Irish medical and science community which says the Government is not moving with the urgency, purpose or resources needed to tackle the problem. The first national strategy to combat the problem of antibiotic resistance, SARI, was launched in 2001 and has still not been fully implemented, according to O'Connor.

"We urgently need a comprehensive national action plan for antibiotic resistance supported by a properly resourced implementation programme," she says.

Both the departments of Health and Agriculture, Food and the Marine are working on a national action plan with the human health, animal health and environmental sectors. A Joint National Interdepartmental Antimicrobial Resistance Consultative Committee was established in 2014.

"The committee meets twice yearly and most recently met on April 13 2016; a further meeting is scheduled for November 2016. The plan will be finalised in the early part of 2017."

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are found in sewage from hospitals and homes that is ending up in the natural environment. The Environmental Protection Agency published research showing that while pre-treatment before discharge can reduce the presence of resistant bacteria, including E coli, it did not eliminate them completely. Many authorities don't treat sewage and the report warned of the dangers of such discharges.

How antibiotic resistance in meat, especially pork, can filter through the food chain and onto consumers' plates is another concern.

Veterinary Ireland estimates that premix antimicrobial drugs account for 32pc of national use, and the pig industry accounts for most of this. A study by Teagasc found that half of all pig farmers believe in-feed medication is the only way to deal with health issues and ensure good welfare.

In March, MEPs voted in the European Parliament to ban the use of preventative antimicrobials on animals; to restrict the collective dosing of animals to specific cases of illness; prohibit the use of antibiotics in animals that are critical to human medicine, and to end online sales of antibiotics and vaccines.

But many elements of the legislation - the EU Animal Health Law (EU Regulation on Transmissible Animal Disease) - won't enter domestic law until 2021. In the meantime, more action is needed to reduce antibiotic use, according to Dr Nola Leonard, veterinary surgeon and senior lecturer in the School of Veterinary Medicine in UCD.

"There is a huge problem with antibiotic-resistant organisms that are present both in the human population and the animal population, particularly intensively farmed animals. We have animals with infections that are very difficult to treat - it's the same story that we have in hospitals. In Ireland, there are too many infeed antibiotics used in the pig industry, less so in the cattle and dairy industry which is not as intensive," she says.

As a first step, Ireland needs to access more sophisticated data on prescribing practices to identify the extent of the problem in animals. "We have only industry sales data. We must have effective surveillance and electronic recording of prescriptions and usage," Leonard says.

The mandatory visits by vets to farms which was reduced to once yearly under legislation introduced in 2007 should be revisited, so that antibiotic use, and especially preventative use on farms can be regularly reviewed.

"In Ireland, many vets supply antibiotics to farmers as well as write the prescriptions. Whereas in countries like Denmark they've separated prescribing from dispensing and vets can only write prescriptions. The farmer must go to the pharmacist to get the drugs."

Should Ireland consider a similar separation? "Reports from different countries suggest it's a very good thing to separate prescribing from dispensing. The Danes, for example are great advocates."

The Dutch did not separate these functions, but still managed to reduce antibiotics by over 50pc in animal production. In response to public concern, parliament legislated for a 50pc reduction which was achieved. The Dutch have since set a new target of 70pc reduction.

McDonalds, the world's biggest restaurant chain, announced it would stop using antibiotics in chicken for its US restaurants by March 2017.

Bord Bia has alerted Irish farmers that some US food companies are switching to 'free from' products, with "antibiotic free" and "hormone free" meat and poultry recording high growth in 2015.

With over 60,000 farms participating in its Quality Assurance schemes, Bord Bia says it promotes the responsible use of antimicrobials and auditors specifically check this during every audit.

Can the Irish meat industry go antibiotic-free? "To a large degree it's possible but it would mean big changes in management and probably price increases," says Leonard. "This is because pig feed is a large cost in Ireland since we're mostly a grass-producing rather than cereal-producing country.

"If you want a pig industry with good welfare and management practices, you must pay for it, and you can't do it at the cheap prices consumers are paying for it currently."

Anti-microbial medication is put in feed for broiler chickens to prevent the coccidia parasite, commonly found in the intensive poultry industry. "We should investigate the cost of vaccinating day-old broiler chickens to see can we come up with a solution that would eliminate the use of anticoccidial drugs," says Pat Kirwan, former president of Veterinary Ireland.

"The breeder stock is deemed worthy of vaccination, but it's not seen as worthwhile to vaccinate broilers on cost grounds. The vaccines are available if that's what consumers want, but they're not as cheap an alternative or as readily available as drugs. All costs to the industry are considered significant."

Kirwan estimates antibiotics are administered in less than 10pc of broiler chickens for the supermarket shelves. A combination of consumer demand, retail standards and the forthcoming EU Directive will drive changes required in the mass market, since organic meats are still too pricey for most consumers.

"Organic chickens are affordable for some consumers but for you, me and the ordinary person, organic doesn't apply. We don't buy a chicken for 15 when there's one for a fiver staring us in the face."

Animal Health Ireland's chairman Mike Magan believes consumers should be reassured that dairy farmers adhere to a "gold standard" and every tank of milk from the farmyard to the processor is checked. If there's a problem, each individual sample is checked. "When the culprit is found he's fined and the entire tank is discarded."

The AHR runs programmes to dissuade farmers from routinely using antibiotics to prevent mastitis in cows, a practice that will be banned under EU legislation when it comes into effect in five years' time.

"We all have a responsibility to educate ourselves to minimise the use of antibiotics, so if we use them, we use them correctly. Because someday, somebody close to us will need an antibiotic and it won't work. The bugs are smarter than we are, they've been around a lot longer than we have."
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Colette Browne Opinion Every effort must be made to retrieve oral histories of mother and baby home survivors

With three days to go until the Mother and Baby Homes Commission ceases to exist as a legal entity, we are being told that audio recordings of hundreds of witnesses which were deleted may not actually be gone forever. It is another usual twist in a most emotional saga. For decades, survivors of mother and baby homes have been denied a voice and denied autonomy. When they fell pregnant, many through rape and abuse, they were marched to the doors of religious institutions.
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Ian ODoherty Opinion Toxic Tory leadership debate reminds us they couldnt give a damn about Ireland

And then there were... How many is it again? Oh, yes, and then there were three. After an initial 11 hopeful (and, some might say if they were feeling less than charitable, hopeless) Tory leadership candidates, its now down to the final three as we reach a sort of X-Factor-style finale.
One aspect of the recent US election that has not been reflected on much is that equity has prevailed over the excesses of politically correct equality.

That is equity or the desire for fairness and justice to be applied to all citizens of a republic so that the deficiencies in that society can be corrected.

This must have priority over agenda-driven politically correct equality and the maintenance of elites.

So many people in last week's United States election voted for the hope of an equitable society that can provide them with a decent job, food, education and housing.

While both candidates were far from ideal and many voted reluctantly for both of them, the victor did tap into this massive undercurrent - whether we like him or not,

While elites continually focus their energies on and demand politically correct equality on social issues, instead of prioritising social equity, basic social justice and human dignity will suffer and wane.

Donald Trump winning the US election and the United Kingdom's vote to leave the European Union and choose Brexit should be a wake-up call to our Irish elite.

They too could wake up to a nasty surprise the morning after an election.

Criostoir McGrath

Clonmel, Co Tipperary

Politicians don't have grit to lead

I remember joking with my father, back in August, about how laughable the idea of a Trump victory would be.

This was a man I only really knew as a business mogul and sometime reality TV star; a man with a penchant for women and fake tan.

As the months passed and Donald Trump's notoriety grew, the notion of his actually winning the election became even more absurd.

Imagine my shock on waking to news that Trump was winning, then seeing him clinch victory.

Had America gone truly mad? I was genuinely at a loss to see the attraction. The man has dubious views on women and his election has caused alarm throughout the LGBT community.

It seemed as if the whole of America had got together and collectively decided to take one giant leap backwards. I couldn't make sense of it.

Yet Niamh Gallagher's article 'Hillary is exactly what voters turned against - and what happens next is anyone's guess' (Irish Independent, November 11) made things a little clearer for me.

The people of America are, like many of us, lost.

The world is changing and our politicians don't seem to have the necessary grit to lead us through these turbulent times.

Anne-Marie O'Doherty

Co Waterford

Press must be more objective

The US presidential election and the Brexit vote before it have displayed a shockingly low standard of reasoned debate.

Arguments are dismissed out of hand because of a person's race and gender, contempt is shown for those with different views, and the narrative is entirely black and white, us versus them, the enlightened versus the bigots.

This is not to say that the Trump/Brexit side were any better, but a Trump/Brexit supporter is a rare thing in the Irish media.

Perhaps in future, columnists and journalists can take a step back and at least try to be objective, try not to dismiss people as "white males", and try to understand the reasons behind the voters' choices rather than dismiss them as suffering from some phobia.

Brian Kelly

Athlone, Co Westmeath

Misogyny question needs answer

There are any number of questions raised by the result of the US presidential election.

How far will Donald Trump go to keep people from Mexico out of the US?

How racist and totalitarian will the situation become?

Will he throw the 'illegal' Irish out of the US?

What effect would that have?

Will he make it difficult for American firms to stay in Ireland?

What effect would that have?

Why was a member of the female majority of the population, who was an experienced and capable politician, rejected by voters? Why did more than 50pc of white women in the US vote for Trump? What does that say about the prevalence of misogyny, even among women?

A Leavy

Sutton, Dublin 13

US vote causing PTSD

I do wonder how many of the commentariat may be experiencing Pre-Presidential Trump Stress Disorder at this time.

Johnny Watters

Kevinsfort, Sligo

Reruns would show contempt

Are the Irish completely mad? Do they want more than 15 million Britons to vote again and more than 58 million Americans to vote again?

Sorry, we can't oblige. We leave such contempt for voters to the Irish (on the Nice and Lisbon treaties).

Perhaps the Irish want to be poor once again.

Gerald Morgan

Trinity College Dublin

New houses, not new relations

Ireland will use all its powers of persuasion to defend its interests with the new US President-elect, Donald Trump, and his key officials, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said.

Mr Kenny has welcomed the president-elect's early confirmation that the now traditional St Patrick's Day visit by the Taoiseach to the White House will go ahead next March.

He says the visit to the White House will be a great chance to build new relations.

I believe it will take more than a bowl of shamrock to change Trump's plans - he may not be as quick to renege on pre-election promises as the Taoiseach!

In the meantime, it might be more important to build new houses than new relations.

Seamus McLoughlin

Keshcarrigan, Co Leitrim

Dylan's 'Sweetheart' prophecy

Thirty-three years ago, the Nobel Laureate for Literature, Bob Dylan, released an album called 'Infidels'.

The second song on the album, 'Sweetheart Like You', contains the following lines: "Steal a little and they put you in jail. Steal a lot and they make you king."

Prophetic Bob. Trump that!

Peter Brabazon

Callan, Co Kilkenny

So long, Leonard

RIP Leonard Cohen. A true original who did not need to copy anyone, as distinct from today's plastic prophets.

John Williams

Clonmel, Co Tipperary
The hysterical reaction by the out-of-touch media to Donald Trump's election is disturbing and amusing in equal measure.

These detached elites and journalists believe they speak for the people, but in reality they only speak for themselves and themselves alone.

The smug media and their acolytes in governments all over the world attempt to demean and belittle the democratic will of the people by branding anything that isn't to their liking as "populist", "racist" or "uneducated".

What these elites need to acknowledge is that this isn't a populist revolt, this is a democratic revolt against a social engineering project that seeks to eliminate nation states.

The desire to eliminate nation states via mass immigration is dangerous, utopian, pie-in-the-sky nonsense that is doomed to end in failure.

On a microscopic level you would struggle to get two local GAA teams a few miles apart to amalgamate, never mind joining the whole world up as one.

It's rather ironic that if the people were voting the way these elites wanted, they would be calling it "democracy at work" and "the will of the people".

However, the fact is the people are no longer willing to toe the line, so these elites attempt to disparage the result by insulting and denigrating the citizens.

I believe that the people of the world should be celebrating our differences and not be browbeaten into being ashamed of them.

As an Irishman, I am proud of my little country and if that makes me a racist, well then that's a badge I'll wear with pride.

Seamus Hanratty

Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan

New political era should be fun

Things might be looking up now that Donald Trump is in the White House.

The first and second hopes for his presidency could well be the exploding of the "man-made global warming" myth, and then possibly the falling apart of Nato, the killing machine which destroyed Libya, and is a constant world danger because of American influence.

We'll be fine and safe once Mr Trump restores friendly relations with Vladimir Putin. Up to this point, and for the last six years, Russia has been a bulwark against the US total subversion of Europe. Delightful times ahead, no doubt.

Robert Sullivan

Bantry, Co Cork

You get what you ask for

We got it, tyranny of the people by the people for the people; was it ever anything but thus? Will it ever be anything but thus? And the media aren't immune?

Joseph Mackey

Kilkenny West, Co Westmeath

What's the matter, Donald?

The look on Donald Trump's face as he shook hands with Barack Obama suggested that he was told by the president that he would have to sanction three killings before breakfast on his first day in office.

Liam Power

Ballina, Co Mayo

Mexican wave to protest election

On Saturday evening in the Aviva Stadium, I was heartened to see south Dublin show its disapproval of Donald Trump by giving him a Mexican wave.

At least that's what I assume they were doing. American protesters should take note, stop rioting and start a nationwide Mexican wave.

Tom Farrell

Swords, Co Dublin

We're all friends now

I imagine that like everybody else, a great feeling of unease overcame me when I learned of Donald Trump's success last Wednesday morning.

It took a while for me to figure out why exactly, despite all his poor behaviour.

He is probably the most unChrist-like public figure I know - yet within several months, every world leader including our own politicians, will be bowing at his feet.

Aidan Hampson

Artane, Dublin 5

Liberals are an intolerant bunch

Donald Trump was accused of being a bigot and xenophobic. The people who supported him have been ridiculed as "deplorables" and "uneducated".

Do anti-Trump 'liberals' realise their behaviour displays intolerance to those holding different opinions? And demonstrates their own dislike and prejudice towards Donald Trump and his wife, Melania.

Eve Parnell

Address with editor

Will he deliver on his promises?

US president-elect Donald Trump has unsettled many. But he can't force Mexico to build a wall between their countries and it is as yet unknown whether he really will follow through on the promises he made in his campaign.

What is clear is that 121 million Americans voted for their own futures - not to please the political commentators, the media or pollsters or Europe

I had hoped Hillary Clinton would win. She was vastly experienced in foreign and domestic politics. Her husband, Bill, gave the Northern Ireland peace process his full support, coaxing all sides to make an agreement.

Mr Trump may be the one to make a few changes to the status quo. He may surprise us and be an effective force in politics. But we will have to wait to see.

Mary Sullivan

Cork city, Co Cork

Deportation not a new thing

President-elect Donald Trump's promise to send back two to three million illegal immigrants should be seen in the light of President Barack Obama's deportation of 2,509,441 people from the US in his first seven years in office (Source: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement report: www.ice.gov/removal-statistics).

Dr John Doherty

Vienna, Austria

The 'people' are to blame

In relation to the recent seismic shifts on various political landscapes, the man in the pub says it was the people's fault.

The people voted in considerable numbers for Donald Trump.

The people were also responsible for the recent indecisive result in the Irish General Election. And as for the unanticipated British voters' decision to exit the European Union, who was answerable for the outcome? Look no further than the people, the pub sage proclaims.

Despite the best efforts of expert political analysts to influence and advise in these elections and more, the people formed their own opinions.

Something needs to be done about this.

Tony Wallace

Longwood, Co Meath
Mobility is now the expected standard for work and life worldwide.

Small to medium businesses are taking advantage of this trend and allowing employees to work from anywhere to accommodate different work styles and to save costs.

So how can your turn your small business in to a mobile business in todays connected world? What are the key factors of success? What changes and improvements will you see in changing the culture of your organisation?

An agile mobile workforce is a good option for Irish firms. The business case is very compelling. Here are the top 3 advantages of mobilising your business in 2017:

1. Anytime, Anywhere

A mobile employee is an empowered employee. To be able to attract top talent and stay competitive, its crucial for companies to be able to accommodate this new mobile work style. Companies can also increase their size without needing a bigger office space.

Studies have found that telecommuters are frequently more productive than onsite employees and tend to work longer hours overall because they arent struggling with long commutes. They have less stress and increased productivity and mobile working results in lower rates of absenteeism.

The latest research on mobility is touching on a factor thats vital to businesses success  how mobility impacts the workforce. Employee mobility leads to 30% better processes and 23% more productivity and 100% more satisfied employees.

Now with decentralised cloud-based services, employees and their files are no longer tethered to a single device in a designated workspace. From video conferencing, to content sharing, shared calendars and document storage, teams can work together collectively and be nimble and responsive.

2. Reduce the Worry of Securing Data

Working remotely means being portable and working from multiple devices but with portability comes security risks. Data security is the primary concern of nearly every business when it comes to the subject of mobility.

Going mobile and taking advantage of the cloud, however, doesnt mean reduced security; in fact, for many businesses it actually increases security by providing you with better, built-in security features. If you think about it, the Cloud is as accessible to the small SME as it is to the largest corporate or even government body, so the small SME benefits from the enterprise level solution. There are administrative controls that further help secure your environment, along with layers of security features and operational best practices.

Mobile device management is easier as its possible to take over and remotely manage mobile devices whenever necessary, for example they can be locked or restricted if stolen and if found, user names and passwords can be reset, to enable access once again. If devices cant be located, data can simply be wiped.

Businesses can also be helped to manage compliance with controls, in tandem with current regulations and standards across their particular industry and region. Server maintenance and system updates can also be handled, so that services are always up to date.

3. Teamwork makes the dream work!

Do you want your team to be more agile and responsive? Employees can be freed from the traditional device and location constraints to work wherever they need to. Synching information to the teams devices leads to the team working even better together and getting more done in less time wherever they are located. Documents can be safely stored, synchronised and are shareable at a moments notice, making collaboration on the go much easier.

Do you want your small business to go mobile in 2017? A free e-book from Microsoft  Mobilise Your Business  reveals the steps here and shows how easy it is to mobilise, improve and do more for your small business.

Dont get your head stuck in the cloud  run your business in it and get more done in less time. Learn more about the productivity benefits of cloud-based mobility at office.com/business.

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Irish companies are turning the tide and choosing cards to thank their clients this Christmas, thanks to a new initiative from An Post that helps the homeless.

The past number of years have seen a trend for businesses in Ireland switching from traditional festive cards and instead producing a general email, ad or social media post announcing their support for a charity of their choice.

However companies of all sizes across the country now have a new innovative opportunity to engage with their customers this Christmas by sending cards in a targeted way that will also help a very worthy cause at the same time.

Here are 5 reasons that Irish businesses are choosing cards again for Christmas 2016 and New Year 2017:

1. Provide Meaningful and Vital Help

A massive 6,709 people were recorded as homeless in Ireland in September 2016 and the most worrying statistic of all is that 2,426 of those are children. Unfortunately homelessness continues to increase year on year. These cards are a way of providing meaningful and vital help, for every Christmas card sent with AdMailer.ie, An Post will donate 20% of the price directly to the homeless charity  Peter McVerry Trust. Each card will display a brand mark to show that your company has made a donation to this very deserving charity.

2. Engage with Customers

What better way to engage with customers this Christmas? An Post is providing a way for businesses to communicate with their customers while helping Peter McVerry Trust. Sending a Christmas card with AdMailer.ie allows a business to do two things: 1) Help to open doors for homeless people this Christmas through Peter McVerry Trust. 2) Engage with their own customers with the aim of bringing in more business in 2017.

3. Great Value and Targeted

AdMailer.ie is great value, easy to use and suitable for businesses of all sizes to specifically target customers. The AdMailer.ie Christmas cards can be personalised with a companys message, image, logo and is delivered to either the businesses own database or companies can choose addresses that they would like to target from an online map. An Posts AdMailer.ie Christmas cards cost 1.50 each (ex VAT) for card, envelope and delivery.

4. The Personal Touch

An Post is making it even easier for businesses to add the personal touch this Christmas. If a business would like to send a personal greeting to their most valuable clients or key suppliers, thanking them for their business this year or letting them know about exciting things to come in 2017, they need to simply visit AdMailer.ie from An Post.

Companies can either use their own customer databases with the simple and speedy uploader or add addresses with AdMailer.ies interactive map and segmentation tool. Its possible to order up until December 19th and select where you would like to target customers, right down to the street where they live and any other demographics. The entire Christmas card order can be completed online in just a few clicks. Your design will then be printed, addressed and posted to your selected target customers within 3 working days.

Peter McVerry Trust has been responding to the need of homeless individuals since 1983. They have developed a range of services to address homelessness and the factors that contribute to it across different care modalities.

People love to be thought of at Christmas and with so much electronic and mass communication it is always welcome to receive a physical piece of communication by post. Clients like to display their Christmas cards as decorations in the office - it is a physical reminder that you care and appreciate their business throughout the year.

Connect with your customers while opening doors for homeless people across Ireland this Christmas. Visit AdMailer.ie for more information.

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Financial journalist Martin Lewis has revealed he received death threats during the EU referendum after the Remain campaign used his photograph on their leaflets.

Lewis - famed for his money saving advice online and on television - was voted by Brits as the most trust commentator ahead of the referendum and repeatedly said he did not want to convince voters which way to vote.

He told the Press Association that after Stronger In Europe used a quote and photograph on an official leaflet he received abuse from voters.

"I am never afraid of standing up for what I believe in but I didn't believe I wanted to tell people how to vote.

"First of all I was one of six on every leaflet and when they did testing and realised I was the most trusted it was then on the front of every Remain leaflet with a picture of me. Without my permission, without my approval.

"I was not campaigning for Remain. I got death threats on the back of it."

The quote used was made during an appearance on ITV's The Agenda in April when Lewis was asked if Britain would be better or worse off if it voted to leave.

He told host Tom Bradby: "On balance of probability, it is more likely we'll have less money in our pockets if we vote to leave."

Lewis, who voted to Remain because he was "55% in 45% out", urged Brits to unite to make Brexit work.

"We have had a democratic decision as a country we have decided to leave.

Video of the Day

"What we must all do now is shake hands with people who voted the other way and work to make that decision the best possible decision in the best possible outcome that we can have for the country.

"Not talk ourselves into recession, not talk ourselves down because that can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, get on with it and absolutely go to make Brexit work for Britain."

The journalist returns to screens next week with his latest series of The Martin Lewis Money Show and although he said he still enjoys offering financial advice, Lewis admitted he would love to take Piers Morgan's job at Good Morning Britain for a day.

He told the Press Association: "One day it might be fun to have a day presenting Good Morning Britain.

"Y ou never know they might just let me do it.

"I don't want the job. I'm sure Piers and Ben wouldn't be scared even if I said I did but I don't want the job doing that but maybe one Friday it might be nice to try my hand at doing that."

"I have presented. I am a journalist and I have presented news programmes in the past. I'm pretty good at current affairs."

:: The Martin Lewis Money Show returns to ITV on November 22.
Donald Trump greets supporters following his election win. CHIP SOMODEVILLA (afp)

More information De Trump a Podemos: que es exactamente el populismo

Populism is proving to be a much-mentioned concept this year. A lot of people seem to know what it means, but its not that clear. President Obama indulged in what he called a rant about populism in June, suggesting somebody look it up in a dictionary, and then going on to say what he thought populism wasnt: Somebody who labels us versus them, or engages in rhetoric about how were going to look after ourselves and take it to the other guy, thats not the definition of populism.

President Obama was wrong. Most academics, such as Cas Mudde of University of Georgia, describe populism precisely in those terms: Populism is best defined as a thin-centered ideology that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogeneous and antagonistic groups, the pure people and the corrupt elite.

The us versus them strategy is common to all varieties of populism

Similarly, Luis Ramiro of Leicester University says populism puts forward the idea that these two groups have irreconcilable differences, which leads to an emphasis on national or popular sovereignty. The populist politician is thus alone in speaking for the people.

Under that definition, populism is an electoral instrument, or one of power. Its most successful use recently has been during Donald Trumps election campaign: Tomorrows question is: who do you want to govern America, the corrupt political class or the people? Trump asked the night before Americans went to the polls.

In Europe, Brexit in the United Kingdom and the rise of the Front National in France are other examples of populism. In southern Europe, two parties on the left, Syriza in Greece and Podemos in Spain, have highlighted this distinction between the people and the elites. Podemos is calling for a new political identity, an us, which is essential in politics, which is no longer about left or right but the people-oligarchy, up-down, citizen-caste, says Jorge Lago, the head of the Instituto 25M think-tank, set up by Podemos, the anti-austerity party that has altered Spains political balance over the last couple of years.

Populism shows whether it is more than just rhetoric when it comes to power

The us versus them strategy is common to all varieties of populism: What Trump and Podemos have in common is the claim that the elites have let people down and usurped democracy. In response, they say the people should reclaim the country by voting for them, says Duncan McDonnell, a lecturer at Griffith University in Brisbane. Podemos says this analysis is simplistic: From the start of the crisis we witnessed an unquestionable oligarchical process in the economy and politics. Thinking that for this reason its populist is too hasty, says Lago.

Therefore, it is possible to talk about populism in generic terms. Nevertheless, there are two big differences between the populism of the right and the left. Firstly, policies: What Podemos and the Front National have in common is that their attacks are directed against a liberal elite they believe are responsible for the problems. They differ in the type of problems they identify and emphasize, and in the solutions they offer, says Benjamin Stanley, a lecturer at the SWPS University in Warsaw.

The second difference between left-wing and right-wing populism is how they each define the people: The way in which the people is constructed is the main difference between both types of populism, says Belgian academic Chantal Mouffe, who, alongside Argentinean writer Ernesto Laclau, has developed a theory of populism that is often cited by Podemos. The people can be a civil or ethnic subject. The right tends to focus on ethnicity, hence its emphasis on immigration. The left is more inclusive. Its definition of us is broader: Podemos says that populism is a form of rhetoric used to build a type of people, says Guillem Vidal, a researcher at the European University Institute in Florence.

The idea that all adversaries belong to the corrupt elite delegitimizes them

And here is where further confusion about populism emerges: are there populist measures or are there only left-wing, right-wing, demagogical or stupid measures? The academics dont agree on this question. Recently, right-wing populists have stopped defending the free market in favor of protectionism, bringing them closer to left-wing populists. The movement can be populist but are its proposals populist? Ramiro says no: Its not clear if protectionism is left wing or right wing. Saying that something is a populist tax or foreign policy is stretching the concept too far. Demagoguery is not populism.

Takis Pappas of the University of Macedonia, in Salonika, argues that populism is more than just electioneering: Populism is democratic illiberalism. He believes the goal of populist politicians is not so much the division of society but to dismantle liberal democracy: Populist parties confront democratic institutions such as a free press, the division of powers, and particularly an independent judiciary.

He cites Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Alberto Fujimori in Peru. If a leader is the peoples sole representative, what need is there for an opposition or counterweights to power? The idea that all adversaries belong to the corrupt elite delegitimizes them: if populist rhetoric is taken to its extreme, it projects the majoritys conception of politics in which the parties in power serve the people, even if this is against the law, says Pappas.

Populism shows whether it is more than just rhetoric when it comes into power. Trumps rhetoric on the campaign trail has revealed a number of illiberal aspects. When he takes office he will be under the spotlight. That said, not all populisms imply illiberalism: There are populists who do not try to weaken the separation of powers or to interfere dangerously with the media, says Ramiro.

English version by Nick Lyne.
Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid are celebrating one year together on Good Morning Britain

Susanna Reid is the "rock" of Good Morning Britain, her co-host Piers Morgan has said as the pair celebrate their first anniversary on the ITV breakfast show.

Former tabloid editor Morgan joined Reid on the sofa in November 2015 and the duo have built up a reputation for their breezy on-screen relationship.

In an interview with the Radio Times alongside Reid, Morgan said of their partnership: "I'd describe it as alpha male meets queen bee.

"What I like is we have journalistic rigour. And I knew we'd get on when in my first week, moments before we went on air, you said, 'God, I've got legs like a pit pony'.''

He added: "I also think you're very calm and unruffled, and you're incredibly well briefed.

"I think you're the rock of the show - a slightly tarnished rock in many ways, but the rock nonetheless."

Meanwhile, Reid, 45, said the programme worked because she was the "belt and braces" to Morgan's "opinionated, dynamic, disruptive, divisive figure".

The pair also revealed who had been their favourite guests during the year together, with Morgan, 51, opting for Sir David Attenborough.

"He's got such fierce intelligence and I think he's a real force for good."

Reid said she was drawn more to human stories, notably Charles Nunn who was the detective during the Aberfan disaster.

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The full interview is in this week's Radio Times, on sale from November 15.
Britain has called on Russia to halt the latest bombardment of Aleppo, amid reports of multiple deaths in the first airstrikes on the war-torn Syrian city in nearly a month.

International Development Secretary Priti Patel denounced "sickening" reported attacks striking hospitals and refugee camps during the renewed assault and said they could constitute violations of humanitarian law.

And Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson warned that the resumption of airstrikes made a resolution to Syria's civil war even more remote.

Meanwhile, actress Carey Mulligan added her voice to calls from charity War Child for Prime Minister Theresa May to take action against those responsible for the suffering of a quarter of a million civilians believed to be trapped in eastern Aleppo.

According to reports, Russia used jets from the aircraft carrier which passed through the English Channel last month, as well as long-range missiles, to target rebel-held parts of Aleppo early on Tuesday.

The attack began just hours after a phone conversation between President Vladimir Putin and and US President-elect Donald Trump in which the Kremlin said each spoke of the need to "work together in the struggle against the number one common enemy - international terrorism and extremism" in the context of Syria.

The administration of US President Barack Obama has been trying for months to negotiate a ceasefire in Aleppo, which has become the focus of the long-running struggle between Syrian President Bashar Assad and the rebels seeking to oust him.

In a statement released by the Department for International Development, Ms Patel said: " Russia must call a halt to the new wave of bombs hitting the besieged city of Aleppo.

"More than a quarter of a million people are trapped and running out of food in the city. This will only worsen an already desperate humanitarian situation.

"I urge Russia and the Assad regime to prove that they can show restraint."

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Ms Patel added: "Reports of air strikes hitting hospitals and camps full of displaced Syrians are not only sickening but could also violate International Humanitarian Law.

"It is essential that supplies of food and medicine can get through to those who need them, and that aid workers get the access they need to save lives."

Mr Johnson said: "The resumption of airstrikes on the besieged people of east Aleppo increases the terrible suffering of the innocent civilian population and moves us further away from a resolution to this tragic conflict.

"As I have said many times, Russia has a unique opportunity to persuade the Syrian regime to end its destructive military approach, allow full humanitarian access to all besieged areas in Syria, and commit to a political settlement which ends the bloodshed."

War Child called on the UK Government to lead the international community in implementing a robust strategy to end the attacks.

The charity, which supports children affected by conflict, said Mrs May should consider targeted sanctions against those responsible for war crimes, as well as the introduction of 'no-fly' and `no bombing' zones to end attacks on civilian areas.

Miss Mulligan, a War Child global ambassador, said: " How many more children need to die before the world does something to stop these crimes?

"I know that the Prime Minister shares my revulsion at this assault against Aleppo's children - I therefore call on her to work with our international allies to act now and bring these appalling crimes to an end. We cannot stand by and let this happen again."

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and other groups said air strikes hit at least eight neighbourhoods in Aleppo city, killing at least 10 people.

But Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov insisted that the Russian military did not strike any targets in the city of Aleppo, adding that Russian and Syrian warplanes have not conducted any raids on the city for four weeks.
Two UN agencies say food production in Syria has shrunk to "an all-time low"

Russia has launched new strikes in Syria involving carrier-borne jets and long-range missiles as opposition activists on the ground reported that the first air strikes in nearly a month had struck rebel-held parts of the northern city of Aleppo.

According to activists, between four and 10 people were killed in the strikes on Aleppo, raising concerns of a return to daily deadly bombardments in Syria's largest city.

The Russian blitz began hours after President Vladimir Putin and US President-elect Donald Trump discussed Syria over the phone and agreed on the need to combine efforts in the fight against what the Kremlin called the number one enemy - "international terrorism and extremism".

The Obama administration has been trying for months to negotiate a ceasefire in Aleppo, a city that has become the epicentre of the war between President Bashar Assad and rebels fighting to topple him, some of whom receive US aid.

From the militants' side, al Qaida's Syrian affiliate is fighting alongside the rebels, but Islamic State has no presence in Aleppo city.

Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Mr Putin that Su-33 jets from the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov are involved in the operation, marking its combat debut.

"We launched a major operation to strike the positions of the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra in the provinces of Idlib and Homs," Mr Shoigu said at a meeting with Mr Putin, referring to the al Qaida branch in Syria by its old name. He said the Russian strikes are targeting ammunition depots, training camps and armaments factories.

As part of the Russian operation, a navy frigate launched long-range Kalibr cruise missiles and the military also used Bastion missiles stationed in Syria to strike militant targets in the rebel-held northern province of Idlib and the central province of Homs.

Mr Shoigu said that before launching the strikes, military intelligence had thoroughly identified and selected targets, including factories producing toxic chemical agents.

"It's a well-developed, industrial-scale production," he said, adding that the strikes will continue. He did not mention Aleppo.

Syrian activists reported strikes in Idlib, Homs and Aleppo.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said missiles fired from Russian warships in the Mediterranean struck areas in Aleppo province and on the eastern edge of nearby Idlib. The Observatory's chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said the areas hit with missiles are strongholds of jihadi groups, including the al Qaida affiliate known as Fatah al-Sham Front.

The Observatory and other groups said air strikes also hit at least eight neighbourhoods in Aleppo city, killing at least 10 people. The Local Co-ordination Committees, another activist group, said the air strikes on Aleppo killed four and wounded others.

Ibrahim al-Haj, of the Syrian Civil Defence, said that by late afternoon his group had counted 72 air raids in nine neighbourhood of eastern Aleppo. He said four people were killed and 32 were wounded in attacks that mostly hit residential areas in the besieged city.

Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov insisted that the Russian military did not strike any targets in the city of Aleppo, adding that Russian and Syrian warplanes have not conducted any raids on the city for four weeks.

Activist Baraa al-Halaby, based in eastern Aleppo, said warplanes were firing missiles and helicopters were dropping barrel bombs on the eastern part of the city.

A reporter for Syrian state TV, speaking from the government-held western part of the city, said troops were preparing to attack eastern Aleppo from nine directions.

Four weeks ago, Russia said it would halt weeks of air strikes to allow rebels and supporters to leave eastern Aleppo. The rebels refused to take up the offer and the United Nations failed to negotiate the delivery of aid into the besieged area.

On Saturday, Syrian government troops repelled a rebel offensive on the western parts of Aleppo designed to break the siege on the opposition-held east. The government siege has left about 275,000 people trapped, with no aid allowed in since July, amid a punishing bombing campaign.

In the lead-up to the offensive, a number of air strikes targeted at least three field hospitals in rural western Aleppo province, putting them out of order, the Observatory and Thiqa news agency reported.

Syrian and Russian governments deny attacking hospitals. The UN rights agency, Unicef and other UN agencies have repeatedly condemned air strikes on hospitals and medical facilities.

In Geneva, meanwhile, two UN agencies said food production in Syria has shrunk to "an all-time low", threatening to drive more people from their homes after more than five years of war.

The World Food Programme and the Food and Agricultural Organisation said factors like rising prices, poor weather, general instability and the lack of fertiliser and seeds could force some farmers to stop producing.

A joint report said the planting area in the 2015-16 season was the smallest ever in zones controlled by the government, ethnic Kurds and the armed opposition.

WFP spokeswoman Bettina Luescher said information was lacking about areas controlled by IS. FAO regional representative Abdessalam Ould Ahmed said 80% of households in Syria lack food or money to buy it.

AP
The aerial photo shows the damage to a state highway near Kaikoura, New Zealand after a powerful earthquake triggered landslides and a small tsunami. (David Alexander/SNPA via AP)

Military helicopters and a navy ship are being sent to rescue 1,000 tourists and hundreds of residents stranded in Kaikoura in New Zealand after a powerful earthquake yesterday cracked roads apart and cut off train access.

The magnitude 7.8 quake struck the South Island just after midnight.

Expand Close Three cows were left stranded on an island of grass after the earthquake caused a landslide / Facebook

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It left two dead and triggered a small tsunami. It also brought down rocks and mud that swept across highways.

The coastal town of Kaikoura is a popular destination for travellers on whale-watching tours. But the quake knocked out water supplies and left no easy way out for holidaymakers or its 2,000 residents.

"From all directions, Kaikoura has been isolated," Air Commodore Darryn Webb, the Acting Commander of New Zealand's Joint Forces, said. "There's a real imperative to support the town because it can't support itself."

The military hoped to use four NH90 helicopters today, which can each transport 18 people at a time. A ship was due to leave Auckland last night, which could pick up hundreds more people.

Read more: 'The wardrobe doors were rattling, I couldn't understand it' - Irish woman describes New Zealand earthquake horror

"We're going to get as many people and belongings out as quickly as we can," Air Commodore Webb said.

But he warned that the weather forecast was not looking great, which meant it could take days. If that was the case, a military transport plane could drop fuel, water, food and other supplies to the town.

Strong aftershocks continued to hit New Zealand yesterday. The country was largely spared the devastation it saw in 2011, when a quake struck Christchurch and killed 185. That was one of its worst disasters, causing $25bn (17bn) in damage.

Expand Close Policemen and locals look at damage following an earthquake, along State Highway One near the town of Ward, south of Blenheim on New Zealand's South Island. REUTERS/Anthony Phelps / Facebook

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Whatsapp Policemen and locals look at damage following an earthquake, along State Highway One near the town of Ward, south of Blenheim on New Zealand's South Island. REUTERS/Anthony Phelps

Yesterday's quake caused damage in Wellington, the capital, and was strongly felt in Christchurch. Residents said it lasted about three minutes.

One person died in Kaikoura and another in Mt Lyford, a nearby ski resort. Police said several suffered minor injuries in Kaikoura.

Prime Minister John Key flew over the chaos by helicopter as aftershocks kicked up dust from landslides. Cars could be seen lying on their sides.

"It's just utter devastation," he said.

Expand Close A Royal New Zealand Air Force NH90 helicopter delivers government officials and police to assess earthquake damage in Kaihoura on the upper east coast of New Zealand's South Island. REUTERS / Facebook

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He estimated the clean up would run into billions of dollars and clearing the debris and roads could take months.

In Wellington, the quake collapsed a ferry-loading ramp. It also forced hundreds of tourists on to the streets as hotels were evacuated.

Police stepped up patrols after reports of burglaries in homes and businesses that had been evacuated.
Police officers look at flames from a fire bomb thrown during a protest against the visit of US president Barack Obama in Athens (AP)

Greek riot police have used tear gas and stun grenades in Athens to disperse about 3,000 left-wing marchers protesting against a visit by US president Barack Obama.

The violence broke out as youths in motorcycle helmets and gas masks, armed with wooden clubs and petrol bombs, tried to break a police cordon in front of a barrier formed by police buses.

Rioters retired to the Athens Polytechnic university complex in the city centre, site of a 1973 student uprising, and engaged in running street fights with police. No injuries were reported.

Left-wing and anarchist groups who organised the protest had originally planned to reach the US embassy in another part of town.

But authorities banned demonstrations in a large area of the city centre, to ensure that protesters came nowhere near Mr Obama, who was attending a formal dinner at the residence of Greek president Procopis Pavlopoulos.

About 5,000 Communist party supporters took part in a separate, peaceful protest in central Athens, which did not challenge the police cordon, and about 1,000 people took part in a similar protest in Greece's second city, Thessaloniki.

Greek authorities have deployed more than 5,000 police for Mr Obama's visit.

The riot squad was on high alert for violence after an armed anarchist group called for "attacks and clashes" to disrupt the visit and leftist militants injured a police guard outside the French embassy with a hand grenade.

There is a strong anti-American tradition among Greek left-wingers, who still resent US support for Greece's 1967-74 military dictatorship.

Mr Obama's visit comes just two days before the country's main annual anti-American demonstrations, which commemorate the bloody suppression, by military authorities, of the Polytechnic pro-democracy uprising.

The small Popular Unity party, which took part in the main protest, described Mr Obama's visit as "a provocation, much more as it comes during the commemoration of the heroic Polytechnic revolt, where the US-driven dictatorship squashed the students with tanks".

Party leader Panayiotis Lafazanis also blamed the US for Greece's economic woes. The debt-crippled country depends on international bailout loans, and has been forced by its creditors to implement deep income cuts, tax hikes, welfare cuts and economic reforms.

"American imperialism has not changed," Mr Lafazanis said on Tuesday. "The US presidents and administrations have played - and still play - a leading part in the bailout-linked plundering of our country... and their interventions are drowning our part of the world in blood and creating refugee waves."

The last visit to Greece by a US president was by Bill Clinton in 1999 - also very close to the Polytechnic commemorations. It was marred by extensive street fighting between anarchists and riot police.

AP
Jurors heard that MP Jo Cox was shot three times and suffered 15 stab wounds in a cowardly attack that killed her on June 16. Her alleged attacker, Thomas Mair, has pleaded not guilty to her murder. Photo: West Yorkshire Police/PA Wire

The trial of the man accused of murdering MP Jo Cox has been halted after thousands of prison officers stopped work amid claims jails were "in meltdown".

Courts were hit by disruption after the Prison Officers Association directed members to take protest action after talks with the Government over health and safety concerns broke down.

At the Old Bailey the trial of Thomas Mair, who denies Mrs Cox's murder, was brought to a halt due to the action, with the case adjourned until Wednesday morning.

Elsewhere, the appearance of a number of prison governors at the Commons Justice Committee on Tuesday morning had to be postponed.

Jail guards are technically banned from going on strike and the move was branded "unlawful" by the Ministry of Justice, which is expected to take the matter to the courts later.

The demonstration comes after a string of high profile incidents at prisons, including an alleged murder, a riot and the escape of two inmates.

Steve Gillan, the POA's general secretary, said as many as 10,000 staff will take part. They will provide emergency cover for fires and medical incidents in order to protect prisoners' well-being, he said.

Mr Gillan admitted the day of action will be "interpreted as a strike".

Announcing the move, the union said the " continued surge in violence and unprecedented levels of suicide and acts of self harm", coupled with the recent alleged murder and escapes "demonstrate that the service is in meltdown".

Two prisoners escaped from Pentonville prison in north London earlier this month - sparking a manhunt in which they were eventually recaptured.

Weeks earlier, inmate Jamal Mahmoud, 21, died after being stabbed at the jail on October 18 in an attack which left two others injured.

And on November 6, up to 200 prisoners went on a rampage in HMP Bedford.

The development comes only days after Justice Secretary Liz Truss unveiled her blueprint for prison reform including a recruitment drive to add 2,500 new officers to the frontline and "no fly zones" to stop drones dropping drugs and contraband into jails.

An MoJ spokesman said: "There is no justification for this action.

"We have been engaged in constructive talks with the POA over the last two weeks and have provided a comprehensive response to a range of health and safety concerns.

"We have well-established contingencies in place to manage prisons and keep the public safe, but we are clear that this constitutes unlawful industrial action, and we will seek remedy in the courts."

About 60 guards gathered in the car park within the gates of Pentonville.

Dave Todd, POA representative for London, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, said conditions in prisons were "volatile and dangerous".

"We need to act to protect ourselves," he said. "It has not come about quickly - it's a build-up over probably years actually.

"It's just unsafe. To me, prison officers taking this type of action speaks volumes for what's happening inside."

Mr Todd, who said he served with the Army in Northern Ireland in the early 90s, said he found prisons "really daunting" when he first started working in them.

"I served in Northern Ireland and I felt more vulnerable walking the landings in prisons than I did on the streets of Northern Ireland," he said.

Around 100 prison officers stood outside HMP Manchester.

Derek Stanton, a committee member of the Manchester POA, said: " I have been in this job for 28 years, this is the most dangerous I have ever seen it."

Shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon said: "This Tory Government is failing to address a prisons violence crisis which is leaving staff and prisoners in a dangerous situation.

"The Justice Secretary needs to reassure the public and staff immediately that prisons are safe places to work."

Justice Secretary Liz Truss condemned the action.

Answering an urgent question in the Commons, she said she met the POA on November 2 and talks with her team over safety measures continued over the next fortnight.

"These talks were due to continue this morning," Ms Truss told MPs. "Instead the POA failed to respond to our proposals and called this unlawful action without giving any notice."

Ms Truss said the union's position is "unnecessary and unlawful" and "will make the situation in our prisons more dangerous".

She added: "We are taking the necessary legal steps to end this unlawful industrial action."

Ms Truss said the Government is "absolutely committed" to giving prison officers and governors the support they need to do their job and keep them safe.

Ms Truss briefed Cabinet on the protest action at its regular weekly meeting at Downing Street.

The Justice Secretary told colleagues the action was "unlawful and unjustified" and explained that the Government was seeking an injunction to resolve the situation, said the Prime Minister's official spokeswoman.
A man has been charged with escaping from prison following the breakout of two inmates from HMP Pentonville.

James Anthony Whitlock, 31, was arrested at an east London address in Shepherds Lane, Homerton, east London, on Sunday.

He is charged with escaping from prison and is due to appear at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court on Tuesday, Scotland Yard said.

Two men, aged 48 and 19, who were also arrested on Sunday on suspicion of assisting an offender have been bailed to return on a date in December.

Kelly Baker, 21, of Friars Close, Ilford, east London, has been charged with the same offence and appeared in custody at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court on Friday.

She was bailed to appear at Blackfriars Crown Court on December 9.

Matthew Baker, 28, who also escaped was arrested at an address in Ilford on November 9

He was taken to a north London police station, but was later taken to hospital for treatment to a leg injury and remains in hospital.

Scotland Yard launched a manhunt for two escaped prisoners after their escape was discovered shortly before midday on November 7.
The mother of an eight-year-old boy who was killed in a house fire has been found dead less than two weeks after the blaze.

Lucas Carter died in hospital after being rescued from the fire at his home in Sandbach, Cheshire, on Sunday October 30.

His mother, Kelly-Anne Carter, was found dead at her partner's home on Saturday.

A statement on the website of Offley Primary School, where Lucas was a pupil, said: "It is with profound shock and deep sadness that we learn of the death of Lucas Carter's mum Kelly-Anne at her partner's home on Saturday.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and partner Andy.

"Lucas died in tragic circumstances on October 30th 2016 and his funeral is due to take place at St Mary's church on Friday.

"We now learn that Kelly-Anne has also died, making this so much harder to bear for the family and all who knew them.

"This is a very difficult time for the family and for Offley Primary School as we try to comprehend what has happened and support the children, staff and the school community at this distressing time.

"Our school governor, the Rev Thomas Shepherd of St Mary's, is in contact with the family and, through him, the school has extended its sincere sympathies and condolences."

A spokesman for Cheshire Police said: "At 9.44am on Saturday November 12 police were notified of a sudden death at an address in Coleridge Close, Sandbach.

"A 35-year-old-woman was sadly pronounced dead at the scene.

"There are not believed to be any suspicious circumstances surrounding the death and a file will now be prepared for the coroner."

Fire crews were called to the blaze on Platt Avenue at 2.52am on October 30 and found Miss Carter outside the property with serious burns.

She was described by onlookers as screaming, as the boy was left inside the burning house.

Firefighters rescued Lucas from the upstairs of the property.

He was treated by paramedics and firefighters at the scene before being taken to Leighton Hospital, Crewe, where he died shortly after 5am.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission confirmed it was investigating after it emerged police had been in contact with Miss Carter before the fire.

A spokesman said: "Following a referral from Cheshire Police, we are independently investigating contact police had with a woman and her eight-year-old son prior to the fatal fire."
Minister for European Affairs, Dara Murphy, said the step-up in European defence co-operation did not amount to creating a EU army. Photo: Tom Burke

EU countries have vowed to step up defence co-operation after coming to blows over Donald Trump's election.

The US president-elect's threat to pull out of Nato has propelled EU countries to an agreement on joint rapid response forces and a central military headquarters.

The Minister for European Affairs, Dara Murphy, said the moves did not amount to creating an EU army.

"There are no proposals for a European army," Mr Murphy said after a meeting of EU foreign and defence ministers in Brussels yesterday.

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said in Berlin last week that the US "will not ensure our security in the long term" and called for the creation of a European army.

"This is not the time for that proposal, it's not something that would be supported by Ireland but, indeed, not supported by the majority of member states," Mr Murphy said.

EU ministers also agreed to consider setting up "permanent structured co-operation" in defence matters, a possibility under the Lisbon Treaty.

UK defence secretary Michael Fallon criticised the EU's proposals, saying the bloc should concentrate on increasing defence spending.

"Instead of an expensive new headquarters, which is unnecessary and simply duplicates Nato, instead of dreaming of a European army, the easiest and simplest reaction to a Trump presidency is for other European countries - some of them quite wealthy - to step up their own defence spending," he said.

His comments come after UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson criticised EU countries' reactions to Donald Trump's election.

Mr Murphy said that the comments from London were "unfortunate".

"It's been clear now that since the summer the UK is going in a different direction," said Mr Murphy.

On Mr Trump, he said it was too early to tell what the election would mean for the Iran nuclear deal, the Paris climate accord, relations with Russia and Nato.

"There is obviously a strong degree of hope that the very strong relationship between Europe and the United States will continue," Mr Murphy said.

"The role of the Unites States with respect to peace and global security is vital, as is the role of the European Union."
Alexei Ulyukayev is the most senior government official to face charges since the 1991 coup (AP)

A Russian minister is being held over bribery allegations after a sting seen by many observers as the product of Kremlin tactics to ensure Vladimir Putin remains the ultimate arbiter in the country.

Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev was detained late on Monday, immediately after he allegedly took a two million dollar (1.6 million) bribe in a sting set up by the FSB domestic security agency, the Investigative Committee said in a statement.

On Tuesday, the Russian president fired Mr Ulyukayev without waiting for the court to determine whether he is guilty, citing a "loss of trust", according to the Kremlin.

Mr Ulyukayev's arrest has been widely seen as part of Mr Putin's ongoing effort to preserve the balance between rival factions in the upper echelons of power in Russia.

The Russian investigators said Mr Ulyukayev accepted the money for having given the green light to state-controlled Rosneft to take part in bidding for another oil company.

Critics, however, questioned why the payment was made a month after Rosneft completed the deal, why it was paid in cash and why the experienced minister would be foolish enough to extort money from the super-powerful oil firm.

Mr Ulyukayev, the highest-ranking Russian official to have been arrested since 1993, was formally charged with extorting a bribe from Rosneft and threatening "to use his powers to put obstacles in the way of the company's activities".

He was questioned for hours on Tuesday before being taken to court, where the judge put him under house arrest for two months.

Mr Putin had been informed of the FSB operation in its planning stage, his spokesman said, insisting the investigation into Mr Ulyukayev should not affect the Rosneft deal.

"What happened is beyond my understanding," Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at a meeting with MPs, adding that no government figure has immunity from prosecution.

Mr Ulyukayev, who was made deputy finance minister in 2000 and has held his current post since 2013, is a liberal who has spoken out against increasing government presence in the Russian economy.

He had originally opposed Rosneft's bidding for the other company, Bashneft, saying it was wrong for a state-owned company to take part in a privatisation drive.

Mr Putin had defended the deal, saying because Rosneft has minority foreign investors, the sale was not simply a transfer of assets from one part of the state to another.

Mikhail Zygar, a prominent journalist and author of a bestselling book on Mr Putin's inner circle, said Mr Putin has used the tactic of balancing the influence of liberals in the government with that of the more conservative intelligence and security officers for years.

"There was a feeling in the wider circle lately that the liberals had got a boost and got a louder voice - here you get a message that it is too early to celebrate," Mr Zygar told The Associated Press.

"It seems to be a story entirely in the president's character. When he thinks one group gets too weak, he needs to weaken the other side."

Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of the liberal Yabloko party, described Ulyukayev's arrest as a scare tactic to keep officials in check.

"The arrest of such a loyal and major official like Ulyukayev is a strong act of intimidation," he said in a Facebook post. "Everyone should know: anything can happen to you at any moment, that's the main message."

Despite investigators' assurances that Mr Ulyukayev was caught in the act, the circumstances of the case prompted many to scoff at the charges.

Bribery is common in Russia but it is unthinkable for a government minister to accept a bribe in cash. Corruption experts also say two million dollars is the bribe range of a deputy mayor, not a cabinet minister, who would demand much more.

Mr Ulyukayev's lawyer, Timofei Gridnev, said the minister rejected the charges as a "provocation".

The economic development ministry's approval was necessary to allow Rosneft to bid in the tender for Bashneft but it was just one of several government approvals required to hold the tender and sell the company to Rosneft.

The sale to Rosneft was finally agreed on October 10 when Mr Medvedev sealed the deal - a month before Mr Ulyukayev received the alleged bribe.

Rosneft chief Igor Sechin, a key associate of Mr Putin for more than two decades, is believed to wield almost unlimited influence. Industry insiders find laughable the thought that anyone would be cheeky enough to extort money from Rosneft.

Alexander Shokhin, head of a major business lobbying group, said he was convinced Mr Ulyukayev is innocent and said he may have been framed.

"You have to be mad to threaten Rosneft," Mr Shokhin said.

Vladimir Milov, a former deputy energy minister turned opposition activist, said in an opinion piece on the respected RBC news website that Rosneft could be behind the Ulyukayev case.

He said Rosneft could be looking to buy more assets in similar "privatisation deals".

Russian state-owned Rossiya 24 ran Mr Ulyukayev's detention as the top story headlined "Fight on corruption", featuring comment from MPs who lauded the investigation as a major breakthrough in the long-anticipated clampdown on official graft.

But unlike some other officials in high-profile corruption cases, Mr Ulyukayev was not wearing handcuffs at the court hearing and state television networks did not run footage of him accepting the alleged bribe.

AP
The director and the mayor have been urged to step down over remarks about Michelle Obama (AP)

The mayor of a West Virginia town has issued an apology for her response to a racist post on Facebook comparing first lady Michelle Obama to an ape.

Beverly Whaling, mayor of Clay, was responding after Clay County Development Corporation director Pamela Ramsey Taylor posted following Donald Trump's election as president: "It will be refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady in the White House. I'm tired of seeing a Ape in heels."

Ms Whaling replied "Just made my day Pam", but the posts sparked an angry backlash, with calls for both women to be fired. An online petition is seeking to remove Ms Whaling and Ms Taylor.

Ms Whaling said her comment was not intended to be racist, claiming in a statement that she was referencing the change in the presidency.

Clay's town council plans to discuss the issue at a previously scheduled meeting later on Tuesday.

Ms Taylor told WCHS-TV on Monday night that she had been put on leave by Clay County Development Corporation.

The non-profit development group provides services to elderly and low-income residents in Clay County, and is funded through state and federal grants and local fees.

It is not affiliated with the town of Clay, which is about 50 miles east of Charleston.

Owens Brown, director of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People's West Virginia chapter, was among those calling for the removal of both women.

"I feel so it's unfortunate that people still have these racist undertones," Mr Brown said.

"Unfortunately, this is a reality that we are dealing with in America today. There's no place for these types of attitudes in our state."

African-Americans make up about 4% of West Virginia's 1.8 million residents, according to the US census.

About 77% of Clay County residents supported Mr Trump in the November 8 election. In 2012, Barack Obama received 31% of the county vote when Republican Mitt Romney easily carried the state.

Last week in Kentucky, Republican Dan Johnson defeated incumbent Democrat Linda Belcher in Bullitt County despite a series of Facebook posts which depicted Barack Obama and his wife as monkeys.

AP
The LE Samuel Becket has located and rescued 40 migrants while conducting a search operation off the coast of Tripoli.

Earlier today, following a request from the Italian Maritime Rescue Co-Ordination Centre, LE Samuel Beckett located and rescued a total of 40 migrants from a rubber vessel during off the coast of Tripoli.

The rescue operation began at 11am and all migrants were taken on board LE Samuel Beckett by 1.30pm.

The 40 rescued persons have now been transferred to the NGO Vessel Aquarius.

LE Samuel Beckett is currently awaiting further tasks in the area of operations.
Rebel fighters gather during their advance towards the Islamic State-held city of al-Bab, northern Syria. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

Syrian government forces have regained control of areas they lost over the past two weeks to a rebel offensive on the edge of the northern city of Aleppo.

It ends a major attempt by insurgents to break the siege on eastern parts of the city, an activist group and pro-government media said.

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The insurgents had seized a couple of strategic areas in western Aleppo after launching an offensive on October 28 in an attempt to break the siege imposed in July on rebel-held eastern Aleppo, which has also been targeted by waves of Syrian and Russian airstrikes.

Russia said last month that it would halt the airstrikes on the city and urged insurgents to leave. Despite the warnings, the fighters, including members of the al-Qa'ida-linked Fatah al-Sham Front, refused to leave after the government opened corridors for them to cross to Idlib, an insurgent stronghold.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday that government forces and their allies have regained control of Al-Assad and Minyan districts, west of Aleppo.

"The epic battle for Aleppo has failed," said the Observatory's chief Rami Abdurrahman, using the term that the insurgents had assigned to the offensive.

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Syrian state media reported the two districts as retaken. State TV reported live from Minyan, which appeared firmly under government control.

"We fought them in every street, house, neighbourhood and schools, and they used mosques to launch attacks," an army brigadier general in Minyan told Al-Manar TV. The network is run by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which is fighting alongside the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The Observatory said the fierce fighting left 508 dead. It said the dead insurgents included 90 foreign fighters while on the government side, 83 troops, 28 Hezbollah fighters and 41 other soldiers from Iran and Iraq were killed as well.

On Thursday, Jan Egeland, the special adviser to the UN envoy for Syria, said the last food rations in besieged eastern Aleppo will run out by next week. Speaking in Geneva, Mr Egeland said the last time the more than 250,000 people inside east Aleppo received any humanitarian aid was in the beginning of July.

Russia's military is willing to consider a new humanitarian pause for Aleppo if UN officials confirm their readiness to deliver aid and evacuate wounded and sick civilians.

Defence Ministry spokesman Majoe General Igor Konashenkov said on Saturday that such aid had been blocked by the insurgents during previous pauses in the fighting, which "showed that assurances of UN representatives about 'preliminary' agreements with militants in Aleppo are just words".

The capture of Minyan and Al-Assad came a day after the Russian military and a main Syrian opposition group traded allegations that the Syrian military or rebels used chemical weapons in Aleppo.
A US judge has ordered the release of 'Making A Murderer's' Brendan Dassey, whose homicide conviction was overturned in a case profiled in the Netflix series, while prosecutors appeal.

US magistrate judge William Duffin ordered Dassey's release from prison contingent upon him meeting multiple conditions.

The judge ruled in August investigators tricked Dassey into confessing he helped his uncle, Steven Avery, rape, kill and mutilate photographer Teresa Halbach in 2005. The state has appealed that ruling.

Dassey's lawyer, Steve Drizin, said he hoped to have Dassey out of prison in time to spend Thanksgiving with his family.

"That's what I'm focused on right now, getting him home, getting him with his family and then helping him to re-integrate back into society while his appeal plays out," Mr Drizin said.

Wisconsin attorney general Brad Schimel issued a statement saying he would file an emergency motion in the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals to put the release order on hold.

Dassey was 16 when Ms Halbach died. He is now 27.

The Netflix series spawned widespread conjecture about the pair's innocence. Authorities who worked on the cases said the series was biased.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (C), UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. President Barack Obama (R) shake hands during a joint ratification of the Paris climate change agreement. REUTERS/How Hwee Young/Pool/File Photo

Donald Trump is looking for quick ways to wiggle out of a global agreement on climate change, a source on his transition team has said.

The move would fly in the face of worldwide backing to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Governments ranging from China to small island states have reaffirmed support for the 2015 Paris Agreement at a climate change conference.

The complex talks, involving nearly 200 nations, are set to run until Friday in Marrakesh, Morocco.

Trump has called global warming a hoax and has promised to quit the Paris Agreement.

The accord had been strongly supported by outgoing US Democratic president Barack Obama.

It seeks to phase out net greenhouse gas emissions by the second half of the century and limit global warming to "well below" 2C.

The accord says that any country wanting to pull out after signing up has to wait four years.

Trump's advisers are considering ways to bypass that, the source said, including issuing a presidential order simply deleting the US signature from the Paris plan.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said the Obama administration would do everything it could to implement the changes before Trump takes office.
A heartbroken mother who met Hillary Clinton on a hike the day after her defeat said she is now receiving death threats.

New York mum, Margot Gerster was hiking with her daughters in Chappaqua when she bumped into Hillary and Bill Clinton.

According to The New York Post, Ms Gertser said she is now receiving death threats.

I dont want to discuss this anymore, Gerster told The New York Post. This story needs to go away. It got a lot of positive feedback from a lot of people, but I dont want this to add on to this (blowback), I dont want to fuel the fire.

The mum was delighted to meet Clinton saying she was "heartbroken" when Hillary lost the US election to Donald Trump.

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"I've been feeling so heartbroken since the election and decided what better way to relax than take my girls hiking.

"As we were leaving, I heard a bit of rustling coming towards me and as I stepped into the clearing there she was, Hillary Clinton and Bill with their dogs doing exactly the same thing as I was."

Ms Gerster said she got to hug and talk to Clinton saying her "proudest moment as a mum" was when she brought her daughters to vote.

"She hugged me and thanked me and we exchanged some sweet pleasantries and then I let them continue their walk."

Ms Gerster said she will continue to support Clinton.

"Now, I'm not one for signs but I think I'll definitely take this one. So proud," she added
Painted Matryoshka dolls, or Russian nesting dolls, bearing the faces of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Russian President Vladimir Putin are displayed for sale at a souvenir shop in central Moscow. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin/File Photo

Russian President Vladimir Putin and president-elect Donald Trump spoke over the phone yesterday to discuss future efforts to improve US-Russian ties, the Kremlin and Mr Trump's office said.

"President-elect Trump noted to President Putin that he is very much looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the people of Russia," Mr Trump's office said in a statement.

The Kremlin, in a far more specific and longer readout, said Mr Putin congratulated Mr Trump on his victory and expressed Russia's readiness to "establish a partner-like dialogue with the new administration on the basis of equality, mutual respect and non-interference in domestic relations".

Mr Trump's office said that Mr Putin called him to "offer his congratulations on winning a historic election".

"During the call, the two leaders discussed a range of issues including the threats and challenges facing the United States and Russia, strategic economic issues and the historical US-Russia relationship that dates back over 200 years," the statement said.

In its readout, the Kremlin added that both Mr Putin and Mr Trump agreed US-Russian ties are in "extremely unsatisfactory" condition now.

"They spoke for active joint work to normalise ties and engage in constructive co-operation on a broad range of issues," it said, adding that Mr Putin and Mr Trump emphasised the need to develop trade and economic co-operation to give a strong basis to US-Russia relations.

Mr Putin and Mr Trump also agreed on the need to combine efforts in the fight against their No. 1 enemy - "international terrorism and extremism" - and discussed the settlement of the Syrian crisis in that context, according to the Kremlin.

How to fight side-by-side in Syria, where Russia supports President Bashar Assad and the US supports rebels fighting against him and Isil, has been one of the key sticking points between President Barack Obama and Mr Putin.

It said that Mr Putin and Mr Trump agreed to continue phone contacts and to plan a personal meeting in the future.

Mr Trump's statement said he looked forward to a "strong and enduring relationship" with Russia. During the campaign, he outlined few specifics as to how he would go about it. Mr Obama began his presidency with a goal to "reset" ties with Russia, but they eventually plunged to the lowest point since the Cold War over the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria.

Throughout the campaign, the Kremlin insisted it had no favourites and rejected claims of interference in the US election. Russia's state-controlled media, however, made no secret of their sympathy for Mr Trump.
A couple look at the post-its posted on the subway in New York following the election of Donald Trump. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Democrats, civil rights groups and even some Republicans slammed US president-elect Donald Trump yesterday over his choice of right-wing firebrand Stephen Bannon as a key aide, saying it would elevate the white nationalist movement into the top levels of the White House.

Making his first appointments since last week's upset win over Democrat Hillary Clinton, Mr Trump picked Mr Bannon as his chief strategist and Washington insider Reince Priebus as his chief of staff on Sunday, saying the two would share the task of steering his administration as "equal partners".

The choice of Mr Priebus was seen as a conciliatory signal of Mr Trump's willingness to work with congress after he takes office on January 20. But critics blasted the selection of Mr Bannon, who spearheaded a shift of the Breitbart News website into a forum for the "alt-right", a loose online group of neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites.

Democrats and advocacy groups on the left called Mr Bannon a promoter of racism and misogyny who is backed by the Ku Klux Klan.

"It is a sad day when a man who presided over the premier website of the 'alt-right' - a loose-knit group of white nationalists and unabashed anti-Semites and racists - is slated to be a senior staff member in the 'people's house'," said Jonathan Greenblatt, head of the Anti-Defamation League.

Even some conservatives and Republicans voiced dismay. Evan McMullin, who ran as a conservative independent presidential candidate, wondered on Twitter if any national Republican leaders would condemn the pick of Mr Bannon.

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John Weaver, a top strategist for Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich, tweeted that the "racist, fascist extreme right is represented footsteps from the Oval Office. Be very vigilant America".

Read more: Planned Parenthood flooded with donations in Mike Pence's name after Donald Trump says abortion could be restricted

Read more: Steve Bannon: Who is Donald Trump's chief strategist and why is he so feared?

Mr Priebus defended Mr Bannon yesterday, calling him a wise and well-educated former naval officer and saying he had not encountered the sort of extremist or racist views that critics are assailing.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Demonstrators chant slogans in New York during a protest against the election of Donald Trump (AP) Protesters are stopped by Los Angeles Police officers during a protest and march against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States in Los Angeles, California, U.S. November 11, 2016. Photo: REUTERS/Kevork Djansezian Protesters are surrounded by Los Angeles Police Department officers before they were detained in Grand park across Los Angeles City hall after a march and rally against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States in Los Angeles, California, U.S. Photo: REUTERS/Kevork Djansezian Protesters are detained by Los Angeles Police Department officers after a march and rally against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States in Los Angeles, California, U.S. November 12, 2016. Photo: REUTERS/Kevork Djansezian California Highway Patrol officers are deployed at the entrances of the 110 freeway in an attempt to stop protesters getting on the freeway to block traffic during a march and rally against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States in Los Angeles, California, U.S. November 12, 2016. Photo: REUTERS/Kevork Djansezian Protesters march in the streets of Downtown Los Angeles during march and rally against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States in Los Angeles, California. Photo: REUTERS/Kevork Djansezian Protesters take part in a march and rally against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States on the streets of Downtown Los Angeles, California, U.S. November 12, 2016. Photo: REUTERS/Kevork Djansezian Protesters march in the streets of Downtown Los Angeles during march and rally against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States in Los Angeles, California. Photo: REUTERS/Kevork Djansezian Several hundred protesters are arrested by Los Angeles Police Department officers after a march and rally in protest to the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States in Los Angeles, California, U.S. November 12, 2016. Photo: REUTERS/Kevork Djansezian Protesters march in the street to demonstrate against the election of President-elect Donald Trump in Atlanta, Friday. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Michael Moore joins demonstrators in New York during a protest against the election of Donald Trump (AP) Police detain a demonstrator at a protest in Portland, Oregon, against the election of Donald Trump. Photo: Reuters People gather at Portland City Hall to protest of the election of president-elect, Donald Trump. Photo: Mark Graves/The Oregonian via AP / Facebook

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Whatsapp Demonstrators chant slogans in New York during a protest against the election of Donald Trump (AP)

"He was a force for good on the campaign," Mr Priebus said on Fox News, adding they were in agreement on "almost everything" in terms of advising the president-elect.

Hardline Trump backers counting on the wealthy real estate developer to keep his campaign promise to "drain the swamp" of business-as-usual Washington insiders may be disappointed he has named Mr Priebus as chief of staff, a position that serves as gatekeeper and agenda-setter.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Marchers approach a freeway onramp guarded by police during a protest against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States in Portland, Oregon, U.S. November 10, 2016. REUTERS/Cole Howard Police detain a demonstrator during a protest against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States in Portland, Oregon, U.S. November 11, 2016. REUTERS/William Gagan People take part in a protest against Republican president-elect Donald Trump at the Washington Square park in the neighborhood of Manhattan in New York, U.S., November 11, 2016. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz People take part in a protest against Republican president-elect Donald Trump at the Washington Square park in the neighborhood of Manhattan in New York, U.S., November 11, 2016. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz People take part in a protest against Republican president-elect Donald Trump at the Washington Square park in the neighborhood of Manhattan in New York, U.S., November 11, 2016. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz Protesters lock arms during a standoff with a police car along the pipeline route during a protest against the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in St. Anthony, North Dakota, U.S. November 11, 2016. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith People take part in a protest against Republican president-elect Donald Trump at the Washington Square park in the neighborhood of Manhattan in New York, U.S., November 11, 2016. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz Paul Watts, of Graffiti Removal Services, works for free on clean up after a protest to the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States in Portland, Oregon, U.S. November 11, 2016. REUTERS/Steve Dipaola People take part in a protest against Republican president-elect Donald Trump at the Washington Square park in the neighborhood of Manhattan in New York, U.S., November 11, 2016. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz Paul Watts, of Graffiti Removal Services, works for free on clean up after a protest to the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States in Portland, Oregon, U.S. November 11, 2016. REUTERS/Steve Dipaola TEMPLATE OUT A pedestrian walks by a boarded up business after a protest to the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States in Portland, Oregon, U.S. November 11, 2016. REUTERS/Steve Dipaola Pedestrians walk by a boarded up business after a protest to the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States in Portland, Oregon, U.S. November 11, 2016. REUTERS/Steve Dipaola A motorist who was caught in the middle of a riot threatens a demonstrator with detergent during a protest against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States in Portland, Oregon, U.S. November 10, 2016. REUTERS/William Gagan A motorist who was caught in the middle of a riot threatens a demonstrator with detergent during a protest against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States in Portland, Oregon, U.S. November 10, 2016. REUTERS/William Gagan Demonstrators push over a fence during a protest against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States in Portland, Oregon, U.S. November 10, 2016. REUTERS/Cole Howard A demonstrator sits in the street during a protest against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States in Portland, Oregon, U.S. November 10, 2016. REUTERS/Cole Howard A demonstrator sprays graffiti during a protest against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States in Portland, Oregon, U.S. November 10, 2016. REUTERS/Cole Howard A demonstrator performs a burnout during a protest against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States in Portland, Oregon, U.S. November 10, 2016. REUTERS/Cole Howard ES A demonstrator sets a news rack on fire as another wields a baseball bat (R) during a protest against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States in Portland, Oregon, U.S. November 11, 2016. REUTERS/William Gagan Demonstrators break a shop window during a protest against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States in Portland, Oregon, U.S. November 11, 2016. REUTERS/William Gagan Police block a freeway entrance during a protest against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States in Portland, Oregon, U.S. November 11, 2016. REUTERS/William Gagan Smoke rises during a protest against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States in Portland, Oregon, U.S. November 10, 2016. REUTERS/William Gagan Interstate 84 eastbound into the city is shut down as a result of protests against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States, in Portland, Oregon, U.S. November 10, 2016. REUTERS/Steve Dipaola / Facebook

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Throughout his career Mr Trump has said he often pits competing staff factions against each other to get a wide range of views.

Mr Trump said in his statement Mr Priebus and Mr Bannon were "highly qualified leaders" .

Since the election, Mr Trump has softened one of his major campaign promises of building a wall along the US border with Mexico to keep out illegal immigrants. In an interview with the CBS programme '60 Minutes' on Sunday, Mr Trump said he would accept some fencing instead of a brick-and-mortar wall.

In the interview, Mr Trump also sought to play down the divisive nature of his candidacy and said Americans alarmed by his election had nothing to fear.

Among those reported to be under consideration for top posts are former US House Speaker Newt Gingrich, as a possible secretary of state or secretary of health and human services; former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani as attorney general; and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as interior secretary.

Mr Priebus is a long-time Wisconsin political operative who was credited with marshalling party resources for Mr Trump's White House bid.

Mr Bannon could hardly be more different. The former Goldman Sachs banker over the past year led Breitbart News in a charge against the Republican Party establishment, including Mr Priebus's friend Paul Ryan, the speaker of the US House of Representatives.

The Breitbart attacks on Ryan continued on Sunday, with an article denouncing Mr Ryan's comment on CNN that "we are not planning on erecting a deportation force".

"Speaker Ryan is now telling voters that he will not enact a central part of Trump's mandate," a Breitbart article said.

Ryan, who had a tense relationship with Mr Trump during the election campaign, praisedMr Trump's choice of Mr Priebus for his White House chief of staff as the best choice for getting things done.

In the '60 Minutes' interview, Mr Trump said he would move to deport up to three million immigrants who are in the country illegally and have criminal records.

Demonstrators in major US cities took to the streets for a fifth straight day on Sunday to protest against Mr Trump.
An emergency worker patrols a cordon in Wellington after officials determined a nine-storey office building, centre, is in danger of collapsing (AP)

A rescue operation involving hundreds of tourists and residents stranded in the coastal town of Kaikoura is under way, after a powerful earthquake in New Zealand cut off train and vehicle access.

The operation comes as several buildings in the capital, Wellington, were evacuated on Tuesday, and streets cordoned off, after engineers determined a nine-storey building was in danger of collapsing.

The magnitude 7.8 quake that struck the South Island early Monday left two people dead and triggered a small tsunami. It also brought down rocks and mud that swept across roads and cracked them apart.

The defence force said it had started ferrying people out by military helicopter and that a navy ship from Auckland was due to arrive in the area Wednesday morning.

Home to about 2,000 residents, Kaikoura is a popular destination for travellers taking part in whale-watching expeditions or wanting a stopover with mountain views. But the quake knocked out water supplies and sewer systems and left people with no easy way out.

"From all directions, Kaikoura has essentially been isolated," Air Commodore Darryn Webb, acting commander of New Zealand's Joint Forces, told The Associated Press. "There's a real imperative to support the town because it can't support itself."

Webb said the military was using four NH90 helicopters that could each transport about 18 people at a time out of the town. He said the ship could pick up hundreds of people if weather conditions allowed.

"We're going to get as many people and belongings out as quickly as we can," Webb said.

He said the operation could take several days and that if needed, a C-130 military transport plane could drop fuel, water, food and other supplies to the town. He said about five metric tons of supplies were ready to be delivered from Christchurch.

Sarah Stuart-Black, director of the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management, said the priority was transporting out those people with health issues or international flights booked. She said 34 people had been airlifted out by noon Tuesday local time.

She said the community was rallying to help the tourists.

"It's fantastic that some of the locals in Kaikoura have taken in tourists into their own homes," she said.

In Wellington, Brendan Nally, the regional commander for the New Zealand Fire Service, said engineers were completing an inspection of the nine-storey central office building when they found that a major vertical beam had failed above the fifth floor.

"It looks somewhat like a broken bone in the leg. It's fractured through," Mr Nally said. "So the building is at significant risk of collapse."

He said the building was empty when the quake struck because it was being renovated.

He said the buildings evacuated included the Thai Embassy, the headquarters for New Zealand Rugby, the Anglican cathedral and the national headquarters for the Red Cross.

Elsewhere in the capital, many returned to work after the quake shut down much of the central city on Monday. But some buildings remained closed and heavy rain and flooding compounded the difficulties for others.

Strong aftershocks continued to shake New Zealand, rattling the nerves of exhausted residents.

Police said one person died in Kaikoura and another in Mt Lyford, a nearby ski resort. Several other people suffered minor injuries in Kaikoura, police spokeswoman Rachel Purdom said.

Prime Minister John Key flew over Kaikoura by helicopter Monday as aftershocks kicked up dust from the landslides below. Cars could be seen lying on their sides and parts of the road were clearly impassable.

"It's just utter devastation," Mr Key said.

Three cows whose predicament captured the interest of people around the world after they became stranded on a small island of grass in an area ripped apart by the quake were rescued. The Newshub news service reported a farmer and some helpers dug a track to them and took them out.

New Zealand, with a population of 4.7 million, sits on the "Ring of Fire," an arc of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean where earthquakes are common. An earthquake in Christchurch five years ago destroyed thousands of homes and buildings and killed 185 people.

AP
A senior al Qaida leader has reportedly been killed in a late-night drone strike that hit his home in Libya's remote south.

The strike was suspected to be the work of a Western military but a Pentagon spokesman denied it was carried out by the United States.

The Lana news agency said that Abu Talha al-Hassnawi, a key figure in al Qaida's North African affiliate, was killed in his house in Sabha late on Monday.

According to the agency, al-Hassnawi was previously a leading member of al Qaida's affiliate in Syria, and was a leading recruiter of fighters heading to fight in Syria's vicious and complex conflict that has seen rival al Qaida and Islamic State militants battle each other.

Al-Hassnawi was also purportedly close to a top militant once considered the most dangerous man in the Sahara - the one-eyed terror leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a former member of al Qaida's North Africa branch - and has been seen in his company in the past.

Lana also said that al-Hassnawi had fled to Sabha from the northern coastal city of Sirte, where Libyan militias and forces loyal to the UN-brokered government in the capital, Tripoli, are battling the Islamic State affiliate with the help of US air strikes.

Libya is split between two rival governments, the UN-backed one in Tripoli and its rival, based in the country's east. Lana, which reported al-Hassnawi's death, is affiliated with the east-based government.

A resident who lives near Sabha said the strike took place at 11.15pm on Monday and that it targeted a house the Gurtha Shati village on Sabha's outskirts.

The attack left seven bodies completely charred so it was impossible to identify al-Hassnawi, he added.

The locals knew that the al Qaida leader had been in the house but "no one can tell who is who" among the bodies, the witness said.

The witness also said he had seen al-Hassnawi together with Belmokhtar, whom a US drone strike in the eastern Libyan town of Adjabiya failed to kill last year, and that the two "came back from the fighting in Sirte".

It was not immediately possible to verify his account and local officials could not be reached for comment.

In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said the Libya strike was not carried out by the United States.

The US Treasury Department designated Belmokhtar as a foreign terrorist in 2003.

Prosecutors said he was a key leader of al Qaida's efforts in North Africa starting in 2008 as he led attacks that resulted in the kidnapping and murder of numerous individuals.

There is a five million dollar (4 million) reward for information leading to his capture.

Believed to be 43 years old, Belmokhtar has also been dubbed "the one-eyed sheikh" after losing an eye in combat.

One of his aliases was "Mr Marlboro" because he was accused of smuggling cigarettes through the Sahara and the Sahel regions in Africa.

He is accused of participating in a January 2013 attack on a Western-owned gas processing facility in a remote part of eastern Algeria near the border with Libya.

After a four-day stand-off, the Algerian army moved in and killed 29 attackers and captured three others. At least 37 hostages, including one Algerian worker, died in the battle.

The US has closely monitored movements of Islamic State and al Qaida militants in Libya, and small teams of US military personnel have moved in and out of the country.

Last November, a US air strike in the eastern city of Darna killed Islamic State leader Abu Nabil or Wissam al-Zubaydi, an Iraqi national.

British, French and Italian special forces have also been in Libya, helping with aerial surveillance, mapping and intelligence gathering in several cities, including Benghazi in the east and Zintan in the west.

Libya has been plagued by chaos since the civil war in 2011, which drew in US and European air strikes that helped topple long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

AP
Ameriabank: At the Vanguard of Armenia's Banking Sector

STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARTSAKH

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Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders

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PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia concerned by reports of alleged war crimes or inhuman treatment perpetrated by Azerbaijans armed forces

There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan

Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia

Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair

Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan

I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General

I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox

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There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights: PACE General Rapporteur

EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol  Armenia and Azerbaijan  to do so without delay

An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan".

UCOM AND PES-PES CONTINUE COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECT

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The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022

Largest Corporate Bond Program at the Securities Market of Armenia Completed Successfully

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STATEMENT BY SECRETARY ANTONY J. BLINKEN

This criminal act is another proof that the Armenophobia policy. Tatoyan

Nikol Pashinyan, Nancy Pelosi discuss a number of issues related to the Armenian-American agenda and regional developments

Delegation by Nancy Pelosi Accompanied by Alen Simonyan Visits Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex

Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi Arrives in Yerevan

Armenian Revytech, global technology leader SAP and financial services software specialist SAP Fioneer sign a cooperation agreement

With 120 million drams donated by Mikael Vardanyan, the defenders of the homeland will be treated in a new building

OSCE Chairman-in-Office and OSCE Secretary General call for immediate cessation of hostilities along Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh
Thousands of young children have died of starvation and disease in Boko Haram-ravaged north-eastern Nigeria, Doctors Without Borders said, quoting a new survey which is forcing Nigerian officials to stop denying the crisis.

The Paris-based organisation hopes that official recognition of the situation in which "thousands are dying every day" will help bring urgent aid before older children also start dying, spokeswoman Natalie Roberts said.

A survey of two refugee camps in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri shows a quarter of the expected population of under-five children is missing, presumed dead, according to the organisation.

North-eastern Nigeria's under-five mortality rates are more than double the threshold for declaring an emergency, Ms Roberts said.

Speaking on her return from north-eastern Borno state, the birthplace of Boko Haram's Islamic uprising, she said the absence of young children was striking.

"We only saw older brothers and sisters. No toddlers are straddling their big sisters' hips. No babies strapped to their mums' backs. It's as if they have just vanished," Ms Roberts said.

Doctors Without Borders first sounded the alarm in June but Nigerian camp officials as late as September denied any child was suffering malnutrition. That was even after images were published of matchstick-thin children fighting for their lives at Doctors Without Borders' intensive feeding centre in Maiduguri.

"The difference now is that our figures have been checked by the statistician general, and we have official recognition from the government that they believe this is happening," Mr Roberts said.

About 75,000 children could die within a year because donors have provided only a third of requested funding and twice as much, 1 billion dollars (800 million), is needed for the rest of the year and into 2017, says the United Nations.

A funding conference in Geneva next month could save the day, otherwise "it won't be long before we could be in the painful position of having to turn away sick and starving children", said Save the Children.

About 2.6 million people including more than a million children have been driven from their homes by Nigeria's seven-year insurgency that has killed more than 20,000 people, left food-producing fields fallow, disrupted trade routes and destroyed wells, bridges and entire towns.

The crisis is aggravated by alleged theft of food aid being investigated by Nigeria's senate.

President Muhammadu Buhari last month set up a presidential committee to co-ordinate aid and the rebuilding of the north east, even as an end to the rainy season has brought a predictable upsurge in attacks on military outposts and urban suicide bombings by the Islamic extremists.

AP
Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani smiles as he leaves Trump Tower (AP)

Hundreds of students have walked out of class and gathered outside the Supreme Court in Washington to protest against Donald Trump's election.

The students began assembling outside Mr Trump's newly-opened hotel on Tuesday and walked past the Capitol to the Supreme Court across the street.

The streets in between are blocked by protesters and police.

The protesters are carrying signs reading "Black Lives Matter" and "Not My President".

Woodrow Wilson High School students promoted the event on social media, saying they want to tell Mr Trump "he can't divide us".

Wilson Principal Kimberly Martin said in a letter to parents that the school defends students' right to self-expression, but she warned that students who participate will receive unexcused absences.

The protests came as Donald Trump's allies engaged in an unusual round of public speculation about his potential appointments - including their own futures.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani seemed to be angling for secretary of state, and a Trump official said the job was his if he wanted it.

However, a second official cautioned that John Bolton, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, remained in contention.

In Washington late on Monday, Mr Giuliani said Mr Bolton would be a "very good choice". Asked if there was anyone better, he replied: "Maybe me, I don't know."

On Twitter, businessman Carl Icahn disclosed details of a conversation he said he had with the president-elect.

Mr Icahn said Mr Trump was considering Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs banker, and Wilbur Ross, a billionaire investor, to lead the Treasury and Commerce departments.

Meanwhile, Mike Rogers, a respected Republican voice on national security issues, announced he was stepping down from the transition effort, while an apparent clerical oversight effectively halted the Trump team's ability to co-ordinate with President Barack Obama's White House.

Vice President-elect Mike Pence, now running the transition team, ignored questions from reporters as he walked through the lobby of Trump Tower, a thick binder tucked under his arm.

He took over from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who spent months running transition operations before his demotion last week. The switch has slowed Mr Trump's ability to co-ordinate with the White House.

Mr Pence has yet to sign a memorandum of understanding facilitating interactions between his team and Obama administration officials.

Mr Christie had signed the document, but Mr Pence's promotion makes it no longer valid.

A stream of Trump advisers arrived on Tuesday at his eponymous skyscraper to plan for the next administration.

"He's going to be a great president. He's got a team," said retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, who is advising on defence issues.

"He's got great people. They believe in him. They believe in the republic. It's going to be just fine."

The team appeared to be focusing on filling out the top national security jobs. Mr Trump's selections will be the first signals to anxious international allies about the direction he plans to take US foreign policy.

Mr Giuliani, 72, would be an out-of-box choice for secretary of state. A former mayor and federal prosecutor, he is known for his hard line law-and-order views.

Mr Bolton has years of US foreign policy experience, but has raised eyebrows with some of his hawkish stances, including a 2015 New York Times op-ed in which he advocated bombing Iran to halt the country's nuclear programme.

Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, a loyal Trump ally and immigration hardliner, is said to be a contender to lead the Pentagon as defence secretary.

Mr Trump is also considering Richard Grenell as US ambassador to the United Nations, which would bring some experience and diversity to his nascent administration.

Mr Grenell, who served as US spokesman at the UN under George W Bush, would be the first openly gay person to fill a Cabinet-level foreign policy post.

The transition planning comes amid continued backlash from Mr Trump's weekend decision to appoint Steve Bannon, a man celebrated by the white nationalist movement, to serve as his chief strategist and senior adviser.

"After winning the presidency but losing the popular vote, President-elect Trump must try to bring Americans together - not continue to fan the flames of division and bigotry," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said.

She called Mr Bannon's appointment "an alarming signal" that Mr Trump "remains committed to the hateful and divisive vision that defined his campaign".

Until joining Mr Trump's campaign this summer, Mr Bannon led the Breitbart website that appealed to the so-called "alt-right" - a movement often associated with far-right efforts to preserve "white identity", oppose multiculturalism and defend "Western values".

Breitbart has frequently targeted House Speaker Paul Ryan. Asked about Mr Bannon's appointment, Mr Ryan said: "I would just simply say the president will be judged on results."

On Monday, Mr Trump spoke for the first time by telephone to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

The president-elect "is very much looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the people of Russia," his transition office said.

Mr Trump, who has no foreign policy experience,has also spoken with the leaders of China, Mexico, South Korea and Canada in recent days.

AP
Steve Bannon leaves Trump Tower in New York - the controversial media figure has been appointed to a key White House job (AP)

Donald Trump is known for his blunt speaking

President Barack Obama has warned there are "certain elements" of Donald Trump's temperament that will not serve him well "unless he recognises them and corrects them".

With just weeks left in office, Mr Obama said the president-elect understands that a candidate being reckless with his words can be less consequential than a president saying the same thing.

Mr Obama noted that markets move and foreign governments take note of a president's rhetoric and stressed that national security "requires a level of precision" so that deadly mistakes are not made.

He said blunt-spoken Mr Trump "recognises that this is different - and so do the American people".

In a White House news conference ahead of his final overseas trip as president, Mr Obama made the argument that immigration is good for the American economy.

He acknowledged that many Americans have grown sceptical about the "complex argument" in support of immigration, when they see factories closing at home and jobs going offshore. But he said "immigration is good for our economy" if it is "orderly and lawful".

Mr Trump campaigned on a promise to limit immigration into the US and bring offshore jobs back home.

But Mr Obama maintained that it is still his "strong belief" that achieving a strong global economy does not mean "shutting people out".

And he believes Mr Trump will seek to "send some signals of unity" to people alienated by his ferocious campaign.

He said he advised the president-elect "to reach out to minority groups or women or others that were concerned about the tenor of the campaign" and "that's something that he will want to do".

But he added that Mr Trump is trying to balance commitments he made to "supporters that helped to get him here".

On the campaign trail, Mr Trump described Mexicans as rapists and criminals. He vowed to build a wall along the US's southern border and make Mexico pay for it.

He appeared to mock a reporter with a physical disability and threatened to sue several women who accused him of assaulting them. Mr Trump also disparaged the Muslim American parents of an Army captain killed in Iraq, and battled a former Miss America who is Latino about having gained weight.

Mr Obama stressed the need to give Mr Trump the "rope and space" for a "reset" once he takes over the reins of power.

Earlier it emerged that Mr Trump was considering a woman and an openly gay man to fill major positions in his new leadership team.

It would be seen as history-making moves that would inject diversity into a Trump administration already facing questions about its ties to white nationalists.

The incoming president is considering Richard Grenell as United States ambassador to the United Nations.

If picked and ultimately confirmed by the Senate, he would be the first openly gay person to fill a Cabinet-level foreign policy post.

Mr Grenell previously served as US spokesman at the UN under former President George W Bush's administration.

At the same time, Mr Trump is weighing up whether to select the first woman to serve as chairman of the Republican National Committee.

On his short list of prospective chairs: Michigan GOP chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel, the former sister-in-law of Trump rival and 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

"I'll be interested in whatever Mr Trump wants," Ms McDaniel said, adding that she was planning to seek the Michigan GOP chairmanship again

Internal deliberations about staffing come a day after Mr Trump made overtures to warring Republican circles by appointing RNC Chairman Reince Priebus as his White House chief of staff and Breitbart News executive Stephen Bannon as chief strategist and senior counsellor.

AP
HARRISBURG- Smiling students wearing hair nets and gloves cheered as they filled boxes of food to send to orphans in Haiti last week.

Harrisburg Elementary School was buzzing with energy as students and volunteers gathered in the gym to pack the boxes.

They are actually really excited to wear the hair nets, Assistant Principal Krista Eason said. My children came bounding down the stairs this morning. It was like Christmas.

Earlier in the year, students raised $8,000 to purchase food through the Feed the Hunger organization to send to Haiti. Students were tasked to raise the money in more creative ways than asking their parents. Some students completed chores and worked lemonade stands to collect money.

We really pushed not asking mom or dad. It was you had to earn it, Eason said. So they had some sweat equity in it.

The school actually exceeded its goal by $3,000 thanks to an anonymous donor. The end result was $8,105.52. Angela Gardner, problem-based learning teacher who spearheaded the project, said that every 28 cents of that money feeds one child.

We are trying to make a difference in solving world hunger, Gardner said. We had hoped for $5,000 but we surpassed that and the kids are having a blast.

The packathon was held on Thursday, Nov. 10 and students and volunteers assembled four ingredients; rice, soy protein, dehydrated vegetables and vitamin powder. The ingredients, which together provide complete nutrition, are packaged in six-serving meal packets that are weighed, sealed and boxed.

Food packed during the packathon is distributed overseas to refugees and needy children through Christian partners and is given out domestically through food pantries and supplemental food programs at certain schools.

As the students packed, each table came up with individual cheers to chant when a box was complete. Some students also decorated the boxes with personalized drawings.

It feels good because the school worked hard. We got almost $3,000 more than our goal, Fifth-grade student Tori Kirkpatrick said as she packed. It feels good because I know lots of kids in Haiti dont have what we have. We are fortunate live in the United States.

This is the first time that Harrisburg Elementary has participated in this type of program and Gardner said the students have learned a lot about Haiti and hunger during the process. Prior to the packing event, some of the older students even grew their own rice.

They learned how hard it is to grow, Gardner said. I had done this in the past and thought it would be cool for students to see how they can help first-hand.

And that lesson seemed to resonate with even the youngest in the school.

We are doing this so they can have more food. So they can be healthier, stronger and grow, kindergarten student Caleb Marshall said.

At the end of the day, students had packed over 28,000 meals for the orphans in Haiti.
After a few more tweaks, the new attendance zones for Kannapolis elementary schools should be ready for board approval in December.

Kannapolis City Schools will redistrict all the elementary attendance zones for the 2017-2018 school year with the elimination of the intermediate school and creation of a new K-5. Staff has been working on redrawing the zones for months, adjusting lines to not only balance student numbers in those zones but also allow for kids outside a district to attend one of the two new magnet schools.

Board of Education members heard an update at their Monday, Nov. 14, meeting, reminded again that while a map needed to be approved sooner rather than later it was still subject to change down the road.

"We're here to talk to you about an ever-evolving process here, the new school attendance zones," Superintendent Chip Buckwell said. "We were hopeful that we could present to you tonight kind of a first reading of what the districts would look like, but we need to go back to the drawing board a little bit because Forest Park is a little bit large."

The need for rezoning comes with a reconfiguration of the entire district. After this school year, Kannapolis Intermediate School will become Carver Elementary, and the fifth-graders will disperse among the now six elementary schools. Sixth-graders will join the rest of the middle school in a new building on that campus.

The new lines serve to create a feeder zone for Carver in the center of the district, and staff continues to tweak here and there to make sure each school has the right amount of studentsnot too many and not too few.

"We put all this back into Forest Park because Forest Park was a little small," Director of Business Operations Will Crabtree said. "Well, we over did it. We're going to have to come back and take at least a portion of this and put it back into Carver. That's kind of what we're looking at. I think we feel good about everywhere else."

A finalized mapor at least as final as it can be at this pointwill come back before the board next month for approval.

"In December we'll come to you formally, and the only difference you'll see is a portion of this is going to be back into Carver," Crabtree said. "Sorry we didn't have it for you this month, but we want to make sure it's right. The outlier is going to be the magnet schools and where they live."

Essentially, the attendance zone map board members approve is necessary so parents know whether or not they need to apply for a magnet school, but those applications could influence tweaks in the lines going forward. Staff won't know which kids opt to leave their home school for the arts, global studies or Spanish immersion programs until in the spring. Depending on distribution, districts might need to shift to retain that attendance balance.

"We're trying to plan so that there's enough room in the magnets that we can accommodate most of the folks who we feel like are going to be there because that's the whole point of having a magnet to start with," Buckwell said.

Development will also affect the zone map going forward. The superintendent said several planned or possible housing developments could throw a wrench in the current plans.

"I've said this all along, when we solidify the district lines this time, it's only going to be as solid as the next small housing development," Buckwell said. "There's one coming in in Woodrow's district that could be 200 homes, and it could be finished pretty quickly, quickly being a year or two. That's going to change again, so this isn't going to be the first time it's going to come before you, and it won't be the last time over the next several years. It's going to continue to be evolving but we need to make it as permanent as we can as quickly as we can."

Crabtree said the board will also have to make a decision on the new start times in the coming months, especially since next year's calendar depends on those.

"Along with the boundaries, that's something we're going to have to nail down pretty soon, something we don't have to tackle in this meeting, but pretty soon we need to come to a resolution," he said.

According to the proposed changes, the new middle schoolwhich will incorporate sixth through eighth grade in August 2017will have the same schedule from about 7:15 a.m. to 2 p.m. High school will take that middle slot from 8 a.m. to 2:55 p.m., and elementary will fall at 8:45 a.m. to 3:47 p.m.

Most of the feedback so far has centered around the elementary time, which has parents concerned about what to do with students until school begins. Assistant Superintendent Kelly Burgess reiterated that the reason for shifting the start for the system's youngest students is transportation for the magnet schools.

"The later elementary start time is necessary in order to provide transportation to our students to the magnet schools from attendance zones if the magnet is not their home school," she said. "By leaving the elementary schools where they are now with the middle start time, it limits the flexibility we have with buses either starting routes a little early or it doesn't allow us to start early, which we would need to do to get students from across town. So our current start times would not allow us to transport students to the magnet school."
Has Aram Ateshian appropriated a painting by Aivazovsky? (video)

Members of an NGO calling itself We call for punishment for profane Aram Ateshian spend one day to find out whether Archbishop Aram Ateshian, General Vicar of the Armenian Patriarch in Turkey was in Armenia or not. We were able to find out that the Catholicos of All Armenians (Karekin II) is not in Armenia, while Ateshian had arrived in Armenia with two other clergymen. The reason of the visit was that one of them had never been to Armenia before, Sargis Hatspanyan, an expert-analyst in regional affairs, said today. He says they found it meaningless to take people to Etchmiadzin and stage an action there in the absence of the Catholicos. The initiative has decided to apply to all dioceses asking their opinion about Ateshian who spoke against the canonization of the Genocide victims. The acting Armenian patriarch of Istanbul, Archbishop Aram Ateshian, wrote a letter to Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdogan shortly after the German Bundestag overwhelmingly passed a resolution recognizing the 1915 Armenian genocide. In the letter sent on behalf of his community, Ateshian said that German lawmakers had no right to pass judgment on the Armenian massacres. He also claimed that Armenians are being exploited by imperialist forces. The Church takes an ostrich approach in such matters, Sargis Hatspanyan stressed. Gohar Arshakyan, another member of the initiative, added that Ateshian displays inaction, at the same time offering liturgy in Turkish and refusing to baptize Armenians who were Islamized by force. Sargis Hatspanyan also expressed his concerns that Ateshian had probably appropriated one of the six paintings by Aivazovsky that decorated the entrance of the Patriarchate.
Russia and Armenia to create joint military forces: Russia to decide for Armenia during wartim

Russia and Armenia have started creating joint military forces, the Interfax news agency reported. The joint troops will be tasked with the protection of Russias southern military district, the source said. One of the main tasks of the joint military forces will be to cover the land borders of Russia and Armenia and ensure the security of the sides in the Caucasus region. Russian President Vladimir Putin has already approved a government proposal on creating joint military forces between the two countries in question. Putin has also instructed the Russian Defense Ministry and the Foreign Ministry to hold talks with the Armenian side on reaching an agreement. The draft agreement submitted to the Russian Defense Ministry had been agreed upon with the Foreign Ministry and other interested federal agencies. The leader of the joint command will be appointed by the Supreme Commander of the Armenian Armed Forces in agreement with the Supreme Commander of the Russian Armed Forces. During peacetime, the commander of the joint forces will be subordinate to Armenia's military Chief of Staff. During wartime, he will be subordinate to the commander of Russia's southern military district or the Armenian Chief of Staff, depending on the situation and the decision of both militaries' chief commanders.
The bill should not pass: I am ready to take everyone to the street - Sofya Hovsepyan (video)

One of the members of the Support to Border Communities initiative is ready to pay AMD 10 000 from her monthly salary with the aim of restoring confidence between people and the army. The project should not be approved at this moment. I am ready to take everyone to the street and refuse to pay the money unless the trust between the public and army is restored again, Sofya Hovsepyan told reporters today. She is particularly concerned about the fact that AMD 50 000 is allocated to a military concert when, in reality, we have 50 000 hungry families in Armenia. The member of the civil initiative says scoundrels and rascals are gathered in the National Assembly and Government. She thinks people should not be told how to spend their money. The hostilities of this April proved that we are united. The man, who had nothing at home, brought cereals from home for our soldiers. Manushak Stepanyan, Chairperson of a local NGO, said in turn that the parents of fallen soldiers are also against this initiative and are very offended. This is done without considering the opinion of people. Mothers of the fallen soldiers feel ignored and insulted. Perhaps, our authorities could get up from their seats and go to talk to people to see what is going on, she said. Manushak Stepanyan added that parents of dead servicemen receive a bonus of AMD 30 000 and can only afford flowers, candles and myrrh with the money. They express their outrage and wonder whether they should lose another son to be given AMD 10 000 million she added. The participants of the press conference said they would do everything possible for the bill to be rejected.
Alembic Pharma gets USFDA approval for Mesalamine extended-release capsules; Stock zooms ~6% Alembic Pharmaceuticals Limited on Wednesday has announced that it has received final approval from the US Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) for its Abbreviated New Drug Application (... November 02, 2022 | 10:57 am

Indrayani Biotech delivers two boiler shell profile for T-Special train; Stock jumps 5% Indrayani Biotech Limited has informed to the exchange regarding delivery of work order. As per the filing, the Southern Railway has embarked on a journey to manufacture T-Special Tr... November 02, 2022 | 10:03 am

Q2FY23 Preview: Hero Motocorp: Revenue seen at Rs87,080 million, PAT at Rs7,571 million Result date: 3rd November, 2022 Recommendation: Buy Target price: Rs3,100 Hero Motocorps sales volumes grew 2.7% sequentially and remained flattish (down 0.7%) over th... November 02, 2022 | 9:42 am

NCC receives two new orders for Rs1,056 crore; Stock soars 1% NCC Limited has received two new orders for Rs1056 crore (exclusive of GST) in the month of October 2022. According to the regulatory filing, all these orders pertain to Water & ... November 02, 2022 | 9:39 am

Markets witness cautious tone amid mixed global cues; Nifty above 18k-mark Indian markets traded lower on Wednesday, erasing gains recorded in previous session. IT, Auto, Consumer Durables stocks dragged the benchmarks Sensex and Nifty 50. Investors are betting cautio... November 02, 2022 | 9:35 am
Ameriabank: At the Vanguard of Armenia's Banking Sector

STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARTSAKH

SUBSCRIBERS OF UCOMS ALL TIME BEST OFFER TO ENJOY ADDITIONAL BENEFITS

Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders

PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia concerned by reports of alleged war crimes or inhuman treatment perpetrated by Azerbaijans armed forces

There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan

Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia

Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair

Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan

I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General

I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox

UCOMS SPECIAL OFFER OF THE UNLIMITED INTERNET IS NOW TERMLESS

There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights: PACE General Rapporteur

EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol  Armenia and Azerbaijan  to do so without delay

An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan".

UCOM AND PES-PES CONTINUE COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECT

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The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022

Largest Corporate Bond Program at the Securities Market of Armenia Completed Successfully

The statement of the Defender on the video of the execution of Armenian PoWs by the Azerbaijani armed forces

LEVEL UP ONLY FOR STUDENTS: UCOM OFFERS X2 AND X3 MORE INTERNET

STATEMENT BY SECRETARY ANTONY J. BLINKEN

This criminal act is another proof that the Armenophobia policy. Tatoyan

Nikol Pashinyan, Nancy Pelosi discuss a number of issues related to the Armenian-American agenda and regional developments

Delegation by Nancy Pelosi Accompanied by Alen Simonyan Visits Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex

Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi Arrives in Yerevan

Armenian Revytech, global technology leader SAP and financial services software specialist SAP Fioneer sign a cooperation agreement

With 120 million drams donated by Mikael Vardanyan, the defenders of the homeland will be treated in a new building

OSCE Chairman-in-Office and OSCE Secretary General call for immediate cessation of hostilities along Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh
Authorities in North Dakota arrested another 33 people on Veterans Day, November 11, 2016. Photo courtesy Morton County Sheriff's Department



The Obama administration has initiated government-to-government talks with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in order to address concerns about the Dakota Access Pipeline

In a joint statement , the Department of the Army and the Department of the Interior said they were mindful of the "history of the Great Sioux Nations dispossessions of lands" and the importance of Lake Oahe to the tribe. As a result, an easement for a critical portion of the controversial pipeline remains on hold.

"While these discussions are ongoing, construction on or under Corps land bordering Lake Oahe cannot occur because the Army has not made a final decision on whether to grant an easement," the joint statement read.

In a separate letter , the Army outlined the issues that will be considered during the talks. The tribe will be asked whether the easement at Lake Oahe can be granted in a way that could still protect its treaty rights and water resources, as well as reduce the risk of an oil spill, Assistant Secretary Jo-Ellen Darcy said.

At the same time, Darcy said the tribe is free to submit any information it "believes is relevant to the proposed pipeline crossing or easement," the letter stated.

"The Army recognizes that portions of Lake Oahe remain within the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's reservation boundaries and the tribe retains hunting and fishing rights in the lake," Darcy wrote in a letter that also was sent to Energy Transfer Partners , the firm behind the project. "Additionally, the Anny recognizes that the tribe relies on Lake Oahe and the Missouri River for drinking water."

"We take seriously our government-to-government relationship with the tribe," Darcy continued. "This history, the importance of Lake Oahe to the tribe, and our government-to-government relationship call for caution, respect, and particular care regarding the proposed DAPL crossing at Lake Oahe."

The Department of Justice filed copies of the statement and the letter in federal court on Monday afternoon as part of the lawsuit that the tribe is pursuing against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , the agency in charge of reviewing the controversial project. It comes after government attorneys last week indicated they were going to present a path forward with the matter.

The announcement, though, does not take the case forward in a manner desired by the tribe. The easement is still on the table and the late timing likely means a decision will fall in the hands of the new administration of Republican president-elect Donald Trump , who has vowed to lift "roadblocks" to large infrastructure projects like Dakota Access within his first 100 days in office.

And there was no call for a full environmental review of the nearly-completed pipeline, something the tribe and Indian Country have requested. On the contrary, the Army has concluded that all of its "previous decisions comported with legal requirements," Darcy's letter stated.

The letter didn't mention rerouting , either, and tribal leaders have said they haven't been approached about that issue. The Army Corps, as part of its review of the easement, has in fact considered whether to "divert" the pipeline but a government attorney last month acknowledged a lack of information on that particular point.

"I'll have to confess ... it may be an issue that we need more of a record for," attorney James A. Maysonett of the Department of Justice told the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals at an October 5 hearing.

The government has since provided nearly the entirety of the administrative record -- essentially, the documents used by the Army Corps during its consideration of the pipeline -- to the tribe. An index filed in court last Thursday shows that more than 87,400 pages of emails, memos and other records have been provided.

Some documents, though, are being withheld because they might contain confidential information about Dakota Access, according to a motion filed on Thursday. Discussions are ongoing as the parties prepare to return to court for another hearing on December 9.

With the easement still on the table, Dakota Access continues to build the pipeline on private lands near Lake Oahe and near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. The firm has refused requests to put a hold on its efforts.

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The wealthy backers of the Dakota Access Pipeline are facing a small fine in connection with the disturbance of tribal artifacts at a construction site.

According to the North Dakota Public Service Commission , the firm waited too long -- 10 days to be exact -- to notify the state after stone cairns and other artifacts were uncovered last month. As a result, a minimum fine of $15,000, which represents a miniscule percentage of the pipeline's $4.8 billion cost , is being proposed in a formal complaint

Julie Fedorchak, the chair of the commission, said the complaint alleges that Dakota Access violated two provisions of its construction order. The firm adjusted the pipeline route but did not file any certifications with the state and resumed construction on the adjusted route without approval, she said.

"Those are the certifications they are supposed to file with us before proceeding and they're supposed to get clearance with us before proceeding," Fedorchak said at a special meeting that was held in Bismarck on November 8

The complaint proposes a "$10,000 fine for failing to obtain clearance and a $5,000 fine for failing to file .. the required certifications," Fedorchak said in reference to the two alleged violations.

Dakota Access will be able to respond to the complaint but could agree to settle it by paying the fine, Fedorchak said. Settling wouldn't be a problem -- according to an earnings call held last Wednesday, the firm is flush with $1.2 billion in cash after selling a stake in the pipeline.

The North Dakota Public Service Commission is a public agency with approval authority over infrastructure projects like the Dakota Access Pipeline. Its three members serve six-year terms and are elected by popular vote -- all three are non-Indian and all three are Republicans

During the campaign, Hunte-Beaubrun, a Democrat, made an issue of the pipeline and the lack of indigenous voices on the commission. Her message clearly resonated among Native voters on her tribe's reservation -- she won nearly 71 percent of the vote in Sioux County, according to the county-by-county results . Native Americans represent nearly 81 percent of the population in the county, the largest proportion in the state.

Hunte-Beaubrun also carried Rolette County with 59 percent of the vote. Native voters represent 76 percent of the population there, which is home to the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians

Democrat Marlo Hunte-Beaubrun, a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, carried just two counties, colored in blue, in her unsuccessful bid to unseat a Republican from the North Dakota Public Utilities Commission. Screenshot from North Dakota Secretary of State

But those were the only two places where Hunte-Beaubrun won the majority. Native Americans represent 54 percent of the population in Benson County, home to most of the Spirit Lake Nation , yet only 40 percent of the vote went to her, indicating that Native citizens failed to turn out in large enough numbers there.

Elsewhere, Fedorchak easily out-polled Hunte-Beaubrun in a state where Native Americans represent just 5.5 percent of the population . In Morton County -- where the #NoDAPL water protector camps are located and where Native people only make up 4 percent of the population -- the Republican won nearly 74 percent of the vote.

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Oglala Lakota artist and water protector Joel Pulliam at the front line camp's "Wild Oglala Cook Shack" in North Dakota. Photo by Natalie Hand



Oglala Lakota on the Front Line

By Natalie HandLakota Country Times Correspondent

CANNON BALL -- When warriors first arrived at the confluence of the Cannon Ball and Missouri Rivers, the grass stood tall and green and the sun kissed their cheeks.

Months have passed since that balmy August day, with countless events replacing calendar dates. The air is crisp and the tall green grasses are now brown and flattened by thousands of feet that have marched through the massive resistance encampment on the taken land. The Oceti Sakowin camp sits on a swath of land on the north bank of the Cannon Ball River that was taken by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe decades before.

Several hundred Oglala Lakota water protectors, not protestors, have converged on the camp since August, filling numerous roles in this effort to stop the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) project that is actively being constructed through four states.

Members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe put out an urgent call in April to water protectors and land defenders to come to the river and help stop the pipeline construction. As construction neared the reservation, thousands of people, native and non-native, have caravanmed to a makeshift camp along the Cannon Ball River, just one mile south of the pipeline corridor.

Olowan Martinez takes part in a #NoDAPL action in North Dakota in August 2016. Courtesy photo



Olowan Martinez, 43, arrived at Cannon Ball, North Dakota, on August 9th. Martinez, an Oglala Lakota/Tohono Oodham grandmother and long-time activist, answered the call. Born into the American Indian Movement, Martinez has innate skills for front line work. Her strategist mindset has proven vital to this effort.

My role in Red Warrior Camp is encouragement, empowerment and enforcement for these young warriors that have come from all over and are healing from an oppressive upbringing. The most beautiful part of my experience here is seeing the colonized mindset arrive in camp and then the decolonization begin to transform people, stated Martinez.

Martinez acknowledges that there have been challenges along the way. Like the ever changing population of the resistance camp and Morton County Sherriffs increased militarized police forces.

Seeing all the people arrive at camp, growing more and more each day. Regardless of whatever is happening, were like flowing water, we come to an obstacle, we flow around it. We all flow together like the water, added Martinez.

The camp is filled with people from all walks of life with different approaches to protecting the water and land.

I understand and respect the diversity of the tactics being utilized to stop the pipeline construction. The political, spiritual, physical tactics are all important and need to be respected, she said.

Martinez describes seeing the seven tipis representing the Oceti Sakowin for the first time.

My heart swelled with pride and honor. I am so humbled and thankful that my bloodline made it this far to witness that historic moment, added Martinez.

For those that cannot travel to Cannon Ball, Martinez encouraged supporters to flood the banks that finance the project, government offices, or simply pray for the warriors that are using their bodies to physically stop the pipeline. We are not acting in violence, we are acting in self-defense, added Martinez.

Martinez is in this fight for the long haul. I plan to stay here until I have the black snakes head hanging from my war belt," mused Martinez.

Water protectors in Mandan/Bismarck. Posted by Nataanii Means on Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Nataanii Means on Facebook: On the Front Lines in North Dakota



Natannii Nez Means, 25, Oglala Lakota/Omaha/Dine, of Porcupine, South Dakota, arrived in August as well.

I have been on the ground here in Red Warrior Camp, helping with nonviolent direct actions in support of stopping pipeline construction so that DAPL will lose funding, stated Means.

Means, an internationally known hip hop artist and son of the late Oglala Lakota activist Russell Means, promotes Indigenous rights and decolonization through his art form.

I was here when construction first started. And during the dog attacks in September. I was also here when they destroyed the front line camp on October 27th. It was very disheartening to see the police rip apart the sweat lodge and tear down the tipis, added Means.

Means, along with other unarmed water protectors, was beaten with batons and mobbed by militarized police on the scene.

Part of a mass arrest that day, Means was carted off to Morton County Jail, where he and the others had numbers written on their arms with permanent marker and then held in chain link dog kennels. Means, #116, was charged with one count of Conspiracy to Endanger by Fire, a Class C Felony; and two misdemeanor charges. His bond stipulations prohibit him from being on DAPL construction sites, their property or contact with DAPL employees.

My attorney is looking into the possibility of taking my case to federal court because our treaty rights are being violated, added Means.

Means feels a deep connection to this issue and intends to stay until the construction is stopped.

I think of why we sundance. I think about the water that we sacrifice for those four days. We suffer for all our relatives. I come from three great nations that really depend on and respect water. I just want clean water, stated Means.

When well-known Oglala artist Joel Pulliam isnt on the front line, he spends his time in the heart of the camp, the cook shack. The Oglala have maintained the Wild Oglala cook shack since arriving in early August. And since Joels arrival 58 days ago, he has helped feed thousands of warriors.

I was called here to protect the sacred water and the land. When I saw the videos of the dog attacks, I had to get here to help protect my relatives. The Standing Rock relatives have shown hospitality and extreme gratitude towards us, stated Pulliam.

At the October 27th direct action, the water protectors came under fire from the police, using percussion grenades, rubber bullets and bean bag ammunition at point blank range.

We had the idea to make use of the wood that had been donated by the Oglala Sioux Tribe. We quickly cut it into makeshift shields with handles to protect our front line. The wood was to be used for our kitchen floor, but it served a better purpose that day, mused Pulliam, an Army combat veteran.

I was trained to function under pressure and I have witnessed so many of our water protectors, with no former military training, conduct themselves this way here. The nonviolent direct action training is very effective, added Pulliam.

Pulliam is inspired from his experiences on the front line.

Im working on a series of ledger paintings on camp life here. Another project is creating artwork from old tents, using the material as our canvas, added Pulliam.

My message to the Oglala Oyate is if youre going to come here, be prepared. Not only with winter gear, but come prepared for the worst and hope for the best. Our vow binds us together here and makes us stronger. We operate by consensus and its most effective, stated Pulliam.

Inspired by the worldwide solidarity, Pulliam intends to travel to Oak Flat or other front lines to support people protecting their land and water.

Note: This piece is the result of a collaboration between Lakota Country Times and the Lakota Media Project

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US is laden with inspiring stories of successful people and these folks are now planning on relocating due to Trump's impending presidency, it's only natural to wonder where to go. Shifting permanently to a country you arent born in is a difficult task. However, there are some countries which offer free citizenship easy work permit countries for indian and permanent residency compared to other countries.

Take a look at this list of the easiest country to migrate from india

1. Belize

Image Credit: The Real Estate Guys Radio Show

This country, based on the eastern coast of Central America, allows a person to become a permanent resident only if theyve stayed in the country for five years. The willing citizen must have a bank balance of $2000 a month to prove that they can live up to the countrys lifestyle. The only reason one cannot apply for citizenship is if either of one's parents is a citizen of a country at war with Belize.

2. Ecuador

Image Credit: ecuadortoursandtravels

To become an Ecuadorian, you need only $1000 and a clean criminal record. Moreover, one can only be out of the country for 90 days in a span of 3 years. The applicant also has to show $800 per month income, invest $25000 in a CD from an Ecuadorian bank, or invest $25000 in real estate.

3. Seychelles

Image Credit: tripadvisor

Getting a residency permit in Seychelles is a bit expensive as it costs 12,500 USD (150,000 Seychelles rupees) for each person. Also, there is a condition that says a hopeful resident must explore opportunities for contributing to the economic, social or cultural life of Seychelles.

4. Panama

Image Credit: foundtheworld

After clearing medical tests and living in the country for 5 years, Panama issues a permanent residency certificate which is renewable after 5 years. Additionally, a legal, valid marriage to a Panama citizen can lead to permanent residency. Moreover, if you are a citizen from one of the 50 friendly nations listed below and wish to relocate to Panama in order to conduct economic or professional business activities, you are eligible for a fast track permanent residency program: Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Marino, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United States of America, Uruguay, United Kingdom (Great Britain & Northern Ireland).

5. Paraguay

Image Credit: atlas&boots

You can call Paraguay home after you deposit $5,200 in a Paraguayan bank account. It is after a wait of three years that residents can apply for citizenship, which then goes for an approval for a year.

6. Macedonia

Image Credit: rotaractclub

The Balkan nation offers the best of both worlds as it will give you the benefits of Europe and a visa-free access to the Schengen Area. If youre an entrepreneur and are willing to invest at least 400,000 euros, you can become a Macedonian citizen in less than a year.

7. Hungary

Image Credit: emirates

Hungary, like Macedonia, provides a residence permit if the investor is willing to make an investment in Hungarian Government Bonds. The quantum of investment is a minimum of 300,000 Euros. Once you pay the money, you can get a permanent residence permit within 2 months.

8. Dominican Republic

Image Credit: Planetware

DR can offer citizenship in as little as two years. You can speed up the process by investing $200,000 in real estate or a business. Apart from that, you also have to show a steady income.

9. Russia

Image Credit: moscowtimes

The citizenship of Russia is regulated by the Federal Act regarding citizenship of the Russian Federation (of 2002, with the amendments of 2003, 2004, 2006). In Russia, youve got to pay tax to become a citizen. You also need to learn Russian and pass the language test to get Russian citizenship.
Bollywood's Kashibai and Mastani AKA Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra are undoubtedly two of the finest actresses we have today. Even when they have had a few hits and misses, their career graph has already shot up. Now, both of them are global icons and are all set to make their big Hollywood debuts with xXx: Return Of Xander Cage and Baywatch respectively.

Both PC and Deepika enjoyed a lot during the shoot of Bajirao Mastani but as per rumors, there has been a turbulence in their off-screen equation. Many reports claimed that things have not been cordial between the two. However, few days back in an interview to a magazine, Deepika Padukone rubbished all such reports and had said,

Pinterest

We have had very different beginnings. I still remember I was in school when she won Miss World! Ive known her for many years and nothing has changed. Everyone will have a different path and a different journey. What she wants from her career will be very different from what I want and that needs to be understood and respected."

And now, in an interview with Hindustan Times, PC has a similar point to make. Talking about her equation with Deepika. She said,

Pinterest

"Why are women always reduced to cat fights? We all have so much more to do than to waste time on cat fights. We all have our own chosen paths. As far as Im concerned, they are  as you put it  rumours."

And when further she was asked to comment on the statements made by Shraddha and Deepika, which referred PC as an inspiration, she added,

SLB Films

"Its sweet of Shraddha and Deepika to say that. Its nice of my colleagues to be so encouraging of my work. It feels great to receive support from my (Bollywood) film industry. Its also such a funny coincidence that I was in school too when I won Miss World (laughs)."
Last week the Bengaluru police claimed to have shot dead S Ashik, a 19-year-old gangster in a police encounter. However the deceased's family has contradicted the police claims and said he was actually a 16-year-old and had no links with any gangs.

bangaloremirror

The bereaved family members told Bangalore Mirror that the police version about Ashik was not entirely true and he was waiting to resume his formal education next year.

Initially, police claimed that the deceased was a 19-year-old youth associated with rowdy Dadiya Santosh and his gang.

Ashik was shot in the head after he allegedly attacked inspector Burmappa B Mallur with a sharp-edged weapon inside a rented building where police claimed he was holed up with Kalli Ramesh.

A woman member of his family said that they were yet to come to terms with Ashiks death. Ashik was not a gangster. He was planning to resume his PUC course next year. But at this juncture, we are not in a position to talk about him. We have also received strict instructions from police not to disclose any details. Let the investigation and other procedure be completed first. We are going through very difficult times.

dia a dia/representational image

Even his school transfer certificate clearly mentioned that his date of birth is March 22, 2000, which makes him 16 years old as claimed by the family.

According to the police the 'encounter' happned on November 7 while the cops were in the look out for two gangsters who had attacked them.

The police team later went to the rented accommodation in Annapoorneshwari Nagar where they reportedly found another gangster called Kalli Ramesh and Ashik. The police claimed that they were attacked with sharp-edged weapons in which Mallur and a woman sub-inspector sustained injuries.

But it is not yet clear whether it was Kalli Ramesh or Ashik, who attacked the policemen which resulted in the shootout that claimed Ashiks life. Police confirmed that Kalli Ramesh was wanted in multiple criminal cases including assault. A case was also registered at Jnanabharathi police station as the shootout occurred within their jurisdiction.
Kashmir seems to have become quieter as the paid protesters are seen off the streets due to lack of cash at the hands of separatists and anti-India activists in the valley. As the stone pelters are going unpaid, the number of such incidents have drastically dropped in the valley ever since, claim security agencies.

AFP

According to the Union home ministry, there has been a decline in separatist-instigated violence in the Valley after the surprise demonetisation move.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had on Monday said that the demonetisation has brought the terror funding down to zero.

"Earlier, there were rates: Rs 500 for stone pelting (on security forces in Kashmir) and Rs 1,000 for doing something else. PM has brought terror funding to zero".

AP

Separatist groups like the Hurriyat Conference, and terror outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Mohammed are known to be using money to lure locals, especially youths to violent protests like stone pelting.

Intelligence agencies say most of this money comes from donations collected by Pakistan based terror groups in the name of Jihad and then smuggled to the valley through hawala rackets before it reaches the separatists.

AP

They are also known to use fake Indian currencies printed in Pakistan to fund such operations.

According to analysts, a number of separatists had large amounts of counterfeit and smuggled money with them in higher denominations mostly in the form of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000. It is believed that they have suffered a massive blow which would take may up to years for them to recover.

Earlier, in a report to government and RBI, intelligence agencies had claimed a few years ago that Pakistan machinery had achieved "zero-error counterfeit capability" in printing fake Indian notes.

This may change as the new currency according to the government has additional security features which is difficult to fake.
Don't think that you and your friends are the only (according to government temporary) sufferers of the demonetisation, the international tourists, who landed here with their plans to spend some time during the pleasant November - minus pollution - are also finding it tough.

PTI

The tourists visiting India are in a crisis as neither they have Indian currency in smaller denominations nor they are getting it exchanged for the new notes.

"I reached just before the new exchange policy and got 500 notes for the ATM. I understand that priority should be given to Indian citizens. However, tourists have to face guest house bills. Not everybody can afford going to fancy hotels. Besides, foreign tourists usually buy their return ticket on the internet; if they wish to go back earlier they need to buy a new ticket. I am not travelling anymore with foreign currencies as it is unsafe. But I understand that banks wouldn't be able to change big foreign notes," Christine Ardin, a French tourist told IndiaTimes.

Reuters

"Every time we use our international credit/debit card, banks take Rs 300. So, it can be expensive to use it everyday. Another issue foreign tourists have to face is to understand how the replacement system works. Are we in the end suppose to stand in long queue everybody to get money to get by?," she further added.

Another tourist, who arrived after the announcement of the scheme had his share of misfortune.

"Arriving on the morning of the November 10, and being in Delhi, we found that we were not able to get any money. The hotel had all its cash taken away and as a result they couldn't give us small denominations, which is difficult when you are a tourist walking around and you need public convenience and you want to give tips; we couldn't do any of that," a tourist was quoted by ANI.

Reuters

"The situation without any Indian money at all was very difficult. People were understanding, and even in some places, they took British pounds from us in order to be able to get over this problem. But, it really is quiet a difficulty. We are entirely reliable on credit cards. Because it's another day, and now we are in Shimla, we find that there are ATMs open. I am hoping that things will get easier," added the tourist.

Even at tourist places like Taj Mahal, the ticket counters aren't accepting money in bigger denomination and it has made lives of the tourists quite difficult. On Monday, foreign tourists visiting Taj Mahal in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, were caught off guard as ticket counters refused to accept their Rs 500 and 1,000 notes, and groups of foreigners were seen chipping in with change to buy tickets.

"I cannot buy a ticket because the ticket counter told me that Rs 500 rupee and 1,000 notes do not work here. I don't know how, but I cannot find a way in India," said a Chinese tourist.

Reuters

Local money ex-changers who initially cashed on the crisis as they price of US dollar rose to Rs 120 from the usual Rs 65 too are facing huge problem, as they themselves don't have enough cash to feed the demand from tourists.

"it's a crisis. Initially, we were able to meet the large demand of Indian currency in smaller denominators. But now our suppliers have given up and we aren't able to meet the demand of foreign nationals who seek Indian currency," said a local agent who provides foreign currency exchange.
After footage of Prime Minister Modi's mother, Heeraben, visiting a Gujarat based bank branch to exchange old currency went viral, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal has lashed out.

AP

He criticised the Prime Minister, saying that the 97 year old should not stand in a line for the sake of politics.

He would stand in line instead of his mother, Kejriwal added.

This comes after Kejriwal moved a resolution asking for the Centre to withdraw Prime Minister Narendra Modis historic demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mother, Heeraben Modi has visited a branch of the Oriental Bank of Commerce in Gandhinagar, Gujarat to exchange currency notes worth Rs. 4,500.

AP

Four PILs have been filed against the scheme. It appears that the frail lady was quickly escorted directly to the bank teller's counter, after being helped by attendants.

Also Read: Now Modi's Mom Goes To Bank To Exchange Currency, Walks Out With Rs 4,500 Cash
For the first time, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has deployed a team of women commandos for anti-Maoist operations in Jharkhand. 135 women from 232 battalion's delta company are operating under the close supervision of CRPFs 133 battalion in Maoist-infested forests on the outskirts of Ranchi.

AP

Sanjay A Lathkar, CRPF IG of Jharkhand, said, "On October 17, a company of woman commandos was for the first time inducted in CRPF to counter Naxal insurgency in Jharkhand. They have started carrying out anti-Naxal operations.

Neeraj Pandey, CRPF commandment of 133 battalion, said, The women are brave and currently undertaking first hand experience of anti-Naxal operation in forests outside Ranchi. They have been provided extensive training in CRPF academies specially for countering Naxals.

BCCL

Since the induction of women commandos, the strength of our operation in Naxal-infested areas has increased two-fold, Pandey said. He added that women and men recieve the same training, so women and men commandos are equally capable.

BCCL

Shakti Tirkey, delta company commander, who is heading the 135 woman commandos, said, "We wanted to serve our country and that is why we are here. We have resolved to eradicate the Naxal menace completely as it is not only harmful and fatal for people but also affecting the progress of the country."

With inputs from PTI
The government said it has asked banks to to use indelible ink while exchanging old Rs. 500 and 1,000 notes to stop "unscrupulous elements trying to convert black money".

Secretary Economic Affairs Shaktikanta Das said the government has noticed that the long queues in front o banks are a result of people coming back again and again to exchange their currency. Das said by using indelible ink banks will be able to prevent this from happening. Read more

1. Demonetisation Chokes Money Flow For Separatists, Kashmir Witnesses A Drop In Stone Pelting

Kashmir seems to have become quieter as the paid protesters are seen off the streets due to lack of cash at the hands of separatists and anti-India activists in the valley. As the stone pelters are going unpaid, the number of such incidents have drastically dropped in the valley ever since, claim security agencies.

According to the Union home ministry, there has been a decline in separatist-instigated violence in the Valley after the surprise demonetisation move. Read more

2. Forces Giving Befitting Reply To Ceasefire Violations, Says Army After Reports Of Seven Pakistani Casualties In Firing

Indian forces are responding "in a punitive manner" to each and every ceasefire violation by Pakistan army and Rangers, inflicting "heavy damage" on military bunkers and posts across the line of control (LoC) and international border (IB), said officials.

This came after Pakistan, in a rare admission of casualties, said seven of its soldiers were killed overnight in cross-border firing by Indian troops in Bhimber sector of the LoC. Read more

3. As People Struggle Without Cash, A Church In Kerala Opens Its Donation Box For Help

The St Martin De Porres Church in Thevakkal opened its donation box to help those in need. Fr Jimmy Poochakkad, the vicar of the church made the announcement on Sunday during the mass saying that the two donation boxes will remain open through the day and public can take any amount they want.

"People are facing a lot of difficulties due to demonetisation. Many in the parish are even struggling to buy daily necessities. A lot of them don't know how to get the cash from ATMs and banks. That is why we decided to open the donation boxes. We have lower denomination in our cash box. People in need can take money from there and return whenever they want," Fr. Jimmy told. Read more

4. Indian Navy's Anti-Submarine Capability Gets More Teeth, More P-8I Sub Hunters To Join Fleet

The Indian Navy will get its additional P8I submarine killer, maritime reconnaissance aircraft starting July 2020, with work being initiated at the Boeing facility here to deliver an updated version of the combat plane.

The boost to the Indian fleet will come at a time when the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), which has been growing at a scorching pace over the past decade, is projected to have over 70 submarines in service. Read more

5. Mohali Banker Runs Away With Rs 7 Lakh Meant To Be Loaded Into An ATM

At a time when patience of people is wearing thin over the long wait to withdraw money from ATMs following the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, a bank official has fled with Rs 6.98 lakh. He was given the cash to deposit it in an ATM kiosk at Bankarpur village of Derabassi in Mohali district.

Inspector Deepinder Singh of Derabassi police station said bank engineers and security personnel were asked to reach the ATM to deposit the cash under the supervision of Bhatia, a resident of Ambala. The accused tricked them by saying he would reach the kiosk in his own vehicle and meet them there, the FIR said. Read more
The population of Indian students in the United States of America has grown over the years. However, it was the fastest last year, with a 25% hike in 2015-2016.

Last year, Indian students collectively contributed $5 billion to the US economy. The second position in this is taken by China, with a 31.5% share in all international enrollment.

youthkiawaaz

The stats also show that the top three senders of students to the US are China, India, and Saudi Arabia. Now these represent approximately 53% of all international student enrollment.

Overall, 43% students who went to the US during the 2015-16 academic year were women, down from 45% five years ago, likely because fewer women tend to study the science-maths fields worldwide.

But the pertinent shift of students from India to the States is also backed by their calibre.

qz

Recently, YouTube channel The Young Turks hosted a discussion wherein they spoke of the kind of impact Indians had on the world.

According to them, the Indian diaspora in the US is about 1%. However, they rule 13% seats in top universities.

Furthermore, 67% of Indians in the US have a bachelor's degree, as opposed to 28% of the general population.

The video also discusses the kind of challenges Indians are giving to others, around the world. It also emphasises that an average Indian household makes $90,000, whereas an average US household would make $50,000.
It was a frustrating night for a really desperate man who kept calling the local Mumbai Police control room asking for sex. It was an even more frustrating night for the women - and men - who responded to the 100 helpline 125 times.

pexels

The ordeal began at 10 pm on November 11, when the caller asked: "Will you have sex with me?" to female callers.

Male callers faced another torture - the caller abused them and said he'd have sex with their wives and girlfriends.

It was only after hours of calls that the control room informed the police. The police are now attempting to track down the man via his mobile number.

"We don't yet know whether he was drunk or just doing it to create mischief, but he used really rough language. Whenever a woman answered the call, he would pass lewd comments and talk about sex. He also abused the male staffers," an officer told Mid-Day.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is looking forward to working with US president-elect Donald Trump with whom he has good relations and feels that the incoming Republican administration will be well inclined towards India.

BCCL

Modi shared an informal assessment of Trump's win and its implications at a dinner hosted by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan where he interacted with political leaders at length. The dinner lasted close to 75 minutes.

Asked how he intends to establish a rapport with Trump, the PM said he had good relations with the leader without elaborating further. He said there was no reason to apprehend any dramatic change in bilateral relations.

AFP

The discussion is understood to have turned to how Democrats and Republicans have dealt with India and the PM, who established a close working relationship with US President Barack Obama, is understood to have remarked that Republicans, on the whole, have been friendlier to India.

The discussion touched on the rockier periods of India-US relations in the early 1990s when US diplomat Robin Raphel had set off a heated controversy by referring to Jammu and Kashmir as "disputed" territory and backed military aid to Pakistan. Modi remarked that Raphel's ex-husband had died in an air crash in Pakistan which killed General Zia ul Haq.

BCCL

Raphel was a first assistant secretary of state for south Asia and it was only in 2000, when then president Bill Clinton visited India after the Kargil war, that the pendulum began swinging away from Pakistan and towards India.

It is understood that Modi remarked that some Democratic administrations had been more inward looking though recent governments have been more even in their approach to India.

Reuters

One of Modi's significant successes has been his ability to work with Obama despite the apparent differences in their temperaments. US commentators have noted that the two leaders were able to take a long view of India-US ties despite Modi's critics claiming that intolerance has risen under BJP and Obama's activist inclinations.

In his interviews after becoming PM, Modi had said a part of the reason why he met foreign leaders extensively was to dispel media impressions about him and present himself as a pragmatic and responsible leader.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mother, Heeraben Modi has visited a branch of the Oriental Bank of Commerce in Gandhinagar, Gujarat to exchange currency notes worth Rs. 4500.

Gujarat: PM Narendra Modi's mother Heeraben Modi exchanges currency of Rs 4500 at a bank in Gandhinagar #DeMonetisation pic.twitter.com/WXDjrd1TBW  ANI (@ANI_news) November 15, 2016

It appears that the frail lady was quickly escorted directly to the bank teller's counter, after being helped by attendants. Prime Minister's mother receives Special Protection Group (SPG) security. Modi's elder brother, Soma, is a retired health department official, who now runs an old age home in Ahmedabad. Modi's mother stays with Soma.

In September last year, Modi grew emotional while speaking to Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg at a Town Hall in the Facebook campus in California, remembering the hardships his mother faced while raising him.



"When we were small, to sustain us she cleaned dishes, fill water, did laborious work at the neighbouring houses. You can imagine a mother, in order to raise her kids, underwent so much hardships," Modi spoke haltingly as he tried to control his tears, amid hushed silence.
The Islamic State is rapidly losing ground to the coalition attack in its Iraqi stronghold in Mosul. But the terror group is still putting up a strong resistance, thanks to its strong cache of arms.

Terror Monitor

ISIS which is known to be innovative when it comes to its weaponry has a new one in its arsenal - drones fitted with hand grenades. According to AFP the terrorists are now using the unmanned aerial vehicles to drop bombs on the advancing Iraqi troops.

Terror Monitor

The target of the latest such attack was a building where Iraqi police forces were sheltering as they advanced some 10 kilometres south of Mosul, the last IS-held Iraqi city.

The drone used in these attacks are said to be those designed for spying and ISIS have somehow tweaked it so the pin is pulled free when the explosive device is dropped.

Terror Monitor

ISIS are also using booby traps and suicide car bombs to stop the advance of Iraqi forces to the city which it had announced the formation of the caliphate in 2014.
World carbon emissions havent increased in the past three years, according to a new study, however, scientists have urged people not to jump to the conclusion that climate change was being reversed.

Reuters

Yes, the study published in journal, Earth System Science Data, says CO2 emissions have flattened out in the past three years. Glen Peters, co-author and senior researcher at the Centre for International Climate and Environment Research in Oslo, said It is far too early to proclaim we have reached a peak.

Reuters

It also said that emissions from fossil fuels and industries is only going to grow by 0.2% this year, indicating that emissions have leveled out at 36 billion metric tonnes in the past three years despite globalisation and increasing economies.

Authors of the study have mainly given credit to the Chinese and their decreasing dependence on coal since 2012 as the reason behind the flattening of CO2 levels.

Reuters

While Chinese emissions were down by 0.7% in 2015 and are predicted to further fall by 0.5% this year, Indias actually increased by 5.2% in 2015. The study said India contributed to 6.3% of all global emissions last year.
A five-year-old male pheasant, known as 'Little Red', has tasted fame thanks to its striking gold hair. But what's even more striking is its resemblance to Donald Trump's golden mane.

Picture this.

People

The pheasant's become an instant star in Chinese social circles after a journalist from Hangzhou shared the picture of the bird online. We agree, the resemblance between the bird and the President-elect is uncanny.

Mr. Gao, who's the bird's handler, told MailOnline that even though he was surprised at the recent developments concerning his pet, he does see the resemblance between the two.

Mr. Gao, who works at the Hangzhou Safari Park in eastern China, said that the pheasant is called 'Little Red' for its extreme red feathers.

Hangzhou Safari Park

People on Chinese social media didn't miss the 'golden' opportunity, with one user commenting: "A new trendy hairstyle was born at the end of 2016."

Another user even exclaimed: "Not only does the pheasant's appearance looks like Trump, its facial expression looks like Trump's too. 'Look at its eyes, they are very similar (to Trump's). The only difference is the man doesn't have a beak."
Barack Obamas high-profile visit to the Greece on Tuesday was the catalyst for the latest instances of late-night street violence around the Athens Polytechnic by self-styled anarchist and anti-establishment gangs, an occurrence that woefully coincides with practically every visit by a major powers leader to the Greek
An Osogbo Magistrates Court on Monday sentenced 29-year-old Fatai Ganiyu to two years imprisonment for stealing 10 bowls of uncooked rice and four bottles of alcoholic drink.

The convict was first arraigned in court on October 10, 2016, when the prosecutor, Mr. Mereti Wilson, told the court that the 10 bowl of rice that Ganiyu stole was worth N8,000, while the bottles of drink was valued at N10,000.

The prosecutor had told the court that the convict broke into the shop of one Okeola Comfort of the Oke Ayepe area, Gbongan, at about 2am and stole the goods.

He had said, Fatai committed an offence contrary to and punishable under sections 283 and 414 of the Criminal Code, Cap 34, vol. II, Law of Osun State, Nigeria 2002, punishable under Section 390(9) of the Criminal Code, Cap 34, vol.II, Law of Osun State, Nigeria, 2002.

The convict, who was represented in the court by his counsel, Mr. Seye Oluyombo, pleaded guilty to the two counts preferred against him.

The magistrate, Mrs. Adejunoke Olowolagba, said she found Ganiyu guilty on two counts of intent and stealing. She sentenced him to one year each for the two counts. The jail terms are to run cumulatively.

Source: Punch
The Delta State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Monday criticized the economic policies of the ruling All progressives Congress, APC.

According to the party, the policies of the APC initiated in the country so far have been injurious to Nigerians as they claimed the party loved to deceive Nigerians.

This came as no fewer than 300 members of APC in Ethiope East Local Government Area of the state reportedly defected to PDP.

They (APC) love deceiving Nigerians. We suffered it in 2015 and we are still suffering it today. They came and sold change to us. Nigerians bought change without knowing the type of change they were selling. The change Nigerians bought is negative, injurious and has brought suffering to them, Chairman of PDP in the state, Chief Kingsley Esiso said.

Esiso called the members of the PDP in the state to be united in order to build on its successes and win the 2019 general election at all levels as he explained that the party is in a better position to rescue the country from its economic crisis.

Chairman of the party in Isoko North, Mr. Godwin Ogorugba, in his own remarks, said the party in the area was in total support of Governor Ifeanyi Okowas SMART agenda to enable him deliver on his prosperity for all Deltans mantra.

It is on this note that we declare No Vacancy in Delta State Government House in 2019 and we are ready and committed to this project.

Speaking on behalf of the defectors at Isiokolo, during the visit of the state PDP chairman, to the area, Chief Fada Unukpo said their decision to join forces with the PDP was informed by the alleged ill treatment meted to them by the leadership of the APC in the area.

He lauded the Senior Special Assistant on Peace Building to Delta State Governor, Mr Augustine Ogedegbe, whom he said had made relentless efforts in consolidating on the unity of the PDP in the area and prevailing on members of opposition parties to join the PDP.

He pledged their support for the leadership of the Party at all levels and the administration of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa.
The Director General of the Department of State Service (DSS) Mr. Lawal Musa Daura has declined the request of former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki to attend the burial of his father, former Sultan of Sokoto later today in Sokoto, Sokoto State.

A close source reveals that Dasuki sought the permission of the DG of DSS to attend the burial of his father who died on Monday night in an Abuja hospital and who is scheduled to be buried at a funeral service to take place after Zuhr prayer this afternoon, Tuesday at the Sultan Bello Mosque in Sokoto.

The source said the DG of DSS told Dasuki that You cannot attend the funeral of your father in Sokoto today. The source said Dasuki repeatedly pleaded with the Director General of the DSS to allow him pay his last respect to his father even if it means he will be in handcuffs at the funeral but Daura declined saying there is no such privilege for detained suspects.

Sambo Dasuki has been detained at the headquarters of the the DSS in Abuja since December 30th, 2015. The DSS had laid siege to Dasukis Asokoro house for days, claiming he was being investigated for another matter, even though he was supposedly billed to travel for medical checkup abroad after a court had granted him leave to travel for medical checkup. Dasuki was later arraigned before Justice Yusuf Baba of another Abuja High court on breach of trust, and though was granted bail, was again re-arrested by the security operatives.

Dasuki has insisted that as for my tenure as the nations NSA, I acted in the interest of the nation and with utmost fear of God. I did not use the office for any self-serving agenda. I occupied the Office of the National Security Adviser at a difficult moment in Nigerian history when terrorism was at its peak and I am leaving posterity to judge me accordingly Jonathan, not me, approved arms procurement deals.

Source: Breakingtimes
The Federal Government on Monday filed gratification charges against Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court in Abuja, and his wife, Olabowale, who is the Head of Service of Lagos State.

The Office of the Attorney General of the Federation filed 15 counts in the suit with number, FCT/CR/21/2016, against the couple before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory on Monday.

The prosecution accused Ademola and his wife of corruptly receiving a total sum of N248,101,300 and $520,000 as gratifications from law firms and others between 2013 an 2016.

Justice Ademola was among the judges, including two Justices of the Supreme Court, Justices Sylvester and Inyang Okoro, arrested by the operatives of the Department of State Services between October 7 and 8 on allegations of corruption.

The Federal Government had already on November 8, 2016 charged Justice Ngwuta before the Federal High Court, Abuja on charges of money laundering and passport infraction relating to age falsification and obtaining of multiplicity of passports.

Justice Okoro has however not been charged.

In the charges filed on Monday, Justice Ademola and his wife were accused in counts one and two, of criminal conspiracy to receive and/or obtain gratification contrary to sections 8(1) and 26(1) (c) of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission Act, 2011 land punishable under Sections 8(1) (iii) of the same law.

The wife was accused in counts four to seven of receiving gratification for other person, contrary to Section 8 of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission Act 2011 and punishable under the same law.

In counts eight to 15, Justice Ademola was accused of receiving a total of N248,101,300 and $520,000 as gratifications other than his lawful remuneration, a motive or reward for doing an official act and/or in the exercise of your official functions as judge of the Federal High Court.

The offences were said to be contrary to section 115 of Penal Code Law (Laws of Northern Nigeria 1963) and punishable under section 115(iii) of the same law.

The charges indicated that various sums of money were paid into the Guaranty Trust Bank account of Justice Ademolas wife by law firms and others as gratifications for onward payment to the judge.

The judge and his wife were accused of conspiracy to receive/obtain N30m gratification from Joe Odey Agi Associates between March 11 and 26, 2015.

They were also accused of conspiracy to receive N40m gratification from Joe Agi Associates between February 20 and 21, 2014.

Olabowale, allegedly, on March 11, 2015 received from Joe Agi Associates N10m on behalf of her husband.

On March 16, 2015, she allegedly received another N10m from Joe Agi Associates on behalf of her husband.

She also, on March 26, 2015, allegedly received the sum of N10m from Joe Odey Agi Associates.

On February 20, 2014, the prosecution alleged that she received N40m from a source not named on behalf of her husband.

In one of the counts, the judge himself was accused of receiving N30m from Joe Agi Odey Associates through the GTB account of his spouse between March 11 and 26, 2015.

The judge was also accused in counts eight to 15 of receiving gratifications from various sources including Joe Odey Agi Associates.

He allegedly received $520,000 from Johnson & Johnson Solicitors on May 6, 2013.

The judge was also accused of receiving the sum of N6m from Oshodi, Oshodi & Co. between February 25, 2015 and. April 16, 2015

The prosecution also accused him of receiving N55,650,000 from G.T.J Ademola & Co between January 5 and June 23, 2016.

He was also accused of receiving N40m from Vertice Solutions Ltd. on February 20, 2014.

The prosecution also accused him of receiving N47.6m from Acardian Energy Services Limited on February 20, 2014.

He will also be facing a count in which he was accused of receiving N34.08m from Omotayo Babafemi Aliyu between February 20 and 21, 2014.

He was also accused of receiving N4.7713m from Lawan Sulaiman between February 21 and November 7, 2014.

In the last count, he was accused of N30m from Joe Odey Agi Associates between February 20 and 21, 2014.

Source: Punch
The presidency has warned that Nigeria, Africas largest producer of cereals and grains, risks famine from early next year following a huge demand in the global market targeting the countrys surplus production.

Giving the grim forecast in a radio interview in Kano on Monday, a spokesman for the President, Garba Shehu, told Pyramid radio that the huge demand for our grains in the global market is creating an excellent environment for the mindless export of Nigerian food across our borders and unless this is curtailed, Nigerian markets will be bereft of grains by January next year.

The presidential spokesman said the Ministry of Agriculture advised the president to call the attention of all Nigerians to the issue which, if not addressed promptly, could lead to a shortage of grains in the country.

Over the past year, providence has blessed Nigeria with a bountiful harvest of grains, more than enough to feed the country and to export to other countries, Mr. Shehu said.

At present, there is a high demand for grains from Nigeria, from African countries as distant as Libya and Algeria, and from places as far away as Brazil. However, the ministry of agriculture has raised concerns about a massive rate of exportation, which could lead to a shortage of grains in Nigeria by January.

He explained that Nigeria currently enjoys a free market situation.

President Muhammadu Buhari is not in any way opposed to or intent on tampering with that. On the other hand, exporters also have a moral obligation to make their produce available to Nigerians who live within our countrys borders, to ensure that our citizens have access to food.

The Presidents Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity the ministry of agriculture estimated that no fewer than 500 trucks loaded with grain leave Nigerian markets every week.

He listed the major markets involved in this troubling exportation to include the Dawanau market in Kano, Naigatari in Jigawa, Bama in Borno, and Ilela in Sokoto, as well as three other main markets in Kebbi State.

He further explained that President Buhari had on various occasions reiterated his plan for Nigeria to become a food-producing giant, self-sufficient to the point of depending very little on imported food.

This noble plan could easily be defeated by the pull of the foreign market if food continues to leave our shores to feed people elsewhere. If care is not taken, Nigeria could face a famine by January, he stressed.

Building our country into the edifice we envision it to be will require sacrifice and strategy from every single Nigerian. Let us remember that charity begins at home, Mr. Shehu said on the radio programme.
The Federal Fire Service (FFS) on Tuesday said property worth over N16 billion was lost in 809 fire incidents in Abuja and Lagos from January 2015 to June 2016.

A document made available to newsmen in Abuja by the FFS also disclosed that within 18 months property worth N70b was saved, while 29 people lost their lives, and 58 were rescued.

The document further said that the incidents involved 79 public and government buildings, 239 private buildings, three educational establishments, nine shops and 61 petrol stations, among others.

It said that electrical equipment was responsible for 28 fire incidents; electric sparks were responsible for 119, gas explosion was responsible for five; while high voltage was responsible for five and bomb blast responsible for two of the incidents.

The document said that most of the fire outbreaks were as a result of human failing, and therefore, expressed the need for people to be more careful and watchful in this dry season to minimise the rate of fire incidents.

Fire is friendly as we handle it carefully, but destroys and kills on our carelessness; most fires in our homes start from the kitchen and kitchen fires result mainly from human failings.

Therefore, kitchen fire outbreaks can be minimised by doing the following: not leaving what you are cooking unattended to,putting your gas cylinder outside your kitchen and returning a leaking cylinder to the dealer .

If your clothing catches fire, stop, drop to the ground and roll over and over on the ground.

Do not run as it will only fan the flames then cover your face with your hands to protect your throat, and limbs from burns, the document said.

The service also advised Nigerians to cool a burn with running cool water for five to 10 minutes to prevent continued burning and relieve the pain.

It urged people not to put their generator close to the window or along the corridor because the fumes or smoke could kill quietly .

It also advised people not to hoard fuel at home, office or both as it could lead to fire outbreaks and burn persons, adding that people should also stop fueling their generator while the engine was on as it could spark up fire.

We should take the issue of fire safety seriously and join hands to prevent it by abiding by the safety rules and regulations, especially the during the harmattan season so as to guarantee the safety of lives and property, the service said.

Source: Vanguard
A man has been arrested for assaulting several flight attendants and and disrupting an international flight from Mexico to Germany.

The passenger on the international flight forced the plane to make an emergency landing at Jacksonville International Airport, Florida, USA on Wednesday.

Oliver Charlie Halliday Gee was reportedly unruly prior to the arrest and prevented several flight attendants from doing their job because he was hurling insults and obscenities and other passengers.

The 34-year-old Mexican, nearly 90 minutes into the flight, threatened to kill another passenger, hurt a 3-year-old and then removing his clothes to expose his genital. The charging affidavit from the FBI says it seemed like he was about to urinate in the planes cabin.

It was at this point that a passenger who said he was skilled in martial arts stepped in to help get Gee to the bathroom got slapped several times across the face with an open hand. A flight attendant was slapped twice as well  once in the face and once in the thigh, both times with an open hand, the charging affidavit says.

Gee was eventually subdued by the flight attendant and the passenger trained in martial arts. He was removed from his seat just before the flight touched down at the airport.

The charging affidavit mentions that the crew was worried about keeping Gee on the flight, because it was from Cancun to Frankfurt and most of it would take place over water. They werent sure they would be able to stop and get the man off the plane while over the Atlantic Ocean.

Gee was taken into custody by Jacksonville Aviation Authority Police and is charged with assault or intimidation of a flight crew. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison.

He made his appearance in federal court on Thursday and will be detained until his formal detention hearing November 7.
Nigerian newspaper headlines November 15, 2016.

Premium Times

Activities were paralysed for many hours at the Federal University of Technology, Abeokuta, FUNAAB, and its environs on Monday, following a protest by the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities over the recent sack of 23 of its members.

Guardian

The host communities to multinational oil corporation, Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL) have given the company a 14-day ultimatum to address issues of alleged marginalisation.

Premium Times

The presidency has warned that Nigeria, Africas largest producer of cereals and grains, risks famine from early next year following a huge demand in the global market targeting the countrys surplus production.

Thisday

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo monday met with Senate President Bukola Saraki, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, and five governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) behind closed doors at the State House, Abuja, to resolve the rising discontent among APC governors and other stakeholders over the absence of consultations by President Muhammadu Buhari in his federal appointments.

The Sun

Nine people including a security official were killed yesterday when policemen and members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (Shiites) clashed.

Vanguard

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has undertaken a massive reorganization, with the redeployment of key officials.

Punch

The Federal Government has deployed contractors in the Abuja, Enugu, Port Harcourt and Lagos airports to fix some of the infrastructural problems at the facilities.

The Nation

Former Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki, is dead.

National Mirror

Governorship Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Ondo State, Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim, yesterday flagged off his campaign.
Remember that giant sinkhole which pretty much ate up much of the main road? Well, Japan has fixed it in just two days!

It took workers 48-hours of working round the clock to fill 6,200 cubic meters of sand and cement as the road was reopened on Tuesday.

The mayor of Fukuoka, Soichiro Takashima told reporters I apologize for having caused trouble to many people, while promising that the new road is now 30-times stronger.
Several news websites have published reports that a former Ghanaian President, John Kofi Kufuor died today at the age of 78. Kufuor who served two terms as Ghanas president (2001-2009) was said to have died after a surgery on his spine in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The reports went on to say Kufuor was rushed to the hospital in Johannesburg after complaining of acute pain in his spinal chord and passed away minutes after doctors had performed a second surgery on him.

John Kufuors office has released a statement confirming that the ex-President is hale and hearty and even attended an event in Ghana on Tuesday. The statement unequivocally dismissed the reports as a hoax.
Russias minister of economy, Alexei Ulyukayev has been arrested and detained over allegations that he received $2 million in bribes.

A spokesman for Russias main anticorruption body, SK told newsmen, This is about extortion of a bribe from Rosneft representatives accompanied by threats,

Ulyukayev reportedly received the bribe to help the oil giant Rosneft acquire a 50% stake in another oil company, Bashneft for 330bn roubles ($5bn). He was reportedly caught red-handed while receiving the bribe and will soon be charged to court.

Ulyukayev, who became a minister in 2013 faces up to 15 years in jail if he is found guilty.
Former Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki, is dead. He died at the age of 93. Secretary to the Sultanate Council, Alhaji Faruk Ladan, announced in a statement he issued in Hausa saying that the 18th Sultan of Sokoto, Dasuki, died on Monday night and that his funeral service would take place after Zuhr prayer in the afternoon of Tuesday at the Sultan Bello Mosque, Sokoto.

Although no further detail was provided by the statement, a source in Sokoto stated that Dasuki died in an Abuja hospital and would be brought to Sokoto Tuesday morning for burial.

The former Sultan, who was the father of former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki currently facing corruption charges, was deposed as Sultan in 1996 by the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha.

He was Born in Dogon Daji, Sokoto, the late Ibrahim Dasuki, son of late Sarkin Yamma and district head of Dogon Daji, Haliru Ibn Barau, started Quranic education in 1928.

In 1931, he attended Dogon Daji Elementary School before proceeding to Sokoto Middle School in 1935. He finished his secondary education at Barewa College, Zaria, on a sponsorship from Sokoto Native Authority.

After finishing high school in 1943, he worked as a clerk in the treasury office of the Sokoto Native Authority as it was the tradition in Northern Nigeria for grant recipients to work for their sponsors, their respective Native Authorities.

He however, in 1945, took up appointment with Gaskiya Corporation, a publishing house that published the Hausa daily called Gaskiya Ta Fi Kwabo.

In 1953, heeding the call by Ahmadu Bello for Northern Nigeria citizens to take up appointment in the regional civil service, Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki joined the service as an executive officer.

A year after he became private secretary to Ahmadu Bello. In 1957, he filled the position of regional executive council deputy secretary and a year later was sent to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as Nigerias pilgrimage officer.

Between 1960 and 1961, he worked in the Nigerian Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan and was later brought back to Nigeria by Ahmadu Bello to work as resident in Jos, from where he moved on to become the permanent secretary in the regional Ministry of Local Government.

Dasuki later switched to the Ministry of Commerce in 1965 as its permanent secretary. From 1965 until he was crowned Sultan, Dasuki concentrated largely on his business activities.

In 1966, he was chairman of the influential Northern Nigeria Produce Marketing Board, anorganisation involved with marketing the export of groundnut and in the distribution of seeds and chemicals. From 1967 to 1977, he was director and later chairman of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC).

From 1979 to 1989, he was co-founder and chairman of the Nigerian branch of BCCI and was also a partner of Nessim Gaon in APROFIM, the firm involved in infrastructure investments, commodity production, purchasing and export activities.

After the death of Abubakar Siddique, the 17th Sultan of Sokoto on November 1, 1988 he became the 18th Sultan of Sokoto but was deposed in 1996 by General Sani Abacha through the military administrator of Sokoto State, Col. Yakubu Muazu, for reasons among others such as causing enmity among the people and among the royal family.

He was immediately flown to Yola and then taken to Jalingo where he was placed on exile.
Analytics firm Sisense has brought its business intelligence platform to chat bots, allowing customers to ask natural-language questions about their data while in Slack, Skype, Facebook Messenger or Telegram.

It lets you use [those interfaces] to literally interact with your data in a human-being methodnot SQL but English, CEO Amir Orad said in a phone interview.

For example, Orad said, a business user could log into Skype and ask, What is my current revenue number this quarter? The user could follow up with questions about growth in the last few quarters, and the bot would return a chart and then insights such as Unlike Q1 and Q2, in the current quarter revenue growth has slowed.

Sisense A sample of Sisenses BI chat bot on Skype.

Thats a sentence a human being can read, highlighting one of those quarters behaved differently, Orad said. The Sisense BI Bots can also create alerts.

This follows Sisenses announcement in July that it integrated its platform with the Amazon Echo, allowing users to ask the voice service Alexa natural-language data questions similar to the way they ask for a news briefing or weather forecast. The Echo might be in a boardroom during meetings so participants could ask it data questions during their discussions, Orad said.

I really liked the concept of having a more voice-assisted approach to asking my data platform [natural-language questions], said Aaron Hayes, enterprise architect at Premium Retail and a Sisense chat bot beta customer. Hes had the chat bot beta for several weeks and said he was already starting to use it to ask some of the same questions as he asks the Echo, but then digging a little deeper into the data following a response. The Echo can only give a verbal response, but a chat bot can provide a visualization.

If you ask the bot about sales this week versus last, it will first return the actual result and then ask if you want further analysis, Hayes explained. If so, it might say that 60 percent of sales were for a particular product and do other automated analysis.

If theres a graphic on an existing company dashboard that answers the question, Hayes added, the bot will return with that widget and a user can then click through to the full widget.

Hayes said hes currently trying to build out an Amazon Echo briefing-like report for his executive team. He envisions that they get their morning coffee and can ask about the business healthfinancials, employee headcount and so on.

How is this different from coming in and opening up a corporate dashboard? Part of it is maybe the cool factor, Hayes said. For me, when I walk in, I dont even have my laptop out of my bookbag yet and I already know information about yesterday by asking his Sisense-enabled Echo.

Sisense considers itself a complex data platform, Orad said, helping to analyze either big data or data from multiple sources. For complex data, the goal is to allow customers to define relationships between different data streams and then make it easy to generate reports and analysis. The platform is available on premise or as a cloud service, with prices starting at $10,000 to $20,000 per year or $1,500 per month for small teams.

This story, "Sisense brings its analytics platform to chat bots" was originally published by Computerworld .
Update 11/16/16  Advantage has pulled out of negotiations to purchase the formal Aerial Map factory, ending its bid to develop self-storage at the site. The company walked away from the deal after a phase-three environmental study revealed previously undetected hazardous material in the roof and ceilings in the building off Whalley Avenue. It also learned two weeks ago about mold issues in the Fitch Street building, according to the source.

Though the company was prepared to invest $600,000 in environmental remediation in addition to $12 million for renovation, fixing the issues identified in the study would prove too costly, Zagoren told the source. It was kind of the last straw with us, he said. Its too bad. I really liked this site.

Zagoren estimated Advantage will incur a loss of six figures through its prep work and due-diligence period.

11/14/16  Real estate developer Advantage Development Group is in negotiations to purchase a former factory complex in the Westville neighborhood of New Haven, Conn., and has proposed a mixed-use project for the site that includes self-storage. The plan, which would include art studios on the third floor of one of the buildings and perhaps a book store, would require a zoning variance. The development at 781 Whalley Ave. and 50 Fitch St. would feature 570 storage units and include a 28,000-square-foot addition behind one of the buildings, according to the source.

Portions of the building fronting Whalley Avenue would receive upgrades but retain the buildings historical significance. The addition at the back of the 48,000-square-foot brick building on Fitch Street would also be designed in the character of the current structure, the source reported.

Two primary buildings comprise the former Aerial Map factory on 3.62 acres and includes parking with an entrance off Fitch Street. Stephen Zagoren, chief development officer for Advantage, indicated during a community meeting last week he was open to selling the front building on Fitch Street once the companys acquisition of the property is complete.

The project would cost $600,000 for environmental remediation and roof repair in addition to other development costs, Zagoren told members of the Westville Community Management Team. The developer considered other uses for the site, including housing and retail, but determined they werent economically feasible, according to the source.

Several community members and business owners spoke during the meeting, expressing apprehension about self-storage in an area they consider to be the gateway to the neighborhood. I have mixed feelings that nothing else is going to work because this is what they said about Lyric Hall, said restauranteur John Cavaliere in reference to his restored storefront that was once a Vaudeville-era theater. Whos to say that some creative soul wouldnt provide a more interesting and welcoming idea? We are working on placemaking and branding here in Westville, and this seems inconsistent to me.

Local architect Eric Epstein argued it may be necessary to raze the buildings at the site to secure a use that would be in the communitys best interest.

New Haven alderman Richard Furlow told meeting participants he would support any decision preferred by the community but noted that Fitch Street is zoned for light-commercial uses and already includes businesses offering auto repair, awnings and landscaping.

Liz Donius, executive director for the Westville Village Renaissance Alliance community group, indicated another neighborhood meeting was scheduled for this evening to give more community members an opportunity to voice their opinions.
The owner of a former Hilton, England, self-storage business has been sentenced to three years and 10 months in jail for defrauding more than 250,000 from businesses and individuals. Marcus Elliot, 26, was a partner in Hilton Self-Storage Ltd. and devised a scheme in which he leased shipping containers from other self-storage businesses under the guise that hed rented them to the public. Instead, he sold them outright on eBay and kept the cash to pay for a rich lifestyle, according to the source.

Elliot defrauded his container suppliers for nearly 132,000, including 36,989 from Grand View UK Ltd., 17,435 from Mr. Box and 77,525 from Spacewise UK Ltd. He took more than 120,703 from individuals who paid for the containers but never received them. In total, he stole 252,653, according to authorities.

He was selling the units online for something in the region of 2,000 each through a company he set up called MyContainer.co.uk using eBay and online auction sites, prosecutor Nadia Silva said during court proceedings. Customers would buy the containers from him, and he simply would not deliver them. He even used the same invoice number on eight different transactions; and when people contacted him asking where their units were, he would give excuses such as there being an unprecedented demand or transportation difficulties.

Elliot use the money to fuel a lavish lifestyle traveling the world, buying expensive speedboats, eating lavish meals and buying the company of an escort, the source reported. When one of his container suppliers alerted authorities he had stopped making monthly payments, they discovered he had fled to South America, the source reported.

Between September 2012 and January 2013, Elliot spent 73,000 on foreign travel, purchased a speedboat that he crashed and abandoned, and paid 28,000 to an escort who accompanied him to South America, according to investigators.

He was arrested when he returned to the United Kingdom last year and admitted guilt to four counts of fraud between January 2012 and March 2014. Digital images recovered after Elliots arrest show him living lavishly, including photos of him on the boat, boxes of expensive cigars, a Playboy membership card and stacks of bank notes, Silva said.

You were the director, you were the organizer and this was fraudulent from the outset. It went on for a long period of time, and there were a large number of victims, sentencing judge Jonathan Bennett told Elliot in court. One of your victims leased 100 units to you, and when you stopped paying him the monthly rent of them, he visited Hilton where there were only 29, as you had sold the others. He was expecting to see 100 units and you could not be found. In fact, no one could find you after that because you gallivanted off to South America with someone and [had] the time of your life on their money.

Sharon Rimell, sales manager for Spacewise, indicated she lost money to Elliot and was betrayed by his actions. I got to know him and like him. He put time into creating a business friendship between us, but then abused the trust that I placed in him to commit this fraud, she told the court. I have been there every step of the way over the past three years. I almost lost my job. I lost money and spent time at weekends with my husbands help searching for lost units. Even today, he has displayed complete arrogance towards me and has never once apologized for what he has done to me.

Elliots former business partner, Dave Billings, wasnt a suspect in the case. When I met up with Marcus, it seemed the perfect partnership; I would supply the land, Marcus would supply the containers and we would run the company, Hilton Self Storage Ltd., together, Billings told the court. It all went well to start with, and the business was gradually building up, until I got concerned about some of his spending habits. The decision was made to let him carry on with the business and just rent the land to him, which seemed the only option I had with it being on my land.

Billings has since resumed full control of the self-storage business under the new name Hilton Storage Ltd., the source reported.
A burglary at a self-storage facility in Lake Mary, Fla., was thwarted early Friday morning when police-canine units arrived at the property to conduct training exercises. Two men, one of them masked, were using bolt-cutters to break into storage units at Lake Mary Mini Storage around 1:30 a.m., according to the source. About 20 minutes after they began, six police-dog training units from the Lake Mary and Orlando Police Departments arrived at the property for drills.

Great coincidence. Bad luck for the people breaking in, said Brenda Young, who owns the facility with her husband. The couple have allowed police to use the property for after-hours training for nearly a year. I felt sorry for the guys breaking in, because they didnt have a chance.

Once spotted, the thieves ran. One was caught before leaving the property; the other escaped but was apprehended an hour later. Tavon Perkins and Jamal Taylor have been charged with burglary and were booked at the Seminole County Jail, the source reported.

It appears the men accessed the property via a side fence that doesnt include the barbed wire consistent with the rest of the sites perimeter fencing, police said. Young said she plans to re-evaluate the propertys security.

Gary Rivers, who stores his classic car at the facility, was surprised when his key didnt work in the lock the morning after the break in. The suspects allegedly tried to break into his unit but were unsuccessful, police said. I stuck my key in, [it] didnt do anything, and Im thinking I have the wrong key. And I look again and see the indentations of the bolt-cutters, Rivers said. Im very thankful they were here doing the training.

The Youngs were also grateful for the canine units timing. They can be here every night and do this. They can train their dogs and Ill even buy them dog treats, Brenda Young said.
Update 12/15/16  Apple Self Storage, which operates 26 locations in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Ontario, Canada, is accepting online gift deliveries for customers and will store them for free until Dec. 24 through its Santas Secret Storage program. Interested parties should direct postage and courier deliveries to an Apple storage location. The parcels can then be picked up during the facilitys business hours, Monday through Saturday. After Dec. 24, a monthly service charge of $29.95 will be assessed to customers who wish to continue the delivery-acceptance program, the source reported.

Lighthouse Storage in Tell City, Ind., is accepting donations for Clothing for a Cause, which supports court-involved and foster-care children. New and gently used clothing can be dropped off at 1440 Tenth St. through Dec. 30. The organization is seeking packaged underwear, socks and pajamas in all sizes. Donations of small stuffed toys will also be accepted.

Lighthouse Storage is glad to be part of a very important moment in these childrens lives, and if we can add any amount of comfort to them, weve fulfilled our goals, said Kailee Zuelly, regional manager for Lighthouse Storage as well as director of Clothing for a Cause.

Stor-N-Lock is collecting donations through today for the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots program at 20 of its properties in California, Colorado and Utah. The company has participated in the program for 10 years and collected thousands of toys, according to a press release.

Many years ago, we determined that the Toys for Tots program was a charity with the least administrative overhead and with the most impact on the children in the area, said Alan Jones, a Stor-N-Lock founder. A toy is given, and that toy goes to a child. How simple can it get? Stor-N-Lock is happy to help out in any way we can.

Founded more than 35 years ago, Apple Self Storage is family-owned and -operated. Its properties comprise more than 1.2 million square feet of rentable space.

Established in 2012, Lighthouse Storage recently expanded its facility and has a second site under development in Evansville, Ind.

Headquartered in Salt Lake City and founded in 1979, Stor-N-Lock operators 22 facilities in California, Colorado, Idaho and Utah. 12/1/16  Ash Properties Inc., the development and property-management company that operates Atlantic Self Storage, is collecting gifts for patients at Wolfson Childrens Hospital in Jacksonville, Fla. Ash has partnered with Beach Boulevard Flea Market and Christs Starfish Foundation for the annual drive. Donations can be made at any Atlantic Self Storage facility through Dec. 10.

U.K. self-storage operator Big Yellow Group PLC has teamed with The Chronicle newspaper and other local businesses for its annual Big Yellow Chester Christmas Toy Appeal. The Chester Football Club, a major-league soccer team, is asking fans to help the cause by donating new toys and gifts at the Lookers Vauxhall Stadium in Chester, England. The club has participated in previous drives. Last year, players dressed in Santa suits to deliver donations to the childrens ward at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

To have Chester FC involved for a third year running with the toy appeal shows just what a great community club they are, and Id like to thank Jon McCarthy and Jim Green in particular for their help and support, said Jeff Banks, business-development manager for Big Yellow of Chester. Chester fans have contributed great numbers of gifts in the past, and I hope they can spare an extra present in their Christmas shopping this year, too, in the knowledge that the gift will go to a child or family in the local area that may not have had a present to open on Christmas day.

Dainton Self Storage is collecting donations of new and gently used soft toys at its facilities in Redruth and Scorrier, England. The items will be raffled to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support, a charitable group that serves those diagnosed with cancer. The company is also offering customers the ability to store presents in its Elf Storage units until Christmas Eve for a 1 donation.

Dainton employees chose the organization as their adopted charity at the beginning of the year. Thus far, theyve raised 10,000 through several fundraising activities, including the companys first family fun day.

We are really proud of our fundraising total and, hopefully, our soft toy collection and Elf Storage will help us end the year on a high, said Shaun Duncan, operations director.

Stock N Lock Self Storage in Worcester, England, collected 227 boxes for Operation Christmas Child, an initiative of Samaritans Purse, an international relief and development organization that works through local Christian churches to aid communities in Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Its the fifth year the operator has participated in the drive. Stock N Lock provided wrapped shoeboxes for community members to take and fill, then stored the boxes until they were delivered to the charity last month.

Atlantic Self Storage operates 44 facilities in Florida and Nevada, including four locations in St. Augustine, Fla. The companys portfolio comprises nearly 4 million square feet in more than 30,000 units.

Big Yellow Group operates 89 self-storage 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 5.3 million square feet.

Established in 2002 by Paul Maddicott, Dainton Self Storage is the operating brand for self-storage and removals specialist Dainton Group Services. Based in Newton Abby, England, the company operates eight self-storage facilities in Cornwall and Devon, England, and has three others under development. The group also includes Dainton Portable Buildings and Dainton Removals.

Stock N Lock is in the Venture Business Park off Weir Lane. The facility comprises 44,000 square feet of storage space in 680 units, which are individually alarmed and monitored with closed-circuit television, according to the company website.

Self-storage operators around the world have launched drives to collect clothing, food, toys and more for various charitable organizations this holiday season. Heres a summary of how theyre giving back to their communities so far in fall/winter 2016.

Access Self Storage of the United Kingdom is supporting Myton Hospice as part of its annual Christmas Charity Appeal. The company is seeking donations of new and gently used books, clothes games and toys through Dec. 12 at its facility on Read Street in Coventry, England. The goal is to fill a 50-square-foot room at the property, according to the source. Last year, more than 500 gifts were donated during the appeal.

Were on a mission to beat our record and make Christmas 2016 the best year yet for patients and loved ones who will be spending this festive season at Myton, said Nick Hand, manager of the Coventry location. The collection is a reminder to everyone that there are people out there who really care, and who are happy to put a smile on someones face they havent even met.

Maple Leaf Self Storage, which operates 12 facilities in West Canada, is hosting its third More Food. Less Hunger. food drive through Jan. 9. The company is collecting non-perishable food items at each of its locations to benefit local food banks.

This years goal is to collect more than 1,000 pounds of food, according to a press release. Last year, Maple Leaf facilities collected 800 pounds of food that benefited Calgary Food Bank, Greater Vancouver Food Bank and SHARE Family & Community Food Bank.

Browns Moving and Storage will pick up donations from the companys 10 facilities in British Columbia, while TSM Moving & Storage will transport collections from its two Calgary locations.

Norwalk Self Storage of Norwalk, Calif., is acting as a drop-off site for the Long Beach Fire Departments Spark of Love Holiday Toy Drive. Donations of new, unwrapped toys can be made at 11564 Firestone Blvd. Founded in the 1950s, Spark of Love works in conjunction with several charitable organizations and provides gifts each holiday to about 400 families.

U-Lock-It Self Storage of Madison, Ala., is sponsoring the Kris Kringle Market, an open-air holiday bazaar, on Nov. 19. Sponsored by the Madison Arts Council and the Madison Parks and Recreation Department, the free community event, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., will be held at Dublin Park. In addition to food, local artisans and craftsman will display and sell their work. A lantern-making workshop will also be held for children participating in the Dec. 4 Childrens Lantern Parade.

For the fourth consecutive year, Westy Self Storage of Chatham, N.J., is supporting the Santa Claus Shop, which offers free holiday shopping for two days each year to more than 500 low-income families and senior citizens living in Berkeley Heights, New Providence and Summit, N.J. The operator has donated free use of a storage unit for one month as well as use of its facility and a driver for this years event, Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.

Run by a volunteer organization affiliated with Summit Helping Its People, the Santa Claus Shop has been in operation for 50 years. Guests, who are referred by social-service agencies, also enjoy complimentary refreshments provided by local businesses and gift wrapping by volunteers. Each guest is invited to personally select a household item, new clothing for each member of his immediate family, hats and mittens, a book, and a new toy for each child.

Santa Claus Shop provides a compassionate service to others, said Tim Mincin, district director of Westy Self Storage. It is our pleasure to assist a group that benefits so many in need.

Westy Self Storage of Hackensack, N.J., is hosting a food drive through Dec. 15 to benefit the Center for Food Action (CFA), which provides emergency services to residents of North New Jersey. Donations of non-perishable foods can be dropped off at 65 Commerce Way during the facility office hours. It is with great pleasure that we assist CFA, Mincin said. It is important to remember those in need, especially in our own communities.

Headquartered in Englewood, CFA has sites in Fairview, Hackensack, Mahwah, Ridgefield, Ringwood and Saddle Brook. It provides food, housing and utility and heating assistance, and offers counseling and advocacy services to low-income individuals and families, according to Jennifer Johnson, CFA director of communications and community relations.

Access Self Storage operates more than 50 facilities in the U.K., with a large concentration in Greater London.

Maple Leaf is a privately held, Canadian-owned and -operated company based in West Vancouver, British Columbia.

Norwalk Self Storage offers records storage and vehicle storage in addition to traditional storage. It also sells moving and packing supplies.

U-Lock-It Storage comprises more than 130,000 square feet of storage space. It also offers vehicle storage.

Founded in 1990, Westy Self Storage is headquartered in Stamford, Conn. The company's portfolio of 15 facilities spans Connecticut, New Jersey and New York.
This content is from: Portfolio

Dont give up on small funds. Theyve still outperformed in 20 of the last 25 years.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) issued a statement yesterday in response to the Province of Ontarios decision to create a new financial services regulator. In the statement, the bureau congratulated the provincial government for taking its first step toward modernized insurance regulation.Canadas insurers are pleased that the government is reforming the way Ontario regulates insurance, said IBC Ontario vice-president Kim Donaldson. Todays Economic Outlook outlines a process for establishing a world-class insurance regulator that can adapt to changing consumer needs and industry trends.The statement followed the Government of Ontarios 2016 Economic Outlook and Fiscal Review yesterday, where the government announced it would be introducing legislation to establish the initial parameters of the new Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA). Once legislation is in place, the government made it known that it would develop an implementation plan and appoint the FSRAs board of directors.The IBC urged the government to immediately introduce enabling legislation and to cooperate with the property and casualty insurance industry as the FSRA develops its own mandate.The release also noted that the new regulator should be able to help with Ontarios automobile insurance issues. The current rate regulation process for the provinces auto insurance industry stifles innovation and prevents the benefits of a competitive market from being fully realized, the release said.We look forward to learning the details of this new legislation, Donaldson added. IBC will continue to work with the government to better serve the consumers of this province.
Class actions may work in favour of insurers, says expert
ASIC has announced that a former insurance broker has been permanently banned from the financial services industry.Sergio Amaranti, formerly of Phoenix Insurance Brokers, has been banned following an ASIC investigation which found he had directed more than $250,000 worth of client refunds to accounts held in his name.Perth-based Amaranti was employed as a director of Phoenix Insurance Brokers from January 2002 to February 2005, having worked as a senior insurance broker with the firm from 2000 to November 2015.The investigation found that Amaranti had engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct and dishonest conduct in relation to client funds as he was the signatory of the trust account held by Phoenix and held an individual code and password to finalise transactions including client refunds.Amaranti spread funds owed to clients as a result of refunds from policy cancellations, adjustments or negotiated discounts totalling approximately $254,000 between various personal accounts held in his name.Amaranti has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC's decision.
Andrew Beaton is stepping down from his managing director position at DUAL New Zealand, according to a statement released by the underwriting agency. Leo Abbruzzo , who is current general manager of Australia, will be expanding his role to take on New Zealand as well.Beaton, who has had a career spanning 25 years in the industry, is taking some time to focus on the next phase of his career after two years in the role, the company said.During his tenure at DUAL, Andrew was responsible for launching the successful commercial property portfolio before stepping into the role of managing director where he recruited a market leading team of 27 with significant expertise across liability and property underwriting and claims, DUAL said.As co-founder of DUAL Asia Pacific, Abbruzzo has been in the insurance industry for over 30 years.He has previously worked in the NZ market and will be working closely with the NZ leadership team of Martin Stroud (underwriting director) and Mike Vincent (claims manager), the company said.Beaton will be providing support to Abbruzzo through the transition period until the end of February 2017.Damien Coates, Asia Pacific CEO, said: We are incredibly grateful to Andrew for his contribution and the foundations he has laid with the new team to prepare the business for the next stage of growth.As the largest independent underwriting agency in New Zealand, our local DUAL team has a significant presence in the market with 18,000 policyholders.With Leos leadership we will be able to further leverage the strength and innovation in the SME and mid-market for which DUAL Australasia has become renowned.
Establishment of an industry taskforce that will identify and address emerging issues;

Activation of disaster hotline 1800 734 621 to help policyholders with their insurance-related questions; and

Mobilisation of ICA staff to work directly with local services and affected policyholders in the region.

The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has declared the severe hailstorm that hit the Mildura region of northwest Victoria, and nearby parts of New South Wales and South Australia, last Friday, as an insurance catastrophe.Insurers have received some 9,000 claims, with estimated insured losses of over $20 million. ICA said its expecting more claims over the coming weeks.Rob Whelan, ICA CEO, said the industry heightened its response to aid the storm-affected policyholders, liaising with state governments, local councils, emergency services, and other agencies.In addition to the building and vehicle damage these storms typically bring, the storm has caused significant agricultural losses, he said. The timing could barely be worse for many producers, coming so close to harvest time. Fortunately, a substantial proportion of the damaged crops, trees, and vines, will be covered by insurance.By declaring the Mildura storm a catastrophe, the ICA has enabled the:Whelan urged affected policyholders to contact their insurer or insurance broker as soon as possible to commence the claims process.Representatives of several insurance companies have already arrived in the area to assist their policyholders, he said.Insurers recognise how serious this situation is for a region so dependent on agriculture, and are responding with appropriate urgency.
Even with enrolment targets reduced to half in the last few months, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) transition phase failed to reach its targets for enrolments, ABC reported.The first quarterly report for the NDIS transition phase showed that of the 20,264 enrolees expected for the first quarter from the beginning of July until the end of September, only 7,440 enrolled. Meanwhile, NDIS has estimated 120,000 participants to enroll from July this year until July 2017.The approval of plans has been somewhat slower than we expected, Christian Porter, social services minister, told ABC.But this is a very long process over the next three years. So its early days.Mary Mallet, CEO of Disability Advocacy Network Australia (DANA), said: That number is significantly lower than what we would have expected in the last financial year, if wed been looking ahead.In the last few months, the NDIS halved its original estimate for enrolments, mainly because of an IT setback, which led the scheme to switch to a system run by the Department of Human Services, ABC said.They halved their target to 10,500. Then of that revised target, theyve reached 7,440, Mallet said.Mallet contradicted NDISs claim that it reached 76% of its enrolment target because the initial estimate was modified.As you can see theyre way below what they should have originally reached, she said.The figures indicate the huge challenges ahead of NDIS to meet its estimated target of 460,000 participants when it is fully rolled out in 2019, ABC said.On the positive side, the quarterly report showed that so far, the scheme is being delivered on budget. Advocates are concerned, however, by the number of stories they were hearing about participants who believe their plans were insufficient, the report said.Unfortunately, these statistics dont come as a surprise, Ngila Bevan from Disabled Peoples Organisations Australia told ABC.Were receiving mounting feedback from members that plans are taking too long to be approved once developed, or on the other hand, are being rushed through.Advocacy groups have received reports from participants that transport systems in plans are inadequate to cover the cost a person with a disability needs to get around.Mallet was particularly worried about what steps NDIS will take to catch up to its targets.They have brought emergency procedures into place, Mallet said. That includes determining the plans of eligible applicants through phone conversations, rather than face-to-face meetings. Such measures often result in plans that do not meet the participants needs, ABC reported.Doing planning over the phone is one of the major problems, she said.For large numbers of people, [it] just wont work properly.
Norfolk officials are urging residents to take notice of proposed changes to federal flood insurance rate maps in the wake of Hurricane Matthew.

The Virginian-Pilot reports that the rate maps would require some landowners to buy coverage and put some properties in new risk areas.

The proposed changes would add more than 400 parcels to the highest risk category and would remove about 600 properties from zones requiring flood insurance on federally backed mortgages.

The Norfolk Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the proposed changes Thursday afternoon. The Norfolk City Council is expected to vote on the proposed changes in December.

Information from: The Virginian-Pilot

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Flood Virginia
Hong Kong tycoon Richard Li is poised to buy American International Group Inc.s Fuji Life Insurance Co. business, a deal that marks his FWD Groups first foray into Japanese insurance.

AIG will continue to offer property-casualty coverage in the Asian country, the New York-based company said Monday in a statement announcing the sale, without disclosing terms. The agreement marks FWDs entry into Japan since its 2013 founding, according to the statement.

The purchase for Li, son of billionaire Li Ka-shing, expands an insurance business that operates in Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Southeast Asia, and boasts more than 1.2 million customers. Meanwhile, AIG Chief Executive Officer Peter Hancock has been selling assets to simplify his company and free up funds for share repurchases. He reached a deal in August to sell a mortgage guarantor to Arch Capital Group Ltd. for $3.4 billion.

The deal with FWD removes a distraction, a drag on earnings and a drag on capital, so it really allows us to concentrate, Hancock said in an interview. Lis company has good knowledge of our people, they have a couple who are AIG staff on their team so they are quite familiar with the property, and it fits their portfolio quite well.

Li has worked with AIG in the past. In 2010, his firm acquired an asset manager, PineBridge Investments, from the insurer, which was selling assets to repay a government bailout. He expanded into insurance two years later by adding units in Hong Kong, Macau and Thailand from ING Groep NV, which had also suffered from the recession. This year, FWD expanded in Vietnam through agreeing to buy a business from Great Eastern Holdings Ltd.

Carl Icahn

AIG has been in talks with Lis firm since the middle of last year about the Japanese life unit, though the firms have been in constant discussions on a range of potential opportunities since the PineBridge deal, Hancock said.

Fuji Life represents less than 10 percent of the employees of AIGs Japan unit, with about 1.1 million policies in force. Annualized new premiums amounted to $124 million in 2015, up from $83 million three years earlier.

Our partnership with AIG will give FWD access to an extensive distribution network with an established customer base, FWD CEO Huynh Thanh Phong said in the statement.

Activist Carl Icahn won representation to AIGs board this year after pressuring the firm to improve returns. He said in August that he would have liked to see a sale of some of the Japan business. AIG last year noted prolonged delays in integrating its units in the region, AIU and Fuji Fire & Marine  a snag that kept the insurer from participating in a wave of unprecedented deal making in the industry.

Leaner Business

AIG finished acquiring Fuji Fire & Marine in 2011. The insurer will keep operating through its local subsidiaries of that business, AIU and American Home Assurance Co., according to the release. Japan is the largest personal insurance market globally for AIG based on net premiums written.

Hancock has also announced agreements to exit a broker-dealer unit and a Lloyds of London operation.

Like other actions weve taken this year, the sale of AIG Fuji Life makes us a leaner insurer thats better focused on the geographies and segments where we have the critical mass and expertise to provide tremendous value to our clients, Hancock said in the statement.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
Marsh announced it has reached agreement with AXA Group to acquire Bluefin Insurance Group Ltd., a subsidiary of AXA UK plc. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017.

AXA said the price for the disposal of Bluefin would amount to 295 million ($369.4 million).

Founded in 2008, Bluefin has approximately 1,500 colleagues based in 45 locations around the UK, providing guidance on creating insurance solutions to over 150,000 businesses and individuals, Marsh and AXA said in statements. In addition to insurance broking, it also operates an extensive broker network and growing managing general agent business.

On completion, Marsh will combine Bluefin and Jelf into a single business unit to be led by Phil Barton, CEO of Jelf, and a management team drawn from both firms. This unit will bring together two leading community brokers with complementary regional offices across the UK, serving over 250,000 clients in 80 locations. It will also include around 400 network broker members as well as a strong affinity and digital offering.

The combined business will be one of the UKs leading insurance brokers for mid-size and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), offering a compelling proposition through its commitment to high quality technical advice, bespoke products and distinctive services including claims consultancy and risk management. It will also provide intelligent risk insights that will enable companies to address emerging risks such as cyber, as well as people-related issues through a strong employee benefits team.

We want to make sure that businesses of all sizes are getting the very best risk and insurance advice to help them navigate the uncertainties of todays environment. Bringing the Bluefin and Jelf teams together will give us a great platform to do just that, said Mark Weil, Marshs CEO for UK & Ireland.

Since Marshs acquisition of Jelf last year we have been able to deliver the value and expertise that comes from being part of a global firm to our clients while maintaining the entrepreneurial spirit were known for, said Barton. By combining Bluefin and Jelf, we will now have the footprint and capabilities to provide better client service to companies of all sizes across the UK.

Robert Organ, CEO of Bluefin, commented: This announcement is great news for our clients and colleagues and gives Bluefin a strong, long-term owner from which to grow. Clients will benefit from access to unrivalled global expertise, delivered locally and our colleagues will have expanded career opportunities in a major broking business that puts them and their clients first. Together with colleagues in Jelf, we will present a leading risk and insurance offering to businesses and individuals across the UK.

Amanda Blanc, CEO of AXA UK & Ireland, said: As market dynamics have evolved and our own strategy has progressed, it has become increasingly apparent that Bluefins ability to achieve its potential would be better served under a new parent. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Bluefins teams for their great contribution over the years.

Source: Marsh and AXA

Related:

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Agencies AXA XL
Dallas-based Lockton Dunning Benefits (LDB) has relocated Excelsior Solutions, its main pharmacy consulting practice, to a new home at 7650 Edinborough Way, Suite 100, Edina, Minnesota.

In 2012, LDB merged with Excelsior Solutions, which specializes in pharmaceutical and healthcare consulting.

Kenneth Dowell, who founded Excelsior Solutions in 2010 and acted as its president, is now a chairman on the Lockton Pharmacy Analytics Advisory Board.

Dowell said the new office has the capacity to hold 30 associates. When we factor in our new offices in Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis and Dallas, that number increases to over 100 Associates.

Source: Lockton Dunning Benefits

Topics Minnesota
Federal safety regulators have proposed nearly $527,000 in penalties against the operators of a northeast Nebraska grain facility where a worker was fatally injured.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said in a news release that it cited Prinz Grain & Feed in West Point for three willful, 15 serious and two lesser violations. In May the worker was buried by corn as he attempted to clear crusted corn from the insides of a grain bin.

Company co-owner Dave Prinz told The Associated Press that talks with OSHA officials have begun, but he declined to comment further.

OSHA says Prinz Grain has been placed in OSHAs Severe Violator Enforcement Program, which focuses on employers that commit willful or repeat violations or fail to correct problems noted by inspectors.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Workers' Compensation Nebraska
When Jeb Hensarling, the Republican chair of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, released legislation this summer to weaken the major financial law known as Dodd-Frank, many said it was a pret-a-porter plan that his partys nominee, Donald Trump, could easily adopt.

Now that Trump is president-elect, he appears to be doing just that.

Language about financial services posted on the Trump transition website echoes the tone of Hensarlings bill, known as the CHOICE Act.

It calls Dodd-Frank, passed in the wake of the 2007-09 financial crisis and recession, as a sprawling and complex piece of legislation that has unleashed hundreds of new rules and several new bureaucratic agencies and promises to dismantle and replace it with new policies to encourage economic growth and job creation.

Hensarlings legislation, which his committee approved in September, also takes a replacement approach.

The Texas Republican had unveiled his proposal in Trumps hometown of New York in June, and then met with the businessman later in the day. At the same time, Hensarling was mentioned as a possible Treasury secretary by Trumps team. He has said he is not pursuing a Cabinet position.

The CHOICE Act accurately reflects the priorities that President Trump has placed on the Dodd-Frank problem, said J.W. Verret, an associate professor at the George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School and financial regulation expert. Verret regularly meets with and briefs members of Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission on financial regulation.

I think it is a great blueprint for everything that he has promised, said Verret, a former Republican congressional staffer.

The Hensarling blueprint would primarily allow banks to choose between complying with Dodd-Frank or meeting tougher capital requirements  primarily to maintain a ratio of tangible equity to leverage exposure of 10 percent.

It would also reorganize the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, throw out the Volcker Rule restricting banks from making speculative investments and eliminate the authority of the Financial Stability Oversight Council to designate non-banks as systemically important.

It also differs from the Dodd-Frank legislation in the way it treats insolvent banks. Hensarling says his approach will prevent taxpayer dollars from being used to bail out failed institutions.

Alongside Obamacare, Dodd-Frank is considered one of Democratic President Barack Obamas signature domestic policies.

The most senior Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, Sherrod Brown, has been a vocal defender of it, as has liberal firebrand Senator Elizabeth Warren. That means a Dodd-Frank revamp could stall in one chamber of Congress. Senate rules allow a single member to block a bill from proceeding to a vote.

Trump said last May that he would dismantle Dodd-Frank, primarily because the law makes it hard for banks to loan money.

But few have called for total demolition of it, with bank industry sources privately saying they would like to see an easing of Dodd-Frank rules.

Trump campaign adviser Anthony Scaramucci, a Wall Street financier, said this week that the administration will review the law and the worst anti-business parts of it will be gutted.

Verret said he believes some components of the CHOICE Act will appeal to the populist anger felt by Tea Party members and Trump supporters toward big banks.

One such provision, he said, would place limits on how central banks can lend to financial institutions in times of crisis, an in effort to prevent future bailouts.

This kind of reform, he added, appeals to both populists and free market thinkers at the same time.

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert and Sarah N. Lynch; editing by Linda Stern and Jonathan Oatis)

Topics Legislation
Underwriters of directors and officers (D&O) liability insurance should keep an eye on the increased scrutiny of unicorn technology firms by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for potentially inflated valuations and misleading statements, both of which pose a risk to investors, according to a lawyer who specializes in professional liability insurance claims.

Kim Melvin, a partner with national law firm Wiley Rein, suggests underwriters may need to treat some of the highly-valued private technology companies like they are public companies when it comes to assessing risk for federal securities law violations.

Melvin expanded on her thoughts on unicorns and D&O in an interview with Claims Journal.

Melvin noted that Mary Jo White, chair of the SEC, announced in March that the SEC was moving to fully engage with Silicon Valley, and participants in this important market across the country in order to better understand its investors and financings.

The focus of the SECs Silicon Valley initiative are so-called unicorns, defined as private companies with a valuation of $1 billion or more.

Valuation marks the difference between unicorns and already-established private companies, with startup companies relying heavily on the venture capital markets to raise funds and to operate their companies, Melvin said.

She said the willingness to buy into startup companies has caused a market disruption that needs additional scrutiny.

Any private company can be held liable under the federal securities laws for false or misleading statements in connection with the sale of their stock to venture capital firms or other private investment companies. It just has not been a historical focus of the SEC, Melvin said.

Because of the potential for inflated valuations, the SEC wants to assess the unicorns communications with private investors about their fundraising and stock investments, Melvin said. The agency wants to ensure the companies are not overstating their value and that their internal compliance matches that of public companies with similar valuations.

The SEC has suggested that these startup companies may not have the internal compliancethe robust practices expected of a publicly held company, for example, perhaps not unexpectedly given that a start-up is largely focused on getting its business off the ground more so thancompliance issues around its fundraising, Melvin said.

In her address, White noted that as the technology sector has evolved, so too have the financial markets to support it. New types of investors and funding options have contributed to companies staying private longer.

Being a private company obviously does not mean that you can disregard the interests of investors. Indeed, being a private company comes with serious obligations to investors and the markets. Whether the source of the obligation is the federal securities laws or the fiduciary duty that is owed to shareholders, the resulting candor and fair dealing should be fundamentally the same, said White.

She said that the principles that characterize public companies including transparency with investors, financial reporting controls and strong corporate governance are applicable to private companies, noting the inherent risk in start-ups.

While the common refrain is that nine out of 10 start-ups fail, an equally interesting statistic from one post-mortem analysis is that 70 percent of failed start-ups die within 20 months after their last financing, having raised an average of $11 million, White said. In other words, not only are these investments highly risky, they fail quickly too.

There are an estimated 150 unicorns worldwide, with many based in Silicon Valley.

D&O Risk

According to Melvin, the risk of an inflated company valuation to directors and officers is twofold. First, if information shared with investors by the company in securing the fundraising is based on false or misleading statements that resulted in the valuation being artificially inflated it could lead to an investigation by the SEC.

That is a quintessential securities claim violation, said Melvin.

The second risk is that because of the nature of a start-up  they are typically smaller and privately held  there is a risk to the companys founders and key officers because there isnt a requirement to make disclosures with appropriate risk factors or release a registration statement.

They, in fact, are making oral representation to these hedge funds or other private equity firms and will likely find themselves as defendants in the litigation for specifically making the representation, said Melvin. Whereas with a public company, the board will often get named as the parties that signed the registration statements, but theres a variety of protections in place in the securities laws for those defendants.

Melvin said there is a greater potential for individual liability in connection with private company claims. She cited the case of a lawsuit against medical testing firm Theranos in which not only is founder Elizabeth Holmes named, but also the chief operating officer and president of the company.

Bloomberg reported in October that hedge fund Partner Investments LP claimed in a lawsuit in Delaware state court that Theranos founder Holmes and other officials of the medical testing firm lied about the firms performance to raise funding. The suit came days after the firm closed its blood-testing labs and laid off 340 workers. The California-based blood-testing start-up, once valued at $9 billion, has since changed its focus to wellness clinics.

Theranos has said that the Partner Investments suit is revisionist history and without merit and that the company will fight it.

According to Melvin, there is a risk when a start-up suddenly changes focus like Theranos has.

There could be an argument, certainly by the plaintiffs bar, that the fact that theyre no longer attempting to go down the road that was sold to these investors, as the future and the plans for the firm and the promise by which these funds made their investment, is a suggestion that it was doomed to fail from the beginning. That they knew it all along, Melvin said. The shift in focus will be spun, perhaps, by the plaintiffs lawyer as an indictment of the whole strategy of the startup in the first place. It will certainly be used, I would assume, by a creative plaintiffs bar, as supportive of the fact that they misrepresented to these investors the ability to secure the appropriate governmental FDA approvals and the like.

Public vs. Private D&O

The likelihood of a lawsuit against high-valued start-ups is much higher than for other private companies.

The more that is at stake, and potentially that was invested in the company based on potential misrepresentations actionable under the securities law, the more likely a lawsuit would be filed, said Melvin. Theres more reason to bring the suit. It will garner larger potential damages.

There are several implications for the private company D&O insurance market, according to Melvin.

In the past, Melvin said there was a clear distinction between public and private D&O insurance. Thats no longer the case for unicorns, she said.

The D&O insurers have always had a clear line between public company D&O insurance and private company D&O insurance. Historically, claims alleging violations of the federal securities laws have always been among the most significant D&O insurance exposures for public companies, Melvin said. Private companies historically have not faced these claims, at least not with nearly the same frequency or severity. At least for these so-called unicorns, this appears to no longer be the case.

There is the potential for federal securities law liabilities for private companies particularly with large valuations, she said. As a result, there is a need to reassess the risk of insuring these private companies, given the greater potential for securities law liabilities.

The D&O insurance underwriters are going to have to look to see whether these larger valued private companies really need to be treated like publicly traded companies. The insurance being offered to them needs to be adjusted accordingly, Melvin explained.

Frankly, I would expect that these larger private companies and their brokers are going to be carefully reviewing their existing D&O insurance, with an eye towards these potential security law claims, whether by investors, by the SEC or the DOJ [Department of Justice].

She expects that D&O insurers will likely try to match some of the features that are more typical of a public company form in the private company policies. One example is coverage for informal investigations which has broadened over the years. She expects the same coverage to be offered under private company D&O policies.

One area that pressure was already being brought to bear on the private company form, that this will raise even more acutely, is coverage for informal investigations. The public company form has been broadening over a period of numerous years to extend coverage for investigation costs, Melvin said. First, it was to formal investigations. Now oftentimes, at least for individuals, you can get coverage for informal investigations by the SEC, DOJ, or other federal regulatory agency thats specific to the operative company. That coverage is not typical for a private company, that informal investigation coverage.

Other examples are the defense provisions and choice of counsel within public company D&O policies.

Public company D&O policies are typically reimbursement policies, not duty to defend policies. An important feature of that is that the insured or the company gets to choose council, subject to the consent of the insurers. They control the defense with duties to cooperate and keep the insurers apprised, Melvin said. That control over the selection of council and the defense is sort of a critical and important feature of a public company policy. Private company D&O is more traditionally written as duty to defend policies, which means the primary insurer gets to appoint council, and may have panel council or other firms that it regularly uses.

Melvin said she anticipates that private companies, particularly those facing federal security law claims, will push to secure the right to choose council and control their defense from their D&O insurers.

Thats something the insurers are going to have to assess and determine if theyre willing to change their policies in that regard, Melvin said. Those were the two most critical features of the public company form that private companies will be looking to import into the private company form.

She added that brokers will likely be asked to review any securities-related exclusions within the private company form to ensure they are limited solely to the company offering publicly traded securities, so that its clear that the exclusion isnt intended to apply to securities claims at a time when the companys still private.

Limits adequacy is another issue that D&O underwriters and the industry as a whole will have to consider, Melvin said.

Some of the traditional benchmarking for how much insurance private companies should buy may change at least for these companies garnering the largest valuations, Melvin said. Given that the severity that you would typically see in a securities law liability type of claim is greater than and may change the benchmarking, I would envision that would be something that private companies and their brokers would be grappling with in the coming months and year.

Johnson is editor of ClaimsJournal.com, where this article was originally published.

Topics Lawsuits Carriers InsurTech
Texas Department of Transportation records show no highway routes designated for transport of hazardous chemicals in the Houston area have been updated over the past 20 years and government officials appear befuddled over who has the authority to do so, the Houston Chronicle reported.

The newspaper also said that 40 years after the wreck of a truck carrying 7,500 gallons of anhydrous ammonia killed six people and injured 178 others along the citys Interstate 610 Loop, the citys population has doubled in size and is more vulnerable to another catastrophic accident.

About 400 trucks a day loaded with tons of hazardous chemicals travel Houstons inner loop freeway and pass within a mile of NRG Stadium, Memorial Park and the Galleria shopping center.

You have every kind of chemical in the world coming through Houston, said Kenneth MacKenzie, Houstons former air pollution control chief. Weve been very fortunate with the amount of problems weve had.

The Chronicle found other Houston-area cities and towns, like Conroe and Mont Belvieu, have even more dangerous situations because their main thoroughfares have been designated for transporting hazardous chemicals.

And roughly 150 miles to the west, Austin has no designated route at all, even though state law requires all cities with populations greater than 850,000 to have such routes. City Council records showed Austin remains in the process of choosing a route.

A Texas Department of Transportation spokesman told the newspaper its up to municipalities to designate hazardous materials routes.

Houston officials said the state also has the power, but Houstons Office of Emergency Management doesnt know why the citys designated route hasnt been updated in decades. The agency said Houston Fire Department officials are responsible for oversight of hazardous materials, including transportation. Fire department officials didnt respond to the Chronicle.

Data from the U.S. Department of Transportations Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration shows that since 2000, Texas leads the nation in fatalities, injuries and evacuations related to moving hazardous chemicals on roads or rails. Nineteen accidents have resulted in fatalities.

The federal government, however, doesnt track whats coming and going on the highways and rails, and while it has the authority to demand manifests it largely relies on companies to operate safely.

According to federal regulations, truckers are supposed to avoid heavily populated areas even if no hazardous materials route is designated, but the rules rarely are enforced. Texas Department of Public Safety troopers issued three tickets from 2013 to June 2015.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which also enforces hazardous material transportation rules, has issued no fines in Texas since 2010, the newspaper said.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Texas Pollution Chemicals
Dallas-based Lockton Dunning Benefits (LDB) has promoted Todd Leveridge to executive vice president/partner.

Leveridge has more than 27 years of experience in employee benefits consulting and outsourcing. He began his career with a major insurance carrier in national accounts business development where he gained experience in managed care claims, underwriting, account management, and network operations departments. Leveridge subsequently co-founded a benefits technology outsourcing company, CompLink, in 1999 which he helped successfully grow and sell to Conexis in 2003. He joined Lockton Dunning Benefits in February 2004 as senior vice president.

Leveridge is on the board of Heart House Dallas, an afterschool safe-haven for refugee and underprivileged children in Vickery Meadow, as well as the board of Forgiven Ministries, an outreach to the homeless and those less fortunate.

Source: Lockton Dunning Benefits,
Authorities have charged a restaurant owner in Lewis County, Tenn., with setting fire to his business for the insurance money.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Thursday that Nick Spicer set fire to Nick and Bubbas Beer, Butts and Clucks in Hohenwald on July 24.

Officials with the TBI, the Hohenwald Fire Department and the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance investigated the case.

A grand jury on Monday indicted the 35-year-old Spicer on one count of arson and one count of insurance fraud. He is out of jail on $20,000 bond.

It is not immediately clear if Spicer has a lawyer.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Tennessee
EPIC Insurance Brokers & Consultants has hired Rick Haycock as a property/casualty insurance producer in Northern California.

Haycock will be responsible for new business development and the design and management of insurance and risk management programs for clients in the Sacramento area and across the Western U.S. Haycock will serve a range of businesses and industries, including contractors, real estate developers, commercial and residential income property owners as well as property managers.

Haycock will be based in EPICs Sacramento office and report to Tom McCready, regional director or property/casualty operations.

Haycock joins EPIC from Mackie Insurance Brokerage, where he spent more than seven years as a commercial insurance broker and risk management consultant. He was previously vice president and commercial account manager for The First American Corp.

EPIC is a retail property/casualty and employee benefits insurance brokerage and consulting firm.

Topics California Property Casualty Property
The former chief financial officer of a chain of medical clinics in Washington and Idaho has been awarded $1.9 million after claiming he was fired for refusing to file fabricated financial reports.

Gregg Becker was the CFO of Rockwood Clinic, which has a dozen primary care clinics and other specialty clinics in the Spokane and Coeur dAlene areas, The Spokesman-Review reported.

Becker sued in 2012, saying he was fired when he refused to rework his projections of the companys losses that year. He estimated the losses at $12.8 million, but he said the company tried to bully him into lowering the figure to $4 million.

In a ruling last week, U.S. Department of Labor administrative law judge Christopher Larsen awarded him $1.9 million, saying Becker had been ignored, pleaded with and cajoled to use the lower number.

Nobody appeared concerned that he had no reasonable basis for approving the figure and an entirely reasonable basis for rejecting it, Larsen wrote. This is not a simple disagreement over company policy or a matter of different philosophies about the best way to do business. This is a dispute going to the very heart of what it means to be the Chief Financial Officer of an organization which is a component of a publicly-traded business.

Stellman Keehnel, a lawyer for Rockwood Clinics parent company, Tennessee-based Community Health Systems, said he was disappointed in the ruling and expects an appeal.

Beckers attorney, Mary Schultz, said he believed that using the lower number would mislead investors by underestimating the companys losses, and that it would violate federal financial reporting laws. When he refused, he was put on a performance improvement plan and ultimately forced to resign.

You cant fire somebody because they refused to commit a crime for you, Schultz said Friday. It really validates Mr. Beckers integrity and his resoluteness with doing what he did.

The 46-page ruling emphasized that Rockwood and Community Health Systems presented no justification at trial supporting the $4 million figure as reasonable. Larsen awarded Becker $341,380 in back pay and nearly $1.5 million in front pay, saying Becker likely would have worked at Rockwood through his retirement at the age of 66. He was also awarded $15,000 for damage to his reputation and legal fees and costs.

A separate state court case over Beckers dismissal is scheduled for trial in January. The lawsuit alleges Becker was discharged for refusing to violate state laws against misleading financial reporting.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation Medical Professional Liability
(Bloomberg) -- Social Finance Inc., a fast-growing online lender that focuses on high-earning millennials, is broadening its offerings to include life insurance.

The startup, known as SoFi, will join with Protective Life Corp. to provide up to $1 million in term-life insurance to its clients, according to a statement from both companies Monday. The application will be fully online and wont require a medical exam for a majority of people under 40, they said.

This is a first in the industry: coverage in minutes without a medical exam in many cases, and at incredibly competitive prices, Andrea Blankmeyer, vice president of finance at San Francisco-based SoFi, said in the statement.

SoFi has long had ambitions beyond lending. Begun in 2011 by classmates from Stanford Universitys business school, the company developed a popular way for graduates of top-tier universities to refinance student debt. The venture has since branched out into mortgages, personal loans and wealth management.

In September, Bloomberg reported that the company was also looking to offer life insurance by the end of the year. Policies will be issued by Protective, a unit of Japans Dai-ichi Life Holdings Inc. The companies didnt disclose terms of their arrangement.
Russia e Stati Uniti provano a ricucire lo strappo. Vladimir Putin aveva accolto con soddisfazione lelezione di Donald Trump alla Casa Bianca. E, a riprova della fiducia riposta, ha subito chiamato il tycoon newyorchese per congratularsi della vittoria e gettare le basi per la ripresa del dialogo.

Ripresa del dialogo

Nel corso della chiacchierata, molto cordiale, il leader del Cremlino e quello di Washington hanno espresso la necessita di un incontro a breve. Perche ora la priorita  si sono detti  deve essere quella di normalizzare i rapporti tra i due Paesi. Relazioni che al momento sono assolutamente insoddisfacenti.

Nuova Guerra Fredda

Molte le situazioni che hanno provocato il gelo tra Putin e Obama: dalla crisi ucraina a quella siriana, passando per laffare Snowden (a cui Mosca da ospitalita) e per le accuse di interferenze da parte di Mosca nelle elezioni presidenziali americane. Ingerenze che per i democratrici Usa e per molti 007 sono state messe in campo per favorire proprio Trump e svantaggiare Hillary Clinton, candidata vista a Mosca come troppo ostile e troppo in continuita con la presidenza Obama.

Non ingerenza

Ora tutto e pronto per un cambiamento radicale. Il presidente russo si e detto pronto a costruire un dialogo fra partner con la nuova amministrazione sui principi di uguaglianza, rispetto reciproco e non interferenza nei rispettivi affari interni, afferma il Cremlino. Mentre dalla Trump Tower di New York lo staff del neopresidente Usa parla della necessita di riallacciare una relazione forte e duratura con Mosca. Sara il tempo a dire se alle parole seguiranno i fatti.

Alleati preoccupati

Fatto sta che il possibile asse Trump-Putin non puo che preoccupare lEuropa. E rassicurare gli alleati sara uno degli obiettivi dellultimo viaggio di Barack Obama nel Vecchio Continente. A Berlino il presidente uscente vedra la cancelliera tedesca Angela Merkel, il presidente francese Francois Hollande, il premier britannico Theresa May, il presidente del consiglio italiano Matteo Renzi. Un vertice nel corso del quale  ha detto lo stesso Obama nella sua prima conferenza stampa dopo il voto  portera un messaggio di Trump: quello che gli impegni con la Nato verranno rispettati.

Obama in Europa

Anche qui sara il tempo a dire se a queste parole seguiranno i fatti. Dopo la durissime critiche di Trump allAlleanza Atlantica durante la campagna elettorale. Parole che hanno lasciato intendere un disimpegno Usa soprattutto se gli altri Paesi non contribuiranno di piu alle spese. Ce da giurare che Obama mettera comunque in guardia lEuropa: bisogna tenere gli occhi aperti. E, prima di partire per lultima trasferta oltreoceano, lancia un messaggio anche a Trump: Le nostre alleanze sono cruciali per la nostra sicurezza. Non solo in Europa. Anche in Asia.
Plan Level The Plan Pays You Pay Bronze 60% 40% Silver 70% 30% Gold 80% 20% Platinum 90% 10%

Bronze plans, for example, provide the lowest level of coverage (60%) but have the lowest monthly premiums. As the plan level increases, so do the coverage and your monthly premium.

Even within the same metallic level, you'll still be able to choose from several coverage options. These options affect both your premiums and out-of-pocket costs for deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance. Because the Marketplace allows various private insurers to offer plans, a plan from one company may cost more or less than the same plan offered by a different insurer.

For example, a Silver plan from one company may cost you more upfront for your monthly deductible, but your out-of-pocket expenses will be much lower. Conversely, a Silver plan from another insurer could cost less each month, but you'll pay more for healthcare expenses because of the higher deductible, copayment, and coinsurance amounts.

How to Reduce the Costs of Marketplace Insurance

Depending on your income (or, more precisely, your modified gross adjusted income (MAGI)) and your family size, you may be eligible for the advance premium tax credit or a cost-sharing reduction. Both of these programs will reduce the cost of your healthcare.

Cost-Sharing Reductions

A cost-sharing reduction is a discount available on Silver plans only. This reduction can help lower your out-of-pocket costs for:

Deductibles: the amount you owe for covered services before health insurance kicks in.

the amount you owe for covered services before health insurance kicks in. Copayments: a fixed amount you pay for covered healthcare services.

a fixed amount you pay for covered healthcare services. Coinsurance: your share of the costs of covered healthcare service.

your share of the costs of covered healthcare service. Out-of-pocket maximum: the most you'll pay in a year for covered health expenses.

For example, say you visit the doctor and are charged $100. With your particular Silver plan, you normally have a copay of $25. Because you qualify for cost-sharing reductions and you chose a Silver plan through the Marketplace, your copay may be as low as $5.

Similarly, if your plan has a $3,500 deductible, it may be lowered to $500 with cost-sharing reductions. Essentially, you pay for a Silver plan, but receive the increased coverage of a higher metallic level plan, reducing your out-of-pocket expenses.

Cost-sharing reductions are available only to the following people:

People who don't qualify for public coverage such as Medicaid or the Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

People who can't get qualified health insurance through an employer. If your employer offers healthcare insurance, you can't get a cost-sharing reduction.

People whose incomes fall between 100% and 250% of the federal poverty level

The cost-sharing reduction and advance premium tax credit subsidies are not automatic: You must apply for them on the Health Insurance Marketplace.

Advanced Premium Tax Credit

Many more people qualify for an advance premium tax credit, which lowers your monthly health insurance bill for coverage bought through the Marketplace. With this credit, you can choose any metallic level plan in the Marketplace.

To be eligible for the advance premium tax credit:

You must be ineligible for public coverage.

You must be unable to get qualified health insurance through your employer.

Your income usually must fall between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level.

However, for 2021 and 2022, the American Rescue Plan Act now means that more people can access this credit. The act also increased the level of support for many who already qualified.

Premium tax credits are sent directly from the government to your health insurer to lower your monthly premium. If you qualify, you can decide how much of the credit to apply to your premium each month (up to 100%).

When you file your annual tax return, you'll "reconcile" the premium tax credits you received and the actual amount you qualify for based on your final income for that year. If you've taken more payments than you're eligible for, you may have to pay the money back when you file your return. If you should have taken more, however, you may get a refund.

HealthCare.gov has an online tool that shows the subsidy you might receive based on your income, the number of adults and children enrolling in coverage, and your state.

The American Rescue Plan Act and Advanced Premium Tax Credit

For 2021 and 2022, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 changed how the advance premium tax credit is applied. The law increases premium tax credits for all income brackets for these years.

Here's how it works. Previously, households with incomes that are more than 400% of the federal poverty level were not eligible for such tax credits. The new law allows families making more than 400% of the poverty level to claim premium tax credits.

There is still a limit to the program, but it works differently. Now, no family will pay more than 8.5% of their household income towards the cost of the benchmark plan or a less expensive plan. This means that many consumers will be eligible for higher tax credit amounts to help cover their Marketplace health plan premiums.

In practice, people across all household income levels will see lower premiums as a result of receiving more tax credits to reduce plan prices. Many low-income families and individuals will now have $0 premium plans (after tax credits) to choose from.

This extension was automatically applied to all plans available through HealthCare.gov starting on April 1, 2021. This means that new consumers and current enrollees who submit an application and select a plan on or after April 1 will receive the increased premium tax credits for 2021 Marketplace coverage.

Even if you already have a marketplace plan, it's worth checking if the new roles for premium tax credits can make your health insurance cheaper. People who enrolled in a plan before April 1, 2021, can go back to the marketplace they used, and update their application in order to get new eligibility results. You can then reselect your current plan in order for the changes to take effect to reduce your premiums for the remainder of the year.

However, be careful. Reselecting your plan will reset your deductible, so if you've already met it for the year you may have to pay more in copayments and coinsurance. Make sure you check this before you reselect your plan.



Choosing Catastrophic Coverage

When you fill out an application online, you might see catastrophic plans listed among your plan options. You may be eligible for a catastrophic plan if you're under 30 years old or if you qualify for a hardship exemption because you can't afford health coverage. This is determined during the application process and is based on your family size and income.

A catastrophic health plan covers three primary care visits per year before the deductible is met. It also covers preventive services at no cost to you. The premium you pay each month should be considerably lower than for other plans, but the out-of-pocket costs (deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance) are generally much higher.

If you qualify for and choose a catastrophic plan, you won't be eligible for cost-sharing reductions or premium tax credits. Catastrophic plans cannot be purchased with premium subsidies.

Qualifying for Medicaid

Depending on your income and family size, you may qualify for Medicaid, a program that provides health coverage for eligible people in the following categories:

Low-income individuals, families, and children

Pregnant women

Older people

People with disabilities

Each state has its own rules about who qualifies for Medicaid. Under the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid eligibility expanded in many states, and an increased number of people qualified for benefits. If you are eligible, you can get free or low-cost coverage, and you won't need to buy a Marketplace plan.

Many states also have a separate program, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which provides health insurance for uninsured children in low-income families who don't qualify for Medicaid but still cannot afford private coverage.

To find out if you are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP benefits, fill out an application on the Health Insurance Marketplace. You can also visit your state's Medicaid website to apply and find out if you qualify.

What Are State Healthcare Exchanges? State healthcare exchanges, also known as state healthcare marketplaces, allow individuals and small businesses to compare and purchase health insurance options. Though offered by private insurers, these policies follow the coverage guidelines and criteria outlined in the Affordable Care Act. In 17 states and the District of Columbia, residents seeking such policies go through these state exchanges. Americans in other states purchase health insurance through the federal government's marketplace.

Can I Refuse Health Insurance From My Employer and Get Obamacare? Yes. The Affordable Care Act ensures that almost all Americans can buy individual and family health insurance from its online Marketplace. Be careful, though. If you refuse health insurance from your employer, you most likely will not qualify for any subsidies, tax credits, or other financial assistance. The only way you might be eligible is if one of the following applies:

Your employer-sponsored health plan doesnt meet the minimum value standard of coverage required by the ACA. The cheapest plan through your employer costs more than a certain percentage of your household income. Even without the subsidy, though, a Marketplace plan may offer a more economical deal than your employer-based insurance, so always check the marketplace to make sure you're not missing out on a better deal.

What Is the Income Limit for Marketplace Insurance? Strictly speaking, there is no income limit for Marketplace insuranceanyone can purchase it. What is limited by income is the amount of the subsidy, or premium tax credit, you might qualify for to help pay for that insurance.

In 2021 and 2022, you qualify for subsidies if you pay more than 8.5% of your household income toward health insurance premiumsspecifically, the cost of the Silver benchmark plan (the second-lowest-cost plan on the exchange).

The Bottom Line

Most individuals and families will be able to compare and buy their 2022 health coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace.

After you fill out an application online, you can see if you qualify for Medicaid, CHIP, cost-sharing reductions, and/or premium tax credits. You will also find out if you are eligible for a catastrophic plan that charges lower premiums but higher out-of-pocket costs.

To find additional information regarding the Health Insurance Marketplace and extra savings, as well as state-specific information and how to apply in your state:
Dividend reinvestment has long been one of the great ways to build up a stock or mutual fund portfolio over time, and it works for exchange-traded funds (ETFs), as well.

There are several ways investors can do this, and the best strategy for you will depend upon your risk tolerance, time horizon, and investment objectives.

Key Takeaways By reinvesting the dividends you receive from your investments, you can accumulate more shares and enjoy compound returns over time.

Many brokers, as well as publicly traded companies themselves, allow shareholders to enroll in automatic dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs).

Other investors may choose to take their dividends as cash and use those funds to buy additional shares when prices decline.

1:22 Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRIP) Definition

Dividend Reinvestment Plans (DRIPs)

A simple and straightforward way to reinvest the dividends that you earn from your investments is to set up an automatic dividend reinvestment plan (DRIP), either through your broker or with the issuing fund company itself. This way, all of the dividends that are paid will immediately be used to purchase more shares of the underlying investment without you having to do anything. This can be the best option if you intend to own your funds for an extended periodfive years or more.

Some plans and funds will allow for the reinvestment of fractional shares, while others may only allow you to buy whole shares. If your plan falls into the latter category, you may need to occasionally purchase another share or two with the cash thats paid to you in lieu of fractional shares. This strategy is also a form of dollar-cost averaging because it will automatically buy more shares when the price is down and fewer when it is high.

One key to remember here is that if you set up your DRIP through a brokerage firm, commissions may be charged for each reinvestment. With commissions at online brokers approaching zero, however, this is less of a concern today than it had been in the past.

If you hold your shares directly with a fund company, this service is usually provided for free. In addition, if you are a shareholder of record, you may be able to join that company's DRIP directly.

Reinvesting by Timing the Market

Another strategy some investors use is to have the dividend payments deposited into their brokerage accounts. When enough cash accumulates, the money buys more shares of the dividend-paying item or another security that is trading at a low price. By buying at a market low, the investor achieves a superior cost basis. Opponents of this approach argue that having that much money on the sidelines for that long is counterproductive because it could have generated further dividends if it had been reinvested immediately.

Of course, the outcome of this strategy versus automatic dividend reinvestment depends entirely on how well the investor can time the market using the second approach and the dividend yield of the new securities purchased.

Another version of this strategy is to wait until the market becomes undervalued before reinvesting. Again, the returns from this approach will depend upon the factors listed above.

Buying an Index Fund

You may want to consider using the dividend income to buy another security, such as an S&P 500 Index fund. One of the big disadvantages of most index funds is that they dont pass dividends through to investors. But if you like index funds and are reaping material dividend income from an ETF portfolio, go ahead and pump that money into your index holdings as a way to simulate the real growth of that indexfactoring in dividends at least partially. This can yield handsome returns over time because historical figures show that an index will likely post substantially higher returns when you factor in dividend reinvestment.

You could also use your dividends to buy an investment in another sector. If you have a large portfolio of ETFs that is primarily designed to generate current income, try using some or all of your dividend income to buy something more growth-oriented, such as a technology ETF with a solid track record. This can help to balance your portfolio.

Although you don't receive the reinvested dividends as cash, they are still considered taxable income by the IRS (unless they are held in a tax-advantaged account, like a Roth IRA).

Retirement Plan DRIPs

If you want to set up a DRIP that purchases more shares of the company for which you work, the best way to do it may be inside your company 401(k) planif your plan allows this and you dont intend to use any of the proceeds until retirement. The advantage here is that you will not pay income tax on your dividends until you withdraw from the plan, and the net unrealized appreciation rule allows you to peel your shares off from the rest of your plan assets and sell them in a single transaction at retirement.

As long as certain rules are followed, you will receive long-term capital gains treatment on your sale, which will substantially lower your tax bill. You may want to allow your dividends to pay out in cash during the year before your sale, so you dont have to worry about calculating long- versus short-term gains or losses in the year of sale.

Why Is it a Good Idea to Reinvest Dividends? Unless you need the cash flows generated from dividends to live, it is often smart to use those proceeds to buy additional shares. This can increase your portfolio's returns over time, both in terms of capital gains as well as additional dividends paid.

How Do I Set Up a Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRIP)? Most brokers today allow customers to opt into a DRIP for no additional charge, at which point it will become automatic until it is canceled. For many brokers, you can even pick and choose which holdings you'd like to be on a DRIP and which you would not.

What If the Dividends I Receive Are Worth Less Than a New Share? Don't worry. Most DRIPs allow dividends received to be used to purchase fractional shares, meaning you don't need particularly large positions to enroll in one.

How Can I Join a DRIP Directly From a Company in Which I Own Shares? Many public companies let shareholders enroll directly in a DRIP, which their transfer agents administer. Around 650 companies and 500 closed-end funds currently offer this service.

The Bottom Line

Reinvesting your dividends is almost always a good idea if you intend to hold your shares for the long term and dont need the income now. For more information on dividend reinvestment and how you can make it work for you, consult your stockbroker or financial advisor.



Investopedia does not provide tax, investment, or financial services and advice. The information is presented without consideration of the investment objectives, risk tolerance, or financial circumstances of any specific investor and might not be suitable for all investors. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal.


As the IoT reels from and struggles with ongoing security issues stemming from DDoS and botnet and SSH and DNS and innumerable other interrelated problems, the industry needs outside input and leadership to give it strategic guidance.

According to a recent announcement, one such source of guidance will be in the form of the Rockville Innovation Center (RIC) in Montgomery County, Maryland, where BioHealth Innovation (BHI) has partnered with The MITRE Corporation, a not-for-profit corporation that operates federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs), including the National Cybersecurity FFRDC, to look for innovative solutions to next-generation security threats.

BHI will serve as the primary manager for the RIC, which is home of BHI's health tech startup accelerator, Relevant Health. MITRE will provide the resident RIC start-up companies with technical mentorship and insight into the most pressing cybersecurity challenges facing business and government today. This collaboration is an extension of a strategic initiative recently launched by MITRE to act as an innovation bridge between the private and public sectors.

Adding cybersecurity thought leadership expands the supportive capabilities of the RIC and our broader regional partnerships, said Richard Bendis, President and CEO, BHI. While the RIC currently serves as a great resource for health tech and biotech startups, we plan to support the convergence that is happening across disciplines that is driving new technology development in the Internet of Things, personalized medicine and other connected health devices. Cybersecurity is a major consideration to be addressed.

The RIC will support start-ups and attract early-stage technology companies within these key technology sectors to graduate companies into commercial spaces in Montgomery County in a few short years.

Collaborating with an organization like BHI that excels in every aspect of managing an innovation center provides a unique opportunity for MITRE, said Dr. Mark Maybury, Chief Security Officer, MITRE, and VP and Director of the National Cybersecurity FFRDC, sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This arrangement enables each party to focus on what it does best, while taking both the RIC and Montgomery County's business community to new heights.

Edited by Alicia Young
Cisco is about to drop a new cloud service, targeted specifically at municipal leaders looking to deploy Smart City technologies. This pay-as-you-go cloud service is designed to help cities take strategic action more effectively with data collected from sensors, cameras and devices.

At Smart City Expo World Congress 2016 (SCEWC) this week, the company is introducing its Cisco Smart+Connected Digital Platform which uses insights from collected data to make it easier for municipal leaders to make better decisions on establishing operational efficiencies, increasing revenue, and reducing costs for street lighting, parking, traffic flow, environmental sensing, waste management and safety and security.

City departments and agencies can benefit from the securely shared data, breaking down government silos, which have previously prevented city leaders from making fully informed decisions. The platform integrates data in a secure manner, so it can be shared and workers can make decisions faster and more efficiently. For instance, traffic agency staff can use third party applications and an open API from the Smart+ Connected Digital Platform that provide information to see data collected both in and outside their agencies.

For example, in addition to seeing data collected from street cameras, traffic agency staff could access environmental sensor data collected by a different department. Using these multiple data sets, workers could find ways to reduce pollution and traffic congestion while also improving incident response time. City officials can also choose to make specific data available to city residents, visitors and businesses.

The company is demonstrating the digital platform in its booth in the Fira Gran Via venue at the Smart City Expo World Congress. It is telling visitors about how municipal customers all over the world, including Kansas City, MO, Jaipur, India, Greater Copenhagen, Denmark, and Adelaide, Australia, are already benefitting from the platforms capabilities.

Edited by Alicia Young
Almost one hundred puppies have been seized in the UK - after being illegally shipped from Ireland.

They were rescued as part of an operation targeting the trade of dogs between Ireland and England.
Irish Rail says the safety of the network could be compromised if additional funding of 500m isn't made over the next five years.

Irish Rail and the National Transport Authority have this evening published a review of the rail service  which says it will need an extra 103m every year over the next five years.
The jury in a Dublin murder trial has been shown CCTV footage of the accused carrying what appears to be a knife moments before the killing.

David Sheridan died in hospital on August 18th 2014  a day after he was repeatedly stabbed outside a chipper.

CCTV footage from the Sunset House pub, which is just a short stroll from Croke Park, showed the accused Donal Colgan drinking at the bar counter and mingling with customers from early evening on August 17 2014.

The court heard he drank between ten and twelve pints of cider throughout the day.

He enters Luidi's takeaway on North Strand Road at 10.20pm.

Some sort of scuffle took place outside after he left with his food and David Sheridan could be seen going out to investigate.

The jurors were told theyll hear witness evidence of that fight in due course.

Afterwards, Mr. Colgan could be seen walking towards his home at Killarney Court and returning with what appears to be a knife in his hand.

It is the prosecutions case that he repeatedly stabbed Mr. Sheridan outside the chipper before simply walking away.

Mr. Colgan, who is 65, denies the charge. The trial, which will take at least a week, will resume tomorrow morning.
Brian McDonagh has brought a challenge against Bord Pleanalas decision last August to allow Apple build the data centre, which is one of eight such proposed developments, at lands at Toberroe, Palmerstown, Derrydonnell at Athenry in Co Galway.

Mr McDonagh, who was previously given permission to have the boards decision judicially reviewed, wants the decision quashed on grounds including it breaches EU directives on forestry.

At yesterdays sitting of the commercial court, Apple Distribution International, the entity which seeks to develop the data centre and a notice party to Mr McDonaghs action, applied to have the case admitted to the fast-track court list.

Representing himself, Mr McDonagh of Unit 1, Ballymount Cross Business Park, Dublin 24 said he did not oppose Apple coming to Athenry but wanted to ensure they comply with proper planning procedures.

He said he wanted the case heard by the High Court or in Europe.

Seeking to have the matter fast-tracked, Rory Mulcahy SC for Apple, said that Mr McDonagh had been refused permission by the High Court to include the argument about an alleged breach of the forestry directive in his action. He has appealed that ruling to the Court of Appeal, counsel added.

Counsel said Mr McDonagh did not make any submissions to Galway Co Council in respect of the original planning application, nor did he appeal to the board. Mr McDonagh only came on the field after the board made its decision, counsel said.

Having considered the submissions, Mr Justice Brian McGovern said he would admit what was an appropriate case to the list.

The court heard that last week a separate action was brought by Sinead Fitzpatrick and Allan Daly who are also challenging Bord Pleanalas decision.

Ms Fitzpatrick and Mr Daly of Lisheenkyle, Athenry, which is close to the proposed centre claim the decision to grant permission to Apple is invalid on grounds including that the board failed to carry out a proper assessment of the effects the proposed development will have on the environment.

The judge also ruled that the two cases are to be heard together next March.

Apple says the proposed centre is a critical piece of infrastructure.
The government of Uganda, where oil was discovered in 2006, said it expects to begin shipping crude within five years.

To do that, it must overcome challenges facing East Africa neighbours such as Mozambique and Tanzania, where a lack of finance and technical capacity to build multiple, capital-intensive infrastructure projects is delaying the start of natural-gas production.

Everything being done in Uganda is for the first time ever, everything can be a risk, said Will Hares, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.

Timetables are prone to slipping, especially in frontier regions. All stakeholders would suffer from project delays.

Landlocked Uganda has an estimated 1.7bn barrels of recoverable oil at fields in the Lake Albert basin the government expects Tullow, Total and Chinas CNOOC to start pumping by 2021.

The government has estimated it will receive $43bn (39.6bn) of revenue from the resource over 25 years.

Developing the fields to commercial production requires about $8bn, though engineering design work on the project has yet to start, said George Cazenove, a spokesman for Tullow.

For production to begin in 2021, Tullow would have to make a final investment decision on the project by 2018, according to Mr Cazenove.

The crude would then need to be ferried along a yet-to-be built 1,400km pipeline to the Indian Ocean port of Tanga in neighbouring Tanzania. The Ugandan government this week opened a tender for surveys of the route for the conduit.

Uganda expects the pipeline, which is backed by Total, to be ready in three years, said Robert Kasande, acting head of the state-run Petroleum Directorate. The government is considering building an airport in the region to speed up logistics.

The development of Ugandas oil industry has been slow. The Ugandan government took 10 years to issue production licenses to Tullow and Total. In addition, in April it reversed a decision to route the pipeline via Kenya, deciding to go via Tanzania instead.

The challenges of co-ordinating the cross-border project between Uganda and Tanzania has substantially raised the probability of a delay, BMI Research said

Bloomberg
Judge Sarah Berkeley said she was satisfied the container system used to stock goods on pallets at Dunnes Stores, Swan Shopping Centre, Rathmines, Dublin, could be described as temporary, as it lacked shelving and racking.

The judge said she was satisfied that Yana Shmatova had only worked in the store for four weeks by November 17, 2013, when a box of cereal packets fell on her nose.
The bill being brought forward by Labour Party leader Brendan Howlin, will be debated in the Dail later this week and is expected to be supported by both opposition and Government parties.

The Health and Social Care Professionals (Amendment) Bill 2016 will for the first time introduce laws to require that those who provide counselling to women experiencing crisis pregnancies be registered and regulated.

Ms Zappone yesterday said: I am delighted that the Government has decided to support that bill. I commend Mr Howlin for bringing that forward so quickly in response to issues raised by the media.

Speaking at a Focus Ireland event to mark a week of events leading up Universal Childrens Day she added: It is another action that we need to put in place in order to ensure the rights of pregnant women.

Her comments come after Health Minister Simon Harris informed Mr Howlin of his intention to support the bill which was first introduced to the Dail last month.

However, the Government may also table some amendments or come up with its own proposals to tackle the unregulated sector which has been the subject of controversy in recent times.

An undercover investigation by The Times (Ireland edition) revealed false information was being given out to women attending crisis pregnancy agencies for counselling. A staff member in a north inner city clinic falsely told the undercover reporter that abortion increases the risk of breast cancer and can turn women into child abusers.

Mr Howlin has appealed to all political parties to support the legislation designed to tackle the behaviour of such rogue agencies.

He said the bill is crucial to ensuring that women at a time of exceptional vulnerability, are given the accurate and impartial information they not only deserve, but are entitled to.

We have heard frightening tales of how women in crisis pregnancy situations have been told that abortion increases their risk of breast cancer, or that those who have had abortions may later go on to be abusers, said Mr Howlin.

For too long these agencies have been allowed to lie to women in the most grotesque fashion, and its time we worked together on all sides of the House to put an end to this abuse.

Speaking ahead of the debate, he said he hoped the Government and other parties in opposition would recognise the need to legislate to protect these women during the most difficult of times.
According to the latest Visas Irish Consumer Spending Index (CSI), expenditure across all payment types (cash, cheques and electronic payments) rose by 4.3% year-on-year. This is down from 5% in September and the weakest increase since May 2015. The latest expansion was also slower than the average across the 26 months of the series to date.

Face-to-face spending was down 0.4% year-on-year, the first decline recorded in the series so far. This followed a marginal increase in the previous month.
Deivydas Zigelis, a 39-year-old Lithuanian, was found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter of Alexander Karpovs, aged 26, by a jury in June this year.

Mr Karpovs, who was originally from Latvia, died of a single stab wound to the heart at his home on Spa Street in Portarlington on February 15, 2014.

Sentencing Zigelis to seven years at the Central Criminal Court, with the final two years suspended, Mr Justice Paul Butler said that when a human being is stabbed to death in such circumstances that the charge should be murder.

However, the judge acknowledged that the manslaughter conviction had been the correct one as the crime was clearly not a premeditated killing.

During the trial, jurors were shown photographs taken inside the house that the dead man and his killer shared.

The images showed the floors had been littered with debris, broken crockery, drink cans, and empty cigarette boxes.

Describing Zigelis as a functioning alcoholic, Mr Justice Butler said the killing took place in a hovel.

The judge added that the defendant appears to be decent person who has vowed never to touch alcohol again and has shown genuine remorse.

At a previous hearing, the Central Criminal Court heard how Zigelis told gardai I killed my friend. I am a bad man shortly after his arrest.

During that hearing last month, Mr Justice Butler was told Zigelis had, in Portarlington Garda Station hours after the fatal attack, admitted to the killing.

Garda Ann Deegan agreed with prosecuting counsel, Shane Costelloe SC, that Mr Karpovs, and Zigelis, along with another man, had been drinking heavily in the house prior to a row between the accused and the deceased which ended when the accused punched the victim in the heart with a steak knife.

Garda Deegan also agreed that the other man in the house at the time later told gardai he only realised that Mr Karpovs had been stabbed when a puddle of blood began forming beneath the body and his face began to turn blue.

It was at this point, the court was told, that the defendant phoned the emergency services.

When gardai arrived at the scene, Mr Karpovs was already dead. An autopsy revealed the victim had died as a result of blood loss.

The court was also told the third man was so drunk he made comments to gardai at the scene that suggested he had been responsible for the death. But Zigelis later admitted to officers that he had been the wielder of the knife used in the attack.

A victim impact statement from the dead mans mother, who lives in Latvia, was also read out in court.

The woman said her son had been supporting her financially and that his death had taken away her only hope. She added that, as a result of the killing, she had been left feeling stressed out all the time and that she could not sleep.

Conor Devally SC, counsel for the defence, told the court his client had regretted his actions and was remorseful.

Mr Devally added: Mr Zigelis does not want to colour what happened in any way. He acknowledges that this was a dreadful event and an unfulfilled life was lost.
Talks between the Government and junior doctors have broken down over demands for the restoration of a 3,000 living-out allowance.

There is now a prospect of a strike by non-consultant hospital doctors in a matter of weeks, after the Irish Medical Organisation said it would ballot members.

The strike warning comes as the worsening pay dispute with unions will be discussed by Cabinet today.

Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe will reiterate to colleagues that, despite ongoing pay demands, the same amount of money is still there, said a government source.

A memo from the minister is expected to set out the broad terms of the Governments commitments to public sector pay. It is also understood that the Department of Justice is now set to take on most of the costs of the 40m pay deal offered to gardai  if members of the force accept it.

The result of that garda ballot is not expected until December. The delay is likely to give the Government breathing space in its approach with union leaders, as it cannot say for certain yet whether those pay rises will have to be covered and therefore address calls for equal treatment by other public workers.

Mr Donohoes officials will today meet senior union leaders from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions public services committee.

Union sources last night said they had been hoping this week that some sort of agenda would be set out for talks over a new pay agreement, to replace the Lansdowne Road Agreement. But government sources, despite weekend reports, are not expecting any significant changes.

The memo will refer to the need to employ an extra 8,000 to 9,000 extra public sector workers a year until 2021 due to demographic pressures.

At the weekend, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said there would obviously be a successor for the Lansdowne Road Agreement but that spending, including 290m for public pay increases, was set in stone for next year.

Siptu president Jack OConnor has given the Government until Thursday to set out a new pay deal talks process or his unions members will consider balloting on strike action.

A decision now by junior doctors to possibly ballot for strike action will add to the mounting pressure in the public pay dispute.

The IMO said the Department of Health had informed its officials yesterday that talks had stopped as the issue would now be handled by the new public sector pay commission, which started up last week.

The break-up of the talks was an effective breach of a High Court ruling in October, argued the IMO.

IMO president Dr John Duddy said: No doctor wants to strike and indeed it would be with great reluctance that we would embark on such an action but in the face of a Government that behaves in such a manner we will have no choice.

We are in an era of growing waiting lists, insufficient beds and too few consultants, yet the policy of this minister is to make sure that we actively encourage our highly trained doctors to leave Ireland and work abroad.

A series of union figures yesterday told the Irish Examiner that other ways could be found to accelerate the public pay measures, so that Lansdowne Road could be replaced more quickly.

This could include reducing promised tax cuts, Vat breaks for the tourism sector, or not pursuing pledged capital gains tax relief.

Business groups, though, and employers argue there is no justification for pay increases for public sector workers.
Conor McKee, aged 26, withdrew cash in three different locations because he was worried he would be caught. He said he had not used his account in six months and then noticed that a large amount of cash had been lodged into it.

He acknowledged in interview that he knew the money was not his and wondered where it had come from.
And by twist of fate, while the late New Zealand legend was better known as a winger, the schoolboy jersey already on display on the Foleys wall is actually a number 8, Foleys position.

In a post on the Axel Foley Memorial Facebook page on Sunday, the family said that Foley had collected more jerseys in his career than you could shake a stick at.

One other jersey, in this week of all weeks and in this very special month of remembering, shares pride of place in the Foley home, side by side with the special Maori All Black jersey we now have, the family wrote. That is a very, very special No. 8. Not Anthonys but perhaps the jersey of the greatest All Black ever  Jonah Lomu.

You see, Anthonys first ever game against New Zealand was when Ireland schoolboys clashed with their All Black counterparts. Ironically, Anthony and Jonah both wore No. 8 that day. Clearly a number very strong in our lives right now.

What a tribute from The Maori @AllBlacks as they remember Anthony Foley before the Haka #HistoryInTheMaking #MUNvMAB https://t.co/dOCCtsjDbL  eir Sport (@eirSport) November 11, 2016

So today we lit a candle in front of the very special jersey presented to the boys on Friday night and, on the third Sunday of our #8masses4no8 campaign, dedicated it to the memory of Jonah Lomu, All Black legend. RIP.

Lomu died suddenly in November 2015, almost a year to the day before Irelands mens team clinched a historic first victory in 111 years over New Zealand.

Anthonys son, 11-year-old Tony launched the Facebook page last month asking the public to attend eight Masses over eight Sundays in the run-up to Christmas, as he wanted to pay a special tribute to his much loved Dad.

His father died aged just 42 at the team hotel in Paris on Sunday, October 16, as Munster prepared for a European clash with Racing 92. An autopsy found he died from acute pulmonary oedema caused by a heart rhythm disorder.

The Maori All Blacks jersey given to Anthony Foleys sons.

The Foleys post added: We dedicated it also to his family, for whom this November will be a very, very difficult one as it marks the first anniversary of Jonahs passing. That anniversary falls on Friday next, November 18th.

Little could anyone have thought this night 12 months ago that a year on Anthony and Jonah would have passed over to the other side.

But forgive us if we think of them being together, sharing their stories and smiling down on us all, perhaps none too pleased about all the fuss. No doubt jostling also about next weekends game!!

Of the Maori All-Blacks jersey presented to the family ahead of last Fridays match with Munster, the family said: This one  collected in his honour by Tony and Dan on Friday night following a gesture by the Maori All Blacks that warmed our hearts in a way we could not describe  we are sure he would have it right up there among his favourites. Perhaps now his favourite.

Jonah Lomu splits the defence of David Wallace and Anthony Foley during the All Blacks 40-29 win over Ireland in 2001. Fifteen years later, Ireland would beat New Zealand by the same score

It was an incredible tribute and gesture by a great rugby people; a great people. We will never forget it and are so, so thankful.

As hard as this time is, we are very grateful for many things, particularly the support of everyone. But also the sense that this campaign may in some way be helping with a greater remembering this November and in the run up to Christmas of loved ones gone before us, as many of you have told us in your kind messages.
Mr Noonan will hold the meetings after talks with US treasury secretary Jacob Lew in Washington DC yesterday on Irelands tax system and he prepares to hold crunch negotiations directly with Irish-based multi-nationals under pressure to return jobs to the US.

The meetings are part of a week-long US business visit which is officially about giving Mr Noonan an update briefing on the US, IMF and World Bank concerns over the Brexit fallout after he was unable to attend a previous meeting due to a scheduling clash with the Irish budget.

However, the Department of Finance has confirmed the week-long visit is also focused on giving Mr Noonan a chance to press home Irelands desire for continued investment amid growing concerns multinationals will be forced to return to the US under Donald Trumps presidency.

During his meeting with US treasury secretary Mr Lew yesterday, Mr Noonan is understood to have been quizzed over the Apple controversy and the ability of large American firms such as Google, Facebook and LinkedIn to avail of the 12.5% corporate tax rate in Ireland.

In response, he stressed Irelands concerns over US president Donald Trumps plans to slash Americas corporate tax rate to 15%, and said the fact Ireland is a key, English-speaking European Union member opens up opportunities in the wider EU market for firms in this country.

Today, Mr Noonan will travel to California to hold similar meetings with IMF and World Bank officials over the need for ongoing investment if the Irish recovery is to continue.

He will later attend several IDA-related engagements with US business leaders, before holding direct talks with leading Irish-based multi-national firms in the coming days in a bid to entice them to continue their operations in this country.

The meetings took place as the chief executive of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland, Mark Redmond, rejected claims an exodus of Irish-based firms is imminent due to Mr Trumps controversial tax plans.

While urging people not to be alarmist about the future of 700 American companies in Ireland and the 140,000 jobs they provide as the Chamber is constantly engaging with US groups, Mr Redmond could not say if the Chamber is speaking directly with anyone in Mr Trumps inner circle as quite frankly the world doesnt know who they are.

Meanwhile, EU foreign ministers met yesterday to agree new security strategies for the common market area in light of the US election.

Officials agreed to improve supports for non-EU nations at risk of potential unrest in the east and to tighten legal oversight in other countries
Judge Gerard OBrien thanked the jury at Cork Circuit Criminal Court and discharged them from further jury service for a period of two years ,stating that it had been a difficult case.

The priest said during the three-day trial in Cork: I never touched him sexually, improperly  never.

The complainant said he was in third year in school when he was called to the priests office for sex education. He said the priest masturbated him.

He said: I can clearly remember one of the questions  when a man gets an erection what caused it?

He said after the defendant asked him this he masturbated the boy and that this occurred in the mid-1970s.

Tom Creed SC, defending, asked the priest: Did you ever give instruction in sex education? The priest replied: Never.

Asked about the abuse of the complainant by another priest in the school, the defendant: I was shocked, appalled and saddened.

Mr Creed said the complainant blamed the priest in the present case for turning a blind eye on the activities of the convicted priest, though he allegedly knew what was going on.

The priest replied: Absolutely incorrect. I state that categorically, emphatically.

Cross-examined by Donal McCarthy, prosecuting, the defendant said that he could be asked about his memory of particular dates and times but he said events might be forgotten but he would never forget values.

The accused initially went on trial on seven indecent assault charges. In respect of five counts Judge OBrien directed the jury to record not guilty verdicts . The jury reached a majority verdicts on two charges yesterday.
There were very few cases of physical abuse of pupils by classmates who thought they were gay or lesbian, but more than half the 238 surveyed primary principals said they had dealt with homophobic bullying.

The study was conducted by Dublin City Universitys National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre (ABC) in 2014, before last years marriage equality referendum.

Their report in the Irish Educational Studies journal says there is no commonly agreed definition of homophobic bullying in schools here. The ABC defined it for principals as using terms like queer, faggot, gay, or lesbian in a negative sense, or using them along with other aggressive or negative behaviour.

Between 61% and 65% of them had cases of pupils using words like these in the previous school year, to either label other childrens behaviour or describe things they do not like.

But only 57% had spoken to pupils about their casual words of those terms, including one in nine school leaders who had to do so on a weekly basis, or once or twice a month. And just one in six principals said they had dealt with an incident they themselves would describe as homophobic bullying, and fewer still had spoken to a class (14%), to a staff meeting (7%), or told the school board (6%) about such an incident in the past year.

Just 4% had dealt with an incident of physical abuse linked to perceptions of being gay or lesbian. But twice that number reported an incident involving text messaging or social networks and homophobic bullying, showing a possible need for more focus in primary schools on internet safety and social media use.

The study authors  former principal Gerard Farrelly and ABC researchers James OHiggins Norman and Michael OLeary  said some principals comments raise the issue of homophobic language being dismissed too lightly, or homophobic bullying being considered irrelevant in primary schools.

Words such as gay are used as derogatory terms but children are only repeating words heard without fully comprehending their meaning, one principal wrote.

The authors said that, if principals do not recognise homophobic bullying as an issue worth addressing, their values can effect how a school deals with it.

It is clear from our findings that further education and training for school leaders on the topic is required as we are at risk of them contributing further to the many silences that surround the topic in primary schools, Mr OHiggins Norman said.

He previously linked an overarching silence dominating Irish second-level schools on the issue to a lack of leadership from principals and school boards.

Childrens Minister Katherine Zappone said she was deeply concerned by the issue and more work needs to be done.

It was three years ago that schools were asked to put anti-bullying policies in place, so clearly the fact that it is going down to primary school level deeply upsets me, she said.
Transport Minister Shane Ross will present the National Transport Authority (NTA) review to Cabinet today, which also highlights the wide disparity in how some routes are funded.

One example notes the public subvention for each passenger journey on the Dart in Dublin is 0.90. This compares to 550 for each user on the line from Limerick to Ballybrophy.

A Government source said: This points in the direction of a crisis point for Irish Rail.

The review is understood to suggest Irish Rail needs several hundred million euro, possibly up to 600m, over the next five years to ensure financial stability.

Government sources confirmed the report will recommend large sections of the rail network be closed to save money. Mr Ross has faced criticism from Opposition TDs who claim he received the report some time ago and sat on it. He is expected to also announce a period of public consultation over rail services today, which will feed into later recommendations about services.

Sources said the review would assess possible measures to reduce Irish Rails funding gap. Aside from increased exchequer funding, the review estimates savings from the closure of the networks least profitable routes.

It identifies wide disparities in the funding requirement for various routes on the network. This includes examining the subvention requirement per passenger journey on each route, based on the running costs for those routes.

Until Iarnrod Eireanns financial situation is rectified, the eventual costs to the Exchequer will continue to grow, while performance of the railway deteriorates. In the short-term, bridging the funding gap is necessary to prevent this, the memo on the report says.

Losses at Irish Rail are now calculated at up to 103m a year. The review will also suggest passengers could be encouraged more to leave their cars and use rail and this would benefit the environment as well as help boost Irish Rails revenues.

Mr Ross is expected to publish the review after it goes to Cabinet today. Its contents though could prove difficult for ministers and Government TDs to address, given they could involve potential losses to some rail routes in constituencies.

Any potential reductions in subventions or funding for Irish Rail would likely be decided in the context of the next budget .

It is understood the report also examines the closure of the Limerick to Waterford line as well links to the West. The NTA review was carried out with Irish Rail.
Martin McDonagh appealed the Court of Appeal decision to quash as perverse a High Court jurys finding the Sunday World had failed to prove he was a drug dealer and therefore libelled him in a 1999 article entitled Traveller Drug King.

That story arose after gardai seized IR500,000 of cannabis and amphetamines in August 1999, in Tubbercurry, Co Sligo. It was published on September 5, 1999, during Mr McDonaghs seven-day detention for questioning in connection with that seizure.
Fish catches in European waters could increase by 57% if fish stocks were exploited sustainably and based on scientific advice, according to new research released by Oceana, an international organisation focused on the health of the oceans.

The study analysed 397 European fish stocks compared to around 150 monitored by the European Commission.

The new study shows that the status of the EU fisheries is far from healthy, with 85% of stocks in an unhealthy state and only 12% fulfilling the commitments of the Common Fisheries Policy.

For the first time ever, we know the potential of fish recovery in Europe and its good news. If we managed fish sustainably and based on science, catches can increase by 57% or five million tonnes, said Lasse Gustavsson, executive director of Oceana in Europe. Thats a lot of good and healthy food. Its about time we recover the abundance of European seas as more fish in the sea means more jobs in the fishing industry and more healthy fish on European dinner tables.

Scientists calculate potential increases of 300% or greater for catches of haddock and cod in the North Sea, some herring stocks in the Celtic Seas, and sardine in the Cantabrian Sea off the north of Spain.

Study leader Rainer Froese said: For the first time, all European stocks have been evaluated relative to the maximum sustainable yield they can produce, as required by the new Common Fisheries Policy. Our results show that catches can be substantially increased if stocks are rebuilt and properly managed.

The results of the research are revealed a month before a final decision for 2017 fishing limits in the North East Atlantic which will be negotiated between the EC and the 28 respective fisheries ministers during a meeting of the Council of the EU on December 12-13 in Brussels.

Meanwhile, the Government has announced its intention to enact wild salmon and sea trout tagging scheme regulations to provide for the management of the wild salmon and sea trout fishery by Inland Fisheries Ireland from January 1.

The draft regulations published by the department list proposed maximum numbers of tags that may be issued in respect of taking wild salmon or sea trout from each river. Some rivers are marked as closed, including the Slaney, one of the countrys most popular angling locations.

Editorial: 12
The family of Maria OBrien, aged 55, spoke of their shock and trauma at the manner of her death while a patient in St Otterans Hospital in Waterford in September 2014.

Paul Cuddihy, 38, was yesterday committed to the Central Mental Hospital for continuing treatment.

Two weeks ago, Mr Cuddihy, formerly of St Otterans Hospital in Waterford, was found not guilty by reason of insanity of the murder of Ms OBrien.

The jury reached the same verdict on charges of assault, causing harm, to fellow hospital resident Mary Nugent and nurses Breda Fennelly, Terry Hayes and Mary Grant.

Ms OBriens family said she should have been kept safe while in treatment.

In a victim impact statement, Ms OBriens son Patrick Halley said he was close to his mother and she was a vulnerable person who was not always shown the love she deserved.

Nevertheless, she was always a bubbly and happy person who nearly always had a smile on her face.

She was a gentle, kind-hearted person who genuinely wouldnt harm a fly, he said.

She particularly loved her children, he said, and her last words were remember the children.

This shows how much she loved us all, he said.

And she is very much missed by her family and very much missed by myself.

He said he accepts Mr Cuddihy has a mental illness but said he will never forgive him for what he did to my mother.

He told the court he had more to say but had been told he was not allowed to say it.

Ms OBriens brother, Joe OMahony said he grew up not knowing his sister as they were raised separately following the break-up of their parents marriage. When they got to know one another as adults they formed a bond.

Maria was an innately warm-hearted individual who was kind, caring and would greet me and others with great childlike enthusiasm.

He said they had an unspoken love for each other.

The manner of her death had left him traumatised, he said, and he has suffered shock and lack of sleep after finding out she had cried out for help and pleaded with her killer to stop.

Maria has died and been taken from us in the most horrific way, especially in light of the fact that at this time she was actually making progress and improving. What life could have been like for her we will never know.

A forensic psychiatrist at the Central Mental Hospital, Dr Damian Mohan told the court he had assessed Mr Cuddihy following the trial verdict and is satisfied he is still suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. The patient has made little progress and does not accept that he is ill or needs help.

Dr Mohan also said Mr Cuddihy has shown little remorse and when questioned about Maria OBriens death he was dismissive and told him: its over and done with, forget about it.

Justice Patrick McCarthy committed Mr Cuddihy to the Central Mental Hospital under Section 5 (2) of the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act.
Photo credit: Jack Leahy and Aoife Ni Shuilleabhain of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) with Stephen Cleary from Lucan and Ellen Dugan from Leopardstown of NCI as the USI launched its SHAG week campaign in six colleges across the country last February. Picture Andres Poveda

THERE is no clear definition for consent under Irish law, leaving cases of sexual violence involving consent in a grey area.

In the last year sexual consent classes began in colleges and universities around Ireland. These classes evolved from years of research and pilot projects carried out by the Rape Crisis Network Ireland (RCNI), psychologists and students.

It is a mistake to assume people dont need to be educated about consent, says the RCNI.

RCNI director Cliona Saidlear said normalising the conversation around consent so it wouldnt be a big deal when they [students] talk is important.

According to research conducted by the Union of Students of Ireland (USI), 16% of students have experienced an unwanted sexual encounter and 11% of female students say they have been subjected to unwanted sexual contact.

Carried out by USI on more than 2,500 students, the study also found that 5% of female students are victims of rape and a further 3% say they have been subjected to an attempted rape.

Consent classes are the fastest and most efficient way to educate people on what is and is not acceptable when it comes to sexual activity and relationships. We need to teach young people to talk about consent, to report violence and rape, and ensure that consent is asked at all times before sex, according to the researchs authors.

But the introduction of consent classes have not been without controversy  after being invited to attend a sexual consent workshop at Warwick University in Britain, one student wrote an article describing it as the biggest insult Ive received in a few years.

NUI Galway first introduced consent workshops in 2015  attendance at this was on a voluntary basis. And in September this year sexual consent workshops were scheduled for all students participating in orientation week at Trinity College Dublins halls of residence.

In Ireland, really we cant talk about sexual violence without talking about alcohol, says Ms Saidlear. According to RCNIs research, 80% of rape complainants and 76.6% of suspects had consumed alcohol on the night of the reported incident.

This research showed RCNI that the connection between alcohol and sexual violence in Ireland needs to be addressed, Ms Saidlear says. Following this, RCNI asked Dr Padraig MacNeela of the school of psychology at the National University of Ireland Galway to research what college students made of the term sexual consent.

The aim of this was to gain an understanding of the rationale of students, when young people are socialising regularly in an environment where alcohol is consumed.

Different hypothetical scenarios were posed to 180 students in small groups as part of Dr MacNeela and his teams research. Students were given case studies of young people in different situations and encouraged to discuss them.

While students had a good understanding of clear-cut situations, when it came to the scenarios between people that involved some ambiguity, such as excessive drinking, or one person seeming more eager earlier in the night but later changing their mind, Dr MacNeela says the students considered these as grey areas.

For example, if a person had taken alcohol, the participants asked things like Well, how much alcohol? or things like Well, how did she smile at him?What kind of smile?, he says.

But consent workshops are not about telling students not to sexually assault, and they are not about sexual violence, says Dr MacNeela. The classes main aim is to encourage students to negotiate situations they might be involved in, and to get people to discuss what they are and arent comfortable with.

TCDs orientation week classes were adapted from these earlier workshops. And although the Trinity workshops were automatically scheduled for all halls of residence students, Dr MacNeela says there was no one forcing the students to attend.

Statistically, there would be students entering first year who have already been victims of sexual violence  something Dr MacNeela says his team was conscious of. The classes are about discussing consent as a norm, and orientation week seemed like the best time to run the workshops, he noted.

Dr MacNeela says the feedback from the classes has been good: People do enjoy them.

There is currently no legislative definition of consent under Irish law, something RCNI says is urgently needed. At the heart of all sexual violence crime is consent  and we dont have a definition for that, says Ms Saidlear.

Without a legislative definition of consent Ireland relies on case law from other jurisdictions such as England, says Susan Leahy of the school of law, University of Limerick.

This ties in with the work being carried out by certain initiatives and the work of non-governmental organisations, because there is no guidance available from the State, says Ms Leahy.

Were trying to educate young people without a clear mandate.

A legislative definition of consent wont fix everything, she says, as it would take time to come into effect and for judges to interpret it: But it would kick start the conversation.

A recent judgement will have implications for future cases involving sexual violence and consent; Last week, a seven-judge Supreme Court dismissed an appeal from a man convicted of raping his mother in 2008.

The appeal was on the basis that the man claimed he was under the genuine belief that his mother had given her consent. She had said the incident was not consensual.

The judgement from this case will now provide guidance in the future to judges when explaining the law on rape to juries; in particular in relation to cases when a defence is based on an alleged belief that a woman was consenting to sex.

While the Rape Crisis Network Ireland welcomes the clarification this case offers regarding consent in sexual violence law , it says there should be no reason not to include a definition for consent under the Sexual Offences Bill.

We would say to the Tanaiste Fitzgerald in light of this ruling and as the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill goes to committee stage in the Oireachtas that there now does not appear to be any impediment to including a positive definition of consent. Indeed, we would contend this clarification of the law as it currently stands would offer reason to introduce a positive definition of consent, it adds.

In a previous interview with the Irish Examiner, Tanaiste and Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald said the department was examining if it would be possible to add a definition for consent to the Sexual Offences Bill.

If it was possible and found to be in the interest of victims, it would be inserted during the committee stages of the bills passage through the Oireachtas, the Tanaiste said.
THE Foreign Ministers of Europe gathered this weekend, to discuss the consequences of Trumps election. From the shots on the television, they were sitting down to a sumptuous dinner, somewhere in Brussels. They had jetted in on government planes, and been driven to the banquet in a fleet of expensive cars.

At the same time, the leader of the far right in France, Marine Le Pen, was giving an interview to the BBC, in which she looked confidently to a future where she will be contesting the French Presidency, with analysts now predicting that she will (at least) make it to the final two. And as we know from the USA, theres no predicting who will win a two-horse race.

In her interview Ms Le Pen said that she would be offering French voters a choice between what she described a multicultural society, following the model of the English-speaking world, where fundamental Islam is progressing, or on the other hand, an independent nation, with people able to control their own destiny.

I wonder did the Foreign Ministers, gathered in comfort as they were, acknowledge among themselves that the election of Donald Trump was as much their failure as his triumph? Did they understand that first Brexit, and now this, sends a message about alienation that is as troubling as anything that has happened in the world since the early 1930s?

I didnt see it coming, of course. Very few did. I wrote here last week that Hillary Clinton would win  that she would hang on grimly to her lead, and win both the popular vote and the electoral college. Well, she didnt. She beat Donald Trump by around a half-million votes, but not in the states where it counted.

I did though predict last week that the decision of the head of the FBI to link Hillary Clinton to an e-mail investigation into someone elses wrongdoing would do immense damage to her, and that turned out to be the case. Someday, someone is going to get to the truth of what it was that sabotaged her in the end.

But even though I was confident she would win, I said winning is not enough. America is broken. There is every reason to believe that America will become even more broken under a President who has demonstrated no capacity whatever, even to keep his promises.

But heres what needs to dawn on all of us. Democracy is broken. Its broken by a deep sense of betrayal among those expected to vote, a deep and widening gap between those who govern and those who are governed. Normal representative democratic politics is being gradually replaced by polarisation, by division, by extremism.

And that division is caused in the main by failure. We live in an increasingly unequal world, where wealth and privilege is being buttressed by globalisation, by free trade, by taxation and industrial policies that are aimed at affording ever more privilege to the privileged. That is a consequence of failure. Its essentially the failure of the politics of the centre-left  whether you call that progressive politics, social democratic politics, or labour politics.

The politics I believe in has failed. It has failed to offer an alternative to the politics of greed and materialism that has dominated the last twenty years and has sown so much division and alienation. In Ireland and elsewhere the politics of social democracy has been forced (or allowed itself to be forced) into managing the country through a recession it didnt cause, and has ended up taking the blame for the damage caused by the recession.

Elsewhere, the politics of social democracy has become largely invisible. It may be one of the great ironies of history that a billionaire, who has never shown the slightest interest in the poor, has managed to get himself elected as leader of the free world by tapping into that alienation and bitterness. He will betray them, of course he will, and they will come to realise that their lives are going to be no better after he expels a few immigrants.

But because social democracy appears to have nothing left to say, the consequences of that realisation are likely to be even more extreme politics, politics that reject all the norms and may become increasingly undemocratic.

Thats why social democracy has to find its voice again. It has to find a way of articulating a route to greater equality, and just as important to opposing all forms of inequality. It has to articulate what equality means, and that means having the bravery to identify the winners and losers.

According to the New York Times, there was a gathering of historians last weekend to assess President Obamas legacy  a first cut, they called it. Historians being generally a liberal bunch, they were in some despair at the notion that much of Obamas legacy might count for nothing, and much progressive policy change could be rolled back. At a dinner after the event, the chairman, proposing a toast, wondered aloud, in the face of Brexit, xenophobia, homophobia and Trump, who could save the world. Someone in the audience, without a hint of irony, shouted Germany!

One of the greatest champions of social democracy in my lifetime was a German, Willi Brandt. He did more in a short period to shape the modern Germany than perhaps any other individual. And he did it through democracy and patience. He came to office 25 years after the Nazis, and he turned his country into a model of social reform.

Abroad, he shaped Europe, through a policy known as Ostpolitik. He laid the groundwork for the reunification of his country, and he opened lines of communication to Russia that stood the test of time. None of that was easy  indeed it was highly controversial  for the Chancellor of a country that was split in two by a heavily fortified barbed wire fence.

But it was within Germany that a five-year programme of reform was truly transformative. All of Brandts reforms were based on what people needed, as opposed to what they wanted  what children needed, what unemployed people need, what old miners and sailors needed, what people with disabilities needed. He trebled Germanys education budget. He introduced free hospital care for those who couldnt afford it, and a contributory insurance scheme for the rest of the population.

He believed passionately in the role of the state, but above all in democracy. In his own words, he dared to believe in an open democracy  but one where voters had real choices and voted as educated citizens  not as embittered, marginalised citizens capable of being manipulated by demagoguery. And by the way, after all these reforms were implemented, inflation was the lowest in the developed world, the German economy growing strongly, and poverty levels fell sharply.

There may not be a Willi Brandt around these days, but its surely time for those of us who believe in equality, here as elsewhere, to start taking down those ideas off the shelves where they have been too long. The failure of social democracy has created an opening for dark forces. Those dark forces must start to be confronted now.
Business Turkey Firms Up Plans to Launch Power Barge to Rangoon

Karpower barge docked in Istanbuls Tuzla Sedef Shipyard. / Kyaw Hsu Mon / The Irrawaddy

ISTANBUL  Turkey-based Karpower is looking to sail a 480 megawatt-capacity power barge from Istanbul to Burmas commercial capital of Rangoon in April, expecting it to supply 20 percent of the countrys total electricity consumption, said Orhan Karadeniz, chief executive officer of the Karadeniz Powership energy group, at a ceremony in Istanbul on Sunday.

The 300-meter barge will be situated near Thilawa International Port in Rangoon, and is due to provide 300 megawatts a day to the city for five years.

According to an initial agreement with the Burma government, the electricity will cost US$112.24 per megawatt, said to be among the lowest electricity rates available.

We are not using turbines. These are engines that are running on natural gas and low-sulphur HFO [heavy fuel oil] for producing electricity under a dual fuel system, said Zeynep Harezi of Karpower.

Were preparing to set up transmission lines in Thanlyin-Thaketa for the purposes of supplying the electricity, he added.

Rangoons electricity consumption has been rapidly increasingby 15 percent per yearrecently reaching 1200 megawatts per daywhich is half of the countrys daily total electricity consumption.

In October, Karpower was awarded the tender as one of two electricity suppliersthe other one being American company APR Energyto satisfy Rangoons growing energy demand, including for factories, hospitals, and schools.

The building of more factories and hotels inside industrial zones is likely one of the reasons for Rangoons energy-demand surge. Rangoon Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein said in May that the city required more electricity due to the proliferation of businesseswhich have had to rely on old cable networks and other weak infrastructures that waste electricityand that energy demand will probably only increase in light of widespread construction in the city.

It will continue to be a struggle to distribute a sufficient supply of electricity in the coming months, U Phyo Min Thein said earlier this year.

A 2014 Burma census revealed that only 32.4 percent of respondents use electricity as their primary source of energy for lighting, while nearly 70 percent said that their main source of energy for cooking comes from firewood, with electricity trailing at 16.4 percent.

Karpower was founded in 1996, and its first power barge went to Iraq in 2010. In June, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and offered to share Turkeys experiences in the health, education, infrastructure, and tourism sectors. He also expressed his ambition to increase his governments trade value with Burma.
Business Worlds Youngest Stock Market Struggles in Burma

Government officials clap during the opening ceremony of the Yangon Stock Exchange center in Yangon Dec. 9, 2015. / Soe Zeya Tun / Reuters

RANGOON The days trading is about to begin on the worlds youngest stock exchange, and the MYANPIX index and opening share prices flash across an electronic screen, but barely a footfall or a voice are heard within the cavernous, colonial era building in the bustling heart of Burmas commercial capital.

A gilded bell hangs silently above the almost empty floor, engraved with a single word: Success.

Not yet. Only three companies are listed on the board and at the end of the day just 7,221 shares were traded, compared with nearly 839 million the same day on the New York Stock Exchange.

Since the Yangon Stock Exchange, a joint venture between Burma, Japans Daiwa Institute of Research and the Japan Exchange Group, began trading in March, only 20,000 investors have ventured into the market. Regulators complain that those who do take the plunge rely largely on rumors, herd psychology and even the stars.

Martin Zhang, an account executive with KBZ Stirling Coleman Securities, said one client offered him an astrological chart to help guide his investment decisions.

The Amsterdam stock market, the worlds first, opened its doors 428 years ago. The New York Stock Exchange, the worlds largest, was born in 1817, U Thet Htun Oo, senior manager of the Rangoon exchange, reminded a recent group of visiting journalists.

We are only a seven-month-old baby, he said.

A half-century of harsh military rule in this Southeast Asian country of 55 million brought economic ruin and isolation from the international community and global financial trends.

But Burma remains a cornucopia of natural resources, and it is welcoming foreign investment as one of Asias last economic frontiers. The former British colonys economic growth is forecast at 8 percent this year, among the fastest in the region.

Just a week after trading began on the Rangoon exchange, a democratically elected government headed by former political prisoner Daw Aung San Suu Kyi took power. Since then, the United States has lifted nearly all of the economic sanctions it had imposed on the former military regime, freeing up remittances from abroad which experts say may help fuel the market.

We shall see. Its conditional. If our economy prospers, the stock market will also do well, said U Khin Maung Nyo, an economist and author. For the time being, he advised caution for Mr. Average. With the three listed companies mostly trading below their initial price levels, many investors have fared poorly.

The first stock to be traded, First Myanmar Investment, is owned by real estate tycoon Serge Pun and is one of the countrys biggest public companies. It made its debut at 40,000 kyats a share (US$31 at current exchange rates). On Nov. 11 it finished at 16,000 kyats (about US$12), despite having seen its profit soar in the past year.

People watch TV and read novels about stock markets and think they can get rich overnight, but now they are beginning to realize that its not that easy, said U Khin Maung Nyo.

Many investors blindly follow friends and neighbors into the market and when it tumbles they all go over the cliff together, said Zhang of KBZ. The firms operations chief, Jonathan Lin, says he suspects some first consult fortune tellers. After all, this is a country where past leaders made crucial political decisions only after seeing their favorite soothsayers.

KBZ and four other brokerage firms handle trading electronically. That is one reason for the lack of activity on the trading floor of the 1939, neo-classical Yangon Stock Exchange building, with its imposing white Ionic columns.

Traditionally, Burmese have stashed their wealth in gold and jewelry. The wealthiest, like Serge Pun, have headed to Singapore to list their companies. The countrys two-digit lottery is wildly popular with speculators. But most people in Rangoons streets respond with puzzled looks when asked about the stock market.

U Thet Htun Oo of the Rangoon exchange said his staff are touring the country and using social media to urge would-be investors to do their homework and invest for long-term gains.

Burma is drafting legislation to allow foreign investors into the market and to permit continuous trading, rather than the current two daily auctions. A fourth listing, the First Private Bank, is scheduled before the years end, and U Thet Htun Oo said he anticipates five newcomers on the board during each of the next five years. As the market grows, institutional investors, who so far have kept away, are expected to step in.

The hope is that Rangoons bourse will emulate Vietnams highly successful stock markets, rather than the lackluster exchanges in Laos and Cambodia. All were launched since 2005.

Having leapfrogged older systems, Burmas exchange has the latest technology. Soon, investors will be able to make trades on their mobile telephones.

We could grow very fast but we need government regulators to render proper support and understand the value of capital markets to the country, said Rudi Rolles, managing director of KBZ in Rangoon.

Rolles, a veteran of stock markets in emerging economies, said the government could help, for example, by offering tax breaks to companies that list shares on the exchange.

He and other market boosters say the exchange should play a central role in raising capital to help grow the economy.

The market is in its infancy, Rolles said. But it will develop in the long run, and it will be successful.
Asia Stateless Limbo Ends as 3,000 Legal Ghosts in the Philippines get Nationality

Two-year-old Arfaisal Marsaleh, a stateless child, holds on to his mother as he plays with his friends in a slum village in Kinarut, in Malaysias Sabah state on the Borneo island in this June 27, 2006 photo. The undocumented children are offspring of Filipino and Indonesian immigrants who did not register their babies at birth. / Reuters

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia  After years of living in legal limbo, nearly 3,000 stateless people in the southern Philippines have been granted nationality by Manila and Jakarta this year, UN officials said on Monday.

The 2,957 people  including 1,226 children  are part of a group of some 9,000 people of Indonesian descent who have for generations lived in southern Mindanao in the Philippines.

Seafaring communities have crisscrossed the seas between the Indonesian part of Borneo island and the southern Philippines for centuries.

The group was given Philippine or Indonesian nationality this year in a move welcomed by the UN refugee agency UNHCR as a step toward an ambitious global goal to end statelessness by 2024.

The cooperation between Indonesia and the Philippines is a good example of how states can work together to resolve this global problem, UNHCRs assistant high commissioner for protection Volker Turk said.

UNHCR estimates there are about 10 million stateless people worldwide, with large populations in Burma, Thailand, Zimbabwe and the Ivory Coast.

About 40 percent of them live in Southeast Asia, according to the UN agency.

Sometimes referred to as legal ghosts, stateless people are not recognized as nationals by any country and as such, they are deprived of the basic rights most people take for granted.

Many of the stateless Indonesia descendants living in southern Mindanao interviewed in a 2014 UNHCR mapping study said they struggle with daily challenges including access to employment, livelihoods, education and clean water.

Under an old law, Indonesians would lose their citizenship if they lived abroad for over five years without registering with the Indonesian authorities.

Although the law was reformed later and Indonesians can reacquire their citizenship, many people do not formally apply for it and remain stateless, according to the UNHCR.

Meanwhile, in Thailand, which has one of the worlds largest stateless populations, UNHCR said 23,000 people have been given Thai nationality over the last four years.

Many of Thailands stateless are from hill tribes, with ancestral ties to their territory and ethnically different from the Thai majority. Others are children of migrants who fled to Thailand, particularly from Burma.
Burma Burma Army Says 86 Killed in Fighting in Arakan State

Children recycle goods from the ruins of a market which was set on fire in late October 2016 in a Rohingya village outside Maungdaw in Arakan State. / Soe Zeya Tun / Reuters

RANGOON  As many as 69 members of what Burmas government has described as a Rohingya Muslim militant group and 17 security forces have been killed in a recent escalation of fighting in northwestern Arakan State, the army said on Tuesday.

The death toll, announced in the state-owned Global New Light of Myanmar daily, exceeded that reported by state media over the weekend, demonstrating the scale of the largest escalation of the conflict since violence erupted a month ago.

Diplomats and observers have held out hope that the military will swiftly conclude its clearance operation in the troubled north of Arakan, but the recent wave of killings has cast a doubt over such prospects.

The violence is the most serious since hundreds were killed in communal clashes in Arakan in 2012.

It has sharpened the tension between Nobel Peace Prize winner Daw Aung San Suu Kyis six-month-old civilian administration and the army, which ruled for decades and retains key powers, including control of ministries responsible for security.

Soldiers have moved into the area along Burmas frontier with Bangladesh, responding to coordinated attacks on three border posts on Oct. 9 that killed nine police officers.

They have locked down the area, where the vast majority of residents are Rohingya Muslims, shutting out aid workers and independent observers, and conducted sweeps of villages.

A series of skirmishes and attacks during the six days to Monday had led to the death of 69 violent attackers and the arrest of 234, the militarys True News Information Team said.

Ten policemen and seven soldiers died in the clashes, it added.

The announcement takes to 102 the tally of deaths of suspected Rohingya Muslim attackers since Oct. 9, while the security forces toll stands at 32, Reuters has estimated from reports by state-owned media.

Burmas 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims are the majority in northern Arakan but are denied citizenship, with many of the countrys Buddhists regarding them as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh. They face severe travel restrictions.

Residents and rights advocates have accused security forces of summary executions, rapes and setting fire to homes in the recent violence.

The government and army reject the accusations, blaming the violent attackers for setting fires to homes.

Rohingya rights advocates have distributed online video images of what they said were civilian casualties of the attacks, urging the international community to investigate.

Authorities have denied independent journalists access to the area, so Reuters has been unable to independently verify either the military accounts or the video clips.
Burma Karen Refugee Committee Criticizes Refugee Repatriation Process

The first group of Burmese refugees, from Nu Po camp in Thailand, were repatriated via the Myawaddy-Mae Sot Friendship Bridge by officers of the UNHCR, the IOM, and the Thai and Burmese governments. / Zahan Mon

The Karen Refugee Committee (KRC), a community-based organization that has been facilitating the needs of Burmese refugees in Thailand, has said that they feel they were neglected in decision-making processes and were not invited to cooperate in recent refugee repatriation efforts.

On October 25, the Thai government and the UN refugee agency, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), repatriated a reported 71 Burmese refugees to Karen State, Mon State, and Tenassarim and Rangoon divisions. Some refugees have since reported that they are unhappy with the circumstances of the returnthey report having been asked to buy into low-income housing, a cost for which they were not prepared.

Sources close to the refugees have also reported that some of unhappy returnees are trying to come back to the refugee camps in Thailand. Two families have reportedly returned to Nu Po camp on Thai-Burma border, said the sources.

Naw Blooming Night Zar, a spokesperson for the KRC, told The Irrawaddy that her organization was not invited by the UNHCR to assist in the recent refugee repatriation.

We heard from the news that they were asked to rent or buy houses. They have to pay a monthly installment. Refugees are not doing businessthey went back with empty hands. So how can they afford houses? Naw Blooming Night Zar said.

She explained that concerned organizations such as the UNHCR built centers dedicated to voluntary repatriation in all refugee camps and dealt directly with camp residents through consultations, where they were provided with information on safety and various forms of assistance.

We were neither informed nor contacted. They [the Thai authorities and UNHCR] didnt discuss it with us. They carried out [the repatriation] by themselves. They went to the camp [Nu Po] and talked to refugees. We dont know how and what information they gave to the refugees. We had nothing to do with that, she said.

Naw Blooming Night Zar agreed there should be preparation for voluntary repatriation, but she lamented what she described as a lack of cooperation between international and local organizations.

It is not right that they [UNHCR and Thai authorities] didnt discuss the refugee issues with us. We should talk, negotiate and find a solution together. We feel like they didnt recognize our role and leadership, said Naw Blooming Night Zar.

In October, the UNHCR described the repatriation of what was first estimated to be 96 refugees to Burma as a milestone. The agency reported that the returnees had made their own decision to return home after family members in Burma provided information that it was safe to do so.

When asked, Vivian Tan, the UNHCRs spokesperson in Asia, told The Irrawaddy that the UNHCR had also heard media reports on the dissatisfaction of refugees who had returned to Rangoon, but would not comment on it.

She said that the UNHCR staff have visited the returnees on several occasions in order to learn of their living conditions. She added that local authorities are working on ways to address the challenges of initial reintegration support.

Tan denied said that two families had come back to Thailand.

The UNHCR and our partners are in touch with them and assessing the progress of reintegration on a regular basis. It is not true that two families have gone back to Thailand. I understand that two students are back in Nu Po under a prior agreement for them to complete their schooling before rejoining their families back in Myanmar, she told The Irrawaddy.

The UNHCR said that Octobers move had marked the first official group repatriation from among the more than 103,000 Burmese refugees living in Thailand for over 20 years. Most of the refugees, who fled their homes to escape civil war, are from ethnic Karen communities persecuted by the Burma Army.

However, Naw Blooming Night Zar of the KRC argued that the recent repatriation was not the first, and cited a past incident when a group of refugeesmostly studentsfrom Mae La Ma Luang camp were sent back to Burma.

Rangoon-based daily newspaper the Myanmar Times reported earlier this month that four families who had returned to Rangoon were asked to buy units in a low-cost apartment complex on the outskirts of the commercial capital. The report, however, said that temporary housing had been arranged for 17 refugees in Rangoon.

One of the returnees, Daw Khin San Yi told the Myanmar Times that she felt she had made a mistake by returning to Burma.

It has also been reported that returnees have warned refugees remaining in the camps in Thailand not to volunteer for repatriation to Burma in the near future.
Politics Trumps Foreign Policy Remains Elusive

US President-elect Donald Trump gestures as he speaks at an election night rally in Manhattan, New York, US, Nov. 9 2016. / Mike Segar / Reuters

NEW YORK, USA  With no track record on either national security or foreign policy, the US President-elect Donald Trump has left international relations experts in the dark as to how he will engage countries around the world.

Trumps foreign policy is a great puzzle said Dr. Carla Robbins, clinical professor at the Austin W. Marxe School of Public and International Affairs and adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, speaking at a panel discussion on the future of US foreign policy held at Baruch College the day after the US election.

What does Donald Trump stand for in international relations? Very little, to be perfectly frank, she said.

According to Robbins, all that can be done is to watch Trumps appointments of advisors and cabinet members.

Trumps options are worryingly limitedmembers of the Republican Party most experienced in foreign policy and national security already denounced Trump as unfit to command earlier in the summer.

He has a very limited group of people who have endorsed him who do have experience in foreign policy, said Robbins.

That list is populated by people like Newt Gingricha former speaker of the House of Representatives who endorsed Trumps make America great, shut it down rhetoric during the campaignand hawkish Senator Bob Corker, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, she said.

Another name mentioned was former ambassador to the UN John Bolton who has similar rhetoric to the President-elect regarding foreign relations.

Trump has said he wants to confront ISIS, make a deal with Putin, be less confrontational in Europe, and not defend NATO alliesits very hard to tell how much of this is rhetoric and how much of this will become policy, Robbins said.

When it comes to Southeast Asiaand Burma in particularpanelist Dr. David Birdsell pointed out that Trump has yet to reveal opinions on the region.

We dont really know what he might do in Myanmar, said the dean of the Austin W. Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College, whether he is going to care about the refugee situation, the Rohingya situationthere are a numbers of things he could be concerned about.

The extent of Trumps comments on Burma is a tweet in August referencing the earthquakes in both Italy and Burma. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and families of those affected by two powerful earthquakes in Italy and Myanmar, he posted.

One thing we do have every reason to expect, given that as a candidate Mr. Trump supported the use of torture against terrorists and the slaughter of terrorists families, is that he will insist less vigorously on human rights as a condition of favorable support from the US, he said to The Irrawaddy.

During President Obamas second term, Burma was part of his pivot to Asia, one of the administrations central foreign policy initiatives to rebalance US interests from Europe and the Middle East toward East Asia, a move made by Hilary Clinton when she was Secretary of State.

[Trump] does say he is going to challenge China  he said that on the first day in office he would challenge China on manipulated currency. He also threatened to raise tariffs which goes against World Trade Organization policy, said Dr. David Birdsell. We dont know how much of this will happen or if it is bluster.

During another panel discussion held on Nov. 10 on US foreign policy and the global challenges that confront the next administration, David Denoon, professor of politics and economics at New York University and director of the NYU Center on US-China Relations said experts are in a position where they do not know what the next steps are likely to be.

In this case it applies to both Clinton and to Trump. The three topics that I think are likely to achieve the greatest attention are North Korea, the South China Sea and economic issues, said the professor, who was also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

He said the likelihood of North Korea giving up nuclear weapons was extremely low and that acknowledging it as a nuclear state and entering negotiations was also questionable.

In the South China Sea, it looks unlikely to me that China will back down. The question is what other countries in the region will do, and how that affects the United States, he explained.

David Denoon continued to say that the broadest issue of relations between the US and China, was clearly economic as the US has an enormous trade deficit with ChinaUS$367 billion last year.

There is no easy way to resolve that, because the corporations that have set up manufacturing in China are not going to cease and desist, he said.

Rebalancing could shift demand towards domestic production, which would make it harder for the Chinese to continue to focus on exports. But the trade deficit is going to continue and its going to be a volatile issue, he said.
World President-Elect Trumps Deals Must not be Done at the Expense of Other Nations

Kavi Chongkittavorn, a senior fellow at the Institute of Security and International Studies, Chulalongkorn University, in Bangkok, Thailand. / Flickr

As Donald Trump is poised to become the 45th US President in January, what significant policy changes can we expect in Asia under his administration?

The Asian policy of the 45th President will be an acrobatic one with a lot of somersaults, especially in relation to trade issues. The regions biggest economies will be under pressure from the Trump administration to give more concessions. This is one priority area in which Trump could show his supporters that he is making America richer again, and quicklyby squeezing the biggest importers from Asia: China, Japan and South Korea.

The suspension of the Trans-Pacific Partnership will impact the USs overall credibility and leadership in this part of the world. The ongoing negotiation of the Asean-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership must be accelerated to ensure it is completed as soon as possible to stimulate economic growth in the region.

For security matters, there will be some incremental changes that will not undermine the USs own strategic strength in the region. Close security cooperation with Japan and South Korea remains the most pivotal part of US presence in the regionthere will be no dramatic change there.

Do you think the Trump administration will completely abandon Obamas initiative to pivot to Asia as regional analysts are suggesting that the pivot itself is now over?

Under the Obama administration, the USs overall relations with Asia, especially with Southeast Asia, were considered to be very close. It has served as much-needed consistency over the past six years, speaking out for the region on issues related to peace and security.

With President Trump, this fundamental [aspect of the relationship] could change as he seeks more reciprocal actions from friends and allies in the region. In other words, his preponderance for making deals could permeate into diplomatic areas, which could spell trouble for Asian countries. He cannot expect to win all the best deals for America. Indeed, America is a great country, but deals must not be done not at the expense of other nations, particularly the Asians. Time will tell.

What will be the short and long term impacts on the USs traditional allies such as Japan and South Korea? In recent years, we have seen that China has been quite aggressive in the East and South China Seas in regard to its maritime activities. With this in mind what policies will the Trump administration adopt?

Japan and South Korea are well aware that in the post-Cold War era, they have had to adjust to a new strategic environment. Japan has been at the forefront under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Since his return as prime minister, he has raised Japans international profile, especially on security and strategic matters. Japan is allowed to trade arms and engage in combat if its allies are harmed. Now, Tokyo must work hard to find additional security tools to strengthen its own defense.

For South Korea, the situation in the Korean Peninsula has dictated the future direction of Seouls defense posture. With North Koreas continued nuclear ambitions, South Korea needs the USs security and protection at all costs. Without the six-party talks, which have been suspended for the time being, it would be difficult for South Korea to assert any pressure on North Korea. However, given the fragility of Korean politics as of now, some gradual shifts in policies are possible, especially regarding Seouls ties with Beijing and Tokyo.

Thailand is regarded as a traditional US ally, but the there has been tension in recent years between Bangkok and Washington, demonstrated in the downsizing of the Cobra Gold military training exercise, and by the exchange of harsh words between the two countries as Thailand has been seen as growing closer to China.

Thailand-US relations are [some of] the oldest in Asia, and began in 1832. With such a strong foundation, both countries have been working shoulder to shoulder throughout its history, especially during the five decades of the Cold War. However, following the May 22 power seizure two years ago, Thai-US ties have been frozen without positive momentum forward.

After the passage of a national referendum in Thailand on the next charter in August, there has been some tangible progress. More senior officials from both countries have been meeting to discuss how to improve their cooperation. Next year, the regions largest military exercise, the Cobra Gold, will continue as scheduled and will not be downsized. With the new attitude towards the US prevailing in the Philippines and Malaysia, the overall security profile of Thailand in the US global strategy has increased.

Thailand is one of five American treaty allies in the Asia-Pacific including the Philippines, Australia, Japan and South Korea. Last month, during his visit here, Daniel Russel, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs called Thailand a natural allya far cry from his previous visit, in which Thailand was still viewed with contempt.

Furthermore, Patrick Murphy, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Southeast Asia, is scheduled to arrive in Bangkok on November 25 to hold talks with the Thai government in order to reassure them of the importance of Thailand in the new Trump administration. Thailand would like to review its ties with the US so as to respond to the fast-changing regional security landscape.

Under the Obama administration, Washington became closer to Burma: President Obama visited the country twice, praised the political opening and lifted sanctions. We could have predicted continuity and strong engagement if Hillary Clinton had come to power, but now, with Trump as the President-elect, it has created uncertainty. How do you foresee US policy shifting in regard to Burma, an important neighbor to China?

Washington under Trump will pay less attention to Myanmar because it would be difficult for the new president to take up or maintain the good work from his predecessor. There will be a new policy guideline towards Myanmar from the new advisors and there will be less emphasis on democracy and human rights.

One indicator would be the overall attitude of the Trump administration towards Asean [the Association of Southeast Asian Nations], of which Myanmar is a member. President Barack Obama has strengthened US-Asean ties during his two terms in office, much to the envy of other dialogue partners. The Philippines, as the current Asean chair, has to convince President Trump to take part in the fourth Asean-US summit in November 2017. With the current state of Philippine-US relations, it is doubtful that he would come to region during his first year in office.

Kavi Chongkittavorn is a senior fellow at the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University.
Tuesday, November 15th, 2016 (2:31 pm) - Score 4,451

A 17-year-old boy, who is too young to be named, has today admitted to seven charges under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 in connection with last years cyber-attack on TalkTalks website and the subsequent leaking of customer details. The case is being heard by the Norwich Youth Court.

The ISP was recently hit by a 400,000 fine as a result of the massive personal data breach (here), which occurred after a combined cyber-attack on their website harnessed a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) assault and an SQL Injection exploit in order to gain access to the providers database (here).

Since then various UK children and adults have been arrested in connection with the hack, not to mention several support agents in India who were working for TalkTalk through their outsourcing sub-contractor Wipro (here). However the Wipro incident is not directly related to the hacking cases.

Alex Mathews, EMEA Technical Manager of Positive Technologies, told ISPreview.co.uk: The fact a 17 year-old could be involved in a cyber-attack which wipes millions off a large companys value is a stark reminder of the times. Big companies simply must pay heed. This is another wakeup call to the fact there are young individuals hidden deep online who continually probe businesses for weakness through websites and other connected interfaces. Their motivations vary, but they are nothing if not persistent and creative in their attacks. It is vital security teams stay one step ahead by continually monitoring for vulnerabilities and layering protection against this multitude of attacks.

So far the only person to be formally charged and named with a related offence is 19-year-old Daniel Kelley from South Wales, who apparently attempted to extort 465 Bitcoins (at the time worth 216,000) from TalkTalk following the October 2015 attack (here). Overall Kelley is facing 14 charges, including eight of blackmail, four computer hacking offences and two fraud offences. TalkTalk informs that others have also been charged, although they were not yet able to share any details due to the on-going investigation.

Meanwhile the 17-year-old boy mentioned in todays case, having already admitted the charges, is expected to be sentenced on 13th December 2016. All on the same day as the ISP announced their latest financial results, which has seen the provider turn a corner and return to more positive territory (here).
E-Commerce: 5 Strategies to Drive Revenue over the Holidays

The folks who run Googles search engine deserve a lot of credit for not being afraid to change things up, even when the current approach is working.

The company is on the precipice of one of those changes. Last week, Google announced perhaps the biggest transition yet: The search engine is switching to a mobile-first approach.

The announcement was made in a blog post on Nov. 4 by Google Product Manager Doantam Phan. At the highest level, the switch is simple. If given a choice, the mobile version of a site will be the one from which Google will work to determine rankings:

To make our results more useful, weve begun experiments to make our index mobile-first. Although our search index will continue to be a single index of websites and apps, our algorithms will eventually primarily use the mobile version of a sites content to rank pages from that site, to understand structured data, and to show snippets from those pages in our results. Of course, while our index will be built from mobile documents, were going to continue to build a great search experience for all users, whether they come from mobile or desktop devices.

Its not surprising that the change wasnt made quickly. InformationWeeks Scott Ferguson said that Google gradually began prioritizing mobile over desktop during the past year and, as if to justify what it was about to do, released research that verified the idea that mobile had surpassed desktop as the way in which people look for content.

The change will roll out over months, which will give companies time to prepare. And they will do so, since advertising departments tend to structure around Google. The change will affect the subtleties of how they do their jobs.

Search Engine Land offers a handy FAQ column on the move to the mobile-first index. Companies should beef up their mobile sites if they contain less content than their desktop cousins. The piece says that the move shouldnt have too much effect on rankings and that Google will maintain discrete mobile and desktop rankings during the rollout period.

Nothing is more important than Google rankings to many companies, so this is a big deal. Google is seems to be soft-selling it a bit, perhaps in an effort to not alarm companies that have made big investments in optimizing expensive desktop websites to attract the dominant search engine.

At the same time, the tone of Phans post is reassuring. The right move now is for a company to do an assessment of its online sites and move on from there. Also keep in mind Phans point that a well-functioning desktop site is preferable to a mobile site that is broken.

Carl Weinschenk covers telecom for IT Business Edge. He writes about wireless technology, disaster recovery/business continuity, cellular services, the Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communications and other emerging technologies and platforms. He also covers net neutrality and related regulatory issues. Weinschenk has written about the phone companies, cable operators and related companies for decades and is senior editor of Broadband Technology Report. He can be reached at [email protected] and via twitter at @DailyMusicBrk.
5 Ways CFOs Can Implement an Effective Cybersecurity Strategy

Now that most of the election dust has settled, I think it is safe to say that this was the most cybersecurity-aware election season that weve ever witnessed. Clearly, not all of it was good cybersecurity awareness, as most of the talk was about hacked emails and the potential for hacked voting machines with little to no conversations about solutions or prevention.

I wanted cybersecurity to be a front-and-center issue and talking point, and I believe it needs to continue to be a talking point. Some, in fact, think the focus on cybersecurity needs to be not only a high priority but take on a sense of urgency. In fact, there are predictions that cybersecurity will become a national crisis in a matter of months and must be a focal point of the new presidents first 100-days agenda. As Anomali Director of Security Strategy Travis Farral told me in an email comment:

Moving forward, our new Commander in Chief will be faced with the most hostile cyber environment in history, one where every adversary on the planet is going to be focused on the U.S. government, its citizens and businesses. The security community has every reason to believe that, as Forrester recently predicted, the first 100 days of our new Presidents administration will be faced with a full-blown cyber crisis that will not only test how well our national cyber defenses work but also whether the new administration has taken the issue seriously.

For example, Forrester analyst Amy DeMartine gave CNBC a rundown of possible cybersecurity scenarios we can expect to see early in 2017, including:

The new commander in chief will face pressure from foreign entities looking to embarrass them early on, just as U.S. government agencies jockey for position within the new administration.

The question is what systems and outlets will be most vulnerable to an attack. Will it be government agencies? Will it be a facility within the critical infrastructure? Will it be the financial system or media sites? This isnt only a problem for the new president and new government to address, but also for IT and security and business leaders everywhere  are you prepared to withstand an attack from a nation-state, hitting your business directly or indirectly?

One of the more positive cybersecurity stories Ive read, however, is that security may not be a victim of a lame-duck Congressional session. As Forbes reported, the attacks and threats of hacks were enough to worry Congress into introducing cybersecurity-focused amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal told the publication:

Cyber attacks are an ever-growing threat to our national security. As the Internet touches more aspects of our work and daily lives, our military must be equipped to defend and protect our nation.

Its a start. It wont solve all of the problems, but at least now we are more aware and more willing to take action.

Sue Marquette Poremba has been writing about network security since 2008. In addition to her coverage of security issues for IT Business Edge, her security articles have been published at various sites such as Forbes, Midsize Insider and Toms Guide. You can reach Sue via Twitter: @sueporemba
The couple separated in 2013 but it seems like they couldn't take their thoughts off each other despite both having new partners. This is following news wherein Stewart was spotted depressed over the rumored pregnancy of FKA Twigs and has dyed her hair brunette to get over the sadness.

At Least In Their Minds, Kristen Stewart And Robert Pattinson Are Still In Love With Each Other

The 'Twilight' actress is said to be disturbed with the news that her ex Robert Pattinson and his fiancee FKA Twigs might be awaiting their first baby together, reports GameNGuide. This further hardens all the rumors of Stewart and Pattinson being still together by heart. If fans remember it, two months ago that Pattinson was also depressed after hearing about Stewart and her former girlfriend Alicia Cargile's coming wedding.

Now, with Stewart sad over the rumors of FKA Twigs' pregnancy, there is no other explanation. However, could it be a sign of them getting back together? The answer is unclear as neither of them has said anything about their expected reunion movie i.e. the 'Twilight' sequel that has huge possibility to reconcile them as well. In fact, insiders claim that Stewart has canceled the proposal as payback to Pattinson.

As for Pattinson, the rumors are strong that he was forced by his fiancee to instill her but it will not sort out their distinctions. Per the news outlet, their relationship has the bottom hard and despite this events that could make them "be together". Their wedding has already been canceled and the baby will not save their relationship.

Coming close to the Twilight Saga sequel, though it is not yet official, there are high chances that the movie will eventually push throughand might lead to the on-screen reunion of Bella and Edward. If this happens, it would provide a chance for Stewart and Pattinson to reignite their romance, on the other hand, Twigs fears about this Twilight movie reunion.

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WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange faced questioning on Monday by a Swedish prosecutor in the Ecuadorean embassy located in London, England, after he was accused of raping two women in Sweden six years ago. The non-profit organization has always denied the accusations and was benefit with political asylum in 2012 to avoid the extradition.

Julian Assanges Lawyer Wasnt Allowed To Be In The Interview

A high number of journalists apparently awaited the Swedish prosecutor Ingrid Isgren as she arrived at the Ecuadorean embassy to make the questions related to the alleged sexual assault. It was also reported that the European nation prepared a list of question for an Ecuadorean prosecutor to ask WikiLeaks leader and his team in the presence of a Swedish police investigator and Isgren.

The Swedish prosecutor has been allowed to ask WikiLeaks founder to clarify his answer but not to ask any additional question. Also, she will receive a written transcript of the exchanges from Ecuador after the questioning concludes. However, the event started with controversy, since Assanges Swedish lawyer Per Samuelson was barred for the interview, which continued without his presence.

According to The Guardian, this case started to be extremely difficult for the Swedish investigators since Julian Assange fled to the Ecuadorean embassy, since the prosecutors initially insisted that he would have to go to Sweden to be questioned, and he refused by the reason that he could be extradited to the U.S. for WikiLeak publications.

WikiLeaks Leader Was Blamed For Interfering With The US Elections

In fact, Julian Assange was recently blamed for interfering with the presidential elections, since his organizations released thousands of classified information about Hillary Clinton after they get private emails of her campaign chairman, John Podesta. The U.S. government stated that Russia could have been the one who made the hack and gave the information to WikiLeaks.

Although both parties have strongly denied the American accusations, some days ago Kremlin-analyst Sergey Markov confessed that Russia might have helped the radical transparency organization to release the documents about the Democratic nominee, in order to get Donald Trump elected as the new president.
The Bangladesh bank has recovered $15.25 million of the $81 million stolen in February by cyber criminals who made an unprecedented cyber strike against the financial institution. Apparently, the hackers used the banks SWIFT login data to conduct the money out through the network. However, officials believe that at least $30 million currently frozen in accounts could be retrieved imminently.

Bangladesh Bank Details Were Used To Steal $950 Millions

According to ITPro, the cyber criminals used the Bangladesh Bank details to send currency transfer request using SWIFT messages, wanting to steal $950 millions. However, most of the fraud was blocked and the hackers only could transfer the $81 million to four casino accounts in Philippines that still missing.

Regarding this situation, the Bangladesh Bank deputy governor, Abu Hena Mohammad Razee Hassan, told the media that officials are hoping to get a favorable verdict from the Philippines Supreme Court in order to recover the frozen $30 million. Apparently, it was already proved that the money belongs to the Bangladesh Bank.

Sua Ha Gao And Ding Size Are The Main Suspects

The $15.25 million were retrieved three days ago since casino boss and owner of the Eastern Hawaii Leisure Company, Kim Wong, gave the stolen money to the government, handing $4.63 million and the rest in the Philippines local currency. Apparently, he denied any kind of involvement in the crime and explained that he obtained the money from a couple of "Chinese high rollers" named Sua Ha Gao and Ding Zhize.

Although it hasn't be detained by the authorities, the Bangladesh police stated that it had identified more than 20 suspects, which are 12 Philippine nationals and eight Sri Lankans, who are believed to have a role in the crime. Apparently, a "high-powered" delegation from the Bangladesh bank is going to travel to Manila by the end of the month, in order speed up the process of retrieving by meeting with the President Rodrigo Duterte.
After AMD has launched their graphics cards based on their Polaris architecture, now the company is planning to release the Vega 10 and 11 sometime in 2017. The upcoming AMD GPUs based on Vega architecture will be competing with the Nvidia GPU GTX 1070 and 1080 GPUs based on Pascal architecture.

AMD's Vega 10 And Vega 11

According to Fudzilla, AMD's Vega 10 and Vega 11 GPUs will be launched by the company next year as replacement for the current Polaris 10 and 11. According to tech analysts, it is expected that the first graphic card based on the new Vega architecture could launch in first half of 2017.

HNGN reports that since AMD's Capsaicin 2016 event users have know that Vega would succeed the Polaris 10 and Polaris 11 GPUs and would be arriving in 2017. For AMD, it seems that the Vega architecture had already a crucial design milestone. Rumors are suggesting that the chip's development is underway.

AMD Vega GPUs' Man Features

The main features of the Vega 10 GPU include an improved GCN design compared to Polaris. The improved GCN design is expected to lead to better GPU efficiency. WCCFTech reports that the Vega 10 GPU will also be using the latest HBM2 standard that will deliver a higher VRAM capacity, a huge amount of bandwidth and lower power consumption in comparison to HBM1 and GDDR5.

The AMD Vega 10 graphics card will be supporting several varying VRAM configurations, numerous SKU and up to 4096 stream processors. When it comes to the bandwidth, the upcoming GPU can also be compared to the Radeon Pro Duo.

According to tech experts, the Vega 10's HBM2 will be able to accommodate up to 32 GB of VRAM. W could expect up to 1 TB/s solutions that are currently only delivered on the Radeon Pro Duo (512 GB/s x 2), since HBM2 delivers better bandwidth.

When it comes to the upcoming Vega 11, this will be a midrange graphics chipset with better performance and specifications, offered at a very reasonable price. The AMD Vega 11 GPU is expected to be replacing the current Polaris architecture. In fact, with Vega 10 and 11 AMD aims to replace their Fiji based Fury series with affordable high-performance offerings.

AMD's upcoming Vega series of GPUs are based on brand new architectural layouts and new technology. According to tech experts, this is a step better than Polaris architecture that itself represented a 2.8x leap on AMD's older 28nm GPUs. Due to a fine tuned 14nm FinFET process and a efficient memory architecture, Vega will come with a better performance per watt than Polaris.

Tech analysts expect that AMD will offer several designs featured on the discrete GPUs and integrated chip designs such as mobility APUs and HPC APUs. Since it is manufactured on the latest 14 nm process node, the Vega 10 GPU is expected to contain 18 billion transistors crammed underneath its die and to feature as much as 32 GB of HBM2 VRAM.

While these outstanding performances will make Vega a true professional offering, that doesn't mean gamers will not be interested in the card. AMD will cater just as much to the PC gaming market as always. The Vega architecture will be as interesting for gamers as the previous AMD GPU releases such as Fiji and Hawaii and well positioned to win the next year's GPUs battle with Nvidia's Pascal GTX 1070 and 1080.
"Allied" star Marion Cotillard has been involved in the divorce news on Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie even prior to the announcement. She has allegedly been dating the actor while he was still married, but denied it once and for all.

Marion Cotillard Speaks Up About Alleged Affair With Brad Pitt; Actress Expecting Second Child With Life Partner

It can be recalled that even before the couple announced that they were filing for divorce, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have already been rumored to have been broken up already. This allegedly involves Brad's "Allied" co-star and romantic interest in the film, actress Marion Cotillard. They have been alleged to having a romantic relationship while the actor is still currently married. However, Cotillard dismissed these rumors when the couple announced the divorce, afraid for her name to be dragged into the issue again.

Cotillard Has Nothing But Nice Things To Say About "Allied" Co-Star Brad Pitt

After the divorce was announced and confirmed, Cotillard immediately debunked the affair rumors in a statement she made. According to the actress, she is already expecting her second child with lifetime partner Guillaume Canet. She exclaimed that she normally doesn't comment or react on such malicious rumors but it has already affected her family, thus prompting her to make an official statement to the media on the matter.

When asked about working with Brad Pitt, she had nothing but nice things to say about the actor; his talent and just his entire being as a whole. Cotillard said that Brad is such a nice person and that he has also helped her in portraying her role in their upcoming film, "Allied." Brad on the other hand attended the movie premiere in Los Angeles just recently after he has declined many of his commitments in promoting the movie while going through a custody battle with soon-to-be ex-wife. Now, the actor is more relaxed even after the results of the trial.
Indian currency ban has been controversial. And, this makes it even more so. A newborn died after the doctor had refused to accept payment in older notes.

A part of the population is jubilant about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's bold step to curb black money. Another part of the population, however, believes the step is poorly planned and badly affects the lower economy class. This incident may be enough to fuel the fire of controversy once again.

The Reserve Bank of India banned all old notes with 500 and 1,000 denominations on Nov. 8, with effect from midnight Nov. 9. The government, however, gave instructions to a number of bodies to accept older notes to avoid mass harassment. While the official exchange of older notes stopped for most places, hospitals were allowed to receive it.

This incident took place in Govandi in eastern Mumbai. Jeevan Jyot Hospital and Nursing Home, run by Dr. Sheetal Kamath, refused to accept the payment with older notes from Jagadish Sharma. Sharma, a carpenter by profession, admitted his wife Kiran to the hospital. She was heavily pregnant.

Kiran eventually gave birth to a premature baby, weighing just 1.6 kg. The baby needed to be put in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Mumbai Mirror reported. But, Dr. Kamath refused so as Sharma could not pay the entire bill worth INR 6,000 (less than $100) with smaller notes. Moreover, all the banks and ATMs in the country were closed for the day as a result of the Indian currency ban.

Dr. Kamath eventually released Kiran and her newborn baby. The baby became critical on Nov. 11. Sharma rushed to another doctor with his wife and baby. But, they kept waiting for their turn, and the baby died.

Sharma has lodged a legal complaint against Dr. Kamath. The complaint has been forwarded to the Maharashtra Medical Council. This is not the only incident where a hospital refused old notes. According to the Times of India, all major private hospitals did so after the Indian currency ban.
The oceans might be vast, but it has some of the most vulnerable ecosystems today. Much of the oceans' resources aren't managed very well. One of those that are vulnerable is corals, as coral reef ecosystem is threatened by rising carbon dioxide.

Global carbon dioxide levels continue to rise. This is one reason why global warming is also continuing. With that many ecosystems are under threat, especially the vulnerable ones. Coral reefs are some of the most vulnerable ecosystems. Coral reefs are home to many small marine species, and once these reefs lessen or die out, many of them would be endangered as well.

A study made by Duke University and the Universite de Bretagne Occidentale has noted that a number of places would be at risk by rising sea temperatures. Some of these places include parts of Australia, Southeast Asia and Western Mexico. Along with this coral reefs are affected as well, since many of these reefs can be found in those areas.

Linwood Pendelton is the study's lead author and a senior scholar at Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. He said that many of the coral reefs in those areas would not be able to escape the harm of climate change. The study has shown how climate change affects coral reefs and the people dependent on them, as well as ways which could help communities cope with a changing climate.

Severe acidification of ocean waters will first affect areas in the lower latitudes, according to Duke Today. This is because those areas carry more carbon dioxide. Some of those areas that are identified include Japan, China and parts of southern Australia as well as Baja California. While these places would find the ocean more acidic, environmental stresses would be first felt in other parts of Australia, Oceana and Southeast Asia.

Chris Langdon, a Professor in the Department of Marine Biology and Fisheries at the University of Miami said that non-governmental organizations will have to act fast to counter this threat. There must be more effort for the communities they represent in order to get governments to act, as Science Daily notes. Data collection and information is key in building new policies, which so far has not been to par in giving enough information about the threat to coral reefs and climate change.

As climate change continues, coral reef ecosystems are threatened by rising carbon dioxide. Much has to be done to minimize its effects. The UN has said recently that millions could be affected by the continuing climate change.
Samsung Pay will be rolling out its Samsung Rewards program this week. Users will have a chance to receive a number of incentives offered by Samsung. People only need to enroll in the said program to earn points in every Samsung Pay transaction.

The Samsung Rewards Program

According to the Business Wire, the Samsung Rewards program is a first-of-its-kind for a mobile payment platform in the US. Users have already been using digital wallets. In that market, Samsung is up against its tech rivals Apple and Google. The Samsung Rewards program is actually an innovative strategy for the company.

This will encourage Samsung Pay customers to make use of their digital wallet more. On the other hand, users can actually redeem a variety of items with the points they will earn. Among these rewards include gift cards to some of the major retailers, prepaid Samsung Rewards Visa gift cards and other Samsung products, according to The Verge.

Status Levels, Multiplied Points, Other Prizes

The program also works in a way that a certain number of transactions in a month will promote the user's status to another level. Points can be multiplied depending on the user's level status. For instance, Business Wire explained that a Samsung Rewards program enrollee will achieve a "Silver" status with five transactions in one month. That also means his/her points will since then be multiplied twice for every transaction using the Samsung Pay.

20 transactions for a month will promote the user to the "Gold" status. The earned points will be tripled. In order to get to the "Platinum" level, there should be 30 monthly transactions. His/her points will then be quadrupled.

There are also "Instant Prizes" that include a trip for two to Napa Valley and new prizes that will be rotating regularly. The winners will be selected by the program among its active enrollees. Users can monitor their earned points, rewards and redeem them via the Samsung Pay app and soon Samsung's website.
Samsung announced that it's going to buy Harman International Industries. The $8 billion deal is both big and significant for the tech company. Samsung is looking to break into the automotive industry. The said acquisition indicates how the company is keen on expanding its market. It seems to capitalize on the growing industry of electric cars.

Samsung And Harman's Deal

Samsung posted on its website that the deal has been unanimously approved by both the companies' Board of Directors. Though it is still subject to approval by Harman's shareholders. The transaction is expected to be completed in mid-2017.

The tech company's decision to acquire Hamran is reflected by a source familiar with the deal. According to Reuters, the source revealed that Samsung is open to new ways to grow. A big agreement like the tech giant has with Harman is part of adapting to change.

The source added that this is the company's state under Samsung Electronics' Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee's leadership.

Samsung Beyond The Smartphone Market

Samsung is still the king of smartphones ahead of Apple. However, its revenue has declined. Though the sales of its Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge have saved the company. This is considering the whole Galaxy Note 7 fiasco. The infamous phone explosions have put Samsung in a bad light to some people.

The question is whether it has a direct effect on Samsung's smartphones sales or not. It should be noted that the whole smartphone market seemed to have slowed. Other smartphone makers like Apple has also experienced a decline in sales.

It may be the right time for Samsung to expand its biggest market. Venturing into the automotive industry is not a bad strategy.

The Role Of Harman's Acquisition

Samsung and Harman are a perfect fit. Harman has been making products for automakers that include connected car and audio systems. According to the USA Today, Senior Market Analyst Jack Wetherill of the Futuresource Consulting explained the possible reason behind Samsung's acquisition. Wetherill said that the Korean-based company will definitely benefit.

Samsung could start its venture into the automotive industry through Harman. This is further reflected by BMO Capital Markets analysts Tim Long and Ambrish Srivastava. They said that Samsung is interested in having access to Harman's relationship with automakers.
When the Undertaker returns on "SmackDown" for its historic 900th episode a lot of fans are already speculating that it is for a non-wrestling appearance. While this is most likely the case, a current report has the WWE creative team getting the fans revved up as the Undertaker is set to challenge John Cena for a final WrestleMania.

An appearance by the legendary Undertaker is definitely costly for the WWE. So the brains behind the company have decided to use Undertaker's nonwrestling appearance at the 900th episode of "SmackDown" to become the starting point of a major storyline that will culminate at WrestleMania.

And that is a match with the equally legendary John Cena. For an all out final bout at the grandest stage of them all.

The Undertaker has been the subject of numerous opponents for his WrestleMania finale. While he has already said that the WrestleMania match with Shane McMahon will be his swan song for the event. It will be hard to believe that the Undertaker really pushes through with that. For someone who owns the longest streak in the biggest WWE event just to end it with a Shane O' Mac (No offense to the boss' son) is kind of a big bummer.

So the Phenom now has a slew of rumored opponents for what could possibly be his final WrestleMania. One story even suggests that he could even match up with another historic wrestler in the form of Hulk Hogan. That would definitely put the icing on the cake, as Hogan and Taker are probably the two most iconic wrestlers of the wrestling golden era. Talk about an absolute blast from the past.

But current rumors are saying that the WWE may go in another direction and have the Undertaker battle it out with John Cena. Both wrestlers could go out with a bang, as John Cena's appearances are becoming less and less frequent like the Undertaker. A finale of epic proportions could be a foot at next years WrestleMania extravaganza.

I guess we will just have to wait and see on this week's episode of SmackDown.

Another story making the WWE rounds is Finn Baylor's interesting story about a time where he nearly had his leg amputated. Baylor shared the story in an interview where he suffered an injury in a match in New Japan before his WWE days. According to the WWE superstar, he was kicked shin was sore after a match and woke up the next morning feeling much worse. He tried to have it checked by his masseuse who told him it was fine.

It was not fine as it kept getting worse. A fellow wrestler called Bad Luck Fale told him to get it checked by a doctor which he did. This is what the doctor who checked up on him said:

"Okay, this is what has happened. You've got a very serious infection in your leg. It's eating into your bone. If you had waited one more day we would have had to amputate your leg."

Well, obviously everything turned out fine for the young wrestler. And Finn has Bad Luck Fale to thank for that ironic stroke of good luck.
In the past couple of weeks, CBS shows have been dominating the primetime television. Two of them are "The Big Bang Theory" season 10 and "Criminal Minds" season 12. Despite the popularity of these shows in terms of viewership, CBS has not approved the renewal of these primetime shows yet for the next seasons. What are CBS' plans for now?

"The Big Bang Theory" season 11 and "Criminal Minds" season 13 are still in danger of cancelation following the decision of CBS not to renew them as of now. According to a report from TV Series Finale, both shows are currently "not canceled or renewed" for their respective seasons. Are fans seeing the series finale of the "The Big Bang Theory" and "Criminal Minds"?

"The Big Bang Theory" Season 11

Despite the hubbub created by "The Big Bang Theory" in the recent weeks owing to the announcement of a spin-off for Sheldon's character, producers and network executives were tight-lipped about the show's renewal. There has been string of rumors already since last October that CBS was reconsidering the million dollar salary demands of the main actors. The last statement the network dropped regarding the show's renewal for season 11 was that executives are making sure the salary sits well with their budget. This news even led to rumors that Kaley Kuoco will no longer reprise her role as Penny for the next season.

"Criminal Minds" Season 13

On the other hand, "Criminal Minds" season 13 was reported on the brink of cancelation due to bad ratings as the primary reason. Currently on its season 12, the show has seen the worst audience share after Thomas Gibson was axed from the show. It can be recalled that Gibson was dismissed from "Criminal Minds" season 12 over allegations of physical altercation with writer/producer Virgil Williams.

What are CBS' plans now? The network has yet to shed light on any of the claims surrounding "The Big Bang Theory" and "Criminal Minds."
2016 has about a month and half remaining and the year has seen some major recalls in the technology and consumer industry. Recalls this year, especially from Samsung, severely affected the company and the consumers. Various reports mentioned of several people injured and a handful of lawsuits.

The biggest tech recall of 2016 award should rightfully be given to Samsung. Only a few weeks after announcing its latest Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, the devices started to catch fire and explode. At first, the company stated that the problem is with the chargers. However, as the number of complaints started to grow, Samsung took things more seriously.

Samsung Note 7 Recall

After a few months, Samsung announced a complete recall of the Galaxy Note 7, asking all users to return the device. The company then started to provide replacements and even those started to explode. Finally, Samsung had to give up and apologize to the consumers.

One of the biggest smartphone manufacturers in the world took a lot of heat and had to apologize. That is bad, especially when it is a company like Samsung.

Samsung Washing Machine Recall

The South Korean company's woes did not end with the Note 7. Users of certain Samsung top-loading washing machine also started facing issues with their units. A total of 2.8 million washing machines were recalled across 34 different models. According to the Wall Street Journal, the tops of the washing machine would detach when in use.

GoPro Karma Drone Recall

Recently, GoPro also issued a recall for its newly announced Karma drone. As per a statement from the company, the drones would stop working mid-flight due to power failure. GoPro has sold around 2,500 drones and all of them would be recalled.

2016: The Year of Recalls

According to the Huffington Post, there have been many recalls in the automotive industry as well. Various vehicles from BMW, Subaru, Toyota and many other giant auto companies have been recalled this year. Further cementing 2016 as definitely a year of some major recalls and it has affected millions of users.

This year has been good for many and bad for many others. Samsung and GoPro are the biggest losers and the recalls definitely affected them in a bad way. Hopefully, the next year will be a good one for the companies and perhaps they will take the necessary changes to make their products safe to use.
Augmented Reality (AR) glasses is going to be the next big thing from Apple, says a new report. The fruit company is venturing into a new emerging market by working on AR glasses. After the average success of the Apple Watch, the company now wants to try something new.

The company is not worried about the recent failure of the Google Glass, a product that did not live up to its hype. CEO Tim Cook believes that AR is the future, but still needs a lot of work and is going to take a lot of time to perfect.

Apple's Augmented Reality Glasses

The Apple-designed AR glasses will connect to the iPhone and display relevant information in the users' field of view. Bloomberg reported that such a product will most likely be announced in 2018 at the earliest. There are several challenges in making wearable AR glasses that do not look weird and keeps others privacy in mind.

Apple has been speaking to several suppliers regarding the glasses project and has even ordered a near-eye display from a supplier. The company is certainly interested, and has made several AR related acquisitions in the past. According to iDownloadBlog, Apple is under pressure to develop a new breakthrough product since sales of iPhone and iPad have declined since last year.

Apple's Confidence In Augmented Reality Technology

Apple is very sure about AR being the future of wearable devices, case in point Snapchat's recently announced version of wearable glasses called Spectacles. With that in mind, the technology certainly still needs a lot of work to do. For example, hardware components will have to be really small and battery life has to be good. Most smartwatches, including the Apple Watch, can last a day or two on a single charge, which is not the case with the recent AR glasses.

Is Augmented Reality Glasses The Future?

It certainly looks so, because VR technology is not something users would like to wear and walk around. Whereas with augmented reality, users can simply wear the glass and continue doing their work.
As "Sister Wives" season 8 premiere quickly approaches, the polygamous Brown family is constantly being hounded by rumors. The controversial family seems to be torn apart or someone might just be making up stories to share with the fame they are receiving from the TLC reality series.



A recent rumor once again involves the former family friend, Kendra Pollard's name on it. This time it has been said that the two wives of Kody Brown, Christine and Robyn, are having a feud. Pollard even went to further details saying the former wants to brutally rip the latter's eyes out and that this feud will be evident as "Sister Wives" returns for season 8.

Pollard was a former close friend of Robyn, until she started exposing personal details about the Browns even when the reality show is on its break. She has constantly been dropping details about family plans and secrets to magazines, but only a few were actually confirmed by Kody and his wives. Just recently, Pollard has again made news, exposing Christine and Robyn's feud.

Where Did The Feud Begin?

Earlier this year, Robyn gave birth to a baby girl which seems to spark jealousy among the sister wives. It was then reported that Kody is being unfair, giving so much of his attention only to his legal wife and none for his spiritual wives. The feud rumor seems convincing since Christine has been giving sour remarks about Robyn and Kody in season 6, not to mention calling the legal wife "insane."

Despite claiming that the two wives already made up and are now on good terms, Pollard revealed to a magazine that a war is still brewing between the third and fourth wife. She especially pointed out Christine's disgust toward Robyn.

Pollard told Life & Style, as cited by IB Times: "Christine really wants to rip Robyn's eyes out...She thinks Robyn is obnoxious, spoiled and a home wrecker." Pollard even claimed that Christine hopes that Kody bringing Robyn into the Brown family was "just a dream." The family friend did not mention though why Christine is feeling that way for Robyn, but fans are guessing it has something to do with her being replaced by the latter in Kody's life.

Following this serious feud, Christine is revealed to leave the Browns even before any of the other three wives does.

Recent Revelations From Kendra Pollard

Previous rumors have it that Robyn is serious about her plans to divorce Kody. Pollard even confirmed that the fourth wife is already meeting with her lawyers to finalize the divorce plans. In her interview, Pollard also talked about the family's financial problems since Kody is bringing in "zero income." This she said is one of the reasons why the other wives would want to kick out Kody and why Meri started to date another man.

With "Sister Wives" season 8 set to air on TLC on Nov. 27, fans are anticipating to unveil the truth behind Pollard's revelations.


"South Park" season 20, episode 8 titled "Members Only" has been revealed to show Cartman and Heidi's preparation on their journey to Mars. The couple will be among the first 100 passengers of SpaceX's pilot intergalactic endeavor. In the meantime, creators are expected to showcase the first parody of Donald Trump as the newly-elected president of America.

Cartman And Heidi's Journey To Mars

As SpaceX CEO Elon Musks called for the first 100 people to be transported to Mars for good, Cartman and Heidi will take advantage of the opportunity to join the first ever intergalactic travel of the company. This plot traces back to the fact that Donald Trump won the presidential race and the couple sees it necessary to migrate. With Trump's win, the end of the world has come, at least for Cartman and Heidi.

Donald Trump Parody

On the other hand, "South Park" fans are yet to witness on the show the first parody of Donald Trump as the new president of America. As revealed by the official synopsis for episode 8 titled "'Members Only," "the President-elect has some unfinished business with his hometown." Trump, known as Mr. Garrison in the animated series, will be visiting Fort Collins to deliver his Thanksgiving speech. Would Garrison's win aggravate the gap between the girls and the boys? Would he express his regrets over winning the presidential election? It remains unknown how co-creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker will project the comeback of Mr. Garrison in Fort Collins.

Gerald Attempts Escape

In the meantime, fans have already witnessed Gerald and his cohorts in the previous episode being set up by the U.S. and Danish governments. Now they have fallen into the hands of the Trolls Hunters, and they are up against a revenge. Spoilers reveal that Gerald, also known as Skankhunt42, will be able to escape, and he will find himself running for his life.

"South Park" season 20, episode 8 airs Wednesday, Nov. 16 at 10:00 p.m. ET on Comedy Central.
Watch Dogs 2 is not just all about computers and gadgets. This open-world game set in San Francisco would not be complete with cars or some form of transportation to get around in. Thankfully, the sequel does not fall short of awesome and unique vehicles that you can find around the map.

When you find a vehicle, you will be able to call it anytime you like. Here is a list of rare vehicles in Watch Dogs 2 and where to find them.

In the San Francisco Bay Area Marin County, you can find one vehicle: The Ice Cube. You can find it if you go to the lighthouse near the Golden Gate Bridge. You should be able to spot a tent camped along a dirt road with the vehicle next to it.

Wrecker. This can be found in Oakland Country. More specifically, it is located in the Port of Oakland. The vehicle is inside an open container on top of stacks of shipping containers, which you can bring down using the crane.

Mountain King. While you're in Oakland, you might want to head over to the Lakeside Park to get this vehicle by Brubeck Engines. The area will be fenced off so you will need to use the RC Jumper to get you to the other side.

Flip Wagon. Over at San Francisco, you will want to go over to Painted Ladies. There should be a vehicle parked in an alleyway by the north side of the park.

Danger Mobile. This one is by Landrock Motors and it is stuck on an island. You can find it near Yerba Buena island and between Oakland and San Francisco. Check small alleys between houses to find the vehicle.

The Dangerzone. Now, we're in Silicon Valley. You will want to go to the area Nudle and Galilei. There are two underground garages with locked doors, one of which contains the car you are looking for. Using your handy RC Jumper, make your way inside through a vent and look for the red BLUME box. Hack it to open the garage door.

Rainbow Missile. This scooter by Fruttato is safely stored in the backyard of some house in San Mateo. Before you do anything drastic, distract the woman and the robot so you can access the red BLUME box. Once successfully, you will be able to open the gate and drive the vehicle away.

Finding all of these Watch Dogs 2 rare vehicles will get you the "A Ride to Remember" trophy, but only after riding one. They will also make you stand out in online mode, as SegmentNext has noted that they have custom paint jobs.

Take note also, that in order for the vehicle to be available in your character's smartphone, you must drive them away first from where you found them. Some of these Watch Dogs 2 rare vehicles are pretty easy to get, but some will actually get you to use your hacking skills. Thankfully, this guide has already sorted out the searching for you.

Watch Dogs 2 is Ubisoft's latest title. It can be played on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.
If the Chinese government retaliated against tariff increases by the United States, it would not take direct aim at Apple, an economist argued today.

"For China, the best target is Boeing," said Caroline Freund, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Freund was responding to questions after Global Times, a Chinese Communist Party-supported newspaper, warned of reprisals if President-elect Donald Trump follows through on a campaign pledge to dramatically increase tariffs on goods imported into the United States.

"China will take a tit-for-tat approach then," the paper's op-ed piece said Sunday. The editorial writers called out Boeing as a possible target, but added, "U.S. auto and iPhone sales in China will suffer a setback" if Trump boosts tariffs to his promised 45%.

When countries engage in a trade or tariff war, they don't retaliate in kind, Freund said. As in any conflict, the aim of a trade war is to strike at an enemy's most vulnerable positions. So if the U.S. raised tariffs on smartphones and laptops -- two categories in which goods from China dominate U.S. imports, China would be not hit back by increasing duties on electronics imported from the U.S.

Instead, it would target "products that would hurt the U.S. most," said Freund. "The idea is to hit back using a product that's important to me."

Chicago-based Boeing would be an obvious target, she added. "Estimates are that based on growth, China will be buying a lot of planes over the next two years. But China could just turn to Airbus."

Just two months ago, Boeing landed a $3.2 billion deal to sell a dozen 787 Dreamliners to China Southern Airlines. During a state visit to the U.S. last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping signed a $38 billion order for 300 Boeing jets.

But what of the Party paper's claim that a trade war would affect iPhone sales in China? Freund said the Chinese government could do that without resorting to tariffs, but by impeding Apple's operations in China.

"Suddenly regulators could start showing up at production facilities ... every day," Freund said. Or the government could launch tax audits. "There are all kinds of ways they can crack down on a market. And China has a history of doing that."
Today

Mainly clear. Low 61F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph.

Tonight

Mainly clear. Low 61F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph.

Tomorrow

Sunshine in the morning followed by partly cloudy skies and gusty winds during the afternoon. High 74F. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.
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The wonder of e-mail has boosted a hotel's reputation and brought Gilbert and Sullivan to a wider audience.

Enthusiasts from all over the USA are booking at the Grim's Dyke Hotel, Old Redding, Harrow Weald to stay at what was once WS Gilbert's home.

The hotel hired the promotional expertise of Mark Harrington of Phoenix corporate communications to help it target potential customers.

Mr Harrington said: 'There are a number of Gilbert & Sullivan societies in America which we located on the internet.

'We contacted them, told them about the hotel and inform them of special Gilbert and Sullivan events which are being performed.'
Fans are hyped when the news of a third season of the popular Japanese anime, "Tokyo Ghoul" Season 3 was announced and their excitement further intensifies when gossips of the next plot were leaked online.

No confirmations about the leaked story of "Tokyo Ghoul" Season 3 are given by the production team so rumors will remain theories until someone from the team confirms it.

According to Game n Guide, one of the reasons why the producers are not making a buzz about it is because there were information that Studio Pierrot handed over the production of "Tokyo Ghoul" Season 3 to Madhouse, causing delays.

Fans are upset with the delays but commented that the transfer will be beneficial for "Tokyo Ghoul" Season 3 because Madhouse is the known company that produced the hit anime series like "One Punch Man" and "Death Note."

If "Tokyo Ghoul" Season 3's transfer proved to be true, then extra violence, blood, and gore will be anticipated in this coming season since Madhouse proved to be an expert in bringing 'darkness' into their anime like what they've done with 'Death Note'.

The story arc of "Tokyo Ghoul" Season 3 will most probably focus on the protagonist Kaneki Ken and his friend Kirishima Touka. A backstory will maybe introduce to give an explanation on why Touka acts aloof yet disrespectful towards Kaneki.

There are also speculations that we will see Kaneki in his full Kakuja form in "Tokyo Ghoul" Season 3. As previously shown in the past seasons, Kaneki obtained an incomplete Kakuja form resembling a centipede. His next and full form will probably look like a snake-like. There are some clues on snake-like forms found in the original source materials of the series.

It is speculated that the release of "Tokyo Ghoul" Season 3, will be this coming winter or early next year. However, fans should take all these rumors keeping in mind that this are all guesses. While the fans are eagerly waiting for season 3, a "Tokyo Ghoul" live-action movie based on the manga was announced last June 2016 that will soon hit the big screen this coming summer of 2017.
The American TV series, "NCIS" would have a cancellation franchise on its 14th season. It was reported that CBS dropped the show due to poor ratings. On the other hand, it was speculated that the return of Michael Weatherly could boost up show's ratings.

As "NCIS" had its poor ratings, there were rumors that the return of the award winning actor, Michael Weatherly who played the role of Anthony "Tony" DiNozzo could help the show's ratings to be at its highest. Some of the fans agreed to the idea but many of the viewers expressed a different opinion.

According to GameNGuide, numerous fans expressed that the possible comeback of Michael Weatherly won't help to boost up "NCIS" rating. As it was reported that the said American TV series had already a stable fanbase and would not make any difference if the 48-year old actor would return to the show.

"I absolutely love NCIS, and also loved Tony on the show, but I don't think that the show depends on just him," the fan wrote. "All the cast is exceptional and if I not going to be home to watch, then I tape. Don't think I have ever missed an episode, please leave NCIS alone."

On its previous season, one of the fan's favorite, Zida David was killed off in the show which made the fans left shocked. Zida David and Michael Weatherly were one of the original cast of CBS-TV series "NCIS". Perhaps, the disappearance of the two stars were the possibilities that "NCIS" rating became low.

Fans expressed their great dismay for there were speculations that the "NCIS" TV drama series would have its end due to poor ratings. Hopefully, the American actor and director, Michael Weatherly would be returning to the show to save the low ratings of the said TV series.
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A federal judge should dismiss an appeal from a Winston-Salem man who claims he was wrongfully convicted of murder for a simple reason  the man didnt file his appeal on time, a prosecutor for the N.C. Attorney Generals Office said in court papers Monday.

John Robert Hayes, 44, is serving two life sentences after a Forsyth County jury convicted him of two counts of second-degree murder. He is accused of fatally shooting Waddell Lynn Bitting and Stephen Joel Samuels on July 25, 1993, as they came out of Deuce-Deuce, an illegal drink house at 910 E. 22nd St. A drink house is a club that sells alcohol without a license.

Hayes has unsuccessfully sought to overturn his conviction in Forsyth Superior Court and the N.C. Court of Appeals. In September, he filed an appeal in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, which includes Forsyth County, alleging that Forsyth County prosecutors either withheld favorable evidence or presented misleading evidence during his trial. He also accuses his trial attorney, Warren Sparrow, of failing to thoroughly investigate his case and effective represent him at trial.

Peter Regulski, a prosecutor with the state attorney generals office, filed court papers asking a federal judge to dismiss Hayes appeal on procedural grounds. He said a judge doesnt even have to consider the merits of Hayes appeal because Hayes and his attorney, Mark Rabil, should have filed his petition in April 2011, at the earliest. At the latest, they should have filed the appeal in April 2012.

Hayes petition was filed four years and five months too late, and its gross untimeliness is fatal to Petitioners claims, Regulski said in court papers.

Rabil alleges in the federal appeal that Forsyth County prosecutors failed to turn over evidence that three eyewitnesses  Cynthia Coleman, Mary Geter and Anita Jeter  gave inconsistent statements. For example, Coleman told Winston-Salem police that the shooter was between 5 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 8 inches tall and wore his hair in plats or dreadlocks. But Hayes is 6 feet 5 inches tall and had short unbraided hair at the time of his arrest, according to the appeal.

Among other things, prosecutors also did not disclose that there had been a third shooting victim, Kenneth Wade Evans, who was walking down East 22nd Street when he was shot in the left foot and that detectives at the time believed Evans, Bitting and Samuels were shot by the same person, Rabil alleges. No one was charged in Evans shooting.

Rabil said 10 other witnesses identified other shooters with possible motives.

But Regulski said Hayes had enough evidence given to him from the Forsyth County District Attorneys Office to file an appeal in either 2011 or 2012.

And Hayes hasnt presented compelling evidence of his innocence that would excuse the federal deadline, he said.

Rabil said Tuesday in an email that he will be filing a response to Regulskis motion to dismiss. He said that state prosecutors have argued similar hyper-technical points in federal court in the Kalvin Michael Smith and Darryl Hunt cases, two other innocent men from Forsyth County. Hunt was exonerated in 2004 in the murder of Deborah Sykes, a copy editor at the now-closed afternoon newspaper, The Sentinel. Hunt died earlier this year. Rabil was Hunts longtime attorney.

Smith, 45, was convicted in 1997 of assaulting Jill Marker, an assistant manager at the Silk Plant Forest store off Silas Creek Parkway. The attack left Marker with severe brain injuries and she lives in Ohio under 24-hour care. Smith has maintained his innocence, and the Winston-Salem Journal published a series of stories in 2004 raising questions about the police investigation and prosecution.

Smith was released last week after nearly 20 years in prison over allegations that his trial attorney failed to do all he could to ensure Smith a shorter prison sentence.

Rabil said it shouldnt matter when Hayes appeal was filed because Hayes is innocent and state prosecutors shouldnt be making highly technical defenses.

All the new evidence disclosed by the State shows that Mr. Hayes is innocent, Rabil said. A jury would not convict him if all the evidence had been disclosed to them.
Are there silver linings for North Carolina Democrats after Donald Trumps sweep in our state on his road to victory in the presidential election?

The apparent victory of Roy Cooper for governor, of course, if it holds, could provide Cooper the opportunity to serve the state and to keep Democrats involved in state government.

Josh Stein as attorney general and Mike Morgan on the state Supreme Court are important victories with more than a little silver in the linings.

But these are exceptions in a barrel full of disappointments. Hillary Clinton and Deborah Ross, after well-funded and vigorous campaigns, fell well short. Two long-serving members of the Council of State, Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin and Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson, lost in close races. No incumbent Republicans lost. Republicans also maintained their solid, veto-proof majorities in the General Assembly.

But Democrats should take heart. The election returns show that North Carolina remains a purple state, one that is competitive for both parties in statewide elections if they can nominate and finance appealing candidates. And, if they can find something to unify them.

The Republicans found that unifying something this year.

It was not Donald Trump.

Divided on policy and support for their presidential candidate, they united in their dislike of their opponent, Hillary Clinton.

I am not voting for Trump, my Republican friends told me over and over, I am voting against Hillary.

Not too long ago, North Carolina Democrats had that kind of opponent, one who unified them when nothing else could: Sen. Jesse Helms.

Until his retirement from the U.S. Senate in 2003, some people said that Helms was North Carolina Democrats best asset. They mostly hated him, of course, but that is why he was so valuable. The hatred of Helms pulled the Democrats together. And when the various factions of the party could not agree on anything else, there was one way to promote unity: start talking about Jesse Helms.

Opposition to Helms defined what it meant to be a Democrat more than any single difference on issues or political philosophy.

Democrats chafed because they could never defeat Helms. They were frustrated as they saw him gain support from large groups of people who would have benefited from programs and policies that Democrats advocated.

Still, Helms was the gift that kept on giving to Democratic unity.

Who can fill that kind role for todays Democrats? Donald Trump.

Even though he will be our president, he is a political figure who has shown views and attitudes that stir up opposition. It is not unpatriotic to focus on the negative features of a political opponent and his views simply because he holds our highest office.

In a recent pre-election column, I argued that if Trump were to win and become president, he would provoke anti-Trump and anti-Republican voters in the 2018 and 2020 elections, which would be monumental, surpassing even the anti-Obama reaction in 2010.

Something similar happened in 2010. Two years after Barack Obama won the presidency, Republicans made Obama and his programs their enemy. They ousted Democrats from control of the North Carolina General Assembly, riding a tea party and anti-Obama wave. In the same year, Democrats lost 64 seats and control of the U.S. House and lost five seats in the U.S. Senate.

Democrats will have the opportunity to make similar gains in 2018. But success will not be automatic. It will not come without organization, responsive programs and unity.

To get that unity, Donald Trump is there to help.
When several hundred students walked out of their classes at Wake Forest University Friday to protest the election of Donald Trump as president and the racial tensions it has sparked, they were well within their First Amendment rights. But these protesters, just as thousands of others across the nation, are inadvertently protesting against democracy itself at a time when we know all need to unite and show the world that our societys institutions wont cave because of the election of a man with whom many Americans have strong differences.

Trump is now Americas president-elect. A majority of the Electoral College votes went to him. That is our system. There is no way that his win can be reversed, and cries for that to somehow happen go against our very democracy.

We look to the past for wisdom from a fine leader who addressed a similar situation well. Father Ted Hesburgh was the beloved president of Notre Dame University from 1952 to 1987. He died last year. Wake Forest University President Nathan Hatch, who came here in 2005 from his job as Notre Dame provost, eulogized Hesburgh in the National Catholic Reporter, writing that He was a friend of the Rockefeller brothers and of Martin Luther King Jr., confidant of Republican and Democratic presidents, champion of the Catholic character of a place like Notre Dame and of intellectual freedom and institutional independence.

Hesburgh wrote a Feb. 17, 1969 letter to the Notre Dame community that resonates today. Here is a condensed version:

Dear Notre Dame Faculty and Students,

My hope is that these ideas will have deep personal resonances in our own community, although the central problem they address exists everywhere in the university world today and, by instant communication, feeds upon itself. It is not enough to label it the alienation of youth from our society. Gods knows there is enough and more than enough in our often non-glorious civilization to be alienated from, be you young middle-aged, or old.

The central problem to me is what we do about it and in what manner, if we are interested in healing rather than destroying our world. Youth especially has much to offer  idealism, generosity, dedication, and service. The last thing a noisy, turbulent, and disintegrating community needs is more noise, turbulence, and disintegration.

Understanding and analysis of social ills cannot be conducted in a boiler factory. Complicated social mechanisms, out of joint, are not adjusted with a sledge hammer.

In general, this community recognizes the validity of protest in our day  sometimes even the necessity  regarding the current burning issues of our society: war and peace, especially Vietnam; civil rights, especially of minority groups; the stance of the University vis-a-vis moral issues of great public concern; the operation of the University as a university.

There was also practical unanimity that the University could not continue to exist as a society, dedicated to the discussion of all issues of importance, if protests were of such a nature that the normal operations of the University were in any way impeded, or if the rights of any member of this community were abrogated, peacefully or non-peacefully.

Now comes my duty of stating, clearly and unequivocally, what happens if. Anyone or any group that substitutes force for rational persuasion, be it violent or nonviolent, will be given fifteen minutes of meditation to cease and desist. They will be told that they are, by their actions, going counter to the overwhelming conviction of this community as to what is proper here.

If they do not within that time period cease and desist, they will be asked for their identity cards. Those who produce these will be suspended from this community as not understanding what this community is. After notification of suspension, or trespass in the case of non-community members, if there is not within five minutes a movement to cease and desist, students will be notified of expulsion from this community and the law will deal with them as non-students.

May I now say in all sincerity that I never want to see any student expelled from this community because, in many ways, this is always an educative failure. Even so, I must likewise be committed to the survival of the University community as one of mans best hopes in these troubled times. We cannot allow a small minority to impose their will on the majority who have spoken regarding the Universitys style of life.

I truly believe that we are about to witness a revulsion on the part of legislatures, state and national, benefactors, parents, alumni, and the general public for much that is happening in higher education today. If I read the signs of the times correctly, this may well lead to a suppression of the liberty and autonomy that are the lifeblood of a university community. It may well lead to a rebirth of fascism, unless we ourselves are ready to take a stand for what is right for us. History is not consoling in this regard. We rule ourselves or others rule us, in a way that destroys the university as we have known and loved it.

Devotedly yours in Notre Dame,

(Rev.) Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., President
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By Andrew Kolin | (Informed Comment) |  

According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Labor Unions Step Up Presidential Election Spending, labor unions contributed to Hillary Clinton at a scale that is without precedent. The article pointed to $108.2 million contributed in this presidential election cycle. These contributions raise questions and are a political symptom of a larger problem for organized labor. One obvious question is, did Clintons campaign rhetoric on labor match her record? The largest labor unions, such as the American Federation of Teachers, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Service Employees International Union and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union all have endorsed Clinton. But her record is not exactly pro-labor. As First Lady of Arkansas and as Secretary of State, her actions were actually anti-labor.

Given Clintons loss, and her inability to attract as many votes from workers as had Barack Obama, does organized labor need to rethink?



Andrew Kolin, The Political Economy of Labor Repression in the United States

In Arkansas, from 1986-92, as a board member for the retail giant WalMart, she was silent on labor issues and bestowed praise on Sam Walton. She continued her association with Walmart in the 2016 election. In fact, Alice Walton, Sams daughter, contributed $350,000 to Clintons campaign. Her record on trade also is clear: Secretary Clinton never saw a free trade agreement she did not like. She supported NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement and only back-pedaled after Bernie Sanders put her on the defensive in the primary.

The question is, why does labor continue to support Democratic Party candidates who, once in office, abandon or ignore labor? Because labors collaboration with the Democratic Party is not a free choice. To explain labors ties to the Democratic Party, it is essential to examine the history of labor repression in the United States, the subject matter of my new book, The Political Economy of Labor Repression in the United States. Labors association with the Democratic Party is the result of institutional exclusion dating back to the Post-Revolution Era. Institutional exclusion from policy-making in the state and economy is produced and reproduced as political and economic elites have established a monopoly over the resources of power. This institutional exclusion is recreated through the use of covert and overt repression. Covert repression is built into the fabric of both the state and the workplace in order to exclude labor from decision-making. Overt repression is publicly expressed through violence and the legal system.

To make a long historical story short, labor only began to achieve a greater role in institutional decision-making during the Depression in the context of the New Deal. At that point in time, organized labors collaboration with Roosevelts Democratic Party began. In this collaboration labor was, at best, a junior partner in decision-making. The return of the Communist Party and its association with the CIO, fostered a greater role for organized labor in the workplace.

Fast forward: labor anti-Communism, the Cold War and the economys downward shift starting in the 1970s limited any gains that labor had made in the previous decades. As the New Deal coalition, which labor was part of, collapsed, and as finance capital assumed a more dominant role, the managerial state shrank as new Democrats, from Carter to Clinton, turned their backs on organized labor. In the workplace, starting in the 1980s, a leaner and meaner version of capital expanded the use of contingent and temporary labor, engaging in strike-breaking, further undermining unions.

The question is: where does this leave labor after this presidential election and in the 21st century? The challenge is for labor to fight to initiate reforms that truly uplift the working class. To do this, organized labor will have to disengage from its current collaboration with the Democratic Party and, functioning as an independent social movement, work toward creating genuine political and economic democracy.

Andrew Kolin is Professor of Political Science at Hilbert College and author of The Political Economy of Labor Repression in the United States
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By Joshua Cole | ( The Michigan Daily)

Yesterday was the anniversary of the attacks in Paris at the Bataclan concert venue and other locations throughout the city. These terrorist attacks in 2015 were provocations intended, as my colleague Juan Cole, a history professor put it, to sharpen the contradictions within French society. The goal was to provoke a wave of repression and discrimination against French Muslims, making it impossible for Muslims and non-Muslims to live together in France.

This fall, during the run-up to the presidential elections, there was a marked increase in racist provocations on U.S. college and university campuses, including our own. Since the election of Donald Trump as president last week, these provocations have spiked alarmingly throughout the country. African American students at the University of Pennsylvania were added to a group chat filled with images of violent murder and lynching. On Nov. 11, a female student in Ann Arbor was confronted on the street by a man who brandished a lighter and threatened to set her on fire if she did not remove her hijab.

The differences in scale and context between the terrorism of 2015 in Paris and the threats against vulnerable students on college campuses are important, and I do not in any way mean to claim equivalence. But I want to point out a similarity in how these acts of provocation do their work.

They work as provocations because they enact the very divisions whose reality they are asserting. The terrorist says: Muslims and non-Muslims cannot live together and proves it  terrifyingly  through acts of murder. The man on the street displays a burning flame and says to the Muslim woman, Safety and security are not for you in this place, and in that moment, she knows that it is true.

Provocations are not just manipulative acts, or angry utterances coming from an unwholesome and fearful rage. They are powerful forms of performative action and meaning that, in their repetition, help to create the very reality that sustains them. In this sense, provocations are always an attempt to simplify the lines of political conflict, to reduce the field of political action to a small number of irreconcilable positions whose views and values are mutually incompatible. In a world fractured by provocations, there can be no legitimacy on the other side, only an enemy to be struggled against.

This impulse to simplify the lines of difference in our society to a cycle of violent conflict has its origins in fear. In both France and the United States today, the fear is this: that our multicultural societies have generated populations that no longer map cleanly onto older conceptions about the proper relationship between race, sex and power. A Black man or a woman can become president. A man can marry a man. A woman can marry a woman. Muslims can and have integrated themselves into French society, and notions of Frenchness have changed as a result. In the face of such changes, provocations get their force from a tension between the taken-for-grantedness of racial and sexual categories, and a process of social and political change that has revealed them to be both dynamic and capable of evolution.

One way to think about these provocations might be to try to reconstruct their logic from the point of view of the provocateur. First of all, they depend on the existence of perceived differences that are rooted in both real and imagined grievances. They also rely on a reductive Manichean vision of human society, in which the good are presumed to be too passive and the bad too active. The reason that good people need to be provoked, from the point of view of the provocateur, is that the power of these differences, the pain of these grievances and the outrage occasioned by injustice are not always strong enough on their own to produce the desired reaction of repulsion. Good people need to be provoked to act on their sense of grievance, and bad people need to fear the retribution of the good.

But this cannot exhaust the subject. When students are taunted with images of violence, or when white supremacist posters are placed on university walls, we must confront the fact that these provocations are not simply reproducing older forms of oppression. They are also the product of political imaginations that are under construction. The people who do these things are playing with conflict in order to invent new forms of exclusion by using speech to inflame a crucible of violent interactions. We must not allow such a dynamic to create its own momentum.

This means that we must not demonize or exclude students who supported the Republican candidate for president, or assume that they all recognize themselves in the image of the man with the lighter confronting their fellow student on the street. The divisions in our society are large and real, and they result in many cases from sincere frustrations with the status quo, with differing opinions about the future. If these students are not a part of our conversation, we will have failed as a community.

The danger of our present moment is that the provocateurs in our midst want nothing more than to be answered with more provocations from their opponents. In truth, it is notoriously difficult to respond to provocation without resorting to provocation in turn  because violent words slide so easily into violent actions, and violent actions produce the grievances and the injuries that make more provocation seem necessary.

The only defense against provocation is to deploy the idea of provocation strategically as a criticism of the provocateur, to point out the way the dynamic of excitation and victimization leads only to more violence, more fear, more disorder. This strategy is not much use when somebody is brandishing a lighter in your face. But we must always remember that once the violence of provocation has come to define the available positions for people to stake out in their public interactions, it is very difficult to avoid what Albert Camus called the casuistry of blood  where each side finds its own justification in the crimes of the other. That way darkness lies.

In the present moment, some things are predictable.

1. There will be more provocations. We must plan ahead for how we will react to them. We must be creative in the ways that we respond to those who wish only to make us angry, who wish to drive us to intemperate reactions, who wish to divide us by fear.

2. The provocateurs will target the most vulnerable first. This is how the rule of fear works, by isolating people from one another and destroying the lines of solidarity that sustain real human communities. We must not think that we are safe in a community where anybody is vulnerable to this kind of targeting.

3. The provocateurs will incite racial hatreds and then blame the victims for playing the race card in response. In their eyes, this makes minorities just an illegitimate special interest group, not legitimate members of a national community. This too must be countered with an understanding that people who are attacked because they are African American, Muslim, Mexican, disabled, gay, etc. they have no choice but to respond as a member of such a group. To recognize this is essential, because our solidarity depends on it.

4. The provocateurs will point to every angry response as proof that they are the aggrieved party, the real victims of the present situation. They would like nothing more than to prove this by offering up examples of martyrs for their cause. We must not give them this opportunity by resorting to violence ourselves. The non-violent protesters of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States understood this, and we should remember their courage now.

5. Provocateurs will claim that attempts to silence them are a violation of free speech. In our society, this is a challenging issue, and good and smart people have good and smart arguments on both sides of the debate about limitations on hate speech. One thing is clear, however: The number of provocateurs who fill our public spaces with hatred is not the true measure of our freedom of expression. The true measure of our commitment to a real freedom of speech lies in our support for accessible public education at all levels for all of our children. It lies in the existence of well-funded public libraries, and support for colleges and universities that sustain independent inquiry, discussion and research. The true measure of our freedom of speech lies in our support of an independent and active journalism industry that refuses to concede that we are now living in a post-factual universe. This is all just another way of saying that the true measure of our commitment to freedom of expression lies in our recognition that the speech of all individuals can only be sustained by a collective determination in our society to support the institutions that make such speech meaningful. A society that has made such a commitment in material terms might well be strong enough to listen to the voices of all of its citizens.

We must respond, then, by refusing the simplified lines of conflict that give force to provocations. We must embrace the reality of the diverse and heterogeneous world that we live in as an opportunity, not a threat, even in dark moments like the present. We must all stand firm and together in our protection of those who are most vulnerable in our communities, and not let those groups singled out for persecution feel that they have been abandoned by others. They are not other. We are us.

Joshua Cole is a history professor at the University.

Reprinted with authors permission from The Michigan Daily
Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] on Tuesday urged [report, PDF] the Kenyan government to cease coercing refugees into leaving the Dadaab refugee camp and returning to Somalia. The Kenyan government announced its intention to close Dadaab, the worlds largest refugee camp, by the end of November. Dadaab is home to 280,000 refugees, including 260,000 Somali refugees. The report found [press release] that the refugees risk getting injured, killed or forcibly recruited into the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab if forced to return to Somalia. The governments stated reasons for the closure of Dadaab include claims that the camp is a threat to national security and that Kenya has received inadequate support from the international community. The report calls on Kenyan authorities to immediately halt the forced returns of Somali refugees and to look for alternative solutions to hosting refugees. The report also calls on the international community to provide significantly more support to Kenya as a major refugee hosting country.

The migrant crisis continues to have a huge impact in the international world. Earlier this month the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that the governments of France and the UK are failing in their obligation to protect refugee children [JURIST report] in the Calais Jungle refugee camp. Also in November a UN human rights expert called for new approaches [JURIST report] to prevent trafficking among increasing numbers of people fleeing conflict. In October the UNHCR called 2016 the worst year for refugees [JURIST report] crossing the Mediterranean Sea as the death toll reached its highest point. Also in October the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention called on the US government to abolish the mandatory detention [JURIST report] of migrants, especially asylum seekers, from all countries.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull [official website] on Monday announced [press release] an agreement with the US to resettle refugees currently in detention centers on the South Pacific islands of Nauru and Manus. The agreement will prioritize the resettlement of women, children and families, and will be carried out under the auspices of the UN High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) [official website]. According to Turnbull, the resettlement plan would be a one-off agreementonly available to those currently in the regional processing centers and would not be offered to asylum seekers illegally reaching Australian shores in the future. US Secretary of State John Kerry [official profile] acknowledged [press release] the deal in New Zealand on Sunday, saying that we in the United States have agreed to consider referrals from UNHCR on the refugees. Advocacy groups are concerned about the lack of details offered regarding the resettlement proceedings. Daniel Webb, Director of Legal Advocacy at the Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) [advocacy website] commented that the agreement was far from a plan [statement] and that the announcement was full of holes. No timeframe. No numbers. No detail on what the government will do with the hundreds of innocent people who look like they might be left behind.

Australian refugees and their treatment have been a topic of discussion among international human rights organizations as of late. In August, Australia announced [JURIST report] that Australia and Papua New Guinea intended on closing the controversial Manus Island detention center. That same month Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued reports [JURIST report] stating that Australia is ignoring inhumane treatment of detainees in Nauru. In May, Papua New Guinea officials stated Australian refugees are not being detained [JURIST report] on Manus Island, as they are given access to mainland Australia, although refugee advocates believe that the refugees are facing arbitrary restrictions to the mainland. The statement by officials followed a ruling by the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court that the Australian off-shore detention facility was illegal, in direct opposition to a February ruling [JURIST report] by the Australian Supreme Court earlier that found the off-shore detention to be legal.
[JURIST] Hong Kongs high court on Tuesday prohibited two newly-elected lawmakers from taking their seats in Hong Kongs Legislative Council [official website] following their recent refusal to declare allegiance to China. Upon taking their oaths last month, Baggio Leung and Yau Wai-Ching declared allegiance [JURIST report] instead to the Hong Kong nation and began protesting against China for pro-democracy rights. Judge Thomas Au Hing-cheung ruled [Guardian report] that their willful and deliberate attempt to insult China and promote Hong Kongs independence invalidated their oaths. Their collaborative actions were found in violation of Hong Kongs newly modified Basic Law [materials], which requires all of those taking office to sincerely and solemnly declare allegiance to China. Yau and Leung referred to the ruling as evidence that Hong Kongs elections are meaningless and may be overturned by the government at will. The two lawmakers strongly expressed their intention to appeal the matter.

Chinas human rights record has garnered international attention for the governments treatment of the growing civil rights movement [JURIST op-ed] in the country, led by a number of prominent rights activists and lawyers. Last week more than 1,000 Hong Kong lawyers dressed in black marched [JURIST report] through the city in silence in opposition of the National Peoples Congresss decision to bar Yau and Leung from office. A Hong Kong court in August sentenced three leaders of the 2014 pro-democracy protests [JURIST report] who were convicted on charges related to their occupation of a government building. In January Chinese authorities brought charges [JURIST report] against seven lawyers from the Beijing Fengrui Law Firm related to events that have allegedly disrupted the public order, including a police shooting. In December prominent Chinese human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang was released [JURIST report] after receiving a suspended sentence. Pu was detained in 2014 on a charge of causing a disturbance after he attended a weekend meeting that urged an investigation into the 1989 crackdown of pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square and was subsequently denied bail.
Reports of US war crimes committed during, and in the aftermath of, the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 provide a reasonable basis for further investigation, the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] determined in a report [text, PDF] released Monday. The report says that members of the US military appear to have subjected at least 61 people to torture, cruel treatment, [and] outrages upon personal dignity in furtherance of US military goals in Afghanistan, largely in 2003 to 2004. Further, the CIA appears to have subjected at least 27 detained persons to torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity and/or rape. While the US is not a party to the ICC, individuals could face prosecution for war crimes committed within a member state, such as Afghanistan.

Other countries have also faced accusations of war crimes in Afghanistan. In September a policing unit in Afghanistan set up to investigate alleged war crimes committed by UK soldiers stationed in the war-torn country reported that it had received around 600 complaints [JURIST report] of ill treatment and abuse occurring between 2005 and 2013. Members of the Royal Military Police are investigating the allegations, and UK Prime Minister Theresa May has expressed her concern that the allegations may be false claims against soldiers. A UK Ministry of Defense spokesperson said that where there are credible complaints an investigation would be conducted. Last year a Warsaw military court acquitted four Polish soldiers [JURIST op-ed] of war crimes over the killing of six civilians in Afghanistan in 2007. The soldiers were nonetheless found guilty of the lesser offense of failing to carry out a military order.
The International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) [advocacy website] on Tuesday urged [press release] the UN [official website] and African Union [official website] to intervene and stop an impending genocide in Burundi. The plea for intervention is based on a report [text, PDF] by the FIDH detailing the rise of violence in Burundi since April 2015 when protests started over President Pierre Nkurunzizas decision to seek a third term. The president has cracked down on any opposition to the regime, and the report estimates that more than 1,000 people have already died and that more than 300,000 have fled the country. Worsening the crisis is the fact that the government has linked the ethnic Tutsis with the protesting, rekindling the feud between the two major ethnic groups in Burundi, the Tutsis and Hutus. The two groups were engaged in civil war in Burundi from 1993 to 2006, which is estimated to have caused 300,000 casualties. The FIDH warns that action must be taken immediately to avoid a genocide and has circulated a petition [text] to urge the UN to step in.

There have been several reports of violence and human rights violations taking place in Burundi since the protesting started, and in April the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced an investigation [JURIST report] into the reports. In October, as a reaction to the announced investigation, Burundi withdrew from the ICC [JURIST report]. Also last month the government of Burundi withdrew permits [JURIST report] from several prominent human rights organizations to operate in the country. The withdrawal of the permits was based on claims that the organizations had spoken out against the government.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee [official websites], as well as an ex-staff member, reached an agreement [stipulation, PDF] to provide requested material to the SEC in relation to an insider trading investigation. New York district judge Paul Gardephe ordered [text, PDF] the government authorities to comply with subpoenas issued by the SEC last year. The subpoenas asked for documents and information from members of the committee and from Brian Sutter, a top congressional health care aide, to assist in its insider trading investigation relating to leaked information about Medicare reimbursement rates within the government. The agreement set a protocol for the SEC to review the documents it sought, and in exchange the House panel would dismiss the appeal of Gardephes 2015 ruling [JURIST report].

The enforcement of securities regulations continues to be a major concern in the US. In October the SEC established new liquidation risk management rules [JURIST report] for mutual funds and exchange-traded funds that require the industry to establish programs that protect shareholders in the event that investors suddenly sell off their assets. Also in October US District Judge Amos L. Mazzant III conditionally dismissed [JURIST report] an SEC suit against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for misleading investors. Also last month a hedge fund manager agreed on a settlement agreement [JURIST report] for SEC charges imposed for a widespread scheme involving the bribery of officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Libya.
The US Supreme Court [official website] on Monday denied certiorari [order list, PDF] in a case brought by Citizens for Objective Public Education (COPE) [advocacy website] against science education policies adopted by the Kansas State Board of Education [official website]. COPE alleged that the teaching of scientific evolution and other natural explanations communicates a religious preference and would result in anti-religious instruction. In April, the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed [opinion, PDF] a 2014 ruling from the US District Court for the District of Kansas [official website] dismissing the case due to lack of standing because COPE failed to show that they had an injury in fact. With the Supreme Courts refusal to review the case, the Tenth Circuit dismissal of the case stands. COPE originally filed [JURIST report] the lawsuit in September 2013.

This is not the first time the Kansas Board of Education has seen controversy regarding its fluctuating scientific standards. In 2007 the Board repealed [NBC report] science guidelines that questioned the accuracy of evolution. This act removed language adopted in 2005, requiring [JURIST report] that students understand not only evolution, but also suggestions that life is too complex to have evolved without help from a higher power. In 1987 the US Supreme Court ruled in Edwards v. Aguillard [opinion] that states may not mandate public schools to teach creationism in order to balance evolution lessons.
[JURIST] The UK Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) [official website] said in a report [report, PDF] Monday that it can find no clear evidence that Saudi Arabia has violated international humanitarian law (IHL) in Yemen. Conceding that it has been unable to form a complete understanding of the Coalitions regard for IHL in its operations in Yemen as they do not have access to all the information required to do so, the FCO rejected the contention that the UK needed to suspend arms sales [Guardian report] to Saudi Arabia. Critics argue that this refusal to suspend arms sales is a prioritization [RT report] of profits over lives. This report was a response to arguments made by select committees recommending the suspension of arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

The rapidly deteriorating situation in Yemen has sparked significant international concern. Last month UN experts investigating the October 8 attack on a packed funeral hall in the Yemeni capital, which is currently under rebel control, accused [JURIST report] the Saudi coalition of violating international humanitarian law. In September independent UN human rights expert Alfred de Zayas said [JURIST report] that [a]rms deals are a major threat to security, peace and human rights. Also in September international human rights groups issued a joint letter [JURIST report] to the permanent representatives of member and observer states of the UN Human Rights Council urging them to support the High Commissioners call [JURIST report] for an international, independent investigation into civilian deaths and injuries in Yemen. In July Human Rights Watch urged [JURIST report] Saudi Arabia and other coalition members to create an independent international inquiry into their attacks on civilian economic structures in Yemen. In March two human rights groups called [JURIST report] for the US, the UK and France to stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia due to accusations and evidence that the weapons are being used in attacks against Yemen.
A United Nations (UN) [official website] rights group released a statement [text, PDF] earlier this month expressing concerns that the US government is ignoring treaty rights, as well as human rights, of Native Americans that are protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline. The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) [official website] released the statement after Grand Chief Edward John [profile], an expert member of the UNPFII, spent three days in the Standing Rock area and composed a report [text, PDF] of his observations. Chief John detailed the interactions he saw, the measures being taken on both sides of the conflict, and the war zone atmosphere that has been created. Chief Johns report and the UNPFII statement both focus on the lack of US government involvement, noting that the US has committed to protecting the rights of Native Americans through multiple treaties. Chief John stated:

The United States, as a demonstration of its recent commitments to protect against human rights violations, must live up to its international human rights commitments with respect to Indigenous peoples and swiftly reverse its current approach of criminalizing Indigenous human rights defenders  those standing up for their solemn treaty rights to lands, territories and resources and their inalienable human rights.

As attention to the conflict rises, protests continue. Hundreds of rallies are scheduled to take place [AP report] today at various locations across the nation, and Robert Kennedy, Jr. is expected to join protesters [AP report] in North Dakota.

The rights and well-being of Native Americans continue to be important issues in the United States. Last month the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled against [JURIST report] two Native American tribes, allowing construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline to move forward. Previously, in September a federal judge partially granted [JURIST report] the tribes request to suspend the construction of the North Dakota crude oil pipeline. The judge only granted a temporary restraining order pending a final ruling. Days later, federal agencies urged [JURIST report] pipeline owner Energy Transfer Partners to pause its lawful building after the federal judge ruled in the companys favor. Also in September a UN human rights expert urged the US government to halt the construction [JURIST report] of the Dakota Access oil pipeline out of respect for the rights of affected Native Americans.
Delegates from the UN Security Council (UNSC) [official website] on Sunday called on [UN News Centre report] officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to take greater responsibility to adopt a consensual and inclusive electoral calendar. A weekend visit by diplomats from UNSC countries aimed to break the deadlock [Reuters report] over whether President Joseph Kabila should step down before an election that was delayed due to slow voter registration. The Council urged Kabila not to run for a third term, as they believe that it could increase violence in the country and reignite regional conflicts. French Ambassador Francois Delattre said that the delegation highlighted the need for a broad inclusive framework in order to reach a broad consensus on a specific electoral timetable, accompanied by confidence-building measures. The Security Council also asked that the ban on public demonstrations be lifted.

UN human rights experts have previously expressed concern over the unjustified ban on protests in Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC. The statement released by the UN says the rights to protest are fundamental [JURIST report] and that, [t]he rights to freedom of expression, and freedom of peaceful assembly and of association are fundamental rights guaranteed by international law. The ban was imposed as a response to demonstrations held in September that expressed discontent over the delayed presidential elections. The election, originally scheduled for November, was pushed back to 2018, a move feared by members of the opposition to be an attempt [JURIST report] by Kabila to remain in office. Kabila, whose presidential term is set to expire in December, denies any involvement.
Industrie 4.0 is the trending buzz terminology in the manufacturing sector  with BMW and Daimler among many prominent proponents  and encompasses the digitalisation of industry value chains. just-autos Calum MacRae caught up with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thomas Bauernhansl of the Fraunhofer IPA, who is one of the worlds foremost experts on Industrie 4.0, to find out what the implications are likely to be for the automotive sector.

just-auto: Firstly, Professor Bauernhansl can you tell us a little bit about the Fraunhofer IPA and what your day job looks like?

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thomas Bauernhansl: With nearly 1,000 employees, Fraunhofer IPA is one of the largest institutes in the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. It has an annual budget of over EUR60 million, with more than one third of it coming from industrial projects. Our 14 departments are supplemented by six business units: Automotive, Machinery and Equipment Industry, Electronics and Microsystems, Energy, Medical Engineering and Biotechnology and Process Industry. This structure enables us to help our practice partners improve their market position as well as support their market entry into new application fields. Our strategic cornerstones are sustainable projects with high industry participation. Mass sustainability aims at minimising the consumption of resources while maximising the standard of living. In flagship projects, such as the Ultra-efficiency Factory, Fast Storage BW, the Center for Lightweight Production Technology and the Center for Smart Materials, we are putting this concept into practice together with our partners from industry, university research and government. Mass personalisation unites the advantages of economies of scale and scope. In ARENA2036, the research campus for smart manufacturing in automotive industries and in Campus Personalized Production, we are working on ways to manufacture personalised products in batch sizes of one at the same price as mass-produced products.

j-a: All this is enabled to some degree by Industrie 4.0, referred to by some as the fourth industrial revolution  how do you see it?

TB: It certainly is a paradigm shift that affects all of us. I think that digitisation of society and especially production driven by the Internet of Things and Services truly is a revolution comparable to the invention of steam power. But like any revolution it will take time to be fully realised; in this case a timeframe of the next 10-15 years.

j-a: We see in the automotive industry  indeed in any industry  the ethos of continuous improvement. Do you think having such a distinct staging post as Industrie 4.0 runs counter to this ethos?

TB: On the one hand, in the framework of Industrie 4.0 there will be continuous improvement. But there will also be disruptive changes. The changes come unexpected, occur quite often and will be comprehensive. The digital transformation of value creation, especially in the automotive industry, has two aspects. It is used as a tool to improve existing processes, thus addressing the area of continuous improvement. Then again there also are disruptions. New possibilities arise, such as organising mobility (using external resources to provide mobility services). In the automotive industry some technical developments are already under way. On the one hand mobility as a service in the sense of the digital transformation, everything becomes a service (XaaS). On the other hand we see the comprehensive electrification of vehicles, which leads to a further technical revolution in the technical construction of vehicles and also in the value-added processes. The third aspect is superimposing on the first two: the autonomisation of vehicles with autonomous driving. This leads to a completely new  and especially emotional  perception of vehicles.

With continuous improvement, you can optimize what you already know, but the future looks quite different under Industrie 4.0.

j-a: Complexity management is seen as one of the biggest challenges for the automotive industry. Can you explain how Industrie 4.0 will help?

TB: With the three megatrends discussed already, which are associated with technological changes, but also with changes in business models, IT architectures, etc., a very high level of complexity arises.

The whole thing has to work globally, but should be adapted to local and personal needs. If we try to deal with this complexity with the existing value-added systems or bring them into the market as a critical success factor (to meet the market requirements), then we die of complexity. We will lose to complexity and profitability will be reduced to zero or worse.

Therefore, it is important to develop completely new means of dealing with complexity, and Industrie 4.0 and digitisation helps. It helps because a system that is complex always reacts to an increase in autonomy and decentralisation. If I want to be flexible, I need to decentralise and increase the autonomy of the system. And these are the basic principles of Industrie 4.0. We network everything and thus bring decentralised responsibility into the work system and thus increase the autonomy of these work systems.

At the same time, the value added changes away from the classical pipeline orientation to a platform orientation. We have very non-hierarchical cooperation structures, which are also decentralised. The technological enabler is comprehensive networking in real-time, the internet of things and services and people.

j-a: How do you recommend that companies implement 4.0? Holistically or on a project-by-project basis?

TB: There are basically two ways to implement Industrie 4.0. First, by outsourcing a company unit, like Trumpf in Ditzingen did with the Axoom platform in Karlsruhe. Second, within the core business.

But first we must distinguish between bottom-up and top-down. It is very important that you develop a clear vision from the top as a guide and then turn it into a rough roadmap of how you want to get there. To do this, one has to deal intensively with the topic. Business leadership must fully understand and have been convinced that it is the correct direction to go in. Then, in a second, bottom-up step, you have to ensure that the workforce can contribute to this process through user cases, qualification measures, etc. The third question is the implementation. When it comes to disruptive business models, it makes sense for many companies to not house this business in their existing structure, but to distinguish the two worlds. One is the new disruptive theme, the other is the evolutionary digital enhancement of the existing business model. The disruptor is taken outside of the companys structure either as a start-up or through acquisition.

There is no patented recipe for change management in a company to carry out a digital transformation. It can make great sense to move an organisation, which drives Industrie 4.0 in the enterprise, outside of the parent organisations. They can be protected against the classic controlling instruments, which can over-analyse and stymie. The new organisations (start-ups) also need some protection from the people, who may not be able to change, but whom may hold leadership positions and thus exercise power. Protection also has to be placed in front of employees who are afraid of losing their jobs and therefore do not want to push the development forward. In Germany, there are massive fears that the digital transformation is changing roles and that jobs will be lost.

j-a: The security vulnerabilities of the Internet of Things was believed to be a factor in the successful cyber attacks centred on the US (the Distributed Denial of Service attack on 21 October), how can companies manage this risk?

TB: In Europe, especially in Germany, we have very high security standards. This is why we recommend SMEs to instal and use German digital production platforms. At my institute, the Fraunhofer IPA, the Virtual Fort Knox was built-up and is now commercially online. But there is no such thing as absolute safety. There never was and probably will never be.

There are already enough technologies to protect companies. But there will never be 100% protection. The main safety gaps that we see are in the people who are not sufficiently sensitised to the vulnerabilities. In this context, it is useful to outsource certain capabilities  like cloud technologies  because they can be better handled by service providers. We need to rethink and develop a security culture within companies and to sensitise our employees and to ask ourselves what we can do by ourselves and where we need cooperation with communities that are subject to uniform rules to ensure the security of the cooperation space.

j-a: Do you see your work as being in competition with the Industrial Internet Consortium (the Massachusetts-based organisation founded by AT&T, Cisco, General Electric, Intel, and IBM)?

TB: On the contrary. There is a strong need to cooperate, even for competitors. The digital transformation not only changes competition between companies, but also between economies. Economies that export a lot, such as Germany, need to import knowledge to keep a balance. For us, this means that a digital transformation of companies, which in any case are largely global, cannot be realised through a national initiative, but only through international cooperation and competition, coopetition if you like. This is already difficult on the corporate level and certainly more on the economic level, but we have to learn to work like this, to act like that, otherwise we cannot lever the potential opportunities.

j-a: Can you explain how a company could perform a cost-benefit analysis on Industrie 4.0 implementation at a factory versus continuing with 3.0 practices?

TB: Especially indirect areas will be fully automated within Industrie 4.0 (e.g. order and distribution, quality management, marketing, sales etc.) so it is obvious that there is a huge saving potential. But we do not recommend that companies calculate and compare everything down to the last detail, because theyll usually lack the means to assess properly. It is much more important to determine at a qualitative level what are the developments that will come anyway and cannot be avoided. Then the question is not whether one does this, but when and in which form.

From there it is a good idea to carry out the projects which have the highest relevance and involve a small implementation risk, but that involve as many employees as possible. That should be done in the form of a first proof of concept, then use cases, then business cases. Then one will be able to understand the mechanisms and knowledge to assess properly will have been built up. On this basis, you can decide how to plan and start to layout a detailed technology roadmap.

j-a: How do you see 4.0 changing automotive production? Will it work equally well through the tiers and at the OEMs?

TB: ARENA2036  Active Research Environment for the Next Generation of Automobiles and 2036 because it will be the 150th birthday of the automobile  is our research factory for the production of the future, and also our notion for automotive production in general. It set up a revolutionary hybrid concept for an adaptive production of future smart automobiles using innovative robots as the base. Whereas today the manufacturing of automobiles is timed and synchronised on the assembly line, tomorrow there will be decoupled, fully flexible and highly integrated production systems. In such a hall, assembly stations are not interlinked and can  in addition to just assembling  carry out other tasks such as coating. Therefore, we use the term process module for defined manufacturing and assembly operations. Since many of these process modules work side by side all necessary technologies for vehicle production can be provided. The carbody is put on its wheels and equipped with the respective control and communication technology. Without needing any handling technology or main computer, such a rolling carbody moves to the required stations and gives the impulse for the respective build further along. Thus we gain a decentralised, very robust system which can quickly adapt to alterations.

Thus, the vehicle drives autonomously as a cyber-physical system (CPS) through the production modules in the assembly hall. The modules work in different cycles. This way, individualised manufacturing steps with scalable tasks can be integrated into the assembly. The vision of the fenceless factory will be a reality soon, because the current man-machine-collaboration is being pushed intensely.

We have our research campus ARENA2036 to answer this question and see a revolutionary production system in the future. As an industry weve already maximised Fordism and Taylorism, reached the end of measurement and takt-time and we replace it now. We need a highly flexible value-added system with process modules, which are connected and supplied by flexible logistics systems. These flexible process modules can be operated by the OEM as well as the supplier on a common value-added surface. We use the results and connect them with the possibilities of the internet of things and services and thus come to a very flexible and changeable production system. This manufactures no longer a single car model but several models and corresponding derivatives, depending on customer requirements, in different numbers and equipment variants. And the whole thing is highly economic. The first results we have achieved here show that we can achieve a 20-25% area reduction, reduce personnel costs by 25%, and reduce planning effort by more than 40%.

j-a: For many companies PLM and ERP implementation has not brought the benefits advertised, how is 4.0 going to be different?

TB: The nature of the systems is quite different. PLM and ERP are highly integrated systems without a service-oriented architecture and take root and movement data for themselves and then make it accessible only to the internal functionalities of the system. In the future, we will separate these levels. We separate the application from the data and we pack everything into a service-oriented architecture. The result is that I can very flexibly use different functions of a system from different manufacturers. I go into an app store when I can decide what support I would like to have in which process. This can be a support today, i.e. coming from supplier A and supplier B tomorrow. And that gives me a high degree of flexibility and ensures that the competition will continue to exist even after the implementation of a system and with this effect I will achieve a higher benefit at a lower cost.

j-a: Industrie 4.0 is a component of the German governments 2014 High-Tech Strategy: Innovations for Germany. Do you see it giving Germany a continued competitive advantage and what lessons can be learnt by other countries around their implementation of industrial policy?

TB: Industrie 4.0 is a big hit in Germany because we have managed to give a name to an industrial transformation that is highly relevant to industrial competitiveness which is very clear and memorable. This leads to a high level of political interest, as well as from businesses, and gives this topic a helpful tailwind. At the same time, it has become a brand for industrial change and the industrial strength of Germany, worldwide. And this helps us in the marketing of the corresponding technologies.

I can only recommend that other countries orient themselves similarly. You do not have to call everything Industrie 4.0, but it makes sense to give the baby a name!

j-a: You talk about 10 guidelines for the value-added system of the future. Within them you talk about 4.0 no longer having separated production and logistics functions. Can you elaborate?

TB: Today, the production and assembly system is planned independently of the logistics system. As a result, only an area of 10-15% is used for the actual value-added activities (in the assembly process, for example). A great deal of space around the logistics is needed for supplying the system with the right material at the right time. Because of the necessary horizontal as well as vertical flexibility (i.e. volatile markets bring constantly changing requirements, which is reflected in increased variants) I cannot realise the required flexibility and changeability in the strongly planned and timed production and assembly system that we have presently, combined with a logistics system that controls the planning and consumption.

If todays logistics systems tried to match production systems the complexity would explode and it becomes very uneconomical. That is why it makes sense to separate from this production system and to integrate and plan production and assembly in the future. Then, as explained above, there are process modules which have both a value-adding part and a logistic part. This means that material is also stored, prepared and installed directly in the process module. If so, the material does not travel to the product any longer, but the product comes  in parts at least  to the material which is stored in these process modules, prepared, partly also manufactured and assembled. This results in a tremendous increase in flexibility and thus an enormous cost reduction.

j-a: Your guideline 7  shift process complexity to where it can be handled most efficiently  seems difficult to understand, but is it just the customer-pull of lean thinking optimised by our new digital environment?

TB: This is about the fact that I am more and more able to pass on complexity-driven content to other protagonists in the value-added system. More and more I can involve the customer and let them do things. The customer is already today in a position to configure his own product and does not need any sales support. He is able to order it himself. More and more, he will also be able to influence the design through digital platforms, he can make the service on the product in parts by himself, if he is upgraded via the platform. There, the customer can get the knowledge he needs to run his product optimally.

Through the internet of things and services, the so-called access economy comes about. I have access to my customers, know very much about him (passive access) because he is surrounded with sensors that watch him. I know where he is, when he uses my product and how he uses it. However, I can also use this access to the customer to integrate it into my value creation and to make things happen  I pass complexity-driven content to the customer (as I said it has been developed, ordered, planned for production).

At the same time, however, I also have access to resources, my own and external resources, also in the sense of knowledge, to communities that develop things, for example, open source. Now I have the possibility to distribute the contents in my whole value creation system so that I end up at the lowest possible complexity costs.

I concentrate on what I can do better than others and orchestrate it via the Internet of Things and Service so that a completely new business model is created which is highly productive and the whole thing is at a very low cost.

j-a: How can Industrie 4.0 handle the in-house complexity that OEMs have to deal with because of different market requirements  e.g. chassis settings; emission calibrations; powertrains; trim levels etc?

TB: Here one needs a product modularisation. The vehicle architectures are changing very much, think of the BMW i3 with its Life and Drive module, or a new module/platform structure of vehicles with the goal that the corresponding modules can be produced in corresponding process module landscapes. There is not only a modular product module, but also a process module which can be flexibly networked with each other, and then filled with corresponding know-how and added value both in the development of the product and the process modules. This means I decentralise and bind the customer by giving him the opportunity to bring both the module combination and personalised elements that he himself creates. This makes it possible to completely redefine the principle of complexity distribution in the automotive industry.

j-a: Will changeable digital production require the participation of all members of a processes value chain? For example, in vehicle manufacture, if there are several suppliers still at an Industry 3.0 level is that compatible with an Industrie 4.0 OEM?

TB: Gradually, all participants in the value-added system, which are now in the supply pyramid, will be covered by the transformation. First of all, the ones that are very close to the OEM, or the ones that draw a great advantage from these principles. The platform-based economy brings together supply and demand almost non-hierarchically because it is not a classical pyramid anymore but a platform and therefore the access from the OEE to the 3rd tier supplier is given in real time but also vice versa. Such a platform also makes performance very quickly transparent and companies that do not generate any additional benefits through this networking become the commodity suppliers. And here the mechanisms used in the second and third industrial revolutions are coming to bear, namely the economy of scale effects, because companies have to produce in huge quantities to be profitable when they are the commodity supplier. We will see corresponding consolidation effects among those who cannot generate additional digital returns in the sense of customer benefits.

j-a: Theres been a pilot 4.0 project at Bosch thats delivered a 30-50% increase in the performance of value creating tasks  can you talk more about this project and what has been involved?

TB: We were not involved in this Bosch project, although we do work with Bosch and have carried out similar projects with other companies. We ourselves did similar projects with other companies. As the results of the project you mention were published I can say that it managed to make the inventory transparent along the entire value-added chain. Real-time inventory information has been brought together with real-time demand information. As a result, they were able to reduce the buffer stock, reduce inventory by 30%, increase the overall productivity by 10% and, at the same time, reduce the necessary milk runs by 10%. The 30-50% are the expectations of different experts from different companies. They believe that through the digital transformation, a total performance increase of 30-50% is possible at the end. And the projects that we have carried out so far, which have had a value-added system changing aspect, show that this is to be achieved, in some cases even exceeded (60-65%).

j-a: Are todays automotive players all prepared for Industrie 4.0 and the seeming switch from all thats been invested in Six Sigma and lean production?

TB: Many automotive manufacturers are prepared because they have long dealt with the topic of digital transformation, e.g. with the digital factory, manufacturing execution systems (MES), networking of production plants, etc. In the area of process management and control, too, a lot has already been achieved. Now comes a very big step because we go into a whole new form of cooperation, because we need a whole new IT architecture and at the same time we need to change the business models. So it is very important to have this good foundation, that is, process standards and process capability. But there is also a lot more to do for automotive industries and they should get started as soon as possible.
Owners of 2500 and 3500 Dodge Ram trucks have filed a class-action lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler and engine manufacturer Cummins, claiming that the two companies conspired to knowingly deceive consumers and regulators of illegally high levels of diesel emissions in their vehicles.

According to the complaint, the affected Cummins diesel engines serve to conceal true emissions output, and in doing so cause the catalytic converter to wear out more quickly, resulting in the vehicle burning fuel at a higher rate, and often requiring customers to replace the converter after the warranty has expired at a cost of US$3,000-$5,000.

The lawsuit claims that, in order to produce a diesel engine that had desirable power and fuel economy, yet emissions levels low enough to meet government standards, Chrysler and Cummins developed the 6.7-litre diesel engine with sophisticated NOx adsorber technology.

The primary emission control after-treatment technologies include a diesel particulate filter (DPF) and a NOx adsorber catalyst system to capture and reduce NOx into less harmful substances, such as nitrogen and oxygen. Testing shows that the catalysts are not durable and do not meet emission standards. Furthermore, injection of fuel to regenerate the DPF occurs with excessive frequency. NOx emissions during these regeneration events are nearly 10 times the emission standards, according to the lawsuit.

The legal limit of NOx emissions for stop-and-go driving is 200 mg/mile. When tested, Dodge Ram 2500s emitted 702 mg/mile on average, and 2,826 mg/mile at maximum emissions. The California (and other Section 177 states that have adopted the California standard) NOx limit for highway conditions is 400 mg/mile. Testing for the 2500 shows an average of 756 and max of 2,252 mg/mile. During these periods of excessive emissions, the vehicles on-board diagnostic (OBD) system does not capture fault codes nor provide any indication of excessive emissions to the operator.

Fiat Chrysler said in a statement cited by Reuters it does not believe that the claims brought against it are meritorious and the company will contest this lawsuit vigorously.

Cummins spokesman Jon Mills told the news agency the lawsuit has no merit. We are obviously disappointed in the effort to tarnish our image and we plan to vigorously defend ourselves.

Reuters reported last month Fiat Chrysler and Cummins have been fighting over the $200m estimated cost for a recall of 130,000 newer 2500 Ram pickup trucks equipped with Cummins diesel engines that could exceed US pollution limits.

The US Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board have demanded a recall of 2013-2015 model year Ram 2500 pickup trucks with 6.7-litre Cummins diesel engines because moisture can lead to the deactivation of the selective catalyst reduction system, causing excess nitrogen oxide emissions, Cummins said.

Fiat Chrysler has sued Cummins to recover the $60m it has spent to date repairing 42,000 trucks at its own expense, a company lawyer said in court documents cited by Reuters. Settlement talks are ongoing.

Cummins counter-sued, saying Fiat Chrysler would not cooperate in the recall for one reason  money and said the automaker was holding both Cummins and its own customers hostage.

When the emissions system fails, the warning light goes on and if the vehicle isnt fixed soon the vehicles go into limp mode that allow them to only be driven very slowly, Reuters said.
Dallas, 11/15/2016 /SubmitPressRelease123/

Online retail giant Amazon has famously unveiled plans to begin delivering packages by way of drone. Now, the eponymous company behind the Taser stun gun says it is considering developing drones equipped with the ability to fire from the skies.

It sounds like science fiction, but Taser company representatives have already met with police departments to discuss the viability of police drones capable of shooting suspects.

If you have been charged with a state or federal crime in Texas, the Dallas criminal defense lawyers at Broden & Mickelson can help. Dont wait to speak to a criminal defense attorney about your case.

Taser Police Drones

According to a Taser spokesman, quadcopter drones outfitted with stun gun technology could potentially be used by police departments and other law enforcement agencies in use-of-force situations that pose a safety risk to officers.

The Taser representative went on to say that the idea for the armed drone came from the Dallas Police Department, which already uses a bomb-disposal robot. In July 2016, the robot was employed to remotely kill a sniper in a shootout. Other police departments around the country have purchased similar robots, which can remove a threat without compromising the safety of officers or bystanders.

However, the drones would also be self-driving instead of being piloted by policesomething that has the potential to raise tough questions about the decision to use force. When a robot is technically the one making the decision to fire, is it really possible to determine how the robot made its decision, or whether that decision was justified?

This is not the first time a company has proposed the idea of an armed drone. A different company debuted an armed drone in 2014, but squashed the project after the drone shot an intern with a stun gun.

Armed Police Drones Approved in North Dakota

The technology may be controversial, but it is steadily inching closer to being mainstream. Far from being a concept, it already exists in at least one state. In 2015, lawmakers in North Dakota okayed police to mount weapons on drones. The new law requires that armed police drones be equipped with less than lethal force, however, one report points out that allegedly non-lethal weapons caused 39 deaths in 2015 alone. Other non-lethal weapons, such as tear gas and rubber bullets, have caused serious injuries.

Discuss Your Case with a Texas Criminal Defense Lawyer

Have you been charged with a crime at the state or federal level? Get an aggressive criminal defense team on your side today. The lawyers at Broden & Mickelsen are Board Certified in Criminal Law and Criminal Appellate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Get your free case evaluation from a Texas state and federal criminal defense lawyer today by calling 214-720-9552.

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Much of the 2008 financial crisis in the United States has been traced back to Wall Street, however, comparatively few bankers and financiers have been forced to answer for their alleged misconduct. Now, a relatively new federal agency wants to change that.

Financial crimes are taken very seriously by federal prosecutors. If you have been charged with a white-collar crime, its important to speak to a white-collar crime lawyer as soon as possible.

What Is SIGTARP?

Established eight years ago, the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) has brought criminal charges against 85 bankers. The agency has also been instrumental in sending 36 individuals in the financial sector to prison for white collar crimes.

SIGTARP was formed in response to the financial crisis that prompted the biggest recession in U.S. history. The agency is small, but it has enforcement powers on par with the FBI, and it is authorized to make arrests and to perform searches in connection with suspected financial crimes. The agency also oversees the administration of the $40 billion bailout fund put in place to assist troubled homeowners affected by financial misconduct in the lending industry.

According to the Washington Post, however, much of these prosecutions have involved small- and mid-size bankswith the heads of the countrys biggest banks and Wall Street financial services companies remaining free.

SIGTARP officials say that getting at the CEOs of these major firms has been a challenge, as a pervasive Wall Street culture historically keeps its top talent in the dark when it comes to fraudulent conduct.

Push for New Regulations

To counter this, SIGTARP is pushing for new legislation modeled on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which requires companies of all sizes to make financial disclosures to protect investors from fraud. Similar laws would make it mandatory for CEOs and other front office executives in the financial sector to review their companies financial reports. By making executives accountable for their organizations policies, SIGTARP would have legal standing to prosecute banking and finance CEOs in cases involving fraudulent practices.

Discuss Your Case with a Texas White Collar Crime Lawyer

If you have been charged with a white collar crime or financial crime, call a Texas white collar crime lawyer right away. The lawyers at Broden & Mickelsen are Board Certified in Criminal Law and Criminal Appellate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Get your free case evaluation from a Federal white-collar crime lawyer in Dallas today by calling 214-720-9552.

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New York City, NY, 11/15/2016 /SubmitPressRelease123/

According to a study published by the American Medical Association, injuries among cyclists have jumped sharply, especially among people over age 45. Between 1998 and 2013, bicycle injuries increased by 28 percent, and hospitalizations for bicycle accident injuries rose by a staggering 120 percent.

Most people dont think catastrophic injury when they think of a bicycle accident. However, bicycle accidents involving cars and trucks more often than not lead to devastating injuries. When you consider that the average car weighs in at around 4,000 pounds, its easy to understand why these accidents are often catastrophic. If you have been injured in a bicycle accident in New York City or the surrounding areas, speak to a bicycle accident lawyer right away.

What to Do after a Bicycle Crash

The reality is that riding a bike means sharing the road with motor vehicles. With smartphone use continuing to rise, drivers are more distracted than ever before. Every time you get on your bike, you risk being involved in a crash. Knowing what to do after a collision can help you preserve your important legal rights.

Call the Police. Always report the accident, even if the driver speeds away from the scene. In a high-traffic area like New York City, there is a good chance the police will track down the motorist. You should also get a police report, as your insurance company will probably require one.

Take Photos. This is where your smartphone can be an invaluable asset. Use your phone to take photos of the scene, your bicycle, and your injuries. Obviously, you should only take pictures if your injuries permit it. If you are too hurt to take photos without further injuring yourself, ask someone else to take them, or wait until you get to the hospital to begin documenting your injuries.

Get Medical Help. You should always see a doctor after a bicycle crash, even if you assume you are uninjured. The reason is that some injuries arent immediately obvious. It may take a few hours or even days for aches and pains to really kick into high gear. Dont compromise your health by delaying a trip to the doctors office.

Dont Make Statements about Fault. Leave speculation about fault to the police and the accident investigators. If you inadvertently admit fault to the police or an insurance company representative, you could accidentally hurt your case.

New York City Bicycle Accident Law Firm

If you have been injured in a bicycle accident, speak to an experienced New York bicycle accident lawyer right away. Call New York City bicycle accident lawyer, Jonathan C. Reiter, to get a free case evaluation today. You can reach us through our online contact form, or by calling 866-324-9211.

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Dallas, 11/15/2016 /SubmitPressRelease123/

Samsung has made headlines recently, and not in a good way. The Korean technology company was recently forced to recall its entire line of Note7 smartphones after widespread reports of the phones overheating, melting, and even bursting into flames. According to a CNN Money report, the company is now facing over 500 lawsuits in Korea over the phones, and experts anticipate that this is just the first wave of litigation for Samsung.

Here in the U.S., Samsung has agreed to pull 2 million phoneswhich just launched in August of this yearoff the market and issue refunds. Samsung has also announced that it is shutting down the entire Note7 line. The FAA has urged passengers not to carry the phones on flights, and now the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has weighed in, telling truck drivers not to drive with Note7s on board.

If you have been injured in a big truck crash, you need the help and support of an experienced Texas semi-truck accident lawyer. Dont wait to speak to a truck accident attorney about your case.

FMCSA Says No to Note7s

According to the FMCSA, there have been 96 reports of Note7 batteries overheating and 13 reports of burns associated with the phone. Dozens of Samsung customers have also reported significant property damage. The problem is related to the Note7s lithium ion battery, which can short-circuit when inner components are allowed to touch, causing highly-flammable liquid inside the battery to ignite.

The FMCSAs safety advisory says it has not outright banned the devices on commercial vehicles, however, it advises all drivers and passengers to turn off their Note7s inside a truck, to disconnect the device from any charging equipment, to disable any applications that could activate the phone, and to keep the Note7 on the drivers person or in an accessible bag (and not in a compartment or bag that is not easily accessible).

The Note7 has the potential to be especially dangerous for truck drivers, as there have been multiple reports of phones melting and catching fire while being charged at night. This poses a serious risk to truck operators, who often sleep in their vehicles in between shifts and may charge their phones while theyre resting.

Eberstein & Witherite, LLP: Texas Truck Accident Lawyers

If you or a loved one has been injured in a semi-truck crash, call the Texas truck accident lawyers at Eberstein & Witherite, LLP 24/7 to speak to an experienced tractor-trailer accident lawyer about your case. Lawyers are available to speak to you today. You can reach us through our online contact form, or by calling Texas Semi Truck Accident Lawyers of 1800 Truck Wreck 1-800-TRUCK WRECK (1-800-878-2597).

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Animal behaviorist, autism expert Temple Grandin to present 175th Landon Lecture at Kansas State University on Nov. 29

Monday, Nov. 14, 2016

Temple Grandin, world-renowned autism spokesperson, livestock industry expert on animal behavior, author and professor at Colorado State University, will present Kansas State University's 175th Landon Lecture on Tuesday, Nov. 29. Photo courtesy of Colorado State University. | Download this photo.





MANHATTAN  Kansas State University will host Temple Grandin, world-renowned autism spokesperson and livestock industry expert on animal behavior, for a Landon Lecture milestone at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 29, in McCain Auditorium.



"As one of the nation's most prestigious and well-known lecture series, the 175th Landon Lecture on Public Issues with Dr. Temple Grandin should not be missed," said Jackie Hartman, the university's chief of staff and director of community relations. "The lecture is free and open to the public."



Grandin, a professor of animal science at Colorado State University, will present "Successful Education of Students with Different Kinds of Minds," which will touch on multiple areas of her expertise, including teaching.



"Dr. Grandin's phenomenal mind has helped shape United States' animal welfare practices and how we think about people on the autism spectrum," Hartman said. "She truly is a global leader in multiple fields, and it is a privilege to host her for this milestone in the Landon Lecture series."



Grandin showed signs of autism at an early age and self-describes her unique thought process as thinking in pictures. In addition to a successful teaching career, she is an accomplished livestock equipment designer and an effective animal welfare advocate. In 2010, Grandin was among Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People" in the hero category. She is one of the authors of "Emergence: Labeled Autistic" and the author "Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism," both which inspired the 2010 HBO film "Temple Grandin" starring Claire Danes.



She is the author of several books  including the New York Times best-seller "Animals in Translation"  and gives many talks about animal welfare and the autistic brain, such as her TED talk "The world needs all kinds of minds." She received her Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Franklin Pierce College, a Master of Science in animal science from Arizona State University in 1975 and a doctorate in animal science from the University of Illinois in 1989.



Since 1966, the Landon Lecture Series, named in honor of former Kansas governor and political leader Alfred M. Landon, has invited global leaders to share thoughts about national and global issues. The lecture series has hosted U.S. presidents, Supreme Court justices, national and global political leaders, and many other prominent figures.






You are Jewish and you are an immigrant and you have an accent and they will never accept you. You will never be one of them.

Dear Dad,

When I was a kid, you pointed out that you and I had the same scar on our foreheads.

Did you also get it by stumbling while dancing and falling on the sharp corner of a coffee table? I asked.

No, you said. I got it because a boy in class threw a rock at me because I was Jewish.

I grew up listening to stories like that about some of the things you went through as a Jew growing up in Soviet Russia.

Kids broke chairs over your head for being Jewish. You couldnt get into university even though you had the best grades in your class because you were Jewish. My mother, who is not Jewish, was told by an old lady as she was taking my two-year-old self for a walk around the churchyard that she shouldnt bring me out in public because my eyes [were] too Jewish.

I knew your dad abandoned you as a kid and your mom was an alcoholic and that you had to learn early to fight and take care of yourself. I knew you were all alone, and that you carried that bitterness with you into adulthood, and that even when you were married and had a child you still felt alone. I knew that because of the way you would gravitate toward the corners of the room at parties, looking around suspiciously, like even among your own circle of friends you were always waiting for someone to throw a rock.

You worked very hard, working in a factory during the day and playing bass balalaika in restaurants at night. My mother said you did not get more than two hours of sleep for years, and that the bed in the communal apartment in St Petersburg had bed bugs.

She also said that on your first date, you invited her over for spare ribs, but they turned out to be just bones. You still always paid for her cab home, even if it meant you would go hungry.

I respect that  and I respect what you went through.

When I was one, you stopped talking to your mother entirely, because you let her babysit me and she fell asleep on a blanket with the window open in the dead of winter. I remember trying to close the window but being too weak to do it, and trying to pry the blanket from under her stone-cold body, before crying so hysterically that the neighbors had to bust down the door.

A decade later, you wrote your mother a letter in which you said, No matter whats happened between us, you will always be my mother. The letter came back unread. She was not at her address.

You moved to America to start a life for us, working at a gas station. You became the manager of the gas station, then the manager of the parking lot across the street as well. When I was five, you brought me and my mother over. When we entered our Brooklyn apartment, I couldnt believe how clean it was. I had my own room. It was filled with toys. There was even a television that had several channels. It had never occurred to me that televisions can have so many channels, and this seemed like a symbol of American magic.

I remember watching you anxiously rip open letters about your green card as though they were letters from a lover across the ocean.

You loved America. I remember watching you anxiously rip open letters about your green card as though they were letters from a lover across the ocean. We bought a car, then another, then another. I named the white one Snow White, the red one Little Red Riding Hood, and the black one Black Beauty. We had an apartment with rats, then a larger apartment without rats, then a big, white house on a tree-lined street.

On 9/11, you hung an American flag from the second-floor window that went all the way down to the ground. You shouted God Bless America! like any other proud, white, middle-class, American male. You felt like you finally belonged.

I didnt feel that way. I was the only immigrant in a small private school full of natives and whenever I did anything strange they would call me a commie bastard and tell me to go back to Russia. When I did go back to Russia, I was told I was that I betrayed the motherland and was an enemy of the people.

I understood that I did not belong anywhere, that I would forever be an outsider to either of the two countries to which I was supposed to belong, but for some reason that didnt bother me. I felt like it meant I could find my identity without being muddled by national stereotypes or social pressure, that I could be truly unique. If I didnt belong to anyone, that meant I only belonged to myself, and that was sometimes lonely but mostly liberating.

On November 8, you voted for Trump.

I am not remotely angry at your for voting for him, although his victory crushed me. I understand that some of your reasons are legitimate. You are a Republican dream, a man who built himself up from nothing, who values overcoming adversity, who believes in hard work instead of payouts, and so align yourself strongly with the Republican party.

You are also wary of the Democratic Party because you come from a country that was destroyed by socialism and you know that it can be a path to hell lined with good intentions. You know big government is bad for small business, which means its bad for you. And I understand, though I do not agree with, the fact that you want someone who is going to maintain the world that you want, one in which everyone is straight and successful and has lots of babies.

Like so many Trump voters, you think that putting other people down will make you feel better about yourself.

But what breaks my heart over and over again is your hatred. I cannot stand to be in the same car as you for a single hour because all you do is spill bile everywhere. Hillarys a bitch! Obamas an asshole! Trumps an idiot! Putins is scum of the earth! Look, those fuckers closed the Brooklyn Bridge again!

When Trump won, you nevertheless proudly changed your profile picture to the Republican elephant and wrote a status that said: Democrats! Pack up and leave! Thats such a curious thing to write, dad, not least of all because many of your friends are Democrats.

Its a tragically interesting psychological phenomenon that oftentimes the same people who were persecuted and ostracized feel the need to persecute and ostracize in return. Like so many Trump voters, you think that putting other people down will make you feel better about yourself, but it wont.

You dole out insults to everyone who is different from you and yet are enraged and demand apologies if someone insults you in return. You do not listen to anyone. And if you happen to read this article, you will be angry with me for talking about your mother, and you will not attempt to understand what I was trying to say or where I was coming from.

You gravitate toward people who hate you and abuse those who love you. I know it is because you were abandoned and abused as a kid and are now filled with self-loathing. You subconsciously admire those who hate you, because, deep down, you feel you are not worthy of love. This is a very sad thing. And its a sad thing I see in a lot of people who voted for Trump.

The thing is, you think that you are a white, American, Republican male, but you are not. Instances of anti-Semitism and hatred toward immigrants have spiked in the days since the man you voted for was elected.

You are Jewish and you are an immigrant and you have an accent and they will never accept you. You will never be one of them. You will never belong.

I love you in spite of everything, and I appreciate everything youve done for me, and admire your work ethic and courage. I understand that youve had a hard life and are entitled to your anger.

But, for fucks sake, youre almost 60 years old, get some therapy. We live in a country that allows men like you to get therapy. We live in a country that allows for healing. Stop blaming everyone else for your problems  and start getting help.

Ive told you time and time again that happiness does not come from what everyone around you does. It comes from having a rich inner life.

I do not care if someone calls me a bitch, or tells me I should get raped, which  newsflash!  happens to journalists a lot! I do not care because I know who I am, and I am happy with it, and because of that no one can touch me. This is a very happy thing, in spite of anything that happens politically.

When I was 15, I came downstairs one morning to find you crying on the sofa. I thought I would have friends here, you sobbed. I thought money was all that mattered but it isnt.

It still makes my heart ache to think about it, but at the time I hoped that maybe it was a breakthrough moment. It wasnt.

You still throw rocks at people and then wonder why you are all alone. And the America youve chosen on November 8 is following the same path.

Sincerely,

Your Loving Daughter

This article was originally published on Open Democracy.
KEARNEY - Being a customer of a liquor store he's accused of robbing may have been a Kearney man's downfall.

Gerome Bernard McLaurin, 37, is charged in Buffalo County Court with robbery and using a deadly weapon, a screwdriver, to commit a felony in the early Tuesday morning armed robbery at Bill's Liquor at 2402 Second Ave. McLaurin was arrested on a Buffalo County warrant about 5:45 p.m. Tuesday at a home in the 1700 block of Central Avenue.

In McLaurin's initial court appearance Wednesday, Judge Gerry Jorgensen appointed the Buffalo County Court Public Defender's Office to represent McLaurin. McLaurin told Jorgensen he has no felony convictions, and Tuesday's robbery was out of character.

"I've never done anything like this before. I was totally under the influence. I just made a huge mistake," he said.

If convicted, McLaurin faces one to 50 years in prison for the robbery and one to 20 years in prison and a fine for using the screwdriver to commit the crime. He is being held at the Buffalo County Detention Center on $25,000 bond.

McLaurin is accused of going into Bill's Liquor at about 12:20 a.m. Tuesday wearing a black stocking hat and a hooded sweatshirt, armed with a screwdriver, and robbing the store. Court records say McLaurin walked behind the front counter and demanded the employee open the register.

McLaurin allegedly removed a large amount of cash from the register, then ordered the clerk to the back room, where the clerk dialed 911.

Mike Young, investigations sergeant with the Kearney Police Department, declined to say how much money was taken from the register. However, a police report says it was $500. Young also declined to say whether any of the money was recovered.

A male customer who was going into Bill's Liquor shortly after the robbery told police he saw a man fitting the suspect's description run down the sidewalk west of the liquor store, get into a 1990s style Oldsmobile and leave the area.

Court records say McLaurin owns a vehicle resembling the description of the car seen leaving the robbery scene.

The clerk told police he believed McLaurin had been a customer several times in the past, and that he was "100 percent sure" McLaurin was the robber.

More arrests could be made in the case, Young said.
OMAHA -- Maybe it was because he would have to go along with being called intellectually disabled in scientific terms  dumb in slang terms.

Maybe it was because it wasnt on his agenda Monday.

Whatever the case, convicted killer Nikko Jenkins wanted no part of his attorneys attempts to disqualify him for the death penalty based on his last IQ test  a test that saw him score a 69 at age 17.

Such a score meets the standard for what Nebraska law calls mental retardation. And the U.S. Supreme Court has forbidden executions of people who suffer from mental retardation.

No matter, Jenkins said.

I would like to waive this IQ testimony, he said, interrupting his attorney during his capital-punishment proceedings. Im not portraying that Im under the threshold to procure the death penalty.

Jenkins attorney, Douglas County Public Defender Tom Riley, pressed on anyway.

Im not going to sit here and watch him put a noose around his own neck, Riley said. The overriding aspect we have here is that, whether Mr. Jenkins agrees with it or not, he falls under the statute that precludes capital punishment (for the learning disabled).

This (death penalty hearing) should end here and now.

It will last most of the week.

After four hours of testimony, District Judge Peter Bataillon rejected the low IQ argument. For one, it was an abbreviated test, given to a group of incoming prisoners  and not a more thorough, individual IQ test. For another, the prison psychologist who administered the test said Jenkins completed it in an extremely rapid manner.

Another factor the judge cited: Jenkins had scored an 84 on an IQ test when he was 8. And there were indications, though no substantiation, that he had scored a 92 on an IQ test when he was 15.

Ultimately, the judge said he trusted state psychologist Jennifer Cimpl-Bohns review of Jenkins intellectual abilities, noting that she has spent more than 40 hours with him over the past few years. She described Jenkins as smart with a decent vocabulary  even if he is completely narcissistic.

She attributed his inability to adapt to prison life to a personality disorder, not an intellectual deficit.

Folks with narcissism have an inflated view of themselves, she said. He believes hes smarter than everyone else.

That trait was on full display as the death penalty hearing began Monday. Bataillon  along with Judge Terri Harder of western Nebraska and Mark Johnson of northeast Nebraska  will decide whether Jenkins should receive the death penalty for a spree in which he killed four Omahans in 10 days in 2013: Juan Uribe-Pena and Jorge Cajiga-Ruiz on Aug. 11; Curtis Bradford on Aug. 13; and Andrea Kruger on Aug. 21.

The two judges from outside Omaha were introduced to whats become known as the Nikko show.

Four times, Jenkins demanded to be heard  and began speaking without waiting. Such outbursts have become so commonplace that its easy to forget how rarely other defendants speak in court, outside of testifying.

Judge Bataillon politely told Jenkins to wait his turn.

The 30-year-old convict obliged  sort of. At one point, Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine told the judge that Cimpl-Bohn, the psychologist, was present.

Jenkins perked up. Where she at? he said.

Prosecutors have alleged multiple counts of three different aggravating circumstances that could lead to the death penalty: that Jenkins killed multiple people; that he did so to conceal his identity and that he had a substantial history of violent behavior.

At one point, Kleine thumbed through court documents as he recited Jenkins lengthy record, including his convictions for carjacking two women at age 15.

Kleine: And he was sentenced to...

Jenkins: 14 to 15 years.

Earlier, Jenkins called on Kleine to object to the testimony of a doctor who didnt even administer the IQ test. He called her testimony hearsay.

Im just confused right now, an agitated Jenkins grumbled to the judge. My understanding is, we werent going to revisit competency.

Exhibit A, Riley said. A perfect example of him not understanding the words that he says.

Jenkins has repeatedly stated that his primary desire is to get out of solitary confinement  regardless of whether that means he goes to death row. During a hearing two weeks ago, he asserted that he would get more privileges on death row.

Kirk Newring, a former prison psychologist now in private practice, equated Jenkins attitude to suicide by cop, where a suspect with a death wish forces a police officer to shoot him.

This is suicide by state, Newring said. A person is taking active steps to promote their own death. But the instrument is now the state, not himself.

Other court observers have doubted that Jenkins has a death wish. As one law enforcement official noted, Jenkins has never expressed any belief that he might be executed. Rather, he has made predictions that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear his case  and overturn his conviction.

Any appeals seemed years away Monday as the first witness testified to some of Jenkins violent behavior.

In December 2009, Tecumseh prison officials came up with an idea to allow Jenkins to attend a grandmothers funeral in Omaha in the hopes that it would motivate him to behave better in prison.

Luke Morris, a corrections captain, said he and two other prison workers drove Jenkins to the funeral in central Omaha.

After arriving, Jenkins greeted a few relatives, then asked to use the bathroom.

Morris and another prison official escorted Jenkins, who was in leg chains and handcuffs, to the restroom. Once inside, they unlocked one of his handcuffs.

After using the bathroom, Jenkins turned around.

He requested that we let him go, Morris said, or else his boys would come in and it would be a bloodbath.

Morris and a case worker declined. As Jenkins argued, Morris tried to recuff his hand. Jenkins resisted  and punched Morris in the mouth.

A struggle ensued, and prison workers regained control of Jenkins.

It was only then that Jenkins started claiming that an Egyptian god, Apophis, instructed him to attack the prison officials, prosecutor Nissa Jones noted. Likewise, Jenkins often has blamed his crimes on voices from Apophis.

Long before the ill-fated funeral furlough was the ill-fated IQ test. Prison officials administer it, along with other tests, to get a read on inmates intelligence and behavior.

Jenkins finished the abbreviated test in about one-third of the time it normally takes, Cimpl-Bohn said.

Among the words he got right: Talk. Hideous. Pardon.

Among the words he got wrong:

Ignorant.

Pariah.

Doom.
An anonymous tip from a citizen and months of police surveillance have led to the discovery of a large marijuana growing operation in three northwest Omaha homes.

Among the clues for investigators: One of the people in the operation hadn't held a job for almost a decade, and two of the homes had unusually high electric bills  a common occurrence for growing operations.

During a search of the homes, police confiscated $146,202 in cash, 420 marijuana plants and 58.3 pounds of harvested marijuana.

Officers also seized six assault rifles with ammunition, a 2012 Corvette ZR1, three late model Harley-Davidson motorcycles, a Cadillac SUV and a 2007 Chevrolet 2500 HD pickup truck. Also confiscated were eight 100-ounce bars of silver, five 10-ounce bars of silver, one 5-ounce bar of silver and five 1-ounce silver ingots.

This appears to be a fairly sophisticated large-scale operation, said Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine. He declined to elaborate, saying prosecutors will have more information later in court.

The homes were under surveillance from at least February to the end of October, when a married couple were arrested.

Larry K. Christiansen, 32, and Michelle C. Christiansen, 43, of Omaha have each been charged with delivery or intent to deliver a controlled substance, possession of firearms in conjunction with a drug violation and failure to obtain a drug stamp. If convicted, both face up to 75 years in prison.

Kleine said Larry Christiansen was being held on $750,000 bail. Michelle Christiansen was released from jail after posting 10 percent of $25,000 bail; she successfully got her bail reduced from $750,000 to the smaller amount.

Attorneys for the couple declined to comment.

According to search warrants filed in Douglas County Court, the Christiansens own two homes in northwest Omaha where they were growing marijuana  16221 Young St. and 7361 N. 122nd Avenue Circle. The combined value of the homes is $504,000.

The search warrant indicated that surveillance was conducted on those homes and on the Christiansens' townhouse apartment at 15705 Larimore Plaza.

Larry Christiansen told police he also had $13,000 in proceeds from the marijuana operation in a bank account, according to court documents. That account has been frozen by a judge.

Police learned that Larry Christiansen hadn't held a job since 2004 and that the two residences where marijuana was growing had electric bills three to five times higher than neighboring properties.

Officers also searched the trash outside the houses in late February and found marijuana seeds and stems as well as a number of objects associated with drug manufacturing, such as numerous cans of air freshener and dust-mold masks.

On Oct. 18, an investigator conducting surveillance on the Young Street residence noticed a box fan propped in a rear window drawing the odor of fresh marijuana out of the house.

Search warrants were obtained, and the Christiansens were arrested Oct. 31.
KEARNEY  Elbert Howard Loewenstein, 86, of Kearney died Sunday, Nov. 13, 2016, at his home.

Memorial services will be at 1 p.m. Thursday at First Presbyterian Church in Orleans with the Rev. David Irwin officiating. Inurnment will be at Deaver Cemetery near Stamford with military honors by the Stamford American Legion and the U.S. Marine Honor Guard.

There will be no visitation. Wenburg Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements.



He was born Nov. 6, 1930, in Derby, Colo., to Rupert and Zoe (Mayberry) Loewenstein.

Following his graduation from Gibbon High School in 1948, Elbert enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps where he proudly served his country during the Korean War.

He married his high school sweetheart, Betty Lou Knott, on May 13, 1949, while he was on leave from active duty. To this union three children were born: Diane, Douglas and Russell. Following his discharge from the Marine Corps, Elbert attended Kearney State Teachers College. He completed his college education from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and earned a bachelors degree in agriculture in January 1957.

Elbert worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a county extension agent from 1957 to 1965. He began his banking career as an agriculture consultant with Bruning State Bank from 1965-1968. In summer 1968, Elbert and Betty purchased an ownership interest in the Stamford Bank where he served as the president until his retirement in 1992. During his retirement, Elbert enjoyed traveling and spending time with his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Elbert was passionate about serving his country and his community and encouraged everyone he knew to do the same. He loved all aspects of agriculture and prided himself as a steward of the land.

In 1998, Elbert embarked on one of his most rewarding accomplishments by walking to his 50th class reunion in Gibbon from Pinetop, Ariz. His journey covered 1,042 miles over 51 days. His purpose was to raise money for the scholarship funds of Southern Valley High School near Stamford and Gibbon High School, his alma mater.

Elbert is survived by Betty, his wife of 67 years; children and spouses, Diane and Chris Wolfgram of Las Vegas and Russell and Roxanne of Waterloo; daughter-in-law, Karna Loewenstein of Council Bluffs, Iowa; sister, Nancy Bolin of Gibbon; his grandchildren, Ted Norder, Ryan Loewenstein, Brandon Loewenstein, Jim Loewenstein, Blake Loewenstein, Katie Loewenstein, Alex Hills and Kelsey Wolfgram; and 14 great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents; son, Douglas; and great-grandson, Easton.

Memorials are suggested to the Gibbon or Southern Valley High School Scholarship Foundations.

Visit wenburgfuneralhome.com to leave condolences and personal reflections.
FILE - In this Nov. 9, 2016, file photo, President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a rally in New York. CEOs of major companies are taking stands about the results of the November 2016 U.S. election, a departure from the traditional model of not mixing politics with business that the major brands have long espoused. The men and woman who head the nationAos biggest companies know that having a hostile relationship with the incoming Trump Administration could make doing business difficult. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci, File)
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FILE - In this Nov. 16, 2009 file photo, Robert Grady is seen in Trenton, N.J. Grady is being considered to run Trump's Energy Department, according to transition planning documents obtained by The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
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The 'M25 Animal Killer' could move onto mutilating humans next, experts have warned.

The suspect  also known as the 'Croydon Cat Killer'  has been averaging two or three killings a week in the past year, but specialists believe these crimes could be a springboard for something far worse.

A cat's body with the tail cut off was found in Westerham last month, and a similar case in Otford in August.

Investigative psychologist Dr Liz Spruin, who is a lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University, said: "Usually people who do these kinds of things are early on in their criminal careers.

"But it is clear this person is not an adolescent. They are experienced, there's no DNA evidence left and the crimes always happen in areas where there is no CCTV.

"These types of things show this person has done these kinds of things before."

Dr Spruin, who specialises in geographical profiling and the minds of offenders, believes the criminal is "definitely" a man.

"Women have more empathy towards animals," she said, "And it tends to be men who abuse animals.

"Also the fact the cats are often left on their owner's doorsteps suggests he's watching from afar to see a reaction.

'It has become an obsession'

"He definitely enjoys it, and has no regard for empathy. He's sadistic, and enjoys having power in his hands. It's become an obsession  he will have a lot of psychological issues.

"And there's a chance it could escalate from animals to humans. At some point, killing cats isn't going to be enough.

"He's going to want more, and with each killing he's going to gain in confidence."

She added the cutting off of body parts may suggest the suspect wishes to keep "trophies" so they can "relive the killing"  which is something serial killers do.

Retired murder squad detective Trevor Marriott, who is now a best-selling author and lecturer, also spoke to Kent Live about his thoughts on the killer.

"From a police perspective, I think it's a manpower issue," he said.

"It's not high up enough on their list of priorities. For example, even for a burglary it takes a day or longer for them to get there.

"But obviously, if humans were being killed, it would be a totally different ball game.

"It does need to be treated as if it were human beings though  it requires investigation. Lots could be done which does not appear to have been done yet."

(Image: Alex Drury)

Mr Marriott suggested vehicle movements need to be tracked and should be checked as the killer must have a knife on their person, and the reward should be raised.

He said making use of Crimewatch would also be a step forward in highlighting what's happening to a national audience.

"A huge worry is whether this person is going to progress," he added.

"A known fact about serial killers is they start off killing animals. After a time of doing it for so long, they might get bored of cats and want to try it on a human, or a dog.

"It's a natural progression to carrying out more serious offences and upping the ante a bit."

He said the killer must have a knowledge of the legal system to understand if they are caught mutilating a cat, they would actually probably get a harsher sentence for possessing a bladed article in a public place.
President Tran Dai Quang (Source: VNA)



Vietnam and Cubas relations have been developed in numerous fields since they established diplomatic ties in December 1960.

Cuba attaches importance to all-around ties with Vietnam, especially in agriculture, construction, education, health, biotechnology, transport, and sports.

The two sides have maintained all-level visits and cooperation mechanisms of the Intergovernmental Committees, theoretical workshops between the two Parties, political consultation between the two ministries of Foreign Affairs and security - defence dialogues.

Economic-trade and investment cooperation has recorded fruitful results, with two-way trade standing at about USD200 million per year.

Both nations enterprises are working to accelerate investment in tourism infrastructure, consumer products and construction materials in Cuba.

Vietnamese businesses have paid more attention to making inroads into Cuba, while the Cuban side is calling on Vietnamese firms to invest in oil and gas projects, industry, tourism, and prioritised fields in the Mariel Special Development Zone.

The two countries have also supported each other in international organisations and multilateral forums.

Following his Cuba visit, President Tran Dai Quang is due to attend the 24th High-level Week of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum in Lima, Peru , from November 17th-20th, at the invitation of Peruvian President Pedro Paplo Kuczynsky./.
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As soon as the microphone opened for Q&A at a conference I recently attended in New York City, a physician in the audience began his question with, as a front-line physician. Another asked from the perspective of someone in the trenches. And a third wondered how to provide medical care when we are getting bombarded by mandates.

As I speak to physicians across the country, I am increasingly jarred by these military metaphors. Such phrases permeate the language used by medical professionals everywhere. Terms drawn from war corrode the foundation of patient care and produce a victim mentality in physicians and staff, inhibiting improvement and change.

We know that language is a powerful force in shaping how we view the world and which options were open to considering. As long as the world is described in we-they terms, collaborative solutions rarely result. If we continue to use these words, the distance between doctors and patients will widen, and the distrust among colleagues will expand to the detriment of all.

The roots and remnants of this language of war

Phrases like front line and in the trenches evolved from World War I, sometimes referred to as the Great War. This conflict was one of the most brutal and devastating events in world history. More than nine million combatants and seven million civilians died.

The carnage had multiple causes, including trench warfare, a military tactic used by all participants. Each side dug hundreds of miles of trenches fronted by barbed wire and explosive mines to prevent head-on attack. The space between the lines of trenches came to be known as no mans land, and the faceless enemy soldiers were viewed as invaders and barbarians.

Unlike battles in the past, when generals rode in front of their troops and were stationed on the battlefield, in World War I they were often found miles away, domiciled in relative safety and comfort. The stark contrast between the foot soldiers under their commandwho suffered from malnutrition, exposure to the harsh winter elements and trench footand those giving the orders became a major source of anger for the troops on both sides. The distance between the front lines and command headquarters was large, not only in the number of miles, but also in the degree of abandonment the soldiers felt.

The term trench warfare has since become synonymous with futility in conflict. And the images of being in the trenches or on the front line connote great suffering, and suggest having to defend oneself against an incursion by an overwhelming enemy.

Why doctors use the language of war

Metaphors communicate concepts beyond the literal meaning of the words. Being in the trenches positions the patient as the enemy, just on the other side of the barbed wire. It creates a visual of a horde of patients all simultaneously wanting care, with the doctor constantly under siege and needing to protect himself from the onslaught. And the generals, by implication, are the regulators, elected officials and healthcare leaders who operate from a distance and dont understand what is happening or seem to care that the troops are suffering.

The word bombardment implies unending attacks by uncaring people coming from all sides. Without doubt, physicians today can feel pelted by unreasonable expectations from patients and unachievable mandates from politicians and administrators. And in their daily practice, they are aware of the threat of malpractice and the problems created by aggressive contracting by insurance companies. But using language that positions physicians against the rest of the world reinforces a victim mentality and produces a sense of hopelessness that improvement is possible and trying justified.

Of course, most physicians who use these terms dont have World War I in mind or even mean to be so negative. They usually are trying to emphasize their proximity to the patient and their daily experiences of providing medical care. And at the same time, the language resonates with the frustrations they and their colleagues feel.

Physicians can feel relatively powerless when it comes to the tsunami of new requirements coming from regulators. And having to call insurance companies for permission to do what they know is best for their patients can lead to a siege mentality. And particularly in primary care, doctors feel stretched beyond their capacity.

But as satisfying as it can feel to vent emotions through military language, all of us in the healthcare profession need to recognize the pernicious impact it has on us. When we feel we are dug into trenches, protecting ourselves from patients coming at us and unable to communicate with leaders, we perceive ourselves as victims, powerless to make change happen. And as a result, improvements are rare.

A first step: Changing our language

There is a well-known story from the First World War that occurred on a cold December night close to Christmas. Soldiers on one side of no mans land began to sing Christmas carols in their native language, and soldiers across the zone responded in kind with their own carols in their own language. Then a couple of brave soldiers from each side left the trenches and met in the middle, sharing food, drink anddespite the language barrierstories. For a week there was no shooting and no deaths.

In war, collaboration with individuals from the other side is usually prohibited, and the generals banned such conciliatory actions in the future. But the opposite is true for healthcare. Meaningful, positive change cant happen until people work together, even when they represent different perspectives. If our nation is going to address the healthcare needs of 300 million Americansand at the same time improve the professional lives of doctorscooperation of the highest order will be essential. Rather than describe ourselves as combatants, patients, physicians and administrators alike will need to forge partnerships for the greater good of all. We wont be able to stop the rising cost of American medicine unless as a nation we lower the incidence of chronic illness through a focus on prevention, expanded use of technology and increased coordination of care. And that cant happen without a commitment from all. And that will demand mutual trust and respect, starting with how we speak about each other.

The language of war threatens to take us in the opposite direction, toward chaos and increased animosity. The words left over from the battles of the past reinforce feelings of distrust, lack of respect and overt hostility. And language, if only subconsciously, impacts our perceptions and behaviors.

When we describe ourselves as hunkered down under siege and perceive an enemy attacking us from all sides, our words create a hostile approach to others, including patients and colleagues. Going forward, physicians must stop speaking the language of war, and replace it with words that represent the values and mission of medicine, words like healing and teamwork and recovery. Changing our language to reflect the good we do may not be the solution to all our problems, but it would be a powerful first step.

Robert Pearl is a physician and CEO, Permanente Medical Groups. This article originally appeared in Forbes.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
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I have a memory of feeling overwhelming anger and animosity as a 10 year old. I was holding my fathers spot in the checkout line at Walmart in rural Illinois as he ran to grab the paper towels he had forgotten. He quickly darted back in line into the spot that I had saved him as he knew leaving me surrounded by candy for longer than a couple of minutes would be a bad idea. The elderly white woman behind us who I had barely noticed earlier tapped me on my shoulder. Surprised at what this stranger might want, I turned back and smiled at her. She met my smile with a scowl. In between curse words she furiously yelled, From our jobs to our spots in the grocery line you guys will stop at nothing! Go back to your country!

I was confused and hurt. I wanted to retaliate so badly, but I kept quiet and pretended to ignore her. Her anger bubbled more and more and then she struck me with her cane while yelling racist comments. My father turned back at her and protected me. He said to her, Shes just a kid. Leave her out of it. I was so lost. I felt like I missed something. Leave me out of what? Why was this woman so mad?

Growing up in a conservative predominantly Caucasian neighborhood, incidents like this were not uncommon. I remembered back to what my mother would tell me often: You have a right to be angry. You are right to feel upset. What you dont have a right to do is to act blindly on your feelings.You cannot turn your anger into violent actions and not think about how it affects others.

The results of the 2016 presidential election have brought back a lot of the feelings that I had towards oppressors I have faced in rural Illinois. Its hard not to join the millions of other Americans who feel angry and let down by the results of the election. Being a liberal first generation immigrant, I naturally disagree with many of Trumps policies on health care, economics, and immigration. I have a lot of fear about what Americas future will look like under his presidency. I worry about what my future in medicine, as a woman, and as an immigrant will look like.

What makes me even more angry are peoples actions as a result of this election. Reading about xenophobic events across the country on the Twitter feed titled Day 1 in Trumps America is incredibly discouraging. It feels like we have taken ten steps back in all of the progress our country has made in embracing diversity with an open mind.

I realize that many others have the same fears about Americas future. Regardless of how we feel about the election, we cannot allow our fear and our anger to be turned into violence. The hospital where I am currently rotating has been busier than ever with the consequences of the not so peaceful protests in Chicago. Trump supporters and haters are both getting ostracized by the other for their beliefs. Turning on the news nightly makes me realize that anger is turning into violence on a national level. As much as I want to show my disappointment in the man that has been elected president, I am frustrated with how people have been expressing themselves.

Realizing that Trump is now in a position of power and already spreading ideology similar to the woman who attacked me with her cane when I was ten is scary. I hope no one has to face the racism and hatred that I experienced in that movement. However, these xenophobic instances make me realize that it is up to us to inspire change and react with graciousness. The violence that has been brought on by both anti- and pro-Trump protesters has gotten out of hand. Now more than ever, I think back to my mothers words: You cannot turn your anger into violent actions and not think about how it affects others.

While it is naive to think that Trump will not make major change in the country, it is important to realize that we still live in a government with checks and balances. Our democracy gives us power to help influence policy by writing to state-elected officials. I hope that utilizing this power will further our ideas rather than attending protests that can get out of hand.

One of my major issues with Trumps policies is his stance on health care. Trump plans to repeal Obamacare and implement a free market health care plan. Free market health care increases the corporate power given to large health care organizations and will almost definitely drive the cost of health care up to the average American citizen. More of the money spent on health care will be distributed to administrators and corporate professionals. This will surely discourage many patients from seeking treatment for their conditions and leave the poor uninsured because they simply cant afford the premiums.

While Obamacare has had many flaws, it has insured many previously uninsured and underinsured citizens. It has helped bridge the gap in health care disparity between the rich and poor. One of the reasons I chose to go into medicine is because I believe that health care should be a fundamental right as a human. I believe that the opportunity to live a healthy life should not be dependent on socioeconomic status. It is disheartening to think that I may not be able to treat certain patients just because of their lack of insurance.

There is still much speculation on how Medicaid, Medicare, and womens health will be affected.

Though the future of health care often feels grim, it is up to us to stand up for the ideas we believe in. My biggest goal is to inspire change in the system in a positive and peaceful manner.

The author is an anonymous medical student who blogs at Naked Medicine.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
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My son was underperforming at school, and I was gently encouraging him to try harder (if gesticulating like an over-caffeinated Italian qualifies as gentle encouragement). He could not understand why I was upset: Dad, most of my friends are doing drugs and engaging in unprotected sex. You should be rewarding me for being such a good kid.

Reward you for not being bad?!, I replied incredulously. That made no sense to me. When you go above and beyond  when you exert exceptional effort to achieve important goals  then we can talk about what reward you have earned.

The folks running South Carolinas Medicaid program dont appear to agree with my parenting philosophy. A couple years ago, it contracted with a private insurer, the Centene Corporation, to manage its Medicaid population. Part of the companys approach involved rewarding Medicaid enrollees for receiving recommended preventive care.

This rewards program flips medical payment on its head. Normally, when people go to the family medicine doctor for an annual checkup, they are charged a modest copay for the visit. But through its CentAccount program, the folks at Centene pay patients for receiving such care. You got that rightthey arent charged for the visit; they are rewarded for it!

When a Medicaid enrollee brings her infant in for a well-child visit, she receives $10. If she makes all six visits for the year, she will get $25 in that final appointment, adding up to a $75 reward from taxpayers for bringing her child to appointments that the rest of us brought our kids to at our own expense.

In fact, heres a list of some of the healthcare services CentAccount rewards its customers for receiving:

annual adult well care visit

well child visit

infant well child visits

childhood immunizations

health risk screening

annual cervical cancer screening

annual breast cancer screening

annual diabetes screening  HbA1c tests, eye exams, kidney screening and LDL-cholesterol screening

flu shot

prenatal visits

postpartum visit

At first glance, it might seem obvious that such rewards are unfair. For the same reason it seems wrong to reward my teenager for not doing drugs, why should we reward a parent for vaccinating a child  for doing what any good parent ought to do?

On the other hand, it is also not fair that many Medicaid enrollees are poor enough to qualify for the program despite working full time. It is also not fair that many lose out on their hourly earnings when they take time from work to bring their children to pediatricians.

In fact, fairness is the wrong lens through which to view such programs. Medicaid programs should be judged on how well and how efficiently they improve the health of low-income Americans. When infants do not receive well-baby checkups, and when they miss important vaccines, all of us suffer. We suffer because we allow fellow citizens to experience unnecessary health problems, problems that will reduce their chance of pursuing the American dream. We suffer because those unrecognized and un-prevented illnesses will lead to further healthcare expenses down the road, expenses the rest of us will pay for. And we suffer because those who miss a vaccine create a population for contagious diseases that we, as an advanced society, should not have to contend with.

We should judge preventive care rewards programs not by whether they are fair, but by whether they work. In the case of CentAccount, this reward money can only be used to purchase approved items like toothpaste and baby formula. In effect, the program has the potential to improve both medical care and nutrition at the same time.

In a perfect world, we would not need to reward anyone for taking their kid to the doctor. In the imperfect world, we live in, such rewards are far better than the alternative.

Peter Ubel is a physician and behavioral scientist who blogs at his self-titled site, Peter Ubel and can be reached on Twitter @PeterUbel. He is the author of Critical Decisions: How You and Your Doctor Can Make the Right Medical Choices Together. This article originally appeared in Forbes.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
It is a publication featuring 56 Vietnamese emerging contemporary artists, out of which 19 is taking part in the exhibition that lasts from November 14th, 2016 to January 13th, 2017 at Casa Italia, No. 18 Le Phung Hieu street, Hoan Kiem district.

The launch of the book and the exhibition is under AIA Vietnam Eye project that was started in Vietnam in June this year.

AIA Vietnam Eye is a celebration of Vietnams vibrant contemporary art scene and is the eighth project in the Global Eye Program, which was established in 2009 by David and Serenella Ciclitira in collaboration with the Saatchi Gallery in order to nurture artistic talent across Asias emerging art scenes. The initiative is sponsored by AIA and supported by the Government of Vietnam, the Italian Ambassador to Vietnam, and the British Ambassador to Vietnam.



Press briefing for the event held in Hanoi

Photos: Thanh Hai



Together the book and the exhibition will offer an overview of one of the newest and most exciting scenes in the global art world. Vietnam has developed rapidly in the last ten years with a new generation of contemporary artists who balance cultural and social issues with a contemporary outlook. This is a generation of artists who are aware of both the history of Vietnamese art as well international art world.

We believe that art has an important impact to education, the economy, and the health and wellbeing of our society. It enables us to become more imaginative, innovative, and better connected. Through this initiative, AIA hopes to develop a thriving arts ecology that offers Vietnamese the chance to enjoy, participate and create, for more fulfilled lives, said, Mr Wayne Besant, CEO of AIA Vietnam.

The exhibition is curated by Serenella Ciclitira (Founder of Parallel Contemporary Art), Nigel Hurst (CEO of Saatchi Gallery), Niru Ratnam (Director of START) and Tran Luong (artist). It features work by both established and emerging Vietnamese contemporary artists. The book is edited by Serenella Ciclitira and published by SKIRA. Alongside detailed information on each artists, it includes contextualizing essays on Vietnamese contemporary art, offering an in-depth look at countrys artists.

Alongside the main exhibition there will be a series of satellite exhibitions, which will take place at nest by AIA in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city, combining artist presentations and educational workshops for children and families. The first satellite event is planned to take place from November 19th to December 11th (at No. 191 Ba Trieu street, Hai Ba Trung district), featuring artist Ha Tri Hieu.

Exhibiting artists in AIA Vietnam Eye are: Duy Phuong, Ha Manh Thang, Hoang Duong Cam, Lai Thi Dieu Ha, Le Brothers, Le Phi Long, Le Quy Tong, Le Thuy, Ly Hoang Ly, Nguyen Huy An, Nguyen Manh Hung, Nguyen The Hung, Nguyen The Son, Nguyen Tri Manh, Nguyen Van Du, Pham Tran Viet Nam, Trong Gia Nguyen, Uu Dam Tran Nguyen, and Vu Duc Trung.

Free admission to public, open daily from 09h00 to 21h00.

Besides, AIA Vietnam Eye First educational workshop will start at 14h00 on November 19th, at No. 191 Ba Trieu street, Hai Ba Trung district./.
A cell phone company calls police after one of their clients turns in a phone filled with child pornography.

According to police, Luis Perez went to the company to trade in a phone. The employees noticed the phone was filled with young girls in sexually explicit poses.

Police met with Perez at the company. He then allowed police to go into his tractor trailer where more pictures and videos were discovered.

Perez was arrested and charged with ten counts of Child Pornography.
The Margaret Gregg Gordon Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) unveiled a marker honoring the Veterans of the Vietnam War from Williamsburg County as part of the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War. Photo By Michaele Duke
Vietnamese Deputy PM Trinh Dinh Dung and Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov hold talks. (Photo: VNA)

During the visit, the Vietnamese Deputy PM held talks with Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov.

According to reporters from Vietnam News Agency in the Russian Federation, in an open and trustful atmosphere of mutual understanding, the two sides discussed measures to promote economic and trade cooperation, thus deepening the Vietnam - Russia comprehensive strategic partnership.

Mr Dung affirmed that Vietnam always considers Russia a priority in its strategic foreign policies, adding that Vietnam would do its utmost to foster the good traditional relationship with Russia, and to make the Vietnam - Russia strategic partnership more effective.

The two sides checked on energy cooperation; assessed oil and gas businesses cooperation to develop and expand oil and gas exploration and exploiting activities on Vietnams continental shelf and in Russia; agreed to continue to create favourable conditions for businesses from the two countries to increase the efficiency of the operation of existing joint-ventures; and discussed joint research for cooperation in new projects.

Agreeing that trade cooperation had been developing actively with a year-on-year increase of 23% in the first 9 months this year, the two sides reached a consensus to take advantage of opportunities after the validity of the Vietnam - Eurasia Economic Union Free Trade Agreement on October 5th; and committed to facilitate goods exchanges between the two markets, striving to increase the trade turnover to USD10 billion by 2020.

They also agreed to continue to realize high-ranking agreements and results reached during the 19th meeting of the Vietnam - Russia Inter-governmental Committee for Economic-Commercial and Scientific-Technological Cooperation.

During the talks, the two sides discussed measures to carry out priority projects in industry, automobile manufacturing, science and technology, and education and training./.
HANOI, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Here's a snapshot of Vietnamese dong exchange rates in the official market and indicative SJC gold prices in Hanoi at 0053 GMT.

Nov 15 Nov 14 USD/VND mid-point 22,086 22,067

USD/VND interbank 22,335/22,355 22,340/22,342 SJC gold (mln dong/tael) 35.70/35.97 35.50/35.87

NOTES: As of Jan. 4, 2016 the State Bank of Vietnam has begun setting the mid-point rate on daily basis, allowing dollar/dong transactions to move in a band of +/- 3 percent around the mid point. The dong's exchange rate against other currencies is not restricted by a band. Interbank quotes are indicative bid/ask prices.

One tael is equivalent to 37.5 grams or 1.21 troy ounces. SJC gold prices are quoted by state-owned Saigon Jewelry Co, the gold manufacturer.

Interbank offered rates are indicative, quoted from market sources.

For Vietnam market overview click on: Vietnam's bonds market auctions: Bonds auction results: (Compiled by Hanoi Newsroom)
HANOI, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Here's a snapshot of Vietnamese dong exchange rates in the official and unofficial markets, indicative SJC gold prices in Hanoi and interbank offered rates at 0407 GMT.

Nov 15 Nov 14 USD/VND mid-point 22,086 22,067 USD/VND interbank 22,348/22,350 22,340/22,342 USD/VND unofficial 22,470/22,500 22,520/22,570 SJC gold (mln dong/tael) 35.85/36.12 35.50/35.87

Interbank offered rates Overnight 1.4-2.4 1.2-2.1

1 week 1.6-2.4 1.2-2.1

1 month 2.2-2.8 1.9-2.5

3 months 3.5-4.7 3.5-4.7

NOTES: As of Jan. 4, 2016 the State Bank of Vietnam has begun setting the mid-point rate on daily basis, allowing dollar/dong transactions to move in a band of +/- 3 percent around the mid point. The dong's exchange rate against other currencies is not restricted by a band. Interbank offered rates are the latest indicative bid/ask prices, quoted from market sources.

One tael is equivalent to 37.5 grams or 1.21 troy ounces. SJC gold prices are quoted by state-owned Saigon Jewelry Co.

For more interbank rate fixings released at 0400 GMT, click on .

For Vietnam market overview click on: Vietnam's bonds market auctions: Bonds auction results: (Compiled by Hanoi Newsroom)
(Kitco News) - Hedge funds were caught on the wrong foot ahead of the U.S. presidential election, according to some commodity analysts, as the latest trade data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commissions showed an expansion of bullish gold bets just before prices fell sharply.

The disaggregated Commitments of Trader report (COT), for the week ending Nov. 8, showed money managers increased their speculative gross long positions in Comex gold futures by 8,000 contracts to 211,670. At the same time, short bets rose by only 630 contracts to 38,033. Golds net length now stands at 173,637 contracts.

The latest CFTC data were released Monday evening as the U.S. government was closed Friday, in recognition of Veterans Day.

Gold prices dropped more than 1% during the survey period, despite the buying interest that pushed the markets net length to its highest point in five weeks.

This was the third consecutive week that hedge funds increased their bullish positioning in the gold market. Golds net length increased more than 4% from the previous week. However, most analysts note that the data is backward looking as it doesnt include the massive sell-off in the days following Donald Trumps surprise election victory.

Gold prices fell more than 9% from last weeks election-night high to Mondays nearly six-month low. Commodity analysts at Commerzbank said they expect many of the previous bullish speculators have now jumped ship.

Analysts will have to wait until Friday to see how much damage was done to golds net length in the aftermath of the U.S. election.

With gold falling through key support at $1,250 an ounce, some analysts are expecting hedge funds to continue to liquidate their long positons and increase their short bets.

Bart Melek, head of commodity strategy at TD Securities, said that in the near term he couldnt rule out prices dropping below $1,200 an ounce.

Money managers were also caught off guard in the silver market as they added new bullish bets and reduced their short exposure in the metal. The disaggregated COT report showed money-managed speculative gross long positions in Comex silver futures grew by 5,256 contracts to 71,989. At the same time, short positions fell by 3,214 contracts to 15,852. Silvers net length now stands 56,137 at contracts.

Silvers net length increased by more than 15% from the previous week. During the survey period, silver prices were relatively flat, falling 0.1%.

Following the U.S. election results, silver has lost more than 12% from its Nov. 9 high to a nearly six-month low Monday.

However, some commodity analysts are slightly more optimistic for silver as it is also seen as an industrial metal and could benefit from an improving U.S. economy.

By Neils Christensen of Kitco News; nchristensen@kitco.com

Follow @Neils_C
India's trade deficit widens to $10.16 bln in Oct - trade ministry



NEW DELHI, Nov 15 (Reuters) - India's trade deficit in October widened to $10.16 billion compared with $8.34 billion in the previous month as gold imports more than doubled to $3.5 billion from a year ago, government data showed on Tuesday. Merchandise exports grew 9.6 percent year-on-year to $23.5 billion in October, while imports expanded 8.11 percent year-on-year to $33.67 billion, the data showed.

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar and Rajesh Kumar Singh; Editing by Malini Menon)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in precious metal products, commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.

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Nov 15 (Reuters) - Canada's Lundin Mining Corp said it would sell its indirect stake in TF Holdings Ltd to an affiliate of Chinese private-equity firm BHR Partners for about $1.14 billion in cash.

Bermuda-based TF Holdings owns an 80 percent interest in Tenke Fungurume Mining SA. Lundin owns an indirect 30 percent stake in TF Holdings, resulting in an effective 24 percent interest in Tenke. The Canadian miner said it could also get up to $51.4 million based on the average prices of copper and cobalt during a 24-month period beginning Jan. 1, 2018.

Freeport McMoRan holds a 56 percent stake in the Tenke Fungurume copper and cobalt mine, through its 70 percent stake in TF Holdings. Congo's state miner Gecamines owns the remaining 20 percent. Lundin, which primarily produces copper, nickel and zinc, said in connection with the deal, it will waive its rights to acquire Tenke mine operator Freeport's stake in TF Holdings.

In May, Freeport agreed to sell its majority stake in the Tenke mine to China Molybdenum Co for $2.65 billion to reduce debt. Lundin had no option but to either allow the China Moly deal to proceed, supplant the offer, or sell its stake. Lundin's agreement to sell its stake comes on the deadline it was given to exercise its right to first offer, after which Freeport said the sale to China Moly would go through. Tenke Fungurume, in the southern Congolese copper belt, is one of the world's largest copper deposits. BMO Capital Markets is the financial adviser to Lundin Mining, while Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP are acting as legal advisers.

(Reporting by Gaurika Juneja in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)
SINGAPORE, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Malaysia Airlines is betting on its first new routes in almost a decade and growth in China, where it wants to triple business over five years, to help it return to profitability in 2018 and list the year after, its chief executive said on Tuesday.

Peter Bellew, who took the reins at the Malaysian flag carrier in July, said the group was already losing less money than it had forecast and was on track to break even in the last quarter of 2017, with bookings for the coming months ahead of last year, despite a reduced fleet.

"We are in expansion mode," he told a gathering at the CAPA Asia Summit 2016.

"March 2019. Notwithstanding shocks, that's our Olympic Games, that's what we're focused on at the moment," he said, referring to the group's plans to be ready for a listing by 2019.

Key to its plans is China, where the airline has already said it would launch flights to eight new destinations and add 11 new routes between the two countries beginning in early 2017, betting on geographic proximity and linguistic ties. "They say they don't need low cost carriers. They are looking for full service carriers, with alliances," he said.

Bellew, a former Ryanair executive, said he also saw a shakeout among low-cost airlines in the region, which is one of the most crowded and includes some of the toughest competitors globally.

Aircraft orders in Indonesia and Malaysia, he said, are now more than double current Chinese aircraft orders.

"There are going to be some big losers. There is going to be blood on the floor," he said, declining to pick winners.

Malaysia Airlines has been battling to turn around its business since a disastrous 2014, which saw the disappearance of flight MH370, aviation's greatest mystery, and the shooting down of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine.

The national carrier was subsequently taken private by state-fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd as part of a restructuring plan, which included a shrinking of its network.

Since then, the airline has cancelled all non-stop flights to Europe except those to London and ended several low-yield Asia-Pacific services.

Bellew has also reorganised the group's fleet, and reiterated on Tuesday that the group, through a new unit, would rent out its Airbus A380 superjumbos to religious travel groups for Haj and Umrah pilgrimages - a move that could dispel recent gloom over demand for the huge jets. (Reporting by Clara Ferreira Marques; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
MOSCOW, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Urals differentials firmed on good refining margins and as higher freight rates limited arbitrage possibilities while buying interest after the release of the first loading dates from Ust-Luga and Novorossiisk in December also helped.

The first loading dates from Primorsk in December are expected on Wednesday, industry sources told Reuters.

The Urals loading plan from Ust-Luga on Dec. 1-5 consists of 500,000 tonnes and shows no change to the November plan, a document seen by Reuters showed.

The Urals and Siberian Light loading plan from Novorossiisk consists of three cargoes of 80,000 tonnes (including one cargo of Siberian Light) and one cargo of 140,000 tonnes.

The volume of Urals exports from Russian ports in December remains in doubt as Moscow and Minsk have yet to agree on Russian crude supplies to Belarus in December. Traders now say it is clear there will be no increase in oil supplies in November, but December is still an option. Freight rates for Aframax vessels which jumped on Friday last week remain unusually stable at levels above 100 Worldscale points (WS), up to WS140 in the Mediterranean.

"Margins are high enough to accommodate higher diffs and higher freight closed some arbitrage routes, which helps the price of regional grades," one Mediterranean trader said.

In the Platts window Trafigura offered 100,000 tonnes of Urals loading from Baltic ports on Nov. 25-29 at dated Brent minus $1.90 a barrel, but failed to get any interest.

Last Friday Trafigura sold a Urals cargo loading on Nov. 21-25 to BP at dated Brent minus $2.10 a barrel.

Traders said November-loading Urals cargoes were estimated at discount of $2 a barrel to BFOE and cheaper.

In the Mediterranean Litasco bid for 80,000 tonnes of Urals loading on Dec. 3-6 in the Platts window to a discount of $1.30 a barrel to BFOE, which was about 5 cents firmer than the recent estimates of the grade, but sellers were not tempted.

Litasco also bid for 140,000 tonnes loading on Nov. 28-Dec. 2 at dated Brent minus $1.45 a barrel, found no interest.

Traders said Urals cargoes of 80,000 tonnes were estimated closer to discount of $1.10 a barrel to BFOE and bigger tankers were traded at discounts of 30-40 cents to them.

Russia's oil export duty is expected to decline to $90.4 per tonne in December from $92.7 per tonne in November, due to a weaker oil prices, data from the finance ministry showed on Tuesday. TENDERS

Greece's Hellenic Petroleum issued a tender on Tuesday to buy two cargoes of CPC Blend of 85,000 or 135,000 tonnes each for delivery to Thessaloniki on Dec. 14-29 (or Dec. 19-29 in case of 135,000 tonnes delivery) and to Pachi on Dec. 22-28. Tender closes on Nov. 16. (Reporting by Olga Yagova, editing by David Evans)
* Aims for sale of $11.3 bln in 2017

* No major shutdown in 2017, refinery to run fully

* Plans to invest 20 bln baht next year

By Manunphattr Dhanananphorn

BANGKOK, Nov 15 (Reuters) - PTT Global Chemical Pcl (PTTGC) , Thailand's largest petrochemical maker, said on Tuesday it aims for sales of 400 billion baht ($11.3 billion) in 2017, up 22 percent from 2016, as it has no major maintenance planned at its oil refinery.

The 280,000 barrel-per-day refinery was shut down for two months in the second quarter this year, which dragged down the run rate of its petrochemical plants that process feedstocks from the site.

The refinery will run fully next year, while the run rate of its olefins petrochemical plants will rise to 93 percent in 2017 from 90 percent this year, CEO Supattanapong Punmeechaow, told reporters.

PTTGC, the flagship petrochemical business of PTT Pcl , Thailand's top energy firm, plans to invest 20 billion baht next year, mostly in capacity expansion and maintenance, executive vice president for finance Duangkamol Settanung said.

The firm planned to diversify its sales portfolio toward fast-growing markets in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, where sales are expected to reach 2 million tonnes, or 100 billion baht over the next five years, the CEO said.

Sales from those markets will reach 5 billion baht this year on volume of 102,000 tonnes, Supattanapong said.

The company recently signed an agreement with S.P. PET Pack Co, a major producer of plastic packages in Thailand, to support the construction of a plastic packaging plant at Thilawa special economic zone in Myanmar.

The deal is part of PTTGC's policy to encourage its potential customers who want to expand businesses in neighbouring countries.

PTTGC has studied the possibility of constructing a petrochemical complex in the U.S. state of Ohio and is expected to conclude details in the first quarter of 2017, he said adding several potential partners showed interest in the project.

($1 = 35.3500 baht)

(Reporting by Manunphattr Dhanananphorn; Writing by Khettiya Jittapong; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
Union petition calls for St. Michael leadership's ouster

A union leader said of the hospital's short staffing in the ER that the crisis was 'extraordinary.'
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (R) meets with Governor of Japans Mie prefecture Eikei Suzuki on November 14th (Photo: VNA)



At the meeting in Hanoi, PM Phuc noted the strong and substantive development of the Vietnam-Japan extensive strategic partnership, adding the enhancement of locality-to-locality cooperation is critical to bilateral ties.

Many Japanese enterprises have prioritised Vietnam to invest in and reeled in success. The Northeast Asian nation now ranks second among foreign investors in Vietnam, but the two sides still need to promote investment partnership to turn Japan into the biggest investor, he said.

The Vietnamese Government and local authorities pledge to provide the best possible conditions for Japanese companies, he noted.

The host leader said his country looks forward to stronger collaboration with Mie in tourism as both own many famous landscapes and relic sites. He asked the two sides to continue cultural exchanges, aside from culture festivals held in each others nations.

He also hoped for more labour cooperation, noting that Vietnam has a young population with quality workers.

For his part, Eikei Suzuki said his 50-strong delegation include many city and business leaders in Mie who aim to seek cooperation opportunities in culture, economy, investment and environment.

Surveys show that most small- and medium-sized enterprises in the prefecture want to make overseas investments, and Vietnam is among their top choices, he noted.

Mie prefecture is home to leading technology businesses such as Honda, Toyota and Toshiba, the Governor said, expressing his hope for closer cooperation in this field.

The Mie delegation also worked with officials of some Vietnamese cities, including Hoi An, to boost tourism, investment and business partnerships. The two sides should bolster ties in aviation so as to facilitate the travel to each other, he said.

Eikei Suzuki also voiced the willingness to further cooperate with Vietnam in environmental protection and seaport development./.
Andrew Little trying to having it every way on euthanasia.

The Herald reported:

There is zero chance of Government introducing legislation to legalise euthanasia even if an inquiry strongly recommends it, Prime Minister John Key says. A select committee is part-way through a major inquiry on public attitudes to euthanasia in New Zealand, and is considering more than 20,000 public submissions and holding hearings around the country. Key said today that regardless of the committees conclusions and the level of public support, the Government would not propose a change. There is no chance of it being a Government bill, Key told reporters at Parliament this morning.  Ultimately youre dealing with a really sensitive issue and I think the process is best handled through a members bill, as Ive said so often before, Key said.

Okay, so as with most conscience issues this would not be a Government bill.

Leader Andrew Little said the Government should at least allow a euthanasia bill to come before the House so a debate could take place.

So Little is saying the Government should introduce a bill on euthanasia.

However, he said a law change would not be a priority for a Labour-led Government.

But that if he was in Government, he wouldnt do it!!

And this is the same Andrew Little who banned Labour MPs from entering a euthanasia bill into the members ballot!!

He just cant stop himself criticising the Government, even when he agrees with them!

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Shenandoah, IA (51601)

Today

Partly cloudy. Gusty winds in the afternoon. High 77F. Winds S at 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph..

Tonight

Mainly clear early, then a few clouds later on. Low 57F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph.
It is not a bad thing for us, that the route known as the Goldene Strae or the Golden Road as we will get to know it- has escaped the attention of so many. It has been spared being overrun by hordes of tourists and as you will discover the
By Lee Hyo-sik





KRA Chairman Hyun Myung-kwan

The head of the Korea Racing Authority (KRA) will not have his term renewed amid allegations he offered undue favors to President Park Geun-hye's confidant Choi Soon-sil who has been jailed for meddling in personnel management and other state affairs.

Cheong Wa Dae has decided to replace KRA Chairman Hyun Myung-kwan when his three-year term ends Dec. 4, officials at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) said Tuesday. The agriculture ministry oversees the lucrative state-run organization operating three horseracing tracks and other equestrian facilities across the country.

Hyun had previously been expected to serve for one more year before the Choi scandal erupted.

"Last Friday, we were informed by the presidential office to initiate the selection procedure for a new KRA chairman," an agriculture ministry official said. "We then conveyed Cheong Wa Dae's decision to the KRA. We believe it has started the recruitment process."

The official said it would take at least a month for the company to choose a new chief. The KRA will first hold a board of directors' meeting and form an ad-hoc recommendation committee. Many former bureaucrats, politicians and other influential figures are expected to apply for the much-coveted post.

"We were indeed notified by the agriculture ministry to begin the selection process for the new chairman," a KRA spokesman said. "As in the past, we will first hold a board meeting and set up the ad-hoc committee. We will then issue a notice and receive applications."

Hyun's failure to extend his term is largely attributed to the KRA's alleged provision of special favors to Choi's daughter Chung Yoo-ra, a competitive dressage rider.

The KRA chairman, who once headed Samsung Construction & Trade (C&T), is suspected of conspiring with Samsung to offer 3.5 billion won ($3 million) to Core Sports, an entity set up by Choi in Germany last year.

The company, in cooperation with the Korean Equestrian Federation, has been accused of drawing up a roadmap to support Chung for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

During the National Assembly's audit of government offices, Oct. 13, Hyun flatly denied the allegation, threatening to take legal action against media outlets and others accusing him of having personal relations with Choi or Chung.

But it was later found that it was the KRA that wrote the plan for Chung.

On Nov. 7, Rep. Kim Hyun-kwon of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea asked the agricultural and fisheries subcommittee to file a complaint with the prosecution against the KRA chairman on charges of perjury.

A day later, prosecutors, who have been looking into a range of irregularities committed by Choi, raided the KRA headquarters in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, confiscating documents and other materials to investigate the firm's alleged connection with the President's confident.
By Lee Hyo-sik



CJ Foodville's Tous les Jours has opened two stores in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, stepping up efforts to become a global bakery brand.



The company said Tuesday that it is the first local bakery to establish a shop in the rapidly emerging Asian economy where K-pop groups and actors command a huge fan base.



The two stores were opened under a "master franchise" contract, in which Tous les Jours hands over control of the franchising activities in the country to a Mongolian business partner. In return, Tous les Jours receives a percentage of revenue from its partner.



Master franchising is a method used by many franchise systems because it is easier to export brands and increase the number of stores.



The bakery's first Mongolian store was opened in downtown Ulan Bator on Oct. 31. Its opening day drew more than 2,000 customers, generating over 10 million won ($8,600) in sales, a CJ Foodville spokesman said. Tous les Jours set up its second shop at the Shangri-La Mall, Monday, attracting twice the number of customers it expected.



"Since 2004, when we opened our first bakery shop in the United States, we have been striving to find new business opportunities abroad," the spokesman said. "Although we still have a long way to go to catch up with larger global rivals, we will take one step at a time to promote Korean-style breads among consumers around the world and emerge as an internationally recognized bakery brand."



Besides Mongolia, CJ Foodville operates 270 Tous les Jours stores in seven countries. In the United States, it set up a Tous les Jours franchise, recruiting individuals or businesses seeking to operate bakery shops.



In China, the company directly manages stores in large cities while letting its Chinese partners open outlets in provincial areas under the master franchise contract. In Cambodia, the Philippines and Malaysia, Tous les Jours stores were also set up under master franchising, with those in Vietnam and Indonesia directly operated by CJ Foodville.




By Park Jae-hyuk



China's Singles' Day last Friday was an opportunity for Korean firms to sell their products to overseas customers, but the upcoming Black Friday may be a crisis for them, as U.S. vendors are set to attract online consumers from around the world next week.



In order to avoid such a situation, Korean retailers have held discount events starting a week before Black Friday for several years. They held a large discount event named K-Sale Day ahead of Black Friday last year as well, which was similar to the large sales event held in 2014.



This year is no exception. Major department stores in Korea announced they will hold discount events beginning this week.



AK Plaza said Monday it will offer 10 to 30 percent discounts on every product at all its stores between this Thursday and Dec. 4. Some products labeled with a "Black Price" will be discounted up to 90 percent, it said.



"We decided to hold a discount event for our customers, who are considering buying goods at online malls, to let them know that offline stores are also preparing for discount events," an AK Plaza official said.



Lotte Department Store also said it will start an off-season discount event for foreign brands this Friday at its 33 stores nationwide. About 210 foreign brands will join the upcoming event, offering 30 to 50 percent discounts on goods such as coats, bags and shoes.



Shinsegae Department Store will offer discounts up to 70 percent on about 470 brands between this Thursday and Dec. 4, and Hyundai Department Store will start offering 10 to 50 percent discounts on about 200 foreign fashion brands this Friday.



However, some subcontracted outlets operating in those department stores complain that another large discount event immediately following the Korea Sale Festa is burdensome for them, as department stores have enforced those outlets to discount their own products without any reduction in sales commissions.



Last year's K-Sale Day was also criticized by those subcontractors, as the event was held right after Korea Black Friday.



Experts point out that U.S. retailers cover expenses for inventories, directly purchasing products from subcontracted outlets, while Korean retailers return unsold products to the subcontractors, burdening them with inventory expenses.




Kim Jung-un will get a taste of unpredictability from Trump'

By Kim Jae-kyoung





Katharine H.S. Moon

Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election may prod South Korea into building stronger ties with Japan and China, according to Katharine H.S.Moon, a senior fellow at the Center for East Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institute.

She called for South Korea to seek "balanced and pragmatic" diplomacy with its neighboring countries to deal with political pressure from the unpredictable Trump administration.

"What South Korea should do is strengthen its relationships with both Japan and China," said Moon in an interview. She is an expert in inter-Korea and U.S.-Korea relations.

On the issue of U.S. military bases, she pointed out that Korea and Japan are inter-connected.

"The U.S. cannot consider significant changes in one country without considering the strategic and tactical impact on the other," she said.

"China might also want to seek stronger relations with Korea and Japan in order to balance political pressure from the U.S."

Moon, who also serves as chairwoman of the SK-Korea Foundation in Korea Studies, ruled out the possibility that U.S. troops will withdraw from South Korea.

"I don't think the U.S. will pull troops out of South Korea. There are institutions with vested interests and clear views about the national interest that will stop Trump even if he wants to pull out, such as the military establishment and the intelligence establishment," she said.

"President Carter ran a campaign promising troop withdrawal, and the military brass said no' once he became president."

During his campaign, Trump warned that the U.S. may pull its troops out of Korea and Japan if they do not agree to pay 100 percent of the cost for its forces stationed in the two countries.

She expects that North Korea is not likely to be on the top of South Korea's foreign policy agenda in the next year.

"Whoever becomes president in South Korea will matter more now to set the direction of relations with the U.S.," she said.

Moon, a professor of Political Science at Wellesley College, forecast that Pyeongyang will become more cautious with its nuclear and missile tests.

"If people think Kim Jong-un and the regime are unpredictable, then Pyeongyang will now get a taste of unpredictability from Trump," she said.

She expects the reclusive country to take a wait and see attitude for a while to figure out what's really in Trump's mind.

"North Korea will probably try to test the Trump administration to see if there is room for some kind of deal-making," she said.

"I don't think Pyeongyang will test Trump with missiles in the initial period of the new presidency because they don't know what Trump's reaction might be and because China is now also cautious about Trump since he has threatened an economic battle."

According to Moon, under the Trump administration, it will become much more difficult for South Korea to seek joint responses with the international community,.

"A Trump presidency makes international responses to North Korea threats more uncertain since he and his future appointees will be people who look down on the U.N. and prefer unilateral decision-making," she said.

She believes that Trump's policy toward the Korean Peninsula will depend on whom he chooses for key positions  Secretary of State, Defense and the National Security Council director.

"Trump knows so little about North Korea and its troublesome role in the Asian region," she said.

"He needs to have experts who can translate North Korea to him in a way he can understand."

She forecasts that hardliners will assume the key positions in the new U.S. cabinet and that containment will be their preference.

"But no one knows what kind of a president Trump will be  whether he will listen to his top advisors or act on his gut instinct.'"
BMW Korea CEO Kim Hyo-joon, left, poses with Lee Hyung-hee, president of SK Telecom's network operations divisions, during the two companies' showcase for 5G wireless communication connected car technologies at the BMW Driving Center in Yeongjong-do, Incheon, Tuesday. / Courtesy of BMW Korea



By Jhoo Dong-chan

BMW's local unit BMW Korea has signed a memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Korea's largest wireless carrier SK Telecom for a joint research operation of 5 Generation (5G) wireless communication connected car technologies.

The two companies held a showcase of their project for future car technologies at the BMW Driving Center located in Yeongjong-do, Incheon, Tuesday.

Under the MOU, BMW Korea and SK Telecom are expected to carry out extensive technological research about 5G connected cars. The joint operation of the two companies will start with setting up a 5G pilot network with a frequency range of 28GHz at the BMW Driving Center and installing 5G devices on the new BMW X5 sport utility vehicle (SUV) and 7-Series sedan models.

"BMW Group Korea will closely cooperate with SK Telecom which is a leading company in 5G development in contributing to and realizing the future of Connected Car services into the Korean market," said BMW Korea President Kim Hyo-joon.

During the showcase, the two companies applied 5G technology to actually driving two vehicles on the BMW Driving Center track. During the demonstration, the two cars received information about traffic conditions, including GPS and the speed of the cars in front of them, in real time.

The joint research will be applied to 5G wireless communication technologies of automobiles in a bid to improve the future driving environment. The technologies will be commercialized by 2020, BMW Korea added in a press release.

The cooperation includes testing various existing communication techniques such as image detection, 5G vehicle to infrastructure and 4K UHD streaming video, 360 degree VR, hologram live conference, 5G Experience Bus and drone helpers.

"5G will offer much more than just faster data speeds. It will serve as a true enabler for a whole new variety of powerful services that deliver unprecedented value to customers," said Choi Jin-sung, the CTO and Head of the Corporate R&D Center of SK Telecom.

"Today's demonstration of 5G-based connected car technologies marks the very first step towards achieving fully autonomous driving in the upcoming era of 5G."
By Choi Sung-jin

One out of every two single Koreans approves of living together on the premise they will get married. And they are quite negative about the existing marriage practice, in which men buy homes and wives prepare furnishings.

According to the "2015 fertility survey" of 2,383 unmarried people aged 20-44, by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, 68.1 percent of male and 51.2 percent of female respondents approved cohabitation with marriage in mind.

Asked whether they can live together regardless of marriage, however, 47.4 percent of men said "yes" but only 29.8 percent of women agreed.

On the other hand, to the question of whether marriage registration should be made after they live together as couples for some time, 58.4 percent of women said "yes" but only 44 percent of men gave the same reply, reflecting the relatively bigger social hardships women experience after divorce, the survey said.














Prosecutors raided the offices of Cheil Worldwide, the advertising unit of Samsung Group, on Tuesday over its alleged involvement in a snowballing influence-peddling scandal rocking the country.

The prosecution team looking into the Choi Soon-sil scandal said its investigators raided the ad agency located in the group's headquarters in southern Seoul and confiscated computer hard drives, accounting books and other documents related to the latest scandal involving President Park Geun-hye's longtime friend.

The move came two days after the prosecution called in Samsung Electronics' Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, the heir apparent of the family-run group, to undergo questioning over cash donations to two nonprofit foundations allegedly set up and controlled by Choi, who has maintained ties with the president for over four decades. Choi is currently in custody over suspicions of peddling influence and amassing profits by using her friendship with the president.

The latest move follows another raid carried out on the head office of the conglomerate earlier this month, which marked the first time in eight years that Samsung's main office was subject to a search by authorities.

Prosecutors suspect that the advertising company gave business favors to Choi. They are also looking into whether it was involved in the group handing over 3.5 billion won ($3 million) to a company in Germany owned by Choi and her daughter Chung Yoo-ra to fund Chung's equestrian training.

Prosecutors here have been accelerating their probe into the growing scandal, which has shaken President Park Geun-hye's presidency, with her approval ranging plunging to a record-low level.

They are consulting with the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae with a plan to question Park later this week. Park has appointed a legal counsel to accompany her in what will be the first prosecutorial questioning of a sitting South Korean president in the country's history. (Yonhap)
A recently discovered note from a former presidential aide revealed that President Park Geun-hye and her aides at Cheong Wa Dae ordered legal attacks on news outlets that criticized the presidential house. / Yonhap



By Ko Dong-hwan

Cheong Wa Dae ordered legal attacks on news outlets that criticized the presidential house, a recently discovered note from a former presidential aide shows, according to a report.

The note was from Kim Young-han, the late senior presidential secretary for civil affairs. Kim allegedly took a record of what Kim Ki-choon, a former presidential chief of staff, said during a meeting on July 2, 2014, at which Kim Ki-choon attacked media outlets.

The meeting came after President Park Geun-hye said during a secretariat meeting at Cheong Wa Dae on June 30, 2014, that selecting candidates for the Prime Ministerial post  which had been vacant for some time  was difficult because of high standards in verifying their qualities.

"You cannot leave them (the media) unbridled and freely criticizing Cheong Wa Dae," Kim Ki-choon said at the July meeting.

He ordered authorities "to stringently strike such companies with equal damage, with measures including reporting them to the Press Arbitration Commission or bringing charges or damages suits against them."












By Choi Ha-young



Police raided a Twitter user's home, Monday, over his comment that he would bring a gun to Cheong Wa Dae.



According to Dongjak Police Station, seven police officers combed through the unidentified man's home in southern Seoul for about an hour beginning at 4 p.m., even including inspecting his parcel boxes and doghouse.



The search came about 15 hours after he tweeted, "I want to go to Cheong Wa Dae with a revolver that I've kept in my attic." He also posted a photo of a sign shown in Saturday's rally that read: "Resisting until being shot  does it run in your family?"



He posted the tweets in response to the corruption scandal involving President Park Geun-hye and her confidant Choi Soon-sil. Park's father, former President Park Chung-hee, didn't relinquish his power until his right-hand man assassinated him in October 1979. Park's mother, first lady Yuk Young-su, was also assassinated in 1974.













"I just grumbled complaints. The police should investigate those who should be investigated, not a hardworking taxpayer like me," he tweeted later. "As I strongly protested against the raid, the officers told me that someone at a higher level ordered a thorough inspection of my home because I mentioned the words firearm and the presidential office."



The police did not have a search warrant. Regarding this, police said they can conduct a raid if they obtain consent on the spot, and the man's mother who was at home consented to the raid.
By Jun Ji-hye

Han Min-koo

Three opposition parties agreed Tuesday to submit a joint motion, Nov. 30, demanding President Park Geun-hye dismiss Defense Minister Han Min-koo for signing a controversial military deal with Japan.

The agreement came one day after the Ministry of National Defense signed a provisional agreement with Japan to directly exchange military intelligence about North Korea despite objections from the opposition and negative public sentiment toward the deal.

The two governments are expected to formally sign the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) by the end of this month if the deal is endorsed by the Cabinet and President Park Guen-hye.

Reps. Park Wan-joo and Kim Kwan-young, deputy floor leaders from the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea and the second largest opposition People's Party, and Rep. Kim Jong-dae, spokesman for the minor opposition Justice Party, said the dismissal motion would be presented to a plenary session Dec. 1 and put to a vote Dec. 2.

If the vote takes place, the motion is highly likely to be passed as the three opposition parties together hold 165 seats out of the total of 300 in the Assembly. Under the standing law, a motion is passed if a majority of lawmakers vote for it.

The opposition camp has been strongly opposed to the ministry's move to sign the GSOMIA with Japan, claiming that it was rushing into a sensitive deal while public attention is centered on a massive political scandal involving President Park and her longtime confidant Choi Soon-sil.

Once the official deal is signed, the pact would allow Seoul and Tokyo to directly share and exchange intelligence on the North's military activities related to its nuclear and missile programs. South Korea is expected to provide Japan with radio monitoring and human intelligence, according to sources. Currently, the two indirectly exchange military intelligence through Washington under a trilateral pact signed at the end of 2014.

But skepticism over the effectiveness of the deal has also been raised.

The ministry said the deal will be of considerable help in facing the North's evolving threats, saying the two countries would exchange the same level of intelligence.

However, critics say that nobody can be sure that the same level of information would be exchanged because a country makes an arbitrary decision when it rates intelligence. This means that intelligence provided by Japan would be regarded as important and confidential by Tokyo, but not that meaningful by South Korea, and vice versa.

Critics also said information provided by Japan could considerably overlap that offered by the United States.

In 2012, Seoul and Japan were about to sign an agreement, but this fell through at the last minute due to fierce public criticism here over the government's alleged clandestine attempts to sign the deal with the former colonial ruler.

Since then, the ministry had maintained a position that it would seek understanding from the public first to resume discussions, apparently wary of resistance stemming from the bitter memory of Tokyo's 1910-1945 colonial rule and Japanese soldiers using Korean women as sex slaves.

Opposition lawmakers said the ministry has apparently shifted its existing position while there have not been many changes in the public's viewpoint.
By Jun Ji-hye

Lee Jung-hee Chae Dong-wook

A former progressive party chief and a former top prosecutor, who were allegedly persecuted under the Park Geun-hye administration, are emerging as possible candidates for an independent counsel who will investigate a corruption scandal involving Park and her longtime confident Choi Soon-sil.

The ruling and opposition parties agreed Monday to appoint an independent counsel, saying they will pass a related bill during a National Assembly plenary session slated for Thursday.

Speculation is rampant about who will be tapped.

Lee Jung-hee, a human rights lawyer who headed the now-disbanded United Progressive Party (UPP), and former Prosecutor General Chae Dong-wook are high on the list of possible figures.
By Kim Se-jeong

The Seoul Metropolitan Government is considering banning tour buses and franchised coffee shops in Bukchon, a district between two palaces known for its cluster of hanok, or traditional Korean houses.

The city government said Tuesday it is planning the measure to address increasing complaints from residents over trash and noise caused by tourists and to protect local businesses from being forced out due to high rent.

Bukchon is a major tourist destination in Seoul thanks to its hanok, cozy restaurants and cafes and artisans and their galleries. Like other tourist spots in the city, however, Bukchon's authenticity began showing signs of fading due to torrents of tourists and skyrocketing rent, the city said.

"The measure is aimed at maintaining Bukchon's identity as a historic and cultural village," a city official said.

The city will tour prevent buses from roaming the area while waiting for their passengers to finish sightseeing or shopping. Instead, the city will consider underground parking lots in the vicinity.

While large-sized coffee shop chains will be barred, the city said the measure will also include a height limit for new buildings.

For Seochon, a district on the other side of Gyeongbok Palace also facing similar gentrification issues, the city has already prevented big companies from opening coffeehouse chains and regulated heights for new construction.
A commercial jet flies in front of the moon on approach to Heathrow Airport in west London on November 13. After a series of earthquakes hit Asia-Pacific countries during the day of the "super moon" (Nov. 14), many Koreans are anxious over possible quakes in the country. / Korea Times file



By Lee Jin-a

Concerns are growing over the chance of major earthquakes in Korea after quakes struck the Asia-Pacific region, including Korea, Japan and New Zealand, around Nov. 14  the day of the "super moon"  when the moon was at its closest in 68 years.

From Sunday to Tuesday, several earthquakes were detected in these countries. A theory claiming the unusual lunar phenomenon might have triggered the quakes went viral on social network services.

At 1:15 a.m. Tuesday, a 5.0-magnitude earthquake struck Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, after a 4.6-magnitude earthquake hit Fukushima Prefecture at 7:43 a.m. Monday. A 5.1-magnitude aftershock hit southern New Zealand at 4:17 a.m. Tuesday, following a powerful 7.8-magnitude quake that struck the region on Sunday, killing at least two people and causing widespread damage.





Mary Kimber stands in her kitchen following an earthquake in Waiau, New Zealand Monday, Nov. 14, 2016. A powerful earthquake that rocked New Zealand on Monday triggered landslides and a small tsunami, cracked apart roads and homes, but largely spared the country the devastation it saw five years ago when a deadly earthquake struck the same region. / AP-Yonhap



Many Koreans are concerned by the theory after a 3.5-magnitude earthquake rattled the southern city of Boryeong, South Chungcheong Province, on Sunday. They fear another powerful quake like the one that rocked Gyeongju in September may hit the peninsula.












By Kim Se-jeong



On Tuesday, a local court in Seoul ordered a toxic humidifier disinfectant manufacturer to pay 10 victims up to 100 million won each, in a symbolic ruling that recognized the responsibility of the manufacturer for the first time.



But, the Seoul Central District Court rejected the victims' claims that the government should also bear responsibility, citing a lack of evidence.



"Cefu should pay each victim between 10 million won and 100 million won," the judge Lee Eun-hee said. "We recognize that it is Cefu's fault because we see the connection between the product and the illnesses and deaths caused among the customers."



All 10 victims used Cefu, a humidifier disinfectant brand manufactured by a now-defunct local company, Butterfly Effect. The plaintiffs  victims and dead victims' family members  filed the suit in August, 2014, demanding 9.3 billion won for physical and psychological damages from the ordeal. Three more victims initially participated in the suit against five companies in total. But four companies  Oxy Reckitt Benckiser, Hanvit Chemical, Yong-ma Industries and Lotte Shopping  made settlements with the victims and were dropped from the suit.



Regarding the claims for the government's responsibility due to poor management of the products, the judge said, "The evidence presented to the court is insufficient to prove that the government is responsible for the damage."



This was the second compensation suit against the government. In a separate case, likewise, a lower court ruled in favor of the government, and the victims took the case to an appeals court.



The humidifier disinfectant scandal which surfaced in 2011 has been the worst biocide crisis in Korea. According to government statistics, 143 victims were reported to have died so far. But civic groups claim the death toll exceeded 1,000.



After almost five years of low recognition, the case drew enormous attention earlier this year after the prosecution's decision to investigate the case.



Oxy, which is responsible for the highest number of deaths, was indicted for making the toxic products. Oxy also announced its own compensation plan, which some victims took and others dismissed.




Former Saenuri Party Chairman Rep. Kim Moo-sung, who is leading a campaign to oust followers of President Park Geun-hye from key party posts, speaks to reporters during a visit to an industrial site in Daegu, Tuesday. / Yonhap



By Kim Hyo-jin



A group of Saenuri Party lawmakers, who have demanded the resignations of loyalists to President Park Geun-hye from key party posts, launched their own "emergency committee" Tuesday, to drive out pro-Park figures.



Party Chairman Rep. Lee Jung-hyun, a diehard pro-Park figure, harshly criticized the move, saying he will not succumb to their demands.



The feud inside the ruling party is now developing into an all-out war between the Park loyalists who are controlling the party and other factions.



The newly formed rival faction includes 12 notable lawmakers opposing the President, some of whom apparently have presidential ambitions.



The list includes bigwigs and potential presidential candidates _ former Chairman Kim Moo-sung, ex-floor leader Yoo Seong-min, former Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, Gyeonggi Province Governor Nam Kyung-pil, his predecessor Kim Moon-soo, Jeju Governor Won Hee-ryong and Na Kyung-won, ex-chairwoman of the National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee.



The move indicated that the ruling party has virtually collapsed and the division between rival factions remains irreversible, according to party officials.













The lawmakers from the non-Park faction held an "emergency committee" meeting and protested the incumbent party leadership led by Lee.



The committee is scheduled to be officially launched on Nov. 18.



Lee has been pressured to quit amid the influence-peddling scandal involving the President and her confidant Choi Soon-sil.



However, he remains adamant in keeping the post, saying he can only step down when the paralysis gripping the country is eased.



Lee said Monday he plans to hold a national convention to elect a new leader on Jan. 21 and he will step down sometime in December, bringing a strong backlash from the dissenters.



He dismissed the emergency committee as an unofficial intra-party gathering, criticizing the members as having no legitimate leadership in the party.



"I can only accept their opinion but it's just one of many groups made up of party members," Lee told reporters later in the day.



He directed his criticism at four of the prominent faction members. "Their aggregated approval ratings are less than 10 percent," he said. "They have no right to present themselves as Saenuri's potential presidential candidates."



Amid the scandal, the party's approval ratings dipped to the lowest in its history at 19.2 percent in a Realmeter poll conducted between Nov. 7 and 11. The second largest opposition People's Party is chasing it tightly with support of 15.3 percent while the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea is leading the poll by a large margin with 32 percent.



In Daegu and North Gyeongsang Provice, the traditional conservative hometurf, the Saenuri Party fell to second place for the first time in polling history with 24.9 percent, trailing the main opposition party which garnered 25.5 percent.
PJSC Ukrnaftoburinnia and Cypriot-based Glenshee Holdings Ltd. could buy 99.567% in PJSC Odesa port-side chemical plant, reads a report in the bulletin of the National Commission on Securities and the Stock Market.

Ukrainian businessman Ihor Kolomoisky and MP Vitaliy Khomutynnik held shares in Ukrnaftoburinnia as of August 2016, while Glenshee Holdings was affiliated with businessman Oleksandr Yaroslavsky as of June 2010.

Both companies intend to participate in a privatization tender scheduled for December 14, 2016.

Ukraine's State Property Fund (SPF) has not commented the information, while earlier SPF Head Ihor Bilous said that there are no Ukrainian buyers among companies interested in buying the plant. He said that one of the risks for the tender is a lawsuit with Nortima LLC affiliated with Kolomoisky. His company is fighting for declaring the winner of the previous tender held in autumn 2009. Then the fund decided not to sell the plant, considering the price of UAH 5 billion proposed by Nortima too low.

As reported, the initial price of this stake is UAH 5.16 billion, the bid increment is UAH 150 million. Potential buyers can apply to the State Property Fund with the initiative to sign confidentiality agreements until November 29, 2016. Tender documentation and final draft contracts are accepted until December 6.

Earlier Khomutynnik said he on an equal footing with Ihor Kolomoisky owns Deripon Commercial Ltd. (Cyprus), which in late 2015 held a 44.989% stake in PJSC Ukrnaftoburinnia.

According to the information disclosure system of the National Commission on Securities and the Stock Market, other large shareholders in Ukrnaftoburinnia at the end of 2015 were British-based Ares Systems Ltd. and Ariana Business Limited, registered at the same address in London, with the equal stakes of 22.4996%, and JKX Ukraine B.V. (the Netherlands) with 10%.

The owners of Ares Systems and Ariana Business in British registers are Viola Blue Ltd. and Provost Promotion Inc., trapped in the Panama Papers, respectively.

According to the securities regulator's information disclosure system, Glenshee Holdings Ltd. held 92.9243% of Ukrainian Metallurgical Company as of Q1 2011, which owned 18.5834% in Kharkiv-based UkrSibbank. The NBU said as of early July 2010 that the indirect owner of this stake was Glenshee Holdings Ltd. and the founder of the bank Yaroslavsky, who sold a controlling stake in the bank to France's BNP Paribas.

Yaroslavsky is a minority shareholder in Ukrtatnafta which is under control of Kolomoisky.

State-owned Odesa port-side chemical plant produces chemical goods. It is engaged in transshipment of ammonia on board ships.

The company in 2015 posted a net profit of UAH 211 million against a net loss of UAH 270 million a year earlier, its net income increased by 2.1 times, to UAH 11.195 billion.
Moon Jae-in, former chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, speaks at a press conference at the National Assembly, Tuesday. He vowed to push for a nationwide movement to oust President Park Geun-hye over a massive political scandal involving her and her longtime confidant Choi Soon-sil. / Yonhap



Opposition alliance gains momentum



By Kim Hyo-jin

Former opposition leader Moon Jae-in, a major presidential hopeful, joined a campaign to force President Park Geun-hye to resign, Tuesday, saying he will fight until Park steps down.

"I will push for a nationwide movement to drive Park out until she declares her resignation with no conditions attached," Moon said during a press conference at the National Assembly. "I will help create an emergency body that embraces all opposition parties, civic society and local communities."

Moon has been cautious about calling for Park's resignation but his pledge to join the anti-Park campaign is expected to make the opposition-led drive more powerful because he is widely backed by civic and religious groups.

This was the first time Moon officially called for Park's resignation, which is possibly linked to his presidential bid.

Regarding the holding of an early presidential election, Moon, a former leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), said the issue should be discussed if Park resigns.

Moon's action came after the DPK toughened its stance against Park, making her resignation an official position during a general meeting.

The move involves the risk of a backlash from conservative voters ahead of the scheduled presidential election next year, which could last some time.
Lawyer Yoo Yeong-ha, who is represents President Park Geun-hye in an investigation of a scandal involving her and her friend Chon Soon-sil, speaks at a press conference in front of the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office in southern Seoul, Tuesday. He asked the prosecution to postpone questioning Park, which was expected to take place this week.

/ Korea Times photo by Hong In-kie



President calls for investigation delay

By Kang Seung-woo

President Park Geun-hye is apparently determined to stage a long battle to hold on to power in defiance of public calls for her resignation or a power transfer.

Her stance may throw the country into deeper chaos with the opposition parties joining forces to oust Park  the prime suspect in the country's largest-ever corruption scandal.

"Taking the situation gravely, the President is seeking all means to address the current political turmoil," said presidential spokesman Jung Youn-kuk in a briefing.

However, the spokesman made it clear that resignation or a transition of power was not on the cards.

In political circles, an idea emerged that President Park should announce her resignation or yield power to a prime minister recommended by the national Assembly.

However, the presidential office called this unconstitutional.

"Every solution should be taken into consideration within legal limits," a Cheong Wa Dae official said.

Another official said the aforementioned methods violated the spirit of the Constitution.

The presidential office also announced that Park had appointed lawwer Yoo Yeong-ha to represent her, ahead of questioning by the prosecution over the scandal.

Yoo, considered a Park loyalist, asked the prosecution to postpone the questioning until next week, saying that it was physically impossible to conduct it today.












By John Redmond





Seoul Film Society founder Barry Welsh

Seoul Film Society (SFS) and the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS) Cinema Club will screen cult Korean indie-rock music documentary "Party 51" at the Seoul Global Cultural Center in Myeong-dong on Saturday.

Directed by Jung Yong-taek, "51" recalls events surrounding Ahn Jong-nyeo, owner of noodle restaurant Duriban near Hongik University (Hongdae), once an arts area in western Seoul.

On Christmas Eve 2009, 30 hired goons entered the restaurant, while customers were eating to violently evict everyone. The very next day, Ahn returned and forced her way into her shuttered, destroyed business, beginning a 531-day sit-in protest.

Struggling musicians, also trying to survive Hongdae gentrification, joined with Duriban, which provided free space to practice, put on shows or just hang out or even sleep.

It led to a musical movement coined Jarip (Independent Musicians' Collective), bringing together bluesman Ha Heon-jin, grind band Bamseom Pirates, neo-folk musician Danpyunsun, solo musician Hahn Vad of Amature Amplifier and Yamagata Tweakster and noise musician Park Daham, all spotlighted in the documentary.

Their struggle against the forces of urban renewal and gentrification remains highly relevant in 2016, as the city government considers a plan to turn the whole neighborhood into a tourist zone.

"Duriban was a kind of utopian moment in Korea's capitalist society, and I doubt there will be another situation quite like that again," said director Jung Yong-taek. "That Duriban period will never occur again, and there will never been another like it."

The Korea Times spoke with Seoul Film Society founder Barry Welsh about the origins and aims of the group.



Q: How and when did SFS begin? What was the initial aim?

A: The Seoul Film Society began over two years ago as an offshoot of the Seoul Book and Culture Club which started around six years ago. I did a masters degree in film studies at Edinburgh University when I was younger and I have always loved watching films and talking about them with my friends.

When I moved here I was really excited to learn more about Korean cinema and just watch lots of Korean films with other film fans. So I started the film society to create a little community of people who shared the same interest -- people who wanted to watch Korean films and talk about them. However, in the past I also screened a selection of classic British films with Korean subtitles as well. If I had more time I would screen more British films. It was a fun cross cultural experience.



Q: What has been the public response to the movies screened?

A: The public response has been very positive. There is usually a good mix of foreigners and Koreans at the screenings and the discussions afterwards are usually very lively. It's been very interesting getting that sort of insider/outsider perspective on some classic Korean films. People bring all sorts of different perspectives to films and react to them in different ways and that, I think, is one of the best things about the screenings.



Q: Is it easy to access resources? What obstacles have you overcome?

A: I am very lucky to have the support of an excellent venue that has made it very easy for me to screen films. Everyone at Seoul Global Cultural Center has been incredibly supportive and helpful. The only occasional small obstacle is that I have to find a different venue if I want to screen something "political" or "sensitive" such as the Sewol documentary or the Cheonan documentary.

But apart from that it's been a largely problem-free experience. The main problem I have is that I do most everything myself (with the support of my wonderful wife) so just finding time in my schedule to organize everything is difficult.



Q: Where do you see the future direction of SFC heading?

A: Well in the past we've had several film directors come and talk about their careers and films and although logistically that can be quite difficult to set up hopefully next year we'll see more film directors attend the events as special guests.

I would love to get screenwriters and actors to come and be special guests as well. Also, if I had time I would love to screen more British films or do a selection of screenings on classic noir films or a horror film season or a Hitchcock season or classic 70s American movies -- things like that. The only limit is my time!



"Party 51" will be screened with English subtitles, with an introduction from RAS council member and Korea Times editor Jon Dunbar. Afterward will be a Q&A session with director Jung. Entry is free and doors open at 2 p.m.

Visit facebook.com/seoulfilmsociety for more information on this and other SFS events.
By John Redmond



The American Chamber of Commerce in Korea (AMCHAM Korea) will host the seventh annual AMCHAM Healthcare Innovation Seminar at the Four Seasons Hotel Seoul, Friday.

Some 300 representatives from selected domestic and foreign healthcare-related companies, organizations and government agencies, including the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service, will gather under the theme of "Innovation without Borders - Key to a Safer, Healthier Life."

The seminar will begin with opening remarks from AMCHAM President John Schuldt, followed by congratulatory and welcoming remarks from Korean and U.S. government officials, including Minister of Health and Welfare Chung Chin-youb, Health and Welfare Committee Chairman Rep. Yang Seung-jo and deputy chief of mission of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul Marc Knapper.

The event, comprised of three sessions, will feature presentations and panel discussions by prominent stakeholders in the healthcare sector such as Bang Yung-jue, president of Seoul National University Hospital's Biomedical Research Institute.

The seminar will touch on topics such as challenges to pharmaceutical research and development, bioclusters and a new paradigm of healthcare.

AMCHAM Korea, founded in 1953, has a broad mandate to encourage the development of investment and trade between Korea and the United States. It is the largest foreign chamber in Korea with around 800 member companies that have diverse interests and substantial participation in the Korean economy.

To register for this event, visit amchamkorea.org or call (02) 6201-2238.
Defense Minister Han Min-koo / Korea Times file



Opposition parties on Tuesday agreed to submit a motion later this month to recommend the dismissal of Defense Minister Han Min-koo to make good on their pledge to unseat him for the provisional signing of a military intelligence-sharing pact with Japan.

The Democratic Party, the People's Party and the Justice Party made the agreement to submit the motion on Nov. 30 and put it to vote during the National Assembly's plenary session slated for Dec. 2.

The passage of the motion requires approval from more than half of the total 300 lawmakers. With the National Assembly controlled by the opposition bloc, the passage is highly likely, observers said.

On Monday, Seoul and Tokyo tentatively signed the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) to enhance cooperation in coping with Pyongyang's growing nuclear and missile threats. Opposition parties have criticized the defense minister for pushing for the signing without public consensus.

The parties' stance against the GSOMIA reflects citizens' opposition to any close military collaboration with their onetime colonizer, which they think failed to fully atone for its colonial-era misdeeds. Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula from 1910-45. (Yonhap)
President-elect Donald Trump North Korean leader Kim Jong-un



By Jane Han





Dr. Han Park, director and professor at University of Georgia.

DALLAS  Amid anticipation that America's next commander-in-chief will introduce a sharp and significant foreign policy shift, a prominent North Korean expert predicts that a meeting between Donald Trump and Pyongyang's despot Kim Jong-un may happen soon.

"Such a meeting could take place relatively soon," Dr. Han Park, director and professor emeritus of public and international affairs at the University of Georgia, said in an interview with The Korea Times.

"It is because Trump may wish to show the world that he is in charge of creating new policy initiatives and meeting with Kim is a low-hanging fruit that is definitely attractive."

Park, who has visited Pyongyang about 50 times, has worked with numerous U.S. administrations and served as an unofficial negotiator between the U.S. and North Korea to mediate tensions.

One of the more well-known involvements was when Park visited Pyongyang in 2009 to help the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, two American journalists who had been detained by the communist state while filming a documentary along the China-North Korea border.

As far as the possible meeting between Trump and Kim goes, Russia may play a role.

"The meeting may take place in Russia, hosted by Putin, or at a neutral international forum such as the United Nations," Park said.

While on the campaign trail, Trump suggested several times that he would handle North Korea differently from the way democratic President Barack Obama has done over the past eight years.












Rep. Choo Mi-ae, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, on Monday proposed talks with President Park Geun-hye to discuss a way to address a political impasse sparked by a corruption scandal involving the president's longtime confidante.

A source said that Choo made the overture for dialogue to Han Gwang-ok, Park's chief of staff, early this morning.

The proposal followed the weekend's massive rally in downtown Seoul, which called for Park's resignation. The Democratic Party, along with other opposition parties, joined the rally where organizers said some 1 million citizens gathered.

The main opposition party has so far demanded that Park publicly declare she retreat from state affairs, a move to make the president a ceremonial head of state. But the presidential office has indicated that Park will exercise her lawful authority enshrined in the Constitution, such as her control over the military. (Yonhap)
By Christopher D. Fiorillo

Shin Jung-hoon was a KAIST professor. He was killed Sept. 30 by a driver on the wrong side of the road. Three days later I was thinking about his death as I walked across the KAIST campus. Suddenly a large motorcycle driving at high speed stopped just one meter from me. I was half a second from being dead or seriously injured. On a crosswalk. The driver was a KAIST student, who subsequently sped off the street and onto the sidewalk next to the KAIST pre-school. My colleague's daughter attends that school, and he worries every day that she could end up a bloody mess on that sidewalk because of the negligence and lawlessness of a KAIST student. The student who nearly killed me had no license plate on his motorcycle. He broke at least three laws in three minutes.

I am an American neuroscientist and have been a professor at KAIST since 2009. I have talked about traffic safety to both KAIST campus security and with the president within the last year. They are good people and they have taken steps to improve the situation. But their efforts have been insufficient. Until now I have not strongly criticized KAIST. But I will not continue to be quiet. My tenure at KAIST and the pride of KAIST and Korea, are small and insignificant relative to life and death. I use strong and vivid language here because people need to have the emotion and motivation necessary to end the killing.

I am American, so I will criticize Americans first. Americans are infamous throughout the world for their stupid gun laws. The result was 33,612 deaths by guns in 2014, 1.3% of all deaths. Over 5,000 Koreans remain alive each year because South Korea enforces sensible gun laws. The US has failed to solve an easy problem that every other developed country has solved.

Like the US, Korea has failed to solve an easy problem that every developed country has solved. The difference is that Americans kill with guns, Koreans kill with cars. Koreans kill twice as many people per car as Americans (W.H.O. statistics). The cost is 2,000 dead Koreans each year that would be alive if Koreans followed the rules that Americans follow. I have nearly been hit multiple times by motorcycles and cars at KAIST. People have burned to death because cars illegally blocked the access of firefighters and ambulances. Everyone in this country could list numerous examples. And everyone knows that the problem is not just traffic safety, but safety in general.

Korea has good traffic laws but does not enforce them. KAIST once threatened a penalty of 10,000 won after three parking violations. That was a polite request, not punishment. I once told a driver at KAIST that he was violating the law, and he responded "Koreans do not care about laws." People in other countries do care, because they are punished for violations (I have lived in Switzerland, the UK, and the USA).

KAIST is Korea's top university in science and engineering, responsible for educating the leaders of tomorrow. But what does it teach them? KAIST students routinely drive motorcycles on sidewalks, and ~70% have no license plates. That means that many KAIST students are criminals. It is a simple fact that anyone can see by merely opening their eyes. And yet it continues year after year after year. Can anyone expect these students to follow the law once they gain money and power? Is it any wonder that corruption is rampant in Korea? A person does not simply follow the law all their life and then suddenly commit a large crime. They start with small crimes. And when one person observes a crime by others, he or she is more likely to commit a crime. This is a known fact. Small crimes matter, even when they do not kill.

KAIST is obsessed with its international reputation. What do foreigners think when they visit KAIST? This year my postdoctoral advisor visited from Stanford University. What did he think of KAIST? I can tell you what anyone from a developed country thinks when they see motorcycles and cars on the sidewalks. THIRD WORLD! It is typical of what happens in a country that is poor and backward and chaotic. And this is KAIST! KAIST should have the most enlightened and responsible citizens in Korea. There aren't any motorcycles or cars on the sidewalks even in the worst neighborhoods of the USA, Switzerland and the UK, or in the most densely populated parts of New York and London. Not even bicycles use the sidewalk at Stanford. The obvious lack of law and order at KAIST is a clear sign that Korea has not yet fully joined the civilized world. It is a national embarrassment.

KAIST and Korea have made tremendous progress in recent decades. The death of a professor is an opportunity to make KAIST and Korea safer, and more respected. If this unpleasant letter saves one life, and causes me to lose my job, that will be a good outcome. One day Korea will do exactly as other developed countries have already done. We know this, because it is the natural course of human progress over thousands of years and all around the world. We have seen it all before. The only question is how many more people will die.

Christopher Fiorillo is associate professor of Bio and Brain Engineering at KAIST.
Time to put nation above everything else



Choo Mi-ae, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), called off bilateral talks with President Park Geun-hye scheduled for Tuesday.



She retracted her own proposal to meet the embattled President in the face of strong resistance from her colleagues and other opposition parties. Choo deserves criticism for her rash behavior unbefitting her status as head of the largest opposition party at this crucial time. The cancellation of the meeting is regrettable, considering that there were hopes that the meeting would serve as an occasion to break through the current political deadlock caused by an unprecedented scandal involving Park and her longtime friend Choi Soon-sil.



Apart from the aborted meeting, it's long overdue for the nation to join forces to ride out the looming national crisis, regardless of party affiliation and ideology.



Given the political developments over the past weeks, Park appears to have lost her ability to govern the nation. Last weekend's candlelit protests at Gwanghwamun Square are a reminder that she won't be able to fulfill her five-year term, regardless of the magnitude of her involvement in the swirling scandal, which will be uncovered by the prosecution.



We have adhered to the principle that our constitutional order must be kept so as not to set a bad precedent. But things have changed completely, taking into account the roaring popular sentiment and Park's poor response to the scandal.



The question is how to let the first female head of state quit while minimizing political unrest.



Of all proposed options, the most realistic one is to persuade Park to accept an orderly exit. Under this option, the President would disclose her date of resignation, and the ruling and opposition parties would prepare for an early presidential election according to their agreed schedule after nominating a new nonpartisan prime minister.



Of course, this scenario might not be possible, given Park's alleged persistence with her tenure. There is even speculation that she will continue to turn a deaf ear to the people's call for her to step down, hoping that public sentiment will improve soon, especially among those who were once loyal to her.



But if this is true, she is highly mistaken. Park needs to know that the people's feelings of humiliation from Choi's egregious abuse of power won't fade away even with the passage of time. Her adherence to power will only bring catastrophic results both individually and nationally.



One can also doubt if the opposition is doing well. Opposition leaders should be aware of public criticism that they are preoccupied merely with political gains while leaving the current crisis unaddressed. Fearing the prolonged vacuum in state affairs, the public believes that the opposition is also responsible for bringing the mess under control sooner rather than later  apart from their outbursts of resentment.



The most important thing now is to prevent the political crisis from escalating into an economic debacle. That is why all political leaders, including the President, should put the nation above everything else.




By Lee Min-hyung

The government is in a growing dilemma over whether to allow Google to host the nation's map data abroad, as uncertainty lingers over how relationships between Washington and Seoul will develop following Donald Trump's presidential victory last week, experts said Monday.

The dispute has been the talk of the IT town here in recent months, as the government and Google have failed to narrow their differences over the plan. Following months-long internal discussions, a special state-run committee  led by the National Geographic Information Institute (NGII)  will make its final decision no later than Nov. 23.

But with Trump's unexpected victory casting growing political and economic uncertainties across the Korean Peninsula, the government is experiencing a more complex double bind, according to observers.

"Donald Trump used to be a businessman, which means he knows how to negotiate," Korea University professor Lim Jong-in said. "Many critics argue that the next U.S. president will pose a bigger challenge to us, but I think we have enough room for negotiation with the upcoming Washington government over the issue."

No one knows how the relationship between Korea and the U.S. will develop down the road, which is why we should take a wait-and-see approach over the issue.

"The government is in a state of crisis over the latest political scandal surrounding President Park Geun-hye," he said. "Under the circumstances, it would be better for us to negotiate with the upcoming Trump administration over details of the map data dispute."












World Bank has provided $40 million to Dnipropetrovsk region to open 39 ambulance stations and create emergency care departments in three hospitals of the region, Dnipropetrovsk Regional Administration Head Valentyn Reznychenko has said.

"The World Bank's project is intended to fight cardiovascular diseases. New ambulance stations to prevent and treat them will be opened. Modern emergency care and diagnostics departments will be created. The World Bank provided $40 million for this," Reznychenko told reporters.

He said that the project will be implemented during four years. Over the period 39 municipal institutions that are not used now will be reconstructed in Dnipro, Pavlohrad and Kryvy Rih. New ambulance stations will be opened in them and equipped. Eleven ambulance stations will be opened in 2017, 19 in 2018 and the rest in 2019 and 2020.

Reznychenko said that first national tenders to reconstruct the institutions have been announced. He expressed hope that the tenders will be finished early next year. It is planned to start creating first ambulance stations in spring 2017.

"We also plan to open new emergency care and diagnostics departments in three hospitals in Dnipro, Kryvy Rih and Pavlohrad using the World Bank's funds. Then there would not be a need to send serious patients to the regional center, as they could be treated in the region," he said, adding that works to create these departments will start in 2017.


By Jhoo Dong-chan, Lee Min-hyung

Will Samsung Electronics bottom out from the Galaxy Note 7 shock through its takeover of U.S. auto parts supplier giant Harman?

The $8 billion (9.36 trillion won) transaction has brought an upheaval in the automotive and IT industries here and abroad, as this is the largest-ever all-cash deal by the world's largest smartphone manufacturer.

The move came as Samsung aims to find new revenue areas at a time when the handset market is entering an inflection point. In recent years, global ICT giants  such as Google and Samsung  have pushed for an aggressive expansion strategy into the self-driving and smart vehicle industry as their next growth engines.

Following the Monday announcement, industry observers unanimously identified the deal as a win-win outcome for both Samsung and Harman.

According to London-based information and analysis provider IHS Markit, Tuesday, the combination of Samsung and Harman in terms of benefits for each in automotive technology is a "no brainer."

"For Samsung Electronics, Harman's tier one supplier status gives Samsung immediate improved access to the market. Harman has established relationships and partnerships with automakers, including BMW and Volkswagen," it said.

"That foothold could eventually act as a springboard for Samsung Electronics into other spaces in automotive as well  the company has tried make inroads with its battery cells in the automotive space, for instance  helping with the strategic long-term upside of this acquisition."

Rosy expectations prevail among industry insiders as well.

"This is the largest M&A deal under the leadership of Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong," an industry observer said under condition of anonymity.

"Their cooperation will bring enormous synergy in their future businesses in the automotive market. It suggests Samsung's direction and future growth engine in the long term."

Under the deal, Samsung will pay $112 a share for Harman, which is a 28 percent premium over the latter's closing price Friday. The transaction is expected to close halfway through next year.

Harman CEO Dinesh Paliwal immediately welcomed the agreement between the two companies, saying that linking up with Samsung Electronics would give the two companies an edge in a competitive field.

"Partnerships and scale are essential to winning over the long term in the automotive industry," he was quoted as saying.

"We will absolutely gain the synergy of procurement from this deal. Having our competencies, combined with the scale of Samsung's procurement of technology components and sensors, will also allow us to provide proof of concept to clients faster for seamless integration of new autonomous and connected car features."

The acquisition is also expected to give fresh momentum for Samsung which has suffered from the aftermath of exploding Galaxy Note 7 batteries.

Founded as an audio pioneer in 1953, Harman has designed and engineered auto parts for automakers, consumers and enterprises worldwide. It has been supplying parts related to connected car technologies since the late 2000s.

Recently under Paliwal's leadership, Harman has actively made inroads into the future car industry. It clinched a big contract with General Motors and another with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. The U.S-based auto supplier has reportedly an order backlog of $24 billion, more than triple its annual revenue, and about two-thirds of its current sales come from carmakers.

Harman has the largest market share of the global premium infotainment and car audio industry. It also has a 10 percent market share in the global telematics industry, the second-largest in that market.

The autonomous and connected car application industry is one the fastest-growing markets with an average growth rate of 13 percent in the past five years, and is expected to reach $186.4 billion globally by 2025. It was a $54.2 billion market last year.
Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim started its second week with a significant increase in rating. Vieweres are thrilled because the storyline becomes more interesting. The drama, which was said to be the most realistic medical drama, delivers its commitmet.

Audience responded very well in the second week of the airing of Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim drama as reported by Focus News. The story and plot became more interesting as the two young doctors met the legendary doctor Teacher Kim. The viewership for its third episode raised to 12.5 percent in the TnMs and 12.4 percent in Nielsen Korea.

Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim Episode 3 aired on Monday, Nov. 14 revealed another appearance of Teacher Kim, who mastered three specialties in surgery. He performed a high precision surgery to Seo-Jung whose wrist was injured during accident in the previous episode. She may not be able to perform a surgery anymore, but Teacher Kim performed the surgery to fix her tendon as Dong-Joo watched in awe.

Prior to the airing time, SBS released a still image of the previous episode of the Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim. The first image showing the Teacher Kim rested in a chair, and the other two were individual picture of Seo-Jung and Dong-Joo below:

Teacher Kim was given opportunity to join big hospital again in the episode 3 as reviewed by Seoul Daily News. However, he declined as his conscience told him to focus on patients life instead of his sole ambition.

The episode 3 showed a turning back event for Dong-Jo as he was unable to save the dying patient. He was informed about a critical patient in the ER and he must attend to the patient. Meanwhile Seo-Jung guide him through the entire procedure through her cellphone. As she was guiding him, Teacher Kim came and gaze on her in a disagreement.

Watch the preview of the Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim Episode 3 below:


Legend of the Blue Sea is one of the most anticipated drama this year. Starring two well-known and respectable actor and actress, the drama is slated to air this week on SBS.

Prior to its premiere, SBS officially introduce the drama to the public on Nov. 14 as reported by Seoul Daily News. The cast members Jun Ji-Hyun and Lee Min-Ho made their official appearance at the Imperial Palace Hotel in Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam Seoul.

Legend of the Blue Sea is a fantasy drama about a mermaid, Sim-Chung played by Jun who was captured by the fisherman during Joseon era. She was the latest mermaid on earth. During her captivity, she encountered a nobleman Dam-Ryung.

Hundreds of years later, in the present time, she met the man who resembles Dam-Ryung. The man, Heo Joon-Jae is a renown con-artist and a high class swindler. Nevertheless, Joon-Jae help her to adjust the life in the land.

There are so many unpredictable incident according to ET News, as the mermaid need to adjust her lifestyle to live among humans with the help of Joon-Jae. While the con-man also has two two other partners, Nam-Doo and Tae-Oh, played by Lee Hee-Joon and Shin Won-Ho. Nam-Doo is a decoy man to lure the victim, while Tae-Oh is the key master that can unlock any key easily.

SBS has released a number of spoilers and teaser trailers to the public that indicate the storyline is a romantic comedy drama. Some interesting footages including Sim-Chung who growl at the fish in the tank, and she eats spaghetti with a bare hand.

The shooting of the drama took place in many locations in South Korea and in ancient city of Girona in Catalonia, Spain. During the shooting in Spain, the drama draw attention of the local newspaper that made the shooting as their headline.

Legend of the Blue Sea will take over the prime time at 10:00 p.m. KST (GMT+7) of the Wednesday and Thursday night drama. The time slot was previously occupied by Jealousy Incarnate.

Watch the preview of Legend of the Blue Sea Episode 1 drama below:


Ukraine is implementing its liabilities to carry out transit of Russia gas to Europe in the full amount, and doubts expressed by the Russian president about it is the continuous long-lasting discriminative campaign, Ukrtransgaz said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Ukraine was, is and will be a reliable gas transit country. The statement that the country allegedly unlawfully pumps gas is the continuous long-lasting discriminative campaign of the northern neighbor," the operator of the Ukrainian gas transport system said.

Ukrtransgaz public relations department head Maksym Beliavsky said on Facebook that lower gas pressure maintained by Russia again was recorded on Tuesday at the entry points to the Ukrainian gas transport system from the direction of Russia.

"To northern neighbors: before accusing without any grounds you should first increase pressure on your border station to the level described in the contract. Today pressure at Sudzha compressor station (Russia) is 57.7 atm with the limit of 60 atm," he said.

He added that, despite this, transit liabilities are implemented.

"Some 277 million cubic meters entered Ukraine and 277.2 million cubic meters was sent to Europe," he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on November 14 talking to German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed fears that Ukraine could unlawfully pump gas meant for Europe in winter.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has rejected a bill on promotion of lending (No. 4529), the adoption of which was stipulated in the memorandum with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Deputy head of the Verkhovna Rada committee on fiscal policy and banking activities Ruslan Demchak, when presenting the document in the parliament, said the adoption of this legislative act, among other things, is aimed at harmonizing national and international legislation.

Among the innovations of the bill is enhancing protection of the banks' rights in getting as collateral property built without proper permits.

The parliament committee offered passing as a basis bill No. 4529, but even the proposal to send it back for revision got support from only 217 deputies with the required minimum being 226 votes.

When discussing the bill, MP Oleksandra Kuzhel (the Batkivschyna faction) said the bill is lobbied by bankers.

"It restricts the rights of borrowers and unnecessarily expands the rights of creditor banks," she said.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in its second reading and as a whole adopted bill No. 2455 on consumer crediting.

Some 247 deputies supported the corresponding bill.

"This bill implements European directives, which we copy in our legislative acts. The document gives the opportunity to our customers to be efficiently protected," deputy head of the parliamentary committee on finance and banking policy Ruslan Demchak said, when commenting on the document during its consideration.

As reported, the bill on consumer crediting was passed at first reading on December 9, 2015.

Some 376 amendments from people's deputies were received by second reading, of which 278 were accepted and 98 were rejected.

According to a press release from head of the parliamentary finance committee Serhiy Rybalka, in particular, the document excluded the norms which can be interpreted ambiguously by the Civil Code. In addition, it introduces the possibility of conducting electronic document circulation between creditors and consumers, specifies the terms and conditions of individuals' refusal from the loan and calculating the amount of returned funds, taking into account the banks' expenditures. It also clarifies the procedure and list of documents to assess creditworthiness of borrowers.
A woman from Independence is charged with beating and stabbing her mother before kidnapping her two children, who were in custody of the grandmother. Carmelita Wilson, 39, was arrested early Tuesday in Sedalia after an Amber Alert was issued for her and her children. Sedalia police officers spiked the tires of Wilsons vehicle to end their pursuit of her.

Benton County Sheriff Rick Fajen says deputies found an injured 56-year-old woman in a road north of Warsaw on Monday evening. She said Wilson, her daughter, beat and stabbed her. She said she lost consciousness, and awoke to find Wilson and her two grandchildren gone, along with her vehicle.

The woman told deputies that she let Wilson come to her house to visit the children, who are in her legal custody. An air ambulance took the woman to a hospital.

Fajen asked the Missouri State Highway Patrol to issue the Amber Alert. Early Tuesday, Sedalia police spotted the stolen vehicle and pursued it. After they spiked the tires, Wilson tried to jump a curb but hit another vehicle. Officers arrested Wilson and found the children in the vehicle uninjured. Missouri Childrens Division now has custody of the children.

Wilson is in the Benton County jail in lieu of a $250,000 bond. Shes charged with first-degree assault, armed criminal action, and first-degree tampering with a vehicle. She could face more charges.

Fajen says state troopers, Sedalia police officers, and FBI agents helped with the search for Wilson and the children.
Ukraine's Verkhova Rada has passed the law proposed by Ukraine's president on returning personal savings deposits via the system for guaranteeing the deposits of individuals suffering losses because of banking or other financial fraud (No. 5390)

The law was passed on Tuesday. Some 285 lawmakers supported the measure, more than the 226 simple majority required.

As earlier reported, on November 11, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko during a meeting with depositors from Mykhailovsky bank said that he would submit said draft law to parliament urgently.

According to the bill, banks performing the functions of a representative, agent or intermediary when attracting investments must acquaint customers in written form on the ineligibility of guarantee provided for such funds by the Individual Deposit Guarantee Fund (IDGF).

An explanatory note attached to the draft law said such a system would avoid violating the trust of depositors using banks. In particular, this pertains to the scheme under which individuals in banks are offered to sign a loan agreement with non-banking financial institutions via a bank representative. Bank accounts had been opened and funds were transferred to these non-banking entities.

According to the IDGF, Mykhailovsky bank used such a scheme with 14,000 individual depositors for more than UAH 1.5 billion worth of transactions. More than 45% of the depositors were more than 55 years old.

Under the law, IDGF is tasked with studying carefully documents submitted by each individual depositor, and, not later than 20 working days from the date the law takes effect, to begin making payments to return savings deposits.
As many as 21 ceasefire violations have been observed in Donbas in the past 24 hours, the press service of the Anti Terrorist Operation (ATO) headquarters has said.

Maryinka came under attack of 152mm artillery in the Mariupol sector, and grenade launchers and anti-aircraft systems were employed as well, it said. Krasnohorivka and Shyrokyne were attacked by use of anti-aircraft systems, grenade launchers and 82mm and 120mm mortars, and a sniper was active near Maryinka, the press service said.

"In the Luhansk sector, the hostiles fired mortars, grenade launchers and heavy machineguns on Novooleksandrivka, Triokhizbenka, the Kosharna valley, Krymske and Lopaskyne. Besides, a sniper was active in Krymske," the press service said on Facebook.

In the Donetsk sector, heavy machineguns, grenade launchers and mortars fired on the vicinity of Avdiyivka and Luhanske, while 122mm tube artillery was used against Novobakhmutivka, the press service said.
The price of LITRO gas cylinders would be further reduced in the first week of November in accordance with the

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The SLFP does not condone the continuation of the Emergency Regulations (The Public Security Ordinance) more than a day necessary

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Poland supports the abolition of visas to the EU for citizens of Georgia and Ukraine and calls on other countries to support the liberalization of a visa regime, the Polish Radio has said with reference to Foreign Minister of Poland Witold Waszczykowski.

"We have been explaining and proving for an hour and a half that the ambition of the European community and our obligations are at stake. If we want to continue working together, if we want to form the eastern policy, we must fulfill our obligations," the head of the Polish Foreign Ministry said during a meeting of heads of EU diplomatic missions in Brussels.

It is noted that the European Commission long ago concluded the authorities in Kyiv and Tbilisi had fulfilled all the necessary requirements for visa liberalization, but there is no consensus on this issue among the EU countries.

As the paper says, according to informal information, among the EU countries, France and Germany show the greatest resistance to the abolition of visas for citizens of Ukraine and Georgia.
PRESS RELEASE

Egypt Makes Further Preparation for Building Its First Nuclear Power Plant; Trainees Going to Russia Soon

Nov. 14, 2016 (EIRNS)Egyptian Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy spokesman Ayman Hamza said today that in preparation for the construction of Egypts first nuclear power plant at Dabaa, it will send 1,711 engineers and technicians to Russia to get trained, according to Sputnik. The contract with Rosatom to build the first nuclear power plant could be signed next month, Sputnik wrote. "If the agreement is signed by the end of the year, the first group of trainees will be sent next April" to Russia, Hamza said.

In June 2014, Egypts President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, facing a huge power shortage in the country, proposed building nuclear power plants. Receiving offers from Russia, Japan, and South Korea, he apparently accepted the Russian offer. What attracted Egypts attention the most is Russias state-owned firm Rosatoms offer of a $25 billion loan to build the reactors. The Russian proposal stated that it would finance 85% of the project, with Cairo paying the remainder. Egypt will eventually repay the loan at 3% interest, over a 22-year period that begins in 2029.
PRESS RELEASE

Russian Foreign Ministry Official Says Its Impossible To Restore Full Contacts of Russian, U.S. Military Under Obama

Nov. 14, 2016 (EIRNS)Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters on Monday that the restoration of full military cooperation between Russia and the Obama administration is impossible.

"I would like to ask the U.S. defense ministry: What does cooperation mean for it? If this is restoring full-fledged contacts between the militarysuspended a rather long time ago and unilaterally by the Obama administrationthen the issue apparently cannot be solved under the current administration,"

Ryabkov stressed. He pointed to U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carters recommendation to President-elect Donald Trump not to cooperate with Russia on Syria as a proof of his argument. (Carter said this on Nov. 11, in an interview on CBS.)

"This is an old position of Obamas administration, the position, containing contradictions," Ryabkov said.

"On one hand, they declare any cooperation with Russia is of no purpose, while on avoiding incidents in the air, the cooperation does continue,"

referring to the de-confliction agreement between Russia and the United States concerning operation in Syria.

"We are interested no more than the United States in this cooperation, but as the outgoing U.S. administration adheres to this line due to considerations that have no relation to practical work, well proceed from this,"

Ryabkov said.
PRESS RELEASE

Recognition of Trump Victory Implications Sink In in Some Quarters

Nov. 14, 2016 (EIRNS)

"Where Mr. Trump might look for an early (and relatively easy) success however, may be in foreign policy. As Nixon went to China, so Trump can go to Russia and China, and begin to treat them as normal nations with whom it is possible to find an intersection of interests (as well as areas of disagreement). This would be revolutionary. It could change the geo-strategical map. And as President Putin keeps repeating ... the door is open (at least for now). Nothing is forever in politics,"

wrote Alastair Crooke, senior British intelligence figure and former diplomat, two days ago in Consortium News.

Crooke is very clear on the global implications of "Trumps WinA Rebuke to the Elites." The profound alienation of tens of millions of Americans from the liberal world, with its Davos rich and its "identity politics" (he describes the Congress for Cultural Freedom in all but name as its origin), portends more "political shocks" to European governments as well, he argues.

Former Reagan Office of Management and Budget head David Stockman ("10 Radical Revisions to Rid America of Bubble Finance for Good," Daily Reckoning) and U.S. lawyer Rahul D. Manchanda ("What Donald Trump Needs to Do," Eurasia Review), urge Trump to not "capitulate to the destructive policies of the Wall Street and Washington bicoastal establishment," as Stockman puts it, by stopping the wars and going with Glass-Steagall. Stockmans number one proposal is that Trump adopt "a Peace Deal with Putin for dismantlement of NATO, cooperation in the Middle East, strangulation of ISIS by the Shiite Crescent;" fourth on his list is "a Glass-Steagall Deal to break up the giant financial conglomerates." Manchanda writes that "one of [Trumps] first orders of business should be the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act," because the "cancer" of the international banks represents an "existential threat not only to the American people ... but also to Donald Trump and his efficiency as President himself."

From the international left, Spanish journalist Ignacio Ramonet credited Trumps victory, in part, to his call for Glass-Steagall, in a post-election column being discussed in places like Argentina.
PRESS RELEASE

Xi Jinping Visit To Open a New Area of Cooperation with Ibero-America

Nov. 13, 2016 (EIRNS)There is great anticipation and excitement about Chinese President Xi Jinpings upcoming visit to Ecuador, Peru, and Chile, Nov. 17-23, which both Chinese and Ibero-American analysts and diplomats say will usher in a "new era" in bilateral relations and expanded cooperation in a number of areas. As Ecuadors El Comercio noted yesterday, China is especially interested in increasing its investment in industry.

In a press conference today, Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Wang Chao stressed that Xis trip will strengthen

"comprehensive strategic association with South America, so that together the two regions can jointly deal with their common challenges, promote common development and build a community of shared destiny."

Xi will begin his tour on Nov. 17 with a state visit to Ecuador, which President Rafael Correa has said will be "the most important visit of any head of state in the history of Ecuador." He will then will proceed to Peru, where he will have a state visit with President Pedro Pablo Kuczyinski and attend the Nov. 19-20 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, and then on to Chile for a state visit with President Michelle Bachelet. He is expected to sign a number of economic cooperation deals in all three countries.

Ecuadors ambassador to China, Jose Maria Borja, underscored in remarks to Xinhua that Xi Jinpings visit to his country is a historic one. But, he added, Chinas Belt and Road Initiative "will bring great opportunities for Latin American nations to build trade and economic ties with Central Asia," Global Times reported on Nov. 10. Also speaking to Xinhua, Peruvian analyst Miguel Rodriguez emphasized that Xis trip

"reflects the relevance China gives its ties to Latin America. Our region is a priority for China. The Chinese act with blistering speed, knowing that time counts in international relations. China knows how to win over the world."

He added, that China "sees all Latin American countries as important." As for Latin Amereica, beyond commercial ties, "the region is also interested in Chinese technology in order to spur development and industrialization."

According to Deputy Foreign Minister Li Baodong, during his trip, including at the APEC summit, Xi Jinping will seek support for his governments proposed Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, now considered particularly viable, given that Barack Obamas Trans-Pacific Partnership has ceased to exist.
PRESS RELEASE

President Xi Speaks with President-elect Trump

Nov. 14, 2016 (EIRNS)Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke with President-elect Donald Trump by phone yesterday evening, during which the Chinese President congratulated Trump on his victory. The Chinese President told Trump that as China-U.S. cooperation faces important opportunities and has huge potential, the two countries need to strengthen coordination, advance their respective economic development and global economic growth, and expand exchanges and cooperation in various fields so as to bring more benefits to the two peoples and promote the smooth development of China-U.S. relations.

As the biggest developing country and the biggest developed country respectively, and as the top two economies of the world, there are many things in which China and the United States can and should cooperate,

Xi told the President-elect.

"I attach great importance to China-U.S. relations and am ready to work with the U.S. side to carry forward bilateral ties and to better benefit the two peoples and the rest of the world,"

Xi said.

For his part, Trump thanked Xi for the congratulations and said that he agreed with Xi on his views about U.S.-China relations.

China is a great and important country with eye-catching development prospects, Trump said, according to Chinese state media, quoted by CNN.

The United States and China can achieve mutual benefits and win-win results. I would love to work with you to enhance the cooperation between U.S. and China. I am sure the Sino-US relations will achieve better development."

The two also agreed to maintain close contact, establish a good working relationship, and meet at an early date to exchange views on bilateral ties and other issues of common concern.

Similarly, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, speaking in Ankara yesterday, said, "We want to improve our relations under the Trump Administration."
A sense of the other seeps through Viet Thanh Nguyens work, a place where war and memory play like discordant whispers, and defining ones identity, especially for an immigrant or a refugee, can be as disquieting and elusive as chasing light through a prism.

A child of the Vietnam War who arrived in this country when he was 4, Nguyen is at once outsider and citizen, provocative terrain for a writer seeking to articulate and reconcile the opposing national narratives that have shaped his life. His first novel, The Sympathizer, which won a Pulitzer Prize this year, is set against American involvement in Vietnam, as told by a sly protagonist of multiple perspectives: a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces.

The book is gleaming and uproarious, a dark comedy of confession filled with charlatans, delusionists and shameless opportunists. It is the unabashed companion to Nguyens Nothing Ever Dies, a sobering nonfiction meditation on war, inhumanity and remembrance that is a finalist for the National Book Awards, which will be announced Wednesday.

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Such recognition has marked a busy time for Nguyen, an L.A. Times critic-at-large, who the other day sat at his dining room table, laptop open, and typed a few thoughts, more in demand these days than before he won the Pulitzer. The sound of traffic and an occasional siren drifted through his meticulously neat Silver Lake home, which overlooks the strange, ragged allure of Sunset Boulevard. Tea was served. Donald Trump was mentioned. Or, as Nguyen noted, the man who aroused white nativist feelings directed against immigrants and minorities.

Trump is the fusion of populist politics and the cult of personality; a reality TV star and one-percenter who, as Nguyen sees it, is part of a virtual economy based partly on celebrity that benefits the rich but creates no jobs.

Reality TV people dont have any real talent except to perform this fake version of their lives. That fake version is what people want, said Nguyen, who, while he opposes Trumps ideals, credited the president-elect for setting forth a brash vision that upended American politics. Its not just Trump supporters who accept reality television and celebrity culture. Its society as a whole. Were all guilty of profiting from that virtual capitalism and enjoying that virtual celebrity.

Viet Thanh Nguyen in 2015. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times )

Americans do believe very strongly in their own innocence. When some ... say were going overseas to establish democracy ... I think they really believe that.  Viet Thanh Nguyen

A trim man with a swoop of black hair rising like a small, shiny wave over his forehead, Nguyen and his family left Vietnam as refugees in 1975, the year the war ended. They settled in San Jose. His parents opened a grocery store where they were shot and wounded in a robbery years later. Nguyen learned English and the ways of his new home. As he grew older, however, he felt of himself as the other, outcast from a native land he never really knew and estranged from the country he embraced. There were stories of relatives left behind and films like Apocalypse Now, which conjured the war from an unnerving American perspective.

For me, it was never about learning to be an American. What happened actually was that other people didnt see me as an American. That was the disturbing part, said Nguyen, who graduated from UC Berkeley and teaches American studies, English and ethnicity at USC. The immigrant has always been an ambivalent figure in the United States. The immigrant has always served as a source of rejuvenation for the country and a source of fear.

This led him, as a writer, to untangle the complicated relationship between Vietnam and America, each with contentious versions of a conflict that killed more than 58,000 U.S. service personnel along with an estimated 1.3 million to more than 3 million North and South Vietnamese. Duality informs much of Nguyens work, which extrapolates the personal to the universal to explore nationalism, history, atrocity, truth and lies, ethical pliability and how, depending on allegiances, one persons monster is anothers liberator.

Its not just Trump supporters who accept reality television and celebrity culture.... Were all guilty of ... enjoying that virtual celebrity.  Viet Thanh Nguyen

The narrator in The Sympathizer is a chameleon, an interloper navigating the cultures and dangerous politics of Americas intervention to stop South Vietnams communist revolution. He is a conniver with blood on his hands, satire in his veins and rationalization in his heart. He tells us: I am not some misunderstood mutant from a comic book or a horror movie, although some have treated me as such. I am simply able to see any issue from both sides.

Nothing Ever Dies is an account of humanity at its darkest, a realm of war, memory, identity and pain that ventures from the jungles of Vietnam to the killing fields of Cambodia. Nguyen writes that all wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory. Memory is haunted, not just by ghostly others but by the horrors we have done, seen, and condoned, or by the unspeakable things from which we have profited.

That is the case when one views the broken lives, graves, refugees and ruins of Syria and Iraq. It leads to moral questions over outside powers imposing their designs on peoples and cultures that have been turned into the other to advance distant national interests. For Nguyen, Vietnam was a personal example of how American policy, which these days includes a massive arms industry, hundreds of overseas military bases, drone strikes and special operations forces, creates a psychology of perpetual war.

The Sympathizer, like Graham Greenes The Quiet American, examines American intentions, often mixed of hubris, benevolence and ineptitude, that leads the country into conflict.

Americans do believe very strongly in their own innocence. When some leaders say were going overseas to establish democracy and freedom, I think they really believe that, Nguyen said. They may also be doing it for corporate profits, but they really believe that Americans are there for democracy and freedom. And thats the dangerous part  that belief in your own goodness.

Countries, after all, are as complex as characters in a good novel. And a conversation in Nguyens living room can skip across the geographies, sins and fallibilities of a vexing world. The rise of populism in the West, notably Britains vote to exit the European Union, a resurgence of nationalist parties and the election of Trump suggest a backlash by working classes against capitalism.

What were seeing is a crisis in capitalism thats always been defined by race, said Nguyen, noting that over the centuries, Europes wealth was largely built on what was colonized and extracted from Asia, Africa and Latin America. The contradiction were seeing now is those minorities and those colonized peoples have made their way to the countries that colonized them in the first place and have become more visible. And as that capitalism has faltered  those white people have taken out their aggravations on these minorities and formerly colonized peoples.

See the most-read stories this hour 

Twitter: @JeffreyLAT

jeffrey.fleishman@latimes.com

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J.D. Vances Hillbilly Elegy provides a window into the pain and anger of Trumps America

Viet Thanh Nguyens Great American Novels: The Woman Warrior and China Men

A writers solitude vs. AWP: Viet Thanh Nguyen on what we share with others
A class-action lawsuit alleges that Fiat Chrysler and engine manufacturer Cummins intentionally misled owners of Dodge Ram diesel-powered heavy-duty pickup trucks about the trucks emission levels.

The case was filed Monday in federal court in Detroit by Seattle law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro. Four plaintiffs are named in the complaint, but Hagens Berman seeks to bring thousands of other owners into the case.

The suit alleges that the particulate emissions from the trucks were greater than Fiat Chrysler advertised. Attorneys contend that the trucks emissions caused catalytic converters to wear out more quickly, resulting in the vehicle burning fuel at a higher rate.

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The sheer level of fraud and concealment between Chrysler and Cummins is unconscionable, and we believe we have uncovered a deeply entrenched scheme, Steve Berman, managing partner of Hagens Berman, said in a statement.

Fiat Chrysler said it is reviewing the complaint, adding: Based on the information available to it, FCA US does not believe that the claims brought against it are meritorious. We will contest this lawsuit vigorously.

Separately, Fiat Chrysler is cooperating with a recall that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board demanded for 2013 through 2015 model year Ram 2500 pickup trucks with 6.7-liter Cummins diesel engines. The agencies found that moisture can cause deactivation of the catalyst reduction system, causing excess nitrogen oxide emissions.

But in August the automaker sued Cummins for $60 million that Fiat Chrysler attorneys said the company has already spent to repair the emission systems on about 42,000 of the diesel trucks.

In September, Reuters reported that a Fiat Chrysler attorney estimated the eventual cost to be as high as $200 million.

The Hagens Berman case seeks to broaden the issue to include owners of Ram 2500 and 3500 diesels going back as far as the 2007 model year. The lawsuit also alleges that much of what Fiat Chrysler and Cummins did was similar to Volkswagen, which put devices in about 11 million diesel cars meant to deliberately cheat on emission tests.

The German automaker is facing penalties up to $19.5 billion. Similar charges have been made against Mercedes-Benz, but that company has denied them.

The recall of the Ram heavy-duty diesels is different from the Volkswagen case. FCA and Cummins contend that the problem involves a component that didnt function as designed and that there was no intention to mislead regulators or consumers. They disagree over which of them is responsible.

Gardner writes for the Detroit Free Press/McClatchy.

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Ukraine has fallen from 37th to 38th position in the annual study Freedom on the Net conducted by Freedom House, an independent watchdog organization dedicated to the expansion of freedom and democracy around the world, the Ukrayinska Pravda publication has reported.

Ukraine remains partially free.

The Ukrainian government does not engage in blocking websites or filtering online content, but there cases of restricting access to information and arrest of bloggers and activists.

Internet penetration in Ukraine continues to grow steadily, but it suffers from the heavy economic situation, annexation of Crimea and crisis in the eastern part of the country where infrastructure was damaged.

"Freedom House said that unlike traditional media, access to online content in government-controlled Ukraine remains largely unaffected by the Russian occupation of Crimea and Russian involvement in the conflict in parts of eastern Ukraine, though dozens of Ukrainian websites have been censored in the rebel controlled Donetsk and Luhansk regions," Freedom House said.

"Furthermore, online discussion forums and social media continued to be impacted by partisan voices from both sides, Russian-paid commenting, and self-censorship out of fear," Freedom House said.

Authorities have increasingly cracked down on social media in an attempt to curb anti-Ukrainian rhetoric online, imprisoning users for so-called "separatist" or "extremist" expression.

While physical violence against online commentators has declined overall, a number of troubling instances of violence occurred, including the murder of a renowned independent journalist, Pavel Sheremet, after the coverage period in July 2016.

Furthermore, the security of thousands of journalists was compromised in a leak of a database containing the personal information of accredited journalists reporting in eastern Ukraine. Obviously, this concerns the spreading of the database by the Ukrainian Mirotvorets (Peacemaker) website.

In 2012 and 2013 Ukraine was 27th and 28th in the study.
Jon Favreaus movie career spans the technological gamut  from the fly-by-night feel of Swingers to the effects bonanza of the Iron Man franchise.

Today, he has digital tools for filmmaking he thought impossible just a few years ago. But none of them matter, he said, if theyre not deployed with humanity.

The longtime actor, director and producer said technology can be isolating and offer escapism. But when it truly succeeds, it enables audiences to feel an empathy that simply wasnt possible before.

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Storytelling is a human endeavor, Favreau said at a Times summit on innovation Monday at UCLA. Technology seems like it distracts from that, but when it does its job, its heightening the connection.

Favreau was one of about a dozen speakers at the summit called The Big Idea: Innovating for Tomorrow, which explored how technology and new ways of thinking are enhancing storytelling, securing a healthier food system and widening the scope of space exploration.

Among the other speakers were chef and author Alice Waters, virtual reality studio co-founder Neville Spiteri and filmmaker Werner Herzog, who discussed how he made his recent documentary on volcanoes, Into the Inferno (Its prudent to film as fast as you can and then flee as fast as you can).

The event also featured past winners of Rolexs enterprise award, including a cave explorer, a leading authority on whale sharks and an entrepreneur who delivered cardiovascular care to rural communities in Cameroon. The watchmaker and the UCLA Anderson School of Management were both co-sponsors of the summit.

1 / 9 Italian geologist Francesco Sauro shows a photograph of a lava tube inside a volcano in South Italy during the Los Angeles Times summit The Big Idea: Innovating for Tomorrow. Sauro and his team have been first to explore caves millions of years old, discovering new minerals and species that give clues to our ancient history. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 9 Actor, writer and director Jon Favreau talks with Los Angeles Times Assistant Managing Editor for Arts and Entertainment Mary McNamara during the Los Angeles Times summit The Big Idea: Innovating for Tomorrow, held inside Korn Convocation Hall in the Anderson School of Management at UCLA. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 9 Members of the audience applaud during the Los Angeles Times summit The Big Idea: Innovating for Tomorrow, held inside Korn Convocation Hall in the Anderson School of Management at UCLA. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 9 Oscar-nominated film director Werner Herzog, right, talks with moderator Sanjay Sood. The topic was life in a connected world, and Herzog discussed his most recent film, Into the Inferno, an exploration of volcanos around the world. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 9 Alice Waters, chef, author and food activist, greets moderator and Los Angeles Times restaurant critic Jonathan Gold during the Los Angeles Times summit The Big Idea: Innovating for Tomorrow. Waters is a pioneer of farm-to-table cuisine. The conversation covered her groundbreaking work in launching the slow food movement and how one woman can change the world. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 9 Oscar-nominated film director Werner Herzog, right, and moderator Sanjay Sood look at a clip from Herzogs latest film, Into the Inferno. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 9 Piyush Tewari, who in 2008 founded the SaveLIFE Foundation to provide rapid emergency care to road accident victims in India, talks to audience members during the Los Angeles Times summit The Big Idea: Innovating for Tomorrow. Projected on the screen is an image of his cousin, Shivam Bajpai, left, who died in a 2007 car crash in India at age 16. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 9 Moderator Michael Montgomery, left, talks with Neville Spiteri, co-founder and CEO of Wevr, a leading virtual reality studio and distributor. The topic of conversation was taking the next virtual step. Montgomery is an advisor and investor in early stage companies and a lecturer at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 9 Arthur Zang, a 28-year-old software design engineer from Cameroon and the inventor of the Cardio Pad, believed to be Africas first medical tablet to help diagnose heart disease, talks about his invention. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Favreau, who notably used stop animation for his holiday classic Elf, said he was especially proud of his work on this years live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book. He said the film succeeded in blurring the lines between special effects and reality by staying mostly true to physics and biology. Baloo in his adaptation, for example, looks like a real bear.

In one critical scene in which the protagonist leaves the pack of wolves that raised him, Favreau needed to capture an on the verge of tears level of emotion. So he gave his team the painstaking task of having the actor run his fingers through the fur of a make-believe wolf.

Conventional wisdom would have gone with the easier shot: hiding the actors hands on the other side of the animal to block the view of strands of fur coursing between his fingers. Instead, Favreau combined live actors with puppets to capture the interaction in the real world. Special effects workers then created a digital hand for Mowgli and filled in the animals movements.

All of it, you didnt know where the line was, Favreau said of the scene.

Favreau has more recently turned his attention to virtual reality, which has the ability to make storytelling interactive.

In a separate panel, Spiteri, co-founder of the Venice-based VR studio Wevr, said the immersive technology was likely two to four years from becoming a mass-market tool.

The challenge now is getting as many people as possible to experience VR, which is why the start-up is partnering with massive technology companies such as Google and Facebook to reach an audience. Spiteri has been heartened by a movement in many cities where users can pay $10 to $15 to try a VR headset for half an hour  much like a modern-day video arcade.

Were ultimately trying to reach people, Spiteri said.

In another area experiencing exponential growth, a panel of space experts spoke of investment and research in both satellites and launch systems making it easier to imagine the introduction of space tourism and Mars colonies.

Things are a lot closer than you might think, said Chad Anderson, managing director of Space Angels Network, an investment firm focused on commercial space ventures.

Will Pomerantz, vice president for special projects at Virgin Galactic, said his company wanted to make space travel far less exclusive, noting only 557 people  most of them roughly the same age  have had the privilege to venture into space.

We want to make it so that if youre healthy enough to ride a roller coaster, then youre healthy enough to ride to space, Pomerantz said.

On more earthly demands, Waters spoke about her efforts changing attitudes toward food in the United States, starting with schoolchildren.

The acclaimed chef, whose Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse launched an American food revolution starting in the 1970s, walked out on stage with a quote by French gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin projected behind her: The destiny of nations depends on how they nourish themselves.

Only by educating children about the values of food can the country reverse its embrace of fast food and the health complications it carries, Waters said in a panel moderated by Times food critic Jonathan Gold. Waters is trying to expand her efforts to teach food as a curriculum at schools.

Ive come to understand its not just what were eating but the way were eating, Waters said. When we eat fast food, we digest the values that come with our food.

Waters said the overwhelming majority of children dont have one family meal a day.

Its stunning, Gold said. Its the way families come together.

Its the place where you say whether you did your homework or not, Waters said.

david.pierson@latimes.com

Twitter: @dhpierson

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Aerospace giant Boeing Co. will move 1,600 jobs from its Huntington Beach facility to locations in Los Angeles County over the next four years, the company said Tuesday.

Those positions will move to either Boeings El Segundo facility, which specializes in satellite design and manufacturing, or its Long Beach plant, which provides commercial airplane support.

An additional 300 jobs from Huntington Beach will be relocated to Seal Beach, which also specializes in commercial airplane support, said Tiffany Pitts, Boeing spokeswoman.

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About 500 Huntington Beach positions will also be moving out of state, to St. Louis.

The moves are part of Chicago-based Boeings larger efforts to consolidate its defense and space operations.

The company said in a statement that it would close its El Paso and Newington, Va., sites, and move jobs from its Kent, Wash., facility to nearby Tukwila.

In order to push ourselves farther and win more business, we need to make the most of our resources and talent, Leanne Caret, chief executive of Boeings defense, space and security segment, said in a statement.

Boeings Huntington Beach plant will remain active, though with a smaller staff, Pitts said. She said the company is still determining which programs will remain in Huntington Beach.

The Huntington Beach location has a long history in Southern Californias aerospace industry.

The site was once home to aerospace giant McDonnell Douglas, and it built part of the Saturn V rocket that blasted astronauts into space during the Apollo program. Boeing bought McDonnell Douglas in 1997.

Today, Boeings Huntington Beach facility is a design and research center that focuses on small satellite technology, cybersecurity and unmanned underwater vehicles. There are currently about 5,000 employees at the location.

samantha.masunaga@latimes.com

For more business news, follow me @smasunaga

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Gadgets and tech

Nov. 17, 2016, 2:44 p.m. Jessicann is very sure she -- and other women -- belong at the L.A. Auto Show When Jessica Chou drove her 2003 Volkswagen Jetta into the Los Angeles Auto Show, the people checking her in seemed confused. All the guys were like, Are you sure you belong in here? And I was like, Yeah, I know, shes a real beauty,  Chou said with a laugh. She may not customize Ferraris with candy-red rims or rear-hinged doors, but the 26-year-old YouTuber from Culver City, known online as Jessicann, pitched something perhaps even more novel: Girls Garage, which she said is the first female-centric booth in the auto shows 109-year history. She raised almost $6,500 on GoFundMe to set up shop. During the 10-day show, Chou will be explaining everything from how to check your tire pressure to how to make sure your coolant tank is full. Stop by the Girls Garage at the Los Angeles Convention Center and you may snag a photo with her in her Rosie the Riveter photo booth. (Alene Tchekmedyian / Los Angeles Times) Howd you get started? Jessicann: There was one really big day for me. I was fixing my spark plugs because my car just broke down and AAA said, Why dont you do a tuneup? I was out on the street fixing my spark plugs and a man walked by and he said, What are you doing? I said, Oh, Im changing out my spark plugs. And he said, By yourself? I think it was in that instant that Ive never felt more empowered than to answer, Yes, by myself! I was beaming with pride and excitement that I was able to change my spark plugs, and my car was functioning back to normal. I had to find a way to capture this to give other women that feeling of empowerment. Whats the craziest fix youve ever done on your car? J: My craziest fix was the fuel pump. My car was dead for a whole week, and I had no idea what the problem was. I was searching and searching online, and all signs were pointing to the fuel pump. I needed to buy this crazy tool to be able to take it off. I bought the new fuel pump, changed it out, I held my breath and started the car, and it worked. I couldve cried tears of joy. I bought the part for, I think, 200 bucks so I saved a lot of money, granted it took me all day. What was your first fix? J: My first fix was probably a brake light or something, something simple. But even that is fun, to know that you could do that and not have to go to a shop just to get a little bulb switched out. What happened when you drove in here today? J: I pulled in and was like, I have a booth here. And they just kind of looked at me funny. I was like, I know its not a Maserati, maybe one year it will be. But it was really funny. And then we drove past a group of guys and theyre like, Oh, theyre just letting people in to take pictures? And I was like, No, I have a booth here! But Im just excited to kind of stir up some commotion because this is the first-ever female-dedicated space here. Which is exciting, its about time. Tell me about your name. J: I actually hated this nickname in high school. My middle name is Ann, my first name is Jessica, obviously. One of my best friends called me Jessicann, and I just hated it so much. When I was thinking of a name for YouTube, I was brainstorming, and Jessicann is so positive. It shows that I can do things, and you can too. The word can is just so empowering. What has the response been to your YouTube channel? J: One of my favorite comments was a dad said that I was his daughters new hero, which just, like, made me cry. Whats one must-have tool for girls who want to learn to fix their cars? J: I recently bought a service manual for my car. It looks intimidating, almost like an encyclopedia for your car, but it has everything you need to know, step by step. A lot of times, your dealer will tell you, Its time to change this. You can say, Actually, you dont have to change it until a year from now. Its kind of like my bible now. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.



Unveilings

Nov. 17, 2016, 1:00 p.m. Among subcompact crossovers, Toyotas CH-R is a cheaper, edgier-looking option (Toyota) A subcompact crossover with stand-out-from-the-crowd looks. The CH-R inexplicably stands for Coupe High-Rider, although it rides low and actually has four doors  you can see the rear door handles up near the roof. Read more



Concept cars

Nov. 17, 2016, 12:50 p.m. A look at a few of the shows speediest vehicles Not all the cars are traditional racers. Not to be outdone, LEGO entered the race with this 375,000-brick Porsche.



Concept cars

Nov. 17, 2016, 11:36 a.m. Lexus has the hottest car of the show: the Sriracha IS (Nina Agrawal / Los Angeles Times) The hottest car at this years L.A. Auto Show might just be Lexus Sriracha IS, a one-off custom creation designed to attract a young market. Lexus and Huy Fong Foods, both based in Southern California, teamed up to launch the 2017 model of its IS sports sedan, the Lexus entry-level car, which retails for $37,325. It just seemed like a really good fit,"said Laura Conrad, a Lexus spokesperson. Sriracha has this cult-like following that we were really excited to tap into. (Nina Agrawal / Los Angeles Times) The car features a number of Sriracha details, including gold flecks in the paint that are supposed to resemble chili flakes. There is actual Sriracha in the steering wheel, 43 bottles in the trunk and  just in case that werent enough  an emergency supply of the stuff in the key fob. The temperature and drive settings even have Sriracha options. The car sports a number of green accents that recall the hot sauces signature bottle caps, including the brake calipers, details on the side-view mirrors and ambient light in the car. Sriracha aficionados can ogle the car as much as they like at the auto show, but no one will be driving it home. The car isnt for sale. To get a taste for how the car was made, check out this video produced by Lexus:



Nov. 16, 2016, 3:45 p.m. See more photos from the floor (Myung Chun / Los Angeles Times)



Gadgets and tech

Nov. 17, 2016, 11:02 a.m. Car company heads say theyre doing all they can to help prevent texting-and-driving accidents Despite considerable advances in safety equipment and driver assistance systems, traffic deaths in the U.S. are rising. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported recently that road fatalities rose 10% in the first half of 2016  after an increase in 2015 that was the sharpest in 50 years, when 38,300 people died on U.S. roads, according to the National Safety Council. Why? NHTSA reported that a 3.3% increase in U.S. miles traveled in the first half of this year  the result of lower gas prices, healthy new car sales and a stronger economy  could not account for the higher number of deaths. Auto executives at AutoMobility L.A., the industry-only portion of the L.A. Auto Show, believe the rise in deaths is a direct result of distracted driving  namely, texting. It comes down to people being distracted, and texting is a big piece of that, said Ford CEO Mark Fields. Part of it is more miles being driven, since the recession ended. But part of it is people being distracted. Its texting, said Chevrolet head Alan Batey. We are on the road to autonomous, and our vehicles are supply a lot of safety features. But texting and driving is a very, very bad habit. Both executives, speaking to The Times during AutoMobility L.A. interviews, said their companies are doing all they can to design and install safety systems in their automobiles  like lane-keeping assistance, front collision warnings, and emergency braking assistance  to help prevent collisions. But both emphasized that the human element is the problem. We all have a responsibility for this, but computers and machines are just more accurate than humans, Batey said. And its not just texting. I do a little survey, when Im driving, where I look at the other drivers, Fields said. It is amazing to see what people do in their cars.



Concept carsSelf-driving vehicles

Nov. 17, 2016, 10:41 a.m. Honda and Lego team up with East L.A. children to win Automobility L.A. Design and Developer Challenge The year is 2050: Two-thirds of the worlds population live in cities, and urban sprawl is rampant. What will our transportation system and cars look like? This question helped form the basis of the Automobility L.A. Design and Developer Challenge, which invited creative and unexpected collaborations to conceptualize autonomous cars of the future. Over the last year, teams including Crayola and Qoros; Fandango and Jaunt VR; and Honda, Lego and Trigger designed concept vehicles to showcase at Wednesdays event. Some teams, like Kiska and KTM, envisioned a future of deserted cities that were only used for racing vehicles. Another, CH Auto and Creative Mobile, imagined interconnected West Coast cities, forming Octoangeles. Their design included three-dimensional travel and seamless interaction between vehicle and human. (Makeda Easter / Los Angeles Times) Honda, Lego and Trigger, the competition winner, used the power of kids imagination to develop their concept. The team held a brainstorming session with children from the Girls and Boys Club of East L.A., in which designers worked with the kids to create a pod that people can use to live in, work and travel. The design embraced both artificial intelligence and alternative energy. We reached out to families to learn what inspires them and used that to craft futures powered by their dreams, said Martin Sanders, Lego representative. The teams collaboration with local kids was one of the reasons for their win, according to competition judges. While Honda, Lego and Trigger won the Judges Pick award, voting is now open to industry and media professionals.



Concept carsHybrid and electric cars

Nov. 17, 2016, 10:26 a.m. Going electric ...



Unveilings

Nov. 17, 2016, 10:00 a.m. Subarus VIZIV-7 is big, and its sales are too (Subaru) Its a concept car. The concept? Big. Subaru is demonstrating its thinking about how big a future Subaru SUV can be, the company said. At 204.7 x 79.9 x 72 inches, its larger than a Ford Flex, and almost as big as Fords Expedition monster-mobile. Its got three rows of seats. Read more



Gadgets and tech

Nov. 17, 2016, 9:40 a.m. Volvo experiments with app to deliver fuel, car washes, rides to the dealer Volvo V90 (Bob Riha Jr. / European Pressphoto Agency) It seems like every other car company at the L.A. Auto Show has a new on-demand app to publicize. Most involve small-scale pilot programs. The latest is Volvo, which Thursday announced Volvo Concierge Services. In San Francisco, 300 Volvo drivers will be invited to join the program, where a tap of the app orders up a car wash, a valet to take the car to the dealer for repair and maintenance, and, to avoid a trip to the gas station, fuel delivery. Volvo claims the service as the first expandable digital ecosystem that connects car owners with convenience services via a smartphone app.



Unveilings

Nov. 17, 2016, 9:30 a.m. Volkswagen jumps into the midsize sport utility market with the seven-passenger Atlas (Volkswagen) This is Volkswagens entry into the midsize sport utility market, and the long-awaited, seven-passenger 2018 Atlas is set to go on sale next year. Volkswagen has not yet announced pricing for the Atlas but its reportedly expected to be in the $30,000 range. Read more



Unveilings

Nov. 17, 2016, 9:00 a.m. Chevy introduces the new Colorado ZR2, an off-road-ready pickup (Chris Carlson / Associated Press) Alan Batey, president of General Motors North America and head of Chevrolet, is big on trucks, and Los Angeles is his biggest market. The executive, speaking before the launch of Chevys new ZR2 off-road-ready pickup truck, said Los Angeles now eclipses Dallas and Houston and every other city in the U.S. for truck sales. Hes bullish on the ZR2s chances in the market, and his companys four-wheeled future. Were doing about 900,000 units in total truck sales for GM, Batey said. That made us No. 1 for the year last year, and I think well be No. 1 again this year. Chevy trucks are the lions share of that figure, Batey said, making up about two-thirds of all GM trucks, excluding GMC and Ram units sold. That compares favorably with sales at Ford, which manufacturers the countrys single most popular vehicle, the F-150 pickup. If you look at Ford, from 2013 to now, their truck sales are flat, Batey said. Ours are up 35% over the same period. Batey said that up to 50% of people who buy a new Colorado, which the company reintroduced as a midsize truck to become the only manufacturer to offer midsize, full-size and heavy-duty trucks, are new to the brand. Conquest sales are taking away customers from Fords F-150 and Toyotas Tacoma. (Chris Carlson / AP) What will the new ZR2 compete with? Anita Burke, chief engineer for the Colorado line, said she thinks the new rough rider may steal consumers from Nissans Pro 4X and Toyotas TRD Pro. The new 4x4 truck is built on the same wheel base as its fellow Colorados, but the body is 3.5 inches wider. It comes standard with a skid plate, hood scoop, 31-inch off-road tires, and special suspension built around Multimatic shocks. It will be powered by either the companys standard V6 or the Duramax diesel, and be offered as either a crew cab, with a five-foot bed, or with an extended six-foot bed. It will begin appearing in dealers in the spring of 2017.



Hybrid and electric cars

Nov. 17, 2016, 8:41 a.m. The Chevy Bolt EV wins Green Car of the Year (Chevrolet) The all-electric Chevrolet Bolt EV was named Green Car of the Year at the L.A. Auto Show this morning. The award is given annually by the Green Car Journal and is considered one of the most prestigious awards at the show. The journal said its editors selected the 2017 Bolt EV for its 238-mile zero-emission driving range, stylish design, driving dynamics and suite of advanced and connected technologies. The car has the distinction of being the first production battery electric vehicle to achieve a 200-plus-mile driving range. Last year, the award went to the second-generation Chevy Volt, a plug-in hybrid with a 53-mile electric range and 106 MPGe. The Bolt EV sits high and is shaped like an SUV, with a 288-cell lithium battery that runs under the car and then up under the backseat. It takes about 12 hours to charge on a regular household outlet, said Michelle Malcho, a Chevrolet spokeswoman. Alan Batey, president of General Motors North America and head of Chevrolet, said he expected the plug-in battery-electric Bolt EV to become a fixture on the Southern California landscape. Los Angeles is the biggest market in the U.S. for the companys Volt, Batey said. I think it will be our biggest market for the Bolt EV too. The Bolt EV is set to hit showrooms later this year and be available in all 50 states in 2017. With a sticker price of $37,495 for the base model (not including the $7,500 tax credit for which many owners will be eligible), it will be the first mid-priced long-range electric vehicle on the market. Staff writer Charles Fleming contributed to this report



Unveilings

Nov. 17, 2016, 8:33 a.m. Alfa Romeo and Maserati add SUVs to their sports and luxury car line-ups (Frederic J. Brown / AFP/Getty Images) Reid Bigland wears many hats at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, as head of U.S. sales and as boss of both Alfa Romeo and Maserati brands. He was wearing his Italian headwear at AutoMobility LA, the run-up to the Los Angeles Auto Show, where he was performing U.S. introductions for new SUV models from both subsidiaries. The SUVs are firsts for the two brands, Maseratis Levante making its first appearance at the auto show and Alfa Romeos Stelvio getting its world debut on the AutoMobility stage. The two Italian nameplates are trying to raise brand awareness by adding an SUV to their sports car and luxury car line-ups, and to bring new buyers to the brand by giving them a vehicle they find more useful than, say, an Alfa Romeo 4C racer or a Giulia. Bigland dismisses questions that the two brands are coming late to an expanding SUV market that may have expanded to capacity. We dont think its too late by any means, he said. The exodus away from passenger cars is not abating. The segment is hot. Levante sales, so far, support his optimism. Maseratis year to date numbers for 2016 are up 16% over 2017, Bigland said, while global September, October and November sales are showing rises of 50% to 60% over last year. Levante is playing a big role in that, Bigland said, even though the SUV has only been in some markets a matter of months, and hasnt yet debuted in Japan, Korea and other principalities. It has begun selling in Los Angeles, but Bigland did not supply local sales numbers. Southern California is the most important market for our brand in the United States, he said. We have very high hopes. There are also hopes for the Northeast and Northwest parts of the country, where snow and ice conditions may have led buyers away from Maserati and Alfa Romeo, and toward more winter-worthy vehicles made by Mercedes-Benz, Audi or BMW. Were opening up whole parts of the world to Maserati, Bigland said. Places where it isnt always 72 degrees and sunny. Alfa Romeo Stelvio (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times) Bigland estimated that Maserati will sell 20,000 to 30,000 of the SUVs in 2017, and that Levante will account for 50% of all Maserati sales next year. Some of the buyers are turning in their Porsche Cayennes, Bigland said. A surprising number are female  including a high percentage of single females, who are not generally the target customer for a high-end, full-size luxury SUV. (The Levantes start at $72,000, and the price goes up quickly with options.) All is not rosy for the executive. As head of FCAs U.S. and Canada sales, according to published reports, he is at the center of a U.S. criminal investigation into whether the company had inflated sales figures in the past. Bigland said he did not think there was any danger that the introduction of an Alfa Romeo SUV would eat into sales of its Maserati counterpart. Both vehicles are powered by engines derived from the companies partnerships with Ferrari, and both are long on Italian styling and heritage. But the Stelvio is a mid-sized performance SUV, boasting massive horsepower and sports car handling, that should appeal to a younger, less affluent buyer  the MSRP has not yet been announced  and the Levante is a full-sized luxury SUV that appears to appeal to a slightly older, more affluent buyer. Although admitting the competition could create some agita for the U.S. sales divisions for the two brother brands, as head of all U.S. sales for both marquees, he isnt worried personally.

If someone comes in on a Levante, and goes out on a Stelvio, thats not bad, Bigland said.



Unveilings

Nov. 16, 2016, 8:00 p.m. The million-dollar Jaguar XKSS (Jaguar) This is the newly built version of Jaguars rare and classic XKSS sports car from the mid-1950s. The British automaker is producing only nine of the new versions and theyve already been sold to collectors worldwide for about $1.3 million each. Read more

Nov. 16, 2016, 4:51 p.m. We wouldnt mind getting pulled over in one of these



Concept cars

Nov. 16, 2016, 4:22 p.m. A drive down memory lane? A walk among the auto shows vast display of custom cars can be a walk down memory lane. Many vehicles at the L.A. Auto Show are throwbacks to bygone models. Another standout: This sleek custom car inspired by the Pink Panther film and television series. It was created by George Barris, who was famous for designing many of Hollywoods custom cars. Scooby Doo and the Mystery Machine also made an appearance to conjure up some childhood memories. This tricked-out Fiat 500, called Track Queen 1738, pays tribute to hip-hop artist Fetty Waps 2015 hit song Trap Queen. With one headlight removed to feed air into the engine, the car looks like it has one eye, which reminded its designers of Fetty Wap. The Fiat was customized by Madness Autoworks. And one more heroic custom job: This 2015 BMW i8 with a Spiderman paint job and custom doors that open up like wings. This model also has custom 22-inch wheels. (Alene Tchekmedyian / Los Angeles Times)



Concept cars

Nov. 16, 2016, 3:15 p.m. Auto Show regular Baron Margo shows off his latest creation, Metamorphosis Silver Lake artist Baron Margo was back at the L.A. Auto Show this year, debuting the Metamorphosis, his latest whimsical creation. The car, which needs additional wiring before it can be driven, is something of a cross between an airplane and a boat, as Margo describes it, featuring portholes that open to the outside, a main cabin with a bed and a sink with a pump. Margo, a master of Jules Verne-like automobiles, repurposes old parts from junk yards and scrap metal yards and, together with sheets of aluminum and copper, uses them to hand-make each vehicle. He works with a partner, Jaime Martinez. The vehicles run on car or motorcycle engines that use regular gas. While the cars are meant for driving, Margo said, first and foremost theyre art. My goal is simple, Margo said. To make something no one else has made. Margo and Martinez fund their work by selling earlier projects. But the cars are not for your average buyer: The Metamorphosis comes with a $400,000 price tag. I know you can buy nicer cars for $400,000, Margo said, but this isnt just a car. Youre buying an art piece that you can drive in the street or put in a gallery, or even stick in your living room.



Hybrid and electric cars

Nov. 16, 2016, 3:09 p.m. This Porsche is electric ... literally
Mary Jo White, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, announced Monday that she will step down nearly three years before the end of her term, clearing the way for President-elect Donald Trump to reshape the way Wall Street is regulated.

The SEC, which polices Wall Street and the financial markets, has been a key part of the Obama administrations effort to rein in big banks after the 2008 financial crisis and prevent future taxpayer bailouts of the industry. The agency has pushed for more oversight of hedge funds and other asset managers, and established rules that make it more difficult for big banks to make risky bets on the markets.

White, a former federal prosecutor, is known for her no-nonsense style. She has tried to beef up the agencys enforcement efforts over the last three years, pushing for more companies to admit guilt and taking more cases to trial. But progressive Democrats often complained that her efforts did not go far enough.

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Trump has already indicated he would usher in a period of deregulation, including dismantling 2010s financial reform legislation, known as the Dodd-Frank Act. He appointed Paul Atkins, an industry veteran who has called Dodd-Frank a calamity, to lead the agencys transition.

Atkins is a guy in general who wants to let companies do their thing and not get in the way very much, said Ian Katz, a financial policy analyst with the research firm Capital Alpha Partners. You would see a lighter touch on enforcement and a lighter hand on corporate governance issues broadly.

Atkins served as an SEC commissioner for six years during the President George W. Bush administration. He could not immediately be reached for comment.

In addition to replacing White, Trump will be able to fill two openings on the five-member commission. And he could choose to ignore the more than 20-year-old tradition of allowing the opposing political party to pick its own representative on the commission, further bolstering his influence over the agency.

Also, Thomas Curry, the head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, another important Wall Street regulator, has less than six months on his term. Together, the openings should give the Trump administration wide latitude to change the way Wall Street is regulated.

It is a game changer at the SEC. The commission is going to have a very different agenda over the next four years than it would have, said Edward Mills, a policy analyst at investment bank FBR Capital Markets. In the long term it is going to be a big tilt toward free markets.

White took office with high expectations. The SEC had long suffered under the popular notion that it was a slow, toothless tiger. White appeared to be someone who might change that reputation. Before her appointment, she was a federal prosecutor who took on the terrorists behind the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York and the Mafia boss John Gotti.

You dont want to mess with Mary Jo, President Obama proclaimed while announcing her nomination in 2013.

White moved quickly to set a new tone at the agency. Soon after taking office, she announced the SEC would begin requiring more companies to admit guilt as part of their settlements with the agency. It was a break from the SECs nearly 100-year history of extracting monetary penalties from companies, which typically would neither admit or deny the charges lodged against them.

The SEC had more leverage than it realized, White said in a recent interview. Not requiring admissions of guilt could undermine, at least, the perception of the strength of a settlement, the strength of its deterrence. In certain cases that public accountability, I think, is very important.

Critics would later complain that many large banks were still able to settle SEC cases without admitting guilt and that the agencys toughest actions were reserved for smaller banks.

The SEC also poured resources into improving its technical capabilities, hiring experts who could help it better track stock trading and catch fraud. The SECs technical capabilities have really been transformed over the last three years, White said. She said there have been several cases, including some involving insider trading, that would have been impossible without these advancements. Examinations of trading patterns that used to take months can now be done in hours, she said.

But in the years since, the SEC has also been overwhelmed by the task of implementing dozens of rules called for under Dodd-Frank and the 2012 JOBS Act, which aims to make it easier for small businesses to raise money. The 4,000-person agency has tussled repeatedly with Congress and complained that as Wall Street became more complex, the agency needed a bigger budget to keep up

White ultimately became a target of progressive groups who questioned her resolve to crack down on Wall Street. In addition to serving as a prosecutor, White spent years defending big banks  including Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase  as a white-collar lawyer, they noted. And while White trumpeted that she had secured settlements with nearly 90 high-level executives for financial-crisis-related misdeeds, critics noted that officials at some of the countrys largest banks had emerged largely unscathed.

Last year, CREDO Action, a liberal advocacy group, sent a Dump (Mary Jo) Truck around Washington, D.C., to mark the anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Bros.

Another group put up billboards in the D.C. Metro system depicting White as a superhero missing in action and asking, Where is Mary Jo White?

Whites unpopularity among some progressive Democrats was particularly pronounced when she found herself the target of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

In January, Warren issued a report arguing that U.S. companies get away with crimes that regular people dont because of weak enforcement. The SEC is particularly feeble, often failing to use the full range of its enforcement toolbox, the report said.

Then in June, Warren and White faced off during a Senate Banking Committee hearing. A year ago I called your leadership at the SEC extremely disappointing, Warren said. Today I am more disappointed than ever.

White quipped: Im disappointed in your disappointment.

But Whites supporters, including many industry officials, say the criticism has been unwarranted.

As SEC chairs go, Mary Jo has been one of the very best, said Harvey Pitt, who was SEC chairman under President George W. Bush. No one in that position will go un-criticized. But, in my view, the criticism has been completely unwarranted.

Merle writes for the Washington Post.

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As the Stater Bros. supermarket chain began to grow rapidly under Jack H. Browns guidance, the chief executive resisted overtures to move the company out of his home county of San Bernardino.

He said no to Los Angeles and Riverside and then to Nevada and Arizona, choosing instead to plant the company flag firmly in his hometown, a city that others had fled. Then he invested in the town, its charities and its children.

He did not forget his roots, said Pat Morris, a longtime friend and a former San Bernardino mayor. Thats the kind of guy he is. He just doesnt stop giving back.

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Brown, the former chief executive and longtime leader of Stater Bros. Markets, died Sunday at 78.

The company did not give a cause of death.

Grief is not a strong enough word to describe what the Stater Bros. Family feels, Stater Bros. Chief Executive Pete Van Helden said in the statement. Jack touched every one of us in a very personal way, and it is that legacy that we must carry forward.

Stater Bros. Executive Chairman Jack H. Brown in the produce department of a Stater Bros. supermarket in Chino Hills. (Robert Lachman/Los Angeles Times )

Brown, a San Bernardino native, was first immersed in the grocery store business at age 13 when he got a job as a box boy at Berks Market Spot in his hometown.

He joined Stater Bros. in 1981 as the companys president and served as chief executive and president for more than 35 years, according to Stater Bros. He stepped down from those positions earlier this year, assuming the role of executive chairman.

Under Browns watch, the Stater Bros. chain grew. In 1980, there were about 90 stores, according to the International Directory of Company Histories. As of October, the grocery chain had 169 locations.

The companys expansion was aided in 1999 when Stater Bros. acquired 43 Albertsons and Lucky supermarket stores, a divestment required by federal regulators to approve a $11.7-billion merger between Albertsons Inc. and American Stores Co., Luckys parent firm.

The privately held Stater Bros. has stayed independent for most of its history, turning down offers to merge or be acquired by other chains, according to Supermarket News.

In a 2011 interview with the trade publication, Brown, then Stater Bros. chief executive, said he never found a company or investment group where he felt comfortable putting the future of the Stater Bros. family in their hands.

I care a lot about these people, he said. They know it, I know it and even the customers know it, and thats why we call ourselves the Stater Bros. family.

Throughout his career, Brown remained devoted to his hometown. In 2008, he moved its headquarters from Colton back to San Bernardino, spurning offers from Los Angeles and Riverside Counties. other cities and states.

In an interview with the Times in 2004, Brown said that being able to keep the Stater Bros. family at home was something that was on our minds, although we had to make the best business decision for the company.

His dedication to San Bernardino also showed in the philanthropic causes he supported.

Brown created the nonprofit Stater Bros. Charities in 2008, and also was a founder of the Boys and Girls Club of San Bernardino, according to Stater Bros. Brown was the founding chairman of Childrens Fund of San Bernardino, a charity that helps at-risk youth.

His legacy will live on in the hearts of the 1.4 million children we have been able to serve since he created us, said Stacy Iverson, president and CEO of Childrens Fund.

Brown also donated $10 million to California State University San Bernardino, which named its business and public administration school after him.

A Navy veteran, Brown also received awards recognizing his support of volunteer services for veterans and their families.

Jack was probably the last of the great local charitable heroes that could always be called on, Morris said. It comes back down to this love of community, love of place.

Morris first met Brown when the two were young men in their early 20s, working on the railroad to make money for college. Brown first studied business administration at San Bernardino Valley College in the late 1950s before attending San Jose State University and UCLA.

Brown is survived by his wife, Debbie; daughters J. Kathleen Smith, Cara Hoffman and Melissa Koss; and seven grandchildren.

samantha.masunaga@latimes.com

For more business news, follow me @smasunaga

UPDATES:

3:20 p.m.: This article was updated to include more details about Browns philanthropic efforts and his impact at Stater Bros.

This article was originally published at 11:40 a.m.
United Airlines is trying to woo budget airline passengers with new basic economy fares that will go on sale early next year.

The fare strategy, which United has worked on for months and detailed Tuesday, offers the cheapest seats on a plane in exchange for giving up the few perks that come with standard economy tickets.

The Chicago-based airline isnt alone in its quest to snare price price-conscious travelers who might otherwise choose low-cost carriers such as Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines. Delta Air Lines already offers basic economy fares in some markets, and American Airlines has announced plans for a similar program.

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The basic economy fares are part of a group of initiatives expected to increase revenue and control costs to the tune of a combined $4.8 billion by 2020.

United doesnt want no-frills fares to cheapen its brand, so basic and regular economy fliers will have a similar in-flight experience  no soft drink charges or smaller seats.

But basic economy passengers without elite status wont get to bring a full-size carry-on bag, just a personal item to stow under a seat. Unlike a regular economy ticket, basic fares cant be changed or refunded and passengers cant select a seat in advance.

Basic economy flights also wont help passengers in Uniteds frequent flier program reach elite status, though they will still earn miles redeemable for future travel. Thats something that penny-pinching customers who travel once a year might not miss, but that could make loyal United fliers think twice before trading down to cheaper fares.

Customers have told us that they want more choice, and basic economy delivers just that, Julia Haywood, Uniteds executive vice president and chief commercial officer, said in a statement. By offering low fares while also offering the experience of traveling on our outstanding network, with a variety of onboard amenities and great customer service, we are giving our customers an additional travel option from what United offers today.

United hasnt said how big a discount passengers will get on the basic fares, or whether regular fares would rise. Theres also no limit on the number per flight: Any economy customer will have a choice between a regular and basic fare.

In June, United Continental Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Oscar Munoz said the airline hoped to get an additional $1 billion in revenue by 2018 by better targeting passengers by willingness to pay, using new fares and products aimed at passengers across the spectrum. United will offer entry-level fares for passengers who just want a cheap seat alongside upgrades to persuade travelers who value extra services to pay for perks they want.

That includes Economy Plus seats, which have more legroom, domestic first class and the Polaris international business class that will be introduced Dec. 1. In June, Munoz said United plans to have more of those upgraded seats  increasing the number of Economy Plus seats by 20% and business and first-class seats by 30%  by 2018.

The airline also is considering a new premium economy class for both domestic and international markets, the airline said Tuesday.

The first basic economy fares will go on sale in January for flights departing in the early second quarter and will be available on domestic flights and some shorter routes between the U.S. and Latin America.

lzumbach@chicagotribune.com

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Googles search engine highlighted an inaccurate story claiming that President-elect Donald Trump won the popular vote in last weeks election, the latest example of bogus information spread by the Internets gatekeepers. Even as that story continued appearing high up in its search results, however, Google announced a move to punish purveyors of fake news.

The incorrect election results were shown Monday in a 2-day-old story posted on the pro-Trump website 70 News. A link to the site appeared at or near the top of Googles influential rankings of relevant news stories for searches on the final election results.

Google acknowledged that its search engine misfired. In this case we clearly didnt get it right, but we are continually working to improve our algorithms, the company said in a statement.

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As of Monday afternoon, the link to the 70 News story  which had the misinformation in both its headline and the body of the text  remained prominent in Googles search results.

Bad information in an online headline or at the top of a story can be particularly damaging. Roughly 53% of the people who land on a Web page stay for 15 seconds or less, according to online analytics firm Chartbeat.

Although Google rarely removes content from its search results, the Alphabet Inc.-owned company is taking steps to punish sites that manufacture falsehoods. Late Monday, it said it will prevent its lucrative digital ads from appearing on sites that misrepresent, misstate, or conceal information. The action could give sites a bigger incentive to get things right or risk losing a valuable source of revenue.

Googles dominant search engine is the leading source of traffic to media sites, according to Chartbeat. Meanwhile, a study by the Pew Research Center found about 60% of Americans get at least some of their news from social media sites such as Facebook, which has 178 million users in the U.S. and Canada.

False information is nothing new on the Internet. But the problem has gained more attention in the post-mortem of a bitterly contested presidential election.

Facebook Inc. has been accused of possibly swaying the elections outcome by promoting fake news stories on its social network. Last summer, the company fired a handful of journalists who oversaw its trending news list and replaced them with an algorithm; fake news stories quickly began to trend.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg brushed off that criticism, calling it crazy last week. He elaborated in a Saturday post on Facebook in which he asserted that more than 99% of what people see on Facebook is authentic. He said that more must be done to block bogus information, but that determining whats blatantly wrong isnt always an easy task.

Identifying the truth is complicated, Zuckerberg wrote. While some hoaxes can be completely debunked, a greater amount of content, including from mainstream sources, often gets the basic idea right but some details wrong or omitted.

The stories featured in the feeds of Facebook users are primarily selected by automated formulas called algorithms. Googles search results are also powered by algorithms, which the company regularly revises to thwart sites that try to artificially boost their prominence.

Incorrect information is bound to ripple across the Internet as more people rely on their phones, computers and other digital devices to read news that is picked out for them by automated programs, media analyst Ken Doctor said.

These algorithms bring a lot of things into our lives that humans cannot do, Doctor said. But when algorithms fail, it highlights the fact that they are not just some kind of neutral technology. They are programmed by human beings, and they have all the failings of human beings.

To read the article in Spanish, click here

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Call it the beginning of a beautiful friendship. The Los Angeles Philharmonic announced a three-year partnership with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to co-curate live orchestral performances with film screenings.

The partnership begins this week at Walt Disney Concert Hall when the L.A. Phil performs the scores of three classics: Rebel Without a Cause (1955) on Thursday, On the Waterfront (1954) on Friday and Casablanca (1942) on Sunday afternoon.

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Scott Dunn, associate conductor of the L.A. Phils Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, leads the Phil in the live orchestra premiere of Leonard Rosenmans strikingly modernist score for Rebel, starring James Dean, Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo.

Composer-conductor David Newman, whose father Alfred (1900-70) is regarded as a giant in the Hollywood film music tradition, takes the podium for two Oscar-nominated scores: Leonard Bernsteins for Waterfront starring Marlon Brando and Eva Marie Saint, and Max Steiners for Casablanca starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.

Saint, 92, won a best supporting actress Oscar for her role as Brandos love interest, Edie, in Waterfront. She is scheduled to introduce the film on Friday.

For this edited conversation, Newman and Dunn talked about the relatively new phenomenon of live-to-picture scores with full orchestra entering concert halls, how composers for film were once considered sellouts, and why these three scores deserve to be heard live performed by a first-rate orchestra in a great concert hall.

Beyond what the L.A. Phil has been doing to attract younger generations into the concert hall, has a kind of worldwide movement started?

David Newman: It is a trend or movement. Its incredibly gratifying this is happening now, and I think my father and Max Steiner would have been absolutely flabbergasted. Doing full movies with a live orchestra is more popular than ever. I just conducted Alan Silvestris Back to the Future score, which has been done all over the world, with the American Youth Symphony.

Scott Dunn: I did Disneys Fantasia at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, and you would think that with their great musical tradition they wouldnt be facing these same issues, but the director of the house was thrilled because there were all these young kids with their young parents. None of them had ever come to the Konzerthaus before.

Newman: I think John Williams is responsible for this. His stint conducting the Boston Pops was kind of a crusade of little by little trying to bring this music not to the public, because the public loves it, but to the orchestras and administrations. Its a wonderful gateway to concert music, which is the messianic project of all these orchestras  to get as many people as possible to come and hear live music.

Why were these three film classics chosen as worthy scores for live orchestra treatment?

Dunn: The initial idea with the Philharmonic was to focus on musical high modernism in L.A. Leonard Rosenman was one of the composers who introduced modernism to film scoring. Bernstein was crazy about Lens score. Also, Rebel is [shot] at Santa Monica High School and the Griffith Park Observatory.

Newman: Waterfront is an interesting window into Bernsteins early career. Its also a precursor to Bernsteins centenary next season, and the Phil has never done Casablanca. Using an existing song, As Time Goes By, for the basis of most of the score doesnt seem weird now, but at the time it was daring. Steiner wanted to write his own original song, but he ended up doing so much with that triple-meter swing tune. What a perfect lyric for Casablanca, where everyones waiting while time goes by. The film without that song is inconceivable.

How is Bernsteins complete Waterfront music different from the well-known suite he derived from the score?

Newman: Theres that fantastic ending and beginning in the suite, but the score to the movie is more like chamber music  a lot of soft, bluesy and claustrophobic music. When you hear the score the way it was written in context with the movie, its so much more intimate and powerful at the end. I dont get the same feeling when I listen to the suite.

What were some of the difficulties in preparing the live orchestra premiere of Rebel Without a Cause?

Dunn: We were fortunate because the USC/Warner Bros. archives saved every part and short score for every cue. We scanned 4,000 pages, and it was quite a detective job trying to figure out which cue was being used. You had to reverse engineer this big jigsaw puzzle. It was up to me to reproduce a continuous score that actually sounds like what you hear when you watch the film.

What are your favorite scenes in the film in terms of the scoring? Didnt Rosenman put in a number of classical music references in Rebel?

Leonard liked to throw these musical jokes in. When hes drunk, Dean is humming Wagners Ride of the Valkyries. Every character in Rebel has a Wagnerian leitmotif. Theres a lot of Alban Berg-like chamber writing, but theres a fair amount of Stravinskys Rite of Spring, especially in the knife fight and chase scene where Mineo runs into the planetarium. Thats probably my favorite music in the score. It also has this gorgeous love theme thats played when James and Natalie finally kiss.

Wont the visuals distract us from the aural experience?

Dunn: Since were predominantly wired as visual animals, the visuals do tend to overwhelm the sense of hearing. That said, most people are still able to enjoy the increased presence of the music and the live players on stage. Just hearing the music performed live for the first time brings an incredible amount of color, depth and vividness to the music thats not necessarily apparent in the usual film version.

Newman: As a conductor, I can bring out more of the score, especially in movies like these that were recorded in mono. Theres a scene in Waterfront where Brandos Terry is talking to Saints Edie, and they speak softer and softer while the music wants to build. Its the love theme. But in the movie, they turn the musics volume down. Well let it play, because it is a live concert.

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Classic films with the L.A. Phil

Where: Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles

When: Rebel Without a Cause at 8 p.m. Thursday, Scott Dunn conductor, Andy Garcia introduction. On the Waterfront at 8 p.m. Friday with David Newman conductor, Eva Marie Saint introduction. Casablanca at 2 p.m. Sunday, Newman conductor, Aaron Eckhart, introduction.

Price: $53-$183 (subject to change)

Contact: (323) 850-2000, www.laphil.org

 The Los Angeles Philharmonics YOLA holds a 10th anniversary tour with stops in Northridge, Visalia, Fresno and Oakland.

Follow The Times arts team @culturemonster.

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The elle in Elle refers to Michele Leblanc, a divorced, middle-aged mother, a ruthless CEO and the disgraced daughter of a convicted mass murderer. We know none of these things about her, however, in the opening scene of Paul Verhoevens brilliantly booby-trapped new thriller, which confronts us  sans warning or context  with the sight of Michele being raped by a black-masked intruder on the floor of her Paris home.

The only other witness to this vicious assault is Micheles cat, whose bemused perspective offers an early hint about this movies sleek, feline inscrutability. Adapted from Philippe Djians novel Oh   into a screenplay of sinuous cunning by David Birke, Elle is a gripping whodunit, a tour de force of psychological suspense and a wickedly droll comedy of manners.

It is also a barbed, bracing reminder of how appalling ordinary people can be. You may be startled and horrified by what you see and hear, but the movies knowing sensibility seems to exist well beyond shock or outrage.

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The fact that the film gets Micheles assault out of the way early and abruptly, as though dispensing with preliminaries, is a sign of its curious integrity. Without glossing over the agony of what Michele endures, Verhoeven refuses to turn the spectacle of a womans violation into a narrative payoff. Notably, he also subverts the idea that this violation will be the most defining or interesting thing about her.

Really, the most interesting thing about Michele is that shes played by Isabelle Huppert, whose reputation as one of the worlds foremost screen performers is more than upheld, and possibly even improved, by her masterful work here. The critic J. Hoberman once noted that, as an actress, Huppert doesnt radiate feelings so much as she absorbs them, and in Elle, she proves that point with an almost pointillistic level of detail.

This is hardly the first time Huppert has proved willing to wander down the more disturbing avenues of human behavior  most famously in The Piano Teacher (2001), Michael Hanekes icy study of sadomasochism. But never before have we seen her breathtaking poise, scabrous wit and brazen sense of daring so rivetingly intertwined.

That speaks very much to one of the movies key points, which is that not every woman reacts to an ordeal of this nature as the world expects her to. We register the logical emotions of fear, anger and desire for revenge playing out in the lines of Micheles face, to be sure. But we are also invited to savor the exquisite naughtiness with which she seems to slip between the roles of predator and victim as she considers how best to deal with her attacker  who, like Verhoeven himself, is not above returning to the scene of the crime.

Above all, were struck by how calm she seems as, mere minutes after the attack, she takes a bath, orders some sushi and resumes her daily routine. Life goes on, after all, and Michele is a busy woman. A matriarch, an entrepreneur and a much-coveted object of desire, she is the central hub from which her friends, colleagues, neighbors and family members radiate outward like spokes, each one seeming to inhabit a different genre.

Micheles difficulties with her feckless son (Jonas Bloquet) and his pregnant, mean-tempered girlfriend (Alice Isaaz), as well as her arguments with her aging lothariette of a mother (Judith Magre), at times suggest scenes from a grotesque family sitcom (call it Developpement Arrete). Meanwhile, a sleek boardroom thriller unfolds at the software company that Michele runs with her best friend, Anna (Anne Consigny), overseeing an often-hostile, almost all-male staff tasked with churning out violent, misogynist fantasies in the form of video games.

In her personal life, Michele enjoys  no, tolerates  a casual affair with Annas husband, Robert (Christian Berkel), while remaining on friendly terms with her ex-husband, Richard (Charles Berling), a novelist who has recently begun dating a much younger yoga instructor. But Micheles attention is particularly magnetized by her neighbor, Patrick (comedian Laurent Lafitte, cast decisively against type), who draws her  or does she draw him?  into the sort of dangerous liaison that makes Fifty Shades of Grey look like a vanilla sundae.

One of the movies more provocative arguments is that Micheles rape doesnt cause her to suddenly become squeamish about sex  or violence, for that matter. If anything, the experience  which pales in comparison with the horrors she witnessed as a child  has only heightened her willingness to turn these traditionally male-employed weapons to her advantage.

You could call Elle a rape-revenge thriller, and you wouldnt be entirely wrong. But that description misses the sneaky, subversive wit that pierces every scene of this movie like a toothpick in a canape. And it misses some of the crucial alternate targets of the movies counter-assault, including feminism, patriarchy, organized religion and, inevitably, the delicate sensibilities of the audience.

A genre-hopping maestro who delights in blurring the lines between high culture and low, Verhoeven is clearly playing with fire here, and not for the first time. Michele is the latest in a long line of the directors heroines and anti-heroines  including the various femmes fatales of Basic Instinct (1992), Showgirls (1995) and Black Book (2006), his previous film before this one  who are allowed to wield their sexuality with the kind of brazen, ruthless self-assurance rarely accorded women on American screens.

Elle, as it happens, was originally meant to be set in the U.S., but as Verhoeven has said in interviews, every American actress he courted turned up her nose at the part. Whether or not Hupperts willingness reinforces assumptions about American prudery and French perversity, one could scarcely have hoped for a more accomplished or satisfying outcome.

There is a whisper of satire in the way the Dutch-born Verhoeven (who learned French before the shoot) appropriates the literate, luxuriant and sexually liberated style so often associated with French cinema, but his formal mimicry is impeccable nonetheless. (Elle, which premiered this year at the Cannes Film Festival, will represent France in the Academy Awards race for foreign-language movie.)

Whether Verhoevens female characters are misogynist constructs or avatars of empowerment is a topic worthy of continual debate and reappraisal  something that Elle, despite its relatively warm reception so far, is unlikely to change. (My own opinion of the matter is shaped by the fact that Michele is merely one of several strong-minded women united here by the foolish, weak-willed men in their lives; if Elle is misogynist, then so is All About Eve.)

But if this impossible, indecently entertaining movie tips the discussion at all, it may be due to the sheer force of personality and artistic will exerted by its leading lady, to the point where the words a film by Paul Verhoeven start to seem both deceptive and inadequate. By the end, vengeance may belong to Michele Leblanc, but you emerge from Elle struggling for the words to do Isabelle Huppert justice.

------------

Elle

MPAA rating: R, for violence including sexual assault, disturbing sexual content, some grisly images, brief graphic nudity and language

Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes

Playing: The Landmark, Los Angeles

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour 
Visa free regime with EU for Ukraine, Georgia to function since New Year - Polish ambassador

The Republic of Poland's Ambassador to Ukraine Jan Pieklo believes that in the nearest future a positive decision on the introduction of a visa free regime with the European Union (EU) for citizens of Ukraine and Georgia will be accepted.

"We believe that from the New Year Ukraine and Georgia will have a visa free regime," Pieklo said a briefing in Kharkiv on Tuesday.

He said that the introduction of a visa free regime for Ukraine wont provoke a migrant crisis in the EU.

"Poland demonstrates that millions of Ukrainians in Poland is not a migrant disaster like the one that occurred in Germany. It is possible to do in such a way to benefit both for Ukraine and Poland," Pieklo said.

He also said that only those who have biometric passports will be able to use a visa free regime.
For her new series and character, Michelle Dockery  Lady Mary of Downton Abbey fame, the most superior and (lets be honest) tiresome of the Crawley girls has crossed the ocean, traveled forward in time (to now), become American and acquired a prison record. Shes kept some of the haughtiness that seems in some way her birthright  and the cheekbones and eyes and all that  but within a character that could otherwise not be more different from the one that dominated her professional life for six seasons.

In the smartly played, agonizingly suspenseful Good Behavior, which premieres Tuesday on TNT, Dockery plays Letty Raines, a con woman and thief newly on parole, but already back conning and thieving, and backsliding as well, in her attempts to stay clear of drugs and alcohol and reconnect with her young son. Terry Kinney plays her parole officer, a not untroubled soul going out of his way, and risking his career, to help her stay out of jail.

That is not, however, the main order of business. While robbing a hotel room, Letty finds herself forced to hide in a closet and overhears a conversation between a contract killer (Juan Diego Botto as Javier Pereira) and his client. Attempting to head him off at the pass, she winds up both his prisoner and his accomplice. (Details too spoilery to spill.)

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In spite of some humdrum fanciness  the fast-slow alterations in camera speed, the natural desire of designers and photographers to make everything pretty  the series, which is set (so far) in South Carolina and Tennessee, is first-class Southern noir; thick with atmosphere and weather and spreading the suspense around so that most every character we meet seems either in danger or a danger. But the action stays life-sized and plausible; the talk is largely crisp, rarely overripe.

Most of what keeps Letty in Javiers company, in the three episodes available for review, is of the I will find you and kill you if you leave variety. (Yeah, I get it. You know how to train a dog, she says when he tells her this once again.) But the characters, as characters will, also get something from each other. His life is ordered and disciplined, where hers is chaos, a constant improvisation she tries to balance with a motivational app that offers thoughts such as I have a lot to be proud of today and I am the best me I can be. (Is this a friend of yours? asks Javier, who is from Argentina, where self-help is possibly not so prevalent. This woman who talks to you.)

That is also the premise of The Odd Couple.

There is some basic-cable sex in it, but nothing in the early stages to suggest romance, beyond the show business physics of their mutual, comparable hotness. As the story goes on, and things go inevitably wrong, a little humor creeps in here and there; there is relief in small, beside-the-point moments.

Hes a killer, shes a crook, and by the old laws of pop-cultural justice, both should get their comeuppance. Both might, of course, but that this is a series  based on a series of novels by Blake Crouch, adapted for television by show runner Chad Hodge, who also adapted Crouchs Wayward Pines trilogy for Fox  suggests it will not be soon in coming.

At the same time, we have become accustomed to bad behavior as a dramatic engine for television shows in the nearly 20 years, if you can believe that, since The Sopranos debuted. And before that there were the novels of Jim Thompson and James M. Cain and Patricia Highsmith and films of the French New Wave upending and inverting the old heroic conventions.

Do we mind that theyre bad? Are they bad? What do we mean by bad? These are not questions that Good Behavior tentatively asks on our behalf.

Thats it, says Letty to Javier, Its your job, to kill people. You dont care.

I care, says Javier. But we are left to wonder what he means.

Good Behavior

Where: TNT

When: 9 p.m. Tuesday

Rating: TV-MA-LS (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 17 with advisories for coarse language and sex)

robert.lloyd@latimes.com

Follow Robert Lloyd on Twitter @LATimesTVLloyd
Weekend Max Mara has picked Costa Mesa as the home for its first free-standing boutique in North America, a 1,500-square-foot space on Level 1 of the South Coast Plaza shopping center between the Aveda and Free People stores.

Launched in 1984 and positioned as a slightly more laid-back (as in for the weekend) lifestyle label within the Max Mara stable of brands, Weekend Max Mara has a robust international presence of 190 stand-alone stores, but until the opening of the new store earlier this month, it could be bought in the U.S. only through high-end department stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdales. In addition to showcasing the full range of Weekend Max Mara womens apparel, accessories and footwear, the new boutique will be the exclusive location to stock the brands newest bag  a puffy clutch with an oversized clasp thats been dubbed the Pasticcino  the Italian word for small pastry. Buon appetito  and happy shopping for your weekend-appropriatewardrobe.

Weekend Max Mara, 3333 Bristol St., Costa Mesa.

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& Other Stories second SoCal store is in full bloom on Beverly Drive

The 3-year-old Swedish brand & Other Stories has a soft spot for California, collaborating with the likes of Rodartes Kate and Laura Mulleavy, Clare V. designer Clare Vivier and skate-shoe maker Vans. So its hardly surprising that the H&M-owned womens label is enthusiastically growing its retail presence in the Los Angeles area. Barely two months after opening its first SoCal store at South Coast Plaza, door No. 2 is open for business smack in the middle of Beverly Hills.

The store, which officially opened Nov. 11, is located at the southeast corner of Beverly Drive and Brighton Way (in a space previously occupied by the Gap) thats had its Art Deco facade get an eye-catching green-and-gold makeover. (Its either sheer coincidence or the Swedes have a thing for Art Deco. The facade instantly reminded us of the Eastern Columbia Building in downtown Los Angeles where fellow Stockholm-based brand Acne Studios opened back in 2013.) Behind that facade is 5,700 square feet of floor space stocked with the labels full range of apparel, footwear, handbags, beauty products, accessories and jewelry. Perhaps fittingly for a company going through a retail growth spurt, the opening weekend saw the storefront windows filled with a living wildflower installation by Tigers to Lilies botanical director Lili Cuzor, and the interior was dotted with her specially made bouquets.

A third area store is germinating, and if all grows according to plan, an & Other Stories store will blossom at the Americana at Brand shopping center in Glendale in spring 2017.

& Other Stories, 370 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills.

For more musings on all things fashion and style, follow me @ARTschorn.

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From Wolfgang Pucks new lounge to the Little Sister spinoff in Huntington Beach, heres whats happening in the world of food.

Hey Little Sister: Chef Tin Vuong and Jed Sanford, the team behind Blackhouse Hospitality (Little Sister, Steak and Whisky, Abigaile), have opened their first O.C. restaurant, Bluegold, and inside it, another restaurant called LSXO. Both are located at the Pacific City shopping center in Huntington Beach. Bluegold has 235 seats that offer a view of the Pacific Ocean, with a menu that includes a raw bar, shakshouka, Cubano sandwiches and a Santa Barbara sea urchin risotto. Its open for breakfast, lunch, dinner and weekend brunch. If you make your way behind a door adjacent the wine room, youll find LSXO, a 28-seat restaurant meant to be a spinoff of Little Sister. The menu is Southeast Asian-inspired with foie gras and pho-spiced oxtail torshon; banh canh Vuong (Saigon-style noodle soup) and a roasted squab salad. LSXO also serves afternoon tea. 21016 Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach, (714) 374-0038, dinebluegold.com/lsxo.

A new cut: Wolfgang Puck has opened Cut Lounge, a new bar next-door to Cut restaurant in Beverly Hills. In addition to the opening, Puck has also announced a new executive culinary and beverage team for Cut and Cut Lounge. Hilary Henderson has been named chef de cuisine and Angela Tong is pastry chef. The new menu at the lounge, called Rough Cuts, includes a chicken liver pastrami on black bread; curry beef puff with potato; and truffle grilled cheese. Coming soon is a vintage negroni cart with classic versions of the cocktail made tableside. The lounge offers seating for more than 60 guests. 9500 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 276-8500, www.wolfgangpuck.com.

O + O equals pasta: A new Sicilian restaurant called O + O opens Friday in Santa Monica near the pier. Chef and owner Georgi Yaneff (formerly of DSTRKT in London) is preparing a menu of Sicilian-inspired pizzas, meatballs, salads, meat and seafood. 1705 Ocean Ave. Santa Monica, (424) 272-8700, www.oosantamonica.com.

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Food Network alums new digs: Jill Davie, who you may recognize from her many stints on the Food Network, and D. Brandon Walker, the executive chef at Bread & Roses Cafe in Venice who has been featured on the Food Network, will open the Mar Vista, a new restaurant in Mar Vista, in December. Both executive chefs are behind the menu, which they describe as progressive Los Angeles and will feature food inspired by the citys cultural diversity. 12249 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, (424) 259-3093, www.themarvista.com.

Santa Monica shuffle: On The Verge Hospitality group is replacing the now-closed Ox & Son restaurant (which had opened last March) with Margos. The restaurant is scheduled to open Friday on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica. Expect a seasonal menu of small plates by chef Greg A. Daniels, formerly executive chef at Salt Air. Jordan Delp, formerly of Tom Bergins Public House and Dominicks, created the cocktail program. Margos will be open for lunch, dinner and weekend brunch. 1534 Montana Ave., Santa Monica, (310) 829-3990, margossantamonica.com.

NYC pizza is coming: Robertas, the famous New York Pizzeria, will take over Marvin in Beverly Grove for a pizza pop-up. The takeover is happening Sunday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. There will be plenty of pizza along with small plates from Marvin. 8114 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 655-5553, www.chezmarvin.com.

Still hungry? Jason Neronis Rose Cafe is celebrating the one-year-anniversary of its reopening Thursday with $5 rose cocktails and wine. The Stand, a restaurant known for its American comfort food, has opened a location in Irvine. Angelinas Pizzeria in Irvine and Dana Point have sourced a new team of chefs, pizzaiolas and mixologists. The Loft at the Montage Laguna Beach starts serving weekend brunch Saturday.

Im in the mood for pizza. Follow me on Twitter & Instagram @Jenn_Harris_

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The day after the presidential election, Lisabeth Collins called a Planned Parenthood near her home in Echo Park. She wanted to get an intrauterine device, more commonly called an IUD  a type of birth control that can prevent pregnancy for years.

Since Donald Trump became president-elect, many women in California say theyve started looking into long-acting, reversible birth control methods, in case access to contraception or abortions is rolled back. Trump has not said he wants to restrict birth control, but he has spoken often of repealing Obamacare, which could have that effect.

Collins said 45 people were ahead of her in line when she called the clinic.

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So I was not the only person with that idea, she said.

Doctors and Planned Parenthood offices across the state report that in the last week an increased number of women have asked about IUDs. The devices are inserted once and some types could even outlast a two-term Trump presidency. Google Trends shows more searches for IUD on Nov. 10 than in the previous 90 days.

Experts and medical providers are quick to point out that access to healthcare hasnt changed yet, and it might not do so after Trump takes office in January. Plus, any changes would take time to implement.

The Affordable Care Act is still in place right now, said Cita Walsh, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest, which serves San Diego, Riverside and Imperial counties and has been fielding an increased number of calls about IUDs. For now people can come in and get the birth control they want.

If Trump overturned the Affordable Care Act as he vowed during his campaign, 20 million Americans would be left without insurance. But recently hes shown reluctance to repeal the entire law, and has said he wants to replace it with an alternative plan that could keep people insured.

But even without repealing all of President Obamas signature health law, Trump could still have a big impact on how much birth control costs.

Under the law, contraceptives are on a list of preventive health services for women that insurance companies are required to provide for free. So insured patients dont have to pay anything for birth control, including for IUDs that can cost more than $1,000 out of pocket.

Coverage of contraceptives has been a somewhat contentious part of the law, and Trump could eliminate it through an administrative change, said Janel George, director of federal reproductive rights and health with the National Womens Law Center. For that matter, he could strike the entire list of no-cost preventive health services, which includes counseling for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV, annual well-woman visits and breastfeeding supplies such as breast pumps.

All of that is in jeopardy, George said, adding that these changes would particularly affect poorer women.

Without the contraception mandate, women would likely have to start paying a co-pay to get birth control. One study found that after the Obamacare rule went into effect in 2012, women on birth control saved about $250 per year.

Annelise Baer, who lives in Glendale, emailed her doctor on Wednesday to ask about getting an IUD. She had gone without insurance for six years before Obamacare.

Now she can get an IUD for free and not worry about the possibility of birth control becoming an expense in the future, she said.

No one really knows exactly whats going to stay, whats going to go, said Baer, 32. Better safe than sorry.

No one really knows exactly whats going to stay, whats going to go. Better safe than sorry.  Annelise Baer, Glendale resident

IUDs are much more effective at preventing pregnancy than most other birth control methods but are less commonly used. According to national data on women who use contraception, 25% take birth control pills compared with 11% who have an IUD or an implant.

Since the election, Dr. Sheryl Ross, an OB/GYN in Santa Monica, said shes heard from an unusually high number of patients about IUDs.

It brought the conversation much more front and center, Ross said. Two of Ross patients decided to stop taking the pill and made appointments to get IUDs implanted, she said.

The president-elect has also said he wants to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, as well as defund Planned Parenthood, which provides health services to thousands of women  though he cant do it on his own. He also has expressed support for a ban on abortions after 20 weeks, and anti-abortion groups have said they expect him to follow through.

Collins, 29, said she was more concerned about Vice President-elect Mike Pence  someone who has preached creationism and abstinence. Pence signed laws restricting abortion as governor of Indiana and pushed to cut off federal funding to Planned Parenthood as a congressman.

The Affordable Care Act requires that all employer health plans cover contraceptives, which is another area in which change could come, said Alina Salganicoff, vice president and director of womens health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

It has really been among the most controversial parts of the ACA, having gone now twice to the Supreme Court, she said.

Religious companies have sued the federal government, saying they shouldnt be required to pay for birth control for employees. The most well-known of these cases, Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, created a loophole so these for-profit companies dont pay for the birth control themselves and instead punt the cost to insurers.

Salganicoff said that a new administration could allow such companies not to offer birth control in their health plans at all.

Californias leaders have said they will try to maintain state residents access to healthcare under the new administration. Though states cant override federal law, there are ways they can try to fill the gaps, said George with the National Womens Law Center.

States could offer free contraceptives or other womens health services through state-funded health programs, she said. California, Maryland and Illinois already have laws in place mandating that all the insurance plans they regulate cover contraceptives with no cost-sharing, and other states could follow, she said.

Theres certainly room for states to be inclusive in coverage, and thats what were hoping, George said.

California also recently implemented a law that allows women to get birth control at a pharmacy without a doctors prescription, though theyd have to pay for it themselves if their insurance doesnt cover it.

Elizabeth Walker, 33, emailed her doctor to ask about switching birth control methods the day after the election.

She wants to get an arm implant, another long-acting birth control option that can last up to four years.

That could be a gross overreaction. Maybe at the end of the day our rights will end up the same, our access to birth control will not change, said Walker, who lives in San Francisco. But I dont want to get in a situation where I dont have control or say over my body.

soumya.karlamangla@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter: @skarlamangla

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A small but boisterous group of students donned zombie face paint and set up a mock graveyard outside a meeting of the California State University Board of Trustees in Long Beach on Tuesday. It was their depiction of the future of the university system should its leaders approve tuition increases they say may be needed to fill a state funding gap.

They chanted, Students not customers! and The more we pay, the longer we stay! and carried signs that said, We are the Walking Debt.

Many had arrived before 5:30 a.m. from Dominguez Hills, Fullerton and other campuses across the state to set up tombstones representing the systems 23 campuses. R.I.P. Fresno State, one read. Another one, covered in fake cobwebs, said: Here lies San Diego State.

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Were going for something big, something visual. Its important for students to come out and fight this, said Courtney Yamagiwa, a member of Cal State Long Beachs Associated Students and the grass-roots activist group Students for Quality Education, which led the protest. The group pledged to shut down any plans to increase student tuition that will force more students to drop out of college.

Inside, trustees seemed to have gotten the message.

Trustee Lateefah Simon, a single mother of two children, said she empathized with the steady drumbeat of student chants that continued throughout the daylong meeting.

As we continue pondering this issue, moving forward, Im going to think about our undocumented students, Im going to think about single parents, Im going to think about our foster youth, she told fellow trustees and university leaders. I deeply appreciate the voices outside, and we should let these young people know that we hear them.

No decision on whether to increase tuition will be made until after January, officials said. But the idea has raised the ire of many students and faculty members, who plan to continue demonstrations Wednesday at the downtown offices of Chancellor Timothy P. White.

The proposed increase, which could amount to $270 for the 2017-18 school year, was introduced as a last resort to help address Cal States budget shortfall.

Cal State administrators said more tuition revenue from students and their families may be needed to preserve the quality and opportunities provided by the nations largest public university system. Officials have been under pressure to increase enrollment and graduation rates as well as hire more faculty  all with a smaller share of state dollars than in years past.

State funding has fallen from about 80% of Cal States operating costs in the 1990s to about 50% today, administrators said. The system relies on tuition and student fees to cover the other half.

Students argue theyre already strapped by the highest tuition in history  from 2006 to 2011, tuition had more than doubled to $5,472. The state had slashed nearly one-third of its support to Cal State after the recession but has steadily restored funding in the last six years. Gov. Jerry Brown pledged annual increases in exchange for a freeze on raising tuition until next year.

1 / 6 Cal State Fullerton student Ginny Dolores, along with several dozen other students, protested the possible tuition hike during the Board of Trustees meeting in November. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 6 A mock graveyard featuring the headstones of Cal State Universities sets the scene for a protest of the possible tuition hike in front of the Cal State University Chancellors office in Long Beach. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 6 Cal State Fullerton student Ginny Dolores, left, leads students outside a trustees meeting this week in Long Beach protesting a possible tuition hike and calling on the university to protect students who came to the U.S. illegally. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 6 Cal State University Fullerton student Liz Sanchez shouts her message at several people entering the Cal State University chancellors office in Long Beach. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 6 Cal State University police officers keep an eye on a small but vocal group of Cal State students protesting the possible tuition hike in front of the Cal State University chancellors office in Long Beach. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 6 Cal State University police officers keep an eye on a group of Cal State students protesting the possible tuition hike in front of the Cal State University chancellors office in Long Beach. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Yamagiwa, a fourth-year undergraduate studying German and consumer affairs, said she and her classmates are concerned that ending the tuition freeze would make annual increases the new normal.

For many students who are already choosing between buying lunch and paying for gas, $270 is a significant amount, she said, citing a recent study that found that as many as 1 in 5 of Cal States 470,000 students do not have steady access to food and about 1 in 10 are homeless.

Norberto Lopez, a fifth-year student at Cal State Long Beach, said that as an undocumented student, he understood how much any increase in tuition could affect fellow classmates. Over the years, he has had to work more than 40 hours a week as a cook at Buffalo Wild Wings while juggling enough classes to graduate this May.

Im here to fight for those that arent here and are working hard to make it to the university level. They dont have a voice in this, he said. Once you start increasing tuition to a point where students cant afford it, youre privatizing the university system.... And it shouldnt be like that. Education should be something thats accessible and affordable for all folks.

David Lopez, president of the California State Student Assn. and a second-year graduate student at Cal State East Bay, said he and his peers are focusing the rest of the year on collecting testimonials from students and lobbying lawmakers to secure the funding needed to avoid a tuition increase. If the Board of Trustees decides to move forward with one, he said students will take more aggressive action.

White emphasized that raising tuition is something that none of us want to do and that no decision will be made until after the governor proposes a new budget in January. Financial aid would cover additional costs for most Cal State students, he added.

More than 60% of Cal State students have tuition fully covered by grants and waivers, administrators added in a presentation Tuesday, and those students would not be affected by a tuition increase. For those who take out loans, the average Cal State student debt, at $14,388, is half the national average.

Compounding Cal States financial challenges are faculty salary increases, a $2-billion backlog of building upgrades, not to mention the promise to double Cal States four-year graduation rate from 19% to 40% by 2025. But efforts to do so  such as hiring more faculty to teach required courses and increasing academic tutoring and bridge programs  all require money.

Enrolling more students is another sticking point: Cal State has enrolled 20,000 additional students since the recession but still lacks the resources to make room for everyone who wants to attend a Cal State school, White said. Only once in the last four years has the state fully funded Cal States budget request, and the number of qualified students seeking higher education has continued to grow. Administrators this fall had to turn away more than 30,000 applicants who fulfilled all admissions requirements.

The tuition discussion came as the trustees Tuesday approved a state funding request for 2017-18. Administrators expect the governor will allocate about $157.2 million in new funding next year  which would raise total state support for the university system to about $3.6 billion.

But current estimates indicate that Cal State would need $324.9 million in additional state money for the next fiscal year. This leaves a gap of about $167.7-million between expected state funding and the real needs of the university, officials said.

Cal State hopes to receive enough money next year to allocate $75 million toward improving four-year graduation rates and about $55 million for hiring more staff and faculty.

The top priority in the coming months is to lobby lawmakers to close the funding gap, White said. Having the resources, one way or another, is going to be essential for us to make good steps on admitting students, and getting them to degree sooner.

rosanna.xia@latimes.com

Follow @RosannaXia for more education news

ALSO

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UPDATES:

7:25 p.m.: This article was updated with details from the Board of Trustees meeting.

8:25 a.m.: This article was updated with details of the student protest.

This article was originally published at 4 a.m.
Good morning. It is Tuesday, Nov. 15. Are Californians to blame for the avocado shortage? Heres what else is happening in the Golden State:

TOP STORIES

Immigration policy

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LAPD Chief Charlie Beck says the election of Donald Trump wont do anything to change the police departments stance on immigration. A long-standing special order prevents L.A. cops from initiating contact with someone solely to determine their legal status. Under Becks leadership, LAPD moved away from honoring requests to detain inmates who may be eligible for deportation. We are not going to work in conjunction with Homeland Security on deportation efforts. That is not our job, nor will I make it our job, Beck said. Los Angeles Times

Whats the plan?

So what exactly is President-elect Trump planning on deportations? His advisors are drafting plans to resume workplace raids and to ramp up pressure on local police and jails to identify immigrants in the country illegally. Trumps goal is to deport 2 million to 3 million migrants who he says are criminals. Los Angeles Times

Get your motor running

California car lovers have a new playground  if the price is right. Porsche Motorsports North America has opened a $60-million facility in Carson where car lovers can hone their driving skills on a 4.1-mile track featuring a 3/4-mile straightaway, banked curves, water hazards and a slalom driving area. Los Angeles Times

L.A. AT LARGE

Out in the streets: Hundreds of students left class to protest in the streets of Los Angeles Monday. Students from Eastside high schools met in Boyle Heights Mariachi Plaza and marched to City Hall. Los Angeles Times

Run for office: A neighborhood activist whose lawsuits stopped construction on a Target store in East Hollywood is now running for the Los Angeles City Council. Doug Haines has been at the center of a host of lawsuits that challenge the citys planning and approvals process. He is running for the seat held by incumbent Councilman Mitch OFarrell. Los Angeles Times

Lunch time: These may be the best food trucks in Los Angeles. LA Weekly

More development: An L.A. super-developer has won approval from the Planning Commission to build a sleek, ultra-luxury 19-story tower next to the Beverly Center. Critics say its too tall for the neighborhood. Curbed LA

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Made in the USA (or not): Californias High-Speed Rail Authority is seeking a federal exemption to import critical train parts including motors, gearboxes, axles, wheels and brakes. If this waiver is granted, it virtually guarantees that there will be no chance for a domestic high-speed rail industry to take root in this country, said Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing. Los Angeles Times

What could have been: Talk about the road not taken. In 2014, political consultant Ace Smith mapped out a vision for Hillary Clintons presidential run that centered on helping the middle class. She didnt follow that strategy  but Trump did. Sacramento Bee

CRIME AND COURTS

Police support: The union that represents rank-and-file members of the LAPD complained Monday that the department was not adequately prepared to handle thousands of protesters in the wake of last weeks election. The Police Protective League also criticized Mayor Eric Garcetti for supporting the demonstrators. When officers are being physically assaulted, when property is being vandalized, those are words of encouragement to those who intend on breaking the law, said union president Craig Lally. Los Angeles Times

Follow the rules: LAPD officers are going undercover to catch Uber and Lyft drivers breaking the law. The stings are funded with fees cabdrivers pay to help catch bandit taxi drivers. A lot of the [rideshare] people we are arresting  believe it or not  we are arresting for their own safety so they are not putting people in the cars that can hurt them, said Lt. Dave Ferry. 89.3 KPCC

DROUGHT AND CLIMATE

Headed in the right direction: The number of juvenile winter-run Chinook salmon spawning on the Sacramento River and heading out to sea doubled from 2015. Its too early to declare a huge success, said Garwin Yip, branch chief for water operations at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Fisheries California Central Valley Office. Associated Press

Not a drop to drink: The reservoir that provides Santa Barbara Countys drinking water is nearly empty. I dont know what will happen if we get the same amount of [precipitation] we got this winter. The wells will go dry, and they will fail, said Bruce Wales, general manager of the Santa Ynez River Water Conservation District. Washington Post

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

Boys in blue: Dodger Corey Seager is the National League rookie of the year. Hes the first Dodger to win the honor since 1994. Los Angeles Times

Armageddon: U.S. agencies engaged in a planetary protection exercise last month about what to do if an asteroid hits Los Angeles. New York Times

Leader passes: The longtime executive of Stater Bros. Markets died Sunday at the age of 78. Jack H. Brown joined the company in 1981. Jack touched every one of us in a very personal way, and it is that legacy that we must carry forward. He loved the business, his company and each one of us, said Stater Bros. President and CEO Pete Van Helden. Orange County Register

Cover up: A couple looking for a perfect spot for some pregnancy photos went to Baker Beach, which has incredible view of the Golden Gate. But its also a famous nude beach. And you know what happened next SFGate

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Riverside will be 86 degrees and mostly sunny. It will be 76 and mostly sunny in San Diego. It will be sunny with a high of 80 degrees in Los Angeles. San Francisco will be 65 and mostly cloudy. It will be mostly cloudy and 66 in Sacramento.

AND FINALLY

Todays California Memory comes from Tony Branch:

It was 1957 and I was a junior student at Palo Alto High School in what was then called the Santa Clara Valley (now Silicon Valley). Civics was a required class in those days, and I remember well my teacher discussing the electoral college. Brought up to believe in one person, one vote democracy, I asked what would happen if a presidential candidate received a larger popular vote margin but lost the electoral college to another. My teacher said not to worry and assured me that it was a rather dim possibility since it had not happened since Benjamin Harrison over Cleveland in 1888. For the second time in 16 years, it appears we have (largely because of Californias huge margin for Clinton) the election of a president without a popular vote mandate. That made me think of that class session 60 long years ago.

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 doctor from Newport Beach once accused of Medi-Cal fraud pleaded guilty Tuesday to fleeing federal prosecution by faking his own death and living abroad in Egypt for the last 14 years.

Tigran Svadjian, 58, admitted that he hid in Russia then Egypt after leaving California in 2002 to avoid facing charges that he allegedly bilked California out of millions through fraudulent billings.

Before he vanished, Svadjian had agreed to go undercover to help investigators catch co-conspirators.

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If he had been convicted in the case, he would have faced up to 10 years in prison. But in the years since Svadjian fled, federal investigators said the evidence they had against him was discarded, eliminating the chance to prosecute him on the much more serious charges that he originally faced.

For pleading guilty to fleeing prosecution on Tuesday, Svadjian now faces a maximum of five years in prison. Hes scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 9.

According to a letter that the state Department of Health and Human Services sent to Svadjian before he fled in 2002, a 14-month audit of his practices in Fresno and Los Angeles revealed he had overbilled California more than $1.9 million in treatments for state-insured patients.

The letter contended Svadjian provided only 13 of 200 medical records the state requested as part of an audit and that he could not account for 94% of the services he had allegedly performed. Some of the patients he had supposedly treated were dead, authorities said.

Prosecutors eventually made Svadjian an offer, according to an FBI affidavit filed this summer: If he wore a wire and turned against his co-conspirators, his case would be kept confidential and the charges possibly reduced.

Svadjian agreed but then hopped on a flight to Russia. His lawyer told prosecutors that hed be back by the end of October.

But on the last day of that month, Svadjians attorney in L.A. sent a fax to federal prosecutors in Sacramento. Included was a Report of the Death of an American Citizen Abroad from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Svadjian had died 11 days prior on Barklaya Street, the document said, and his remains were cremated and given to his mother.

After Svadjian absconded in 2002, he took on two different identities and started a new life in Egypt, where he found a girlfriend and had two sons. His second child was born this summer, said Andre Townsend, Svadjians public defender.

Hes just eager to get back to Egypt, Townsend said after his clients guilty plea Tuesday.

But in fleeing 14 years ago, Svadjian had also abandoned the family he had established with his first wife in the U.S. Svadjian had gotten married in New York in the 1980s, followed by a son and daughter in the following years.

In a brief interview with The Times after Svadjians arrest this summer, his estranged wife, Emilya, said she was devastated to learn he was alive and that she had collected his ashes and received his death certificate after his supposed demise.

Svadjian had paid a Russian police officer $200 to fake his death and in return, was given a fake death certificate from a morgue in Moscow.

He was arrested this summer in Ukraine with a fake passport when he tried to enter Russia to be with his girlfriend for the birth of their son, according to an FBI affidavit.

Joseph.serna@latimes.com

For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna on Twitter.

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Los Angeles County sheriffs detectives are investigating a car-to-car shooting Monday night on the 5 Freeway near the Citadel in Commerce, authorities said.

The confrontation, initially reported as a possible road rage incident, occurred in the northbound lanes about 8:30 p.m. and ended when a driver pulled up alongside another car and fired once, striking the windshield, the sheriffs department said.

The car that was shot exited at 1st Street and Boyle Avenue and the driver, who was not injured, called police, according to the sheriffs department. The shooter continued on and has not been caught.

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After further investigation, sheriffs detectives believe the incident may have been gang-related, said Lt. Ed Alvarez.

The shooters vehicle was described as a dark blue or black Chevrolet Suburban, KABC reported.

Authorities will check the cameras at the Citadel to see if they recorded the incident, Alvarez said.

joseph.serna@latimes.com

For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna on Twitter.

ALSO

L.A. Police Commission prepares to tackle a longstanding, thorny issue: racial profiling

Sanctuary cities face a moment of truth amid Trumps war on illegal immigration

Cal State trustees could raise tuition by $270, and hundreds of students plan to disrupt their meeting
The Los Angeles Police Department knows it has a problem.

African Americans have significantly less trust in LAPD officers than other residents do. A new survey, commissioned by the department, found that less than half of black residents consider the police honest and trustworthy. Only a third believe officers treat people of all races or ethnicities fairly.

On Tuesday, police commissioners who oversee the department said they were struck by the disparity in how policing is perceived in Los Angeles. One said the results illuminated a profoundly serious disconnect between the LAPD and black Angelenos. Another commissioner said the survey underscored the need to improve public trust in police.

Their comments came during a commission meeting designed to take on one of the thorniest, most challenging issues facing police across the country, one that continues to frustrate both residents and officers: allegations of racial profiling.

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One by one, residents and community activists, both black and Latino, shared stories of moments they felt profiled by police. One man said he could count on both his fingers and toes the number of times it happened to him. A 19-year-old college student recalled being stopped by the same officer who asked the same questions: Where are you going? Do you have anything you shouldnt have?

Several activists warned against dismissing the concerns as merely a perception rather than a reality that had long been felt by non-white residents, in particular African Americans.

They fear the police, said the Rev. K.W. Tulloss, president of the local chapter of the National Action Network. They fear interacting with the police because of racial profiling.

It was an unusual move by the Police Commission, devoting its entire weekly meeting to a single topic. But, commissioners said, it was an important conversation to have.

I know that everyone will not agree 100% with everything they hear today. We all bring a different set of perspectives and experiences to the table, Matt Johnson, the boards president, said as he opened the meeting. But I see that as an opportunity for renewed dialogue, not a barrier to the work that remains to be done.

Accusations of racial profiling  what the LAPD calls biased policing  are difficult to prove, as they hinge on what an officer is thinking when he or she stops someone.

Los Angeles police usually receive a few hundred complaints of biased policing each year, largely from African Americans. None have been upheld, a number that has become more glaring in recent years as residents and police commissioners continue to voice their concerns.

LAPD officials surveyed 10 other police departments ahead of Tuesdays meeting and found only three  San Diego, San Jose and Washington, D.C.  had upheld such allegations since 2011. Among those departments, only four allegations were proved.

LAPD brass stress that they take the allegations seriously, noting again Tuesday that the department tried to fire an officer a few years ago after investigators determined he stopped Latino drivers based on their ethnicity. However, a disciplinary panel found that officer not guilty of the biased policing allegations and fired him on a different charge.

What investigators can more easily prove is observable behavior that may be indicative of bias, said Cmdr. Stuart Maislin, who heads the LAPDs internal affairs section. He pointed to other allegations the department has upheld  that officers made ethnically disparaging remarks, were discourteous or showed unbecoming conduct  that may reflect a larger concern.

Police Chief Charlie Beck said the department also takes steps to screen potential recruits for bias and train officers to ensure bias does not affect how they police. He said he believed the majority of officers do their job to the best of their abilities, free from bias.

Do I think that biased policing is rampant? Absolutely not, he told reporters after the meeting. Do I think it occurs? Of course it does.

Peter Bibring, director of police practices at the American Civil Liberties Union of California, said LAPD data show that African Americans have been stopped at a much higher rate than whites.

In the first half of 2014, 32% of pedestrians stopped by LAPD officers were black, 48% were Latino and 17% were white, according to the most recent figures available on the departments website. Among drivers who were stopped, 21% were black, 44% were Latino and 23% were white. The citys population is about 10% black, 48% Latino and 29% white.

The department conducts an incredible number of stops, Bibring told the commission. An incredible weight of policing is falling on black and brown communities.

Beck cautioned against interpreting the figures without accounting for factors such as crime rates and economic conditions.

There has to be a much deeper analysis than that, he said.

Included in a 143-page report the LAPD prepared for the meeting were the results of the survey, a 2,000-person poll conducted earlier this year to gauge public attitudes about crime, safety and policing in Los Angeles. Those findings illuminated stark differences in how police are perceived across Los Angeles.

Among the African Americans surveyed, 47% said they considered police honest and trustworthy, compared with roughly 74% of white residents, almost 71% of Latinos and about 67% of Asians. Less than a third of African Americans agreed that LAPD officers used force only when absolutely necessary, according to the survey. Just over half of the total residents surveyed agreed.

Less than half of all residents, or 49.7%, agreed that LAPD officers treated people of all races and ethnicities fairly. More than a third disagreed.

Commissioner Cynthia McClain-Hill questioned whether LAPD brass was doing enough to address the concerns. Officials said they were expanding existing programs to try to improve trust in the LAPD, including one that assigns officers to housing projects and another, called Days of Dialogue, in which residents have roundtable talks with police.

These concerns and issues about racial profiling, about implicit bias and biased policing have been with us for a very long time. Days of Dialogue, I know, have been going on for a good part of my adult lifetime, McClain-Hill said. Doing more of the same, given where we are, may not be enough.

Beck said the results of the survey werent a surprise, given the 40 years hes spent policing Los Angeles. The goal, he said, was to develop a baseline that the LAPD could use to measure progress in the future.

McClain-Hill, who called for the discussion earlier this fall, said after the meeting that it significantly illuminated some of the work to be done.

Alfonso Aguilar, the 19-year-old college student who spoke about being stopped by the same police officer, agreed that it was a good first step.

Aguilar, a member of the Community Coalition of South L.A., told commissioners that in South L.A., where he was born and raised, police are seen as a dominating force, one out of touch with the people they are sworn to protect.

In an interview, Aguilar said that when he initially walked into the meeting, seeing a large group of police officers in the room made him so nervous he walked out. He ran to a bathroom to splash water on his face before returning.

After he spoke to the commission, however, he said he came to appreciate how many officers were there.

The more I think about it, the more Im glad the room was filled with officers, he said. So they can understand how people feel.

Times staff writer James Queally contributed to this report.

kate.mather@latimes.com

cindy.chang@latimes.com

For more law enforcement news, follow us on Twitter: @katemather and @cindychangLA

ALSO:

Sanctuary cities face a moment of truth amid Trumps war on illegal immigration

LAPD will not help deport immigrants under Trump, chief says

Trump tapped the misery of factory workers, but can he bring back their jobs?

UPDATES:

8:00 p.m.: This article was updated with additional comments from Beck and a police commissioner after the meeting as well as some more details from the hearing and on police stops.

1:55 p.m.: This article was updated with additional comments form attendees at the meeting.

11:55 a.m.: This article was updated with additional comments from speakers at the commission meeting.

10:45 a.m.: This article was updated with comments made during the opening of the L.A. Police Commission meeting.

This article was originally published at 3 a.m.
Sheriffs detectives are searching for a man they say broke into homes in Maywood and assaulted at least two women and a 13-year-old girl.

The attacks, which occurred over two weeks in October, have triggered fears among residents and prompted city officials to offer a $5,000 reward for the suspects arrest.

There is a predator who is accosting a number of females in our community that must be stopped before he attacks another victim, City Councilman Thomas Martin said in a statement.

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On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department distributed fliers with a sketch of a man who they think is responsible for the attacks.

If you ever find yourself with a burglar breaking into your home, stay calm and quiet but act quickly, deputies have warned. If you can safely escape, do so immediately. If you cant, then hide and lock yourself in a room. Call 911 as quickly as possible and stay by the phone. If you are attacked, fight back.

In each of the break-ins, the attacker snuck into home in the early morning hours by removing screens from unsecured windows, authorities said.

The first alleged assault occurred about 1:30 a.m. on Oct. 5 at a home in the 6100 block of King Avenue, where a woman was sitting in her living room. The man walked out of her bathroom and grabbed her breasts, the Sheriffs Department said.

As the unwanted sexual touching continued, the victim fought against the suspect, pushing him away and forcing him out of the house, deputies said in a statement.

The next break-in occurred 13 days later, about a mile from the first.

Authorities said the suspect entered an apartment in the 4300 block of 53rd Street at about 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 18 as the residents slept. One of the residents woke up after a hearing a door open and saw a dark silhouette and light from a cellphone.

The resident yelled at the suspect, who jumped out a window and ran.

About an hour and a half later, the suspect entered a home in the 4100 block of 53rd Street as a woman slept in her bed. She reported that she felt someone touching an intimate body part and woke up to find the intruder inside her bedroom.

The woman got up and ran into another room, where she locked the door and called 911. Deputies searched for the suspect, but couldnt find him.

The next day, the suspect returned to the neighborhood.

He entered a home in 3600 block of 53rd Street in Maywood through the kitchen window and walked into the 13-year-old girls room. The suspect covered the girls mouth but she awoke and was able to yell for help, deputies said.

The girls father heard the scream and confronted the suspect. He punched the man, but then fell to the floor and the suspect was able to escape through the front door, deputies said.

The suspect is described as 5 feet 2 to 5 feet 5 tall, 18 to 20 years old, with a very thin build. He wore dark clothing and did not appear to be armed during any of the break-ins.

Deputies have been patrolling the neighborhood in search of the suspect.

Mayor Ramon Medina warned residents to lock their doors and windows at night.

Anyone with details about the suspect is urged to call, the Sheriffs Departments East Los Angeles Station at (323) 264-4151, or Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

For breaking news in California, follow @VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.

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Prosecutor Generals Office (PGO) of Ukraine has called the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko for questioning in the investigation into crimes committed in January-February, 2014 against Euro-Maidan activists.

"A summon has been sent to the Presidential Administration for November 29," Prosecutor General's Office special investigations department chief Serhiy Horbatiuk told Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.

Earlier Horbatiuk said that the Prosecutor Generals Office was waiting for Poroshenko to be questioned on Euro-Maidan cases.

It had been reported earlier that Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko had said on August 8 that former and incumbent high-ranking Ukrainian officials would be summoned for questioning on the events on Maidan in 2014. A number of high-ranking politicians and officials were invited to the Prosecutor General's Office special investigations department in August to be questioned as witnesses in investigations into crimes committed against Euro-Maidan activists in January-February 2014. In particular, investigators summoned President Poroshenko, former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andriy Parubiy, head of the Zakarpattia regional administration Hennadiy Moskal and some others.

Presidential press secretary Sviatoslav Tseholko said Poroshenko would appear before Prosecutor General's Office investigators to testify in investigations into crimes committed against Euro-Maidan activists in January-February 2014 after he is officially summoned.

Horbatiuk said on October 3 that Yatsenyuk, Klitschko, and Moskal had ignored the summons, and Poroshenko lacked a 'window' for questioning in his schedule to testify on the case.
The union that represents Los Angeles rank-and-file officers complained Monday that the citys police department did not adequately prepare to handle thousands of protesters who swarmed downtown Los Angeles after Donald Trumps election day victory, and union officials also blasted Mayor Eric Garcettis support of the demonstrators.

Speaking at the Los Angeles Police Protective Leagues downtown headquarters, union president Craig Lally called for the city controller to conduct an audit of the LAPDs staffing levels last week and repeatedly bashed a comment Garcetti made at a news conference last week that protesters should try not to break too many laws while demonstrating.

When officers are being physically assaulted, when property is being vandalized, those are words of encouragement to those who intend on breaking the law, Lally said.

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A spokeswoman for Garcetti noted that the mayor clearly denounced any lawbreaking by protesters when he was addressing reporters last week. The quote was a snippet of comments Garcetti made over the span of more than 10 minutes in which he repeatedly urged demonstrators not to enter freeways or damage property.

In a statement, the LAPD said most of last weeks protests were spontaneous, but that the department redirected resources downtown as fast as it could for crowd control.

The LAPD made every effort to redeploy the resources necessary to protect the areas affected by the demonstrations and quickly adapt to the changing circumstances, the statement read. The departments quick action to redeploy resources coupled with proactive engagement with the protesters avoided substantial property damage and injuries.

For five nights last week, throngs of protesters marched across downtown Los Angeles and into the Westlake area to denounce Trumps election. His campaign rhetoric, which many have criticized as racist and misogynistic, has fueled massive demonstrations in New York City, Chicago, Portland, Ore., Miami and other cities.

Protests in Los Angeles have been largely peaceful, and nearly 8,000 people marched from MacArthur Park to downtown Los Angeles on Saturday. But Los Angeles police did arrest hundreds of people during earlier protests that raged from Wednesday night into early Saturday morning, and the majority of those arrests were for vandalism or failure to obey a lawful order.

One incident Thursday night was of particular concern to union officials. An officer attempting to stop a protester from tagging a wall near the LAPDs downtown headquarters was pummeled and lost his gun during a clash with several people who had broken off from a larger cluster of demonstrators, union officials said. Two people were arrested, and the officer was not seriously injured, but his gun remains missing, police officials told The Times.

A protest the night after Trumps victory spilled onto the 101 Freeway, snarling traffic for several hours as officers tried to chase a resilient group of nearly 300 people off the entrance and exit ramps near Union Station. Twenty-eight people were arrested that night, either for entering the freeway or refusing to disperse after the LAPD and officers with the California Highway Patrol managed to chase demonstrators back onto the Alameda Street overpass.

Graffiti crews have also posed a significant problem for police, hiding among the demonstrators and spray-painting vulgar insults toward Trump or simpler tags on the sides of buildings and news vans, and even on the doors of some LAPD cruisers.

Lally said the LAPDs command staff had no plan to deal with the protests last week, and harshly criticized the department for failing to call in additional officers or order a large-scale mobilization to deal with the massive crowds. Robb Harris, a director with the union, said other commands  including Rampart, West Los Angeles and Pacific divisions  were left woefully understaffed as police had to scramble to deal with the protests.

Harris also said Garcettis comments in support of demonstrators were an insult to officers who responded to the protests.

That statement is not a statement from a leader, he said of the mayors comments.

As the union officials spoke out, hundreds of high school students kicked off another round of protests late Monday morning, walking out of classes downtown and massing at City Hall. Groups of California Highway Patrol cars could be seen near freeway entrances and in parking lots around the area, which officials described as a preventive measure.

Chief William Siegl, head of the CHPs Southern Division, said his officers have stopped protesters from entering the 101 and 110 freeways on multiple occasions in the past week and are hoping to prevent both another freeway shutdown and a situation in which they are forced to make mass arrests.

Were trying to balance our obligations and responsibilities with the safety of protesters and the public, and resorting to force is not always the best method of mitigating the problem, he said. We would rather try and establish dialogue with the leaders of the groups, and ask them, discuss with them, ways in which we could mitigate the problem.

Times staff writer Kate Mather contributed to this report.

james.queally@latimes.com

Follow @JamesQueallyLAT for crime and police news in California.

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A self-described rehab mogul has been charged with multiple sexual assault offenses as well as defrauding insurers in a $175-million billing scheme, prosecutors said.

Christopher Bathum, who founded 19 sober-living facilities in Southern California and Colorado, faces accusations in two separate cases of sexually assaulting nine patients and laundering money, according to the Los Angeles County district attorneys office.

Bathum pleaded not guilty Monday afternoon in downtown Los Angeles.

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Prosecutors charged the 55-year-old operator of Community Recovery of Los Angeles, also known as CRLA, with 12 counts of furnishing drugs and 34 counts of sexual assault-related offenses, including sexual exploitation, rape and rape of an intoxicated person.

In that case, prosecutors said Bathum sexually assaulted female clients and provided some with drugs. The assaults allegedly occurred between 2012 and 2016 at the treatment centers.

In a separate case, Bathum and the firms chief financial officer, Kirsten Wallace, have been charged with 31 counts of money laundering. They also face charges for insurance fraud, grand theft and identify theft.

According to the California Department of Insurance, Bathum and Wallace stole patients identities to buy health policies without their knowledge. Then they billed their former clients for treatment they were no longer receiving, prosecutors said.

Between June 2012 and December 2015, Bathum and Wallace issued $175 million in bills for services that, in most cases, were never provided, according to the district attorneys office. As result of the scheme, prosecutors said five insurance companies paid out $44 million.

Bathum and Wallace were arrested Thursday during a raid that included searches of 15 locations in Los Angeles and Orange counties, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department.

Detectives began investigating Bathum in May after someone filed a sexual assault complaint, said Lt. Todd Deeds of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Departments Major Crime Bureau.

The investigation was launched a month before ABCs 20/20 aired an hour-long episode on Bathum and his treatment centers, which had been the subject of an L.A. Weekly report last year detailing the allegations and dozens of lawsuits filed against him. Bathum has denied the allegations.

If Bathum and Wallace are convicted, they each face up to 53 years in state prison. In the sexual assault case, Bathum faces up to life in prison.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

For breaking news in California, follow @VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.

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Scores of communities across California and the nation over the last decade have declared themselves sanctuary cities, a politically potent if largely symbolic designation aimed at expressing solidarity and granting protection for immigrants in this country illegally.

During the Obama years, becoming a sanctuary city came with few consequences because the White House pushed for immigration reform, including a path to citizenship for many here without proper documentation.

But with President-elect Donald Trump vowing to deport millions of immigrants, the role of sanctuary cities is likely to get more complicated and controversial.

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Trump made illegal immigration a central issue of his presidential campaign, vowing to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, deport people who are in the country illegally and unwind immigration relief created under President Obama.

During the campaign, Trump said he also would withhold federal funds to punish so-called sanctuary cities, including Los Angeles and Chicago, for their lenient policies toward illegal immigration.

In the wake of Trumps election, leaders in some cities are vowing to continue their policies. Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said Monday the department had no plans to get involved in any deportation efforts by the federal government and would continue a longstanding policy against allowing officers to stop people solely to determine their immigration status.

Mayors in Philadelphia and Chicago also reaffirmed their cities sanctuary policies and said they would fight efforts by the Trump administration to crack down.

Chicago always will be a sanctuary city, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Monday at a news conference.

Sanctuary policies have become good politics in cities with large Latino populations. But the protections cities afford to immigrants here illegally vary widely.

There is no neat definition of sanctuary city, but in general cities that use the name seek to offer political support or practical protections to people who are in the country illegally.

For some cities, the sanctuary movement consists simply of encouraging people without legal status to get more involved in government. For instance, Huntington Park has never declared itself a sanctuary city but appointed two people without legal status to a city commission, a move that generated national attention.

Other places, such as San Francisco, adopt far-reaching policies, such as taking steps to cut ties with federal immigration officials and refusing to fully cooperate with them. San Francisco declared itself a sanctuary city in 1989, and city officials strengthened the stance in 2013 with its Due Process for All ordinance. The law declared local authorities could not hold immigrants for immigration officials if they had no violent felonies on their records and did not currently face charges.

That city entered the national debate over immigration this summer, when Kathryn Steinle was fatally shot by Mexican national Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez in the Embarcadero neighborhood.

Lopez-Sanchez had been deported five times before he shot Steinle. Trump described the murder as a senseless and totally preventable violent act committed by an illegal immigrant.

L.A. no longer turns over people arrested for low-level crimes to federal agents for deportation and moved away from honoring federal requests to detain inmates who might be deportable past their jail terms. The action follows a 2014 federal court ruling that found an Oregon county was liable for damages after holding an inmate beyond her release date so she could be transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In September, a federal judge in Chicago ordered immigration enforcement authorities in Illinois and five nearby states to stop asking local law enforcement agencies to detain suspects who may be in the country illegally, stating that the practice was unconstitutional. That case is now being reviewed by an appeals court.

Los Angeles is known for its immigrant-friendly policies, but L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti said he avoids using the phrase sanctuary city, saying its ill-defined.

We cooperate all the time with federal immigration officials when there are criminals that are in our midst and need to be deported, Garcetti said last week before a meeting with immigration rights groups. With that said, were a very welcoming city, where our law enforcement officers and LAPD dont go around asking people for their papers, nor should they.

More than 1 million of the estimated 11 million immigrants in the country without legal status live in Los Angeles County, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

The mayors Office of Immigrant Affairs helps both those in the country legally and illegally access community and government services. The office also holds free workshops to help Angelenos apply for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, an executive action that provides a work permit and deportation reprieve to people who were brought to the U.S. as children and stayed illegally.

Los Angeles city-run libraries have Citizenship Corners, places where literature about becoming citizens is offered.

More than 400 jurisdictions across the country have some sort of sanctuary policy.

About a dozen California cities have formal sanctuary policies, according to Avideh Moussavian, a policy attorney with the National Immigration Law Center in Washington, D.C., which advocates for immigrant rights.

None of the states 58 counties complies with detainer requests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, she said.

As Trump rolls out his immigration policies, hell have to first decide what it means to be a sanctuary city, said Louis DeSipio, a professor of political science at UC Irvine.

Is it just the name, [a] purely symbolic thing, or specific policies in San Francisco or some other cities that he thinks counter federal laws? DeSipio said. What defines a sanctuary city in his eyes?

A crackdown by Trump on sanctuary cities would probably find at least some support in the Republican-controlled Congress.

Democrats in the Senate last year blocked a bill by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) that would have stopped law enforcement funding and community development grants to states and cities that dont hold immigrants for federal immigration officials.

It also would have enacted a five- to 10-year minimum prison sentence for a person convicted of a felony or drug-related misdemeanors who reenters the United States illegally.

Capt. Jeff Scroggin, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, said it is too soon to say how sheriffs officials would react to any changes required by the Trump administration. Those changes could be tied to federal funding, he noted.

Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington-based group opposed to illegal immigration, said its hard for him to understand why cities embrace the sanctuary label.

I dont think there is a whole lot of appetite among the public to keep criminal aliens in this country, he said.

But some immigrant rights activists are now calling on sanctuary cities to do more for those here illegally in response to Trumps election.

Talia Inlender, senior staff attorney at Public Counsels Immigrants Rights Project, said cities could step up to create safe places, such as schools, to protect students from the threat of deportation. Cities could also inform communities about their legal rights and fund naturalization efforts, he said.

Moussavian noted that in the past, cities have won legal challenges defending some sanctuary policies, such as not complying with ICE detainers.

On Monday, more than 1,000 students staged a walk-out that ended at Los Angeles City Hall. Organizers said the protest was aimed at asking local political leaders to declare all of Los Angeles County a sanctuary. The demonstrators also demanded their schools be declared havens from the threat of deportation.

Times staff writer Cindy Chang contributed to this report.

cindy.carcamo@latimes.com

kate.mather@latimes.com

dakota.smith@latimes.com

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Donald Trump and his congressional allies are making big plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act and overhaul other government health programs.

But the president-elect appears to have downgraded plans to act aggressively to control rising drug prices, handing the pharmaceutical industry an early victory and providing another illustration of the influence of lobbyists on the new Trump administration, despite Trumps promise to drain the swamp of special interests in Washington.

Trump, who once made the cost of pharmaceuticals a central part of his campaign healthcare pitch and included the issue on his campaign website, hasnt mentioned the subject since the election, even though the issue is consistently cited as the top healthcare problem Americans want to see fixed.

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And Trumps transition healthcare agenda makes no mention of drug prices, though it lists six other healthcare priorities, including restricting abortion, speeding federal approval of new drugs and restructuring Medicare and Medicaid.

One of the major issues that Americans say they are concerned about is high healthcare costs, and a key part of that is prescription drugs. Its a pocketbook issue, said Nancy LeaMond, executive vice president of the influential AARP.

People are looking to see what the president-elect and his team are ready to do.

The Trump transition team did not respond to questions about the new administrations prescription drug agenda.

But already the drug industrys allies, including lobbyists and senior elected officials who have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in industry money, are taking on important roles in the transition and in work on the 2017 agenda.

Vice President-elect Mike Pences political career, for example, has long been supported by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Co., which is based in his home state of Indiana. The drug maker, through its political action committee and employees, is Pences third largest all-time political contributor, according to calculations by the independent Center for Responsive Politics.

Pence is now leading the Trump transition.

Other key figures in Trumps circle of advisors have included a former executive at drug makers Pfizer and Celgene and the chairman of Williams & Jensen, a leading Washington lobbying firm. According to federal lobbying reports, Williams and Jensens clients in recent years have included 11 of the worlds largest drug makers, including Pfizer, Novartis, AstraZeneca, Merck and Bayer.

Shares of many pharmaceutical companies stock rose after Trumps election last week.

In contrast to his silence on drug prices, Trump displayed little hesitation blasting them when he was campaigning.

He railed against the political power of the drug industry, which he said was responsible for blocking Medicare from using its bargaining power to negotiate lower drug prices for seniors.

They have a fantastic lobby. They take care of all of the senators, the congressmen, Trump said at a GOP primary debate in Miami in March.

Trumps campaign platform included a proposal to give Americans greater access to lower-priced, imported drugs, which his campaign said would bring more options to consumers.

Though prescription drugs have historically made up a relatively small share of the nations total healthcare bill, prices have risen dramatically, fueled by a combination of expensive new drugs like Sovaldi, a treatment for Hepatitis C, and aggressive price hikes by the makers of existing drugs like EpiPen.

In September alone, drug prices shot up 7% compared with last year, the sharpest increase in 24 years, according to the Altarum Institute, a nonprofit research and consulting organization. By comparison, overall healthcare prices were up 2.1%.

The price spikes are stoking public anxiety. Polls consistently show that large majorities of Americans  including Democrats and Republicans  want the next president and Congress to make drug prices their top healthcare priority.

Tuesdays election results are a clear indication that people around the country want change, and one issue that came up again and again on the campaign trail is that Americans are tired of skyrocketing drug prices, said John Rother, executive director of the Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing, a coalition of hospitals, employers, health plans and others.

In one recent national survey, more than eight in 10 Americans favored allowing the federal government to negotiate with drug makers to get lower prices on medications for people on Medicare.

And more than seven in 10 Americans favor allowing Americans to import less expensive drugs, according to the poll by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation.

But the pharmaceutical industry has vigorously opposed such steps, calling drug importation unsafe and price negotiation unnecessary.

And for years, millions of dollars in campaign contributions to politicians at the federal and state levels have helped drug makers beat back efforts to increase regulation of their prices.

In 2016 alone, pharmaceutical companies, through their political action committees and employees, contributed more than $17 million to campaigns, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

And though Trump received relatively little from the industry, senior Republicans in Congress took in hundreds of thousands of dollars each. The top recipients of industry money were House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who received more than $230,000, and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), who got more than $225,000.

Neither was in a competitive political race this year, but both men figure to play pivotal roles shaping the healthcare agenda in 2017.

Drug prices are clearly one of the key drivers of healthcare costs that we need to get our arms around, said Peter Lee, head of Covered California, the states insurance marketplace, which has pioneered efforts to cap how much consumers must pay for prescriptions.

But its a very tough issue to address. The pharmaceutical industry is a phenomenally powerful political lobby.

In response to questions about potential future regulation, a spokeswoman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, provided a statement from CEO Steve Ubl.

We look forward to working with the new administration, as well as members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to advance pragmatic solutions that enhance the private market, improve patient access to care and foster the development of innovative medicines, Ubl said.

Twitter: @noamlevey

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Invoking the historic mistreatment of Native Americans, the Obama administration said Monday it will continue to withhold a final permit for completion of the controversial Dakota Access pipeline while it conducts further analysis of concerns that the project will damage sacred tribal sites and water supplies.

Developers of the 1,170-mile pipeline say it would provide a vital and safe means of transporting as much as 500,000 barrels of crude oil daily from the Bakken region of North Dakota to an existing pipeline in Illinois. But the pipeline has stirred national controversy and become a rallying point among Native Americans across the country because it would cross a major waterway just a half-mile north of the Standing Rock Sioux Indian reservation.

That waterway, the Missouri River, was dammed decades ago, flooding the tribes historical lands as it formed what is now called Lake Oahe. The tribe has made that history a central theme during months of protests and sometimes violent standoffs with law enforcement. More than 400 demonstrators have been arrested at the construction site near Lake Oahe since this summer.

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Before the announcement Monday, protesters marched on the North Dakota Capitol grounds in Bismarck, prompting law enforcement to allow only limited entrance to the Capitol building. More protests were planned for Tuesday around the nation.

The Army has determined that additional discussion and analysis are warranted in light of the history of the Great Sioux Nations dispossession of lands, the importance of Lake Oahe to the Tribe, our government-to-government relationship, and the statute governing easements through government property, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency that reviews projects involving water crossings, said in a statement Monday.

The Corps said it was inviting the tribe to engage in discussion regarding potential conditions on an easement for the pipeline crossing that would reduce the risk of a spill or rupture, hasten detection and response to any possible spill, or otherwise enhance the protection of Lake Oahe and the Tribes water supplies.

Corps officials said they would also invite discussion of the risk of a spill in light of such conditions and whether an easement should be granted at all for the pipeline to cross Lake Oahe at the proposed location.

The announcement comes two months after the Obama administration announced it would withhold the permit, citing concerns by the tribe, and it comes just two weeks after President Obama expressed his own reservations.

My view is that there is a way for us to accommodate sacred lands of Native Americans, and I think that right now the Army Corps is examining whether there are ways to reroute this pipeline, he said in an interview with NowThis News this month.

The Standing Rock Sioux have asked the administration to deny the easement permit outright and consider other locations to cross the river.

At one point, the developers of the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners, considered crossing the river farther north, north of the city of Bismarck, but that crossing met resistance as well. Now the $3.8-billion project is more than 80% complete, with the crossing at Lake Oahe the only major obstacle remaining.

The tribe said Monday that although the decision was not a complete victory, It is clear President Obama is listening to its concerns.

We are encouraged and know that the peaceful prayer and demonstration at Standing Rock have powerfully brought to light the unjust narrative suffered by tribal nations and Native Americans across the country, said Dave Archambault II, the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux.

Supporters of the pipeline quickly attacked the decision, linking it to the election of Donald Trump, who has expressed support for expanding fossil fuel development.

Todays decision is yet another attempt at death by delay and is a stunning rebuke of the Army Corps of Engineers, the federal civil service, four state governments, and the rule of law, said Craig Stevens, a spokesman for the MAIN Coalition, an industry and labor group. This extrajudicial, political decision is exactly why hard-working Americans across the country rejected a third Obama term.

By its own review and admission, the Army Corps of Engineers did everything right. Americans expect their government to play by the rules  and this is just another example of the Obama administration using its perceived authority to drive a political agenda.

It was not immediately clear how long the review would take. The Corps said it will set a timeline with the tribe that allows for robust discussion and analysis to be completed expeditiously.

Jan Hasselman, a lawyer for Earthjustice who has represented the tribe, said he expected the Obama administration to make a final decision on the easement before the president leaves office Jan. 20.

Hasselman noted that Trump is an investor in Energy Transfer Partners and that the companys chief executive, Kelcy Warren, contributed to the Trump campaign. If the Obama administration eventually denies the final permit, Hasselman said, the Trump administration could pursue reversing that decision but would have to do so through the permitting process in a way that stood up to legal challenges.

The government has invited the tribe to make its case on why it should be denied and thats what were going to do, Hasselman said, referring to the easement permit to cross Lake Oahe. It starts, as it always does, with the history, that this is land that was stolen from the tribe. One tiny thing they could do to undo some of that wrong is say no to such a harmful piece of infrastructure in this place.

william.yardley@latimes.com

@yardleyLAT

UPDATES:

5:55 p.m.: This story was updated with additional background on the project and comments from opponents of the pipeline.

This story was originally published at 3:45 p.m.
On a church-lined street in this eastern Iowa city, not far from the cornfields that define the region, Syrian, Indian and Somalian families trickled into a white building topped with a blue minaret. They were full of questions and praying for answers.

This is a wake-up call, Ramsey Ali, a 29-year-old graduate student, told the crowd of 50 gathered at the Islamic Center of Cedar Rapids. We have to do something.

These heartland Muslims, who belong to one of the oldest Muslim communities in the United States, had gathered in search of relief and unity.

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Instead, they found themselves just as divided as the rest of the nation.

Since Donald Trumps election, dozens of mosques have hosted emergency forums like the one held here Saturday, trying to calm congregations fearful and confused over their prospects under his presidency. Top imams have convened conference calls and strategized with civil rights groups over what many see as the inevitable assaults on their faith. Some Islamic groups have cautiously vowed to work with the new president, while others have called on him to repudiate his statements on Islam  a faith he just months ago said hates Americans.

Food is served during a potluck and discussion at the Islamic Center of Cedar Rapids on Nov. 12, 2016. (John Richard / For The Times)

In Cedar Rapids, the second-biggest city in Iowa, the debate over life under Trump has taken on extra meaning. Muslims, who number about 5,000 in Linn County, are a small minority in the region of 218,000 people yet deeply ingrained in its history.

The community dates to the early 1900s, when small groups of Muslims and Christians immigrated from what is now Lebanon. They worked in grocery stores and local industries and saved to build a two-story social club that opened in 1934 near downtown. The Muslims also used it as a mosque and in 1971 built a larger building, where the community met last week. The original mosque, called the Mother Mosque, is still used for special events and stands in a neighborhood just west of the Cedar River that last week was scattered with Trump-Pence posters. Around the mosque, signs proclaim it as a state landmark.

We survived a world war, we survived the Iran hostage crisis, we survived 9/11, said Hassan Igram, 61, whose grandfather helped found the mosque. But this situation is a little different.

Before Trump was elected, with the help of a victory in Iowa, he had at points vowed to ban Muslims from immigrating, said he was open to government spying on certain mosques and once said he would absolutely have a registry of all Muslims. Since his win, civil rights groups have raised alarms about a jump in attacks on Muslims and other minorities across the country by Americans emboldened by the new presidency. Some Trump supporters also have been hurt in scuffles.

At Cedar Rapids Islamic center, where about 150 people usually attend weekly Friday prayers, families streamed in on Saturday with their kids for an event titled Raising a Family in the Times of Fear. It was ostensibly a potluck dinner and slideshow presentation about how to talk to children about fears of Islam. It was led by Ali, a psychology doctoral student at the University of Iowa.

In actuality, it was group therapy for adults and high schoolers in shock over the election and wondering about their future.

As congregants sat at tables in front of a projector, eating rice pilaf and kebabs, Ali presented a series of data points and guides. They covered anti-Muslim violence, mental health among Muslims, and civil rights resources.

But mostly, he peppered them with questions about their state of mind. The group talked for hours as it gradually dwindled in size, interrupted only by the recorded sounds of the call to prayer over the mosque speakers.

Ali asked what the Muslims in the room needed to do after the election.

You know, everyone keeps saying his win is from racism from white people and people that hate Islam. Not everyone who supports him is a bigot.  Mokhtar Sadok, a Tunisian American engineer in Cedar Rapids

If we want to see a change of the attitude of the non-Muslims about the Muslims in Iowa, it will not happen with us staying in our homes, within our cubicles at work or within this masjid. The only way that it will work is if we go out. Allah has chosen for us to live within America for a purpose. Until we fulfill that, that stigma that Muslims are scary people will not go away, said Hala Azmeh, a 47-year-old Syrian American schoolteacher who runs the mosques education committee.

Her 15-year-old daughter agreed but was less optimistic.

We need to personally go up to people. I dont know how to do it, honestly. I feel like weve tried several ways, but nothing is really happening, said Noor Azmeh. She had joined a Muslim youth group this year to clean up a homeless shelter with an interfaith organization, one of several regular outreach activities the mosque runs.

Ali asked what led to Trumps victory.

You know, everyone keeps saying his win is from racism from white people and people that hate Islam. Not everyone who supports him is a bigot. My neighbor supported Trump. He had a sign in his yard, said Mokhtar Sadok, a 51-year-old Tunisian American engineer. He knows were Muslim. Were friendly.

No, I think its definitely the white people. I work with them, whispered an Indian American woman.

Ali asked whether Muslims should debate with Trump voters and people who disliked Islam. Fake news on Trump and Hillary Clinton, including false sources on Islam, had proliferated during the campaign, spreading on Facebook.

When you put yourself into the situation where you debate Islam and another religion, it can do more harm than good. Do we really want to debate, or do we want to just say what Islam is and walk away? said an African American woman. Earlier, she said she thought people had been trailing her car in recent weeks because they saw her hijab.

Ali asked whether uniting with other minorities was the key to a better public understanding of Islam under Trump.

The best way to help ourselves is to help others, said Brittanie Shah, a 31-year-old white convert to Islam who is a teacher in North Liberty, Iowa. Part of me is like, People should really rally behind us, but were we rallying around other minority groups before? I know some beliefs like LBGT rights are in conflict with our religion. But it seems disingenuous to ask for support until we support others.

Her husband, Faraz Shah, suggested an easier way to make allies. Im from conservative southwestern Indiana. After 9/11, we began to do international food fairs to get people to meet Muslims. We could try that here, he said.

Those gathered on Saturday wondered how much President Trump would be like candidate Trump when it comes to Muslims.

Trump has largely remained silent on Islam since his election and, in the last months of it, had began to soften some of his positions. His ban on Muslim immigration, announced last year, later morphed into an extreme vetting of would-be immigrants. After he said in March that Islam hates Americans, a spokeswoman said he meant to speak only about radical Islam. Although he has spoken since his election about Obamacare  which he now wants to keep parts of  and his plan to proceed with a promise to deport immigrants with criminal records, hes been mum on mosque surveillance and Muslim registration.

Noor Azmeh, who wears a hijab, said she thought the group was too negative.

I have the fear and anxiety of walking down the street, she said. But there are so many people are out there who are so nice to us. Me and my mom have been in the store and there are random people who just stare at us, and theyll find a way to somehow just come to say hi to us. Theyll ask us how we are doing. It happens at Wal-Mart; it happens wherever you go.

A bouquet of flowers and an encouraging note given to the Islamic Center of Cedar Rapids, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, shown on Nov. 12, 2016. (John Richard / For The Times)

Its happened in the days after the election, when three pots of flowers showed up at the mosques front door with messages of encouragement, and a civil rights attorney dropped by and left his business card. At the Mother Mosque, the historic building the community operates, someone had left a fruit basket with oranges, strawberries and chocolate bars after election night. Tucked into the stems of a bouquet of yellow carnations, a notecard had a message for the Muslims.

You are loved. Our country is stronger & better with you in it, it said. Do not live in fear, there are loving people all around you!

jaweed.kaleem@latimes.com

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A day after the Obama administration said it would continue to withhold a final permit for the Dakota Access pipeline, thousands of protesters across the country urged the administration to shut down construction for good.

The company building the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners, of Dallas, is fighting back, filing motions Tuesday in federal district court in Washington asking a judge to declare that Dakota Access Pipeline has the legal right-of-way to build, complete and operate the Dakota Access Pipeline without any further action from the Army Corps of Engineers.

The Corps, the federal agency that reviews projects involving water crossings, has withheld a final easement permit for the 1,170-mile, four-state oil pipeline to cross one particularly contentious portion of its planned route: Lake Oahe in North Dakota.

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The lake is a dammed section of the Missouri River next to the reservation of the Standing Rock Sioux Indian tribe, which has argued that the pipeline will damage sacred sites and put its water supply at risk.

The Corps first announced it would withhold the permit in September while it reviewed its approval process for the project. It was joined in that announcement by the Justice and Interior departments.

On Monday, the Corps said it had completed that review and that the process had comported with the law.

But the agency said it would continue to withhold a permit for the lake crossing because additional review and analysis, as well as new consultation with the Standing Rock Sioux, were warranted in light of the history of the Great Sioux Nations dispossession of lands, the importance of Lake Oahe to the Tribe, our government-to-government relationship, and the statute governing easements through government property.

Energy Transfer Partners and other pipeline supporters responded angrily to the decision. Kelcy Warren, the companys chief executive, said the Corps was conducting a sham process as a result of political interference from the Obama administration.

This action is motivated purely by politics at the expense of a company that has done nothing but play by the rules it was given, Warren said.

Warren contributed to the campaign of President-elect Donald Trump, who is a modest investor in Energy Transfer Partners.

Earlier this month, President Obama said in an interview with the social media start-up NowThis News that the Corps was considering rerouting the pipeline as a way to accommodate sacred lands of Native Americans.

Opponents of the pipeline praised the decision but said they would continue to demand that the Corps reject the crossing at Lake Oahe.

The protest started this spring with a handful of tribal members camping near the pipeline route but exploded late in the summer to include thousands of Native Americans from across the country, many calling themselves water protectors. National environmental groups joined the fight, casting it as part of a broader fight against climate change.

The protests on Tuesday, in which people marched and gathered at Corps offices across the country, were promoted by groups such as the Indigenous Environmental Network but also by Bill McKibben, the author, activist and co-founder of 350.org, the global grassroots group that has helped lead Keep It in the Ground actions intended to reduce the extraction of fossil fuels.

By midday, thousands of protesters had gathered in San Francisco, Chicago and other cities.

The Dakota Access pipeline, which began construction early this year, would transport as much 500,000 barrels of crude oil daily from the Bakken production region of North Dakota to an existing pipeline in Patoka, Ill. Energy Transfer Partners has said the pipeline is safer than transporting oil by rail and that it is already more than 80% complete.

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1:40 p.m.: This story has been updated throughout with staff reporting.

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The director of a West Virginia development group and a mayor are under scrutiny after a racist post about First Lady Michelle Obama caused a backlash and prompted calls on social media for both women to be fired.

Clay County Development Corp. director Pamela Ramsey Taylor made the post following Donald Trumps election as president, saying: It will be refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady in the White House. Im tired of seeing a Ape in heels.

Clay Mayor Beverly Whaling responded: Just made my day Pam.

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UPDATE: Official in West Virginia on leave after racist post about Michelle Obama 

The post, first reported by WSAZ-TV, was shared hundreds of times on social media before it was deleted.

The Facebook pages of Taylor and Whaling couldnt be found Monday. A call to the Clay County Development Corp. went unanswered and Whaling didnt immediately return a telephone message.

An online petition seeks to remove Whaling and Taylor. The nonprofit development group provides services to elderly and low-income residents in Clay County. It is funded through state and federal grants and local fees.

It is not affiliated with the town of Clay, which is about 50 miles east of Charleston, W. Va.

Owens Brown, director of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored Peoples West Virginia chapter, is among those calling for the removal of both women.

Its unfortunate that people still have these racist undertones, Brown said. Unfortunately, this is a reality that we are dealing with in America today. Theres no place for these types of attitudes in our state.

African Americans make up about 4% of West Virginias 1.8 million residents, according to the U.S. Census.

About 77% of Clay County residents supported Trump in the Nov. 8 election. In 2012, President Obama received 31% of the county vote when Republican Mitt Romney easily carried the state.

The town council has a previously scheduled meeting Tuesday.

Last week in Kentucky, Republican Dan Johnson defeated incumbent Democrat Linda Belcher in Bullitt County despite a series of Facebook posts that depicted Obama and his wife as monkeys. Republican officials, including likely new House Speaker Jeff Hoover, had called on Johnson to drop out of the race. But Hoover declared last week that Johnson would be welcome in our caucus.

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Thousands of middle and high school students across Seattle walked out of classes Monday to protest President-elect Donald Trump.

Teens from public and private schools chanted, We reject the president-elect, among other statements as they marched in the streets of the Capitol Hill and downtown neighborhoods. Many waved signs that read Not My President or Love Wins.

A spokesman with Seattle Public Schools estimated that more than 5,000 students from 20 middle and high schools participated in the walkout. Students who left class will get an unexcused absence, spokesman Luke Duecy said.

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Some who joined the march said they oppose Trumps divisive rhetoric and wanted to show support for those he targeted such as Muslims or immigrants.

Others say they came to support their friends or simply to observe the activities.

High school senior Rose Taylor, who is bisexual and voted for Hillary Clinton, said she worries about what Trumps election will mean for the LGBT community and others.

I dont believe Donald Trump is going to make a good president, she said. Im worried about whats going to happen to my community and my friends.

Marci Owens, 17, a transgender high school senior, wasnt able to vote, but she turned out Monday to show solidarity with others.

Im more afraid about the division that its created, said Owens, who is black. Im worried about people who are attacking other people. Thats scarier than what Trump has to say.

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray tweeted his support for the students Monday afternoon, saying he applauds them for taking a stand for inclusiveness. Its important their peaceful voices be heard. Lets look out for each other & be safe, he said.
Breitbart News wants supporters to #DumpKelloggs after advertiser pulls out By David Ng Breitbart News senior editor-at-large Joel Pollak, left, and Chief Executive Larry Solov at the Breitbart offices in Los Angeles. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) The Breitbart News Network is seeing some of its advertisers head for the exit doors and is responding in typical Breitbart fashion: by going on the counteroffensive, labeling one of them as un-American and calling it a war on conservatism. Since Donald Trumps victory in the presidential election, Los Angeles-based Breitbart has experienced a backlash from some advertisers who say that the online site conflicts with their corporate values. Breitbart took a pro-Trump stance during the campaign, supporting the Republican candidates views on immigration and national security. The companys executive chairman, Steve Bannon, who is on a leave of absence, was Trumps campaign manager and has been named chief White House strategist. Although Bannon was quoted in Mother Jones as saying Breitbart is a platform for the alt-right  the ultraconservative movement associated with white nationalism  the news site has denied accusations that it engages in racist rhetoric. The company has stated that it isnt affiliated with the alt-right and that the brand of nationalism it espouses is political, not racial. Breitbart is fighting back at one of the advertisers  breakfast cereal maker Kellogg Co.  by launching a Twitter campaign, #DumpKelloggs, that encourages its readers to sign a petition and boycott the maker of such favorites as Froot Loops and Apple Jacks. Read More Facebook

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Supreme Court weighs rules for jailed immigrants in Trump era By David Savage The Supreme Court building in Washington. (Saul Loeb / AFP-Getty Images) Facing the likelihood of dramatically stepped-up deportations under a President Donald Trump, the Supreme Court justices sounded closely split Wednesday over whether the government can indefinitely jail immigrants with criminal convictions while they fight legal efforts to remove them from the country. Trump, who made illegal immigration one of the platforms of his presidential campaign, has promised to deport as many as 3 million immigrants once he takes office, and the Supreme Court case involving a Los Angeles immigrant could give his administration greater leverage. Read More Facebook

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Trump says he saved American jobs, but he hasnt shown how he can turn the victory into policy By Noah Bierman A Carrier Corp. plant in Indianapolis. (Darron Cummings / Associated Press) President-elect Donald Trumps newly announced agreement to save more than 1,000 jobs in Indiana gave him the kind of trophy he covets: a tangible victory that matches his campaign promise to serve as deal maker in chief. But its long-term value will depend on what Trump gave up to keep those factory jobs from going to Mexico and whether he is able to craft a successful fiscal policy that has a broader impact on the economy. Read More Facebook

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Lawmakers reach a compromise to help California soldiers ordered to repay enlistment bonuses By David S. Cloud House and Senate negotiators announced a compromise Tuesday that would permit the Pentagon to forgive debts owed by thousands of California National Guard soldiers who received improper bonuses during the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The agreement was included in a defense bill due to be voted on by the House on Friday and the Senate next week. It seeks to strike a balance between the Pentagons concerns about fraud in the bonus system and lawmakers attempts to resolve a scandal that has hurt thousands of military veterans and sparked a public furor. The compromise calls on the Pentagon to forgive the enlistment bonuses and student loans benefits unless the soldier who received the money knew or reasonably should have known that he or she was ineligible for it. The provision stops short of requiring the Pentagon to forgive debts allegedly owed by all California Guard soldiers as long as they fulfilled the terms of their enlistment contracts and did not commit fraud  a far more sweeping waiver that members of the California delegation had proposed. Read More Facebook

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Pentagon says human errors led to mistaken bombing of Syrian-backed forces By W.J. Hennigan Smoke rises near the Syrian village of Hisha, about 25 miles from Islamic States de facto capital of Raqqah, after an airstrike by the American-led coalition on Nov. 9, 2016. (Delil Souleiman /AFP/Getty Images) A U.S. military investigation has found that unintentional human errors led to a coalition airstrike that mistakenly killed dozens of Syrian-backed troops this fall, but it did not recommend disciplining anyone for the deadly attack. The Sept. 17 air raid on a garrison in the eastern Syrian town of Dair Alzour is one of the worst coalition errors to emerge since the Obama administration began an air war against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria in mid-2014. The attack, which was in an area also frequented by Russian forces, led to sharp criticism from Moscow after it emerged that Russian attempts to use a communications hotline to stop the attack were not answered for nearly half an hour. Russias Defense Ministry has said the attack killed 62 Syrian troops, wounded 100 more and opened the way for an Islamic State offensive in the area. It also helped destroy an already fragile U.S.-Russian cease-fire. A four-page redacted summary of the investigation that was released Tuesday concluded that the botched bombing did not violate international laws of armed conflict. Read More Facebook

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U.N. slaps new sanctions on North Korea for recent nuclear test By Tracy Wilkinson Participants stand behind a military band in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Sept. 13 during a celebration rally after the countrys successful test of a nuclear warhead. (Kim Won-Jin / AFP/Getty Images) The United Nations has slapped additional sanctions on North Korea in an effort to cut its exports of raw materials as punishment for conducting another nuclear test. The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday unanimously approved a U.S.-drafted resolution aimed at cutting North Koreas exports of coal, copper, silver and other raw materials, which are its biggest legitimate sources of foreign revenue. The latest sanctions were issued in response to Pyongyangs fifth and largest nuclear test, which was conducted in September in violation of U.N. resolutions. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power estimated the new sanctions will cost North Korea about $800 million a year in lost export income. North Korea is determined to refine its nuclear and ballistic missile technology to pose an even more potent threat ... to international peace and security, Power said. But this resolution imposes unprecedented costs on the [Kim Jong Un] regime for defying this councils demands, she said. Previous international sanctions have had little apparent effect on decisions in Pyongyang, and its difficult to know whether the latest round will make a difference. In March, a set of sanctions described as the most severe in two decades was imposed. But North Korea has gotten around some of the restrictions thanks to complicity from China, its neighbor and longtime benefactor. Wednesdays measures included a 60% cut on North Koreas export of coal, its biggest income source, and bans on the export of copper, nickel, silver and zinc. The sanctions also banned North Koreas export of statues, a business that caters mostly to Africa, and blacklisted 11 people and 10 entities. Under the resolution, North Korea is also threatened with suspension of some U.N. privileges if it fails to comply. Facebook

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CIA director warns Trump it would be the height of folly to scrap the Iran deal By Brian Bennett In an unusual public warning, the head of the CIA said Wednesday it would be the height of folly and disastrous for President-elect Donald Trump to scrap the Iran nuclear deal. CIA Director John Brennan said in a TV interview that ripping up the historic accord could allow Iran to resume its nuclear program and set off an arms race in the Middle East by encouraging other countries to acquire their own nuclear weapons. I think it would be disastrous for the incoming Trump administration to renege on the deal with Iran, Brennan said in an unusually blunt interview with BBC. It could lead to a weapons program inside Iran that could lead other states in the region to embark on their own programs, so I think it would be height of folly if the next administration were to tear up that agreement, Brennan said. It is extremely rare for the CIA director to issue a public warning to an incoming administration, and it suggests deep concern inside the intelligence community about Trumps intentions. During the campaign, Trump variously promised to dismantle or to revise President Obamas signature foreign policy achievement, an international deal that cut off Irans ability to build or acquire nuclear weapons in exchange for easing of sanctions on its finances and oil industry. Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.), Trumps pick to replace Brennan as CIA director, also has been a vocal critic of the deal. I look forward to rolling back this disastrous deal with the worlds largest state sponsor of terrorism, Pompeo wrote Nov. 17 on Twitter. After meeting Trump at the White House after the election, Obama said they had discussed the Iran deal and that he hoped it would survive intact, noting that the United States would be acting alone if it sought to impose new sanctions. The five members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany negotiated the deal in 2015, and the U.N. later voted to enforce it. Implementation began in January, and no evidence has emerged to indicate Iran is violating its side of the agreement. View Twitter post Obama administration officials want to brief Trump and his top advisors on classified details and assessments of the Iran deal, including monitoring systems put in place to verify Iranian compliance. So far, Trumps transition team has delayed receiving more than a handful of in-depth intelligence briefings. There are a lot of people out there who read the papers and listened to news broadcasts where the facts may be a bit  you know  off, Brennan told the BBC. I want to make sure the new team understands what the reality is. It ultimately will be up to them to decide how to carry out their responsibilities, Brennan said. Robert M. Gates, a former CIA chief and secretary of Defense, also called for preserving the nuclear deal. It would be a mistake to tear up the agreement at this point, Gates said in an interview on CBS This Morning. I think we would be the ones isolated, not the Iranians, because none of our partners who helped to negotiate that would walk away from it. But I think what the new president can do is push back against the Iranians. Facebook

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Rep. Nancy Pelosi elected by House Democrats for another term as minority leader By Lisa Mascaro House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Andrew Harnik/Associated Press) House Democrats elected Rep. Nancy Pelosi for another term as minority leader after she fended off a rival who said the November election showed the party needs change at the top. The San Francisco Democrat has beaten back challengers before, but this years campaign from Ohio Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan focused attention on President-elect Donald Trumps success in attracting white, working class voters in Rust Belt states that had traditionally been part of the Democratic base. Pelosi responded by expanding her leadership team to include more seats at the table for younger members and those from states Trump won. The only woman to serve as House speaker, Pelosi has faced calls for her ouster ever since Democrats lost the House majority in 2010. First elected to leadership in 2002, the mother of five -- and grandmother -- has also endured questions about how much longer she will stay at the helm. The 76-year-old typically swats back such inquiries by noting the comparable ages of male colleagues in leadership roles elsewhere in the Capitol. Pelosi remains a fundraising powerhouse and despite interest by other Democrats in taking a turn at leadership, few have been able to make the case to their peers that they could match her drive. But this year, Pelosi appeared to take her challenge seriously. She repeatedly worked to shore up support from liberals and minorities who make up the bulk of the Democratic caucus. She also pointed to the gains Democrats have made under her watch -- they picked up six seats in November -- and warned that losses could have been worse. Democratic Rep. Adam B. Schiff of Burbank, in nominating Pelosi during a closed-door meeting Wednesday, said, We need the very best to lead us.... No one is a better tactician than Nancy Pelosi. Facebook

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Trump pledged to protect Medicare. His choice for health secretary has other ideas By Noah Bierman Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), President-elect Donald Trumps choice for Health and Human Services secretary. (Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press)) President-elect Donald Trump reassured voters during his insurgent political campaign that he would protect Medicare, Social Security and other popular federal assistance programs. But in tapping Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) to be his Health and Human Services secretary, he has elevated one of the most aggressive proponents of dramatically overhauling the government safety net for seniors and low-income Americans, a long-held conservative goal. Read More Facebook

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Trump says he will leave his business in total to fully focus on running the country By Jim Puzzanghera (Mandel Ngan / AFP/Getty Images) President-elect Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday morning that he would leave his business operations in total to fully focus on running the country. Trumps vast interests in real estate and other ventures have raised unprecedented concerns about the potential for conflict of interest, both at home and internationally. In one of a series of tweets, Trump said he would be leaving my great business in total. Legal documents are being crafted which take me completely out of business operations. The Presidency is a far more important task! he said. However, Trump made no mention that would be giving up ownership of the Trump Organization, which includes hotels, golf resorts and other properties and many licensing deals that span the globe. Neither did he specify whether his separation from his businesses would be permanent. To avoid conflicts or the perception that his presidency would benefit his financial empire, government ethics lawyers and watchdog groups have urged him to sell off his businesses and put the assets in a blind trust to be managed by an independent third party. Trump said last week that he has been turning over operations of his businesses to three of his children, who already have senior positions at the Trump Organization. But some critics have said turning over control to his children may not be enough to alleviate such concerns, since several of his adult children remain active in planning his transition. What he does not seem to realize, or does not want to admit, is that the conflicts arise from his ownership of the Trump Organization, said Noah Bookbinder, executive director of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, in reacting to Trumps announcement Wednesday. He will continue to know what his business interests are and to benefit from them whether or not he is involved in the day-to-day management, so the conflicts remain unchanged. Federal conflict-of-interest rules for government employees and members of Congress dont apply to the president. Trump said in an interview with the New York Times last week that the president cant have a conflict of interest  In theory, I can be president of the United States and run my business 100%. He said then that it would be very hard to sell off his businesses because they are mostly real estate, but also noted that he would like to try and formalize something in terms of an arrangement that would distance his businesses from his work as president. On Wednesday, he tweeted that While I am not mandated to do this under the law, I feel it is visually important, as President, to in no way have a conflict of interest with my various businesses. Trump said he would detail the changes at a New York news conference with his children on Dec. 15. I will be holding a major news conference in New York City with my children on December 15 to discuss the fact that I will be leaving my ...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2016 great business in total in order to fully focus on running the country in order to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! While I am not mandated to ....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2016 do this under the law, I feel it is visually important, as President, to in no way have a conflict of interest with my various businesses..  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2016 Facebook

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Trump names billionaire investor Wilbur Ross as Commerce secretary By Jim Puzzanghera President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence greet investor Wilbur Ross, left, in New Jersey on Sunday. ( (Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press)) President-elect Donald Trump has chosen billionaire financier Wilbur Ross, known as the king of bankruptcy for his investments in distressed properties, to serve as Commerce secretary, according to a person familiar with the decision. If confirmed, Ross would become the Trump administrations chief liaison with the business community and a leading advocate for U.S. trade abroad. Ross, 80, who was a senior policy advisor to Trumps campaign, is worth $2.9 billion, according to Forbes magazine. Like Trump, Ross has been critical of U.S. trade deals. He sharply criticized trade negotiators and called for the U.S. to withdraw from the yet-to-be-ratified Trans-Pacific Partnership and to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. Trump has pledged to do both upon taking office. Read More Facebook

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Trump taps Wall Street executive and Hollywood producer Steven Mnuchin for Treasury secretary By Jim Puzzanghera Steven Mnuchin at Trump Tower in New York this month. (Eduardo Munoz Alvarez / AFP/Getty Images) President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Steven Mnuchin, a wealthy Wall Street executive and Hollywood movie producer who served as his campaign finance chairman, to be the next Treasury secretary, according to a person familiar with the decision. Mnuchins deep roots on Wall Street fit the mold of past Treasury secretaries but contrast with the populist stance that Trump took during his campaign. Mnuchins net worth is unclear, but he could be the second billionaire member of Trumps Cabinet, after Betsy DeVos, who is Trumps pick for Education secretary. The third is expected to be financier Wilbur Ross, who has been selected as Commerce secretary. Mnuchins selection  which was first reported Tuesday by the New York Times  drew ire from Democratic and liberal groups, which have accused him of profiting from the financial crisis after buying the failed IndyMac Bank in 2009. Read More Facebook

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Noam Chomsky, Junot Diaz and nearly 400 MIT faculty oppose Trump picks in open letter By Colleen Shalby President-elect Donald Trump. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) Nearly 400 MIT faculty members, including professor emeritus Noam Chomsky, writer Junot Diaz and four Nobel Prize winners, signed an open letter criticizing President-elect Donald Trumps Cabinet picks. The President-elect has appointed individuals to positions of power who have endorsed racism, misogyny and religious bigotry, and denied the widespread scientific consensus on climate change. Regardless of our political views, these endorsements violate principles at the core of MITs mission. At this time, it is important to reaffirm the values we hold in common. The letter also denounces the controversial rhetoric often associated with Trumps campaign and impending presidency. For any member of our community who may feel fear or oppression, our doors are open and we are ready to help, it states. MIT boasts a student body represented by 120 foreign countries, all 50 U.S. states and three U.S. territories. While campaigning, Trump lauded his late uncle, John, who was a professor at MIT for nearly 50 years. Shortly after Trump announced his candidacy, he spoke about him to CNN. I had an uncle who went to MIT who is a top professor. Dr. John Trump. A genius. Its in my blood. Im smart. Great marks. Like really smart, Trump said. A handful of faculty members who signed the statement overlapped in time with John Trump. At least one, physics professor Robert Jaffe, said that he did not know the uncle, but hopes that his nephews administration will maintain a dedication to science. Facebook

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With no Cabinet to build, Hillary Clinton appears with Katy Perry By Chris Megerian Pop star Katy Perry was one of Hillary Clintons biggest celebrity boosters on the campaign trail, and on Tuesday night the former Democratic presidential nominee introduced the singer at a charity gala in New York. Perry has served as UNICEFs goodwill ambassador. Hilary Clinton surprise appearance just now to intro @katyperry #SnowflakeBall #UnicefSnowflake pic.twitter.com/3wh2Zc2BwG  David Ushery (@DavidUshery4NY) November 30, 2016 Facebook

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Jill Stein pays fee to green-light Wisconsin recount By Michael A. Memoli The recount is officially on. The Wisconsin Elections Commission said Tuesday that Green Party nominee Jill Stein has paid the nearly $3.5 million estimated cost to set into motion a statewide retabulation of the presidential vote. Stein had asked for the recount after claiming that evidence of foreign interference existed. She is also seeking recounts in Michigan and Pennsylvania; together, the three states carry enough electoral votes to flip the election from President-elect Donald Trump to Democrat Hillary Clinton, but such an outcome is all but impossible. The Wisconsin recount, which starts Thursday, is likely to cost Stein slightly more, the commission said, blaming an earlier error in adding up cost estimates from the 72 county clerks who will oversee the ballot review. Stein will be charged whatever additional costs are incurred after the recount is concluded. Officials on Monday said that most counties will complete their recount in a week but that more populous counties will face a challenge in meeting the deadline to certify results. The state aims to finish by Dec. 12, as state law gives the recount petitioner five days after the new tally is finished for further legal challenges. Presidential electors in 50 states and the District of Columbia will meet Dec. 19 to formally cast the votes that will elect Trump as the next president. Facebook

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Repeal and replace Obamacare? It wont happen on Trumps first day, GOP leader says By Lisa Mascaro House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) cast doubt on whether the Republican-led Congress would be ready to repeal Obamacare by inauguration day, as some in President-elect Donald Trumps transition team have suggested could happen in a special session. But McCarthy said Republicans would try to start as soon as possible on what he acknowledged would be a complicated two-step process to repeal and replace Obamacare that will consume much of 2017 and beyond. Their plan involves retroactively passing a fiscal 2017 budget in the early weeks of Trumps term. Such a maneuver would give Republicans the ability to unwind President Obamas signature domestic program with a simple majority vote, without facing a Democratic filibuster. Replacing the Affordable Care Act would come later, and likely extend into fiscal 2018. Once its repealed you will have hopefully fewer people playing politics and everybody coming to the table to find the best policy, McCarthy told reporters. I just want to make sure we get it right. McCarthy on Tuesday welcomed reports that Trump intends to nominate House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.) to lead the Health and Human Services Department as Congress focuses on getting rid of Obamacare. Democrats, though, suggested that Price, a medical doctor who has championed House Speaker Paul D. Ryans plans to overhaul Medicare, will face so much opposition in the Senate that he may not be confirmed. Try it, said Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York, the incoming Democratic minority leader. Privatization of Medicare goes way beyond where most Americans are. For years, Republicans have promised to end Obamacare, and with Trump in the White House they will have their best opportunity to do so. But McCarthy cautioned that repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act will be more complicated than simply sending a bill to the White House for the presidents signature. Instead, Congress will need to insert special repeal instructions as part of the wonky budget reconciliation process. And that will take time, he said. McCarthy said that replacing Obamacare will be even tougher than repealing it. Even though Republicans have promised their own healthcare law, they have never been able to produce an agreed-upon alternative. To gather ideas, McCarthy said he would solicit advice from governors and state insurance commissioners. Hell be sending a letter to the states later this week. Since Congress did not pass a 2017 budget for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, they hope to retroactively approve one in the weeks ahead so they can include the first part of the special instructions needed to repeal the program. But he doubted that would be completed by the time Trump takes office. I dont think you can do it before [Jan.] 20th, he said. Theres only so many legislative days. The finish the job, lawmakers will use the reconciliation process for the fiscal 2018 budget, which is due by spring. McCarthy predicted Congress would still need to pass additional legislation, which cannot be completed through the reconciliation process, in order to ensure a smooth transition. Facebook

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Obama will skip Fidel Castros funeral but is sending an informal delegation By Christi Parsons The Cuban flag hangs at half-staff in front of a picture of Fidel Castro on the facade of the Cuban national library in Havana. (Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP/Getty Images) President Obama is not going to the memorial service for former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro on Tuesday but instead is sending a pair of key representatives to pay their respects, an informal appearance that reflects the delicate diplomacy between the White House and the leadership in Havana. Obama is sending Jeffrey DeLaurentis, the top U.S. diplomat in Cuba, along with deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, but the two men are not being dispatched as part of a formal delegation, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday. DeLaurentis and Rhodes played key roles in reopening U.S. ties to the communist island nation in late 2014, ending five decades of a Cold War-era freeze in relations. The policy has been celebrated for opening the possibility of expanded trade with and travel to Cuba, while critics attacked Obama for engaging with President Raul Castro without extracting concessions on human rights. His brother Fidel held power through firing squads, false imprisonment and harsh treatment of dissidents. President-elect Donald Trump was one of those critics, saying after Fidel Castros death that if Cuba isnt willing to make a better deal for the Cuban people  and the U.S. as a whole, I will terminate the deal. After Castro died Friday, the White House released an oblique statement noting that his death filled Cubans with powerful emotions, recalling the countless ways in which Fidel Castro altered the course of individual lives, families, and of the Cuban nation. History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him. Facebook

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Donald Trump to pick Elaine Chao, a well-connected establishment figure, as Transportation secretary By Noah Bierman President-elect Donald Trump plans to name Elaine Chao  a former Labor secretary married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)  as his Transportation secretary, according to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield). Chaos establishment ties conflict with Trumps promise to drain the swamp in Washington and promote outsiders to lead his government. But Chaos connections could be an asset in Trumps plan to promote a major infrastructure proposal that could face resistance from within his party. Trump has decried the state of the nations airports, bridges and roads and promised to make their revitalization a major part of his jobs program aimed at helping working-class Americans whose votes helped propel him to victory. Chao, who served as Labor secretary through the entire George W. Bush administration, could play a central role in negotiating an infrastructure spending bill while her husband leads the Senate. Trumps spokesman Jason Miller did not confirm the pick on a conference call with reporters but said that Trump had taken people whove been successful in all different walks of life  including business, government, and military  to fill a Cabinet that Miller called a true dream team. The Taiwan-born Chao also exemplifies the type of immigrant success story that became the subject of debate during Trumps campaign, which promised to crack down on illegal immigration and labeled many of those entering the country illegally from Mexico as criminals, drug dealers and rapists. Chao is one of four sisters who attended Harvard Business School. Her family donated $40 million to the institution in 2012. Facebook

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U.S. economy grew 3.2% in third quarter, the best in two years By Jim Puzzanghera The U.S. economy grew faster in the third quarter than initially estimated, expanding at its strongest pace in two years in a rebound from a weak first half of 2016. Total economic output, also known as gross domestic product, expanded at a 3.2% annual pace from July through September, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. The figure was up from an initial estimate of 2.9% and the best performance since the economy expanded at a 5% annual rate in the third quarter of 2014. Read More Facebook

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Q&A: What you need to know about the Wisconsin recount By Michael A. Memoli This is certainly not Bush vs. Gore, a Wisconsin elections official said Monday. Well, what is it? The state is initiating the first significant candidate-driven recount in a presidential election since the 2000 ordeal in Florida between then-Vice President Al Gore and eventual President George W. Bush. This time, though, Donald Trump is certain to remain president-elect after Wisconsins nearly 3 million ballots are re-tabulated. But the fight here and potentially in other states has given third-party candidates new rationale for seeking public attention for their causes, and it has given Trump fresh ammunition to trash his opponents  as well as, bafflingly, the political process in which he just secured the presidency. Here is a look at the issues involved in the Badger State and elsewhere as the seemingly unending 2016 presidential election seeps into overtime. Read More Facebook

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By tweet and petition, Donald Trump and the left cast doubt on credibility of election By Noah Bierman (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) Rather than celebrating his victory, Donald Trump is amplifying far-right conspiracies to undermine the credibility of an election he won. At the same time, he is finding some common cause in the quixotic effort by the fringe left to prevent him from reaching the White House. The chances of changing the election result with selective ballot recounts, as some on the left hope, or finding widespread voter fraud as alleged by Trump are next to nil. Yet a combination of self-interest and a desire for misdirection have propelled factions of both parties to debate the results of an election already decisively settled. Trumps motives are often hard to pinpoint. But by pushing the myth that millions of ballots were cast illegally for his opponent, as he has done on Twitter in recent days, he may be building the case to claim a larger mandate for his victory despite the fact that Hillary Clinton is leading the popular vote by more than 2 million votes. The issue also distracts attention from mounting questions about the financial conflicts of interest he is likely to have in the White House, given that he plans to allow his children to run his international real estate and branding business while he serves as president. Finally, Trumps rhetoric may also sow the seeds of future efforts to propose more restrictive voting rules championed by some of his top advisors. Read More Facebook

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Democrats look to make some deals with Trump  and divide the GOP in the bargain By Lisa Mascaro Republicans became known as the party of no during the Obama years because of their frequent efforts to block the presidents initiatives. As congressional Democrats prepare to deal with a Republican White House, they appear ready to take the opposite approach, effectively challenging President-elect Donald Trump by finding opportunities to say yes. The goal is to strategically engage with the White House on common objectives and at the same time try to drive a political wedge between Trump and those Republicans anxious about his costlier ideas, such as rebuilding infrastructure, aiding blue-collar workers and expanding paid family leave, a pet project of daughter Ivanka Trump. Read More Facebook

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Trump to name a harsh critic of Obamacare as his pick for Health secretary By Noam N. Levey (Drew Angerer / Getty Images) President-elect Donald Trump plans to select House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.) to be his Health and Human Services secretary, according to a person familiar with the decision. In picking Price, Trump is tapping an arch-conservative lawmaker and leading critic of the Affordable Care Act to lead his push to roll back President Obamas signature health law. Price, a six-term congressman from suburban Atlanta, has never held an executive position comparable to leading the federal Department of Health and Human Services, a behemoth that includes the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and the agency overseeing Medicare and Medicaid. Three of the four previous Health and Human Services secretaries were former governors. Price, an orthopedic surgeon, would be the first physician to serve as the departments secretary since Dr. Louis Sullivan, who held the post from 1989 to 1993 under President George H.W. Bush. He would also be among the most politically conservative Health and Human Services secretaries in history. And as a member of House leadership, he would bring to the Trump administration a revolutionary governing agenda closely aligned with Republicans on Capitol Hill. Read More Facebook

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Trump says he won the electoral college in a landslide, but he ranked near the all-time bottom By Cathleen Decker In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2016 President-elect Donald Trumps tweet that he would have won the popular vote this month but for millions of illegal voters was not based on fact. There is no proof backing up his statement, and voting researchers uniformly dismissed it as false. Also problematic was his second claim in the same tweet, that his victory was one of the rare landslides in American political history. A study of electoral vote results by John J. Pitney, an author and professor of government at Claremont McKenna College, shows that Trump resides on the lower end of the electoral vote scale. He won 56.97% of the electoral votes up for grabs by virtue of his state wins. That places him 46th out of the 58 elections since George Washingtons era, Pitney found. In 38 elections, the winner exceeded 60% of the vote, a lopsided verdict by voters. Clear landslides were won most recently by Ronald Reagan in both of his elections: In 1984, he won 97.58% of electoral votes, and in 1980 he won 90.89%. President Obama won nearly 68% of the vote in 2008 and just under 62% in 2012. Faring worse than Trump among modern presidents was George W. Bush, who eked past Al Gore in 2000 with 50.37% of the vote, after a protracted squabble over the Florida results that ended in a U.S. Supreme Court verdict favoring Bush. Facebook

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Trump says Cuba has to act or hell end the diplomatic thaw, but its not that simple By Tracy Wilkinson In his latest comment on Cuba since the death of revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, President-elect Donald Trump said Monday he would end Washingtons diplomatic thaw with the island unless Cuba makes a better deal. If Cuba is unwilling to make a better deal for the Cuban people, the Cuban/American people and the U.S. as a whole, I will terminate deal, Trump tweeted. President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro renewed diplomatic ties in 2014 after a half-century of Cold War hostility. Since then, through a series of executive orders, Obama has eased restrictions on Americans traveling to Cuba and U.S. firms doing business there. Castro, at the same time, has made it easier for Cubans to travel and to engage in limited private enterprise. However, Castro has not enacted significant political reforms, and the death Friday of his brother, former president and leader of the revolution Fidel, at age 90, is not likely to usher in quick change. It was not clear what Trump meant by a better deal. An email seeking clarification from his transition team was not answered. Previously, however, Trump has spoken of the release of political prisoners and more open space for free expression of opinions and dissent. These are the same elements the Obama administration has been demanding, while choosing not to delay economic progress while awaiting political change. From a legal standpoint, Trump could easily reverse Obamas executive orders with little more than a signature. Politically, however, renewed estrangement would be more complicated and would isolate the U.S. as the only country in the world that does not recognize the Communist-led government in Havana. Its not as simple as one Tweet might make it seem --@PressSec Josh Earnest, on whether @realdonaldtrump might undo @POTUS Cuba policy  Christi Parsons (@cparsons) November 28, 2016 Trump and his top aides have sent conflicting signals over his likely Cuba policy. On Saturday, his staff put out a statement saying a Trump administration would do all it can to help Cubans achieve prosperity and liberty. But it did not mention reversing Obamas actions expanding ties. While Cuba remains a totalitarian island, Trump said, it is my hope that today marks a move away from the horrors endured for too long, and toward a future in which the wonderful Cuban people finally live in the freedom they so richly deserve. Kellyanne Conway, a top advisor, told NBCs Meet the Press on Sunday that nothing is definite when it comes to Cuba. But Trumps soon-to-be White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, said that Trump would be looking for some movement in the right direction to keep the Cuba opening on course. Conservative Republicans, like Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, oppose detente with Cuba as long as any Castro continues to rule. But a growing number of Cuban Americans, as well as most Democrats and a substantial segment of the business community, want better ties and opportunities for economic exchange. Facebook

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The era of super-low interest rates might be ending. Whats in it for you? By Jim Puzzanghera Since President-elect Donald Trumps surprising election victory this month, financial markets have sent a forceful message that the era of super-low interest rates is coming to a close. Mortgage rates have shot up. Bond yields have jumped to their highest levels in a year. And the dollar has surged against other major currencies to values unseen in more than a decade. Those developments have been fueled by expectations of stronger economic growth and higher inflation from Trumps promises to cut business taxes, reduce regulations and increase defense and infrastructure spending. His plans triggered a post-election stock market rally and, combined with recent solid economic data, increased expectations that the Federal Reserve would nudge up its benchmark short-term rate again next month  with more hikes to follow next year. Read More Facebook

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Trump seems ready to fight the world on climate change but hes likely to meet resistance By Evan Halper Coal trucks leave a power plant operated by PacifiCorp outside Huntington, Utah. ( (George Frey / Getty Images)) Donald Trump is branded with all manner of unflattering labels, but one that hasnt seemed to much bother him is climate pariah. The president-elect is unabashed in his disdain for Americas global warming policy. He has placed a staunch climate-change doubter and antagonist of mainstream science in charge of reshaping  or as Trump has suggested, dismantling  the Environmental Protection Agency. He has talked frequently about reneging on the historic Paris global climate treaty the U.S. took a lead in drafting. And he has said he wants every federal green-energy program eliminated. Environmentalists take little comfort in Trumps recent comments that he accepts there is some connectivity between human activity and climate change and that he has an open mind about it, as what hes said elsewhere and done so far suggests otherwise. And even those comments gave scientists cause for alarm. You can make a lot of cases for different views, Trump told the New York Times, casting doubt on the finding by more than 90% of climate scientists that emissions are accelerating global warming. Im not sure anybody is ever going to really know. Read More Facebook

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Jared Kushner, the Trump son-in-law whos the next presidents eyes and ears By Chris Megerian The election results were rolling in, and so were the phone calls for Donald Trump. But no matter who was on the other end of the line, the person handing the phone to the next president of the United States was the same. Jared was screening the calls, said Armstrong Williams, a political ally who described the scene in Trumps Manhattan skyscraper on election night. That would be Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in-law, and his election-night role provides a glimpse of the enormous influence he wields as Trump prepares to take office in January. As the husband of Ivanka Trump, the president-elects elder daughter, Kushner holds an unassailable position inside Trumps unruly ecosystem of advisors. Read More Facebook

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Trump falsely claims that millions voted illegally, costing him the popular vote By Matt Pearce Donald and Melania Trump cast their ballots on Nov. 8. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) Donald Trump falsely claimed Sunday that he won the popular vote, alleging in a tweet  without evidence  that millions of people had illegally voted for his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally, Trump wrote, hours after he tweeted his opposition to a recount in Midwestern states initiated by the Green Party. In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2016 Election experts, who say election fraud is rare, immediately denounced Trumps claim. Theres been no evidence produced of millions  or thousands  or even hundreds  of noncitizens voting for president in 2016, tweeted Rick Hasen, a professor of law and politics who writes for the Election Law Blog. The source of Trumps claim appears to be a widely shared Nov. 14 article on the conspiracy site Infowars, which is famous for claiming the Sandy Hook mass shooting was a hoax. Politifact investigated the illegal votes claim and rated it false. Facebook

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Trump is warned that supporters will feel betrayed if he picks Mitt Romney as secretary of State By Don Lee A senior advisor to President-elect Donald Trump stepped up an extraordinary public effort Sunday to discredit Mitt Romney and thwart the chances that he would be picked as secretary of State. Kellyanne Conway warned on Sunday TV talk shows that Trumps supporters would feel betrayed if he picked the former governor of Massachusetts, a sharp critic of Trump during the campaign, for a senior Cabinet position. Conway, who was Trumps campaign manager and now is a top advisor to the incoming president, said she felt compelled to speak out on the matter because of the backlash from the grass roots. People feel betrayed to think that Gov. Romney, who went out of his way to question the character and the intellect and the integrity of Donald Trump, now our president-elect, would be given the most significant Cabinet post of all, Conway said on NBCs Meet the Press. They feel a bit betrayed that you can get a Romney back in there after everything he did, she added. We dont even know if he voted for Donald Trump. Conway dodged questions about whether Trump supported the concerns she has been raising publicly about Romney, which began with a tweet she posted on Thanksgiving morning: Receiving deluge of social media & private comms re: Romney. Some Trump loyalists warn against Romney as sec of state. Conway made clear that she did not approve of Romney, who was the GOP presidential nominee in 2012, and didnt see him as especially qualified to act as Americas top diplomat. In the last four years, has he even been around the globe doing something on behalf of the United States of which were unaware? she asked on CNNs State of the Union. Did he go and intervene in Syria where they are having a massive humanitarian crisis? Meaning when I say intervene, like offered help. Has he been helpful to Mr. [Benjamin] Netanyahu? she said of the Israeli prime minister. Im all for party unity, but Im not sure that we have to pay for that with the secretary of State position, Conway said, although she quickly added that she would respect what Trump decides. During the campaign, Romney called Trump a phony and a fraud and said his policies would lead to economic ruin. In response, Trump mocked Romney as a failed candidate who had choked in the 2012 race. But a little more than a week ago, Trump met with Romney for about 90 minutes at a golf course in New Jersey to discuss the State Department post. Afterward, Trump said the meeting went great and Romney described the discussion as very thorough and in-depth. Trump is also considering Rudolph W. Giuliani, who was a fierce Trump loyalist during the campaign, for the job. The former mayor of New York has touted his experience traveling, consulting and speaking overseas since leaving office in 2001. But his extensive business deals abroad have raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest if he gets the post instead of Romney. In criticizing Romney, Conway exposed what appears to be deep divisions in the Trump camp as it tries to assemble a team. It is highly unusual for a senior representative of an incoming president to be lobbying publicly against a candidate under consideration. Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chairman and Trumps choice to be chief of staff, on Sunday sought to downplay reports of internecine struggles in the transition. However, he acknowledged that picking Romney would represent a team of rivals concept. Trump wants to put the best possible people together for all Americans, Priebus told Fox News Sunday. The fact that hes actually even flirting with the idea of choosing a rival should tell the American people where hes at  which is the best place for everyone in this country, he said. Conway also said Trump, who spent the Thanksgiving holiday weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., talked with President Obama by phone on Saturday for about 40 or 45 minutes. She wouldnt say what they talked about. I can tell you from President-elect Trumps side that he very much enjoys speaking with President Obama, talking about the serious issues that face this country and the world, Conway said on NBC. They get along nicely. They disagree on many things. Thats not going to change. Facebook

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Hillary Clinton campaign will participate in ballot recount in Wisconsin By Don Lee Hillary Clintons presidential campaign will participate in a ballot recount led by Green Party candidate Jill Stein in Wisconsin and perhaps two other battleground states that were crucial to Donald Trumps victory, a Clinton campaign lawyer said Saturday. In response, Trump called the recount request ridiculous and a scam designed to raise money for Steins political party. Read More Facebook

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Donald Trump names KT McFarland, Don McGahn to White House posts By Michael A. Memoli Don McGahn is named by President-elect Donald Trump as his White House counsel. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) President-elect Donald Trump added to his West Wing roster Friday, naming KT McFarland as deputy national security adviser and Donald McGahn as his White House counsel. McFarland served in three separate Republican administrations, most notably as a spokeswoman for Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger under Ronald Reagan. In 2006, she sought to challenge Hillary Clinton for her U.S. Senate seat from New York but lost in the Republican primary. Most recently, she has been a regular contributor to Fox News on national security issues. She joins retired Gen. Michael Flynn, previously named as Trumps national security adviser. So proud & honored to have KT McFarland as part of our National Security team. She will help us #MAGA  General Flynn (@GenFlynn) November 25, 2016 McGahn, who was general counsel for Trumps campaign and a former chair of the Federal Election Commission, is a partner at the powerhouse Washington law firm Jones Day. President Obama revealed at a recent news conference that he had advised Trump to hire a strong White House counsel to guide him and his team, who could provide clear guideposts and rules to help avoid ethical and conflict of interest concerns. Trump campaign officials said Friday that the president-elect, who is spending the holiday weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, would make no additional high-level announcements until next week when he returns to New York. On Monday, he will meet with several more potential Cabinet and sub-Cabinet choices, including Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, Pennsylvania Rep. Lou Barletta and Oklahoma Atty. Gen. Scott Pruitt. Facebook

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Ben Carson hints he may join Trump Cabinet as Housing secretary By Christi Parsons Former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson speaks in Lakewood, Colo. on Oct. 29. (David Zalubowski / Associated Press) Ben Carson said Wednesday that an announcement is imminent about his role in improving the nations inner cities  a broad hint that President-elect Donald Trump will name him secretary of Housing and Urban Development. After serious discussions with the Trump transition team, I feel that I can make a significant contribution, particularly to making our inner cities great for everyone, Carson said on Facebook. An announcement is forthcoming about my role in helping to make America great again. Carson, himself once a candidate for president, would be the first African American named to Trumps Cabinet. He was a mild critic of Trump during the campaign, but after dropping out of the race, he backed Trump and now serves on the president-elects transition team. Though Carsons professional background is as a neurosurgeon, he has spoken often of his experiences growing up in inner-city Detroit, with a mother who sometimes relied on food stamps and other assistance. Carson has said they moved into a tenement at one point but has never said whether he lived in public housing. Days ago, a senior advisor said Carson thought he lacked the background needed to manage a federal agency, and that he didnt think it was the best way for him to serve. Carson didnt want to take a position that could cripple the presidency, advisor Armstrong Williams told the Hill newspaper. HUD is responsible for administering low-income housing assistance, fair housing laws, housing development and aid to neighborhoods in distress. Carson indicated a change of heart Wednesday. We have much work to do in strengthening every aspect of our nation and ensuring that both our physical infrastructure and our spiritual infrastructure is solid, he wrote. In an interview with the New York Times on Tuesday, Trump suggested he isnt applying the usual standard of qualifications to his Cabinet picks. Were trying very hard to get the best people  not necessarily people that will be the most politically correct people, because that hasnt been working, Trump said. So we have, really, experts in the field. Some are known and some are not known, but theyre known within their field as being the best. Thats very important to me. Facebook

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Trump picks Michigan school-choice advocate to be his Education secretary By Christi Parsons President-elect Donald Trump chose a Michigan charter school advocate and prominent Republican donor to serve as his secretary of Education, he said Wednesday, a decision that may hearten supporters of school choice but worry teacher unions  and even some of Trumps core supporters. Trumps pick, Betsy DeVos, is a champion of charter schools and school vouchers that give families tax funds they can spend on private school if theyre not happy with their local public schools. DeVos, 58, served as chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party, a credential that ties her to the party establishment reviled by many Trump supporters. She and her family are among the countrys largest donors to Republican and conservative Christian causes, including opposition to same-sex marriage. She has also backed the Common Core initiative to standardize educational requirements across the nation. Trump repeatedly called for its demise. In a tweet after her selection was announced, DeVos disavowed past support for Common Core, acknowledging that the topic was an issue among conservative activists. Many of you are asking about Common Core. To clarify, I am not a supporterperiod. Read my full stance, here: https://t.co/qB2nAXvX0B  Betsy DeVos (@BetsyDeVos) November 23, 2016 In his statement announcing her as his choice, Trump called DeVos a brilliant and passionate education advocate. Under her leadership, we will reform the U.S. education system and break the bureaucracy that is holding our children back so that we can deliver world-class education and school choice to all families, Trump said in the statement. 1:46 a.m.: This post was updated with DeVos statement about the Common Core. Facebook

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Trump may have one more Cabinet-level pick coming before Thanksgiving By Christi Parsons (John Minchillo / Associated Press) President-elect Donald Trump may decide another Cabinet-level position Wednesday, aides said, after he announced South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley as his ambassador to the United Nations. Aides did not say which job Trump was considering making an announcement about. As he and his family settle in for Thanksgiving at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Trump is still spending significant time on one prominent position, secretary of State, a sign that a pick for it may not come before the holiday, one staffer on the presidential transition team said. In his search for a secretary of State, Trump has met with close advisor and former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and with Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee for president. Aides said Trump chose Haley for the U.N. post because she improved South Carolinas economy and took part in overseas trade and recruitment trips. The two have a natural chemistry, one staffer said, and their views jibe on how the U.S. should be represented on the world stage. Facebook

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Trump taps South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for U.N. ambassador By Tracy Wilkinson South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley speaks at the Federalist Societys National Lawyers Convention in Washington on Nov. 18. (Cliff Owen / Associated Press) President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday picked South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a rising star in the GOP, as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, an announcement that brings a measure of diversity to a transition that has been dominated by white, male figures. Haley, 44, and the daughter of Indian immigrants, is the first woman and first person of color to be picked for the new administration. Read More Facebook

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Dalai Lama: I have no worries about Trumps election By Associated Press (Ganbat Namjilsangarav / Associated Press) The Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, said he has no worries about Donald Trumps election as U.S. president and expects the businessman will align his policies with global realities. Commenting at the conclusion of a four-day visit to Mongolia, the leader of Tibetan Buddhism said he looks forward to meeting Trump at some point after the Jan. 20 inauguration. The 81-year-old monk says he has always regarded the U.S. as the leading nation of the free world and wasnt concerned about remarks made by Trump during the election campaign. Some of those comments have been cited as offensive to Muslims, Latinos and other U.S. minority groups. China accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking to split Tibet from China and had demanded Mongolia scrap his visit. Facebook

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Trump asks Ben Carson to consider Housing secretary post By Chris Megerian Donald Trump asked Ben Carson to consider serving as secretary of Housing and Urban Development, an advisor to the former Republican presidential candidate said Tuesday. They discussed the potential job at a meeting in the morning and Carson is seriously considering it, said the advisor, Armstrong Williams. Its a role that plays to Dr. Carsons passions, he said. Asked what qualifications the retired neurosurgeon has for overseeing housing policy, Williams said: Dr. Carson has experience with everything. Youd be shocked at the depth of his experience. Williams had previously suggested that Carson didnt feel he had the experience to serve in Trumps Cabinet, but he said Tuesday that those comments were taken out of context. Housing secretary was one of a few options discussed Tuesday, Williams said. Carson always felt that hed be willing to serve in the administration if Trump felt that no one else could fill the position, he added. Facebook

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Texas judge blocks Obama administrations new overtime rule from taking effect By Michael A. Memoli Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez. (Andrew Harnik / Associated Press) A Texas judge blocked President Obamas bid to expand overtime pay protections to millions of Americans on Tuesday, thwarting a key presidential priority just days before it was set to take effect. The Labor Department rule would have doubled the salary level at which hourly workers must be paid extra for overtime pay, from $23,660 to $47,476. Siding with business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Texas District Judge Amos L. Mazzant III halted it. The rule, finalized in May, represented the first such change in more than a decade and was hailed at the time as the most consequential action the Obama administration could take for middle-class workers without congressional involvement. Plaintiffs had argued the Labor Department acted beyond its authority under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The administration said more than 4 million salaried workers stood to benefit from the change when it took effect Dec. 1. The rule was already in jeopardy after the election of Donald Trump. Just as the Obama administration made the change through its rule-making prerogatives, a Republican administration could undo it. Neither the White House nor the Labor Department had an immediate comment. Republican lawmakers and their allies in the business community, which were behind the legal challenge, celebrated the decision. The decision brings us a step closer to curbing regulations that have resulted in $80 billion in compliance costs and more than 25 million hours of paperwork, said Linda Kelly, senior vice president for the National Assn. of Manufacturers. The fights are not yet over  and our work is just beginning. Facebook

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Heres why the electoral college (probably) wont stop Donald Trump from becoming president By Chris Megerian Some liberals who really, really, really dont want Donald Trump to be president are pinning their hopes on a long-shot effort to prevent him from officially winning the election. Understanding how their plan would work requires some background on the electoral college, which was established in the Constitution at a time when the founding fathers were wary of direct democracy. As widely known, presidents are not chosen based on the national popular vote  if they were, Hillary Clinton would be the next commander in chief, given she is ahead by roughly 1.7 million votes. Each state is assigned a certain number of electoral votes based on population. Those votes are awarded to candidates based on the states popular vote. Trump won the presidential race with 290 electoral votes. (That total will reach 306 if Michigan is called for him, as expected.) The process doesnt end on election day. Each electoral vote is represented by an elector, an actual person who has to cast an official ballot for the president on Dec. 19. The electors are chosen through different processes state by state, and usually are selected by state political parties. With unrest over the result, there are efforts to persuade electors to be faithless, meaning they wouldnt back Trump even if he won their states. A Change.org petition calling the president-elect a danger to the Republic has almost 4.6 million supporters. What are the chances of this actually happening? Very slim, says George C. Edwards III, a Texas A&M political science professor who has written a book about the electoral college. From time to time, there are faithless electors, he said. Theyre few and far between. There were some electors who refused to vote for winning candidates in the 1800s, such as six who declined to support James Madison, but never enough to sway the outcome of the race. In the last century there have only been a handful of cases. There were some attempts to persuade electors to back Al Gore over George W. Bush during the disputed 2000 election, but they were unsuccessful. Facebook

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Can Trump put another Justice Scalia on the Supreme Court? By David Savage Judge William H. Pryor Jr. of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals moderates a panel discussion during the Federalist Societys National Lawyers Convention in Washington last week. ( (Cliff Owen / Associated Press)) President-elect Donald Trump will soon have the chance to make good on one of his most consequential campaign promises: fill the Supreme Court vacancy with a judge in the mold of conservative icon Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February. Any Trump nominee is almost guaranteed to be a conservative jurist who is antiabortion and supports a strict interpretation of the 2nd Amendments right to bear arms. But what kind of conservative he selects will determine whether his nominee will be quickly confirmed or instead trigger a fierce fight in the closely divided Senate, potentially overshadowing the early months of Trumps presidency. If Trump opts for a Scalia-like justice, as he repeatedly said he would during the campaign, conservatives lawyers say the betting favorite is Judge William H. Pryor Jr. from the 11th Circuit Court in Atlanta, a former Alabama attorney general who called the Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion the worst abomination in the history of constitutional law. The 54-year-old Pryor believes in Scalias approach of interpreting the Constitution by its original meaning  one that has little room for gay rights, even womens rights. His nomination would electrify Trumps conservative base, but it would also set off a confirmation battle for which the outcome is not assured. Read More Facebook

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Michelle Rhee has some thoughts on Donald Trump By Joy Resmovits After meeting with president-elect Donald Trump Saturday, former Washington, D.C., schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee weighed in on people who have told her to avoid him. She also indicated that shes not likely to be named as Trumps secretary of Education. In light of the speculation about the Secretary of Education role, I wanted to clarify my position and what's best for America's students. pic.twitter.com/DXRZxdAZNX  Michelle Rhee (@MichelleRhee) November 22, 2016 Facebook

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Trump veers off script on climate change, his potential conflicts of interest and even whether to prosecute Clinton By Evan Halper President-elect Donald Trump strayed far from the talking points of his campaign during his wide-ranging interview Tuesday with New York Times journalists. Trump suggested he does not necessarily need to sever ties to his businesses while president. He said he has an open mind to acting on climate change. And he even offered some praise for the Clinton Foundation. On the business ties, Trump was vague about when he will wind them down and how. He suggested he intends to transfer ownership to his kids, but then he also noted that the president is immune from federal conflict-of-interest laws. "In theory I could run my business perfectly and then run the country perfectly. There's never been a case like this,"he says of his tangles  Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016 Trump on his businesses/conflict q's: "The law's totally on my side, the president can't have a conflict of interest."  Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016 Trump, who once declared global warming a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese, backed off his skepticism of climate change. He said he believed there is a connection to human activity and warming  but he is still undecided about how much of one. And he said he has an open mind to keeping in place the international climate agreement President Obama took a lead in negotiating, which Trump has been vowing for months to withdraw from. Tom Friedman asks if Trump will withdraw from climate change accords. Trump: Im looking at it very closely. I have an open mind to it."  Michael M. Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016 Trump also addressed the public re-emergence of the white supremacist movement, and how his campaign has energized those groups. He said he disavows and condemns such groups, including the neo-Nazis who gathered in Washington over the weekend. But he defended his pick of chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, the Breitbart News executive who boasted that his outlet is the platform for the alt-right. Trump: Ive known Steve Bannon a long time. If i thought he was a racist, or alt-rightI wouldnt even think about hiring him."  Michael M. Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016 Trump is asked about concerns from minority groups about Breitbart Newss coverage under Steve Bannon. His reply: pic.twitter.com/FBqCGwQpBr  Michael M. Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016 When the conversation turned to Hillary Clinton, Trump said he will not press law enforcement agencies to prosecute her. And he even said people could argue the Clinton Foundation has done good work. Trump is pressed if he has definitively ruled out prosecuting Hillary Clinton. Its just not something that I feel very strongly about."  Michael M. Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016 That last tweet was Trump making clear he doesn't favor prosecution. Added people could argue the Clinton Foundation has done "good work."  Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016 Read More Facebook

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Ben Carson made it clear that he was too inexperienced for a Cabinet job. Now Trump says hes considering Carson for one By Evan Halper I am seriously considering Dr. Ben Carson as the head of HUD. I've gotten to know him well--he's a greatly talented person who loves people!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016 It was only a week ago that Ben Carson had put out word that he wasnt qualified to run a federal agency, and thus had no place in Donald Trumps Cabinet. Now Trump says Carson would be the perfect person to run a federal agency. Trump tweeted on Tuesday that he is seriously considering Carson to run the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Carsons qualifications? Hes a greatly talented person who loves people! Perhaps Carson was playing hard to get last week, when one of his top advisors, Armstrong Williams, told multiple news outlets that Carson wasnt a good fit for any of the Cabinet posts. Dr. Carson feels he has no government experience; hes never run a federal agency, Williams told the Hill. Trumps tweet that Carson was at the top of his list for the HUD job was unusual for another reason. Such trial balloons are typically floated anonymously, to gauge public reaction. If its hostile, the president-elect can scrap the plan and deny it was ever something he seriously contemplated. After Trumps advisors put the media on notice Tuesday morning that they would offer no details of what Trump will discuss at his meeting with Carson, Trump went ahead and shared them with millions of people himself. Facebook

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Donald Trump may have won the election, but hes still mad at the media By Evan Halper The President-elect does not care who knows how unforgiving or vain or distracted he is, David Remnick writes. https://t.co/6vOriXjf4E  The New Yorker (@NewYorker) November 22, 2016 So much for burying the hatchet. Even victory has not diminished Donald Trumps resentment of the news media. His relations with the news outlets have gotten no better now that he has transitioned from confrontational candidate to confrontational president-elect. Trumps angry rant about the New York Times on Tuesday morning  in which he briefly canceled a meeting with the outlet  followed what was by several reports a stormy session the day before with major news networks. Television executives and journalists traveled to Trump Tower for the closed-door meeting anticipating a discussion about media access to the White House and perhaps a recalibration of the increasingly hostile relationship. Trump had something else in mind. He delivered an angry scold about the way he has been covered, complaining of unfairness even in the selection of the photos of him used during broadcasts, which, he griped, emphasized his double chin. He called the coverage outrageous and dishonest, according to a report in the New Yorker. Its unclear what Trumps intentions were. But if his goal was to chasten the media, he did not succeed. Some at the meeting described being offended and accused Trump of failing to understand the press 1st Amendment protection from government suppression. Facebook

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Aide says Trump does not want to pursue charges against Hillary Clinton By Del Quentin Wilber A top official of Donald Trumps presidential campaign on Tuesday reaffirmed signals sent by the president-elect that hes not interested in pursuing criminal charges against Hillary Clinton, despite his repeated campaign promises to prosecute the Democratic nominee over her handling of classified materials and involvement in the Clinton Foundation. Kellyanne Conway, Trumps former campaign manager, also told MSNBC that congressional Republicans should follow Trumps lead, suggesting they drop their own probes into Clinton. I think when the president-elect, whos also the head of your party, tells you before hes even inaugurated that he doesnt wish to pursue these charges, it sends a very strong message, tone, and content to the members, Conway said. Trump had promised his supporters that he would re-investigate whether Clinton broke laws while using a private email server as the nations secretary of State, even after the FBI concluded she had not. During a presidential debate, he even pledged to assign a special prosecutor to look into the matter. Despite his supporters strongly favored such an investigation -- they often erupted into chants of Lock her up! at his rallies -- Trump hinted after the election that he had changed his mind, telling 60 Minutes earlier this month that the Clintons were good people and he didnt want to hurt them. Conway said the former Democratic presidential candidate still has to face the fact that a majority of Americans dont find her to be honest or trustworthy, but she added, If Donald Trump can help her heal, then perhaps thats a good thing to do. FBI Director James B. Comey has said that Clinton was extremely careless in how she and her aides handled classified information on her private server while she served as secretary of State. But agents, he said, turned up no evidence they had intended to violate espionage laws. The Justice Department agreed with Comey and closed the inquiry. Its highly unusual for a president to tell an attorney general whether or not to investigate a potential criminal matter, especially one involving his political rival. Trumps apparent desire to drop the matter raises questions about the FBIs inquiry into the Clinton Foundation, which unlike the email probe has not been concluded. The attorney general would have some discretion whether to prosecute, said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond. Politically, however, its not feasible if the president really doesnt want it to happen. The FBI has not commented on the status of any investigations into the Clinton Foundation. FBI agents in New York were reportedly looking into the nonprofit and wanted permission to use more aggressive law enforcement tools to dig deeper into the organization. But they were blocked by prosecutors and top FBI officials who did not believe the investigators had developed evidence to justify such actions, according to law enforcement officials. Facebook

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One of Donald Trumps meetings might offer a clue for how he wants to replace Obamacare By Noam N. Levey Dr. James Jackson performs a physical on Matthew Shorter, 51, a Medicaid patient enrolled in the Healthy Indiana Plan, at the Heart City Health Center in Elkhart, Ind. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune) Donald Trump has consistently vowed to repeal and replace Obamacare. But he has yet to explain what he intends to replace it with. His meeting schedule today might offer a clue of what he is pondering. On the agenda is a chat with Seema Verma, an architect of Indianas unusual healthcare program for the poor. Indiana is among a handful of red states that took federal aid through the Affordable Care Act to expand Medicaid eligibility to poor, childless adults. But unlike most traditional Medicaid expansions, Indiana set up a system that requires many low-income residents on the program to pay small monthly contributions for their health coverage. Conservatives, including the states governor, Vice President-elect Mike Pence, have argued that this makes poor patients take greater responsibility for their health. And healthcare advocates in Indiana generally supported the program, in large part because it was seen as the only way to expand health protections in the deeply conservative state. But cost-sharing requirements for low-income patients remains controversial, and a number of states that have experimented with it in the past stopped after concluding it was too expensive and difficult to administer. Read More Facebook

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Britain says not so fast to Trump tweet about Nigel Farage as ambassador to U.S. By Laura King Donald Trump, right, welcomes pro-Brexit British politician Nigel Farage to speak at a campaign rally in Jackson, Miss., in August. (Gerald Herbert / Associated Press) Donald Trump and Nigel Farage were always something of a love match. But cold political realities may have intervened. The U.S. president-elect tweeted late Monday that Farage, leader of a far-right British political party, would make a great British ambassador to Washington. Apparently, the British response early Tuesday could be summarized as: Er, no. There is no vacancy, the Guardian newspaper quoted a spokesman at 10 Downing St., the prime ministers official residence in London, as saying. We already have an excellent ambassador to the U.S. Farage was a wholehearted proponent of Brexit, the June referendum in which the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, with still unknown long-term results. The British politician traveled to the United States during the campaign to offer his support for Trump, making rally appearances to sometimes bemused crowds to promote their purported common cause. In the course of his push for the presidency, Trump declared himself Mr. Brexit, and at one point dubbed his insurgent campaign Brextit-plus-plus  an allusion to his support for a referendum across the Atlantic that was strongly colored by anti-immigrant sentiment. Farage was among the early visitors to Trump Tower following the GOP candidates unexpected victory. The two posed, grinning, in front of a bank of gold-plated elevators in the president-elects Manhattan residence. But hopes of a more formalized relationship appear to have been dashed. The Guardian quoted members of Parliament as saying Farages inflammatory views made him a poor candidate for a diplomatic post. The Reuters news agency said it would be highly unusual for an incoming foreign administration to so publicly air its pick for a diplomatic post. Trumps suggestion, it noted, provoked anger, support and even hilarity in Britain. The news agency quoted a Conservative lawmaker, Simon Burns, as joking that Britain should name its own choice for U.S. envoy to the United Kingdom: Hillary Clinton. Facebook

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Trump the president vs. Trump the businessman: Can he juggle both? By Don Lee Donald and Melania Trump greet a guest at a grand-opening ceremony last month at Trumps new hotel in Washington. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images) The Trump Organization spent months trying to drive off the culinary union from its Las Vegas hotel, losing one legal battle after another before a federal labor board. Soon Donald Trumps company, which has refused to bargain with the union after housekeepers and other employees voted to join last December, could gain some leverage. As president, Trump will be able to appoint two new members to the National Labor Relations Board, giving the agency a 3-2 Republican majority that could be more sympathetic to Trump. We hope that Mr. Trump doesnt use his power to interfere, considering he has a financial interest in the outcome, said Bethany Khan, spokeswoman for Culinary Workers Union Local 226. Khans concern is but one of many examples of potential conflicts of interest that could arise for Trump the president vs. Trump the businessman. His vast holdings include hotels, office buildings and golf courses, and he has licensing deals across the globe. Read More Facebook

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Donald Trump briefly cancels meeting with New York Times and complains about its nasty tone By Amy Fiscus I cancelled today's meeting with the failing @nytimes when the terms and conditions of the meeting were changed at the last moment. Not nice  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016 Donald Trump briefly canceled a meeting Tuesday with New York Times journalists, claiming that its terms were suddenly changed. The charge was made in the obfuscatory style that has come to mark Trumps tweets. He said only that the terms of the meeting were changed, not who changed them; the paper said Trump, not anyone on its side, had requested new terms after the meeting was set. NYT did not try to change ground rules. Trump did, asking for only a private meeting and no on-the-record segment, which NYT refused. https://t.co/EpmZFdDYAh  Jonathan Mahler (@jonathanmahler) November 22, 2016 The meeting was supposed to have included both a private discussion, similar to one Trump had Monday with television news network executives, and a segment where reporters were free to quote Trump by name. The Times said Trump later asked for the meeting to be fully private, a request the newspaper refused. After the cancelation gained widespread attention, spokeswomen for both Trump and the newspaper said it was back on as scheduled. Trump has done a handful of interviews since being elected, none with the Times, and has not held a news conference, as is customary for most presidents within a few days of their election. He also said the papers coverage of him had a nasty tone, without citing specifics. Its front page Wednesday included stories questioning the constitutionality of his foreign business deals and one citing concerns that the military might have too much influence over foreign policy in a Trump administration. 7:25 a.m.: This story was updated with the scheduled meeting being reinstated. Facebook

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Neo-Nazi alt-right crowd cheers the president-elect with Hail Trump By Jessica Roy A newly released video shows a room full of people doing the Hitler salute and yelling Hail Trump! after listening to a speech about white nationalism that invokes Nazi terminology. The video was taken over the weekend by a reporter for The Atlantic while working on a documentary about Richard Spencer. Spencer is the person speaking in the video. He runs the National Policy Institute, a self-described alt-right think tank that openly supports white nationalist and neo-Nazi policies. In the past, he has called for a peaceful ethnic cleansing of the United States. In the video, Spencer calls the media leftists and cucks, invoking popular alt-right insults for people they disagree with. He calls the media the Lugenpresse, which is what the original Nazi Party called the media in Germany  the lying press. We dont exploit other groups, he says, the we referring explicitly to white people. We dont gain anything from their presence. The press has clearly decided to double-down and wage war against the legitimacy of Trump and the continued existence of white America, he continues. But they are really opening up the door for us.... America was, until this past generation, a white country, designed for ourselves and our posterity. It is our creation, it is our inheritance, and it belongs to us. America was, until this past generation, a white country, designed for ourselves and our posterity. It is our creation, it is our inheritance, and it belongs to us.  Richard Spencer Members of the crowd give the Nazi salute throughout the speech. Last week, the Twitter accounts for Spencer and his think tank were suspended, along with a number of other alt-right accounts. Trumps campaign issued a statement in response to the video: President-elect Trump has continued to denounce racism of any kind and he was elected because he will be a leader for every American. To think otherwise is a complete misrepresentation of the movement that united Americans from all backgrounds. White supremacists have credited Trumps win with sparking a new interest in their movement. Facebook

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Donald Trumps first promises since winning the election leave out the border wall, NAFTA and his Muslim ban By Noah Bierman President-elect Donald Trump spent more than a year campaigning to build a border wall, repeal Obamacare and rescind President Obamas moves to protect from deportation some immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally. But in his first extensive public comments since winning the election this month, Trump mentioned none of those issues. Nor did he talk about withdrawing from the North American Free Trade Agreement, banning Muslims from entering the country, or ending the Syrian refugee program. Trump instead made five more modest promises for his first day in office during a nearly three-minute video released Monday that presented him as a more moderate figure and appeared to be an effort to soften Trumps message while he establishes an inner circle of advisors and Cabinet picks of hard-liners. In the video, Trump promises to withdraw from the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, a potential disaster for our country, and instead pursue bilateral agreements with some of the Pacific countries involved. He promised to lift restrictions on energy production, including shale and coal, implement a rule that any new government regulation must be accompanied by removing two regulations on the books and to instruct his Joint Chiefs of Staff to develop a new cybersecurity plan. His only discussion of immigration involved the legal immigration system  a crackdown on visa fraud. Trump also said his previously announced ethics rules  barring employees in his administration from lobbying for five years after they leave the government and from lobbying for foreign governments for life  would take effect as soon as he is inaugurated. Trump vowed in the video to release more plans in the days to come. These are some of our Day 1 executive actions, spokesman Jason Miller said in an email. By no means is it everything hell work on day one or after that  many additional good things to come. Read More Facebook

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World gets glimpse of deportation plan Kris Kobach took to meeting with Trump By Colleen Shalby Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state whos been tapped to join Donald Trumps immigration policy transition team, probably didnt intend for the world to see details of his plan to bar terrorists and Syrian refugees when he brought it to a meeting Monday. But thats what happened when he posed for a photo with President-elect Donald Trump outside of Trump International Golf Club in New Jersey. The document was in full unobstructed view, as Kobach apparently wasnt thinking about the power of a zoom lens. The clearest part reads: DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY KOBACH STRATEGIC PLAN FOR FIRST 365 DAYS Bar entry of Potential Terrorists Update and reintroduce the NSEERs screening and tracking system (National Entry-Exit Registration System) that was in place from 2002-2005. All aliens from high-risk areas are tracked. Add extreme vetting questions for high-risk aliens; question them regarding support for Sharia law, jihad, equality of men and women, the United States Constitution. Reduce intake of Syrian refugees to zero, using authority under the 1980 Refugee Act. Record Number of Criminal Aliens in the First Year Those details arent exactly new. Trump has made it clear that he intends to deport 2 million to 3 million immigrants in the country illegally who fall under his definition of criminal. And Kobach, who is behind several controversial immigration laws and was the architect behind the NSEERs system, has said previously that he will help Trump reverse President Obamas immigration policies. The Obama administration has set a second-term priority to deport migrants with criminal convictions. Since taking office, Obama has expelled more people than any other president in American history. Less legible on Kobachs document, but still visible, are mentions of its definition of criminal alien (any alien arrested for any crime, and any gang member); the phrase 386 miles of existing actual wall; the Patriot Act; and Draft Amendment to National Voter .... Its possible this line refers to the National Voter Registration Act. Kansas Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley criticized Kobach. Thats the height of irony if hes wanting a job in Homeland Security and youre able to see in a photograph what should be confidential information, Hensley said. Facebook

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Rolling out Obamacare was chaotic, but a repeal could be much worse By Noam N. Levey In the summer of 2013, as state and federal officials readied new insurance marketplaces created through the Affordable Care Act, millions of Americans started getting disquieting notices from their insurers. Health plans were being canceled because they didnt comply with the law, often called Obamacare. Some 4 million people were ultimately told they would lose their plans. The ensuing outrage sparked a political firestorm, seriously eroded public confidence in Obamacare and forced an embarrassed President Obama to change federal regulations so people could keep their coverage. Yet that tumultuous episode could be dwarfed by what President-elect Donald Trumps administration and its congressional allies unleash beginning next year. They plan to not only repeal the law but are contemplating changes that are significantly more far-reaching and could disrupt insurance coverage for many more Americans than did the original law. Read More Facebook

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The U.S. labor forces guy problem: Why arent more men working? By Jim Puzzanghera Inmates at San Quentin State Prison in August. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) As the recovery from the Great Recession continues, job growth is solid and the labor force is growing at close to its fastest pace since 2000 because more unemployed workers are coming off the sidelines. Still, the percentage of working-age Americans in the labor force remains stuck near its lowest level since the late 1970s. Although retiring baby boomers are the main reason, theres another troubling factor that experts predict wont be solved by stronger economic growth. Too many men in their prime dont have a job and arent even looking for one. Experts trying to figure out the reasons are probing the roles of criminal background checks, painkillers and even video games. In all, about 7 million men ages 25 to 54 are neither employed nor available for work, putting them outside the labor force. Their growing numbers worry and puzzle economists. Read More Facebook

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Obama gives strong support to Pelosi as she faces leadership fight By Christi Parsons House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) President Obama all but endorsed Nancy Pelosi to continue to lead House Democrats on Sunday, defending her as she faces a challenge to her position from restive members of the Democratic caucus. Although he is reticent to meddle in party votes while he is on the way out the door, Obama said at a news conference that he cannot speak highly enough of the first female House speaker, who has been a key ally on some of his most important work as president. She combines strong progressive values with just extraordinary political skill, and she does stuff thats tough, not just stuff thats easy, Obama said when asked whether the California Democrat should be reelected to her position. Obama made his remarks during a news conference in Lima, Peru, where he was wrapping up a summit meeting with Asian and Pacific leaders. Some of Pelosis decisions have been unpopular, even with voters in her San Francisco district, he said, but she has done them anyway because its the right thing to do for the American people. Pelosi faces a challenge from Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, a seven-term member of the House. Perhaps the most notable example of her support for Obamas agenda was Pelosis steadfast support for the Affordable Care Act, which likely cost some Democrats their seats in Congress in the midterm election when Republicans took over the chamber. In offering advice to fellow Democrats, though, 
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has called on the European Parliament, the European Commission, national parliaments of the EU member states to prevent the implementation of the politically motivated projects to build gas pipelines bypassing Ukraine.

A total of 264 lawmakers voted for the Verkhovna Rada's appeal to the parliaments and executive agencies of the European Union member states concerning the strengthening of cooperation in the energy security sector and potential risks of the projects on the construction of a transit gas pipeline bypassing Ukraine (No. 5329) at the plenary session on Tuesday.

The Ukrainian parliament has calls on the European Parliament, the European Commission and national parliaments of the EU member states to support Ukraine on its path of the implementation of the energy sector reforms in line with its international obligations, to join the modernization and operation of the gas transportation system of Ukraine in order to maximize its utilization and to ensure uninterrupted supply of natural gas to EU member states.

The appeal says that "in spite of the military aggression by the Russian Federation, Ukraine remains a reliable partner for natural gas supply to the European Union."

According to an explanatory note to the appeal, the gas pipelines mentioned in the document are Nord Stream 2 and Turkish Stream.
Now that the U.S. Senate is back in session, it should hold hearings on and  barring the unlikely emergence of some disqualifying information  approve President Obamas nomination of Judge Merrick Garland for a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court.

We know what youre thinking. Even before Obama nominated Garland in March to succeed the late Antonin Scalia, Senate Republicans said they would refuse to consider any Obama nominee. They invoked the supposed custom  which they fabricated from whole cloth  that the Senate doesnt act on Supreme Court nominations in a presidential election year.

The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said after Scalia died. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.

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When it looked as if Hillary Clinton would be elected, some Republican senators declared themselves unwilling to confirm anyone she would name to the court.

Now that Donald J. Trump has won enough states to claim an electoral college majority (even though most voters favored someone else), its almost certain that McConnell and his colleagues will sit tight, congratulate themselves on their cleverness and wait for Trump to be sworn in and submit the name of a more conservative nominee. But by playing out that scenario, McConnell will achieve a short-term political gain at the cost of long-term damage to the court and to the traditions of bipartisan comity to which he often has paid homage.

In recent years, members of both parties in the Senate have undermined one of those traditions: the notion that the president is entitled to significant deference in choosing members of the court, so long as the nominees are professionally well-qualified, free of scandal, possessed of a judicial temperament (which includes a respect for precedent) and within the broad mainstream of legal thinking. But the Republicans decision to stonewall Garlands nomination carried this politicization to scandalous extremes.

Even when presidents choose well qualified nominees who are relatively moderate  such as Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., a George W. Bush appointee, or Justice Elena Kagan, named by Obama  significant numbers of senators of the opposite party vote no. Worse than that, when it looked as if Hillary Clinton would be elected, some Republican senators declared themselves unwilling to confirm anyone she would name to the court.

This sort of knee-jerk opposition is bad for the Senate and bad for the court. Yes, justices appointed by Democratic presidents generally vote in certain kinds of cases differently than Republican appointees. Yes, candidates campaign for the presidency on the basis of the kinds of justices they will appoint to the court, and for some voters that is an important issue.

But judges arent legislators, nor are they pawns of the parties of the presidents who appoint them. (Roberts twice voted to uphold the Affordable Care Act, President Obamas signature legislative achievement, against legal challenges  prompting Trump to complain that Justice Roberts really let us down.) The fact that justices serve for life means that they often rule on issues that did not have a political or partisan coloration at the time they were confirmed.

Senators have every right to question nominees about their views about the Constitution and their approach to judging, and to vote against those they consider truly outside the mainstream. But to reflexively reject  or refuse even to consider  a sitting presidents nominee because he or she is from the wrong party is a recipe for perpetual gridlock.

That brings us back to the Garland nomination. In protesting the Republicans stonewalling of Obamas nominee, Senate Democrats argued  correctly  that its unfair to the court to deprive it of a ninth member who could break deadlocks on key legal questions. But if Garlands nomination is allowed to die, Democrats might change their minds  and understandably so  next year when President Trump seeks to bring the court up to full strength. Under Senate rules, it is still possible for the minority to filibuster a Supreme Court nomination.

And even if Republicans took the extraordinary step of eliminating filibusters on Supreme Court nominees (as Democrats did for other presidential nominations when they controlled the Senate in 2013), there will come a time when a Republican president will need the support of a Democratic-controlled Senate to confirm his or her Supreme Court nominee.

When Obama nominated Garland, he warned the Senate that if it did not offer the judge a fair hearing it will not only be an abdication of the Senates constitutional duty, it will indicate a process for nominating and confirming judges that is beyond repair. Its not too late to take those wise words to heart.

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Under Trump, could Congress regain some of its long-lost power?

Obamas diverse American majority was just an anomaly. Now what?

Latino voters rebuked Trump and the Republicans, but they werent wowed by the Democrats either
Since Barack Obamas historic win in 2008, Democrats have become increasingly enamored with the potential of solidifying a new majority coalition that his election seemed to forecast. We would ride to victory on the backs of millennials and minorities, with a few affluent suburbanites thrown in for good measure. States such as Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado and Nevada featuring growing and diverse populations and changing economies would be at the vanguard, joining with states from both coasts plus the Rust Belt to strengthen an already potent Blue Wall, guaranteeing electoral college majorities for decades to come.

It might occur one day. But Donald Trump just told any Democratic strategist who thought this was the formula for success in 2016: Youre fired. His stunning victories in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin  added to relatively easy jaunts through Iowa and Ohio  exposed Obamas coalition as simply an oasis in a political desert for Democrats. Obama won twice, but in the three other national elections since 2008, we have been crushed, losing first the House and the state houses, then the Senate and now the presidency. The common thread that runs through each defeat is a massive shift among white voters without a college degree to the GOP camp.

[Some Wisconsin voters] voted for a black man twice and a lesbian once, but because they refused to support Clinton, they are now branded racist or sexist?

Hillary Clinton and her staff aided and abetted the Trump victory, totally ignoring Wisconsin and Michigan in favor of events and television advertising in long shots Georgia and Arizona. The bigger problem was a campaign that often seemed to think that working class white voters didnt really matter anymore. When they did decide to half-heartedly woo them, Democrats assumed that an election year conversion on trade and a few crumbs thrown to Bernie Sanders supporters would be enough to overcome the perception driven by lucrative speeches to Wall Street, Clinton Foundation entanglements and years of cautious politics that Clinton was really just the same old, same old  which Donald Trump most assuredly was not. Her flawed tactics once again got in the way of her considerable personal skills, which we will unfortunately never get to witness in the White House.

To those eager to blame racism, jingoism and misogyny for Trumps victory among working class white voters, I give you this: In 2008, Obama won Wisconsins more rural/small city north. In 2012, he and Senate nominee Tammy Baldwin, an openly gay woman, battled to a near draw with their GOP opponents in that same region, each candidates victory margins provided by typically strong showings in liberal Madison and Milwaukee.

Yet on Tuesday, Trump won northern and central Wisconsin by 15 percentage points  and thus the state. These Badgers had voted for a black man twice and a lesbian once, but because they refused to support Clinton, they are now branded racist or sexist? Of course some of Trumps voters are in fact both, but the truly deplorable thing is to assume from a coffee shop in Madison or Silver Lake or Dupont Circle that all of his voters can be painted with that same brush. And to substitute street protests for an honest effort to devise economic and social policies which appeal to these people.

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So what now?

Can Democrats at least agree that while we continue to celebrate and foster diversity, we had better pay attention to white working class people again (including millennials in that same class that also moved to Trump)? Can we make good on the promise of Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders to rid big money from politics and devise economic policies that wont be sent first to Goldman Sachs for approval? Can we combat the certain repeal of Obamacare with a new, better alternative that cannot be so easily shredded to bits? Can we extend our laudable efforts to promote more affordable college education with a serious commitment to vocational education? Can we finally figure out a way to make the looming catastrophe of climate change relevant to more voters? Can we find some party coherence on trade, even if that means we break bread with Trump in opposition to most of his partys representatives? And perhaps most of all, can we advertise our commitment to diversity without, in effect, telling people who arent black, brown, gay or hip that we dont care about them?

Instant gratification is not in the cards. While the expected fierce counter-reaction to Trump might solve some of our previous turnout problems, we can expect a flood of biblical proportions from the corporate benefactors of the Republican Congress to keep them in power. This must be a long-term and committed effort aimed at producing victories at every level of government. It requires a return to what used to define our party: big tent politics and a commitment to middle- and working-class people. Is that so hard to do?

Paul Maslin is a Democratic pollster based in Los Angeles and Madison, Wis.

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On Tuesday, Latinos across this country sent a message to both major political parties. They overwhelmingly rejected Donald Trumps offensive and often threatening rhetoric, mobilizing in big numbers to rebuke him and the Republican Party at the polls. But they also showed Democrats that just stoking Latino fears and anger wont win enough Democratic votes in the Sun Belt to overcome the power of conservative white middle-class voters in the Rust Belt.

Some pundits are disappointed at the overall Latino turnout, suggesting the sleeping giant has yet to awaken. Theyre wrong. Although we dont know the final turnout numbers, election eve survey data from the research firm Latino Decisions suggest that Latino voters exceeded a record 13 million, an increase of at least 17% over 2012.

Without the Latino vote, we might have seen an electoral landslide for Trump. Latinos helped seal Democratic victories in Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Virginia and here in California. They also provided Democrats unprecedented support in Arizona and Texas. And Latinos helped elect several new members of Congress, including the first Latina in the U.S. Senate, Catherine Cortez Masto, from Nevada.

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The Clinton campaign hoped to create a Latino firewall using Trumps ugly rhetoric as a rallying cry. But the long-term community work was missing.

But in Florida, the number of Latino votes wasnt high enough to overcome the power of white Republican retirees and rural voters. Those voters favored Trump in big margins. In addition, usually in Florida (and nationally) whites turnout at higher rates than Latinos (2012 was an exception in Florida). Even if final data show high turnout in the 2016 election, which may be the case in some Florida Latino communities, it is probable that these disparities overall will remain.

The historical reasons for lower Latino turnout are many. Latinos are disproportionately represented within socioeconomic groups  lower income and less educated  that have real challenges when it comes to getting to the polls. And both parties have done an abysmal job at connecting with Latinos; neither has allocated the resources necessary to bring them fully into the voting fold.

Take the Democrats. Even though Latino voters skew overwhelmingly Democratic, the party has regularly failed to effectively engage them, often leaving it to Latino advocacy groups and local efforts to take the lead on outreach. Clintons team didnt launch a significant Spanish-language ad campaign in major Latino markets, including Florida, until September, largely focusing first on reaching Latino millennials through social media. The targeted advertising that Obama used was not enlisted to the same degree.

The Clinton campaign hoped to create a Latino firewall using Trumps ugly rhetoric as a rallying cry. But the long-term work in Latino communities was missing. The focus was on just this election cycle; Clinton didnt have Latino organizing teams in battleground states, including Florida, until May. And again, these efforts emphasized Trump and his threats about immigration; they didnt significantly address key Latino concerns like healthcare, education and the economy.

Make no mistake, demography is political destiny for Latinos and the nation  including Florida. The growing magnitude of the Latino population means these voters will exercise an increasingly powerful effect on the U.S. political landscape, even if their turnout rates dont increase. By 2040, the U.S. Census Bureau projects that Latinos will be 28.6% of the total U.S. population, up from the current 17%.

In many states, the Latino population will grow at an even higher rate, including swing states such as Nevada, Colorado and Florida. As their proportion of the population in these states increases dramatically, Latinos are likely to play a deciding role in the choice for president, according to an analysis by the California Civic Engagement Project at the UC Davis Center for Regional Change.

And this high rate of growth will potentially boost the Democratic Party in elections to come. But Latinos arent a monolith and their loyalty cant be taken for granted by Democrats. Florida is again a case in point: Exit poll and survey data both indicate about a third of Latinos who voted in the Sunshine State cast a ballot for Trump. Nationally, some Latinos also supported Trump but to a lesser degree. The National Exit Pool poll estimates the president-elect received 29% of the Latino vote. But this number is disputed as the polls methodology is recognized as inadequate for Latinos and other subgroups. The Election Eve Poll by Latino Decisions found Trump with only 18% of Latino voters.

In either case, Trumps win may have cemented a critical problem for the Republicans. The GOP brand is now linked to his aggressive, racialized discourse about people of color and immigration. Trump will have won the presidency without attracting large numbers of Latino votes. Americas changing demographics mean that Republicans will not be able to win the presidency in the future, or even perhaps in just four years, without the Latino vote.

Republicans likely still face an internal struggle for the soul of the party, and its relationship with Latinos will be crucial in that struggle. If the GOP continues to make Latinos feel vilified, Latinos are likely to prefer the Democratic camp for years to come.

We can already see this happening in California, where Trump and his rhetoric may have dealt a death blow to the states shrinking Republican Party for at least another generation. As the Latino share of the states voter registration rolls has increased, California has become more Democratic. Registration in the state is now only 26% Republican, securing Democratic domination of every statewide office and the legislature.

Republicans in other states should take note, because Californias demographics offer a window into the future of our nation as a whole. If they continue to alienate Latinos  counting on low Latino turnout and on frustrated white voters to keep them in power  the political dominance they are celebrating now, and their relevance, will be short-lived.

Mindy Romero is a political sociologist and the founding director of UC Davis California Civic Engagement Project.

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In his successful race for the White House, Donald Trump made no secret of the fact that he was not focused on nitty-gritty policy details. When he takes office, he may well expect others to make his expansive platform a reality and cede such busywork to the Republican-dominated Congress. If so, one of the most dramatic results of a Trump presidency may be that Congress will regain some of its long-lost power.

In the 19th century, Congress was very much the center of American policy. For the most part, the president did not draft legislation; Congress did. The president could negotiate, but even there he was handcuffed by the fact that his only real threat was a veto, which could of course be overridden. He did not, moreover, have the same manpower supporting him as Congress.

Unlike todays sprawling executive, the 19th century president had a personal secretary or two, his Cabinet and their teams. Congress also did not have much in the way of staff, but there were enough congressmen to outnumber the president, and these members were more than happy to draft legislation on their own.

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Franklin Roosevelt thought the president should set the governments agenda. In his first 100 days, he famously got 15 major bills passed.

The shift in the balance of power began at the turn of the 20th century with William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, then accelerated under Woodrow Wilson: the first president since Washington to regularly draft legislation. In the 1920s, Congress, led by Speaker Nicholas Longworth, gave up the power of preparing the budget.

But the real death knell of congressional control was the Great Depression.

Franklin Roosevelt thought the president should set the governments agenda. In his first 100 days, he famously got 15 major bills passed. The humorist Will Rogers said that Congress doesnt pass legislation anymore  they just wave at the bills as they go by.

In 1939, Roosevelt formally created the executive office of the president under the chief of staff, a team with as much or more understanding of how to craft legislation than any found on Capitol Hill.

The result was that Congress now expected the White House to provide legislative leadership. Dwight Eisenhower tried to reverse course. But when he failed to provide an agenda in 1953, calling it a usurpation of congressional power, Congress demanded one.

In the ensuing decades, Congress has  generally speaking  only taken an active leadership role in cases of divided government. When the House speaker and Senate majority leader are from the opposite party of the president, one of them is almost always front and center in political fights. But when the congressional leadership is from the same side as the president, they shy from that spotlight.

During Bill Clintons presidency, Republican Speaker Newt Gingrich proposed the Contract With America. When Republican George W. Bush was in power, the Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert and his feared subordinate Tom DeLay let the White House take the lead.

Similarly, rank-and-file legislators tend to call on the leadership to restore Congress historic role only when their party loses the White House; in cases of victory, theyre content to take a back seat. For example, in the runup to the passage of the Affordable Care Act, Democratic legislators complained that President Obama wasnt sufficiently present.

But the new Congress may take a different tack, in part because Trump does not seem wedded to any particular policies. (Build a wall isnt a policy proposal.) Throughout his career, he has taken widely divergent stances on different hot-button topics. And he appears to care more about foreign policy issues, such as trade and terrorism, than the key domestic ones.

Besides, Trump may wager that its better to let the (unpopular) Congress craft the red meat legislation needed to keep the base happy and then blame Speaker Paul Ryan and others if anything goes wrong. Running against Congress is an age-old practice, and since Trump doesnt have the traditional party connections, he may try to do just that, regardless of whether his party is in control.

Whatever the political benefit for either side, Congress playing a larger role in the process, and even taking on the president, would be a welcome return to the ideals of American democracy. A more active, as opposed to reactive, legislative body may even be able to regain some measure of public support. It could be that Trump is exactly the president Congress needs to regain the initiative.

Joshua Spivak is a senior fellow at the Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform at Wagner College in New York. He blogs at the Recall Elections Blog

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To the editor: Like every election there are winners and there are losers. Not everyone is happy, but that is no reason to riot in the streets or commit crimes to show your disappointment. (A quieter sort of anti-Trump protest, with picnic food and calls for action, Nov. 14)

Every four years the United States has a revolution in the form of an election. It is this process that gives the dissatisfied a chance to change the system. Yes, speaking, marching and peaceful protesting fall under your 1st Amendment rights, but there is no need to be uncivil about it in speech or action.

Let us hope that the affected and discontented will use their vote to bring change, not crimes against people and property, slander and lies. Leave that to the politicians.

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Ronald D. Vavak, Los Alamitos

..

To the editor: Those of us who are protesting have been committed to action even before this election. Many of us have been working on creating and sustaining change in our communities for years. Were more than just a group that pops up every election cycle.

We have been agitating the establishment for years. We have been attempting to educate the establishment for years. And now, we are organizing against the establishment, as we have been for years.

Weve been assaulted, insulted and degraded for decades. So to ask us to buck up and move on is to legitimize the assaults, insults and the degradation that have kept us on the margins.

We will continue to agitate the establishment. We will continue to educate the establishment. And now, we are organizing against the establishment.

We wont quit. We wont accept defeat.

Ernesto Villasenor, Compton

..

To the editor: I empathize with the thousands of people who have taken to the streets across America to protest the election. They are outraged that their values have been rejected.

I felt the same way in 2008 when Barack Obama was elected president.

Ken Grow, Newbury Park

..

To the editor: People arent angry and scared and protesting over Trump, and they arent marching because they were so in love with Hillary Clinton.

Theyre angry and upset and protesting because somebody just ran for president on a platform of racism, jingoism, misogyny and homophobia, and almost half of their fellow American voters said, Finally, someone who gets me and tells it like it is.

John Durham III, Los Angeles

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
To the editor: According to this article, I should have been a Donald Trump supporter. (Were called redneck, ignorant, racist. Thats not true: Trump supporters explain why they voted for him, Nov. 13)

I am a non-racist, non-redneck, non-ignorant, middle-aged writer in a field that no longer values my experience or validates my relevance. I am anxious about my future and retirement, and I am angry as hell about the corporate greed that is destroying our air, food, water, health and societal values.

I live in a state with many immigrants. Yet I do not view farmworkers who toil 12 hours a day in 100-degree heat and long-term care workers who change our loved ones bedpans as a threat. They are my heroes.

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Did these non-ignorant Trump voters really believe that a con man and his close associates are going to make America great again? Do they actually believe in these change makers?

So all you non-racist, non-redneck, non-ignorant Trump supporters: Please dont tell me youre not ignorant. Id have to be just as ignorant to believe you.

Adair Seldon, Mar Vista

..

To the editor: I want to thank you for shedding some light on the electorate that just gave Donald Trump the White House. I can appreciate the themes that drove these Trump voters during the campaign: Washington dysfunction, loss of jobs and feeling forgotten.

But what I cannot fathom is how these voters could overlook President-elect Trumps complete lack of honesty. I believe it is well accepted and documented that he outright lies and fabricates. For example, he perpetuated the birther issue to undermine a sitting president.

On what basis can Trumps supporters believe anything he puts forward? On what basis can they trust him to lead our country? Granted, all of us have blind spots, but when we reach a point where truth no longer has meaning, then we have lost all ability to think critically, make intelligent decisions and govern ourselves.

Mark Warmbrand, San Diego

..

To the editor: I appreciate your article offering the different reasons Trump voters gave for supporting him. I am very disappointed that he was elected president, but I know a lot of voters felt that their problems were being ignored, as this article points out.

The Democratic Party did not do a good job reaching out to the economically challenged. However, I think Trump voters are fooling themselves if they think the president-elect will help them.

Trump is a billionaire businessman who enriches only himself and his family. He hasnt outlined what his economic plan is, and building a border wall and lowering taxes on the rich will not help the average person.

Just being a Washington outsider does not qualify someone to hold the most powerful office in America.

Betsy Estrada, Mission Viejo

..

To the editor: Apparently, Trump voters resent being called racist, which they assert isnt fair or true. At the same time they assert fears that Mexicans in the U.S. illegally are a drain on public assistance.

What is true is that many noncitizens cannot receive welfare, white people make up the largest group on welfare, and to say otherwise is certainly not fair or true. Am I really supposed to believe that a Trump voters quick willingness to accept such falsehoods (and others too numerous to name) without question is not motivated by racist scapegoating?

If you believe that, theres a casino in Atlantic City Id like to sell you.

Rodney Rincon, Rancho Palos Verdes

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
California Democrats ask Obama to pardon nearly 750,000 Dreamers, but White House says it wouldnt work

The members of Congress who persuaded President Obama to grant temporary legal status to hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought into the country illegally as children are now asking him to use a pardon to prevent those immigrants from being deported by President-elect Donald Trump.

The White House, however, promptly batted down the idea.

Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose), Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Downey) and Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) sent a letter to Obama on Thursday asking him to use his pardon authority to forgive the past and future civil immigration offenses of the nearly 750,000 people granted deportation deferrals under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program.

They believe that would keep those people from being deported, and even though it would leave them in legal limbo without work permits or visas, they could more easily apply for legal status from within the U.S. without immigration offenses on their records.

They wouldnt have a piece of paper, they wouldnt have work authorization, but they wouldnt have to be living in fear every moment of their lives about deportation, Lofgren said after a news conference Thursday.

Lofgren, a former immigration attorney, said the pardons would probably be applied to the civil offenses related to entering and remaining in the country without authorization.

But whether a pardon would actually be applicable in the so-called Dreamers situation is unclear. Lawyers disagree over whether the immigrants could be pardoned for civil crimes they havent been formally accused of, and whether such a pardon would actually prevent them from being deported while they seek legal status.

A White House official signaled late Thursday that the administration was not considering a pardon for those registered under DACA because it believes a pardon would not allow them legal status.

We note that the clemency power could not give legal status to any undocumented individual. As we have repeatedly said for years, only Congress can create legal status for undocumented individuals, an administration official said.

After immigration reform efforts stalled in Congress during Obamas first term, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus pressured Obama to act independently to protect from deportation certain immigrants brought into the country illegally when they were children. He then used an executive order to create the DACA program in 2012.

The Dreamers, one in three of whom are estimated to live in California, gave the Department of Homeland Security their fingerprints, home addresses and other information to undergo background checks that allowed them to defer deportation under DACA.

At the time, advocates and the administration emphasized that providing the information would protect the Dreamers and was worth the risk. But with Trump vowing to deport millions of people who are in the country illegally and many fearing he may let the DACA program expire, Dreamers are worried the information they provided will be used to deport them.

Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park), whose husband is an immigration attorney, said at the news conference she has been getting a flood of messages from frightened Dreamers. On Tuesday she sent a letter to Obama asking him to keep their information from the Trump administration.

We promised these recipients security, and now they are facing a nightmare, she said.

Roybal-Allard said those who pushed Obama to create the program and persuaded people to come out of the shadows to register with the government have an obligation to protect them.

These are kids. We feel a sense of responsibility. We went out into our districts and we talked to the Dreamers, and they asked us, Is it really OK for us to do this? Roybal-Allard said. And we said, No, dont worry, you need to come forward. Now we are in a situation where all that we said, in fact, could possibly be reversed.

Although the presidents pardon power is normally used for individual cases, there is some precedent for the chief executive to pardon a large group of people.

President Jimmy Carter pardoned half a million Vietnam War draft evaders in 1977, and at least seven other presidents have issued broad pardons.

Congress and the Supreme Court cannot undo a presidential pardon, nor can a new president.

Lofgren said if Obama doesnt pardon the Dreamers, she hopes he responds with his own idea to help them.

These young people are not alone, they are not going to be abandoned by us, she said.

UPDATES

4:59 p.m. This post was updated with additional details throughout.

2:15 p.m. This post was updated with the White Houses response to the proposal.

This post was originally published at 11:30 a.m.
Burning of Ukrainian flag during independence march in Warsaw was pro-Russian provocation  Polish ambassador

Poland's Ambassador to Ukraine Jan Pieklo said the burning of a Ukrainian flag in Warsaw during a march marking the 98th anniversary of its independence was a pro-Russia provocation with the aim of spoiling ties between citizens of the two countries.

"It was pure provocation, created by pro-Russia sympathizers in Poland. I thought there would be more such provocations. Russia is attempting to antagonize Poles and Ukrainians. It is trying to divide us, Poles and Ukrainians," Pieklo said during a briefing in Kharkiv on Tuesday.

He said Russia is trying to destabilize other countries, as well.

"Russia is doing everything to destabilize not only Ukraine, but the European Union. Poles know Russia and how Russians operate. Its hybrid war is a threat," Pieklo said.

The Polish ambassador said that Poland continues to call for sanctions against the Russian Federation until it complies with the Minsk agreements.

As earlier reported, on November 11 in Warsaw during Poland's Independence Day march, a group of radicals in masks demonstratively burned a Ukrainian flag.
Paul D. Ryan appears to be cruising toward reelection as House speaker, but his bold promise Tuesday of a new dawn for GOP unity  Republican lawmakers found Make America Great Again hats waiting on their chairs at a morning meeting  does not hide the deep divisions that remain.

Theres a clash growing between Donald Trumps new vision of the Republican Party, which includes increased spending on several fronts, and budget hawks like Ryan and the GOPs small-government Freedom Caucus, whose ideology had previously dominated the party.

Its not just that the president-elect has promised costly big-ticket items  beefing up the military, building a wall along the border with Mexico and improving the social safety net, including healthcare.

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Trump has also shown little interest in Ryans signature budget-slashing proposals  such as cutting entitlement spending on Medicare and Medicaid  which had long been central to the GOPs plan for reducing deficits.

In fact, very little of what Trump promised to do during the campaign involved cutting government spending. Rather, he spoke of investing in the nation, creating jobs, and he once proudly proclaimed himself the king of debt in his business dealings.

Ryan says he now talks to Trump every day, despite their on-again, off-again relationship and warnings that Ryan might face a move to oust him as speaker during Tuesdays internal GOP vote.

Instead, House Republicans unanimously agreed Tuesday to nominate the Wisconsin Republican for another two-year term, rewarding his efforts to unify the party. The final House vote will take place in January.

But Ryan acknowledged that they are only beginning to work through the details of a unified Republican agenda.

Its going to take time to figure out exactly what bill comes where and how it all adds up, Ryan said.

The first clash may come over Trumps call for a $1-trillion infrastructure program. Even if Trump relies on private investment, as his advisors have suggested, the notion of using government to prime the pump to create jobs stunned many conservatives when it received top billing on election night.

Scope of Donald Trumps falsehoods unprecedented for presidential candidate 

Dan Holler, spokesman at the conservative Heritage Action for America, was taken aback as he watched Trumps victory speech and the president-elect spoke of his beautiful program for new bridges, roads, airports and schools. To many that sounded more like the dream of big-spending Democrats than the Republican just elected to the White House.

It would be a mistake to think thats what the people were clamoring for, said Holler, whose influential group tries to hold the line against spending. As if that is the main message of the campaign  that we need a massive stimulus.

Indeed, a week before election, when most still thought Hillary Clinton would win, GOP officials were preparing to attack the Democratic nominees own, much smaller infrastructure program as wasteful and unnecessary.

On Tuesday, former House Speaker John A. Boehner, himself a casualty of GOP infighting, referred to Trump as a friend, but also barely Republican.

The battle over spending is just one of the challenges that lie ahead as Republicans adjust to fact that they have now achieved what they long sought: Republican control of the White House and Congress for the first time in a decade.

Because Trump doesnt neatly align with any previous strain of the GOP, it will only confound the job facing congressional leaders like Ryan.

Theres probably going to be a learning curve as [Republicans] transition from opposing the policies of Democrats to implementing a conservative agenda, said Michael Steel, a Republican strategist and former top aide to Boehner.

Theres no question this is a huge step into the unknown, he said. They are building an airplane while in flight.

In that sense, Trumps election wont end the civil war between Republicans on Capitol Hill. In fact, it may only complicate matters by adding a new front in their internal battle  a Republican-led White House.

To be sure, Trump and the party share some goals  repealing Obamacare, cutting taxes and reducing regulations.

And Ryan is trying hard to steer the conversation with Trump to the House GOPs Better Way agenda  his blueprint for small-government.

He said recently that the effort to repeal Obamacare should also tackle reforms to Medicare and Medicaid.

Trump has given nod to the document, but it is unclear how broadly it might be adopted by the new administration. Trump has often spoke of protecting entitlement programs, rather than scaling them back.

The possibility for friction between Congress and the White House is only made worse by the fact that Trump named as his top strategist Stephen K. Bannon, the Breitbart News head who previously declared war on GOP establishment leaders like Ryan.

Also, Trump is facing his own pressure to deliver on election promises.

The people Trump spoke to, who helped him get elected  the forgotten people  theyre going to be looking for results, said Rory Cooper, a Republican strategist who was a top aide to former Majority Leader Eric Cantor. There arent excuses anymore. You cant blame it on divided government.

And at the end of the day, Trump may have the upper hand, given his victory.

Its not a power sharing arrangement, said Craig Shirley, a Republican strategist who has written extensively about President Reagan. Trump is the head of the party  it is his party now.

The Trump administration may encounter the steepest resistance from the Freedom Caucus, which, before Trump, was the most powerful insurgent faction inside the GOP, leading the charge against Boehner and in the budget wars against Obama administration.

Trump names Priebus and Bannon as top White House aides and says deportations will begin immediately 

The caucus of several dozen lawmakers was divided over whether to support Trumps candidacy and its unclear how much of a honeymoon they will give the new president. Already some members who backed Trump are warning that deficit spending may be a bridge too far.

Theres Democrats and Republicans who believe deficits dont matter, said Republican Rep. Warren Davidson, a Trump backer and one of the newest Freedom Caucus members, who took over Boehners Ohio district. Theres no one in the Freedom Caucus that stands for that.

Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Penn.), a key moderate, cautioned it was too soon to declare an end to GOP in-fighting. The dynamics that weve been dealing with all session need to change, Dent said. Whether they will change or not is still a bit of an open question.

For the moment, Ryan seems to be navigating between the partys factions, easily winning Tuesdays nomination vote in the House GOP conference.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield was elected to serve another term as majority leader.

A similar outcome is expected across the Capitol on Wednesday when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky stands for reelection as party leader.

Even so, the final vote could still prove difficult for Ryan when the new Congress convenes in January. Ryan was slow to embrace Trump. But in the final days of the election, the potential for Republicans to sweep control of the House, Senate and White House drew him in.

Im not looking backward, Im looking forward, Ryan said Tuesday. Im looking for how we make this work for the American people.

lisa.mascaro@latimes.com

Twitter: @LisaMascaro

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2:05 p.m.: This article was updated with additional reaction.

This article was originally published at 12:35 p.m.
President Obama acknowledged Tuesday that voters may have elected Donald Trump in part out of natural desires for change, but he batted down the idea that American voters gave an outright rejection of my worldview.

Hours after arriving in Greece to begin his final foreign tour as president, Obama tried to explain the American election, allowing elliptically for the first time that Trumps election might have been a repudiation of his own presidency.

Presidential elections, Obama said, can turn on personalities as well as campaigns. Sometimes there are natural desires for change when you have an incumbent whos been there for eight years, Obama said.

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Still, a pretty healthy majority of the American people agree with his vision, Obama said, even though they did not elect Democrat Hillary Clinton on her promise to continue it.

Sometimes people just feel as if we want to try something to see if we can shake things up, and that, I suspect, was a significant phenomenon, Obama said.

Defending his record, Obama said key elements of his economic agenda for eight years  raising wages, investing in infrastructure and education  were directed at addressing the kind of anxiety that Trump successfully tapped into throughout his campaign.

The problem was, I couldnt convince a Republican Congress to pass a lot of them, he said. Having said that, people seem to think I did a pretty good job. And so there is this mismatch between frustration and anger.

Reacting to Trumps stunning election upset for the second time in less than a day, this time on foreign soil, Obama drew a distinction between Trumps victory and the so-called Brexit vote in Britain this summer, but also reflected on how nationalist sentiment that is threatening European unity might inhibit Americas own success.

Globalization and technology have disrupted peoples lives, but ultimately those trends can be positive, especially if leaders are responsive to those concerns and can continue to appeal to and explain the benefits of collective action.

Europeans ought to know from their 20th century history of authoritarian rule what happens when they start dividing themselves up and emphasizing their differences, Obama said.

Americans also invite danger by dividing along lines of race, ethnicity and religion, he said, arguing that such separations rob the U.S. of its full potential.

My visions right, Obama said. It may not always win the day in the short term, but Im confident it will win the day over the long term.

The remarks followed Obamas morning arrival in Athens, where eight years after the global economic crisis, Greek leaders are still grappling with a massive national debt and depressed economy.

Officials greeted Obamas arrival as one last chance to harness his support in their push for a European debt relief package. An aide to Obama said he will support efforts to win meaningful debt release so that the economy can start growing again.

Aides have said that on the trip, which also includes stops in Germany and Peru, Obama wont try to represent  or guess at  Trumps plans or points of view.

I still dont feel responsible for what the president-elect says or does. But I do feel a responsibility as president of the United States to facilitate a smooth transition, Obama said.

Still, in meetings with the Greek president and prime minister on Tuesday, Obama projected as hopeful a message as he could, making a point of assuring each leader of the strong U.S. commitment to its allies.

As for the economic recovery efforts, he said, we intend to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Greek people during this process.

Times staff writer Michael A. Memoli in Washington contributed to this report.

Christi.Parsons@latimes.com

Follow @cparsons for news about the White House.

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President Obama spent the better part of a year trying to convince the nation that Donald Trump was not fit to hold the Oval Office. Now, determined to smooth the transfer of power, the president has launched a persuasion campaign aimed at an audience of one: the president-elect himself.

At his first postelection news conference Monday, Obama appeared to be trying to publicly educate his successor, via television news, a medium that Trump was especially attuned to during the campaign.

Obama offered admiration, instruction and even outright flattery, praising the manner in which Trump tapped into voters anxiety and enthusiasm for change to score a historic political upset.

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He is obviously a gregarious person, Obama said.

Where he once said Trump lacked the temperament to serve as commander in chief, Obama focused on qualities that he said would serve Trump well as president.

I dont think he is ideological, Obama said. I think, ultimately, he is pragmatic.

He gently offered a warning: This office is bigger than any one person. And thats why ensuring a smooth transition is so important.

The turnabout came four days after Obamas first face-to-face meeting with Trump, after which several senior White House officials expressed surprise at the extent to which Trump and his aides seemed unprepared for the task ahead.

Given that apparent gulf between Trumps current state and preparedness to take the oath of office, Obama stepped in.

He balanced compliments with the counsel Trump himself has said he hoped to draw from Obama in the weeks and months ahead, laying out in great detail some of his most significant policy achievements.

Obama acknowledged the shortcomings of the Affordable Care Act but reminded Trump that if he and Republicans fail to deliver an alternative that delivers better results, then we are going to have a problem.

He mentioned the nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers, including the U.S., as an example where campaign rhetoric falls short of the obligations of governing. To unravel a deal that is preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapons program would be hard to explain, Obama cautioned.

Now comes the hard part. Now is governance, Obama said, abandoning the pretense of the news conference to speak directly to Trump.

Obamas approach reflected the extent to which Trumps election imperils his most prized accomplishments. Just as Obama made full use of executive power to advance his goals on the climate, the economy and international affairs, Trump can act swiftly to reverse them.

The effort may already be working. After assailing Obama throughout the campaign as incompetent, Trump said in a 60 Minutes interview recorded after their meeting that he found the president to be terrific, and that they had great chemistry.

Yet Obamas welcoming tone was at odds with Democrats still struggling with the shock of electoral defeat. Many doubled down on their warnings about what they see as an incoming administration that is hostile to large swaths of Americans, particularly minorities, fears they say are justified giving Trumps hiring of Steve Bannon to a senior role in the West Wing.

Bannon took a leave from Breitbart News, a right-wing site thats also a platform for the so-called alt-right to espouse racist and anti-Semitic views, to run Trumps campaign. Obama opted against commenting on Bannons new appointment, saying that to opine on personnel moves would be inconsistent with his promise to facilitate a smooth transition to the Trump administration.

Separately, intelligence officials said they were surprised by a request to give high security clearance to some members of Trumps family. Trumps campaign denied that he made the request.

Obama said simply that the presidency is like no other job on Earth and that the learning curve always continues.

Trump may even benefit from taking office with fewer set hard-and-fast policy prescriptions than most politicians have, he said.

This office has a way of waking you up. Reality has a way of asserting itself, Obama said.

He also shared advice he said he offered to Trump days earlier: Its important to try to send some signals of unity, particularly to women and minorities, after the bitter campaign.

Thats something that he will want to do. But this is all happening real fast, Obama said. Hes got commitments to supporters that helped to get him here, and hes going to have to balance those. And over the coming weeks and months and years, my hope is, is that those impulses ultimately win out.

Shortly after his news conference, Obama departed for Athens, the first stop on his final scheduled international trip as president. In Greece, then Germany and Peru, he will meet with more than a dozen world leaders and confront the unenviable task of trying to explain Trumps win, which threatens initiatives they had worked on, including the Iran agreement and the global climate accord reached in Paris last year.

While speaking to reporters, Obama reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to NATO, noting it has endured through both Democratic and Republican administrations. He said he could deliver to U.S. allies Trumps stated commitment to continue that, despite his suggestions during the campaign that he would leave behind countries that do not pay their share of dues and his admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin. NATO was a crucial component of the Western response to Putins incursions into Eastern Europe.

One of the most important functions I can serve at this stage, during this trip, is to let them know that there is no weakening of resolve when it comes to Americas commitment to maintaining a strong and robust NATO relationship, Obama said.

Just moments before, Trumps transition team announced he had spoken with Putin and shared how he was looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the people of Russia.

Times staff writer Christi Parsons in Athens contributed to this report.

michael.memoli@latimes.com

For more 2016 campaign coverage, follow @mikememoli on Twitter

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President-elect Donald Trumps advisors are drafting plans to resume workplace raids and to ramp up pressure on local police and jails to identify immigrants in the country illegally in an effort to meet Trumps goal to deport 2 million to 3 million migrants who he says are criminals.

That could put the incoming Trump administration in direct conflict with Los Angeles and the laws of California, as well as other cities and states, setting the stage for an almost certain high-stakes legal and political battle.

The Obama administration set a priority in his second term of deporting migrants with criminal convictions, and it has expelled 530,000 convicted criminals since 2013. Since taking office in 2009, Obama has expelled 2.5 million people, more than any other president.

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According to two senior officials in the transition team, Trumps advisors will seek to widen that net to include migrants who have been charged but not convicted, suspected gang members and drug dealers, and people charged with such immigration violations as illegal reentry and overstaying visas, as well as lower-level misdemeanors.

If local authorities refuse to cooperate, Trumps advisors are looking at withholding some federal law enforcement funds and equipment that go to state and local police agencies for holding federal prisoners or improving police practices.

On Monday, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said he has no plans to change the LAPDs refusal to enforce some federal immigration policies.

Under Beck, the department stopped turning over people arrested on suspicion of low-level crimes to federal agents for deportation and moved away from honoring federal requests to detain inmates who could be deported after their jail terms.

I dont intend on doing anything different, he said. We are not going to engage in law enforcement activities solely based on somebodys immigration status. We are not going to work in conjunction with Homeland Security on deportation efforts. That is not our job, nor will I make it our job.

In 2013, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law that bars state police from holding someone for immigration agents unless the suspect has been charged or convicted of a serious crime such as drug trafficking, child abuse or gang activity.

In recent years, police chiefs in numerous jurisdictions have rejected local enforcement of immigration laws, saying it makes immigrants less likely to report crimes or help police conduct investigations.

During the campaign, Trump said he also would withhold federal funds to punish so-called sanctuary cities, including Los Angeles and Chicago, for their lenient policies toward illegal immigration.

At a news conference Monday, President Obama said he will encourage Trump to keep a program that has given temporary work permits and legal status to more than 740,000 immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.

Trump said repeatedly during the campaign he would shut down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, but he did not say whether he would seek to deport those given protection under the program.

I will urge the president-elect and the incoming administration to think long and hard before they are endangering the status of what for all practical purposes are American kids, Obama said.

Those vetted under the program, he added, are solid, wonderful young people of good character, and it is my strong belief that the majority of the American people would not want to see suddenly those kids have to start hiding again.

Early in his presidential campaign, Trump said he intended to deport all of the estimated 11 million immigrants in the country illegally. But he later amended that, and on Sunday he provided a broad outline of his plan.

He told CBS 60 Minutes that his administration will get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, we have a lot of these people, probably 2 million, it could be even 3 million. We are getting them out of the country or we are going to incarcerate. But were getting them out of the country. Theyre here illegally.

To boost the tallies, his advisors say, Trump will probably reinstate workplace raids to find those in the country illegally, to push illegal immigrants out of jobs and to send a signal across the borders to try to dissuade others from entering the country illegally or overstaying their visas.

Hard-line immigration advisors on Trumps transition team also are drafting plans to dramatically increase prosecutions of illegal entry, an immigration violation that doesnt always lead to deportation under current policy.

They plan to expand the use of a deportation process that bypasses immigration courts and allows immigration officers to expel foreigners immediately upon being captured.

The process, called expedited removal, now applies only to undocumented immigrants arrested within 100 miles of the border and within two weeks of illegally entering the country who dont express a credible fear of persecution if they are returned home.

Trumps immigration policy advisors also want to expand a program that gives some police officers immigration authority and trains jailers to identify potentially deportable inmates.

The Trump administration also may restore a controversial program called Secure Communities that began under President George W. Bush. It automatically notified federal agents when an undocumented immigrant was fingerprinted and booked in a local jail.

Many communities, including Los Angeles, ultimately refused to participate and the program was canceled in November 2014. Immigration agents now must show a court has ordered deportation of an inmate, or probably will do so, to get the jail to hold a suspect for federal agents.

Immigration officials say they have enough officers and detention beds to deport about 400,000 people per year  the record set in 2012 at the end of Obamas first term.

Last year, the Obama administration deported about 235,000 people and Trump advisors believe that undoing some of the limits Obama set in his second term could push deportations back above 400,000 next year.

That could still require five years to reach 2 million deportations unless Congress provides money to hire thousands more deportation officers, hundreds more immigration judges and vastly more detention facilities.

Trump gave no time frame for his deportation target, and some immigration experts say his figures appear wildly inflated.

Theres nowhere near 3 million serious criminals among the undocumented population, said Frank Sharry, head of Americas Voice, an immigration advocacy group. We suspect hes gearing up to implement a very harsh and radical deportation regime and hes going to deploy it under the pretext they are criminals, when they are not.

Studies by social scientists have found that the incarceration rate among immigrants is lower than that of the general population.

A 2015 study of immigration and population data by the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank in Washington, concluded that the 11 million immigrants in the country illegally included about 300,000 convicted felons and 390,000 others with serious misdemeanors.

Trump apparently obtained his 2 million estimate from a document prepared by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a request to Congress for funding in 2013.

In it, ICE estimated 1.9 million removable criminal aliens in the country. The estimate includes legal residents and valid visa holders who have been charged with crimes, putting their legal status in jeopardy.

That same year, ICE reported that 870,000 people had been ordered deported but had not yet been forced out. Its unclear how many are still in the country.

Adding those two figures may be how Trump reached his ballpark 3-million estimate.

During his 60 Minutes interview, Trump was vague about his plans for the millions of immigrants in the country illegally who have not committed crimes.

After the border is secured and after everything gets normalized, were going to make a determination on the people that youre talking about who are terrific people, Trump said.

That sounds promising to Alfonso Aguilar, head of Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, an advocacy group. When he said terrific people, it doesnt sound like hes going to deport terrific people, he said.

But Aguilar noted that in August, Trump laid out a hard-nosed, 10-point immigration plan that would make life difficult for immigrants without legal status, including requiring every employer to use a federal immigration status verification system for all hires.

Trump also said he would withhold visas for visitors from countries such as China, Iran and Haiti that wont receive convicted criminals being deported from the U.S.

Some hard-line advocacy groups urged Trumps team to go further and to consider deporting migrants who have committed low-level misdemeanors.

Mark Krikorian, head of the Center for Immigration Studies, which wants lower immigration rates, said the Obama administration refused to deport a large number of illegal immigrants whose crimes they thought werent serious enough to warrant deportation.

For all the talk about how this is a radical departure and the end of the world and Hitler is coming, this is taking the handcuffs off and going back to more of what Obama did, but in a change of degree, said Krikorian, who has been sending policy proposals to the Trump transition team but is not a formal advisor.

Times staff writer Kate Mather in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

To read the article in Spanish, click here

brian.bennett@latimes.com

Follow me @ByBrianBennett on Twitter

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Newly elected U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris said shes already been in contact with her West Coast colleagues about banding together to implement Democratic priorities in the political era of President-elect Donald Trump.

I have talked with some of the West Coast senators and certainly we have an alignment of interests on a number of issues, Harris told the Los Angeles Times in a telephone interview. Im looking forward to building those relationships.

Harris, who won the Senate election last week, didnt disclose the topics of any of those conversations, but did share her thoughts about working with the Republican Senate majority and what the Democrats must do to reconnect with working-class voters who backed Trump. Harris also said that she plans to continue serving as California attorney general until she is sworn into the Senate on Jan. 3.

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During her Senate campaign, Harris also had several discussions with New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who will be the new Democratic leader of the Senate. Schumer and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg held an East Coast fundraiser for Harris over the summer.

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Californias Rep. Duncan Hunter among names floated for Trump Cabinet >>

The two-term California attorney general believes Republicans and Democrats can come together on issues such as the drought and possibly even climate change.

Harris said that during the campaign she met plenty of conservative farmers and ranchers in the state who had seen firsthand the consequences of the changing climate, including the depleted water supply and altered growing seasons. She dismissed climate-change deniers as a very vocal, small group.

Republicans and Democrats alike know we are experiencing this drought and also have an equal concern about more reliability about water, Harris said.

Working with a Trump administration to address climate change and the drought may be a different issue. Before the election, Trump told the Miami Herald that he was not a big believer in man-made climate change. He also has called for ending Obama administration rules that cut carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants as well as scrapping constraints on oil, gas and coal production, and said he would cancel the United States participation in the historic Paris climate accord to reduce carbon emissions.

In May, Trump declared that there is no drought during a campaign stop in Fresno, even though by the end of 2015, California had gone through its driest four-year period in history. Trump said there was plenty of water and accused government officials of sending it out to sea to protect a certain kind of three-inch fish rather than directing it to Central Valley farmers  a reference to the federal governments reduction of water exports to farms in a bid to save the endangered Delta smelt.

Harris on Thursday said she was an optimist about working with Republican leaders in Congress, however. She addressed the issue following a press conference at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, where Harris vowed to protect the rights of all immigrants.

Im going to take everyone at their word at this point, which is that theyre saying that they want everyone to work together, Harris said. Where we can work with common purpose and spirit, Im excited to do that. And at the point where we part on our principles and our goals, then we have to fight.

While Democrat Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in the Nov. 8 election, Trump cobbled together an electoral path to victory in part by winning over Americas rural heartland and the Rust Belt states.

Harris said that to bring those voters back into the Democratic fold, the party has to address the core, real-world concerns that keep them up at 3 oclock in the morning  whether they can land a good job, whether their children will have an opportunity for a good education, whether they can live in a decent house and whether they can retire with dignity.

Those issues cut across all geographic, racial and gender lines, Harris said.

They want leaders who, as we go forward, can actually do the job of building the economy, Harris said.

phil.willon@latimes.com

Twitter: @philwillon

ALSO:

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Clinton and Trump supporters come from different Americas. Between them lies bitterness and distrust

Updates on California politics
Its a phrase you hear after every election, one used by winners, losers and observers: The people have spoken.

And so theres no surprise that its now the one on which the man who must turn over the reins of power, President Obama, falls back as he tries to explain what happened.

Good morning from the state capital. Im Sacramento Bureau Chief John Myers, and if there was one word that came to mind watching the presidents news conference about his successor, President-elect Donald Trump, it was probably this: cautious.

Maybe it was an event designed for Trump himself to watch, writes Michael A. Memoli. After all, the president went to lengths assuring everyone that his successor supports NATO  described as a great interest in maintaining our core strategic relationships, Obama said.

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The president also suggested Trump is more pragmatic than ideological. Again, might this have been a way to get the new guys attention?

THE BANNON BLOWUP

The Obama comments came amid more anger over Trumps selection of Stephen K. Bannon as his chief White House strategist. As Evan Halper writes, the biggest challenge may be that bipartisan condemnation of Bannon threatens to overshadow the president-elects attempt to seem more open-minded in the wake of the bitter election season.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) was more circumspect in his comments on Monday. Ive always believed in giving somebody a chance, he said of Bannon.

THE DEPORTATION DEBATE

Any attempt by Trump to ratchet down the rhetoric also suffers from his televised comments over the weekend about deporting as many as 3 million people without legal U.S. residency.

His advisors plan to expand pressure on local police and jails to identify immigrants in the country illegally for deportation, in an effort to meet Trumps goal of deporting criminals when he takes office. Trump apparently would expand the Obama approach to include not just those who have been convicted, but also people who have been arrested, suspected gang members, and people charged with immigration violations.

Meantime, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said Monday that he has no plans to change the LAPDs stance on immigration enforcement, despite President-elect Trumps pledge to toughen federal immigration laws and deport millions of people upon taking office.

FROM PUTIN TO PROTESTS

While the president-elect stayed out of the sight of cameras on Monday, he spent some time on the phone with someone who became part of the caustic campaign: Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The two men discussed a range of issues, per a statement from the president-elects communications team.

Closer to home, hundreds of Los Angeles-area students walked out of their classrooms hit the streets on Monday as a protest of Trumps election, according to authorities. Weve been covering that and other protests on our new and constantly updated news feed on protests across California.

Get the latest about the Trump transition on Trail Guide and follow @latimespolitics.

THE U.S. SENATE RACE IS OVER. WHATS NEXT?

Senator-elect Kamala Harris said shes already been in contact with her West Coast colleagues about banding together in the Trump era.

Harris also expressed optimism that she can work with her Republican colleagues to deal with Californias water crisis and, perhaps, even climate change. Harris said that during the campaign she met with many conservative farmers and ranchers who acknowledged that the growing seasons were changing and the climate has been altered.

Republicans and Democrats alike know we are experiencing this drought and also have an equal concern about more reliability about water, Harris said.

The breadth of Harris landslide U.S. Senate victory over Loretta Sanchez is coming into full view. A USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times post-election poll found that Harris dominated, beating Sanchez among all major age groups, education levels and ethnicities  including among Latino voters.

JOIN US THURSDAY

The Los Angeles Times will look back this week at the election and look ahead to what the Trump administration might mean for California.

Weve got a hot lineup of lawmakers, political consultants and several members of our political team, present company included. The symposium will be held in downtown Los Angeles. Buy tickets here.

TODAYS ESSENTIALS

 There was one problem with the news story tweeted Sunday night by Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez (R-Lake Elsinore) about anti-Trump protesters fatally wounding a homeless veteran: It was a hoax.

 China warns its students in the U.S. to be on the lookout for riots and anti-Chinese sentiment in the wake of Trumps victory.

 Rep. Steve Knight (R-Lancaster) did his best to avoid talking about Trump before election day, saying he wouldnt support him but dodging when asked how he would vote. Knight stopped playing coy on election night, telling a reporter he voted for Trump.

 McCarthy suggested House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi should stay in leadership because it keeps Republicans in power.

LOGISTICS

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Please send thoughts, concerns and news tips to politics@latimes.com.
Invoking the historic mistreatment of Native Americans, the Obama administration said Monday it will continue to withhold a final permit for completion of the controversial Dakota Access pipeline while it conducts further analysis of concerns that the project will damage sacred tribal sites and water supplies.

Developers of the 1,170-mile pipeline say it would provide a vital and safe means of transporting as much as 500,000 barrels of crude oil daily from the Bakken region of North Dakota to an existing pipeline in Illinois. But the pipeline has stirred national controversy and become a rallying point among Native Americans across the country because it would cross a major waterway just a half-mile north of the Standing Rock Sioux Indian reservation.

That waterway, the Missouri River, was dammed decades ago, flooding the tribes historical lands as it formed what is now called Lake Oahe. The tribe has made that history a central theme during months of protests and sometimes violent standoffs with law enforcement. More than 400 demonstrators have been arrested at the construction site near Lake Oahe since this summer.

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Before the announcement Monday, protesters marched on the North Dakota Capitol grounds in Bismarck, prompting law enforcement to allow only limited entrance to the Capitol building. More protests were planned for Tuesday around the nation.

The Army has determined that additional discussion and analysis are warranted in light of the history of the Great Sioux Nations dispossession of lands, the importance of Lake Oahe to the Tribe, our government-to-government relationship, and the statute governing easements through government property, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency that reviews projects involving water crossings, said in a statement Monday.

The Corps said it was inviting the tribe to engage in discussion regarding potential conditions on an easement for the pipeline crossing that would reduce the risk of a spill or rupture, hasten detection and response to any possible spill, or otherwise enhance the protection of Lake Oahe and the Tribes water supplies.

Corps officials said they would also invite discussion of the risk of a spill in light of such conditions and whether an easement should be granted at all for the pipeline to cross Lake Oahe at the proposed location.

The announcement comes two months after the Obama administration announced it would withhold the permit, citing concerns by the tribe, and it comes just two weeks after President Obama expressed his own reservations.

My view is that there is a way for us to accommodate sacred lands of Native Americans, and I think that right now the Army Corps is examining whether there are ways to reroute this pipeline, he said in an interview with NowThis News this month.

The Standing Rock Sioux have asked the administration to deny the easement permit outright and consider other locations to cross the river.

At one point, the developers of the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners, considered crossing the river farther north, north of the city of Bismarck, but that crossing met resistance as well. Now the $3.8-billion project is more than 80% complete, with the crossing at Lake Oahe the only major obstacle remaining.

The tribe said Monday that although the decision was not a complete victory, It is clear President Obama is listening to its concerns.

We are encouraged and know that the peaceful prayer and demonstration at Standing Rock have powerfully brought to light the unjust narrative suffered by tribal nations and Native Americans across the country, said Dave Archambault II, the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux.

Supporters of the pipeline quickly attacked the decision, linking it to the election of Donald Trump, who has expressed support for expanding fossil fuel development.

Todays decision is yet another attempt at death by delay and is a stunning rebuke of the Army Corps of Engineers, the federal civil service, four state governments, and the rule of law, said Craig Stevens, a spokesman for the MAIN Coalition, an industry and labor group. This extrajudicial, political decision is exactly why hard-working Americans across the country rejected a third Obama term.

By its own review and admission, the Army Corps of Engineers did everything right. Americans expect their government to play by the rules  and this is just another example of the Obama administration using its perceived authority to drive a political agenda.

It was not immediately clear how long the review would take. The Corps said it will set a timeline with the tribe that allows for robust discussion and analysis to be completed expeditiously.

Jan Hasselman, a lawyer for Earthjustice who has represented the tribe, said he expected the Obama administration to make a final decision on the easement before the president leaves office Jan. 20.

Hasselman noted that Trump is an investor in Energy Transfer Partners and that the companys chief executive, Kelcy Warren, contributed to the Trump campaign. If the Obama administration eventually denies the final permit, Hasselman said, the Trump administration could pursue reversing that decision but would have to do so through the permitting process in a way that stood up to legal challenges.

The government has invited the tribe to make its case on why it should be denied and thats what were going to do, Hasselman said, referring to the easement permit to cross Lake Oahe. It starts, as it always does, with the history, that this is land that was stolen from the tribe. One tiny thing they could do to undo some of that wrong is say no to such a harmful piece of infrastructure in this place.

william.yardley@latimes.com

@yardleyLAT

UPDATES:

5:55 p.m.: This story was updated with additional background on the project and comments from opponents of the pipeline.

This story was originally published at 3:45 p.m.
This month, as new, cleaner buses shuttle passengers to and from parking lots and the terminal building at Bob Hope Airport, officials from Burbank, the airport and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority are also promoting a recently expanded BurbankBus route as a way to get to and from the airport during the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday week.

The BurbankBus route between the North Hollywood Metro Station and Bob Hope Airport began in June running throughout the day, from 5:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., rather than only during peak hours. The bus operates every 15 minutes during peak periods, every 20 minutes during midday and every 45 minutes in the late evening hours. The fare is $1.

The service doesnt normally operate on holidays, but Metro funded service for the Saturday and Sunday followingThanksgiving, one of the busiest travel periods of the year, to help promote mass transit and reduce traffic congestion and aggravation, according to a statement.

On Monday, airport officials also inaugurated the airports new fleet of 13 compressed-natural-gas shuttle buses with a ride on one of the vehicles, each of which seats 14 passengers and can accommodate two wheelchairs.

Earlier this month, the buses replaced an aging 14-bus fleet almost entirely made up of decade-old, diesel-powered vehicles.

It was a very smooth transition, said Tom Janowicz, the airports interim operations director, during a meeting of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority board, which approved a $12-million contract in September with Dallas, Texas-based MV Transporation Inc. for a turnkey bus service, rather than taking on the capital expense of purchasing the vehicles.

Under the new shuttle-service agreement, the company will provide, insure, manage, maintain and operate the fleet of 2016 model-year buses at a fixed price of roughly $2.4 million a year through November 2020.

The new fleet has about 100 fewer total seats than the previous one, but the older fleet served the airport when it was handling 6 million passengers a year. It now sees two-thirds of that number of travelers, officials said in September.

The smaller, cleaner buses are more nimble and much more clean, said Frank Quintero, Glendale commissioner and president of the airport authority board.

Ray Adams, one of Burbanks three commissioners, said the vehicles are tremendous.

The buses are equipped with GPS tracking and NextBus real-time control-system technology, which provides accurate vehicle arrival and departure times for passengers. The buses also feature on-board surveillance and collision-avoidance systems.

Airport spokeswoman Lucy Burghdorf said the airfield has also opened its remote parking Lot B for the holiday season, with shuttle bus service to and from the lot, which has an express-pay lane for credit card payments all day and will be staffed with a cashier from 4 p.m. until the last flight of the day.

The parking rate for Lot B is the same as Lot C  $3 for the first hour and $5 each additional hour on the first day, $5 for the first hour and $9 each additional hour on subsequent days with a daily maximum of $13.

Travelers will be able to park at the lot until Jan. 1, when it will be closed. Cars that remain will be allowed to exit after that date.

The authority is also continuing to offer an on-demand shuttle service on weekends and holidays throughout the year when the BurbankBus does not run.

--

Chad Garland, chad.garland@latimes.com

Twitter: @chadgarland
A man was arrested Saturday night in Fountain Valley on suspicion of stabbing someone in the back during an argument, authorities said.

Fountain Valley police officers responded at 10:08 p.m. to the 15000 block of Silvertip Court after receiving a report of a domestic dispute.

Police said a man and another person had been arguing, and the man picked up an ice-pick-type weapon and stabbed the other person twice in the back.

The stabbing victim was taken to a hospital for treatment. Police on Monday didnt have information on the extent of the persons injuries.

Courtland Drummond, 48, of Santa Ana was arrested and booked into Orange County Jail on suspicion of attempted murder. His bail was set at $545,000.

Police Sgt. Tony Luce said Drummond suffered an injury to his forehead during the altercation, though he said he did not have details on how it occurred.

hannah.fry@latimes.com

Twitter: @HannahFryTCN
The Secretariat of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has recently received additional information on the crimes committed during the protests in Kyiv between November 2013 and February 2014 by the Ukrainian authorities against protesters, and after studying the new information, the court may revise its preliminary conclusion that the attacks were not systematic and widespread.

The relevant information can be found in a report, which was published on the ICC website on November 14 and which contains preliminary examination of activities in 2016, in a section dedicated to the situation in Ukraine, which includes more than 20 complaints in relation to crimes committed in the period from November 2013 to February 2014, and more than 48 complaints concerning crimes committed after February 20, 2014 in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.

The ICC recalled that in its report on preliminary examination activities in 2015, the Office provided its preliminary analysis of the crimes allegedly committed during the Maidan protest events. "The Office found that while the acts of violence allegedly committed by the Ukrainian authorities between 30 November 2013 and 20 February 2014 could constitute an 'attack directed against a civilian population' under article 7(2)(a) of the Statute, the information available did not provide a reasonable basis to believe that the attack was systematic or widespread under the terms of article 7 of the Statute," the document reads.

The Office however noted that serious human rights abuses had occurred in the context of the Maidan events, and expressed its willingness to reassess its preliminary analysis in the light of any new information.

"In October 2016, the Office received further information that will be subject to close examination," the office said.
As a woman, a feminist, a mother to a daughter, and as a Girl Scout leader, I have dreamed about electing our countrys first female president.

Breaking the glass ceiling, in the most powerful way. That is my hopeful, utopian side.

As a scholar of communication studies and gender, however, the other hat that I wear, is more of a skeptic. The rhetoric and media coverage of Clintons speaking style, post the most recent prime-time Democratic debate, came as no surprise. Sexist attitudes and perceptions regarding men and womens speaking styles are supported by an abundance of scholarly research.

While men who raise their voices are often reported as more presidential, competent and viewed as leaders, women, on the contrary, are depicted as irrational, angry and emotional. But one doesnt need to enact a literature review in academia to find evidence as to how prevalent a role sexist attitudes play in this presidential election.

Sexism, attached to Clinton, is not a new phenomenon. One needs only to recall the dominant tropes that were attached to her speeches in the last presidential election cycle: shrill and nagging were a few of the best mainstream zingers.

And lets not forget the oldie but goodie of how her menstrual cycle would inevitably affect her presidential decision-making ability. Another salient example is the medias treatment of her use of pathos, versus President Obamas. When Clinton cried during her last presidential run, she was perceived as weak and vulnerable. Conversely, when Obama cried during his gun-control speech, he was lauded as empathetic and a true family man able to place himself square in the hearts and minds of the families affected by gun violence.

Fast-forward to 2016. What has changed? We can start off with Donald Trumps comment about Hillarys bathroom break: I know where she went  its disgusting, I dont want to talk about it . . . no, its too disgusting. Dont say it, its disgusting. This comment functions to reduce Hillary to her feminine body parts  overt shaming of the female body.

These vile and crass referents from Trump tend to be, by the media and the public, easily dismissed. It is Trump, cmon! What do you expect? But what happens when we examine the medias treatment of Clintons rhetoric, absent a particular candidate. Lets examine the sexism inherent within her rhetoric proper  as a candidate. Her speaking style.

After Feb. 4s debate, the medias sexist treatment of Clintons rhetoric is unable to ignore. Journalist Bob Woodward argued that Hillary is having difficulty competing with Sen. Bernie Sanders because she shouts too much. MSNBCs Morning Joe segment read like a Saturday Night Live parody of women in politics. If only.

The commentators described Hillarys communication style as unnatural in approach, screaming in tone, and feisty in pathos. According to the New York Times, Clinton appeared tense and even angry at times, while Sanders largely kept his cool.

Message received loud and clear: In other words, Clinton, follow your marching orders. Do not speak up or act out. Act lady-like, be deferential, embrace non-assertiveness and be amenable to your candidates positions. In other words, dont act like a presidential candidate.

Imagine if this rhetoric that continues to be attached to Clinton was attached to Sanders, Trump or Sen. Ted Cruz? The louder that Trump gets, "[yelling] I will build a great wall! his polls see a boost.

Or Cruz, during his Iowa victory speech: Our rights come from our creator! These words lauded by his base as reflective of a true conservative. What about Sanders? Rather than being depicted as irrational or incompetent every time he raises his voice, instead, he is the loving grandfather figure who speaks through tough love. Lets not even discuss Gov. Chris Christies speaking tenor; that one is too obvious.

Regardless of what you think of Clintons voting record, regardless of what you think about her take on the issues, it is undeniable that in this election, as in 2008, public perceptions of her political persona will undeniably be tainted by the medias role in the perpetuation of double standards and blatant sexism. This fact should matter to all voters.

Costa Mesa resident NINA M. LOZANO-REICH is an associate professor of communication studies at Loyola Marymount University.
The Glendale Police Department recently received a $295,000 grant from Californias Office of Traffic Safety to fund a yearlong effort to reduce traffic injuries and deaths in the city.

The money will be used to help fund three DUI checkpoints and 12 saturation patrols the department will conduct as well as 16 traffic-enforcement operations that will target distracted driving, speeding and pedestrian safety.

Officers will also receive specialized training to identify impaired drivers and administer field-sobriety tests as part of the grant.

Sgt. Craig Tweedy of the departments traffic bureau said safety grants do have a significant impact on lowering the number of collisions in the city.

It allows us to take resources and strategically place them for certain types of operations  whether its DUI, traffic, speed or distracted driving, he said.

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Glendale police received a similar grant last year that totaled $440,000.

Tweedy said this years grant amount is lower because the department has seen a decrease in traffic injuries and DUI arrests.

[The] Office of Traffic Safety measures the amount of collisions, injuries and fatalities for the cities that apply for the grant, Tweedy said. The reduction in what we got is primarily due to the lowering of those injuries and collisions.

DUI arrests this year are on track to be lower than last year  543 arrests were made through September of last year, and there were 343 arrests made during the same period this year, according to statistics released by Glendale Police Department.

Overall, there has been a slight uptick in traffic collisions, with 1,850 reported through September of this year compared to 1,847 last year. Of the collisions this year, 444 of them resulted in injury. while there were 482 during the same period last year.

--

Andy Nguyen, andy.nguyen@latimes.com

Twitter: @Andy_Truc
Napa Valley is probably the first place that comes to mind when talking about California wine, but as a few dozen people learned this past Saturday during a trip to the Le Mesnager Barn in La Crescenta, the states wine legacy has Los Angeles to thank.

About 50 people walked the grounds of the century-old stone barn at Deukmejian Wilderness Park, learning about the history of wine on the land and in the area, as well as its impact on todays market.

The event was part of Glendales Trails and Open Space program, which includes interpretive programs like Saturdays, as well as restoration projects, according to city Senior Administrative Analyst Marc Stirdivant.

A lot of people dont realize that Southern California was a big wine-producing region back in the day, Stirdivant said.

A large crowd attended the History of Winemaking in the Crescenta Valley event at Deukmejian Wilderness Park in Glendale on Saturday, November 7, 2015. After an informational talk about the area, attendees got a brief tour of the vineyard next to the Le Mesnager Barn at the park. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

The curious crowd was given a guided tour by Stuart Byles, a wine historian who wrote a book last year chronicling the industry in Los Angeles going back into the 19th century.

Los Angeles was a place where there was more vines, more vineyards, more wineries than there were up in the Bay Area, Byles said. Most people forget that without Los Angeles starting everything in the 19th century, [Northern California wine] wouldnt be where they are today.

Byles told attendees about the history of the stone barn, which was completed in 1915 by the Le Mesnager family. George Le Mesnager was a French immigrant who bought the land in 1898.

Stuart Byles from the Stone Barn Vineyard Conservancy lead a tour of the grounds during the History of Winemaking in the Crescenta Valley event at Deukmejian Wilderness Park in Glendale on Saturday, November 7, 2015. After an informational talk about the area, attendees got a brief tour of the vineyard at the park. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

Wine production on the property started to wind down in the 1930s and, after first being sold to a developer in 1960, the city of Glendale bought the property in 1988 to create the 709-acre Deukmejian Wilderness Park.

As the people in attendance walked the grounds, they got an up-close look at old winemaking equipment, the stone barn and a small vineyard, which grows a few different varieties of grapes.

One of those grapes, the Alicante Bouschet, is harvested and made into wine by members of the Stone Barn Vineyard Conservancy, part of the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley.

The conservancy maintains the vineyard but cannot sell the wine, so instead it gives bottles as a membership benefit, or, as Saturdays crowd learned, samples on special occasions, such as the 100th birthday celebration of the stone barns completion.

On a terrace overlooking La Crescenta, wine aficionados and novices alike helped themselves to a drink made from grapes grown just a few yards away.

La Crescenta residents Len and Mary Kuhn said they appreciated the history lesson theyd gotten during their walk around the area.

I didnt know that La Crescenta was known for their wineries, Mary Kuhn said.

We knew that this one was here, but we certainly didnt know the great quantity of them all over the area, Len said.

Asked if they were wine aficionados, Len replied with a laugh: Good grief, no  (were) Two Buck Chuck lovers, referring to the inexpensive Charles Shaw brand wines.

Ann Kramer, left, and Erik Siering, right, take a selfie in the small vineyard during the History of Winemaking in the Crescenta Valley event at Deukmejian Wilderness Park in Glendale on Saturday, November 7, 2015. After an informational talk about the area, attendees got a brief tour of the vineyard at the park. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

On the other end of the spectrum was George Skorka, originally from Hungary, who said he used to make wine in Pasadena and currently grows wine grapes in Santa Clarita.

Skorka brought his 4-month-old Bernese mountain dog, Hugo, and said the 2010 vintage offered for tasting was the standout.

Without wine, life is much less interesting, he said.

Skorka spoke with a romantic air about the historical and social importance of wine, a human tradition millennia in the making.

Look at them  strangers just lingering around, Skorka said, motioning to the people drinking and socializing on the stone barns terrace. And even when we dont pour so much, the little soul is better.

The stone barn itself is closed off to the public, but Marc Stirdivant said Glendale plans to turn the barn and the grounds around it into an interpretive and nature education center where people can learn about the natural history of the region.

City planners had previously sought bids for the project, which would include mechanical, electrical and plumbing renovations, but the bids came in too high for the City Councils liking.

On Nov. 17, Planning Section officials will again seek approval from the council to go out and find bids for the renovation work.

We hope to get started on that in the coming year and have it done in 2017, Stirdivant said.

Byles explained the plans to the crowd standing next to the vineyard, many of whom expressed hope in seeing the barn preserved and open for visiting soon.

Its just a matter of time and money, he told them.

--

Ryan Fonseca, ryan.fonseca@latimes.com

Twitter: @RyFons
Ten Years Ago

The La Canada Flintridge Educational Foundation received a big boost in its fundraising efforts when the Korean Parents Committee made a donation in the amount of $45,482.64.

Twenty Years Ago

Two armed men who could speak Spanish and Korean terrorized a La Canada housekeeper for nearly an hour during a home invasion robbery on Uintah Street. When the victim could not tell the intruders where any money was hidden in the house, they dragged her from room to room  even dropping her down some steps  in an attempt to get her to talk.

Thirty Years Ago

Members of the La Canada High School Academic Decathlon team scored a big win when they captured first place in the Super Quiz among 24 schools gathered in Torrance for the Los Angeles County academic competition.

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Forty Years Ago

Eight people were injured when a Flintridge familys 1961 Jaguar was rammed from behind by a car occupied by a Sunland family. The accident took place on the 210 Freeway at the Berkshire Avenue off-ramp. The Jaguar burst into flames after its gas tank was ruptured during the impact. One of its occupants was rushed to the Burn Center of Sherman Oaks Community Hospital with second- and third-degree burns over 40% of her body.

Fifty Years Ago

Starlight Mesa, a new community of 90 homes high in the La Canada foothills, was the site of a new sewage-pumping plant that, according to a Valley Sun story in November 1966, had the highest vertical lift in the world. The station had to lift 275 vertical feet of effluent through a force main 3,700 feet in length. The engineering challenges were solved by the Costa Mesa firm of Raub, Bein, Frost and Associates.

Sixty Years Ago

It was reported by local Realtor Roger Aver that more than $100,000 worth of real estate was sold and 161 listings were processed in the first 10 weeks of operation of the newly established La Canada Real Estate Board.

Compiled from the Valley Sun archives by Carol Cormaci
Ten Years Ago

In a Veterans Day 2006 ceremony held in the amphitheater of La Canada United Methodist Church, members of Boy Scout Troop 303 retired several American flags by burning them in accordance with U.S. Flag Code. To the background sounds of patriotic tunes, approximately 25 aging flags were unfurled, one-by-one, presented to the group assembled for the ritual, then respectfully placed in the outdoor fire pit.

Twenty Years Ago

A full year after several commercial buildings were destroyed or heavily damaged by a fire that broke out at the Bank of America building in the 500 block of Foothill Boulevard, the affected businesses were poised to reopen with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Join the conversation on Facebook >>

Thirty Years Ago

The La Canada Flintridge City Council moved to implement a Foothill Boulevard Design Study to enhance the commercial district. The approved motion included a cost feasibility study to install a sewer line on Foothill, between Angeles Crest Highway and Oakwood Avenue.

Forty Years Ago

About 225 well-wishers turned out to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Crescenta-Canada Family YMCA. A cake was outfitted with 25 candles for the occasion, and the crowd sang Happy Birthday.

Fifty Years Ago

A burning candle fell onto a Bible in a prayer room one Monday morning in November 1966, causing $205 in damages to a wooden altar at Church of the Lighted Window (today known as La Canada Congregational Church). Myrtle Atwater, church secratary, said she was walking past the room at 9:20 a.m. that day when she spotted the blaze. Los Angeles County Fire Department stations 82 and 19 responded to her call for help.

Sixty Years Ago

Wielding a heavy oak table leg, a La Canada physicist whacked a burglar at about midnight on a Sunday to protect his $40,000 photographic and scientific home laboratory. Carl Albin of Oliveta Place told responding law enforcement officers that the prowler and a companion had made their appearance on his property for the third time over an unspecified period and hed seized his wood weapon to successfully drive them away.

Compiled from the Valley Sun archives by Carol Cormaci.
Want to know which cruise lines are the best for the money? Celebrity Cruises took the top best-value spot in U.S. News & World Reports 2017 rankings, which were released Tuesday.

An estimated 24 million passengers are expected to take an ocean cruise this year, according to the Cruise Lines International Assn. trade association.

The magazine evaluated 15 cruise lines using criteria that included travelers feedback and health inspection scores.

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Seven other cruise lines made the good-deal list:

2. Royal Caribbean International

3. Norwegian Cruise Line, which travels from L.A. to Mexico

4. Carnival Cruise Line, which travels from L.A. and Long Beach to Mexico, and offers a Panama Canal transit from L.A.

5. Princess Cruises, which travels from L.A. to Mexico.

6. Holland America Line, which travels from San Diego to Mexico.

7. Costa Cruises

8. MSC Cruises

Top honors for best family cruise line (no surprise) and best Caribbean line goes to Disney Cruise Line. And Crystal Cruises took the No. 1 spot for best luxury cruise line.

In making its evaluations, U.S. News used expert ratings (30%), traveler ratings from Cruiseline.com (50%) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sanitation inspection scores from ships (20%).

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Most U.S. forecasters missed the tsunami of alienation and anger that propelled Donald Trump to the presidency. A teacher in southern China nailed it.

Chen Dingding, an international relations professor at Jinan University in Guangzhou, predicted a Trump victory months ago. He correctly guessed that the rogue Republican would earn at least 286 electoral college votes, that a Rust Belt blue state would flip to red, that African American turnout would drop and that Congress would stay Republican.

The 41-year-old saw what many others did not: rural desperation and factory-town fear tugging voters toward the inexperienced outsider.

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All the reasons were there, said Chen. I dont have any secret information.

Chen considered his outsider status a shield against the bias of a polarized electorate.

For people in the U.S. the stakes were too high, he said. Maybe that affected their judgment.

Chens prediction has made him something of a hero among Chinese scholars. He used no models. He simply spent the last year monitoring polls and reading everything, from alt-right blogs to progressive bulletins.

He believed social pressure prevented voters from sharing their views about Trump. And he sensed their fundamental distrust of Hillary Clinton, a sentiment the Democrat couldnt shake.

Chen found it especially noteworthy that President Obama campaigned for Clinton more than once in Michigan and Pennsylvania.

The working class in that area is very upset, said Chen, who also runs the China-based Intellisia Institute, a think tank focused on international affairs. The status quo wasnt acceptable.

Chen grew up in the poor, southeastern province of Jiangxi and moved to the U.S. in 1997 to study. He focused on U.S.-China relations and earned a doctorate at the University of Chicago. The American political process fascinated him, coming from a country where a select group of Communist Party officials handpick their leader. He saw the decline of the Rust Belt firsthand when he drove across the region, and still remembers the shock when a school friend ran for a congressional seat in Missouri and lost the race by just 2,000 votes.

I was learning how people in a county next to the one I grew up in were going to vote based on a WeChat group in China.  Sam Overholt, a 31-year-old Pennsylvania native

He left the U.S. in 2009 for a job at the University of Macau and moved this May to the Pearl River metropolis of Guangzhou, where he continued to track American elections.

Early this year, he started posting his analysis on WeChat, a popular Chinese social media app. People laughed.

I just thought he was weird, said Sam Overholt, a 31-year-old Pennsylvania native who works for a PR company in Beijing and follows the scholars posts.

Then Chen explained how the populist wave sweeping the world  from Britains vote to leave the European Union to the presidential election of Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines  might carry over to the U.S.

That made sense to Overholt. I was learning how people in a county next to the one I grew up in were going to vote based on a WeChat group in China, he said.

Yanzhong Huang, who has known Chen for years, questioned his friends judgment until election night.

Suddenly, Chen made sense. He talked about certain structural factors like anti-globalization, anti-free trade, anti-political correctness, and the importance of contingency factors like individual scandals, said Huang, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He was very consistent.

Chen had doubts, especially after leaked video revealed Trumps boasts about groping women. But he stuck with his analysis.

Many voters simply ignored mainstream media, Chen said. They rely on Twitter, and I noticed he had more Twitter followers than Clinton.

Several other scholars also pushed back against the force field of certainty surrounding a Clinton victory. A political scientist at Stony Brook University in New York predicted Trumps success based on primary outcomes and a party pendulum shift that usually occurs every two terms. A Yale professor used economic factors to forecast the Republicans victory.

Filmmaker Michael Moore laid out why Trump would win on his website, noting Republicans focused on traditionally Democratic states in the Rust Belt and white males feared losing power and status.

American pollsters, in their defense, dealt with a tight race. But the Chinese scholar made his forecasts from the other side of the Pacific. And he was right.

For his next prediction, Chen doesnt rule out impeachment.

Meyers is a special correspondent.

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Until recently, Noh Kyo-sung had many reasons to be happy with his life in South Korea. A self-described member of the nations intellectual elite, Noh had a good job, children in college and faith in his countrys leadership.

Yet on Saturday, he joined hundreds of thousands of fellow Koreans in a massive, 2-mile-long protest through this capital city, calling for the ouster of a president whose troubles have united many Koreans across generations and political leanings.

Everybody is angry, said Noh, 58, a professor of management information systems. Most South Koreans feel despair, and they feel that the president has done something that a president shouldnt do.

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The embattled leader, Park Geun-hye, has seen her approval ratings plummet to 5% amid questions about the influence and financial dealings of a longtime confidant. The scandal also comes as the United States  a key ally on trade and regional security  has elected a new president, Donald Trump, who has called for changes in that relationship.

At the Seoul Railway Station, a man watches a report about South Korean President Park Geun-hye and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Nov. 10, 2016. (Ahn Young-joon / Associated Press )

Both the scandal and Trumps statements on the campaign trail have led to political uncertainty for a country already facing concerns about its economic stability and a constant military threat from a nuclear-armed North Korea.

People like Noh, who otherwise enjoy the benefits of South Koreas rapid rise as a world economic power from the ruins of the Korean War, feel betrayed after voting for a president who made decisions based on the advice of a shadowy figure outside the government.

Park could face questions in the coming weeks from prosecutors investigating whether the confidant, Choi Soon-sil, used her friendship with the president to gain improper access to classified state documents and obtain murky payments from the countrys powerful business conglomerates, such as Samsung and Hyundai.

The case exploded in recent weeks after the revelation that Choi, who is not a member of Parks government or staff, edited some of the presidents speeches and, according to published reports, helped her make decisions on everything from her wardrobe to national security policy. Choi remains jailed.

Woman at center of South Korean political scandal: Ive committed wrongs for which I deserve to die 

To outsiders, Chois relationship with the president might not seem particularly unusual. But it has fed perceptions among South Koreans that Park  the daughter of an assassinated former South Korean dictator  is an insular leader advised by a select group. The case also involves sensational overtones because Chois father, Choi Tae-min, was a cult leader who developed what some here see as a mysterious spiritual connection to Park during her youth.

Park, a member of the dominant conservative political party, is term limited and will leave office after a presidential election next year. But some political leaders here have called on her to resign, and, despite her recent public apologies, South Koreans discontent has been expressed in growing antigovernment protests recently.

South Koreans shout slogans as they carry placards reading Park Geun-hye Out during a protest in Seoul on Nov. 12, 2016. (Jeon Heon-kyun / Pool Photo via Associated Press )

The rally on Saturday, which remained peaceful, is among the largest since the protests of the late 1980s that preceded the military governments agreement to a free presidential election.

No matter how free the people are, you cant say this is a real democracy, said Martin Han, a student at Hankuk University, reflecting protesters concern about the influence of insiders on Parks administration.

With their own presidents clout and future in question, South Koreans now also face the prospect of President-elect Trump across the Pacific  a potential threat to the economic and security status quo.

Trump said during the campaign that South Korea should pay more for the presence of a protection force of more than 28,000 United States troops. And, in his party acceptance speech, Trump also criticized Democrat Hillary Clinton for supporting the job-killing U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, which eliminates tariffs on many goods exchanged between the two countries. As president, Trump could try to undermine the pact, some fear.

He has room to push on the margins on that, said Robert Kelly, an associate professor of political science at Pusan National University in South Korea. He could do a fair amount of damage if he wanted.

And some observers say Trumps willingness to change positions  indeed, he recently called Park to express strong support for the alliance between the countries  has only heightened the uncertainty.

All were left with is a big question mark, said James Kim, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul.

Trump will also have to build a relationship with a new South Korean president, perhaps sooner than expected. Given the scandal, some observers believe the winner might come from a more liberal political party whose positions on engagement with North Korea, Japan and China might differ from those of Park and her predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, a fact that also heightens anxiety about the state of the nation.

Kim Jin-won, a college student in Seoul, said she is worried about the relationship between her country and the United States, though she remained much more focused on her own countrys political scandal.

[Trump] is a big change for everyone, she said. But right now, we dont really have a president.

Noh, too, is more focused on events at home. Like a significant number of South Koreans, he wants a leadership change.

Im more anxious about what the president has been doing wrong, he said. I look at this present situation as more of an opportunity.

Stiles is a special correspondent.

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German police stormed 190 mosques, apartments, offices and storage facilities in 60 cities early Tuesday in attempt to shut down an organization calling itself True Religion that authorities accuse of radicalizing young people and recruiting fighters for Islamic State.

The pre-dawn crackdown marked the sixth time since 2012 that Germany has outlawed an Islamist group, and was the biggest such raid in 15 years. Police seized computers and documents but made no arrests.

The group, which had been under surveillance for a year, had recruited about 140 people to join militants in Syria and Iraq, the German interior minister, Thomas de Maiziere, told a news conference later in the day. In all, about 500 people in Germany are believed to have some connection to the organization.

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Its members have been a familiar sight, handing out German-language copies of the Koran on the streets and in shopping centers across the country since 2011. The group has also posted propaganda videos on the Internet promoting violence, officials said.

The reality is that this is an extremist ideology, De Maiziere said. The action we took today is a clear sign that were determined to do whatever it takes to stand up against those who want to undermine our freedom and basic values. The Koran translations were passed out together with a message of hatred. Teenagers have been radicalized by the group.

In all, about 820 people have left Germany to fight for Islamic State, according to authorities.

Many are Salafi Muslims, adherents of an ultra-conservative form of Sunni Islam that advocates for a government based on Islamic law and has been of growing concern to German authorities. In September, the countrys intelligence chief, Hans-Georg Maassen, warned that over the last three years the number of Salafi Muslims has climbed from 5,500 to 9,200.

They include many members of True Religion.

This ban on True Religion should have happened a long time ago, one senior German police investigator told the Bild newspaper. Weve been following the close connections between preachers of hatred and terrorism for quite some time.

Its certainly true that not every Salafist turns out to be a terrorist, the investigator said. But at the same time it can be said that every terrorist started out as a Salafist. True Religion was working a recruiting agency for jihadists.

Germany has faced three relatively minor incidents of terror this year: a knife attack against a police officer, an ax attack against tourists on a train and a bungled suicide bombing.

Worries of attacks such as those that have occurred over the last year in France and Belgium have fueled opposition to Chancellor Angela Merkel and her governments policy of taking in war refugees. The fear is that terrorists could be hiding among the more than 1 million Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who have arrived over the last 14 months.

Support for the far-right Alternative for Germany party has surged to record highs in several state elections this year. Its growing strength  15% in national polls  could dampen Merkels hopes of winning a fourth term in elections next fall.

Kirschbaum is a special correspondent.

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The U.S. government is funding a project to train giant rodents to help in the fight against illegal wildlife trafficking in Africa.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the African giant pouched rat is being tested to see whether it can help detect illegal shipments of hardwood timber, used to make furniture, doors and flooring and at the center of a multibillion-dollar black market industry, and pangolins  the worlds most poached mammal.

The agency is spending $100,000 on a yearlong pilot program that launched in Tanzania in October and is being steered by the Endangered Wildlife Trust, a wildlife conservation organization based in South Africa.

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The funding is part of $1.2 million in grants the U.S. is awarding for 12 innovative approaches to halting wildlife poaching and trafficking in 11 countries.

What makes these rodents good for sniffing out wood and wildlife?

The rats have a strong scenting ability and have been able to detect buried land mines and carriers of tuberculosis in East Africa, officials at the Endangered Wildlife Trusts Wildlife in Trade Program said. They are also intelligent and calm with demonstrated trainability, and they are native to sub-Saharan Africa, so they are already adapted to the environmental conditions.

A female pangolin is petted by a game reserve guide at the Wild Is Life animal sanctuary just outside Harare, Zimbabwe. Pangolins are the worlds most trafficked animal. (Jekesai Njikizana /AFP/Getty Images )

The rats can grow up to 3 feet and live for eight years. They are agile for a shipping port environment and export warehouses ... relatively cheap to source, feed, train, breed and maintain, and their small size makes them cheap and easy to transport, Wildlife in Trade Program manager Adam Pires and Kirsty Brebner, the groups Rhino Project manager, said in an email.

Now this project aims to assess whether the typically passive rats are actually able to sniff out contraband, officials at the Wildlife in Trade Program said.

This project has only just commenced and the pilot period still needs to run before we can ascertain the ability of using these animals to detect any pangolin and timber species, Pires and Brebner said.

How will the rats be trained?

The rats will be trained in a laboratory environment to distinguish the target substances of hardwood timber, pangolin skin and scales and a variety of other control substances, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Specialists will assess the best options for the rats to detect hardwoods and pangolins in containers at ports in Tanzania and their success rate.

Children play around a pile of lumber from Brazils Amazon rainforest. (Eraldo Peres / Associated Press )

The project would be the first phase of a much larger effort to mainstream rats as an innovative tool in combating illegal wildlife trade, according to the U.S. wildlife agency.

What other anti-trafficking wildlife programs are being funded through the $1.2-million grant?

Funding will go toward training sniffer dogs to combat trafficking in horns from the critically endangered saiga antelope in Kazakhstan; addressing the illegal trade of rosewood in Belize; helping forest patrols reduce the poaching of Sumatran tigers and other species in Indonesia; generating new information on trafficking routes in Peru; and reducing the demand for pangolins in three Chinese provinces that have been identified as being major hubs for consumption of illegally traded wildlife.

These grant recipients are using pioneering approaches to address the illegal wildlife trade in the places where it starts and where demand for wildlife products feeds the criminal supply chain of illegal goods, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe said in a statement.

ann.simmons@latimes.com

For more on global development news, see our Global Development Watch page, and follow me @AMSimmons1 on Twitter

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An Israeli government bill to legalize unauthorized settlement construction in the West Bank came under a hail of criticism Monday, a day after a parliamentary committee endorsed the proposed legislation.

The proposal is designed to sidestep recent Israeli high court rulings calling for the razing of unauthorized hilltop outposts built on privately owned Palestinian land.

The bill would empower Israel to expropriate the property and offer compensation to Palestinian owners, allowing Israeli settlers to have homes retroactively legalized. The bill has yet to be formally introduced in parliament, but the endorsement by the committee is expected to improve the chances for passage.

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Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said the outpost legislation would violate international law.

Israels escalation of its illegal settlement enterprise and continued theft of Palestinian land and resources, as well as the flagrant violations of Palestinian rights and freedoms, are the essence of its dangerous and destructive polices, Ashrawi said in a statement.

Isaac Herzog, the leader of the Israeli parliamentary opposition, called the proposed measure a virus that threatens Israels democracy and legal system.

Israeli Atty. Gen. Avichai Mandelblit, who came out against the proposal before it was adopted by the committee, also reportedly said it violates international law.

The committee is expected to push for passage in parliament ahead of a court-imposed Dec. 25 deadline to evacuate the Amona outpost, a hilltop area where 40 Israeli families live a few miles northeast of the Palestinian city of Ramallah.

Amid the uproar over the bill, Israels Supreme Court on Monday rejected an Israeli government request for a seven-month postponement of the deadline for the evacuation of Amona.

Domestic and international critics of the Israeli policy have said efforts to preserve the hilltop outposts is a sign that the right-wing government seeks to expand the footprint of occupied West Bank settlements to block the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state.

State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said the U.S. is deeply concerned by the bill and warned that it would enable the legalization of dozens of illegal outposts deep in the West Bank.

Israel needs to decide whether it wants to build more settlements or prefers to advance the two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, she said.

Israeli settlers and their allies argue that residents of Amona were allowed to establish homes in the hilltop outpost with the help of government officials and should be allowed to remain in their homes. They say that thousands of homes in Israeli settlements throughout the West Bank could face similar evacuation orders because they were built on private Palestinian land.

Remove the sword of expulsion and transfer from Amona residents, Avichai Boaron, a resident of Amona leading the lobbying campaign for legalization, said in a news conference. Help the hundreds of thousands whose future is hazy  pass the bill immediately on legalization, he said.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett, a leader of the pro-settlement Jewish Home party, told reporters the bill seeks to ensure that Israeli settlers wont be treated like second-class citizens and live under threat of evacuation.

Mitnick is a special correspondent. Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Washington contributed to this report.
Finance Minister Alfredo Thorne says the government plans to issue next week the first in a series of decrees to accelerate infrastructure investments and stimulate economic growth
All material is subject to strictly enforced copyright terms & conditions and cannot be repurposed or reproduced.  19882022 Latin American Financial Publications Inc.
Downgrade comes amid an effort by Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow to renegotiate the country's debt for the second time in five years
Samsung Galaxy S and Note series are one of the most sought-after high-end mobile series in the world. Samsung is now ready to launch Galaxy S8 edge next year in March or April while Note 8 is expected to release at the mid or the end of the 2017. Samsung's success is mostly dependent on these two devices and Galaxy S7 has carried the legacy very well, this year. According to NDTV, the new S8 will have two variants 5.7-inch and 6.2-inch version.

Both the flagship phone series has legendary history. Currently, Samsung has only one flagship, Galaxy S7 and S7 edge available in the market as South Korean tech giant suffered a disaster after its flagship phablet Note 7 started busting and exploding. Some reports in the media suggest Samsung is working on Note 8.

Media reports suggest that two models of S8 will be released next year.According to Evan Blass tweet, Samsung will number Galaxy S8 models, SM-G950 and SM-G955 while,Note will have SM-N950.

Various media reports have strongly conformed the Galaxy S8 feature While, Galaxy Note 8 specs are still under speculations. The new version of S series is coming with two major changes. The S8 models are expected to have all-new AI Digital Assistant and Edge-to-edge or bezel-less 4K display with 806ppi.And the device come in a 90% display area ratio. These astonishing specs will absolutely change the whole high-end market game. This is not the end of the list; the new version is coming with some other groundbreaking specs.

Samsung flagship will also feature an optical fingerprint scanner and an all-new slick design. Though S7 has brilliant camera but South Korean company is not seem to compromise on aspect of the phone. New member of S series sport a dual-lens camera technology, which is speculated to be better than its rivals iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.On connectivity aspects, the S8 models will mark the USB-Type C. To boost the performance Samsung planned to feature the Snapdragon 820 with Exynos in the phone.

Prices of S8 have not been confirmed but it might price at GBP 599 to 700.
Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez have been rumored as already secretly married and that "Jelena" would move to Grand Prairie or Canada after the wedding.

It was reported by HNGN that Justin and Selena already got married in Carribean, somewhere private and away from the public and media.

After the wedding they planned to move away from LA and they would go somewhere else especially tropical places like Mexico, Carribean, and Hawaii. And as reported they have been wed in Carribean and after that they move to Grand Pierie, Selena's hometown or to Canada, Justin's. But it was admitted in the report that rumor is doubtful.

Lately, Movie News Guide reported a different story. The report confirmed about the fact that due to Selena's illness she decided to get married with Bieber. And that getting married with each other will end up their constant arguments and Selena's depression.

The report also cited about Selena moving to Tennessee rehab after a public quarrel in Instagram with Justin Bieber. But her condition in rehab still not good and she has even experienced Lupus symptoms. As a conclusion the report said that marrying Justin Bieber is highly improbable.

The reason for such improbability is that Gomez's fans know that she is very close to her parents. Her parents are not really fond with Justin. And that Selena would not dare going against her parents. Another reason is that both Selena and Justin have budding careers and they would not compromise on going away from LA and ruin such opportunity.

Whatever is the truth about this the fans are really hoping that the couple would end up with each other. They would not want to lose such beautiful love story as Justin Bieber has admitted that Selena is irreplaceable in his heart.

In relation to this news, Justin Bieber is presently busy with his upcoming Purpose World Tour.
Tom Cruise has always been associated with Scientology for a very long time, and recently it appeared in the news that the actor has donated millions to the religion.

It seems that the "Jack Reacher" star has given 10 million believing Scientology will keep himself and his secrets safe, he also hopes that he will be allowed to survive in the church's secret underground New Mexico headquarters on the day of the Armageddon as per Radar Online.

According to Ooyuz, Cruise's secrets are kept safe in the religion's indestructible vault. Tom is not the only actor who has secrets with the Scientology religion, together with him is John Travolta, Kirstie Alley and other A list members. These members confessed during the church's auditing process.

Scientology is believed to be as a cult-like religion to many people; the best part is that the vault of this religion is kept in the middle of a vast and remote desert, which apparently is hundreds of miles away from civilization.

Whatever is in the vault appears to be highly confidential because of the high level of security measures taken to protect it. Reports state that it is protected by three 5000 pound stainless steel airlocks, and is "H-bomb proof."

The vault is not only protected by steel but also by army snipers in the zone together with wild dogs. It appears to be spooky to some people but it seems that Cruise's secret is definitely kept very safe.

Former police chief of Las Vegas Sheriff's department Tim Gallegos got a chance to take a sneak peak even though he was a non member. His words based on his experience were "Sinister, Suspicious!"

He suspected that the people were lying from him and he could tell that based on the body language of a person. The officer was also prevented from entering certain areas.

The cost of the building vault was $1 billion and the church has a tax- exempt status with the help of Cruise.
Since Android 7.0 Nougat was launched to Google phones such as Pixel XL and Pixel, and its not been made available for other smartphones using Android OS. But, before even Google unveil its Nexus Pixel, there was the Nexus that came with the guarantee of receiving Android OS updates directly from Google. But, Samsung S7 and S7 Edge is looking to launch the Android Beta Program and get a preview of it.

According to Christian Today, as per the website of Samsung, the preview will allow S7 and S7 Edge users to first try out Android 7.0 Nougat before it is launched in the middle of December. But, it looks like the beta program has already been made available in South Korea. It is now available in UK and US too, and will launch in China soon. The users that apply for the program will be accepted on a first come, first serve basis.

With Samsung's latest UX, users can get a feel for Android 7.0 Nougat throughout the Galaxy Beta Program period, and can provide feedback on usability, performance and reliability. With the response that Samsung gets from the users, they can help to develop, high performing software and provide an improved and optimized experience to all the Galaxy users. The Galaxy Beta Program app can be downloaded through Galaxy Apps or the Samsung Member app which is available on Google Play or Galaxy Apps according to Tech Times.

This is not the first time that Samsung is allowing its users to try the latest Android, Samsung also launched the Beta Program when Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Now, it is available to users using Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, Galaxy S7 Edge Olympic Games Limited Edition and Galaxy S7 edge Injustice Edition device owners will not have access to the beta program.
President-elect Donald Trump's main platform during his campaign was to put up a wall that would separate Mexico from the United States. It was reported that the infrastructure has actually been designed for the Republican - the 3.14 Studio in Guadalajara has been set as the architectural layout of the project.

Hassanaly Ladha, a Muslim professor of French Language Studies and French Literature at the University of Connecticut, was anxious about Trump's triumph. The professor suggested to 3.14 Studio creative director Leonardo Diaz Borioli that the wall he had designed was a wall that would be a dungeon, according to Fox News Latino.

In an interview with EFE, Diaz Borioli, a doctor of History and Critical Theory of Architecture, as well as Art and Planning at Princeton University, stressed out that from the beginning of humanity, architecture has been an integral part of the service of power. However, in the president-elect's situation, the wall signifies tyranny.

Borioli further added that every dictator had a master builder to fulfill his great ideas. Just like Hitler who had Albert Speer who had helped him realized the Germania project. Speer had worked with the Hitler, the Nazi Party leader who aimed to remodel Berlin for it to be equally great to the cities of Europe, 3 miles away.

Moreover, the creative director had taken the idea of Professor Ladha. Thus, they have made up a team of six scholar students. The scholars from three universities were architects, urban planners and interior designers. The group would collaborate together and would create the design for the stately wall of Trump, with a Mexican accent.

In addition, Borioli iterated that the President-elect Trump had never asked that the wall must have a prison. However, the designers have decided to feature a mimicry of two different public policies in one: the wall and the expatriation of the 11 million unreported immigrants in the U.S.

The creative designer has described the size of the wall. He said that the great pink wall profile has an extension of 1,954 miles and is 330 feet thick and four stories high.

The wall would be crossing Mexico from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico. Thus, it would pass through Tijuana and would then follow the Rio Grande, which purposely set the U.S. apart from Mexico.

It would continue further into the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. If the model itself would be studied, the one who viewed it could draw an inference that it is quite impossible and that it's beyond realism, said Borioli.

Surrealist Luis Barragan and 1960's Continuous Monument designed by Superstudio group of Italian architects were the inspiration of the great pink wall, the architect reiterated. Surrealist would always want resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality.

Diaz Borioli said that the most debauch infrastructure ever constructed would be the Trump wall. It would be perceived as such for it is different from concentration camps, since it was made known to the public prior to the election of a democratic country. However people have opted to vote for it, Politico Hispano cited.

It has been anticipated that the prison wall hold a total of 17 million people - 11 million undocumented immigrants to the United States and 6 million personnel, the architect revealed.
A golden pheasant has become a star in China because people think he has the same hairstyle as Donald Trump.

Pictures of the animal became widely shared today on Chinese media after a journalist from Hangzhou took a picture of the male bird and pointed out the 'striking similarity' between him and the US President-elect.

Mr Gao, the keeper of the bird, told MailOnline that he was surprised to hear the news, however he had begun to notice the resemblance between the two.

Mr Gao works for Hangzhou Safari Park in eastern China, where the five-year-old bird lives.

He said the pheasant was called 'Little Red' because of his extremely red feathers.

The bird is more colourful than the other pheasants because he is very healthy, according to Mr Gao who looks after around 50 pheasants in the park.

The man told MailOnline: 'I had not noticed the likeness in the past because I had not paid particular attention to the pheasant's hairstyle. But after Trump was elected President of America, I start seeing more pictures of him and I think the pheasant looks a little bit like him.'

According to Mr Gao, pheasants have thicker and brighter feathers in winter because they bring insulation, and that is why 'Little Red' has such golden feathers on his head at this time of the year.

Chinese web users have been amused by a collage of the 'Little Red' and Donald Trump, with many expressing their thoughts on the resemblance.

One user wrote on Chinese news site Sina: 'A new trendy hairstyle was born at the end of 2016.'

Another Sina user joked: 'As a matter of fact, the pheasant is better looking than Trump.'

One person said on Chinese news site QQ.com: 'Not only does the pheasant's appearance looks like Trump, its facial expression looks like Trump's too. Look at its eyes, they are very similar [to Trump's]. The only difference is the man doesn't have a beak.'

A spokesman from Hangzhou Safari Park told MailOnline: 'A local journalist came to our zoo yesterday and took some pictures of the bird, then wrote about him. We see the pheasant every day. We don't think he is special in anyway, so we are very surprised to see he has become a star.'

Although golden pheasants can be found in many parts of the world today, the birds are native to China and are a protected animal species in the country.

Mr Gao said he was very proud that a precious Chinese bird could gain such media attention. He said: 'I expect more tourists to come to our zoo to see the pheasant now that he has been in the news.'
China's first aircraft carrier the Liaoning recently left a shipyard in Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province to start a new training mission, with the political commissar of the carrier saying it is constantly prepared for war.

Li Dongyou, the political commissar of the Liaoning, told the Global Times that "As a military force, we are always prepared for war and our combat capacity also needs to be tested by war. At this moment, we are doing our best to promote our strength and use it to prevent war, and are prepared for actual combat at any time."

The Liaoning as the first aircraft carrier commissioned into the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Surface Force, has always been described as a surface platform for tests and training by the PLA's official media, but now it has formally been described as having a real combat capacity.

Three US senior officers and military commanders have visited the Liaoning in the past, the 24th Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, the 30th and the 31st Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jonathan W. Greenert and Admiral John M. Richardson

"As a combat platform, regarding technology and capability to execute missions, China still lags behind the US, but three high-ranking US officials who visited the Liaoning before all gave a positive evaluation on the management affairs on the carrier: officers and soldiers' daily lives and training are well organized and the equipment maintenance is fine" Li said.

Don't miss:

In pictures: China's Liaoning aircraft carrier in training
Chinese President Xi Jinping's forthcoming visit to Latin America will restructure bilateral trade and promote a free trade agreement at a time when both sides are undergoing pressure from an economic downturn, experts said.

Xi will visit Ecuador, Peru and Chile from November 17 to 23 and attend the 24th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting on November 19 and 20 in Lima, Peru. It will be Xi's third visit to the continent since he took office in March 2013.

Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said his government not only welcomes Chinese investment in mining, but in ore smelting and mineral products, news site china.com.cn reported. Xu Shicheng, a research fellow in Latin American studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China wants to import more high added-value products, instead of just primary commodities. He also envisioned the free trade agreements China signed respectively with Peru and Chile to be upgraded during Xi's visit this time.

Trade volume between China and Latin America was $99.2 billion between January and June, a plunge of 11.3 percent compared with the same period last year. As the trade volume between China and Latin America has continued to decrease, it is necessary to change the trade structure, Xu said.

The Chinese economy has changed to a "new normal" of maintaining medium-to-high speed of growth. Annual GDP growth for the 2016-2020 period must maintain at a level of at least 6.5 percent. The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean set its economic growth projections for the region for 2016 at an average contraction of -0.9 percent.

Among visitors from the 21 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, the Chinese visitors rank the first in doing business and investing in Peru. From 2011 to 2015, 21,456 Chinese business people visited Peru.

Peru and Chile are both signatories to the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), however, the fate of this trade bloc faces uncertainties in the wake of the US presidential election. Yang pointed out that Peru and Chile are also members of the Pacific Alliance, the most active trade bloc in South America, and that they will be willing to promote a free trade agreement signed by Pacific-rim countries.
On Nov. 6, Zhao Zicong, a young Chinese boy, fell down a 40-meter dry well while helping his father harvest vegetables in the village of Zhongmengchang in Hebei province. The boy was found dead after search and rescue teams had spent 107 hours looking for him.

The county government has launched an investigation into all dry wells in Lixian. However, the boy's death has already sparked an outcry across the country. Who should be responsible for abandoned dry wells? The local departments of water resources, agriculture, and housing construction and urban-rural development all said that the wells are not in their domain, Hebei Daily reported on Nov. 14.

The northern and eastern regions of China have long experienced water supply issues, with underground water levels dropping to alarming lows in many areas. As a result, many wells have been abandoned as residents are forced to dig deeper for water. Indeed, almost every village in Hebei has abandoned wells. Most such wells have been filled in. However, there are still many unfilled ones hiding behind weeds or tall crops, creating a serious safety hazard.

But who should be responsible for the abandoned wells?

According to Li Baozan, an official in the Hebei village of Nanqingtong, a 4-year-old boy fell into an abandoned dry well in the village three years ago. That boy was ultimately rescued, but the village has attached great importance to the management of wells ever since. All abandoned wells in Nanqingtong have been filled. Wells that are still in use have been covered with heavy boards or even abandoned bathtubs.

"It is clearly stipulated in our village that the farmers who use the well should be responsible for its maintenance once it is abandoned," said Li.

Most people interviewed said that the safest form of maintenance is simply to fill in abandoned wells in a timely manner.

"No policy clearly states that the department of water resources is responsible for managing [the dry wells]. The owner of the wells should bear responsibility," said an employee of the Department of Water Resources of Hebei province.

Hebei's Department of Agriculture has also made it clear that the abandoned wells are not their job to safeguard.

"Our management domain does not cover dry wells; we recommend that you ask the agriculture and water resources sectors," the Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development answered when asked who bears responsibility.

Even the local government has little helpful advice. Sun Xiutian, an elderly man in Baoding, lost his wife six years ago when she fell into a dry well. He was told by a local official that the owner of the well was responsible, and the government had no budget for filling in wells or installing warning markers.

One thing remains clear: relevant sectors should take these "human-eating wells" seriously, and make it clear to whom their maintenance is entrusted.
Seven juveniles charged in an Oct. 25 mob attack near Allentown's Dieruff High School admitted to their roles Monday in juvenile court, District Attorney Jim Martin said.

Shown in an Allentown School District photo, Louis E. Dieruff High School is at 815 N. Irving St. in Allentown. (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

They admitted to charges of riot, a felony, and misdemeanor simple assault.

One juvenile was adjudicated and ordered into a secure placement," Martin's office said in a news release. "The remaining juveniles will have their dispositions ordered at a future date to be determined by the court."

Police arrested 13 teenagers in the afternoon attack that left two juvenile victims seriously injured. Both have recovered, Martin said.

Of the 13, nine are charged in juvenile court and four are charged as adults.

Authorities on Monday also announced the transfer of one case, against a 15-year-old who is charged, from district court to juvenile court, based on video evidence obtained of the assault. Though the victims were pistol-whipped, the evidence does not show the 15-year-old, Javien Sabater, wielding a handgun, as witness accounts had indicated, the district attorney had said.

Allentown police responded about 2:10 p.m. to the report of an assault and found the two victims. They were taken by ambulance for treatment of head trauma at area hospitals.

The attack started when a female Dieruff student was being mistreated during lunch on Oct. 25, and two 16-year-old boys stood up for her. That led to a confrontation, and the two sides planned to meet after school to fight, according to police.

The two 16-year-olds were met by a group of 50 students at North Kearney and East Washington streets, and the victims were assaulted by at least 20 students, police said.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and on Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
UPDATE: Missing sex offender nabbed, cops say

Bethlehem police are looking for a sex offender who allegedly failed to register under the state's version of Megan's Law.

Amin Taylor (Photo courtesy Pennsylvania State Police)

Amin Taylor, 33, is wanted on a warrant for failing to register with state police, failing to provide a verified address and failing to provide accurate registration information.

Taylor last updated his information with authorities on Oct. 10.

Police said Taylor, also known as Chris Taylor, has been seen in the Five Points area of Bethlehem, and anyone who sees him should immediately call 911.

Anyone with information regarding his location should contact Bethlehem police at 610-865-7187.

Taylor has had to register for an indecent assault case involving a victim under the age of 13 from May 2002, according to the state's Megan's Law website.

Taylor has repeatedly failed to register. He entered a no-contest plea to similar charges in October 2010 in Berks County, and faced similar charges in 2014 for failing to register his move from Reading to Bethlehem.

In the Bethlehem case, Taylor pleaded guilty in Northampton County Court to failing to comply with sex offender registration requirements, and was sentenced to nine to 18 months in prison.

Taylor was paroled in February, records show.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A woman driving a Toyota Camry collided with a tractor-trailer Tuesday morning on Freemansburg Avenue in Bethlehem Township.

Police said the crash occurred at 9:50 a.m. when Alexis Kniffin, of Bethlehem, was driving the 2007 Toyota east along Freemansburg near Farmersville Road and for an unknown reason drifted into the westbound lane.

Kniffin then collided with a 1990 International tractor-trailer driven by William Sandt Jr., of Allentown. Sandt was headed west on Freemansburg Avenue, police said.

Bethlehem Township Police Cpl. Shaun Powell said the the Toyota had to be towed; the rig was operable.

Kniffin, as well as a juvenile passenger, suffered minor injuries. Sandt was not injured. Their ages were not provided.

Kniffin will be cited with a traffic violation, Powell said.

The crash shut down Freemansburg Avenue for about an hour. The road reopened just before 10:45 a.m. Tuesday.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
If Nicholas Mullins looked like he was drunk, the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem is legally responsible for the alcohol-fueled beating he inflicted on his ex-fiancee, according to his lawyer.

Because Sands served the 31-year-old Lock Haven man 15 double Jamisons, he got drunk and inflicted a brain injury on Caitlin Shields and was shipped off to state prison for four years, according to Stuart M. Niemtzow.

"The question is whether Sands served him while he was physically intoxicated and whether that alcohol played a part, however small, in the fight that ensued later," Niemtzow said during opening arguments on Tuesday in the Northampton County civil trial.

Sands attorney Kevin J. Ruane said Mullins was never served while he was visibly intoxicated. He'll call security guards and casino staff to back up that claim. The fight was hours after Mullins consumed his last drink, he said.

"He was invited on the premises as a guest and he was treated as a guest," Ruane said.

Coverage of Mullins' conviction on the internet has made it difficult for him to date women or get a job, Niemtzow said. He recently learned the Veterans Administration will ask him to return $62,000 he collected on his pension while he was in prison. Because he's on probation he can't leave the county, Niemtzow said.

"He's not looking for a big payday. He's looking for compensation for what was taken away from him," Niemtzow said.

Jurors saw a surveillance video pared down from the 10 hours he spent on the casino floor on Jan. 22. The video shows him consuming 15 free drinks. Shields drank 12, Niemtzow said. Niemtzow maintains Mullins and Shields paid for two additional drinks in a restaurant, although that consumption wasn't on camera.

Niemtzow warned jurors to watch Mullins chug drinks, spill one on a poker table, have trouble getting money out of his pocket and bump into other patrons. Mullins appears among dozens of gamblers on the video and it's tough to spot him let alone follow his behavior. Mullins had to periodically highlight him with a laser pointer so jurors could follow him.

Niemtzow said Mullins suffers from a brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, was honorably discharged from the military and found to be 70 percent disabled.

He had been hiking prior to the casino visit and hadn't had a drink until he entered.

He suffered from alcohol poisoning at Pocono Downs about four months prior to the Sands incident, Niemtzow said.

Niemtzow said Mullins asked for a single room that night and asked the hotel to block any calls to his room. But Shields called the room and he allowed her to stay with him, where they fought over his gambling losses about 5 a.m. Jan. 23.

Ruane said the hotel register contradicts Mullins' claim.

Niemtzow said Shields instigated the fight. He said Mullins weighs 131 pounds to her 135 pounds. Mullins' calls for help to hotel security were ignored, he said.

Niemtzow said Mullins suffered a broken nose and swollen testicle before he struck Shields.

"Nick was beaten up before Caitlin was," he said. "Once he hit Caitlin he was pretty much in a daze, maybe knocked out."

Shields appeared in court after the beating covered in bruises and wearing a neck brace.

Mullins pleaded guilty to aggravated assault. Although he maintains he beat Shields in self-defense, he said he took the plea to convince prosecutors to drop an attempted homicide charge.

"Nick is here not asking for sympathy," Niemtzow told jurors. "He's only asking from you whether he deserves what the law allows him to get, which is compensation."

The trial is expected to last through the week.

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.
(Xinhua) 11:16, November 15, 2016

BRUSSELS, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- The European Union(EU)'s foreign and defence ministers on Monday agreed on a new plan on security and defense, EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said.

Mogherini has proposed an implementation plan on security and defense, to turn into action the vision set out in the EU Global Strategy, which is intended to guide EU foreign and security policy in the years to come.

"Today we decided all together, all 28 EU member states on the plan on security and defense. It is not about a European army. It is not about creating a new European Union shape-style headquarter... and it is not about competition or duplication with NATO," said Mogherini.

The plan sets out three priorities for the EU's security and defence ambition: responding to external conflicts and crises, building the capacities of partners, and protecting the Union and its citizens.

It also describes a set of concrete actions to enable the EU and its member states to fulfill the intentions, in full complementarity with NATO and in the framework of the UN system, according to a statement issued after the meeting.

The plan will be presented to the EU's Heads of State and Government at the next European Council in December 2016.
Lehigh Valley Academy's five-year charter extension is still being negotiated with the Bethlehem Area School District.

Lehigh Valley Academy Regional Charter School's charter is up for renewal. (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

But Bethlehem schools Superintendent Joseph Roy hopes that the two sides can reach an agreement by the school board's voting meeting next Monday.

About 1,013 of the school's 1,689 students are Bethlehem Area kids. The district expects to pay the school $11 million in tuition this year.

Charter schools are independent public schools funded by taxpayer dollars funneled from an enrolled student's home district. The K-12 charter school is located in leased office space off of Valley Center Parkway in Hanover Township, Northampton County.

Given its financial stake in the school, the district is trying to negotiate some cost saving measures as part of its charter school five-year extension review, Roy said. Those talks have centered on enrollment and transportation, he said.

Eventually, the charter school plans to enroll 1,950 students with 150 students per grade level. Students are selected through a competitive lottery that gives preference to Bethlehem Area and Saucon Valley School District students and siblings of current students.

"We are in talks because a charter is a contract," Roy said. "Hopefully, we will have that by next Monday."

When asked by School Director Eugene McKeon if the district was getting push back from the charter school, Roy hesitated to respond.

"We are having conversations," Assistant Superintendent Jack Silva chimed in.

The district has also raised concerns about Lehigh Valley Academy's alleged failure to properly follow public bidding laws when expanding, going so far as asking Auditor General Eugene DePasquale to investigate.

The districts also flagged the number of students actually graduating with an International Baccalaureate high school degree.

Students are taught in the IB method,which is a research-based method of teaching and learning that incorporates local and national standards. But it is up to each student to decide if they want to take the costly exams, similar to Advanced Placement tests, associated with the IB degree.

The school's Class of 2016 included 50 graduates and 11 of the students were awarded a full IB-diploma, while a number earned some certificates but did not take all of the exams, school CEO Susan Mauser has said.

Bethlehem school directors have questioned if there's a difference between its own schools and the charter school if students aren't graduating with an IB degree. Pennsylvania's charter school law stipulates that charter schools must be providing unique educational opportunities not available in traditional public schools.

School Director Dean Donaher said that the charter school has no incentive to work with the district on the terms it is seeking. They could reject all of the overtures and then just file an appeal with the state Charter School Appeal Board, which tends to rule in favor of charters, Donaher said.

Roy disagreed noting that the school resides in the district and most of its parents are district taxpayers.

"They have an interest as members of the community to respond to our requests for cost-saving measures," he said.

The board is scheduled to meet and vote on the charter extension Monday, Nov. 21, at 7 p.m. at East Hills Middle School.

Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Palmer Township residents are reporting black bear sightings throughout the township.

Police said there have been several reports and notifications made to officers in recent weeks. Most of the sightings were reported in the northern section of the township in the vicinity of Gruver and Hackett avenues.

The bears have not been aggressive, police said.

"This is also not a new occurrence and quite common for our area, and should not come as a shock," Lt. Wayne Smith tweeted Tuesday morning on Twitter.

Slate Belt Regional police also have had a similar share of sightings, especially in Pen Argyl.

Police after a previous bear sighting in Pen Argyl, urged residents not to feed the animals or bother them if there is a sighting.

Residents should call the Pennsylvania Game Commission if the bear is trashing property. Residents should put away bird feeders, put out trash as close to pickup time as possible, make sure trash is in garbage cans with lids and not leave food out, police had said.

Palmer Township police also continue to warn the public about possible roaming coyotes.

A pair of coyotes on Nov. 1 entered the back yard of a Palmer Township family and mauled their pet dog. The attack occurred along James Place.

Palmer Township police Chief Larry Palmer said last week the family was the first to report a coyote attack, but reports of sightings are common. The chief spotted a sick looking coyote just weeks ago at a gun range.

Tatamy and Forks Township police have also fielded reports of coyote sightings in recent years.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
An Allentown man was beaten and injured during a home invasion by three armed men, city police said.

Police arrested Brian Able Jr., 21; Calen Burton, 22, of Whitehall; and Jose Cortez, of Allentown, police Capt. Richard London said.

Each man faces robbery, burglary and related charges, and each went to Lehigh County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail.

The victim was taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital in Salisbury Township for treatment of his injuries, which are not life-threatening, police said.

City police were called at 1:56 a.m. Tuesday to an apartment in the 700 block of North Seventh Street for a burglary in progress.

When officers arrived, they saw three men running away and chased after them. At the same time, other officers found a 56-year-old man with head injuries, police said.

The victim lived in the apartment, and was not the only person home when the trio broke into the residence, police said.

The victim reported the men demanded money, and that one suspect had a shotgun and one had a handgun, London said. The trio hit the man on the head and back numerous times, and took his necklace, cellphone and money, according to police.

It appears this was not a random crime, London said.

The men ran when they saw police, and broke into a business below the victim's apartment, London said. A short standoff followed, and eventually the men surrendered to police without incident.

Police recovered the firearms, London said.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Rivers Casino is completing a one-year deal to donate $10 million to its host city Pittsburgh, according to a published report.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court in September struck down the slots portion of the local share program that provided casino host communities outside Philadelphia a different deal than casinos inside the city.

The law directed casinos outside of Philadelphia that make less than $500 million pay a minimum host fee of $10 million. If the casino makes more than $500 million, it pays 2 percent of its net slots revenue in local host fees. The three casinos in Philadelphia -- which also makes up Philadelphia County -- pay a 4 percent county host fee with no $10 million floor.

In Bethlehem for example, the slots host fee is $8.8 million, while the table games fee, which remains on the books, is $1.1 million.

The deal between Rivers and Pittsburgh is a "stopgap" measure, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. The Pennsylvania Legislature is trying to rewrite the law.

But if the law's not done during the 2017 budget year, Pittsburgh shouldn't have to worry about the $10 million, which "amounts to more than 200 city jobs," the newspaper said.

An announcement is expected later in the week, the newspaper said.

"To reinforce Rivers Casino's strong commitment to our hometown, we have worked collaboratively with city officials to ensure $10 million in annual local share payments from Rivers Casino to Pittsburgh will continue uninterrupted through 2017," casino General Manager Craig Clark told the newspaper.

In Bethlehem, where the Sands Casino slots host fee remains in the 2017 budget even through the cash isn't on the way, the city would need to borrow about $4.3 million in a short-term loan next summer if legislation doesn't get done, Mayor Bob Donchez said last week.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Ten years ago Bethlehem residents were engaged in lively debate about the benefits and drawbacks of allowing a casino on former Bethlehem Steel land. The proponents carried the day, and in 2009 the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem opened its doors to slot-machine gambling and dining. It expanded its offerings when table games were legalized in Pennsylvania. A hotel was built. Outlet shops were added 2011, followed by the Sands Bethlehem Event Center in 2012.

This week the Sands announced a $90 million expansion plan that will build upon a parking lot north of the casino, adding a new gaming area with more than 1,000 seats, more restaurant options and more restrooms.

The announcement came just days after New Jersey voters rejected a referendum that would have allowed casinos in the northern part of the state, which was seen as a boost for the Bethlehem casino's market.

Another issue is fixing the legislative flaw that led to a court voiding part of the host-fee agreement casinos have with their home towns. It is expected to be remedied by the Legislature in 2016. The city of Bethlehem receives about $10 million annually from the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem. Other nearby towns can apply for public improvement grants from a share of casino funds.

Overall, has the development and growth of the Sands casino been a good bet for Bethlehem? For the Lehigh Valley as a whole? Does the economic activity and jobs it generates outweigh the negatives associated with legalized gambling?

Have a say in our informal poll, and feel free to elaborate in the comments section.
State police

Upper Mount Bethel Township officials have been discussing the possibility of providing an office for Pennsylvania State Police at the township municipal building.

(Express-Times File Photo)

Discussions to allow Pennsylvania State Police to use Upper Mount Bethel Township municipal offices may be stalled due to insurance issues.

Township officials have been talking to state police about setting up an office for troopers to use during their patrols.

Unless a disagreement regarding insurance and liability concerns can be worked out, that situation may be unlikely.

The township relies exclusively on state police coverage since it disbanded its own force in 1996 due to infighting with police officers and turmoil between the department and township supervisors.

State police cover the township mainly from the Belfast barracks in Plainfield Township, which are over a half-hour drive to some parts of Upper Mount Bethel.

Due to safety concerns, state police representatives have said they would not reveal the frequency of patrols or response times in Upper Mount Bethel or any other region police cover.

Some township officials say they are receiving reports from residents that police often take 20 minutes or longer to respond to calls for assistance.

Supervisors' Chairman John Bermingham relayed a story from a resident who told him she pulled into her driveway and saw a suspicious person on her property. She called for help and waited for 30 minutes for police to respond, according to Bermingham.

Bermingham said he called state police to ask how to reduce response times. State police officials suggested providing an office and parking for police vehicles in the township, according to Bermingham.

Police would then have a place to stop, write reports, use computers and perform other duties. That local convenience might increase the frequency of officers in the area, Bermingham said.

Township insurance agents requested formal agreements with state police that would include being named as additional insured on insurance policies, and having hold harmless and indemnification clauses in place.

Township solicitor Ron Karasek said police attorneys returned a memo deleting the insurance requirements. Police attorneys are looking for a less formal understanding that keeps each party separately responsible for potential liabilities, Karasek said.

"I think we have an issue," Karasek said. "It might be a deal breaker."

Bermingham said he plans to speak to the insurance agents and state police to try to find a deal with which both sides are comfortable.

State legislation proposed earlier this year would require a $156 per capita fee for municipalities with state police coverage. Upper Mount Bethel's approximate population of 6,100 would cost the township about $950,000 if such legislation were to pass.

"We can't afford state (police) if it goes through," Bermingham said.

Supervisor David Due said he has spoken to Slate Belt Regional Police Chief David Mettin about the township joining that force but there has been no formal proposal.

Another option may be for the township to join with neighboring Portland and East Bangor to create a new regional department. Supervisor Larry Hallett created an informal report in 2014 that estimated that scenario would cost the township about $450,000 per year.

The current unadopted draft of the 2017 budget contains $2,000 to conduct a police study to provide supervisors with possible options. Due said township leaders need to start thinking about options before state legislation forces their hand.

"You don't wait until it happens," Due said. "You prepare."

John Best is a freelance writer. Find lehighvalleylive on Facebook.
There will be no testimony this month on a deadly 2013 Phillipsburg shooting.

The trial of Salim Newton, which began late last month, has been adjourned after the 30-year-old defendant changed attorneys, according to court staff.

Newton faces 30 years to life imprisonment if convicted of the murder charge. He is also charged with burglary, criminal contempt and weapons counts.

He is accused of shooting to death 22-year-old Melissa Williams, the mother of his child, three years ago in her Phillipsburg home. Newton was arrested about a month later in Virginia.

The trial started with the jury selection process on Oct. 24. Proceedings were halted last week when the court was closed two days for Election Day and Veterans Day. On Monday, Judge H. Matthew Curry spent much of the morning in his chambers, periodically summoning the attorneys to meet with him in private.

Warren County Assistant Prosecutor Victor Jusino is leading the case against Newton, who had been represented by the public defender's office. Court staff said Newton is now represented by Denville, N.J.-based attorney Michael Priarone.

Priarone recently mounted defenses for two major Warren County court cases. Last fall, he got a jury to acquit 26-year-old Andy Torres of first-degree murder, though Torres was still convicted of felony murder and sentenced to 40 years in prison. More recently, a jury found Priarone's client Donald Jessamine not guilty of all charges stemming from a fatal 2012 boating accident on the Delaware River.

A status conference in Newton's case is planned for Dec. 9.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
(Xinhua) 11:37, November 15, 2016

NAIROBI, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Embassy in Kenya on Monday provided 20 scholarships worth 20,000 U.S. dollars for needy university students to enable them to pursue a range of humanities and science courses.

Chinese Ambassador to Kenya Liu Xianfa said the scholarships for underprivileged but bright students are at the heart of the blossoming China-Kenya cooperation in education and skills transfer.

"Science, education and humanities exchanges have become one of the pillars of China-Kenya bilateral relations," said Liu, adding that Kenya has become a training hub for Chinese language and culture

So far, 58 Kenyan university students from poor backgrounds have benefited from the Chinese Ambassador's scholarship launched in 2013.

The scholarship program was initiated by the Chinese embassy and the University of Nairobi to cover tuition fees for students from poor families pursuing courses like engineering, medicine, economics and finance.

Liu said beneficiaries of the scholarship program have been instrumental in driving Kenya's socio-economic transformation agenda.

He added that China-Kenya collaboration in science, technology and innovations has unleashed huge benefits in critical sectors like agriculture, health, energy and telecommunications.

The ambassador reaffirmed China's commitment to nurturing of youth talent in Kenya to speed up economic growth and social renewal.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Academic Affairs at University of Nairobi Henry Mutoro hailed the Chinese Ambassador scholarship program for transforming the lives of needy students through acquisition of lifelong skills.

"The 58 students who have benefited from the scholarship program have not disappointed and continue to excel in academic studies," said Mutoro.

He lauded the blossoming partnership between Kenyan and Chinese universities that has focused on joint training and research programs in languages, humanities and sciences.

Apart from hosting one of the largest Confucius institute in Sub-Saharan Africa, the University of Nairobi has forged linkages with Chinese academic institutions on modern skills training.
Paddy Hackett would have been impressed.

This was something more than a funeral; more than the enactment of a religious ceremony marking the end of a life.

Paddys death was a focal point for the coming together of people who know Naas more as a town with its own identity and less a growing sprawl of development driven by proximity to the capital.

It was a gathering of old Naas and we know therell be fewer of them as time passes.

Shortly after 11am on Wednesday last, the beech wood coloured coffin bearing the remains of one of the towns best known citizens was borne from the Church of Our Lady and St David on the Sallins Road.

It was carried on the shoulders of six members of Naas GAA club and placed on top was a Naas GAA jersey.

More members of the club, wearing crested armbands, flanked the hearse as the cortege left the church grounds, snaking around Poplar Square and onto the Dublin Road, reducing the speed of the midday traffic to the pace of a stroll.

Its slow progress continued on to the St Corbans parish cemetery, interrupted briefly as it halted outside the entrance to St Corbans Place, where the 82 year old died suddenly at his home two days previously.

Paddy Hackett was a man who lived an ordinary life.

His requiem mass was concelebrated by parish priest Fr Liam Morgan and retired curate Fr Jimmy Doyle, who served in Naas for many years and who shares Paddys enthusiasm for the GAA. It was a simple but poignant ceremony.

Padraig McManus delivered a funeral mass reading which included the lines in the eyes of the unwise, they did appear to die, their going looked like a disaster, their leaving us like annihilation but they are at peace.

His brother Liam McManus, Marie Kane, Eamonn Denieffe and Pat OShea read prayers and Deborah, Paddys grand niece, recited a poem.

Paddy was omnipresent in Naas. Fr Morgan said he was part of our town, our parish, our local community.

He told a story of two natives returning to a Naas that had changed utterly. As they were driving through, the place was so unrecognisable that one asked if they were in the right town.

Indeed we are, theres Hackett, said the other.

There was a liberal sprinkling of Naas GAA members, some wearing the club colours, among the congregation who heard Fr Morgan recite part of Padraic Colums A Drover.

This was reference to Paddys early life spent herding livestock when it was possible to drive cattle along local roads from one fair to another.

He worked as a chap; they were tough days, hard days (but) there was a survivor about him.

Referring to the poem, Fr Morgan said Paddy would more likely to be thinking of a local dance than Colums King o Spains daughter.

Paddy, he noted, had a fondness for a bet, preferring to support individual jockeys rather than trainers or fluctuating prices.

The best day he had on the horses was when Frankie Dettori managed the near-impossible feat of piloting seven winners to victory on the same day, 20 years ago at Ascot. His love of the GAA was constant to him, he liked being with the lads and being part of the club. It was his family. Imelda (his niece) kept an eye on him and club members also did.

He had loyalty too  even refusing admission to a former president who arrived without a ticket to Fr Brennan Park (the former club home) for a function in 1973.

I hope St Peter will be an easier man at the gates of Heaven than Paddy was that day, Fr Morgan said to some laughter.

Morgan Lalor, a retired vice principal at St Corbans boys primary school and whos immersed in hurling in Naas GAA said thanks very much was a phrase Paddy frequently used.

He paid tribute to the many people who helped Paddy, like Pat Barrett, especially more recently as his health began to fail and to the Care of the Aged group.

He had a huge number of friends in Naas GAA he said like Donie Bracken, Mick Kelly, Timmy Coyle and Marie Kane who has a heart of gold.

Paddy didnt drive and relied on others for lifts to games. In 1994 he was to travel with Pat OShea, Jack Phelan and Eoin Hearty to Aughrim for a provincial fixture between Naas and Kiltegan.

When he didnt show, the trio went anyway wondering aloud as they entered the ground if Paddy had gotten there. Hes in there alright, said the man on the gate who overheard them.

He was well known within the GAA.

More than that though, added Mr Lalor, he never complained about what life threw at him. He was the last great character in Naas.

He is survived by niece Imelda and her children Alan and Deborah.
Lawyers for a Kildare man who raped an 11-year-old girl have said he should not be jailed because he was a minor at the time of the assaults.

The now 23-year-old, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim, set up blindfold games with the girl during which he would put his penis into her mouth.

The victim told the Central Criminal Court that the abuse made her feel sick and that the abuser had a control over her which struck fear into her.

Hugh Hartnett SC, defending, pointed to legal authorities that state an offender must be sentenced based on his age and other circumstances at the time of offending. He said this meant that the court must take as a starting point for sentencing his age of 15.

He added that under 2001 Childrens Act detention must be considered only as a last resort when sentencing a legal juvenile.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt said he accepted that the starting point for sentencing must be that he was 15 at the time. The judge said that unlike most other rape cases this case was arguably not one where it was simply a matter of deciding how long to jail the offender for.

Maybe this is a different case. It's a very finely balanced matter. I want to give it some thought, he said.

Earlier he pointed out to the defence that the Court of Appeal had recently overturned as unduly lenient a suspended sentence imposed on Norwegian Magnus Meyer Hustveit (26), who pleaded guilty to repeatedly raping his then partner while she slept.

The man pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault in a shed at his home in Co. Kildare on dates in October and December 2008. He also pleaded guilty to oral rape at his home in April 2009 and in a woodland near his home in May 2009.

After his arrest in 2013 the man admitted the offending. He told gardai that it was just an experiment and that he had wondered what it would be like.

He said he was very sorry. He has no other convictions. The victim, now aged 19, said the abuse took away her childhood and destroyed her self-confidence.

Mr Justice Hunt adjourned the case to November 28 next for sentence. He remanded the man on continuing bail. He told the man's lawyers that allowing him to stay out on bail was no indication of what his sentence will be.
The Leitrim Observer is excited to announce the return of a special promotion for its readers in association with the award-winning Carrick Cineplex in Carrick-on-Shannon.



Readers can avail of buy one get one free cinema tickets by simply cutting out and presenting the coupon on page 2 of this weeks paper in shops tomorrow morning, Wednesday November 16. (Terms & Conditions apply).



Watch all the latest releases on the big screen projected by top of the range Sony 4K equipment in the comfort of a reclining seat in one of four luxury screens accompanied by your favourite snacks, gourmet coffees and wines.

Theres lots to keep you entertained this week, highlights include:



Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them

Opening Friday, November 18 this British-American fantasy film directed by David Yates is a spin-off of the Harry Potter film series, written by J.K. Rowling.

Set in 1926, it chronicles the adventures of writer Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) in New York's secret community of witches and wizards seventy years before Harry Potter reads his book in school.



Carrick Film Society

Dont miss our weekly world film screenings every Thursday at 8.30pm  all are welcome. This weeks presentation is 'Louder Than Bombs' directed by Joachim Trier (UK & Norway), showing on Thursday, November 17 at 8.30pm.

In this gripping drama a widower (Gabriel Byrne) and his two sons must cope with new details about the death of his wife (Isabelle Huppert), a famed war photographer.



MET Opera Live from New York

On Saturday, December 10 December at 5.55pm dont miss L'amour De Loin (Love From Afar), Kaija Saariaho's yearning medieval romance presented live on the big screen in HD from New Yorks Metropolitan Opera House.

Pre-booking is essential, please phone( 071) 9672000.

For full movie listings visit www.carrickcineplex.ie or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat @CarrickCineplex.
Chinas implementation of a universal two-child policy will impose higher requirements on early education resources, resulting in a possible shortage of kindergarten spots, according to a survey by China Youth Daily. The survey estimates that kindergartens will be 110,000 spaces short of demand by 2021.

According to the survey, the two-child policy cannot reverse falling birthrate in the long term, but challenges like insufficient early education teachers will emerge in the short term. Early education demand will soar in 2019, placing stress upon kindergarten institutions, the survey said. Schools are advised to shift their focus to teaching quality between 2021 and 2035, as the effect of the policy will have slowed by then.

The report stated that China launched the two-child policy to reverse low birthrates and combat its aging population. However, a negative side effect of the decision is its impact on education resources. As the first group of students born after the enactment of the policy will come to school age in 2019, it is anticipated that the policy will have its maximum impact from 2019 to 2021.

Specifically, school-age children will increase by almost 6 million in 2019, 11 million in 2020 and then reach the peak of 15 million in 2021. After that, the number will fall back to 14 million in 2022 and remain at 12 million in both 2023 and 2024.

The report suggested that the Ministry of Education allocate resources based on predicted numbers. In addition, current education resources should be integrated to relieve the pressure caused by the two-child policy, and the quality of kindergarten teachers should be improved.

In a word, the growing disparity between the number of school-age children and relatively limited education resources remains a noticeable issue in China. It is only through the integration of education resources and the promotion of education quality that this problem can be solved, the report concluded.
SEVERAL key public agencies across Limerick are to join forces for a major new safety and wellbeing campaign.

The pilot initiative which will see targeted messages being broadcast on radio is being supported by Limerick City and County Council, An Garda Siochana, the HSE and the UL Hospitals Group.

The hashtag #LKworkingtogether will be used on social media throughout the campaign which will focus on three specific areas  road safety, mental health and safer communities.

A major checkpoint is in place on the Dock Road as part of a new safety and wellbeing campaign #LKworkingtogether @Limerick_Leader pic.twitter.com/n5klPe5Bc4 November 14, 2016

Conn Murray, chief executive of Limerick City and County Council, says the campaign is a reflection of the collaboration that already exists between the agencies.

Nothing works alone, every agency is totally dependant on the other  who turns up when accidents happen? You have got the ambulance, the guards and the fire service so automatically there is a operation on the ground to manage that scenario, he said.

This winter we are making a special effort to enhance this (relationship). We are joining forces to provide the public with key messages of vital importance during the winter months, said Bernard Gloster, Chief Officer with the HSE Mid West.

The radio ads, which have been voiced by professionals, are being backed up other events including high visibility checkpoints during which advise will be issued to motorists.
RIVERDANCE composer and Limerick native Bill Whelan has given his backing to a influential new group designed to promote Shannonside on the banks of the Liffey.

Mr Whelan is a part of Capital Limerick, a group of Limerick professionals and business people based in Dublin, who will host a sell-out fundraiser lunch in the Marker Hotel this Friday, November 18.

The groups aim is to promote and enhance Limerick's profile and reputation as one of the state's prime economic and socio-cultural hubs, and as a centre of excellence in leadership in all fields including business, sports, politics, and culture.

The group is backed by some of Limericks most prominent and successful people and companies including Matheson, BDO, STL Logistics and Pallas Foods.

Mr Whelan said: As a proud Limerick person, I think Capital Limerick is an excellent idea and I am delighted to support it. Capital Limerick will provide a really invaluable forum for those of us based in Dublin, who want to give back to Limerick, which personally has given a lot to me.

"I have no doubt that Capital Limerick will be a resounding success  when Limerick people go about our business then nothing can stop us.

Fridays luncheon will begin at noon, with guests hearing an opening address from Tourism Minister Patrick ODonovan.

Following lunch, there will be a panel discussion featuring St Marys Park born Trish Long, vice-president and general manager, Walt Disney, and Mungret man John Moran, a director and member of the European Investment Bank.
MARY Immaculate College is pumping money into a multi-million euro library project despite a lack of funding while it awaits finalisation on Government funding.

In recent weeks, numerous TDs have called on Minister for Education Richard Bruton to shed more light on the 21m library development  announced this August  in relation to his views on the urgent need for the project, and the timeframe for the provision of capital funding for the project.

This follows a campaign in late September, led by Mary Immaculate Students Union (MISU) president James Deegan, who wrote to 158 TDs and 60 senators, seeking support in securing capital funding for the library project.

In the letter, it states: The library project continues to be the most urgent capital priority project at MIC and despite a lack of funding, the college has proceeded with this project using its own funds.

BDP Architects completed a feasibility study, which showed that the current facility is wholly unsuitable and did not meet contemporary requirements under a number of building regulations, including health and safety. Following a cost benefit analysis, it found that a new building was deemed to be the best value for money and the most effective solution.

If the college receives the go-ahead from Limerick City and County Council next month, MIC will demolish its current 210-seater library in stages, in order to construct a new 4,955 square metre facility by 2018.

When the current library was constructed in 1978, 250 seats were provided for 750 students, a ratio of three to one. There are now 3,400 students with 40 fewer seats. MIC president, Prof Michael A Hayes said that 5,000 students are expected to enrol by 2020.

MISU received a response from the Ministers office, stating: The needs of the College will be considered in the context of the budgetary resources and having regard to competing demands.

The Union had received a similar response from the previous Minister for Education, Jan OSullivan, Mr Deegan said.

It seems that one of the forefront runners of teacher education and liberal arts courses in the country is being neglected.

As the representative body of the students of MIC, we need to ensure that the library can cater for the growing student numbers and that the library building is a safe and comfortable space for them to study and work in. This is not currently the case. MISU will keep the issue of funding for the Library Building at the top of our work agenda. The issue cannot be put on the long finger until the next budget, it needs to be resolved now, he stated.

He said that the Union will engage with local politicians to push the issue with the Government, and will be contacting Minister Bruton to request a meeting with him to discuss the issue.

The new library will feature a range of learning areas from silent study blocks to group work rooms. It will have over 550 study places, and will be able to store some-200,000 books.
A GROUP of cyclists are set to make their way from Limerick to Rosslare Harbour in memory of one of Limericks most famous sons, Terry Wogan, and in recognition for his work with Children in Need.

They will be joined on the 220km cycle over two days by another group from Fishguard in Wales, to raise funds for the Jack and Jill foundation.

They will depart from the address where Sir Terry grew up, in Elm Park, Ennis Road. The UK contingent will be fundraising in aid of Children in Need, and hope to raise 2,000, while the Irish cyclists are seeking to raise 3,000.

Among the group of 15 cyclists is a man from Adare, who works with a freight company, while the Irish team is being led by Baku GLS Limited in Rosslare.

Sir Terry hosted the hugely popular Children in Need programme for 35 years up until his illness last year. The cycle will coincide with this years Children in Need, which will be held on November 18, and will be hosted by another veteran Irish broadcaster, Graham Norton.

The father of four passed away on January 31 last at the age of 77, and there are plans to commemorate him in his native Limerick, where he was made a Freeman.

To date they have raised nearly 1,700. Click here to donate.
THE Team Limerick Clean-Up initiative that saw thousands of people come out for a mammoth community event in March has been shortlisted for a European award.

The initiative, backed by JP McManus and Limerick City and County Council, is Irelands largest community clean-up event and has been nominated for the European Excellence Awards in Berlin.

The awards recognise and honour outstanding performance in an extensive range of categories embracing organisations, companies and projects and TLC has been shortlisted along with four other European nominations for the Sustainability and Environment Award.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony in Berlin on December 8.

Mr McManus said the nomination was a truly momentous accolade for the Team Limerick Clean-Up.

The great numbers that have supported TLC in its two years in existence have reflected so well on peoples willingness to do good and support something worthwhile, he said.

This shortlisting is a wonderful acknowledgement of the tremendous work carried out by all the volunteers who have shown such commitment to making TLC an outstanding success.

TLC was initiated in 2015 by Mr McManus, Paul OConnell and Helen ODonnell who wanted to create an event which would see communities across all divides coming together on the same day every year to help clean up their neighbourhoods.

Around 14,000 people turned out for the second staging of the clean-up on Good Friday, with around 50,000 bags of rubbish collected.

The TLC initiative is sponsored by the JP McManus Benevolent Fund and is co-ordinated by Limerick City and County Council and partnered by the Limerick Leader, Limericks Live 95FM, and Mr Binman.

Council CEO Conn Murray hailed an event that has captured the imagination of the people of Limerick.

It may only be in its infancy, having begun in 2015, but it has already become part of the fabric of community life here in Limerick.

There is a sense of ownership and pride in the project, with more and more people willing to get involved, all for the betterment of their communities and Limerick as a whole.
THE role of the artist in bearing witness to the horrors and inhumanities of the world is at the heart of an exhibition by poet and artist Jo Slade which opens in Limerick city this Thursday.

Entitled The White Cottage, the name given to Bunker 2, the second gas chamber to be put into operation at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942, it is an installation, incorporating poetry, paintings, photographs, sculptures, objects and video.

I have been working on this for a number of years. says Jo. "It has been an amazing journey."

That journey began with an old newspaper clipping which she came upon in unusual circumstances and it sparked an interest in Edith Stein, a Polish born scholar and philosopher, a Jewish woman who in her 40s became a Catholic Carmelite nun.

Edith Stein was arrested by the Nazis and murdered in a gas chamber in Auschwitz Birkenau in August 1942 but who was murdered in the White Cottage gas chamber in Auschwitz Birkenau in August, 1942.

Edith was canonized in 1998.

I became interested in her, started to read up about her and to read her work, Jo explains.

A hand-made book of paintings and poems followed but then Jo decided to develop it further into the encompassing work that will go on display.

In 2007, Jo travelled to Auschwitz Birkenau and saw the remains of The White Cottage or The Little White House, originally a farm cottage but brought into use as a gas chamber in June 1942.

It is, Jo says, a deeply personal investigation into Steins life but she tried to widen it out, from the Holocaust to other horrors that humanity visits on other human beings, to what we do one another and why.

As part of that journey of investigation, questions emerged which Jo believes are still pertinent today - the need to challenge established ways of thinking and highlight the condition of the outsider, the displaced and the forgotten, to look at the thin line between the familiar and the foreign and to explore the influence of personal histories on the collective memory.

I thought about the role of the artist as a witness in the world. It is not about preaching. It is my own personal experience of trying to express compassion and horror, Jo explains.

In the face of some horrors, she adds: I feel helpless. I have no control.

Sometimes, all that can be done, is to call it up and leave it out there.

It is about bearing witness. What else can we do? The poem says Keep your eyes open. Keep them wide open .If we can do nothing, at least be clear about what we see, what we see is real, she says.

Because The White Cottage is an installation, none of the pieces of work that make it up will be for sale. But a book of ten of Jos poems along with some of her images has been designed by her graphic designer son John and copies of this book can be bought at the exhibition.

Making it very much a family affair, Johns wife, Aoife McInerney, also a graphic designer, did the posters and invitations for the exhibition while Jos second son, David and his wife, Gemma Addy, created the photographs and videos.

The exhibition runs from Thursday, November 17 to December 1 in The Sailors Home, OCurry St and can be visited each week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays between 11am and 4pm.
Multi-cultural family: Ivanka Trump took to Instagram on to share an adorable video of her four-year-old daughter Arabella singing in Mandarin to celebrate the Chinese New Year (Photo: Mail Online)

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has been harsh on China during the campaign, but his daughter Ivanka Trump has been busy preparing the family business for a future relationship with China.

Trumps granddaughter Arabella has won Chinese hearts after a video of her reciting Chinese poetry resurfaced on Chinese social media in the wake of Trumps victory. The video, which was uploaded by Ivanka to her Instagram account in February, shows Arabella in a red dress performing Chinese songs and poems.

Out of Ivanka Trumps 13,000-plus tweets, 19 of them use the word China or Chinese. Since 2010, Ivanka has used Twitter to wish her Chinese followers a Happy New Year almost every year. Ivanka frequently uses the opportunity to share her daughters interest in China and to show off her daughters progress in learning Chinese. Arabella has reportedly been studying Mandarin since she was 18 months old.

Ivanka made her first move to break into Chinas luxury market with her jewelry boutiques, first in Hong Kong and then later in Beijing, but her real passion seems to be Trump Hotels. When Ivanka was in Hong Kong to discuss the Trump Hotels Collections China strategy at the 23rd annual Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific in 2012, she said that in the next 10 years Trump Hotels would be the Trump organizations most valuable asset.

According to reports by Chinese media outlets, Trump has filed some 82 trademarks in China since 2006, two of which were filed just months before he announced his presidential campaign, and Ivanka has been trying to break into the Chinese market since at least 2010.

Obviously, the Trump family has a strong connection with and a clear focus on expanding the family business to China. So what does this all mean for China-U.S. relations?

Despite some uncertainty, China can be cautiously optimistic that Trump the president will cooperate with China for the benefit of both countries. In fact, his tune has already started to change. On November 14, Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke to President-elect Donald Trump in a telephone conversation. According to reports, Xi congratulated Trump on his election victory and the two discussed China-U.S. relations. Both agreed that it is important to strengthen the bilateral relationship, and Trump reportedly called China a great and important country. Interest does not necessarily translate into friendliness, but as a businessman turned president who remains committed to the future of China, perhaps Trump will take a pragmatic approach with China-U.S. relations.

Related:

Two-way direct investment between U.S., China accelerating

China, U.S. to discuss law enforcement cooperation
[File photo]

Chinese authorities approved 17 transport infrastructure projects from Oct. 14 to Nov. 14, with a total investment of 353.6 billion RMB. Experts pointed out that investment has become a crucial means of support for Chinas economy, and more investment will be poured into infrastructure in the next four months.

Recent projects have highlighted the importance of railway construction, with six projects receiving a total of 222.7 billion RMB in investment. The most expensive project, at 64.1 billion RMB, was approved on Nov. 14 and will build a 432-kilometer railway connecting Shenzhen and Ganzhou in Jiangxi province.

In addition to railway construction, Chinese authorities have also approved capital investment in highways, metros, airports and sea ports.

Downward pressure on Chinas fixed-asset investment is the main driver for the countrys massive approval of capital construction. Chinas investment in fixed assets (excluding rural households) was trillion RMB in the past 10 months, with a growth of only 8.3 percent.

Due to favorable policies, investment in China is growing steadily, though fixed-asset investment is still facing downward pressure, said Li Pumin, secretary general of the National Development and Reform Commission, to Thepaper.cn.

According to a report from China Securities Journal, infrastructure serves as an impetus for the Chinas steady economic growth. Though the yield of capital construction is relatively low, it nevertheless has a positive exterior effect on the countrys investment growth. Meanwhile, China still has a strong demand for infrastructure - especially roads, communication facilities and water conservation projects in rural areas.

More investment will be put into infrastructure in the first quarter of 2017, as this move will stimulate Chinas economic growth in the second and third quarters of the year,said Wang Tao, a chief economist of the United Bank of Switzerland.
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Mr. President, this is no ordinary trial, for here we are waging a part of the determined battle of civilization to preserve the entire world from destruction  If there is no justification for punishment of individuals who have already brought civilization to the brink of disaster, then justice itself is a mockery.

The above remarks are recited from the opening statement of Joseph B. Keenan to the International Military Tribunal Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trials, as chief prosecutor in 1946.

By quoting these words at an international forum on the Tokyo Trials and world peace, held on November 12, Gao Wenbin, a 95-year-old professor who witnessed the Tokyo trials in court, stressed the importance of the trials in enlightening later generations.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the opening of the Tokyo Trials. By bringing those who waged aggressive war and murdered innocent people in the victimized countries to account, the trials on Japanese war criminals 70 years ago upheld international justice and defended the dignity of humanity.

Scholars commented that the Tokyo Trials were a further settlement than the war itself, because it used the power of the law instead of military power. Its significance is not confined to those involved, but offers insight and enlightenment to later generations.

Experts from different countries noted at the seminar that the Tokyo Trials were of vital importance in a host of spheres, like international politics, international law and historic course.

In the perspective of international politics, it laid the foundation for the post-war international order in Asia along with the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation.

In terms of international law, the Tokyo Trials represent the victory of justice instead of the victory of the winners. It enriched the principle of nulla poena sine lege (no penalty without a law) and cemented the consensus that no war is legal. The concepts derived from this consensus, such as crimes of aggression, crimes against humanity as well as individuals are responsible for war crimes, provide a crucial reference to the theoretical studies and practice of international law.

The Tokyo Trials also worked as a recorder of history. The evidence gathered for the trials constituted a giant database for history, covering Japanese history from the end of the 1820s to its surrender in 1945, especially the aggression war launched by Japanese rulers as well as the crimes they committed during the war.

With detailed files and testimonies, the Tokyo Trials provided damning evidence of the crimes committed by Japanese militarists and stands as a warning to the world and the future.

The meanings behind the studies on the Tokyo Trials go beyond academic and historical importance. If put under the context of post-war politics in East Asia, Japans attitude toward the Tokyo Trials almost serves as an indicator of its political ecosystem.

Words about denials of the Tokyo Trials were not on the horizon of the Japanese public before 1970s, but such ideology emerged in the 1980s as its right-wing forces mulled a complete reshuffle of post-war politics. This kind of mentality prevailed to political, ideological, academic, educational and cultural circles since the beginning of 1990s as Japan fought hard to be a global political power.

With the right gaining more ground in Japans political arena in the past few years, some senior officials uttered remarks about distortions in the trials, and some even staged concrete actions to smear the final ruling of the trials. The repeated visits of Japanese officials to the notorious war-linked Yasukuni Shrine are one such example.

Last summer, the Liberal-Democratic Party of Japan (LDP) even announced that they would conduct an investigation and verification of the procedures of the Tokyo trials, which reveals Japans intention of historical revisionism.

The recent events in Asia, especially a series of actions Japan made to breach the post-war system, have raised concerns about the current regional peace. Against such a background, it is certainly important that different countries come together to ease anxiety and maintain regional stability by protecting the authority and solemnity of international law and order.

In other words, each country in East Asia and international society should frequently consider the historical and realistic meanings of the Tokyo trials in a correct way.

A Japanese journalist once made a metaphor at the first day of the Tokyo Trials, saying each scene can be compared to the classics of Shakespeare. As the unique appeal of Shakespeares work lies in its enlightenment beyond time, the Tokyo trials will demonstrate more far-reaching significance with the history moving forward.
Chinese President Xi Jinpings upcoming state visit to Peru is of milestone significance in bilateral ties, Chinese Ambassador to Peru Jia Guide wrote in an article published in the Peoples Daily on Monday, before Xi kicked off his tour.

During his Peruvian trip, Xi is also scheduled to attend the 24th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in capital Lima.

It is believed that the two ancient civilizations, respectively located on the east and west coast of the Pacific Ocean, will write a new chapter of friendship under the political guidance of the two heads of state, Jia added.

With ancient civilizations, abundant resources and diversified and inclusive culture, Peru enjoys a long-standing friendship with China, the ambassador said, citing the remarks of former Peruvian President Alan Garcia and incumbent President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

Garcia once praised China's social and economic reforms as one of the two major progresses of the late 20th century in world, together with globalization, while Kuczynski hailed the importance of China's development to the future of the world. Kuczynski also chose China as the destination of his first overseas visit after assuming office, which reflects the sound development of bilateral ties.

Jia further elaborated that as a reflection of China-Peru friendship, the number of ethnic Chinese people living in Peru has increased to 10 percent of the countrys population, since they first set foot on this Latin American country in 1849.

Over 10,000 restaurants offering Chinese cuisine in Peru not only light up Peruvian catering industry, but represent a fusion of two cultures, the diplomat added in the article.

Jia lauded the fruits reaped from bilateral ties since the two countries established diplomatic relationship 45 years ago, citing the frequent high-level exchanges, deepening mutual political trust, increasing trade and investment, improving cooperation mechanisms, mutual support in multilateral fields, and enhanced cultural exchanges.

Peru is the only Latin American nation that has established a comprehensive strategic partnership, and at the same time, has inked a comprehensive free trade agreement with China, underlined the ambassador.

With an investment of more than $14 billion in Peru, China is also the country's largest trading partner, export destination and source of imports, he stressed, adding that more than 170 Chinese enterprises have invested and developed business on Perus soil.

China's mobile phones, automobiles and engineering machines are popular in the Peruvian market, while the avocados, grapes and alpaca products from Peru are also favored by Chinese customers, Jia further explained.

In the article, Jia also affirmed Chinas appreciation of the theme of this years APEC meeting, namely Quality Growth and Human Development, saying that it has common ground with China's 13th Five-Year Plan to promote economic transformation and upgrade.

China and Peru share a consensus in facilitating regional economic integration, building Asia-Pacific free trade zone, advancing trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, opposing protectionism, and pushing forward economic globalization and inclusive development, the diplomat emphasized.

China will work with other regional partners to build an open and interconnected Asia-Pacific economy featuring innovation-driven development and integration of interests, he said.

According to him, the exchange of visits between the two heads of state in two months, which is rare in the world, reflects the close relationship between the two countries and their firm will to bolster their ties.

The converging points shared by China and Peru in their development goals and internal demands provide them with unprecedented opportunities to deepen cooperation, said Jia. He illustrated that Peru is determined to realize modernization before 2021, the bicentennial of the country's independence, while China also aims to achieve its first centenary goal in 2021, also the centenary of the founding of the CPC.

In addition, as Peru is working to diversify its industries and accelerate industrialization and China needs to export its production capacity, the two nations, standing at a critical stage of economic transition, will embrace the vast opportunities in cooperation on infrastructure, resource, mining and manufacturing, Jia concluded.
HONG KONG, Nov. 15 -- Hong Kong's High Court on Tuesday ruled that two legislators-elect, who used insulting language against the Chinese nation while taking their oaths last month, must be disqualified as lawmakers.

The ruling came after the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government and Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying filed a judicial review on Oct. 18 against the decision by the president of the Legislative Council (LegCo) to give the pair a second chance to be sworn in.

Justice Thomas Au ruled in favor of the SAR government, finding that the oaths purportedly taken by the two are invalid and void and have no legal effect.

The duo manifested a clear conduct to refuse, thus "decline," to take the LegCo Oath, whether in form or in substance, as required under the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Oaths and Declarations Ordinance (ODO), according to the verdict.

The two legislators-elect have been disqualified from assuming office and have vacated their seats as members of the LegCo since Oct. 12, and are not entitled to act as members of the LegCo, the verdict said, adding the office of member of the LegCo previously occupied by each of the two is now vacant.

The court also ruled that the president of LegCo has no power to re-administer or allow for re-administration of any future oath-taking by the two.

In addition, it barred the duo from claiming to be entitled and/or acting as members of the LegCo.

The two legislators-elect, Leung Chung-hang and Yau Wai-ching, used derogatory language insulting the Chinese nation when reading out their oaths at a swearing-in ceremony on Oct. 12. Yau also displayed a banner proclaiming "Hong Kong is not China."

Their provocative behavior has prompted the top legislature of the country, the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, to issue an interpretation of Article 104 of the Basic Law of Hong Kong SAR on Nov. 7, clarifying the implications and requirements of oath-taking by Hong Kong legislators-elect.

According to the interpretation, oath-taking must comply with the legal requirements in respect of its form and content. An oath taker must take the oath sincerely and solemnly, and must accurately, completely and solemnly read out the oath prescribed by law.

The interpretation is binding on all Hong Kong courts and the courts should give effect to it, according to the court ruling.

If an elected LegCo member intentionally declines to take the LegCo Oath as prescribed under the ODO, the oath taken is invalid and he or she shall be disqualified from assuming the office, it said.

In response to media enquiries, an SAR government spokesman said the government noted the court's judgment on the construction of the relevant provisions in the ODO and the Legislative Council Ordinance in light of Article 104 of the Basic Law.

"We will consider the Interpretation of Article 104 of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the judgment and the way forward," said the spokesman.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying welcomed the court's decision and said the SAR government would act in accordance with the law.

LegCo President Leung Kwan-yuen said he respects the judgment of the court.

"It is an unfortunate incident. But it is a good thing that the court clarified the law in this area," he said. "I sincerely hope that lawmakers and society can refocus on the affairs of the Legislative Council and its work in monitoring the government."

The ruling came amid a public outcry in and outside Hong Kong against the deliberately challenging behavior of the two, as a joint signature drive to demand that they apologize and retract the insulting comments have so far gained support of over 1 million people online.

Meanwhile, an anti-independence rally in support of the NPC Standing Committee's interpretation of the Basic Law held in Hong Kong last Sunday saw the participation of more than 40,000 people.

Related:

40,000 say separatists should be disqualified

Criticisms of NPC interpretation of HK Basic Law unfounded: experts
(File photo)

The long-disputed punishment for Jia Jinglong, a villager from Hebei province who killed his village head, was settled once and for all on Nov. 15, with an execution order from the Supreme Peoples Court (SPC). The court stuck to its death penalty ruling in spite of significant opposition.

Jia was executed by the intermediate court of Shijiazhuang in Hebei. The court sentenced Jia to death in November 2015, and the Hebei Provincial High Court sustained the ruling in May 2016, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

In February 2015, Jia shot and killed the 55-year-old chief of his village using a modified nail gun. The attack was intended as revenge for the demolition of Jia's house during the village's reconstruction campaign in 2013.

Several Chinese law experts have been voicing their opposition to the execution since May. Jias punishment also triggered debate on Chinese social media, with many saying the penalty was too harsh. Some netizens believe Jia's sentence should be commuted because his rights were violated. Reports also note that Jia intended to surrender himself after the killing, according to Global Times.

The SPC ruled that the method of murder was extremely cruel and caused a severe social impact. For that reason, the court found the original convictions both appropriate and accurate based on solid evidence. The ruling added that Jias rights of action, including his right to defense, were protected during the review of his death penalty. Jia was permitted to visit with his family before his execution.
Recently I made a visit of Beijing ,the capitol city of China to meet my beloved daughter Ms. Prakriti Sharma, currently a PhD student on micro biology at UCAS, Beijing and my son-in-law Dr. Lekhendra Tripathee (PhD), currently working at State key laboratory of Cryosphere Science, Northwest institute of Eco-environment and resources, Chinese academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China. It was my great dream to visit China and Beijing since my childhood. I am a very ordinary Nepali citizen, and I do respect China too, as our close neighbor country. In our Nepali culture we do respect, trust and love to neighborhood whoever may be, because neighboring is a friend of in-need and that is the true friend in-deed.

I love and respect China and there is a reason behind of this. During my childhood days, we used to gather around our grandfather and listen to him talking with his semi old friends on different new topics. In those days, Mao Zedong was the leader of China and King Mahendra was the leader of Nepal. I still remember his voice saying "China is a true, honest and really good neighboring friend of Nepal. China is supporting Nepal for its development through various project .The friendly relation between Nepal and China is very close and sincere". When I grew up and became school student, I could able to understand about China as it was a great nation of the world with a big geography and population. My reverence was raised into my heart towards China with a words of my grandfather "China is real and true friend of Nepal". However, my grandfather was not a communist nor was the follower of any political party but was a follower of truth and humanity and was an ordinary farmer of a village. And right now I do pay my respect to my grandpa for his absolutely true words. Yes, Nepal always feels proud of China as a really good neighboring friend.

Some years back, while I was travelling to the United States, one of my friend took me to Chinese Panda House for a dinner. Panda House is one of the most popular food stuff having many branches all over USA. I visited different market places of Chicago to Houston. I wondered to see the Chinese product item everywhere in the market. I found some vegetable mall filled up by Chineses stuff. Later on I knew that China has become the major manufacturer and supplier country not only for USA but also to the whole world. Congratulation China and the people of China! You made China an escalated and extraordinary nation in the world. I salute you for your hardworking and dedication to the Nation. You have given a great lesson to the whole world that working Buddha is in China and spiritual Buddha is in Nepal. No doubt, Buddha was the true communist who dedicated his whole life for the mankind. I am so admired by looking at the white Stupa  Miaoying Temple, at Beijing made by Nepali artist Araniko, a legendry name in the history.

However, Chinese language is much difficult to understand and communicate, but I believe love is the easiest and simple language to communicate with each other. Love is known everywhere, which has not any boundary and barrier. Buddha's own language is also the language of love. By this way, though, Nepal and China has its different formal and verbal languages but has mutual love of heart and the respect is same.

We stayed one month long in Beijing and visited various places including Tianjin. I had a nice meeting with some Chinese friends in Beijing with whom we shared a lot of love and best wishes in our own language of heart. They could not understand Nepali, like wise me and my wife also could not understand Chinese language. But we could understand and speak the language of love and respect. We enjoyed a lot.

Forbidden City, Great Wall, Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square, Yonghe Lama Temple, Ming Tombs, Beihai Park, Summer Palace, Olympic Forest Park, White Pagoda are such unique and fascinating property of Beijing that always attract to anyone whomsoever visit Beijing. Apart from this, the above heritage is the fundamental property of China. I wondered to see the development of China. What is not in China? What has not been made by China? 15 line subway system and service is another attraction of Beijing. People of china are fully satisfied with their political system and the Government of China. I did not see any frustrated face in china during my stay over there. All were happy and busy.

It is a matter of great triumph that China has stood as a pioneer leader for South Asian country. The large investment has been made by China to India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal through various projects. Among the SAARC State, Pakistan and India are getting more and more financial and industrial support from China. In this context, Pakistan and Pakistani media are always appreciating China while Indian media feel some hesitation to praise Chinese support. However, there is nothing to hide about China how it is providing its best support to South Asian Countries for their development as a part of major investor of Asia. China always deals equally on the basis of mutual benefit, mutual understanding and mutual trust. This is a matter of satisfaction that all SAARC state regards and trust to China and they have an expectation that China must be a member state of SAARC. SAARC was born with a great hope and spirit to build up a strong and trustable relation among the member states but for the time being it could not have gone up because of Indo Pak egoistic relation. There is always a threat of war between the two countries. India always interferes and dominates its neighboring countries with a principle of win and loss instead of win and win. While Pakistan is good for other SAARC state but always challenge to India. Therefore, it is believed that if China would be there, certainly a balance relation would be developed among the SAARC State with a new hope and spirits. For this purpose, Nepal had purposed for first time that China must be invited for the SAARC Summit and be requested for its active membership in to the SAARC, some nine years ago, but India played an unhealthy and negative role to prevent China getting into the SAARC. Due to such behavior, SAARC has been missing a good friend like China. When the SAARC meeting are to be held, only India and Pakistan are placed in focal point and rests of the member states become lightless, voiceless and valueless. Therefore, it is believed that if China would be there as an active member of SAARC, surely there would be the constructive work in whole Asia through the platform of SAARC.

Nepal and China has age old ties and friendly relations, but since Nepal entered into Federal Republic state, Nepal is losing everything in everywhere. Nepals so called leaders who lightered the fire of revolution in the name of Mao, now is clearly displayed that they are monitored by India and are puppet of EU and western. Now Nepal is seeking the political reform as Kingdom of Nepal. Nepalese people are now seeking the leadership of King Gyanendra Shah who had given up his royal throne in 2007. Nepalese people have realized that Nepal cannot survive nor be able to unite without the leadership of royal monarch. Nepal is geographically very small but at the present time there are more than 30 political party and out of them major parties are influences by India. Thus Nepal is seeking the new future for its stability. Decades back Nepal was regarded or declared as a state of Zone of Peace. China and Pakistan immediately gave their valuable support. Later on, more than 116 nations from all over the world gave their valuable support to Nepal, but India always neglected it. And now Nepalese people are realizing that India's intense towards Nepal was never fare. But in the case of China, it is always fair and positive to Nepal. However, Nepal's progress depends on the desire of Nepalese people but it is true to the fact that neighboring countries could play theirs vital role in its development. In my view, it is necessary to talk openly to India by China about Nepal, what India want from Nepal and to what extent? Why India doesnt like the stability and progress of Nepal? Due to such Indian courses, Nepal and Nepali people are always suffering. Nepal is a peaceful country and its ambition is only peaceful living and development. It will never make any nuclear weapon nor go for quarrelling to others.

Nepal is a poor country in South Asia and wants to rise again with the Leadership of royal monarch. In 30 years of period, Nepal exercised multi-party system Democracy and Democratic Federal Republic system, but found that all these were only a futile exercise and was copied from India under the Indian Pressure. China, being a close and sincere friend of Nepal, must look into the ongoing situation of Nepal and support to bring back the royal throne of Nepal.

Well, I have returned back to Nepal just week before having your kind love and affection during my stay at Beijing. I am highly admired of your development, one party political system, friendly, cooperative and honest Chinese people with high excellence behavior and your historical places, palace and monuments. Now I am thinking that if China and Nepal go together with a super bond relation, definitely both the country can do much better for the new world. Nepal is rich in water and many other natural resources including minerals and mines. The beauty of nature and the mountains of Himalayan are the pioneer feature of Nepal. Nepalese people always trust China and Chinese people because China is also a peace loving nation.

Outside of China, generally it is said that being a communist country China has no freedom of life but my own experience says China has more freedom of life and has enough human right even more then in USA or Europe. In USA or in Europe, people are bound by laws and regulations but in China people are bound by own self rather than by theirs law because the Chinese people are more disciplined, responsible, more dedicated to their work and nation. One individual Chinese represent the whole china by its own behavior, ability and attitude. May long live Nepal China relations.

8th Nov. 2016

[email protected]

Govind Sharma

Nepalgunj, Nepal
SEOUL, Nov. 15 -- South Korean political heavyweights on Tuesday demanded President Park Geun-hye step down or be impeached over a scandal involving Park's longtime confidante.

Moon Jae-in, former chairman of the main opposition Minjoo Party and one of major presidential hopefuls, told reporters that he will initiate a nationwide campaign to let President Park step down, saying the campaign will last until the president declares her unconditional resignation.

Moon said people's frustration, shown in Saturday's mass rally, cannot be cured only by Park's resignation, noting it is high time to replace the current era and overhaul the root of the country.

Over a million South Koreans took to the streets in Seoul alone in the third weekend rally to demand Park step down.

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon and Mayor Lee Jae-myung of Seongnam city in Gyeonggi province, who are two major presidential hopefuls of the main opposition party, welcomed Moon's proposal and expressed willingness to join the campaign.

Ahn Cheol-soo, former chairman of the minor opposition People's Party, said that President Park's resignation is a way to save the country, urging the scandal-hit president to declare a political resignation before being investigated by prosecutors.

Prosecutors requested a direct probe into President Park no later than Wednesday, but Park's attorney asked its delay citing lack of time and preparations.

Rival parties on Monday agreed to a bill to appoint an independent counsel who will investigate the scandal involving Choi Soon-sil, the president's decades-long friend suspected of meddling in state affairs behind the scenes.

Under the country's constitution, a president has immunity from criminal execution, but investigation is allowed if the indictment is suspended by the end of presidency. A presidential election is required to be carried out within 60 days if a president steps down.

Kim Moon-sung, former chairman of the ruling Saenuri Party and one of presidential hopefuls in the ruling bloc, said that it would be correct to impeach President Park as the hurried presidential election, which would be conducted within 60 days after Park's resignation, may fail to verify presidential candidates.

Kim, one of key non-President Park faction members in the governing party, urged the party leadership to resign, saying the leadership blindly following Park cannot normalize the current situations.
As abuse of prescription opioids in the United States has reached epidemic proportions, researchers around the nation have been searching for other ways to offer people pain relief, ways that don't bring such a risk of addiction.

Now, two independent teams of researchers have developed drugs similar to marijuana that show evidence of providing pain relief in laboratory animals, but have no apparent addictive properties and do not cause a "high" that impairs motor function.

The researchers presented their work today (Nov. 14) at a news conference at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego. [11 Odd Facts About Marijuana]

Nearly 50 million American adults have significant chronic pain, according to a government-funded study published last year in the Journal of Pain. And opioids  a class of drugs that includes OxyContin, Vicodin and morphine  are commonly prescribed for pain. An estimated 20 percent of patients with pain receive an opioid prescription, a rate that has quadrupled since 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

However, opioids are highly addictive. The CDC estimates that 2 million Americans abused or were dependent on prescription opioids in 2014, contributing to about 14,000 deaths that year (CDC data shows that an equal number of yearly deaths are due to heroin, which is an illegal opioid.)

Researchers in recent years have attempted to create drug compounds that can target pain receptors in the brain but not affect opioid receptors, the source for opioid addiction. Marijuana can provide some pain relief, but the drug has unwanted side effects, such as motor impairment and memory loss, and can be potentially addictive, although it is not an opioid drug. [America's Opioid-Use Epidemic: 5 Startling Facts]

One research group, led by Andrea Hohmann, a professor of neuroscience at Indiana University, has developed a class of compounds that partially mimics the action of the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, THC, short for tetrahydrocannabinol. THC stimulates cannabinoid receptors in the brain to release endocannabinoids, natural pain-relieving molecules.

Hohmann's compounds, called positive allosteric modulators, or PAMs, bind to a recently discovered site on a cannabinoid brain receptor called CB1, but they do not bind to the typical THC receptor or the opioid receptor. As a result, the compound produces pain relief without the high associated with marijuana and without the risk of addiction.

In experiments, the compound provided pain relief to laboratory mice that were given paclitaxel, a common cancer chemotherapy drug known to damage nerves and cause pain.

The PAMs acted in "a very targeted way [and] amplified the therapeutic effect of endocannabinoids," Hohmann told Live Science. "You can view it as 'turning up the gain.'" [5 Surprising Facts About Pain]

Unlike marijuana or prescription opioids, the PAM compounds "do not hit every receptor everywhere," she added.

Another group of researchers, led by Jason Clapper, a scientist at Abide Therapeutics in San Diego, took a different approach and developed a compound that indirectly increased the amount of natural cannabinoids in the brains of rats, which relieved the animals' chronic pain symptoms.

Clapper's compound blocked the body's production of a protein called MGLL, which through a series of events, triggered a release of the brain's natural endocannabinoids, and brought subsequent pain relief.

"Today's findings reveal a better understanding of the body's cannabinoid system and how to modulate it," said Margaret Haney, a drug-abuse expert at Columbia University in New York who was not associated with either research project. "There are now a number of ways to target this system and possibly alleviate pain and other disease without relying on marijuana."

Hohmann noted the path to humans studies "can be a long, slow road" but she's very excited about the potential for this line of therapy.

Follow Christopher Wanjek @wanjek for daily tweets on health and science with a humorous edge. Wanjek is the author of "Food at Work" and "Bad Medicine." His column, Bad Medicine, appears regularly on Live Science.
A parasitic infection that's rare in the United States now appears to be showing up more often in American travelers, thanks in part to the growing trend of ecotourism, experts say.

The infection, called leishmaniasis, occurs in people in more than 90 countries around the world, including Mexico and nations in Central and South America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and southern Europe  and is spread by the bite of a tiny sand fly. (Ecotourism means traveling to natural, undisturbed areas of the world in a way that conserves the environment, according to the International Ecotourism Society.)

The disease is uncommon in the United States, but in recent years, doctors have been seeing more cases in American travelers and soldiers, as well as immigrants, according to the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA). This rise led to the creation of the first ever U.S. guidelines for diagnosing and treating the illness.

"Leishmaniasis is an increasingly common infection in ecotourists traveling to Central and South America," Dr. Naomi Aronson, an infectious disease specialist at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, said in a statement.

In some cases, the infection affects the skin and can cause serious scarring, while in other cases, the parasite infects deeper parts of the body, and the infection can be deadly. "Timely diagnosis and treatment managed by an infectious diseases physician is vital," said Aronson, who was the lead author of the guidelines. [10 Deadly Diseases That Hopped Across Species]

However, many U.S. doctors aren't very familiar with leishmaniasis in patients, so these physicians may not suspect it when making diagnoses, the IDSA said. And symptoms may not show up until months after a person was infected, which makes the diagnosis even harder.

The three main forms of leishmaniasis are:

Cutaneous leishmaniasis: This form causes skin sores that may start out as bumps or lumps, but turn into ulcers that have a raised edge and central "crater," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is the most common form of the disease and occurs in up to 1.2 million people worldwide each year.

Mucosal leishmaniasis: This form occurs when the parasites spread from the skin to the mucous membranes, such as the linings of the mouth, nose and throat. If left untreated, this form of the disease can cause serious scarring, the IDSA said.

Visceral leishmaniasis: This occurs when the parasite infects the body's internal organs, such as the liver and spleen, and can cause fever, weight loss and anemia (a low level of red blood cells). If left untreated, it is fatal in over 95 percent of cases, according to the World Health Organization.

Doctors who see a patient who has these symptoms should ask if the individual has traveled to areas where leishmaniasis is found, Aronson said. A number of drugs are available to treat the condition.

Although there are no vaccines or medications to prevent leishmaniasis infection, people traveling to areas where the disease is found are advised to wear protective clothing (such as pants and long sleeves), and use insect repellants that contain DEET, as well as bed nets with insecticide.

The new guidelines were published Nov. 14 in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Original article on Live Science.
Chinese President Xi Jinpings upcoming state visit to Chile is of vital significance as it will bring both countries new opportunities to deepen their political, economic and cultural cooperation, Chilean Foreign Minister Heraldo Munoz told the Peoples Daily before Xi kicked off his tour.

Munoz lauded the host of firsts created by Chile in its exchanges with China, illustrating that the country was not only the first South American nation to establish diplomatic ties with China, but the first country that reached a bilateral agreement on Chinas accession to the WTO, the first to recognize Chinas full market economy status, and the first to sign a free trade agreement with China in Latin America.

China opened the first clearing bank for transactions in renminbi (RMB) in Latin America in Chile's capital Santiago last year, he elaborated, concluding that Chile, also known as ends of the earth, has been a pioneer in developing ties with China.

Over the past decades, Chile and China have set up an unbreakable strategic partnership featuring mutual trust, and such ties have brought tangible benefits to their further development, the foreign minister said.

He believed that under current circumstances, the mutual understanding, mutual respect and effective interactions between Chile and China will bring them more chances in reinforcing ties.

Munoz stressed that his country expects more Chinese investment, and hopes to benefit from Chinas rich experience in infrastructure construction, citing the construction of a binational tunnel linking Chile and northern Argentina as an example.

According to him, as Chile began to assess bids for the construction of the Agua Negra tunnel in October, it also looked forward to the participation of Chinese enterprises in this corridor connecting the Pacific and Atlantic.

Chile also expects more Chinese investment in its energy and high-end tourism industries, the minister underlined, explaining that its abundant tourism resources like Easter Island and Torres del Paine National Park, nice delicacies and competitive infrastructure are ready for tourists from worldwide.

Praising bilateral trade, the diplomat said that the trade volume between Chile and China grew fourfold in the past decade, with important breakthroughs made in non-mineral fields.

He further explained that copper dominated Chiles export products in the past years, but as Chile diversified its export products based on agriculture and processing of agricultural products, its export portfolio has extended to fruits, wine, lumber, chemicals as well as other derivative products.

In the past 10 years, Chilean food exports to China have grown tenfold, and the South American country has become Chinas major supplier of blueberry and cherry, Munoz said. Salmon from Chile now makes up 77 percent of Chinas imported salmon as well.

The two countries are now discussing on the possibilities to further upgrade their free trade agreement, noted the minister.

During Xis upcoming visit, Chile hops to deepen dialogues with China, expand bilateral exchanges, bolster bilateral cooperation in all fronts, and yield more fruits from pragmatic cooperation in talent training, technology, space exploration, new energy development, protection and studies of Antarctica, coping with climate change and natural disasters, modernization of agriculture and mining as well as tourism, Munoz expressed his countrys expectation towards Xis trip.

We believe that both countries will further expand two-way trade, and China will maintain its position as the largest trading partner of Chile. We will make more efforts in investment as well, the diplomat concluded at last.
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Local politicians have welcomed the news that towns and villages across Longford are set to benefit to the tune of almost 380,000, thanks to the Town and Village Renewal Scheme.

Under the 2016 scheme, Longford will receive 376,550, which will be distributed to eight areas for various projects, as identified by Longford County Council in conjunction with local community groups and businesses in the county.

Fine Gael TD for Longford Westmeath, Peter Burke has said that the scheme will improve the streetscape and public realm of towns and villages nationwide, as well as making towns and villages in Longford more attractive and more sustainable places in which to live and work.

Rural development is a key priority for Fine Gael, he added.

Our towns and villages are the heart of our rural communities, but many of them are still recovering from the economic downturn.

The Town and Village Renewal Scheme is designed to help breathe life back into our rural towns and villages here in Longford.

Independent TD for Longford Westmeath, Kevin Boxer' Moran also welcomed the news, pointing out that Drumlish, Edgeworthstown and Longford are among the areas set to benefit, before continuing; I am particularly pleased that Granard is to receive over 43,000 towards Granard Buttermarket and Public Realm improvements and car parking.

Adding that the scheme is just one piece in the jigsaw in terms of the Governments response to rural Ireland, Deputy Moran also praised local County Councils for their engagement with the Department in relation to the scheme.

Meanwhile, Cllr Paul Ross also expressed his delight at the funding received by the county, stating; This scheme is an important part of Fine Gaels commitment to rejuvenate and revitalise rural Ireland.

We are also rolling out a range of other initiatives, Cllr Ross revealed, including the REDZ scheme, the recently reopened CLAR scheme and the Rural Recreation Scheme.

In addition, work on the Action Plan for Rural Development is progressing well.
Two Longford siblings have taken on a starring role in a new series by RTE Jr thanks to the Macalla Teo production company.

Lisa (7) and Liam (5), who live in Ballinalee with their mum and dad, Lorraine and Seamus Kiernan and sisters Aideen (14) and Emma (10), are just two of the faces behind RTE Jr's 'How to do Everything'.

Revealing how the duo got the role, mum Lorraine explained that Aideen had spotted an advertisement from Macalla Teo, looking for children to submit videos, themed 'How to blow bubbles'.

Recorded by Aideen, the two Scoil Samhthann, Ballinalee pupils made a minute-long video, explaining how to make and blow bubbles.

Two weeks later, they got the exciting news that they were chosen, out of more than 100 children across Ireland, for the show, and got to spend three days in Wicklow recording their three episodes.

It was beautiful, Lorraine smiled, and it was a great experience.

It's something that they'll remember.

The duo's three episodes have enjoyed their first airing over the past month, but can still be seen on RTE Junior, the RTE Junior app and on the RTE Player, as Liam and Lisa show everyone at home how to put on a shadow show, how to make an insect hotel and how to use a compass.

An undoubtedly talented team when it came to filming, Lorraine revealed that neither Lisa nor Liam take part in any drama or theatre activities. Instead, she attributed their skills to their playing.

They're always playing so it came natural to them, she continued. Everything was natural, they had no lines.

As to whether the young stars will return to the screen, Lorraine added;

They'd love to do it again.

They did enjoy it and they loved seeing themselves on the TV.

As Liam would say: 'I'm famous!'
By Liam Cosgrove

Its the one lingering sore that always seems to re-open at this time of year.

Paid parking, if certain members of the cabinet get their way, could become a thing of the past in a bid to entice more road users to 'go green'.

Under the plan, first announced by the previous Fine Gael-Labour coalition in 2014, it was intended that up to 50,000 electric cars would be in use in Ireland by 2020.

In spite of the environmental benefits of replacing petrol-based vehicles with electric alternatives, around 1,700 are currently available in Ireland.

Transport Minister Shane Ross and Climate Change Minister Denis Naughten reportedly briefed their fellow colleagues recently, informing them that a task-force would be set up to consider new financial incentives for electric car drivers. Among them include exempting electric car drivers from road tolls, offering free parking in urban centres as well as other tax incentives.

The devil, as they say, is in the detail with the offer looking like extending to electric car drivers only.

Precisely how that will go down with car owners in predominantly rural towns like Longford is not hard to imagine.

A bit like marmite, paid parking is devisive. You either love it or you hate it.

Local politicians would certainly appear to support that view with the matter looking like returning to the local agenda at this week's monthly council meeting.

Taken from his own Facebook page, Cllr Mark Casey said he intends raising the topic once more, citing paid parking as the number one reason why rural consumers no longer shop in Longford town.

His claims are based, he says, on a recent survey taken from the greater Lanesboro area.

Paid parking was the number one reason that they (public) travel to Roscommon to do their shopping, he staunchly wrote.

This is a major shift in shopping pattern as almost all surveyed stated that historically they completed their shopping in Longford town.

Quite how representative the survey Cllr Casey alludes to is anyone's guess.

Having said that, and again taking examples from his own social media page, the former Cathaoirleach's point has certainly garnered plenty of traction.

A quick glance on Monday evening showed his post had been 'liked' by 120 Facebook users, the majority of them seeming to support the call.

Some would argue that getting a parking ticket and having to fork out 40 to avoid a future possible court date is enough to put anyone off shopping in town again.

If you are on the other side of the fence, commentators would appear to have little sympathy for those who fail to ensure their mode of transport is adequately ticketed.

Pro-paid parking advocates would also argue that stumping up the required 1 or 2 to have a browse around the shops is not the real reason why shoppers look to go elsewhere.

Choice, ease of access and above all else, affordability are all key prerequisites to that argument and, in fairness, they have a point.

A consumer, in almost all cases unless you are Dolores McNamara, will nearly always look at the 'end line'.

If they can go elsewhere and find a cheaper alternative while not scrimping on the quality side of things they will.

Take it from a Cavan man who knows!

Shopping in town is a regular port of call for this writer at weekends and paid parking has done little to dent that custom.

Paid parking has, and will continue to divide opinion in towns like Longford.

Getting rid of it overnight might be populist and grab headlines, but what, if anything, will it achieve in the long run?
Chinese businesses have increased their efforts to explore the Latin American Internet market in recent years. Industry insiders believe that a potential increase in consumers brought by Latin Americas population dividend, the growing coverage of networks, the popularization of social media, as well as its lagging technological innovation offers Chinese enterprises golden opportunities.

The GSMA, the international association of mobile service providers, estimated that the number of people across Latin America using their mobile devices to access the Internet is set to grow by 50 percent by the end of the decade.

China proposed a new mode of production capacity cooperation dubbed "three times three" last May, calling on China and Latin America to construct three passages for logistics, electric power and information, launch sound interaction among the three entities of the private sector, society and the government, as well as expand three financing channels including funding, credit loans and insurance.

Collaboration on information technology is rightly part of this mode. With advanced telecommunication equipment, search engine technologies and e-commerce management systems, Chinese enterprises have advantages in the booming Internet economy on the Latin American continent by engaging in the latters information industry and network construction.

Global Web Index data showed that with 110 million smart phone users as well as a potential market value of 250 billion dollars, Brazil is now the worlds second fastest growing Internet market. In addition, Brazilians top the list for the amount of time spent using mobile Internet.

Chinas Internet companies have stretched their coverage to this huge market. The Internet search provider Baidu, for instance, launched the Portuguese version of it search engine in Brazil in 2014, while internet tycoon Tencent has tested the waters there with messaging service WeChat. Qihoo 360, another industry leader, also invested a cloud-based online security company in this Latin American country and launched a series of antivirus products.

Huawei, Chinese telecommunication giant, has already grown into a big partner of major local operators after it accessed to Brazilian market as early as 1996. The firm is now the biggest network equipment provider in Brazil with a 40-plus-percent market share.

Besides the network construction, Chinese companies also extended their share in cross-border e-commerce industry. AliExpress, the global sales platform of Alibaba, is an example.

According to data released by Brazilian Institute of Public Opinion and Statistics (IBOPE), AliExpress has grown into the biggest global sales platform in Brazil, with its orders well ahead of second-placed B2W group, an old local brand.

Amanda, a junior studying in Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, told the Peoples Daily that she bought cosmetics and accessories via AliExpress as the latter provides cost-effective products. El Pais, a mainstream newspaper in Argentina, even commented that about 80 percent of the online shopping packages delivered by local postal offices are from China.

Back in 2014, by applying Chinese technology, experience and capital, Baidu founded Latin Americas first business community for online-to-offline (O2O) companies, the Brazil O2O Association by teaming up with over 80 local business leaders.

This September, the internet search giant set up Brazils first internet investment fund called Easterly Ventures. The Sao Paulo-headquartered venture, as the first investment fund established by a Chinese internet company in Brazil, will provide and fund technology for local traffic and industry expertise for Brazilian startups.

We hope to learn from Chinas successful experience as e-commerce is a new thing for many Latin American countries, said Marcos Pueyrredon, president of the Latin American Institute for Electronic Commerce.
County Councillor and Joint Policing Committee (JPC) Member Peggy Nolan has urged locals to continue to visit and shop in Longford without fear.

Her plea comes after two serious incidents in Longford town left residents shaken.

Longford was never as safe despite the terrible occurances of last week, Cllr Nolan said, expressing her sincere condolences to the family of the 31-year-old man who was killed in the town last week.

Shop in Longford, walk the streets of Longford - it's as safe, if not safer than any other town.

Cllr Nolan revealed that safety was an issue that cropped up regularly while she was canvassing for the local elections, and as such, she fought tooth and nail for an increased Garda presence.

It's a visible presence that was needed and now we have it, she stated, adding that figures delivered at the last JPC meeting were extremely promising.

Please, from the heart, don't be afraid to come into Longford.

Crime statistics are down in the county, and with Operation Thor, they will go down further.

Describing the burglary and the murder as two unfortunate, tragic events, Cllr Gerry Warnock, Chairperson of Longford JPC, was of a similar mind to Cllr Nolan.

Acknowledging that Longford, like any urban area, has its own set of issues, Cllr Warnock emphasised that these issues were not unique to Longford town.

This is not the norm in Longford town, he continued. There has been a lot of anxiety and a lot of scaremongering, particularly on social media.

I certainly do not think Longford town is any more dangerous or any more out of control than any other town in the country.

Also referring to the positive crime statistics delivered by Longford Superintendent Jim Delaney at last month's JPC meeting, Cllr Warnock said that the figures themselves prove that Longford is not the crime-riddled town that people are often led to believe.

In virtually all types of crimes, the numbers are down for the first ten months of this year, Cllr Seamus Butler added.

With the text alert and things like that, and with patrols, they're having a sizeable effect on the town, and it discourages petty crimes.

Commending members of An Garda Siochana for their swift actions in the wake of the fatal stabbing, Cllr Butler acknowledged that while it was an horrific act, it was a 'once-off' and not one which was unique to Longford.
CAIRO, Nov. 15 -- An Egyptian court on Tuesday overturned a death sentence against ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi and ordered a retrial in a mass jailbreak during the 2011 uprising, official news agency MENA reported.

The Court of Cassation, Egypt's highest degree court, ordered that Morsi and five co-defendants, including the supreme guide of the now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, will also be retried.

Morsi was sentenced to death in June 2015 in connection with a mass jailbreak during the country's 2011 uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak.

He, along with 129 members of the Brotherhood, was charged of assaulting a prison, killing officers and fleeing in cooperation with Palestinian Hamas movement's affiliates.

The jailbreak helped more than 20,000 criminals escape the prison and spread chaos in the country.

Morsi, the first democratically elected president, was overthrown by the army in response to mass protests against his one year rule in July 2013.

He received several prison sentences in other cases related to spying and espionage, in which he appealed.

Tuesday court's ruling cancelled the only execution sentence he was facing.

In another case related with voilence and killing protesters outside the presidential palace in 2013, Morsi was handed his first final sentence, 20 years in prison.
Former local official sentenced to 16 years in prison

A court in China's Fujian Province on Tuesday sentenced Han Xiancong, a former senior political advisor in east China's Anhui Province, to 16 years in prison for taking bribes and abuses of power.

Han, former vice chairman of Anhui Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, will also have personal property worth one million yuan (about 146,000 U.S. dollars) and his illegal profits confiscated, according to the first-instance ruling.

Han sought profits for others in land transfers, bidding, construction, appointments and promotions from 2003 to 2014. He accepted bribes worth more than 23.3 million yuan (about 3.6 million U.S. dollars).

Han was also found to have caused damage to state property worth 222 million yuan due to his acts of favoritism, including helping enterprises obtain land use right at below market price.

According to a statement by the court, Han repented, confessed and returned his illegal gains "in an active manner"; all grounds for leniency.
Looking to stay up to date about all of the news stories and local headlines that are important to Long Islanders? We've rounded up the top coverage for all of the important topics from multiple sources around Long Island, so you can be sure you've got the most recent update on the top stories for Long Island. Have an idea for a news story? Email us at news@longisland.com

Columnists Press Releases
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 15

Trend:

The Council of the European Union (EU) Foreign Ministers adopted a final document, following the negotiations on the Eastern partnership program.

The document states that the EU remains committed to supporting the territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty of all its partners.

The Eastern Partnership is a project of the European Union (EU), the main aim of which is the development of integration ties of the EU with six post-Soviet countries: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 15

Trend:

Over the past 24 hours, Armenias armed forces have 29 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, said Azerbaijans Defense Ministry Nov. 15.

Armenian army was using large-caliber machine guns and 60-millimeter mortars.

The Azerbaijani army positions located on nameless heights of Azerbaijans Gazakh district underwent fire from the Armenian army positions located in the Barekamavan village of the Noyemberyan district of Armenia.

Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani army positions located in the Munjuglu village of the Tovuz district and on nameless heights of the Gadabay district of Armenia underwent fire from the Armenian army positions located on the nameless heights of the Berd and Krasnoselsk districts of Armenia.

Moreover, the Azerbaijani army positions were also shelled from the Armenian positions located near the Armenian-occupied Goyarkh village of the Tartar district, Garagashli village of the Aghdam district, Kuropatkino village of the Khojavand district, Horadiz and Gorgan villages of the Fuzuli districts, as well as on nameless heights of the Goranboy, Tartar, Fuzuli 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.
Lifestyle / Alcohol

This years edition of Vinexpo Tokyo shifts the spotlight to winemakers of Moldova, Romania, Austria and Switzerland.

Nov 16, 2016 | By Madelaine Angelina

Following its debut in 2014, Vinexpo Tokyo returns this week to give wine enthusiasts a look at relatively lesser-known wine producer regions. Some 200 wine producers from more than 12 countries will be participating in the Japanese edition of the worlds most prestigious wine fair, including names from Moldova, Romania, Austria and Switzerland.

Although Japans wine industry is dominated by wine producers from France, Italy and Chile, Vinexpo Tokyo will introduce visitors to wines from regions off the beaten path, said Jon Arvid Rosengren, a Swedish wine expert who took the title of Best Sommelier 2016.

Rosengren will hold a masterclass on sparkling wines from Austria. Meanwhile, Paolo Basso, Best Sommelier of the World 2013, will showcase wines from his home country of Switzerland.

Vinexpo Tokyo will also feature American winemakers for the first time, such as Brotherhood, Americas oldest winery which is located at the Hudson River region of New York.

In Japan, wine imports totalled 2,793,000 hectoliters in 2015, worth 176.28 billion yen (1.41 billion), an increase of nearly 4 percent in both volume and value compared to 2014.

Japan is Asias biggest market for imported spirits and the second biggest market in Asia for wine.

Vinexpo Tokyo is expected to attract 4,500 trade visitors. The event takes place November 15 to 16 at Prince Park Tower Hotel.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 15

By Seba Aghayeva  Trend:

Armenia is responsible for launching the war against Azerbaijan, using force against the country, occupation of its territories, ethnic cleansing and other serious crimes, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said in an interview with Spanish EFE news agency.

The sooner Armenia withdraws its troops from the occupied Azerbaijani territories, the sooner the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will be resolved, he said. The peaceful settlement of the conflict is impossible until then.

Armenia does not fulfill the UN Security Councils resolutions on the conflict settlement, the minister said. Moreover, Armenia resorts to the armed provocations against Azerbaijan.

The settlement of the conflict in accordance with the UN Security Councils resolutions will create prospects for Armenia and its population to cooperate and benefit from the economic development, Mammadyarov said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 15

Trend:

A serviceman of Azerbaijani Armed Forces, Agil Melikov, was killed Nov. 15 as a result of shelling of the Azerbaijani army positions by Armenian Armed Forces on the contact line of the two countries troops, the press service of Azerbaijans Ministry of Defense reported.

The serviceman, who died as a result of another provocation by the Armenians, has been presented to be awarded with the 3rd degree medal For distinction in military service posthumously.

Azerbaijans Defense Ministry expresses its deepest condolences to the family, friends and relatives of the deceased.

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.
The great Gold Rush Music Festival returns to the township of Waihi, with the first nuggets of gold dropping for the highly anticipated return of the 2023 festival.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 15

Trend:

Azerbaijans Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has departed for an official visit to Portugal, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry told Trend Nov. 15.

Mammadyarov will meet with high ranking officials of Portugal during the visit.

During the meetings, the issues related to the promotion of bilateral and multilateral ties, development of economic and trade agenda and parliamentary dimensions of cooperation between the two countries will be discussed.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 15

By Anakhanum Hidayatova  Trend:

The OSCE Minsk Group (MG) co-chairs are prepared to work with the parties of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in any way that can bring about a lasting settlement, the OSCE MG US co-chair James Warlick told Trend Nov. 15.

The diplomat expressed hope that the co-chairs will be able to bring the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers together to continue an important discussion on key issues, including the importance of respecting the ceasefire and taking steps towards fully implementing decisions taken in Vienna and St. Petersburg.

We continue to encourage the presidents to meet at the earliest opportunity, added Warlick.

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.

The 23rd meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council will take place on Dec. 8-9 in Germanys Hamburg.

The OSCE Ministerial Council is held annually at the year-end. The chairmanship at the OSCE will pass from Germany to Austria on Jan. 1, 2017.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Anahanum
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a recent BJP parliamentary party meeting that he will not revoke the demonetisation of 500 and 100 rupee notes. He said that the people supported the government on demonitisation and that there is no trouble for BJP.

The meeting was attended by party president Amit Shah, cabinet ministers Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh, senior leader L.K Advani and several others.

The government said that it was ready for a parliamentary debate on demonitisation this entire week. The NDAs coalition partners like the Akali Dal and Shiv Sena had also recently criticized the governments sudden demonitisation scheme.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 15

By Seba Aghayeva  Trend:

Azerbaijan expects from the EU a clear position on the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts settlement after a new Azerbaijan-EU strategic partnership agreement is signed, Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammad-Guliyev told Trend Nov. 15.

This is the most important issue to be discussed within the framework of the future talks between Azerbaijan and the EU, said the deputy minister.

He added that Azerbaijan made it clear that the country intends to hold talks in this direction, because this issue is of particular importance for Baku.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov met with EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn at the Eastern Partnership summit in Riga in May 2015. Mammadyarov delivered a draft agreement on strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and the EU to Hahn and expressed the intention of the Azerbaijani side to develop cooperation with EU in that area.

Foreign Affairs Council, made up of EU member state ministers, adopted conclusions on the Eastern Partnership program Nov. 14 after discussing current multilateral and bilateral relations with the six countries of the program: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

The Council calls for renewed efforts to promote the peaceful settlement of conflicts in the region on the basis of the principles and norms of international law, the conclusions read. The EU remains committed in its support to the territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty of all its partners.

The future format of talks between Azerbaijan and the EU on the draft partnership agreement will still be specified, Mammad-Guliyev said.

The current format of Azerbaijan-EU cooperation within the framework of the existing agreement within the subcommittees can be maintained in the future as well, Mammad-Guliyev said.

He noted that subcommittees in other areas may be established as well.

It all depends on the subject of negotiations, added the official.

Four subcommittees operate between Azerbaijan and the EU: the first subcommittee deals with trade issues, the second one deals with issues of justice, freedom, security, human rights and democracy, the third one deals with issues of energy, transport and environment, and the fourth one deals with social and humanitarian issues, covering the fields of education, medicine, etc.

Regarding the period of launching the negotiations between Azerbaijan and the EU, Mammad-Guliyev said that this issue will still be discussed with the Union.

The European Council adopted a mandate for the European Commission and the high representative for foreign affairs and security policy to negotiate, on behalf of the EU and its member states, a comprehensive agreement with Azerbaijan Nov. 14.

The new agreement should replace the 1996 partnership and cooperation agreement and should better take account of the shared objectives and challenges the EU and Azerbaijan face today, said the message on the European councils website.

The agreement will follow the principles endorsed in the 2015 review of the European Neighbourhood Policy and offer a renewed basis for political dialogue and mutually beneficial cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan, said the message.

The new agreement envisages the compliance of Azerbaijans legislation and procedures with the EUs most important international trade norms and standards, which should lead to the improvement of Azerbaijani goods access to the EU markets.

Currently, bilateral relations between the EU and Azerbaijan are regulated on the basis of an agreement on partnership and cooperation that was signed in 1996 and entered into force in 1999.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Asebaa
Trump Won. Heres what YOU should do next

A lot of people are in shock this morning



But the election of Donald Trump didn't shock me.



For the past few weeks, months even, I've had a feeling he would win.



Now he has, the important thing is to understand what that means for you and your money.As we've already seen, the markets have reacted as negatively as they were predicted to do.But this is only the beginning...There are questions over Fed boss, Janet Yellen's job questions over trading with China, Japan, Russia questions over whether the markets will ever recover.What we know for sure is that uncertainty is here to stay...And that means gold could be heading much, much higher as a result  indeed, it already jumped above $1,320 before coming off quite a bit  but this should give greater opportunity longer term.This book will be invaluable to you over the coming weeks and months.In it, financial expert, Jim Rickards, reveals the fundamental reasons why gold could even reach as high as $10,000.It was essential reading before, but in light of Trump's victory...This book has never been more relevant.Best wishes,Glenn Fisher

Risk Warning



Your capital is at risk when you invest in shares  you can lose some or all of your money, so never risk more than you can afford to lose. All gains are gross unless stated otherwise, and bid/offer spreads, commissions, fees and other charges can reduce returns from investments. Past performance and forecasts are not a reliable indicator of future results. Shares recommended may be small company shares. These can be relatively illiquid meaning they are hard to trade and can have a large bid/offer spread. If you need to sell soon after you bought, you might get back less that you paid. This makes them riskier than other investments. Some shares may be denominated in a currency other than sterling. The return from these may increase or decrease as a result of currency fluctuations. Any dividends will be taxed at source in the country of issue.



Profits from share dealing are a form of income and subject to taxation. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and may be subject to change in the future.



For more information about our editors, complaints procedure and terms & conditions, please visit https://www.agorafinancial.co.uk.



A regulated product issued by Agora Financial UK Ltd. Registered in England Company No 1937374. VAT No GB629 7287 94. Registered office 8th Floor Friars Bridge Court, 41-45 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8NZ. Agora Financial UK Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. FCA No 115234. https://register.fca.org.uk/.  2016

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.




Gold Mining Shares Are a Lousy Investment

This years turnaround in Gold Mining shares had helped to buoy the hopes and dreams of investors who were betting that their long, agonizing wait for euphoric, exponential gains is over. They continue to believe that the future for the Gold Mining Industry is quite rosy. Unfortunately, they are probably wrong.

Most longer term investors in Gold Mining shares are not betting on the mining industry as much as they are betting on gold itself. They have invested in gold mining shares for several reasons:

They are, for most investors, more convenient than dealing in the physical metal. Just call your broker; or buy them in your online account.

They are seen as being a proxy for gold itself.

Some expect the mining shares to appreciate in value considerably more than the physical metal (fixed mining and production costs coupled with ever higher gold prices leads to leveraged earnings and profitability). There is some justification for this, but it normally occurs in the early stages of a sustained increase in US dollar prices for gold and is short-lived.

Wall Street doesnt like gold. Financial advisors are in the business of managing money. So in order to satisfy the demand for gold-related investment vehicles, it has given us a plethora of stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, and other paper substitutes and products that supposedly represent the real thing. Your broker or financial planner can easily incorporate these types of investments into your asset allocation model without too much trouble. It boils down to marketing. Its all about money under management. Your broker or financial planner isnt going to tell you to buy gold coins with 10-20 percent of your assets and take delivery of them. But he or she might tell you to put some of your dollars into a gold-related mutual fund or ETF.

Lets assume that all of the reasons above are valid and justify an investment in gold mining shares. At current prices, gold mining shares are approximately eighty percent higher than they were in 1998/99. And as recently as January of this year they were actually at or below their price levels of 1998/99. For comparison, US stocks at current prices are about two hundred fifty percent higher than their levels of 1998/99. And lets not forget about gold itself. Since 1998/99, gold is up over four hundred percent!

The above results are net of all the volatility that we have experienced in the financial markets over the last seventeen years. This includes the technology stock craze and crash, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and subsequent general stock market decline. It also includes the real estate and stock market crashes 2008/09, US Treasury debt downgrade 2011, etc. And, even the surprise results from the recent US election for President.

So what have we learned about gold mining shares over the last seventeen years? Gold mining shares are not even remotely close to keeping pace with the yellow metal itself, let alone providing the leveraged profits that many investors were counting on. Gold mining shares are a lousy investment. They are not a proxy for gold. Holding physical gold itself has been five times more profitable than owning a diversified portfolio of mining shares.

An investment in gold mining shares is an investment in a highly speculative, under capitalized business operation which is affected by too many variables other than just gold.

Are there reasons for owning gold mining shares? Possibly. They can provide diversification in an asset allocation model. And if you are a trader, (speculatively inclined) there have been a few shorter periods of time when the more speculative and explosive nature of herd mentality has lead to huge gains in mining shares. But be very quick to take profits and reallocate the proceeds. The volatility can be overwhelming.

If you dont own physical gold, you dont own real money. Gold is real money.

By Kelsey Williams

http://www.kelseywilliamsgold.com

Kelsey Williams is a retired financial professional living in Southern Utah. His website, Kelseys Gold Facts, contains self-authored articles written for the purpose of educating others about Gold within an historical context.

 2016 Copyright Kelsey Williams - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.




Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 15

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Over 200 prominent writers including novelists, playwrights and poets, have joined a global literary campaign this week, penning tiny stories of around seven lines each to highlight Universal Childrens Day and the injustice so many of the worlds poorest and most disadvantaged children still face. The short story series kicks off UNICEFs commemoration of its 70th year working to bring help and hope to every child.

The short stories will be shared by some of the worlds most celebrated writers with their own social media audiences. The First Lady of Finland, Jenni Haukio, introduced the concept, which gained global momentum with writers joining from Asia, Africa, South America, Europe, the Middle East and Australia.

As writers we are able to advocate through the simplicity of storytelling. With this worthy and necessary campaign, we advocate for the protection of the rights of precious children all over the world, said celebrated Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie.

The group of writers, whose genres range from fairy tales to fiction, include one the worlds youngest published authors, seven-year-old South African, Michelle Nkamankeng. Written in over 10 languages and varying in style, all stories illustrate that the rights of many children are still neglected.

The campaign comes at a time when there are increasing threats to child rights. Over 50 million children have been uprooted from their homes due to conflict, poverty and climate change and millions more are facing unspeakable violence in their communities. Around 263 million children are out of school and last year nearly six million children under five died from mostly preventable diseases.

It is shocking to see that the lives of many children are still so heavily impacted by the horror of conflict, inequality, poverty and discrimination. I hope these Tiny Stories can remind the world that we must sustain our commitment to all of these children whose lives and futures are at stake, said Paloma Escudero, UNICEF Spokesperson.

Chimamanda Adichie used her Tiny Story to launch the series today, which will run until November 20 - the anniversary of the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Download multimedia content at: http://weshare.unicef.org/mediaresources

UNICEF promotes the rights and wellbeing of every child, in everything we do. Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 15

Trend:

Azerbaijan hosts gatherings of influential international media organizations on Nov. 16-18  the 5th News Agencies World Congress, the 16th General Assembly of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) and the 22nd session of the Council of CIS Heads of News Agencies.

Co-organized by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and Azerbaijans state new agency AZERTAC, these events bring together heads and representatives of about 100 news agencies, which shape the global information policy, international media experts, UN - UNESCO official, and representatives of regional media organizations.

The joint opening ceremony of the News Agencies World Congress and the OANA General Assembly took place at the Heydar Aliyev Center on Nov. 16.

The slogan of the 5th News Agencies World Congress is New Challenges for News Agencies. The Congress features several sessions, including The future of news consumption, News agencies  challenges and opportunities of new technologies and social media, News agency innovation, Training journalists for a multi-media future, Protecting the journalists mission: freedom, access, safety and conflict zones. It also addresses problems facing journalism, which is now in experiencing rapid transformation, and forms of cooperation between news agencies and different social media platforms.

Speakers at the sessions include presidents of the News Agencies World Congress, OANA, EANA, FANA, managers of Associated Press, Reuters, Xinhua, Anadolu Agency, TASS, Agence France-Press, Press Association, EFE, Yonhap, Kyodo, TT, SPA, BTA, AAP, IRNA, DPA, Notimex, ATPE and other leading news agencies, Los Angeles Times newspaper, Al Arabiya television channel, and experts from Tripod Advisors, News Corp, PwC, Axel Springer, Stibo Accelerator media companies.

The Congress will see presentation of a photo album featuring nearly 600 photographs by the participating agencies in News, Festivities and Sport categories. The photo album was published through partnership between the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and Baku Media Center.

The Congress will see AZERTAC sign agreements on news and experience exchange with Spanish EFE, Paraguayan IP and Bahraini BNA news agencies. Participants of the event will also elect members of the executive bodies of the Congress and adopt Declaration.

AZERTAC will take on a three-year presidency (2016-2019) of the Congress at the event.

AZERTAC Director General Aslan Aslanov said that for the first time in the Congress` history UN and UNESCO chiefs addressed their messages to participants of this high-profile gathering of news agencies. We will do our utmost to ensure that the News Agencies World Congress becomes more organized and grows into a powerful organization of news agencies. Some measures have already been taken to make organizational changes. At the last meeting of the Council, which is the executive body of the Congress, in Baku we instituted the positions of president and vice president of the Council. We are committed to continuing such reforms aimed at improving the activity of the organization, said Aslan Aslanov.

He also said the 16th General Assembly of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies will be held in Baku on Nov. 18, bringing together more than 80 heads and representatives of 40 news agencies. The event will see AZERTAC assume presidency of OANA for the next three years, during which the agency will be responsible for managing the website of the organization and other organizational issues. One of the key priorities of AZERTAC is to improve the activity of the organization in these three years of our presidency. This includes revitalizing the news exchange through OANAs website, applying advanced technologies, and other issues. We will team up with all OANA member agencies to improve the organizations activity to a qualitatively new level, AZERTACs Director General added. The 16th General Assembly of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies will be held at JW Marriott Absheron Baku hotel on Nov. 18, bringing together about 80 heads and representatives of 40 news agencies. The event will see AZERTAC assume presidency of OANA for the next three years, during which the agency will be responsible for managing the website of the organization and other organizational issues.

The agenda of the 22nd session of the Council of CIS Heads of News Agencies encompasses a wide range of issues, including review of the organizations activities in 2016, implementation of joint projects, and expansion of news exchange.

Initiated by the Russian TASS news agency, the 1st News Agencies World Congress was held in Moscow on Sept. 24-25, 2004. The three other congresses took place in Spain, Argentina and Saudi Arabia. The main body of the Congress is the Council. At the 4th Congress, which was hosted by Riyadh in 2013, Associated Press, Reuters, Press Association, SPA, TASS, EFE, Kuna, AZERTAC and TELAM agencies as well as secretaries general of EANA, OANA and FANA were elected as members of the Council. The Baku Congress will elect new members of the Council.

An initiative of UNESCO, the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies was founded in 1961 with the aim of expanding news exchange among regional news agencies. OANAs members include 44 news agencies from 35 countries. Having joined OANA in 2004, AZERTAC has been elected a member of its Executive Board for three times. At the 15th General Assembly held in Moscow in 2013, AZERTAC was elected  by secret ballot  as president of the organization for 2016-2019.
STUARTA Spencer man pleaded guilty as charged Monday to three counts of selling cocaine in Patrick County. Anthony Wayne Harris Jr., 26, of 371 Candy Grove Road, entered the pleas in Patrick County Circuit Court.

Judge Martin F. Clark Jr. ordered a presentence report and set sentencing for Feb. 13 at 9:45 a.m.

Patrick County Commonwealths Attorney Stephanie Vipperman read a summary of the commonwealths evidence, which alleged the following:

On May 12, 2014, an undercover drug operation was in effect. Officers with the Patrick County Sheriffs Office and the Virginia State Police met with a confidential informant, whom they search for money or drugs, but found none. They then wired the informant with both video and audio surveillance, giving him $250 to buy drugs.

The confidential informant placed several recorded phone calls to Anthony Wayne Harris Jr., setting up a deal to buy cocaine. Both the informant and Harris arrived at Cedar Springs Court in the County Line area at the same time.

The informant walked to the passengers side of a gray four-door car where police say Harris was seated. An unknown woman was driving, the report states and an unknown man was in the back seat.

Harris got out of the car and retrieved the womans pocketbook, before going inside a nearby home with the informant to make the deal. The report states the informant gave Harris $150 and in exchange was given a rock of cocaine. After Harris left, the informant gave the drugs to a law enforcement officer. The material was later confirmed to be 0.763 grams of cocaine by the state lab.

On May 20, 2014, Patrick County officers again met with the informant and provided video and audio surveillance, as well as $300 to buy drugs. The informant had previously agreed to buy drugs from Harris, again going to Cedar Springs Court and to the same house. The report states the informant gave Harris $300 and Harris handed over the cocaine. This was later confirmed to be 1.415 grams of cocaine by the state lab.

On May 27, 2014, yet another drug sale was set up, with the informant given $200 this time. The informant again met Harris at Cedar Springs Court and this time purchased 0.6399 grams of cocaine from the man. In all, Harris allegedly sold a total of about 2.8 grams of cocaine between the three nights.

Harris lawyer, Robert Deatherage, indicated Vippermans summary was fair and accurate, adding that his client was very cooperative after his arrest. Deatherage said his client pleaded straight up to the charges.

Vipperman said the commonwealth made no plea offers.

Judge Clark told Harris he could get up to 120 years in prison if he receives the maximum sentence on all three charges.

Paul Collins reports for the Martinsville Bulletin and can be reached at paul.collins@martinsvillebulletin.com.
The focus of senior management on corporate governance standards has improved significantly over the last five years in Azerbaijan. Organisations need to take a fresh look at how they implement corporate governance standards. At the same time, board members may contribute to the implementation of these standards more effectively by commiting to successful corporate governance through the maintenance of the highest standards of responsibility and ethics, according to Deloittes Azerbaijan Corporate Governance report released in both Azerbaijani and English.

The survey was conducted among more than 40 private, local and foreign businesses that operate in the country. We drew on Deloitte Global experience to conduct the first survey among a broad range of organisations across different industries in Azerbaijan and analyse the maturity of corporate governance in the countrys private sector.

The new report released by Deloitte Azerbaijan examines the current trends and developments, and monitors changes and progress in the implementation of the corporate governance standards in private Azerbaijani companies. The study examines topics as diverse as board risk oversight, the board's role in setting the strategic direction, board composition, executive remuneration, and the effectivess of local corporate governance codes.

The new economic realities of the country require Azerbaijani businesses to pay even greater attention to having in place sound corporate governance standards in line with international business practices, says Tural Hajiyev, Deloitte Azerbaijans Consulting Director. If our companies aspire to expand onto international markets, the existence of a transparent management structure with checks and balances is one of the minimum requirements.

Over the past 13 years, Deloitte Azerbaijan has realised a number of corporate governance projects and assisted Azerbaijani companies in implementing best international practices. Deloitte has assisted clients in the development of governance structures desgined to meet their specific requirements, helped in the assessment and benchmarking of board practices, implemented systems of risk and control, and executed ethics and compliance programmes.

About the survey:

The Corporate Governance survey was launched in July 2016 and was aimed at gathering local Azerbaijani companies C-level management views on corporate governance. The survey examined businesses of various sizes across 12 industries, from oil and gas, banking and telecoms, to construction, manufacturing and many others.

About DTTL's Global Center for Corporate Governance

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited's (DTTL) Global Center for Corporate Governance (the Global Center) brings together the knowledge and experience of Deloitte member rms around the world in the critical area of corporate governance. Its mission is to promote dialogue among member rms, corporations and their boards of directors, investors, the accounting profession, academia, and government. The Global Center also coordinates thought leadership on governance issues developed by member rms to advance thinking on global corporate governance issues. Since 2009, the Global Center has launched 37 Centers of Corporate Governance in Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Launched in May 2012, the Deloitte CIS Centre for Corporate Governance helps to promote discussion of corporate governance in both the public and private sectors, and is a valuable resource on best practice and thought leadership.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 15

By Ilaha Mammadli - Trend:

The World Trade Organization (WTO) working party presented Azerbaijan with questions to get prepared for the next round of talks on accession of the country into the organization, Mahmud Mammad-Guliyev, Azerbaijans deputy foreign minister, told Trend.

The US, EU, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Ecuador are the WTO members who presented their questions, the deputy foreign minister added.

The talks on Azerbaijans accession to the WTO will be held no earlier than the first half of 2017, Mammad-Guliyev has previously said.

He noted that the proposals are mainly related to the reduction in tariffs, liberalization in the services sector and others.

Azerbaijan started negotiations with Russia and Saudi Arabia within the WTO in summer 2016. They expressed interest in receiving the initial negotiating rights, if Azerbaijan changes tariffs on some commodity positions, in order to be the first to negotiate on this issue.

Azerbaijan has had an observer status at the WTO since 1997. A working party on Azerbaijan was established on July 16, 1997, at the organization. Azerbaijan began negotiations with WTO member states in 2004. Currently, the country negotiates with 19 countries.

As of today, Azerbaijan has completed the negotiations and has signed protocols with Turkey, Oman, the UAE, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. The country is at the stage of signing protocols with China and Moldova.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 15

By Elena Kosolapova  Trend:

The International Rating Agency S&P Global Ratings affirmed its 'B/C' long- and short-term counterparty credit ratings on Kazakhstan-based Kassa Nova Bank JSC, the rating agency reported. The outlook is negative.

At the same time, the rating agency affirmed its 'kzBB' Kazakhstan national scale rating on the bank.

The affirmation reflects our expectation that the bank will maintain strong capitalization, supported by a capital increase via conversion of a Kazakhstan tenge (KZT) 3.8 billion (about $11.4 million) subordinated loan into Tier 2 regulatory capital in October 2016, which compensates for the deteriorated profitability during the first three quarters of 2016, S&P said.

The current maturity date of the subordinated loan is in July 2028, and management received a preliminary agreement from the lender, who is also the shareholder, to extend the maturity of this instrument to 2033 for the purpose of strengthening its equity content. The documentation will be signed by year-end 2016.

According to S&Ps base-case assumptions, Kassa Nova Bank will report losses in 2016, but the agency expects it will start improving its profitability and achieving return on assets of up to 0.5 percent in 2017, given the reduction of funding costs in the banking system and the expectation of gradual economic recovery in Kazakhstan. This supports the assessment of the bank's capital and earnings as strong.

S&P still sees vulnerabilities to the bank's profitability related to Kassa Nova Bank's franchise and business model in the currently difficult operating conditions in Kazakhstan. The bank's franchise and client base remain small compared to peers', and it has a market share of about 0.4 percent by assets, which totaled 96.3 billion tenge ($283 million) as of Sept. 30, 2016. S&P does not incorporate any additional support from the bank's majority shareholder Kazakh businessman Bulat Utemuratov.

In our view, the bank's business position remains weak, owing to its small market share and narrow franchise, and it has a moderate risk position due to its focus on inherently risky retail and small and midsized business and the deteriorated quality of the loan portfolio, the rating agency reported.

The assessment of average funding and adequate liquidity stem from S&Ps view of the bank's stable customer-deposit funding and sufficient liquidity cushion. The long-term rating is at the same level as the stand-alone credit profile, since S&P does not incorporate any support or additional factors into the rating.

The negative outlook reflects the pressure on the bank's creditworthiness, namely on its franchise, asset quality, and profitability, from the unfavorable operating conditions in Kazakhstan.

S&P might lower the ratings over the next 12 months if the bank's franchise deteriorates significantly, due to loss of loan or deposit customers, continued losses in 2017, or a sharp reduction in its liquidity cushion. The rating agency would also downgrade the bank if it fails to extend its subordinated loan beyond its current maturity of 2028, which will result in weakening of its capital position.

The rating agency could revise the outlook to stable over the next 12 months if the operating environment improves, the bank demonstrates sustainability of its franchise, restores its profitability, and improves its provisioning to be more in line with peers'.

Follow the author on Twitter:@E_Kosolapova
Looking to close the gap on billions of dollars in outstanding road, bridge and water needs, the Montana Infrastructure Coalition is expected to lobby for an increase in fuel taxes, along with a bonding bill and a local option tax on tourism, when the Legislature convenes next year.

The coalitions 70 members have spent the past year identifying what they deem to be critical infrastructure before reaching consensus on ways to increase funding to pay for the backlog.

By Martin Kidston

Full Story: http://www.missoulacurrent.com/growth-and-development/2016/11/infrastructure-funding-tax/
Like many of us who will be giving thanks this month, the folks at the Butte Local Development Corporation are thanking some movers and shakers in the Mining City business community.

The organization held its annual Butte Elevated Awards ceremony Thursday night at Fairmont Hot Springs Resort, during which individuals and businesses were honored for their contributions.

Ray Rodgers, the organizations president, handed out the awards, and he opened the ceremony by thanking sponsors and acknowledging BLDC members.

Annie Pentilla [email protected]

Full Story: http://mtstandard.com/business/business-and-community-leaders-honored-at-butte-elevated-awards/article_b36fd16c-57d6-5874-972f-549802b8191b.html
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 15

By Elena Kosolapova  Trend:

The International Rating Agency S&P Global Ratings did not revised its ratings on Kazakhstans Delta Bank (B/Stable/B) and KazInvestBank (B-/Negative/C) following the decision by the National Bank of Kazakhstan to suspend their licenses to accept retail deposits and open retail customer accounts for a period of three months, effective from Nov. 7, 2016, the rating agency said.

We believe that this restrictive measure imposed by the regulator does not have an immediate material negative impact on the banks' creditworthiness. For both banks, the share of retail customer deposits in total deposits is small: 5% for Delta and 7% for KazInvestBank as of Sept. 30, 2016.

S&P notes that so far, it has seen no signs of customers losing confidence and withdrawing deposits from Delta Bank or KazInvestBank.

We expect that both banks will resolve the issues with the regulator and that the regulator will restore their licenses at the end of the three-month period, S&P said.

Follow the author on Twitter:@E_Kosolapova
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 15

Trend:

American Chamber of Commerce in Azerbaijan (AmCham) has prepared 6th edition of the document (White Paper) called Observations and recommendations for improving Azerbaijan's business climate.

This document is being prepared and presented to Azerbaijan government biannually in the aim of supporting various fields of Azerbaijan economy, AmCham said November 15.

It is noteworthy that AmCham members had a meeting with President of the Azerbaijan Republic Ilham Aliyev on April 12. Preparation of White Paper was noted within the meeting and now AmCham has already presented White Paper to the country leader.

The White Paper reflects collective view of AmCham members on changes ensuring strength of business environment and ultimately, the country. This document consists of two parts  Overview part which is very significant, as of its content covering the most influential issues for Azerbaijan and Second part which involves recommendations on more specific issues in detail.

The recommendations reflected in this document presented in previous years to President by AmCham were added to political programs of the government and some of the recommendations resulted in corresponding amendments in law which has positively aspired business environment in Azerbaijan.

Its important to inform the government about vision of private sector and changes in business environment, noted Natavan Mammadova, Executive Director of AmCham in Azerbaijan. Taking this into account, the publication of White Paper this year covered positive measures taken by government to strengthen various sectors of economy, and issues to be solved in different fields to develop the business environment in taxes, customs work, finance and insurance, information technologies, labor and migration issues, tourism and law court.

Furthermore, we think that business community is of a great importance in implementation of economic reforms and founding healthy business environment, she added. Considering these factors, we have addressed some recommendations to Azerbaijan business community for the first time within White Paper.

All the recommendations provided by AmCham are focused on making activities of different institutions more transparent, increasing the level of services provided to population, and ultimately, making Azerbaijan more powerful country in the region. AmCham will continue to organize its further activity in above-mentioned fields and to support Azerbaijan government in the settlement of important issues.

AmCham has been working in Azerbaijan since 1996 and currently consists of 270 companies representing more than 80% of foreign investments in the country and currently serving as a bridge between the Government and private sector and having continuous constructive and results oriented dialogue with relevant government bodies, Chamber promotes the business interests of the member companies, contributes to the improvement of the business climate in Azerbaijan.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 15

By Maksim Tsurkov  Trend:

Azerbaijani company Caspian Marine Services Ltd. has reached an initial agreement with the German company ER Offshore to buy two vessels worth at least $21 million, the Azerbaijani company told Trend.

The deal envisages purchasing of E.R.Stavanger and E.R.Aalesund supply vessels for the offshore oil platforms.

"The parties have only come to a primary agreement for the purchase of vessels. Negotiations on the completion of the deal are underway. If the agreement is signed, it will be necessary to carry out certain work for the delivery of vessels to the Caspian Sea," the company said.

The purchased vessels have not been involved in any operations for over a year now. Therefore, all mechanisms should be regulated and brought into operation.

The cost of the ships was reduced, the company said.

But taking into account the above-mentioned work, the final cost of each vessel will be at least $10.5 million, according to the Azerbaijani company.

"The company expects to use the new vessels outside the Caspian Sea as well," the company added.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 15

By Maksim Tsurkov  Trend:

Azerbaijans Finance Minister Samir Sharifov and Vice-President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Wencai Zhang, who visited Baku, held a meeting, during which they discussed the financing of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) project, the Azerbaijani Finance Ministry said in a message.

The sides discussed the current state and future directions of cooperation, as well as water, road and other infrastructure projects that Azerbaijan implements jointly with the ADB.

During the meeting, the parties discussed the Southern Gas Corridor project, the financing of which is envisaged in the ADBs business plan on Azerbaijan for 2017-2019, reconstruction and development of railroad transportation systems, provision of technical assistance in various spheres, as well as projects aimed at reforms, issues of financial management and other areas, said the message.

Wencai Zhang noted the sustainable economic development of Azerbaijan and expressed confidence that the implementation of Azerbaijans joint projects with the ADB will be continued successfully.

ADB, based in Manila, was established in 1966 and has 67 members. Azerbaijan became the organizations member on Dec.22, 1999. The country has 0.5 percent share in the banks capital.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for the EU. It envisages the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region to the European countries through Georgia and Turkey.



At the initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor project. Other sources can also join this project at a later stage.



As part of the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz development, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of TANAP and TAP.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov
Effective immediately, McDowell County is under a stricter temporary ban which prohibits all burning within 100 feet of a residence.

The McDowell County Commissioners approved this temporary ban at their regular meeting on Monday. This action was done at the request of local firefighters and emergency personnel, who said the ongoing drought and wildfires have made conditions too dangerous in McDowell.

Without that ordinance in place, any citizen can burn within 100 feet of their house and we cant do anything about it, said Donnie Tipton, chief of the Glenwood Fire Department. Conditions are so great, we are pretty much standing on our own.

This temporary ban for McDowell applies to all burning that was not already covered by the states burning ban, which was issued by the N.C. Forest Service to all 25 counties in the western part of the state on Monday, Nov. 7 . Tipton and Emergency Services Director William Kehler said it will prohibit the use of charcoal grills, fire pits and burning in barrels. Gas grills that have a cover will be the exception, they said.

Craig Walker, the deputy director of emergency management, will enforce the ban.

Tipton referred to the large wildfires now burning, such as the Party Rock Fire in Lake Lure and the South Mountain fire in southern Burke County. We dont need a Party Rock. We dont need a South Mountain, he said to the commissioners. I realize we are going to upset a lot of people who are camping. I realize we are going to upset a lot of people who are burning in barrels.

Tipton said every fire chief in McDowell has agreed with this temporary ban.

Within McDowell County alone, there were at least 10 reported wildfires in the area, including 100 acres in the area of Roby Conley Road and Old Greenlee Road, 50 acres at Tatertown Road in Dysartsville and 13 acres along Goforth Road, Gurley Road and Joes Drive.

Outside of McDowell, fires within Burke, Buncombe and Rutherford counties have only grown overnight.

Presently, the Party Rock fire near Lake Lure is only 15 percent contained and has scorched approximately 3,800 acres across Buncombe, Henderson and Rutherford Counties. According to WLOS, there are almost 450 firefighters from more than 100 agencies working to put out the flames, with nearby communities providing supplies and assistance on the front lines. The fire began on Nov. 5 in Chimney Rock State Park, initially estimated at 1,101 acres of state and private land, and threatened more than 500 homes in and around the Lake Lure, Chimney Rock and Shumont areas. Mandatory evacuations were given to 800-plus citizens within the surrounding areas with numbers only to increase.

According to reports, the fire that struck South Mountains State Park has grown to 3,900 acres between Monday and Tuesday and is presently 20 percent contained. Fire agencies from Oregon and Alaska have provided mutual aid to combat the flames, which started Nov. 6 at initially 75 acres.

In Clay County, the Boteler fire that ignited on Oct. 25 within the Chunky Gal Mountain area is now at 8,925 acres and 43 percent contained. There are at least 366 personnel responding to the flames. Meanwhile, the Tellico fire between Swain and Macon counties has grown to 13,676 acres and is at 39 percent containment, according to the N.C. Forest Service.

In a statement made by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has authorized federal funds to reimburse costs to the state of North Carolina to help fight the fire on Party Rock; this authorization allows 75 percent of the eligible firefighting costs  including labor, equipment, supplies and emergency work in evacuations and sheltering  to be reimbursed.

Prior to the Party Rock fire, Governor Pat McCrory issued a State of Emergency to help combat more than 20 active wildfires within the state.

This declaration will help facilitate evacuations as needed and provide further state assets to help combat the wildfires and support North Carolinians displaced by the fires, said McCrory.

While chances of precipitation remain undetermined for the time being, McCrory and N.C. Forest Service officials have stated that the fire could continue burning until March unless the state receives rain or snow.

Air quality in western N.C. has become massively affected as a result of the numerous wildfires, with drift smoke emitting along McDowell, Burke and surrounding counties. According to Mission Health experts and state and federal air quality officials, the elderly, children and people with cardiovascular deseases, specifically asthma and COPD, should limit their exposure to outside air.

According to Emergency Management, while there are no currently active fires in McDowell, donations and supplies to other fire districts are highly welcomed to provide responder rehab to the fire scene. These items can include:

Water

Crackers

Gatorade or Gatorade single serve mix packets.

Snack type items containing protein

Styrofoam cups for coffee

Coffee Creamer (no refrigeration type required)

Packets of Sweeteners (Sugar, Splenda, Equal)

Coffee

Hot Chocolate

Baby wipes or hand wipes.

These items can be dropped off at any of the local Fire, Rescue or EMS stations in McDowell County.

The burning ban is still active until further notice. Violating the ban will result in a $100 fine plus court costs of $180.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 15

By Maksim Tsurkov  Trend:

Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR is considering the possibility of building an oil terminal in the city of Cotonou of Benin, as well as the implementation of a number of infrastructure projects in West African countries, SOCAR said in a message Nov. 15.

The Azerbaijani delegation led by the countrys Energy Minister Natig Aliyev visited Burkina Faso and Benin at the invitation of these countries governments, according to the message.

During the meetings, the sides discussed issues of establishing relations between the fuel and energy complex of Azerbaijan and West African countries, as well as ensuring mutually beneficial economic cooperation.

The delegation, which also includes SOCAR Vice-President for Investments and Marketing Elshad Nasirov, Chairman of Azerikimya production union Mukhtar Babayev and Director of SOCAR Trading Arzu Azimov, met with the President of Burkina Faso Roch Marc Christian Kabore, during which the parties outlined the importance of development of bilateral relations, said the message.

During a meeting with Prime Minister of Burkina Faso Paul Kaba Thieba, the parties discussed issues of cooperation between SOCAR and SONABHY (state oil company of Burkina Faso), concrete joint projects, the supply of oil products to Burkina Faso, as well as the construction of SOCARs terminal in the port of Cotonou in Benin and implementation of several other infrastructure projects, according to the message.

The Azerbaijani delegation also plans to hold meetings in the Cotonou with minister of energy, water resources and mining, minister of finance, foreign minister, as well as the management of Benins state oil company SONACOP (Societe Nationale de Commercialisation des Produits Petroliers).

The message said also that the visit will allow expanding prospects of supplies of Azerbaijani oil and oil products to West African markets, implementing energy projects, strengthening political authority of Azerbaijan in the region and intensifying SOCARs commercial activity.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.15

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

The duties for oil export from Russia will decrease from Dec.1 by $2.3 to $90.4 from $92.7 per ton, according to the estimations of the countrys Finance Ministry.

The average price for Urals oil stood at $44.98 per barrel or $328.4 per ton during the period from Oct.15 to Nov.14, 2016, according to the estimations posted on the Finance Ministrys website.

The preferential duty rate for oil produced at a number of fields in Eastern Siberia, as well as Caspian Sea fields and Prirazlomnoe field has remained at zero since Feb.1, 2015, as a new calculation formula was adopted as part of the tax maneuver in the oil industry, said the ministry.

The duty for the export of high-viscosity oil from Russia will drop from $11.2 to $10.9 in December.

According to the Finance Ministrys estimations, the duty for light oil products and oils will decrease from $37 per ton to $36.1, while the duty for the export of heavy oil products from the country will decline from $76 to $74.1.

This is while the duty for export of marketable gasoline from Russia will drop from $56.5 per ton to $55.1 in December, according to the estimations.
In The Continued War on Big Pharma Price Gouging, Century Hearing Aids Picks Up The Torch

Century Hearing Aids, has opened up a new battlefront in the war activists have been waging against Big Pharma.

By challenging the status quo that allows deeply entrenched legacy companies to price goods at will, theyve succeeded in unseating corporate monoliths such as Mylan Inc and Martin Shkrellis Turing Pharmaceuticals. The most recent clash has come over hearing aids.

The hearing aid industry is in a state of crisis. Only 20 per cent of the 30 million Americans suffering from hearing loss use hearing aids, experts say. Financial difficulty is the most oft cited barrier for people in need.

How did this state of affairs come about and what is being done about it?

In the last fifteen years six major international companies have accounted for 98 per cent of global sales. These companies have traditionally reached consumers through the use of audiologist-vendors.

According to a 2013 study by The Hearing Review, 20 per cent of vendors offered only one brand of hearing aid, and sixty per cent offered in between two to four. The lack of options for consumers has removed the healthy competition that is required to bring prices down to their true market rate.

The average price of $2,400 that consumers paid per ear for hearing aids in the year 2013 is bloated by markups on the wholesale and retail ends.

Competition is the backbone of our economic system. Without it, companies have a chokehold on the supply of a product and are free to dictate pricing. When this occurs the consumer gets squeezed.

In response to this trend, online retailer Century Hearing Aids has stepped in with a real alternative. By preprogramming hearing aids to settings that work for 98% of customers, they have eliminated the need for the follow up visits that make hearing aids financially out of reach for those in need and cut prices by fifty to seventy-five percent. Customer welcome the ability to purchase low cost hearing aids for cheaper prices than Starkey and other major brands, while not compromising on quality.

Signs Of A Consumer Revolution

The recent Mylan Incs Epi-Pen price hike a telling indicator of a brewing unrest. The way the market has taken back control from such a powerful conglomerate is the stuff revolutions are made of. Over a period of seven years, Mylan raised the price of a two pack of this life saving drug from $100 to $608.

The FDAs lengthy and expensive drug approval process, a system that can in some cases enable a single big pharmaceutical company be the only legal producer of a vital life-saving drug, made it possible for Mylan to hold a monopoly on the drug.

What happened next is the truly astounding part. Mylans stock tanked as investors questioned the ethics of the companys actions. The market reacted to the blatant disregard for consumers in pursuit of shareholder profits.

In late 2015, Imprimis CEO Mark Baum reacted Martin Shkrelis price hike of the drug Daraprim by creating a generic version to be sold for $1. When Shkreli bought the rights to Daraprim, a drug used to treat an infection especially severe for those affected by the AIDS virus, he raised the price per pill from $13.50 to $750. A move that earned him the moniker: most hated man in America.

I have a special affection for this patient population, Baum said. Ive worked with this patient population for a long, long timeWhen this guy [Shkreli] did this, I said, Someones got to stand up and we decided we were going to take a stand.

A revolution is brewing. One that is rapidly changing the face of the American marketplace from one controlled by few to one run by and servicing the many.
Details added (first version posted at 16:36)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 15

By Anvar Mammadov  Trend:

The Board of Directors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will discuss allocation of a loan for the Southern Gas Corridor project until late 2016, ADB Vice President Wencai Zhang said.

Zhang, who is responsible for operations in the ADB South Asia Department and the Central and West Asia Department, made the remarks Nov. 15 at a press conference in Baku.

He said that the total volume of funding will amount to $1 billion.

The proposed investment plan will support the Azerbaijani government's efforts to finance Shah Deniz-2 project, and is aimed at improving the country's fiscal position by increasing revenues from natural gas exports from the expanded Shah Deniz field and creating additional jobs.

The plan will provide a partial credit guarantee (PCG) to support commercial bank financing of government shares in the amount of 16.67 percent of the project's cost.

If the loan is allocated, it will be used by Southern Gas Corridor CJSC.

The gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz field's development will be exported to Turkey and to the European markets by means of expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and construction of the Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).
by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, November 15, 2016

According to new Pew Research Center estimates, presented by Jeffery Passel and DVera Cohn, using government data there were 8 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. working or looking for work in 2014, making up 5% of the civilian labor force. The number was unchanged and the share was down slightly since 2009, the year the Great Recession officially ended.

The recent stability in the trend for unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. workforce echoes that for the unauthorized immigrant population overall. Both groups had grown rapidly during the 1990s and early 2000s. Compared with their sizes at the start of the recession in 2007, the unauthorized immigrant workforce was slightly smaller in 2014 and the overall unauthorized immigrant population was markedly smaller. From 2009 to 2014, when the number of unauthorized immigrant workers was stable, eight U.S. states, Alabama, California, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Nevada, South Carolina and Rhode Island, had statistically significant declines in the number of unauthorized immigrants in their workforces.

Estimated Unauthorized Immigrants In US Labor Force Year Unauthorized Immigrants 1995 3.6 Million 2000 5.6 2005 7.3 2010 8.8 2014 8.0 Source: Pew Research

Most states that experienced change in their unauthorized immigrant workforces also experienced change in their total unauthorized immigrant populations. In 12 states, both the total number of unauthorized immigrants and the number of unauthorized immigrants in the civilian labor force changed in the same direction from 2009 to 2014.

These key findings, and others about the occupations and industries in which unauthorized immigrants work, come from new Pew Research Center estimates based mainly on U.S. Census Bureau data, with the main source of data for 2005-2014 is the American Community Survey, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Looking at 2014 estimates, states with the largest number of total unauthorized immigrants in their workforces also were among those states with the largest overall populations of unauthorized immigrants. They included California, with 1.7 million unauthorized immigrant workers; Texas, with 1.1 million; and New York, with 600,000. States where unauthorized immigrants accounted for the largest share of the workforce included Nevada (10.4%); California (9.0%) and Texas (8.5%).

The nations 11.1 million unauthorized immigrants made up 26% of the nations 43.6 million foreign-born residents in 2014. The U.S. foreign-born population also included 19 million naturalized citizens, 11.7 million lawful permanent residents and 1.7 million lawful residents with temporary status (such as students, diplomats and guest workers in the technology sector). In total, immigrants represented 13.6% of the U.S. population in 2014.

In 2014, the nations civilian labor force consisted of about 133 million U.S.-born workers (83% of the total), 19.5 million lawful immigrant workers (12%), and 8 million unauthorized immigrant workers (5%). The numbers of U.S.-born members of the workforce and lawful immigrant members of the workforce increased from 2009 to 2014, while the number of unauthorized immigrant workers did not.

Labor Force Estimates in Millions Labor Force 2009 2014 US Total 156.9mil 160.4mil US Born 130.7 132.8 Lawful Immigrant 18.1 19.5 Unauthorized 8.1 8.0 Source PEW Research

Unauthorized immigrants make up a larger share of the U.S. labor force (5% in 2014) than of the total population (3.5%) in part because they are disproportionately likely to be of working age. 92% of unauthorized immigrants are ages 18 to 64, compared with 60% of the U.S.-born population and 76% of lawful immigrants.

91% of unauthorized immigrant men ages 18 to 64 were working or looking for work in 2014, compared with 79% of U.S.-born men of similar age and 84% of lawful immigrants of similar age. Among women ages 18 to 64, labor force participation was 61% for unauthorized immigrants in 2014, 72% for the U.S. born and 67% for lawful immigrants.

Although unauthorized immigrants work throughout the U.S. economy, they are particularly concentrated in some sectors, according to the Pew Research Center analysis. Compared with their 5% share of the civilian workforce, they were overrepresented in the agriculture (17%) and construction (13%) sectors, as well as in the leisure and hospitality industry (9%).

By occupation, unauthorized immigrants held a higher share of U.S. farming jobs (26%) in 2014 than would be expected given their share of the workforce. They also held a disproportionate share of construction jobs (15%). By contrast, unauthorized immigrants held a lower share of maintenance, management, professional, sales and office support jobs than their share of the workforce overall. However, there is no sector or occupation where unauthorized immigrant workers were a majority; in all industries or occupations, they were outnumbered by U.S.-born workers.

For additional information from Pew Research, please visit here.
by Richard Whitman , Columnist, November 14, 2016

Over the years we've seen some nice work come out of Charleston-based Brandon Agency. This week the agency has announced the acquisition of Charlotte-based digital design firm Artizen Studio. It's the agency's fourth acquisition in three years.

The acquisition will hook The Brandon Agency up with Artizen clients, which include Dean Foods, snack maker Snyder-Lance, steel maker Nucor and S&D Coffee & Tea.

Artizen was established in the mid-1990s as an the external creative arm for brands' marketing and communications needs. They offer everything from print to video to app development. Artizen Owner and Creative Director Cary Murphy has moved into a new role at The Brandon Agency as the Regional President and Group Creative Director.

Of the acquisition, The Brandon Agency CEO Scott Brandon said, Growth has been a major focus for the agency -- growth for our clients, our employees and our brand. Bringing on Artizen adds greater digital and creative firepower to our staff, as well as great clients to our roster. And, it provides an expanded presence in a city where we have been looking to grow our footprint.

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The team up brings The Brandon Agency's full service agency services to the Artizen client base with Murphy noting, "... We havent always had the ability to be a true, full service partner. The Brandon Agency is a perfect pairing for Artizen in that theyre able to add strength to our already strong creative team and provide new depth and expertise in areas like PR, digital and traditional media buying, research, SEO, social media, turnkey e-commerce development and sales support. They offer all the resources that businesses need to win, and Im excited to have them in Charlotte.

Currently, The Brandon Agency, which boasts billings of $75 million, has offices in Charleston, South Carolina; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Charlotte, North Carolina; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Cleveland, Ohio; Breckenridge, Colorado; and Sofia, Bulgaria.
by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, November 14, 2016

Google said Monday that it will cut off its advertising tools to news Web sites that publish misrepresenting content. The company is working on a policy update to restrict its ads from being served on these sites in an effort to keep inaccurate information off the Web.

"We've been working on an update to our publisher policies and will start prohibiting Google ads from being placed on misrepresentative content, just as we disallow misrepresentation in our ads policies," a Google spokesperson told Search Marketing Daily. "Moving forward, we will restrict ad serving on pages that misrepresent, misstate, or conceal information about the publisher, the publisher's content, or the primary purpose of the Web property."

The policy change to stop AdSense advertisements from serving on pages comes as companies continue to debate the issue as to how much responsibility each site should take for publishing accurate content.
by Tom Siebert , Op-Ed Contributor, November 15, 2016

This column brings me no pleasure to write, but guest host Dave Chappelles unsettling, misleading and potentially racially explosive allegation about 26th U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt on Saturday Night Live last weekend deserves examination, particularly in light of our increasingly divisive historical moment.

As much as Ive laughed with and respect Chappelle as a rare comedic talent, America does not need to have a statesman who worked to improve race relations in this country falsely vilified. And we do not need American history distorted by pop culture any more than it already is.

Chappelle, who dropped out of the mainstream for a decade, hosted SNL as part of a personal comeback. It was also the first post-election episode of SNL, which has had a prominent role satirizing the candidates and the election process.

Most of the buzz centered around a very funny Walking Dead skit and the fact his opening 11-minute standup bit was censored in portions of the country.

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But it wasn't any vulgarities in his opening segment that offended me. It was the way Chappelle rewrote history to serve a political agenda. And it wasnt a joke.

We know it wasnt a joke, because Chappelle told us himself, roughly nine minutes deep in his routine, as he was finishing up, speaking about America and the election results: This is not a joke, but I think its important that I say this, he began.

Chappelle then started talking about being invited to the White House for a BET party, where everyone was black (except Bradley Cooper. LOL?). Chappelle proceeded to take us backwards through history, to the first black man invited to the White House, the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

Though he first said, Im not sure this is true, Chappelle claimed Douglass was not allowed on the White House grounds until President Lincoln came down personally to vouch for him.

From Douglasss own we can discover this account isnt true. Stopped by guards, Douglass said, Tell Lincoln Im here, you'll see, and he then got past the velvet rope.

Chappelle went on to claim no other black person was invited to the White House again until Theodore Roosevelt. And he got so much flack from the media he literally said, 'I will never have a n****r in this house again., Chapelle asserted.

It was not delivered as a joke. Nobody laughed. I sure didnt. But from what I could learn from researching the incident over the past several days, it was a lie.

Chappelles revisionist view of presidential and racial history clanked me upside the head when I heard it because Ive read a lot about Teddy Roosevelt, and was familiar with the incident. The black man was Booker T. Washington, by the way, a great American author and political leader who deserved to be name dropped.

Some initial Googling came up with zero, but the recent election has shown us we cant particularly trust Google, so I called the Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University in North Dakota, our nations largest repository for all Roosevelt-related documents, photographs, and ephemera, and spoke with Pamela Pierce, the centers Digital Library coordinator and archivist.

Pierce confirmed my concern.

We cant find any record of him saying the quote that Chapelle used, she told me. There is nothing, as far as we are aware, that corroborates that quote.

She then sent me a series of historical links to documents chronicling how the dinner came about, how it played out afterwards, and Roosevelts own writings about how hurt and upset he was by the backlash.

It was ugly, alright. The media attacked Roosevelt mercilessly, while he publicly stood up for Washington, saying [T]he idiot or vicious Bourbon element of the South is crazy because I have had Booker T. Washington to dine. I shall have him to dine just as often as I please.

It should also be noted that he actually did no such thing, so Roosevelt sort of chickened out, and its fair enough to call him on it. But there is no public record that he said what Chappelle alleged. He played politics: Talked tough, didnt actually do anything that might cause him more problems. Ironically, he behaved opposite one of his most famous claims, to speak softly and carry a big stick.

One thing I did discover was a very popular poem that was syndicated throughout American newspapers -- over the course of two years -- called N****s in the White House, which attacked Roosevelt for dining with Washington.

Its a horrifying read that ends with Roosevelts decapitation. It ran in hundreds of newspapers. I bring it up only to point out that, yeah, things look pretty ugly now, but theyve been worse.

But misrepresenting the character of an American president who at least tried to do some good for race relations is also unfair and counter-productive. It grates especially when it comes from someone whos earned significant creative credibility like Chappelle. Talking honestly about race is hard enough; talking about it through propaganda and lies will make it impossible.
by Thom Forbes @tforbes, November 15, 2016

Jumping the green flag on the start of the Los Angeles Auto Show Friday, Jaguar took the wraps off its I-Pace electric luxury SUV in a virtual reality event staged at Milk Studios in Hollywood Sunday evening.

The show began with guests being ushered into a large cavernous room lined on each side with nooks big enough to fit a large round table and seats. After sitting down, each guest was given a virtual reality headset, writesFortunes Kirsten Korosec.

The I-Pace, which should hit showrooms in 2018, was then unveiled simultaneously to an audience in Los Angeles and London through VR using HTC Vive headsets and Dell Precision PCs, Adario Strange reports for Mashable. With celebrities including Michelle Rodriguez (Fast and Furious), Miranda Kerr and James Corden (Carpool Karaoke) in attendance, the vehicle's designers, Ian Callum and Ian Hoban, introduced the next-gen electric vehicle.

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In addition to the virtual presences of the designers and animations showing how the vehicle handles, VR viewers were also transported to Venice Beach with a view from inside and outside the vehicle. At one point in the VR presentation, viewers watched as pieces of the car fell from outer space and assembled around them on Earth, Strange continues.

Lest we get lost in the not-really-real, the car itself has some notable features, too.

Instead of simply fitting the new Jaguar F-Pace SUV with lithium-ion batteries and calling it a day, the famed British brand called on  Callum to come up with something completely different, writes Chris Woodyard for USA Today. He did. Freed of the limitations of a big gas engine up front, Callum went with a cab-forward design that, at least in the prototype, stretches the wheelbase with almost no overhang at either end.

There's nothing in the market like it, according to Anna Gallagher, global launch manager for the I-Pace.

That may be so, but it will be competing for upscale buyers with the likes of the Tesla Model X crossover, which launched last year, as well as electrified SUVs from Bentley, Porsche, Lamborghini, Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, Audi, Maserati and more, as Eric Adams points out for Wired. But its a good time for Jaguar, he writes, which is enjoying a massive sales surge and basking in stellar reviews of its new F-Pace SUV.

As the I-Pace moves to production, it will likely drop its more fanciful design elements, Adams suggests, citing features such as its massive 23-inch wheels and micro-LED lights embedded in the panoramic glass sunroof but he says the the team is confident its sleek aerodynamics will persist.

Its not just nice to look at, however.

On the performance end, all-wheel drive, 400hp, and 516 lb-ft. of torque translate to a 0 to 60 mph sprint of about 4.0 seconds, Miles Branman reports for Digital Trends.

Electric motors provide immediate response with no lag, no gearshifts, and no interruptions, remarked Ian Hoban, Jaguars vehicle line director. Their superior torque delivery compared to internal combustion engines transforms the driving experience.

Just as EVs are transforming the luxury market.

The number of all-electric models available in the U.S. is expected to triple to 19 by 2020, according to credit-rating firm Moodys Investors Service. Sales of small electric sedans, such as Nissan Motor Co.s Leaf and BMWs i3, have been disappointing so far, reports Tim Higgins for the Wall Street Journal.

Overall sales of high-end SUVs have been bright spot in the U.S. auto industry, garnering a 52% share of the overall U.S. luxury car market through October this year, up from 40% of sales in 2013, according to data provider LMC Automotive. Auto makers are eager to sell SUVs because they command higher prices than smaller cars, and theyre increasingly popular with luxury car buyers, Higgins writes.

Theres a reason for that.

With a mandate that zero-emission vehicles make up 15% of automakers' California sales by 2025, the state is driving carmakers to roll out carbon-free vehicles in an environment of uncertain future demand. At the same time, cheap gasoline is propelling a shift among U.S. consumers toward larger vehicles, particularly SUVs, writes Reuters Amanda Sage. The move by Jaguar is a response to those conflicting pressures, executives said.

Sales of electrified vehicles could rise to about 35% of global sales by 2040, or 41 million cars, according to a report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. That compares with sales of less than 1 million this year, according to forecaster IHS Automotive, writeBloombergs Jamie Butters and Elisabeth Behrmann.

Were just at the beginning, Finbar McFall, Jaguar Land Rovers global product marketing director, tells them. The markets going to grow because of new entrants, and that will be a really healthy thing.

Gentlepeople, push your buttons and engage your batteries, the race is on.
by Tobi Elkin @tobielkin, November 15, 2016

The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) on Tuesday announced the TAG Certified Against Malware Program, its fourth and final seal program to certify buyers, sellers, and intermediaries in the digital advertising supply chain that have taken aggressive steps to fight malware. As part of the program, TAG also launched a Malware Threat Sharing Hub to disseminate near-real-time intelligence on malware attacks to other companies and law enforcement agencies.

Ad-tech firms and agencies that have agreed to participate in the TAG Certified Against Malware Program include: Adform, Admiral, AppNexus, DoubleVerify, engage:BDR, GeoEdge, Google, MediaMath, OpenX, RiskIQ, RocketFuel, Rubicon Project, Sovrn, SpotX, and The Media Trust.

Malware is considered a growing threat in the digital advertising supply chain. It enables criminals to take over computers with bot networks to run scams and commit fraud. TAGs new program uses a combination of consumer education, industry best practices, information sharing, and law enforcement to help shut down malware distributors.

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Malware is the illegal engine that powers bot networks and the advertising fraud they enable. There's no simple fix to a complicated problem like malware, so TAG's anti-malware program combines overlapping defenses through a seal program that helps companies find and block malware in their networks, an information sharing resource to keep the good guys ahead of the criminals, and close cooperation with federal law enforcement agencies, Mike Zaneis, CEO, TAG, told Real-Time Daily via email.

Companies using the new Malware Threat Sharing Hub will be able to use the information to update their defenses against the most recent infections used in attacks on other victimized companies and consumers. TAG will also provide information from the Hub to law enforcement agencies to assist in the prosecution of criminals distributing and using malware.

To obtain a TAG Certified Against Malware seal, companies must comply with a set of guidelines related to their specific roles in the digital advertising supply chain, and comply with the adoption of TAGs Best Practices for Scanning Creative for Malware which were released last month.

TAGs anti-malware efforts were led by the organizations Anti-Malware Working Group which includes nearly 50 companies and organizations. TAG has also been working closely on its anti-malware efforts with federal law enforcement agencies including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Justice, and Federal Bureau of Investigation.
by Tobi Elkin @tobielkin, November 15, 2016

Ad-tech firm RTB House, which specializes in retargeting, on Tuesday said it has expanded its presence to Singapore, now the fifth market in the APAC region for the company following Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Taiwan. RTB Houses expansion in APAC began in Q4 2015.

Singapore holds a unique place in Asian markets, that enables enterprises to flourish and grow, stated Jakub Ratajczak, Managing Director APAC, RTB House. It has a highly developed and successful free-market economy, as well as great technological infrastructure.

RTB Houses Singapore branch will be led by Chandra Kuncara, the newly appointed country director who will be also responsible for running business activities in Malaysia and Vietnam. Prior to this role, he was responsible for driving sales and business development efforts for Facebook, Appier, and Google in the Southeast Asia region.

RTB House said that Southeast Asias digital market is expected to grow more than six-fold to $200 billion by 2025.

Over the last three years, RTB House has launched in more than 40 countries in Europe, LATAM, APAC, and the MEA region, with a recent launch in Dubai.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.15

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

The Southern Gas Corridor provides new hope and opportunity for stability and prosperity, said the statement released on the website of the White House Nov.15.

As Greece moves forward on the path to economic recovery, the United States will advocate policies to promote and foster economic growth and further opportunities for US investment, said the statement.

To further these goals, the United States has pledged its support for energy diversification in Greece through the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline and Greece-Bulgaria Interconnector, which reduce Europes dependence on Russian gas and strengthen energy security across the region, according to the White House.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for the EU. It envisages the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian Sea region to the European countries through Georgia and Turkey.



At the initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor project. Other sources can also join this project at a later stage.



As part of the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz development, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of TANAP and TAP.
by Tobi Elkin , Staff Writer @tobielkin, November 15, 2016

Google on Monday issued a few notable announcements. They include the addition of video to native ads in DoubleClick and Dynamic Ad Insertions to video on demand (VOD). Google also expanded its beta test of Exchange Bidding, which was announced earlier this year, to include mobile apps.

The new offering of video in native ads gives publishers the ability to run the advertising without embedding playerswhich means they can insert personalized, targeted ads into long- and short-form VOD content across all devices. The feature also supports ads sold direct and through programmatic ad channels.

In a blog post entitled Publisher sustainability in a mobile and video world, Jonathan Bellack, Googles director of product management, publisher platforms, said he believes in the value of the open Web, where users get access to information, and publishers are able to create and earn money from their content. He re-iterated DoubleClicks mission: to help publishers thrive and create sustainable businesses with advertising. Because people expect great experiences wherever theyre consuming content, Bellack said Google has built a flexible native ad solution designed to help publishers deliver better ads that are attuned to a users context.

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Bellack noted in the post that since May 2016, the number of native ad impressions served through DoubleClick has more than doubled, with publishers including The New York Times, Vogue, Zillow Group, Slate and eBay adopting its solution.

Googles moves seem to underscore the efficacy of native advertising, or at least its popularity. Also notable, Google said that more than half of all ad queries on its DoubleClicks publisher platform serve on mobile devices.

Google also announced that it expanded its beta test of Exchange Bidding to include mobile apps with Smaato, a mobile-focused real-time bidding ad exchange. Exchange Bidding enables publishers to put multiple exchanges into competition in real time without adding any new client-side code. The move to Exchange Bidding took Google a while, but it finally entered the fray in the spring.

Garrett McGrath, VP of product Strategy at Smaato, discussed the Google announcement in an email to RTBlog: In order to drive maximum value in a mobile advertising environment, speed is of the utmost importance. Client-side solutions for increasing or diversifying demandlike header bidding simply can't be used effectively here. They also do not address the most important aspect of mobile: apps, which unlike the mobile web, have no headers to hack.

McGrath went to say that in order to compete in mobile advertising, publishers need a fast solution that addresses the in-app market. This means you need server-side transactions, which is clearly what led Google to develop Exchange Bidding. We are proud to be one of Google's first mobile app Exchange Bidding partners, as this gives publishers server-side access to our mobile demand stack, which in turn will drive increased mobile yield and eCPMs."
by Larissa Faw , November 15, 2016

The International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) wants to bring attention to what its calling a genocidal crisis in Burundi and has enlisted We Are Social France for help with a new campaign.

The group says that thousands have been killed so far while more than 310,000 people have fled the country. Amidst the long-running unrest there, people are currently protesting against President Pierre Nkurunziza's third term, which many claim is unconstitutional.

We Are Social France developed the pro bono campaign's strategy, creative idea, editorial plan, content creation, influencer outreach and media campaign.

The project centers around a 60-second movie trailer "Genocide in Burundi" that resembles a real movie trailer similar in style to African tragedies such as Hotel Rwanda, The Last King of Scotland and Johnny Mad Dog. The clip begins with the notice that it is a "Film By Pierre Nkurunziza, the President of Burundi" and ends with the message #StopThisFilm and "The only movie you wouldn't want to see."

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At the end of the trailer, viewers are directed to sign a petition. The goal is to encourage the United Nations to deploy a peacekeeping mission to protect the civilian populations and prevent a possible genocide.

"Cinema is a media which the general public can relate to, which was key for us because we know it's really hard to attract people's awareness around tragedies that are happening on the other side of the world," says Sandrine Plasseraud, founder/CEO, We Are Social France.

The trailer will be presented on the French movie platform AlloCine (similar to IMDB), as if it were a real movie trailer. In the U.S., the clip is shown in a loop on a Clear Channel electronic billboard in NYC's Times Square between 46th and 47th Streets through November 22. We Are Social will also target select international public figures and personalities, such as actress Emma Watson, with personalized tweet messages.

"We looked for people who had ties with the film industry, since our campaign is based on a fictional trailer," says Plasseraud. "We also identified influencers who have interest in charities/NGOs. And we're hoping they'll help us amplify the message so that Burundi is not forgotten by the international community."

The FIDH and The Burundian League For Human Rights have also published the 200-page Repression and Genocidal Dynamics in Burundi' report that outlines crimes being committed in Burundi that include murders, kidnappings, disappearances, torture, rape and massive detentions, ordered by the highest ranking officials, they say.
by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, November 15, 2016

Its not quite TV, but its close.

Yes, Pinterest is testing Explore -- an extension of its existing platform, which will feature auto-play versions of Promoted Video.

Like a typical TV experience, Explore should make it easier for brands to encourage episodic viewing. Indeed, when users finish one video, the next will begin playing automatically.

Now Pinners have a daily destination to visit and catch up on the best of Pinterest, according to Jenny Chiu, who works on partnerships for Pinterest.

With promising results, Pinterest said it has already been testing Explore with American Express, The Home Depot, Macys and Sony Pictures.

Pinterest unveiled Promoted Video, its mobile-only, video-based ad product, in August. Simply put, Promoted Video invites brands to share their ideas in video form -- then gives their offerings prominent placement in users' mobile feeds.

The ads include Pinterests Cinematic Pin format, and play a few sound-free frames when users encounter them in their feeds. Before the video can play, users actually have to give them a tap. Pinterest is allowing brands to include up to five minutes of footage in the new opt-in ads.

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The new product makes perfect sense, considering the popularity of video on top social media platforms. Pinterest, for one, has witnessed a 60% increase in videos on its platform over the past year.

For Pinterest, the launch is part of an aggressive effort to sell brands on its potential.

For example, it recently hired Gunnard Johnson to head measurement science and insights. Johnson most recently served as head of quantitative ads research at Snapchat, and prior to that, was the advertising research director for Google.

Bigger picture, Pinterests business prospects are looking brighter than ever. In fact, the image-based social network reportedly expects to rake in $3 billion in revenue in 2018.

If accurate, that would be dramatically higher than the roughly $100 million in revenue Pinterest reportedly took in last year.
Still struggling to rein in user harassment, Twitter is giving its mute button greater powers.

Were enabling you to mute keywords, phrases, and even entire conversations you dont want to see notifications about, the social giant notes in a new blog post.

Set to roll out in the coming days, Twitter said many users have been calling for just such a feature, though the company is well aware of its hate problem.

The amount of abuse, bullying, and harassment weve seen across the Internet has risen sharply over the past few years, according to the company.

Twitter is also giving users a more direct way to report abuse, whether its being directed to them or others. On enforcement, the company said it recently retrained all of our support teams, including special sessions on cultural and historical contextualization of hateful conduct, and implemented an ongoing refresher program.

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Twitter also recently improved its internal tools and systems in order to deal more effectively with reported abuse.

The companys co-called hateful conduct policy prohibits specific conduct that targets people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability or disease.

Despite efforts to curb their activity, trolls have scared away some of Twitters most influential users.

Earlier this summer, New York Times editor Jon Weisman gave up on the network, given its failure to stem the tide of anti-Semitism being tweeted in his direction.

More recently, Twitter permanently suspended the account of conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos -- but not before he directed a number of racist and demeaning tweets in the direction of Saturday Night Live star Leslie Jones.

Trying to avoid similar problems, Instagram has taken several steps to discourage user harassment.

Microsoft also began refining some of its processes to make it easier for customers to report hate speech. As part of the effort, the Web giant launched a new dedicated Web form for reporting hate speech on its hosted consumer services.

Internally, Twitter has been struggling to come up with a viable solution to its troll problem with years.

Last year -- echoing earlier comments by then CEO Dick Costolo -- Vijaya Gadde, general counsel for Twitter, wrote in The Washington Post: Even when we have recognized that harassment is taking place, our response times have been inexcusably slow and the substance of our responses too meager.
A growing body of research suggests that prenatal stress has a long-lasting impact on an infants development. A new study adds to the evidence, showing that prenatal stress can negatively affect the child well into adulthood, through a connection via the maternal gut bacteria. Share on Pinterest Stress-induced changes in the maternal gut bacteria may affect the child for life, according to new research. According to an analysis conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), prenatal stress is associated with preterm birth, low birth weight, as well as prenatal and postpartum depression and anxiety in the mother. An overview of existing research further supports the fetal origins hypothesis, according to which prenatal environmental factors can have lifelong effects on the brain development and behavior of offspring. Pregnant womens exposure to a variety of stressors, ranging from common to traumatic, have been linked to significant modifications in the childrens neurodevelopment. Stressors such as the loss of a loved one, daily hassles, or financial worries have been connected to autism, affective disorders, and reduced cognitive ability in children. New research in mice suggests that prenatal exposure to a mothers stress may change the microbiome in a way that negatively affects the baby.

Gut bacteria and mental health Tamar Gur, assistant professor of psychiatry, behavioral health, neuroscience, and obstetrics and gynecology at Ohio State University, believes the bacteria to be a particularly good medium for researching the connection between a mother and her fetus. This is why she led a team of researchers to examine exactly how maternal stress affects the offspring. We already understand that prenatal stress can be bad for offspring, but the mystery is how, says Gur, who is also a member of Ohio State Wexner Medical Centers Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research. Gur explains that the microbes from a mothers gastrointestinal and reproductive tracts are the first ones to spread to the developing fetus and the newborn. As a result, gut bacteria might provide an explanation for why and how maternal stress can affect a persons mental health for their entire life. More and more, doctors and researchers understand that naturally occurring bacteria are not just a silent presence in our body, but that they contribute to our health, says Gur.

How prenatal stress affects offspring in mice For the study, researchers compared two groups of pregnant mice. One group was subjected to 2 hours of stress-inducing restraint per day for 7 days. The other group was left undisturbed during pregnancy. The gut bacteria of both groups assessed by taking fecal samples. Researchers found increased markers of inflammation in the placenta, the fetal brain, and the adult brain of the mices offspring. The scientists also found a decrease in a supportive protein called the brain-derived neurotrophic factor. When stressed, pregnant mice displayed a change in their bacterial makeup. These changes could be observed both in the mothers guts and in the placentas, as well as in the intestines of their female offspring. Bacterial changes lasted all the way into adulthood. Affected adult mice were more anxious, they spent more time in dark, closed spaces and they had a harder time learning cognitive tasks even though they were never stressed after birth, Gur explains. Researchers found a lower ability to learn and behavior indicative of higher levels of anxiety among the female offspring of the mice. According to Gur, the team found alterations in the behavior of male offspring as well, but the details of that part of the study are still a work in progress. Gur recently presented the study at Neuroscience 2016  the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, held in San Diego, CA.
A combination of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and TNF-inhibitors may help slow down spine damage in ankylosing spondylitis, according to new research findings presented at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Scientific Meeting in Washington.

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is an inflammatory form of arthritis that frequently affects the joints of the spine. It's more common in men. People with AS often are negative for rheumatoid factor, but positive for the, [gene or allele - depending on target audience] Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) B27.

Recent research on the effectiveness of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi) on patients with inflammatory arthritis has been mixed, so researchers at the University of California, San Francisco in conjunction with several other investigators conducted a study to analyze the direct and interactive effects of a combination of the two therapies on radiographic (X-ray) progression of AS. The study was a multicenter cohort funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

"Until 2003, the only drugs available to treat AS were NSAIDs. When the first TNFi was approved in 2003, the disease state changed. Suddenly, we could offer therapies to patients with incredible efficacy," said Lianne S. Gensler, MD, Director of the Ankylosing Spondylitis Clinic at the University of California, San Francisco, and the lead author of the study. Despite the robust clinical response, TNFi could not show the disease progression (by X-ray) slowing down, she noted.

"Researchers posited that there was a different mechanism to explain the damage that occurred in AS, and that though we were treating the inflammation, we may not be addressing the ankylosis that appeared to continue. At the same time, several studies came out looking at NSAIDs to see if they could slow down progression, and these results were mixed," she said. "Despite the controversy, as we saw patients on these drugs over the next decade, the clinical experience did not match the 'evidence' that suggested no effect. Patients were not developing the severe damage we had become accustomed to. Based on the controversial data, and having prospectively collected detailed medication data in a longitudinal cohort [PSOAS - Prospective Study of Outcomes in AS] over 10 years, we were able to ask the research question in a longitudinal manner, not only addressing the effects of TNFi, but also NSAIDs and the relationship between these two medications."

The study included 527 AS patients who met the modified New York criteria in a prospective cohort with at least two years of clinical and radiological follow-up. The researchers defined radiographic progression longitudinally, with a 2 modified Stoke Ankylosing Spondylitis Spine Score (mSASSS) unit increase in 24 months. Patients with high mSASSS scores were censored if they could not meet the progression definition over the next follow-up period. They used a longitudinal, mixed-effects, multivariate logistic regression model to find associations with NSAID and TNFi therapy and radiographic progression.

The patients in the study were 76 percent male, had a mean age of 42.7 and mean disease duration of 18.45 years. Their baseline median mSASSS score was 5.36, and they were followed for a median of 3.67 years. Seventy-eight percent of the patients used NSAIDs, and 58.4 percent used TNFi drugs.

Multivariate results of the study showed that there was significant interaction between TNFi and NSAIDs. When TNFi were used with higher doses of NSAIDs (at least 50 percent of the maximum daily dose), patients had a 70 percent reduction in radiographic progression.

"This is the first study to show this relationship and potentially sheds light on why prior study results have been so controversial," said Dr. Gensler. "I think it is important to remember that despite the results, not every patient will progress or warrant this kind of regimen. That said, for those with greater risk, this combination may be especially helpful."

The researchers will next analyze another year's worth of data to clarify their findings even more, Dr. Gensler said.

"It is also important to remember that this is a cohort of patients being studied, not a randomized controlled trial, so there may be unmeasured confounders and biases with regards to why various medications are used by different patients," she said. "In the future, a randomized controlled trial with a radiographic outcome may allow us to answer the question in the purest way."

This research was supported by funding from the NIH's National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.
The enforcement of prohibition - a ban on the production, supply, possession, and use of some drugs for non-medical purposes - causes huge harm, and doctors should lead calls for drug policy reform, argues The BMJ.

Editor in chief, Dr Fiona Godlee, and features and debates editor, Richard Hurley, say prohibition laws, colloquially known as the "war on drugs," cost at least $100bn annually but have failed to curb either supply or demand, reduce addiction, minimise harm, cut violence, and reduce profits for organised crime.

Far from diminishing over time, drug use has grown substantially worldwide - exacting a tragic toll on individuals and societies.

In 2014 a quarter of a billion adults - one in 20 worldwide - may have taken an illegal drug such as cannabis, cocaine, or heroin, while a quarter of UK 15 year olds may have taken illegal preparations of unknown quality and potency.

Calls for reform come as no surprise, then, and at a UN general assembly in April, many countries asked for health and human right to be prioritised over punitive responses.

Some have already removed criminal penalties for personal drug possession, explain Godlee and Hurley. For instance, Portugal replaced criminal sanctions for drug use with civil penalties and health interventions 15 years ago.

The UK's new Psychoactive Substances Act criminalises the supply but not use of synthetic drugs, while some US states like California have legal cannabis markets, and the Netherlands has tolerated regulated cannabis sales for decades.

A recent international evidence review concluded that governments should decriminalise minor drug offences, strengthen health and social sector alternatives to criminal sanctions, move cautiously, where possible, towards regulated drug markets, and scientifically evaluate the outcomes to build pragmatic and rational policy.

"Health should be at the centre of this debate, and so, therefore, should healthcare professionals," they write. "Change is coming, and doctors should use their authority to lead calls for pragmatic reform informed by science and ethics."

Ruth Dreifuss, former President of Switzerland and chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, says the need for more effective and humane drug policies is more urgent now than ever.

She argues for a pragmatic approach to drug policy reform, starting with the recognition that the idealised notion of a "society without drugs" is an unattainable fantasy. Reforms must then prioritise issues of public health, social integration, and security, while strictly respecting human rights and due judicial process, she writes.

Decriminalisation can and must go further, she adds. In its upcoming report, the Global Commission calls for governments to regulate all illicit drugs. This would curb a massive revenue stream for organised crime, worth an estimated US$320bn.

Parliamentarians Baroness Molly Meacher and Nick Clegg MP say UK drug policy has been irrational for 55 years - and this is the right time to establish a wider review of drug policy.

They urge the government to reschedule cannabis for medical use and to review policy on heroin assisted treatment, which has already shown positive results in Switzerland, such as a decline in drug use and crime, and improvements in health and rehabilitation.

They also call for an end to criminal sanctions for the personal possession and use of all drugs. "British politicians should seriously consider introducing a version of the Portuguese model in the UK, involving a significant transfer of resources from criminal justice to treatment services," they write.

They point out that steps towards decriminalisation in the UK have already begun, with the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016, and say changes to drug prohibition "could be good for the UK."

Few UK medical organisations have a position on the issue, but this summer, the British Medical Association (BMA) voted for a move to prioritise treatment over punishment of individual drug users at its Annual Representative Meeting.

Article: The war on drugs has failed: doctors should lead calls for drug policy reform , Fiona Godlee editor in chief, Richard Hurley features and debates editor, The BMJ, doi: 10.1136/bmj.i6067, published 14 November 2016.

Observations: Non-violent drug users should face no penalty - a call from the Global Commission on Drug Policy , Ruth Dreifuss and Pavel Bem, The BMJ, doi: 10.1136/bmj.i5921, published 14 November 2016.
A multidisciplinary international team of scientists solved the mystery of a recently discovered type of controlled cell death, mapping the path to potential therapies for conditions ranging from radiation injury to cancer. The study, led in part by the University of Pittsburgh, is reported in two papers in Nature Chemical Biology.

Ferroptosis is a way the body uses iron (which is "ferro" in Latin) to catalyze a reaction that safely destroys and recycles a malfunctioning or damaged cell. Until this study, scientists didn't know how the body signaled - within the damaged cell and to other cells - that this well-regulated death needed to occur.

"Our team successfully decoded the signaling language that cells use to trigger ferroptosis," said Valerian E. Kagan, Ph.D., D.Sc., professor in the Pitt Graduate School of Public Health's Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, and lead author of one of the papers. "You can think of it like the scanners and radios that policemen use to find and arrest a criminal.

"The goal is to communicate enough information to neutralize the problem and remove the criminal, or damaged cell, but without creating such a commotion that you disrupt the society, which, in this example, would be other, well-functioning cells."

Through two years of experiments bridging fields ranging from public health and critical care medicine to basic biology and chemistry, the team analyzed hundreds of molecular combinations generated in the ferroptotic process to discover that only four molecules actually signal for the cell to die. All four are phospholipids - naturally occurring molecules that make up cell membranes.

"Scientists have long known that these lipids were important for encasing the cell and giving it structure," said Kagan. "What they didn't know - what we've only learned in recent scientific history - is that they do so much more, including communicating and signaling messages like 'danger' inside the cell itself, to other cells and to the cellular community as a whole, so that organisms can function in a coordinated way."

Kagan and Hulya Bayr, M.D., professor in Pitt's Department of Critical Care Medicine and senior author of one of the papers, had previously worked together to decode another type of more well-known cell death, called apoptosis. They then decided to pursue the more esoteric ferroptosis, which had first been discovered in 2012.

"Ferro means iron, and we live in Pittsburgh, the Iron City - it would be a shame for us not to understand this process," said Kagan, whose team looked for therapeutic value as they decoded the signaling process.

Kagan and Bayr also study ways to protect people against radiation, such as what would be given off in a terrorist attack. The findings gave them reason to think that ferroptosis may underlie radiation induced cellular damage as well.

"More and more, we're appreciating that the damage from acute radiation is happening to the lining of the intestine, and that damage triggers a cascade of health complications that lead to sepsis, a very deadly syndrome," said Bayr. "We believe that the radiation is triggering ferroptosis in the cells that line the intestine. If we can stop that process and get the body to repair, rather than systematically destroy, those cells, we might save the victims of devastating dirty bomb attacks."

Conversely, in cancer, the body is failing to destroy dysfunctional cancer cells, allowing tumors to grow unchecked. By understanding the ferroptotic pathway, the researchers hope to find medications that can prompt it to recognize and kill cancer cells.

The researchers have already partnered with several UPMC clinicians to explore ways to translate their scientific findings into therapies that could help patients.

Sebastian Doll, Ph.D., Jose Pedro Friedman Angeli, Ph.D., and Marcus Conrad, Ph.D., all of Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen in Germany, are lead or senior authors on the accompanying Nature Chemical Biology publication. In addition to a multi-disciplinary team of Pitt leading investigators, including Joel Greenberger, M.D., Rama K. Mallampalli, M.D., Claudette St Croix, Ph.D., Simon Watkins, Ph.D., and Ivet Bahar, Ph.D., and others at Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen, additional co-authors are from the University of Heidelberg in Germany and Columbia University in New York.

This research is supported by National Institutes of Health grants P01HL114453, U19AI068021, NS076511, NS061817, P41GM103712 and ES020693; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft grants CO 291/2-3 and CO 291/5-1; and the Human Frontier Science Program grant HFSP-RGP0013/2014.

Articles: ACSL4 dictates ferroptosis sensitivity by shaping cellular lipid composition , Sebastian Doll et al., Nature Chemical Biology, doi:10.1038/nchembio.2239, published online 14 November 2016.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 15

By Fatih Karimov  Trend

Iran is negotiating with China over financing the Rasht-Astara railway project, Mohsen Pour Seyed Aghaei, Irans deputy minister of Roads and Urban Development, said.

Iran seeks financiers to complete the construction of the railway, Pour Seyed Aghaei said, ILNA news agency reported Nov. 15.

Receiving finance from Chinese investors is one of the options and Tehran is negotiating with China in this regard, he said.

The construction of the Rasht-Astara railway comes as part of a larger project to create the North-South transportation corridor.

The North-South transportation corridor is meant to connect Northern Europe with Southeast Asia. It will serve as a link for connecting the railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia.

At the initial stage, it is planned to transport 5 million tons of cargo via the North-South corridor per year and to increase the figure to over 10 million tons in the future.
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Zika and dengue are closely related and come from the same family of viruses, known as flaviviruses.Very little is known about Zika's possible interactions with chikungunya, in humans or mosquitoes.This prompted researchers at a laboratory headed by Greg Ebel, ScD, at Colorado State University, to test what happens in the Aedes variety of mosquitoes responsible for transmitting the viruses when they encounter more than one virus at a time.In a contained experiment, the scientists allowed mosquitoes to feed on blood that contained dengue, chikungunya or Zika, either alone or in combination.The tests so far show strong evidence that mosquitoes can pick up and transmit Zika and chikungunya simultaneously -- something that had not been confirmed before, given the recent arrival of Zika in the Americas."Their saliva is clearly testing positive for both, which could mean that people bitten by this type of mosquito could be infected by both viruses at once," said Claudia Ruckert, PhD who is presenting the results at the ASTMH meeting.It is not clear if mosquitoes can carry all three viruses at the same time.But a previous study, also conducted in a laboratory setting, found that Aedes mosquitoes can carry dengue and chikungunya simultaneously, an observation that was confirmed by the Colorado State research team.And the real-world opportunities for mosquitoes to encounter more than one of these viruses appear to be increasing.A recent study in Nicaragua revealed that about one in five patients who tested positive for dengue, chikungunya or Zika also had a co-infection with at least one of the other two diseases. Some even tested positive for all three."We need to understand more about what happens in both mosquitoes and people when all of these viruses are circulating in close proximity," Ruckert said.In a second study released at the annual meeting, researchers in Brazil presented new insights from their efforts to work in real-time to untangle a web of neurological complications encountered in a group of 21 patients at the Roberto Santos General Hospital in the northeastern city of Salvador-Bahia over a four-month period in 2015 during an "unprecedented and concurrent" outbreak of Zika, dengue and chikungunya.Their evidence indicates that each disease may be linked to severe neurological problems, including a rare disorder seen in two patients called Opsoclonus-myoclonus-ataxia syndrome or OMS.It is sometimes referred to as "dancing eyes-dancing feet syndrome" for the chaotic eye movements and muscle contractions it causes.One of those patients tested positive for Zika and dengue. But the other patient tested positive for chikungunya and dengue, though it has been difficult to determine whether this "co-infection" was to blame."Our analysis shows that each of these viruses may have the potential to cause a range of neurological complications, some very severe, and patients should be monitored for symptoms," said Isadora Siqueira, MD, PhD, a scientist with Brazil's Oswaldo Cruz Foundation.Zika already is known to occasionally cause Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), which prompts the immune system to attack nerve cells and can cause paralysis and even death.But Dr. Siqueira said they also saw GBS in patients who did not have Zika-- but tested positive for either chikungunya or dengue."This kind of clinical research is essential so that we can better understand the true public health threat of these mosquito-borne viruses," said Stephen Higgs, PhD, president of ASTMH.Tropical medicine scientists must continue to be vigilant on the front-lines of these outbreaks and provide new and beneficial insights for physicians around the world.Source: Medindia
Russia-NATO Update is a new monthly review by the MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project, covering the latest news on Russia-NATO relations from the Russian and East European media.

Cartoon :



Twitter.com/sharzhipero, November 1

Quote Of The Month: The US Is Still Practicing Containment

On November 8, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made the following remark at the opening of the Potsdam Meetings in Moscow.

"Shortly after Russia had embarked on a path of progressive development and overcome the 1990s crises, we ran into a new edition of the "policy of containment" directed against us. This policy also manifested itself in the coup and the violent seizure of power in Ukraine, which was supported by Washington and Brussels, and the introduction of unilateral sanctions against Russia. The US plans to deploy the European segment of the global missile defense system, and NATO's actions to conduct an expedited militarization of Eastern Europe, the Baltic countries, and the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea are also part of that policy."

(Mid.ru, November 8)

The Iskander-M Tactical Missile Systems In Kaliningrad

See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 6663, TheIskander-M Tactical Missile Systems In Kaliningrad - An Update, November 3, 2016.

Admiral Kuznetsov Aircraft Carrier

See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 6659,Ria Columnist: Admiral Kuznetsov Aircraft Carrier Is Directed Against 'The Terrorists More Technologically Advanced Puppet Masters [The West]', November 1, 2016.

See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 6655, The Admiral Kuznetsov Aircraft Carrier - Mission And Goals (An Update), October 27, 2016.

Russia's Drills

See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 6645, Preparation For A Military Clash - Russia's Drills And Army Update - September-October 2016, October 14, 2016.

See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 6648, Russia's Drills Update, October 23, 2016

Interview Of The Month: The Standoff With Ukraine Will Continue

Moscow-based daily newspaper Moskovskij Komsomolets published an interview with Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, focusing on Russia's policy in Ukraine, among other subjects.

Q: "... I'd like to focus on Ukraine a little more. In your opinion, what has Russia achieved playing in this field? And how may this game develop now?"

Trenin: "Russia had two goals in Ukraine. The ultimate goal is the inclusion of Ukraine into an integration process with Russia. In my opinion, there was no chance of implementing this plan, at least not with any advantage for Russia. Because all the Ukrainian elites - eastern, western, southern - realized that the Ukrainian political project could not be implemented in the context of integration with Russia.

"Russia is too appealing in every respect, from economics to culture. And close bonding with it would have made Ukraine part of this large 'Russian world,' a community with Russia at its center

"It was unacceptable for the Ukrainian elites; they wanted Ukraine to have a different path from that of Russia. "These sentiments were not considered seriously enough in Moscow.

"And if Ukraine had entered into integration with Russia, it would have received a veto power over the decisions of the Eurasian Union. And it would exercise this power every time to obtain new concessions from Moscow. Additionally, it would always blackmail Russia with the option of its [Ukraine's] turning to the West. And, of course, in any case, there would be forces inside Ukraine that would clamor in favor of rethinking the integration policy.

"The more immediate goal was more realistic - not allowing Ukraine to join NATO. Here it was possible to achieve something. But nobody could provide any guarantees, because the US has favored Ukraine's joining NATO since 2007-2008. This ambition caused serious tensions back then.

"And today there is an objective that can be achieved with the help of the Donetsk and Lugansk republics - to create internal obstacles for Ukraine's NATO accession.

"To give constitutional guarantees that Ukraine won't be able to apply for NATO membership if some regions are opposed. This, among other things, is the meaning of the Minsk agreements for Moscow.

"But at the moment, nobody is in a hurry to invite Ukraine to join. Even without NATO, it will remain the foreign state most hostile to Russia for many years. And nothing prevents it from concluding additional agreements with the US about the deployment of all kinds of weapons. You don't have to be in NATO to do that."

(Mk.ru, October 31)



Dimitri Trenin (Source: Russia-direct.org)

Essay Of The Month: The New European Missile Crisis

Sergey Karaganov, former advisor to Vladimir Putin's presidential administration and dean of the elite Moscow college National Research University Higher School of Economics, wrote an article, titled "Missiles in Europe: Back to the Future?"

In the article, Karaganov stated that new disarmament talks are hardly necessary between Russia and the West. "With the West continuing to dominate the information space, such talks would only be used even more actively than before for inciting greater mistrust and militarizing mentality in Europe,"

Below are excerpts from Karaganov's article:

'The Deployment Of Missile Defense Systems In Poland And Romania Looks Particularly Odd'

"When in the late 1970s and early 1980s our Western colleagues kept talking about the 'Soviet military threat,' I looked at them with suspicion: Are they being silly or simply lying? The decaying Soviet Union obviously could not, and did not intend to, attack anyone. When I came to know some of them better, I understood that they were mistaken after all. But when I hear about the 'Russian military threat' again now, this certainly is not a mistake any more but a deliberate and blatant lie, apparently told in a bid to restore structured confrontation. I regret to say, but forward deployment of weapons and missile defense systems and the stationing of troops (rotational for the time being) in Europe is almost overtly provocative.

"It is said they are being deployed there in order to calm down Russia's neighbors frightened by its possible (but hardly imaginable) aggression. In actual fact, in a real armed conflict such weapons would only make the host countries more vulnerable. I don't think NATO strategists really think that Russia would wait for its territory to be invaded. These weapons and troops will make everyone nervous-Russia, against which they have been deployed, and their host countries, which turn themselves into priority targets either through folly, or out of desire to take revenge for Moscow's previous victories, or by order (or no one simply asks them as in the case of Romania). Core NATO members will also become more worried when they understand that the new weapons and troops increase the risk of war in Europe.

"The deployment of missile defense systems in Poland and Romania looks particularly odd. It is obviously prompted by the strong desire of a large segment of the American elite and society to have an illusion of strategic invulnerability, weaken the opponent along the way, and make their own defense industry happy. Initially, these plans were justified by theoretically plausible claims that Europeans needed to be protected from Iranian missiles. When Iran gave up its nuclear program, all decency was dropped. Now any reference to the Iranian threat looks brazenly false, inappropriate even for the West itself. And yet these arguments are replicated over and over again.

"Specialists say almost unanimously that if proper countermeasures are taken, missile defense systems cannot impair Russia's strategic capabilities. But these systems and the inevitable countermeasures they provoke will increase military risks for the host countries, undermine strategic stability in Europe and the world, and provoke greater nervousness and mistrust.



Sergey Karaganov (Karaganov.ru)

"Experts and, most importantly, officials, who are responsible for the security of the country, including its president, say that antimissiles in these systems can easily be replaced with long-range cruise missiles the deployment of which in Europe is banned by the INF Treaty. If this is true, the United States is taking a big surreptitious step towards breaching the treaty, while at the same time throwing similar accusations at Russia.

"There are (or were) those in Russia who advocate secession from the treaty which is in fact quite inequitable. But Russia has never broken it. By placing missile defense systems in Europe, the West is sort of inviting Russia to withdraw from the treaty and deploy missiles that can destroy these systems almost instantly. This would complete the picture with a new edition of the missile crisis of the late 1970s and early 1980s and a new round of structured military-political confrontation in Europe.

"The watershed would run closer to our borders. But a new confrontation by definition is more dangerous than the previous one and would provoke a hair-trigger reaction or counter-reaction from both sides. The Americans apparently hope to sit it out over the ocean. Continental Europe, crashed by the avalanche of insolvable internal problems, does not seem to be giving it a serious thought, just as it did not think about the consequences of its expansion to Ukraine two and a half or three years ago. On top of it all, there are pro-conflict forces and interests in Europe (as noted above).

"By essentially offering to resume military-political confrontation, Western partners want to make it more comfortable for themselves and tie Russia's hands to prevent it from responding in a hard and risky way. This explains why the West constantly moots the possibility of resuming conventional weapons talks or confidence-building dialogue in its old format. I mentioned above the proposals to discuss nuclear weapons in Europe. I heard them many times while working in the OSCE Panel of Eminent Persons. Some of them resurfaced too.

"As a matter of fact, the results of Great Britain's referendum to leave the European Union create an even greater uncertainty across the board and increase the likelihood of actions to distract attention from the EU crisis, increase the U.S. influence in Europe, and find a new topic for consolidation.

'Old Recipes Are Used Again To Provoke Russia Into Confrontation And Arms Race In Europe'

"First of all, one must understand that the scenario I have described is quite realistic or is already in progress. Old recipes are used again to provoke Russia into confrontation and arms race in Europe.

"Second, we must make it clear to our European partners and their societies that the current, and previous, policy of NATO and the forces rallying around it is aimed directly at renewing military confrontation in Europe, and if it is realized, it will increase the risk of conflict immensely.

"Third, there is no need to repeat the folly of the late Soviet and early Russian periods when we wanted to please the West and hoped for an equal and stable security system and cooperation in Europe. An analogue of that policy today would be an attempt to resume relations with NATO in the old format. Russia's weakness and attempts at appeasement helped turn the alliance from a predominantly defensive bloc, as it was during the Cold War, into an offensive one and the main factor of military and political instability in Europe.

The aggression against Yugoslavia and Libya, and the attack by the majority of U.S.-led NATO countries on Iraq created a new reality. It turned out that without strong external deterrence a defensive union of democratic states can easily degrade. Conclusions must be drawn. Russia should hardly try to legitimize the alliance through political dialogue with it in the Russia-NATO Council. But NATO is a real thing, and therefore it would be prudent to continue discussion with it in order to avoid an escalation of incidents and accidental clashes. But this discussion must be conducted by the General Staff and NATO's Military Committee, by military specialists. Simultaneously, a broader dialogue, bilateral and multilateral, among experts as well, is needed to discuss the future of European security and ways to prevent its destabilization and degradation.

"Fourth, Russia should not respond to potential new missile and other challenges hastily or in kind. It should not secede from the INF Treaty, for this is exactly what the West expects it to do. In fact, Russia has already announced its countermeasures. It will deploy three divisions in the west of the country (Do we really need them there?) and create non-nuclear high-accuracy missile systems (which are quite expensive and can only benefit a richer country). It may get drawn into an arms race. I personally think that an exercise of Russia's strategic forces to dispel all doubts about what may happen in the event of a crisis with new missiles/interceptor missiles would be enough.

"Fifth, there is the need for a broader security dialogue than the one within the old European framework. As long as we remain within it, the West cannot, and does not want to, give up the old system that reproduces confrontation. We must embark on a Eurasian cooperation, development and security dialogue, especially since the world has changed, including around Russia and Europe. The previous European-centric model looks almost like an anachronism, even for Europe which needs new cooperation horizons for development. China, Russia, and other Eastern and Central Eurasian countries can provide such opportunities. They will not challenge Europe's Atlantic ties but will rather complement them.

"Sixth, new disarmament talks are hardly necessary. With the West continuing to dominate the information space, such talks would only be used even more actively than before for inciting greater mistrust and militarizing mentality in Europe. But as I have already said, there is the need for military-to-military dialogue.

"Seventh, the remaining potential of the OSCE must be fully tapped, while its third basket, which was used mainly for sustaining and encouraging confrontation, should be gradually 'forgotten.' The second-economic-basket is essentially dead. The Organization can be instrumental in settling crises similar to that in Ukraine and fostering joint responses to new security challenges like refugees, terrorism, migration, and cybercrimes.

"Eighth, and this is probably the main point, Russia should step up dialogue with the EU and its member countries to look for ways to restore and expand cultural, scientific and economic cooperation on a new realistic basis. The European Union is not a model any more, nor is it an adversary, but rather a good neighbor, a lucrative market and an equal partner with whom we share many interests and even basic values. Russia should probably think about a broader dialogue between the Eurasian Economic Union and the EU on the way to a comprehensive trade and economic partnership in Eurasia. The Russian president spoke about the need for such a partnership at the 20th St. Petersburg Economic Forum.

"Finally, and most importantly, we Russians have lots of complaints to make to the West, and many are itching to keep responding to the full extent possible and showing it where it gets off. Russia, which has always treasured its two core values-sovereignty and security-apparently has an internal need for an external enemy. This need will grow stronger unless the country becomes ready to begin long overdue reforms.

"But one must remember that in the long run no one will benefit from confrontation, even less so Russia, which is not as strong and rich as the West and even if it can hold out and win tactical victories. It is vitally important to understand that if we allow Cold-War-era structured confrontation to resume, the planet will become a much more dangerous place than ever before. It is better to struggle for peace, provide security, including by preventing further expansion of Western alliances as we belatedly did in 2014, upset the plans of those who wish to renew the arms race and the systemic military-political conflict, and regain leadership in the efforts to ensure the supremacy of international law and strategic stability..."

(Globalaffairs.ru, September 25)
There still exists a stratum of society that, repeatedly by their actions, puts humanity to shame. Acts so gruesome that they will damage you emotionally. A group of shameless Pakistani men recently did something that will make you rethink about your faith in humanity.

Here, take a look at this video. If this doesnt hurt you to the core, its hard to say what will.

In Pakistan, minorities, be it religious or racial, arent only ignored but are particularly picked and tormented. The video above shows a man, named Jajja Butt, brutally whipping the life out of a helpless transgender. Lashing her with a belt on her rear, the man shows no mercy. The worse thing is that hes not alone, he has company. The video went viral a couple of days back and rightfully so, the internet is doing everything possible to nab these men.

The story isnt as much as you can see in the video though. This is just a small part of the hell that these men wreaked on the transgender. A brave trans woman who was present throughout the above episode came out with a video with details that will shock you to the core.

The woman in the video above clearly states that that Jajja Butt and his friends raped them, made them drink their urine and spat in their faces. This is not the first time the Pakistani trans community has raised their voice against such cruelty. Earlier this year, a known Pakistani trans activist was shot and a hospital in Peshawar refused to admit her because they were confused which ward she should be kept in. The woman lost her life. With all this power of the internet at our disposal, if we dont help them now, we wouldnt be able to help them ever.
It has only been a few days since Donald Trump was elected as the 45th President of the United States of America, but it seems that the President-elect Trump is already swimming in a sea of troubles, thanks to his pre-election statements where he hinted at making things worse for China in terms of trade. In fact, major corporations like Apple and top car manufacturers will be among the ones to face a major blow in the U.S.

In an article published in the Global Times, Chinas state-run newspaper, it said If Trump lists China as a currency manipulator and slap steep tariffs on Chinese imports, China will take countermeasures. Woah, this means that China has very subtly warned (read: threatened) Trump to not mess with the trade affairs else the country will have to face the repercussions. Earlier, in September, Trump said that if he gets successfully elected he would impose a 45% tariff on imports from China.

 Twitter

The article mentioned that China will take a tit-for-tat approach where cars and iPhone sales in China will suffer, U.S. soybean and maize imports will be halted and a batch of Boeing orders will be replaced by Airbus. Furthermore, China also hinted on limiting the number of Chinese students studying in the U.S.

Calling Trump a shrewd businessman, the article even mentioned that Trump wouldnt be so naive to fiddle with the trade agreements. Trump as a shrewd businessman will not be so naive. None of the previous presidents were bold enough to launch an all-out trade war against China. They all opted for a cautious line since its most consistent with the overall interests of the U.S., and its most acceptable to the U.S. society.

 Pexels

Given the reputation Apple holds globally, it tends to become an easy target for politics. Earlier too, Trump made comments demanding that the iPhone-manufacturer should produce the devices in its homeland rather than overseas. There was a time when he even called for boycotting of its products. Despite the political tension, Apple CEO Tim Cook, asked his employees to move forward together, although he refrained from mentioning Trump or his past comments.

The newspaper even mentioned that its a win-win situation for everyone if the current agreements are maintained. Seeing their confident and fearless reply, one can figure out that there is too much at stake and if both the economies head towards a trade war, several industries in the U.S. will have to face the damage.

So if Trump goes by his words and China retaliates, then what do we do? Well, we might just sit back and read about the entire episode on our iPhones, with popcorns in one hand.

Source: Tech Crunch
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 15



By Khalid Kazimov  Trend:



A senior commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says the US has targeted and demolished a weapons factory in Syria.



The commander the IRGCs aerospace force, Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, has said that the demolished factory was earlier built by Iran in Syrias Aleppo for making surface to surface missiles, ISNA news agency reported.



He further accused the US of taking measures aimed at eliminating the armies of Islamic countries.



Hajizadeh did not provide further details on the US strikes on Syrian armys facilities.



Earlier last week, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Baqeri spoke about a missile factory that was created by Iranians in the Syrian city of Aleppo.



The US officials, so far, have not reacted to the accusations of the Iranian side.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 15



By Fatih Karimov  Trend:



Iran and the EU need to negotiate more to bring close their understanding of the human rights issues, Bahram Ghasemi, Irans foreign ministry spokesman, said.



Iran is ready to negotiate the issue with the EU to explain the Islamic human rights in an effort to bring both positions closer, Qasemi said, the countrys foreign ministry reported.



The Iranian diplomat earlier told Trend that Tehran has a critical outlook toward things that happen in Europe, especially regarding the situation of religious minorities.



He further said that Iran will have some points to raise regarding the current human rights situation in European countries during the talks with the European Union.



He added that the state of refugees heading from around the globe to European countries will be another point that Iran plans to raise during the talks.



Iran and the EU held second round of high level talks on November 9 in Brussels. The talks were headed on one side by Irans Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi, and on the other by EUs deputy foreign policy chief Helga Schmid.



The prospect of the talks opened after Iran and world powers successfully initiated the implementation of the landmark nuclear deal (called the JCPOA) in January.


Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 15

By Fatih Karimov  Trend

Irans foreign ministry will declassify documents dating back to over 40 years, Mohammad Javad Zarif, Irans foreign minister said.

The documents will be published under the supervision of Supreme Supervisory Council for Documents with responsibility of foreign minister, Zarif said, Mehr news agency reported Nov. 15.

He further said that historic documents dating back 30 years also will be permitted to being published under the same terms.

The historical documents will be put at the disposal of researchers within the framework of laws and the countrys national interests, Zarif said.

At least 50 million historic-political documents are kept in the foreign ministrys center for documents, Zarif said, adding that the oldest document belongs to 1463.

Last year Iran announced that it will declassify documents and materials related to the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988.

Orders and verdicts of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Islamic Republics founder and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as well as orders of the president and decisions of the Supreme Defense Council will remain classified.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 15

By Orkhan Quluzade  Trend:

Turkeys Prime Minister Binali Yildirim will visit Russia in early December, the Turkish Yeni Safak newspaper reported Nov. 15.

During negotiations with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Yildirim will discuss further steps on normalization of relations between the two countries, according to the report.

It is expected that the agenda of negotiations will include the issues of using national currencies in the trade between Russia and Turkey, creation of free trade zones, development of tourism, as well as the fight against the Islamic State (aka IS, ISIL, ISIS or Daesh) terrorist group in Syria and Iraq.

The Turkish prime minister is also expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.

This is Binali Yildirims first visit to Russia after his appointment as prime minister in May 2016.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @o_quluzade
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 15

By Orkhan Quluzade  Trend:

Turkeys Prime Minister Binali Yildirim will visit Russia on Dec. 5-6, the TRT Haber news channel reported Nov. 15.

Earlier, Turkish media reported that Yildirim will visit Russia in early December.

During negotiations with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Yildirim will discuss further steps on normalization of relations between the two countries, according to the report.

It is expected that the agenda of negotiations will include the issues of using national currencies in the trade between Russia and Turkey, creation of free trade zones, development of tourism, as well as the fight against the Islamic State (aka IS, ISIL, ISIS or Daesh) terrorist group in Syria and Iraq.

The Turkish prime minister is also expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.

This is Binali Yildirims first visit to Russia after his appointment as prime minister in May 2016.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @o_quluzade
Deputy Foreign Minister Terence Quick has been in Jakarta since yesterday, heading a business mission organized by the Foreign Ministry, in collaboration with the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV) and Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI). It is to be noted that this is the first visit of a member of the Foreign Ministrys political leadership to Indonesia.



In the context of his visit, the Deputy Minister met with Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Masudi, with whom he reaffirmed the excellent level of Greek-Indonesian relations. During the talks, particular emphasis was put on the existing potential for deepening of bilateral relations, especially in the sector of trade.

Mr. Quick also conveyed to the Indonesian Foreign Minister an official letter of invitation from Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias to carry out a visit to our country.



The Deputy Foreign Minister also met with Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi, Maritime Affairs and Fishing Minister, Susi Pudjiastuti, and Minister for Industry, Airlanga Hartanto, with whom he exchanged views on the prospects for strengthening bilateral cooperation in their areas of responsibility.



In parallel, the first Greek-Indonesian business conference is being held today, with B2B meetings between enterprises of the two countries taking place within the framework of the conference. On the margins of the conference, a Memorandum of Cooperation was signed by the ACCI and the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN).



Mr. Quicks itinerary also includes meetings with the members of the Parliamentary Committee on Defence, Foreign Relations and Information, with the members of the Greece-Indonesia Parliamentary Friendship Committee, with the Economic Coordination Minister, the Minister of Public Works and Public Housing, and, finally, the President of the Organization for Promotion of Investments.
JOURNALIST: Could you brief us on the meeting with the Foreign Minister of Albania, Mr. Bushati?

N. KOTZIAS: With Mr. Bushati, we carried out an overall assessment of where Greek-Albanian relations are headed and of the discussions we are having with regard to the problems that have arisen between the two countries. We noted that, concerning our relations, tones ought to be brought down.

JOURNALIST: Do you think a date might be set for the opening of accession negotiations between Albania and the EU within 2016?

N. KOTZIAS: In the Commissions recommendation  in the Report, that is  nothing like that is provided.

JOURNALIST: Ms. Bakoyannis posed a question to you on the matter of the Commissions Report.

N. KOTZIAS: Yes, I think she needs to read it more carefully and she will see that the series of critical observations contained in the Report simply havent gotten coverage in the Greek press. So I think that the main opposition party needs to study the texts carefully. I also want to mention that, since 2015, when I became Minister, the European Union texts have started to contain clear and specific references  as well as specific claims  regarding the rights of the indigenous Greek minority in Albania.

JOURNALIST: Did you raise the matter of Mr. Erdogans statements about Lausanne, regarding his conduct in the Aegean, with the Council?

N. KOTZIAS: What I brought to the attention of the Council is the contradictory situation that today exists in Turkey, the need for the European Union to speak in such a way as to be understood by Turkey and not generate a negative incorrect sense that we dont want to have a relationship with Turkey. At the same time, I underscored the need for us to insist that the relations between the European Union and Turkey must be based on international law, on international rules, and on the European acquis. Included among these, of course, is respect for international agreements and for the very borders that exist in Europe. And this doesnt concern just Turkey, but anyone raising issues, either in the Balkans or in the eastern Mediterranean, regarding the regions borders.

JOURNALIST: On the migration issue?

N. KOTZIAS: There was no discussion on that. I think, of course, that we have to meet this agreement, not just Turkey, on its part, but also Europe.

JOURNALIST: Is Mr. Anastasiades coming to Athens on Wednesday?

N. KOTZIAS: As soon as Mr. Obama departs.

JOURNALIST: What do we expect from the meeting with Mr. Anastasiades following the talks?

N. KOTZIAS: Mr. Anastasiades will brief the Prime Minister  we have already been briefed, of course, on the key points  on the talks that were held in Geneva, on the proposals for solutions that were formulated, which, as far as I can evaluate them right now, are positive, and on the next steps in the process of resolving the Cyprus issue.

JOURNALIST: So there is optimism that some solution might be found very soon regarding the main problems?

N. KOTZIAS: I think that the Cyprus issue is on a good path, and we have to fight to keep it on that path. No one can see the future.

JOURNALIST: One last question. Would you like to tell us something about the quadrilateral meeting  given that you saw Mr. Bushati today  regarding how you see it moving ahead. Will the quadrilateral configuration move ahead in Thessaloniki, or is it not advisable at this time?

N. KOTZIAS: As you know, we have two quadrilateral configurations in the Balkans. One concerns the member states of the European Union  Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece  and, in fact, this configuration met today on the level of political directors, with our excellent diplomat and Political Director of the Foreign Ministry, Petros Mavroidis, taking part on behalf of Greece. Regarding the quadrilateral meeting on the level of Ministers, for the other configuration  that is, Greece and the three northern countries sharing a border with us  it was scheduled to take place on 21 and 22 November, but, as you know, the current Bulgarian government was defeated in the presidential elections, while at the same time we have elections in Skopje on 11 December. Together with the Ministers and Mr. Bushati, whom I saw here, we agreed to postpone our meeting until after the elections in FYROM, so that all of the participating governments arent in a transitional situation.

JOURNALIST: Thank you very much.
Following the proceedings of todays meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council (Brussels, 14 November 2016), the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikos Kotzias, made the following statements to Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) TV:

JOURNALIST: Mr. Minister, what is the message from yesterdays informal dinner of the 28?

N. KOTZIAS: The EU tried to redefine and to seek the goals of the cooperation on the Euroatlantic level. The same subject was discussed today regarding another country, Turkey, though from another perspective of course. The Council looked at the course of EU-Turkish relations and assessed the situation within Turkey. We then had a discussion of the Balkan countries and certain relevant activities, during which reference was made to certain matters that have arisen with Albania and with the Balkan region in general. Finally, we talked about Libya and Syria, where the situation continues to be unstable and complex.

JOURNALIST: On the matter of Albania, the Netherlands believe that the accession negotiations should begin following the elections in our neighbouring country. What is our position on that?

N. KOTZIAS: Our position is that Albania should meet all five criteria  and not just to one concerning the judiciary  for the process of accession to the EU to have substance.

JOURNALIST: Concerning Turkey, was there any progress or any commitment from the Europeans on maintaining the key criteria they are asking for with regard to the discussion on visas?

N. KOTZIAS: As I have been participating for 24 years now  in one way or another  in negotiations between the EU and Turkey, I have found that there are times when there is a very friendly  sometimes even absurd, I would say  attitude to Turkey, and times, like today, when the criticism of this country is not always productive.

JOURNALIST: Did you find any reservations, on the [EU] partners part, concerning the results of the U.S. elections, mainly with regard to EU-American relations?

N. KOTZIAS: I think that, as usual, those who monitor a countrys politics through opinion polls are later astonished by how inaccurate the polls are.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 15

Trend:

Eitan Naeh has been appointed new Israeli ambassador to Turkey, the Anadolu Agency reported Nov. 15 with reference to Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon.

Turkey signed an agreement with Israel on repairing the relations June 28.

Relations between Israel and Turkey deteriorated after the Freedom Flotilla incident in 2010, when a convoy of six ships, including one flying Turkey's flag, tried to approach the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid and activists on board. The flotilla was blocked and stormed by Israeli forces, with eight Turkish citizens being killed as a result.
Five students were stabbed inside their Utah high school Tuesday and a 16-year-old boy identified as a suspect was taken into custody, police said, Associated Press reported.

The stabbings of the male students at about 8 a.m. at Mountain View High School happened near the school's gym in Orem, a city of about 90,000 people about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City, authorities said.

All of the victims were stabbed at least once and were being treated for their injuries at local hospitals. Their conditions ranged from critical to fair, Orem police Lt. Craig Martinez told reporters.

The suspect was apprehended shortly after the stabbings by a police officer regularly assigned to work at the school, Martinez said.

"We do have the suspect in custody and the rest of the students are safe," Martinez said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree relieving Alexey Ulyukayev of his duties as Russias economic development minister, the Kremlin press service said on Tuesday, TASS reported.

"Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to relieve Alexey Ulyukayev of his duties over the loss of confidence," the press service said.

Russian Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said earlier Ulyukayev had been detained late on Monday as he received a sum of two million U.S. dollars as a bribe in exchange for the economic ministrys positive appraisal that allowed the oil major Rosneft to buy out from the state a 50.08% stake in the oil company Bashneft. Petrenko added that the extortion of the bribe was accompanied by threats against Rosneft representatives.

Petrenko said however that the investigators had no questions to ask about the sale of the Bashneft stake proper and that the acquisition of shares was not a subject matter of the investigation.
PIGEON  Life can drastically change in the blink of an eye, for better or worse.

However, over the years a local group of volunteers has worked to help those who are struggling.

The Thumb Breadbasket is a bi-monthly, nonprofit food distribution that has been helping families in the Thumb for a number of years.

"It started about a decade ago, and we are a non-judgmental group that just wants to lend a helping hand to those that need it in the manner of food distribution," Gary Willey said.

Willey is cofounder of Thumb Breadbasket. He teamed up with Marek Witczak to help struggling families by providing various fresh foods. Willey said a number of local contributors help with donations, including Cooperative Elevator, who donates dry beans; local farmers who donate eggs; and even Willey makes a trip to the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan to pick up 30-33,000 pounds of food.

"We try to help wherever we can," Willey said. "The last time we had it, we helped over 47 families. We feed approximately 250 to 300 families, which is over 1,000 people every other month."

Thumb Breadbasket has one more distribution date set for 2016. From 8:30 to 10 a.m. on Saturday, those who are in need can stop by Laker Elementary School to collect food.

"They come early and the parking lot is filled before 6 in the morning," Willey said. "We also have volunteers from churches and banks."

All ages can take advantage of the distribution too.

"Young to elderly and everything in between," Willey said of the people helped. "People with disabilities. People who have gone through operations. People that are living on fixed incomes. People whose hours have been cut. People who are working 20 hours a week."

Every other month, Willey said, the numbers range on how many families Thumb Breadbasket assists, but the average is seven to 50 families.

A big asset behind the success of each distribution is because of the many volunteers.

"We have so many people that are so grateful to have this opportunity to get help because it allows them to make their insurance payments or whatever that may be because they're having a tough time make ends meet," Willey said.

Thumb Breadbasket will continue to help families in need next year as well.

The 2017 distribution dates are:

 Jan. 21

 March 18

 May 20

 July 15

 Sept. 16

 Nov. 18

All distributions will run from 8:30 to 10 a.m. at Laker Elementary School.

"I think it's best just to say it's biblical," Willey said of his enjoyment in helping others. "It's humbling. It's humbling because none of us want to be in that position and yet we often are, and it's OK."
S&P 500 3,856.10 DOW 32,653.20 QQQ 275.11 The 9 Essential Pages Your Ecommerce Website Must Include Under $5 a Share (Ad) Its Still Not Too Late To Get Into Energy Stocks Strong Q3 Driving Growth At S&P 500 Component Citizens Financial Under $5 a Share (Ad) Online Lender SoFi Jumps 14% On Better-Than-Expected Q3 Results Intuitive Surgical Stock is Both a Legacy and Next-Gen Play Market Wizard Who Accurately Predicted 2022 Market Collapse Has Shocking New Forecast (Ad) Why American Water Works May Not Want a Fed Pivot President: Moldova will defy Russian pressure, stay pro-West

S&P 500 3,856.10 DOW 32,653.20 QQQ 275.11 The 9 Essential Pages Your Ecommerce Website Must Include Under $5 a Share (Ad) Its Still Not Too Late To Get Into Energy Stocks Strong Q3 Driving Growth At S&P 500 Component Citizens Financial Under $5 a Share (Ad) Online Lender SoFi Jumps 14% On Better-Than-Expected Q3 Results Intuitive Surgical Stock is Both a Legacy and Next-Gen Play Market Wizard Who Accurately Predicted 2022 Market Collapse Has Shocking New Forecast (Ad) Why American Water Works May Not Want a Fed Pivot President: Moldova will defy Russian pressure, stay pro-West

S&P 500 3,856.10 DOW 32,653.20 QQQ 275.11 The 9 Essential Pages Your Ecommerce Website Must Include Under $5 a Share (Ad) Its Still Not Too Late To Get Into Energy Stocks Strong Q3 Driving Growth At S&P 500 Component Citizens Financial Under $5 a Share (Ad) Online Lender SoFi Jumps 14% On Better-Than-Expected Q3 Results Intuitive Surgical Stock is Both a Legacy and Next-Gen Play Market Wizard Who Accurately Predicted 2022 Market Collapse Has Shocking New Forecast (Ad) Why American Water Works May Not Want a Fed Pivot President: Moldova will defy Russian pressure, stay pro-West
New U.S. President Donald Trump could inadvertently start a trade war with China with his policies. (Photo : Getty Images)

The outcome of the U.S. elections stunned the rest of the world with the unexpected win of Donald Trump, now the 45th U.S. president, and the reverberations did not escape China, one of the world's largest economies.



Uncertainties regarding the future of U.S.-China ties are becoming more apparent in the face of a new president, who has promised to impose 45 percent tariffs on Chinese imports. Trump also did not shy away from attacking China and labeling it a currency manipulator.



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For investors, the next few months will be a waiting game.



"The U.S. has been the No. 1 destination for outbound Chinese investments. It's hard to see Chinese firms making the U.S. their first choice. At a minimum, there will be a period of wait and see," said Gloria Liu, a partner at law firm DLA Piper, in an interview with Fortune.



For a country whose recent economic efforts focus on stability, the new U.S. president does not bode well.



"Beijing tends to prefer incumbent party successors with consistent policy lines. Trump's lack of a governance track record and his unorthodox take on long-held Republican priorities could prove a headache for Chinese officials," wrote Fortune.



A Trump presidency also projects a period of uncertainties for China, according to analysts.



"China hopes the United States' future policy would be more certain because in this way, we can prepare and deal with it," Jia Qingguo, a dean at China's Peking University, told Fortune.



Some experts, however, sees a bright spot in America's new fate under Trump. A prolific real estate mogul, Trump is expected to be a "pragmatic businessman" who will be willing to deal with China.



"Any type of protectionist policy pursued will be a double-edged sword," said Ruan Zongze, a former Chinese diplomat, told Fortune. "I think he will be very careful about this."



Trump's campaign was largely hinged on the "restoration" of the U.S., luring white, working-class Americans who believe that jobs are being stolen from them by countries where labor is cheap.



"Trump's ascendancy to the White House delivers the sharpest blow yet to the forces of globalization that propelled China's rise. The world's most consequential bilateral relationship now faces an extended period of uncertainty and tension," said The Wall Street Journal.


Brookfield Asset Management is an alternative asset manager and REIT/Real Estate Investment Manager firm focuses on real estate, renewable power, infrastructure and venture capital and private equity assets. It manages a range of public and private investment products and services for institutional and retail clients. It typically makes investments in sizeable, premier assets across geographies and asset classes. It invests both its own capital as well as capital from other investors. Within private equity and venture capital, it focuses on acquisition, early ventures, control buyouts and financially distressed, buyouts and corporate carve-outs, recapitalizations, convertible, senior and mezzanine financings, operational and capital structure restructuring, strategic re-direction, turnaround, and under-performing midmarket companies. It invests in both public debt and equity markets. It invests in private equity sectors with focus on Business Services include infrastructure, healthcare, road fuel distribution and marketing, construction and real estate; Industrials include manufacturers of automotive batteries, graphite electrodes, returnable plastic packaging, and sanitation management and development; and Residential/ infrastructure services. It targets companies which likely possess underlying real assets, primarily in sectors such as industrial products, building materials, metals, mining, homebuilding, oil and gas, paper and packaging, manufacturing and forest product sectors. It invests globally with focus on North America including Brazil, the United States, Canada; Europe; and Australia; and Asia-Pacific. The firm considers equity investments in the range of $2 million to $500 million. It has a four-year investment period and a 10-year term with two one-year extensions. The firm prefers to take minority stake and majority stake. Brookfield Asset Management Inc. was founded in 1997 and based in Toronto, Canada with additional offices across Northern America; South America; Europe; Middle East and Asia.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan Army chief General Raheel Sharif attend the opening ceremony of a pilot trade project in Gwadar port. (Photo : Getty Images)

A new international trade route opened in Southwest Pakistan on Sunday, Nov. 13, with a Chinese ship sailing to export goods to the Middle East and Africa, providing an important gateway to Chinas One Belt, One Road initiative.



A report by indianexpress.com said that the new trade route was developed in 2015 by China through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as part of its 'One Belt, One Road' initiative as well as to deepen China- Pakistan economic ties.



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China spent about $46 billion for the project, which is expected to provide the quickest route for energy resources from the Middle East to be transported to China, without having to pass the Malacca Straits and the South China Sea.



The project has been opposed by people from the poor region of Balochistan, which has long been in conflict with the Pakistan government, the report said.



The CPEC is one of the major projects of China under its 'One Belt, One Road' initiative, which aims to connect China with Europe and Africa, via the ancient Silk Road trade route. The project would connect Xinjiang in northwest China with Pakistan's Gwadar Port at the Arabian Sea.



The trade route passes through Kashmir territory occupied by Pakistan and the disputed region of Balochistan.



According to the report, Gwadar port can manage about 19 million tons of crude oil, which can be directly transferred to China through the new route.



The project was first conceived in the 1950's but political unrest in Pakistan has caused some delay in its completion. In Nov. 2014, the Chinese government announced to finance the project and work begun in April last year.



According to the report, Pakistan has reportedly received twice the amount from the multi-million dollar CPEC project than those from other foreign investments since 2008.



Pakistan has other benefits from the CPEC project as Chinese investment in the southwestern region is expected to bring change to the economy of the mineral-rich, yet poorest region of the country.



According to Pakistan, it will use China's $46-billion pledge to fund coal, nuclear and other renewable projects to generate about 17,000 megawatts of electricity at a cost of $34 billion.The rest of the money would be used to build transport infrastructure.



Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said that Balochistan Province will be developed and transformed into a regional hub for economic activities.



The report, however, said that Balochistan strongly opposes the investment. Nationalist groups in the region said that they do not benefit from development projects such as this and non-Balochs, especially the Punjabis, often get the job opportunities.



Other groups also protest the abduction of activists and suspected separatists by Pakistan's military forces. Between 2001 and 2013, about 18,000 have been reported missing, according to the International Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (IIVBMP), a group formed by families of missing people in Balochistan.



To assuage China's fears, the Pakistani government has reportedly set aside $250 million to build a new security force in the region.



Security has become the biggest concern of Chinese in the province. Foreigners, particularly the Chinese, have become targets of abductions and killings by separatists from the Baloch Liberation Army. A Chinese tourist was kidnapped in May 2014 in Dera Ismail Khan, a place near the Balochistan border and in March 2015, five oil tankers owned by Chinese companies were reportedly set on fire by separatists.



Meanwhile, India is unhappy with the CPEC project since it passes through the Pakistan-occupied part of Kashmir. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his concerns about the project to President Xi Jinping during a bilateral meeting in September.



India signed a bilateral agreement with Iran to develop the Chabahar port, in response to Gwadar development project.


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Ltd, Buell Industries Inc., CCI Realty Company, CFC Europe GmbH, CS Australia Pty Limited, CS Mexico Holding Company S DE RL DE CV, Calvia Spolka z Ograniczona Odpowiedzialnosci, Capital Ventures Australasia S.a r.l, Capmax Logistica S.A. de C.V., Celeste Industries Corporation, Coeur, Coeur Asia Limited, Coeur Holding Company, Coeur Inc., Coeur Shanghai Medical Appliance Trading Co. Ltd, Compagnie Hobart, Compagnie de Materiel et d'Equipements Techniques-Comet, Constructions Isothermiques Bontami C.I.B., Crane Carrier Company, Denison Mayes Group Limited, Despatch Industries, Diagraph Corporation Sdn. Bhd, Diagraph ITW Mexico S. de R.L. De C.V., Diagraph Mexico S.A. DE C.V., Dongguan Ark-Les Electric Components Co. Ltd., Dongguan CK Branding Co. Ltd., Duo Fast de Espana S.A.U., Duo-Fast Korea Co. Ltd., Duo-Fast LLC, E.C.S. d.o.o., E2M Production B.V.., E2M Technologies B.V.., E2M Technologies Inc.., ECS Cable Protection Sp. Zoo, ELRO Grosskuchen GmbH, ELRO Holding AG, ELRO-WERKE AG, Elro Group, Eltex-Elektrostatik-Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Envases Multipac S.A. de C.V., Eurotec Srl, Exhibit 21, FEG Investments L.L.C., Filtertek De Mexico Holding Inc., Filtertek De Mexico S.A. de C.V., Filtertek SAS, GC Financement SA, Gamko B.V., Gun Hwa Platech Taicang Co. Ltd., HOBART Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Hartness International, Hobart Andina S.A.S., Hobart Belgium B.V., Hobart Brothers International Chile Limitada, Hobart Brothers LLC, Hobart Dayton Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Hobart Food Equipment Co. Ltd., Hobart International Singapore Pte. Ltd., Hobart Japan K.K., Hobart Korea LLC, Hobart LLC, Hobart Nederland B.V., Hobart Sales & Service Inc., Hobart Scandinavia ApS, Hobart Techniek B.V., Horis, ILC Investments Holdings Inc., ITW AEP LLC, ITW AOC LLC, ITW Aircraft Investments Inc., ITW Ampang Industries Philippines Inc., ITW Appliance Components EOOD, ITW Appliance Components S.A. de C.V., ITW Appliance Components S.r.l.a, ITW Appliance Components d.o.o., ITW Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, ITW Australia Property Holdings Pty Ltd., ITW Australia Pty Ltd, ITW Automotive Components Chongqing Co. Ltd., ITW Automotive Components Langfang Co. Ltd., ITW Automotive Japan K.K., ITW Automotive Korea LLC, ITW Automotive Parts Shanghai Co. Ltd, ITW Automotive Products GmbH, ITW Automotive Products Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Bailly Comte, ITW Befestigungssysteme GmbH, ITW Belgium B.V., ITW Brazilian Nominee L.L.C., ITW Building Components Group Inc., ITW CER, ITW CP Distribution Center Holland BV, ITW CS UK Ltd., ITW Canada Inc., ITW Celeste Inc., ITW Chemical Products Ltda, ITW Chemical Products Scandinavia ApS, ITW China Investment Company Limited, ITW Colombia S.A.S., ITW Construction Products AB, ITW Construction Products AS, ITW Construction Products ApS, ITW Construction Products CZ s.r.o., ITW Construction Products Italy Srl, ITW Construction Products OU, ITW Construction Products OY, ITW Construction Products Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Construction Products Singapore Pte. Ltd., ITW Construction Services Manila Inc., ITW Contamination Control B.V., ITW Contamination Control Wujiang Co. Ltd., ITW Covid Security Group Inc., ITW DS Investments Inc., ITW DelFast do Brasil Ltda., ITW Denmark ApS, ITW Deutschland GmbH, ITW Diagraph GmbH, ITW Dynatec, ITW Dynatec Adhesive Equipment Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Dynatec GmbH, ITW Dynatec Kabushiki Kaisha, ITW EAE B.V., ITW EAE Mexico S de RL de CV, ITW EF&C France SAS, ITW EF&C Selb GmbH, ITW EU Holdings Ltd., ITW Electronic Business Asia Co. Limited, ITW Electronic Components/Products Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Electronics Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Epsilon Sarl, ITW Espana S.L., ITW European Finance Co. Ltd., ITW European Finance II Co. Ltd., ITW European Finance III Co. Ltd., ITW FEG Hong Kong Limited, ITW FEG do Brasil Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW Fastener Products GmbH, ITW Fluids and Hygiene Solutions Ltda., ITW Food Equipment Group LLC, ITW GH LLC, ITW GSE ApS, ITW GSE Inc., ITW Gamma Sarl, ITW German Management LLC, ITW Global Investments Holdings LLC, ITW Global Investments Holdings Y Compania Sociedad en Comandita por Acciones, ITW Global Investments Inc., ITW Global Tire Repair Europe GmbH, ITW Global Tire Repair Inc., ITW Global Tire Repair Japan K.K., ITW Graphics Asia Limited, ITW Graphics Thailand Ltd., ITW Great Britain Investment & Licensing Holding Company, ITW Group France Luxembourg S.ar.l., ITW HLP Thailand Co. Ltd., ITW Holding Quimica B.C. S.L. Sole Shareholder Company, ITW Holdings Australia L.P., ITW Holdings I Limited, ITW Holdings II Limited, ITW Holdings III Limited, ITW Holdings IV Limited, ITW Holdings IX Limited, ITW Holdings Inc., ITW Holdings V Limited, ITW Holdings VI Limited, ITW Holdings VII Limited, ITW Holdings VIII Limited, ITW Holdings X Limited, ITW Holdings XI Limited, ITW ILC Holdings I Inc., ITW IPG Investments LLC, ITW Imaden Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW India Private Limited, ITW International Holdings LLC, ITW Invest Holding GmbH, ITW Ireland Holdings Unlimited Company, ITW Ireland Unlimited Company, ITW Italy Holding Srl, ITW Japan Ltd., ITW Korea LLC, ITW LLC & Co. KG, ITW Limited, ITW Lys Fusion S.r.l., ITW Materials Technology Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Meritex Sdn. Bhd., ITW Metal Fasteners S.L., ITW Mexico Holding Company S. De R.L. de C.V., ITW Mexico Holdings LLC, ITW Morlock GmbH, ITW Mortgage Investments II Inc., ITW Mortgage Investments III Inc., ITW Mortgage Investments IV Inc., ITW Netherlands Administration BV, ITW Netherlands Beta B.V., ITW Netherlands Finance Alpha BV, ITW New Universal LLC, ITW New Zealand, ITW Ningbo Components & Fastenings Systems Co. Ltd., ITW Novadan Sp. Z.o.o., ITW PPF Brasil Adesivos Ltda., ITW Packaging Technology China Co. Ltd., ITW Participations S.a r.l., ITW Pension Funds Trustee Company, ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Japan Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Korea Limited, ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids OOO, ITW Performance Polymers ApS, ITW Performance Polymers Wujiang Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers and Fluids Group FZE, ITW Peru S.A.C., ITW Poly Mex S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Polymers Sealants North America Inc., ITW Pronovia s.r.o., ITW Pte. Ltd., ITW Qufu Automotive Cooling Systems Co. Ltd., ITW Real Estate Germany GmbH, ITW Residuals III L.L.C., ITW Residuals IV L.L.C., ITW Rivex, ITW SMPI, ITW SPG Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Simco-Ion Shenzhen Co. Ltd., ITW Slovakia s.r.o., ITW Spain Holdings S.L., ITW Specialty Film LLC, ITW Specialty Films France, ITW Specialty Materials Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Sverige AB, ITW Sweden Holding AB, ITW Test & Measurement Equipment Shanghai Co. Ltd, ITW Test & Measurement GmbH, ITW Test and Measurement Italia Srl, ITW Test and Measurement Services Industry and Trade Ltd., ITW Texwipe Philippines Inc., ITW Thermal Films Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW UK, ITW UK Finance Beta Limited, ITW UK Finance Delta Limited, ITW UK Finance Gamma Limited, ITW UK Finance Limited, ITW UK Finance Zeta Ltd., ITW UK II Limited, ITW Universal II LLC, ITW Welding, ITW Welding AB, ITW Welding GmbH, ITW Welding Products B.V., ITW Welding Products Group FZE, ITW Welding Products Group S. DE R.L. De C.V., ITW Welding Products Italy Srl, ITW Welding Products Limited Liability Company, ITW Welding Produtos Para Solgdagem Ltda., ITW Welding Singapore Pte. Ltd., ITW de France, ITW do Brasil Industrial e Comercial Ltda., Illinois Tool Works Chile Limitada, Illinois Tool Works ITW Nederland B.V., Illinois Tool Works Inc., Impar Comercio E Representacoes Ltda., Industrie Plastic Elsasser GmbH, Inmobiliaria Cit. S.A. de C.F., Innova Temperlite Servicios S.A. de C.V., Innovacion y Transformacion Automotriz S.A. de C.V., Instron Brasil Equipamentos Cientificos Ltda., Instron Foreign Sales Corp. Limited, Instron France S.A.S., Instron GmbH, Instron Japan Company Ltd., Instron Korea LLC, Instron Shanghai Ltd., Instron Thailand Limited, International Leasing Company LLC, Isolenge - ITW Sistemas de Isolamento Termico Ltda., Itw Spraytec, KCPL Mauritius Holdings, Kester, Kleinmann GmbH, Krafft S.L., Loma Systems, Loma Systems BV, Loma Systems Canada Inc., Loma Systems sro, Lombard Pressings Limited, Lumex Inc., Lys Fusion Poland Sp. z.o.o., M&C Specialties Co., MAGNAFLUX GmbH, MEHB Holdings Limited, MGHG Property LLC, MTS 2 LLC., MTS 3 LLC., MTS China Holdings LLC, MTS Europe Holdings LLC, MTS Holdings France S.a.r.l., MTS Japan Ltd.., MTS Korea Inc.., MTS Systems China Co. Ltd., MTS Systems Corporation, MTS Systems Danmark ApS., MTS Systems Europe B.V., MTS Systems Finance C.V.., MTS Systems Germany GmbH, MTS Systems Holding B.V.., MTS Systems Hong Kong Incorporated, MTS Systems Limited, MTS Systems Norden Aktiebolag, MTS Systems S.r.l, MTS Systems., MTS Systems.., MTS Sytems Do Brazil, MTS Testing Solutions India Private Limited., MTS Testing Systems Canada Ltd., Manufacturing Avancee S.A., Meritex Technology Suzhou Co. Ltd., Meurer Verpackungssysteme GmbH, Miller Electric Mfg. LLC, Miller Insurance Ltd., NDT Holding LLC, NOVADAN APS, North Star Imaging Inc., Nova Chimica S.r.l., Orbitalum Tools GmbH, PENTA-91 OOO, PR. A. I. Srl, PT ITW Construction Products Indonesia, Pacific Concept Industries Limited Enping, Panreac Quimica S.L., Paslode Fasteners Shanghai Co. Ltd., Peerless Machinery Corp., Polyrey, Premark FEG L.L.C., Premark HII Holdings LLC, Premark International, Premark International LLC, Prolex Sociedad Anonima, QSA Global Inc., Quimica Industrial Mediterranea S.L., R&D Engineering A/S., R&D Prague s.r.o., R&D Steel ApS., R&D Test Systems A/S., R&D Tools and Structures A/S., RDGDK Engineering Private Limited, Ramset Fasteners Hong Kong Ltd., Rapid Cook LLC, Refrigeration France, S.E.E. Sistemas Industria E Comercio Ltda., ST Mexico Holdings LLC, Sealant Systems International Inc., Sentinel Asia Yuhan Hoesa, Shanghai ITW Plastic & Metal Co. Ltd, Simco Japan Inc., Simco Nederland B.V., Societe de Prospection et dInventions Techniques  SPIT, Speedline Holdings I Inc., Speedline Holdings I LLC, Speedline Technologies GmbH, Speedline Technologies Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Speedline Technologies Mexico Services S. de R.L. de C.V., Stokvis Celix Portugal Unipessoal LDA, Stokvis Danmark ApS, Stokvis Holdings S.A.R.L., Stokvis Promi s.r.o, Stokvis Prostick Tapes Private Limited, Stokvis Tapes B.V., Stokvis Tapes Benelux B.V., Stokvis Tapes Deutschland GmbH, Stokvis Tapes France, Stokvis Tapes Hong Kong Co. Limited, Stokvis Tapes Italia s.r.l., Stokvis Tapes Limited, Stokvis Tapes Limited Liability Company, Stokvis Tapes Norge AS, Stokvis Tapes Oy, Stokvis Tapes Polska Sp Z.O.O., Stokvis Tapes Shanghai Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes Sverige AB, Stokvis Tapes Taiwan Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes Tianjin Co. 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New U.S. President Donald Trump visits outgoing President Barack Obama. (Photo : Getty Images)

The Chinese yuan is being manipulated by the government, according to the 45th U.S. President, Donald Trump.



The new American President made it clear that he will even declare China as a currency manipulator on his second day of office. Donald Trump made news with his anti-China sentiments.



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Analysts agree that China is manipulating the Chinese renminbi to increase its value.



According to Tim Worstall, a fellow at the Adam Smith Institute in London, "Donald Trump has been telling us all for a long time now that China is a currency manipulator."



He explained, "It's part of his plan for his first 100 days in office to get on with making sure that China is legally declared to be such a currency manipulator and thus start the process of doing something about it."



Worstall also said that China is just correcting the currency's valuation. He noted, "The problem with this is that China really is a currency manipulator. But they're manipulating the value of the yuan up, not down. Thus returning it to the correct free market value isn't going to have the desired effect of closing America's trade deficit with China."



Chinese President Xi Jinping explained that Trump should start working with China. In a phone call, Xi told Trump that cooperation between the U.S. and China is the only choice.



President Xi said, "The facts prove that cooperation is the only correct choice for China and the United States."



He added that both U.S. and China should "promote the two countries' economic development and global economic growth" and "push for better development going forward in China-U.S. relations."


The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. was founded in 1869 by Marcus Goldman as an investment bank catering to institutions and businesses. Among the firm's first products are the revolutionary use of commercial paper for entrepreneurs which opened a new method of finance for business and industry.

The original firm expanded to Goldman Sachs in 1882 with the inclusion of son-in-law Samuel Sachs and again in 1885 with a son and another son-in-law. The firm joined the New York Stock Exchange in 1896 expanding into trading of its own and in 1898 it was worth $1.6 million. The company began its work in the IPO market in 1906 with the initial public offering of Sears, Roebuck & Co., and then moved on to Ford and other prominent names of the time.

The 1930s brings a change of leadership and a new direction for the firm. The company shifted toward a purer play on investment banking and embarks on a campaign of acquisition that lasted until the present day. The company doesnt go public itself until 1999 and from that point on it will change into a bank holding company that not only offers investment banking services but takes deposits too, and in 2016 the company added consumer banking to its list of services.

Today, Goldman Sachs is a financial institution that provides a range of financial services for corporations, institutions, governments, and individuals globally. The company operates through four segments that include Investment Banking, Global Markets, Asset Management, and Consumer & Wealth Management. According to US banking regulations, it is systemically important to the financial health of America.

The company is headquartered in New York, New York, and operates 6 regional headquarters as well. Regional headquarters are located in financial hotspots such as London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Bangalore, and Warsaw. Among its many prominent CEOs are John Corzine and Hank Paulson who both went on to successful work in government.

The company's Investment Banking segment provides a full range of financial advisory services as well as underwriting for the public markets. The financial advisory services include but are not limited to strategic advisory for mergers and acquisitions, divestiture, restructuring, and spin-offs. This segment is also engaged in middle-market lending and transaction banking. Underwriting services include IPOs, preferred stock, debt instruments, and bridge loans.

Goldman Sachs Global Markets segment facilitates market transactions for institutions, banks, brokerages, corporations, and governments. Services include execution, derivatives, financing, clearing, settlement, and custody.

The Asset Management segment manages client portfolios across the investment spectrum while the Consumer & Wealth Management segment provides advisory and banking services to consumers.
Election Night Michael Moore Predicts Donald Trump Success Winning 2016 Election (Photo : Youtube / Find Out News)

Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore attempted to confront President-elect Donald Trump in the Manhattan Trump Tower Saturday morning. He came with a camera behind him, and broadcasted it live on Facebook.



"I just thought I'd see if I could get into Trump Tower and ride the famous escalator," said Moore when asked what he was doing in the tower. He was hoping that he would be able to talk to Trump. He, however, barely made it to the fourth floor and was stopped by the Secret Service, Washington Post reported.



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Moore joined protesters in New York before making his way to the Donald's Central Park skyscraper, and then to the Trump office. Before getting escorted to the lobby, he made sure to leave a note for Trump. "You lost. Step aside," the note said.



"It went well. They didn't kick me out," Moore said. He had been an active critic since the election, and had openly voiced out his protests along with other Hollywood celebrities.



In an interview last month, Moore called Trump supporters "legal terrorists", the Daily Mail reported. He was criticized and was under fire due to his comment. Moore compared the then presidential nominee to a pedophile and said that Trump supporters will "participate in the detonation" because he will "blow up the system.



The filmmaker also produced a monologue that mocked the Republican nominee and endorsed Hillary Clinton. According to Moore, a Trump victory would be "the biggest f--- you ever recorded in human history."



Approximately 2,000 protesters rallied in Fifth Avenue in Manhattan to protest against Trump. They shouted "not my president" and other slogans against the President-elect. The protesters rallied at New York's Union Square first before taking their steam up towards the Trump Tower.



Flag waving, cheers and chants dominated Saturday's rally, which stretched all the way to the Civic Center. The overall mood was rather angry, but there were no reports of violence.



Here is a video of Michael Moore during his attempt to confront Donald Trump:






President Barack Obama said Monday he was taking a message to Europe that President-elect Donald Trump was committed to keeping the NATO alliance strong despite campaign rhetoric about some members not paying their fair share for defense.

The commander-in-chief, however, was less sure that Trump wouldn't seek to unravel the international agreement to rein in Iran's nuclear programs and Obama essentially acknowledged that he won't fulfill one of his own campaign promises to close the detention facility at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.

Obama spoke at a White House news conference prior to departure on what was announced as his last foreign trip as president that will take him to Greece, Germany and Peru.

The president said that in his White House meeting with Trump last week on the transition he found Trump in agreement on maintaining U.S. core commitments across the globe, including a commitment to NATO. One of his reasons for going to Europe was to "let them know that there is no weakening of resolve when it comes to America's commitment to a strong and robust NATO," Obama said.

During the campaign, Trump frequently questioned the value of NATO and suggested that the U.S. shouldn't be obligated to come to the defense of its NATO allies if they "aren't paying their bills." NATO members, particularly in the Baltic states, have also been concerned about Trump's favorable comments on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On Iran, Obama said the nuclear deal was "a good example of the gap, I think, between the rhetoric in this town -- not unique to the president-elect -- but to reality." There was major debate before the agreement was enacted, he said, "and at the time the main argument was that Iran wouldn't abide by the deal. They would cheat."

In more than a year since the deal went into effect, the evidence was clear that "they have abided by the agreement," Obama said of the Iranians. He said Israeli military and intelligence officials also agreed that Iran has kept its part of the deal.

Obama said he regretted that he hasn't been able to shut down Guantanamo. "It is true that I have not been able to close the darn thing," but "it's also true that we have greatly reduced the population."

At its peak, the detention facility housed more than 700 prisoners and 60 now remain. Obama said additional transfers of detainees to other countries may take place in his final two months in office, but he acknowledged that "Gitmo" wouldn't be shut down and was likely to remain open in a Trump administration.

On closing the facility, Obama said, "Congress disagrees with me and I gather the president-elect does as well." During the campaign, Trump pledged to keep Guantanamo open and "we're going to load it up with some bad dudes, believe me, we're going to load it up."

-- 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.
As questions swirl over whether President-elect Donald Trump will seek to roll back recent social changes in the military, the outgoing defense secretary said the push to open more combat jobs to women "makes sense."

Speaking to reporters traveling with him to military installations around the U.S., Ashton Carter said of the Obama administration's rule change to let more women serve in combat roles, "It makes sense."

The secretary said, "Females are half of our population. We're an all-volunteer force. So we recruit from the population it makes sense for us to recruit people, from as wide a population as possible."

Carter added, "Now they have to be qualified, but it's a benefit to our military to be able to draw from what is a competitive [market]  to have the ability to have access to the best people we can."

Trump is facing calls from some conservatives to undo the women-in-combat provisions, which affects a large portion of the military -- hundreds of thousands of troops -- serving in combat-related military occupational specialties.

"Those policies have to be rolled back," said Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, which opposed lifting the "don't ask, don't tell" policy to allow gay troops to openly serve in the ranks, according to an article by Andrew Tilghman of Military Times.

"Right now the policy is that women can and will be assigned to ground combat units," she said, according to the report. "That pronouncement can indeed be changed by a future secretary of defense."

It's as yet unclear whether Trump will heed such recommendations and pursue such a policy change.

In an appearance on Sunday on the CBS News program, "60 Minutes," the president-elect didn't discuss the issue of female troops serving in combat roles. But he did talk about social issues when he said the matter of same-sex marriage was concluded.

"It's irrelevant because it was already settled," he told CBS' Lesley Stahl. "It's law. It was settled in the Supreme Court. I mean, it's done. I'm fine with that."

Carter will be traveling to various bases this week, including Twentynine Palms, California; Joint-Base San-Antonio-Lackland, Texas; and Hurlburt Field, Florida, to observe military training and readiness.

After more than a decade and a half of U.S.-led wars in such countries as Iraq and Afghanistan, troops must also be ready for a post-counterinsurgency environment and full-spectrum warfare, Carter said.

The military also must be able to recruit the best and brightest, said the secretary, who has introduced a "Force of the Future" initiative to draw talent from Silicon Valley and tech companies as a way to bolster the country's cyber defenses.

"What matters is the qualifications of people who serve in our military  and that's the logic of our all-volunteer force, is that we get to pick, and that's why our people are so terrific," Carter told reporters en route to California. "But to have the very best to pick from, we have to pick from the entire population."

The secretary said the department is working with Trump's transition team "to provide to our policymakers, beginning with our commander-in-chief, the depth of the advice and experience resident in our department both uniform and civilian."

Carter added, "The people who have decades of experiences, round the world, have seen lots of military operations  will be made available to our policymakers."

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.

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Depending on your PT test, the order of swimming may best be determined by where it is in the order of events of that test.
Jack Ma Look-Alike (Photo : Channel-15TV/YouTube)

A year after Fan Xiaoqin became viral on Chinese social media because of his physical resemblance to Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba Group Holdings, the boy from Yongfeng County, Jiangxi Province, became the talk of the country again.



Its because Jack Ma, on the occasion of Alibaba Singles Day revenue hitting a record-high $17.7 billion, or 120.7 billion yuan, decided to pay it forward by funding the eight-year-old boys education all the way to college. He responded to the challenge made by netizens for the second-richest man in China to financially support the boy.



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Fan Xiaoqin has not just the face of a young Jack Ma. He also comes with a lot of obstacles in his family life. His father lost a leg, his grandmother has Alzheimers disease and his mother has polio.



Sales for the Singles Day China online shopping holiday was 32 percent higher compared to 2015. However, the growth rate slowed down compared to last years 60 percent improvement from 2014 level of sales.



Nevertheless, Alibabas double 11 online shopping spree broke a lot of records such as $1 billion e-commerce transactions in just five minutes compared to eight minutes in 2015. By the first two hours, sales reached $7.2 billion, ZDNet reported.



Purchases made using mobile devices accounted for 82.07 percent of total volume, or 657 million delivery orders worth $14.6 billion, or 98.97 billion yuan. It is higher than the 467 million orders ordered through mobile devices in 2015 worth $9.8 billion.



Although the shopping holiday was originally intended for single Chinese men and women who wanted to spoil themselves in the absence of a loved one who would do that, Alibaba disclosed that there were also orders from 235 countries, with the top buyers coming from Japan, the U.S. and South Korea.






"Prometheus" sequel "Alien Covenant" has an initial release date of Aug. 4, 2017. (Photo : YouTube/Clevver News)

"Alien: Covenant" might feature two different roles to be played by lead star Michael Fassbender-two androids named David and Walter.



According to the official "Alien: Covenant" website, Michael Fassbender is set to reprise his role as David. However, the Academy nominated actor is also up for another role, Walter, who is described as sort of an upgraded version of David.



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"I am allowed to say I am playing two robots -- Walter and David. I think what's great about it is that Ridley has gone back to the DNA of 'Alien,' the horror element of that," Cinema Blend quoted Fassbender as saying. "But it also has the scope and scale of Prometheus. Ridley has it already. He is a machine. He is such an incredible human being and he was in such good form. He is such an imaginative and mischievous figure."



"Alien: Covenant" will tell the story of the crew of the colony ship Covenant that lands on a remote planet where an android named David David (Fassbender) is the sole inhabitant. Walter, on the other hand, is believed to be an android assisting the crew on board the Covenant.



Fassbender's additional role is not the only surprise that comings in "Alien: Covenant." Noomi Rapace is confirmed to return as Dr. Elizabeth Shaw. However, director Ridley Scott said that the character will not have as much screen time as she did in the "Prometheus" movie. With Rapace's involvement, there are speculations that "Alien: Covenant" may be a tribute to the first "Alien" film.



Meanwhile, Fassbender slipped some interesting "Alien: Covenant" spoilers, saying the movie will be scarier than its predecessor, "Prometheus."



In an interview with Collider, Fassbender teased that "Alien: Covenant" is much scarier than "Prometheus" although it's got the same scope and the "imminent sort of disaster feel that Alien had."



"You know once it starts and the ball starts rolling, it's definitely going to bring chills to the cinema," Fassbender added.



"Alien: Covenant" also stars Katherine Waterston, Danny McBride, Jussie Smollett, Demian Bichir, Callie Hernandez, Alexander England and more.



"Alien: Covenant" will hit theaters on Aug. 4, 2017.






2:12pm: Philadelphia actually will be able to reap some of the insurance benefits relating to Harrison, Salisbury clarifies. The Phils would have been able to save over half of the remainder owed had they kept him on the roster, but instead negotiated a settlement with the carrier that leaves the team with a lesser payout.

12:38pm: The Phillies have released lefty Matt Harrison, per a club announcement. Dropping him from the 40-man roster will increase the teams flexibility this winter.

Harrison, 31, came to Philadelphia as part of the cost balancing in the Cole Hamels trade. He is still owed $15MM through next season, which includes a buyout of a 2018 club option, under the extension he signed with the Rangers.

There were no clear expectations that Harrison would even attempt to pitch this year. Serious back issues have completely derailed his career. Though he was able to return briefly to the majors in 2015, he hasnt appeared in any competitive action since the trade.

By cutting ties with Harrison now, the Phillies will not be able to collect insurance proceeds to offset the money still owed, Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com notes on Twitter. The policy covering Harrisons contract appeared to have some possibility of paying out for at least a significant part of the remaining salary, but that either wasnt likely to occur or wasnt worth the sacrifice of a roster spot.

Though he was never much of a strikeout pitcher, and tended to overperform his peripherals, Harrison pitched to a 3.34 ERA in 399 innings over the 2011 through 2012 campaigns. That led Texas to ink him to a five-year, $55MM extension, but Harrison was only able to make nine more starts from that point forward.
AUBURN HILLS, MI - Bruno Mars is coming back to Michigan, but you only have one chance to see him in concert on his big upcoming world tour.

The Grammy Award winner is kicking-off his "24K Magic World Tour" on March 28, 2017 in Anwerp, Belgium. The North American leg begins July 15 in Las Vegas. Mars will be at The Palace of Auburn Hills on Saturday, August 12, 2017.

Tickets for The "24K Magic World Tour," produced by Live Nation, go on sale on Monday, November 21, 2016. Prices have not yet been announced.

The "24K Magic World Tour" celebrates Mars' new album, "24K Magic." It's set to be released on Friday, November 18, 2016 worldwide. This tour will be the first full-length tour since his 2013 "Moonshine Jungle World Tour." Mars performed in both Grand Rapids and Metro Detroit on that tour.

There's still a lot of big concerts to see in Michigan in November. Check out what's coming to a city near you in the link below.
plume_map_2016.jpg

An estimate of the extent of the Gelman dioxane plume. Plume boundaries shown here are based on a map created by Washtenaw County in February 2016.

(MLive)

ANN ARBOR, MI - Ann Arbor has filed a motion in Washtenaw County Circuit Court to intervene in the Gelman dioxane plume case in hopes of getting a better cleanup of the toxic pollution spreading through the area's groundwater.

The city attorney's office, along with the Detroit-based Bodman law firm, filed the motion and a 12-page support brief on Monday, Nov 14. Counting the attached exhibits, the court filings are nearly 100 pages long.

Now that the state has adopted stricter exposure criteria for dioxane, and following the recent discovery of dioxane in shallow groundwater on Ann Arbor's west side, the city is looking to intervene as a plaintiff in the previously settled litigation between the state of Michigan and Gelman Sciences.

Gelman Sciences is the company responsible for the dioxane that's been slowly spreading for decades from the company's Wagner Road property.

Gelman Sciences was acquired in 1997 by Pall Corp., which was acquired last year by Danaher Corp., a multibillion-dollar corporation that some local officials and residents argue has the financial resources to do a better cleanup.

The state attorney general does not object to the city's intervention, though the defendant, Gelman Sciences, does not concur.

The city claims in its brief that the company has failed to clean up or contain the toxic mess that has migrated and spread through the city.

"Thirty years after defendant's release of the hazardous chemical 1,4-dioxane was discovered, it continues to spread through Ann Arbor and surrounding communities, threatening the environment and public health," the city's attorneys are arguing in court, claiming prior litigation by both the state and the city has not resulted in the remediation of the pollution.

The city argues state law requires anyone responsible for release of a hazardous substance to determine the nature and extent of the release, immediately stop or prevent an ongoing release at the source, and diligently pursue response activities necessary to achieve the state's cleanup criteria.

"Despite the requirements of the current consent judgment in this case and decades of cleanup activity, those statutory mandates have not been met," the city argues in the brief. "Defendant's property remains a highly contaminated and ongoing source of contamination."

The city notes the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality acknowledges the full extent of the groundwater contamination remains unknown.

Monitoring wells have detected new contamination and unforeseen changes in the migration pathway, for which additional action was reserved by the city in its prior settlement with Gelman, the city states in its brief.

The state and the company plan to amend a previous Circuit Court consent judgment for the Gelman plume now that the exposure limit for dioxane in residential drinking water has been lowered from 85 parts per billion to 7.2 ppb, along with a new 29 ppb screening level for vapor intrusion.

The city wants to have a seat at the table in those negotiations. Whether the city's request is granted is up to Circuit Judge Timothy Connors.

In its brief, the city describes the Gelman plume as a series of plumes that have spread throughout the city and surrounding areas, stretching north toward M-14, east toward downtown Ann Arbor and west along Jackson Road.

Recent events "put into sharp relief the need both to change the laissez-faire approach to remediation that has dominated this case, and to include critical stakeholders like the city of Ann Arbor as parties," the city's brief states.

The city points to dioxane recently discovered in shallow groundwater near Waterworks Park on the city's west side, saying homeowners, construction workers and others now risk direct exposure to the chemical, which is believed to be carcinogenic to humans by all routes of exposure. The discovery of dioxane in shallow groundwater, though not yet confirmed to be from the Gelman plume, caused the DEQ to issue new emergency rules for dioxane.

The city argues the plume continues to spread despite an obligation by the polluter to contain it. For example, the city claims, in the area between Wagner and Maple roads near Dexter Road, the plume has visibly expanded northward in just the last three years, as shown in maps based on monitoring well data.

"Indeed, dozens of monitoring wells have recently recorded their highest-ever levels of 1,4-dioxane, as the plumes continue to spread," the city argues. "And monitoring wells that for many years tested clean of 1,4-dioxane are now recording measurable concentrations of it. Efforts to 'contain' the plumes have failed."

The city argues the state does not adequately represent the city's interests in the matter, and the decades-long history of the case shows the polluter is unable or unwilling to appropriately remediate the dioxane contamination it caused.

Mayor Christopher Taylor has said recently the city wants to see the consent judgment revised to provide for better cleanup and more monitoring.

For some, a better cleanup means more pumping and treating, at the polluter's expense, to remove dioxane from the groundwater.

The pace of pump-and-treat remediation has slowed in recent years. The company is permitted to extract and treat 1,300 gallons per minute, and at one time it was approaching that. The average monthly pumping rate for active extraction wells was 1,115 gallons per minute in April 2011, but it was down to 487 gallons per minute as of earlier this year.

The company has declined requests for comment.
ANN ARBOR, MI - At least a few different options are being considered for a commuter rail service between Ann Arbor and points north, and the estimated capital startup costs range from $21.9 million to $122.3 million.

Additionally, annual operating expenses could be anywhere between $5.7 million and $13.2 million, depending on the level of service.

A refurbished commuter railcar on display in Ann Arbor in June 2013.

Those figures are included in a presentation to be given at a community meeting Tuesday night, Nov. 15, in Ann Arbor.

As the planning continues for a possible north-south commuter rail service -- which could extend all the way to Howell under the full-service option, or just to Whitmore Lake under lower-cost options -- officials are inviting residents to come hear an update and give feedback.

Tuesday night's meeting runs from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Slauson Middle School, 1019 W. Washington St.

Those who attend will hear a summary of the service options being evaluated and projected costs and ridership.

The proposed 27-mile service, which has been discussed for more than a decade and is known to many as the WALLY project, would run on existing railroad tracks between Ann Arbor and Howell with intermediate stops along the way.

It is being evaluated as a way to ease traffic congestion along U.S. 23 and to promote economic development and job creation. It is separate from plans for east-west commuter rail between Ann Arbor and Detroit.



The Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority has initiated another study to assess the overall feasibility of the north-south commuter rail service.

The AAATA has established an $800,000 budget for the study, with $640,000 coming from a federal grant and $160,000 coming from local sources in Washtenaw and Livingston counties.

The study is being completed through a series of distinct phases and tasks identified in conjunction with the Michigan Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration.

The AAATA is working with consultant SmithGroupJJR.

A previous study by R.L. Banks & Associates Inc. in 2008 found the proposed service was feasible, but it estimated capital startup costs at $32.4 million, which was more than what officials had expected.

The results of the new study will be used to determine once again if the project is feasible and, if so, to prepare the project for future federal funding.



Information provided by SmithGroupJJR shows the following evaluation of three options for north-south commuter rail:

A minimum service with $21.9 million in capital costs and $5.7 million in annual operating costs. It would provide service between the Whitmore Lake area and Barton Drive in Ann Arbor, with 18-minute travel times, no intermediate stops, and an estimated 800 daily trips, amounting to 400 people served.

A shuttle service (two train sets) with $65.2 million in capital costs and $7 million in annual operating costs. It would provide service between the Whitmore Lake area and downtown Ann Arbor with a stop at Barton Drive. It would have 21-minute travel times and 1,670 estimated daily trips, amounting to 835 people served.

A full service (four trains) between Howell and Ann Arbor with four intermediate stops in Genoa, Hamburg and Whitmore Lake. Capital costs are estimated at $122.3 million and annual operating costs are estimated at $13.2 million. It would be a 51-minute trip to go the full length of the line, and it's estimated there would be 1,840 daily trips, amounting to 920 people served, including more than 220 University of Michigan employees.

The full presentation to be given Tuesday night shows additional analysis of other variations of those service options.

Neal Billetdeaux, a consultant with SmithGroupJJR, said the lowest-cost option with service limited to just between Whitmore Lake and Barton Drive would require a federal waiver of requirements for a collision-avoidance system including on-track signals and communication equipment on trains.

Given that there have been some major commuter train accidents across the country in the last year or so, he said, he's unsure whether the federal government would approve such a waiver, but it's an idea to consider.

If such a waiver isn't approved, the estimated capital costs for another variation of the minimum service jump by $7 million.

The two more costly options noted above both include stations in downtown Ann Arbor. It was determined through a previous study that the preferred location for that would be on the east side of the railroad tracks opposite from the city's 415 W. Washington property, between Liberty and Washington streets -- behind the Blind Pig and surrounding buildings on First Street.

Billetdeaux said while the proposed commuter rail stops are referred to as "stations," they're actually just basic platforms with shelters.

As for potential funding sources for the capital costs, estimates show 75 percent could come from state and federal sources, with a 25 percent local match.

For the full-service option, that includes $91.8 million in state and federal funds, and $30.6 million in local funds.

Click through the image gallery above for more details.
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Eastern Michigan University student Demajae Muray addresses the crowd during the day-long "Know Justice, Know Peace" teach-in held inside McKenney Hall, which touched on issues of racism, diversity and inclusion. Martin Slagter l The Ann Arbor News

YPSILANTI, MI - While support on campus toward the black student population has grown in recent months, according to Eastern Michigan University students, many say there is much work to be done to make the university feel welcome to all.

This was the sentiment of an EMU student panel held on Monday, Nov. 14, as part of the day-long "Know Justice, Know Peace" teach-in held inside McKenney Hall, which touched on issues of racism, diversity and inclusion.

In addition to the student panel, Monday's teach-in featured a presentation from keynote speaker Victor Lewis, a nationally recognized social justice educator, trainer and activist. Lewis's talk, "The Color of Fear," as well as breakout sessions on subjects including the causes of wealth disparity in the United States, the dimensions of white supremacy, disability rights, the immigrant experience, structural violence and peace building, the Civil Rights movement and Black Lives Matter.

The day is expected to be capped off with a protest march against recent incidents of racism on campus, with students and faculty departing from McKenney Hall.

The panel included two of four students currently under review for possible disciplinary action from EMU stemming from a recent sit-in at the student center following the discovery of more racist vandalism on campus.

EMU seniors Demajae Muray and Michael Wood provided perspectives on how the university has handled the now seven incidents of vandalism on campus and how it has impacted black students. Both students said a decision has not been reached by the university regarding discipline.

"It needs to be brought to more people's attention," Muray said. "I go to class and students aren't talking about it and professors aren't talking about it. So, you wonder if they're not aware of it or if they just don't care. That's definitely a big issue. Moving forward, I would hope we can bring more awareness to it and I would hope the university begins to handle it in a better way, instead of attacking the people who are being attacked."

Following the sit-in at the student center, Spokesman Geoff Larcom said EMU "encourages our students to exercise their right to express views on matters of public importance." However, the students violated the student code when they opted to stay in the student center after its normal hours of operation, Larcom said.

Among the incidents spoken of during the panel was the most recently vandalism discovered on Sunday. A sign painted by students on campus with the message "United we stand, divided we fall," with a reference to the Black Lives Matter movement, was painted over with "Trump 2016" with #MAGA (make America great again) in red spray paint.

Students on the panel expressed frustration of the perceived chasm between EMU administration and black students, based on how these types of incidents have been dealt with.

"Students have told me they've lost weight, that they can't sleep," Wood said. "I personally am struggling with all of my classes and I know a lot of other students are, as well. This has taken a mental, physical and emotional toll on us.

"This is not just about me, it's a threat to the whole black community and every human that decides they want to protest peacefully," he added. "It's about every single student that decided they wanted to go out and say this is not OK."

The panel was one example of the teach-in's intention of bringing awareness to issues of racism, equity and inclusion on campus, EMU faculty member and teach-in organizer Judith Kullberg said.

"The teach-in today is a vehicle for the EMU community to come together, stand against racism and develop a plan of action for responding to it," she said.

"Teach-ins don't operate on the assumption that academic experts have all the knowledge, rather they assume that universities are learning communities in which each member has something to teach as well as to learn," she added. "In a good teach-in, students should also teach, and teachers learn."

Despite students feeling the university has not responded to the incidents of vandalism appropriately, EMU has taken a number of steps to create a safer campus environment since the first act of racist vandalism was found on Sept. 20 on the wall inside the courtyard of King Hall.

On Nov. 1, EMU President James Smith announced the creation of a new commission he hopes can address issues of diversity and inclusion.

EMU also has doubled the reward leading to the arrest of the individual or individuals responsible for the incidents of vandalism from $5,000 to $10,000 and have invested another $200,000 toward the installation of new surveillance cameras and lights to increase visibility on campus.
HOWELL, MI - A Genesee County woman who faced a child-abuse charge will spend 15 months to four years in prison for attempting to escape from police while in custody.

Police previously said Nicole Vermeylen, 40, of Flushing and another woman made a run for it on Aug. 3 as a Livingston County Sheriff's Deputy prepared to load them into a vehicle and leave a Livingston courthouse.

Police said the other woman, Lisa Finlayson, 32, was found in the water of Mill Pond and Vermeylen was found leaving a home she had broken into after getting a change of clothing and stealing a purse.

The sentence, delivered on Nov. 10, is being served consecutive to her 90-day sentence for child abuse, said Livingston County Prosecuting Attorney Bill Vailliencourt.

It also will be served concurrently with her 18 months to five-year prison sentence for third-degree home invasion and 18 months to four years in prison for retaining a stolen financial transaction device related to the home break in after her escape.

Finlayson was sentenced to 86 months to 15 years in prison for operating a vehicle under the influence of cocaine, causing a death, Vailliencourt said. She awaits an a forensic evaluation in the escape case.
BAY CITY, MI -- Looking to keep downtown employees from taking away on-street parking spots from customers, Bay City officials are opening a free lot this week they hope can solve the perceived problem.

Turns out it was a popular idea.

On the same day a downtown Bay City parking ambassador was handing out fliers to businesses that outline a plan about providing 37 free, permit parking spots in the east side of the lot at Washington Avenue and Sixth Street, 37 people went to the Downtown Development Authority to claim a spot. No more spots are available.

"It was a total surprise to us," said Candace Bales, executive director of the Bay City DDA.

It was also a little disappointing, Bales added.

That's because the free lot was geared toward part-time employees who make minimum wage and can't afford the DDA's $300 yearly parking pass for one of the 544 off-street spots.

"There were attorneys and other full-time employees who signed up right away for it," she said. "The intent was for those part-timers who can't afford parking.

"Maybe we were dreamers on this."

Bales said she believes some part-time employees were able to secure a spot, but employment status wasn't vetted in the application process.

Any employees who planned on signing up for a spot after Monday, Nov. 14, are out of luck for now. Bales said future options will be looked at.

The free lot is the work of a new parking committee formed earlier this year. Downtown officials are calling it the first phase in solving the city's parking problem and hope they don't have to resort to more drastic measures in regulating the 1,134 on-street spots in the downtown district.

Those who signed up for a free parking spot Monday have to place a sticker on the back window of their car, but can still park in the street if they want.

The sticker won't be targeted by downtown parking ambassadors, Bales said. If an employee with the free lot sticker parks on the street, where it's regulated for two hour parking from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, their car would be marked just as any other vehicle on the street and ticketed if parked for more than two hours. The same goes for the three-hour visitor lots scattered throughout downtown, Bales said.

"Those who park in the free lot will be treated as regular people," she said.

Before all the spots were spoken for, Bay City Commissioner David Terrasi, 2nd Ward, whose husband Victor Terrasi owns the Glass Act, 707 Washington Ave., said he welcomed the new lot, but argued more needed to be done to accommodate employees across all of downtown.

"If people work on the north end of town, do we expect them to walk all that way in 20-below weather?" he said. "I'd like to see enough free parking spots for employees that give them a reasonable block and a half walk to their place of business."

Dave Dittenber, who owns Old City Hall, Tavern 101 and American Kitchen restaurants downtown, said he encourages his staff to park away from the front of his businesses while on shift, but knows that options are limited -- especially during the day when parking regulations are enforced.

"These people are working for tips and they can't afford $25 for parking spots each month, so truthfully, this public and free lot does help," he said. "I think it can be a big improvement."

The work toward finding a solution to the parking problem started a year ago when Bay City Manager Rick Finn said downtown employees were abusing parking and called for changes.

Terrasi said he's actually more open to deregulating parking restrictions downtown and opening all lots at all times.

"If all lots were open, you wouldn't have to worry about employees parking on the streets," he said. "I'm all for less regulation."

As for those who say the walk from the Sixth and Washington lot is too far from their place of business, Harold Kaiser, the downtown parking ambassador, says he puts in plenty of miles on his feet each day with no problem.

"Speaking from experience, I can tell you that everything is within walking distance," he said.
Pakistan Army Admits Loss of Seven Men to Indian Army Fire along the LoC

Pakistan Army soldiers killed by Indian Army fire on Nov. 14 at the LoC. (Photo : Pakistan Army)

The Pakistan Army has, for the first time, admitted the deaths of its soldiers at the hands of the Indian Army as both combatants continue to rake each other's positions along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir with artillery, mortar and small arms fire.



It said seven of its soldiers were killed in a barrage on Nov. 14 that pummeled defensive positions at the Bhimber sector along the LoC. The Pakistan Army said the martyrdom of its men was the result of "unprovoked firing."



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It announced it "befittingly responded" to the Indian fire by returning fire that effectively targeted Indian posts across the LoC. The Indian Army has neither acknowledged Pakistan Army shelling across Bhimber nor has revealed any casualties.



Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed grief over the loss of the seven men in the "latest violation of Line of Control (LoC) by the Indian force."



Sharif said "it is extremely unfortunate that Indian forces have continuously violated ceasefire agreement at the LoC in the recent days. We are fully capable of defending our soil against any aggression."



The Prime Minister also claimed the Indian Army is escalating tension on the LoC to "uselessly divert" the world's attention from the "grave human rights situation" in Indian-administered Kashmir.



Nafees Zakaria, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, condemned the Indian Army bombardment.



"We strongly condemn continuous unprovoked #CFVbyIndia @Bhimber Sec, resulting in martyrdom of 7 Pakistani soldiers," he tweeted.



The foreign ministry summoned Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale over the deaths of the seven Pakistan Army soldiers.



Pakistani State Minister for Information Maryam Aurangzeb said they are keeping an eye on the situation.



"We will give a befitting response to Indian atrocities. If India crosses its boundaries they will be at loss."



Pakistan also said India's Border Security Force (BSF) unleashed a mortar barrage that killed three Pakistani civilians in Mandhol on Nov. 8.



It condemned the unprovoked firing at the LoC, among whose victims were a mother and her daughter. The Pakistan Army will remain vigilant against Indian aggression.


Students outfitted for Habitat project

File photo (Emily Rose Bennett | MLive.com)

(Emily Rose Bennett | MLive )

Metro Detroiters looking to learn more about careers in skilled trades have the opportunity to meet experts in a series of events this week.

Organizers say there are more than 1,200 skilled trade jobs currently unfilled in Michigan's construction and transportation industries.

The federal government last month awarded Michigan $2.5 million to improve access to apprenticeships in skilled trades.

And a series of events related to apprenticeships and skilled will take place from Nov. 15 through Nov. 20 in Metro Detroit and Ann Arbor.

Experts are aiming to raise awareness of opportunities, and to fill positions with new and young employees who may never have considered skilled trade options before.

Employers and unions will host several events about jobs ranging from plumbers, welders, electricians, roofers, road builders and cement masons for National Apprenticeship Week.

Barton Malow Company will host an apprenticeship expo on Thursday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Randolph Career and Technical Center, 17101 Hubbell St., Detroit.

Other events across the region:

Finishing Trades Apprenticeship Open House/Facilities Tour

IUPAT District Council 1M Finishing Trades Institute of the Great Lakes

14587 Barber Ave., Warren, MI, 48088

Tuesday at 1:30 p.m.

Highway to High Demand Jobs, Skilled Trades and Apprenticeships

Washtenaw Community College

4800 East Huron River Drive, Ann Arbor, MI, 48105

Friday at 10 a.m.

Engineering, Manufacturing, and Industrial Technology (EMIT) Open House

Oakland Community College-Auburn Hills Campus

2900 Featherstone Rd., Auburn Hills, MI, 48326

Saturday at 9 a.m.

2016 Prep for Success Educational Symposium and Resource Expo

Panel Discussion featuring: Dannis Mitchell, Barton Malow; Dr. Jay Marks and Dr. Jamii Hitchcock at 11 a.m. Birmingham Groves High School, Main Auditorium

20500 W. 13 Mile Road, Beverly Hills, MI 48025

Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Meet the Scientist

"What the RTA Master Plan Means to Future Scientists, Engineers and Skilled Trades Workers"

Charles Wright Museum

315 East Warren, Detroit, MI 48201

Saturday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

More information and events can be found here.
Oil Pipeline Protest

Cousins Jessica and Michelle Decoteau, of Belcourt, both enrolled members in the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, don slogans opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline, Saturday, Oct. 29, 2016, in Bismarck, N.D. The pair, who participated in a peaceful protest outside the North Dakota state capitol, say they stand in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux. (AP Photo/John L. Mone)

(John L. Mone)

The controversial construction of an underground oil pipeline that would run underneath a Missouri River reservoir in North Dakota has led to protests across the nation, and multiple took place in Michigan on Tuesday.

One group of demonstrators planned to demonstrate outside a Detroit union hall Tuesday evening in protest of the AFL-CIO's support for the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Earlier in the day dozens gathered in front of the McNamara Federal Building in Downtown Detroit to demonstrate in solidarity with the Standing Rock tribe that has vehemently opposed construction of the pipeline through its reservation.

Protesters were heard chanting "water is life" as they marched in Downtown Detroit.

The Detroit Light Brigade planned to gather hundreds at 5:30 p.m. for another march from Campus Martius Park to the AFL-CIO building, an umbrella federation of labor organizations, according to organizer Valerie Jean.

Jean, who said another demonstration took place in Ann Arbor earlier Tuesday, said the evening protest against the union stems from its statement of support for construction of the pipeline.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka released the following statement in September:

"The AFL-CIO supports pipeline construction as part of a comprehensive energy policy that creates jobs, makes the United States more competitive and addresses the threat of climate change. Pipelines are less costly, more reliable and less energy intensive than other forms of transporting fuels, and pipeline construction and maintenance provides quality jobs to tens of thousands of skilled workers.

We believe that community involvement in decisions about constructing and locating pipelines is important and necessary, particularly in sensitive situations like those involving places of significance to Native Americans. However, once these processes have been completed, it is fundamentally unfair to hold union members' livelihoods and their families' financial security hostage to endless delay. The Dakota Access Pipeline is providing over 4,500 high-quality, family supporting jobs.

Furthermore, trying to make climate policy by attacking individual construction projects is neither effective nor fair to the workers involved. The AFL-CIO calls on the Obama Administration to allow construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline to continue."
FENTON, MI -- Davison officials are searching for a new city manager after the current seat holder has accepted two positions in the Fenton government ranks.

Michael Hart has been named the new Fenton assistant city manager and Downtown Development Authority director after he was selected out of nearly 20 applicants and took part in a round of interviews among four candidates.

He is expected to begin in those positions by mid-December.

"We are looking forward to having Mike on our team," said Lynn Markland, Fenton city manager, in a news release. "This is a great time to be working in Fenton and we're excited to have Mike join us in our administration."

Hart began as the Davison city manager in October 2010. He served in the same position in Watervliet from 2008-2009 on the state's southwest side before it was cut to part- time hours, according to Flint Journal records.

Tim Bishop, Davison Mayor, said the move came as a bit of a surprise to him but he wished Hart well on the new job and the city would begin the search immediately for a replacement.

"Whether it takes a short period of time or quite sometime, the council will appoint the best fit for our town," he said.

Paul Hammond, Davison City Councilman, appreciated Hart's ability to bring stability to the budget and city after he accepted the manager job days before a November 2010 recall election that saw four of five council members ousted.

"We'll be hard put to find somebody to replace him," said Hammond. "I can't think of anything he's done that didn't benefit the city in a positive way."

He thanked Hart for his steady leadership and help in a rejuvenation of downtown Davison that included facade improvements for businesses and $1.2 million Main Street project.

The West Bloomfield native and California State University graduate also has previous experience in real estate and economic development in the private sector.

"With Mike's experience, I'm excited to have him join us," said Sue Osborn, Fenton mayor. "We have many projects in the next few years and Mike will hit the ground running. I think he will be an asset to our community. I look forward to working with him and I believe the citizens of Fenton will also."

Fenton has seen revitalization in recent years, including the Fenton Fire Hall restaurant, Red Fox Outfitters, and multi-million dollar streetscape project in the downtown area.

A new cornerstone project is set to begin next year after a delay concerning potential overage costs being faced by the city in connection with the development.

"The DDA welcomes Mike Hart and we look forward to working with him to continue the progress," said Craig Schmidt, chairman of the Fenton DDA.

Hart could not be immediately reached for comment on the decision.
Eric Mays Disorderly Conduct Trial

Flint Councilman Eric Mays speaks in Genesee District Court for the second day of his trial on January 28, 2016. Mays is facing charges of disorderly conduct stemming from a July 2015 incident when police had to escort him from a city council meeting. Conor Ralph | MLive.com

(Conor Ralph | MLive.com)

FLINT, MI - A Flint City Council member says a damage claim paid to a fellow councilman after he was removed by police from a meeting may have violated an emergency manager's order still in place.

Councilman Scott Kincaid says he is filing a formal complaint with the Michigan Department of Treasury this week claiming City Attorney Stacy Erwin Oakes may be in violation of the order when she signed off on paying out a $4,500 settlement to Councilman Eric Mays.

"If we are going back to home rule, the city attorney is being ridiculous for not wanting to bring damage claims to the council," said Kincaid. "I think if you look at the charter and the past practices of the city, the city council has always approved damage claims. Is this an attempt to circumvent the city council to approve things that would not otherwise been approved?"

The order, put in place in April 2015 by former Emergency Manager Gerald Ambrose, says the city's state-appointed Receivership Transition Advisory Board must approve any litigation settlement.

Kincaid argues paid claims are settlements and they should go before council.

A spokesperson for the state's Department of Treasury, which oversees the RTAB, said they could not comment on the issue since it never came before the Receivership Transition Advisory Board.

Erwin Oakes and city spokeswoman Kristin Moore could not be reached for comment on the issue.

The city paid Mays $4,500 after he claimed he was unlawfully arrested Aug. 1 when police escorted him from a contentious meeting over the garbage contract.

Mays was handcuffed, led from the council meeting, taken down to the first floor in an elevator and released.

The officer who handcuffed and removed Mays from the meeting later told council members during a committee meeting that Mays told him he would have to handcuff him before escorting him from council chambers.

Mays filed the damage claim against the city a week after his removal and outlined a number of cash settlement possibilities, including a $3,000 payment and public apology from City Council President Kerry Nelson and the officer that escorted him from the meeting, $5,000 and a public apology from Nelson or $100,000 with no apology at all.

He eventually signed an agreement Sept. 9 to settle the claim for the $4,500 payment. He received the payment, minus $534.02 he owed to the city for property taxes and a water and sewer debt of $654.47.

Mays says he has filed another damage claim against the city for being escorted out of an Oct. 13 meeting where garbage was again being discussed.

In the claim, Mays said he had a minority opinion among his colleagues.

Under the new claim dated Nov. 14, 2016, Mays is asking for $3,000 and a public apology from Nelson and the Flint police officer who escorted him from the meeting or $6,000 and an apology from just Nelson or $9,000 with no apology.

"If they do not pay, I will be taking this to court," said Mays.

Mays was the only councilmember to side with Flint Mayor Karen Weaver's attempts to give the garbage contract to Rizzo Environmental Services.

A one-year contract was ultimately given to Republic Services after it was revealed Rizzo was at the center of a federal bribery and corruption investigation.

Nelson, who said he is sending his concerns to Attorney General Bill Schuette's office, said Mays had been warned numerous times before being removed from both meetings.

"I am going to forward everything I have to the Attorney General because I feel the rules go for me, for all my colleagues and the people of this community," Nelson said. "I have given Mr. Mays numerous times to get himself together. He will not keep filing damage claims on the tax payer's money. That is just unlawful ... Now we have another one. I want to see if there's any criminal charges. We cannot tolerate Mr. Mays getting his bills paid on the tax payer's dime."

Erwin Oakes previously said following the August damage claim that Nelson was wrong in how he handled Mays.

"The City Council President conducts City Council meetings," Erwin Oakes said. "Contrary to popular opinion, the meetings are governed by Council's Rules, which supersede Robert's Rules of Order, that work as a guide with due regard for every member's opinion. Rules must be applied accurately and consistently to yield the desired result."
Flint schools opens Cummings Great Expectations as early childhood center

Children attend class as funding partners, as well as local and state officials cut the ribbon to signify the opening of Cummings Great Expectations, An Early Childhood Center on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2016 in Flint. Cummings will identify and address the educational, behavioral and health needs of Flint children ages 2 months old to 5 years old, with a particular focus on those who were exposed to lead as a result of the city's water crisis. The center will also serve as a resource hub for parents, families and other home- and center-based childcare providers. Jake May | MLive.com

(Jake May | MLive.com)

FLINT, MI -- Flint Community Schools are set to receive $417,415 in grant money from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation to help improve instruction at the city's schools.

According to a Nov.14 Mott Foundation news release, the money will provide support to the schools to "implement a model of instruction to help refine and supplement teachers' instructional skills to meet rigorous academic standards and develop principals' skills to support teacher instruction."

According to the Mott news release, the grant will fund a teaching model that "focuses on essential classroom strategies for achieving rigor, standards-based planning, data reflection and action, collaboration, and creating optimal conditions for learning."

The grant comes weeks after the opening of Cummings Great Expectations, an Early Childhood Center - formerly known as Everett A. Cummings Community School - which will provide over 200 Flint children with free early childhood education.

The state of Michigan contributed $2.2 million this year to cover costs of student attendance, while the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and the Pritzker Children's Initiative also made grants of $1 million and $500,000, respectively, to renovate the Cummings Community School building to accommodate the needs of younger children.

MLive-Flint Journal reporter Molly Young contributed to this story.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- For a long time, Tamba Biango believed his mother had died shortly after a 1992 rebel attack in their hometown in Sierra Leone.

Similarly, Sarah Mani Babar doubted her then 19-year-old son, Biango, had made it out alive.

But on Monday afternoon, mother and son were reunited in a terminal at Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, ending 25 years of separation.

"Twenty-five years," Biango repeated between tearful embraces with his 66-year-old mother. "I didn't recognize her. I don't think 'This is my mom.'"

Monday's meeting came 15 years after Biango first made it to the U.S. as a refugee. Now a U.S. citizen, he said getting his mother here has been a long process, but one he's grateful to see through.

"Praise to the Lord Jesus Christ for all of this has been done through the almighty God. I'm really happy."

Tamba Biango and his mother, Sarah Mani Babar, sit together at Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids on Monday, Nov. 14, 2016, after being reunited for the first time in 25 years.

Biango last saw his mother on the evening of Oct. 22, 1992. The following morning, he awoke at his grandparents' house to gunfire from a rebel attack and was forced to flee his hometown of Koidu in Sierra Leone.

After failed attempts to trace his mother's steps, he joined a classmate and his family on a journey to the country of Gambia, located more than 680 miles north of Sierra Leone.

"After many hardships I was eventually able to come through Woodlawn Christian Reformed Church to come to America as a refugee on March 9, 2001," Biango said. "Since then I have been surrounded by many great people including my family, church and work."

Upon arriving in Grand Rapids, Biango sent money to Sierra Leone in an attempt to locate his mother. Instead of paying the $150 fee, he said he paid $300, hoping to speed up the process.

Then in 2002, he received the good news. Not only did his mother survive, she had done so with help from one of his old friends.

Babar had been arrested shortly after the rebel attack and was facing death row when another of Biango's classmates recognized her and facilitated her escape.

She went on to live in a country northwest of Sierra Leone until 2002 when she returned to her native home. She has since been there caring for family members, but plans to stay with Biango and begin applying for citizenship.

Using her son as a translator, Babar said she was overjoyed by the reunion, adding that she thought she'd die before seeing him again.

Biango has worked for Amway for almost 14 years. He is a father of four children -- Saa, 18, Ami, 16, Marylou, 13, and William, 9 - all of whom got to meet their grandmother for the first time on Monday.

"First I want to introduce the kids to her, the kids are No. 1," Biango said. "A mother's love is best. After the almighty God's love, a mother's love is best."
LEELANAU COUNTY, MI - A bear was struck and killed in a crash Monday, Nov. 14, in Northern Michigan.

The crash was reported at 10:18 p.m. on North Crystal View Road near West Tree Song Lane in Leelandau County's Glen Arbor Township.

The driver, a 47-year-old Glen Arbor woman, told police she was driving a 2008 Mercedes-Benz north on Crystal View when the bear ran in front of her.

The driver was not hurt but her car was damaged.

The bear was found dead at the scene. The state Department of Natural Resources handled removal of the carcass.
ALLENDALE, MI - Grand Valley State University is exploring the possibility of providing a sex assault nurse examiner on campus for students, part of ongoing discussions college staff began last week with Ottawa County's prosecutor and sheriff.

Adding the rape kit services - a vital step in preserving evidence after a sex assault - in a place that's close to students was one of four areas the parties agreed to continue discussing after a 90-minute meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 8.

Right now, the closest exam site to the Allendale campus is the YWCA Nurse Examiner's Program in Grand Rapids, in neighboring Kent County.

This recent discussion came after Prosecutor Ron Frantz last month criticized GVSU, saying the school was discouraging prompt reporting of sex assaults by not having a greater sense of urgency when dealing with student victims.

Frantz has said it sometimes takes weeks or months before sex assault cases reported to GVSU staff land at his office. This time lag creates missed opportunities to gather immediate evidence - such as a rape kit - that could lead to successful prosecutions.

"The meeting was important, constructive, and very helpful," said Jesse Bernal, vice president for the division of inclusion and equity at GVSU, one of five staffers at the meeting.

"The meeting provided clarity on our various practices and procedures and the complex dynamics of both overlapping and distinct requirements for each of our areas."

Questions about how sex assaults are reported and prosecuted arose after four off-campus rapes this semester, and another four were reported on-campus this year. No arrests have been made by the Ottawa County Sheriff's Department in the off-campus rapes. Of the on-campus rape reports, GVSU police said none were forwarded to Frantz's office for prosecution.

GVSU President Thomas Haas and staff have reiterated the university takes a victim-centered approach to sexual assault, encouraging reporting but allowing the victim to decide when, and if, to talk to police.

If sex assault victims do want to preserve evidence of a crime, rape kits are essential. They're also time-sensitive. Documentation of injuries and collection of DNA evidence need to be done within 120 hours or five days of an assault, the limit for such a forensic exam under state law.

Bernal said GVSU is reviewing its "victim-centered and trauma-informed best practices." The school and authorities are working to make the investigative process a priority, while simultaneously maintaining its prioritizing victims and survivors.

Ottawa County Sheriff Gary Rosema and Frantz agree with GVSU that the meeting at the Ottawa County Administrative Building was helpful. They were joined by Jennifer Kuiper-Weise, assistant prosecuting attorney, Ottawa County Sheriff's Capt.Mark Bennett and Services Capt. Valerie Weiss.

"Our meeting was productive," Frantz said. "We collectively agreed on several areas of emphasis and continued discussion.''

Besides the nurse examiner services, the other three subject areas of discussion were:

 Ongoing and renewed emphasis on the timely preservation of evidence through the nurse examiner's program.

 Expanding on sexual assault response team training among the GVSU Police Department, the college's Women's Center and Title IX office, the sheriff, the prosecutor and other local agencies that do anti-violence work.

 Establish a multi-agency task force that would meet regularly to discuss incidents, investigations, and best practices toward improving the readiness for prosecution of sexual assault cases when victims choose to involve law enforcement.

Bernal said the task force was only discussed in concept, and details have not been confirmed but are in process. He said the sheriff's department already serves in their Sexual Misconduct and Assault Response Team (SMART) and initial discussions are to invite representatives from the prosecutor's office to join.

SMART reviews specific cases while also looking holistically at practices, trends and policy.

"We remain committed with our resources to work with GVSU in making these cases a priority," said Rosema, who also characterized the meeting as productive.

"The focus remained on the victim, the GVSU community and the Allendale community as well. All this with making the investigative process a priority in an effort to bring resolution to cases and identifying those responsible."

Grand Valley Police Chief Renee Freeman, who attended the meeting, said GVSU is committed to addressing sexual assault from a victim-centered approach while maintaining the integrity of a solid and thorough investigation.

"We urge early reporting, which affords us an opportunity to gather information, preserve evidence and prepare for successful prosecution, should a victim-survivor choose to do so,'' she said.

Besides Freeman and Bernal, the other GVSU staff present for the meeting included: Matt McLogan, vice president for university relations; Marlene Kowalksi-Braun, associate vice provost for student affairs and assistant vice president for inclusion and equity; and Tom Butcher, GVSU counsel.
Casey Marvin2.jpg

Casey Marvin during his arraignment Friday, July 8, in Wyoming District Court

(John Tunison | MLive Media)

GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Casey Marvin, the man responsible for a rash of bizarre crimes in July that included setting a fireworks store ablaze, was sentenced to six to 20 years in prison on Monday, Nov. 14.

His charges include multiple counts of arson, home invasion and fleeing police.

"I let a lot of people down by my actions," Marvin told Kent County Circuit Court Judge George Quist. "Ever since, my world has been upside down. It's been tough. I had some hard times, which is no excuse. I am sincerely sorry."

On the morning of July 5, police said Marvin traveled to GS Fireworks on 44th Street SW in Wyoming and set the building on fire, only to go back inside and set off a firework.

Marvin then got into a car and tried to steal the vehicle from the man inside, but the victim refused. A fight ensued.

Marvin later went to Wood Creek apartments, just behind GS Fireworks, and set fire to a bag of stuffed animals on an apartment balcony.

A couple were about to leave the apartment complex when they spotted the blaze at the fireworks store, so they returned to their apartment to call the police.

Marvin got into the couple's running Ford Explorer and drove off, eventually driving the SUV off the road. A witness reported seeing Marvin stuffing a burning rag into the fuel tank.

Marvin then fled to a home at the nearby 4000 block of Oriole Avenue SW. It is believed that he broke into the home, showered and drank juice that was in the refrigerator, police said.

19-year-old Juan Covarrubias was asleep in the house when Marvin entered. Marvin took Covarrubias' car keys and a cell phone. Covarrubias left the house to call the police, and Marvin set fire to a bedroom inside the house before leaving in a Volkswagen Jetta.

After leaving the house, Wyoming Police spotted Marvin in the Jetta. After a brief chase, police rammed the Jetta and the chase came to an end on 36th Street near Burlingame Avenue.

Marvin was represented by his cousin, attorney Valerie Smulders. Smulders said she doesn't see Marvin as a criminal, and trusts him with her life and her kids.

"He is my cousin, I love him dearly," she said. "He, to me, is a big teddy bear. This is a huge deviation as to why we're here today."

The charges against Marvin were split up into two criminal cases. In the first, he was charged with carjacking, first-degree arson, third-degree arson, unlawful driving away of a motor vehicle, and arson - preparation to burn property $1,000 or more but less than $20,000.

He was also charged with first-degree home invasion, second-degree arson and third-degree fleeing police.

Judge Quist said Marvin's case is unique.

"I think you're probably a very good person," said Quist. "But, due to drugs, this is a rash of crime that I really haven't seen all that much of. This is very serious stuff."

Marvin was sentenced six to 20 years in prison for first-degree home invasion and a concurrent six to 20 years in prison for second-degree arson. He was sentenced to time served for his three other charges: third-degree arson, unlawfully driving away an automobile and fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle.
HOLLAND TOWNSHIP, MI - A 22-year-old man suspected of robbing a party store was arraigned Monday, Nov. 14, according to the Ottawa County Sheriff's Office.

Rodney Dupree Cole of Holland Township was charged with armed robbery in the 50th District Court.

The robbery occurred at the Side Door Party Store, 673 Douglas Ave. at 10:49 p.m Thursday, Nov. 10.

An employee told police the suspect was holding an object the way one would hold a gun.

The suspect demanded money from the register and made away with an undisclosed amount of cash.

Police said evidence was found around the party store that implied Cole's connection to the robbery.

Cole was arrested Sunday, Nov. 13 and lodged at the Ottawa County Jail. His bond was set at $10,000.

The case remains under investigation. Anyone with information is asked to contact Silent Observer at 1-877-88-SILENT.
Alibaba's staff take photos of the screen showing the company's sales figure during last Friday's Singles' Day event. (Photo : Getty Images)

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is hoping to generate sales that is equivalent to the fifth-largest economy in the future, after establishing a new record at the recent annual Singles' Day online shopping event.



In a statement sent to the Global Times, Alibaba said that for the fiscal year 2016, the company has exceeded 3 trillion yuan ($440 billion) in annual gross merchandise volume (GMV), a year-on-year increase of 27 percent. With the sales from this year's Singles' Day, also known as Double 11, more than tens of billions is expected to be added in its daily GMV.



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Alibaba said in the statement that by combining the countless individuals and enterprises in the world doing business with them, a "new economy" can be created based on the company's current growth rate, that that can equal the GDP of an economy next to the U.S., China, the E.U. and Japan.



Zhang Yi, CEO of Guangzhou-based market research firm iiMedia Research, however, said that a country's GDP cannot be compared to the company's output, although Alibaba's business model has made significant influence on enterprises, both in China and overseas.



"In the past decade, the e-commerce model has been playing a major role in solving the problem of asymmetric information in the marketplace, but it will focus more and more on how to better integrate online and offline sectors in the future, which will reshape global economic and trade landscape," Zhang said.



Last Friday, on Singles' Day, Alibaba's Tmall posted a daily sales volume of 120.7 billion yuan. At least 235 countries and regions and 94 brands joined this year's Single's Day online shopping event, breaking its sales record of more than 100 million yuan, according to its statement.



According to Liu Dingding, an independent industry expert, Alibaba will continue to grow in the next five years since the "growth ceiling" in online retail has not yet been reached.



"Meanwhile, Alibaba is helping create hundreds and thousands jobs, which could also be seen as a contribution to the world development," Liu noted.



Industry analysts, however, cautioned Alibaba about future challenges, especially in cross-border trade and regulations.



In September, WTO said that since the financial crisis, global trade has been on the decline and this year's growth is seen to be the slowest.



In line with Jack Ma's proposal to build an electronic world trade platform (eWTP), Alibaba enhanced its cross-border transactions by including the strategy of "buy globally, sell globally" in this year Double 11 shopping bonanza.



Jack Ma's envisioned platform is expected to help small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to hurdle complex regulations and process that often prevent them from joining global commerce.



Liu said that Alibaba's recent success will drive SMEs to upgrade their businesses, help the real economy and bring more profits.



On the other hand, Zhang noted that it was not only Alibaba that was trying to build a global business cycle but they did not succeed.



"Finding complementary areas for doing business is crucial for Alibaba, as shown by JD.com, another Chinese online supplier, which has purchased some of overseas retail marketplaces to better serve the diversified demand in China," Zhang noted.


GRAND RAPIDS, MI - The

West Michigan Center for Arts and Technology

was among 12 arts organizations honored by the White House Tuesday, Nov. 15, for its dedication to enriching and transforming the lives of young people through the arts.

First Lady Michelle Obama welcomed the winners of the 2016 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award. The award, which comes with a $10,000 grant, recognizes the country's best after-school and out-of-school-time creative youth development programs for using engagement in the arts and the humanities to increase academic achievement, graduation rates, and college enrollment.

WMCAT's teen arts and tech program is described as empowering urban teens to affect social change through applying design thinking, arts and technology to critical thinking, and inquiry and practical application in the community. Grand Rapids Public Schools students are engaged in a dozen studio labs from photography to video game design.

"These amazing programs prove how effective creative youth development can be in changing lives and communities," said Megan Beyer, executive director of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

"They're improving academic achievement and contributing to high school graduation rates, and they're providing the opportunity for young people to build the 21st-century skills they need to succeed in school and in life.''

The Detroit-based Sphinx Organization was also honored.

WMCAT Executive Director Daniel Williams accepted the award Tuesday with Keloni Seawood-Walton, a spring graduate of GRPS' Montessori theme school, who studied fashion and photography teen labs and has now transitioned to the apprenticeship program as a Grand Rapids Community College student.

WMCAT students on a photography assignment.

"I really believe teens need places to explore, to create, to collaborate, and to elevate their voices," said Williams, who said WMCAT is providing that platform and what an honor it was to be at the White House being recognized by the first lady for that work.

"They are learning design, art and technology skills that are transferable to a lot of organizations. WMCAT is working incredibly hard to connect and mentor kids and help them go to post-secondary school options."

Williams said the national recognition allows the organization to promote its programs and activities. He said the organization has raised $7.1 million of its $7.5 million capital campaign goal announced in September tied to relocating from downtown and expanding operations on the West Side.

WMCAT will occupy 22,000 square feet on the top floor of a new four-story development by Rockford Construction at First and Seward streets.

In addition to the 140 GRPS students in the teen program, WMCAT also operates an Adult Career Training program that offers under- and unemployed men and women the opportunity to learn a new career, while growing personally and professionally. Tuition-free training is available for those eligible in medical coding, medical billing and pharmacy technician courses.

The National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award is the nation's highest honor for after-school arts and humanities programs.

In its 11th year of programming, WMCAT has helped over 2,000 teens to achieve both academic and personal success. Williams said the grant will support its programming and engage more young people from the community.

Seawood-Walton said accepting the award is an experience she won't forget.

"It showed me that the power of programs like WMCAT's to change kids' lives is recognized and valued," she said.

WMCAT students and editors watched the ceremony, which was live-streamed.

The 12 awardees were chosen from a pool of more than 251 nominations and 50 finalists were also recognized for improving literacy and language abilities, communication and performance skills, and cultural awareness.
China and US Lead the World in Supercomputer Numbers and Capacity

China's Sunway TaihuLight, the world's fastest supercomputer. (Photo : National Supercomputing Center )

China and United States are in intense competition for world supercomputer supremacy, according to data from the 48th edition of the TOP500 list of supercomputers worldwide.



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Each country has 171 systems apiece in the latest rankings released Nov. 14, and account for two-thirds of the computers on the list. China has maintained its dominance at the top of the list with the same number 1 and 2 systems listed last June: Sunway TaihuLight at 93 petaFLOPS and Tianhe-2 at 34 petaFLOPS.



Germany claims the third most number of systems with 31. Next are Japan with 27; France with 20 and the United Kingdom with 13.



In 2015, the U.S. was the clear leader with 200 systems. China had 108; Japan had 37; Germany had 33 and both France and the UK had 18.



Sunway TaihuLight's unprecedented 93 petaFLOPS on the LINPACK benchmark is nearly three times better than the previous number one system, Tianhe-2, which was the world's fastest for past three years.



Sunway TaihuLight is also five times faster than Titan, the 17 petaFLOPS machine at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, the fastest supercomputer in the United States.



Sunway TaihuLight also has a theoretical peak performance of 125.4 petaFLOPS. It is the first system to exceed 100 petaFLOPS. The machine is a monolithic system with 10.65 million compute cores built entirely with Chinese microprocessors. There is no U.S.-made supercomputer system that comes close to the performance of Sunway TaihuLight.



The LINPACK benchmarks are used to benchmark and rank supercomputers for the TOP500 list. A petaFLOPS supercomputer has a sustained speed of 1015 FLOPS or one thousand trillion (one quadrillion) FLOPS.



FLOPS stands for "floating-point operations per second" and is a measure of computer performance.



TaihuLight, which is installed at China's National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi, uses ShenWei CPUs developed by Jiangnan Computing Research Lab in Wuxi. The operating system is a Linux-based Chinese system called Sunway Raise.



China and the U.S. are also running neck and neck in aggregate Linpack performance. The US holds the narrowest of leads, with 33.9 percent of the total; China is second with 33.3 percent.



The total performance of all 500 computers on the list is now 672 petaflops, a 60 percent increase from a year ago.



The top of the list did receive a mild shakeup with two new systems in the Top 10.



The Cori supercomputer, a Cray XC40 system installed at Berkeley Lab's National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), slipped into the number 5 slot with a Linpack rating of 14.0 petaflops.



At number 6 is the new Oakforest-PACS supercomputer, a Fujitsu PRIMERGY CX1640 M1 cluster, which recorded a Linpack mark of 13.6 petaflops. Oakforest-PACS is up and running at Japan's Joint Center for Advanced High Performance Computing (JCAHPC).



Both machines owe their computing prowess to the Intel "Knights Landing" Xeon Phi 7250, a 68-core processor that delivers 3 peak teraflops of performance.



The addition of Cori and Oakforest-PACS pushed every system below them a couple of notches down, with the exception of Piz Daint, a Cray supercomputer installed at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS).



It maintained its spot at number 8 as a result of a massive 3.5 petaflop upgrade, courtesy of newly installed NVIDIA P100 Tesla GPUs.



Piz Daint is also the second most energy-efficient supercomputer in the TOP500, with a rating of 7.45 gigaflops/watt. It is topped by NVIDIA's in-house DGX SATURNV system, the only other system on the list equipped with the new P100 GPUs.



It is a 3.3-petaflop cluster of DGX-1 servers that delivers 9.46 gigaflops/watt. To offer some perspective here, the nominal goal for the first exascale systems is 50 gigaflops/watt.



Systems greater than one petaflop now occupy the first 117 positions, or nearly a quarter of the TOP500. A year ago, that number was 81.



At the other end of the list, the entry level system is now 349.3 teraflops, compared to 206.3 teraflops in November 2015.



Intel continues to be the dominant chip provider, claiming representation in 462 (92.4 percent) of all systems. IBM Power processors are present in 22 systems. AMD processor share continues to decline, with just 7 systems on the current list, down from 13 systems just six months ago.



InfiniBand technology is now found on 187 systems, down from 205 systems six months ago, and is now the second most used system interconnect in the TOP500. Gigabit Ethernet is now at 206 systems down from 218 systems, in large part thanks to 178 systems now using 10 Gigabit Ethernet technology.



Intel Omni-Path technology which made its first appearance on the list six month ago with 8 systems, is now present in 28 systems, including the new 13.6 petaflop Oakforest-PACS supercomputer.



Of all system providers, Hewlett Packard Enterprise claims the most systems with 140. That number includes the 28 systems installed by SGI, which has been acquired by HPE. In second place is Lenovo with 92 systems.



Cray claims just 56 systems, but it continues to lead all vendors in aggregate performance with 21.3 percent of the total. IBM is now in 5th place in the systems category with 33, all of which were present on the previous list. The next supercomputer list will be issued in June 2017.


[November 15, 2016] Telecom Egypt Enhances VSAT Connectivity for Critical Government Applications in Country with Intelsat

Intelsat (News - Alert) S.A. (NYSE: I), operator of the world's first Globalized Network, powered by its leading satellite backbone, announced that Telecom Egypt reaffirmed its commitment to Intelsat satellite solutions to support communications services in the country. Under a multi-year agreement, Telecom Egypt, the country's incumbent telecommunications operator and the largest communication network in Egypt, will use connectivity provided by Intelsat 10-02, located at 1 West, to provide VSAT services for a network that connects multiple sites across Egypt. "The extension of this agreement from Telecom Egypt is a strong endorsement of the value of Intelsat's satellite services and our commitment to deliver the best services possible to our customers and their end users," said Shahrokh Khanzadeh-Amiri, Intelsat's Director of Sales, Middle East and North Africa. "Satellite remains the best way to provide connectivity for critical communications networks in the region, and we continue to innovate and drive the level of services we deliver even higher. This will ensurethat enterprises of all types have access to secure, reliable networks to connect operations and sites spread far and wide."



Supporting Resources: Intelsat Broadband Services: http://www.intelsat.com/solutions/data-telecoms/ About Intelsat

Intelsat S.A. (NYSE: I) operates the world's first Globalized Network, delivering high-quality, cost-effective video and broadband services anywhere in the world. Intelsat's Globalized Network combines the world's largest satellite backbone with terrestrial infrastructure, managed services and an open, interoperable architecture to enable customers to drive revenue and reach through a new generation of network services. Thousands of organizations serving billions of people worldwide rely on Intelsat to provide ubiquitous broadband connectivity, multi-format video broadcasting, secure satellite communications and seamless mobility services. The end result is an entirely new world, one that allows us to envision the impossible, connect without boundaries and transform the ways in which we live. For more information, visit www.intelsat.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161115005413/en/

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[November 15, 2016] Persistent Telecom Launches FirstNet Demonstration Network in Sedalia, Missouri

SEDALIA, Mo., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) was created by Congress in 2012 to establish a nationwide broadband network for public safety. The final recommendation of the 9/11 Commission, the network will connect police officers, firefighters and EMS providers like never before. Persistent Telecom Inc. (PTI) has funded, designed and is building a FirstNet wireless broadband network in Sedalia, Missouri. PTI will provide dedicated smart phones and access to the private LTE network for Key Management Personnel (KMP) to include first responders and government officials. The PTI network will create a secure communications bubble covering critical infrastructure for the city of Sedalia and the Missouri State Fairgrounds. PTI's Sustainable Communications Network (SCN) will allow authorities to communicate with each other as well as the public, during emergencies. In an effort to support the Command and Control needs of Continuation Of Government (COG) and Continuity Of Operations (COOP), PTI established the world's first mobile phone network with a satellite backbone. Responding to the Government's gowing need to function under adverse operational conditions, PTI's private LTE networks operate using commercially available smart phones. The SCN's primary function is to give key management personnel guaranteed communications under conditions of degraded or denied access to telephone networks and the Internet. The SCN can also be used daily to support emergent, time sensitive operational situations.



In 2015, PTI completed the first "proof of concept" Sustainable Communications Network (SCN) for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) at two of their Washington DC facilities. The systems were installed, tested and demonstrated on time, within budget. A key aspect of the PTI strategy is to blend the FirstNet requirements for public safety interoperability with the ability to provide timely notification and situational awareness to the community.

Most of the FirstNet programs to date are funded by government grants. To accelerate the process, PTI and our partners are funding the demonstration platform in Sedalia. Sedalia was selected for this demonstration network because every August Sedalia is host to the Missouri State Fair, which attracts 350,000 people (www.mostatefair.com). PTI's partners in this effort include Airspan, Elbit Systems, Nokia and SES Satellite networks. If you have any questions, please contact Chris Porto at [email protected] or +1 (732) 798-2602. This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/persistent-telecom-launches-firstnet-demonstration-network-in-sedalia-missouri-300363312.html SOURCE Persistent Telecom

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A general view of Dumbledore's office on the set of Harry Potter at the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter, at Leavesden Studios on March 30, 2012 in Watford, England. (Photo : Getty Images/Gareth Cattermole)

After the confirmation that "Fantastic Beasts 2" would happen, writer J. K. Rowling finally offered some new details in the sequel film. The second installment of the "Harry Potter" spin-off series will explore Albus Dumbledore's sexuality.



Recently, Rowling has hinted that Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald romantic relationship will be touched upon in "Fantastic Beasts 2." It is said that the Hogwarts headmaster was once infatuated with the dark wizard.



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"Well, I'm very comfortable with the question," Rowling told Screen Crush at the "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them's" premiere. "I would like to say because this is obviously a five-part story, there're lots to unpack in that relationship."



Rowling added fans can expect to see Dumbledore as a young and quite a troubled man, stating that he was not always the sage. She went on to hint that the "Grand Sorcerer" will be openly gay in the series.



"We'll see him in that formative period of his life," she added. "As far as his sexuality is concerned, watch this space."



It can be recalled Rowling first revealed Dumbledore was gay during a special event at New York City's Carnegie Hall in 2007. There, the writer revealed she always thought Dumbledore to be gay. However, he no longer believed his own judgment in such matters after reflecting that falling in love with Grindelwald had driven him to lose his ethical compass. Thus, he turned out to be quite asexual and lead a chaste and bookish life.



It has yet to be determined who will play Professor Dumbledore in "Fantastic Beasts 2," but actor Johnny Depp was confirmed to play Gellert Grindelwald. The latter will make a brief appearance in the "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" before starring in the sequel.



"Johnny Depp is a real artist," director David Yates told The Leaky Cauldron when asked why they picked Depp to fill such a pivotal role. "He's created several characters who have really resonated in our popular culture. He's a really brilliant, brilliant actor."



"Fantastic Beasts 2" is expected to hit theaters on Nov. 16, 2018, with the third installment following on Nov. 20, 2020.



Watch the official "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" trailer here:






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An attendee inspects the new Nexus 5X phone during a Google media event on September 29, 2015 in San Francisco, California. (Photo : Getty Images/ Justin Sullivan)

Google has been forced to admit that their search engine algorithm failed because a blog with inaccurate information managed to stay on top of results.



Silicon Valley has been accused of playing a role in helping Donald Trump win the elections in the United States and the recent mishap with the blog certainly does not help. A rightwing blog has claimed that Donald Trump won more votes than Hillary Clinton at the time despite not citing reputable sources.



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Google's algorithm paved the way for the blog site called 70News to be on top of the results even though it had misrepresented information, Financial Times has learned. After the site was criticized for having inaccurate information, the author said that the figures were just sourced from Twitter posts which are not reliable in the first place.



When users searched for the "final election results," 70News was in the top spot at the time. During the evening, it was still in second place even though it was already debunked by a Washington Post article.



Facebook was also put under the spotlight after it was criticized for not taking care of the fake news proliferating around the social network. Zuckerberg said that the hoaxes and fake news only accounted for about 1 percent of the total news circulating and it did not certainly affect the election since both sides had them.



Google is now updating their policies which will now block fake news sites from using their Google AdSense service, Fast Company reported. It is unclear how and when the changes will take place.



Both social media and search engine results can play a huge role in feeding information to the masses. One wrong source and it can ripple down across the Internet.



Users also need to distinguish if what their reading does provide a reliable source and if the information is true. However, the search engine results could be more complicated seeing as it is the source of information for those who want to seek the truth.






business Demonetisation: Good for bond mkts, short-term negative for equities, says CLSA Commenting on emerging markets and Indias demonetisation drive, Wood said that demonetisation will be negative for equities in short term, adding that the move is a positive for bond and currency markets. Besides, demonetisation will lead to increase in deposits in banks, Wood said.
Lee Min-Ho and Jun Ji-Hyun star in the SBS drama 'The Legend of the Blue Sea.' (Photo : YouTube/ICE Beyond_MinoBoiz_ICE)

With only one day left until the premiere of SBS' "The Legend of the Blue Sea," lead actor Lee Min Ho held a live video session on Naver's V-app. There, the 29-year-old Hallyu star interacted with fans and expressed his thoughts on his comeback drama.



Lee revealed the factors why he chose to star in "The Legend of the Blue Sea." The Hallyu star said he chose the SBS drama as his comeback project because it is penned by screenwriter Park Ji-Eun, whose previous works include 2013-2014's "My Love From the Star."



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"The Heirs" actor also talks about his co-star Jun Ji-Hyun and how the beginning of their working relationship was like. He admitted it was awkward at first, but after a certain point, he and Jun became close to the point that they would laugh just by looking at each other.



"I wish that we would get over 30 percent in viewer ratings," All Kpop quoted Lee as saying. "It would be nice if we got about 12 to 13 percent for our first broadcast."



In the new Wednesday-Thursday drama, Lee plays the son of a county magistrate, Kim Dam-Lim, during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1897). In the present time, he will transform into a cold-blooded man, Heo Joon-Jae, who uses his looks and wit to conduct scams.



The "My Sassy Girl" actress, on the other hand, plays the last mermaid on Earth, Shim Chung, who struggles to adapt to a human life after she arrives in Seoul from the Joseon era. Just recently, the official Facebook account of SBS posted a 22-long teaser, which showed the moments after Kim Dam-Lim got drowned in the sea.







"The released teaser is just the start as we plan to simultaneously show how Lee Min Ho and Jun Ji Hyun have perfectly absorbed into their characters," a member of the production staff told local newsoutlet OSEN. "They will be transformed in a way that is new, fresh, and unlike anything you've seen before."



"The Legend of the Blue Sea" will begin airing on Nov. 16 at 10:00 PM (KST). Watch the second trailer here:






Well here we are almost a week later. How have the last five days of Trump World been for you? Did you see the four horsemen of the apocalypse ride in?

No? Me either.

Funny how that happens. We go into an uncertain event thinking about all the bad things that might happen. Then we get a result for the event, and none of the bad things happen. In fact sometimes good things happen.

Perhaps thats what Trump World will deliver to us. Maybe, just maybe he might end up being good for America. After all, hes surprised everyone at every turn so far. Is he about to surprise us all again?

Or is there another twist to this incredible saga? In five weeks time well know.

For the next five weeks, Trump is still President-elect. But five weeks is a long time for anything. And when it comes to the 45th US President, five weeks could be an eternity.

In five weeks time well know for certain if Trump will continue on to his inauguration in January. Or well know that a bunch of faithless Americans might (for the first time in history) change the course of everything.

Its unlikely but not impossible

The way Trump won last week was by winning more Electoral College votes than Hillary Clinton. The Electoral College is every state in the US broken down to a number of electoral votes.

For instance, California carries 55 electoral votes. Thats the most out of any state. New York has 31. Texas has 34. Wisconsin has 10. Pennsylvania has 20. You get the idea.

In order to become President that nominee needs 270 electoral votes. If you win enough states, you get enough votes to hit 270, and you win. Thats what Trump did. It looks like the end result will have him way over 270. In fact hell probably exceed 300 when its all said and done.

However, and this is the anomaly in the US system, he likely will have fewer votes from the public than Hillary Clinton, when all votes are counted.

Confused? Its a confusing system. The projections appear to indicate that Hillary Clinton is going to win the popular vote. CNN, CBS and NBC all count more votes in favour of Clinton. CNN has the margin around 668,483 votes.

Yes Trump dominated the Electoral College. But he lost the popular vote. In fact The Independent is reporting that Clinton will receive more votes than any other US President in history, except Barack Obama.

This is all very important. You see if Trump ended up winning the popular vote too, then there wouldnt be a chance of the unexpected happening. This unexpected Im talking about is the possibility that someone else (maybe not even Clinton) ends up as the next US President.

You see, with the Electoral College system the votes in each state are really for an elector, who then votes in the House of Representatives for the President and Vice-President. However, according to FairVote.org only 29 states require electors to vote as they have pledged.

That means 21 other states allow whats known as a faithless elector.

That means that they can change their vote even if Trump won the state. Its worth adding, it works the other way as well. If Clinton won the state, there could be a change there too.

Now, the likelihood of enough faithless electors swinging the race back to Clinton is remote. But not impossible. Sure, its never happened before in history. But then again, a candidate like Trump has never won the Electoral College race.

4.3 million want it, but will they get it?

In August, a member of the Electoral College from Texas, Chris Suprun, told Politico that he wouldnt rule out voting for Clinton if Trump didnt moderate his demeanour.

There have been others (on both sides) that have said they wouldnt vote for the winner of their state. What this means is a number of Electoral College votes could be up for grabsstill.

Theres even a petition change.org to pressure electors to switch their vote away from Trump. At the moment, 4.3 million people have signed the petition. Its the fastest growing petition change.org has even seen on their site.

Faithless electors have changed before. 157 times actually. Albeit half of those were after a nominee died, and others were those who simply abstained. And none have ever changed the outcome of an election. But again, were not exactly living in a normal world anymore, are we?

It would be another incredible twist in this extraordinary tale if enough faithless electors were able to sway this election one more time. And to be honest, nothing surprises us these days.

What we do know is that in five weeks time well know once and for all who the next President will be. Until then, I expect youll be hearing more about the pressure on the electors to turn faithless.

And what impact will it all have on markets? Well just more uncertainty, thats what. As if the markets didnt have enough uncertainty as it is, this is just one more squirt of petrol to fuel the fire.

Regards,

Sam

From the Desk of Managing Editor Bernd Struben: After a brief hiatus, Callum Newman is back in action with his podcast The Newman Show. Tune in now to hear the latest on how you can win the wealth game with entrepreneur Mark Robinson. Guests on The Newman Show include the biggest names in international finance. Theres hedge fund legend Jim Rogers, Currency Wars author Jim Rickards, and trend forecaster Gerald Celente. Its all yours, for FREE. Check it out on iTunes here or Stitcher here.
Bromance 1 (Photo : Weibo)

Sungkyunkwan Scandal (Photo : YouTube)

Fans of Descendants of the Sun actress Song Hye Kyo are waiting for her 35th birthday on Nov. 22 if co-star Song Joong-ki would propose marriage to her because he did not during the actresss fan meet on Nov. 13 in Seoul.



Followers of the SongSong couple would, by now, have gotten use to the steady stream of speculations about the couple, ranging from secretly dating to being in a romantic relationship and even pregnancy rumors. However, the speculations took a bizarre twist when iTech asked if Song Joong-ki is actually gay and using only Song Hye Kyo to hide his alleged different sexual preference.



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A lot of actors have been questioned about being gay, but the speculations about Song Joong-kis sexuality is not exactly new. Movienewsguide cited several instances when doubts about the 31-year-olds masculinity have been raised. On top of the doubts was his role in the series Sungkyunkwan Scandal where his character, a gay, fell in love with the role Yoo Ah In played.


A local dentist office in Morganton recently has selected a new doctor to assume its practice.

Dr. Niraj R. Patel has been hired to take the place of Dr. Perry Beeson, who has decided to retire after 39 years of practicing dentistry. Thirty-six of those years were spent at his private practice in Morganton.

Patel graduated in 2004 from Ohio State University, and then in 2008 he graduated from The University of Michigan with a Doctorate of Dental Surgery and has been practicing dentistry for eight years, he said.

I always knew at some point, even after dental school, I wanted to have my own private practice and have that relationship with patients that Dr. Beeson described, Patel said.

Patel, who currently lives in Asheville with his wife Jennifer and infant son Asher, said he appreciates the relationships that Beeson has created throughout his time in Morganton.

That tells me a lot about his practice and what he has built here, Patel said. (He has) long-term longevity patients that keep coming back because they like him, the staff and what the office is about.

Patel plans to keep that same tradition going as he starts his practice.

I really want to focus on the patient care and their experience here, he said. Practices like this are really hard to come by.

Beeson sent a letter out to all his patients explaining the transition and why Patel was chosen to fill his position.

We care deeply about the well-being of our patients, staff, and the surrounding Morganton area, Beeson said in the letter. We firmly believe that Dr. Patel will continue what we have started and further advance dental care in the community.

Beeson is grateful for his time with his practice and patients, but is looking forward to spending more time with his family.

I sincerely thank you for your support, encouragement, the privilege and for the sheer joy of being your dentist, Beeson said in the letter. I am confident Dr. Patel will earn the same level of trust and, in turn, level of appreciation we have shared for so many years.

Patel has now assumed the practice and Beeson will continue to consult with him and provide limited services as he decreases his involvement, the letter said.

I am very excited for him and I think it is a great opportunity, Beeson said.

For more information about the Beeson Dentistry, visit www.drbeeson.com. or call 828-437-7070.

Staff Writer Jonelle Bobak can be reached at jbobak@morganton.com or 828-432-8907.
CONNELLY SPRINGS  Now more than a week removed since its ignition, the wildfire at South Mountains State Park grew again overnight Sunday and into Monday evening.

The blazes footprint had grown 3,900 acres in steep terrain with active fire behavior as of Monday at 8 p.m. and the fire was at 20 percent contained. That was an uptick from 3,200 acres and less of that was due to preventative backfires and more due to the fire continuing on its own northern path, said Ludie Bond, a public information officer with the Florida Forest Service.

The Florida Green Team that arrived over the weekend helped establish a command center at the Foothills Higher Education Center in Morganton. The Green Team assumed command of the fire operations Monday morning at 7 p.m. after several days of shadowing the North Carolina Forest Services Howard Team that has been in place since the fire began.

The combined team has established two new ways for the public to send and receive information about the wildfire. Folks can email chestnutknobfire@gmail.com or call 828-764-9380.

The team from Florida and an increased presence from the N.C. Forest Service and the North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation upped personnel at the fire to 144 Monday. Crews from Oregon and Alaska already have arrived to assist with the fire and a team from New Mexico is expected to arrive today. Additionally, the use of night crews has begun at the fire and a structure protection unit is on standby should the blaze threaten any structures.

The forest service and park service crews are receiving cooperation from a number of local agencies, including Burke County Emergency Management, Burke County Emergency Communications, Triple Community Volunteer Fire Department, Icard Volunteer Fire Department, South Mountain Volunteer Fire Department and Burke County EMS.

The fire, which began in the Chestnut Knob area of the park, ignited Nov. 6 and was 75 acres by last Monday afternoon. The blaze has grown every day since, expanding to 150 acres last Tuesday, a little more than 150 Wednesday, 400 by Thursday and 1,450 acres on Friday. The wildfire, which continued in a northern path Sunday, is one of several in the western half of North Carolina, including blazes in Dysartsville, Chimney Rock State Park, the Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests and the Maple Springs and Old Roughy fires in Graham County.

Charlie Peek, a public information officer with the parks service, said that efforts remained concentrated on the northern side of the park and fire, including some bulldozer work that has been ongoing for several days now.

Most of the activity (Monday) was the same as its been the last couple of days in a few same spots, particularly north of the park boundary around Bobs Knob, which is south of Watershed Road and west of Enola Road, Peek said. Weve been putting in some new dozer lines and trying to get a real defensible position between the park boundary and the cluster of homes in that area.

The fire outside that northern boundary on Saturday prompted a non-mandatory evacuation advisory for seven homes along Rich Mountain Road. As of Monday afternoon, there still was no concern about any threat to any other residential areas and no evacuations necessary, Peek said. Peek said the fire wasnt moving rapidly Monday, but was making steady progress to the north. In the event more advisories are necessary, the Burke County Office of Emergency Services likely will use a reverse 911 system. To register for reverse 911, go to bit.ly/2fKPvya or text "burkealerts" to 828-201-3877 to register a cell phone.

Peek said that preventative backfiring has been more successful in the interior of the park to the southwest than near the boundaries. The South Mountains fire received 20 helicopter bucket water drops and 10 airplane water drops Monday. Also, firefighters had received the assistance of a spotter plane, Peek said. Lower winds the past couple days have helped the firefighting effort, but the continually falling leaf litter has been counterproductive, Peek said.

What were trying to do is, where we have fire containment lines, were using leaf blowers to try to keep that litter off the lines, Peek said. Thats pretty much a continuous job for a lot of our people.

Bond said that folks who wish to donate supplies may continue to do so at the park, located at 3001 South Mountain Ave., or the Foothills Higher Education Center, located at 2128 S. Sterling St. Also, The News Herald, located at 301 Collett St., is being used as a drop-off location for supplies.

Non-perishable food items and bottled water are some of the best things to donate, Bond said. Bond said firefighters and workers could also use things that would be helpful in the field like socks, hats, bandanas and ChapStick.

Settling smoke continued to create visibility and air quality concerns in the region Monday. Smoky conditions are expected to remain for several days. Drivers are encouraged to use high caution and watch out for displaced wildlife.

To get visibility reports, visit the National Weather Service website at weather.gov. For air quality reports, go to the North Carolina Division of Air Quality website, ncair.org.

Justin Epley can be reached at jepley@morganton.com or 828-432-8943.
The smoke from the South Mountains fire that settled over Burke County and surrounding areas Sunday should serve as a stark reminder of the dangers of outdoor burning at this time.

Last week, an outdoor burning ban was issued for western North Carolina as the drought has led to wildfires spreading across the area, but some residents are not heeding the warnings or are being careless. On Friday, a fire was reported in the Brendletown community that was caused when the homeowner emptied ashes outside that he thought had completely cooled. This oversight led a fire to erupt and two fire departments and the North Carolina Forest Service having to respond.

On Monday, another fire was reported south of Valdese in which 2 acres of land burned. In this fire, eight fire departments responded to contain the fire before it got out of control. The cause of the fire is undetermined.

Currently, there are hundreds of Forest Service firefighters assigned to assist with the South Mountains fire, along with the wildfires at Lake Lure/Chimney Rock, Dysartsville and other areas. As resources grow thin, it's important for residents to do their part by obeying the burning ban and being more mindful of their actions when cooking outdoors or emptying ashes from fire places.

It's the time of year when many want to burn fallen leaves but this is prohibited at this time. Even burning items inside containers, including fire pits, is banned as it only takes a single ember to spark into the air and cause a fire that easily can get out of hand due to dry conditions.

Crews also have been called in from Tennessee and Florida to help combat the wildfire at South Mountains, and Ludie Bond, public information officer with the Florida Forest Service, said Saturday it will take a lot of ground and air resources because of the mountainous terrain. Burnout operations are being conducted to try and consume the fuel ahead of the fire to prevent what officials said could be problem areas in coming days.

Scanner traffic at The News Herald on Monday indicated small brush and leaf fires all across the county that took additional resources from emergency crews to extinguish. In most of these instances, the homeowners have said they were unaware a burning ban was in effect. However, considering the length of time the area has gone without rain and the overwhelming smell of smoke lingering in the air, common sense should be applied. The N.C. Forest Service is issuing citations to people who violate the burn ban despite ignorance of the ban, as they should. Burning under conditions like this not only threatens a homeowners' property, it also threatens that of their neighbors, as well as the lives of those called in to battle the blazes. Ignorance of the ban isn't an excuse.

We ask that every resident adhere to the ban and spread the word to neighbors and friends who may not have access to the internet or many news reports that have been published. It's inherent on us all to do our part by not stressing the resources of fire personnel anymore than they already have been.

So when you smell smoke, which we are encountering in the air now, heed that there is most certainly a fire nearby. That, in itself, should serve as its own warning that now is not a good time to burn or be careless.
Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Chang Wanquan and Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dakhan inspect a guard of honor in Tehran. (Photo : Xinhua)

The People's Liberation Army and the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran on Nov. 14 signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to strengthen military and defense cooperation in conventional warfare and counter terrorism.



The MoU signed by General Chang Wanquan, China's Minister of Defense and a State Councilor, and Hussein Dahkan, Minster of the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (or Iran's defense ministry) also provides for joint military exercises with a view to contributing to the international fight against terrorism.



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Both countries want to create "the necessary impetus for countering the scourge of terrorism."



Gen. Chang is confident the MoU will lead to improved bilateral ties in the military and defense fields. He said Beijing and Tehran share a "common vision" of the region, which provides an opportunity for improved relations between the two countries.



He earlier said the development of bilateral relations between China and Iran is not only positive for mutual interest of Chinese and Iranian peoples, but also positive for world peace and stability.



Gen. Chang said he is confident the friendly relations between the two countries, as well as their armed forces, will be further reinforced. He arrived in Tehran on Nov. 13 for a three-day visit at the invitation of Dakhan.



After signing the MoU, Dahkan said bolstering long-term military and defense cooperation with China was among the Islamic republic's top priorities.



Dakhan said the MoU represents an "upgrade in long-term military and defense cooperation with China."



Dahkan also voiced his country's hope Gen. Chang's visit will be a "turning point" in the two countries' military and defense relations, noting he also discussed recent regional developments with his Chinese counterpart.



China, the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Russia signed an agreement with Iran this year to curb Iran's nuclear program in return for the easing of Western sanctions. China's MoU with Iran apparently violates this deal.


Vodafone (VOD) reported fiscal first-half results that continue to be hurt by negative currency moves. The firms reported revenue fell 3.9% year over year, versus our full-year projection of a 4.4% gain. However, group service revenue grew 2.3% on an organic basis. We believe this is the more relevant figure, and we dont expect any significant changes to our fair value estimate. We are pleased to see that the second-quarter results are generally stronger than those of the first quarter, supporting managements claims that Vodafone is benefiting from Project Spring.

While the U.K. is Vodafones home market, it accounts for only 13.2% of its revenue

In Europe, organic revenue service grew 0.6% as the firm increased its 4G subscriber base by 61.7% to 39.3 million and its fixed broadband base by 10.2% to 12.9 million. This growth is important, as 4G customers tend to use significantly more data than 3G users. The increase in 4G customers allowed average revenue per user to stabilise, and we expect it to increase over time. For the firm as a whole, 28% of broadband customers are now on converged services, significantly reducing churn and increasing the value of the subscriber.

In Vodafones Africa, Middle East, and Asia-Pacific region, organic revenue grew 8.9%, but was more than offset by currency declines. In India, the firm increased its wireless subscriber base by 6.7% from the year-ago quarter to over 200 million for the first time. However, data revenue growth slowed to 16% from 22% with the entrance of Reliance Jio, which pushed pricing down. While weve been talking to Vodafone for well over a year regarding the potential impact of RJios entrance, it was greater than anticipated, as Vodafone chose to take a 5 billion write-down on the value of its Indian subsidiary. While this is a concern, weve already reduced our expectations for this division due to RJios entrance. The firm continues to work on reducing costs and generated an earnings before tax margin of 29.2% versus our full-year projection of 29%. We view shares as slightly undervalued. The other country of concern is the United Kingdom, where revenue declined by 2.7%, and earnings before tax by 6.5%. Vodafone continues to struggle with a quality perception issue in its home market, which has been exacerbated by problems with a billing-system migration. However, it is important to remember that while the U.K. is Vodafones home market, it accounts for only 13.2% of its revenue, which is significantly lower than the home market for other European phone companies. Additionally, about half of its revenue in the U.K. is driven from its enterprise business, which is more stable than retail customers. So, while we are disappointed with Vodafones results in its home country, this isnt as critical as it first appears.
Follow up for Jason Bourne not happening anytime soon, says Matt Damon?; Actor to play the next James Bond?

Matt Damon and Alicia Vikander attend the 'Jason Bourne' Press Conference at Phoenix Center in Beijing, China. (Photo : Getty Images/Andrew Wang)

It was just last July when the fifth installment of the "Bourne" film series, "Jason Bourne," was shown on the big screen. Although the movie was reportedly said to have earned more than $400 million, recent reports claim that no follow up film is currently in the works.



According to Cinemablend, Matt Damon, who plays the role of Jason Bourne in the film series, revealed in an interview that the sixth installment of the franchise is not happening anytime soon.



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Damon said that making "Jason Bourne" took them 7 months as they started filming in September 2015 and completed the movie by March of this year. The actor added that making another Bourne movie is a task that needs a lot of time to complete.



Despite the fact that Damon has confirmed of not doing another "Bourne" film at the moment, he still expressed his interest of doing the sixth chapter of the franchise. It can be recalled that Damon did not had any appearance in the previous installment of the franchise, "Bourne Legacy," which starred Jeremy Renner. Sources say that Damon's appearance in the latest film might be an attempt to save the franchise.



On the other hand, before the "Jason Bourne" movie was shown on the big screen, Damon already said in an interview that he is willing to leave the franchise and be replaced by another young actor. The actor said that doing action movies at his age, 49, is not as easy as he was 29 when he filmed the first installment of the franchise.



Damon added that he is totally fine of being replaced, and that he knows that he would eventually depart the "Bourne" series in order for it to have a reboot, The Guardian reported.



The same report also noted the rumors that Damon could be the next actor to play James Bond even if Daniel Craig did not confirm or announced his departure.






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To further protect the integrity of our editorial content, we keep a strict separation between our sales teams and authors to remove any pressure or influence on our analyses and research.

Read our editorial policy to learn more about our process.
New Android 7.0 Nougat release news for Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy S7, Galaxy S6, S6 Edge Plus, Note 5, Note 7,S6 Edge; What about S5? (Photo : YouTube/ Samsung Mobile)

After Samsung's reported release of the Android 7.0 Nougat firmware on Samsung S7 and S7 Edge models, tagged as 'Galaxy Beta Program,' the company did not wait for long to bring the latest OS update on its Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge units.



The South Korean company is working on Android Nougat-based firmware bearing build number: XXS5DPK7 for the 2015-based Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. The update includes fixing bugs, slight or major improvements for performance and software or bringing newer Operating System versions to particular devices.



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Although the development have been started, it is highly unlikely that the smartphones would get the update any time before next year. Since the Samsung Galaxy S7 is expected to acquire the latest firmware early next year, it is rumored that the S6 models will likely follow, according to SamMobile.



Earlier, The Galaxy Beta program, which started on Nov. 9 and shall continue until mid-December, allows selected Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge models beta users the ability to send feedback and suggestions directly to Samsung.



According to TechTimes, one of the new features included in Android 7.0 Nougat covers a new power savings enhancement that will squeeze more battery life out of smartphones, which is tagged as Google's Doze. Additional specs include new Grace UX contained in the discontinued Galaxy Note 7, multi-window, direct reply notifications, Extra power efficiency, Google Assistant, VR interface, Seamless updates, Data saver, Improved file browser, Instant Apps, bundled notifications, and improved Java 8 language support.



The firmware update will be available firstly to the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge before making it available to other gadgets like the Galaxy S7 Active, Galaxy S7 Batman edition, Galaxy S7 Olympic edition, Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy S6 Active, Galaxy S6 Ironman edition, and Galaxy S6 Active.



Countries like Europe, Latin America, South Africa and Asia would enjoy the firmware update that would run in a 6.0.1 version.



Aside from the Nougat-based features, Samsung is expected to incorporate its own custom UI, upgraded device maintenance app, improved blue light filter and many more value-added features to provide enriched user-experience.


A major effect of Donald Trumps upset victory at the U.S. elections is the increased desirability of recreational properties among domestic buyers, according to Royal LePage CEO Phil Soper.The relatively high greenback-loonie exchange rate along with apprehensions over a Trump administration has contributed to Canadians reduced interest in U.S. real estate, NEWS 1130 reported.With a high American dollar relative to the Canadian dollar, their enthusiasm has damped somewhat. I think this may dampen it further and we may see more interest in Canadian recreational property, Soper said in a statement.On the other hand, this could prove to be an unprecedented opportunity for the Canadian market to bring its unique advantages to bear.Differentiations could actually be very helpful for Canada in that a Trump-lead America will look very different for Canada. Our brand  strong, fair, tolerant, welcoming  could actually help us in our goal to attract people to help our country grow, Soper explained.The comments came in the wake of a contentious presidential campaign that has seen the eventual winner utilize rhetoric aimed at revitalizing insular nationalist sentiments. Canadian investors hold over U.S. real estate has also weakened over the past year, with enterprising entities from Asia, Europe, and the Middle East apidly catching up, according to analysts.This is a development that should come as no surprise considering the prevailing regulatory climate, Manulife Real Estate global head of asset management Ted Willcocks argued.Notionally, I think youre going to find that China will start to outstrip us  I mean, just the sheer volume, Willcocks said. We dont have all the transparency on some of the plans and some of the insurers that are coming out of China.Related Stories:
Rather than discharge its responsibility to ensure the best possible environment for their citizens, the federal and provincial governments pursued, over a period of several decades, policies that focused on making the Vancouver market more attractive to foreignerspolicies that, an analyst argued, ended up sabotaging the prospects of domestic consumers instead.In a November 12 piece for the Vancouver Sun, diversity and migration columnist Douglas Todd stated that public officialsin particular, Immigration Canada and the Canada Revenue Agencyhave failed in their mandate to protect Metro Vancouver residents from forms of rule-bending and law-breaking that have been significant contributors to city housing becoming gravely unaffordable.A misguided attempt by the governments to avoid being deemed racist has instead led to the ridiculous rates of home price growth visible today in the countrys hottest markets, he added.[One] way or another  those responsible for immigration and taxation have been encouraging their staff to look the other way while subterfuge has contributed to housing prices becoming ridiculous, Todd explained.Such failures happen when politicians insist too strongly on de-regulation and cutting red tape and when they are more committed to making it easier for outside wealth to enter the citys housing market than they are to protecting constituents.Among the unscrupulous practices that have flourished in this lax environment was money laundering via Vancouvers luxury properties, leading to many ownerswho in many cases are not actually residents themselvessuccessfully avoiding paying taxes, at once cutting into the public coffers and igniting feverish bidding wars that have inflated prices to unprecedented levels.Because of the absence of cooperation, many Metro house owners have been avoiding paying capital gains taxes. They have been falsely claiming they are residents of Canada for tax and immigration purposes when they are actually mostly living outside the country and not disclosing their foreign income.My simple hope is to show that Canadian and B.C. politicians must, at the minimum, enforce their own laws and standards, Todd concluded. Otherwise theyre not representing their constituents. And public trust is gone.Related Stories:
A credit union trade association is calling on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to suspend its rulemaking after Donald Trumps victory.One of Trumps key campaign promises was to dismantle the Dodd-Frank Act and place a temporary moratorium on all new regulation.Now the Credit Union National Association, a trade association, is calling on the CFPB to suspend new regulation immediately, according to a HousingWire report.On behalf of Americas credit unions, I am writing to urge the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to impose an immediate moratorium on all of its pending and future rulemakings, other than those providing corrective regulatory relief, Kim Nussle, CUNA president and CEO, wrote in a letter to CFPB Director Richard Cordray. This week, American voters delivered an important message: they do not feel their voice is being heard by federal policymakers and they want that to change.Nussle said that unnecessary, overly burdensome, and duplicative regulations are barring some consumers from access to credit.Too many resources credit unions would otherwise apply to more fully serving their members are spent on complying with broad sweeping rules that should instead be focused on those abusing customers, he wrote.
Actor Theo James, actress Shailene Woodley and director Neil Burger attend the 'Divergent' premiere at the Callao cinema on April 3, 2014 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo : Getty Images/ Carlos Alvarez)

Unfortunately for "Divergent" fans, the supposed fourth and last installment of the movie franchise, "Divergent: Ascendant," will not see the light of day. Instead, the movie has been confirmed by Lionsgate to be made into a television movie, a matter that has upset fans and the movie's cast members.



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Following the announcement that "Divergent: Ascendant" was to be made into a television movie, many of the "Divergent" cast members expressed shock and disinterest in moving forward with the project.



Speaking to Screen Rant, lead star Shailene Woodley said she only found out about the news through media and that she wasn't personally informed about the studio's decision. When asked if she was willing to reprise her role as Tris Prior, Woodley said, "Out of respect to the studio and everyone involved, they may have changed their mind and may be doing something different, but I'm not necessarily interested in doing a television show."



Woodley's co-star, Miles Teller, wasn't also very ecstatic to hear news about the "Divergent: Ascendant" TV movie. "We all signed on for it in hopes that it'd be released in theaters, and we all had every intention of finishing [the franchise]," the "War Dogs" star told The Hollywood Reporter. "It caught us all by surprise."



Leading man Theo James, who plays Four in the "Divergent" movies has been quiet about the news, but it is presumed that he, too, is not interested in working on a made-for-TV version of "Divergent: Ascendant."



It is reported that one of the reasons why James is not particularly excited to reprise his role in a TV movie is that he will be busy planning his wedding with long-time girlfriend Ruth Kearney. It was previously rumored that James and Kearney postponed their wedding because of the actor's dating controversy with Woodley. The couple has since denied the rumors and proved that their relationship is still strong.



James and Kearney started dating in 2009 and got engaged in 2015. Reports said James wanted to wrap up "Divergent" first before he gets married. Now that a "Divergent: Ascendant" theatrical release is off the table, it seems James has more time on his hands to make wedding plans.






Joe Caltabiano is one of the top producers at Guaranteed Rate, one of the nations largest privately held mortgage lenders. Guaranteed Rate is also one of the top mortgage companies when it comes to customer satisfaction, beating out big contenders like Wells Fargo and Chase in J.D. Powers satisfaction rankings.



Caltabiano, whos based in Chicago, has funded more than $2.5 billion in loans since 2001, and has been one of the top loan officers in the country every year since 2005. So far this year alone, hes closed $250 million in loans. MPA recently sat down with Caltabiano to talk about how Guaranteed Rate keeps its customers satisfied  and likely to recommend the company to others.



At Guaranteed Rate we take customer service seriously. Its of the utmost importance, Caltabiano said. Our business is built on a referral basis  whether thats referrals from real estate agents or past customers. And the easiest and least expensive way to increase your business is to provide good service to your customer. The people that you do loans for are your biggest advocates  or, unfortunately, your biggest detractors.



One of the simplest things an originator can do, Caltabiano said, is get back to customers quickly. Caltabiano has a policy that he will return a customers phone call about any issue, great or small, within 24 hours.



More often than not, we hear people say theyve contacted their bank and havent heard back for 24, 48, 72 hours  for little things, he said. If I leave a phone message for my insurance agent, I expect a call back the same day. I want my response quickly. Thats something that we drill down on at every level at Guaranteed Rate.



Guaranteed Rate also reaches out to customers directly to find out how to make the mortgage process more buyer-friendly.



We do post-loan surveys to customers, and we take their feedback very seriously, Caltabiano said. Obviously, the response rate is never as high as you would want. But the 15-20% of people that do respond, we ask them some key questions  about what theyre happy with, and about what theyre unhappy with. Now, sometimes people are disenchanted with the loan process itself  and its hard to fix Dodd-Frank as a loan officer. But if its real constructive criticism, we take that very seriously.



And customer criticism can have consequences. Guaranteed Rate, like many mortgage companies, gives performance bonuses to highly effective originators. But those originators can lose bonuses if they have a history of customer complaints.



Its really listening to people and what they want, and making changes appropriately, Caltabiano said. Treating people how you want to be treated is the underlying baseline. It really can differentiate you a lot, especially from the big banks.



So why do many big banks struggle when it comes to customer service? In Caltabianos opinion, it comes down to too many cooks spoiling the broth.



What happens is that banks become very compartmentalized. When I talk to customers, I explain to them that Im involved in their transaction from the day it started to the day it funds, he said. With my clients, Im a one-stop shop. Now, I have support people  but I make it very clear to clients in our initial conversation that I am their throat to grab through the entire process and even after the loan funds.



People at banks get compartmentalized. They dont have access to the next level of information, he said. Theyre not the conduits to find out about underwriting, whereas I am. Theyre not the conduit to find out whether payments been received, whereas I am. Im not the one underwriting the loan  but Im the person who can give the update on the underwriting. They dont have to reach out to someone else.

And with a relatively flat rate environment, that personal service can make a big difference.



Rates in general are fairly generic from bank to mortgage broker to mortgage banker. At the end of the fay were all drawing from a similar well, Caltabiano said. Customer service is a giant differentiator. Having someone who knows the underwriter and knows how the process flows is critical.


The chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission will step down before the inauguration of Donald Trump, it has been reported.



Mary Jo White will leave the position in January, according to NPR. A former US attorney, White is considered a moderate who tried to unite a politically divided agency.



It has been a tremendous honor to work alongside the incredibly talented and dedicated SEC staff members who do s much every day to protect investors and our markets, White said in a statement today. I am very proud of our three consecutive years of record enforcement actions, dozens of fundamental reforms through our rule-makings that have strengthened investor protections and market stability, and that the job satisfaction of our phenomenal staff has climbed in each of the last three years.



The SEC implemented most of the rules resulting from Dodd-Frank under Whites leadership, according to NPR. But some liberals  notably Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren  criticized White for not pursuing shady bankers more aggressively.



With Whites departure, the commission  which is supposed to have five members  will be down to two, a Democrat and a Republican, NPR reported. President Obama has nominated two additional commissioners, but Republicans in the Senate have refused to give them a vote.



It will now likely fall to Donald Trump to get the SEC back up to strength.


Economists are predicting a Trump presidency could give the economy a jolt  but will also increase the risks of international trade wars, according to a Wall Street Journal report.



The Journal surveyed economists about their predictions for a Trump economy. One thing they agreed upon  there would be a change in the current pace of economic growth.



A Trump Administration could knock the U.S. economy out of its low-altitude, low-growth orbit, Sean Snaith, director of the Institute for Economic Competitiveness at the University of Central Florida, told the Journal. The question, Snaith said, is, Will it put the economy in a higher growth orbit, or will it knock us down into the atmosphere and a fiery re-entry?



On the whole, however, economists predicted growth under Trump. According to the Journal, economists said the economy could expand 2.2% in 2017 and 2.3% in 2018.



But many experts still had concerns  the biggest being the potential for a trade war. Forty-three percent of economists surveyed by the Journal cited the possibility of a trade war as the biggest risk to the economy under a Trump presidency. Were the US to impose tariffs on foreign products, it could spark a cascade of rising trade barriers and a shrinking foreign market for US goods, the Journal reported.



Everyone will lose if there is a global trade war, Jim OSullivan, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics, told the Journal.


State lawmakers began putting their campaign promises on paper Monday morning, as they filed hundreds of bills on the first filing day for the 2017 legislative session.

The proposals face a long road ahead, and only a small minority of them will make it out of committee, survive votes in both Capitol chambers and be signed into law by the governor's pen next year. Heres an early look at some the proposals expected to draw attention when lawmakers reconvene in Austin in January.

Abortion and womens health

Republicans were quick to file several anti-abortion measures on Monday.

House Bill 87 by state Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, would make it illegal for women to have an abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy even if doctors find the fetus has a severe, irreversible abnormality. Currently, state law allows abortions after 20 weeks only when the mothers life is in danger or when a severe fetal abnormality has been detected.

And state Rep. Byron Cook, R-Corsicana, wants Texas health care providers to be required to bury or cremate remains of aborted or miscarried fetuses. He filed House Bill 201, which echoes a recent proposal from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, made at the direction of Gov. Greg Abbott. Cook's bill would penalize health care providers $1,000 for not cremating or burying biological tissue from pregnancy. Medical leaders and reproductive rights activists have vehemently opposed the health commissions proposal, questioning why it doesnt allow exceptions for miscarriages or other pregnancy complications that make a fetus non-viable.

Education and child welfare

House Bill 112 by state Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, would cap the amount of tuition public universities can charge students. Bills in the 2015 session to re-regulate tuition costs were unsuccessful. Universities oppose tuition regulation, in part because state funding now covers a smaller share of their budgets.

State Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, filed Senate Bill 35, which would create universal pre-kindergarten programs for 4-year-olds. It would also expand half-day pre-K to certain eligible 3-year olds. State lawmakers in 2015 approved a smaller grant program to expand pre-K education after Abbott named early education as his top legislative priority, though some pre-K advocates argued that the grants didn't go far enough.

State Rep. Eddie Lucio III, D- Brownsville, filed a bill to prohibit corporal punishment in schools.

And state Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, filed Senate Bill 77, which makes sexual assault of a parent grounds for terminating the assaulter's parental rights. Nelson said she filed the bill after being horrified to learn of a female constituent who was raped by her husband but could not have his parental rights removed. No parent should be forced to co-parent with their rapist, and this bill will provide stronger protections for victims of domestic assault, Nelson said in a statement.

Criminal justice

State Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, filed House Bill 64 to abolish the death penalty. Another Dutton proposal, House Bill 158, would require grand jury hearings for police officers to be recorded. In Texas, grand jury proceedings are secret.

State Rep. James White, R-Woodville, filed House Bill 67 to abolish the driver responsibility program, which levies surcharges on drivers for traffic offenses. Lawmakers and criminal justice reformers have compared the unpopular program, which requires drivers convicted of certain traffic offenses, such as speeding and driving while intoxicated, to pay additional annual surcharges on top of any court fines and criminal penalties to maintain their drivers licenses, to an unfair tax on poor Texans. Still, previous attempts to abolish it have fallen short at the Capitol. Revenue from the program provides funding for trauma hospitals across the state.

LGBT matters

State Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, filed a bill that would remove an obsolete, anti-gay law from the books. House Bill 96 would repeal the offense of homosexual conduct from the Texas criminal code. A 2003 U.S. Supreme Court case, Lawrence v. Texas, already struck down the states sodomy law as unconstitutional, meaning the current criminal statute is purely symbolic. Moodys bill would also change the states health and safety code to remove language that homosexuality is not a lifestyle acceptable to the general public.

Voting issues

House Bill 159, by Dutton, would allow online voter registration. State law currently requires Texans to provide a physical signature on voter registration forms.

And a series of measures proposed by state Sen. Don Huffines, R-Dallas, would impose term limits on elected officials in Texas. Senate Joint Resolutions 10, 12 and 13 would limit terms for state senators and representatives (12 years), elected judges, including those on the Texas Supreme Court (18 years), and local officials (a maximum of 12 years, at the discretion of the local governments). Huffines said the election of Republican Donald Trump, who has no prior political experience, proved that voters were fed up with career politicians. The measures would amend the Texas Constitution and need voter approval in a statewide election.

Health care

State Rep. Sarah Davis, R-West University Place, filed House Bill 120, which would allow parents to get exemptions from immunization requirements for their children for non-medical reasons, rather than reasons of conscience. Activists seeking to guard parents right to opt out of immunization requirements have mobilized as a political force in Texas, while public health experts widely support the elimination of non-medical exemptions to immunization requirements.

Meanwhile, Republican opposition to the federal Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, remained robust on the first day of bill filing. Incoming state Sen. Dawn Buckingham, R-Austin, announced she would file a non-binding resolution urging Congress to repeal the federal health law under the incoming Trump administration.

Transportation

Huffines filed a bill that would put rules governing transportation network companies, including taxi companies and ride-hailing firms, in the hands of the state.Senate Bill 113 comes after Austin voters this year elected to keep regulations that led Uber and Lyft, two app-based transportation network companies, or TNCs, to leave the states capital.

State Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, filed Senate Bill 176, which lays out specific, statewide regulations for the companies. His proposal would require national background checks for drivers and require that users are able to request wheelchair-accessible rides.

Food and agriculture

State Rep. Dan Flynn, R-Van, filed House Bill 57, which would allow licensed farmers to sell raw or unpasteurized milk in their homes, at their place of business or at a farmers market. The proposal  which builds on similar legislation from 2015  would not allow the sale of raw milk in supermarkets. Flynn also filed House Bill 95, a proposal to remove Texas from daylight saving time.

State Rep. Eddie Lucio III, D-Brownsville, filed House Bill 164, which would create a statewide fund to subsidize the construction and renovation of grocery stores in food deserts in poor and moderate-income neighborhoods. The Texas Grocery Access Investment Fund would be funded through federal, state and private grants and loans as well as any funds appropriated by the Legislature.
Will the fourth time be the charm for state Rep. Tom Craddick and his distracted driving bill?

Monday was the first day state lawmakers could file legislation for the upcoming 85th legislative session, which convenes Jan. 10.

In filing the bill -- House Bill 62 -- Craddick mentioned that 98 cities in Texas and 46 states have an ordinance governing the use of cellphones while driving.

But the number that gets my attention and concerns me gravely is the 482 deaths that occurred on Texas roadways in 2015 due to distracted driving, Craddick said. I filed House Bill 62 because there should be zero deaths.

Craddick said in a statement that state law bans cellphone use for drivers under 18; school bus drivers are prohibited from using a cellphone while driving with children on the bus; and drivers cannot use a cellphone or other handheld wireless device in an active school zone where signs are present.

We have come to a tipping point in this distracted driving crisis, Craddick said. Zero Texans need to die because of the selfishness of Texas drivers who are addicted to their phones. When House Bill 62 is passed into law, I will be able to resolutely reassure victims and family members that their loved ones death was not in vain and others lives will be saved.

More for you Op-ed... Its time for statewide law on distracted driving

Passing the bill will be the hard part if history is any indication. Craddicks Republican colleagues in the Senate and inside the governors office have been the ones to stand in the way.

In 2011, Craddick had authored a texting-while-driving proposal that was passed by both chambers. But Gov. Rick Perry vetoed the measure, saying it would micromanage the behavior of adults. The veto preceded Perrys failed presidential bid and was seen by some as an attempt to build his smaller-government credentials.

In 2013, Sen. Robert Nichols, head of the Senate Transportation Committee, wouldnt allow a committee vote on Craddicks bill. It was expected to again pass the Senate with little trouble.

In 2015, HB 80 passed the House with a 104-39 vote. However, its Senate sponsor, Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, could not get the 19 votes needed to bring the bill to the floor for debate. The so-called Liberty Caucus in the Senate had the 13 votes to shut down the bill.

Those voting against bringing the bill to the floor included Midland native Van Taylor, a Republican residing in the Metroplex.

It is always disappointing when good legislation does not get enacted, Craddick said at the time, but it is especially tough to tell the families that have lost loved ones because of a texting-while-driving crash, or to look in the eye of a victim who is permanently confined to a wheelchair because of a distracted-driving crash, that the statewide ban on texting while driving will not become law and will not help prevent future injuries or loss of life.
The leaders of Texas biggest universities often describe their schools as essentially small cities. If thats true, Texas A&M University is a boomtown.

Enrollment has exploded at A&M in the past decade. In 2010, the university had just under 50,000 students, a bit smaller than the University of Texas at Austin. Now, that number is over 66,000, making A&M easily the biggest school in the state and one of the biggest in the country.

School officials say the growth has come in response to calls by state leaders to increase the number of young Texans earning college degrees, especially in sought-after fields like engineering. But the fast pace has also strained resources. While trying hard to preserve its academic strengths, A&M has struggled to keep up with other needs  classroom space, dining services and counselors.

In other words, good luck finding a parking space on campus these days.

The infrastructure here has had a hard time keeping up, said Joseph Hood, a graduate student and speaker of the student senate.

Keeping academics steady

Where exactly A&M ranks on the list of the biggest universities is open to interpretation. Its published enrollment of 66,426 would put it slightly higher than the University of Central Florida and Ohio State University, which often rank at the top of such lists. But A&M includes its branch campuses in Qatar and Galveston and its law school in Fort Worth in enrollment counts, so not all of those students are on the College Station campus.

But one thing is clear: The growth in College Station has been huge. This fall, the official number of students on the main campus is 60,438. Thats about a 10,000 increase since 2010  essentially an already massive school adding the equivalent of the total enrollment of Texas Christian University over a short span.

And A&M so far hasnt put much emphasis on online courses or distant learning. Almost all of those new faces are traditional students who live on or near campus and are expected to show up for class every day.

Many of the new students are studying in the high-profile college of engineering, where A&M plans to have 25,000 students by 2025. But each college has been asked to increase its number of students, officials said.

For fall 2014, the school set a goal of increasing its freshman enrollment by about 1,500 to around 9,700. It ended up overshooting that, with 10,300 freshmen accepting offers of admission that year. Each freshman class after that has stuck around that 9,700 goal, but enrollment has been ticking up because those new students are replacing much smaller senior classes.

The growth has chagrined many A&M students and alumni, who expressed concern that the school would have to lower its admissions standards to meet its goals. On social media and online Aggie forums, former students stressed that their old school was becoming a diploma mill. But A&M officials said they have made sure that wasnt the case. At A&M in 2015, a student would have had to score higher than a 25 on the ACT to rank in the top 75 percent of incoming freshmen. That's slightly up from 2010.

Nothing about what we were doing had anything to do with lowering standards, said A&M Provost Karan Watson.

The growth in enrollment has been accompanied by a surge in hiring of professors. That has kept the student-to-faculty ratio about the same. And early indications suggest that graduation rates will remain steady, too.

When taking on growth of this magnitude, there will certainly be some missteps, but we seem to have handled it better than most have expected, said Jaime Grunlan, a prominent engineering professor and early skeptic of the influx of students. Now that the dust has settled a bit, Ive come to appreciate the positive aspects that the growth will bring.

66,000s a crowd

But changes have been felt in other areas. The number of classes with more than 100 students grew 17 percent since 2010, to 439 in 2015, according to A&M data. And with limited classroom space, its not uncommon for students in science courses to be assigned laboratory classes that run until nearly 10 p.m.

A&Ms student counseling services have been relocated to the edge of campus  far from where most students live and take classes. And the number of advisers and counselors hasnt kept up with the growing population. This fall, the school has begun offering informational videos, online exercises and video consultations for students who need help.

During lunchtime, the dining halls are overcrowded, forcing some students to eat on the floor. And the influx of students has created transportation problems. Students have reported cramped buses. Traffic has increased on Bryan and College Station streets, and parking has become harder to find.

Hood, the speaker of the student senate, said he often rode the bus two miles from his apartment to campus last year. It sometimes took him about 45 minutes to get to class, he said.

He and other students have been speaking out. In the two previous school years, the student senate passed resolutions asking school leadership to slow the growth in enrollment.

It has definitely been felt, he said. We have been able to voice those concerns.

Watson said administrators understand. A&Ms faster-than-expected growth in 2014 helped create the situation. But the way the state funds higher education has also played a role. The Texas budget is written every two years, but for higher education its done in a backward-facing manner. Dollars are allocated based on enrollment in the year that the budget is written  not on how the population is expected to grow. So A&M is still being funded like a much smaller school.

But getting much more money next year could be a challenge. With tough budget times ahead, cuts in higher education are a possibility.

Either way, school officials say they have grown about as much as they can for now. Enrollment will likely go up once more next year as the last of the smaller senior classes graduates. Then it should stagnate  somewhere a little higher than the 66,000 it is today.
Midland Fire Chief Robert Isbell has been selected as fire chief for the city of Round Rock, effective Dec. 12.

Midland is the "hardest-working fire department in the state" and is a close-knit organization that genuinely cares about residents, Isbell said in a statement.

"Midland has been a great community for me and my family. We were able to accomplish many new endeavors at the fire department during an explosive growth period in the community. I am very proud of the department and specifically the individual passion the firefighters have shown for the organization and community, he said.

Isbell has been chief in Midland since December 2010. Under his leadership, the department earned an ISO 1 rating in 2014, ensuring the best possible insurance rates for residents, according to a press release from the city. Also since Isbell's arrival, a new Fire Station 10 has been built and a new Fire Station 6 is under construction.

Isbell led the department's transition toward a data-driven, proactive approach to public safety through the Community Risk Reduction program and Community Health Paramedics program. He was named this year as a member of Gov. Greg Abbott's Advisory Council on Emergency Medical Services, which makes recommendations for the state's EMS/Trauma System.

Isbell holds a masters degree in executive leadership and a bachelors degree in Public Safety Administration, both from Grand Canyon University. He completed the Executive Fire Officer Program at the National Fire Academy as well as the Certified Public Manager Program at Texas Tech University.

He previously served as fire chief in Euless and Southlake. His firefighting career started in 1985 in Mansfield, where he rose to the rank of captain.

Assistant Chief Chip Balzer, who oversees administration for the department, has been named interim fire chief while City Manager Courtney Sharp selects Isbells replacement. Balzer began his career with MFD in January 1982.

A going away reception for Isbell at is planned for 2 p.m. Thursday at Central Fire Station.
I first tasted vinho verde wine when visiting Lisbon. I recall teetering in a tiny wooden straw-bottomed chair at a 45 degree angle at a table for two on a steep hilly pavement outside a hole in the wall restaurant. We had grilled sardines with fresh mint, yellow waxy potatoes and a carafe of bracing, fresh, young white wine. Situational drinking at its best.

So I was thrilled to be invited on a press trip to the vinho verde region in the northernmost part of Portugal. It also gave me another chance to visit Porto, which so impressed me earlier this summer.

Vinho verde is directly translated as green wine. Its drunk young: after the harvest in September, itll be in the shops by February, a mere six months later. I suppose its a little bit the Beaujolais Nouveau of Portugal. It perfectly complements the food: the grassy olive oil, the fish, octopus and shellfish, the hearty regional cooking.

On this journey we ate at a variety of places, from local favourites to Michelin-starred hotel restaurants. We visited numerous wineries, from grand houses to small vineyards.

The Grapes

I discovered that Im a fan of the Alvarinho grape, which is the Portuguese version of the Spanish Albarino, just over the border in Galicia. Vinho verde is usually a white wine, with a slightly acidic, fruity, sparkle but it also comes in red and rose. The grapes used for white vinho verde are Loureiro, Arinto, Trajadura, Avesso, and Azal.

The red wine grapes are the Vinhao, Borracal and Amaral. The vinhao grape is particularly noteworthy because its one of two grapes that actually produce a dark purple liquid. Most grape juice is colourless and the red colour is created by the skins.

The north of Portugal has always been poor so the resourceful landowners used to grow their vines up trees rather than in vineyards. In this way, they could make use of the ground beneath the vines for growing other crops. However harvesting was rather hazardous on ladders. Today the wines are grown in traditional style vineyards although you can still see places where vines grown on trees as above.

Food Matching

Vinho verde goes well with sushi, fish, spicy foods. The Portuguese are obsessed with bacalhao, salt cod, for which they have 500 recipes. Strangely they never eat fresh cod. Salt cod today is mostly obtained from Norway.

Portugal does have some vegetarian food, such as tempura. We think of this as a Japanese speciality but it was taught to them in the 16th century by Portuguese merchants. Green beans are dipped in wheat flour, sparkling water, then deep fried and served with olive oil and lemon.

Vinho verde is very on trend in the USA, where it matches perfectly with light Californian-style cuisine.

Guimaraes





We toured the historic northern Portuguese town of Guimaraes, the founding city of Portugal, where the first king of Portugal was born. Similar to Bordeaux, this place has been refurbished and cleaned. Many buildings are tiled on the outside, a sign of wealth. Medieval squares that were used as parking lots have been pedestrianised.

A laudable approach to town planning was taken, which isnt usually done with gentrification: the same mixed population, working, middle and upper class, was retained. They didnt force all the poorer people out to the suburbs. The houses were repaired and the same residents were moved back in. Hence you see washing hanging out of windows over historic buildings. This gives it authenticity and a touch of reality that some places, newly Disneyfied, dont have.

Vinho Verde wineries













Casal Garcia is the largest vinho verde producer. They buy in many of the grapes from small farmers in Northern Portugal. The grand house above is used almost as a time share by the huge family who reserve a week or two a year. Portuguese inheritance laws are similar to those of the French: there can be hundreds of inheritors, all with equal shares.

They have a nice gift shop selling mermelada, which  be warned  is actually quince jelly.







This vineyard, owned by the Meireles family, has a wine hotel attached called Monverde. It is worth visiting, designed by architect Fernando Castro Coelho with an installation by sculptor Paulo Neves, which suspends 365 wooden vine leaves from the ceiling. You can see the height of the vines (vinhao) compared to the height of the winemaker Carlos Teixeira above. Yields are quite low, 2.5k plants per hectare, compared to say Bordeaux where you have 6k plants per hectare. The plants are are quite far apart with a gap of 2.5 metres, while the lines are 2.8 metres apart.





We arrived just as they were picking, from the top of a truck, the grapes from the pergola overhead. Chickens and ducks ran around the vineyards. I stuffed a bag of inky walnuts in their skins from a fresh windfall. Physalis fruit grow like weeds in Portugal. We were met here by the marketing manager (in fact we met fewer winemakers and owners on this trip because many of them do not speak English). He showed me how to prune the vines; count four buds from the spur and cut. They produce several monovarietal (single grape) wines of high quality. The alvarinho is citrussy, honeyed and floral. The loureiro was dry, mineral and acidic.

Lunch with the winemaker at a local restaurant tasting his citrussy 100% Loureiro wine was pleasant until he mistakenly offered me a plate of croquettes with ham inside. When I go on press trips I usually state: no meat, no shellfish, no beetroot. But I forgot something. I was presented with a roasted leg with suckers.

Ugh, Im not eating that.

Why? You eat fish!

Thats not a fish. I state. (I wonder, is it?)

Yes, its a fish.

Im sorry, in future I will state no cephalopods.

Why dont you eat them?

They are intelligent.

Cue confused and hurt look on the face of my hostess. They simply couldnt understand it. Octopi also have an alien gene. So when Earth is invaded by ETs Im going to be just fine with our alien overlords. You lot, however, will be in big trouble.



I had dinner in one of Portos most famous restaurants, O Gaveto, with the winemakers from Anselmo Mendes, one of the leading vinho verde makers. Together with fantastic food, such as the roasted whole fish with tomatoes and potatoes above, these were some of the most complex and rich wines that I tasted during the trip.
A new patent search tool developed by engineers at Michigan Technological University makes it easier to discover and track inactive patents.

Many innovators and inventors feel they have squandered hours fruitlessly rifling through old patents on the US Patent and Trademark Office website, trying to figure out which are still active and how they may relate to developing technologies.

A team from Michigan Tech decided to take matters into their own hands and streamline the exploration process with an online search engine, which is now free for everyone to use at www.freeip.mtu.edu. They tested how well the tool works and the journal Inventions published their results last week.

Searching inactive patents can be time-consuming, but will be much simpler with a free-to-use search engine developed by Michigan Tech engineers.

Something Old, Something Almost New

With today's fast-paced innovation, 20 years is a long time to waitand it's how long a patent's registration lasts. However, nearly half of all registered patents are inactive before their life time ends, which is a potential goldmine for inventors and innovators, says Joshua Pearce, a materials science and electrical engineer at Michigan Tech. Pearce and his graduate student Yuenyong Nilsiam developed the patent search engine.

"Think about what a 20-year-old cell phone looks likeit simply doesn't make sense to use 20-year-old patents for a new innovation," Pearce says.

But many registered, inactive patents could be inspiring. So, the algorithm Pearce and Nilsiam wrote works by scraping the US Patent Database each week when the agency updates patent statuses. Every 3.5 years, 7.5 years and 11.5 years, patents come up for renewal, and if the dues are not paid and the paperwork remains unfiled, then the patent becomes inactive and enters the public domain.

"We want to make patents useful again to inventors," Pearce says, adding the search tool is part of a larger movement. "More companies and individuals are looking to open source hardware development, which allows you to harness a global ecosystem of innovators, engineers and designs."

Open Source and 3-D Printing Technologies

Pearce runs the Michigan Tech Open Sustainability Technology (MOST) Lab and is deeply committed to making scientific knowledge widely available. The lab focuses on using appropriate technology to find collaborative solutions for sustainability and poverty reduction.

One of the technologies they often use is low-cost 3-D printing, which Pearce and Nilsiam used in patent queries to vet their search engine. They manually tracked patent searches using the US database and compared it to using their search engine, which cut the time identifying patents by a factor 1,500. In this case, it saved them 9 hours of tedious clicking through the USPTO database. Speeding up the process like this, Pearce says, could help innovators develop or commercialize their own technologies faster. But Pearce and his team didn't want to keep all the benefits to themselves.

"We're only making publicly available data more available," Pearce says. "For innovators, this could be a first stop shop, a way to see if your idea is available and what other solutions have been thought up."

The team hopes that by initially streamlining inactive patent searches, it will foster and speed up innovation down the road  particularly in the rapidly developing world of open source hardware. Granting access to more public domain could help more lightbulbs go off around the nation.

Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigans flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.
New members inducted into Institute of ...
John Mills speaks at water forum in Sonora View Photos

Sonora, CA  The Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors has hired John Mills to be an official water consultant for the county.

Mills, a Tuolumne County resident, is a respected figure in the water field, and also provides similar services to other entities in the region. We reported back in 2014 that Mills was the keynote speaker at a Focus On Water forum put on by the Columbia College Foundation. Mills was introduced at the event as a member of the Association of California Water Agencies and an appointee to the Governors Emergency Drought Relief Task force.

District Three Supervisor Evan Royce noted this morning, I think John is the perfect person for this job and Im excited to see us moving forward with him. Im really excited about the prospects for our future in Tuolumne County related to water. I think this board, the TUD Board, and the general political climate, poses a really good opportunity for us to secure potential water storage or rights.

On hand for todays meeting, Mills indicated that water is a major discussion topic right now at the state capitol in Sacramento. He said, Typically things in water move glacially, but not right now. Thankfully the Chairman (Karl Rodefer) has flown an F-16, so hell know what it feels like.

Mills explained, In my 30 plus years of experience in water, Ive never seen the number of activities taking place in a constrained timeframe. The Department of Water Resources and the State Water Resources Control Board are about to release a framework document, for the Governor, and it will basically restructure water regulations in the state of California down to individual water budgets for homeowners. Well have 10 days to review that and get comments back. Then it goes to the Governor.

District Two Supervisor Randy Hanvelt added, Actually, I think we are little late in moving to this point. We are new to the water game, and late to the water game, I might add. Your knowledge and experience will be a great asset to us, so I fully support this.

The vote was 5-0 in favor. Mills will work on a specific list of tasks and provide regular updates to the county. The contract runs through June of 2017 and is not to exceed $59,802.
To share with friends and brethren The Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (the Everlasting Gospel), and to prepare a people to stand when He returns to redeem His remnant. Also, to share relevant information of current events, and to show how they relate to prophecy; By means of articles, editorials, opinions, scripture readings, and poetry.

Disclaimer

Endrtimes does not necessarily endorse or agree with every opinion expressed in every article/video posted on this site. The information provided here is done so for personal edification; It's up to the reader to separate truth from error, and to examine everything (like the Bereans) from a Biblical perspective. Let the Holy Scriptures be you guide! - - - FAIR USE NOTICE: These pages/videos may contain copyrighted () material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available to advance understanding of ecological, POLITICAL, HUMAN RIGHTS, economic, DEMOCRACY, scientific, MORAL, ETHICAL, and SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior general interest in receiving similar information for research and educational purposes.
Despite last week's overwhelming vote to legalize medical marijuana in Florida, patients suffering from a list of chronic ailments won't be able to access the drug for months - and perhaps longer, depending on regulations expected to be crafted by the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature.

Amendment 2 could take months to implement



Further debate in 2017 is likely

Initial dispensing of full-strength marijuana could be pushed into 2018

While Amendment 2 could be implemented by the state's Department of Health without input from lawmakers, the initiative's controversial roots - a similar measure narrowly failed in 2014 after being criticized as a recreational marijuana wolf in sheep's clothing - virtually guarantee a robust debate during the 2017 legislative session, which begins in March.

At stake will be how medical marijuana can be prescribed and how long patients will have to wait before their prescriptions can be filled. Regulations governing the low-potency marijuana legalized by the legislature in 2015 require patients to obtain approval from two certified doctors, after which a 90-day waiting period takes effect.

"If we just take the idea that, 'Hey, it's a free market, let's just let the free market decide how we handle cannabis in Florida', then we will, I promise you, tomorrow turn into Colorado," Sen. Rob Bradley (R-Fleming Island) said during deliberations over low-potency marijuana legalization.

But extending the same regulations to the full-strength cannabis that will become available to chronically-ill patients would be an affront to the spirit of Amendment 2, the initiative's supporters contend.

"There's no reason to have (patients) wait 90 days, and there's no reason to have them see another doctor, necessarily," said Jeff Sharkey, who along with Taylor Patrick Biehl runs the Medical Marijuana Business Association of Florida, a Tallahassee-based lobbying organization.

"For children, it may be a little bit different, but really, you want to get patients access to this as quickly as possible to find out if it really does help them."

Sharkey and Biehl are on the frontline of an effort to convince lawmakers that medical marijuana can be grown and dispensed securely without burdening patients with cost- and time-consuming regulations. A waiting period, they argue, would be particularly counterproductive in the case of terminally-ill patients who have been given just months to live.

"After having a doctor, a certified doctor, who has been through the coursework, who says 'You could really benefit from this', there's no reason to have them wait 90 days," Sharkey said.

However the regulations take shape, nothing will happen before July 1, when the Department of Health is due to begin implementation.

That effort could push the initial dispensing of full-strength marijuana into 2018, underscoring the difficulty in squaring a product of swift democracy with the molasses-like mechanisms of bureaucracy that are needed to carry it out.
The Egyptian parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee accused the UK House of Commons of doing everything possible to polish the image of the Muslim Brotherhood 'terrorist group'

The Egyptian parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee criticised at a Monday meeting a report issued earlier this month by the UK House of Commons' Foreign Affairs Committee on the outlawed-Muslim Brotherhood, saying it went out of its way to exonerate the group of the charge of terrorism.

"The report contains some nonsense jargon about political Islam and it did its best to whitewash the image of the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist group," said the committee's chairman Ahmed Said.

Said told reporters that the Egyptian parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee will react to its UK counterpart by issuing a detailed and lengthy report about the terrorist nature of the Brotherhood.

"Our report will be different from the UK's counterproductive political theories on this terrorist group, and it will come with hundreds of documents showing that the Muslim Brotherhood is the mother of all radical and militant Islamist movements," said Said, adding that this report should be ready in one week.

Said told reporters that "what is so ironic about this flawed UK report is that it describes the Muslim Brotherhood's [now-oulawed] Freedom and Justice Party as a democratic party."

The UK House of Commons' foreign affairs committee released its report on 3 November commenting on the findings and conclusions of December 2015 review by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) on the Muslim Brotherhood.

The 2015 FCO report had concluded that the group has long maintained a dubious position vis-a-vis the use of violence and terrorism to achieve political change.

The UK parliament committee said that the FCO review undermined confidence in the impartiality of the FCOs work due to the misguided appointment of Sir John Jenkins, the UK ambassador to Saudi Arabia, to head the review effort.

The Muslim Brotherhood, banned in Egypt and officially considered a terrorist group since late 2013, has been also designated a terrorist organisation in Saudi Arabia, one of Egypt's main allies following the ousting of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

The UK parliament committee said in its report that it was rather more than unfortunate that the main findings [of the FOC review] neglected to mention the most significant event in the Brotherhood and Egypts modern political history: its removal from power in Egypt in 2013, the year after being democratically elected, and through a military intervention.

The committee added that the review did not include an examination of events as a means of understanding the nature of the group following their removal from power, including the killing in August 2013 of large numbers of protesters [in Cairo] who sympathised with the Brotherhood, and the continuing repression of the group in Egypt and elsewhere as a glaring omission.

Egyptian MP and professor of Islamic Law and History Amina Nosseir said at the Monday meeting in Cairo that "the UK House of Commons report on the Muslim Brotherhood is so disgusting, provocative and rife with a horrible number of lies."

"I wonder why some in the West insist on polishing the image of political Islam and militant Islamist organisations like the Muslim Brotherhood," said Nosseir.

"I also wonder why some in the West insist on giving cover to radical Islamist movements to infiltrate Western societies under the false pretence that these movements are moderate."

"When Europe became fertile ground for exporting terrorists and extremists to Syria and Libya, instead of blaming their flawed reports they take the easy route of putting the blame on Arab dictators."

Emad Gad, a political analyst with Al-Ahram Press Organisation and an MP affiliated with the liberal Free Egyptians Party, said at the meeting that "the UK House of Commons report on the Muslim Brotherhood shows that British politicians still insist on making their country the world's greatest hub for Islamist terrorists and extremists."

"I recommend that the best response to these disgusting reports is that we produce a [comprehensive] report about the terrorist nature of the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical Islamist movements," said Gad.

"The British were here in Egypt for 70 years, and they were the first in the West to have contact with radical Islamist movements and they were also the first to ask Egyptian governments before 1952 to impose a ban on the Muslim Brotherhood."

"So what has happened to make the new generation of British politicians view political Islamist movements as moderate?" asked Gad, adding that UK reports whitewashing radical Islamist movements pave the way for creating fertile ground for recruiting a greater number of extremists in the West.

MP Dalia Youssef described the chair of the UK House of Commons' Foreign Affairs Committee Crispin Blunt as a Muslim Brotherhood-oriented man.

"Blunt was here in Egypt in 2013 and he decided to join the Muslim Brotherhood sit-ins in Rabaa El-Adaweya in Cairo," Youssef said.

"Blunt stayed in Rabaa for four days, eating and drinking and living the Muslim Brotherhood experience without shame and without reviewing their radical speeches delivered throughout the day," said Youssef.

"By issuing such a false report, I think some in the West want to exert pressure on Egypt to allow the Muslim Brotherhood to be integrated into political life again," said Youssef.

Youssef, a member of the Egyptian-British Parliamentary Association, said the report proposed that Islamist politicians who identify themselves as democratic should be allowed to participate freely in democratic processes.

"This is nonsense theoretical jargon that shows that UK politicians lack any sense of responsibility, especially after the political upheavals in the Middle East in the last five years clearly demonstrated that political Islamist movements lack any kind of democratic sense and that all have their own secret armed militias in Egypt, Syria, Libya and Iraq," said Youssef.

Youssef said an Egyptian parliamentary delegation aims to visit London very soon to open talks on political Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood.

"We aim to know from which sources do UK politicians receive their information about political Islam," said Youssef.

The Cairo meeting also discussed the results of the US presidential election and the victory of Republican candidate Donald Trump.

MP and security analyst Hamid Bekheit said that "UK politicians and MPs should learn a lesson from the results of these elections, which showed that a major reason why Hillary Clinton lost the election was because she and the Obama administration have supported terrorist in the Middle East organisations like the Muslim Brotherhood while portraying them as moderate and peaceful."

"[US President Barack] Obama and Clinton, like naive UK politicians, also allege that political Islam movements are moderate and that they should be allowed to play politics in their country, with this devastating theory resulting in civil wars in the Middle East and the Arab world."

The secretary-general of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mahmoud Hussein, currently in exile in Turkey, heaped praise on the UK report, saying on the Brotherhood's official website that it has corrected the report by the US foreign desk last December on Muslim Brotherhood.

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Florida voters approved the use of medical marijuana, but several local city and county governments are taking steps to restrict where it can be sold. On Monday night, Sanford city leaders discussed passing a moratorium and restrictions on the sale of the drug.

With medical marijuana legalized, it will be at least six months or more before the state will be issuing licenses to sell medicinal marijuana. Sanford city leaders said its just a matter of time before people interested in selling it in their city will be applying for business permits. But Sanfords mayor said the city must be selective on where it allows those businesses.

They have a right, obviously, because theyre a business, but we dont want a big congregation of them and we dont want them right across one of our elementary schools, said Sanford Mayor Jeff Triplett.

On Monday night, Sanford city leaders agreed to move forward with a moratorium that would prevent any potential pot dispensaries from applying for a business license for at least six months, while state leaders and health officials figure out how the licensing process will work.

Until the state really figures out how theyre going to write it up, that we kind of pull back and work at the same time the states working, to make sure we have everything set up properly to protect our residents, said Triplett.

Sanford city leaders said they know of other nearby city and county governments that are considering similar steps. Even before the election, Apopka city leaders passed the first reading of a moratorium that would prevent any dispensing of medical pot until next May. Apopkas mayor cited reports of increased crime near dispensaries in Colorado.



Sanfords police chief said his officers will be working closely with any dispensaries that do open.

To ensure that our guys are aware of what the facilities are, understand what their operations are and offer them as much of our expertise in law enforcement to ensure their facilities are safe, and to also ensure that the community stays safe as well, said Sanford Police Chief Cecil Smith.

While nothing is set right now, city leaders discussed the possibility of keeping marijuana dispensaries out of the citys downtown where there are shops and small restaurants and only allowing them in areas zoned for industrial businesses.

The moratorium is expected to come to a vote on Sanfords Planning and Zoning Commission in December.
Egypts Court of Cassation revoked on Tuesday death sentences and ordered retrials for ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi and other Muslim Brotherhood leaders over the 2011 Wadi El-Natrun prison break case.

The court also revoked the death penalties against Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, and other MB figures including Brotherhood deputy leader Rashad Bayoumy, and 2012's parliament speaker and MB figure Saad El-Katatni.

The court also cancelled life sentences for 21 others in the same case.

The defendants had been charged with "damaging and setting fire to prison buildings," "murder," "attempted murder," "looting prison weapons depots" and "releasing prisoners" while escaping from the prison outside Cairo during the January 2011 uprising.

This was the only death sentence issued against Morsi to date.

The ex-president has received only one final verdict: a 20-year imprisonment handed down in October over the Ittihadeya clashes case, after his defence exhausted all appeals in the case.

Morsi is still being tried in three other cases. In the first, known as the Qatar espionage case, he was sentenced to a total of 40 years in prison (a life imprisonment sentence of 25 plus an additional 15 years).

A court hearing to decide on his appeal is scheduled for 27 November.

In the second case, Morsi and 16 others including Brotherhood figures Mohamed Badie and Essam El-Erian, were convicted of espionage (unrelated to the Qatar case) and sentenced last June to life in prison.

In the case, prosecutors charged Morsi and 35 other defendants with conspiring with foreign powers -- including Hamas, Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iran's Revolutionary Guards -- to destabilise Egypt.

The sentence has been appealed.

Finally, Morsi is being tried with others on charges of insulting the judiciary.

A hearing on this case is set for December 10.



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PLAINVILLE  Next years freshmen class at Plainville High School will need a few more credits to graduate.



Principal Roberto Medic and School Superintendent Maureen Brummett addressed the changes at Monday nights Board of Education meeting.



Many of our students far exceed the credits that they have to get to graduate, many of them are already exceeding beyond what the state will require, Brummett said.



She said increasing the credits needed to graduate locally is a response to a new state law that increases graduation requirements for public high schools to a minimum of 25 credits.



Locally, the change will have the most impact on current eighth graders who will be high school freshmen next fall. The class of 2021 will be required to complete 26.75 credits.



Currently, 23.75 credits are required for graduation in Plainville.



For the class of 2020, there will be a one-credit increase in graduation requirements due to the addition of a mandatory Capstone project.



The classes of 2017, 2018 and 2019 will not see any changes.






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Its been a week since the election of Donald Trump, and the public displays of disaffection continue. Yet for all the miles marched, candles burned and verses of Imagine softly sung, many demonstrators are struggling to come to peace with the purpose of the protests and where theyll lead, if anywhere.

Does encircling Oaklands Lake Merritt and holding hands  as Trump opponents did Sunday  represent a mass catharsis, a message to the incoming administration or the gathering of a movement for fights ahead? Many arent sure yet.

I feel like most people tell us, Why does it matter? He became president already, said Carla Franco, a 14-year-old student at Coliseum College Prep Academy, as she and her peers from about a dozen high schools ditched the classroom for the streets Monday, playing hooky to show their discontent.

We just want him to know we dont support what hes said about us, she said, referring to Mexican Americans. We feel like its better to unite as people and show them we dont support him.

On Monday, fiery street protests and candlelight vigils gave way to a rally at San Francisco City Hall, a big high school walkout in Oakland, a series of greeting events for schoolkids in Alameda and the creation of walls of empathy decorated by sticky notes outside BART stations. Some people wore safety pins symbolizing support for societys most vulnerable.

Trumps supporters have criticized the protesters who have taken to the streets around the country  mostly peacefully but at times violently  calling those in the outraged crowds irresponsible for not accepting the results of the election and giving the president-elect a chance. Kellyanne Conway, Trumps former campaign manager, has called upon Hillary Clinton to calm her supporters.

Such street demonstrations serve notice and provide an emotional release, said Stephen Zunes, a professor of politics and international studies at the University of San Francisco. But moving forward, he said, People have to think more strategically. They're going to have to dig in for the long term.

That means forming coalitions, figuring out when to work within the system or when to take to the streets. Street demo after street demo after street demo doesn't work, he said.

The past weeks demonstrations have come in many forms, and on Monday in San Francisco, hundreds gathered in the City Hall rotunda for a unity rally, with Mayor Ed Lee and others vowing to stand up to the Trump administration if it sought to upend the citys values, including sanctuary for undocumented people. The San Francisco Gay Mens Chorus belted out Singing for Our Lives.

An attack on any of us is an attack on all of us, and this will be a big test, Lee told reporters after the ceremony. The conversation in every neighborhood has to be, Well be a city that will not change our values. Getting people ready and having that dialogue is the No. 1 job in order to face anything that might come out of Washington, D.C.

In Alameda, hundreds of parents, community members and students descended on several school campuses early Monday, bringing posters, stickers and pins to offer a positive message of togetherness after Edison Elementary was hit with racist graffiti over the weekend.

The crime was one of many racially charged incidents reported across the country after the election, including the waving of the Confederate flag at the Veterans Day parade in Petaluma and the painting of the words Heil Trump and a swastika near a San Diego bus stop.

Alameda resident John Knox White was at a candlelight vigil in his city Friday night, about the same time someone was spray-painting the racist words at Edison. He jumped on Facebook and helped organized the greeting event. He wanted to make sure no one felt the sting of hate-filled ideas.

By 8 a.m., students were filing past welcoming committees with signs and stickers reading, Everyone is welcome. Elliot Cevallos, 10, held a rainbow-colored Love each otter sign, inspired by the school mascot.

I think its just special because you get to tell the people, like, just because Trump won, you cant start treating people like that, he said. Its a peaceful way to protest, and I think thats really cool.

As Elliot headed to class, Trumps selection of Breitbart News chairman Steve Bannon as his chief strategist was drawing fire. Knox White said the appointment of a man accused of promoting white supremacy demanded a strong response.

This is us trying to figure out a way forward, Knox White said of the Alameda school action. Its a show of community and a show of strength  that there are people who will stand up and say we will not go silently. But if all we do at the end of the day is link arms and sing a couple of songs, we probably will not have done enough.

For some, participating in such public events has offered an expression of communal mourning, a way to work through grief. Others described a show of strength, a symbolic warning shot or simply a burst of frustration and anger.

At the 16th Street BART station in San Francisco, a wall of empathy offered Monday morning commuters pens and sticky notes to express their emotions.

We are so devastated now, Teresa Mejia, 60, said after writing Join a community organization, and Take care of yourself on the wall.

Whether the actions happening around the country turn into a movement remains to be seen, said Erica Chenoweth, a professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. For now, she said, much of what the country is seeing is a blowing off of steam.

Youre out there showing youre pissed and aggravated and youre going to do something about it. What we know from the history of mass movements is that it takes about three years. she said, adding that success entails long conversations, the building of coalitions, concrete goals and long-term thinking.

She added that if peaceful demonstrations seem to fail in the short term, that should not be used as fodder for those that think violence is somehow going to take them further, Chenoweth said. What the movement does is really going to define the type of country we live in.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writers Sarah Ravani, Kimberly Veklerov, Heather Knight and Evan Sernoffsky contributed to this story.

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker
The 12th Annual Aggie 100, honoring the fastest-growing businesses led or owned by Aggies, included 34 Houston-area businesses, the Mays Business School's Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship at Texas A&M University announced Friday night.

The fastest growing company was Lone Star Bloom with revenue growth of 229 percent in 2015. The Summit Award recipient, presented to the company with the highest three-year average revenue, was awarded to Genesis Networks Enterprises.
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Whether you stream, buy or rent, heres a look at whats new or notable in home video. Movies are available on streaming sites such as iTunes, Amazon and Vudu unless otherwise noted.

Taxi Driver: Travis Bickle is a monster hiding in plain sight who ultimately is mistaken for a hero because his victims are monsters, too. Moviegoers may not root for him, but they find him compelling. Director Martin Scorsese and his star, Robert De Niro, thought this was a vanity project; 40 years later, its still De Niros defining role. Though Scorsese would make better movies, Bernard Herrmanns score and the lush photography of New Yorks decadent yet alluring street life in the 1970s are reasons enough to revisit this horror show.

In theaters

The Monster: This horror movie looks like Aliens crossed with The Blair Witch Project. When their car breaks down one night on a lonely stretch of road, a mother must protect her daughter from something nasty lurking in the woods. The mom is played by Zoe Kazan, who gives up a lot in weight and reach to the monster. she was spooky good in Our Brand Is Crisis, though, so well give her a chance.

Television

Better Call Saul season two: Theres no one else on TV like Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk). A nice enough guy with a wobbly moral compass, the con man turned lawyer tries with limited success to navigate the middle ground between his upstanding Santa Fe, New Mexico, law firm and the Albuquerque underworld. Breaking Bad fans know hell eventually change his name to Saul Goodman and throw in with the bad guys. They probably didnt anticipate that the journey to get there would be so fascinating.

Also: Game of Thrones season six
Gamal and Alaa Mubarak were ordered released on 12 October after receiving three-year prison sentences, which they fulfilled in pretrial detention

Egypt's Court of Appeals rejected on Tuesday an appeal by the prosecution against the release of the two sons of former president Hosni Mubarak.

Gamal and Alaa Mubarak were released on 12 October after receiving three-year prison sentences, which they had already fulfilled in their pre-trial detention.

The brothers were convicted of embezzling public funds earmarked for the renovation of presidential palaces and using the money to improve their private properties.

Gamal and Alaa were arrested on 13 April 2011 and until their release in October 2015 were detained pending trial.

In its appeal the prosecution argued that the brothers should serve eight more months because the pretrial detention, which by law is limited to a maximum of two years, should have covered two cases.

In the second case referred to, however, the two were acquitted of involvement in the killing of protestors during the 18-day January revolution which ousted Hosni Mubarak.



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BRIDGEPORT  One of this citys most venerable institutions, the United Congregational Church, is engaged in negotiations for what sources say is a partnership with the Bridgeport Islamic Community Center.

Ahmed Ebrahim, the leader of the Islamic Cultural Center, announced on the centers Facebook page that the church was being considered as BICCs new home. And it was learned that letters announcing the intention to engage in a partnership with BICC were mailed out Tuesday, according to people close to both houses of worship.

Whether this partnership will involve a sale of the church at the corner of Park Avenue and State Street is not known. But those close to the situation say that a sale, or at least an agreement to sell, is likely.

The news comes after a brutal presidential campaign during which Muslims and other ethnic groups found themselves on the receiving end.

There was President-elect Donald Trumps famous retaliation against the parents of a fallen Muslim U.S. Army officer, Capt. Humayun Khan. Earlier in the campaign, Trump called for a ban on all immigration of Muslims to the United States.

This hate speech runs counter to the principles that made America great, Ebrahim said Tuesday.

Pastor Sara Smith said she could not comment on the talks between her church and the BICC, other than to say a news conference has been arranged for Dec. 5, and those close to the church leadership emphasized there is no formal agreement to sell the church as yet.

BICC is at 525 Clinton Ave.; it was founded in 1997. Hopefully, well have a new home within 12 months, Ebrahim said, without mentioning the UCC site specifically.

Between 2014 and 2015, the church underwent a $325,000 renovation of its steeple. For months, the 180-foot white spire, a landmark for sailors on Long Island Sound, was surrounded by scaffolding.

The UCC is one of the oldest continuous institutions in North America. It can trace its lineage to the very first white settlement of what was later to become Bridgeport.

It was first organized in 1693 as the First Church of Christ in Stratfield, Fairfield, situated about nine blocks north of its current location, about where Worth Street meets Park Avenue today.

This was just 31 years after Connecticut received its charter from Englands King Charles II, the very same charter famously hidden in Hartfords Charter Oak. At that time, the majority of settlers were loyal to England.

In 1916 the First Church merged with the Second Congregational Church to form the United Congregational Church seen today.

For 91 years it has lorded over the city, its shadow falling on Bridgeports downtown and West End. It is diagonally across the intersection from Hearst Connecticut Medias printing plant and was constructed in 1925, an era when scores of major churches  most of them Catholic  were going up all over the city to meet the spiritual needs of the citys growing immigrant population.

Most of its core membership of 400 live out-of-town these days, but the church has been active in meeting the needs of the have-nots with food pantries, coat drives, a monthly meal in the Marina Village public housing apartments and even providing a place for the homeless.

Despite the steeple project, members said the building has been difficult to maintain and is showing its age.

Its possible the United Congregation Church will not cease to exist even if it is sold. Sources said the congregation may either merge with or meet within the United Church of Christ, at 2180 North Ave., if a sale takes place.

jburgeson@ctpost.com
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Beating victim dies; new charges coming

ALBANY  A 63-year-old woman died of injuries from a beating Nov. 5 at South Mall Towers, city police said Monday.

Police did not release the woman's name or when she died.

Gerard Burks, 38, who was charged with attempted murder following the incident on South Pearl Street, faces upgraded charges, police said.

About 4:30 a.m. Nov. 5, police responded to a report of an assault and found the victim with injuries to her head and torso.

 Staff report

Suspect in sister's death arrested

ALBANY  A Hawaiian woman wanted on a murder charge was arrested Friday in Albany, State Police said.

Troopers and Albany police officers arrested 37-year-old Alexandria Duval of Maui on Friday after finding her at an Albany home. According to news media reports, she is charged in the death of her twin sister, Anastasia. They appeared enraged before their SUV, driven by Alexandria, fell 200 feet off a cliff in Maui, according to the reports.

The Maui Police Department had issued a warrant for Duval after she was charged with murder in the May 29 incident. A State Police investigator from the New York State Intelligence Center located a possible address for Duval in Albany and Troop G members were notified.

Duval was seen standing outside the home and tried to flee, but was taken into custody and brought to the Latham barracks, troopers said.

She was arraigned in Albany City Court and sent to Albany County jail to await extradition back to Hawaii.

- Staff report

Suspect in fatal boat crash released on bail

QUEENSBURY  The Lake George man charged with manslaughter in last summer's fatal boat crash on Lake George was released Monday after posting bail, the Glens Falls Post-Star is reporting.

His release comes after a judge last week granted an application made by Alexander M. West's attorneys to lower his bail to $100,000 cash or $200,000 bond. It had been $100,000 cash or $300,000 bond.

West is accused of crashing his boat into another boat, killing an 8-year-old girl vacationing with her family. He pleaded not guilty last month to manslaughter and a slew of other charges, including that he was impaired by alcohol and drugs at the time of the incident.

Charlotte McCue of Carlsbad, Calif., died and her mother was injured.

 Staff report
GREENWICH  Four buildings lack elevators. One has bathrooms that a wheelchair cannot enter. Many have sinks the wrong heights, doors too narrow and signs lacking braille.

These are the impediments students and staff with disabilities can face in Greenwich public schools. Only five buildings in the district are fully compliant with the American with Disabilities Act, the federal civil rights law passed in 1990 that requires public places like schools to provide accommodations to allow all people access, with full wheelchair accessibility a priority.

The 11 other schools in the district and the Havemeyer central office range from substantially compliant but lacking some elements required by the law to not in compliance with no possibility of accommodating students with certain disabilities, according to Director of Facilities Ron Matten.

Some of the older schools were not built with the ADA in mind, he said. So they may not have all of these features.

According to school and state officials, the Greenwich Public School system has never had an official complaint about its buildings ADA accessibility filed against it.

Nevertheless, the topic has come up at recent Board of Education meetings.

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Board Chairwoman Laura Erickson at a meeting last month recounted seeing mobility-impaired individuals struggling to get into the Havemeyer Building, and urged her fellow board members to consider making all the districts buildings ADA compliant when looking at new capital projects.

It does need to be a priority. I think, in todays day and age, its inexcusable, she said. Most of the towns municipal buildings in Greenwich are compliant, so I think the schools should be too.

Semi-compliant

According to a report Matten recently prepared for the Board of Education, Cos Cob, Glenville, Hamilton Avenue and Parkway schools and Greenwich High School are fully ADA compliant.

He classified New Lebanon, North Street, North Mianus, Eastern Middle, Central Middle and the International School at Dundee as lacking some features, but said they are substantially compliant, with no mobility issues.

Mattens report is not authoritative, as he doesnt have an exact catalog of all the features across the district that might render a school ADA compliant or not, he said. That kind of thorough examination of the districts facilities has not been done in years.

He said some of the ADA elements lacking from these schools are braille of the appropriate size on signs, water fountains at accessible height and similar issues.

All of these do not impact mobility, he said.

Matten identified Riverside and Julian Curtiss schools as having some inaccessible areas for handicapped people, but said reasonable accommodations can be made by moving classrooms.

Neither Riverside nor Julian Curtiss has an elevator to transport students and staff to upper floors. However, both schools have classrooms and their cafeterias, gymnasiums, auditoriums, libraries and art and music classes located on a handicapped-accessible first floor.

To accommodate students or staff with limited mobility, the schools can relocate second-floor classes to the first floor so they can participate fully in school activities.

Those kinds of adaptations are permitted under the ADA, and can allow a building to be compliant without making expensive construction projects necessary.

Not compliant

Matten classified three buildings as not in compliance with ADA design standards: Old Greenwich School, Western Middle School and school headquarters.

Thats really, really problematic, said Kathy Gibs, director of training for the New England ADA Center, one of 10 regional nonprofits established by the Americans with Disabilities Act to provide information and guidance on the law. Those buildings in particular, if schools want to continue to use them, they should be seriously working on coming up with a transition plan.

Like Riverside and Julian Curtiss, Old Greenwich School does not have an elevator. The school has a cafeteria, gymnasium, art and music classrooms on the first floor, as well as a handful of classrooms for prekindergarten, kindergarten and first grade.

Unlike Riverside and Julian Curtiss, however, Old Greenwich cannot do a classroom switch to accommodate wheelchair-bound students and staff. By fire code, classes for the younger grades must be held on the ground floor of a school. There arent enough first-level rooms at Old Greenwich for the school to make reasonable accommodations for third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students and teachers.

Western Middle School has an elevator in one wing of the school, but because there are staircases separating that wing from other parts of the school with vital program functions like the gymnasium and auditorium, the school cannot provide for students with limited mobility.

Finally, though the Havemeyer Building, which lacks an elevator, has a wheelchair-accessible first floor, the building is not ADA-compliant because the bathrooms on the first floor are not ADA-accessible.

All Greenwich schools have ADA-accessible bathrooms.

The gray areas

Determining if a school is legally compliant or not can be complicated. Requirement levels can differ, depending on when a school was built.

And there is the concept of program accessibility, such as the flexibility to move a class downstairs. But program accessibility does not necessarily have to be in the same building.

If the program is the same at each of the (elementary) schools, you dont necessarily need to make all of them ADA compliant, Gibs said. Because you are looking at the program in its entirety. So elementary education is the program.

School districts can reassign students from one school to another as long as travel time is comparable and the programs are the same.

We would like to see every school be accessible, Gibs said, but the government recognizes some ADA updates can be expensive, depending on a buildings architecture.

The American with Disabilities Act comes with little in the way of enforcement  as long as people are not filing complaints.

So far this year, the district has had no accessibility requests for students who needed accommodations. Julian Curtiss School Principal Trish McGuire said she only needed to move a students classroom once in approximately the last nine years.

Gibs said she has not known the Department of Justice to do voluntary inspections of schools; they only inspect after a complaint. If a school is found noncompliant, the district must draft a transition plan describing the problem, how it will be solved, by whom and when.

The other liability is any citizen could go to court, she added.

According to her general knowledge of the district, Greenwichs ADA issues are not out of the ordinary, Gibs said.

Its a very common scenario for New England, she said. We have an old building stock, and a lot of our buildings were really well-built.

Greenwich public school officials plan to evaluate the districts ADA compliance in a future master plan, which will review all of the districts facilities needs. Bids are out for consulting work on the master plan; the district aims to have the plan completed by the end of June.

We want to move where we can get more access to some of our buildings, said Matten, qualifying that he was speaking for himself, not the district.

He said he does not want students to have to move all over the district because of lack of accessibility.

Greenwich has a tradition of community-based schools, he said.

emunson@hearstmediact.com; @emiliemunson
Griffin Hospital invites the community to a free holiday concert on Tuesday, Dec. 6 at Shelton High School, 120 Meadow St., Shelton.

The Griffin Hospital Annual Holiday Concert will feature 102nd Army Band. Refreshments will be served at 6:30 p.m. and the auditorium will open at 7 p.m.

The 102nd Army Band is the official musical emissary for the Connecticut Army National Guard. Beginning in 1863 as the First Regiment, Connecticut National Guard Band, its musical tradition has continued through many designations and locations.

The band plays a variety of music such as classical, jazz, show tunes, rock and pop. This event is sponsored by the Presidents Fund at Griffin Hospital.

Tickets are free. Seating is general admission and given on a first come, first served basis. To get tickets, contact the Griffin Hospital Development Fund at 203-732-7504 or email development@griffinhealth.org (put Holiday Concert as the subject of the email).
GREENWICH  Four places on Western Middle Schools fields contain PCBs above the states significant environmental hazard level, according to data from the school districts consulting firm.

In at least one sampling site, PCBs were found in concentrations 20 times the threshold of 15 miligrams per kilogram of soil, according to new details from Langan Engineering provided to Greenwich Time.

The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection defines Significant Environmental Hazard conditions as Polluted soil present within two feet of the surface with the potential to pose a short-term direct contact risk to humans.

Since being asked to find out exactly where and how much contamination is in the middle schools soil, Langan has identified concentrations of PCBs above state residential exposure limits in 27 samples taken from the school fields this fall.

In one area of the field, PCB concentrations ranged from 0.293 to 318 mg/kg. Some 12 of 52 samples were above the DEEPs Residential Direct Exposure Criteria of 1 mg/kg of soil.

In the two other areas of the field where PCB identification is ongoing, concentrations of the carcinogen ranged up to 10.3 mg/kg. Fifteen samples from these areas were above the Residential Direct Exposure Criteria limit.

So far, Langan Engineering has sampled 153 spots on the field in the effort to map the extent of PCB contamination.

We will continue to delineate the extent of PCB impacts, which will require additional borings and soil sampling, said Vice President of Langan Engineering Jamie Barr. The timeline for this work is dependent on the results of the future sampling and analyses.

The fields at Western have been closed since the end of August when elevated levels of PCBs and other contaminants were found there.

Its possible that portions of the Western fields will be reopened after the full extent of the contamination has been determined, but not until then, officials said.

This month, officials announced that Langan has determined the where lead and chlordane contamination is at the fields. According to the update, 75 to 100 cubic yards of soil must be dug out and disposed of off-site because of lead and chlordane contamination.

We are in the process of putting together an estimate for these costs, which will be completed once we have a full understanding of the remediation needs of the site, said Barr.

Lead concentrations for the end-point samples ranged from 259 mg/kg to 542 mg/kg. Lead was previously found in concentrations ranging from 7.74 to 1,640 mg/kg at the fields.

For lead, the site-safety standard set by Langan is 606 mg/kg. The state requires remediation when lead is found in excess of 6,000 mg/kg.

Langans borings found chlordane concentrations of up to 0.0369 mg/kg for the end-point samples. The state residential direct exposure criteria for chlordane is 0.49 mg/kg.

Langan is not conducting further arsenic testing because arsenic concentrations previously identified on the property were within acceptable EPA limits.

emunson@hearstmediact.com; @emiliemunson
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STAMFORD  The custody for a 5-year-old girl remains uncertain after officials say she was caught in the middle of a combustible relationship between her parents and may have witnessed her mothers homicide.

As a multistate manhunt has continued for her father  32-year-old Elmer Gomez Ruano who is a person of interest in his wifes death  the child who speaks mostly Spanish was interviewed by authorities on Tuesday about what happened inside the Glenbrook apartment.

The girls mother, a Guatemalan native whose identity has not been released, was found dead inside a third-floor unit at the Courtland Glen Cooperative Apartments on Monday.

The state Medical Examiners Office ruled on Tuesday her death was a homicide  the citys second of 2016. Stamford Police Capt. Richard Conklin said there were signs of a struggle, but the cause of death has not been released.

Conklin said the motive for the homicide appears to be domestic, and called the couples relationship very, very combustible.

Police said Gomez Ruano abandoned his daughter Monday morning at the New York Port Authority Bus Terminal.

Gomez Ruano was last seen on video surveillance entering the bus depot with his daughter. He told the girl to wait for him, but he never returned.

The girl told New York authorities her father put her mother in the hospital, Stamford Lt. Tom Borcello said.

Every law enforcement community in the tri-state area is looking for him, said Stamford Police Sgt. Chris Broems, who is the lead investigator in the case.

Broems said a warrant has not been issued for Gomez Ruanos arrest.

Gomez Ruano was separated from his wife before the couple recently reunited. Gomez Ruano had been living with roommates at a Waterside apartment, while his wife and daughter were in Flemington, N.J.

The family moved into the Courtland Avenue apartment over the weekend.

Gomez Ruano had been working for about six months as a dish washer at the Bedford Street Diner, across the street from the police department, Conklin said.

Dorothy Agostino, who works at the diner, said Gomez Ruano was a good employee, did his job and arrived for work on time every day.

Horrible, just horrible, she said while shaking her head.

Agostino said Gomez Ruano had talked to his co-workers in the kitchen about his wife moving to Stamford.

He told the guys in the back about it and he was very happy, she said.

The family even had a party at the apartment on Sunday to celebrate getting back together and their new home.

But the apartment became a crime scene by Monday morning, Conklin said.

Authorities discovered the womans body after the child was found alone in the bus terminal. The girl told police her mother may have gone to the hospital. But after police could not find the woman at a hospital, the girl was able to provide enough information to lead authorities to the Glenbrook apartment.

Barcello said the girl had a cell phone with her when she was found. However, it remained unclear Tuesday if that helped lead authorities to the apartment.

Barcello said the state Department of Children and Families was applying to take temporary custody of the child.

When one parent is killed and the other is a suspect, authorities generally try to find a family member who is appropriate and willing to take custody of the child, according to DCF.

If there is no relative able to care for the child, we will place the child in an already licensed foster home, a DCF spokesman said in an email.

DCF would not comment further, but it released a brief statement about the case.

The department is deeply saddened by what happened to the mother and troubled by the fact that the child was found abandoned in the Port Authority, the statement said.

Port Authority spokesman Joseph Pentangelo said the girl was found on the second-floor concourse in the midtown bus terminal shortly after 10 a.m. Monday. Commuters alerted Port Authority Police after seeing the girl alone for an extended period of time. Police said she was unharmed and in good physical condition.

Stamford police, the U.S. Marshals Service, Port Authority Police and the New York Police Department have launched an extensive search for Gomez Ruano, who is described as 5-foot-8 and about 140 pounds. Police said he has long black hair, with a medium build and medium complexion.

The homicide is the second in Stamford this year. The first occurred on July 18 when two-month-old Bella Redondo stopped breathing at an East Side day care. The day care owner, Nydia Carrillo-Maldonado, 32, has been charged with first-degree manslaughter.

The last homicide in Glenbrook occurred in September 2008 when Angela Labbadia, 62, killed her daughter, Christina Labbadia, 41, before committing suicide in the Laurelton House apartment complex on Glenbrook Road.

Police determined Angela Labbadia, who suffered severe depression, was in declining health and faced mounting financial issues and eviction, shot and killed her daughter before turning the gun on herself.

Police ask anyone with information about Gomez Ruanos whereabouts to call investigators at 203-977-4421.

Editors note: Stamford police originally released the husbands name as Elmer Gomez Ruono. However, his last name is Gomez Ruano.

Jnickerson@scni.com
NEWTOWN - The 10 families suing the manufacturer of the rifle used in the Sandy Hook massacre took their wrongful death lawsuit to the highest court in Connecticut yesterday, one month after their case was thrown out of Superior Court.

Fifty-pound bodies were riddled with five, eleven and even thirteen bullets, reads the families appeal to Connecticut Supreme Court. This is not sensationalism. It is the reality that defendants created when they chose to sell a weapon of war and aggressively market its assaultive capabilities.

The lawsuit, brought by one survivor of the massacre and the relatives of nine victims, has been one of the highest-profile cases against the gun industry in the nation.

The families argue that Remington negligently marketed the AR-15-type rifle used by a gunman to kill 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook School in 2012, making the corporation liable even though the gun industry is shielded from most claims when firearms are misused.

The AR-15 is a killing machine designed as a military weapon to inflict mass carnage, the families lead attorney, Josh Koskoff, said in a statement on Tuesday.

When entrusted to the military, the AR-15 requires more than 100 hours of training and is subject to strict protocols on safety and storage, Koskoff said. Still, the weapons sellers, including Remington, made a calculated decision to aggressively market and sell the AR-15 to the public, knowing the necessary structure and oversight found in the military was utterly lacking.

The families charge that Remingtons marketing campaign has made the AR-15 the weapon of choice for mass murders.

Remington argues that it manufactured a legal firearm and distributed it legally down the sales chain until it was sold to Nancy Lanza, the mother of the 20-year-old Sandy Hook shooter.

On the day of the massacre, Lanzas son, Adam, shot her to death, then took the rifle from an unlocked closet and committed the worst crime in Connecticut history before turning a handgun on himself.

Nothing will ever bring back my son, Dylan, or the other lives stolen from us on that awful day, said Nicole Hockley in a prepared statement on Tuesday. Our only goal in bringing this appeal is to help prevent the next Sandy Hook from happening, and we have faith that Connecticuts Supreme Court will take up what is literally a matter of life and death.

In mid-October, a Superior Court judge ruled that Remington had immunity under the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, and did not violate the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act, or CUPTA.

The families are asking the state Supreme Court to clarify language in CUPTA and give closer scrutiny to their negligent entrustment argument, which has not been discussed in the states appellate courts in nearly a century.

A Remington attorney on Tuesday told the Associated Press that he expected the appeal to be dismissed.

David Wheeler, whose son Benjamin was slain in the massacre, said he hoped the appeal would succeed.

As a father who lost a bright and shining child, all we ask is for our day in court to address the negligence of these companies, Wheeler said in a statement.

rryser@newstimes.com; 203-731-3342
Qortam said he had decided to resign from parliament because he is no longer able to do anything good for the nation and his constituents

Egyptian oil tycoon Akmal Qortam told the speaker on Tuesday that he was resigning his membership of parliament.

In a letter sent to speaker Ali Abdel-Aal, the head of the Conservatives Party said: "I have told you before that I intended to resign and I have sent you a message about this on your phone, allowing you to choose the most appropriate political date to make my resignation public."

Qortam added: "Today I have decided to submit my resignation in print, out of increasing conviction that I have no longer become able to use my parliamentary membership to do anything good for my nation and constituents."

"I have other reasons for my resignation but it is unwise to speak in detail about them right now," he wrote, adding that "from the bottom of my heart I hope that you do your job in the best way and as stated by the constitution."

Qortam had announced last month that he would resign from parliament. He voiced criticism of the pro-government parliamentary bloc Support Egypt, accusing it of turning parliament into a rubber stamp.



He also accused the Free Egyptians Party of using its large number of MPs to elect a former police officer  Alaa Abed  as the new head of parliament's human rights committee. Qortam had expressed his hopes that he would be elected head of the committee during parliament's second legislative season.

He also showed solidarity with the committee's former head, outspoken MP Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat, who has faced accusations that he was using his position to impose the agendas of Western human rights organisations  such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch  on Egypt's parliament.



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The fight over a Woodlands Road Utility District voter's illegal voting conviction continues, and his attorneys say it could reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

An attorney for 59-year-old Adrian Heath, who is one of two convicted felons with ongoing criminal appeals related to the case, said he filed a motion for rehearing Monday in response to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals' Nov. 2 decision not to take a look into Heath's case.

Attorney Jay Wright believes the 14th Court of Appeals, which affirmed Heath's 2012 conviction and three-year prison sentence in May, is in conflict with a 1964 Texas Supreme Court ruling on residency as it relates to voter registration.

Heath filed a petition for discretionary review to the Court of Criminal Appeals asking it to take a second look at the lower 14th Court of Appeals' May decision, but the CCA refused to hear it earlier this month.

The RUD case started in May 2010 when 10 individuals changed their voting address to that of a Woodlands hotel, checked into the hotel and ousted the RUD board incumbents in a 10-2 vote.

However, the three incumbents, Gene "Ed" Miller, Bill Neill and Winton Davenport, filed suit alleging the results were obtained by illegal votes. A visiting judge ruled that the 10 Montgomery County residents who voted did not reside within the WRUD boundaries and were "fraudulent," meaning their votes were thrown out and Miller, Neill and Davenport were reinstated.

The 10, including Heath, claimed they consulted with state officials before changing their voter registration addresses to The Residence Inn in The Woodlands. Heath and three others were convicted of voter fraud, while voters Peter Goeddertz and Thomas Curry received pretrial probation in order to avoid prosecution. The other four were never charged.

Wright said the 1964 ruling in Mills v. Bartlett states a voter's residency does not hinge on how long he or she plans on staying at a particular location. In Mills v. Bartlett, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that "neither bodily presence alone nor intention alone will suffice to create the residence, but when the two coincide at that moment, the resident is fixed and determined," and that "there is no specific length of time for the bodily presence to continue."

Heath and the other cases have hinged on the definition of "residence" in the Texas Election Code.

"The criminal court is deciding something opposite of what the civil Supreme Court decided in 1964," Wright said. "In other words, if you choose this as your residence today, then that's your residence for voting purposes. It doesn't matter how long you're going to stay there."

While Heath's voter registration listed the hotel  located at 9333 Six Pines Drive in The Woodlands  as his residence, he admitted to never staying in the hotel prior to the night before the May 2010 election, court records show. But Montgomery County Appraisal District records showed Heath's residence listed as a home in the 40 block of West Stony Bridge Court, which is outside of the RUD's jurisdiction, court records show.

The same address is listed on Heath's felony bond records at the time of his arrest in March 2012 and recent MCAD records.

Wright said he plans on filing the motion for rehearing Monday. If the CCA does not accept it, he said he would take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

James Jenkins, who was also convicted and sentenced to three years in prison in the vote, had his conviction overturned by the same court that upheld Heath's conviction and sentence. The Texas Attorney General's Office filed a similar petition in Jenkins' case for discretionary review to the higher court, which heard oral arguments on that case in February. It has yet to rule on it.

According to the appeals court, visiting Judge John Stevens, of Jefferson County, failed by refusing to instruct the jury on the "defense of mistake of law," meaning the judge refused to relay to the jury that Jenkins had consulted with the state of Texas before carrying out his plan and reasonably understood his actions were legal.

Two others, Sybil Doyle and her daughter Roberta Cook, were convicted and sentenced to five years' probation. They appealed their convictions, which were upheld by the 9th Court of Appeals in Beaumont. The CCA refused to take a look into their case over summer 2016.
Well, here we are post-election and the results have left many people stunned beyond belief. So much so that they have taken to the streets to express their extreme disappointment. Our president-elect is one who provokes all kinds of emotions from one end of the spectrum to the other, probably more so than any other president-elect in history (Im guessing). The emotions are to be expected, the actions taken by those who are disappointed because their candidate did not win are not. The actions taken by those whose candidate did win are unexpected as well. Its disappointing to see the actions on both sides. Pouting and gloating are some things you expect to see on a playground when one kid gets his way and the other one does not. You definitely do not expect to see adults imitating that behavior.

So what now? Protesting is not going to change the outcome of an election, so how long will this be allowed to go on? Dont get me wrong. I completely understand the need to express disappointment; however, theres a fine line between expression and having a tantrum. I probably shouldnt say that, but what the heck. I figure with what everyone else is saying right now, anything I say is probably pretty mild. Anyway, since people took to the streets, I took to social media to ask for opinions about the results of the election and this is what I got.

-- Same as Nov 7, I'll get up, do my job and provide for my family!

-- It is time to move forward from here, no matter what the outcome was, we can't change it. Everything is in Gods hands now.

-- This was the nastiest election in our modern history, and it had an outcome that stunned the world. As a political science major, it required me to throw out everything I learned in college. Going forward, I think it's important to realize we have to start having real conversations with one another. The divisiveness of the election has led people to get ugly with each other. It's sad. As a people, we have to move past the campaign rhetoric, on both sides, and find out exactly why we voted and championed for any one candidate over the other. Beyond talking points and actually the deep down reasoning behind it. We have to sit and talk and most importantly listen to each other. As someone who has worked in polling and for various campaigns at the local, state and federal level, we have to get out of our echo chambers. We have to reach out to people who believe, look and are different than us. We have to create a diversity of ideas in our own lives, to understand why people believe and act why they do. I have to be able to understand rural Americans as much as Muslim Americans, LGBT Americans, etc. Tolerance is needed on the left as much as the right. Trump supporters are not racist. Hillary supporters are not communists. What is it like to be the third generation factory worker who lost their job after 20 years? And what is it like to be a Muslim in America? etc. Going forward we need unity, but it won't start with the president. It starts with us in our community!

--I was pleasantly shocked that it wasn't Clinton. The media and polls completely misread it. Not just a little, but 100 percent. It was a modern-day Dewey with the predictions. Which was stunning. It means there were a ton of people left out of the umpteen polls. How badly they missed demonstrates how underrepresented a huge segment of our society felt.

--I personally didn't like either candidate. The Dems have really surprised me by being so fearful. They need to remember that the other side felt this way for the past eight years. I think there needs to be a lot more communication between the two differing parties. The Republicans I know are humble and nothing like the braggarts on the news. I was really surprised that Trump won. But am hoping for the best and that the American people will come together. Scripture says we can get more done together than alone. And then there is the almost cliche . . . United we stand, divided we fall.

Interesting comments. Maybe the feelings you have are along these lines, maybe not. Whatever we think one thing is for sure, we have to stop seeing each other as the enemy.

Philippians 2:2  Complete my joy and be of the same mind, by having the same love, being united in spirit, and having one purpose.

Take care and God bless.

JoAnn is a Licensed Professional Counselor and the owner/operator of Thrive

thrive_counseling@yahoo.com
The Egyptian foreign ministry expressed 'deep concern' about the bill

Egypt condemned on Tuesday an Israeli bill that would allow legitimisation of unauthorised Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

On Sunday, Israeli ministers approved draft legislation that would grant legal status to the Israeli outposts on occupied Palestinian land, allowing settlers in the occupied West Bank to remain in homes built on private Palestinian land.

The draft bill is expected to be debated by parliament on Wednesday.

In an official statement by the Egyptian foreign ministry, spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid expressed Egypts deep concern that the bill would be a preface to giving legitimacy to settlements.

Abu Zeid stressed that the continued Israeli settlement activities "diminishes the chances of a successful two-state solution and undermines the peace efforts process.

Nabil Abu Rudeina, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said Palestine intends to seek the UNs help to put a halt to Israels plans.

Egypt, which aims to revive the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, is among several countries who have condemned the Israeli move.

On Monday, the United States described the Israeli move as an "unprecedented and troubling" step.

France, one of the main sponsors of the peace process, said on Tuesday the action was of a matter of deep concern and jeopardised a two-state solution.

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NORWALK  A Norwalk man was charged with murder Tuesday morning in the June 17 death of 52-year-old Marian Alexander in her Arch Street condominium.

Norwalk Police Lt. Thomas Mattera said that a warrant for 43-year-old James Cunningham was executed by Norwalk detectives at Bridgeport Correctional Center, where Cunningham is incarcerated.

Cunninghams bond was originally set at $750,000, but at his arraignment at Norwalk Superior Court Tuesday, Judge Alex Hernandez cited the mans extensive history of violent crime and raised his bond amount to $1 million cash.

The bail commissioner noted that Cunningham has convictions for assault, robbery, drug sales, and escape charges.

Cunninghams case was transferred to Stamford Superior Court, where the most serious cases are adjudicated.

A shackled Cunningham glared at Hernandez during the arraignment proceeding, and refused to sign the transfer order.

Mattera, commander of the Detective Bureau, credited painstaking canvassing by Detective David Hudyma and Sgt. Sal Calise, forensic evidence at the scene, and information from the community in Cunninghams arrest.

Police discovered Alexanders body after being dispatched to her residence in the Arch Hill Commons Condominiums on a medical assistance call.

Arriving officers quickly determined her death to be suspicious. Her vehicle was also found to be missing. Norwalk detectives and the Crime Scene Unit responded to the scene and assumed the investigation.

An autopsy by the Office of Chief Medical Examiner revealed the cause and manner of Alexanders death to be homicide by neck compression.

Cunningham was additionally charged with second-degree larceny in the case.

Cunningham has been incarcerated since Aug. 31 when he was charged with threatening and strangulation in connection with a June 16 incident at another Norwalk condominium.

Cunningham, of Maple Street, was charged with second-degree threatening, disorderly conduct, second-degree strangulation, and sixth-degree larceny for his actions on that day, police said.

Police were dispatched to Sheffield Ridge Condominium complex on the report of a domestic dispute. Officers were told by the person who filed the complaint that they had been grabbed by Cunningham, and he held a knife to their throat while saying, You need to die. Cunningham then went into the persons wallet and removed cash before leaving.

Cunningham was sentenced in that case on Oct. 19 to three years in jail, execution suspended after six months, followed by three years of probation.

The last homicide in Norwalk occurred Dec. 8, 2014, when cab driver Jackson-Pierre Louis of Bridgeport was stabbed to death. Ramiro Arcos-Garcia pleaded guilty to that murder and was sentenced to 30 years in jail.

llake@hearstmediact.com
NORWALK  A Norwalk man is accused of assaulting a paramedic while being transported to Norwalk Hospital for allegedly exhibiting bizarre behavior Monday afternoon, police said.

Police were dispatched to the area of Connecticut and Keeler avenues at around 3:30 p.m. on a report of a man who appeared to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol and walking into traffic.

When arriving officers questioned the man, identified as Michael Cobb, he didnt respond to them but instead lay down on the ground. He was restrained for his safety and was placed into an ambulance to be transported to the hospital, police said.

During the ambulance ride, police said Cobb became combative, broke free from his restraints and punched a paramedic in the face.

After evaluation at Norwalk Hospital, Cobb, 35, of West Cedar Street, was returned to police headquarters and was charged with assault on a peace officer, fireman, or EMS; refusal to be fingerprinted, and second-degree assault. His bond was set at $100,000.

Later Monday night, police say Cobb broke free from officers who were escorting him to a rest room. Officers gained control of Cobb and he was returned to the hospital.

On Tuesday morning, back at police headquarters, officers attempted to transport Cobb to Norwalk Superior Court for his arraignment. Police say that while in the prisoner van, Cobb again became combative and wrapped his arms around an officers legs.

An officer deployed his stun gun and Cobb was once again brought to Norwalk Hospital before his court arraignment. Once at court, the bail commissioner noted that he was unable to interview Cobb.

llake@hearstmediact.com
Last week the country got turned around, shocked and things got a little out of whack.

Yes, we're talking about the election. Yes, we're talking about President-elect Donald Trump. Yes, we're talking about Hillary Clinton's unexpected loss.

What was most interesting - at least to me - is how Clinton won virtually every major city in America but Trump won virtually every rural area. It is like Clinton campaigned in major cities and let the rest of the country fend for itself.

Even in Texas, Clinton won the counties with major cities - including Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin and El Paso - but lost more everywhere else, except for far south Texas. It is a lesson that all candidates should take to heart: If you want to win a national or statewide election, be sure to not ignore those little bitty towns as well.

In Harris County, Clinton bested Trump 706,471 votes to 544,960. In Fort Bend County, Clinton edged out Trump 134,475 votes to 117,212.

The story is the same in major population centers around the state.

But as a whole, Trump beat out Clinton in Texas with 4,681,590 votes to Clinton's 3,867,816.

Like it or not, Trump will be the next president of the United States. Protests are being staged across America - including in Houston. All that is really going to happen with these protests are people getting arrested for no reason. It's okay to protest, just don't break the law doing it. In Houston, people were arrested to walking into streets.

As long as protests do not turn violent or incite violence, they can be a good thing. They can spur dialogue and affect change for the good.

You don't have to like the Trump won. You don't have to like that he didn't win the popular vote. But that is not how we elect presidents in America.

The Electoral College will meet Dec. 19 to cast their votes for president. The number of votes corresponds to the number of U.S. senators and representatives in any given state. In most states it is a winner-take-all affair.

There is no provision in the U.S. Constitution nor any federal law requiring electors to vote according to the results of the popular vote in their states. Some states do have that requirement, however. There are 26 states - including the District of Columbia - which require electors to cast votes for the popular vote winner.

Texas is not one of these states.

Theoretically, Trump could still lose the race to the White House if enough members of the Electoral College change their votes for Clinton. The likelihood of this is pretty remote but it could happen.

One other possibility - with Trump winning a potential 290 electoral votes in the General Election - is just 21 of those voters switch votes or don't cast one at all. That would mean Trump doesn't have the required 270 votes to win the presidency and the vote would head to the U.S. House of Representatives, as determined by the 12th Amendment. Of course, with Republicans in control of the House, the odds of Clinton winning that vote is pretty slim.

Whatever the case, Trump won more states and that translates to more Electoral College votes.

So now what? If you supported Trump you're fine. If you supported Clinton, it should be a call to action so that in four years your party selects the best candidate who could defeat Trump next go round, assuming he runs for re-election.

Good luck to you, me and every one as we move forward in this latest transition of power.
Victims of murder, rape and torture under successive dictatorships before Tunisia's 2011 uprising will be heard this week as the country tries to come to terms with decades of abuse.

The Truth and Dignity Commission (IVD) has tracked human rights violations committed between July 1955 -- a year before Tunisia gained its independence from France -- and December 2013 when the fact-finding body was established.

By June this year the commission, tasked with identifying those responsible for the abuse and make them accountable as well as rehabilitate and compensate victims, had received more than 62,000 complaints, nearly a quarter filed by women.

On Thursday and Friday, dozens of those wronged will speak of the horrors they experienced in television and radio broadcasts that will be aired live from 1930 GMT.

"It will be a historic moment which our children and our grandchildren will read about in history books," said commission head Sihem Bensedrine.

These talks will be an opportunity for "public opinion to know what happened... and to understand why these violations should never happen again," she said.

Men and women from different political backgrounds and regions will be given a chance to testify about the abuse they suffered, Bensedrine said.

The broadcasts lasting 30 to 45 minutes each will help to "protect our country, unify it, help us reconcile and reconcile the state with society," she added.

The black years of human rights violations in Tunisia cover the rule of Habib Bourguiba, premier between 1957 and 1987, and his successor Zine El Abidine Ben Ali who was ousted in the 2011 Arab Spring revolt.

The slew of complaints which the commission received include torture, arbitrary detentions, physical abuse and violations of freedom of speech.

Women complained of sexual abuse, until now a taboo topic in the North African country.

Ibtihel Abdellatif, who heads the women's section at the commission, said the IVD team of investigators travelled nationwide, visiting remote villages to urge women to speak out.

When the IVD launched its work in December 2013, just five percent of those who filed complaints were women. But by the time it wrapped up its investigation that figure had jumped to 23 percent.

The panel, which comprises human rights activists and representatives of victims, heard 11,000 women victims tell the stories behind closed doors.

In principle, it had full access to state archives and its remit covers violations of human rights -- notably voluntary homicide, rape, extrajudicial executions and torture -- by "state bodies, groups or individuals acting in its name or under its protection".

But the work of the panel, one of the first bodies set up under a Transitional Justice Law passed in 2013, has been long, painful and rife with challenges.

"Detractors of transitional justice, those who did not want to break with the past in 2011, are still at work" to this day, Antonio Manganella of the watchdog Lawyers Without Borders (ASF) has said.

"There is still a lot of reluctance from some state institutions to cooperate with the IVD," Manganella, who heads the ASF office in Tunisia, has said.

"Transitional justice is an opportunity... an extremely powerful tool to avoid going backwards.

"The most important, and probably most difficult, challenge to achieve is to avoid that history repeats itself," he said.

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An air strike hit a hospital in the rebel-held Syrian village of Awaijel, west of Aleppo killing at least one person in the early hours of Tuesday, a day after attacks on two other hospitals in the region, a war monitor said.

Jets hit Awaijel's Baghdad hospital with rockets, injuring medical staff and patients, including some who had just moved there from a hospital hit in nearby Kafrnaha on Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The attack put the hospital in Awaijel out of service, it added.

The Observatory is a Britain-based monitor of Syria's five-and-a-half-year civil war that publishes reports based on its network of contacts across Syria.

An air campaign by Syria's military backed by Russia's air force has intensified in the villages and small towns of Aleppo and Idlib provinces in recent days, the Observatory reported, after a foiled rebel offensive in the west of the city.

Syria's civil war pits President Bashar al-Assad backed by Russia, Iran and Shia militias against mostly Sunni rebels seeking to oust him, including groups backed by Turkey, the United States and Gulf Arab monarchies.

Western countries and human rights activists have accused the air forces of Damascus and Moscow of repeatedly targeting hospitals, bread lines and other civilian infrastructure in territory controlled by the rebels.

They both deny doing so and say their air campaign is directed against military targets belonging to the rebels, whom they describe as terrorists.

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Hundreds of Iraqi civilians lined up on Tuesday for food in eastern neighborhoods of Mosul recently retaken from the Islamic State group, as rations ran low, an Iraqi officer said.

Maj. Salam al-Obeidi says some 700 residents gathered in three areas of the Zahra and Qadisiya neighborhoods, the latter of which was the scene of a fierce IS counterattack a day earlier.

"This is a problem for us because the food we have is not enough for them and we're waiting for more food to be sent from the government," al-Obeidi said. "Now the Iraqi soldier is giving his food to the civilians."

Iraq launched a major offensive last month to drive IS group out of the northern city, the country's second largest, which is still home to more than 1 million civilians.

Special forces have captured a foothold in the city's east, and have been advancing slowly over the past week to avoid casualties and civilian deaths as IS group fighters emerge to attack from the dense, urban landscape, often with armor-plated suicide car bombs.

The militants struck back against special forces in Qadisiya a day earlier, Maj. Gen. Sami al-Aridi said. Two dozen men wearing suicide vests charged the front lines, setting off a three-hour battle that killed 20 militants and severely wounded a special forces soldier.

The Iraqi armed forces do not release official casualty figures, but field medics have noted dozens of killed and wounded since the operation to liberate the city began on Oct. 17.

Since last week's quick advance into Mosul proper, Iraqi forces have struggled to hold territory under heavy IS group counterattacks.

At a news conference outside Mosul, Col. John Dorrian, a spokesman for the U.S.-led forces supporting the operation, said airstrikes had so far destroyed 59 suicide car bombs and over 80 tunnels.

"We will continue to strike the enemy for as long as it takes for the Iraqi flag to be raised over Mosul and every other corner of this country," he said, adding that the coalition had conducted over 4,000 strikes with air power and artillery since the campaign began.

The United Nations meanwhile said smoke from oil wells and a chemical plant torched by IS group near Mosul has forced over 1,500 people to seek medical treatment for respiratory problems.

The group's humanitarian affairs coordination office said the fires have emitted toxic smoke for 25 to 60 days, affecting 14 towns.

It says the mid- and long-term effects on people's health, the environment, agriculture and livelihoods could be dire.

IS militants shelled and set fire to the al-Mishraq Sulfur Gas Factory south of Mosul in late October, causing the deaths of at least four people from toxic fumes, the U.N. has said, likening the attack to the use of chemical weapons.

Nearby oil wells set ablaze by IS militants have been burning uncontrollably since June.

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UTPBs first president dies

Billy Amstead, first president of the University of Texas of the Permian Basin, died Thursday following a brief illness. He was 95.

Amstead, formerly the acting dean of the College of Engineering at UT Austin, was named president of UTPB on April 1, 1970 and served through Dec. 20,1974. He became assistant to the chancellor of the University of Texas in 1980.

After retiring he had a consulting firm and did expert witness work, according to a press release from UTPB. Amstead was a licensed instrument pilot and amateur radio operator, and was an avid fisherman and hunter, artist and musician.

Dr. Amstead led UTPB in its formative years, recruiting outstanding faculty, guiding programdevelopment and leading UTPB forward, said David Watts, president of UTPB. UTPB has lostan important facet of its legacy with his passing.

Donations in Amsteads honor may be sent to The Summit Christian Fellowship, 1034 Liberty Park Drive, Austin, Texas 78746.

Whataburger to host LHS fundraiser

The Whataburegr restaurant at 3206 N. Midkiff Road is hosting a fundraiser for the Lee High School band 5 to 8 p.m. today.

Twenty percent of proceeds will be donated to the band. There will be a photo booth and disc jockey, the first 50 students will receive a prize and one customer will win free Whataburger for a year.

11-year-old earns $6,500 for keynote speech

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y.  A New York school district paid an 11-year-old child advocate $6,500 plus expenses for serving as keynote speaker for staff and hosting a student workshop last week.

The Poughkeepsie Journal reports (http://pojonews.co/2fy4E5l ) the Poughkeepsie City School District hired Marley Dias to speak during the superintendent's conference day last Tuesday.

The board voted 3-1 to retroactively approve Marleys consultant agreement at its Nov. 9 meeting.

Marley created the popular #1000BlackGirlBooks campaign to draw attention to the lack of racial diversity in children's literature.

She gave an hour-long speech to staff before leading an hour and a half-long workshop for 50 students.

Superintendent Nicole Williams said at Wednesdays meeting that Marleys resume is tremendous and the district shouldnt discriminate because shes 11 years old.

Marley was paid through funding from a federal education program.
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The Denton Police Department apprehended a man Monday after months of searching for the culprit who defaced a patrol car by spray-painting it with profanity that appears to say "F--- the police.

Joseph Porter Fishburn was arrested Monday for allegedly vandalizing the patrol car, according to a post on the departments Facebook page.

RELATED: Denton police looking for suspect who spray-painted profanities on a squad car

Denton police first discovered the vandalized patrol car Sept. 3, after the vehicle was found sitting at Loop 288 and Stuart Road in Denton with flat tires and a broken spotlight, according to news archives.

Denton County Jail records show Fishburn was arrested three times for evading arrest in 2012 and twice in 2014.

The Denton Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for more details on the new arrest and charge.

Staff writer Tyler White contributed to this report.

kbradshaw@express-news.net

Twitter: @kbrad5
U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Tuesday that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump was right to seek to work with Russia to beat Islamic State group in Syria, but urged him to help push for political reforms to stop the militant group gaining recruits.

Speaking on the BBC's Hardtalk programme, de Mistura said it was crucial to fight IS group, also known as Daesh, but that a long-term victory required "a completely new approach" to a political solution.

"In other words, some type of political devolution in Syria. Otherwise many other people, unhappy in Syria, may join Daesh while they are fighting Daesh," he said.

De Mistura presided over a fitful Syrian peace process in the first half of this year, but it finally stalled because cooperation collapsed between its two chief backers, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

While Russia has maintained strong support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom it regards as a bulwark against "terrorists", the United States has said Assad must leave power under any political transition.

Although the U.N. Security Council has mandated a political transition process, Assad's government has refused to consider any formula that might involve a dilution of his power.

Many of Trump's opponents fear that his stated intention to work more closely with Russian President Vladimir Putin means the United States would withdraw support for Syrian opposition groups and agree to Assad staying in power.

De Mistura said he had not yet been contacted by anyone in Trump's team, but that was to be expected because of the focus on U.S. internal politics. But he looked forward to hearing from, and briefing, Trump's foreign policy pick.

Mistura said he expected the United States, regardless of policy, to remain a fundamental player in trying to resolve the crisis in Syria.

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Six people arrested Sunday during an anti-Donald Trump rally in Austin were identified by the Texas Department of Public Safety Monday.

State troopers arrested the following people outside the State Capitol:

Jarred Roark, 34, felony aggravated assault, resisting arrest, and evading arrest

Taylor Tomas Chase, 21, interference with public duty and resisting arrest

Joseph Wayne George, 36, interference with public duty

Samuel Benjamin Lauber, 21, interference with public duty and resisting arrest

Jason Peterson, 24, interference with public duty and resisting arrest

Jade Tabitha Shackelford, 19, felony assault on public servant

RELATED: 9 S.A. neighborhoods with biggest share of Trump supporters

Roark is accused of assaulting a person at the protest, according to a DPS news release. One of the state troopers involved in the incident sustained minor injuries, according to the news release.

RELATED: Ohio man tweets death threat to Donald Trump, is arrested

At least 150 people participated in Sundays protest.

Protests against Trump have sprung up across the state in San Antonio, Dallas, Houston and Austin.

RELATED: Hundreds of Baylor students walk woman to class after alleged racist attack

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

kbradshaw@express-news.net

Twitter: @kbrad5
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The ninth annual Texas Body Paint Competition made its way to San Antonio this weekend, featuring celebrity judges and dozens of artists.

For five hours on Saturday, 25 artist and canvas duos paired up to compete for more than $1,000 in cash prizes and awards, according to the event website. The event was held at Club Rio, 13307 San Pedro Ave., from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

RELATED: Body painting on display at the Summer Art Showcase

The artists painted the bodies (or canvas) of their partner in the theme of "Landscapes of the Mind," according to the page. They were critiqued by five judges, including a winner of Skin Wars, a body-painting competition, and a World Body Paint Champion.

Angela Rene Roberts, a participant on Skin Wars first season, Mark Reid, a World Body Paint Champion and Master Body Painter, Rick "ENKS" Uribe, Skin Wars Season Three winner, Brittney Pelloquin, who placed third on season three of Skin Wars, and Cully Firmin, photographer, judged the contestants, according to a news release.

RELATED: From nude to art: Body painting scene in San Antonio is big business

kbradshaw@express-news.net

Twitter: @kbrad5
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The public will have the opportunity to meet the next Northeast Lakeview College president at three open forums with each candidate.

The dates are set for the three hopefuls: Nov. 29 for Lydia Tena; Dec. 1 for Veronica Garcia; and Dec. 2 for Lily Tercero. Each forum will be held from 2:45-3:45 p.m. in the NLC Performing Arts Center, 1201 Kitty Hawk Road. The forums are open to employees, students and the public.

The eventual president will be the third in the schools history, behind founding president Eric Reno, who served Alamo Colleges and NLC from March 2004 to January 2014; and Craig Follins, who was removed from the presidents position in October 2015 after serving for 20 months. Heres a look at the finalists:

Lydia Tena

Tena has served as the Northwest Campus Dean at El Paso Community College since 2000. During her tenure, she has led the campus growth from 1,200 students to the current enrollment of 3,500 students.

Tenas education includes a bachelors in business administration and a masters in business administration from the University of Texas at El Paso. She also has a doctoral degree in educational leadership and administration from New Mexico State University.

Veronica Garcia

Garcia has 20 years of experience in three multi-campus community college districts. Since May 2014, shes served as the vice president of student affairs at Paradise Valley Community College in Phoenix, Arizona. She oversees all student affairs.

Previously, she served for nine years as the district dean of student affairs and enrollment management at Portland Community College.

Garcia holds a Ph.D. in higher education from Oregon State University,.

Lily Tercero

Tercero is the former president of Texas Southmost College, where she oversaw the official separation of the college from UT-Brownsville authority to independent and accredited community college status.

Tercero holds a doctorate from the Community College Leadership Program of UT-Austin, a masters in business administration from UT-Permian Basin and a bachelors in business administration from UT-Permian Basin.

jflinn@express-news.net
Mayor Michael Carpenter was re-elected to a third term as Schertz mayor, overcoming a challenge from Councilman Grumpy Azzoz, as Schertz residents chose five new city council members to join him.

Carpenter prevailed on Election Day, taking more than 72 percent of the vote. The final tally was 9,886 for Carpenter and 3,779 for Azzoz. He led early voting by a 74-26 percent margin.

Carpenter said a track record of meeting the needs of residents helped him prevail.

Its about representing the people, and nothing else. Its about maintaining the character and culture and charm of Schertz, Carpenter said. And managing growth, without letting it become just some big, oversized suburb of San Antonio, is key.

Schertz added two new seats to the council this year. Angelina Kiser, in Place 6, bested Michael Dahle, 6,474 to 5,000, while Bert Crawford pulled away from opponent Eric Beam early in the race for Place 7, winning with 7,576 votes to Beams 3,674. Each will serve a two-year term on council.

In Place 1, Mark Davis jumped out to a commanding lead in early voting and defeated Carl Douglas, taking 71 percent of the vote in a 7,951 to 3,228 tally.

In Place 2, Ralph Gutierrez outlasted Glen Outlaw, the retired assistant Schertz Fire Chief, in a close race. Gutierrez took a 400-vote lead in early voting and held off Outlaw on Election Day. The winning margin was 5,917 to 5,371, a 4.8 percent margin of victory.

Scott Larson was elected to the Place 3 seat, defeating former City Councilman David Scagliola. Larson pulled 5,863 votes to Scagliolas 5,591 (51.2 percent to 48.8 percent).

Larson, 33, works with the Hartford Insurance Group. A delegate to the Republican National Convention in August, Larson said he enjoyed being a part of the national political movement, but said he knows that local politics is where things get done.

Our day-to-day lives are mostly impacted by local government, Larson said. Thats where you can really work with constituents to make a difference. If you want to make a difference, get involved locally.

In attending campaign events and going door-to-door to meet Schertz residents and voters, Larson said he told residents what I stood for, what I believed in, and why I was running. When asked what they sought from him if elected, it was to take care of the citys infrastructure.

They love the citys quality of life, with the natatorium, the library, the playscape and our vast parks, he said. Then they said, make sure infrastructure keeps up with growth. Over and over again, (the main concern) was infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure. And they want us to be good stewards on their behalf.

All five council seat winners are new to council. Carpenter said the city anticipated the possibility that all five seats could be won by first-timers and put together a package to bring the newcomers up to speed and into the realm of city governance.

Jflinn@express-news.net
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While more than two dozen uniformed former military officers gathered for a photo opp by a fountain in San Antonios Army Residence Community, the ARCs chief operating officer, David Fulbright, best summed up their relevance at the Veterans Day ceremony.

They not only know history, they lived history, and they are history, Fulbright said, following the ARCs annual Veterans Day ceremony on Nov. 11.

More than 100 ARC residents, guests and family members gathered on a brilliant fall afternoon beneath a tranquil blue sky as ARC resident and retired Lt. Gen. Lawson Magruder reflected on A Willingness to Sacrifice, which endears veterans and their families to one another.

The number of veterans and patriots who have sacrificed and bled so much to accomplish the most dangerous, complex tasks in defense of our Constitution and way of life, is eye watering, Magruder told the assembled crowd.

Magruder, a native Texan and University of Texas graduate, spent 32 years in the U.S. Army and served worldwide in numerous tactical commands. He was in combat in Vietnam and Somalia and concluded his career as the Deputy Commanding General and Chief of Staff of U.S. Army Forces Command, the Armys largest command and the land component for Homeland Defense.

Among Magruders military awards are two awards of the Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal, four awards of the Legion of Merit, and two awards of the Bronze Star Medal. He and his wife of 47 years have been ARC residents for nearly two years.

The ARC is a continuing care retirement community for former military officers and their spouses. Among its residents are five World War II veterans who dressed in their military branchs uniforms for the event.

Retired Col. Mary Garr, ARC chief executive officer, introduced the days program and speakers.

You are a composite of living history. We have veterans who served in World War II or their spouses, still among us, and every subsequent war and conflict up through todays wars, Garr said. Taking this brief moment to recognize our veterans is really just a small opportunity to say thank you. But in reality, every single day is Veterans Day.

Following the ceremony, Garr talked about ARC, its residents and their service to their country.

The ARC has almost 750 retired military officer and spouses, widows and widowers from all branches of service, she said. We still have residents from World War II and Korea here, and the Vietnam era is our biggest population base right now. Our minimum age is 60, and our oldest residents are 100 and 101.

Magruder joked about how much his uniform had shrunk since he last wore it nearly 14 years ago to attend his fathers funeral at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery. He spoke of his own familys military lineage  from a great-grandfather who fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War to his father, who landed at Utah Beach in Normandy on D-Day, commanded a battalion in Korean War, and later served on Gen. William Westmorelands staff in Vietnam.

Magruder honored veterans for possessing a strong belief in serving a cause greater than self, for serving their nation in times of grave need, for the mental and physical toughness they share, for the personal courage exhibited during combat, and for what he called strength of character.

Those of us who have been in combat know that training only takes you so far when facing a determined enemy, he said. Fear is a soldiers constant companion on the battlefield, and success depends as much on character of the soldier as it does on his skill with a weapon.

Fulbright paid a final homage to the ARCs resident veterans. My respect for them is off the charts. Today they get recognition, and they certainly deserve it.

jflinn@express-news.net
Dia de los Muertos: Honoring Our Traditions. Remembering Our Loved Ones is an exhibit of altars created by local artists honoring notable Latinos who have died, many with connections to San Antonio. The exhibit, free and open to the public, is on display at the Centro de Artes Gallery, 101 S. Santa Rosa St., through Nov. 27.

The exhibit includes tributes to Manny Castillo, Elvira Cisneros, Rosita Fernandez, Juan Gabriel, Emilio Navaira, Selena Quintanilla Perez and Emma Tenayuca. Participating artists include David Casillas, George Cisneros, Rigoberto Luna, Ernesto Olivo and Cruz Ortiz.

The Centro de Artes gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Admission is free. For more information, go to GetCreativeSanAntonio.com.

Military

Operation Homefront seeks entries for childrens awards

National nonprofit Operation Homefront is accepting nominations for the 2017 Military Child of the Year awards through Dec. 5.

Six winners from 8 to 18, representing the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and National Guard, will receive $10,000 each. They will be picked based on scholarship, volunteerism, leadership and extracurricular involvement.

A seventh award, open to those 13 to 18, is the Military Child of the Year Award for Innovation. The winner shows the power of innovative thinking, including a new invention, improvement to existing technology or the creation of a nonprofit. The award recipient will receive $5,000 and a mentorship by technology management company Booz Allen Hamilton to advance the winners project.

Winners will be flown to Washington, D.C., with a parent or guardian, to get the awards.

Anyone, including family members, who knows of a deserving military childs talents may nominate online. Go to militarychildoftheyear.org and click the nominate tab.

San Antonio

Big Red offering design contest for Fiesta

Big Red has announced its 2017 Fiesta medal design contest.

Entries will be accepted through Dec. 7. Designs should be submitted at bigred.com/fiesta, where fans can view, vote on and share their favorite designs on social media. The top three designs chosen by the publics online votes will advance to a final round to be judged by Big Red.

The winning medal will be produced as the official 2017 Big Red Fiesta medal. All design submissions will be available online for the public to see and cast their votes. For more information about the contest, go to bigred.com/fiesta.

SAMMinistries starts holiday challenge for kids

As a part of its annual holiday wish program for homeless children, SAMMinistries is launching the first Kid2Kid Christmas Challenge. The challenge encourages kids across Bexar County to either sacrifice one gift of their own and donate one instead or make a monetary donation to help SAMMinistries purchase gifts for homeless children.

SAMMinistries is asking donors of all ages to participate in the challenge by visiting SAMM.org/give/kid2kid. From there, they can either make a monetary donation or commit to shopping for a homeless child.

All toy donations are due by Dec. 3 to SAMMinistries Donation Station, 5246 Blanco Road.

South Side

Church to mark 150 years with Mass, reception

St. Michaels Catholic Church will celebrate its 150th anniversary with a special Mass at 10 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 20, at the church, 418 Indiana St. A reception will follow in the church hall.

The church is San Antonios third-oldest parish, founded in 1866 by the citys Polish community in the spot where Hemisfair Park is now. The church was torn down to make room for the park, and a new church was built at South Cherry and Indiana streets. Over the years, the parish became a multicultural church that blended Polish and Mexican-American traditions.

Past parishioners and descendants of the churchs original Polish community are invited to attend the celebration.

As part of the festivities, a commemorative book will be offered for sale at the church.

Library donations needed

The Mission Branch Library is seeking donations for its biannual book sales. Items sought include adult and childrens books, specialty books, DVDs, VCRs, cassette tapes and magazines. Items must be in good condition.

All proceeds help fund library programs. Call for pick-up service for large donations. Call Oscar Gonzalez at 210-207-2704 for more information.

Southeast Side

Business womens group

to host arts and crafts fair

Southeast Business Womens Club will hold a Holiday Arts & Crafts Fair from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19, at Highland Social Club, 2929 S. W.W. White Road, just north of East Southcross. Admission and parking are free.

Tables are available for $25 each. Interested crafters should contact Reba at 210-912-1367. The indoor event is open to everyone. Baked goods and chopped barbecue sandwiches will be sold.

West Side

Deanery to close Holy Doors as Jubilee Year finishes

The Western Urban Deanery of the Archdiocese of San Antonio is expecting hundreds of pilgrims for the closing of its Holy Doors on Saturday, Nov. 19, at San Juan de los Lagos Catholic Church, 3231 El Paso St.

The deanerys 12 churches will begin pilgrimages from their parishes to San Juan de los Lagos between 8:30 and 9 a.m., said San Juan parish leader Diana Aguero.

Pilgrims then will attend a 10 a.m. Mass, she said.

Among the churches that will be represented are Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Timothy, St. Jude and Our Lady of Good Counsel. Visitors are also welcome to take part in the pilgrimage and service, Aguero said.

The Mass is among several in the archdiocese that will mark the end of the Catholic Churchs Jubilee Year of Mercy, which began last November.

Throughout the year, San Antonio Catholics and non-Catholics were encouraged to perform pilgrimages to the archdioceses Holy Doors. Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller elected 16 parishes to host Holy Doors, including San Fernando Cathedral, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Little Flower, Mission San Jose and the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church in Panna Maria.

The ritual is described as a symbolic expression of conversion, and the door is viewed as an ancient symbol of Christ.

Other parishes will close theirs doors, including the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Little Flower at an 11 a.m. Mass Nov. 20.

Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller will celebrate Mass at San Fernando Cathedral at 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 20, to mark the end of the Jubilee Year of Mercy and close the cathedrals Holy Door. The Mass will be said for families affected by incarceration.

Compiled by Melissa Renteria
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A Converse man who used his AR-15 rifle to detain four men he thought were going to burglarize his neighbors home last month now finds himself on the wrong side of the law.

Coty Bob McDonnell, 31, made his initial appearance Monday on a charge of deadly conduct, a misdemeanor, but the case was reset for next month.

Converse police arrested McDonnell on the night of Oct. 22 or early Oct. 23 after he detained the men, believing they were burglars, according to an account provided by his neighbor, Doug Stearns, and his lawyer, Daniel De La Garza.

Charging him might have a chilling effect on Texans who want to protect their property, they argued. McDonnell himself declined comment, citing the pending case.

Texas law gives some leeway to persons who believe they have been asked to protect the property of a third party, allowing the use of deadly force to prevent theft or criminal mischief, but the circumstances of McDonnells case differed considerably when described by police and his neighbor.

Converse police say McDonnell went too far when he chased the four down the street and blocked their way out with his vehicle. The four were charged with possession of drug paraphernalia, but not burglary. They told officers they were on their way to a party, according to a police report.

These kids just stopped in the roadway to change drivers, said Assistant Chief Rex Rheiner. He pursued them, and when he pursued them down the road is when he left the realm of protection of property.

He pointed the weapon at them, Rheiner added. He was out there acting as a police officer, when he has no police powers.

Stearns, 51, an Air Force retiree, said he had asked McDonnell to keep an eye on his house while he was out of town and gave him a key. Their subdivision has had a rash of burglaries and recently saw a Converse school vandalized, he said. McDonnell even mowed his lawn and took care of his cat, Stearns said.

Stearns said McDonnell told him he had noticed a car coming down the street with its lights off and when it stopped near Stearns home, three men got out and approached or entered Stearns driveway. McDonnell grabbed his rifle and approached them and, They said, Oh (expletive), theres somebody here, Stearns said.

McDonnell prevented the group from leaving in the car they arrived in, but had put away his weapon by the time police arrived, according to Stearns.

He called the prosecution a waste of time and money.

I think its ridiculous, Stearns said. We should be able to protect our homes and do so in a way that doesnt cause a loss of life.

He did what he thought was best, Stearns added. I will continue to support and defend my friend.

McDonnells attorney said his client should not have been arrested.

We celebrate gun rights here in Texas and I dont know why they would do that to him, De La Garza said. It now makes me reluctant to protect my property.  We want them to dismiss the case and give him back his gun.

Rheiner said there was no evidence the men had committed burglary or were trying to. All but one were adults, the youngest was 17, he said.

Besides deadly conduct, Converse police also initially charged McDonnell with unlawful restraint, but that charge does not appear on the current charging documents filed by the Bexar County District Attorneys Office.

McDonnell has prior arrests resulting in charges of unlawful carrying of a weapon, in Burnet and Horseshoe Bay. He pleaded guilty in the Burnet case in 2008, and was convicted in Llano County on the Horseshoe Bay case, according to online court summaries.

County Court No. 9 Judge Wayne Shelton reset the case for a pretrial conference on Dec. 15.

Its just astounding to me that this was even continued, Stearns said. If someone is coming toward your house in the middle of the night, are you going to stop and ask them if theyre 18? You dont know what youre up against.

gcontreras@express-news.net
SAN ANTONIO  A 29-year-old man allegedly threatened to kill his parents for not voting his way in the presidential election last week, spurring concerns from his girlfriend, according to court documents.

Chase Michael Carter was arrested Friday on a second-degree felony charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and has since been released from custody.

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Police were notified on Wednesday of a string of concerning behavior that spanned several months, according to an affidavit.

The suspects girlfriend has been in a live-in relationship with him for several months and she grew increasingly abusive toward her, the affidavit said.

On Oct. 1, Carter allegedly became angry with her, retrieved a handgun and threatened to kill her with it, according to the arrest affidavit.

RELATED: Family mourns death of woman, 27, after alleged drunk driving crash near The Pearl

On Wednesday, following the election, Carter was highly upset because he was not happy with the results of the election and blamed other people. His girlfriend said he was angry toward his parents for not voting his way and made threats he was going to kill them, the affidavit said.

She said she later went home and found that the suspects guns were missing. She said he had been reading up on mass killings and feared what he may be capable of, adding that he had been spending a lot of time at a gun range learning how to shoot, according to the report.

RELATED: Police arrest San Antonio soccer coach in nude pics case

If convicted, Carter faces up to 20 years in prison.

twhite@mysa.com

Twitter: @tylerlwhite
Monday marked the first day Texas lawmakers could file bills ahead of the 85th Legislative Session, which kicks off Jan. 10, 2017.

Between House bills and Senate bills, 527 propositions were filed Monday.
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika returned home Tuesday from a trip to France where he underwent medical checks, his office said.

Bouteflika suffered a stroke in 2013, weakening his mobility and forcing him to work from his residence in Zeralda, west of Algiers.

The 79-year-old flew to the southeastern French city of Grenoble on November 7 and returned to Algiers on Tuesday "at the end of a private visit during which he undertook periodic medical checks," the presidency said.

The statement, carried by the APS news agency, gave no further details about the results of the medical examinations.

In April this year, Bouteflika also underwent "routine medical checks" in Switzerland, the APS news agency reported at the time, again citing a presidency statement.

There are regular rumours in Algeria about the state of the president's health, with opposition leaders quick to evoke the idea of a "power vacuum".

Bouteflika has led Algeria for the past 17 years.

In 2014, his decision to seek a fourth mandate sparked criticism from those who questioned his ability to rule.

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Hundreds protested Tuesday in Mauritania calling for a blogger convicted of "infidel" behaviour to be executed, as the supreme court considered if his death sentence should be carried out.

Cheikh Ould Mohamed Ould Mkheitir was initially sentenced to death for apostasy in 2014 over a blog post deemed insulting to the Prophet Mohammed.

Though his crime was downgraded by an appeal court, the accompanying death sentence was not lifted.

Demonstrators gathered as the supreme court sat to examine whether he should be executed or pardoned, with his lawyers emphasising his "unequivocal remorse".

Protester Ahmed Ould Hassen, who held a banner reading "friends of the prophet", told AFP: "The prophet is no longer among us to accept or refuse his apology, but we must therefore defend him by applying the law to this offender."

The activists followed the call of Muslim leaders who on Sunday declared a "fatwa" that Mkheitir be put to death, and who organised Tuesday's demonstration.

A defence lawyer told AFP the court had examined Mkheitir's case and would deliver its decision on December 20.

Mkheitir's article was deemed blasphemous, but had also attacked "an iniquitous social order" in Mauritania, with an underclass descended from slaves that was "marginalised and discriminated against from birth".

It provoked outrage and drew tens of thousands of protestors outside the presidential palace in Nouakchott.

Modern-day slavery under a hereditary system of servitude forces members of the "slave" caste to work without pay as cattle herders and domestic servants, despite an official ban.

Many Mauritanians live below the poverty line while there is huge disparity between the Arabised moorish elites and the country's black population.

Capital punishment is usually reserved for murder and acts of terrorism. According to Amnesty International, Mauritania last executed a prisoner in 1987.

Reporters without Borders (RSF) called on the government to secure Mkheitir's release and guarantee his safety following threats from preachers.

"We ask you to acknowledge his repentance and ensure his safe release from prison," the press freedom group said in an open letter to President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.

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As a Mexican-American columnist, there is one criticism that I hear quite often. Some readers say that, for me, its always about race.

Not always. Not this time.

Ive been inundated with letters and comments from Latinos who insist that the election of Donald Trump is all about race and racism.

Theyre being way too simplistic. There are dozens of things that got Trump elected  from a sluggish economy and fear about the Islamic State, to the corruption of the Clintons and a desire to blow up the system  that have nothing to do with race.

Of course, it would be dishonest to totally brush aside the suggestion that racism, fear and hatred factored heavily into the Trump vote. Given everything that occurred in the last 17 months, and the hateful behavior weve seen from pro-Trump sore winners in just the last few days, I have no doubt that race was an ingredient in the stew.

I just dont believe that race was the primary ingredient. I say this despite the fact that a lot of fellow Latinos  including friends and family, and other people whose opinions I respect  vehemently disagree with me. They also tell me that Im naive for letting white people off the hook for what some commentators are calling a whitelash.

After all, they say, look at the numbers. A newspaper headline blares: White Voters in Broad Bloc Shaped Upset. Exit polls show that four of the decisive states were in the Rust Belt  Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Each of them is overwhelmingly white and they all went for Trump. In the Southwest, Nevada and Colorado were also important. Theyre largely Latino, and Clinton won both.

Get the picture?

With African-American turnout way down, and Latinos and white voters both voting in droves, this election degenerated quickly into a battle of white vs. brown. And white won.

My cousin described the weird and scary nightmare that woke him up in the wee hours after election night as the one where Whitey gets his revenge.

My wife assures me that there are a lot of white people out there who have been raised to believe that anyone who doesnt look like them or speak their language doesnt belong in this country and that they used this election to reclaim power.

A good friend who has spent his life working in politics and public policy insists that white Americans reclaimed ownership of a nation that we thought we were part of.

My old college roommate says that America broke [his] heart and that, while he has always believed that we must elect decent leaders who reject hate, it didnt happen this time.

I have Latino Facebook friends who will tell you with a straight face that Trump is little Hitler and that the nations 54 million Latinos are headed to concentration camps.

Which, I have to say, will be darn inconvenient for the 48 percent of Cuban-Americans who shamed themselves by voting for Trump.

Even so, Im not immune to paranoia. The day after the election, I found myself scrutinizing all the white people in the restaurant where I had breakfast, wondering which of them voted for Trump. They must have Latino friends and neighbors, maybe even in-laws. Do they care that many of us consider a vote for Trump as the equivalent of a punch in the gut? Guess not.

What happened to the idea  advanced by both liberals and conservatives when it is convenient  that were one country, united? E pluribus unum and all that? Trump may be good for late-night comedy, but hes harmful to national comity.

Be that as it may, it doesnt do much for the its all about race argument that overall, according to exit polls, as many as 29 percent of Latinos voted for Trump. Thats 2 points higher than the 27 percent of Latinos who, four years ago, voted for Mitt Romney. I predicted 20 percent, and I was way off.

Those Latinos who voted for Trump werent necessarily evil. Just very wrong. Ditto for the millions of white Americans who made the same mistake.

ruben@rubennavarrette.com
You know how desperate President Barack Obama is  as he contemplates all his accomplishments going down the drain at the hands of a man he has total contempt for  when he is willing to do something so against his nature.

He tried to persuade Donald Trump.

We saw that unicorn glimpsed only fleetingly in the last eight years: the cajoling Barack Obama.

The president flattered the president-elect by letting Trump rack up the ego arithmetic.

This was a meeting that was going to last for maybe 10 or 15 minutes and we were just going to get to know each other, Trump told reporters afterward, as they sat in front of the Oval Office fireplace. But, he marveled, The meeting lasted for almost an hour and a half.

And lo and behold, it worked  sort of. In his first postelection newspaper interview, Trump told the Wall Street Journal that he would consider leaving in place the parts of Obamacare that allow children to stay on their parents health plan until they are 26 and that prevent people from being refused insurance because of existing conditions.

I told him I will look at his suggestions, and out of respect, I will do that, Trump said.

Of course, those are two very popular elements of the law that Republicans wouldnt dream of killing anyway. Still, Obamas charm and civility clearly made a strong impression, though its impossible to say when a nasty tweet will come in the middle of the night.

I want a country that loves each other, Trump told the paper. I want to stress that.

Out of a hailstorm of unfathomable things during the week, one sticks out to me: How can it be that in the end, Barack Obama did not understand the Obama revolution?

He came away from that elated whoosh in 2008 not comprehending that many voters viewed him as the escape hatch from Clinton Inc. It never would have occurred to anyone then  even the Clintons  that Obama would be the one to brush away any aversions and objections, take us by the elbow, and firmly steer us back to Clinton Inc.

Voters waited in line for hours at those early Obama rallies because they wanted thunderous change. They wanted a newcomer who didnt look like the old dudes on our money, someone who would bust up the incestuous system and give us, as the poster said, hope.

But Obama lost touch with his revolutionary side and settled comfortably into being an Ivy League East Coast cerebral elitist.

He was cozy with Silicon Valley and dismissive of working-class voters anxious about globalization, shrugging that Were part of an interconnected global economy now, and theres no going back from that. He was dismissive of Americans anxious about terrorism after the Paris attacks, noting that youd be more likely to die from a bathtub fall.

He was dismissive of Bernie Sanders and his voters, treating Sanders as a fairy tale, just as Bill Clinton treated him in 2008 when he was a senator with little record but with an army of passionate supporters who wanted to upend moldy politics.

Nudging Sanders and Joe Biden toward the exit, Obama was the ultimate establishmentarian.

The man who swept into the White House in a boisterous rebellion was dismissive of the boisterous rebellions in both the Democratic and Republican parties. He insisted that an incrementalist and fellow Ivy League East Coast cerebral elitist who hangs out with celebrities would be best to save his legacy.

Even Michelle, who understands the importance of the visceral in politics better than her husband and who said in 2007 that the bid to usurp Hillary was about our souls, tamped down hope. Remember, its not about voting for the perfect candidate, she told a crowd at La Salle University. There is no such person.

Obama, trying to hoist Hillary Clinton over the finish line, offered a solipsistic message, saying it would be a personal insult if African-Americans did not vote for Hillary, and an accusatory message, suggesting that sexism was stopping men from voting for Hillary.

In September, Hillary stumbled when she dismissed half of Trump supporters as a basket of deplorables. Tellingly, the snooty remarks were made at a high-dollar fundraiser hosted by Barbra Streisand and other sparklies at Cipriani Wall Street.

Hillary should have spent less time collecting money on Wall Street and more time collecting votes in Wisconsin.

Maureen Dowd is a New York Times columnist.
Donald Trump pledged to be a president for all Americans.

Then he appointed Stephen Bannon to be the White Houses chief strategist and his senior counselor. The latter doesnt compute with the former.

Bannon, who ran the Breitbart website, is widely known to actively consort with the alt-right.

Alt-right is one of the euphemisms for white nationalism, itself a euphemism for racial and ethnic exclusivity and patriarchy.

Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chairman who will be Trumps chief of staff, dismissed such criticism. Thats not the Steve Bannon that I know, he said.

Priebus, however, doesnt come from those groups insulted by the Bannon campaign strategy this year. So he might very well know a different Bannon.

Bannon has acknowledged that Breitbart was the platform for the alt-right, though also denying that all of the alt-right is racist or anti-Semitic.

That, apparently, makes it OK to be the platform for a movement consistently and heavily blotched with racist, sexist or anti-Semitic pronouncements.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups nationally, says Bannon was the main driver behind Breitbart becoming a white-ethno-nationalist propaganda mill.

Some Breitbart headlines:

Bill Kristol: Republican spoiler, renegade Jew.

Political correctness protects Muslim rape culture.

The solution to online harassment is simple: Women should log off.

Representing all Americans is quite different from appealing to a base during a campaign. Doing so might actually cost an elected official with that base, but thats the price of truly representative governance.

President-elect Trump should rescind the appointment of Bannon as chief strategist, a post held in the past by Karl Rove and John Podesta. The post will allegedly be equal to Priebus as chief of staff.

Bannon is certainly due Trumps gratitude for helping run a successful campaign that confounded the experts. But a campaign post is quite different from a White House post.

His appointment of lightning-rod Bannon is a bad sign about Trumps seriousness on representing all Americans.
From June 2015 to June 2016, Egyptian expenditures through MasterCard outside Egypt reached $2.5 billion

The total expenditure of foreigners using MasterCard in Egypt reached $1.8 billion in June 2016, a fall from previous years caused by a decline in the nation's tourism, Al-Ahram Daily reported on Tuesday, citing Tamer El-Kashef, the company's regional head.

In 2014/2015, the total expenditure of foreigners in Egypt using MasterCards' credit and debit cards amounted to $2 billion, Tamer El-Kashef said.

Meanwhile in 2015/2016, Egyptian expenditures outside Egypt through MasterCard's credit and debit cards reached $2.5 billion. El-Kashef added that there are currently 24 million debit and credit MasterCards in Egypt.

In the first half of 2016, the number of tourists coming to Egypt dropped by 50 compared to the same period last year.

The decline in tourists has been partially attributed to Russia's suspension of passenger flights to Egypt following the October 2015 crash of a Russian airliner in Sinai that killed all 224 people on board.

Beginning in late July 2016, the majority of Egyptian banks tightened limits on Egyptians' use of debit and credit cards abroad amid a hard currency crunch in the country.

However, these limits have been loosened after the country floated the local currency in early November.



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ALEXANDRIA, Va.  It is with much sadness that NACS Daily reports on the passing of NACS 2006-2007 Chairman Sam Turner, who died peacefully at his home in Flintstone, Georgia, on November 10. He was 71.

Turner was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on December 27, 1944, to Marceille and Samuel F.D. Turner and spent most his life living in the Chattanooga area. After graduating from the University of Chattanooga, he spent several years in the banking industry. In 1981 he joined his brother at Calfee Co. as CFO and eventually became its CEO, running Favorite Market/ComPac Convenience stores in Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama, from 1989 until 2010. In 2013, he co-founded Enzos market in downtown Chattanooga.

Turner was past chairman of the Georgia Association of Convenience Store Owners, and was inducted into the Food Industry Hall of Fame. He also served on the board of the Petroleum Convenience Marketers of Alabama, and the Tennessee Oil Marketers Association. He was also very committed to the Chattanooga community, and served on the Board of Trustees of the Hunter Museum, Arts Build and AVA. Turner also volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and the Chattanooga Iron Man and was a member of the Chattanooga Rotary.

Turners down-to-earth, no nonsense values carried through all of his endeavors, including his role as 2006-2007 NACS chairman, where he was actively engaged in legislative activities. As NACS chairman, Turner served during a time of rising gas prices. As gasoline prices topped $3 a gallon, Turner pointed out that politics and sound policy did not always go hand in hand: We have a responsibility to ensure that Congress understands what is occurring in the retail gasoline business." And of pending price-gouging legislation, he said, in one of his characteristic colorful phrases, Its like petting a puppyit feels good but it doesn't do a damn thing.

During his tenure, unfair credit card fees and the big banks were also costing the industry as much as it was seeing in profits, and the industry was fighting back, which Turner compared to "walking up to King Kong and pulling a hair out of his chest.

Turners acknowledged biggest accomplishment in his 20 years with his company was his focus on keeping his employees happy. To Turner, his staff was his family, and family meant reaching out to help when needed. Of the convenience industry: Its an exciting business, and its something new every dayIm never bored, Turner said when asked what he loved about his job. It makes me feel good when I get up every morningjust knowing I am doing something that I enjoy.

Turner is preceded in death by his wife, Verina S. Baxter, as well as his parents. He is survived by his children: Wendy Turner (Chris Loga), Marietta, Georgia; Samuel P. Turner, Sacramento, California; and Eadress Baxter.

A memorial and visitation took place on Monday, November 14, at St. Pauls Episcopal Church in Chattanooga. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in Turners memory to ArtsBuild, 301 E. 11th Street, Suite 300, Chattanooga, TN 37403; or to the Hunter Museum of American Art, 10 Bluff View Ave., Chattanooga, TN 37403.
Find out whats going on in the human mind in this weeks NACS Convenience Matters podcast.

ALEXANDRIA, Va.  Why do blindfolded taste-test volunteers say that chocolate yogurt tastes like strawberry yogurt? It comes down to psychology, and if their minds think itthey react accordingly.

In the latest Convenience Matters podcast, cohosts Jeff Lenard and Carolyn Schnare of NACS talk about the psychology behind how consumers make decisions, and what convenience retailers can do about it. The featured guest is Adam Brumberg, deputy director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, at Cornell University.

Brumbergs work may already be familiar to many NASCS Show attendees. He presented findings during the popular Grow Sales the Healthy Way education session. And, his teams research was the basis for the 8 Ideas That Work to Grow Better-for-You Sales that was a top scan in the Cool New Products Preview Room.

The podcast gave us a chance to dive deeper into how retailers can better understand human psychology to help increase sales of better-for-you items in stores, Lenard said.

The NACS podcast can be downloaded on iTunes by searching for Convenience Matters. It also is available at nacsonline.com/podcasts. Since making its debut in February 2016, the program has been downloaded in more than 50 countries.
CHICAGO  McDonald's is spicing up one of its top sellers, reports Crains Chicago Business, by testing a Sriracha Big Mac in 126 stores in central Ohio starting this week, with a possible nationwide rollout.

The news source notes that the Sriracha Big Mac will be sold through the end of 2016, and McDonalds will also make the sandwichs spicy sauce available for other menu items such as French fries and Chicken McNuggets (presumably for dipping).

We're always trying new creations, and we wanted to innovate with an on-trend flavor like Sriracha to give our customers in Columbus a new and exciting taste, McDonald's Chef Mike Haracz told Crains.

This is the third time this year McDonalds has tinkered with the Big Mac. In the spring the chain successfully tested a supersized Big Mac, the Grand Mac, and a smaller version called the Mac Jr. Thanks to strong sales, both menu items will launch nationwide in early 2017.

Its possible McDonalds is hoping that the additional spice will attract more millennials. The Wall Street Journal reported that just one in five millennials has tried a Big Mac.
Kuwaits cabinet approved on Monday an extension of its oil exports to Egypt starting from January, with a grace period of nine months, Kuwaiti newspaper Alrai reported, citing ministerial sources.

Egypt agreed with Kuwait in 2014 to import two million barrels of crude oil and 1.2 million tonnes of petroleum products per month through a long-term contract.

The oil-rich Gulf country will provide Egypt with up to two million barrels of crude oil a month at the global price, the sources said in the Alrai report, without giving further details.

According to Alrai, the Kuwaiti deal came to fill the gap in Egypts petroleum needs, which was caused after Saudi Aramco suspended its oil shipments to the North African nation for two consecutive months.



The Saudi national oil company agreed to provide Egypt with 700,000 tonnes of refined oil products per month for five years under a $23 billion deal signed earlier this year.



Egypt stopped receiving its allocations from Aramco in October.

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CalPERS appears to be reading the handwriting on the wall.

The giant public pension fund, which regularly serves as a de facto standard setter for its peers, is looking into cutting out ludicrously overpaid private equity middlemen and making private equity investments directly.

Admittedly, it would take a while for CalPERS to flesh out a plan and to get a narrow carve-out from the state rules that prohibit employees from profiting from state expenditures or investments. Participating in the upside of successful private equity investments is a widespread industry standard and it would be difficult to attract experienced people.

But its puzzling that CalPERS has not considered this step before, in light of the fact that seven public pension funds in Canada have been making direct investments in private equity for years. Admittedly, they started out by investing along-side private equity firms, but these in-house teams have built up their skill levels over time.

With private equity total fees and costs an estimated 7% a year, why havent more limited partners gone this route sooner? It is fair that developing a new set of capabilities takes time, and managements are often leery about undertaking long-term, ambitious initiatives. But one also has to wonder about the role of McKinsey in deterring CalPERS and other limited parters from going this route.

In 1999, CalPERS engaged McKinsey to advise them as to whether they should bring some of their private equity activities in house. My understanding was that some board members thought this issue was worth considering; staff was not so keen (perhaps because they doubted they had the skills to do this work themselves and were put off by the idea of being upstaged by outside, better paid recruits).

In hearing this tale told many years later, I was perplexed and a bit disturbed to learn that the former managing partner of McKinsey, Ron Daniel, presented the recommendations to CalPERS of not to go this route. Only a very few directors (as in the tenured class of partner) continue at McKinsey beyond normal retirement age; one was the head of the important American Express relationship at the insistence of Amex. Daniel served as an ambassador for the firm as well as working on his former clients. Why was he dispatched to work on a one-off assignment that was clearly not important to McKinsey from a relationship standpoint, particularly in light of a large conflict of interest: that he was also the head of the Harvard Corporation, which was also a serious investor in private equity?

Although the lack of staff enthusiasm was probably a deal killer in and of itself, the McKinsey no go recommendation hinged on two arguments: the state regulatory obstacles (which in fact was not insurmountable; CalPERS could almost certainly get a waiver if it sought one), and the culture gap of putting a private equity unit in a public pension fund. Even though the lack of precedents at the time no doubt made this seem like a serious concern, in fact, McKinsey clients like Citibank and JP Morgan by then had figured out how to have units with very divergent business cultures (investment banking versus commercial banking) live successfully under the same roof. And even at CalPERS now, there is a large gap between the pay levels, autonomy, and status of the investment professionals versus the rank and file that handles mundane but nevertheless important tasks like keeping on top of payments from the many government entities that are part of the CalPERS system, maintaining records for and making payments to CalPERS beneficiaries, and running the back office for the investment activities that CalPERS runs internally.

Why do I wonder whether McKinsey had additional motives for sending someone as prominent as Daniel to argue forcefully (as he apparently did) that CalPERS reject the idea of doing private equity in house? Clearly, if CalPERS went down that path, then as now, the objective would be to reduce the cost of investing in private equity. And it would take funds out of the hand of private equity general partners.

The problem with that is that McKinsey had a large and apparently not disclosed conflict: private equity funds were becoming large sources of fees to the firm. By 2002, private equity firms represented more than half of total McKinsey revenues. CalPERS going into private equity would reduce the general partners fees, and over time, McKinseys.

In keeping, as we pointed out in 2014, McKinsey acknowledged that the prospects for private equity continuing to deliver outsized returns were dimming. That would seem to make for a strong argument to get private equity firms to lower their fees, and the best leverage would be to bring at least some private equity investing in house, both to reduce costs directly and to provide for more leverage in fee discussions. Yet McKinsey hand-waved unconvincingly about ways that limited partners could contend with the more difficult investment environment, and was discouraging about going direct despite the fact that the Canadian pension funds had done so successfully. From its report:

Some limited partners have begun to insource, effectively to doing private-equity investments on their own. Recent academic research has found this approach preferable for institutional investors in certain circumstances; direct private investment saves fees and can generate better results than an external manager. The research considered a small sample of seven Canadian pension funds that have enjoyed higher returns from their own deals than from their investments in private-equity funds or even from their coinvestments in the funds deals. While the returns may be enticing, this kind of forward integration is not for everyone. Many institutions may face daunting structural obstacles, notably in their ability to hire, govern, and retain top talent. And the effort put forth by the Canadian investors was substantial: first, they had to establish professionalism in their management and governance, including the board. To build and sustain internal teams of investment professionals with the right skills, the funds had to be able and willing to provide an attractive level of compensation that was frequently much higher than that of professionals in other asset classes. The funds had to learn to trust these professionals with investment decisions. And they needed to build strong research teams to understand the cyclical and structural trends of private markets to determine the optimal time to invest.

So its refreshing to see CalPERS recognize that the difficult investment environment means it needs to take more aggressive steps to improve its returns. It has treated private equity as a savior, but as weve stressed, top players in the industry have warned that returns over the next few years are likely to be lackluster. Although it will take time, it would be very beneficial for CalPERS and other major private equity investors to improve their returns by saving on fees, which has been a big priority for every asset class save private equity.

From Pensions & Investments:

CalPERS Chief Investment Officer Theodore Eliopoulos asked the retirement systems senior private equity staff Monday to explore options to the change the $299.5 billion pension funds private equity program, including cutting out general partners and making private equity investments directly. Mr. Eliopoulos said he was concerned about the small number of top-performing private equity managers, who because of their performance have been able to maintain high fees and are oversubscribed. He said the California Public Employees Retirement System, Sacramento, might have to come up with alternatives to the general partner/limited partner fund structure. Its not a game of chicken, Mr. Eliopoulos said in his remarks at the pension funds investment committee meeting in Sacramento, saying CalPERS is not attacking general partners, but rather putting its focus on making its private equity program as cost-effective as possible. Other options that will be explored include increasing the number of co-investments and increasing the number of separate accounts with general partners, Mr. Eliopoulos said.

As we indicated, this is a big step forward and has the potential to be as important a development as CalPERS decision to exit hedge funds at the end of 2014, which more and more investors have emulated. And if CalPERS pursues this initiative, it would be an important step in combatting the private equity industrys failure to make fee concessions as performance has fallen over time and has been less than the level needed to compensate for its risks for pretty much the entirely of the last decade. Applause is in order.
By Marshall Auerback, a market analyst and a research associate at the Levy Institute for Economics at Bard College (www.levy.org). Follow him on Twitter at @Mauerback. Originally published at Counterpunch

During the Presidential campaign of 1988, the Reverend Jesse Jackson was asked, How you are going to get the support of the white steelworker? He replied: By making him aware he has more in common with the black steel workers by being a worker, than with the boss by being white. Jackson also did speak of reviving a rainbow coalition, but in spite of being associated with black radicalism by much of the country, he was able to obtain almost 50 percent of the Democratic delegates at the Atlanta convention through an explicit appeal which transcended race, instead invoking class. Jackson himself is not the likely future leader of the Democratic Party, but his model is one the Dems would be well to consider if they wish to recapture much of the country that they lost in last weeks election.

To a large degree, Bernie Sanders understood and appreciated this, although as we now know, the Wall Street/Silicon Valley donors which comprise the donor class of the DNC were appalled by this and actively worked to sabotage his campaign. By the time we got to the general election, the partys message was watered down and muddled, in some races focused almost entirely on gender issues and attacks of Trumps lack of suitability for the office.

To be sure, Donald Trump did make a strong appeal to racists, homophobes, and misogynists and whilst his GOP colleagues publicly recoiled in horror, there is no question that Trump was merely making explicit what Republicans had been doing for decades  since the days of Nixon in 1968. The dog whistle was merely replaced by a bull horn.

But that alone doesnt explain Trumps success. As I wrote in an earlier analysis of the Trump phenomenon, he became the voice for an increasing number of Americans, who counted themselves amongst the biggest losers of globalization and free trade. In most elections, U.S. politicians of both parties pretend to be concerned about their issues, then conveniently ignore them when they reach power and implement policies from the same Washington Consensus that has dominated the past 40 years. Thats why so many Americans have simply stopped voting (and this year was no different, as it looks like a mere 57.9% of the voter eligible population turned out). And perhaps Trump is a faux populist, who is merely deploying bait and switch tactics, but he explicitly addressed his campaign to those who have been marginalized by the neo-liberal policies dominant in both parties.

The difference this time is that once Senator Bernie Sanders lost the nomination, the Democrats made little effort to recapture these voters. That is largely because the partys nominee was the very embodiment of the establishment policies that has created so much misery for these groups and Hillary Clinton had no credible message for what the press condescendingly termed flyover country. These voters instead went for the change candidate, even though his platform lacked much of the coherence of, say, the Sanders program and in many respects might make their position worse. But when you live in Youngstown, Ohio, or Scranton, Pennsylvania, and have virtually no stake in the existing system, is it at all surprising that youre willing to place your bets with a bomb-thrower?

No question that today there is a kind of all-encompassing pessimism which transcends economics. In addition to the growing inequality and concomitant wage stagnation for the middle and working classes, 9/11 and its aftermath has certainly has contributed to it as well, as, making people long for the the Golden Age of Managerial Capitalism of the post-WWII era, which was a dynamic period of great economic achievements and pax Americana. Distilling it into movies (Americas version of a cultural yardstick), the American zeitgeist today is a weird mashup of Bladerunner, Mad Max, and Reality TV  with the characters longing for Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, hardly a recipe that brings hope for a positive future.

And if the Democratic Party is honest, it will have to concede that even the popular incumbent President has played a huge role in contributing to the overall sense of despair that drove people to seek a radical outlet such as Trump. The Obama Administration rapidly broke with its Hope and Change you can believe in the minute he appointed some of the architects of the 2008 crisis as his main economic advisors, who in turn and gave us a Wall Street friendly bank bailout that effectively restored the status quo ante (and refused to jail one single banker, even though many were engaged in explicitly criminal activity). He followed that up with a bailout of the private health insurance industry under the guise of so-called health care reform legislation, the Affordable Care Act (which contained no provision for containing the cost of the health insurance oligopolies, because the marginal public option was gutted out of the final legislation, courtesy of the lobbyists invited to craft the legislation). All of the Rubinites were brought back in to run economic policy. Wall Street and the stock market boomed, but wages continued to stagnate, and the vast majority of all the gains went to the top 1 percent of income earners. The rest of the population was left far behind.

So this gave force to the idea that the government was nothing but a vipers nest full of crony capitalist enablers, which in turn helped to unleash populism on the right (the Left being marginalised or co-opted by their Wall Street/Silicon Valley donor class). And this gave us Trump. Add to that HRCs neocon foreign policy instincts, which could have got us in a war with Russia and maybe the American electorate wasnt so dumb after all. They could read Podestas odious emails as well as the rest of us could. (As an aside, regardless of the source of the leaks, we should be thankful for the hacked emails, which allowed us to discover that nations media works directly with one of the nations major political parties to manipulate coverage of their opponents and curry favor for their chosen nominee.)

Obama is personally likeable, but did he really give us anything as great and durable as FDR did in the 1930s? The Affordable Care Act was effectively RomneyCare (with the comparable problem that there remains no means of controlling private health insurance costs, a fact that was cruelly revealed days before the election when 25% hikes in health insurance premiums were announced), much as Dodd-Frank was a joke in terms of achieving genuine financial reform, especially when one compares it to the legislation that emerged out of the Great Depression (which lasted unchanged for over 40 years). The Pecora Commission (established in the GDs aftermath) was given relatively free rein to investigate the causes of the crisis and to go after the fraud. Widespread defaults and bankruptcies wiped out a lot of the private sectors debt. The financial sector was downsized and rendered relatively unimportant for several decades.

The establishment, especially the Democratic Party establishment, keeps enforcing what divides people rather than what unites people by embracing identity politics and ignoring class. Yes, a huge majority of women were offended by Trumps locker room talk, but a large chunk still voted for him, and larger numbers of Hispanics voted for Trump than Romney. Doesnt that suggest that identity politics has reached some sort of limit? Why not find common ground on the issue of class? As former Jackson advisor, Vicente Navarro wrote: The objective of the billionaire class is to co-opt African Americans and women into the system so they are closer and more aligned to the dominant class. The fact that so little is spoken about class in the US is because the billionaire class does not want people to speak or think in class terms. Its also the case that it is difficult to get a man to understand his own best interests after hes swallowed a handful of Oxycontins and chased them with half a quart of Wild Turkey. But emphasizing class-based policies, rather than gender or race-based solutions, will achieve more for the broad swathe of voters, who comprehensively rejected the neo-liberal lite identity politics on offer by the Democrats this time around. It is true that this process is likely to be resisted by the donor class and it may well take another financial crisis before their power is fully broken. Voters crave effective action to reverse long term economic decline and runaway economic inequality, but nothing on the scale required will be offered to them by either of Americas money-driven major parties. This is likely only to accelerate the disintegration of the political system and economic system until the elephant in the room  class  is honestly and comprehensively addressed.
Yves here. Mexican oil is example of where Trump will have fewer degrees of freedom than he anticipated. His economic team was reported to be working on a plan that among other things, had the US exiting Nafta and the WTO on the first day of his presidency. In reality, the US needs six months of notice to exit Nafta, but even that precipitous a move seems unlikely, given that the US is not prepared to handle the extra volume of work involved in computing and imposing tariffs, which among other things requires major changes in IT systems, a long lead-time item.

This article points out that leaving Nafta would mean tariffs on Mexican oil and US players being disadvantaged in developing

By Irina Slavis a writer for the U.S.-based Divergente LLC consulting firm with over a decade of experience writing on the oil and gas industry. Originally published at OilPrice

Two of Donald Trumps main pledges during the presidential race were building a wall along the border with Mexico, and making the U.S. energy-independent. Now that the election is over, these issues are coming to the fore.

First, the president-elect said that the wall, which he mentioned on the campaign trail and in numerous debates, is still very much on the table, though what type of wall that may be is an unknow. Second, he said he planned to start deporting illegal aliensthose with criminal recordswhich could amount to as many as three million individuals.

Despite The Wall, the deportation of Mexican citizens, and several grandiose comments about Mexico paying for said wallnot to mention Trumps proclamation that he would raise import tariffs up to 35 percent on some Mexican productsMexicos President Enrique Pena Nieto was among the first of the world leaders to congratulate Trump on his victory.

And if NAFTA is no more, tariffs will rise for all imports. What does all this mean for the future of oil imports to the U.S.?

The United States imported over 670,000 bpd of crude and fuels from Mexico in August, according to the EIA. Another 773,000 bpd came from Venezuela. Together, the two countries ranked third in the U.S. oil and products import mix, after Canada and Saudi Arabia.

While supplies from Canada are unlikely to be threatened, thanks to traditionally warm bilateral relations with the country, the situation is different for both Mexico and Venezuela because of the illegal immigration issue and the blatantly anti-U.S. Caracas regime. Whether Trump is successful in cutting backor cutting entirelyimports from Saudi Arabia is yet another unknown

And while its possible that Mexico and Venezuela could suffer a drop in exports to the U.S., if Trump stays true to his campaign promises, other forces are also influencing the matter.

The situation in Venezuela remains highly volatile, but there is a ray of hope on the horizon as the government of President Nicolas Maduro and the leaders of the opposition party MUD begrudgingly discusses the direction Venezuela should take. But no matter the outcome of these talks, the starving country will need markets for its crude oil, and the U.S. happens to be the largest one, so it is very unlikely that anyone there would seek to antagonize Trump.

Things are a bit different in Mexico, since many of the illegal immigrants Trump wants to deport come from the southern neighbora factor that may stress relations. But with the liberalization of the Mexican energy market in the last few years, Mexico is turning out to have lucrative opportunities for the U.S. energy industry, to include oil and gas production, refining, marketing, and, of course, transportationthe full deck. And U.S. energy businesses need these opportunities to sustain their profitability, just as Mexico needs to sell its crude. In short, the neighbors need each other.

President-elect Trump will likely come to rely on expert advisers for a lot of the decisions he will make once he steps into the Oval office. With various experts already warningagainst the adverse outcomes of NAFTAs removal and the increase of tariffs, its possible that these advisers will help the president-elect tweak some of his campaign pledges. For the time being, imports from Mexico and Venezuela should be safe.
Experiment designed to test 'smart' antibacterial surfaces in space (Nanowerk News) Leti, an institute of CEA Tech, and three French partners are collaborating in a house-cleaning project aboard the International Space Station that will investigate antibacterial properties of new materials in a zero-gravity environment to see if they can improve and simplify cleaning inside spacecraft.

The Matiss experiment, as part of the Proxima Mission sponsored by Frances CNES space agency, is based on four identical plaques that European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Pesquet, the 10th French citizen to go into space, will take with him and install when he joins the space station in November for a six-month mission. The plaques will be in the European Columbus laboratory in the space station for at least three months, and Pesquet will bring them back to earth for analysis at the conclusion of his mission.

The Matiss experiment will test the anti-bacterial properties of materials in space. Frances space agency CNES has selected five advanced materials that should stop bacteria from settling and growing on the surface.

Leti, in collaboration with the ENS de Lyon, CNRS, the French company Saint Gobain and CNES, selected five advanced materials that could stop bacteria from settling and growing on smart surfaces. A sixth material, made of glass, will be used as control material.

The experiment will test the new smart surfaces in a gravity-free, enclosed environment. These surfaces are called "smart" because of their ability to provide an appropriate response to a given stimulus. For example, they may repel bacteria, prevent them from growing on the surface, or create their own biofilms that protect them from the bacteria.

The materials are a mix of advanced technology  from self-assembly monolayers and green polymers to ceramic polymers and water-repellent hybrid silica. By responding protectively to air-borne bacteria they become easier to clean and more hygienic. The experiment will determine which one is most effective and could lead to antibacterial surfaces on elevator buttons and bars in mass-transit cars, for example.
New way to make low-cost perovskite solar cell technology (Nanowerk News) Researchers at The Australian National University (ANU) have found a new way to fabricate high efficiency semi-transparent perovskite solar cells in a breakthrough that could lead to more efficient and cheaper solar electricity (Advanced Energy Materials, "Efficient Indium-Doped TiO x Electron Transport Layers for High-Performance Perovskite Solar Cells and Perovskite-Silicon Tandems").

Dr Tom White from the ANU Research School of Engineering said the new fabrication method significantly improved the performance of perovskite solar cells, which can combine with conventional silicon solar cells to produce more efficient solar electricity.

ANU Ph.D. student The Duong, Dr.Tom White and Ph.D. student Jun Peng.

He said perovskite solar cells were extremely good at making electricity from visible light - blue, green and red - while conventional silicon solar cells were more efficient at converting infrared light into electricity.

"The prospect of adding a few additional processing steps at the end of a silicon cell production line to make perovskite cells is very exciting and could boost solar efficiency from 25 per cent to 30 per cent," Dr White said.

"By combining these two cells, the perovskite cell and the silicon cell, we are able to make much better use of the solar energy and achieve higher efficiencies than either cell on its own."

While perovskite cells can improve efficiency, they are not yet stable enough to be used on rooftops. Dr White said the new fabrication technique could help develop more reliable perovskite cells.

The new fabrication method involves adding a small amount of the element indium into one of the cell layers during fabrication. That could increase the cell's power output by as much as 25 per cent.

"We have been able to achieve a record efficiency of 16.6 per cent for a semi-transparent perovskite cell, and 24.5 per cent for a perovskite-silicon tandem, which is one of the highest efficiencies reported for this type of cell," said Dr White.

Dr White said the research placed ANU in a small group of labs around the world with the capability to improve silicon solar cell efficiency using perovskites.

The development builds on the state-of-the-art silicon cell research at ANU and is part of a $12.2 million "High-efficiency silicon/perovskite solar cells" project led by University of New South Wales and supported by $3.6 million of funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.
A new way to image solar cells in 3-D (w/video) (Nanowerk News) Next-generation solar cells made of super-thin films of semiconducting material hold promise because they're relatively inexpensive and flexible enough to be applied just about anywhere.

Researchers are working to dramatically increase the efficiency at which thin-film solar cells convert sunlight to electricity. But it's a tough challenge, partly because a solar cell's subsurface realm--where much of the energy-conversion action happens--is inaccessible to real-time, nondestructive imaging. It's difficult to improve processes you can't see.

Now, scientists from the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a way to use optical microscopy to map thin-film solar cells in 3-D as they absorb photons.

Berkeley Lab has developed a new method to image solar cells in 3-D that could help scientists learn new ways to boost photovoltaic efficiency.

The method, reported Nov. 15 in the journal Advanced Materials ("3D Lifetime Tomography Reveals How CdCl 2 Improves Recombination Throughout CdTe Solar Cells"), was developed at the Molecular Foundry, a DOE Office of Science user facility located at Berkeley Lab. It images optoelectronic dynamics in materials at the micron scale, or much thinner than the diameter of a human hair. This is small enough to see individual grain boundaries, substrate interfaces, and other internal obstacles that can trap excited electrons and prevent them from reaching an electrode, which saps a solar cell's efficiency.

So far, scientists have used the technique to better understand why adding a specific chemical to solar cells made of cadmium telluride (CdTe)--the most common thin-film material--improves the solar cells' performance.

"To make big gains in photovoltaic efficiency, we need to see what's happening throughout a working photovoltaic material at the micron scale, both on the surface and below, and our new approach allows us to do that," says Edward Barnard, a principal scientific engineering associate at the Molecular Foundry. He led the effort with James Schuck, the director of the Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures facility at the Molecular Foundry.

The imaging method is born out of a collaboration between Molecular Foundry scientists and Foundry users from PLANT PV Inc., an Alameda, California-based company. While fabricating new solar cell materials at the Molecular Foundry, the team found that standard optical techniques couldn't image the inner-workings of the materials, so they developed the new technique to obtain this view. Next, scientists from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory came to the Molecular Foundry and used the new method to study CdTe solar cells.

To develop the approach, the scientists modified a technique called two-photon microscopy (which is used by biologists to see inside thick samples such as living tissue) so that it can be applied to bulk semiconductor materials.

The method uses a highly focused laser beam of infrared photons that penetrate inside the photovoltaic material. When two low-energy photons converge at the same pinpoint, there's enough energy to excite electrons. These electrons can be tracked to see how long they last in their excited state, with long-lifetime electrons appearing as bright spots in microscopy images. In a solar cell, long-lifetime electrons are more likely to reach an electrode.

In addition, the laser beam can be systematically repositioned throughout a test-sized solar cell, creating a 3-D map of a solar cell's entire optoelectronic dynamics.

The 3-D rendering on the left is a cadmium telluride solar cell without cadmium chloride treatment. The image on the right shows a solar cell that has been treated with cadmium chloride. It lights up much more uniformly throughout the material, both in the grains and the spaces in between. (Video: Berkeley Lab)

The method has already shed light on the benefits of treating CdTe solar cells with cadmium chloride, which is often added during the fabrication process.

Scientists know cadmium chloride improves the efficiency of CdTe solar cells, but its effect on excited electrons at the micron scale is not well understood. Studies have shown that the chlorine ions tend to pile up at grain boundaries, but how this changes the lifetime of excited electrons is unclear.

Thanks to the new imaging technique, the researchers discovered the cadmium chloride treatment increases the lifetime of excited electrons at the grain boundaries, as well as within the grains themselves. This is easily seen in 3-D images of CdTe solar cells with and without the treatment. The treated solar cell "lights up" much more uniformly throughout the material, both in the grains and the spaces in between.

"Scientists have known that cadmium chloride passivation improves the lifetime of electrons in CdTe cells, but now we've mapped at the micron scale where this improvement occurs," says Barnard.

The new imaging technique could help scientists make more informed decisions about improving a host of thin-film solar cell materials in addition to CdTe, such as perovskite and organic compounds.
Impurities enhance the performance of perovskite solar cells

(Nanowerk Spotlight) The development of perovskite solar cells, first reported in 2009, is a possible route towards high efficiency photovoltaics that are also cost-effectiveness, owing to to their easy-processing from solution. They absorb light across almost all visible wavelengths, they have exceptional power conversion efficiencies exceeding 20% in the lab, and they are relatively easy to fabricate. Question marks have however remained on their stability.

Researchers in Germany have now demonstrated in detail how chemical purity of perovskite precursors can affect the morphology of thin-film perovskite layers.

While most studies concentrate on the exploration of processing conditions, the team has investigated the purity levels of common perovskite precursor solutions and found a number of impurities that are critically important toward controlling the crystallization of perovskites.

They observed that impurities that formed during the preparation of perovskite precursor solutions initiate formation of PbHPO 3 nanoparticles, which helps to growth larger perovskite crystal grains resulting in higher solar cells efficiency.

They have reported their findings in Advanced Material Interfaces ("Deciphering the Role of Impurities in Methylammonium Iodide and Their Impact on the Performance of Perovskite Solar Cells").

Schematic interpretation of the perovskite thin film growth based on different precursor solution with and without PbHPO 3 nanoparticles. (Image: i-MEET) (click on image to enlarge)

"We have also demonstrated that the increased perovskite grain size, the reduced defect density, and the enhanced intrinsic perovskite stability of the thin films are achieved by using perovskite precursor solution that contains PbHPO 3 nanoparticles," Ievgen Levchuk, a PhD student in the group of Prof. Christoph J. Brabec (Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology  i-MEET) at Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg, and first author of the paper together with co-author Yi Hou, a PhD student in the same group, tells Nanowerk. " Our findings indicate that the understanding and ability to control the amount of impurities in perovskite precursor solution is important for the full control and reproducibility of perovskite solar cell fabrication."

The study highlights the chemical investigation of the possible impurities formed during methylammonium iodide (CH 3 NH 3 I) preparation and reveal their relevance during perovskite solar cell processing.

The scientists found that the impurities are a side product during CH3NH3I synthesis in the presence of hypophosphorous acid (H 2 PO 2 ) as a stabilizer for hydriodic acid, namely methylammonium hypophosphite (CH 3 NH 3 H 2 PO 2 ) and methylammonium phosphite (CH 3 NH 3 H 2 PO 3 ).

"These contaminators initiate PbHPO 3 nanoparticle formation in the perovskite precursor solution, with further seed growth during thin-film formation resulting in increased perovskite grain size, a reduced defect density, and an enhanced intrinsic perovskite stability," explains Levchuk.

He points out that, as a result of the presence of impurities and by using a simple planar inverted (p-i-n) structure, the performance of perovskite devices could considerably be enhanced from 12.2% to 17.2% at roll-to-roll compatible processing temperature conditions (<140 C).

"Our findings indicate that the understanding and ability to control the amount of impurities in perovskite precursor solutions is extremely important for achieving full control and reproducibility of solar cell fabrication," Levchuk concludes. "Therefore, quality control for self-synthesized or commercially available CH3NH3I is necessary."
Beloved Egyptian actor Mahmoud Abdel-Aziz died on Saturday at the age of 70. Abdel-Aziz starred in three films by Egyptian director Ali Abdel-Khalek, playing a strikingly different role in each of these productions. Together, these three films encapsulate Abdel-Azizs talent and passion, which culminated in a generous filmography of more than 90 works.

In Abdel-Khaleks 1982 film Al-Aar (Shame), Abdel-Aziz played the role of an upper-class addiction specialist, tormented by the fact that his pious father was actually a drug lord.

In Gari Al-Wohosh (Monsters Run, 1987), Abdel-Aziz transformed into a poor, desperate alpha male who gets involved in selling one of his organs, and ends up losing his sanity and his macho sexuality.

Finally, in Al-Keif (The High, 1985), he plays a well-to-do spoiled bohemian son who mingles with the impoverished proletariat in local cafes and dens populated by petrifying drug dealers.

Written by Mahmoud Abu Zaid, all three films tackled the moral decay that resulted from Sadat's open door economic policy in the 1970s.

Abdel-Aziz was a spearhead in all three films. His ability to master radical shifts as he moved from one role to the other, and his marvelous way of capturing the weaknesses and strengths embedded in each, explain why he has over the years become one of Egyptian modern cinemas gems.

The Alexandria-born actor studied agriculture at university and embarked on several theatre activities until he landed his debut role in the 1973 television series Al-Dawama, which was followed the next year by his film debut, Al-Hafeed (The Grandson), directed by Atef Salem, in which Abdel-Aziz marries a girl from an Egyptian middle class family in 1970s Cairo.

To his credit, Abdel-Aziz managed to surpass the night club themed-films that dominated Egyptian cinema in the 1980s, which were produced by Gulf-affiliated individuals and featured divas in bikinis and lingerie, belly dancers, shaabi or popular-style songs, and cheesy plots.

Instead, Abdel-Aziz focused on playing eye-catching roles and choosing interesting scripts, the 1980s thus becoming a high point for his career. It was in this decade that he took on the role of Egyptian spy Rafaat El-Hagan in a very popular TV production.

The trilogy garnered major success in Egypt and the Arab world, with a plot centering on the story of the El-Hagan, an Egyptian spy operating in Israel. The series glorified Abdel-Aziz, giving him the space to improvise, and asserting his Don Juan attitude, something that he continued to be known for.

Directed by Yahia El-Alamy, the series aired from 1987 to 1992, for the most part adopting a highly nationalistic narrative of the Arab-Israeli conflict, all the while humanising El-Hagan.

The series continues to be broadcasted on both private and state-owned TV channels, and its plot has moulded the Egyptian spy/war narrative, to the extent that documentaries about Egypt's General Intelligence Directorate use footage from the fictional series.

Tall and well-built, Abdel-Aziz was known for his quick movement in front of the camera, whether acting in a romance, action, or drama.

In the beginning he was a poster boy for romance films, and post-war productions of war heroes coming back to their sweethearts. To his luck, he soon got the chance to work with some of Egypts most brilliant directors, who themselves came from different schools of art: from the realist, to the nationalist, to the feminist, to those who experimented with fantasy to tackle with societys macro problems. The list includes filmmakers Mohamed Khan, Radwan El-Kashef, Samir Seif, Mohamed Kamel El-Qaliouby, Mohamed Haseeb, and Omar Abdel-Aziz.

He joined forces with Atef El-Tayeb in the Al-Bari (The Innocent, 1986), where he played the role of Colonel Sharkas, a schizophrenic officer who tortures political prisoners in detention centres. Sharkas didn't have to move much in the film, owing to his position as a high-ranking officer in this detention camp, so we can see him coldly questioning communist writers under the scorching sun, with no remorse or mercy.

But when journalists, legal representatives, and members of human rights groups come to inspect a murder that took place in the prison, he is warm, gentle and caring.

Abdel-Azizs favorite collaboration was with fantasy director Raafat El-Meehy, in which they tackled feminist issues and highlighted them it in the context of societys problems. In El-Sada El-Regal (Misters, 1987), a social comedy, Abdel-Aziz emerges as a patriarchal husband demanding a lot from his wife, played by Maali Zayed, who in an attempt to resist against his domination and secure more rights, transforms into a man.

He went on to act in another film by El-Meehy, Sayedati Anisati (Ladies and Lasses, 1989) which tackled the Egyptian population crisis, widowhood, unemployment, and the misery experienced by housewives, all in a comic manner.

In Sayedati Anisati, Abdel-Aziz plays the role of Mahmoud, an office boy who claims to have a PhD and to have given lectures about the ideas of Friedrich Engels. He marries four women, and gives each the right to divorce him.

The film centres on the institution of marriage but adopts a matriarchal point of view. The wives control the marriage, own the house, have the right to divorce, and manage the household finances. They return from work to their husband who has spent his afternoon preparing lunch.

In 1991, the brilliant director Daoud Abd El-Sayyed chose Abdel-Aziz to star in his masterpiece El-Kitkat (Kitkat), adapted from a novel by Egyptian writer Ibrahim Aslan. In El-Kitkat, Abdel-Aziz plays the role of the blind life-loving Sheikh Hosni, who refuses to give in to the harsh economic conditions.

In order to master his role, Abdel-Aziz reportedly spent time with visually impaired individuals to study their body language and facial expressions.

In one scene, Sheikh Hosni shares a long-held dreamin which he rides on a motorcycle and flies-- with his frustrated young son Youssef (played by Sherif Mounir).

Youssef takes his father on a ride and they both end up in the Nile. Dont blame me, Sheikh Hosni tells Youssef. The other driver is stupid. For your information, I got his number plates.

Laughing, the son replies, Father why dont you believe that youre blind?

Are you calling me blind you idiot? I can see better than you do, and in the dark, replies Sheikh Hosni, as the two burst into hysterical laughs.

It was this scene along with other scenes from the film that turned Sheikh Hosni into one of Egypts most beloved characters.

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Naji was handed a two-year prison sentence in February, for publishing a sexually flagrant article in the state-owned cultural newspaper Akhbar Al-Adab.

An Egyptian misdemeanor court will hear a third motion from the defense of imprisoned Egyptian writer, Ahmed Naji, on 26 Nov, requesting the suspension of a two year prison sentence Naji was handed for publishing parts of his novel "The Use of Life," deemed "sexually explicit" in a state literary newspaper.

The motion follows the formation by the presidency of a committee to review the cases of youth detained for non-violent politically related crimes." Activist groups have added the author's name to several lists of detainees worthy of presidential pardon.

The committee has yet to officially release a list of names for review by the presidency.

Naji was handed a two-year prison sentence in February by a North Cairo appeals court, for publishing a sexually flagrant article in the state-owned cultural newspaper Akhbar Al-Adab.

The prosecutor accused Naji of publishing a "flagrantly erotic article in which the charged writer published a text that spewed sexual lust and transient pleasures, using his mind and pen to violate public decency and good morals, inciting promiscuity."

Naji was first referred to the misdemeanor court in November 2015 and was cleared from all charges in January 2016. The verdict was successfully appealed by the prosecutor, however, resulting in the two-year sentence.

The initial decision to refer Naji to court came after one of the newspaper's readers, known as Hani Saleh Tawfik, filed a legal complaint claiming that the text in question caused him to experience heart palpitations and an extreme feeling of sickness along with a sharp drop in blood pressure, due to the indecency of the text.



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Find the newest releases to watch from National Geographic on Disney+, including favourite documentary series and films Free Solo, The Rescue, Shark Beach with Chris Hemsworth and The World According to Jeff Goldblum.
WASHINGTON  The Federal Housing Administration's insurance fund saw its fourth consecutive annual boost in its ratio of reserves to insured mortgages, reaching 2.32% in fiscal year 2016, the Department of Housing and Urban Development said Tuesday.

The positive report card  which puts the fund well above its 2% statutory minimum for the second year in a row  will likely accelerate industry pressure on the FHA to cut its annual premium.

"The results of the actuaries' report show the MMI fund is strong and continues to grow in value and improve in performance," said HUD Secretary Julian Castro during a conference call with reporters. "FHA remains well positioned to continue to serve the American people for years for to come."

Still, a premium cut may not be in the offing due to the election results, which will leave control of HUD in President-elect Donald Trump's hands. It's unclear how his administration will feel about FHA premiums, which traditionally Republicans have wanted to keep high to minimize the government's role in the housing market. Castro could make a cut prior to the end of President Obama's administration, but that is considered unlikely.

"I would be surprised if they did it during a transition. That is something you would leave for the next crew," said Brian Montgomery, vice chairman of The Collingwood Group.

The FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund's growth is largely due to the single-family forward mortgage program, which improved dramatically during the fiscal year.

On its own, the single-family forward program has a ratio of 3.28%, up from 1.63% in fiscal year 2015. The value of the program increased by $18 billion and outperformed the actuaries' estimate made last year that its net worth would grow by only $10 billion.

Delinquencies on single-family loans also continued to decline while loan volume exceeded expectations with $245 billion in endorsements over the past fiscal year.

"These strong results indicate there is room to return pricing that reflect the risks in the program," said Ed Golding, a principal deputy assistant to the HUD secretary who runs the FHA program, on the conference call.

He declined to comment on the appropriateness of a premium cut.

The FHA's reverse mortgage fund did not perform as well. Separately, that program, which is generally more volatile, had a negative 6.9% capital ratio, dragging down the combined MMI fund's ratio.

Overall, the combined fund grew by $3.8 billion during the fiscal year, reaching $27.6 billion.
Novelists, playwrights and poets have contributed tiny stories of around seven lines each for the campaign ahead of UNICEF's 70th anniversary on Dec. 11.

The United Nations Children's Fund has teamed up with over 200 prominent writers from around the globe to commemorate Universal Children's Day.

U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said Monday that novelists, playwrights and poets have contributed tiny stories of around seven lines each for the campaign ahead of UNICEF's 70th anniversary on Dec. 11.

Nigeria's Chimamanda Adichie, Brazil's Paulo Coelho and Britain's Christina Lamb were among the authors who contributed stories on the theme: "What I want from every child."

The weeklong campaign, which was conceptualized by Finnish first lady Jenni Haukio, ends on Nov. 20  the anniversary of the adoption of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, celebrated as Universal Children's Day.

"As writers we are able to advocate through the simplicity of storytelling. With this worthy and necessary campaign, we advocate for the protection of the rights of precious children all over the world," Adichie said in a statement.

Lamb tells the story of playing Cat's Cradle with an Afghan girl who has fled the Taliban and now lives in a camp on a Greek island "which is sunny and safe," but which she can't leave.

"I take the string between my fingertips and manage a simple back and forth and she takes it back smiling and with a skillful move fashions a string butterfly. But when she passes it again and I try to make a Jacob's Ladder, it has been too many years and the string gets tangled and she walks away a sad princess," Lamb writes in her story.

The campaign comes at a time when UNICEF says 50 million children have been uprooted from their homes due to conflict, poverty and climate change and 263 million children are out of school.

"It is shocking to see that the lives of many children are still so heavily impacted by the horror of conflict, inequality, poverty and discrimination. I hope these Tiny Stories can remind the world that we must sustain our commitment to all of these children whose lives and futures are at stake," UNICEF spokesperson Paloma Escudero said in a statement.

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NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller and Allies welcomed Vadym Chernysh, Minister of Ukraine for the Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons, to NATO Headquarters for the first time on Tuesday (15 November 2016). In a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission, Minister Chernysh briefed Allies on the security situation in Ukraine, as well as the challenges faced by refugees and internally displaced people.

Allies expressed concern over the humanitarian situation in the conflict zone, as well as human rights abuses in Crimea. They also underscored the importance of the full implementation of the Minsk Agreements. Allies reiterated that NATO will continue to provide strong political and practical support to Ukraine as the government pursues vital reforms in the defence and security sectors.
(As delivered)

So good morning.

Im looking forward to meet the EU Defence Ministers and next month High Representative Federica Mogherini will meet with the foreign ministers of NATO so this is just yet another example of the close cooperation between the EU and NATO.

And today we will discuss how we can further strengthen the cooperation between the EU and NATO. In July I signed a joint declaration with president Tusk and president Juncker and we will today discuss how we implement that declaration in many different areas, for instance like maritime cooperation, like exercises but also on the issue of development of capabilities in NATO and the EU.

A stronger NATO-EU cooperation will also strengthen the European defence and I welcome the decision made yesterday by the defence ministers and foreign ministers of the EU on the implementation of security and defence of the global strategy and my message has been, since I became Secretary General of NATO, that Europe has to do more, Europe has to step up, Europe has to invest more in defence and that is what we see is happening so I welcome that after many years of cuts in defence spending Europe is now increasing defence spending as a response to a more dangerous and more challenging security environment. This has been my message since I became Secretary General and I will continue to convey the strong message of more defence spending in Europe to respond to a more challenging security environment.

Question 1: Julian Barnes, WSJ: Mr. Secretary General, in your op-ed you talked about the relationship between Europe and America being based on shared values. Mr. Trump has talked about a more transactional relationship based on increased spending. Are you worried that Mr. Trumps election is going to change the basis of the alliance, change the dynamic of the alliance?

Secretary General: President-elect Donald Trump stated during the election campaign that he is a big fan of NATO and I am certain that he will be a President of the United States which will live up to all of the commitments of the United States in the alliance, because a strong NATO is important for Europe but it is also important for the United States. He also pointed out the importance of increased defence spending - but Europeans are stepping up their efforts to invest more in defence - and I absolutely agree with him that has been a message from American leaders, US leaders for many years. And the good thing is that we now see that Europeans are actually investing more in defence, they are investing more in defence in Europe and they are also contributing to a fairer burden-sharing.

Question 2: There was a talk between President-elect Trump and President Putin. Do you think that the time is right to try to normalize relations with Russia?

Secretary General: First of all I think, this is normal thing that President-elect Donald Trump speaks to world leaders, including of course the leader of Russia. And the message from NATO has been that we want dialogue with Russia. Russia is our biggest neighbor, Russia is there to stay and especially when tensions run high, especially when we face many different security challenges, it is important to have dialogue, to have a chance for a political dialogue open with Russia. That is NATOs message and there is no contradiction between strong defence and political dialogue. We think it is important to respect territorial integrity and sovereignty of all nations, including Ukraine. Therefore we will never respect or accept the violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine and that is the reason why we have responded in a way we have to the Russian aggression against Ukraine.

Question 3: Mr. Secretary General, Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry todays statement and they say that joint Georgian-NATO exercises are threats for the region. What is your response?

Secretary General: What NATO does is defensive, it is proportionate and it is fully aligned with our national obligations and we will continue to work with our close partner Georgia, and I visited Georgia recently and I welcome very much the development and the strengthened partnership between NATO and Georgia. In general I believe that is important that we stay calm and cool-headed, and that we sit down and find ways to avoid escalating tensions and continue to talk with Russia to address different issues, not least risk reduction transparency related to increased military activity close to our borders and NATO will continue to do so. We are planning to hold a new meeting of the NATO-Russia Council in the near future and that is one way of keeping the channels for political dialogue open with Russia to convene a new meeting of the NATO-Russia Council.

Question 4: Are you not afraid that NATO will come not relevant anymore, the EU is focusing on its own military defence and like the US, we have Donald Trump now, we had Brexit so how will the role of NATO will develop and are you afraid that EU is more concentrating on itself?

Secretary General: In times with uncertainty as we live in now with the turmoil and violence that we see in Iraq and Syria but also a more assertive Russia in the east, NATO is as important as ever and therefore I welcome that we see a strengthening of the cooperation within NATO and we see also that the European allies are stepping up after many years of cuts in defence spending, we now see increased In defence spending across Europe and Canada. So I am absolutely certain that NATO will continue to be the bedrock of our security and I also welcome the decision of the Foreign Ministers of the European Union yesterday to strengthen European defence, because that will be important, both for Europe, the European Union and for our transatlantic bond.
Just a goof up in the lab?

'I think it's very important this story be known'

(NaturalNews) If true, this would be one of the most unethical things a doctor could ever do  not to mention one of the most criminal.As reported by, a fertility doctor in Ottawa is facing accusations that he used his own sperm to impregnate two of his patients. Both patients had daughters who are now in their mid-20s.In recent days, a statement of claim that could lead to a class-action lawsuit was filed against Dr. Norman Barwin, who once worked at Ottawa's Broadview Fertility Clinic. The suit alleges that Barwin used his own sperm instead of that which his patients requested in at least two fertility cases. However, the claimants making the accusation say there could even be more pregnancies affected in the same manner.Rebecca Dixon, 26, said she first suspected that the fertility doctor her parents sought out years ago could actually be her father after she discovered she had celiac disease, a hereditary condition that neither of her parents were afflicted with. At about the same time,reported, Dixon's mother read an article reporting that it is unusual for a child with brown eyes to be born to parents whose eyes are blue.Dixon decided to follow up on the issues with her family physician, having a blood and DNA test performed. The tests confirmed her greatest fears: She and her father were not related by blood."Certainly it was a complete shock when they first told me, and there have been further shocks along the way," she told the Canadian news service.After being given what was most certainly disturbing news , the family began researching a series of cases against Barwin's practice. The found that he was suspended from the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons in 2013, after admitting he had inseminated four patients with the wrong sperm.In one case, a woman who saw Barwin as a patient in the mid-1980s with frozen sperm from her husband  who was being treated at the time for cancer  eventually became pregnant. However, in 2011, she discovered through DNA testing that her son was not at all related to her husband.When conducting their research, the Dixon family also noticed an "uncanny resemblance" between Rebecca Dixon and Dr. Barwin, the statement of claim says. She has dark hair and olive skin like Barwin, but neither of her parents do.In September, Dixon contacted Kathryn Palmer, 25, of Vancouver, who was also conceived at Barwin's clinic. Her parents had requested an anonymous sperm donor for their child.In 2015, Palmer submitted a sample of her DNA to the Family Tree website because she wanted to learn more about the sperm donor her parents used. The results? Her DNA linked her to a second cousin in New York City who, according to the legal filing, is a relative of Barwin's.The claim then says that Palmer contacted Barwin in August and he also agreed to undergo a DNA test. According to the legal filing, Palmer says she got an email from Barwin shortly thereafter in which he confirmed that he was indeed her biological father."He told me initially that he had no idea how it had happened," she told. "And then later he told me that he had been testing a sperm counter and this must've been some contamination."DNA testing has also determined that Palmer and Dixon are half-sisters who share the same biological dad, the claim notes.The potential class-action suit was filed by Dixon and her parents, Daniel and Davina Dixon. The claim seeks damages for pain and suffering, care costs for the past and future, as well as punitive damages. No monetary amount was listed in the claim.Palmer has not joined the class-action suit as yet, but plans on doing so."I think it's important for this story to be known," she said, adding that she believes there are other children out there.
(NaturalNews) When liberal investor George Soros gave $1.8 million to National Public Radio , it became part of the firestorm of controversy that jeopardized NPR's federal funding. But that gift only hints at the widespread influence the controversial billionaire has on the mainstream media. Soros, who spent $27 million trying to defeat President Bush in 2004, has ties to more than 30 mainstream news outlets  including The New York Times, Washington Post, the Associated Press, NBC and ABC.(Article by Dan Gainor, republished from FoxNews.com Prominent journalists like ABC's Christiane Amanpour and former Washington Post editor and now Vice President Len Downie serve on boards of operations that take Soros cash. This despite the Society of Professional Journalists' ethical code stating: "avoid all conflicts real or perceived."This information is part of an upcoming report by the Media Research Centers Business & Media Institute which has been looking into George Soros and his influence on the media.The investigative reporting start-up ProPublica is a prime example. ProPublica, which recently won its second Pulitzer Prize, initially was given millions of dollars from the Sandler Foundation to "strengthen the progressive infrastructure"  "progressive" being the code word for very liberal. In 2010, it also received a two-year contribution of $125,000 each year from the Open Society Foundations. In case you wonder where that money comes from, the OSF website is www.soros.org. It is a network of more than 30 international foundations, mostly funded by Soros, who has contributed more than $8 billion to those efforts.The ProPublica stories are thoroughly researched by top-notch staffers who used to work at some of the biggest news outlets in the nation. But the topics are almost laughably left-wing. The site's proud list of "Our Investigations" includes attacks on oil companies, gas companies, the health care industry, for-profit schools and more. More than 100 stories on the latest lefty cause: opposition to drilling for natural gas by hydraulic fracking. Another 100 on the evils of the foreclosure industry.Throw in a couple investigations making the military look bad and another about prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and you have almost the perfect journalism fantasy  a huge budget, lots of major media partners and a liberal agenda unconstrained by advertising.One more thing: a 14-person Journalism Advisory Board, stacked with CNN's David Gergen and representatives from top newspapers, a former publisher of The Wall Street Journal and the editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster. Several are working journalists , including: Jill Abramson, a managing editor of The New York Times; Kerry Smith, the senior vice president for editorial quality of ABC News; Cynthia A. Tucker, the editor of the editorial page of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.ProPublica is far from the only Soros-funded organization that is stacked with members of the supposedly neutral press.The Center for Public Integrity is another great example. Its board of directors is filled with working journalists like Amanpour from ABC, right along side blatant liberal media types like Arianna Huffington, of the Huffington Post and now AOL.Like ProPublica, the CPI board is a veritable Who's Who of journalism and top media organizations, including: Christiane Amanpour  Anchor of ABC's Sunday morning political affairs program, "This Week with Christiane Amanpour." A reliable lefty, she has called tax cuts "giveaways," the Tea Party "extreme," and Obama "very Reaganesque." Paula Madison  Executive vice president and chief diversity officer for NBC Universal, who leads NBC Universal's corporate diversity initiatives, spanning all broadcast television, cable, digital, and film properties. Matt Thompson  Editorial product manager at National Public Radio and an adjunct faculty member at the prominent Poynter Institute.The group's advisory board features: Ben Sherwood, ABC News president and former "Good Morning America" executive producerOnce again, like ProPublica, the Center for Public Integrity's investigations are mostly liberal  attacks on the coal industry, payday loans and conservatives like Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. The Center for Public Integrity is also more open about its politics, including a detailed investigation into conservative funders David and Charles Koch and their "web of influence."According to the center's own 990 tax forms, the Open Society Institute gave it $651,650 in 2009 alone.The well-known Center for Investigative Reporting follows the same template  important journalists on the board and a liberal editorial agenda. Both the board of directors and the advisory board contain journalists from major news outlets. The board features: Phil Bronstein (President), San Francisco Chronicle; David Boardman, The Seattle Times; Len Downie, former Executive Editor of the Washington Post, now VP; George Osterkamp, CBS News producer.Readers of the site are greeted with numerous stories on climate change, illegal immigration and the evils of big companies. It counts among its media partners The Washington Post, Salon, CNN and ABC News. CIR received close to $1 million from Open Society from 2003 to 2008.Why does it all matter? Journalists, we are constantly told, are neutral in their reporting. In almost the same breath, many bemoan the influence of money in politics. It is a maxim of both the left and many in the media that conservatives are bought and paid for by business interests. Yet where are the concerns about where their money comes from?Fred Brown, who recently revised the book "Journalism Ethics: A Casebook of Professional Conduct for News Media," argues journalists need to be "transparent" about their connections and "be up front about your relationship" with those who fund you.Unfortunately, that rarely happens. While the nonprofits list who sits on their boards, the news outlets they work for make little or no effort to connect those dots. Amanpour's biography page, for instance, talks about her lengthy career, her time at CNN and her many awards. It makes no mention of her affiliation with the Center for Public Integrity.If journalists were more up front, they would have to admit numerous uncomfortable connections with groups that push a liberal agenda, many of them funded by the stridently liberal George Soros. So don't expect that transparency any time soon.Read more at: FoxNews.com
EPA protecting pesticide companies

Beekeeping industry devastated

(NaturalNews) A group of beekeepers and environmentalists suing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has accused the agency of concealing documents that would prove the agency illegally decided to exempt neonicotinoid-treated seeds and their dust from pesticide regulatory laws.Neonicotinoids are a family of pesticides that are typically applied to seeds prior to planting. As they grow, the plants take the toxins up into all of their tissues, including pollen, nectar, flowers, leaves and seeds. These toxins then affect any organisms, from honeybees to humans, that later eat any part of the plants.These pesticides have been singled out as one of the major factors causing an ongoing, worldwide crash in pollinator populations. A 2015 review in the journalfound that the rise of neonicotinoids has led to a crash in bird populations, both by poisoning birds directly and by wiping out their food sources. The same year, the Task Force on Systemic Pesticides concluded from a review of 800 studies that neonicotinoids are widely destroying "non-target" animals including soil and aquatic life from earthworms to fish.The ecological effects of neonicotinoids have been compared in scale to those formerly caused by DDT.According to the lawsuit, the EPA issued a guidance document in 2013 that amounted to an exemption from the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) for neonicotinoid-treated seeds and their dust-off, even though these substances are materials that can release the pesticides into the environment. But such an exemption is illegal, the plaintiffs say.Lead plaintiff Jeff Anderson is a beekeeper who says that neonicotinoid-treated seeds and dust have killed hundreds of thousands of bees , contaminated soil and water, and killed birds.Indeed, at least two studies have implicated dust from neonicotinoid-treated seeds in a massive die-off of more than 37 million bees that took place following the corn planting season in Ontario in 2013.Yet according to plaintiffs' attorney Adam Keats, the EPA submitted only 200 pages of internal emails and documents related to the case, and these were "riddled with redactions." The agency held back another 5,000 pages of material related to the lawsuit."The administrative record is woefully incomplete," Keats said. "It left us in the dark on many issues we feel would be relevant to the case."Keats is an employee of the Center for Food Safety, another of the plaintiffs.U.S. District Judge William Alsup ordered the EPA to supply him with the 5,000 pages of documents so that he could privately review them and decide if they are relevant. The plaintiffs have asked that he see if the documents indicate that the EPA took any position on whether neonicotinoid-coated seeds and their dust-off are exempt from FIFRA, as well as any evidence that those two seed products might harm bees.Alsup admitted that his experience as a Justice Department attorney in the 1970s made him sympathetic to the plaintiffs' claims. During that time, he said, he regularly saw government attorneys conceal evidence from the courts."I was jaded by that experience," Alsup said.The heart of the lawsuit centers on whether the EPA's 2013 guidance was simply meant as an informal document, or whether it constituted an unofficial policy that has been near-universally applied. In the latter case, the EPA would be in violation of its obligations under FIFRA.The lawsuit is opposed not just by the EPA, but also by the farming industry. Industry attorney Karen Carr claimed that regulating neonicotinoid-treated seeds and their dust-off "would have a crushing effect on American agriculture."Keats replied that unregulated use of "incredibly toxic and incredibly deadly" neonicotinoid-coated seeds has already had such an effect on beekeepers, costing the industry billions.
Here's what happened.

(NaturalNews) Remember how Twitter kicked out Milo Yiannopolis for being mean and censored the hashtag #HillaryforPrison?Well, I guess that censorship is a one-way street because the repugnant hashtag #RapeMelania was trending this morning and no one at Twitter seemed to feel that was worth censoring. Other recent allowable Twitter trends have been #DieWhitesDie and #AssassinateTrump  but that's cool too.(Article republished from DaisyLuther.com And Twitter censors aside, where is the feminist outrage? They call President Elect Trump a misogynist but they don't denounce this?Perhaps I misunderstood "feminism" and thought that their good will towards women meant all of us, not just the ones who agree with them politically. Maybe "rape culture" is okay as long as it happens to a woman married to a man they don't like. Maybe Melania is asking for it because they don't like her husband.I guess this is what happens when I skip Women's Studies class. I miss out on which women can acceptably be threatened with rape and which women can't. It's all so very confusing.It all started when some loser at a protest had this sign outside of one of the Trump Hotels.And shortly, the hashtag was trending. Here's a screenshot from this morning.Oh, and here's another delightful Tweet someone screen-captured.Of course, this isn't the first time the Left let their misogynism show. Who can forget this memorable moment?Remember, people who voted for Trump are the evil humans.Meanwhile, Trump supporters are denounced as xenophobic, misogynistic, homophobic, hate-filled secret KKK members who can now bring their white hoods out of the closet.Oh  and still nothing from Hillary Clinton, President Obama, and Bernie Sanders.Thank goodness #LoveTrumpsHate.Read more at: DaisyLuther.com
Spagyric extract means you get the benefit of the full hemp plant

(NaturalNews) After eight months of laboratory method development and product testing, today I'm announcing the first 100% authentic, full spectrum cannabinoid hemp extract that meets my strict requirements for scientific analysis and molecular authentication. Native Hemp Solutions is a new brand, jointly developed with EnerHealth and CWC Labs (my science lab), and its analysis is based onover the last eight months.Because there's a lot of counterfeit CBD in the industry today -- and wildly inaccurate label claims all over the place -- the importance of establishing a trusted, scientifically valid brand simply can't be overstated.The new method, based on LC-MS-TOF analysis, took me over eight months to develop with my team at CWC Labs. It is now, by far,, capable of orders of magnitude greater sensitivity, accuracy and reproducibility compared to traditional analysis methods used by other labs.It simultaneously measures the concentration of individual cannabinoids (CBD, CBD-A, CBG, CGN, etc.) while also. This "molecular identity" confirmation is achieved through advanced mass spec analysis methods that includeand, none of which are achievable via traditional HPLC analysis used by most hemp industry labs.The result is that Native Hemp Solutions hemp extracts are 100% authentic, 100% scrutinized in my ISO accredited science lab, and 100% guaranteed to contain the total cannabinoid concentrations stated on the label. No other hemp product in the industry is subjected to this level of scientific scrutiny and advanced instrumentation analysis. (Seriously, I've spoken to directors at existing labs running HPLC only, and some of them are unbelievably clueless about why their numbers are so wrong all the time... and they're using the wrong instruments and injecting a thousand times too much sample onto their chromatography columns!)All Native Hemp Solutions extracts are extremely low in THC (only "trace" levels, not even detectable by most labs) while containing very high levels of naturally occurring cannabidiols, which include primarily CBD (cannabidiol) and CBD-A (cannabidiolic acid), both natural molecules in their natural ratios from nature.To obtain a total cannabinoids concentration number, we test both CBD and CBD-A concentrations and add them together for a final TOTAL that you'll find on the label. (All the CBG, trace THC, CBN and other cannabinoids are bonus molecules we don't even count for the label claim.)Because they are full spectrum spagyric extracts, Native Hemp Solutions cannabinoid oils contain all the naturally occurring phytochemicals expressed by the original plant. This means they contain the terpenes, macro minerals, trace minerals, pigments and other plant-based molecules that provide aof functional molecules, just like Mother Nature intended.The total potency of CBD + CBD-A is available as 250mg, 500mg or 1000mg per fl. oz. (each bottle is one fluid oz., or 30 ml). The rest of the solution is made mostly of MCT Coconut Oil and Organic Grape Alcohol (GMO Free, Gluten Free).(CBD-A will slowly degrade to CBD over time, but the total of both added together will remain a near-constant.)The scientific analysis results for each lot will soon be posted online at CWClabs.com so you can look up any lot number printed on the bottle and see the actual testing results. Native Hemp Solutions hemp extracts are shipped from Colorado and are legal in all 50 states. Shipping is free across the USA, including Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico. It is currentlyThis first production lot begins shipping this Friday on a first come, first-served basis. Get your order in now at NativeHempSolutions.com
Sadly the U.S. economy still runs on oil

The road to clean energy

If you really want to save the planet, stop eating food from over 250 miles away

(NaturalNews) Environmentalists are pulling their hair out over the Trump election victory, horrified that Trump is going to unleash more fracking, more pipelines and more oil exploration that will inevitably result in environmental damage.I'm an environmental scientist, by the way. In my private laboratory CWC Labs, I ran the EPA Watch program that tested hundreds of water samples from municipal water supplies all across America, discovering that 6.7% of them were contaminated with toxic heavy metals . The EPA never called me to ask for the data. The Washington Post never covered it, and the leftist media didn't care one bit.So let's reject the ridiculous notion that the leftist political establishment cares about the environment. They don't. The political left is pro-GMO, which pollutes the world with genetic pollution. They're pro pharma, which pollutes the world with pharmaceutical manufacturing runoff chemicals. They're pro mercury (in vaccines and dental fillings), which pollutes the world with a toxic heavy metals. Heck, Hillary Clinton was Monsanto's attorney! She's a pro-mercury, pro-GMO, pro-Big Pharma industry hack!Don't think for a minute that Obama, or Clinton, or anybody from the establishment left gives a damn about the environment, because they don't. Sure, they roll out bogus investments in green energy schemes from time to time, but all those turn out to be nothing more thanwho kick back a percentage to democrat re-election campaigns.Even so-called "climate change" has been nothing but a massive moneymaking scam to pad the pockets of lunatic leftists like Al Gore. How does paying money to Al Gore protect the environment? It doesn't. It's all a scam. There's no science behind it whatsoever, and the real satellite temperature data show a strong COOLING trend over the last eight months, by the way.I don't like it any more than you do, but the U.S. economy still runs on oil, and if you were really opposed to oil,, wouldn't you?For my part, I'm right now in the process of doing exactly that. I'm replacing a ranch vehicle with an all-electric vehicle that will be charged by solar.If that goes well, I'm looking at Tesla's upcoming all-electric pickup truck as an option in the next 2-3 years. I'd rather drive an all-electric vehicle charged by solar than keep pumping gas into a combustion engine.But until that transition accelerates,. The big rigs that haul commercial goods down the highway, by the way, are diesel fuel guzzlers. Mercedes has introduced an "Urban eTruck" that's all electric, as you can see in the video below, but its range is obviously extremely limited once you attach a trailer to it.Simply stated,for America to make the switch from oil to electric. This realization is especially true across commercial trucks, commercial airplanes (which mostly run on jet fuel), trains, construction equipment and of course farm equipment. I own John Deere tractors. They run on diesel for the simple reason that only petroleum has the energy density necessary to power a tractor.Like you, I would love to live in a world where tractors are electric, dirt loaders are electric and the big rigs rolling down the highway are electric -- all recharged by clean solar or wind energy., and if there's one huge problem with people on the left, it's that they tend to be completely delusional, living in their make believe worlds that don't actually exist.In the real world,. And since that's the real world, we'd better get energy independent as quickly as possible so that our economy can't be held hostage by foreign nations like Saudi Arabia, which murders gays and donates millions to democrats.If I were advising President Trump on energy issues, I would urge him to do these two things:#1) INVEST in a national science effort to revolutionize battery storage (energy density) technology. This is the key sticking point for electric vehicles of all kinds. We need to achieve, at minimum, anto make all-electric commercial vehicles feasible.#2) ACHIEVE energy independence across fossil fuels so that foreign nations cannot threaten America's energy infrastructure.This means we have to drill in the short term. We have to build pipelines for now. We have to burn "clean" coal. But if we're smart, we'll be working to make all that obsolete in the long run. The long-term goal must be CLEAN energy from renewable sources, obviously. Yet we can't rely on delusional thinking to get there. We have to follow the laws of physics and develop the technology to make fossil fuels obsolete.A final note to all those who say they want to save the planet: If you're serious about it, stop eating food shipped in from anywhere that's more than 250 miles away."Food miles" describes the number of miles your food has traveled to get to your plate. Every food mile has an ecological footprint associated with it, and most self-proclaimed "environmentalists" are snarfing down food from thousands of miles away, contradicting their very philosophy of reducing carbon emissions.If you're living in Chicago and eating fresh fruits or vegetables in January, you're polluting the planet! Fresh fruit doesn't grow in Chicago in January, obviously. It probably came to you from South America.So don't wag your finger in Trump's face and say he's not doing enough to protect the planet when you're eating your entire body weight in CO2 emissions every week just from the road miles on the food you're consuming. If you're going to criticize others over fossil fuels,and stop using air conditioning or heating. Only then do you have the right to condemn others for their energy policies.Or instead, you could join me in the real world where. My long term goal is to drop all fossil fuels and go all-electric with a large solar charging infrastructure. I already grow a portion of my own food locally, and I hope to vastly increase that in the coming years.I havewho turn weeds and bugs into nutritious eggs. And I have Nigerian Dwarf Goats that turn leaves into fertilizer. I promote rainwater collection and I developed the super popular Food Rising non-electric, non-circulating hydroponic grow system . I practice seed saving, low-water landscaping and permaculture. These are all steps in the right direction, but until humanity develops better energy storage technology, we can't go all electric on trucks, tractors, trains and planes. It's basic physics.During this transition, I'm going to support, which means drilling, piping and burning fossil fuels... but my hope is to. That's the practical, intelligent way to move forward and get us to clean, abundant energy in the end.
Traditional immediate release (IR) systems, such as tablets and capsules, are designed to act as reservoirs from which the active ingredient(s) can be released over a predetermined time interval. Alternatively, modified release (MR) systems are fabricated by altering the timing and/or the rate of release of the active substance to achieve continuous release of active(s) over an extended period after ingestion.1 Per FDAs definition, MR oral solid dosage forms can be described as either extended release (ER) or delayed release (DR).2 DR systems are usually designed to delay the release of active(s) until the dosage form has passed through the lower pH of the stomach and is exposed to the higher intestinal pH. These systems are also referred to as enteric-coated dosage forms. An ER dosage form is designed to initially release an adequate amount of active(s) or the loading dose, and then the remaining amount or maintenance dose, is slowly released.3,4

Sustained release, sustained action, prolonged action, controlled release, extended action and time release are commonly used terms to identify delivery systems that are designed to continuously release actives over an extended period of time after administration of a single dose. Although, oral IR delivery systems have been the most convenient and predominant route of administration in the industry,5 consumer inconvenience due to frequent dosing can result in missed doses and non-compliance.6,7 The objective of MR delivery systems is to achieve improved efficacy, reduced dosing frequency, minimized side effects, uniformed release of actives over a prolonged period of time and improved consumer compliance.8,9

Despite several advantages, MR products have a few shortcomings. For example, the risk of dose dumpingwhen the entire amount of active is released immediately after ingestioncan possibly cause a health issue. In the case of acute discomfort after ingesting a dose, the prompt termination of intake cannot easily be achieved. Additionally, relatively higher costs of product development and formulation, along with less flexibility in adjusting doses and larger sizes of such products, can also be deterring factors for the formulator when developing MR delivery systems for nutraceuticals.10,11,12

An ideal ER delivery system should be able to release the actives at a predetermined rate, dissolve in the gastrointestinal (GI) fluids, and be absorbed at a rate that is sufficient to replace the equivalent amount that is being metabolized and excreted. Most technologies used to achieve this objective are based on polymeric systems. In general, synthetic and semi-synthetic polymers are preferred over natural polymers due to lesser material variability. Most of the commercially available ER products can be classified into three broad categories: matrix, reservoir and osmotic systems. Matrix systems are the most widely used in nutraceutical applications to achieve extended release. These systems are effective, versatile, economical and easy to scale up for manufacturing using conventional equipment, without additional capital investment.

In a typical matrix system, active(s) and rate-controlling material(s) are homogenously dispersed and mixed in a dosage form. Matrix-type systems can be further classified into hydrophilic and hydrophobic matrices based on the aqueous solubility of rate-controlling material used in the formulation. In hydrophilic systems, the rate-controlling material is relatively water soluble and tends to swell, whereas, hydrophobic systems consist of water-insoluble inert materials, with minimal swelling upon exposure, to a dissolution medium. Hydroxypropylmethyl cellulose (HPMC), methyl cellulose, hydroxypropyl cellulose, xanthan gum, alginates and modified starches are commonly used in hydrophilic matrices.13 Polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, ethyl cellulose and acrylates are used in hydrophobic matrices.14 Several physicochemical factors may influence the release rate of actives from the matrix. Dose size, ionization, partition coefficient and aqueous solubility of the actives are paramount and should be considered when developing such matrices.15 In vitro assessment of the matrix during product development is equally crucial for a successful ER delivery system. To achieve this objective, a dissolution profile of the formulation is usually studied by using the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) dissolution apparatus to verify the desired in vitro release rate.

A typical reservoir system consists of a core, containing active ingredient(s), surrounded by a hydrophobic rate-controlling film. A reservoir system is mostly used to modify the release rate of highly water-soluble materials. In this delivery system, the materials are either coated or microencapsulated with slowly dissolving materials such as cellulose and polyethylene glycol. Solubility and thickness of the coating are major contributing factors in controlling the dissolution rate of such systems.16,17

The basic principal of an osmotic system is similar to a reservoir system, the main difference being that the core in an osmotic system is surrounded by a semi-permeable membrane with an orifice for the release of bioactive materials. The release of the active from such systems is mainly governed by solubility and osmotic pressure of the core; size of the delivery orifice; and physicochemical characteristics of the rate-limiting, semi-permeable membrane.18

The market for MR delivery systems in the nutraceutical industry has come a long way, and will continue to grow with increasing consumer demand. By far, the matrix system is the most preferred delivery system in the nutraceutical industry for ER products. This technology offers a relatively simpler approach to manufacturing, involving the direct compression of blended actives and inactive materials in a solid dosage form, where the active is embedded in the matrix of rate-limiting materials. In some cases, depending on the nature of the materials, a granulation step may be necessary prior to compression.

Naeem Shaikh, Ph.D., leads the formulation team and drives the research that helps inspire and propel the product momentum at National Enzyme Co. (nationalenzyme.com). As an accomplished and published scientist, Shaikh leverages 28 years of renowned experience, with previous research ranging from micro-encapsulation to release methods for solid and liquid dosage forms.

References

1Qiu, Y. Developing Oral Dosage Forms." Pharmaceutical Theory and Practice. 2009:469-496.

2FDA, Guidance for Industry: SUPAC-MR: US Food and Drug Administration, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. 1997.

3Khan M. Controlled release oral dosage forms: some recent advances in matrix type drug delivery systems." The Sciences. 2001;1(5):350-354.

4Ghosh A, Gupta KS. Formulation, development and in vitro evaluation of sustained release matrix tablets of salbutamol sulfate." JPRHC. 2003;2(3):222-227.

5Shaikh NA. 2016, May/Jun - Orally Disintegrating Tablets  An Overview, INSIDER, Retrieved from http://www.naturalproductsinsider.com/articles/2016/06/an-overview-of-orally-disintegrating-tablets.aspx

6Lee T, Robinson, JR. Remington: The Science and Practice of Pharmacy, 20th ed., 2000:903-929.

7Ansel H, Allen LV, Popovich NG. Pharmaceutical dosage forms and drug delivery systems, 9th ed., 2005:257-271.

8Chugh I, Seth N, Rana AC. Oral sustained release drug delivery system: An overview." IRJP. 2012;3(5):57-62.

9Bhalla N, Deep A, Goswami M. An overview on various approaches to oral controlled drug delivery system via Gastro retentive." Drug Delivery System. IRJP. 2012;3(4):128-133.

10Pogula M, Nazeer S. Extended release formulation." International Journal of Pharmacy and Technology. 2010;2(4):625-684.

11Jain N. Controlled and Novel Drug Delivery Systems. 2004;1:419-435.

12Dandagi P et.al. Development and Evaluation of theophylline and salbutamol sulfate sustained release tablets." Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. 2005;76(5):598-602.

13Robinson J, Lee V. Controlled Drug Delivery. 2nd ed. 1987;4-15.

14Sayed I et.al. Preparation and comparative evaluation of sustained release metoclopramide hydrochloride tablets." Saudi Pharmaceutical Journal. 2009;17:283-288.

15Wani M. Controlled release system  A review. 2008;6(1). Retrieved from www.pharmainfo.net/review.

16Shargel L. Modified release drug products." Applied Biopharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics, 4th ed. 1999:169-171.

17Venkatraman S et al. An overview of controlled release systems." Handbook of Pharmaceutical controlled release technology. 2000;431-465.

18Thakor R et al. Review: Osmotic drug delivery systems current scenario." Journal of Pharmaceutical Research. 2010;3(4):771-775.+
Having a president who called climate change a 'hoax' is an alarming scenario for climate change diplomats worldwide.

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to bring forth major changes with how the U.S. government handled issues including climate change. Some say even the climate change policy needed saving from the 'Trump effect' but do it?

It is worth noting, though, that Trump's stand will affect not only the U.S. and its climate change policy but it will have a global repercussion as well. Reports say that experts during a convention in Marrakech are working hard to instill to the Trump administration that the world needs unity in most aspects including the fight against climate change in order to succeed.

This was after the newly elected president of the United States threatened to withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement to which most countries in the world already agreed to in order to protect the planet from future man-man climate anomalies such as global warming and greenhouse gas emissions.

Rumors sparked last Sunday that Trump and his team are looking for ways to leave the deal. So climate change diplomats are also looking for ways to save the pact from the Trump effect. The U.S. withdrawing its support will have a big impact worldwide.

"The Paris agreement carries an enormous amount of weight and credibility and it has been signed by over 190 and ratified by over 100 countries and what we are seeing here is a lot of enthusiasm and a willingness to bring the process further," Patricia Espinosa, UN's climate chief said in a statement.

Trump's administration will start early next year, and until then there is no clear stand as to which path the new president will follow. Before Trump, the UN deal is getting ahead in making top influential players to sign the pact and enforce it. If the U.S. withdraws, it will threaten to disrupt the pattern and the world may not have a unified and enforced global climate change governing body and that would be tragic.

Sadly, some look at Trump's victory as the end of America's lead role in fighting against climate change. With that, a new leading nation is rumored to take its place and that is China, according to Inverse.

The Paris Climate Change agreement is to halt greenhouse emissions by 2050 and without the cooperation of all its members, the goal might just be impossible to reach.
The second debate among the contenders for the rights nomination for presidency saw some unexpected attacks on Sarkozy

The debate earlier this month between French politicians hoping to win the conservative presidential nomination was a clash of personalities, an illustration of different right-wing traditions, a contest to write the history and define the legacy of Sarkozys presidency, a fierce discussion on appropriate tactical alliances, and, at some points, a technical debate.

The debaters included a former president, Nicolas Sarkozy, two former prime ministers, three former heavy-weight ministers, and an unknown, a 53-year-old convert to Catholicism who heads the small Christian Democratic Party, specialises in labour issues, who paid a visit to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and supports Donald Trump, claiming he fears Clintons ties with Wall Street.

Jean-Frederic Poisson, the pro-Trump candidate, was the revelation of the first presidential debate and impressed the pundits, even if his chances are considered slim. Then he began bungling with a statement on Zionist lobbies, and completely sunk during the second debate.

These kinds of candidates do not really run for the nomination  they prepare for the next one (for the 2022 election) and try to present their credentials to public opinion.

The same goes for former minister Jean Francois Cope, who has a peculiar trajectory. A former government heavy-weight minister, the mayor of Meaux, at the beginning of his career he impressed the intellectuals with his culture, his curiosity, his frank talk, his wit and his incredible ability in la conversation and abstract reasoning.

Then, all of sudden, he became a populist. A non-practising Jew, twice married, the second time to a psychiatrist of Algerian descent, the lawyer is a former student of the prestigious Ecole nationale dadministration, and also specialises in new public management. He was the secretary-general of the party and was forced to resign after his implication in a financial scandal concerning election funding.

The investigation exculpated and exonerated him, and he claims he was the victim of machinations orchestrated by Sarkozy and Fillon. But his reputation has been badly damaged and needs much repair work.

He impressed the pundits with his self-mockery and his nice responses, but, if we are to believe the polls, the voters remain unconvinced. Both Cope and Poisson are competing to avoid last place.

Nathalie Kosciusko Morizet, like Cope, was a heavy-weight government minister and has presidential ambitions  but not for this election, for the next one. She is the youngest of the lot, the daughter of a great dynasty, a product of Frances "grandes ecoles" system, and all my friends who have met her have been impressed by her intellectual ability.

Deeply interested in ecological issues, she has connections with both the rightist and the leftist elites. But is this a blessing or a curse? She seems too centrist and too modern for the current publics opinion mood, but I might be wrong. During the debate, she was quite impressive, although I found her obsessed by a kind of hatred for Nicolas Sarkozy.

Bruno Lemaire is a former diplomat and I admit to not knowing much about him. For me, he committed a serious mistake when he insisted on the need for new blood. This seemed to imply being a relatively unknown guy was good enough, and like an attempt to capitalise on others inglorious past.

Some of his propositions looked interesting, others not serious; of course, the same could be said about many others programmes.

Nevertheless, he mishandled the two debates and he now needs a miracle to achieve his target: becoming the second or the third man. But in Frances elections, miracles can happen.

The three main contenders, Sarkozy, Alain Juppe and Francois Fillon are well-known and need no introduction. Each of them has his distinctive trademark.

Former prime minister Juppe is leading in the polls, but Sarkozy has the favours of the rightist electorate and of Francois Hollande: many centrists and leftists could accept in their hearts a Juppe victory, but have such hatred for the former president that they would, even reluctantly, vote for Hollande to avoid a second Sarkozy mandate.

Fillon, during the debates, looked as serious, brilliant and statesman as ever, but he lags behind in the polls and his only chance would be a collapse of Sarkozys campaign.

What was striking during the second debate was the general onslaught on Sarkozy. Almost everybody, with the relative exceptions of the two other top guys, fiercely attacked him. This seems strange, as Sarkozys constituency is a solid minority and is not going to shrink (except for new scandals). The hatred Sarkozy inspires in many is not a satisfactory explication: these professional politicians know how to rein in their passions.

There are three possible explanations for this surprise: everybody thinks Sarkozy will lose and does not want to antagonise the next president, Juppe. Alternatively, everybody has a deal with Juppe and is focusing on the weakening of his main competitor. Or, everybody believes things could happen and thinks he (or she) has a chance to emerge second in the first round of primarys election. So weakening the second-placed candidate looks more realistic than attacking the very solid Juppe.

Nevertheless, they might unwittingly have helped Sarkozy. The former president is at his best when he is under attack, his aggressive leanings look justified and are better accepted, and these attacks strengthens the cohesion of his constituencies.

Moreover, he looked quiet and he did not lose his temper and his replies were strong and often convincing. At some points, he was helped by Fillon, as Sarkozys legacy is, to a great extent, Fillons as prime minister.

For instance, both said the shrinking of polices workforce, which they had implemented, was convincingly explained as a necessary consequence of the 2008 economic crisis and the resulting budgetary restrictions.

But these attacks on Sarkozy had a consequence: the former president spent a large amount of his allocated time to reply, explain and repel offensives, and did not have enough time to seriously attack Juppe. He contented himself with a strong criticism of Juppes alliance with centrist former presidential candidate Francois Bayrou.

But, once again, these constraints are not necessarily bad news.

To be continued

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In May, Canada faced one of the worst (not to mention, costliest) fires in its history that destroyed thousands of homes and displaced thousands of residents in Fort McMurray, Alberta. Most people associate forest fires with devastation, fear, and calamity. However, according to scientists, not all forms of forest fires are bad for the environment. In fact, forest fires are natural occurrences which help maintain the health of forests.

The environmental commissioner of Northern Ontario, Commissioner Diane Saxe, released a report indicating that some forest fires are actually good for the environment. Saxe noted that local authorities could "let the fires burn longer" or even "light controlled forest fires." According to her report, as we suppress fires in forests, we are actually creating a disturbance on their natural ecology. It is through these fires that the forests of today are what they are now.

Her report has pointed out that wildfires created "clearings" in the forest allowing for pasture for large animals such as moose and caribou. It could be noted that the disturbance to the health of the forest may be the reason why the population of these animals is dropping. As the brushy undergrowth are cleared out by the fire, faster and stronger regeneration of the surroundings will be apparent.

Furthermore, heat from these fires can soften resin in jack pines' cones which could speed up the release of seeds for younger trees. In addition to that, forest fires can naturally kill pests and reduce the use of chemical controls which harm a number of species within the forest.

Believe it or not, there are such things as prescribed fires. These are normally ignited by park staff and managed by well-trained specialists. Both authorities should be set limits for these permitted forest fires. The end goal is to produce safe and controlled fire to achieve an ecological balance that will maintain the health of Ontario forests.
A New York-based company is now manufacturing furniture out of fungi.

Ecovative Design is a startup that wants to utilize mycelium for its growth. This is the thread-like "roots" that mushrooms have when small pieces of stalks and stems are bound together. They use the same roots to meld into soft packaging for glassware, or even pressed into boards for footstools they are selling.

Ecovative co-founder Gavin McIntyre explained that it's like growing a tree shaped into furniture. Only this time it's mushrooms that growing. The simple stools are organic markers in the ambitious efforts of researchers to commercial grow fungi, bacteria, and protein. The future may hold bacteria-based clothing and building materials.

Supporters like McIntyre are envisioning a world where micro-organisms are factories of the future. This will inevitably displace energy-costly manufacturing tools with more sustainable models. According to Phys.org, the field is still young, but its products hold promise. Companies are now making bricks without kilns, leather without cows, and silks without spiders.

One of their myco-boards look and feel similar to particle boards in cabinets and big-box store furniture. However, a look in their factory will show that the minuscule white mycelium threads around the place will look like giant pieces of frosted wheat. It's as if the fungus themselves are assembling on their own.

McIntyre and co-foudner Eben Bayer were students in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute almost a decade now. Now 90 percent of people in their business have found initial success selling a compostable alternative to plastic foams used for packaging items like computers and glass bottles.

However, the two believed the product still had more potential. Now they have figured out a way to create boards by applying head and temperature, and now flexible cushions. They are selling grown-for-home items like their Imperial Stool for $199. Their other bricks and boards are made from their "biofabricated" products.
Norway's biggest online grocery store has introduced the world's first self-driving grocery cars for efficiency and cheaper delivery of products.

Norway's Kolonial.no with IT consulting company Acando has decided to test the new technological possibilities of grocery delivery and has launched its first self-driving grocery store. Kolonial.no co-founder Karl Munthe-Kaas told audiences at a press conference that they want to use automatic and self-driving functions of cars to deliver groceries in a simpler and cheaper way.

According to Xinhua, customers will be able to get their food delivered at their doorstep or pick it up on one of their 30 pick-up points. They will be able to track the vehicles via an online application where the vehicle is at the moment and even decide when and where they would like to pick up their products.

Munthe-Kaas explained they just need to find the kind of regulations they have to meet in order for their project to be approved. However, they are confident that the digitally advanced country of Norway will pave way to the first autonomous grocery delivery service in the world.

Transport minister Ketil Slvik-Olsen said there will be a bill to approve such projects next spring, with a decision to be expected in summer next year. Solvik-Olsen expressed the need for Norway to open up to such technologies given that other countries are doing so in the countries.

Acando Norway told Xinhua that the average price per vehicle would probably be 240,000 dollars. This is because projects like these may have other functions such as glass and metal collection, and not just grocery products.

Others talk about how the service can revolutionize families. Not only will it make groceries easier, but it can halve the expenses of the household that have to drive and go to the grocery all the time.
The list of advances in the field of 3-D printing keeps getting longer. Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institutes for Mechanics of Materials IWM and for Environmental, Safety, and Energy Technology UMSICHT are collaborating with industry partners in the process of producing digitalized insoles for people with diabetes by using new software and the use of 3-D printers. People diagnosed with diabetes may suffer from the nerves in their foot becoming atrophied. Specially made insoles promise relief because they are customized to be very soft in the area of the injury.

Health insurances companies are supporting the efforts of researchers to digitalize the entire process of making specialty insoles to allow the collection of scientific data on them.

LAUF, a German acronym for "laser-assisted construction of customized footwear," is the project funded by Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

"Digital foot mapping is already common practice. As part of this project, we have now also completely digitalized the insole production process," stated IWM scientist Dr. Tobias Ziegler. "Using newly developed software, the orthopedic shoemaker can design an insole for an individual patient and can print out the result on a 3-D printer."

IWM scientists have meanwhile been optimizing the three-dimensional structures when it is used for insoles. How soft or rigid insoles are relies not just on the material used, but also on how it is shaped. "First we think about structures -- straight rods, crooked arms, or triangles, for instance -- then we produce a computer model of them, key in the data for a particular material, and simulate how rigid the result is under pressure," Ziegler recounted. "Where does an insole need to be soft, or more rigid? By altering the structure type, we can precisely determine the rigidity of the insole."

The IWM team used application-oriented load simulations to resolve which structures are needed where to achieve the desired results. They tested the material's load-bearing strength and its expected durability. "We simulate the entire production process, too, in order to identify where there is potential for optimization," Ziegler explained. He also used this approach in relation to other materials and structures for 3-D printing.

In two or so years, this software might be available to orthopedic technicians through Instituto de Educacao Tecnologica (IETEC), a member of the project.
The status of global politics remains uncertain since the start of 2016. Mere days ago, the United States was caught off-guard by the unprecedented win of the Republican candidate, Donald Trump. Similarly, earlier this year, the results of Brexit have left residents of the UK dumbfounded.

According to studies, more than 70 percent of Americans are frustrated over the outcome of the election. Likewise, 72 percent of young people ages 18-30 have expressed their exasperation surrounding the Brexit vote.

Considering the volatility of the global political stage, there is an apprehension towards the future of a few fields and industries. Suffice to say, the statement cannot truer at least surrounding the fate of science in the UK considering the decision to leave the European Union. Scientists from across the UK have since turned to the upcoming Autumn Statement for some answers. The UK government has yet to comment on what the Philip Hammond, Chancellor of the Exchequer, has in store come the speech.

In an article by Nature, a few scientists and industry insiders have expressed their apprehension over the upcoming statement. Jennifer Rohn, cell biologist from the University College London, explained that the unlike past Autumn Statements, the content of the upcoming one is completely hard to predict.

"The Autumn Statement is a real nail-biter for scientists. In the past, even when we've been unsure of the specific outcomes, we've at least been familiar with the Treasury's general stance on the importance of science. With a change of guard, everything is up in the air" detailed Rohn.

Sarah Main, director of the Campaignfor Science and Engineering in London, remains hopeful about what the Hammond has in store for the field of science in the UK. She explains that for her intent to support the field is more important than the amount of money the sector would be getting.
A team of researchers from the University Medical Center Utreacht has devised a way for locked-in ALS patients to communicate with other people. The technology uses a brain implant, which enables the patient to control a computer with his or her mind.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, tested the new technology to a locked-in ALS woman patient who can't speak or move due to her condition. The experts implanted electrodes in her brain, which immediately tracked brain activity. This will then let the ALS patient to wirelessly control a speech computer for communication.

The patient controls the speech computer through her mind by finger movement, which changes the brain signals detected by the electrodes. The said changes will then be converted to a mouse click, which she can use to spell out words in an alphabet on the computer screen. She can also delete and select a letter or a word.

The letters from the alphabet appears on the screen one by one, and the patient can select them through the brain-influenced mouse clicks.

"This is a major breakthrough in achieving autonomous communication among severely paralyzed patients whose paralysis is caused by either ALS, a cerebral hemorrhage or trauma. In effect, this patient has had a kind of remote control placed in her head, which enables her to operate a speech computer without the use of her muscles," said Professor Nick Ramsey from the UMC via Science Daily.

The doctors were able to implant the electrodes on the patient's brain through surgery, where they placed it via tiny holes in the skull. A transmitter, which amplifies the signal to the computer, was also implanted in her collarbone.

Despite the numerous research regarding the use of speech computers via the brain, this is the first case in the world that an ALS patient has actually succesfully communicated while at home.

"We hope that these results will stimulate research into more advanced implants, so that some day not only people with communication problems, but also people with paraplegia, for example, can be helped," Ramsey concluded.
President-elect Donald Trump might instead refocus all efforts on the exploration of the solar system and Jupiter's icy moon Europa.

During a campaign speech, Trump outlined his plan for NASA veering away from being a "logistics agency" for low earth orbit activity and refocusing on exploring the farthest reaches of the solar system by the end of the century, Space Policy Online reports.

"I will free NASA from the restriction of serving primarily as a logistics agency for low earth orbit activity," Trump, who was then a Republican presidential candidate, said at the Orlando Sanford International Airport in October. "Instead we will refocus its mission on space exploration. Under a Trump administration, Florida and America will lead the way into the stars."

While still short of details, Trump's space policy could include major investments in space exploration, strong partnerships between public and private entities, and bold, ambitious goals for NASA.

The plan is heavily influenced by former Republican congressman Robert Walker, who was the chairman of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee during the 90s. Shortly after winning the elections, Trump recruited Walker to draft a plan for NASA. According to a report by Mother Jones, the space policy includes mining valuable minerals from the asteroid belt and visiting Jupiter's icy moon Europa, which is one of the best places to find life in the solar system.

Plans to explore the Red Planet may be pushed back since according to Walker, Mars is "too limited a target," and that existing chemical-fueled rockets could get the job done with some investment. "If you're looking at technology that looks for the solar system, you are then likely to move toward plasma rockets, toward nuclear-powered rockets, certainly toward solar sails," Walker told Mother Jones. "There are a variety of things that you can do, which allows you to apply power throughout the mission."

In 2013, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope discovered water vapor plumes erupting from the surface of Europa, which is indicative of subsurface oceans beneath the moon's surface.
A spacecraft can simply fly by Europa and study its watery plumes by taking samples of its atmosphere, a new study suggested.

Europa's massive plumes of water vapor have already stopped erupting. But according to researchers from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, the plumes can still be studied by sampling the constantly shifting chemical patterns in the atmosphere caused by the plumes themselves, New Scientist reports.

"Those are free samples: we can just fly by and we can grab some of that material," Cynthia Phillips at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, said in a statement. "That's our best way of understanding what's going on - not just at Europa's surface but, in the case of plume sampling, the subsurface - from orbit."

In 2012, the Hubble Space Telescope found evidence that plumes of water vapor were vented off Jupiter's icy moon, which is indicative of subsurface oceans beneath the moon's surface. An image of the water plumes being expelled again from Europa was presented by NASA's Hubble team in September. According to scientists, the ocean could be one of the best places to look for life in the solar system.

However, the problem is that Europa seems to expel water plumes at irregular intervals. But the researchers have found a way to sample the plumes even if they are not active when a spacecraft flies past the Jovian moon.

According to study, Europa's gravity may pull material from the plumes back to the surface, creating a layer of frost. Eventually, some of the particles will be thrown off the surface by evaporating or by being thrown upwards when charged particles from Jupiter's magnetosphere hit Europa's surface, the researchers said.

The particles could fill Europa's atmosphere, producing constantly shifting chemical patterns, and could provide insights about the water plumes and the composition of the surface even if the eruption has stopped. According to study author Ben Teolis, they could calculate where the particles came from and map them out on the moon's surface.

"The potential to see the spatial distribution of the molecules and the change in the atmosphere over time is pretty spectacular," Teolis told New Scientist. "Understanding this problem is a major element in nailing down the composition of Europa's subsurface ocean, and the potential for it to support life."

The discovery of the water plumes presents a great opportunity for proposed missions that will explore Europa and probe its oceans to find evidence of life. NASA is working on a flyby mission to Jupiter's moon, which is targeted for launch in 2020.
The United States will become a "rogue country" if it decides to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, a former Irish president said.

"It would be a tragedy for the United States and the people of the United States if the U.S. becomes a kind of rogue country," Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and human rights advocate, told Reuters on Sunday. "The only country in the world that is somehow not going to go ahead with the Paris Agreement."

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is not a big fan of the international accord, even threatening to pull the United States out of the global climate pact. During his campaign, Trump openly denied climate change and even called it a "hoax."

Robinson, who is running a foundation focused on seeking justice for people hit hard by climate impacts despite having very little carbon footprint, warned that if the U.S. will pull out of the international agreement, the world and other countries would become more vulnerable to droughts and other climate extremes. She said she was confident other countries would continue their backing for the agreement regardless of any action taken by the U.S.

"I don't think that the process itself will be affected (if) one country, however big and important that country is, decides not to go ahead," she said during the United Nations climate talks in Marrakesh, which is due to end on Friday.

However, Robinson said that a withdrawal from the agreement would make a huge impact to the already difficult challenge of gathering enough international finance to help poorer nations develop their economies without hurting the Earth's climate.

"The moral obligation of the United States as a big emitter, and a historically big emitter that built its whole economy on fossil fuels that are now damaging the world," Robinson said. "It's unconscionable the United States would walk away from it."

The Paris Agreement aims to prevent the devastating effects of climate change by limiting the increase in average world temperatures to between 1.5 and 2.0 degrees Celsius. It was agreed in December 2015 by nearly 200 nations but it was only earlier this month that it officially entered into force after countries representing 55 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions committed to join the deal.
With President-elect Donald Trump sitting in the White House and soon calling the shots on what's priority or not, it's uncertain whether we'll see more inspiring pursuits in the realm of space exploration in the coming days.

"The public Trump statement has endorsed space exploration ... but it could go either way," warns space policy expert John Logsdon in article by the National Geographic.

Currently, there is not much known on Trump's thoughts regarding space policy. However, his public statements during the campaign period and from two of his known advisors, Robert Walker, a former U.S. congressman, and Peter Navarro, an economics professor at the University of California, Irvine, assure that it may not be as bad as we think. In fact, their op-ed at Space News entitled Trump's Space Policy Reaches for Mars and the Stars, gives hope that current efforts to send people to Mars will not be abandoned by the incoming administration.

On the contrary, the same thing cannot be said on NASA's earth sciences program, which uses an armada of satellites to study and understand our own planet. At an October 26 meeting of the Federal Aviation Administration's Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC), Walker laid out a space policy framework, which involved plans to "redirect NASA budgets towards deep space achievements rather than Earth-centric climate change spending."

Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's associate administrator for science, took the opportunity to emphasize the importance of Earth science in a briefing about the upcoming launch of the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) at NASA Headquarters last November 10.

"NASA's work on Earth science is making a difference in people's lives all around the world every day," Zurbuchen said. "Earth science helps save lives. It also helps grow companies and creates an awareness of environmental challenges that affect our lives today and tomorrow," he added.
(Beijing)  Chinas top economic planner has approved a high-speed rail project connecting Beijings Tongzhou district, which is slated to become the new home to most city government agencies, and an industrial hub in bordering Hebei province.

The Jingtang Intercity Railway Co. Ltd. has gained approval from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) to build the 148.7-km rail project that will link Tongzhou and the city of Tangshan, according to a statement posted on the NDRCs website Monday. The trains will travel at speeds of up to 350 kph on some sections of the railway.

The project will cost 44.9 billion yuan ($6.58 billion), the NDRC said. Jingjinji Intercity Investment Co. Ltd., one of the two shareholders of Jingtang Intercity, will pay half the cost of the development, while the other half will be raised through loans from banks.

To recoup its outlay faster, Jingjinji Intercity Investment plans to develop the land around Tongzhou station by investing in commercial and residential real estate, said Zhang Yong, the companys deputy general manager.

Tongzhou, a less-developed district of Beijing thats 20 km from the city center, became a hot spot for property investment after authorities said in July 2015 that they will move the majority of municipal government agencies from crowded downtown areas to the district by the end of 2017 in a bid to tackle traffic congestion and smog problems.

Some cities have tried this train plus land development model, but they didnt work very well. But that wont be a problem in Tongzhou, said Zhang, adding that he expected more high-speed trains to travel through the district in the future.

Construction on the railway was originally scheduled to start in 2009 but was delayed by a nationwide safety review of the high-speed rail network that followed the deadly July 2011 train crash in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province. Forty people died and nearly 200 were injured when two high-speed trains collided in a viaduct.

President Xi Jinping has made it a national priority to better integrate Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province, an area known as the Jing-Jin-Ji, in an effort to offload some of Beijing's functions as a political, economic and culture center and revamp northern Chinas economy.

China plans to expand its current rail system to a 175,000-km network by 2025, including 38,000 km of high-speed rail tracks, the NDRC said in July.

Contact reporter Chen Na (nachen@caixin.com); editor Calum Gordon (calum@caixin.com)
The new US President-elect Donald Trump is planning on quitting from the Paris Climate agreement, and it seems that he's keen on finding the quickest way to do it. However, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hopes that Trump will soon understand the gravity of climate change.

A source from Trump's transition team reveals to Reuters that the Republican candidate is finding a way to quit the Paris agreement immediately despite the imposed four-year procedure by the accord. Trump, who is a big climate change skeptic, previously said that climate change is just a "Chinese hoax," promising that he will withdraw from the Obama-supported agreement once elected.

Article 28 of the accord states that if a country wants to leave after signing the Paris Agreement, a four-year waiting period will be applied, making the earliest date for Trump and the U.S. to leave the accord to Nov. 4, 2020. This is not favorable to the Trump administration because by that time, a new U.S. presidential election will occur.

"It was reckless for the Paris agreement to enter into force before the election," the source told Reuters. The source added that the incoming administration is considering on finding alternative ways to make the U.S.' withdrawal faster. These include meddling with past agreements, sending a withdrawal letter from the 1992 international framework accord, issuing a presidential order and voiding U.S.' involvement in the past years.

Meanwhile, with the news of Trump's plans, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday that climate change is "unstoppable." He hopes that Trump, a successful businessman himself, understands that the market is now leaning towards renewable clean energy rather than fossil fuels.

Ban hopes that Trump will drop his previous claim on climate change and is sure that "he will make a ... wise decision," as per Reuters. Trump has previously claimed that he will boost the use of coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, once elected.

"I hope he will really hear and understand the seriousness and urgency of addressing climate change. As President of the United States I hope he understands this, listens and evaluates his campaign remarks," Ban said.
San Francisco activists staged more actions and rallies this week, even as the Army Corps of Engineers said it finished a review of the disputed Dakota Access pipeline and would listen to the native people before making a decision.

Early Tuesday morning, as many as 2,000 activists showed up in front of San Francisco City Hall for a "sunrise ceremony" in an effort dubbed "Stand with Standing Rock: Stop Dakota Access Pipeline."

They carried signs that said "Stand Up to Big Oil" and "Protect Our Water." A speaker who grabbed the microphone atop City Hall steps urged leaders to stop taking more oil out of the ground and "save Mother Earth."

"If our water is polluted, if theres nothing left to drink, if our food is all polluted. everyone is going to be dying the way theyre dying of cancer and all the diseases that are on the rise," protester Kristen Nadarija said.

Added Elana Levy: "Indigenous people have been showing us the way for a very long time and we need to support them."

Protesters were encouraged to wear blue and then march to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in San Francisco. By 9 a.m., about a dozen people blocked the building, which is shared with Uber and the Transportation Authority.

In nearby Silicon Valley, San Jose State University students staged a protest on campus, and the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday passed a resolution that supports a moratorium on building the Dakota Access Pipeline.

"When it breaks, and it will, then it will contaminate the water for millions of people," said Miriam Mosqueda with SJSU's Native American Student Organization.

In Mountain View, protesters demonstrated in front of a Wells Fargo bank because they said it is one of the banks helping fund the pipeline.

Josh Keppel

Protesters said they are skeptical of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' call on Monday to conduct more studies and collect more tribal input before deciding whether to allow it to cross under a Missouri River reservoir in North Dakota.

That's because Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, the company developing the pipeline, said it expected to be moving oil through the pipeline by early next year if it got permission. How fast that will happen now is unclear.

The rallies across the country on Tuesday at such places as state Army Corps offices, federal buildings and offices of banks that have helped finance the project are seeking to draw President Barack Obama's attention.

The groups, including the Indigenous Environmental Network, Honor the Earth and Greenpeace USA, want Obama to permanently halt the construction of the pipeline, the focus of confrontations between police and protesters in North Dakota for months.

The corps in July granted ETP the permits needed for the project, but in September said more analysis was warranted in the wake of American Indian concerns. The Standing Rock Sioux, whose reservation will be skirted by the $3.8 billion, four-state pipeline, says it threatens its drinking water and cultural sites.

ETP disputes that and said last week it is preparing to bore under the river.

Army Assistant Secretary Jo-Ellen Darcy said in a letter to company officials and tribal Chairman Dave Archambault that "additional discussion with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and analysis are warranted." That discussion is to include potential conditions on an easement for the pipeline crossing that would reduce the risk of a spill.

Darcy said the Army will work with the tribe on a timeline "that allows for robust discussion and analysis to be completed expeditiously." Army spokeswoman Moira Kelley would not elaborate to The Associated Press on whether a decision would be done by the time President Barack Obama leaves office. Donald Trump, a pipeline supporter, is set to take office in January.

Archambault and ETP spokeswoman Vicki Granado did not immediately respond to Associated Press requests for comment.

The 1,200-mile pipeline is to carry North Dakota oil through South Dakota and Iowa to a shipping point in Illinois.

In an email to The Associated Press, ETP said it would finish the pipeline within 120 days of getting approval for the easement beneath Lake Oahe, the Missouri River reservoir in southern North Dakota.

Nearly 470 protesters have been arrested since August supporting the Standing Rock Sioux. Several actions have taken place in San Francisco. On Halloween, 12 activists in San Francisco were arrested while protesting Citibank's funding of the Dakota Access pipeline. In addition to protests, there is also a San Francisco donation drive seeking winter supplies for those fighting on the reservation in North Dakota.

Hundreds of folks gathered in front of SF City Hall for nationwide day of action for #StandingRock @nbcbayarea pic.twitter.com/gKDUOwBFDk  Pete Suratos (@PeteSuratosTV) November 15, 2016

NBC Bay Area's Marianne Favro contributed to this report.
The 2016 U.S. presidential election ended with the surprise victory of property mogul Donald J. Trump. An outsider without a political track record, Trump defied predictions by most polls, pundits and political observers when he defeated Hillary Clinton, the favored "pro-establishment" candidate backed by the liberal elite. The world is now slowly coming to terms with this unexpected result, while weighing the impact of a Trump presidency on global growth.

The triumph of this dark horse could upset the status quo and affect traditional military alliances and trans-Atlantic ties. But the most troubling outcome would be that it may chill the effects of globalization. Free trade and the free movement of people  the crux of globalization  have suffered two major setbacks in 2016: Britain's choice to leave the European Union, or Brexit, and the election of a renegade who has vowed to tear up both the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) with Pacific Rim nations, and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico.

The global economy is still reeling from the shock and uncertainty unleashed by these events that threaten to weaken the process of globalization.

Globalization has removed barriers to trade, enabling the cross-border flow of goods, capital, information, technology and services. It has made economies the world over more interconnected and interdependent. It has also had an impact on the development trajectory of most countries, and China has benefited much from it.

The U.S. has been a major driving force behind globalization. Prior to that, Britain was the torchbearer for global trade in the 19th century. But politicians in both countries have tapped into the rising anti-globalization sentiment at home to secure power, casting a long shadow on the future of free trade and the movement of people and ideas. The bubbling discontent that is threatening to reverse the course of globalization could dent global growth and have a serious impact on China.

Trump's victory took the world by surprise, as much as Britain's decision to break away from the European Union four months ago did. U.S. mainstream media called it "a populist revolt against the political elite." The reason for this backlash is clear: The "silent majority," who felt they had gotten the short end of the stick due to globalization and other socio-economic factors, spoke up.

Resistance to globalization has been on the rise since the late 1990s. From massive protests during the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle to the long-delayed Doha round of talks on a new multilateral trade pact, opposition to the idea lingers on till today. The U.S. subprime crisis, which triggered the global financial meltdown, only served to deepen the resentment against it.

Capitalism was considered the most efficient means to build a strong middle class that would form the bulwark of a stable, mature economy. But this assumption has been shaken, giving rise to an urgent call for reform. Yet change is difficult to push through. Although the information technology revolution in recent years has disrupted the status quo, wealth is still concentrated in the hands of a few, squeezing the middle class and widening inequalities.

Theoretically, globalization should create a win-win situation in which most people benefit. But in reality, it takes a long, painful process to arrive at this status, and many will suffer along the way.

The election outcomes in Britain and the U.S. show how a significant number of those in economic distress or masses instigated by politicians have taken up arms against the elite-controlled status quo. They have also started venting their frustration through social media. The ugly head of xenophobia and racism seem to be slowly raising its head as some blame "others" for their socioeconomic woes, creating division and hatred among people. The best way to contain this is to listen to their anger and concerns rather than pretending that nothing is wrong.

All these developments are highly relevant to China. The country is looking for clear signals from the global economy as it tries to deepen reforms at home to stabilize growth. China has reaped the benefits of globalization after opening up its economy in 1978, but the dramatic changes in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis has blunted its positive effects. China has readjusted its game plan while waiting for Western economies to bounce back. While China gradually opens its doors to the outside world, the rising danger of a more isolated U.S. will pose challenges to her.

Recent developments in the global political arena have dealt a severe blow to the process of globalization. But these outside hiccups should not hinder China's reform push. The course for China's reform plan has already been set, and the ruling party has announced its resolve to go ahead with it. But China must not lose the opportunity to learn from these global upheavals. The key lesson that the country can draw is that reforms must be deepened in a way that it benefits most people while creating a strong middle class. Lawmakers must ensure that liberalization efforts are not hijacked by a few with vested interests and also must keep abreast of changes brought about by new technology. The world would continue to shrink into an interconnected global village, but this process would hit many more speed bumps along the way.

Hu Shuli is the chief editor of Caixin Media.
The former chief financial officer of a British software company is facing fraud charges in federal court in San Francisco for allegedly issuing false and misleading statements about his company's financial condition before Hewlett-Packard Co.'s $11 billion takeover in 2011.

Sushovan Hussain, 52, a British citizen who was CFO of Autonomy Corp., was indicted by a federal grand jury on Thursday.

He is charged with one count of conspiring to commit wire fraud between 2009 and 2011 and 14 counts of committing wire fraud in emails, video conferences, telephone conferences and press releases transmitted in 2011.

Palo Alto-based Hewlett-Packard bought Autonomy, which specialized in the analysis of so-called "big data," for $11 billion in October 2011.

A year later, Hewlett-Packard wrote off $8.8 billion of the acquired company's supposed value.

The indictment alleges that Hussain and unnamed others "engaged in a fraudulent scheme to deceive purchasers and sellers of Autonomy securities and HP about the true performance of Autonomy's business, its financial condition and its prospects for growth."

The alleged fraud was carried out by artificially inflating the company's revenue; issuing false and misleading statements to its auditors, regulators and market analysts; and issuing false and misleading quarterly and annual reports, the indictment contended.

If convicted, Hussain could face a sentence of up to 20 years in prison on each count.

No court date for an appearance by Hussain has been set. He is in the United Kingdom and U.S. prosecutors could ask for his extradition if he does not voluntarily come to San Francisco to face the charges.

U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Abraham Simmons declined to comment on next steps in the case.

When asked whether there will be an extradition proceeding, David Satterfield, a spokesman for defense attorney John Keker, said, "We don't yet know and have no comment" on that question.

Keker said in a statement, "Sushovan Hussain is innocent of wrongdoing. He defrauded no one and, as Autonomy's CFO, acted at all times with the highest standards of honesty, integrity and competence. He will be acquitted at trial."
A Mountain View High School teacher returned to work Monday after he was placed on paid administrative leave Thursday afternoon for alleged comparisons between President elect-Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler, as reported in a campus newspaper, but denied by the school district.

The social studies teacher was placed on paid administrative leave Thursday for about the last 90 minutes of the school day for allegedly inappropriate behavior reported by students and a parent, Mountain View Los Altos High School District Superintendent Jeff Harding said.

The teacher was identified in the school's independent student newspaper The Oracle as Frank Navarro, who said in an article that he was placed on leave for allegedly making comparisons between Trump and Hitler.

Navarro said that he never told his students Trump and Hitler were the same, according to the article.

Harding disputed the newspaper's report that the teacher was temporarily taken off the job for a historical comparison between Trump and Hitler.

District staff who investigated the alleged inappropriate behavior didn't find enough evidence against the teacher and determined his classroom was a "logically safe environment," Harding said.

The district informed the teacher on Saturday that he was allowed to return on Monday, according to Harding.

Teachers have been encouraged to have classroom discussions about the presidential election results that have led to mixed reactions from students, Harding said.

"Emotions are running high as a result of the election, and teachers are doing their best to help students process the results," Harding said.

The story led to a Change.org petition addressed to the school's Principal David Grissom that sought the high school's administrators to end Navarro's leave and apologize for trying to intimidate the teacher. The page had gathered more than 35,000 supporters as of Monday night.

Navarro didn't immediately return requests for comment Monday.
The city of Oakland has been a pioneer in the medical cannabis industry, and now city leaders have some decisions to make regarding the legalization of recreational marijuana in California.

The City Council convened a special meeting Monday night to discuss some contentious proposals to regulate the drug for recreational use. Some are saying the city now runs the risk of becoming too regulated for recreational pot.

Inside City Hall, it was standing room only as City Council members debated new regulations on the sale and production of pot in Oakland.

"To me, this is the largest opportunity thats come through Oakland in the 30 plus years Ive lived here," one resident said at Monday's meeting.

Kamina Wilson, who works for a cannabis doctor, said after the passage of Proposition 64 last week, the questions are endless.

"Taxing, seeing what new laws are they going to come up with," Wilson said when asked what intrigued her about Monday's discussions.

Rebecca Kaplan, Oakland City Council member at large, was concerned with how to make sure the growing industry benefits the whole community. One proposal is to require that half the citys permits be given to pot dispensaries with employees jailed on marijuana convictions over the past decade.

"After decades of the war on marijuana hurting black communities, now that this will be a source of revenue, how do we make sure that revenue is used to benefit the communities that have been hardest hit by the harms?" Kaplan said. "It is really important that we stop punishing people for an activity that our society has agreed is not a crime."

Another proposal would require 25 percent of all pot profits be turned over to the city to fund community projects and job training programs.

Councilwoman Desley Brooks said that proposal doesnt go far enough.

"We had agreed coming up with amendments to cannabis (laws) ... and the only equity they could see was providing for jobs," Brooks said. "Real equity is ownership."

Alex Zavell, senior regulatory analyst says the city, which has been a leader in medical marijuana, now runs a risk of becoming too regulated. He says the city could lose well over $9 million in revenue annually if dispensaries or drug producers go elsewhere.

"It's really been a historical part of Oakland's history of tolerance to cannabis that that activity is here now, and it's Oakland's to lose at this point," Zavell said. "There's now sort of going to be an impending regulatory system that's very clear at the state level how this actually can occur. And there are dozens of jurisdictions that are looking at this as an industry that they're seeking to attract for job purposes and tax revenue and that are adopting wide open policies, places like Richmond or Santa Rosa."

Those who own pot warehouses now and are looking to get a dispensary permit disagree with giving the city a percentage of their profits to give back to the community.

Proposals will go to the city attorney for review.
The San Francisco Gay Mens Chorus will be singing in the South. And that's all because of Donald Trump.

The upcoming singing tour called "Lavender Pen" is a concerted effort to protect and fight for the civil liberties the gay movement has enjoyed in recent history, and to "bring forth the light" by doing outreach in the reddest of states.

"There is such a sense of despair and downright depression now," Executive Director Chris Verdugo told NBC Bay Area, "that we asked ourselves, 'What can we do? This was the best response we could come up with."

"This" is a tour, possibly as early as this summer, to North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. One part of the mission is to help embolden the LGBTQ community in red states where homosexuality isn't embraced as much as it is in Democratic strongholds and be "beacons of hope to them," Verdugo said. At the same time, the choral members want to talk to people "across the aisle and start dialogues." If there are fights and protests, he said, the chorus will be ready for it.

Music, choral members hope, will be the common language.

"We hope our presence and our music will encourage our brothers and sisters, educate others and challenge those communities to think differently, Artistic Director Timothy Seelig said. "We are all grappling with the shock of the election returns. There is widespread fear and despair among many communities across our diverse country."

Three days after Trump was elected president, the group released a video featuring a song called There Will be Light and shows the plight of San Francisco's first gay supervisor Harvey Milk; signs that read "Silence=Death:' the struggle for same-sex marriage equality; the current fight over transgender bathrooms; and the devastation left behind when a gunman killed party goers at a gay club in Orlando. The chorus sang the group live and uninvited in Denver, Colorado, outside a conservative Focus on the Family event.

California overwhelmingly voted for Hillary Clinton for president, and exit polls showed that 78 percent of the LGBTQ community voted for her as well. NBC Out interviewed some of the 14 percent who voted for Trump, and many told the news agency that they cared more about things like gun rights than gay rights. Others said they worried about "radical Islam" and keeping jobs in America as other reasons why they voted for Trump.

Since 1978 when Milk and then-Mayor George Moscone were assassinated, the San Francisco Gay Mens Chorus said its members have tried to serve as an "international standard-bearer for a powerful mix of extraordinary musical excellence and mission-driven activism." Many of their songs have touched on bullying and other LGBTQ issues. This week, the chorus stood alongside San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, who reminded the public that the city provides sanctuary to undocumented immigrants.

Verdugo said that the chorus had originally thought about traveling overseas for its next big summer tour. But that changed on Election Night.

"Our work is needed at home," he said.
Thirteen cities in Santa Clara County want to make sure that workers in California get paid a minimum of $15 an hour by 2019, three years before the state mandates that amount, and activists are facing off with a divided San Jose city council on whether that pay hike will be accelerated or not.

Union activists, who are staging a rally in front of San Jose City Hall on Tuesday, say this would bethe first region-wide approach to raising the minimum wage in the nation. But the San Jose City Council is divided on whether to accelerate the minimum wage, the Mercury News reported.

Supporters who want the pay hike accelerated say that if adopted by each city, 250,000 workers would get quicker raises, putting $800 million more in their pockets each year and boosting the gross domestic product of the nine-county area by $314 million every year. They cite a report by the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at the University of California, Berkeley to bolster their cause.

Cupertino, Los Altos, and Palo Alto have since voted for $15 by 2019, and Mountain View and Sunnyvale will enact the wage hike as early as 2018.

On Tuesday, San Jose leaders will decide how they're going to approach the issue.

As the largest city in the county, this is a key vote that other cities are watching closely, union activist Maria Noel Fernandez said. She is backed by groups such as Latinos United for a New America, Sacred Heart Community Service, Cafe J, Working Partnerships USA, South Bay Labor Council, Fight for $15/Union, Santa Clara County Wage Theft Coalition, Raise the Wage Coalition, SEIU-USWW, and SEIU 521.

According to the Mercury News, Mayor Sam Liccardo, Vice Mayor Rose Herrera and Councilmen Chappie Jones and Manh Nguyen propose raising the citys wage floor to $15 by July 1, 2019.

But council members Magdalena Carrasco, Raul Peralez, Ash Kalra and Donald Rocha want to see it raised six months earlier  on January 1, 2019.

In addition to the conflict on the council, the Mercury News reported that city staff wants something else. Kim Walesh, San Joses economic development director, suggested raising the minimum wage to $15 by January 2020  one year later than the Cities Association recommendation but two years ahead of a state mandate to reach $15 by 2022.
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee has vowed the city will remain a safe haven no matter whos president.

At a rally at City Hall on Monday, the mayor said protecting immigrants, minorities and LGBT citizens is more important than federal funding.

Lee called it a unity rally.

"We will always be San Francisco," the mayor said to boisterous applause during the morning rally. Lee went on to pledge protection for "undocumented immigrants, Muslims and LGBT brothers and sisters," no matter what President-elect Donald Trump does when he takes office.

"No walls in our city," the mayor said.

Lee admitted that bucking the future president could cost San Francisco dearly.

"It could have a direct effect of $500 million to $1 billion, and you know, as I said, well have to find new friends if we dont have a friend in the White House."

In the city's Mission district, 62-year-old Guadalupe Siordia worries about losing federal assistance for her families three-bedroom apartment.

"The rent is going to go up, and Im going to have to pay more, and im not going to be able to pay my rent," Siordia said.

She and her husband spent 60 percent of their income on a $1,700-a-month apartment. And her 18-year-old grandson gave up college to work at Safeway to help put food on the table. If something happens to cause the rents to rise, Siordia's family will be forced out.

"Thats scary," she said. "Ive been here 30 years."

Lee seems convinced that if federal funds are cut, other money will be found to fill the gaps. Last week, Gov. Jerry Brown said he too will buck the president, if necessary, over civil rights and climate change policies.
Hidden from the public in his Manhattan high-rise, Donald Trump huddled most of Tuesday with Vice President-elect Mike Pence as he tried to fill out key posts in his Cabinet. But the transition team appeared to be straining under the enormous challenge of setting up a new administration.

Former Rep. Mike Rogers, a respected Republican voice on national security issues, announced he was quitting the transition effort. And an apparent clerical oversight effectively halted the Trump team's ability to coordinate with President Barack Obama's White House.

With Trump out of sight for several days, his allies engaged in an unusual round of public speculation about his potential appointments  including their own futures  as the president-elect and his aides weighed the nation's top national security posts.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani seemed to be angling for secretary of state. But Trump's transition team was reviewing Giuliani's paid consulting work for foreign governments, which could delay a nomination or bump Giuliani to a different position, according to a person briefed on the matter but not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

Giuliani founded his own firm, Giuliani Partners, in 2001, and helped businesses on behalf of foreign governments, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. He also advised TransCanada, which sought to build the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, and helped the maker of the painkiller drug OxyContin settle a dispute with the Drug Enforcement Administration.

A Trump official said John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, remained in contention for secretary of state. Bolton has years of foreign policy experience, but he has raised eyebrows with some of his hawkish stances, including a 2015 New York Times op-ed in which he advocated bombing Iran to halt the country's nuclear program.

Businessman Carl Icahn disclosed on Twitter, based on conversations with the president-elect, that Trump was considering Steve Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs banker, and Wilbur Ross, a billionaire investor, to lead the Treasury and Commerce departments.

[NATL]Anti-Trump Protesters Gather in US Cities

Pence, now running the transition team, ignored questions from reporters as he walked through the lobby of Trump Tower, a thick binder tucked under his arm. He took over from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who spent months running transition operations before his demotion last week.

The switch has slowed Trump's ability to coordinate with the White House. Pence delivered a signed memorandum of understanding (MOU) to facilitate interactions between his team and Obama administration officials, a White House spokesperson confirmed Tuesday night. But there is more paperwork required from Trump's team before the White House can begin briefing incoming staff.

In order to begin that process, the spokesperson said, the White House will need a complete list of names of those on the transition team.

A person familiar with the transition efforts said different factions in Trump's team "are fighting for power."

Indeed, Trump effectively created two power centers in his White House even before taking office. He named Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus as his chief of staff and flame-throwing media mogul Steve Bannon as his chief strategist, but called them "equal partners." Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner is also deeply involved in the transition, creating another layer of uncertainty about who is making decisions.

"That organization right now is not designed to work," according to the person close to the efforts, who like others involved in the transition, insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the internal process.

[NATL] Top Images From an Emotional Presidential Election 2016

Former GOP national security official Eliot Cohen blasted Trump's team on Twitter, calling them "angry, arrogant." Cohen opposed Trump during the campaign, but in recent days, he said those who feel duty-bound to work in a Trump administration should do so. But he said Tuesday that after an exchange with Trump's team, he had "changed my recommendation."

With Trump's team divided, emboldened Republicans on Capitol Hill moved forward with a united front. House Speaker Paul Ryan, a lukewarm Trump supporter during the campaign, unanimously won his GOP colleagues' votes for another term at the helm of the House. He told fellow Republicans he had Trump's support, and heralded "the dawn of a new, unified Republican government."

Democrats, reeling from sweeping defeats in the election, focused their ire on Bannon, a man celebrated by the white nationalist movement.

[NATL] Top News Photos: Pope Visits Japan, and More

"If Trump is serious about seeking unity, the first thing he should do is rescind his appointment of Steve Bannon," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said. "As long as a champion of racial division is a step away from the Oval Office, it would be impossible to take Trump's efforts to heal the nation seriously."

Trump's team has defended Bannon and tried to put its focus on filling the top national security jobs. Trump's selections will be the first signals to anxious international allies about the direction he plans to take U.S. foreign policy.

Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, a loyal Trump ally and immigration hard-liner, is said to be a contender for defense secretary.

Trump also is considering Richard Grenell as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, which would bring some experience and diversity to his nascent administration. Grenell, who served as U.S. spokesman at the U.N. under President George W. Bush, would be the first openly gay person to fill a Cabinet-level foreign policy post.
NBC Bay Area / KNTV will team up with Safeway Stores to host Feed the Need, a one-day food drive on Saturday, November 19. This years food drive includes the collaboration of seven local food banks that serve more than 840,000 local residents each month. The Feed the Need food drive will take place at 159 Safeway locations throughout the Bay Area from now through December 27. This is the seventh consecutive year that NBC Bay Area partners with Safeway to host the one-day event to help raise awareness about hunger issues in the Bay Area and help local families.

Were proud to once again partner with Safeway and our local food banks to help address hunger issues in our community, said Rich Cerussi, NBC Bay Area President and General Manager. Last years effort helped to collect more than 920,000 pounds of food and were glad to work with our local partners once again, to help families who may be in need.

We thank NBC Bay Area and Safeway for bringing attention to the severity of local hunger and for creating a simple way for anyone in our community to help a family in need, said Kathy Jackson, Second Harvest Food Bank CEO. The skyrocketing local cost of living is causing more people than ever before to turn to Bay Area Food Banks. We are feeding people in every neighborhood and through this drive you can donate to make a difference in the lives of people where you live.

For nearly ten years, NBC Bay Area has partnered with Safeway to help stock the shelves of local food banks. In addition to providing on-air promotion, the station will be enlisting the support from hundreds of volunteers  including NBC Bay Area anchors and reporters helping at their own neighborhood Safeway Stores  on Saturday, November 19 to encourage shoppers to donate.

On Feed the Need day, local residents can visit one of the 159 participating Safeway stores to purchase a $10 bag of food items that will be donated to the local food banks. At each store, shoppers can remove a flyer from the tear pads located in the display area and bring the flyer to a register to purchase the bag of donation food items. Each bag of food will contain pasta and sauce, canned vegetables, soup, and important protein items like peanut butter and canned chicken breast. Once collected, the bags of food will be delivered to food banks for distribution to needy families. The flyers are available for Safeway shoppers to purchase now through December 27.

Catch the NBC Bay Area team at the following locations:

Morgan Hill (840 E Dunne Ave): Laura Garcia Cannon, Sam Brock, Robert Handa, Ian Cull at 10am

Santa Clara (3970 Rivermark Plaza): Kris Sanchez, Scott McGrew, Vianey Arana, Chris Chmura at 11:30am

Livermore (4495 First St): Mike Inouye, Bob Redell, Rob Mayeda at 10am

Los Altos (160 First St): Raj Mathai, Janelle Wang, Peggy Bunker at 11:45am

Alamo (200 Alamo Plaza): Jeff Ranieri, Elyce Kirchner at 12 noon

Los Gatos (470 Santa Cruz Ave): Marianne Favro at 11am

Vallejo (122 Robles Way): Cheryl Hurd, Christie Smith, Jodi Hernandez at 11am

Mill Valley (110 Strawberry Village): Terry McSweeney at 12 noon

San Jose (2980 East Capitol Expressway): Damian Trujillo at 12 noon

A special thanks to our volunteers:
President-elect Donald Trump said during the campaign that he would scrap or renegotiate the Iranian nuclear deal, but leaders there said they expected the U.S. to stick to its agreement, NBC News reported.

"The results of the U.S. election have no effect on the policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran," Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said one day after the election, according to the state news agency IRNA. Rouhani added that improved economic ties are "irreversible."

Iranian leaders emphasized that the nuclear deal was not a bilateral agreement, but was also reached with China, Russia, France, Germany and the U.K.

"Every U.S. president has to understand the realities of today's world," said Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif, one of the architects of the deal. "The most important thing is that the future U.S. president sticks to agreements."
Former Chicago alderman Edward R. Vrdolyak has been indicted on charges of impeding the IRS and tax evasion.

The indictment stems from an investigation into a state lawsuit against tobacco companies 20 years ago and involves claims income taxes were not paid on fees collected through a settlement agreement.

The newly unsealed documents allege Vrdolyak cut a secret deal to obtain millions of dollars in fees from the settlement for which he did no actual legal work, and that he helped a co-defendant evade hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes.

The allegations first surfaced last year, when Vrdolyak appeared in a federal indictment that accused Chicago attorney Daniel Soso of evading roughly $800,000 in income taxes. Although the former alderman wasnt named in that case, his identity was later revealed in court to be the indictments unnamed Individual A."

Vrdolyaks new indictment also includes Soso. It was filed earlier this month and unsealed Tuesday.

The former aldermans longtime attorney Michael Monico called the case confusing, and disappointing."

Hes had the money set aside in escrow, Monico said. Weve been waiting for the government to send us the appropriate documents.

Monico said the payments Vrdolyak negotiated were for the work he had done for a Washington state law firm, in obtaining a piece of Illinois multi-billion dollar case against tobacco companies in 1998.

In Illinois youre entitled to pay referral fees, and they dont accuse us of doing anything wrong with that, Monico said. The state got a good deal and the citizens got a good deal, because the state received a lot of money as a result of the lawyers who helped.

Vrdolyak has courted controversy in Chicago for decades. First as a wheeling-dealing alderman, earning the Fast Eddie nickname. When Jane Byrne ran for Mayor in 1979, she branded Vrdolyak as the leader of a cabal of evil men in the City Council. But Byrne eventually embraced Vrdolyak for his ability to cut deals.

Later, when Harold Washington won election as Chicagos first black mayor, Vrdolyak eagerly accepted the role of chief gadfly, leader of the white majority Vrdolyak 29, which led to the infamous Council Wars of Washingtons first term.

Unsuccessful in two runs for mayor himself, Vrdolyak switched to the Republican party, donned the mantle of talk show host at WLS radio, and reaped millions as legal advisor to former Cicero Town President Betty Loren Maltese.

Then in 2007, Vrdolyaks luck ran out as he was indicted and pled guilty in connection with a real estate kickback scheme involving a Gold Coast medical school. In response to floods of letters attesting to his good deeds, Judge Milton Shadur sentenced the former alderman to probation. But the government appealed the sentence, and a different judge ordered Vrdolyak to serve 10 months in prison.

Vrdolyak will be 79 years old next month. On the latest charges, he is expected to appear in court next Tuesday.
(Beijing)  China plans to roll out by 2020 a new set of standard tests to streamline the way the English-language skills of its population are tested  from primary school students to professional interpreters.

The Ministry of Education said it is borrowing elements from two major English-proficiency tests  the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), and the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). Universities worldwide use those tests to admit international students.

Over 100 Chinese and foreign linguists have been developing the new series of English-language tests for over two years, and its format will be made public before the end of 2017, the Beijing News reported Tuesday, citing Lin Huiqing, a deputy minister of education. The testing system will be enforced beginning in 2020.

Lin said the ministry hopes the homegrown tests will eventually be internationally recognized.

The new test includes modules for listening, reading, speaking and writing, as well as a section to test students' ability to use English in an international setting, as well as the students' cross-culture communication skills, Lin said.

Liu Jianda, a Professor at Guangzhou University of Foreign Studies who has been involved in designing of the tests, told the state-run Xinhua News Agency that the tests will have nine levels, targeting students in primary and secondary schools and universities as well as students majoring in English; professionals using English in the workplace; and translators and interpreters.

The new tests will be used as the de facto standard, replacing a wide range of expensive exams offered by different institutions. Analysts say the move can save students tens of thousands of yuan spent on test preparation and language courses.

The market for English-language education in China is huge. Over 300 million Chinese were learning English in 2014, and each student spent 2,000 to 6,000 yuan on average on language courses that year, according to a joint study conducted last year by Peking University and 51Talk, an online language-training firm.

Contact reporter Li Rongde (rongdeli@caixin.com); editor Poornima Weerasekara (poornima@caixin.com)
A handful of Illinois Democrats on Monday slammed President-elect Donald Trump's choice to appoint chief campaign executive Stephen Bannon as a senior advisor and chief strategist in the White House.

Rep. Mike Quigley, Rep. Jan Schakowsky and Rep.-elect Brad Schneider spoke out about the decision, joining several other elected officials addressing the controversial pick.

Bannon served as the executive chairman for Breitbart News before joining Trump's campaign. Breitbart has become a hub for pro-Trump, anti-immigration and anti-Muslim messaging under Bannon, according to NBC News. In August, the newly-named White House staffer even referred to the site as the platform for the alt-right, an online-based counterculture movement associated with white nationalism.

Quigley condemned Trump's appointment Monday, referring to Bannon as a "white nationalist."

In the aftermath of such a long, tumultuous campaign, it is the responsibility of President-elect Trump to foster a sense of unity that brings Americans together instead of pulling us further apart," Quigley said in a statement "However, Trumps decision to name Steve Bannon his Chief Strategist sends a very different message to the American people. This disturbing choice demonstrates that the next Commander-in-Chief remains unwilling to abandon the hateful and divisive vision that he laid out during his campaign."

In response to Bannon's appointment, Quigley vowed to "defend equality and opportunity for all  regardless of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation."

"President-elect Trump has said that he wants to be a President for all Americans," Quigley added. "If that is true, he must surround himself with individuals that adhere to our highest principles and values as a nation. The forces of hate and influence of bigotry have no place in the hallowed halls of our government.

Schakowsky, who is Jewish, voiced similar concerns, faulting Bannon for his alleged "history of anti-Semitism and support for white nationalism."

In a 2007 court filing, Bannons ex-wife accused the Trump appointee of making anti-Semitic comments while the couple fought about which private school to send their daughters to, NBC News reports. Bannon has denied the allegation.

"As Chairman of Breitbart News, he is responsible for the rise of the alt-right movement and has provided a forum for these racist, hate-filled views to develop and thrive," Schakowsky said in a statement. "I am appalled that such a figure would even be considered for a position of this stature.

The congresswoman claimed that she would be unable to work with Trump if the "hatred and bigotry that characterized the President-elect's campaign is transferred into his administration."

The Anti-Defamation League expressed concern at speeches and ads warning of a global conspiracy among bankers, media and government officials in the closing weeks of Trumps campaign. According to NBC News, those attacks resembled tropes used historically to target Jews.

I will continue to defend the rights and liberties of everyone in this country," Schakowsky added. "If Donald Trump truly wants to be the President for all Americans, Steve Bannon and others like him should have no place in the White House.

Schneider also slammed Bannon for "promoting racism and anti-Semitism," claiming his views "have no place in our government, much less feet from the Oval Office."

The congressman-elect, who recently unseated incumbent Republican Bob Dold in Illinois 10th congressional district, is also Jewish and has supported pro-Israel causes throughout his career.

From 2004 to 2010, Schneider served as the American Israel Public Affairs Committees key contact with former Rep. Melissa Bean, according to the Chicago Tribune. Schneider also led a group of 18 members of the Chicago Jewish community on a mission to Israel in 2013, according to the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago.

"If Donald Trump is serious about his desire to unify our country, it begins with hiring a team that reflects American values and formally rejecting the acts of hate and bigotry being committed in his name, Schneider added.

In a Sunday interview with 60 Minutes, Trump said he was aware of reports that some of his supporters may be harassing Latinos, Muslims and other minorities. In response, he told those supporters to "stop it."

I would say don't do it, it's terrible," Trump told 60 Minutes' Leslie Stahl. "I am so saddened to hear that."
After missing a Monday meeting due to a scheduling conflict, Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan has reportedly agreed to meet with the states top legislative leaders Tuesday.

Last week, Gov. Bruce Rauner was able to chip away at the Illinois Democratic House supermajority after spending more than $30 million on political campaigns across the state. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Republicans picked up five seats in the Illinois House.

During a press conference Monday, House Republican Leader Jim Durkin urged Madigan to move past the election and start governing."

After Madigan announced that he would skip the meeting Sunday, Senate President John Cullerton also pulled out, claiming the meeting wouldnt be productive without his partys leader.

In response, Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno called the Democratic leaders absences completely inexcusable" at Monday's press conference.

Nevertheless, Madigan is now set to meet with Rauner, Durkin, Radogno and Cullerton at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. The Illinois General Assembly will reconvene in Springfield Tuesday for a series of veto sessions. During the sessions, Durkin has asked leaders to consider focusing on the budget, instead of overriding vetoes, the Sun-Times reports.

Weve got six days, theres some action up before the chambers on vetoes and amendatory vetoes," Durkin said Monday. Im going to ask the Democrat leaders, as a sign of good faith to not call any of those bills and use the time that we have scheduled strictly dedicated towards a full balanced budget."

According to the Sun-Times, Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said Durkin figured out the clock is running and those bills are going to be dead.

Clearly it was nothing new, Brown told the Sun-Times. Weve already heard this 30 times before. Maybe tomorrow theyll have a budget to propose."

The states stopgap budget agreement is set to run out at the end of December. Rauner penned an op-ed Monday urging lawmakers to pass a full, balanced budget, as well as a series of reforms.
A downstate Illinois soldier was among four people killed and 16 wounded in Afghanistan over the weekend in an apparent suicide bombing, the Department of Defense announced Monday.

Pfc. Tyler Iubelt, 20, of Tamaroa, was killed Saturday at Bagram Airfield, the largest NATO military base in Afghanistan, from injuries sustained after an explosion, officials said. Reuters reported a Taliban suicide bomber was dressed as a laborer at the airfield and blew himself up. The news agency called the explosion one of the bloodiest attacks against U.S. forces since President Barack Obama took office."

The attack occurred around 5:30 a.m. local time as people were gathering for a post-Veterans Day fun run, NBC News reported Saturday.

The suicide bomber chose the time and location because he "was looking for an opportunity to do the most damage," a senior U.S. military official told NBC News.

Staff Sgt. John W. Perry, 30, of Stockton, California was also killed in the attack in addition to two unidentified U.S. contractors. Sixteen other U.S. service members and a Polish soldier were wounded, according to the Department of Defense and a statement from Defense Secretary Ash Carter.

I want to express my sincere condolences to the families of the fallen, and I want to reassure the loved ones of those injured that they are getting the best possible care, Carter said. Force protection is always a top priority for us in Afghanistan, and we will investigate this tragedy to determine any steps we can take to improve it. For those who carried out this attack, my message is simple. We will not be deterred in our mission to protect our homeland and help Afghanistan secure its own future.

Bagram Airfield features several layers of security, including retinal scans. It was unclear how someone got into the base with a suicide vest, NBC News reported.

A pair of posts on Tamaroa Grade Schools Facebook page Monday lamented the loss and honored the life of Iubelt.

The TGS family is deeply saddened today to learn of the loss of one of our alumni. Tyler Iubelt, TGS Class of 2011, was killed in an attack at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan while serving in the United States Army. We are so proud of him for his willingness to leave his family and community to serve our country; we mourn his loss and the loss felt by his family and friends, one of the posts reads. Tyler will be fondly remembered by his teachers and staff members at TGS for his quick wit and that twinkle he would get in his eyes when he flashed that grin at you! As with all our students, we loved him and wished him the best in life; he left us too soon. Godspeed Tyler. Your sacrifice will be remembered here at TGS.

The Tamaroa Fire Department also posted on its Facebook page about the fallen soldier. The post received hundreds of comments from Facebook users offering their condolences to Iubelts family and thanking him for his service.

Iubelt entered the U.S. Army on Nov. 23, 2015, as a motor transport operator, according to a news release from Fort Hood Public Affairs. He was assigned to 1st Cavalry Division Sustainment Brigade since May 6, 2016. He deployed in support of Operation Freedoms Sentinel from September 2016 to November 2016.

Iubelts awards and decorations include the Purple Heart Medal, Bronze Star, National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal with campaign star, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon and Combat Action Badge, officials said.

Last month, a soldier from Fairview, Illinois was killed alongside a civilian contractor in Kabul.
A judge has delayed a felony trial for the widow of a suburban Chicago police officer who killed himself and made it look like he was gunned down in the line of duty.

Lake County Judge James Booras on Tuesday pushed back Melodie Gliniewicz's trial to Feb. 6. The delay is needed because defense attorneys and prosecutors are arguing about whether charges should be dropped.

Gliniewicz was indicted after her husband, Fox Lake Police Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, committed suicide last year. She has pleaded not guilty to charges she siphoned money from the village's youth policing program.

Authorities say Charles Gliniewicz staged his suicide because he feared discovery of his embezzlement from the youth program. Investigators say he spent the money on mortgage payments, travel expenses and gym memberships.
McDonald's has unveiled its newest burger. This time, however, the world's largest hamburger chain has gone meat-less.

The announcement of the new "Sweety con Nutella" on the restaurant's Italian Facebook page caused an online frenzy, generating over 74,000 comments and over 90,000 shares since Nov. 10.

The "burger" consists of Nutella sandwiched between two buns.

"A soft sweetness has arrived that you will not be able to resist," the company wrote on social media. "Try Sweety with Nutella now: soft bread with a creamy, indulgent center."

The burger will cost two euros and will be sold at all 540 McDonald's and McCafes in Italy, according to a press release.

The Nutella burger joins a growing list of regional specialty items that the company has developed over the years, including McRice Burgers in the Philippines, McLobsters in Canada and Squid Ink Burgers in Japan.

McDonald's did not respond to a request for comment on whether or not the Nutella burger might be introduced in the US.
Family, friends and fellow officers packed into a Fraternal Order of Police lodge Monday night to honor the life of a 14-year veteran and raise cash for his daughters.

Officer Chuck Barango was 49 when he was fatally struck by a driver in suburban Forest View while off duty on his motorcycle last September. His daughters were surrounded by members of the Chicago Police Department who came together to help a family in need.

He was our mentor, we looked up to him, he really did lead the way for us, Amanda Barango said of her father.

Walt Smith, a friend and coworker, said it wasnt just his daughters Barango left an impression on.

Barango, a SWAT officer, was also an advisor on Chicago PD where he taught actors to handle firearms and clear buildings with police tactics, and was known to friends as having lived a full life.

He survived a brain tumor, he survived two shootouts on the department, and he also survived a horrific accident on July 1, Sgt. Dawn Love recalled.

Barangos daughter, Amanda, remembers a time when she graduated college and her father helped her pick out an outfit to wear.

Anybody can have children, but it really takes a lot to be a father, she said. As a woman of faith, I'm thankful that the good lord provided my sister and I a man worthy of the title.
Dallas-based restaurant chain Chili's Grill & Bar has apologized and vowed to correct a wrongdoing after a local restaurant manager took away a free meal offered to veterans on Veterans Day.

U.S. Army veteran Ernest Walker, 47, of Cedar Hill, Texas, said he was served the meal as part of a promotion offering U.S. military veterans free meals on Veterans Day.

Walker finished his food and was preparing to leave the restaurant when the trouble began.

Walker, accompanied by his service dog Barack, said he believes an elderly man wearing an American flag shirt and Trump sticker told the restaurant manager that Walker was wearing his cap indoors and was not a U.S. veteran and should not receive the free meal.

In an encounter captured on video by Walker and posted to Facebook, the manager asked for Walker's military ID, which he provided. Walker also provided his discharge paperwork.

Walker said the manager then took his to-go meal.

"I looked around and I'm embarrassed at this point," Walker said. "People are looking. I'm a soldier. I'm a person and everybody's looking like I stole food."

The manager also indicated the service dog was not a service dog, despite having a red service vest and certified service tags.

On Sunday, Chili's issued the following statement on Walker's Facebook page and to NBCDFW. It reads:

"We are aware of the situation that occurred at our Chili's Cedar Hill restaurant on November 11th. Our goal is to make every guest feel special and unfortunately we fell short on a day where we serve more than 180,000 free meals as a small token to honor our Veterans and active military for their service, hence these actions do not reflect the beliefs of our brand. We are taking this very seriously and the leaders in our company are actively involved with the goal of making it right. Since the incident occurred, we have extended an apology and we are reaching out to the guest."

"They're doing what they should do, but they still haven't validated me as a soldier," said Walker. "I just need him to say, 'I see your ID, I see your DD214, and I respect you as a soldier, and as a man and as a customer.'"

Walker said he served in the Army's 25th Infantry Division, serving from 1987 to 1991. He said he was in an Army uniform without his name or rank on it on Veterans Day because he did not want to be mistaken for an active-duty soldier.

"I wear this one day a year," said Walker. "I'm not some kook that's reliving the past."

Monday, Chili's issued an additional statement saying they had spoken with the veteran and had removed the manager from the restaurant. Walker's attorney Kim Cole said the manager has been suspended pending an investigation by the company.

"Today, we personally apologized to Mr. Walker for the unfortunate experience in our restaurant on Veterans Day and thanked him for his service to our country. We also thanked him for taking the time to speak with us and he appreciated our apology. Our goal is to make every Guest that walks into our restaurants feel special and we fully own that one of our restaurants fell short on an important day where we strive to honor our veterans and active military for their service. We took swift action and immediately removed our manager from the restaurant. We are now in the process of working with Mr. Walker on a resolution that promotes trust and healing."

Monday afternoon, the mayor of Cedar Hill, Rob Franke, said the situation was not reflective of his community and that people should be concerned for the veteran as well as the restaurant's manager.

Franke's entire statement can be read below:
The voters who made possible Donald Trump's victory included people who consider themselves moderates and came around to Trump after supporting other candidates.

Some live in the "blue wall" of states in the Upper Midwest that, until Tuesday, backed every Democratic presidential candidate since Bill Clinton won the presidency in 1992. Some voted for Democrats in the past. Some kept their Trump support secret until after the election to avoid scorn from acquaintances and co-workers.

Here's a look at voters who helped usher in a Trump presidency, and why they did so:

'Your Government Is There to Help You Rather Than Hurt You'

In Michigan, Patrick Burke supported Ohio Gov. John Kasich in the GOP primary but "jumped on in full support" of Trump as he bested the field.

The 60-year-old automotive and business consultant lives in suburban Detroit's Macomb County, which was home to the "Reagan Democrats" in the 1980s. In 2012, Obama carried Macomb County by 4 percentage points. Trump enjoyed an 11 point-plus margin there.

Trump stands for "making sure that if you work hard that your government is there to help you rather than hurt you," Burke said, noting that Trump's message "of prosperity and reducing the debt and a strong military and reforming immigration really resonated" with blue-collar workers.

A drive through Burke's city Wednesday found more Trump signs than Hillary Clinton, and some took their allegiance to the extreme: One home's front lawn featured a large wooden basket with life-sized, scarecrow-like people sticking out and a sign labeling it "The Deplorables,"  a reference to Clinton's description of half of Trump's supporters as a "basket of deplorables." The lawn display also featured a sign that reads: "Climb In There is Room For All."

Trump's vitriolic volleys are well-known  his declaration that Mexico was sending "rapists" across the border, and a tape that emerged last month on which Trump bragged about grabbing women's genitals.

Burke said Trump isn't perfect, but he believes the most divisive and vulgar rhetoric "was just all talk."

"I like the fact that he's been successful. He has built some incredible things. He has had his failures but he's had huge successes," Burke said. "I think that Trump has the vision that we need to have now to get us pointed back in the right direction."

'America Needs a Kick in the Behind'

Iraq War veteran Rebecca Zbichorski, 28, of Milwaukee, is a first-time voter who supported Trump because "America needs a kick in the behind."

A factory worker who gets her health care through the Veterans Health Administration, Zbichorski enlisted in the military at 18 and served nearly eight years as a Marine. She said she sees Trump as a "regular type of guy" who doesn't care what anyone thinks, which made him the best candidate to give U.S. government the "shake-up" she thinks it needs.

Health care was her top issue as a voter, she said. Identifying neither as liberal or conservative, she would prefer Canada-style national health care. She notes Trump once spoke favorably of Canada's system before his current support for working with Congress to repeal and replace President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. Her family, she said, has had a "nonstop hassle of getting insurance" under Obama's health care law.

She discounted the women who came forward to say Trump made unwanted sexual advances.

"In the military, that's a common situation," she said. "It's what happens with a man in power and a woman who comes in who's gorgeous and attracted to money and power. ... I don't know the full facts. The only people who know are the women in question and the man himself."

She unapologetically keeps a copy of Trump's book "Crippled America" in full view of her co-workers. It was a way to broadcast her position, which she sums up with a social media meme, minus the hashtag: "I'm voting for Trump. SorryNotSorry."

"He's the slap in the face. He's the wakeup call," Zbichorski said. "Let the man do what he's got to do."

'The Affordable Care Act Is a Mess'

Eileen Barlow, a 56-year-old small business owner and part-time bartender, voted for Trump because he's a businessman and not a politician. He's also not a Clinton.

"My grandfather always said that what we need is a businessman in the presidential office, and that's what Donald Trump is," Barlow said as she stood behind the bar at the local American Legion post in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, Illinois, readying for a busy night that included a meat raffle.

In her voting lifetime, Barlow says she supported Republicans about 60 percent of the time and Democrats roughly 40 percent. Most of her family members are Democrats. But Bill Clinton was her "tipping point." Barlow voted for him twice. Then came the scandal over his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky

"After what happened with him, it turned me off the Clintons permanently. Not just that he did it. But admit it. Don't stand there and lie to us," she said.

Obama's signature health care law was another reason.

Both Barlow and her husband are small business owners, and between them have three adult kids. Come Feb. 1, they will be paying just shy of $1,400 per month in health insurance premiums for the two of them, with a $2,500 deductible per person.

"The Affordable Care Act is a mess," she said. "We're trying to save for retirement. We paid for our own kids' college  we're still paying for it because we didn't want our kids to be loaded down with debt. And now (Democrats) are talking about giving away free college? Who's going to pay for that?"

Like a lot of Trump supporters, she said, she kept quiet about backing Trump: "You don't want to be ridiculed, mocked, told you're stupid."

Illinois is a reliably left-leaning state, and Clinton, who was born in suburban Chicago, easily won it Tuesday. She also won DuPage County, where Barlow lives. But Trump resonated with voters elsewhere in a way Mitt Romney didn't, taking 12 more Illinois counties than the 2012 GOP nominee.

'Sick and Tired of Elitist and Career Politicians'

At Anthony's Barber Shop in Middletown Township, Pennsylvania, owner Anthony Canamucio's customers range from doctors to lawyers to retired steel mill guys of all races. Most of them, like Canamucio himself, voted for Trump.

"We were sick and tired of elitist and career politicians," he said.

Canamucio, who typically votes for Republicans, supported Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker early in the crowded GOP primary, but as that battle stretched on, his choice shifted.

"You could see who was just a career politician trying to move up the ladder  Walker included," he said. "And then there was Trump."

Trump "spoke like people speak here when they're in my barber chair" and had positions on issues that the 50-year-old barber said mirror most of "middle America."

Take immigration: Canamucio said it doesn't make sense to him that states are issuing driver's licenses to immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally or that Syrian refugees are coming to this country rather than going to neighboring Arab states. In Trump, he found someone who felt the same way.

"He was the first person who seemed to have some common sense," he said.

Now, it's important for Trump to follow through on his campaign promises, he said. "I think people are expecting him to do what he says he's gonna do. They're just sick of having smoke blown up their you-know-what."

Clinton won Middletown Township and Bucks County. But Trump outpaced Romney's performance in the suburban Philadelphia county and shaved Clinton's winning percentage from just over 50 percent for Obama in 2012 to roughly 50 percent this year.
The investigation into a 5-year-old girl who was abandoned at a bus terminal in New York City led police to find her mother's body in Stamford on Monday, according to police, and they are looking for her father in connection with the homicide.

Police said they are looking for the girls father, Elmer Gomez Ruono, 32, for questioning. They believe he killed the mother, then dropped the little girl off at the police station around 8:30 a.m., based on what they saw on surveillance video.

The girl was found at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Times Square at 10:12 a.m. Monday and New York authorities instructed police in Stamford to do a welfare check on the girl's mother in Stamford, where they found 24-year-old Dionicia Bautista-Cano dead on the third floor of 388 Courtland Ave.

Police have not said how she was killed.

Police said Bautista-Cano and her child, who speaks Spanish, moved from New Jersey and in with Ruono sometime over the weekend. The woman is a Guatemalan national, police said.

The couple, who married in Guatamala in 2008, had been separated, and Gomez Ruono moved to the country first.

Bautista-Cano moved later and there was a get together in the apartment on Sunday night and detectives believe an argument led to a struggle and Bautista-Cano was killed.

Stamford Police are investigating the homicide and police hope to speak with the girl to determine if she witnessed the homicide, but investigators said they are being very delicate with her because she mother was killed and her father is a suspect.

She is in custody of the Connecticut Department of Children and Family Services.

Bautista-Cano's husband has not been located yet.
North Haven police arrested a man accused of robbing the Wells Fargo Bank on Washington Avenue Monday.

Daniel Toce, 29, of East Haven, faces charges of second-degree robbery and fourth-degree larceny.

Police said Toce walked into the bank around 12:30 p.m. and passed a note to the teller demanding money. The teller complied and Toce then fled, police said.

No weapon was displayed and no one was injured in the incident.

North Haven police, with assistance from East Haven police, identified Toce as the suspect.

Police located Toce at a motel in Branford and took him into custody without incident with the help of Branford police.

Toce was held on a $50,000 and is expected to appear in Meriden Superior Court Tuesday.
(Beijing)  Banks and trust companies in big cities are facing increased regulatory pressure to tighten lending to the property sector as worries about an asset bubble grow.

The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) has instructed banks and trust companies in 16 cities, including Shanghai, Shenzhen and several provincial capitals, to examine their real-estate-related business between January and September, sources said.

Firms are required to evaluate whether they have broken regulations or collaborated with other companies to work around government restrictions on lending to property developers and individuals who took out loans for down payments, the sources said.

Banks were told to determine whether their clients had used credit cards or other consumer loans to pay for home mortgages, and to verify whether they had made loans or funneled funds from wealth-management products to help real estate firms buy land.

Trust companies face similar requirements because they are in a position to help non-financial enterprises borrow money when they are not able to get loans directly from banks.

The requirements come after CBRC Chairman Shang Fulin called for "focused attention" on banks and trust companies making inappropriate loans to developers and home buyers. Shang made the comments during an internal work conference on Oct. 21, according to attendees.

Shang said the government had to strengthen its monitoring of banks and trust firms to clamp down on operations that had funneled funds to developers and home buyers in ways that allowed them to use the debts as if they were their own capital. Controlling the risk stemming from such operations should be the CBRC's priority, Shang said at the meeting.

The 25-person Politburo, the Communist Party's top decision-making body, took aim at soaring property prices in July by listing "repressing asset bubbles" as an important task for the remainder of the year. Yet home prices in most of the 70 cities monitored by the National Bureau of Statistics have continued to rise. The average price of a new home in the southern coastal city of Xiamen, for example, increased by almost 3% from August to September, and was 46.5% higher compared with the same month a year ago.

This has led to tough government action. More than 20 cities rolled out unusually harsh restrictions on home purchases since late September. The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development in October censured 45 developers and real estate agencies for fanning the property frenzy by using fake ads, for example. Those companies are all in the 16 cities covered by the CBRC notice.

Contact reporter Wang Yuqian (yuqianwang@caixin.com); editor Kerry Nelson (kerry@caixin.com)
Looking to make a little extra cash this holiday season? Retailers and shipping giants like FedEx and Amazon are gearing up for the holiday rush by hiring seasonal employees across the country.

If youre interested in a temporary position, check out the list of options in Connecticut.

Macy's

Macys announced plans to hire about 83,000 seasonal employees this season at Macys and Bloomingdales stores, call centers, distribution centers and online fulfillment centers in September. Most of these positions are part-time and have flexible scheduling. Click here for more information.

FedEx

FedEx is expecting another record peak holiday shopping season, with volume 10 percent higher than in 2015. The company announced plans to add 50,000 additional positions leading up to the peak holiday season in order to maintain quality service. Jobs available in Connecticut include positions ranging from package handler at a warehouse to couriers, dockworkers, and retail associates. To apply, look here.

Amazon

Amazon will hire more than 120,000 employees to help sort, wrap and ship holiday packages this season. Working in Amazon's fulfillment and sortation centers may require heavy lifting, spending extended periods on your feet, and operating carts and dollies. Interested applicants can go here for more information. The company has locations in Wallingford and Windsor. For more information click here.

USPS

The United States Postal Service plans to hire between 35,000 and 40,000 additional workers nationwide this holiday season. Seasonal workers will serve as mail handlers, retail associates, drivers and carrier assistants to help deliver holiday cards and packages to customers. USPS is particularly interested in hiring retired mail carriers for these temporary positions, as they can hit the ground running with no learning curve. If you're interested in applying, you can search here for job openings in your area.

UPS

UPS will hire 95,000 seasonal employees -- primarily package handlers, drivers and driver helpers -- in anticipation of increased holiday package volume. Look here for more information.

Target

Target is looking to hire more than 77,000 seasonal team members to deal with "mega-high volume" of online orders and those holiday shopping crowds. The company is seeking 70,000 employees to work in stores across the country and 7,750 employees to help staff its distribution and fulfillment facilities. Interested applicants can go here and click "apply now" to search for available positions near them.

Toys "R" Us

Seasonal positions are also available at Toys "R" Us and Babies "R" Us stores in several locations across Connecticut, including Danbury, Manchester, Milford, Waterford and more. Click here to browse those positions.
When she was younger, Southern Connecticut State University junior Bahar Musa said she was teased for displaying her Islamic faith.

"More people would say like silly things here or there like towel head," she said.

For a while, Musa did not wear a hijab, the traditional head covering for women in Islam, but two years ago she committed to wearing this symbol of modesty every day.

"Its not just modesty on about how we dress its about how we act, how we treat others," she explained. "I always have girls asking me like why do you wear hijab, what is the point? And theyre really intrigued by it."

The Muslim Student Association at SCSU organized a hijab day as part of Social Justice Week Monday to teach students about this religious tradition by giving them the chance to spend a day wearing a hijab.

"Ive heard about things that like acts of discrimination, so I wanted to support them," SCSU junior Kelsey Kuziak said.

Students from different faiths, like junior Richelle Villabona who comes from a catholic family, tried on the hijab.

"I always love being immersed in different cultures and learning about different kinds of traditions and I just wanted to support the Muslim community by doing this," she told NBC Connecticut.

For Musa, a successful hijab day is a sign of a campus that values diversity and inclusion.

"I had to send out someone to buy more hijabs so that we can supply the demand," Musa said. "So, its really good."

More than 50 female students participated in wearing a hijab, Musa said. A discussion was held in the afternoon for students to discuss their experiences.
What to Know A 24-year-old Manhattan woman is suing clothing retailer Zara after she says she found a dead rodent sewn into a dress she bought

The plaintiff says she has suffered emotional distress and even contracted a rodent-born disease from the alleged rat carcass

Zara told the Daily News that it's aware of the suit and is investigating

A Manhattan woman is suing Spanish fashion retailer Zara after she says she found a rat sewn into a dress she bought at one of their stores.

In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court last week, 24-year-old Cailey Fiesel says that she not only suffered emotional distress but was diagnosed with a rodent-born disease after wearing the dress.

Court documents say that Fiesel bought two dresses off-the-rack at Zaras Greenwich, Connecticut, store back in July and hung them in her closet. In mid-August, she wore the black dress in question for the first time.

While at work, Fiesel says she started to notice a disturbingly pungent odor but couldnt figure out where the offending smell was coming from. She was unable to escape this odor, according to court papers.

Throughout the day, Fiesel says she noticed something that felt like a loose string from her dress rubbing against her leg. She didnt give much thought to it and reached down to try to find the string. Thats when she says she made the grisly discovery.

To her utter shock and disbelief, as she ran her hand over the hem of the dress she felt an unusual bulge and suddenly realized that it was not a string that was rubbing against her leg but was instead a leg rubbing against her leg. The leg of a dead rodent that is, court documents say.

Paralyzed with fear, Fiesel jumped out of her chair as coworkers gathered around her desk. Court documents claim that when she took off the dress she found a dead rodent sewn into its hem, the bulge of its body hidden beneath the fabric.

Photos of the dress included with the court papers conspicuously [depict] the dead rodent with at least one of its appendages protruding.

The lawsuit claims that Fiesel has sustained significant personal injuries and emotional distress and a large rash that was diagnosed as a rodent born disease as a result of Zaras negligence.

It was Zaras duty to prevent its products from being manufactured and sold with disease causing rodents sewn into them, the suit says.

Fiesel is seeking unspecified damages.

A spokesperson for Zara USA told NBC 4 New York the company is aware of the allegation and is investigating the matter.



"The brand has stringent quality controls and health and safety standards worldwide that are followed and met in manufacturing, including stitching and pressing," the spokesperson said. "We are committed to ensuring that all of our products meet these rigorous requirements."
A full day's pay for a full day's work? That doesn't always happen. People get cheated out of their hard earned cash more than you might think.

The NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters learned by combing through 15 years of federal data on Connecticut that these cases involve everyone from insurance employees to limo drivers and restaurant workersand payouts can be substantial, if you know who to call.

Things fell apart quickly for Jon Hawks of Burlington. Fresh out of school he got a job as an intern writing software code with online video company Shoplandia in Stamford this summer.

Hawks explains he got his first paycheck, the second was three weeks latethen the third paycheck never came. And they said it was a problem with their investors and they were still tied up on that. Okay, fine, I don't judge, give them the benefit of the doubt. The fourth paycheck didn't come."

Hawks contacted the NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters, we called Shoplandia. Hawks got paid more than $3000 a few days later. Shoplandia will not comment.

While we were able to help out Jon Hawks, people should also consider going to the Connecticut or U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hours division. In general, the state deals cases involving companies with annual revenues below $500,000 per year, and the feds handle companies making more than that who do business across state lines.

U.S. Department of Labor Wage & Hour Division District Director David Gerrain explains besides failing to pay employees, other companies don't pay them overtime after 40 hours. We unfortunately do run into those cases where we do find employers who willfully violating our regulations."

Gerrain says his agency has narrowed its focus to trades where wage abuse is more prevalent: restaurants, construction, and landscapingWithin the last several years we have been targeting those types of industries where we find a large number of violations particularly to vulnerable workers who are less likely to come to us complain or are more likely to be taken advantage of by an employer."

For example in 2012 the U.S. Department of Labor got a group of four diners in New Haven and Middlesex counties to pay well in excess of $300,000 to kitchen employees for all the hours they logged, including overtime.

The four Athenian diners have not had violations since. The owners did not want to comment. The state restaurant association says it works with members constantly to ensure they are informed and educated on all laws and regulations

In terms of the other industries the U.S. Department of Labor has targeted; the Connecticut Nursery and Landscape Association says our members try to stay up with all regulationsthere's a lot of people that fly under the radar.

The Connecticut Construction Industries Association has teamed up with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters to combat companies failing to pay wages and overtime, or hiring workers as independent contractors and not paying for health or disability insuranceaccording to union representative Matt CapeceThere are contractors who are worried about this problem. Because when you have construction companies that are breaking the law, the good guys are competing against them."

The Department of Labor says undocumented workers should not be afraid to reach out to them if they believe they are victims of wage violations. The agency considers all information it receives confidential and does not pass it on to other government branches.
"Beverly Hills, 90210" cast members are paying tribute to ailing co-star Shannen Doherty.

Doherty is being treated for breast cancer and didn't take part in a "90210" reunion panel at the Rewind Convention in Chicago over the weekend.

Luke Perry, whose character had an on-screen romance with Doherty's, told the audience Saturday that Doherty was "a very big part of the success of the show." He added that Doherty is "not doing well right now but sometimes her contributions are minimized."

Fellow cast mate Jennie Garth praised Doherty on Instagram by sharing a picture Saturday with a quote, "Fight Like A Brenda," a reference to Doherty's "90210" character, Brenda Walsh. Garth calls Doherty the "strongest lady I've ever known."
Protesters have gathered Tuesday afternoon in Downtown Dallas to voice their opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners is building the 1,200-mile pipeline, which is designed to carry oil from North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to a shipping point in Illinois at a cost of $3.8 billion.

However it runs under a reservoir that provides drinking water to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in North Dakota, which says the pipeline threatens drinking water and other cultural sites.

Protests have been ongoing for months and are expected to spread across the U.S. to other cities, including outside the Earle Cabell Federal Building in Dallas.

About two dozen protesters plan to march and rally, and speakers include recent visitors to the protest at Standing Rock.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers called Monday for more study and input from the Standing Rock Sioux before it decides whether to allow the pipeline to cross under the water reservoir, Lake Oahe.

Energy Transfer Partners and a subsidiary are asking U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to confirm the company has the legal right to proceed.

The Corps in July granted ETP the permits needed for the crossing, but it said in September that further analysis was warranted given tribal concerns.

ETP says additional delay amounts to politic interference and says it will "vigorously pursue its legal rights."
Former President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush have a new addition to the family after a recent trip to a Dallas animal shelter.

Freddy Bush, as they named him, is a rescue dog from the SPCA facility in West Dallas.

Mrs. Bush told NBC 5's Meredith Land that she and her husband fell in love with the puppy as soon as they saw him.

"Election Day, George and I went to our SPCA in town, and the little puppy called our name. So we have a new little puppy at our house," she said. "Of course, Barney and Beasley and Spot got old and went on to doggy heaven, so we have a new little puppy named Freddy."

In a statement released Monday, the former president said:

"Laura and I are thrilled to introduce the newest member of our family, Freddy Bush. We visited the SPCA of Texas' Jan Rees-Jones Animal Care Center last Tuesday to thank them for their great work  and came home with a puppy. We already love him, and even our cats Bob and Bernadette are finding Freddy's charm futile to resist. If you could use a little extra joy in your life, consider adopting a pet from an animal shelter or rescue group."

We were honored to welcome President George W. Bush & Mrs. Laura Bush to Jan Rees-Jones Animal Care Center where they adopted Freddy Bush! pic.twitter.com/Gw129cCMio  SPCA of Texas (@spcaoftexas) November 15, 2016

[NATL] Unbelievable Animal Stories: Dog Befriends Abandoned Baby Giraffe
Denton police announced an arrest Monday in the September vandalism of a squad car.

Joseph Porter Fishburn is suspected of spray-painting profanities all over a Denton police car that was parked near the intersection of Texas Loop 288 and Stuart Road, police said.

The car was covered in graffiti, plus all four tires were flattened and its spotlight was broken.

Denton police said they identified Fisburn from fingerprints left on the patrol car. They said he admitted the vandalism to detectives during an interview.

Further information was not immediately available and jail records did not list an attorney for Fishburn.
A new Dallas Police Department chief will face high expectations from a city where tensions boiled over just months ago with the ambush murder of five officers in July.

Former Chief David Brown served for six years and announced his retirement amid ongoing community protests. His last day on the job was in October.

"There's no training in any sort of guidebook that you can take off the shelf that says 'This is what you do when this happens,'" said Alex Piquero, a criminology expert at the University of Texas at Dallas.

The UTD professor said Brown received praise from many leaders for a steady hand in the wake of the tragedy, which sets a high bar for a replacement.

"Especially following the legacy of Chief Brown, the individual will have very big shoes to fill," said Piquero. "But there's no doubt in my mind that this will be a very tempting job for a lot of police officers around the country who are looking to be in charge of a major department in a major city that's a very desirable place to live and work."

In Brown's time as chief, Dallas expanded the use of Tasers as a deadly force alternative, body cameras to record what officers see and online disclosure of deadly force incidents to improve transparency.

"I see it as a police department to be emulated," Piquero said. "If you look at the city of Dallas's crime rates over the last 30 or 40 years, they are still at record lows."

Those improvements do not silence all of Brown's critics.

"We want a chief we can be able to trust," said the Rev. Ronald Wright, with the civil rights organization Justice Seekers Texas.

Wright believes Brown fell short on high expectations for improving community relations and alleged police misconduct.

"These officers may have been great officers, and they didn't deserve to die like that. But you can't pick and choose who you're going to pray for. What about the families who have lost loved ones?" Wright asked. "(Former DPD Police Chief) David Kunkle didn't have a problem with working in the community, which we assumed and thought Chief Brown was going to do. But that didn't take place."

There have been four Dallas police chiefs over the past 20 years. Brown, an African-American man, succeeded Kunkle, a Caucasian man who succeeded Terrell Bolton, an African-American man who succeeded Bennie Click, a Caucasian man.

Dallas is now a majority minority city. Less than a third of the city population is Caucasian. But nearly half the city's police officers are white. The Dallas population is 40-percent Hispanic but the police force is only 21-percent Hispanic.

Some Latino leaders say it is time for a Spanish-speaking Dallas police chief.

State Rep. Roberto Alonzo, D-Dallas, is also a criminal defense attorney. He deals with police frequently.

"The officers and what the city does should reflect the diversity of the city. And I think, if it's not doing it, it should work toward it," Alonzo said. "On many occasions there's been tension because there's no communication, there's no understanding. And what we would like is that tension not to be there but communication to happen."

UTD expert Piquero said the right candidate will be able to communicate with all segments of the community.

"I think at the end of the day the Hispanic community, the African-American community, the Asian community, the white community are going to want the best person for the job. Who's going to do policing the right way for the citizens of the city Dallas?" he said.

In Dallas, the police chief is hired by the city manager, and City Manager A.C. Gonzalez has announced that he will retire in January. A national search is underway for the manager's replacement and a chief search will wait until a new manager is on the job.

Current interim Dallas Police Chief David Pughes has said he will not seek in the permanent position.

Copyright, 2013, Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia (Dustin A. Cable, creator)
Gwen Ifill, the trailblazing former moderator and managing editor of Washington Week and co-anchor and co-managing editor of PBS NewsHour, has died after a cancer battle NBC News has confirmed. Ifill was 61.

In October 1999, Ifill became the moderator of the PBS program "Washington Week in Review." She was also senior correspondent for the PBS NewsHour. Ifill has appeared on various news shows, including "Meet the Press."

A former newspaper reporter, Ifill switched to television and worked for NBC News and PBS. She moderated two vice presidential debates.

She took a leave from her nightly show for health reasons earlier this year, never making public her illness. A week ago, she went out on leave again, taking her away from election night coverage.

President Obama remarked on Ifill's passing at a press conference Monday. "Gwen was a friend of ours and extraordinary journalist. She always asked tough questions, holding people in power accountable. I always appreciated her reporting, even when I was on the receiving end of one of her tough interviews," he said.

"She not only informed todays citizens, but she also inspired todays journalists Gwen did her country a great service and Michelle and I join her family and everyone who loved her in remembering her fondly today," he continued.

Sara Just, PBS "NewsHour" executive producer, called Ifill "a standard bearer for courage, fairness and integrity in an industry going through seismic change."

The @SimmonsCollege community mourns the loss of proud alumna @gwenifill '77, '93HD. She was a powerful leader & outstanding journalist. pic.twitter.com/6L19AgZB94  Simmons University (@SimmonsUniv) November 14, 2016

Ifill moderated the 2004 vice presidential debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards and the 2008 vice-presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin.

Ifill was in hospice care in Washington at the time of her death on Monday.

[NATLu002du002dDO NOT USE] In Memoriam: Influential People We've Lost This Year

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A judge has ordered "Making a Murderer" subject Brendan Dassey released from prison, pending his appeal.

"We are in the process of making arrangements for his release and hope that Brendan will be reunited with his family by Thanksgiving, if not sooner," Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth said in a statement. "We urge everyone to respect Brendans privacy during this time of transition."

The granting of Dassey's release, first reported by NBC affiliate station TMJ4, came during a ruling Monday, which outlined several conditions, including that he can only travel in the court's Eastern District of Wisconsin, cannot obtain a passport, cannot possess a gun or any other weapons or possess any controlled substances.

He also cannot contact his uncle Steven Avery, or the family of Teresa Halbach.

"As we give thanks this holiday season for family and friends, our food will taste all the sweeter because we know that for the first time in ten years, Brendan will be celebrating in freedom with his family, too," the center wrote.

Still, Attorney General Brad Schimel said he intends to file an emergency motion in the Seventh Circuit "seeking a stay of this release order."

A federal magistrate judge ruled in August that investigators tricked Dassey into confessing he helped Avery, rape, kill and mutilate photographer Halbach in 2005. Dassey, who turned 27 Wednesday, was 16 at the time. The magistrate ordered that Dassey be freed unless prosecutors appealed or decided to retry him.

In a brief filed with the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Schimel urged the appeals court to reject Dassey's claim that his confession was coerced.

"Substantial police coercion" is required for any confession to be ruled involuntary, Schmel said. And he said the Wisconsin Court of Appeals was right to affirm in 2013 that Dassey's confession was voluntary.

Duffin held that investigators made specific promises of leniency to Dassey and that no "fair-minded jurists could disagree." He cited one investigator's comment early in the interview that "you don't have to worry about things," plus repeated comments like "it's OK" and that they already knew what happened.

But the magistrate's ruling "ignores both the facts and the law," the attorney general said. Investigators didn't promise leniency, he said, and specifically told Dassey they couldn't make any promises.

The teenager willingly spoke with investigators and was properly informed of his rights, Schimel said. The interview took a few hours in the middle of the day, while Dassey sat on a couch and drank a soda, the investigators spoke in normal tones, and did not threaten him or make false promises, he said. And Dassey confessed to most of the important details within an hour, in response to open-ended questions, he added.

"The state courts' conclusion that Dassey's confession was voluntary is not only reasonable; it is entirely correct. Accordingly, Dassey is not entitled to relief," the attorney general said.

Halbach was killed on Halloween 2005, after she visited the Avery family's salvage yard in Manitowoc County. Investigators allege Avery lured her there by asking her to take photos of a minivan. Dassey was sentenced to life in prison in 2007. Court documents describe him as a slow learner who had poor grades and has difficulty understanding language and speaking. Avery was convicted in a separate trial and was also sentenced to life in prison. He's pursuing his own appeal.

Their cases gained national attention after Netflix aired "Making a Murderer" last year. The series spawned widespread conjecture about the pair's innocence. Authorities who worked on the cases said the series was biased, but it generated a myriad of calls from the public to free both men.
Reina Gonzales was searching for an affordable apartment on Craigslist when she found what she thought was the perfect place. The three-bedroom house for $1,600 was in her price range and in the right neighborhood. But there was no street address on the ad and no photos. There was simply a phone number.

"They say if it's too good to be true, then it is," Gonzales said.

It was.

Gonzales called the phone number on the Craigslist ad and was told to visit Superior Consulting Services in Rowland Heights for a list of available apartments and homes. When she got there, a Superior representative told her that for $200 in cash they would provide her with a list of rentals that were currently available.

"That's grocery money. That's my rent money," Gonzales said. "I actually do work hard for my money."

She paid the fee and received a list with three rental referrals. But there were no prices or phone numbers on the sheet. Gonzales says the company told her that they would set up viewing appointments for the properties on her behalf. But after calling 10 times, Gonzales said no one returned her calls. In fact, none of the homes on the list were even available according to her research.

"They gave me fake listings," Gonzales said. "They gave us the runaround, put us on hold, 30 minutes later, let me call you back in an hour. Call again, call again. Runaround. Runaround."

Gonzales, and others, say the person in charge of Superior Consulting Services is Richard Rodriguez. And she's not the only one who has had issues with Rodriguez and his business. The I-Team found more than a dozen one-star Yelp reviews from customers who call the company a "fraud" and a "scam." Many complained they didn't get the services they paid for, nor could they get a refund.

"I would describe him as not only the kingpin but the mastermind," said Dolores Ramos, Statewide Enforcement Programs Manager at California Bureau of Real Estate, the agency that licenses rental listing services. "He's a threat to people who are honestly just trying to find a place to live."

Rodriguez has been running from the California Bureau of Real Estate for 20 years. According to government documents obtained by the I-Team, the Bureau has shut down four other rental listing businesses connected with Rodriguez going back as far as 1996.

"We issue these administrative orders and he moves to another place," said Ramos.

But there are no criminal penalties attached to those administrative orders. The Bureau doesn't have arrest or prosecution powers. It's up to the local law enforcement agency or district attorney to criminally charge the perpetrators of rental listing fraud.

Authorities have even had trouble keeping track of Rodriguez over the years. But the NBC4 I-Team has found him on multiple occasions.

Four years ago, the I-Team interviewed at least 30 people who said they were scammed by Rodriguez when he ran other rental agencies, like Global Rentals, International Home Rentals and Hacienda Home Rentals.

"They promised to find me a home. They didn't deliver," said Sylvia Vidal during an interview four years ago. "So I gave away my children's Christmas money.

When the I-Team tracked down Rodriguez in 2012, he ran from our cameras when we tried to ask him questions about his business and the complaints of his customers. This time, he wasn't happy to see the I-Team when we caught up with him at Superior Consulting Services.

At first, Rodriguez said he would talk to us outside. But as we began to walk toward the door, Rodriguez physically forced us out of the building by pushing us toward to door and then locking it behind us.

"It's shameful," Ramos said. "He's there to take their money and run."

Ramos says Rodriguez is breaking the law because he's currently barred from working in any kind of real estate business until 2017 by an administrative order issued by the Bureau of Real Estate. And this time, the Bureau is vowing to stop him for good.

"We are committed to take this to the law enforcement authorities," Ramos said.

Gonzales has strong words for Rodriguez and his staff, who so far have refused to refund her money.

"They know how to lie. They're scammers. They know what they're doing. They're good at it," she said. "He should be in prison."

How can consumers avoid being victimized by illegal rental listing services?

"They should contact the California Bureau of Real State and ask to see if a company you're dealing with is licensed," Ramos said.

Current licenses can be checked on the California Bureau of Real Estate's website at dre.ca.gov.

And if you don't get what you're promised, you have the right to a refund.

"Let's say that you ask for a three-bedroom and they're only giving you lists of two bedrooms, then you have the rights to a refund," Ramos said.

If you've been the victim of rental listing fraud, Ramos says you should report it by calling the Bureau of Real Estate's complaint resolution line at 213-576-6885 or its enforcement line at 213-620-2072.

"We need consumers to come forward and we need to have them to protect themselves," Ramos said.
Along with the dozens of post-election anti-Trump protests across the Bay Area  some peaceful, some not so much  a wall went up at BART stations in San Francisco Monday morning.

But this was a Wall of Empathy, created out of post-it notes passersby were writing, reading and sharing to support minorities and offer post-election relief, albeit in an unusual place. The group behind the art project is using the hashtag #WallofEmpathy on social media to spread their message.

Hate crimes and hateful rhetoric have no place in our city. We are stronger together, Muriel MacDonald, one of the eevent organizers, said in a statement. We will be inviting passersby to share their feelings on sticky notes and build a Wall of Empathy.

The messages? "I love you," "If not now, when? If not me, who?" "Make America Great Again," "Trump values do not live in California," and in a typical Bay Area style attempt at humor: "I love Rosie O'Donnell."

The group behind the San Francisco wall said they were inspired by a similar event in New York:

Borrowing the idea from New Yorkers, we will be leaving Post-Election stickies and building a Wall. ... A Wall of Empathy. We are not going to support Trump America. Let's come together and share our grief to help build a better future. Stop by and leave a note or read and share them.

In the Bay Area, those disappointed by the Trump elections have been coming up with creative ways to let their frustrations out  over the weekend, there was a group hug event at Dolores Park, pant-suit events to show solidarity for Hillary and in Oakland, psychologists from an El Cerritto nonprofit set up a white empathy tent along Lake Merritt, where strangers came to talk about their feelings in a non-judgmental safe space.

These protests have garnered ridicule from the Trump supporters and those on the right, who are calling out liberals for being too touchy feely and living in their own bubble.

The Wall of Empathy project will be going on until 10 p.m. Monday at the 16th Street BART Station. Walls of empathy were also created at the 24th street BART station in the Mission District and the Montgomery Street station downtown. Art materials and post-it notes will be available or you can bring your own.[[401147225, C]]
Authorities in Colorado were searching a landfill Monday where they think an Orange County woman's remains are located after she was reported missing this summer, Colorado affiliate KUSA reported.

Charlene Voight, 36, disappeared in July after moving from San Clemente to Littleton, Colorado.

Littleton police and volunteers started sifting through pounds of garbage in a landfill located in Commerce City, just north of Denver. Her disappearance was considered suspicious after authorities found her abandoned car in a dirt lot.

Voight's family was thankful police were investigating but told NBC4 they were not optimistic.

"We think our daughter is dead," Charles Voight, her father, told NBC4 in a phone interview Monday.

Charlene Voight and her boyfriend, Jeffrey Beier, had a tumultuous relationship, and she had asked for a restraining order against him in 2012 after court records say he physically abused her. Beier was never named a suspect in her disappearance.

Read more on KUSA.

NBC4's Jack Noyes contributed to this report.
Disneyland security checkpoints will soon include the Downtown Disney district in a move that is set to be completed by the end of the year.

The change of checkpoints is intended to boost security and increase guest convenience, a Disney spokeswoman said.

While no "specific incident" has prompted the change, the park constantly reevaluates is safety procedures and has acted on a "current state of heightened awareness," the spokeswoman said.

The plan will see the western security location, currently located between Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, move outward. The east side checkpoint is not changing for now.

The new metal detectors and bag checks will be located in the area between ESPN Zone and the Rainforest Cafe; ESPN Zone and Earl of Sandwich; and an area located by Sephora and Anna & Elsa's Boutique.

In addition, guests entering through the Disney and Friends parking structure will also have to go through the metal detectors and bag checks.

The security point from the Grand Californian Hotel & Spa into Disney California Adventure will remain.

Currently, people who do not visit Disneyland or Disney California Adventure can enter Downtown Disney without going through a metal detector or a bag check.

However, visitors to the theme parks have to go through the checkpoints each time they go in and out of Downtown Disney and back into one of the parks.

Moving the security points out will allow park guests to go into Downtown Disney without having to go through the points a second time.

The spokeswoman said that they do not foresee a bottleneck effect by visitors trying to enter into Disney property, since the higher number of security points will in turn help control the larger crowd that will now encompass the secured area.

The move is set to be completed by sometime in December, the spokeswoman said.
Stroll over to your shelf, the one that holds your hi-fi and a few dozen albums, and proceed to flip through your record collection.

Flip, flip, flip.

How often does a small oval logo, the one circling a dome and some stars, pop up? We'll make a good guess and say "incredibly often," for Capitol Records, and the rich catalog that's sprung from the legendary company over the decades, has woven into our album collections, our day-to-day listening, the lyrics we've memorized, and the superstars we love.

The celebrated tunesmith titan is turning 75, and it is doing so in the turn-it-up-iest, feel-the-beat-iest way, by offering "an extensive slate of music, film, and literary projects that will pay tribute to Capitol artists spanning the past eight decades and shine a spotlight on their historic contributions to music and popular culture."

That tribute spirit'll start to spin as fast as a 33 1/3 record album set to 45 on Tuesday, Nov. 15.

That's the official Capitol Records Day in Hollywood, and the company, which has long existed adjacent to a caboodle of sidewalk stars at its longtime location near Hollywood and Vine, will "receive a star of recognition from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce."

The Capitol Record star's placement? Below that mid-century marvel, the iconic stacked-record tower at 1750 Vine St., of course.

In addition to the classic below-your-feet sidewalk symbol, the Los Angeles City Council "will present Capitol wil a resolution declaring November 15 Capitol Records Day in the city."

And one more cherry on top of this celebratory sundae, or, rather, metallic steeple on top of a tall building? The spire at the tippy point of the Capitol Records Tower will broadcast out, via Morse code, "Capitol 75" for the next year.

Did you know it is always sending out the word "Hollywood" to the unseen waves via Morse code, every single day of the year? You did, surely. It's Tinseltown Trivia 101.

And surely you know your famous Capitol artists, from Nat King Cole to Frank Sinatra to Al Martino to Tina Turner to Peggy Lee to the Beastie Boys to Katy Perry. You have their albums on your shelf, next to the hi-fi. Or you have their hits on your pocket music player, or on some compact discs, or maybe even a few cherished cassettes.

Because cassettes still rule.

Or own the work of your favorite artists on all the formats, which means our aforementioned joke, about a 33 1/3 LP going at 45 brought a chuckle, or at least a wry and patient smile.

And music fans do know a lot about music history, its formats, its artists, and the giants behind the control boards and microphones, like Capitol Records.

So happy big 75th to the round sound building near Hollywood and Vine. We're looking forward to all of the dance-worthy, snap-along-to-it stuff that's still to come during your do-it-up anniversary year.
A recent rape in Maywood may be connected to other break-ins and sexual assaults in the area that began in October, sheriff's deputies said.

The string of burglaries and sexual battery began Oct. 5. The sixth incident, reported on Nov. 13, was the first rape, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department East Los Angeles Station.

The man is described as a male Hispanic with a "child-like" appearance, between 18 and 20 years old, between 5 feet 2 inches and 5 feet 5 inches tall, with a thin build, wide lips and "bad odor," and speaking Spanish, according to authorities.

Deputies could only say that this latest incident, which happened just one day after another similar attack, occurred 5 a.m. Sunday. The victim is out of the hospital.

Authorities believe the pattern of behavior described by witnesses points to a single suspect being the culprit.

In each case, the attacker entered the home through a window at pre-dawn hours and confronted the victim. In the first incident, the attacker grabbed the victim's breasts as she sat in her living room, before the victim pushed him away and forced him out of the house, authorities said.

On Oct. 18, about half a mile away from the first incident, the attacker entered a couple's bedroom around 2:30 a.m. before being scared off when one of the victims woke up and yelled at him.

Roughly and hour-and-a-half later, a victim awoke to the suspect touching her in an "intimate body part." The victim ran and called police after she locked herself in a bedroom, but the attacker was gone when police arrived.

The next day, the attacker entered another home and covered the mouth of a "female juvenile" who slept in her bed, according to the sheriff's department.

"The guy was like, 'Shut up, shut up, don't do anything,'" said the mother of the victim. "His hand on her mouth and she (fought) and kicked him and she was able to scream to us."

But the attacker was still able to flee after being confronted and punched by the victim's father.

The Nov. 12 incident involved the attacker entering an underage girl's room and covering her mouth. The victim's mother heard a noise and went in to check on her daughter as the attacker fled.

Sheriff's deputies are warning residents to stay alert and to lock their windows, doors and leave their porch lights on.

A $5,000 reward is being offered for the capture of the attacker. Anyone with information is asked to contact detective Hector Andujo at 323-981-5051 or the on-duty watch commander at 323-264-4151.
Five students were stabbed inside the boys' locker room of their Utah high school Tuesday, and a 16-year-old boy identified as a suspect was taken into custody, police and students said.

The stabbings of the male students happened about 8 a.m. at Mountain View High School, a city of about 90,000 people about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City, authorities said.

All of the victims were stabbed at least once and were being treated for their injuries at local hospitals. Their conditions ranged from critical to fair, Orem police Lt. Craig Martinez told reporters.

Students described a gruesome scene, with victims covered in blood running from the locker room.

Junior Karen Martinez said she saw three victims run to the school's office, one suffering from a head wound and another with an injury to his neck. One victim had blood running down the back of his shirt, she said.

"It was awful," said Martinez, her eyes filled with tears. "It was so terrifying. I didn't know any of the kids, but still it was like an awful feeling to see all those kids getting hurt."

The suspect was apprehended shortly after the stabbings by a police officer regularly assigned to work at schools, Martinez said.

The school was put on lockdown after the stabbings for about an hour. Students were later allowed to remain in school or leave for the day, and dozens of parents arrived at the school, hugging their children before taking them home.

Officials said that the stabbing happened near the school's gym and Martinez and other students told reporters that they occurred inside the boy's locker room just before classes were about to begin.

Student Paxton Ransom said he saw blood on the floor of the locker room and thought it was fake until he saw someone on the ground who had been stabbed. He ran away and hid with other students in the school's the weight room.

Eduviges Sanchez had just dropped her son off at the school when she saw a student outside with a cut in the side of his neck.
A Southwest Airlines employee was shot and killed Tuesday at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City, the airline and police confirm.

Oklahoma City police responded at about 1 p.m. to reports of shots fired in the airport parking lot Tuesday afternoon.

Marielle Thompson and Kelsey Serwa finished 1-2 for Canada in women's skicross Friday, giving their country bookend gold-silver performances in Olympic freestyle skiing.

OKC Police Capt. Paco Balderrama said 52-year-old Michael Winchester sustained "life-threatening injuries" in the shooting and was rushed to the OU Medical Center where he died. Police said earlier they were searching for a possible second victim but no other victims were located.

The shooter, who has not been identified, was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in the back of a pickup truck, according to Oklahoma City NBC affiliate KFOR.

Michelle Obama showed off her funny side on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," participating in a sketch with Fallon and "Anchorman" star Will Ferrell.

"The Southwest Airlines Family is deeply saddened by the passing of our Southwest Family Member, and we extend our heartfelt sympathies and support to his family and Southwest Co-workers at this time," the airline said in a statement, confirming Winchester's shooting death.

Winchester is a former University of Oklahoma football player whose son James Winchester is an NFL player with the Kansas City Chiefs, his agent confirmed on Twitter. James is a former punter for the Oklahoma Sooners.

"Our love and support is with James and the entire Winchester family. Our heartfelt thoughts & prayers are with you," the Kansas City Chiefs wrote in a tweet.

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Police and airport officials closed the complex about 1 p.m., diverting incoming flights and preventing those ready for takeoff from leaving. The airport handles between 7,000 and 8,000 passengers daily for Alaska, Delta, Southwest and United airlines and has a separate terminal that serves as a transfer center for federal inmates. A jet carrying inmates to the transfer site was allowed to land while the rest of the airport was shuttered.

One plane bound for Will Rogers airport was diverted to the Wiley Post Airport in the northwestern part of the city while two commercial flights from Chicago's O'Hare Airport were directed to Tulsa, about 100 miles away, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware.

"There are going to be some delays for flights until we have further information," airport spokeswoman Karen Carney said. She referred other questions to police.

All streets were blocked off surrounding the airport and everyone should avoid the area, Balderrama said. Some people were allowed to leave the grounds after police checked their vehicles.

Carney said that police believe the shooting was an isolated incident, but that precautionary measures were still appropriate.

An airport spokesperson tweeted airlines have confirmed they will waive change fees for travelers rebooking flights related to the stoppage.

Full statement from Southwest Airlines on shooting death of an employee at Oklahoma City airport: pic.twitter.com/2zm181baT3  ScottGordonNBC5 (@ScottGordonNBC5) November 15, 2016

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
What to Know Three addresses that bear the moniker Trump Place on Riverside Drive will drop the president-elect's name.

It comes after a petition by three residents to "dump Trump" from the building's facade garnered nearly 600 signatures.

Trump Place is one of several buildings in Manhattan that bear Donald Trump's name.

Trump Place, a high-rise condominium complex near Lincoln Square in Manhattan, is about to get a name change.

The three buildings will drop the name of the president-elect in favor of their street addresses, 140, 160 and 180 Riverside Boulevard, according to a spokesman for complex manager and owner Equity Residential.

"We are assuming a more neutral building identity that will appeal to all current and future residents," said company spokesman Marty McKenna.

A spokeswoman for The Trump Organization, the company that manages President-elect Donald Trump's business interests, said in a statement that the change is "simply the enforcement of a pre-existing agreement which has been in place for years."

"It was mutually agreed upon," the spokeswoman said.

The name change comes after nearly 600 people signed a Change.org petition created by three residents to have the building drop the moniker and get rid of the gold-emblazoned name on the structure's facade.

"Our home is our most personal private space, a building we should feel proud of and happy to walk into every day... so... THE TIME HAS COME TO DUMP TRUMP," said Linda Gottlieb, Robert Tessler and Brian Dumont.

The petition cites President-elect Donald Trump's "appalling treatment of women, his history of racism, his attacks on immigrants, his mockery of the disabled, his tax avoidance (and) his outright lies" in calling for the change.

The petition also noted that while Trump's name is on the building, he doesn't actually own the property.

Trump Place is one of several buildings that bear the president-elect's name in Manhattan. Despite the exposure, Trump only garnered 10 percent of the popular vote in the borough.
Republicans are still celebrating their election victories, but the country's GOP governors warned this week that they need to move fast on many of the changes that have been promised to voters.

The Republican Governors Association held its annual conference at a resort near Disney World this week where several governors talked eagerly about how the election of Donald Trump could herald sweeping changes on everything from health care to education.

But many of them said those changes need to come soon before the nation and Republican leaders get caught up in the 2018 election cycle.

"We cannot squander this opportunity," said Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey.

Republicans now control the White House and Congress. And Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker pointed that this was the first time there has been this many GOP governors across the country since the 1920s.

Many of them were excited Tuesday about what could come next.

"The sky's the limit," Walker said. "There's no end to the good we can do."

Walker and other governors ticked off a long list of areas they would like to gain more control over whether it was education, transportation, workplace rules, health care or environmental policies. But they said some of these policies need to be tackled within Trump's first 100 days.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott contended that Democrats and their allies would do what they could to stop Republicans.

"The empire will strike back," said Scott, referencing the title of one of the "Star Wars" movies. "You can be sure they are right now planning to stop us from making real changes."

Most of the GOP governors mentioned health care when discussing their top priorities.

But it became evident they are not in complete agreement on how to unwind President Barack Obama's health care overhaul that included an expansion of Medicaid, the nation's main safety net health care program for the poor. An estimated 20 million Americans are now receiving coverage through different elements of the overhaul including Medicaid or through health care exchanges that offer insurance policies.

Scott called the overhaul a "disaster" and said Republicans need to repeal it entirely. New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, however, said she expected people to continue to enroll for insurance using health care exchanges as long as it's the law and that they can't just take away insurance from people who have it now.

"I don't know that there will ever be a turn off the switch, wait a period of time and then turn it back on," said Martinez. "There is going to have to be a transition and not leave everyone uninsured."

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who noted that Medicaid was expanded in his state prior to his election, called for a "thoughtful approach" to revamping health care and said he wants the ability to put in additional requirements for Medicaid recipients such as work requirements. Hutchinson has tried to win federal approval for some of his ideas but said he had been "stymied" by the Obama administration.

"We have the opportunity to do things we cannot do now," Hutchinson said.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley called it a "new day" for statehouses across the country, but she added her own admonition.

"We can't celebrate too long, we've got to get to work," Haley said. "And that means 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 120 days, all of us have to get to work."
A water main break in central Florida created a hole so large it swallowed a car.

Deputies, road maintenance, and fire rescue were all called to the scene in Beverly Hills, a small town west of Ocala, but there was little they could do.

The car was eventually submerged in the water-filled hole.

Crews have closed the road and warned motorists to stay away from the area.

Workers eventually managed to pull the car out of the hole.

The driver, Matt Jacques, said he didn't realize a water main had broken beneath his car.

"All of the sudden, my front two tires fell, and I tried to back up and it wouldn't, it just started sucking me in a little bit. Water started coming up through the bottom of my car, said Jacques.

He said he saw the puddle, but thought it was just standing water.

The driver said by the time he realized what was going on, it was too late.

It started leaning forward, so I jumped out the side and pretty much that was it.

Jacques was not hurt in the incident.
A South Florida man has been sentenced once again to 40 years in prison for a fatal Christmas Eve shooting inside the Boynton Beach Mall.

The Palm Beach Post reports that Wilson Pierre Jr. was sentenced Monday. He was convicted in May of second-degree murder.

Pierre was previously convicted of the same charge and sentenced to 40 years in prison, but an appellate court vacated that conviction in 2014 and ordered a new trial.

The court ruled that Pierre's attorney was ineffective, especially regarding a contradiction in the jury instructions.

Authorities say 24-year-old Berno Charlemond was killed in 2006 while the mall was crowded with thousands of holiday shoppers.

Prosecutors said the mall shooting was related to a feud between two Haitian-American gangs.
Miami-Dade Police detectives discovered a heinous crime scene early Sunday morning at a home in Westchester.

After a 911 call was made about a brutal beating, responding officers were met with a woman lying in a pool of blood in the bathroom at the home located on Southwest 6th Street and 96th Court.

According to a police report, the woman, identified as Yanes Hernandez, had multiple stab wounds.

The person detectives say was responsible for the gut-wrenching crime, was discovered asleep a few feet away in a bedroom.

According to a police report, the suspect, Roberto Salabarria-Rodriguez, was armed with a knife when he attacked the victim.

A witness described the violent attack before the woman was killed.

The witness told police the victim was in a verbal dispute with the suspect, before he started to choke and beat the woman, police said.

The witness fled the home to call for help. When officers arrived, they had to force their way into the home.

That's when they found the Salabarria-Rodriguez asleep in his bedroom and Hernandez stabbed to death on the floor.

Salabarria-Rodriguez confessed to the slaying, police said. He was charged with second degree murder.

Police have not revealed the relationship between the suspect and victim.

Investigators are searching for a motive.
A man accused of killing his wife and son and shooting an attorney at a Kendall law office before he was shot by officers during a standoff in southwest Miami-Dade was ordered held without bond Tuesday during his first court appearance.

Fadel Jabado, 54, is facing multiple charges including two counts of second-degree murder, one count attempted first-degree murder, four counts of attempted murder on a law enforcement officer, five counts of aggravated assault with a firearm on a law enforcement officer, and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

Fadel Jabado is now in custody. Jabado faces multiple charges following the November 2, 2016 double murder of his wife and son. pic.twitter.com/hqBoU9UmXS  Miami-Dade Police (@MiamiDadePD) November 15, 2016

Jabado was represented by a public defender during Tuesday's hearing, his first appearance in court following his release from the hospital.

Miami-Dade Police said Jabado shot attorney Larry Harshman at Harshman's office at at 11420 N. Kendall Drive on Nov. 2. Police later found Jabado's wife and adult son shot to death at their home off Southwest 192nd Street in southwest Miami-Dade. They were identified as 43-year-old Bassima Jabado and 26-year-old Ahmed Jabado.

According to an arrest affidavit released Tuesday, Jabado shot his wife because he was angry that she wanted a divorce. He also thought his wife and son were going to take the house from him and leave him homeless and without money, the affidavit said.

Harshman was hospitalized in critical condition but is expected to survive. Harshman's wife said Jabado became upset when Harshman said he couldn't handle Jabado's divorce.

The affidavit said Jabado was angry at Harshman for assisting with a transaction regarding the home.

Fadel Jabado was shot by officers after an hours-long standoff. Police said he had barricaded himself inside a vehicle and was armed. He pointed his firearm at officers and fired at them, and they shot him several times. He was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital South.

During negotiations with police, Jabado confessed to the murders of his wife and son and to shooting Harshman, the affidavit said. He said numerous times he wanted police to kill him as he couldn't commit suicide because of his religion, the affidavit said.

Jabado had five children, three of whom are underage. A family court judge granted custody of the minors to an aunt and uncle.
Florida Highway Patrol officials are investigating after two bodies were discovered inside a car found submerged in a canal off Alligator Alley Tuesday.

Crews responded to the scene near mile marker 35 on I-75 in the western part of Broward County. FHP would not say what happened or how long the car had been in the canal, but believe that the driver may have been trying to make a U-turn into a rest area before losing control.

"All we know is right now, maybe during the night, the vehicle was traveling west down this ramp and left the roadway and into this retention pond. Both victims were pronounced dead at the scene," FHP Sgt. Mark Wysocky said.

Family members later identified the victims as 21-year-old Sebastian Ramos from Estero and 25-year-old Josh Lausche from Minnesota.

Ramos and Lausche, who are cousins, went missing Sunday morning after attending the Chipotle Cultivate Festival in Miami, family members said.

They went to a few clubs on South Beach and Ramos had called his father at 2 a.m. Sunday to say they were leaving the Hard Rock in Hollywood and were headed back to the Naples area.

The car was found after a small plane crashed in the area over the weekend, officials said.
What to Know The teenager has been held on Rikers Island since July, and his mother says the boy sometimes tells her he wants to die

At least two teenage witnesses told the I-Team they were pressured into lying about the case

The NYPD says it is conducting an internal investigation

The NYPD says actions of police officers in a Bronx precinct are under internal investigation after a shooting victim and a key witness told NBC 4 New York's I-Team cops there pressured them to lie in a criminal case.

Sixteen-year-old Pedro Hernandez, a high-school student with no criminal record, has been on Rikers Island since July, charged with firing a gun into a crowd in the Morrisania section of the Bronx in September 2015.



The I-Team spoke to the shooting victim, a 17 year-old, who was shot in the leg. He said he did not see the shooter. He claimed one detective threatened him with violence to try and get him to make up a story.

He wanted me to lie on some light-skinned kid, he said. He threatened to push my head into the wall and stuff.

Another teenager also told the I-Team he was threatened by officers, whom he said had beaten him up before. He said he knew Hernandez from the neighborhood and that he was not the shooter.

They wanted me to lie on him, to say that it was him, he said.

A private investigator hired by Hernandez' family, Manuel Gomez, said he obtained videotaped statements from several witnesses who are adamant the teenager was not involved in the shooting. Some of the witnesses identified another neighborhood man as the suspect. Gomez said he provided the evidence he uncovered to the Bronx district attorney's office.

A spokesperson for the district attorney's office said an investigation is ongoing.

Law enforcement sources said Hernandez had been arrested on criminal charges several times, but his attorney said the majority of cases have been dismissed. His attorneys have filed a notice of claim against the city alleging a pattern of harassment and abuse by the NYPD.

Pedro has been falsely arrested four times in the past year. Hes beaten every case because he didnt do it, John Scola said. He added, Basically, they are trying to pin things on him in order to save face because of a vendetta.

The city does not respond to notices of claim. The NYPD said the matter is "under review."



Meanwhile, the teenager remains at Rikers, his mother unable to post the $250,000 bond set by judge in the case.

My son is mentally devastated, the boy's mother, Jessica Perez, said. He sometimes tells me he wants to die.

Hernandez next court date is December 1.
UPDATE: The girl has been safely located, said Virginia State Police.

Authorities issued arrest warrants for her father, Dylan Richardson, and her grandmother, Jacqueline McKenna. Police said Dylan Richardson -- who grew up in Glassboro, New Jersey -- brought the child to the Monroe Township police station just after 5 a.m. Tuesday and turned himself in.



Police said the girl appeared in good health and was unaware of the incident.



The grandmother was apprehended in Glassboro and the girl was placed with family members, said police.

Richardson and McKenna were charged as fugitives from justice. It's not known if they have lawyers and are awaiting extradition.

Police say a man accused of abducting a 4-year-old girl in Virginia may be headed to New Jersey.

Virginia State Police and the Charlotte County Sheriffs Office activated a Virginia Amber Alert for a 4-year-old girl Monday. Police say the girl was last seen with Dylan James Richardson, 24, at 400 Thomas Jefferson Highway in Charlotte Court House, Virginia.

According to the Charlotte County Sheriffs Office, the girl was abducted on Nov. 9 or 10, but didn't meet the criteria for an Amber Alert until Monday.

They said Richardson was possibly headed to New Jersey though they did not say where in the state specifically.
What to Know Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is among Donald Trump's top picks for secretary of state

President Obama arrived in Greece on Tuesday in his final foreign tour as president

A Manhattan woman sued fashion retailer Zara after she allegedly found a dad rat sewn into a dress she bought

Get the top headlines of the day in your morning briefing from NBC 4 New York, Monday through Friday. Sign up for our newsletter here.

Giuliani Top Trump Pick

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has emerged as the favorite to serve as secretary of state in Donald Trump's incoming administration, a senior Trump official said on Monday -- another indication the president-elect is putting a prize on loyalty as he narrows down his Cabinet picks. Trump was also considering Monday whether to inject new diversity into the GOP by recommending a woman to lead the Republican Party and an openly gay man to represent the United States at the United Nations. The moves, among dozens under consideration from his transition team, follow an intense and extended backlash from Trump's decision on Sunday to appoint Steve Bannon, a man celebrated by the white nationalist movement, to serve as his chief strategist and senior adviser.

Trump Dominates Obama Trip

President Obama's final foreign tour as president will be dominated by questions and concerns about President-elect Donald Trump. Obama arrived in Greece Tuesday morning amid tight security. He is scheduled to meet with President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and then tour the Acropolis and give a major speech about democracy and globalization before flying on to Berlin on Wednesday. On Monday, Obama abandoned his dire warnings and dark predictions about his newly elected successor and urged Americans to give President-elect Donald Trump time to rise to the daunting responsibilities of the office, breaking sharply from his Democratic allies who have quickly condemned Trump's first major decisions.

Cuomo Posts Subway Sticky

Gov. Cuomo joined thousands of other people in placing a sticky note on a Manhattan subway station wall expressing his thoughts about the presidential election. This is what he said.

Police Searches in Tri-State

Police are searching for the father of a 5-year-old girl who was found abandoned inside the Port Authority Bus Terminal Monday morning after her mother was found killed in Connecticut, police say. A Port Authority police officer spotted the girl alone on the second-floor concourse Monday morning. Meanwhile, police say a 4-year-old girl has been located and her alleged abductor taken into custody after the Charlotte County Sheriffs Office activated a Virginia Amber Alert for her on Monday. Police said the girl was in extreme danger.

NYC Woman Sues Zara Over Rat

A Manhattan woman is suing Spanish fashion retailer Zara after she says she found a rat sewn into a dress she bought at one of their stores. In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court last week, 24-year-old Cailey Fiesel says that she not only suffered emotional distress but was diagnosed with a rodent-born disease after wearing the dress. Zara said its investigating.

Depression Worsens in Teens

More and more teens say they've had serious depression, researchers reported Monday. But more are not being treated for it. The troubling trend suggests doctors are afraid to ask about and treat depression, which is a major cause of suicide, the researchers said. Whites and especially white girls were the most vulnerable to a major depressive episode, researchers found. It's not clear why, but they have some guesses.
A Newark man who shot himself in the leg was arrested on drug and weapon possession charges after an investigation revealed he made up a story to police about being attacked by a gunman.

Darron Shivers, 49, shot himself in the leg as he was driving on State Highway 21 on Friday night, authorities said. He was treated for non-life-threatening injuries at University Hospital, where he was also questioned by police.

Shivers initially told police that a gunman had attacked him and that he was shot in his leg during a struggle.

But New Jersey detectives investigated how Shivers sustained the gunshot wound and determined that he had shot himself after exiting the Interchange 14 toll plaza, police said.

As part of the investigation, troopers conducted a search of Shivers Newark home and seized five guns, multiple boxes of ammunition as well as 5.5 pounds of marijuana and small amounts of heroin and cocaine.

Shivers faces a slew of weapon and drug related charges including maintaining a controlled dangerous substance production facility, possession of a sawed-off shotgun and possession with intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of a school zone.

Shivers was unable to post his $500,000 bail and was jailed at Essex County Jail.

The case will be prosecuted by the Essex County Prosecutors Office.
What to Know Retailers and shipping giants are looking for thousands of seasonal workers.

FedEx, Amazon, Macy's and UPS are just some of the companies hiring at the moment.

Jobs are filling fast - head to the companies websites to apply.

Looking for a job this holiday season? Retail and shipping giants like FedEx and Amazon are gearing up for the holiday rush by hiring additional employees across the country.

If you're looking for a temporary position, check out this list of companies hiring for the holidays in the New York area:

FedEx

FedEx has announced plans to add 50,000 additional positions leading up to the peak holiday season in order to maintain quality service. In New York, seasonal jobs will include package handlers, drivers and other support positions. Those interested in applying can go here for more information.

Macy's

Macy's Inc. will create approximately 83,000 seasonal positions at its Macy's and Bloomingdale's stores, call centers, distribution centers and online fulfillment centers nationwide this year.

Employees may serve customers in stores, provide customer service via call centers or assist in coordinating shipments to stores and customers. Most positions are part-time and scheduling is often flexible, but many positions require employees to work evenings and weekends. Some require overnight shifts.

Interested in applying? As of Tuesday, Oct. 18, almost 300 positions are available in Macy's stores in the New York area.

Amazon

Amazon will hire more than 120,000 employees to help sort, wrap and ship holiday packages this season. Positions are available in New Jersey, Connecticut and 25 other states, but are going fast. Working in Amazon's fulfillment and sortation centers may require heavy lifting, spending extended periods on your feet, and operating carts and dollies. Interested applicants can go here for more information.

USPS

The United States Postal Service plans to hire between 35,000 and 40,000 additional workers nationwide this holiday season. Seasonal workers will serve as mail handlers, retail associates, drivers and carrier assistants to help deliver holiday cards and packages to customers. USPS is particularly interested in hiring retired mail carriers for these temporary positions, as they can hit the ground running with no learning curve.

If you're interested in applying, you can search for job openings in your area here.

UPS

UPS will hire 95,000 seasonal employees -- primarily package handlers, drivers and driver helpers -- in anticipation of increased holiday package volume. As of Tuesday, Oct. 18, more than 500 positions are available throughout the New York area, according to UPS's employment website.

Interested applicants can go here for more information.

Target

Target is looking to hire more than 77,000 seasonal team members to deal with "mega-high volume" of online orders and those holiday shopping crowds. The company is seeking 70,000 employees to work in stores across the country and 7,750 employees to help staff its distribution and fulfillment facilities.

Interested applicants can go here and click "apply now" to search for available positions near them.

Toys "R" Us

Seasonal positions are also available at Toys "R" Us and Babies "R" Us stores in New York, including locations in the Bronx, Long Island City and Staten Island. Interested applicants can visit this site and filter results by state.
Police are searching for the father of a 5-year-old girl who was abandoned inside the Port Authority Bus Terminal Monday morning after her mother was found killed in Connecticut, police say.

Authorities were still searching for 32-year-old Elmer Gomez Ruano Tuesday morning. Stamford police said there is video showing him at Port Authority at 8:30 a.m. Monday, before the girl was found at about 10 a.m.

A Port Authority police officer spotted the girl alone on the second-floor concourse inside the terminal and brought her to the police station, sources told NBC 4 New York.

Officers spoke with the girl, who only speaks Spanish, and were able to determine she was left at the terminal by her father, Stamford police say. The girl is in good physical condition and unharmed, according to Port Authority police. She is in custody of children's services in New York City.

Stamford police said the girl's mother, who was in her early 30s, was found inside a third-floor apartment on Courtland Avenue. There appeared to be some signs of a struggle.

Police said there were a few friends and family visiting the small one-bedroom apartment Sunday night and that there was some sort of domestic dispute after guests left the party, and that's when she was killed.

It's not clear if the girl witnessed the dispute or the killing.

The girl and her mother had just moved into the Stamford apartment from Flemington, New Jersey, over the weekend. Police said the girl's parents had just separated.

Stamford detectives were on their way to New York City to speak with detectives there, Stamford police said.
An officer and another man were hurt after a dirt bike crashed into a police vehicle in Philadelphia Monday night.

Police say officers were in a patrol vehicle on Howell Street and Torresdale Avenue at 4:48 p.m. As the officers turned onto Howell Street they were struck by a dirt bike that was traveling at a high speed northbound on Torresdale, according to police.

One of the officers was injured in the crash. He was taken to Jeanes Hospital where he is expected to be treated and released. The operator of the dirt bike was taken to Frankford-Torresdale Hospital where he is in critical condition.

A witness told NBC10 the dirt bike rider is 18-years-old. The victim also claimed the police vehicle struck the dirt bike, throwing the victim off. The witness says the man was foaming from the mouth as police tried to pull him from underneath the vehicle.

Another witness told NBC10 the police vehicle was chasing after the dirt bike rider prior to the crash. He sent NBC10 a video of police vehicles and dirt bikes in the street but its unclear from the clip whether officers are in pursuit. Police also have not confirmed the statements from either witness.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.
For their first visit to Philadelphia, three Japanese researchers weren't seeking out the city's best cheesesteak nor stopping for snapshots at Independence Mall. Their three-day visit was a ride sharing expedition, gathering information on how Uber and Lyft operate in Philly and what officials back home should know before deciding if the peer-to-peer networks can operate throughout their country.

Japan's Transport Minister Keiichi Ishii told the Wall Street Journal earlier this year that "running the American-style service 'would be pretty difficult under Japans current legal system.'"

But the Japanese public remains interested in ride sharing, so the researchers, along with a translator and a bilingual consultant, were sent to Philadelphia, San Francisco, where both Uber and Lyft are based, and Austin, Texas, where the ride-sharing companies left the city after lawmakers passed more stringent regulations on the industry. The trip occurred over the same November week SEPTA dealt with a strike, Uber reported an increase in ridership and Gov. Tom Wolf signed legislation legalizing ride sharing services throughout the state. A separate team traveled to Paris, London and Brussels to gather details on the European version of Uber's services.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity since the Japanese government did not approve a meeting with the press, the researchers exclusively told the Philadelphia Business Journal they were drawn to our city because of the dynamic that played out over the past few years  ride sharing companies could operate in some parts of Pennsylvania, while they remained illegal in Philly.

To read full article, click here.

For more information, visit Philadelphia Business Journal.
A fire damaged part of a Montgomery County school Tuesday leaving students home for the day.

The blaze left three classrooms and two offices at Lakeside School along Chestnut Lane in North Wales, Pennsylvania damaged, said the school in a news release.

No injuries were reported and no one was on campus at the time, said the school.

As SkyForce10 hovered overhead Tuesday morning, you could see a burnt hole in the rear of a school building near a pond.

After closing Tuesday, the school planned to return to session Wednesday with classes being reassigned to other parts of the campus, said the school.

The fire appeared to have started in a heating unit, said the school.

Lakeside School, part of Laskeside Educational Network, serves regular and special education students in ages sixth to 12th grades that offers "a small, structured and nurturing therapeutic environment where academic success is a priority," says the schools website.

"With Lakeside Schools new and significantly larger classroom building (10 classrooms and 15 offices) due to open next month on the Horsham campus, the damage sustained by last nights fire presents a relatively minor disruption" said the news release. "We are confident our staff will be able to maintain a calm and stable environment for students when school resumes."
Montgomery County Commissioner and soon-to-be Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro took part in a conference call Monday evening with President Barack Obama.

Shapiro, who received the most votes of any candidate on statewide ballots in last Tuesday's election (including President-elect Donald Trump), introduced Obama on the call to Democratic politicians and activists from across the country.

The president described Shapiro as a "great guy" as Shapiro himself was introduced to the hundreds of people on the call by acting Democratic National Committee chairwoman Donna Brazile.

"I am keenly aware of the anxiety many Americans feel right now," said Shapiro, who was endorsed by Obama during the race for attorney general against Republican state Sen. John Rafferty.

In what also amounted to an introduction of himself to the hundreds of Democrats from all corners of the country, Shapiro said, "I will do my part to protect people's rights" as Pennsylvania's top law enforcement official.

Shapiro will take office in January and face the immediate task of re-instilling a sense of pride in the Attorney General's Office following Kathleen Kane's disastrous term.

He told Democrats on the conference call that "perhaps the lesson we can learn from Tuesday is each of us must do our part" to continue fighting for the party's progressive platform.

He said Obama "will continue to be the North Star" of the Democratic Party for years to come.

"I know I will be guided by it and generations of public servants will be too," Shapiro said.

Obama then took over and thanked Shapiro for an "amazing introduction."
Police are searching for a serial robber who was caught on surveillance video shooting a Good Samaritan in the leg and struggling with a local store owner.

The 45-year-old Good Samaritan, who did not want to be identified, told NBC10 the staff at A&A Grocery on N. Gratz Street have always treated him like family. Thats why he decided to take action when he saw a man threaten the store owners college-aged daughter with a gun back on Nov. 4.

I walked over to him and tapped him and said, My man. My man. Come on. He turned around and shot me up, the Good Samaritan said.

The Good Samaritan was struck once in the right leg and the suspect fled with an unknown amount of cash. The victim was taken to Temple University where he was treated for his injuries.

God is good and Im glad to be here, he said.

The next day the same suspect robbed German Grocery only a few blocks away on N. 16th Street around 3:40 p.m. Less than four hours later he targeted Fontain Deli Market on 16th and Fontain Street where he ran into the Jovanni Cruz, the store's owner.

Cruz was captured on surveillance video fighting the robber over his gun. Cruz managed to pry the weapon out of the suspects hands and chase him out of the store.

As soon as I turned my reaction was to jump on him, said Cruz. God protected me and I was able to take his gun.

The suspect is described as a thin man with a brown complexion standing between 5-foot-9 and 5-foot-10 with a beard or mustache. During the robbery on Nov. 4 he was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt underneath a green jacket with black cuffs, a waist band, jeans, black sneakers and a skully.

If you have any information on his identity or whereabouts, please call Philadelphia Police.




Hundreds of Iraqi civilians lined up on Tuesday for food in eastern neighborhoods of Mosul recently retaken from the Islamic State group, as rations ran low, an Iraqi officer said.

Maj. Salam al-Obeidi says some 700 residents gathered in three areas of the Zahra and Qadisiya neighborhoods, the latter of which was the scene of a fierce IS counterattack a day earlier.

"This is a problem for us because the food we have is not enough for them and we're waiting for more food to be sent from the government," al-Obeidi said. "Now the Iraqi soldier is giving his food to the civilians."

Iraq launched a major offensive last month to drive ISIS out of the northern city, the country's second largest, which is still home to more than 1 million civilians.

Special forces have captured a foothold in the city's east, and have been advancing slowly over the past week to avoid casualties and civilian deaths as IS fighters emerge to attack from the dense, urban landscape, often with armor-plated suicide car bombs.

The militants struck back against special forces in Qadisiya a day earlier, Maj. Gen. Sami al-Aridi said. Two dozen men wearing suicide vests charged the front lines, setting off a three-hour battle that killed 20 militants and severely wounded a special forces soldier.

The Iraqi armed forces do not release official casualty figures, but field medics have noted dozens of killed and wounded since the operation to liberate the city began on Oct. 17.

Since last week's quick advance into Mosul proper, Iraqi forces have struggled to hold territory under heavy IS counterattacks.

At a news conference outside Mosul, Col. John Dorrian, a spokesman for the U.S.-led forces supporting the operation, said airstrikes had so far destroyed 59 suicide car bombs and over 80 tunnels.

"We will continue to strike the enemy for as long as it takes for the Iraqi flag to be raised over Mosul and every other corner of this country," he said, adding that the coalition had conducted over 4,000 strikes with air power and artillery since the campaign began.

The United Nations meanwhile said smoke from oil wells and a chemical plant torched by IS near Mosul has forced over 1,500 people to seek medical treatment for respiratory problems.

The group's humanitarian affairs coordination office said the fires have emitted toxic smoke for 25 to 60 days, affecting 14 towns.

It says the mid- and long-term effects on people's health, the environment, agriculture and livelihoods could be dire.

IS shelled and set fire to the al-Mishraq Sulfur Gas Factory south of Mosul in late October, causing the deaths of at least four people from toxic fumes, the U.N. has said, likening the attack to the use of chemical weapons.

Nearby oil wells set ablaze by IS have been burning uncontrollably since June.
An air horn that sounds like a train has been terrorizing the residents of El Segundo for weeks, but police in the Southern California city have just arrested a man in connection with the noise  with air horn equipment inside his car, they say.

The bust came early Sunday at 4 a.m.  around the time many of the alarmingly loud incidents would occur.

"The sound is like a train coming through the neighborhood," said El Segundo Police Lt. Ray Garcia.

The noise has been plaguing residents on the west side of the city for weeks. Police have received numerous reports of an extremely loud air horn going off before residents spot a getaway car, a blue four-door sedan driven by a man.

Oftentimes, officers couldn't catch the air horn blower because the person would blare the horn and then "beat feet," police said. At times, officers on the east side of town could hear the noise and would hurry over, only to find that the perpetrator had taken off.

Sunday morning, officers once again heard the noise, then made a traffic stop at Grand Avenue and Main Street directly after. In a blue 2006 Chevrolet Aveo, they spotted air horn equipment inside the car, police said.

The commotion drew several residents from their homes, claiming they were victims of the air horn aggravator. They initiated a citizen's arrest, according to El Segundo police.

John W. Nuggent was then taken into custody by police, police said. He was booked at El Segundo jail on a misdemeanor charge of suspicion of disturbing the peace and his car, with horn inside, was impounded.

Garcia said the air horn aggravator has been sounding his horn almost every single night.

"He's been doing this for weeks, and we've been chasing him for weeks  but we got him," Garcia said.

Garcia said they aren't exactly sure why the man allegedly has an "ax to grind," but believe that he thinks someone in the area has wronged him in some way, and this is his way of getting back at them.
NBC10s First Alert Weather Team is visiting five area malls over the five days. Why? To promote Severe Winter Weather Week, a week where the team plans to inform our community how we forecast during rough weather, what should be done to stay safe, and what to expect this winter.

Lets begin by explaining why were visiting area malls. Aside from the fact that its a great location to meet everyone out in their neighborhoods, the malls NBC10 is visiting are all designated as Weather Ready Ambassadors. Thats a titled doled out to locations across the country that are prepared for dangerous weather, and have a dedication to ensuring safety to anyone affected at the location. Its a title given out by the National Weather Service.

All of our security guards have grab and go bags that they are able to grab in the case of any kind of emergency, said Philadelphia Premium Outlets Marketing Director Kate Johnson.

All of the malls under the Simon Property Group umbrella, including the Philadelphia Premium Outlets, are part of the Weather Ready Nation. The initiative, which is ran by the National Weather Service, allows any type of organization, or individual, to join. They must simply be committed to planning safety routines and following the forecast to remain informed and prepared for all weather events.

The weather service is trying to get more involved in making sure that people are not only getting weather information but are actually prepared to take action based on that information, Joe Miketta, Warning Coordination Meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Mt. Holly, said. [[400844271, C]]

When Simon Malls decided to join the nation, they reached out the National Weather Service for help preparing their employees.

It was largely an online training course that our management team went through and our security team as well. So, it told us what to do in events such as tornadoes, severe snow storms which obviously were going to be dealing with this winter perhaps, and other types of severe weather that could be coming through, Johnson said.

As a result of the training, Johnson said Simon malls developed different plans for different locations.

We are going through an ongoing training process of scheduling training drills and evacuation drills for different types of emergencies that will be worked on with all the different store managers and the employment teams at all of the stores here at the Premium Outlets, Johnson explained.

For an outdoor mall, Johnson told NBC10 they use Exit Hallways or hallways that commonly hold the restrooms, as part of their safety zones.

Theres no glass, so theyre safe to go to in case of tornadoes, hurricanes, that type of thing.

Johnson said the malls are each stocked with various emergency supplies as well to keep employees and customers safe.

It involves evacuation cards, flashlights, first aide kits, things like that that they would need, she said.

If you are interested in joining the Weather Ready Nation, visit this link.

One of the suggestions to help you remain a successful ambassador? Miketta said each ambassador needs a trusted weather source to keep you updated on the latest forecast. Good news! NBC10 tailors the forecast neighborhood by neighborhood every day and posts those updates to the NBC10 website, app, and on air shows. [[287977901, C]]
Accion San Diego was named Bank of Americas Neighborhood Builder for 2016 Monday and received a $200,000 grant.

The organization is part of a national network that uses funds to help small business owners expand. Often, the loans offered by Accion San Diego are more helpful to small businesses because they consider more than a companys credit score.

Loans ranging from $300 to $75,000 help businesses owned by veterans, women or minorities as well as green businesses or startups.

Accion San Diego CEO Elizabeth Schott was shocked to learn they had received the grant.

Schott said many non-profits know there is a demand for their services but its hard to expand without capacity-building funds.

That funding is so important and crucial to bringing your organization to the next level, Schott said.

She said she will use the money for staffing, professional development and technical platforms.

San Diego Market Manager for Bank of America Krista Torquato was on hand for the check presentation Monday.

She said Accion San Diego, which was selected from two dozen non-profit organizations, was a great match for the bank and its program.
President-elect Donald Trump's immigration plan is not unlike President Barack Obama's initial immigration plan, according to some experts.

Trump has said he plans to deport up to three million people with criminal backgrounds, including rapists, drug traffickers and gang members.

Immigration attorney Ginger Jacobs says the idea is not unlike President Obama's from several years ago.

These are the people Obama has gone after to be the number one priority for deportation, said Jacobs.

Jacobs said in 2015, under Obama, 56 percent of the estimated 250,000 deported undocumented immigrants had some type of criminal record.

The maximum number that can be deported with existing resources is 400,000, experts say. However, everyone has the right to fight the immigration case in court, Jacobs says, which can take years.

If you do the math, on 400,000 people per year, and even if you were going for two to three million, that still gets you to seven and a half years to get to those three million.

Former U.S. attorney Pete Nunez says deportations can happen more quickly.

He says more money for judges, detention centers and federal agents is not the only answer. Nunez says Congress can make the system more efficient and effective.

It is conceivable Congress could change the process to make it more efficient, more effective and work faster, so just that change could make the system better," he said.

Even that isnt necessary to speed up the process, Nunez said.

Just adding an Administration to do what the law says and turning loose DHS (Department of Homeland Security) and ICE to do their jobs, you might see an increase," Nunez said. "There's no longer a political animal in the White House telling them, don't do your job.

Jacob says its unrealistic to think two to three million people could be removed.

It's very possible that people who are fighting their immigration cases that their case might outlast any given administration their case may take longer than four years," Jacobs said. "So this idea that all of a sudden two to three million people, poof, are going to be gone is a fantasy.

The millions of people represent non-citizens with criminal backgrounds, says Jacobs. According to records from 2012, 800,000 who are in this country illegally have criminal records. The others have green cards or visas or are refugees.
Navy personnel will be training on how to respond to a terrorist attack at Naval Base San Diego this week and that could mean some unusual noises in the area, officials warned Tuesday.

The training dubbed Citadel Protect will involve the firing of blanks between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. through Thursday, November 17.

Citadel Protect tests and assesses the Navy's capability to protect ships from various potential threats in ports at home and overseas, military officials said in a written statement.

Residents should expect to hear blank gunfire during the exercise.
This month, park rangers and maintenance crews with the County of San Diego Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) will start preparing hiking trails for the rainy season.

Some local volunteers are getting a head start with that effort, at Sweetwater Summit Regional Park.

The county's most popular campground is spread out over 500 acres in Bonita.

It's a lot to maintain, but county workers don't do it alone.

Ever since the park opened nearly 30 years ago, the county has worked with the Bonita Valley Horsemen.

Volunteers with the club do everything from clearing brush to cutting down trees and rebuilding trails.

The club recently held its fall fundraiser at Summit Park Campground.

It's a competition that includes a series of obstacles spread throughout the regional park, testing the riders' horsemanship skills.

In previous years, money raised at the competition was used to repair fences and bridges, and clear debris from the trails, which are shared with hikers, bikers and equestrians.

"People don't realize, even in the drought, a lot of things grow, mud comes, things come in their way, wash away," said Karen Schneider, a member of the Bonita Valley Horsemen.

Club volunteers routinely ride the trails on horseback year-round, checking to see if anything is out of place, or unsafe.

They report their findings to park staff, who can address those issues, or schedule improvement projects.

County workers also clean the trails on a regular basis by removing any accumulated debris and trash that could end up in waterways.

This helps to prevent flooding during heavy rain.

"In these situations we also assess the trails and close any that are unsafe, until water has receded and/or obstructions have been removed for safer travel," said Jessica Geiszler, with the County of San Diego Department of Parks and Recreation. "Safety is a top priority for county parks."

Over the years, the Bonita Valley Horsemen have also purchased amenities for the campground, such as hitching posts and round pens for horses, with money from their yearly fundraiser.

"If we didn't have the horse club, one of the things that would happen is a lot of these trails would disappear, because it takes a lot to maintain them," said Schneider.

The Bonita Valley Horsemen raised about $2,300 dollars from this year's fall fundraiser.

The money comes from entrance fees riders pay to take part in the competition, and a silent auction with items donated from community members.

Outback Steakhouse in National City also contributed to the fundraiser by donating a big lunch spread for the volunteers and participants.

The $2,300 will go towards buying stones and rocks to make the trails passable after the next storm.

"This is the only place where you can ride safely with horses and joggers and bicycles on the same trails," said Cathy Kitchell, who drives in from Jamul to ride the trails in Bonita.
Jurors heard new details Tuesday in trial of a woman accused of driving up on the sidewalk and striking two girls with her car in Tierrasanta.

Julianne Little, 30, faces gross vehicular manslaughter for the death of 10-year-old Raquel Rosete and and hit and run with serious injury charges for the injury of 12-year-old Mekayla Lee.

San Diego police said Little was driving home from work about 6 p.m. on February 20 when her car jumped a curb and ran into the girls as they were walking along the sidewalk near Santo Road near Shields Street.

Little listened to testimony Tuesday regarding the speed of her vehicle before the crash and the what the damage left to her car suggested to investigators.

The driver's side of the hood on Little's car had a large dent where Rosete was struck and damage to the right front light where Lee was struck, according to a San Diego police officer.

Officer Christine Garcia testified Rosete was thrown forward from the hood of the car.

There's no dust or anything disturbed on the side of the car, Garcia testified, pointing to the side of the hood not dented. In order for her to come off the front of the car. Some braking must have been applied.

Littles defense attorney Anna Yum told jurors in her opening statement that her client fell asleep at the wheel and was not texting at the time of the crash.

At a pretrial hearing, San Diego police Officer Jason Costanza testified he noticed an outgoing phone call and text from Little's phone at the time of the accident.

"It said, 'I'm going to miss you, my friend,'" Costanza said.

Both prosecutors and defense attorneys said Little sent that text at 22 seconds after 5:56 p.m.

The defense told the jury Little sent the text while sitting at a red light at Aero Drive and Santo Road. After Little sent the text, Yum said, the traffic signal turned green.

A 911 call from a passerby registered with the CHP at eight seconds after 6 p.m., according to the prosecutor.

Little left the scene but later returned with her father.Her attorney said the defendant was not aware that she struck anyone when her car went off the road.

She was initially arrested on suspicion of being under the influence of drugs, but now investigators said there was no evidence of impairment.
A mathematics professor from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) was presented with one of the most prestigious awards in the field.

Ruth Williams, Ph.D, was awarded the John von Neumann Theory Prize at the annual meeting of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) in Nashville, TN on Sunday night. She shares the award with researcher Martin Reiman from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at Columbia University.

The John von Neumann Prize is named after a famed mathematician and was established in 1975. It is seen as the Nobel Prize in the math field.

The prize also consists of $5,000, a medallion and a citation.

Williams has been a faculty member at UCSD since 1983 and was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences, which is considered to be a rare honor for a mathematician.
A family in Michigan awoke Saturday to find a wall of boxes scrawled with "Trump," "Take Back America" and "Mexicans suck" blocking their driveway. A doll made of balloons was also found hanging nearby and a vulgar message was spray-painted on the driveway, police said.

In Maryland, parishioners arriving for Sunday services discovered the words "Trump Nation, Whites Only" scrawled on the walls of the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour in Silver Spring. The church offers weekly Spanish-language services.

In Brooklyn, a suspect spray-painted a swastika in front of a 78-year-old man's home. And three students were disciplined after a Confederate flag was brought to Coral Reef Senior High School in South Florida on Monday, officials said.

Nearly a week after the election of Donald Trump, reports of hateful intimidation or harassment continue. The Southern Poverty Law Center said it had received 437 reports of such incidents between Wednesday, Nov. 9 and Monday, Nov. 14.

Most of the cases appear to involve graffiti or intimidation directed at racial or ethnic minorities and in some reports the perpetrators indicated support for Trump.

Ryan Lenz, a spokesman for the anti-intolerance watchdog said acts of hate and intimidation occurred in the U.S. during the campaign season with SPLC tracking the high-profile cases. But those incidents have increased sharply since Election Day on Nov. 8.

"After the election these reports have become ever present, coming at us and everyone else at a level that was demanding our attention. And so what we did  we started to tally them," Lenz said. He added that the reports "are not completely confirmed."

The apparent uptick in reports of bias crimes and discrimination in the Empire State prompted New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to launch a hotline Tuesday.

"We will continue to work with our local partners to investigate all incidents of reported bias, and ensure that New Yorkers feel safe and protected," Cuomo said. "Any acts of discrimination or intimidation will be met with the full force of the law."

After calls for Trump to address the hateful incidents, the president-elect said in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes," that he did not hear about the violence and harassment in his name or in some cases directed at his supporters, other than "one or two instances."

"I would say dont do it, thats terrible, cause Im gonna bring this country together," Trump said in addressing his supporters.

He added: "I am so saddened to hear that. And I say, Stop it. If it-- if it helps. I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: Stop it."

During the campaign for president, Trump was criticized for being slow to condemn former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke after he gave the candidate his backing. The Republican has also repeatedly retweeted messages from white supremacist sympathizers.

Lenz said the SPLC commends Trump for addressing his supporters in the Sunday interview. But he said that Trump's actions contradict his words.

"This is an energized and angry movement that has been given legitimacy because of the election and suddenly to switch gears on them and tell them the hate weve been jamming down your throat and legitimizing and targeting Muslims and immigrants, 'oh by the way slow down on that,' I mean it doesn't seem to be an appropriate effort at this hour," Lenz said.

Trump's directive to his supporters came on the same day he named Steven Bannon his White House chief strategist and senior counselor. Bannon, the Trump campaign CEO, came from Breitbart News, the site that under his leadership has pushed a nationalist, anti-establishment agenda and become one of the leading outlets of the so-called alt-right  a movement often associated with far-right efforts to preserve "white identity," oppose multiculturalism and defend "Western values."

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid called on Trump Tuesday afternoon to rescind his appointment of Bannon. Reid cited quotes from the appointee, recorded in legal documents, in which Bannon had bluntly declared that he "doesn't like Jews," among other anti-Semitic comments.

"I say, 'Take responsibility,'" Reid said, addressing the president-elect. "Rise to the dignity of the office, instead of hiding behind your Twitter account." The senator also discouraged Americans from normalizing any racism and misogyny espoused by newly appointed and elected leaders.

Reid read a letter, addressed to Trump, written by a 7th grade female student who said she's "extremely scared."

"What message does Trump send to the young girl who woke up Wednesday in Rhode Island afraid to be a woman of color in America?" Reid asked.

On Monday, Breitbart.com published a story by a senior editor that cited a few cases of the reported hate crimes that turned out to be untrue or unverified, using the headline "Wave of Fake 'Hate Crimes' Sweeps Anti-Trump Social Media."

The story dismissed cases of intimidating behavior by students as "boorish" and argued "real crimes" are being committed by protesters at some anti-Trump protests. The media "narrative" of a wave of hate crimes is meant to tarnish the president-elect, the story argued.

Lenz said Trump's appointment of Bannon, "someone whose website has trafficked in anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic memes for the better part of 18 months, seems to put a big red stamp of illegitimacy" on anything the president-elect says.

Trump's transition team has not responded to NBC's request for comment on the new reports of hateful incidents and on Reid's and Lenz's comments about Bannon.

The Bannon pick was met with backlash from, in some cases, both sides of the political aisle.

John Weaver, a Republican strategist who worked for Ohio Gov. John Kasich's presidential campaign, tweeted, "The racist, fascist extreme right is represented footsteps from the Oval Office. Be very vigilant, America."

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement that including Bannon in the new administration "is an alarming signal that President-elect Trump remains committed to the hateful and divisive vision that defined his campaign. There must be no sugarcoating the reality that a white nationalist has been named chief strategist for the Trump Administration."

The day after Bannon's appointment, The American Jewish Committee and the Islamic Society of North America, two of the nations largest Jewish and Muslim advocacy groups, announced they've joined forces to fight bigotry.

We have to show the administration that as American Muslims and Jews  people of the faiths of Abraham  we are uniting to help the administration navigate in the proper constitutional manner, to uphold freedom of religion and constitutional rights for all American citizens," said Eftakhar Alam, senior coordinator at ISNAs Office of Interfaith and Community Alliances.

The concept to form the council originated months before the election, Alam said, and would've been implemented even if Democrat Hillary Clinton won.

Meanwhile on Monday, the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting division released its annual "Hate Crimes Statistics" report, on the number of bias-motivated incidents in 2015.

More than 5,800 incidents of hate crimes were reported to authorities, involving 7,121 victims, the report said.

The number of hate crimes rose 6 percent in 2015. The number of reported anti-Muslim hate crimes jumped 66 percent that year, according to the report.

Lenz said the FBI's report is not surprising.

"The year in question saw extreme growth in Anti-Muslim movement as a result of terror attacks in the U.S. and Europe," Lenz said. "It came at a time when there was tremendous fear of refugees coming from Syria as a result of conflict there and also came at a time when President-elect Donald Trump was traveling the country making promises about putting a complete ban on the immigration of Muslims to the United States a ban thats arguably completely unconstitutional of the ground of prohibiting someone based on their race or religion."
When you first set eyes on James Charles, he comes across as any other teenager, but with really long eyelashes.

Theres a bevy of teens following him around, which makes you wonder, who is this kid? And then someone in your group screams out, OMG, it's James!

Even before you realize who he is and what hes famous for, you start following him around, as if in a trance. At some point, someone whispers in your ear, He's all over YouTube, hes the first male CoverGirl.

Then it hits you: You are face-to-face with CoverGirls first CoverBoy.

You set up an impromptu interview, ask him to stand next to a bare wall backstage at one of the busiest events of his life  Ipsys Gen Beauty event in San Francisco  because as his entourage reminds you, If he goes out into the crowd, he will get mobbed.

There are no special lights or effects, but Charles makes do with backlight from half-a-dozen iPhones. Its all about the lighting, he says. And that perfect snapshot/Instagram photo. His entourage gets to work, and once that selfie is posted, hes all eyes and ears and yours. At least for the next 30 seconds.

At 17, James Charles is breaking traditional gender boundaries in fashion and beauty. A talented makeup artist, his YouTube videos caught the attention of CoverGirl, the biggest makeup company in the world. And on Monday, Charles made history when his first CoverGirl commercial debuted, celebrating lash equality and starring Sofia Vergara, Katy Perry, beauty blogger Nura Afia and YouTube stars Chloe + Halle. [[401212046, C]]

Whats it like to be like the first CoverBoy?

Honestly, being the first male CoverGirl is like the most life-changing experience of like ever, it is so crazy! I just found out a few short weeks ago and my life has literally changed, obviously for the better ever since then, a very excited Charles told us. Im so excited and honored to work for such an iconic brand, and I hope that everybody sees this and think they can wear makeup too, because obviously, its my biggest passion and hopefully Ill be able to inspire others everywhere to create, no matter who they are.

Charles, who hails from Bethlehem, New York, also appeared on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" Monday, talking about how using a ring light for his high school senior picture made a big difference. (He was unhappy with the way they turned out the first time around.)

I posted them on Instagram, and they went viral, literally, overnight, he said. So I guess CoverGirl then saw that and here we are.

Charles came out as gay to his parents when he was only 12. They were so incredibly accepting  I know its definitely very challenging for a lot of different people so I was very thankful to have a pretty easy situation," he told DeGeneres. [[401212536, C]]

He started wearing makeup only about a year ago.

"When I first told my parents I wanted to do makeup as well, that was a big thing," Charles joked on "Ellen." "They were like, 'Oh, you know, we love you no matter what. Like if youre trans, you can tell us.' And I was like, 'Oh, Im not trans.' (And they said) 'No, its OK. Like if youre trans, you can really tell us.' (And I said) 'No, its really OK. Im really not, but thank you.'"

He hopes people continue to accept his love for makeup as a way of expressing himself.

His favorite makeup? Obviously the So Lashy!BlastPRO Mascara by CoverGirl." [[401213356, C]]
The former school aide accused of filming child pornography inside a Maryland elementary school is facing additional charges after another victim came forward to investigators, the News4 I-Team reports.

The 13-year-old victim accused Deonte Carraway of enticing him to engage in a sex act on camera, investigators say.

A new indictment has just been handed down against Carraway at U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Carraway was arrested in February after the uncle of a 9-year-old boy saw a nude image on the child's phone, police said. Investigators then linked the aide at Judge Sylvania Woods Elementary School in Glenarden, Maryland, to the abuse of 23 victims age 9 to 13.

Carraway was indicted in June on 270 counts of sex abuse of a minor, sex offenses and child pornography charges. He pleaded not guilty.

His lawyers argued that the court should suppress some of the defendant's statements because they may have been "involuntary." His attorneys said Carraway "exhibited significant cognitive deficits, with a full scale IQ of 63, which placed his overall intellectual functioning in the deficient range."

Carraway's trial is set to begin in spring 2017. The new allegations could add another 30 years to the possible prison sentence Carraway faces.

Carraway is expected to appear for an initial appearance in federal court January 30. He also faces dozens of local criminal charges in Prince Georges County.
An Amber Alert for a missing Virginia girl has been canceled after police say she and her abductor were found safe.

Police say Annabelle Doretha Hope Richardson, 4, was last seen with her father, 24-year-old Dylan James Richardson, on Nov. 9 or 10 at 400 Thomas Jefferson Highway in Charlotte Court House, Virginia.

According to the Charlotte County Sheriffs Office, Annabelle Richardson didn't meet the criteria for an Amber Alert until Monday.

Police say believed the two may have been heading to New Jersey in a 1995 burgundy Chevy van with the license plate VMG 2332.

Tuesdsay morning, police canceled the Amber Alert after Annabelle Richardson and her father were located. No details about where the two were found were released.
The Montgomery County Council denounced hateful actions against schools and churches after a Silver Spring, Maryland, church and at least two public schools were vandalized.

Swastikas were discovered on the mirror and walls of a boys restroom at Westland Elementary School, a threatening racial slur was removed from the wall at Sligo Creek Elementary School, and a sign saying Trump Nation, Whites Only was taken down at Our Savior Episcopal Church.

The council said the vandalism was unacceptable. They passed a resolution denouncing discrimination, racial bias, hate speech, hate crimes and harassment.

What was consciously unleashed in the presidential campaign is now coming home to roost, said Councilmember Roger Berliner (D). It is now succeeding in dividing us."

"What we've heard from the president-elect are hateful things, said council President Nancy Floreen. I think he should take responsibility for understanding that words matter."

We're asking the community to come together with us so we can deal with those who express views that are not acceptable to Montgomery County, said Executive Ike Leggett. That's where we start, but it's not where we're going to end, because I want to end with the promise I've made in our residents that this will be the most welcoming community in all of America.

Some members of the community don't think Donald Trump's election or his supporters are responsible.

I don't think there's any evidence that it is, in fact, the Trump supporters, said Montgomery County resident Lynn Perry Parker. There are angry people for a lot of reasons, and they are acting out inappropriately."
Three young children from Maryland and a family friend died in a car crash in South Carolina on Friday as they headed to a wedding.

Three members of the Harley family of Wheaton, Maryland, were killed when a tractor-trailer slammed into the car they were riding in: Devin Jr., 7; Nicholas, 6; and Leah, 5. Family friend Lani Tran, a 27-year-old from Silver Spring, Maryland, also was killed.

The children's mother, Nancy Harley, was driving a 2001 Ford Taurus on I-95 in Colleton County, South Carolina with her husband, Devin Harley, in the passenger seat. The children and Tran sat in the backseat.

About 4 a.m. Friday, a tractor-trailer slammed into the back of the car.

The huge vehicle ran over the car with the family inside. Tran and the children were killed, and their parents were rushed to a hospital.

"I don't think we're ever going to recover from this," said Amy Moscoso. She was the children's cousin.

"They went too early. They were the best kids ever," she said.

All three children were students at Arcola Elementary School in Silver Spring.

"We are recovering from a news that is not imaginable," school principal Emanuel Jean-Phillipe said.

The children's grandfather spoke with News4 about the tragedy as he drove home to the D.C. area.

"They were three beautiful kids, three beautiful, innocent children. This is the worst thing that could ever happen to me and my family," Charles Cain said.

Relatives said that before the crash, the Harleys were having car trouble. They were in the right-hand lane with flashers on, trying to get to a safe place, when the tractor-trailer hit them from behind.

Devin Harley is said to be OK physically. Nancy Harley is said to be in a coma. Family members said she did not know what had happened.

GoFundMe pages been set up to pay for the costs of the children's funerals and their parents' medical expenses.
Reported hate crimes against Muslims rose in 2015 to their highest levels since those seen in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, according to FBI statistics released Monday.

Civil rights groups had been raising concerns about an anti-Muslim backlash in the U.S. even before the terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, late in the year. The reporting period covers calendar year 2015, but comes at a time of heightened tensions following last week's presidential election.

There have been reports of racist and anti-religious instances since Tuesday that have sparked outrage, including students at one school who chanted "white power" and a videotaped assault in Chicago that showed black men beating a white man as onlookers screamed, "You voted Trump!" In 2008, after Barack Obama was elected as the nation's first black president, there were also suspected cases of alleged hate crimes tied to the election.

[[401304776,C]]

In 2015, there were 257 incidents of anti-Muslim bias compared to 154 incidents the prior year, an increase of 67 percent. The total is second only to the surge in hate crimes following the 9/11 terror attacks, when 481 incidents against Muslims were reported in 2001.

The increase could be due, in part, to increased reporting by victims as well as better reporting and tracking by law enforcement agencies, although the number of all law enforcement agencies sending their data to the FBI decreased about 3 percent between 2014 and 2015.

Overall, the number of reported hate crimes increased from 5,479 in 2014 to 5,850 last year, and religious-based hate crimes increased by 23 percent. Jews and Jewish institutions remain the most frequent target of religious-based hate crimes, representing 53 percent of all those reported. Crimes against Jews increased about 9 percent.

[NATL] Top News Photos: Pope Visits Japan, and More
A teenage driver has been charged in a deadly hit-and-run crash in Taunton, Massachusetts.

The Bristol County District Attorney's Office says 19-year-old Cecily Kilsby-Munafo took off after crashing into a bicyclist Thursday night near Broadway and Washington streets.

The victim, 36-year-old Michael Alfano, a father of two with a third child on the way, was thrown from the bike and dragged down the street under the car.

"He was murdered, he wasn't just hit by a car, he was murdered," said Alfano's ex-girlfriend, Amanda Parker.

Kilsby-Munafo's 26-year-old boyfriend, Ryan O'Day, was also arrested and charged as an accessory after the fact -- Kilsby-Munafo was driving O'Day's mother's car when she hit Alfano, prosecutors say.

"That same boyfriend apparently screamed at her, according to her words, to leave the scene after it became apparent they had been involved in this accident," said Kilsby-Munafo's defense attorney, Ken Fredette.

"The bicycle became lodged underneath the vehicle, causing damage to the motor vehicle and causing sparks to fly," Assistant District Attorney Matthew Friedel said.

Prosecutors allege Kilsby-Munafo stopped the car 1,000 feet down the road and O'Day removed the bicycle and threw it into the woods.

"It's inhumane," said Shannon Dininno, Alfano's girlfriend and the mother of his unborn child. "It's cruel."

"That's shocking, they took a personal item of his and threw it in the woods," Parker added. "That's murder."

Kilsby-Munafo was on probation from a 2015 home invasion where she allegedly threatened someone with a knife, while O'Day has a long rap sheet and was on probation for failing to register as a sex offender and attempting to strangle Kilsby-Munafo.

Her attorney says she now realizes she shouldn't have fled the scene, but she panicked.

"She's extremely remorseful, I think if you saw her body language in that courtroom, the whole world is on her shoulders right now," Fredette said. "She's extremely saddened by what happened."

Kilsby-Munafo is being held on $10,000 cash bail on this charge, but is being held without bail on the probation violation.

O'Day is being held on $7,500 cash bail.
Seven Vermont veterans and their families were recognized at the Statehouse in Montpelier Monday with medals for honorable service.

Gov. Peter Shumlin, D-Vermont, and Brig. Gen. Michael Heston of the Vermont National Guard awarded the Vermont Veterans Medal and the Vermont Distinguished Service Medal.

The Vermont Veterans Medal is given to Vermonters who served honorably in the military and the Vermont Distinguished Service Medal honors Vermonters who served honorably in a combat theater of operation.

We know that if theres one thing that unites us as a nation, at a time when our nation is troubled and divided, it is our appreciation, our respect, and our gratitude for the veterans that have fought for the best democracy in the land, Gov. Shumlin said in addressing the recipients and their loved ones.

Ted Poulin of Hardwick was among the honorees, receiving both the Vermont Distinguished Service Medal and the Vermont Veterans Medal

I wanted to serve my country, Poulin said, adding he still feels great pride at having served the U.S. Army in Vietnam.

Poulin delivered fuel and other critical materials where they were needed in Vietnam, often in very dangerous surroundings.

Among those joining Poulin at the award ceremony were his stepson, Dale Manning, and granddaughter, Maressa Plante.

Manning also served in the Army before joining the Capitol Police, and Plante is a current member of the Vermont Army Guard.

Ever since I was 10 years old, I wanted to join, Plante said, noting she looked up to her dad and granddad for their service.

I think its very important to honor the veterans, Manning said of the award ceremony.

The patriotic family said they were always driven by a sense to give their time and energies to something greater than themselves.

It made me feel good that they both joined the service  the same branch as me too, Poulin said of his stepson and granddaughter. It makes me feel pretty good.

Plante said her whole family is proud of Poulins recognition.

He definitely deserves it, for sure, for everything hes done, Plante told necn. Its a huge deal for our family.

The other recipients of the Vermont Distinguished Service Medal were the late Henry Demars Sr., who served in the Navy in World War II, James OMalley, who served with the Army National Guard in Operation Desert Shield, Wayne Henry, who served with the Army in Vietnam, and Roger Berthiaume, who served with the Marine Corps in Vietnam.

The recipients of the Vermont Veterans Medal were John Mowad and Nona Mapes, both of whom served with the Air Force.
Massachusetts school officials are investigating an alleged case of cyber bullying at an East Boston school following last week's election results.

On Wednesday, a student at East Boston High School took to Twitter writing, Trump won, so peace to half of Eastie High.

With nearly 75 percent of the school being Hispanic, the Tweet caused a stir among students.

One student responded,Someone help me expletive deal with people like this today please.

The original social media poster responded back, Try hanging yourself.

The school district said the matter is under investigation by the East Boston High School headmaster, in partnership with the Boston Public Schools Office of Equity.

This appears to be an isolated incident, and we are proud of the overall conduct of our students across the district, read a statement from Boston Public Schools.

Some parents felt the situation was blown out of proportion.

Thats life. What are you going to? You going to come across stuff you cant deal with and that's what the whole problem is with these kids is that they cant deal with anything, said parent Lisa Ferrera.

The student who was threatened told necn that the boy who sent the Tweet has apologized and deleted the Tweets. The student says that was enough for her.

But other parents fear this type of cyber bullying is being normalized.

Hes the biggest bully and we've done so many anti-bully campaigns teaching kids that you know, that you have to accept people and that it's not OK to bully and here he comes a president with a campaign based on bullying everybody, said parent Claudia Sierra.
Authorities in Massachusetts are investigating after they say a fire was intentionally set inside a high school girl's bathroom Monday afternoon.

Police in Arlington say the small fire at the high school was discovered just before 2 p.m. and was quickly put out.

No one was hurt, and the damage was contained to the bathroom.

Arlington High School's Downs Building was evacuated during the incident.

Police say they believe the fire was intentionally set, and are investigating.
A Massachusetts town is hoping to delay the opening on recreational marijuana dispensaries by voting on the issue.

Ashland's town manager says there will be a special meeting in two weeks, which is when the vote will take place.

The temporary hold has been proposed by the Board of Selectmen, which is asking for a year to study the potential regulation and zoning issues that come with dispensaries.

Town Manager Michael Herbert says the town's board wants to make the right decision without placing a permanent ban on dispensaries.

"We want to make sure that dispensaries are located in places that are away from," schools and family-related activities, Herbert said.

Ashland was nearly split on Question 4 this election season, and it was passed by about 350 votes.

The question of whether or not they want it sold in their town is another issue, though.
A union representing New Hampshire school bus drivers in Belmont has authorized a strike over contract disagreements, but both sides still hope for an agreement.

Union members in Belmont, who have been without a contract since June, rejected the latest offer from First Student on Monday night and approved a strike. Drivers at the Belmont location provide transportation for schools in Alton, Gilford, Gilmanton, Laconia, and the Shaker Regional School District in Belmont.

First Student bus drivers in other parts of the state may join the workers on the picket lines if there's a strike. The company has 850 drivers in New Hampshire.

A spokesman for Teamers Local 633 says both sides will meet again Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

School districts are putting together backup plans.
The driver involved in a two-vehicle crash that killed two people in East Boston back in August, has been indicted for manslaughter, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office.

The Suffolk County Grand Jury returned indictments on Nov. 9 charging Steven Birenbaum, 27, of Swampscott, with two counts each of manslaughter by motor vehicle and motor vehicle homicide while operating under the influence.

The charges stem from a crash that happened in the early morning hours of August 31 on Route 1A northbound, about a half-mile after the exit of the Ted Williams Tunnel.

Prosecutors say Birenbaum was operating a Subaru Legacy at speeds of up to 80 mph when he struck a Hampton Inn airport shuttle.

Two passengers in the van, 59-year-old Joseph A. Rodriguez and 47-year-old Sandra L. Arreola, both of El Paso, Texas, were ejected and pronounced dead at the scene.

Two other passengers and the shuttle driver were taken to Massachusetts General Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The district attorney's office said blood samples were taken from both drivers. The shuttle drivers blood showed no signs of alcohol in his system.

After analyzing Birenbaum's blood at the State Police Crime Lab, test results showed he had a blood-alcohol content of .15, or almost twice the legal limit of .08.

Birenbaum is expected to be arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court on Nov. 28.
Some coastal communities in New England are experiencing a rise in water from a high tide Tuesday, and it's partially due to Monday night's historic supermoon.

At Long Wharf in Boston, the King Tide hit at 11:08 a.m. This will be the highest tide of the year.

Massachusetts State Police say Morrissey Boulevard was closed between Freeport Street and UMass due to tidal flooding. Inbound lanes are now open and one lane is open outbound.

King Tides, or unusually high tides, happen every year, once or twice, and are an indicator of what normal tides could look like in the future due to the rising sea level, according to scientists. The super high tides happen after a full moon, like the super moon we saw Monday night.

In Portland, Maine, the higher tide flooded some streets Monday.

Business owners at Boston Harbor say if the infrastructure along the water isn't adjusted, here will be some serious problems.

Ellen Watts said, "In the future we are quite certain there will be regular water days just as there are regular snow days."

A captain with Boston Harbor Cruises has told necn that the company has had to change their infrastructure because of the tides.
Police in Saugus, Massachusetts, arrested a man accused of exposing himself to two young children at a Savers store Friday.

According to court documents, Abidan Rivera is facing two counts of open and gross lewdness.

Police responded to the Savers Department Store at 1160 Broadway around 4 p.m. for a report of a male who exposed himself.

The caller told police her two girls, ages 7 and 11, said the man crouched down to look at a pair of shoes, exposing himself to him. The kids left to get their mother and Rivera allegedly repeatedly approached them, pulling down his shorts and exposing himself multiple times.

He also allegedly exposed himself in front of the caller when she was with her kids.

Police met with the caller, who pointed them in the direction of Rivera, who was standing in the parking lot.

He told police that he is a naturalist and doesnt wear underwear. He added that he was looking at some shoes and had to readjust his shorts. He told police he believes his genitals may have become exposed to the two kids.

He added that he was in the area because he works for Uber.

Rivera was arrested and personal recognizance bail was set at $40, which was posted.

He was ordered in court to stay away from the kids and the Savers store. He has also been banned from using the Uber app.

His next court appearance is December 27.
A Springfield, Massachusetts, man who had been charged with sexually assaulting two young girls has been cleared by a jury.

Masslive.com reports that the Hampden Superior Court jury on Monday acquitted 26-year-old Christopher Manolarakis of four counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 and one count of rape of a child aggravated by age difference.

Prosecutors alleged that the offenses occurred from April 2010 until February 2015. One of the girls was as young as 7 or 8. Authorities at first feared that no one would believe them and only came forward with their allegations last year when they were seeing a therapist.

The suspect's lawyer said the girls were troubled and made false accusations.
Police in Natick, Massachusetts, are processing threatening letters left on the doorstep of a homeowner last week as evidence to a possible hate crime.

A total of three letters were sent to a Maple Street home between Thursday and Friday. Police said one of the letters was hand written, the other one was typed. Two letters were allegedly placed in the homeowner's mailbox, while the third was mailed.

One letter read: "Do not bring n*****s in our neighborhood. We will kill them."

The second letter read: "Natick has a zero tolerance for black people. We have reclaimed our country back by selecting Trump, and you are now messing up everything."

The homeowner, who does not want to be named, spoke to necn over the phone saying he doesn't believe the person who sent them is a child.

"My feelings are that this isn't just some normal kid that doesn't know this is an appropriate way to handle this, it's a crazy adult," the homeowner said. "I feel this is a very sick person that happens to be politically driven because I think with President Trump taking office there are some people that feel like that's a green light."

The homeowner is white, but says his girlfriend, who's Dominican, just moved out in a "planned move" this weekend. He also says his housemate, who moved in ten days ago, is African American.

"The housemate, the Ugandan woman, is not really aware of any of this because she's a nurse, she's been working off site, for like 6 days now," he said.

Natick Police Chief James Hicks said authorities spent Monday interviewing the homeowner's neighbors and friends to get leads, and are processing the letters for evidence.

The alleged victim says police have also asked him to limit communications.

"They have asked to limit the communications because its not going to help the person come out," the homeowner said. "If they know there's cameras everywhere they're not going to come out."
Police are investigating after dozens of Massachusetts residents reported finding pro-KKK newspapers in their driveways.

Milford police say even Chief Tom O'Loughlin was targeted after he received a paper called "The Crusader" in the mail.

O'Loughlin says his department is looking into the matter.

"We gathered copies of the newspaper to take a look and see whether or not more people were being targeted based upon protected classes, in violation of their civil rights," O'Loughlin said. "We determined that that wasn't the case because they left one at every single residence."

This has happened a couple of times over the past month in Milford, with papers dropped at night in driveways within seemingly randomly chosen neighborhoods.

O'Loughlin added that Milford may have been chosen simply because the person delivering these papers lives in the area and that this is the person's idea of recruiting.

Peter Filosa is one of several people who found copies of the racist paper at the end of their driveways.

"Actually my wife thought it was the morning paper in the driveway," said Filosa.

He says he read an article or two out of curiosity.

"I just kind of wanted to see where the heck they came from and they come from the wrong places," Filosa said.

Pastor Thomas Robb, an Arkansas resident whose name is on the paper, told necn there is no formal KKK recruiting in the Milford area, essentially confirming Chief O'Laughlin's theory that "The Crusader" is likely being delivered by someone who lives nearby.
Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza says the election of Donald Trump as president won't stop his Rhode Island city from standing up for residents who are in the country illegally.

Elorza said Monday he's talked with the mayors of Los Angeles and New York and is joining dozens of cities promising to protect immigrants from being deported for minor violations.

Providence has refused to hold people charged with civil infractions for federal immigration officials.

Elorza, whose parents emigrated from Guatemala, says he will continue the policy even if Trump fulfills a campaign promise to pull money from cities that don't cooperate with federal deportation measures.

The Democratic mayor says he's encouraged by recent statements from Trump suggesting that the incoming president's focus will be on deporting people only if they have criminal records.
New Hampshire Governor-elect Chris Sununu is convening with his Republican counterparts nationwide in Florida for two days.

Sununu flew to Orlando on Monday for the annual conference of the Republican Governors Association. The meeting runs Tuesday and Wednesday.

The recent election increased Republican control of governorships to 33 states. Sununu will be the first Republican to hold the corner office in New Hampshire in a dozen years. He'll go to Concord alongside a Republican-controlled House and Senate.

At the Florida meeting, he'll have a chance to mingle and discuss policy with his fellow Republicans. He'll join colleagues such as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, both of whom have speaking roles.
Massachusetts' attorney general is launching a new hotline to report harassment and intimidation of minority groups.

Residents are encouraged to call 1-800-994-3228 or fill out a civil rights complaint form online if they've witnessed or experienced bias-motivated threats, harassment or violence against racial, ethnic and religious minorities, women, immigrants and lesbian, gay and transgender individuals.

Staff and lawyers in Attorney General Maura Healey's office are monitoring the hotline.

The office says it will be tracking reports and referring cases to local law enforcement officials or the office's Criminal Bureau. Hate crimes are generally prosecuted by local district attorney's offices.

Healey, an openly gay Democrat, says she's launching the hotline following reports that people across the country have been targeted and harassed since the election of Donald Trump as president.

Harmann Singh, a Cambridge, Massachusetts resident, told necn that he experienced a racial incident over the weekend when a man came up to him in a store on Massachusetts Avenue and heckled him for his appearance.

Singh is a Sikh but heard a clerk at a counter say, "there is a (expletive) Muslim."

Im a Sikh, its the fifth largest religion in the world, Singh recalled. He continued to ask, are you from Morocco, he kept guessing.

He believes the incident was just another racist feeling emboldened by Donald Trumps presidential win.

There are a lot of feelings of not feeling safe in our own country, Singh said.

Singh, whos also a Harvard Law student, fears more discrimination is likely. He says what made his most recent encounter more painful, is that no one spoke up or came to his defense.

I think thats what really got to me is that they had the opportunity to stand up, but they didnt, Singh said.

Healy says every harassment complaint going forward will be taken seriously. The American Civil Liberties Union and Anti-Defamation League are also keeping track of the complaints.

Well take appropriate action as necessary, Healy said. Whether its on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation.

If you believe that your civil rights have been violated, you may file a Civil Rights Complaint with the Civil Rights Division of the Office of Attorney General Maura Healey.
Government departments tend to be seen as top shelf IT customers. They tend to use larger providers, use more traditional delivery mechanisms and have a conservative approach towards newer ways of working. So, when Synack, a crowdsourced cybersecurity vendor, told me it secured a contract with the IRS, I was intrigued.

+ Also on Network World: How the government can help businesses fight cyber attacks +

First, a little bit about what Synack does: The company is following something of an ongoing trend in the security space in that it wrangles a bunch of ethical hackers to essentially try and break a client's IT systems. The idea being that those hackers can ply their trade, but instead of intruding onto organizations' IT systems out of malice, they can do so as a service (and, it must be added, for a payment). Founded in 2013 by former NSA security experts Jay Kaplan, CEO, and Dr. Mark Kuhr, CTO, Synack feels very similar to HackerOne, a company now headed by Marten Mickos of MySQL fame.

Anyway, Synack plays the intermediary role between hacker and large organization, and it provides a sort of a Chinese wall whereby the client pays for a top-shelf, robust and professional service, and Synack takes the lead in managing operatives who, it must be admitted, are sometimes not the most savory of characters.

And that shielding of the riff raff seems to be working, at least when it comes to making clients feel comfortable with their service. Synack claims customers across banking and financial services, healthcare, consumer goods and retail, manufacturing, and technology.

Synack Government unveiled

And today the company adds another market: the U.S. government. It unveiled Synack Government, a new line of business dedicated to serving the needs of federal, state and local agencies. This product announcement follows Synacks winning the U.S. governments largest, crowdsourced vulnerability-discovery contract ever through the Hack the Pentagon program.

Not just words, however, the company also unveiled its $2 million contract with the U.S. IRS to pioneer a model in the government that proactively protects sensitive government and taxpayer data on the irs.gov domain. Synack is now officially unveiling an optimized solution, Crowd Security Intelligence Federal, to provide an adversarial perspective on the security of agencies sensitive, mission-critical IT assets.

We are excited to see vital government bodies, like the IRS and [Department of Defense], move even more quickly than many enterprises to implement our innovative crowdsourced security approach, Kaplan said. As attackers and threats become savvier, the federal agencies are recognizing that advanced security is paramount. Were rolling out our Synack Government solution to protect some of the most sensitive transactional data and mission-critical IT assets in the country.

Of course, many will ask how this is different from any of the other numerous bug-bounty programs out there. Synack says it is different in that its model consists of the most rigorous vetting and tracking in the industry, ensuring the customer has continuous visibility and management over all Synack Red Team activities.

Its certainly a real vote of confidence that the IRS is going this way. I dont think for a minute that Synack replaces more traditional approaches to hacker protection. But as an additional tool, it looks very useful.
Weve reached that time of year where everyone in the security industry is pulling together predictions for what we expect to see over the next year, and/or slowly backing away from any imperfect predictions we might have put forth the year before.

Last year, I offered up a number of predictions, but the one continuing to make huge waves in 2017 is around data integrity attacks. Quite simply, I expect that well see more intricate, complex and undetected data integrity attacks and for two main reasons: financial gain and/or political manipulation.

+ Also on Network World: How much does a data breach actually cost? +

Data integrity attacks are, of course, not entirely new. Data integrity is a promise or assurance that information can be accessed or modified only by authorized users. Data integrity attacks compromise that promise with the aim of gaining unauthorized access to modify data for a number of ulterior motives. It is the ultimate weaponization of data.

A few classic examples include the 2008 case of Brazilian logging companies that accessed government systems to inflate logging quotas and the famous 2010 story on how the Stuxnet worm used very minor changes to attempt to destroy Iran's nuclear program. In 2013, a Syrian group hacked into the Associated Press' Twitter account and tweeted that President Obama had been injured in explosions at the White House. (That single tweet caused a 147-point drop in the Dow.)

Fast forward to 2015 when Anonymous began releasing financial reports exposing firms in the U.S. and China trying to cheat the stock market, in one case, damaging the brand reputation of REXLot Holdings, a games developer that had inflated its revenues. The same year, there was the JP Morgan Chase breach and subsequent attempt at market manipulation. Which leads us, of course, to 2016, with the World Anti-Doping Agency and Democratic National Committee breaches, both examples of how hackers are using data integrity attacks to embarrass organizations.

How will cyber attacks get worse?

Whats different now from last years prediction? Why will these attacks get worse? The first generation of cyber attacks were about cutting access to data, and then we moved on to data theft. Now, were starting to see evidence of that stolen data being altered before transition from one machine to another, effecting all elements of operations.

The proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT) means hackers have a seemingly infinite number of different attack surfaces and personas that they can manipulate. Use your Fitbit as an example, and look at the number of people who touch itthe user, the manufacturer, the cloud provider hosting the IT infrastructure, the third parties accessing it via an API, etc. This creates a cross-pollination of risk that the security industry has not seen before, and thats just one persons thing.

Data integrity attacks have the power to bring down an entire company and beyond.

Today's connected world constantly generates mounds of data that businesses, industry pros and analysts use to drive decisions, make projections, issue forecasts and more.

Data integrity attacks have the power to bring down an entire company and beyond. Entire stock markets could be poisoned and collapsed by faulty data. The power grid and other IoT systems from traffic lights to the water supply could be severely disrupted if the data they run on were to be altered. And perhaps the greatest danger is that many of these could go undetected for years before the true damage reveals itself. Whats at stake is trust. Decision-making by senior government officials, corporate executives, investors and average consumers will be impacted if they cannot trust the information they receive.

What you can do to protect data

At this point, youre probably terrifiedor morbidly depressed. Is there anything we can do? And the answer to that is yes. When I talk to the businesses we work with, one of the first questions I ask is, What are you trying to protect? If you dont know what data youre trying to protect, there is no point in spending money to protect it. Its a straightforward enough question perhaps, but it isnt very easy to answer. Despite this, working out an answer is one of the most fundamental things an organization can do towards making itself secure. Last months blog, Securing the breach trumps breach prevention, detailed some additional tangible steps you can take.

Breaches will continue to happento expect otherwise would be unrealistic. But as their scale and complexity grows, focusing on them first would take up all of an organizations IT security bandwidth. A better starting point is to know what you are trying to protect.
Eight-year-old Bradfield Southend girl receives award for fundraising efforts

AN eight-year-old girl from Bradfield Southend has been given a Pride of Reading Award for her fundraising efforts.

Ever since her fifth birthday, Grace Dearing has declined birthday presents, asking instead for money to be donated to the homeless support charity Launchpad Reading.

Grace  a pupil at Bradfield Primary School  inherited her public-spirited nature from her late grandfather, Peter Fraser, of Reading Rotary Club, who helped to raise money for Centenary House in Reading when he was president.

Centenary House was a joint Launchpad and Rotary Club initiative to provide homes for vulnerable people in Reading.

Graces mother, Kimiko Dearing, who is a Bradfield parish councillor and chairwoman of the Bradfield Primary School PTA, said: We are all very proud of her.

I think she was a bit shell-shocked when she was told she had won.

Her grandad died when she was three months old and when she was five she decided she wanted to carry on in his footsteps.

I think hed be very proud of her too.

Speaking about being handed the coveted 2016 Chris Tarrant Award, presented by the broadcaster himself, at a ceremony at Madejski Stadium, Reading, on Friday, Grace said: It was a surprise to win.

I really like to help people and I wanted to carry on doing the job that grandad did.

For her sixth birthday, Grace asked Sainsburys Calcot and Reading to match the birthday money she was donating to Launchpad, and for her seventh birthday she started a baked bean challenge, which raised more than 200 for Launchpad.

She was nominated by Launchpad marketing manager Amanda Rose.

Burghfields Olympic diver Chris Mears also had a bus painted gold in recognition of his success in Rio.

Mears, together with his diving partner Jack Laugher, won Great Britains first Olympic diving gold medal, with victory in the mens synchronised 3m springboard.

To mark the achievement, the single-deck bus, unveiled by Reading Buses, will primarily run along the line 2 route, which serves Chris home of Burghfield Common.

It will also be available for use on other routes in the town.

The unveiling took place at the Pride of Reading Awards at the Madejski Stadium last Friday, where Mears was a guest.

Reading Buses marketing and communications manager Jake Osman said: As Chris will not get a golden postbox in Burghfield Common, we thought we could step up and give him something to demonstrate that the people of Burghfield and Reading are proud of his achievements.

This is the first time that Reading Buses has dedicated a bus to someone in this way, with the bus bearing Mears likeness as well as being painted gold.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: With an aim to expand its existing centres and open new hospitals, Healthcare group Apollo Hospitals plans to invest Rs 1,400 crore over the next couple, a top company official said on Monday. Besides, the company is all set to come up with the modern Proton therapy at its Chennai facility for the treatment of cancer patients in near future.



We have lined up an investment of Rs 1,400 crore over next couple of years and the investment would be made in the opening of new hospitals and expansion of already existing healthcare centres,Apollo Hospitals Chairman Prathap C Reddy said at the inauguaration of a super-speciality tertiary care hospital at Navi Mumbai.



Talking about the forthcoming Proton therapy at its Chennai facility, he said, Work has already begun on the setting up of the Proton therapy at the groups Chennai facility and we hope that it would become operational over next one-and-half years time.



India will become the third country to have this facility for treatment of cancer patients, including China and Japan, said Apollo Hospitals managing director Suneeta Reddy.

The company is also looking to have a hospital at Guwahati in North-East and oncology facilities at its Vizag and Bhubaneshwar centres. Apollo has already acquired land in Jaipur for setting up a hospital in the near future.

NEW DELHI: With an aim to expand its existing centres and open new hospitals, Healthcare group Apollo Hospitals plans to invest Rs 1,400 crore over the next couple, a top company official said on Monday. Besides, the company is all set to come up with the modern Proton therapy at its Chennai facility for the treatment of cancer patients in near future. We have lined up an investment of Rs 1,400 crore over next couple of years and the investment would be made in the opening of new hospitals and expansion of already existing healthcare centres,Apollo Hospitals Chairman Prathap C Reddy said at the inauguaration of a super-speciality tertiary care hospital at Navi Mumbai. Talking about the forthcoming Proton therapy at its Chennai facility, he said, Work has already begun on the setting up of the Proton therapy at the groups Chennai facility and we hope that it would become operational over next one-and-half years time. India will become the third country to have this facility for treatment of cancer patients, including China and Japan, said Apollo Hospitals managing director Suneeta Reddy. The company is also looking to have a hospital at Guwahati in North-East and oncology facilities at its Vizag and Bhubaneshwar centres. Apollo has already acquired land in Jaipur for setting up a hospital in the near future.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Looking to expand its foothold in the ato sector, Hyundai Motors India plans to launch an entry level SUV in the first half of 2019.



The company on Monday launched all new Tucson with an introductory price ranging between Rs 18.99 lakh and Rs 24.99 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi), as part of its strategy to offer variety to its customers in the small utility vehicle range.



With the launch of a sub 4-metre compact SUV, it plans to to fill the gap that lies below Creta. With Tucson, the company now has three SUVs along with Creta and Santa Fe. The third generation Tucson will be available both in petrol and diesel powertrains.



With the launch of all new Tucson, we aim to strengthen presence in the premium segment with strong leadership positions, Hyundai Motor India Ltd MD & CEO YK Koo said .



The SUV has a 2 litre petrol and diesel engine options and new various features including a puddle lamp, downhill brake control and front and rear parking sensors.

The Korean auto major recently touched a sale of 70 lakh in domestic as well as export markets.

NEW DELHI: Looking to expand its foothold in the ato sector, Hyundai Motors India plans to launch an entry level SUV in the first half of 2019. The company on Monday launched all new Tucson with an introductory price ranging between Rs 18.99 lakh and Rs 24.99 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi), as part of its strategy to offer variety to its customers in the small utility vehicle range. With the launch of a sub 4-metre compact SUV, it plans to to fill the gap that lies below Creta. With Tucson, the company now has three SUVs along with Creta and Santa Fe. The third generation Tucson will be available both in petrol and diesel powertrains. With the launch of all new Tucson, we aim to strengthen presence in the premium segment with strong leadership positions, Hyundai Motor India Ltd MD & CEO YK Koo said . The SUV has a 2 litre petrol and diesel engine options and new various features including a puddle lamp, downhill brake control and front and rear parking sensors. The Korean auto major recently touched a sale of 70 lakh in domestic as well as export markets.
By Reuters

MUMBAI: The independent directors of Tata Motors (TAMO.NS) gave board Chairman Cyrus Mistry a tacit nod on Monday, but stopped short of an outright endorsement, or picking sides in the power struggle within India's largest conglomerate.

In a vaguely worded release late on Monday, the independent directors of Tata Motors - owner of luxury automaker Jaguar Land Rover - backed Mistry's and company management's strategy saying that all decisions taken by the board of Tata Motors on strategy and operations had been "unanimous" and executed by the chairman and the management.

Mistry was ousted as chairman of Tata Sons, the holding firm that steers the $100 billion steel-to-software Tata empire, last month. Mistry has since been in a bitter public spat with Tata Sons and Tata family patriarch Ratan Tata, who has returned as interim chair of the group.

Tata Sons blamed Mistry's ouster on what it called a "breach of trust" and poor performance. Mistry, in turn has faulted Tata Sons for poor governance structures and blamed Ratan Tata for many of the conglomerate's legacy issues.

The independent directors of Tata Motors did not give Mistry a unanimous public endorsement though, and opted to avoid taking sides in the feud.

A source close to Tata Sons told Reuters that an independent director brought forward a resolution at the Tata Motors board meeting on Monday, seeking to endorse Mistry in a similar manner as two other Tata group company boards, Indian Hotels (IHTL.NS)and Tata Chemicals (TTCH.NS), had done earlier this month.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the resolution was opposed by another independent director and the guarded statement that was later issued was a "compromise."

The source admitted that the outcome however, was a setback for Tata Sons, which has already called for a number of special shareholder meetings to oust Mistry entirely from some of its group company boards.

Representatives for both Tata Sons and Cyrus Mistry were not immediately reachable for comment.

Mistry remains chair of several major Tata group companies including Tata Motors and Tata Steel (TISC.NS). And despite his ouster as chair, Mistry remains a board member in Tata Sons, by virtue of his family's 18.41 percent stake in the holding firm.

Tata Sons is roughly two-thirds controlled by Tata Trusts, a group of philanthropic foundations led by Ratan Tata.

The group last week axed Mistry as chair of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS.NS), a company in which Tata Sons owns an over 70 percent stake. But it has struggled to get him out from other subsidiaries where it only owns minority stakes.

The Tata Motors board met on Monday primarily to discuss the automaker's quarterly results. The company posted a net profit of 8.48 billion rupees ($125 million) in the three months ended Sept. 30. That compared with a net loss of 17.40 billion rupees in the same period last year.

Tata Global Beverages (TAGL.NS), will be the next company in the Tata conglomerate to report results this week. The board of Tata Global Beverages, which co-owns and runs Starbucks (SBUX.O) coffee stores across India, is set to meet on Tuesday. Mistry is also chairman of the Tata Global Beverages board.

MUMBAI: The independent directors of Tata Motors (TAMO.NS) gave board Chairman Cyrus Mistry a tacit nod on Monday, but stopped short of an outright endorsement, or picking sides in the power struggle within India's largest conglomerate. In a vaguely worded release late on Monday, the independent directors of Tata Motors - owner of luxury automaker Jaguar Land Rover - backed Mistry's and company management's strategy saying that all decisions taken by the board of Tata Motors on strategy and operations had been "unanimous" and executed by the chairman and the management. Mistry was ousted as chairman of Tata Sons, the holding firm that steers the $100 billion steel-to-software Tata empire, last month. Mistry has since been in a bitter public spat with Tata Sons and Tata family patriarch Ratan Tata, who has returned as interim chair of the group. Tata Sons blamed Mistry's ouster on what it called a "breach of trust" and poor performance. Mistry, in turn has faulted Tata Sons for poor governance structures and blamed Ratan Tata for many of the conglomerate's legacy issues. The independent directors of Tata Motors did not give Mistry a unanimous public endorsement though, and opted to avoid taking sides in the feud. A source close to Tata Sons told Reuters that an independent director brought forward a resolution at the Tata Motors board meeting on Monday, seeking to endorse Mistry in a similar manner as two other Tata group company boards, Indian Hotels (IHTL.NS)and Tata Chemicals (TTCH.NS), had done earlier this month. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the resolution was opposed by another independent director and the guarded statement that was later issued was a "compromise." The source admitted that the outcome however, was a setback for Tata Sons, which has already called for a number of special shareholder meetings to oust Mistry entirely from some of its group company boards. Representatives for both Tata Sons and Cyrus Mistry were not immediately reachable for comment. Mistry remains chair of several major Tata group companies including Tata Motors and Tata Steel (TISC.NS). And despite his ouster as chair, Mistry remains a board member in Tata Sons, by virtue of his family's 18.41 percent stake in the holding firm. Tata Sons is roughly two-thirds controlled by Tata Trusts, a group of philanthropic foundations led by Ratan Tata. The group last week axed Mistry as chair of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS.NS), a company in which Tata Sons owns an over 70 percent stake. But it has struggled to get him out from other subsidiaries where it only owns minority stakes. The Tata Motors board met on Monday primarily to discuss the automaker's quarterly results. The company posted a net profit of 8.48 billion rupees ($125 million) in the three months ended Sept. 30. That compared with a net loss of 17.40 billion rupees in the same period last year. Tata Global Beverages (TAGL.NS), will be the next company in the Tata conglomerate to report results this week. The board of Tata Global Beverages, which co-owns and runs Starbucks (SBUX.O) coffee stores across India, is set to meet on Tuesday. Mistry is also chairman of the Tata Global Beverages board.
Sangeeta Bora By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: Overworked bank employees are having a tough time with no weekend holidays but they say the urgency of the crowd keeps them pumped up throughout the day. Many retired bank employees too have been called in to lend a helping hand and a majority of them have agreed readily. Senior bank employees have made several arrangements for their employees to keep the momentum going.

Gangadhar, divisional manager of Canara Bank, MG Road, says, We are a service industry. And when the government made such an announcement, we will have to rise to the occasion. Our employees are stressed and exhausted, but the long queues in front of our bank and the trust that people have in us keeps us going.

The hard work of these bank employees has definitely not gone unnoticed. Words of appreciation for bank employees have been pouring in right from the chairmen and managing directors of various banks.

M M Chiniwar, general manager of Canara Bank, MG Road, says, We all understand that this is the need of the hour. The chairman has saluted the efforts of the staff. Our employees do not even have time to eat. We have made arrangements to provide high-tea and lunch to them. We knew it was going to be a challenge and so we called in many retired employees who were happy to help. There are times when we do not have space to keep the cash. Canara Bank in Bangalore Circle alone collected `1,800 crore in the last three days.

Bank employees said collecting cash deposits was considerably comfortable while exchange and withdrawals were more challenging.

Many people go to different branches of the same bank to withdraw cash. The withdrawal is reflected immediately in the system and to convince customers that they cannot withdraw anymore is a challenge. Besides, those coming for withdrawal and deposit are our customers who we are familiar with. But in the case of exchange counter, people who are not our customers too come. They would have gone to different banks and got some money exchanged. If our employee does not make the punch, it will not reflect in the system that the same person has already exchanged money at a different bank. And the queue in exchange section is the largest one, hence we have put pandals, says Chiniwar.

No end to long lines but most ATMs dont function

Cash-strapped citizens continued to crowd ATMs and banks across the city on Monday. As many ATMs remained non-functional queues in front of banks kept on increasing. Sita G, a small-time worker from Gandhi Bazaar was at a bank by 6 am. I had come to the bank for two days but could not enchange old notes due to the crowd. Hence, I came early today. I have to get the money today or else I will have no food to eat. Students from other states are the ones who are badly affected. My mother was supposed to deposit some money into my account. But she has not been able to do so due to the crowd. Now, I am solely depending on my friends, said Bidut Saikia, a student from Assam, LLB in a city college. Rajesh Krishna from HSR Layout said ATMs in his area remain non-functional.

BENGALURU: Overworked bank employees are having a tough time with no weekend holidays but they say the urgency of the crowd keeps them pumped up throughout the day. Many retired bank employees too have been called in to lend a helping hand and a majority of them have agreed readily. Senior bank employees have made several arrangements for their employees to keep the momentum going. Gangadhar, divisional manager of Canara Bank, MG Road, says, We are a service industry. And when the government made such an announcement, we will have to rise to the occasion. Our employees are stressed and exhausted, but the long queues in front of our bank and the trust that people have in us keeps us going. The hard work of these bank employees has definitely not gone unnoticed. Words of appreciation for bank employees have been pouring in right from the chairmen and managing directors of various banks. M M Chiniwar, general manager of Canara Bank, MG Road, says, We all understand that this is the need of the hour. The chairman has saluted the efforts of the staff. Our employees do not even have time to eat. We have made arrangements to provide high-tea and lunch to them. We knew it was going to be a challenge and so we called in many retired employees who were happy to help. There are times when we do not have space to keep the cash. Canara Bank in Bangalore Circle alone collected `1,800 crore in the last three days. Bank employees said collecting cash deposits was considerably comfortable while exchange and withdrawals were more challenging. Many people go to different branches of the same bank to withdraw cash. The withdrawal is reflected immediately in the system and to convince customers that they cannot withdraw anymore is a challenge. Besides, those coming for withdrawal and deposit are our customers who we are familiar with. But in the case of exchange counter, people who are not our customers too come. They would have gone to different banks and got some money exchanged. If our employee does not make the punch, it will not reflect in the system that the same person has already exchanged money at a different bank. And the queue in exchange section is the largest one, hence we have put pandals, says Chiniwar. No end to long lines but most ATMs dont function Cash-strapped citizens continued to crowd ATMs and banks across the city on Monday. As many ATMs remained non-functional queues in front of banks kept on increasing. Sita G, a small-time worker from Gandhi Bazaar was at a bank by 6 am. I had come to the bank for two days but could not enchange old notes due to the crowd. Hence, I came early today. I have to get the money today or else I will have no food to eat. Students from other states are the ones who are badly affected. My mother was supposed to deposit some money into my account. But she has not been able to do so due to the crowd. Now, I am solely depending on my friends, said Bidut Saikia, a student from Assam, LLB in a city college. Rajesh Krishna from HSR Layout said ATMs in his area remain non-functional.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: A 63-year-old retired scientist from the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) in Kalpakkam was found dead at his Sathurangapattinam residence.



The deceased S Babu Raos wife left for her relatives house on Sunday and when she returned home on Monday. She found his body in the kitchen with injuries in his head.



According to the police, preliminary investigations did not reveal any signs of robbery. Further investigations are on.

CHENNAI: A 63-year-old retired scientist from the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) in Kalpakkam was found dead at his Sathurangapattinam residence. The deceased S Babu Raos wife left for her relatives house on Sunday and when she returned home on Monday. She found his body in the kitchen with injuries in his head. According to the police, preliminary investigations did not reveal any signs of robbery. Further investigations are on.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Even as a few ATMs in the city have started disbursing the new Rs. 2000 notes, it has not enthused many as there is a crisis of lower denomination currencies.

The Rs 2,000 note was made available after some of the ATMs in the city were recalibrated.

Indian Bank started it at its Harbour branch ATM. Similarly, larger branches in Chetpet and other areas have introduced it in their ATMs.

City Union Bank managing director N Kamakodi told Express that a couple of his bank ATMs in the city is disbursing Rs 2,000 currencies. "Recalibration of ATMs takes two to three days and ours have nearly finished the process," he said. The bank was yet to get the new Rs500 currencies. The currencies are still with RBI in Chennai, said a source in ICICI Bank. But their introduction in ATMs would take a minimum of three days as the ATMs will have to be tinkered.

However, the real crisis is availability of change. Many bank branches were forcing people to accept Rs 2,000 as they dont have currencies of lower denomination.

A public sector bank manager said that they were running short of change. We dont have smaller denomination currencies and those which we have are soiled, he said.

According to him there was adequate preparation while replacing Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination currencies and as a result most of the banks are short-changed. In his view, introduction of Rs 2,000 in ATMs would create problems of getting change.

Still, many ATMs are running short of cash and banks dont have Rs 100 denomination currencies to fill up.

I have been scouting for ATMs but hardly anyone is functioning, said Swati while trying to get cash from an Indian Overseas Bank ATM in Koyambedu.

Meanwhile, banks are planning to provide customers with lower denomination currencies in their counters. Kamakodi said his bank plans to provide lower denomination currencies in bank branches.

On the governments plan to introduce inedible ink, he said if it was a government order then we would abide by it. However, many branches said they have yet to receive any order regarding that.

Given this situation, transactions through electronic channels have increased nearly four times, said Kamakodi. We have received enquiries of 600 points of sale machine requests in the last two days. Even coconut vendors are going in for digital wallets. If people are not getting change for `2,000, then they have to switch over to electronic transactions, he added.



CHENNAI: Even as a few ATMs in the city have started disbursing the new Rs. 2000 notes, it has not enthused many as there is a crisis of lower denomination currencies. The Rs 2,000 note was made available after some of the ATMs in the city were recalibrated. Indian Bank started it at its Harbour branch ATM. Similarly, larger branches in Chetpet and other areas have introduced it in their ATMs. City Union Bank managing director N Kamakodi told Express that a couple of his bank ATMs in the city is disbursing Rs 2,000 currencies. "Recalibration of ATMs takes two to three days and ours have nearly finished the process," he said. The bank was yet to get the new Rs500 currencies. The currencies are still with RBI in Chennai, said a source in ICICI Bank. But their introduction in ATMs would take a minimum of three days as the ATMs will have to be tinkered. However, the real crisis is availability of change. Many bank branches were forcing people to accept Rs 2,000 as they dont have currencies of lower denomination. A public sector bank manager said that they were running short of change. We dont have smaller denomination currencies and those which we have are soiled, he said. According to him there was adequate preparation while replacing Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination currencies and as a result most of the banks are short-changed. In his view, introduction of Rs 2,000 in ATMs would create problems of getting change. Still, many ATMs are running short of cash and banks dont have Rs 100 denomination currencies to fill up. I have been scouting for ATMs but hardly anyone is functioning, said Swati while trying to get cash from an Indian Overseas Bank ATM in Koyambedu. Meanwhile, banks are planning to provide customers with lower denomination currencies in their counters. Kamakodi said his bank plans to provide lower denomination currencies in bank branches. On the governments plan to introduce inedible ink, he said if it was a government order then we would abide by it. However, many branches said they have yet to receive any order regarding that. Given this situation, transactions through electronic channels have increased nearly four times, said Kamakodi. We have received enquiries of 600 points of sale machine requests in the last two days. Even coconut vendors are going in for digital wallets. If people are not getting change for `2,000, then they have to switch over to electronic transactions, he added.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: A 38-year-old property dealer was shot dead while his wife critically injured in southwest Delhi's Bijwasan area when two men barged into their house and started firing indiscriminately. Prima facie, it appears that the victim Rana was shot dead because of a property dispute, police said, adding that they suspect that the killers were hired to kill him.

Today, around 4.15pm two unidentified youths barged inside Rana's house on the pretext of showing interest in renting a room in his house. When Rana, who was suffering from paralysis, came out with the help of his wife the duo fought with him and later, they started firing indiscriminately at the couple. The two youths fled from the spot.

After Rana's sister-in-law raised an alarm and gathered people, Rana and his wife Lalita were rushed to AIIMS Trauma centre. Rana was declared brought dead and his wife's condition is said to be critical. Rana's body has been sent for autopsy.

Police said that Rana had a property dispute regarding his house. Police said that they have zeroed in on the accused and are likely to arrest them soon. Police is questioning Rana's family members and colleagues to know if he had personal enmity with anyone. CCTV footages from the area are also being scanned to gain clues in the case.

NEW DELHI: A 38-year-old property dealer was shot dead while his wife critically injured in southwest Delhi's Bijwasan area when two men barged into their house and started firing indiscriminately. Prima facie, it appears that the victim Rana was shot dead because of a property dispute, police said, adding that they suspect that the killers were hired to kill him. Today, around 4.15pm two unidentified youths barged inside Rana's house on the pretext of showing interest in renting a room in his house. When Rana, who was suffering from paralysis, came out with the help of his wife the duo fought with him and later, they started firing indiscriminately at the couple. The two youths fled from the spot. After Rana's sister-in-law raised an alarm and gathered people, Rana and his wife Lalita were rushed to AIIMS Trauma centre. Rana was declared brought dead and his wife's condition is said to be critical. Rana's body has been sent for autopsy. Police said that Rana had a property dispute regarding his house. Police said that they have zeroed in on the accused and are likely to arrest them soon. Police is questioning Rana's family members and colleagues to know if he had personal enmity with anyone. CCTV footages from the area are also being scanned to gain clues in the case.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: A heart retrieved from a city youngster will give new lease of life to a Chennai patient. The heart from a 17-year-old Puranam Sai Shashank, who was declared brain dead, was retrieved by a team of doctors who flew from Chennai to Hyderabad for the purpose. Police helped form a green channel from a private hospital in Gachibowli and the organs were taken to Chennai in a chartered flight. The Yousufguda resident was pursuing a B.Com. His father is a daily wage labourer. On November 12, he was on a bike driven by his friend Arvind which met with an accident. Shashank received a severe head injury and Arvinds hand was fractured. Shashank was declared brain dead on Monday. Apart from his heart, his liver, corneas and kidneys were retrieved and given to private hospitals.

HYDERABAD: A heart retrieved from a city youngster will give new lease of life to a Chennai patient. The heart from a 17-year-old Puranam Sai Shashank, who was declared brain dead, was retrieved by a team of doctors who flew from Chennai to Hyderabad for the purpose. Police helped form a green channel from a private hospital in Gachibowli and the organs were taken to Chennai in a chartered flight. The Yousufguda resident was pursuing a B.Com. His father is a daily wage labourer. On November 12, he was on a bike driven by his friend Arvind which met with an accident. Shashank received a severe head injury and Arvinds hand was fractured. Shashank was declared brain dead on Monday. Apart from his heart, his liver, corneas and kidneys were retrieved and given to private hospitals.
By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: How can I stop someone from smoking in a public place?, asks a young female student to state police chief Loknath Behera. The question was posed during an interaction organized by the City Police as part of Childrens Day celebrations on Monday.



The question did not take the police chief by surprise, who was ready with a prompt answer.  Question the wrong action in the presence of your friends or teachers. If the person does not stop, dial 100. We will be there at your service, he said.

Students of Government Model Higher

Secondary Schoo



First time interaction with police

Around 80 students from schools in the city and suburbs attended the programme. They were given firsthand information on the varied functions and duties of the men in khaki. During the 40-minute interaction, the police chief faced a flurry of questions ranging from ATM frauds to eve-teasing.

A good majority of posers were from young girls who wanted to know how to deal with anti-socials in public places.



The students also got to see the crime investigation wing and the forensic laboratory. DCP G Siva Vikram said most of the students who attended the programme were speaking to a policeman for the first time in their lives. We excluded student police cadets from the programme and preferred students who did not have any interaction with the police. Priority was given to those in the suburbs, including coastal areas, he said.



Earlier, the students visited the City Police Commissioners Office. There, City Police Commissioner G Sparjan Kumar and DCP Siva Vikram took them to the various wings and explained their work. A visit to the police control room was also part of the programme. The students saw how public roads are monitored by the police through the CCTV network.

Children having fun at the event by the City Police as part

oif the Childrens Day celebration in Thiruvananthapuram on

Monday



Children were filled with curiosity regarding the wireless communication network. Can someone tap into the network? asked another boy.



The programme ended with a visit to the mounted police unit where the students had a fun time. The guards patiently cleared the doubts of the students who had a lot of doubts - from the animals food habits to training. The children, except a few, readily accepted the offer for a ride.



Awareness programmes

The police held Childrens Day programmes at the Government Model Higher Secondary School for Girls Pattom and the Government Model Boys HSS. Range IG Manoj Abraham inaugurated the programme at Pattom school. It was followed by an anti-drug lecture by DCP Thampi S Durgadutt and a performance by the police band.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: How can I stop someone from smoking in a public place?, asks a young female student to state police chief Loknath Behera. The question was posed during an interaction organized by the City Police as part of Childrens Day celebrations on Monday. The question did not take the police chief by surprise, who was ready with a prompt answer.  Question the wrong action in the presence of your friends or teachers. If the person does not stop, dial 100. We will be there at your service, he said. Students of Government Model Higher Secondary Schoo First time interaction with police Around 80 students from schools in the city and suburbs attended the programme. They were given firsthand information on the varied functions and duties of the men in khaki. During the 40-minute interaction, the police chief faced a flurry of questions ranging from ATM frauds to eve-teasing. A good majority of posers were from young girls who wanted to know how to deal with anti-socials in public places. The students also got to see the crime investigation wing and the forensic laboratory. DCP G Siva Vikram said most of the students who attended the programme were speaking to a policeman for the first time in their lives. We excluded student police cadets from the programme and preferred students who did not have any interaction with the police. Priority was given to those in the suburbs, including coastal areas, he said. Earlier, the students visited the City Police Commissioners Office. There, City Police Commissioner G Sparjan Kumar and DCP Siva Vikram took them to the various wings and explained their work. A visit to the police control room was also part of the programme. The students saw how public roads are monitored by the police through the CCTV network. Children having fun at the event by the City Police as part oif the Childrens Day celebration in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday Children were filled with curiosity regarding the wireless communication network. Can someone tap into the network? asked another boy. The programme ended with a visit to the mounted police unit where the students had a fun time. The guards patiently cleared the doubts of the students who had a lot of doubts - from the animals food habits to training. The children, except a few, readily accepted the offer for a ride. Awareness programmes The police held Childrens Day programmes at the Government Model Higher Secondary School for Girls Pattom and the Government Model Boys HSS. Range IG Manoj Abraham inaugurated the programme at Pattom school. It was followed by an anti-drug lecture by DCP Thampi S Durgadutt and a performance by the police band.
By PTI

LOS ANGELES: Indian-origin British actor Dev Patel says his upcoming film "Lion" is special as it is hard to find performance oriented roles for someone like him.



In Garth Davis' feature, Patel plays Saroo Brierley, a young Indian boy who gets adopted by an Australian family, only to find his birth mother two decades later using Google Earth.

The actor said he fully committed himself to his role, according to The Hollywood Reporter.



"I called my manager straight after I walked out of the audition and told him that if I get it, don't send me anything for the next eight months. Don't distract me with any other work or audition.



"Journeys like this don't come around very often for someone who looks like I do," said Patel.



The actor revealed that he auditioned for the role several times, including a Skype session from a bathroom. The actor said during a six-hour long audition process Davis asked him to roar like a lion.



"After the audition, (Davis) said 'If we decide to go with you. I really want you to change'. He said he wanted to see a Dev Patel that no one has ever seen before."



"Lion" also starring Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara is scheduled to release on November 25.

LOS ANGELES: Indian-origin British actor Dev Patel says his upcoming film "Lion" is special as it is hard to find performance oriented roles for someone like him. In Garth Davis' feature, Patel plays Saroo Brierley, a young Indian boy who gets adopted by an Australian family, only to find his birth mother two decades later using Google Earth. The actor said he fully committed himself to his role, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "I called my manager straight after I walked out of the audition and told him that if I get it, don't send me anything for the next eight months. Don't distract me with any other work or audition. "Journeys like this don't come around very often for someone who looks like I do," said Patel. The actor revealed that he auditioned for the role several times, including a Skype session from a bathroom. The actor said during a six-hour long audition process Davis asked him to roar like a lion. "After the audition, (Davis) said 'If we decide to go with you. I really want you to change'. He said he wanted to see a Dev Patel that no one has ever seen before." "Lion" also starring Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara is scheduled to release on November 25.
A Sharadhaa By

Express News Service

When the whole of India is still trying to cope with the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, Sandalwood is Modi-fying its style of functioning. There are a few who are grumbling under their breath about this insensitive move. But, on the whole, the Kannada filmdom has welcomed the Prime Ministers decision and is slowly working with and around it. City Express spoke to producers, distributors and directors to know how they are keeping their schedule.

Chakravarthy Keeps its Stride

The ban has not stopped some producers. Chakravarthy starring Darshan is in the last leg of its shoot in Mysuru and producer Annaji Nagaraj has set a revised plan. Those who have ID proofs from the union are taking the old notes and getting them exchanged at the banks, he says, and we are issuing cheques to those who have a bank account. For those without any documents, we ensure that they get the daily bata, which are mostly in 100s. The show must go on, he says.

This is not in my hands. Even workers are abiding by the law and cooperating. Ultimately what they require is payment for their work, which we ensure from our end. Annaji says.



Surgical Strike in Sandalwood

It has been a surgical strike at the recently released films Santhu Straight Forward and Mukunda Murari. Distributor Jack Manju, who had taken up the distribution of the latter, says, My entire strategy has been affected. We were once happy, sure of a good business, but now we will end up with no profit or even a loss. From November 9, people have not spared a glance at theatres because they have their own problems to sort out at home. They have forgotten cinema. What has happened to the whole of country, has happened to us too. All said and done, for a better India, we have to face these difficulties. Of course, without a doubt, this has hit the movie business hard.

Tagaru Opts for Online and Weekly Payments

KP Srikanth, the producer of Suris directorial Tagaru, is all set to start shoot from November 18 and says that he has chalked out a plan. We have been issuing cheques to the concerned heads of various departments. We usually pay the production unit, costumes department, catering and so on daily wages but now we will pay them every week. We have asked the respective section heads to take care of people working under them. We cant change the law, but adapt to it. Of course, it will take at least four months for the industry to settle, but we welcome the decision, says Srikanth.

A still from Nataraja Service

Nataraja Service to AcceptRs 500 and Rs 1,000 Notes

The makers of Nataraja Service and Badmaash will test waters by releasing the film this week. Jack Manju, who is in consultation with the producer of Badmaash, has decided to release the movies in fewer screens (one-tenth the number as originally planned). On the other end, producer NS Rajkumar of Nataraja Service has decided to accept Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 rupee notes at theatres and they plan to do so till November 30. Producer Rajkumar says, This is a collective decision taken by the team in consultation with the distributor and exhibitor. He further adds, Our daily activities were not affected by the demonetisation. We have to abide by the new law and follow rules and regulations. We cant keep giving excuses and so Ive decided to take a big step with Nataraja Service.

Reality Check before Release

A few producers have decided to postpone release of their films, among them is John Jani Janardhan. The movie release was initially slated for November 11 and now it has been pushed to December 9. Makers of Naanu Mattu Varalakshmi and Pusphaka Vimana, who had planned to bring out the movies on November 25 and December 2 respectively, have decided to wait and watch. Director Preetham, says, The Prime Ministers decision has caused a lot of confusion. When we go out, we see long queues at banks but not a single person is at the theatres. Weve decided it is best to wait. Vikyath, one of the producers of Pushpaka Vimana, says that they should give people time to get their lives in order. We cant think only about our film, it is a matter of peoples daily lives and we cant expect them at theatres. We will wait for a week, see how people cope and then decide on our next step.

Industry View

Modis impact on Sandalwood will be that every spend on filmmaking will now be accounted for and only hard work will pay. Whether it is viable for big-budget films on not, this move is good because it will temper the quality and quantity of movies being made.

When the whole of India is still trying to cope with the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, Sandalwood is Modi-fying its style of functioning. There are a few who are grumbling under their breath about this insensitive move. But, on the whole, the Kannada filmdom has welcomed the Prime Ministers decision and is slowly working with and around it. City Express spoke to producers, distributors and directors to know how they are keeping their schedule. Chakravarthy Keeps its Stride The ban has not stopped some producers. Chakravarthy starring Darshan is in the last leg of its shoot in Mysuru and producer Annaji Nagaraj has set a revised plan. Those who have ID proofs from the union are taking the old notes and getting them exchanged at the banks, he says, and we are issuing cheques to those who have a bank account. For those without any documents, we ensure that they get the daily bata, which are mostly in 100s. The show must go on, he says. This is not in my hands. Even workers are abiding by the law and cooperating. Ultimately what they require is payment for their work, which we ensure from our end. Annaji says. Surgical Strike in Sandalwood It has been a surgical strike at the recently released films Santhu Straight Forward and Mukunda Murari. Distributor Jack Manju, who had taken up the distribution of the latter, says, My entire strategy has been affected. We were once happy, sure of a good business, but now we will end up with no profit or even a loss. From November 9, people have not spared a glance at theatres because they have their own problems to sort out at home. They have forgotten cinema. What has happened to the whole of country, has happened to us too. All said and done, for a better India, we have to face these difficulties. Of course, without a doubt, this has hit the movie business hard. Tagaru Opts for Online and Weekly Payments KP Srikanth, the producer of Suris directorial Tagaru, is all set to start shoot from November 18 and says that he has chalked out a plan. We have been issuing cheques to the concerned heads of various departments. We usually pay the production unit, costumes department, catering and so on daily wages but now we will pay them every week. We have asked the respective section heads to take care of people working under them. We cant change the law, but adapt to it. Of course, it will take at least four months for the industry to settle, but we welcome the decision, says Srikanth. A still from Nataraja ServiceNataraja Service to AcceptRs 500 and Rs 1,000 Notes The makers of Nataraja Service and Badmaash will test waters by releasing the film this week. Jack Manju, who is in consultation with the producer of Badmaash, has decided to release the movies in fewer screens (one-tenth the number as originally planned). On the other end, producer NS Rajkumar of Nataraja Service has decided to accept Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 rupee notes at theatres and they plan to do so till November 30. Producer Rajkumar says, This is a collective decision taken by the team in consultation with the distributor and exhibitor. He further adds, Our daily activities were not affected by the demonetisation. We have to abide by the new law and follow rules and regulations. We cant keep giving excuses and so Ive decided to take a big step with Nataraja Service. Reality Check before Release A few producers have decided to postpone release of their films, among them is John Jani Janardhan. The movie release was initially slated for November 11 and now it has been pushed to December 9. Makers of Naanu Mattu Varalakshmi and Pusphaka Vimana, who had planned to bring out the movies on November 25 and December 2 respectively, have decided to wait and watch. Director Preetham, says, The Prime Ministers decision has caused a lot of confusion. When we go out, we see long queues at banks but not a single person is at the theatres. Weve decided it is best to wait. Vikyath, one of the producers of Pushpaka Vimana, says that they should give people time to get their lives in order. We cant think only about our film, it is a matter of peoples daily lives and we cant expect them at theatres. We will wait for a week, see how people cope and then decide on our next step. Industry View Modis impact on Sandalwood will be that every spend on filmmaking will now be accounted for and only hard work will pay. Whether it is viable for big-budget films on not, this move is good because it will temper the quality and quantity of movies being made.
Fayaz Wani By

Express News Service

Srinagar, Nov 15: Amid continued ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops along the Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir, Army chief General Dalbir Singh on Tuesday reviewed the security along the borders and asked the soldiers to be aggressive in their approach.

General Dalbir Singh visited headquarters of armys Northern Command at Udhampur in Jammu today to review operational preparedness of troops.

Army chief interacted with the formation commanders and reviewed the situation along the LoC in the Command theater. He also reviewed the internal security situation in the State especially in the Valley, which has been witnessing unrest since last more than four months, an army official said.

The army chiefs visit to Northern command comes amid surge in ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops and killing of seven Pakistani soldiers in army firing in Bhimber Gali, Nowshera sector in Rajouri two days back.

After the surgical strikes on militant launch pads across LoC by the army in September, Pakistani troops have been on daily basis breaching border ceasefire and firing and shelling on army positions and civilian areas.

The army chief commended the soldiers for boldly responding to ceasefire violations along the LoC.

He exhorted the troops to be alert against any enemy inimical designs and be aggressive in their approach.

The army chief also lauded the synergy and cooperation between the Northern Command, Air Force, paramilitary forces and civil administration operating in the region, army official said.

The Pakistani troops, meanwhile, breached the border ceasefire along the LoC today.

"There was unprovoked ceasefire violation by Pakistan Army in Sunderbani sector of Rajouri district from 7.10 am, defence spokesman in Jammu Lt Col Manish Mehta said.

He said Pakistani troops fired from automatic weapons and used mortar shells to target the army positions.

Our men gave a befitting reply to them. The firing and shelling stopped at 11 am, Mehta said.

Another army official said Pakistani troops also breached border ceasefire in Pallanwala sector of Jammu district and fired on army posts over night.

Our men effectively returned the fire, he said.

Sources said residents of at least a dozen villages in Pallanwala sector migrated to safer areas after the Pakistani forces firing and shelling.

They have taken refuge in camps set up by the government for the evacuated border residents, they said.

Srinagar, Nov 15: Amid continued ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops along the Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir, Army chief General Dalbir Singh on Tuesday reviewed the security along the borders and asked the soldiers to be aggressive in their approach. General Dalbir Singh visited headquarters of armys Northern Command at Udhampur in Jammu today to review operational preparedness of troops. Army chief interacted with the formation commanders and reviewed the situation along the LoC in the Command theater. He also reviewed the internal security situation in the State especially in the Valley, which has been witnessing unrest since last more than four months, an army official said. The army chiefs visit to Northern command comes amid surge in ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops and killing of seven Pakistani soldiers in army firing in Bhimber Gali, Nowshera sector in Rajouri two days back. After the surgical strikes on militant launch pads across LoC by the army in September, Pakistani troops have been on daily basis breaching border ceasefire and firing and shelling on army positions and civilian areas. The army chief commended the soldiers for boldly responding to ceasefire violations along the LoC. He exhorted the troops to be alert against any enemy inimical designs and be aggressive in their approach. The army chief also lauded the synergy and cooperation between the Northern Command, Air Force, paramilitary forces and civil administration operating in the region, army official said. The Pakistani troops, meanwhile, breached the border ceasefire along the LoC today. "There was unprovoked ceasefire violation by Pakistan Army in Sunderbani sector of Rajouri district from 7.10 am, defence spokesman in Jammu Lt Col Manish Mehta said. He said Pakistani troops fired from automatic weapons and used mortar shells to target the army positions. Our men gave a befitting reply to them. The firing and shelling stopped at 11 am, Mehta said. Another army official said Pakistani troops also breached border ceasefire in Pallanwala sector of Jammu district and fired on army posts over night. Our men effectively returned the fire, he said. Sources said residents of at least a dozen villages in Pallanwala sector migrated to safer areas after the Pakistani forces firing and shelling. They have taken refuge in camps set up by the government for the evacuated border residents, they said.
Prasanta Mazumdar By

Express News Service

MECHUKA (Arunachal Pradesh): This is a town of 13,000 people and just seven policemen on the border with Tibet. It's a heavily-militarised garrison, which boasts of Indias latest advanced landing ground (ALG) at an altitude of 6,200 feet. As you might expect, they people are fiercely patriotic.

But unlike in other parts of India, it's not a town that's too keen on a boycott of Chinese goods. For the biggest poroblem for the people of Mechuka is the monthly trip to the grocer. For they have to travel eight hours to get their essentials from Aalo, the HQ of West Siang district. Given a choice, they would cross the border to buy their supplies in Tibet rather than trudge to their district headquarters.

As the crow flies, Mechuka is 29 km from the Tibetan border and 50 km by road from the Lola Pass. In contrast, Aalo is 186 km away. There's just one road to Aalo and it is as good as nonexistent. Ironically, it was built only a decade ago. Travelling to Aalo is not only taxing, it also entails transport expenditure of Rs 1000 per person.

So it's no wonder that the people of Mechuka, more than 30 per cent of whom are Buddhists and have historic ties with Tibet, would rather shop closer home than go to Aalo.

In Mechuka itself, not too many local people can afford to buy the few goods available in the town market. Traders mark up the prices steeply to factor in the cost of transport.

K L Mosing, Mechuka's panchayat member and the secretary of the Mechuka Bazaar Committee, says, Before 1947, we had easy access to Tibet. Our people used to go there to buy and sell goods. Their people also used to come here for trade. Those days, the nearest Tibetan town, Gaja, was four-five days walk for our parents and elders. When India attained Independence, it brought an end to border trade here, he says.

The need for closer ties is not only trade related but cultural too. People of several tribes such as the Menpa, Monpa, Khampa, Yuba and Kempa have relations across the border.

Kesang Goiba, president of the village chieftains committee, has been lobbying for resumption of border trade and feels that India would benefit from it. "There is tremendous demand in Tibet for our liquor, sugar, bidis, he says.

In the days before Tibet's annexation by China, there used to be a thriving barter trade here, predominantly Indian sugar for Tibetan rock salt. To this day, Tibetans are often caught for straying across the border in search of Yarje Gomu, a prized insect that is believed to have medicinal properties. Soup made from it is drunk for strength and youth.

Resumption of border trade would not only help us to buy goods at cheaper rates, it would also give us an opportunity to meet our relatives, said Koje Maling, a local BJP leader.

As per the 2011 census, Mechuka has a population of 13,310 of which some 5,000 are Buddhists. The rest are people belonging to the indigenous Donyi Polo faith and Christians. The Mechuka sub-division has just one primary health centre, one higher secondary school, four upper primary schools, four private schools (teaching up to class VIII) and no college. The nearest college is at Aalo.



MECHUKA (Arunachal Pradesh): This is a town of 13,000 people and just seven policemen on the border with Tibet. It's a heavily-militarised garrison, which boasts of Indias latest advanced landing ground (ALG) at an altitude of 6,200 feet. As you might expect, they people are fiercely patriotic. But unlike in other parts of India, it's not a town that's too keen on a boycott of Chinese goods. For the biggest poroblem for the people of Mechuka is the monthly trip to the grocer. For they have to travel eight hours to get their essentials from Aalo, the HQ of West Siang district. Given a choice, they would cross the border to buy their supplies in Tibet rather than trudge to their district headquarters. As the crow flies, Mechuka is 29 km from the Tibetan border and 50 km by road from the Lola Pass. In contrast, Aalo is 186 km away. There's just one road to Aalo and it is as good as nonexistent. Ironically, it was built only a decade ago. Travelling to Aalo is not only taxing, it also entails transport expenditure of Rs 1000 per person. So it's no wonder that the people of Mechuka, more than 30 per cent of whom are Buddhists and have historic ties with Tibet, would rather shop closer home than go to Aalo. In Mechuka itself, not too many local people can afford to buy the few goods available in the town market. Traders mark up the prices steeply to factor in the cost of transport. K L Mosing, Mechuka's panchayat member and the secretary of the Mechuka Bazaar Committee, says, Before 1947, we had easy access to Tibet. Our people used to go there to buy and sell goods. Their people also used to come here for trade. Those days, the nearest Tibetan town, Gaja, was four-five days walk for our parents and elders. When India attained Independence, it brought an end to border trade here, he says. The need for closer ties is not only trade related but cultural too. People of several tribes such as the Menpa, Monpa, Khampa, Yuba and Kempa have relations across the border. Kesang Goiba, president of the village chieftains committee, has been lobbying for resumption of border trade and feels that India would benefit from it. "There is tremendous demand in Tibet for our liquor, sugar, bidis, he says. In the days before Tibet's annexation by China, there used to be a thriving barter trade here, predominantly Indian sugar for Tibetan rock salt. To this day, Tibetans are often caught for straying across the border in search of Yarje Gomu, a prized insect that is believed to have medicinal properties. Soup made from it is drunk for strength and youth. Resumption of border trade would not only help us to buy goods at cheaper rates, it would also give us an opportunity to meet our relatives, said Koje Maling, a local BJP leader. As per the 2011 census, Mechuka has a population of 13,310 of which some 5,000 are Buddhists. The rest are people belonging to the indigenous Donyi Polo faith and Christians. The Mechuka sub-division has just one primary health centre, one higher secondary school, four upper primary schools, four private schools (teaching up to class VIII) and no college. The nearest college is at Aalo.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Tuesday banned Mumbai-based NGO Islamic Research Foundation promoted by controversial Salafist preacher Zakir Naik for five years under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.



The Government has declared the NGO as an unlawful organisation under the UAPA. The move comes after reports from various agencies confirmed that Naik and his NGO IRF was involved in terror activities, communal activities and radicalisation through propaganda.



The Cabinet Committee on Security on Tuesday approved a Union Home Ministry proposal to declare IRF as an 'unlawful association' under the UAPA for five years. The Government will soon formally notify the CCS decision to the effect, Union Home Ministry sources said.



The decision comes in the wake of reports by Central as well as State agencies revealing dubious links between IRF and Peace TV, an Islamic channel promoted by Naik and linked to terror propaganda, the sources said.



Reports with the Union Home Ministry point out that Naik, who heads the IRF, has allegedly made provocative speeches on many occasions through Peace TV.



Besides adverse reports by the Central Intelligence agencies, Maharashtra Police has also registered criminal cases against Naik for his alleged involvement in radicalisation of youths and luring them into terror activities. Maharashtra Government had also requested the Centre to ban the outfit.



Naik is also accused of subverting IRF funds for production of objectionable programmes for Peace TV that has reportedly been engaged in preaching hard line Salafist form of Islam and luring youths into its insidious agenda.



The Government had already put IRF Educational Trust under the prior permission category implying that the outfit will have to seek Government vetting before receiving foreign funds.



Centres crackdown against Naik and his outfits began soon after the preachers radicalisation role emerged in Dhaka terror attack earlier this year.



United Kingdom, Canada and Malaysia have in the past banned Naik for his hate speeches.

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Tuesday banned Mumbai-based NGO Islamic Research Foundation promoted by controversial Salafist preacher Zakir Naik for five years under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. The Government has declared the NGO as an unlawful organisation under the UAPA. The move comes after reports from various agencies confirmed that Naik and his NGO IRF was involved in terror activities, communal activities and radicalisation through propaganda. The Cabinet Committee on Security on Tuesday approved a Union Home Ministry proposal to declare IRF as an 'unlawful association' under the UAPA for five years. The Government will soon formally notify the CCS decision to the effect, Union Home Ministry sources said. The decision comes in the wake of reports by Central as well as State agencies revealing dubious links between IRF and Peace TV, an Islamic channel promoted by Naik and linked to terror propaganda, the sources said. Reports with the Union Home Ministry point out that Naik, who heads the IRF, has allegedly made provocative speeches on many occasions through Peace TV. Besides adverse reports by the Central Intelligence agencies, Maharashtra Police has also registered criminal cases against Naik for his alleged involvement in radicalisation of youths and luring them into terror activities. Maharashtra Government had also requested the Centre to ban the outfit. Naik is also accused of subverting IRF funds for production of objectionable programmes for Peace TV that has reportedly been engaged in preaching hard line Salafist form of Islam and luring youths into its insidious agenda. The Government had already put IRF Educational Trust under the prior permission category implying that the outfit will have to seek Government vetting before receiving foreign funds. Centres crackdown against Naik and his outfits began soon after the preachers radicalisation role emerged in Dhaka terror attack earlier this year. United Kingdom, Canada and Malaysia have in the past banned Naik for his hate speeches.
Aishik Chanda By

Express News Service

KOLKATA: It's not only the Prime Minister who is tugging at the heart strings of the millions lining up outside banks and ATMs. In West Bengal, the CPM and Trinamool Congress have both launched PR offensives in Bengal by setting up help desks to assist unlettered people in depositing or withdrawing money from banks besides plying them with drinking water.

Many of these people do not understand the complexities of the bank forms. Our help desks are assisting such people. We were ordered to set up help desks by Mamata Banerjee on Monday, said Trinamool Congress Kharagpur unit chief Babla Sengupta.

Apart from assisting the people in filling the forms, the CPM is also making seating arrangements for the elderly people waiting in the queues.

KOLKATA: It's not only the Prime Minister who is tugging at the heart strings of the millions lining up outside banks and ATMs. In West Bengal, the CPM and Trinamool Congress have both launched PR offensives in Bengal by setting up help desks to assist unlettered people in depositing or withdrawing money from banks besides plying them with drinking water. Many of these people do not understand the complexities of the bank forms. Our help desks are assisting such people. We were ordered to set up help desks by Mamata Banerjee on Monday, said Trinamool Congress Kharagpur unit chief Babla Sengupta. Apart from assisting the people in filling the forms, the CPM is also making seating arrangements for the elderly people waiting in the queues.
By ANI

NEW DELHI: Noting that failure to act and silence of speech only encourages the terrorists, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said Israel and India have agreed to intensify their cooperation to combat the forces of extremism and radicalisation that threaten all peace-loving nations.

Addressing a joint press conference with Israel President Reuven Rivlin after bilateral talks, Prime Minister Modi said, We recognise that terrorism is a global challenge, knows no boundaries and has extensive links with other forms of organised crime.

Regrettably, one of the countries of its origin and spread is in India's neighbourhood, said the Prime Minister in an indirect reference to Pakistan.

Stating that President Rivlin and he deeply value their strong and growing partnership to secure their societies, Prime Minister Modi observed, Our people are constantly threatened by forces of terrorism and extremism. We agreed that the international community must act with resolve and determination against terror networks and States that harbour them. Failure to act and silence of speech only encourages the terrorists. We agreed to intensify our cooperation to combat the forces of extremism and radicalisation that threaten all peace-loving nations.

Hailing Indias defence partnership with Israel, the Prime Minister said, We noted the strength of our growing defence partnership and agreed on the need to make it more broad-based in production and manufacturing.

Prime Minister Modi also expressed Indias gratefulness to Israel for its clear support to Indias permanent candidature in a reformed the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

We have identified water management and conservation, and collaboration in scientific research and development as two areas of priority engagement, whereas our economic initiatives and emphasis on innovation, research and technological development match well with Israels strengths and capacities, said the Prime Minister.

Speaking on the various aspects of India-Israel cooperation, he said, Our engagement is multi-dimensional and wide-ranging such as enhancing agricultural productivity and efficiency; boosting research and innovation linkages; employing applications of science and technology for the benefit of our societies; forging strong trade links and investment ties; building defence ties to secure our people; enhancing people to people ties through greater cultural and tourism linkages; and promoting educational exchanges. The growing number of Indian students going to study in Israel and vice versa can be an important bridge in our bilateral partnership.

Noting that President Rivlins visit provides an opportunity to break new ground and shape new contours of our partnership, the Prime Minister said, Excellency, your visit will provide crucial push to build new pillars in our partnership. The 2000-year old Jewish community in India represents a thriving link to this past, a vital part of our composite cultural mosaic. As we approach the 25-year milestone in establishment of diplomatic relations, we are committed to advance our engagement on several fronts.

Responding to Prime Minister Modis statement, President Rivlin affirmed support to India on countering terrorism, while saying, Terror is terror is terror is terror.

President Rivlin, who is on an eight-day official visit to India, said, Israel is ready to answer the PMs call; we are ready to Make in India and Make with India.

Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari will call on President Rivlin at 4 p.m. at Hotel Taj Palace, while the visiting President will call on his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhawan 7.30 p.m., which will be followed by a banquet hosted by President Mukherjee at 8 p.m.

Later, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will call on the visiting dignitary.

President Rivlin will be visiting the Taj Mahal at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, followed by a visit to Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam Water Treatment Plant at Sikandra at 12 in the noon.

He will return here at 3.45 p.m.

President Rivlin, who is visiting India on an invitation of President Mukherjee, is expected to meet business leaders of both India and Israel. He will also be visiting Centre of Excellence in agriculture in Karnal and will participate in Agro Tech  2016 on Thursday.

NEW DELHI: Noting that failure to act and silence of speech only encourages the terrorists, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said Israel and India have agreed to intensify their cooperation to combat the forces of extremism and radicalisation that threaten all peace-loving nations. Addressing a joint press conference with Israel President Reuven Rivlin after bilateral talks, Prime Minister Modi said, We recognise that terrorism is a global challenge, knows no boundaries and has extensive links with other forms of organised crime. Regrettably, one of the countries of its origin and spread is in India's neighbourhood, said the Prime Minister in an indirect reference to Pakistan. Stating that President Rivlin and he deeply value their strong and growing partnership to secure their societies, Prime Minister Modi observed, Our people are constantly threatened by forces of terrorism and extremism. We agreed that the international community must act with resolve and determination against terror networks and States that harbour them. Failure to act and silence of speech only encourages the terrorists. We agreed to intensify our cooperation to combat the forces of extremism and radicalisation that threaten all peace-loving nations. Hailing Indias defence partnership with Israel, the Prime Minister said, We noted the strength of our growing defence partnership and agreed on the need to make it more broad-based in production and manufacturing. Prime Minister Modi also expressed Indias gratefulness to Israel for its clear support to Indias permanent candidature in a reformed the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). We have identified water management and conservation, and collaboration in scientific research and development as two areas of priority engagement, whereas our economic initiatives and emphasis on innovation, research and technological development match well with Israels strengths and capacities, said the Prime Minister. Speaking on the various aspects of India-Israel cooperation, he said, Our engagement is multi-dimensional and wide-ranging such as enhancing agricultural productivity and efficiency; boosting research and innovation linkages; employing applications of science and technology for the benefit of our societies; forging strong trade links and investment ties; building defence ties to secure our people; enhancing people to people ties through greater cultural and tourism linkages; and promoting educational exchanges. The growing number of Indian students going to study in Israel and vice versa can be an important bridge in our bilateral partnership. Noting that President Rivlins visit provides an opportunity to break new ground and shape new contours of our partnership, the Prime Minister said, Excellency, your visit will provide crucial push to build new pillars in our partnership. The 2000-year old Jewish community in India represents a thriving link to this past, a vital part of our composite cultural mosaic. As we approach the 25-year milestone in establishment of diplomatic relations, we are committed to advance our engagement on several fronts. Responding to Prime Minister Modis statement, President Rivlin affirmed support to India on countering terrorism, while saying, Terror is terror is terror is terror. President Rivlin, who is on an eight-day official visit to India, said, Israel is ready to answer the PMs call; we are ready to Make in India and Make with India. Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari will call on President Rivlin at 4 p.m. at Hotel Taj Palace, while the visiting President will call on his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhawan 7.30 p.m., which will be followed by a banquet hosted by President Mukherjee at 8 p.m. Later, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will call on the visiting dignitary. President Rivlin will be visiting the Taj Mahal at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, followed by a visit to Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam Water Treatment Plant at Sikandra at 12 in the noon. He will return here at 3.45 p.m. President Rivlin, who is visiting India on an invitation of President Mukherjee, is expected to meet business leaders of both India and Israel. He will also be visiting Centre of Excellence in agriculture in Karnal and will participate in Agro Tech  2016 on Thursday.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: India courts Israel openly as both countries on Tuesday vowed to combat terrorism together. President Reuven Rivli, the first Israeli President to visit India in two decades, renewed Tel Avivs invite to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit the Jewish country.

Prime Minister Modi held delegation-level talks with the visiting Israeli President at the Hyderabad house here. Both the countries recognised the need to secure their countries from forces of terrorism and extremism.

We recognize that terrorism is a global challenge, knows no boundaries and has extensive links with other forms of organized crime. Regrettably, one of the countries of its origin and spread is in Indias neighbourhood, Modi said during a joint media event with the visitng President in the obvious reference to Pakistan. The two countries will specifically be cooperating in the cyber domain.

We agreed that the international community must act with resolve and determination against terror networks and States that harbour them. Failure to act and silence of speech only encourages the terrorists, he said.

President Rivlin also echoed Prime Minister Modis concern saying: Nothing can justify terrorism. We stand together in defending our people and our values. Terror is terror is terror is terror. The Israeli President on his first visit to India had on Monday paid homage to the six Jews who lost their lives in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack done by armed terrorist from Pakistan. Interestingly, Pakistan  trying to project itself as the leader of the Islamic countries  has refused to recognise Israel. A Pakistani Passport has clear inscription, This passport is valid for all countries of the world except Israel.

President Rivlin is on a six-day visit to the country and was particularly upbeat about the opportunities of Make In India and Make With India. The President also renewed the invitation for Prime Minister Modi to visit his country. It will be our privilege to welcome you at Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, President Rivlin said.

Last year, Narendra Modi-led government had indicated that it will be steering its foreign policy in the Middle East from neutrality towards courting Israel more openly as it showed interest that he will soon become the first Indian Prime Minister ever to visit the Jewish nation state. This was a major departure from Indias careful balancing that included an in-principle stand that supported statehood to Palestine and at the same time extended a hand of friendship with Tel Aviv.

The two countries have important bilateral ties but India despite being the biggest buyer of Israeli military hardware has been shy of flaunting it overtly so far. Prime Minister Modi following a masculine Foreign Policy intends to change it.

The two countries seeking to broad base their relationship also signed agreements in the field of water management and agriculture as well. President Rivlin will be visiting a Power station in Agra and an agriculture innovation centre in Karnal during his six-day visit.

NEW DELHI: India courts Israel openly as both countries on Tuesday vowed to combat terrorism together. President Reuven Rivli, the first Israeli President to visit India in two decades, renewed Tel Avivs invite to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit the Jewish country. Prime Minister Modi held delegation-level talks with the visiting Israeli President at the Hyderabad house here. Both the countries recognised the need to secure their countries from forces of terrorism and extremism. We recognize that terrorism is a global challenge, knows no boundaries and has extensive links with other forms of organized crime. Regrettably, one of the countries of its origin and spread is in Indias neighbourhood, Modi said during a joint media event with the visitng President in the obvious reference to Pakistan. The two countries will specifically be cooperating in the cyber domain. We agreed that the international community must act with resolve and determination against terror networks and States that harbour them. Failure to act and silence of speech only encourages the terrorists, he said. President Rivlin also echoed Prime Minister Modis concern saying: Nothing can justify terrorism. We stand together in defending our people and our values. Terror is terror is terror is terror. The Israeli President on his first visit to India had on Monday paid homage to the six Jews who lost their lives in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack done by armed terrorist from Pakistan. Interestingly, Pakistan  trying to project itself as the leader of the Islamic countries  has refused to recognise Israel. A Pakistani Passport has clear inscription, This passport is valid for all countries of the world except Israel. President Rivlin is on a six-day visit to the country and was particularly upbeat about the opportunities of Make In India and Make With India. The President also renewed the invitation for Prime Minister Modi to visit his country. It will be our privilege to welcome you at Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, President Rivlin said. Last year, Narendra Modi-led government had indicated that it will be steering its foreign policy in the Middle East from neutrality towards courting Israel more openly as it showed interest that he will soon become the first Indian Prime Minister ever to visit the Jewish nation state. This was a major departure from Indias careful balancing that included an in-principle stand that supported statehood to Palestine and at the same time extended a hand of friendship with Tel Aviv. The two countries have important bilateral ties but India despite being the biggest buyer of Israeli military hardware has been shy of flaunting it overtly so far. Prime Minister Modi following a masculine Foreign Policy intends to change it. The two countries seeking to broad base their relationship also signed agreements in the field of water management and agriculture as well. President Rivlin will be visiting a Power station in Agra and an agriculture innovation centre in Karnal during his six-day visit.
Santwana Bhattacharya By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: With the Prime Minister ruling out a roll-back of the demonetisation and warning against a misinformation campaign, the Opposition, cutting across partylines, has joined hands to take on the government in the winter session of Parliament. The business of the treasury could be the collateral damage, at least on the first few days of the session.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a rally in

Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh on Monday. Assembly

elections in UP are scheduled to be held in 2017 | PTI



With the temperatures rising along with the banking queues, even arch rivals of Bengal politics, CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury and TMC MPs Derek OBrien and Sudip Bandyopadhyay, decided to bury their hatchet, temporarily.

At the joint strategy meeting that took place at Ghulam Nabi Azads parliamentary chamber, the bitter foes of Bengal politics shook hands. The Opposition leaders of the Rajya Sabha, Anand Sharma of the Congress and OBrien of the TMC, have given notices for taking up a discussion on the plight of the common man/woman, the unorganised sector and the farmers due to the demonetisation drive, ostensibly undertaken to root out black money.



CPI leader D Raja following the meeting said that the Left Parties had no issues coordinating with TMC. She (Mamata Banerjee) has expressed her concern about the suffering of the common people, the poor because of the governments sudden move, the Left has also done the same. Sharma, however, said that the opposition coordination would not be limited to just demonetisation but a host of other issues in both the Houses.

NEW DELHI: With the Prime Minister ruling out a roll-back of the demonetisation and warning against a misinformation campaign, the Opposition, cutting across partylines, has joined hands to take on the government in the winter session of Parliament. The business of the treasury could be the collateral damage, at least on the first few days of the session. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a rally in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh on Monday. Assembly elections in UP are scheduled to be held in 2017 | PTI With the temperatures rising along with the banking queues, even arch rivals of Bengal politics, CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury and TMC MPs Derek OBrien and Sudip Bandyopadhyay, decided to bury their hatchet, temporarily. At the joint strategy meeting that took place at Ghulam Nabi Azads parliamentary chamber, the bitter foes of Bengal politics shook hands. The Opposition leaders of the Rajya Sabha, Anand Sharma of the Congress and OBrien of the TMC, have given notices for taking up a discussion on the plight of the common man/woman, the unorganised sector and the farmers due to the demonetisation drive, ostensibly undertaken to root out black money. CPI leader D Raja following the meeting said that the Left Parties had no issues coordinating with TMC. She (Mamata Banerjee) has expressed her concern about the suffering of the common people, the poor because of the governments sudden move, the Left has also done the same. Sharma, however, said that the opposition coordination would not be limited to just demonetisation but a host of other issues in both the Houses.
By PTI

MUMBAI: Former media baron Peter Mukerjea's lawyer today told the Bombay High Court that his client never objected to the relations between his son Rahul and Sheena Bora, his wife Indrani's daughter from earlier relationship.



Only Indrani, the main accused in Sheena murder case, was opposed to this relationship, said advocate Aabad Ponda, seeking bail for Peter.



Arguing before Justice N W Sambre, Ponda said Peter was not aware of any conspiracy allegedly hatched by Indrani, her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna and her driver Shyamwar Rai to kill Sheena.



Peter, arrested by CBI in the case last November, has moved the HC for bail after the sessions court rejected his plea.



CBI has contended that Peter, with Indrani and Sanjeev Khanna, entered into a criminal conspiracy to kill Sheena as they were opposed to her relationship with Peter's son Rahul.



"Peter was not against Rahul and Sheena's relationship. Indrani was against the relationhip and in fact Peter and Indrani had frequent quarrels over this. Peter was only against Rahul and Sheena living together without getting married and with no job. Peter objected only to them living together in 2007 and he separated them," Ponda argued.



He claimed that when Peter came to know in 2011 that Rahul and Sheena had got engaged, he sent an SMS to his son from his driver's phone congratulating him and giving them his blessings.



"He did not have any hatred towards Sheena. The only fault of Peter was that he obeyed everything Indrani told him which is why he is in jail now. When Indrani told Peter to stop talking to Rahul he agreed. But he was not aware of what conspiracy Indrani was hatching," Ponda said.



Citing confessional statement of the driver Rai, Ponda said, "The statement clearly says Indrani wanted to kill both Sheena and Mikhail Bora as they were both threatening to reveal to everyone that they were her children and not siblings as she had claimed and they demanded money from her."

Ponda claimed that Rai's statement showed that Indrani wanted to murder Sheena and Mikhail for property and other reasons, and not because of Sheena's relations with Rahul.

Justice Sambre will continue to hear the bail plea tomorrow. Meanwhile, another judge of the high court today directed CBI to file its reply to a petition filed by Peter seeking copy of the statement of an unnamed witness which is part of the supplementary charge sheet.

Justice Revati Mohite-Dere sought to know from CBI why it was not ready to share the statement with the accused, and posted the petition for arguments on November 17. The court said pending hearing of this petition, the agency shall not proceed with arguments on framing of charges against the accused before the trial court.

The special CBI court today extended the judicial custody of the three accused -- Peter, Indrani and Sanjeev -- till November 29. According to the prosecution, Sheena was murdered on April 24, 2012, but the crime came to light after the arrest of Rai in another case in August 2015.

MUMBAI: Former media baron Peter Mukerjea's lawyer today told the Bombay High Court that his client never objected to the relations between his son Rahul and Sheena Bora, his wife Indrani's daughter from earlier relationship. Only Indrani, the main accused in Sheena murder case, was opposed to this relationship, said advocate Aabad Ponda, seeking bail for Peter. Arguing before Justice N W Sambre, Ponda said Peter was not aware of any conspiracy allegedly hatched by Indrani, her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna and her driver Shyamwar Rai to kill Sheena. Peter, arrested by CBI in the case last November, has moved the HC for bail after the sessions court rejected his plea. CBI has contended that Peter, with Indrani and Sanjeev Khanna, entered into a criminal conspiracy to kill Sheena as they were opposed to her relationship with Peter's son Rahul. "Peter was not against Rahul and Sheena's relationship. Indrani was against the relationhip and in fact Peter and Indrani had frequent quarrels over this. Peter was only against Rahul and Sheena living together without getting married and with no job. Peter objected only to them living together in 2007 and he separated them," Ponda argued. He claimed that when Peter came to know in 2011 that Rahul and Sheena had got engaged, he sent an SMS to his son from his driver's phone congratulating him and giving them his blessings. "He did not have any hatred towards Sheena. The only fault of Peter was that he obeyed everything Indrani told him which is why he is in jail now. When Indrani told Peter to stop talking to Rahul he agreed. But he was not aware of what conspiracy Indrani was hatching," Ponda said. Citing confessional statement of the driver Rai, Ponda said, "The statement clearly says Indrani wanted to kill both Sheena and Mikhail Bora as they were both threatening to reveal to everyone that they were her children and not siblings as she had claimed and they demanded money from her." Ponda claimed that Rai's statement showed that Indrani wanted to murder Sheena and Mikhail for property and other reasons, and not because of Sheena's relations with Rahul. Justice Sambre will continue to hear the bail plea tomorrow. Meanwhile, another judge of the high court today directed CBI to file its reply to a petition filed by Peter seeking copy of the statement of an unnamed witness which is part of the supplementary charge sheet. Justice Revati Mohite-Dere sought to know from CBI why it was not ready to share the statement with the accused, and posted the petition for arguments on November 17. The court said pending hearing of this petition, the agency shall not proceed with arguments on framing of charges against the accused before the trial court. The special CBI court today extended the judicial custody of the three accused -- Peter, Indrani and Sanjeev -- till November 29. According to the prosecution, Sheena was murdered on April 24, 2012, but the crime came to light after the arrest of Rai in another case in August 2015.
Gautam Raychaudhuri By

Donald Trumps unimaginable victory in the US presidential election has plunged millions into a state of fear  fear about the uncertainty about their lives during the next four years of the Trump presidency. It would be irrational to expect Americans under threat to put their fears aside. Fear in the face of perceived impending doom is a rational response. The memory of Trumps hateful rhetoric, his vitriolic campaign, the promised actions that he would take against certain groups if he were to win are still fresh in peoples mind. This was the most bitter and divisive US presidential election. It has fractured the country.

In the past seventeen months leading to the election on November 8, then contender Trump, one rhetoric at a time, sowed the seeds of fear. People against whom he was making these comments took him seriously and literally but hoped, based on the polls and his highly offensive comments about women, immigrants, African-Americans, LGBTQ, Muslims, that a Trump presidency was not going to be a reality. But he has won the presidency.

After Brexit, reports of hate crimes against immigrants in Britain increased by as much as 57%. In post-election United States, people are apprehensive about Trumps next steps in carrying out the terrifying campaign promises and the role his victorious and emboldened supporters would assume.

In post-election US, groups targeted by him during his campaign are being subjected to the wrath of his supporters. Just days following Trumps election, there has been a spike in social media stories and news reports about violence and hate speeches by Trump followers.

A day after the election in Minnesota, a state Trump did not win, a locker-door of Minnesota high school with an 18% per cent non-white student population had profane, racist and anti-immigrant graffiti.

People of alternate sexuality also made the hate list. Left on the window of a car in North Carolina was a note saying "Can't wait until your 'marriage' is overturned by a real president. Gay families = burn in hell.

On November 10, 2016, New York Times reported, At San Jose State University in California, a Muslim woman complained that she had been grabbed by her hijab and choked.

Same issue of NYT, quoting campus black student organisations, reported that two male students of Babson College parked their Trump flag adorned pickup truck at Wellesley College in Massachusetts outside a meeting house for black students, and spat at a black female student.

What Trump realised from day one of his candidacy when he attacked the Mexicans by calling them criminals, drug dealers, and rapists and promised to build a wall along the US-Mexico border was that to sell a dream, he must exploit the fear of a nightmare.

Within hours of the election result, The Independent reported on November 11, a woman perceived to be Hispanic-American, wrote that an older white man threatened to sexually assault her and threw water over her hours after the election result.

During his campaign, Trump promised that he would deport 11 million illegal immigrants. On Sunday, on CBS channels 60-minutes program, Trump said his priority was to deport undocumented immigrants with a criminal record  which he estimated would include 2 to 3 million people. The source of these numbers is unknown. While immigrants should not have any problem regarding the deportation of criminal immigrants, they are fearful about being wrongly identified and deported. Mass deportation is still on the table. What would happen to the children under Obamas DREAM Act? Would they be targeted?

Starting with a call for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States, Trumps anti-Muslim campaign evolved but did not change much. He insulted a gold star family (family of a fallen soldier) because they are Muslim. Other than some murmurs from the GOP leadership, no reprimand came for candidate Trump.

Post-election actions by his supporters are symptomatic of the hatred they harbour against targeted groups. So far, he has not denounced such actions. The GOP leadership is apparently satisfied with his Stop it comment to his supporters.

Except for Trumps promise in his victory speech to bind the wounds of division and come together as one united people any difference between candidate Trump and President-elect Trump is still not clear.

The fear about Trump comes from his campaign promises, the people he is surrounding himself with, and his supporters.

Candidate Trump said there must be some kind of punishment for having an abortion. And as President-Elect, he has appointed as head of his transition team, VP-elect Mike Pence, someone who is notorious for his extreme views against abortion and womens reproductive rights. Pence signed a draconian anti-LGBT religious liberty bill into law in Indiana. Will the Trump government let the hard-fought womens rights and LGBT rights erode?

Ben Carson, who compared homosexuality to paedophilia and incest, is vice-chairman of the transition team along with Newt Gingrich, who, in the past, compared LGBTQ rights to gay fascism.

Steve Bannon, the alt-right Breitbart News Network executive chairman known for having white nationalist views was named chief strategist and senior counsellor to President-elect Donald Trump.

Fear percolating in any society is real, but it is filtered. Donald Trump ratcheted up that fear because he knew it would help him. He has keenly understood what social scientists have been saying for many years that fear unites people, that it makes them hold tight to what they are familiar to and grow disdain for the unfamiliar. In their common desire to be protected, they become united. But what he did not realise, and probably still doesnt, is that it works both ways. The fear about the uncertainty associated with his unhinged behaviour may also unite the other groups fearful of him.

His plainspeak, his folksy appeal and anti-establishment grandiloquence was a carefully crafted persona to sell a product  himself. It not only catapulted him to the highest office of the land, it also gave legitimacy to the voice of the hatemonger in his base. Before the election, the fear was what would Trumps emboldened supporters do after a Trump loss in an election he was calling rigged.

Now that he has won, the fear is if they would continue to spew hate against these groups.

A lot of people have laughed at me over the years, he said in a speech days before the New Hampshire primary. Now, theyre not laughing so much.

No members of the marginalised and targeted groups are laughing at Trump, they are scared. Is that how he wants to govern? Perhaps the more important question is: Will the Republican-controlled House and Senate go along with Trumps decisions that will widen the divide and allow this state of fear to continue?

(Based in Minnesota, US, Gautam Raychaudhuri is a social and political observer by night and a cubicle-dweller by day.)

Donald Trumps unimaginable victory in the US presidential election has plunged millions into a state of fear  fear about the uncertainty about their lives during the next four years of the Trump presidency. It would be irrational to expect Americans under threat to put their fears aside. Fear in the face of perceived impending doom is a rational response. The memory of Trumps hateful rhetoric, his vitriolic campaign, the promised actions that he would take against certain groups if he were to win are still fresh in peoples mind. This was the most bitter and divisive US presidential election. It has fractured the country. In the past seventeen months leading to the election on November 8, then contender Trump, one rhetoric at a time, sowed the seeds of fear. People against whom he was making these comments took him seriously and literally but hoped, based on the polls and his highly offensive comments about women, immigrants, African-Americans, LGBTQ, Muslims, that a Trump presidency was not going to be a reality. But he has won the presidency. After Brexit, reports of hate crimes against immigrants in Britain increased by as much as 57%. In post-election United States, people are apprehensive about Trumps next steps in carrying out the terrifying campaign promises and the role his victorious and emboldened supporters would assume. In post-election US, groups targeted by him during his campaign are being subjected to the wrath of his supporters. Just days following Trumps election, there has been a spike in social media stories and news reports about violence and hate speeches by Trump followers. A day after the election in Minnesota, a state Trump did not win, a locker-door of Minnesota high school with an 18% per cent non-white student population had profane, racist and anti-immigrant graffiti. People of alternate sexuality also made the hate list. Left on the window of a car in North Carolina was a note saying "Can't wait until your 'marriage' is overturned by a real president. Gay families = burn in hell. On November 10, 2016, New York Times reported, At San Jose State University in California, a Muslim woman complained that she had been grabbed by her hijab and choked. Same issue of NYT, quoting campus black student organisations, reported that two male students of Babson College parked their Trump flag adorned pickup truck at Wellesley College in Massachusetts outside a meeting house for black students, and spat at a black female student. What Trump realised from day one of his candidacy when he attacked the Mexicans by calling them criminals, drug dealers, and rapists and promised to build a wall along the US-Mexico border was that to sell a dream, he must exploit the fear of a nightmare. Within hours of the election result, The Independent reported on November 11, a woman perceived to be Hispanic-American, wrote that an older white man threatened to sexually assault her and threw water over her hours after the election result. During his campaign, Trump promised that he would deport 11 million illegal immigrants. On Sunday, on CBS channels 60-minutes program, Trump said his priority was to deport undocumented immigrants with a criminal record  which he estimated would include 2 to 3 million people. The source of these numbers is unknown. While immigrants should not have any problem regarding the deportation of criminal immigrants, they are fearful about being wrongly identified and deported. Mass deportation is still on the table. What would happen to the children under Obamas DREAM Act? Would they be targeted? Starting with a call for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States, Trumps anti-Muslim campaign evolved but did not change much. He insulted a gold star family (family of a fallen soldier) because they are Muslim. Other than some murmurs from the GOP leadership, no reprimand came for candidate Trump. Post-election actions by his supporters are symptomatic of the hatred they harbour against targeted groups. So far, he has not denounced such actions. The GOP leadership is apparently satisfied with his Stop it comment to his supporters. Except for Trumps promise in his victory speech to bind the wounds of division and come together as one united people any difference between candidate Trump and President-elect Trump is still not clear. The fear about Trump comes from his campaign promises, the people he is surrounding himself with, and his supporters. Candidate Trump said there must be some kind of punishment for having an abortion. And as President-Elect, he has appointed as head of his transition team, VP-elect Mike Pence, someone who is notorious for his extreme views against abortion and womens reproductive rights. Pence signed a draconian anti-LGBT religious liberty bill into law in Indiana. Will the Trump government let the hard-fought womens rights and LGBT rights erode? Ben Carson, who compared homosexuality to paedophilia and incest, is vice-chairman of the transition team along with Newt Gingrich, who, in the past, compared LGBTQ rights to gay fascism. Steve Bannon, the alt-right Breitbart News Network executive chairman known for having white nationalist views was named chief strategist and senior counsellor to President-elect Donald Trump. Fear percolating in any society is real, but it is filtered. Donald Trump ratcheted up that fear because he knew it would help him. He has keenly understood what social scientists have been saying for many years that fear unites people, that it makes them hold tight to what they are familiar to and grow disdain for the unfamiliar. In their common desire to be protected, they become united. But what he did not realise, and probably still doesnt, is that it works both ways. The fear about the uncertainty associated with his unhinged behaviour may also unite the other groups fearful of him. His plainspeak, his folksy appeal and anti-establishment grandiloquence was a carefully crafted persona to sell a product  himself. It not only catapulted him to the highest office of the land, it also gave legitimacy to the voice of the hatemonger in his base. Before the election, the fear was what would Trumps emboldened supporters do after a Trump loss in an election he was calling rigged. Now that he has won, the fear is if they would continue to spew hate against these groups. A lot of people have laughed at me over the years, he said in a speech days before the New Hampshire primary. Now, theyre not laughing so much. No members of the marginalised and targeted groups are laughing at Trump, they are scared. Is that how he wants to govern? Perhaps the more important question is: Will the Republican-controlled House and Senate go along with Trumps decisions that will widen the divide and allow this state of fear to continue? (Based in Minnesota, US, Gautam Raychaudhuri is a social and political observer by night and a cubicle-dweller by day.)
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Five new additional judges of Karnataka High Court assumed charge after being sworn in at a ceremony held at the High Court on Monday. They are Kempaiah Somashekar, Kotravva Somappa Mudagal, Sreenivas Harish Kumar, John Michael Cunha and Basavaraj Andanagouda Patil. All five were elevated from district judges category.

Chief Justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee administered the oath to them. CM Jagadish, president of Karnataka State Bar Council, introduced the new judges to the gathering and urged them to focus on quality judgments and live up to the expectations of people.

In his welcome address, Jagadish made a proposal before the judiciary to consider the talented advocates from District Bars for the post of judges to the High Court, like elevating them to the High Court.

On this momentous occasion, I would like to take an opportunity to place the proposal of the District Bar before the High Court. Elevation of the judges to this court to provide an opportunity to the members of the District Bar may be kindly considered in right earnest. The talent of the District Bar cannot be ignored. There is no dearth of sincere and honest professionals in District Bar, Jagadish said.

He further said, Let there be change in appointment of judges to this court. Let there be an equal opportunity to everybody. The proposal to change is to build a robust judicial system.

N K Sudhindra Rao, Registrar General (In charge), High Court, read out the appointment orders of the judges.

The newly appointed judges expressed their gratitude to those who helped them in their way to join higher judiciary and promised that they will keep up the faith reposed in them.

Profile of judges

Kempaiah Somashekar

DoB: September 15, 1963, native of Boodithittu village of Yelandur taluk in Chamarajanagar district. Studied at Chamarajanagar and Mysuru. Joined judiciary in 1998 as district judge.

Kotravva Somappa Mudagal

DoB: December 22, 1963, a native of Haveri. Studied at Hubballi, joined judiciary as district judge in 1998.

Sreenivas Harish Kumar

DoB: May 16, 1963, a native of Mandikal Village in Chikkaballapura taluk. Studied at Gudibande and Bengaluru. Joined judiciary as district judge in 2002.

John Michael Cunha

DoB: April 7, 1959, a native of Mangaluru. Studied at Calicut. Joined judiciary as district judge in 2002.

Basavaraj Andanagouda Patil

DoB: January 20, 1959, a native of Dharawad, studied at Dharwad. Joined judiciary as district judge in 2002.

BENGALURU: Five new additional judges of Karnataka High Court assumed charge after being sworn in at a ceremony held at the High Court on Monday. They are Kempaiah Somashekar, Kotravva Somappa Mudagal, Sreenivas Harish Kumar, John Michael Cunha and Basavaraj Andanagouda Patil. All five were elevated from district judges category. Chief Justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee administered the oath to them. CM Jagadish, president of Karnataka State Bar Council, introduced the new judges to the gathering and urged them to focus on quality judgments and live up to the expectations of people. In his welcome address, Jagadish made a proposal before the judiciary to consider the talented advocates from District Bars for the post of judges to the High Court, like elevating them to the High Court. On this momentous occasion, I would like to take an opportunity to place the proposal of the District Bar before the High Court. Elevation of the judges to this court to provide an opportunity to the members of the District Bar may be kindly considered in right earnest. The talent of the District Bar cannot be ignored. There is no dearth of sincere and honest professionals in District Bar, Jagadish said. He further said, Let there be change in appointment of judges to this court. Let there be an equal opportunity to everybody. The proposal to change is to build a robust judicial system. N K Sudhindra Rao, Registrar General (In charge), High Court, read out the appointment orders of the judges. The newly appointed judges expressed their gratitude to those who helped them in their way to join higher judiciary and promised that they will keep up the faith reposed in them. Profile of judges Kempaiah Somashekar DoB: September 15, 1963, native of Boodithittu village of Yelandur taluk in Chamarajanagar district. Studied at Chamarajanagar and Mysuru. Joined judiciary in 1998 as district judge. Kotravva Somappa Mudagal DoB: December 22, 1963, a native of Haveri. Studied at Hubballi, joined judiciary as district judge in 1998. Sreenivas Harish Kumar DoB: May 16, 1963, a native of Mandikal Village in Chikkaballapura taluk. Studied at Gudibande and Bengaluru. Joined judiciary as district judge in 2002. John Michael Cunha DoB: April 7, 1959, a native of Mangaluru. Studied at Calicut. Joined judiciary as district judge in 2002. Basavaraj Andanagouda Patil DoB: January 20, 1959, a native of Dharawad, studied at Dharwad. Joined judiciary as district judge in 2002.
By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Admission Supervisory Committee (ASC) headed by Justice J M James has set aside the entire admission of 150 candidates by the Kannur Medical College for deliberately violating the orders of the committee and the court. Moreover, the annual tuition fee of Karuna Medical College will be regulated.

With regard to Kannur Medical College, the ASC said that the college failed to maintain the triple tests laid down by the Supreme Court, thus violating the Court and ASC orders. In its order, the ASC has asked the Kerala University of Health Sciences (KUHS) registrar not to register the list of 150 students forwarded to the University by the Medical College for 2016-17 academic year.

As per the directions of the court, the ASC was to scrutinised the entire admissions made by the Medical College. Though the college was directed to make available the entire documents, the ASC said that the authorities failed to produce them.

While scrutinising the online application forms, the ASC said that the applications showed that they were not actual online applications. The forms did not show the name of the Medical College to which the applications were made. They also did not carry the photograph of the applicant, signature or application date. On the whole the submitted applications only show that they have been prepared for the purpose of submitting before the ASC as an attempt to claim the online application system, the order said.

The admission has been done by the Medical College without any transparency and merit was compromised. Thus, all the admissions are in violation of the laid down norms, directions and orders. Therefore, the MBBS 2016-17 admissions of Kannur Medical College cannot be approved, the order said.

Karuna Medical College has a sanctioned intake of 100 seats. As per the prospectus, there are 17 seats on General Merit, 33 seats for SEBC/SC/ST/Muslim and 35 seats under Management quota.

For NRIs, 15 seats are kept apart. While the online application forms were scrutinised by the ASC, it was found that there were no supporting documents produced and as such the category of applicants could only be ascertained from the statements in the application alone. The ASC said in the order that this was not legally sufficient.

It also said that the non-creamy layer certificates were to be produced for claiming appropriate admission relaxation but no community certificates were submitted.

Hence, such applicants cannot be accepted, as belonging to the SEBC category. The claim of NRI applicants were not supported by required documents as laid down in the earlier government order. As such the ASC said that it could not accept the claim of NRI applicants. The Medical College has not submitted the audited balance sheet and such other records, the ASC said in its order.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Admission Supervisory Committee (ASC) headed by Justice J M James has set aside the entire admission of 150 candidates by the Kannur Medical College for deliberately violating the orders of the committee and the court. Moreover, the annual tuition fee of Karuna Medical College will be regulated. With regard to Kannur Medical College, the ASC said that the college failed to maintain the triple tests laid down by the Supreme Court, thus violating the Court and ASC orders. In its order, the ASC has asked the Kerala University of Health Sciences (KUHS) registrar not to register the list of 150 students forwarded to the University by the Medical College for 2016-17 academic year. As per the directions of the court, the ASC was to scrutinised the entire admissions made by the Medical College. Though the college was directed to make available the entire documents, the ASC said that the authorities failed to produce them. While scrutinising the online application forms, the ASC said that the applications showed that they were not actual online applications. The forms did not show the name of the Medical College to which the applications were made. They also did not carry the photograph of the applicant, signature or application date. On the whole the submitted applications only show that they have been prepared for the purpose of submitting before the ASC as an attempt to claim the online application system, the order said. The admission has been done by the Medical College without any transparency and merit was compromised. Thus, all the admissions are in violation of the laid down norms, directions and orders. Therefore, the MBBS 2016-17 admissions of Kannur Medical College cannot be approved, the order said. Karuna Medical College has a sanctioned intake of 100 seats. As per the prospectus, there are 17 seats on General Merit, 33 seats for SEBC/SC/ST/Muslim and 35 seats under Management quota. For NRIs, 15 seats are kept apart. While the online application forms were scrutinised by the ASC, it was found that there were no supporting documents produced and as such the category of applicants could only be ascertained from the statements in the application alone. The ASC said in the order that this was not legally sufficient. It also said that the non-creamy layer certificates were to be produced for claiming appropriate admission relaxation but no community certificates were submitted. Hence, such applicants cannot be accepted, as belonging to the SEBC category. The claim of NRI applicants were not supported by required documents as laid down in the earlier government order. As such the ASC said that it could not accept the claim of NRI applicants. The Medical College has not submitted the audited balance sheet and such other records, the ASC said in its order.
Shibu BS By

Express News Service

Daily wage labourers, plantation workers and migrant labourers, who depend on their daily and weekly wages to meet the expenses, may find it hard to make both ends meet due to the non-availability of hard cash following the demonetisation drive taken up by the Central Government

KOCHI: The Central Governments demonetisation drive is going to have a significant impact on the the countrys legal parallel economy, say experts.

India, which is one of the most cash-intensive economies in the world, has a cash-to-GDP ratio of 12 per cent - almost four times as much the other major economies. The sections worst affected by the drive are daily-wage labourers, plantation workers and migrant labourers who depend on their daily/weekly wages to meet expenses. Though most migrant labourers and daily-wage workers have bank account, they insist on cash payment. Now, the governments initiatives to push India towards digital/cash-less transactions have hit the legal parallel economy that transacts in hard currency.

We wholeheartedly welcome the Central Governments initiative to curb black money. Of course, the labourers are feeling the heat of demonetisation. The plantation sector is now devising plans to ease the difficulties faced by workers, said Harrisons Malayalam president Vinaya Raghavan, adding that both the administrative and marketing sections of plantation firms would likely get affected. Most workers do not use their bank accounts, and demand cash payment, for which there are administrative restrictions. Moreover, in the hilly areas where plantations are situated, only a few banks/ATMs operate.

However, we have initiated steps to help the non-account holders by transferring their wages to their the accounts of workers who have bank account, he said.

With regard to market, the weekly tea auction is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. It is the first auction to be held after the demonetisation. With most of the small traders and retailers getting affected by the cash crunch, we are keenly monitoring the proceedings, he added.

Local rubber traders and farmers are also feeling the pressure. Rubber farmers in rural areas usually sell their produces to local traders and use the money to pay tappers. In the case of rubber plantation workers, most of them got their monthly wages by November 5, just a few days before the demonitisation drive. But, people like us who do not depend on ATM money are in a helpless situation due to the demonitisation, said Babu, a rubber tapper from Palode.

Traders call off stir

Traders in the state on Monday called off the indefinite shutdown of shops proposed from Tuesday. The new decision has been taken in the wake of governments assurance regarding the shortage of currency, said officials of Kerala Vyapara Vyavasaya Ekopana Samithi (KVVES). The commencement of Sabarimala pilgrimage season also reportedly forced the traders to drop their plans to close down operations.Earlier, over 10 lakh traders working under KVVES had decided to shut their shops indefinitely from Tuesday.

Daily wage labourers, plantation workers and migrant labourers, who depend on their daily and weekly wages to meet the expenses, may find it hard to make both ends meet due to the non-availability of hard cash following the demonetisation drive taken up by the Central Government KOCHI: The Central Governments demonetisation drive is going to have a significant impact on the the countrys legal parallel economy, say experts. India, which is one of the most cash-intensive economies in the world, has a cash-to-GDP ratio of 12 per cent - almost four times as much the other major economies. The sections worst affected by the drive are daily-wage labourers, plantation workers and migrant labourers who depend on their daily/weekly wages to meet expenses. Though most migrant labourers and daily-wage workers have bank account, they insist on cash payment. Now, the governments initiatives to push India towards digital/cash-less transactions have hit the legal parallel economy that transacts in hard currency. We wholeheartedly welcome the Central Governments initiative to curb black money. Of course, the labourers are feeling the heat of demonetisation. The plantation sector is now devising plans to ease the difficulties faced by workers, said Harrisons Malayalam president Vinaya Raghavan, adding that both the administrative and marketing sections of plantation firms would likely get affected. Most workers do not use their bank accounts, and demand cash payment, for which there are administrative restrictions. Moreover, in the hilly areas where plantations are situated, only a few banks/ATMs operate. However, we have initiated steps to help the non-account holders by transferring their wages to their the accounts of workers who have bank account, he said. With regard to market, the weekly tea auction is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. It is the first auction to be held after the demonetisation. With most of the small traders and retailers getting affected by the cash crunch, we are keenly monitoring the proceedings, he added. Local rubber traders and farmers are also feeling the pressure. Rubber farmers in rural areas usually sell their produces to local traders and use the money to pay tappers. In the case of rubber plantation workers, most of them got their monthly wages by November 5, just a few days before the demonitisation drive. But, people like us who do not depend on ATM money are in a helpless situation due to the demonitisation, said Babu, a rubber tapper from Palode. Traders call off stir Traders in the state on Monday called off the indefinite shutdown of shops proposed from Tuesday. The new decision has been taken in the wake of governments assurance regarding the shortage of currency, said officials of Kerala Vyapara Vyavasaya Ekopana Samithi (KVVES). The commencement of Sabarimala pilgrimage season also reportedly forced the traders to drop their plans to close down operations.Earlier, over 10 lakh traders working under KVVES had decided to shut their shops indefinitely from Tuesday.
MS Vidyanandan By

Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A hassle-free darshan of Lord Ayyappa is now just a touch away, courtesy a mobile app launched by the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB).

The app - Sabarimala Sri Ayyappa Temple - gives a range of information to the devotees - including details about route, food, accommodation and darshan timings. Real-time information will be provided on changes in schedules, bookings at TDBs accommodation facilities at Pampa and Sannidhanam and vacant slots in different parking areas, board officials said. The app is available in English, Malayalam and Tamil and can be downloaded free of cost from the Google Playstore. It has registered 500 downloads and a 4.8 Google rating out of 5 so far.

TDB president Prayar Gopalakrishnan said the app was part of a slew of measures taken by the board to ensure hassle-free darshan for devotees. It enables us to give real-time information on various services that will be of immense help to the devotees. Facility to book vazhipadu (offerings) and accommodation will be incorporated shortly, he said.

The Temple Services section in the app has a festival calendar, details of daily pujas, vazhipadu rates and a temple services map showing the location of various service counters. The Facilities section gives information on potable water outlets, resting places, ATMs, parking lots, petrol pumps, at Pampa, Sannidhanam and about the traditional trekking route. The Food category has details of the annadanam counters, including menu and timings, and other restaurants at Pampa and Sannidhanam. A section titled Emergency shows the first aid locations, hospitals, police booths, fire service, ambulance and pharmacy service.

Maps and Routes section is a Google Map assisted service giving tips on the easiest routes to Sabarimala from different states.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A hassle-free darshan of Lord Ayyappa is now just a touch away, courtesy a mobile app launched by the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB). The app - Sabarimala Sri Ayyappa Temple - gives a range of information to the devotees - including details about route, food, accommodation and darshan timings. Real-time information will be provided on changes in schedules, bookings at TDBs accommodation facilities at Pampa and Sannidhanam and vacant slots in different parking areas, board officials said. The app is available in English, Malayalam and Tamil and can be downloaded free of cost from the Google Playstore. It has registered 500 downloads and a 4.8 Google rating out of 5 so far. TDB president Prayar Gopalakrishnan said the app was part of a slew of measures taken by the board to ensure hassle-free darshan for devotees. It enables us to give real-time information on various services that will be of immense help to the devotees. Facility to book vazhipadu (offerings) and accommodation will be incorporated shortly, he said. The Temple Services section in the app has a festival calendar, details of daily pujas, vazhipadu rates and a temple services map showing the location of various service counters. The Facilities section gives information on potable water outlets, resting places, ATMs, parking lots, petrol pumps, at Pampa, Sannidhanam and about the traditional trekking route. The Food category has details of the annadanam counters, including menu and timings, and other restaurants at Pampa and Sannidhanam. A section titled Emergency shows the first aid locations, hospitals, police booths, fire service, ambulance and pharmacy service. Maps and Routes section is a Google Map assisted service giving tips on the easiest routes to Sabarimala from different states.
Mouli Mareedu By

Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Government offices in the state are relatively running smoothly with no demand for bribes. At least since the past one week, the demand for bribes have reportedly come down. All this, thanks to the demonetisation of big notes and insufficient small notes in the market.

A clear indication to this is the sharp fall in number of complaints received by the Anti-Corruption Bureau regarding bribes.

A senior officer of ACB told Express that the control room staff on any given day receives around 15 to 20 calls on an average from the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad as well as districts. But for the past one week, the number of calls have gone down and the staff now receive three to five calls maximum, the officer said.

Some government officials have, however, come up with novel ideas to get their due share for getting a work done. A caller from a district complained that when he approached the officials at tahasildar office to speed up his passbook issuance work, they refuse to accept Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes as bribe. They now demand only Rs 100 notes or some gifts insted of cash, the senior officer said.

He further said, This is only temporary. Once the system is streamlined, it will be back to normal. If any person is victimised by any government official demanding bribe, they can directly lodge a complaint with the ACB, the officer said.

HYDERABAD: Government offices in the state are relatively running smoothly with no demand for bribes. At least since the past one week, the demand for bribes have reportedly come down. All this, thanks to the demonetisation of big notes and insufficient small notes in the market. A clear indication to this is the sharp fall in number of complaints received by the Anti-Corruption Bureau regarding bribes. A senior officer of ACB told Express that the control room staff on any given day receives around 15 to 20 calls on an average from the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad as well as districts. But for the past one week, the number of calls have gone down and the staff now receive three to five calls maximum, the officer said. Some government officials have, however, come up with novel ideas to get their due share for getting a work done. A caller from a district complained that when he approached the officials at tahasildar office to speed up his passbook issuance work, they refuse to accept Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes as bribe. They now demand only Rs 100 notes or some gifts insted of cash, the senior officer said. He further said, This is only temporary. Once the system is streamlined, it will be back to normal. If any person is victimised by any government official demanding bribe, they can directly lodge a complaint with the ACB, the officer said.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: A delegation from six states of the US called on IT minister KT Rama Rao on Tuesday and discussed about the investment opportunities in Telangana. The delegation was headed by Delaware Governor Jack Alan Markell.

Rama Rao explained the new industrial policy of the state and informed the team that TS had received the first rank in Ease of Doing Business (EODB). Rama Rao told them that Telangana had chosen 14 sectors as priority sectors for investments in the state.

The IT minister told them that the top four software companies in the world have decided to set shops in Telangana and once those projects get completed, the state would create a direct employment for 60,000 people. Markell told Rama Rao that Delaware too would have a tie up with Germany for starting a programme for T-Bridge. TS started T-Bridge in the US recently to have a tie up with the start-ups, an official release said.

HYDERABAD: A delegation from six states of the US called on IT minister KT Rama Rao on Tuesday and discussed about the investment opportunities in Telangana. The delegation was headed by Delaware Governor Jack Alan Markell. Rama Rao explained the new industrial policy of the state and informed the team that TS had received the first rank in Ease of Doing Business (EODB). Rama Rao told them that Telangana had chosen 14 sectors as priority sectors for investments in the state. The IT minister told them that the top four software companies in the world have decided to set shops in Telangana and once those projects get completed, the state would create a direct employment for 60,000 people. Markell told Rama Rao that Delaware too would have a tie up with Germany for starting a programme for T-Bridge. TS started T-Bridge in the US recently to have a tie up with the start-ups, an official release said.
By PTI

CHICAGO: Chicago today joined several major US cities in affirming that it will remain a "sanctuary city" for immigrants, in defiance of President-elect Donald Trump.

Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and San Francisco have made similar affirmations since Trump's election on Tuesday, vowing to refuse to jail undocumented immigrants in jail for deportation purposes and pledging that public services will continue to be offered regardless of legal status.

"To all the children and all the families who are unsure of their place because of what happened Tuesday," Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said at a press conference. "You are safe, you are secure and you are supported in the city of Chicago." Emanuel, a Democrat who was chief of staff during President Barack Obama's first term, said young undocumented people in particular will still be able to go to school and qualify for free community college education.

"That speaks volumes to where our values are," he said. Trump, a Republican, campaigned on a promise to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. In an interview that aired on the CBS "60 Minutes" news program over the weekend, Trump said he plans to immediately deport or jail as many as three million immigrants with criminal records, upon taking office.

"What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people -- probably two million, it could be even three million -- we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate," Trump said.

Experts estimate there are as many as 11 million foreigners living illegally in the United States, many of them Central and Southern Americans long-established in the country. Since 2009, the Obama administration has deported 2.4 million immigrants from the country.

But Obama has also offered a reprieve to young people who were brought to the US by their parents -- so-called "Dreamers." By executive order, he granted them temporary residency rights, allowing them to go to school and work. Trump could reverse the order, and had promised to do so during the campaign. He had also promised to cut off federal funding for sanctuary cities. His rhetoric has raised alarms in immigrant communities.

"Since the elections, my phone has been off the hook," said Tayna Cabrera, who heads the Illinois Dream Fund Commission, which offers scholarships to undocumented college students. "My students are terrified. Some of them haven't shown up to school," she said.

CHICAGO: Chicago today joined several major US cities in affirming that it will remain a "sanctuary city" for immigrants, in defiance of President-elect Donald Trump. Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and San Francisco have made similar affirmations since Trump's election on Tuesday, vowing to refuse to jail undocumented immigrants in jail for deportation purposes and pledging that public services will continue to be offered regardless of legal status. "To all the children and all the families who are unsure of their place because of what happened Tuesday," Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said at a press conference. "You are safe, you are secure and you are supported in the city of Chicago." Emanuel, a Democrat who was chief of staff during President Barack Obama's first term, said young undocumented people in particular will still be able to go to school and qualify for free community college education. "That speaks volumes to where our values are," he said. Trump, a Republican, campaigned on a promise to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. In an interview that aired on the CBS "60 Minutes" news program over the weekend, Trump said he plans to immediately deport or jail as many as three million immigrants with criminal records, upon taking office. "What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people -- probably two million, it could be even three million -- we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate," Trump said. Experts estimate there are as many as 11 million foreigners living illegally in the United States, many of them Central and Southern Americans long-established in the country. Since 2009, the Obama administration has deported 2.4 million immigrants from the country. But Obama has also offered a reprieve to young people who were brought to the US by their parents -- so-called "Dreamers." By executive order, he granted them temporary residency rights, allowing them to go to school and work. Trump could reverse the order, and had promised to do so during the campaign. He had also promised to cut off federal funding for sanctuary cities. His rhetoric has raised alarms in immigrant communities. "Since the elections, my phone has been off the hook," said Tayna Cabrera, who heads the Illinois Dream Fund Commission, which offers scholarships to undocumented college students. "My students are terrified. Some of them haven't shown up to school," she said.
By Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: The State BJP on Tuesday said denial of security to Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan during his visit to Malkangiri district was a conspiracy by the state government.

"This is a conspiracy by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to cover up his government's inefficiency in tackling the situation in Malkangiri district where Japanese Encephalitis have so far claimed the lives of over 110 children," said BJP's state unit president Basanta Panda and senior leader K V Singhdeo at a joint media conference here.

They alleged that the Union Minister was advised not to visit Palkonda village which witnessed maximum number of deaths of children due to the vector born disease at the instance of the Chief

Minister. Panda and Singhdeo accompanied Pradhan during the visit.

Pradhan visited the Maoist affected tribal district after duly intimating the state government well in advance. The state administration assured to provide necessary assistance including security to the Union Minister during his visit to the district.

"Necessary protocol and security arrangements will be made for the visit of the Union Minister to the villages indicated (in your letter)," said the November 11 letter of Chief Secretary A P Padhi to the office of the Union Minister.

The district superintendent of police would not dare to advise the Union Minister against visiting Palkonda without clearance from the top, Singhdeo said.

The BJP leaders said the security concern of government was a well thought out plan to prevent the Union Minister from meeting Umesh Madhi, the class-IV student of Palkonda primary school, who had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention to mitigate Japanese Encephalitis (JE) menace.

Responding to a query, Panda said there is hardly any improvement in the situation in Malkangiri. The Union Minister will seek special intervention of the Centre in tackling the JE menace during his briefing to the Prime Minister on his visit.

BHUBANESWAR: The State BJP on Tuesday said denial of security to Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan during his visit to Malkangiri district was a conspiracy by the state government. "This is a conspiracy by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to cover up his government's inefficiency in tackling the situation in Malkangiri district where Japanese Encephalitis have so far claimed the lives of over 110 children," said BJP's state unit president Basanta Panda and senior leader K V Singhdeo at a joint media conference here. They alleged that the Union Minister was advised not to visit Palkonda village which witnessed maximum number of deaths of children due to the vector born disease at the instance of the Chief Minister. Panda and Singhdeo accompanied Pradhan during the visit. Pradhan visited the Maoist affected tribal district after duly intimating the state government well in advance. The state administration assured to provide necessary assistance including security to the Union Minister during his visit to the district. "Necessary protocol and security arrangements will be made for the visit of the Union Minister to the villages indicated (in your letter)," said the November 11 letter of Chief Secretary A P Padhi to the office of the Union Minister. The district superintendent of police would not dare to advise the Union Minister against visiting Palkonda without clearance from the top, Singhdeo said. The BJP leaders said the security concern of government was a well thought out plan to prevent the Union Minister from meeting Umesh Madhi, the class-IV student of Palkonda primary school, who had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention to mitigate Japanese Encephalitis (JE) menace. Responding to a query, Panda said there is hardly any improvement in the situation in Malkangiri. The Union Minister will seek special intervention of the Centre in tackling the JE menace during his briefing to the Prime Minister on his visit.
By PTI

WASHINGTON: Governments around the world have stepped up efforts to block or censor social media and messaging applications, in a new blow to internet freedom, a watchdog group said today. The Freedom on the Net report by the activist group Freedom House said online freedom declined in 2016 for a sixth consecutive year amid new restrictions on messaging platforms such as WhatsApp in addition to social networks.

"Popular social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have been subject to growing censorship for several years, but governments are now increasingly going after messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram," said Sanja Kelly, director of the study.

Messaging apps have become increasingly popular tools for activists, and many of them can offer encrypted communications which make it more difficult for the users to be monitored, the report noted. "The key reason for the block of these apps is preventing users from disseminating news during periods of unrest," Kelly said.

The report said 34 of the 65 countries assessed in the report have seen internet freedom deteriorate since June 2015. Some of the notable declines were in Uganda, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ecuador and Libya, while online freedom improved in Sri Lanka and Zambia and in the United States, due to the passage of a law limiting collection of telecommunications metadata.

Freedom House said 67 per cent of internet users live in countries where criticism of the government, military, or ruling family is subject to censorship. Governments in 24 countries limited or blocked access to social media and communication tools, up from 15 in the previous year. Even some democratic governments have been targeting applications that use encryption features seen as a threat to national security.

WhatsApp faced restrictions in 12 of the 65 countries analysed, more than any other app. "Although the blocking of these tools affects everyone, it has an especially harmful impact on human rights defenders, journalists, and marginalized communities who often depend on these apps to bypass government surveillance," said Kelly.

China was the world's worst offender for a second year, according to the report, followed by Syria and Iran. Freedom House criticised a new Chinese law that allows for seven-year prison terms for spreading rumors on social media, a charge often used to imprison political activists. It said some users in China belonging to minority religious groups were imprisoned for watching religious videos on mobile phones.

WASHINGTON: Governments around the world have stepped up efforts to block or censor social media and messaging applications, in a new blow to internet freedom, a watchdog group said today. The Freedom on the Net report by the activist group Freedom House said online freedom declined in 2016 for a sixth consecutive year amid new restrictions on messaging platforms such as WhatsApp in addition to social networks. "Popular social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have been subject to growing censorship for several years, but governments are now increasingly going after messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram," said Sanja Kelly, director of the study. Messaging apps have become increasingly popular tools for activists, and many of them can offer encrypted communications which make it more difficult for the users to be monitored, the report noted. "The key reason for the block of these apps is preventing users from disseminating news during periods of unrest," Kelly said. The report said 34 of the 65 countries assessed in the report have seen internet freedom deteriorate since June 2015. Some of the notable declines were in Uganda, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ecuador and Libya, while online freedom improved in Sri Lanka and Zambia and in the United States, due to the passage of a law limiting collection of telecommunications metadata. Freedom House said 67 per cent of internet users live in countries where criticism of the government, military, or ruling family is subject to censorship. Governments in 24 countries limited or blocked access to social media and communication tools, up from 15 in the previous year. Even some democratic governments have been targeting applications that use encryption features seen as a threat to national security. WhatsApp faced restrictions in 12 of the 65 countries analysed, more than any other app. "Although the blocking of these tools affects everyone, it has an especially harmful impact on human rights defenders, journalists, and marginalized communities who often depend on these apps to bypass government surveillance," said Kelly. China was the world's worst offender for a second year, according to the report, followed by Syria and Iran. Freedom House criticised a new Chinese law that allows for seven-year prison terms for spreading rumors on social media, a charge often used to imprison political activists. It said some users in China belonging to minority religious groups were imprisoned for watching religious videos on mobile phones.
By PTI

WASHINGTON: US President-elect Donald Trump is in final stages of giving shape to his Cabinet and announcements in this regard could be made anytime this week, his aides indicated today. The vice president-elect Mike Pence, who also heads presidential transition team, is arriving in New York today to hold meetings with Trump.

"They'll be reviewing a number of names," Jason Miller, a transition communication advisor said. "If the Vice President-elect is getting together with the President-elect to discuss names, then I would say that its serious, obviously," Miller said. Meanwhile, the American media was abuzz with speculations on potential Cabinet picks of Trump.

The former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani along with the former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton was speculated to be in the race for being the Secretary of State. Other potential Cabinet picks being talked about are Senator Jeff Sessions, Senator Bob Corker and Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker to the US House of Representative.

However, Miller cautioned against finalising any names as of now. "You can't believe everything you read. I don't want to play the speculation game as far as names," he said. "There's a thorough, detailed process that the Vice President-elect and the transition team are going through and the President-elect will make the decision and let us know," he said.

Sessions was seen entering the Trump Towers fuelling the speculation about his role in the Trump Cabinet. "I'm a huge fan of Senator Sessions and the President-elect will be lucky to have him in any capacity," Miller said.

There were also reports that Laura Ingraham is under consideration for White House Press Secretary. "You're going to see a number of different names that are ultimately becoming a part of the President-elects administration.

"There will be non-traditional names, a number of people who have had wide-ranging success in a number of different fields; wide-ranging success in business...People will be excited when they see the type of leaders the President-elect brings into this administration," Miller said.

The Trump Campaign Manager Kellyanne Conway also said that Cabinet appointments announcement are likely this week. "Possibly (this week). Narrowing it down," she said in response to a question. "I think we'll get more clarity on the senior team and the cabinet," she added.

WASHINGTON: US President-elect Donald Trump is in final stages of giving shape to his Cabinet and announcements in this regard could be made anytime this week, his aides indicated today. The vice president-elect Mike Pence, who also heads presidential transition team, is arriving in New York today to hold meetings with Trump. "They'll be reviewing a number of names," Jason Miller, a transition communication advisor said. "If the Vice President-elect is getting together with the President-elect to discuss names, then I would say that its serious, obviously," Miller said. Meanwhile, the American media was abuzz with speculations on potential Cabinet picks of Trump. The former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani along with the former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton was speculated to be in the race for being the Secretary of State. Other potential Cabinet picks being talked about are Senator Jeff Sessions, Senator Bob Corker and Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker to the US House of Representative. However, Miller cautioned against finalising any names as of now. "You can't believe everything you read. I don't want to play the speculation game as far as names," he said. "There's a thorough, detailed process that the Vice President-elect and the transition team are going through and the President-elect will make the decision and let us know," he said. Sessions was seen entering the Trump Towers fuelling the speculation about his role in the Trump Cabinet. "I'm a huge fan of Senator Sessions and the President-elect will be lucky to have him in any capacity," Miller said. There were also reports that Laura Ingraham is under consideration for White House Press Secretary. "You're going to see a number of different names that are ultimately becoming a part of the President-elects administration. "There will be non-traditional names, a number of people who have had wide-ranging success in a number of different fields; wide-ranging success in business...People will be excited when they see the type of leaders the President-elect brings into this administration," Miller said. The Trump Campaign Manager Kellyanne Conway also said that Cabinet appointments announcement are likely this week. "Possibly (this week). Narrowing it down," she said in response to a question. "I think we'll get more clarity on the senior team and the cabinet," she added.
By Associated Press

ATHENS, Greece  President Barack Obama pointed on Tuesday to fears of globalization, economic uncertainty, suspicion of elites  anything but his own performance  as he grasped for ways to explain the unexpected rise of Donald Trump.

Opening his final overseas trip as president, Obama acknowledged he was surprised by Trump's victory  and said it stemmed from deep-seated anxieties among working-class Americans that government must do better to address. But, he added paradoxically: "That's been my agenda for the last eight years."

"People seem to think I did a pretty good job," Obama told reporters, citing his strong approval numbers. "So there is this mismatch, I think, between frustration and anger."

Obama's diagnosis of what went wrong for Hillary Clinton and Democrats offered little in the way of a road map for Democrats to avoid a similar fate in future elections. Democrats reeling from their resounding defeat last week are divided about what went wrong and even more divided about how to fix it.

In a joint news conference with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Obama said his proposals on jobs, education and infrastructure would have helped the same voters whose frustration drove Trump's success at the polls  if only they'd been implemented.

"The problem was I couldn't convince the Republican Congress to pass a lot of them," Obama said.

It was also the clearest sign yet that the president did not accept Trump's election as a repudiation of his policies, despite Trump's ardent rejection of nearly every piece of Obama's legacy.

Obama's words are being watched closely by world leaders who see parallels between Trump's election and the rise of far-right movements in their own countries amid continued economic anxiety. After Athens, Obama planned visits to Germany and Peru.

Obama's visit sparked large protests in central Athens, prompting riot police to use tear gas and stun grenades to disperse about 3,000 left-wing marchers after they tried to enter an area declared off-limits to demonstrators. No injuries or arrests were reported.

Obama seemed skeptical that "the new prescriptions being offered" would satisfy voters' restlessness.

At home, Obama's party is split as it tries to come to terms with Trump's win. Some Democrats are pushing for an immediate and concerted effort to block Trump at all costs, while others want an internal shake-up and new direction aimed at winning back support among working-class voters.

"There needs to be significant change in our party," said DNC National Finance Chairman Henry Munoz III, who's considering a bid for chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Nearly a dozen Democrats are mulling bids, including Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim-American elected to Congress, and South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison.

Obama has not weighed in directly on the leadership fight. But on Tuesday, he suggested the problem wasn't the course he set for the party, but some of the shortcomings of Hillary Clinton and her campaign.

"Presidential elections always turn on personalities, they turn on how campaigns are run, they turn on natural desires for change," he said, not mentioning Clinton by name.

Clinton's supporters say she faced a difficult balancing act: She embraced Obama, hoping to avoid alienating his supporters, while simultaneously trying to acknowledge the persistent economic challenges and the uneven economic recovery.

"There is a tension between the real life, which is very tough for working-class voters, and the president's overall narrative," Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg said.

At each stop on his trip, Obama expects to confront apprehension from world leaders who fear Trump could bring about seismic changes in U.S. foreign policy and withdraw the U.S. from its traditional leadership role.

Paying the first presidential visit to Greece since Bill Clinton in 1999, Obama sought to reassure NATO allies that Trump, despite belittling the alliance during the campaign, wouldn't abandon it. Obama said Democratic and Republican administrations had respected NATO and predicted "significant continuity even as we see a transition in government."

Tsipras, held his tongue for the most part, noting that Trump was now the president-elect and would be a major player on the world stage. He said he knew little of Trump but had become acquainted with his "aggressive manner" during the campaign.

"I did not wish to repeat the criticisms that many of have made during the election period," Tsipras said.

ATHENS, Greece  President Barack Obama pointed on Tuesday to fears of globalization, economic uncertainty, suspicion of elites  anything but his own performance  as he grasped for ways to explain the unexpected rise of Donald Trump. Opening his final overseas trip as president, Obama acknowledged he was surprised by Trump's victory  and said it stemmed from deep-seated anxieties among working-class Americans that government must do better to address. But, he added paradoxically: "That's been my agenda for the last eight years." "People seem to think I did a pretty good job," Obama told reporters, citing his strong approval numbers. "So there is this mismatch, I think, between frustration and anger." Obama's diagnosis of what went wrong for Hillary Clinton and Democrats offered little in the way of a road map for Democrats to avoid a similar fate in future elections. Democrats reeling from their resounding defeat last week are divided about what went wrong and even more divided about how to fix it. In a joint news conference with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Obama said his proposals on jobs, education and infrastructure would have helped the same voters whose frustration drove Trump's success at the polls  if only they'd been implemented. "The problem was I couldn't convince the Republican Congress to pass a lot of them," Obama said. It was also the clearest sign yet that the president did not accept Trump's election as a repudiation of his policies, despite Trump's ardent rejection of nearly every piece of Obama's legacy. Obama's words are being watched closely by world leaders who see parallels between Trump's election and the rise of far-right movements in their own countries amid continued economic anxiety. After Athens, Obama planned visits to Germany and Peru. Obama's visit sparked large protests in central Athens, prompting riot police to use tear gas and stun grenades to disperse about 3,000 left-wing marchers after they tried to enter an area declared off-limits to demonstrators. No injuries or arrests were reported. Obama seemed skeptical that "the new prescriptions being offered" would satisfy voters' restlessness. At home, Obama's party is split as it tries to come to terms with Trump's win. Some Democrats are pushing for an immediate and concerted effort to block Trump at all costs, while others want an internal shake-up and new direction aimed at winning back support among working-class voters. "There needs to be significant change in our party," said DNC National Finance Chairman Henry Munoz III, who's considering a bid for chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Nearly a dozen Democrats are mulling bids, including Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim-American elected to Congress, and South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison. Obama has not weighed in directly on the leadership fight. But on Tuesday, he suggested the problem wasn't the course he set for the party, but some of the shortcomings of Hillary Clinton and her campaign. "Presidential elections always turn on personalities, they turn on how campaigns are run, they turn on natural desires for change," he said, not mentioning Clinton by name. Clinton's supporters say she faced a difficult balancing act: She embraced Obama, hoping to avoid alienating his supporters, while simultaneously trying to acknowledge the persistent economic challenges and the uneven economic recovery. "There is a tension between the real life, which is very tough for working-class voters, and the president's overall narrative," Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg said. At each stop on his trip, Obama expects to confront apprehension from world leaders who fear Trump could bring about seismic changes in U.S. foreign policy and withdraw the U.S. from its traditional leadership role. Paying the first presidential visit to Greece since Bill Clinton in 1999, Obama sought to reassure NATO allies that Trump, despite belittling the alliance during the campaign, wouldn't abandon it. Obama said Democratic and Republican administrations had respected NATO and predicted "significant continuity even as we see a transition in government." Tsipras, held his tongue for the most part, noting that Trump was now the president-elect and would be a major player on the world stage. He said he knew little of Trump but had become acquainted with his "aggressive manner" during the campaign. "I did not wish to repeat the criticisms that many of have made during the election period," Tsipras said.
The government is apparently unwilling to scrap a military intelligence-sharing pact with Japan, despite a firestorm of criticism over its mishandling of the agreement. The pact only seems to have been shelved until a more propitious moment.

The resignation on Thursday of Kim Tae-hyo, the senior presidential secretary for national security strategy, reflects Cheong Wa Dae's decision to hold him responsible for procedural blunders but not for pursuing the pact itself.

President Lee Myung-bak said in a meeting with senior secretaries on Monday, "This pact, which has already been signed by 24 countries including Russia and needs to be signed with China as well, is beneficial to the country."

The government is convinced that there are no problems with the accord itself, which merely sets the parameters of military intelligence sharing between Seoul and Tokyo, without obliging Korea to hand any sensitive information over to Japan. "It was clearly wrong to try and pass the pact in the Cabinet behind closed doors," a Foreign Ministry official here admitted. "But after a while we'll see just how ridiculous it was for some opponents to compare it with the Protectorate Treaty between Korea and Japan" in 1905 that paved the way for Japan's occupation or "the Japanese invasion" in 1592.

The government's plan is to sit out the storm and gauge public opinion rather than attempt to force the pact through immediately.

At the moment Japan is in trouble with its neighbors over recommendations by a committee under the Japanese prime minister to expand the scope of its military deployment.

Japan's defense White Paper laying claim to Korea's Dokdo islets is expected to be published soon, and Tokyo's approval of history texts that whitewash Japan's World War II atrocities is sure to ignite more protests from Seoul. Anti-Japanese sentiment in the wake of these developments makes the signing of the pact unlikely in the immediate future.
The proportion of respondents with negative views of Park rose from 89 percent last week to a record 90 percent.

President Park Geun-hye's approval rating remained at a record-low five percent for a second week, according to a Gallup Korea poll of 1,003 people last week.

Among people in their 20 her approval rating was zero, and among 30- and 40-somethings a mere three percent.

Six percent in their 50s and 13 percent over 60 still supported the president.

The record-low approval rating has intensified the dilemma for Cheong Wa Dae.

Park has already apologized twice for the influence peddling scandal that has paralyzed her government, but to no avail.

This weekend saw up to 1 million protesters hit the streets of Seoul to call for her resignation.
"I am thrilled to have my very successful team continue with me in leading our country," Trump said in a statement. "Steve and Reince are highly qualified leaders who worked well together on our campaign and led us to a historic victory. Now I will have them both with me in the White House as we work to make America great again."

At the same time, Trump named Stephen Bannon, his campaign chief executive, as his top strategist, giving his White House a rabble-rousing edge that Trump's most vocal supporters cheered during the lengthy U.S. presidential race. Before joining the campaign in its final months, Bannon headed the Breitbart News website, which he once described as "the platform of the alt-right," an anti-establishment platform that occasionally has been home to white nationalist and anti-Semitic vitriol.

Days after his stunning upset victory, the Republican president-elect on Sunday picked Reince Priebus, the party's national chairman and a familiar face in the national capital's political battles, to lead his staff, a reassuring choice for many of the Republican leaders who control Congress. The chief of staff typically controls White House operations, often helping to forge the president's agenda and controlling who gets to see him.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has presented a clash of visions with his first White House appointments, naming a consummate Washington insider as his chief of staff and a populist, hard-right insurgent as his chief strategist.

 Insider vs. Outsider

Republican lawmakers praised the choice of Priebus, with one Trump critic, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham saying, "It shows me he is serious about governing."

But Bannon's appointment drew immediate attacks from some Republicans and those outside the government.

John Weaver, a longtime Republican strategist, said on his Twitter account, "The racist, fascist extreme right is represented footsteps from the Oval Office. Be very vigilant America."

Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, said his group opposes the Bannon appointment because he and "alt-right are so hostile to core American values."

Both Priebus and Bannon dismissed any suggestion that they would not work well on Trump's behalf in the White House. "Together, we've been able to manage a lot of the decision-making in regard to the campaign," Priebus told NBC on Monday "It's worked very, very well."

Bannon said, "We will have that same partnership in working to help President-elect Trump achieve his agenda."

In Bannon's defense, Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway called him a "brilliant tactician" and noted that Bannon served as a U.S. naval officer and has a graduate degree from Harvard, one of the country's most prestigious universities.

Conway said that Priebus and Bannon "complement each other. They both have the most important thing: the ear of the boss."

 Protests

Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets in major cities to protest Trump's victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton, shocking to many Americans because pre-election polls suggested the former U.S. secretary of State was headed to election as the country's first female president.

But in an interview on CBS' "60 Minutes" show that aired Sunday night, Trump said of the protesters, "I just don't think they know me." He told those wary of his presidency, "Don't be afraid. We are going to bring our country back."

Trump laid out some of his initial priorities for when he assumes power on January 20, saying that he will keep his campaign pledges to deport 2 million to 3 million undocumented immigrants in the country who have criminal records, and build a wall along the country's southern border with Mexico to halt the stream of migrants into the United States.

He made it clear he plans, as he said during the campaign, to pursue a right-wing agenda, naming Supreme Court justices who are against abortion and favor gun rights. But he said he was "fine" with another Supreme Court decision opposed by many conservatives, one that legalized same-sex marriage.

Trump, a billionaire real estate mogul about to hold his first elective office, said he would forgo the $400,000 annual salary U.S. presidents are paid, and take $1 as a token wage.
A bilingual support group addressing the psychological and educational needs of patients with lupus and their families is a valuable resource to help them cope, according to a study at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS).

The research, "Evaluating the Charla de Lupus (Lupus Chat) Program's Teen, Young Adult and Parent Support Group: Reaching the Hispanic/Latino Community through a Family Model of Support" was presented at the American College of Rheumatology/Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals annual meeting on November 13 in Washington, DC.

"Lupus is a chronic autoimmune illness that not only affects a person medically, but also mentally and emotionally," said Melissa Flores, MPH, LMSW, program coordinator of Charla in the Department of Social Work Programs at Hospital for Special Surgery. "People with lupus may experience debilitating symptoms such as extreme fatigue, joint pain, and skin rashes. Additionally, there are often psychosocial challenges, such as feelings of isolation, adjusting to medications with difficult side effects, and coping with the invisible, unpredictable nature of the illness."

Research shows that chronic illnesses such as lupus have a wide-ranging impact on the family. HSS started Charla to offer help and strategies to patients and their loved ones for managing the disease. "Lupus disproportionately affects women of color," Flores explains. "Our program strives to address health disparities by serving African American and Hispanic/Latino communities through our family model of support and our bilingual/bicultural programming."

The free monthly, hospital-based program provides support and education to teens and young adults under age 30, as well as their loved ones. Conducted in English and Spanish, each two-hour session consists of a presentation by an expert on a subject of interest to patients, a workshop or an open discussion. Topics include medications, nutrition, research and doctor-patient communication.

Flores and colleagues set out to determine how much the sessions helped participants and their families, with particular interest in the impact on Hispanic/Latino group members. A 16-item survey in English and Spanish was distributed after seven group meetings between 2015 and 2016.

A total of 148 surveys were handed out, including questions on overall satisfaction, knowledge, coping and disease management. Separate analyses were conducted for teens and young adults versus their parents/caregivers. Responses were also classified by ethnicity.

A total of 141 surveys were returned, which represented 95% of those who had received the questionnaire. Fifty percent of the respondents were teens/young adults and half were family members. Seventy-three percent were female. More than half of the respondents (68%) were Hispanic/Latino, 29% were African American, 28% were another race, 23% were White and 13% were Asian.

The answers to open-ended questions showed substantial improvements in knowledge and coping strategies in areas such as explaining lupus to others and communicating with doctors.

Additional survey results:

99% of all respondents reported overall satisfaction with the program

94% agreed that the program increased their knowledge of lupus-related issues

88% agreed that the groups helped them to cope

90% agreed that they could apply what they had learned to manage lupus

95% agreed that the program met their expectations

98% agreed that the presenter was clear and informative

96% agreed that they would recommend the program

While overall ratings were high, the survey indicated that the meetings were particularly beneficial to Hispanics/Latinos. A higher percentage of Hispanics/Latinos indicated that the program increased their knowledge of lupus, helped them with disease management and coping, and met their expectations.

"Our results demonstrate the value of the group and our success in engaging patients with lupus. The evaluation also underscores the relevance of the family model of support when serving a diverse group of chronically ill teens and young adults and their caregivers," Flores said.
Assange's lawyer welcomed the interview. "We have requested this interview repeatedly since 2010," Per Samuelsson said. "Julian Assange has always wanted to tell his version to the Swedish police. He wants a chance to clear his name. We hope the investigation will be closed then," he added.

The 45-year-old Australian national was accused of rape and sexual assault in Sweden in 2010. He has resisted traveling to Sweden because he says authorities may extradite him to the United States, where he faces questions about the leak of more than 500,000 secret files about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Ecuador has granted the Swedish request for legal assistance in criminal matters and the hearing will be conducted by an Ecuadorian prosecutor," said a statement released by Sweden's public prosecutor's office Monday. "A DNA sample will also be taken, provided that Julian Assange agrees to it," the statement continued.

Swedish law enforcement officials interviewed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange about rape accusations on Monday at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has been holed up since 2012.

Outside the embassy, Assange supporters gathered as he was inside being questioned by prosecutors. "[Julian Assange] has claimed and been given political asylum which is his right under national and international human rights law. He is willing to answer the questions," Human Rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said.

"The question we have to ask is why have the Swedish prosecutors taken so long to come here and ask him those questions, even though they were rebuked way back in 2014 by the Swedish courts for the delays and hesitations. They are here now, Julian Assange will answer those questions, and let's hope that will be an end to it," he added.

An Ecuadorian prosecutor in the presence of Swedish prosecutor Ingrid Isgren led the questioning. Isgren left the embassy along with a Swedish police investigator. Neither official talked to reporters.

According to officials, no immediate decision on the future of Assange's case will be made on Monday. But Samuelsson told reporters he had "high hopes" the case will be closed once the investigation is complete. He also criticized not being allowed in the interview room.

"I'm not on the list of persons that Ecuador has drawn up and allowed to be present," he told the Swedish national broadcaster SVT. "An Ecuadorian lawyer has taken up this question as a formal issue in the introduction of the hearing."

Last year, Swedish officials dropped a sexual assault case against Assange after a five-year statute of limitations expired. The 2010 rape allegation carries a 10-year statute of limitation. In September, a Swedish appeals court decided to uphold Assange's arrest warrant.

Assange has maintained both sexual encounters were consensual. Reports say even if Swedish authorities agree to drop the investigation, the WikiLeaks founder could still be arrested for breaching bail conditions in Britain.

WikiLeaks has made international news in recent months by leaking tens of thousands of hacked e-mails from the U.S. Democratic Party as well as from staff members from presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign.
A global outbreak of Mycobacterium chimaera, an invasive, slow-growing bacterium, is linked to heater-cooler devices (HCD) used in cardiac surgery, according to a study published today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. This study adds interim guidance to recent field reports on the outbreak, providing precautionary recommendations to hospitals and health systems to reduce the risk of infections.

"It is surprising that a global outbreak like this could go unnoticed for years. This dangerous infection has put many patients at risk all over the world," said Rami Sommerstein, MD, of Inselspital, Bern University Hospital in Switzerland, the lead author of the study. "Now that we know HCDs are the source, individual action from the different players (healthcare institutions, manufacturers, etc.) is needed to contain the ongoing patient risk. The most important action a hospital can take is to remove contaminated HCDs from the operating room and other critical areas. That is the only way to ensure that patients are protected from this infection moving forward."

HCDs are stand-alone devices needed for heat exchange in heart-lung machines used in some 250,000 surgeries annually in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In response to an increasing number of infections, investigators looked into hospital water sources and found M. chimaera in HCD water circuits - specifically, in the LivaNova 3T HCD used in most hospitals around the world. They also found the bacteria in air samples during surgeries with LivaNova HCDs, suggesting transmission through air particles.

To prevent future cases of invasive M. chimaera infections, the researchers made the following recommendations for hospitals and health systems, as well as public health authorities, based on their personal experience with the outbreak:

Ensure strict separation of contaminated HCDs from air of critical medical areas

Educate clinicians on the risks for and dangers associated with M. chimaera

Screen patients who had open heart surgery, heart transplantation or those who were exposed to ventricular assist devices and demonstrate prolonged and unexplained fevers.

M. chimaera is a non-tuberculous mycobacterium that was previously known to cause lung infections. Invasive M. chimaera in cardiac surgery patients is particularly difficult to treat because it requires surgery and prolonged antibiotic therapy.

"While our understanding of the causes and the extent of the M. chimaera outbreak is growing, several aspects of patient management, device handling and risk mitigation still require clarification," said Sommerstein.
Research led by a Johns Hopkins University biologist demonstrates the workings of a biochemical pathway that helps control glucose in the bloodstream, a development that could potentially lead to treatments for diabetes.

In a paper published in the current issue of Developmental Cell, Jessica Houtz, a graduate student working with Rejji Kuruvilla in the Department of Biology at Johns Hopkins, shows that a protein that regulates the development of nerve cells also plays a role in prompting cells in the pancreas to release insulin, a hormone that helps to maintain a normal level of blood sugar.

Kuruvilla worked on the project with Johns Hopkins colleagues Houtz, who is the lead author, and Philip Borden and Alexis Ceasrine, also doctoral students in the Biology Department. Also taking part was Liliana Minichiello of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Oxford.

The research is potentially relevant to type-2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease, affecting nearly one in 10 Americans. With this form of the condition, which can appear at any time of life, the body makes insulin, but is either not releasing enough of it or not using the regulatory chemical efficiently to control blood sugar. In type-1 diabetes, which appears in childhood, an immune response gone awry destroys the body's ability to produce insulin altogether.

The research on insulin represents a detour for Kuruvilla, whose work has focused on development of the peripheral nervous system. She has studied a group of proteins called neurotrophins, and in particular nerve growth factor [NGF]. These proteins nurture the growth of neurons, the cells of the nervous system.

It has been known for some time that neurons and the pancreatic beta cells, or -cells, that reside in clusters called islets of Langerhans and produce insulin, have many similarities in molecular makeup and signaling receptors. Receptors are proteins on cell surfaces that respond to particular chemicals and have critical roles in biochemical pathways. Both neurons and pancreatic -cells have the receptors for neurotrophins.

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"This project was sparked by seeing NGF receptors present in beta-cells," Kuruvilla said. The question was, she said: "What are these receptors doing outside the nervous system?"

It turns out that NGF performs a function in the mature pancreas that has nothing to do with supporting neurons. Specifically, the research team traced a chain of biochemical signals showing that elevated blood glucose causes NGF to be released from blood vessels in the pancreas, and that the NGF signal then prompts pancreatic -cells to relax their rigid cytoskeletal structure, releasing insulin granules into the blood stream. Although -cells also make NGF, Kuruvilla and her team found that it was the NGF released from the blood vessels that is needed for insulin secretion.

Using genetic manipulation in mice and drugs to block NGF signaling in -cells, they were able to disrupt distinct elements of this signaling sequence, to show that this classical neuronal pathway is necessary to enhance insulin secretion and glucose tolerance in mice. Importantly, Kuruvilla and colleagues found that NGF's ability to enhance insulin secretion in response to high glucose also occurs in human -cells.

It is not yet clear how this system is affected in people with diabetes. "We are very interested in knowing whether aspects of this pathway are disrupted in pre-diabetic individuals," Kuruvilla said. It would be of interest to determine if NGF or small molecules that bind and activate NGF receptors in the pancreas could be of potential use in the treatment of type-2 diabetes. These are questions to be pursued in further research.
CreakyJoints Presents Five Posters at 2016 ACR/AHRP Annual Meeting

CreakyJoints, the go-to source for more than 100,000 arthritis patients and their families world-wide who are seeking education, support, advocacy, and patient-centered research, today announced the forthcoming publication of A Patients Guide to Living with Rheumatoid Arthritis.

During the 2016 ACR/AHRP Annual Meeting, taking place in Washington, D.C., November 11-16, 2016, CreakyJoints will preview the guidelines Patient Charter, which was developed and endorsed by CreakyJoints national Patient Council as well as select rheumatologists, who informed the full-length patient guidelines to be published during the first quarter of 2017.

A Patients Guide to Living with Rheumatoid Arthritis is the first in a planned series of patient-friendly guidelines that will cover additional related conditions such as psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and others.

The diagnosis of a lifelong chronic disease like RA can be overwhelming, but it is vital that patients be at the center of decisions about their treatment and management strategy, Ginsberg, President and Co-Founder of CreakyJoints.

The Patient Charter spells out the eight tenets that the arthritis community should expect and demand from the healthcare they receive to better ensure that we patients are at the center of decision-making. Coming soon, for the first time, patients have a detailed, straight-forward guide to help them navigate and understand their options, including tips about applying health knowledge so that they can feel more in control of their journey with RA.

Similar in spirit to the current RA Guidelines developed by the American College of Rheumatology for medical professionals, the new patient guidelines are being written by a dedicated panel that included patients, rheumatologists, and CreakyJoints staff writers. As demonstrated by a CreakyJoints study published in November 2015 in Arthritis Care & Research , patients are ready and able to evaluate existing scientific evidence and this capability informed these new guidelines.

The patient guidelines are being written to be understood and referred to by patients seeking guidance for how to speak to their rheumatologist or other health professionals about their treatment plan, how to ask questions of their insurance company regarding coverage, and best practices for meeting or communicating with local legislators to advocate for patient-friendly health care laws.

More than ever before, patients across all disease categories can access a mountain of information simply by asking Dr. Google, but the risk is that it can be challenging to identify credible sources and to assess what constitutes good medical advice, Dr. Jonathan Krant, MD, Medical Director of CreakyJoints and Section Chief of Rheumatology at Adirondack Health Systems in Saranac Lake, N.Y.

These guidelines will help patients decode their treatment options and provide tools to help them ask the questions that are important to them as they decide their management strategy.

A Patients Guide to Living with Rheumatoid Arthritis is under review by Dr. Krant; Dr. Madelaine Feldman, MD, Rheumatology Alliance of Louisiana and Coalition of State Rheumatology Organization executive committee member; and Dr. Sarah Doaty, MD, Rheumatologist with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.

A national Patient Council convened by CreakyJoints in early October provided additional input and direction for the Patient Charter and patient guidelines. The Patient Charter is available on the CreakyJoints website.

CreakyJoints Presents Data at ACR/AHRP Annual Meeting

Sunday, November 13, CreakyJoints presented five posters at the 2016 ACR/AHRP Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. Dr. W. Benjamin Nowell, Ph.D., Director of Patient-Centered Research for CreakyJoints presented a poster in partnership with Dr. Liana Fraenkel, MD, MPH, Yale University School of Medicine, titled Development of RA Patient Preference Phenotypes.

When RA treatment escalation is being considered because methotrexate or other monotherapy has proved inadequate, it can be challenging for a patient to understand and evaluate the pros and cons of different medication options presented by a physician. In such cases, patients are often curious about the choices that other patients like them have made.

This study surveyed 1,100 RA patients to categorize how they weigh differences among medications various features (effectiveness, mode of administration, risk factors, cost, and other factors) to make treatment decisions. Five major patient preference phenotypes were identified that may support the decision-making process for physicians and patients. Survey respondents were identified via CreakyJoints.

During a short office visit, physicians and patients may benefit from a common tool to facilitate better communication. Patient preference phenotypes may help rheumatologists understand their patients values better, thereby making conversations about treatments more meaningful, Dr. Nowell.

We strive to keep patients at the center of all research conducted by CreakyJoints. This study and others we presented at the ACR meeting, along with the new RA patient guidelines, align with our mission to improve patients health outcomes, overall health care experience through shared decision-making, and by listening to what patients have to say.

Data for two other posters were collected via ArthritisPower, the first patient-centered, patient-directed arthritis research registry developed by CreakyJoints in partnership with the University of Alabama at Birmingham and part of the PCORnet network of research registries.

One final poster highlighted the decisions that patients think are most important when considering hip or knee joint replacement. These findings emerged from a CreakyJoints pre-research engagement project titled BeTTER SAID, funded by the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).

BeTTER SAID (Bringing Stakeholders Together for Engagement in Research for the Selection of Arthroplasty Implant Devices) aims to develop a cohort of patients, patient advocates, researchers, physicians/surgeons, and health system leaders examining strategies to improve joint replacement device safety and effectiveness.

Posters presented at the 2016 ACR/AHRP Annual Meeting included:
Experts in the fields of music, education, neurology, psychiatry and psychology will gather at a conference at the Royal Society of Medicine in London on Monday 28 November to examine the current evidence for the value and impact of music interventions, especially live music, on health and morbidity in children with learning disabilities.

The conference, which is a collaboration between the RSM and Live Music Now, a pioneer in the arts and health movement, will bring together musicians, clinicians and academics to review the evidence for music intervention in specific child health problems including autism, visual impairment, juvenile dementias and profound multiple learning disabilities.

Evidence that children with visual impairments caused by premature birth are more likely than their fully sighted peers to show unusual musical abilities will be examined by neurologic music therapist Rosie Axon. Founder of award-winning social enterprise Chiltern Music Therapy, Miss Axon will present the initial findings of research undertaken to observe four children with this condition.

The data will suggest that three of the children display levels of musical development that are broadly typical for their age, despite most having general developmental delay, while one child is showing early signs of being able to play the keyboard by ear, suggesting an unusual musical precocity. Professor Graham Welch will examine aspects of musical imagery in children who are blind from birth and review recent research to understand the underlying aetiology.

Other conditions to be examined at the conference include the neurodevelopmental disorder Rett Syndrome through a case study presented by the Northumberland, Tyne and Wear Foundation Trust, and Batten disease, a genetic life-limiting neurodegenerative condition that presents as early-onset dementia in children.

The initial findings of a three-year study led by the University of Roehamptons Applied Music Research Centre into how music can enable children in the mid to late stages of Batten disease to regulate speech, control movement, enhance mood and promote social interaction, will be discussed by Rebecca Atkinson, researcher and clinical director of Chiltern Music Therapy.

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Professor Pamela Heaton, Goldsmiths University of London and a leading expert on perception and cognition in autism, will discuss experimental, qualitative, neuroimaging and clinical studies to explore questions about how and why music can be used to benefit children with autism.

Professional musicians Rosalind Hawley and Georgina Aasgaard will give insights from their work as musicians in residence in two of the UKs major paediatric hospitals. Dr Dominic Slowie, National Clinical Advisor for mortality and learning disability at NHS England, will provide the current policy context for reducing health inequalities for people with a learning disability and share examples of how participation in music therapy may help achieve this.

The keynote speech will be given by Professor Adam Ockelford, founder of The Amber Trust and Director of the Applied Music Research Centre at the University of Roehampton, who will set out a new theoretical framework which offers a systematic way of gauging the efficacy of music interventions in children with learning disabilities.

Evan Dawson, Executive Director, Live Music Now, said:
A multidisciplinary international team of scientists solved the mystery of a recently discovered type of controlled cell death, mapping the path to potential therapies for conditions ranging from radiation injury to cancer. The study, led in part by the University of Pittsburgh, is reported today in two papers in Nature Chemical Biology.

Ferroptosis is a way the body uses iron (which is "ferro" in Latin) to catalyze a reaction that safely destroys and recycles a malfunctioning or damaged cell. Until this study, scientists didn't know how the body signaled - within the damaged cell and to other cells - that this well-regulated death needed to occur.

"Our team successfully decoded the signaling language that cells use to trigger ferroptosis," said Valerian E. Kagan, Ph.D., D.Sc., professor in the Pitt Graduate School of Public Health's Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, and lead author of one of the papers. "You can think of it like the scanners and radios that policemen use to find and arrest a criminal.

"The goal is to communicate enough information to neutralize the problem and remove the criminal, or damaged cell, but without creating such a commotion that you disrupt the society, which, in this example, would be other, well-functioning cells."

Through two years of experiments bridging fields ranging from public health and critical care medicine to basic biology and chemistry, the team analyzed hundreds of molecular combinations generated in the ferroptotic process to discover that only four molecules actually signal for the cell to die. All four are phospholipids - naturally occurring molecules that make up cell membranes.

"Scientists have long known that these lipids were important for encasing the cell and giving it structure," said Kagan. "What they didn't know - what we've only learned in recent scientific history - is that they do so much more, including communicating and signaling messages like 'danger' inside the cell itself, to other cells and to the cellular community as a whole, so that organisms can function in a coordinated way."

Kagan and Hulya Bayr, M.D., professor in Pitt's Department of Critical Care Medicine and senior author of one of the papers, had previously worked together to decode another type of more well-known cell death, called apoptosis. They then decided to pursue the more esoteric ferroptosis, which had first been discovered in 2012.

"Ferro means iron, and we live in Pittsburgh, the Iron City - it would be a shame for us not to understand this process," said Kagan, whose team looked for therapeutic value as they decoded the signaling process.

Kagan and Bayr also study ways to protect people against radiation, such as what would be given off in a terrorist attack. The findings gave them reason to think that ferroptosis may underlie radiation induced cellular damage as well.

"More and more, we're appreciating that the damage from acute radiation is happening to the lining of the intestine, and that damage triggers a cascade of health complications that lead to sepsis, a very deadly syndrome," said Bayr. "We believe that the radiation is triggering ferroptosis in the cells that line the intestine. If we can stop that process and get the body to repair, rather than systematically destroy, those cells, we might save the victims of devastating dirty bomb attacks."

Conversely, in cancer, the body is failing to destroy dysfunctional cancer cells, allowing tumors to grow unchecked. By understanding the ferroptotic pathway, the researchers hope to find medications that can prompt it to recognize and kill cancer cells.

The researchers have already partnered with several UPMC clinicians to explore ways to translate their scientific findings into therapies that could help patients.
Recent study shows that women who were in the same relationship over a seven-year time period showed greater decrease in sexual desire.

A longitudinal study at the University of Turku and Abo Akademi University examined the changes in sexual functions of women during a seven-year time period.

- Changes in relationship status had an impact on several sexual functions. The most pronounced observation for sexual desire was that women who were in the same relationship throughout the observation period had the greatest decrease in sexual desire, whereas women who had found a new partner reported somewhat lower decreases and women who were single at the end of the observation period reported stable sexual desire, says Doctoral Candidate in psychology Annika Gunst from the University of Turku.

Effects of age and relationship duration were taken into account in the statistical analyses. According to Gunst, the results suggest that relationship factors or partner-specific factors that are independent of relationship duration have an impact on the variation in women's sexual functions. Therefore, it would be useful to highlight partner-specific factors in the treatment of women's sexual dysfunctions. However, the sexual functions should be further examined in a short-term study in order to create a more diverse understanding of their variation.

In the study, Gunst and her colleagues studied women's sexual desire, arousal, ability to have an orgasm, sexual satisfaction and experiences of pain during sexual intercourse.

- Most aspects of women's sexual functions were quite unstable over seven years, and surprisingly, the majority of the variation was explained by some other factor than previous sexual function. Previous sexual function was not a good predictor of future sexual function overall. Sexual desire, ability to have an orgasm and sexual satisfaction partly affected other functions during the study, but these effects were very minor, explains Gunst.

Of the studied functions, women's ability to have an orgasm was the most stable over time, whereas sexual satisfaction was the most variable. Orgasmic ability improved in all groups during the study. The greatest improvement was seen in women who were single at the end of the observation period, followed by slightly lower improvement in those who were in a new relationship, and slightly lower still in women who were in a relationship with the same partner.

2,173 Finnish women participated in the study based on a population-based sample. The study is part of a larger project of the psychology units of the University of Turku and Abo Akademi University in Finland.
Gene therapy to repair damaged heart muscle is most likely to succeed if it can be injected at the site of ischemia where there is viable myocardium with reduced contractile ability, and a new technique that combines imaging and electroanatomical mapping does just that. A study of this novel approach that shows increased blood flow in treated areas in patients with refractory angina is published in Human Gene Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com/).

Seppo Yla-Herttuala, Kuopio University Hospital and University of Eastern Finland (Kuopio, Finland), together with coauthors Antti Kivela, Antti Hedman, and Juha Hartikainen, and Antti Saraste and Juhani Knuuti, from Turku University Hospital, Finland, describe their method for targeted cardiac gene transfer in the article entitled "Intramyocardial Gene Therapy Directed to Hibernating Heart Muscle Using a Combination of Electromechanical Mapping and Positron Emission Tomography (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/hum.2016.131)."

The researchers use a combination of electromechanical mapping with a NOGA system and positron emission tomography (PET) radiowater perfusion imaging to create 2-dimensional bull's eye maps that guide the injection of the gene therapy into the heart muscle. They target a site that has suffered ischemic damage, but is viable as shown by reduced contractile ability, to achieve the best possible outcome.

"Dr. Yla-Herttualla's milestone clinical trial results demonstrate how gene therapy for heart disease can be rendered much more specific," says Editor-in-Chief Terence R. Flotte, MD, Celia and Isaac Haidak Professor of Medical Education and Dean, Provost, and Executive Deputy Chancellor, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA.

Source: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., Publishers
People with diabetes are one step closer to more easily checking their blood glucose levels with a non-invasive device for detecting and monitoring blood glucose levels, which is currently in development. The hand-held breathalyzer device detects acetone, which has been linked to high blood glucose levels in the breath. The research is being presented at the 2016 American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Annual Meeting and Exposition, the world's largest pharmaceutical sciences meeting. The meeting is taking place in Denver Nov. 13-17.

Although testing technology has improved in recent decades, with the finger stick testing, as many as 67 percent of people with diabetes may not comply because it is invasive and somewhat painful. Yet, lack of blood-glucose monitoring can result in serious diabetes-related complications. For example, if a person's blood glucose is too low, complications can include seizures, loss of consciousness, and even death. If a person's blood glucose is too high, complications can include infections, cardiovascular disease and nerve and kidney damage.

"We believe this technology will be a great improvement in the lives of people with diabetes," said Priefer. "It is the first non-invasive medical device for detecting and monitoring diabetes by connecting one's acetone levels with their blood glucose. We believe it is a necessary alternative to the finger-prick approach for people living with type 1 and type 2 diabetes."

Ronny Priefer, Ph.D. and his colleague, Michael Rust, Ph.D., both out of Western New England University in Springfield, Mass., have developed a device  currently the size of small book  that individuals blow into to check their blood glucose levels.

Priefer and his team tested the device in a blind study of 50 people: 26 did not have diabetes, 16 had type 2 diabetes, and 8 people had type 1 diabetes. Using the device in conjunction with the sensor slides, when patients blow into the device, readings are immediately taken. The acetone level is instantly correlated to a blood glucose level, which allows patients to determine how much insulin they need to take when their glucose levels are high. Stage 1 clinical results found clear correlations between blood glucose levels and breath acetone. The only outlier found was in a small number of smokers, whom had higher levels of acetone in the breath due to the combustion of tobacco.

Priefer's goal is to have a device by the end of 2017 that patients can bring home and track their blood glucose levels over time. He is also working to make the device even smaller.
Predicting and influencing the behavior of groups based on mathematical models

For a long time, mathematical modelling of social systems and dynamics was considered in the realm of science fiction. But predicting, and at once influencing human behavior is well on its way to becoming reality. Scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are currently developing the appropriate tools. This will allow them to simulate and improve security at major events or increase the efficiency of evacuation measures.

Moving across a square groups of people create patterns which can be analyzed mathematically.  Photo: Andreas Battenberg / TUM

There is a long history of research aimed at predicting the behavior of groups and influencing them. But, it seems practically impossible to precisely predict the behavior of individuals, not least because of the myriad interactions between the physical, emotional, cognitive and social domains.

But things look quite different when considering people in traffic, in social networks and at major events in which they do not appear as individuals, but rather as part of a crowd. People in masses behave akin to particles in a fluid or gas, explains Professor Massimo Fornasier, chair of the Department of Applied Numerical Analysis at TU Munich.

Analogy to physics

In physics, it is not necessary to know the properties of every individual particle to calculate with a high probability the direction of flow of a large number of gas molecules. It is enough to understand their mean motion properties.

We can take the same approach when looking at flows of human masses, animal swarms or interacting robots: Analogous to the force of attraction between molecules in a gas, we can describe generalized behavioral patterns as resulting from interacting social forces between individual agents and represent them in mathematical equations, says Fornasier, describing his approach.

Calculating collective behavioral patterns

Professor Fornasier and his team have recently proven mathematical statements that demonstrate how surprisingly easy it is to automatically generate precise models for specific, relatively simple group interactions based on observed dynamics data.

Using computer simulations, the mathematicians can describe potential collective behavioral patterns of a large number of individuals who mutually influence each other in a given situation. In the next step we can then also make predictions about future behavior, says Fornasier. And once we can calculate the behavior of a group of interacting agents in advance, we are only one small step away from controlling them.

Informed agents follow the herd instinct

In an experiment conducted in May 2015 in collaboration with Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) and the University of Rome La Sapienza in Italy, Fornasier and his team demonstrated that the process is in fact amenable to influencing group behavior.

To this end, the researchers assigned two groups of 40 students each the task of finding a specific location in a building. The scientists planted two incognito informed agents into one of the groups. By merely moving very determinedly in a predefined direction, the agents were able to steer the group toward the target spot.

This experiment demonstrates that taking control of self-organizing systems, which also include groups of individuals, is possible with surprisingly little effort. The mathematicians also confirmed that the results apply equally well to very large groups. In fact, two to three agents per 100 individuals are sufficient, says Massimo Fornasier.

Herding dog strategy for opinion forming

The fact that his mathematical models are formulated in an entirely abstract environment makes them easily adaptable to a wide variety of situations. This facilitates finding efficient solutions for steering large masses of people though buildings in a stress-free manner or evacuating people in emergency situations.

But we can also apply our results to other interesting domains in society, like the behavior of investors in financial markets, says Fornasier. There, precisely coordinated activities by big investors can result in sizable market movements.

Opinion forming in groups also builds on the interactions of people. In their models, the mathematicians demonstrated that it is most effective to concentrate on the most radical defenders of a given opinion. If you manage to convince them, the rest of the group will follow.

There is also a good model for this in nature, according to Fornasier. To drive a herd of sheep in a desired direction, a good herding dog will always concentrate on the animal that is the farthest removed from the group. They achieve their goal by reining in the most stubborn animal.

Limits of prediction

For all the conceivably good application scenarios there remains, of course, the question of abuse, says Professor Fornasier. The good news in this context is that we have also proven that behavior is not so easy to predict or control for all kinds of dynamics and situations.

An important prerequisite for for predictability and controllability is that the myriad possible interactions between the agents in a large group can be reduced to a small number of effective ones, says Massimo Fornasier. Forecasts function well in groups that show generalized patterns of behavior.

However, with competing interactions, when the energy of individual agents is too large an equilibrium and, thus, concerted movement of the group of agents can no longer be imposed using simple, sporadic interventions.

An extensive forecast of events like that accomplished by the mathematician Hari Seldon in Isaac Asimovs Foundation series or the all-encompassing control exercised in Aldous Huxleys Brave New World will remain science fiction, says Professor Fornasier.
New Delhi: Three bills on the much-awaited Goods & Services Tax (GST) will see light of day in the winter session of Parliament beginning Wednesday, but the governments prestige legislation is all set to hit a Subramanian Swamy block.



The BJP Rajya Sabha MP has objected to private players being involved in setting up the infrastructure of the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) and told News18 that he will take up the matter in the Supreme Court.



This comes at a time when the Centre and state governments have finally come together in agreement over GST and come out with a four slab structure.



Swamy said he is approaching the Supreme Court as he feared sensitive GST data might fall into the hands of private players and foreign interests if the Centre goes ahead with the current structure.



I have sent half a dozen letters to the Prime Minister in this connection. He has acknowledged it. I have also sent the copies to BJP president Amit Shah, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and the Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, Swamy told News18.



The GSTN will be controlled by private players with majority foreign shareholder organisations like HDFC Ltd, HDFC Bank Ltd, LIC Housing Finance Ltd, ICICI Bank Ltd and NSE Strategic Investment Corp Ltd. No opportunity was given to Indian companies with majority Indian shareholdings and nationalised banks to become shareholders. It poses a serious threat. I am challenging it before the Supreme Court in the national interest, he said.



According to Swamy, in 2011 when Pranab Mukherjee was Finance Minister, the Centre had decided that GSTN would be owned by three government stakeholders: the Central government, the state governments and the Centre-owned National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL). Training his guns on former finance minister P Chidambaram, Swamy said that he had dropped NSDL and added five private players making it look like a private body for profits.



The Constitution Amendment Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha in its report accessed by News18 has expressed serious concerns over the structure of GSTN. The report said, The committee noted that the non-government shareholding in GSTN is dominated by private banks, and this is not desirable. It recommended that the non-government institution shareholding be limited to public sector banks and financial institutions.



Swamy has forwarded all his correspondence on the GSTN with the Centre to President Pranab Mukherjee, informing him that he was free for any consultation on the subject. He said that the Comptroller and Auditor General had no jurisdiction over the GSTN in its current form and it could lead to a huge scam. He has also questioned the rationale behind outsourcing computer programming to private IT companies alleging that mandatory procedures were not followed before awarding such contracts.



I once again strongly urge the Prime Minister Modi to direct the complete stay of all operations of the presently constituted GSTN. At the same time I will also be moving the SC seeking cancellation of it, he said.


The third party in the coalition, the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), supported the decision soon after.

On Monday, Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) agreed to back Steinmeier, Germany's most popular politician, who was nominated by his Social Democratic Party (SPD).

Germany's ruling coalition is backing Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier as the country's next president, succeeding Joachim Gauck, whose five-year term ends in February.

A 60-year-old political veteran, Steinmeier would likely have enough support to win a vote among the 1,260 delegates from Germany's 16 federal states on February 12.

Party leaders have been wrangling for months over whom to nominate as a potential successor to Gauck, a 76-year-old former pastor from former communist East Germany who is stepping down due to his advanced age.

While normally very diplomatic, Steinmeier strongly criticized U.S. President-elect Donald Trump during election campaign, saying the prospect of a Trump presidency was a "frightening" one for the world.

He warned a day after Trump's election that transatlantic relations would become "more difficult." "I think we must expect that American foreign policy will become less predictable for us and we must expect that the United States will be more inclined to make decisions on its own," Steinmeier said.

He also compared Trump to a "hate preacher", saying he had much in common with "fear-mongers" in Germany's right-wing populist AfD party as well as advocates of Britain's exit from the EU.

The German presidency is a largely ceremonial role, meant to transcend party politics and serve as a moral standard bearer for the nation.
: Since the demonetisation of high currency notes terror funding has come down to zero and there hasn't been stone-pelting on security forces, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said here on Tuesday.He thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the "daring" move, which, he said, will also help clamp down on the narcotic drugs."Earlier, there were rates: Rs 500 for stone pelting (on security forces in Kashmir) and Rs 1,000 for doing something else. PM has brought terror funding to zero," Parrikar said."In the last few days after PM's daring move there hasn't been stone pelting on security forces. I congratulate PM for it," he said, speaking at an event here organised by the BJP MLA Atul Bhatkhalkar.Talking to reporters later, Parrikar said those who sponsor terror will be affected by the demonetisation.Earlier, at the event, Parrikar said, "Bhatkhalkar did not tell me beforehand that he will felicitate me."A citation was presented to Parrikar, which lauded his role in surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir. It also thanked him for providing relief to people affected by land development rules in the vicinity of Central Ordnance Depots."When I became Defence Minister, I did not think there will be things like this (dealing with COD-land issue). I thought Defence meant bang-bang on the border," he said."Altogether, 17.38 lakh acres of land in the country is under Defence possession. Defence is the largest land owner in India," Parrikar said."There was delay in resolving COD issue as there were concerns over security on one hand and people's concerns on the other," he said."Whether it's border security or economic security, PM Modi has taken daring decisions," he said, adding "whatever is being done, our jawans on border are doing it, I and PM are just supporting it.""Problem of new notes circulation will be resolved to a large extent in the next four-five days," Parrikar said.In the next Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections, nobody will be left with power to bribe voters, Parrikar said, without naming the ally Shiv Sena which has been critical ofdemonetisation.The Defence Minister said an issue should not be made out of his simplicity and his shunning various official perks."I came to Mumbai thrice (on personal visits) and police didn't know," Parrikar said.BJP MP Gopal Shetty said he will expose Defence officers who indulged in irregularities while dealing with the COD issue.Providing relief to people in suburban Kandivli and Malad here, Parrikar had earlier this year said the local military authority (LMA) will have to respond within 30 days to applications for no-objection certificate for redevelopment and construction near the defence establishment, failing which the state government and the municipal corporation can take a call.The move was welcomed by residents of buildings within the 500-meter radius of the Central Ordnance Depot, a defence establishment spanning across 17 acres of Kandivli and Malad.Two notifications - issued by a cautious government in 2010 in the wake of the Adarsh scam and by the ministry of defence (MoD) in 2011 - had scuttled all redevelopment projects in the highly congested areas of Kandivli and Malad, as they made permission from the LMA mandatory for any construction within 500-meter radius of COD.
New Delhi: Since the demonetisation of high currency notes terror funding has come down to zero and there hasn't been stone-pelting on security forces, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Tuesday.



He thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the "daring" move, which, he said, will also help clamp down on the narcotic drugs.



Here is how it will affect terror operatives, Naxal activities and Kashmir valley:



HOW DEMONITISATION WILL NUKE TERROR ACTIVITIES?



- Terror operatives store money in the form of big denomination currencies and that money will remain just a piece of paper now



- Demonetisation has come as a shocker for hawala and smuggling transactions, largely responsible for terror financing



- It will also hit hard, albeit temporarily, the circulation of FICN, the prime vehicle for terror funding in India



- Around 90% of the fake Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes come in India from ISI and its associates in Pakistan and demonetisation will impair their capacity to fund terror in India



- It will give relief to national security establishment as most terror outfits take the black money route to fund their training, pay sleeper cell and arms procurement



WHY DEMONETISATION IS GOOD FOR THE KASHMIR VALLEY?





- Incidents of stone-pelting have reportedly reduced drastically in the Valley ever since demonetisation announcement



- With terror sponsors running short of big currency notes analysts say situation in the Valley will improve drastically in days to come



- In the past, several complaints had cropped up that separatists were paying stone-pelters and other anti-national elements



HOW IT WILL HIT NAXAL ACTIVITIES?



- Naxals are likely to suffer as they may struggle to deposit the demonetised cash which experts say runs in hundreds of crores



- Most of the cash Naxals hold are in big denomination notes which they hide deep inside the forests



- News reports quoting sources say Naxals have stashed more than Rs 7,000 crore in Bastar region alone



- Security agencies in Naxal hit areas are reportedly keeping an eye on bank branches, post offices and ATMs as they feel Naxals may use proxies to deposit these sums in the banking system



- Demonetisation has severely handicapped their capacity to procure firearms, ammunition, medicines, commodities of daily use and pay salaries to cadres




New Delhi: The case of missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed is likely to be raised in Parliament by the Opposition, with senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad saying that the matter was not just about a student, or a minority person, but about very humanity.



The Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha said the issue was raised during one of the meetings held on Tuesday ahead of the Winter Session of Parliament starting Wednesday.



"Three important meetings were held today, one was about our own party with Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha leaders present, the other was of Congress and other like-minded parties and the third was the all-party meeting with government and the opposition.



"During the meeting, various issues were raised, from demonetisation to SIMI (activists encounter) case, OROP. And, the case of Najeeb also came up. The leaders want that Najeeb's case be discussed in Parliament," Azad said.



He was a addressing a gathering here at a seminar organised here by National Tricolour Association of India, a non-profit organisation.



Azad, however, did not specify, the issue of the missing JNU student was raised in which of the three meetings. Najeeb went missing on October 15 following an on-campus scuffle allegedly with the members of ABVP the night before.



The senior Congress leader also met Najeeb's sister Sadaf and JNU student leader Shehla Rashid at the event.



"I must tell that this is not just about Najeeb or a Muslim person, but about very humanity. A university student disappears, and there is no action, then it is matter of concern. And, even if it was Hindu boy, we would have been equally concerned, and fought it with the same zeal," Azad said.



Earlier during the programme, former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, face of the party in Uttar Pradesh polls, sought to reach out to the Muslim community and said her party will always stand behind them.



"Our Muslim brothers should not fear anything and live in this country like any other member of any other community," she said.



Dikshit, before leaving met Sadaf and Shehla on the stage.



Shehla, who also addressed the gathering, took the occasion to hit out at the right-wing student outfit in the campus.



"He went missing on October 15, but why no sniffer dogs were used later, or CCTV cameras footage checked. Some even said, he had joined ISIS and was mentally unsound. These are all nonsense theories being rounded up," she claimed.



"This fight anyway is not just about Najeeb, but a fight to preserve the fabric of India. It is fight about what we we forget and what we will remember. But, we will fight for justice for Najeeb," she said.
A joint opposition has readied itself to put the government on the mat on the issue of demonetisation even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi

at an all-party meeting sought their cooperation for the exercise aimed at tackling black money.

Though Mamata Banerjees TMC failed to build a consensus on her partys proposed march to Rashtrapati Bhawan on Wednesday to protest demonetisation of high-value currency notes, 13 parties led by main opposition Congress resolved to vigorously raise the issue in Parliament.

At a meeting of 13 opposition parties including arch rivals TMC and CPI-M, besides BSP, SP, JD-U and DMK, opposition leaders unanimously concluded that it was too early to visit the President on the issue which must first be raised.

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New Delhi: A high security currency printing press in Mysuru played a key role in designing and printing of the new Rs 2000 denomination note.



According to S A Ramadas, former Karnataka minister and the honorary president of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) owned Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Private Limited (BRBNMPL) employees union, the press was asked to design the Rs 2000 currency note about six months ago and the printing started in September.



Speaking to News18 over telephone from Mysuru, Ramadas said, Mysuru press has got the best talent. We also have in house currency designers. They designed the new Rs 2000 currency and the printing was started in September.



About the secrecy in executing such a mammoth task, he said that employees and the union leaders knew that the Centre was going to do something historic with the new currency.



The moment the order came from the RBI head office in Mumbai for new currencies, we realised that something very big was afoot. But we had to maintain secrecy and kept quiet till PM Modi announced demonetisation, he said.



He also revealed that all employees worked non-stop for six days a week to meet the demand for huge quantity of new currency notes required to replace Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes.



Ramadas, who is also a state BJP leader, plays an important role in the RSS-affiliated trade union Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS) in Mysuru.



The BRBNMPL has been affiliated to HMS for a long time. Ramadas said that during Pranab Mukherjees term as the Union Finance minister, Bank Note Paper Mill India Private Limited was also set up in Mysuru to manufacture currency papers.



After Karnataka government agreed to provide 24 hours uninterrupted power and water supply to the unit, the paper manufacturing unit was established by the Centre. It helps us to prevent counterfeiting of our notes. The paper mill is so advanced that it manufactures the paper with all security features embedded in it including the image of Mahatma Gandhi and the denomination Rs.2000, he said.



He denied some media reports that new notes were airlifted from Mysuru airport. The newly-minted notes were transferred in heavily guarded goods trains from Mysuru to Bengaluru RBI office. From there it was sent to different parts of India, Ramadas said. The Mysuru press employs about 420 permanent workers and 200 temporary workers.
A day ahead of the winter session of the Parliament, the Opposition has recalibrated its position and shifted the goalpost to corner the government on demonetisation of high value currency.The main Opposition party, Congress has said that it will seek a probe on what it alleges is selective leak of the decision to favour a chosen few.After the all-party meet hosted by the government, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said the principal Opposition party in Parliament is not seeking a rollback of the decision.Instead, the Congress will now target government on the faulty implementation of the move aimed at wiping out black money from the system, while underscoring its support for the move aimed at weeding out unaccounted wealth in the market.This appears to be an extension of the line taken by the CPM on Monday. Many political parties including the Left have given a notice for the suspension of the question hour in both houses of Parliament to discuss the issueThe crystallisation of the political positions of various opposition parties came after a meeting of floor leaders in Parliament. It was felt that a joint march of the opposition MPs to Presidents House should be resorted to much later. Any move of this kind on the first day of the session itself would be high on optics but would leave very little for the Opposition to take the matter forward on the floor of the House.Also Read: Demonetisation Move: Here Are the Parties For And Against It West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who arrived in Delhi Tuesday afternoon has already sought an appointment with Rashtrapati Bhawan. She had a meeting with AAP leader and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal later in the evening. It now appears that Kejriwal joining the Mamata-led march is still not confirmed. Even SP and BSP do not appear to be too eager to join ranks with the TMC.The only shot in the arm for the TMC as it attempts to take a pole position on the issue has been the support extended by the NDA ally Shiv Sena. Now a junior partner of the BJP in Maharashtra, Sena has had strained ties with the BJP for a while now, with the two allies jostling for space ahead of civic polls in Sena bastion Mumbai.Government, on the other hand, is likely to rely on two factors in defending its position: what BJP feels is low probity quotient in a section of the Opposition, and linking government measures on demonetisation to larger attempt to weed out political corruption.Not so surprisingly, PM Modi broached the possibility of state funding of elections in India, while addressing the all-party meeting. The next one week will be very crucial in this regard.
New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee's recent Nepal visit showed that Indo-Nepal ties are not limited to politics alone. His visit to the Pashupatinath temple, Ram-Janaki temple in Janakpur and Pokhara to meet ex servicemen showed the strong emotional and historical connect that India has with people in Nepal.



Former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran said, "The visit to Janakpur and the meeting with ex-servicemen in Pokhara was a departure from the past and showed that Indo-Nepal relations cannot be narrowed down to the Kathmandu elite and that linkages with Nepal are actually much broader."



Saran, who has served as India's envoy to Nepal, feels a meeting between the Indian President and the Indian ex-servicemen community in Nepal was long overdue. He said, "The meeting would go a long way in reassuring this important constituency that India has not forgotten their contribution"



The visit had many firsts. The Indian Head of State was visiting Nepal after 18 years and the meeting with the ex-servicemen community or the Gorkhhas came after a gap of 35 years.

There are approximately 1.25 lakh ex-servicemen in Nepal who have served in the Indian Army and fought wars on its behalf. Over 11,000 army men had gathered at Pokhara to listen to their Supreme Commander.



Addressing them, President Pranab Mukherjee said, "You Indian ex-servicemen are a pillar of strength and a symbol of India's friendship with Nepal. We are proud of our Gorkha soldiers. I assure you on behalf of the Indian government that we will do all we can to ensure your welfare."



Colonel Sher Bahadur Gurung, one of the most senior most officers among ex-servicemen in Nepal said, "The visit of the supreme commander would go a long way in strengthening ties between the two countries. We are very happy that he came and addressed us."



In the last financial year the Indian ex-servicemen community in Nepal received over 3,000 Crores in pension from the Indian government and the figure is expected to cross 4000 Crores with the implementation of OROP. They are treated on par with their Indian counterparts.



Ex-servicemen, Col DB Thapa, says the Indian government has done a lot for the Gurkhas but despite that the community lacks a sense of identity in Nepal. He laments that despite the Gorkhas fighting valiantly in the First World War and Second World War the Nepal government has not released land for a war memorial. He hopes President Pranab Mukherjee's visit will change the attitude of Nepali politicians towards the Gorkhas and they would stop treating them as just another vote bank.



Shiv Shanker Mukherjee, another former envoy who has served in Nepal, also welcomed the Presidents meeting with ex-servicemen. He feels that the Indian government must now capitalize on the positive sentiment created by the Presidents visit. He says, "The internal politics in Nepal is in a mess, we must consistently keep reaching out to different communities and it shouldn't end with the Presidents visit."



Talking about the Presidents personal equation with Nepali leaders, the ex envoy said, "No one knows Nepal better than Pranab Mukherjee, he knows best what message to give when and in what language."



Indian diplomats feel that Indo-Nepal ties had taken a hit during the four month long blockade and Pranab Mukherjee's visit has provided the healing touch to some extent.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday broached the possibility of State funding of elections in India, while addressing an all-party meeting on the eve of the winter session of Parliament.This call for State funding has to be seen in the context of the ongoing debate on fighting corruption, highlighted by the governments move to demonetise 500 and 1000 rupee bank notes in a bid to curb black money.The government is also considering a crackdown on benami properties.It is a well accepted fact that election spending is the fount of black money in India.Though there are no hard numbers, federal and state elections and urban and rural local body polls see candidates and parties spending huge amounts of cash, much of it unaccounted money, in a bid to get elected. They try and recoup this money many times over during their terms in office.The Association of Democratic Reforms has worked in the area of electoral and political reforms, including corruption and criminalisation of the election process and the need for greater accountability of political parties.Trilochan Sastry, the founder of ADR and a professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, spoke to News18 about the development.Prof Sastry said that while ADR welcomes the move it should also be accompanied by regulation of excessive spending on elections.While State funding may cut out the black money component, candidates who take the cash may also supplement it with their own money, which may be black money.State funding may also enable outsiders to the party-political system, who are currently daunted by the criminalisation of electoral funding, to contest polls.Many people are unable to join politics because of this and State funding could enable them to, he told News18.Professor Sastry said that in instances where excessive spending was found, elections must be countermanded and candidates must be debarred. Effective implementation of this would go a step in cleaning up elections.
On another occasion, this would have been the perfect podium for the BJP top brass to come together and share a feast, but the wedding ceremony for controversial mining baron and party leader Gali Janardana Reddys daughter has plunged the BJP into chaos.

To attend or not to attend, that is the question vexing many in the ruling dispensation. The BJP brass, many who share a cordial relationship with the baron who was only recently released from jail, are not sure about being seen at Reddys Rs 100-crore wedding extravaganza when people across the country are queuing up at bank branches for spare cash post the demonetisation drive.

Karnataka BJP president and former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa trashed speculation that the party high command had asked its leaders to skip the function.

Its not true that the party high command has instructed us not to attend the wedding, he told News18, adding, I have been invited and I will attend.

At the Reddy pocket borough of Bellary, district BJP president S Gurulinganagouda said that Reddy had always been a BJP leader and there was nothing wrong in top party leaders attending his daughters wedding.

Also Read: Janardhana Reddy Hitches Comeback on Daughters Rs 100 Crore Wedding



According to a close aide of Yeddyurappa, a rattled Reddy called him up Monday night after local media reported that the BJP high command had asked party leaders not to attend the wedding.

However, the party state leadership is itself divided on the issue.

We are trying our best to defend PM Modis demonetisation and war on black money. Attending this wedding will surely cause a huge embarrassment to our party. But many are attending because of political compulsions, a top leader told News18 requesting anonymity.



According to sources close to the Reddy family, invitation cards  valued at Rs 10,000 each  have gone out to all major BJP leaders across India including Union ministers from the state Ananthkumar and DV Sadananda. The aides of these ministers said that they might attend the wedding.

The Reddy clan was close to top BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj and M Venkaiah Naidu till the CBI arrested them in 2011 in connection with mining scam. After that Sushma Swaraj had distanced herself from the family.

Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda who have also been invited could skip the function, according to their aides.

Karnataka Health and Family Welfare minister KR Ramesh Kumar has already said that no leader with self-respect should attend it.

PM Modi is talking big about eradication of black money. Black money is being used for the wedding of the daughter of his party leader in Karnataka. It exposes their hypocrisy. I am not attending and request others not to go, he told News18.

The function will take place at the 660-acre Bangalore Palace grounds on Wednesday. The main palace known as Windsor Palace built in the 19th century is the main wedding venue. To prevent media photographers from clicking the pictures of mega wedding, Reddy has deployed over 3,000 security guards and bouncers at the venue. Over 50,000 guests are expected to attend the wedding.

CNN News18s Bengaluru reporter Nagarjun Dwarakanaths mobile phone was snatched by the bouncers when he tried to click photographs of the venue.

Janardhana Reddy has been out on bail since January 2015 after spending almost four years in jail. He is still facing over two dozen criminal cases.
New Delhi: Former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit's son-in-law was on Tuesday sent to two-day police custody by a city court in a case of theft and misappropriating his wife's property.



Syed Mohammad Imran, who was arrested from Bangalore and brought here on transit remand, was produced before

Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma who remanded him to police custody till November 17.



Delhi Police sought two days custody of Imran saying they have to recover the articles which he had allegedly stolen.



Advocates P Banerjee and Neeraj Kumar, appearing for Imran, opposed the police plea saying the probe agency has

violated the provisions of CrPC and he should be released from custody.



The counsel argued that the arrest of accused was not mandatory in this case and the police should have given notice to him to appear before the officer.



According to police, Latika, Dikshit's daughter, had also accused her estranged husband of subjecting her to violence.



Latika and Imran had got married in 1996 but were living separately for the last 10 months.



In her complaint filed in June, Latika had alleged that Imran's attitude had changed towards her and had become

aggressive and rude towards her after her mother lost in the Delhi Assembly elections.



Latika had alleged that Imran took away papers of a piece of land owned by her in Nainital, despite having been told not to do so in May.



According to police, she also alleged that some of the belongings, kept at her Hailey Road house in central Delhi,

had gone missing and whenever she asked, Imran was evasive.



She also alleged that he took away jewellery and other expensive items from there.



Latika also accused one of her female relatives of being "in connivance" with Imran, they said.



A case was registered against Imran under Sections 403 (dishonest misappropriation of property), 120 B (Criminal

conspiracy), 201 (destruction of evidence)and 420 (cheating) of the IPC and under 66 of the IT Act.
Bulgaria's Socialist Party candidate has won the presidential election, leading to the resignation of the country's prime minister.

Former air force commander General Rumen Radev, a Russian-friendly political novice, won nearly 60 percent of the vote, according to nearly complete results released Monday. Tsetska Tsacheva, the candidate of the ruling center-right GERB party, fell far short in his attempt to become president.

Prime Minister Boyko Borisov congratulated Radev and announced his resignation, after what political analysts called a "catastrophic defeat," saying it was clear the ruling coalition had no majority and under the new situation could not make any reforms. Radev is to take office on January 22 for a five-year term. His first job will likely be to call early parliamentary elections next year because of Borisovs resignation.


New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government on a plea challenging a state law that allots bungalows to former Chief Ministers on their request.



Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre issued the notice on a plea by NGO Lok Prahari challenging the amended law.



The NGO was represented by its General Secretary and former bureaucrat S.N. Shukla.



Apparently, the amended law was brought to nullify the top court's verdict that barred the allotment of bungalows to former Chief Ministers.



The court directed six former Chief Ministers to vacate their bungalows.
New Delhi: Top government sources have told News18 that the next step after demonetisation is a crackdown on benami properties as part of a series of measures by the Narendra Modi government to rein in the black money economy.



But how easy is it to identify such transactions for the purpose of prosecution? Not very, tax experts and economists told News18.



It could possibly mean tax terrorism of the worst kind, Pronab Sen, a former Secretary of the Statistics and Planning Ministry and current head of the International Growth Centres India programme, said.



The tax man will check all legit and non-legitimate transactions in the search for benami properties, he added.



Benami property is that property which is registered in someones name but is paid for or financed with unaccounted money by a second party. The person who finances the deal is the real owner while the person in whose name the property is registered is the dummy.





For instance, a person who wants to transfer black money into property but wishes to remain anonymous can buy property and get it registered in the name of one of his family members, retainers or friends.



How will the government crackdown on benami properties? For this, it would have to cast its dragnet wide. Its quite possible that tax officials will ask people, some of whom may have legitimately purchased property for their aged parents or children, to justify transactions.



In other words, for every 100 people caught in the tax dragnet, possibly a small percentage would be benami properties.



There is a law called Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988 that was replaced with a new one called The Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016 which came into force on November 1 of this year.



According to the provisions of the law, a benami property is anything that doesnt adhere to the following criteria:

- Property held in the name of a spouse or child for which the amount is paid out of known sources of income

- A jointly held property with siblings or other relatives for which the amount is paid out of known sources of income

- Property held by someone in a fiduciary capacity



Everything else will be investigated accordingly.



Vishwa Bandhu Gupta, a former income tax commissioner, said that proving a benami property is very difficult.



It will be very difficult to prove which properties are benami if they have been registered before the demonetisation scheme was announced, he said.



The tax department will have to go case by case and they will need a database that lists benami properties, he added.



Gupta further said that the tax department doesnt have the resources to launch a mass crackdown on benami properties.



Probably the only way the government can make a case is to ask people who have property registered in their name to show a source of income that would justify the purchase of an expensive property. For instance, a property registered in a servants name would arouse suspicion because his/her source of income would not be commensurate with the value of the property.



Many Indian politicians have had such disproportionate source of income cases filed against them. Most recently Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was acquitted by the Karnataka High Court, in a case that dragged on for 20 years.



The Jayalalithaa case illustrates that benami cases could be administratively and legally difficult for the government to pursue.
Patna: On the first day of his 'Lok Samvad' programme, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday made it clear that total prohibition with the stringent new Bihar Excise & Prohibition Act, 2016, will continue in the state, an official said.



Principal Excise Secretary Amir Subhani told media here that Nitish Kumar interacted with 37 persons on Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016 during the programme.



"Interaction was positive with several people coming up with suggestions," he said.



Subhani said hundreds of people have also sent their feedback on prohibition by e-mails, SMSes and letters to the state government.



According to officials present at the programme, Nitish Kumar said the government will not compromise on the stringent provisions meant to punish violators of total prohibition as "consuming liquor and its manufacturing are not fundamental rights".



Officials said Nitish Kumar told people that he strongly believes in having discussion and debate on any issue with them.



He reiterated that over 16,000 people, mostly those engaged in manufacturing illicit liquor, have been arrested and sent to jail for violating the prohibition that came into effect in April 2016.



NItish Kumar also said that he is against innocent being harassed, arrested and punished under the stringent prohibition law.



Excise Minister Abdul Jalil Mastan said there will be no relief to violators of prohibition. "Some people have demanded more stringent provisions and increase of imprisonment term against violators of prohibition," he said after interacting with the people.



However, some people have suggested that Nitish Kumar-led government should amend the act. "They have suggested to change the provisions like all adult members of the family would be arrested if liquor is found stored in any household and collective fine will be imposed on the village."



The Patna High Court, on September 30, quashed the April 5 notification of the state government banning consumption and sale of alcohol in the state, saying it was ultra vires to the constitution.



Later, the state government moved the apex court which put the HC order on nold on October 7. The matter is likely to be heard on December 12.
New Delhi/Kolkata/Mumbai: With frustration over the cash crunch mounting, Parliament looks set to witness a firestorm of protest on the issue of demonetisation when it meets for the winter session tomorrow, with a joint opposition having readied itself to put the government on the mat.



Though Mamata Banerjee's TMC failed to build a consensus on her party's proposed to march to Rashtrapati Bhawan itself to protest demonetisation of high-value currency notes, 13 parties led by main opposition Congress resolved to vigorously raise the issue of hardship faced by the common people due to the exercise aimed at squeezing out black money from the system.



As ATMs struggled in disgorging cash and banks appeared crumbling under pressure due to demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 bills, a Congress-led opposition went into a huddle to devise ways to pin down the government on the issue. At a meeting of 13 opposition parties including arch rivals TMC and CPI-M, besides BSP, SP, JD-U and DMK, opposition leaders unanimously concluded that it was too early to visit the President on the issue which must first be raised adequately in parliamentary forums.



An all-party meeting, which was also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saw him seek the opposition's cooperation for demonetisation exercise aimed at tackling black money, counterfeit currency notes and terror funding, but his unrelenting rivals picked holes in it and accused him of not adhering to the principle of confidentiality and leaking information about the impending action.



Leader of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, however, made it clear after the all-party meeting that his party was not in favour of a roll back of demonetisation. "It is a big scam, perhaps the biggest. There was selective leak of information, many in the BJP and even others knew about it (demonetisation) beforehand. We will raise the issue in Parliament....There should be an inquiry...who should hold the iquiry should be decided.



"Some say this is an economic surgical strike before the elections (in some states including UP) aimed at finishing rivals and saving the ruling party (BJP)," Azad said after the meeting.



About Mamata Banerjee deciding to go ahead with her proposed march to Rashtrapati Bhawan, Azad said, she had sought an appointment with the President as a Chief Minister.



"She is within her right to go to the President alone, but when we go to him together, TMC will be a part of it." "We have been against black money, we are against black money and we shall be against black money. We have been criticising the government for its failure to bring back black money stashed abroad. But today, people are dying while standing in queues, workers, farmers have no money to pay their bills at hospitals. People from Kashmir to Kanya Kumari are harassed," he said.



Various parties have separately given adjournment notices in Lok Sabha and for suspension of proceedings in Rajya Sabha to discuss the issue and highlight the plight of the common man.



Meanwhile, the Delhi assembly passed a resolution demanding a roll back of the demonetisation exercise. As the government came under attack, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said a revolutionary or transformative step may have initial hiccups, but it gives long-term gains.



He said the demonetisation of higher currency notes had to be implemented with all secrecy as otherwise the people would have "taken care of" their ill-gotten wealth.



"There is need for ending parallel economy. Our neighbour is hiding, abetting, funding and training terrorists. There is 20 lakh crore of rupees of counterfeit currency in India which is weakening our economy. There are also arm dealers, smugglers...," he said, addressing a legislators' workshop in Delhi on infrastructure in the states.



The move will also curb Maoist operations as they "thrive" on black money.



Hitting out at the opposition, BJP said while Prime Minister Narendra Modi was working to curb black money and corruption with his demonetisation exercise, rival parties had "ganged up" against him.



Terming demonetisation as a 'surgical strike' on black money, BJP National Secretary Shrikant Sharma claimed that the general public is in the support of the move and now it has taken a shape of "people's movement".



He added that despite difficulties, the common man is supporting the decision.



Mamata Banerjee, however, unleashed a tirade against the government on the issue, saying the people have been reduced to "beggars" after having to stand in long queues to withdraw their own hard earned money.



"Tomorrow I am meeting the President on demonetisation issue. I will be meeting him with 40 of my MPs. I have spoken to various political parties. I have spoken to Rahul Gandhi, Nitish Kumar, Naveen Patnaik, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Arvind Kejriwal.



"If they want to join me, it is good. If not, then I will go alone with my MPs. National Conference leader Omar Abdullah is likely to join me," Banerjee told reporters at Kolkata airport here before leaving for New Delhi.



Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram of Congress ridiculed the demonetisation move, saying banks doling out cash to citizens was "proof" that 'achhe din' have arrived.



In a series of tweets, the senior Congress leader also took a dig at the Modi government on the way it was implementing the scheme, remarking that "millions of working people standing in queue. Long live productivity".



Shiv Sena, an NDA constituent which has been targeting the Modi government on demonetisation, said party leader Uddhav Thackeray was in touch with Mamata Banerjee on the issue.



"Mamata Banerjee and Uddhav ji are in touch. This is not a political issue but something which concerns people. Shiv Sena will do whatever it can to ease the hardship of people," its Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said.



In a sarcastic take on the emotional pitch of Modi over demonetisation, Shiv Sena said his decision to scrap high value currency notes would not put his life in danger unlike his predecessors Indira and Rajiv Gandhi who were assasinated while fighting for greater goals of the country.



Making an emotional appeal at a function in Goa on November 13, Modi had said that there were certain forces up against him that may not let him live and destroy him completely due to his decision on demonetisation and asserted that he was ready to face any consequence but would not get bogged down even if he was burnt alive.



"PM Modi is under a security which is impregnable where even a mosquito cannot bite him. Lives have been sacrificed by those innumerable freedom fighters for the nation. (Former PM) Indira Gandhi had waged a war against Khalistani anti- nationals, for which she paid by sacrificing her life," the Sena said in an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana', edited by Raut.



UP CM Akhilesh Yadav, in a controversial take on demonetisation said economists were of the opinion that black money helped the Indian economy in times of global recession.



"I am very clear on this...black money should not be generated. Economic experts say the magnitude of the global economic crisis at times is not felt in India because of strong (parallel) economy of black money," he said in Lucknow.




Islamabad: Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday submitted in the Supreme Court the details of his assets which included a letter by a Qatari prince who provided funds for purchase of controversial properties in London, which are now owned by Sharif's children.



Sharif and his daughter Maryam submitted a 397-page document detailing their assets.



The most interesting document given to the court is the letter from Qatari prince Shaikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Hamad bin Abdullah bin Jassim bin Muhammed Al Thani, stating that he gave money to the premier's family for the purchase of flats in London.



Sharif's children's counsel Akram Sheikh submitted the letter addressed to the apex court.



It says that Sharif in 1980 invested 12 million Dirhams in the Al Thani company belonging to the Qatari prince's father.



"In the year 2006, the accounts in relation to the above investment were settled between Hussain Nawaz Sharif and Al Thani family, who then delivered the bearer shares of the companies...To a representative of Hussain Nawaz Sharif (Sharif's son)," the letter read.



The letter immediately got a terse response from one of the five judges hearing the case who observed that the letter contradicts Sharif's statement in parliament this year when he did not disclosed the source of money or that he got it from a Qatari company.



The court is hearing five identical petitions by Imran Khan and others that Sharif's children were listed in Panama papers as having offshore companies that properties in London.



The petitioners asked the court to probe if the properties were purchased with legal money.



The court set November 17 for next hearing and also asked that Sharif's two sons - Hassan and Hussain should also submit the details of their assets.



Earlier, Imran's legal team submitted details to prove that Sharif laundered millions out of the country to build assets abroad which are now owned by his children.



The case could be make or break for Sharif who was elected third time Prime Minister in 2013.



The Qatari prince's letter may prove instrumental to dispel the charges by opposition that the London flats were bought with illegal money transferred by the Sharif family when he was ruling the country.
When a visitor walked into the plantation home at what is now Historic Sandusky, a slave would have greeted them.

A slave would have cooked the food they ate.

But the primary story told to visitors today at the plantation home, built in 1808 and now just off Fort Avenue, surrounds the period when Union troops occupied the home during Hunters Raid in 1864 and the family who owned it.

Kelley Fanto Deetz, a Lynchburg College professor, archaeologist and historian specializing in issues related to African-American culture and slavery, is working with Sandusky to deepen that story to tell what she calls shared history.

Its all of our history. At some point, whether its a poor white history, whether its a womans history, whether its an African-Americans history, a Chinese-Americans history, its all part of this America that we live in, Deetz said. And at some point, no matter who you are, you need to feel connected to that history, and for hundreds of years, its been an elite white male history. At some point, people want to know more about their past.

Deetz, a public historian who organizes materials, anecdotes and artifacts to narrate history of a structure and place, also recently worked on Nate Parkers film The Birth of Nation about the Nat Turner slave insurrection in Southampton in 1831, a significant event leading up to the Civil War.

Turners rebellion killed about 60 white people connected with slavery in less than two days. He was eventually caught, hanged and skinned.

Deetz came to the film project through a friend who was building the set, then consulted with Parker remotely, she said.

As the movie progressed in 2015, she reviewed photos from the set to make sure materials accurately reflected the period, such as slave quarters and the tobacco that would have been hanging on their walls. She also sent pictures to help with accuracy, she said.

The movie led to work with National Geographic, with which she recently participated in a search for Turners remains.

The search led to uncovering bones of the rebels near whom Turner was buried, she said.

Deetz wrote a cover story titled Nat Turners Bones: Reclaiming an American Rebel, for National Geographic, scheduled to be on newsstands in late December, she said.

Her manuscript, Bound to the Fire: Virginias Enslaved Cooks and the Birth of an American Myth, is scheduled for publication in the fall of 2017, she said. She is using that material to highlight the relationship of slaves who labored at Sandusky.

If you think about that quintessential plantation scene, you go to have dinner at someones house, all the food that youre seeing or eating, this big massive dinner table full of food, and the balls, and all the sort of glitz that comes with that period in Virginia elite culture, putting enslaved cooks and their skills at the center of what was actually happening, Deetz said. ... When you leave those kinds of people out of the story, its just very one-sided.

Deetz often counsels plantation museums, looking to teach people about the United States dark history of slavery, and helps facilitate discussions on race relations.

I help integrate stories about the African-American past, so dealing with issues of slavery in their exhibits, introducing controversial topics in a way that people feel comfortable to address them and to digest them in a lot of ways, Deetz said.

When Deetz, who first came to Lynchburg in 2000 to work at Randolph College, started teaching a graduate course in public history at Lynchburg College this year, she learned most of her students worked at Sandusky, which is owned by the school.

The course evolved into a project developing a narrative exhibit around slavery at Sandusky. Deetz recently became a board member at the site, she said.

Sandusky is ready to move forward with that and they want to be more inclusive with their narrative, take it out of their strict boundary of the Civil War and talk about the longer history of the property, which very much includes black labor, she said.

A sampling of the exhibit will be on display at Lynchburg College starting Dec. 6, she said. Historic Sandusky is applying for National Endowment for the Humanities grants to expand the temporary display into a four-room interactive exhibit at Sandusky.

The first room will teach about black communities residing at the plantation. The second will be about the white people who lived there. The third will examine how their lives interacted. The fourth is meant to encourage visitors to interact with each other about their own shared history.

People like to think that blacks and whites were never part of a shared community, Deetz said. ... Jim Crow kind of made things seem like it was sterilely split, but the fact of the matter is that African-Americans who were enslaved were working inside of the house, they were nursing white babies. The children grew up together. It was way more complicated than people like to think.

The first day of the course, students were assigned to bring in articles about controversial issues in museums.

In a museum, youre going to have to deal with controversy one way or the other whether you agree with it or not, and youre going to have to interact with the public that may see something that youre doing as controversial and understand how to then interact with them, said Diana Harvey, a historical interpreter at Sandusky, and one of Deetzs students.

Students said the class was practical and discussion-based, with Deetz leading the conversation as a contributor not a lecturer.

We all sit down and we discuss. She may help mediate and guide, but shes an active participant in the discussion, said Kelly Childress, another Sandusky historical interpreter and Deetz student.

As public historians were continuously going to be interacting with people, and thats why its such a large component of the class, Childress said.

Deetz, who is white, holds a Ph.D. in African Diaspora Studies from the University of California at Berkeley, in the city where she grew up. She is also a research associate at the James River Institute for Archeology

If you like Shakespearian literature and youre not English, people dont say, Why are you into that? Deetz said in response to a question about her focus area.

... Theres so much there to learn about the African-American past. The other part of me does it because I think its really important for us as a nation to come together and really talk about our shared history. Its a gap in peoples knowledge.
UPDATE, 6:58 A.M. TUESDAY: The Amber Alert has been canceled, Virginia State Police said Tuesday morning. Annabelle Doretha Hope Richardson, 4, and Dylan James Richardson. Richardson, 24, have been found.

EARLIER: An Amber Alert has been issued by the Virginia State Police and Virginia Missing Children Clearinghouse for Annabelle Doretha Hope Richardson.

Annabelle is a 4-year-old Caucasian girl, 3 feet tall and 22 pounds with green eyes and short blond hair.

She is believed to be in extreme danger and last was seen at 400 Thomas Jefferson Highway in Charlotte.

The Charlotte County Sheriffs Department believes the child was abducted by Dylan James Richardson. Richardson, 24, is a Caucasian male, 5 feet 10 inches and 140 pounds with blue eyes and brown hair.

According to the news release, Dylan and Annabelle may be traveling in a burgundy, 1995 Chevy van north toward New Jersey. The van has a Virginia license plate with the number VMG2332.

Contact the Charlotte County Sheriff Department at (434) 542-5141 or the Virginia State Police at 1-800-822-4453 with any information.
New career and technical education options are coming to Campbell County Public Schools.

In a presentation to the Campbell County School Board on Monday, James Rinella, director of secondary education for the division, and Jon Hardie, principal at Campbell County Technical Center, updated the board on new secondary education programs set to launch in the upcoming school year.

According to Rinella, the school division is working with Central Virginia Community College to add two dual-enrollment programs to allow students to study fire safety and cyber security at CVCC.

"We're very excited to be able to expand our menu of opportunities for our students," Rinella said.

Each certification program requires 18 credits and is designed to split nine credits between spring and fall semesters. Rinella added five dual-enrollment programs with CVCC already are in place.

Current dual-enrollment programs between Campbell County and CVCC allow students to earn the following certificates: heating, ventilation and air conditioning, emergency medical technician, pre-nursing and welding and machine tooling.

Rinella said the division hopes to have 80 to 100 dual-enrollment slots total for all programs offered.

During the presentation, board member Susan Hogg noted the rise of computer-based jobs could lead to expanded career opportunities for students based on a certification earned in high school.

With dual-enrollment courses, there is no cost to the student to take classes through CVCC.

A Manufacturing Technician Level One (MT1) program also is being prepared to launch next school year.

Hardie said students who complete MT1 certification could enter the manufacturing industry out of high school. Unlike the dual-enrollment programs, MT1 classes will be taught in Campbell division schools.

Hardie explained technical education teachers at each high school already were certified to teach MT1 classes, though interest would drive the decision on whether to offer it in high schools or at the Technical Center.

The MT1 program will focus on a combination of skills, including teamwork and positive workplace behavior, mechanics and spatial reasoning, thermodynamics and fluid power, electricity, controls and circuits, chemistry, business acumen and mathematics, according to Hardie.

The MT1 program is endorsed by the Virginia Manufacturers Association, an industry advocate.

These are the skills that they want, so we're going to use a curriculum that they value, that they like, Hardie told the school board.

He added it is important for students to understand the nature of modern manufacturing jobs.

We don't want them to see yesterdays manufacturing environment; we want them to see that these are very clean environments that deal with robotics and machines, Hardie said.

The program could be split across one- or two-year options, depending on class schedules.

Hardie said MT1 certification likely would be a two-year program unless taught in a block schedule format, where students are allowed to spend back-to-back class sessions on the program.
RUSTBURG  Experts will evaluate a Lynchburg mans competency to stand trial on multiple charges connected to a police standoff last fall in which he is accused of firing at officers.

A lawyer for Calvin Garvis Ramsey III, 40, sought the evaluation order in Campbell County Circuit Court. Ramseys next court date will be in January, potentially to set his trial if the evaluation is completed by then, Commonwealths Attorney Paul McAndrews said Monday.

The evaluation aims to determine both competency and sanity prior to trial, he said.

Ramsey is accused of shooting at officers after barricading himself in a utility trailer during an October 2015 overnight incident on the 200 block of Walnut Lane in Campbell County.

The standoff followed a Virginia State Police trooper locating Ramsey, who was wanted by the Appomattox County Sheriffs Office at the time, and then Ramsey allegedly pointing a firearm at the trooper, according to state police.

Ramsey later was arrested, and no one was injured in the standoff, police said.

He was charged with five counts each of attempted malicious wounding of a police officer, assault on a law enforcement officer and using a firearm in commission of a felony.

Ramsey also faces several misdemeanor charges, including reckless handling of a firearm, obstruction of justice and carrying a concealed weapon.

His attorney, Gregory Smith, of Madison Heights, said Monday he could not comment on the defense motion for a competency evaluation of Ramsey.

Its not clear whether the assessment will be completed before the next court date in January, or if Ramsey will be taken out of jail for an inpatient evaluation, he said.

Virginia Code Section 19.2-169.1 provides for an expert evaluation if there is probable cause a defendant lacks substantial capacity to understand the proceedings against him or to assist his attorney in his own defense.

The law directs the evaluation to take place on an outpatient basis at a mental health facility or jail, unless the court finds such services unavailable or the results indicate hospitalization is necessary.
The real-estate mogul was responding to a New York Times article that summed up his often bizarre pronouncements on foreign policy, including that he "suggested that more countries should acquire nuclear weapons."

U.S. president-elect Donald Trump flip-flopped on Sunday on his earlier statement on the campaign trail that countries like South Korea and Japan should acquire their own nuclear arsenals to protect themselves.

But when asked on March 25 about the possibility of South Korea and Japan acquiring their own nuclear arsenals, Trump told the New York Times. "If the United States keeps on its path, its current path of weakness, they're going to want to have that anyway. Because I don't think they feel very secure in what's going on with our country."

And at a CNN town hall meeting on March 29, Trump said that North Korea, Pakistan, and China have their own nuclear arsenals, and that Iran is going to have its own within 10 years.

"At some point we have to say, you know what, we're better off if Japan protects itself against this maniac in North Korea, we're better off, frankly, if South Korea is going to start to protect itself," he added.

The remarks sparked criticism from both the Democratic and Republican parties for flying in the face of the U.S.' non-proliferation regime.

Trump's latest tweets seem aimed at preventing his stump braggadocio from causing further controversy.

"On Thursday, Mr. Trump spoke to South Korean President Park Geun-hye and, according to her office, reaffirmed his intention '100 percent' to uphold the alliance and strengthen it," the Washington Post said Sunday. "Following the election, he has seemed to step away from one of his most disruptive ideas."


For the past 70 years, antibiotics have successfully treated patients with a range of infectious diseases. But now, the diseases are beginning to outsmart the drugs.

Bacteria is becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics, and each year at least 2 million people in the U.S. become infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At least 23,000 people die each year as a direct result of those infections.

At a news conference Monday, four entities announced their collaboration to enhance Virginia's "antibiotic stewardship," or the proper prescribing and use of antibiotics in the hopes of curbing the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

"We need to get this right," said Dr. J. Thomas Ryan, senior medical advisor with the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association. "If we do not get this right, antibiotics will no longer kill bacteria."

In addition to the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association, the other collaborating entities are the Virginia Department of Health, the Medical Society of Virginia, and Health Quality Innovators.

Dr. Hughes Melton, chief deputy commissioner with the Virginia Department of Health, said the four entities are working to spread education about antibiotic-resistant bacteria and enhance data collection so antibiotic prescriptions are better tracked in Virginia.

For now, he said, ensuring antibiotics are properly prescribed and properly used is the first step.

"A dialogue has to happen between providers and patients in order to try and end up with the best antibiotic selection," Melton said.

Dr. Diane Woolard, the director of the department's division of surveillance and investigation, said the department is working to emphasize the use of data and encourage hospitals and other providers to report how often they prescribe antibiotics.

There is very little information available regarding how many antibiotics are prescribed annually in Virginia, or how often those antibiotics fail to clear an infection.

"We're trying to track (antibiotic-)resistant organisms, but we also have limited data available on those," Woolard said.

On Monday the Department of Health also announced the release of its first annual Healthcare-Associated Infections Report, which is aimed at both providers and consumers. It features information on how often patients develop infections within health care settings, such as hospitals.

Dr. Samuel Bartle with the Medical Society of Virginia said there are steps patients should take to ensure they are taking antibiotics properly and reduce their risks of developing antibiotic-resistant infections.

They should take the drugs as prescribed, not share them with anyone or save them for later, take the full course even if they start to feel better after a few hours, and only take them if they were prescribed.

"Even something as simple as an ear infection doesn't always require antibiotics," he said. "We're trying to tell parents that sometimes, an antibiotic is not necessary if (their child) has an ear infection."
Virginia's general fund revenues rose 3.4 percent in October over October 2015, driven mostly by payroll withholding taxes, according to the McAuliffe administration.

The general fund is the part of the budget over which the governor and lawmakers have discretion. It is made up mostly of income and business taxes and goes toward services such as education, public safety and health care.

"This month's report is encouraging news as we continue to overcome the effects of sequestration and our historic over-reliance on federal spending by growing and diversifying our economy," Gov. Terry McAuliffe said in a statement.

"While we are headed in a positive direction, we still have some difficult decisions to make to close a revenue shortfall in the fiscal year 2018 budget."

Collections of payroll withholding taxes rose 4.8 percent in October compared with October 2015, despite one fewer deposit day.
Opposition parties accused the ministry of trying to take advantage of the crony scandal that has engulfed the president and is keeping peoples eyes off the ball. Minjoo Party floor leader Woo Sang-ho said, "We're going to ask for the dismissal of Defense Minister Han Min-koo or initiate impeachment proceedings against him."

It took the two countries just 18 days after they resumed talks on the pact on Oct. 27. This is the second time since 2012 that the government has tried to rush the pact through, fearful of opposition to any military agreement with the former occupying power.

Korea and Japan in talks in Tokyo on Monday concluded an agreement on sharing military intelligence, the Defense Ministry here said.

The agreement is expected to be signed officially this month once it has been passed by a Cabinet meeting and approved by the president. It covers the exchange, use, storage, and protection of military information between the two countries. Currently any military intelligence on North Korea from Japan has to be passed to Seoul through the U.S.

"Sometimes we've failed to receive military intelligence from Japan in good time because it travels through the U.S.," a government official here said. "Once the agreement is signed, Seoul and Tokyo will be able to exchange all information about the North directly."

Asked why the ministry is rushing the deal through at this time, Han told reporters, "This has nothing to do with the scandal. We're pushing ahead with it out of concern for security."

"We need to make the most of the information about the North that Japan has collected if it's better than ours," a ministry spokesman said.

Japan is much better equipped for surveillance than South Korea. It has six Aegis vessels, 77 P-3C and P-1 maritime patrol aircraft, 17 E-2C early warning and control aircraft, and four ground radars with a range of more than 1,000 km, as well as five to six reconnaissance satellites.

In turn Tokyo is interested in the human intelligence Seoul gathers through senior North Korean defectors.

The ministry dismissed fears that the agreement would pave the way for Japanese troops to set foot on the Korean Peninsula. "It would be impossible for them to come without request or consent," the spokesman added.


Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering again suffered a loss in the third quarter of this year. The company's accumulated losses from 2013 until this third quarter surpass W6 trillion (US$1=W1,176).

Daewoo said Monday that it posted revenues of W3.05 trillion, an operating loss of W143.1 billion and a net loss of W238.2 billion in the July-September period.

Accumulated operating losses in the first three quarters of this year totaled W593 billion and net losses W1.43 trillion.

Daewoo is among the nation's troubled top 3 shipbuilders alongside Hyundai Heavy Industries and Samsung Heavy Industries but is the only one to have posted losses last quarter.

Hyundai managed a third-quarter operating profit of W321.8 billion, and Samsung shifted into the black after a W283.8 billion loss in the second quarter.

At present, Daewoo's labor union is clashing with management over self-rescue measures including spinning off affiliates. Management insists that more downsizing as well as a no-strike pledge from the union are necessary to stem further hemorrhaging of money, but the union complains that management is unilaterally pushing ahead with restructuring without negotiating with workers.

This week is a crucial moment for the ailing shipbuilder. The Financial Services Commission and creditors are pursuing a capital expansion and are pressuring the union to submit a written pledge by Wednesday to adhere to restructuring plans.

If the union refuses, creditors are threatening to pull the plug on a W2.8-trillion capital expansion plan.

FSC chief Lim Jong-ryong said, "We must face the reality of a delayed recovery due to accrued operating losses from plummeting orders. The labor union must submit a written pledge that they will not resist restructuring plans."
Anti-male culture

Observed annually on November 19 (his fathers birthday), it calls for positive male role models in all walks of life; the celebration of mens positive contribution to family life; a focus on mens health and spiritual well-being; improving long gender relations; combating discrimination against men in areas of social services and law; and creating a safer world where people can optimise their abilities.

Teelucksingh has long been an activist for social justice, and has written and spoken extensively on labour movements and workers rights in the Caribbean. His activism turned to addressing the spiritual, cultural and psychological problems of men caused by shifts in gender roles, male stereotyping, and social institutions that have overwhelmingly sided with women in custody battles.

Although he is the architect of this growing movement, Teelucksingh declines a leadership role and prefers the title, co-ordinator.

This is a pure grassroots movement that allows our many co-ordinators to function and grow their respective bodies as they see fit; so its not uncommon to see different websites and logos. Thats fine. Whats important is that we work toward the same goals. He calls International Mens Day a conscious movement and a way of living. Teelucksingh says that being a co-ordinator should not be a burdensome job or one that demands attention for the entire year. He advises interested individuals to create a timeline which will show when, where and they will begin planning the observance. He also encourages co-ordinators to create archives of their specific work undertaken on that day.

This is important so that other co-ordinators and supporters would be interested in how they could better their own work and improve observances. He emphasises the importance of the most seemingly inconsequential of tasks. No activity is too simple, too insignificant and unworthy if it involves easing the burdens of another living creature. Each drop of sweat, every cent, every second spent in a worthwhile activity will surely assist in helping humanity and improving society. After a laboured start International Mens Day gained momentum when American-born Diane Aisha Sears was contacted by a co-ordinator in Australia.

In synch with Dr Teelucksinghs vision, Sears assumed the role of United States co-ordinator. Arguably, she is now the fulcrum of a movement that is now observed in 81 countries.

From her office in Philadelphia where she oversees co-ordinators in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Alabama, Delaware, New Jersey and New York, she recalls a childhood that was culturally and spiritually nurtured by every member of her close-knit family. I learned more outside the classroom, she said.

Still, she excelled in college and now works as a paralegal. Sears was introduced to In Search of Fatherhood, a project that was undertaken by LT Henry, her mentor. His sudden passing was an enduringly painful experience.

He suffered so much but I feel that he is living through my involvement with International Mens Day. When she was introduced to Dr Teelucksingh in 2009, it all came together. Sears effusively praises the Trinidadian lecturer and activist. His organisation felt so real and so important, she notes. When I look around I see that boys and men have become the underclass. There is so much emphasis on girls and women now that we are ignoring a festering social problem. Sears identifies fatherless homes and the separation of men from their children as an issue that needs to be addressed. However, she posits that skewed, unnatural upbringing of boys breeds dysfunctional men that are incapable of social integration.

Boys are generally not allowed to express their feelings although they emerge from the womb with the same emotions as girls, she opines. When boys are erroneously taught that strength is purely physical  to suck it up - and crying is a sign of weakness, we are courting trouble. Boys must learn that showing vulnerability in front of another person is a risk and that is sign of strength not weakness.

Where does the emotional and psychological pain go? Either it implodes, leading to alcoholism, drug addiction and domestic problems; or it explodes in the form of violence and suicide. Its the elephant in the room. Sears presents staggering statistics on male suicide, the theme of this years International Mens Day.

Of every 1000 suicides every year, 79 percent are male. Why then do men resort to suicide as the only option to escape from psychological, spiritual and emotional pain? she asks.

She refers to an article entitled, Its Society, Not Biology That is Making Men More Suicidal, penned by a British journalist. She culls a profound assertion from this article that was published in The Telegraph: If depression is the minds way of telling us there is something wrong in our environment, then the broader increase in male suicides is telling us there is something wrong in our society. Sears has prodigiously embarked on a programme geared for inmates at correctional facilities.

International Mens Day of Healing and Repatriation, she says, underscores the need for atonement and for inmates to be involved in planning their reintegration as wholesome and constructive human beings in society. Although buoyed by the accomplishments of International Mens Day Sears acknowledges the challenges ahead and looks forward to working closely with Dr Teelucksingh.

We must articulate and be true representatives of our mission and ideals every day. Only then can IMD be instrumental in transforming society for the better. Feedback: glenvilleashby@ gmail.com or follow him on Twitter@ glenvilleashby
Calypso Troopers vie for Tuco posts

Their mission is to elect members for the General Council for a three-year term and it will be done by secret ballot.

The elections will take place at the VIP Lounge at the Queens Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain, from 10 am. Several positions are being contested while other will go uncontested.

All eyes are on the post of president where incumbent Lutalo Masimba (Brother Resistance) has taken to social media to campaign as he defends his position from former minister of culture, community development and one time Tuco president Winston Gypsy Peters.

Also in the running for president is former calypso monarch Morel Peters (King Luta) who leads a group called Calypso Troopers.

Ainsley King of Tobago is uncontested for the post of vice president while former calypso monarch Eric Taylor (Pink Panther) of the Calypso Troopers is coming up against Wayne McDonald (Cassman) for the post of general secretary.

Dennis Cox (Lasana) will be challenged by Robert Elias (Trini) of Calypso Troopers for the post of treasurer.

Karega Mandela has withdrawn his candidacy for the post of public relations officer so the race is wide open with five candidates.

Former calypso monarch, Duane OConnor, Steve Pascal (Ras Kommanda), Miguella Simon, Winston Henry (Explainer) and Abbi Blackman of Calypso Troopers will toss up for PRO while Devon Seale is uncontested as assistant PRO.

Carlton Kerr (Calypso Kerr) will be challenged by Joseph Thompson (Carva) for the position of welfare officer.

Calypso Troopers has Masha Clifton (Lady Adana) and Ainsley Mayers (El Drago) running for trustees, Lenox London will run for the position of marketing manager and Melissa Williams is going after the education and research officer post.

Word from Calypso Troopers is that they are a well organised body which has calypso and Tuco membership at heart and their purpose is to have selected the suitable persons collectively to take the organisation forward in a new direction
Male mentorship workshops for Carenage

Acting deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and the Arts, Beverly Reid-Samuel delivered remarks on behalf of Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly.

She said the ministry recognises the role that it plays in youth development in communities across Trinidad and Tobago. As such, she formally applauded the work of The Esimaje Foundation towards empowering men to take full advantage of opportunities that foster healthy fatherhood functioning, positive leadership and accountability in the home, community and nation.

She also noted that in May, the Ministry launched the Reach Mentorship Programme in collaboration with The Association of Female Executives of Trinidad and Tobago (AFETT ), which focused on young women in society.

The event was attended by representatives of various religious organisations and educational bodies.

The ministry stated it is proud to partner with the Esimaje Foundation in this initiative geared towards connecting young men with mentors, professionals in various fields, who will guide them towards progressive thinking and development.
PM: TT keeping close eye on Trumps deportation plan

The Prime Minister made the comment to reporters during a walkabout in St Joseph in support of Peoples National Movement (PNM) Valsayn/St Joseph candidate Marcia Chan Pack.

Rowley said if some of those people are TT citizens and they are deported, we just have to absorb them back home. He admitted this would not be a good situation for the country but its not something we have any control over. He added, We dont have too much say in that.

We are just hoping that does not become US policy. Reiterating that the Government has been keeping our eyes on the development in the politics in America, Rowley said, We have citizens all over the world and we have a large number in the United States. The Prime Minister said while there is a view there might be some backing away from Trumps statement, some people may return on their own if the circumstances in America change, America becomes less friendly and less the land of opportunity. Should any TT nationals residing in the US decide to return home, Rowley said, We have to ensure that we absorb them and they become part of where they came from. In cases where such people have no families in TT, the Prime Minister said, that does not change the fact that they are TT citizens, so they will just have to integrate themselves into homes here. Rowley said this was not just a matter of TT nationals returning home but also the case of people in this country who depend on or who are supported by remittances from relatives living in the US.

He added that this could put additional pressure on our situation.
Woman killed along Wrightson Rd in hit-and-run

According to reports, the woman was attempting to cross the eastbound lane of Wrightson Road, at about 4 am when she was struck by a vehicle. The woman died at the scene. Newsday understands the woman of African descent and who was clad in a blue dress was struck by the vehicle with such force that her clothes were ripped off.

Police and emergency services were called, and eastbound traffic was diverted onto Richmond Street, while investigators cordoned off and processed the scene of the accident. Her body was ordered removed to the Forensic Science Centre, St James where her body will be kept for safekeeping.

Police sources told Newsday yesterday that CCTV footage is being retrieved from cameras positioned along Wrightson Road, to find the make and by extension the owner of the vehicle which struck the woman .

Police officers investigating the incident sent a public message to the driver, strongly suggesting he or she make themselves available to the Central Police Station, as soon as possible. In an unrelated incident, a teenaged boy is now resting comfortably after being struck by a maxi while on his way to school. Newsday understands at about 7.30 am yesterday, the 14-year-old Form 1 student was attempting to cross Pashley Street, Laventille when he was struck by a maxi taxi. The boy was rushed to the nearest hospital, where he was said to be treated for a broken leg. He suffered no life-threatening injuries.
Baby Mercys family still in custody

Up to last evening, police detectives confirmed that the grandmother, who is 40 years old and her children  an 18-year-old young woman who is also the babys mother, a boy, 15, and a 13-year-old girl  were assisting with the investigations.

It is believed the baby girl named Mercy, who was born on February 8, died some eight months ago. But rather than reporting the death to the authorities, the baby was kept inside a crib in a room of the wooden house located at Chin Fong Alley #1, Sobo Village.

Last Friday, an autopsy performed at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, revealed that the cause of death was inconclusive.

The bizarre discovery of the decaying body of the baby girl still clad in a diaper caused several residents to call on police to have psychiatric evaluations conducted especially for the grandmother, who had told them that the baby was hers.

Police have since responded to the cries saying that they do not have the authority to take detained individuals for psychiatric evaluation unless they are charged for an offence.

All four relatives were not charged as of last evening.

Woman Sgt Taitt of the La Brea Police Station is spearheading investigations.
Call for Caricom to meet Trump to discuss immigration

In his first interview since being elected as US President, Trump told a US television station that those persons, which he estimated at between two and three million people, would be deported back to their home countries.

What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, probably two million  it could be even three million  we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate. Trump said.
Fight over Mano Benjamins land

In fact, residents confirmed that the preacher conducted a religious service a few months ago on the compound located at Erin Road, Cap-de- Ville, on the outskirts of Point Fortin. It lasted for about 30 minutes and there were scripture readings and singing of hymns, a resident said.

Residents explained that the plot of land was used as a military installation / barracks with cadastral maps showing the plot as being labelled State lands.

However, the status of the lands was called into question when several people began enquiring about the lands, some even claiming to possess legal documents as it related to its ownership.

Officers of the South Western Division confirmed that there were several reports of disputes over crops planted on the property between two men who are encroaching on State lands. They have responded to constant bickering between these two men in particular although several other persons had claimed ownership.

A police source confirmed that neither of the two men have produced any official documentation to show ownership of the land.

One claimed that he received official documents from the Agricultural Ministry which state that he is allowed to plant crops.

He has not showed us any proof whatsoever of that. The other had a vision from God, a police officer noted.

I do not know why these fellas are so interested in that particular plot of land. Maybe Mano buried gold there and we (police) dont know, another police officer said referring to the notorious Benjamin.

Benjamin, dubbed The Beast from Biche, sexually assaulted and enslaved two sisters whom he blinded in the 1960s at Biche. The convicted man served 30 years in prison, following which he moved into the bunker, a World War II-era building used by American soldiers, in Cap-de-Ville.

He died in February 1998.

Prior to his death, no one overtly claimed ownership for the bunker and its accompanying plot.

Shortly after Benjamins death, thieves made off with several parts of the bunker, including windows and purlin, believed to have been sold as scrap iron.
SFGH neo-natal unit up and running

At a media conference last week, medical director (acting) at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital Dr Anthony Parkinson said the neonatal unit at the SFGH had been shut down after five babies contracted a bacterial infection, all of which occurred at the same time.

The neonatal unit of a hospital provides expert, round-the-clock care for newborn babies who are ill or are born prematurely.

In a telephone interview yesterday, SWRHA chairman, Dr Alex Sinanan, said the unit had been closed on October 22 but had since reopened after the necessary rehabilitative works had been done at the unit.

The closure occurred in October, so the issue has been sorted out, he said, adding, it was closed at the time because of a couple of infections but the unit has subsequently been sanitised. In a media statement yesterday, Barataria/San Juan MP, Dr Fuad Khan, expressed frustration that the current administration was undermining decades of progress in the public health sector through negligence and mismanagement. The closure of the Neonatal Unit at the San Fernando General Hospital is only the latest in a series of gaffes by this Government that is severely affecting the health care services being provided to our citizens. What this has done is not only added further burden to the neonatal unit at the Portof- Spain General Hospital, which is now tasked with caring for the babies relocated from the San Fernando facility, but during the time that it takes for the San Fernando unit to be repaired, there are currently no neonatal facilities to service citizens south of the Caroni bridge, Khan stated.

He once again pointed out that the Couva Childrens Hospital was designed with fully-functioning and advanced Neonatal ward that could be used in the current situation to assist in not only treating the babies who are currently being relocated to Port-of-Spain, but can also relieve the workload from the other units across the island. Khan also alleged that there had been a sharp decrease in the number of qualified neonatal nurse and midwives at the public health facilities.
Haig Street residents appeal for help with garbage

Norma Edwards,a resident of Haig Street for more than 30 years, told Newsday she tried raising the matter with the councillor for the area and the corporation, but the matter is yet to be addressed.

I have tried everyone I think could help us with this problem and no one came to see how bad the garbage bins are affecting us. When the bins are filled and rain falls, the garbage gets all over the place.

I cant open my doors or windows due to the stench of the rubbish. She continued, People can get sick...the garbage trucks dont come on time to take the garbage, and it is a breeding ground for maggots, roaches and rats. After rain falls you can actually see all the rodents and maggots crawling in the road way along with the garbage, she lamented.

Edwards explained that over the years they have been pleading with the corporation, and after a while the corporation installed a cage around the bins to secured it from stray dogs pulling at the garbage, but due to the amount of residents in the community the bins over flows with garbage.

Everyday I come out of my house I have to clean up garbage from in front my house and it is very unbearable now. We are at the corner and are terribly affected by the bins being at the corner. We would like the corporation to remove the bins and place them elsewhere, she said. Another resident who only gave his name as Brendon said he too is affected by the terrible odour from the garbage bins.

I have drawn up a petition for everyone who are immediately affected by the garbage bins to sign it, so I can address it to the Minister of Health. Christmas is coming and the build-up of garbage is going to get worse. He further stated, We need these bins to be removed from the corner of Haig Street immediately.

There are a lot of children in the area and we are trying to prevent them from contacting any diseases.

There are flies, rats and roaches all over the place. When the DMRC was contacted, chairman of the Diego Martin Regional Corporation, Chairman Katty Christopher was out on the field for the day.
Samsung Electronics will acquire U.S. car audio, electronics and infotainment systems manufacturer Harman for W9.3 trillion (US$1=W1,176).

This is the first major acquisition for Samsung since vice chairman Lee Jae-yong effectively took the reins and comes as the company struggles to overcome the global debacle surrounding its combustible Galaxy Note 7 phone. It is also the largest acquisition of a foreign company by a Korean firm to date.

Samsung said the deal secures an opportunity to become a leading player in the rapidly growing market for car infotainment systems. Harman is among the world's leading manufacturers of infotainment and telematics equipment for cars.

The Wall Street Journal said the deal will "offer Samsung a good lift on the automotive tech highway."

The global market for auto infotainment and telematics was scaled at US$45 billion in 2015 and is expected to rise to $100 billion by 2025.
Dont let cricumstances define your life

Crosby was speaking at Scotiabank Reward Ceremony for students who successfully completed the fourth edition of the Youth in the Community Developmental Programme, held at MovieTowne, Portof- Spain.

He told the students, To many, success seems to come suddenly.

When you observe others and what they have achieved you usually dont appreciate what it has taken for them to get where they are, ultimately, in failing to do this you also fail to learn what it would take for you to attain the same level of achievement. Crosby indicated that if they took the time to truly think about it, they will find that success is usually only a small step away.

After illustrating a short story of his success of becoming a national scholar, Crosby told the students that there is no secret to success but through hard work.

Being persistent is what helped me to achieve this and not giving up on what I wanted.

But what does it take to be a national scholarship winner? Well I will share my secret with you, well there is no secret its purely hard work. He continued, Whether it is doing your projects on time or studying six hours every night, Christmas included, for two years for the CAPE examinations, this is what is required. As you can see it is not easy but anything worthwhile is not. Also addressing the students, Director, Scotiabank Foundation, Peter Ghany said private and corporate citizens who are in positions of authority have a responsibility to do what they can to give young people the opportunities that they deserve to succeed.
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(Newser)  A person dressed as a ninja broke into an Anchorage, Alaska, comics and games store Friday night and only took one thingarguably the one thing a ninja needs most: a katana sword. The only damage left behind was at the point of entry, and when staff members reviewed surveillance footage, they saw no evidence he took anything other than the sword, KTVA reports. Anyone with information on the burglary is being asked to email the store, Bosco's, or call Anchorage police. (Read more weird crimes stories.)
(Newser)  Saudi Arabia is using American-made weapons in a destructive campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen, the New York Times reports. The remains of US-made, laser-guided bombs have been found in the wreckage of multiple deadly airstrikesincluding an attack on a funeral last month, which killed 140 people. A Saudi-led Arab military coalition intervened to support Yemen's government after Houthi rebels backed by Iran took over the capital city of Sanaa and drove the government into exile in 2014. With the Iranian military supporting the Houthis, and the Saudi-led coalition supporting the government, the conflict quickly ground to a stalemate. As the fight rages on, the NYT reports, the Saudi coalition has taken to targeting bridges, ports, and other infrastructure targetsoften with American-made bombs.

Saudi Arabia purchased almost $4 billion of military equipment and construction services from the US in 2014, according to FactCheck.org. And in August of this year, the US State Department approved a new sale of $1.15 billion in military equipment to Saudi Arabia, Reuters reports. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency said the sale "conveys US commitment to Saudi Arabia's security and armed forces modernization." The sale occurred right around the time Saudi Arabia was intensifying its air campaign within Yemen. Despite concerns from human-rights groups, the US State Department refused to address the concern that the weapons would be used against civilians in Yemen, the Guardian reports. A State Department spokesperson would only say: "We regularly talk to our partners and our allies around the world. You know, civilian casualties are obviously of grave concern to us." (Read more Yemen stories.)
(Newser)  Just about everyone associates Bran Castle with Draculaexcept its owner. For Archduke Dominic Habsburg, the Romanian fortress is the former home of his grandparents, Queen Marie and King Ferdinand I, who made it "a happy place of light and flowers." Today, however, few know anything about the castle except that it served as inspiration for Dracula's lair in Bram Stoker's 1897 vampire tale and might've once held Vlad the Impaler. Habsburg, 79, who lives in New York, blames the Romanian government, reports the Wall Street Journal. After the fall of communism in 1989, the government played up the castle's links to Dracula to boost tourism and portrayed its former royal inhabitants "as the mean exploiters of the poor," Habsburg says.

In reality, the townspeople loved Queen Mariewho was Queen Victoria's granddaughterso much that they gave her the 14th-century fortress in 1920, Habsburg says. Since he and his sisters inherited the castle in 2006, they've tried to rid it of its sinister feel by adding furnishings and teaching visitors about its history as a royal residence. Soon, "the queen's tea house, where she used to receive international visitors," will become a restaurant, Habsburg says. Yet he knows Bran Castle's ties to Dracula aren't going anywhere. Most of the 800,000 tourists who visit the castle each yearand pass through a parking-lot souvenir area selling everything from plastic fangs to Dracula salad dressing"come for Dracula," he says, "but they leave with the queen." (The castle just hosted a Halloween sleepover.)
(Newser)  Hundreds of police officers searched about 190 offices, mosques, and apartments of members and supporters of the Islamic group "The True Religion" as the German government announced a ban of the organization Tuesday, the AP reports. Police raided places in 60 cities in western Germany and Berlin seizing documents and files, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said. Nobody was detained. The groupalso known as "Read!"has been distributing German-language copies of the Koran across the country. The interior minister said that more than 140 youths had traveled to Syria and Iraq to join fighters there after having participated in the group's campaigns in Germany.

"The translations of the Koran are being distributed along with messages of hatred and unconstitutional ideologies," de Maiziere told reporters in Berlin. "Teenagers are being radicalized with conspiracy theories." The minister stressed that the ban does not restrict freedom of religion in Germany or the peaceful practice of Islam in any way, but that the group had glorified terrorism and the fight against the German constitution in videos and meetings. "We don't want terrorism in Germany ... and we don't want to export terrorism," de Maiziere said, adding that the ban was also a measure to help protect peaceful Islam. (Read more Germany stories.)
(Newser)  President Obama opened his final foreign trip as president Tuesday with reassuring words in Greece about the US commitment to NATO even as he prepares to hand off to a Donald Trump administration, saying Democratic and Republican administrations alike recognize the importance of the alliance to the trans-Atlantic relationship. Without mentioning Trump by name, Obama told Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos that a strong NATO would provide "significant continuity even as we see a transition in government" in the US, per the AP. Pavlopoulos thanked Obama for US support of the Greek people in a time of social and economic crisis and said he was confident Trump "will continue on the same path," though Trump has suggested the US might pull out of NATO if other countries don't pay more.

Obama, who's making the first visit to Greece by a sitting US president since Bill Clinton in 1999, also met Tuesday with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, and offered a welcome message of support for the Greeks as they struggle with both economic woes and a huge influx of refugees. Obama and Tsipras were to hold a joint news conference later in the day, and Pavlopoulos was hosting an official dinner for Obama in the evening. On Wednesday, Obama is scheduled to tour the Acropolis and give a major speech about democracy and globalization before flying on to Berlin. More than 5,000 police were deployed in Athens for the two-day visit. Left-wing and anarchist groups have planned protest demonstrations for Tuesday afternoon, while an armed anarchist group has called for "attacks and clashes" to disrupt Obama's visit. (Read more President Obama stories.)
(Newser)  Guinness World Records refused to acknowledge a potential world record by the NRA, but after the week it's had, the NRA doesn't really care. USA Today reports more than a thousand people from 16 states traveled to Phoenix, Arizona, on Monday to take part in the "1000 Man Shoot." Shooters lined up next to each other at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility to fire two rounds simultaneously. The first shot was to celebrate the Second Amendment; the second was to set the world record for simultaneous target shooting, according to KPNX. An NRA board member tells USA Today that Monday was a good time to make history again, as the organization and its supporters already made history last week by electing Donald Trump, "overcoming the liberal media...and defeating their gun-ban agendas."

"To fire for our Second Amendments rights, you can't explain a better feeling," one participant tells KPNX. Which is good, because the second shot missed its mark: Guinness World Records says it doesn't have a category for simultaneous target shooting and wouldn't create one. An NRA spokesperson says that doesn't matter because the NRA will henceforth serve as keeper of all gun-related world records, and one of the organizers of the event has gone ahead and declared it a world record in a press release. Organizers believe the event raised $1 million for the NRA. (Read more NRA stories.)
(Newser)  Congratulations are in order for Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (apologies, again, to Ryan Gosling). The world's highest-paid actor has been named People's Sexist Man Alive for 2016, becoming only the second black man ever chosen and the first in 20 years. The mag previously came under fire for its lack of diversity after choosing a white male each year since naming Denzel Washington for the honor in 1996. Johnson, 44, says his sense of humor and confidence are his sexiest attributes, per USA Today. "I'm not quite too sure where we go from here," he adds. "I've done it all." (Last year's winner was the first athlete to win.)
(Newser)  How does someone abduct someone else without ever leaving the room they started out in? The AP and Washington Post report ex-lawyer Michael Fine of Ohio is going to prison for just that after pleading guilty to kidnapping and attempted kidnapping charges involving six female clients who said he hypnotized and molested them. The case broke open when one of the women, who'd retained Fine for help with a custody issue after her divorce, noticed she was coming out of seemingly routine meetings with him with a blurry memory and messed-up clothes. She started recording her visits, including one in which the tape revealed she and Fine had a "sexually charged discussion" she doesn't remember, including him telling her he'd "build [her] towards a massive orgasm." She went to the Sheffield Village Police Department, which set up a sting and busted Fine during another meeting with the woman in 2014.

Once the charges against Fine went public, other women came forward with similar accusations of Fine using "meditation" and "mindfulness" techniques until "the moments would simply slip away to nothingness," per one victim's complaint. The Post notes that there's "contradictory" data on what hypnosis can do, with the APA simply stating, "People respond to hypnosis in different ways." But for Fine's clients, the experience was all too real, including one client who the Chronicle-Telegram says gave a "searing" statement at his sentencing. "He used my trust and his position ... to gain information about my vulnerabilities," she said. "He then used that information ... to manipulate, hurt, and take advantage of me." Fine, 59, was sentenced to 12 years in prison Monday and has to register as a sex offender every 180 days for 25 years. (These teens died after their principal hypnotized them.)
(Newser)  Big shake-up No. 2 for Donald Trump's presidential transition team: Former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, who had been leading the national security part of the team, resigned Tuesday. In a statement reported by Politico, he called his time "during the initial pre-election planning phase ... a privilege" and framed the work as "a strong foundation for the new transition team leadership." CNN frames it as the loss of "an establishment national security voice." The New York Times' take on Rogers' "abrupt" exit was more colorful, describing a "transition operation plunged into disarray."

The Times article reports that while Vice President-elect Mike Pence took the reins of the team at large from Chris Christie on Friday, the paperwork that must be signed in order to allow the Obama and Trump teams to work together had yet to be signed, allegedly because the document was being red-lined. A source in the Trump camp expects it will be signed Tuesday, but the Times pulls no punches: "The slow and uncertain start to what is normally a rapid and meticulously planned transfer of power could have profound implications for Mr. Trumps nascent administration." The Wall Street Journal notes Rogers was "considered a close ally" of Christie. While no reason was given for Rogers' resignation, Bloomberg sources say he was asked to proffer it by team officials. (Read more President Trump stories.)
(Newser)  America's mayor looks likely to be America's top diplomat, Donald Trump aides tell the New York Times, with Rudy Giuliani sitting pretty as the president-elect's top choice for secretary of state. The former NYC mayor would be what the Times calls a "startling choice" due to his lack of actual diplomatic experience. But that's not all that might give the Senate pause before confirming him. According to Politico, Giuliani took moneysaid to be in the millions of dollarsas a consultant for multiple foreign governments. His benefactors included a state-run oil company in Qatar, a Singapore gambling project with ties to North Korea and organized crime, a Venezuelan state oil company controlled at the time by Hugo Chavez, and the oil ministry in Saudi Arabia.

Giuliani gave multiple paid speeches in 2011 and 2012 for an Iranian group called MEK, the Washington Post reports. It's an exiled group of Iranian Marxists that "resembles a cult" and at the time was considered a terrorist organization. It's that last part that could make Giuliani taking money from them illegal. And if Giuliani believes the MEK is Iran's legitimate government, as the group claims, it could completely upend Iranian-US relations if he becomes secretary of state. While Giuliani is seen as the most likely candidate for secretary of state, he's also been floated as attorney general, a position he says he won't take, according to Fox News. Hillary Clinton was heavily criticized because the Clinton Foundation received donations from foreign governments while she was secretary of state; but Politico notes that Giuliani has actually profited from them directly. (Read more Rudy Giuliani stories.)
Fairbanks, AK (99707)

Today

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 1F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 1F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.
Chennai:

Ruling AIADMK on Monday claimed party supremo and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's statement has created a 'wave of joy' in the state, especially among her supporters, as some workers distributed sweets outside Apollo Hospital, where she has been admitted since September 22.

AIADMK Spokesperson C Ponnaiyan said Jayalalithaa was "very well" and that she will soon take over the reins of the party as well as governance.

"The Chief Minister is very well and will be returning home soon. The time when governance and political work under Amma duly happens is just around the corner," he said.

Speaking to reporters here, he thanked the doctors who treated the 68 year-old leader and people who prayed for her recovery.

Referring to her first communication on Sunday in about 50 days since being first hospitalised for fever and dehydration, Ponnaiyan said it has resulted in a "wave of joy" in the state.

Another party spokesperson, Panruty S Ramachandran, said Jayalalithaa's signed statement proved she was ready to serve the people of the state again.

"She has made it clear she is ready once again for public service. She has said she has taken rebirth. This shows her service to people of Tamil Nadu has not gone waste," he said.

Meanwhile, buoyed by Jayalalithaa's statement, some party workers distributed sweets to members of public outside the Apollo Hospital here.

Jayalalithaa had on Sunday said she had taken 'rebirth' because of the prayers of the people and urged them to vote for the AIADMK in the November 19 polls to three assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu and one in Puducherry.

In her first communication since being hospitalised in September, the chief minister said she did not have any grievances in view of the people's "great love" for her, and that, "by God's grace, very soon, by recovering fully, I am waiting to resume work."

The AIADMK supremo was admitted to Apollo Hospital here on September 22 after she complained of fever and dehydration. Later, the hospital had said she was being treated for an infection with respiratory support, among others, by doctors including specialists from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, and from London.

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New Delhi:

Around 2 lakh diesel vehicles older than 15 years will be phased out from Delhi roads starting from Tuesday.



Delhi Police has been directed by AAP government to launch a crackdown against 1.91 lakh diesel vehicles older than 15 years across national capital as per direction of National Green Tribunal.

The transport department has sent a CD of diesel vehicles which are older than 15 years to Delhi Police and asked the force to impound them immediately. These vehicles cannot ply and cannot be parked in public places as per the order of National Green Tribunal, sources said.



They also said that traffic police have identified 21 sites across the city where these vehicles will be kept after impounding.



As per the green court order, city administration has to de-register diesel vehicles which are older than 10 years while directing the authority to phase out vehicles first which are older than 15 years.



Earlier this week, the Lt Governor had directed transport department to start process of de-registering these vehicles in the wake of citys pollution level reaching unprecedented level.

(With PTI Inputs)

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New Delhi:

Pakistani forces on Tuesday violated the ceasefire in Akhnoor Sector in Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

According to reports, the firing started at around 7 am from Pakistani side. Indian forces are giving befitting reply.

The Pak forces are using mortar shells in firing.

On Monday, Pak forces had started firing at around 2 pm, which continued till evening. One civillian was injured in Monday's ceasefire violation.

Also read | Indian Army foils infiltration bid in Naugam, Jammu and Kashmir, 1 militant killed

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New Delhi:

An earthquake measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale hit northeastern states on Tuesday, an official said.



The moderate earthquake did not cause any casualties or damage, reports said.



The tremor was felt at 7.40 am with an epicentre located in Assam's Karimganj district bordering Bangladesh, an official of the Regional Seismological Centre was quoted in a media report.



The seven northeastern states -- Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur - are considered by seismologists as the sixth major earthquake-prone belt in the world.

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New Delhi:

Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das on Tuesday addressed the media on the issue of currency overhaul as the nation once again queued up outside banks and ATMs to exchange demonetised old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 with valid denominations.

In his Mondays press conference, the Economic Affairs Secretary had announced that an RBI task force was set up to ensure speedy re-calibration of ATMs to dispense new notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2000.



He had also said that a daily cash withdrawal limit of 2,000 was removed and that people could not withdraw up to 24000 rupees from banks per week.

The Government on November 8 banned old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 to curb black money and corruption in India, effectively forcing 86 per cent of Indian currency out of circulation.



The massive change has brought banking system to its knees as scores of people continue to queue up outside banks and ATMs to get valid currency for daily use.

Also read :

Micro ATMs to be installed, daily cash limit removed, weekly limit set to Rs 24000: Economic Affairs Secy

Cash Crunch: Govt now banking on Micro-ATMs, know all about the device

Here are the live updates:

#New currency notes leak colour on rubbing, that's sign of its authenticity: Economic Affairs Secretary

#Micro ATMs will be deployed from today (Know all about the device)

#There is anough cash available, there is no reason for any kind of panic: Economic Affairs Secy

#Please do not believe in fake stories circulating on social media: SK Das

#Govt is closely monitoring to monitor the movement, supply and availability of essential commodities: SK Das

#The agencies have been advised to closely monitor black money being deposited in banks: Economic Affairs Secy

#To further ease the pressure on banking system, a task force has been set up to draw up a plan of action for shifting old notes: Das

#Have received reports,many ppl trying to convert black money into white have organised grps of people&are sending them to exchange money-Das

#Reason for long queues at banks and ATMs is that the same ppl keep coming again & again at diff places:Economic Affairs Secy Shaktikanta Das

#We urge religious places like temples to submit small denominations in their bank accounts to ingest loose currency in system: Economic Affairs Secy

# Indelible ink to be used on bank customers to avoid repeat visits by same people: Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das

#Have been trying to analyse reasons for long queues,it has come to notice that same people are coming again at same places: Shaktikanta Das





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New Delhi:

Indian government's surprise initiative of currency demonetisation (ceasing the usage of all a500 and a1000 banknotes of the Mahatma Gandhi Series) with an underlying objective of curbing black money and envisaging a cleaner and transparent Indian economy in the long run has not only been the major talking point among the Indian media circles but created waves of sorts around the international tabloid.

The Narendra Modi government's demonetisation crusade is getting extensively covered in the foreign press and has evoked mixed responses from leading media houses across the world.

While some international newspapers hailed PM Modi's decision as a revolutionary move by the NDA government in cleaning up the Indian economy, others have been critical about the unstructured implementation of the scheme, which has created a liquidity crunch in the economy and affected the common citizens lives.

Here is how the International media covered the Indian government's demonetisation drive -A A

Forbes: Five days after the decision, Forbes has published an article titled aIndiaas Great Bank Note Switch Appears To Be Working a $30 Billion In Rs Deposited In Banks.a The article notes that a move of this magnitude would result in aobvious chaosa, but points that aso far at least it looks as if it is working.a The article goes on to call the scheme arather well done, a clever plan.a

BBC: The BBC was more critical in its coverage, carrying an article titled aHow Indiaas currency ban is hurting the poora. The article focused on the long queues at ATMs, and the problems small businessmen were facing with the sudden paucity of cash.A

New York Times: A New York Times talked about the crowds at ATMs, and also quoted an expert saying it was a wise move. aThe plan, top secret until Mr. Modias announcement, was hailed by financial analysts as bold and potentially transformational for India. It is also a high-stakes experiment,a the article said.

Washington Post: The Washington Post in the US reacted in a positive manner. It called PM Narendra Modias initiative as aambitiousa and in keeping with his election time vow to initiate a crackdown against black money. The Post said black money in India ais estimated to total from $400 billion to more than $1 trilliona.

The Independent: This Singapore-based paper published a glowing article on the move titled aModi does a Lee Kuan Yew to stamp out corruption in India.a Lee Kuan Yew was the Singaporean Prime Minister for several decades and is considered the architect of modern Singapore. aGovernment leaders feel that the sudden move by the Indian Prime Minister has brought new respect for him.

Bloomberg: InA an article published in leading American financial journal Bloomberg,A A Swiss global financial services companyA UBS Group AG said that Australia should follow Indiaas lead and scrap its biggest bank notes.

aRemoving large denomination notes in Australia would be good for the economy and good for the banks,a UBS analysts led by Jonathan Mott said in a note to clients on Monday. Benefits would include reduced crime and welfare fraud, increased tax revenue and a aspikea in bank deposits.

A senior Indian government official even equated Mr Modi to Singaporeas first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. From making up his mind to rolling it out on 8 Nov, a new Lee Kuan Yew is born in India. It will be reflected in the legacy of this Prime Minister,a.

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Bihar:

Two persons were arrested in connection with the recent murder of a journalist of a prominent vernacular daily, police said on Tuesday.

A journalist with Dainik Bhaskar, Dharmendra Singh, was shot dead by some unidentified assailants when he was having tea at a roadside stall in his village Amra talab of Rohtas district on Saturday.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted to probe the murder case, arrested two persons during a raid late last night on Monday, a statement issued by the office of the Director General of Police (DGP) said. Those arrested have been identified as Radhika Raman Rai and Manish Singh, Patna Zonal Inspector General N H Khan said. Both the accused have been arrested from two separate places of Rohtas district, he said.

While Rai is the resident of Rohtas district, Manish, who was wanted by the police in three cases lodged in Rohtas district, is the resident of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, the statement said. On the basis of information available from those arrested, police has also seized a motorcycle (BR-24 N 9904) which was used in the crime, it said. Police is interrogating the duo and conducting raids to nab other absconding culprits, the statement said, adding that the matter is being investigated from all angles.

Dharmendra, who is survived by his wife and a son, had an old rivalry with Pappu Singh, currently lodged in a jail and is a resident of Dumariya village under Mufassil police station of the district, it said.

On the basis of a written complaint of Ravindra Singh, brother-in-law of the journalist, police lodged an FIR with Mufassil police station against four named and two unnamed persons in the murder case, the statement said. "We have already constituted an SIT to probe the case and chargesheet would be submitted against those arrested in the case on a priority basis and would be put to speedy trial," Khan said. The murder of the journalist in Rohtas has come close onthe heels of killing of a scribe of a Hindi daily in Siwan,Rajdeo Ranjan, in May.

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New Delhi:

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday demanded a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the demonetisation scheme, terming it as a fraud aimed at benefiting a particular political party, a veiled reference to BJP.

Kejriwal tabled a resolution in the Delhi Assembly in this regard during its one-day emergency session. The resolution, which will be discussed in the AAP-dominated House, also urges President Pranab Mukherjee to direct the Centre to withdraw the measure.

ALSO READ: (Demonetisation debate: BJP MLA Vijender Gupta marshalled out of Delhi Assembly)

The emergency session, convened to deliberate on the issues arising out of ban on Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, began on a stormy note and had to be adjourned for 15 minutes soon after Kejriwal tabled the resolution, amid sloganeering against Prime Minister Narendra Modi by AAP MLAs.

Participating in the discussion, AAPs Okhla MLA Amanatulalh Khan said that Modi will not understand the pain being faced by families due to demonetisation as he does not have a wife or children.

Protesting Khans remark, Leader of the Opposition Vijender Gupta made certain personal allegations relating to Kejriwal, enraging the AAP MLAs, some of whom came into the well of the House forcing an adjournment.

ALSO READ: (PM Modi's war on black money: Here's how world media responded to Indian currency's overhaul)

Earlier, the members also observed a two-minute silence to pay homage to those who lost lives while standing in queues outsides banks and ATMs to withdraw money. Gupta and BJP MLA Jagdish Pradhan walked out protesting against it.

Resolves to urge upon the President of India to direct the Government of India to withdraw at once the draconian demonetisation scheme and to take necessary steps to institute a high-level probe to be monitored by Supreme Court of India to look into the allegations that the scheme is a fraud on the nation and that it has been launched to benefit a particular political party through its agents in black money market, the resolution moved by Kejriwal said.

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New Delhi:

An all-party meet over the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency was held in the Parliament on Tuesday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior leaders arttended the meeting.

Here are the live updates:

#It's not about political ideology today, its about fight for people: Dinesh Trivedi, TMC after WB CM's meeting with Delhi CM



#Delhi: CM Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy CM Manish Sisodia arrive to meet WB CM Mamata Banerjee



#Delhi: Union Cabinet meeting ends



#There is no single person in this country who is not suffering with demonitisation, this is the biggest scam of all time: GN Azad, Congress



#Govt is ready for discussion on all issues: Ananth Kumar, Union Minister on winter session



#Delhi: Union Ministers arrive for cabinet meeting



#PM also said that discussion should be done on possibility of holding Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha elections together: Ananth Kumar

#PM said in all Party meeting that all parties should show support in Winter session in national interest: Ananth Kumar, Union Minister



#All party meeting in the Parliament ends

#Lucknow: UP CM Akhilesh Yadav announces that Rs 500/1000 old notes will be accepted for land registration till Nov 24th

#InsideVisuals All party meet underway in the Parliament, PM Narendra Modi and other senior leaders present pic.twitter.com/J9whzhcGl8  ANI (@ANI_news) November 15, 2016

Delhi: PM Narendra Modi arrives for All Party Meeting pic.twitter.com/xY8oZYe9OX  ANI (@ANI_news) November 15, 2016

#CPI General Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy: If the Prime Minister is sincere, he should apologise to thenation and set right things by allowing people to use the old currency till December 31 for all publicutilities like journeys, hospitals, medical shops, tax payments, phone payments, to purchase foodgrains, and essential commodities.

ALSO READ | Putting indelible ink shows Modi govt distrusts common man, says Mamata Banerjee

The demonetisation issue on Monday figured prominently at the all-party meeting convened by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan with all major opposition parties, including the Congress, wanting a debate on it in Parliament.

The cross-LoC surgical strikes, policy towards Pakistan, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, besides OROP and the plight of farmers were also among issues that were raised at the meeting with parties demanding discussion on them.

ALSO READ | Opposition unites to take on PM Narendra Modi in Parliament over demonetisation

Major opposition parties, during the meeting which lasted over three hours, urged Mahajan to allow a debate on demonetisation on a priority so difficulties faced by the common man could be highlighted. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also attended a dinner hosted by the Speaker after the all-party meeting.

Leaders of various parties have demanded discussion on demonetisation and the steps taken by the government to exchange the currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000. The situation in Jammu and Kashmir, holding of simultaneous elections to state assemblies and Lok Sabha, and state funding of polls also emerged as issues on which parties have demanded discussion, the Speaker said after the meeting.

Meanwhile, hitting out at the Opposition, BJP on Tuesday said while Prime Minister Narendra Modi is working to curb black money and corruption with his demonetisation exercise, rival parties have ganged up against him.

Terming demonetisation as a surgical strike on black money, BJP National Secretary Shrikant Sharma claimed that the general public is in the support of the move and now it has taken a shape of peoples movement.

He added that despite difficulties, the common man is supporting the decision.



(With PTI inputs)

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New Delhi:

NGT may soon give green signal to National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) on the recommendation by as expert, to build a bridge and its approach roads across the river for the Delhi- Meerut Expressway, long pending demand to ease traffic congestion.

An expert committee on Tuesday briefed National Green Tribunal on the project. The Principal Committee, headed by Secretary of Ministry of Water Resources, told a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar that the 'project may be allowed' subject to fulfilling of certain conditions including increasing the cost of monitoring during construction phase of bridge by nearly Rs 2.5 crore. The committee, constituted by the NGT for implementation of 'Maili se Nirmal Yamuna Revitalisation Project 2017', has recommended that project proponent should save "as many trees" as possible and no wetland area on the flood plains should be disturbed during the construction phase.

The Principal Committee also comprises Special Secretaryof MoEF, Joint Secretary of Ministry of Water Resources, Delhi Chief Secretary, DDA, Delhi Jal Board, municipal corporations,Commissioner and others. Professors C R Babu, A K Gosain, Brij Gopal and A A Kazmiof IIT Roorkee are also members of the Principal Committee, which also said that strong iron marshes of 8 inch height should be erected along the proposed bridge to stop the public from throwing solid waste in the Yamuna.

The matter is listed for next hearing on November 22. The submissions came in response to National Highways Authority of India's (NHAI) plea seeking NGT's nod for building of bridges and approach roads over Yamuna. In its plea, NHAI had said that currently the route between Delhi and Meerut (NH-58) had frequent jams causing lotof inconvenience to traffic between the two cities and theproject will reduce the time of travel to 40-45 minutes fromthree hours at present.

NHAI had moved NGT in view of a 2015 order saying thatconstruction of "new barrages and roads, railway and metrobridges and embankments and bunds" should not be permitted. However, in exceptional cases, "a critical impact oftheir potential impact on flood aggravation and environmentalclearances should be made mandatory," it had said. The Delhi-Meerut Expressway will be built through public-private-partnership mode and slated to be operational byMarch 2018. The project starts from National Highway-2 at RingRoad in Delhi and ends at Meerut in Uttar Pradesh.

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New Delhi:

A Bihar district court on Tuesday pronounced death sentence to 10 people accused in the Senari massacre case in 1999.

Three convicts were also awarded life sentence, the pronouncement of judgment on two others was withheld for November 18.

The quantum of punishment came out for the 15 people who were convicted in connection with massacre, in which 34 villagers belonging to the upper caste community were killed by Maoists in 1999.

Jehanabad district court on October 27, convicted 15 of the accused and acquitted 23 others.

Chinta Devi, whose husband and son were among those massacred by the MCC, an informer in the case died five years ago.

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Beijing:

China's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning carrier is now ready for combat, a major breakthrough for Chinese navy which has been trying to display its power amidst territorial disputes with various neighbouring countries.

The Liaoning carrier, made from an empty hull of a Soviet-era ship, recently left its shipyard in Qingdao in east China to start a new training mission to test its combat capacity as it is prepared to "fight against enemies".

The construction of China's second indigenously-built aircraft carrier is already underway at a feverish pitch.

Liaoning, which had previously been described in Chinese media as a surface platform for tests and training, has now "formally been described as having a real combat capacity," the state-run Global Times said.

"As a military force, we are always combat ready and our combat capacity also needs to be tested by war. At this moment, we are doing our best to promote our strength and use it to prevent war. But we are preparing for actual combat at any time," Senior Captain Li Dongyou, the political commissar of the vessel, told the daily.

The refurbished ship was launched by former president Hu Jintao in 2012.There are more than 1,000 non-commissioned officers (NCOs) on the Liaoning, and they are the main part of China's aircraft carrier.

"Among them, we have 42 Chief Petty Officers with an average age of 40 and experience of serving in the navy for more than 20 years," Li said.

"Weaponry is the key for combat capability on the carrier. As China's first generation of NCOs on the carrier, these officers' capability on how to operate, repair and maintain equipment is irreplaceable. And they are the source of our confidence," Li said.

The report did not elaborate on how China plans to use the carrier, but Liaoning is seen as to put more muscle behind the Communist giant's increasing assertive moves in the South China Sea, where territorial claims by neighbouring nations have dogged China's expansionist idea, and where it faces challenges from the US.

The South China sea, through which USD 5 trillion of trade passes annually, has been a centre of dispute between China and Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

"As a combat platform, China still lags behind the US in technology and capability to execute missions, but three senior US officials who visited the Liaoning before all gave a positive evaluation on the management of the carrier - officers and soldiers' daily lives and training are well organised and the equipment maintenance is fine," Li said.

Chinese media reports have said that as the construction of the second aircraft carrier picked up pace, China has stepped up preparations to deploy the first carrier force by putting in place a new batch of carrier-based fighter pilots.

With plans to build two more carriers, the PLA has built up its largest carrier-based pilot team after more than three years of intensive training, media reports had said in August.

Speculation is rife that China may deploy one of the aircraft carriers in the South China Sea.

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New Delhi:

Taking strict action against Islamic preacher Zakir Naik's NGO 'Islamic Research Foundation,' government has banned his NGO for five years under Unlawful Activity Prevention Act, ANI reported on Tuesday.A

Taking cognizance of the controversy revolving around Zakir Naik, earlier the Home Ministry found it to be allegedly having dubious links with Peace TV, an international Islamic channel, accused of propagating terrorism. According to a draft note, which was also based on the inputs from Maharashtra Police, Naik, who heads the IRF, has allegedly made many provocative speeches and engaged in terror propaganda.

Government bans Zakir Naik's NGO 'Islamic Research Foundation' for five years terming it illegal. a ANI (@ANI_news) November 15, 2016



Maharashtra Police had also registered criminal cases against Naik for his alleged involvement in radicalisation of youths and luring them into terror activities, a source said.

Naik also transferred IRF's foreign funds to Peace TV for making 'objectionable' programmes. Most of the programmes, which were made in India, contained alleged hate speeches of Naik, who had reportedly 'urged all Muslims to be terrorists' through Peace TV, sources claimed.Two educational trusts run by Naik have also come under the Home Ministry scanner and agencies were looking into their activities. The draft note was placed before the Union Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for its approval, sources said.

Naik is accused of radicalising youths into terror and receiving foreign funds and spending those to lure young people into terrorism. He came under the scanner of the security agencies after Bangladeshi newspaper 'Daily Star' reported that one of the perpetrators of the July 1 terror attack in Dhaka, Rohan Imtiaz, ran propaganda on Facebook last year quoting Naik.

Naik in a lecture, aired on Peace TV, had reportedly "urged all Muslims to be terrorists". The Islamic orator is banned in the UK and Canada for his hate speech aimed against other religions. He is among 16 banned Islamic scholars in Malaysia. He is popular in Bangladesh through his Peace TV, although his preachings often demean other religions and even other Muslim sects. The Mumbai-based preacher has not returned to India ever since the controversy came to light.



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Athens:

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday issued a warning against crude nationalism following Donald Trumps shock election win as he visited Europe on a mission to reassure jittery allies.

Obama, making his last foreign trip as president, said the NATO alliance was absolutely vital to US interests and stressed a strong, unified Europe was good for America, after Trump, on the campaign trail, appeared to play down the importance of transatlantic ties.

ALSO READ: (US President warns Trump of revisiting Iran, Paris deals Highlights of Obamas first major speech after elections)

After a year of populist shocks, from Britains vote to leave the EU to Trumps surprise victory last week and the rise of anti-migrant movements in Europe, Obama cautioned against succumbing to divisive instincts.

We are going to have to guard against a rise in a crude sort of nationalism or ethnic identity or tribalism that is built around an us and a them, Obama said in Athens.

We know what happens when Europeans start dividing themselves up... the 20th century was a bloodbath, he said, adding that the United States was also painfully aware of the dangers of (dividing) ourselves along lines of race or religion or ethnicity.

Europeans, especially those in eastern countries close to Russias orbit, have been shaken after Trump appeared to call into question Washingtons near 70-year security guarantee by saying he would only help NATO allies if they paid their way.

ALSO READ: (Watch: US President Obama meets Pres-elect Trump, assures full support)

Obama stressed that the transatlantic relationship was the cornerstone of our mutual security as well as prosperity and that was the case regardless of who was sitting in the Oval Office.

Across Democratic and Republican administrations there is a recognition that the NATO alliance is absolutely vital, he said.

As Obama touched down in Athens, NATO head Jens Stoltenberg said he was confident Trump would live up to US commitments to the alliance.

I am certain that he will be a president... who will live up to all the commitments of the United States in the alliance, because a strong NATO is important for Europe but its also important for the United States, Stoltenberg said.

Obama met Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras for talks and praised Greece for showing extraordinary compassion to hundreds of thousands of people arriving in Europes migrant crisis.

More than 800,000 migrants passed through Greece last year, and the crisis-hit country has struggled to accommodate some 60,000 left stranded on its territory when Balkan states further north closed their borders earlier this year.

Greek leaders are anxious for a new US pledge to help alleviate the countrys enormous public debt, a measure actively sought by the International Monetary Fund but opposed by leading European lender Germany.

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New Delhi:

Jaipur Literature Festival on Tuesday revealed the fifth list of 10 speakers set to appear at the 10th edition of the event in the year 2017.

Touted as the world's largest free literary event, the festival is expected see participation by over 250 authors, thinkers, politicians and popular culture icons, with a special focus on world literatures.

"To celebrate its 10 years, organisers have decided to announce 10 speakers set to appear at the festival every week over the period of 10 weeks every Tuesday at 6 pm starting today," organisers said.

The latest list is a diverse lineup of speakers from across the globe including translator and author Arshia Sattar, internationally acclaimed economist Sanjeev Sanyal, award winning Jamaican poet Ishion Hutchinson, British novelist Adam Thirlwell and British archaeologist and academic Barry Cunliffe among others.

Emma Sky, a British expert on the Middle East and Guillermo Rodriguez, an active promoter of Indo-Spanish cultural relations will be debuting at the festival.

"A passionate traveller, he lived in India in the 1990s and specialised in Indian literary criticism and modern Indian poetry in English, obtaining a PhD in English from the University of Kerala and the University of Valladolid.

"He has published critical works on Indian literature and culture in India, Spain, France, Germany and Poland, and is the author of When Mirrors Are Windows: A View of AK Ramanujan's Poetics," organisers said.

Chief bookseller at the Elliott Bay Book Company Rick Simonson who has been attending JLF since 2010, will return to the festival along with Philip A Lutgendorf, a Professor of Hindi and Modern Indian Studies at the University of Iowa and British historian and journalist John Keay.

The five-day-long festival will be held from January 19 - 23, 2017 at the Diggi Palace hotel in Jaipur.

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New Delhi:

Demonetisation effect is not only being felt by the common man, even kidnappers are suffering as a result of it.

In an unusual case, kidnappers were forced to release a child without taking ransom as his family members only had Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes to provide to the kidnappers.

Sankalp was kidnapped on November 8 from Varanasi by some people in a car as he was about to visit his friend's house. However, as the kidnappers realised that Sankalp's parents could only pay the ransom amount in high value currency, they refused to take it.

Further, they released Sankalp in Fatehpur on November 10 and he was able to reunite with his family.

Sankalp's family was overjoyed and praised PM Narendra Modi's demonetisation move which helped save their child's life along with their hard earned money.

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Washington:

Outgoing US President Barack Obama has cautioned his successor Donald Trump against undoing of international decisions like the Iranian nuclear pact and the Paris climate change agreement, saying a great deal of effort has gone into signing these landmark agreements.

"These international agreements, the tradition has been that you carry them forward across administrations,particularly if, once you actually examine them, it turns out that they are doing good for us and binding other countries into behaviour that will help us," Obama, 55, told reporters at a White House news conference.

He said the Iranian nuclear deal was good example of the"gap between" some of the rhetoric in this town, not unique to the President-elect, and the reality.

"I think there was a really robust debate about the merits of the Iran deal before it was completed. I actually was pretty proud of how our democracy processed that. It was a serious debate.

I think people of good will were on both sides of the issue. Ultimately, we were able to persuade members ofCongress and the public, at least enough of them, to support it," he said.

"At the time, the main argument against it was, Iran wouldn't abide by the deal. That they would cheat. We now have over a year of evidence that they have abided by the agreement.

That's not just my opinion. It's not just people in my administration. That's the opinion of Israeli military and intelligence officers who are part of a government that vehemently opposed the deal," he said.

About Paris Climate deal, Obama said there had been a lot of talk about the possibility of undoing this international agreement. "Now, you've got 200 countries that have signed up for this thing, and the good news is that what we've been able to show over the last five, six, eight years is that it's possible to grow the economy really fast and possible to bringdown carbon emissions as well.

"What the Paris agreement now does is say to China andIndia and other countries that are potentially polluting, come on board. Let's work together so you guys do the same thing.

And the biggest threat, when it comes to climate change and pollution, isn't going to come from us because we only have300 million people. It's going to come from China with over 1billion people and India with over 1 billion people," he said.

"If they are pursuing the same kinds of strategies that we did before we became more aware of the environment, then our kids will be choked off. Do I think that the new administration will make some changes? Absolutely," Obama said.

To unravel a deal that's working and preventing Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon would be hard to explain, particularly if the alternative were to have them free from any obligations and go ahead and pursue a weapon, he said.

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Former employees of Bridgewater Associates are finalists in the Fueling the Growth with UberPitch startup contest scheduled in Stamford for Wednesday, promising a way for collegiates and recent graduates to improve their odds of landing great jobs.

In 2013, Robin Levine and Jacqueline Loeb left Bridgewater, the Westport hedge fund that is the worlds largest, starting up Snap! the following year that evolved into Scouted. Loeb is CEO, having previously led Bridgewaters management associate program and reporting to Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio. Under Levines mentorship, Loeb herself went through that program in which Bridgewater schools younger managers on strategy, operations and personnel.

This whole idea comes from a passion and some of our experiences with Bridgewater, Loeb said in a Tuesday interview with Hearst Connecticut Media. At a high level, we built our platform to help companies make better hiring decisions, as opposed to just making it more efficient.

Levine and Loeb entered Scouted in UberPitch, a contest designed by The Refinery, a Westport-based business accelerator for women that is run by Janis Collins and Jennifer Gabler, in partnership with the ride-share service Uber and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. UberPitch contestants got the chance to pitch their business ideas to investors during a short ride in an Uber vehicle; the finals coincide with Global Entrepreneurship Week that started Monday.

After testing Scouted in the first half of 2016, Levine and Loeb began running the website in earnest after Labor Day, with the site free for candidates and generating revenue from employers that use it to recruit talent. Scouted uses algorithms to filter candidates by any number of criteria  to include so-called emotional intelligence and plain-old grit  while applying human analysis as well to match up candidates and companies.

Starting at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Stamford Innovation Center, Scouted will be vying with two dozen other startups that advanced from some 300 contestants nationally, including four others from the October Uber rides in Stamford. Like Scouted, Fairygodboss is eyeing a career site but one geared toward women. Others include Curative Orthopaedics, inventor of a back brace designed for use while sleeping; FROTH, a beverage marketing platform; and Liquidaty, a system to cleanse data for analysis.

I think our long-term vision is to change the way people think about talent, Levine said. Especially with younger (candidates), people look at them and think what have they achieved. We want to help (employers) understand what people are like.  We think of it almost as a smarter LinkedIn.

Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-354-1047; www.twitter.com/casoulman
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BETHEL - Residents voted at a town meeting last week in favor of a brew pub downtown.

Voters gave their approval for the town to lease Bethel Cycles former spot in the old train station to Broken Symmetry Gastro Brewery.

First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker said the microbrewery has widespread support.

People are excited about having something new in town, he said.

The owners must now get permits and licensing before the brew pub can open. The owners have said the microbrewery will offer Belgium style beer, traditional New England style IPAs, porters and stouts. They plan to have long community tables on the lower floor where patrons can intermingle, a counter where drinks are poured and ordered, and a stage where beer is fermented.
NEWTOWN - The Board of Education will hear final comments from Newtowners and three ruling bodies this week in preparation for a vote next month on closing the middle school to address declining enrollment.

The proposed closing of Newtown Middle School will get a hearing first at the school board meeting Tuesday night, and then will be a subject of a joint budget meeting Wednesday with the Legislative Council and the boards of education, finance and selectmen.

That would clear the way for the seven-member school board to vote as soon as Dec. 6 on a recommendation that would:

 Keep students in kindergarten through fourth grade in the districts four elementary schools.

 Teach students in fifth through seventh grade at Reed Intermediate School.

 Move eighth-graders to Newtown High School.

The middle school now houses seventh and eighth grades and Reed houses fifth and sixth.

As far the board making a decision about the middle school, it is a difficult issue and we want to consider everyones comments, school board President Keith Alexander said Monday. On the other hand, we dont want to let this drag on forever.

The recommendation to close the middle school is meant to address enrollment that has dropped by 1,000 students districtwide since the Great Recession and is expected to drop another 1,000 students within five years.

The recommendation comes from a task force that has been at work since 2015, when community objection to a plan to close Hawley Elementary School was so strong that the school board dropped the idea.

The boards decision to suspend action on that plan was in part to undertake deeper study about its options, but also to await the emotionally charged opening of the new Sandy Hook School in August.

The $50 million Sandy Hook School, paid for by the state, replaced the building where a gunman massacred 20 first-graders and six educators in 2012.

Although the debate about closing a school was especially emotional in Newtown, it is similar to challenges being faced in suburbs across the state, where declining enrollment is forcing school boards to make unpopular decisions.

In greater Danbury, for example, New Milfords Pettibone Elementary School closed in 2015 over the objection of many parents.

Ridgefield, Brookfield and the three small towns of Washington, Bridgewater and Roxbury that make up the Region 12 School District have also been working with demographers to find the best response to dwindling enrollment.

In Newtown, there is not the same community division as there was in 2015, when teachers and residents joined forces to sign petitions and speak out at public meetings.

There is certainly still a lot of public input, although maybe not as much as last time as far as people coming forward in opposition to it, Alexander said. Of course not everyone will agree, but I think that we have a substantial amount of information, and I am comfortable that the board will be able to come to a decision it can stand by.

Superintendent Joseph Erardi agreed.

I am certain that the school board will bring this to a close one way or another by December, he said.

rryser@newstimes.com; 203-731-3342.
Contributed Photo / Hearst Connecticut Media

The community has the chance to speak with New Milford Superintendent Joshua Smith in a relaxed setting Wednesday.

Smith will be in the Connecticut Room at the New Milford Library, 24 Main Street, from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. to answer any questions people might have or listen to their concerns.
DANBURY - Mayor Mark Boughton has a message for the state from Connecticuts towns and cities: Dont cap our spending.

Boughton used his position as the president of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities on Tuesday to denounce the states 2.5 percent spending cap, which is set to go into effect in mid-2017.

It is poorly thought out, poorly designed and people are not even sure what is in it, because no policies have been promulgated, Boughton said after attending CCMs annual conference at Foxwoods in Mashantucket. It is going to drive up costs and encourage people to borrow to meet expenses.

At issue is a state rule that would require school boards and municipalities to cap their annual spending increase at 2.5 percent each year or lose a portion of state funding.

The states goal is to control spending increases at a time when its own budget deficit is at $1.3 billion.

But the cap will encourage unions to seek a higher arbitration awards during negotiations rather than settle for modest wage increases, Boughton said, since arbitration awards are exempt from the cap.

Another bad effect of the cap according to critics: Cities and towns will be encouraged to borrow money for paving and other infrastructure improvements, since borrowing is also exempt from the cap requirement.

At Foxwoods, Boughton told reporters that the state had some nerve to dictate how cities and towns managed their budgets at a time when its own finances are in a crisis.

During an interview later in Danbury, Boughton said he was optimistic that the state legislature would be receptive to the CCMs objections about the cap.

Our position is we dont think the cap is a horrible idea, but lets draft one that works to drive down costs, Boughton said. We are hoping the legislature will straighten out is own financial problems and then circle back in a couple of years and help put cities and towns on a sustainable path.

rryser@newstimes.com; 203-731-3342
NEW CANAAN  Christopher Cogswell has lived a life of service.

On Friday, the Saxe Middle School educator and Desert Storm veteran was guest speaker at the towns Veterans Day Ceremony at the World War I Memorial at Gods Acre. In his speech, Cogswell chose not to focus on his own bravery, but the bravery of those with whom he served.

I would like to speak to you about two words that are a common virtue to all of us: uncommon valor, Cogswell said, pausing at times to collect himself. In combat, I learned that uncommon valor was a common virtue. Real heroes are the men of quiet and action and duty. I still believe that to this day. Let us never forget that we could never celebrate the joy of our freedom without remembering the great price paid for that freedom.

Cogswell was part of a service that included remarks from First Selectman Rob Mallozzi, VFW Post 653 Commander and Vietnam and Desert Storm veteran Peter Langenus and Regent of the Hannah Benedict Carter Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution Lisa Melland.

The ceremony, which included the reading of In Flanders Fields and a list of 47 names of military men and women from New Canaan who lost their lives this year, was followed by an unveiling of three plaques new plaques, and two refurbished, in the main lobby of Town Hall honoring New Canaans veterans up to World War II.

The $35,000 project was spearheaded by Langenus and Dan McEvoy of the New Canaan Exchange Club and was funded both by the organization and through private donations. In order to complete the project  which will ultimately include an additional two plaques commemorating the names of veterans who served in Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan  Langenus and McEvoy are looking for more donations which can be sent to the Exchange Club.

At Gods Acre, Cogswell also took time to thank the men and women serving on the home front, many of whom were in attendance.

Uncommon valor is not just about American service members and veterans. It is also about the men and women who, on a daily basis, risk their lives for the safety of others. These are our first responders. When you dial 9-1-1, who comes to your aide? Police, firefighters, ems, paramedics, Cogswell said..

He ended by addressing the families of servicemen and women, including his high school sweetheart, who was in attendance.

To the families of our veterans and first responders, you have a unique strength that we all draw upon before going off to war or an emergency call. While we are away, and after we come home, thank you for your uncommon valor, Cogswell said.

justin.papp@scni.com; @justinjpapp1
Over 6,000 displaced as floods hit Indonesia

Indonesia,Crime/Disaster/Accident,Environment/Wildlife, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

Jakarta, Nov 15 (IANS) Over 6,000 people were displaced due to major floods that hit parts of Indonesia's West Java province, an official said on Tuesday.

The floods have submerged over 5,000 houses, 12 mosques, four school buildings and more than 100 hectares of paddy field, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of the national disaster agency, told Xinhua news agency.

Evacuation was underway, with the operation being carried out by soldiers, police, personnel from local search and rescue offices and local disaster agencies, he said.

Flood relief was also flowing into the evacuation centres, Sutopo added.

--IANS

ksk
India, Israel to boost cooperation to combat extremism (Roundup)

Delhi,National,Diplomacy, Tue, 15 Nov 2016 IANS

New Delhi, Nov 15 (IANS) India and Israel on Tuesday said the international community must act with with resolve against terror networks and states that harbour them and agreed to boost cooperation to combat the forces of extremism and radicalisation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who held talks with visiting Israeli President Reuven Rivlin here, said that engagement between India and Israel was multi-dimensional and wide-ranging.

He said the two leaders deeply value their strong and growing partnership to secure their societies.

"Our people are constantly threatened by forces of terrorism and extremism. We recognize that terrorism is a global challenge, knows no boundaries and has extensive links with other forms of organized crime," Modi said in a joint briefing with the Israel president.

Without naming Pakistan, Modi said "Regrettably, one of the countries of its origin and spread is in India's neighbourhood."

"We agreed that the international community must act with resolve and determination against terror networks and states that harbour them. Failure to act and silence of speech only encourages the terrorists," he said.

In his remarks, Rivlin said India and Israel stand together in defending their people and values against the threat of terror.

"Nothing can justify terror. Terror is terror," he said.

"Israel and India are threatened by terror because we uphold the values of freedom. We stand together in defending our people and values," Rivlin said.

He also invited Modi to visit Israel.

Earlier in the day, Rivlin was accorded a ceremonial reception at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Rivlin arrived in India on Monday on a week-long state visit -- the first by an Israeli President in nearly 20 years.

Rivlin will visit Taj Mahal in Agra on Wednesday and also visit a water treatment plant in Sikandra. He is also scheduled to visit Chandigarh.

In his remarks, Modi said the two countries agreed to broadbase their growing defence partnership.

"We agreed that the international community must act with resolve and determination against terror networks and states that harbour them. Failure to act and silence of speech only encourages the terrorists. We agreed to intensify our cooperation to combat the forces of extremism and radicalisation that threaten all peace-loving nations," he said.

He said the two countries also prioritised practical and specific engagement such as in the cyber domain.

Modi said Israeli companies can scale up their tie-ups with flagship schemes of Make in India, Digital India, Skill India and Smart Cities as the current trajectory of the Indian economy offered promising opportunities for them.

He also said that the growing number of Indian students, going to study in Israel and the vice versa, can be an important bridge in the bilateral partnership.

"Two and a half decades of our friendship has brought rich dividends for both our nations. It has also strengthened voices of peace, stability and democracy globally," said Modi, pointing to the two countries celebrating 25 years of full diplomatic relations next year.

--IANS

and/ps/rn
Research by youth travel brand Contiki shows Icelandic natural wonder is one of the hottest trends for young Canadians today

TORONTO, Nov. 15, 2016 /CNW/ - Recent research by youth travel operator Contiki (www.contiki.com) has revealed that the most desired travel experience for 18-35 year olds in Canada for 2017 is to bathe in Iceland's famous Blue Lagoon. The survey polled over 5,000* young people around the world (over 1,000 in Canada) in the development of 'The No Regrets List' (https://www.contiki.com/ca/en/no-regrets-travel-list/), revealing the top 20 bucket list experiences in 2017.

While creating the list, the brand also wanted to understand the motivators behind why Canadian millennials travel, and what type of experiences they want out of life. To learn about new cultures was far and beyond the strongest motivator, however 75.5% of Canadian respondents indicated that social experiences were the most valuable, ahead of cultural, culinary, intellectual, adrenaline and spiritual. The research also dissected views among the millennial group's two age groups, Gen Y (those born from 1980-1995) and their younger cousins Gen Z (those born after 1995). One of the surprising findings that came from the survey revealed that almost a third of Canadian Gen Z would rather travel after finishing high school than go straight to post secondary education (AKA taking a 'gap year'). This figure differs considerably from that of Gen Y (21<), a fifth of whom claimed the same. This willingness to push back the inevitabilities of adulthood and spend time learning about the world and themselves is indicative of Gen Z's more relaxed approach to progressing through life.

Relating back to destinations, top experiences varied greatly by region, indicating that Gen Y and Gen Z were searching for unique experiences that would create lasting memories, regardless of whether these were in Paris or Peru.

THE TOP 5 TRAVEL EXPERIENCES AS VOTED BY CANADIANS

1  Bathe in the Blue Lagoon in Iceland

Those landscapes and THAT awe inspiring natural light show  Iceland reigned supreme on Contiki's 'The No Regrets List' and specifically, the dreamy Blue Lagoon. Silica, Algae and Minerals are all active materials in the lagoon making it a killer natural skin regime, whilst the water temperature hovers around a balmy 37-40 degrees. And if you think the idea of bathing with 50 other people at one time is a bit gross, don't  the water is self-cleansing, renewing itself every 40 hours. It's interesting to note that Iceland has a cold oceanic climate, with average year-round temperatures hovering at the freezing mark of 0C. One would assume that a warmer and sunnier destination would top the list for winter-wary Canadians. However, thanks to word of mouth and the island nation's push in tourism awareness over the past few years, it's no wonder why the land of fire and ice topped the list.

2  See the Great Pyramids of Giza

One of the most magnificent wonders on the planet, the Great Pyramids of Giza define bucket list goals. Built over 5,000 years ago, the oldest and largest of the pyramids is the Great Pyramid, the only surviving structure of the seven ancient wonders of the world. Nestled on the west bank of the Nile and on the fringes of the expansive Sahara Desert, jump on board a camel and go capture yourself the ULTIMATE selfie

3  Walk the Great Wall of China

Move over all other walls of the world because you will NEVER beat the greatest (and longest) of them all  the Great Wall of China. Weighing in at a staggering 21,196 kilometres long and with over 2,300 years under its belt, the Great Wall is the world's most awe inspiring feat of ancient defensive architecture, built by multiple dynasties to protect different territorial borders. The phrase 'they don't make them like they used to' springs to mind

4  Chill out on the beach in Byron Bay

Golden expanses of sand, chilled back hippy vibes and hands down some of the best food in Oz  THIS is Byron Bay. All those dreams you've been harbouring of running away and living the surf bum lifestyle? This is the place to do it. Spend your morning kayaking the mangroves and dolphin spotting, cycle on over to Tallows beach for secluded beach hangs, then end the day watching the sun set from the vantage point of the lighthouse. Travel goals? You betcha. It's no surprise why Australia was among the top five regions young Canadians wanted to visit in 2017.

5  Learn how to make pizza in Italy

Pizza and Italy  two words that have been synonymous with each other since, well, forever. Get to grips with the country's most famous export (sorry pasta, you're a close second) with a hands-on cookery lesson, taught by the experts themselves  the locals. Learn to knead your dough just the right way, dollop on the perfect tomato sauce, and season with all the cheese and basil you can dream of. Margherita mamma mia!

The No Regrets List also revealed the top five regions that young Canadians plan to visit in 2017 when asked, "Where do you want to vacation to in 2017?"  the findings are as follows:

USA Great Britain and Ireland Western Europe Australia Japan

While the first three regions received similar favourability with Gen Y and Z, it's interesting to note the difference between both groups for the last two. There was a six-percentage point difference for Australia with Gen Z favouring the "down under" more; and an eight-percentage gap for Japan with again, more Gen Z wanting to visit this exotic region. Among the top regions favourited by Gen Y, North America, Great Britain and Ireland and Western Europe topped the list; whereas for Gen Z, North America, Australia and Japan made the cut.

The key takeaway from the The No Regrets List research was that for young people, whether Gen Y or Z: experiences rein supreme and the importance of experiences self-identified as a defining trait of young people today. While Gen Z is set to dwarf Gen Y in terms of size and spending power, it's good news for anyone in the "experience" industry.

Check out the rest of The No Regrets List at www.contiki.com/ca/en/no-regrets-travel-list/.

For more information on Contiki's trips throughout Europe, North America, Asia and Latin America check out contiki.com.

Life's an adventure  make it count with absolutely #NOREGRETS.

*Considered accurate with an average margin of error of 2%.

About Contiki Holidays

Contiki are the world leaders in travel experiences for 18-35's. We're about discovery, once-in-a-lifetime moments, human connections, and making every second of being young count. We run over 300 trips in 50 plus countries, each and every one designed to get to the beating heart of a destination, understanding the local way of life and unearthing #NOREGRETS experiences. A member of the family-owned The Travel Corporation (TTC), we are renowned and trusted for our outstanding quality, service, value, reliability and financial stability. Want to know more? Visit www.contiki.com.



SOURCE The Travel Corporation

Image with caption: "The Blue Lagoon in Iceland, located in a lava field in Grindavik on the Reykjanes Peninsula, was chosen as the number one travel bucket list destination among Canadians in a new survey conducted by Contiki entitled 'The No Regrets List'. (CNW Group/The Travel Corporation)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20161115_C5969_PHOTO_EN_818958.jpg

For further information: MEDIA CONTACTS: Winston Ma, PR & Digital Media Specialist, T: (416) 322-8468 ext. 7294, E: [email protected]; Marie Anne MacRae, Global VP, Strategic Partnerships, T: (416) 915-7016, E: [email protected]
$2,982 .7 million in gross insurance premiums

.7 million in gross insurance premiums Gross investment sales up significantly

LEVIS, QC, Nov. 15, 2016 /CNW Telbec/ - Desjardins Financial Security (DFS) has released results for the first nine months of 2016. DFS is a subsidiary of Desjardins Group that specializes in life insurance, health insurance and retirement savings. The company posted an increase in gross insurance premiums for the period, standing at $2,982.7 million, up 2.3% over 2015. Insurance sales totalled $360.3 million for the first three quarters of the year ($344.6 million in 2015). Net insurance sales stood at $4,582.1 million ($905.1 million in 2015).

As at September 30, 2016, net income was $353.2 million, compared to $301.3 million in 2015. The January 1, 2016 acquisition of two companies, Desjardins Investments Inc. and Desjardins Investment Product Operations Inc., accounts for a $62.7 million increase in net income over 2015. Other contributors include strong returns on investments and strict control of expenses. Furthermore, 2015 results had been positively affected by Q2 adjustments to actuarial assumptions due to the acquisition of State Farm's Canadian life and health insurance operations.

The acquisition of the two companies also contributed to an increase in assets under management and administration, which grew to $96.9 billion as at September 30, 2016, compared to $45.7 billion as at December 31, 2015. Return on equity was 16.7%, compared to 16.8% in 2015. The company also maintains excellent financial stability.

"The diversity of our product line remains our biggest strength in the current high-competition market. Based on our excellent investment sales, it's clear that our disciplined approach is trusted across the country, by business and individual investors alike," said Denis Berthiaume, DFS President and Chief Operating Officer. "I'd also like to welcome Gregory Chrispin, who will be taking over as head of this great company, and under whose leadership DFS will continue to grow and remain a top choice for Canadians."















Highlights











(In millions of dollars,

unless otherwise indicated) YTD 2016 YTD 2015 % change Q4 2016 Q3 2015 % change Net income 353.2 301.3 17.2% 131.6 60.9 116.1% Gross insurance premiums 2,982.7 2,915.8 2.3% 1,011.5 975.2 3.7%





















As at

September 30, As at

December 31, As at

September 30,







2016 2015 2015 Return on equity



16.7% 18.3% 16.8% Assets under management and administration



$96.9B $45.7B $45.2B

Results by business sector as at September 30, 2016

By the end of the first three quarters of the year, gross investment sales have grown significantly, ending the period at $10.4 billion, which is an $8.8 billion (or 558.0%) increase over the same period last year. This growth is attributable to a large group retirement savings contract signed in Q1 2016, and to sales generated by one of the new subsidiaries, Desjardins Investments Inc.

Group and business insurance sales grew to $153.5 million ($131.5 million in 2015). Sales for plans offered in financial institutions, including the Desjardins caisses, ended the quarter at $152.6 million ($154.5 million in 2015). In individual insurance, sales stood at $54.2 million ($58.6 million in 2015).

About Desjardins Financial Security

Desjardins Financial Security is a subsidiary of Desjardins Group, the leading cooperative financial group in Canada, specializing in life insurance, health insurance and retirement savings products for individuals and groups. Every day, over five million Canadians rely on DFS to ensure their financial security. The company employs some 4,700 people and administers $96.9 billion in assets from several cities across the country, including Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Levis, Halifax and St. John's. For more information, visit the company's website at www.desjardinslifeinsurance.com.

SOURCE Desjardins Financial Security

For further information: (media inquiries only): Valerie Lamarre, Public Relations, Desjardins Group, 514-281-7275 or 1-866-866-7000, ext. 5557275, [email protected]
BOGOTA, Colombia, Nov. 15, 2016 /CNW/ -- Today, Ecopetrol S.A. ("Ecopetrol" or the "Company") (BVC: ECOPETROL; NYSE: EC) announced the Ecopetrol Group's financial results for the third quarter and first nine months of 2016, prepared and expressed in billions of Colombian pesos (COP) pursuant to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) applicable in Colombia.

Table 1: Ecopetrol Group's Consolidated Financial Results A

B C D E

F G H I





















COP Billion

3Q 2015* 3Q 2016*  ($)  (%)

Jan-Sep 15* Jan-Sep 16*  ($)  (%) Total Sales

13,003 12,183 (820) (6.3%)

39,314 34,419 (4,895) (12.5%) Operating Profit

2,850 2,540 (310) (10.9%)

8,757 6,620 (2,137) (24.4%) Net Income Consolidated

887 446 (441) (49.7%)

2,938 2,046 (892) (30.4%) Non-Controlling Interests

(233) (217) 16 (6.9%)

(617) (667) (50) 8.1% Net Income Attributable to Owners of Ecopetrol

654 229 (425) -65.0%

2,321 1,379 (942) -40.6%





















EBITDA

4,698 4,886 188 4.0%

15,003 13,545 (1,458) (9.7%) EBITDA Margin

36.1% 40.1%





38.2% 39.4%

























* These figures are included for illustration purposes only. Unaudited.

Certain explanatory figures in this report are stated in US dollars (USD) and are indicated as such when applicable.

Juan Carlos Echeverry G., CEO of Ecopetrol S.A., commented:

"Ecopetrol has attained a strong operating and financial performance during the third quarter of 2016, reporting the highest level of EBITDA and EBITDA margin in the last five quarters, as a result of: i) the effectiveness of austerity measures; ii) increased efficiency and cost savings; iii) focus on capital discipline; iv) its proven capacity as an effective operator; and, v) higher crude oil prices compared with the beginning of the year.

The Company was able to operate the Rubiales and Cusiana fields both efficiently and safely, and sustained steady production levels in Castilla and Chichimene, despite lower investment. Favorable price forecasts allowed the Company to develop projects in order to gradually increase production of oil by 25 thousand barrels per day in 2017 and to reactivate the Cano Sur field, that help mitigate the declining of mature fields, a clear demonstration of its swift ability to respond to environmental conditions.

It is important to note that production grew by 3.9% during this quarter compared to the prior quarter, reaching a level of 723 thousand equivalent barrels of oil per day. This increase is explained, in part, by the reversion of the Rubiales field and the start of production at Gunflint in the US Gulf of Mexico, where we've started to reap the benefits of investments made in previous years.

The Group has overcome the period of low oil prices and has returned to the path of growth in production.

After the start-up of the 34 units at the Cartagena Refinery complex, which was completed on July 11th, we initiated the stabilization and performance testing period.

During the third quarter, the Ecopetrol Group reported an EBITDA of COP 4.9 trillion and an EBITDA margin of 40%. This good result demonstrates our commitment to operational excellence, cost efficiency, and capital discipline.

The net profit attributable to Ecopetrol shareholders in the third quarter rose to COP 229 billion. The decrease in relation to the reported profit for the second quarter is explained mainly by a higher income tax provision. This provision is the result of an update in the estimated tax rate for the year-end close, which reflects a higher tax charge as a consequence of the increase in international oil prices.

Cumulative savings totaling COP 1.9 trillion for the year exceed the target savings of COP 1.6 trillion set for 2016. Of these savings, the transformation plan managed to consolidate cumulative structural savings of COP 1.6 trillion within the first nine months of the year (COP 617 billion during the third quarter); and the Group achieved COP 300 billion in non-structural reductions.

The most relevant cumulative savings for the year include COP 563 billion from the heavy crude dilution initiative and COP 203 billion from line maintenance in the Midstream segment.

The savings achieved contributed to mitigate the impact on the Company's costs from the reversion of the Rubiales field and the start-up of the Cartagena refinery, as well as its seasonal trend which consistently shows higher execution in the second semester each year.

The third quarter ended with a solid cash position of COP 7.7 trillion, which allowed Ecopetrol to prepay a COP 990 billion loan that it had contracted with Bancolombia at the beginning of this year.

The Company continues to strengthen its social and environmental relations model, which aims to achieve sustainable and shared growth with communities in the areas of operation and the development of local governance. It also works to strengthen managerial leadership, commitment to life and effective risk management of people, facilities, and processes.

Ecopetrol has an optimistic view of the future. Its update to the 2020 Business Plan is based on three core pillars: i) cash focus and cost efficiency, ii) strict capital discipline, and iii) reserve and production growth. These pillars will strengthen its financial sustainability and allow it to leverage opportunities for organic and inorganic growth, thereby generating value and profit for shareholders."

The complete report is available in www.ecopetrol.com.co

[1] Ranking based on production directly operated.

For further information, please contact:

Head of Corporate Finance and Investor Relations Maria Catalina Escobar

Phone: (+571) 234 5190

E-mail: [email protected]

Media Relations (Colombia)

Jorge Mauricio Tellez

Phone: + 571-234-4329

E-mail: [email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090209/ARM001LOGO

SOURCE Ecopetrol S.A.
Emerging Leader category will recognize the contribution of five young volunteers

GATINEAU, QC, Nov. 15, 2016 /CNW/ - The Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, announced today on National Philanthropy Day, that the call for nominations for Canada's Volunteer Awards is now open and will run until February 3, 2017. This is the chance for all Canadians to nominate an exceptional volunteer, a not-for-profit organization that helps to find innovative solutions to social challenges, or a business that demonstrates social responsibility in their community.

National Philanthropy Day is about the love of humankind. By nominating someone for an award, you can recognize the importance of volunteer actions that are creating change in communities.

Canada's Volunteer Awards recipients are nominated by Canadians, for Canadians. This year, 21 awards will be presented, and award recipients will have the chance to identify a not-for-profit organization of their choice to receive a $5,000 or $10,000 grant.

Awards will be presented in the following categories:

One (1) national award  Therese Casgrain Lifelong Achievement Award .

. Five (5) regional awards  Emerging Leader , for young volunteers aged 18 to 30.

, for young volunteers aged 18 to 30. Five (5) regional awards  Community Leader , for individuals or groups of volunteers.

, for individuals or groups of volunteers. Five (5) regional awards  Business Leader , to recognize businesses that demonstrate social responsibility.

, to recognize businesses that demonstrate social responsibility. Five (5) regional awards  Social Innovator, to recognize the contributions of not-for-profit organizations.

The Government of Canada is proud to acknowledge young volunteers. In honour of the 150th anniversary of Confederation in 2017, the Emerging Leader category will be expanded from one national to five regional awards in order to recognize young volunteers' contributions to their communities.

Nominate a volunteer, a not-for-profit organization or a business today! For more information and to submit a nomination, visit Canada.ca/volunteer-awards.

Quotes

"Volunteers across the country give countless hours of their time to strengthen our communities. As we celebrate our 150th anniversary as an inclusive, diverse country, I encourage all Canadians to consider the volunteers and organizations who are making a difference in their lives, and nominate them for Canada's Volunteer Awards."

 The Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development

"Everyone has a role to play in improving our society. We contribute to it in part by investing in our work. However, it is impossible for all the work to be done to be paid work. This means that volunteers are essential to the well-being of their communities. Volunteering provides a sense of great personal satisfaction. Contributing to a cause that is greater than ourselves is rewarding and is a great tool for providing a feeling of personal and collective fulfilment. Beneficiaries of volunteering are often so grateful that they go on to give back to their community when they can. It's the principle of "paying it forward" that, I believe, brings people a lot of hope."

 Jean-Marie de Koninck, 2016 Therese Casgrain Lifelong Achievement Award recipient

"Volunteering is part of what it means to be Canadian. It's a way to connect with your community and make an impact. Opportunities like this allow us to celebrate those who selflessly contribute to our community. It's important to celebrate the action that you want to see more of as a country."

 Victoria Lennox, Startup Canada, 2016 Social Innovator (Ontario) award recipient

Quick Facts

Almost 13 million Canadians aged 15 years and over give of their time, and almost twice as many (82 percent) give money to a charitable or notforprofit organization.

In 2013, volunteers devoted almost 2 billion hours to their volunteer activities, or the equivalent of about 1 million full-time jobs.

In 2015, Canada ranked fourth in the World Giving Index, which aims to provide insight into the scope and nature of giving around the world.

ranked fourth in the World Giving Index, which aims to provide insight into the scope and nature of giving around the world. In 2013, 66 percent of youth age 15 to 19 had done some volunteer work and 42 percent of youth age 20 to 34 had volunteered.

Further information

Nominate a volunteer

Guidelines for Nominations

Follow us on Twitter

Backgrounder

Canada's Volunteer Awards

The Government of Canada is committed to recognizing the significant contribution volunteers make to Canada. Canada's Volunteer Awards complement other government activities that engage individuals at the community level to promote partnerships and leverage resources across sectors to address persistent social problems.



The objective of Canada's Volunteer Awards is to recognize annually and bring national prominence to the contributions individuals, not-for-profit organizations and businesses make to their communities through volunteering. This aligns with the Government of Canada's interest in promoting innovative solutions to local problems.

This year's Call for Nominations for Canada's Volunteer Awards runs from November 15, 2016 to February 3, 2017.

There are a total of 21 awards, both at the regional and the national levels.

There are 20 regional awards, four for each of the five regions across Canada (Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario, Prairies and British Columbia and the North):

Emerging Leader (youth 18 to 30) (in honour of Canada 150, there will now be 5 regional awards in this category!)

150, there will now be 5 regional awards in this category!) Community Leader (for individual volunteers or groups of volunteers);

Business Leader (for businesses); and

Social Innovator (for not-for-profit organizations).

There is also one national award:

Therese Casgrain Lifelong Achievement Award (generally for those who have volunteered for at least 20 years).

Therese Casgrain Lifelong Achievement Award

Therese Casgrain was a Canadian senator and social activist. Throughout her life, she chose to defend the cause of disadvantaged members of society, denounce social injustice and lend a voice to those who had none. Therese Casgrain was the founder and president of the Quebec League of Women's Rights and helped Quebec women gain the right to vote in 1940. The Therese Casgrain Lifelong Achievement Award recognizes the lifelong voluntary contributions of men and women from communities across Canada whose pioneering spirit, social commitment and persistent endeavors have contributed significantly to the advancement of a cause and the well-being of their fellow citizens.

Recognition package for recipients:

Award recipients are invited to attend a ceremony where they are recognized by the Government of Canada. In addition, regional award recipients are eligible to identify a not-for-profit organization to receive a $5,000 grant, and the recipient of the Therese-Casgrain Lifelong Achievement Award is eligible to identify a not-for-profit organization to receive a $10,000 grant.

Recipients are selected through a three-step assessment process:

Department officials screen nominations to ensure that they meet the eligibility criteria. Regional reviewers (volunteer representatives from across the country) assess eligible nominations based on the assessment criteria and develop a list of topranked nominations for the National Advisory Committee. A National Advisory Committee comprising up to 15 volunteer members from various regions of Canada is selected by the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development. The National Advisory Committee assesses the top-ranked nominations and advises the Minister on final decisions.

Canada 150

Celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation at special events and activities that are being planned across the country. From local and community events to national celebrations in 2017, there will be plenty of ways to get involved and celebrate all that makes us who we are as a country. More excitement to come, stay tuned! The clock starts now. We're celebrating 2017 in a big way with events happening across the country all year long. Be part of it.

Follow @Canada150th on Twitter use #Canada150 and help countdown to this milestone year.

SOURCE Employment and Social Development Canada

For further information: Media Relations Office, Employment and Social Development Canada, 819-994-5559, [email protected]
Fabulous new features enhance award-winning all-villa beachfront resort in Vietnam's cultural heartland, soon to be a Four Seasons experience

HOI AN, Vietnam, Nov. 15, 2016 /CNW/ -- One of Asia's most celebrated beachfront resorts is about to become a Four Seasons, with a host of new features enhancing the luxury vacation experience. Four Seasons Resort The Nam Hai, Hoi An, Vietnam debuts on December 20, 2016, and reservations are now being accepted.

"The best is about to get even better as we unveil new features and experiences for our guests, all wrapped in the legendary service for which Four Seasons is known the world over," says General Manager Anthony Gill, who has led the Resort team for four years. "Four Seasons Resort The Nam Hai on Ha My beach is a special place, both a sanctuary and a playground for the culturally curious, beach lovers, active families, culinary connoisseurs and spiritual seekers."

Guests of Four Seasons Resort The Nam Hai will find refreshed villas, an enhanced beach program plus new beach bar, a new concept for its serene lagoon spa, and a new Vietnamese cooking academy. Families will especially enjoy the new family villas with special features for parents and children, and the new, fully supervised kids club loaded with indoor and outdoor fun.

Just a half hour from Da Nang International Airport, Four Seasons Resort The Nam Hai is close to three spectacular UNESCO World Heritage Sites including Hue's imperial city, the temple sanctuary of My Son and the enchanting village of Hoi An.

Four Seasons is now confirming arrivals as of December 20, 2016. Guests may reserve their status among the first to experience the new Nam Hai by calling (84) 510 394 0000 or booking online.

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts: Sorya Ingrid Gaulin, 1 416 441 4767, [email protected]

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/439206

SOURCE Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
TORONTO, Nov. 15, 2016 /CNW/ - Posera Ltd. (TSX : PAY) ("Posera" or the "Company"), a leading provider of software solutions for the hospitality industry, today announced its financial results for the three and nine-months ended September 30, 2016.

During the three-months ended September 30, 2016, Posera recognized $4,168,526 in total revenues(A), an increase of $142,643 or 3.5% when compared to the three-months ended September 30, 2015 of $4,025,883 and a decrease of $169,389 (3.9%) from $4,337,915 for the three-months ended June 30, 2016.

During the three-months ended September 30, 2016 Posera incurred restructuring expenditures of $293,458, compared to $nil and $184,443, for the three-months ended September 30, 2015 and June 30, 2016 respectively. The restructuring costs are investments being made by Posera which are expected to reduce expenditures, increase overall efficiency, operational discipline and financial performance of the Company in the long-term. Restructuring expenditures year-to-date, relate to severance costs and consultants.

Recurring revenues for the three-months ended September 30, 2016 were $1,683,774, a decrease of $25,842 (1.5%) from recurring revenues of $1,709,616 for the three-months ended September 30, 2015 and a decrease of $60,376 (3.5%) from recurring revenues of $1,744,150 for the three-months ended June 30, 2016.

Posera experienced a normalized EBITDA loss(A) for the three-months ended September 30, 2016 of $416,134, an increase in the loss of $141,602 (51.6%) from a loss of $274,532 for the three-months ended September 30, 2015, and an increase in the loss of $378,533 (1,007%) from a loss of $37,601 for the three-months ended June 30, 2016. The change in the normalized EBITDA loss was primarily due to the build-out of the management team during the three-months ended September 30, 2016.

In addition to reporting its third quarter 2016 financial results, the Company announced that it has secured additional access to capital in order to fund its growth initiatives through two separate transactions.

On November 11, 2016 , the Company entered into an agreement with the Unsecured Convertible Subordinated Debenture holders in order to extend the payment terms of the principal amount, totalling $1,500,000 , from January 15, 2017 to January 15, 2019 with the nominal interest rate remaining at 10.25%. On November 11, 2016 , the Company negotiated a $1,500,000 stand-by operating facility, which may be drawn upon by the Company at any time with 5 business days' notice to the accredited lender. The interest rate on any funds drawn is 10% per annum and the stand-by charge is 2.5%. The stand-by operating facility expires December 31, 2018 and can be cancelled by the Company at anytime with 30-days notice to the lender at no additional cost.

Loudon Owen, Posera's Chairman and CEO reports, "The Company continues to move forward steadily and while the financial results are still unsatisfactory, they represent a significant investment in the renewal of the business, the results of which we believe will become apparent in the relatively near future."

(A) Disposition of Zomaron and Discontinued Operations: On April 29, 2016 the Company completed the sale of all of the issued and outstanding shares in the capital of its wholly owned subsidiary Zomaron Inc. ("Zomaron"). To understand the current and comparative financial results included in this press release, please refer to the Company's Financial Statement's and Management Discussion and Analysis for the three and nine-months ended September 30, 2016, where a detailed explanation regarding the presentation and disclosure impact for the Zomaron discontinued operation and ultimate disposal to the Company's consolidated results.

The Company will hold a conference call on Thursday, November 17th, 2016 to discuss the financial results for the three and nine-months ended September 30, 2016, at 12:00 PM Eastern Standard Time hosted by Loudon Owen, Chief Executive Officer and Kevin Mills, Chief Financial Officer. A question and answer session will follow the corporate update.

CONFERENCE CALL DETAILS

Date: Thursday, November 17th, 2016

Time: 12:00 PM Eastern Standard Time

Participant Dial-in Numbers:

Local  Toronto (+1) 647-427-7450

Toll Free - North America (+1) 888-231-8191

Conference ID: 17994322

An archive of the conference call will be available by visiting the Company's website at www.posera.com/investor-relations. Please connect at least 10 minutes prior to the conference call to ensure time for any software download that may be needed to hear the webcast.

About POSERA

Posera has been a leading provider of mission critical hospitality technology for more than 30 years. It manages merchant transactions with consumers and facilitates all aspects of the payment transaction.

Posera's full service solutions include SecureTablePay, which is an EMV compliant Pay-At-The-Table ("PATT") application. Posera's MaitreD'TM and FingerPrintsTM restaurant management systems offer a robust and comprehensive solution including hardware integration services, merchant staff training, system installation services, post-sale software and hardware customer support. Posera's solutions are deployed globally including across the full spectrum of restaurants, from large chains and independent table service restaurants to international quick service chains and its products have been translated into eight languages.

Posera Ltd.'s shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "PAY".

More information about Posera can be found on the Company's website at www.posera.com or under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This discussion includes certain forward-looking statements that are based upon current expectations, which involve risks and uncertainties associated with our business and the environment in which the business operates. Any statements contained herein that are not statements of historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking, including those identified by the expressions "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend", and similar expressions to the extent they relate to the Company or its management. The forward-looking statements are not historical facts, but reflect Posera's current expectations regarding future results or events. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations, including the matters discussed under "Risks and Uncertainties" in the Annual Information Form to be filed on March 30th 2016 with the regulatory authorities. Posera assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, unless required by law.

SOURCE Posera Ltd.

Image with caption: "Posera Ltd. (CNW Group/Posera Ltd.)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20161115_C6008_PHOTO_EN_818806.jpg

For further information: Kevin Mills, Chief Financial Officer, 1.416.703.6462 ext. 2203, [email protected], www.posera.com; Investor Relations Contact: Caleb Jeffries, 1.604.684.6730
TRUMPS TOP ADVISOR SAYS US SHOULD EXTRADITE GULEN

By Lt. General Michael Flynn

November 15, 2016

NewsWithViews.com

Turkey should be a top priority in U.S. foreign policy, a top adviser to President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday in an article that slammed Barack Obama for failing to understand Ankara's geopolitical position.

"We must begin with understanding that Turkey is vital to U.S. interests," retired Gen. Michael Flynn wrote for the Hill newspaper. He also called Turkey "a source of stability in the region".

Flynn was a key national security adviser to Trump during his presidential campaign and is expected by many to be appointed to a Cabinet position, possibly as defense secretary.

The veteran general wrote that it was "an unwise policy" for the Obama administration to keep Ankara at arm's length,

"We need to adjust our foreign policy to recognize Turkey as a priority. We need to see the world from Turkey's perspective," he wrote.

Noting the extradition request by Turkey of Gulenist Terror Group (FETO) leader, Fetullah Gulen, as one of the key points of contention between Washington and Ankara, Flynn suggested the U.S. handover Gulen.

Ankara has asked Washington to extradite Gulen for his role in infiltrating state instutitons in Turkey and carrying out a failed bloody coup July 15.

"What would we have done if right after 9/11 we heard the news that Osama bin Laden lives in a nice villa at a Turkish resort while running 160 charter schools funded by the Turkish taxpayers?" Flynn asked.

The former chair of the Defense Intelligence Agency suggested that although Gulen presents himself as a moderate Islamic scholar, he is a radical who "has publicly boasted about his 'soldiers' waiting for his orders to do whatever he directs them to do."

Flynn compared Gulen to Ayatollah Khomeini -- the leader of the Iranian revolution - urging the U.S. government not to repeat its mistake by supporting Gulen as it did Khomeini.

"Washington's silence on this explosive topic speaks volumes when we hear the incredulous claim that the democratically elected president of Turkey staged a military coup, bombed his own parliament and undermined the confidence in Turkey's strong economy, just so that he could purge his political opponents," he added.

Flynn also cited allegation of corruption against the Gulen network in the U.S., saying the terror leader has brought more people than Google into the country to teach English but they are not fluent in the language.

Meanwhile, the Vice President-elect Mike Pence told Turkish daily Hurriyet on Wednesday that Turkey is the most important U.S. ally in the region and added that the new U.S. administration will restore relations back to its glory and further strengthen ties.

FETO leader Fetullah Gulen has lived in self-imposed exile on a 400-acre property in the foothills of the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania since 1999. In the July 15 coup attempt that he masterminded, a military junta tried to stage a coup to topple the democratically elected president and government in Turkey and impose martial law. The attempt was prevented by troops loyal to the government, along with police units and millions of Turkish citizens in favor of democracy. In total, 246 people, mostly civilians, were killed by pro-coup soldiers while over 2,000 were injured.

Turkish authorities issued an official request for Gulen's extradition on Sept. 13, under a 1979 treaty between Turkey and the U.S. Justice minister Bozdag held a meeting with his U.S. counterpart Attorney General Loretta Lynch in late October, regarding the provisional arrest of the U.S.-based fugitive.

Please, click on "Mass E-mailing" below and send this article to all your friends .

 2016 Lt. General Michael Flynn - All Rights Reserved

Michael Thomas Flynn is a retired United States Army lieutenant general who served as the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, and chair of the Military Intelligence Board from July 24, 2012, to August 2, 2014. Prior to that, he served as Assistant Director of National Intelligence. He consistently pushed for greater information and intelligence sharing and was a leading figure in coalition and special operations intelligence operations. Flynn co-authored a report in January 2010 through the Center for a New American Security entitled Fixing Intel: A Blueprint for Making Intelligence Relevant in Afghanistan, which criticized the intelligence community for lacking an understanding of the human-socio context of the battlefield in Afghanistan. General Flynn is the author of New York Times bestseller The Field of Flight.

E-Mail: Not Available
Boom Technologies expects to start subsonic flight tests of its XB-1 supersonic demonstrator in late 2017. The engineering design was unveiled at the companys Centennial airport facility in Denver, Colorado, on November 15. Dubbed Baby Boom, the delta wing aircraft is a one-third scale demonstrator for a small supersonic airliner which Boom aims to certificate for commercial service by 2023.

Boom Technology has spent two years designing a supersonic passenger plane with the financial economics the defunct Concorde could never achieve. A full-size mockup of a smaller test plane was unveiled publicly on Tuesday. If all goes well in flight tests next year, the company will move ahead and build a full-size 45-seat aircraft that can travel 2.2 times faster than the speed of sound at a price on par with business-class tickets: $5,000 round trip for a 3 hour and 15 minute flight from New York to London.

This isnt a private jet, said Boom CEO Blake Scholl, who co-founded the company in 2014 with chief engineer Joe Wilding and chief technology officer Josh Krall. We want to build something that we can see our friends and family flying on. Were starting with business-class prices because thats what we have technology for. But our line of sight is we want to make the fastest ticket the cheapest ticket.

On Tuesday, guests will see the exact design of Baby Boom. About one-third the size of the full-sized plane, this two-passenger plane measures 70 feet long and has all the curves youd imagine a supersonic jet should have. It has a distinctive long skinny nose and streamlined wings that barely angle away from the fuselage. While this baby will never fly, parts for the real Baby Boom are being manufactured in North Carolina and will find their way to Hangar 14 next year. The real baby is expected to begin flight tests in late 2017. If all goes well, Booms passenger supersonic jet could fly its first paying customers in the 2020s.

Boom has estimated that they could sell 1,300 aircraft. This projection, Boyd said, is despite the U.S. ban on noisy super sonic booms, or the sound an object makes when it travels faster than the speed of sound. If the U.S. and other countries got rid of the over-the-land sonic-boom ban  Booms plane

noise is at 85 decibels or slightly louder than a garbage disposal  Boyd said the number of planes sold could be double or more.

Planes will also be made of carbon-fiber composites, which are lighter than the aluminum used in the Concorde. Carbon fiber can also be modeled into any shape and is better at taking the heat of a supersonic flight (Thats why our aircraft can fly 10 percent faster than a Concorde, Scholl said.

Scholl wont say how much investment Boom has received. But partners include Virgin Galactic, which has already reserved the first 10 airplanes produced  at $200 million each.

The Boom plan is for total operating cost per-seat mile that is comparable to subsonic business class.

A major problem with Concorde is that it had more seats than could be filled at the required prices. The Boom aircraft has 45 seats, similar to the premium cabin in a typical widebody aircraft. If you can fly a widebody aircraft with good load factor, you can also fly a Boom aircraft with the same schedule with good load factors.

SOURCES- Aviation Week, Boom Technology, Denver Post
When INS Vishal, the Indian Navys second indigenous aircraft carrier enters service, it will be a technologically cutting edge warship, on par with the worlds most advanced carriers. The navys finalised specifications include nuclear propulsion, a catapult launch system based on the new US electro-magnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) and the capacity to embark 55 combat aircraft. But advanced technologies also mean delay. Indias nuclear aircraft carrier will not come into service until the 2030s.

The Indian Navys latest aircraft carrier, the 65,000-ton supercarrier INS Vishal, the second ship of the Vikrant-class, will be powered by a nuclear reactor, according to anonymous Indian Navy sources. Furthermore, the INS Vishal will be able to accommodate up to 55 aircraft (35 fixed-wing combat aircraft and 20 rotary wing aircraft), launched using a catapult assisted take-off but arrested recovery (CATOBAR) aircraft launch system, incorporating U.S. defense contractors General Atomics new electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) technology.

Originally, India planned to induct the carrier in the 2020s.

There was no mention of delaying it to the 2040s to incorporate nuclear fusion, hypersonic fighter planes, molecular nanotechnology and post-singularity artificial intelligence.

SOURCES- Business Standard, The Diplomat
Ex-Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal, Alex Badeh (retd.), has permanently forfeited $1m to the Federal Government.

Ex-Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal, Alex Badeh (retd.), has permanently forfeited $1m to the Federal Government.The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, while investigating the arms scam in ex-President Goodluck Jonathans administration, had searched Badehs mansion located at 6 Ogun River Crescent, Maitama, on March 6, 2016 and found $1m cash.The house, which is worth about N1.1bn, was subsequently seized by the EFCC while the cash was taken seized as evidence.Badeh was later arraigned before Justice Okon Abang of a Federal High Court for an alleged N3.7bn fraud.The mansion and the cash were listed as evidence against Badeh in court.However, Badeh denied ownership of the mansion and its contents.A presidency source said, In March, the EFCC searched the house in the presence of neighbours and other witnesses and found $1m in cash.Other personal items linked to Badeh were found in the mansion and everything was listed as evidence.However, when the matter was taken to court, Badeh denied that the property belonged to him. As you know, the mansion has been converted to Federal Governments use. In fact, the mansion is now being used by the Presidential Committee on the North-East Initiative headed by Gen. Theophilus Danjuma.As for the money, it has been deposited into the Consolidated Revenue Account of the Federal Government. Since Badeh has denied ownership of everything, the money has permanently been forfeited to the Federal Government.Even if Badeh is found not guilty in court, he cannot turn around to demand the $1m or the property as this will amount to perjury which is a criminal offence and carries a jail term.When contacted on the telephone, Badehs lawyer, Mr. Samuel Zibri (SAN), in a terse text message, insisted that the property did not belong to his client.He said, I have checked through my records. The property is not Badehs property. I am not aware of any interim order of forfeiture, neither am I aware of it being converted to a Federal Government office.Badeh also allegedly bought a commercial plot of land at Plot 1386, Oda Crescent, Cadastral Zone A07, Wuse II, Abuja, for N650m.He was said to have paid N878m for the construction of a shopping mall at Plot 1386, Oda Crescent, Cadastral Zone A07, Wuse II, Abuja, and another sum of N304m to complete the construction.
Lijiang welcomes you to stay for a while

By:Jiang Wenran | From:english.eastday.com | 2016-11-14 12:39

Shanghai, November 11- China International Travel Mart 2016 kicked off today and will last to this Sunday. During this period, the Tourism Development Committee of Lijiang organized various promotion activities in Shanghai.



Led by Lijiangs executive vice mayor He Chunlei, a tourism delegation from Lijiang came to Shanghai to carry out series of marketing campaign, presenting new products and lines of smart tourism, leisure & holiday and special tourism to customers in Yangtze River Delta region.



Known as one of the worlds top 100 small cities worth to visit, Lijiang enjoys rich tourism cultural products and brands including Dongba culture, Nakhi music and Mosuo customs; its reception capacity is also increasing with a total of 109 travel agencies and 47 tourism shopping stores.



Statistics show that Lijiang is a tourist city. A total of 26.8173 million person-times visited this city from January to September, 2016. Overseas tourists reached 870,200 person-times, 1.39% up from a year earlier and domestic tourists reached 25.9471 million person-times, 14.08% up from a year earlier.



Though long distance between Shanghai and Lijiang, the two cities are linked together by the Yangtze River; He Chunlei noted that the Yangtze River Delta is an important tourism generating region. With the establishment of Shanghai- Kunming high-speed railway, exchanges between the two cities will become much more convenient.
The Federal Government has filed a charge against Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court. He has been accused of receiving ...

The Federal Government has filed a charge against Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court.He has been accused of receiving gratification and an abuse of office.In the charge filed before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja yesterday, Justice Ademola was accused of acting with his wife, Mrs. Olabowale Toluwatope Ademola, who is the Head of Service of Lagos State.Mrs. Ademola, in the charge marked: CR/21/16, filed by the office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, was said to have aided her husband.Justice Ademola, one of the judges recently arrested by the Department of State Services (DSS), was accused of receiving gratification from some lawyers, law firms and companies. His wife was alleged to have, in some instances, accepted some money into her account in GT Bank Plc on behalf of he husband.Justice Ademola, who sits in Abuja division of the Federal High Court, is the second of the arrested judges against who the Federal Government has filed charges.The Federal Government on November 8, filed a six-count charge against Justice Sylvester Ngwuta of the Supreme Court before the Federal High Court, Abuja.
Alade Sunday, a compliance officer with Zenith Bank, Akure, Ondo State, on Monday narrated how his bank helped the duo of former Minist...

Mr. Sunday, the prosecutions principal witness, spoke during the trial of Abiodun Agbele, an aide to Mr. Fayose.He told the court that as compliance officer, he was worried about the large sum of money being transported, but did not report it to any appropriate authority.Mr. Agbele is facing trial for his role in the alleged diversion of N1.2 billion from the office of the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki.He was arraigned alongside Mr. Obanikoro, who was then outside the country, and two others, Tunde Oshinowo and Olalekan Ogunseye, both of whom are at large.A company, Sylvan Mcnamara Limited, was also accused in the 11-count charge.Mr. Obanikoro who submitted himself to the EFCC upon his return to Nigeria has agreed to return a bulk of the money he got from the deal.Mr. Fayose is not being prosecuted because of the immunity he enjoys as governor by virtue of Section 308 of the Nigerian constitution. An account belonging to him, which reportedly had over N1 billion in it, was however frozen by the anti-graft agency, EFCC.The N1.2 billion is believed to have been largely used to fund Mr. Fayoses election as Ekiti governor. The controversial politician has since denied the charged and alleged persecution by Nigerias ruling All Progressives Congress.The money is part of the N4.7 billion allegedly transferred from an account at the Central Bank belonging to the Office of the National Security Adviser. The then National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, is also being prosecuted separately on various charges of corruption and illegal possession of firearms.While being cross examined by Mike Ozekhome, counsel to Mr. Agbele, Mr. Alade affirmed that when the aircraft carrying the cash alighted at the Akure airport, it was Mr. Agbele who took custody of the money and transferred it to the Zenith Bank officials, including instructions on how they were to be transported to the Akure branch of the bank.The witness, who said he had not met Mr. Obanikoro before the airlift of the cash, said the former minister arrived Akure with Mr. Agbele on the plane that brought the money.When asked on whose instruction the monies were transferred, he said the instruction was given by Abiodun Agbele. The transaction was processed on behalf of Agbele, the cash was mostly in N1000 bills while the rest were in N500, and were deposited into the accounts of Spotless Investment, De Privateer limited and Ayodele Fayoses account.Mr. Alade had earlier testified to the court that his zonal manager, Abiodun Oshodi, informed him that a customer would be bringing in some money. But when he was asked to read from his witness statement which stated that he was informed by one Lawrence Akande from the Ibadan branch of the bank, he got agitated and insisted on the fact that he was informed by his zonal manager.
President Muhammadu Buhari has condoled with the Dasuki family, the government and people of Sokoto State on the death of the 18th Sultan ...





President Muhammadu Buhari has condoled with the Dasuki family, the government and people of Sokoto State on the death of the 18th Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki.Malam Garba Shehu, the Presidents Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, made this known in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday.Buhari also commiserated with the Jamaatul Nasril Islam (JNI) and the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs over the demise of the remarkable traditional ruler.The president noted that the deceased devoted his life and tenure of office to the promotion of peaceful coexistence and tolerance among diverse ethnic groups in Nigeria. Buhari, therefore, joined them in mourning the passing of one of Nigerias most powerful voices for peace and unity in diversity.He said the traditional ruler diligently kept faith with the virtues of the Sardauna whom he had served as a public servant. According to the president, the late Dasuki will be long remembered for his role in the creation of the present local government system in the country.He will also be remembered for his role in modernising the traditional institution to bring it in tune with changing times, he said.The president also paid tribute to his contributions to national peace and development, particularly his significant role in producing the report that gave birth to the current local government councils.He prayed that almighty Allah would comfort the family of his Eminence, grant the deceased eternal rest and reward his good virtues with Paradise. Late Sultan Dasuki died on Monday at the age of 93.
President Muhammadu Buhari has arrived Marrakech, Morocco, to participate in the ongoing 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Unite...

President Muhammadu Buhari has arrived Marrakech, Morocco, to participate in the ongoing 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), tagged, COP-22.This information is contained in the Presidents twitter handle.President Buhari, who left the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on Monday, arrived the Marrakesh Menara Airport in Morocco, some hours later.While in Marrakech, the president would participate in the official opening of the plenary of the conference on November 15 where he would deliver his national statement during the High Level Segment of COP 22.A statement earlier issued by the Presidents Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said President Buhari would be presenting a presidential address at the conference.The address, according to the statement, is expected to highlight, among other key issues, Nigerias unwavering commitment to implementing the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and policy actions aimed at tackling climate change through environmental sustainable efforts.It said that the president would also use the occasion of his speech to rally international support for the clean-up of Ogoniland in the Niger Delta and the resuscitation of the Lake Chad Basin.The statement said President Buhari would also attend the Africa Day Commemoration at COP 22 with the theme, Moving from Commitments to Action with Intended Nationally Determined Contributions and African Renewable Energy Initiative.The president, according to the statement, will also attend the Summit of African Heads of State on the sidelines of the climate change conference.COP 22, will be attended by representatives from 197 countries including world leaders, environment ministers, government officials as well as a wide range of representatives from civil society and the private sector.The conference is the first meeting of State Parties since the entry into force of the landmark Paris Agreement on November 4, 2015.The legally binding international agreement on climate change, among others, addresses issues of global warming, including its impact on food security and agriculture.It would be recalled that President Buhari signed the Paris Agreement on September 22, 2016 at the margins of the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Another week, another update on Cristiano Ronaldo and Desire Cordero.A couple of weeks ago, Portuguese tabloid Correrio Da Manha announced that Cristiano Ronaldos relationship with Desire Cordero is over.And not only is it over, but the Real Madrid star was also reportedly angry with the former Miss Spain after its been claimed the Portuguese superstar was used.To recap, back at the start of October, Spanish magazine Corazon Czn announced that Ronaldo and Desire Cordero were in a relationship.In recent weeks, the likes of Spanish paper Sport have questioned whether the union was real, as it was suggested that it was a relationship of convenience.Corazon Czn have posted an update on the Ronaldo-Cordero break-up this week, which suggests the former Miss Spain is heartbroken.The Spanish gossip magazine claims Desire Cordero has been crushed, while shes considering moving to America as a result of the split.Moreover, Ronaldo is accused of stopping to answer her messages from one day to another, without any reason.The way they spin the gossip, rather than Ronaldo having the hump, its Desire Cordero who is more distraught with the split.
Professor Tam David-West has dared Nigerian Nobel laureate to fulfil his promise and cut his American green card.

Professor Tam David-West has dared Nigerian Nobel laureate to fulfil his promise and cut his American green card.Describing Soyinka as a great and honourable man, he said should he fail to follow through on his very public threat and return to Nigeria, he would prove to be dishonourable.Now, he has changed his tone. When I read it, I was very upset. He is toying with the intelligence of Nigerians. He said (hed destroy his green card) if Trump is elected President. The moment Hillary Clinton conceded defeat, Trump is elected. Immediately, Soyinka should have come back to Nigeria.I know Wole Soyinka is an honourable man. I am waiting for him to cut his green card and return to Nigeria honourably. If he does not come back, he is very dishonourable. He should keep to his words. It was not necessary for him to make that statement at all.In the first instance, he never said he would cut his green card when Donald Trump takes office. He said if he is elected President. So, Soyinka should honourably cut his card and honourably return to Nigeria.
Two men, Ezekiel Yusuf (29) and Musa Abubakar (25) have been arrested by Ogun State Police Command for alleged gang-rape of a pawpaw selle...

Two men, Ezekiel Yusuf (29) and Musa Abubakar (25) have been arrested by Ogun State Police Command for alleged gang-rape of a pawpaw seller.The Commands Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, who made this known to on Monday said the suspects committed the crime along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.He said the 23 years old victim was hawking sliced pawpaw along the expressway, when the suspects under pretext of wanting to buy the product lured her into the house of one of them.He said it was the cry of the victim during the act that attracted neighbours who reported the matter to the police.Mr. Oyeyemi said the Divisional Police Officer of Ojodu Abiodun Police Station, Bamidele Job, quickly dispatched detectives to the scene and two suspects were promptly arrested.The case is being further investigated by the police, he said.
The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, on Monday said the meeting the leaders of the National Assembly had with Vice-President Yemi Osi...

The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, on Monday said the meeting the leaders of the National Assembly had with Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and some state governors was meant to ensure good governance and collaboration.Saraki spoke with State House correspondents at the end of the meeting held inside the Vice-Presidents office at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.The meeting was also attended by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara; the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal; as well as governors of Ogun, Adamawa, Zamfara, Osun, Imo and Niger states.The meeting was believed to be one of the efforts aimed at resolving the issues arising from the Senates recent rejection of President Muhammadu Buharis $30bn foreign loan request and the 2016-2018 Medium Term Expenditure Framework as well as other party matters.Osinbajo heads the present administrations Economic Management Team.I am sure the Vice-President will issue a statement. But nothing of great alarm, it (the meeting) was all for good governance, inclusion and collaboration with all arms. The states are here, the National Assembly executives just came up with ideas on how to make things work even better, thats all, Saraki told reporters.Saraki had met with Buhari thrice within one week on the same matter.The meetings came after the Senate rejected Buharis request for approval to take $30bn foreign loan.The Senate had also dismissed the Medium Term Expenditure Framework submitted to it for approval, describing it as empty.The document was said to have been returned to the Executive.Saraki had after a meeting with Buhari told State House correspondents that the issue of the foreign loan was work in progress.
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has stated that the government is shifting focus to the creative industry because it no ...

Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has stated that the government is shifting focus to the creative industry because it no longer has trust in crude oil.In a statement issued by Segun Adeyemi, his media aide, on Monday, the minister said the government had promised to invest in the necessary infrastructure to ensure the growth of the movie industry, globally know as Nollywood.Mohammed made this statement during a film festival in Lagos on Sunday.According to him, When we trusted in the almighty oil, we built refineries, pipelines, petrol marketing companies, petrol stations etc. Since we are now rightly shifting our focus to this sector, we must now make the necessary investments in the infrastructure that will grow the film industry.The film industry has proven itself to be not just a great employer of labour, especially young people, but also potentially a very high foreign exchange earner because of its international appeal and demand.We need professional studio facilities in every state of the country. You should also not be providing your own power, borrowing at 30%, travelling abroad to do post-production etc.Mr President has publicly put his weight behind the creative industry and has promised to do everything that will make it possible for us to transit from a creative industry to a creative economy. To this end we are already in talks with state governments and investors to build studio facilities that will equal those in Mexico, India, the U.S etc.This will make film making easier and increase the quality of films.The minister added that the ongoing transition from analogue to digital broadcasting would also help provide a major customer base for Nigerian films.Meanwhile, ace Nollywood Actor, Kenneth Okonkwo has denied his involvement in Nnamdi Kanus case following rumors that he was in support of biafrans.
Cpl. Ibrahim Usman, one of wounded soldiers in the fight against the Boko Haram terrorists in the North-East, has called on Nigerian...

Cpl. Ibrahim Usman, one of wounded soldiers in the fight against the Boko Haram terrorists in the North-East, has called on Nigerians to pay more attention to troops welfare.Usman made the appeal in an interview with newsmen on Monday, when the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, visited wounded soldiers at hospitals in Maiduguri.The soldier, who was admitted to military hospital, Maimalari Cantonment, about three weeks ago, urged Nigerians to pay attention to soldiers well being in the frontline just as they were doing for the missing Chibok girls.According to Usman, his two legs broke during an explosion when a vehicle conveying him and nine other soldiers to Monguno in Borno north during an operation stepped on mine planted by the terrorists.We need Nigerians to take care of us. Like this my injury, broken legs, they suppose to take me to a specialist hospital or abroad for a good treatment.If it is these girls  Chibok school girls, they will take them abroad. We are the ones fighting in the bush, Usman said.Although the solider said that he was responding to treatment, he said would retire from the military when he gets well due to the injury.I cannot fight again because I do not have that strength any more. My legs are broken.If I get well, I will retire because my legs are broken. I can no longer go and fight the insurgents, Usman.Another soldier, Sgt. Ahmed Musa, however, thanked the army chief for visiting wounded soldiers in the hospital.Musa of 119 Battalion Task Force, Mallam Fatori said: My situation when I got here was worse but God I am getting healed.I have injury in one of my hands. When he  Buratai came here we are happy because when we came here we did not see anybody. We appreciate the way he comes here, he said.According to Cpl. Innocent Gabriel, a nurse attending to one of the wounded soldiers at the time of the visit, the common cases of injury are fractures resulting from explosions and gunshots.Gabriel said that most of wounded soldiers were responding to treatment, adding that some of them may be taken to the theatre.The doctor in charge of the hospital, Lt.-Col. Ndidi Onuchukwu, a Consultant Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgeon, said that 97 wounded soldiers were being treated in the facility which had capacity for 105 patients.Onuchukwu said that the worst cases come from combat injuries, adding that the hospital was,collaborating with the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital  UMTH to give the best to them.Speaking after the visit, Buratai described it as operation and welfare visit to encourage the wounded soldiers.He said that most of them would soon be discharged and commended troops for efforts in the war against the insurgents.Prof. Abdurrahman Tahir, the Chief Medical Director of UMTH, lauded the army for the prompt settlement of its personnel medical bills. (NAN)
Pictured is the death chamber at Louisiana's Angola State Prison, which has a gurney for lethal injections. As of July 2016, there were 77 people on death row in Louisiana, according to NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
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WASHINGTON (AP)  The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has issued a subpoena to Donald Trump. The nine-member panel sent a letter to the former president's lawyers on Friday, demanding his testimony under oath by mid-November and outlining a series of corresponding documents. The decision by lawmakers to exercise their subpoena power comes a week after the committee made its final case against the former president, who they say is the "central cause" of the multi-part effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. It remains unclear how Trump and his legal team will respond to the subpoena, if at all.
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A 16m high viaduct will pass through Long Eaton after plans for the final route the HS2 rail line will take through the East Midlands were confirmed by the Government.

The high-speed railway will follow the eastern side of the A42 around East Midlands Airport, passing east of the runway and of the M1.

To reach the East Midlands Hub station at Toton, the line will then pass through Long Eaton via a high level viaduct on the approach to the East Midlands Hub station at Toton.

Under the plans, a viaduct over the River Trent flood plain will stretch approximately 4,700m and the route will pass through Long Eaton on a 16m high viaduct at the crossing of Station Road.

The legs of the route - part of the line which goes from the West Midlands to Toton, and then on to South Yorkshire - were confirmed by the Government on Monday (July 17).

Much of the route and the station at Toton Sidings was announced as the Government's preferred option last November, but exactly how how the high-speed route would go through Long Eaton and around East Midlands Airport was only confirmed today.

Rebecca Bestwick, of Sawley, owns a house in East Street, Long Eaton, which is just 60m away from the line.

The 37-year-old said: "I don't particularly oppose it, but I do think that the residents - home owners - should be compensated.

"They can't tell me that the property value is going to be unblighted there. I invested my money in that house for my son's future and everything I've worked for if going to depreciate now."

After Monday's announcement, John Slater, part of the Stop HS2 Trowell group, told The Post that residents have concerns about the viaduct and the amount of money being spent on the project.

He said: "Our major objection to HS2 is the enormous sums of money being lavished on it, without any alternative options being considered of even looked at.

"The process to get HS2 to where it is now seems to have been one of strong lobbying from the construction companies, followed by a momentum being gathered with MPs ignoring any arguments against it, no matter how valid they may be."

But Scott Knowles, chief executive of the East Midlands Chamber, believes HS2 will be "transformational" for the region.

He said: "It's not about faster train times, it's about capacity and connecting the East Midlands to a first-class UK- and Europe-wide rail network that will make the region a more attractive place for inward investment and bring new opportunities for local firms.

"There must be investment now across the region to ensure seamless interconnectivity along the route.

"Our cities and major towns must have quick, practical and direct connection with HS2 if they are to maximise its potential and avoid being marginalised by poor connectivity."

Chris Grayling, the Secretary of State for Transport, said: "The high speed link at Toton will give the region's businesses better and faster access to some of the country's biggest cities.

"HS2 will bring a massive economic boost to the East Midlands - with the prospect of 74,000 jobs being created and land being opened up for housing."

The announcement was made almost nine months after the rest of the route was revealed in November last year.

At the time, a decision on how the HS2 line will pass East Midlands Airport and through Long Eaton were subjected to further consultation.

In 2013, it was proposed that the route would pass under East Midlands Airport in a 3km long tunnel before passing over the M1 north of junction 24 near Lockington, and crossing the floodplain of the River Soar and River Trent on two viaducts.

But concerns were raised about the impact of a proposed 16m high viaduct required to cross the A42 on the approach to the East Midlands Airport, and the closeness of the line to the villages of Tonge and Breedon on the Hill.

Concerns were also raised about how the line would travel through Long Eaton and two proposals - the chosen option and one for a 4m high viaduct - were considered.
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The Government has today announced that the HS2 rail line will have a station at Toton serving Derby and Nottingham.

But there will be further consultation on whether the route should go round or tunnel under East Midlands Airport - and on what the exact route through Long Eaton should be.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling announced the preferred route for the 56bn project today, saying passengers travelling on the East Coast and West Coast main lines will benefit from more services and extra seats once the high-speed rail project is completed.

Phase 1 of HS2 is due to open in December 2026, and will see trains travel at high speed between London and Birmingham before running on from Birmingham on the existing West Coast Main Line.

Phase 2, taking the high-speed line to north-east and north-west England and beyond, is due to be completed by around 2032/33.

This second phase of the route is itself split into two parts.

The western leg will go from Crewe to Manchester Airport, and then to Manchester city centre, where a new HS2 station will be built next to Manchester Piccadilly.

The eastern leg will go from the West Midlands to Toton - where a new HS2 station will be built at Toton to serve Nottingham, Derby and the wider region - before continuing north from the East Midlands to South Yorkshire. From South Yorkshire, HS2 will continue to Leeds where a new HS2 station will be built in Leeds city centre, adjacent to the existing station. HS2 will also have a connection onto the East Coast Main Line, allowing the line to serve York, Newcastle and other places in the north-east.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said: "Our railways owe much to the Victorian engineers who pioneered them, but we cannot rest on their legacy when we face overcrowding and capacity problems.

"HS2 is an ambitious and exciting project and the Government is seizing the opportunity it offers to build a transport network fit for the 21st century, one that works for all and makes clear to the world that Britain remains open for business.

"The full HS2 route will be a game-changer for the country that will slash journey times and perhaps most importantly give rail passengers on the existing network thousands of extra seats every day. They represent the greatest upgrade to our railway in living memory."

There are seven 'refinements' on which Department for Transport is consulting.

These include whether the line should go around instead of tunnel under East Midlands Airport; and whether the plans should "amend the alignment of the preferred route as it passes through Long Eaton to reduce severance in the local community and reduce impacts on the highway network and existing rail infrastructure".

The proposed journey times from Toton would be:

Birmingham in 20 minutes

Birmingham Interchange (for Birmingham Airport) in 17 minutes

Derby in 12 minutes

Leeds in 27 minutes

Leicester in 21 minutes

London in 52 minutes

Newcastle in 1 hour and 36 minutes

Nottingham in 12 minutes

Sheffield in 26 minutes

Scott Knowles, chief executive at East Midlands Chamber, said: "The confirmation of the second phase of HS2 is great news for the region, for the country and for businesses in the East Midlands.

"During a time of uncertainty, the announcement today gives businesses a certainty that will help them plan for the future. It also sends a bold signal to the rest of the world about the type of forward-thinking country Britain wants to be seen as we negotiate our way out of the EU.

"The line from Birmingham to Leeds, via a hub station at Toton in the East Midlands, and through South Yorkshire, will deliver the once-in-a-generation step change in capacity that that we need to move the goods and people that continued growth across the region demands.

"But this has always been about much more than just a railway line. Better connection between our businesses and communities in the East Midlands with the great cities to the north, west and south of us, offers fantastic opportunities for closer working and the benefits that will come from it.

"The development of the route itself will give a host of opportunities for East Midlands businesses, from the direct construction of the line through to the enabling work and to those that will supply contractors at all levels. There's a challenge for us now to ensure we produce the skills needed to deliver this work."

Councillor Alan Rhodes, Leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, said: "We are delighted to hear this news from the Government that the eastern leg of HS2 with a station within our county at Toton, has received the go-ahead today.

"Currently, the fastest rail journey time from Nottingham to Birmingham is 73 minutes, an average of around 41mph for a journey of just 50 miles, which is woefully inadequate.



"HS2 gives us an opportunity to reduce these journey times significantly and provide economic benefits to both businesses and residents in our local communities through improved access to job opportunities across the Midlands. Furthermore, HS2 will vastly increase the capacity of our rail network to meet the growing demand for rail travel in the future.

"The County Council is pushing to ensure maximum benefits are achieved through the latest consultation and in the detailed planning stage, while also ensuring local and environmental factors are carefully taken into consideration.



"We look forward to working with HS2 and in partnership with Broxtowe Borough Council, Nottingham City Council, East Midlands Councils, D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership and Midlands Connect on the delivery of the scheme."

But Dr John Disney, transport researcher at Nottingham Business School, says there are still many issues to be resolved.

"The newly released HS2 route map shows a number of changes in the East Midlands. Some are subject to further consultation, closing March 2017, but others don't appear to merit consultation," he said.

"High Speed Rail lines should be as straight as possible to achieve optimal speeds and minimal noise. The route now appears to curve round East Midlands Airport to the East rather than tunnel under it, and goes closer to East Midlands Parkway, again raising the question of whether this would be a better East Midlands hub location.

"There is a small movement in the location of Toton station, 150m, which may not seem like much but could have a significant impact on some of the effected individuals.

"Long Eaton is recognised as being blighted by HS2 but the 'remedies' do not appear to resolve the situation; it would not be surprising if compensation levels for Long Eaton residents were increased enormously to quell likely protests.

"Questions also remain about the line's proximity to Strelley Village and conservation area, as the route now brings it closer to this location.

"There is also still no clear commitment as to the connectivity of Toton to Nottingham and Derby, the number of trains which will actually STOP at Toton, or what the stopping pattern of those trains will actually be."

Penny Gaines, chair of the Stop HS2 campaign group, said: "The Government is proposing spending 56 billion or more on a railway line most people don't want and that won't benefit the economies of the Midlands and the North.

"What's more, huge parts of the earlier proposals have already been dropped. Plans to connect HS2 to Heathrow and to HS1 have long since been dropped, meaning that any hopes of getting from Manchester or Leeds to the Continent by train are impossible. There have been numerous redesigns of Euston, adding to the uncertainty.

"Meanwhile projects like the electrification of the Great Western Line have been delayed. Anywhere where there are gaps in the line is continued uncertainty for people affected. Phase 2 was announced in early 2013, and these people have been living in limbo for nearly four years."

HS1 is the link between London and the Channel Tunnel.
President-elect now says he will deport criminals, not all illegal immigrants

WASHINGTON (AP)  President-elect Donald Trump is starting to sound an awful lot like President Barack Obama on immigration.

In his first postelection interview, Trump said he will focus on deporting criminal immigrants and not everyone living in the United States illegally. Two million or 3 million people could be immediate targets for deportation under this approach, Trump said, providing a likely inflated figure.

And that big, beautiful wall at the Mexican border? Trump said he may be amenable to a fence along some parts of the roughly 2,000-mile border.

The softened stance contrasts sharply with Trumps campaign rhetoric. As a candidate, he called for everyone living in the country illegally to return to their home countries and for Mexico to pay billions of dollars for the wall.

A look at Trumps shifting immigration stance:

Focus on criminals

Trump said in an interview with 60 Minutes broadcast Sunday that immigration enforcement will concentrate on criminals.

What we are going to do is get the people that are

criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, he said. We have a lot of these people, probably 2 million, it could be even 3 million; we are getting them out of our country or were going to incarcerate.

Trump added: Were getting them out of our country; theyre here illegally.

Obamas Homeland Security Department has operated similarly. Since 2010, criminals comprised more than half of those deported from the U.S. Over his presidency, Obama has overseen the deportation of more than 2.5 million people.

Trump didnt say Sunday how he will target criminals. He previously has spoken about reviving programs that gave immigration agents access to jails so they could identify people living in the country illegally.

But if Trump does so, local jurisdictions likely will object. Local laws in some places bar cooperation with immigration authorities. And some federal court rulings make it difficult for local jails to hold immigrants beyond their criminal sentences or strictly for immigration violations.

It is even harder to deport criminal immigrants who arent incarcerated. Many live in the shadows. Tracking them down would take a lot of time and government money.

Deportation costs average about $12,500 per person, according to a 2011 government estimate.

Actual number of criminal immigrants

Trumps estimate of criminals who are in the country illegally is probably much too high.

In 2012, Homeland Security officials estimated some 1.9 million criminal immigrants in the United States who could be deported. But the government didnt break down how many of those people were in the country legally and how many were here illegally.

A subsequent analysis by the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, concluded that only about 820,000 of those people were in the country illegally. The other million or so people had some sort of legal status, including green cards or visas.

Deporting green card holders is possible, though the process can involve lengthy court proceedings.

Fence vs. wall

I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, Trump said as he launched his presidential campaign in June 2015. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall.

He repeated the pledge at almost every rally.

But in his weekend interview, Trump took a more nuanced approach.

In certain areas, Trump said, it could be some fencing. Elsewhere, he added, the border wall was still appropriate.

The president-elect didnt outline where a fence or a wall might fit better. But his willingness to consider fencing marked a considerable concession from his campaign stance.

Border fencing is nothing new. There is fencing along about 650 miles in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, encompassing almost a third of the border.

Under President George W. Bush, Congress authorized $1.2 billion to build hundreds of miles of double-layered fencing. The Congressional Research Service and the Army Corps of Engineers have estimated that the fencing already in place cost the United States about $7 billion.

Any new construction along the border would be a costly and complicated endeavor. Cost estimates of a wall have ranged from $10 billion to $20 billion.

Trump would also face myriad environmental regulations, objections from private land owners and a legally binding 1970 treaty with Mexico that governs structures along the Rio Grande and Colorado River at the Mexican border.
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Centier Bank was named Bank of the Year by The Regional Development Co.

The RDC recognized the Merrillville-based bank for its community business lending  specifically, 10 loans totaling $7.363 million. The RDC, a development company that focuses on the 504 SBA Loan program in Northwest Indiana, also honored Centiers Bill Winterhaler as Most Active Lender of the Year and Tom Wilk as Outgoing Chair.

Our success wouldnt have been possible if not for the teamwork and dedication to the SBA program from our lenders, administrative assistants, central data processing and loan operations associates, said Jonathan Hildebrand, Centier vice president and small business department manager. 

Our teams work together to finance small business in our communities and thats what makes Centier Bank and RDC projects so successful.

Centier, the largest privately held bank in Indiana, says it is also Northwest Indianas leader in commercial real estate lending. The bank, which was founded in Whiting in 1895, offers the 504 SBA Loan to help small companies finance expansions, land acquisitions and large equipment purchases.

The Small Business Administration also recently recognized Centier as the No. 1 bank in Indiana for third-party SBA originations in the state and one of the top 10 in SBA 7(a) originations.
ArtHouse: A Social Kitchen, a project by the acclaimed South Side Chicago artist Theaster Gates, is throwing its doors open to the public this weekend.

The culinary business incubator/art gallery at 411 E. Fifth Ave. in downtown Gary will have a grand opening from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday. Gates and Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson will speak at a ceremony that will include music, food trucks, complementary food from local culinary artists, cider, marshmallow roasting over open fire pits, and the unveiling of Ripple + Wilsons multicolored lanterns wrapping around the outside of the building.

Ripple + Wilsons solar-powered LED light display will illuminate the 14,000-square-foot building Arthouse shares with Mama Pearls BBQ in the night, and shimmer during the day. The public sculpture is now being installed, and will debut during the weekend ceremony.

I think its going to be fun, Arthouse Project Manager Michele L. Larimer said. Its our first opportunity to present ArtHouse to the public in a formal way. ... We want to show what happens when the residents of Gary get together and do something.

ArtHouse: A Social Kitchen will feature a gallery for local artists, a cafe showcasing the creations of local culinary artists, and an incubator with programs, workshops and a commercial kitchen that can be rented for anyone who wants to start a culinary business.

So far, bakers, caterers, beverage makers and farmers market vendors all have expressed interest.

We havent spoken with a single restaurant, Larimer said. Businesses interested in us are focused on events.

ArtHouse is intended to foster all types of culinary businesses, including restaurants. Food entrepreneurs can attend programs such as on what to do with a surplus harvest of cherries, or sign up for classes on accounting, finance, fundraising and marketing.

Both in Gary and Northwest Indiana people are catering out of their homes, for a special event or for friends, she said. Arthouse helps them take that next step to being a sustainable business. Theres often a barrier of high costs. Thats why theres such a high failure rate of food-based businesses. Its expensive on an operational level. Arthouse is a shared space for small businesses so they dont have to absorb the costs.

Food businesses could rent the commercial kitchen out for however long they needed it  perhaps three to eight hours a week  so they dont have to buy or rent a building, and install commercial kitchen equipment at their own expense.

Larimer said she hopes ArtHouse spurs economic development by creating more business opportunities in Gary.

It creates civic pride and reminds individuals of the great community they live in, she said.

It also helps with business development by giving people the resources they need and the tools to take a food business to the next level. It will create businesses and employment opportunities.
Great Lakes cargo is down so far this year, but the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor expects a late-year surge.

Through Oct. 21, about 25.8 million tons of international cargo has passed through the St. Lawrence Seaway in Canada into the Great Lakes. Thats a 5.3 percent decline compared to the same time in 2015.

The Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System saw a steady flow of traditional cargoes during the month of October, said Betty Sutton, administrator of the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corp. Last month, shipments of aluminum, steel, generators, crane components, iron ore and containerized goods moved in the system. Thanks to a robust U.S and Canadian grain crop, agricultural products including corn, soy beans, wheat and sugar beet pellets made up the majority of the exported cargoes.

Most ships on the Great Lakes are expected to make one last call before the navigation season ends.

Tonnage at the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor has been slightly down from near-record levels, but the deepwater port of Lake Michigan expects to end on a strong suit.

Ag and steel-related cargoes are primary drivers for our 2016 shipments and Quebec continues to be a key trading partner for exchanging Indiana commodities with world markets, Port Director Rick Heimann said. Looking ahead, we are expecting a surge in end-of-year shipments of steel products and bulk commodities for the steel industry in Northwest Indiana. Based on current projections, November could prove to be a near record month, especially for Seaway cargoes.

Grain shipments from the port in Porter County, one of the states biggest international exports, more than double the 2015 year-to-day total.
A Great Lakes Basin Railroad forecast shows as many as 60 trains riding its rails daily through southern Lake and Porter counties by its third year of operations, with that number declining to the low 50s and finally to 22 at the railroad's eastern terminus in LaPorte County.

The freight trains would have an average of 100 cars, pulled by two locomotives, and would travel at maximum speeds approaching 60 miles per hour, according to a report Great Lakes Basin Transportation filed with the federal Surface Transportation Board Nov. 10.

The railroad's signaling and train-control infrastructure would allow 110 trains per day, a number that has raised protests among opponents. It is being engineered for speeds up to 70 mph, though average speed would depend on traffic volume.

The latest forecasts were done at the behest of the STB's Office of Environmental Assessment, which oversees development of the Environmental Impact Statement for major rail projects.

Traffic would grow through the first three years of operations, according to the forecast, with 10 to 15 trains daily through most of Northwest Indiana in the first year and 20 to 30 the second year.

The Great Lakes Basin Railroad would run 258 miles from the LaPorte area through Illinois to Milton, Wisconsin. The heaviest volume of traffic would be from the Wanatah area to the area of Sheridan, Illinois, in northeast LaSalle County.

Near the center of that is a proposed "railport" near Manteno, Illinois, where traffic could top 80 trains on the highest-traffic days, according to Great Lakes Basin's projections.

Railroad President and CEO James Wilson cautioned in a letter accompanying the forecast that they depend on a variety of factors.

"These include the level of economic activity when construction of the line is completed, the types and volumes of rail freight traffic which would be transiting through the Chicago area at that time, and the business decisions of GLBR's connecting railroads and their shippers," he wrote.

Thursday's submission was in response to the Office of Environmental Assessment's second information request regarding the Great Lakes Basin Railroad. The first regarded the railroad's preferred route and potential alternative alignments.

That request resulted in a new route that adjusted the railroad's path through Northwest Indiana, including moving it farther from Lowell Middle School. Railroad officials said the route would allow construction of the infrastructure necessary to support trains of the size and speed necessary for the project's viability.

Subsequent to that, the LaPorte County Board of Commissioners joined other local government bodies in objecting to the project, saying in a resolution that the railroad used too much "greenfield ... and makes inadequate use of less intrusive, existing railroad right-of-way."

The OEA made a third information request on Oct. 11. That request asked for more detail on the railroad's route, including its connection to the South Shore Freight railroad at Kingsbury. The OEA also is requesting "the end-to-end travel time and corresponding rail line length above which the project would not be commercially feasible."

The request also asks Great Lakes Basin to identify any "anchor points" along its preferred route that are necessary for the project to remain feasible. The railroad's response is due Nov. 30.
GARY  The Lake County coroner's office has identified the body of a man found shot to death in the street Saturday in the city's Glen Park section.

Johnquell Golida, 23, of Gary, was pronounced dead at 11:06 p.m. Saturday, according to a coroner's news release. The cause and manner of death were a gunshot wound in a homicide, according to the coroner.

Police called to the citys Glen Park section Saturday for a shooting found Golida dead in the street and later learned another man was wounded.

Gary police were dispatched about 9:30 p.m. Saturday to the area of 49th Avenue and Massachusetts Street for a gunshot victim, Lt. Dawn Westerfield said.

As an officer turned into the intersection, he spotted Golida lying in the street, according to police.

Police later were called to a local hospital, where a 23-year-old Gary man wounded in the shooting in Glen Park was being treated. The mans wounds could be life-threatening, police said earlier this week.

Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Jeff Minchuk, of the Lake County/Gary Metro Homicide Unit, at (219) 755-3855. To remain anonymous, call (866) CRIME-GP.
Oluwatosin "Tosin" Adesina, from Nigeria, and Mohammed Alsuwayi, from Saudi Arabia, are studying computer engineering at Purdue University Northwest Calumet campus.

A graduate student, Adesina said he had a cousin who attended Purdue and encouraged Adesina to study at PNW because of the great engineering curriculum and the opportunities that would be available to him after he obtained his degree.

Alsuwayi said he chose PNW because he already had an associate degree in control systems and wanted to come to the United States because it is one of the best countries for engineering disciplines.

"They have good universities and colleges here and really great opportunities as well, although I expect I will be returning to my own country to work," he said.

Adesina and Alsuwayi are among 1 million international students who are studying in the United States to gain practical and international experience they can apply in their careers and to life in a global society.

According to the 2016 Open Doors Report on International Education, released Monday, the number of international students at U.S. colleges and universities surpassed 1 million for the first time during the 2015-16 academic year.

That is up 7 percent from the previous year.

The report was released by the Institute of International Education in partnership with the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

More than a third of these international students studied engineering, math or computer science.

The report said international students value the quality, diversity and strong reputation of U.S. institutions and recognize these institutions will give them opportunities that can help them not only in their education but also in their careers.

Of the total number of international students at PNW, 749 are at the Calumet campus and 11 at Westville.

It is followed by Valparaiso University, which has a total of 581 international students.

Adesina, who lives in a dorm at the PNW Hammond campus, said he has been in the U.S. five years on a student visa.

"I want to work in the image processing field when I graduate next May," he said. "I'd like to stay in the states. I've had internships working as a researcher, and I've had a couple of interviews for a full-time position."

Norovsuren Noni Chinbat, 21, from Mongolia, came to the United States when she was a high school junior, because her aunt lives in the Region. She initially enrolled at Lake Central High School in St. John, then transferred to Bishop Noll Institute in Hammond for her senior year.

Chinbat said the academics here were behind what she was used to at home, especially the math, but teachers here also taught students how to think outside of the box, which she found valuable.

"There is freedom of speech here and freedom of expression. I intend to apply for jobs here after graduation (from PNW) and in Hong Kong where my sister lives," she said.

South Korean native Jaeyoon Kim, 20, arrived at Purdue Northwest in August, and is majoring in computer engineering. She is on an exchange program for two semesters.

"I like it here," Kim said.

"There is more freedom and free time to be with friends than in my country. Also, the classes are very different from my school. Students here raise their hands and ask so many questions. In our school, we just listen and sit quietly."

Kim said the relationship between student and professor is more distant in her country, but in the U.S. students feel comfortable talking to their instructors.

The Region a popular international draw

Anka Matijevich, director of international admissions at the international affairs office, Purdue University Northwest, said international students are attracted to Purdue University Northwest for the opportunity to earn a world-class Purdue degree at an affordable cost, close Chicago.

"We have a diverse international population of 760 students from 40-plus nations," she said.

"The vast majority of PNW international students come from China, Saudi Arabia, India, South Korea and Ecuador."

Matijevich said Purdue Northwest partners with universities around the world in specialized collaborations that are either degree-focused, exchange/visiting programs, or short-term cultural learning experiences, she said.

"We work with different governmental agencies that send their students on scholarship to study in the U.S. We also offer an intensive English language program, which helps students develop their English language proficiency to a level needed to pursue their education at Purdue University Northwest," she said.

Qianyu Zhao earned her bachelor's degree at Capital University of Economics and Business in her native China. She applied to multiple schools in the Region and Chicago before deciding on Indiana University Northwest in Gary to earn an MBA, pleased with the competitive tuition and the prestige of an IU degree.

Zhao, now of Whiting who graduated in May, said she believes that people think America is a great place to study and learn, because many universities are among the top-ranked in the world, the academic standards are high and the U.S. is one of the most powerful countries in the world. She said international students also like that they have more independence in the states.

"In China, it is very rare that a college student works part time or moves out early," she said.

"The culture is more conservative, so we are supposed to spend more time with family. Our generation (people born between the 1980s to 2010s) was born under the one-child policy. Parents always want their only baby to focus on study."

Zhao is interested in working in consulting, accounting or marketing. She said she has interviewed in Chicago but hasn't made a decision yet.

Ivy Tech's Keisha White, associate vice chancellor in East Chicago, said there are 18 international students at its four regional campuses.

"Typically international students apply for admission with us due to affordability and/or transferring from a local four-year college or university. We do not actively recruit students to attend, she said.
CROWN POINT  The Lake County Council passed a resolution Tuesday supporting the legalization of medical marijuana.

The council voted 4-2 to support Lake County Councilman Jamal Washington, D-Merrillville, who is urging state officials to pass "a prescribed medical marijuana program statute by the state of Indiana."

Washington was joined by Council President Ted Bilski, D-Hobart; Councilwoman Christine Cid, D-East Chicago; and Councilman David Hamm, D-Hammond; in supporting legalization.

Council members Elsie Franklin, D-Gary, and Eldon Strong, R-Crown Point, opposed the measure. Councilman Dan Dernulc, R-Highland, was absent.

Indiana is one of only a handful of states and American territories that still consider all marijuana use a crime. Two bills regarding the use of medical marijuana were studied earlier this year by the General Assembly, but neither was passed into law.

Washington said medical marijuana could help people suffering from a coma, glaucoma and Crohns disease. "Just like the prohibitions against alcohol and gay marriage, marijuana will soon be legal in all 50 states, I believe. I believe we must make our voice heard."

Councilwoman Franklin said she had promised a family member she would oppose marijuana use. She said she is concerned people falsely claiming illnesses would misuse marijuana for recreational purposes.

Strong said, "There are a number of reasons not to support medical marijuana. I've been a patient of Crohn's Disease (inflammation of the bowels), and this past spring I was diagnosed with cancer.

"I spent the summer going through chemotherapy and radiation in Chicago where medical marijuana is allowed. The radiologist asked me if I wanted to try it for the pain I was having. In the same breath he also told me there were better medicines out there than marijuana. I believe that."

"I'm torn," Bilski said. "I see the positive side of this. I don't want to see anyone suffer. But I am not an advocate for any drug use. Even alcohol becomes a problem if you drink too much. I wish the resolution would say to put it on a referendum and leave it in the hands of the people to decide."

The council voted to give Franklin a seat on the Lake County Redevelopment Commission in place of Washington. Other council members said they were surprised Franklin wanted to return to the commission after having left it earlier.

Franklin said she didn't like how Washington conducted himself on the five-member commission, which oversees subsidies for residential and business improvements. Washington said Franklin is upset that he was conducting an investigation into spending irregularities that involved one of her friends. He said he will continue his probe despite Tuesday's decision.

Franklin called Washington a liar. The two engaged in an argument that continued so long Bilski had to shout and hammer his gavel to stop it.

The council also approved three exceptions to its new job freeze to allow two county-based courts and the county parks department to give officials authority to offer jobs to new employees, even though the old employees were preparing to resign but had not yet done so.

The council reorganized the E-911 salary scale to create more entry-level dispatcher positions and appropriated $1 million for additional road improvements this year and next on county highways.
INDIANAPOLIS  A Hoosier lawmaker hoping to permanently end abortion in Indiana could get an assist from a U.S. Supreme Court reshaped by Republican President-elect Donald Trump.

State Rep. Curt Nisly, R-Goshen, said Tuesday he plans to file a Protection at Conception proposal when the Republican-controlled General Assembly convenes in January.

If enacted into law, it would prohibit all abortion in Indiana in all circumstances and authorize the criminal prosecution of any doctor or woman who participates in an abortion.

Its time to bring the Roe v. Wade era to its logical conclusion, Nisly said. My goal is to deregulate abortion right out of existence in Indiana.

The federal right to privacy, clarified by the U.S. Supreme Court in its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and subsequent related rulings, prohibits a state from unduly interfering with a womans decision to have an abortion prior to fetal viability, generally considered to be 20 to 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Nislys proposed legislation is unconstitutional under that standard.

But the standard could change, as Trump has promised only to appoint anti-abortion justices to the U.S. Supreme Court and said Sunday he favors allowing individual states to decide whether abortion is permitted in their borders.

The Supreme Court has been wrong before, Nisly said. On issues like slavery, on segregation and a host of other issues, and theyve reversed themselves, eventually.

Indiana law already declares that human physical life begins when a human ovum is fertilized by a human sperm, and holds that abortion is a criminal act except when performed following very specific regulations that generally prohibit abortion beyond 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Nislys plan would delete the regulations permitting abortion and treat all life as equal from the moment of conception, meaning the death of a fetus through abortion could be prosecuted identically to the murder of a child or an adult.

The code is there, but Indiana has failed to use it to stop abortion. Instead, they regulate it, which causes approximately 22 Hoosier babies to die every single day, said Amy Schlichter, Hoosiers for Life executive director.

It is time that Indiana understands that our legislators are not doing all they can to stop abortion in our state.

Its not clear whether Hoosier lawmakers have the appetite to tackle another anti-abortion measure thats all but certain to be struck down in federal courts operating below the Supreme Court.

Earlier this year, enforcement of House Enrolled Act 1337, a statute prohibiting abortion following diagnosis of a fetal disability or genetic abnormality, was halted after courts ruled it illegally limited a womans right to abortion.

State Sen. Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health and Provider Services, did not identify abortion restrictions as a leading priority when he was appointed Monday, and was noncommittal on how hed handle a proposal like Nislys if it made it to the Senate.

Well have to wait a while and see what kind of bills get filed and sent to my committee, Charbonneau said.

A spokesman for Republican Gov.-elect Eric Holcomb did not respond to a request for comment on Nislys proposed abortion ban.

Though Holcomb said last month at a gubernatorial debate that while he is pro-life, limiting abortion is not at the top of his governing agenda.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which repeatedly has gone to court on behalf of Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky to challenge new state abortion restrictions, has declared it is ready to fight throughout the Trump administration against any encroachment on our cherished freedoms and rights.
INDIANAPOLIS  A Northwest Indiana lawmaker will lead Senate consideration of all health-related legislation during the General Assemblys upcoming session.

On Monday, state Sen. Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso, was appointed chairman of the Senate Committee on Health and Provider Services, replacing retired state Sen. Pat Miller, R-Indianapolis, who led the panel for the past quarter century.

Im excited, and yet at the same time Im following in the footsteps of somebody thats been there 25 years, he said.

Charbonneau expects senators will focus on several unresolved health policy issues when the committee begins meeting in January, including how best to alleviate doctor and nurse shortages, especially in rural Indiana; the states drug epidemic; regulating telemedicine; and addressing practitioner scope-of-service limits.

I dont know at this point what effect, if any, the whole Obamacare discussion in Washington might have on the state, he said.

Charbonneau, who was re-elected this month to a third full term, has served on the Senate health panel since 2009. Prior to joining the Senate in 2007, the former U.S. Steel executive was CEO of Methodist Hospitals in Lake County.

I have some background and experience in the area that has proven valuable, he said.

In his new role, Charbonneau will have the opportunity to collaborate with other Region lawmakers: state Sen. Mike Aylesworth, R-Hebron, and state Sen. Frank Mrvan, D-Hammond, both serve on the committee; and state Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, who is the top Democrat on the House Public Health Committee.

At the same time, the health chairmanship meant Charbonneau had to give up his post as leader of the Senate Environmental Affairs Committee.

Senate President David Long, R-Fort Wayne, appointed state Sen. Doug Eckerty, R-Yorktown, to replace Charbonneau on that panel.
Large plumes of gray smoke crept over parts of northern Porter County on Thursday signaling the start of an annual ritual at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore  the prescribed fire.

Its a tactic used by the National Park Service to improve safety in the park and to maintain the ecosystem.

The National Park Service is planning six prescribed fires this fall at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore encompassing about 850 acres.

Micah Bell, fire prevention and education specialist for the IDNL, said the controlled burns are essential to restoring the land.

Before man was here, nature would have produced fire on (Dunes land) at fairly regular intervals, Bell said. Now with people in the area we dont allow fires to be started.

The prescribed fires mimic what Mother Nature used to do, he said.

In fact, the ecosystem depends on it.

Neal Mulconrey, a prescribed fire tech, said much of the Dunes area is a fire dependent community, meaning native plants benefit from the burn. Some of the area burned Thursday used to be a prairie, according to park records and old aerial photos. The prescribed fires keep woody vegetation from taking over areas where it wouldnt naturally be found.

Since the early 20th century, wildlife management went into fire suppression mode, Mulconrey said. As housing and communities encroached on areas that would naturally burn, the fires were extinguished to save homes and lives, but those actions created other problems.

The fires clean out the understory, a layer of vegetation beneath the main canopy of a forest, leaves and invasive species, Bell said.

All of those things also help lessen the potential severity of a wildfire, should one occur either naturally or be started by man, he said.

While the public sees the end result, the smoldering brush and the smoke, what people dont see is the tremendous amount of planning that goes into the burns.

The prescription for each fire fills a three-ring binder, Bell said.

Brandon Ramirez served as the burn boss for Thursdays burn.

It was his job to make sure more than a dozen firefighters understood their assignments before the burn began.

Some fire techs were assigned to ignite the fire for Thursdays Furnessville area burn around the perimeter of the area. Others were tasked with making sure the fire did not spread outside the prescribed area.

The local staff at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore works with experts at the National Park Service, U.S. Geological Survey, the National Weather Service and others to determine where, when and how to conduct a burn.

The prescription calls for certain conditions to be met  like wind speed and direction, temperature, relative humidity and air circulation patterns  before a fire is started, Bell said.

Starting about 30 minutes before the prescribed burn is to begin, these conditions are measured locally and broadcast via radio every 30 minutes to all of the fire techs.

All of the conditions must fall in the range of the prescription for the fire to go on.

Signs are placed on nearby roads to notify drivers about potential smoke in the area. Residents in the area and news outlets are warned about the prescribed fire through emails, text and social media.

Then firefighters remain on scene for hours even after the smoke is gone, to make sure flames dont rekindle and spread beyond the intended burn area.

On the west end of the park, in Gary, 138 acres were burned Monday west of, and around, the Douglas Center for Environmental Education on North Lake Street. Two different parcels made up the burn area and are part of an area being restored to an oak savanna habitat.

Also in Gary, 270 acres will be burned south of U.S. 12 and west of Spencer Street to restore wildlife habitat.

At West Beach in Portage, 138 acres were to be burned Tuesday north of the entrance road and east of County Line Road. This burn was to restore former home sites and road beds back to their native state as well as reduce the threat of wildfires.

In Beverly Shores, 215 acres will be burned as part of the Derby Ditch prescribed fire. This area is between East State Park Road and Broadway, north of U.S. 12 and the South Shore Railroad tracks. Burning Derby Ditch is part of a long-term wetlands restoration project.
BALTIMORE (AP)  The nation's Roman Catholic bishops on Monday urged President-elect Donald Trump to adopt humane policies toward immigrants and refugees, as church leaders begin navigating what will likely be a complex relationship with the new administration.

Meeting just days after the election, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said serving people fleeing violence and conflict "is part of our identity as Catholics" and pledged to continue this ministry.

"We stand ready to work with a new administration to continue to ensure that refugees are humanely welcomed without sacrificing our security or our core values as Americans. A duty to welcome and protect newcomers, particularly refugees, is an integral part of our mission to help our neighbors in need," the bishops said, just days after the election.

Trump had said during the campaign that he would build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and immediately deport all 11 million people in the country illegally, though he later distanced himself from that position. In an interview that aired Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes," he said he would focus on deporting people with criminal records beyond their immigrant status, "probably two million, it could even be three million." The Obama administration has deported more than 2.5 million people since taking office in 2009, according to the Homeland Security Department.

Trump also told "60 Minutes" that his promised solid border wall might look more like a fence in spots. House Speaker Paul Ryan rejected any "deportation force" targeting people in the country illegally.

In his address Monday in Baltimore, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, president of the bishops' conference, underscored the message, saying "the nation is on thin ice when refugee families are spoken of in the abstract."

He also highlighted an area where the bishops may find more common ground with Trump. Kurtz noted the importance of conscience rights for people who do not want to recognize same-sex marriage or comply with other laws they consider immoral. Trump has pledged to appoint anti-abortion justices to the U.S. Supreme Court and protect religious liberty.

"Don't allow government to define what integrity of faith means," Kurtz said. Dozens of dioceses and Catholic charities sued President Barack Obama over the Affordable Care Act requirement that employers provide coverage for birth control.

On Tuesday, the bishops will elect Kurtz' successor, who will become lead representative from the conference to the Trump administration. After being on the defensive with Obama over abortion, LGBT rights and other issues, some conservative Catholics are optimistic about the chances for a rollback on some policies, such as the birth control rule.

Still, they are deeply concerned about the plight of immigrants after a brutal election in which Trump called Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals and urged a ban on Muslims entering the U.S. although he later watered down that proposal. American Catholics have a vast network of aid programs for immigrants and refugees, and Pope Francis has put the issue at the core of his pontificate. About 4 in 10 U.S. Catholics are Latino and Hispanics are already a majority in several dioceses.

Archbishop Joseph Tobin of Indianapolis had opposed a request from Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, that the Catholic church stop settling Syrian refugees in the state. Tobin brought an Iraqi refugee to a meeting with the governor, who is now the vice-president elect. Tobin is one of three U.S. church leaders whom the pope will make cardinals in a ceremony Sunday in Rome.

Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami said he has been trying to calm anxious immigrants in his local churches. He pointed back to the 1980s, when Ronald Reagan was first elected, and panic spread through the Haitian community Wenski served. Reagan eventually signed immigration reform that enhanced border security, but also created an opening for some immigrants to stay in the U.S. who had entered the country illegally.

"It's time to take a deep breath and continue our advocacy," Wenski said. "If they're going to build a wall, we're going to have to be sure they put some doors in that wall."
LANSING, Mich.  As of Monday afternoon, President-elect Donald Trump has won Michigan by a razor-thin 13,107 votes out of 4,785,223 votes cast, according to the Michigan secretary of state.

But those are not the official results of the Nov. 8 election.

The states 83 counties have until Nov. 22 to certify their election results. And the state Board of Canvassers meets on Nov. 28 to make the unofficial results official.

The results could change, said Chris Thomas, the states director of elections. But it is highly unlikely that it will be enough to change the outcome of the race.

I looked at the 2012 results and the presidential race changed by 113 votes for the candidates of the political parties, he said. And there were 7,900 write-in votes, but that doesnt change the election outcome.

He also noted that one Detroit precinct wasnt counted until Wednesday afternoon because of a technical glitch, and those totals arent included in the current state totals.

But that only represented about 400 votes, said Jina Sawani, spokeswoman for Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett.

It didnt change any results, Sawani said.

This year, there were seven write-in candidates for president who registered with the state and whose votes will be counted. But those votes arent reflected yet on the secretary of states website.

In Wayne and Oakland counties, 6,518 people wrote in someone other than the presidential candidates shown on the ballot and the canvass of each countys vote totals will detail those write-in results.

Given that both Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton each received more than 2.2 million votes, the write-in tally wont change the final outcome either.

The secretary of state hasnt officially called the race for Trump. Thats not the offices role, Thomas said, because it lets the results speak for themselves.

But The Associated Press, the news wire service that many publications rely on for official results, hasnt called the presidential race in Michigan. New Hampshire has been called for Clinton. Officials with the wire service didnt return phone calls to the Detroit Free Press, but have said that if a recount remains a possibility, they wont officially call the race.

A recount is automatically triggered in Michigan if the difference between two statewide candidates is 2,000 votes or less. A candidate can request a recount if the margin is greater than 2,000 votes, but must pay $25 per precinct, or $125 per precinct if the difference between the candidates is more than 50 votes.

The Electoral College will meet on Dec. 19 to cast votes for the winner of the presidential race.
A week after calling for violence on Election Day, a terrorist group has now put out the word to perhaps attack people celebrating a major American holiday. NY1's Dean Meminger filed the following report.

Millions of spectators usually come out to enjoy the Macy's Thanksgiving parade, and the NYPD says it's keeping a close watch to make sure the event is not attacked by terrorists. Especially since the Islamic State group has indicated the parade would be a good target for someone to perhaps drive a truck into.

"Carry out vehicle-borne assaults across the world and on different targets," said John Miller, NYPD deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism. "One issue of concern is a photograph that was contained in the article of the Thanksgiving Day Parade."

The article appeared in the terror group's online magazine Ramiyah this past weekend.

Using a picture of the parade brings back memories from this past July on Bastille Day in France. Someone drove a truck into the crowd at the national celebration killing 86 people. So you can expect to see NYPD cars and even city sanitation trucks protecting the Thanksgiving parade route.

"This is not something that occurred to us over the weekend when we saw the article in ISIL's online magazine," Miller said. "This is an element we've factored into plans for the Thanksgiving Day parade in years past."

And the NYPD's incident prevention unit is in contact with truck rental companies in the tri-state area encouraging them to be on the lookout.

"Provided them with very useful guidance on how to identify suspicious behavior and characteristics amount people who are potential renters of their vehicles."

The NYPD says it's not clear if the presidential election has anything to do with the article calling for attacks around the world.

"I think if you are looking at this through the optic of al-Qaida or ISIL, I don't think they like either candidate, or America in particular, or democracy," Miller said.

Police admit that all it takes is one person to heed the call of violence to cause serious harm, but they say they are using all their resources to try to prevent that from happening.

"Come to the thanksgiving day parade. Have a good time. Bring the family," Miller said.

Macy's responded to the possible threat in a statement.

The statement reads, "Macy's works closely with the NYPD and federal law enforcement agencies each year to put in place comprehensive security plans for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Our interagency partners lead security efforts along all areas of the Parade route and we are in constant communication with these agencies as they actively monitor and evaluate parade security. As with any public event in New York City, security elements are extensive from the very visible presence of law enforcement officers to wide-ranging behind-the-scenes security operations. The safety of our participants and spectators is the top priority for us and our agency partners. We look forward to putting on a great Parade for millions of New Yorkers and fans from around the world."
Fewer New Yorkers came out to vote on Election Day.

New numbers from the New York Public Interest Research Group show that just about 56 percent of registered voters in the city cast ballots last week.

That's a two percent drop from 2012 and about an eight percent decrease from 2008.

The change comes despite more registered voters this year than the past two elections, according to NYPIRG.

Staten Island was the only borough to see a boost in voter turnout this year.
NEW YORK - An investigation is underway in New York and Connecticut after a young girl was found abandoned at the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

According to the Daily News, Port Authority police found the 5-year-old on the second floor concourse just after 10 a.m. Monday.

After they talked with her, police went to an apartment in Stamford, Connecticut where they found her mother's body.

There were also signs of a struggle inside the apartment.

Investigators believe the girl's father left her at the bus terminal.

He's been identified as 32-year-old Elmer Gomez Ruono and police are now looking for him.
LONDON  Dia al-Azzawi was working at the Iraqi Antiquities Department in Baghdad in the early 1970s when he was assigned to install a new museum building in the northern city of Mosul. The artist and museum administrator spent a year and a half there, scrupulously overseeing the display of antiquities from the nearby archaeological sites of Hatra, Nimrud and Nineveh.

So when Mr. Azzawi, now 77, saw those priceless artifacts being smashed in a video released by the Islamic State in February 2015, he was heartbroken. I couldnt believe it, the artist said in an interview in London last month. The guy who brought a mechanical saw to cut the winged bull from Nimrud  it was awful to see.

What struck me was, how can Iraqis destroy their own heritage? he said.

Mr. Azzawi, who has spent his career recording the traumas of his native Iraq, is now the focus of what is billed as the biggest solo show any Arab artist has ever had. Through April 16, more than 500 works  murals, paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, art books  are on display across two sprawling venues in Doha: the Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art, and the QM Gallery Al-Riwaq exhibition space.

Although the artist moved permanently to London in 1976, Dia Al-Azzawi: A Retrospective shows that the troubles of Iraq and the Arab world have been a never-ending source of pain, and of creative inspiration. After each of Saddam Husseins epic clashes with the West, Mr. Azzawi produced works lamenting the sad fate of his people. The Palestinian issue has been another enduring concern, as epitomized by Sabra and Shatila Massacre (1982-83, on display in Doha), an arresting mural evoking the killing of hundreds of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon in 1982.
One could not help but feel that Helena Newman, the Sothebys auctioneer on Monday night, was almost begging for a bid of more than $50 million for Edvard Munchs 1902 painting Girls on the Bridge.

Still, the room was quiet. Despite what felt like an excruciatingly long wait  during which Ms. Newman even delayed by sipping water  the painting attracted only a single bid.

That was from a buyer who had agreed before the auction to guarantee the sale.

I was surprised by that, Morgan Long, senior director at the Fine Art Group in London, said. It was a good picture.

So it went at Sothebys Impressionist and Modern auction, the first in a packed week of sales that may test the strength of the art market. The big question was, would the presidential election have an effect  or for that matter, would Brexit, the referendum by Britain to abandon the European Union? Or Chinas softening economy? The $157.7 million total fell toward the low estimate of $142.8 million. The selling rate was 81 percent, with eight out of 42 lots unsuccessful.
_____

 Mr. Trump continued to project his presidency onto the world stage, speaking by phone with Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

His meeting with Nigel Farage, leader of the U.K. Independence Party, was not welcomed by Prime Minister Theresa May, who insisted there would be no third person in her relationship with Mr. Trump.

But even members of her own party say he could help repair U.S.-Britain relations.

E.U. talks continue today in Brussels over closer military cooperation in light of Britains departure from the bloc and a possible isolationist turn in U.S. foreign policy.

 A Hong Kong court ruled that two pro-independence politicians who were elected to the legislature cannot take their seats. Beijing issued a new interpretation of the territorys charter last week, effectively barring them from the council.

The young legislators set off the conflict by using a derogatory term for China when they took their oaths of office.

_____

 Anxiety over the election of Mr. Trump is pervading United Nations talks on climate change in Morocco, over his pledge to withdraw from the Paris climate deal.

Scientists confirmed that 2016 was on course to be the hottest year on record.

_____

 The International Criminal Court is considering a war-crimes investigation in Afghanistan, after a prosecutor said she had a reasonable basis to believe that American soldiers there committed war crimes, including torture.
Jean Rogers cut her teeth as an environmental engineer. Early in her career, she worked to clean up Superfund sites, donning hazmat suits to take samples of soil and groundwater polluted by industrial activity.

That firsthand look at how industry could despoil nature left her distrustful of big business.

I became very disillusioned with what was happening, with how businesses were dealing with these issues, she said. I was literally cleaning up their messes.

But today, as chief executive of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, Ms. Rogers is working closely with some of the biggest corporations on the planet, prodding them to be more forthcoming about the environmental and social impacts of their operations.

The board, an independent nonprofit organization that she founded in 2011, has one mission: To develop standards that get public American companies to disclose more information about sustainability concerns, such as greenhouse gas emissions and work force diversity, in their filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Article: We Couldnt Believe Our Eyes: A Lost World of Shipwrecks Is Found

Before Reading

Think about the following:

Buried treasure at the bottom of the sea holds clues to past civilizations and ways of life. Imagine that preserved sunken treasure could, like a time capsule, be opened to reveal the mysteries of the ancient world. What might we learn? From what people wore and ate, to shipbuilding methods and technology, what discoveries might be found at the bottom of the ocean?

Questions for Comprehension and Analysis

1. Where and when did the international team of explorers find a treasure trove of ancient ships at the bottom of the sea? What was special about those ships? How many have been found so far?

2. What natural occurrence presents conditions that help preserve the ships?

3. Who is paying for the very expensive three-year search exploration? Dr. Jon Adams, the scientific leader of the search project, describes the search as catalyzing an academic-industry partnership on the largest project of its type ever undertaken. What countries and academic institutions are involved?

4. How did technology make this discovery possible? Describe how it works.

5. How are students and teachers able to join in the thrill of discovery of these ancient vessels?
Last weeks News Quiz covered an extra day in order to take in the results of Election 2016, and most of you did very well.

There were three questions, however, that stumped many of you. One was about the Republican majority in the Senate, another was about the Paris climate change agreement, and the third was our weekly 10th question that asks students to differentiate between fake news and real news. We were surprised so many got that one wrong:
Once women did get the vote, they did not all vote alike, even on issues of gender equality. In 1916, suffragists encouraged women in states that had already legalized suffrage to vote for the presidential candidate Charles Hughes (who championed a womens suffrage amendment) over President Woodrow Wilson (who did not). The campaign was unsuccessful. Woman voters fail to follow leaders, the Times headline read. Voted as the men did. In 1920, the National Womans Party predicted that the very presence of women voters in the electorate undoubtedly will insure certain reforms, including a constitutional amendment guaranteeing equal rights for women. But when the Equal Rights Amendment was introduced in 1923, no female consensus emerged. Middle-class women, who championed the amendment, were pitted against the working-class ones who feared it would erode special legislative protections for female laborers. When the amendment rose again, in the 1970s, it would ultimately be defeated with the help of a new female faction, the hard-right housewives led by Phyllis Schlafly, who argued that the amendment would rob vulnerable women of legal benefits like alimony.

Why should women agree with one another? Unlike other voting blocs, women dont cluster together in communities where they interact predominantly with other women and share the same social and economic realities. They are alienated from one another by race, class, geography, sexual orientation and marriage. In the face of those divisions, women develop radically different ideas of what it means to be a woman. Often those conceptions of womanhood conflict. And thats never more obvious than when another woman is on the ballot.

Nearly 100 years after Victoria Woodhulls historic run, Senator Margaret Chase Smith, a Republican from Maine, campaigned for her partys nomination for president in 1964. Though Smith had the support of organized womens clubs around the country, a Gallup poll showed that American women were less likely to accept the idea of a female president than men were. A receptionist surveyed about Smiths run said she wouldnt feel secure under an administration headed by a woman. Even Nellie Tayloe Ross, Americas first female governor  sworn into office in Wyoming in 1925, in a special election held after her husbands death  spoke out against Smiths candidacy. She thought women lacked the physical stamina to be president.

By the time Shirley Chisholm  Americas first black congresswoman  announced her run for president as a Democrat in 1970, 66 percent of American women had come around to the idea of a female commander in chief. But Chisholms bid laid bare the deep racial fault lines in the feminist movement. Though she was initially backed by a number of prominent white feminist leaders, they wavered as the 1972 election neared. Chisholms congressional colleague Bella Abzug refused to endorse her and declined to campaign on her behalf. Gloria Steinem sat next to Chisholm on a Chicago TV talk show and hedged: Im supporting both Shirley and McGovern. Betty Friedan introduced Chisholm at a rally and said, We will settle for no less than the vice presidency. Chisholm was forced to kick off her own remarks by reiterating that she was running for president, not V.P. I dont want half-baked endorsements, she added. Once Friedan did enthusiastically commit to the campaign, her white feminist outlook proved a liability. Weeks before the Democratic National Convention, Friedan insisted on campaigning for Chisholm in Harlem, where she planned to hand out watermelons to the locals. Black women on Chisholms staff mobilized to derail Friedans plan at the last minute. The Amsterdam News reported that one of the sisters on the slate had to be restrained when she heard the news.

And still, the myth persisted. Women will decide who the next President of the United States will be, Abzug declared at the 1983 National Womens Political Caucus, where President Ronald Reagan was roundly denounced by women in attendance. But even after Walter Mondale picked Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate, Reagan won re-election with 55 percent of the female vote. Two decades later, even Sarah Palin made a bid to pick up Clinton supporters in 2008, saying that Clinton showed such determination and grace in her presidential campaign and piggybacking on Clintons 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling line to argue that she and John McCain can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all! Fifty-seven percent of American women picked Barack Obama and Joe Biden instead.

Has there ever been a more divisive female figure in American politics than Hillary Clinton? In 1992, when Clinton was running not for political office but as a more politicized first lady, she pitted homemakers against working women when she said, I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession. The controversy raged for months. An Illinois homemaker mounted a campaign to send chocolate chip cookies to Mrs. Clinton in protest. Family Circle asked Clinton and Barbara Bush to submit their own cookie recipes for the readers to bake and judge (the tradition haunts first spouses to this day). Alcestis Oberg wrote in to USA Today in defense of cookie bakers, writing: They call me Cooky. I know cookies. I love cookies. Cookie bakers are my friends. When Hillary Clinton, would-be first lady, spoke of staying home and baking cookies and standing by your man as if they were deadly sins for modern women, I was stunned. As one homemaker put it on the Today show in 1992, She has no use for us; we have no use for her.

At the Republican National Convention that year, Vice President Dan Quayles wife, Marilyn, was positioned as the anti-Hillary. She was introduced as lawyer, novelist, volunteer, and she still has time to bake cookies. Liberals, she said, are angry because most women do not wish to be liberated from their essential natures as women. Most of us love being mothers and wives, which gives our lives a richness that few men or women get from professional accomplishment alone.

The myth of the womens vote expects all women to see themselves reflected back in the face of a female candidate. Clintons campaign slogan made it visceral: Im With Her. But there are many ways of being a woman in America. How could any one woman possibly represent all of them? As one female Trump supporter told New York Magazine: I think its a disgrace to have Clinton as our first woman president. She does not represent women at all  or me, as a woman, at all. Im sorry. Its not hard to imagine a female Democrat saying the same thing about, say, Sarah Palin. People no longer hear, Do you want a woman to be president?  the Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told The Times in February, before she joined his team. They hear, Do you want that woman?  So far, the answer has always been no.
To some they are emblems of delight, reminders in steel of unbreakable connections. To others they are barnacles encrusting a beloved landmark. They are the so-called love locks, padlocks placed on the Brooklyn Bridge by lovers to signify their bond.

This fall, after cutting away tens of thousands of the locks, whose sheer weight engineers say could damage the bridge, the New York City Transportation Department began a deterrence campaign to keep the besotted from further festooning: A $100 fine is to be assessed for the illicit act of adoration.

Unlike other signs in the city, like those that menacingly forbid parking and threaten the arrival of tow trucks, the warnings are gentle and humorous. One features a picture of a bagel with what appears to be smoked salmon and a schmear. NO LOCKS, YES LOX, it says.
The effect is marginal, Mr. Muzzio said, adding that there were exceptions like the 1990 election of Mayor David N. Dinkins, a Democrat, in which Local 1199, the health care workers union now known as 1199 S.E.I.U., played a big role.

Four years ago, Mr. Appelbaums union, which has roughly 45,000 members in New York City, also came out with an early endorsement in the Democratic primary contest  in support of Christine C. Quinn, Mr. de Blasios rival who was then seen as the front-runner. At the time, Mr. Appelbaum cited her electability. The sanitation workers also endorsed Ms. Quinn. After her loss, both unions backed Mr. de Blasio in the general election.

Sitting in his Midtown Manhattan office overlooking Seventh Avenue and the Macys flagship store, where many of the unions members work, Mr. Appelbaum said this month that he was trying to send a message with an early endorsement this time around that Mr. de Blasio has earned our support through his actions on behalf of working people.

Despite some grumbling among the citys unions, most labor leaders have been cheered by Mr. de Blasios efforts on their behalf. He signed contracts with nearly every municipal union quickly after taking office, and threw the doors of City Hall open to their concerns after two decades of arms-length relations under the former mayors Michael R. Bloomberg, a Republican turned political independent, and Rudolph W. Giuliani, a Republican.

On Monday afternoon, Mr. de Blasio appeared before a crowded, hot and rowdy room full of sanitation workers. This, gentlemen, is a union-friendly mayor, Harry Nespoli, president of the Uniformed Sanitationmens Association, told them before leading a chant of four more years. Mr. de Blasio reached a deal on the contract for the citys roughly 6,000 sanitation workers last year.

Mr. de Blasio, in his remarks, celebrated the workers and offered a kind of slogan for his re-election bid  a city for everyone, and a city where everyone has a shot  as he framed the moment as an opening marker in a Democratic campaign that, in Mr. Trump, has a ready-made foil.
His face was so messed up, I was crying; I couldnt believe it, said his mother, Linda, who did not want her surname used because she fears official retaliation. He did something wrong and he paid his dues. But send him back to me in one piece. You have no right to abuse him.

Slurs and Curses

Matthew Aliaga, 28, who is serving three years for grand larceny and forgery, said guards kicked him in the chest and the leg as another officer stood on his ankle. Mr. Aliaga, who is gay and taking hormones to transition to female, said officers called him disgusting names, including a gay slur. One officer ground his hormone medications to dust with his boot, he said. Another tore some of his books apart. I had this book by Anderson Cooper about him and his mother that I was really looking forward to reading, he said, and they just destroyed it.

Mr. Moore said most of the officers had removed their name tags. They hurled slurs and curses at the prisoners, he and other inmates remembered. Oh, you like to pick on the weak? See how you like it, he recalled them saying. They were telling the white guys, You are a disgrace to the white race. He said he was kicked in the head, the ribs and the legs, then beaten with fists. He and other inmates reported that officers sliced electric cords on appliances the inmates had in their rooms, including lamps, clocks and radios.

As the raid wound down, Mr. Moore said he heard guards calling out, The brass is coming. A few minutes later, he said, he saw the superintendent, Joseph Ward, and his top deputies walking down the hall. Mr. Ward and Joseph Corey, the deputy for security, were suspended this month.

He and another inmate were later ordered to sweep up the dorm, he said. We got to one room and there were two guards in there urinating on the floor, all over the guys stuff, he said. One of the officers, Mr. Moore said, addressed him. He said, Moore, youre a veteran, right? I said yes. He said, What do you do when someone tries to injure one of your buddies? I said my military responsibility would be to hurt him back. He said: So you see why we are doing this. You guys tried to kill one of ours.

The prisoners said they were warned not to talk. Phone calls and mail would be monitored. Well be back to do this all over again, a prison lieutenant threatened, Mr. Moore said. Still, word got out.

Mr. Broccoli, who has since been moved to another prison, said that he was mocked by guards after the episode. They snicker when I walk by, he said. I am so ashamed all the time. Ive questioned my manhood.

Nelson Friszell, 44, who is serving five years for selling drugs, asked his wife to relay to a reporter how he had also been beaten and sodomized with a metal object by the prisons guards. My husband is a big man, said his wife, Deirdre Velez. I think they were trying to take his dignity.
Updated, 7:12 a.m.

Good morning on this wet Tuesday.

After days of protests in Manhattan after the election of Donald J. Trump, the streets around Trump Tower were mostly subdued on Monday.

Welcome news, no doubt, for the president-elect, who is no stranger to New Yorkers who protest.

People voiced their opposition to the construction of Trump World Tower near the United Nations in 2000 and two proposed Trump office buildings at Columbus Circle in 1987.

Activists have protested bus routes on the West Side in 1998 that they said were being changed to appease the real estate mogul.

And then there was the flush-in.

The aptly named 1994 protest called on hundreds of thousands of residents to flush their toilets simultaneously to prove that the North River Wastewater Treatment Plant in Harlem could not withstand the sewage that Mr. Trumps Riverside South development would generate.
She recognised the man, Malayankeezhu native Santhosh, who misused the State government's official vehicle for the crime.
The most fragile part of the country right now is our democratic values. Yes, we face other serious problems  the physical condition of our planet, above all. But the fate of those other problems will be decided in the months and years to come. The condition of our democracy is acute.

Weve just finished an election that included unprecedented violations of Americas long-held democratic values, like calls to overturn civil liberties and the interference of a hostile foreign government. And, of course, the candidate who violated those values won the election.

So the question becomes: Will the country start adjusting to a new, less democratic reality, or will Donald Trump adjust his own approach as president-elect?

It would be a grave error to believe wishfully that Trump must change. The best working assumption about any candidate is that he will try to do what he campaigned on. Studies show that presidents usually do.
LOS ANGELES  In the deepest reaches of my brain, there is a boy who speaks Spanish.

He calls his mother and father Mama and Papa. One of his favorite expressions is que lindo (how nice, or how sweet). Hes proud of the Mexican slang hes learned: for instance, no hay pedo, which means no problem, though its literal translation is there is no fart.

California nearly killed that boy.

My parents arrived in Los Angeles as immigrants from Guatemala. We had a shelf of books in Spanish in our Los Angeles home, including El Senor Presidente by the Guatemalan Nobel laureate Miguel Angel Asturias, but growing up I could not read them.

Like millions of Latino kids educated in California public schools, I never took a class in Spanish grammar or Spanish literature, nor was I ever asked to write a single word with an accent or a squiggly tilde over it. In the 70s, Spanish was the language of poverty and backwardness in the eyes of some school administrators, and many others.

Supposedly, we got smarter by forgetting Spanish. By the time I was a teenager, I spoke the language at the level of a second grader. My English was perfect, but in Spanish I was a nincompoop.
Mr. Ryan probably has enough votes for these changes  he did get his budgets passed in the House  but even so, the path from these rough outlines to legislation a president can sign is inevitably long and treacherous. Some Republicans worried about re-election will resist the Medicare changes, which hit their base of older voters, and Democrats should and will mobilize to make this unpopular change a 2018 election issue. Other members will demand alterations in his proposals to benefit a company in their district, or a big campaign donor.

If Mr. Ryans Medicaid block grants arent as generous to states as the current system, some Republican governors will object, backed up by their representatives. Accommodating them will require spending more money, defeating Mr. Ryans original purpose.

Repealing the Affordable Care Act might seem like a one-sentence bill, but Mr. Trump and many members of Congress have said they want to keep its popular provisions, such as the requirement to cover pre-existing conditions. Insurers will balk at that requirement in the absence of either the mandate or federal subsidies, which discourage people from postponing buying health insurance until they get sick. The health care act is interconnected in ways that will make it hard to separate the popular provisions from the unpopular, and in seven years, Republicans still havent filled in the blank second part of repeal and replace.

Problems like these will appear all along the way, as any major bill winds through one or more committees in each house, is amended on each floor and finally consolidated into a single bill for the president. Hundreds of lobbyists will converge on the process, pitching modifications large, small and often contradictory. There will be dozens of conflicts to resolve and choices to make.

That will be true of tax as well as health legislation  the Republican House couldnt get a major tax reform to the floor in 2014, even after Dave Camp, the Michigan Republican who led the House Ways and Means Committee, spent years on the details.
Mr. Bannon himself seems fine with that description, telling Mother Jones last summer that Breitbart was now the platform for the alt-right, a loosely organized group of mostly young men who believe in white supremacy; oppose immigration, feminism and multiculturalism; and delight in harassing Jews, Muslims and other vulnerable groups by spewing shocking insults on social media.

To scroll through Breitbart headlines is to come upon a parallel universe where black people do nothing but commit crimes, immigrants rape native-born daughters, and feminists want to castrate all men. Heres a sample:

Hoist It High and Proud: The Confederate Flag Proclaims a Glorious Heritage (This headline ran two weeks after a white supremacist massacred nine black churchgoers in Charleston, S.C.)

Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy

Gabby Giffords: The Gun Control Movements Human Shield

If you dont find the headlines alarming, check the reader comments. Or take a look at whos rejoicing over Mr. Bannons selection. The white nationalist Richard Spencer said on Twitter that Mr. Bannon was in the best possible position to influence policy, since he would not get lost in the weeds of establishment Washington. The chairman of the American Nazi Party said the pick showed that Mr. Trump might be for real. David Duke, former imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, called the choice excellent and said Mr. Bannon was basically creating the ideological aspects of where were going.

Mr. Bannon is in some ways a perplexing figure: a far-right ideologue who made his millions investing in Seinfeld; a former Goldman Sachs banker who has reportedly called himself a Leninist with a goal to destroy the state and bring everything crashing down. He has also called progressive women a bunch of dykes and, in a 2014 email to one of his editors, wrote of the Republican leadership, Let the grassroots turn on the hate because thats the ONLY thing that will make them do their duty.
To coincide with the expansion of her Madison Avenue gallery next month, Dominique Levy is mounting an exhibition of side-by-side works by Willem de Kooning and Zao Wou-Ki (currently the subject of a solo show at the Asia Society). The two very different expressive painters were both restless experimenters. Frustrated with the formal limitations of the Chinese academy, Zao left for Paris in 1948, while de Kooning, born in the Netherlands and also classically trained, arrived in New York in 1927. The artists found their signature styles around the same time: de Koonings infamous Woman canvases, exhibited in 1953, broke his association with Abstract Expressionism, and his aggressive dismantling of the female body still unsettles. A year later, Zao changed brushes and technique to create his signature chaotic landscapes. His swirling 4-6-62 has the feel of a tornado, or an atom bomb. Levy describes the show as a combat between two giants.

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4. Combine the salt, miso paste and 1 tablespoon of water, and add to the dough. Using a wet hand, begin to pull the sides of the dough up and over the mass, keeping the mix in the bowl. Rotate the bowl, doing this movement (pulling out, up and over) on all sides, for about a minute. Each pull is called a stretch and fold. The mixture will be very wet and sticky! Thats a good sign.

5. Pour the olive oil around the edge of the bowl, along the perimeter of the dough, and rotate the dough so that you coat its bottom side with the oil. Cover and leave at room temperature for an hour and a half, performing four of the same stretch-and-fold movements (bring up each edge of the dough, one side at a time, folding it down over the rest of the dough like the sides of an envelope) every 30 minutes (three times total, during the hour and a half).

*If you are pressed for time, you can skip the three stretch and folds and stick the dough in the fridge at this point, and let it rest there for at least 18 hours before baking.

6. Let the dough sit, covered, at room temperature for 45 to 60 minutes (it should be puffy and about doubled), then cover and refrigerate overnight or up to 48 hours.

7. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

8. Remove the dough from the fridge and prepare a sheet tray. Grease it generously with olive oil and cover it with parchment.

9. With a wet or greased hand, gently release the dough from the edges of the bowl and turn it out onto the sheet tray. Begin lightly pulling and pushing the dough toward the edges of the tray. I tend to spread this process out over about 15-30 minutes, letting the dough sit for a while in between pulls. (As the dough comes to room temperature, it becomes much easier to stretch. Be patient and youll retain more of those precious gas bubbles in the dough.)

10. Swirl the remaining  cup kabocha puree around the surface, deflating the dough as little as possible. Cover. (I like to use another sheet tray, inverted on top.)
Over the last week, two of the worlds biggest internet companies have faced mounting criticism over how fake news on their sites may have influenced the presidential elections outcome.

On Monday, those companies responded by making it clear that they would not tolerate such misinformation by taking pointed aim at fake news sites revenue sources.

Google kicked off the action on Monday afternoon when the Silicon Valley search giant said it would ban websites that peddle fake news from using its online advertising service. Hours later, Facebook, the social network, updated the language in its Facebook Audience Network policy, which already says it will not display ads in sites that show misleading or illegal content, to include fake news sites.

We have updated the policy to explicitly clarify that this applies to fake news, a Facebook spokesman said in a statement. Our team will continue to closely vet all prospective publishers and monitor existing ones to ensure compliance.
Before Obamacare, it could be hard to buy your own insurance if youd already had a health problem like cancer. An insurance company might have decided not to sell any insurance to someone like you. It might have agreed to cover you, but not cover cancer care. Or it might have offered you a comprehensive policy, but at some incredibly high price that you could never have paid.

Donald J. Trump says he wants to do away with much of Obamacare, but he has signaled that parts of the law that banned those practices are good policy hed want to keep. I like those very much, he told The Wall Street Journal last week about the laws rules that prevent discrimination based on pre-existing conditions.

The pre-existing conditions policies are very popular. Nearly everyone has relatives or friends with illnesses in their past  cancer, arthritis, depression, even allergies  that could have shut them out of the individual insurance markets before Obamacare, so its an issue that hits close to home for many Americans.

But keeping those provisions while jettisoning others is most likely no fix at all.

Those policies that make the insurance market feel fairer for sick Americans who need it can really throw off the prices for everyone else. Thats why Obamacare also includes less popular policies designed to balance the market with enough young, healthy people.
Good morning.

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The election of Donald J. Trump has left many California Latinos feeling on edge.

But one Election Day outcome has given Latino groups that opposed Mr. Trump a measure of encouragement  the largest ever Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Its historic what actually happened, said Chuck Rocha, a political consultant.

Latinos now make up nearly 40 percent of Californias population. Election analysts said strong Latino turnout played a crucial part in contests throughout the West, including the election of Catherine Cortez Masto, of Nevada, who will become the first Latina senator.
WASHINGTON  President-elect Donald J. Trumps promise to deport two million to three million immigrants who have committed crimes suggested that he would dramatically step up removals of both people in the United States illegally and those with legal status. If carried out, the plan potentially would require raids by a vastly larger federal immigration force to hunt down these immigrants and send them out of the country.

Addressing the issue in an interview broadcast Sunday on the CBS program 60 Minutes, Mr. Trump adopted a softer tone on immigrants than he did during his campaign, when he called many of them rapists and criminals. He instead referred to them as terrific people, saying they would be dealt with only after the border had been secured and criminals deported.

But by placing the number of people he aims to turn out of the country as high as three million, Mr. Trump raised questions about which immigrants he planned to target for deportation and how he could achieve removals at that scale.

If he wants to deport two to three million people, hes got to rely on tactics that will divide communities and create fear throughout the country, said Kevin Appleby, the senior director of international migration policy at the Center for Migration Studies of New York. He would have to conduct a sweep, or raids or tactics such as those, to reach the numbers he wants to reach. It would create a police state, in which they would have to be aggressively looking for people.
The Obama administrations last attempt at resetting relations with Russia culminated in Putins invasion of Ukraine and military intervention in the Middle East, Mr. McCain, the newly re-elected Arizona Republican, said in a statement.

At the very least, the price of another reset would be complicity in Putin and Assads butchery of the Syrian people, he added. This is an unacceptable price for a great nation. When America has been at its greatest, it is when we have stood on the side of those fighting tyranny. That is where we must stand again.

Jobs by the thousands, but few takers.

Rebekah Mercer, the scion of a powerful family of conservative donors and a member of Mr. Trumps executive transition committee, has had little success in her mission to solicit names and resumes for potential administration posts, according to a person familiar with her outreach efforts.

Ms. Mercer, 42, the daughter of the New York investor Robert Mercer, has told Republican operatives and members of previous administrations that she was having trouble finding takers for posts at the under secretary level and below. She also made it clear that the transition team was more than a month behind schedule and on a tight timeline, the person said.

The Mercer family has invested tens of millions of dollars in conservative causes and is considered especially close to Stephen K. Bannon, the chairman of Mr. Trumps campaign who was named as his senior presidential adviser. Mr. Mercer reportedly invested $10 million in Breitbart, the right-wing news site previously run by Mr. Bannon. Mr. Trumps campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, also previously oversaw a super PAC financed by the Mercer family.
Hillary Clinton has won New Hampshires four electoral votes, The Associated Press reported on Monday night, nearly one week after she lost the presidential race to Donald J. Trump, the Republican candidate.

The win still leaves Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic nominee, about 60 Electoral College votes shy of Mr. Trump, who stunned many over the past 18 months with his improbable rise to the nations highest office. Mrs. Clinton now has 232 electoral votes; Mr. Trump has 290, 20 more than the 270 needed to win.

Michigan, with 16 electoral votes, is the only state that The Associated Press has not yet called for either candidate; Mr. Trump is ahead by a slim 0.3 percentage points there.

Although Mrs. Clinton soundly lost the Electoral College vote, which elects the president, she remains slightly ahead in the national popular vote.
LONDON  Britain has long been anxious about its special relationship with the United States, but after some choice remarks about Donald J. Trump by members of the governing Conservative Party during the presidential campaign, the relationship needs a bit of nurturing. And who better to tend to that, in his own mind at least, than Nigel Farage, the beer-loving commodities-trader-turned-populist-leader of the U.K. Independence Party.

Mr. Farage, known for his noisy role in promoting Britains exit from the European Union, was the first foreign politician to meet with President-elect Trump, three months after joining him on the campaign trail. On Monday, a photograph of the two men inside Trump Tower, all grins and thumbs up, dominated the front pages of newspapers in Britain.

As some in Mr. Farages party suggested him as the next ambassador to the United States, Prime Minister Theresa Mays office on Monday was quick to slap him down, saying that there would be no third person in her relationship with Mr. Trump.

Responding to the cool reception from the prime ministers office, Mr. Farage told LBC Radio:  It just goes to show they are not really interested in the country or the national interest, they are more concerned about petty party politics and trying to keep me out of everything.
On Sunday, a ministerial committee of rightists within the Likud party and the governing coalition approved a contentious bill to retroactively legalize illegal settlement on privately owned Palestinian land. Prompted by the effort to salvage the Amona outpost, it may be a precursor of things to come.

Although the pro-settler camp was promoting the bill long before Mr. Trumps victory, the decision was taken, unusually, over Mr. Netanyahus vehement objections and despite his exhortations for it to be postponed.

Tzipi Livni, a centrist former foreign minister and justice minister who now sits in the Parliamentary opposition, denounced the settlement bill, writing on Twitter that it constitutes major damage to the rule of law at home, damage to Israel abroad, and primarily conveys a message that might makes right, when faced with a weak prime minister.

Mr. Netanyahu warmly welcomed Mr. Trumps victory, calling him a true friend of Israel. But Mr. Netanyahu has also since instructed his ministers and legislators to be discreet, saying the incoming administration should be allowed to formulate  together with us  its policy vis-a-vis Israel and the region through accepted and quiet channels, and not via interviews and statements.

Mr. Netanyahu endorsed the principle of a Palestinian state in 2009, under American pressure and with caveats. Since then, he has tried to balance between world opinion and his right-wing constituency by declaring support for a solution based on two states for two peoples without going out of his way to advance it.

Israeli analysts point out that the Trump campaign has spread contradictory messages. While many here assume that he will have more pressing priorities than the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mr. Trump told The Wall Street Journal on Friday that he would like to seal an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, calling it the ultimate deal.

Mr. Netanyahus critics on the right, however, assume a Trump administration will at least give Israel a freer hand in areas like settlement construction. They say Mr. Netanyahu will have to decide which side he is on.
Seventy-six national security experts urged President-elect Donald J. Trump on Monday to reverse his hostility to the nuclear agreement signed with Iran last year and to use it as a tool to ease other tensions with the country.

A report signed by the experts, including former officials from both major political parties, argued that the nuclear agreement had reduced the threat of war in the Middle East.

Mr. Trump has called the nuclear agreement a foreign-policy disaster. He vowed during his campaign to renegotiate or renounce the deal, one of President Obamas signature achievements.

The report stated, The deal proved that diplomacy with Iran can bear fruit despite skepticism about Iranian sincerity, the inclination of Irans supreme leader to abide by the deal, or the ability of Iranian hard-liners to sabotage diplomacy.
In a studio at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on a recent afternoon, a few dancers stood around chatting, as if catching up before rehearsal. Yet the conversation, upon closer listening, sounded warped, like a script chopped up and scrambled. Gestures, words and facial expressions didnt quite match up, tricking the mind into seeking a clear, coherent message that never arrived.

The choreographer Faye Driscoll interjected every so often, asking the performers to slow down or to gesticulate more sharply. Was this part of the rehearsal, or part of the piece itself? A spontaneous interaction or a calculated exposure of her process?

Ms. Driscoll, it turned out, was just giving notes for her latest production, Thank You for Coming: Play, in preparation for its New York premiere at BAM Fisher on Wednesday. But the ambiguity of that moment spoke to a certain capriciousness in her work, a sense that any preconceived contract between audience and performers could be rewritten at any moment, in any way.

Im really interested in the space thats charged between the witness and the performer  this third event thats happening, Ms. Driscoll said in an interview after the rehearsal. We wouldnt be here if you werent here, and you wouldnt be here if we werent here. Thats really primary to me: the feeling of that feedback loop being amplified inside the work.
Two scholars said on Tuesday that they believe that an old sketchbook containing 65 drawings is an authentic work by Vincent van Gogh, and was created by that Post-Impressionist in Arles, France, where he made many of his famous and beloved paintings.

The scholars, Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov, a University of Toronto professor emeritus of art history, and Ronald Pickvance, who has written two books on the artist, spoke as Ms. Welsh-Ovcharov announced the release of her book about the drawings, Vincent van Gogh: The Lost Arles Sketchbook.

But experts at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which owns the largest collection of van Gogh artworks, immediately said that they disagreed with the scholars and that they view the drawings as most likely imitations by another artist.

In our opinion, its not authentic, said Louis van Tilborgh, a senior researcher at the Van Gogh Museum. Owners of the sketchbook have asked our opinion in 2007 and 2012 again, and we studied the iconography, style and technique, and studied the provenance, and we came to the conclusion that its not by him. We have not changed our opinion.
Vocally the revival of Puccinis Manon Lescaut, which opened at the Metropolitan Opera on Monday, is ravishing. Its almost enough to make sense of Richard Eyres problematic production of this already dramatically inconsistent work.

The soprano Anna Netrebko sang the title role for the first time at this house. She gave a bravura performance that included searing intensity and coquettish whim, often welded together in a single scene. A glint of steel was already apparent in her first appearance as a convent-bound ingenue simmering with suppressed passion. In Act II, when she has become the kept woman of a wealthy man and tries to smother her unhappiness with pearls and powder puffs, vulnerability trembled beneath the surface of the bored sex kitten.

That the role of Manon should suit Ms. Netrebko at this point in her career, where her voice has gained alluring earthiness in the low register while maintaining the rainbow hues of her powerful top notes, should come as no surprise.

A much bigger revelation was the tenor Marcelo Alvarez as des Grieux, the lover Manon alternately runs away with, and from. Perhaps his opening aria, Tra voi belle, was a touch forced and lacked the Mozartean lightness that should characterize this openhearted student at the beginning of the story, but through the evening his voice developed a virile beauty of uncanny power and depth. The single word pieta!  mercy!  rang out with explosive force and desperation as he flung it heavenward late in the opera, when des Grieux and Manon find they can save their love only if they choose exile and death. How many tenors have uttered that word on the Mets stage with only half the feverish urgency of Mr. Alvarez?
The somewhat specialized category of six-episode British mini-series involving government cabals, police investigations, cynical journalists and a pervasive fog of conspiracy has produced some great television, including Edge of Darkness in 1985 and State of Play in 2003.

Peter Moffat probably had those examples in mind when he created and wrote Undercover, a six-episode drama having its premiere on BBC America on Wednesday. But the show doesnt approach the atmospheric menace of Darkness or the brainy precision of State. In the end, it doesnt really come close to making sense, which is the worst thing you can say about this type of show.

Sophie Okonedo is the headliner, playing a London lawyer we first see working on behalf of an American death row inmate (Dennis Haysbert). Ms. Okonedo is as vibrant as usual, and her performance can almost carry you past the storys mounting puzzlements. Why has a British lawyer been fighting for 20 years to keep an American inmate alive? Why, when she returns to England, is she asked to become the director of public prosecutions, even though shes been a criminal defense lawyer all her career and has never prosecuted a case?
Does culture matter in times of national crisis?

During World War II, Kenneth Clark, the subject of James Stourtons crisp and authoritative new biography, was director of the National Gallery in London. To prevent the collection from being destroyed in the Blitz, he oversaw the successful relocation of nearly 2,000 paintings to an abandoned slate quarry in northern Wales.

(Some of the museums trustees had argued that the art should be shipped to the United States or Canada for safekeeping. Clark took this idea to Winston Churchill, who scribbled in red ink on the memorandum, Bury them in the Bowels of the Earth, but not a picture shall leave this Island.)

Next, Clark (1903-1983) did something no one anticipated. Bereft at how emergency orders had shut down so much of the cultural life in London, he began to open the now-empty and echoing National Gallery for a vastly popular series of noontime concerts.

The BBC took notice and began to broadcast them. At the beginning of the war, Mr. Stourton writes of the BBC, the Corporation had not understood the mood of the nation, and believed that people wanted nothing but light music.
Good morning.

Were trying something new for our readers in Asia and the Pacific region: a morning briefing to jump-start your day.

What do you like? What do you want to see here? Email us with your feedback at asiabriefing@nytimes.com.

Heres what you need to know:
Warren E. Buffett beats up on few industries with the regularity he reserves for American airlines.

In a 2007 investor letter, Mr. Buffett, still smarting from an errant $358 million investment in USAir two decades earlier, called the industry a bottomless pit for capital. He quipped that investors would have been better served if the aviation pioneer Orville Wright had been shot down at Kitty Hawk.

Now, his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, is sinking more than $1.3 billion into the four largest American airlines. What gives? It is simple: Mr. Buffetts love of competitive moats has overridden his fear of flying.

Mr. Buffett inspired a generation of value investors to seek out companies with defensible advantages that could help protect profit  or moats in his investment argot. For years, airlines did not fit that definition. They were burdened by high fixed costs, yet prone to price warfare as established carriers and new entrants like Richard Branson and others, abetted by cheap credit from leasing companies, jockeyed for business from fickle fliers.

That is no longer the case. Americas airlines have cut costs, slashed debt (mainly through the bankruptcy courts) and squelched rivals, mostly thanks to a string of mergers that turned a free-for-all into something like an oligopoly. The four companies Berkshire invested in  American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Continental and Southwest Airlines  control about two-thirds of the market and posted a $22 billion combined profit in 2015. As Mr. Buffett may now attest, the Wright brothers were not the problem  a competitive marketplace was.
The harvest had just begun when agents from the Immigration and Naturalization Service stormed across the onion fields of Vidalia, Ga., in 1998, sweeping up 21 immigrants who were trudging behind tractors without legal authorization to work in the United States, pulling onions out of the ground for 75 cents per 50-pound bag.

The fallout was unexpected. Senator Paul Coverdell, Republican of Georgia, wrote to the immigration service, complaining of its indiscriminate and inappropriate enforcement tactics, against honest farmers who are simply trying to get their products from the field to the marketplace. Representative Saxby Chambliss blasted the immigration officials bullying tactics.

And immigration enforcement caved: Shortly after the raid, onion growers in 19 counties were granted a temporary amnesty to keep their workers as long as their paperwork looked legitimate.

Welcome to reality.

Last week, Donald J. Trump was elected president based on a straightforward promise to make the United States great again. He aimed his message primarily at tens of millions of white working-class Americans who feel left behind in the growing economic prosperity, undercut by the advancement of minorities and women, competition from illegal immigrants at home and cheap workers in other countries.
BEIJING  The founder of a Chinese brand of high-tech toilets called Trump said he had no intention of soiling the name of Americas next president.

Zhong Jiye, the founder, said he had not heard of Donald J. Trump when he registered the English name of his company, Shenzhen Trump Industrial Company Limited, as a trademark in 2002. In Chinese, the company name means innovate universally, he said, highlighting how the toilet seats warm and wash the users backside. That Chinese name, he explained, also sounds a little like trump.

We really didnt know of this person called Trump, Mr. Zhong said in a telephone interview from the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. It was entirely a coincidence.

In the United States, Mr. Trumps name has adorned ties, steaks, water and other products. In China, it is found on computers, cosmetics, even leather goods.
If a fruit or vegetable isnt grown in dirt, can it be organic?

That is the question roiling the world of organic farming, and the answer could redefine what it means to farm organically.

At issue is whether produce that relies solely on irrigation to deliver nutrients to plants  through what is known as hydroponic and aquaponic systems  can be certified organic. And the National Organic Standards Board, an advisory group that makes recommendations to the federal secretary of agriculture, will get an earful on the topic at its meeting in St. Louis this week.

On one side are the growing number of big and small growers raising fruits and vegetables in these soil-free systems. They say their production methods are no different from those of farmers who grow plants in dirt  and, they add, they make organic farming more sustainable by, for instance, reducing water use.

Soil to me as a farmer means a nutrient-rich medium that contains biological processes, and that doesnt have to be dirt, said Marianne Cufone, an aquaponic farmer and the executive director of the Recirculating Farms Coalition, which lobbies for aquaculture.
Headliner

WAGAMAMA Its easy to understand why Asian restaurant groups that have come to New York  like Sugarfish from Los Angeles, Ootoya from Tokyo and now Wagamama from London  do not want to be called chains. These places are well designed, with interiors handsomely finished in fine materials. Wagamama, which started in 1992 and has 150 locations worldwide, has opened a two-story space in the NoMad area that seats more than 200, mostly at counters and communal tables. Some seats face the kitchen, though with a no-reservations policy, snaring one may be a challenge. The food, made fresh, is basically Asian, highlighting ramen but also offering soba noodle dishes, donburi rice bowls and curries, which the executive chef of the group, Steve Mangleshot, thinks will have special appeal for New Yorkers. This is the only location where spirits are poured and brunch will be served: 210 Fifth Avenue (26th Street), 212-920-6233, wagamama.us.

Opening

BLACK TAP MIDTOWN This is the fourth outlet for burgers and eye-catching baroque milkshakes from the chef Joe Isidori and Chris Barish. (Opens Saturday): Blakely Hotel, 136 West 55th Street, 212-315-4356, blacktapnyc.com.

BLAKE LANE Some highlights from the all-day California-style menu by the chef Diego Moya, formerly of Casa Mono, include sweet-and-savory grain porridges, a poke bowl, olive oil cake and his take on bibimbap, made with farro. The restaurant is owned by Suzanna Beall. (Thursday): 1429 Third Avenue (81st Street), 212-988-4700, blakelanenyc.com.

CHAO CHAO Over the summer, this was Soothsayer, a pop-up from the chef and an owner, Stephan Brezinsky, who learned to cook from his Vietnamese mother. Now it has set down roots with a new name in a whitewashed brick space thick with greenery. Look for grilled and charred eggplant with crushed peanuts and mint, a charred squid salad with pickled cucumbers and herbs, and thit kho consisting of braised pork shoulder and belly glazed with caramelized fish sauce and paired with Asian long beans. Beer and wine are served. (Wednesday): 171 Avenue A (10th Street), 212-475-3171, chaochaonyc.com.
Thats what I just think I heard: Do it my way or dont do it all, Mr. Hedges said.

Frustration with the governors appointees also came from other members of the panel. Barry Cozier, one of the representatives of the states chief judge, said the executive members approach amounted to an abdication of their responsibilities.

Ms. Reiter was ready to hit back. My opinions are my own, she said, adding that she was offended by suggestions that she had carried water for the governor. Ive had zero  no  communication with the governor of this state, she said.

The decision seems likely to set up a prolonged political battle  with pay as the prize  between the governor and the Legislature. Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, was already facing a potentially emboldened Senate, where Republicans had a surprisingly strong election last week despite Democrats high expectations, and despite Mr. Cuomos more active stumping for his partys candidates.

In a rare display, the two legislative leaders issued a joint news release shortly after the commissions decision, calling the action of the governors appointees completely unacceptable and one that far exceeds the mandate of the commission, which was to evaluate the need for an increase in compensation based primarily on economic factors.

But the statement from Speaker Heastie, a Bronx Democrat, and John J. Flanagan, a Long Island Republican who serves as the Senate majority leader, gave no indication that legislators would return to Albany this year to take up the measures the governor seeks. The statement said instead that the Legislature will continue to focus on issues that truly matter to New Yorkers.

The commission was established last year to independently evaluate compensation for all three branches of state government. But as with many things Albany, the influence  and interests  of the governor has been the source of much speculation, in large part because the makeup of the commission is weighted toward the executive branch. Mr. Cuomo nominates three members, with the chief judge of the Court of Appeals nominating two. The leaders of the Assembly and the Senate were each allowed to nominate one member.

As the commission weighed its options, Mr. Cuomo signaled that he would not support a raise without extracting something from the two legislative chambers, repeatedly calling on legislators to make their case for a raise by testifying to the commission.
But states in the Northeast, like New York, have some of the lowest rates of gun ownership in the country, Professor Egan said, a fact that influences views about firearms. In addition, some of the worst mass shootings in recent years, like those in Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, have occurred in suburban areas.

In terms of attitudes about guns, we have seen a big urban-suburban and rural divide open up across the country in the past 40 years, he said. This is one more indication that guns have become a flash point in the political and ideological polarization of our nation.

Town officials say they learned about plans for the gun shop in mid-September. Because the retail space had been occupied by a learning center, Mr. Zacchio needed a permit changing the use from retail services to retail. He was granted it in October.

The 450-square-foot space is tucked away in a mini-mall within 1,000 feet of a public elementary school. I would expect phone calls and an outcry if was trying to open a Romantic Depot or strip club, he said. Its not like Im selling guns from a truck.

As the town attorney, Frank P. Allegretti, explained at the town-hall-style meeting, officials had little control over the gun stores presence. Like other municipal ordinances in Westchester County, Harrisons laws do not explicitly prohibit firearm retailers. If it were to ban them, he said, the town would open itself to legal challenges.

This gentleman has the right, as anyone else does, to open a store there, he said. There are constitutional rights, Second Amendment rights.
Mr. Duterte operates on a hair trigger, and runs his presidency on impulse. Until recently, this tendency was scarcely known beyond his home town, Davao City, which as mayor he ruled like an autocrat for more than two decades. Even as these traits began to be revealed during the presidential campaign in the spring, they hardly mattered to the 39 percent plurality of voters who elected him. If anything, Filipinos seemed to be looking for a strongman to solve their problems, be it crime or poverty.

So far they have gotten just what they asked for, and Mr. Dutertes popularity is running high. In a poll by Social Weather Stations last month, 76 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with his performance.

Upon assuming the presidency, Mr. Duterte began a ruthless campaign against drugs, dealers and users nationwide, conducting it much like his administration in Davao City had fought crime  doling out justice by summary execution. To the stern reminders about the rule of law he has received from Washington, other Western governments and human rights groups, Mr. Duterte has replied with his usual belligerence and profanity. He does not want to be told.

Fewer and fewer people will tell him anyway. Mr. Duterte has surrounded himself with a sycophantic cabinet, and his administration is trying to co-opt or intimidate the democratic institutions or traditional political forces that might act as counterweights.

Now a self-professed socialist, he has struck a cease-fire deal with communist rebels. Members of the mainstream left, which previously took to the streets to denounce the ruling powers, were invited to the presidential palace on the day of his inauguration.
BERLIN  When Barack Obama visited here as a senator in 2008, he was greeted by a crowd of 200,000 as a man in the image of John F. Kennedy, who in 1963 assured Berliners that he was one of them. After eight years of George W. Bush, Mr. Obama seemed to promise not just a course correction, but a new enlightened era in American global leadership. The decision to award him the Nobel Peace Prize at the start of his presidency reflects the Continents initial high hopes that he would prove a more European president.

His farewell visit to the city on Wednesday, however, will be a more somber event, and not only because of what will follow his two terms. Over the past eight years, the Germans have grown increasingly disillusioned with the American president, and the euphoria of his first visit, at the height of summer, has given way to the melancholy of fall.

Germans were disappointed by his failure to close the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, and they grew dismayed as he increased the use of drones to eliminate enemies, with sometimes significant collateral damage.
MEXICO CITY  On Nov. 8, this mountain capital was soaked by a ferocious off-season thunderstorm, the type of tempest that can lead to jokes about the Aztec rain god Tlaloc being angry. At the same time, over the Rio Grande, a political storm raged worthy of the deitys fury: The United States elected a president who promised to build a border wall and make Mexico pay for it, deport millions of immigrants and rewrite or rip up a trade deal that Mexico depends on for almost a third of its income. Within hours, an economic storm also seemed to be brewing, with the peso losing value at the fastest rate since the tequila crisis of 1994.

The rise of Donald J. Trump to the presidency could potentially be the greatest foreign policy challenge to Mexico for generations. The actions that Mr. Trump has called for, such as slapping 35 percent tariffs on cars made in Mexico, could push this nation of 120 million into recession. Deporting millions more here could increase unemployment and crime. Moreover, Mr. Trump could change the basic nature of a relationship that has endured since World War II from one of peace and trade to one of bullying and conflict.

The phrase could potentially is key. Since the election, analysts here have all been trying to predict what a Trump presidency will actually do, and whether it will or wont be what he said  whatever that is. Indeed, much of what he has said regarding Mexico is highly ambiguous.

Mr. Trump has veered from calling for a deportation force against all undocumented migrants to a program of sending back criminals, which is in fact the current policy. He has pushed for a wall along the entire border, but more recently he has talked about merely extending the existing fences, and hasnt offered a realistic plan for Mexico to pay. And there is a lot of wiggle room in a revamping of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Austin, Tex.  Donald J. Trump made many important campaign promises on his way to victory. But saving coal is one promise he wont be able to keep.

Many in Appalachia and other coal-mining regions believe that President Obamas supposed war on coal caused a steep decline in the industrys fortunes. But coals struggles to compete are caused by cheap natural gas, cheap renewables, air-quality regulations that got their start in the George W. Bush administration and weaker-than-expected demand for coal in Asia.

Nationwide, coal employment peaked in the 1920s. The more recent decline in Appalachian coal employment started in the 1980s during the administration of Ronald Reagan because of the role that automation and mechanization played in replacing miners with machines, especially in mountaintop removal mining. Job losses in Appalachia were compounded by deregulation of the railroads. Freight prices for trains dropped as a result, which meant that Western coal  which is much cleaner and cheaper than Eastern coal  could be sold to markets far away, cutting into the market share of Appalachian mines. These market forces recently drove six publicly traded coal producers into bankruptcy in the span of a year.

Mr. Trump cannot reverse these trends.

For Mr. Trump to improve coals fate would require enormous market intervention like direct mandates to consume coal or significant tax breaks to coals benefit. These are the exact types of interventions that conflict with decades of Republican orthodoxy supporting competitive markets. Another approach, which appears to be gaining popularity, is to open up more federal lands and waters to oil, gas and coal production.
TOKYO  Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan is making an urgent trip to New York this week to meet with the American president-elect, Donald J. Trump. The government in Tokyo is on high alert.

A Trump presidency could be the greatest challenge to U.S.-Japan relations since the end of World War II  at least if Mr. Trump intends to translate his campaign pledges into actual foreign policy. On the stump, he challenged the main tenets of the two countries security relations, as well as Americas approach to nuclear deterrence in the Asia-Pacific region and to multilateral trade agreements. Mr. Trump has cast unprecedented uncertainty on a partnership that has served Japan and America  and the rest of the world  in good stead.

The U.S.-Japan alliance has been a cornerstone of stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region for decades. Under the Abe administration, the Japanese government is both more stable and more nimble today than it has been in years. Even before the U.S. election, Mr. Abe had signaled his governments resolve to see Japan take on a greater leadership role.

Yet throughout the campaign, Mr. Trump complained that U.S.-Japan relations were one-sided, with America shouldering too many of the burdens. He accused Japan, the worlds third-largest economy, of being a free-rider. Japan would have to step up, he said, or it would be left to its own devices.
SCOTT BASE, Antarctica  A group of hikers in red parkas approached a half-dozen seals resting on floating sea ice. The leader of the entourage  Secretary of State John Kerry  raised his arms and ordered everyone to halt.

As an ethereal silence descended, Mr. Kerry cocked his head in the stillness of one of the worlds last truly wild places.

In that moment, the frozen landscape seemed timeless, but it is actually in grave peril, as Mr. Kerry had been told by scientists only minutes before. The ice across large parts of West Antarctica may be starting to disintegrate because of global warming, and if it goes, the worlds coastal cities face destruction, too.

The presence of Mr. Kerry, the highest-ranking United States government official ever to visit Antarctica, lifted the morale of scientists working to understand the icebound continent. Yet the visit, at the end of last week, was shadowed by anxiety.
Audra McDonalds pregnancy was a surprise. But was it an accident, an illness or neither?

That is the question the producers of the Broadway musical Shuffle Along are asking a court to decide as it demands that an insurance company, Lloyds of London, compensate the show for what it says were more than $12 million in damages. The show closed in July, four months after performances began, when Ms. McDonald, who was 45 at the time, became pregnant, and the producers decided they could not continue once she went on maternity leave.

The show, with a full title of Shuffle Along, Or The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed, was a new musical, written and directed by George C. Wolfe, that explored the history of one of the earliest all-black musicals on Broadway. It was nominated for 10 Tony Awards, but won none; its post-opening grosses were strong, ranging from $755,787 to $985,656 a week.

The cast featured several much-honored performers, but Ms. McDonald, who has won six Tony awards, was its biggest star, and, the producers said, the biggest attraction for ticketbuyers. Her role involved substantial tap dancing, and she left the cast, citing guidance from her doctor, three months before giving birth to a daughter, Sally James McDonald-Swenson. (Ms. McDonald is married to the actor Will Swenson.)

The show, whose lead producer was Scott Rudin, filed suit against Lloyds underwriters on Nov. 3 in a New York State court; the litigation was previously reported by Forbes.
The simmering standoff between the police and Native Americans and their allies who oppose a giant oil pipeline project in North Dakota is the most visible sign of an emerging movement that is shifting the debate about how public lands across North America should be managed.

From the rocky, pebbled beaches north of Seattle, where the Lummi Nation has led the fight against a proposed coal terminal, to southern Utah, where a coalition of tribes is demanding management rights over a proposed new national monument, to the tiny wooded community of Bella Bella, British Columbia, 350 miles north of the United States border, Native Americans are asserting old treaty rights and using tribal traditions to protect and manage federally owned land.

If you want to own it, you have to act like you own it, said Kelly Brown, the director of resource management for the Heiltsuk Nation in Bella Bella. The Heiltsuk pressed the Canadian government for joint management of the local herring fishery and won this year through a campaign of sit-ins and political lobbying.
Conversations on those and other delicate issues can be both important and painful, but the reality of American life is that they are happening ever more rarely. Over the past several decades, the United States has become increasingly segregated by class, with college-educated people marrying, living and socializing apart from less-educated Americans. The result has been that Americans have lost touch with one another, sociologists say, and helps explain why each side is so baffled by the other.

If you went to Thanksgiving dinner 50 years ago, youd be very likely to have dinner with people from a different walk of life, said Robert D. Putnam, a professor of public policy at Harvard and the author of Our Kids, an investigation of class divisions in America. Today, there are far fewer people who are different from us around that table.

For upper-middle-class families like his own, every single person will have a college degree or currently be in college, he said. That class homogeneity was not true of my family a generation ago.

As the cultural divide becomes deeper, fewer Americans cross it.

Misty Bastian, 61, an anthropologist at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., is originally from rural Tennessee. Since serving in the Air Force in the 1970s, she has lived all over the world and earned her Ph.D., two milestones that have set her apart from most of her extended family.

She said that she had sensed a parting of the political ways from her family for a long time, but that her support for Hillary Clinton seemed to be the last nail in the coffin.

The other day, a cousin who had Trump proclivities put a post on Facebook that she described as all about Trump triumphalism.
WASHINGTON  For about $50, you can get a smartphone with a high-definition display, fast data service and, according to security contractors, a secret feature: a backdoor that sends all your text messages to China every 72 hours.

Security contractors recently discovered preinstalled software in some Android phones that monitors where users go, whom they talk to and what they write in text messages. The American authorities say it is not clear whether this represents secretive data mining for advertising purposes or a Chinese government effort to collect intelligence.

International customers and users of disposable or prepaid phones are the people most affected by the software. But the scope is unclear. The Chinese company that wrote the software, Shanghai Adups Technology Company, says its code runs on more than 700 million phones, cars and other smart devices. One American phone manufacturer, BLU Products, said that 120,000 of its phones had been affected and that it had updated the software to eliminate the feature.

Kryptowire, the security firm that discovered the vulnerability, said the Adups software transmitted the full contents of text messages, contact lists, call logs, location information and other data to a Chinese server. The code comes preinstalled on phones and the surveillance is not disclosed to users, said Tom Karygiannis, a vice president of Kryptowire, which is based in Fairfax, Va. Even if you wanted to, you wouldnt have known about it, he said.
Ms. Pelosi called a meeting with other party leaders Tuesday afternoon, and several senior Democrats said there was a jittery feeling in her camp.

We just got a shellacking last Tuesday, said Representative G.K. Butterfield, Democrat of North Carolina and the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. We got an unexpected defeat, and weve got to recalibrate and decide how we go forward.

Democrats were especially stung by Mrs. Clintons loss among working-class voters. Were the party of Franklin Roosevelt, said Representative Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania. We should not be struggling as a party the way we are with working-class voters. And the fact that we are signals that we need to talk.

The battle reflects a larger debate within the Democratic Party  being played out in its choice for the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee  pitting those who want to rebuild the base of President Obamas support among newer and more diverse voters and those who want to court anew the partys white working-class voters, especially in the Midwest.

Among Republicans, there was ambiguity of a different sort as they struggled to determine who was in charge of Mr. Trumps policy agenda. For now, it appears that Vice President-elect Mike Pence is making the calls to Capitol Hill.

Nobody really knows, former Speaker John Boehner said of Mr. Trumps agenda in an interview with CNBC. He added, He is barely a Republican. He could barely be a Democrat as well. Nobody really knows where he is going.

Other Republicans were generally positive about the prospects of a government in their full control, in spite of the early signs of a bumpy transition. Most Republicans said they knew nothing about Mr. Bannon and had little knowledge of his background. I really have only met him once, said Representative Peter King, Republican of New York. People Ive spoken to in the campaign have a high regard for him. Thats really all I know.
WASHINGTON  Rudolph W. Giuliani, facing a flood of questions about whether his business dealings should disqualify him from being named President-elect Donald J. Trumps secretary of state, on Tuesday defended his lucrative 15 years in the private sector as a credential for the job.

I have friends all over the world, Mr. Giuliani, the former New York mayor, said in an interview. This is not a new thing for me. When you become the mayor, you become interested in foreign policy. When I left, my major work was legal and security around the world.

As secretary of state, Mr. Giuliani, a loyal, often ferocious backer of Mr. Trumps candidacy, would make fighting Islamist terrorism the centerpiece of the incoming administrations foreign policy. He vaulted to national prominence because of his leadership after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and he still views foreign policy through the prism of that day.

But Mr. Giulianis business ties are a major red flag. He built a lucrative consulting and speechmaking career after leaving City Hall. His firm, Giuliani Partners, has had contracts with the government of Qatar and the Canadian company that is building the Keystone XL oil pipeline, and Mr. Giuliani has given paid speeches to a shadowy Iranian opposition group that until 2012 was on the State Departments list of foreign terrorist organizations.
WASHINGTON  The expansion of Medicaid, a central pillar of the Affordable Care Act, faces immense uncertainty next year, with President-elect Donald J. Trump and top Republicans in Congress embracing proposals that could leave millions of poorer Americans without health insurance and jeopardize a major element of President Obamas legacy.

But influential figures in surprising quarters of the new administration might balk at a broad rollback of Medicaids reach, favoring new conditions for access to the government insurance program for the poor but not wholesale cutbacks.

Mike Pence, the vice president-elect, is proud of the Medicaid expansion he engineered as governor of Indiana, one of 31 states that expanded eligibility under the Affordable Care Act. The Indiana program has conservative features that emphasize personal responsibility and require Medicaid beneficiaries to make monthly contributions to savings accounts earmarked for health care.

Another Trump adviser, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, hails the expansion of Medicaid in his state, saying more than half a million people are receiving more and better health care. The federal government pays the full cost for newly eligible beneficiaries from 2014 through 2016 and at least 90 percent of the costs in later years under the health law.
OTTAWA  For decades, a job at Labatt, one of Canadas two major breweries, came with an unusual perk: free beer for life. But now, the companys retirees have been cut off.

In a memo to employees, the brewer, which is owned by the beer giant Anheuser-Busch InBev, said it would gradually turn off the retirees beer tap over the next two years.

Its been around, I think, since the breweries have been around, David Bridger, the president of the Service Employees International Union local that represents workers at Labatts brewery in London, Ontario, said this week. He predicted that the loss of the bottomless keg would further undermine morale.

Its certainly not the way it was in the past, when there was fanatical devotion to the brand and the company, said Mr. Bridger, who is also chairman of the Canadian Brewery Council, an alliance of brewery-related unions. Today its just a job.
MIAMI  To Chad Olin, it seemed like the perfect opportunity: Decades of animosity between the United States and Cuba were peeling away, opening a final frontier in the Caribbean to dollar-wielding Americans.

Mr. Olin, 30, a Harvard Business School graduate, gave up a career in private equity to break into the Cuba travel market. He started a company that organizes trips for millennials to legally visit Cuba  a business made possible because President Obama has broadened travel to the island and expanded licenses for Americans to do business there.

So what happens now, Mr. Olin wonders.

On the campaign trail, President-elect Donald J. Trump threatened to roll back the sweeping detente with Cuba, lambasting the concessions made to its Communist government and raising the possibility that one of Mr. Obamas signature foreign policy initiatives could be stripped away.

I am still trying to think about what this means for my business that I spent literally the last two years working on, setting up something that was going to be perfect for an open market, Mr. Olin said. If we go back to the old way, I dont know if I have a business. Its a huge blow.
Skygazers around the world witnessed the biggest and brightest full moon in nearly 70 years on Sunday and Monday nights.

The phenomenon, in which a full moon appears at its closest point in its orbit around the Earth, known as perigee, is colloquially called a supermoon. Despite its name, a supermoon is only marginally more impressive than an average full moon.

Still, it attracted spectators to places as varied as the Acropolis in Athens, pictured above, to sand dunes in Mexico. Below, a photographer captured the gleaming orb as it rose behind the Castle of Almdovar in Cordoba, southern Spain, on Sunday.
Parliament, which itself has been in a legal limbo since its term officially expired more than a year ago with no date set for elections, has refused the governments pleas to stop the hearings. And Hajji Zahir Qadir, the deputy speaker of the Parliament, said on Tuesday that despite President Ghanis claims, the ministers dismissal could not be reversed by the Supreme Court.

If the government is just fooling itself, thats a separate issue, Mr. Qadir said.

But that is far from the only issue. Some analysts believe that a byzantine political intrigue may be underway: that the cabinet purge might have some degree of support from Mr. Ghani, despite his public protestations.

Supporting that argument is that some of the dismissed ministers were already under scrutiny by Mr. Ghani on accusations of incompetence or corruption, but had such powerful political patrons that few observers thought the president was politically strong enough to fire them.

The palace is using Parliament like chess, said Intizar Khadim, a political analyst in Kabul. Two years ago, ministers were selected in a hurry, so now the palace is possibly trying to select professional people as ministers and they are doing it through the Parliament.

But a senior political adviser to Mr. Ghani, Mohammad Akram Khpalwak, flatly rejected the idea that Parliaments dismissals had been coordinated with the presidents office. He acknowledged that the performance of some of the government ministers had been under review, but characterized that as a sign of accountability to the Afghan people and international donors who had demanded more anticorruption measures.
BEIJING  He presented himself as a candidate of the people, a folksy problem-solver who would rid garbage-strewn streets of dog waste and put an end to illegal parking.

But in the eyes of the authorities, Zhang Shangen, 73, a candidate in local elections in Beijing on Tuesday, was a menace seeking to undermine the Communist Party.

The Chinese government blocked Mr. Zhangs campaign at every turn, sending police officers to intimidate him and his supporters. On the eve of a major rally last month, Mr. Zhang said, the authorities whisked him to a city more than 800 miles away.

The government manipulates everything, he said in an interview at his home in Beijing on Tuesday. They are scared people will wake up to reality.
BEIJING  To the 90 million or so members of Chinas Communist Party, President Xi Jinping has a message: Dont call me president. Dont call me party secretary.

Call me comrade.

There is just one problem. In recent decades, the once ubiquitous term for Communist cadres and leaders has been embraced and popularized by a different group of people: gay men and lesbians.

The term tongzhi, or comrade, was a nearly universal form of address in China well into the 1980s, but as Mao jackets gave way to Western-style suits and ties, it fell out of favor among Chinese officials.

Among gay men, however, tongzhi became a term of affection and solidarity and eventually a catchall label for sexual minorities. A gay and lesbian film festival held annually in Hong Kong has been called the Hong Kong Comrade Film Festival since 1989. And the Beijing center for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people calls itself the Beijing Tongzhi Zhongxin  or the Beijing Comrade Center.
BEIJING  The Chinese authorities said on Tuesday that they had executed a farmer convicted of killing a village official after the demolition of the farmers home, despite months of public outcry in sympathy with the farmer.

The execution of Jia Jinglong, 30, took place in Shijiazhuang, the capital of the northern province of Hebei. He was sentenced to death last November. On Tuesday, he was allowed a brief visit with his family, the state news agency Xinhua reported.

While Mr. Jias trial had focused on the brutal nature of the crime  he was found guilty of killing the official, He Jianhua, by shooting him in the back of the head with a nail gun  it was the demolition of Mr. Jias home that stirred anger among a public that saw it as yet another government snub against the powerless.

Mr. Jias three-story home was destroyed in May 2013 to make way for a new property development. According to Chinese news reports, his father had agreed to the demolition in exchange for compensation and a new apartment promised by local officials, but Mr. Jia refused to abide by the agreement. Nevertheless, the home was knocked down.
OTTAWA  Canadian lawmakers introduced legislation to make the age of consent 16 for all forms of sexual intercourse, one of two overtures the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took on Tuesday to combat a history of discrimination against sexual minorities.

Jody Wilson-Raybould, the justice minister, introduced an amendment to make the age of consent 16 for anal sex, as it is for vaginal sex. She said the government agreed with four appeals courts that previously declared the current age of 18 to be discriminatory.

Mr. Trudeau also on Tuesday appointed a member of his Liberal government to determine the nature of an apology and possible compensation and pardons for gay and transgender people who were discriminated against and sometimes jailed because of federal laws and practices.

The appointee, Randy Boissonnault, last year became the first openly gay member of Parliament to be elected in Alberta.
BERLIN  A German organization that calls itself the True Religion and that is known for distributing German-language copies of the Quran was outlawed on Tuesday, after the authorities accused it of recruiting jihadists to fight in Iraq and Syria.

Thomas de Maiziere, the German interior minister, said the government had banned the True Religion organization, which is also known as Read (as in the instruction to read the Quran), because it acted as a collecting pool for would-be Islamist fighters.

Starting on Tuesday morning, officers raided 190 premises in more than half of Germanys 16 states. Materials were secured, but there were no detentions, Mr. de Maiziere said.

The organization brings Islamic jihadists together under the pretext of the harmless distribution of the Quran, Mr. de Maiziere told reporters in Berlin, stressing that the authorities were acting against the group because of its work to foster violence, not because of its faith. A systematic curtailment of our rule of law has nothing to do with the alleged freedom of religion, he said.
To many in the Czech Republic, she is celebrated as a local girl who went on to achieve global celebrity. Now Ivana Trump, President-elect Donald J. Trumps first wife, says she wants to become ambassador to the Czech Republic, leading some in her homeland to hope that she can inject some glamour into the central European country and burnish its global image.

Speculation about whether Ms. Trump, 67, could become Americas top diplomat in Prague has been swirling in the Czech Republic since she told The New York Post that she would be well-suited for the job.

I will suggest that I be ambassador for the Czech Republic, Ms. Trump told the Post in an interview published over the weekend, noting that she was fluent in Czech and had a high profile in the country of her birth. Im known by the name Ivana. I really did not need the name Trump.

If she were to become ambassador, Ms. Trump would not be the first celebrity to hold the post. Shirley Temple Black, the child star turned diplomat, was appointed ambassador to Czechoslovakia in 1989 by President George Bush. Her championing of the country before and after the fall of communism won her ardent admiration.
On Monday, just hours before he flew across the Atlantic, Mr. Obama offered conciliatory remarks on Mr. Trump and his coming administration during a White House news conference. He declined on Monday to comment on Mr. Trumps selection of Mr. Bannon  a media executive whose website, Breitbart.com, has promoted white nationalist, racist and anti-Semitic views  as chief White House strategist and senior counselor.

By Tuesday, however, Mr. Obama seemed to reverse himself, making pointed remarks about the dangers of overturning his administrations track record on race relations or returning to decades-old forms of bigotry.

In the United States, we know what happens when we start dividing ourselves along lines of race or religion or ethnicity. Its dangerous, he said. Not just for the minority groups that are subjected to that kind of discrimination or, in some cases in the past violence, but because we dont then realize our potential as a country when were preventing blacks or Latinos or Asians or gays or women from fully participating in the project of building American life.

Mr. Obama was unapologetic and unequivocal on his record of inclusiveness.

So my visions right on that issue, he said. And it may not always win the day in the short term in any particular political circumstance, but Im confident it will win the day over the long term.

Mr. Obama said that the desire for change was a huge factor in Mr. Trumps victory.

Sometimes people just feel as if we want to try something to see if we can shake things up, and that I suspect was a significant phenomenon, he said.
The reserve funds have been something sacred. Putin always refers to them when he talks about economic difficulties, Mr. Milov said. They have been used as a strong, public indicator that the state still has capabilities.

But they are shrinking fast with no economic revival in sight. Two sovereign funds, the Reserve Fund and the National Wealth Fund, are now down to less than $104 billion, compared with a combined $160 billion at the beginning of 2015, according to the Finance Ministrys website.

The financial reserves are expected to run out by the end of 2017, just as Mr. Putin faces a campaign for a fourth term in the spring of 2018.

The Rosneft stash would help tide over the country for a longer period while the Kremlin ties its hopes to a rebound in the price of oil and the possible lifting of Western sanctions imposed over Russias annexation of Crimea and the Ukraine crisis. Prospects for the latter brightened with President-elect Donald J. Trumps criticism of the American policy of isolating Russia.

For now, the Russian economy hovers around zero growth, and consumers still struggle with inflation caused by a sharp drop in the ruble, along with food restrictions imposed in response to the Western sanctions.

With minimal outside investment, Russias economic fate is increasingly in the hands of the state. New statistics from the federal antimonopoly service show that the government controls about 70 percent of the economy, compared with 35 percent in 2005.

Olga V. Kryshtanovskaya, a leading sociologist who studies the Russian elite, said the Ulyukayev case cast a shadow over the entire government. People resent the fact that they had to give up French cheese in order to support the presidents policies and such corruption cases still erupt, she said in an interview.
LONDON  The government of Britain could need six more months to settle on a plan for negotiating the countrys exit from the European Union and an extra 30,000 civil servants to deal with the complexities of the task, according to a memo of uncertain parentage leaked to The Times of London on Tuesday.

The office of Prime Minister Theresa May poured cold water on the memo, denying reports that it was prepared for the government. This unsolicited document has nothing to do with the government at all, a spokesman said in a statement. It was produced by an individual from an external accountancy firm. It has no authority, and we dont recognize any of the claims it makes.

Chris Grayling, secretary of state for transport, told BBC Radio on Tuesday, Its certainly not a government report. As for Britains departure from the union, known as Brexit, he said, Its a complex process, albeit with some simple objectives.

The British press, already fluttery over the complications of leaving the European Union and the uncertainties of a trade deal with a President Donald J. Trump who, as a candidate, expressed opposition to free trade, seized on the memo, which The Times said was drafted on Nov. 7 by a consultant working for the Cabinet Office, a government department that supports the prime minister.
CAIRO  One of Egypts highest courts overturned a death sentence imposed on Mohamed Morsi, who was the countrys first democratically elected president and was ousted in 2013 by the military.

Mr. Morsi, who is serving a life sentence in prison for offenses related to espionage and inciting violence, is likely to remain in prison indefinitely.

The annulment of his death sentence  as well as the sentences against five other leaders of Mr. Morsis Muslim Brotherhood movement  suggests the governments reluctance to execute leaders of the Brotherhood, which still maintains some public support after its role in the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

The Brotherhood, which held power for just over a year, has been classified as a terrorist group by the government of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the president and a former military leader, and thousands of the groups leaders and members have been jailed or killed or have gone into exile. Even so, observers widely believe that executing top leaders like Mr. Morsi could lead to a new surge of violence.
Mr. Shoigu also briefed Mr. Putin on what he called the use of chemical weapons by the insurgents. The Russian military said that chemical weapons used by insurgents had caused three deaths of Syrian soldiers, and the hospitalization of dozens of soldiers.

On Monday, a Russian fighter jet crashed off the Syrian coast as it tried to return to the Admiral Kuznetsov. The pilot ejected safely, and the Russian Defense Ministry blamed a technical failure.

The fighting broke out a day after Mr. Putin spoke to President-elect Donald J. Trump and agreed to cooperate on fighting international terrorism and extremism, according to a Kremlin statement. That declaration echoed Mr. Trumps recent comments that he would try to work with Moscow and with Mr. Assad to fight against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh.

Mr. Trumps comments concerning Syria also received a favorable reaction on Tuesday from the United Nations special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura. What hes been saying is quite interesting, Mr. de Mistura said, speaking on the BBCs Hardtalk program. The focus, the priority, is Daesh, fighting terrorism. Second to do, if possible, a deal with Russia. Both points make a lot of sense.

The diplomat said he had yet to speak directly to Mr. Trump or his associates. He also emphasized that in his view, the Syria conflict still required a completely new approach to what is a political solution.



The Syrian government has tended to call all its opponents terrorists, and Russia makes little distinction among the different groups fighting Mr. Assad. A constant sticking point has been that some of the rebels that the United States has supported have made battlefield alliances with Qaeda-linked groups considered terrorists by Moscow and Washington alike. Mr. de Mistura has estimated that perhaps a few hundred of the 10,000 or so fighters inside besieged eastern Aleppo are affiliated with Al Qaeda; rebels say that number is lower and the government says it is higher.

The Obama administration has said that fighting the Islamic State is the priority of the United States, not toppling Mr. Assad  though that is another stated American aim. Under Mr. Obama, the United States government has continued to support some rebel groups that Washington deems not to be extremist, and it has shunned direct cooperation with Moscow and Damascus, contending that their campaign in Syria has been focused less on defeating extremists and more on battling opposition groups fighting Mr. Assad.
AL SHIHR, Yemen  When fighters from Al Qaeda seized control of a stretch of southern Yemen in 2015, they looted millions of dollars from the central bank, spreading such fear that other banks shut down.

But during the year Al Qaeda reigned, Al Omgy Brothers Money Exchange kept running its business here in the coastal town of Al Shihr. It held accounts for the national oil company, disbursed salaries for the Yemeni government and earned the praise of local officials for providing needed services during a tough time.

And if members of Al Qaeda wanted to open accounts, too, well, the company could not really say no, according to Muhammad al-Omgy, who runs the money exchange with his brother, Said.

The United States was not impressed.

This month, the United States Treasury Department designated the brothers and their company as having provided financial services to or in support of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which is widely considered to be the terrorist groups most dangerous branch. Any of their assets subject to United States jurisdiction are blocked, and Americans are generally prohibited from having transactions with them.
A suave older gent, Lee Peck, was sitting by himself at the end of the bar and looking amused. Mr. Peck, a retired banker, has been going to Nearys since the early 1970s. We used to come up here Friday nights after work and sit at the bar, he said. A lot of Friday nights. Its a great watering hole, a lot of good people.

Mr. Peck, though a longtime conservative, voted for Hillary Clinton. Trump just turned me off, but hes president, so I have to root for him. So hopefully hes going to be O.K., he said, and then gestured toward the owner of the bar, Jimmy Neary. Jimmy loves him. Hes always been a big Trump guy.

Yes, I like Donald Trump, said Mr. Neary, 86, who bears some resemblance to Clarence, the angel in Its a Wonderful Life. He was sitting in one of the red leather corner banquettes and remembering how Mr. Trumps relatives and friends have been visiting his establishment since the era when Mr. Trump was dating Marla Maples and palling around with Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford. To me, hes an absolute gentleman, Mr. Neary said. Thats all I can say for him.

Though happy to talk politics, he didnt mind returning the subject to his restaurant, which opened on St. Patricks Day in 1967.

The first year was mediocre, not bad, he said. And then I came in here one evening at 6 oclock, it was a nice crowd here, and I heard customers at the bar saying, He doesnt know whos here. Quietly, I disappeared and went into the kitchen and looked out of the glass window, and who was sitting in the corner? John Glenn. And I said to myself, If I wasnt in business another week, I still had the first man to orbit the earth in my restaurant. (Well, the first American, anyway.)
For his good offices, Kennedy asked to be named ambassador to the Court of St. Jamess. Roosevelt reportedly laughed at the thought: No one was less diplomatic than Joe Kennedy. But fine, let him hang himself. And so, in l938, the Kennedys arrived in London to a roaring welcome. No one had ever seen such a large and dazzling brood.

The eldest son, Joe Jr., and Jack stayed back at Harvard, but the rest of the children became social stars there, including Jean, who at age 10 attended a boarding school outside London. (The choice seems stern, but Jean never complained: No whining was the family rule.) Even Rosemary, third of the nine, managed at age 20 to get through her social debut despite a mental handicap that left her ever further behind her siblings.

Jean, unsurprisingly, says nothing about the circumstances surrounding the end of her fathers ambassadorship  that his pleas for appeasement with Hitler had outlasted even Chamberlains. She does note that Rosemary stayed on with her father when Britain declared war on Germany and the rest of the family went home. Dad felt he needed to stay in England, . . . and she was doing so well at a school there, better than she ever had before.

Yet two years later, Papa Kennedy decided that Rosemary should have a new and promising but radical treatment: a frontal lobotomy. Jean omits any mention of it in her narrative. Only in an epilogue  could it have been at an editors insistence?  does she acknowledge that the operation went tragically wrong, leaving Rosemary with difficulties walking or communicating.

In the Kennedy clan, each older sibling was made guardian of a younger one. Jeans guardian was Joe Jr., oldest and most promising of the lot. Vividly, she recalls the summer day in l944 when two priests came up the driveway with news that Joe, a Navy pilot, had been killed in action. Jean recalls riding her bike to church to cry and pray, then going to the local hospital where she worked as a volunteer. What else could I do?

Four years later, death took a second of the nine: Kathleen, or Kick, whose small plane went down over France. Kicks lover, a dashing (and married) Brit, was with her, having pushed the pilot to brave an oncoming storm. Greater depths, for all these tragedies, simply go unplumbed. The Kennedys have never been ones for public expressions of grief.

Jean ends her memoir on the high note of Jacks presidency, after introducing her college roommate Ethel Skakel to Bobby (The rest is history), marrying the businessman and political strategist Stephen Smith, and doing all she can with her siblings to get Jack elected. Left to the epilogue are the assassinations, along with Joes devastating stroke. Of later painful episodes  Chappaquiddick, her son William Kennedy Smiths rape trial, Teddys brain cancer, her sister Patricia Lawfords fight with cancer and more  there is no mention.

We can rue how much goes unsaid here, even about those Hyannis Port summers of the l930s and l940s. Or we can concede that the last Kennedy of her generation has the right to tell the story she wishes, and let it go at that. Slim as this volume is, it still makes for engaging reading  say, on a front porch by the sea, in that quiet time after lunch when the Kennedy children, at their parents insistence, read in their rooms every day, before the years when they lit up the sky.
Third-party travel booking sites such as Expedia.com and Booking.com are go-tos for travelers in search of wallet-friendly accommodations or deals on packages that include both airfare and a hotel stay. But as sites to book high-end vacations? Not so much  that is, until recently.

Today, these sites and two new search engines  Skylark and Lola  are looking to attract consumers seeking luxury getaways by including prestigious hotels in their inventory and selling discounted packages that combine luxe accommodations with business- or first-class flights.

With Skylark, which is part of the luxury travel network Virtuoso, users pay an annual $400 fee to get favorable rates on 700 upscale hotels, discounted high-end packages and phone, email and live chat access to a team of about 20 travel agents.

We want to be a luxury online travel agency where our clients can plan their own vacations but also rely on a travel adviser if they need to, said Paul Tumpowsky, Skylarks chief executive and co-founder.
Feature

Chalk it up to a kind of cynical Latina wariness, but I never felt convinced that Hillary Clinton would win the general election. Yet as reports poured in about the historic number of Latinos lining up to vote early in Miami, I felt 100 percent certain that the state would remain blue. After all, Cuban-American members of Congress like Carlos Curbelo and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen had refused to endorse Trump. In October, following the Access Hollywood scandal, Ros-Lehtinen called on Trump to withdraw from the campaign. When Hillary Clinton appeared at a Miami concert with Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, a stadium-size crowd showed up.

So when Florida turned red, I was stunned  especially after I saw the demographic breakdowns. Nearly one in three Latino voters in Florida cast their ballots for Trump. According to a CNN and Latino Decisions exit poll, his support among Cuban-American voters was even higher: 54 percent. Definitely there was a hidden, secret Latino vote, Jorge Ramos, the Univision news anchor, told me. Were seeing a new divide within the Hispanic community. The wall that Trump was talking about is clearly apparent now within the Hispanic community.

This pro-Trump vote didnt feel quite as secret to Roberto Rodriguez Tejera. Every day, he told me, people called into to his South Florida Spanish-language talk-radio show, Contacto Directo, to express their support for Trump. Rural white voters, he explained, arent the only ones frightened by the specter of feminism, Muslim immigrants and L.G.B.T. rights. For many Hispanic Americans, the cultural changes of the past 15 years have been very hard. Trump, for many, is a return to the mothers womb.

While a clear majority of the states Latinos cast their votes for Clinton, plenty of others responded to Trumps hostility toward undocumented immigrants. Every day Contacto Directo got versions of the same complaints from listeners: I waited so many years to be allowed to enter the United States; why should others get amnesty? I finally have my work permit; I dont want an undocumented person to take my job for less money. Maybe theyre even from the same country, Rodriguez Tejera notes. Nationally, Pew Research Center reports that roughly a quarter of Hispanics favor building that big, beautiful wall.
Iowa

Donald J. Trump 798,923 Votes 51.8%

Hillary Clinton 650,790 Votes 42.2%

To understand how all these heavily white Iowa counties went for Obama, we must look back to 2008. After eight years of Republican rule, with the economy in a tailspin, white people were suffering through the sort of disastrous unemployment rates that usually only black Americans face. It has been called the worst recession since the Great Depression. Obamas message of hope, that Americans of all stripes were in this thing together, along with his promises to go after the banks and Wall Street types that had caused the disaster, struck a chord across political parties. And his savvy ground operation took this message to rural and suburban communities that Democrats had often written off as unwinnable.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the first black man to run for president (and second black American, behind Shirley Chisholm), made similar inroads with rural white farmers during his 1984 and 1988 campaigns. This was simply because he reached out to them promising to push policies that would specifically help them, like ending foreclosures on family farms and forgiving their debt. He did not get a majority of this vote, but he got a surprisingly significant portion.

Decades later, large numbers of rural and suburban white voters were willing to cast their lot with Obama and his multiracial coalition  not necessarily out of some sense of racial enlightenment or egalitarianism but because at the time, they saw it as being in their own best interest. Class and economic anxieties did not erase racial ones; they just in that moment transcended them.

Much has changed in the country since the desperate days of 2008, and while Obama carried more than half of Iowas 99 counties that year, last week Clinton only carried six. I talked to several white Iowans, many of them lifelong Democrats, who had voted for Obama at least once. They said they believed in unions and social programs to help the needy. They believed in the concept of racial equality, in the sense that all people should have the same opportunities. But in recent years, they had come to feel at odds with their party; it no longer reflected their own cultural norms. Where once they were the backbone of the party, now they were outsiders.

Gretchen Douglas is a corrections officer from Marshalltown. The 53-year-old had been a Democrat her entire adult life and describes herself as a social liberal and fiscal conservative. Shes a supporter of unions and gay rights and abortion rights and said she doesnt want to breathe dirty air. She proudly talked of her daughters success as a chemist, mentioning that not long ago the only options for women were teaching and nursing. She holds a degree in accounting and can tell you exactly the share of the national debt she and her husband carry.

Even as the recession caused Iowa to shed hundreds of state jobs, Douglas managed to hold onto hers. But in 2012, for the first time in her life, she registered as a Republican, and last week she voted for Trump. Douglas told me she had switched parties because she felt Obama had been irresponsible with spending, causing the national debt to soar. She said Democrats were spending too much on social programs for people who did not need them.

I dont want to throw Granny out in the snow, and I think the least of our brothers should be taken care of, she said. But I think that those who can work should. Douglas said there was a time in her life where she was struggling, and so she applied for welfare for herself and her young children but was denied. She didnt think that was fair, but she worked hard and turned her life around. But these days, she said, I kind of think for some social programs there is no stigma.

Douglas never mentioned race, but polls including a recent one of Trump supporters have shown that white Americans support for entitlement programs declines if they think black people are benefiting. And the longer Douglas talked, the more she revealed other reasons she had voted for Trump.

When Obama was elected, she hoped he would bridge race relations, to help people in the middle of Iowa see that black people are decent hardworking people who want the same things that we want. She said people in rural Iowa often dont know many black people and unfairly stereotype them. But Obama really turned her off when after a vigilante killed a black teenager named Trayvon Martin, he said the boy could have been his son. She felt as if Obama was choosing a side in the racial divide, stirring up tensions. And then came the death of Michael Brown, shot by a policeman in Ferguson, Mo.

Im not saying that the struggles of black Americans arent real, Douglas told me, but I feel like the Michael Brown incident was violence against the police officer.

The Black Lives Matter movement bothered her. Even as an Ivy League-educated, glamorous black couple lived in the White House, masses of black people were blocking highways and staging die-ins in malls, claiming that black people had it so hard. When she voiced her discomfort with that movement, she said, or pointed out that she disagreed with Obamas policies, some of her more liberal friends on Facebook would call her racist. So, she shut her mouth  and simmered.

Trump clearly sensed the fragility of the coalition that Obama put together  that the president's support in heavily white areas was built not on racial egalitarianism but on a feeling of self-interest. Many white Americans were no longer feeling that belonging to this coalition benefited them. A recent study by sociologists from Harvard and Tufts found that white Americans believed that they experienced more discrimination than black Americans. Trump spoke openly to those Americans, articulating what many Iowans felt but could never say. It was liberating.

Trump was crass, and he was abrupt, Douglas said. But I felt like he was going to take care of the things that mattered for me, and honestly I was very worried about our country.

There has never been a moment in America in which black peoples gains have not been perceived by some white Americans as their loss. And history is littered with examples of how economic and racial anxieties can create a wedge with which to destroy interracial political and economic alliances. White supremacists overthrew the biracial fusion party in North Carolina in the late 1800s and, with the support of the white population in the state that had once supported the sharing of power, worked to disenfranchise black North Carolinians and usher in seven decades of Jim Crow. In more modern times, George Wallace was roundly trounced when he ran for governor of Alabama against a racist opponent. Wallace, who had promised to treat a man fair, regardless of his color, vowed to never be out-niggered again. The next election he rode a segregationist platform right into the governors mansion. Similarly, Richard Nixon ran for president the first time as a moderate and lost, but he later found his opening courting white opposition to civil rights with his Southern strategy. It is not incidental that John McCain and Mitt Romney mostly declined to stir up racial tensions in their campaigns against Obama and lost.

When Trump inveighed against Mexican rapists and talked of barring Muslims from the country, the baldness of his rhetoric spoke to something deeply seated in the Iowans I talked to. Erin Wright, who worked for the state before quitting to finish a nursing degree, voted for Obama in 2008, and doesnt remember if she voted at all in 2012; she cast her ballot for Trump last week. Like Douglas, she wasnt struggling financially but was attracted to Trumps promise to seal our southern borders and to bar Muslims from entering the country.

Theres a lot of illegal people here, who do take work, she said. If they want to become a citizen, that is super, they should become a citizen. But all the influx of people who come in, they get benefits, they get jobs, and they take them from people who cant find anything else who have lived here their whole lives.

Whats missing from the American conversation on race is the fact that people dont have to hate black people or Muslims or Latinos to be uncomfortable with them, to be suspicious of them, to fear their ascension as an upheaval of the natural order of things. A smart demagogue plays to those fears under the guise of economic anxieties. Things not as good as you hoped? These folks are the reason. Kelley, the historian, said white Americans have ignored race when it serves them and defaulted to it when it suits them. We think of interest as an objective thing that floats above, but it is subjective, he said. Race always plays a role. It never disappears.

The miracle Obama worked in 2008 and 2012 was to stitch together, at least in part, the racial lines that have always fractured this country. What we saw last week was those lines being torn apart again.

Nikole Hannah-Jones is a staff writer for the magazine. She won a 2016 Peabody Award for her series on school segregation for This American Life.
Maine

Donald J. Trump 334,838 Votes 45.2%

Hillary Clinton 354,873 Votes 47.9%

Maine, like America, is of two minds, then. Should we make it three? Id venture to say, as it really turns out, and contrary to our theories, we remain many chaotic minds at once, a cacophony that sometimes resolves to symphony and then distortion again. Sometimes even inside the mind of one voter. Take a 36-year-old Congregationalist minister named Matthew McDonald, from Bangor. He told me his trigger issues were labor, immigration, and ... marriage equality. Hed been a Bernie supporter  Brother Bernie was how he referred to him  who somehow ended up with Trump. From Millinocket originally, hed watched his father work as a union leader in a now-closed paper mill and thought the trade agreements  Nafta and the TPP  were anathema to blue-collar Democrats.

As a minister, he claimed to have fought hard for marriage equality, marching, donating. He performed L.G.B.T. weddings, he said. While he agreed that Trump had a rhetoric problem and that some of what he said was disgusting, he said hed taken Trump seriously but not literally, something other supporters had repeated. He still wasnt sure who President Trump would be. But if his willingness to throw out Nafta and the TPP was an indication, he was worth the risk, for the possibility he represented.

I was thinking about this as I drove from town to town, the same towns that voted for our governor, Paul LePage. Twice. Certainly, if any state could have, and should have, predicted a Trump victory, it might have been Maine. Wed seen the effect of LePage, a mini-Trump himself, firsthand. At one public meeting, he blamed guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty for Maines heroin problem. He then added, Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young white girl before they leave. The consequent pillorying of LePage by his political opponents had only solidified his base again, in fact fired them up  and inspired LePage himself, who grew more oppositional by the day, lashing out at his enemies and launching a continued broadside against the press. No doubt, he had benefited Trump, too. The rallies, at which LePage strode the stage like a rock star, turned out huge numbers and helped Trump carry towns and counties that George W. Bush couldnt.

But in the Second District, the consequence also weighed heavily on others. And the shock. I met with a group in Farmington, at a bar called the Dugout. Farmington, thanks to the university there, was one of the few inland towns that went for Clinton. One guy compared Trump to a con man, an old-fashioned snake-oil salesman. Hes a hobos dream of what a rich person is, he said. Everything is gold, even the toilet. Three women, in their 20s, sat drinking beer, and each reflected a different fear. One was engaged to a man in Ecuador and worried that hed never be allowed to stay in the country. (This is not the America I love and want to introduce my future husband to.) One, who was black, said she had already encountered a new kind of more brazen racism: menacing looks, slammed doors. (Im just really scared.) The last said that at the bar where she worked, everyone had voted for Trump, and she felt not only silenced there, but marginalized. (Some of those guys  after a few drinks  they make it heavily uncomfortable for a woman to speak her mind. Especially now.) She said her friends were getting IUDs while they could, uncertain where reproductive health was headed. Its like a sci-fi movie, she said: The Hunger Games. All three women said they were waiting to wake up from the nightmare, but it wasnt stopping.

The truth is Trump himself created an unreality. Some might say brilliantly. He wasnt so much an anti-politician as a celebrity running for the lead in another television pilot. He was multiple, not binary. He was confusing and confrontational, offensive and visceral. He was contradictory enough to offer something for every one of his would-be supporters. And, as it turned out, he moved some Americans as he delivered his speeches not through a teleprompter, but directly to those (mostly white men) before him. We got what we voted for then  or some of us did.

I drove home late that night, passing back again through our pizza stop in the town of Madison, a place once famous for the lumber that went into its sawmills and the coffins that came out. I drove that gutted main street but didnt even slow before the grimy shop window of yesterday to see if that wedding dress was still there. Everything it symbolizes is still here. The marriage that was or wasnt. The need to sell what was once dear, some pearlescent dream, now left behind in an abandoned storefront. All that promise and heartbreak. Unclaimed, it hangs there in mind, like a ghost or harbinger. Which will it be? We are multifarious, ever-churning, at war with ourselves, and we must ask ourselves now: Which will it be?

Michael Paterniti is a contributing writer for the magazine and a GQ correspondent. He is the author of Love and Other Ways of Dying, a collection of essays.
Minnesota

Donald J. Trump 1,322,891 Votes 45.4%

Hillary Clinton 1,366,676 Votes 46.9%

One of the weirder things about electoral politics is that life-or-death passion and why-not frivolity often produce the same teeth-rattling shocks to the system. There were probably Minnesotans who, in voting for Ventura, truly did want to blow up the two-party status quo. But there were others  I knew some of them  who were mostly just curious to see what would happen. This is a light kind of politics that bespeaks a degree of privilege; for a state with a thriving economy and a relatively affluent population, the potential downsides of rolling the dice on Ventura seemed manageable.

The same conditions have long underwritten a local political culture of unusually adventurous idealism, sometimes with profound consequences. It was the Minnesota delegation at the 1948 Democratic National Convention that, led by a 37-year-old Hubert H. Humphrey, pushed a civil rights plank into the national partys platform for the first time, setting off the tectonic reconfiguration of the parties that created todays partisan landscape. At the time, Minnesota was 99.5 percent white; rural Minnesotans, especially, were only marginally more likely to encounter a black person in their daily lives than their grandparents in Norway and Sweden were. One reason civil rights was an uncontroversial cause among white Minnesotans, no doubt, was that it was so abstract. The state was consequential to civil rights in part because civil rights were of so little direct consequence to the vast majority of people who lived there.

A dark inverse of this phenomenon played out across the country  and much of Minnesota, which Hillary Clinton won by a narrower margin than any Democratic presidential candidate since John F. Kennedy  on Nov. 8, when millions of Americans who have probably never met a Muslim voted for a candidate who has vowed to ban them from entering the country. Trumps coalition included people who sincerely subscribe to one or more of the myriad forms of bigotry that his campaign tacitly sanctioned; the K.K.K. rally announced to celebrate his victory was proof enough of that. But Trump would not have won without the support of thousands of the same voters in northern Midwestern states that Americas first black president won in 2008 and 2012: states like Iowa and Wisconsin that, despite sharing Minnesotas liberal-populist history and demographics, flipped from blue to red this year.

It was the embracing of Obama by white, rural Iowans during the 2008 primaries that first suggested that his candidacy might actually have a chance. The Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson wrote at the time that the Iowa caucuses showed us the America we like to believe we live in, a country ready to embrace a man with brown skin as its leader. Trumps victory in that state eight years later suggests a more ambiguous lesson, about how distance expands the possibilities of politics, for better and for worse  how a voter for whom black enfranchisement and banning Syrian refugees are equally abstract is equally prone to support either one on Election Day. But of course the consequences of elections are not always so abstract.

Bill Hillsman didnt support Trump  though, he told me, at the beginning I was sort of interested in working with him. He saw the Trump campaign as a logical extension of Venturas accomplishment, only Trump did it on such a grand scale. It was seat-of-the-pants brilliant. I asked him if it concerned him at all to see the trajectory that had started with Ventura  who preached a gruff message of tolerance during his campaign  end in Twitter memes about Auschwitz ovens and dark intimations of political violence. Nobody knows what hes going to do, Hillsman said. He doesnt owe the Republican Party anything. Maybe this is all a big con, and hell do what he feels like doing. It could be nothing like what the Republicans expected.

Charles Homans is the politics editor for the magazine.
Feature

I wonder what our boy Donald is gonna do, a middle-aged man in a worn blue vest said to a friend the other day at Bradford Junction, a diner in central New Hampshire. I just hope he doesnt take it out on New Hampshire, the other man replied. Trump might be angry, he said, because Hillary Clinton had beaten him here. But no, they decided, he wouldnt carry a grudge.

He shouldnt, anyway. Trumps 20-point victory in the nations first primary here in February was one of the first signs that his candidacy was no short-lived stunt. New Hampshire, I want to thank you, Trump told the enraptured audience in his victory speech. You started it. Remember, you started it. He lost to Ted Cruz in Iowa the week before, and New Hampshires cozy Republican establishment had shunned him. But voters here saw something special in Trump.

In places like blue-collar Bradford (pop. 1,650), they still do. Trump frenzy gripped this part of New Hampshire for more than a year. Every day I drove past banners stretched between porch pillars, flags hung on swinging front gates, huge posters stuck in lawns and propped against trees and embellished with American flags. Out on Route 103, someone hand-painted a stylish glossy TRUMP on plywood months ago, surrounded by a dozen smaller standard-issue yard signs from the campaign. Clinton may have scraped together the most votes statewide, but the sustained enthusiasm and creativity of Trumps fans here should have been a sign of things to come.

At Bradford Junction, Mike Hurley took a seat at the bar. Hurley is 67, and he works just down the road at the Lumber Barn. America needs to change, he said. Thats why he voted for Trump, in both the primary and the general election. Kyla Hamel, a waitress, heard us talking and came over to show me a photo of her young son beaming in a Trump T-shirt and a Make America Great Again hat. He can make a change, she said. Whats the harm in trying?

A better question is what, exactly, needs to change here. When I pressed the Trump supporters at Bradford Junction if they, personally, had felt pressures from immigration or a decline in manufacturing or anything else, they said no, not exactly. Hamel works full time, and her boyfriend (who voted for Obama, but for Trump this year) is a truck driver who considers himself financially secure. The man in the blue vest, who refused to tell me his name, is comfortably retired from his job as a design engineer. The unemployment rate in New Hampshire is 3 percent, and the college education rate is high.
Feature

Ohio was once the home of the Old Guard, Main Street, county Chamber of Commerce Republican Party: stolid, sober, civil, fiscally conservative, socially enlightened. Dead serious in all matters. But 2016 was the year when people who were not used to being taken seriously had to be taken very seriously indeed, even in Ohio. This was true of Donald Trump, of course, but it was also true of the people who had fueled his campaign. There was Don Phillips, an elderly catering-hall owner that I met in the Dayton suburbs, a fixture of the local G.O.P., who fired off an angry letter to John A. Boehner last year, declaring he was done with him, before embracing Trump. Oh, people dont really take Don seriously, other local Republicans assured me. And there was the Butler County sheriff, Rick Jones.

Jones has long been something of a caricature. A tall, hulking man with a walrus mustache, Jones cultivates the image of a Wild West-style lawman, even if his territory between Cincinnati and Dayton is distinctly lacking in tumbleweed: 469 square miles of exurbs, farmland and frayed manufacturing towns (including Middletown, the setting of J.D. Vances best-selling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy). He has managed to conjure a border-country aura by casting himself as a crusader against undocumented immigrants, even if they are relatively scarce in Butler County, posting an Illegal Aliens Here sign outside the county jail, sending the Mexican government a $900,000 bill for the undocumented Mexicans he was holding there.

Early this year, in January, I went to meet Jones at his office adjacent to the jail, a large room with a large desk and all manner of certificates and news clippings attesting to Joness accomplishments covering the walls. Right away, it was clear that something had changed for him. In local Republican circles, he had always been something of a fringe figure. He had threatened a primary challenge of John Boehner, who represented Butler County, but never followed through on it. And, unlike most elected Republicans in the state, he was backing Trump, not the states governor, John Kasich. Yet now, as I entered the office, I saw that Jones had another visitor: the campaign manager for Bill Beagle, a state senator who was running in the Republican primary to replace Boehner. Beagle was a mild-mannered, business-minded conservative, very much in the Boehner mold, and yet here his emissary was, seeking the endorsement of Jones.

We opened with small talk about Baltimore, where I live, which prompted Jones to lay into the citys chief prosecutor, Marilyn Mosby, who had charged six police officers in Freddie Grays death, and whom Jones confused with the citys mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, also a black woman. I believe she speak with forked tongue, he said.
Feature

Palma Frable has two daughters, and she raised them to be independent, to think for themselves. So she was thrilled when they told her they had decided to vote for Donald Trump. Abigail is 18, and she went with her older sister, Lauren, 22, to register to vote.



On Election Day, Lauren changed her profile picture on Facebook to a shot of her in the campaigns trademark Make America Great Again hat, squinting through the sights of a rifle at a paper target. It was pinned to a tree on the far side of the familys emerald green lawn in Moscow, a small borough in Lackawanna County, Pa. The town of 2,000, which is almost entirely white, is the starting point for a picturesque train ride into the Pocono Mountains. It has five churches and a median household income of about $77,000.

Hillary Clintons father grew up about a dozen miles from here, in the county seat of Scranton. As she mentioned many times on the campaign trail, he owned a drape store. Frables father was a butcher in a grocery opened by her grandfather, an immigrant from Italy. Her father served as a medic in World War II, and then worked for the Amalgamated Meat Cutters union. He and Frables mother, a registered nurse, voted for Democrats for president, until they supported Ronald Reagan in 1980 and never looked back.

If Frables parents were lost to Hillary Clintons party decades ago, she and her daughters represent a different kind of Hillary heartbreak. Frable has voted for several Democratic candidates for governor and other offices over the years, and this is the eastern edge of a region, stretching to Wisconsin, that seemed like fertile Clinton territory. She actually beat Trump in Lackawanna County but just barely, with under 50 percent of the vote, compared with Barack Obamas 63 percent. Clinton also lost white women by three crucial points in Pennsylvania. The Frables help explain why. The three women are college-educated or college-bound, and they voted for Trump not because they feel left behind but to improve economic opportunity, as they see it.

For this cohort, the concern isnt necessarily their own finances. My life wouldnt change either way, Frable said about the material difference between a Clinton and Trump presidency. I dont think my taxes will be better or worse with one or the other. But she felt confident that her children will find better jobs after college with Trump in office, and she talked with longing about his promise to restore jobs, like one she remembers a friend of her fathers had, working in an auto factory in Detroit. If we could have export agreements with, say, France or Germany, or lets face it, Russia, they would take our quality goods and we could be great again, Frable said.
Feature

Early in the morning on Election Day, my parents woke up, got dressed and drove around the Capital Beltway from Maryland into Virginia, where my father dropped my mother off at a Hillary Clinton field office in Alexandria. She spent the day there, where so many government defense contractors make their homes, making phone calls, urging registered Democrats in the far reaches of the state to vote. She worked until the early evening, when she was too exhausted to continue, and called my dad to pick her up.

My mother is beautiful. The woman I lay my eyes on now still feels like the same one who, 20 years ago, would pick me up and waltz around our family room as if we were at our own exclusive ball. I laugh at the life crackling in her voice every time she answers the phone with an overloud, singsong Hey, Greg! But shes older now. She doesnt dance as much and a long scar runs down her spine from surgery last year. I was surprised when I heard about her day in Virginia: Shes politically active and like 94 percent of black women this year, she voted for Clinton. But she has never before volunteered for a campaign. Daylong activities often leave her paying a price the following morning. When I asked her why she chose to volunteer in another state, her answer came easy and struck a familiar, maternal tone: Thats where I felt I was needed.

My mom is retired now, but when I was growing up, she made her career in finance. She woke up early and dressed: high heels, sheer stockings, dark lipstick, sometimes pants, sometimes skirts, always blazers. I remember thinking she looked almost too perfect, like the TV version of a tough black businesswoman. Then she got me and my brother ready, and we would go off to school, and she would weave through rush-hour traffic to Washington. For a while, she caught the Amtrak from Maryland to New York City and back again, every day.

She was brilliant, but that was never enough on its own. She drank coffee like water. She tried to hide it from us, but the stress of her career always threatened to bow her shoulders and often brought sudden tears to her eyes. She often worked deep into the night, her desk disappearing beneath thousands of pages of documents, her face shining blue in the glow of her computer screen. After decades in heels, her ankles began to give out. Eventually, her back did, too. Bolts of pain ran down her legs, leaving her immobile and in agony for days. She was a fighter, her co-workers and my dad always said, in awe. But she was a black woman in finance and had to fight for every dollar and promotion, often against so many skeptical and perverse white men. There was a bodily toll, a price many around her didnt have to pay. A few years ago, she switched to flats and took a less stressful, lower-paying job at a black nonprofit group. But her career had already claimed its pound of flesh, and soon, she couldnt even do that.

There is a real, physical tax just for being a woman or person of color in this world. My mother volunteered because she has paid this tax, in the stress of having her value constantly questioned, the physical demands of not being taken seriously as an intellectual and a leader. My mother voted for Clinton on Oct. 27, the very first day she could, and two days after that, she spent her Saturday at home, calling registered Democrats in Nevada to make sure they did the same. There was an urgency to her political activity that Id never seen. She liked Clinton and wanted to see a woman as president. But above all, she came of age during the civil rights era and was watching as the alt-right, the Klan and white masses mobilized around a candidate. She recognized danger. Shed already lived through the America to which Trump promised to return.
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IRVINE  The Irvine Unified School District board on Tuesday approved a collective bargaining agreement that will give teachers a 3.7 percent raise this academic year.

Teachers will also get a one-time 1.2 percent payment as long as they are employed by the district on Feb. 1, 2017, according to the agreement the district reached with the Irvine Teachers Association after a nine-month negotiation. These and other changes will cost the district $8 million, or 2.4 percent of the $328 million general fund revenues.

The salary increase compensates for a lack of raises during the Great Recession and is necessary to attract and retain good teachers, Irvine Teachers Association president Therese Sorey said.

We want the best and the brightest to come here and not turn us down for money somewhere else, she said.

Irvine Unified teachers also received a 4 percent raise in 2015-2016.

While we dont always agree on specifics, the district and the teachers union share the same goals, board member Ira Glasky said Tuesday. The board voted 4-0 in favor of the raise, with one absence.

The board also approved a 3.7 percent raise and a 1.2 percent payment for administrative assistants to the principals and Irvine Supervisory Association members. All other staff have also received the same pay increases, district spokeswoman Annie Brown said.

Thanks to its top-rated public schools, Irvine has become a magnet for young families from around the world and one of the states fastest growing suburbs.

However, the district receives less funding per student than the state or county average, mainly because it doesnt have as many English-language learners, low-income students and foster youth as other districts do. Also, ongoing housing developments are driving up the enrollment and crowding schools.

The district hired 190 teachers and opened Portola High School and K-8 Beacon Park School in August to accommodate students from the developing Great Park Neighborhoods and other parts of north Irvine.

Voters in June passed a $319 million bond measure that would raise money to improve Irvine Unifieds aging school facilities.

The district is expected to end 2016-17 with a $28 million operating deficit and $37 million in reserves, officials said.

Irvine Unified has planned for the deficit, which will be paid for by the saving of one-time funds from the state over the past three years, said John Fogarty, assistant superintendent of business.

Sorey pointed out the district had furloughs and pay freezes from 2009 to 2012.

So we were way behind where we should have been, she said. And our class sizes during the recession went up so teachers took a lot of hits. They were paying for supplies out of their own pockets.

Sorey said fewer than 20 percent of the teachers live in Irvine partly because of the high cost of living.

Contact the writer: tshimura@scng.com
He died doing what he loved.

Dana Brown  recognizable by his long, wispy white beard that stretched down to his belly, had traveled from Coco Beach, Fla., to soak in the Southern California sun and surf, living out of his van, preaching the gospel and making friends along the way.

Brown died Nov. 10 at age 60, four days after paddling out in big surf near the Huntington Beach Pier where, witnesses told lifeguards, he was struck by large waves near pilings.

He was slammed into one of the pillars, going underwater for minutes before surfers saw him and swam him and towed him to shore, reads a Gofundme account set up to help with funeral costs.

The fundraising effort by Browns family also gives a glimpse into who the mystery surfer was.

Browns father, George Brown, died in March, a heartbreaking loss for Dana Brown who spent many days riding waves in Coco Beach with his dad. The duo were locals at a spot known as 16 Streets, and were dubbed the ZZ-Top Guys because of their long beards.

Dana Brown served in the Army and was stationed in Hawaii. He was married for a short time, but after his divorce, he joined his father living a nomadic lifestyle for about 35 years. Together, they preached to others in beach-side parking lots.

He hadnt cut his hair since 1980 because the Old Testament called it a sin to trim, according to a write-up by the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame.

If there was a way to go out, hed be proud to do it doing something he loved, the GoFundMe page reads. Hes happy to be with his father again and we all are going to miss him.

Brown had an impact on the Orange County surf community as well, with fellow surfers saddened by his death.

Gary Sahagen, a Huntington Beach local, went to social media to spread word of the fund-raising effort, the goal of which is to raise $5,000 for burial and funeral expenses.

A video from Nov. 6 shows Brown floating in the water on the south side of the pier, with people above shouting out to surfers to rescue him. A group tried to bring his body to shore as big waves pounded them, before a lifeguard arrived and administered CPR.

Local surfers scrambled to learn who the wave rider was. Sahagen, who is well aware of the dangers of the area, had never met Brown, but the tragedy of a fellow surfer losing his life hit home.

Every day is special and reminds you that you have to be safe, Sahagen said.

Contact the writer: lconnelly@scng.com
This year will be very likely the hottest on record, with global temperatures breaking the previous record, set in 2015, scientists with the World Meteorological Organization announced on Monday.

The announcement is no surprise to climate scientists  experts at NASA had already projected that 2016 would be a third year of record heat  and the record will not be definitive until early next year.

But the latest estimate of record-shattering heat comes as world leaders gather in Marrakesh, Morocco, for the annual United Nations talks on limiting the impact of climate change.

The meeting is taking place in an atmosphere of alarm. President-elect Donald Trump has called human-caused climate change a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese; has vowed to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency in almost every form; and has named Myron Ebell of the business-backed Competitive Enterprise Institute, who has deep oil industry ties, to head his EPA transition team.

Preliminary data show that 2016s global temperatures are approximately 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.16 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. The landmark climate deal reached by 195 nations near Paris last December commits them to holding the increase in temperature to 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the point at which the world would be locked into irreversible and potentially devastating environmental changes.

Trump has vowed to withdraw from the Paris climate deal. It has entered into legal force  meaning that countries like the United States cannot legally withdraw for four years  but there are many actions the Trump administration could take to limit the execution of the agreement. That prospect has already stirred alarm among the worlds largest countries, and even a warning from China.

The meteorological organization found that global temperatures from January to September were about 0.88 degrees Celsius (1.58 degrees Fahrenheit) above the average for the years from 1961 to 1990, a period the organization uses as a baseline. Temperatures spiked early this year because of the weather phenomenon known as El Nino, which exacerbated coral reef bleaching, which is caused by water that is too warm, and a rise in sea levels.

Preliminary data for October indicate that they are at a sufficiently high level for 2016 to remain on track for the title of hottest year on record, the organization said. That would mean that 16 of the 17 hottest years on record have been in the 21st century. The other one was 1998.

The organization also found that concentrations of major greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continue to increase to record levels; that Arctic sea ice remained at very low levels; and that there was significant, earlier-than-usual melting of the Greenland ice sheet.

Petteri Taalas, the secretary-general of the organization, noted temperatures above the long-term average of 6 to 7 degrees Celsius (10.8 to 12.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and at least 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) above the long-term average in many parts of Russia, Alaska and northwest Canada.

We are used to measuring temperature records in fractions of a degree, and so this is different, he said. Because of climate change, the occurrence and impact of extreme events has risen. Once in a generation heat waves and flooding are becoming more regular. Sea level rise has increased exposure to storm surges associated with tropical cyclones.

The organizations statement did not mention Trump or the United States  except to note that Hurricane Matthew, in October, was the deadliest weather event this year, claiming at least 546 lives and injuring 438 people, mostly in the Caribbean.
WASHINGTON  The Democrats stunning defeat in the presidential race and continued struggles in lower-level contests have jolted party leaders into concluding that their emphasis on cultural issues has all but crippled them by diverting voters attention from the core Democratic message of economic fairness.

But even as Democrats agree about the need to promote their agenda more aggressively for the middle class and voters of modest means, especially in parts of the country where the party has suffered grievous losses, they are divided over how aggressively to position themselves on the economic left, with battle lines already forming over the lightning-rod issue of foreign trade.

While the country has moved steadily to the left on such social issues as same-sex marriage and gender equity, it is increasingly apparent that Democrats cannot win in much of the country without a more coherent and overriding economic message.

The debate over what that message should be comes not only against the backdrop of Hillary Clintons astonishing loss to Donald Trump  a race decided by a handful of Rust Belt states that for decades had favored Democratic nominees  but also after the third campaign in the past four election cycles in which the party was routed across vast sections of the nation, leaving Democrats out of power in both chambers of Congress and in most governors mansions.

The direction the party chooses now could have ramifications for years to come: In 2018, Democrats face Senate races in 10 states that favored Trump. And there will be 38 elections for governor in the next two years that could decide whether Democrats are able to play a role in drawing more favorable congressional maps after the 2020 census.

If we dont have Democratic governors there to veto these maps after the 2020 redistricting, the next 10 years for us in Congress and state legislatures are going to be brutal, said Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia, the only Southern state that Clinton carried last week.

Over President Barack Obamas two terms, Democrats have embraced a down-the-line cultural liberalism that energized his coalition of millennials, minorities and college-educated whites. But the growing nationalization of politics and the Democrats drift to the left doomed a number of candidates running in more conservative states during the 2014 midterm elections, when turnout fell.

Yet despite Democrats near-extinction in much of the South and in parts of the Great Plains  two regions that had for decades elected Democrats to statewide office  the party had little in the way of a debate about Obamas approach.

Now, without rebuking the still-popular president directly, many Democrats share a growing recognition that Obamas way may not be the best course in a country where many voters have experienced little income growth and where high-paying jobs can be scarce.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said the growing importance of social issues in the national debate and Democrats reliance on wealthy donors on the two coasts who are more focused on cultural liberalism than on economic solidarity had, together, left the party somewhat disconnected from the working class.

Social issues now have become central, rather than class issues, said Weingarten, who recommended what she called a both/and approach.

Such talk bears a striking resemblance to the fierce debates Democrats engaged in 30 years ago when they suffered repeated White House losses and many party moderates concluded that they were too captive to interest-group politics. Except now, it is not centrists calling for a greater focus on economic issues, but a broader constellation of Democrats.

The Democratic Party can no longer be led by the liberal elite, said Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, calling for a party prepared to stand up to Wall Street and the greed of corporate America.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who may run in 2020, sounded a similar message in a speech last week to the AFL-CIO, ignoring Clinton entirely, praising Sanders and calling on her party to address the economic grievances that she conceded President-elect Trump spoke to in the campaign.

The Democratic shift toward a more unapologetic brand of populist economics gained steam when Sanders electrified many on the left, and even some more moderate party activists across the Midwest, in his primary race against Clinton.

Yet while Sanders brand of confrontational populism  characterized by his fierce attacks on international trade and Wall Street  may be favored by many liberal activists, it does not sit well with party leaders who fear that his call for an economic revolution may turn off moderate voters.

Americans want to hear a stronger economic message from the party, said Gov. Dannel P. Malloy of Connecticut, but this shouldnt be about a revolution, but about fairness.

Other Democrats are more explicit about their concerns with Sanders broadsides, especially on trade, which Sanders and Trump used to great effect in the campaign. It is an issue that highlights regional differences among Democrats from states that have been hit hard by manufacturing plants being shut down and replaced overseas, and those from states that depend on a robust export market.

I dont think you can be anti-trade, said Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, who is mentioned as a possible 2020 presidential candidate. In the modern world, we need consumers overseas for our products as well.

More worrisome to a range of Democrats is that they are struggling in states with significant rural populations, where some of the most competitive Senate races in two years will take place: North Dakota, Missouri, Montana and West Virginia.

We have to be bigger than a coastal party, said Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana, who eked out re-election last week and went deer hunting with his son over the weekend.

The good news for Democratic officeholders and candidates  and something many of them gingerly brought up  is that they may fare better the next two years thanks to Trump than they would have if Clinton had been elected. The party of the sitting president often loses seats in the first midterm election, and many Democrats expect a backlash to Trump if he is unable to fulfill his campaign promises.

Sometimes its easier, certainly, to be able to run against the White House and have that contrast, Bullock said.
Republican control of the White House and Congress erodes the possibility of federal action to control the price of prescription drugs, health policy experts say.

Instead, policymaking to address the spiraling drug costs likely will be done on the state level. Yet the Election Day defeat of a California ballot measure to rein in drug prices may make local lawmakers less inclined to pursue that model of tamping drug prices too.

The prospect for a broad measure at the federal level for doing something about pricing is probably zero, said Dr. Walid Gellad, associate professor of medicine and director of the Center for Pharmaceutical Policy and Prescribing at the University of Pittsburgh.

Although Trump has indicated support for giving Medicare the ability to negotiate drug prices, what everyone thought was going to happen related to prescription drugs is just a lot less likely, said Gellad.

Gellad says states may continue their push for more transparency in how drugmakers price their medications, especially when it comes to price increases.

About 16 states considered some sort of proposal during the last legislative session to require manufacturers to disclose how they price their products or how much they spend on research and development, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Vermonts proposal was signed by the governor in June.

California state Assembly member David Chiu, D-San Francisco, who supported Proposition 61 and wrote one of two failed bills to require more drug price transparency, said hes considering whether to introduce new drug price legislation next year.

The issue will not go away until Californians and our country have some relief from skyrocketing drug prices, said Chiu.

He said various groups have been approaching him since before the election to talk about what next years drug price policy proposal could look like.

Everything is on the table, he said.

Prop. 61s defeat wasnt huge, but it was enough, said Ken Miller, associate director of the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College.

The complex approach taken to drug price controls  linking them to VA prices  may have been a factor in its demise. And voters may have been won over by the organized and well-financed campaign to defeat it, Miller said.

Prop. 61 was facing an enormous amount of negative attack ads on television, said Miller. The history is, if there is a huge amount of no money, then typically the ballot measure fails.

For 27-year-old Emily Taggart, who voted early against the measure, Prop. 61 was just not the right time or policy to address prescription drug costs.

It sound(ed) like it would be awesome if it worked, but  there were a lot of variables that werent addressed, said Taggart, a supermarket clerk in the Sacramento area. She said the measure didnt seem to address the problem of pharmaceutical companies being able to jack up prices.

A measure almost identical to the now-defeated Californias Drug Price Relief Act is on Ohios 2017 ballot. Local health care advocates in Ohio say they havent heard a lot about their states measure, which was sponsored by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation based in Los Angeles.

Im still uncertain whether the policy is good from the standpoint of whether it can be implemented, said Steve Wagner, executive director of the Universal Health Care Action Network of Ohio, a consumer advocacy group.

Wagner says most of what he has heard about the measure has been from opponents.
ANAHEIM  A 15-year-old girl who disappeared last week from the Grand Californian Hotel & Spa in Anaheim has been found, police said Monday night.

We are happy to report that missing person Donni Byrd has been located safely, Anaheim police reported via Twitter.

Information was not immediately released how Byrd was found or where she had been since her disappearance.

At about 8 p.m. Nov. 8, Byrd told her mother that she was going for a walk in the lobby area of the hotel and would return an hour later, Anaheim police said.

Byrds mother received a text from her daughter an hour and 15 minutes later, saying she was returning to the room, but never did.

Staff Writer Scott Schwebke contributed to this report.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7865 or afausto@scng.com
COMMERCE CITY, Colo.  Littleton police and other law enforcement officers are searching a landfill for evidence in the disappearance of a 36-year-old San Clemente woman who was reported missing in July.

The family of Charlene Roxanne Voight, 36, reported her missing July 8 after they hadnt heard from her for several days, an unusual length of time for the woman to be out of touch.

Members of the Littleton Police Department  assisted by the Colorado National Guard, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and other law enforcement agencies  began searching the Tower Landfill in Commerce City on Monday.

We are digging through an isolated area here, looking for items, evidence, related to the case, said Cmdr. Trent Cooper of Littleton police.

Cooper did not go into details as to why investigators are searching the landfill, other than to say the investigation has led them here.

Investigators are looking in a specific area of the landfill. The search includes the use of a backhoe and bucket, pulling out one scoop at a time. The refuse in the bucket is dumped and spread; investigators then sort through the material with rakes and by hand.

Its painstaking and daunting, Cooper said. Evidence searched for could possibly includes her remains.

The search will continue for an undetermined length of time, police said, depending on results.

Voight is from San Clemente and moved to Colorado in the summer of 2015. She went back to California in September of that year to complete a degree in landscape architecture at California State Polytechnic University. She moved back to Littleton in June and was finishing a portfolio and starting to look for jobs in her field.

Littleton began a criminal investigation after she was reported missing and found her vehicle at 5099 S. Rio Grande St., property owned by her ex-boyfriend, Jeffrey Scott Beier, who has a business providing trash bins.

Littleton police arrested Beier on July 12, saying he was suspected of sexual assault in another case. He has never been named as a suspect in Voights disappearance, and prosecutors later dropped the sexual assault charges.

In e-mails to Voight, Beier painted himself as her victim and called her evil and manipulative.

Voight lived with Beier in San Clemente and moved out of his home in February 2012. Days before Voight moved, Beier grabbed, slapped, choked and dragged her around the house for 20 minutes, she said in a request for a restraining order.

I thought I was going to die. Luckily he finally stopped and went to bed. Jeff begged me to not call the cops on him since he knew that this would put him in jail for a long time due to his past history of physical assaulting other women, Voight said.

In a collection of e-mails she included with the request for the restraining order, Beier insulted Voight, confessed to blackout drinking and pleaded with her not to abandon him.

Voight is described as 5 feet tall and 105 pounds with blond hair and brown eyes.
County officials are scrutinizing the operation of a new online charter school that has drawn sharp criticism from Anaheim educators who want to see the program shut down.

Among the allegations lodged against Epic Charter School are that it was improperly allowed to begin teaching elementary through high school students, that it used predatory marketing practices  including financial incentives to families that signed up  and that an affiliated school in Oklahoma is under investigation.

Some parents and students praise the schools program. And Epic officials deny the allegations, saying theyre a rehash of issues already addressed by the Orange County Department of Education when Epics taxpayer-funded operation was approved in the spring.

Its a distraction and something that seems unnecessary for us to go through, said Paul MacGregor, Epics executive director in California.

In September, after Anaheim school officials publicly warned that students attending the charter were ill-served, the county education agency requested Epics records on contracts, invoices, staff credentials and canceled checks, among other documents.

County Superintendent Al Mijares said his department has an obligation to investigate complaints, and MacGregor said Epic has responded to all the records requests.

The criticism swirling around Epic also reflects increasing scrutiny of online charter schooling, at a time when virtual education is growing rapidly across Southern California and nationwide.

Meanwhile, a broader debate continues to rage over the growth of charter schools in general  public schools funded by taxpayer dollars but run independently from home school districts.

EPIC vs. ANAHEIM DISTRICTS

Since late June, when it opened locally, Epic Charter has enrolled 85 students from Southern California. The school hopes to have 300 students in its first year and 850 students by 2021.

Epic officials say they offer a personalized education plan via the internet, and that their programs are overseen by state-certified teachers who meet with students via Skype or in person, as needed, wherever its convenient for students and their families. An administrative office in Anaheim also is available for testing and meetups, and homework help is available online, in most grades, 24 hours a day.

Epic  an acronym for excellence, performance, innovation and citizenship  was denied last year when it sought to open a charter within the Anaheim Elementary School District. Trustees in the district said at the time that the school presented an unsound educational program that wasnt likely to succeed.

Epic appealed that ruling to the Orange County Board of Education. In March, in a departure from its staff recommendation, the board approved the schools operation in a 4-1 vote. Soon after, the online school opened its administrative offices, near Anaheim City Hall.

The Anaheim Elementary School District, which originally rejected the petition, and the Anaheim Union High School District, where the areas students traditionally attend high school, were concerned that Epic was drawing their students.

In September, Anaheim district officials returned to the county school board and asked members to reconsider their approval of Epic.

The districts lawyer, Irvine attorney Daniel Shinoff, suggested in a letter that the county board abused its discretion, when it decided to, in direct contradiction with their own staffs recommendations, to approve a charter school petition with fatal  deficiencies.

At a meeting in September, Anaheim Union Superintendent Mike Matsuda warned: By even the lowest standard, no one could suggest Epic is providing an education that leads to successful college and careers.

If Epic is allowed to grow without any transparency, accountability and oversight, the futures of students, families and the greater community are at stake.

District officials said they are not opposed to charters in general, but believe the Epic online school wont adequately serve students needs.

Ken Williams, a charter school advocate and one of the county trustees who voted to approve Epic, sees the campaign by Anaheim educators as a blatantly anti-charter move.

This is pure politics, Williams said. Theyre trying to destroy a good charter. This is a witch hunt.

MacGregor, Epics executive director, was more measured in his assessment.

Traditional district-based schools historically take notice of charter schools because its different than the norm  and the whole argument of school choice comes up.

COMPLAINTS AGAINST EPIC

Epic officials say their schools programs are academically sound and capable of educating all students.

Here a look at some of the key complaints raised by Anaheim school officials:

 An affiliate of the new Orange County online school, Epic Charter in Oklahoma, which serves more than 9,000 students, has been under investigation for three years. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation declined to elaborate on the investigation. Ben Harris, the schools co-founder, said in an email that the allegations are false and were made by former employees who later started a competitive charter school, now closed.

 The Oklahoma online school received letter grades of C, D and F on state report cards. Harris noted that Oklahomas top educator has called the system flawed, and a task force of the states education leaders and others is looking to overhaul the Oklahoma rating system, according to published reports.

 Critics have questioned whether taxpayer funds from California have gone to the Oklahoma charter company. Epic officials said the California school hasnt sent money to Oklahoma but eventually will, as the schools share administrative overhead costs to operate more efficiently. That dollar amount will be a small percentage of what Epic receives from California, MacGregor said.

Another controversy revolves around what Epic calls a learning fund.

The school, which as a public entity doesnt charge tuition, offers students $1,500 worth of curriculum, supplies and extracurricular activities  in addition to a computer and internet access, which was a condition of approval from the county. Though money doesnt wind up in the hands of parents or students, the learning fund can, for example, pay for horseback riding, music or dance lessons.

Matsuda, the Anaheim Union superintendent, called the offers predatory marketing and a gift of public funds, among other things.

At least two other charters that serve the area offer something similar, according to their websites. Inspire Charter Schools, which has an office in Buena Park, offers students $2,600 to $2,800 as an instructional allowance. And iLEAD Exploration charter schools  which states on its website that it serves students in Orange County, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Ventura and Kern counties  gives students $2,000 for K-8 and $2,600 for high school students.

ATTRACTED BY FLEXIBILITY

Epic is the first online charter school to fall under the supervisory umbrella of the county Department of Education. Several others were approved and are monitored by their community school districts. Online schools can enroll students from contiguous counties, and about 60 percent of Epics students are from Orange County.

Amber Pittman, of Chino, enrolled her two young boys in Epic because she wanted a home-school experience for them.

I dont have any issues with public schools. But I want more for my kids, she said.

Pittman said she likes the flexibility Epic has provided her boys, a kindergartner and a first-grader. They work partly online and partly with workbooks, and she supplements by encouraging their own interests. A teacher has visited her children at home three times since school started in September.

And I can text her any time or email her and shes very quick to respond.

Pittman wasnt aware of Anaheim officials complaints about Epic. She said the program works well for her children. It makes them more independent. They get excited about learning.

Anika Ortiz, an eighth-grader from Orange who has staged a pop-up boutique to support domestic-abuse programs  and was was named one of the countys 100 most influential people last year by the Register  describes Epics online program as a perfect fit. She said she communicates with her teacher every day online and otherwise gets the support she needs.

I love it. All the programs are great. I love the videos  and that theyre online, says the 13-year-old, who works as a public speaker against bullying and as an organizer of events geared to empower girls.

Even my reading books are online. I can do everything on my laptop.

ONLINE SCHOOLS NATIONALLY

Across 23 states and the District of Columbia, more than 180,000 students attend virtual charter schools. Ohio, Pennsylvania and California are home to more than half of the full-time online charter students nationwide, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

The alliance, a leading national nonprofit working to advance the public charter school movement, issued a report in June concluding online charters serve a role for certain students and families, but too many are underperforming.

Our problem is that the education theyre providing to students is not up to par, said Todd Ziebarth, the groups senior vice president.

The report found online students have fewer days of learning and have much weaker academic growth, compared with traditional public school students.

Disturbingly low performance by too many full-time virtual charter public schools should serve as a call to action for state leaders and authorizers, Ziebarth said.

What, if anything, will come of the countys review of Epic charter remains to be seen. MacGregor predicts theyll be given good marks.

County school board member David Boyd, who said he is pro-charter but voted against approving Epic, said revoking an operating charters approval is rare. It almost takes an act of God.

Contact the writer: rkopetman@scng.com Twitter: @RoxanaKopetman
The big losers in this presidential election were the leftist mainstream media  in short, the media. They were willfully disconnected from reality and dry humped the Clinton campaign to the end.

They were so confident of their win, always asking Donald Trump how and if he would concede and what he would do about the inevitable riots in the streets by his supporters. Oddly, and tellingly, they never asked Hillary the same question.

Now the media continue to blame Trump. From Oregon to New York, their side riots, loots, destroys others property and disrupts life. The media blame it all on Trump, even though Project Veritas and WikiLeaks showed us that the DNC and other liberal operatives hire demonstrators and orchestrate such violence.

TV news tells anecdotal stories about racial harassment by supposed Trump supporters. Yet they never show the awful video of a white Trump supporter beaten up and robbed (Reginald Denny style) in the street by Chicago thugs yelling, Trump voter. If their fires of hatred are stoked, it is by the Left, not Trump folks.

The Left has one argument in their arsenal on which they have cried wolf for years: If anyone disagrees with them or Obama on policy and the direction of this country, that person is a racist. One cannot sort laundry without being called racist by the Left. They look for it in everything.

They are race-baiting, one-trick ponies, which keeps them from having to discuss the real issue: Their policies demonstrably do not work. They shut down debate by hurling insults and labels at people with a genuine difference of opinion. America tired of it.

After a bitter campaign, the president met with Trump at the White House in an anticipated but awkward first-ever visit. It was just the two of them and their food tasters. Yet the meeting seemed to go well given Obamas relentless ridiculing of Trump on the campaign trail and the fact that Trump had never been to a black familys house before.

Later in the day, Michelle Obama met with Melania Trump in a gracious, time-honored ritual involving the peaceful transition of pastry chefs.

Trump and his family have been class acts through it all. Even Trumps 10-year-old son, Barron, showed maturity as he stood patiently next to his mother, Melania, on Election Night. He was much more mature than I was at that age; if I were he, Id still be breast feeding.

Media polls had Hillary up by 5 to 7 points (or, as the New York Times thought, 57 percent). One has to wonder: If the leftist pollsters and intelligentsia missed the election results this badly, just how accurate and honest are their projected numbers on global warming?

The hubris of the Left, with their demeaning comments like deplorables and irredeemables, caused the backlash in this election. We get tired of always being presumed racist. Trumps win would have been even bigger had so many bigoted white Midwesterners from Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin not died in the Civil War to free slaves. What racists!

The arrogant disdain that northeastern and left coast liberals have for the rest of the country reached record levels. With no basis in fact, they presume untrue things about us by creating false narratives. Late night comics, TV commentators, celebs, etc. advance these falsehoods of the white hood-wearing hayseed, to make them feel better about their own shallow lives.

Vapid celebs said they would move to Canada, New Zealand or Australia if Trump won. So they are fleeing our racism to almost all white countries? Weird.

Behind gated communities and offices with security guards, elitists sniff at our desire to own a gun for our own protection. Hampering cops by calling them racist has increased crime in such areas. Although a Democrat-run gun free zone, Chicago was safer when Al Capone ran the city.

While spending their time dividing Americans into their various classes of victims who support them, and presuming they had blacks and Latinos in their back pockets, liberals were shocked to find that they had misread the anger of the electorate.

Obama once disingenuously said, There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America  theres the United States of America. Well, we showed him.

The red map of the vast land Trump won versus the small areas Hillary won looks like a Verizon cell coverage map. Hey Washington, can you hear us now?

Ron Hart is a libertarian oped humorist and awardwinning author, Ron is a frequent guest on CNN. He can be contacted at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.
During a 2013 debt-crisis when Washington risked running out of money to pay its bills, some online media outlets warned the U.S. dollar could collapse and urged investors to buy gold and silver to hedge against losses.

Donald Trueblood, of Orange, heeded those warnings.

Using retirement funds, he purchased coins sight unseen from the website of Tulving Company, a longtime Costa Mesa-based coin dealer. Two silver-coin orders arrived quickly but a $26,000 shipment of gold coins lagged, said Trueblood, a 67-year-old retired information technology manager. The company, which operated out of an office in an industrial park, soon stopped answering its phones and later filed for bankruptcy.

Still out the $26,000, Trueblood is among the relatively lucky Tulving victims, who federal prosecutors say total nearly 400 nationwide and were scammed out of close to $18 million, according to the most recent government estimate.

Early in 2016, the companys owner, Hannes Tulving, Jr., 61, was sentenced to 30 months in a low-security federal prison in North Carolina after pleading guilty to one felony count of wire fraud in connection with the scheme. He was also ordered to pay a $10.8 million fine and repay his victims, who included many retirees, elderly and military veterans.

Many say they have little hope of seeing their money again. Some lost their life savings. One is a retired NYPD cop who was a 9/11 responder. Another told authorities he lost his three childrens college funds.

Years after the losses, an Orange County-based bankruptcy trustee continues to sort through Tulvings assets trying to determine how much, if any, of the proceeds should be directed to hundreds of creditors.

If I receive 5 percent (of my losses), Id be surprised, said Trueblood.

The gold bubble of many years ago has receded. Gold is now priced at $1,200 an ounce, down 35 percent from a record of $1,920 an ounce in August 2011. But financial experts and federal law officials say the enduring harm of the Tulving fraud and other such cases serves as a warning to investors.

HOW IT STARTED

The Register first reported on the Tulving Company in early 2014, when customers who had wired Tulving payments deluged the Better Business Bureau and online forums with complaints about delayed or unfulfilled orders. The Secret Service  which probes financial crimes  and Californias business oversight agency began scrutinizing the precious-metals dealer.

Coin retailers are not required to be licensed in California. However, dealers may run afoul of state law if they fail to deliver coins within 28 calendar days of receiving full payment.

Starting in August 2013, federal authorities say Tulving began accepting payments for orders he knew he could not fulfill.

Its essentially a Ponzi, short-term but a Ponzi scheme, Kevin Zolot, an assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted Tulving, argued in court. He knew he didnt have the money and hes making all these promises to these people.

SENTENCED TO JAIL

Tulving could not be reached for comment. But during his sentencing hearing, he accepted responsibility for the scam.

From the beginning of this case and currently, I am committed to helping to return as much money as possible to the victims and will continue to do so, Tulving told U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr.

In court, James Wyatt, Tulvings attorney, portrayed his client as a remorseful, medically fragile man involved in simply a straight misrepresentation case and had no prior criminal record in his 40-year career in coin dealing.

Wyatt said Tulving experienced a cash shortage due to a confluence of events that included a downturn in the coin business and macroeconomic reasons.

The guideline sentence in the case was 78 to 90 months. But Tulving received 30 months because of his cooperation with government officials and the bankruptcy trustee, as well as his health problems, Wyatt said. Its likely he will only serve 18 months of his sentence, Wyatt added.

Hes doing everything in his power to help the bankruptcy trustee maximize recovery, Wyatt said.

DONE THIS BEFORE?

A federal prosecutor described Tulving as a privileged, stand-out college athlete from a good family who had victimized investors before.

In 1992, the Federal Trade Commission accused Tulving of defrauding clients out of more than $40 million, according to records obtained by the Register. Those allegations involved overpricing rare coins and going back on return guarantees through another company, Hannes Tulving Rare Coin Investments, based in Newport Beach.

Tulving agreed to pay a $1.3 million fine, although Wyatt told the court there was no admission of liability in the FTC case.

In the more recent case, Zolot recounted the statement of one victim, a retired NYPD police captain and 9/11 responder who said he lost his retirement savings, fell into a depression and began abusing prescription drugs.

I think there are a lot of older people among the victims, Zolot told the judge at Tulvings sentencing hearing.

RECOVERING MONEY, COINS

Many are losing hope about recovering their losses.

Thousands of coins seized from Tulving were originally valued at $7.3 million. But they may actually be worth less than 10 percent of that amount, according to a recent update from Weneta Kosmala, the bankruptcy trustee.

To avoid the added cost of re-appraising the coins, the bankruptcy trustee has agreed to give them directly to the victims, Zolot told the court.

So far, the sale of other seized coins has generated about $385,000, records show. But no payments have yet been made to creditors or victims.

Jordan Neace, another Tulving customer, worries that any value recovered will be eaten up by attorneys.

The retired Air Force veteran from Lawrenceburg, Ind., said he never received his $23,000 order of American Eagle silver coins.

He was inspired to invest in precious metals after hearing alternative online media sources tout them in the event of a world financial collapse, he said. I look at it (coins) as insurance.

Warren Buffett and many other investment experts have generally advised against investing in precious metals and suggest other investments such as precious-metal funds traded on major exchanges, which are considered safer. But rare-coin enthusiasts say theyd rather own the actual goods, not paper, as they call it.

After hearing what motivated clients to invest with Tulving, Judge Cogburn offered a suggestion to victims: No-fee market index funds

Zolot, the federal prosecutor, replied: If they get their money back, Your Honor, Ill advise them.

Contact the writer: lleung@scng.com
As dozens of veterans and families sat and listened, Vietnam War veteran John Stryker Meyer recounted what it was like to fight overseas and participate in conflicts that he had to keep secret for decades.

Meyer, who was on active duty from December 1966 to April 1970, was one of two guest speakers at Laguna Niguels Veterans Day celebration at Sea Country Senior and Community Center.

A writer, Meyer authored Across the Fence: The Secret War in Vietnam, which detailed his life as a Green Beret and the Secret War with American troops conducting missions in the neighboring countries of Cambodia and Laos.

Im alive today thanks to the courage of the South Vietnamese on my team as well as the South Vietnamese aviators, he said.

Before leaving, Meyer shared that he was leaving to attend the funeral services for Staff Sgt. Jimmy Moriarty, an American soldier who died in Jordan earlier this month.

Sidney Yahn, an Air Force veteran and fighter pilot, spoke after Meyer. He talked for nearly 30 minutes about joining the armed forces and serving as a pilot in cold winters during the Korean War.

All five city council members came to the ceremony, and Councilwoman Elaine Gennawey recited the names of all veterans in attendance. Local Girl Scouts presented each veteran with a hand-written thank-you card as the veterans were acknowledged.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7844 or snewell@scng.com
Chinese companies have been known to subject their employees to some of the most unusual and degrading punishments imaginable, but this latest one takes the cake. According to recent new reports, a company Hanzhong, Shaanxi province, decided to punish who failed to meet their sales targets by feeding them a disgusting cocktail of baijou liquor and live mealworms.

The degrading punishment was reportedly carried out in in a plaza in downtown Hanzhong, where 60 company employees were summoned for an outdoor meeting. Witnesses took to the internet to report that the group of young workers was approached by a a man carrying bags of live mealworms, who proceeded to pick various numbers of them with chopsticks and drop them in plastic cups full of baijou. Employees who had failed to reach their sales quota were asked to step forward and drink the gag-inducing cocktail.

Five or six poor-performing employees were reportedly asked to drink the worm-infested baijou in front of their colleagues. One of the employees, who chose to remain anonymous, later told the Huashang Daily newspaper that each of the offending workers had to swallow four worms for every client they lost.

One of the recipients of the brutal punishment was a pregnant woman, who refused to drink the cocktail for fear of losing the pregnancy. I cant eat worms now, I cant drink either, unless I dont want my baby, she reportedly told the sales manager. Eventually, a male colleague received the cruel punishment on her behalf.

Photos of the bizarre event taken by passers-by quickly went viral on the Chinese social media, and sparked the anger of millions of users. The company that staged the punishment was soon identified as Ai Jia, a sales group formed by 10 construction companies. A man surnamed Cao, the owner of a bathroom equipment company part of Ai Jia group acknowledged the punishment, but added that the employees were willing to receive it.

Emboldened by the media coverage and the outrage of the general public, another employee of Ai Jia came forward and reported that Every morning, employees of the group set a business target for the day, and if they fail to hit it, they receive various punishments the following day. Other than worms, we have also eaten live squid and ants before, he said.

Despite the huge backlash, another Ai Jia company owner maintained that the punishment was actually just a special form of encouragement.

According to the article 88 of Chinas employment contract law, employers are not allowed to humiliate or physically harm their workers, and the labor inspection bureau of Hanzhong city told the Huashang Daily that forcing people to eat live worms definitely counts as a violation of the law. They also urged employees subjected to the cruel punishment to report the incident to the local labor department.

Im thinking that the offending company doesnt risk more than a small fin, if that, because this is the latest in a long series of disturbing Chinese employee punishments by their employers, and things dont appear to be changing for the better.

Photos: Weibo

via Peoples Daily
Joe Honick

In the days immediately following the election, the national media devoted huge segments of their news, editorial and guest columns to analyze seemingly everything but the, frankly, brilliant Trump team strategy that won him the White House. I raised this idea to one of political coverages best in the business, and he sounded surprised when I pointed out how his newspaper and just about all of its competitors had been so well played. Another top news staffer was angry I even suggested the idea.

What was this secret that was so openly put to work by the Trumpkins?

From the outset of the nomination announcement, Donald Trumps team had their man attacking anyone and everyone as well as making the wildest declarations regarding some of the most sensitive areas of race and ethnicity. The wilder and more controversial Trumps declarations were, the more effective the coverage, getting virtually non-stop editorial pages and headlines in the process.

It was a brilliant and dangerous strategy: brilliant because it worked, dangerous because it repeated a similar process effectively employed when another candidate pleaded with his country in 1933 to give him four years to make his nation great again. The key formula then as well was to repeat the big lie until it became truth, with slogans repeated everywhere, phrases that sounded a lot like cleaning swamps and ridding America of elites.

Then came reality, when our President-Elect chatted with the actual President in the White House. While holding high-level discussions with the person he declared to be the worst President in history, its doubtful he once said something like, Barack, let bygones be bygones; it was just politics, and I might even try to save some of your healthcare stuff. Weve since learned that his team of media manipulators threatened those who deserted their party candidate with what were termed hellish responses. Its even been reported without much challenge that Trump's group has warned President Obama not to do anything really presidential as his term concludes.

Powerful publications like Time, The Economist and the Financial Times suggested a new era has arrived, something that was much more mildly declared with the ascendancy of Bill Clinton or the Bushes, or even the more popular and generally respected Ronald Reagan. The tenor is one of either fear or wonder rather than acclaim.

Comes now the vague PR announcement that the new President might only be a dollar-a-year man saving the nation some dough. That must not happen and for several powerful reasons:



It suggests he will continue to get his daily or monthly millions that roll in from his 500 or so companies and foreign partners which has yet to name and the captive media have done little to demand. In short, he either has a full time paid job working for the United States, or his new job is just one more of what he has been doing all along.

He is now an employee  not the owner of his new corporation  and he must respond to the details of his inaugural oath the same way he demanded his recent election opponent to do so. As an employee, he must separate himself completely from all his businesses and swear to do the same with respect to any decisions affecting his companies.

He must take up residence in the White House as a sitting President in order to preserve the dignity of the office and make it clear that he respects the office. The manipulated media should reclaim their responsibility not merely to print what comes out of the Trump propaganda operation but to demand clarification of this constant flow.



Its difficult to recall another time when a political machine has so captured and seemingly controlled what the people will know about actions that not only will impact their daily lives and futures but how their nation will now be seen throughout the world. Without question, that political machine may now well threaten the free right to question the very powers who operate it.



***



Joseph J. Honick is president of GMA International in Bainbridge Island, Wash.
McDonalds Restaurants of Ireland today officially launched two exciting new customer developments  the introduction of Table Service and the Signature Collection of premium beef burgers.

Table Service is an alternative way for customers to place their food order at McDonalds. Instead of approaching the counter, customers can now opt to use a self-service kiosk to make their selection, pay by card and then take a seat and relax while their food is cooked to order and delivered to their table by a McDonalds crew member. Table Service takes the hassle out of ordering for both busy parents who are juggling kids and shopping bags, and groups of friends who just cant wait to catch up on each others news.

All of McDonalds burgers are made with 100% Irish beef and new to the menu this month is the premium range Signature Collection by McDonalds. A thicker cut burger, served in a delicious brioche bun, its available in three tempting flavours - Classic, Spicy or BBQ. The Classic is topped with Beechwood smoked bacon, cheddar cheese, red onion, crisp lettuce, wholegrain mustard mayo and ketchup, while the BBQ boasts Beechwood smoked bacon, cheddar cheese, red onion, crisp lettuce, coleslaw and smoky BBQ sauce. For those who like a little heat, the Spicy has pepper jack cheese, crisp lettuce, cool mayo, jalapeno slicesand spicy relish.

McDonalds uses whole cuts of 100% Irish beef, sourced through the Dawn Meats network of accredited farms across Ireland which guarantees a closed loop supply of quality assured beef. McDonalds is the single largest purchaser of Irish beef by volume, purchasing approximately 40,000 tonnes of Quality Assured Irish beef annually.

Like the hugely popular McMor burger, which appeared for a limited time only in 2015 and 2016, The Signature Collection by McDonalds was created by the companys team of food specialists and its prestigious Chefs Council, harnessing a wide range of experience from Michelin-starred restaurants to the companys own supplier network. The Signature Collection by McDonalds is a permanent addition to the menu and will initially be available at the 12 restaurants at which customers can also enjoy Table Service before these developments are rolled-out through the entire network of 90 McDonalds restaurants around Ireland in the next 12-18 months.

Commenting on the announcement, McDonalds Director of Operations, Jimmy Edwards, said: We have invested heavily in recent years to give our customers a great experience in terms of both delicious food and a relaxed atmosphere. The introduction of both Table Service and The Signature Collection is a very exciting development and we are very much looking forward to extending these innovations across our network of 90 restaurants around Ireland in the coming years.

Table Service and The Signature Collection by McDonalds are now available in the following 12 restaurants:

Dublin: The Square, Belgard Road, Dublin Airport T1, Donaghmede, Carrickmines, and Lucan Drive-Thru.

Kilkenny: Kilkenny Drive-Thru.

Kildare: Naas Drive-Thru.

Louth: Dundalk.

Cork: Douglas, Ballincollig and Musgrave Park.

The Signature Collection by McDonalds is also available in OConnell Street, Dublin, East Wall Road and Dublin Airport Drive-Thru.

McDonalds now employs over 5,000 people across 90 restaurants in Ireland. Both Table Service and The Signature Collection will be rolled-out across the network of restaurants over the next 12-18 months.
Did you know- Irishman, Joseph Spud Murphy, the man behind Tayto, came up with the modern day flavourings on crisps?

It all began with cheese & onion, barbeque and salt & vinegar! Or that Hans Sloane, born in County Down, brought milk chocolate to the UK after discovering on a trip to Jamaica that mixing chocolate with milk made the bitter cocoa more palatable.

Discover the role that the Irish have had in the development of food as well as the truth behind what foods are good for you and what are simply old wives tales this Science Week by attending events that are celebrating Irish science. With events taking place nationwide between November 13-20, go to www.scienceweek.ie to find events near you.

Discussing the importance of Irish health and food research, Director of Strategy and Communications for Science Foundation Ireland, Dr Ruth Freeman said, Events across Ireland are exploring the relationship between food and our health, discovering the real effects of what we eat on our bodies and society as a whole.

From proteins which can be used as new drugs to discovering if theres any truth in the old wives tales, the Irish research community are inviting you this week to join them in their journey to revolutionise medicine and healthcare.

Some interesting health and food facts include:

 The average life expectancy in Ireland for men is 79 and 83 for women.

 The same chemicals that give cherries their colour may relieve pain better than aspirin and ibuprofen in humans.

 Heart valves from pigs are used to replace damaged or diseased human heart valves

 Microorganisms make up 1-3% of the human body's mass. This means for an adult that weighs 90kg they will have 0.9-2.7kg of bacteria

 It takes the body around 12 hours to completely digest eaten food.

 Researchers at the APC Microbiome Institute studied the gut profile of 30 of the Irish rugby team and revealed the connection between exercise and protein consumption to the diversity of microbial colonies in their guts, an important revelation as gut diversity is known to be associated with superior health and reduction in several diseases including obesity.

Science Week aims to highlight the wide range of research that is happening in Ireland. Science Foundation Ireland invites you to explore the ways Irish Science and Engineering is effecting your life through talks and events in Cavan & Monaghan, Kerry, Dublin Galway, Sligo, Mayo, Waterford, Cork, Limerick, the Midlands and other locations nationwide.

For more information on the science of Irish food and health click here.

A full list of the activities and events happening across Ireland for Science Week 2016 is available here. Follow Science Week on Social media, including Twitter and Facebook for updates and images from the events.

If you cannot make it to any of the events this year, why not get involved at home and try one of the experiments on www.science.ie. Tune in to RTE for a diverse range of science-themed programming across television, radio, online and mobile as part of Science Week on RTE in association with Science Foundation Ireland.
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True Memoirs of an International Assassin (Netflix): Kevin Can Wait star Kevin James stars in a new Kevin James movie about a mild-mannered author (Kevin James), whose spy novel is mistaken for a memoir, thrusting Kevin James into the world of his fictional character. Starring Kevin James.

Green Room (Amazon Prime): One of the best thrillers of 2016 is about a group of punk-rockers (including the late Anton Yelchin) and a resourceful young woman (Imogen Poots) who are terrorized by a crew of white supremacists at a roadhouse in the Oregon woods. The skinheads are led by none other than Sir Patrick Stewart.

Under the Sun (Netflix): This 2015 documentary about a country under authoritarian rule follows a family over the course of one year in Pyongyang, North Korea. The film opens with the words The script of this film was assigned to us by the North Korean side. They also kindly provided us with an around-the-clock escort service, chose our filming locations and looked over all the footage we shot to make sure we did not make any mistakes in showing the life of a perfectly ordinary family in the best country in the world.

Take Me to the River (Netflix): A Nebraska-set film from a Nebraska filmmaker (Matt Sobel) about a teen whose plan to come out at a family reunion is sidetracked after he is accused of something terrible.

The Color of Money (HBO Now, HBO Go): Paul Newman finally won his Oscar by reprising his role as Fast Eddie Felson in Martin Scorseses sequel to The Hustler.

Alfie (Netflix): The classy and underappreciated 2004 remake of the Michael Caine comedy, with Jude Law as a rakish charmer who realizes the error of his wily ways.

From Russia With Love (Amazon Prime, Hulu): Which is the best Connery Bond movie.

On Her Majestys Secret Service (Amazon Prime, Hulu): Which is the best Lazenby Bond movie.

For Your Eyes Only (Amazon Prime, Hulu): Which is the best Moore Bond movie.

License to Kill (Amazon Prime, Hulu): Which is the best Dalton Bond movie.

Casino Royale (Showtime): Which is the best Craig Bond movie and really just the best Bond movie altogether.

AVPR: Aliens vs. Predator Requiem (HBO Now, HBO Go): Few movies are worse than this.

The Divergent Series: Allegiant (HBO Now, HBO Go): A franchise ends not with a bang but with a TV movie.

Minority Report (HBO Now, HBO Go): In which Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg have the ability to see into the future and stop bad things from happening. If only ...
Millions of Americans will gather around their dining room tables to celebrate Thanksgiving next week.

One in six people, or 48 million, will get sick from a foodborne illness this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Nebraska Poison Control Center says keeping these tips in mind can help prevent food poisoning this holiday season.

Dos

 Wash hands with warm water and soap for 20 seconds before and after handling food.

 Keep turkey refrigerated and in its original wrapping until ready to cook.

 Defrost a frozen turkey by refrigeration or cold running water.

 To defrost in refrigerator, allow one day for every 4 to 5 pounds. In a cold water bath, change water every 30 minutes. Make sure water is not able to leak through the wrapping. Cook turkey immediately after thawing.

 Use a meat thermometer to check if turkey is done. The turkey should cook until internal temperature reaches a minimum of 165 degrees.

 Remove stuffing immediately after the turkey is cooked.

 Store the turkey and stuffing separately.

 Store leftover turkey in the refrigerator and use within three to four days.

 Store leftover stuffing and gravy in the refrigerator and use within one to two days.

Donts

 Dont defrost a turkey at room temperature. Bacteria can multiply to unsafe numbers on outer layers before inner layers have defrosted.

 Dont leave an uncooked, thawed turkey out of the refrigerator for longer than two hours.

 Dont partially cook the turkey one day and continue roasting the next day.

 Dont rinse your turkey before cooking. Let the cooking process take care of the bacteria and avoid the risk of cross contamination.

 Dont set your oven lower than 325 degrees.

 Dont prepare food if you are sick or have a nose or eye infection.

 Dont leave leftovers out on the counter longer than two hours.

 Dont store leftover stuffing in the turkey.

 Dont re-freeze a completely thawed, uncooked turkey.

 Dont stuff turkeys  it makes it difficult for the internal temperature to reach 165 degrees. If you must stuff your turkey, stuff it lightly before cooking and leave room for the oven to cook the interior of the turkey and stuffing.
Javon Murry legally bought 10 pistols in a year and a half from La Vista and Fremont gun shops. He then gave the firearms to his friends who couldnt pass a background check  40th Avenue and 44th Avenue Crips gang members.

Evidence from those firearms  shell casings, gun cases or the gun itself  were found at shooting scenes, in a traffic stop, after a foot chase and at a drug house.

One of the guns was found by Omaha police officers near the spot where Burke High junior Johntavious Swift was shot to death in September 2014.

Authorities said Swift, 16, and Murry were gang associates.

Just 88 days had passed between the gun purchase and the homicide.

Murry, 24, pleaded guilty last year in federal court to two counts of knowingly making a false statement on a gun purchase and has been sentenced to two 30-month terms that will run concurrently.

In addition to Murry, three others associated with gangs have been charged in connection with buying firearms for prohibited people.

The practice, known as straw purchases, is a popular way for dangerous criminals to get their hands on guns, police say.

The arrests were conducted by an ongoing joint task force of Omaha police officers and Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents. Officials released details on the task force arrests Tuesday.

We want to send a strong message to those who are helping facilitate those who do violent crime, Omaha Police Lt. Ken Kanger said.

Richard Burton, 24, and Diamond Anderson, 23, have been indicted in federal court on three counts each of knowingly making a false statement to a federal firearms licensee and intending to deceive a licensee. Anderson purchased a 9 mm pistol and a .40 caliber pistol from Cabelas in La Vista in February, according to court documents. Burton bought three .40 caliber pistols from Cabelas between November 2014 and June 2015, according to court documents.

Brian Littlejohn, 22, has been found guilty in Sarpy County on one count of making a false statement when he purchased a handgun at Cabelas in La Vista on May 25. He faces up to two years in prison; his sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 19.

Murry had initially been indicted by a grand jury on 16 charges. Murry purchased 10 pistols from January 2014 to March 2015, an ATF officer said. All but three were purchased at the La Vista Cabelas.

Representatives of Cabelas could not be reached.

One of the guns Murry had purchased was recovered at the scene of the Swift homicide on Sept. 24, 2014, near 36th Street and Forest Lawn Avenue, court documents say. The Hi-Point 9 mm pistol was found 43 feet from Swifts body. Analysis showed that the weapon had been fired but was not the one that had killed Swift. Swift was a known associate of the same gangs as Murry, officials said.

Police hope the public will call Crimestoppers with tips about straw purchasers. Tipsters can receive a $1,000 reward for tips that lead to an arrest. Call anonymously at 402-444-STOP.

By catching straw purchasers, officers hope to prevent violence before it occurs.

That information will help us get in front of the investigations before we look at the shell casings and the shootings and all that stuff after it, Kanger said. Before those guns fall into the wrong hands.
Ronnie Green, chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, asked this week that his students and employees stay civil after the election of Donald Trump as president.

Green said through a campus memo that he has been told some people felt unsafe or intimidated as a result of words and actions from others.

Diverse viewpoints are encouraged in the UNL community, he said, but they should not escalate to harassment.

This moment appeals to the highest need for dignity, respect and civil discourse for all, he wrote.

Every student, faculty and staff member has a responsibility to help maintain a safe and respectful university community for all, he said.

Regardless of who a person voted for, we are all extremely fortunate to be part of the University of Nebraska community.

He referred to the UNL theme song when he said he wanted to thank the community for sticking together through all kinds of weather. You know how the rest goes.
AMES, Iowa (AP)  Iowa State University President Steven Leath damaged a private plane in a hard landing in 2014, 11 months before he banged up a university aircraft in remarkably similar fashion, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press.

Leath was flying in gusty conditions on Aug. 11, 2014, and landed hard in a crosswind, causing propeller damage that he discovered the next day, according to university documents released under the open records law.

The documents show that the university didnt fully disclose information about either incident in its application for aviation insurance this year. Its not clear whether this might affect the policy, which covers millions of dollars in liability and damage for both university planes. The policy, which cost $51,000 in premiums, contains a warning that it will be voided if you have concealed or misrepresented any material fact.

Despite the 2014 incident, Leath was cleared to fly solo in the universitys newly purchased Cirrus SR22 single-engine plane two months later, records show. Leath damaged that $498,000 plane in a hard landing in July 2015 in Bloomington, Illinois, while he and his wife were flying home from a North Carolina vacation. He also blamed that incident on windy conditions.

The revelation of that accident and other questionable trips by Leath, a private pilot, has prompted the Iowa Board of Regents to conduct an audit of university flights. Authorities are awaiting the audits conclusions before determining whether to open a criminal investigation of Leath, who paid back $17,500 for accident costs and vowed to stop flying himself. Leath has expressed regret but denied violating policies or a law barring the use of state assets for private gain.

Leaths spokeswoman, Megan Landolt, declined to identify the plane Leath was flying during the August 2014 landing and where it happened. She said no school resources were involved in the incident, which came to light six months later when he listed a hard landing on his pilot history in the universitys 2015 insurance application.

Learning about the 2014 incident surprised us, as it was not reported to our office at the time it occurred, Deb Cramer, an insurance coordinator at the universitys risk management office, wrote in a February 2015 email obtained by the AP. She asked the universitys insurance agent whether the incident had to be disclosed on the application as an aviation loss.

A representative for the insurer told Cramer that the incident was considered a loss and that divulging it wasnt expected to have a negative impact on the renewal of the universitys policy with State National Insurance. When Leath got into the 2015 accident, the school didnt file an insurance claim. ISU instead paid the $14,000 bill to repair the planes wings.

After that policy expired in February, the university switched its carrier to Catlin Insurance.

The pilot history form signed by Leath asked him to disclose details of all prior accidents and incidents as a pilot, including dates, and warned that concealing material information was a fraudulent insurance act subject to criminal and civil penalties.

He listed the 2015 landing in Illinois, noting that it triggered a Federal Aviation Administration test ride that he passed. But he left off the 2014 incident.

The university also attested in the application that it had no aviation losses during the previous three years, even though the 2015 accident would have qualified and ISU had divulged the 2014 landing as a loss the previous year.
The pleasant fall weather will continue for the next couple of days in the Omaha area, with high temperatures in the 60s and 70s.

Temperature records could be broken in the Omaha area today, Wednesday and possibly Thursday.

Ryan McPike, a KMTV meteorologist, said the next few days are more of the same, or unseasonally warm weather that weve become accustomed to thanks to high pressure over the central United States.

A cold front, however, will begin moving into the area late Thursday, bringing sharply colder conditions by the end of the work week.

Showers and thunderstorms will be possible Thursday night in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa, the National Weather Service office in Valley said. A rain-snow mix is also possible in northeast Nebraska on Friday.

The record high for today in the Omaha area is 75 degrees set in 2001, 73 on Wednesday established in 2001 and 73 on Thursday set in 1953.

Normal high temperatures for mid-November are the lower 50s to around 50.

Today should be sunny with a high in the upper 60s to lower 70s, Wednesday will also be sunny with a high in the lower 70s and south-southeast winds gusting as high as 25 mph, and Thursday is forecast to be mostly sunny with a high in the lower 70s.

Friday in the Omaha area looks to be breezy with a slight chance of rain after noon and a high in the mid-40s, Saturdays high is just the lower 40s and Sundays high will climb a bit to the mid-40s.

Overnight lows Friday through Sunday will be in the upper 20s, the weather service said.

A drop in temperatures by late in the work week will come with windy conditions, McPike said.

Its going to be a wind machine, he said about Friday.

McPike called for a 30 percent chance of precipitation Friday. He said any snow should probably stay north of the Omaha area.

Weekend temperatures in the Omaha area will be normal for mid-November, he said.

The Omaha area is likely to warm up a bit early next week, McPike said, with another storm system possibly taking aim at the region by late next week.
The national election season might have just ended, but Omaha has another one right around the corner.

Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert officially kicked off her re-election campaign Monday night with a message that shell provide experienced leadership and that Omaha is on the right track.

I love this city and I love my job, she told supporters at Scott Conference Center on the University of Nebraska at Omaha campus. Please join me to make the case that Omaha is on the right track, and that experienced leadership makes a positive difference.

Stothert, a Republican, is being challenged by State Sen. Heath Mello, a Democrat, in the officially nonpartisan race.

The city primary election will be held April 4, and the general election is May 9.

Stothert, 62, and her campaign pushed a message of bipartisanship and inclusivity.

I want people to be for us and not just against someone else, Stothert said.

The mayor said her priorities for a second four-year term would be enhancing public safety, improving transportation and managing the citys finances well.

In the long-term, she said, she wants her term as mayor to leave the City of Omaha with more neighborhood support, economic development and job growth and a changed riverfront and downtown area.

Among her accomplishments, she listed decreasing the citys property tax rate, beefing up the full sworn strength of the Police Department and expanding the city through annexation.

Mello, 37, in an interview with The World-Herald in August, said he will focus on Omahas crumbling streets and infrastructure, community policing, adopting new technology in city services and creating and supporting 21st century jobs.

In a press release, Mellos campaign said Stotherts first term has been uninspired.

Mello is term-limited and leaving the Legislature after serving two terms.

UNO political science professor Randall Adkins said the race wont start heating up for months.

But, he said, basic city services are likely to be on voters minds.

For mayors, the things that are really important for voters are, did you get the trash picked up? Did you get the snow cleaned off the streets? And how did you do fighting crime? he said.

At Stotherts re-election event, former Gov. Dave Heineman criticized Mello for his time as chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

Mayor Stothert inherited a budget deficit and turned it into a surplus, while her opponent is leaving Nebraska with a billion-dollar deficit, Heineman said.

As chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Mello helps write the state budget. The Legislature and the governor must approve the budget.

Earlier this month, the Nebraska Economic Forecasting Advisory Board projected that state tax revenues will fall $910 million below estimated expenses from now through June 30, 2019.

Board members reduced the previous revenue estimates based on the states struggling agricultural economy and on lower-than-expected tax receipts this year.

Mello said he saw Heinemans statement as criticism of Gov. Pete Ricketts, a Republican, and the Republican-led Legislature.

He noted that the Legislature bases its budget on the forecasting boards projections.

When we passed the budget, it was a balanced budget for the remainder of the biennium, he said.

Stotherts specific proposals include:

 A new division in the Planning Department that focuses on neighborhoods

 More officers in the Police Department, as well as the implementation of a long-discussed fifth police precinct

 New large-scale projects on the riverfront and in the downtown area

 On the restaurant tax, Stothert said: I think it is something we absolutely could look at inching down in the next four years.

Several city department heads and Mayors Office staffers attended the campaign kickoff.

Police Chief Todd Schmaderer spoke in support of the mayor, as did Councilwoman Aimee Melton, OPPD board member and Democrat Ann McGuire, Pastor James Walker of north Omahas Mount Calvary Community Church and Madeline Moyer of the South Omaha Business Association.
A haunted house actor accused of assaulting a customer in October entered not guilty pleas Monday.

Brenton Donaldson, 27, is charged with two misdemeanors: assault and battery and disorderly conduct.

Nicole Mickelson alleged that a clown character, Donaldson, grabbed her hair and slammed her head into a table as she and her friends walked through Mystery Manor haunted house at 716 N. 18th St. on Oct. 5.

She was not injured but has said the incident was traumatizing.

Mickelson said the clown followed her and her friends through the house. He ran his fingers through her hair and pushed her against a wall, then slammed her head into a table.

The clown wouldnt let up until Mickelson threatened to take his picture with her phone.

A trial is scheduled for Dec. 19.
Prosecutors called six experts to the stand Monday in the first-degree murder trial of a 19-year-old Omahan charged in a fatal shooting at Miller Park.

Jamar Milton was 17 in late June 2015 when Jamymell Ray, 31, was killed and Charles Fisher, then 30, was wounded in a shooting at the north Omaha park.

Prosecutor Tressa Alioth said last week when the trial began that Milton, who also faces three other charges in connection with the case, fired a weapon, striking the pair of childhood friends who were inside a car at the park.

Miltons defense attorney, Stephanie Shearer, also said last week that there was no evidence that Milton pulled the trigger and killed Ray.

Two other boys involved in the case have been convicted. Miltons brother, Jarrell Milton, 12 at the time of the shooting, was convicted in juvenile court and is serving probation at Boys Town. Shuntayvious Primes-Willis, then 15, pleaded guilty in April to second-degree murder and use of a weapon. He is serving a 30- to 50-year sentence, meaning he will spend at least 15 years in prison.

Jamar Milton, dressed in dark slacks, a dress shirt and a long, slate-gray sport coat, was escorted into court Monday just before the trial began. Shearer turned to him, said, Good morning, Jamar, and then put a necktie on him.

Detective Sherry King said she wrote arrest warrants for the boys after interviewing Fisher on July 2. Jamar Milton and Primes-Willis were arrested July 6 in Omaha and Jarrell Milton on July 7 in Minneapolis, she said.

The detective said she turned over 12 items of evidence to the Omaha Police Departments DNA lab, including swabs from three handguns and two marijuana baggies.

Others testifying Monday:

 Mellissa Helligso of the Nebraska Medical Center explained the meticulous process of linking DNA evidence to a suspect. She testified that key evidence in Jamar Miltons case was well-preserved and protected.

 Officer Nick Herfordt of the Police Departments digital forensics unit told the jury how he retrieved cellphone data key to the case. Without a PIN number, he extracted SIM and memory cards from a phone linked to Jamar that was downloaded for prosecutors.

 Officer Thomas Queen said he extracted details from Fishers cellphone, which contained a contact list, text messages, calls and photos pertinent to the case.

 Kelly Walker, a Sprint fraud investigator and subpoena specialist, supplied police with records off Jamars cellphone from between June 22, 2015, and July 6, 2015. He linked Jamars cellphone to Fishers number.

 Daniel Harris, an FBI special agent out of Minneapolis, testified about how cellphone and cell tower analysis led to a map of Jamars phones activity around the time of the shooting.
As Iraqi troops battle Islamic State fighters in the northern city of Mosul, another crucial phase in the bid to neutralize the militant group is shaping up 230 miles to the west. A joint Kurdish-Arab militia has begun encircling Raqqa, the Islamic States de facto capital in Syria.

It wasnt long ago that the Islamic State had all the momentum, seizing swaths of land in Iraq and Syria. Now the group is being squeezed in two strongholds by simultaneous offensives.

The strategy makes sense. As the Islamic State relinquishes its hold on Mosul, its fighters will flee west into Syria. But Raqqa, its home base, will be sealed off by Kurdish and Arab fighters and therefore will be untenable as a safe haven.

No one knows how long it will take to free Raqqa, but once the Islamic State has been routed, the militant group will be without its nerve center.

It all sounds straightforward and easy, but it wont be. Complications abound.

First, the militia moving on Raqqa, the Syrian Democratic Forces, is a tenuous coupling of Syrian Kurd and Syrian Arab fighters. Yes, they have a common enemy in the Islamic State, but historically they are adversaries.

The plan is for the Syrian Democratic Forces Arab contingent to take the lead in the battle for Raqqa once fighting begins inside the city. That would allay fears that Arabs in Raqqa have of a Kurdish takeover.

But will the Kurds acquiesce? They have already established a semi-autonomous region across northern Syria and have visions of a trans-border Kurdish state encompassing the northern sections of Iraq and Syria, bookended by Iran on the east and Turkey on the west.

The Kurds could move into Raqqa, a northern city, and stay there. Thats exactly what they did when they defeated Islamic State fighters in the town of Manbij.

Its not just the Arabs who worry about what the Kurds say versus what they do. In Turkey, where Kurds are the largest minority, Ankara has been clashing with Kurdish separatists for decades. Turkey adamantly opposes the idea of Kurds at the vanguard of a Raqqa offensive. Turkish leaders have gone so far as to tell the U.S. they wanted Syrian Kurds excluded from the Raqqa effort.

But of all the entities battling in Syria, Syrian Kurds have had the most success  so Washington is not about to leave Kurds out of the offensive.

Last week, Turkey suggested it could send its own forces to lead the charge into Raqqa. The U.S. hasnt given Ankara an answer, but that answer should be, Thank you, but weve got it covered.

Turkish forces are already in Syria, and they have clashed with Syrian Democratic Forces fighters. Throwing Turkish troops into the caldron with Kurdish and Arab fighters risks a spasm of infighting that diverts the mission from its ultimate goal  defeating the Islamic State.

Retaking Mosul and Raqqa represent pivotal moments in the fight against the Islamic State. So far, the effort in Mosul is going well. What happens in Raqqa will unfold in coming weeks and months.

It could fall on the desk of President-elect Donald Trump, who will be tasked with stewarding a disparate group of players with competing, even conflicting, interests. It wont be an easy job, ensuring that the unwieldy amalgam defeats the Islamic State  and not itself.
The Trump administration is certain to cut back on government regulation. That has the potential to be a positive development, if its carried out responsibly.

Last year the Obama administration enacted 43 new major rules (those with $100 million or more in economic costs) that fueled more than $22 billion in annual regulatory costs. In all, a Heritage Foundation report found this year, the 229 major regulations imposed during the first seven years of the Obama administration had annual costs of $108 billion a year.

The Mercatus Center, an economic think tank at George Mason University in Virginia, found that federal regulations slow the annual growth in the national economy by about 0.8 percent.

Federal regulation has been around for a very long time, of course. In the modern era, a certain degree of government oversight is proper and needed. Major public needs are involved, including workplace conditions, environmental safeguards and public health.

Its an illusion to imagine that regulation should be pared back to the level of, say, the 1920s. The key consideration in the present era is to how far regulation should go and what form it should take.

Theres also the need for agencies to respect constitutional boundaries. Federal regulators are obligated to operate only within the limits set by Congress, whose elected members write the laws.

Executive branch departments arent a law unto themselves  even though they sometimes act like it. A current, troubling example: The Waters of the United States regulations put forward by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

The regulations, which are on hold because of federal court action, would require costly permitting for many bodies of water not previously subject to federal control when landowners want to dredge or put in drainage ditches or terracing.

Twenty-nine states have filed legal action against the rules, and majorities in both houses of the current Congress have voted in favor of legislation to revamp the regulations.

Last year, 11 Democratic U.S. senators jointly signed a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy voicing concern over aspects of the rules.

This isnt the first time the EPA has been chided for stepping beyond proper boundaries. The U.S. Supreme Court issued rulings in 2001 and 2006, telling the agency in firm language that it had exceeded its authority in two water-regulation cases.

The Trump administration and Congress have major opportunities ahead to adjust the scope of regulation and ensure that federal agencies operate within proper boundaries. A balanced, prudent approach can serve the public interest.
Chambers doesnt understand Nebraska

Ernie Chambers believes that Nebraska voters are hidebound and backward because they did not support his ideas about the death penalty (Nebraskans bring back death penalty, Nov. 9 World-Herald). Well, the people of this great state have spoken, and the death penalty is back.

I respectfully suggest that it is Chambers who has lost sight of the big picture of what is important to the people of this state. If he believes that his ideas are so great, why doesnt he run for governor or Congress? Its time for him put up or shut up once and for all.

Doug Arthur, Omaha

We must move forward together

Where do we go from here? For the fifth time in our nations history, the winner of the popular vote will not become president. Our Constitution created the Electoral College system. So Donald Trump is our legitimate president-elect.

I voted for Hillary Clinton, but I will not spend the next four years asking Trump to provide documents to prove he deserves to be president.

In 26 years as an Air Force officer, I served in an organization that looks like America. I served with Americans of every ethnic background and race. I served with Americans who spoke accented English. I served with women and men. I served with gay and straight Americans. What united us all was the fact that we were Americans.

We are now polarized, but we cannot move forward if we remain so. What unites us is that we are Americans. However difficult it might be, we need to find the things that unite us, not continually point out the things that divide us.

We need to remember that the majority does rule, but minority rights cannot be trampled on. That is the America I served, and the America I will continue to support.

Col. James A. Harrold, retired,

Plattsmouth, Neb.

Helping folks keep a promise

To all the people who said they would leave the country if Donald Trump won the presidency, I will be available to help and do my part by warming up the bus.

Will Maack, Omaha

Exercising a constitutional right

In her Nov. 14 Public Pulse letter, Shirley Morris tells people who are peacefully protesting the election of Donald Trump to deal with it. I would recommend that Morris read the U.S. Constitution  specifically the First Amendment, which provides that Congress shall make no law interfering with the right to peaceably assemble.

People can protest Trump all they want, as long as they do it peaceably.

Rex Moats, Omaha

Bennett provides a learning opportunity

I want to thank Edward Bennett, the principal of Omaha Central High School, for his handling of the student rally Friday (With protest, students have a voice  Nov. 12 World-Herald).

He sets a fine example for how our students (and parents) should behave  that students should have the freedom to voice their opinions in a safe and respectful manner; that we should work together and listen to each other so that we might learn from each other; that we use this opportunity to learn how our government works and how it impacts all of us.

The students at Central had posters celebrating our veterans, showing support for people in many of the repressed groups (black, Mexican, LGBT, refugee, more), and the mood was upbeat and inclusive.

I was very disappointed at the behavior of some of the adults on social media in reaction to the rally. They were disrespectful and hateful. While I understand that everyone is entitled to their opinion, it dramatically demonstrated the difference between them and the mood at the rally.

Im happy that my daughter had the opportunity to participate in the rally and happy for Dr. Bennetts leadership in making it a safe and respectful event.

Charles Harbour, Omaha

Ricketts following NEAs lead

Let me see if I understand this correctly: It is dangerous, devious, even despicable for Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts to provide financial support for the campaigns of Nebraska legislators who will support his programs and policies.

But, at the same time, it is desirable, honorable and laudable for the Nebraska Education Association to provide financial support for the horde of retired teachers and school administrators who support the NEAs programs and policies in the Legislature.

Seems that what is fair for one group should be fair for the other group, without all the finger pointing.

John Woelfl, Omaha

His actions dont match his words

Gov. Pete Ricketts says he is pleased to work with legislators who reflect their districts, yet he spends tens of thousands of dollars on campaigns for his favored candidates in the hope they will reflect his interests (Ricketts influence on new Legislature uncertain, Nov. 13 World-Herald). Go figure.

Ken Keith, Omaha
A former school bus driver was found guilty Tuesday of child neglect for failing to drop off a 5-year-old Field Club Elementary student at the childs home in September.

Claude C. Pope, 61, was fined $250 and charged $123.32 in court costs by Douglas County Judge Susan Bazis. He is no longer employed by the bus company, Eastern Nebraska Community Action Partnership, a spokesman said.

Pope pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charge. He faced up to six months in jail, a $500 fine or both.

The defendant told Bazis that he was sorry.

It was a terrible mistake and I want to apologize to the family, Pope said. He declined to comment further after the hearing.

Samuel Van Tha Biks family became frantic Sept. 7 after the preschooler didnt arrive home from school as usual. School dismisses at 4:05 p.m. and normally the boy gets home around 4:30 or 5 p.m.

When contacted by police, Pope said that he had dropped the student off as scheduled. Police found the boy sitting in a seat inside a locked bus about 8 p.m. outside ENCAPs office at 24th Street and Fowler Avenue.

His mother, Can Hnem, speaking through a translator, told police that she and her husband, who both work at packing plants, started to get nervous as the time passed and Samuel still hadnt been dropped off. Samuel was tired and hungry when he was brought home but was otherwise unharmed, his mother said.

Hnem and her family are Chin refugees who arrived in Omaha in 2013. Chin is an ethnic group from Myanmar, also known as Burma. A family member said Tuesday that Samuel now attends nearby Walnut Hill Elementary with an older brother, just a half mile from the familys apartment near 47th and Nicholas Streets.

ENCAP transports about 25 refugee and homeless students per day on behalf of the Omaha Public Schools, said Monique Farmer, an OPS spokeswoman.

The agency services three contracts for OPS at $5,390.00 per month each, Farmer said. Due to the mobility of homeless students, the ridership and drop-off locations fluctuate daily.

Staff writer Erin Duffy contributed to this report.
Petition seeking to postpone Nov 19 polls in TN dismissed

Tamilnadu

oi-PTI

Chennai, Nov 14: The Madras High court today dismissed a petition, seeking to postpone the November 19 polls in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on the ground that demonetisation would result in black money worth more than Rs 50 crore of the cancelled Rs 500 and 1000 notes being distributed to voters. The court dismissed the miscellaneous petition of Sadik Ali, who sought cancellation of polls to Aravakurichi and Thanjavur Assembly constituencies, saying the same candidates on whom charges of corruption were levelled had been re-nominated by the two major parties in the elections.

Ali submitted there are Supreme Court directions, mandating that Election Commission conduct the polls only after concluding enquiries on disqualifying candidates to the election, if any. He alleged that EC was making contradictory statements on the one hand, saying it does not have powers to disqualify candidates unless the offences are proved, while on the other it has initiated an enquiry into charges of distribution of money and other gifts to electorate.

Countering the submission that the two major parties cannot be allowed to nominate the same candidates, the court said the parties in their wisdom had nominated the same candidates. It concurred with the submissions that the purity of elections must be maintained since it is the fundamental basis of democracy.

The court orally observed that as the EC found that the earlier process was impure, the elections were cancelled to make the present one pure. In the miscellaneous petition, Ali had submitted that both AIADMK and DMK have sound source of money and there are lot of chances for distribution of more than Rs 50 crore cancelled currency in Rs 500 and Rs 1000 to voters, who can easily encash it at the rate of Rs 4000 in a day by the exchange process introduced by the Union government.

By doing so, black money can easily be exchanged and the present elections will pave the way as a platform for converting cancelled currency into valuable currency, he said. As the Union government has granted time up to December 31 for exchange of old currency, there are lot of chances for floating of unaccounted black money in these constituencies. Hence the petitioner prayed for an interim direction to ECI to postpone the elections, which the court dismissed.

PTI
What are Kosher funds and how it can help terrorism during demonetisation

Currency demonetisation timeline: How a secret unfolds

Feature

oi-Pallavi Sengupta

PM Narendra Modi's sudden announcement of currency demonetisation came as a shock in many quarters, save some, who knew about the move and were part of the planning and execution.

There weren't many, though, who could take pride in being a part of it since the PM ensured that there was no scope of leakages. Call it his foresightedness, but the strategy worked.

Here's a timeline of how the story unfolded:

Nov 7: The heads of currency management sections in all banks received a confidential communication from the Reserve Bank of India, ordering them to be present at the headquarters.

Nov 8 (morning): They were handed over a double-decked currency chest the next morning, which contained the new currency denominations of Rs 2,000. The process was done in secrecy and it was ensured that those involved did not speak to anyone. They were further instructed to open the chest only after they received a nod from the RBI.

Nov 8 (evening): Bank officials received the green signal after the government went public with its idea to demonetize the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes to curb the black money issue. To the surprise of the officials, there were new denominations of Rs 500 too, apart from the Rs 2,000 notes.

[Read: Demonetisation: PM Modi's mother exchanges currency for Rs 4,500 ]

The managing director of a state-owned bank, under conditions of anonimity said, "We were called for a 7PM meeting (with RBI). For an hour, we chatted about this and that including S4A (Scheme for Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets), till at 8pm they switched on the TV and told us to listen to the PM's speech."

The official further added, "The news about the printing of Rs 2,000 currency notes leaked from the printing press in Hyderabad sometime back. But still no one was able to make the connection that India is going to go ahead with demonetisation."

While there are reports of the secret process going on for 6 months, officials in the financial sector are now connecting the dots. The hints that the RBI threw every now and then and the turn of events, all stood in sync with the process and the pre-requisite measures required for its successful execution.

[Read: Who all knew about the currency demonetization in India?]

RBI throws hints

Officials from the finance sector divulge that they could not figure out the reason behind RBI's warning about a sharp drop in the circulation of Rs 100 currency notes and counterfeits.

However, things took a dramatic turn when the agency directed banks to dispense more Rs 100 notes through ATMs within the next fortnight, claiming it was following up on an earlier request in May. That was November 2.

[Read: One decision and terrorists, separatists, naxalites were surgically struck]

Earlier on October 27, the central bank issued a warning about fake currencies on its website. It directed all banks to put core areas under CCTV surveillance and ensure that cash receipts in the denominations of Rs 100 and above are not put into re-circulation without the notes being machine processed for authenticity.

The setbacks

Inside reports suggest that close to 3.5 billion pieces of Rs 2,000 currency notes were ordered for print, which is half of the 6.3 billion pieces of the Rs1,000 denomination that were in circulation three months ago.

[Read: What is Currency Demonetization?]

While that compensated (with certain drawbacks) for the Rs 1,000 denominations being pulled out of the markets, the government hit a setback as far as Rs 500 notes were concerned. Only a few million have been printed as compared to the 15.7 billion notes in circulation earlier.

For a move that is yet to show results when it comes to India's correctional gains, demonetisation is indeed a novel beginning.
IRCTC update: 115 trains cancelled on Nov 01; here is the complete list

IGNOU Admissions 2022: Last date for registration extended again

(In Pics) Israeli President Reuven Rivlin in New Delhi

Feature

oi-Pallavi Sengupta

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin arrived in New Delhi yesterday for a six-day visit to India.

He is the first Israeli head to have visited India in the past 20 years. Indeed, a positive sign when it comes to the partnership between the two nations. The last Israeli president to visit India was Ezer Weizman, in January 1997.

Rivlin is accompanied by a large business delegation and his itinerary includes Agra, Karnal, Chandigarh and Mumbai.

In a joint press meet today, Israel and India reflected upon their growing proximity and decided to further "broad-base" their defence partnership and intensify cooperation in combating radicalisation and extremism, while calling upon global community to act tough against terror networks and States harbouring them.

Here are some pictures:

Kkem Cho! New Delhi: Israel President Reuven Rivlin on his arrival at AFS Palam for a six-day visit to India, in New Delhi on Monday. PTI A warm welcome Israel President Reuven Rivlin being received by Union Minister for Science and Technology, Harsh Vardhan on his arrival at AFS Palam in New Delhi on Monday. Namaste! Israel's bond with India will be sealed by this Presidential visit. A friendly wave Reuven Rivlin is the first Israeli head of state to visit India in the past 20 years. Ties to behold India and Israel today decided to further "broad-base" their already close defence partnership and intensify cooperation in combating radicalisation and extremism.

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Story first published: Tuesday, November 15, 2016, 17:23 [IST]
Allow women to appear for NDA Exam: SC

Left ready to extend \"helping hand\" to JD(U) if it breaks up with BJP

(In Pics) NDA supports Modi over currency demonetisation

Feature

oi-Pallavi Sengupta

Currency demonetisation has proved to be a litmus test for the NDA government. The results may be uncertain, but the PM of India Narendra Modi has nothing to worry.

He has the NDA backing. BJP and its allies on Monday expressed their support for the move at the NDA meeting at the Parliament House in New Delhi. The meeting was held in preparation to take on the opposition in the winter session of the Parliament beginning November 16.

In fact, IB Minister Venkaiah Naidu said after the meeting:

"There was no rethink on rendering the high-value currency notes illegal. The government's crusade against black money and corruption will be carried to its logical conclusion."

A smart move New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah and Union Ministers, M Venkaiah Naidu and Arun Jaitley leave after the NDA meeting at Parliament house in New Delhi on Monday ahead of the Winter Session. PTI Welcoming the new currencies? New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with union ministers Ananth Kumar and Jitendra Singh arrives to attend the NDA meeting at Parliament house in New Delhi on Monday ahead of the Winter Session. PTI A candid moment New Delhi: LJP President Ramvilas Paswan with BJP leaders SS Dhindsa, SS Ahluwalia and SAD's Naresh Gujral after the NDA meeting at Parliament house in New Delhi on Monday ahead of the Winter Session. PTI The victory smile New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley arrives to attend the NDA meeting at Parliament house in New Delhi on Monday ahead of the Winter Session. PTI In discussion New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah and Union Minister Arun Jaitley leave after NDA meeting at Parliament house in New Delhi on Monday. PTI Hansee to Phansee New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi leaves after NDA meeting at Parliament house in New Delhi on Monday. PTI

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Story first published: Tuesday, November 15, 2016, 17:47 [IST]
What are Kosher funds and how it can help terrorism during demonetisation

Who all knew about the currency demonetisation in India?

Feature

oi-Pallavi Sengupta

The currency demonetization has mostly won accolades across India, albeit the criticism by the opposition Congress and certain quarters of the society who believe that the government has completely ignored the woes of the common man who does not have a bank account.

Many call it unplanned and insensitive, but keeping in mind the long-term economic developments and the main agenda behind the move, the entire process was executed in secrecy and a mere few knew about the upcoming changes.

The Three Musketeers

It is believed that the entire idea of demonetisation was being planned for 6 months, which involved just three people- PM Narendra Modi, finance minister Arun Jaitley and RBI Governor.

6 months ahead of the move, there was informaton about new Rs 2,000 prints, but it was assumed that they were just inclusions to the present denominations.

[Read: ATMkaro.in- A novel way to inform people which ATM is functional]

The Second Stage

The second stage of the move involved top level cabinet meet few hours ahead of the announcement, which involved Modi, Arun Jaitley, Ajit Doval and RBI Governor. No one was allowed to carry any electronic devices, even mobile phones.

[Read: What is Currency Demonetization? ]

PM Modi also met the three heads of the armed forces. Incidentally, the media came to know about the meeting, but understood that India was finally planning a war against Pakistan.

While the meeting took place at 6:30 pm on November 8, the announcement was made at 8:00 pm the very same day. Inside sources say that no one had the permission to go out of the cabinet meeting room until the announcement was made.

Why the Armed forces?

The main reason behind the involvement of the armed forces was Modi's observation of the turmoil in Burma when the country demonetized its own currencies.

Many political parties in Burma had ganged up people and misled them into violence saying that the government had ceased people's money. To avoid any such situations, PM Modi held the meeting with the Defence heads and spearheaded the project himself.

[Read: Rs 500, Rs 1,000 notes banned: After Diwali, Modi wants Indians to celebrate Imandari ki Utsav]

The end result of the move is awaited. However, Indians seem to have accepted the decision and are supporting the drive, given the menace Black Money has been spreading in the past decade in the country.

[Read: Demonetisation: PM Modi's mother exchanges currency for Rs 4,500 ]
Truth has come out, says Sasikala in reaction to OPS's remark before panel

Jayalalithaa death probe: TN cabinet to decide on enquiry against Sasikala and others

Many issues in late TN CM Jayalaltihaas death report says Stalin

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Jayalalithaa mourns the death of AIADMK leader Visalatchi Nedunchezhiyan

India

oi-PTI

Chennai, Nov 15: Senior AIADMK leader and party Organising Secretary Visalatchi Nedunchezhiyan passed away on Monday following a brief illness.

92-year old Visalatchi, wife of late AIADMK veteran VR Neduchezhiyan, was ailing for some time and declared dead at a hospital after being rushed there.

AIADMK supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa condoled the death of Visalatchi, who is survived by a son.

In her condolence message, Jayalalithaa expressed grief over the death of Visalatchi and hailed her loyalty to the party and its high command. "

Her demise is a irreplaceable loss to AIADMK," she said in a party statement.

PTI
IRCTC update: 115 trains cancelled on Nov 01; here is the complete list

IGNOU Admissions 2022: Last date for registration extended again

Arvind Kejriwal accuses Narendra Modi of receiving bribe as Gujarat CM

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi, Nov 15 Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of receiving Rs 12 crore as bribe while he was Gujarat Chief Minister.

The accusation came during his speech in the Delhi assembly, called to debate a resolution to urge President Pranab Mukherjee to direct the union government to immediately withdraw the "draconian demonetisation" move.

"On October 15, 2013, the Income Tax department conducted a raid on the premises of Aditya Birla group in New Delhi, in which cash amount of Rs 25 crore was recovered," Kejriwal alleged.

He said officials seized documents, account books, computer records and a laptop belonging to a senior company official that had a message that stated "Gujarat CM-25 Crore (12 done rest?)".

"Hence, it clearly suggested, a payment of Rs 12 crore to the then Gujarat Chief Minister was made," he claimed.

Later, Kejriwal urged the assembly to add the allegations against the Prime Minister to the resolution introduced and ask President Pranab Mukherjee to order a Supreme Court monitored probe into it.

The assembly adopted the resolution by voice vote.

IANS
Video of TN cop delivering Singam-style dialogue during hartal in Kerala hailed as Hero'

MP cop who disappeared 15 years ago found on footpath by former colleagues

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Punjab: Cop dies after shooting self in Hoshiarpur

Cop dies after pistol fires accidentally

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Ludhiana, Nov 15: In a bizzare incident, a cop on duty died in Punjab's Ayali village after his colleague's pistol accidentally went off on Monday, said reports.

The incident took place outside MLA Manpreet Ayali's house in the outskirts of Ludhiana.

The deceased has been identified as head constable Nirdesh Singh, who hailed from Ghagga village in Patiala.

50-year-old Nirdesh Singh was on PCR duty along with three other cops in Ayali when they got a message that their weapons would be inspected in a day or two.

Reports say that four cops stopped outside SAD leaderand MLA Manpreet Ayal's house, when one of them started cleaning his 9mm service pistol.

While cleaning, the weapon went off and the bullet hit Nirdesh. He was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors declared him brought dead.

The police have order a preliminary investigation into the matter, but have ruled out any foul play, said reports.

Oneindia News

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Story first published: Tuesday, November 15, 2016, 9:42 [IST]
Cop-turned-teacher gives wings to rag pickers' dreams

India

oi-Madhuri

By Madhuri

Bihar, Nov 15: Moved by the poorly dressed and unhealthy looking children who worked as rag pickers or begged for a living, Praveen Kumar, a policeman, decided to educate these kids and make them self-reliant.

Praveen Kumar turns into a 'teacher' for children working as rag pickers in Gaya, Bihar. Praveen Kumar says,'' I have been directed to teach the children. The DSP and the Inspector also do the same at times for these kids.''

Many children begin working as rag pickers at the young age of five or six years. In a study, it was revealed that in Patna and Raipur about 26-20% of total rag pickers in the city are children between the age of 5-14 years, while 40% of the total dump site waste pickers were children. These are children who do not have access to education and are subjected to intense health threats.

Suman, a ragpicker, who is being taught by the policeman says,''We are rag pickers, but now we are studying here. I wish to get into the police service some day''.

In fact, its just not Praveen Kumar, there are many people who have taken up the mission to find underage workers in their neighbourhood and bring them back to school.

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Story first published: Tuesday, November 15, 2016, 10:35 [IST]
Delhi-Meerut Expressway may be allowed: Expert panel tells NGT

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Nov 15: The permission to NHAI to build a bridge and its approach roads across the river for the Delhi- Meerut Expressway should be allowed to help ease traffic congestion, an expert committee today told the National Green Tribunal.

The Principal Committee, headed by Secretary of Ministry of Water Resources, told a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar that the "project may be allowed" subject to fulfilling of certain conditions including increasing the cost of monitoring during construction phase of bridge by nearly Rs 2.5 crore.

The committee, constituted by the NGT for implementation of 'Maili se Nirmal Yamuna Revitalisation Project 2017', has recommended that project proponent should save "as many trees" as possible and no wetland area on the floodplains should be disturbed during the construction phase.

The Principal Committee also comprises Special Secretary of MoEF, Joint Secretary of Ministry of Water Resources, Delhi Chief Secretary, DDA, Delhi Jal Board, municipal corporations, Commissioner and others.

Professors C R Babu, A K Gosain, Brij Gopal and A A Kazmi of IIT Roorkee are also members of the Principal Committee, which also said that strong iron marshes of 8 inch height should be erected along the proposed bridge to stop the public from throwing solid waste in the Yamuna.

Delhi-Meerut E-way: Dasna-Meerut stretch gets green nod

The matter is listed for next hearing on November 22. The submissions came in response to National Highways Authority of India's (NHAI) plea seeking NGT's nod for building of bridges and approach roads over Yamuna.

In its plea, NHAI had said that currently the route between Delhi and Meerut (NH-58) had frequent jams causing lot of inconvenience to traffic between the two cities and the project will reduce the time of travel to 40-45 minutes from three hours at present.

NHAI had moved NGT in view of a 2015 order saying that construction of "new barrages and roads, railway and metro bridges and embankments and bunds" should not be permitted.

However, in exceptional cases, "a critical impact of their potential impact on flood aggravation and environmental clearances should be made mandatory," it had said.

The Delhi-Meerut Expressway will be built through public -private-partnership mode and slated to be operational by March 2018. The project starts from National Highway-2 at Ring Road in Delhi and ends at Meerut in Uttar Pradesh.

PTI
Five years of demonetisation: Notes in circulation on rise; so are digital payments

PM Modi should admit that demonetistion a failure: Owaisi on cash seizure in UP

Demonetisation Ke Side Effects: Poor single mother in Karnataka commits suicide after losing Rs 15k

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Bengaluru, Nov 15: She was a poor single mother who worked hard to fend her family.

However, when in a single stroke, something akin to a surgical strike (the popular term we are using a lot these days), a 40-year-old daily wage worker in Gudibande taluk, Chikkaballapur, Karnataka, lost all her savings, Rs 15,000 to be precise, she decided to end her life.

This is the sad story of Eshwaramma.

On Monday, when the mother of a young boy went to a bank to deposit her savings, consisting of old denomination high value currency notes, now banned by the government, and lost it she became so depressed that she hanged herself in her house.

Eshwaramma's husband, an alcoholic, left the family long ago.

Thus she was the sole bread earner of the family, tell her fellow villagers.

After losing her money, while standing in a queue in front of a bank at Gudibande, 15 km from her village, she was inconsolable.

However, nobody in her village thought that she would take such a drastic step.

This is what she told villagers before she committed suicide, "I was not aware if the money slipped during the rush in the queue or whether I was robbed by someone."

Police said she did not file a complaint in this regard.

Villagers told reporters that she was illiterate and did not know how to approach the police.

OneIndia News
Five years of demonetisation: Notes in circulation on rise; so are digital payments

PM Modi should admit that demonetistion a failure: Owaisi on cash seizure in UP

Demonetisation: Kerala church opens its offering box to help people fight financial crunch

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Ernakulam, Nov 15: In the past few days, almost every adult in India have faced the harrowing experience of waiting in a long queue in front of a bank or an ATM.

These are definitely difficult times as severe cash crunch has hit the country in the wake of the scrapping of high value currency notes by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government on November 8.

In these times of gloom and chaos, there are many who have come out to help people to tide over difficulties.

In a noble gesture, a church in Kerala has opened up its offering box to help people.

On Sunday, a church at Kakkanad in Ernakulam opened two of its donation boxes for the people who attended mass.

The church Vicar Fr Jimmy Poochakkad said devout are allowed to take money from the boxes.

He added that people can later give the money back as a "gift", once the financial crisis gets over.

The boxes were opened around 6 am in the morning, and closed only in the evening.

According to the priest, around 200 families made use of this facility

Have lower denomination in our cash box. Ppl in need can take money from there & return whenever they want:Jimmy Poochakatt,vicar of church pic.twitter.com/d3THafNcPP  ANI (@ANI_news) November 15, 2016

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Tuesday, November 15, 2016, 10:06 [IST]
Five years of demonetisation: Notes in circulation on rise; so are digital payments

PM Modi should admit that demonetistion a failure: Owaisi on cash seizure in UP

Demonetisation meant for bailing out those with black money, says Congress

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi, Nov 15: The Congress party on Tuesday launched a scathing attack against the Central Government's demonetisation initiative, saying that it was in reality a move meant to bail out those with black money.

Congress spokesman Kapil Sibal ltrained guns on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of being out of sync with the woes of the common man, who is now battling for cash.

Sibal said Modi's pledge that the situation arising out of banning Rs.500 and 1,000 notes will stabilise in 50 days cannot be believed as his earlier promises had also fallen flat.

"All this has nothing to do with battling black money or corruption," he told the media.

Asserting that Modi had "collaborated" with those who have black money, he said it were the poor who were facing the brunt of tjhe problem due to this decision, which has resulted in serpentine queues outside banks and ATMs across the country.

Sibal said the demonetisation was aimed at wiping out the Non-Performing Assets of banks.

The Congress leader said Modi had no understanding of the plight of the ordinary men and women who were struggling to exchange or deposit the old currency or withdraw money from their accounts.

"He makes fun of people... It looks like he is far removed from ordinary people's problems," he said.

Commenting on the Prime Minister's comment that he had sacrificed everything for the country, Sibal asked: "Which palace was he living in that he gave up? Which property did he donate to the public? What sacrifices did he do for the country?"

Sibal added: "Please understand the pain of the ordinary people. Stop your whims and fancies..."

He also hit out at the limits placed on bank withdrawals.

"What kind of law is this? The money is mine, the bank account is mine, it is taxable income... Why can't I withdraw it? It is not Modi's money."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had on November 8, announced that all Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 rupee notes would cease to be valid in all forms of transactions in a bid to tackle hoarding of black money, corruption and terror financing.

IANS


Has Bengaluru steel bridge disappeared due to demonetisation? A police inspector asks

India

oi-Anusha

By Anusha Ravi

An inspector of police in Karnataka took a dig at the state government prompting the home minister to seek an inquiry. Inspector Raghavendra Rajanna posted on his Facebook a post questioning the proposed Steel Bridge.

He wrote, "what happened to the proposed BDA steel bridge? Has it disappeared due to demonetisation scheme? This means black money meant for circulation and distribution has disappeared.

This post earned the wrath of the Karnataka Home Minister, Dr G Parameshwar. He has asked a senior police official to inquire and submit a report on the matter. As a government employee, he is not allowed to criticize the government and hence has acted against the rule. The Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) has issued a memo seeking an explaination on the Facebook post.

OneIndia News
What if Owaisi had? Muslim users on Twitter blast Kejriwal for asking for Hindu God images on currency notes

Indelible ink on right hand finger for old currency exchange from today

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Nov 16: A small mark of indelible ink, used mostly during elections to prevent multiple voting, will be put on the right hand finger of those exchanging banned 500 and 1,000 rupee notes for new ones from Wednesday to prevent crowding at banks by repeat exchangers.

As per the assessment of the finance ministry, bank counters are getting overcrowded due to same people turning up again and again to exchange old notes.

"Ideally, the ink mark should have been put on the left hand as is done when a person casts his vote. But with by-elections due in some states, an ink mark for exchange or withdrawal of currency note on the left hand will lead to unnecessary difficulties. So it has been decided that the ink mark would be put on right hand," an official said.

The ink manufactured at the Mysore Paints and Varnish Ltd - the firm that has supplied indelible ink to the Election Commission since 1962 to mark voters, will be made available to banks and post offices from tonight.

Banks in major cities will start marking note exchangers with the ink, the official said.

Also, an expert committee comprising of officers from the Department of Economic Affairs and the Department of Financial Services are preparing standard operating procedure (SoPs) for ink marking as well as additional steps to be taken to manage the crowds.

The move comes amid long, unending queue at banks even after a week of Prime Minister Narendra Modi announcing withdrawal of old Rs 500/1000 notes in biggest crackdown on black money, corruption and counterfeit currency.

The notes withdrawn accounted for 86 per cent of the cash circulating in the Asia's third-largest economy.

Demonetisation could be a mega-scam: Rahul Gandhi

The source said the use of indelible ink would prevent "unscrupulous persons" from use conduits for exchanging notes.

A person, as per the revised guideline, is allowed to exchange old notes totalling up to 4,500 on a single day.

Earlier in the day, economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das+ said it was noticed that the same people were coming back again and again to exchange notes, causing the long queues and creating hassles for genuine people to get their cash.

By-elections for four Lok Sabha seats - Cooch Behar and Tamluk in Purba Medinipur district in West Bengal, Shahdol in Madhya Pradesh and Lakhimpur in Assam will be held on November 19.

As many as 8 assembly seats in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and Puducherry will go to polls on the same day.

PTI

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Story first published: Wednesday, November 16, 2016, 1:25 [IST]
Trump asked Kim to hand over nuclear weapons at Hanoi summit in February: report

US nuclear engineer charged with trying to sell secrets

Historic India-Japan nuclear deal to unleash destruction in India, says anti-nuclear organisation

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, Nov 15: Strong protest has been raised by the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament (CNDP) over the recently signed India-Japan nuclear deal.

Both the nations termed the deal as "historic".

"We strongly register our protest against this disastrous deal. Japan and India should cooperate on renewable technologies," said a statement issued by the CNDP.

"India-Japan nuclear agreement would unleash destruction in India. It effectively means displacement and loss of livelihoods for the farmers and fisherfolk, environmental damage and radiation hazard due to unsafe and untested reactors, disruption of the non-proliferation regime and nuclear arms race in South Asia," the statement added.

The CNDP is an all India network of over 200 organisations, including grassroots groups, mass movements, advocacy organisations and individuals.

Formed in November 2000, CNDP's main agenda has been to put pressure on both India and Pakistan to rollback their nuclear weapons programmes.

CNDP strongly focusses on the issue of regional and global disarmament.

CNDP works to raise mass awareness through programmes in schools and colleges, publications, audio and visual materials, campaigning and lobbying at various levels.

The deal was signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Tokyo on Friday.

The agreement will allow Japan to supply nuclear reactors, fuel and technology to India for civilian use.

Read the full statement of CNDP below:

The Indian PM is in Tokyo today and reportedly he will finalise the nuclear supply agreement with Japan.

This agreement with Japan is the remaining piece of the Indo-US nuclear deal, ensuring supply of reactor equipments from Japan which are essential for the American and French nuclear plants being set up in India.

In Maharashtra's Jaitapur, this would fast-track the construction of world's largest nuclear power plant, consisting of 6 EPR reactors whose safety has been questioned by the French nuclear safety regulator ASN itself.

In Andhra Pradesh's Kovvada, it would aid American-imported reactors of GE-Hitachi.

The deal would unleash misery on the most vulnerable people in India, by aiding an anachronistic nuclear expansion.

India is among very few countries in the world today to embark on such massive expansion after Fukushima.

The Indian government has been bulldozing everything that stands in the way of implementing new reactors - undermining and diluting safety norms, curtailing transparency on nuclear-related pushing through environmental clearances at gun-point, neglecting the adverse economics of these projects, brutally crushing grassroots democratic dissent, and trying to exempt the nuclear suppliers from liability in the event of any accident.

The govt has labelled peaceful anti-nuclear agitators as anti-nationals, unleashing violence on innocent farmers, fisher folk, women and children.

The deal would become the final seal of legitimacy for India's nuclear weapons and will further fuel the nuclear arms race in South Asia.

An import-based civilian nuclear industry would free up India's domestic resources exclusively for weapons.

Concerned people in both India and Japan have been opposed to the nuclear agreement.

Protests against this agreement are also happening in Jaitapur, Kovvada, Gorakhpur, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and several cities of Japan.

Solidarity messages have been sent by concerned people in other countries to Indian and Japanese embassies.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Tuesday, November 15, 2016, 11:27 [IST]
International community must act against terror: PM Modi

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi, Nov 15: Hitting out at Pakistan for the "origin and spread" of terrorism, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said India and Israel have agreed on the need for the international community to act with resolve against terror networks and states that harbour them.

"We recognise that terrorism is a global challenge, knows no boundaries and has extensive links with other forms of organised crimes.

"Regrettably, one of the countries of its origin and spread is in India's neighbourhood," said Modi in his media statement after holding talks with visiting Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.

"We agreed that the international community must act with resolve and determination against terror networks and states that harbour them," added Modi.

IANS
Indian-origin teenager stabbed to death in Israel after brawl at birthday party

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin begins his state visit of India

News

oi-Lisa

By Lisa

New Delhi, Nov 15 President of Israel Reuven Rivlin is on a state visit of India. His visit began with a ceremonial welcome in the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

President Reuven Rivlin then had a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House in Delhi.

Shalom @PresidentRuvi ! PM @narendramodi welcomes the President of Israel at Hyderabad House in Delhi pic.twitter.com/A7xOBUACax  Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) November 15, 2016

Post the bilateral meeting both the leaders led their delegations as they talked about securing a partnership that would firm the future.

A partnership set firmly upon the future. PM @narendramodi and @PresidentRuvi lead delegation level talks in Hyderabad House pic.twitter.com/IA5D5SHkxX  Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) November 15, 2016

New vistas for India and Israel partnership were opened as the two leaders witnessed exchange of agreements in the field of water resource management and agriculture.

New Vistas For #IndiaIsrael Partnership. The two leaders witness exchange of agreements in fields of water resource management & agriculture pic.twitter.com/Le4Au0Z1Lg  Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) November 15, 2016

PM Modi further said, "We noted the strength of our growing defense partnership and agreed on the need to make it more broad-based in production and manufacturing".

PM also expressed gratitude of India to Israel for its clear support to India's permanent candidature in a reformed United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

PM also talked about the 2000-year old Jewish community in India which represents a thriving link to this past, a vital part of our composite cultural mosaic.

PM Modi concluded by saying that, "Your visit provides an opportunity to break new ground and shape new contours of our partnership".

Israeli President in his joint press statement said that, "Israel is ready to answer the PMs call - we are ready to Make in India and Make with India".

He also further affirmed support to India on countering terrorism by saying that, "Terror is terror is terror is terror".

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Tuesday, November 15, 2016, 14:18 [IST]
Caught months later, man had robbed bank and got a new look

Bank holidays in November 2022: Here is the full list of non-working days

Latest on demonetisation: 10 things you must know

India

oi-Mukul Kumar Mishra

New Delhi, Nov 15: It has been a week since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the high denomination notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 will no longer be a legal tender.

Since then peole have been facing difficulties to exchange the old notes at banks and drawing out new Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 notes from ATMs machine.

Though the government has assured that things will be all right within 10 days as it has taken several steps in this direction, there has no respite from long queues at banks and ATMs.

Here are latest updates:

The limit of old and now defunct Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 rupee notes that can be exchanged for freshly minted Rs. 2,000 and Rs. 500 notes was increased from Rs. 4000 to Rs. 4500 per day. Cash withdrawal limit at ATMs was hiked to Rs. 2,500 from Rs. 2,000 a day. The weekly limit of Rs. 20,000 for withdrawal from bank counters has been increased to Rs. 24,000. The maximum limit of Rs. 10,000 per day on such withdrawals has been removed. The Government also extended use of old defunct Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes for paying household utility bills, fuel, taxes and fees and purchases from co-operative stores till November 24. Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said there is enough cash in the system and delivery channels are being augmented across the country to help cash-starved citizens. Das also said that recalibration of ATMs has already started and they will start dispensing the new Rs 2,000 currency notes within one or two days. A task force has been set up to help recalibrate the ATMs. Large number of micro-ATMs will soon be deployed to help people withdraw cash through debit cards. Cash holding limit for 1.2 lakh banking correspondents (BCs) has been increased to Rs 50,000. Also supply of cash to 1.3 lakh branch post offices enhanced so that public can get banknotes without any hassle. RBI has also waived off debit and credit card transaction charges.

OneIndia News
Five years of demonetisation: Notes in circulation on rise; so are digital payments

PM Modi should admit that demonetistion a failure: Owaisi on cash seizure in UP

Mamata tweets against demonetisation move

India

oi-Madhuri

By Madhuri

New Delhi, Nov 15: With millions grappling with demonetisation blues, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee slammed Modi saying government distrusts the common people.

Mamata further tweeted,''Desperate attempt to start a 'black mechanism' with indelible ink shows this govt distrusts the common people''. Also, there are by-elections on Nov 19. What will the EC say about this decision to put indelible on prospective voters? #DeMonetisation

While, Narendra Modi is getting public support , Mamata terms demonetisation move as 'draconian' saying people are facing difficulties by this policy.

Mamta's remarks came after the Centre has announced that those who exchange cash at bank branches would receive an indelible ink mark on their finger, to prevent multiple withdrawals. The government also cautioned the public against believing social media messages on the demonetisation drive+ , saying many wrong messages are doing the rounds.

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Story first published: Tuesday, November 15, 2016, 14:59 [IST]
Five years of demonetisation: Notes in circulation on rise; so are digital payments

PM Modi should admit that demonetistion a failure: Owaisi on cash seizure in UP

Demonetisation: Mysore Paints asked to keep indelible ink ready

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Nov 15: With the government stating that banks would use indelible ink marks to check repeted visits, the Mysore Paints and Varnish Limited, the sole manufacturers of indelible ink, have been asked to keep its stocks ready.

Mysore Paints has been providing indelible ink to the Election Commission since 1962 to mark voters.

"We have been intimated to keep the stock (of ink bottles) ready," Mysore Ink Manager (General and Corporate Affairs) C Harakumar told PTI over phone. He, however, said the number of bottles government will need has not been intimated.

Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das today informed that the government has been trying to anaylse reasons for the long queues outside the banks.

He said that to solve this problem the government has decided to use indelible ink marks, similar to elections, on cash counters. Indelible ink mark concept is to start from today in major cities.

A Karnataka government undertaking, Mysore Paints and Varnish Limited provides the famous indelible ink to all states in India and even some foreign countries. In 1962, the Election Commission, in collaboration with Law Ministry, National Physical Laboratory and National Research Development Corporation, made an agreement with Mysore Paints for supply of indelible ink for Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

Since then, it has been supplying the ink for elections in India. A bottle of indelible ink contains 10 cubic centimetres (cc). As per modern measurement methods, one cubic centimetre is equivalent to one millilitre.

PTI
Aircel Maxis case: Sensitive Materials in secret memo prompted SC to allow probe against ED office

Supreme Court decriminalises gay sex: Who said what

SC notice to UP govt over bungalows to former CMs

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi, Nov 15 The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government on a plea challenging a state law that allots bungalows to former chief ministers on their request.

Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre issued the notice on a plea by NGO Lok Prahari challenging the amended law.

The NGO was represented by its General Secretary and former bureaucrat S.N. Shukla.

Apparently, the amended law was brought to nullify the top court's verdict that barred the allotment of bungalows to former Chief Ministers.

The court directed six former Chief Ministers to vacate their bungalows.

IANS


How the flame of Azadi was kept ablaze by the tribal community: PM Modi explains

Sorry Modiji, poor people disagree with you, theyre not sleeping peacefully

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, Nov 15: There is no doubt about the great oratory skills of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who within minutes can captivate audience with his smart one-liners.

As the Modi-government has come under fire due to severe cash crunch hitting the entire country in the wake of the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, the Prime Minister is all out to quell all the "misconceptions" surrounding his boldest decision.

However, his comment, the poor are sleeping peacefully and the rich need sleeping pills, made at a mega rally in Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur on Monday, attacking the opposition for criticising demonetisation, has backfired.

Many poor people have voiced their anger against the Prime Minister's remark.

Speaking to ANI, a person identifying himself as Bablu, said, "Modiji says the poor are sleeping peacefully and rich are taking sleeping pills, but look at us. Rich are in peace, can simply throw money."

Modi ji says the poor are sleeping peacefully&rich are taking sleeping pills,but look at us. Rich are in peace,can simply throw money: Bablu pic.twitter.com/038MeLoyqQ  ANI (@ANI_news) November 15, 2016

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday attacked Modi for his remark that the "poor are enjoying sound sleep" in the wake of the demonetisation drive, saying the comments were "an insult to commoners and in bad taste".

On Sunday, the Prime Minister addressed people in Goa, Pune and Belagavi, and made an emotional appeal to the voters to give him 50 days to address their issues.

He said he took the discussion to eradicate corruption and black money from the country.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Tuesday, November 15, 2016, 9:12 [IST]
IRCTC update: 115 trains cancelled on Nov 01; here is the complete list

Vijender Gupta marshalled out of Delhi Assembly

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi, Nov 15: Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta was on Tuesday marshalled out of the House for creating "hindrance" during Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's address on demonetisation.

Despite repeated warnings from Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel, Gupta of the BJP continued to intervene while Kejriwal was speaking on the resolution to urge upon President Pranab Mukherjee to direct the union government to immediately withdraw the "draconian demonetisation" move.

Goel initially asked Gupta to either be silent or leave the House, but when the latter refused to budge, house marshals were called in to escort him out.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Assembly witnessed huge ruckus as angry legislators continuously shouted Narendra Modi murdabad slogans during the special session, convened to discuss the demonetisation issue.

IANS
Zakir Naik wants Indian Muslims to migrate to Kerala, a state he mastered in radicalising

The crimes of Zakir Naik: Extolling every Muslim to be a terrorist, paid Rs 50k per Islamic conversion

Prosecutions story may be attractive but should be backed by evidence

Zakir Naik's NGO banned for five years

India

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, Nov 15: The government has banned controversial preacher Dr Zakir Naik's NGO the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) for five years. While imposing the ban, the government termed the NGO as illegal.

Last month the government has put IRF Educational Trust, promoted by Zakir Naik, under prior permission category, thus preventing it from receiving foreign funds without getting nod from the central government.

In a gazette notification, the Home Ministry said that on the basis of records available and reports received from intelligence agencies, it found that the IRF Education Trust has violated various provisions of the Foreign Contribution Regulations Act (FCRA) 2010.

"Now, therefore, the central government in exercise of powers conferred by sub-section (3) of section 11 of the FCRA 2010, hereby specifies that the IRF Education Trust shall obtain prior permission of the central government on each occasion before accepting any foreign contribution in accordance with the provisions of section 12 of the Act and rules made thereunder," the notification said.

The move came after different investigations found Naik to be "involved" in utilising funds meant for his NGOs for alleged radicalisation of youths and "inspiring" them into terror activities, official sources said.

Zakir Naik's NGO will need govt, nod to receive funds

Government was also in the process of cancellation of the FCRA registration of Islamic Research Foundation, another NGO promoted Zakir Naik, and a final show cause notice to the organisation had been issued.

The Government had also planned to declare IRF as an unlawful association under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and a nod from the Union Cabinet is awaited for it.

OneIndia News
15 dead in Iraq suicide bombings claimed by IS

International

oi-PTI

Baghdad, Nov 14: Suicide bombings claimed by the Islamic State group killed 15 people today in an oasis town south of Baghdad and the city of Fallujah to its west, officials said. The attacks come as Iraqi forces battle IS in the northern city of Mosul, the last major population centre the jihadists hold in the country.

IS has carried out a series of attacks in other areas since the operation to retake Mosul was launched on October 17 in an apparent bid to draw attention and possibly troops away from the city. Masum al-Tamimi, a member of the Karbala provincial council, said six suicide bombers armed with light weapons as well as explosives tried to infiltrate Ain al-Tamer early today. But they clashed with security forces before withdrawing to the Al-Jihad area and detonating explosives there, Tamimi said, putting the death toll at eight, a figure confirmed by a doctor.

The attack also wounded at least six people, officials said. The interior ministry said security forces killed five of the bombers while the sixth detonated explosives inside a house. But IS issued a statement claiming the attack in which it said that there were only five bombers, identified with noms de guerre indicating two were from Mosul and three from Syria.

The jihadist group said the bombers, who were armed with automatic weapons and grenades as well as explosive belts, battled security forces until running out of ammunition and then blew themselves up. Attacks in southern Iraq are rare, especially compared to the frequent bombings that hit Baghdad. But Ain al-Tamer, which is located 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the Shiite shrine city of Karbala, is on the edge of Anbar province, which has long been a haven for jihadists. A similar attack involving militants armed with explosives, rifles and grenades hit Ain al-Tamer in late August, killing 18 people and wounding at least 26.

Later in the day, two more bombers detonated explosives-rigged vehicles near police checkpoints in Fallujah, killing seven people and wounding 25, a police captain and a hospital official said. IS also claimed responsibility for the bombings in Fallujah, a city that was retaken from IS at the end of June after two and a half years outside of government control. "These two explosions are the first two explosions in Fallujah since its liberation from (IS)," Raja Barakat, a member of the provincial council security committee in Anbar province, where Fallujah is located.

The jihadist group overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but Iraqi forces backed by US-led air strikes have since regained much of the territory they lost to IS two years ago.

PTI
As Donald Trump mellows, Obama calls him non-ideological pragmatist

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New York, Nov 15 With signs of a mellowing Donald Trump backtracking on some of the harshest elements of his election promises, President Barack Obama, who had called him unfit for the high office, has now described him as a non-ideological pragmatist and hoped he would build on his successes.

"President-elect Trump is now trying to balance what he said in the campaign and the commitments he made to his supporters with working with those who disagreed with him, and members of Congress, and reaching out to constituencies that didn't vote for him," Obama said at his White House news conference in Washington on Monday.

"My advice, as I said, to the President-elect when we had our discussions was that campaigning is different from governing," he added. "I think he recognizes that. I think he's sincere in wanting to be a successful President and moving this country forward."

A somber Trump softened some of the controversial election rhetoric in his first extensive media interview that he gave to Lesley Stahl of CBS and was broadcast Sunday.

While during his campaign the Republican had threatened wholesale deportation of the estimated 11 million illegal - or undocumented - immigrants, he said he would round up and deport or detain only the criminals and drug dealers among them, whom he estimated to number about two to three million.

As for the rest, whom he called "terrific people," he said their future would be determined later when the borders have been secured.

On building a wall along the Mexican border, he said he was now open to a mix of wall and fence.

He also came out in favour of some elements of Obamacare, the universal health insurance program that is the capstone of Obama's presidency. During the heat of the campaign, he had vowed that dismanting it was his first priority.

In a direct threat to his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton during a presidential debate, Trump said he would have a special prosecutor appointed to look into her cases.

He repeated it during his rallies, calling her "Crooked Hillary," while the crowds chanted "Lock her up."

But asked about this during his interview he said of the Clintons: "I don't want to hurt them. They're, they're good people. I don't want to hurt them."

Obama, who had declared during the campaign that Trump was unqualified for the job, now reciprocated his turn around with a statesmanly gesture.

"He is coming to this office with fewer set hard-and-fast policy prescriptions than a lot of other Presidents might be arriving with," Obama said. "I don't think he is ideological. I think ultimately he's pragmatic in that way."

From coast to coast, Democratic party supporters have been holding protests against Trump since his election, chanting: "He is not our president."

In a message directed at them, Obama said, "Look, the people have spoken. Donald Trump will be the next President, the 45th President of the United States."

Recalling the caustic opposition he had faced after his election, Obama said, "When I won, there were a number of people who didn't like me and didn't like what I stood for. And I think that whenever you've got an incoming President of the other side, particularly in a bitter election like this, it takes a while for people to reconcile themselves with that new reality."

Obama, who left for Europe Monday night after his news conference, had a calming message for the allies across the Atlantic troubled by Trump's election.

He said that Trump had in conversations with him "expressed a great interest in maintaining our core strategic relationships." Obama said from this, "one of the messages I will be able to deliver is his commitment to NATO and the Transatlantic Alliance."

During his campaign, Trump had criticised the international alliances saying that they had forced the US to bear the their burden and that he would insist on the allies picking up the tab and being more responsible for their defences.

IANS
My party-BJP have different ideologies but common aim of uplifting poor: Nepal ex-PM Prachanda

Former Nepal PM says removed from office for including Kalapani

Nepali PM congratulates PM Modi over demonetisation

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Kathmandu, Nov 15: Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda" has telephoned his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to seek exchange facility for demonetised Indian currency in circulation in his country, the Prime Minister's Office said.

During a five-minute conversation on Monday night, Prachanda congratulated Modi on his move to crack down on black money and corruption, Xinhua news agency quoted an official statement as saying.

Modi has assured Prachanda that he would address the problem faced by Nepal where Indian currency is widely used.

Prachanda took personal initiative to address the problem of exchanging demonetised currency notes after efforts by the state-run central bank -- Nepal Rastra Bank -- failed to resolve the problem.

The Nepali central bank had written to the Reserve Bank of India last week regarding the 500 and 1,000 rupee notes in circulation in Nepal.

The demonetisation move is posing a challenge to the management of Indian currency worth billions possessed by Nepali nationals.

Hundreds of thousands of Nepali nationals in India and those residing and working in various border regions between the two countries have also been hugely affected by the Indian move.

IANS


Ukraine grain deal: UN says shipments are still going out

Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump speak to each other; agree to normalise ties

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Moscow, Nov 15: Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President-elect Donald Trump concluded their first telephone conversation with an agreement to instruct their respective staffs to begin planning for a personal meeting, the Kremlin said.

"It was agreed to maintain contact by phone and arrange a meeting in person in the future, with preparations to be conducted by representatives of both sides," the Russian government said in a statement on Monday, Efe news reported.

The principal topic of Monday's discussion was the current state of relations between the US and Russia.

Trump and Putin "not only agreed on the absolutely unsatisfactory state of bilateral relations but also expressed support for active joint efforts to normalize relations and pursue constructive cooperation on the broadest possible range of issues," according to the Kremlin.

The Russian leader told Trump that he was "ready to develop a dialogue of partnership with the new administration on the principles of equality, mutual respect and non-interference in each other's domestic affairs," the statement said.

Also read: Donald Trump's election boosts Kremlin hopes for better relations

Both agreed that the upcoming 210th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and the US "should encourage a return to pragmatic, mutually beneficial cooperation in the interests of both countries, as well as global stability and security," the Russian government said.

Turning to global issues, Putin and Trump "both spoke of the need to work together in the struggle against the number one common enemy - international terrorism and extremism. In this context, they discussed issues related to solving the crisis in Syria," according to the statement.

Following the Kremlin announcement, Trump's office confirmed the call with Putin, saying that that two leaders discussed a "range of issues including the threats and challenges facing the United States and Russia."

Trump also told Putin he looks forward to "a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the people of Russia," the president-elect's team said.

IANS
Rise of a maverick, Donald Trump: Mixed signals and troubling implications

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Washington, Nov 15 On November 9 the unthinkable happened after the most polarised election in US history. With the so-called swing states - Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania -choosing Donald Trump, the so-called Clinton Firewall was breached and, despite a lower share of the popular vote, Trump convincingly won the presidency.

His victory divided the US and impacted global public opinion, including among Washington's allies. Protests continue in California and a petition calling on the US Electoral College to dump Trump and select Hillary Clinton as president, based on the larger share of popular votes she won, has already picked up 3.2 million signatures. Some ugly racist incidents have already occurred in the US and one can expect the extreme right to try to exploit this victory.

Trump has started backing away from his more extreme position such as repealing Obamacare, putting "crooked Hillary" behind bars, and walking out of trade pacts and international agreements to which the US is a party, including the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

What are the implications for India and the bilateral relationship? Much would depend on his choice of Secretary of State and whether his governance style would be decentralised with the President depending on a team of dedicated technocrats. This would be the best option, given his ignorance on global and strategic issues.

Early trends are not encouraging. His transition team includes four members of his family as well as corporate consultants and lobbyists with little knowledge of global challenges for US interests worldwide.

Trump's approach to India has been contradictory with much doublespeak. During the final presidential debate he referred positively to India, its high growth rate and spoke of his business relationships here. At an Indian American rally in New Jersey in October, in front of a large gathering of Indian media, he originally described himself as an admirer of "Hindus". When the anchor pointed out that all Indians were not Hindus, he side-stepped and spoke of being a big fan of India.

Early in the campaign, he complained of outsourcing, about jobs being "shipped out" to India and alleged misuse of H1B visas. He voiced strong criticism of call-centres being outsourced to India and Indians. After he used a false Indian accent to mock Indian call-centre workers, he sought to wriggle out of it by clarifying that India was a great place and his anger was not against India but against outsourcing. Whether this is feasible or possible remains to be seen, but it has troubling implications for our bilateral relationship.

His statements on Pakistan have been equally ambiguous with hints that he would seek help from India and other nations to address the "problem" of what he described as a "semi-unstable" nuclear-armed Pakistan. In an early interview he said: "The problem with Pakistan, where they have nuclear weapons - which is a real problem. Pakistan is semi-unstable. We don't want to see total instability." It is not clear whether as President this would translate into a reversal of US policy towards Pakistan. Possibly not, since even Trump, as President, would need to respect the fine line defining US foreign policy based on American interests.

His policy on Afghanistan is equally unclear with hints that he would cut down on US commitments overseas. This would have direct implications on our peace and security with the increased threat of terrorist attacks in case of a premature US withdrawal from Afghanistan. It is unclear at this moment whether a Trump presidency would strongly support India's Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) membership and its candidature for permanent membership of the Security Council and strengthen the Indo-US Strategic Partnership, which is also based on common concerns on the rise of China.

Trump has hinted that in order to make "America great again" he would follow a policy of splendid isolation, such as the one US followed at the beginning of the 20th century. In that event, not only would it negatively impact US strategic interests worldwide and encourage fundamentalism but it would also encourage China to become the pre-eminent power in Asia - which would be highly detrimental to India.

Given his insistence that Europe should pay the US for military protection and increase funding to NATO, several European commentators are questioning whether his 'America first' policy would result in the end of the West as the world has known after World War II. His earlier positive pronouncements about President Vladimir Putin have increased European fears about the impact of a new detente between the US and the Russian Federation adversely impacting European and European Union strategic interests.

In the global arena, his victory is being interpreted as the rejection of globalisation. After Brexit, there are crucial elections coming up in France and Germany and the rise of ultra-right wing parties in many parts of Europe. There are now fears that Marie Le Pen, President of the National Front, would easily make it to the second round of the French presidential elections. In Germany, Frauke Petry is the leader of the right-wing Alternative for Germany who is radically opposed to Chancellor Angela Merkel's immigration and refugee policy and of 'Islamification' of Germany.

Even after Ronald Reagan's election, the national and international mood had not been so grim or pessimistic. The day after the election, the leading newspaper in France, Le Monde, characterised the result in its front page as "a clown has been elected in the USA". The flawed American electoral system which allows a president to be elected after he loses the popular vote to his contender has resulted in an inexperienced but overconfident maverick being elected to this exalted post.

With his finger on the nuclear button, the world, including the US' principal allies in Europe, would have to treat him with more respect than they presently do. India would need to watch and wait what a Trump presidency could do for a carefully crafted India-US strategic relationship. Only history and posterity can judge the result. One can only hope for the best in this case.

IANS
Demonetisation: Sonia Gandhi to chair strategy meet today

New Delhi

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, Nov 15: Congress president, Sonia Gandhi will on Tuesday chair a strategy meeting ahead of the Parliament session. The meeting is expected to discuss ways to combat the government in Parliament over the issue of demonetisation.

Following the meeting, Congress leaders are also likely to meet with other leaders of the opposition to chalk out a strategy. On Monday, several oppposition leaders met to discuss ways of countering the government on the issue. The BJP too held a meeting in which it was decided that there would be no roll back on the decision.

Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi told his party leaders that they had public support and hence should stick firm to the decision. All allies of the BJP in the NDA too backed the decision taken by the Prime Minister.

On Monday, the opposition stood united against the Government's decision to demonetise the Rs 500 and 1,000 notes. The Congress, TMC, AAP, SP, Left and BSP termed the decision of the government as a failed step. The opposition leaders have scheduled a meeting on Tuesday at 2 pm to further discuss on the issue.

Also read: 'Whole' BJP against demonetisation, alleges Arvind Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Admi Party leader, Arvind Kejriwal said that the government had no game plan which resulted in people struggling.

"No irony can be bigger than the Prime Minister taking the blessing of NCP leader, Sharad Pawar to fight the menace of black money," Kejriwal also said.

Meanwhile, BSP leader Mayawati said that Modi is losing the support of people. His rally at Ghazipur had a poor turn out because of his decision, she also said. "On one hand he speaks of fighting corruption and on the other his volunteers brought people in trains for the rally without paying for the tickets," she also said.

OneIndia News
SC to hear batch of petitions challenging ban on Rs 500 and 1,000 notes

New Delhi

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, Nov 15: All eyes would be on the Supreme Court on Tuesday which will hear a batch of petitions challenging the ban on Rs 500 and 1,000 notes. The matter will come up before a Bench headed by Justice Anil Dave.

On the last date of hearing, the Supreme Court had turned down a plea for early hearing in the matter. The petitioner had cited urgency while seeking an early hearing.

The centre too filed a caveat on the same day urging that it be heard before any interim order is passed. A caveat is filed so that the court does not grant any interim order ex-parte.

Also read: Demonetisation- #IAmWithModi trends on Twitter

An advocate among others moved the court challenging the ban on Rs 500 and 1,000 notes. The PIL, filed by Sangam Lal Pandey and others termed the government's action as arbitrary. The petitioner also said that this decision has caused huge inconvenience to the public.

The petitioner will mention the matter for urgent listing on Thursday. A similar petition has been filed in the Bombay High court as well.

On November 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the government is scrapping with immediate effect the existing currency denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 to combat black money, corruption and terror-financing.

OneIndia News
Tens of thousands of students sat for their Class 12 annual exams on Monday after four months of unrest during which schools remained shut across the Kashmir Valley. Authorities made elaborate arrangements of security at all these exam centres where police and paramilitary security forces were deployed in strength.
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Matthias Knab, Opalesque:

OP Investment Management Ltd (OPIM) has announced a partnership with Charles Wang from Academia Capital Management (Academia) to launch one of Hong Kongs first A and H-share quant funds for offshore investors, the Academia China Absolute Return Fund.

The Fund will deploy a series of proprietary quant models uniquely adapted to the Chinese Market to generate outperformance. Targeting an initial launch AUM of $100M USD, the open-ended fund is expected to launch in Q4 2016, managed by Charles Wang and his team in cooperation with OP Investment management.

Alvin Fan, Chief Executive Officer of OP Investment Management commented, "Academias new fund is among the first wave of A and H-share quantitative strategies through the Shanghai-Hong Kong and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect. It will provide institutional investors with deep access to China under the professional management of a regional team. With over 20-year experience in global quantitative investment space, and especially his recent years investing in the Chinese market, Charles track record brings together the best of both worlds."

Charles Wang, Director and Fund Manager of Academia perceives high opportunity in launching an offshore version of his fund, "I am pleased on the launch and for Academia Fund to be working with OP Investment Management. There is high opportunity for quant funds to thrive offshore."

Prior to launching is his own fund, Charles hel......................

To view our full article Click here
People often ask me 'What is an Indigo?' Even though it is a common question, and natural to wonder, the question itself shows how little we actually understand of Indigos; it is actually converse to how Indigos communicate and think. Indigos take the commonly understood quotients and push beyond them, not seek to define, reduce and categorize them by what is already known. Indigos utilize commonly held ideas but transmute them into new conditions, unbound by the confines of previous understandings and beliefs. So then, the question is not so much, 'What is an Indigo?', it is more accurately, 'How do you be Indigo?' For any discussion of Indigos, it helps to recognize the difference between these questions.

The truth is, one is not born an Indigo, rather we are each born with the potential to embody the perspective of the the Indigo. However, most of us have this innate inkling quickly removed from us through authority and indoctrination. We are trained and conditioned to become institutionalized individuals, naysayers, dependent on authority, who accept what already is and fear what is not.

"They are said to be a group of new humans coming to this planet in appreciable numbers. Some argue the Indigos are here to help save the planet -- to clean things up of sorts. Certainly we don't know what the true impetus for their presence is, but we do know that something quite spectacular is going on with these individuals and they need to be acknowledged""

All the systems we know as martial arts practices are actually anti-martial arts. They were systems used by farmers and peasants living under the thumb of feudal and fascist institutions, to defend themselves against imperial aggression. This is why the martial arts were so often secreted, and why so many martial arts weapons have their origins as farm tools and implements: throughout recorded time, the common narrative has been one of fascists and their foot soldiers versus common farmers and freedom fighters. And yet, while the origins of the martial arts are related to soldiering, they are in perfect philosophical opposition to soldiering. The martial arts, like so many yogic and meditative practices, are about developing the self and the individual consciousness, not by instilling servitude to a collective.

Now, it would not be right of me to tell you how to develop yourself. That would be like telling you how you ought to interpret God -- It just is not my place. What I can tell you is that Indigos use communication to affect their world, instead of farm implements. Through rhetoric, slang or otherwise, they communicate on consciousness, innately use their words (and deeds) to show us how things are, revealing a vastly different perspective to the status quo. Like many things, being an Indigo is not so much what you do, it is how you do it or rather, how you are, your state of mind.

Do you often see the number 11:11? In numerology, 1111 represents the unity of all things; that we are all of the same vibration even though we appear to be separate in the physical. It also symbolizes the number 4. At its most basic, the number 4 is symbolic of completion; the four elements which, combined, create the one; the totality of everything; the intersection of duality and polarity.

When we see 11:11 we are being asked to pay attention to this connection -- to transcend the status quo; to go beyond what is already known; to create new unprecedented conditions; to become an Indigo.

In nature this symbolism is illustrated in the cycle of four seasons -- spring, summer, winter and fall -- derived from the flow of cycles between two solstices and two equinoxes of our orbit, as well as the elements of nature: air, fire, water and earth. Four is also reflected in the four aspects of the self: the mental, physical, spiritual and emotional. Similarly, the Daoist tradition points to four phases of training and being, or developing self -- first as a martial artist (or anti-martial artist), second as a healer, then as a scholar, and then a priest. The symbolism of four is also represented in the four forms of arithmetic: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Just as there are four seasons and four forms of arithmetic, comprehensive thinking and problem solving encompass four dimensions: the thesis (Is it so?), antithesis (Is it not so?), synthesis (Are both so?) and nullesis (Are neither so?). Thus there are also 4 paths before us in every situation. There are the known quotients -- the thesis (Should I do this?), the antithesis (Should I do that?), and their synthesis (Should I do both?) And there is the fourth path -- the nullesis (Should I do neither?) -- the path of infinite potential, the path into uncharted territory -- the realm of the Indigo.

11:11 symbolizes 4 and the opportunity for embodying the higher aspect of self, the higher aspect of our natural function. It symbolizes potential, and a powerful opportunity for peace and perspective. It represents an opportunity in time, to be our most ascended, highly functioning self. Each of us at every moment has the opportunity be a true warrior, a healer, a scholar or a priest, on one level or another. Each of us has the opportunity to rise up in peace, understanding and compassion, like a Bodhisattva, or Indigo, and be the change in a world confined by outmoded understandings and beliefs.

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Just two days after



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"Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair!"

Within hours he attempted a do-over.

"Love the fact that the small groups of protesters last night have a passion for our great country. We will all come together and be proud!"

It is unlikely that Trump's second tweet was a result of his better angels taking over. More likely it was the result of an astute member of his staff.

One need not look too far back in history for examples of fascist leaders criticizing the voices of those who oppose them. As far as Trump's assertion that his citizen critics are "professional protesters," I am afraid he's got it backwards. Hitler had his Storm Detachment, Mussolini had his Black Shirts, Stalin had his OPGU, and even Woodrow Wilson had his Committee on Public Information, professionally led groups one and all dedicated to silencing public dissent.

Those who are grieving the election of Trump can take heart in the famous Native American quote, "We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children," for on November 9 thousands of "nonprofessional" public high school students walked out of their classes in protest of the November 8 outcome, and not just from states that Clinton carried. Students in Utah, Arizona, Nebraska and Iowa marched out in solidarity following the election. Dissent exercised by adults is important. Dissent exercised by children can change the world. Hope lives!


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I am considered as a once upon a time "whistle-blower", which is defined as, "one who reveals wrongdoing within an organization to the public or to those in positions of authority". I personally don't consider myself a whistle-blower, at times having even hating the term, but I do fill those shoes nonetheless, and have become intimately acquainted with the whistle-blowing experience.

Unfortunately, I was the only military intelligence soldier to cooperate with the investigation into detainee abuse at the Abu Ghraib Prison, known most for scandalous photographs of soldiers abusing detainees during the Iraq War in 2003. This fact was made known to me when the initial classified report was purposely "leaked" to the public. But I didn't decide to go to the media against specific orders until I believed the investigations were deliberately looking in the wrong place, allowing the greater perpetrators and wrongdoing to go, at the very least, unnoticed.

To many people I am a vaunted hero, and others, a treasonous villain. Usually this is determined by what perspective a person has chosen to take beforehand, based on what they may or may not know about what I said, who I spoke to, what I did, and when"as well as political, professional, and personal interests.

As one quickly learns, it becomes quite a complicated web of words, actions, motives, opinions, convictions, and consequences. Another example of what is known in the intelligence field as, "the wilderness of mirrors".

THE GOOD

"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." - Albert Einstein

Conscience -- "the sense or consciousness of the moral goodness or blameworthiness of one's own conduct, intentions, or character together with a feeling of obligation to do right or be good".

One of the main reasons I chose to "blow the whistle", was a matter of conscience. When the exposure from the investigations led to a literal global media scandal, I assumed others more knowledgeable would naturally come forward, no doubt prodded by their own conscience, the fear of getting found out before confessing, or the consequences for withholding testimony. But it wasn't happening...at all. The silence was deafening and maddening.

As the days and weeks intensely rolled by, I had to make a monumental, potentially life changing (and threatening) choice. Either speak up now to someone outside "the system" and risk everything, or keep silent forever.

My initial thoughts were of the accused, that were from my perspective being 'scapegoated' ("one that bears the blame for others"), waiting in their detention, hoping desperately someone like me would come forward in their defense.

More importantly was the weight of knowing that if the wrongs done weren't held accountable in some way, many more innocent Iraqi people would suffer as a result. Several reports found between 70-90% of those detained were later found to be completely innocent, and for most of them, being incarcerated alone meant losing their home, possessions, and even families. A fact I already knew on the ground.

Stopping Wrong and Evil -- The other main reason I chose to willingly disobey the gag order imposed by my superiors, was an effort to, quite frankly, stop the insanity. Obviously the innocent detainees are in mind when I say this, but this also includes the welfare of my fellow soldiers involved in these interrogations, as well as the integrity of our mission itself.

By submitting innocents to "enhanced interrogation techniques" (which some like myself consider forms of torture, such as starvation, sleep deprivation, and sensory manipulation--and this is the mild stuff), we were creating enemies that beforehand did not exist--and for absolutely no credible reason.

THE BAD

"If it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge." - William Shakespeare

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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.

I suppose that The New York Times' recent article, Where Even Nightmares Are Classified: Psychiatric Care at Guantanamo, will be welcomed by some as a reminder of the horror that is Guantanamo. While I cannot expect that others will find significant the same episodes in the wide-ranging torture scandal as I do, this article by Sheri Fink (assisted by others, including James Risen) does a disservice to the public by misrepresenting many facts about what actually happened. The article hides and misrepresents more than it claims to reveal. It is, in fact, a classic example of a "limited hangout," something that The New York Times excels in producing.

The article gives us glowing photos of former Guantanamo mental health providers. It offers testimony from supposedly conflicted former doctors, psychologists, nurses and psych techs, without ever noting that retrospective testimony could be self-serving. Fink herself can't seem to make up her mind if these so-called conscientious medical professionals showed "willful blindness" to "abuse," or whether in fact "psychiatrists, psychologists and mental health teams... were often unaware of what happened." (I don't think anyone at Guantanamo was unaware of the torture going on, but they may have deliberately or unconsciously numbed themselves to it. No doubt recent reports of high levels of PTSD among guards assigned to Guantanamo is related to the exposure to widespread torture of detainees.)

Actual contemporaneous documentation of the attitudes of health care workers, or the subordination of medical decision making to military command authorities, was amply available to The New York Times, but they chose to ignore it. This omission amounts to a misrepresentation of the material, as the article promises in its very title to be an examination of psychiatric care at Guantanamo. Is the failure to provide such material because it would reflect very badly on the medical professionals there? The article suggests at times serious deficiencies in the behavior of medical personnel, only to pull its punches or offer up mea culpas.

The signal importance of mental health problems actually leading to suicide was mostly ignored by Fink and her collaborators. Not one concrete example of an actual suicide was given, though there exists copious public documentation (and though you'd think an article on psychiatric care would say more about suicides of detainees held in Guantanamo's psychiatric unit).

In a powerful example of such evidence, we have on public record the sworn statement of the Chief of Behavioral Health Services at the Guantanamo prison camp, given to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) in June 2009 as part of the investigation into the purported suicide of Mohammed Al Hanashi. Al Hanashi had come to the Chief the very day he was to die and complained about being tortured. The Chief told NCIS what happened from his perspective, which is damning enough. They had been talking about pending changes to rules to take place in the Behavioral Health Unit:

In what NCIS regarded as Al Hanashi's suicide note, Al Hanashi described his response, and his descent into suicidal despair: "... when the highest ranking officer in the camp came and talked to me while I was walking he informed me that this camp [the Behavioral Health Unit] will have the same rules as the others, and when I asked the help of the [Chief] psychologist who was present, he said the rules will apply on everybody then he left without saying anything more. Even the officer who was close to him was surprised by his inappropriate behavior as someone who is supposed to be in a humanitarian position. At that time I knew that the only solution is death before they transgress on our religion the way they do in the other camps." In fact, Al Hanashi died only hours later, purportedly at his own hand. [Kindle Locations 145-148 in "Cover-up at Guantanamo"; also Al Hanashi documents, Part 2, pp. 2-3, URL: http://guantanamotruth.com/mohammed-salih-al-hanashi/]

None of this is even hinted at in Sheri Fink's article.

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Duluth, Minnesota (OpEdNews) November 15, 2016: When the 2012 election results came in and the election was called, former Governor Mitt Romney, the Republican Party's 2012 presidential candidate, had to concede that he had lost the election to President Barack Obama. Even though I had voted for President Obama's re-election in 2012, I actually thought that Romney had a chance of winning, because the economy was not working in Obama's favor. But Romney was himself actually surprised when he lost to Obama in 2012.

In 2016, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic Party's presidential candidate, had to take her turn in conceding that she had lost in the Electoral College to Donald J. Trump, the Republican Party's candidate. But I do not know if Hillary was as surprised by her loss in 2016 as Romney was by his in 2012.

Even though I voted for Hillary, I had published a number of OEN pieces about Trump before the election, reminding OEN readers of the possibility that he might be elected, as he now has been.

Since the election, I have published two OEN pieces about the election results:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Some-Reflections-on-Trump-by-Thomas-Farrell-Abortion_Anti-abortion_Catholic_Congress-161110-658.html

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Hillary-Deserves-Her-Fair-by-Thomas-Farrell-Democratic_Electoral_College_Government_Hillary-2016-161112-480.html

Thus the present commentary is my third OEN piece about the election results. I do not see these three commentaries as superseding one another, but as complementing and rounding out one another.

As I write, Hillary holds a small but still increasing edge over Trump in the popular vote. Nevertheless, her impressive voter turnout in certain crucial battleground states did not equal then-Senator Obama's voter turnout in 2008. In 2008, then-Senator Obama was a fresh young face who symbolized the black civil rights movement of the 1960s and, because of his vote in the Senate against the war in Iraq, the anti-war movement in the 1960s against the Vietnam War. By contrast, then-Senator Clinton had voted in the Senate for the war in Iraq, even though young Hillary Rodham had been against the Vietnam War in the 1960s. (Unfortunately, she was not the only baby boomer from the 1960s anti-war movement against the Vietnam War who failed to oppose the war in Iraq.)

Although I was surprised as I watched the 2016 election results come in, I was not as surprised as some other Americans were, because I had never thought that it was unthinkable that Trump would win, as I had said repeatedly in my OEN piece about Trump before the election. Evidently, certain white voters turned out to vote for Trump in certain crucial battleground states who had not turned out for Romney in 2012, perhaps because he was a Mormon. Of course in both 2012 and 2016, as in earlier elections, there were millions of eligible Americans who did not vote, for whatever reason(s). So we understandably focus on those eligible Americans who were moved to vote, for whatever reason(s). What moves voters to vote?

In the terminology that Aristotle uses to identify the three appeals that a civic orator makes (to logos, pathos, and ethos), Trump was making a strong pathos-appeal to his supporters.

The nineteenth-century British author John Henry Newman famously said, "The whole man moves." Today we might prefer to re-phrase this a bit and say that the whole person moves.

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Dr. Jill Stein in handcuffs from the trees

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Where did all the progressives go for the last eight years? Most fair-weather progressives slept while Obama broke every campaign promise he made..."ssshhh, he did the best he could!" No he didn't! And neither did most progressives who were happy as long as they thought it did not require them to make any sacrifices.

Most wannabe progressives slept while the Nobel Peace Prize president made speeches about "Just Wars", bragged about being good at killing people, and he proved it when he murdered, maimed, widowed, orphaned and destroyed the lives of millions of people in every corner of the globe. With Obama, Clinton and Kerry it was not "]ust War", it was just more wars.

Obama did not do all the killing alone. The military-industrial-Cogressional-banking-media complex, who are the oligarchs that are really in charge of the USA, caused the worldwide wars of terror and chaos. Had Clinton been elected president fair-weather progressives would still be in hibernation. Now they have suddenly realized that the Bill of Rights have been turned into ashes and are not worth the paper they were written on.

The Bill of Rights had been on life support for decades. Civil liberties and progressive anti-war principles went into a hibernation when President Nixon ended military conscription on January 27th, 1973; one week after his second inauguration after defeating the anti-war liberal Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern (D-SD) by a landslide. It was McGovern's defeat that ushered in the era of the Superdelegates to abort the democratic and Democratic Party's ability to nominate a candidate that was "too liberal and too anti-war" to be "electable".

Superdelegates were imposed on the liberal base of the Democratic Party so they could not "runaway" with the party again. As we saw with the rigged defeat of Bernie Sanders by the Clinton machine, the chances of reforming the Democratic Party are dead. The hierarchy of the Democratic Party have all sold out to the Military-Industrial Complex, Wall Street and neoliberal capitalist exploiters. The Democratic Party is just another path to war, trade agreements and climate change.

Do not be fooled by the lies of "pink washing", minority and women's rights, getting money out of politics, and "Stronger Together" propaganda of the Democratic Party bosses. They do not care about progressive and anti-war causes. All they care about is getting elected and raking in the cash. Clinton lost because she lied about her progressive agenda and the so-called "most progressive platform in history". If you still believe that lie, then just read Obama's 2008 and 2012 platforms, and compare it to his record of war and oppression of civil liberties. Obama does not deserve the credit of being "moderate" or "fascist lite". He was not, except when compared to warmongers such as Clinton, Kerry and John McCain.

The Democratic Party is beyond resuscitation since September 11th of 2001. The feeble anti-war and anti-fascist movement during the George W. Bush presidency died on the election of Barack Obama on November 7th, 2008. The Democratic Party needs a decent funeral. Its stinking corpse is what produced Trump.

Many progressives are in shock and disbelief from a President Trump. They are in denial of what a President Clinton would have brought. They are in mourning for their self-centered agendas. We have a President Trump because too many progressives abandoned their core principles of anti-war and peace. The most important issues of ending wars for empire, imperialism, political and economic monopoly, the wars of terror and regime change, war crimes, torture, homeland spying, administrative detention, assassinations by drones, night raids, foreign bases, the occupation of Palestine, Gaza, and the bloated military budget, all were mostly ignored during the election.

Too many progressives jumped on the Bernie Bandwagon without holding his feet to the fire on foreign policy, wars of aggression, his unconditional support for Israel, and military spending. Instead they were dreaming of free college and other self-centered domestic policies without a clue how to pay for them and without empathy for the suffering all over the world, nor did they care about the horrible, and illegal US wars of aggression, which is the worst of war crimes because it is the cause of all other war crimes.

Bernie-ites told progressives who criticized Bernie's record on war, military spending and unconditional support for Israel to shut up. They said that if Bernie came out with an anti-war position that he would be committing "political suicide". They said not to worry that Bernie was a "secret anti-war" candidate. It was these so-called progressives who were "secretly pro-war". It was these so-called progressives who were selfishly pro their limited special domestic agendas. It was these so-called progressives who committed political suicide by abandoning their core principles.

Had Bernie had a principled anti-war policy he would not have just had a bandwagon. He would have had the whole parade. He would have defeated Clinton and Trump. Instead Bernie committed political suicide by not accepting Jill Stein's offer for him to run as the top of the Green Party. Instead Bernie committed political suicide by accepting Clinton's fraudulent nomination without protest and without even letting his loyal delegates finish their votes at the Democratic Convention. Instead Bernie committed political suicide by supporting Clinton. Trump won because of Bernie.

President Trump is not the fault of Jill Stein and her supporters, as they have been accused. Jill Stein had the most principled platform of all the candidates. Jill Stein gave voters an opportunity not to vote for the "lesser evil", but to vote for the greater good. A vote for Jill Stein was not a wasted vote; a vote for Clinton was the wasted vote. Those wasted votes on Clinton got Trump, without even sending the Democratic Party the message that the days of voting for evil, lesser or not, are over.

Progressives are now eating their own children. They are blaming everybody but themselves for Trump. They are still talking Clinton propaganda that Trump was the fault of Jill Stein, Russian hackers, Wikileaks, and "disloyal" Bernie and Stein supporters. Those that are disloyal to anti-war and progressive principles are those that backed Clinton as the lesser evil.

We can not expect anything from both the Republican and Democratic parties in the future except more evil. Progressives have been talking about the corruption and evil of the two-party system for a long time. When are they going to "walk the talk"?

Good change will only happen when progressives stop doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. As Einstein said, that is the definition of insanity.


Earth - Following a Polar Ice Melt

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the opening statement of this series, which laid out this basic idea:



In this extremely dangerous moment in our nation's history, we owe it to ourselves and our posterity to seek best-case scenarios with the new president, rather than merely assuming that all that we fear will come to pass. Because we have good reason to fear the worst, we also need to prepare to fight this dreadful new president to protect all those things that are vital to our values and our interests.What this calls for is moves that simultaneously test for the possibility of peace, and that also -- failing that -- position us advantageously for political war.





That strategy is applied, below, to the issue of climate change. For surely, with science telling us that climate change may be the biggest threat to our species in our history, and with Trump already moving in an absolutely calamitous direction on the issue, this is a matter on which we should strive for the best while being committed never to surrender to the worst.



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Corey Lewandowski was once Donald Trump's campaign manage and is now back in the Trump camp.

"With eleven days to go, something amazing happened," Mr Lewandowski said

"In those last last eleven days Mr Trump was exceptionally disciplined. He used a teleprompter, and he did less media. The team used social media like no campaign in history....And then, Donald Trump won the election campaign by the largest majority since Ronald Reagan in 1984."

This is the Big Lie the Republicans will use to claim a Mandate!

It doesn't matter if its true but only that the Trump "morons (his word)" believe it.

I am watching Fox news....and reading their take down of the NYTimes> ...the paper that decided that Trump's supporters were a rabble of racist rednecks and homophobes...."

No, Trump decided they were racists and homophobes and tailored his propaganda to appeal to their bigotry. The media reported this fact.

Example "Mexicans are rapists" drew in millions of bigots. Fact: undocumented immigrants have a 50% lower crime/incarceration rate, mostly for non-violent crimes like lack of documentation (65%)_ and the rest mostly for drugs. Violence is very rare, whereas US citizens have murdered each other 200,000 times since 9/11. We have met the enemy, and he is us.

Everyday, 40 Americans (mostly family and friends per FBI data) murder each other. Every (rare) murder by an immigrant is headline news.

Trump also said the border cities were very very dangerous and that he was taking the risk by visiting the major of a border city. Fact: border cities are much less criminal than inland cities. Our largest border city (San Diego) is, year after year, the least violent crime-ridden large city with a murder rate 50% lower than the national average.

Jihadist murders (none refugees) are 100 since 9/11, mostly US citizens, compared to many more by the very racists and homophobes Trump pandered to. By his logic, all US citizens should be banned.

It is no accident that the KKK and David Duke and Stormfront, etc all supported Trump: they heard the dogwhistled came running, along with tens of millions of bigots, celebrating their newfound right to use hate speech in public!

The liars are on TV right now: Kelly Conway just said "the voters gave Trump a mandate." Fact: the voters chose Clinton by half a million or more (as with Gore in 2000) and the Electoral College, designed by slave owners to ensure their control of the new central government (the first 7 presidents, and now the 45th were all slave masters)and to block the will of the people to insure the rule of the 1%, the rich white male slave owners (there were 220,000 when in the first elections, only 1% were qualified to vote). The candidate, the 2nd of the last 3 Presidents was rejected by "the voters" but the voter's will was overturned by the Electoral College, which gives rural/conservative states 4 times more electoral voting weight than the populous states.

The election was rigged, and has been since the Constitution was written to ensure rule of the slave masters. Trump has slaves in Bangladesh working for $50 a month (cnn) and the Pakistani immigrants building his 6 billion luxury complex in Dubai were promised $3 an hour to leave their families to work in the 110 degree heat building villas for billionaires A Vice documentary shows them explaining they only get $1. 50 an hour and are unable, in this very expensive nation, to pay back the travel loan. Their passports are being held by the Trump company until they pay back the loans, and so they are trapped, slaves. Our first 7 Presidents were large slave owners, Washington and Jefferson being in the top 40 of 212,000 slave owners (1800 US census) .

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From Middle East Eye

Post-election comments on Middle East policy last week by President-elect Donald Trump and one his campaign advisers have provoked speculation about whether Trump will upend two main foreign policy lines of the Obama administration in the Middle East.

But the more decisive question about the future of US policy toward the region is whom Trump will pick for his national security team -- and especially whether he will nominate John Bolton to become secretary of state.

Bolton, one of the most notorious members of Dick Cheney's team plotting wars in the George W Bush administration, would certainly push for the effective nullification of the main political barrier to US confrontation with Iran: the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal.

Trump created a minor stir by giving an interview to the Wall Street Journal last Thursday in which he reiterated his criticism of the Obama administration's involvement in the war against Syria's Assad and supported cooperation with Russia against the Islamic State group.

And a Trump campaign foreign policy adviser once connected with an extremist sectarian Christian militia in Lebanon named Walid Phares suggested in an interview with BBC radio that Trump would demand that Iran "change [a] few issues" in the agreement and that "the agreement as it is right now... is not going to be accepted by a Trump administration."

The significance of that interview, however, is very unclear. Trump himself had avoided threatening such a move during the campaign, denouncing the nuclear agreement as "disastrous" but avoiding any pledge to renounce it as his Republican rivals Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio had done. In his speech to AIPAC, Trump thundered against the agreement but promised only to enforce it strictly and hold Iran "accountable."

Trump has consistently embraced the long-standing official US animosity toward Iran, but thus far he has given no indication that he intends to provoke an unnecessary crisis with Iran.

In any case, Trump's own views will only be the starting point for policymaking on Syria and Iran. His national security team will have the power to initiate policy proposals as well as effective veto power over Trump's foreign policy preferences.

That is why Trump's choices of nominations for the top positions on national security will certainly be the crucial factor in determining what policy lines ultimately emerge on those issues -- and why the real possibility of Bolton's nomination as secretary of state now represents the greatest threat to international peace and security.

Barack Obama became president with a firm intention to get US combat forces out of Iraq within 16 months as he had promised during the campaign. But in his very first meeting with Centcom Commander General David Petraeus, Secretary of Defence Robert M Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen in late January 2009, Petraeus and his two allies pressed Obama to back down on his pledge, arguing that it wasn't realistic.

In the end, Obama accepted a scheme devised by the military and Pentagon officials under which combat brigades remained in Iraq, long after the August 2010 Obama deadline for their withdrawal with no reduction in combat capability. They were simply given additional tasks of advising and assisting Iraqi military units and renamed "advisory and assistance brigades."

Later in 2009, Obama's national security team, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, pushed for a major US military escalation in Afghanistan in 2009-2010. Obama didn't buy the arguments by Petraeus, Gates and Mullen for a huge increase in US troops in Afghanistan. He and Vice President Joe Biden argued that the implosion of Pakistan was a much bigger problem than Afghanistan and that there was no evidence of a threat that al-Qaeda would return to Afghanistan.

But the war coalition leaked a story to the press that the White House was ignoring a new intelligence assessment that the Afghan Taliban would invite al-Qaeda back into the country if they won the war.

In fact, the intelligence community had produced no such assessment, but the proponents of a big counterinsurgency effort in Afghanistan were demonstrating their power to use the media to raise the political cost to Obama of resisting their demand.

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The reason Hillary Clinton was crushed in the electoral college during this election is because she lost Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. The reason behind the unprecedented loss can be summed up in two sentences. We will not forget. We will not forgive.

These three states are home to the Serbian-American community. For most of them, their traditionally Democratic ticket vote turning Republican was a clear repudiation of Hillary Clinton's role in the Balkan genocide.

"An American Serb generally doesn't vote FOR anyone, but AGAINST a Biden, a Clinton, a McCain, against whoever Madeleine Albright supports, against whoever bombed Serbia, recognized Kosovo... Wait, was Dubya a friend to the Serbs? Didn't his administration pounce to recognize Thaci's Cartel State in 2008?

Didn't the worst act of ethnic cleansing in the 21st century occur on his watch against the Kosovo Serbs in March 2004? All true, but in 2004, it was John Kerry, his opponent, who inexplicably promised to recognize Kosovo during the campaign, although Kosovo was far from being a foreign policy priority or a campaign issue. It was John Kerry who received more than half a million dollars in one evening from the Albanian-American community led by Florin Krasniqi, a well-known arms dealer, via the notorious Serb-haters Richard Holbrooke and Wesley Clark, who took the money over in the Cipriani ballroom in New York. Of course Serbs were going to vote for Kerry's opponent."

The loss of these three states was revenge exacted for supporting the Kosovo Liberation Army genocide against Serbians. This was a clear repudiation of the Clinton dynasty and Hillary Clinton because she had callously destroyed so many of their families.

The Serbian-American vote in this election was the first time I have ever heard of racial genocide victims vote to end the political careers of people they hold responsible. Slobodan Milosevic was exonerated from genocide in Kosovo. In fact, he tried to stop it. At this point, as much as you want to, you can't even call him an a**hole.

"Not only was Milosevic not responsible for ethnic cleansing which took place in Bosnia, he actually spoke out against it. The ICTY noted Milosevic's "repeated criticism and disapproval of the policies made by the Accused (Karadzic) and the Bosnian Serb leadership."Milosevic, a man for whom all forms of racism were anathema, insisted that all ethnicities must be protected."

It was Hillary Clinton that badgered then president Bill Clinton to start the bombing and support the genocidal terrorists, the KLA."For me, my family and my fellow Americans (Albanians) this is more than a foreign policy issue, it is personal," Clinton stressed . The bombing drove the victims into the waiting hands of the KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army).

And Kosovo is truly personal for Clinton . At this year's Democratic National Convention, Hillary invited the speaker of the Kosovo National Assembly, Kadri Veseli as a special guest. Veseli, with longtime Clinton friend Kosovo president Hashim Thaci are going to be tried for crimes against humanity. Without Clinton in the White House protecting them, they will probably hang for organ stealing and mass murder. Kosovo is part of Albania's greater Albania project.

"Less than a week before visiting Washington , Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has said U.S. Republican candidate Donald Trump would be a threat to his country and to U.S.-Albanian bilateral ties if elected president... Rama was in neighboring Kosovo, two countries with the same ethnic Albanian majority population, to take part in a ceremony for new President Hashim Thaci Friday."

In Kosovo today there were ISIS camps being set up on the hope of a Clinton win. Kosovars (Albanians) made a reputation for themselves as the white jihadis. They are ultra-nationalists that recruit for and support ISIS.

"I am accused that I cut off one man's head? I did nothing less nor more then the soldiers of the KLA during the war. I placed the photos of those deeds by the KLA on Facebook," Muhaxheri is quoted as saying."

Today, the emigres that supported the KLA genocide are among the groups behind the protests aimed at overthrowing the election. It's easy to see why.

The Serbian-Americans were the only emigre group behind Donald Trump that I have been able to find. For the emigre series I went as far as interviewing a member of the Serbian Radical Party in Belgrade for that section. I am hoping to add it in later.

The two noticeably absent ethnic blocs in the emigre series I wrote before the election are the Serbian-Americans and the Ukrainian-Americans. Each played an important part in Donald Trump's rout of a self-destructing Hillary Clinton. The Ukrainian-Americans thought Clinton was going to win after spitting out so much money and media spots. They believed their own story line and got complacent in Pennsylvania.

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From Paul Craig Roberts Website

I guess we have all noticed that the holier-than-thou groups who whined that Trump wasn't going to accept the outcome of the election refuse to accept it themselves.

Because I was critical of the George W. Bush regime, the liberal-progressive-leftwing and homosexual/transgendered rights groups have me on their mailing lists.

And it is unbelievable. The entirety of "the other America" refuses to accept the people's decision. They think that their concerns are more important than the concerns of the American people, whom they regard as nothing but a collection of racist homophobic rednecks.

Unless they provoke him beyond reason, Trump is not going to bother any of these people.

Trump wants to bring middle class jobs back to Americans, including for all those paid to protest him.

In order to avoide nuclear war, Trump wants to restore normal relations between the major nuclear powers.

When there are no jobs for Americans that pay enough to support an independent existence, Trump doesn't see the point of massive legal and illegal immigration.

This is only common sense.

Yet "the threatened people" see it as fascism.

Who are "the threatened people?" As always, the most powerful.

Tell me, what lobby is more powerful than the Israel Lobby? You can't. But the Jewish Lobby, J Street, has sent me a hysterical email at 5:11pm on 14 November. Unless "we all come together and oppose Trump's appointment of Breitbart editor Stephan Bannon as chief strategist and senior counselor" a "wave of hate will sweep across the land," consuming "Jews, Muslims, African-Americans, LGBT peoople (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered), immigrants, Hispanics, women and other groups."

Really now! So is Trump's chief strategist, whatever position that is, going to attack the Jews and those with unusual sexual impulses with drones and cluster bombs, like the zionist neoconservatives who controlled the Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama regimes did to millions of slaughtered and displaced peoples in seven countries, and like Israel does to Palestinians? Or is the former Breitbart editor going to round them all up and torture them in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo like Bush and Obama did. And like Netanyahu does in Israel?

Or will Trump simply shoot them down in the streets like Netanyahu does to the Palestinian women and children.

How come J Street and the Oligarchy-funded fronts are only concerned with nonexistent threats and ignore all of the real threats?

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A month after the start of the joint offensive carried out by Iraqi security forces (ISF), Shiite militias and Kurdish "Peshmerga" forces, supported by US-led international coalition on Mosul, we can have a look at the first results of the operation. Apparently, they leave much to be desired.

First, early announcement of the operation provided ISIS militants with opportunity to prepare for a long-term defense, so that the coalition missed the chance to use the element of surprise. As a result, radicals strengthened their positions in Mosul and surrounding villages, forcing the attacking forces to join the battle in the conditions most favorable to the militants. Terrorists are actively using explosive devices which target both security forces and civilians.

Lives of the latter are almost completely ignored by the coalition. Unlike the terrorists, civilians were unable to take advantage of operation's announcement because the coalition command failed to effectively organize humanitarian corridors. As a result, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration, only 40,000 of refugees managed to leave the city which counts more than one and a half million people. The responsibility for the failure was pushed on the Iraqi security forces, who were forced to attack terrorists using civilians as human shields.

Furthermore, civilian death toll continues to rise due to coalition airstrikes targeting Mosul and its vicinity. Whole families fall victims: late October an airstrike carried out by U.S. Air Force at the village of Fadhiliya resulted in death of seven persons from the same family. Considering that the coalition air forces conduct dozens of air strikes on a daily basis, the number of casualties should be measured in hundreds, being significantly higher than the official data provided by the coalition.

While the US and its allies stubbornly deny any responsibility for civilian casualties, the consequences of their airstrikes are used by ISIS terrorists to justify the need for confronting "crusaders' coalition". Terrorists publish photos and video footages in social media to accuse US-led coalition of civilian casualties.

Obviously, the U.S. planned to liberate Mosul before presidential elections, which were expected to become victorious for the Democratic Party Candidate Hillary Clinton. Now, after Donald Trump's unexpected victory, the situation around the Iraqi city is getting more confused. The interest of Obama's administration in this problem is gradually fading, and there is no guarantee that the United States will be able to accomplish the operation in Mosul. Therefore, it is likely that the people of Mosul could find themselves in front of a humanitarian disaster and terrorists.

The city's population is between the hummer and the anvil: the coalition continues to conduct air strikes on Mosul, while the terrorists use them as human shields. And no side is confused by the deaths of civilians.


green wall against Trump

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Decades ago we thought President Johnson would destroy our entire generation. Then we thought Nixon was the scariest thug in the basement. Then we thought Reagan would blow up the world. Then we thought Bush Sr. (head of CIA) would put us all in jail. Then we thought George W would drag us into hell.

All these Republicans, and the Democrats in between, caused great damage. To the environment. To the Constitution. To the middle class. To the poor. To other nations.

Many regard Trump as Godzilla, trampling everything good. But regardless who is elected, the military is unleashed. Deportations grow. The prisons boom. Farms and cities bust.

Today Trump wins official authority, supported by a congress of millionaires and lobbyists. Their laws foreclose our homes, jack up medical insurance rates, send our jobs overseas, poison our food and water, send our youth to war and jail. They serve corporations, regardless what happens to your community.



Green Billy Penn

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Americans can build our own Green Walls of innovation: regional food, health co-ops, land use, new schools, local environmental standards, municipal citizenship rights, municipal bank, local currencies, preemptive laws, corporate taxes. These will enable Philadelphia to depend less on the federal funds that our defiance would risk.

Here's a closer look at our local capability to set national examples of healthy development:

JOBS: We can create 100,000 jobs rebuilding America so every bridge is safe and every house is secure. Green jobs create far more jobs that can't be exported and that lower our utility costs, without poisoning our children's water and air.

HEALTH CARE: We can expand health care and cut prices by creating regional health co-ops. These were once the backbone of American health financing. One hundred years ago, co-op members paid pennies per week to build hospitals, clinics, senior housing, orphanages.

HOUSING: An America run by Americans for Americans is fully capable of retrofitting all homes so they're earthquake-proof, hurricane-proof, tornado-proof, flood-proof, drought-proof, fireproof, and bank-proof. Deep insulation is the best fuel. Tiny houses and "earthships" amid greenhouses create eco-villages that employ veterans, returning citizens, and us all.

FOOD: Our 30,000 vacant lots enable us to build edible cities, reducing our dependence on imported food in the winter. And employing thousands, as above.

TRANSPORTATION: Decentralized services shorten commuting distances so that bikes, buses and feet do the job. We are more powerful with fewer cars.

FINANCE: We can take direct control of money to make sure it serves our communities and reduces national debt. There are several approaches: create local currencies to strengthen local economies paulglover.org/hourintro, create regional and state banks to reinvest locally, create regional stock exchanges to focus capital on job creation greenjobsphilly.org/static_praise.php, issue money through the Treasury Department rather than through banks, tax real estate flips and stock speculation.

FOREIGN POLICY: We can challenge dangerous militarism with "Municipal Foreign Policy." Trump's conservative status permits him to make peace with communist China and Russia, just like Nixon reached to China and Reagan made treaties with Russia. Now after 14 years of self-destructive war we can move our budget from weapons to construction, creating more jobs per dollar while building an America that the world will envy.

ABORTION: No society has ever completely prevented random pregnancy. The surest way to prevent abortion is through birth control. We will pick up slack for Planned Parenthood. This Pro-Life Pledge challenges us to honor all life.

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From Reader Supported News

Donald Trump softens his presidential image. He talks soothingly of unifying the country. He calls Obama a good man. He takes off his website his call for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States." He takes off the table his call for mass deportations of 11 million undocumented immigrants. At least according to Republican chairman Reince Priebus, a possible chief of staff in the new administration, Trump will deport only those who have committed crimes.

But even with this Trumpian Kumbaya, his victory is energizing white supremacists, Muslim-bashers, women-haters, anti-immigrant nativists, and evangelicals who believe that America should be a Christian nation. "This is one of the most exciting nights of my life," crowed former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, whom Trump had hesitatingly denounced. "Make no mistake about it, our people have played a HUGE role in electing Trump!"

"The election of Donald Trump has emboldened the forces of hate and bigotry in America," writes Nevada's Harry Reid, the outgoing Democratic leader in the senate. "I have heard more stories in the past 48 hours of Americans living in fear of their own government and their fellow Americans than I can remember hearing in five decades in politics."

Trump's win similarly feeds the hatred of Muslims that unites Christian nationalists and neo-fascists across Europe, from Britain's Brexiteers to Russia's increasingly authoritarian Orthodox Christians. "Congratulations to the new President of the United States Donald Trump and to the free American people," tweeted Marine le Pen, leader of France's neo-Fascist Front National, who proudly admits that a Russian bank close to Putin funds her political campaigns.

A Trump White House equally heartens deniers of science, as the know-nothing-in-chief threatens to cripple global efforts to combat climate change. "It's not like we were winning the climate battle before, you know, but we were beginning to make at least a little progress," explains environmentalist Bill McKibben. "Now we're going to hit not a pothole, but a ditch in the road."

Unless massively resisted on both sides of the Atlantic, these dangers could prove fatal. I take that as gospel. But what will the property mogul and reality TV star do in specific hot-spots like long-suffering Syria, with its nearly half-a-million dead and 11 million displaced? Does Trump himself even know? With all his mixed and misleading messages, possibly part of his bargaining strategy with other nations, much of what people think they know will likely turn out to be wrong. Nonetheless, let me stick my neck out. Trump will not be the isolationist his media critics and many European leaders fear.

"America first will be the major and overriding theme of my administration," he announced in his major foreign policy speech in April, echoing the isolationist and often anti-Semitic stance that defined the Republican Party before World War II. He earlier called NATO "obsolete and expensive" and "not meant for terrorism." And, in a New York Times interview in July, he raised questions about whether he would honor commitments to defend NATO countries under attack unless they paid what they had committed.

All this is now old news. By mid-August, Trump vowed to work "very closely" with NATO. "Since my comments," he boasted, "they have changed their policy." Suddenly, he was no longer the isolationist he had only appeared to be. His America will not be militarily absent from the world.

Trump's thinking on this is absolutely mainstream. Just like Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and even Bernie Sanders, who has generally followed Obama's lead on both Syria and Iraq, Trump believes that he needs to take out the Islamic State and other jihadis in the Middle East to defend the United States against terrorist attack.

The evidence tells a different story, as many of us at RSN have previously argued. Nine days before last November's terrorist attacks that killed 130 people in Paris, ISIL leaders risked allied airstrikes to bring their senior officials together in the Syrian town of Tabqah, west of Raqqa. There the leadership laid out a decisive shift in strategy. Instead of putting all their efforts into holding the Iraqi and Syrian land in their self-proclaimed caliphate, a task they saw as militarily hopeless, the leadership had already sent hundreds of their European fighters back home to wreak havoc in Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, and the UK.

The United States faces the same threat. Perhaps with Trump in office more Americans will come to realize that his clash of civilization rhetoric and counter-productive military escalation only helps Islamic State and its competitors to recruit even more terrorists to their cause.

Trump differs with current thinking in Washington on one key aspect. He wants to seek an agreement with Russia that will leave Bashar al-Assad's brutal regime in power and focus on fighting the jihadis. His is not an unintelligent argument. Nor will he simply follow orders as some kind of puppet of Putin, a charge that Hillary Clinton and her supporters have made without any compelling evidence.

Love him or loathe him as I do, Trump remains his own man, as will become clear when he runs into the enormous difficulties of making any deal with Putin work. The Russians back Iran, and are quite happy with the nuclear deal they helped negotiate. Trump and his Republican supporters want to "renegotiate" or simply reject the deal. This alone could be a deal-breaker.

Closer to the bone, the Russians, Iranians, and Syrians oppose as "terrorists" all of Assad's enemies, including the Free Syrian Army that Obama has reluctantly supported and that Iran's Shiite enemies, the Sunni kingdoms of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, will continue to support.

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History is rife with examples of oppressive governments. The present is rife with examples of oppressive governments. You can name your own examples. The question that presents itself to any opposition is what is to be done? Go underground? Sabotage? Take up arms? The likelihood of success in such casesdepending on the belligerence of the opposition and the capabilities of the governmentvaries widely. But I see no moral reason to condemn people for fighting injustice, provided their cause itself is just. Neither, of course, did Henry David Thoreau, author of the 1849 essay Civil Disobedience, a document that every student of Political Philosophy 101 knows as an ur-text of modern democratic protest movements.

This is an essay we have become all-too familiar with by reputation rather than by reading. Thoreaus political philosophy is not passive, as in the phrase passive resistance. It is not middle-of-the-road centrism disguised as radicalism. It lies instead at the watering hole where right libertarianism and left anarchism meet to have a drink. I heartily accept the motto, That government is best which governs least, wrote Thoreau, and ultimately That government is best which governs not at all.

Like many utopian theorists of the 19th century, Thoreau saw this as the inevitable future: when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government they will have. Thoreau laments all restrictions on trade and regulations on commerce. He also denounces the use of a standing army by a comparatively few individuals. And yetdespite these radical positionsThoreau has been enshrined in the history of political thought both for his radical tactics and his defense of preserving government, for the present.

To speak practically and as a citizen, he wrote, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. He does not go to great lengths, as classical philosophers were wont, to define the ideal government. It is radically democratic, that we know. But as to what constitutes injustice, Thoreau is clear:

When the friction comes to have its machine, and oppression and robbery are organized, I say, let us not have such a machine any longer. In other words, when a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize. What makes this duty the more urgent is the fact that the country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army. This people must cease to hold slaves, and to make war on Mexico, though it cost them their existence as a people.

The figure he cites of a sixth of the population is not erroneous. As W.E.B. Du Bois showed in one of his revolutionary 1900 sociological visualizations, during the time of Thoreaus essay, one-sixth of the countrys population was indeed comprised of people of African descent, most of them enslaved. Thoreau wrote during debates over the impeding Fugitive Slave Act, a law that put every person of color in the expanding countryfree or escaped, in every state and territoryat risk of enslavement or imprisonment without any due process.

Thoreau found both this developing nightmare and the Mexican-American war too intolerably unjust for the country to bear. And he recognized the limitations of elections to resolve them: All voting is a sort of gaming with a slight moral tinge to it, he wrote, then observed with devastating irony, given total disenfranchisement of people who were property, that Only his vote can hasten the abolition of slavery who asserts his own freedom by his vote.

Unjust laws exist, writes Thoreau, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn. Thoreau had put his dicta into practice already many years before. He had stopped paying his poll tax in 1842 to protest the war and the expansion of slavery. He was finally arrested and jailed for the offense in 1846. The incident hardly sparked a movement. He was bailed out, perhaps by his aunt, the following day. And as we well know, the Mexican-American war and the crisis of slavery were both resolved with war.

But Thoreau used his experience as the basis for Civil Disobedience, which he wrote to a local audience in his home state of Massachusetts, and which went on to directly inspire the massively successful, national grassroots movements of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and other non-violent Human Rights and Anti-War leaders around the world. So what did he recommend dissenters do? Here are the basics of his prescriptions, with his words in quotes:

I do not hesitate to say, that those who call themselves Abolitionists should at once effectually withdraw their support, both in person and property, from the government of Massachusetts. Thoreau then goes on to describe his particular form of resistance, the non-payment of tax. His thesis here, however, allows for any just refusals to recognize government authority. Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison. Thoreau himself suffered little, its true, but millions who came after himdissidents on all continents save Antarcticahave endured imprisonment, beating, and death. Suppose blood should flow, writes Thoreau, Is there not a sort of blood shed when the conscience is wounded? As for the justness of disobedience, Thoreau makes a very logical case: If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood.

Thoreau goes on to introduce a good deal of nuance into the argument, writing that community taxes supporting highways and schools are ethical, but those supporting unjust war and enslavement are not. He recommends discerning, thoughtful action. And he expected that the poor would undertake most of the resistance, because the burdens fell heaviest on them, and because they who assert the purest right, and consequently are the most dangerous to a corrupt State, commonly have not spent much time in accumulating property. This has generally, throughout history, been true.

The best thing a person of means can do, he writes, is to endeavor to carry out those schemes which he entertained when he was poor. Or, presumably, if one has never been so, to follow the poors lead. The paradox of Thoreaus assertion that the least powerful present the greatest threat to the State resolves in his recognition that the States power rests not in its appeal to sense, intellectual or moral but in its superior physical strength. By simply refusing to yield to threats, anyoneeven ordinary, powerless peoplecan deny the governments authority, until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived.

Read Thoreaus complete essay, Civil Disobedience, here.

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Global Industry Insight: Machine-To-Machine (M2M) Market Size, Share, Development, Growth and Demand Forecast to 2020

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The global machine to machine (M2M) market is growing at a considerable rate due to the increasing adoption of machine to machine technology in telematics and telemetry related applications, users migration from second generation (2G) to third generation (3G) and fourth generation (4G) networks, and regulatory mandates. Growth of the connected car market, strategic partnerships with system integrators and emerging applications in different industries are expected to provide ample growth opportunities to the machine to machine market in the coming years.Most of the technologies except wearable devices, tablets and smartphones, which permit the machines to communicate among themselves with the help of wireless and wired technologies are referred to as machine to machine technology. Organizations accomplish greater flexibility and high revenue margins with reduced risk, end to end solutions and lower energy consumption with the help of machine to machine communications.To Browse Full Report Visit Here:The machine to machine communications supports the organizations to keep track of security and safety of the data and connected devices through 24x7 monitoring, remote access, and automated emergency response. The machine to machine technology supports governments and businesses to enhance IT efficiency in terms of enterprise resource planning, automated beats per measure, and streamlining of customer relationship management. The data in machine to machine technology flows among devices and then to the consumers, so no human involvement is required in the process.On the basis of technology, the machine to machine market can be categorized as wireless technologies, wired technologies and cellular technologies. Wireless technologies include ZigBee, Bluetooth and wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi); wired technologies include industrial Ethernet and Ethernet; and cellular technologies include second-generation (2G), third-generation (3G) and fourth-generation (4G) or long term evolution (LTE). ZigBee is expected to grow with the highest rate among wireless technologies in the coming years. The wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) leads the wireless technologies market; however, its share is expected to decrease in the coming years. Among cellular technologies, 2G market is expected to decrease in the coming years owing to the increasing adoption of 3G and 4G.Browse For Related Research:The machine to machine market can also be categorized on the basis of end users as consumer electronic, utilities, retail, healthcare, automotive and transportation, oil and gas, security and surveillance, and agriculture. Healthcare industry utilizes machine to machine technology in telemedicine and patient monitoring and tracking. The utilities industry on the other hand uses them in smart meters and smart grids. The retail industry uses them in vending machines and automated teller machine (ATM), and digital signage and point-of-sales. The use of machine to machine technology in consumer electronics industry is found in smart appliances, smart television (TV) consoles and smart television (TV); security and surveillance include remote surveillance, residential security and commercial security. The automotive and transportation industry uses machine to machine technology in fleet tracking or monitoring, and telematics. Among end users of machine to machine market, utilities, and automotive and transportation are expected to grow with an exponential rate in the coming years.Report CoverageProvides comprehensive understanding of the market with the help of informed market outlook, opportunities, challenges, trends, size and growth, competitive analysis, major competitors and Porter analysisIdentifies the key drivers of growth and challenges of the key industry players.Also, assesses the future impact of the propellants and restraints on the marketUncovers potential demands in the marketPorter analysis identifies competitive forces within the marketProvides information on the historical and current market size and the future potential of the marketProvides sizes of key regional markets using yardsticks of processes, segments, products, end user and technology, etc (as applicable)Highlights the competitive scenario of the market, major competitors, market share, benchmarking, investments and merger acquisitionsProvides profiles of major competitors of the market including details of their operations, product and services, recent developments and key financial metrics. Profiles provide better understanding of competition as well as the demands of the market.About P&S Market ResearchP&S Market Research is a market research company, which offers market research and consulting services for various geographies around the globe. We provide market research reports, industry forecasting reports, business intelligence, and research based consulting services across different industry/business verticals.As one of the top growing market research agency, were keen upon providing market landscape and accurate forecasting. Our analysts and consultants are proficient with business intelligence and market analysis, through their interaction with leading companies of the concerned domain. We help our clients with B2B market research and assist them in identifying various windows of opportunity, and framing informed and customized business expansion strategies in different regions.Contact:AbhishekExecutive  Client Partner347, 5th Ave. #1402New York City, NY - 10016Toll-free: +1-888-778-7886 (USA/Canada)Email: enquiry@psmarketresearch.comWeb:
Asia Pacific Beer Market Is Expected To Generate Huge Profits by 2020

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Beer is one of the alcoholic beverages containing 4% to 6% alcohol by volume. The main ingredients of beer include water, a starch source (such as malted barley, helps in saccharification and fermentation), a brewers yeast and flavors such as hops. Flavoring such as hops helps in adding bitterness and act as a natural preservative. Beer is the most widely consumed alcoholic beverage in the Asia Pacific region. Growing drinking population in the countries such as India and China is boosting the market for beer in the Asia-Pacific region. By types, Beer market can be segmented into premium, mainstream and economy.Countries such as China have the largest consumption of beer in the Asia Pacific region, followed by Japan. Increasing population and more inclined towards western culture are the major factors for the growth of beer market in the Asia Pacific region. Countries such as India, Singapore and South Korea are the fastest growing market for beer in the Asia-Pacific region.View Sample Report @Rising disposable income, ever-increasing population, increasing in the number of bars and restaurants, increase in the acceptance of western culture and relaxation in the rules and regulation related to the operation of beer industry are some of the major driving force for beer market. Increasing disposable income among the working class population allows the customer to go out more to restaurants and bars and spend more on beer. In addition, consumers are now willing to pay more for premium segments also. According to the National Bureau of Statistics China, annual per capita disposable income of urban households in China increased from USD 2,271.0 in 2008 to USD 3408.5 in 2012. The overall annual disposable income in India medium household income increased from USD 1,366.2 billion in 2010 to USD 1,587.6 billion in 2013. Quick adoption of western culture has largely influenced the drinking habits in the Asia Pacific region. People living in the west usually have a habit of drinking beer with their meals, at parties and even during meetings. Rising Anti-alcohol campaigns and rising aging population are some of the major restraints for beer market.Request TOC (desk of content material), Figures and Tables of the report:The major companies operating in the beer market include Anheuser-Busch InBev, Tsingtao Brewery, Beijing Yanjing Brewery, San Miguel Brewery, Asahi Breweries and China Resources Enterprise.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market in-telligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexi-ble without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com
Global Audible Alarm Market 2016 Industry Trends, Sales, Supply, Demand, Analysis & Forecast to 2021

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Global Audible Alarm Industry 2016 Market Size, Share, Trends, Global Price, Company Profiles, Demand, Insights, Analysis, Research And Forecast 2016-2021.Global Audible Alarm Industry 2016 studies the Audible Alarm markets performance, covering an in-depth analysis of the present state of the market as well as the competitive landscape, in China as well as worldwide. The report evaluates the market statistics of the Audible Alarm market at present and the upcoming prognosis of the numerous segments of the market in detail. It provides a comprehensive and wide-ranging analysis of the Audible Alarm market and its grouping in terms of projecting segments established in the global market.For the topics exploration, data gained from extensive interviews as well as discussions with industry experts has been deployed, which has been supplemented by thorough secondary research. The report presents market size in terms of US$ for each section during the forecasting horizon from 2016 to 2021. Hence, the report is an effective combination of both secondary and primary research. Primary research inculcates facts compiled from exchange via interviews. Secondary research inculcates an evaluation of annual reports, press releases, stock analysis presentations, and various international and national databases.Browse Complete Report with TOC @An exhaustive qualitative review of the factors accelerating and restraining the growth of the Audible Alarm market and approaching opportunities has been deployed. The Audible Alarm market has been analyzed based on applications, geographic distribution, and the substantial factors accountable for the rising demand of the Audible Alarm market globally have been detailed in this report. The report covers the global Audible Alarm market right from its definition to the numerous categorizations of the market as well as its key end-use applications.The elementary weaknesses and strengths of the leading vendors coupled with the rate of growth for each of the segments of the Audible Alarm worldwide market have been conferred after a complete analysis of past and prospective trends, regulatory needs, and technological innovations.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @About Us:QYResearch Group is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. QYResearch Group also carries the capability to assist you with your customized market research requirements including in-depth market surveys, primary interviews, competitive landscaping, and company profiles. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics. QYResearch Group is the comprehensive collection of market intelligence products and services available on air.Contact US:Joel John3422 SW 15 Street, Suit #8138,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442,United StatesTel: +1-386-310-3803GMT Tel: +49-322 210 92714USA/Canada Toll Free No. 1-855-465-4651
Laser Capture Microdissection Market: Growth, Trends, Absolute Opportunity 2020

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Laser capture microdissection (LCM) is a technology that provides the scientific community with a rapid and reliable method to procure a homogeneous population of cells under direct microscopic visualization. Laser capture microdissection technology has been used in wide variety of applications such as organ transplantation, pathology, gene expression, molecular characterization of cancer cells and others. LCM technology can capture the tissue cells of interest and allowed accurate separation of tumor stromal and normal cells within a single biopsy specimen.Get a copy of free Sample Report @Technological advancements in LCM techniques is one of the major driving factors for the growth of laser capture microdissection. Rising health awareness coupled with increasing expenditure on health also expected to boost market growth over the forecast period. The study includes drivers and restraints for the laser capture microdissection market along with the impact they have on the demand over the forecast period. Additionally, the report includes the study of opportunities available in the acne vulgaris treatment market on a global level.The report provides detailed segmentation of the laser capture microdissection market based on product, system types, application, end user and region. Consumables, reagents and media, assay kits, other consumables, instruments, software and services are key product includes in laser capture microdissection market. The system type includes ultraviolet LCM, infrared LCM, ultraviolet and infrared LCM and immunofluorescence LCM. Based on application, the market has been segmented into research and development, molecular biology, cell biology, forensic science, diagnostics and other. All segments have been analyzed based on historic, present, and future trends, and the market has been estimated from 2015 to 2020 in terms of revenue (USD Million).Get in-depth TOC (Table of Contents) with Tables and Figures @Geographically, the laser capture microdissection market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East & Africa, further bifurcation of region on the country level, which include U.S., Germany, UK, France, China, Japan and India. North America has witnessed strong growth of laser capture microdissection market in recent past years on account of increasing pharmaceutical companies and CROs.Browse detail report @Some of the key players operating in global the laser capture microdissection market such as Molecular Machines & Industries, Indivumed GmbH, 3D Histech Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc, Ocimum Biosolutions LLC, Denova Sciences Pte. Ltd, Molecular Machines & Industries and Theranostics Health Inc.This report segments the global the laser capture microdissection market as follows:Laser Capture Microdissection Market: Product Segment AnalysisConsumablesReagents and MediaAssay KitsOther ConsumablesInstrumentsSoftware and ServicesLaser Capture Microdissection Market: System Type Segment AnalysisUltraviolet LCMInfrared LCMUltraviolet and Infrared LCMImmunofluorescence LCMLaser Capture Microdissection Market: Application Segment AnalysisResearch and DevelopmentMolecular BiologyCell BiologyForensic ScienceDiagnosticsOtherLaser Capture Microdissection Market: End User Segment AnalysisAcademic and Government Research InstitutesHospitalsPharmaceutical and Biotechnology CompaniesContract Research Organizations (CROs)Laser Capture Microdissection Market: Regional Segment AnalysisNorth AmericaU.S.EuropeUKFranceGermanyAsia PacificChinaJapanIndiaLatin AmericaBrazilMiddle East & AfricaInquire more before buying this report @About UsSyndicate Market Research provides a range of marketing and business research solutions designed for our clients specific needs based on our expert resources. The business scopes of Syndicate Market Research cover more than 30 industries includsing energy, new materials, transportation, daily consumer goods, chemicals, etc. We provide our clients with one-stop solution for all the research requirements.Contact US:Joel John3422 SW 15 Street,Suit #8138Deerfield Beach,Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Email: sales@SyndicateMarketResearch.comWebsite:
Electric Vehicles Market: Global Industry Insights,Consumption and Research to 2020

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Electric vehicles are also known as electric drive vehicles. Electric vehicles are growing in popularity and are seen as a potential option towards a less carbon intensive road transport. It can be powered by electricity from off-vehicle sources, or may be self-contained with a battery or generator to convert fuel to electricity.Get a copy of free Sample Report @The electric vehicles market mainly is driven by decreasing cost of battery and increasing in popularity among end users. Electric vehicles reduce dependence on petroleum and tap into a source of electricity that is often domestic and relatively inexpensive. This attributes seem to drive the demand for electric vehicle over the forecast period. However, lack of awareness in end-users among emerging technology and scarcity of expertise in research and development is expected to hamper growth of mobile robotics industry.Vehicle type segment have been analyzed based on historic, present, and future trends, and the market has been estimated from 2015 to 2020 in terms of revenue (USD Million). Key vehicle type segments covered under this study includes hybrid (HEV), plug-in hybrid (PHEVs), battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and others. Battery electric vehicles segment is leading region for electric vehicles market and expected to remain prolong segment over the years to come.Get in-depth TOC (Table of Contents) with Tables and Figures @In order to give the users of this report a comprehensive view on the electric vehicles, we have included a detailed competitive scenario and product portfolio of key vendors. To understand the competitive landscape in the market, an analysis of Porters Five Forces model for the electric vehicles market has also been included. The study encompasses a market attractiveness analysis, wherein application segments are benchmarked based on their market size, growth rate and general attractiveness.Regional segmentation includes the current and forecast demand of electric vehicles in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa (MEA) with its further bifurcation into major countries including U.S., Germany, France, UK, China, Japan, India and Brazil. North America is leading region for electric vehicles market. However, Asia Pacific is a fastest growing region for electric vehicles market over the forecast period.Browse detail report @Some of the key players for global electrical vehicles market include BMW, Daimler, General Motors, Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan Motor, Renault, Tesla Motors, Kandi Technologies Group, Kia Motors, Mahindra, Roewe, Shuanghuan Automobile and Wheego Electric Cars.This report segments the global electric vehicles market as follows:Electric Vehicles Market: Vehicle Segment AnalysisHybrid (HEV)Plug-In Hybrid (PHEVs)Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs)OtherElectric Vehicles Market: Regional Segment AnalysisNorth AmericaU.S.EuropeGermanyUKFranceAsia PacificChinaJapanIndiaLatin AmericaBrazilMiddle East & AfricaInquire more before buying this report @About UsSyndicate Market Research provides a range of marketing and business research solutions designed for our clients specific needs based on our expert resources. The business scopes of Syndicate Market Research cover more than 30 industries includsing energy, new materials, transportation, daily consumer goods, chemicals, etc. We provide our clients with one-stop solution for all the research requirements.Contact US:Joel John3422 SW 15 Street,Suit #8138Deerfield Beach,Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Email: sales@SyndicateMarketResearch.comWebsite:
Global Cattle Feed and Feed additives Market Set to Grow Exponentially During the Forecast 2020

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Cattle feed and feed additives are used for improving the quality of feed to enhance yield and overall cattles health. Cattle feed are gaining popularities mainly due to the enhance performance and increasing application such as growth promoter, prevention and cure of diseases and for improving feed digestibility in cattle.Based on animal type, the global cattle feed market is categorized in three broad segments namely mature ruminants, young ruminants, and others. Based on the different product type, the market is segmented in six broad categories: antibiotics, vitamins, antioxidants, amino acid, feed enzymes, feed acidifier and others.View Sample Report @The rising awareness among consumers towards the nutritional content and safety of milk and meat, coupled with recent disease epidemic in cattle are some of the leading drivers of the market. Moreover demand for milk and meat is increasing in most part of the world and hence the formers are now more concern over the health and yield of the cattle which in turns helping the global cattle feed and feed additives market.Increasing prices of raw materials is one of the major challenges for the industry. However, the growing demand of cattle feed from the emerging economics such as China, Brazil and India are providing new growth opportunities for the cattle feed and feed additives markets. The manufacturers are advancing their production technology for both cost and capacity benefits.Asia Pacific is the largest market for cattle feed and feed additives market attributed to the large share of cattle population in this region. It is followed by North America and Europe. Asia Pacific and North America collectively account for more than 60% of the total market share of cattle feed and feed additives market. Asia Pacific is also the fasted growing region mainly fueled by the increasing demand from China and India. The rising dairy market in this region is expected to boost the cattle feed and feed additives market in upcoming years.Request TOC (desk of content material), Figures and Tables of the report:Some of the major companies operating in global cattle feed market include, Kent Corporation Godrej Group, Land Olakes Inc., V. H. Group., Archer Daniels Midland Company, BASF SE, Cargill, Inc., CHR., Hansen Holdings A/S., Evonik Industries AG, and Royal DSM N.V.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market in-telligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexi-ble without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com
Solenoid valve Market Adopts Innovation to Stay Competitive

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Solenoid valve is a device which uses a solenoid to control valve activation. In solenoid valve, electric current is passed through a solenoid. Solenoid valves are considered as electromechanically operated valve used for controlling liquid or gas flow. Solenoid valves are most commonly used in fluidics as a control elements. They perform the various task such as release, shut-off, mix or distribute fluids. Solenoid offers various advantages such as high reliability, fast and safe switching, extended service life, compact design and low control power.Request to view Sample Report @Solenoid valve market is evolving continuously and expected to witness significant growth during the period of forecast. Constant evolution in solenoid valve market leads to the development of new technologies. Factors which are driving the growth of global solenoid valve market are increasing applications of solenoid valves into various industrial sectors, lower price of a valve and lower power consumption. Furthermore, development of new solenoid valves such as micro-miniature valves customized valves and pinch valves encourages the growth of global solenoid valve market. On the other hand, solenoid valve market growth is affected by few common problems associated with solenoid valves. Power failure, uneven pressure, wrong voltage may affect the functioning of solenoid valve because of which solenoid valves may not open, erratic valve sounds while opening and closing of valve and coil problems in solenoid valves are some of the common issues associated with solenoid valves.Global solenoid valve market is segmented on the basis of type, application, and region. On the basis of type, the global solenoid valve market can be segmented into two port valves, three-port valves, and four-port valves.Solenoid valves are commonly used in fluid power pneumatic and hydraulic system to control fluid power motors or large industrial valves. Solenoid valves are also used in automatic irrigation sprinkle system. Furthermore, washing machine and dishwashers use solenoid valves to control the flow of water into the machine. On the basis of application, the global solenoid valve market can be segmented into various industries such as chemical industry, pharmaceutical industry, automobile industry, agriculture industry, food & beverages industry and others. Out of all these applications, the chemical industry is expected to dominate global solenoid valve market during the period of forecast.On the basis of region, the solenoid valve market can be segmented into seven regions which includes, North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan), Eastern Europe, Japan and Middle East & Africa region. Further, the market is sub-segmented as per the major countries of each region in order to provide better regional analysis of the solenoid valve market. North America and Western Europe region expected to cover a major share of global solenoid valve market during the forecast period.Request to view Table of content @Key players are global solenoid valve market are ASCO Valve, Inc., Danfoss A/S, CKD Corporation, Christian Burkert GmbH & Co. KG, SMC Corporation of America, IMI plc Company, GSR Ventiltechnik GmbH & Co. KG, ODE s.r.l., KANEKO SANGYO Co., Ltd, CEME S.p.A., TAKASAGO ELECTRIC INDUSTRY CO., LTD., Parker Hannifin Corp. and Ningbo mailing pneumatic co., Ltd. among others. Market players are focusing more on the development of new technologies which can provide improved features and better performance. Market players are focusing more on providing industry-specific products in order to capture more market. Global solenoid valve market is also witnessing trend of development of new solenoid valves such as customized valves, pinch valves, and micro-miniature valves. These developments are expected to fuel the overall growth of the global solenoid valve market during the forecast period.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com
Optical Transceivers Market:Explores New Growth Opportunities By 2021

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Transceiver is a device that performs both transmission and reception of signals with a common circuitry over a network. An optical transceiver, also called as fiber optic transmitter and receiver, completes the operation of transmission by converting the electrical signal in light pulse and vice versa at the receiving end. In case of fiber optics, the information is sent in the form of light pulses. The light pulses need to be converted into electrical signals in order to be used by an electronic device. This photoelectric conversion is carried by the optical module equipped at the end terminals of the network. The light from the end of connecting cable is coupled to the receiver, where a detector carries the conversion of the light signal back into an equivalent electrical signal. A laser diode or a light emitting diode (LED) is used as the light source for transmission of information. There are numerous optical transceiver modules available in the market differing in the type of data transmission speed, connections and packing forms. Some of the types of optical transceivers available in the market include SFP, SFP+, X2, XFP, Xenpak, GBIC and others. Furthermore, as per the type of connection, there are single mode (SM), multi-mode (MM) and Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) modules.Request for Sample Report:Optical transceivers are the modernized components for the efficient use of network. The major factor bolstering the adoption of optical transceiver components is their low cost transport of information over the network. Additionally, optical transceivers are preferred over conventional transceiver devices as they require low maintenance cost as compared to conventional devices. Optical transceivers support large bandwidth and hence, are widely used in high speed network infrastructure such as broadband internet connections. These are used as both carriers and data centers. Optical transceivers are deployed to update the communication networks and data center networks for efficient traffic management with higher speeds. Optical networks are the backbone for mobile communication network. With growing demand for reliable and high speed mobile communication, optical transceivers are increasingly being used for the communication network infrastructure.Geographically, North America is seen as highly attractive market for the optical transceivers due to increasing demand for sophisticated communication network. In addition, the rising deployment of 100G transceivers for high speed networks is another factor contributing to high demand for optical transceivers. Europe is equally fast in adoption of 100G transceivers and follows North America in terms of demand for optical transceivers. Moreover, the combined use of 40G and 100G modules in Europe and North America is expected to show steady growth in demand for optical transceivers in near future. In Asia-Pacific, China is expected to be the fastest growing market for optical transceivers owing to its increasing demand for deployment of 100G equipment. The updating of the existing communication networks in this region is another factor which is expected to boost the growth of optical transceivers market in near future.Request for Table of content:In North America, JDS Uniphase Corporation, Oclaro Inc., Finisar Corporation, Cisco Systems, Alcatel-Lucent and others are the manufacturers of optical transceivers. In Asia-Pacific, Avago Technologies and Wuhan Telecommunications Devices Co. Ltd. are some of the leading manufacturers of optical transceivers.About Us:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact Us:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Analog ICs Market is Considered as One of the Rapidly Growing market by 2021

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Integrated circuits are set of electronic circuits in which all the active and passive electronic components are fabricated on a single chip. Different active components include operational amplifiers (op-amp) and batteries among others. Passive components are capacitors, resistors and inductors. Continuous development of production processes and design of ICs lead to cost reduction of electronic equipments.. Additionally, these ICs increase the reliability as different components are fabricated on a single silicon chip and thus reducing the size of circuit board.Request for Sample Report:Integrated circuits can be classified on the basis of circuit technology, design style, circuit size and design type. Technologies used in manufacturing ICs are complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), n-type metal oxide semiconductor (NMOS), bi-polar junction transistor (BJT) and BiCMOS among others. Different design styles are standard cell, field programmable gate array (FPGA) and gate array. On the basis of size ICS can be categorized as circuit size includes very large scale integration (VLSI), large scale integration (LSI), medium scale integration (MSI), small scale integration (SSI), and giga scale integration (GSI). The design types available are analog, digital and mixed-signal.Analog integrated circuits are those ICs which performs functions of amplification, demodulation and active filtering. In an analog IC current and voltage vary continuously with time. These ICs are consists of electronic components that allows them to communicate and connect with the microprocessor. They are widely deployed in most of the electronic products as these ICs consume less power while maintaining their functionality. Integrated circuits have widespread applications in computers, mobile phones and electronic digital home appliances such as digital camera. These circuits offer various advantages such as low power consumption and low cost for implementation. They reduce the size and complexity of an electronic circuit and provide high speed of operation. Due to these advantages ICs are used in televisions, portable devices such as laptops, microwaves, play stations, cameras, computers and cell phones. Additionally, they are used in data processing and switching telephone circuits. Analog ICs are used in LED Lighting systems due to their less power consumption capability.Need of power management in electronic product and increasing demand of ICs in automotive sector is supporting the growth of market. However, imbalance in demand and supply of analog IC is affecting the market growth. Moreover, rapid technological advancement and increasing applications of analog ICs in LED lighting system offers potential opportunity for the market.Analog integrated circuit market can be segmented on the basis of category, type of analog ICs and end-users. Analog ICs are categorized into radio frequency IC and linear ICs. Different types of analog ICs available are operational amplifiers, sensors and power management circuits. Analog ICs have widespread application across various industries such as electronic industry, automotive sector, telecommunication industry, healthcare and semiconductor industry among others.Request for Table of content:Some of the key players in analog ICs market are Analog Devices Inc., Qualcomm Inc., STMicroelectronics NV, Infineon Technologies AG, Caterpillar Inc., Texas Instruments Inc, EPOS Development Ltd., Linear Technology Corp., Intel Corp., LG Electronics, NXP Semiconductors, Maxim Integrated products, ON Semiconductor, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Renesas Electronics Corp., Cummins Inc., Kohler Co. and Skyworks Solutions Inc among others.About Us:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact Us:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Defense Robotics Market: Recent Industry Trends and Projected Industry Size by 2015 to 2021

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Most of the countries utilize the defense robotic system or are in the process of acquiring or building the technology to incorporate into military programs. These robots are used in form of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned group vehicles (UGVs) and unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs). Unmanned group vehicles are robots that move on wheels or tracks and perform the function of sentry duties and examine the potential hostile location. Unmanned aerial vehicles are essentially remotely controlled or automated robots. The use of all these robotic system includes same purpose of replacing or supplementing human in battlefield situations. Deployment of autonomous or semi autonomous robotic system in the battle field helps in improving the military efficiency, operational performance and accuracy.Request for Sample Report:Defense robotics has many advantages, the important one being performance similar to human being without danger of human casualties. Robots can endure damage done by bombs or other types of weapons that can destroy the human body. Another advantage includes various sizes of robots which enables them to fit into spaces that are not accessible for humans. Other advantages include transportation, drones and bomb disposal. The defense robotic system market across the globe is expected to show a substantial growth with a single digit increase in CAGR by the year 2019. The growth is due to the procurement of robotic vehicles for control, communication, simulation, training and other applications for military purposes.The market for defense robotics system is driven by factors such as desire to reduce the casualties in the field of operation and reduce the military spending. Development in the field of computer programming, sensing technology and material science help to create more advanced tools. Some of the factors restraining the market growth include reduced spending on defense system due to weak economic conditions, and high cost required in manufacturing of robots. Technological availability is enabling diverse applications of robots besides improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the system. Applications such as border patrolling are creating an increasing demand for UAVs and UGVs in countries such as Israel, South Korea, China and United States.The segmentation of defense robotics market can be done on the basis of product type, application and geography. On the basis of product type, the market for defense robotics can be segmented as unmanned group vehicles (UGVs), unmanned underwater vehicle (UUVs) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). On the basis of applications, the market can be segmented as simulation, control command and security, training and others. Global defense robotics market can also be segmented based on geographical markets as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the world. North America is the most technological advanced region in defense robotic system and Asia Pacific represents a strong opportunity due to the availability of technology in countries including China, Japan and India.Request for Table of content:Some of the players in the defense robotics market include iRobot Corp., Allen-Vanguard Corporation, Honeywell Aerospace, GeckoSystems Intl. Corp., Honda Motor Co. Ltd., Bluefin Robotic Corp., AB Electrolux, Deep Ocean Engineering Inc., ECA Hytec SA, McArtney Group, Fujitsu Ltd., Toyota Motor Corp., AeroVironment, Lockheed Martin and others.About Us:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact Us:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Global Egg and Egg Products Market: Booming Industry Powered by Demand from Densely Populated China and India

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Transparency Market Researchs (TMR) new report is titled Egg and Egg Products Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 20162024. It delves into new age technologies that have brought about changes in the quality and nutrition quotient of eggs and have thus ramped up the market for eggs and egg products.Get More Information:The report throws light on the competitive dynamics in the market by profiling key players and their winning strategies. It presents an array of graphics centered on the market size, its key segments, and dominant players. SWOT analysis, which studies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, has been leveraged in order to derive a better understanding of the market. Using all the information, the report makes projections for market growth from 2016 to 2024.Eggs are a rich source of protein and have undergone a makeover of sorts in the past decade. Supermarkets these days are flooded with varieties of eggs touting special health benefits. Alongside eggs, the market for egg products has also developed significantly. Edible products manufactured from various components and blends of eggs are labelled as egg products. They can be complemented by other food products or additives and can be found in different forms such as frozen, crystallized, deep-frozen, concentrated, liquid, and solid with a three-week-long shelf life.The TMR report states that the U.S., China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Japan, France, and Mexico together produce almost 70% of the eggs. Among them, China producing 36% of eggs and Latin America about 11%. Based on the types of egg products, the report segments the market into pasteurized liquid white, pasteurized liquid yolk, pasteurized liquid egg, hardboiled egg, dehydrated yolk, dehydrated egg, dehydrated white, and ready-to-cook meals with egg as their main ingredient.The TMR report reveals that the global market for eggs and egg products has had a stellar showing in terms of sales and revenue so far. With a rapidly rising middle class population in the developing economies of Asia, namely India and China, and their purchasing power on the rise, the per capita consumption of eggs has seen a significant growth in the last few years. Moving forward, TMR expects steady growth in the market on the heels of enhanced technologies and tools improving the safety and quality of eggs. In order to satiate the burgeoning world populations nutritional needs as well as palate with various preferences, new entrants are fast venturing into the market with unique offerings.Browse Full Report with TOC :By geography, the TMR report segments the global egg and egg products market into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. Asia is the leading market due to a high consumption of eggs in China and India. Some of the prominent players in the report are Ningbo Jiangbei Dexi Foods Co. Ltd., Cal-Maine Foods, Inc., Land O'Lakes, Inc., Noble Foods Ltd, and Tyson Foods, Inc.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Transparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Cloud Access Security Brokers Market (Cloud Deployment Type: SaaS, PaaS, IaaS; Software Type: Cloud-based, On-premise) - Future Trends & Forecast

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Cloud Access Security Brokers Market: OverviewCloud access security brokers are primarily deployed to protect the critical data of organizations. The advent of cloud-based systems has helped many companies to manage their critical data in better ways. Lack of information storage infrastructure has led the small and medium businesses to acquire cloud services. The rising data breach and data leakage incidences on the internet have led to the rising demand for cloud access security brokers in many regions. Cloud access security brokers offer solutions to data controlling and monitoring, cloud data encryption, tokenization, risk and compliance management, and data leakage prevention.PDF Sample for More Details:The involvement of a large number of small-scale and medium-scale companies, the entry of new companies, and the presence of many leading companies will drive the global market for cloud access security brokers. The global cloud access security brokers market is predicted to reach US$13,218.5 mn by 2024, expected to exhibit a 16.70% CAGR during the period between 2016 and 2024.The report uses industry-standard tools such as SWOT analysis tool and Porters five force analysis to measure the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the global cloud access security brokers market. For a detailed analysis, the analysts have divided the global market into segments and sub-segments. Key players operating in the global market are also listed in the report. Recent trends, developments in cloud-based systems, and the future growth opportunities are highlighted in the report.Cloud Access Security Brokers Market: Trends and OpportunitiesCloud services have influenced many companies operating in various industries. The adoption of cloud technologies has helped many industries to solve their data storage problems cost-effectively. This has allowed the companies to focus on their core operations and capacities. Cloud access security brokers are consistently achieving an important position in the global cloud-based technologies market.By component, the global cloud access security brokers market is classified into service and software. The software segment is sub-segmented into on-premise and cloud-based components. The service segment is sub-divided into system integration, consulting, and operations and management.Although the global cloud access security brokers market is set for a significant growth, it is expected to be hampered by a few factors. Lack of awareness about the latest cloud access security solutions is predicted to hamper the growth of the global market.Cloud Access Security Brokers Market: Region-wise OutlookBased on region, the global cloud access security brokers market is divided into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. In 2015, North America dominated the global cloud access security brokers market. The North America cloud access security brokers market recorded the highest implementation of cloud access security brokers in the recent years. The North America cloud access security brokers market is likely to exhibit an 18.40% CAGR from 2016 to 2024.Key Players mentioned in the Report:NetSkope Inc., CloudLock Inc., Adallom, Inc., CipherCloud Inc., Skyhigh Networks, Zscaler, Inc., Bitglass, Inc., and Protegrity USA, Inc. are some of the leading companies operating in the global cloud access security brokers market. Key companies are aiming to adopt new innovative methodologies and technologies to secure information over the cloud. The entry of new companies is expected to make the global market highly competitive.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
E-Prescribing (e-Rx) Market Trends, Size, Development, Growth and Demand Forecast to 2020

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E-Prescribing system facilities the practitioner to generate a new prescription electronically whenever treatment error occurs during healthcare operations. E-Prescribing system offers extensive range of applications. It provides comprehensive form of medical data, ensures all security checks and patents identification. It offers completest privacy to the disease information and patients identification with present and historical data.Explore more E-Prescribing Market at:Based on the different product type the global e-prescribing market can be broadly classified as, stand-alone systems, and integrated systems. Based on the different components of electronics prescribing the global e-prescribing market can be segmented as software and hardware (including access devices, peripherals, servers, storage devices, and networking devices) and services (including consulting, implementation services, post-sale & maintenance and training services). On the bases of mode of the delivery of the e-prescription the global e-prescription market can be classified as on premise, web-based and cloud. Further, based on the end user application the market can be segmented as hospitals and office-based physicians.Request for TOC:Europe was the largest market of e-prescription in 2013. It was the followed by North America and Asia Pacific region. The market of e-prescription in Middle East, and Africa are in nascent stage. Asia Pacific and North America are two of the fasted growing market of the E-prescription. Country wise, U.S. is the largest market of e-prescription in North America. Germany, Italy, and Spain are some of the major market of e-prescription in Europe. In Asia Pacific, China, Japan, and India are fasted growing market of e-prescription attributed mainly to the strengthening healthcare services and advancement of the information technology in this region.Enquiry before Purchase:Major Competitors: The global e-prescription market is dominated by Bioclinica, Inc., Bizmatics Inc., CRF Health, DATARAK International, Inc., eResearch Technology, Inc., Some of the top competitors in the global clinical trial management system market are e-MDs, Inc., iMedX, Inc., Practice Fusion, Inc., SureScripts-RxHub, LLC, eClinicalWorks, LLC, and Quality System, Inc.About P&S Market ResearchP&S Market Research is a global market research and consulting company. We provide market research reports, industry reports; business intelligence and research based consulting services across a range of industries.With the help of our professional corporate relations with various companies, our market research offers the most accurate market forecasting. Our analysts and consultants interact with leading companies of the concerned domain to substantiate every single data presented in our publication. Our research assists our client in identifying new and different windows of opportunity and frame informed and customized strategies for expansion in different regions.Contact:AbhishekExecutive  Client Partner347, 5th Ave. #1402New York City, NY - 10016US/ Canada Toll-Free: 1-888-778-7886Email: enquiry@psmarketresearch.comWeb:347, 5th Ave. #1402New York City, NY - 10016US/ Canada Toll-Free: 1-888-778-7886
Mass Deployment Of Bitcoin Systems To Drive Consumption Of ATM Slide Rails

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The report is titled, Global ATM Slide Rails Market 20162020. The report presents a comprehensive overview of the historical growth trajectory, present scenario, and the future growth prospects of the global automated teller machine (ATM) slide rails market.The study presents an evaluation of the factors that are likely to impact the growth of the global ATM slide rails market in a positive or negative manner. An overview of the prevalent trends has also been provided in the report. The report further projects the volume and revenue growth of the global ATM slide rails market. An analysis of the key strategies, products, and shares of the leading companies has also been offered in the report along with information on the degree of barriers to entry and exit.According to the report, the global ATM slide rails market is likely to exhibit a CAGR of 16% between 2016 and 2020. The research report recognizes the rising demand for Bitcoin payment systems as one of the key factors driving the growth of the global ATM slide rails market. As compared to payment gateways, Bitcoin payment systems offer advantages such as a greater degree of freedom while making transactions, elimination of interruptions from third party, and user anonymity. Bitcoin transactions restrict the involvement of intermediaries, thus reducing the cost of foreign transactions and eliminating sales tax. As a result of this, the deployment of Bitcoin ATM machines is likely to increase over the forthcoming years, hence boosting the demand for ATM slide rails.For Sample Copy, click here:Slide rails find applications in the extension of ATM components such as front panel of the ATM, deposit box, error box, cartridges, and cash dispenser unit (CDU). Based on product type, the global ATM slide rails market is classified into full extension, partial extension, and over extension. Among the mentioned product types, full extension emerged as the most deployed in ATM machines. This trend is expected to continue during the forecast period. In terms of material, stainless emerged dominant and is expected to retain a lead until 2020. The growing consumption of stainless steel can be attributed to the fact that it is corrosion or rust resistant and can be used for a longer period of time. The other materials used for the manufacturing of ATM slide rails are steel and aluminum.Region-wise, Asia Pacific emerged as the leading revenue contributor to the automated teller machine slide rail market. The growth of the market in the region is primarily driven by the growing demand from countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, and China. Furthermore, the presence of leading companies such as TK and THK in China, Japan, and South Korea is likely to further bolster the growth of the global ATM slide rails market. To increase their consumer base, key vendors are setting up manufacturing facilities near the areas where the demand for ATM slide rails is extensively high. Some of the key players are THK, TAKACHIHO KOHEKI (TK), and Sun Chain Metal.MarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.State Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Website:Email: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Latest Research Report on Healthcare Analytics Market: Trends, Business Strategies and Opportunities 2025 |The Insight Partners

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Technological advancements such as Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Cloud Computing, and others have transformed the way industries perform their businesses. Healthcare is among one of those industries which are slowly adopting to new way of operations or digitization. Availability of Big Data in healthcare, has led to requirement for analytics and increasing in funding are the factors for growth in healthcare analytics market.Browse market data tables and in-depth TOC of the Healthcare Analytics Market to 2025 @Developing countries will still have difficulties in adopting early to new technologies, few of the key factors which restrict the early adoption of analytics in healthcare will include limited awareness of the technologies, lack of skills to implement the solutions, poor infrastructure and cyber threats. Whereas, these technologies come associated with number of opportunities such as easy recoding and maintenance, centralized database, increasing investments, and others. These advancing technologies will bridge the gap between payers and providers, while befitting both in long run. Hence the growth of healthcare analytics is foreseen and estimated to increase by 2025.The healthcare analytics market is broadly classified into segments such as type, application, deployment model, and geography. Application segment is further sub-divided into clinical analytics, financial analytics, and administrative analytics. Clinical analytics is growing and is estimated to hold the major share due to increasing amount of data being generated. Further types is divided into predictive analytics, prescriptive analytics and descriptive analytics. Some of the key trends of deploying this technology will vary with infrastructures, the healthcare analytics is deployed in two models, namely on-premise and on-demand delivery.Request Sample Copy @There are two major stake holders in healthcare industries such as payers and healthcare service providers, the payers include government agencies, insurance company, employers, and private agencies. While the service providers are classified into to hospitals, physicians, pharmaceuticals and others. The global healthcare analytics market is also segmented on the basis of regions into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America and Middle East & Africa. North America is leading with major share in the market followed by APAC and Europe. The increasing adoption for digitization and mHealth concepts in developing regions such as APAC will pave the path for healthcare analytics market will change the dimension of healthcare industry in coming years.Some of the key market players include SAS, IBM Corporation, Tableau, Oracle Corporation, Optum, Inc. and Truven Health Analytics, Inovalon,Inc., Mckesson Corporation, Medeanalytics, Verisk Analytics, Inc. among others. Some of the key stake holders healthcare analytics market include MNC`s, healthcare analytics vendors, hospitals, health insurance companies, research agencies, consultants, investors and venture capitalists.Make an Inquiry @Few Key Points from Table of ContentGlobal Healthcare Analytics Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025  Type Predictive Analysis Prescriptive Analysis Descriptive AnalysisGlobal Healthcare Analytics Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025  Deployment Model On-Premises On- Demand DeliveryGlobal Healthcare Analytics Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025  Application Clinical Analytics Financial Analytics Operational and Administrative Analytics OthersGlobal Healthcare Analytics Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025  Geographical Analysis North America Europe Asia Pacific (APAC) Middle East & Africa (MEA) South America (SAM)Global Healthcare Analytics Market, Key Company Profiles Included Key Facts, Business Description, Financial Overview, SWOT Analysis and Key Developments Allscripts Health Solution Cerner Corporation Health Catalyst IBM Corporation Inovalon, Inc. Mckesson Corporation Medeanalytics Optum, Inc. Oracle Corporation SAS Institute,Inc.Inquire about discount on this report @About The Insight Partners:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Media, and Telecommunication industries.Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comThe Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Media, and Telecommunication industries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Picaridin Market North America, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia Size, Status and Forecasts 2021

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In depth analysis of Picaridin Market is a crucial thing for various stakeholders like investors, CEOs, traders, suppliers and others. The Picaridin Market research report is a resource, which provides technical and financial details of the industry.Browse more detail information about Picaridin Market at:To begin with, the report elaborates the Picaridin Market overview. Various definitions and classification of the industry, applications of the industry and chain structure are given. Present day status of the Picaridin Market in key regions is stated and industry policies and news are analysed.Next part of the Picaridin Market Industry analysis report speaks about the manufacturing process. The process is analysed thoroughly with respect three points, viz. raw material and equipment suppliers, various manufacturing associated costs (material cost, labour cost, etc.) and the actual process.Get a PDF Sample of Picaridin Market Research Report at:Following are the key players covered in this Picaridin Market research report: FluKa Bayer Jaico Lanxess Hero Chem Changzhou Shanfeng ChemicalNo. of Report Pages: 104Price of Report (Single User Licence): $ 3500After the basic information, the Picaridin Market report sheds light on the production. Production plants, their capacities, global production and revenue are studied. Also, the Picaridin Market growth in various regions and R&D status are also covered.Following are Major Table of Content of Picaridin Industry: Picaridin Market Competition by Manufacturers Picaridin Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2011-2021) Picaridin Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2011-2021) Picaridin Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type Picaridin Market Analysis by Application Picaridin Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis Picaridin Manufacturing Cost Analysis Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers Picaridin Market Forecast (2016-2021)Further in the Picaridin Market Industry Analysis report, the Picaridin Market is examined for price, cost and gross. These three points are analysed for types, companies and regions. In continuation with this data sale price is for various types, applications and region is also included. The Picaridin Market for major regions is given. Additionally, type wise and application wise consumption figures are also given.Scope of the Picaridin Industry on the basis of region: North America China Europe Japan India Southeast AsiaWith the help of supply and consumption data, gap between these two is also explained.To provide information on competitive landscape, this report includes detailed profiles of Picaridin Market key players. For each player, product details, capacity, price, cost, gross and revenue numbers are given. Their contact information is provided for better understanding.In this Picaridin Market report analysis, traders and distributors analysis is given along with contact details. For material and equipment suppliers also, contact details are given. New investment feasibility analysis and Picaridin Market Industry growth is included in the report.Absolute Reports is an upscale platform to help key personnel in the business world in strategizing and taking visionary decisions based on facts and figures derived from in depth market research. We are one of the top report resellers in the market, dedicated towards bringing an ingenious concoction of data parameters.Absolute Reports+1-408 520 9750Baner,Pune 411045Email  sales@absolutereports.com
New Age Banking series launches FinSec  The Banking Security Summit

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Financial organisations in the Middle East are implementing state-of-the-art security solutions to protect data and customers from frauds and other threats. Recent reports suggest that banks in the Middle East and North Africa have invested up to $12.5 billion on IT infrastructure and security in 2016.The New Age Banking series is set to launch FinSec  The Banking Security Summit, which will offer a comprehensive overview of regional and global perspectives on various security challenges faced by banks. The event is scheduled on for the 21st to 22nd February 2017, and will be held in Dubai, UAE. It will bring together CISO professionals from leading banks in the MENA region to discuss and discover the latest technologies, developments and strategies that will help them protect their organizations.The event will focus on challenges faced by financial organisations with regard to securing internet and mobile banking platforms, regulatory compliance, payment security, authentication and data security. It will also highlight the application of technologies such as IoT, Blockchain, biometrics, digital identity and multifactor authentication to counter security challenges.FinSec will host key dignitaries from government authorities, leading banks and global solution providers in the MENA region. The attendees will share their experiences and address security challenges in the banking industry, with the objective of upgrading their current security strategies in line with todays highly sophisticated attacks.The BFSI industry in the MENA region is widely targeted by cyber attackers. Traditional security measures have proven to be inadequate, as cyber criminals are exploiting loopholes within the current security systems. The summit will help attendees bridge security loopholes in their organisations and build a stronger defense, enabling them to recover from system breaches quickly.Founded in 2015, UMS Conferences presents an extensive portfolio of industry-leading and stimulating summits, conferences, awards and expos around the world. Known for building platforms which create value and deliver an unmatched delegate experience, UMS events offer premium branding as well as networking opportunities for partners.With flagship events like UAE India Economic Forum, Arab IPO Summit, CDO Conclave SME Banking Egypt, New Age Banking Summit, our events attract a high caliber of delegates, speakers and partners, who value the knowledge that our events offer. Aligning with our events is a powerful way to engage with this high profile audience and reinforce your expertise and credibility.Madhura Gaikwad | MarketingE: madhura@umsconferences.com | W:Office # 802, Tower ONE, World Trade Centre,Pune 411014, Maharashtra, India.
Mobile Security (mSecurity) Market - Global Industry Analysis, Growth, Trends, Forecast 2019

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Mobile devices have become an integral part of everyday life for large organizations and individual customers as well. Powerful computing capabilities and increased connectivity enabled by the smart devices such as smartphones and tablets has enabled productive workforce. As a result of which cyber criminals target potential users with valuable and personal data on mobile devices. Mobile devices have created a great deal of concern for IT personnel who are responsible for information security.Browse The Market Research Report of Mobile Security Market :Corporate or personal information can be easily transported or lost and the advancement in technology has also increased the number of security breaches. The increase in demand for mobile security is now seeing the emergence of security specialists who offer security solutions for PC as well as mobile.The key driver for the market is ever growing demand for smart devices such as smartphones, tablets and PCs. With the increase in threats to such devices the demand for mobile security services is expected to spur in the years to come. The high pricing of the security software is expected to limit the growth of the market. In the future mobile security may also find applications in other mobile devices such as smart watches.Get Sample Report Copy :Presently, the demand for Mobile Security (mSecurity) is evident in all the regions with North America leading the market. North America is followed by Europe and Asia Pacific. Asia Pacific is expected to see robust growth in the coming years due to the growing IT industry such as Infosys, Accenture, Wipro and Cognizant in the region and consumer electronics manufactures such Samsung and Sony. Some of the key players in Mobile Security (mSecurity) Market are Kaspersky Lab, Symantec, Microsoft, innoPath Software, Googlem, McAfee, Mobile Active Defense, Nokia, MobileIron and Orange among others.About Us :Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact Us :-Transparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030Email:sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Timber Harvesting Equipment Market Revenue Predicted To Go Up by 2026

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Timber harvesting is a modern term for logging described as cutting down of trees from forest. The process for harvesting is cutting trees and collect trees and gather at a place and then load them into a truck. The whole process is done by timber harvesting equipment which includes delimber, feller buncher, forwarder, harvester and skidder. Some of the transporting material from the stump to the landing are chainsaw, log truck, feller-buncher, rubber-tired skidder, whole-tree chipper & chip van, knuckle-boom loader, slasher, forwarder, processor and tub grinder. Three industrial methods identified for harvesting are tree-length logging, whole tree logging and cut-to-length logging. Timber harvesting industry is growing with the changing economic conditions, which is anticipated to fuel the demand for timber harvesting equipment globally. Also, various factors considered while selecting timber harvesting equipment include tree size, slope of the ground, volume of wood to be removed, and soil type among others.Request for Sample Copy@On the basis of product type, timber harvesting equipment market is segmented into trailers, chain-saws, winches, chippers, harvesters, and skidder cranes.Geographically timber harvesting market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Japan and Middle East & Africa. North America, Latin America holds significant opportunity. In Asia Pacific excluding Japan region, demand for timber harvesting equipment is growing in countries such as, Australia and China.Increasing mechanization of operations related to forests across emerging economies is driving the demand for timber harvesting equipment market. Also, improved economic & growing industrial sector are expected to leads towards harvesting more timber, thereby fueling the timber harvesting equipment market growth in the near future. Owing to benefits associated with timber harvesting such as maintenance of overall lower logging costs and bringing extra income in short period of time, better control over timber harvesting, companies are engaged in timber harvesting. This is predicted to bolster the demand for timber harvesting equipment during the forecasted years. Technological advancements in timber harvesting equipment such as use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with the help of global positioning system (GPS) helps to identify and locate the plot location and other information including latitude, longitude, and altitude. This is gaining significant traction among the companies in order to offer better accessibility of the equipment to the user.However, there are some factors which restrain the timber harvesting equipment market growth such as initial risk associated with the timber harvesting process and high cost of the equipment.Changing economic changes have a due impact on labour cost associated with use of machinery, capital, and labour during entire production year. Increasing application of timber harvesting equipment is expected to reduce the labour cost, thus leading towards increasing use of timber harvesting equipment by companies operating in timber harvesting equipment market. Moreover, new innovations in timber harvesting equipment products such as walking forest machine has very high growth opportunity in the global timber harvesting equipment market.Request for Table of Content@Some of the key players operating in the timber harvesting equipment market are CNH Industrial NV, Doosan Infracore Company Limited, CLAAS KGaA GmbH, Concern Tractor Plants, Hitachi Limited, Hyundai Heavy Industries Company Limited, Komatsu Limited, Husqvarna AB (publ), KOBE STEEL, LTD., SENNEBOGEN Maschinenfabrik GmbH, Xiamen XGMA Machinery Company Limited and YAMABIKO Corporation.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.ContactPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com
Offshore Support Vessel Market Revenue Predicted To Go Up by 2026

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Offshore Support Vessels are the ships that are designed to transport liquid cargo, stores, materials and equipment and personnel to offshore oil platform that functions deep in the oceans. These vessels include services such as drilling rigs, offshore pipe laying, and oil production platforms utilized in exploration and production activities. These vessels undertake variety of tasks in the supply chain.Request for Sample Copy@Offshore Support Vessels are fundamental components for oil & gas industry. There are many types of offshore support vessel that have different properties and functions as per the type of operation. The Asia-Pacific regions such as China, Australia, Malaysia, and Southeast Asia require more volume of offshore support vessels. As a result, it provides a great opportunity to the manufacturers of offshore support vesselsGlobal Offshore Support Vessel market is segmented into type and region. The global Offshore Support Vessel market can be segmented on the basis of types such as Anchor Handling Towing and Supply (AHTS) vessels, Platform Supply Vessels (PSV), Diving Support Vessels, Remote Operating Vessels (ROV) Support, Multi-Purpose Service Vessel (MPSV), Cable & Pipe Laying Vessels, Standby and Rescue Vessel, Seismic Survey Vessels, Well Stimulation Vessel, Fast Supply Intervention Vessels (FSIV). Region wise, global Offshore Support Vessel market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan, Asia-Pacific (APEJ), and Middle East and Africa (MEA).The global offshore support vessel market is projected to witness a significant growth in terms of CAGR from 2015 to 2025. North America region is expected to witness significant growth during the forecasted period. Middle East is expected to be one of the leading market for offshore support vessels for the coming years. According to FMI forecasts, the market in Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow at highest CAGR over the forecast period.Offshore Support Vessel Market is being driven by rising offshore exploration and production activities. Moreover, increasing capital expenditure on offshore oil exploration will also lead to offshore developments. Offshore Support Vessel Market is expected to grow at a higher rate for the forecast period supported by increasing demand of oil & gas.The drivers for this market are increased demand for offshore rig, marine logistics, & others. All these factors together drive the Offshore Support Vessel market during the forecast period.Certain restraints that are hampering the growth of global offshore support vessel market to some extent include high maintenance and replacement cost, regulations and environmental effects.Request for Table of Content@Key players in the global offshore support vessel market focus on Developments, investments, expansion, mergers & acquisition, agreements and contracts, new technologies developments, in order to expand their reach and penetrate into the market.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.ContactPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com
Global Forklift Truck Market is Anticipated to Grow from US$ 35.3 Bn in 2014 to S$ 55.9 Bn by the end of 2021

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Key driving factors identified in the global forklift truck market include expansion of warehouse space globally, growing e-commerce business across the globe, strong demand for forklift truck replacement in developed markets, and bulk investments in purchase of low-cost forklift trucks in emerging markets.Request to view Sample Report @Assessing the various factors driving the market growth, PMR analyst opined, The global material handling equipment market is growing significantly at an annual growth rate of 3%7%. Electric type forklift truck is one of the prominent segments in this market. These trucks are gaining traction due to the implementation of various advanced technologies and their growing application across various industries worldwide. The China market is projected to exhibit the fastest growth over the forecast period due to various factors, such as favorable economic environment and a need for technological advancements in in-house logistics in the country.From a regional perspective, Asia-Pacific was the largest market for forklift trucks in 2014, accounting for approximately 41.4% volume share of the overall market. Europe is projected to account for the second largest volume share of the global forklift truck market and expand at a CAGR of 4.6% over the forecast period, due to the positive outlook of the economy in Western Europe and expected rise in trade of goods, in turn leading to a significant growth in demand for forklift trucks in the region in the near future.Request to view Table of content @Key market participants covered in the report include Kion Group AG, Jungheinrich AG, Hyster-Yale Materials Handling, Inc., Toyota Industries Corporation (TICO), Mitsubishi Nichiyu Forklift Co., Ltd., Crown Equipment Corporation, Anhui HeLi Co., Ltd., CLARK Material Handling Co., Ltd., and UniCarriers Americas Corporation.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each PMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With a wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports strive to serve clients and satisfy their overall research requirement.For information regarding permissions, contact:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway,7th FloorNew York City, NY 10007United StatesTel: +1 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWebsite:media@persistencemarketresearch.com
Global Automotive Cabin AC Filter Market to Record an Impressive Growth Rate US$ 3,738.2 Mn by the end of 2024

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A new Persistence Market Research report titled Automotive Cabin AC Filter Market: Global Industry Analysis and Forecast, 20162024 presents market projections for the global automotive cabin AC filter market over an eight-year forecast period (20162024). The global automotive cabin AC filter market is estimated to be valued at US$ 2,198.4 Mn by the end of 2016 and is expected to reach US$ 3,738.2 Mn by the end of 2024, expanding at a CAGR of 6.9% over the forecast period. Global consumption of automotive cabin AC filters is estimated to be pegged at 366,547 thousand units by the end of 2016 and is expected to increase at a CAGR of 4.9% over the forecast period.Request to view Sample Report @Demand for automotive cabin AC filters is expected to increase at a significant rate due to steady rise in vehicle production around the globe. Rising adoption of automotive cabin AC filters to filter pollutants and dust particles and a rising demand for efficient HVAC systems are major factors expected to drive the demand for automotive cabin AC filters worldwide. Cabin AC filters are an integral part of the HVAC system in vehicles. However, many vehicle owners are not aware that this system exists in a vehicle, and hence they are unaware about the replacement cycle of the cabin AC filter. This factor is expected to marginally restrain the growth of the automotive cabin AC filter market over the forecast period.The global automotive cabin AC filter market is segmented on the basis of filter type (electrostatic, particulate, charcoal), vehicle type (passenger cars, LCV, HCV), and sales channel (OEM, aftermarket). Persistence Market Research projections indicate that the particulate filter type segment is likely to expand at a significant CAGR of 6.2% in terms of value over the forecast period. The electrostatic filter type segment is expected to register a volume CAGR of 7.1% over the forecast period. The electrostatic segment is likely to exhibit steady growth in the near future due to the rising adoption of cabin AC air filters in the OEM and aftermarket categories in countries such as China, India, Brazil, and countries of MEA. --- Analyst, Persistence Market Research.The passenger car vehicle type segment is estimated to account for the largest market share of 76.3% by the end of 2016. This segment estimated to be valued at US$ 1,677.0 Mn by 2016 end and is expected to reach US$ 2,913.6 Mn by the end of 2024, expanding at a CAGR of 7.1% over the forecast period. The segment is expected to grow 1.7X in terms of value between 2016 and 2024.The OEM sales channel segment is expected to expand at a CAGR of 5.6% over the forecast period while the aftermarket sales channel segment is expected to be the most attractive segment in terms of CAGR and market share index throughout the forecast period.Among regions, the market in Asia Pacific is expected to witness a relatively high CAGR of 10.5% in terms of value over the forecast period. North America and Europe are expected to contribute significant value share to the global automotive cabin AC filter market throughout the forecast period. The market for cabin AC filters is mature in Europe and North America as almost all the passenger cars are equipped with cabin AC filters.Request to view Table of content @The report profiles some of the leading market players in the global automotive cabin AC filter market  Mann+Hummel GmbH, Sogefi SpA, Donaldson Company, Inc., Robert Bosch GmbH, Denso Corporation, Ahlstrom Corporation, MAHLE GmbH, Freudenberg & Co. KG, Hengst SE & Co. KG, ALCO Filters Ltd., K&N Engineering, Inc., EuroGIELLE S.r.l, ACDelco, and Airmatic Filterbau GmbH.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each PMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With a wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports strive to serve clients and satisfy their overall research requirement.For information regarding permissions, contact:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway,7th FloorNew York City, NY 10007United StatesTel: +1 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWebsite:media@persistencemarketresearch.com
Febrile Neutropenia Market driven by the efforts of key players to develop novel and cost effective therapeutics

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Febrile neutropenia is defined as the development of fever with sign of infection. Febrile neutropenia is one of the most severe complications during cancer chemotherapy and is mainly caused by infectious agents like gram positive and gram negative bacteria. This diseased condition significantly reduces white blood cell count of the patients. Blood test is helpful to determine the number of white blood cells and to diagnose febrile neutropenia disease. Additionally, patient with febrile neutropenia is treated with prophylactic antibiotics to recover from persistent or recurrent fever conditions.The market of febrile neutropenia is majorly driven by the efforts of key players to develop novel and cost effective therapeutics. For example, in July 2014, Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. filled an application for approval of ZOSYN 2.25 and ZOSYN 4.5 (generic name- tazobactam piperacillin) for additional indication of febrile neutropenia. This product is a combination of antibacterial -lactamase inhibitor and can be used intravenously. Moreover, in April 2014, Amgen, Inc. collaborated with ONS Edge, Inc. to help educate nurses regarding the patients who are at the risk of febrile neutropenia.Read Full Report:Thus, these types of efforts will build healthy platform to develop the market of febrile neutropenia hence stimulates the market growth. Additionally, large number of therapeutics under clinical pipelines by key companies will further stimulate the market growth in near future. Positive initiatives by North American and European governments will further drive the market growth of febrile neutropenia. For example, in September 2013, U.S. Food Drug and Administration (U.S. FDA) approved phase III study of Neulasta (pegfilgrastim) by Amgen, Inc. This study demonstrates increase of white blood cells in patients who are undergoing myelo-suppressive chemotherapy. In addition, in June 2010, Nivestim (TM), a new biosimilar filgrastim by Hospira, Inc. is approved by European Commission. This drug is mainly used for the prevention of febrile neutropenia and offers cost-effective treatment option for neutropenia. However, lack of specific treatment that enables to treat all the symptoms of this disorder may restrain the growth of this market. In addition, high generic competition among the key players leads to price erosion and ultimately restrains the overall growth of febrile neutropenia market.The market of febrile neutropenia can be segmented on the basis of:By Therapeutics Molecule TypesPegfilgrastimVancomycin hydrochlorideFilgrastim biosimilarsPegfilgrastim biosimilarsStimuxenOthersDownload exclusive Sample of this Report:Geographically, North America dominates the global febrile neutropenia market. High degree of therapeutic needs for febrile neutropenia coupled with presence of large number of key players like Amgen, Inc., Aequus BioPharma, Inc. and others in North American market will drive the growth of the market. Europe is considered as the second largest market of febrile neutropenia. Large pool of patients under the diagnosis of this disease coupled with increasing demand of treatment fuels the growth of febrile neutropenia market. In addition, Asia-Pacific region is considered as an emerging market for febrile neutropenia due to the launch of novel drugs with improved efficacy by key companies. In addition, growing awareness for this disorder among the people will further stimulate the growth of febrile neutropenia market in Asia-Pacific region.Some of the key players in the febrile neutropenia market include Xenetic Biosciences plc, Richter Gedeon Nyrt., Amgen, Inc., Hospira, Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, USV Limited, Aequus BioPharma, Inc., Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and others.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Biscuits Market to Witness a Continuous Expansion, Due to the Change Towards Healthy Eating Habits

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Global Biscuits Market: OverviewThe market for biscuits is very promising and is expected to witness a continuous growth. Product innovation is continuously changing the dynamics of the market worldwide. New flavors, shapes, taste, and attractive packaging are causing consumers of all age groups to buy biscuits. Players in the global biscuits market are making effective strategies on how to sell biscuits, and in contemplating the kind of packing that will prove to be effective, along with the price strategy. As consumers are increasingly concerned about ingredients and health benefits, manufacturers are maintaining transparency in labeling. The emphasis on low sugar and low calorie content is driving manufacturers in the biscuits market to develop nutritious biscuits with low sugar content.View exclusive Global strategic Business report:The report on the global biscuits market is an analysis of the changing competitive dynamics. The study offers an unbiased perspective on the growth of industry, by taking into factor different driving and restraining factors. It also takes into consideration the current trends and future opportunities, which are likely to have an impact on the global biscuits market. The report segments the global biscuits market on the basis of key criteria and studies it in an in-depth manner. The competitive landscape has also been discussed in detail. The market share held by the top players and the degree of competition has been analyzed. The buyer and supplier bargaining power and the entry barriers faced by new entrants have also been analyzed.Global Biscuits Market: Trends and OpportunitiesThe global biscuits market is driven by rising urbanization, increasing disposable income, demand for convenience foods, and busy lifestyles. The proliferation of supermarkets and hypermarkets has led to an increased visibility of the wide range of biscuits available in the market. In addition to this, promotional strategies employed by marketing team such as television ads are also aiding the growth of the market. Companies are increasingly experimenting with new flavors, new ingredients, and trying out new combinations, to fuel the interest of consumers.Digestive biscuits have become a rage at present and this trend is expected to last for the coming years as consumers are becoming health conscious. The inclination towards high fiber food products will drive manufacturers to include fibrous and other nutritious ingredients in their products. As consumers are showing interest in premium products, manufacturers are introducing organic products, eliminating artificial flavors and preservatives, high fructose corn syrups (HFCS) and other such unhealthy ingredients. Manufacturers are also introducing variety and convenience in terms of servings and sizes. On the other hand, increased competition, high cost of raw materials, and increasing taxes are expected to be factors restraining the global biscuits market.Browse Full Report With ToC:Global Biscuits Market: Region-wise OutlookThe report segments the global oil and gas automation market on the basis of geography, into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World. Of these, Europe and North America are leading in the biscuits market. In addition to this, it is estimated that Asia Pacific will emerge as the fastest growing market in the coming years.Key Players Mentioned in the ReportThe report profiles key players operating in the global biscuits market. The business and financial overview of each of the companies and their recent developments have been discussed in the report. Key players studied in the report are: Parle Products Pvt. Ltd. Nestle UK Ltd. Kellogg Company, Britannia Industries Ltd., Burton's Foods Ltd., Lotus Bakeries NV, ITC, Cadbury, United Biscuits, Walkers Shortbread Ltd etc.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Polyhydroxyalkanoates Market 2016 Worth $XX Billion by 2021: MRS Research Group

Polyhydroxyalkanoates

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MRS Research Group added new research report on Global Polyhydroxyalkanoates Market 2016-2022 includes Market Size, Share, Trends, Growth, Demand, Supply, Application, Segmentation, Opportunity, Market Development, production, capacity utilization, supply, Analysis and Forecast by 2022Get Free Sample Research Report @MRS research reports offers you variety of reports based on different categories such as, chemical, IT, telecom, Healthcare, travel, manufacturing & construction, metal, food & beverages, FMCG products and many more. Its teamwork of intelligent associates accompanied with MRS Polyhydroxyalkanoates market research such as researchers, experts, analyst who work hard to reach your goal. These reports gather data worldwide and evaluate statistics on wide range of products, services and market trend.The global market research reports are comprehensive data analysis and well designed. We maintain high quality and easy to understand information composed in the global market research report. These reports are eye catching and well designed. Majorly we work on in-depth analysis of the report and financial statistics. MRS research generates report on the weekly and monthly basis as per requirement of the client. We spotlight over recent developments and R&D that drives the global Polyhydroxyalkanoates market in the coming years.The global market research report comprises of company profiles, market size, supply & demand, competitive landscape and market share. The study also compounds number standard analysis such as market forecast & tends, product development, merger & acquisition and R&D. The concept of mergers and acquisition is to get outstanding talent without wasting much time. The global market research report discovers micro and macro economic factors which lead to raise market share global Polyhydroxyalkanoates .Read More @The global Polyhydroxyalkanoates market research report encircles growth factors, opportunities, restraints responsible for the growth in the market.We bound tobestow reports on timely basis with complete transparency in the market report. We use methods gather data to reach to client requirement. We make sure to keep client completely satisfies with our research. Out reports is an elite combination of quantitative analysis and forecast that explore client decision for market decision.Porters five forces model will be assist you to realize efficiency of buyers & suppliers entered into the market. The report will be covering the segment like products, application, technology, market attractiveness with market share and value chain analysis. The global Polyhydroxyalkanoates market research report accompanied with graphs, tables and diagrams to clear picture of the market. Furthermore, it covers some major factors and reasons behind potential growth of the market.MRS Research group provides a range of marketing and business research solutions designed for our clients specific needs based on our expert resources. The business scopes of Prof Research cover more than 30 industries including energy, new materials, transportation, daily consumer goods, chemicals, etc. We provide our clients with one-stop solution for all the research requirements.Joel John3422 SW 15 Street,Suit #8138Deerfield Beach,Florida 33442United StatesToll Free : +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Email: sales@mrsresearchgroup.com
Gene Expression Reagents Market grows with development of gene expression databases across the globe

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Gene expression is a process that results in the synthesis of a functional gene product with the help of the information coded on genes. These products usually are proteins with respect to coding genes but in case of non-coding genes such as tRNA (transfer RNA), or RNA (ribosomal RNA), the functional product is a functional RNA. The process of gene expression is significant in both prokaryotes (bacteria) and eukaryotes (multicellular organisms) in order to ensure the generation of macromoleular machinery for their life. Gene expression comprises transcription and translation processes. Transcription (DNA to RNA) refers to production of RNA copies of DNA with the help of the enzyme RNA polymerase. While translation (RNA to protein) is a process that results in the synthesis of proteins based on the information on the coding genes (messenger RNA). There is a possibility of the alteration of several steps in gene expression process such as in RNA splicing, post-translational modification of proteins and others. Gene regulation is the basis for morphogenesis, cellular differentiation and versatility and renders cell control over structure and function of the genes.Download exclusive Sample of this Report:Gene expression profiling refers to the process of measuring the activity (expression) of several genes at once in to understand the cellular functions. This analysis can facilitate scientists to identify the molecular basis of phenotypic differences and also enables selection of gene expression targets for the future research studies. The various analysis techniques employed for gene expression are SAGE (serial analysis of gene expression), Real Time PCR-based gene expression profiling, microarray analysis, transcriptome sequencing and others. Gene expression reagents are the chemicals used in gene expression studies performed to determine the gene expression patterns. Sample preparation and isolation kits, sample labeling and amplification kits, TaqMan Gene Expression assay kits, gene expression hybridization kits and others are some of the examples of the commercially available gene expression reagents kits. Confirmation of appropriate gene expression is essential in order to ensure normal functioning of genes and any deviation from the normal expression pattern might result in the development of some disorder either genetic or acquired. Also, regulation of faulty gene expression inhibits the production of faulty functional products. For example, in case of cancer patients, RNA silencing is employed that includes the silencing of the cancerous gene expression.The market for gene expression reagents can be analyzed on the basis of the reagents used in gene expression profiling along with application areas and geography. The reagents can be further segmented into the reagents used in PCR, Microarray, SAGE and others. The application areas that can be covered are drug discovery and research, biomarkers identification, clinical diagnostics and others. Geographically the market can be analyzed on the basis of four major regions namely North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe and RoW.Read Full Report:The major factors favoring the growth of the market are consistent technological advances, increased intensity of research and development activities and development of gene expression databases across the globe. In addition, increased investments and funding by the government for genetic research along with elevated awareness levels further propel the market growth. On the other hand, high instrumentation costs along with lack of technical expertise in this field would impede the growth of the market. Owing to several advantages and increasing preference for personalized medicine, the scope for growth and uptake of gene expression studies will also increase and in turn increase uptake of gene expression reagents. Affymetrix, Inc., Illumina, Inc., Qiagen N.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Life Technologies Corporation), Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. and Agilent Technologies are some of the companies competing in gene expression reagents market.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Health Insurance Market: U.S. is the leading in the global market due to its unmatched healthcare system in the world

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Health Insurance Market: OverviewThe improving GDPs of several nations across the globe has favored the growth of the global health insurance market in recent years. Health insurance companies have been benefitting from the rising per capita incomes, the emergence of the middle class, and growing number of people with a relatively high income.The research report by Transparency Market Research has also studied using a SWOT analysis and a Porters five forces. The research report includes an explanation of the various factors determining the trajectory of the global health insurance market in the coming few years. Analysts have also factored in opinions of various market experts and leaders to give the readers a fair understanding of the overall market. Additionally, the document includes recommendations for the new entrants and existing players to improve their businesses with the wealth of valuable knowledge about the market.Read Full Report:Health Insurance Market: Trends and OpportunitiesThe efforts invested by several companies to make their product offerings as transparent as possible has fared well over the past few years. This move has made it easier for buyers to compare and understand the terms of insurance and the products being sold to them. Additionally, the integration of solutions through data analytics, cloud computing, and other modeling techniques is also projected to encourage the growth of the global market in the near future.Despite the positive outlook of the global health insurance market, it faces some tough challenges such as intense competition and tough profit margins. The undulating economic conditions have also led a considerable about of uncertainty in the global market.Health Insurance Market: Region-wise OutlookThe U.S. is the leading health insurance market in the global market due to its unmatched healthcare system in the world. The growth of the market is predominantly being aided by the strong presence of leading players such as Anthem Inc., Aetna Inc., UnitedHealth Group Inc., Humana Inc., and Cigna Corp. These players occupy a share of about 80% in the private and public sector of insurance in the U.S. The companies are exploring opportunities of digitizing access to insurance schemes and communication about the same with their consumers to reach out to a wider audience. Options such as providing distributors and consumers with self-service features are also likely to open up a plethora of opportunities for the global market. Furthermore, marketing the products in an easily comprehensible manner is also expected to be the strategy of leading players in the coming years. The only threat for the new entrants is the high level of competition in the U.S. health insurance market.Download exclusive Sample of this Report:Asia Pacific is expected to a lucrative market as the region has shown a remarkable progress in its GDP. Furthermore, the improving disposable incomes and the enhancement of health security standards are also expected to boost this market in the region in the near future. The growing middle class and an increasing number of high net worth individuals in Asia Pacific are also expected to give the health insurance market the much-needed impetus.Key Players Mentioned in the ReportSome of the leading players operating in the global health insurance market are Cigna Corporation, AIA Insurance Group, UnitedHealth Group Inc.,Allianz SE, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd., Express Scripts Holding Company, AXA, Aviva plc, Aetna, Inc., Apollo Munich Health Insurance, and International Medical Group.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Cloud Based BPO Market is Propelled to grow at a CAGR of 11.39% over Forecast 2015-2019

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Albany, NY, Nov 15: Over the years, enterprises worldwide have become increasingly dependent on technology and various software products to run their business and drive revenue growth. This trend is expected to intensify, and therefore the role of outsourcing the business processes to third party vendors has become vital and it directly contributes to the organizations agenda.The global cloud-based BPO market to grow at a CAGR of 11.39 percent over the period 2014-2019. Cloud computing has powered many SMEs business with remote workforces to be competitive in the market. It has provided enterprises with an opportunity to work together without any geographical constraints. In addition, it has also helped many organization to strengthen their customer base through modern innovative infrastructure that aids them to perform business operations real-time without any bandwidth limitation and latency.The increased need for cost effective business process is playing a significant role in shaping the future of the global cloud-based BPO market. Recently, most of the business enterprises are looking forward to incorporate their various business process to cloud to gain a competitive advantage across all major verticals in emerging market. Moreover, the integration of various business process in cloud is predicted to amplify the growth of the business further, while ensuring the compliance and regulatory standards.Get a Sample Research PDF with TOC:This report covers market segmentation by services: HR, finance and accounting, payments, customer management, e-commerce, and others (such as advertising, supply management and industry operations) and by geography. In addition, it covers the information about the overview of cloud market and its deployment models and sub-segments: IaaS, PaaS and SaaS.Technavio's report, Global Cloud-based BPO Market 2015-2019, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the global cloud-based BPO market landscape and its growth prospects in the coming years. It also includes profile of key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors- Accenture- Cognizant- IBM- SAP- TCSOther prominent vendors- ADP- Atos- CA Technologies- Capgemini- CSC- Firstsource- Fujitsu- Genpact- HCL Technologies- HP- Infosys- NGA Human Resources...........Enquiry at:Key questions answered in this report- What will the market size be in 2019 and what will the growth rate be?- What are the various end-uses and potential applications for the product?- What are the key market trends?- What is driving this market?- What are the challenges to market growth?- Who are the key vendors in this market space and what is the nature of competition between them?- What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at:
Dental Prosthetics Market - Global Industry Share and Regional Overview

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Global Dental Prosthetics Market: SnapshotThe geriatric are a key consumer demographic for the consumption of dental prosthetics, and therefore an increase in their number will directly improve the revenue generated by this market. The growing population of the elderly across the world is thus the key driver for the dental prosthetics market.Additionally, the number of dental procedures being conducted around the world are also increasing, further improving the demand for dental prosthetics. This is caused collectively by the growing number of people with dental issues and the rising disposable incomes of individuals. The steadily growing number of favorable reimbursement policies in developed economies are also adding to the number of dental care patients.Another driver increasing the consumption rate of dental prosthetics, especially in developing economies, is the growing rate of medical tourism. This multi-billion dollar industry is currently witnessing an increase in the number of patients that opt to undergo dental procedures overseas to reduce the total cost of the procedure.However, the market for dental prosthetics is still being hindered by the excessive level of competitiveness in terms of pricing. Local manufacturers of dental prosthetics can offer products at a much lower cost than global players, thereby forcing the latter to cut prices and significantly reduce margins in a market where equipment costs are high. Additionally, players are expected to offer updated solutions and services through constant technological advancement. As a result, the capital required for R&D efforts in dental prosthetics are quite high.All in all, the global market for dental prosthetics is expected to reach US$3.5 bn by the end of 2016.This revenue is projected to rise at a CAGR of 7.6% from 2015 to 2023 to reach US$5.88 bn by the end of 2023.Get Sample Research Report with ToC:APAC Demand for Dental Prosthetics Rises RapidlyAsia Pacific is expected to progress at a CAGR of 8.7% from 2015 to 2023 in terms of revenue generated in the dental prosthetics market. The key reasons for this are the rapidly improving healthcare infrastructure, the growing attraction of leading players towards this region, and the proliferation of medical tourism.Meanwhile, Europe is expected to continue leading the consumption of dental prosthetics till 2023. This region is showing a significant increase in its geriatric population, the key target demographic for most dental prosthetics. There is also an increase in the prevalence of periodontal diseases due to the growing consumption of junk foods and convenience foods, which is further complemented by the growing level of awareness of dental care options.Dental Crowns Remain Most Consumed Dental ProstheticsBy the end of 2023, the revenue generated by dental crowns is expected to reach close to US$2.9 bn. Crowns and bridges are the two most commonly consumed dental prosthetics today, owing to the ease with which they can be used and the high level of aesthetics that modern dental crowns can offer. Patients today can choose dental crowns made out of plastics, ceramics, metal ceramics, and zirconium.The leading manufacturers of dental prosthetics from a global perspective include Institut Straumann AG, Nobel Biocare Holdings AG, DENTSPLY International, Inc., Biomet 3i, and Zimmer Holdings, Inc.Browse Research Report on Global Dental Prosthetics Market:About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.ContactTransparency Market ResearchTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
China Food Cans Market Opportunities, Trends, Size, Drivers, Strategies, Products And Competitive Landscape Report 2016

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"The Report China Food Cans Market Research Report 2016 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"This report studies Food Cans in China market, focuses on the top players in China market, with capacity, production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringBallCrownEXALBWAYCCL ContainerDS ContainersSilgan...Download Sample copy of this Report at :Split by product Type, with production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, can be divided intoRound CansBowl CansShaped CansSplit by Application, this report focuses on consumption, market share and growth rate of Food Cans in each application, can be divided intoAdult FoodInfant FoodPet FoodRead our latest Press Release atTable of ContentsChina Food Cans Market Research Report 20161 Food Cans Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Food Cans1.2 Food Cans Segment by Type1.2.1 China Production Market Share of Food Cans Type in 20151.2.2 Round Cans1.2.3 Bowl Cans1.2.4 Shaped Cans1.3 Applications of Food Cans1.3.1 Food Cans Consumption Market Share by Application in 20151.3.2 Adult Food1.3.3 Infant Food1.3.4 Pet Food1.4 China Market Size (Value) of Food Cans (2011-2021)1.5 China Food CansStatus and Outlook1.6 Government Policies2 China Food Cans Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 China Food Cans Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.2 China Food Cans Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.3 China Food Cans Average Price by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.4 Manufacturers Food Cans Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area, Product Type2.5 Food Cans Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Food Cans Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Food Cans Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers3 China Food Cans Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis3.1 Ball3.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors3.1.2 Food Cans Product Type, Application and Specification3.1.2.1 Type I3.1.2.2 Type II3.1.3 Ball Food Cans Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015 and 2016)3.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview3.2 Crown3.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors3.2.2 124 Product Type, Application and Specification3.2.2.1 Type I3.2.2.2 Type II3.2.3 Crown 124 Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015 and 2016)3.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview3.3 EXAL3.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors3.3.2 131 Product Type, Application and Specification3.3.2.1 Type I3.3.2.2 Type II3.3.3 EXAL 131 Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015 and 2016)3.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview3.4 BWAY3.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors3.4.2 Nov Product Type, Application and Specification3.4.2.1 Type I3.4.2.2 Type II3.4.3 BWAY Nov Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015 and 2016)3.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview3.5 CCL Container3.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors3.5.2 Product Type, Application and Specification3.5.2.1 Type I3.5.2.2 Type II3.5.3 CCL Container Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015 and 2016)3.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview3.6 DS Containers3.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors3.6.2 Million USD Product Type, Application and Specification3.6.2.1 Type I3.6.2.2 Type II3.6.3 DS Containers Million USD Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015 and 2016)3.6.4 Main Business/Business Overview3.7 Silgan3.7.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors3.7.2 Packaging Product Type, Application and Specification3.7.2.1 Type I3.7.2.2 Type II3.7.3 Silgan Packaging Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015 and 2016)3.7.4 Main Business/Business Overview...4 China Food Cans Capacity, Production, Revenue, Consumption, Export and Import (2011-2016)4.1 China Food Cans Capacity, Production and Growth (2011-2016)4.2 China Food Cans Revenue and Growth (2011-2016)4.3 China Food Cans Production, Consumption, Export and Import (2011-2016)5 China Food Cans Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 China Food Cans Production and Market Share by Type (2011-2016)5.2 China Food Cans Revenue and Market Share by Type (2011-2016)5.3 China Food Cans Price by Type (2011-2016)5.4 China Food Cans Production Growth by Type (2011-2016)6 China Food Cans Market Analysis by Application6.1 China Food Cans Consumption and Market Share by Application (2011-2016)6.2 China Food Cans Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2011-2016)6.3 Market Drivers and Opportunities6.3.1 Potential Application6.3.2 Emerging Markets/CountriesMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.State Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Hospitals Market Revenue in Multi-parameter Patient Monitoring Equipment By 2023

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Global Multi-parameter Patient Monitoring Equipment Market: SnapshotThe primary driver for multi-parameter patient monitoring equipment in the coming years is expected to be the rising population of the geriatric. With their medical needs already at an all-time high, any increase in the near future will only lead to a significant pressure on the manufacturing rates of devices. This applies especially to multi-parameter patient monitoring equipment due to the growing number of patients suffering from respiratory and cardiac diseases.Other factors promoting the use of multi-parameter patient monitoring equipment are the advancements in technology created recently that are making them more popular with wireless and mobile device users, and the massive surge of home healthcare services that are causing a high demand for mid- and low-acuity patient monitoring equipment.The resultant rate of expansion of the global multi-parameter patient monitoring equipment market is seen as a CAGR of 4.4% from 2015 to 2023 in terms of revenue. This revenue is expected to reach US$3.47 bn by the end of 2016 and US$4.65 bn by 2023.Request a PDF Brochure with Report Analysis:North America Continues to Take up Majority Demand for Multi-parameter Patient Monitoring EquipmentBy 2023, 51.3% of the total market value of multi-parameter patient monitoring equipment is expected to be taken up by North America. Factors attributed to this majority share include the evolved healthcare system, the high percentage of the elderly, and the specifically higher growth rate of patients with chronic illnesses.The overall market share held by North America is nearly as consistent as its share in 2014, with a slight reduction. This share has been taken up by the booming demand for healthcare devices in Asia Pacific and Europe. The latter holds a very high percentage of geriatric citizens that need regular monitoring, while Asia Pacific is one of the most promising regions for growth in healthcare devices.Hospitals to Remain Key End Users of Multi-parameter Patient Monitoring EquipmentThe function of multi-parameter patient monitoring equipment is to monitor and display relevant patient data for medical assessment. These readings include ECG, blood pressure, respiratory rate, and heart rate. Therefore, the wide utility of multi-parameter patient monitoring equipment has allowed it a high preference in all hospitals across the world. This end-user industry has led the market demand in 2014 and is expected to continue leading it till 2023. Multi-parameter patient monitoring equipment allow a continuous monitoring of patients inside the hospital premises and are an extremely vital and inseparable part of hospital intensive care units and operating rooms, where critical care is needed and is based on patient readings.The overall share held by hospitals in multi-parameter patient monitoring equipment is in a way being challenged by the home healthcare segment. This segment is witnessing a phenomenal rise in demand owing to the advantages it offers, such as reduced hospital visits and a significant reduction in medical expenses. This is a much-needed service for the patients suffering from chronic diseases, cardiac, and respiratory illnesses, whose numbers are currently growing at a very high rate.The top manufacturers of multi-parameter patient monitoring equipment from a global standpoint include GE Healthcare, Philips Healthcare, Nihon Kohden Corporation, Dragerwerk AG & Co. KGaA, and Spacelabs Healthcare.Browse Research Report on Global Multi-parameter Patient Monitoring Equipment Market:About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.ContactTransparency Market ResearchTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Increasing Incidences of Several Cases of solid Tumors and Rising Prevalence of Different forms of Metastatic Cancers are Driving Solid Tumor Market

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Solid tumors are formed due to aggregation of a group of abnormal tissues that do not comprise of any cyst or liquid areas within. Solid tumors can be of both types, i.e. benign (non-cancerous) as well as malignant (cancerous) in nature. Solid tumors majorly comprise of lymphomas, carcinomas, sarcomas and melanomas; whereas, all forms of leukemias usually do not cause solid tumor formation. The treatment of these solid tumors is a complex task and it requires coordinated actions of many healthcare professionals, such as, radiologists, surgeons, oncologists, radiation specialists, nurses and other professionals.Download Exclusive Sample of this Report:Hence, most of the solid tumors are treated via radiotherapy, chemotherapy and/or surgery. However, at present, surgery is the most preferred choice of treatment for cancerous solid tumors. Chemotherapy is often utilized along with other modes of solid tumor treatment i.e. radiation and/or surgery. Several chemotherapeutic drugs are available along with a ripe pipeline of drugs that will soon be commercialized in the global market. Solid tumor market can be classified into five major segments, based on the site of origin, namely, prostrate cancer, ovarian cancer, bladder cancer, pancreatic cancer and other cancers.Some of the major driving factors for the growth of this market include increasing incidences of several cases of solid tumors, rising prevalence of different forms of metastatic cancers, increasing demand for highly effective chemotherapeutic agents and ripe pipeline of drugs which is available in the global market. According to World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 8.2 million people died due to different types of cancers worldwide in 2012. Among them lung, colorectal, breast and liver cancers were among the leading causes of cancer deaths. Most common forms of solid tumors include brain tumors (medulloblastoma and glioma) and neuroblastoma; other less common solid tumors include rhabdomyosarcoma and osteosarcoma.Some of the major drugs that available in the global market are Avastin (bevacizumab), Afinitor (everolimus), Jevtana (cabazitaxel), Sutent (sunitinib), Tarceva (erlotinib), Taxotere (docetaxel), Zytiga (abiraterone acetate), Carboplatin, Cisplatin, Doxorubicin, Gemcitabine and Paclitaxel among others. Also, major promising drugs that are in different stages of clinical trials include Abraxane (albumin-bound paclitaxel), AMG 386 (trebananib), Votrient (pazopanib) and Xtandi (enzalutamide) among others. These drugs will soon be commercialized in the global market, which will further boost this market in future.Geographically, North America holds the leading position in solid tumor market followed by Europe. Major factors responsible for their dominance in this market include high incidence rate of various solid tumor cases along with very well developed healthcare infrastructure of these regions. These regions also comprise of high geriatric population, which contribute heavily towards the solid tumor patient population in the region. However, Asia Pacific is considered to be the most lucrative market for solid tumor market due to recent advancements in healthcare infrastructure and growing medical tourism in these regions. The region also accounts for high cancer patient population and increasing awareness and affordability of the people of this region will contribute heavily towards the future growth of this market in the region.Browse Research Report:Some of the major players operating in this market are AstraZeneca plc, Abbott Laboratories, Inc., Amgen, Inc., Biogen Idec, Inc., Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Baxter International, Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Eli Lilly and Company, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline plc, Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd., and Sanofi among others.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
VoIP Services Market (Corporate Consumers and Individual Consumers) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 - 2020

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According to Transparency Market Research, the competition in the global VoIP services market is stoked by a combination of the high fragmentation in the market and the need to differentiate products due to the similarity of the fundamental offerings. The market is fragmented to such a degree that the top four companies in the market - AT&T, Vonage, Skype, and Sprint - collectively accounted for less than 12% of the market in 2013.The global VoIP services market is likely to be shaped by the capital-intensive nature of the industry, with established players set to carry a clear competitive edge in the coming years. Easy interoperability will be the key in developing successful VoIP services thanks to the growing use of multi-channel and multi-device communication by corporate as well as individual customers.Download Brochure for Technological Insights atIncreasing Demand for BYOD, Personal Mobility Drives Demand for VoIP ServicesThe rising implementation of bring your own device (BYOD) policies in the global corporate sector has boosted the popularity of VoIP services as a convenient solution. Thanks to the easy installation of VoIP services at both ends, they represent a feasible way of allowing real-time face-to-face communication between various entities, explains TMRs lead analyst.The widespread use of smartphones and tablets has also been beneficial for the global VoIP services market. The high technical sophistication of modern smartphones means they usually come equipped with the ability to host VoIP conversations. This has been welcome news for developers of VoIP services, as VoIP has now come within the reach of the average consumer, resulting in promising growth prospects in the coming years.The steady advancement in telecom networks has also been vital for the global VoIP services market. While developing countries still primarily use 2G or 3G telecom networks, developed economies such as the U.S., Canada, and much of Western Europe has started using 4G and even 5G telecom networking. This has helped the VoIP services market immensely, as the bandwidth capacity of 2G and often 3G networking is often insufficient for VoIP.Low Public Awareness, Lack of Advanced Telecom Networking to Restrict VoIP Services MarketThe key restraint on the global VoIP services market is the lack of advanced telecom communication technology in developing regions. VoIP services require topnotch communication infrastructure to deliver smoothly, which is not feasible with older telecom technology.The relatively low smartphone penetration in the highly significant India market is another key constraint on the VoIP services. Despite its dynamic economy and steady urbanization, Indias smartphone penetration remains below 20% due to the widespread use of feature phones. The consistent arrival of cheap smartphones in the India market is likely to boost smartphone penetration in India in the coming years, opening up the floodgates for the VoIP services market.Phone-to-Phone Communication to Exhibit Rapid Growth, Computer-to-Phone Communication to Remain DominantHistorically, computer-to-phone communication has dominated demand from the global VoIP services market. However, the growing availability of VoIP services on smartphones is set to revolutionize the global VoIP services industry in the coming years. The phone-to-phone communication segment of the VoIP services market is expected to exhibit the highest CAGR over the 2014 to 2020, with the segment expected to be used by more than 70 mn subscribers by the end of 2016 and 128.2 mn subscribers by the end of 2020. While computer-to-phone communication is likely to be the leading contributor to the global VoIP services market by the end of 2020, the demand for phone-to-phone VoIP communication is growing at by far the higher rate.View Report:Regionally, the Asia Pacific market for VoIP services is likely to exhibit the highest CAGR in the 2014-2020 forecast period, with the segments annual revenue expected to rise to US$32.7 bn by the end of 2016 and US$54.9 bn by the end of 2020.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
New Report Shares Details About The Global and China Phenolic Foam Board Industry 2020 Market Analysis

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This report studies Phenolic Foam Board in Global and China market, focuses on top manufacturers in global and China market, involving Phenolic Foam Board price of each type, production, revenue and market share for each manufacturer. This report also displays the production, revenue and market share of Phenolic Foam Board in USA, EU, China, Japan, India and Southeast Asia, forecast to 2020, from 2011.Split by product types, with production, revenue, market share and price of each type, as well as the types and price of each type price for each manufacturer in 2015 and 2016, through interviewing the key manufacturers, coveringInsulation Thickness(mm)4040 Insulation Thickness(mm)>80To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Split by manufacturers, this report focuses on the production, price of each type, average price of Phenolic Foam Board, revenue and market share, for each manufacturer in 2015 and 2016. Top players, coveringKingspan InsulationAsahi KaseiUnilin(Xtratherm)LG HausysSekisui ChemicalJinan Shengquan GroupTenleadGuibaoLangfang Sanxing ChemicalLionsSplit by applications, this report focuses on consumption and growth rate of Phenolic Foam Board in each application, can be divided intoCommercial flooringResidential flooringApplication 3Split by regions, this report focuses on the production, revenue, consumption and market share of Phenolic Foam Board in these regions, from 2011 to 2020 (forecast), coveringChinaUSAEUJapanIndiaSoutheast AsiaThe report uses historical data and current market scenario to project the expected market trends in the foreseeable future.Browse Complete Report with TOC @Table of Contents1 Phenolic Foam Board Overview and Price of Each Type1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Phenolic Foam Board1.2 Global and China Phenolic Foam Board Production, Growth Rate 2011 to 20201.3 Global and China Phenolic Foam Board Revenue, Growth Rate 2011 to 20201.4 Product Segments and Price of Each Type1.4.1 Insulation Thickness(mm)?40 and Price List (2015-2016)1.4.2 40 1.4.3 Insulation Thickness(mm)>80 and Price List (2015-2016)1.5 Price List (Interviewed) of Each Type for Key Manufacturers in 2015 and 20161.5.1 Price List (Interviewed) of Insulation Thickness(mm)?40 by Key Manufacturers1.5.2 Price List (Interviewed) of 40 1.5.3 Price List (Interviewed) of Insulation Thickness(mm)>80 by Key Manufacturers1.6 Global and China Phenolic Foam Board Market Share by Type in 20151.6.1 Global Phenolic Foam Board Market Share by Type in 20151.6.2 China Phenolic Foam Board Market Share by Type in 20152 Global and China Market Competition Analysis by Manufacturers2.1 Global Market Phenolic Foam Board Production, Revenue and Share List of Key Manufacturers 2015 to 20162.1.1 Global Market Phenolic Foam Board Production and Share of Key Manufacturers 2015 to 20162.1.2 Global Market Phenolic Foam Board Revenue and Share of Key Manufacturers 2015 to 20162.1.3 Global Market Phenolic Foam Board Average Price of Key Manufacturers 2015 to 20162.2 China Market Phenolic Foam Board Production, Revenue and Share of Key Manufacturers 2015 to 20162.2.1 China Market Phenolic Foam Board Production and Share of Key Manufacturers 2015 to 20162.2.2 China Market Phenolic Foam Board Revenue and Share of Key Manufacturers 2015 to 20162.3 Global Phenolic Foam Board Manufacturing Base Distribution and Product Type of each Manufacturer3 Global and China Phenolic Foam Board Production, Revenue and Growth Rate by Type3.1 Global Phenolic Foam Board Production, Revenue and Growth Rate by Type (2011-2020)3.1.1 Global Phenolic Foam Board Production and Market Share by Type (2011-2020)3.1.2 Global Phenolic Foam Board Revenue and Market Share by Type (2011-2020)3.1.3 Global Phenolic Foam Board Price by Type (2011-2020)3.2 Global Phenolic Foam Board Production Growth Rate by Type (2011-2020)3.2.1 Insulation Thickness(mm)?40 Production and Production Growth Rate 2011-20203.2.2 40 3.2.3 Insulation Thickness(mm)>80 Production and Production Growth Rate 2011-20203.3 China Phenolic Foam Board Production, Revenue and Growth Rate by Type (2011-2020)3.3.1 China Phenolic Foam Board Production and Market Share by Type (2011-2020)3.3.2 China Phenolic Foam Board Revenue and Market Share by Type (2011-2020)3.3.3 China Phenolic Foam Board Price by Type (2011-2020)3.4 China Phenolic Foam Board Production Growth Rate by Type (2011-2020)3.4.1 Insulation Thickness(mm)?40 Production and Production Growth Rate 2011-20203.4.2 40 3.4.3 Insulation Thickness(mm)>80 Production and Production Growth Rate 2011-2020For Market Research Latest Reports Visit @QYResearchReports.com is an unimpeachable source of market research data for clients that comprise acclaimed SMEs, Chinese companies, private equity firms, and MNCs. We provide market research reports on various categories such as Energy, Chemicals, Alternative and Green Energy, Manufacturing, Machinery, Pharmaceuticals and Materials, and Glass.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United States
Global Mining Chemical Market exceed Around USD 4.82 Billion by 2020

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The report analyzes, estimate and forecast for the mining chemicals market over the global and regional level. The study provides actual data of 2014 along with a forecast from 2015 to 2020 in terms of both volume (kilo Tons) and revenue (USD million), whereas study gives significant information related to mining chemicals market. The study also offers important market dynamics such as market drivers and restraints for the mining chemicals market along with their estimated impact as they have on the demand over the forecast period. Furthermore, the report includes the study of opportunities, which are available in the mining chemical market across global level.This report provides decisive view on the mining market to the readers. The report includes an in depth value chain analysis, which provides a complete detail of the market. The report evaluates Porters Five Forces model for the mining chemical market helps to understand competitive landscape in the market. Additionally, report comprises a qualitative write up on the market as attractiveness analysis, wherein product segments are benchmarked based on their market size, growth rate and general attractiveness, in which different product segments are benchmarked related to their market size, growth rate and general attractiveness.Request Sample Report:The research provides mining chemicals market bifurcating it into products and application. Key product segments of mining chemicals market include frothers, flocculants, collectors, solvent extractants, grinding aids. Key application market analyzed in the report includes processing, explosives & drilling, water & wastewater treatment. All product and application segments have been analyzed based on present and future trends and the market is estimated from 2014 to 2020.The geographical segmentation gives the current and expected demand for different regions including North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East & Africa with its further bifurcation into major countries including U.S. Germany, France, UK, China, Japan, India and Brazil. Additionally, it provides individual product and application segment analysis across the all the regions and major countries.Browse detail report at:Some of the key industry participants profiled in this study include BASF SE, Georgia Pacific Chemicals LLC, Chang Chun Plastics Co. Ltd., Sumitomo Baketile, Mitsui Chemicals Inc., Momentive Specialty Chemicals Inc. SI Group Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Kolon Industries, Inc. and certain other companies have been included.Mining Chemical Market  Product Segment AnalysisFrothersFlocculantsCollectorsSolvent extractantsGrinding aidsOthersMining Chemical Market  Application Segment AnalysisMineral processingExplosives and drillingWater and Wastewater treatmentOthersMining Chemical Market  Regional Segment AnalysisA to Z Research: All Global Energy related reports along with a forecast from 2016 to 2021 based on revenue (USD Billion)North AmericaU.S.EuropeGermanyFranceUKAsia PacificChinaJapanIndiaLatin AmericaBrazilMiddle East and AfricaAboutA to Z ResearchA to ZResearchis a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations.A to Z Researchis the comprehensive collection of market intelligence products and services available on air. We have market research reports from number of leading publishers and update our collection daily to provide our clients with the instant online access to our database. With access to this database, our clients will be able to benefit from expert insights on global industries, products, and market trends.Contact US3422 SW 15 Street,Suit #8138,Deerfield Beach,Florida 33442, USATel: +1-386-310-3803GMTTel: +49-322 210 92714USA/Canada Toll Free No.1-855-465-465Email: martin@atozresearch.comWebsite:
Specialty Surfactants Market And BioSurfactants Market : Global Scenario, Raw Material And Consumption Trends, Industry Analysis, Size, Share & Forecast 2010  2018

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The specialty surfactants market and biosurfactants market report offers incisive insights to supplement the decision-making capabilities of companies in this industry. The report studies both surfactants and bio-surfactants based on facets such as type, application, and geography. The market research report also features a comprehensive analysis of growth drivers and restraints in the global specialty surfactants market and biosurfactants market. The scope for tapping new opportunities is objectively analyzed to offer the most reliable and accurate business intelligence to our customers.The report makes effective and prolific use of industry-leading primary and secondary research tools, Porters five forces model analysis, value chain analysis, and draws on our access to the most up-to-date databases worldwide. The market research report also features a Company Profiles section where both established and fast-emerging market players financial status, product pipeline recent developments and competitive edge is studied in detail. The study of the global specialty surfactants market and biosurfactants market provides a timeline view of the market growth story so far, and also brings you abreast of anticipated changes to this market in the near future.Download And Get Sample PDF File Of Specialty And Biosurfactants Market :Overview of the global specialty surfactants market and biosurfactants marketSurfactants are substances or amphiphilic organic compounds, which means that they comprise both hydrophobic (water repellant) and hydrophilic (water soluble or absorbent) groups. In real-world terms, what this means is that these compounds can be used for enhanced cleaning efficiency, especially of water-based compositions. In other words, they ease the surface tension of liquids. Surfactants can disperse, modify, or emulsify the lubricity of such water-based compositions.Biosurfactants, on the other hand, are a variety of surfactants where at least one of the two basic groups-hydrophobic or hydrophilic-is derived from a plant-based source. However, biosurfactants are not always 100% plant-based.The two common methods of manufacturing surfactants include: Oleochemical (derived from natural vegetable oils) and synthetic (derived from petrochemicals). The global specialty surfactants market and biosurfactants market is thus broadly segmented based on these two common derivation methods.As of 2011, the global surfactants market, by volume, was estimated at over 15 million tons. This market has had to contend with a slew of unfavorable conditions such as soaring prices of raw material, an increasingly stringent regulatory environment, and an intensifying sustainability movement worldwide. Given this largely tumultuous scenario, the worldwide specialty surfactants market and biosurfactants market is expected to register a growth rate of just 2% to 3% over this decade.The focus of both large and small companies in the market is showing a steady shift toward the specialty surfactants industry, which currently accounts for an estimated 25% share (valued at USD 25 billion) of the global market demand.Segmentation of the global specialty surfactants market and biosurfactants marketBy product type, the specialty surfactants market and biosurfactants market can be segmented as: cationic surfactants, nonionic surfactants, anionic surfactants, amphoteric surfactants, and others such as silicone and fluorosurfactants.Browse Market Research Report with ToC & Free Analysis :The report observes that anionic surfactants are the most extensively used surfactant as LABS (linear alkyl benzene sulfonate) is widely used across a myriad of industries. However, the market study estimates that the non-ionic surfactants segment will emerge as the fastest-growing category over the coming years.By application, the report segments the market as: home care, personal care, food processing, industrial and institutional cleaners, agricultural chemicals, oilfield chemicals, paints and coatings, textiles, emulsion polymerization (plastics), construction, and other markets. The largest share of the application market is occupied by home and personal care, with these two segments accounting for more than 65% of the total demand as of 2011.The report also studies the global specialty surfactants and biosurfactants market by geography. Since 2009, Asia Pacific has held on to its position as the leading producer and consumer of surfactants. Our expert analysts expect this trend to continue as the demand in this region will see a 4% growth over the next five years.Companies mentioned in the global specialty surfactants market and biosurfactants market report:BASF, with its acquisition of Cognis, has emerged as a global market leader in the surfactants market. Other significant participants in this market are: Kao, Stephens, and Akzo-Nobel.In the Indian market, the consumption of surfactants stood at 500,000 tons in 2011. The surfactant market in India is dominated by Galaxy Surfactants. Other competitors in this market are: Reliance, Godrej, and Clariant.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Visit :
Global Insulin Glargine Industry 2016 Market Consumption, Side-Effects, Dosage, Insulin Injections & Key Hormones to 2021

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The Global Insulin Glargine Industry Report 2015 is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Insulin Glargine Industry.The report provides a basic overview of the Industry including definitions, classifications, applications and Industry chain structure. The Insulin Glargine market analysis is provided for the international markets including development trends, competitive landscape analysis, and key regions development Status. Development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures are also analyzed. This report also states import/export consumption, supply and demand Figures, cost, price, revenue and gross margins.The report focuses on global major leading Industry players providing information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis is also carried out. The Insulin Glargine Industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed. Finally the feasibility of new investment projects are assessed and overall research conclusions offered.Explore Research Study along with TOC @Various tables and graphs have been employed in the making of this report on the global Insulin Glargine market. These graphics help in presenting a transparent overview of the overall market and aids the readers in understanding each and every aspect related to this market. Analysis tools such as Porters five forces model have also been utilized in this report for presenting the competition seen in the global Insulin Glargine market. The technological developments taking place in the global Insulin Glargine market and their impact on the future growth of the market. Furthermore, highlights have also been presented on the regulatory scenario of the global Insulin Glargine market.Information is also presented on the currently leading geographical segment as well as the most lucrative geographical segment in the global Insulin Glargine market. Likewise, all the segments in the market have been studied in detail and market projection have been made accordingly. The vendor landscape section of the report includes information on the prominent players in the global Insulin Glargine market. The primary sustainability strategies being implemented by these players for a better penetration in the market have also been highlighted under the vendor landscape section of this report. The mergers and acquisitions taking place in the market and their impact on market development have also been detailed under this study.With 128 tables and figures the report provides key statistics on the state of the Industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Check here to Get a Sample Report Copy @Table of ContentsChapter One Insulin Glargine Industry Overview1.1 Insulin Glargine Definition1.1.1 Insulin Glargine Product Pictures & Product Specifications1.2 Insulin Glargine Classification & ApplicationChapter Two Insulin Glargine Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis2.1 Insulin Glargine Raw Material & Equipments Supplier and Price Analysis2.2 Insulin Glargine Labor & Other Cost Analysis2.3 Insulin Glargine Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis2.4 Insulin Glargine Manufacturing Process AnalysisChapter Three Insulin Glargine Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis3.1 2016 Global Key Manufacturers Insulin Glargine Capacity and Commercial Production Date3.2 2016 Global Key Manufacturers Insulin Glargine Manufacturing Plants Distribution3.3 2016 Global Key Manufacturers Insulin Glargine R&D Status and Technology Sources3.4 2016 Global Key Manufacturers Insulin Glargine Raw Materials Sources AnalysisChapter Four Insulin Glargine Production by Regions, Technology and Applications4.1 2010-2016 Insulin Glargine Production by Regions(such as US, EU, China and Japan etc)4.2 2010-2016 Insulin Glargine Production by Product Type & Application4.3 2010-2016 Insulin Glargine Price by key Manufacturers4.4 2010-2016 US & China Insulin Glargine Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value Analysis4.5 2010-2016 Europe and Japan Insulin Glargine Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value AnalysisChapter Five Insulin Glargine Sales and Sales Revenue by Regions5.1 2010-2016 Insulin Glargine Sales by Regions (such as US, EU, China & Japan etc)5.2 2010-2016 Insulin Glargine Sales Revenue by Regions (such as US EU China Japan etc)5.3 2010-2016 Insulin Glargine Sales Price by Regions (such as US EU China Japan etc)5.4 2010-2016 Insulin Glargine Demand by Applications6 Analysis of Insulin Glargine Production, Supply, Sales and Market Status 2011-2016 436.1 Capacity and Production of Insulin Glargine 2011-2016 436.2 Production Market Share Analysis of Insulin Glargine 2011-2016 466.3 Sales Overview of Insulin Glargine 2011-2016 496.4 Supply, Consumption and Gap of Insulin Glargine 2011-2016 506.5 Import, Export and Consumption of Insulin Glargine 2011-2016 516.6 Price and Gross Margin of Insulin Glargine 2011-2016 51Discover Trending Market Segments @QYresearchreports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations.QYResearchReports1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Product Manager: The Visionary Of Multiple Responsibilities

https://craft.io/

PM is not just a very important person from the C-suite. They play a crucial role in the live cycle of any product of the company and they are really supposed to wear suits, but they dont. Because product managers are responsible not just for the technical side of the product, but of its heart and soul. The main difference of PM from any management position is the necessity to be involved in the product creation directly. The manager is not about producing, but about understanding the techniques and showing the direction for all the teams, as the PM should have the final image of the product.Technical Product ManagerTalking about technical side of the product you may imagine a group of geeks coding something 24/7. Technical PM doesnt coordinate the working process of those guys (as they often know better all the nuances of the coding routine). The management role is aimed at establishing the main course of action for all the teams working on that particular product, and technical PM is just that another visionary with the technical background. He knows how to approach the geeks, how to manage the whole soft developing cycle, as he is literate in the technical details.Product Marketing ManagerProbably, the most challenging position for a PM, because he should represent a voice of a customer in many terms: as a soft user, as a price-concerned buyer, as a post-purchase support needing customer, etc. The very essence of the product marketing manager is the ability to step out of the whole huge company working on the product, the ability to forget about all those efforts all of those teams in a huge company have put in it, and just keep critical and sober mind to evaluate what youve got to present your customers. The position requires a lot of communication and improvement on the basis of customers feedback. Time matters and PM knows that: he constantly changes and improves his road map, for example on Craft, to share with the working teams.Product Development ManagerThe coding team has proudly presented their work, the market is well-researched and the product is ready to be taken to its next development cycle. Development process implies the PM to catch the air of flexibility in the market in order to find the right niche for the product. That is a much more requiring task than the evaluation and price-setting stage. Product development touches all the unaccomplished expectations of the customers, providing the value and quality they havent experienced before. Product Manager is not only about the position but about the inspired and creative person every company holds dear. The main feature which makes this position outstanding is the experience. Forget about the best colleges for you cant be taught the challenges you will face being a PM and you will only value the victories after having passed all the pleasant (and mostly very stressing) stages of the product creation and development.To become a better product manager try Craft - best tool for building roadmaps!Craft is the fastest growing tool for product managers to create amazing products. Check out for free -Physical address: 18 Joseph Karo Tel Aviv. IsraelZIP code: 6701422Phone +1 3109295665e-mail: info@craft.io
Dr. Charles Greene, President of Jacksonville ENT Surgery, named Health Care Hero

Dr. Charles Greene

Jacksonville, Fla., Nov. 14, 2016  Dr. Charles Greene, President of Jacksonville ENT Surgery, has been named a 2016 Health Care Hero by the Jacksonville Business Journal. Each year, the Journal honors medical professionals in Northeast Florida who have improved health care and saved lives. Dr. Greene, a board-certified Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgeon, was chosen in the surgery category.I am grateful to be considered a Health Care Hero and honored to be included alongside some of the areas health leaders, said Dr. Greene. I strive to provide my patients the very best care and continually look for new and more efficient ways to treat my patients and cut down on their recovery time.Dr. Greene has a long track record of excellence and commitment to community service. He has dedicated his life to the field of medicine and is considered a thought leader in the community. Dr. Greene is one of the pioneers who brought balloon sinuplasty technology to North Florida and the first to transition the procedure into the doctors office, where his clinical outcomes have been exceptional.Dr. Greene founded Jacksonville ENT Surgery in May of 2002. He started with one front desk person and a nurse and transformed it into the largest private ENT practice in North Florida with six providers, five offices, three hearing and balance centers and 40 employees.Dr. Greene is also very active in the community. He serves on the board of directors for the Northeast Florida Medical Society and the Northeast Florida Research Institute. He is the former Director of Health Policy Studies at the Florida Center for Public Policy and Leadership at the University of North Florida. He is also currently on the board of directors for We Care Jacksonville.Dr. Greene and his fellow Health Care Hero Award winners will be honored at the 13th Annual Healthcare Heroes Awards breakfast on Thursday, Nov. 17.About Jacksonville ENT SurgeryJacksonville Ent Surgery specializes in the treatment of ear, nose, and throat conditions in both adults and children. They offer a broad range of options for quality medical and surgical treatment for problems related to the head and neck. Their areas of expertise include sinus and allergy, hearing and balance, snoring and sleep apnea, adult and pediatric ENT, thyroid and glandular, head and neck surgery, throat and voice, and tinnitus treatment. They also work closely with patients who may be considering a procedure for facial plastic surgery or cosmetic surgery in conjunction with an ENT surgery. Jacksonville ENT Surgery has five locations; three in Jacksonville, one in Jacksonville Beach and one in Lake City. For more information, visit jacksonvilleentsurgery.com.1611 San Marco BoulevardJacksonville, FL 32207
FOURMIDABLE employees put their energy into improving the lives of veterans

www.fourmidable.com

www.fourmidable.com

FOURMIDABLE, a national real estate management and brokerage company, honored Veterans Day by putting their physical and emotional energy into supporting one of the nations most "purposeful" charitiesthe Wounded Warrior Project.The event, dubbed "Push-Ups for a Purpose," was launched on Veterans DayNovember 11, 2016. Participants were asked to seek sponsorship donations for their efforts which resulted in upwards of $18,000, with all funds going to the Wounded Warrior Project. If you would like to donate to this cause, visit woundedwarriorproject.org.Various challenges intended to represent the type of physical challenges regularly undertaken by members of the Armed Forces were part of the "Push-Ups for a Purpose" event, held at the FOURMIDABLE Corporate Office, 32500 Telegraph Road, Suite 100, Bingham Farms, Mich. Those include the number of push-ups in one minute, number of sit-ups in one minute, how long a competitor can hold a plank position, and how long they can hold a wall squat.FOURMIDABLE recognized their associates who have served in the Armed Forces and were inspired by one of their own who shared a story of how she personally benefited from this organization."This is one of the most rewarding activities our employees have undertaken," said FOURMIDABLE President Michael Schocker. "Especially around Veterans Day, theres no greater responsibility than looking after those who have served our country. Were so very proud to have played a part in advancing this effort."FOURMIDABLE is a national real estate management and brokerage company that specializes in managing, marketing and leasing market rate, tax credit, senior and family government assisted, public housing and rural development apartment communities. Founded in 1975, FOURMIDABLE currently manages 86 communities in ten states, with more than 9,589 units under management. FOURMIDABLE is a member of the elite AMO (Accredited Management Organization) and is an approved management firm for HUD, MSHDA and other State Agencies. Additionally, FOURMIDABLE affiliated companies offer support for property management companies and owners, including agility-pm, a provider of back office accounting, HR, IT and compliance support; eCrosstown, a provider of free WiFi amenity services to apartment residents; ePhonz, a specialized telephone product for apartment management companies and Geeked Apartments, which provides smart devices to each residents apartment.For more information, please call 248-593-4634 or visitFOURMIDABLE is a national real estate management and brokerage company that specializes in managing, marketing and leasing market rate, tax credit, senior and family government assisted, public housing and rural development apartment communities. Founded in 1975, FOURMIDABLE currently manages 86 communities in ten states, with more than 9,589 units under management. FOURMIDABLE is a member of the elite AMO (Accredited Management Organization) and is an approved management firm for HUD, MSHDA and other State Agencies. Additionally, FOURMIDABLE affiliated companies offer support for property management companies and owners, including agility-pm, a provider of back office accounting, HR, IT and compliance support; eCrosstown, a provider of free WiFi amenity services to apartment residents; ePhonz, a specialized telephone product for apartment management companies and Geeked Apartments, which provides smart devices to each residents apartment.For more information, please call 248-593-4634 or visitPO Box 871346Canton, mi
Global Kaolin Market  Analysis and Forecast to 2020

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http://www.indexbox.co.uk/store/world-kaolin-market-report-analysis-and-forecast-to-2020/

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IndexBox has just published a new report World: Kaolin  Market Report. Analysis And Forecast To 2020 ().This report has been designed to provide a detailed analysis of the global kaolin market. It covers the most recent data sets of quantitative medium-term projections, as well as developments in production, trade, consumption and prices.The global exports of kaolin amounted to 1,696 million USD in 2015, fluctuating mildly over the period under review. A 26% drop in 2009 was followed by recovery over the next two years, until exports slightly dipped. They increased modestly in 2013 and 2014, ending 2015 with a 5% decline. Overall, there was an annual decrease of -1.7% from 2007 to 2015.According to IndexBox estimates, USA remained the dominant global exporter of kaolin. In 2015, the USAs kaolin exports totaled 562 million USD, which accounted for a 33% share in terms of global exports. Belgium, The UK, Brazil, and China were the other key global suppliers of kaolin in 2015, with a 45% combined share of global exports.Belgium (+6.1% per year) and China (+4.6% per year) were the only major exporters that showed a positive rate of growth from 2007 to 2015. Belgium strengthened its position in the global kaolin export structure, growing its share from 7% in 2007 to 14% in 2015.On the other hand, Japan (7.9%, based on value terms), Belgium (7.8%), Finland (6.5%), Germany (6.5%), and China (5.6%) were the leading destinations of kaolin imports in 2015. Imports to China grew the fastest, at a pace of +4.9% per year from 2007 to 2015. By contrast, Japan, Finland, and Germany contracted their imports of kaolin over the same period. None of the major importers saw significant changes to their import share size, with Japan displaying the largest share contraction of -4 percentage points.TABLE OF CONTENTS1. INTRODUCTION1.1 REPORT DESCRIPTION1.2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY2.1 KEY FINDINGS2.2 MARKET TRENDS3. MARKET OVERVIEW3.1 MARKET VOLUME AND VALUE3.2 CONSUMPTION BY COUNTRY3.3 MARKET OPPORTUNITIES BY COUNTRY3.4 MARKET FORECAST TO 20204. PRODUCTION4.1 PRODUCTION IN 2007-20154.2 PRODUCTION BY COUNTRY5. IMPORTS5.1 IMPORTS IN 2007-20155.2 IMPORTS BY COUNTRY5.3 IMPORT PRICES BY COUNTRY6. EXPORTS6.1 EXPORTS IN 2007-20156.2 EXPORTS BY COUNTRY6.3 EXPORT PRICES BY COUNTRY7. PROFILES OF MAJOR PRODUCERS3 easy ways to order:1. Follow the link below to review a free sample or to buy the report:2. Call us +44 20 3239 3063 to discuss your information needs and for special discounts on multi-report orders3. Email your order to info@indexbox.co.ukPrice: 1490 EUR for Single LicenseSource:IndexBox is a leading market research publisher in the world. We conduct market research and publish reports. You can find more than 25,000 research reports in our web store, which cover global industries and regional markets. All the worldwide marketing data you need is at your fingertips.Company Name: IndexBoxContact Person: Kirill BezverhiEmail: kirill.bezverhi@indexbox.co.ukPhone: +44 20 3239 3063Adress: United Kingdom, LondonWebsite:
Global Iodine Market  Analysis and Forecast to 2020

http://www.indexbox.co.uk/store/world-iodine-market-report-analysis-and-forecast-to-2020/

http://www.indexbox.co.uk/store/world-iodine-market-report-analysis-and-forecast-to-2020/

http://www.indexbox.co.uk/store/world-iodine-market-report-analysis-and-forecast-to-2020/

www.indexbox.co.uk

IndexBox has just published a new report World: Iodine  Market Report. Analysis And Forecast To 2020 ().This report has been designed to provide a detailed analysis of the global iodine market. It covers the most recent data sets of quantitative medium-term projections, as well as developments in production, trade, consumption and prices.The global iodine trade value exhibited robust growth from 2007 to 2013, suddenly reversing the trend in 2014. After a sharp decline over the last two years, global exports of iodine amounted to 878 million USD in 2015.According to IndexBox estimates, Chile continued to supply over half of worlds iodine. In 2015, Chiles iodine exports totaled 506 million USD, which accounted for a 58% share in terms of global exports. Belgium, Japan, USA, and the Netherlands were the other key global suppliers of iodine in 2015, with a 35% combined share of global exports.The Netherlands (+11.2% per year) and Belgium (+10.3% per year) were the fastest growing exporters from 2007 to 2015. Belgium strengthened its position in the global iodine export structure, growing its share from 11% in 2007 to 15% in 2015.On the other hand, USA (17.5%, based on value terms), China (13.7%), India (9.3%), Norway (8.8%), and Belgium (8.6%) were the leading destinations of iodine imports in 2015. Imports to Norway grew at a rapid pace of +9.6% per year from 2007 to 2015. None of the major importers contracted their imports over the period under review. The share size of the top five importers remained relatively stable, with the exception of the USA, which saw a -6 percentage point decline in its share size.TABLE OF CONTENTS1. INTRODUCTION1.1 REPORT DESCRIPTION1.2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY2.1 KEY FINDINGS2.2 MARKET TRENDS3. MARKET OVERVIEW3.1 MARKET VOLUME AND VALUE3.2 CONSUMPTION BY COUNTRY3.3 MARKET OPPORTUNITIES BY COUNTRY3.4 MARKET FORECAST TO 20204. PRODUCTION4.1 PRODUCTION IN 2007-20154.2 PRODUCTION BY COUNTRY5. IMPORTS5.1 IMPORTS IN 2007-20155.2 IMPORTS BY COUNTRY5.3 IMPORT PRICES BY COUNTRY6. EXPORTS6.1 EXPORTS IN 2007-20156.2 EXPORTS BY COUNTRY6.3 EXPORT PRICES BY COUNTRY7. PROFILES OF MAJOR PRODUCERS3 easy ways to order:1. Follow the link below to review a free sample or to buy the report:2. Call us +44 20 3239 3063 to discuss your information needs and for special discounts on multi-report orders3. Email your order to info@indexbox.co.ukPrice: 1490 EUR for Single LicenseSource:IndexBox is a leading market research publisher in the world. We conduct market research and publish reports. You can find more than 25,000 research reports in our web store, which cover global industries and regional markets. All the worldwide marketing data you need is at your fingertips.Company Name: IndexBoxContact Person: Kirill BezverhiEmail: kirill.bezverhi@indexbox.co.ukPhone: +44 20 3239 3063Adress: United Kingdom, LondonWebsite:
Global Manganese Market  Analysis and Forecast to 2020

http://www.indexbox.co.uk/store/world-manganese-market-report-analysis-and-forecast-to-2020/

http://www.indexbox.co.uk/store/world-manganese-market-report-analysis-and-forecast-to-2020/

http://www.indexbox.co.uk/store/world-manganese-market-report-analysis-and-forecast-to-2020/

www.indexbox.co.uk

IndexBox has just published a new report World: Manganese  Market Report. Analysis And Forecast To 2020 ().This report has been designed to provide a detailed analysis of the global manganese market. It covers the most recent data sets of quantitative medium-term projections, as well as developments in production, trade, consumption and prices.The global trade in manganese amounted to 843 million USD in 2015, fluctuating wildly over the period under review. A 58% drop in 2009 was followed by recovery over the next two years, until exports decreased by 25%. They grew for two years after and ended 2015 with a slight decline. Overall, there was an annual decrease of -4.0% from 2007 to 2015.According to IndexBox estimates, China continued to supply over 70% of the worlds manganese. In 2015, Chinas manganese exports totaled 592 million USD. South Africa, the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium were the other key global suppliers of manganese in 2015, with a 21% combined share of global exports.The Netherlands (+0.6% per year) and Belgium (+1.1% per year) were the only key exporters that displayed a positive rate of growth from 2007 to 2015. The balance of the suppliers contracted their exports over the period under review. The countries positions in terms of global exports remained relatively stable, with the exception of China, whose share of exports lost -4 percentage points from 2007 to 2015.On the other hand, the Republic of Korea (17%, based on value terms), Japan (14%), Russia (11%), USA (8%), and India (7%) were the leading destinations of manganese imports in 2015. Imports to Russia grew at a rapid pace of +24.3% per year from 2007 to 2015. By contrast, Japan significantly contracted its imports of manganese over the same period. Russias share of global imports increased from 1% in 2007 to 11% in 2015, while the share of Japan illustrated negative dynamics (-8 percentage points).TABLE OF CONTENTS1. INTRODUCTION1.1 REPORT DESCRIPTION1.2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY2.1 KEY FINDINGS2.2 MARKET TRENDS3. MARKET OVERVIEW3.1 MARKET VOLUME AND VALUE3.2 CONSUMPTION BY COUNTRY3.3 MARKET OPPORTUNITIES BY COUNTRY3.4 MARKET FORECAST TO 20204. PRODUCTION4.1 PRODUCTION IN 2007-20154.2 PRODUCTION BY COUNTRY5. IMPORTS5.1 IMPORTS IN 2007-20155.2 IMPORTS BY COUNTRY5.3 IMPORT PRICES BY COUNTRY6. EXPORTS6.1 EXPORTS IN 2007-20156.2 EXPORTS BY COUNTRY6.3 EXPORT PRICES BY COUNTRY7. PROFILES OF MAJOR PRODUCERS3 easy ways to order:1. Follow the link below to review a free sample or to buy the report:2. Call us +44 20 3239 3063 to discuss your information needs and for special discounts on multi-report orders3. Email your order to info@indexbox.co.ukPrice: 1490 EUR for Single LicenseSource:IndexBox is a leading market research publisher in the world. We conduct market research and publish reports. You can find more than 25,000 research reports in our web store, which cover global industries and regional markets. All the worldwide marketing data you need is at your fingertips.Company Name: IndexBoxContact Person: Kirill BezverhiEmail: kirill.bezverhi@indexbox.co.ukPhone: +44 20 3239 3063Adress: United Kingdom, LondonWebsite:
TECHBLOCKS CERTIFIED AS A GREAT WORKPLACE

www.greatplacetowork.ca

http://tblocks.com

http://tblocks.com

Toronto, Ontario. TechBlocks Inc. is proud to announce that we have been certified as a GREAT WORKPLACE after a thorough and independent analysis conducted by Great Place to Work Canada. This certification is based on direct feedback from employees, provided as part of an extensive and anonymous survey about the workplace experience.TechBlocks is a Toronto-based IT consulting and solutions firm, with a team of passionate innovators known for creating customer-first intuitive solutions, building lasting partnerships and helping clients stay ahead of the curve in their respective industries through strategic digital transformation. Core to TechBlocks values is its dedication to building Customer-First Solutions which is reflected in its solutions, processes and people. This principle binds staff together as they embody a customer-first, people-first approach, which brings a unified vision among team members.TechBlocks empowers its employees to become leaders in their areas of expertise by nurturing talent, and encouraging creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. While the company demands the highest standards of excellence, it also promotes a great work-life balance as well as a fun team environment.We are delighted to have been declared a Great Workplace by GPTW, said Prashant Kumar, SVP Strategy and Solutions of TechBlocks, Our aim is to enable clients to achieve competitive differentiation, and we know that we can only achieve this by providing our skilled staff with the opportunities to challenge themselves, express their ideas and to continuously grow and train to keep abreast of latest trends. Most importantly, we have comradery and team members that care for one another, share and work together to achieve a common goal.About Great Place to Work:GPTW is the global authority on high-trust, high-performance workplace cultures. Through proprietary assessment tools, advisory services, and certification programs, GPTW recognizes the world's Best Workplaces in a series of national lists including those published by Fortune magazine (USA) and The Globe & Mail (Canada). Great Place to Work provides the benchmarks, framework, and expertise needed to create, sustain, and recognize outstanding workplace cultures. Follow GPTW online atand on Twitter at @GPTW_CanadaAbout TechBlocks:TechBlocks is an innovative technology solutions firm that specializes in combining technology with business acumen to deliver comprehensive solutions. We specialize in building secure, flexible, and scalable solutions, customized to help our clients transform their technology assets into a competitive advantage. TechBlocks area of expertise includes: IoT, ECM, CRM, BI, e-Commerce, mobile and cloud enablement. From inception to implementation, we focus on creating custom solutions for our clients that improve efficiency, communication and collaboration, all while saving time and money. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, TechBlocks employs over 100 software developers, engineers, business analysts, UI/UX designers and consultants worldwide. For more information about TechBlocks, please visitMedia contact:Sandra AbuwallaDirector, CommunicationsTechBlocks Inc.sandraa@tblocks.com647 705 5300TechBlocks is an innovative technology solutions firm that specializes in combining technology with business acumen to deliver comprehensive solutions. We specialize in building secure, flexible, and scalable solutions, customized to help our clients transform their technology assets into a competitive advantage. TechBlocks area of expertise includes: IoT, ECM, CRM, BI, e-Commerce, mobile and cloud enablement. From inception to implementation, we focus on creating custom solutions for our clients that improve efficiency, communication and collaboration, all while saving time and money. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, TechBlocks employs over 100 software developers, engineers, business analysts, UI/UX designers and consultants worldwide. For more information about TechBlocks, please visitSandra AbuwallaDirector, CommunicationsTechBlocks Inc.399 Applewood Crescent, Vaughansandraa@tblocks.com647 705 5300
Global Guaiacol Market 2016 - Solvay, Vandana Chemicals, Clean Science And Technology, Zhonghua Chemical, Anhui Bayi Chemical, Zhengzhou Leikesi, Tianyuan Chemical, Changde Chemical

http://www.fiormarkets.com/report-detail/13609/request-sample

http://www.fiormarkets.com/report/global-guaiacol-market-outlook-2016-2021-13609.html

www.fiormarkets.com

www.9dimenreports.com

Guaiacol is a naturally occurring organic compound with the formula C6H4(OH)(OCH3), first isolated by Otto Unverdorben in 1826. Although it is biosynthesized by a variety of organisms, this yellowish aromatic oil is usually derived from guaiacum or wood creosote. Samples darken upon exposure to air and light. Guaiacol is present in wood smoke, resulting from the pyrolysis of lignin. The compound contributes to the flavor of many compounds, e.g., roasted coffee.Request for sample report atGuaiacol is a precursor to various flavorants, such as eugenol and vanillin. Its derivatives are used medicinally as an expectorant, antiseptic, and local anesthetic. It also can be used as an indicator in chemical reactions that produce oxygen. When oxygen binds to it, the complex turns yellowish brown and absorbs light maximally at about 470 nm.This report provides detailed analysis of worldwide markets for Guaiacol from 2011-2015 and provides extensive market forecasts 2016-2021 by region/country and subsectors. It covers the key technological and market trends in the Guaiacol market and further lays out an analysis of the factors influencing the supply/demand for Guaiacol, and the opportunities/challenges faced by industry participants. It also acts as an essential tool to companies active across the value chain and to the new entrants by enabling them to capitalize the opportunities and develop business strategies.Global Guaiacol Market Outlook 2016-2021, has been prepared based on the synthesis, analysis, and interpretation of information about the global Guaiacol market collected from specialized sources. The report covers key technological developments in the recent times and profiles leading players in the market and analyzes their key strategies.Access full report atThe competitive landscape section of the report provides a clear insight into the market share analysis of key industry players. The major players in the global Guaiacol market are Solvay (Belgium), Vandana Chemicals (India), Clean Science And Technology (India), Zhonghua Chemical (China), Anhui Bayi Chemical (China), Zhengzhou Leikesi (China), Tianyuan Chemical (China), Changde Chemical (China), among others.The report provides separate comprehensive analytics for the North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa and Rest of World. In this sector, global competitive landscape and supply/demand pattern of Guaiacol industry has been provided.Fior Markets is a leading market intelligence company that sells reports of top publishers in the technology industry.Our extensive research reports cover detailed market assessments that include major technological improvements in the industry. Fior Markets also specializes in analyzing hi-tech systems and current processing systems in its expertise.We have a team of experts that compile precise research reports and actively advise top companies to improve their existing processes. Our experts have extensive experience in the topics that they cover.Fior Markets provides you the full spectrum of services related to market research, and corroborate with the clients to increase the revenue stream, and address process gaps.Contact UsMark StoneSales Manager2566, Lincoln StreetPrinceton,New Jersey 08540USAPhone: (201) 465-4211Email: sales@fiormarkets.comWeb:Blog:
Oilfield Biocides and Bio Solvents Market worth will be USD 420.2 million by 2020

http://www.marketintelreports.com/report/cmr0027/oilfield-biocides-and-bio-solvents-market-by-biocide-glutaraldehyde-dbnpa-thps-chlorine-quaternary-ammonium-bio-solvent-hydrocarbon-alcohols-glycols-application-drilling-production-fracturing-completion-others--forecast-20152020

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Oilfield Biocides and Bio Solvents Market: By Biocide (Glutaraldehyde, DBNPA, THPS, Chlorine, Quaternary Ammonium) Bio Solvent (Hydrocarbon, Alcohols, Glycols) Application (Drilling, Production, Fracturing, Completion, Others) - Forecast (2015-2020)Oilfield Biocides and Bio Solvents are the chemical agents which are helpful for developing biodegradability and also to lower down toxicity in order to meet their application requirements in oilfields where the operations go through different process which is affected by microorganism unwantedly. They are also used to lubricate the moving parts and help to pull out solids from bottom of wells and also prevent loss of fluids. They are used to avoid loss of energy while processing. These are used with packer fluids also which prevents in collapsing and maintaining pressure between casing and tubing. According to global market study, only 3% of biocides are used in oilfield application and rest are used in other applications.Browse 209 Pages of research on Oilfield Biocides and Bio Solvents Market @Biocides can be classified into two types such as oxidizing and non-oxidizing biocides. They act as anti-microbial agents in water associated with crude oil production. Microbial control depends on the dosage and lifetime of the biocides. Biocides only have its effect under its presence but after removal, bacteria will start growing again, hence has to be added periodically across the oil production.Bio solvents are those which originated through renewable resources of biological origin such as plants, fruits and so on. Bio solvents are mainly in liquid form, with relatively lower amount of carbon in it. The global oilfield bio solvents market in terms of volume was estimated to be 65.9 KT in 2014 and is projected to decline by 15.2% in 2015 as compared to 2014.Oilfield Biocides and Bio Solvents MarketThe global biocides market is segmented into North America, Europe, APAC and RoW. In 2014, North America is the major market followed by Europe and APAC. North America is the major consumer and producer of oilfield biocides and bio-solvents across the world. It is due to high production of shale oil and gas activities in North America. Hydraulic fracturing is used for fracking of the shale rocks, in which fracking fluids are used. In the fracking fluids composition, the share of biocide is only 0.001%. Biocides are highly used in production and fracking applications in countries like the U.S, Canada and Mexico. Hydraulic fracturing is the major application followed by production application in North America.Get Sample Brochure of the Report @The Key Players profiled in the oilfield biocides and bio solvents market report include like: Dow Chemical Company BASF SE Solvay SA AkzoNobel N.V. Nalco Holding Company ICL Industrial ProductsThe report analyses the oilfield biocides and bio solvents market demand with various regions. Competitive landscape for non-oxidizing biocides and bio solvents is highlighted and market players are profiled with attributes of company overview, financial overview, product portfolio and recentdevelopments.Order Oilfield Biocides and Bio Solvents Market Analysis with Forecast (2016  2020) @About us:MarketIntelReports (MIR) aim to empower our clients to successfully manage and outperform in their business decisions, we do this by providing Premium Market Intelligence, Strategic Insights and Databases from a range of Global Publishers.A group of industry veterans who are well experienced in reputed international consulting firms after identifying the sourcing needs of MNCs for market intelligence, have together started this business savior MarketIntelReports.Contact us:Sales ManagerMayur S2711 Centerville Road, Suite 400,Wilmington,Delaware,19808United Statessales@marketintelreports.comTelephone: 1-302-261-5343
Portland police arrested a suspect in the string of recent food cart break-ins plaguing pods across Northeast and Southeast Portland.

According to a police press release, a cell phone stolen from a Northeast Portland cart led officers to a separate pod on North Mississippi Avenue and Fremont Street. Once there, officers arrested Charles Johnson, 32, on accusations of second-degree mischief and burglary. Johnson was booked into the Multnomah County Jail.

According to a police press release, Johnson was also arrested in late October on accusations of burglarizing Tina's Corner Restaurant at 5515 S.E. 122nd Ave.

Over the past three weeks, more than a half-dozen pods -- collections of food carts -- were burglarized in the past few weeks.

Charles Johnson

During each break-in, the crook or crooks snatched iPhones, iPads and other devices used for mobile payments while damaging doors and windows. At Piedmont Station in Northeast Portland, the thief or thieves also broke into an ATM.

Police ask anyone with information about the burglaries to contact Detective Matt Estes at 503-823-0462, matthew.estes@portlandoregon.gov.

-- Michael Russell
Forest Grove police log - 5-4-15.zip

Nov. 6

* A passerby watched an elderly man fall to the ground and called 911 to report the man was possibly having a heart attack. The caller was limited on time and unable to stop and render aid. Police and medical crews responded to help the man.

* A woman, upset about her boyfriend allegedly spending all of their money on a prostitute, called to complain about the prostitute now allegedly harassing her.

* A clerk locked himself out of a local convenience store again. A customer was able to assist prior to police arrival.

Nov. 7

* Police assisted a woman who called making suicidal statements while saying it was against her religion to follow through.

* Officers responded to a report of a man running around with a knife. The man was upset about being homeless and having some relationship issues. Police determined he had begun to cut himself and transported him to the hospital.

* Officers picking up their lunch at a local restaurant came across two musicians with the Portland Youth Philharmonic who were trying to get something to eat although running late for their performance at Pacific University. The officers paid for their lunch, and then gave both a ride to their performance.

Nov. 8

* Officers found a missing 11-year-old girl safe after she failed to come home after school.

* Police responded to report of two men locked in a dressing room having sex. Officers confronted both men, who insisted they were only kissing. Both were banned from returning.

* Police responded to a report of a man flailing his arms and yelling in a field adjacent to a fast food establishment. Shortly after arrival, officers were told there was a man nearby growling at people. Police found the man, who initially appeared to be unconscious but suddenly jumped up and began crab walking on his hands and feet while screaming incoherently. It was determined the man ingested unknown quantities of methamphetamine, psychedelic mushrooms and heroin. The man had to be chemically sedated by medical personnel before transporting him to the hospital for treatment.

Nov. 9

* Two citizens in separate incidents fell for scams involving iTunes gift cards. No government entity will ever ask for a payment via iTunes gift cards.

* A man fled police by bicycle after an officer attempted to stop him for several traffic violations. The man was apprehended and additional charges included possession of methamphetamine and a felony warrant.

* A man had nowhere to stay after getting kicked out of an apartment by his girlfriend. Police were able to help with a bed at the Washington County Jail after learning he had a warrant for his arrest.

Nov. 10

* An 89-year-old woman at a local assisted living center reported a sexual assault. The suspect is a very elderly man and fellow resident suffering advanced dementia.

Nov. 11

* The manager of a local business called police after an employee refused to leave after being sent home for disciplinary issues. The employee challenged police that they did not know how to do their jobs because he could do what he wanted as a member of the employee union. The employee was advised to recheck his union contract. He complied by leaving the premises.

* Police contacted a man in a vehicle parked in front of a bus stop. The man was barefoot and was asked about the large amount of blisters on his feet. The man stated he was hiking in India and believed there were worms in his feet. He declined any offer of assistance.

* Officers checked on a woman yelling about the devil being inside her apartment. The woman told officers she heard drumming sounds and other noises coming from above that she captured on tape. She played the tape for officers but nothing could be heard.

Nov. 12

* A man reported his girlfriend has been hitting him for years and once broke his jaw. The investigation is continuing.

* Officers responded to a fight between a man and woman involving a knife. Officers arrived to find a physical fight still in progress inside a residence and had to force their way inside. After a violent struggle with officers, the man subject was subdued and arrested.
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President-elect Donald Trump waves as he arrives at his election night rally on Wednesday, Nov. 9, in New York.

(John Locher/Associated Press)

FAITHLESS ELECTORS FOR CLINTON: Ending the Electoral College is a nice long-term agenda. All well and good. But we don't have time for that right now. The clock is ticking: Most Americans don't know that on Dec. 19, the Electoral College meets to cast their votes. Because this has happened in our history, we seek to reach out to the "faithless electors" and beg them to change their vote and overturn the outcome of the Electoral College. It has happened before, and there is a fine to pay if one were to do it (misdemeanor and about $1,000) -- a small price to pay to save the world. Let us reach out and let them know we will find a way for these "faithless electors" to get these fines paid. This time the world really is at stake. The atmosphere really can't handle ending the Environmental Protection Agency, and that is just the tip of the iceberg. Oh, wait ... they're melting. I'm just not ready to see the end of democracy, breathable air and drinkable water. And the thought of a second Civil War, which seems to be breaking out all over, is more terrifying than losing my health coverage.

Hester Schell, Northwest Portland

*

FAITHLESS ELECTORS FOR TRUMP: When the Electoral College officially enters their votes for president, the electors will have a chance to make a much-needed statement. It is a great opportunity for the Democratic Party's electors to change their votes and cast them for "The Donald" in protest against "Crooked Hillary's" corruption. This would also be an act of defiance against the obstruction of justice by the U.S. Department of Justice in its refusal to seek the indictment of "Crooked Hillary." She brazenly sold influence while in the office of secretary of state and violated the Espionage Act countless times. This is a way of telling the Clinton crime family that we know they are corrupt and that we are not fooled by the brainwashing of the mainstream media. I would be surprised if at least a few Democrat electors did not switch their votes when push comes to shove.

Mark Sullivan, Hillsboro

*

DONALD TRUMP AND STEVE BANNON: I am saddened, sickened and a little frightened to read that President-elect Donald Trump has seen fit to appoint Steve Bannon as his chief political adviser. Bannon's misogynistic, anti-Semitic, white-supremacist beliefs, boldly demonstrated in numerous Breitbart News stories, is antithetical to the values of this nation.

We have been urged to be patient and to give Trump a chance. And we've been assured he would moderate his views once in office. This appointment suggests the new administration will not give up on the divisive rhetoric that candidate Trump employed on the campaign trail.

I believe The Oregonian/OregonLive owes its readers a thorough investigation of Bannon's background and the nature of the movement he champions.

Stefan Jones, Beaverton

*

TRUMP SHOULD APOLOGIZE: If Donald Trump truly wants to bring the country together, he could start by offering a sincere apology to each of the groups of people he insulted, denigrated or threatened during his candidacy. He could also speak out against the ethnic attacks that some of his supports have launched.

Dale Rollins, Tigard
Bannon.JPG

Stephen Bannon leaves Trump Tower in New York in this file photo from Nov. 11. On Sunday, president-elect Trump named Bannon as his top presidential strategist.

(AP Photo)

By Paul Farhi

Stephen K. Bannon helped build Breitbart News into the clarion of Donald Trump's anti-establishment political movement with a pugnacious approach that critics have called racist, misogynistic and xenophobic. And then Bannon really went to work for Trump, steering the campaign that made Trump the 45th president.

Now, as Trump ascends to the White House, the question is: Where does Breitbart end and Bannon and the new administration they helped midwife begin?

Trump on Sunday named Bannon his chief White House strategist and senior counselor, a powerful position that acknowledges Bannon's role as the "Trump whisperer," the man with the president-elect's ear. Bannon, a former investment banker, joined Trump's campaign in August and helped guide it to its stunning upset over Democrat Hillary Clinton last week.

Since then, neither Bannon nor Breitbart have spelled out what their relationship will be after candidate Trump becomes President Trump. But even if Bannon and Breitbart sever all ties, they will face an unusual, and awkward, situation: Bannon would be the former executive of a media organization that openly supported his political patron who will serve the president in a senior capacity while his media organization continues to cover him and his new boss.

"Breitbart will now go from being the propaganda arm of the Trump campaign to effectively becoming a state-run medium," said Kurt Bardella, Breitbart's former spokesman. "They will exist to tell the narrative of the Trump presidency to their audience to ensure their alternate reality they successfully ran on stays intact regardless of the situational reality and condition of this country. There is no separation between Breitbart and the Trump White House."

Bannon remains on Breitbart's masthead as its executive chairman, although his day-to-day involvement as its chief editorial strategist (and host of its daily satellite radio program) were mothballed when he officially joined Trump's team over the summer.

Beyond that, much is unclear. Breitbart, like Trump, has never made its financial records public, so it's not known whether Bannon owns stock in the organization and whether he would sell it to avoid any appearance of a conflict while serving in the White House.

The company - which is based in Los Angeles but operates a newsroom out of a Capitol Hill townhouse that also serves as Bannon's pied-a-terre in Washington - is closely held among a few people, including co-founder Larry Solov and the family of the late Andrew Breitbart, its other co-founder.

One of Breitbart's primary financial backers is billionaire hedge-fund manager Robert Mercer, whose daughter, Rebekah, is part of Trump's presidential transition team. The Mercers were reportedly influential in persuading Trump to add Bannon and pollster Kellyanne Conway to his campaign team.

Alexander Marlow, Breitbart's editor in chief, declined to clarify the site's relationship with Bannon in an exchange of emails Sunday. Breitbart's spokeswoman, Alexandra Preate, also would not offer a response. Bannon did not reply to a request for comment.

The most obvious change is definitional. Trump's election has transformed Breitbart from a scrappy, even scabrous outsider - the scourge of what Bannon and Marlow contemptuously refer to as "the establishment" - into the ultimate insider and defender of the status quo.

The "outsider" role was enormously rewarding for Breitbart, which started in 2008 as an aggregator of wire-service stories selected by Breitbart and Marlow, then a student at the University of California at Berkeley. Since then, and particularly this year, it has grown into the home of the rising Trump movement and its shadowy underbelly, the alt-right that is often synonymous with racism and white nationalism.

Last month, it reported that it had reached a new high-water mark for traffic, with 37 million unique visitors - a count that rivals such mainstream news sites as ABCNews.com and CBSNews.com and exceeds LATimes.com.

On Monday, Breitbart continued to stump for Trump with headlines that attacked his now-defeated, and largely powerless, opponents.

"Clinton Top Aide Huma Abedin Seen Openly Weeping on Streets of New York," read one. Another: "Giuliani: 'Professional Protesters,' Not Hillary Supporters, Marching Across the Nation." And another: "Meltdown Continues: Wave of Fake 'Hate Crimes' Sweeps Social Media."

It also kept up its relentless attacks on immigration and "multiculturalism" that not only echo Trump's views but those of Europe's far-right political parties, such as Nigel Farage's UK Independence Party in Britain and Marine Le Pen's National Front. A typical headline on the site on Monday: "Feds Pull Agents Off Open Border to 'Process' Alien Surge."

Bannon was little known outside political circles until he was appointed to Trump's campaign in mid-August. The spotlight was not flattering; reporters unearthed a police report from 1996 in which one of Bannon's ex-wives, Mary-Louise Piccard, accused him of misdemeanor domestic violence, battery and dissuading a witness (Bannon pleaded not guilty and the charges were dropped). Piccard later said in divorce proceedings that Bannon didn't want their daughters to attend an exclusive school in Los Angeles because many Jewish students attended the school and "he didn't want the girls going to school with Jews."

Another media report disclosed that Bannon and another ex-wife were registered to vote in two places, including at a vacant house in Florida that was scheduled to be demolished - a potential violation of election law. The report was particularly ironic, given Trump's claims of rampant voter fraud.

All of which may help explain negative reactions to Trump's appointment of Bannon to a senior role in his administration. On Sunday, Republican strategist and CNN and ABC News commentator Ana Navarro tweeted about Bannon: "A white supremacist Neanderthal in WH w/President's ear is DISGUSTING & TERRIFYING."

Breitbart's biggest star is British blogger and provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, who helped lead the attacks on female video game programmers in an online troll war that became known as Gamergate. Twitter permanently banned Yiannopoulos in July after he led a wave of racist abuse of "Ghostbusters" star Leslie Jones.

"They were the house organ for Trump and will obviously remain so," said Ben Shapiro, a former columnist and editor at large at Breitbart.

Bardella and Shapiro ended their association with Breitbart in March after the site publicly doubted and later rebuked one of its own reporters, Michelle Fields, after an incident at a Trump news conference in Florida. Field said Trump's then-campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, had grabbed her arm and yanked her away from Trump as she sought to interview him at the event.

Trump and Lewandowski denied Fields's assertions and, like Breitbart, disparaged her. But a closed-circuit recording of the event showed that Lewandowski had done exactly what Fields described.

(c) 2016, The Washington Post
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President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference at the White House, in Washington, D.C., on Monday.

(AP Photo)

By Marc A. Thiessen

The safety-pin-wearing left is aghast at the realization that President Donald Trump could actually follow through on his promise to "cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama" on his first day in office. He should do it.

Every president reverses some executive actions of the previous president. After President Barack Obama took office in 2009, he revoked a series of executive orders issued by President George W. Bush - including Bush's executive order barring federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research; his executive order implementing the Mexico City Policy, which bars funding for international groups that provide abortions; his executive order interpreting the Geneva Conventions with regard to the CIA's detention of captured terrorists; and several Bush executive orders limiting the power of labor unions in dealing with federal contractors, among many others. Obama also used executive orders to reverse Bush's terrorist interrogation policy and order the closure of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay.

Obama's actions were not unprecedented. Bush not only reversed executive orders of his predecessor, Bill Clinton, but in 2002 he actually withdrew the U.S. from a treaty Clinton had signed - the Rome Statute creating the International Criminal Court.

The reason Obama's legacy is so vulnerable today is that the 44th president relied more on executive actions - issuing not only executive orders, but also a record number of rules, regulations and agency directives to legislate around Congress and impose his agenda.

After he lost control of the Senate in 2014, Obama announced at his first Cabinet meeting: "We're not just going to be waiting for legislation. . . . I've got a pen and I've got a phone. And I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward." On immigration, when Obama could not pass his immigration reform to provide amnesty for entire categories of people not here legally, he tried to impose it on the American people though unlawful executive action - a move The Washington Post's editorial board called a "massive unilateral act" that "flies in the face of congressional intent." When he could not pass his cap-and-trade bill, he used the Clean Air Act to impose it by executive action, twisting the meaning of the law in a manner that even The New York Times said was "stretching the intent of a law decades old and not written with climate change in mind." He took executive actions on everything from gun control and financial regulation to health care and transgender bathrooms.

Now Trump may use his pen and phone to reverse many of Obama's executive actions. And the lame-duck president can hardly complain. If you rule by executive fiat, then you should not be surprised if the next executive undoes your fiats.

Some of Obama's executive actions will be easy to repeal. Trump can, with the stroke of his pen, reverse Obama's orders to close Guantanamo Bay. He can also scrap the Paris Agreement on climate change that Obama signed in September, which is completely non-binding, by simply announcing that the United States will not fulfill its obligations. Obama's executive actions under Title IX denying due process to those accused of sexual assault and requiring schools to allow transgender students to bathrooms that do not match their biological gender are easily reversed. They were issued as guidance that do have any force of law at all, yet the Education Department is enforcing them as if they did - threatening universities with loss of funds if they don't comply. Repealing those won't take anything more than Trump's new education secretary simply saying, "Never mind."

Plus, Obama set a land speed record for major regulations - defined as regulations costing the economy $100 million or more - imposing more than 600 since taking office. Many of those will be difficult to do undo, because they were issued through notice and comment by the agencies. For instance, the Clean Power Plan from the Environmental Protection Agency, which Trump has promised to scrap, can't be undone with a stroke of the pen. The EPA would have to formally revoke it, which could itself lead to litigation. That's why it's so important for Trump to put good justices on the Supreme Court, so they can not only strike down illegal regulations but also set precedents that will be binding on future presidents as well.

If Trump really wants to shake up Washington, he should issue a single executive order on Day One repealing all of Obama's executive orders. Then, he could go back and decide which, if any, to reinstate.

It's not just Obama's executive actions that will soon be reversed. His signature legislative achievement, Obamacare, is headed for repeal - and he has no one to blame but himself. Obama passed his health-care reform without any Republican buy-in or any effort to reach bipartisan consensus. He controlled both houses of Congress, and so he imposed his will over the objection of every single Republican. Now that Republicans control both Congress and the White House, they have no incentive to preserve the law.

From legislation to executive action, the lesson is clear: The value of bipartisan compromise is not just about optics. If you build consensus, then your actions will last. But if you impose your agenda on an unwilling country, it is going to get repealed or reversed when the other party comes to power.

There is wisdom in the scriptural admonition to "be like a wise man who built his house on the rock" instead of the "foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it."

Obama built his legacy on the sand of unilateralism, instead of the rock of bipartisan consensus. And great will be the fall of it come Jan. 20, 2017.

(c) 2016, The Washington Post

Mark Thiessen is a fellow with the American Enterprise Institute and former chief speechwriter to President George W. Bush. He wrote this piece for The Washington Post.


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President-elect Donald Trump listens to President Barack Obama in the White House Oval Office last Thursday.

(AP Photo/File)

By Leonid Bershidsky

Donald Trump will often be mocked in the coming months as the anti-elitist, anti-establishment disruptor of politics who wants to lower taxes on the elite and who is not above hiring establishment figures such as Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus for his team. The mockery will mostly be misplaced simply because the terms "elite" and "establishment" are understood too broadly: Trump's movement was against only certain forms of establishment elitism that have nothing to do with wealth, membership in a party hierarchy or even political experience.

By most measures, of course, Trump himself is part of the establishment. He's a billionaire who knows most of the country's celebrities and power brokers socially. He went to Wharton. He lives in a Manhattan penthouse. The people who voted for him aren't too dumb to notice that. They weren't fooled by rhetoric that somehow masked the Republican candidate's true status: He boasted about his wealth, connections and elite education on the campaign trail. And even if he hadn't, skyscrapers bearing his name stick out of more than one city's skyline.

Based on my many conversations with Trump supporters, it was precisely his membership in the business elite that attracted them. These people revere business success, and they think it's OK to cut some corners on the path that leads to it. They would have done so themselves. But when Trump supporters think about the "elite" or the "establishment," what they really mean is America's intelligentsia.

I'm familiar with the phenomenon from my time in Russia. There, intellectuals, distrusted but often co-opted by every regime since the 18th-century czars, have formed into a close, incestuous, consciously or unconsciously arrogant caste. Sympathetic descriptions of "our circle" can be found in the novels of the celebrated Russian writer Ludmila Ulitskaya, or in a recent Facebook post by the the club-owner Varvara Turova, who opened some of the intelligentsia's favorite Moscow hangouts. "At any age -- four, five, whatever -- I knew as soon as a guest crossed our threshold if he was one of us or not," she wrote. "It was something one immediately guessed by an instantly recognizable system of cultural codes, and it couldn't be changed."

Russians who aren't "one of us" harbor a lot of resentment for this circle that is often interpreted within it as anti-Semitism: The intelligentsia is disproportionately Jewish (I am, too).

As I watched Trump on the stump and talked to the people who favored him, I saw a very similar resentment against the U.S. intelligentsia: the left-wing academia in its ivory towers, policy wonks moving seamlessly between prestigious universities and the government, journalists always happy to quote the so-called experts (also rejected by voters in the U.K.'s Brexit debate). Collectively, they -- we -- were seen as an entrenched, closed, arrogant group that sees fit to tell people what to say and think. The talk of "safe spaces" on U.S. campuses, the rhetoric of racial and gender equality in a country where both run only skin-deep, the attempts at expunging religion from public life -- all of these were seen as dictates from a clique that had a monopoly on intellectualism and thus on information.

This is the same understanding of "elite" and "establishment" that informed Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged": The Trumpists share Rand's exasperation with teachers, writers and bureaucrats and their fake recipes for social justice, as well as her admiration for the rough but creative doers, the titans of business.

It is hard for someone who is perceived as one of the culprits not to see this resentment as irrational, xenophobic, anti-Semitic. I won't take this line of defense, though.

I know there are plenty of anti-Semites, xenophobes and racists among Trump supporters. I've talked to some of them. But there are probably not enough of them to have ensured his election. And in any case, under the U.S. constitution, even they are entitled to their opinions and allowed to voice them -- unlike in many European countries, which enforce stricter hate speech laws.

Trump supporters felt they couldn't speak freely about certain perceived injustices; for example, one that was often described to me as "black families living on government assistance for generations" -- or, if they spoke about them, they'd be dismissed as racists.

They were being told it was right to elect the first woman as president even though they didn't trust the particular woman. Trump said things that could be perceived as insulting to women and Hispanics -- but his voters, including lots of women and Hispanics, chose not to be offended because, like it or not, they don't believe in the same taboos as most of the media.

That's where I find common cause with them. Words and thoughts are not crimes. To Trump voters, the media clamor that followed Trump's remarks was evidence that there's a monopoly group out there telling them to shut up, to fear a slip of the tongue, to banish politically incorrect thoughts. They were tired of being mocked and described as stupid and backward for their views. So, deprived of most reputable forums where they might have aired these views, they vented their frustrations at the ballot box.

American intellectuals may violently disagree with the average Trump voter on most things. They may have access to facts that prove that voters wrong. But there's no way they -- we -- can go on dismissing and ridiculing these people without dooming themselves to irrelevance and provoking further backlash.

I agree with Reason commentator Robby Soave that it was a backlash against political correctness that helped Trump win. Such is the fallout from suppressing free speech, even with the best intentions. The U.S. needs an open conversation about what ails it, not a "safe" one that tiptoes around speech taboos about racism, misogyny and sexual discrimination; and definitely not one moderated by any group of self-appointed gatekeepers. The conversation won't be pleasant. But without it, the grievances that got Trump into the White House cannot be properly discussed, let alone put to rest.

(c) 2016, Bloomberg View

Leonid Bershidsky is a Bloomberg View columnist based in Berlin.
ser.jpg

(The Oregonian/OregonLive/file)

A grand jury indicted a former Columbia County employee after $585,574 went missing from the department where she worked.

Linda Hald, who worked at the county for 30 years before retiring last year, pleaded not guilty to a list of 29 charges Monday. The county said she had been booked and released from the county jail.

Shortly after Hald retired as office manager for the adult division of the county's Community Justice Department, managers discovered that money was missing from an office account.

A forensic accountant who audited the department found the funds had been diverted over a period of 17 years, the county said.

The county has recovered most of the funds through its insurance, but said in a statement it intends to seek restitution from Hald. It added that the missing funds didn't affect the department's services and that payments by offenders were properly credited to their accounts.

The charges against Hald include nine counts of first-degree aggravated theft, five counts of first-degree theft, 11 counts of tampering with public records, three counts of first-degree official misconduct and one count of attempting to commit a misdemeanor.

-- Elliot Njus

enjus@oregonian.com

503-294-5034

@enjus
Voter turnout among Oregon's nearly 250,000 automatically registered "motor voters" reached 43 percent, Oregon's secretary of state office reported Monday.

While that rate is far lower than turnout among voters who took the initiative to register to vote (82 percent), and somewhat lower than turnout among voters not affiliated with any party (59 percent), it was substantially higher than many political scientists and election-watchers had predicted.

Conventional wisdom is that almost everyone who is automatically registered to vote, rather than taking the trouble to do it on their own, will fail to follow through and vote. But evidence to support those assertions is nearly all drawn from states where voters must show up at an elections office during voting hours on Election Day, not from vote-by-mail states such as Oregon.

Reed College political science professor Paul Gronke told The Oregonian/OregonLive in the run-up to Nov. 8 that he thought turnout among Oregon's first crop of motor voters could be as high as 35 percent to 40 percent.

"If they get to half, that will be a huge accomplishment," Gronke said more than two weeks before the election.

Pollster Mike Riley, based on findings from a survey commissioned by The Oregonian/OregonLive and KGW, predicted that automatically registered voters would cast about 5 percent of ballots. He was right on the mark, with motor voters accounting for 4.8 percent of all votes cast in Oregon.

Secretary of State Jeanne Atkins, in a statement, called the unexpectedly high motor voter turnout "fantastic news. These numbers tell us is that 97,184 Oregonians who may not have otherwise voted exercised their right to vote because of Oregon motor voter."

Overall voter turnout was just 79 percent, the lowest in any Oregon presidential election since vote-by-mail went universal in 1998. The fact that 130,000 "motor voters" didn't cast ballots was entirely responsible for the electorate failing to match the 81 percent turnout that Oregon voters recorded in 2012.

Oregon elections officials had reported in October that 250,000 voters had been signed up to vote after visiting the DMV to get or renew a license. But they reported Monday that only 227,000 voters had been automatically registered.

That is primarily because 20,000 of the automatically registered voters were 17 and did not turn 18 in time to vote in this election, said elections spokeswoman Molly Woon. A few thousand others had their ballots returned as undeliverable or requested to be unregistered after briefly being added to the rolls, Woon said.

-- Betsy Hammond
Two teenagers accused in the early Saturday shooting of an anti-Trump protester on the Morrison Bridge made their first appearances in court Monday.

A 14-year-old boy faces charges of attempted murder, second-degree assault with a firearm and unlawful use of a weapon allegations. Police announced his arrest after saying that one of two 18-year-olds initially arrested wasn't involved in the shooting and was released from jail.

The boy was in a car with others that was trying to get across the bridge when they got into an argument with some protesters, police and witnesses said.

The car's driver, Shamar Xavier Hunter, 18, was arraigned in Multnomah County Circuit Court. He's accused of aiding and abetting in attempted murder. Hunter drove onto the bridge, stopped and then drove off, authorities said.

In the meantime, the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office dropped, for now, most of the misdemeanor allegations that police had filed against demonstrators in recent nights until police can complete their paperwork.

Shamar Hunter, the 18-year-old driver accused of aiding and abetting in the early Saturday morning shooting on the Morrison Bridge of a 21-year-old protester. Hunter was arraigned in the Multnomah County Justice Center Monday on allegations of attempted murder and unlawful use of a weapon. (Dave Killen|Staff)

Police rounded up at least 113 people during the last week of protests through downtown and over Williamette River bridges that erupted after Donald Trump won the hotly contested presidential race. Demonstrators faced accusations of disorderly conduct, interfering with police and other charges.

Until the shooting, the worst violence had come Thursday night as some protesters smashed cars and business windows and threw bottles and other projectiles at police.

The 14-year-old is accused of stepping out of a car and firing a Tec-9 semiautomatic pistol at a 21-year-old protester.

Louis Carlos Paredes-Luis suffered a gunshot wound to the leg. Police in the area provided immediate medical support to Paredes-Luis. He was bleeding extensively and taken by ambulance to a local hospital.

Because the accused shooter is under age 15, he won't face prosecution under Measure 11. He appeared briefly during a juvenile delinquency hearing. The Oregonian/OregonLive generally doesn't name minors accused of crimes unless they're tried as an adult.

The driver, Hunter, also is accused of five other counts of attempted murder stemming from an unrelated Nov. 1 gang-related shooting near Northeast 115th Avenue and Sandy Boulevard.

Hunter remains in custody at the Inverness Jail on $1.5 million bail. The 14-year-old remains at the Donald E. Long Detention Home and is due back in court later this month.

Portland Police Chief Mike Marshman said he believes the shooting occurred because the car couldn't make it over the bridge as some protesters were walking in the street and blocking traffic.

As for the protesters who were arrested, prosecutors from the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office, along with Portland police, announced that nearly all of the charges filed against them would be dismissed for the time being, largely because the paperwork to back up the cases hasn't been completed yet.

"Due to the fluid nature of the ongoing protests over the past several days, most of the arresting officers were on duty, working to protect the city,'' said a joint statement by the police and district attorney's office. "As such, work is continuing by officers and detectives to complete the necessary reports. ... Additionally, hundreds of hours of video evidence capturing the events must be collected and reviewed.''

On Monday afternoon, dozens of people crowded the second-floor courtrooms of the Multnomah County Justice Center as the first wave of arrested protesters were arraigned. A second wave is set to appear in court Tuesday.

At least 20 people learned that their charges were being downgraded from misdemeanors to citations, which is similar to a traffic ticket. They were given court dates for next appearances.

Eighteen of those arrested were told that prosecutors aren't pursuing criminal charges against them at this time.

But prosecutors warned that doesn't mean those arrested are off free: Criminal charges could still be pursued after police complete their reports and video evidence is reviewed.

"The sheer number of arrests during protests over the last several days has been an exceptional event and the charges being 'no complainted' today are not unexpected and is a procedural matter given the extensive amount of work left to do in these cases,'' police and prosecutors said in the joint statement.

Police and prosecutors said almost everyone arrested will receive or already has received a citation for failing to obey police.

The courtrooms were filled to standing-room-only with protesters and their supporters. Others had to wait out in the hall. The defendants told stories of how they thought they were wrongfully arrested by police for exercising their rights to free speech.

Milione

Vincenzo Milione, who was arrested on accusations of second-degree disorderly conduct and interfering with an officer, said he linked arms with other protesters Thursday night and police moved in on him. He's protested four of the six nights since Trump won, he said.

"We've shown to the citizens of the world and to the citizens of this country that we don't support Donald Trump,'' he said.

Police have said they repeatedly and loudly communicated that the Thursday night march had turned into a riot and ordered people to clear out or face arrest. Milione said it was very noisy and he didn't hear police order him to leave.

-- Aimee Green of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this story.





-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian

-- Aimee Green

503-294-5119
markhatfieldcourthousekillen.jpg

U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernandez on Monday sentenced Cody Halsey, 37, to two years and nine months in federal prison after he pleaded guilty in July to wire fraud. Halsey also must pay $1.5 million in restitution. (Dave Killen|Staff)

A 37-year-old man who prosecutors say defrauded nearly 250 clients of his former property management companies out of $1.5 million was sentenced Monday to nearly three years in federal prison.

Cody Halsey, who had been living in Oregon City but now resides in Vancouver, had pleaded guilty in July to one count of wire fraud, after an FBI investigation found he had stolen money directly from the client trust accounts of his Clackamas-based property management companies, Cascade Community Management and Noah & Associates Community Management.

He also deposited rent payments into bank accounts he opened so he could embezzle the money instead of depositing the payments into the client trust accounts, and stole tenant security deposits, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth Uram.

Halsey was the only one who had complete control of the companies' computerized booking system, which allowed him to falsify financial records, fabricate invoices to clients and sometimes charge clients' accounts twice for the same service, according to the prosecutor's sentencing memo.

The federal prosecutor recommended a sentence of two years and nine months, which reflected a downward departure from sentencing guidelines, partly because Halsey "came clean'' about the details of his illegal scheme and entered a guilty plea early in the case, according to court documents.

Halsey's defense lawyer David H. Angeli had urged the court to sentence his client to one year and one day, arguing that any longer sentence would not be necessary.

"Mr. Halsey's misdeeds have been widely publicized, ensuring that he will never again attain any meaningful social or professional standing,'' Angeli wrote in a sentencing memo on behalf of Halsey. "He has no criminal record and has complied meticulously with the conditions of his pretrial release.''

Halsey, who struggled through an abusive and neglectful childhood and adolescence and sought desperately to prove his worth, unfortunately did so by stealing money from his clients, Angeli said.

"He used that money to shower gifts on friends and strangers alike and to create a facade of wealth and success. He tried, in essence, to purchase the social acceptance and appearance of success that he so desired,'' Angeli's sentencing memo said.

U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernandez sentenced Halsey to two years and nine months in prison. He also was ordered to pay $1.5 million in restitution.

Richard Rocci, of Rocci Properties LLC., told the court that Halsey was hired to manage 85 of his company's units. He said his company has to replace the money Halsey stole from their tenants' accounts, which has cut into employees' retirement benefits.

He called Halsey's two year and nine month prison sentence "far too short for what he did.''

The Oregon Real Estate Agency ousted Halsey in 2015 and put a receiver in charge of Cascade Community Management after it investigated whether he misused rents and deposits.

The court-appointed receiver for Halsey's businesses wrote this note to the court: "Throughout the time we dealt with Mr. Halsey he lied, stole assets of the Estate, was contemptuous of the Receiver and its responsibilities to the court and creditors, the property owners, and once the magnitude of the situation became apparent stated, 'we are not smart enough to figure out how he did it.' His actions before the appointment of the Receiver, which are the subject of the proceedings before you, and his actions while the receiver was in place, demonstrates his total lack of remorse for his actions or the pain and suffering caused to the property owners who entrusted him with their funds and properties.''

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian
On Wednesday morning, crews will close a portion of N. Saginaw Road to replace a traffic signal pole at the Jefferson Avenue cutoff. Saginaw Road will be closed to northbound traffic between Ashman Street and W. St. Andrews Road for approximately one day to complete the project.

Northbound motorists on Saginaw will be detoured to Jefferson Avenue and W. St. Andrews Road. Motorists traveling southbound on Jefferson Avenue that would normally continue onto S. Saginaw Road will be detoured onto Vail Street, Cambridge Street, and E. Ashman Street. Southbound Saginaw Road will remain open to traffic.
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The cause of an Airman fatality on a C-130H Hercules during Operation Christmas Drop in December 2015 at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, has been verified as atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and coronary artery thrombosis, a heart attack caused by the blockage of several coronary arteries, according to a Pacific Air Forces Accident Investigation Board report released today.

At 5:10 p.m. on December 13, 2015, Senior Airman Jeremy Jutba-Hake, a C-130H loadmaster, collapsed inside the aircraft while completing post-flight duties at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. Following uninterrupted resuscitation efforts by bystanders, emergency responders, paramedics, and emergency room physicians, SrA Jutba-Hake was pronounced deceased at 7:12 p.m. at U.S. Naval Hospital Guam.

An AIB comprised of subject matter experts from aviation and support-related backgrounds conducted a thorough review of all available evidence to determine the facts surrounding the mishap to discover the cause and any substantially contributing factors.

"Jeremy was an exceptional Airman and son," said Brig. Gen. Gregory Guillot, Pacific Air Forces Chief of Staff and AIB president, "He was a highly respected member of the 374th Airlift Wing, and is deeply missed by his fellow Airmen. Unfortunately, the rarity of SrA Jubta-Hake's disease and the absence of symptoms made this condition virtually impossible to detect. Despite the efforts of fellow Airmen, EMTs, paramedics and emergency room physicians to save his life, this was tragically a non-survivable cardiac event.

The C-130H and crew were assigned to the 374th Airlift Wing, Yokota Air Base, Japan, with temporary duties at Andersen AFB, were conducting a Low Cost, Low Altitude (LCLA) airdrop of food and supplies to residents of two Micronesian islands as part of the annual Operation Christmas Drop training mission.

The operation ended approximately 30 seconds prior to the last scheduled drop over the second Micronesian island. The co-pilot terminated the drop sequence after aircrew and passengers reported a burning smell throughout the cockpit and cargo compartment. The aircrew properly applied all emergency procedures and checklist items, and after confirming that the smell had been eliminated, an In-Flight Emergency (IFE) was declared and the aircraft returned to Andersen AFB. After landing, SrA Jutba-Hake was completing post-flight duties on the aircraft when he collapsed. The board did not find any evidence to suggest the smell caused or substantially contributed to his death.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein and his spouse, Dawn, visited Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska at the tail end of a two-week trip to various Pacific Air Forces installations, Nov. 10, 2016.



[The trip] was an opportunity to not only get out and see Airmen, but also make international connections, and reinforce our commitment to our alliances and our partnerships in the region, Goldfein said.



This was Goldfeins first visit to the Final Frontier as Chief of Staff of the Air Force.



The spirit you see here at team JBER is alive and well, he said. We have a great joint team up here, doing the nations business in the northern tier.



It was standing room only, as Airmen of all ranks attended Goldfein's all call hosted at JBERs Hangar 1.



To stand there on the stage and represent the Airmen who signed up to serve is a real honor and privilege, Goldfein said.



There were myriad topics discussed during the event. One in particular was the revitalization of Air Force squadrons.



The squadron, I believe is the heartbeat of the Air Force, Goldfein said. Its where Airmen and families thrive. Its where we actually inculcate the culture of being an Airman. Its where we succeed or fail in the mission.



Words of the late Army Air Corps Gen. William Billy Mitchell, cited by some as the father of the Air Force, came to Goldfeins mind when discussing Alaskas geographic importance.



This is some of the most strategic landscape on the planet, Goldfein said. Whether you want to talk about its location relative to all the challenges that we face as a nation  or the global challenges we need to be thinking about as a military, or whether you want to talk about this incredible natural treasure called JPARC (Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex), the largest range we have for the business of doing live trainingAlaska matters.



Goldfein went on to express his gratitude for all Alaskans, not just service members.



I give a lot of credit to the local community who embraces Airmen and families and makes them feel part of the community. To all of the folks that live, and work and embrace our Airmen and families  my message as chief is to say, Thank you.



In closing, Goldfein reflected on the Air Force core value of service before self, and equated it to the military family.



I think it applies as much to our families as it does to those of us who are privileged to wear the uniform. To all of our families  thank you.
NORMAL  Protests continued on the Illinois State University one week after the election of Donald Trump as president.

Tuesday afternoon's rally on the campus quad, which attracted about two dozen protesters, was organized by the Student Environmental Action Coalition.

Senior Cassie Matz of Roselle, president of the student group, said she is concerned about Trump's stance on environmental issues, including the Paris Agreement on climate change, the future of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Dakota Access oil pipeline.

Among comments chanted by the students was, "Fight today for the EPA."

But Matz, an environmental health and flute performance major, said the rally was about more than environmental issues.

We're here in solidarity for this movement and every other movement, said Matz, calling on fellow students to Stand up for what's right.

Signs and chants also showed support for immigrants, the LGBT community and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Karalyn Collazo, a senior in publishing from Oak Forest, said, I've been reeling since the election. ... This is a small part of what I can do.

She said that although Trump won, that doesn't mean marginalized groups have lost. We're going to keep moving forward.

Sophomore Jenny Goyer, a stage management and business management major from Western Springs, said she decided to take part in the rally because if I don't take any action at all, I'm not changing anything.

Most of the rally took part on Schroeder Plaza, at the north end of the quad.

Another student group, called Turning Point, also happened to be on the plaza at the same time, handing out stickers against socialism and pamphlets with other information.

A number of students stopped to talk with people in both groups.

Turning Point President Andy Byars, a sophomore from Homer Glenn majoring in political science and Spanish, said his group is nonpartisan and favors free speech, limited government and fiscal responsibility.

The protest was far smaller than the Nov. 9 gathering on the quad, when a few hundred students turned out to focus on the election and ongoing racial issues on campus. ISU President Larry Dietz and Levester Johnson, ISU vice president for student affairs, spoke to the crowd, calling for protests to remain peaceful and for everyone to treat each other with respect.
BLOOMINGTON  Jonathan Green will be leaving as provost and dean of the faculty at Illinois Wesleyan University at the end of June to become president of Susquehana University in Pennsylvania.

Susquehana is a private liberal arts university in Selinsgrove, Pa., with an enrollment of about 2,200 students. Green will be its 15th president. He was introduced to faculty, staff and students on Monday.

In an announcement from Susquehanna, Signe Gates, chair of the presidential search committee, cited Green's stellar credentials and said, He will bring the right combination of skills, experience and demeanor to Susquehanna.

IWU President Eric Jensen congratulated and thanked Green in a statement from IWU and said, Susquehanna will benefit from his good-natured intelligence and from his insightful grasp of the liberal arts and their importance in the modern world.

A search for Green's successor will be launched immediately, according to IWU.

Green has been IWU's provost since Aug. 1, 2011, and also served as a professor of music. He continued to be an active composer and scholar while at IWU, publishing A Conductor's Guide to Selected Baroque Choral-Orchestral Works, his seventh book, and having one of his compositions premiere at New York City's Carnegie Hall.

Green said in a statement, The things which I most value from Lynn's and my time here are the friendships we have formed and the transformation experiences of students we have been fortunate to observe and share.

Among his accomplishments at IWU are expansion of grants and foundations work; expansion of the School of Nursing; stronger international programs and recruitment; implementation of lacrosse; and development of new academic initiatives, such as the design, technology and entrepreneurship major.

Noting he will be at IWU through June, Green said, I am looking forward to the work we still have to accomplish together over the next eight months.

He said in the statement from Susquehanna that he is most proud of the accomplishments that were the result of deep collaboration and collective problem-solving.

Green came to IWU from Sweet Briar College in Sweet Briar, Va., where he had been dean of the college and vice president for academic affairs for eight years. He started at Sweet Briar in 1996 as a member of the music faculty and served in various administrative posts.
Tackling mental health and providing affordable housing options were among the priorities identified by candidates vying for McLean County Board seats in the three districts that encompass a majority of the town of Normal.
The people of the United States have spoken. They've chosen a commander- in-chief thats unconventional and controversial. Maybe that's what we need? Someone to turn the government upside down. To release the chains of society. We all have rights to an opinion. But when either party spews hatred and derogating insults over social media, their rhetoric becomes invalid. Have the people of the United States come to a new low of hatred and division?

From guns to gay marriage, people are afraid these rights will be stripped away and thats what divides us. I am a child of a Chinese immigrant, who witnessed prejudice; I am an adult who fights a disability every day, praying for a cure before it robs me of my vision; I am a friend to people of different colors, who are gay, atheist and Christian. Finally, I am the daughter of a Vietnam veteran who watched her father struggle with the memories of the people who negatively judged him for his sacrifice for this country.

I am tired of the division. I am tired of the anger. I am tired of the fear-mongering. But, mostly, I am tired of the animosity between people. Humanity is slowly disappearing in our culture. Tolerance and kindness are the new minority. Unity no longer exists. Shame on cultural wars. Shame on government for placing citizens in silos. Shame on society for engaging in labels. But mostly, shame on you, the people, for allowing this divide between us.

Heidi Simmons, Bloomington
BLOOMINGTON  The McLean County Museum of History's annual holiday event, Christmas at the Courthouse, has become a popular and time-honored tradition.

The museum and the Cruisin with Lincoln on 66 Visitors Center open their doors to the community each year on the first Saturday of December for a day of family fun and holiday cheer. Enjoy holiday music, homemade cookies, cider and more from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 3.

After the annual Jaycees Christmas Parade, families can take photos with St. Nick and make crafts provided by the museums Education Department. Museum board member Mike Matejka will share his model toy train, which is always a hit with both children and adults.

Other activities include face painting by Wild Style Design Company from noon until 3 p.m.

Musical performances this year will include the acoustical styling of Marcos Mendez, the Bloomington High School Quartet, the Sunshine Bells, Loving Missionary Choir, Sound of Illinois Chorus, storytelling with Mike Lockett, and the State Farm Employee Activities Association Chorus (SFEAA).

All exhibit galleries will be open during the event, including two new permanent interactive exhibits  "Making a Home," which explores immigration stories, and "Abraham Lincoln in McLean County."

For holiday shoppers looking for unique local gifts items, the gift shop will be open all day and offer a wide range of local history publications, shirts, toys, and Route 66 memorabilia.

As a prelude to the weekend festivities, the museum will offer free admission from 5 to 8 p.m. Dec. 2 during the Downtown Bloomington Associations Once upon a Holiday event.

Enjoy celebrity readings of Twas the Night Before Christmas, with retired State Farm executive Willie Brown at 6 p.m. and WGLTs Laura Kennedy at 7 p.m. Marcos Mendez will perform and refreshments will available, including adult egg nog.

Christmas at the Courthouse is the museum's signature event and would not be possible without the generosity of our community of supporters and volunteers. It is our way of saying "thank you" to all who make our nationally accredited educational institution work for the common good. So, happy holidays!

For more information about the event and others at the museum, visit www.mchistory.org and www.cruisinwithlincolnon66.org or call 309-827-0428.
BLOOMINGTON  Hidden near the center of Bloomington is a historic and architectural gem that remains unknown to many people in the Twin Cities.

The 36-room David Davis Mansion, at 1000 Monroe Drive, is a stately Italianate Victorian home built for Supreme Court Justice David Davis, a longtime personal friend and political ally of Abraham Lincoln.

The mansion is a paragon of Victorian festivity during the holiday season, which runs from Nov. 25 through New Year's Eve, so dont miss this opportunity to begin a new holiday tradition.

The judges wife, Sarah, used simple arrangements of evergreens to decorate the home in the 1870s. By the time their son, George Perrin Davis, inherited the house, America had transitioned to the glittering Gilded Age.

Today, the mansions holiday decor transports visitors back to that era, adorned with evergreens, flowers, berries, beads, fruit, feathers, and Christmas trees in nearly every room.

Family members and guests who found the special glass pickle hidden in a tree were said to enjoy good fortune throughout the coming year.

When you visit the mansion this season, look for the feather tree in the dining room, embellished with the rare, imported, German-made ornaments featured on the former PBS series, "Downton Abbey."

Also, notice the Peppermint Pig on the dining room table. The pig was honored in Victorian holiday tradition as a symbol of good health, happiness and prosperity.

This year, the David Davis Mansion will feature some charming new stories about gift giving in the Davis family. Among the many decorated trees is a special new tree  the Candy Tree!

One of the gifts the Davises gave their children was candy, a novelty that was available in abundance for the very first time in the 19th century. The Candy Tree is covered with replicas of 19th-century candy containers, each filled with candy authentic to the Victorian period. Many of these candies may be relatively unknown to our 21st-century visitors, particularly the milk chocolate cockroach.

As visitors move through the mansion to the judges library, they will find copies of holiday greetings and thank-you notes written and received by Judge Davis. Also on display are replicas of holiday gifts he selected for his family and friends, revealing him to be a devoted father, loving grandparent and charitable friend.

At the end of the tour is the Clover Lawn Museum Gift Shop, located in the mansion laundry room, which offers a variety of gifts, vintage toys and games, Christmas decorations, and mementos you won't want to miss, including those popular Victorian holiday treats, the Peppermint Pig, the Glass Pickle ornament, and the Milk Chocolate Cockroach.

The mansion is open year-round for regular tours, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, except holidays.

In addition, Christmas at the Mansions, a ticketed annual holiday event featuring tours of David Davis Mansion, Ewing Manor, and a Mystery House, will take place this year from 2 to 5 p.m. and 5 to 8 p.m. Dec. 10. Tickets are $15 in advance through Dec. 8 and $18 at the door.

For more information, visit www.daviddavismansion.org.
Following Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 U.S. Elections, his third wife Melania Trump will also be joining him when he takes up residence at the White House in January 2017. A foreign-born former model who is mom to a 10-year-old boy, what can Americans expect from First Lady Melania Trump? What kind of an asset will she be in a Donald Trump presidency?

Melania Trump, nee Melania Knauss, was born on April 26, 1970 in Slovenia. She supposedly quit college to become a model, which landed over spots on Vogue and GQ. She met Donald Trump in 1998 and married him in 2005, according to US Weekly.

First Lady Melania Trump might have a different background than outgoing First Lady Michelle Obama but they do actually share something in common. The president-elect and his wife have a son together, Barron, 10. Melania Trump is quite hands-on with him as a parent, just like Michelle Obama is with her daughters.

"My husband is traveling all the time," Melania Trump said, according to People. "Barron needs somebody as a parent, so I am with him all the time," she added.

With this pronouncement, those within the Trump circle believe that First Lady Melania Trump will put Barron as her first priority over becoming FLOTUS. She is not expected to be involved in policy decisions and will be content to help Donald Trump away from the public eye.

Melania Trump Shares Her Vision And Inspiration For America https://t.co/pnRAgmX9ip pic.twitter.com/bM5j4iTQ4w  MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) November 7, 2016

The Telegraph reports Melania Trump has expressed that she will be performing traditional first lady tasks, such as with interior design and choosing china patters for state dinners. But one cause she would support is to look into cyberbullying, especially on how it impacts today's digitally-savvy kids. "We need to guide them and teach them about social media because I see a lot of negativity on it and we need to help them," she told Anderson Cooper in a televised interview.

According to USA Today, Melania Trump is fluent in French, Serbian and German, as well as her native language Slovenian. She could help her husband when meeting with foreign dignitaries. Learn more about First Lady Melania Trump in the video below.
As President-elect Donald Trump prepares for his move to the White House in January 2017, he's slowly shaping up his government with potential cabinet secretaries. Reports say that he's likely to pick Ben Carson for Secretary of Education and the new president is expected to shake up the department in unconventional ways. What should parents have to know about what might potentially happen in the Department of Education under Trump?

According to Whiteboard Advisors, Donald Trump has been considering Ben Carson for the Education post since May. Back then, Ben Carson and Donald Trump went head to head for the presidential nomination during the Republican primary. But when it was clear that Trump was the stronger pick, Carson decided to get behind the hotel mogul for his presidential bid.

Ben Carson's appointment might be met with a lot of opposition since he is not qualified for the position, according to Patheos. As a known climate change end evolution denier, his personal beliefs as a conservative Christian might go against what should be taught to kids in school.

Another potential Education secretary pick is Williamson M. Evers, according to Politico. He has worked with the department from 2007 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He is also a consultant to Donald Trump's transition team.

Donald Trump expressed during the campaign that he might potentially eliminate the Education Department if he wins the presidency. Instead, control of this will go to local governments.

But if he's not completely eliminating the department, Donald Trump hopes to cut down its function, specifically mentioning the abolishment of Common Core, Fed Smith reports. Student immigrants might also be affected by a Donald Trump presidency because of the incoming president's tough stance on immigration, according to Miami Herald.

Donald Trump also proposed a $20 billion grant for the expansion of charter schools and private schools that would cater to families under the low-income bracket. He has plans for vouchers or tax-credit programs that would assist students to get into good schools. No concise details have been laid out so far as the transition is still being set up.
A mother in Texas is facing charges regarding child endangerment. This is after it was discovered that wild animals such as monkeys and tigers are allowed to roam free inside her home where her 14-year-old daughter also resides.

CBS reported that the mother, identified as Trisha Meyer, moved this year to Texas. She is now being held at Nye County, Nevada. She is awaiting extradition due to the child endangerment charge. She reportedly returned to Nevada as this is where she previously lived.

According to police, Meyer was first investigated after a theft report was filed. She reportedly sold an exotic kitten for $3,000 but never delivered the cat. Officers then found tigers, a skunk, and a fox at the home of Meyer. The 14-year-old was allegedly seen petting some of the animals. Monkeys were also found at the Texas home of Meyer and she allegedly admitted that one of the monkeys was vicious and attacks people.

There was a total of four tigers inside the home. Three of the tigers were cubs but one of them was a large male. Meyer said that she had permits over owning the tigers. Tigers are among the dangerous wild animals that could be legally owned as pets in Harris County, Texas, The Sun reported.

These tigers kept as pets should be registered with the county health department and are subject to certain rules such as being kept in a secure enclosure. It is unclear if Meyer followed the other requirements as she clearly did not keep the tigers inside a secure enclosure. Photos showing Meyer posing with the wild animals are also posted on her social media account.

Meyer was kicked out of the Houston-area home as the landlord was contacted by police over the keeping of exotic animals, which the landlord claims he was not aware of. Meyer allegedly went back to Nevada with the animals. The animals were subsequently confiscated after her arrest.
The former "The Young and the Restless" star, Corey Sligh, was arrested and charged with child molestation charges in Cherokee County, Georgia. According to reports, the victim was a female child.

According to CBS, the "Y&R" actor was arrested last month. The parents of the victim were the ones who reported the alleged molestation on Sept. 24. The female victim is said to be under the age of 10 years old when the alleged molestation took place.

Sligh was arrested on October 14 but was released after he paid his $22,000 bond. He was released on the same day.

People reported that "The Young and the Restless" actor knew the victim but it was unclear how he was related to her or to her family. The incident took place during the spring. It was not revealed if Sligh entered a plea as his attorney could not be reached for a comment. The actor said in a statement about the accusations: "I am innocent and fighting this until the end, and the truth will prevail."

Sigh appeared on "The Young and the Restless" of CBS in 2014 as a bartender and a waiter. He is 28 years old and is from Georgia. He also worked for the series "All About Lizzie."

Back in 2014, Sligh was on his way to a Rite Aid parking lot in West Hollywood on Thanksgiving when he was attacked by two men after he asked them to stop driving recklessly. He suffered multiple injuries and spent a couple of months recovering because he had to learn how to walk again. He was heading to drop off food to a friend when the incident took place.

In January of 2015, Sligh was released from the hospital but much of the left side of his body was still bruised. As of writing, he has no other projects.
Depression is swelling among American teenagers, with teen girls displaying the highest vulnerability, a new study reveals. However, more teens are not receiving the right treatment for it.

"The 12-month prevalence of major depressive episodes increased from 8.7 percent in 2005 to 11.3 percent in 2014 in adolescents and from 8.8 % to 9.6 % in young adults," Dr. Ramin Mojtabai, professor in Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and co-author of the study, said in a report posted in American Academy of Pediatrics. He added that every year approximately one in 11 young adults and teens have a major depressive episode.

For the study, researchers examined data gathered from the year 2005 up to 2014 by the National Surveys on Drug Use and Health. Over 172,000 American teenagers aged 12 - 17 and almost 179,000 youngsters aged 18 - 25 were involved in the study.

After examining the data, researchers found out that among teenage girls, the occurrence of the main depressive incidents in one year period jumped from roughly 13 percent by 2005 up to approximately 17 percent by 2014. By contrasts, among teenage boys, the prevalence increased from 4 percent in 2005 to around 6 percent in 2014.

Researchers have speculated that adolescents might have been exposed to the higher degree of major depression risk elements compared with teenage boys. "For example, cyberbullying may have increased more dramatically among females than males," CBC News quoted the researchers as saying. They also noted that contrary texting experiences appear to be a lot more common among teenage girls than teenage boys, which have been associated with depressed mood.

However, the causes of the rise remain elusive. Researchers said more study is required to find the exact answer as to why depression increases quicker among teenage girls than boys.

Meanwhile, despite the rise of depression among teenagers, the study also discovered that the treatment of depression remained small changed. Meaning, there is a large digit of depressed teens who aren't getting proper treatment. "The other problem that of ever-increasing untreated youth depression concerns all of us at a time when suicide is now the second leading cause of death for adolescents aged 15 to 19 years," CNN quoted Dr. Anne Glowinski, a professor of child psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis, as saying.


A 19-year-old teenage student from the University of Alabama suspected of raping a female youngster in dormitory room is now facing first-degree rape charges. Joseph Tyler Pitts, 19, was arrested on Saturday and was put on temporary suspension and was banned from the university while the police continue to investigate the case.

On Nov. 12, investigators from Tuscaloosa County Metro Homicide Unit were requested by University of Alabama police to respond to DCH Regional Medical Center about 10:30 a.m. When they arrived at the hospital, they talked to an 18-year-old teenage girl who said she was a victim of rape. The friends of the victim who have seen the incident identified Joseph Tyler Pitts, 19, as the rapist.

The 18-year-old victim, also a student from the University of Alabama, confessed to the investigators that she was drinking together with Pitts inside a room in a dormitory when her consciousness was lost. She continued to say that she was just awakened by her two friends, who came into the room and saw the teen suspect already on top of her and sexing her, taking advantage of her unconsciousness.

Investigators then conducted more interviews and gathered proper evidence till they come up to a decision of arresting Joseph Tyler Pitts. On Saturday, the 19-year-old accused of rape was detained by Tuscaloosa County police officers.

The teen suspect was brought to the jail center of Tuscaloosa County on a bond worth $30,000. It is not clear though if Pitts has an attorney, Fox News has reported. The police officers are still investigating the rape case.

Meanwhile, the teen suspect has been expelled from the university while an investigation is happening. "The accused student has been placed on interim suspension and is banned from campus while the investigation continues," Alabama quoted Christ Bryant, spokesperson for University of Alabama, as saying.


A 3-year-old toddler from Philadelphia admires his U.S. Marine uncle, U.S. Marine Sgt. Matthew K. Caruso, dearly that whenever he catches sight of an American flag, he would say 'that's Uncle Matt's flag,' Frank Caruso, his grandfather, revealed. The toddler seemed to have bonded well with his uncle.

Frank Caruso, the grandfather of the 3-year-old toddler, Ryan Matthew Caruso, has revealed how much his grandchild loved his uncle who happened to be his son. He said that each time Ryan Matthew caught a glimpse of the flag of America, the boy would say that the flag belonged to his Uncle Matt.

Because the family has seen the toddler's great love and admiration towards his uncle, they bought him a Marine uniform for his Halloween costume. The kid got excited upon receiving and trying the dress.

From then on, the 3-year-old would always wear it. "He's been wearing the uniform," Bucks County Courier Times quoted Frank Caruso as saying.

When the toddler has worn his Halloween costume, he would run out the house and waved a U.S. flag in their yard. The boy looked like he wanted to follow his uncle's footsteps.

The grandfather even revealed that Ryan Matthew has learned to salute by himself without the help of the family. They are not sure though if Matthew taught the toddler during the time, he was on leave and was staying in their house.

The toddler's uncle, Matthew Caruso, was a native Bensalem currently on his second-term deployment. Before he entered U.S. Marine, he first graduated from Conwell-Egan Catholic High School in 2009. Brave Matthew was the tank commander of an M1A1 tank. These could be the reason why the toddler admires his uncle so much.

Right now, the toddler patiently waits for his uncle Matthew to come back home. He is also excited of what his uncle will teach him about being a U.S. Marine.

Meanwhile, around 1.4 million people are serving the armed forces of the United States, according to Defense Manpower Data Center. These means 0.4 percent of the population of America is active army personnel, the report added.
AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM PRIESTS FOR LIFE CANADA!

In recent days, social media has been abuzz regarding a video posted by Fr. Frank Pavone, head of Priests for Life (U.S.A.), in which the body of an aborted child was openly displayed on an altar. Many were rightly disturbed, shocked and horrified by such an action. While Priests for Life Canada would certainly concur

with the need for the public to be aware of the stark reality of abortion, we are deeply disturbed by such actions.

First, a child is due the same respect given through adult funeral rites which honour the dignity of the human person and respect for the body of the dead. Catholic funerals do not display the body as an exhibit. Even at wakes, it is rare that a body that had suffered violence would be displayed. This is to avoid reactions of shock or even disgust and would detract from the teachings of the Church to treat the body with respect. Funerals should not be used for sensation but to pray for those affected by the death.

Second, it is never allowed that we alter the rite of a Catholic funeral by having the body of the deceased on the altar during Mass or any at any other time. In our day, with so much confusion regarding funeral rites and the proper respect to be shown to the human body, we need to encourage the same respect for all human

bodies, born and unborn.

In closing, we would like to make it clear that Priests for Life Canada is completely independent of Priests for Life (U.S.A.), and although we, along with many other pro-life organizations, do share common goals and objectives, we cannot concur with all of their actions and the recent actions of Fr. Pavone are not supported by Priests for Life Canada. Priests for Life Canada shares the same concerns as recently issued by Fr. Pavones Ordinary, Bishop Patrick Zurek of the Diocese of Amarillo:

Priests for Life Inc. is not a Catholic institution, but a civil organization and is not under the control or supervision of the Diocese of Amarillo. The Diocese of Amarillo deeply regrets the offense and outrage caused by the video for the faithful and the

community at large. The action and presentation of Father Pavone in this video is not consistent with the beliefs of the Catholic Church.

Priests for Life Canada supports the investigation around the release of this video that is now being undertaken by the Diocese of Amarillo. We continue to pray for all of the good work done by Priests for Life (U.S.A.)

Fr Thomas Lynch

President Priests for Life Canada
Before Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or YouTube made their entry in the media market, the PatnaDaily had already registered its presence in...
Patna: People across the state capital on Monday celebrated the 127th birth anniversary of India's first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru at various functions organized by the government and private organizations, and political parties.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, along with a host of politicians including Shyam Rajak, Education Minister and Congress leader Ashok Chowdhary, Excise and Prohibition Minister Abdul Jaleel Mastan, and Animal Husbandry Minister Awadhesh Kumar Singh, paid floral tribute to Nehru at his statue outside Patna Junction.

Similar function was held at Sadaqat Ashram, the Congress Party's state headquarters, where party leaders paid glowing tribute to the nation's first Prime Minister widely considered to be the architect of the free India.

Paying tribute to Nehru at the party headquarters, Chowdhary said that a life-size statue of the late Prime Minister would soon be installed at the Sadaqat Ashram in memory of the Congress leader.

"Pandit Nehru's contribution to the modern India is invaluable. It was he who laid the foundation of a new, independent India that was later advanced by his daughter Mrs. Indira Gandhi and her son and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi," he said.

Programs were also held at schools across the city where children held various competitions, including painting, essay, and fancy dress, to mark the event.
Patna: Hundreds of thousands of Hindu devotees in Bihar on Monday observed Kartik Purnima by taking a dip in the holy river of Ganges and other rivers in the state.

Devotees also performed prayers at various temples in the state capital, giving alms to the poor, and performing 'mundans' of young children.

Crowd started to gather at various ghats in the state capital early Monday morning. Many, who arrived in Patna a day ahead of the event, spent the night at various hotels and lodges and proceeded to the nearest ghat as early as 3:00 am to find the best spot at the Ganges.

After taking a dip in the bone-chilling water, the devotees then performed puja at the bank of the river followed by the tradition of giving alms to beggars who had lined up at the ghats knowing Kartik Purnima was one of the biggest days of the year when people opened their hearts, and wallets, to give to the poor and impoverished.

As always, the exorcists, or witch doctors, claiming to possess special power to ward off evil spirit from affected individuals were also doing brisk business outside many ghats in the presence of curious onlookers.

Kartik Purnima also marked the opening of the world-famous Sonepur fair where thousands of people from across the country have gathered to sell their products, including top-breed horses.
EU To Stand By Iran Nuclear Deal: Foreign Ministers

11/15/16

Source: RFE/RL

The European Union says it will keep pushing to restore ties with Iran in line with last year's nuclear deal.





The European Union's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini

(source: Iranian daily Jahan Sanat)



In a November 14 statement, EU foreign ministers said the bloc was committed to lifting nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions against Iran while engaging with banks and other economic operators "to promote growth in trade and investment."



The ministers also said the EU "remains concerned" with the human rights situation in Iran, especially over the frequent use of the death penalty.



Economic sanctions against Iran were eased in January following a nuclear deal with world powers that curbed the country's controversial nuclear program.



But U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has said during campaigning for the White House that it was a "terrible" deal that only benefitted Iran and that he would "tear it up" if he were elected president.



However, he has conceded it would be hard to destroy a deal enshrined in a United Nations resolution.



Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP

Copyright (c) 2016 RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org
Russian Delegation Discusses Defense, Energy Deals In Iran

11/15/16

Source: RFE/RL

A delegation from Russia's upper house of parliament has been meeting with senior officials in Tehran for talks aimed at expanding ties in the defense and energy sectors following a nuclear deal with world powers.



Source: Iran Today daily





Federal Council speaker Valentina Matviyenko met separately with Iranian President Hassan Rohani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on November 14, the final day of the Russian delegation's two-day visit.



Matviyenko said Rohani reassured her about Tehran's commitment to fully honor its obligations under the nuclear deal.





Federal Council speaker Valentina Matviyenko with Iranian President Hassan Rohani

(photo by Islamic Republic News Agency)



Viktor Ozerov, head of Federal Council's Defense and Security Committee, said talks included a potential $10 billion arms deal for delivery to Iran of Russian tanks, artillery systems, planes, and helicopters.



Russian oil and gas company chiefs from Gazprom, Tatneft, LUKoil, and Zarubezhneft are due to visit Iran later this week for talks about possible energy contracts.



The meetings come ahead of the January 20 inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to "tear up" the nuclear deal with Iran.



The accord lifted international sanctions against Iran exchange for guarantees that Tehran is not secretly developing nuclear weapons.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, Interfax IRNA, and ISNA

Copyright (c) 2016 RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org
Trump Presidency and Iran's Domestic Politics

11/15/16

By Farideh Farhi (source: LobeLog)



World and TRUMPoline

Source: Iranian daily Afsaneh





Ever since the 2009 Iranian elections, when I suggested in my writings and interviews that fraud was involved, a supporter of former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad takes delight in sending me emails regarding events and information that in his mind prove me wrong about the electoral fraud. I hadn't heard from him for a while but, sure enough, after Donald Trump's victory, I received another delighted note. He uses a different name every time he sends a note. This time, his apt chosen self-title was Binam Irani (unnamed Iranian). And this is what the Iranian hardliner who is too chicken to name himself wrote:

As Americans take to the streets in protests and riots across the country at the shock election of Donald Trump, one can only feel a little bit of schadenfreude for what happened seven years ago. Despite a decisive victory at the polls, some Iranians rejected a democratic outcome and chose instead to burn buses and pelt police with rocks. The twist in the tale is that Trump won despite alleging the possibility of massive fraud which, as with Iran 2009, did not occur.



Anyway, at least according to Iran's constitution the person who gets the most votes wins the presidential election - unlike in the United States where the loser of the popular vote can win and, in this case, did win. Enjoy the next four years of Trump which, hopefully, will see the end of the Iran nuclear deal and the removal of Rouhani next year.

Setting aside the conflicted first paragraph about whether post-election protests are delightful or not (apparently yes in the US and not in Iran), the "hope" expressed in the second part about the Trump presidency ending the Iran nuclear deal, then leading to Rouhani's loss in his run for a second term, caught my eye. Observers of Iranian politics, like my correspondent from Iran, have proclaimed the Trump presidency and the potential end of the nuclear deal a preferred outcome for hardliners and calamitous for Rouhani's presidency.

I have no way of knowing what President-elect Trump will eventually do. At this point I am not even sure if he does. But, as a supporter of the nuclear agreement, I have good reason to fear that pressuring Iran is the easiest issue over which Trump can accommodate the Republican Party establishment and, given the advice Hillary Clinton was getting, even the Democratic Party honchos. Going after Iran has always been the lowest hanging fruit around. Compared to deadlock and paralysis regarding most other issues, it's relatively easy to build consensus around beating up Iran. And it can certainly happen again.

However, I am not at all convinced of the connection made between the scrapping of the nuclear agreement and hardliners rise (and by implication Rouhani's demise).

What Do Iranian Hardliners Want?

The so-called hardliners in Iran are not of one type. The likes of my correspondent Binam are actually on the margins of the Iranian political system with little sway within the establishment these days (hence the expression of hope about Rouhani's removal). Meanwhile, the folks that Iran observers in the West usually identify as hardline-Leader Khamenei himself and the top ranks of the Revolutionary Guard and other security services-may be hawks in US parlance but are neither crazy nor take delight in sanctions and confrontation. They do believe in responding to threats with counter-threats (and bluster with counter-bluster). But they gave support to the nuclear negotiations and approved the agreement.

Furthermore, unlike marginalized hardliners such as Binam who never liked the accord to begin with and now take delight in its potential unraveling, this hawkish cohort have not shown any signs of preferring to abandon the nuclear accord-whatever their complaints about the Obama administration not playing its part in easing financial transactions,. Conservative and reformist commentators and politicians have speculated about the possibility of Trump being less threatening than Clinton because he'll be less able to mobilize an international consensus against Iran. They have also pointed to his statement that fighting the Islamic State is more important than ousting Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and his emphasis on domestic affairs and economic rebuilding as opposed to military forays abroad. But the Iranian political and security establishment's posture is basically a calibrated wait, see, and then react based on how Trump manages the multilateral nature of the agreement.

To be sure, prior to Trump election, Khamenei did suggest that Iran would "light the agreement on fire" if the US reneged on its side. But his complaints about the nuclear accord have always been framed as a reason to prevent further interaction with the US over other issues of conflict. Yes, he agreed to nuclear negotiations and gave his stamp of approval, but US conduct since the nuclear accord suggests that it could not be trusted in talks regarding other issues. Further, his assent to the inclusion of a highly complex mechanism for addressing "non-performance by another JCPOA participant" through the establishment of a joint commission, consisting of all the countries that negotiated the nuclear accord, is precisely intended to reiterate its multilateral nature. Such a measure is designed as an insurance policy, albeit not a perfect one, against such rash reactions.

Anti-Deal Tactics

Proponents of continued pressure on Iran seem to understand the problem the multilateral nature of the accord poses for its unilateral rejection by the US. This is why their hope and strategy in the post-Obama era, even if Hillary Clinton had been elected, was to provoke Iran into rejecting the nuclear deal through efforts to bring back some of the old sanctions, either under a new guise or through lack of vigor in implementing the nuclear accord.

For instance, contemplating a Trump presidency, physicist and former nuclear weapons inspector David Albright, in a July 2016 interview with the Persian language Radio Farda, acknowledged that the nuclear agreement derives its existence and legitimacy from the UNSC and this makes its abandonment "difficult but possible." But if Trump is "smart," he could tinker with the agreement in such a way as to "lead Iran into taking the first step in violating" it. Using the example of the US-North Korea nuclear agreement that was abandoned, Albright goes on to say (my retranslation from Persian into English):

When the Bush Administration came to office he said that he did not like the agreement but everyone remembers that it was North Korea that took the first step. The Bush Administration in a way created the incentive for North Korea to move away from the agreement. North Korea was accused of having a high enrichment program. It was called a non-compliant country. But if we look back, the reality was that it was the Bush Administration that moved away from the agreement but it was North Korea that did it officially and this can happen regarding the JCPOA....The Iranian regime is invariable, to some extent nationalist, and and at times violent and such a regime could be provoked to move away from the accord.

Trump may end up being very "smart," but Iran's leadership is probably not stupid enough to fall into such an openly articulated trap. In fact, the aforementioned set-up within the JCPOA to discuss and address non-performance or violations within the P5+1 framework is designed to prevent all sides from being provoked and making any rash moves. The set up allows Iran to publicly identify the United States as the violator of an international agreement with Iran. It's the best option for Iran if Trump heeds advice to go back to the first-term of the George W. Bush administration and its posture of military threats, economic pressure, global isolation, and push for regime change. Iran does not have the power to isolate the United States, but the P5+1 set up allows it to isolate the US on this one particular issue.

Domestic Implications

If Iran's best option is to not fall in the reactive trap and continue working with other countries who participated in the formulation of the JCPOA, stability and continuity at the top combined with active diplomacy to paint the US as the egregious party will be needed more than ever. In the face of an erratic and unstable leadership in the United States, Rouhani's reelection can best project steady direction and collective management while a foreign policy team that has developed deep rapport with other members of P5+1 can optimally pursue the task of isolating the US position on Iran..

As to what the Iranian population would do if Iran's main interlocutor rejects Rouhani's signature achievement, it may be foolhardy to speculate at this point. In this world of unreliable forecasting, one perhaps should not go on a limb and declare anything definite about any populace. But the Iranian electorate has already had its moment of replacing an articulate and erudite president (Mohammad Khatami) with another president endowed with adolescent vocabulary and vulgarity (Ahmadinejad) who won against an establishment candidate (Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani). It has also witnessed its polarizing political and disastrous economic consequences, which were not that long ago to be forgotten. No wonder the presumed hardline leader of Iran just recommended that Ahmadinejad not run in the upcoming presidential election for fear that he would polarize the country at a time when stability and consensus is needed.

All in all, irrespective of what Trump does regarding the nuclear accord, the centrist course and continuity Rouhani represents should be deemed right by both the Iranian political establishment and public in the face of an internally unsettled US with a leadership that now looks way scarier and more unpredictable to most of the world than its counterpart in Iran.





About the Author:



Farideh Farhi is an Independent Scholar and Affiliate Graduate Faculty at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. She has taught comparative politics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, University of Hawai'i, University of Tehran, and Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran. Her publications include States and Urban-Based Revolutions in Iran and Nicaragua (University of Illinois Press) and numerous articles and book chapters on compartative analyses of revolutions and Iranian politics. She has been a recipient of grants from the United States Institute of Peace and the Rockefeller Foundation and was most recently a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She has also worked as a consultant for the World Bank and the International Crisis Group.
Germany To Provide 12 Billion Euro Financing For Iran's Petrochemical Projects

11/15/16

Source: Press TV

Iran says it will soon start talks with two German companies to open a major credit line of 12 billion Euros for the development of some of its petrochemical projects.





file photo: Lordegan petrochemical plant



Hossein Alimorad, the director for investment affairs of the country's National Petrochemical Company (NPC), was quoted by the media as saying that the credit line will be dedicated for the development of several NPC projects.



Once they are in full swing, Alimorad said, the funds thus attracted will be used for the development of petrochemical projects of private-sector companies, Shana reported.



He added that Germany has already pledged to open a credit line worth 3 billion Euros for Iran's petrochemical projects. This, the official added, can increase to 6 billion Euros but Iran wants to increase it further to as high as 12 billion Euros.



Alimorad also emphasized that the policy of the Iranian government is to avoid providing any state guarantees for economic projects including those in the petrochemical industry. The same policy will be pursued for attracting funds from Germany for the development of petrochemical projects, added the official.



He further emphasized that Iran is currently negotiating with companies from China and South Korea as well as some others from Europe over opening new credit lines for the development of petrochemical projects.



EElsewhere in his remarks, the NPC official said no major step has been taken to open a credit line worth 10 billion Euros by Japan for the development of Iran's petrochemical projects six months after signing a basic agreement to the same effect. Alimorad added that fresh negotiations have started over a similar scheme worth 0.64 billion Euros with another Japanese company.
Kofax Power PDF review TechRadar Pro

Kofax has a handful of multi-platform apps to help you alter and annotate PDFs. Standard is likely the one best suited for most needs, and is the software well be exploring in this review.
Hotel and restaurant chains, beware. A notorious cybercriminal gang is tricking businesses into installing malware by calling their customer services representatives and convincing them to open malicious email attachments.

The culprits in these hacks, which are designed to steal customers credit card numbers, appear to be the Carbanak gang, a group that was blamed last year for stealing as much as $1 billion from various banks.

On Monday, security firm Trustwave said that three of its clients in the past month had encountered malware built with coding found in previous Carbanak attacks.

This particular campaign has been preying on the hospitality industry, said Brian Hussey, Trustwaves global director of incident response. The hackers start by calling a businesss customer service line and pretending to be clients who cant access the online reservation system.

To spread the malware, the hackers also send an email to the customer service agent with an attached word document purportedly containing their reservation information. In reality, this document is designed to download malware to the computer.

The hackers are very persistent, Hussey said. Theyll stay on the line with the customer service rep until they open up the attachment, he said. They have excellent English.

The hackers can also be very convincing. They appear to be researching their targets on business networking site LinkedIn and finding out the names of company department heads. During the call, theyll do some name-dropping to establish credibility, Hussey said.

Once the malware is installed, it can download other malicious tools to tamper with the rest of a businesss network. The goal of the attack is to record credit card numbers from point-of-sale machines or e-commerce payment processes, according to Hussey.

In recent years, retailers, restaurants and hotels all have been hit by similar attacks intended to steal payment card data. The malware in this case is more broad-reaching than most. It includes the ability to snap screenshots from the desktop, steal passwords and email addresses and scan a network for valuable targets.

Most, if not all, antivirus engines have failed to detect the malware used in these hacks, according to Trustwave.

Weve talked to our law enforcement contacts, and they are seeing the same thing, Hussey said.

In a blog post, TrustWave outlined the technical details of the malware and other indicators that businesses can use to determine if theyve been compromised.

Once this malware finds what it wants, it can steal every single credit card that passes through your servers, Hussey said. For a large restaurant chain, that can be a million customers over a period of time.
Apple is working on wearable digital glasses that would connect wirelessly to the iPhone and show content in the wearers field of vision, according to a news report.

The iPhone maker has indicated previously its interest in augmented reality. Unlike the simulated world of virtual reality, AR supplements with images and information the users normal view of the world.

We are high on AR for the long run. We think there are great things for customers and a great commercial opportunity, Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an earnings call in July, talking about the need for Apples devices to work with other developers products, such as the successful Pokemon Go game.

The company has also hired VR and AR experts and made some acquisitions that could help it meet its AR goals. Apple has discussed the glasses project with potential suppliers, reported Bloomberg on Monday, citing people familiar with those discussions.

The company may be close to a prototype stage as it is said to have ordered small quantities of near-eye displays from one supplier for testing. The company hasnt, however, ordered components in numbers that would suggest that mass production plans are imminent, a person told Bloomberg.

Apple could not be immediately reached for comment. The company will be entering a crowded markets where Microsoft is pushing its AR glasses, called HoloLens, while Facebook-owned Oculus VR is targeting the VR market. Google launched its VR headset called Daydream View that will work with compatible phones including the companys Pixel smartphones.

Apples glasses will be introduced in 2018 at the earliest, if the company goes ahead with the project, according to a Bloomberg source. New product categories, including the AR glasses, could help the company make up for falling iPhone sales.
Microsofts continued investment in artificial intelligence and machine learning technology is paying dividends. The company has partnered with OpenAI, a non-profit company founded earlier this year to advance the field of machine intelligence for the benefit of humanity.

As part of the deal, announced Tuesday, OpenAI will use Microsoft Azure as its primary cloud provider, an important win for Microsoft as it competes with the likes of Amazon, Google, and IBM to power the next generation of intelligent applications. OpenAI is backed by the likes of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, controversial investor Peter Thiel, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and Y Combinator Partner Jessica Livingston.

On top of that, Microsoft also launched a set of cloud services all aimed at furthering intelligent applications. The new Azure Bot Service makes it easier for people to spin up intelligent chat bots in Microsofts cloud, while Azure Functions lets customers run compute functions without provisioning servers. The company also announced the general availability of its N-series virtual machines, which give customers the ability to use GPUs for high-performance computing tasks.

Microsoft has been working to position its cloud as the home for intelligent applications, and these announcements demonstrate further momentum toward that goal.

The N-series virtual machines made generally available Tuesday are an important part of that. They provide users with the ability to run high-performance workloads in the cloud that require the power of GPUs to handle massive parallel computing tasks. Its a service that OpenAI has already been taking advantage of, along with other customers like Esri and Jellyfish Pictures.

For companies that want a pre-built service, the Azure Bot Service provides users with a number of templates that they can use to get started building intelligent, conversational assistants. Its built to easily plug into other Azure services, like Microsofts Language Understanding Intelligent Service (LUIS), which helps computer programs parse human language.

One of the other key services included in Microsofts news dump Tuesday is Azure Functions, which lets customers set up a snippet of code that runs whenever a set of conditions is met. Microsoft handles all the provisioning of compute resources necessary to run the Functions, so users dont have to worry about running a virtual machine all the time to handle irregular events.

Making Azure Functions generally available is important to Microsofts ongoing competition with Amazon Web Services. The other Seattle-area cloud provider launched its AWS Lambda service two years ago, and it has proven a popular tool for leveraging the power of what people have begun calling serverless computing.

The last paragraph of this story has been changed to say Amazon launched its AWS Lambda service two years ago.
UPDATE: Melendez posted the following tweet this afternoon.

Whoops, been out of town but looks like a story I tweeted was incorrect, deleted it, sorry about that! MM  Melissa Melendez (@asmMelendez) November 15, 2016

ORIGINAL POST: Like the president-elect she admires, Inland Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez likes to tweet. This week, the Lake Elsinore Republican retweeted a news item about anti-Trump protesters in Philadelphia beating a homeless veteran to death.

All of you hes not my president people out there, are you happy now? she wrote.

Just one problem  it wasnt true. According to Snopes.com, the item referred to a 2015 incident unconnected to Trump or the protesters opposing Americas new president.

When contacted by The Los Angeles Times about the retweet, Melendez took to social media to mock the press.

I had a bet with my husband that liberal reporters would flip out over a news story I shared, she tweeted. I won $20 thanks libs :)

Melendez did not respond to a phone call from The Press-Enterprise. In an email, her chief of staff, Sam Spencer, said the assemblywoman has been out of town but removed the tweet because the story was false.

The retweet comes amid a national discussion about fake news as it related to the presidential election. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been criticized for not doing enough to halt the spread of fake news on his social media network and for initially downplaying the role fake news played in the race between Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Melendez, a vocal Trump supporter who appeared on stage with him in San Diego, has been criticized for her social media posts before.

Last year, Islamic-American advocacy groups denounced her for a tweet in which she decried the murder of American Kayla Mueller by Islamic savages. The tweet included the hashtag #standupagainstislam.

She later used the backlash in an appeal for campaign donations. Amazing how my words can ignite a media firestorm, but there are people being murdered across the ocean, and no one is up in arms about that, she wrote in an fundraising message.

Melendez won re-election on Nov. 8 with 65 percent of the vote. The former Lake Elsinore councilwoman represents the 67th Assembly District, which includes Lake Elsinore, Canyon Lake, Murrieta, Menifee and Wildomar.
When San Bernardino officials announced in February that the Stater Bros. Route 66 Rendezvous was canceled, a statement from Staters Chairman and CEO Jack Brown was released. I picked up the phone and called his office.

If theres one thing Ive always been able to count on, its a return phone call from Jack Brown  not from his PR department, not from one of his executives. Brown prefers to do the talking.

On that February day, I didnt get a callback. Brown was traveling, I was told.

Good for him, I thought. Hes taking a vacation.

A month later, I heard the Stater Bros. in downtown San Bernardino was closing. I called Browns office to find out if it was true.

My call was returned by Vice Chairman Phil Smith, who confirmed the closure but seemed eager to get off the phone.

Where was Jack Brown? Again, his staff said he was traveling.

An extended vacation? Thats not the Jack Brown I know. Hes a super hands-on CEO, never unreachable.

A month later, on April 10, I attended a ground-breaking for a new Stater Bros. in Redlands, the kind of event Brown would never miss.

He wasnt there. Now I wondered: Was he ill?

President and Chief Operating Officer Jim Lee told the crowd Brown was attending to a family matter, the only thing that would take him away from being here today.

In another month, I called again. Once again, Brown couldnt be reached. Community leaders were beginning to speculate about his health.

On Monday, May 20, I finally reached him by phone. He said his health is fine. Hes been taking time off to help a family member, unrelated to Stater Bros. Markets. He declined to say more publicly.

The extended leave, however, gave him time for a thorough physical, and the results were reassuring, Brown said. I dont have cancer, I dont have heart problems, I dont have prostate problems, the 74-year-old CEO said.

The timing of his absence gave Staters new president and COO Pete Van Helden, 52, a chance to get his bearings and introduce himself to the chains 18,000 employees out of Browns shadow, Brown said. When Jacks around, its kind of hard on the other guy.

Brown is now coming into the office about two days a week. He took part in the chains quarterly conference call May 13. I listened to a recording of the call and Brown sounded true to form, touting a very solid increase in sales, up 2.58 percent from the same quarter 2012.

Stater Bros. deliberately took lower profits in the second quarter 2013 to keep prices down for customers so theyll remain loyal as the economy recovers, so we dont have to try to win them back, Chief Financial Officer Dave Harris said.

Brown was asked by an industry analyst if Staters will pick up stores being divested by Albertsons and others in Southern California. The firm has been offered some properties, he said, but we havent seen anything we just have to have.

Brown said he isnt changing his role: Hell still be the voice, face and persona of Stater Bros. That should calm market jitters.

Cassie MacDuff can be reached at 951-368-9470 or cmacduff@pressenterprise.com

Cassie MacDuff
The death of author, poet and teacher Maya Angelou meant the loss of a personal friend to Stater Bros. CEO Jack Brown.

The two had remained close since 1992 when they were among 10 winners of that years awards from the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans.

The winners came together each year for a three-day reunion, Brown said. Angelou called him my Horatio Alger brother, Brown said.

We spoke often on the phone, Brown recalled recently. I would call her down at Wake Forest University where she taught.

She was a wonderful lady, Brown said. If America had royalty, Maya would be the queen. She carried herself with such elegance.  When she walked in a room, you knew somebody had arrived.

Angelou came to the Inland area several times at Browns invitation, always visiting university campuses  Cal State San Bernardino, UCR, the Claremont colleges and Redlands.

Students flocked to her like butterflies, Brown said. I think they could sense the sincerity and the depth of her caring.

Angelou hit it off with Browns late mother, Rose. Both women raised sons as single mothers, Brown noted. When they met at the awards ceremony, they formed an immediate bond.

In 1999, Brown brought Angelou to the University of Redlands, where he was on the board of trustees, for a free Mothers Day program.

She also did a Mothers Day program at Cal State in 1997, was the convocation speaker at the University of Redlands in 2003 and received an honorary doctorate from the university in 2011.

Angelou was an inspirational figure, Brown said. She had such a way with words. She said to go and be a rainbow in someones cloud. She was always upbeat. She would rise above all the adversity in her life.

We will miss a truly great lady, Brown said.

In every dark cloud, theres a silver lining.

The departure of the Auto Club office from San Bernardino after 97 years last weekend was the cloud.

The silver lining is that the district attorney and public defender will bring employees from outlying offices downtown.

District Attorney Michael Ramos told me the moves were triggered by the opening of the new courthouse. That freed up several floors in the six-story building where the district attorney and public defender have administrative offices.

After remodeling, all six floors will be taken over by the District Attorneys Office, bringing about 80 lawyers, investigators and support staff from a building on Hospitality Lane downtown, Ramos said.

Another 80 will move from an old building behind the historic San Bernardino courthouse. It will put a total of 250 professionals under one roof. Ramos estimated the move will be complete by summer 2015.

The old building will be refurbished; the public defenders office will move its administration, lawyers, social workers and support staff there from several locations, Public Defender Phyllis Morris said.

Its going to be a massive reorganization, Morris said, adding she doesnt know how long it will take to rehab the old building. When its done, she will have 85 employees downtown (there are 62 now).

This is a big deal, because a lot of professional offices  particularly law firms  left downtown San Bernardino in recent years. Ramos hopes theyll come back to be near the new courthouse.

He also hopes restaurants, coffee shops and merchants will be attracted downtown. He has offered to share his ideas with Mayor Carey Davis.

Davis Chief of Staff Michael McKinney said the mayor hopes to hire an economic development czar to focus on bringing businesses to the city. Reviving downtown is Davis priority.

The new position would be funded within the existing $131 million city budget.

Meanwhile, an update on the closing of the Hilton, which put 112 people out of work. The hotel was acquired by the Wyndham hotel/resort chain and will be renovated, McKinney said. He didnt know when it will reopen. It now sports a sign that says: THE HOTEL San Bernardino.

Wyndham spokeswoman Kathryn Zambito said the firm wouldnt comment.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9470 or cmacduff@pressenterprise.com
UPDATE (Tuesday, Nov. 15): Bruce Baron is the chancellor of the San Bernardino Community College District.

Stater Bros. executive chairman Jack Brown was remembered Monday as a unique combination, a tough grocery-industry fighter who succeeded while also earning the respect of employees, customers and competitors.

Brown, 78, died late Sunday, Stater Bros. announced Monday. He served the company he joined in 1981 as president and chief executive officer, chairman, and executive chairman.

I hoped that Jack Brown would live forever, State Sen. Connie Leyva said in a phone interview. He is the last of the breed of leaders who really cared about his workforce and understood they made him successful.

PHOTOS: Jack Brown through the years

Leyva was the president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1428 in 2003, when Brown decided he would not lock out his employees as a bruising 141-day strike began against four other chains.

He cared about his company and his employees, said Greg Conger, spokesman for UFCW Local 324 in Buena Park. He really was a giant in the food industry in California. He stood up for what was right.

By refusing to lock out his employees, they in turn, were loyal to him, Conger said.

Nick DeSimone, a Stater Bros. worker who was off-duty and shopping at the Temecula store where he works, said hed met Brown several times when he was employed in the meat department at a store in Redlands.

DeSimone said he heard of Browns death earlier in the day, calling the news devastating.

He was very friendly, DeSimone said. I cooked a rib roast for his family once.

He was a real solid guy.  He always wanted you to call him Jack, not Mr. Brown, DeSimone said.

During the devastating strike/lockout that brought Safeway-Vons to their knees, organized (unions) never struck a Jack Brown store. Not the butchers, not the bakers, not the service workers  because the rank and file blue collar could always count on Jack Brown to do the right thing, said grocery analyst Burt P. Flickinger.

Brown, who began a box boy at age 13, worked in the grocery industry his entire career and joined Stater Bros. in 1981. He was one of the food retail industrys greatest visionaries, Flickinger said.

He opened stores in food deserts to support low-income families, supported family-run suppliers and championed employees, said Flickinger, managing director of retail consulting firm Strategic Resource Group in New York.

He was uniquely focused on raising the standards of living for shoppers everywhere. Jack always had the lowest prices on the highest quality product. To do that, he was always opening as many stores as possible, Flickinger said.

Others remembered Brown for his philanthropy and varied career away from the grocery aisles and offices.

He was a Vietnam-era Navy veteran, worked as a firefighter, and supported law enforcement as the son and grandson of police officers. He also was a reserve captain in the Sheriffs Department until retiring in 2012.

His father, Jack H. Brown Sr., was a chief deputy in Sheriffs Department and his grandfather, John Henry Brown, was a constable in St. Joseph, Mo.

His mother, Rose, was the longest-serving reserve officer  60 years  in the San Bernardino Police Department. She created a fund to assist wounded officers and the survivors of those killed in the line of duty.

Jack was a dear friend of the San Bernardino Police Department and long-time supporter of law enforcement, San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said in a statement Monday.

Anybody that knew Jack will tell you that he loved to share stories of his family connection to the sheriffs department and of course his mother being the first female reserve police officer with the San Bernardino Police Department. He will be deeply missed.

San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon said he was saddened to hear of Browns death, and recalled the familys long history of service in local law enforcement.

Jack has been involved with the Sheriffs Department since 1942, when he began riding on patrol with his father, the late Captain Jack H. Brown, Sr., out of the Victorville Station. McMahon wrote in an email.

Jack was a member of the Sheriffs Council, Specialized Services Bureau and the Sheriff-Coroner Council. McMahon said.

Brown once wrote a letter outlining the history of the involvement of his family and the department. It was over 96 years ago that his father was sworn in as a Deputy Sheriff. Jack will be greatly missed, but his legacy will be remembered forever, McMahon wrote

The San Bernardino National Forest tweeted, Former Del Rosa Hotshot Jack Brown passed away Sunday. Jack was an avid supporter of wildland firefighters and will be missed.

We lost an amazing man in Jack Brown. He was always such a strong advocate for public safety and our community, San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos said in a tweet. Rest in peace my friend.

Brown, who was born in San Bernardino, is a 1956 San Bernardino High School graduate and a business administration major at San Bernardino Valley College from 1956-57 and 1958-59 before going on to San Jose State University and UCLA, San Bernardino Community College District Chancellor Bruce Baron noted in an email.

Jacks extraordinary life embodied the promise of our community. His generosity opened doors of opportunity for countless of families, and his optimism transformed the trajectory of Inland Southern California. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and all who loved him, Baron said.

Brown was inducted to the SBVC Alumni Hall of Fame in 1991 and was the first SBVC alumnus to receive the California Community Colleges Distinguished Alumni Award in 1993.

In October 2014, Brown donated $10,000 to the parents of San Bernardino Police officer Gabe Garcia, who was shot in the head and suffered a brain injury when he confronted a group of men in August of that year.

Browns help for the Garcia family was one of countless donations of food or money  in the millions of dollars  that Brown or Stater Bros. made during his decades at the helm of the grocery company.

No one has cared more about his shoppers, community and employees in the Inland Empire, said Craig Rosenblum, a grocery strategist in California.

He has always been true to his leadership style, strategy and culture, as well as, taking care of the shopper in tough times  regardless of the impact on the bottom line, said Rosenblum, senior director at retail consulting company Willard Bishop in Illinois.

While he wasnt always on the forefront of innovation, he was always financially prudent and true.

Browns place in the Inland business community was also noted by John Husing, chief economist Inland Empire Economic Partnership.

Ive known Jack Brown since he and I were young people at the Inland Action meetings in the early 60s, Husing said.

It has been amazing to see him build Stater Bros. into a regional powerhouse and also watch his enormous contribution to the community as a person and through the company. He will be greatly missed.

In tough times, whether it was recession or the Southern California invasion of Wall Street giants like Walmart, Brown never backed down from a food battle, Flickinger said.

In fact, those who knew him said he fought harder than ever to stay true to his ultimate vision: Do whats best for the shopper, he added.

He always did what was right for the workers, the shoppers and the vendors. Jack always did what was best for consumer. The consumer always won, Flickinger said.

Jack Brown should be immortalized for having the lowest prices for the poorest people.

RELATED:

Stater Bros. leader Jack Brown dies at 78 (Nov. 14, 2016)

Stater Bros. CEOs rise from box boy to grocery king (Jan. 17, 2016)

Inland grocery giant Stater Bros. turns 80 today (Aug. 16, 2016)

Jack Brown gives largest-ever single donation to Cal State San Bernardino (June 23, 2016)

Business school named for Jack Brown following $10 million donation (July 26, 2016)

Stater Bros. chief honored by food industry (June 22, 2016)

The friendship of Jack Brown and Maya Angelou (June 11, 2014)

Cassie MacDuff: Stater Bros. CEOs recent absenses, partially explained (May 21, 2013)

Staff writers Nancy Luna and Michael J. Williams contributed to this report.

Contact the writer: rdeatley@scng.com951-368-9573Twitter: @RKDeAtley
Updates with a second lawsuit filed

Four of the 31 people injured in a tour bus crash last month near Palm Springs that killed a dozen of their fellow passengers and the driver filed two lawsuits Monday, Nov. 14, against the estate of the driver, who was also the bus company owner.

One of the negligence lawsuits was brought by Gilma Chambers and Jorge Lopez and the other by Roy Costa and Rowena Valerio. Both complaints name as defendants USA Holiday and the estate of driver/owner Teodulo Elias Vides, of Alhambra.

A representative for USA Holiday could not immediately be reached for comment on the lawsuits, which were filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Late last month, relatives of Gustavo Garcia and Tony Mia, who were among those killed in the crash, filed suit in Los Angeles, alleging negligence and wrongful death.

The bus had taken gamblers on a junket to the Red Earth Casino at Salton City, about 25 miles south of Indio. A guest manifest from the casino indicated that Vides was likely in the casino with the passengers, according to the CHP. The bus arrived at Red Earth Casino sometime between 11 and 11:30 p.m. Oct. 22 and departed about 4 a.m. Oct. 23.

It was being driven back to the Los Angeles area when it slammed into the rear of a big rig on westbound Interstate 10, east of Highway 62, at 5:15 a.m. Oct. 23.

California Highway Patrol officials said it was unclear how fast the bus was traveling when it rear-ended the refrigerated truck trailer that was carrying food. Authorities said the force of the collision indicated the bus was traveling at a far higher speed than the truck, which the CHP said was traveling at about 5 mph. The posted speed limit is 70 mph.

The bus had been inspected as late as last April and had shown no defects, CHP Border Division Chief Jim Abele said.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash, announced that some tires on the bus were overly worn, putting the vehicle out of compliance with federal regulations. But an exact cause of the crash has not yet been determined, and the NTSBs report is not expected to be completed for several months.
Charges in the death of a 53-year-old man who died at a Murrieta rehab house have been dropped against three corporate entities, while plea agreements have been reached against two defendants.

According to Riverside County Superior Court minutes, charges were dismissed late last month against A Better Tomorrow Treatment Center, Forterus Inc., and Forterus Health Care Services.

Former Company President James Andrew Fent and Former Chief Executive Jerrod Menz, the two remaining defendants, accepted plea agreements with the California Attorney Generals office, according to court records.

Fent pleaded no contest for failing to immediately notify the coroner that a death had occurred and was ordered to complete a 12-hour course on law and ethics as well as a course on professional accountability and behavior. The courses are part of a deferred entry of judgment program. If he completes the courses and doesnt commit any additional crimes by April 21, 2017, the charge will be dropped, according to court documents.

Menz pleaded no contest to possessing a controlled substance and no contest to false advertising. He was ordered to complete a drug diversion program. If he completes the course, the charge will be dismissed.

However, the false advertising conviction will remain. Fenz was also given 18-months probation, according to court documents.

Fent, Menz, several of their coworkers and the three corporate entities were charged in July 2015 with dependent adult abuse and murder in the death of 53-year-old Gary Benefield.

The murder charge was later dropped by Superior Court Judge Elaine M. Kiefer, leaving only the dependent adult abuse charge.

Benefield suffered from chronic obstructive lung disease, took prescription narcotics and was supposed to use supplemental oxygen 24 hours a day. He died less than a day after he arrived at A Better Tomorrow Treatment Center in Murrieta.

Benefields death was one of four at the A Better Tomorrow Treatment Center location on Irongate Way between 2008 and 2010. It has since shut down.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9693 or agroves@scng.com
Occasionally in the space of political discourse convenient narratives replace actual facts, especially in sensitive times with emotionally charged subject matter. Sometimes the narrative overtakes the truth.

A popular narrative in American media today is that Donald Trump won the presidency because those who voted for him are racist, sexist, homophobic bigots. But the facts tell a different story.

Even hard left-leaning documentarian Michael Moore recognized this when on MSNBCs Morning Joe he said: You have to accept that millions of people who voted for Barack Obama, some of them once, some of them twice, changed their minds this time.

Theyre not racist. They twice voted for a man whose middle name is Hussein, he added. Thats the America you live in.

Our Editorial Board did not support Trumps candidacy nor do we typically agree with Moore, but the somber history of racism in America shouldnt be tossed around lightly as a shortcut to explain complex election results that dont fit the popular narrative. Remember, these same media pundits who just days before the election predicted the glorious, landslide victory for Hillary Clinton, now believe half of the American electorate voted because of prejudice.

Simply put: It wasnt racism that won Donald Trump the election. Clinton was not able to motivate the Obama coalition to come out and vote for her campaign.

There are many statistics that illustrate this fact but take just one reliably Democratic voting bloc, labor union members. Only 56 percent of labor union members voted for the Clinton campaign compared to 65 percent who voted for Obama in 2012. That alone tells the story. Even the AFL-CIO union president Richard Trumka released a statement after the election saying voters had issued an indictment of politics as usual.

Voters came out to vote for something other than the status quo. For those of us who live on the coasts, life is very different than for those in other parts of the country, particularly the Rust Belt. The economy isnt working for a lot of people and many wanted something different than what is currently being offered in D.C.

Thats not meant in any way to diminish the feelings of concern or fear among many minority communities or to suggest that racism does not exist in America. America most certainly has a racial divide to address  one that has been on full display the last few years even before the presidential election  but generalizing and fueling the racial divide does not bring us closer together, it only perpetuates racial tension and fear.

President-elect Trump himself must take the lead to help bring the country together and quell tension. In fact, on 60 Minutes Sunday night, CBS News correspondent Lesley Stahl asked Trump if he had anything to say to people who supported him who were harassing minorities, to which he answered: I would say dont do it, thats terrible, cause Im going to bring this country together. He looked into the camera and said, Stop it.

Campaign season is over as are the attack ads, the debates and the polling. Its time we leave the convenient, divisive political narratives behind us too.
San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos said Monday, Nov. 14, that hes interested in being appointed to serve the remainder of Kamala Harris term as California attorney general now that shes been elected to the U.S. Senate.

Ramos announced his intention two years ago to run for attorney general in 2018, when Harris term expires. But now that shes a senator-elect Gov. Jerry Brown will have to appoint a replacement with approval from a majority of the Assembly and state Senate.

Harris beat fellow Democrat and Orange County Rep. Loretta Sanchez last week for the right to succeed the retiring Barbara Boxer.

While Ramos, 59, is eager to get a head start on the job, his appointment is unlikely because hes a Republican in a state controlled by Democrats. Ramos also opposed Prop. 57, the criminal justice reform measure championed by Brown and approved by voters last week.

If appointed, Ramos would be the only Republican to hold statewide office in California.

I think Im prepared to take over and move into the attorney generals office now, but Im also a realist, Ramos said in a telephone interview. But Im not saying its not possible (Ill get the appointment).

When Harris announced her Senate campaign in January 2015, Ramos said he called the governor to express his interest in being appointed to serve out her attorney-general term if she won. Brown said he was the first to express interest, Ramos said.

Ramos, who was elected DA in 2002, touted his experience, including as president-elect of the National District Attorney Association. He said hed reconsider running for the office if Brown appoints someone Ramos respects and thinks is qualified.

If not, Im all in, said Ramos, who already is raising money for a 2018 campaign.

Others who have been rumored to be potential appointees include Nancy McFadden, who works in the governors office and is a top adviser to Brown; Alameda County District Attorney Nancy OMalley; and the governors wife, Anne Gust Brown, although the governor was quoted in published reports as saying his wife is fully employed.

Harris officially becomes a U.S. senator in January.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9547 or jhorseman@scng.com
College campuses have shown signs of turmoil since last weeks presidential election. Some schools saw students walk out of classes in protest. At others, students marched in demonstration.

Such activities hit the Inland Empire as well.

On Monday, more than 250 students marched at Cal State San Bernardino, protesting the election of Donald Trump as president. UC Riverside held a public policy forum to address student and faculty concerns.

With fists raised, students at Cal State San Bernardino called out, Love motivates my actions! and other chants that covered such issues as Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ rights, immigration and more. Some students gave speeches, while others wrote their thoughts on post-it notes and stuck them to a board.

We are not here because we are, and I quote, whining about our candidate not being elected, said Brittney Holloman, a student hall coordinator who helped lead the protest. Most of us didnt even want Hillary to be president. In fact, we felt the Bern all too well.  We are here because in Trump utilizing hate as his main campaign strategy and then winning the presidency, people assume, the citizens of the United States assume, the right to make minorities feel afraid. We say, no.

Students lined the way as the protesters marched across campus, many saying they were supportive.

Ken Knoblock, a graduate student, criticized protesters for not respecting the result of a lawful election.

The time to protest was before the election, said Knoblock, who said he voted for Trump. Hes president now.

Knoblock said he suspected many protesters didnt vote, but the majority of those present Monday said they had voted  mostly for Clinton, a few for Green party candidate Jill Stein.

The chants of not my president dont mean that they dont accept the results, but they want people to know Trumps message is not acceptable, said Jennifer Bacon, a peer educator with the campus anti-violence group VOICE.

More than half of the country does not identify with him, Bacon said, referring to Clintons popular vote victory, saying they want those who fear Trump to know they have allies.

Riverside County Republican Party Chairman Scott Mann declined to comment on the anti-Trump protests. But his San Bernardino County counterpart, Curt Hagman, a former GOP assemblyman, said he respects the right of people to gather and protest peaceably. Hes also concerned, however, about reports of protesters destroying property and assaulting people at protests elsewhere in the nation.

Many college campuses have issued statements to their students assuring them of a continued commitment to diversity and to keeping students safe.

UC Riverside is no exception. In an email on Monday, Chancellor Kim Wilcox told the campus community the school was reacting to a variety of concerns.

As a community, we have swiftly responded by providing students, in particular, with numerous personal and academic support services, Wilcox said.

Some students say they are more worried about their futures than usual as they look toward a Trump Administration.

Probably not in the past couple of decades have we seen the potential for such (substantial) policy changes in so many areas, said Karthick Ramakrishnan, a professor of public policy.

Ramakrishnan led a panel discussion on Monday, looking at potential policy changes in immigration and health care.

Maria Jimenez, 24, a senior studying public policy at UC Riverside, said the election left her shaken. Jimenez signed up for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program implemented by President Obama. It was designed to allow undocumented students who were raised in the United States  Jimenez has lived here since she was 3  a safe haven. Now Jimenez worries that the information she gave the government when she registered for DACA may come back to haunt her.

Jimenez was one of about 100 people who attended the public policy forum.

Ana Coria, Chicano student programs coordinator, said students she deals with are feeling anger and grief. But they are also not caving in.

Students are doing their own advocacy, she said. Theyre pressing the UC Office of the President to make all campuses sanctuaries.

Moureen Ahmed, 25, said she and other Muslim students are worried about being targeted after the angry rhetoric of the election and Trumps statements about Muslims. But, she said, she also thinks the election has provided an opportunity to make things better as those who are disappointed band together.

Some people feel hopeful that this is a great time to build communities, she said.

Contact the writer: mmuckenfuss@scng.com or 951-368-9595Reporter Jeff Horseman contributed to this report
A Corona man who had a stolen full-size blue mailbox in his living room when he was arrested was sentenced Monday, Nov. 14, to four years in federal prison for stealing and cashing other peoples checks.

Paul Wagner was ordered by U.S. District Judge George H. King to pay almost $3,000 in restitution to Bank of America and serve five years of supervised release following the 48-month prison term.

Wagner, 29, is a repeat offender with a longstanding methamphetamine addiction, King said at the defendants sentencing hearing in downtown Los Angeles.

Referring to a long list of convictions and probation violations, the judge said Wagner has shown rampant disrespect for the law and is likely to commit further crimes. The stolen checks scheme was part of a large-scale attempt to victimize people, King said.

Wagner pleaded guilty in August to one count each of bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.

He was arrested by U.S. Postal Service inspectors in April following an investigation that began last winter. Prosecutors said Wagner forcibly removed a mailbox from a Riverside sidewalk and took it back to his house in order to steal checks.

Once Wagner obtained the checks, he would wash the checks  meaning that he would remove the payees name by physically scraping off the ink or using chemicals to erase the ink, according to court documents.

In one instance, he altered a check to make it payable to an identity theft victim in whose name he had created a fake drivers license bearing his photo, court papers show.

Along with the drop box, hundreds of stolen checks and check-washing materials were seized.

Wagner has multiple felony convictions for possession of drugs for sale, as well as a conviction for illegal possession of a shotgun, King said.
Audio Attachment: Listen to Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Laryea Afotey Agbo in an interview with Kwami Sefa Kayi on 'kokrokoo'

The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Laryea Afotey Agbo says NPPs flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has trained his 'violent' supporters to only launch assault on NDC supporters ahead of the December 7 polls.



According to him, Nana Addo will be a violent leader should he become President.



We cant imagine what is going to happen to NDC members if Nana Addo becomes the President of this country, he said.



His comment comes a day after the NDC was accused of attacking the residence of Nana Addo, but Afotey Agbo rubbished the claims and described it as frivolous.



Nima police personnel managed to stop what could have turn into a bloody clash between supporters of the NPP and NDC on Sunday.



This was after supporters of the NDC who were embarking on a health walk, allegedly veered off to Akufo-Addo's Nima residence, pelted stones and bottles at the house causing some damage.



The supporters, according to reports, tried to enter the house but met resistance from Nana Addo's security men.



The NPP in a statement accused the NDC of instigating the attack and condemned it accordingly.



"This action was premeditated and unquestionably violent. Amassing NDC supporters outside of the NPP Flagbearers house is part of a broad range of calculated, violent, and provocative acts designed to bait the NPP into responding in similar fashion.



"Such behavior is a threat to the integrity of our democracy and must not be tolerated," a statement signed by Nana Akomea said.



But Afotey Agbo on PEACE FMs morning show Kokrokoo rather accused the NPP of perpetrating violence ahead of the December 7 general elections.



He told host Kwami Sefa Kayi that Our supporters did not start the attack. There was no stone attack as reported. Why didnt they [NPP] allow the police to access Nana Addos compound after those claims?



They should stop with those weapon things. They did same in Odododiodio, NPP should stop this violent acts they've been perpetrating. If they can fight among themselves in their own party, they can do same to other political parties, he said.



The Greater Accra Regional Minister however gave the assuranc that as head of the Regional Security Council, ensuring a peaceful environment for the elections is his commitment.



He urged the security agencies to arrest and prosecute any individual who misbehaves as the country heads to the polls in 23 days.

Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5/ Instagram: Washman007









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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Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo has urged voters in the Weija-Gbawe constituency to vote for her husband, Nana Akufo-Addo, to ensure prudent management of the resources of the country, and to improve the quality of life for all Ghanaians.



Mrs Akufo-Addo, who was accompanied by Tina Mensah, the New Patriotic Partys parliamentary candidate for Weija-Gbawe, and some executives of the party, paid a courtesy call on the Mantse of Mallam, and assured the traditional leader and his subjects that Nana Akufo-Addo means well for Ghana and would be mindful of protecting the interests of Ghanaians should he be elected president in the December polls.



She visited other areas like the Mallam Mosque, Borla Road and SCC, where she assured the electorate that her husband was a fair man who would ensure equitable creation of jobs and distribution of social amenities for everyone.



She also told them that Nana Akufo-Addo would fulfil all his promises, adding: Give him the chance to serve you and if you are not satisfied after four years, you have the power to tell him your mind through your vote.

Source: Classfmonline









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Running Mate to Nana Akufo-Addo, is kicking off a four day tour of the Upper East Region today after his comprehensive month long tour of almost all the constituencies in the Northern Region.



The four-day tour of the Region by the NPP Vice-Presidential Candidate is expected to wrap up the NPPs Presidential Campaign in the Region ahead of the Final Regional Rally expected to be held in the Upper East Regional Capital, Bolgatanga next week.



While in the region, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia is expected to tour among others the Bongo, Nabdam, Talensi, Bolga East, Chiana-Paga and Navrongo constituencies.



Nana Akufo-Addos running mate is expected to touch on the failures of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) with particular regards to the people of Northern Ghana as well as touch on the NPPs plans for the nation and the Region in particular.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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President John Mahama has expressed worry about the constant criticism hurled at the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana, indicating that such conduct by opposition parties is meant to set the stage for disputing elections when they have taken place.



Mr Mahama, who said he was not enthused about the constant discrediting of the EC, which will preside over the December 7 polls, explained that the EC had been able to conduct six successful elections and wondered why critics kept doubting the election management bodys capability to organise a free and fair election this year.



They have the same personnel working there and I dont see the reason why people say the commission is biased, the commission is trying to rig the elections in favour of someone and all [those] kinds of things, he stated, during an interaction with various labour unions at the Flagstaff House on Tuesday, November 15.



The main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) as well as the Progressive Peoples Party (PPP) on different occasions have accused the EC of scheming to rig the elections in favour of the governing NDC.



But Mr Mahama insists that our electoral process has some of the best safeguards for transparency in any electoral process in the world.

Source: classfmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur has called for a responsible and issue-based electioneering and not deliberate peddling of falsehood and phantom promises.



He said it is only political parties which do not have good and convincing campaign messages that resort to mudslinging and vile criticism.



Mr. Amissah-Arthur said this when he joined the chiefs and people of Wassa Amenfi Traditional Area in the Western Region for their Adimekesie celebration at Wassa Akropong. He said President John Dramani deserves commendations and not name calling such as incompetent.



The Adimekesie is celebrated annually by the chiefs and people of Wassa Amenfi in honour of their departed ancestors and chart a path for development for the ensuing year. Vice President Amissah-Arthur used the festival to climax his four-day campaign tour of the Western Region.



Also at the festival to pay homage to the chiefs was the flagbearer of the CPP, Ivor Kobina Greenstreet. The Omanhene of Wassa Amenfi Traditional Area, Tetrete Okuamoah Sekyim, was full of praise for the unprecedented development that has taken place in his area in the last for years.



He mentioned the completion of 42 CHPS compounds, more than 80 communities which have been provided with electricity, schools and completed and ongoing road projects. Tetrete Okuamoah Sekyim therefore called for a special relationship between the traditional authority and government to notch higher the rapid development of the area.











Vice President Amissah-Arthur said the Mahama led NDC government will continue to trumpet its achievements and challenges in the last four years to the people and the policies and programmes it will roll out in its second term to the people of Ghana.



The Vice President said the focus of government has been to the development of the countrys rural communities through infrastructure to improve their living conditions.



He said the rural communities also need to be developed not only to curb rural urban migration but also ensure equitable distribution of resources, aimed at bridging the urban-rural development gap.



Vice President Amissah-Arthur, together with Tetrete Okuamoah Sekyim and the Queen mother of the area inaugurated a one storey office complex for the Wassa Amenfi East District Directorate of the Ghana Education Service at Wassa Akropong.



Source: Maxwell Okamafo Addo/ 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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The 2016 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, says President Mahama is very much aware of the fact that he has lost the 2016 presidential election because of his abysmal record in office and the economic hardships and suffering he has imposed on the Ghanaian.



According to Nana Akufo-Addo, the Presidents determination to hang onto power at all cost is not borne out of his desire to improve on the well-being of Ghanaians, rather, because of the perquisites and benefits of office for himself, his family and close associates.



The NPP flagbearer noted President Mahamas desperation, with 21 days to the holding of the December 7 election, will reach new heights through the announcement of plethora of phantom promises to the Ghanaian electorate.



One such desperate move on the part of the President, Nana Akufo-Addo recounted, is the decision to restore the allowances of nursing training students, albeit it partially.



The NPP flagbearer noted that despite President Mahamas opposition to the restoration of the allowances all these years, he has decided to pay the allowances, with a few days to the elections. This smacks of desperation, with no iota of sincerity. It is an election year gimmick.



On the contrary, the NPP flagbearer noted he is seeking the mandate of the Ghanaian people so I can use the little wisdom and knowledge God has given me to help create jobs, wealth, progress and prosperity for Ghanaians. Im not seeking the high office of the land so I can steal from the people or line my pockets with the monies of Ghanaians. That is not why I am running for President.



The NPP flagbearer made this known on Tuesday, November 15, 2016, at Adukrom, in the Okere constituency, when he began a 4-day tour of the Eastern Region.



Nana Akufo-Addo noted that the wind of change that is blowing across all parts of the country is in favour of the NPP. Because of this, and the perks associated with the high office of the land, President Mahama and his functionaries are going round the country peddling a lot of lies about me and the NPP.



These lies, according to the NPP flagbearer, will be in the form of the NPP not liking a particular tribe or religious grouping, or that we are going to drive a particular ethnic group away from Ghana. These are all lies. Dont pay heed to it.



He stressed that, Ghanaians are looking for a competent government to come into office to solve the many problems they are being confronted with. Ghanaians want a government that will do a job for them, and not that will rule with propaganda. We dont manage a country with propaganda, lies and deceit.



Ghana, a country which was the envy of the entire continent, under the 8-year leadership of President Kufuor, is now in tatters, according to Nana Akufo-Addo.



He, therefore, appealed to residents of Adukrom to help me and help push the NPP into jubilee house, so we can create jobs for all Ghanaians, as well as bring progress and prosperity to the country. Ghanaians are suffering too much. Ghana is not a poor country. We are going to develop this country and rapidly ensure prosperity for all Ghanaians.



Nana Akufo-Addo assured residents of Adukrom that we in the NPP have the men and women who can give this country a 1st class government, and help create jobs, and bring progress and prosperity to all.







Having announced the rapid industiralisation of the countrys economy, 1-District-1-Factory policy, the diversification of Ghanas agriculture, the true implementation of the Free SHS policy, the revival of the collapsed NHIS, and the establishment of a Zongo Development Fund, amongst others, Nana Akufo-Addo has assured Ghanaians that these policies will be implemented to the letter when he is given the mandate to serve Ghana in the December 7 election.



He reiterated that we in the NPP will not make promises we cannot keep. When we said we were going to implement the NHIS, the late President Mills and the NDC said it could not be done. However, President Kufuor did it. Likewise, I am telling Ghanaians that Free SHS policy, amongst others, will be truly implemented to the benefit of all.



I am not one to make promises I know I cannot keep, all in the name of getting votes. I have too much love and respect for Ghanaians to make promises which I cannot fulfill. I will never do that, he assured.



Nana Akufo-Addo, on day-1 of his campaign tour of the Eastern Region, also visited the Ayensuano (Amanase, Asuboi and Teacher Mante), Lower Manya Krobo (Odumase Krobo, Somanya, Kpong) and Asuogyaman (Atimpoku) constituencies.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Legendary Nigerian musician Femi Kuti has told Thenetng that hes not interested in the result of the US elections thats been generation mixed reactions world over.



In the words of the late Afrobeat pioneer, Fela Kutis first son, Its good that we focused on the American election, but why should Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton be my priority instead of having light at Alagbole?



He continued, You know Nigerians stayed up to watch that election, can you imagine? They stayed up to watch the debates many times and many people are surprised that Im very nonchalant or I was sleeping during the election because what difference would it have made to me in Alagbole whoever won the election?



Asked if he had any opinion about the elections, Femi Kuti said, Even if I did, I was shocked at the way the so called super world nation addressed the whole election, but Ive been shocked for a long time. When Bush and Tony Blair went to bomb Iraq and they have still not been prosecuted in the world court, this is still shocking me because if it was Charles Taylor, hell be locked up right now and thats double standard in world affairs.



Its the same way when Obama won, yes I was happy that a black man won, I thought racism had kind of died in America till they started opposing him in many of his wishes, but I knew immediately that Obama being there will make no difference for me, now he has finished eight years and I still dont have light at Alagbole.

Source: Thenetng









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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Weve gotta preface this by saying what youre about to read and see aint exactly for the weak of stomach. But it is, ultimately, for a surprisingly good cause.

Up in the north of the vast left half of the country known as Western Australia, authorities have been asking people to perform a reasonably curious task:

They want folks up there to collect cane toads. As many as they can get their hands on.

Not for pest control, or even research purposes. But so they can be fanged off to butchers, run through a mincer, and made into cane toad sausages.

Cane. Toad. Sausages. Froggy snags. Bullfrog bangers. A big tube of amphibian guts.

But if youre scared that these ~clearly delicious~ treats are gonna wind up on the grill outside your local Bunnings anytime soon, you can breathe a little easier. These particular badboys are not for human consumption.

Rather, the sausages are being put together as part of a taste aversion project, aimed at warding off native animals from eating the highly toxic cane toad carcasses and biting the dust as a result.

The yarn goes that the sausages are placed in specific bait points, then local animals like quolls come over for a nibble, get sick (but not fatally) from the tainted snag, and then develop an aversion to the taste and smell of the toads as a result.

Corrin Everett, whos the Big Cheez over at the State Cane Toad Initiative project, which is operated by WA Parks & Wildlife, explains the whole scheme thusly:

The idea is that we feed toad sausages to animals like northern quolls, and their experience in eating that sausage causes vomiting and aversion to the taste of a toad, and the smell of the toad. The work that we have done so far is looking pretty effective. At the moment, its looking like between 50 and 70 per cent of the quolls that might be present in a population are taking the sausage and are learning to avoid toads.

And thats all well and good. Thats perfectly reasonable. Cane toads are a noted pest in the country, and the poor little native sods are only ever prone to making that mistake once (its just that they never get the opportunity to learn from it).

BUT. The process of making the snags has been described by those in charge as being a bit gory, owed in large part to the fact that theyre all still being made by hand.

If the thought of churning up frogs wasnt enough to make you queasy, the oh so kind folk at the ABC have provided a video of the production process.

You know that old saying about how you dont wanna know how the sausage is made? In this case, you really dont want to know how the sausage is made.

But in case you are, like me, a complete sadist, heres a very tempting play button for you to agonise over.

Dont say I didnt warn you.

And while youre dry heaving at your desk, I have to remind you that this is, very seriously, a good thing thatll help other animals.

The project, which is based in the Kununurra area of the Kimberley, is looking to take the manufacturing process more uh user friendly. Now that the project is expanding, talks are on-going with a factory to mass-produce the snags.

If youre in the area and keen to help out, you can either drop live caught toads off in a drop box at the project headquarters, or if youre feeling game, you can drop off frozen frogs that youve dealt with yourself via the cooling and freezing method.

Seriously though, dont eat the snags. Whatever you do.

Do. Not. Eat. Toad. Sausages.

Source: ABC News.
CONTENT WARNING: This article discusses rape. If you would like to talk to a counsellor about rape, sexual assault or domestic violence, give the people over at 1800 RESPECT a call on 1800 737 732.

The premiere episode of Sir David Attenboroughs Planet Earth II series gave us the greatest chase scene of all time: the now-infamous footage of a baby iguana fleeing a mass of writhing snakes and  SPOILERS AHEAD  miraculously surviving to scamper another day.

Ep 2, however, left a nation traumatised by dramatic footage of a female snow leopard submitting to sexual assault to protect her young cub from two aggressive alpha males. We know what youre thinking: can an animal actually *be* raped? Isnt that just part-and-a-parcel of the animal kingdom?

Well, kind of. Sexual coercion isnt exactly unusual in the animal kingdom, but it can often be disturbingly violent; drakes often force themselves on ducks, for example, if they feel their chance of passing on their genes is threatened in some way i.e. their methods of seductive are falling on deaf ears.

Its within high intelligence species  like dolphins and apes, who bear more of a likeness to humans than any other  that females are coerced into sex with the explicit motive of subjugation. Dolphin males literally take turns gang raping females (they rape males too, if there are no females around). So it does happen.

In this case, the BBC captured a female Himalayan snow leopard sacrificing herself to protect her totally-dependent young cub from two male snow leopards; on heat, she drew out one male snow leopard who posed a threat to her baby because males kill cubs that are not their own, Sir Attenborough told viewers.

She did her best to fend off one of the males but then another, even bigger male arrived on the scene.

A scuffle ensues but, unable to fend off both leopards, she offered herself to the bigger male, rolling over and allowing him to mount her to divert the males attention long enough to let her cub escape.

If that werent bad enough, the mother was injured in the fray and no longer be able to hunt. Thankfully she recovered, but wasnt seen with her cub again.

Twitter was *not* ok with what it witnessed.

Phew. For a minute there I thought might be some hideous snow leopard rape scene. #planetearth2  Jaxx Nelson (@JaxxNelson) November 13, 2016

Heavy this snow leopard rape ??  ? Marty Roberts ? (@marty_robo) November 13, 2016

Not sure Im ready for snow leopard rape. #planetearth2  Elliot Hackney (@ElliotHackney) November 13, 2016

Planet Earth just publicised snow leopard rape and domestic abuse????  Jade Raicevic (@jade_raicevic8) November 13, 2016

Was not prepared to witness snow leopard rape  ross (@Ross_archibald) November 13, 2016

Feeling a bit rough to watch snow leopard rape on a Sunday #planetearth2  David Pettitt (@david_pettitt) November 13, 2016

its a bit weird that the first extensive footage the bbc release of a snow leopard is a rape scene  Joe Shabadu (@JoeShabadu) November 14, 2016

Snow leopard rape culture on a Sunday night makes for uncomfortable viewing. #planetearth2  Emma (@MossbawnStoic) November 13, 2016

Snow leopard gang rape results in abandoned, vulnerable youth. Planet Earth has once again left a nation devastated.  Nathan Makan (@nathanmakan) November 13, 2016

If you want to watch the clip, here tis:





Its not all doom and gloom, though, because the baby cub escapes and  a month later  takes its first steps towards independence.

Source and photo: BBC.
It seems like pretty much everyone in the world was super fuckin jazzed for the supermoon last night  except for maybe Neil deGrasse Tyson, who is pathologically addicted to doing tweets that can be summarised as Stop having fun.

Tonites SuperMoon is Super versus Octobers FullMoon only if you think 16.05inch pizzas are Super relative to 16inch pizzas  Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 14, 2016

Regardless of what Captain Science reckons, it looked pretty bloody spectacular if you were lucky enough to be in a city with no cloud cover  apparently that extra 0.3% is enough to make a gorgeous looking moon.

It stands to reason that the rest of the world got the exact same moon we did (unless Ive really fucked up my understanding of how the moon works), but it seems like, as per usual, the rest of the world got a bigger, fancier version of what we have.

Have a gander at these pearlers from around the globe:

Did you catch last nights #supermoon ??? Heres a glimpse from Cronan Ranch #California pic.twitter.com/H1D47fnYF2  US Dept of Interior (@Interior) November 14, 2016

Photo of the Day: Did you catch the #supermoon? Here it is rising behind the #UnitedStates Marine Corps War Memorial. pic.twitter.com/9ykbnLbQz8  Fox News (@FoxNews) November 14, 2016

I love that all of the ones from America look a liiittle bit like a montage from the start of a disaster movie where theyre showing all the landmarks that are about to be exploded.

As next @Space_Station crew preps for Nov. 17 launch, the #supermoon rises behind the rocket that will carry them: https://t.co/W7XDwq8Kbt pic.twitter.com/UayI2xzbBs  NASA (@NASA) November 14, 2016

What a bloody beautiful time to be alive.

Photo: Gary Hershorn.
Young sitcom star has a crack at singing is a fairly worn-in trope by now, what with your Miley Cyruss, Demi Lovatos, and Selena Gomezs and whatnot.

But hey, talent is talent. Ya cant get about denying that.

Modern Family star Sarah Hyland appears set to be the next cab off that particular career pivoting rank, with the 25-year-old revealing a surprisingly solid voice in an appearance alongside pop group Boyce Avenue.

The group recently teamed up with Hyland to take on a stripped-down, acoustic rendition of The Chainsmokers and Halseys hit ditty Closer, and youd bet your goddamned ass that its actually good enough to make Phil Dunphy react comically.

Hyland not only takes on Halseys verse in the song, but holds some fairly gorgeous harmonies underneath the chorus lines throughout the course of the song, which was posted mere hours ago but has already racked up a solid 1.5million+ views on the ole faithful YouTube.

For whatever its worth (probably not much) The Chainsmokers seem very chill about the whole thing, posting words of congratulations to both Hyland and Boyce Avenue on Twitter earlier this morning.

Hey @Sarah_Hyland and @boyceavenue you sound awesome! So cool yall did that  THE CHAINSMOKERS (@TheChainsmokers) November 14, 2016

As for whats next for Hyland, whos to say at this stage. Social media posts suggest that this has been something shes wanted to do since I was 19. And with the ability to carry a tune that well, we reckon a career in music would be an easy switch to make.

But in the meantime, Modern Family is still on the air. And when youre hooked into a gravytrain that rich, ya gotta ride it out for as long as you can.

If the smooth tones of Boyce Avenue sound like a thing thats up your alley, theyre touring Australia in early December. Get at all the vital details over ere.

Source: YouTube.
In case ya missed it, the 31st of October marked the beginning of new legislation that allows the cultivation of marijuana in Australia. Under strict licensing, those permitted can now legally grow dank nugs for the first time in 80 years.

Its a big step forward for Australia and were finally seeing some changes to the outdated laws that prevent medicinal use of the drug for those who really need it. To celebrate this small, but correct step in the right direction, the University of Sydney and BuddingTech hosted the first ever medical cannabis technology and innovation event, appropriately named Seedlings.

The standout startup and winner of the event, Miss Mary Jane (see what she did thar?), uses social media to educate, entertain and spruik pot law reform. Surprised by the news that Australia even has a small, but legit weed startup community, we spoke with the husband and wife duo, Charlie and Ben, about how MMJ fits into the industry.

The role were currently playing is to help break down the negative stigma and misconceptions about cannabis, which is holding the industry back, they told PEDESTRIAN.TV.

Medical marijuana can help literally dozens of medical conditions, but people are just not aware. The industry is in its infancy, but the only way it can grow up is with education and demand.

Aiming away from the typical stoner videos floating around online, MMJ presents useful and factual content without the unnecessary bong rips in between. Its a refreshing take on the subject thats steadily growing in popularity. Although there are very tight restrictions in place, you dont have to grow the plant to start up in the industry. There are many supporting services and products which dont have to wait for legalisation to roll out, they said.

As for their ultimate goal, they say its about promoting the health benefits of the ganja, particularly to those who really need it. We are trying to help in what little way we can.

There will eventually be thousands of jobs created by the cannabis industry, and wed love to be involved in an industry which promotes natural health and wellness  and can help so many people!

I know what youre thinking, dear reader. You want to know if well ever be able to get completely and utterly blazed without having to worry about the police killing your vibes, dont you? Lucky for you, MMJ reckons were not as far off as you think. Its really just a matter of time until the devastating war on cannabis ends, they said.

When you realise how important cannabis is, how safe it is, and the enormous benefits it has medically, socially, and economically  we believe common sense will win in the end. And if they had to put a number on it?

Things are changing fast, and we wouldnt be surprised if we have recreational weed in Australia within 2 election cycles. You heard it here first, folks. We sure do hope their mothers are happy with what theyre doing. They know Right?

Mum, if youre listening: High! I guess she knows now!

Check out one of Miss Mary Janes latest Facebook video below. You can chuck your support behind them by liking their page.

Photo: Miss Mary Jane.
kimberly sourwine and jason kurtz.jpg

(Lebanon County District Attorney's Office)

A mother and father have been charged in connection with the death of their four-month-old son earlier this year, according to the Lebanon County District Attorney's Office.

Investigators said Jason Kurtz, 37, of the 800 block of Guilford Street, in Lebanon, placed the child "face down in a mechanical swing in an attempt to get the child to sleep," at about 7:45 p.m. on Jan 16.

Later in the evening, Kurtz left the home for about 20 minutes in order to go to a nearby bar and buy some beer, leaving the child in the swing and his siblings, ages 9, 8 and a 4-month-old twin, unattended, police said.

The child was later found unresponsive and police and emergency crews were called to the home at about 11 p.m., police said.

"An autopsy determined the child to have previous healing injuries to include a fractured vertebra and rib fractures consistent with a compression type injury. The autopsy was unable to determine an exact cause of death," according to a news release from the district attorney's office.

The child's mother, Kimberly Sourwine, 31, returned home from work at about 10 p.m., but did not check on the child until about an hour later, investigators said.

Investigators said the victim's 4-month-old sibling also had a rib fracture that was in the process of healing, authorities said.

"The healing injuries to both children were not consistent with accidental injuries but were indicative of abuse," according to a news release.

Both Kurtz and Sourwine were charged on Nov. 9, according to court records.

Kurtz has been charged with aggravated assault, simple assault and endangering the welfare of children. He is currently being held in the Lebanon County Correctional Facility on $750,000 bail.

Kimberly Sourwine has been charged with endangering the welfare of children.

Both Kurtz and Sourwine are currently being held in the Lebanon County Correctional Facility on $750,000 bail.

A preliminary for both has been scheduled for Dec. 22.
Wallis Run crossing.jpg

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has constructed using a series of pipes a temporary crossing of Wallis Run in Lycoming County to replace a bridge that was washed out during flash floods on Oct. 21. A slab from the bridge broke a nearby Sunoco pipeline allowed an estimated 55,000 gallons of gasoline to escape into the stream.

(John Beauge, for PennLive)

WARRENSVILLE -- Petroleum products are again flowing through the Sunoco Logistics pipeline breached during flash floods in Lycoming County Oct. 21.

The 8-inch line, which provides product to the Buffalo and Rochester, N.Y., area was put back in service Saturday, Sunoco spokesman Jeffrey Shields said Monday.

The repair project included burying approximately 700 feet of pipe at least 35 feet deep in the area where Wallis Run flows in Loyalsock Creek. Sunoco has not released the cost of the repair project.

The old pipeline, which was buried five feet, was eroded and ruptured by part of a bridge over Wallis Run washed out by the raging water

A drop in pressure about 3 a.m. on Oct. 21 alerted Sunoco's control center of a problem with the line and it was immediately shut down but not before approximately 55,000 gallons of gasoline was released.

Communities along the Susquehanna River that take water from the river were put on alert but the gasoline did not cause any issues.

There has been no evidence aquatic life was impacted, Neil Shader, spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection said.

Besides the pipeline, also completed was work at 10 locations where the pipeline had been exposed by erosion, Shields said. Crews remain in the area doing non-critical repairs, he said.

Wallis Run Road remains closed except for local residents and construction vehicles, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation spokesman David Thompson said.

Although a temporary crossing using pipes has been built over Wallis Run, traffic is not expected to return to normal until a temporary bridge, he said.

PennDOT anticipates opening bids late this month for the construction that bridge with a projected completion of next March, he said.
The Lebanon Valley College president is denouncing "racially derogatory" graffiti found on the outside of the Women's Services and Gender Resource Center Monday.

"Such language is unacceptable on our campus and violates Lebanon Valley College's policies on conduct and expression," said President Lewis Thayne.

The graffiti was removed, Annville Police Department was contacted, and an investigation is under way, Thayne said. He said support is offered to students and members of the community who are affected by the situation.

Earlier today, the Division of Student Affairs received a report of racially derogatory language on the exterior of the... Posted by Lebanon Valley College on Monday, November 14, 2016

The Women's Services and Gender Resource Center also includes housing for women of color, says its Facebook page.
0110 EAGLE PRR P2 copy.JPG

The Cumberland Valley School District, like scores of other school communities across the region and country, is dealing with hate speech and racial incidents in the wake of the 2016 presidential election.

(PennLive file photo)

Wajih Ahmed, a Cumberland Valley School District parent, on Monday night was the lone parental voice to address the school board with regards to racists and hateful incidents reported in the district last week.

Ahmed, who was accompanied by his wife Rabiya Wajih, specifically had concerns about comments one of his children's teachers had made last week just after the election.

That teacher, he explained to the board during the public comment section of the school board meeting, had announced to the class that he or she had voted "for one particular candidate."

"I don't think that belongs in the classroom at all," Ahmed said. "We need to do a better job letting teachers know that discipline is very important especially discipline among themselves."

Ahmed's comments to the board came just a few minutes after superintendent Frederick Withum reaffirmed to the board what he described as the district's long-standing policy for inclusivity and diversity and against hateful behavior.

Withum said the district would not tolerate bullying, hate speech or any disrespectful behavior from students or faculty.

His comments and that of Ahmed come just days after a district administrator had to address racist and hateful speech at her school.

Last week, just days after the election, Cumberland Valley High School principal Judy Baumgardner addressed students after reports surfaced that one student had referred to another as "ISIS" and others had directed the word "deportation" at classmates. Baumgardner also cited an incident in which at least one student said "gays will be electrocuted."

Withum on Monday reiterated that the district would not tolerate such incidents, adding that the district was in the process of finalizing a program designed to bring student voices into the discussion about diversity and issues of inclusivity.

The Cumberland Valley district was among several regionally as well as nationally school communities that last week found themselves having to address hate language and behavior in the wake of President-elect Donald Trump's election win. Pundits widely characterized Trump's campaign as having stoked racial and religious divides in the country.

Withum said the district was working to bring a third party participant into a forum on diversity, which he said would include minority students.

"We have a lot to do, no doubt," said Withum, adding that he hoped that that school community would "set a tone of love respect and diversity."

"Truly it is the gift and the strength that we have in our country," he said.

Withum added that while the Cumberland Valley school community was "not perfect," he would be remiss if he didn't point out the good that he saw across the district.

Ahmed said he complimented the district for addressing issues of diversity and intolerance, but added that there was "a big difference between listening and enforcing rules and getting results."

The Ahmeds, who are from Pakistan, said they have had to enroll their two oldest children in private school after they were bullied with religious and ethnic hate language in district schools.

Wajih Ahmed indicated he was willing to give the district the benefit of the doubt that it was doing its due diligence in addressing the issues.

"Sometimes the best thing to do is talk," he said. "It might be a misunderstanding. Communication is the best way to resolve misunderstandings."

Nationwide, more than 200 incidents of election-related harassment and intimidation were reported as of Friday, targeting blacks, women and the LBGT community.
pollard cropped.png

Police are looking for Dehaven Pollard, whom they say is one of the three suspects in a Saturday night armed robbery at the Lancaster Brewing Company.

(Swatara Township Police.)

For a moment, the Steelton woman thought she wasn't going to make it out of the Lancaster Brewing Company alive.

Three armed men had just rushed into the back of the Swatara Township restaurant where she works.

And one of them was pointing a rifle at her head.

"He grabbed me by my collar," the woman, who asked to remain anonymous because the robbers are still on the loose, said Tuesday as she described the Saturday night robbery. "He told all of us (employees) to follow him. He put us all together by the ice machine."

One of the robbers was told to guard the workers at pistol-point, she said. She soon realize the scope of the peril she faced.

"I overheard one of them say, 'If anybody moves, shoot her first'," the woman recalled. "I was basically begging for my life. I was saying, 'I have two kids! Please don't shoot me!'"

All three robbers wore bandannas on their faces, she said, but when a bandanna slipped she recognized one of the culprits as Dehaven Pollard, who had worked at the restaurant briefly.

She saw one of her co-workers being pistol-whipped. Another employee wrestled with a robber, escaped and ran to the front of the restaurant where she warned the patrons, the Steelton woman said.

She said the trio fled after smashing their way into a cash drawer. She and her co-workers ran to the front of the restaurant to find police officers rushing in. "They had to have just missed" the robbers, she said.

Police were still searching for the robbers Tuesday morning and speculated they may have fled to Philadelphia. Officers secured an arrest warrant for Pollard, a 36-year-old former Steelton resident. Investigators said the robbers fled in a white sedan believed to be a Hyundai Sonata.

Anyone with information on the crime can call police at 717-564-2550.

The Steelton woman described the whole episode as "very scary."

"I'm OK now," she said. "I'm just grateful I'm alive."
SUNBURY -- Third quarter sales were up 4.4 percent but net income declined 16.9 percent, Weis Markets announced.

The decrease in net income was attributed primarily to the $4.4 million in costs related to acquiring, converting and reopening five former Mars Super Markets in the Baltimore area and 10 former Food Lion stores, also in Maryland.

Conversion of 28 additional Food Lion stores in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia is expected to be completed this quarter, according to Jonathan Weis, chairman, president and CEO of the supermarket chain based in Sunbury.

For the quarter that ended Sept, 24, Weis reported sales of $743 million compared with $712 million in the same period in 2015. Deflation was listed as a factor in the decrease in dairy and meat sales.

During the same quarter, net income was $10.6 million compared with $12.8 million in 2015.

Year-to-date income increased 7.6 percent to $46 million compared with $42.8 million for the same period in 2015. Earnings per share totaled $1.71 compared with $1.59 last year.

The company remains concerned about the impact the Affordable Care Act will have on future operating expenses, a Weis filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission states.

On Oct. 6, Weis announced plans to buy Nell's Family Market in East Berlin for approximately $8.7 million to increase its presence in Adams County.

Weis previously had acquired a Nell's store in Hanover.
By Pete Gurt

On Nov. 15, 1909, Milton and Catherine Hershey signed a Deed of Trust establishing a home and school for orphaned boys.

Pete Gurt (Milton Hershey School Photo)

When the first four boys arrived at what was then called Hershey Industrial School, the children were provided with a stable home life and a vigorous combination of academic, vocational, and agricultural training.

Hershey was ahead of his time. His school was the ultimate in career training and placement.

He credited his wife for his beloved school; she made the decisions when it came to directing his fortune to benefit their Central Pennsylvania community.

The Hersheys wanted to make sure these children would be good workers, good citizens, and good people. And they wanted their home and school to endure forever. They made that very clear.

Today, more than 107 years later, Milton Hershey School provides more than 2,000 boys and girls from lower income families an education, medical care, and a safe home at no cost. Children as young as 4 years old come from across the nation, but mostly from Pennsylvania.

Pre-K through 12th grade classes have top notch technology, but the goal is much the same as it was 107 years ago - to keep a child safe and cared for, while finding what she loves, teaching and developing those skills, and finding a career where she can flourish.

No doubt, much has changed in 107 years. Students still come from families fractured by tragedy, but it is no longer from farm accidents or disease.

Now it is neighborhood violence, incarceration, and addiction. These modern day realities have a huge impact on the development of a child.

A caring and expert staff of health and child care professionals address these realities with exhaustive wraparound care. The strength and resilience of our students and families and the success they achieve with the additional support is amazing.

Some critics speculate whether the school could do more with less. Spend less on each child, serve more students. That kind of speculation undoubtedly happens when a large amount of money is set aside. Even when Milton Hershey was alive, there were critics.

Experts then thought his home and school model was expensive and could house kids more efficiently.

But Milton Hershey had done his research. He visited the dormitories at Girard College.

He chose student homes instead to create warmth and a sense of home. (That model is central to our social and emotional learning curriculum today.)

Milton Hershey was also involved, guiding his school for 35 years after the Deed of Trust, and when it comes to the whole child approach offered, he did not change a thing.

So while I understand criticism of those with other ideas, I choose to follow the guidance of the person who created the wealth and outlined specifically how he wanted his school to be operated.

The Deed of Trust, a 19-page typewritten document signed by the Hersheys details the mission of the school as well as its location, governance, and funding sources.

The Deed is straightforward in its approach and brilliant in its simplicity. The Hersheys crafted a document that was both visionary and practical, meant to insure that the school would stay true to its mission, serve as many children as possible, and exist forever.

Thousands of loyal alumni who return to their Hershey home each year will attest to the importance of that.

Those wishes drive all we do. The charge is humbling. Before launching construction to serve 300 more students, years of planning took into account the extraordinary infrastructure that must support additional children - not to mention in-depth forecasting and creating off ramps in the event of an economic downturn. Expanding Milton Hershey's mission requires not just buildings, equipment, and technology but also skilled houseparents, faculty, counselors, and health professionals.

More than a century later, more than 10,000 graduates are giving back to their communities and proud to always call Milton Hershey School their home.

To ensure that is the case 100 years from now, the most careful decisions must be made about the resources required to help children realize their potential despite enduring the most difficult circumstances.

Pete Gurt is the President of Milton Hershey School. He writes from Derry Twp.
Gov. Tom Wolf signed legislation Tuesday that will allow Pennsylvanians to buy six-packs at beer distributors.

House Bill 1196, which also allows them to sell growlers for off-premises consumption, is the latest in a series of measures that have broken down some of the barriers that traditionally separated the sale of beer, liquor and wine.

"I'm proud today to sign this bill, supported by Republicans and Democrats alike, to ensure that the commonwealth is more inviting for customers and businesses," Wolf said, in a written statement.

Frank Pistella, president of the Malt Beverage Distributors Association, praised the signing on behalf of the state's 1,200 beer distributors.

"This change allows distributors to maintain the inventory to fulfill . . . consumer desire and it means that local markets and not state law will determine what products each of us carries," he said.

Historically, distributors had been limited to selling 24-packs and kegs. Last year, a new interpretation of existing rules allowed distributors to sell 12-packs. With the implementation of this new law, they can now sell much smaller quantities.

But it's clear that the state House Republican majority -- which expanded to 122 of 203 seats after last week's election -- will continue to push for more.

In response to the Independent Fiscal Office's analysis that the state's income-expense gap is expected to grow to $1.7 billion in the next fiscal year, House Majority Leader Dave Reed, R-Indiana County, said privatization would help close that deficit.

"Wine privatization has gone off very well to meet people's expectations," Reed said Tuesday. "We could take that the rest of the way over the goal line and pick up a couple hundred million dollars."

Wendell Young IV, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776, said the privatization issue is "like Groundhog Day all over again." In light of the legislative gains, he said, a major push would not be surprising.

"Of course they're going to be emboldened by their larger numbers and we're going to continue fighting it as we already have," said Young, whose union represents about 3,500 of the state Liquor Control Board's 5,000 employees. "Certainly, even if they want to do privatization, they ought to wait and see what the current law does."
FILE - In this May 31, 2015 file photo, a woman cools herself on a hot summer day in Hyderabad, in the southern Indian state of Telangana. The U.N. weather agency said on Monday, Nov. 14, 2016, that 2016 is set to break the record for the hottest year since measurements began in the 19th century. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A., File)
FILE- This Jan. 12, 2016, file photo shows the exterior view of the headquarters of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. U.S. armed forces and the CIA may have committed war crimes by torturing detainees in Afghanistan, the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor said in a report Monday, Nov. 14, 2016, raising the possibility that American citizens could be indicted even though Washington has not joined the global court. (AP Photo/Mike Corder, File)
Letters to the Editor: How could anyone vote for Prop 3?
U.S. shale firms move foward on OPEC deal, Trump victory

U.S. shale firms go back to work buoyed by OPEC agreement



HOUSTON

Petroleumworld.com 11 15 2016

U.S. shale producers are redeploying cash, rigs and workers, cautiously confident the energy sector has turned a corner after Donald Trump's election victory and OPEC's recent signal that it plans to curb production.

The downturn produced a leaner, more efficient U.S. shale industry that was forced to develop and quickly adapt new technology to compete with conventional oil supplies during a two-year period of depressed prices.

"You're starting to see a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel," Ryan Lance, chief executive of ConocoPhillips , the largest independent U.S. oil producer, said in an interview last week. "We're beginning to put capital back to work, but we're being cautious."

Specifics of the deal by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries - especially what it means for each member - need to be finalized at a meeting later this month in Austria. But the tentative agreement indicated OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia is keen to end a damaging two-year oil price war. That prodded U.S. producers to action.

The U.S. oil drilling rig count has grown 6 percent since OPEC's September accord, according to oilfield analytics firm NavPort, with additions across the country's top shale fields including the Permian (7 percent) and the Bakken (17 percent).

Also, Trump's victory is expected to bring to the White House an advocate for oil and gas drilling, who will slash regulations and encourage new energy industry development.

Occidental Petroleum Corp, Chevron Corp, Pioneer Natural Resources Co and ConocoPhillips are among those adding rigs or preparing to do so.

Oasis Petroleum Inc, a major North Dakota producer, bought 55,000 acres last month from SM Energy Co for $785 million, a bullish bet on the future of oil prices. The company also plans to add rigs.

"This all reflects more of a confidence around our business plan in a lower oil price environment," Oasis Chief Executive Tommy Nusz said in an interview last week.

"We feel like we can hold our own now in a $40 (per barrel oil) world and grow in a $45 to $50 world."

Citing its technology and other improvements, EOG Resources Inc raised its growth projections and now expects to boost output 15 to 25 percent each year through the end of the decade if oil prices stabilize near $50 per barrel.

"After two years of this down cycle, we are more than ready to resume higher-return oil growth," EOG CEO Bill Thomas told investors in early November.

All that activity will have an effect once things ramp up.

U.S. unconventional shale oil production is expected to dip 13 percent this year from 2015 levels and continue to slip into 2017 before rebounding 11 percent in 2018, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

INVESTORS EYE POTENTIAL

Investors in the oil sector are also bullish, eager to see returns grow after lagging for several years.

"We fundamentally feel that where energy prices are at now are below where they are going to be at some point, and below their long-term equilibrium level," Tony James, president of private equity investor Blackstone Group LP, told reporters in late October.

James' outlook reflects a broader perception among shale oil producers and their financiers that the industry has turned a corner for the better, analysts said.

U.S. oil producers have launched initial public offerings, with Extraction Oil & Gas Inc and WildHorse Resource Development Corp filing this fall alone.

That is good news not only for the oil industry but also for its largest lenders, including Wells Fargo & Co and Bank of America Corp.

Oil "companies are now entrepreneurial and they've cut costs to become viable at these prices," a senior executive at one of the top private equity firms in New York said last month. The executive declined to be named as he is not authorized to speak to the media. "Those people are going to start producing again."

To be sure, a resurgence in the U.S. oil industry must still contend with market fundamentals, including a large oversupply and sluggish demand that neither Saudi Arabia nor President-elect Trump can fully control.

America's oil inventories rose by more than 14 million barrels in late October, the largest one-week increase on record and one linked to large production of shale oil and natural gas.

If American oil companies continue to increase production, they run the risk of abrogating any OPEC output cuts later this month and pushing down prices on their own accord.

"Obviously if we pull back to $25 per barrel, that will have an impact upon our investing," said Al Walker, CEO of Anadarko Petroleum Corp.

Yet demand for the light, sweet oil produced across American shale fields continues to rise globally. U.S. crude oil exports hit an all-time high in September, according to U.S. Census data.

And many companies have hedged for 2017 at least, taking advantage of the oil price rise this year. That emboldens executives to boost budgets.

Pioneer, considered by Wall Street analysts one of the best-run U.S. shale oil producers, has hedged 75 percent of its 2017 output at an average price around $50 per barrel.

"The industry is looking forward to a tepid recovery in early 2017," said John Chisholm, CEO of Flotek Industries Inc , which supplies chemicals used in fracking and other oilfield products.

Demand for Flotek's CnF, a nontoxic fracking fluid, during the first nine months of 2016 has already eclipsed 2015 sales volumes, with projections higher for 2017.

"These oil producers have reconstructed their business so they can make money at these low oil price levels. They're pressing forward."






Trump's Mexico stand could press gas prices





Southern neighbor has become an increasingly important outlet for the fuel

NEW YORK

Petroleumworld.com 11 15 2016

Donald Trump's presidency is widely viewed as a boon for the U.S. energy industry, but some of his planned policies could pose problems for the natural-gas business.

Mr. Trump has won plaudits from energy executives for saying he would peel back government regulations on oil companies, oppose global efforts to curb climate change and review a recent agreement that lifted sanctions on Iran, a major oil exporter.

Yet some of his other proposals could be detrimental to natural gas. He has pledged to tear up trade pacts and wall off Mexico, which could hurt the flow of U.S. natural gas to its southern neighbor. Mexico has become an increasingly important outlet for the fuel that has helped buoy domestic prices amid a glut of shale gas, analysts say.

Mexico has been one of the few bright stories for prices and demand, said Nicholas Potter, an analyst at Barclays PLC, which warned clients on Election Day that Mr. Trump's trade policies would likely curb or at least limit incremental U.S. gas exports to Mexico.

A reduction in sales to Mexico could worsen the gas glut and weigh on prices. It could also penalize the companies building pipelines to Mexico and the drillers, primarily in Texas, shipping their gas across the border.

Mr. Trump has also proposed rolling back regulations on the coal industry that he has said have cost mining jobs. Analysts say that doing so could help coal retake market share from natural gas at U.S. power plants.

Mr. Trump's representatives didn't respond to requests for comment.

Shipments to Mexico reached an all-time high in August and accounted for almost 6% of total U.S. gas production, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. These exports have risen dramatically in recent years as U.S. prices have plummeted on abundant supplies of shale gas and because of new pipelines that have been built across the border.

This summer, Mexico's imports of U.S. gas for the first time eclipsed its domestic production, which has declined more than 25% since 2010, according to Platts Analytics, a unit of S&P Global Platts.

Meanwhile, demand for natural gas in Mexico has risen roughly 20% since the beginning of the decade as power plants have switched from burning more expensive fuel oil and the country has tried to decrease pricey deliveries of gas from overseas, says Platts, which expects demand to continue to rise.

Barring some kind of bizarre trade war, it's one of the more certain areas for natural-gas demand growth, said Ross Wyeno, a Platts analyst.

U.S. gas prices have been under pressure in recent years as energy explorers used new drilling techniques to unleash a market-swamping glut of the heating and power-generation fuel.

On Friday, U.S. natural gas futures for December delivery fell 0.5% to $2.619 a million British thermal units, and prices are down 22% over the past four weeks.

Domestic demand has risen as U.S. power producers switched from coal to cleaner-burning natural gasin part to comply with environmental regulationsand the first shipments of liquefied natural gas were shipped overseas from a new Gulf Coast terminal this year.

But analysts say the market would be badly unbalanced without exports to Mexico.

Brandon Blossman, an analyst with Houston investment bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co., estimated that an immediate cessation of exports to Mexico would cut about 75 cents per million British thermal unit from U.S. prices, or about 30% of the current price.

An all-out and immediate halt is highly unlikely. But Mr. Blossman's calculation shows the importance of the Mexican market to U.S. energy producers that are already struggling to produce gas economically. The number of rigs drilling for gas in the U.S. has fallen to 115 from about 900 five years ago, according to Baker Hughes Inc.

Analyst say drillers in Texas would feel the most pain if exports were interrupted. Mr. Blossman estimated that gas producers drilling the Eagle Ford Shale in south Texas save about 25 cents per million cubic feet by sending gas in pipelines to Mexico instead of more distant U.S. trading hubs.

Not having Mexico as an outlet for natural gas is very bad economically for Texas, particularly south Texas, he said.

Pipeline owners could also suffer from reduced business with Mexico. Pipeline projects that are under way will boost export capacity by 90% by 2020, according to Platts. Major U.S. investors have also spent big on gas-distribution projects in Mexico, which is privatizing its energy sector.

BlackRock Inc. and First Reserve Corp., for example, last year paid $900 million for a 45% stake in a 430-mile pipeline that carries U.S. gas to Mexico City.

Mexico's own investment has been geared more toward building the pipelines needed to distribute U.S. gas than it has on drilling for its own. The country has added more than 6,000 miles of pipelines in the past five years, according to David Shields, a local industry analyst who publishes the newsletter Energia a Debate.

It doesn't make much sense for Mexico to do much exploration for gas if the opportunity exists to import it very cheaply from Texas, Mr. Shields said.






A Los Angeles police officers pistol was stolen Thursday night during a fight with a woman, who attacked him with his handcuffs as protesters flooded downtown to decry the election of Donald Trump.

Around 10:30 p.m., undercover officers noticed a crowd of roughly 20 people break off from the hundreds protesting against Trump and move back toward LAPD headquarters, according to an official with knowledge of the incident. The official, who spoke to the Los Angeles Times on condition of anonymity, was not authorized to discuss the case.

The confrontation began when undercover officers attempted to arrest a man who was spray-painting near the building, the official said. A woman came up and complained before snatching one officers handcuffs and striking him in the head several times, the official said. Natalie Araujo was booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon after she was treated at a hospital for unknown injuries, according to LAPD Officer Tony Im.

After the struggle, Im said, the officer noticed his gun was missing. Neither the weapon nor the handcuffs used in the attack have been recovered.
Two men, one of them carrying a fake gun, reportedly tried to carjack a woman in Newark who just happened to be a retired NYPD officer. Erica Marlow, who had never fired her gun while on duty during her 23 years on the force, squeezed off at least two shots  hitting both of the would-be robbers.

The retired detective had dropped off her teenage daughters at the Prudential Center so they could see a concert.She was waiting in her car and about 9:30 p.m. Thursday when 22-year-old Tahje Hunt and 27-year-old Brian Moore reportedly pulled open the unlocked doors and attacked her.

They started punching her in the face as they tried to pull her out of the car and stuck a gun in her ribs, Marlows fiance Juan Colon told the New York Daily News.

She managed to wiggle her arm out of one of the sleeves, reached down into her purse, grabbed her handgun, and opened fire.

Hunt and Moore scurried away. Newark police caught up with them a short time later and took them into custody without incident.

Their injuries werent life-threatening, said Newark Police spokesman Capt. Derek Glenn.
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House Republicans came back to Washington, and the first thing that they did was kill Donald Trumps wall with Mexico, and the president-elects plan for a mass deportation of immigrants.

The Huffington Post reported on House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthys dismissal of Trumps wall and deportations:



He then suggested a border security bill would be a priority, and that there would be a wall along some parts of the border and other parts would be dealt with differently from a technology standpoint.

In other words, the House majority leader does not foresee the construction of a 1,900-mile wall along the U.S.-Mexico border  a key component of Trumps platform.

McCarthy also suggested that Trump didnt really mean what he said about another cornerstone of his campaign: mass deportations.

House Republicans just rolled back into town, took a look at Trumps agenda, and removed two of his top four goals. There is not going to be a wall, and only immigrants with criminal records are going to be deported.

One can see the fight between the Trump White House and Congressional Republicans. The problem for Trump was always going to be that he doesnt understand how the presidency works.

A Republican Congress wont be a rubber stamp for Trump. It seems that Republicans in Congress are viewing Trump as their rubber stamp.

Donald Trump isnt even in office yet, and the GOP honeymoon is already turning into a nightmare.
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One peaceful anti-Trump protest on the campus of Ohio State University quickly turned violent on Monday night when Donald Trump supporter shoved a protester down a flight of stairs while he was delivering a speech to the crowd.

Video:

After pushing the man, a brief scuffle broke out between the Trump supporter and another protester, but it was quickly broken up by other demonstrators. The police arrived seconds later and escorted the man out of the building.

According to The Lantern, the victim of the assault has been identified as Tim Joseph. The aggressor has not yet been named, but the college news publication reports that he was arrested and placed under indefinite suspension from Ohio State.

The protest at OSU is only one in a series of national demonstrations that continue to take place in the aftermath of Trumps stunning electoral victory over Hillary Clinton in last weeks presidential election.

The combination of widespread fear that Trump will keep his dangerous campaign promises, coupled with the fact that Clinton is on pace to win the popular vote by roughly 2 million votes, has set the stage for massive nationwide protests and even a petition signed by over 4 million people urging the Electoral College to choose the former Secretary of State when the electors vote next month.

The last week has also seen an uptick in hate crimes taking place all across the country, from schools to workplaces, where minority groups have been targeted by those who are emboldened by Trumps victory and think this type of behavior is now acceptable.

Its safe to say that the past week has not been one of Americas finest moments.
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Today, People For the American Way President Michael Keegan released the following statement condemning Trumps selection of white supremacist and anti-Semite for a White House post:

By choosing Steve Bannon as chief strategist, Trump has made clear that he intends to carry the racism and anti-Semitism of his campaign straight into the White House. The website Bannon ran is a home for the White Nationalist Right that elevates racist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic tirades and conspiracy theories.

Congressional Republicans need to stand up and call out Trump for choosing Bannon as a senior adviser and equal partner to Trumps Chief of Staff. This isnt about partisan politics; no one with Bannons record should be anywhere near the White House.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has called on Trump to rescind his hiring of Bannon:

Trump should rescind this hire. In his victory speech, Trump said he intended to be president for all Americans. Bannon should go.  Hatewatch (@Hatewatch) November 14, 2016

Both of these calls are forlorn cries, of course. The GOP powered Trumps campaign of hate, laying the groundwork over the two terms of President Barack Obamas administration. Trump did not invent the hate: he simply harnessed it successfully and rode it into the White House.

Republicans made clear during the election that they would not withdraw their endorsements of Donald Trump. They are not, at the moment of their victory, about to denounce Trumps selection of Steve Bannon now.

After all, Trump has only done what they themselves have so longed to do, especially with the mainstream media now so eager to normalize Trumps hate speech.
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Former New York Mayor and 9/11 exploiter Rudy Giuliani is the favorite to be Donald Trumps choice for the next Secretary of State, the Associated Press reported on Monday night.

According to the report, which cites a senior Trump official, the job is Giulianis for the taking.

The official says theres no real competition for the job and that its the former New York mayors if he wants it, the AP notes.

Giuliani has been one of Trumps most ardent and unhinged supporters throughout the campaign, often plastering himself all over cable news to defend even the most indefensible Trump comments, including the Access Hollywood remarks that surfaced last month.

Its not clear what qualifies Giuliani to be the nations top diplomat besides an undying loyalty to Trump throughout the campaign, as well as a knack for spewing complete nonsense over the years.

In the 2016 campaign alone, the former New York mayor blamed Hillary Clinton for creating ISIS, repeatedly said the Democratic nominee looked unhealthy, and made the ridiculous assertion that there were no terrorist attacks on American soil before President Obama took office.

This is the man that is Donald Trumps likely choice to be in charge of shaping Americas foreign policy. It would be laughable if it wasnt so terrifying.

The latest AP report comes on the heels of other reports suggesting that right-wing extremist war hawk John Bolton was Trumps likely pick to become Secretary of State. This would be a huge departure from the president-elects non-interventionist foreign policy rhetoric from the campaign.

Giuliani or Bolton  pick your poison, America.
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The Nazis are back with a vengeance, with anti-Semitic and hate incidents on the rise.

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL tweeted that, We at @ADL_National oppose the appt of Steve Bannon to sr role at @WhiteHouse bc he & his alt-right are so hostile to core American values. And yeah, Nazis are kinda hostile to core American values.

And nobody should be surprised by Bannons appointment. Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat writes in an op-ed at CNN that,

Anyone who is surprised at the appointment of right-wing guru Steve Bannon as the Donald Trump administrations chief strategist and counselor has been living in an alternate universe, the universe in which President-elect Trump would pivot into something resembling a mainline GOP conservative.

White supremacists are overjoyed at the appointment of Bannon, and that should be reason enough for everybody else to worry, but there is more if you need it.

SPLC cites Stormfront user Phoenix1933, who wrote:

Stephen Bannon: racist, anti-homo, anti-immigrant, anti-jewish, anti-establishment. Declared war on (((Paul Ryan))) Sounds perfect. Muhahahaha. The man who will have Trumps ear more than anyone else. Being anti-jewish is not illegal. Nothing you dirty stinking jews can do to keep him out.

Actress Emmy Rossum has been subject to horrifying anti-Semitic tweets:

Trump supporters are sending me messages threatening to send me & my "ilk" to the gas chambers & writing hashtags like "#sieg hiel". NOT OK.  Emmy Rossum (@emmyrossum) November 13, 2016

And she presents this one to us as an example:

No matter WHO you voted for, I don't care, THIS is not okay. "You will be seeing a train shortly" pic.twitter.com/cvQP6Fegz4  Emmy Rossum (@emmyrossum) November 14, 2016

Many Trump supporters have found a kindred mindset in the mainstream media, which, having thrown its support behind Trump, now seems eager now to normalize the Nazi-infused GOP. But as Ben-Ghiat writes,

Some point out that Trump voters are not racists, but merely men and women who feel forgotten and marginalized, both socially and economically. This may be true for some, but given the prominence of racism in Trumps campaign platform, these much-vaunted other reasons are but threads in a tight veil of illusion Trump voters have woven for themselves. Its sad to have to remind people that Trump could have appealed to the downtrodden without inciting violence against people of different origins, appearances and faiths.

To which they will respond that it is not racism if its true. Even though its only true in their own minds and not in the world of facts. Thats another problem altogether, as they have already convinced themselves Trump has a mandate despite losing the popular vote. If his mandate exists it is only among members of the electoral college and not the American people.

Jewish groups are naturally  and with good reason  worried about the appointment of anti-Semite Steve Bannon to a White House post. And Trumps victory has worldwide implications. As the Jerusalem Post observes,

His victory has been celebrated by European far-right groups, including Marine Le Pen of Frances National Front party, who wrote that Trumps election set the American people free. Geert Wilders, a Dutch anti-Islam campaigner, called the Trump victory a revolution to be repeated in his own homeland.

Just as Adolf Hitler was inspired by Mussolinis march on Rome.

One begins to experience some of what liberals and progressives experienced in Weimar Germany as Hitlers party grew in prominence and power. We all seem guilty by association, at least in the worlds eyes.

The Jerusalem Post cites Aryeh Neier, an American Jew who was born in Nazi Germany who states that the victory will provide very specific encouragement to those who want to demonstrate xenophobia because the United States, which has portrayed itself as a leader in efforts to protect human rights, has elected somebody like Trump.

Never mind that we did not elect Trump, that Americas Fuhrer lost the popular vote. We did not elect Trump. He was presented to us as an early Christmas present by the increasingly fascist-minded Republican Party after years of voter suppression and intimidation and gerrymandering.

The fact remains the Nazis are here and now they have power and influence at the very highest levels of government. There is no disguising it and no denying it.

Donald Trump has not only ensured the Russians won the Cold War after all; he is working toward an after-the-fact victory for the Nazis as well.

Photo: SPLC
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On Monday, Sarah Jones made the most important statement that can be said about the post-election period.

Being nice to the bully is the same as enabling the bully. So all of these people calling for unity and for silence (not President Obama, he never called for silence, Im talking about the media), basically to put all of Donald Trumps actions and words in the past and ignore them and hope for the best  these peoples advice is dangerous. It is the exact wrong thing to do.

The old rules wont work with Trump and the people who have his ear. As Sarah Jones pointed out, being nice to the bully is enabling the bully.

Trump made it clear during the primaries and his campaign that he intends to take a wrecking ball to the rights of targeted groups of people. He intends to strip some Americans of their citizenship based on who their parents are. He intends to impose a religious test on immigrants, track Americans who are Muslims solely because they are Muslim. He expressed a desire to establish the unconstitutional stop and frisk nationally and he intends to appoint a Supreme Court Justice who interprets the constitution the way Trump wants rather than the way it is. A primary example is seen in his stated intent to overturn Roe v. Wade, and with it taking a constitutional right away from women.

Trump has stated an intent to commit the war crimes of torture, killing the families of alleged terrorists and looting.

Trump intends to appoint white supremacist, racist, misogynist and anti-Semite Steve Bannon as his chief strategist and senior adviser. That doesnt bode well for the rights of the minority under a Trump regime.

Trumps supporters in the media claim that victory, despite losing the popular vote, doesnt make Trumps electoral success less legitimate.

To wit, Josh Gelernter at the National Review wrote: The point of the Electoral College is simple: to restrict the power of the majority. Theres a tendency to forget that majority rule is only half of a free country  the other half is the protection of the rights of the minority, of the dissenters.

Thats  interesting on so many levels beginning with the fact that the intent of the Electoral College was, in reality, two-fold. The second part was to prevent the election of a charismatic tyrant who could manipulate the will of the people.

Trumps choices and proposed policies are clear evidence that he is the tyrant the Founding Fathers feared when they decided on the electoral college.

The fact that Trump lost the popular vote precludes him from having a mandate. However, he is the charismatic manipulator of the peoples will the electoral college was intended to prevent. In other words, the electoral colleges purpose is to stop Donald Trump  not to elect him.

At best, Trump and his supporters can argue norms and convention as a basis to compel electors to vote consistently with the will of the people in their states. The one exception is Washington, where electors who vote against the states popular vote can be fined $1,000  a price one elector is willing to pay.

As constitutional law professor and Rep.-elect Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) explained to Mark Plotkin the U.S. Constitution provides electors can choose amongst the top three people who received electoral votes.

If anything, electors in ten states plus DC (with a combined electoral college vote total of 165) are mandated to the will of the people as reflected in the popular vote.

Even Republicans in Arizona, Oklahoma, Georgia and Missouri support an initiative by the National Popular Vote mandating electors to vote with the national popular vote.

Finally, Donald Trump tweeted support for the popular vote in 2012 calling the electoral college a disaster for democracy.

The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2012

Trumps tweet proved prophetic.

There is a legal and moral basis for electors to vote for Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump. If we are going to throw norms out the window for the election, that new precedent provides a basis for electors to do the same.
Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz's two-day sentencing hearing began Tuesday with the families of the 17 people he murdered getting their first chance to speak to him directly. "We hope that you, the monster who did this to our son, endure a painful existence in your remaining days. Whatever pain you experience in prison unfortunately will be a fraction of what Ben endured," said Eric Wikander, the father of student Ben Wikander, who has undergone seven surgeries. Read more'A monster': Families, wounded confront Parkland shooter
Watchdog and Public Service reporter

Thad Moore is a reporter on The Post and Couriers Watchdog and Public Service team and a graduate of the University of South Carolina. To share tips securely, reach Moore via ProtonMail at thadmoore@protonmail.com or on Signal at 843-214-6576.
Paul Bowers is an education reporter and father of three living in North Charleston. He previously worked at the Charleston City Paper, where he was twice named South Carolina Journalist of the Year in the weekly category.
Angie Jackson covers crime and breaking news for The Post and Courier. She previously covered the same beat for the Grand Rapids Press and MLive.com in Michigan. When shes not reporting, Angie enjoys teaching yoga and exploring the outdoors.
The SC capital city may fine anyone setting off pyrotechnics after 11 p.m., except for New Year's Eve and Fourth of July celebrations and approved events such as Fireflies baseball games. Read moreShooting off late-night fireworks banned in Columbia
Maya T. Prabhu covers the Statehouse from Columbia. She previously covered city government and other topics in South Carolina and Maryland. Maya has a bachelors in English from Spelman College and a masters in journalism from the University of Maryland.
Dorchester County has put the 1 percent sales tax back on the ballot on Nov. 8 for a proposed 15-year continuation, and several parties have their own opinions on the benefits or detriments of the referendum. Read moreDorchester Countys 1% sales tax back on the ballot as critics, supporters weigh its impact
Syndicated and guest columns represent the personal views of the writers, not necessarily those of the editorial staff. The editorial department operates entirely independently of the news department and is not involved in newsroom operations.
Electric vehicles arent a panacea. They dont reduce traffic congestion or the need to spend billions of dollars repairing and expanding our highways, the way mass transit, ride sharing and more walkable and bicycleable communities can. To the contrary, they make it more difficult to pay for the necessary upgrades, because despite some modest steps, politicians here and elsewhere have been unwilling to change our tax laws to ensure that vehicles using little or no gasoline pay their fair share for those improvements. Read moreEditorial: SC electric vehicle expansion helps state in multiple ways
STEWARTVILLE  A Chatfield man was injured in a broadside crash Tuesday morning east of Stewartville.

Craig A. Schultz, 51, was driving west on Minnesota Highway 30 when the truck he was driving collided with a pickup driven by Jared W. Culbertson, 37, at the intersection with Olmsted County Road 20, according to the Minnesota State Patrol.

Culbertson, of Lanesboro, was southbound at the time, the report says.

Both men had their seat belts fastened; Schultz was taken to Mayo Clinic Hospital-Saint Marys Campus. He was listed in good condition Tuesday afternoon, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Culbertson sustained no apparent injury.

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Also responding to the scene were personnel from the Stewartville Fire Department and the Olmsted County Sheriffs Office, as well as Gold Cross Ambulance.

The crash was reported at 6:32 a.m.
The sale of a closed gas station on North Broadway could signal a whopper of fast food comeback in Rochester.

The former Sinclairgas station and car wash at 1401 N. Broadway sold for $590,000 on Nov. 9. That station, which is tucked in next to the Zumbro River in front of River Bend Senior Living Community, closed this past summer.

Northland Investors, LLCof Eau Claire, Wis. bought the station from LMMS Properties LLCof Tulsa, Okla. LMMS acquired the Sinclair in 2010 for $322,000.

This is the latest deal in that stretch of Broadway linked to the River Center Plaza. A Wendy'srestaurant on the east side of the ex-Sinclair station also abruptly closed this summer.

Meanwhile, a new 2,500-square-foot building to house a Caribou Coffee/ Einstein Bros. Bagelscombo is under construction in the connected River Center Plazaparking lot. Dr. Ajay Nerhais the developer behind the coffee and bagels projects. He also owns the now-closed Wendy's under the corporation, Broadway Enterprises.

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No plans for the Wendy's property have surfaced yet, though speculation is that the restaurant will be demolished to make way for something new. That's also the guess for future the future holds for the former gas station.

No one from Northland was available Monday to discuss plans for the newly acquired site. However, Northland's background as one of the largest Hardee's franchisees in the U.S. might be a clue. Northland owns and operates 116 Hardee's restaurants, plus four Taco Johnsin the upper Midwest.

It has been 15 years since the Med City has seen a Hardee's restaurant. Three Hardee's restaurants in Rochester and one in Stewartville abruptly closed their doors in 2001 after franchisee Andris-Crawford Enterprises re-organized during bankruptcy.

Local fans have been clamoring for the return of the Thickburger ever since, and this deal seems like a favorable sign that the Hardee's star will again join Rochester's constellation of fast food choices.

In May, I asked the St. Louis-based CKE Restaurants Inc., the corporate parent of Hardee's, about the possibility of a Rochester location. The response was "The next location slated for opening in your immediate area will not be until approximately July 2017."

Factoring in demolition of the Sinclair, a Minnesota winter and construction time, July 2017 doesn't seem like an unrealistic timeline.
HAYFIELD  A 66-year-old Dodge Center man was killed in a head-on crash on Minnesota Highway 56 north of Hayfield early this morning.

The Minnesota State Patrol said Severt Fiksen died in the collision. Tim Tlougan, 19, of Hayfield, was transported to Mayo Clinic - Saint Marys with serious injuries.

The State Patrol report said a pickup driven by Tlougan was northbound on Highway 56 when it tried to pass another vehicle and hit the southbound car driven by Fiksen at 710th Street near Hayfield shortly after 5:30 a.m.

Law enforcement had the highway closed for four hours this morning as they re-constructed the crash, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

In addition to the State Patrol, emergency personnel from Hayfield Fire and Rescue, Hayfield Ambulance, Dodge Center Fire and Rescue, Dodge Center Ambulance, Dodge County Sheriff's Office, and Gold Cross Ambulance helped with the accident.
WINONA  Skylar lay calmly in the firefighter's arms, a mask over his snout. The 6-year-old schnauzer had been here before.

Cujo, however, proved to be a test for the firefighters, struggling, twisting and squirming. And that was before the mask showed up. The 2-year-old black Labrador retriever either did not know or did not care that the training could save another dog's life.

About a dozen Winona Fire Department firefighters gathered Monday morning at the city's fire station to accept the donation of two sets of animal breathing masks  small, medium and large masks for different sized animals  and get some training on how to handle pets in case of an emergency. The masks, donated by Invisible Fence Brand as part of the company's national Project Breathe effort to equip fire stations across the United States and Canada.

"We work at saving pets' lives," said Karla Toppen of Invisible Fence of the Tri-States. "So it's an initiative we're committed to do."

Toppen said more than 40,000 pets each year die in fires, most of those due to smoke inhalation. Since Project Breathe began in 2007, the company has donated more than 12,000 masks to fire departments. Over that time, more than 125 pets have been saved, according to fire departments that have called the company to report successes.

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The masks, she said, would work for dogs, cats, guinea pigs, and other animals which suffer from smoke inhalation during a fire, need oxygen after falling through the ice and being rescued, or suffer collapsed lungs from being hit by a car.

"Snakes are on their own," joked Captain Matt Lisowski. All kidding aside, the firefighter said he understands that pets  even snakes  are a member of the family to most people.

"Most of the time to people, it's another loved one in the home," he said.

To help the firefighters subdue the animals, Dr. Deborah Finnegan, veterinarian and owner of Pet Medical Center of Winona, suggested several hold techniques, such as an arm bar from underneath just in front of the hind legs and a type of headlock around the dog's neck. "Watch out for their teeth," she said.

Cats present their own sets of problems, Finnegan said. They tend to be less cooperative than dogs, and can inflict damage to rescuers with their claws and teeth. "With cats, you scruff them," she said, referring to the practice of grabbing the extra skin on the back of the cat's neck. "In an emergency situation, that's the best way. When you scruff them, that actually calms them down."

Lisowski said there are pets involved in about a quarter of all fire calls, but if the family has made it out of the house, they generally have the pets with them. "About 90 percent of the time, people have their pets out of the home," he said.

For children, he said, it is important to remember to get out of the house yourself. Most likely, your pet is already waiting at the door during a fire. "(The animals) are more than happy not to be in there when there's smoke," Lisowski said.

For those pets that do not make it out of the house or suffer from smoke inhalation, having masks that can get oxygen to the animal's lungs can mean the difference between a pet with breathing problems or a healthy animal in many cases, and the difference between life and death in others. "You can save lives," she said.

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CHATFIELD  Former KTTC-TV news anchor Robin Wolfram will share her story of caring for her aging parents in a program Thursday night in Chatfield.

"Robin Wolfram: A Caregiver's Journey," will be presented from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m In Potter Auditorium, 405 Main St. S. Admission is free.

Wolfram took a leave of absence from KTTC in 2015 to care for her parents, who live in Iowa. When that leave expired, she resigned from her TV job to care for her parents full time. Wolfram is expected to share the joys and challenges of her caregiving experience, and offer tips and ideas for others in the same situation.

"She is on the same caregiving journey as many of us from the sandwich generation and I know her story will resonate with our community," said Genie Sprau, of Help Our Neighbors , which is hosting the program.

Help Our Neighbors, based in Chatfield, was established in 2011 to help senior citizens live independently and age successfully in their own homes. The nonprofit organization provides assistance with chores, transportation, respite care and other needs.
Ellison announces Democratic National Committee bid

WASHINGTON  Rep. Keith Ellison is announcing his candidacy for chairman of the Democratic National Committee, joining a crowded bench of candidates trying to head the party.

The Minnesota congressman says Democrats must "begin the rebuilding process now." He's promising to build a broader bench of federal, state and local candidates. Ellison says Democrats need a "robust party organization in every state."

Ellison has attracted support from high-profile backers including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and his expected replacement, Sen. Chuck Schumer.

He was the first Muslim-American elected to Congress.

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With Democrats losing the White House and Congress  and likely the ideological tilt of the Supreme Court  the new DNC chief likely will be one of the party's most visible faces.

Minnesota driver blames Trump for DWI arrest

MINNEAPOLIS  A Minnesota motorist had a novel excuse for her drunken driving arrest: She blamed Donald Trump.

Police in the Minneapolis suburb of Lino Lakes said the 33-year-old woman rammed into two vehicles stopped at a traffic light Wednesday afternoon.

The Star Tribune reported the woman told officers she was upset over the election, and they should let her go home. Police Capt. Wayne Wegener said the woman was referencing Trump's victory the night before.

Her blood alcohol measured 0.33 percent a few hours after the crash, well over Minnesota's legal driving limit of 0.08. The drivers in the other vehicles weren't hurt.

Amid health insurance woes, task force studies options

ST. PAUL  A group of lawmakers, state officials and industry experts are studying how to fix Minnesota's individual health insurance market.

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Top regulators have said the market is in a crisis amid massive premium increases and questions of access. Rates are set to rise by as much as 67 percent for 2017.

A task force convened by Gov. Mark Dayton met Monday to discuss possible solutions to make the market more stable. Among the many options on the table are helping insurance companies cover losses, allowing residents to get on public programs and more.

Dayton and top lawmakers still are discussing a potential special session to offset the premium hikes for next year.

Just 5 percent of Minnesota residents buy insurance individually. Most are covered through employers or public programs.

Events held to mark Jamar Clark's death a year ago

MINNEAPOLIS  Activists who protested the police shooting of Jamar Clark are planning a "week of action" to mark his death a year ago today.

The Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar will hold a candlelight vigil this evening in Minneapolis beginning at 5 p.m. The week began Sunday with a rally and march in north Minneapolis.

Last month, Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau said the two officers involved followed proper procedure in a confrontation that led to the fatal shooting of Clark last Nov. 15. His death set off protests that lasted several weeks, including an 18-day encampment around the area's police precinct.

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A rally at the Hennepin County Government Center is planned for Friday with a community gathering Saturday at Harrison Park.

Nekima Levy-Pounds plans to run for mayor of Minneapolis

MINNEAPOLIS  Civil rights attorney Nekima Levy-Pounds says she plans to run for mayor of Minneapolis.

Levy-Pounds stepped down last month as president of the Minneapolis NAACP. She told the Star Tribune she'll make her formal announcement today in front of a north Minneapolis police station on the anniversary of the fatal shooting by a white police officer of Jamar Clark. The black man's death in a confrontation with officers prompted protests and an 18-day encampment outside the station where Levy-Pounds was a frequent speaker.

Democratic Mayor Betsy Hodges, who was elected to a first term in 2012, is seeking re-election. Other candidates also are expected to enter the race. The election is in November 2017.

Levy-Pounds says she'll run as a Democrat but hasn't decided whether to seek party endorsement.

 Associated Press
It's a timely conversation.

Each year, University of Minnesota Rochester students participate in events aimed to broaden their global views as they prepare for careers that will have them caring for a growingly diverse population.

It's an important goal.

However, Thursday's event takes on a new level of importance as it comes on the heels of a national election and reports of turmoil in its wake.

UMR history professor James T. Ford and UMR's Global Connections Community is hosting "An Autumn Conversation with Muslim Neighbors" from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday in room 417 at University Square in hopes of sharing insights on the Muslim experience in Rochester.

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Featuring a panel of residents from varied ethnic backgrounds who are leaders from the educational, medical and business sectors of our community, topics were originally expected to range from portrayals of Islam in the media to the joys and challenges of daily life.

We expect much of the conversation will be different in the wake of last week's election. We hope panel members will provide insights into concerns connected to the election of Donald Trump as our next president and what that could mean for an entire religion within our nation's borders. At the same time, we expect to find ways we can find common ground and nurture each other in our city and our region.

In a country founded on religious tolerance, it's important that these conversations happen.

As Ford noted in announcing Thursday's event, "Our country has a foundation built on immigration and each new immigrant group has faced challenges, but in a post-9/11 world, with the advent of technology that brings words, images and differing opinions to us at the touch of a button, gathering as a community is even more crucial so that we can learn, understand and connect."

Thursday will offer that chance to connect, allowing us to embrace core values that date back to the founding of our country.



If you go

"An Autumn Conversation with Muslim Neighbors" is free and open to the public from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday in room 417 at University Square, but UMR asks that people register for the event at: http://z.umn.edu/autumnconversation to provide a count for refreshments at the event.

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A meet and greet will begin at 6 p.m.
Arise and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time. Winston Churchill

Proclaim Liberty throughout All the land unto All the Inhabitants Thereof. Inscription on the Liberty Bell
In the wake of last weeks election, one might have expected reporters to be chastened, with their candidate defeated and their attacks on Donald Trump having proved unavailing if not counterproductive. But they are incorrigible. Trump is nowhere near being inaugurated, and already reporters are spinning madly. Lets take just one example from todays news.

The Associated Press (our old friends Jill Colvin and Julie Pace, along with Steve peoples) tells us what to think about some possible Trump appointments. Until it was revised later in the day, this is how the AP article began:

His nascent administration already under attack

Thats the lead: Trump is already under attack! As though it were newsworthy that Democrats are unhappy about losing.

President-elect Donald Trump was considering Monday whether to inject new diversity into the GOP

Because the GOP lacks diversity! Thats the story, right?

by recommending a woman to lead the Republican Party and an openly gay man to represent the United States at the United Nations.

But why is this new diversity? If you keep reading, you learn that the gay manRichard Grenellpreviously served as U.S. spokesman at the U.N. under President George W. Bushs administration. So the diversity is hardly new. Likewise with recommending a woman to head the Republican National Committee; the AP later grudgingly admits that this first happened 40 years ago.

Now we need a little more negative context for Trumps possible appointments:

The moves, among dozens under consideration from his transition team, follow an intense and extended backlash from Trumps decision on Sunday to appoint Steve Bannon, a man celebrated by the white nationalist movement, to serve as his chief strategist and senior adviser.

Intense and extended backlash? That sounds like news! Where is the backlash coming from?

After winning the presidency but losing the popular vote, President-elect Trump must try to bring Americans together  not continue to fan the flames of division and bigotry, said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. She called Bannons appointment an alarming signal that Trump remains committed to the hateful and divisive vision that defined his campaign.

Criticism by Nancy Pelosi: stop the presses!

Of course, the AP would like to persuade us that Pelosi has a point when it comes to Steve Bannon. So we get this paragraph:

Bannon is expected to wield significant clout. Trump gave top billing to the former media executive, who led a website that appealed to the so-called alt-right  a movement often associated with efforts on the far right to preserve white identity, oppose multiculturalism and defend Western values.

Does the alt-right exist? I am quite well connected in conservative circles; I have hundreds of friends and acquaintances who call themselves conservatives. But I had never heard of the alt-right until it was brought up by Hillary Clintons supporters in the just-concluded campaign. This despite having checked Breitbart News, the web site in question, daily for a long time. So I doubt whether the alt-rightunlike, say, socialismrepresents a serious force in American politics.

But note how the AP defines this nefarious philosophy. It is far right, even though its supposedly leading practitioner has just played a key role in a winning presidential campaign. Alt-right adherents, whoever they are, seek to preserve white identity.' I have no idea what that means and, in any event, have never seen anything on Breitbart News about preserving white identity. Next we learn that the alt-right opposes multiculturalism. As well it should, given how multiculturalism is defined these days. I oppose it, too, and I hope that most conservatives, and many liberals, would say the same. And from there we go farther downhill: the possibly mythical alt-right defends Western values! The horror!

Is this the APs roundabout way of telling us that Hillary Clinton would have sought to undermine Western values? If so, thank goodness the voters rejected her! If defending Western values is all it takes to be far right in the eyes of the Associated Press and the Democratic Partysorry for the redundancyplease sign me up.
Democrats and their media adjunct are stirring the pot about the alleged bigotry of prospective Trump White House advisor Steve Bannon, yet they are poised to name a long-time advocate of one of the leading racist and anti-Semitic organizations in the United States as chairman of their party. Im referring of course to Minnesota Fifth District Rep. Keith Ellison and his long involvement with the Nation of Islam.

Yesterday Ellison formally announced his bid to become chairman of the Democratic Party. Leading Democrats have lined up to support him. He seems to be poised to take the reins of the national party. Allison Sherry reports from Washington for the Star Tribune:

Ellison drew widespread support over the weekend and Monday from the partys elite, including Sanders and presumed incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Harry Reid, the current Senate minority leader, threw his support behind Ellison. Even President Obama told reporters the party needed fresh faces and new ideas to rebuild, though he did not mention anyone by name.

As a black and left-wing Muslim in a one-party town with a cheerleading newspaper, Ellison has been insulated from the kind of media scrutiny that he should have received over the past 10 years. Rather, he has been celebrated as the first Muslim to be elected to Congress. Who wanted to stand in his way? Certainly not the political reporters or editors at the Star Tribune.

The Star Tribune has never troubled itself to chronicle Ellisons unsavory years on the make in Minneapolis as an active local leader of the Nation of Islam, even though it could have drawn on its own archives to do so. The Star Tribune has left Ellison free to lie about his past and it is a freedom that he has exploited to the hilt.

Thus Sherry reports on Ellisons current bid without the slightest hint of Ellisons back pages:

Ellison issued a statement Monday castigating Trumps choice, saying that Bannon is adored by white supremacists, white nationalists, anti-Semites, neo-Nazis and the KKK, and that the president-elect must rescind the appointment if he is serious about rejecting bigotry, hatred and violence from his supporters.

Ellisons public agitation on behalf of the Nation of Islam extends back to his days as a law student at the University of Minnesota Law School through his first attempt to secure the Democratic endorsement for a state legislative seat. Over the years Ellison agitated on behalf of the Nation of Islam he operated under names including Keith Hakim, Keith X Ellison and Keith Ellison-Muhammad. I summarized this aspect of Ellisons rise in the Weekly Standard article Louis Farrakhans first Congressman and the companion Power Line post Keith Ellison for dummies.

Ellisons freedom from media scrutiny has served him well so far. Apart from an extremely misleading letter to the Jewish Community Relations Council in 2006, Ellison has never had to account, explain or apologize for his long-time membership in and advocacy of the Nation of Islam. Rather, Ellison has lied about it, minimized it and suppressed it. In his own memoir Ellison rewrites his past, presenting himself as a critic of the Nation of Islam for its bigotry and hatred. He does not confide in readers that the source of his knowledge is personal and that it comes from the inside. I dont think much of the Democratic Party or its leaders, but I have to ask whether Democrats really know what they are buying with Ellison.

UPDATE: I just heard a radio news report indicating that Ellison denies he was ever a member of the Nation of Islam. This is a bald-faced lie for which I have the ocular proof in Keith Ellison for dummies.
Speculation swirls as to whom Donald Trump will appoint to his Cabinet. Will Rudy Giuliani be Secretary of State? Will Jeff Sessions be Secretary of Defense or maybe Attorney General? (The latter job seems ideal for him).

Meanwhile, Trump has made two key appointments that dont require Senate confirmation. Reince Priebus will be chief of staff and Steve Bannon will be chief strategist and senior counselor.

The Priebus appointment carries irony. It was Priebus who, overreacting to Mitt Romneys defeat, pushed the Republican Party to adopt a softer stance on illegal immigration. Leading GOP presidential contenders adopted this advice, thus paving the way for Trump, who ignored it with great success.

Im not a fan of Priebus.

Im less of a fan of Bannon. His appointment carries intense controversy. He stands accused of anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry based on his time as editor-in-chief at Breitbart.

I very much doubt that Bannon is an anti-Semite. The estimable David Goldman (Spengler) says he has had long discussions with Bannon. Goldman reports, I discussed Israel with him on a couple of occasions and he is a gung-ho pro-Zionist conservative.

Goldman also says he reviewed roughly a thousand articles he found on Breitbart through a Google search. There was, he says, nothing but pro-Israel, pro-Jewish articles that might well have appeared in Israel Hayom.

Ben Shapiro worked with Bannon at Breitbart. The two clashed sharply. Shapiro left Breitbart, accusing it of being Trump Pravada.

Yet, Shapiro says he has no evidence that Bannons a racist or that hes an anti-Semite.

The only evidence I know of that suggests anti-Semitism by Bannon is his ex-wifes claim during a custody dispute that Bannon didnt want their daughters to attend a particular private school because it had too many Jews. I dont credit claims made in that context.

Although I dont see evidence of personal bigotry by Bannon, it seems to me that his publication has pandered to bigots. Here are some headlines that have appeared on Bannons Breitbart:

Bill Kristol: Republican spoiler, renegade Jew Birth control makes women unattractive and crazy Suck it up buttercups: Dangerous Faggot Tour returns to colleges in September Would you rather your child had feminism or cancer? Gay rights have made us dumber, its time to get back in the closet

I understand that the article about Kristol was written by a Jew and that the two articles pertaining to gays were written by the openly gay Milo Yiannopoulos. But headlines like the ones above are offensive nonetheless. They seem, at least in part, like an attempt to attract bigoted readers.

Bannon has described Breitbart as a platform for the alt-right. He says, however, that by and large, the alt-right is not racist.

He may be right; Im not sure anyone has formulated a solid definition of the alt-right. But some of the headlines Bannons Breitbart has served up in its capacity as a platform for the alt-right suggest otherwise.

Trump is entitled to get his advice on strategy from whomever he wishes. And the appointment of Bannon does not suggest to me that he wants to get it from a bigot. Id be very surprised if thats what Trump wants.

But I think Trumps critics have reason to be concerned that Trump apparently will be relying heavily on someone who has pandered to bigots.

Moreover, as Ben Shapiro points out even while defending Bannon from charges of anti-Semitism, Bannon apparently is a very vindictive guy. According to Shapiro (and Ive heard the same sentiment expressed by other former Breitbart employees):

What will [Bannon] do with [his] power? Hell target enemies. Bannon is one of the most vicious people in politics, which is why Ive been joking for months that should Trump win, Id be expecting my IRS audit any moment. That wasnt completely a joke. He likes to destroy people.

Trump, it seems, wants advice on strategy from one of the most vicious people in politics.

We know how this tends to turn out. In a Republican administration, at least, it tends to turn out badly.
You would think that after the Rolling Stone rape hoax fiasco, the University of Virginia, which Thomas Jefferson founded, would be wary of beclowning itself further. And you would be wrong. From the Cavalier Daily:

Several groups on Grounds collaborated to write a letter to University President Teresa Sullivan against the inclusion of a Thomas Jefferson quote in her post-election email Nov. 9.

In the email, Sullivan encouraged students to unite in the wake of contentious results, arguing that University students have the responsibility of creating the future they want for themselves.

Thomas Jefferson wrote to a friend that University of Virginia students are not of ordinary significance only: they are exactly the persons who are to succeed to the government of our country, and to rule its future enmities, its friendships and fortunes, Sullivan said in the email. I encourage todays U.Va. students to embrace that responsibility.

Some professors from the Psychology Department  and other academic departments  did not agree with the use of this quote. Their letter to Sullivan argued that in light of Jeffersons owning of slaves and other racist beliefs, she should refrain from quoting Jefferson in email communications.

We would like for our administration to understand that although some members of this community may have come to this university because of Thomas Jeffersons legacy, others of us came here in spite of it, the letter read. For many of us, the inclusion of Jefferson quotations in these e-mails undermines the message of unity, equality and civility that you are attempting to convey.

The letter garnered 469 signatures  from both students and professors  before being sent out via email Nov. 11. Signees included Politics Prof. Nicholas Winter, Psychology Prof. Chad Dodson, Women, Gender and Sexuality Prof. Corinne Field, College Assistant Dean Shilpa Dave, Politics Prof. Lynn Sanders and many more. Asst. Psychology Prof. Noelle Hurd drafted the letter.

The intention of the email was to start a conversation with our administration regarding ways to be more inclusive, Hurd said in an email statement. In the current climate, we must seize every opportunity to communicate that this university welcomes individuals from all backgrounds.

Politics Prof. Lawrie Balfour said she believes everyone who signed the letter, including herself, was grateful that Sullivan responded to anxiety following the election  however, many felt it was the wrong moment to turn to Jefferson, following incidents of identity-related hate speech.
Or maybe youve accidentally hit Reply All when you snarked about your chief executives latest rally-the-troops bromide.

Email is a powerful tool in business communications, but it comes with risks. An offhand joke could set you up for a lawsuit. The confidential information you carelessly forward could cost you a major client.

There are few things as devastating as testifying under oath, and having someone read your own words at you in direct contradiction to what you said, says Peri Berger, an attorney with the New York City offices of Harris Beach.

To spare you that fate, weve rounded up advice to ensure that your communicators, executives and employees are briefed on the legal challenges of email (along with social media). Here are some pointers:

1. Write a policy covering email, your intranet and social media.

The policy must explain that the intranet and email are company channels, and that means theres no expectation of privacy, says Scott Irgang, director of labor relations and employee engagement with the global technology company Pitney Bowes. So email isnt the channel for things employees would say in confidence, he says.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPCs under-funding cash calls hit $2.5 billion in 2016, says Maikanti Baru, its Group Managing Director.

Mr. Baru made this known at the 34th Annual International Conference of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Exploration (NAPE) with the theme Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry; Tackling our Realities in Lagos.

He said that the joint ventures would relieve government of the cash call burden by sourcing for its operational funds estimated at $7-9 billion annually.

According to him, this is aside the inherited arrears estimated at $6 billion.

The Joint Venture (JV) cash call exit model we are pursuing guarantees government most of the revenue that normally accrues to it from the joint venture operations by lifting the royalty and tax oil upfront.

This contributes 75 per cent to 85 per cent of the accruable revenues to government. Consequently, the effect on government take will be minimised. We are working assiduously to kick start this from 1st January, 2017, he said.

Mr. Baru said that it was difficult to deliver the volumes without adequate funding and with an average JV cash call requirement of about $600 million a month coupled with flat low budget levels over the past years.

He said that this had led to under-funding of the industry by government which has become a challenge to production growth.

Mr. Baru said that consequently, managing these funding issues was part of the managements most immediate challenge.

He, however, appealed to those behind the indiscriminate acts of infrastructure vandalism to put an end forthwith to these despicable acts of sabotage.

Mr. Baru said that the destruction of critical energy infrastructure was a great threat to the environment, the economy and energy security.

He said that the outage of these key infrastructures was detrimental to the development and growth of the oil industry in particular and the country at large.

According to him, it also has a negative effect on the level of funds to be distributed to the various tiers of government resulting in the ripple effect on the economy.

We have faced challenges relating to low oil prices, production challenges due to infrastructure vandalism, inadequate joint venture funding.

Others are low reserves replacement, adequacy gap in technology and shortage of skilled manpower among a host of other issues.

Most critical of all these challenges is the fact that they are all intertwined in a viral fashion, he said.

Mr. Baru also said the low oil price and deferred production challenges would lead to lower government revenues.

He said that the oil sector accounted for approximately 90 per cent of the nations foreign exchange earnings, adding that some of the highlighted challenges were part of the root causes of the recession.

Also speaking, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State, disclosed that the state would generate more than 3,000 Mega Watts in the next seven years.

Mr. Ambode, who was represented by Wale Oluwo, the Commissioner for Minerals and Energy Resources, said gas supply was their major challenge.

The governor said that due to lack of gas to power the existing power plants, they were spending thrice the amount being used to get gas.

He said the discovery of oil in the state would increase employment opportunities of young graduates, provide gas supply and improve make electricity supply.

Mr. Ambode said that, if the Federal Government fulfils its promise of paying 13 per cent derivation for oil, the state would have more money to execute meaning projects.

He, however, pledged support for investors in the oil and gas sector in the state.

Nosa Omorodion, the NAPE President, said the story of the oil and gas industry patch in recent times had remained one that can be told by the bold and the brave.

He said that the global industry had lost more than 600,000 jobs, with the oilfield services and exploration and production sector contributing almost 70 per cent of the loss.

Mr. Omorodion said that the industry was faced with the longest period of investment cuts ever witnessed in recent times.

(NAN)
The Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, said its collaboration with the West African Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP) would improve agricultural production and increase food security in member states.

Tchambakou Ayassor, the Commissioner for Agriculture, Environment and Water Resource for ECOWAS, disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN.

Mr. Ayossor said that the WAAPP has been in line with ECOWAS aims at improving agricultural productivity and increase the food security in the regions.

ECOWAS adopted the agricultural policy since 2005 and several programmes had been taken up to implement those policies in the area of agricultural productivity.

We are promising that the whole policy should continue in working on the progress of agricultural efficiency, food security and productivity.

The ECOWAS will stick to its objectives of making agriculture more productive and nourishing to its population in all aspects of food security for the region, he said.

He added that the WAAPP wrap up meeting in Abuja was to share lessons learnt among participating countries and outcomes of the meeting would benefit citizens in the region.

Mr. Ayassor urged all policy makers and major stakeholders to actively participate at the meeting to make it bear the desired fruit that would assist in second phase of WAAPP.

Shehu Salau, the World Bank representative, said the bank`s Vice-President for Africa had promised to give priority to agriculture which, according to him, the economy of Africa relies largely on agriculture.

The bank is ready to continue to push investment to support the government in other to make food sufficient for all citizens and to meet international standards.

We will continue to work with WAAPP and other programmes to increase agricultural productivity, food security as well as reducing poverty within the sub-region,  he said.

Salau said the bank had funded WAAPP Nigeria with $400 million to make agriculture a mainstay of the country`s economy and support the livelihood of individuals.

We have an engagement to scale up the support on agricultural productivity. For instance, $200 million was allocated to staple crop processing project and $200 million to livestock project, he said.

(NAN)
Russian investigators said on Tuesday that they had detained Economy Minister, Alexei Ulyukayev, in a bribery case linked to a five billion dollar acquisition by state oil giant Rosneft.

This is a surprise move that may expose fault lines in Vladimir Putins inner circle.

Ulyukayev, 60-year-old technocrat whose ministry has been overseeing sell-off of state asset, is the highest-ranking official to be detained while in office since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

State television was quick to present his detention as part of the authorities fight against corruption.

It may also be evidence of infighting at the highest levels of power and may herald a wider shake-up before the 2018 presidential election.

The Investigative Committee said Ulyukayev had extorted a $2 million bribe from Rosneft in exchange for signing off its purchase of a stake in mid-sized oil producer, Bashneft.

It is the state agency that investigates major crimes.

The minister is detained, the committee said in a statement in the early hours, adding that it had opened a criminal case against him.

In the near future, investigators plan to bring charges against Alexei Ulyukayev.

Law enforcement sources told Russian media that the ministers phones had been tapped and his electronic communications monitored.

Investigators set up a sting operation in which the alleged bribe was handed over on Monday, the reports said.

President Putin was informed about the case when the investigation was first launched, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

These are serious allegations, Peskov said. Only a court can deliver a verdict.

He said he did not know whether the detention meant that Rosnefts purchase of Bashneft could be reviewed.

His acquisition of Bashneft was the focus of a major turf war between rival Kremlin camps, sources close to the deal and in the government have told media.

Rosnefts chief Igor Sechin, who is also one of Russias most powerful men and a close Putin lieutenant, lobbied hard for the green light to buy Bashneft.

But the deal was fiercely opposed by economic liberals in the government, some with ties to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who believed Bashneft should go to private investors.

Ulyukayev initially opposed Rosneft buying Bashneft, one of the most lucrative state asset to be privatised in years, but eventually signed off on the deal.

Alexander Shokhin, head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, said he was sceptical about the veracity and logic of the accusations against Ulyukayev.

There had been a widespread consensus that the Bashneft stake had been sold to Rosneft for a market price.

So it was strange that a bribe would be given for a valuation that everyone agreed on anyway, he said.

This could trigger a serious government shake-up, Shokhin told the Gazeta.ru online news portal.

Medvedev and Putin spoke about the detention, Medvedevs office said, adding: The prime minister believes that the most painstaking investigation of this case is required.

The minister has been in his job since June 2013.

He is not part of Putins inner circle, dominated by people favouring commanding key economic role for the state; he is neither part of rival camp of economic liberals.

Ulyukayev is close to Andrei Kostin, the influential head of Russias second-biggest lender, state-owned VTB, and chairs VTBs supervisory board.

(Reuters/NAN)
A Federal High Court judge arrested five weeks ago has been charged by the Nigerian government for bribery and racketeering to the tune N552 million, court documents show.

The Office of the Attorney-General filed a 15-count charge against Adeniyi Ademola at the High Court of Federal Capital Territory on Monday afternoon, detailing how he allegedly carried out the ignoble act within a period of two years.

Also charged alongside Mr. Ademola was his wife, Olabowale, who currently serves as the Lagos State Head of Service.

Mr. Ademola was first arrested by State Security Service in the early hours of October 8 as part of a nationwide anti-corruption sweep.

The crackdown also affected other high court judges across five states, including two justices of the Supreme Court.

According to the charges prepared by Hajara Yusuf on behalf of Attorney-General Abubakar Malami, the Ademolas allegedly solicited and received bribes from legal counsels who had cases before them.

Between 2013 and 2016, about N388 million and $520, 000 went to the couple through different channels, amounting to about N552 million in total, the court document showed.

According to the affidavit, Mr. Ademola allegedly received N30 million from Messrs Joe Agi Associates between March 11 and 26, 2015. His wife also allegedly received N30 million from the same firm.

Other times, the couple allegedly received, N10 million, N40 million, N55 million, and others through their GTBank accounts.

In count eight, Mr. Ademola was accused of receiving $520,000 from Messrs. Johnson and Johnson Associates in Abuja in May 2013.

It is not immediately clear if a judge has been assigned to the case.
As an only child, he grew up without a father and learned to fight his own battles from an early age. Atiku Abubakar, Turaki Adamawa, rose above the challenges of his early life to enjoy an enviable r in the Nigeria Customs Service. But it is politics that brought him into national limelight since he first took a shot at the Nigerian Presidency in the early 1990s and narrowly missed becoming the standard bearer of the Social Democratic Party. Since then, he has not looked back, at least politically. He was elected Governor of Adamawa State in 1999 but was never sworn in as fate smiled on him with former President Olusegun Obasanjo picking him as Vice President. That choice was a turning point for Atiku who quickly grew into perhaps the most powerful VP Nigeria ever had before things literally fell apart between him and Obasanjo. In the midst of the chasm, Atikus persona went through a major metamorphosis. He literally became the face of corruption within the Obasanjo administration. With allegations of graft swirling around him, Atiku wrestled his principal in a byzantine game of intrigues until they both left office. But the story of what went wrong has never really been told, at least not in the no -holds -barred tradition of Zero Tolerance.

For many months, we made efforts to make him grant us an interview to tell his own story, but it had been one excuse or the other. But on June 1, 2016, the opportunity came and the team of TONY ORILADE, KAMILU GEBI, AISHA MOHAMMED and POLYCARP SAGA, took him up on sundry issues. Excerpts:

The name Atiku Abubakar cannot be ignored in Nigeria, what makes Atiku tick?

I dont know, maybe because Im straightforward, plain and always speak my mind. You see, Ive been in politics for the last 25 years, and in those years I have fought the military to restore democracy; and after democracy was restored, by the grace of God and support of Nigerians, I was in government for eight years as Vice President. I believe I did my best as a Vice President though there were turbulent political moments; I came out of it and I have continued with my political career and business activities.

I think anybody who has been in either business or politics in the last 25 years must have come across me one way or the other.

From 1999 to 2007 you were the Vice President and it is on record that you fought many judicial battles.

I have always fought injustice since my student days and therefore if I believed I was pursuing a right, just cause, I give it all my strength and courage to make sure I get justice.

Considering the battles that you fought in government, not a few are surprised that you have maintained a respectable relationship with your boss, former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

I still thank God and him for nominating me as his Vice President which gave me the opportunity to experience governance at the highest level. We had political disagreements, quite rightly so. I never shied away from political disagreements; we quarrelled and where we couldnt make up, it became public knowledge. But I still respect him as my former boss. The fact that we disagreed politically is no reason why we should be at loggerheads all our lifetime.

In any case, as far as politics is concerned I dont have any enemy; I could have an opponent. Enmity is too strong a word to use in a relationship that is purely political.

Allegation of corruption was your albatross in the race for the presidency in 2006. Is Atiku Abubakar corrupt?

Well, if Atiku Abubakar was corrupt, he would have been found guilty of corruption by all the panels and probes and cases that were brought before the courts. I remember the only corruption indictment against me was a white paper which was cooked up by our own administration overnight including the very EFCC that I helped found, and other cabinet ministers, which I challenged in court. The court rightly dismissed all those indictments as being mere political; and till today nobody has ever indicted me of corruption.

You just mentioned the EFCC as an agency that cooked up a white paper that indicted you of corruption. At that point in time, the Commission was headed by Nuhu Ribadu; how will you describe your relationship with him today?

Well, I recall when he came to ask for my forgiveness, I said if you want me to forgive you Nuhu, go to the same television stations where you said I was corrupt and say you now realize that I am not corrupt. Then he said sir, you have forgiven so many people who have offended you publicly, without them going to TV stations to apologise to you. Why is my own case different? I said your case is different because first of all I helped to found the EFCC; I made sure that even when you had no budget, I took money from the privatization council and gave you as a loan so that you can function before the National Assembly approved your budget. I was instrumental to your appointment, so I believe I had contributed to your development and that is what you are now paying me back with. In any case, he kept apologising and I said okay; no problem. That closed the chapter.

But youve never supported his political aspirations?

No, when we were in the same political party, APC, he came to me and said he has been asked to join PDP and I told him please dont go to PDP. If you think I might not support your political aspirations in Adamawa, you are wrong. If the people of Adamawa say they want you, I also want you. Not only that, I sent one of his closest friends, Senator Lawal Shuaibu, who is now Deputy Chairman, North, APC, to go and tell Nuhu to please remain in APC and not move to PDP. But eventually he left, so there was never a time when he needed my political support and it was not forthcoming. The point is that I am a true democrat, if he goes through a process and emerges as the choice of the people, I will always support that choice.

Could it be that he doubted your sincerity?

Maybe, but I dont know. This is what happened between us and I am very straightforward so it was up to him.

The current governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, in his book: Accidental Public Servant portrays you as a very corrupt person. Is the book account accurate about your person?

Did he give any evidence or prove where I was corrupt? Again this is the same el-Rufai whom I was instrumental in bringing into government and making him Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, and eventually a minister. You also forgot that it was the same el-Rufai and Nuhu that my boss used in cooking up the indictment that was eventually thrown out.

So, where is the evidence of corruption? Its just not fair for you to say somebody is corrupt without substantiation. This is the same el-Rufai who testified on TV that he worked with me as DG of BPE for four years and there was never a time I asked him or instructed him to do anything unethical in those years.

So, how am I a corrupt person? This is the same el-Rufai and others who incorporated Transcorp during my time as Vice President and offered me shares and I declined. I wrote them officially to say it was unethical of me to have accepted those offers. So, where is the corruption toga coming from?

But he mentioned the fact that you were the arrowhead in the N50 million bribe scandal involving Senators Ibrahim Mantu, Jonathan Zwingina and others during his ministerial confirmation screening

No, absolutely not. He must have misconstrued what happened. He actually ran to me to say that he was denied confirmation by the Senate. Of course, I called Mantu and others and confronted them, and they admitted that yes they denied him because they do not see him as a Minister. It is also on record, because I controlled the campaign funds, every Senator benefitted from those funds; and el-Rufai now went and said those campaign funds were meant to be a bribe. This is how he came about concocting that story. Of course my boss, the President, investigated the story and found out that indeed every Senator got contributions from the campaign fund which I was managing.

So where is the corruption in that? Had he discovered that there was corruption, he would have used it against me because he was looking for anything to nail me. But he couldnt get it because I brought him evidence of all those that benefitted from the campaign fund.

Why was he looking for anything to nail you?

My offence was simply because I disagreed with him on the amendment of the Constitution, to remove tenure/term limits or what was popularly called the third term agenda. In fact he sent the then Attorney General and Prof. Jerry Gana to my office to bring me the draft amendments to the constitution. After going through, I found out that tenure limits had been removed. In other words he could be President for life! I now asked them that, if I send you to the President can you deliver this message. They said yes. I said go and tell him I will not support it and I will fight it.

But he never admitted there was a third term agenda.

As far as Im concerned, he called me on the phone and said VP, Im sending Attorney General Kanu Agabi and Jerry Gana to see you. So its my word against his.

The story then was that you attempted to thwart his second term bid and he had to kneel down to beg you before you conceded. Is this true?

(smiles) It is not true that he knelt for me. Of course he came to my house and I refused to see him. He started it. How can you go and declare your candidature and refuse to declare that you will run with your running mate? So I had to fight back to remain on the ticket. Eventually he declared that he was running with me and then came to my house and we made up.

It was speculated that you suggested to him the Mandela option, that you were interested in taking over.

Absolutely not true. Rather he accused one of my aides of promoting the Mandela option.

In 2010, a United States Senate report was said to have accused you of laundering over $40 million in suspicious funds into the US between 2000 and 2008 in collaboration with your wife, Jennifer. Would you say this was orchestrated by your enemies?

It was an allegation which wasnt proved. It was my legitimate money which I transferred to the US, there was nothing about it. More so, I was not indicted in that report. They only said suspicious funds but I proved before the Senate committee that they were not suspect.

Your friend, the Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson

He was not my friend.

He was said to be close to you.

Never! He was not close to me.

Okay, what was the relationship between you and William Jefferson?

There was no relationship whatsoever.

Then tell us why he was linked to you?

The man wrote a letter to my office on a communications project, and for Gods sake, I was not the minister of communications; so I endorsed the letter to the minister of communications to address as his purview. After that, I travelled to the United States and he came to see me to bring the same copy of the letter. I told him, well, I got a copy of this letter and have forwarded it to the ministry of communications to get in touch with you, and he left! That was all we discussed.

Apparently, I didnt know he had duped a lady and collected marked money from her in my name; unknown to him the FBI was on his trail. But of course there was no way he could give me money because, what was $100,000 to me? Eventually, my wifes residence was searched and nothing was found; but when his residence was searched, of course the money was found there; and he was convicted. I was not even called as a witness.

The last time this magazine spoke with your former boss, Olusegun Obasanjo, he made reference to the fact that you are corrupt and that there is still a valid travel restriction on you to the United States.

There is no travel restriction on me to the United States. After leaving office, Ive been to the US severally to visit my family which has eventually relocated.

When was the last time you visited the US?

The reason why I always visited the US was because of my wife. She is no more in the US. So I dont have compelling reason to visit the US now.

How would you describe the anticorruption campaign of President Muhammadu Buhari?

Well, so far so good, the anti-corruption posture is in accordance to the laws of our country, nothing is being done extrajudicially.

What is your view on the way the EFCC, under its current leadership, is performing?

As much as possible, the EFCC is fighting corruption according to the rule of law. Thats the best it can do.

Your investments in the American University of Nigeria, was it morally appropriate to have done so as a sitting Vice President?

You need to have studied the structure of the University. More than 20 years ago, I started with a nursery school, then a primary school before I established the University. The whole institution is a Trust and non-profit foundation. Till date, I still dont make any profit, and I have continued to subsidize the education being offered in that place. It is a complete educational community from Kindergarten to the University based on the American system in one place which doesnt belong to me or the family.

My own is a completely different system from others. I dont know their concept which may be for profit or other gains, but mine isnt a profit making venture.

Do you intend to make profit in the future?

Even if profit is eventually made, it will be reinvested in the place. So nothing will come back to me or any member of my family.

Going by the revelations from the arms procurement investigation, are you shocked at the level of corruption in our polity?

Honestly, I never thought it was that pervasive. I never thought!

So how can we separate money from politics in Nigeria?

You can separate money from politics if you have the right leadership. The leadership should give focus and direction as far as fighting corruption is concerned.

President Buhari is already saying that he will not allow institutions of government to fund political parties. Is that a realistic position?

First of all, it is fundamentally wrong and illegal to use government funds in financing political parties. As far as I know, being the custodian of the political process and structure during our time, we never used government funds. I drew up the structure of how we could fund our party then, and wenever used government funds.

How about the alleged funding of PDP from the NNPC accounts?

During our time?

Yes, during your time under Obasanjos government.

Not that Im aware of. Maybe, at the later stage of our administration when the President of course decided to divest me of all responsibilities.

EDITORS NOTE: We have Zero Tolerances permission to republish this interview.
A witness on Tuesday told a Federal Capital Territory High Court how former Chief of Naval Staff, Usman Jibrin, bought a N600 million property using a private company, Harbour Bay International Limited, as front.

Harbour Bay has Mr. Jibrins wife, Lami as director, and other directors said they never authorised the transaction, the witness told the court presided by Justice A. Umar.

Shehu Mohammed, a senior detective superintendent with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, told the court that he met the former naval chief in 2014, when the EFCC got suspicious of some money in an account.

Mr. Jibrin and two others are charged with offences bordering on criminal conspiracy. The other accused persons are retired rear admirals Bala Mshelia and Sheu Ahmadu.

They were arraigned alongside Harbour Bay International Limited by the EFCC on September 27.

The witness said the former naval chief, while in office, bought the house worth N600 million from the account of Naval Engineering Services without the purchase being captured in the budget.

While being led in evidence by the prosecuting counsel J. Uzo, Mr. Mohammed told the court that investigation led his team to the Diamond Bank account of Petrus Ogwu Nigeria Limited.

According to him, the investigation led to the arrest of some officials of Diamond Bank, as well as operators of the said account.

He said subsequent findings revealed a deposit of N600 million, transferred on March 13, 2014, by Naval Engineering Services to the account of Petrus Ogwu.

It was later revealed that the second and third defendants (Messrs. Mshelia and Ahmadu), instructed the transfer, the witness said.

The signatory to the Petrus Ogwu account, Peter Ogueuie, received the N600 million for the sale of a property at No 7, Colorado close, Maitama, Abuja.

Investigation of the Naval Engineering Service showed that Messrs. Mshelia and Ahmadu were the signatories to its account domiciled with Diamond Bank from which the money was transferred.

The investigation team was said to have been informed that the payment was made based on directives received from the then chief of naval staff, Mr. Jibrin, to transfer the money for the purchase of the property.

We asked the Nigerian Navy to furnish us with its budget, the response was duly analysed and there was no where we saw provision for the purchase of the property, Mr. Mohammed said,

We invited the management of Naval Engineering limited and the MD had an interview with us having reported to us; and he said he is not aware of any property at No 7. Colorado close, Maitama, Abuja belonging to the Naval engineering service limited, Mr. Mohammed said.

Petrus Ogwu represented by Peter Ogueuie showed that the property was sold to Harbour Bay and the deed of assignment, power of attorney and sales agreement were signed between Petrus Ogwu Nigeria Limited and Harbour Bay, copies of which were submitted to the EFCC.

The documents were tendered before the court and admitted as exhibits.

While the prosecution sought to tender correspondence between the investigating team and Diamond bank, Y. C. Maikyau, counsel to Mr. Jibrin, objected to its admissibility on the grounds that some of the attached documents were not duly certified by the necessary authorities.

The judge adjourned the matter to November 26 for ruling on the admissibility of documents and continuation of trial.
A senior Nigerian soldier was on Tuesday killed by the Boko Haram, army sources told PREMIUM TIMES.

B.U. Umar, a lieutenant colonel and commanding officer of 114 TF battalion of the Nigerian Army was ambushed by 9. 30 am Tuesday alongside his troops on Tuesday morning between Bita and Piridang.

His vehicle stepped on an improvised explosive device, but he was not hurt, a source told PREMIUM TIMES.

He came out to assess the damage on the vehicle and Boko Haram opened fire and killed him in the process.

Eight other soldiers were injured and evacuated to Michika, Adamawa State, for treatment.

The soldiers were said to be on their way to Yola in Adamawa State from Bita in Borno State when the incident occurred, sources said.

The full casualty from the attack is not yet clear.

Mr. Umar, who recently took over the command of the 114 battalion about three weeks ago, was a member of the 48 Regular Course in the Nigeria Defence Academy, NDA.

When contacted, the Army spokesperson, Sani Usman, said he was unaware of Mr. Umars death. He said he would seek further confirmation from appropriate authorities.

The killing of Mr. Umar occurs about a week after another Lieutenant Colonel, Muhammed Abu-Ali, and his troops were killed in another ambush by Boko Haram.

Fourteen Boko Haram insurgents and four other soldiers died in that attack, the army said.

The attacks by the Boko Haram have continued despite ongoing negotiation with the federal government. The negotiations already led to the release of 21 of the over 200 Chibok girls kidnapped by the sect in 2014.
Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has responded to former Vice President Atiku Abubakars allegation that he (Atiku) was betrayed by the governor and former chairman of the EFCC, Nuhu Ribadu.

PREMIUM TIMES published excerpts of an interview where the former vice president made the allegations.

In a statement he personally signed Tuesday, Mr. El Rufai accused the former VP of falsehood.

He said Mr. Abubakar has a record of spewing outright lies and innuendo against my person.

As we struggle to build a law-abiding society and secure progressive outcomes for our people, we cannot allow the triumph on these shores of those who will have us move to a post-factual world, he said.

The Kaduna governor said not even Mr. Abubakars expertise in the dark arts of damaging other people through a campaign of lies from him and his media machine is capable of returning the country to its past.

Mr. El-Rufai said contrary to the postulation by Mr. Abubakar, he never had anything to do with the incorporation of Transcorp.

Those that established that company and fronted it like Festus Odimegwu, Tony Elumelu, Otunba Lawal Solarin and Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke are still around and alive.

As such I could not have and did not offer Alhaji Atiku any shares in Transcorp. I declined the shares that were offered to me. Having done that, how could I have offered anyone shares?, he said.

The governor said he even advised the then President Olusegun Obasanjo, Mr. Abubakar, and then finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, not to accept the shares they were offered by the promoters of Transcorp.

My counsel to them was based on the grounds that they would face conflicts of interest when Transcorp bids for privatization assets.

At the time Alhaji Atiku and Ngozi were chair and vice-chair of the National Council on Privatization, and were particularly directly involved in approving the sales of state-owned enterprises and assets.

It is too late in the day to try to pretend that the fiasco concerning the attempt by then Senators Ibrahim Mantu and Jonathan Zwingina to extort money from me for Senate clearance never happened.

All Alhaji Atiku has just done is confirm that he paid the Senators, as I revealed in Page 139 of my book, he said.

He also said when he published The Accidental Public Servant in 2013, Mr. Abubakar unleashed his media team in a campaign of vilification.

Despite the viciousness of the attacks, they did not contest or explain away his shenanigans that were detailed in the book, from the Ericsson manoeuvre, to the Abuja water treatment plant contract and his obsession with marabouts and their assurances of the political big prize.

He might also consider a full reckoning for what he and his acolytes did with public funds in the PTDF imbroglio, rather than indulging the usual bold face of the Nigerian big-man.

As a federal public servant, my oath of allegiance appropriately stood with the Federal Republic of Nigeria, not the big men whose conduct I was privileged to witness at close quarters.

People like Alhaji Atiku think that loyalty to them should be the goal of a public officer, and that it should trump the oath of allegiance to the country.

Although Mr. El-Rufai and the former vice president are both members of the APC, Nigerias ruling party, the Kaduna governor hinted that their public spat may be a battle for the partys presidential ticket in 2019.

Alhaji Atiku is already running for 2019, and he thinks that he can make people like us collateral damage in his attempt to rejuvenate his image, the governor said.

This obsession for power inclined him to support the rebellion against the party that manifested in the National Assembly, and is continuing with obvious disrespect for the incumbent president.

Everyone knows that I support and will continue to work for the success of President Muhammadu Buhari as he leads our country through tough times, he said.

While Mr. Abubakar has not publicly indicated any interest to run for president in 2019, several Nigerians believe he would be Mr. Buharis main opponent should the president seek a second term in office.

However, there have also been reports that Mr. El-Rufai is scheming to be the partys presidential candidate in 2019 should Mr. Buhari decide not to seek re-election. Mr. El-Rufai did not comment on that rumour in his Friday statement.

The governor also accused Mr. Abubakar of corruption saying the former vice president has not gone to the U.S. for fear of being arrested.

Can Alhaji Atiku explain the findings in the report of the United States Senate Permanent Sub-Committee on Investigations which detailed a pattern of wire transfers of more than USD 40 million from offshore companies like Siemens into bank accounts controlled by him and one of his wives.

The report detailing the US Senate findings is online, as one of four case histories of foreign corruption in the USA. Alhaji Atiku should tell a better tale of why he is avoiding the United States of America.

Someone as obsessed with Nigerias presidency as he is, should clear up such matters conclusively. We wait to see how well he does with that, Mr. El-Rufai said.
The Federal Government onTuesday said it offered the detained National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, an opportunity to attend his fathers burial on Tuesday.

Former Sultan Ibrahim Dasuki was buried on Tuesday in Sokoto after his death on Monday evening.

Conspicuously missing at the burial was the former Sultans son, Sambo, who is being held by the State Security Service, SSS, despite various court rulings granting him bail.

On Tuesday, the federal government, seeking to absolve itself of any responsibility in the younger Dasukis absence, said it offered him an opportunity to attend the burial.

Even when the late Sultan was in the hospital he was allowed to go and visit him but he rejected, the Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, told DW Radio Hausa.

He was also asked to attend his fathers burial and stay with his family for some time, the same Dasuki (Sambo) rejected, he added.

WHY HE REJECTED

A source close to the former National Security Adviser confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES the retired army officer indeed rejected the offer to attend his fathers burial.

The source said Mr. Dasuki rejected the offer because it was planned to humiliate him.

They were going to chain him, put him in a security vehicle with several security vans and make him appear like a criminal to his people, the source said.

He added that the embattled Mr. Dasuki, knowing the governments plan, rejected the offer.

He asked them to allow him enjoy the bail that he was granted by the courts, instead of posturing that they were doing him a favour, the source said.

The SSS has held on to Mr. Dasuki despite rulings by at least two Nigerian courts and an ECOWAS Court for him to be released on bail.

The retired lieutenant colonel is already facing multiple charges of fraud and possession of illegal weapons.

He has been accused of mismanaging over $2 billion meant for purchase of arms for the military while he held sway as ex-President Goodluck Jonathans National Security Adviser.

The former NSA denied any wrongdoing.
President Muhammadu Buhari has arrived Marrakech, Morocco, to participate in the ongoing 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), tagged, COP-22.

This information is contained in the Presidents twitter handle.

President Buhari, who left the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on Monday, arrived the Marrakesh Menara Airport in Morocco, some hours later.

While in Marrakech, the president would participate in the official opening of the plenary of the conference on November 15 where he would deliver his national statement during the High Level Segment of COP 22.

A statement earlier issued by the Presidents Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said President Buhari would be presenting a presidential address at the conference.

The address, according to the statement, is expected to highlight, among other key issues, Nigerias unwavering commitment to implementing the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and policy actions aimed at tackling climate change through environmental sustainable efforts.

It said that the president would also use the occasion of his speech to rally international support for the clean-up of Ogoniland in the Niger Delta and the resuscitation of the Lake Chad Basin.

The statement said President Buhari would also attend the Africa Day Commemoration at COP 22 with the theme, Moving from Commitments to Action with Intended Nationally Determined Contributions and African Renewable Energy Initiative.

The president, according to the statement, will also attend the Summit of African Heads of State on the sidelines of the climate change conference.

COP 22, will be attended by representatives from 197 countries including world leaders, environment ministers, government officials as well as a wide range of representatives from civil society and the private sector.

The conference is the first meeting of State Parties since the entry into force of the landmark Paris Agreement on November 4, 2015.

The legally binding international agreement on climate change, among others, addresses issues of global warming, including its impact on food security and agriculture.

It would be recalled that President Buhari signed the Paris Agreement on September 22, 2016 at the margins of the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
President Muhammadu Buhari has condoled with the Dasuki family, the government and people of Sokoto State on the death of the 18th Sultan of Sokoto, Ibrahim Dasuki.

Garba Shehu, the Presidents Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, made this known in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday.

Mr. Buhari also commiserated with the Jamaatul Nasril Islam, JNI, and the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs over the demise of the remarkable traditional ruler.

The president noted that the deceased devoted his life and tenure of office to the promotion of peaceful coexistence and tolerance among diverse ethnic groups in Nigeria.

President Buhari, therefore, joined them in mourning the passing of one of Nigerias most powerful voices for peace and unity in diversity.

He said the traditional ruler diligently kept faith with the virtues of the Sardauna whom he had served as a public servant.

According to the president, the late Mr. Dasuki will be long remembered for his role in the creation of the present local government system in the country.

He will also be remembered for his role in modernising the traditional institution to bring it in tune with changing times.

The president also paid tribute to his contributions to national peace and development, particularly his significant role in producing the report that gave birth to the current local government councils.

He prayed that almighty Allah would comfort the family of the deceased, grant the deceased eternal rest and reward his good virtues with Paradise.

Mr. Dasuki died on Monday at the age of 93.

(NAN)
Officials of the Nigerian Customs on Sunday raided Itekun waterside at Ishasi, a suburb near Iba Local Government Area of Lagos ,where they seized 1600 bags of rice brought into the country illegally by smugglers.

Speaking to PREMIUM TIMES, Taupyen Selchang, spokesman for Seme Customs Command, disclosed that the raid was carried out by a combined team of officials.

It was an operation carried out on Sunday 13th November by officers and men of the task force Compliance unit of the Federal Operation unit and the Marine section of the Nigerian Customs and a total of 1600 bags of rice brought into the country illegally was seized by the command

Itekun Waterside at Ishasi is reputed to be one of the most notorious centres for smuggling in Lagos where boats loaded with rice are shipped into Nigeria from coastal points in Seme.

Mr. Taupyen stated that the Customs will continue to impound and seize goods that are brought into the country via illegal routes.
Nigeria has asked the United Nations to review its assessed contributions to the organisation for 2016 in view of the economic recession in the country.

The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Winifred Oyo-Ita, made the call at the UN when she met with the Chairman of Fifth Committee, Kingston Rhodes.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Nigeria has paid its Regular Assessed Contribution and Peacekeeping Contribution to the UN up to 2015.

Nigeria is, however, currently expected to pay outstanding contributions.

Due to recession, we want something done to review our dues and we want the UN to reconsider our assessment due to the realities of the time.

What Nigeria is being asked to pay now is on the high side. Nigeria is committed to paying its contributions but we want some considerations.

We want something to be done to re-adjust our scale, Mrs. Oyo-Ita said.

Nigerias scale of assessment for 2013 to 2015 was 0.119 before the re-basing of the countrys economy in 2014.

However, with the re-basing of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to $500 million, the scale of assessment of Nigeria increased to 0.209 for the period 2016 to 2018.

Nigeria has been pursuing the re-adjustment of the scale due to the current economic recession in the country.

Responding, Mr. Rhodes told Mrs. Oyo-Ita that the UN was aware of the economic situation in the country but that the effort was hindered by the General Assembly Resolution that cancelled annual review of scale of assessment.

The Fifth Committee Chairman explained that the Resolution now established three years minimum period of scale of assessment.

According to him, therefore, Nigerias scale will be due for review in 2018, the next scale year.

NAN reports that the Fifth Committee is the committee of the General Assembly with responsibilities for administrative and budgetary matters.

Based on the reports of the Fifth Committee, the General Assembly considers and approves the budget of the organisation.

The financial situation of the UN as provided by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon indicated a decline in the assessments on regular budget.

Records confirmed that 126 member states had paid their Regular budgets, while 67 had yet to pay as at October 5, 2016.

As regards the peacekeeping operation budget, 25 member states had paid their contributions as at September 30, 2016.

(NAN)
The National Agency for the Prohibition for Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, rescued 50 persons in the past four days, an official said in Kano.

The Kano Zonal Commander of NAPTIP, Shehu Umar, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Kano on Tuesday that the victims included women and children.

He said that the victims were intercepted by the Nigeria Immigration Service in Katsina on their way to Europe through Niger and Libya.

There are males and females as well as three minors in the group and they all fall within the ages of three and 45 years, he said

The zonal commander said that the victims hailed from Abia, Delta, Edo, Enugu, Imo and Kwara states.

Mr. Umar said that the zonal office had rescued a total of 343 victims this year.

He said that the victims comprised 321 females and 122 males.

Mr. Umar said that the victims were discovered due to three main reasons  lack of legal documents, lack of enough fund and use of illegal routes.

He appealed to members of the public to volunteer to the agency, useful information on suspicious people and their movements.

He advised parents to suspect anybody who would promise to take their wards for employment abroad.

He, however, said that traffickers changed tactics as government uncovered their plans.

The zonal command has secured eight convictions this year and is currently investigating eight cases and prosecuting six.

(NAN)
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Tuesday arraigned Patrick Nwokike and his wife, Rosemary, along with their company, Lets Partner With You Limited, before Justice Dugbo Oghoghorie of the Federal High court Enugu, on a 4-count charge bordering on advanced fee fraud.

They are also alleged to have operated a financial institution without a valid license, an offence in contravention of the banks and other financial institutions Act.

The EFCC had on October 6 arrested Patrick following several petitions alleging that he used his company to fleece them, to the tune of N4 billion.

One of the charges against them reads:

That you, LETS PARTNER WITH YOU LTD, PATRICK SHANCHI NWOKIKE (Managing Director/CEO of LETS PARTNER WITH YOU LTD) and ROSEMARY IJEOMA NWOKIKE (Director of LETS PARTNER WITH YOU LTD) sometimes between 2015 and 2016 at Enugu within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court of Nigeria Knowingly consented to the carrying on of banking business without valid license by the company and thereby committed an offence contrary to SECTION 2 (1) and 49 (1) of the BANKS AND OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS ACT, CAP B3, LAWS OF THE FEDERATION, 2004 and punishable under SECTION 2(2) of the same Act.

They pleaded not guilty, when the charges were read to them.

The defence counsel, Orji Nwafor-Orizu, applied for their bail. He prayed the court to grant them bail on liberal terms, arguing that the offence was a bailable.

The prosecuting counsel, S. M. Ibekwute, however, opposed the bail application, urging the court to remand them in prison custody, pending trial.

After listening to both arguments, Justice Oghoghorie granted Patrick and his company bail in the sum of N2 million each with two sureties in like sum. One of the sureties must be a civil servant with Enugu State Government not lower than grade level 12, while the second surety must own a landed property in the state. Both sureties and their properties must be verified by both the EFCC and the defence counsel.

He ordered that Rosemary continue to enjoy the administrative bail earlier granted her by the EFCC.

The case has been adjourned to March 6, 2017 for commencement of trial.
The United States government will not bring any civil or criminal charges against Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, if he eventually destroys his American green card as openly threatened, U.S. immigration experts told PREMIUM TIMES.

In fact, Mr. Soyinka will still be able to visit the United States at any time he desires even after destroying his green card before the public glare, the lawyers said.

Immigration attorneys, Isaac Falusi and Samuel Adewusi, said in separate interviews with PREMIUM TIMES that the controversies surrounding the decision of the professor are inconsequential in the U.S.

Mr. Falusi, an expert in immigration and international trade law, said Mr. Soyinka would have merely exercised his free speech by destroying his green card.

Destroying a green card is an expression of free speech which no one will ever be penalised for in America, Mr. Falusi said. Being a resident in America is a voluntary thing.

The government gave him the green card because he was qualified when he applied for it, Mr. Falusi said.

The lawyer said the U.S. Homeland Security, which handles such documents, may not even be aware of the controversy and even if it were, it still wont mean an action will be taken.

If he has made a public show of destroying his card, that doesnt mean the Homeland Security is aware of it, Mr. Falusi said.  But even if they were, he will still be able to easily obtain another green card because his name is still on the computer as a valid American resident.

There have been reports that Mr. Soyinka faces a jail term should he destroy his green card.

The professor first stated a fortnight ago that he would destroy his green card if Donald Trump was elected president.

The moment they announce his [Trumps] victory, I will cut my green card myself and start packing up, Mr. Soyinka told a gathering at Oxford University in what appeared like a casual observation about the tone of the American campaign at the time.

Mr. Trump won the election on June 8, prompting immediate demand and mockery from Nigerians.

He hit back at critics in a 4,000-word essay on Saturday, describing them as noisome creatures and nattering nitwits. He, however, reassured that he will still go ahead to ahead as planned, but only on his own terms.

But if he really wants to cut his access to the U.S., then he will need to do more than shred his residency card, Mr. Adewusi said.

Mr. Adewusi, Chairman of the Board of Trustee of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation in the Americas, further stated that in order to destroy your green card you have to go to a consulate near you, especially if youre outside the United States.

At the consulate, you must request for and fill a document called Form I-407. It is a long process but only after you complete before you could boldly say that you have destroyed your access to enter America.

Mr. Adewusi echoed Mr. Falusis position that Mr. Soyinkas action is strictly an exercise of his free speech.

Its more of a free speech the same way people burn flags and their passports. No one will penalise him for anything, Mr. Adewusi said.
The Nigerian Senate has mandated its President, Bukola Saraki, to personally lead the intervention towards resolving the brewing industrial crisis between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.

The Senate resolved to muster efforts at stopping a protracted ASUU strike on Tuesday, barely 24 hours after the Union announced one-week warning strike, starting tomorrow.

The Senate resolution followed a motion on matter of urgent national importance with regards to the planned ASUU industrial action by Jibrin Barau (APC-Kano).

The warning strike, ASUU said, is over the failure of the Federal Government to implement terms of the 2009 and 2013 agreements.

Many aspects of the 2013 MoU and the 2009 agreement with the Federal Government have either been unimplemented or despairingly handled, ASUU President, Biodun Ogunyemi, said at the University of Abuja on Monday.

The agreements are: Payments of staff entitlements since December 2015, funding of universities for revitalisation, pension, TSA and university autonomy and renegotiation of 2009 Agreement.

Backing ASUU in his motion, Mr. Barau argued that ASUU was agitating for smooth running of Nigerian public universities and staff welfare which basically formed the terms of the agreements perfunctorily implemented  or not implemented at all  by the Federal Government.

In his contribution, Danjuma Goje (APC-Gombe), lamented plights of students of public universities whenever lecturers embark on strike, thereby calling for avoidance of ASUU strike.

In 2013, students in all Nigerian public universities, except University of Ilorin, were not in their schools for six months following that years ASUU strike.

As a stabilising arm, Senate Leader, Ali Ndume said, the Senate should immediately intervene.

This was echoed by Emmanuel Paulker (PDP-Bayelsa) who added that the Senate a should do all within its powers to totally stop ASUU strike.

He said the Federal Government should reach for a middle point with respect to ASUUs demand that universities be removed from TSA implementation.

Said ASUU President, Mr. Ogunyemi, With the introduction of TSA, the federal universities find it extremely difficult to discharge their core responsibilities of teaching, research and community services.

Besides the resolution that Mr. Saraki lead intervention efforts, the Senate also commended the lecturers for choosing dialogue over confrontation in pressing for implementation of the agreements with the government; and resolved to ensure improved funding for education in the 2017 budget.

ASUU had wondered aloud why allocation to education dropped from 11 per cent in 2015 to eight per cent in 2016.

Mr. Saraki promised prompt intervention.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, says there is no going back on its one-week warning strike scheduled to begin on Wednesday.

Biodun Ogunyemi, the unions National President, told the News Agency of Nigeria on telephone on Tuesday in Lagos that the strike would be total.

The union leadership, after its emergency executive committee meeting, declared the warning strike at a news conference on Monday in Abuja.

Mr. Ogunyemi said chronic under-funding of the sector through low budgetary allocation, which went from 11 per cent in 2015 to eight per cent in 2016, did not go down well with the union.

He pointed out the failure of government to implement the 2009 agreement and the 2013 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) as some of the reasons for embarking on the warning strike.

The president said that its members were tired of what they described as governments empty promises in setting up its negotiation team for the review of agreement as consistently requested by ASUU since 2012.

There shall be no teaching, no examination and no attendance of statutory meetings of any kind in any of our branches while the strike lasts.

According to him, the union will put machinery in place to ensure that there is total compliance during the strike.

He explained that the essence of the warning strike was to draw attention of concerned stakeholders and the general public to the challenges that the unions, universities and other stakeholders in the sector were facing.

Nobody will say before we exhaust the warning strike some issues cannot be addressed if government wants to be sincere with our cause.

We are doing this because we want Nigerians to come into the matter and ensure that these issues are given adequate attention they deserve.

Our lecturers are given 40 per cent of their salaries, which is just not encouraging, as this will lead to poor commitment in carrying out their jobs.

I am sure nobody will like a 40 per cent university education or 40 per cent teaching of various courses including research development and output.

That is why we have to take the matter before the National Assembly, which we believe, will come into the matter just like the Nigerian parents.

Reacting to the impending strike, the National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN), said that ASUU was right and that it must be supported.

Adeolu Ogunbanjo, the associations 2nd Deputy National President, told NAN that it was time the government takes the countrys education seriously.

ASUU has done well by giving warning, considering the patience its members have shown in these whole issues.

At least it is good for them to feel the pulse of Nigerians and other key stakeholders on the matter.

However, because Nigeria is struggling with recession presently, we, on behalf of Nigerian parents are begging them not to down tool totally.

They have made their points and we thank them for creating the awareness but we are begging them to shelve the looming strike to sometimes next year, when the recession might have been abated.

Government too should seize the opportunity to listen to the union and see what can be done concerning all the issues it has raised.

It will be a total disaster if government should allow ASUU to down tool indefinitely, considering the hardship that is currently taking its toll on every sector of the nations economy.

Mr. Ogunbanjo said that a full-fledged strike would not be welcomed by majority of Nigerians in the current situation.

He said the strike would only add more grief to the suffering masses.

(NAN)
Yinka Adeparusi, a Nigerian photo-journalist earlier declared missing, has died, his employers said on Tuesday.

Online publication, Naij.com, announced in a statement published on its website that Mr. Adeparusi was killed in a motorcycle crash Sunday.

NAIJ.com confirmed that he was involved in a motorcycle accident in Abuja and died on the spot, the statement said.

Mr. Adeparusi, an award-winning photojournalist, left his residence in Abuja suburb of Kugbo on Sunday afternoon with a message that Ill be back, his employers said.

But when he didnt return, his neighbours and later his colleagues became worried, especially when they couldnt reach him on the phone.

This was quite unusual because Yinka was a soft-spoken, very professional and clear-headed individual; not the kind of person to wander off, Naij.com said.

A brief citation that accompanied the statement described Mr. Adeparusi as an award-winning photojournalist who graduated from Lagos State University School of Communication, where he bagged double honours in Photojournalism and Cinematography and minor in mass communication.

Among other awards, Yinka received the Peoples Choice Award for Human Rights Photography in Africa, German Development Media Awards in 2013 and was the winner of the photojournalism award of the 6th Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting in 2011.
Chester Shaba, a United Nations Childrens Fund, UNICEF, Education Specialist, says 1.8 million children in Borno are out of school as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency.

Mr. Shaba stated this on Tuesday during the launch of a campaign to return children to school in Maiduguri.

He expressed regret that more than 10 million children are out of school in Northeast Nigeria and other parts of the country, saying girls are the worst hit.

From the beginning of their lives, female children get less attention in terms of food and education and sometimes the lives of female children are seen as less valuable than those of their male counterparts.

UNICEF realised that while school enrolment rates are rising, too many girls continue to be left behind.

They are deprived of their right to education. The barriers standing in their way include poverty and gender-based discrimination and violence.

In addition, the poor quality of education reduces the possible benefits of education for both girls and boys.

We have talked about need to develop strategies that will make us deliver quality services in order to effectively support education of girls and boys living in IDPs camps.

For those living in host communities and also those that are in returned areas, this programme is a clear evidence of commendable effort of Borno Government to ensure that all girls and boys access quality education.

And now it is high time to make sure that we come up with strategies that will ensure that we bring back to school all the children that are out of school.

We also need to encourage those that have never attended school and those that are already in school so that they do not become drop out, said Mr. Shaba.

Shettima Kullima, the Executive Director of the Borno State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), said the number might even be more than what UNICEF was presenting.

Looking at this particular figure, the UNICEF might be economical with the fact; the number might even be more than that but given that number, we know that the devastation caused by Boko Haram took us to this level.

Our challenges now are that we will continue to expand the existing schools in areas that are not at risk.

We will do all we could to prepare so that as soon as the area became accessible we will ensure total rehabilitation of the schools, said Mr. Kullima.

He said Governor Kashim Shettima has renovated dozens of schools in the areas where there is relative peace to enable pupil to return to class.

(NAN)
Officials of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission, FRC, have commenced monitoring of Federal Government projects being executed in the North East.

The Leader of North East Monitoring Team, Ibrahim Baba, told the News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday that the exercise was meant to verify execution of projects captured in the budget and to assess the level of work.

Members of the commission visited the Kiri Dam New Canal project site in Shelleng Local Government Area of Adamawa.

We want to see what is the allocation by Federal Government and releases made; we want to see the implementation of those allocations; whether there are value for government, Mr. Baba said.

He explained that apart from Kiri Dam, the team visited Yola Irrigation project site in Gerio, Yola North Local Government Area.

We will also visit Kashimbila Dam in Taraba State, Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital and University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital in Borno State as well as the Damaturu to Azare Express Way in Yobe and Bauchi States, Baba said.

Addressing the team at Kiri Dam, the Managing Director of Upper Benue River Basin Development Authority, Abubakar Muazu, said work on the N800 million new canal awarded in 2011 had been abandoned by the contractor.

He said that the contractor, who was given 15 per cent payment, abandoned the job after executing 11 per cent of the job.

Mr. Muazu lamented the under-utilisation of the dams hydro and irrigation potential,

He said that for now, the construction of a new canal was not a priority as the existing canal channelling water to Savannah Sugar Company was not maximally utilised.

Mr. Muazu said that what the dam needed now was funding for its safety, maintenance and maximum utilisation to generate more revenue for government.

He said that the dam was constructed in 1982 for irrigation of 12,000 sugar plantation and had the capacity to generate 20 megawatts hydro power.

Mr. Muazu said that at present, the dam is generating only N60 million annually by selling irrigation water to Savannah Sugar Company at the cost 50 kobo per cubic metre, an amount he said needed to be reviewed upward.

(NAN)
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), has revealed that over 14 million people living in the north-east region of Nigeria are in serious need of help.

It warned that many lives would be lost if the people were not attended to urgently.

The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, Peter Lundberg, disclosed this to journalists in Abuja on Tuesday.

He attributed the suffering of the people to the dwindling in-flow of funds from donor partners.

Mr. Lundberg said over 26 million people were likely affected by the crisis, with 14 milloon people already identified to be in urgent need of assistance to survive.

He said out of the 400,000 children said to be suffering severe famine and malnutrition, 75,000 of them may die in a few months if urgent intervention was not given.

Mr. Lundberg explained that the declining in-flow of funds may hamper humanitarian intervention in the region, a situation he said can lead to the death of millions of people in the area, particularly children.

While noting that the region is at the verge of a humanitarian crisis of global proportion, the World body lamented that the funds so far received for 2016 is a far cry from budgeted expenditure.

The envoy, who blamed the shortfall on what he described as a multitude of complexity facing the world, said out of the $485 million budgeted for 2016; only $180 million had so far been received, thereby creating a huge gap in tackling the situation.

He therefore called on Nigerians, particularly the rich, to contribute no matter how small, in order to prevent the disaster and also ameliorate the plight of the suffering in the region.

We need to reach out to the private sector. Most of these children are already experiencing changes in the colour of their hairs and skin and may likely die due to weak immune system, Mr. Lunberg said.

Nigeria is a rich country and there are a lot of rich people that have the capacity to give and are also willing to do so, he said.

The coordinator disclosed that his agency, apart from intervening in the area of food and health, was also assisting in water and sanitation, shelter, education and empowerment amongst others.

Mr. Lundberg said as part of measures to effectively reach the people, the organization has concluded plans to establish a humanitarian hub that would bring staff of the agency and other partners closer to the people.

On the alleged rape of women and girls in the Internally Displaced Persons camps, the UN envoy said such is a common occurrence in situations like this. He added, however, that there was need to sensitize communities on their rights and responsibilities.

He also suggested a system of creating spaces to avoid unhealthy contacts as well as the provision of lights in most camps to prevent certain criminal acts that darkness encourages.
The Jigawa State Government on Tuesday in Dutse ordered for the arrest of any cattle seen grazing at night.

The State Deputy Governor, Ibrahim Hadejia, gave the order at a farmers/pastoralists stakeholders meeting organised by the Jigawa Police Command.

Mr. Hadejia explained that the law on grazing barred herdsmen from grazing at night or using under-aged children to control their cattle.

He said that most of the clashes recorded in the state were as a result of night grazing and encroachment into farmlands.

The deputy governor directed the police and the farmers/pastoralists board to henceforth confiscate cows seen grazing at night or encroaching into farmlands and sell them to compensate the victims.

It is unfair that what a farmer used four to five months to cultivate, get destroyed within 30 minutes.

For instance, one hectare of rice farm now costs N1 million and it wont be good for such to be destroyed in a jiffy, he said.

Mr. Hadejia also cautioned farmers not to encroach on grazing reserves in the state, adding that government had established several grazing reserves and gazetted 57 of them.

According to him, farmers and herdsmen clashes were the greatest challenge in the state and the present administration was committed to providing lasting solutions.

The Commissioner of Police, Momoh Umar, said that night grazing, encroachment into cattle routes by farmers, and unabated movement of pastoralists from neighbouring countries were the main causes of clashes.

Mr. Umar said that the police would work with other security agencies in the state to resolve the problem.

(NAN)
The Kaduna State Government on Tuesday said Sundays attacks on Kigam, Ungwan Rimi, and Ungwan Magaji villages of Kauru Local Government Area would not derail peace-building efforts in the area.

A statement by Samuel Aruwan, spokesman to Governor Nasiru El-Rufai described the attacks and killing of innocent persons as barbaric.

It added that the government had ordered the evacuation of all wounded persons for medication with immediate effect.

These sad events and the terrible toll on lives, only reinforce the urgency of peace-building and enhancing security in the area.

It said emergency relief for survivors has been ordered along with enhanced security, adding that the government would continue to work with security agencies to restore peace through dialogue.

The government sympathizes with families that lost their loved ones and properties.

The Governor prays for the repose of their souls and wishes those that sustained injuries speedy recovery.

The Kaduna State Security Council has received preliminary reports of the attacks and ordered full scale investigation into the matter.

It has taken further measures to curtail threats to peace in the area.

The statement indicated that the State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, had been directed to immediately provide relief materials to displaced persons in the communities.

The people of Kaduna State are assured that the state government will continue to demonstrate practical political will to resolve conflicts and intensify its peace building process.

[NAN]
The Senate on Tuesday urged the Federal Government to declare a security emergency in Southern Kaduna.

The call followed a motion by Danjuma Laah (PDP-Kaduna), who told the senate at plenary that since 2011 many communities in the senatorial district had been consistently attacked by herdsmen.

He said that such attacks had resulted in deaths, loss of property and displacement of indigenes of the communities.

Mr. Laah noted that the district was substantially agrarian with large arable and fertile lands.

We are aware that there has been regular attack by armed herdsmen, the latest being on the 15th and 16th Oct. 2016 in Godogodo community in Jamaa Local Government Area.

Subsequent to the attacks, these herdsmen have virtually occupied the displaced communities and are grazing their cattle freely, he said.

According to him, the Kaduna State Government and the Federal Government had made efforts at restoring peace in the area but apparently, the efforts are neither adequate nor effective to prevent more attacks.

Contributing, Shehu Sani (APC-Kaduna) said that the motion was an ample opportunity for senators to intervene in the crisis.

It is not that it is the first time a government will intervene, but there have been series of interventions that have not produced any result.

It is very clear that security agencies and the government have failed to provide security for people who live around that area.

He explained that what we can do is not simply about condemning what has been happening because there has been lots of condemnation that has not produced any result.

The lawmaker said that what was needful was for the senate to see the killings as a matter of life and death.

I believe the intervention of the senate will seriously help the people of Southern Kaduna to get out of the quagmire which they have found themselves, he said.

In his remark, the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, said that it was clear and very important that the increase in violent killings was of great concern and that something needed to be done.

We must as a society, be able to live happily and harmoniously together and anything that threatens that is a threat to the country in general.

(NAN)
The Enugu State House of Assembly has amended the Criminal Code Law, cap 30 to allow for demolition of property used for kidnapping in the State.

The Leader of the Assembly, Ikechukwu Ezugwu, while presenting the Bill in Enugu on Tuesday, said it became necessary because kidnapping which had been alien was fast becoming a culture in the state.

He said the assembly suspended the Standing Order of the House to enable the bill pass through first, second and third reading immediately.

We used to hear about kidnapping of expatriates in the Niger Delta but when expatriates ran away, they started kidnapping our people.

The law has to be stringent so that before anybody thinks of kidnapping, he has to think twice.

The question is that we adopt the amendment that buildings used for kidnapping be forfeited or demolished to deter people from engaging in the crime, he said.

The assembly also passed the bill seeking to amend the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu to be upgraded to a degree awarding institution.

The member representing Igbo-Eze South Constituency, Mathew Ugwueze, while presenting the amendment bill said it would create job opportunities in the state.

The lawmaker said the state governor in his inaugural speech promised to make IMT a degree awarding institution.

Mr. Ugwueze said IMT was liaising with the University of Nigeria, Nsukka to achieve the aim.

If this is achieved, a good number of Enugu people will get admission into the institution, he said.

He stressed that there was a growing demand to upgrade IMT to a degree awarding institution.

The Speaker of the Assembly, Edward Ubosi, thanked his colleagues for their contribution to the passing of the bill and adjourned sitting to November22.

(NAN)
A 67-year old man, Mutairu Owoeye, and his son, Ganiyu, 42, on Tuesday appeared before an Igbosere magistrates court over alleged invasion of 15 villages in Ibeju Lekki local government area of Lagos State.

The accused were arrested last week Monday following a petition by the villagers to the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, that they were under the siege of land grabbers.

The father and son were arraigned before Magistrate A. O Awogboro on a five-count charge of attempted murder, being in possession of firearms, unlawful invasion, stealing and illegal demolition of properties worth millions of naira.

The defendants, who are property developers, were said to reside at KM 36, Abeokuta Expressway, and 5, Owoeye Street, Sango Ota, Atan local government area of Ogun State respectively.

According to the charge sheet, the Owoeyes and others at large, at about 8 a.m. on April 17 invaded the 15 villages in Ibeju Lekki with different types of guns and other offensive weapons to illegally demolish the houses of the villagers.

The affected villages were listed as Oko Olomi, Olowu Oko-Olomi, Adeba (Jaguna), Itapampa Adeba (Onikonko), Oko-Ile, Oko Idioro, Idi Ope and Adeba, located on 1561 hectares of land.

The accused allegedly destroyed the property of 45 persons in the villages and carted away properties, including three vehicles valued at N7 million and 150 cows.

The younger Owoeye, Ganiyu, was also alleged to have unlawfully attempted to kill one Saheed Oloore by shooting him with a gun.

The charge further stated that Ganiyu was found in possession of three pump action guns and a double barrel gun with two live cartridges when he was arrested in a hotel.

According to the prosecution, the offences are punishable under sections 409, 56, 285, 348, 228 of the Criminal laws of Lagos 2011 and Sections 27 (1) (a) (i) of firearms Act, Cap F28, F28, of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.

However, the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Their counsel, A. O Isaacs, urged the court to grant the defendants bail on liberal term, citing Section 115 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law, which states that the offences for which they were arraigned are bailable.

He said the defendants had been in detention in Abuja since Tuesday last week and were brought by road to Lagos for trial.

Mr. Isaacs also said the defendants brought development to the area at issue and that they own property worth N400 million.

The prosecutor, Kehinde Oluwole, a superintendent of police, opposed the bail application on the ground that the case was still under investigation.

While ruling on the bail application, the magistrate, Mrs. Awogboro, overruled the prosecutions objection and granted the defendants bail in the sum of N2 million, with two sureties who must be blood relations of the defendants.

She said the sureties must also produce evidence of substantial means of livelihood, tax payment and verified addresses.

She adjourned the case till December 15 for mention.
A new edition of MYCONTENT has successfully finished at the Dubai International Convention Center, gathering players from the whole MENA region and a mix of local and international series, documentaries and animation providers, as well as technology and service companies focused on VR/AR, apps, videogames and 4K.

Some of the regular participants of this show felt this year event was a bit slower, showing less space for the exhibitors. The official explanation was that Index Holding decided this year to focus on the television industry only, compared to other years where one of the main focus was licensing. It makes sense, if you concentrate the market with the right people, business will appear, observed a key buyer.

Other two possible answers could be that, first, in comparison with 3-4 years ago, there are more events of the industry taking place in Dubai and Abu Dhabi; and second, some of the participants consulted by Prensario agreed that business in the region is dawdling, but the majority of them hopes that next year will be better.

MENA is a very interest region to explore. China Showcase screened the top Chinese programming. Wang Xiaodi, deputy manager of the intl cooperation dept., China International TV Corporation (CITVC): Our objective is to increase our business with global companies by co-producing, financing programs, or co-developing special projects. Weve produced content with Sony, PBS, KBS (Korea), National Geographic Channels, Discovery, etc. and we have a big expectation for the Arab world, were CCTV broadcast Arabic channels.

China is a huge market for the Arab world as well. Chinese companies produce over 15,000 drama series episodes a year, an average of 45 per day. We hold the largest TV series audience in the world with 1.8 billion people, who access the content on TV but especially through online mobile devices, completed Zhou Jihong, from the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of the People's Republic of China (SAPPRFT).

There is a lot to do in almost every business and genres in Middle East. For instance, regarding platforms, digital is growing steadily accompanied by a larger Smartphone penetration (+35%, according to local sources) and an increasing broadband access. It is also important to highlight the youth of its population and the strong utilization of digital media to inform, entertain and interact.

Iciflix is one of the pioneer OTT platform in the region: We have launched the service in 2013. We have Hollywood content exclusive for MENA, but our Arabic and Indian content is available worldwide. Weve noticed a big demand of these two genres and we aim to expand the platform into new regions. We have also produced local contents, one animation series and two movies in Egypt, explained Sohail Anjum, content specialist, and Marwa Fahmy, content acquisitions and programming.

For big media groups, as Turner and FOX, whose channels are available on Free TV and Pay TV all across the region, attending the show is very important to meet new talents, producers and content developers. This is a market where everything is about to be done. To solidify the regional industry we need a mix of highly skilled talent and investments. The region as a whole is going through that process, said Adam Khwaja, creative director, Cartoon Network Studios Arabia, Turner Broadcasting.

He participated in the panel Animation in Arab Countries, along with Ahmed Al Mutawa, founder and CEO, Ego Punch (Abu Dhabi), and Nathalie Habib, general manager, Blink Studios (Dubai). On stage they both agreed with Khwaja, and added: We need a global hit created in MENA. After that, the world will put an eye on us. But we cant compete without quality and universal products. We need to think beyond trends and become trendsetters.

Even we are on an early stage, it is expected more original production to come on the animation segment, not only for kids but also for young adults, as well. Comedy is a genre to explore. We dont see online platforms as a threaten, we see partners and projects to develop together. MENA is a volatile market, so we need to go step by step, adding projects in which we feel very comfortable, summarized the panelists.

Fabricio Ferrara, from Dubai
The Greater Atlantic City Chamber will host a Wednesday afternoon session on the benefits and details of its Jobs Partnership Program, which the chamber says can be useful to businesses looking to hire now or in the future.

The one-hour seminar starts 4 p.m. at Flat Stone Tavern & Grill in Egg Har-bor Township. Chamber officials say it will include an overview of programs available through the N.J. Department of Labor & Workforce Development.

You will learn about the many hiring incentives, training programs and recruitment tools available to your company to help you find the ideal candidate, the chambers invitation says, adding the group welcomes anyone in your business who might benefit from learning about the program.

The seminar will be followed by a 5 p.m. mixer featuring local celebrity bartenders, also at Flat Stone. For more details or to register, see acchamber.com.
TRENTON, N.J. (AP)  New Jersey Democratic Assemblyman John Wisniewski announced Tuesday that he is running for governor in 2017.

Wisniewski, a member of the Assembly since 1996, is known for co-chairing the legislative inquiry into the 2013 George Washington Bridge lane closures and has been a pointed critic of Republican Gov. Chris Christie.

In an email headlined "I'm running for Governor of New Jersey," Wisniewski on Tuesday called for policies that work for "everyone in our state" and backed an increase in the minimum wage from $8.38 an hour to $15 an hour.

"I believe men and women have the right to go to work every day with dignity and for a minimum wage of not less than $15 an hour," he said.

He joins Democrat Phil Murphy and Republican Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli who have also announced their candidacies to succeed Christie, whose term ends in 2018.

Murphy, a former Goldman Sachs executive and Obama administration ambassador to Germany, is in strong shape for the June 2017 primary. He has loaned his campaign $10 million, gotten the support from key Democratic Party chairmen across the state as well as Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, who was himself a prospective 2017 candidate before dropping out and backing Murphy.

Wisniewski took a veiled shot at Murphy in his opening email.

"I'm not a Wall Street executive. I haven't made hundreds of millions of dollars by outsourcing jobs. I've learned the value of public service," he said.

Murphy spokesman Derek Roseman welcomed Wisniewski to the race, but took jabs at him over his two-decade career as a lawmaker.

"The simple fact is that John Wisniewski is a transactional Trenton politician; he is far from a reformer," Roseman said.

An attorney from Sayreville in Middlesex County, Wisniewski served as state Democratic committee chairman in 2010. He also served as Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' New Jersey chairman during the 2016 Democratic primary before backing Hillary Clinton. He was frequently in the headlines in 2014 related to the inquiry into the bridge scandal.

The committee he co-chaired with Democratic state Sen. Loretta Weinberg did not find evidence directly linking Christie to the scandal, and the governor was never charged and denies any wrongdoing.

The federal trial in the case concluded recently with the convictions of two former allies of Christie, and with Wisniewski calling on legislative leaders to re-open the investigation. They have not done so to date.

Wisniewski also said Christie misled the public, based on testimony at trial that he knew about the scandal before he publicly said he did, and said he wouldn't be truthful unless under oath.